Apple Releases iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 With Many Fixes for VoiceOver Users

By AppleVis, 25 October, 2023

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 to the public.

Our experience with past iOS and iPadOS updates is that the X.1 releases often contain fixes for many of the accessibility bugs introduced in the major X.0 updates. Our experience is that iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 appear consistent with this pattern, resolving or significantly improving several of the bugs from the initial 17.0 versions:

At the time of writing, we are aware of the following new bugs:

Braille display connectivity issues on iOS 17.1, specifically for Focus 4th and 5th generation users, seem to vary widely between users. For example, one Focus user encountered unreliable Bluetooth connections after locking and unlocking their iPhone screen, despite troubleshooting steps like resetting network and Braille display settings. However, other Focus users report no connectivity problems. Similarly, some Mantis users have noticed slowdowns or freezes when writing long emails or notes, while others have not seen this behavior. Overall, Braille users' experiences with iOS 17.1 are inconsistent. Before upgrading, consider your own tolerance for potential new bugs versus the benefits of the latest OS version. We recommend proceeding with caution and being prepared to troubleshoot or downgrade if needed.

With our small team, it's impossible to test every device, configuration, app, and use case. We can't claim our lists of new and resolved bugs are comprehensive or that our assessments are infallible. Some issues may manifest only under specific conditions. You likely won't experience every bug. Also, expect to encounter problems not listed that we missed in our testing. Please let us know in the comments if you encounter any other improvements or new bugs introduced in these updates. Community feedback is invaluable in helping us keep this page up-to-date and accurate.

iOS 17.1 Release Notes

This update introduces the ability for AirDrop transfers to continue over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range. This release also includes enhancements to StandBy and Apple Music, as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPhone.

AirDrop

  • Content continues to transfer over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range

StandBy

  • New options to control when the display turns off (iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max)

Music

  • Favorites expanded to include songs, albums, and playlists, and you can filter to display your favorites in the library
  • New cover art collection offers designs that change colors to reflect the music in your playlist
  • Song suggestions appear at the bottom of every playlist, making it easy to add music that matches the vibe of your playlist

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

  • Option to choose a specific album to use with Photo Shuffle on the Lock Screen
  • Home key support for Matter locks
  • Improved reliability of Screen Time settings syncing across devices
  • Fixes an issue that may cause the Significant Location privacy setting to reset when transferring an Apple Watch or pairing it for the first time
  • Resolves an issue where the names of incoming callers may not appear when you are on another call
  • Addresses an issue where custom and purchased ringtones may not appear as options for your text tone
  • Fixes an issue that may cause the keyboard to be less responsive
  • Crash detection optimizations (all iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 models)
  • Fixes an issue that may cause display image persistence

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

iPadOS 17.1 Release Notes

This update introduces the ability for AirDrop transfers to continue over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range. This release also includes enhancements to Apple Music, adds support for Apple Pencil (USB-C), as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPad.

AirDrop

  • Content continues to transfer over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range

Music

  • Favorites expanded to include songs, albums, and playlists, and you can filter to display your favorites in the library
  • New cover art collection offers designs that change colors to reflect the music in your playlist
  • Song suggestions appear at the bottom of every playlist, making it easy to add music that matches the vibe of your playlist

Apple Pencil

  • Support for Apple Pencil (USB-C)

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

  • Option to choose a specific album to use with Photo Shuffle on the Lock Screen
  • Home key support for Matter locks
  • Improved reliability of Screen Time settings syncing across devices
  • Fixes an issue that may cause the keyboard to be less responsive

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

How to Update

iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1 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.

Before updating, we strongly recommend making a full and complete backup of your device (either locally or in iCloud, depending on personal preference). This will ensure that, in the unlikely event that something goes wrong during the update process, you will have a current backup on hand in case a device restore becomes necessary. Also, if using OTA update, we recommend plugging your device into a power source for the duration of the download/installation process, so as to prevent the unlikely event of your battery going dead during the update.

More information on how to update the software on your device is available on this Apple Support page.

We'd love to hear your thoughts after you've had a chance to install the updates. What new features do you find most useful? Are there any changes you don't like? Please share your feedback in the comments below. Let us know what Apple got right with each release and where you think there's still room for improvement.

