Advanced Data Protection is a feature introduced in iOS 16.2 that significantly improves the privacy and security of Apple’s cloud services by introducing end-to-end encryption for nearly all iCloud features. iOS 17.6 appears to have a serious bug, as Apple has just released the iOS 17.6.1 update that specifically addresses the issue.
The release notes briefly describe it as follows:
This update includes important bug fixes and addresses an issue that prevents you from enabling or disabling Advanced Data Protection.
There’s no explanation as to how the other bugs will be fixed, but if Apple cited the Advanced Data Protection issue, that would likely be the most significant one.
Apple’s security updates page states that “This update has no published CVEs.” This does not mean that there are no security patches in the update; it only means that any fixes that exist are for issues that have not been published to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database.
If you are using iOS 17.6, you should update to this version immediately.
