Apple Releases iOS 8.4.1 with VoiceOver Improvements for Apple Music

By AppleVis, 13 August, 2015

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released iOS 8.4.1 to the public, bringing fixes and improvements to Apple Music and other areas of the iOS 8 operating system.

For VoiceOver users, iOS 8.4.1 includes fixes for the labeling of a number of buttons in Apple Music--including those for following and unfollowing artists in Connect.

According to Apple's release notes via Mac Rumors, iOS 8.4.1 also contains the following improvements:

This release includes improvements and fixes to Apple Music.

  • Resolves issues that could prevent turning on iCloud Music Library
  • Resolves an issue that hides added music because Apple Music was set to show offline music only
  • Provides a way to add songs to a new playlist if there aren't any playlists to choose from
  • Resolves an issue that may show different artwork for an album on other devices
  • Resolves several issues for artists while posting to Connect
  • Fixes an issue where tapping Love doesn't work as expected while listening to Beats 1

As always, if you notice any other accessibility changes, please do let us know in the comments.

iOS 8.4.1 is available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings > General > Software Update) or via iTunes.

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Comments

By TamagotchiTune on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

Wondering if i should update or just wait bcause i dont want to lose anything else. Lol i lost some music. Dont want to risk more.

By Misty Dawn on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

There are certainly many other VoiceOver issues they could've fixed with this update... Just sayin'...

By Chessie the Ra… on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

You're joking, right?

iOS 9 is right around the corner; if previous years are any indicator, we'll see that launch in just over a month. And here people are, complaining that Apple didn't address every single VoiceOver bug present in iOS 8 in an update specifically meant to resolve issues in Apple Music.

When I saw iOS 8.4.1 drop, I didn't expect there to have been any changes, since it was...after all...a minor update to fix a specific subset of problems. But Apple decided otherwise, and they have my gratitude.

By Santiago on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

My guess is that they probably just fixed the bugs on iOS 9, instead of adding the fixes to a minor update, which is 8.4.1. Waiting for a month won't hurt anyone. I'm sure Apple would've fixed a major VoiceOver issue if it prevented people from using their iOS devices.

Thanks to that last poster who answered my question in a respectful manner. And, yes, that does make sense and I respect that also.

I would advise others to refrain from judging people as the poster before did to me. I am not a technical expert (and not eevery blind person is one), so I wasn't sure how these kinds of things typically work.

Thanks again for the info.

Misty Dawn,

Believe it or not, it was not my intent to be disrespectful towards you; rather, my post was born out of frustration.

Judging by your post, in which you wrote "There are certainly many other VoiceOver issues they could've fixed with this update... Just sayin'...," I assumed (for better or for worse) that you had enough of a knowledge of iOS to be aware of the manifestations of the remaining bugs in iOS 8. Your post, to me at least, suggested an irritation with Apple's not fixing those remaining bugs, rather than a question to the community as to why Apple hadn't fixed more of those bugs. Had your post been more clearly worded as a question wanting an actual answer, I for one would probably have not viewed it as a "Haters gonna hate..." type situation.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

I have updated both my IPhone and IPad and have had no issues on either.
I have not found any huge differences so far in apple music, but will keep the community posted if I do.

By Robert A.M. on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

Hi there,

I will not update my devices to 8.4.1 as this iOS release patches the volnerabilities exploited by the TaiG jailbreak.

I might have considered it if this update had more VoiceOver related fixes, but the described changes seem pretty much irrelevant to me.

BTW, for those saying Apple will fix those bugs with the release of iOS 9, you probably forgot how bad VoiceOver was at the release of iOS 8 or iOS 7. VoiceOver bugs are usually only addressed at or around X.1 releases,so 8.4 probably works much better with VoiceOver than iOS 9 will work for a while. I truly hope I'm mistaken though!

Best regards.

By TheBlindDragon on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 23:10

Hello, I found that on the app store there is an image next to the app in iOS 8.4.1.
VoiceOver would say for Example:
If you searched for an app voiceover will say the name of the app then "image"