Apple Releases iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 With Bug Fixes and Security Updates

By AppleVis, 24 July, 2023

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 to the public. While these updates seem to be relatively minor, they do bring a few notable bug fixes for Braille and VoiceOver users.

These releases resolve an issue introduced in iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5 for users of Braille displays. If the "turn pages while panning" feature was enabled, they may have experienced frozen panning buttons after reaching the end of the page in certain apps. With these new updates, this issue has been resolved.

Furthermore, Apple appears to have resolved for some users the problem where VoiceOver speech output would spontaneously stop. If you still experience this issue, you may wish to test whether it still occurs when using a different VoiceOver voice.

Additionally, an improvement has been made for braille display users who utilize Live Captions. Previously, new incoming text would interrupt their reading position and place them at the start of the line. Now, as new text arrives, braille display users can continue reading from where they left off without interruption.

At this time, we have not identified any other bug fixes, enhancements, or newly introduced issues that specifically impact the experience of blind and low vision users in these updates. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and provide updates as necessary.

According to Apple's release notes for the updates, iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 include unspecified bug fixes and security improvements.

We strive to provide the most comprehensive and accurate information about the accessibility status of Apple software releases. However, as a small team, it is impossible for us to test every device, configuration, application, and use case. That's why we depend on our community to help us ensure that our information is as complete and accurate as possible. If you have tested iOS 16.6 or iPadOS 16.6 for accessibility, please share any additional fixes, enhancements, or regressions you've discovered in the comments below. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us provide the best information to our community.

iOS 16.6 and iPadOS 16.6 are available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings > General > Software Update) via Finder on a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, or via iTunes on a PC or Mac with macOS Mojave or earlier.

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Comments

By Dominic on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

No I can actually use both of my iPad 2018 running iOS 1605.1 about them going to the top of the page, and it took, like, four or five updates to fix it, yeah, cool, hi sarcasm! Not cool
But hey, at least the update resolves that issue
I personally only use the bridal display once on my iPad, and for some bloody reason, it would do that is wrong, like I would say in the message, I'm not okay, and even though I would be pressing Kae it wouldn't type in, so hope that you got fixed as well
but thank you to the Apple God was the strongest focus that's been happening since like maybe iOS 16. free

By Dominic on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Sorry everyone to my really bad dictation, I swear, I'm gonna call up my lawyers later because dictation is gonna leave me to bloody cops showing up at my door
Okay but in all seriousness, if there is actually resolved the focus issue and Braille display issues, well then I'm happy, but if it turns out that it hasn't been resolved, I'll be mad when, I'll be mad faster than Tyrannosaurus rex can get mad
Right, not iOS 16.6 has been installed, I meant, not iOS 16.6 is available I'm going to download it on my iPad, I'll report back to you if I see any issues from iOS 16. 5.1 they are still there

By Lily Rose on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

That is the work of dictation right there LOL

By Lily Rose on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

On a nother note, I just wish they would get on with fixing the braille enter key bug because that is started to drive me bonkers!

By Dominic on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Well, well, well. Guess who’s the company that promises bugs will be fixed, and then doesn’t fix them? Now I really like my galaxy phone

By tunmi13 on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Dominic, with all due respect. By no means do I hold any staff position, but as a fellow member of AppleVis, I encourage that if you do not like Apple, or have major vendettas against them, that you simply stick with your Android device, which on countless occasions you have said you have more respect for, and stop spamming the forum with countless hateful posts about Apple's bad practices.
It is widely known for these types of things to happen. Not just with Apple, but with any company. Perhaps Apple is a bit more intense, yes. But by no means does that mean it is necessary to add more wood to the fire by posting complaint after complaint, and then comparing them to a company which you deem more appropriate.
If you are going to continue this hateful speech about Apple, I suggest that you should consider quitting the use of Apple hardware and software, and become a fully-fledged Android user. I believe this would bring you more satisfaction, as based on several posts I have read, your comments about Apple have lead me to believe Apple is probably not the company for you.
Please, do us all a favor, and let this go.
Have a good day.

By Brian Giles on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

I still get the speech randomly stopping for around 30 seconds bug. Using Eloquence. Glad they fixed the Braille page turning bug though.

