61 FAST FIXES!
Apple tech is reassuringly reliable, but it’s easy to get bewildered when you hit an issue. Fortunately, we’ve got a round–up of easy Mac, iPhone and iPad remedies for you
WRITTEN BY IAN OSBORNE
ONE OF THE greatest advantages of Apple gear is simply how easy, user–friendly, and intuitive they are to use. You don’t have to dig your way through endless patches before your apps are compatible with your hardware, or puzzle through quirks and hiccups caused by multiple versions of your phone’s operating system. Instead, to use Apple’s oft–quoted marketing slogan, "it just works".
But what about when it doesn’t? What if something goes wrong, and you don’t know what to do? You’ve just plugged in a flash drive, but it isn’t recognized by macOS. How do you solve this? Your iPhone is lost or stolen. How do you locate it? You’ve plugged your iPad into the wall, but it isn’t charging. What could be wrong?
In this article, we provide a range of fixes and problem–solving tips for your Mac, iPhone or iPad. Whether you’ve hit a snag that needs a workaround, or you simply want to know how to do something on your Apple device, we show you how.
The golden rule
If your Apple device isn’t behaving as it should, the first thing you should do is restart it. Turning it off and rebooting solves a great number of problems, and it works for all sorts of technology gear: your Mac, iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, of course, but also your router, smart TV, internet– enabled radio, connected kettle and just about anything else. We’ll tell you exactly how to reboot your individual Apple devices later.
Solutions for Mac
Having problems with your notebook or desktop? We can help
1 Restart your Mac
Click on the Apple menu in the top– left corner of your Mac’s screen, and from the menu that appears, select Restart. A window opens inviting you to Cancel or Restart. Click on Restart, and your Mac shuts down and reboots, hopefully solving the problem in the process. If you can’t do this, maybe because your Mac has crashed or failed to boot up correctly when you switched it on, press and hold the Power button until it turns off. Count to ten to make sure everything has switched off completely, then press it again to restart the Mac.
2 Start in Safe Mode
Restarting in Safe Mode stops the Mac from loading certain elements, like login items or system extensions. It can be used to ascertain whether a problem has been caused by something you recently added. If your Mac has an Apple silicon chip, shut it down then press and hold the Power button until its startup options appear on the screen. Choose the drive you want to boot from, then hold Shift and click "Continue in Safe Mode"; log in. If you have a Mac with an Intel processor, restart your Mac while holding the Shift key. Release it when you see the login window, then log in as usual. You may be asked to do so a second time. When you see Safe Boot in the top–right corner of a login window, click it.
3 Reset PRAM/NVRAM
This tip only applies to Macs that use Intel or older PowerPC processors. Resetting PRAM/NVRAM isn’t necessary on Apple silicon Macs; a simple restart is sufficient. PRAM (Parameter RAM, found in PowerPC Macs) and NVRAM (Non–volatile RAM, in Intel Macs) stores information such as boot
volume, sound volume, screen resolution and more. If you have a problem in these areas, resetting PRAM/NVRAM as you boot up might fix it. Restart your Mac while holding down the P, R, Cmd and Opt keys. Let go when you hear the second tone or the Apple logo appears and disappears for the second time. When it reboots, you might need to reapply settings that have been reset.
4 Mac can’t read external drive
If a USB flash drive or external storage drive cannot be read by your Mac, you should get a pop–up window inviting you to reformat it. If this doesn’t happen, open Disk Utility manually. Either way, in Disk Utility, click on the drive in question in the sidebar, then click Erase in the toolbar. Type a name for the drive (anything you like), and choose a format from the options. If you’re only going to use it with a modern Mac, choose APFS (encrypted or otherwise). Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is slower, but works with legacy versions of macOS/OS X as well as recent ones. If you want to use the drive with Windows and Linux PCs as well as your Mac, use exFAT.
5 Update macOS/apps
If you’re having trouble with an individual app, check to see if there’s an update available. Click the Apple menu, and if there’s a numbered Update badge next to App Store, you have apps that need updating. Select the App Store option in the menu to open it, click Updates in the sidebar and update your apps. In the Apple menu, if there’s a numbered Update badge next to System Settings, you have an operating system update to apply. Select this option to open your System Settings, and go to General > Software Update.