I had planned to skip writing this feature for iOS 8.4.1. The tiny 55MB update only claims to fix a few
What Does iOS 8.4.1 Do?
On the surface iOS 8.4.1 should be very straightforward. Following its much hyped launch, Apple Music actually turned out to be pretty buggy. As such Apple lists just seven bullet points in its iOS 8.4.1 release notes and they are all focused on the company’s new streaming music service:
- Resolves issues that could prevent turning on iCloud Music Library
- Resolves an issue that hides added music because Apple Music was set to show offline music only
- Provides a way to add songs to a new playlist if there aren't any playlists to choose from
- Resolves an issue that may show different artwork for an album on other devices
- Resolves several issues for artists while posting to Connect
- Fixes an issue where tapping Love doesn't work as expected while listening to Beats 1 push sync for contacts and calendar (iCloud) are working again
Again it raises the question: What could possibly go wrong?
Read more - Apple iOS 8.4.1 Angers Users One Week Later
The Deal Breakers
The reality, however, is iOS 8.4.1 has generated an increasing amount of user frustration. Initially responses to me from users and developers were quiet (I suspect due to the fact that the tiny update didn’t seem to warrant as much scrutiny as usual), but now there’s a long list of concerns.
Here are the main ones:
iOS 8.4 Jailbreak Closed
Apple never publicly admits to closing jailbreak routes in iOS updates, but the headline issue for many was the company took the time to shut down the existing iOS 8.4 jailbreak with such a small update. If you jailbreak your iOS devices, this will be a dealbreaker until a new route is found.
Battery Drain
While some users say they have found battery life to be shorter after installing iOS 8.4.1, there are others reporting drastic battery drain. This Apple Communities thread has several users experiencing complete battery drain (100% to 0%) in under 90 minutes.
iTunes Issues
Also struggling under iOS 8.4.1 is iTunes. Notable are Apple Support Communities threads regarding failed syncing over Bluetooth and deletion of playlists.
Call, Text and Email Bugs
Somewhat undermining basic iPhone functionality are complaints that after upgrading iOS 8.4.1 some users have found their phones crash when making a call or opening the
Intermittent WiFi Connectivity
iOS 8 has a notorious history for troubled WiFi, but those who hadn’t experienced previous issues are now finding iOS 8.4.1 is causing new problems. A partial solution for some was a combination of phone and router reboots, but this hasn’t worked for everyone.
iPad Slowdowns
There were reports that iOS 8.4 caused slowdown issues on the iPad Air and iPad Air 2 when waking the tablets from sleep with the home button and noticeable delays with automatic screen rotation. Rather than disappearing, these are now being more widely reported after installing iOS 8.4.1.
Read more - iPhone 6S Release Date Revealed In Triple Leak
Apple Music Ongoing Problems
For an update primarily targeted at fixing issues with Apple Music, iOS 8.4.1 also doesn’t appear to be doing a great job.
It has been discovered that the ‘Make Available Offline’ option for albums and playlists doesn’t work and duplicate albums and missing album artwork bugs remains rife with music collections users have uploaded.
Existing Bugs Remain
While not new to iOS 8.4.1, the update has not fixed two ongoing issues with iOS 8:
WiFried - Introduced back in September 2014 with the debut of iOS 8, it is somewhat shameful Apple (despite recognising its existence) has yet to fully address this. WiFried revolves around the new ‘DiscoveryD’ process which replaced ‘mDNSResponder’ in earlier iOS generations and causes WiFi dropouts and extreme Internet bandwidth throttling.
Apple recognised WiFried exists in iOS 8.3 and iOS 9 will revert to mDNSResponder. Of course this does nothing to help long suffering iOS 8 WiFried victims, but at least there’s not long to wait now.
Crippled Home Sharing - We didn’t expect a fix here with Apple also confirming the streaming audio functionality cut from Home Sharing in iOS 8.4 will not return until iOS 9. As such iOS 8.4.1 hasn’t delivered a pleasant surprise here.
So what should you do...?
The Road Ahead
In light of its problems, perhaps the best news about iOS 8.4.1 is it won’t be around for long.
Apple has been cutting off past iOS builds within weeks of launching a new edition and iOS 8.4.1 should be for the chop when iOS 9 gets its big debut alongside the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus on September 9th. Traditionally Apple has also released new iOS generations a few days ahead of the now (almost 100% certain) release date.
Verdict: Do Not Install
Having wrongly assumed the reception to such a small update was not worth tracking, a week later I’ve been made starkly aware of just how troublesome iOS 8.4.1 has proved.
As such there are two main positives to take:
- While there are numerous problems reported, none are believed to have spread widely so there’s a chance that if you upgrade you will be among the lucky ones who are unaffected
- iOS 9 is coming very soon
All of which means I wouldn’t recommend installing iOS 8.4.1. By its nature what iOS 8.4.1 was designed to fix is niche (and inconsequential to those who don’t use Apple Music) and it contains no Must Have new features.
So while there’s a chance you will install iOS 8.4.1 and experience no problems, for the sake of three weeks until the launch of iOS 9 that seems a pointless risk to take given the sheer number of issues being recorded.
All in all I suspect history will not be kind to iOS 8 and iOS 8.4.1 is a poor way to sign it off. Thankfully a new era is almost upon us…
Read more - Apple iOS 9 Vs iOS 8: What's The Difference?
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