Tired of your iPhone getting constant spam calls and junk calls? For many of us, a steady stream of spam calls plague our cell phones, and while you can block the phone numbers the call spammers are always a step ahead and typically use different phone numbers for each new spam call, making it a challenge to be on top of.
That’s where the iPhone feature for silencing unknown callers steps in, which does a great job of eliminating spam calls by sending unknown callers to voicemail.
How to Enable “Silence Unknown Callers” on iPhone
Open the “Settings” app an iPhone
Go to “Phone” settings
Scroll down to locate “Silence Unknown Callers” and toggle that feature to the ON position
Exit out of Settings as usual
Once this feature is turned on, your iPhone will no longer ring aloud or vibrate when an unrecognized caller is calling your phone.
Instead, calls from unknown numbers are automatically silenced and routed to voicemail, and they’ll also appear in the Phone apps “Recents” call list so you can always check to see if you missed an important call.
Meanwhile, incoming calls from anyone in your contacts will still ring through, as well as incoming calls from any of your recent outgoing calls, and any numbers found by Siri Suggestions (through Mail app and elsewhere).
This is probably fairly obvious, but you should make sure that all the contacts you do want to be able to reach you easily are already added as contacts to your iPhone. You can easily add contacts to iPhone through the Contacts app, where you can add a persons or businesses name, phone number(s), email addresses, and more.
This is a really handy feature if your iPhone is regularly ringing and vibrating from the myriad endless junk and spam calls that many cell phones are plagued with in the USA. We’ve previously covered some workarounds to block unknown and unidentified callers before, but this new system-level feature takes that basic idea and expands it and makes it a bit more intelligent.
This particular “Silence Unknown Callers” feature is available only for iPhone with iOS 13 and later, but earlier models can still use this approach to block unknown callers by using Do Not Disturb and allowing calls only from your contacts to come through.
Wondering which Mac and iPad models support Sidecar? If you’re curious as to whether or not a Mac and iPad is compatible with Sidecar, you’ll find the list of supported devices below to be helpful. Not all Mac and iPad models support the feature, but most new models do.
Sidecar is the helpful new feature introduced in MacOS Catalina 10.15 and iPadOS 13 that allows an iPad to function as an external display for a Mac, with full touch screen support on the iPad as well as the ability you use Apple Pencil. Some MacOS Catalina users have attempted to use Sidecar but found it’s not working on their Mac and iPad combination, perhaps thinking it’s a problem with MacOS Catalinawhen in fact it’s just a matter of system compatibility. So let’s review which devices Sidecar works for.
Sidecar System Requirements for Mac & iPad
Sidecar is only compatible with some of the latest models of iPad and Mac hardware.
iPad Models with Sidecar Support
iPad must be running iPadOS 13 or later, and must be one of the following devices:
iPad Pro (all models, including 9.7″ iPad Pro, 10.5″ iPad Pro, 11″ iPad Pro, 12.9″ iPad Pro, all generations)
iPad Air (3rd generation and newer)
iPad (7th generation and newer)
iPad (6th generation and newer)
iPad mini 5 (and newer)
You might notice that only the iPad models with Apple Pencil support will also support Sidecar (and yes, you can use Sidecar without having an Apple Pencil, just use touch interaction instead).
Macs with Sidecar Compatibility
The Mac must be running MacOS Catalina 10.15 or later, and must be one of the following computers:
MacBook Pro (2016) or newer
MacBook Air (2018) or newer
MacBook (Early 2016) or newer
Mac Mini (2018) or newer
Mac Pro (2019)
iMac Pro (2017) or newer
iMac 27″ (Late 2015) or newer
For Mac, you can confirm that Sidecar is enabled and available on the Mac by going to the System Preferences and checking the Sidecar preferences.
Assuming you meet the system requirements for using Sidecar on Mac and iPad, you must have the two devices with Handoff enabled and within range of one another, and the feature should work and be available.
As you can see, there are various other iPad and Mac models that do not support Sidecar, even if they otherwise compatible with MacOS Catalina and compatible with iPadOS 13. So if you have recently updated your devices to the latest operating systems but find the feature is not available or is not working, perhaps it’s because of a compatibility issue with the hardware not being supported, rather than a problem with the Sidecar feature itself.
You might be asking yourself how to delete apps in iOS 13, now that when you long-press on an app icon you see a contextual menu. The functionality for deleting apps and removing them from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch remains in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, but it’s just slightly different enough than it was before to possibly cause people to wonder how it works, or even if deleting apps is still possible.
