Apple

5 Things to Know About the iPadOS 13.3 Update

Published

4 years ago

01/06/2020

The beta is over and Apple’s iPadOS 13.3 update is now available for the iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini

iPadOS 13.3 serves as the company’s third milestone upgrade or iPadOS and it brings a collection of new features, fixes, patches, and enhancements to the iPad.

If your iPad is currently running on iPadOS 13.2.3 you’ll see the smallest download size and the shortest list of changes.

If your tablet is currently running iPadOS 13.2.2 or an older version of iPadOS, your iPadOS 13.3 update will be more substantial because the features from the updates you missed are included in your version of iPadOS 13.3.

With that in mind, we want to guide you through the most important things to know, right now, about the iPadOS 13.3 update.

This guide goes over the iPadOS 13.3 update’s performance, the current state of iPadOS 13.3 problems, places to look for feedback about iPadOS 13.3’s performance, the iPadOS 13 jailbreak, and more.

We’ll start with our quick impressions of iPadOS 13.3’s performance.

iPadOS 13.3 Reviews

If you’re currently running iPadOS 13.2.2 you’re looking at a 300+MB download. The iPadOS 13.3 update is around 363MB download for older iPad Pro models.

If you’re on iPadOS 13.2.3, the iPadOS 13.3 installation should take less than 10 minutes to complete. It took about seven minutes to install on one of our iPad Pros.

For more on the iPadOS 13.3 download and installation, take a look at our guide.

We’ve been using the iPadOS 13.3 update on the iPad Pro for several days and here’s what we’ve discovered thus far:

Connectivity

Battery life is currently stable.
Wi-Fi connectivity is fast and reliable.
Bluetooth is working normally.
GPS and cellular data are both stable right now.

Apps

Third-party apps like Netflix, Dark Sky, Twitter, Slack, Asana, Gmail, Chrome, and Spotify are working normally.
First party apps like Safari, Podcasts, and Calendar are stable.

Speed

iPadOS 13.3 feels as fast as iPadOS 13.2.3.

If you’re dealing with performance issues on iPadOS 13.2.3 or an older version of iPadOS 13, you might want to install iPadOS 13.3 update on your iPad right now.

If you need help making a decision, take a look at our list of reasons to, and not to, install iPadOS 13.3 on your iPad today.

iPadOS 13.3 Problems

The iPadOS 13.3 update fixes several bugs, but the update has some issues of its own.

The current list of iPadOS 13.3 problems includes installation issues, Wi-Fi issues, Bluetooth issues, Exchange problems, weird battery drain, issues with first and third-party apps, issues with Face ID, UI lag, and more.

If you encounter a problem on your tablet, take a look at our list of fixes for the most common software issues. We’ve also released tips that will help you improve performance and tips that should help you improve battery life.

If you can’t handle the iPadOS 13.3 update’s performance on your iPad note that you can no longer downgrade back to iPadOS 13.2.3 in an attempt to improve its performance.

That said, if you’re really struggling on iPadOS 13.3, you can try moving your tablet to Apple’s iPadOS 13.3.1 beta though beta software typically isn’t an ideal daily driver.

iPadOS 13.3 Update: What’s New

iPadOS 13.3 comes with a nice mix of features, enhancements, and bug fixes for your iPad. Here’s the update’s full change log:

Screen Time

New parental controls provide more communication limits over who their children can call, FaceTime, or Message
Contact list for children lets parents manage the contacts that appear on their children’s devices

Apple News

New layout for Apple News+ stories from The Wall Street Journal and other leading newspapers
Easily like or dislike stories with a tap

Stocks

Stories from Apple News are now available in Canada in English and French
Continue reading with links to related stories or more stories from the same publication
“Breaking” and “Developing” labels for Top Stories

