Question : People told us that we can no longer use Find My iPhone to retrace our iPhones when the iPhone is turned off…
Is that true ? and is there no way to prevent that ?
Answer : Yes, it’s true. By default, the Find My iPhone (Find My Device) option is always on on your iPhone. You just need an Apple/iCloud account active on your iPhone to be able to use it. But it’s true that if you loose your iPhone and it (accidentally) gets turned off, or it gets willingly turned off by someone who found or stole it, you will no longer be able to trace it.
Here’s the simple extras that you can set to prevent this from happening : – on your iPhone, open the Settings.app – in the Settings page, scroll down and click on “Face ID & Passcode” – when the “Enter Passcode” page opens, enter your iPhone unlock code – on the Face ID & Passcode page, scroll down and make sure that “Stolen Device Protection” is ON – then scroll down further, and in the ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCKED chapter, set the slider at “Control Center” to OFF – then, click on “< Settings” (top left) to return to the main Settings page – there, at the top, click on your own name – on the Apple Account page that opens, click on “Find My” – on the Find My page that opens, click on “Find My iPhone” – on the Find My iPhone page that opens, make sure that all sliders (“Find My iPhone”. “Find My Network” amd “Send Last Location”) are all switched ON – then click on “< Find My” top left to return to the Find My page – then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to close the Settings.app
Question : My Mac is slow, and I can’t install updates anymore… I found out, by looking in Settings > General > Storage, that I only have about 5 GB of free space… and after the waiting for the internal storage volume bar to color up and indicate which types of files take up most space, I found out (by clicking on it) that the Applications have two sections : not only Applications (which are the installed macOS Applications I presume), but also something called “iOS Files” which take up about 45 GB…
What are those iOS Files ? and can I delete them to free up memory space ?
Answer : Yes, it can be a good idea to free up some free space on the internal memory of your Mac by deleting those iOS Files. They are in fact backups of your iPhone(s), which you don’t need on your Mac if your iPhone is being backed up to iCloud. Basically there are 2 ways of deleting these iOS Files from your Mac, one is deleting them without connecting your iPhone to your Mac, the other is a way that requires your to connect your iPhone. But if you have so little free space left (only a few GBs) you will need to combine the two to solve your problem :
first, make sure your iPhone is being backed up to iCloud, so open your iPhone
then, open the Settings.app
in the Settings window that opens, click on your Account ( your Own Name )
in the Account window that opens, click on iCloud
in the iCloud window, go to the “Saved to iCloud” chapter and click on “See All”
in the Saved to iCloud window, make sure taht everything that you want to include in your backups turned ON
then, go back into the iCloud window, go to the “iCloud Backup” chapter and click on it
in the iCloud Backup window that opens, make sure that “Back Up This iPhone” is switched ON
then, click “Back Up Now”
when the backup is finished, go to your Mac
on your Mac, open the Finder.app
when the Finder window is open, press the [CMD]+{SHIFT]+[G] key combo on your keyboard
in the search window that opens, in the search field, typ the following :
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
then press Enter
in the Finder window that opens you will see a folder named Backup
drag&drop that Backup folder onto your Trash
then, empty the Trash
when warned that some files can’t be deleted, just continue
when the emptying has finished, open the Trash and drag the Backup folder back into the location that it used to be in ( which is in the MobileSync folder inside the Application Support folder )
now your Mac should have a lot more memory space freed up, but you’re not finished yet
now, connect your iPhone to your Mac using a USB or USB-C cable
on your Mac allow “trust this computer’, and unlock your iPhone by using your unlock passcode or face-recognition
NOTE : if you get a warning that a software update is needed for your Mac to recognise your iPhone, install that update first
now, your iPhone will appear in the sidebar of the Finder
when your iPhone shows up, click on it
in the iPhone’s settings window that opens, click on the General tab
then, in the General tab, in the Backups chapter, choose “Backup your most important data on your iPhone to iCloud”
then, go on to the Options chapter, make sure that only “Manually manage music, movies and TV shows” is checked and click the Apply button
then, exit the iPhone in the Finder and unplug the iPhone’s cable from your Mac
now, open the Finder.app again and press the [CMD]+{SHIFT]+[G]
in the search filed that opens, again, typ the following :
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
and press Enter
now, in the window that opens, click on the Backup folder
when the Backup folder opens, drag&drop all it’s contents ( usually only one folder with an unpronounceable name ) to the Trash
Question : I have an electrical S1 VanMoof bicycle and can only unlock the lock that’s build into the fram with the app on my iPhone or AppleWatch. This used to work great for years, but now, every time I try to use the VanMoof.app on my AppleWatch, I immediately get a warning screen saying “No Data – First, open the VanMoof app on your phone.”, but when I open the VanMoof.app on my iPhone nothing changes on my AppeWatch, not even after restarting the app or restarting the AppleWatch… and I can’t find any option in the VanMoof.app on my iPhone to reconnect with the AppleWatch or give access to data…
What can I do ?
