It is early days in the life cycle of iOS 9, but the operating system has nonetheless had a difficult existence thus far. Unquestionably, the Apple operating system includes impressive new features, and remains in many people’s eyes the definitive mobile OS. But although Apple has already released two dedicated bug patches in the last two weeks, there still remain several problems with this embryonic operating system. And perhaps most disappointingly of all, the patches in question have introduced a new raft of issues into the iOS 9 operating system.
Several of these issues are causing particular difficulties for Apple users, and Apple forums have been awash with the complaints of iPhone users. But there are three main bugs in particular that Apple has yet to solve with iOS 9, all of which are causing consternation for Apple smartphone consumers.
iOS 9 – Notifications Failure
A breakdown in the notification aspect of the iOS operating system is obviously a major difficulty, and this is precisely what iOS 9 is experiencing in its early days. Numerous sources have reported that iPhones, iPads and even iPod Touch devices are providing no audible or vibration alerts for incoming notifications. This would certainly be irritating for the average Apple iPhone user, but one can imagine the seriousness of it considering that Apple is particularly targeting the business community with its recent device releases.
This particular fault affects iOS 9 across default Apple apps, and also third-party software as well. Examples related to this notification have been particularly noted with relation to Mail, Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook and even reminders. Both push notifications and badge notifications have been affected across several applications, and this can be a particular problem for Reminders, as for many users this software is no longer indicating due and overdue tasks.
Apple has already provided a patch to address this issue in iOS 9, but many users are still reporting difficulties. Interviews with iPhone owners who have installed the latest iOS 9.1 beta release have revealed that in many cases it has simply failed to address the problem. Unfortunately, analysts suggest that Apple may take some time in order to fix this extremely irritating niggle.
Email Breakdown
The second major problem blighting iOS 9 is related to email. Although users not receiving email notifications will be understandably perplexed by the issue, the level of vexation is undoubtedly smaller than for the 27,000 strong Apple Support Communities thread, which states that thousands of users are not receiving emails whatsoever.
Users affected by this particularly malignant problem can in fact see new emails on their Apple devices as they arrive, but due to a bug in the iOS 9 operating system, nothing happens when they attempt to open them. Instead of being greeted with a new message, a pop-up instead arrives on the screen stating “message not yet downloaded from server”. It has even been suggested by some of the users afflicted by this problem that the bug impacts upon deleted emails in both the sent and trash folders of the main program.
This is naturally extremely frustrating, with some emails refusing to be deleted at all. And the fixes suggested by Apple, mainly to delete and restore old email accounts, do not work according to many people’s version of events.
It was initially assumed that Internet or email providers were to blame, before carriers experienced the finger of accusation being pointed at them as well. But as this iOS 9 issue continues to drag on, it has become increasingly clear that the blame definitely resides with Apple. It is not clear at the time of writing weather iOS 9.1 will be able to successfully iron out this issue, or indeed whether Apple can eliminate it via server tinkering.
What is certain is that this is an extremely debilitating bug for the iOS 9 users affected.
iMessage Bug
The third issue in question is affecting iPhone messaging on every major US carrier. This could hardly be a more serious issue with iOS 9, and it is one that Apple has failed to patch once more. A Reddit thread has been particularly damning on the subject, with numerous users reporting that iMessage on iOS 9.0.2 simply will not work for them.
Instead of uccessfully sending such messages, users’ devices time-out, and the intended message is ultimately dispatched as a text message instead. A wide variety of customers across the disparate networks of Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Telus in Canada have reported difficulties with this issue, and now both Apple and T-Mobile have conceded that the problem is a significant difficulty.
This is potentially a disastrous problem for iOS 9 and Apple, but it has been mentioned last of the three bugs as there is light at the end of the tunnel. In some cases, the problem has righted itself pretty rapidly, it is also relatively limited, and Apple has already apparently identified the source of the problem.
It seems that the issue is affecting iMessages with people sending messages between the newer version of iOS 9, and older versions of the operating system. It is expected that Apple will be able to address this problem with an update to iOS 9 in the foreseeable future, and that this is one issue that should be sorted out pretty quickly. Nonetheless, it remains a source of massive frustration for the many users reporting that the problem persists.
Conclusion
Ultimately, these issues should probably result in a note of caution being struck. iOS 9 remains a fine operating system, and one that many people will unquestionably want to acquire. But it might be better for people utilizing iOS 8, or even iOS 7, to refrain from upgrading to the new software as of yet.
Meanwhile, the race is on among hacking crews to jailbreak the latest iOS 9 version, and although these issues may cause some alarm, this is still an exciting software package that is about to become a whole lot more flexible.