By Brian Giles on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Anyone else still not able to get VO to read podcast chapters in the podcasts app? This one has been around since around 16.3. I reported it during the beta but it's still happening.

Oh well, maybe next time.

By Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Hello, does anyone know if the Voice Dream issue was fixed? Any time I go into Vinice Dream, and go back out of it, I ∂ NOT use sty braille display navigation keys! It would just beep at me like I was in groups mode! Only fix has been turning off the Ipad and then turning it back on again. Is anyone else dealing with this, and if so, has it been fixed? Thank you! :-)

By Dominic on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

All I’m just saying, is that the fact that Apple hasn’t fixed this after like, six iOS updates, and the fact that this issue was so serious, really warrants some concern

By Ambro on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

I didn't expect an update like this to cause me this problem, because up to ios 16.5.1 everything was ok. But upgrading to ios 16.6 Eloquence has become ugly. Almost every flick repeats the last syllable of the previous sentence, that is to say it is as if I were saying "hello ohow ware eyou" or something similar. Can you tell me if the ios 17 beta solves this problem? Thank you!

By Ricardo Brandão on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

According to the subject of my message, I still have this problem, I don't know if it has to do with the fact that I'm using Siri's voices. I'll try to change the synthesizer to see if there is any positive effect... by the way, the problem just occurred, as soon as I finished writing the first part of the comment. As soon as VoiceOver reached the site's logo in image format, I heard the player restart, indicated in my case by the phrase screencurtain activated

By Brian Giles on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Eloquence working fine here. iPhone 12 mini.

This just shows how hard it must be to squash bugs sometimes. Like how speech randomly stopping has been fixed for some people, but some of us are still seeing it. I see the blog post has been edited to reflect this.

I wonder if some of the bugs depend on what device you use. Hmmmm...

By Enes Deniz on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

It's Apple we're talking about, so they do have to perform a bunch of tests with different devices. They can't say they couldn't find an iPhone 12 or an SE 2020 to test their software on, right? They may not have the opportunity to reproduce every scenario, but then they shouldn't claim a bug has been fixed without making sure it no longer occurs on any model. So spotting bugs may not be easy and this is why users are encouraged to become beta-testers, but claiming a bug has been squashed is not really that difficult, apart from the fact that it has to be done when the bug is truly gone. And then there's the problem of bugs present for years and reported thousands of times...

By wiljames on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Is that limited to only on the wedding night?

Couldn't resist!

By Brooke on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

I have an iPhone 14. The more issues we discover, the more I wonder if they're device-specific.

By Brooke on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Just had that occur too, I waited it out and it came back after about 45 seconds. Editing to add that it's crashed twice more since I posted this, which is way more than it was before I updated. I'm using Eloquence.

By kool_turk on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Lol yeah, gotta love dictation, which is why I proofread whenever I decide to use it.

I might give it another go once iOS 17 is released.

I hear it's a lot better, but we'll see.

Anything can happen between now and when it's released to the masses.

By Bingo Little on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Dear old Voiceover still crashes. granted, for me it isn't as often as before - it's happened twice in 24 hours since i updated - but it still happens and it's very annoying when it does. OOther than that, I'm very happy. For me, incidentally, the Braille display enter key bug has been fixed. I had a jolly interesting WhatsApp conversation earlier and the message was sent every time I pressed enter. Happy with that. I'm looking forward to reactivating the turn pages when panning function too.

By Scott Davert on Monday, July 24, 2023 - 04:13

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

@Bingo, if you could do me a favor and let me know whether that bug returns, it would be helpful. There are several bugs with these devices I would have hoped would have been resolved since iOS 16.0 was released last September, but based on a comment from Facebook in a public group by a Humanware employee, they claim Apple needs to fix it. Apple has said the same of Humanware. I couldn't care less who's fault it is, as a customer, I just want it fixed.

By PaulMartz on Thursday, August 24, 2023 - 04:13

Wow, glad to hear that Braille display will no longer jump to start of line after some incoming text or notification. I first saw this bug in 2019 when a deaf-blind friend was showing me her Braille display. We sat next to each other and had a conversation by text, with no need for an ASL interpreter to sign into her hands. But I had to be careful to not send her a text while she was composing her reply.