Apple announced new “Rapid Security Response” updates for iPhones, iPads, and Macs last year at WWDC, and today, the first publicly released patch is starting to roll out to the system. After initially kicking in when the new update claimed all iPhones were “offline”, the new patch has now installed on our devices without a problem.
The Rapid Security Response system is supposed to make things easier, adding security fixes among the larger system updates that can be installed on some devices without a reboot as well as allowing users to opt out of receiving them entirely or uninstall them if they cause any problems.
Every iPhone we’ve examined in between edge Employees running the latest iOS software (iOS 16.4) showed a notification that the 85MB patch was available after rollout at 1pm ET.
The only problem is that once we tried to install it, all we got was an error message that read “The security response could not be verified”. It continued, saying, “iOS 16.4.1(a) Security Response Verification failed because you are no longer connected to the Internet.”
A quick scan of the comments across Twitter, Reddit, and other platforms reveals that plenty of other people have run into the same problem.
However, around 3:30 PM ET, the process started running smoothly, with the update applied within about 30 seconds to all available devices. Apple has not yet updated its security page for iOS or other platforms to explain the issues the patch fixes.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and as of now, it’s unclear why the error messages appear. According to the support page, the first security updates are now available for iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, and macOS 13.3.1.