Restarting your device resets default mail, browser settings in iOS 14

AppleInsider · September 17, 2020 9:03PM

Apple's new iOS 14 update appears to have a bug that wipes customized default browser and mail settings when a device is reset or restarted.

Credit: Amber Neely, AppleInsider

The iOS 14 update was released on Wednesday. One of its most noteworthy features is the ability to set third-party mail and browser apps as a default alternative to Apple's Mail and Safari.

A day after iOS 14 became available, users started to notice that restarts or resets were wiping their default browser and mail settings. For example, clicking a link after a restart will open that webpage in Safari, even if you set Google Chrome as the default.

It appears, at this point, that the only fix is to manually change the default app settings after a restart, or avoiding a reset in the first place.

The rollout of iOS 14 hasn't gone as smoothly as past releases, since Apple gave developers less than a day to prepare their apps for the update. It isn't clear what's causing the restart bug, however.

As of this writing, many popular browser and mail apps have added support for the default setting. That includes Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome, DuckDuckGo and the Basecamp-created Hey app.

Earlier on Thursday, Cisco warned users that a new privacy feature in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 could interfere with mobile device management (MDM) and bring your own device (BYOD) platforms.

zroger73 · September 17, 2020 9:20PM

I found another bug today. While watching a YouTube video on my Xs Max running iOS 14 and listening on my AirPods Pro, all of the sudden the song from the Headphone Accommodation settings started playing all by itself. It took me a while to figure out where the music was coming from. It stopped when I closed the Settings app.

kidrock2199 · September 17, 2020 9:21PM

Yea, a good friend of mine is having MAAAAJOOR problems with iOS 14 and she has a new iPhone 11. She advised me to hold off on updating. I was already going to. I usually upgrade on day 1, but something told me to hold off on this one. My auto update setting is always off anyway. I like to have control of when to upgrade my devices.

loopless · September 17, 2020 9:51PM

Zero problems so far that would cause me any issues. Multiple iPads and iPhones.

steps · September 17, 2020 10:12PM

Two phones, 2 iPads- all is well after 18 hours!

dewme · September 17, 2020 10:22PM

I haven't encountered any issues so far with iPhone Xs Max and iPhone 11 but I have no doubt that there are bugs lurking in there. All software has bugs. I fully expect a 14.01 within a couple of weeks at the most. This is the new normal for software. If you want to park on one version for an extended period of time you're going to have to take active measures to enforce this policy yourself. Otherwise, the changes will just keep coming.

At some point I expect that Apple will do something similar to what's done with Windows 10 and some flavors of Linux and have at least two release streams differentiated by the degree of volatility the user is willing to accept. If you keep your Apple device loaded with a beta profile you're effectively staying on the high volatility path. Without the beta profile you're still going to see a steady stream of updates, but the potential for breakage will be much lower.

aegean · September 17, 2020 11:13PM

I updated my iPhone X to iOS 14. My 2007 17 inch MacBook Pro running El Capitan will not recognise my phone and therefore, no synchronisation of music library with iTunes on El Capitan. All iOS 14 betas were syncing totally fine.

No plans to update wife's 2020 iPad Pro and iPhone 8 Plus. They will keep running their factory OS till the day both devices die.

edited September 2020

spamsandwich · September 17, 2020 11:25PM

Few people here seem to be serious users of Apple’s iOS audio production tools, but I will note that there are some damaging bugs which crept into GarageBand in iOS 14 which cause Audio Unit Extensions to reset to their default state (losing their tweaked and adjusted settings). This is bad news for production.

edited September 2020

twokatmew · September 17, 2020 11:40PM

I was wary of this update, so I upgraded my iPad Pro 2018 first, as it wouldn’t be as annoying as if I messed up my iPhone XS. It went fine, so I upgraded my phone late last night and my S3 watch this morning. No issues so far.

edited September 2020

larryjw · September 18, 2020 12:10AM

Wow. Now, what good are beta testers if major bugs like this are not detected?

phobos7 · September 18, 2020 12:11AM

There was no issue on any of my devices after restarts. Must be a device glitch or perhaps the settings need to be more authenticated by the human setting them.

tylersdad · September 18, 2020 12:11AM

I wish I would've waited before updating to iOS 14. Probably seems silly to a lot of people, but I rely on the Up Next widget to show me if my alarm is set for the next. They've taken that feature away. It's really disappointing. I read that if the time is later than what you've set as your bedtime, then the wake up time is supposed to show on the home screen, but that doesn't seem to be working for me on my Xs Max.

Really disappointed. I don't know why they would get rid of this.