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Comments

By Brian on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I think it is safe to say that "this" is the update we were all expecting last month.
Here's to hoping macOS 14.1 is just as good. šŸ˜‡

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Well it looks like I am the only one with this issue? VO keeps reading the F time when I get any notification. Did not happen with iOS 16. Nuts.

By Aidan JK on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

The annoying volume dipping issue has not been fixed, neither has the long-standing disappearance of the punctuation item from the rotor when the device is powered on.
Siri will now identify music again on the lock screen, but is still not working with VoiceOver properly when using the dictionary function to define a word.
The erroneous reporting of misspelling issue also remains, at least with the daniel voice, when editing plain text, such as Applevis or the Mail app.
The Weather app does appear to have been fixed, which is something.
It also seems that the issue where sounds were not played if you had none of the alert options selected in the notifications centre has also been resolved, which was particularly problematic with Mail.
Finally, there seems to be some improvement in the haptics, for example, Iā€™ve noticed more haptic feedback when unlocking my device, or if the volume goes to0 when using volume buttons.
So, overall, some good fixes, but some bugs that have been kicking around for a very long time are still there.

By PaulMartz on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

iOS 17 introduced an issue with the Podcasts app that persists in iOS 17.1. When the mini player is open, the player controls cannot be located by dragging on the screen. Instead, swipe right from the Media Artwork Image.

Otherwise, all seems to be well after an hour of light use.

By Austin Nix on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

A tip for those of you who upgraded to iOS 17.1 and can no longer access the language option in the voiceover rotor. you may need to re-enable that option in the rotor settings. settings > accessibility > voiceover > rotor > rotor items.

By Dawn šŸ‘©šŸ»ā€šŸ¦Æ on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

First off, I hope when I upgrade I don't get bit by the Mail bugs. I thought we were past that particular bug.

By Larry on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Hello, on my Iphone 15 Pro the VO-bug when using Apple Notes with a bluetooth keyboard is still present. This is the bug where VO will read from the beginning of a paragraph as you use up or down arrow to navigate through the paragraph.
*Reported to Apple, again.

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I was relieved to hear about the time reading thing in this post. Compaired to most bugs, it's extremely minor, but I did find it odd. However, Since, at least as of writing this, the Alex morphing into Samantha thing seems to be resolved, I am a very happy camper. I was also happy to set up my custom alert tones again. However, I did notice one tiny, only slightly disappointing issue. For reminders, I always liked using the Circuit sound. It seems to have completely disappeared, at least under alert tones. I am using the Update sound from the classic sounds, which works fine for my needs, but I really enjoyed Circuit, and would love it if it came back. I'm also now curious if some of the other ring tones from that era, such as Playtime, have also disappeared. It's not something I'm overly upset about, but I can't help feeling curious what happened to those particular sounds and if there's any way to get them back. With all that being said, I'm over all very, very happy with the update since it seems to have fixed all of the issues which truly annoyed me. the time reading weirdly and a couple of missing ring tones are no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

By Brian on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Hoping the Hillside ringtone survived the update... šŸ˜

By sockhopsinger on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Another issue I have noticed is fixed is that for an app like Westminster Chimes, it again reads the time when you have it set to do so. I had forgotten all about it, and my phone just voluntarily announced 6:30 p.m." Hopefully those who use this app or other similar apps also have success with this.

By Ahsan Khan on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Any way to remove the dictate button from the tabs screen next to the search tabs field on Safari?

By beero on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

i'm still ios 16 cause of many accessibility issues i read, is it now safe to upgrade? VO navigation and daily use?
i'm not use braille display.

By Kelly Sapergia on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I'm currently using the latest version of iOS 16, but am considering upgrading to 17.1. When 17 came out last month, I heard that the new default notification sound was quieter than what people were used to. Does anyone know if this issue has been resolved in 17.1?

By sockhopsinger on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I think the only way would be to turn off dictation entirely. Other than that, I do not know of a way to remove the button from just one app.

By sockhopsinger on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

This is just an opinion, but I do not think they are any louder. Sorry not to pass along better news.

PS: I pulled out Shades of Doom the other day and that reminded me what excellent voiceover work you did in that game's intro. I wish they had made a Part 2.

