Apple's big iOS 18 update just launched this week, and unfortunately, people are discovering bugs in operating system upgrade.
One, spotted by 9to5Mac, involves the Messages app repeatedly crashing because of Apple Watch Faces, and fixing it might require you to lose data.
That said, the bug is easily avoidable.
What causes the iOS 18 bug?
The bug was found by a 9to5Mac reader and sent to them. They were able to reproduce it.
Basically, the bug involves threaded messages. If someone in the thread shares a watch face from an Apple Watch it will lock up the Messages app.
There is a feature in Apple Watches where you can share your watch face via Messages or iMail directly from the smartwatch. If it weren't for the bug it'd be a fun way to your share the new Photos watch face introduced in watchOS 11.
As of this writing, the bug is triggered if someone shares a watch face in a thread on Messages and then another person replies to that thread. If you're unaware, threaded responses allow you to respond to a specific message in a conversation without interrupting the flow of messages, especially if the conversation has moved on.
If this specific situation occurs, it will cause the Messages app to repeatedly crash if you try to open the affected conversation. Apparently, you can attempt to open other conversations but the entire app may be affected and may crash.
It appears this bug is not one sided either as it seems to affect both people. 9to5Mac claims that if someone responds in a thread with the watch face in iOS 18.1 beta, iPadOS 18.1 beta and the macOS 15.1 beta will also induce the crash.
How to fix it?
The fix appears to require both users to delete the conversation thread from their respective devices. However, the app repeatedly crashing can make this difficult.
It should be noted that this solution results in the entire conversation history getting deleted. 9to5Mac says this will also delete attachments like photos and videos that you haven't saved outside of Messages.
If you attempt to restore the deleted thread from the recently deleted section in Messages will also restore the bug. It may be possible to restore data from a backup, but if Messages iCloud is on that may make the solution ineffective.
Apple will need to patch this bug out of iOS 18. Tom's Guide has reached out to Apple for any potential solutions or when we can expect a potential patch to fix the issue. We will update when they respond.
In the meantime, don't share Apple Watch faces in a thread and definitely do not reply to that share. And tell your friends not to share Watch faces or reply to them.
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