5 Things to Know About the iOS 17.6 Update

Apple’s finally released its iOS 17.6 update for iPhone and the software is available to download right now.

iOS 17.6 is a milestone upgrade, the sixth for iOS 17. Milestone upgrades often bring more than bug fixes and security patches to iPhone users, but iOS 17.6 is much smaller than a typical milestone release.

In this guide we’ll outline iOS 17.6’s changes, offer some thoughts about the software’s performance, go over the current list of  problems plaguing the software, highlight the iOS 17 jailbreak status, and more.

We’ll start with a quick look at iOS 17.6’s performance.

iOS 17.5 Review

If your iPhone’s running iOS 17.5, you’ll encounter the smallest iOS 17.6 download size. If your iPhone is running low on storage, you may have to make room for the download.

The exact size of your iOS 17.6 download depends on your iPhone model and the version of iOS it’s currently running.

If you skipped previous versions of iOS, the download could be quite large because the software brings the changes from any updates you skipped.

As for the installation, it took about eight minutes to complete on an iPhone 12 Pro. Mileage will vary, but it should take in and around the same for most iPhone models.

For more about the iOS 17.6 download and installation, take a look at our walkthrough.

We’ve been using iOS 17.6 on an iPhone 12 Pro for several days now. We haven’t run into any serious problems with the firmware yet, but that could obviously change down the road and we’ll let you know if it does.

Here’s what we’ve learned about iOS 17.6’s performance thus far:

iOS 17.6 Battery Life & Connectivity

• Battery life is stable, we haven’t noticed abnormal drain
• Wi-Fi connectivity is fast and reliable
• Bluetooth is 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 feels fast and we haven’t noticed abnormal lag, lockups, or freezes

If you’re dealing with bugs and/or performance issues on iOS 17.5.1, or an older version of iOS, you should install the iOS 17.6 update on your iPhone today.

If you need help making a decision, check out our reasons to, and not to, install iOS 17.6 right now.

iOS 17.6 Features

Apple’s milestone updates (iOS x.x) typically bring new features, enhancements, security patches, and bug fixes to iPhone users, but iOS 17.6’s feature set is on the lighter side.

iOS 17.6 carries 30 fixes for security issues discovered within the operating system. While it doesn’t have any outward facing features, these fixes make it an important upgrade for all iOS 17 users.

iOS 17.6 Problems

iOS 17.6 went through an extensive testing process, but the firmware is already causing problems for some iPhone users.

The early list of problems includes Wi-Fi issues, random reboots, abnormal battery drain, Bluetooth issues, installation issues, Exchange issues, and problems with first and third-party apps.

If you run into trouble on iOS 17.6, take 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 battery life issues.

Apple stopped signing on iOS 17.5.1 which means you can’t drop your iPhone’s software back to older software if iOS 17.6 starts causing problems.

You can’t drop back to anything older than iOS 17.5.1 either. The downgrade path to older software like iOS 17.5 is closed and won’t re-open.

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