RC's are now available for iOS 17, macOS 14, watchOS 10, and more!

By Levi Gobin, 12 September, 2023

Forum
Apple Beta Releases

Apple has released RC (release Candidate) versions of all of it's operating systems!
These rc versions are most likely the same as the public versions being released a weak later.
If you wish to have the updates a bit early, go to settings, general, software updates, Beta updates, and select either iOS 17 public beta or iOS 17 developer beta.
Now exit the beta updates section. You should find iOS 17.0.
Hope this helps, and if you find any new changes and or bug fixes, put them here.

Options

Your Feedback is Important to Improving Accessibility on Apple platforms

Don't assume that Apple is aware of a bug or that your report won't make a difference - submitting bug reports directly to the company helps them reproduce and resolve the issue faster. Your report may provide crucial information. The more reports they receive, the higher the priority they give to fixing the bug.

If you're using a beta version, use the Feedback Assistant on your device to submit feedback and bug reports. If you're using a public release, follow the instructions on this page.

Comments

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I've been reading all the comments regarding iOS 17. I'm almost definite that I'll update as soon as possible, but one of the issues mentioned above seems a bit concerning. Someone said that we can no longer use custom ring tones? I've made a number of custom ring tones for different contacts. Some are ones I purchased, and some I installed myself. Are these going to disappear or otherwise become unuseable, or did I misunderstand a previous comment? Since I primarily keep my phone on mute as a result of getting most alerts on my watch, this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker for me, but I just want to be sure I know what to expect so that I'm not overly disappointed/frustrated. I also know that I have some friends who will not be happy campers if they can't use their custom sounds, so if that isn't going to be an option, then I know there's one friend I'll have to warn in particular to avoid the update for as long as possible. Thanks!

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I have tones that I purchase and found in the net and use them for individual people. No issues. The only thing it did not show up in my iPad 9. All my old tones still in my iPhone. I did save them in the phone beside iCloud so never lost them.

By Earle on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

You can still use custom ringtones for your ringtones and for Contacts. The problem is you can’t use them as text tones or for any other alerts. They can only be used for ringtones now.

By Jo Billard on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Disat a disappointment! I have several that I bought and use for friends and family. I don't know what I'm going to do with them now, since some are to too short to use for ringtones.

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Weird that we aren't allowed to have custom text tones any more. I hope this gets changed at some point, and it's definitely something I'll have to warn at least one of my friends about. I'm thankful that we can still use custom ring tones, but it makes absolutely no sense that we can't use custom text tones, especially if they're ones we purchased through iTunes.

By Ann Marie B on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

You can download all purchased tones with iOS 17 RC but the thing that boggles me is you can’t have a ringtones as text alerts or ringtones as various other alerts like voicemail, email, etc. You can only have set ringtones as ringtones. I hope this gets fixed soon as well. It is a minor annoyance.

By Jo Billard on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

They won't be any use to me anymore. They're too short for ringtones and they were carefully chosen. The new ones won't be the same.

By Julian on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

It's strange that they introduced this change with the RC instead of earlier in the beta cycle. IF they had, this bug would've been reported and they would've had a chance to fix it before general release.

By Dominic on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

How about you Stop wingeing and bitching. Those iOS sounds were in the past. Change is the way of life. Personally, I love Apple’s new sounds. Are they included on the iPad as well?. And for people who are fearing that the old signs are gone, it’s not a bug. You can find them in the classic settings, but going to sounds and haptics and going down to a ringtone or text time. I’m going down to the bottom where it says, classic., Double tap on that, and you’ll find your old notification and ringtone sounds

By Siobhan on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Anyone with a working knowledge of IOS, realizes the sounds are in the classic section, should they want to use them. what others are dismissive about is the old notification sound has been changed with no way to revert back to it. Personally it took a bit of getting used to but I don't mind the new notification sounds. I can change to whatever ring i want. My downloaded text tone I bought though, is still not on the phone, yet my purchased ringtones are so go figure.

