Apple

5 Things to Know About the iPadOS 13.4.1 Update

Published

4 years ago

05/05/2020

Apple’s rolled out a new iPadOS 13.4.1 update and it brings a short list of changes to the iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro.

The iPadOS 13.4.1 update is a maintenance release for iPadOS. It doesn’t come with any new features, but it does have important bug fixes on board.

With all of that in mind, we want to guide you through the most important things to know right now about the iPadOS 13.4.1 update.

This guide goes over the iPadOS 13.4.1 update’s performance, the current state of iPadOS 13.4.1 problems, places to look for feedback about iPadOS 13.4.1’s performance, the iPadOS 13 jailbreak, and more.

We’ll start with our quick impressions of iPadOS 13.4.1’s performance.

iPadOS 13.4.1 Reviews

If your iPad is currently running iPadOS 13.4, you’re looking at a fairly small download. The download is around 71 MB for older iPad Pro models moving up from the previous version of iPadOS 13. It should be around the same for other iPad models.

If you’re on iPadOS 13.4, the iPadOS 13.4.1 installation should take less than 15 minutes to complete. It took about seven minutes to install on one of our iPad Pros.

For more on the iPadOS 13.4.1 download and installation, take a look at our guide.

We’ve been using the iPadOS 13.4.1 update on the iPad Pro for several weeks and here’s what we’ve learned thus far:

Connectivity

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

Apps

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

Speed

iPadOS 13.4.1 feels as fast as iPadOS 13.4.

If you’re dealing with problems on iPadOS 13.4 or an older version of iPadOS 13, you might want to install iPadOS 13.4.1 update right now.

If you need help making a decision, take a look at our list of reasons to, and not to, install iPadOS 13.4.1.

iPadOS 13.4.1 Problems

The iPadOS 13.4.1 update fixes bugs, but the update has some issues of its own.

The current list of iPadOS 13.4.1 problems includes installation issues, Exchange problems, weird battery drain, issues with first and third-party apps, issues with Face ID, UI lag, Wi-Fi issues, Bluetooth issues, and various other bugs and performance issues.

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 13.4.1 update’s performance on your iPad note that you can’t downgrade back to iPadOS 13.4 in an attempt to improve your tablet’s performance.

You can’t move back to anything older than iPadOS 13.4 either so those of you jumping up from iPadOS 13.4 and below need to approach iPadOS 13.4.1 with caution. Once you make the move, there’s no going back.

If your tablet is really struggling you can try moving it to the iPadOS 13.5 beta.

iPadOS 13.4.1 Update: What’s New

iPadOS 13.4.1 is much smaller than iPadOS 13.4 and it brings three bug fixes to Apple’s tablets. One is for the Settings app, another is a fix for the flashlight on iPad Pro models, and the third is for a FaceTime bug that was discovered a few days ago.

Apple’s iPadOS 13.4 and macOS 10.15.4 updates prevented FaceTime calls from working with devices running older versions of iOS (iOS 9.3.5 and iOS 9.3.6).

Here’s the full iPadOS 13.4.1 change log:

Fixes an issue where devices running iPadOS 13.4 could not participate in FaceTime calls with devices running iOS 9.3.6 and earlier or OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and earlier
Addresses an issue on iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) and iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) where the flashlight may not turn on after tapping the Flashlight button in Control Center or on the Lock screen
Addresses a bug with the Settings app where choosing Bluetooth from the quick actions menu on the Home screen would fail

If you failed to download iPadOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4.1 also includes iPadOS 13.4’s 28 security patches. You can read more about them right here.

iPadOS 13.4.1 Jailbreak

The current jailbreak tool supports newer versions of iPadOS 13, but it’s unclear if it supports iPadOS 13.4 or iPadOS 13.4.1. We should find out for sure in the near future.

For now, those of you who still jailbreak should avoid upgrading to iPadOS 13.4.1.

What’s Next

iPadOS 13.4.1 may or may not be followed by iPadOS 13.5.

Apple’s pushed iPadOS 13.5, a milestone upgrade, into beta testing. We don’t have a specific date, but we expect the official release sometime later on this month.

The iPadOS 13.5 update will likely carry a mix of new features, bug fixes and security patches for the iPad, iPad Air, iPad Pro, and iPad mini.

For more on iPadOS 13.5, take a look at our guide.

WWDC 2020 will feature an online format.

Apple’s also hard at work on iPadOS 14 and we expect the company to push the software into beta in June shortly after the conclusion of its WWDC 2020 keynote.

WWDC 2020 kicks off on June 22nd and you can expect Apple to detail iPadOS 14 and the beta during the keynote address.

For more on Apple’s new software, take a look at our guide.

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

Install iPadOS 13.7 for Better Security

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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.