You running on iOS 16 Beta now?, how Downgrade it to iOS 15

 Did you install the iOS 16 beta but now you’re having second thoughts about running it? If you want to downgrade from iOS 16 beta and revert back to a stable iOS 15 build, you can certainly do that.

 

The method covered here will downgrade an iPhone from iOS 16 back to the latest stable version of iOS 15, however it will erase the iPhone in doing so. This means if you did not create a backup to the computer from iOS 15 before installing iOS 16 beta, you will lose everything on the iPhone by downgrading.

If you are not comfortable with losing everything on the iPhone and do not have a compatible backup available, you should not attempt to downgrade the iPhone from iOS 16. Instead just continue on iOS 16 beta

How to Downgrade iOS 16 Beta to iOS 15.x

This method erases the iPhone to revert from iOS 16 to iOS 15. If you have a backup made from iOS 15 you can then restore that to get your stuff back. If you do not want to erase and lose all data on your iPhone, do not proceed with this method.

    1. Connect the iPhone or iPad to the Mac with a Lightning cable

    2. Open the Finder on Mac

    3. Put the iPhone into Recovery Mode by performing the following sequence: press and release Volume Up, press and release Volume Down, press and hold the Power/Side button until you see the restore screen on the Mac

    4. You’ll see a dialog window that says there’s a problem with the iPhone and giving you the option to restore the device, click on “Restore” to erase iOS 16 beta and restore iOS 15 to the iPhone

    5. Let the restore process complete, it can take a while

When the downgrade has completed, the iPhone will boot back into a clean install of the latest version of iOS 15 that is available, as if the iPhone was brand new. The iPhone will have nothing on it, having been erased.

Assuming you have a backup available that is compatible with iOS 15 on the Mac or archived, you can restore from that backup to get your old stuff back. 

Because this process erases the iPhone and requires a backup from iOS 15 be available to restore their stuff from, this may not be suitable for all users, because most people don’t like to lose everything on their iPhone. But if it’s a secondary iPhone or a test device, you may not mind.

 

Red: OsxDaily

 

iPad Air 5, how to to Restart & Force Restart this Device

 Occasionally you may need to shut down, restart, or force restart a device, and iPad Air 5 is no exception.

 Whether it’s force restarting because of a frozen app, troubleshooting an issue, restarting for any number of reasons, or shutting down the iPad Air for a flight, we’ll cover how you can perform these common tasks for the iPad Air 5.

How to Force Restart iPad Air 5

You can forcibly restart an iPad Air 5 by initiating a series of button presses using the physical power and volume buttons on the device. Here’s the sequence to force restart:

    1. Press and release Volume Up

    2. Press and release Volume Down

    3. Press and hold the Power button until you see an  Apple logo on the screen

After you see the  Apple logo, the iPad Air will boot up as usual. Sometimes a forced restart can take a little longer than a regular restart.

This is a useful technique to know, because it turns out that the method of force restarting the iPad Air 5 is also used on any modern iPad that has Face ID and/or without Home button, including M1 iPad Pro, iPad Pro,, and iPad Mini. And, you use the same sequence to force restart any modern iPhone with Face ID as well.

 

How to Restart iPad Air 5

A graceful restart of iPad Air can be achieved by powering off and back on again:

    1. Press and hold the Power button and the Volume Up button until a “Slide to Power Off” shows on screen

    2. Swipe to turn off the iPad Air 5

    3. Wait a few moments, then hold down the Power button to turn the iPad Air 5 back on, effectively restarting the device

Basically turning the iPad Air 5 off, then turning it back on again, is how you restart the device.

How to Shut Down iPad Air 5

If you want to turn off iPad Air 5 completely, you can do that by shutting down the device:

    1. Press and hold the Power button and the Volume Up button until a “Slide to Power Off” shows on screen

    2. Slide to turn off the iPad Air 5

With the power off, the iPad Air 5 is turned off. This will allow the device battery to last quite a while as it’s going unused, and the device will not connect to any networks while powered off.

You can also shut down the iPad Air through Settings, but currently there is no restart option in Settings.

The new model iPad Air 5 is a nice upgrade to the iPad line, and many users coming to the new iPad Air may be upgrading from a device with a Home button, which offers a different method of shutting down, restarting, and force restarting. Thus it’s reasonable to expect some users are unfamiliar with the new procedure for restarting and force restarting the fifth gen iPad Air. Once you learn how and practice it a few times, it will become second nature.

