What does this have to do with the issue at hand, which isn't related to an iOS update?
And you can downgrade for a few days/weeks after a new iOS version. However, it's time limited to prevent downgrades to vulnerable versions by malware running on PCs or by malicious actors.
The comment I replied to was about an iOS update, the suggestions I made apply to both situations. The downgrading option for iOS is not user-friendly. Having to wipe and restore the whole device to rollback an upgrade is unnecessary and time-consuming with the possibility of data loss. It's also not possible on the iPad itself so not an option for people who have an iPad as their only device. Upgrade patches to small system components and rolling back upgrades should be as easy as clicking a single button on the iPad.
What does this have to do with the issue at hand, which isn't related to an iOS update?
And you can downgrade for a few days/weeks after a new iOS version. However, it's time limited to prevent downgrades to vulnerable versions by malware running on PCs or by malicious actors.
The comment I replied to was about an iOS update, the suggestions I made apply to both situations. The downgrading option for iOS is not user-friendly. Having to wipe and restore the whole device to rollback an upgrade is unnecessary and time-consuming. It's also not possible on the iPad itself so not an option for people who have an iPad as their only device. Upgrade patches to small system components and rolling back upgrades should be as easy as clicking a single button on the iPad.
For security reasons, it's explicitly designed to be difficult to do.
On my iPad Pro, I have to repeatedly sign in to some of my most common go-to websites, e.g., The Economist, New York Times, AppleInsider.... it's not an issue with iOS on my iPhone, nor with MacOS. Very frustrating. And weird.
The comment I replied to was about an iOS update, the suggestions I made apply to both situations. The downgrading option for iOS is not user-friendly. Having to wipe and restore the whole device to rollback an upgrade is unnecessary and time-consuming. It's also not possible on the iPad itself so not an option for people who have an iPad as their only device. Upgrade patches to small system components and rolling back upgrades should be as easy as clicking a single button on the iPad.
For security reasons, it's explicitly designed to be difficult to do.
What 'security reasons'? Why can't it work solely through an Apple-hosted site?
For security reasons, it's explicitly designed to be difficult to do.
What 'security reasons'? Why can't it work solely through an Apple-hosted site?
Every iOS update fixes security bugs in previous releases. Bugs that may be exploited to get access to your data or to install malware. Allowing easy downgrades would open you back up to fixed vulnerabilities.
Before I begin YES I and Apple are fully aware of this issue so that part should not be new to anyone, however I kept extremely accurate records during beta testing (and afterwards) which I would like to share with others and Apple - if they're reading these.
First up, I did all the beta tests for 9.3. This issue NEVER came up once and it's not fair that all of us beta testers are being blamed now for "not doing our job". That is not the case and I take offense to that as should all of you who also beta tested 9.3. I had all the beta running on 5 different devices all deemed "regular use devices" something Apple strongly discourages, but I feel we should be testing in the real world and if something goes wrong, fine I have a backup. That said I ran them on 2 different iPhone 6S plus, I also had it running on iPad Pro, iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 2. Everything ran perfectly in every stage.
When the golden master came out Monday I upgraded all 5 devices at the sane time within minutes of it being available which would be around noon my time (this part is important). All were functioning perfectly. Then on Tuesday night around 11pm, all the sudden on my iPhone 6S plus this problem surfaced. Talk about bizarre! I mean approximately 32 hours after the upgrade THEN it happened?? I immediately got up and checked all the other devices and they worked perfectly (and still do as I write this). This points directly to anything Apple "changed" or "modified" from beta 7 (I think that was the last one) and the GM of 9.3 That's where I would start looking if I were Apple, but I'm not so I had to test the things I could on my end.
Since all the other devices were working correctly including the other iPhone 6S Plus which is what I thought was the problem, but that can't be. So I reformatted my device, installed a new iOS 9.3 from scratch like I was a new user to Apple and didn't do a backup. Everything was fine Safari worked perfectly.
