Apple released iOS 14.5 on Monday, bringing a new App Tracking Transparency feature that requires apps to get a user’s permission to track or access their device’s advertising identifier.
To enable the feature and receive requests from apps, users must turn on the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” toggle in Settings, however, it appears that for some users the switch is grayed out and unusable, meaning that all apps are blocked from using the device’s advertising identifier by default, without any way to enable tracking for specific apps as the feature was intended to allow.
Users on Reddit and other social media platforms were quick to report the apparent issue, with Apple yet to acknowledge the apparent bug or provide any fixes.
When we had this option enabled before updating the iPhone or iPad to iOS 14.5, the new App Tracking Transparency setting became available. However, on devices where the “Personalized Ads” option was off, the App Tracking Transparency controls were grayed out after the update. It’s unclear whether this is an expected behavior or a bug.
We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.
Following yesterday’s release, Apple explained the new anti-tracking feature and how it helps users control which apps are allowed to track activity across other companies’ apps and websites in a new video.
iOS 14.5 is out now: Here’s everything you need to know
App Tracking Transparency is just one of the many new features with iOS 14.5 including, new emoji characters, Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch, AirPlay 2 support for Apple Fitness+, support for AirTag, updates to the Music app, lyrics sharing, and more.