I’m an Apple software QA engineer (yes, we exist) and I’d love to hear about bugs you’ve encountered. I can create bug reports (aka radars) and/or bother the right teams/people to get bugs fixed. To be clear this is not official company business, thoughts/opinions are my own, and I’m doing this in my free time to keep Lemmy awesome and because I love you guys.

Alt/throwaway account for obvious reasons.

Want to try and help as many folks as possible so please feel free to share this thread with any other communities where it is relevant.

In the interest of keeping the scope here narrow, rules for bugs:

  • iOS/iPadOS and macOS issues only. Please ensure that you are running the latest version of iOS/iPadOS (18.3.2) or macOS (15.3.2)
  • Please provide detailed step by step instructions on how to reproduce the issue. If I can’t reproduce it on my test devices, then I can’t report it.
  • Provide as many hardware details as you can (e.g. iPhone/iPad/Mac model, year, device specs)
  • Can’t help with general UI/UX complaints, use the feedback form for that.
  • Can’t help with vague power/performance/battery drain issues unless you can provide exact steps to reproduce.
  • Can’t help with services (e.g. iCloud, App Store, Apple Account).
  • Can’t help with 3rd party software
  • Can’t guarantee that anything I report will be fixed and due to the nature of how we work I won’t be able to share status updates, but I’ll certainly try my best to move things along internally.
  • Please don’t ask me about upcoming hardware/software; whatever it is, I have no idea what you’re talking about and no it doesn’t exist.

Edit 1: thanks for the reports everyone! Some of these require a little more research/testing so while it might take me a little longer to get back to you, that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen your message :)

  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
    5·
    11 hours ago

    The monitor calibration tool on macOS does not support HDR properly, resulting in severe miscalibration.

    Also while writing this post I realized “miscalibration” is not in iOS’s spellcheck dictionary lol.

    Also Apple doesn’t fully support high refresh rate displays. My current display Apple supports as 100Hz when on Linux and Windows I can run it as 120Hz or 144Hz.

    (M2 Mac Mini running 15.3.2)

    External monitor is connected via thunderbolt to DisplayPort cable. It’s connected to my Windows/Linux computer via DisplayPort cable directly to the GPU.

  • tudor@lemmy.world
    3·
    32 minutes ago

    Firstly, I have to thank you for doing this - you’re awesome.

    Given your

    Can’t help with general UI/UX complaints

    I am unsure you can help, but I’ll drop it in here anyway.

    Device: iPhone 14 Pro on iOS 18.4 (released by the time of this comment)

    Issue: When screen recording, the Dynamic Island activity shows up in the recording - this is intended. However, if I do something in an app which full-screens the UI (as in the app hides the status bar - for example, I tapped a photo in the Photos app to hide everything but the photo, zooming in also works I think), the island activity disappears, but the black cutout remains in the video until a few seconds later, when it too abruptly and weirdly disappears with some weird flickers and other visual glitches. I can’t word it properly, so here’s a video (idk how to upload it so here’s the first way I found to do this - lmk of any other way to do this): https://streamable.com/ko8gsy

    My test case: I am playing music, and the dynamic island shows the now playing activity. I start screen recording in order to demonstrate the issue. I then go into an app which has the capability to hide the status bar (clock, wifi/cellular, battery and the dynamic island activities) - in my case, I choose to tap on a photo in the Photos app to hide all but the photo itself. I zoom into the photo before I do that so that the island isn’t on the black part of the UI (issue would be invisible). After tapping and when the status bar disappears, the activity does so too, but the cutout/“pill” remains until a few moments later, when it glitches out when it abruptly disappears too.

    Has been happening since the iOS 18 dev betas in the summer at the least.

    Sorry for the incredibly bad wording. Lmk if you need more info

  • Mbourgon everywhere@lemmy.world
    1·
    10 hours ago

    I already have tickets for this, but I use the phone as a music player, and when using Siri it’s exceptionally bad at handling albums/bands with other languages, as it tries to convert the foreign words to English, then search. Double metaphone exists, y’all. :)

    Could they also add a way to say “play album X”? 50/50 it will play artist X instead of album X. And if I say play album X by artist Y, it’ll either play that artist, that album by that artist, or a different album with the right name.

    Thanks for doing all this!

  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
    21·
    11 hours ago

    Using a song as an alarm sound only works if it’s locally downloaded in Music and there are some codec and bitrate restrictions as well, but this is never explained anywhere. I’ve had to figure it out by trial and error.

    At the very least there should be a warning in the Alarm app when you choose a song as an alarm that isn’t going to work.

