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iOS & iPhone How-Tos

iOS 18 Tips, Tricks, How-Tos, News

How To: You Can Block Any App from Using Up Your iPhone's Precious Mobile Data by Doing This

If you have a limited mobile data plan on your iPhone, you know how tricky it can be to stay within your given allotment. Large app installs and updates, 4K resolution videos, and photo backups can waste precious data resources in no time. And apps like Apple News, Facebook, Mail, and Netflix eat data like it's candy. But you can nip the problem in the bud by restricting data hogs from your cellular network.

How To: Use Your iPhone to Control Your Mac — Lock, Restart, Shut Down, Mute, Sleep, Browse Files, Play Audio & More

Your iPhone and Mac can speak to each other in many ways, allowing you to start work on one device and seamlessly switch to the other, share clipboards between the two, and pick up phone calls and answer text messages on both. The compatibility is incredible, but there's even more you can do by incorporating third-party software into the mix.

How To: See Nearby Recommendations from Brands via Curated City Guides in iOS 14's Apple Maps

When you're in a new city or even your own neighborhood, you might not know where the best places to visit are. The number of parks, restaurants, shopping centers, and other attractions could be overwhelming, so how do you narrow down your choices? The new iOS 14 update has introduced curated city "Guides" in Apple Maps, created by trusted brands to help you find excellent places to explore.

How To: Disable This Wi-Fi Option on Your iPhone to Increase Security & Prevent Unresponsive Apps & Webpages

You're out and about, and nothing on your iPhone will load. A glance at the settings shows a saved Wi-Fi network with full bars that your iPhone had connected to automatically, but you're not getting any internet. If you've experienced this, you're not alone, and there's something you can do about it. You'll even increase privacy and security on your iPhone in the process.

How To: 11 Unique Effects to Make Your iPhone Photos & Videos Less Boring on Social Media

Social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have plenty of editing tools that go beyond the basics, but there are still a lot of things they can't do. So if you want to apply interesting, unique effects to your photos and videos for social media, you'll need to add some other apps to your iPhone's arsenal of tools.

How To: Do This to Start Your Day with a Favorite Song, Not an Obnoxious iPhone Alarm Sound

Why are you still waking up to an annoying alarm clock sound on your iPhone? It's 2020, not 2011. That's almost a decade since you were limited to a strict set of default tones. Yes, your iPhone has a ton of tones by now to choose from, but you could be waking up gently to your favorite slow song, or jolting awake by the harsh sounds of metal ringing in your ears to get pumped for the rest of the day.

How To: Apple Lets You See All the Ratings & Reviews You've Ever Given Apps, Games, Movies, TV, Music, Podcasts & Books

Voicing your displease with a shoddy third-party app or professing your love for an album you've just bought is normal, which is why we have ratings and reviews. You hate something, you write something. You love something, you rate it. But feelings change over time, so your ratings or reviews may need to be updated.

How To: This Trick Makes It Easier to Type on Your iPhone with One Hand

We're beyond the days where iPhones fit perfectly in most hands. The iPhone 11 Pro is still a bit big for many people, and the 11 Pro Max is truly massive. If you're having trouble typing out your thoughts without using two hands, know that there's a quick way to make one-handed typing possible on any iPhone.

How To: You Can Shoot Better-Looking Videos on Your iPhone if You Change This One Setting

While most smartphones these days take great video, the iPhone is the camera to beat. Recent models like the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro shoot in 4K resolution from every camera, and even a budget device like the iPhone SE delivers an excellent 4K image from the rear shooter. That said, if you haven't touched your camera settings since taking it out of the box, you're likely missing out.

How To: Share Your iPhone Photos & Videos with a Disappearing Link That Expires Automatically

The way you share a group of photos and videos on your iPhone is pretty simple; just select a few items, then choose a service or platform to send them through. Simplicity isn't always the best option, though, and in this case, there's a better way than letting those files send or upload individually, one by one.

How To: Stop Getting Those Annoying 'Share Your Name & Photo' Alerts in iMessage Threads on Your iPhone

Your iPhone comes with a feature that allows you to share your name and photo with anyone you iMessage in Messages. It's a useful feature if you want people to see a customized name or fun image that you pick, but seeing all those "Share your name and photo" alerts in conversations can get real annoying quickly. There's a way to stop that from happening, thankfully.

How To: Apps & Services May Have Access to Your Apple Music & Media Library — Here's How to Check & Revoke Their Permissions

Third-party apps on your iPhone must ask for your permission to access your library in the Music app. Some will even want to get access to your Apple Music account. If you no longer use the apps, you shouldn't be letting them have access anymore. It's easy to hunt them down, and doing so might even show some apps you can't even remember giving any permissions to.

How To: You May Be Sharing Your iPhone's Location with Other People — Here's How to Stop It

Sharing your iPhone's real-time location can be very useful when you want family and friends to know where you're at or your estimated time of arrival. By doing so, they can track you when you can't or don't want to update them manually. Depending on how you shared your location, however, they might still be able to track your exact coordinates after the initial share.

How To: Improve Audio Quality in Voice Memos on Your iPhone to Get Better-Sounding Files

Lossless quality isn't for everyone. If you can't distinguish between lossless audio and other formats, you probably but don't need it. But if you're a musician who's sharing ideas with bandmates or a journalist interviewing people for a video, you might want the best possible quality, which is what lossless offers. And you might not know it, but the Voice Memos app on your iPhone supports it.

