On iPadOS 26.x, multiple users of our iPad app report that handwriting English words with Apple Pencil (Scribble) into a text field produces garbled output full of accented / non‑English characters instead of the English letters they wrote.
Example of what shows up when a user handwrites a normal English word:
-4ęśïćïá.
Those accented letters (Polish / Spanish / French‑style diacritics: ę ś ï ć á) are not what the user wrote.
Key facts from the reports
- Happens only on iPadOS 26.x — not seen on earlier iPadOS versions.
- Happens only with Apple Pencil / Scribble handwriting. Typing into the same field with the on‑screen keyboard is fine.
- The same users say Scribble works normally in other apps.
- The affected field is restricted to English‑only input; when that English‑only restriction is turned off, Scribble recognizes the handwriting correctly again. So the trigger appears to be Scribble writing into an English‑restricted field on iPadOS 26.
- No third‑party keyboards or input methods are involved.
Steps (as reported by users)
- iPad on iPadOS 26.x with an Apple Pencil.
- Open the spelling/answer screen that has an English‑only input field.
- Handwrite an English word with the Pencil.
- The field fills with accented gibberish instead of the word.
Question
Is this a known iPadOS 26 Scribble regression? Is anyone else seeing garbled / accented output when Scribble writes into an English‑restricted text field? Any workaround short of removing the English‑only restriction?
Environment
Multiple end users, all on iPadOS 26.x (exact builds / iPad models being collected). I'm the developer and haven't been able to reproduce locally yet, so this is based on user reports.