5 Things to Know About the iOS 17.6.1 Update

Apple’s pushed a new iOS 17.6.1 update to iPhone users and the software addresses an issue discovered within the operating system.

iOS 17.6.1 is a small point upgrade and it replaces iOS 17.6 as the most up-to-date version of iOS 17 for iPhone.

Apple’s latest upgrade doesn’t have new features on board, but it’s still an important piece of software and most iPhone owners should think about moving to it in the near future.

With all of that in mind, we want to take you through iOS 17.6.1’s changes, provide iPhone users with some thoughts about the software’s performance, highlight iOS 17.6.1’s problems, and more.

We’ll start with a quick look at iOS 17.6.1’s performance.

iOS 17.6.1 Review

If your iPhone is currently running on iOS 17.6, you’ll encounter the smallest download size.

For the iPhone 12 Pro users, iOS 17.6.1 requires a 411 MB download and it should be in and around the same size for other iPhone models.

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 17.6.1 download and installation, take a look at our walkthrough.

We’ve been using the iOS 17.6.1 update on the iPhone 12 Pro for several days now and we haven’t run into any major bugs or performance issues thus far.

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

iOS 17.6.1 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 17.6.1 feels fast, we haven’t noticed abnormal lag or lockups

If you’ve encountered bugs and/or performance issues on iOS 17.6, or an older version of iOS, you may want to install iOS 17.6.1  on your iPhone today.

If you need help making a decision about the upgrade, check out our reasons to, and not to, install iOS 17.6.1 right now.

Quick note: Apple re-released iOS 17.6.1 on August 19th with a new build number. The new version of the firmware has build number of 21G101 which is up from 21G93. It’s unclear what the differences are.

iOS 17.6.1 Problems

We’ve had a good experience on iOS 17.6.1, 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 17.6 which means you can no longer drop your iPhone’s software back to iOS 17.6 if iOS 17.6.1 starts causing problems. You can’t downgrade to iOS 17.5.1 or any older versions of iOS either.

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

iOS 17.6.1 Features

iOS 17.6.1 fixes an issue with Advanced Data Protection.

The company says the update includes important bug fixes and addresses an issue that prevents enabling or disabling Advanced Data Protection.

iOS 17.6.1 doesn’t have any new security patches on board.

iOS 17.6.1 Jailbreak

If you still jailbreak your iPhone, avoid the iOS 17.6.1 update.

We don’t expect developers to release a public jailbreak tool that’s compatible with iOS 17.6.1 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

iOS 17.6.1 was the last known iOS 17 update in Apple’s pipeline and it’s unclear if the company will push a new version to iPhone users before the release of iOS 18 in September.

We may see Apple push a new version of iOS 17 should issues arise, but there’s no guarantee. Keep an eye out as we push through August.

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