Tag Archives: iOS

fixed : set iPhone to be found even when off

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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

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : iPhone app is suddenly in language I don’t understand

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Question :
I can use my iPhone as I always used to, but yesterday I found that I cannot use one of the app I need to use on a daily basis any longer because all language displayed by that app is now in Japanese or Chinese or some similar language that I don’t understand as I only use Roman script myself… Oddly, this is the only app that has this problem, all my other apps are still in English…

How can I swithc back to English in that particular app ?


Answer :
In iOS 18 (and maybe in iOS 17 or even in iOS 16) each app has the option to use either your preferred iOS language or any other language that the developer wishes to include in the app. Some developers use this option, others don’t. So some apps have the option to switch the app-language and others don’t.

To switch the language of any app, do this :
– open the Settings.app on your iPhone
– on the Settings page that opens, scroll down to the bottom and click on “Apps”
– on the Apps page that opens, find the app that you have language problems in (they’re listed in alphabetical order) and click on the app’s name
– in the App-specific page that opens, click on “Language”
– note : if you do not see the “Language” option, there is only one language available for this app (probably English or you preferred local language)
– in the Language page that opens, click on the language of your preference
– make sure there now is a check mark at the right of your preferred language
– then close the Settings.app
– now, open the app that you were having problems with and see that is is now working as expected

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : can I send iPhone text messages to Android users from my Mac ?

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Question :
If I want to send text messages to my friends that have Android phones, I can do that from my iPhone using Whatsapp.app or iMessage/Messages.app, but when I’m working on my Mac, it would be far more convenient to do send and receive messages on my Mac.

Is there a way to use Whatsapp and/or iMessage/Messages on my Mac as if I was using my iPhone ?

Answer :
Yes, There is.

Whatsapp to Android from Mac
To send and receive Whatsapp messages, from both Apple and Android users, on your Mac, you only need to install Whatsapp for Mac.
You can get Whatsapp for Mac from the Whatsapp website or from the Mac AppStore.
( the Appstore version is slightly different, but the big plus is that it is automatically updated )
After installing you just need to link it to you iPhone using the iPhone’s Whatsapp.app

Note : even though the iOS version of Whatsapp is listed as Phone/Tablet on the Whatsapp website, it will NOT run on iPad !!! ( as all current iPads run iPadOS, not iOS – an iPadOS version has been in the works for years, but it had still not been released to the general public )

Messages ( iMessage including SMS ) to Android from Mac
To send and receive iMessages on your Mac, you can just use the pre-installed Messages.app from macOS. But if you use it the standard way, you can only send iMessages to Apple users with it… if you want to include sending SMS text messages with it, so you can also send and receive text messages from Android users, you need to switch on some extras :
– open your iPhone
– open Settings.app
– on the page taht opens, scroll down to ‘Apps’ and open it
– on the new page that opens, in the search field, typ ‘Mes…’ and Messages will appear
– click on Messages to open it
– on the next page, scroll down to ‘Text Message Forwarding’ and open it
– on the next page that opens, select you other Apple devices ( switch them ON / green )
– then exit
– now, on your Mac, you will be able to use the SMS functionality in the Messages.app

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : Stocard stops… what’s the best alternative ?

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Question :
I have been using the great Stocard app for years now. It keeps all my loyalty and membership cards that Apple Wallet can’t handle nice and easily organized on my iPhone. But even though Klarna promised not to change the app when it took over Stocard a few years ago… they’ve changed their mind : they will stop the Stocard.app and are pushing me into moving everything into the Klarna.app – which is something I don’t want because that’s all about purchasing and payment…
They keep bugging me with the “Stocard is moving to the Klarna app” warning…

It there any good ( and FREE ) alternative for the Stocard.app ?


Answer :
Yes, there is.
The SuperCards.app is very similar to the Stocard.app, and it even has an ‘import/transfer cards from other app’ option that is mainly targeted towards former Stocard users.

You can download the SuperCards.app from the Appstore here. And it will also install the SuperCards.app for your AppleWatch (if you have one).

