iOS 17.6.1 has landed carrying bug fixes that Apple calls "important"

Yesterday we told you to expect an update to iOS 17.6.1 and sure enough today Apple obliged. The stable iOS 17 releases have been pushed out of the news first by the iOS 18 Beta and then by the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta which includes several Apple Intelligence AI features. The results of YouTube polls notwithstanding, the majority of iPhone users in the U.S. are probably running the stable iOS 17 version of iOS which means they should be ready for iOS 17.6.1. 

As expected, the update, which also includes iPadOS 17.6.1, features some bug fixes. Apple's release notes state, "This update includes important bug fixes and addresses an issue that prevents enabling or disabling Advanced Data Protection." The latter is a feature for iCloud and is an optional setting that offers Apple's highest level of cloud data security. It extends end-to-end encryption to iCloud device backups, Messages backups, Photos, and more.

The Advanced Data Protection bug was discovered after the release of iOS 17.6. The bug prevented users from enabling or disabling the feature. If an attempt was made to turn Advanced Data Protection on and the attempt failed, an error message appeared to alert the user. If the user tried to turn off Advanced Data Protection and that attempt failed, the UI would show that the feature was off but it would still show as being active on iCloud. After installing iOS 17.6.1, users will be told to go into Settings to confirm that they want to disable the feature.

While the bug might have allowed iPhone users disabling Advanced Data Protection to believe they had disabled it when it reality they did not, at no time were users led to believe that they had more protection then they really had. Still, this was an important enough bug that Apple felt compelled to fix it pronto with iOS 17.6.1. After all, Apple just released iOS 17.6 on July 29th.

To update your iPhone to iOS 17.6.1, go to Settings > General > Software Update and follow the directions to install the update. If you are running any of the iOS 18 beta releases on your iPhone or the iOS 18.1 Developer beta, you will not even be prompted to update to iOS 17.6.1.