 

Red : OsxDaily

 

 

 

 

How to Fix When Click Not Working on Mac

 Tap to Click is a popular feature for Mac trackpads that allow users to tap on the trackpad to perform a click, rather than exert physical pressure to physically click down on the trackpad. Many Mac users like to use Tap to Click, so if you find it’s suddenly not working, or not working as expected, it’s understandable why you’d be bothered.

 

 Some Mac users have found that Tap to Click is not working as expected on their MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook, or Magic Trackpad, often since updating to macOS Monterey or later. If you encounter this issue, read along to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

A Quick Fix for Tap to Click Not Working on Mac

Often you can do a simple quick fix to get Tap to Click working again on the Mac, and that is simply disabling and then re-enabling Tap to Click again.

        1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” 

        2. Go to “Trackpad”

        3. Uncheck the box for “Tap to Click”

        4. Click around on the Mac for a minute with a typical pressed click, then return back to the Trackpad System Preferences and check “Tap to Click” to enable it again

 

Simply turning off and turning back on Tap To Click usually remedies most issues with the feature on the Mac.

Full Fix for Tap to Click Not Working Issues on MacOS

You’ll probably want to backup your Mac with Time Machine before beginning this process, because you’ll be potentially installing a system software update, and also modifying system preference files:

        1. Quit out of every open app on the Mac

        2. Go to  Apple menu > System Preferences > and choose “Software Update”

        3. Install any available macOS software update to the Mac (eg; macOS Monterey 12.4 Update) if one is available

        4. From the Finder on the Mac, hit Command+Shift+G (or go to the Go menu and choose Go To Folder) and go to ~/Library/Preferences/

        5. Locate the files named: 

com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist

 com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist

        6. Drag these two files to the desktop, or to the Documents folder, this is serving as a backup of the trackpad preferences files

        7. Restart the Mac by going to the  Apple menu then choosing “Restart”

        8. Now go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” then go to the ‘Trackpad’ preference panel

        9. Configure your trackpad per your usual preferences, and make sure “Tap to Click” is enabled

         10. Tap to Click should immediately start working again as expected

Note About Accidental Click Rejection and Tap-to-Click on Mac Trackpads

Some Mac users have noticed that on modern MacBook Pro laptops with extra large trackpads (for example, the latest 16″ MacBook Pro line), that Tap To Click works most reliably in a smaller rectangle within the large trackpad. Some MacBook Air users and MacBook Pro 13″ and 14″ users have noticed similar issues too, but those laptops have smaller trackpads than the 16″ which may be more prone to ignore accidental input.

Explore where you are using Tap to Click, and if you find that the trackpad frequently rejects or ignores taps on the edges of the Mac trackpad, try tapping instead a little closer to the center of the trackpad, as that alone may resolve any issues you are experiencing. 

For some users, tapping towards the perimeter of the trackpad surface does not consistently register Tap To Clicks, whereas tapping directly in the center of the trackpad does reliably produce a tap to click function.

 

 

This may be due to the accidental input rejection feature that is built into the trackpads, which is generally very intelligent at determining accidental input and clicks, but sometimes may be overzealous and think a legitimate click should be rejected. The most obvious example of this happening is when Tap to Click works when used more towards the center of the trackpad, but if you pick an edge of the trackpad to tap on, you may need to tap several times before Tap to Click registers.

While some of this behavior may be intentional, some of it also may be a bug in some versions of MacOS system software, which is why it’s generally a good idea to install the most recently available system software updates. For example, some Mac users experienced Tap To Click issues with early versions of macOS Monterey, but those were later resolved in later macOS Monterey system updates.

 

Red: OsxDaily

 

Activate Feature Voice Isolation with FaceTime on Mac

 Voice Isolation mode allows FaceTime on the Mac to emphasize your voice while on FaceTime calls, thereby reducing background noises and sounds. This is a nice feature if you have some background noise going on that may drown out your voice when talking or make you otherwise difficult to hear, whether that’s a loud fan running in the background, a cat meowing, dog barking, a neighbors bad music blasting, or any such situation. You can use this on any FaceTime call, whether it’s video, audio, or group chat.

