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iOS 6.1.2 Bugs Frustrating iPhone, iPad Owners

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In mid-February, Apple rolled out the iOS 6.1.2 update to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners in an effort to squash the Exchange battery drain bug that had been plaguing owners since updating to iOS 6.1. In the days since that update, iPhone and iPad owners have been voicing complaints about several bugs that they are seeing, even after updating to the latest version of iOS 6.1, iOS 6.1.2.

Read: iOS 6.1.2 on iPhone 5 Review.

At the end of January, Apple rolled out is first big update to the iOS 6 operating system, iOS 6.1, which brought a number of new features along with it including new lock screen music controls, a new feature for Siri and a more visible button for reporting bugs in Apple Maps. However, the update also brought a number of different bugs along with it.

iOS 6.1.2 is causing issues for iPhone and iPad owners.

iOS 6.1.2 is causing issues for iPhone and iPad owners.

iPhone 4S owners started to experience 3G connectivity issues shortly after the update arrived while iPhone and iPad owners started noticing abnormal battery drain with their devices. Also discovered was a lock screen security flaw that allows unwanted access to the iPhone’s contacts and photos using a bug with the Emergency Call button.

Apple quickly tackled the 3G issues by rolling out iOS 6.1.1 just a few days after the release of iOS 6.1. And soon after that, the company shifted its attention to the battery drain bug which was determined to be associated with an Exchange calendar issue that caused network activity to increase. Apple, in February, pushed iOS 6.1.2 to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners hoping to tackle the battery drain bug. No fix was offered for the security issue.

Millions of iOS device owners downloaded the iOS 6.1.2 update but in the weeks since its roll out, it’s clear that there are some lingering issues that remain.

Exchange Issues Are Still Issues

Maybe the worst bug that arrived with iOS 6.1 was a battery drain issue that was caused by a calendar bug inside of Exchange. Exchange is an email client that enterprises, both big and small, use for email so needless to say, this was an issue that affected many iPhone and iPad owners.

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One iPhone 4S owner has had to shut off data due to iOS 6.1.2.

And while iOS 6.1.2 promised to fix the issue, we’ve talked to several Exchange users who claim that they are still experiencing severe battery drain and worse.

Just a few days after the release of iOS 6.1.2, we spoke to an employee of a big company who works in IT who claimed that an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1.2 had contacted his company’s Microsoft Exchange 2003 server in the neighborhood of 50,000 times. Needless to say, the iPhone 5’s battery life took a significant hit because of the issue.

Read: How to Fix Bad iOS 6.1 Battery Life in 10 Seconds.

He’s not alone though. In the weeks since, we’ve heard from a number of different iPhone and iPad owners who claim that iOS 6.1.2 hasn’t fixed their Exchange issues.

One iPad owner claims that while he didn’t have battery drain issues with iOS 6.1, he has been experiencing them after installing iOS 6.1.2. He is a heavy Exchange user and the drain on the iPad’s battery has made the device virtually unusable.

We have also spoken to another enterprise employee who claims that his iPhone 4S, which uses Exchange 2003, has been experiencing significant issues since installing iOS 6.1.2, issues that hadn’t been around before the update.

He claims that his iPhone 4S is downloading emails to his inbox, deleting them, and then contacting the server to re-download them, resulting in a massive hit to his battery life.

What’s worse is that he claims that the issue has “put us over the data allowance on our monthly contract” because it happens 20 times per hour and that because of the issue, he has had to shut off data on his phone entirely because he can’t afford it. He claims he is seeing similar on a company iPad as well.

Suffice to say, it’s clear that the iOS 6.1.2 update may have fixed the Exchange issues for some people, but that others are still dealing with some pretty extreme issues that had rendered their devices useless.

Photo Bug

Not all of the bugs in iOS 6.1.2 are nasty though. We have spoken to one iPhone 5 owner who recently upgraded his device to iOS 6.1.2. He claims that viewing and saving photos in iOS 6.1 was working fine, but he’s been seeing issues with his photos since upgrading to iOS 6.1.2.

According to him, he is unable to view messaged photos because the software keeps hanging up on the re-size screen. We haven’t been able to replicate the issue and it doesn’t appear to be widespread.

Security Flaws

Two other bugs that remain in iOS 6.1.2 are security flaws that allow owners to bypass the lock screen using an exploit with the Emergency Call button.

The first security flaw was discovered shortly after the release of iOS 6.1 and it allows unwanted eyes to pry beyond the lock screen and into Contacts and Photos, without entering a passcode.

Read: iOS 6.1.3 Update Will Fix Lock Screen Security Issue.

iOS 6.1.2 also contains a second security flaw which is a bit different than the first. The new bug, accessed in similar fashion, turns the iPhone screen black and allows users to plug the phone in using a USB cord and view photos and contact information in iTunes without having to bypass the lockscreen passcode.

Neither bug is easy to replicate, which is likely why Apple hasn’t issued a swift update, but they still have caused concern amongst owners running iOS 6.1.2 on their iPhone and iPad.

iOS 6.1.3 Release Date

iPhone and iPad owners who are having issues with iOS 6.1.2 are likely looking toward the iOS 6.1.3 update for help. Unfortunately, that update may not come for several weeks as the release date was pegged for about a month from the end of February meaning that it’s expected to roll out at some point at the end of March.

