Wondering how to save photos, pictures, and videos from Messages in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13? If you’re perplexed you may not be alone, as some users have discovered the changes to the photo and video saving mechanism in Messages app to be more confusing than before, leading some people to think the ability to save photos and movies from messages is no longer an option. Rest assured you can still easily save pictures and videos from Messages in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, but it’s a bit different and the ‘save’ option may not be immediately visible to you depending on your device.
This article will show you how to save photos and videos in the Messages app on iPhone and iPad running iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and later.
How to Save Photos & Videos from Messages to iPhone & iPad with iOS 13 / iPadOS 13
Open the Messages app and navigate to the message conversation with the picture or video you wish to save
Tap on the photo or video so that it’s in the forefront, then tap on the Share icon (it looks like a box with an arrow flying out of the top of it)
Scroll down at the Share Sheet screen *
Choose “Save Image” after scrolling down in the sharing section to save the picture or video to the iPhone or iPad
The saved picture or video will appear in the Photos app at the very bottom of the Albums > Recents view (what was called Camera Roll).
* This is where things are typically confusing for users, where on many iPhone models they have to scroll down in the sharing screen to access the “Save Image” and “Save Video” options. In prior versions of iOS, saving a message was a matter of tapping on the share sheet and then choosing the obvious “Save Image” button. Now however with iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 and later, you may need to scroll down to select a different looking “Save Image” button from the sharing menu.
You can also continue to quickly save a photo or video with a tap-and-hold move, similar to how you go about forwarding a picture message on iPhone to another user. That action and behavior has not changed in the latest iOS and iPadOS versions.
Now that iOS 13 is available to download and install for iPhone and iPod touch, you might be wondering what the best features and tricks for the latest and greatest iOS release are. We’ve rounded up a handful of the most useful features in iOS 13 for iPhone for you to check out, so whether you’ve already installed iOS 13 or are still readying to prepare iPhone for iOS 13, you’ll be able to enjoy some of the best new features available right away.
(Note that some of these iOS 13 features coexist on iPadOS 13 as well, but the focus on this article is iOS 13 on iPhone and iPod touch)
1: Use Dark Mode
Dark Mode is really nice, particularly in the evening hours or if you’re using your iPhone in the dark. When you’re first setting up iOS 13 you’ll go through an option to enable Dark Mode, but you can also turn the feature on at any time through Settings:
Go to “Settings” > “Display & Brightness” > choose “Dark”
Perhaps even more useful is to set Dark Mode to be automatically enabled from Sunset to Sunrise, which is configurable in the same settings screen.
2: Use the New “Swipe to Type” Keyboard Option
The new Swipe to Type keyboard is quite useful for typing quickly, particularly once you get the hang of it. To turn on the new swipe keyboard:
Go to Settings > General > Keyboards > toggle on “Slide to Type”
Then the next time you’re at a place on iPhone where the keyboard is available, try swiping across the keyboard to spell the word you want to type, without lifting your finger. For example if you want to type “taco” then swipe from t, to a, to c, to o, then let go, and “taco” will type all at once. This uses a variety of tricks including predictive text and autocorrect to get the words right and it’s pretty accurate, and seems to get better the more you use it too.
Earlier versions of iOS supported third party keyboards with this feature, and Android has had it for a long time too, but now the swipe gesture keyboard is native on iPhone as well.
3: Reduce Spam Calls with Silence Unknown Callers
Tired of the nonstop spam calls ringing and buzzing on your iphone? Then try the new Silence Unknown Callers feature, which will automatically mute any call from someone not in your Contacts list (this is sort of like a feature version of this workaround approach to block unknown callers which). The callers will still be able to leave a voicemail and will appear in your Recent Calls list, but they won’t bug your phone.
Go to “Settings” > “Phone” > turn ON “Silence Unknown Callers”
Combined with blocking calls and contacts and you should have a lot fewer junk calls coming to your iPhone.
4: Improved & Powerful Photo Editing Abilities
There are many new and powerful photo editing abilities available directly in the Photos app of iOS 13.
Just find a photo you want to apply some edits and adjustments to and tap on Edit to get started.
5: Use Cellular Low Data Mode
Low data Mode helps to reduce data usage on the iPhone, which can be helpful if you’re near your bandwidth allotment for the month or have surpassed the cellular data quota of your data plan.
Go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data > and turn on “Low Data Mode”
Note that not all apps will obey this setting, so if you’re trying to conserve bandwidth and cellular data usage you’ll still want to take an active roll in that and not entirely rely on this toggle.
