Owners of the FreeStyle Libre 3, one of Abbott Laboratories’ flagship glucose monitors, received an email this week warning them to “disable automatic system updates on your iPhone” because the new operating system’s StandBy Mode and Assistive Access Mode “may impact your ability to receive time-sensitive notifications including glucose alarms and notifications indicating that alarms are unavailable.”
“Key Steps to Optimize your FreeStyle Libre System on iOS 17,” the email reads. “While our teams are working quickly to verify and confirm compatibility, we recommend that you disable automatic operating system updates on the smartphone using the mentioned apps. Please check the compatibility guide on myfreestyle.com before the new operating system is installed.”
Abbott is telling customers who have already upgraded to disable StandBy Mode, which activates the iPhone’s Lock Screen while it’s charging and placed on its side. They are also being advised to turn off “Assistive Access” mode, an accessibility mode for people with disabilities. Abbott says that this mode “will impact your ability to activate a sensor, modify your alarm settings, or receive glucose alarm notifications from our apps.”
Abbott writes on its website that failure to take action when users get an alarm, or failure to use the device “as instructed in labeling may result in missing a severe low or high glucose event and/or making a treatment decision, resulting in injury.”
Before my daughter was given the libre sensor she would just finger prick at regular intervals to see where her numbers were, there were no warnings or notifications if she was outside her ranges. We’ve been lucky that when she has a hypo she knows about it due to feeling ‘shaky’ but if she was hyper she wouldn’t know unless she did a finger prick.
The Diabetic team we have moved us away from Libre to a Dexcom G6 which has been great but as another poster has said does throw warnings out every now & again about Battery optimisation & Do not disturb settings.
Just over a month ago my daughter was given a pump made by Insulet and with that you are given an Android phone, that is used purely for controlling the pump and getting readings about her current numbers, it’s very locked down. Since she’s been using the pump her numbers have been absolutely fantastic, she’s very rarely outside of her ranges, not only does her new device beep to alert her that something needs attention but so does the actual pump.
Thank you! Super glad that your daughter is doing great and this is working for her!
That’s all fascinating. I’d seen a few videos of people who had pumps talking about how it effectively revolutionized their lives, but I didn’t know exactly how. I didn’t know the finger pricks were still common. I just assumed there was some intermediate device between pricks and phones, but boy was I wrong.