By Tina on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Does anyone know if the double tap issue was resolved in this release? If it is, I'll go for it. If not, I'll need to wait for 17.2. What's the word?

By Graham on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Hi, Having read that custom ringtones were supposed to be available again in the 17.1 update, I was very disappointed to find that mine don't appear to be there even though in files it says they are on my iPhone. I've tried importing them back in to music on my Mac then re-sinking the phone to the Mac but no joy. So I tried air dropping the files over and all this did was to make another copy of the files. Anyone any ideas?

Just for clarity, these are not files purchased from the store but M4R files I put together.

Many thanks for any advice or help offered.

Graham

By Brian Giles on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Yes, the three finger swipe up in Braille screen input now works again to send messages.

By Earle on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I know this really wonā€™t help the person that was asking about custom ringtones, but they are working for me. I have created a number of tones and I can see them all under sounds. I can even use them once again as text tones.

By burak on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Brian Giles thank you very much for your response.

By Bruce Harrell on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I read an article in the Apple news app today that said garage band automatically imnports custom ring tones, and from there you can do something to make it the ring tone you want to use. sorry I can't be more specific than that.

By Bruce Harrell on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I have an iPhone 15 pro with IOS 17.1, the new update. Today my phone, all on its own, suddenly switched to a voice I've never used, and the language option in my rotor disappeared. I had to restore language to the rotor and switch back to my default voice. I haven't yet tried getting my second choice alternative voice restored. Very strange.

By Jonathan Candler on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Custom tones are back, bugs are fixed on my side of things and I can safely say that I'm rather pleased with this update!

By Shawn T on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Doing a force restart may cause custom tones to reappear. Press volume up, then volume down, then hold side button for 10 seconds. These buttons should be pressed somewhat quickly.

By Troy on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

With notifications even though the sound is still the same I've noticed the taptic is more like a vibration other than a small tap.

By Darren12 on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

All,
This sounds like a solid update. I'm buying a 15 pro Max in December, but currently running 16 on my 11 pro. Does 17 run okay on older hardware? I'm finding contradictory info online.

By Blue on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Here are some of the bugs that I have noticed, the forefinger tap at the bottom of the screen to jump down the cursor to the end of the screen does not work, you would have to repeat this gesture more than once to make it happen. Next I have noticed a battery drainage on my iPhone 14, it usually lasts me between 12 to 13 hours, but now that I updated to iOS 17.1, itā€™s barely lasting 10 hours. And finally my iPhone is heating up, which Iā€™m still not sure whatā€™s causing it. This did not happen when I was in iOS 16.7.1, but now that I just updated to iOS 17.1 itā€™s starting to heat up. and one more thing, for some reason, my voiceover sounds muffled. Itā€™s perfectly clear when I put in headphones, but with the iPhones normal speaker, it sounds muffled.

By Brian on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

how is the battery doing on your SE3? I have an SE2, and have been concerned about the reports of overheating iPhones. Also any other quirks or perks with 17.1 and an SE iPhone?

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

At first, I didn't think it was fixed either, especially for alert tones, but the layout is slightly different, and if you keep swiping, they'll show up eventually. Also, try the download all purchased tones but ton near the top. Still a bit disappointed that I can't go back to using Circuit for calendar alerts, but since everything else is significantly improved, I think I'll get over it. LOL! As for the person asking about the Hillside ringtone, I'm not familiar with that one, but my guess, just based on my findings from playing around is that it *might* show up as an actual ring tone, but it won't exist as a choice for alert tones. The way I see it, that bug is only partially fixed, but it's probably close enough to being fixed for most people. I tried reporting the issue to Apple last night, just in case, but the person I talked to didn't seem as though she was documenting my concern.

By Brian on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Hillside has been around for years, and its name is misleading. You see, it basically sounds like a simple phone ring. Nothing more.
I am, however, old school and like my phone ring to sound like a ringing phone.

By Daniel Parker on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Perhaps I am in the minority, but my VO seems to be freezing up with light to moderate load, many times a day. Swipes take forever to execute and the phone may become completely inoperable before VO decides to start up again - with Samantha rather than Eloquence-Reed. Yesterday or the day before, prior to updating, I turned VO sounds off but left haptics on, and I was very pleased with the results. I don't know if this is affecting anything, or if leaving sounds on and haptics off would fix it.