By Ash Rein on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I know that some people have reached out to Apple and left the report and others have not. It’s important for as many people as possible to reach out regarding these issues. iOS 17.1 beta is imminent. There are many issues. For example, moving apps on the home screen is still very problematic. I have no interest in reading somebody writing that they’ve never gone through the issue. Everybody on this website uses their phone very differently. Your inability to notice a bug doesn’t mean it’s not there. And again, the more people reach out to Apple, the more likely these bugs will be addressed. And, you gotta do it over and over and over again. You must be aggressive in your own advocacy. You must essentially annoy them. I don’t care about politeness or kindness. I care that I’ve paid for a product and it’s not working properly. And as we are all voiceover users, I require your help so that our voice is collectively louder.

By Dennis Long on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Yes it is the main notification tone I want to change back. Can we all work together and submit feedback for the option to change the main system notification sound. Please and thank you.

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I never used those that apple gave us. I have specific tone for each person. From batman, happy days, Hawaii 50, underdog, mighty mouse, and so on. For general use at this time I am using underdog. All tones still in my phone. The only issue is that they did not transfer to my iPad.

By Jo Billard on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

All it is on my part is hearsay so I don't think they'd accept it even if there was a feedback app for me to access. I can get used to the notification sounds if I have to- heck, I've had to do the same with Siri, but I'll be submitting a report if I can once IOS 17 is downloaded, because I'l be damned if ringtones and alert tones I paid for can't be used in the way I want them to be.

By Chris Hill on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

My focus fifth won’t connect either; ot make it work, delete the display in bluetooth and try to connect it in voiceover settings, this worked until I closed the phone, I guess I’ll have to do this every time now. Is anyone not having this issue? This is a bleeping bleep show if you ask me.

By Scott Davert on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

So I wasn't having thiese connection issues in the last beta, but I am in the GM. It connected finally, but for some random reason. I had a very strange problem this morning when I woke up, I have no idea what triggered it. Since it's a public release, I think even sharing the screen recording would be ok, though I get quite flustered in the recording. But it was like my phone was half disabled. I couldn't type in a text field with my braille display, only the onscreen keyboard which wouldn't disappear. Pressing space on the braille keyboard would toggle between the 2 keyboards installed on my iOS device. Later in the day, the Focus would no longer connect despite trying all kinds of stuff. After ending an FT meeting, it randomly started working again. I have no idea what the heck is going on, the half disabled device thing hasn't happened again since this morning when I was in a hurry to go to work, so is it a one off? Has anyone else had something like this happen? To take down the fourth wall for a moment, I'm struggling to write an article. You have parts of the community that would complain because there was a big deal out of something most will hopefully never experience. ON the other hand, you don't discuss this stuff and others get upset because you didn't make them aware. So what to do? I don't know. Sorry, I'm a bit frustrated at the moment.

By Chris Hill on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

If I'd been deaf-blind, when trying to connect, I'd have had to find someone who could either follow vague directions or was really good at technical stuff and either sighted or just blind in order to fix the problem. I haven't had any more trouble connecting, once I made it work this morning, maybe some sort of config file on the phone or something, but first time would have been a huge issue to someone less capable or more in a hurry.

By Travis Roth on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Hi,
I think it is important as well. I've been hearing some people mention it, but on AppleVis it has mostly been silent. I don't know if everyone here was lucky or if few beta testers use Braille. I am definitely worried as I need a new phone and that can't be downgraded. Not to mention running an old OS in this day and age of security and hackers is not really that good of an idea.
I do not beta test much myself, but did try the developer beta that was downloadable on Tuesday. I have no idea what version this actually is. I noticed that I had to toggle the new checkbox in VoiceOver > Braille > Enable Bluetooth on Start in order to get anything to display on the Focus. As I mentioned earlier in this thread there seems to be a permissions problem as permissions should not be tied to this checkbox but it acts like there is.
Scott, your experience is way worse though. I hope it was a one off but it probably isn't. I recall a time long long ago in iOS 4 where Braille displays would not auto connect on start for over eight months. I hoped these sad tales were long over. Braille is not as popular as speech and it seems when a bug comes up it does not get priority for quite awhile at times. Stressful times. If I take out my hearing aids to rest my ears, Braille is the only way I can use my phone.
Scott, I don't think you should feel under any obligation to write this up yourself, it is so confusing, inconsistent and stressful.