You’d be forgiven for failing to find any setting for voice isolation or background noise reduction while digging around in the FaceTime preferences, because that’s not where the capability resides. Instead, you use the Control Center, as we’ll demonstrate.

How to Reduce Background Noise in FaceTime on Mac with Voice Isolation

This feature is only available on the latest versions of macOS system software (12.0 or later), so if you haven’t updated yet you will need to do that before having access to the feature.

        1. Open FaceTime on the Mac if you haven’t done so already

        2. Now open Control Center on the Mac by clicking on the little switches icon in the menu bar

        3.  Click on “Mic Mode” to switch the microphone mode

 

        4. Choose “Voice Isolation” from the microphone mode options

 

        5. Return to FaceTime and make your FaceTime call as usual, whether video or audio

It’s a little curious that you have to go to Control Center to access the microphone mode to aim for background noise reduction in a FaceTime call, but that’s where the toggle is located. Perhaps in the future there will also be an easy option directly from the FaceTime call or app itself.

This is a feature that is available in macOS Monterey and newer, so if you’re on an earlier version of MacOS you won’t find the feature available.

This feature is really useful if you spend a lot of time making FaceTime calls, whether for personal or professional purposes. You’ll find it works pretty well.

While we’re covering the Mac here, you can also use background noise reduction with FaceTime calls on iPhone and iPad too using the same technology to isolate your voice and reduce background sounds.

Try it out, it works really well. 

You can further improve performance by using a microphone, AirPods, or even the wired EarBuds. In testing with a set of AirPods, I was able to run a vacuum cleaner while chatting on a call, and the person said they couldn’t hear the vacuum at all.

This feature is useful enough that it’s a little surprising it isn’t enabled by default for calls, since most people are making calls to hear a person chat, and not the background noise. Perhaps that will change down the road.

 

Red: OsxDaily

 

 

 

Convert your Old Mac into a Chromebook with Chrome OS Flex

Ever wanted to use a Google Chromebook running the Chrome OS? If you have an older Mac laying around that isn’t getting much use, you may be interested in trying out Google Chrome OS Flex on the old Mac, which basically turns the older Mac into a Chromebook.  

One potential advantage to this is the Mac gets an operating system that still receives security updates, whereas some old Mac models that are otherwise perfectly great running machines may no longer receive MacOS security updates, and that matters to some users. You also get to tinker around with a different operating system, based on the Chrome web browser. And perhaps you’ll be able to breathe new life into that older Mac that’s otherwise collecting dust? 

A downside however, is that by installing Chrome OS Flex onto the older Mac, the Mac will no longer have MacOS on the computer, since Chrome OS becomes the operating system on that Mac.

Google Chrome OS Flex runs on any Mac from 2010 or newer, so you can get Chrome OS running on hardware that has long stopped being supported by Apple.

If converting an older Mac into a Chromebook appeals to you, you will need a USB flash drive that is 8GB or larger (this becomes the installer drive for Chrome OS), the Chrome web browser (this is where the initial config tool and installer is made), and the Mac must have at least 16GB of storage, and be from the 2010 model year or later.

How to Install Chrome OS Flex on Older Mac

To try this out yourself, you’ll need the Chrome browser. You will also need to be comfortable erasing everything on the old Mac because you need to erase MacOS and all data in order to install Chrome OS Flex on the computer. Do not proceed if you don’t wish to permanently erase that Mac, and do not proceed without a backup of your stuff.

        1. Launch the Chrome web browser on any Mac (you can use a different Mac to create the installer from the destination Mac)

        2. Get Chromebook Recovery Utility here for the Chrome browser and install the extension

         3. Open Chromebook Recovery Utility within Chrome, and select “Google Chrome OS Flex” as the Chromebook you wish to setup

         4. Insert the USB drive you want to turn into the Chrome OS Flex installer then proceed with the creation of the installer drive 

        5. When the USB installer drive has finished being created, connect it to the Mac you want to format and turn into the Chromebook

        6. With the Chrome OS Flex USB installer drive connected to the Mac, reboot the old Mac and hold down the OPTION key, then select the Chrome OS installer from the boot options menu

        7. Proceed with the installation as shown on screen

        8. Your old Mac will boot into Chrome OS Flex when finished

 You’ll soon be booted into the Chrome OS Flex operating system, and the Chrome OS desktop.

