Apple Releases iOS 16.7.1 for Older iPhones and iPads

Tuesday October 10, 2023 10:17 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today released iOS 16.7.1 and iPadOS 16.7.1, new software updates that can be downloaded on iPhones and iPads that are not able to run iOS 17, or those that have not yet been updated to the new operating system. iOS 16.7.1 comes a few weeks after Apple released iOS 16.7.

iOS 16
The software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.

With iOS 17 now out, iOS 16 updates are limited to security improvements and performance optimizations. New features will be added to iOS 17 rather than iOS 16.

The iOS 16.7.1 update likely addresses the same kernel vulnerability that Apple fixed in iOS 17.0.3 last week. The issue was exploited on versions of iOS before 16.6, according to Apple.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Top Rated Comments

Lounge vibes 05

37 months ago

This is good, but the fact that there’s still no iOS 15 security update is inexcusable.
macOS Monterey is from the same year and it’s still getting security updates

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TigerNike23

37 months ago

This is good, but the fact that there’s still no iOS 15 security update is inexcusable.
macOS Monterey is from the same year and it’s still getting security updates

Yeah I’m pretty ticked off at Apple over stuff like this. They supported iOS 12 for years. My grandmother has a 6S, and it’s not cool to know there’s exploits that are unpatched. (And no, she won’t pay $400 for a new phone.)

So, when I hear the usual refrain “if Apple drops support, they’ll still get security updates for a few years”, I get a little hostile.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Westside guy

37 months ago

The cynic might dream up the crazy idea that  themselves creates these vulnerabilities in order to ‘fix’ them later to march forward the iOS update train

Having been a user of Apple's various OS offerings for many years, believing their current OS development staff to be even remotely capable of this would strain credulity to the breaking point.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

CarAnalogy

37 months ago

The cynic might dream up the crazy idea that  themselves creates these vulnerabilities in order to ‘fix’ them later to march forward the iOS update train

It’s been dreamed up many times. It’s been disproven by countless examples of the fact that humans don’t need help to write buggy code. It’s considered to be essentially impossible to make any complex software entirely bug free.

There are instances of obvious intentional backdoors, and a few cases of grey areas where a bug has seemed awfully convenient, but it’s not a safe default assumption.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)