iPhone Users Could Face Battery and Wi-Fi Issues From Downloading Latest Update

Apple’s iPhone 6, 6 Plus and the Apple Watch unveiling on Tuesday comes with anticipation of iOS 8.0, the latest in a series of software updates.

The Cupertino-based company typically releases its major software updates shortly after revealing a new iPhone, and tech experts predict that trend will continue.

What they can’t predict, however, is whether or not Apple has addressed the battery life and Wi-Fi issues some users reported having simply from downloading the update.

“I upgraded over the Wi-Fi and about an hour later, my phone was starting to freeze on apps,” said iPhone user Kelly Shermer.

Shermer isn’t alone.

The Troubleshooters have tracked this problem for the past year, since iOS 7.0. Apple has released several versions since then, fixing various bugs and controls. Yet it hasn’t addressed two major issues iPhone users say they face.

“[The battery] will make a drastic jump from 34 percent, to 1 percent, to off,” said Kevin Kibbe, in an interview with the Troubleshooters last March.

Since users like Kibbe say the battery issues were caused by downloading the software, CTNewsJunkie.com writer and tech expert Lon Seidman has a simple suggestion: Don’t download it unless you need to.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right away,” said Seidman. “And this is a great example of maybe waiting just a little bit for all those bugs to kind of get worked out.”

Those bugs could cause things like battery drainage. Seidman adds, since the iOS test group is so much smaller than the vast iPhone community, developers’ don’t know what problems they’ll face until they get the product out there.

They then identify various bugs and glitches, and release a newer update — in this case, iOS 8.0.1 — within a couple of weeks of the iOS 8.0 release.

“As we saw with iOS 7, a lot of people had problems initially getting it to work properly with their equipment,” said Seidman. “And they took a lot of time to stamp out a lot of those bugs.”

The notion of “time” can get the best of us in the here-and-now world of technology. After all, major software updates usually mean cooler features. With iOS 8, games should be faster and messaging more intuitive, among other things.

But time could save some iPhone users from running into unsuspecting issues.

“The problem with the Apple updates is you often can’t revert back to the old one,” said Seidman. “So it’s a very permanent kind of decision to make.”

If you do run into problems after updating your iPhone, go to your Apple retailer. You might be eligible for a free battery replacement if you bought an iPhone 5 between September 2012 and January 2013.

The Troubleshooters reached out to Apple, but the company won’t disclose whether or not its' rectified the battery and Wi-Fi issues many consumers report having faced while downloading previous updates.

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