Apple Releases iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2; Bringing Many Bug Fixes for VoiceOver and Braille Users

By AppleVis, 5 November, 2020

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Apple has today released iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 to the public. In addition to bringing fixes for a large number of the bugs that iOS 14.0 and iPadOS 14.0 introduced for VoiceOver and braille users, these releases add the previously reported new People Detection feature to the Magnifier app on devices with the LiDAR Scanner.

Bug Fixes

Our testing suggests that the following pre-existing accessibility bugs have been resolved in iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2:

At the time of posting, we are unaware of any new bugs or 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 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2.

General Changes in iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2

iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 introduce a number of new emoji. These include smiling face with tear, ninja, pinched fingers, anatomical heart, black cat, mammoth, polar bear, dodo, fly, bell pepper, tamale, bubble tea, potted plant, piñata, plunger, wand, feather, hut, and more. MacRumors has the full list of new emoji here.

Elsewhere in these releases, there's a new Shazam Music Recognition control for the Control Center and new designs for the Control Center's Now Playing widget and the AirPlay interface.

Release Notes

The release notes for iOS 14.2 are as follows:

iOS 14.2 includes the following improvements for your iPhone:

  • Over 100 new emoji, including animals, food, faces, household objects, musical instruments, gender-inclusive emoji, and more
  • Eight new wallpapers in both light and dark mode versions
  • Magnifier can detect people nearby, and report their distance using the LiDAR sensor included in iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
  • Support for iPhone 12 Leather Sleeve with MagSafe
  • Optimized battery charging for AirPods to slow the rate of battery aging by reducing the time your AirPods spends fully charged
  • Headphone audio level notifications to alert you when audio level could impact your hearing
  • New AirPlay controls to stream entertainment throughout your home
  • Intercom support with HomePod and HomePod mini using iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and CarPlay
  • Ability to connect HomePod to Apple TV 4K for stereo, surround sound, and Dolby Atmos audio
  • Option to provide statistics about Exposure Notifications, without identifying you, to participating Public Health Authorities

This release also fixes the following issues:

  • Apps could be out of order on the Home Screen dock
  • Camera viewfinder may appear black when launched
  • The keyboard on the Lock Screen could miss touches when trying to enter the passcode
  • Reminders could default to times in the past
  • Photos widget may not display content
  • Weather widget could display the high temperature in Celsius when set to Fahrenheit
  • Next-hour precipitation chart description in Weather could incorrectly indicate when precipitation stops
  • Voice Memos recordings are interrupted by incoming calls
  • The screen could be black during Netflix video playback
  • Apple Cash could fail to send or receive money when asked via Siri
  • Apple Watch app may unexpectedly close when opened
  • Workout GPS routes or Health data are prevented from syncing between Apple Watch and iPhone for some users
  • Audio is incorrectly labeled as "Not Playing” in the CarPlay Dashboard
  • Devices could be prevented from charging wirelessly
  • Exposure Notifications is disabled when restoring iPhone from iCloud Backup or transferring data to a new iPhone using iPhone Migration

How to update

iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 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 JC on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Hi,
I'm updating now. sounds like apple has fixed most of the bugs for VoiceOver users, but still, we need to continue to submit bug findings to [email protected]

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Hope bug with screen recognition is fix regarding when photos is open, and you close it, screen recognition is on when using home screen. Have to turn off VO to stop it.

By Lielle ben simon on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Hi, i hope that Braille bugs fixed in this version. I could be aible too use my Braille Display because crashes Voice Over. I usis 2 diferent Braille Displays, one from Baum VarioUltra 40 and the second from Hims, BrailleSense Polaris.

By jay on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Has the bug with the direct touch feature for apps like flick type been addressed? As it stands right now whenever you invoke the flick type keyboard you have to use the rotor to find the direct touch option, then swipe down with one finger to turn it on and you can use flick type, as well as other apps that require the direct touch feature.

