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5 Things to Know About the iPadOS 15.4 Update

Published

4 years ago

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Apple’s pushed its iPadOS 15.4 update to iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini users.

iPadOS 15.4 is a milestone upgrade and the firmware brings a lengthy list of changes including new features, bug fixes, enhancements, and security patches.

In this walkthrough we’ll take you through the iPadOS 15.4 update’s performance, the current list of iPadOS 15.4 problems, the best places to find feedback about bugs and performance issues, the iPadOS 15.4 jailbreak status, and more.

We’ll start with a look at the iPadOS 15.4 update’s performance.

iPadOS 15.4 Review

If your tablet is currently running iPadOS 15.3.1, iPadOS 15.4 requires a fairly large download.

If your iPad is running an older version of iPadOS, your download could be larger. That’s because the features and fixes from iPadOS update(s) you skipped are baked into your version of iPadOS 15.4.

The iPadOS 15.4 installation should take in and around 10 minutes to complete. It took about seven minutes to install on one of our older iPad Pro models.

For more on the iPadOS 15.4 download and installation, have a look at our guide.

We’ve been using the iPadOS 15.4 update on an iPad Pro (2018) for several days now and here’s what we’ve learned about its performance thus far:

Connectivity

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

App Performance

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

Speed

  • iPadOS 15.4 feels as fast and smooth as iPadOS 15.3.1 did.

If you’ve dealing with bugs or performance issues on iPadOS 15.3.1, or an older version of iPadOS, you should think about installing the iPadOS 15.4 update today.

iPadOS 15.4 Problems

iPadOS 15.4 is causing problems for some iPad users.

The current list of iPadOS 15 problems includes abnormal battery drain, installation issues, Bluetooth issues, issues with first and third-party apps, UI lag, Face ID problems, UI lag, and Wi-Fi issues.

If you run into issues, take a look at our 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 your iPad’s battery life.

If you can’t stand iPadOS 15.4’s performance on your iPad, note that you can’t downgrade to older iPadOS software.

Apple has stopped signing on iPadOS 15.3.1 which means you can’t move your iPad back to the previous version of iPadOS in an effort to improve its performance. Unfortunately, you can’t move your iPad’s software back to anything older than iPadOS 15.3.1 either.

This means those of you jumping up from iPadOS 15.3.1 and below should proceed with caution. Once you make the move to iPadOS 15.4, there’s no going back to your current version of iPadOS.

iPadOS 15.4 Features

Apple’s milestone updates (x.x) almost always bring new features, security patches, and under-the-hood improvements to iPad users and that’s what you get from iPadOS 15.4.

Here’s the full iPadOS 15.4 change log:

Universal Control

  • Universal Control allows you to use a single mouse and keyboard across iPad and Mac
  • Text can be typed on either iPad or Mac and you can drag and drop files between them

Emoji

  • New emoji including faces, hand gestures, and household objects
  • Handshake emoji allows you to choose separate skin tones for each hand

FaceTime

  • SharePlay sessions can be initiated directly from supported apps

Siri

  • Siri can provide time and date information while offline on iPad Pro with A12Z Bionic and later
  • Siri now includes an additional voice, expanding the diversity of options

Enhancements

  • Volume controls can be set to adjust as you rotate your iPad, on iPad (5th generation and newer), iPad mini (4th and 5th generation), iPad Air 2, iPad Air (3rd and 4th generation), and iPad Pro
  • iCloud custom email domains can be managed from Settings
  • Safari webpage translation adds support for Italian and Chinese (Traditional)
  • Podcasts app adds episode filters for seasons, played, unplayed, saved, or downloaded episodes
  • News offers enhanced discovery of audio content in the Today feed and Audio tab
  • Camera in keyboard can be used to add text to Notes and Reminders
  • Shortcuts adds support for tags in Reminders; add, remove, or query tags when creating and editing Shortcuts
  • Security recommendations can now be hidden
  • Saved passwords can now include your own notes in Settings

Bug Fixes

  • Fix for an issue where the keyboard may insert period between typed numbers
  • Fix for an issue where News widgets in Today View may not open articles when tapped
  • Fix for an issue where Photos and videos may not sync to iCloud Photo Library
  • Fix for an issue where Speak Screen Accessibility feature may quit unexpectedly within the Books app
  • Fix for an issue where Live Listen may not turn off when switched off in Control Center

iPadOS 15.4 also comes with 36 new security patches and you can learn more about them over on the company’s security site.

Also of note, iPadOS 15.4 quietly brought a new feature to the Notes app. The software allows users to scan handwritten text into the Notes app.

You can get a good look at the feature in Apple’s official video above.

iPadOS 15.4 Jailbreak

If you still jailbreak, make sure you avoid the iPadOS 15.4 update.

The developer teams behind the Checkra1n and unC0ver jailbreaking tools have released versions that are compatible with newer versions of iPadOS 14, but they aren’t compatible with iPadOS 15.

What’s Next

It’s unclear when the next version of iPadOS 15 will emerge.

iPadOS 15.4 was the last known iPadOS 15 upgrade in Apple’s pipeline so it’s unclear when we’ll see the next version of the firmware emerge.

We fully expect Apple to push a new version of iPadOS 15 into beta testing in the near future so keep an eye out as we press on into the month.

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