6: Enjoy Quick Wi-Fi Network Changes from Control Center
Want to change wi-fi networks quickly? You don’t need to go to Settings anymore, now you can do it directly from Control Center.
Simply swipe to access Control Center as usual, then tap and hold on the Wi-Fi toggle to access a drop-down menu of available wi-fi networks, which you can then tap to select which to join.
7: Access External Storage via Files App
The Files app now supports external storage devices, like USB hard drives and flash drives. Just connect a USB storage device to the iPhone and you’ll find it available in the Files app.
You’ll need to use a Lightning port to USB adapter to gain access to this ability, but it’s a wonderful functionality to have that many power users have long asked for.
8: Announce Messages with Siri on AirPods
Have AirPods with your iPhone? Then you’ll likely appreciate this new feature which lets Siri announce new messages while your AirPods are being worn.
The first time you setup iOS 13 on iPhone with AirPods you will likely see a notification about this, but if you don’t you can make the change anytime directly by doing the following:
Go to Settings > Notifications > tap “Announce Messages with Siri” > toggle the switch ON to enable
You can even customize who to announce messages from if you don’t want every message to be announced by your Siri virtual assistant.
Bonus Tip: Learn How to Update Apps Again
Many users installed iOS 13 to find the Updates section is missing from the App Store on their iPhone, and some have figured this is a bug or an error – but it’s not. Instead, you may need to relearn how to update apps in iOS 13, which is different from before.
From the App Store, click on your profile picture in the upper right corner, then scroll down to the Updates section. There you can update your iPhone apps in iOS 13 and later.
If you launched Mail app on iPhone or iPad after updating to iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 and now discovered new emails are showing up as “No Sender” and with “No Subject”, then you’re certainly not alone. This appears to be a known bug impacting a fair number of iPhone and iPad users after updating their devices to the various new iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 software releases, including iOS 13, iOS 13.1, iOS 13.1.1, iPadOS 13.1, and iPadOS 13.1.1.
If you’re impacted by the annoying Mail app “No Sender” and “No Subject” email bugs, then read on to learn how you may be able to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.
Troubleshooting “No Sender” & “No Subject” Mail Bugs in iOS 13 & iPadOS 13
The following steps may resolve the Mail bug where new email messages show up as having “No Sender” and the emails also show “No Subject”.
1: Force quit Mail app
First you’ll want to force quit Mail app.
How you do this depends on the iPhone or iPad model and whether or not it has a Home button.
To force quit Mail app on iPhone & iPad models with Face ID and without home buttons, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and hold the swipe until the App Switcher shows up. Navigate to the Mail app and then swipe up on Mail app to push it off the top of the screen to force quit Mail app.
To force quit Mail app on iPhone and iPad models with Home buttons, double-click the Home button to bring up App Switcher, then navigate to Mail app and swipe up on it to push it off the top of the screen to quit.
2: Force Restart iPhone or iPad
Next you’ll want to force restart the iPhone or iPad.
Again how you force restart the device depends on the iPhone or iPad model:
For iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPad Pro (2018 or later): Press Volume Up, press Volume Down, press and hold POWER / WAKE button until you see the Apple logo on the screen
For all iPad models with Home button, iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, iPhone SE: Press and hold Home button and Power button until you see the Apple logo on the screen
After the iPhone or iPad has force restarted and booted back up again, re-open the Mail app and you should find that at least new emails arriving will no longer show up as “No Subject” and “No Sender” in Mail app. Some interim emails may still appear to show as “No Sender” and with “No Subject” however, which appears to show some persistence of the bug for emails that were already downloaded and labeled that way.
3: Update to the latest iOS version
If possible, update to the latest iOS release in Settings app > General > Software Update
Updating to the latest version of iOS available may or may not resolve the Mail app “No Sender” and “No Subject” bug for some users.
For some users, updating from say iOS 13 or iOS 13.1.1 to iOS 13.1.1 may resolve the issue, but for others (like myself) the “No Sender” and “No Subject” bug didn’t appear in Mail app until after updating to iOS 13.1.1. For example, my personal iPhone did not experience the “No Sender” and “No Subject” Mail bug until after I updated to iOS 13.1.1.
Nonetheless, presumably a future iOS update will resolve the “No Sender” and “No Subject” Mail app bugs, so checking for available iOS updates and installing them is always a good idea.
As always, be sure to backup your iPhone or iPad before installing any system software update.
Wondering how to switch back to a mobile site after requesting a desktop site in Safari for iPhone? You may have noticed there’s not a “Request Mobile Site” option in Safari on iPhone and iPod touch, but changing back to the mobile version of a desktop site is quite simple on iPhone with Safari as we’ll show you in this tutorial.
