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Why iOS 6 problems shouldn’t put you off updating

Apple’s iOS 6 is the company’s latest mobile operating system and was released to the public on September 19. Although the latest iOS has an abundance of new features and improvements and was initially well received it seems to have faced a number of issues and criticism that has mounted in recent days. However despite this there are some good reasons why you shouldn’t be put off updating to iOS 6 if you haven’t already done so.

We’ve written many posts about iOS 6 and detailed some of the various issues that have arisen, with the new Apple Maps app receiving by far the most dissatisfaction. In fact Maps received such widespread condemnation that Apple CEO Tim Cook issued an apology a couple of days ago conceding that it just wasn’t good enough. Despite iOS 6 concerns though we told how this hadn’t seemed to put people off updating to iOS 6 as it achieved double the adoption rate speed over the first two days of release than last year’s iOS 5.

However we’ve also mentioned issues with Passbook, social media integration and Siri and there are plenty of people who haven’t yet updated and but according to one report these are some of the very reasons why people SHOULD be updating to iOS 6. An article on Latinos Post details some top reasons why the upgrade to iOS 6 is worthwhile and one of those is 3G FaceTime. This is indeed a big step forward as when FaceTime arrived with iOS 5 it was only for Wi-Fi. Now though, iOS 6 users can use FaceTime over cellular so this should please many people.

Another reason listed is Passbook and although we told of some initial problems with finding compatible apps we have to agree that as more companies participate to support functionality the popularity of this app should increase and could end up being extremely useful. Basically it’s a mobile wallet application where users can gather and store documentation such as hotel reservations, theater tickets, airline boarding passes and more and the app will display them ready for you when appropriate. Although it may take some of us a while to get used to this amount of functionality we foresee it could be one of those applications that we soon won’t want to be without.

Another issue that we mentioned briefly concerned Siri as despite the fact that it was supposed to be improved there were some reports of slowness since the update. However most users will benefit from the improvements in Siri such as its capability of dealing with accents and enhanced functionality. Deeper social media integration is also a good reason to upgrade to iOS 6 with Twitter and Facebook users now being able to post updates directly from some apps, although again there were initial reports that this function was working rather sporadically. The changes to iOS 6 mean that Facebook users can also combine their Facebook calendar with the calendar on the operating system.

Finally users wondering whether to upgrade to iOS 6 may want to consider the upgrades to the Safari browser, such as being able to post videos and photos from the browser. There’s also iCloud Tabs whereby an iOS device user can be linked to their Apple Mac OS X Mountain Lion devices too. iOS 6 arrived built-in on the iPhone 5 and the following iOS devices can also be upgraded with it, the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 3 (new iPad) and iPod touch 4G. Some functions may be limited for some devices.

There are some pretty decent upgrades to iOS 6 then so if you decided not to update for some reason you may want to reconsider, especially as some of the problems reported may have been initial teething problems and anything that has yet to be remedied will probably receive a software fix soon. We’d like to hear your thoughts on iOS 6.

If you’ve already downloaded the update are you generally satisfied? Maybe you haven’t upgraded yet and could let us know what’s stopping you? Send your comments to us, as we’re always interested to hear from readers.

Comments

80 thoughts on “Why iOS 6 problems shouldn’t put you off updating”

  1. Lala says:

    Everyone i know that has updated including myself now has worse battery life!! I mean seriously if apple is not going to allow us to have removable batteries then fix the ones that are installed!!! Stop giving updates that keep sucking more and more battery life

      1. iOS 6 is actually faster than 5. I can say that because (1) Google Chrome runs a lot faster now than before and (2) I jailbroke iOS 6 so even if it’s still running fast means that Apple has improved on performance. When you improve performance it takes more battery life but removable batteries suck because you need a case to prevent the battery from falling out when you drop it.

      1. Fred Funk says:

        The new YouTube, App Store layout, Apple Maps and sloppieness of ios6 makes it the worst software update yet. Seems Apple has put it’s profit over customer satisfaction. Ios6 is not impressive; it’s very disappointing!

        1. The new YouTube app is better than the original. The App store doesn’t seem to be all that different. Maps will be improved and it still works fine for plenty of locations (I know this because I’ve used it). iOS 6 is impressive. It’s more respsonsive than the previous version and with social integration that makes it also better than iOS 5.