Read on to learn how to delete apps in iOS 13 and later on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
How to Delete Apps from iOS 13 & iPadOS 13
Here is how you delete apps in iOS 13 and later on the iPhone or iPod touch, and iPadOS 13 or later on iPad :
From the Home Screen, navigate to the app you want to delete
Tap and hold on the app icon that you want to delete, continue holding until a pop-up menu appears
Continue holding the tap until the pop-up menu vanishes and all the app icons start to wiggle, do not let go of the tap until the icons wiggle
Tap the “(X)” button on the app you want to delete
Tap to confirm that you want to delete the app in question
When finished deleting apps, tap the “Done” button in the corner, or use the Home gesture to stop the apps jiggling
That’s all there is to it, slightly different from before, but not too different.
The main thing to keep in mind with deleting apps from iOS 13 is that you have to keep holding the tap until the icons start jiggling, which is just as it was before except now there’s a little contextual pop-up menu that shows up first. This can be a little confusing at first, but with practice you’ll quickly get the hang of it. Just keep holding on that app icon tap and ignore the contextual popup menu (or choose “Rearrange apps” from that menu), then in a moment the icons will wiggle and you can delete the app as usual.
You can also delete apps by choosing “Rearrange apps” from the pop-up menu that shows up, and likewise you can rearrange apps in iOS 13.x and iPadOS 13.x using the same method by tapping and holding on an app icon until they jiggle and then move the apps around as usual.
The very short video embedded below demonstrates how to delete apps on iOS 13 and later on iPhone, the entire process of deleting an app from start to finish is seconds long as you can see in the video itself :
You can also delete apps directly from within the App Store too now, through the Updates section, allowing you to easily uninstall apps from the same place you installed them from originally. Speaking of the App Store
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.
How’s your battery life since updating to iOS 13? If you recently updated to iOS 13 and now feel like iPhone battery is worse or draining faster than usual, then you’re probably not alone. Every year, when a new iOS release comes out, with it comes a host of complaints about draining battery and reduced battery life, and with iOS 13 there is no exception with some users who feel their devices battery is much worse than before.
If you think battery life has decreased since updating to iOS 13, read on to learn why this might be, and what you can do about it to improve battery life in iOS 13.
10 Tips to Fix iOS 13 Battery Life Draining Issues
Here are ten tips and tricks to help resolve bad battery life with iOS 13 and ipadOS 13.
1: Just updated to iOS 13 and battery life is worse? Patience!
If you just now updated to iOS 13 (or sometime quite recently) and have discovered battery life is notably worse on an iPhone with iOS 13, there may be a good reason for that and it’s directly related to updating iOS system software, so don’t freak out because this will likely resolve on it’s own.
When you update to iOS 13, iOS will go through a variety of background tasks and maintenance activity, including things like indexing the device with Spotlight, Photos, finalizing restores with iCloud, other iCloud activity, amongst other system-level tasks. Not everyone notices any change in battery as a result of this background activity, but some users may feel like their battery is draining quicker than before.
Not to worry, the solution to this is as simple as can be: plug in the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and wait.
A great time to do this is just plug in your device that just installed iOS 13 and leave it plugged in to charge over night, and make sure it’s connected to wi-fi. Depending on how much stuff is on the iPhone or iPad, usually it only takes a few hours, but sometimes it may take a day or two for things to settle down, particularly if the device is restoring a ton of stuff from iCloud or syncing data from elsewhere.
2: Install New Software Updates to iOS and Apps
iOS 13 came out and was quickly followed by iOS 13.1 which may have been overlooked by some users due to their release proximity to one another, so be sure you check for and install new iOS system software updates when they arrive.
You can check for new iOS updates by going to Settings app > General > Software Update
Likewise, you might want to update apps as well, since some may have bugs that were patched. With iOS 13 and later, you can update apps by going to App Store > Click your profile icon in the corner > Updates
Software updates often contain bug fixes and improvements, and if something like a bug or known issue is impacting battery life it’s likely to be resolved in a future software update.
3: See What’s Consuming iOS 13 Battery Life
You can easily see what apps and activity is using your battery by going to the iOS Settings app:
Open the Settings app and then choose “Battery”
Look through the list to see what apps and services are using battery
You’ll often find that apps that use video or location drain a lot of battery, so things like social networks, video streaming, and games are often high consumers of battery power.
If you see an app that is draining battery but you don’t even use the app, simply deleting the app from iOS 13 is likely reasonable – why keep something you don’t use anyway?
4: Check if Battery is Healthy & Operating Properly
You can check iPhone battery health through Battery settings as well.
Open the Settings app and then choose “Battery”
Go to “Battery Health”
If the battery is not operating at peak performance it may need to be replaced to restore full functionality and expected battery life to the iPhone.
5: Disable Background App Refresh in iOS
Background App Refresh allows apps in the background to stay updated and refresh themselves, but doing so can have a negative impact on battery life because it means that inactive apps can still use resources on the iPhone or iPad.
