Tag Archives: iOS

fixed : Synology and WD MyCloud NAS connection problems on my TP-Link Deco network

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Question :
I have a local WiFi and Ethernet/UTP network that has a TP-Link Deco X60 acting as the DCHP router. In that network I have a Synology DS 218 NAS and a WD MyCloud Home. All this used to work great, but even though I can see both both the Synology and the MyCloud under the Network chapter in the Finder of macOS, both have severe connection problems. Sometimes it is possibel to get connection for a few minutes, but most of the time both the synology and the MyCloud are unreachable. Even using the SynologyAssistant.app the Synology NAS can’t be found. On the other hand, the lights on the Synology and the MyCloud are burning, the Ethernet/UTP-cables are plugged in correctly…
On the other hand, my Apple AirPort Time Capsule is connectable without problems.

What can I do to make my NAS available in my network ?

Answer :
Eventhough there can hardware problems that cause this, it is usually a software problem.
Since you have a TP-Link Deco router, it is possibly a bug introduced in a new version of the firmware. Do this to fix it :

  • make sure all your network devices that you want to cable connect are connected to your network with a Ethernet/UTP cable
  • first, go to your main TP-Link Deco router
  • disconnect the power from the main Deco router
  • then make sure that the Ethernet/UTP cable from port 2 is directly plugged into your internet modem, and the Ethernet/UTP cable from port 1 is connected to the Ethernet/UTP-switch that all other Ethernet-devices are connected to
  • then plug the power cable back into your main Deco router and wait until it’s light turns green
  • then, on your Mac, open a new Finder window and click on “Network” in the menu list on the left
  • then, in the window that opens, click on your Synology NAS’ name, and you’ll see “connecting…” that will turn into “connected as:…” and you will see the folders that are on your NAS
  • this means that your Synology NAS is now available in your network
  • to check this, open the Synology Assistant app and click “Search”
  • when your NAS appears in the list, select it and click “Connect”
  • then the web-based interface opens in your browser login using the you NAS account name and password
  • when the web interface shows the vritual desktop – your done πŸ˜‰
  • to check your WD MyCloud, open the finder once again and click “Network” once again
  • now, click on “MyCloud” and wait for macOS to connect
  • the Finder will then show all files that are on the WD MyCloud
  • That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

tip : view today and tomorrow (2 days) at the same time in your iPhone calendar

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Since the introduction of iOS 18, there is a new button in your iPhone calendar :
you can now get a better overview of your week while in your day-view !

To get 2 days (e.g. today and tomorrow) on your screen side-by-side, do this :

  • open your Calendar on your iPhone
  • when the YEAR calendar view, click on the ‘Today’ button (bottom left)
  • when the MONTH calendar view opens, click on the ‘Today’ button (bottom left) – again
  • when in the DAY calendar view, click on the odd-shaped button in the top-bar (on the left of the Search / Looking Glass button)
  • in the pull-down list that appears, select “Multi Day”
  • click outside the pull-down list to close it
  • now, you can see 2 days (e.g. today and tomorrow) next to each other and you can scroll through your week using the weekday bar at the top

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : transcribe WhatsApp voice messages

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Question :
I have some friends and acquaintances that prefer to not send me text messages in WhatsApp, but they nearly always send me voice messages… I get frustrated by them, because I can’t speed-read-scan those for the clue, I can’t easily find the info back later on and I can’t listen to them if I don’t have my headphones nearby…

Is there an easy way to have them transcribed ?

Answer:
Yes there is, and it is built-in into WhatsApp since november 2024… however, WhatsApp is not releasing it worldwide everywhere all at once… so, it may be available for you already, but you might also need to wait for it a little longer…

To switch on the Transcribe-function in WhatsApp do this :

  • make sure your iPhone is running iOS 16 or newer ( since the fall of 2024 we’re on iOS18 )
    Note : in iOS 16 only English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic are supported ; in iOS 17 Danish, Finish, Hebrew, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish and Thai were added.
  • make sure that Siri is turned on
    to turn on Siri, do these :
    – goto Settings.app > Siri > Talk to Siri > make sure that “Press Side Button for Siri” is turned ON
    – goto Settings.app > Siri > Messaging with Siri > READ MESSAGES > Add Language… > make sure that the languages that you frequently use to communicate are activated
    – goto Seetings.app > Siri > [scroll down] > Apps > WhatsApp > make sure that all options are switched ON
  • then, open WhatsApp.app on your iPhone
  • open the main ‘Chats’ screen ( that’s were your most recent chat conversations are listed )
    • click on Settings ( bottom-right ; with the sprocket/gear-icon )
    • in the ‘Settings’ screen that opens, scroll slightly down and click on ‘Chats’
    • in the ‘Chats’ page that opens, you’ll see an option named ‘Voice Message Transcripts’
      Note : this option will only be visible if WhatsApp has released it for your you, so if you don’t see it (yet), comback to this page later to chack wether it’s available for you…
    • switch ON ‘Voice Message Transcripts’ to activate it, and choose your Transcript Language