  2. Derex says:

    i was updated IOS 6 since beta version, I used it so far so good, the only things is the map was not in detail compare the google map. But I thing Apple will improve this very soon and more then what we have. No one is perfect the only way is improve from the best to Great.

  3. xxx says:

    I upgrade to iOS 6. I can’t downgrade but I can sell it,and I will sell it.I go with the best “Android”. No more Steve No more Apple.They wanna reinvent the whell

    1. Have fun using an OS that’s run by a company that doesn’t care about it’s users. Android is the most fragmented OS and there’s still over 50% of users running Gingerbread. That poses a big problem for developers as their apps are more likely to not run on older software.

  4. Are you serious? What an irresponsible post. You should not be advising people to upgrade, you should be warning them not to. The more people stop believing the hype apple propagates, the more they will be forced to fix the problems iOS6 has.

  5. RichInCinci says:

    IOS6 -> airprint printing issues would be one reason…Netgear includes a great utility in its newer routers called Netgear Genie which, under IOS5, allowed non-Airprint printers to show up as Airprint printers on the mobile device. Upgrading to IOS6 kills this. IOS6 is a great update…just be sure you can do everything you want prior to making the leap.

  6. Rog says:

    This is probably one of the most irresponsible articles I have read. I am in the middle of western Ukraine on an extended visit. My iPhone 4s is my lifeline. No Apple stores in Ukraine. If I upgrade and it stops working, NO HELP AVAILABLE. I went with Apple because I was sick of the Microsoft PC experience and buying phones that stopped working. Huh! Looks like Tim Cook has been getting lessons from Bill Gates!!! Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave!

    1. If you have a PC or Mac, iTunes and an internet connection you could restore it without having to resort to an Apple store; unless the issue stems further than the software.

  7. Peytonoth says:

    smart phones tends to have lower battery life because you can do so much on such a small device, battery issue happens to all smart phones either running iOS or android or windows, don’t use wifi or 3g or don’t play games if you don’t want a shorter battery life

  8. Sorcha says:

    Don’t upgrade! I did & wifi has slowed down to snails pace- takes
    About an hour now for wifi to start up -am furious!! Wifi is my lifeline in Dubai and now it’s gone! FIX IT APPLE

  9. John says:

    Nothing that article said has sold me in the slightest.Apple are trying to paper over their problems .Im sick of their being issues with them and then they try and play it down.Same old same old .My iPhone 5 goes back today and good riddance to it .

  10. i have a samsung galaxy and one iphone under ios 6.0……i prefer my samsung galaxy….for computer i have a imac and one macbook,,under montain lion,both are unstable..freeze..and imac try to retrograde to leopard hard drive is out of order,,after only 2 years,,,so update on apple is no good for me….

  11. Gary says:

    I’m not the worlds biggest apple fan but ios 6 is good on the iphone 5 (apart from the maps), and upgrading my 4s has actually improved performance and battery life on it. However, many people have had issues so unless there is a specific feature you need from ios 6 I wouldn’t recommend upgrading yet, especially if you are not willing to mess around with the phone to deal with any possible issues. Wait for 6.0.1 when they have fixed some of the bugs. There is nothing so amazing in ios 6 that it should be considered an essential update.

    1. Try closing the app completely. If that doesn’t work than turn off your iPod completely and retry. If not than restore your iPod (I recommend making a backup first) than try again.

    1. First backup your things in iTunes: Click on your device > then “Backup”. Once that’s done restore your device and when it’s finished it’ll ask you whether you want to start using your device as brand new (factory reset) or if you want to use your backup on it. Try that and see what happens.

  12. Kay says:

    Whatever good intentions apple had for the IOS 6 upgrade, it has been destroyed because of the many issues surrounding it. I have a new iPad 3 I have used for just a week. Since I upgraded some few days back, my battery does not last for half the time it used to. Though I don’t use it for much. My apps keep closing in the middle of their use and I no longer have access to music in iTunes on the device. iTunes now gives me podcasts and itunesU. If apple is not ready to get us fixes they should let us go back to our IOS 5. We didn’t ask for any updates!!!!

