General Apple Megathread

[chemgear]

I haven't been keeping up with these (if you need the latest iPhone for it) but apparently the AirPods just came up for pre-order in Canada.

http://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MMEF2C/A/airpods

[Meelapo]

Originally Posted by photon

The NVRAM/PRAM settings might be messed up, could try resetting that.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204063

If it's an old enough version of OSX you could also try repairing permissions.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201560

Those are more general things, not totally sure how Mac does its sleep stuff, so not sure if a hardware issue could cause it too. Could disable sleep entirely just to see what happens.

Thanks! I'll give it a try tonight!

[Jimmy Stang]

Just to update my iPhone 6 battery issues (if anyone cares, but even if you don't!).

A full wipe and restore actually seemed to make my battery drain less quickly in general. But the battery is still very erratic and loses large chunks at once, shuts off randomly with plenty of battery remaining, etc.

So I'm booked in to the Genius Bar for Thursday. I'll be sure to namedrop "zzibradleyizz" from the Internet in the hopes that I can get the same free replacement. Although I may say that a friend from work just had his replaced for free and we had the same symptoms.

That being said, I'll still probably hand over the $99 to have it replaced properly, as that will extend the life of my phone for another year at least.

I actually looked into just getting a new phone from Fido because my 2-year agreement is up, thinking it might be cheaper just to get a 6s on a new 2-year agreement. . They have restructured their plans into a bunch of +10, +15, +20 garbage as a way to get you to abandon your current plan and sign onto a new one. Basically, each plan pays extra that subsidizes the cost of your phone. The trouble is, my grandfathered 6 gig plan (about $65/month, all in) is a +10 plan, so an iPhone 7 would cost me nearly $600 with a new 2-year agreement. An iPhone 6s would still cost nearly $400 on a 2-year agreement.

If I want more subsidizing on my phone, I could switch to another plan that would see me spending $20 or $25 more per month, only to save the equivalent on the hardware. But then, of course, you're locked into that price after your agreement expires.

I'll be keeping my current plan for myself and my wife, as I can't beat it in terms of data vs. cost. But knowing that I won't be able to get as good of a price on my next phone upgrade, I'm going to start self-subsidizing by tucking a little money away each month into a separate account. In the long run, I'll pay the same or less than letting Fido spread it out over two years. That will at least reduce the sticker shock when the time comes for an upgrade.

[Meelapo]

Thanks for posting that. My wife has been going through the exact same issue. I was hoping a full wipe and restore would fix it but I'm not convinced. Let us know what happens after your Genius Bar appointment.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Meelapo

Thanks for posting that. My wife has been going through the exact same issue. I was hoping a full wipe and restore would fix it but I'm not convinced. Let us know what happens after your Genius Bar appointment.

If you do a backup/restore, just make sure that you backup photos and other important things separately by copying them off of the phone manually. If you see further up in the thread, my iTunes backup was corrupted somehow, and I had to fork out some money for a utility to un-corrupt it. If all of my photos were safe, I wouldn't have had a problem with starting completely fresh.

I have never had a problem with restoring from a backup before, but it is still my own fault for not backing up the photos separately and trusting a single backup.

I'll let you know what the verdict is tomorrow.

[REDVAN]

Do you guys use iCloud for backups or are you just doing manual hard backups to your machines?

I am currently using iCloud almost exclusively (I copy all photos maybe twice a year) and I have a bunch of family photos I don't want to lose if the iCloud backups are corrupting.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

Do you guys use iCloud for backups or are you just doing manual hard backups to your machines?

I am currently using iCloud almost exclusively (I copy all photos maybe twice a year) and I have a bunch of family photos I don't want to lose if the iCloud backups are corrupting.

Mine was on my PC with iTunes. I found that iCloud just didn't have enough space to backup the photos properly.

[BsFaninCGY]

I use an app called PhotoSync for backing up photo's and videos (in addition to iCloud backups). Works like a charm and well worth the $3.99 IMO.

[gottabekd]

Google Photos can back up all your photos and videos. There are two quality options.

https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6220791?hl=en
High quality

• Unlimited free storage.
• Regular cameras: Recommended for phones or point-and-shoot cameras that are 16 megapixels (MP) or less.
• Uses: Good for typical printing and sharing.
• Size: Saves high-quality photos and videos while reducing size.