By Daniel Parker on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Hi Adrian and others,

I did a force-restart as described above and things seem to be doing better for now. We'll see how long that lasts šŸ˜¬

By Sergey on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I have updated to iOS 17.1 on my iPhone 13 Pro Max and in most parts I like the update. The only serious issue I face is that when I try to compose or replay a message in the native Mail app using Braille screen input it becomes extremely sluggish and olmost unusable when I try to write something in body of a message.
Has anyone experienced the same issue?

By Curtis Chong on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I, too, have noticed sluggishness with Braille Screen Input in the native mail app--so much so, in fact, that I have to write my mail reponse or message using Notes and then copy/paste what I wrote into the Mail message body.

By Lucky girl on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Will they put siri voices size back to normal back? I loved siri4ā€™s voice in previous version and if itā€™s possible,i want it back

By beero on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

did you notice any cretical bugs with this device? is it safe to update ios from v16, please?

By Darren12 on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

In 17.1, you can now again read continuously in books and VO doesn't stop/needs you to manually turn pages. Worth the upgrade for that alone.

By Apple Bite on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

After updating to IoS 17.1 in my IPhone 11, I have started facing range of issues: 1. voiceover does not read status bar items such as signals, wifi connectivity status or battery status. Keep touching the top of screen and it is only successful wile being inside few apps such as whatsapp. 2. The voiceover keeps saying "call ended from "(name of person" long after the call is over. I have to restart VO to fix this. 3. I noticed, and maybe its my misperception but battery is draining faster than 17.0 in IPhone 11 at least. Any solutions/fixes? Is there anyway I can go back to 17.0?

By add on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Since I updated to 17.1, text messages will not show on my Mantis braille display. When a message in a conversation is focused, the display is blank. I upgraded to 17.2 beta, and it still happens. I have reported to apple. Also, messages in the beta feedback app do not show either. This is on an iPhone 15 Pro.

By Barbara on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I use a bluetooth keyboard while talking on my iPhone. While on the phone, I use the keyboard to create calendar appointments, automatically dial account information, and send messages.

Using the keyboard worked well until iOS 17.1. I have my iPhone set to lock automatically after a given period of time. While on the phone using a Braille or QWERTY keyboard, I can no longer switch apps or unlock the phone.

I have tried unpairing and/or forgetting the device and rebooting the phone. Nothing I have tried is working.

I currently have an iPhone 12 pro. I did not notice any of these issues until I updated to iOS 17.1.

I have a friend who is experiencing similar issues.

Is anyone else experiencing this situation?

By Barbara on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Please refer to my message regarding Significant Issues With Bluetooth Keyboards While Using iPhone for more information.
I have a partial solution regarding this situation. I turned on Full Keyboard access and I am able to use a Magic Keyboard while talking on the phone. Please note that I donā€™t have the same success with a Perkins Style (Braille Bluetooth keyboard).

By Bruce Harrell on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

Hi All,

I am experiencing an onscreen keyboard bug. The software keyboard keeps disappearing, and I don't know how to restore it or unhide it, whichever is the appropriate term.

Does anyone know how to toggle the onscreen keyboard to show or hide?

I would greatly appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Bruce

By Brian on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

If you have the Scrub Gesture, or a custom gesture in place of it, that can hide the onscreen keyboard. Usually double tapping into any text field will bring it back.

By Magic Retina on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

This issue just started a couple days ago for me but every now and again Voiceover will read a paragraph and then repeat it. This is a huge problem when I'm trying to read a full page from the top. Sometimes turning VO off and on again fixes it and sometimes it doesn't. Been having a lot of issues like this where something weird will happen, then stop, then become an even worse problem down the line. I'm not on any betas but I am experiencing a ton of bugs that I see reported in the betas and I have no idea how or why that's happening.

By Ricardo BrandĆ£o on Thursday, November 23, 2023 - 11:35

I can say that this problem is also happening to me. It does not occur on all sites, only on specific pages. VoiceOver repeats the last read line twice in a row