By Adrianne on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Can anyone confirm the focus jumping bug is fixed? I know it said it was fixed with IOS 14.1, but then someone commented it was still happening. This is the only thing holding me back from updating!

Don't know about 14.2 yet, but at least for me the focus issue was mostly addressed in 14.1. I frequently encountered the bug in 14.0 but only had to deal with it once or twice under 14.1.

By Blind angel 444 on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

I still don’t know how to get the container to come up, so I can get out of word mode? Also my mailbox won’t tell me how many new emails I have received and I still have that annoying bug where you are scrolling back up the page, I get a toned like I’m at the bottom of the page and it will freeze. Then voice over will stop working that moment.
What do I do to fix these small issues?i

By Jo Billard on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Can anyone tell me where to find this music recognition? I've been through settings, control center and all of the pages on my home screen and it isn't there. Also, the problem with BSI, whereas Voiceover announces space before words is still happening.

You have to go to Settings, then Control Center, then scroll down to “more controls.” There you can add Music Recognition.

By Jo Billard on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

In reply to by twnelson07

Thanks. I don't know how I missed it the first time. I can't wait to try it out. A friend wass singing its praises over Facetime yesterday.

By WellF on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

I've updated yesterday. It seems there are no major bugs. No idea how the lidar recognition thing will behave since I don't have a 12 pro.

HI! I just tested the new Music Recognition feature added to Control Centre in IOS 14.2, and it worked almost immediately on my iPhone SE 2020: it's much quicker than the music recognition with Siri that we had in one of the older IOS versions. I happened to test it with a well-known song, I don't know how well it will do with something more obscure.

Hi Jo, music recognition is when you hear a song playing on another device and or radio etc. and you use the iPhone to listen to it. the iPhone will tell you the artist and song etc. it is not meant to inform you of the song that is already playing on your device. HTH.

By Jo Billard on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

In reply to by Rob

I'm sure looking forward to giving this a try. There's plenty of new music I'm not familiar with and it will be fun to play with this feature.

By mcox on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Hi,
I'm still on 13.5, i'm waiting for a lot of the fairly major bugs to be resolved before updating.
When using the mail box in native mail app displaying all inboxes, if I open an email and then go back to the mail box and then delete it or other mails, voiceover play's the loaded tone and jumps back to the back button of the inbox. If I just delete mails without opening any of them, IE if it's a mail i'm not interested in, focus will go to the next one emediatly.
Is this a recurring issue, or are there any settings that i've missed in voiceover, is this something that is fixed with regards to multiple focus issues in iOS 14.0?
I have a Murcury bluetooth speaker, and it's the only one for which voiceover, under iOS 13 doesn't play through my iPhone.
when I try and change it, voiceover says iPhone, but doesn't actually change. Is this still a problem?
Thanks.
Melissa Cox.

By CuriousNetEntity on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

I'm happy to find that the VoiceOver recognition settings are now respected in iOS 14.2. On A12 and newer devices VoiceOver recognition of images can be completely turned off instead of only being reduced to shorter simpler descriptions. On my iPhone 8 there is now a setting in Voiceover verbosity called "Scene description" that can be used to turn off the short image descriptions that the older devices are capable of. When that setting is off it also causes the camera view finder info to be be restricted to weather or not faces are present. It seems like possible text found in images is still spoken when either scene description on older devices or Voiceover image recognition on newer devices is off. I think that's just fine.

Tip: If you really want to extract every bit of text from a Video it is necessary to use Voiceover screen recognition, which will find more text but will really mess up normal screen structure and navigation while it's on. I discovered that while using Zoom last night.