Answer : If you encounter these problems, the solutions outlined in this post will probably not fix your problem., so you are best off doing a complete reinstall of your AppleWatch. Since your AppleWatch is automatically being backed-up to your (synced) iPhone, there’s no need too worry about data-loss …according to Apple – especially if your iPhone itself is continuously being backed-up to iCloud or to your Mac/PC.
To do a complete reinstall of your AppleWatch, do this : – on AppleWatch, press te crown once – in your collection of apps, find the Settings.app (grey circle icon with a white sprocket/gear in it) – click on the Settings.app – in the Settings screen that opens, scroll slightly down to βGeneralβ and click on it – in the General screen that opens, scroll down to βResetβ and click on it – in the Reset screen that opens, click on βErase All Content and Settingsβ – in the next screen, typ your AppleWatch unlock code – in the next screen, scroll down and click on the red βErase Allβ button – then the AppleWatch restarts and theΒ white Apple logo will appear – eventually there will also appear a timer circle around the Apple logo – wait until the entire circle has turned from grey to white – now, on your iPhone a pop-up screen will appear, saying “Apple Watch – Use your iPhone to set up this Apple Watch.” – then, click on the “Continue’-button – now the “Set Up Apple Watch” screen will appear on your iPhone – click the ‘Set Up For Myself’-button (assuming your AppleWatch was originally set up for your own personal use) – the screen of the AppleWatch will now have turned into the blue pulsating pixel blob used for pairing – when the “Hold Apple Watch up to the Camera” screen appears on your iPhone, point the iPhone’s camera at your AppleWatch to start the pairing – if the pairing goes wrong, use the “Pair Apple Watch Manually” option and you will need to input the number code that appears on your AppleWatch (after swiping the blob away) into the field on your iPhone – when the pairing is done, you will get the “Make This Your New Apple Watch” screen on your iPhone – click the Continue-button and follow the on-screen instructions that will guide you through the rest of the reinstalling process (which is fairly straight-on from there) – when done, you will have your AppleWatch setup exactly as it used to be …with one big difference : the ‘No Data’ warning in the VanMoof.app will be gone and you can now use it as it was intended
Question : I have an app on my AppleWatch that isn’t working properly. I want to reinstall it.
How do I do that ?
Answer : There are 3 ways of reinstalling an app on your AppleWatch. If you have problems with an app on your AppleWatch, try these first (in any order you like). If the app still doesn’t work properly after trying these 3 options, you should try an erase and reinstall of your entire AppleWatch (outlined in this post).
