iPhone 6s glitch stops apps working when upgrading from older iPhones

Users of the iPhone 5, 5c or 5s that try and upgrade are seeing apps on their new iPhone 6s turn huge, zoomed in and unusable

Andrew Griffin
Monday 05 October 2015 11:23 EDT
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Specific criticism was levelled at the app dock on an iPhone 6s Plus in landscape mode
Specific criticism was levelled at the app dock on an iPhone 6s Plus in landscape mode (Getty Images)

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A huge glitch is affecting owners of the new iPhone 6s, making many apps completely unusable.

Some users who were previously using an iPhone 5, 5c or 5s and upgrade to an iPhone 6s are finding that many of the stock apps appear zoomed-in, cutting off the sides of the screen and making them unable to use them.

The problem seems only to happen when users upgrade from an iPhone that is running iOS 9, and do so from an iCloud backup. It hits apps including Weather, Watch, Calculator, Wallet and Health.

Because the screens still show, it means that it is still possible to use some of the apps. But much of the information is cut off at the sides, meaning that some of the functionality is broken.

Some users running early versions of the next major iOS update, 9.1, have reported that the problem is fixed. That probably indicates that Apple is aware of the issue and could issue a fix in the coming days, as it has done with other problems on the new operating system.

Though iOS 9.1 hasn’t been released to the public yet, it can be downloaded through Apple’s beta programme, which gives the public early access to new software. But since those betas often bring with them their own problems, it’s unlikely that upgrading is worth it.

Apple's iPhone 6s sales start

A temporary fix can be achieved by heading to the iPhone’s Settings app and selecting the Display Zoom feature. That allows the broken apps to appear normally — but also shows all of the rest of the phone as being zoomed in.

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