I then started installing my backup which was saved from the last 9.3 beta. Keep in mind I have over 700 apps. As we found out with IOS 8 if you have more than 500 APPs there are issues when doing a backup from hard drive as it stalls every 75 apps - forcing you to unplug the device and plug it back in to do the next 75 apps, etc. Lucky for me Apple has STILL not resolved this issue. At each "75 app" freeze up I unplugged the device, openied Safari and checked to make sure the links were working perfectly - they were. On to the next 75 apps... I continued this process till I finished the last apps installing. Safari hung in there! <grin> I was so relieved. My backup was clean, free of bugs AND Safari was working without problems too... well almost...
I was just about to unplug my iPhone when I noticed under "BOOKS" (actually installed on my device) it showed only 124 books had copied. I know for a fact I had 154 books, but just incase I checked the other devices. I proceeded to go through the books available to choose from, putting a checkmark to the ones missing from the final backup. When I was done it said 154 books so i clicked "SYNC"
HOLY CRAP! This last stage - where it was adding the extra books or the act of clicking sync itself - something broke Safari - I was back to square one.
I'm not a genius like you guys. I'm just a record producer who's good at finding stuff during beta testing because I have a photographic memory. I literally can pull up something I tested last Tuesday and "play it" in my head. I can fast forward, rewind - just like an actual movie. Turns out this is great for trying to solve beta problems because not only can I send the info to Apple (or one of you guys who I help as well), I can literally recreate every single keystoke and give them that info to recreate it themselves everytime. Who knew? But this Safari/links broken thing has me baffled.
It didn't appear during any of the individual "75 app upload restrictions" restarts of my 700+ App reinstall
It's obviously NOT in my backup or it would have appeared the second the last app installed
And worse it has a "time delay" element causing me great concern for the obvious implications (like malware based)??
I called Apple because I was most worried about the time delay aspect of this bug. A normal person may not have figured out that first it was working then 32 hours later suddenly it not. That's something that could have been overlooked easliy enough. Unfortunately I called Apple before this was an "issue", so I'm hoping this info will find it's way BACk to Engineering 3 to assit them in problem solving it quickly as now it has turned into a major issue on the internet - something I tried to prevent by contacting apple immediately Wednesday at 8:05am. Either way, I wanted to report this info here to compare notes with you guys. Maybe I will trigger something in your memory too (I hope).
Joseph
P.S. I tried to report this on the developers site and was refused saying no posts allowed for this topic. What is Apple hiding? It's not like I was posting to Appleinsider.com? I was posting it in the developers forum where we are supposed to report things. I don't like this one bit!
What 'security reasons'? Why can't it work solely through an Apple-hosted site?
Every iOS update fixes security bugs in previous releases. Bugs that may be exploited to get access to your data or to install malware. Allowing easy downgrades would open you back up to fixed vulnerabilities.
People wouldn't downgrade unless they had a problem though. Nobody would downgrade specifically to get vulnerabilities back, the decision would be between having a device that is working vs one that may have a security flaw and they already used it for months with whatever flaws were there without a problem. There is a need for systems to be fixed quickly without waiting days/weeks/months on the next system patch. Not every update that's put out fixes security issues or major ones. An easy rollback and patching system that doesn't need restoration helps developers test beta systems out easily.
The choice is between making a rollback and upgrade easy or making it hard. I don't see the benefit in making it hard, that just frustrates a lot of people and makes no difference to their security as they wouldn't downgrade for no reason anyway. Apple could still have full control over which rollbacks and patches are allowed. It makes it easier for Apple because these issues put them under more pressure and rushing out a fix makes it less likely they'd fully test it. Apple's support staff could instead deliver a temporary resolution and the working patch can come when it's ready and properly tested.
Every iOS update fixes security bugs in previous releases. Bugs that may be exploited to get access to your data or to install malware. Allowing easy downgrades would open you back up to fixed vulnerabilities.