Chrome OS is basically an operating system centered around the Chrome web browser, and you’ll have access to all of the Google apps and tools you’re familiar with, including the Chrome browser, Google Docs, Google Sheets, YouTube, YouTube Studio, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Gmail, and more.

 

 Red: OsxDaily

How to Run Windows 11 for free on M1 Mac

 If you want to run Windows 11 on your M1 Mac, you can now do that, and perhaps best of all, you can run Windows 11 in a virtual machine on the M1 Mac entirely for free. 

We’ll be covering how to install, setup, and run Windows 11 ARM on any Apple Silicon Mac, whether it has an M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, or any other M chip does not matter, it will work just fine thanks to the UTM app.

Note this particular walkthrough is geared specifically for Apple Silicon Macs. Intel Macs offer many other ways to run Windows 11 in virtual machines like within VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels, etc,

 step :

        1. Download the UTM app for free, it’s a virtualizer and emulator application, and drag to the Applications folder to install it on the Mac 

        2. Download the Windows 11 VM for ARM free from Microsoft here (you will need a Windows Insider login for this, which is free to sign up for if you don’t have one already)

 

       3. Open UTM on the Mac, then click the + plus button to create a new virtual machine

        4. Choose “Virtualize” from the ‘I Want to” screen, then select Windows

 

        5. Click the “Browse” button and select the Windows 11 VHDX ARM image you downloaded,             with “Import Image” selected, then click Next

         6. Choose the amount of RAM and CPU cores you want to designate to Windows 11 (recommend             to give 8GB RAM or more for better performance), then click Next again

        7. At the Summary screen, choose “Save”

        8. Now click the big Play button to boot the Windows 11 VM and begin setup

        9. Walk through the Windows 11 setup process as usual, choosing your region, account name, etc – Note that networking and internet will not work yet, that takes an additional setup process which             we’ll cover in a moment – thus choose that you have no network connectivity for now and let                 Windows 11 set itself up

 

        10. Wait a few minutes and Windows 11 will launch running in the VM on the M1 Mac

        11. To get internet access working in the Windows 11 VM, download the SPICE Guest Tools ISO here from the UTM website 

        12.  In the active Windows 11 VM, click the disc icon in the toolbar and choose CD/DVD Iso > Change > and select the spice-guest-tools-xxx.iso file you just downloaded

 

        13. Open the mounted D:\ drive in Windows Explorer, then run the SPICE Guest Tools installer in Windows, then restart the VM when installation is finished

        14. The VM will reboot and Windows 11 will now be connected to the internet, confirm this by opening up the Edge browser and visiting a fantastic website

     

And there you have it, you’re running Windows 11 ARM on a Mac with an Apple Silicon processor.

Remember, you must install the SPICE guest tools to have internet access available in the Windows 11 virtual machine, and without it you will not be able to get the virtual machine online. 

 

Windows 11 ARM runs pretty well on a Mac, though performance with UTM may not be quite as good as some of the other virtualization tools you’ve become accustomed to elsewhere. But as a free solution that is simple to setup, this is more than workable and usable. 

         

Red : OsxDaily

Why Camera Freezing on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7+ ? How Fixing it?

Some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users have discovered their wonderful camera freezes on open and randomly does not work.

When this happens it’s quite obvious; the user attempts to open the Camera either from the lock screen or the Camera app directly, and instead of having access to the camera, either a stuck blank black screen will show up on the camera display or a blurred image will show up on the camera display, and the iPhone is unable to take any picture or video.

Given that most iPhone users rely on it as their primary camera, and the emphasis Apple continuously places on using the iPhone as a camera for all of your photography needs, this is a pretty annoying bug.

While there is no great way to resolve this problem, there is a rather blunt-force solution to fix the stuck iPhone 7 camera issue.

Forcibly reboot the iPhone.

Yes, a forced restart is a decidedly low-tech solution but it works. Unfortunately simply quitting the camera app is not sufficient, you must reboot the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus to get the camera to function reliably again.
If you have not rebooted the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus yet, it’s slightly different from restarting prior iPhone models; rather than holding down the Home button you hold down the lower volume button, here is how you reboot the latest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, which will fix the frozen camera problem:

• Hold down Power button and the volume down button until the  Apple logo appears on the iPhone 7 / iPhone 7 Plus screen

Once the iPhone boots up again as normal, access the camera and it will work as intended (for a while anyway, it may randomly freeze up again and require another restart down the road). This is more of a temporary workaround than a true fix since it can happen again, so perhaps a future iOS update will permanently fix the issue.