As you likely know, many websites serve a mobile-specific version to smaller screened devices like the iPhone or iPod touch. But sometimes users will use the “Request Desktop Site” feature in Safari for iPhone to view the full version of a website rather than a mobile site. But how do you switch back to the mobile site again? That’s easy, here is all you need to do :
How to Switch from Desktop Site Back to Mobile Site with Safari for iPhone
Returning to the mobile version of a website in Safari on iPhone is simply a matter of closing the tab and opening the website again :
From Safari on iPhone, go to the desktop webpage that you want to view the Mobile Site for
Tap on the Tabs button in Safari and then close that webpages tab while it’s still in Desktop Site view (optionally, you may want to copy the URL first for easy retrieval)
Now open a new Safari tab and go back to the website URL you just closed, it will load automatically in Mobile Site view
Simply closing the Safari tab on iPhone and re-opening the webpage will switch it back to the Mobile Site default view.
Alternatively, you can also delete the specific sites website data in Safari Settings on iPhone and then refresh the website to accomplish the same thing. Doing that will also refresh the webpage into Mobile Site from Desktop Site, as the default user agent on iPhone is for a mobile device.
While we’re obviously focusing on iPhone here, this process is the same on iPod touch and iPad too, though most websites will show an iPad the full desktop version of a website rather than the mobile site anyway.
Currently this is how you switch from the desktop site back to a mobile site, and while it would make a lot of sense for the iOS “Request Desktop Site” option to switch to a “Request Mobile Site” option in the Sharing action menu, for now that feature does not exist. Instead, you’ll want to just close the tab and then open it again to achieve the same result.
This is probably mostly relevant for web workers, but sometimes regular users find themselves having to switch between desktop sites and mobile sites too.
Want to disable Camera access for an app on iPhone or iPad? At any time, you can easily revoke camera access for any application on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. By turning off camera access for an app, that app will no longer be able to use either the front or rear cameras on an iPhone or iPad.
How to Stop Apps from Using Camera on iPhone & iPad
You can prevent apps from being able to access and use the camera on your device by going through the following steps:
Open the “Settings” app on iPhone or iPad
Go to “Privacy” in the settings
Choose “Camera” from the privacy settings list
Locate the app(s) you want to disable camera access for and toggle the setting corresponding to their name OFF to disable camera for that app
Repeat with other apps to turn off camera ability as desired
All apps that have requested camera access on the iPhone or iPad will appear in this list. If an app does not appear in this list, the app has not requested camera access before (or yet).
Obviously some apps will require camera access to function properly, like a video chat app, so be mindful about what apps you disable camera access for and which you allow.
On the other hand, there are many apps that don’t need to access the camera for the app to work at all, they just request camera access for some other reason, and turning off those apps camera access may be beneficial to privacy or security. Think logically about what an app is and what the apps purpose is when deciding what apps to grant camera access to. Does a camera app need camera access? Probably. Does a social network need camera access? Maybe, or maybe not. Does a game need camera access? Probably not. If you never use the camera in a particular app, you can likely turn it off without consequence to that apps functionality. Be discerning!
Similarly, you can also control what apps have microphone access on iPhone and iPad. If you’re going through and auditing app access to camera for privacy or security purposes, you’d probably want to do the same for the microphone too.
Of course once you have taken pictures with the camera, there are apps that also want to access the photos on your iPhone or iPad too. Accordingly, separate from controlling camera access for apps you can also control what apps can access Photos on iPhone and iPad too. You’ll often find apps that want to have photos access that simply don’t need it.
It’s worth mentioning this is not the only time you can manage what apps have camera access on an iPhone or iPad. Usually when you first launch an app that wants to use the camera, a pop-up screen appears on the iPhone or iPad that says the app is requesting camera access. For example if you freshly install Instagram or another camera app you will find this request when you launch the app for the first time. Whether you choose “Allow” or “Disallow” at that screen will control access for that particular circumstance, but beyond that you can always find the apps which have requested camera access in this privacy list within the device Settings. And of course you can then adjust each app individually as to whether you want that app to have access to the device camera or not.
This obviously allows you to manage what apps can access and use the camera on an iPhone or iPad, but you can go further if you’d like to and disable the Camera app itself as well.
Need to archive an iTunes backup of an iPhone or iPad for safe-keeping? Creating an archived backup in iTunes is helpful because it allows you to preserve a specific device backup while still allowing for backing up to iTunes on Mac or PC, without those new backups overwriting the archived backup.