By Shane on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

Just wondering to know has anyone else had a problem with safari in iOS 14.2. I am a voice-over user and find it impossible to scroll through screens with the one finger swipe left and swipe right gesture in Safari it just keeps kicking me down to the tabs bar. Also it will not let me change the web address as the keyboard will not open

By Brian Giles on Saturday, November 7, 2020 - 05:24

In reply to by CuriousNetEntity

This doesn't work for me. If I turn image recognition off it behaves like it did in iOS13, giving me short vague descriptions that just get in the way. As an example, VoiceOver might say something like "gift card, sign" or "logo other". Yeah... not helpful at all. Am I missing something?

By Pelle on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

Hi,
I have an iPhone 6S, so I don't know if this bug is present in newer models.
Anyway: in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Verbosity > Scene descriptions, there is the general option to enable or disable the scene descriptions of images. This setting alters the behaviour for the entire system, the apps included. But in this menu, there is also a submenu where you should be able to specify the scene description setting for each individual app. However, when you try to change this setting for a specific app, nothing changes.
I reported this to Apple and got this answer:
We were able to replicate the behavior and have passed this information along to the appropriate team for review.

By cool cat on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

You can now do a 2 finger scrub to exit out of braille screen input now. Yep, since 14.2 it is now fixed. I'm happy about that.

By Abdulrahman on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

Hello, I have a problem switching between speech channels and this setting is found within the voiceover setting, then my voice, so we find it there and you must wear headphones in order for the option to appear. Please try and confirm the problem

By Ather on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

Has anyone run into the issue where in a group facetime call, you cannot expand the cart controller while voiceover is active? It was working just fine before iOS 14.2, but is not working at all now, making it almost impossible for me to mute myself, or turn off my camera without hanging up and rejoining the call muted, and then rejoining the call unmuted if I want to say something. I'm using an iPhone 10R

By Samuel J on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

What I am not understanding and am finding quite frustrating is, why do I keep hearing random image descriptions all over the place when I have those settings disabled? Under Accessibility>Voiceover>Voiceover Recognition, I have both Image Descriptions and Screen Recognition turned off. I only have Text Recognition on. So why does Voiceover keep giving me random image descriptions in various apps and Safari? What am I missing?
I would really appreciate some help.
P.S. I don't have an older device, so I don't have the "Scene Descriptions" option under the Verbosity settings menu like someone suggested above. I have the Voiceover Recognition option under Voiceover.

By martell on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

I have been experiencing a bug with iOS 14.2. When using FaceTime, you are unable to expand the card controller with voiceover. This is annoying because in a video call, I am unable to turn off my camera or ring users who are a part of that group call. I am also unable to add a person to a call since I am not able to expand the card controller.

By Ornella on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

I have an IPhone SE. Not the SE2020 and the only thing I can't really do is with balut, I can't navigate by headings or containers. Now I have to go through all the spots to see which ones I need to score in. I can't turn screen recognition off because its not there anywhere in settings. When I roll the dice for any other diceworld game it keeps reading out the description of the dice and say logo other. I red a comment above and turned off the scene description and it did help but the viewing of the balut sheet I can't do. Other than that I'm not having any issues. Sometimes when I'm recording a message in whatsapp my voiceover would stop speaking and sometimes when I try to answer a call.

By Pelle on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

I think it's illogical that the short image descriptions can be disabled on the old devices, but not on the newer ones. So I believe that the forced short descriptions should be reported to Apple as a bug. I have an iPhone 6S, so I can't test this at first hand.