People wouldn't downgrade unless they had a problem though. Nobody would downgrade specifically to get vulnerabilities back, the decision would be between having a device that is working vs one that may have a security flaw and they already used it for months with whatever flaws were there without a problem. There is a need for systems to be fixed quickly without waiting days/weeks/months on the next system patch. Not every update that's put out fixes security issues or major ones. An easy rollback and patching system that doesn't need restoration helps developers test beta systems out easily.
The choice is between making a rollback and upgrade easy or making it hard. I don't see the benefit in making it hard, that just frustrates a lot of people and makes no difference to their security as they wouldn't downgrade for no reason anyway. Apple could still have full control over which rollbacks and patches are allowed. It makes it easier for Apple because these issues put them under more pressure and rushing out a fix makes it less likely they'd fully test it. Apple's support staff could instead deliver a temporary resolution and the working patch can come when it's ready and properly tested.
Uhm, malware and malicious actors would definitely roll back to get vulnerabilities back. Are you unfamiliar with the WireLurker type malware? It waited on infected computers to compromise iOS devices when they were connected.
And then you've got that class of people that think "they know better" and would willing put themself at risk for some weird thing they believe.
I keep seeing people relating this to ios 9.3.... I had this issue BEFORE 9.3.. I was hooping 9.3 would; fix it and it didn't... it is NOT a 9.3 issue!
The Booking.com people just updated their app on the iOS App Store. This update removes all associated domains from the app entitlements.
For those still suffering from the bug, does installing the update fix the issue? If not, does installing then rebooting fix it?
Not for me, Following suggestion on another thread I've uninstalled booking.com, restarted, reinstalled the new version, reset, uninstalled the new version, deleted booking.com cache data in safari. reset again, Still the same problem. With JavaScript off its different, but obviously lots of sites don't work anyway, so hard to evaluate.
Sites using 'simple html' seem to work fine, but that's not many these days.
I keep seeing people relating this to ios 9.3.... I had this issue BEFORE 9.3.. I was hooping 9.3 would; fix it and it didn't... it is NOT a 9.3 issue!
Exactly! I bought my first ever iphone (6s plus) on March 11th. I set it up and installed very few additional apps on March 12th (although I did install booking.com). I left it on 9.2.1 as, call me crazy, but I always like these updates to bed in a few weeks.
But on 29 March - so some 17 days after setting up the new device and installing the booking.com app (and using it regularly to book a few other trips) the safari browser problem surfaced. And deleting the app and reinstalling does not work.
What annoys me is the official silence on this from Apple. If I knew they had recognised the problem and were looking for a fix, I would feel a lot calmer.
meanwhile my phone asks me everyday if I want to install 9.3 - so they clearly are managing to "get in touch" with me for some things ..
Comments
Where have you seen this? This is the first I've heard of it. Can you please provide link?
Before I begin YES I and Apple are fully aware of this issue so that part should not be new to anyone, however I kept extremely accurate records during beta testing (and afterwards) which I would like to share with others and Apple - if they're reading these.
First up, I did all the beta tests for 9.3. This issue NEVER came up once and it's not fair that all of us beta testers are being blamed now for "not doing our job". That is not the case and I take offense to that as should all of you who also beta tested 9.3. I had all the beta running on 5 different devices all deemed "regular use devices" something Apple strongly discourages, but I feel we should be testing in the real world and if something goes wrong, fine I have a backup. That said I ran them on 2 different iPhone 6S plus, I also had it running on iPad Pro, iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 2. Everything ran perfectly in every stage.
When the golden master came out Monday I upgraded all 5 devices at the sane time within minutes of it being available which would be around noon my time (this part is important). All were functioning perfectly. Then on Tuesday night around 11pm, all the sudden on my iPhone 6S plus this problem surfaced. Talk about bizarre! I mean approximately 32 hours after the upgrade THEN it happened?? I immediately got up and checked all the other devices and they worked perfectly (and still do as I write this). This points directly to anything Apple "changed" or "modified" from beta 7 (I think that was the last one) and the GM of 9.3 That's where I would start looking if I were Apple, but I'm not so I had to test the things I could on my end.