By Scott Davert on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Chris.
Thanks so much for your feedback. Mostly because it always seems like a struggle to find braille users who are willing to report/test. The Focus 14 was working fine, and then it just dropped the connection again, with no easy way to re-establish it. I had such a good experience with my SE 3 that I thought I would upgrade my 14 Pro Max. I'm also afraid one of the things people used to criticize Google for is now slowly starting to happen with Apple as well. Fragmentation seems to be an issue here, at least from my experience.

By Chris Hill on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

One of the first things I tried with my Focus 5th and se-2020 was that Bluetooth switch because it was new, it didn't change anything, neither did toggling voiceover or rebooting the phone, only thing that worked was going into bluetooth and blowing up the focus there.

I didn't use the display much after that except to try locking the phone, and power-cycling the display and then getting the phone going again. That worked a couple of times, might have been dumb luck.

CH

By Scott Davert on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

There are just so many things going on that I don't know where to begin. This is further complicated by the fact that the experience on my SE 3 was fairly solid, but not so on the Pro Max. One basic example is that now, on the Pro Max, whenever I enter a text field, the onscreen keyboard pops up, even though the setting under Braille is configured to have it turned off. Space with 1-4-6 does not toggle the keyboard, it just sits there. not a problem always, but it can be. Anyway, even though the Pro Max was recently restored from an SE 3, the SE 3 doesn't have the onscreen keyboard issue.
The Bluetooth switch on my SE 3 was turned off and the Focus connected fine. Staying connected, though, that may be better handled by the switch being turned on. It's the most perplexing thing I've come across in all of my years(12) of using iOS. I remember iOS 4 and that braille issue, it seemed like it was only present on the CDMA models, but maybe it also was on GSM? Anyway, I was told there was a fix in iOS 5, so I installed the beta roughly a month after getting my first iPhone.

By Scott Davert on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

When the display wouldn't connect, one of the iPhones I used had the switch on and the other had it off. neither would reconnect. I even had the Focus forget all pairings and reset network settings. At some point, the display decided to connect to the phone. I think the only thing we can conclude is that the connection process is inconsistent. How to file that as a bug? I have no idea other than to just throw it all out there for now.

By Chris Hill on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

My guess is that the changes that implemented those new switches have broken the whole thing. I wonder if there was a Braille display within a hundred miles of the person who coded that? I doubt it.

By Levi Gobin on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I’ve had problems with the mantis Q40 connecting in iOS 16.
The mantis Q40 was a braille display with a qwerty keyboard.
What would happen to me was sometimes just the keyboard would connect, but I would get no braille. That’s one of the reasons why I stopped using it in fact.

By TamagotchiTune on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I really dont like that custom ring tones and text tones missing or not working on IOS 17 because I have some cool ones I made. Hopefully its just a bug they will fix.

By tunmi13 on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

A few things.
I feel like it was about time some sounds got changed. We've had the same sounds for over a decade now. Technology is changing, getting smarter being modernized. Changes such as sounds or haptic behavior is to be expected. Who knows, maybe even VoiceOver's sound scheme may change in the upcoming years.
About the notification sound change, I personally don't mind. If I want to be honest, I felt like the old one was invasive. You would just be listening to music, and out of the blue you would have 3 tones. Maybe a few minutes later, 3 tones again. This sound is just a quick, beep. Which I personally find less intrusive.
Regarding the ringtones not being able to be made as text tones, that is going to be an issue for me too. I had Piano Riff as one of my friend's text tones. None of my custom ringtones are near text tone worthy, meaning that they are extremely long, meant specifically to be a ringtone. But then again, that doesn't matter, since you cannot set them as such anymore, which is quite disappointing.
On the bright side though, the new ones aren't all that bad. I think I can make some adjustments here and there. Sure it's going to bug me, but I can live with it.