By Jose on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

I saw a comment that says that update 14.2 fixes many of the voiceover bugs. Not for me. I greatly appreciate the accessibility on iPhones. However, I upgraded from an iPhone 6 with ios 12.4 to and iPhone 11 with ios 14.2, and was all excited about how much faster and better it would be. Simply, it is not. My iPhone 6 worked faster an better. Major voiceover problems on iPhone 11 14.2 I didn't have on iPhone 6 12.4: 1, voiceover is unbelievably unresponsive. Some times, I cannot check who is calling me because the screen just stays silent. 2, My clock app does not show me the info on the screen. I confirmed with a sighted person that the info is there, but I cannot read it or use it. I cannot set alarms or stop watch; voiceover does not read any tabs at the bottom or fields on the screen. They are there, but voiceover is quiet. It got fixed for about a day or two, and then went back to bad and remains blank. 3, in the WhatsApp app, for every message, it reads me an image that I don't even believe is there. I have tried turning images and screen recognition on and off. It got a little better by doing that, but when I just updated WhatsApp, it went back. This means that I cannot hear the beginning of messages because the image description takes over. There is more, but this message is getting too long. To summarize, you know it's bad when I wish I still had the iPhone 6 V12.4. Really, this killed the excitment of owning and iPhone 11. I really hope the next ios update fixes this thing and at least get me back to the experience of the iPhone 6.

I find that when deleting a message, whether read or not, focus is not always on the item following it. It seems that you can always find the right item by exploring the screen, but of course knowing the right item after deleting a message is difficult! This also seems to happen when returning from a message. I also find that when dictating, spaces between words are often omitted. Using iOS 14.2 on iPhone SE original.

By Gary c on Monday, December 7, 2020 - 05:24

Over the past month since I installed 14.2, I’ve been investigating weather labels and captions applied to photos remain with them when they are sent. What follows are my notes that I have prettied up a bit (in most cases).
After I upgraded from iOS 13.7 to14.2, photos that were previously labeled have captions containing the text of the label.
On the library screen, when you move to a photo, The rotor is set to “more content“. One finger swipes down read date, time, and orientation. If the picture has a caption, the caption is also included. (There are other items.) The rotor stays on the item selected, but voiceover does not speak this value when you move to the item, it always speaks the date. The only way I have found to speak the caption is to flick up and then down.
When focus moves to an item voiceover speaks photo type, label, date, "beep”, Image description. By default, label is empty. The label is that added by two finger double tap and hold.
If you add a label here, it does not appear when the picture is opened.
If you open the picture and label it, the label does seem to appear on the library screen for photos, but not for videos.
However, neither of these labels is propagated to the caption. To add a caption, when the photo is open, and the photo is focused ,swipe down to “show details”, double tap, then look for a field called “add caption”. For a live photo, flick left until you find it. For a regular photo it’s to the right.

I transferred a photo with a caption and a label via iMessage to an iPhone 6s Plus running iOS 14.2 and the label survived.

When inserting a photo in Mail, the labels appear in the list of photos. They are not read when you move to the image attachment in the email, at least not while editing. Not in sent folder either. I double tapped on an attachment, share, save image. I think I did this twice for the same image.
After I thought I saved it, the image was not the last one in the library. It may have been saved sorted into the time sequence of photos, but I’m not sure. In photos I had at least one more photo. In photos following the original photo, there were two photos with no caption or label, with the same date and time as the original. I do not know if they were there before I saved the image.
Photo not labeled and not captioned when added to new iMessage via Photos app.
Steps to reproduce:
Compose a new iMessage.
Make apps visible.
Choose photos.
Select a photo with a label and caption.
Add to message.
After I thought I added the messages, there were a couple of non-speaking items that appeared to be part of the message, Along with remove photo buttons. When I sent the message, no additional “messages“ appeared beside the message when it was sent, and I have not had a chance to talk to the person who received the message to find out if the pictures were there. I redid the message, I can’t remember if with the Photos app from the message or if I generated the message by sharing from photos, but they appear, and are labeled. Today I send a text message with one photo added via the Photos app from the message composition screen. There was an item which did not speak except that voiceover described the Photo, Although the description was not as clear.(In photos the description was “adult cat“, wow on the message screen before being sent it was described as “mammal “.) after the message was sent, the photo was shown with its label. So if you add several photos to a message, and then decide you want to remove one, you can’t tell which one to remove.
I can sort of use the new photo library, but I can’t say I completely understand it. A good in-depth explanation of it would be very useful.
Hope this is helpful to some of you.