OPTION #1 The targeted app reinstall via the iPhone‘s AppleWatch.app: – on your iPhone, open the AppleWatch.app – click on the ‘My Watch’ button (bottom left) – scroll down to the ‘INSTALLED ON APPLE WATCH’ chapter and find the app that isn’t working properly – click on it – in the next page that opens, turn the slider at “Show App on Apple Watch’ to OFF (grey-black, not green) – then, click ‘Back’ (top-left) and exit and close the AppleWatch.app – now check on your AppleWatch if the app has been removed from your AppleWatch – if it hasn’t, give it a few minutes to sync and check again – if it’s been removed, reopen the AppleWatch.app on your iPhone – click on the ‘My Watch’ button (bottom-left) – scroll down to the ‘AVAILABLE APPS’ chapter and find the app you want to reinstall – click on it (on the INSTALL-button at the right of the app icon) – see the INSTALL-botton turn into a download progress circle and wait for the downloading to finish – scroll up to the ‘INSTALLED ON APPLE WATCH’ chapter and see that the app is now listed there – then, click ‘Back’ (top left) and exit and close the AppleWatch.app – now, check on your AppleWatch to see that the app has been reinstalled – then, on your AppleWatch, open the app and check if it works properly – if it does, your good to go – if it does not, try one of the other reinstall options
OPTION #2 The complete app reinstall via the iPhone‘s AppStore.app : – on your iPhone, find the corresponding iOS-app of the app that isn’t working properly on your AppleWatch – long-press sonwhere on the screen inbetween the app icons until all icons start to jiggle – click on the small circle with a minus-sign in it (on the top-left) of the icon of the app that is not working properly – when the Remove-popup appears, click on ‘Delete App’ – now, the app will be deleted from your iPhone …and also from your AppleWatch ! – check your AppleWatch to verify that the app has also been deleted there – if not, wait a little until your iPhone and AppleWatch have synced – if so, proceed on your iPhone – open the AppStore.app on your iPhone – find the app that you have just deleted (and that used to give problems on your AppleWatch) – reinstall the app by clicking on the ‘download from cloud’-icon/button next to it – wait for the download to complete and the icon to chang into an ‘Open’-button – click the ‘Open’-button – go to your AppleWatch and see that the app has been reinstalled there also – if not, wait a little longer until the syncing is done – then proceed, by opening the app on your AppleWatch – now check if the app works properly – if it does, you’re good to go – if it does not, try one of the other reinstall options
OPTION #3 The targeted app reinstall via the AppleWatch‘s AppStore.app : – on your AppleWatch, press the Digital Crown once to see your collection of apps – touch and hold anywhere on the display until all app icons begin to jiggle – click on the icon of the app that is not working properly (when the icon is jiggling, it also has a tiny grey circle with an X in it top-left on it) – you will now see a black screen with white letters “Are you shure you want to delete… ?’ and a ‘Delete APP’ and a ‘Cancel’ button – click the ‘Delete App’ button – then your collection of apps will be shown, check that the app is no longer there – now, in your collection of apps, find the AppStore icon (the blue circle with the distinctive white AppStore A in it ; if your vcan’t find it at first, look again, since it will be there as it cannot be deleted) – if you’ve never used the AppStore on your AppleWatch before, you need to activate it by clicking the blue ‘Continue’ button first – then, in the AppStore screen, click the Search-icon (the looking glass top-left) – in the Search screen, skip up the triangular arrow from the bottom (below the word ‘SPACE’) – on the next screen, choose to input the search word using Scribble (writing letters on-screen one-by-one) or Dictation (speaking the search word) – using your input manner of choice, see to it that the search word is somthing like the apps name, it doesn’t have to be exactly righ ( it’s just that the pronounciation should resemble the name of the app you’e rearching for) – then, click the blue ‘Search’-button (top-right) – in the list of reach results, scroll down to the app you want to reinstall and clikc on it’s name – on the page that opens, click on the ‘download from cloud’-icon on the right side – it will now turn into a download progress circle that will finally turn into a blue ‘Open’-button – click on the blue ‘Open’-button – now check if the app works properly – if it does, you’re good – if it does not, try one of the other reinstall options
FINAL OPTION if neither of the 3 reinstall options outlined above has worked to get the app working properly, you will need to erase and resinstall your AppleWatch entirely… To do so, see this post : fixed : VanMoof.app keeps giving No Data error message
That’s it ! One of the above options will help you to reinstall (and fix) an AppleWatch-app
I overheard someone telling they could open the internet pages they have opened on their Mac from their iPhone also. I’ve never seen it in practice, but I think it would be great to be able to continue browsing on my iPhone what I had started on my Mac. I have asked my colleagues and friends, but no-one could tell me how to do that.
How do I do that ?