Here are two examples of what a frozen iPhone 7 / iPhone 7 Plus camera looks like, I personally encounter this issue a few times a week on a device updated to the latest iOS version:

iPhone 7 Plus camera frozen on all-black screen:

 
 iPhone 7 Plus camera frozen on a blurred image:

The iPhone 7 freezing camera issue a well documented problem on YouTube and throughout various discussion forums on Apple support site and elsewhere on the web (1, 2, 3, 4, etc). Oddly enough, release notes in iOS 10.1 noted a bug fix for a similar camera app issue, but the bug persists in the latest versions of iOS including iOS 10.2 and 10.2.1 for some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users.

It’s likely the freezing camera issue will be fixed once and for all in a future iOS software update for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users, since it is probably software related and not a hardware problem. As always, be sure to keep your iOS devices updated to the latest software versions to receive these bug fixes. You can update iOS system software on an iPhone in the Settings app > General > Software Update.

Since almost all iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners likely have their devices under warranty, another option is to contact official Apple Support and let see if they can offer a more permanent solution. Some reports online indicate Apple has swapped out cameras or the entire devices if the issue persists for some users, so if you frequently encounter the problem you may want to go that route.

Have you experienced the frozen camera issue? Did this work for you? Do you have another solution to resolve the frozen camera problem on iPhone 7? Let us know in the comments.


source: http://osxdaily.com

How using iCloud Password to Login & Unlock Mac OS X

Rather than remembering a separate password and set of login information for unlocking a Mac, OS X offers the option to use an iCloud password to login to the computer at boot, reboot, authentication, locked screens, and all login windows instead. This is a helpful feature for users who like to keep things simple and use a single login and password for all Apple related tasks on their Mac, since the Apple ID can access iCloud, the App Store, iTunes Store, Mac App Store, FileVault, and quite a bit more.

llowing an Apple ID and iCloud password to unlock a Mac and login to OS X is quite simple, and when setting up a new Mac or a clean install with OS X Yosemite you may opt to do so directly, otherwise it can be enabled at any time by toggling the feature on. For the average Mac user, this can be an incredibly useful feature, but while this undoubtedly has significant conveniences, using a single login and password for multiple events is not necessarily recommended in all environments, and many advanced users in high security situations will find this feature inappropriate for their usage.

Enable iCloud Password Login and Unlock Mac with OS X

Using an iCloud password for logging into and unlocking a Mac requires a modern version of OS X that has iCloud configured, and the Mac must have internet access to set this up:

1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” from the dropdown menu
2. Choose the “Users & Groups” panel and select the primary Mac login from the left side, this is the account you will associate the Apple ID / iCloud password for unlocking and using 
   
3. Click the “Change Password” button next to the users name
4. At the prompt “Would you like to change the password for “User Name”, or begin using your iCloud password to log in and unlock this Mac? You will only need to remember one password if you use your iCloud password to log in to this Mac.” – choose “Use iCloud Password…” 
   
5. Enter the old password, then login with the iCloud account (your Apple ID) and the associated password, choosing “Use iCloud Password” to set this as the login for the Mac
   
6. Close out of System Preferences when finished

The next time you’re at a login screen, either after system reboot, on network logins, at Fast User Switching login, a locked Mac screen, authenticating the root user, authenticating for administrative purposes, or just about any other imaginable situation where you’d be unlocking a Mac with a login screen in OS X, you’ll now use the Apple ID and iCloud password to login to the Mac.

Effectively, your Apple ID becomes your user name and the iCloud password becomes your login password. Once this is configured, you” use that iCloud Password to login & unlock Mac OS X.

 While this does reduce the total number of logins and passwords necessary to remember, one potential issue with using the iCloud password for unlocking the Mac is that if you happen if you course if you lost your Apple ID password and login details, you’d need to recover it before being able to login to the Mac, as the Apple ID would no longer be able to function as a backup password in a forgotten password situation, which is something you can do when you have a separate password configured for logging into OS X and for the general Apple ID and iCloud experience.