Since all the other devices were working correctly including the other iPhone 6S Plus which is what I thought was the problem, but that can't be. So I reformatted my device, installed a new iOS 9.3 from scratch like I was a new user to Apple and didn't do a backup. Everything was fine Safari worked perfectly.
I then started installing my backup which was saved from the last 9.3 beta. Keep in mind I have over 700 apps. As we found out with IOS 8 if you have more than 500 APPs there are issues when doing a backup from hard drive as it stalls every 75 apps - forcing you to unplug the device and plug it back in to do the next 75 apps, etc. Lucky for me Apple has STILL not resolved this issue. At each "75 app" freeze up I unplugged the device, openied Safari and checked to make sure the links were working perfectly - they were. On to the next 75 apps... I continued this process till I finished the last apps installing. Safari hung in there! <grin> I was so relieved. My backup was clean, free of bugs AND Safari was working without problems too... well almost...
I was just about to unplug my iPhone when I noticed under "BOOKS" (actually installed on my device) it showed only 124 books had copied. I know for a fact I had 154 books, but just incase I checked the other devices. I proceeded to go through the books available to choose from, putting a checkmark to the ones missing from the final backup. When I was done it said 154 books so i clicked "SYNC"
HOLY CRAP! This last stage - where it was adding the extra books or the act of clicking sync itself - something broke Safari - I was back to square one.
I'm not a genius like you guys. I'm just a record producer who's good at finding stuff during beta testing because I have a photographic memory. I literally can pull up something I tested last Tuesday and "play it" in my head. I can fast forward, rewind - just like an actual movie. Turns out this is great for trying to solve beta problems because not only can I send the info to Apple (or one of you guys who I help as well), I can literally recreate every single keystoke and give them that info to recreate it themselves everytime. Who knew? But this Safari/links broken thing has me baffled.
It didn't appear during any of the individual "75 app upload restrictions" restarts of my 700+ App reinstall
It's obviously NOT in my backup or it would have appeared the second the last app installed
And worse it has a "time delay" element causing me great concern for the obvious implications (like malware based)??
I called Apple because I was most worried about the time delay aspect of this bug. A normal person may not have figured out that first it was working then 32 hours later suddenly it not. That's something that could have been overlooked easliy enough. Unfortunately I called Apple before this was an "issue", so I'm hoping this info will find it's way BACk to Engineering 3 to assit them in problem solving it quickly as now it has turned into a major issue on the internet - something I tried to prevent by contacting apple immediately Wednesday at 8:05am. Either way, I wanted to report this info here to compare notes with you guys. Maybe I will trigger something in your memory too (I hope).
Joseph
P.S. I tried to report this on the developers site and was refused saying no posts allowed for this topic. What is Apple hiding? It's not like I was posting to Appleinsider.com? I was posting it in the developers forum where we are supposed to report things. I don't like this one bit!
The choice is between making a rollback and upgrade easy or making it hard. I don't see the benefit in making it hard, that just frustrates a lot of people and makes no difference to their security as they wouldn't downgrade for no reason anyway. Apple could still have full control over which rollbacks and patches are allowed. It makes it easier for Apple because these issues put them under more pressure and rushing out a fix makes it less likely they'd fully test it. Apple's support staff could instead deliver a temporary resolution and the working patch can come when it's ready and properly tested.
And then you've got that class of people that think "they know better" and would willing put themself at risk for some weird thing they believe.
For those still suffering from the bug, does installing the update fix the issue? If not, does installing then rebooting fix it?
reset again,
Still the same problem. With JavaScript off its different, but obviously lots of sites don't work anyway, so hard to evaluate.
Sites using 'simple html' seem to work fine, but that's not many these days.
But on 29 March - so some 17 days after setting up the new device and installing the booking.com app (and using it regularly to book a few other trips) the safari browser problem surfaced. And deleting the app and reinstalling does not work.
What annoys me is the official silence on this from Apple. If I knew they had recognised the problem and were looking for a fix, I would feel a lot calmer.
meanwhile my phone asks me everyday if I want to install 9.3 - so they clearly are managing to "get in touch" with me for some things ..