In an unprecedented move, Apple released iOS 11.2 at midnight Pacific Time last night. Normally Apple releases software updates at 10am Pacific on weekdays. I believe that they were intending to hold the update for release on Monday or Tuesday but were forced to release it early because of a rather nasty bug that cropped up where your phone, if you had certain types of notifications configured and if your clock was set to December 2, would spontaneously and repeatedly reboot. The temporary workaround was to manually change the time on your device, but iOS 11.2 actually corrects the bug.
NOTE: If you are experiencing the reboots Apple recommends you disable notifications before installing the update per these instructions.
Should I install it? If you are running iOS 11 already I highly recommend you install this update now. iOS 11.2 has been in beta for quite some time and testers are reporting that it’s a huge improvement to speed, reliability, and battery life. It’s quite stable compared to past versions of iOS 11, and I do believe that this is the version that they were intending to release in just a few days anyway, they just had someone come in on the weekend to actually publish the update. If you have been waiting for the .2 update before upgrading to iOS 11, I might recommend giving it just one more week to see if they have to roll out an 11.2.1 update since they had to push this out the door a bit quicker than expected.
What is included? Of course the big fix that no one was expecting to need was the fix for the December 2 reboot bug. Though it seems that the backend systems required for the new P2P Apple-Pay have not yet gone live. As with all of Apple’s release notes they rarely include every detail, but here are some of the improvements listed in the release notes:
- Adds support for faster wireless charging on iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X with compatible third-party accessories
- Introduces three new Live wallpapers for iPhone X
- Improves video camera stabilization
- Adds support in Podcasts to automatically advance to the next episode from the same show
- Adds support in HealthKit for downhill snow sports distance as a data type
- Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to appear to be checking for new messages even when a download is complete
- Fixes an issue that could cause cleared Mail notifications from Exchange accounts to reappear
- Improves stability in Calendar
- Resolves an issue where Settings could open to a blank screen
- Fixes an issue that could prevent swiping to Today View or Camera from the Lock Screen
- Addresses an issue that could prevent Music controls from displaying on the Lock Screen
- Fixes an issue that could cause app icons to be arranged incorrectly on the Home Screen
- Addresses an issue that could prevent users from deleting recent photos when iCloud storage is exceeded
- Addresses an issue where Find My iPhone sometimes wouldn’t display a map
- Fixes an issue in Messages where the keyboard could overlap the most recent message
- Fixes an issue in Calculator where typing numbers rapidly could lead to incorrect results
- Addressed an issue where the keyboard could respond slowly
- Adds support for real-time text (RTT) phone calls for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Improves VoiceOver stability in Messages, Settings, App Store, and Music
- Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from announcing incoming Notifications
How to install. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch tap the Settings app > General > Software Update.