If you decide you don’t want to use the iCloud password for your own unlocking and logging in purposes, you can still set it as a valid network login option for not only your own user account, but for other iCloud users with an Apple ID as well.

red:Osxdaily 

Released, iOS 8.3 Beta 4 to Developer and Public Beta to Users

Apple has released the fourth beta release of iOS 8.3 to those registered with the iOS developer program, or who are participating in the iOS Public Beta. The build is versioned as 12F5061 and is available now for compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices.

The simplest way to install iOS 8.3 beta 4 is through the Over-the-Air software update mechanism on the iOS device. This is accessible through Settings > General > Software Update. As always, back up the device before updating system software, this is particularly important when that iOS software is a beta version. Additionally, it is not advised to run beta software on a primary device.

The new beta build IPSW can also be downloaded from the iOS Dev Center for those registered with Apple.

iOS 8.3 continues to focus on improvements, bug fixes, and feature enhancements, and the version is expected to include new diverse Emoji icons, wireless CarPlay connectivity, Apple Pay improvements, new languages for Siri, and Google 2-factor authentication support.

While this is the fourth beta of iOS 8.3 overall, this is the second release available to Public Beta users of iOS. There is no known timeline for iOS 8.3 being released to the general public, but one could reasonably expect a final version to arrive before Apple Watch debuts.

Separately, Apple has also made Xcode 6.3 beta 4 available to iOS developers.

red:Osxdaily 

Released OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite Beta 5, anyone dare testing it?

Apple has released a fifth beta version of OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 to those participating in the OS X
Public Beta program, or registered in the Mac Developer program. The new build arrives as build number 14D113c and continues to include a focus on the new Photos app for OS X, along with other bug fixes and feature improvements.

The new beta version is available to download now from the software update mechanism of the Mac App Store, refreshing the Updates tab should reveal the download if it’s not seen immediately.

An update to the Yosemite Recovery drive is also available with the OS X 10.10.3 beta 5 download.

There is no known timeline for OS X 10.10.3 to debut, though Apple has stated that the Photos app will be available sometime in “early 2015″. With that said, the beta release schedule is clearing picking up steam, and it’s quite likely that we’ll see a public release of OS X 10.10.3 sooner than later. Apple typically goes through multiple beta versions before unveiling a final build to the public.

The new OS X Photos app will replace iPhoto for Mac, the app looks and feels quite similar to the Photos app experience in iOS that many users have become accustomed to.

red:Osxdaily

Tips to Tell if Someone Snooped Your iPhone / iPad & Read Emails, Messages, Call Log

If you suspect someone is snooping through your iPhone call log, messages, email, or through other apps, you can set a simple trap of sorts to potentially catch such intrusions on privacy. The idea behind this is pretty simple: quit out of all apps to leave the task bar empty, then check on the multitask screen to see if someone used an app. Since most people don’t bother to check what apps are running, they will unintentionally leave their app usage traces behind.

Here’s how to set the app-trap on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and how to check it later to see if someone was using apps and meddling about your business:

Setting the Snoop Trap in iOS

If you’re convinced (or paranoid) that someone is peeking at your apps, messages, or private details, you can do this every time you leave an iOS device alone:

• Double-click the Home button to summon multitasking
• Tap and hold on an app icon then tap the red (-) button to kill the apps – you can use multitouch on the red buttons to quit multiple apps at the same time to speed up the process
• With a blank multitask screen, tap the Home button again to return to the home screen as usual

Now you just need to leave the iPhone, iPad, or iPod alone, placed somewhere that you think the snoop may use the device to poke around in apps, messages, call logs, snap chats, whatever you are suspicious someone is being overly nosy with.

(Note: iOS 7 requires a swipe up on apps to kill them, the tap-and-hold function no longer works to quit apps. All else is the same, however)

Checking the Snoop Trap to See if Someone Used Your iPhone / iPad

After you have set the trap and suspect someone may have used the device, catching the snoop is quite simple:

• Double-tap on the Home button again to summon the multitasking screen – if any apps appear in the menu then you know someone has opened them in your absence

In this screen shot example, someone launched the “Messages” app after all the other apps had been quit, indicating that someone used the iPhone and poked around in the messages application to read texts or iMessages:

Determining if someone read emails would be indicated by Mail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or whatever email client being left open. Call logs would be shown as the Phone app, and whatever other app(s) left open could be suggestive of someone poking around in there.