Bug Fixes & Improvements

Enables the creation of a new video clip when trimming a video in Photos
Adds support for NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in Safari
Fixes issues in Mail that may prevent downloading new messages
Addresses an issue that prevented deleting messages in Gmail accounts
Resolves issues that could cause incorrect characters to display in messages and duplication of sent messages in Exchange accounts
Fixes an issue where the cursor may not move after long pressing on the space bar
Addresses an issue that may cause screenshots to appear blurry when sent via Messages
Resolves an issue where cropping or using Markup on screenshots may not save to Photos
Fixes an issue where Voice Memos recordings may not be able to be shared with other audio apps
Resolves an issue where the Cellular Data setting may incorrectly show as off
Fixes an issue that prevented turning off Dark Mode when Smart Invert was enabled

iPadOS 13.3 also brings new security patches to the iPad and you can read about those on Apple’s security website.

iPadOS 13.3 Jailbreak

Jailbreak developers have released an iPadOS 13 jailbreak tool and you can learn more about it right here.

What’s Next

Apple’s confirmed a new version of iPadOS 13.

The iPadOS 13.3.1 update is confirmed and it’s currently in beta testing ahead of an unknown release date for iPad, iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPad Pro.

The update is a small point release (which means it probably won’t carry new features) and we expect it to fix bugs impacting Apple’s new Screen Time features.

Given the severity of the issue, look for the iPadOS 13.3.1 update to roll out sooner rather than later.

4 Reasons Not to Install iPadOS 13.7 & 11 Reasons You Should

Install iPadOS 13.7 for Better Security

1 / 15

If you value your security, you'll want to install iPadOS 13.7 in the near future.

iPadOS 13.7 doesn't have any known security patches on board. That said, if you skipped iPadOS 13.6 or an older version of iPadOS, you'll get security patches with your upgrade.

The iPadOS 13.6 update brought more than 20 security patches to the iPad line. That made it an important upgrade for most users. You'll get these patches if you skipped iPadOS 13.6.

If you skipped iPadOS 13.5.1, you get its security patch with your upgrade. It's baked in.

If you skipped iPadOS 13.5, iPadOS 13.7 includes iPadOS 13.5's 41 security patches which you can about on the company's security site.

The list includes patches for the company's Mail app, Wi-Fi, AirDrop, Bluetooth, FaceTime, Messages, and Notifications.

If you skipped Apple's iPadOS 13.4 release, you'll get the update's 28 security patches with your upgrade. You can read about all of them on Apple's website right here.

Reports have outlined a vulnerability in Wi-Fi chips made by Broadcom and Cypress Semiconductor that left billions of devices susceptible to attack.

Dubbed Kr00k, the vulnerability allows nearby attackers to decrypt sensitive information that's relayed over-the-air.

Fortunately, it looks like the issue was patched up with the release of iPadOS 13.2, an update that arrived all the way back in October.

If you're currently running a much older version of iPadOS 13 on your tablet, you'll probably want to update your iPad right now.

If you skipped iPadOS 13.3.1 you'll get its patches with your upgrade. The iPadOS 13.3.1 had 21 new security patches on board. If you want to dig into the specifics, you can do so right here.

If you skipped a previous version of iPadOS 13, you'll get additional security patches with your upgrade to iPadOS 13.7.

If you skipped iPadOS 13.3, you get its 12 security patches with your upgrade. You can read about each one over on Apple's security page.

The iPadOS 13.3 update also added support for NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in the Safari browser.

If you missed iPadOS 13.2, it had 16 new security patches on board. You can read about them on Apple's security website.

If you missed iPadOS 13.1.1, you get a security patch for a third-party keyboard issue. If you're interested in the particulars, you can read about the patch on Apple's website.

If you passed on installing iPadOS 13.1, you get another patch with your iPadOS 13.7 update. You can learn more about it right here.

If you skipped iOS 12.4.1 or any older versions of iOS 12, you'll get their security patches with your iPadOS 13.7 update.

iOS 12.4.1 only had one patch on board, but Apple's iOS 12.4 brought 19 security patches to the iPad line. If you're interested in the specifics, you can read about them on right here.

In addition to those patches, iPadOS 13 itself comes with some security and privacy upgrades including improved anti-tracking features in Safari and the ability to get rid of location metadata in your photos.

You also have the ability to block apps from using Bluetooth and the ability to allow apps to access your location just once.

The operating system will also send you reminders about applications that track your data.