iOS 16.0 still has rough corners, some users miss functions. We name workarounds and how unusual innovations can be switched off.
How smooth is iOS 16.0? After a beta phase of several months without serious problems, Apple released the major iPhone update to the general public on Monday evening. Massive installation difficulties seem to remain a rarity based on previous feedback from readers, but several users encounter minor and major bugs and cosmetic errors. An overview with workarounds.
Lock screen widgets are missing
Difficulties can still arise, especially with the new option of adding widgets to the lock screen: the widget view may only show Apple’s supplied widgets, but not the new copies from other apps. Sometimes it helps to start the respective app at least once after the update. If the widgets still don’t appear, you have to restart the device. But switching the system language to English and back to German, for example, can also help, according to readers – this restarts the process that manages the home and lock screens.
Messages as a list
The notifications now appear from the bottom edge on the lock screen and must first be swiped up. If you prefer to see a list view with all notifications that is similar to iOS 15, you can change this in the “Notifications” settings at the top.
Weather app shows incorrect rain info
The Weather app shows a new detailed view in iOS 16 when you tap a day in the 10-day forecast. In the substructure, Apple now uses an in-house weather service that is based on the US provider Dark Sky. The first users are dissatisfied with the Apple weather data for Germany: In particular, the information on the probability of rain sometimes seems to be wrong, and some also report significant deviations in temperature.
In addition, Apple’s weather service may issue severe warnings that the German weather service still provides as advance information, which can unsettle users unnecessarily. Up to iOS 15, Apple used The Weather Channel as a data source. You can do this as a workaround if you call up the weather forecast via Siri instead of in the weather app.
Disable search button on home screen
iOS 16 overlays the small home screen sidebar above the dock with a new Search button. If you want to switch this off, you will find the corresponding switch in the settings for “Home screen”. If you swipe to the next home screen, the small dot display is still displayed for all configured home screens. Swiping left and right over this area to quickly switch between the home screens still works, but now seems to have a slight delay. This can be annoying, especially for users with a large number of home screens. Activating, deactivating and rearranging individual home screens is still possible using the button as soon as the home screen is in edit mode. To do this, press and hold an app icon with your finger until all apps start shaking and a small minus button appears.
Battery percentage display not on all iPhones
The new battery percentage display on Face ID iPhones can be activated in the “Battery” settings. However, this is only possible on selected devices, namely iPhone 13, 13 Pro (Max), iPhone 12, 12 Pro (Max), iPhone 11 Pro (Max), iPhone XS and XS Max and iPhone X. The percentage is not available on iPhone XR, iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini, as Apple has now confirmed. If you activate the percentage display, however, you do without a graphic representation of the charge status – the battery icon in the status bar then always looks full until the battery charge drops below the 20 percent mark.
Persistent update for carrier settings
When calling up the info settings, some users receive a notification about an update of the network operator settings, but an update is not possible, so that the notification always appears again – even when connecting to iTunes or the Finder in macOS. We were also able to observe the problem on an iPhone belonging to the Mac & i editorial team in the Telekom network. There doesn’t seem to be a direct fix at the moment.
Clipboard: “Allow pasting” is annoying
In many apps that have not yet been specially adapted for iOS 16, a warning dialog appears when you paste content from the clipboard. The user must then agree each time before the app can access the content of the clipboard.
The actually sensible data protection function, which prevents secret reading of the clipboard, quickly becomes annoying. A new Apple interface eliminates the warning: If the user presses a special button to paste, apps can then automatically access the clipboard – developers have to integrate this.
Live subtitles not available
The new live subtitles automatically created by iOS 16 for videos and FaceTime calls are only available in beta and only in English. The function has not yet appeared in the operating aids on German devices. If you want to try it out, you can change the region (in the settings under General > Language & Region) from Germany to United States. The live captions should then appear in the “Hearing” section of the Accessibility settings.
iOS 16: Battery life issues
As usual, after a major iOS update, there are also reports of a sometimes significantly reduced battery life of the iPhone. Background processes can lead to increased battery consumption after installing a system update, but this should subside after a day or two. The configuration of the lock screens in iOS 16 also seems to be performance-hungry: If you try different background images and effects for a long time, you will notice that the iPhone can get quite hot. Individual users are also reporting that iOS 16 re-enables “Hey Siri” as well as Bluetooth. If you have deliberately switched this off, you should check the settings for “Siri & Search” and “Bluetooth”.