If multiple apps have been opened, the order in which they appear – from left to right – indicates which app was most recently used or gone through. You could be a bit more subtle and leave a series of apps in the task bar this way, then simply look for that sequence of apps to be out of order or rearranged to catch prying eyes.

Of course, if someone is savvy enough to check the multitasking bar or is aware of this app trap concept, they’ll be able to evade such tactics by quitting the apps again after browsing through them. Nonetheless, for the average iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch user, this should be sufficient to catch your average petty snoop of a curious little sibling, a suspicious partner, or an invasive roommate.

We’ve discussed similar tricks for the Mac to help determine if someone was opening files or applications, but unlike OS X, iOS offers no easily accessible system logs demonstrating unlock or wake records.

Preventing Privacy Invasions & Snoopers

The best way to prevent any snooping, poking about, or general invasion of your iOS device privacy is by using a pass word on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, preferably setting a strong passcode that is alphanumeric and not easily guessed.

Finally, if you backup an iOS device to your computer through iTunes, be sure to enable backup encryption for the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to prevent determined parties from being able to easily gain access to the device backups, including text messages, call logs, and other personal data.

-

Heads up to CultOfMac for this busybody buster trick.

Recovery Your Deleted iPhone Contacts

It’s never fun to accidentally delete a contact that is needed, let alone multiple contacts or even an entire address book. If you find yourself in a situation where you have deleted contacts from your iPhone that you then must recover, you can often get them back by performing a variety of tricks. We’ll cover four ways to get your address book or an individual contact restored, read through each of them to understand their efficacy and determine which is most likely to work for you.

Before attempting any of this, it’s a good idea to make a manual backup of your existing Contacts, you can do that with iTunes or iCloud, iCloud on the web, or the Contacts app in OS X. This insures that if you somehow make things worse, you’ll have a Contacts backup to return to.

1: Restore the Deleted Contact from Contacts in iCloud or OS X

Though Contacts syncs through iCloud, Mac users can use the inevitable syncing latency to their advantage and often retrieve deleted contacts by going to the Contacts (or Address Book) application. This also works with the iCloud web interface, and is best with recently deleted contacts, or with devices that have been offline from iCloud:

• Disable the internet connection by pulling down the Wi-Fi menu and turn Wi-Fi OFF
• Launch Contacts (or Address Book) in OS X, or Contacts from iCloud.com on the web, and use the search feature to locate the contact in question
• Open the contact and pull down the File menu, choosing “Export” then “Export Vcard” to save the contact(s) as a .vcf file – this will serve as a backup in case the next step does not work
• With the contact still selected, click the sharing button arrow and choose “Email Card” to launch the default mail app with the contacts vcard attached
• Turn Wi-Fi back on to send the email containing the contact card
• Go to the iPhone, open the email and choose the attachment, selecting to “Create New Contact”

The reason to turn off wi-fi quickly is to prevent Contacts from syncing changes with the iPhone. If done fast enough, you will often find the contact deleted from your iPhone is still sitting in iCloud.com or Contacts app in OS X.

2: Retrieving Deleted Contacts by Re-Syncing iCloud

This basically resyncs your existing Contacts list with what is stored in iCloud. It does not always work to restore removed contacts, but it’s worth a shot if the above trick wasn’t a success:

• Open Settings and go to “iCloud”
• Flip Contacts to OFF
• Choose “Keep on My iPhone” when asked about what to do with previously synced contacts
• Flip Contacts to ON
• Choose “Merge” to merge existing contacts to those stored in iCloud
• Head back to the Contacts (or Phone) app and check to see if the contact(s) that were deleted are back

When this method works, it’s extremely simple and quite fast, but there is no guarantee here.

3: Restore Everything from an iTunes Backup

If you sync your iPhone regularly to a computer, you can restore the iPhone from a backup within iTunes and recover deleted contacts that way. This will recover them but obviously requires that you have synced and backed up the device to a computer before the removal incident occurred:

• Connect the iPhone to a computer that it has backed up to before
• Launch iTunes and choose “Restore from Backup”
• Select the most recent backup prior to the deletion of the contact(s) and restore to that

Restoring can take a while, so just let it sit. When finished, the iPhone will reboot and you’ll have your contacts back again.