Also, a PSA for those who use the Bedtime feature. It's been moved from the Clock app to the Health app. And the upgrade wipes out your previously setup bedtime schedule. You have to add a new one. I'm really glad I checked before going to bed last night, otherwise I would've missed several meetings.

edited September 2020

spamsandwich · September 18, 2020 12:13AM

larryjw said:

Wow. Now, what good are beta testers if major bugs like this are not detected?

Since beta testing is such a risk, I suspect few average people (who are not developers) and rely on their devices to run reliably would not be willing to beta test.

bulk001 · September 18, 2020 12:30AM

“ The rollout of iOS 14 hasn't gone as smoothly as past releases,”

iOS 13 launch was a major screwup and pretty every release before that has brought some sort of issues. Never upgrade anything Apple on day one (or buy v1 of any of their products on launch day) as there are just too many variable that can go wrong (not necessarily all of their doing either).

paraeeker · September 18, 2020 12:42AM

No issues on iOS and iPadOS. Coincidentally did multiple restarts of my iPhone for testing our SIP app and it’s all good.

Overall, if anything, iOS 14 feels a tad snappier.

mistergsf · September 18, 2020 12:47AM

Just wanted to chime in that I've had solid experiences so far with iOS 14 on my iPhones and iPads. I was also a Public Beta tester from the beginning. It's been a much better experience than iOS 13 which brought a lot of minor bugs and problems for me. The experience has been on par with iOS 12 which was a solid upgrade as well.

Haven't done my Apple Watch and Apple TVs yet. They are next.

My devices:
iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone X
2018 iPad Pro (11" and 12")

mistergsf · September 18, 2020 12:55AM

tylersdad said:

Also, a PSA for those who use the Bedtime feature. It's been moved from the Clock app to the Health app. And the upgrade wipes out your previously setup bedtime schedule. You have to add a new one. I'm really glad I checked before going to bed last night, otherwise I would've missed several meetings.

Yeah, this was something talked about and discussed when iOS 14 Public Beta was made available. See, that's the thing about new releases. Unless you're a beta tester or have been reading everything going on with the new features and changes, you really should wait and not update your devices on day one. I'm the IT guy for my family and friends and I sent out an email blast yesterday telling them not to update their devices unless they checked with me first. Less headaches for me!

tylersdad · September 18, 2020 1:10AM

mistergsf said:

tylersdad said:

Also, a PSA for those who use the Bedtime feature. It's been moved from the Clock app to the Health app. And the upgrade wipes out your previously setup bedtime schedule. You have to add a new one. I'm really glad I checked before going to bed last night, otherwise I would've missed several meetings.

Yeah, this was something talked about and discussed when iOS 14 Public Beta was made available. See, that's the thing about new releases. Unless you're a beta tester or have been reading everything going on with the new features and changes, you really should wait and not update your devices on day one. I'm the IT guy for my family and friends and I sent out an email blast yesterday telling them not to update their devices unless they checked with me first. Less headaches for me!

I’m the IT guy for my family too. That’s why I’m always the first to upgrade. Regardless, the issue I’m having isn’t a defect. It’s been changed by design. There should be some warning to those who use bedtime.

larryjw · September 18, 2020 1:13AM

SpamSandwich said:

larryjw said:

Wow. Now, what good are beta testers if major bugs like this are not detected?

Since beta testing is such a risk, I suspect few average people (who are not developers) and rely on their devices to run reliably would not be willing to beta test.

Average users should not be beta testers. Beta testing is for experts who know how to "black box" test software -- usually focused on a particular areas of their expertise.

mobird · September 18, 2020 1:28AM

How the hell can Beta Testers test new features that were not activated during the beta testing cycles? We've seen Apple turn on features all the time but when were those features beta tested before the actual release?

bobolicious · September 18, 2020 1:28AM

SpamSandwich said:

larryjw said:

Wow. Now, what good are beta testers if major bugs like this are not detected?

Since beta testing is such a risk, I suspect few average people (who are not developers) and rely on their devices to run reliably would not be willing to beta test.

Indeed, I've made separate partitions on macs to try to assist with fixing things like 4K res on older macs in the beta testing, which to the credit of Apple they resolved unexpectedly quickly, with even a 2009 mini able to run 4K30... Unless one has a backup or 'travel' iOS or willing to wipe for testing I would assume it is a pretty narrow spectrum of users... My greater wish is for longer development cycles aka 2~3 years as it was before 2011. I wonder what combining longer cycles with a beta process would produce? Might support demands drop as well ? I moved from being an early to late adopter, only upgrading when absolutely necessary, including hardware as a result...

edited September 2020

Restarting your device resets default mail, browser settings in iOS 14

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