Read: iOS 6.1.3 Update Will Likely Kill Evasi0n Jailbreak.

So far, the update appears to have new Apple Maps features for Japan and a fix for one of the security bugs, but nothing else. Apple could eventually tack on fixes for the second security bug and the other bugs we’ve heard about, but thus far, nothing is set in stone.

Despite owners clamoring for perfection, iOS updates are generally not perfect and it could be that issues from iOS 6.1.2 linger beyond iOS 6.1.3. It’s also possible that iOS 6.1.3 could introduce some new bugs though we remain hopeful that Apple will get these issues worked out before the arrival of iOS 7 later in the year.

13 Comments

13 Comments

  1. Joe

    03/08/2013 at 2:02 pm

    We hope IOS 7 arrives at least in early September before we commit suicide with the terrible IOS 6 along this summer…

  2. Larry

    03/08/2013 at 4:15 pm

    Where is Steve jobs???? He will not allow this we miss him, I think apples days are slowly going down!! The iPhone 5 was the biggest to the worst so what does iOS 7 hold?? More bugs and issues, I’m not buying apple ever again!! All that money them greedy people make? This should not happen!!

  3. Edward

    03/08/2013 at 6:42 pm

    Apple lost it’s shine because Tim cook cannot hold tight the high standard perfection Steve’s required

    • Larry

      03/09/2013 at 8:00 am

      So true that is!! R.I.P. Steve :)))

  4. Anil W

    03/09/2013 at 8:34 am

    Can author of this post take note of this thread and update the post about it. I am sure Apple would get notice of it because of your post taking note of it.

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4757403?start=165&tstart=0

    There exists a 3G Issue on IOS 6.1.2 for iPhone 5. Above thread has total 19 pages as of now. People around the world are facing this issue.

    Halp

  5. Shelly

    03/09/2013 at 11:06 am

    I think it’s the phones and not the ios. I bought an iphone 5 in late October. My battery life was terrible. I tried a clean install and turning off location services and some other tricks, and it didn’t help at all. In late Dec I accidentally washed my phone – full wash cycle. I got a replacement, installed the backup from my previous phone and my new phone works great – no battery life issues at all. I’ve got location services back on and am fully using the features of my phone. Apple needs to step up and replace these phones with severe battery drain.

    • Rodgman

      03/10/2013 at 5:32 am

      That’s the first time I’ve seen anyone suggest that it could be the hardware and not the operating system. Interesting!

      • Larry

        03/11/2013 at 5:34 am

        I think it’s both ?

  6. Ourcomments2010

    03/10/2013 at 6:00 am

    On Mar 7, I noticed my iPhone 4 battery was draining rapidly. It was 100% charged at 11pm, then down to 7% in the morning. After reading many posts on what to do, I turned off push notification for email and notifications and location services for some of the apps.

    I went to the Apple store yesterday. The genius bar said it was a software issue and since my warranty is expired, I could replace the phone for a charge or do the following:

    1. Save pictures on my PC
    2. Go to iTunes, click restore.

    It worked!!! Thanks to the technician who was upfront and helpful. I charged it 100% last night and it was 98% in the morning.

    Btw, my iOS is 6.1.2.

    • M Sevigny

      08/19/2013 at 4:32 am

      i have had similar problems but these happened almost overnight. Battery would drain in a matter of hours, It was mentioned in various forums that it might be an issue with email trying to constantly connect to a server to get some emails that it could not previously push. Contributors suggested deleting the account, hard boot the phone and re-install the email account. This worked for me. I charged to 100pct at 11pm and when I got up at 6am I was still at 100%. Last week Bell had problems with various Outlook servers and when I would try to connect to my hotmail account, it would just spin and spin and although Bell resolved the problem after more than 24 hours, I never got those emails on my Iphone, So it appears that this was causing the battery to drain. ,

  7. Stewart

    03/16/2013 at 4:24 pm

    History not remembered is repeated. Everyone’s an idiot! Every IOS ever issued since my first iPhone ( the original) has had major issues upon release and Steve ” hitler ” jobs was in charge back then. Having said that I haven’t updated my 4G since beginning and that’s why it still works perfectly. Same with my ipad 4 , ever gonna update it. My ipad 2 sucks compared to original release. Old 3G stopped working after 2 updates, getting slower every time.

    Lesson:
    Never ever update anything. Apple sucks just like everyone else, everything is made to be broken, we are all paid beta testers, your TV is so cheap now because the warranty is only 1 year vs 5 in the old days.

    Get the picture yet?

    • Aam

      03/22/2013 at 8:16 pm

      Tq. With that, i wont upgrade. Been contemplating for days. Now i know what to do. Thanks!!

  8. mhia

    04/02/2013 at 5:51 am

    Had Envasion jb for a while with no problems except some cydia apps didn’t work which was expected. After a few weeks *poof*, I started getting blank SMS’s. Senders are unknown and there’s just a blank bubble.

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