Users are pointing out what appears to be a bug in iOS 14 which resets the default mail and browser settings when rebooting your device.
The new Apple iOS 14 update seems to have a bug that wipes out user email and browser customizations when resetting or restarting the device. Released on Wednesday, the iOS 14 update brings along a host of new enhancements and among its notable features is allowing the user to use a third-party email and browser apps as default instead of using Apple's Safari browser and mail app. After updating their devices to iOS 14, users who changed the default mail app and browser settings found that restarting their devices also discarded the changes they made.
For instance, you wanted to change the default web browser from Apple Safari to Google Chrome after updating to iOS 14. Tapping or clicking the Settings app and choosing Chrome as your "Default Browser App" will change the default browser. After making the change, all links open automatically in Chrome instead of Safari.
However, even if you already set your preferred browser as the default, tapping or clicking a link after restarting the device opens the link or webpage in Safari. The same thing happens if you change the default mail app. This means that simply restarting the device will discard the changes you made.
In the case of the default mail app, replacing Apple Mail with your preferred email client only takes a few simple steps after updating your device to iOS 14. You just need to go to Settings and then use the search bar to select your preferred email app, or scroll down and look for the email app you desire to use.
You can then set it as the Default Email App on the next page. As expected, everything will work fine unless you perform a restart or reset. As it turns out, restarting the device also resets, not only your preferred default mail app but also your default browser.
Well, great. I was all excited to set Chrome as default browser in #iOS14 but turns out a device reboot forgets it!? — Mathieu Perreault (@madmath) September 17, 2020
Users started posting warnings about what seemed like an iOS 14 bug, saying that rebooting or restarting your device resets the default mail app and browser settings, and then reverts to the first-party Apple Mail and Safari browser. At this point, the only fix, it appears, is to again change the settings and set your preferred default apps one more time after performing a restart, or you can avoid restarting the device in the first place.
Another apparent bug involved changing the default mail app but keeping Safari as the default browser. If you do this, the email links in Safari still open in Apple's Mail app instead of opening in the third-party mail client that you set as default. If you change the browser settings and set the default browser to Chrome or something other than Apple's Safari after updating to iOS 14, the links work as expected and open in your preferred default mail app. Restarting the device, however, returns all settings back to the original.
According to users, the "bug" is certainly on the iOS 14 update as it is resetting the default mail app and changing browser settings only after restarting the device. The apps affected were those developed by Microsoft, Google, and Readdle.
