Two weeks on from the release of iOS 17.1 – which brought changes to AirDrop, Music, Wallet, and StandBy – Apple has dropped a much smaller update in iOS 17.1.1 to address some very peculiar bugs.
The most notable fix is for iPhone 15 users who have been unable to use Apple Pay after wireless charging in their car. While Apple doesn’t go into detail, claiming only a small number of users are affected, it seems the built-in chargers in certain cars can somehow disable the NFC chip in the latest iPhone range. That means no Apple Pay, no HomePod handoff, and no clever NFC sticker fun. Most of the reports we’ve seen are related to BMW vehicles, but there’s no telling which other models might be affected. Luckily this update puts things back on the right track.
Secondly, there’s a fix for the Weather app, which has been incorrectly displaying snowy conditions on its Lock Screen widget. Again, that’s a pretty niche issue, but it’s nice to see these things being corrected swiftly by Apple.
Update ASAP if you’ve been affected by either of these issues. For everyone else, we’d still recommend updating, but there’s probably no rush to get it done.
Note that even with Automatic Updates switched on in Settings, it’s often faster to manually trigger the update process. Go to Settings > General > Software Update to check for the latest version of iOS.