Just make sure you set up the Supercards.app before you delete the Stocard.app – just follow the instructions and you’re good to go.

enjoy !

UPDATE :
Since the original post, various readers have mentioned that there are more FREE alternatives for the Stocard.app available on the AppStore. As we have not been able to test them, please find the names below and check the previews and the reviews on the AppStore to see if these are more interesting alternatives for you than SuperCards.app.
In no particular order these FREE apps are :
Mobile-Pocket loyalty card wallet – by BlueSource
PasNL – by DBF
Fidme loyalty cards, coupons & receipts – by Fidme
Folio digital wallet – by Folio Technologies
VirtualCards loyalty wallet – by Virtual Cards
Knip klantenkaart app – by Maikel Zweipfenning
Clique rewards app – by Ram Dheeraj Srigiri / TheClique.eu

As mentioned : we do not know anything about these apps, their privacy policy or their ease of use ! Try them only if you want to take the risk yourself.

fixed : my GoCube is out of sync with the pictures in the app

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Question :
I have a GoCube digital Rubik’s cube and it works great !
I hadn’t used it for a long time, so I even had to reinstall the GoCube.app. All seemed okay at first, but when I saw the (picture of) the cube in the GoCube.app one layer was in a different position in the picture than in the actual cube. Restating the app didn’t solve the problem. Niether did disconnecting the cube from bluetooth and reconnecting. I can’t beleive my GoCube is broken… this must be a software problem…

Is there any way tho get the GoCube.app and the physical GoCube cube back in sync ?


Answer :
Yes, there is !
To get your GoCube.app back in sync with your physical GoCube cube, do this :

  • make sure your GoCube cube is charged (it doesn’t need to be ‘solved’)
  • keep your GoCube cube next to your iPhone
  • open the GoCube.app on the iPhone
  • in the window that opens, below the “LOGIN WITHOUT A CUBE” stripe, there should be another stripe with “GoCube” (or the name you gave to your GoCube cube) in it
    –> if if the stripe with “GoCube” in it doesn’t appear, move the physical cube closer to your iPhone and check if Bluetooth is switched ON on your iPhone
  • then, tap on the “GoCube” stripe
  • now, on your iPhone “Connecting” will appear, then the actual cube will light up and on your iPhone you will see your personal Account with the “Quick Timer”, “Solver”, “Stats” and “Cubing” buttons beneath it
  • then, click ont he Avatar&List-button (top-left)
  • when the pulldown menu appears, make sure thet “3D Tracking (IMU)” is switched ON (blue slider to the right)
  • then, just below “3D Tracking (IMU)”, click on “Load Cube State”
  • if your physical GoCube cube is in ‘solved’ state, you can now try clicking the “Load Solved Cube” button and your problem might be solved
  • if that doesn’t work, or if your physical GoCube cube is not in ‘solved’ state, you need to recreate the color patern of all the sides of the physical cube on the image of the cube inside the GoCube.app
  • you can do this step-by-step :
  • make sure the same middle tile color is facing you in both the physical cube and the image
  • then make sure that the top and the right middle color are in sync
  • then click on a color in the curve of coloured dots and then click on all tiles on the front face of the in-app image that have that color on your physical GoCube
  • repeat this for all colours, until the pattern of colors in the in-app image is an exact copy of the pattern on your physical GoCube
  • to color tiles on a different face of the in-app image, you need to click on the triangular arrow at the right of the GoCube image : it will rotate after each click, in a loop of Front face (white centre), Right face (blue centre), Back face (yellow centre), Left face (green centre), Top face (orange centre), Bottom face (red centre)
  • when you have made an identical copy of the physical GoCube’s color pattern in-app, click the blue “Load Colored Cube” and you your problem should be solved : your cube and your app should now be recalibrated and in-sync with eachother
  • if you happen to still run into the out-of-sync problem, just repeat the above and try again

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : Mac’s internal storage nearly full due to iOS Files

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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
  • then empty the Trash
  • and close the Finder.app
  • That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