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iOS 14 resets iPhone's default apps to Apple's Safari and Mail after reboot

It's likely the first big bug found in Apple's new software, released Wednesday.

Ian Sherr Contributor and Former Editor at Large / News
Ian Sherr (he/him/his) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he's always had a connection to the tech world. As an editor at large at CNET, he wrote about Apple, Microsoft, VR, video games and internet troubles. Aside from writing, he tinkers with tech at home, is a longtime fencer -- the kind with swords -- and began woodworking during the pandemic.
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Shara Tibken Former managing editor
Shara Tibken was a managing editor at CNET News, overseeing a team covering tech policy, EU tech, mobile and the digital divide. She previously covered mobile as a senior reporter at CNET and also wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Shara is a native Midwesterner who still prefers "pop" over "soda."
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Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
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Ian Sherr
Shara Tibken
Stephen Shankland
2 min read
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Angela Lang/CNET

Users have found a major bug in Apple's iOS 14 iPhone software. The free software upgrade, which Apple made publicly available Wednesday, includes features many users had long asked for, such as better ways to organize apps, living programs called widgets on the home screen, and the ability to change which default apps the phone uses to browse the web or send an email. That last one doesn't appear to work.

Watch this: Wait to download iOS 14

A growing chorus of Twitter users has been posting about the bug in Apple's default email and default web browser options. What happens is that whenever they set the default browser to Google's Chrome, for example, it works as expected, and tapping any link in an app or browser will open Chrome on the iPhone. But then if they restart the phone, iOS 14 changes that default back to Apple's Safari .

"We are aware of an issue that can impact default email and browser settings in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. A fix will be available to users in a software update," Apple said in a statement.

Google and Microsoft didn't respond to requests for comment. CNET was able to confirm this bug on an iPhone running iOS 14, as was 9to5Mac, which earlier reported the issue.

"We expect whatever issue is happening here will get resolved soon," another browser maker, DuckDuckGo, said in a statement. Mozilla said it's working with Apple to resolve the issue for its Firefox browser.

The bug is a reminder that although Apple's been publicly testing its new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 software since the since announcing it in the summer, the company's rarely able to fully iron out bugs before release. This is partly why CNET's reviewers recommend backing up your phone to the cloud or to a computer before any upgrade.

See also: 6 iOS 14 features to try as soon as you install it on your iPhone

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