Yet Another Story of an iOS Update Silently Changing Settings

[judithbattershill]

I had not had problems with the last update, but I did check this setting on my phone after reading this article and it had not been altered. However, this type of article is one of the main reasons I’ve read Tidbits faithfully for 20+ years. Thanks Adam.

[lowengard (Benjamin Lowengard)]

I’m wondering if this is an example of “it’s not a bug it’s a feature” - Apple is prettry aggressive in security first, User second. And like the old “check your DNS” days of network issues - check your Private Relay. I find it has issues with Public-Wifi and when that is intermingled with dodgy cell connectivity. -which ,in that case, I turn off wifi - this happens at medical care facilities a lot, in my experience.

[john23 (John)]

Apple changing settings spontaneously has been a thing for at least 20 years, particularly during software updates (both ios and macos). Bluetooth would routinely be turned on during the update process on the mac, only stopping maybe 4 or 5 years ago?

I have turned game centre off at least 20 times on iphones in 12 years, without ever once turning it on.

All of this is why I don’t store my health data (blood type etc) in my phone… it would be a shame to die because my blood type got changed and a hospital emergency transfused the wrong type.

[TBTdn (David)]

@john23

only stopping maybe 4 or 5 years ago?

Still does, alas.

[Valis]

One setting which has always changed with iOS updates, and which repeated Feedback to Apple has not fixed, is in Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options. I always keep my connection downshifted to LTE (which yields better connectivity given the weak 5G on my network) but every time I update my iPhone Apple changes Voice & Data back to 5G.

[jrg]

The status of iCloud Private Relay can also be influenced by individual WiFi network preferences.

But I’ve not experimented to see how the “master” setting in the iCloud settings panel interacts with those of the individual networks.

Does it actually just change the setting of the current network? Can one have it default enabled, and disable specific networks? Can it be default disabled and enabled on specific ones? Is there a hidden “null”/no setting, that is replaced with an explicit setting if the toggle is operated?

Plus, of course, sometimes it will disable itself if it detects a problem in its actual operation; and it can also be disabled if certain DNS lookups fail (A Pi-Hole’s default block list will disable it: ironic, for a tool people use “for privacy”).

[ace (Adam Engst)]

@josehill

I guess one of the challenges with Apple plist files is that they can be XML, JSON, or binary formatted (not to mention legacy NeXTSTEP formatted), so reporting plist changes can get pretty complicated.

Claude has taken this completely in stride, even venturing into SQLite databases as necessary.

@willysejr

So this issue is perhaps not entirely general

No, it definitely isn’t. That’s part of what’s frustrating about these settings flip-flops—they hit seemingly randomly, so individuals never know what happened.

@willysejr

In Denmark we do not have gremlins - Instead we have “Nisser” and they are generally helpful little creatures - if sometimes sometime prickly if you forget to honour their attribution

They sound far more pleasant than our gremlins. Or goblins!

[willysejr (Willy Sejr Dierks)]

But here’s the thing—Ann never enabled iCloud Private Relay, which was why she didn’t think of it as a possibility. During the iOS 26.4.1 update, some gremlin must have toggled iCloud Private Relay on. (It was so tempting to write “goblin” there—see “ChatGPT’s Goblin Obsession Evades OpenAI’s Fixes,” 5 May 2026.)

Just updated both my iPhones to iOS 26.5 with no iCloud Private Relay problems. So the Gremlins or Goblins have not bothered me yet. Our Scandinavian Nisser may be protecting me?

But for those having the issue it surely must be frustrating.

Just remember Apple - as must as we would like it - is not always faultless. Nor is other OS suppliers. But looking at the bottom line Apple is not too bad thanks to some very active user communities (like TidBits )

[Scott5 (Scott)]

@ace

With a variety of Apple devices at my fingertips, I visited MYIP.MS from different browsers, and she was correct—on my iPhone, Safari didn’t show an IPv4 address or hostname (left), but Arc Search and other browsers did (right). However, I saw the same behavior on my iPad, though not on my Macs. What could be going on?

With iCloud Private Relay active on my Mac running Sequoia 15.7.4, I received quite different results when checking my IP address via two sources during the same session.

1. a visit to https://myip.ms produces an IPv6 address, nothing for IPv4. The geolocation shows a pin in the middle of a reservoir near Wichita, Kansas (1,400 miles from actual location). Cloudflare is indicated as the ISP, but all their contact info are in Germany due to RIPE being the referral source.
2. a visit to BrowserLeaks.com produces an IPv4 address, nothing for IPv6. The location is Santa Ana, California (within the region I was actually browsing from) Once again the ISP is shown as Cloudflare and due to ASIN being the referral source their addresses etc. are in San Francisco, CA. The report also indicates the “Organization” as iCloud Private Relay.

I’m posting this to add data points and demonstrate the variability of how our devices are perceived by servers at large. Also to share the BrowserLeaks site, which offers a bunch of useful browser security testing tools all free of charge, adverts, trackers, or up-selling.

[rnb_2]

This isn’t exactly the same thing - there wasn’t a changed setting - but I installed iOS 26.5.1 last night, and discovered on signing back in after the update that all of my pinned Messages conversations were unpinned, and one that I didn’t pin was now the only pinned conversation. Fun!