Open the “Settings” app, then go to “General”
Choose “Background App Refresh” and turn this switch to the OFF position
Disabling Background App Refresh on iPhone or iPad is often used as an easy way to improve battery life on devices, and iOS 13 is no different.
6: Lower the Brightness of the Display
Having the display brightness up very high at or near 100% can look very nice but it also reduces battery life due to increased power consumption. If you’re indoors in particular, lowering screen brightness can make a notable difference in reducing batter drain.
Open the “Settings” app then go to “Display & Brightness”
Adjust the brightness slider to a lower level while still allowing you to see the screen well
How bright or dim you keep your iPhone is going to be different for everyone, so just mess around with it and find what works for you.
You can also access display brightness at anytime through Control Center in iOS 13.
7: Disable Raise to Wake & Tap to Wake
Raise to Wake uses the accelerometer on iPhone to determine if the iPhone is being lifted up and then wakes the screen accordingly, and it works quite well. But having this feature on can also cause the screen to be on more than it may otherwise be for some users, particularly if you walk or jog with your iPhone in your hand.
Open “Settings” and go to “Display & Brightness”
Locate “Raise to Wake” and turn it off
If you have disabled raise to wake and later wish to turn it back on again, it’s just a matter of toggling that same setting back on.
8: Use Low Power Mode on iPhone
Low Power Mode is an excellent feature that reduces activity and power on the iPhone to prolong the battery life, and it can offer a huge boost to battery life on iPhone in iOS 13 and other versions too.
Open the Settings app, then go to “Battery”
Toggle “Low Power Mode” to be ON
When Low Power Mode is on, you’ll notice the battery icon in your iPhone menu bar is yellow in color to indicate so.
9: Disable Unneeded Location Services for Apps
Location Services are undeniably useful but they can use a lot of battery life. Outside of apps like Maps for getting directions, there are tons of other apps that may want your location but don’t actually need it to function, so turning those off can be helpful and may improve battery life in iOS 13 for you:
Open the Settings app, then go to “Privacy”
Choose “Location Services”
Scroll down to the app list an disable location access for apps that do not explicitly require location data for core functionality by tapping on them and choosing “Never” or “While Using the App”
You can also explore the “System Services” section and decide if you want some of those features to access your location or not.
10: Force Reboot the iPhone
Sometimes just forcing the iPhone or iPad to reboot can resolve battery issues, particularly if there’s some errant background app behavior or something else unusual going on. How you force reboot a device depends on the iPhone:
• Force rebooting iPhone XS, iPhone XR,iPhone XS Max, iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus: Click the Volume Up button then let go, click the Volume Down button then let it go, now press and hold down the Power button and continue to hold the Power button until the Apple logo appears on the screen. This is how to force restart iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max (and iPhone 11 too).
• Force rebooting iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus: Hold down the Power Button and Volume Down button until you see the Apple logo on screen. This action will restart the iPhone 7.
• Force rebooting iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE: Hold down the Power Button and Home button together until you see the apple logo on the display. That is how to force reboot any iPhone or iPad with a clickable Home button.
Need to convert a Numbers file to an Excel spreadsheet file from iPad or iPhone? This is a common task for many work and educational environments where Excel is commonly used, and fortunately this process is easy to accomplish thanks to the Numbers app Export features.
This article will show you how to convert a Numbers document to an Excel spreadsheet file using an iPad or iPhone, the end result will be an Excel file in XLS / XLSX file format.
Note this is specifically for iPhone and iPad, but if you’re on a desktop or laptop then you can learn how to convert a Numbers file to Excel spreadsheet on Mac too.
How to Convert a Numbers File to Excel File on iPhone & iPad
Open the Numbers app on iPad or iPhone, then open the Numbers file or spreadsheet document you wish to convert
Tap on the (…) three dots button in the top right corner of the screen
Select on “Export” from the menu
Choose to export the file as “Excel” from the export options
Select the method you wish to save or share the converted Excel file as: save to Files app, iCloud Drive, send with AirDrop, send with Email, share with Messages, etc
Repeat this process with other Numbers files to convert them to Excel files as needed
The resulting exported Excel file can be opened by any app that opens Excel documents, whether that’s Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, LibreOffice, StarOffice, or Numbers on iPad, iPhone, or Mac.
Note that if you share the file directly from the Numbers app, say by exporting it as an Excel document and emailing it to someone, the original file will stay in the Numbers app in the Numbers file format. If you want to have physical access to an Excel file on iPad or iPhone, you’ll need to save it locally to the Files app or to iCloud Drive.
As mentioned earlier, if you’re on a Macintosh then you can also convert Numbers files to Excel spreadsheets in Mac OS too using a similar export process. You can even use iCloud.com to convert these documents too, but that’s a topic for another article entirely.
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.
