Trying again to exterminate an important bug, Apple releases a new version of iOS 17.6.1

If at first you don't succeed, issue another update. That's exactly what Apple did today when it reissued iOS 17.6.1 slightly more than a week and a half after it dropped the update the first time. The original update carried the build number of 21G93 and the new one released today has a build number of 21G101. The new version of iOS 17.6.1 fixes a bug that could prevent users from enabling or disabling the Advanced Data Protection feature.

However, to be clear, this is the same issue getting patched by Apple in the first release of iOS 17.6.1 so it is unclear how today's update differs from the first release of iOS 17.6.1. The Advanced Data Protection feature is an optional setting that provides users with the highest level of cloud data security from Apple. The bug only affected a small number of iPhone users and prevented them from turning on the feature. Those who tried and couldn't  would receive an error message.

As we said, those trying to disable Advanced Data Protection were also impacted by the bug. After turning it off, users would see Advanced Data Protection disabled in the feature's interface even though in reality it was still active and working to protect iCloud data. As Apple points out, "This update includes important bug fixes and addresses an issue that prevents enabling or disabling Advanced Data Protection."

To install the update go to Settings > General > Software Update and follow the directions. Those already running the first iOS 17.6.1 version on their iPhones might not see the prompt for the new update while only those running iOS 17.6 or older will receive it. We have two responses to that. First, all iPhone users can install the new version of iOS 17.6.1 from Apple’s developer center.

Secondly, even though Apple referred to the original iOS 17.6.1 release as important, it did not feel that the release was worthy of implementing a point change to iOS 17.6.2. Now if we were in this situation (my iPhone 15 Pro Max is running iOS 18.1 Developer Beta 2), I'd probably make an effort to update the regular way through the settings app. If I had installed the first iOS 17.6.1 update and didn't receive the prompt, I'd go to the developer center and install it from there.

For those of you with an iPad, today also saw the release of a second iPadOS 17.6.1 version sharing the same 21G101 build number as today's iOS 17.6.1 release.