iOS 11.3 Update Ruins 3D Touch on iPhones

It's no secret that iOS 11 is one buggy piece of software. Remarkably, even after three major updates, we're still seeing issues with our iPhones. This time, the glitches have come for 3D Touch on iPhones running the new iOS 11.3 update.

The issue occurs when locking an iPhone from the home screen. When unlocking the iPhone with Touch ID or Face ID, 3D Touch is disabled momentarily. If you try to use the feature on an app icon immediately after unlocking your iPhone, your device will simply prompt you to edit the home screen. If you move the screen or wait a couple seconds (or exit edit mode if you unintentionally opened that), 3D Touch usually starts working.

The issue also appears with notifications on the lock screen. If attempting to preview with 3D Touch, iOS 11.3 will simply open and launch the notification. However, unlike the home screen, the lock screen issue varies from device to device. Our iPhone X would sometimes allow you to use 3D Touch on notifications after waiting some time, but an iPhone 8 Plus wouldn't work at all. Our other iPhone 8 Plus, as well as our iPhone 7 Plus, had no lock screen problems whatsoever.

While the lock screen bugs appear intermittent, we can confirm the home screen 3D Touch issue exists on iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone 7 Plus models running 11.3. However, we expect all iPhones running this version of iOS will experience them as well. Disabling 3D Touch, force-starting the device, then re-enabling the feature does not fix anything.

While not the worst iOS bug we've seen this time around, we're hoping Apple issues a quick 11.3.2 fix for this glitch (iOS 11.3.1 did not fix this issue). Considering 11.3 went through six beta versions over two months, one would expect Apple to catch these bugs with some speed. However, even though the first and second iOS 11.4 beta did not fix these issues either, iOS 11.4 beta 3 finally did, indicating the fix will likely come to everyone with iOS 11.4 and not 11.3.2. If you can't wait any longer, you can join the public beta and update to iOS 11.4 beta 3.