  • sturger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    12 hours ago

    Friend running latest M4 Max Studio. Studio display configured as main monitor connected to 1st TB5 port. Secondary Dell 4k monitor connected to HDMI.
    Latest MacOS thinks the HDMI monitor is on, even when it is powered off. This means that a second Firefox window on screen 2 is unreachable without powering on the second monitor. Would be nice to have a feature that would return all open windows to the active screen(s).
    Better yet if there was M-TAB or M-` would show the second window and open it on a screen that is actually on.
    Big hassle for multi-monitor setups. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

  • ChromaticMan@lemmy.world
    11·
    12 hours ago

    Sometimes app icons stay in their dark version even though the UI is in light mode. Was still present in iOs 18.3. just updated to 18.4 so don’t know if it has been fixed yet.

  • rowdyrockets@lemm.ee
    7·
    2 days ago

    I recognize this is a “feature” but I think it should be treated like a bug, or at least let us turn it off!!

    Whatever egghead came up with the “keyboard hot zone” that dynamically (and invisibly) increases the size of the keys based on what it thinks you’ll type deserves to be tarred and feathered. Problem is, it’s always fucking wrong. It happened already typing this text, the above “increases” was first typed as “increased” because it expected “d” and thus made the “d” key zone slightly larger and the “s” zone slightly smaller. I tried typing “NCASE”, like the PC case brand, the other day, and I had to try repeatedly to get the “s” key to pop. I kept hitting the “a” key because it expected “NCAA” and increased that key zone.

    Just the iPhone keyboard overall is bad. Inconsistent layouts based on where you’re typing. No number row. No period/comma (unless you’re typing a website). Just why.

  • LiPoly@lemmynsfw.com
    15·
    2 days ago

    I have this notch in my MacBook Pro display, and system tray icons just disappear behind it once I have too many of them. I need a third party app like Ice or Bartender to fix this bug, and honestly, it’s embarrassing for Apple to not have fixed this in so many years.

  • Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 days ago

    I suspect that this is a feature, or at least a partner-related market decision, rather than a bug, and I suspect the most you’ll be able to say is “the weather is nice today” or “thank you for sharing this”, buuuut…

    DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253432530?sortBy=rank

    With a full implementation of DisplayPort 1.2 MST it should be possible to output to two independent (non-mirrored) monitors over a single USB-C port. This can be via an MST hub/dongle or using monitors that support DisplayPort MST daisy chaining. This is a core part of the spec to the point that my Steam Deck supports this.

    macOS, however, will treat MST displays as targets for mirroring instead of separate displays. The only way to have an elegant “one wire” experience with a MacBook is to use a much more expensive Thunderbolt dock or a dock that uses a DisplayLink chipset which requires a driver to be installed (as DisplayLink are a company unrelated to DisplayPort).

    It’s worth noting that macOS does support MST in the form of two video streams for one very high-resolution monitor, which is kind of interesting.

    I’d love it if we could use MST docks/hubs/splitters with macOS rather than either needing expensive third-party peripherals or plugging multiple wires into our MacBooks. Especially because most office setups I’ve seen recently use MST hubs if they offer dual monitors!

    Thanks for reading this far, and more importantly thank you for soliciting feedback in this forum and manner. Best of luck!

    • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
      1·
      9 hours ago

      Oh this is why my two monitor dongle only works on Linux.

      I thought it was weird that I couldn’t get the second monitor to work without plugging it directly into a Mac, but I put it down to being a cheap dongle.

  • santibb@lemmy.world
    5·
    2 days ago

    MacBook laptop, latest MacOS.

    When I hop on a zoom call, I always get a pop in the toolbar about filters. There’s an x on the dialog bubble but you can’t x out of it.

    When my external monitor shuts off, it cuts my internet connection whether it’s WiFi or plugged in via Ethernet.

    • kumquat_spritz@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      2 days ago

      Could you please clarify what you mean by pop in the toolbar about filters? Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but this doesn’t sound like a first party dialog. Alternatively if you could share a screenshot that would be helpful.

      Which model of external monitor are you using and how is it connected to your Mac?

  • Sev5000@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days ago

    The (picture) convert function in iOS shortcuts ignores HDR. So when I edit my HDR ProRAW photos and then convert them to HEIF to save space after I‘m happy with my edit, the image looks SDR/dull. It’s bad enough the only native way is constructing your own shortcut… How else are you supposed to use ProRAW without absolutely trashing your storage?

    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      11 hours ago

      To add to this, iOS (and macOS) are very sensitive about what a file needs to have to be recognized as HDR. A lot of 3rd party HDR files just won’t render as HDR even though the data is all there.