    1. iOS 6 is actually better than iOS 5. The problem with iOS 5 was that it was really fast at first but than got slower with time and now with iOS 6 the performance is great and it’s more responsive than 5. Before saying that their intentions were “destroyed” you should at least try and fix the problem first.

      “We didn’t ask for any updates!!!!” Nobody ever asks for updates, duh.. I’ve got over 40 programs on my mac and I’ve never once contacted any of the developers asking for an update.

      1. xyz says:

        People —–> DO <—– ask for updates! But that's not the point of my response.. What I really want to say is don't let Ur love for Apple be so blind that U close Ur eyes to all their shortfalls! Honestly, after defending their mistakes so fiercely, U're beginning to look so ridiculous now!

  13. Scott says:

    this is so wrong, could’ve been written by an Apple employee? i have two 4S phones, both suffer battery life, both struggle to connect to Wifi and my wifes crashed during upgrade and lost all her numbers etc, it also has lost volume without earphones.
    I hope the fix the bugs soon and continue to strive for a quality service to the consumer.
    I gave up on being a loyal nokia consumer due to software issues, looks like Android is next.

  14. Ex-Apple-Enthusiast says:

    What an idiotic article. Anyone still on ios 5 would be well advised to WAIT before updating! ios 6 map app is a disaster and now huge problems with calendars (wiped out all data) have rendered my Iphone almost useless. It was superb on ios5. No Genius appointments available at any Apple store throughout London for over a week to resolve calendar issues, so I have to print my calendar out for work, and depend on a Satnav to get around. Massive retrograde step and battery life is dreadful now also (probably related to phone trying to load calendars constantly and failing). So advising people to upgrade to ios 6 despite the problems is far from helpful.

    1. iOS 6 is not all about Maps and I’ve used calenders and it works absolutely fine so if you’re having problems with it that doesn’t mean that everybody else will have that same problem. As for your data being wiped that could be an issue with iCloud (if you synced your calendar). Or If you didn’t sync your calendar than something obviously happened that would do that but that doesn’t mean that all of a sudden iOS 6 is bad.

      iOS 5 was great but it’s not as good in performance as iOS 6. I’ve been using it and Google Chrome for iOS is a lot faster now. Before I upgraded iOS Chrome would crash once or twice and then it would actually start working. Now it works the first time and it loads pages incredibly faster than on iOS 5.

      After I upgraded to iOS 6 I haven’t noticed a drop in battery life, and it’s jailbroken so even then if the battery life is still okay then that shows that iOS 6 is less of a battery hog than 5.

      There is still no logical reason why people shouldn’t upgrade to iOS 6. If you’re having problems, then fix it and try again. Don’t come here to complain that iOS 6 is bad because something happened once. If it happens a second time then (if I were you) I’d go to an Apple store and get it checked. I brought my Mac Mini to an Apple store and they checked it for free so I’d give it a shot.

    1. First off, I’ve had iOS 6 for a while and I’ve had no problems with WiFi or the battery and It’s been jailbroken so the fact that it’s still running good shows that iOS 6 has made improvements. iOS 5 was more laggy than 6, It felt like I was using my Android phone (which I never use anymore).

      As for HD screen, that’s not really a problem. It doesn’t stop someone from doing what they’d normally do. It’s more of a luxury than anything else.

      Maps isn’t actually as bad as most people make it out to be. I’ve used several times already and it found all my locations just fine. It’s easy to make a tumblr page full of fail pictures and say it’s the worse thing in the world. I could do the same with all of Google’s fails over the years. What it really comes down to is reality. And that reality is that Maps is far from what people say it is. Yes, I’ve seen the photos of the messed up roads and misplaced pins but honestly people are over exaggerating on this, mostly because it’s Apple. They’re not use to seeing Apple come out with something that’s not near or 100%. Apple will improve on this and I can say that because if they want their users to stick around in the long run they’ll work on this. Do I think it was right to ditch Google Maps: Yes. Do I think they should’ve waited a while before it was ready: Yes. Does it really matter: No.

