How Tos - Page 2

This article explains how to erase and factory reset your Mac if you plan to give it away, sell it, or trade it in. Apple silicon Macs and Intel Macs with a T2 security chip (2017-2020 models) have an "Erase All Content and Settings" option available in macOS Monterey and later. If you have an older pre-2017 Mac, it's a more convoluted process – follow this link instead to erase and factory reset ...

Apple's iPhone 16 and ‌‌‌iPhone 16‌ Plus‌‌ come in the same size options as their equivalents in last year's iPhone 15 series, while the iPhone 16 Pro and ‌‌‌iPhone 16 Pro‌‌‌ Max have ever so slightly bigger screens than their predecessors. All ‌iPhone 16‌ models now also come with a Camera Control button, but otherwise share similar design elements with Apple's 2023 flagship smartphone ...

StandBy is a Lock Screen mode in iOS 17 and later that activates when an ‌iPhone‌ is charging and positioned on its side. Here's everything you need to know to get started using the feature. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. How to Activate StandBy StandBy can be thought of as a kind of smart display for your iPhone that offers fast access to different screens of...

From business meetings to family memories, there are countless reasons to record a phone call, but until now, iPhone users have had to rely on third-party apps or complex workarounds. That changed in October 2024 with the release of iOS 18.1, which introduced native call recording and transcription powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple's new Phone app feature not only records conversations...

Say you've captured a stunning sunset at the beach, but there's a trash can ruining the foreground. Or maybe you've taken the perfect family portrait, only to later realize there's a stranger in the background. With iOS 18.1's new Clean Up tool, Apple aims to make such photo frustrations a thing of the past. Here's how it works. Clean Up uses Apple Intelligence to analyze your photos and...

Apple's Messages app offers one of the most convenient ways of having a text-based conversation with your contacts on iPhone and iPad, but messages aren't the only things you can send and receive. Apple's iMessage service enables all manner of files and attachments to be shared, such as photos, links, documents, audio messages, and more. Files that are sent to you can of course be accessed...

Deleting old messages from your iPhone or iPad is a good way to save on your device's storage space, but going back through your old conversations and deleting them individually would be a tedious and long-winded process. Fortunately, there's a simpler way to say goodbye to old messages in iOS – Apple's mobile operating system can be automated to discard messages that have been on your...

Downloading lots of songs or albums from the Apple Music catalog can use up a lot of local storage on your device. Fortunately it's easy to remove downloaded Apple Music content and reclaim the storage space of your devices. Here's how. Launch the Music app on your iPhone or iPad, or open the Music app on your computer. Find the song or album in your library that you want to remove...

If you have an Apple TV+ subscription or you've rented or purchased movies via iTunes, you can download the videos to your iPhone and iPad over Wi-Fi or cellular using Apple's TV app, which allows you to watch them offline. Apple gives iPhone and iPad users granular control of TV app video download settings. So if you want, you can choose high quality video if you don't mind them taking...

The video recording capabilities of iPhones and iPads get better with each new model that Apple releases, which is great if you want to capture the best-looking video possible. However, the higher quality the video format is, the more storage space the video files naturally take up, which may not be good news if you're device is short on capacity. Typically, iPhones default to shooting video ...

The photos and videos you take using your iPhone can quickly eat up storage. If your device is close to full capacity because of all that media, one solution is to start afresh and delete all the photos on your iPhone. The following steps show you how. Before you wipe all the photos from your iPhone, make sure you've backed any up that you want to keep. iCloud will only let you restore all...

If you're running out of space on your Mac's internal drive, macOS Sequoia 15.1 includes a handy new feature that lets you install large apps directly to external storage. Here's how to use it to preserve space on your boot drive. Apple is known for charging customers a very high markup for additional storage when buying a new Mac. Given that internal storage usually can't be upgraded after ...

With the introduction of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1, communicating with Siri has become more flexible since you can easily type your requests instead of speaking them. It's a subtle but powerful change that's perfect for those moments when you need to be quiet or discreet. Enabling Type to Siri is straightforward. Head to Settings -> Apple Intelligence & Siri, tap Talk & Type to Siri,...

Ever need a moment of privacy without raising suspicion? If you're secretly shopping for a holiday gift or planning a surprise party, you might want to temporarily obscure your actual location in Apple's Find My app on your iPhone without completely turning off location sharing. Here's a clever trick that lets you keep sharing enabled while displaying a different location – all by using...

While Apple's built-in Activity app tracks your daily steps, it doesn't offer a way to display this information as a step count directly on your Apple Watch face. Fortunately, there's a simple solution using third-party apps. Here's how to keep your daily step count just a glance away. Apple's Activity app accurately tracks your steps and floors climbed, and you can check them any time by...

Billions of messages are sent over the WhatsApp chat platform every day. One of the reasons for the service's massive popularity is that it lets users send and receive as many media-rich messages as they want, which – as long as they've limited WhatsApp's use of their cellular data plan – costs them next to nothing. That's great news for senders, but one of the drawbacks of receiving...

If you're looking for a great way to capture a shot of an action scene or an unexpected event on your iPhone, try Burst mode in Apple's stock Camera app. In Burst mode, the camera on your iPhone captures a series of photos in rapid succession, at a rate of ten frames per second. When photographing anything dynamic like sports events, wildlife, or children at play, burst mode increases the...

Apple has introduced expanded charging limit options for iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models in iOS 18, offering users more control over their device's battery health. This feature, which previously capped charging at 80%, now includes new 85%, 90%, and 95% options. The system Apple has applied aims to improve battery longevity by reducing the time your iPhone spends fully charged. Apple says...

A key indicator of your MacBook's battery health is its cycle count. Keep reading to learn what it means and how you can check it for yourself. Modern MacBooks can last 18 hours or more on a single battery charge, but like all rechargeable batteries, the one in your Mac has a finite lifespan. Over time, its capacity to hold a charge gradually diminishes, potentially leaving you tethered to a ...

The photos that you keep on your iPhone or iPad naturally take up storage space on your device, which can fill up quickly depending on the available storage capacity and how much content you have. If you see a message that your device's storage is full, it's worth checking out a system option called Optimize Storage, which is designed to work with iCloud Photos. This feature replaces...