iOS 8 added tons of changes, included huge additions to the SDK, that developers use to build apps, and a lot of new user-facing features as well such as Interactive Notifications, Notification Center Widgets, smarter keyboard with QuickType, third-party keyboard support, all-new Messages app Siri improvements and lots more.
However, as with every major release, iOS 8 also has a number of bugs. Users have been complaining about faster battery drain, Wi-Fi issues, Bluetooth connectivity issues, Blue screen of death (BSOD) problems after upgrading to iOS 8. We list some of the bugs that have been reported in iOS 8 below:
Blue Screen of Deaths
Windows is infamously known for its Blue Screen of Deaths (BSOD), where the entire OS crashes, showing you a blue screen. Apple has made fun of Windows for this, but iOS 8 is causing a lot of BSODs in iOS devices as well. The device’s entire screen goes blue for a second, after which it resprings. Most of the crashes are happening on an iPad.
HealthKit
One of the most high-profile issue is a problem with iOS 8’s new HealthKit framework that breaks all HealthKit compatible apps. Apple was forced to ask developers to take down their HealthKit compatible apps following the discovery of the issue, after which the company gave a statement saying:
“We discovered a bug that prevents us from making HealthKit apps available on iOS 8 today,” writes Apple. “We’re working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKip apps available by the end of the month.”
The HealthKit framework was a way to let developers read and write data into Apple’s new Health iOS app. Many fitness enthusiasts were excited by the Health app, but it looks like they’ll have to wait for iOS 8.0.1, which will be released by the end of this month.
Safari File Upload
Apple recently added a new feature to Safari that let you upload photos and videos to websites. This feature appears to be broken in iOS 8:
Users have noticed that after upgrading to iOS 8.0 they cannot upload files from Safari.
Sad but true. The new iOS version has a bug that renders sending files by browsers impossible. When you choose a file in a form on HTML page and try to submit it, no file is sent in the request. The browser indicates that it’s waiting for a response, but in fact the response never comes.
Recovery Mode after OTA update
Many users are complaining that their device went into recovery mode after updating to iOS, forcing them to do a full restore via iTunes. This is especially bad for those who don’t have iTunes or iCloud backups.
iOS8 update sent my 5S into gonna-wipe-my-data recovery mode (yeesh, Apple). Appears to be hitting a bunch of folks: https://t.co/gf6TcAIbCB
— Jason Kincaid (@jasonkincaid) September 18, 2014
Settings app crash
We’ve also noticed that the Settings app crashes on iOS 8 frequently, and many people are facing similar issues.
https://twitter.com/dnitinthorn/status/513370773562851328
Heh. Crashed Settings when checking the Spotlight Search settings. Welcome to Benedict, the crash happy iPhone 5s, iOS 8!
— Kris 🏳️🌈 kavvy – @[email protected] (@kavmac) September 17, 2014
Settings app doesn’t remember Spotlight preferences
Trying to enable Spotlight suggestions and Bing Web results from Settings > General > Spotlight Search doesn’t do anything. Going back one level and tapping Spotlight Search again show the two options still disabled.
Status Bar bug
In some situations, iOS 8 shows two status bars, overlaid on top of each other.
https://twitter.com/patr/status/513284609778262016
Recent Photos/Camera Roll
There’s a lot of confusion being caused due to iOS 8’s removal of the Camera Roll. All your Photos are now organised under Moments, and Recently Added shows you photos from all your devices from the past 30 days. Some apps only show you your Recently Added photos, which led to bugs. From Dropbox’s blog:
We’ve discovered that Apple’s new iOS 8 introduces a compatibility issue that may prevent Dropbox and Carousel from properly uploading your photos and videos. This means that only the contents of your “Recently Added” album will upload automatically.
Dropbox fixed this issue in an update, but this change is causing a lot of confusion amongst users.
VPN gets connected automatically
We’ve heard reports of VPN being enabled automatically on the iPad running iOS 8, without any user prompt.
Keyboard disappears on switching
Reader Zach reports that the keyboard goes blank when tapping on the globe icon if you have third-party keyboards installed.
Extensions Bugs
Extensibility is a new iOS 8 framework that lets developers extend certain parts of their system with their own apps. The folks at Tumblr detailed a number of bugs they discovered when building the Tumblr Share Extension. Some of them included not having background file uploads work inside Extensions, Extensions having mismatched status bar color and the extension showing within its container app.
Notification Banners getting stuck
Many users are reporting that Whatsapp and Facebook notification banner gets stuck at times.
App Update problems
It takes 3-4 tries to download and install an update, as reported by reader ConduciveMammal. I’ve faced this problem too when trying to update apps from the App Store.
Battery Issues
Several readers have noted that their battery lives have reduced significantly since updating to iOS 8. If you’re one of them, here are a few tips to help diagnose the problem, and take steps to improve battery life.
Keyboard switches to default
Many users have noticed that when using third party keyboards, at times iOS 8 switches back to the default iOS keyboard. While this behavior is expected when entering passwords, there are other times this happens too, which is clearly a bug.
No 3G Toggle
Under Cellular, the option to disable 3G has disappeared, and appears to be replaced with an LTE toggle. While this is useful for markets with LTE, countries like Turkey and India, which have 3G and not LTE, have lost the option to disable 3G and use EDGE.
Wrap Up
Hopefully, with Apple’s iOS 8.0.1 update lined up for the end of this month, we won’t have to wait a lot for these bugs to be fixed. Apple is working actively to track issues across various channels, including social media.
Have you faced any bugs, issues or crashes with iOS 8? Let us know in the comments below.
Update:
The article has been updated with few more bugs based on inputs from our readers in the comments below. Thank you everyon!