      1. PeterC says:

        Devon, not sure who you are, but you come across as some sort of shill for Apple – or an apologist for half-baked new software. I am less concerned about Google maps personally because for me IOS6 runs on an iPad. But if I had an iPhone I’d be furious. Just some basic testing would have revealed the flaws. And the failure to support Flash makes me leave the iPad almost every day and go back to my notebook to finish reading the news.
        But my real gripe about IOS6 is that in the case of many – including me – it has broken Airprint. And I see no acknowledgement from Apple nor planned fix dates. If Microsoft issued something this buggy, they’d be laughed out of town.
        So stop putting down people in this forum with real problems and suggesting if they can’t fix the IOS programmers’ mistakes they are either stupid or not trying hard enough. Frankly, you don’t have the creds to be so condescending.

        1. I’m not on anybody’s side. I love Apple and most of it’s products but right now I’m writing this on my laptop running Windows 8 RP that also has Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I use a variety of products and just for the record: I don’t like the iPad because it’s everything the iPod Touch is but bigger. I just wanted to point that out since the release of the iPad Mini and the “new” iPad.

          “the failure to support Flash makes me leave the iPad” Apple isn’t the only company that doesn’t have Flash support. From what I heard 4.1 Jellybean doesn’t have Flash support either. I’m not sure whether users will still be able to get it or not but they stopped supporting Android as of 4.1.

          And Apple maps has improved greatly. Don’t get me wrong about my distaste for Google Maps on iOS. I use Google Maps on the desktop I love it but on the mobile it was a headache because it was slow at times and if I was somewhere that didn’t have WiFi I could only go so far on Google Maps before it would cut out. Apple Maps on the other hand has proven to be faster, more responsive, and loads a lot more data while offline than Google Maps ever did and that’s why I strongly believe that Apple maps is better. People chose to complain about maps because it was Apple and it was the first time that they released something a bit less than what they normally shoot for.

          I’m not being condescending. What I’m saying is that if there’s a problem with it try to fix it yourself first before going on websites and complaining about it to the world. That won’t fix the problem. It seems to me that a lot of people are brainwashed by Apple in the notion that things should “just work”. That’s nice and all but there will be times in any product that it will not just work and instead of complaining and ranting about it maybe the person should try and fix it.

      2. badongtagalog says:

        it matters, technology is fast, IOS is left behind. Look at ios , it has 200 features…well yes invisible features you cannot notice its there..

  15. Deep Singh says:

    Haven’t upgraded yet cause of the maps problem and I heard it slows the phone down.been told by apple shop worker it’s not worth upgrading cause there are too many problems that come with ios 6.

    1. Don’t be fooled about Apple maps. 90% of what’s said about Apple Maps is over exaggerated. It’s actually quite better than Google Maps in 3 ways and people are complaining about something that is brand new yet they fail to realize that Google Maps wasn’t the greatest either when it first came out.

      1. badongtagalog says:

        really? wow it leads you to somewhere you dont like to go devon?? When google map first came technology was not very good either. Dont make it an excuse, apple have better access to map technology today than what google have before.

  16. baxmaureen says:

    People should have been warned if they were going to loose apps, like YouTube, I would not have upgraded if I had known there were still problems with the new system.i am getting someone else’s messages when they text. I don’t know a lot about all this, but the trouble started last night when I finally downloaded IOS 6, nothing but trouble.

    1. How is it nothing but trouble. Check out the problem and see if it’s anything you can fix. Don’t just say that it’s nothing but trouble. And it’s been known for a while now that YouTube and Google Maps was going to be removed.

      1. badongtagalog says:

        why need fix? . ios 6 should suppose to work after upgrade. I though ios is simple and easy ?? now where is that “easy” thing dubbed by apple users if you need to repair after upgrade???

