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iOS 17.4.1: Surprise iPhone Update Is Suddenly Here With Urgent Fixes

David Phelan, Senior Contributor for Forbes

Mar 21, 2024,03:00pm EDT

The new iPhone update is here and has been highly anticipated (many pundits predicted it would have landed on Tuesday, March 19, for a start, but it has finally made it). It follows the last release, iOS 17.4, which was a huge update, by the way. Here’s everything you need to know.

Which iPhones Can Run iOS 17.4.1?

If you have an iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max or iPhone XR from 2018, or any iPhone released since, then this update is for you. That means all the phones in the iPhone 11 series, iPhone 12 series, iPhone 13 series, iPhone 14 series and iPhone 15 series. This also includes iPhone SE second- and third-generation models.

How To Get It

I’m sure you know the details off by heart now, but just in case: go to the Settings app, choose General, then Software Update. Here you can choose to download the new software now, that’ll usually mean it’s on your iPhone sooner than if you have Automatic Updates selected. Pick Download and Install, and your iPhone will be up and running soon. This is a smallish download, clocking in at 406.5MB on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.

What’s In The Release

The swiftness with which this update was released tells you it’s focused on an urgent fix. Apple doesn’t give away too many clues about exactly which security problems it’s fixing, so there are scant details here. The only indication Apple has given is this: “This update provides important bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all users.”

This is standard rubric from Apple and merely tells us that Apple wants us to upgrade right away, that the changes here are urgent.

In its turn, this is common Apple behavior: it likes as many iPhone users as possible can install the protection before bad actors can find out what’s going on.

There had been rumors that the update would focus on fixing a perceived battery life bug introduced with iOS 17.4, though the numbers of people complaining about this were pretty low, and it would probably have been listed if that was the purpose. But there are certainly security issues and bug fixes, as the notes say.