Apple Intelligence might be the feature I want most out of iOS 18, but it’ll be a while until it’s here. However, I installed iOS 18 beta 1 as soon as it came out because the iPhone’s upcoming operating system has several exciting features I wanted to use immediately. They have nothing to do with AI, making iOS 18 an interesting update, even if your iPhone won’t handle Apple Intelligence.
iOS 18 beta 1 looked and felt much more polished than I had expected for the first beta release. I expected bugs and battery life issues but hardly encountered any real problems. The battery life might have taken a hit, but it wasn’t massive.
More than a month later, after beta 1, Apple released the iOS 18 public beta, which should be even more stable than the earlier releases. Meanwhile, I’m on iOS 18 beta 4 and experiencing a few infuriating issues that are driving me insane. They’re all the more surprising, considering that beta 4 should be even more stable and polished than the first beta release.
iPhone auto-brightness bug
The auto-brightness bug in iOS 18 beta 4 has to be the most annoying bug in the history of betas. With the exception of iOS 17, I’ve tried and experienced most of these beta bugs since Apple started the beta program.
After iOS 18 beta 4, auto-brightness on the iPhone would not work as intended. Turn on the screen, and auto-brightness should do its job. It should adjust the display brightness to match the environment. That didn’t happen on my iPhone 14 Pro. It didn’t happen immediately, that is. But it didn’t happen later, either.
I routinely found myself adjusting the brightness manually to the point where I went ahead and fixed it by disabling it. There is another fix for this iOS 18 beta 4 bug that seems to work, but it involves enabling always-on display. I haven’t used this feature since Apple introduced it, and I’m not about to.
Interestingly, the iPhone’s battery menu now tells me to enable auto-brightness to improve battery life. That’s a great feature to have in the battery settings. Unfortunately, I won’t reenable anything until I know it works.
Music playback stops on screen activation
This one is equally annoying. It might be even worse, come to think of it. I routinely play music or podcasts while running and walking. I’m on a constant marathon training program, so I use entertainment to keep my mind occupied while my feet do the job.
In iOS 18 beta 4, music playback stops every time the screen lights up. If a notification comes in, music playback also stops. I’d have to manually restart it, which I do with the AirPods.
I haven’t experienced the bug right away, as I was testing the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro paired with the Galaxy Z Flip 6. But it’s there, at least for this iOS 18 beta 4 user.
The fix is disabling Vocal Shortcuts from the Accessibility menu in the Settings app (seen above). To understand why, you must understand the following iOS 18 beta 4 bugs.
Vocal Shortcuts accessing my microphone continuously
This bug was first introduced in iOS 18 beta 3, and I quickly fixed it by restarting the iPhone. However, it’s still present in iOS 18 beta 4, and the restart didn’t make it go away. Something called “AccessibilityUIServer” is always accessing the microphone.
The orange dot that appears at the top of the screen to signal that your microphone is in use in some app has not disappeared since I upgraded to iOS 18 beta 4.
A quick trip to the Accessibility menu confirmed my suspicion. Vocal Shortcuts is to blame. Turn the Vocal Shortcuts off, and the microphone indicator disappears. I suspected Vocal Shortcuts might be an issue because that’s the Accessibility setting I last played with.
Sound issues in social apps
There’s another annoying sound bug in iOS 18 beta 4, which I first saw in beta 3. I think it’s connected to the previous issue, that’s why I’m presenting them in this order. When the “AccessibilityUIServer” microphone bug first appeared, I found that the volume bar in Control Center was grayed out if you will. That is, I could not change the volume in any app. And the volume was minimal no matter where I played content.
The fix in beta 3 was a restart. Strangely, I found that setting an alarm would also reset the volume control, and it would work. I could also use AirPods to get the sound to regular levels.
Fast-forward to beta 4, and the bug is back, but it doesn’t impact sound across iPhone apps. Instead, I have no sound whatsoever in apps like Instagram. The fix is simpler. I have to connect AirPods or just play Apple Music if I sound to unblock the volume bar.
However, I had to perform this trick every time to get the sound back. Otherwise, the volume bar goes back to being “grayed out,” as seen above. There’s no permanent fix for this one.
The more permanent fix seems to be Vocal Shorcuts again. Turn it off, and it you’ll get your volume bar back.
Will iOS 18 beta 5 fix these issues?
The point of running beta software is to help the company developing it iron out the bugs. I’m aware of that, and I had no intention of fixing these issues myself initially.
I hope Apple dealt with the bugs by iOS 18 beta 5. But there’s no guarantee it’ll happen. What is guaranteed is that Apple will fix them by mid-September when the first final release of iOS 18 launches.
That said, it’s annoying to see a few big bugs make it into iOS 18 beta 4, when beta 1 was so amazing. I’m referring to the auto-brightness and the music playback issues.