  17. justmy2cents says:

    @ Devon. Out of all these post here YOU are the only one to say that yours is working SUPER FINE…I’ve read post on the apple community Forums and all was negative I looked for reviews on other Forums so far negative apart from those who actually own the iphone 5 there are few problems with maps, no YouTube app which is not a fault with Apple design of the ISO it’s just that there was a dispute between Apple and YouTube, why Apple never bother to let costumers know that they would be removing the app…could be all down to marketing IF people would have payed more attention to the marketing picture for the iphone 5 they would have notice that there is no Youtube app icon on the home screen…but hey why would anyone bother to do that most people get caught up in the hype of having something new, better and faster!!!
    I have a iphone 4S and was looking to update when I was prompted by Apple but decided to look at some reviews first and when I read that the IOS 6 was turning peoples phones into bricks (Not turning on) then I thought maybe NOT!!!! as I would have had a very expensive paper weight nothing else. When customers called Apple they couldn’t do anything about it except for the customer to get a new phone which some had to pay for due to there cover running out…who is to blame? BUT I would advise people who are considering the update NOT TO!!! unless you want to render your phone useless, wait until the fix IOS come’s and again do some research before updating.

    AS for you Devon your that one in a million ;O)

  18. Adam says:

    Three people I know have had their contacts and photos wiped when they updated to OS6!! This has been a disaster for my wife as all her business clients were stored on there! Will Apple do anything about it? I doubt it, they don’t care about the little people

    1. They actually do care and did she have it synced with iCloud, if so then all she’d have to do is make sure iCloud is still setup on her device and that contacts are on and photos.

  19. Becky says:

    My iOS 6 update has been a nightmare. Used to love using my iPad 3, now it doesn’t connect to the Internet, download email, and is so slow on the Internet it is untrue. Useless. Want my iPad that works back!

  20. Jerry says:

    Upgraded my 4s…a mistake. I can’t stand the new maps (3d? get real) which I use all the time. I won’t be updating my iPad3 anytime soon if every. Siri’s worthless in my estimation. It’s fine to try and “fix” it but don’t take away Google and Youtube.

  21. Kelsey says:

    I hate the iOS 6 update. My email hasn’t been working properly and my App Store keeps crashing. Also I hate the way my music looks now. I don’t like it and I wish there was a way I could change it back. If anyone knows how I could somehow get it back to the way it was before please let me know.

    1. Restore it through iTunes and see if it still works. Mail and AppStore work fine for me and I’m using a tethered jailbreak so it should work fine for you after you restore it.

  22. irena says:

    I tried to update and I fucked up my phone with it…my MacBook Itunes keep saying that”your device isnt recognised and it needs to be restored to factory settings”…Im so mad- I didn’t even need ios 6 and suddenly after trying to charge my phone with my friends charger this mess happened….what tf to fo now?’

  23. Mama says:

    So far the IOS 6 has gave me trouble I am not getting textes from one person also the wifi is slow and ever since I downloaded IOS 6 my phone freezes like crazy I really hope this gets fixed soon

  24. Colin carpet Devon says:

    I lost lots of important notes battery life is much lower ..trouble opening pictures on email and photos .during phone calls phone cuts out .

  25. Lola says:

    I have an iPhone 4s and a new iPad. Updated to ios 6 on the iPad and there is NO WAY I will update the iPhone. I’m based in Sydney, Australia and the Apple maps are vastly inferior to google maps. As well as being inaccurate, public transport information has also gone. Other apps that use maps are now almost unusable. I cannot afford to have my phone compromised as well.

  26. After updating my ipad with iOs 6, the screen displayed “Connect to iTunes”. When I connected my ipad with Tunes I got windows that say you must restore device before it can be used with iTunes. Than I select restore. Then I get another pop-up window “Are you sure you want to restore…to its factory settings? All of your media…will be erased…” I select “Restore and Update”. Finally I get an error message, “The iPhone “iPhone” could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (3194).” How to resolve this problem Please help me.

  27. Chakka says:

    Been reading the thread.Only one guy, Devon, is saying ios6 is working right. Everyone else is reporting problem after problem. Hmmm. Sorry Devon, you have zero credibility when all your posts are simply denying the reality of the hundreds of other user posts. Not gonna upgrade.

  28. Jake says:

    Can I get an honest review please (No bias)? At first I found people making a big fuss about no YouTube, but then I found out that you can download it for free, so what is the big deal? Maybe Apple should have let the public know, but honestly it’s a small technicality. And all these problems people are having, are they due to iOS 6 or they just problems with the phone anyone could have, update or not? I know the new maps are bad, but I do not care about that because I rarely use the app. So can someone give me an honest review please or direct me to a (safe) website with an honest review, please? Thank you!

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