Creating routine backups of iPhone and iPad are important in general, but if you ever plan to try a beta release of system software like iOS public beta or iPadOS public beta, you’ll want to go a step further and archive an iTunes backup as well, since it makes it easier to revert to a prior release (like downgrading iOS 13) if necessary.
How to Archive iTunes Backup of iPhone or iPad on Mac & Windows
This obviously focuses on archiving backups in iTunes, but in MacOS Catalina these same actions are performed in the Finder, where device management occurs, rather than in iTunes.
Open the iTunes application if you have not done so already on Mac or Windows
Optionally, start and complete a new encrypted backup to iTunes if you wish to create a fresh backup to archive then proceed when finished
Pull down the iTunes menu and choose “Preferences”
Go to the “Devices” tab in iTunes Preferences
Under the Device Backups list locate the device backup you want to archive, then right-click on that backup and choose “Archive”
Ensure that the iPhone or iPad backup has been archived by checking for the lock icon and date stamp on the backup name, when finished click on “OK” to exit out of iTunes Preferences
Archiving a backup essentially locks that backup so that it is not overwritten by subsequent device backups made to iTunes.
Again, iCloud has no impact on backups in iTunes. You can backup to both iCloud and iTunes if desired.
Identifying Archived Backups in iTunes
In the device list this is easy to identify because there is a lock icon and a time and date stamp on when the backup was archived.
You can un-archive a backup by right-clicking on it from within the same Devices settings list, and of course you can also delete backups from iTunes there as well.
Remember that in iTunes it’s important to encrypt backups so that all Health data and sensitive data is also backed up, because without the backup encryption feature enabled that data will not be backed up to iTunes. Backing up iPhone or iPad to iCloud is encrypted by default and does not require the manual encryption setting.
Note you can not currently archive iCloud backups, so if you wish to preserve an iPhone or iPad backup you must use iTunes and archive the backup there, or a Mac with at least Catalina and archive the backup there.
Want to watch MKV videos stored in the Files app on an iPad? You can do that easily once you learn how. This makes it simple to keep locally stored MKV movies on iPad within the Files app to be able to watch directly on the device.
If you have an MKV video file in the Files app of iPad that you want to watch, you may have noticed that by default the Files app is not able to play mkv video files. But not to worry, with the help of a free app you can easily watch any MKV movie that is located in the Files app of an iPad.
Open the Files app on the iPad and navigate to the MKV movie file you want to watch
Tap on the MKV video and then tap on the Share button, it looks like a box with an arrow flying out of the top
Choose “Open in VLC” to open the MKV movie file into the VLC app*
Watch your MKV video in VLC, you can play, pause, fast forward, rewind, and perform all other expected video watching capabilities in VLC on iPad
*Sometimes you must first choose to “Copy to VLC” from the Sharing menu, then tap out of the Share sheet, wait a moment or two, and then open the Sharing screen again to choose “Open in VLC”.
Note that every time you wish to watch the MKV video in VLC you will need to manually choose to do so through the same Sharing menu within Files app.
With iPadOS 13 (and later) you can even use this same trick to watch MKV video files from the Files app that are on a local network share, so if you have an SMB file server you can access that through Files app and then load any mkv movies directly into VLC too.
If for some reason this method doesn’t work from playing the MKV video file directly from Files app on iPad or iPhone, you can also use the wi-fi upload method to VLC to watch MKV, AVI, and other videos on iPhone and iPad, which basically copies the movie file directly to the VLC app storage on the device.
Wondering how long an iCloud backup restore to an iPhone or iPad will take to complete? Restoring an iPhone or iPad from an iCloud Backup can take a while, depending on the size of the iCloud backup, and the speed of the internet connection the iOS device is connected to.
If you want to check on the progress of an active iCloud Restore, you can do so in modern versions of iOS.
How to Check Progress of iCloud Restore from Backup on iPhone or iPad
Open the “Settings” app in iOS
Tap on “Your Name” at the top of the Settings
Tap on “iCloud”
Tap on “iCloud Backup”
Locate the data remaining information on the iCloud backup restore process under the ‘Stop’ button to get a rough idea of how much longer the restore will take
The data remaining information will be shown in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).
It’s best to let the iCloud Restore process complete, however long it may take. Failure to let the iCloud restore from backup process complete can lead to permanent data loss.
Optionally, but not recommended, you can stop an iCloud Restore from backup to an iOS device. Stopping an iCloud Restore can result in data loss and is therefore not recommended unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
While the iCloud Restore process is ongoing, you may notice notably poor battery life on the iPador iPhone as the devices “Ongoing Restore” background activity and downloading of data uses more energy than usual. Letting the iCloud Restore process complete will return the device to normal expected battery performance.