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
    5·
    2 days ago

    I have a mac m3 I’m forced to use for work. It is managed by my organization (I’m not sure exactly what that entails).

    There is no screensaver that just turns my screen black. I don’t want animation, I don’t want color, I just want the screen to be blank.

    Speaking of, I kept hearing my fan spin up and was wondering why. Flurry screensaver was just taking up like 2.5 CPUs and a couple gigs of ram. No clue why. It was actually supposed to be the photos screensaver, but I’m assuming it was angry that the photos screensaver was pointed at a folder with no photos (nor anything else). This was when the PC was running and in use so the screensaver should not even have been running.

    Sometimes, when logging in, the password will just not work. If I click off my user and click on admin or another, it will then work fine. Multiple occurrences, not sure of cause.

      • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
        3·
        2 days ago

        I actually never use the laptop’s display; it goes to a monitor via HDMI that I switch between sources. It could cut output to the HDMI port and I’d be equally happy

  • 2xsaiko
    2·
    2 days ago

    Oh hey, awesome!

    I’ll just paste here what I’ve already written in Feedback Assistant.

    FB15922287 Messages sometimes only allows you to send SMS despite the recipient supporting RCS
    • Device: any
    • App: Messages
    • Conversation type: 1-on-1, RCS

    Sometimes, Messages only allows you to send SMS despite the recipient supporting RCS. During a conversation, receiving an RCS message even briefly changes the text in the input bar to RCS before switching back to SMS.

    This seems to be caused by failing to deliver an RCS message sometime before, which can always happen (bad connection on either side, recipient is offline, other network error, etc.)

    To reproduce:

    1. Take recipient phone offline
    2. Send an RCS message
    3. Wait for it to fail to be delivered
    4. Take recipient phone online

    Observed result: Messages shows the recipient as supporting SMS only, even when they are actively sending you RCS messages.

    Expected result: RCS is never artificially disallowed by Messages.

    This also happens if you use the “Send as SMS” entry in the context menu on a stuck message.

    Looks like at this point receiving an RCS message fixes this. However one sent RCS message that falls back to SMS will still lock the conversation to SMS until you get a reply.

    FB16920262 Separate window for single conversation does not mark messages as read
    • Device: Mac
    • App: Messages
    • Conversation type: 1-on-1, RCS (probably any)

    When opening a conversation in a new window, this window does not mark the messages as read when active like the main window.

    To reproduce:

    • Open conversation in new window (Control click on conversation, Open in New Window)
    • Receive a message
    • Focus the separate window/scroll to the bottom

    Observed result: The received message is not marked as read

    Expected result: The received message is marked as read like in the main window

    FB17053263 When "Group windows by application" is enabled, selecting a specific window from Mission Control does not actually focus the window
    • Device: Mac
    • App: Mission Control

    In Mission Control, with the “Group windows by application” setting enabled, you can scroll up to unstack the windows of an application to allow you to select a specific one. In this view, clicking one of them focuses the application but not the window, leading to a weird state where the application is focused but none of its windows are, and the menu bar also isn’t interactible until you click on another window.

    Steps to reproduce:

    • Turn on “Group windows by application” in System Settings (Desktop & Dock)
    • Open an application such as TextEdit, open one or multiple windows
    • Open Mission Control
    • Scroll up on the TextEdit group to expand its windows
    • Click one of the TextEdit windows

    Observed result: The application is focused but none of its windows are, nor are they ordered to front. This also looks really glitchy because Mission Control will show the animation that the selected window is expected to be in front but it will then move back behind any other windows that were in front of it after the animation is done

    Expected result: The selected window is focused and ordered to front, like when you don’t scroll up.

    System info:

    • MacBook Air M2, 2022, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage
      • macOS 15.3.2 (24D81)
    • iPhone 13 mini, 128GB storage
      • iOS 18.3.2 (22D82)

    I have a couple more watchOS ones, and a couple wonky ones that I either don’t know how to reliably reproduce, or can’t reproduce anymore right now but also don’t know if they’re fixed yet. But these should be the bugs I can think of right now that I can reliably reproduce that aren’t watchOS. If I find/remember more I’ll post them.

    This also just made me check and close 2 feedbacks that did get fixed in the meantime :^)

  • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca
    5·
    2 days ago

    I have a petty one:

    1. Go to Settings and disable Apple Intelligence
    2. use Siri voice control for a task
    3. the Siri icon thing remains at the bottom of the screen because it’s listening for the next command.
    4. tap elsewhere on the screen

    Expected: Siri goes away

    Encountered: the tap does nothing - Siri will continue listening until you say “thank you” or turn off the screen.

    Workaround: restart the phone and the problem goes away.