      Then, to create transcripts of voice messages, do this :
    • open WhatsApp.app on your iPhone
    • open the ‘Chats’ screen ( that’s were your most recent chat conversations are listed )
    • click on the chat that you’ve received the voice message in ( so, locate the voice message )
    • click & hold on the voice message
    • click ‘Transcribe’ when it appears
    • click the smal triangular arrow (the downward pointing angle) to expand the transcription
    • now, the transcription will be shown…
      Note : it might take some time before the transcription will appear
    • That’s it !
      enjoy πŸ˜‰

      Note : if you get an error saying ‘Transcript unavailable’, this may be because of one of the following :
      – you have set te wrong transcript language
    • the voice message language isn’t supported (yet)
    • you have set the wrong transcript language
    • the audio quality it too poor to be transcribed ( e.g. due to background noise )

fixed : free currency converter (or unit converter) for iOS

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Question :
I used to have a currency converter app on my iPhone which was very handy when travelling the globe. But the free currency converter app that I used to use, doesn’t work with my current iOS version and is no longer available form the AppStore…

Do you have any recommendation ?


Answer :
With the introduction of iOS 18, Apple has. integrated all kinds of conversion options (including currency conversion) into the Calculator app. To use it, do this :
– open the Calculator.app on your iPhone (or iPad or Mac)
– when in the regular calculator mode, click on the Calculator-button (bottom left)
– from the popup list that appears, set the slider to the right (so ‘Convert’ will be chosen and turn orange)
– now the input field will be devided in two : an upper part with white digits and a lower part with grey digits ; the upper part is the input field, the lower part is the result field
– tip 1 : using the orange up/down-sign on the left, you can swap the currency
– tip 2 : using the grey up&down-icon next to the currencies, you can choose any currency you like
– tip 3 : after pressing the grey up&down-icon (next to the currency), you will get the option to convert not only currencies, but also all other sorts of values by choosing another orange chapter : Angle, Area, Data, Energy, Force, Fuel, Length, Power, Pressure, Speed, Temperature, Time, Volume or Weight ; you can scroll though the list or use the search field to find the currency (or other type of unit) you need
– so, after having chosen the sort of conversion you need, just key in the value and the converted value will be shown

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : VanMoof.app on AppleWatch keeps giving No Data error

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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 β€˜General’ and click on it
– in the General screen that opens, scroll down to β€˜Reset’ and click on it
– in the Reset screen that opens, click on β€˜Erase All Content and Settings’
– in the next screen, typ your AppleWatch unlock code
– in the next screen, scroll down and click on the red β€˜Erase All’ 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

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰

fixed : delete multiple old mails at once in Mail.app on iPhone or iPad

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Question :
On my Mac, in the Mail.app, I’ve always been fond of the option to select multiple eMails (mostly junk-mail) and delete them at once… but on my iPhone I have to delete each mail one-by-one (swipe left, click More, scroll down, click Delete Message) …that’s no problem if it’s only 5 eMails, but when it’s 10 or 20 eMails that I want to delete, it takes a lot of time and a lot of swiping…
Now a friend adviced me to sart using the Gmail.app to do this… and Gmail.app has this as a standard feature, and Mail.app doesn’t (as far as I know) …but I love using Mail.app and prefer to keep using Apple’s own stuff…

Isn’t there any way to do this in Mail.app ?


Answer :
YES, there is !
Okay – it’s slightly more complicated than in the Gmail.app for some unknown reason… but the option is there – to use it, do this :

in iOS / on iPhone :
– open Mail.app
– if you’re not already in the mailbox that you want to delete the eMails from, open the proper mailbox in the Mailboxes list window
– in the window where all eMails are listed, click Edit (top-right)
– now all eMails will slide slightly to the right and at the left, a round checkbox will apear in front of each eMail
– then, check all eMails that you want to delete (or move)
– when all are selected, click Move (bottom-centre)
– from the popup, select Move Message
– then, on the next screen click on Bin (or Trash) to delete all selected eMails
– the screen will automatically close and go back to the previous screen (your selected mailbox)

in iPadOS / on iPad :
– open Mail.app
– make sure you are in the right mailbox, if not, click the menu icon (top-left) and select the desired mailbox from the list that appears on the left, and click on the menu icon (top-left) again to close the list of mailboxes that had appeared on the left
– in the window of your desired mailbox, the list of eMails will be visible on the left and the preview of the selected eMail will be in the middle and right
– then click on Edit (top-right-in-the-left-column), above the list of eMails
– now all eMails will slide slightly to the right and at the left of them, a round checkbox will appear in front of each eMail
– then, check all eMails that you want to delete (or move)
– when all are selected, click Move (bottom-centre-in the left-column)
– from the popup, select Move Message
– then, in the list that appears on the left, click on Bin (or Trash) to delete all selected eMails
– the slide-in menu will automatically close and you will be back in the regular screen of the active mailbox

Note : both on iPhone and iPad, you can also use this method to move multiple eMails to the junk-mailbox or archive them to any desired mailbox

That’s it !

enjoy πŸ˜‰