Note that much earlier versions of iOS do not support this feature.
By comparison, checking the restore progress of an iTunes backup restore is much more obvious because the iTunes window has a progress indicator showing the current progress and how long it will take to complete.
Knowing how to put an iPhone 7 Plus or iPhone 7 into Recovery Mode can be valuable knowledge, as it is sometimes necessary for troubleshooting purposes.
Typically the need to use Recovery Mode is limited to troubleshooting some more unusual scenarios like when a device is completely stuck on an Apple logo, or if the screen shows a “Connect to iTunes” screen, but it can be used sometimes for downgrading of iOS versions too.
This tutorial will demonstrate you how to enter Recovery Mode on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. This guide also applies to putting iPod touch (7th generation) into Recovery Mode too.
How to Enter Recovery Mode on iPhone 7 Plus & iPhone 7
Be sure you have a backup of iPhone before entering recovery mode, failure to do so may result in permanent data loss.
Press and hold the Side Power button on the iPhone until you see the slide-to-power off screen
Drag the slider to turn off the iPhone
Hold down the Volume Down button while connecting the iPhone to the computer with a USB cable
Continue holding Volume Down button until you see the Recovery Mode screen as you open iTunes on the computer (Mac or Windows, or in macOS Catalina open Finder)
iTunes (or Finder) will detect the iPhone in Recovery Mode
After the iPhone is successfully detected and in Recovery Mode, it can be restored with iTunes (or Mac Finder in 10.15+), or updated.
You can also use IPSW files if needed after an iPhone is in recovery mode.
It’s important to note that putting the iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 7 into recovery mode is a different process from using Recovery Mode on prior iPhone models, and also from using Recovery Mode on later models. So if you’re accustomed to one method, recall that it can be a unique procedure depending on the actual iPhone model itself.
iCloud backup restores can be stopped at any time on newer iOS devices. This means that if you have chosen to restore an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from an iCloud backup, either when setting up a device with a prior iOS backup, or to restore a problematic device as a troubleshooting method, you can stop the iCloud Restore process at anytime. This article will explain how to stop an iCloud backup restore to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Stopping an iCloud Restore is generally not recommended and should not be taken lightly, as it may result in data loss.
Rarely, an iCloud Restore can get stuck, or the process take so long that it’s impractical to complete, thus it may need to be stopped as a troubleshooting method.
If you stop an iCloud Restore from iOS backup, any data that has not been restored will not be restored to the device in the future, nor will that missing data be backed up in the future, and therefore the unrestored data may become lost permanently if the restore is not allowed to complete.
Additionally, stopping an iCloud Restore to an iOS device offers no information as to what information was or was not restored to the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. In other words, you’ll have no idea what data was restored versus what data was not, so you could theoretically be missing photos, videos, notes, contacts, apps, app data, files, documents, or other important information by stopping the iCloud Restore.
How to Stop an iCloud Restore on iPhone or iPad
Warning: stopping an iCloud Restore may result in data loss.
Open the “Settings” app in iOS
Tap on “Your Name” at the top of the Settings list to access iCloud settings
Next tap on “iCloud”
Now tap on and choose “iCloud Backup”
Tap on “Stop Restoring iPad” (or “Stop Restoring iPhone”)
Confirm that you want to stop restoring from iCloud by tapping on “Stop”
As the final confirmation dialog message suggests, stopping an iCloud Restore to an iPhone or iPad will stop any data that has not yet been downloaded from being downloaded, and that missing data will not be restored or backed up again in the future.
Currently, iOS does not provide a list of data that has been restored, or has not yet been restored, and so if you stop the restore process from iCloud you will not have any idea as to what was restored or what wasn’t. This is one of many reasons why it is not recommended to stop an iCloud Restore, as you may permanently lose data or other important stuff.
Broadly speaking, it is recommended to let the entire iCloud Restore process complete, regardless of the scenario, or whether setting up a new iOS device from a previously made backup to iCloud, or restoring a device for troubleshooting, or whatever other purpose. iCloud Restore can take a long time depending on the size of the backup being restored, and the speed of the internet connection that the iPhone or iPad is connected to. You may notice that the “Ongoing Restore” process is causing battery drain of a newly setup iOS device, but that will stop when the backup has completed.
If you are going to stop an iCloud Restore because it’s stuck or for some other reason and thus want to start the entire iCloud Restore from a backup process over again, you may want to reset the iPhone to factory default settings or reset the iPad to factory settings, and then during the fresh device setup, choose to restore the appropriate iOS backup again, either from iCloud or from iTunes. If you’re using iCloud Restore, be sure to have a fast and reliable high speed internet connection.
