Paul Morris on February 20, 2018, 3:33 am

watchOS 4.2.3, tvOS 11.2.6, macOS 10.13.3 Supplemental Update Released With Fix For Indian Character Crashing Bug

Apple has officially made available for download watchOS 4.2.3, tvOS 11.2.6 and macOS 10.13.3 Supplemental Update for all compatible Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac hardware. These updates have mainly been issued in order to combat the Indian Telugu character bug which has been going around since last week.

It’s largely unlikely that most Apple Watch, Apple TV or Mac owners will have encountered the bug that these incremental updates fix. The issue manifests itself when a specific character from the Telugu language – which is a Dravidian language native to India – is sent or displayed on the device which has the CoreText bug.

It’s present in first and third-party apps which use Apple’s native text components and instantly causes apps to crash. In some extreme cases, the issue has been shown to entirely hang the system and force the user to reboot in order to regain control.

When the issue was first discovered, it was reported that Apple had actually fixed the problem for iPhone and iPad with the initial pre-release seeds of iOS 11.3. With the iOS 11.3 public release not on the immediate roadmap, Apple was forced to push out iOS 11.2.6 with a patch included. The incremental updates to watchOS, tvOS and macOS now sit hand-in-hand with that release to ensure that the problem is fixed across all of Apple’s platforms with immediate effect. Once installed, those crashing issues should no longer be present when the Telugu character is received.

Apple could have really done without having to squeeze these unplanned releases into the roadmap but the company also wants to ensure that its users aren’t suffering from random device hangs and crashes when using various text-laden apps. Given that apps like Messages, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger are amongst the most popular apps available, it’s reasonable to assume that the potential number of affected users was quite high.

If you are an Apple Watch owner – either the original Apple watch, Series 1, Series 2, or Series 3 – then you are able to grab the latest watchOS 4.2.3 update via the Watch app on the connected smartphone. Apple Watch should have at least 50-percent battery and be connected to power to download the update. Mac owners, whether that be iMac or MacBook, can invoke the Mac App Store and grab the update right now from the Update section. This will come down as an immediate over-the-air update. Apple TV owners can do same and grab the tvOS 11.2.6 update from software update section found in tvOS Settings.