iOS 13 released less than a week ago, but already the next essential update is upon us. iOS 13.1 is here ahead of schedule to address a raft of software bugs that just couldn’t wait.
Though iOS 13 brought with it some fantastic long-awaited features like Dark Mode, despite a full Summer of beta testing it seems to have arrived without the level of polish we saw last year with iOS 12.
Cue more bug reports than usual, with users complaining about everything from power drain to interface glitches. Some third-party tests have even showed the iPhone 11 Pro to perform slower than last year’s iPhone XS at certain tasks, likely due to the new device’s poor optimization in iOS 13.
A number of apps have been affected with strange bugs, too – in fact, if you’ve noticed the name of our app displaying incorrectly of late, now you know why!
Luckily, Apple has pushed forward the release of iOS 13.1 to paper over some of these bugs and improve performance across the board. We’d recommend you update as soon as possible, especially if you’ve noticed your battery draining a little faster than usual. Hopefully Apple has made enough changes in this version to noticeably improve things going forward.
Meanwhile, iPad users are stuck on iOS 12 for another week, until the software official splits off into the all-new iPadOS on September 30. This operating system is based on iOS 13 with some extra capabilities aimed taking advantage of the size and power of the iPad.
The later release date of iPadOS should ensure Apple has enough time to make any neccesary changes to the software before launch, so we’d hope the release will be more stable than this first version of iOS 13.
How to update
To get iOS 13.1, simply follow the instructions in Settings > General > Software Update. Then simply follow the instructions to download and install the update.
These days, you don’t need much storage space free to update – your device will intelligently offload apps while it installs iOS 13 and then put them right back again when its finished.
It’s generally a good idea to back up your device before a big iOS update, to ensure your data is safe in case anything goes wrong – the easiest way to do this is using iCloud Backup in Settings.
What’s new
If you’re still getting your head around iOS 13, remember that we’ve updated all the Tips in our app for the new software.
If you’re reading Tips & Tricks for iPhone, head to the settings section of the app and choose Update Tips Content from the Content Update menu. You can check out What’s New in iOS 13 in the Introduction chapter for an overview.
A similar content update is also available for TapSmart for iPad, though of course iPadOS isn’t publicly available for a few more days.