4: Get the Contact Back from Someone Else

If it’s a single contact, find out if a friend, family member, or colleague has the contact information, then just have them share it with you, it will be much easier and faster than any of the other methods of retrieval. Of course this won’t be an option if nobody else has the addressee information though, making this perhaps the least universally applicable option.

Losing important contacts is a major pain, and though it’s a recoverable problem, it does emphasize the importance of regular backups, both locally to a computer, and to iCloud. So back up regularly, and don’t let it happen again!

A quick side note: there are a million and one third party apps preying on the desperate and claiming to be able to recover deleted contacts. These usually charging high prices and offer no guarantees. Don’t buy into it, most are no more effective than manual methods outlined here.

Automatically Back Up Your Photos on iPhone

You can really never have too many backups of your most important files, and since our iPhone photos and pictures often fall into the ‘very important’ category, having an automatic backup solution directly from your iPhone can be a good idea. Yes, using iCloud will back up some photos, but it doesn’t offer direct access to a single picture the way that copying them to your computer does. That’s where Dropbox can come in, offering a bit of both worlds; direct photo access, but the photos are backed up to the cloud.

For the unfamiliar, Dropbox offers an excellent cloud based file storage solution that is free at the entry level for 2GB of space. Referring friends and others to sign up can net you a total of 18GB of free space, otherwise Pro paid solutions offer anywhere from 100GB to 500GB at monthly rates. If you intend on backing up tons and tons of photos to DropBox, jumping to one of the paid plans is probably a good idea, but even at the free level you can store a fair amount of your most important pictures and access them again at any time from anywhere.

This is not meant to be a replacement to regular iPhone backups to iTunes or iCloud, nor regularly transferring pictures to a local computer for backup, but it does offer an excellent simple solution for another layer of backups, providing easy redundancy for photo backups that happens automatically.

Configure Simple Automatic iPhone Photo Backups with Dropbox

• Get Dropbox free from the App Store and sign up for an account if you haven’t done so yet (2GB account is free, pay for more)
• Launch Dropbox on the iPhone and login with DropBox
• At the “Camera Upload” screen, choose “Only Wi-Fi” (recommended) and then tap “Enable”, then tap “Allow” to provide DropBox access to the camera roll to begin uploading photos

The Wi-Fi Only upload setting is recommended otherwise you can quickly go over your cellular data plan limits.

The DropBox app Photos tab will have a red badge indicating how many photos remain to be uploaded, and selecting that tab will show you the progress of uploads from Camera Roll. The initial backup process can take a while, depending on the speed of your connection and how many photos are uploading. You can check the progress any time by going to the Photos tab:

If Wi-Fi is not found, Dropbox is smart enough to wait until a wifi connection is available before trying to upload the images again.

Note: if you would rather manually manage and upload photos from the iPhone directly to Dropbox, turn automatic uploads OFF from Settings, and instead handle uploads directly from the Dropbox app itself.

Accessing Backed Up iPhone Photos from DropBox

Once you have your iPhone photos backed up to Dropbox, you can access them anytime from the Dropbox iOS app on any device using the same login. Browsing through photos stored in Dropbox is easy, and images are stored chronologically.

Downloading a picture back to the iPhone (or another iOS device) is just a matter of launching the app then:

• Tap the Photos tab
• Select the photo you want to download and choose “Save to Photo Library” to transfer it back to your iPhone from Dropbox

Another significant feature of Dropbox is the availability of a desktop app (also a free download), meaning you can always access any photos or files backed up to Dropbox from your iPhone right from the desktop OS, whether that’s Mac OS X or Windows. On the desktop side of things, Dropbox behaves like any other folder in the OS X file system, providing for simple access to everything, with easy drag & drop support of uploads and downloads.

For users who like direct access to files and the file system, Dropbox behaves like iCloudshould behave, without having to resort to quirky tweaks to gain direct control of files like what is required when accessing iCloud from the desktop. Again, it’s not meant to be a replacement to iCloud, but it does offer some nice perks that go well to complement Apple’s backup offerings. Even if you don’t pay for a larger level of Dropbox storage, having the free 2GB plan to store some of your most precious photo memories is so easy that there is little reason not to do so.