Answer :
Yes, you can continue the internet browsing you’ve started on one Apple device on another Apple device, if you use iCloud. First step is to activate iCloud Safari syncing. To do so, do this : – on your Mac, goto Apple-icon (top-left in the menu bar) – select System Settings from the pulldown menu – in the window that opens, click on Apple ID (just below your name, top left) – when the Apple ID page opens, click on iCloud – when the iCloud page opens, click on the “Show more apps” button – in the popup window that opens, make sure that the slider at Safari is set to ON (green) – then, exit the System Settings – now, on your iPhone, open the Settings.app – in the page that opens, click on your own name (Apple ID, iCloud+, Media & Purchases) – in the Apple ID page that opens, click on iCloud – in the iCloud page that opens, click on Show All – in the Apps using iCloud page that opens, make sure that the slider is te to ON (green) – then close the Settings.app
With iCloud Safari syncing set, you can now see the webpages you have open on your Mac from Safari on your iPhone. To do so, do this : – first, make sure you have at least one page open in Safari on your Mac – then, open the Safari.app on your iPhone – now, in the Safari.app, click on the Tabs-icon (bottom right – two squares on top of each other) – then, in the preview page of all open tabs (open pages), click on the Plus-sign (bottom left) – when the Favourites page opens, scroll down to the bottom – there you will have at least one chapter named “From Mac…” with “Show All” next to it – click on “Show All” and find all the pages you have open on your Mac – if you don’t see the “From Mac..” chapter, click the “Edit” button at the bottom and make sure that the slider at “iCloud Tabs” is set to On (green) and return to the previous page
Question : I am using an online service that can set all appointments I have with them in my Google Calendar… but not in my Apple Calendar… and even though I have a Gmail-account, I never use Google Calendar…
Is there any way to sync or transfer the Google Calendar appointments into my Apple Calendar on iOS and macOS ?
Answer :
YES there is ! And it’s rather simple, but you have to enable your Google Calendar : – on the online service’s website, click on the ADD TO CALENDAR (or similar) option – let them set the appointment in your Google Calendar (you might have to login with your Gmail account for that) – then, on iOS (on your iPhone), open the Settings.app – scroll down to “Calendar” and click on the triangle on the right – in the Calendar Settings page that opens, go to “Accounts” and click on the triangle on the right – in the Accounts page that opens, under ACCOUNTS, go to your Gmail address and click on the triangle on the right – then, on the settings page of your Gmail account, go to “Calendars” and make sure that the slider is ON (Green) – then exit the Settings.app – now, on macOS (on your Mac), open the Calendar.app – then, in the top menu bar, click on “Calendar” and select “Accounts” from the pulldown menu – now, in the “Internet Accounts” window that opens, click on your Gmail account’s Gmail address – in the Gmail account’s settings page that opens, make sure taht at “Calendars” the slider is set to ON (Blue) – then exit the Settings – now, in the Calendar.app, you will see the appointments from your Google calendar appear – then, click on the calendar icon on top of the menu list on the left so all your different calendars are listed on the left – now, scroll down to the chapter the has the name of your Gmail account, and uncheck (deactivate) the Birthdays, Family and Holidays options (these are the presets from Google Calendar) – if needed, you can also change the color of the Google Calendar appointments by right-clicking on your Gmail address (that is your main Google Calendar) and selecting a preset or custom color – if needed, you can also choose “Get Info” from the popup menu to change the name (“Description”) of the calendar or the alerts or how thes appointments effect your availability (as seen by others with whom you share your Calendar/appointments)
Question : During a trip with (business) friends, I have taken photos with my iPhone myself. But in the Photos.app, they have gotten mixed up with the photos taken by my friends, that I have received though Whatsapp… but als it turns out, those ar in a far more basic photo resolution then my own pictures…
Is there any way to separate the photos taken by me from the ones taken by others ?
Answer : Yes, it is possible to select only the photos taken with your own iPhone. To do that, do this : – on your iPhone, open the Settings.app – in the Settings page, scroll down and select “General” – then, in the top of the General page, select “About” – then, in the top of the About page, at “Name”, see the name of your iPhone (and remember it) – then exit the Settings.app and open the Photos.app – now, in the page that opens, click on the “Search” icon (bottom right) – then, in the page that opens, in the top search bar, typ the name of your iPhone (the name that you have just found in the Settings.app) – then, in the search results, you will get a preview of 9 photos taken with your own iPhone – now, just above the top right photo preview, click “See All” – on the next page that opens, you will now find all the photos taken with your own iPhone
That’s it !
enjoy π
NOTE : there is not easy way (yet) to search for photos NOT taken with your own iPhone in iOS at htis moment… that should be done in the Photos.app on your Mac
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