How To: Disable Location Access to All Your iPhone Apps So You Can Be Wiser About Permissions Going Forward

Many apps on your iPhone want to use your location, most of which are for valid reasons. But some apps can function perfectly fine without location permissions, while others have no business even requesting it. If you want to be more selective about which apps and services you give away your coordinates to, the best thing you could do is start from scratch.

How To: Scan Laundry Care Symbols with Your iPhone to See How You're Actually Supposed to Wash Clothes

When it comes to washing clothes, the laundry symbols on your tags might as well be hieroglyphics. They're difficult to interpret, easy to forget, and even easier to ignore. But if you don't want to ruin expensive designer clothes, blankets, and other fiber-based materials, you need to figure out the meaning behind those tiny icons. Thankfully, your iPhone can help out.

How To: Stop Photos from Automatically Creating iCloud Links When Sharing Images & Videos from Your iPhone

If you use iCloud Photos, Apple's iCloud link feature is meant to make sharing multiple photos and videos faster and easier, but it's not as great as you might think. Luckily, there's a way to stop your iPhone from creating them automatically, as long as you're running iOS 13 or later.

How To: Your iPhone Can Switch to Dark & Light Modes Automatically When the Sun Sets & Rises

Apple's Dark Mode in iOS 13 and later offers a cool, comfortable viewing experience on your iPhone. You may prefer the dark theme all day long, but if you like to use it only at night, it's not very convenient to switch it on and off daily. But there's a setting that lets you set it and forget it, so you never have to do it manually again.

How To: Find & Recover Apple Notes Stored in Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL & Other Third-Party Mail Accounts

If you can't locate a specific entry in the Notes app on your iPhone, chances are that it's hiding in a different place than you thought, connected to a third-party email service such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook. When one of those notes gets lost or accidentally deleted, you're going to run into issues, but it's possible to recover it.

How To: Lock Facebook Messenger Behind Face ID or Touch ID for Maximum Security

Although Facebook has some questionable privacy and security practices, you'll find it still offers you ways to protect the information that's important to you. One of those ways is locking Messenger behind biometric authentication protocols such as Face ID and Touch ID, ensuring that no one else can access your private chats.

How To: Add Captions to Photos & Videos in iOS 14 to Make Searching by Metadata Easier

If you've been an iPhone user for quite some time, you probably have quite a bit of photos and videos in iCloud or on your device. Unless you know the date, location, or event, it can be pretty hard to find a specific memory. Even with intelligent search suggestions, AI-created categories, and multi-keyword filters, you still may not be able to find what you want. The new iOS 14 update changes that.

How To: Switch the Default AirPods Microphone to Stick to Your Preferred Ear

AirPods are not only a great way to listen to music on your iPhone, but you can also use them as a headset for phone calls, videoconference, Siri, voice memos, audio messages, and more. While each 'Pod has a built-in microphone, they aren't used simultaneously, and your AirPods will automatically choose which to use. If you want to only use the mic from one 'Pod or the other, there's a way to do that.

How To: Set an Alarm on Your iPhone for When Your Battery Reaches Full Charge

Out of all the myths about the iPhone's battery, one that's very true is that charging your phone overnight is bad news. Keeping the charge level at 100% puts the battery under strain, which can permanently damage it. Apple took steps to address the issue in iOS 13, where your battery stops charging when it hits 80% in some scenarios, but that's not always enough.

How To: 16 New Apple Maps Features for iPhone in iOS 14, Including Cycling Routes, New Widgets & City Guides

Once the laughing-stock of the navigation app market, Apple Maps is now a powerful, reliable travel companion. Apple rebuilt the platform from the ground up, placing the app in league with Google Maps. That said, there's always room for improvement, as demonstrated by its impressive new features set in iOS 14.

How To: Auto-Hide New Apps You Install in iOS 14 for a Cleaner Home Screen

If you keep your iPhone's home screen obsessively tidy, new apps are the bane of your existence. Hyperbole aside, they automatically fill the first available space on your home screen, starting on the second page, which can wreak havoc on your carefully planned layouts. With iOS 14, however, you can auto-hide new apps so that you never see them until you want to.

How To: Respond to Specific Messages in Group Threads & Single Chats Using Inline Replies in iOS 14

A group conversation can be a chaotic place. Even with a small number of people, you still may get more messages than you can keep track of on your iPhone. What makes it even worse is trying to sort through all of the conversations within conversations. Apple, however, wants to make things easier on all of us, which is why iOS 14 allows you to respond to specific iMessages using inline replies.

How To: Restore Your iPhone to a Backup or Factory Settings Using iTunes on macOS or Windows

Whenever something goes wrong with your iPhone, or whenever you want to downgrade from an iOS beta back to the regular iOS release, you can restore your iPhone to your last saved state. Restoring to an iCloud backup is great but won't work in all situations. Plus, if you saved a backup on your computer, that may be the best route to take to get back all of your data.

How To: The Fastest Way to Scroll Through Your iPhone's Home Screen Pages & Folders

If you have a lot of apps, you likely have a lot of home screen pages unless you hid them. With many pages, swiping over to a particular one can feel very tedious, especially if you're doing so repetitively, over and over again. If this sounds like your iPhone experience, you should know you're swiping wrong. There's a much faster way to get around your home screen, thanks to iOS 14.