5 Things to Know About the iOS 17.5.1 Update

Apple’s released a new iOS 17.5.1 update for iPhone to address a rather glaring issue discovered within the previous version of iOS 17.

iOS 17.5.1 is a point upgrade which means it’s a much smaller release than iOS 17.5, the update Apple pushed to iPhone users on May 13th.

The firmware doesn’t have new features on board. Instead, it patches up an under-the-hood issue plaguing iOS 17.5 users.

This makes iOS 17.5.1 an important upgrade and most iPhone owners should think about moving to the software at some point in the near future.

With all of that in mind, we want to take you through iOS 17.5.1’s changes, provide iPhone users with some thoughts about the software’s performance, highlight iOS 17.5.1’s problems, and more.

We’ll start with a quick look at iOS 17.5.1’s performance.

iOS 17.5.1 Review

If your iPhone is currently running on iOS 17.5, you’ll encounter the smallest download size.

For the iPhone 12 Pro users, iOS 17.5.1 requires a 304 MB download and it should be in and around the same size for other iPhone models moving up from iOS 17.5.

The update took around eight minutes to install on our iPhone 12 Pro. If your iPhone is running older iOS software, the installation could take longer.

For more about the iOS 17.5.1 download and installation, take a look at our walkthrough.

We’ve been using the iOS 17.5.1 update on the iPhone 12 Pro for several weeks now and we haven’t run into any major bugs or performance issues.

That could certainly change as we put more mileage on the software and we’ll let you know if it does.

iOS 17.5.1 Battery Life & Connectivity

• Battery life is currently stable
• Wi-Fi connectivity is fast and reliable
• Bluetooth’s working normally
• GPS and cellular data are also working properly

App Performance

• Third-party apps including Netflix, Twitter, Slack, Gmail, Chrome, and Spotify are all working fine
• First party apps like Safari, Podcasts, and Calendar are also running well

Speed

• iOS 17.5.1 feels fast, we haven’t noticed abnormal lag or lockups

If you’ve encountered bugs and/or performance issues on iOS 17.5, or an older version of iOS, you may want to install iOS 17.5.1  on your iPhone today.

If you need help making a decision about the upgrade, check out our reasons to, and not to, install iOS 17.5.1 right now.

iOS 17.5.1 Problems

We’ve had a good experience on iOS 17.5.1, but some iPhone owners have run into bugs, glitches, and performance issues.

If you do run into an issue with Apple’s latest firmware, have a look at our list of fixes for the most common iOS 17 problems.

We’ve also released tips that could help you improve your phone’s performance and some tips that could help fix abnormal battery drain.

Apple stopped signing on iOS 17.5 which means you can’t drop your iPhone’s software back to iOS 17.5 if iOS 17.5.1 starts causing problems. You can’t downgrade to iOS 17.4.1 or any older versions of iOS either.

For more about the downgrade process, check out our guide.

iOS 17.5.1 Features

Again, Apple was forced to release iOS 17.5.1 to address a serious bug discovered in iOS 17.5.

The company says the update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.

iOS 17.5.1 doesn’t have any new security patches on board.

iOS 17.5.1 Jailbreak

If you still jailbreak your iPhone, avoid the iOS 17.5.1 update.

We don’t expect developers to release a public jailbreak tool that’s compatible with iOS 17.5.1 today or at any point in the near future.

If you still jailbreak your iPhone(s), keep an eye out for new information in the weeks ahead.

What’s Next

Apple’s currently testing a new iOS 17.6 update. The software is in Apple’s beta programs ahead of its official release later on this year.

We don’t have an official release date for the software yet, but we expect it to roll out sometime in July.

iOS 17.6 will be on the smaller side in terms of changes, but it should carry bug fixes and security patches for lingering issues.

Apple’s also working on its new iOS 18 operating system and like iOS 17.6, it’s currently in beta testing. The iOS 18 release date is expected to land in September.