By Andy Lane on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I wasn’t too keen to start with because I didn’t recognise it after a decade with tree tone. Now I really like the new one. I don’t think I’ll be using any of the new ringtones though. There’s just nothing in there that grabs me. As in the message above, I like that the new sound is quick but still noticeable.

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

If you kept the tones in the phone still there. If not, not sure what to say. All my ringtones that I purchase and found in the net still there. Not in my iPad. I wish someone suggest how to put them in the iPad. Lucky me I have them also outside the phone. I have close to 30 ringtones that I like.

By Jo Billard on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I like the old one but I can get used to a new one, as long as I can hear it. What I liked about the new ringtones that I heard from a video is that they sound softer, which will be great when I'm trying to find an alarm. A lot of them are way too jarring. I just want my text tones.

By DurDevil on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Does anyone have any custom made tones that they wish to share? (Just in case the bug is fixed!)

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I'm still somewhat confused about all of this. I've purchased a few custom tones from iTunes, but there are some I have made myself that I put into my phone using iTunes on my mac. I'm still not quite clear on the scope of this new issue/change. Are the custom files I made going to be deleted, or will they simply not be available for use? For example, I have a monty python clip as my best friend's text alert tone. Is that going to go away? I know I'll find out tomorrow; I actually told my friend yesterday that I'll be the guinny pig and install the update so that she knows what she's in for. As I've said before, it isn't a huge issue since I primarily get alerts on the watch, but I still worry about losing the tones I created myself. I get that ring tones can't be used as text tones; that part makes sense, but... I don't know. I guess I could call Apple to find out what's going on, or maybe it's just a temporary bug/glitch and there won't be anything to worry about in the long run.

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Tones. I suggest for people who still use windows to update via iTunes. It might, might let you cinc the iOS after updating it.

By Ann Marie B on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Hopefully this issue with using ringtones as text tones is simply that just a bug. Hopefully it gets fixed tomorrow or in a future update. I would like to go back to using reflection as my new email notification tone. Also as far as the new notification sound. I like the change even though it’s a lot quieter.

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

I heard that the valume for haptic are very strong. I am curious because of VO it affects valume for it and tones? Someone who has a nice sighted person can test it. I would but she who should not be name will not do it. Thanks.

By Chris Douglas on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Has anybody been testing the new watchOS? Any bugs at all?

By Brian on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Please tell me Apple left Hillside alone? I am old school and like my boring "ringing" ringtone for incoming calls. As for other tones, I have some Xbox-related ones I purchased from the iTunes Store. Because I am dirty like that. 😳

By Igna Triay on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Indeed, they left all the old ringtones alone. The old ringtones are still there, they are just under c'lasic.

By Brian on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

Us boring people need our boring people ringtones. 😃

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

OS 10. Works well for my series 7. Fast and responsive. Love the snoopy face and easy to get to the apps. I just press crown. Apparently some had use 2 finger to change faces. is no longer there. Never done it that way so no issues for me. Only used 1 finger to change faces and edit. I like it.

By Andy Lane on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:23

As for the Hillside ringtone, As above. They left all the old tones alone however there might be something to look forward to. They updated a lot of the haptics for the old tones. Some of them really are great like suspense and typewriters which have soft to harder haptics and multiple frequencies in the haptic respectively. I checked Hillside and the haptic is like a staccato pulsing. I don’t know if thats how it was before? As for Watch OS. I don’t know of any major bugs but there is a change some people might not like. Where you are able to swipe 2 fingers to change face in previous version. Now you have to either double tap and hold then select or swipe up or down then double tap to the change face menu. Previously this was only used to edit faces. Now it’s also used to select faces. I think they might have doen this to save RAM in use but I don’t know this for definite. It’s just a theory.