“Some iPhone users have been left frustrated after an update to the iOS operating system started inexplicably auto-correcting the letter ‘i’ to a capital ‘a’ and a question mark [A?],” BBC News reports. “The affected version of iOS, 11.1, is available on iPhones and iPads.”
“Apple has described a temporary fix for the problem on its website,” The Beeb reports. “The fix involves editing the keyboard settings in iOS so that the right character, either an upper or lower case ‘i,’ is used. Apple has said the issue will be fixed in a future software update.”
The Beeb reports, “Not all iOS 11.1 users have been affected.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our theory as to why we’re not seeing this is because we’ve long-used Text Replacement for other things, so Apple knows we already know how to use it. This “bug” exists to trigger a teachable moment for those who haven’t. In other words: It’s not a bug, it’s a feature! 🙂
1. Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement
2. Tap +
3. For Phrase, type an upper-case “I.” For Shortcut, type a lower-case “i.”Repeat for other phrases and shortcuts that work for you!
They’re “fuming” because they’re lazy? I’ve never even seen an “I” auto-corrected like this because I use the shift key rather than relying on having the phone correct my grammar. These people should just have their phone bricked when they type a lower case “I” instead. Idiots.
Totally agree! I didn’t know what people were talking about, then I figured it out – they are lazy. The shift key isn’t even on a different screen. Doesn’t require any thought for someone who has had about a third grade education. I like MDN’s take on this being a teachable moment. 😉
I see that someone with a less than third grade education has found the one star button to click. Have fun pushing those buttons!
😀
You’re just typing it wrong
The problem isn’t exactly as you describe here, Kate. For users who experiencing this issue (like me), the OS is literally replacing the capital I with “A [?]”, even if you type it in correctly. So, it’s not totally an idiot problem. At least not on the user end, anyway. In addition, if you have the text suggestions feature turned on, when you go to text a phrase that might include the word “I,” the suggestion button for “I” also reads “A [?].” So, again, not an idiot problem. While MDN certainly has provided an excellent solution, it is annoying to affected users that this is even needed, and these situations are becoming more and more par for the course for Apple.
This is a very simple, very minor keyboard bug. No, it should not have happened, but people (and companies) make mistakes. This is not the first one for Apple, even before the Cook era.
The question is why it’s doing this in the first place when it wasn’t so in prior updates. What did Apple change in the keyboard function that caused this weird hiccup? Why would any change have been made in the autocorrect that appeared to be working fine in the first place? Possible side effects of implementing emoji/Animoji? Though I don’t see why that would affect autocorrect.
Has anybody else noticed a bug since the last iOS upgrade that suddenly throws their iPhone and Apple Watch into Airplane Mode for no apparent reason? It’s happening to me several times a day, usually when my phone is in my pocket.
Yes I see that issue happened for me as well on occasion
I just noticed that happening to me today but I’m still on iOS 11.0.3 so it’s not the 11.1 update. Whenever I type a capital ‘I’ in the text box, the suggestion bar shows a capital ‘A’ followed by a ? with a box around it.
Some kind of dictionary update bug?
Something similar happened on my wife’s iPhone 6 (running the latest iOS). But instead of a capital A? it replaced the cap-I with three horizontal bars (as if it were using some weird dingbat font). We cycled the power and the glitch went away, but clearly something odd is going on…
Just updated iPhone 8 plus to 11.1 trying to fix a Spotlight issue suggested by the Apple Store. I frequently type a person’s name into Spotlight to get a dialog to dial, text or email them. Doesn’t work any longer. Have search the web for a fix. AppleCare was clueless. All my other iOS devices work perfectly on iOS 11. Any ideas out there?
My guess is that your iPhone was still reindexing, and hadn’t gotten to your contacts yet, and that it will all be fixed tomorrow. Have a good sleep, and wake up to a fully functioning iPhone. 🙂
Wont ever use Text Replacment again. Looses the shortcuts with every major update.
For the Apple fanboys….Boy A? wish A? had an A?Phone! Lol….another great update from Apple!
Don’t get too excited over a simple, easily fixed keyboard software issue on iOS. Karma has a way of biting smug people like you in the butt (or burning it with a smoking Samsung device).
Oh yeah right you bonehead with no clue. I don’t own a Samsung. Try again please, take your time, no rush.
I’ve been a solid Apple user since 2003, when I switched away from Windows entirely. One thing I used to bother me greatly in Windows discussion fora and news groups was the level of hostility, fighting, name-calling and condescension toward other users, especially if they were less tech savvy. Part of what I noticed in switching to Mac was the almost total absence of this kind of acrimony. It was remarkable! It pains me to look over the last 14 years and see that the Windows attitude that I once so detested has slowly crept over and infected the Mac world too. It is now commonplace to see insults, condescension and put-downs. I don’t know exactly what accounts for this but I wish it would go away. I hope everyone will always think twice before posting.
If you go back to the late 1990s and early to mid-2000s, this forum was focused on Apple products, Apple news, and Apple excitement. We made suggestions to improve products, helped each other with hardware and software purchasing recommendations, offered useful ways to do things with terminal, shortcuts, etc. Even the troll humor was more interesting.
Now this forum is largely filled with politics, name calling, and general nastiness. Perhaps it is time to move on? Many others already have…
So true, so true. The nastiness comes from the top in this forum. The MDN Takes are a strange blend of insightful Apple-centric industry observations and highly partisan, often mildly offensive, libertarian nonsense. But MDN has that complete lack of discussion moderation that separates mediocre discussions from the great ones. All they would have to do is ban the trolls and offensive bigots, but they have chosen not to.
Honestly the article curation continues to be good, but the commentary is consistently, predictably offensive.
Anybody muttering about Apple fanboys or fanbois should be banned. They are trolls, and a waste of grey cells, no matter how many Apple products they claim to have owned.
I have noticed this too. I have a theory. Fifteen years ago the most and best tech jobs involved Windows. Over time, more of them moved over to Mac. Their crappy attitudes came along with them.
Well I get all sorts of crazy “autocorrections” – random capitalisations, words changed, tense changed, names replacing words. Drives me nuts and I’ve come so close to throwing the phone at a wall and smashing it to bits. The only thing which stops me from destroying my iPhone is the fact every other product out there is much worse.
Apple’s attention to detail has really gone down hill since Steve Jobs died.
Time for a autocorrect comparison between smartphones? 😛