Apple rolls out iOS update to fix the annoying iOS 11.1 ‘I’ bug

Alex Lee November 7, 2017

Update 10.11.2017: Apple has pushed out an iOS update to fix the annoying bug that caused the letter ‘I’ to be replaced by an A or symbol.

Apple rolls out iOS update to fix the annoying iOS 11.1 ‘I’ bug

The issue seemed to appear when people upgraded to iOS 11.1, which included a new wave of emoji.

To update to the latest iOS and fix the issue, go to Settings | General | Software Update. This will make your phone search for the latest software and, if applicable, you will be prompted to download.

Original story continues below

While it might be somewhat funny the first time it happens, it gets annoying very, very quickly. The iOS 11.1 bug, thought to be linked to emoji, turns the letter ‘I’ into a Unicode symbol. autocorrect-bug

The bug still hasn’t been fixed and we don’t know how long Apple is going to take to patch it. As we wait, Apple has forced us to take matters into our own hands. There’s a very simple workaround using the text replacement feature. That’s a part of iOS you may not be familiar with, which allows you to replace shorter words for frequently used phrases – for example, you may set “omw” to automatically change to “on my way” saving you time, if it’s something you say often.

Here’s how to use that technique to squash the “l” bug:

Open Settings.
Navigate to General | Keyboard | Text Replacement
Tap the Add button in the toolbar at the top.
Enter the uppercase ‘I’ in the Phrase field.
Enter the lowercase ‘i’ in the Shortcut field.
Save the text replacement.

What this should do is prioritise your manually entered text replacement over Apple’s gibberish autocorrected one. If this still doesn’t work, you could try disabling the Emoji keyboard entirely as the new Emoji may be to blame.