Apple Releases iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6; Bringing Podcast Subscriptions, Support for Upcoming New Features in Apple Music, and More

By AppleVis, 24 May, 2021

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6. These appear to be relatively minor updates for single dot releases, focusing on the groundwork for the upcoming addition of Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio to Apple Music, adding paid podcast subscription support for channels and individual shows, and some other mostly under-the-hood enhancements.

For VoiceOver users, we believe that when rearranging widgets on the Today screen the ā€˜drop beforeā€™ action from the VoiceOver rotor now consistently behaves as expected.

There is also one minor enhancement for iPhone 12 users. When placing your phone in to one of Apple's MagSafe cases, you should find that VoiceOver will now automatically announce something in the form of ā€œorange MagSafe case detected.ā€

This will be a welcome enhancement for those who have multiple cases that they switch between, but our limited testing suggests that it may not be totally reliable. The ā€œorangeā€ case detected is actually the ā€œKumquatā€ case, whilst another announced as ā€œlight greyish orangeā€ is in fact simply ā€œwhite.ā€

At the time of posting, we are unaware of any regressions for blind and low vision users in these releases.

As we always stress, we can make no claims on the completeness or accuracy of our testing. We are only a small team, and it is simply impossible for us to test all devices, configurations, applications, and use cases. Accordingly, to help us ensure that the information on this page is as complete and accurate as possible, please let us know in the comments of any fixes; enhancements; or regressions that you find in your own use of iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6.

iOS 14.6 Release Notes

Apple Card Family

  • Apple Card can be shared with up to five people, including anyone 13 years or older in your Family Sharing group
  • Apple Card Family adds support for families to track expenses, manage spending with optional limits and controls, and build credit together

Podcasts

  • Subscription support for channels and individual shows

AirTag and Find My

  • Lost mode option to add an email address instead of a phone number for AirTag and Find My network accessories
  • AirTag will show the partially masked phone number of the owner when tapped with an NFC-capable device

Accessibility

  • Voice Control users can unlock their iPhone for the first time after a restart using only their voice

This release also fixes the following issues:

  • Unlock with Apple Watch may not work after using Lock iPhone on Apple Watch
  • Reminders may appear as blank lines
  • Call blocking extensions may not appear in Settings
  • Bluetooth devices could sometimes disconnect or send audio to a different device during an active call
  • iPhone may experience reduced performance during startup

How to update

iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6 are available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings > General > Software Update) via Finder on a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, or via iTunes on a PC or Mac with macOS Mojave or earlier.

Before updating, we strongly recommend making a full and complete backup of your device (either locally or in iCloud, depending on personal preference). This will ensure that, in the unlikely event that something goes wrong during the update process, you will have a current backup on hand in case a device restore becomes necessary. Also, if using OTA update, we recommend plugging your device into a power source for the duration of the download/installation process, so as to prevent the unlikely event of your battery going dead during the update.

More information on how to update the software on your device is available on this Apple Support page.

As always, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on these updates. Do you like the new features and changes? Let us know by adding a comment below.

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Comments

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

Got iOS 14.6 and getting watchOS 7.5. FYI. There might be a bug with messages not showing in notification.

By glassheart on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

Is there a dedicated thread up here like this one, only for Big Sur 11.4?

By Ekaj on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

I just updated my phone last night, and so far so good. I'm going to update my Mac probably tonight. Haven't noticed a bug yet with the messages app but I'm sure I'll have more time to play around with these updates.

By Dawn šŸ‘©šŸ»ā€šŸ¦Æ on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

In reply to by Holger Fiallo

I have seen this. And I am on fort teen .5.2 or whatever the prayer release was. I seen this with my Mail app. How I was able to fix it, was I went into the notification settings, and I went to the Mail app and double tapped it. And then I scrolled through the options. And I selected show a notification center.I donā€™t use the Messages app. So I donā€™t know if that will fix it, and I canā€™t really test it. But I hope that this helps you. :-)

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

Well the bug with voiceover not working after ending a call is back. When I finished a call, voiceover stop working and I have to turn off and on to make it work. This is why I prefer apple to focus on addressing bugs than ading new features.

By Amir on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

In reply to by Holger Fiallo

No VoiceOver issues after calls at all.

By Holger Fiallo on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

In reply to by Amir

May I have your iPhone if is 12 pro or 12 pro max? My is 12 pro. Is faster and the battery is lasting long with 14.6. The bug is 70% there.

By Igna Triay on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

In reply to by Holger Fiallo

I did have a pretty bad bug, my braille screen input got all messed up, but a reseting of all settings fixed it, maybee try that? Haven't noticed this bug either, myself.

By Amir on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

In reply to by Holger Fiallo

It's the larger of the two.

By Gary c on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

In contacts when I enter an address voiceover will navigate the street and the second Street field. For a new contact it will navigate to city but not zip or country. Instead, it moves to the add address button. Occasionally when I swipe through from right to left I get the country field but not the city or zip. I never get The zip field when editing, even if one exists. (The existing ZIP Code and country fields are displayed when not editing.) This is the first time Iā€™ve added an address in a long time, so it may have been there 14.6. I canā€™t even find the fields by exploring. I called Apple accessibility, and he was able to reproduce it. He said no one has ever reported this, and was surprised that he hadnā€™t seen it before. He said that the fields appear on the screen but voiceover just doesnā€™t read them. I was using the Contacts tab in Phone, but he was using the Contacts app.
iPhone SE first GEN.

By ming on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

right now when yu open the apple music and play your favourite music in there.
and then kill the music on the apps switchers!
then double tap screen with 2 fingers.
the music will continue playing...

it is a good bug fixed .

By Siobhan on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

That damn gesture has gotten so many things to not work over the years. It may hang up the phone call, it might play music or a book, it might do it when you don't want it to do anything. If only they had something to reliably work. I'd love the ending of a call of the power button again. Sigh.

Yes, return seems to work. Apple support called me back with this suggestion as well. In my example I hit return in the second Street field, the last field I could navigate to, and after that all of the other fields of the address were accessible.
Thanks.

By PaulMartz on Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 15:45

I'm seeing this issue as well on my iPhone SE 2020. It happens when I use the phone in handset mode. After the call, VoiceOver is still active, because I hear all the normal sound effects and (using my crappy remaining vision) I can still double tap a control to activate it, for example. However, there is no speech. I must turn VoiceOver off, then back on, to workaround the issue.

By Gary c on Saturday, July 10, 2021 - 15:45

I am finding that in many places, one being the multi line text field in the App Store for writing a review, dictation terminates within a few seconds, often with a low pitched beep. Sometimes some text is inserted, but often nothing is inserted. This happens both with the magic tab and dictate to the left of the Space bar.

Have you tried pressing the side button to lock your phone? I haven't experienced this problem much, but I think it might have happened to me once or twice on my iPhone 8. I just pressed the side button to lock the phone, then when I woke it up, Voiceover was back.