Original

• Limited free storage: Uses storage in your Google Account, regardless of photo or video size.
• DSLR cameras: Recommended if you take photos with a DSLR camera and want to maintain the exact original quality.
• Uses: Recommended for printing large banners or to store original files.
• Size: Stores your photos and videos exactly as you captured them.
  If you use a Pixel phone, you get free unlimited storage at original quality. You won't be able to back up your photos and videos in high quality.

So, if you want a free backup option for photos, and aren't a photog, you can use the Google Photos free option (you know, as long as you don't mind Google running its learning algorithms through your photos, and whatever other privacy you give up for it being free).

[Wormius]

Anybody know if you can get the mail app to display attachment links near the top, instead of all the way at the bottom of what could be a long email chain?

[REDVAN]

If it's a picture you can long press in the body where you want it and insert photo there. Not sure if you can do that w/ other types of attachments.

[Wormius]

It's more in the case where somebody has attached a PDF or document to an email and I want to open it. The mail app puts the link to the attachment all the way at the end of the email.

[Jimmy Stang]

My visit to the Genius Bar (Market Mall) for my battery issues went better than I could have imagined. They started out by doing a couple of diagnostic tests. The first showed that the battery was "healthy", although nearing the zone where it could be considered "exhausted" or "depleted" (I forget the exact term that they used). But that was based on charge cycles, and it has been two years as my primary phone, so this was not unexpected at all.

The next test was the one that zzibradleyizz mentioned. It showed my battery usage in a visual graph, with all of the ups and downs. And sure enough, there were a couple of notable days where I had sudden drops in power that appeared on the graph. I told her that I could understand if the battery life became shortened over time, because that's what batteries do, but the erratic nature of the battery has made it difficult to function (tiny violin).

She asked if I had a recent backup, and if I'd like to try and reset the firmware. Apparently the firmware rarely gets fully reinstalled when you do OS updates, but rather appended to. So there was a chance that there could be an issue there, which made a little bit of sense because my issues became more pronounced after the iOS 10 update (the iOS updates have updates to firmware, but rarely fully replace it unless manually forced to do so).

While the firmware was being reinstalled, she discussed my out-of-warranty options: a $99 battery replacement, or replacing the phone. If, of course, the firmware didn't fix it. I subtly and politely inserted my "guy from work just had his done for free, and it was over two years old as well, I was hoping to be as lucky, etc. etc." And my Genius politely deflected and said "let's see what the firmware does first."

As the firmware update completed, she was asking me to try it out like this for a while, and monitor the usage. And if the battery issues returned after I restored from my backup, come back and we'll look at a battery replacement. And then, right on queue as we were both looking at my phone, the battery tanked about 30% instantly. "OK - let me go and talk to someone about this."

So she went out of earshot, and talked to some master Genius guy. A few minutes later, she returned and said that they'd do a replacement for free on the phone. Mission accomplished! The only downside was that the repair window was about 2 hours, but that's no big deal. I picked my kid up from school and returned to the mall.

When a new, different genius sat down to tell me about my phone, she said "oh - this one. I remember this one." And continued to tell me that they were actually out of stock of the replacement batteries. I figured I'd have to come back in a few days to get the switch done, which would have been a little bit frustrating after all of the running around, but being free, I'd still take it.

She then unwrapped a new iPhone 6 and handed it to me and took my old one away. Sure, it is still a new copy of a 2-year-old phone, but I am perfectly happy with my 6, and I certainly didn't expect a new one. I asked if it was a refurb, and she assured me that it wasn't.

TLDR, I know, but I do hope that it helps others in the same boat. And thanks to Bradley (I'm not doing all of those zeds again!) and everyone else for the discussion!

[zzibradleyizz]

Good news! Glad it worked out for you just like it did for me!

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

She then unwrapped a new iPhone 6 and handed it to me and took my old one away. Sure, it is still a new copy of a 2-year-old phone, but I am perfectly happy with my 6, and I certainly didn't expect a new one. I asked if it was a refurb, and she assured me that it wasn't.

Even if it was a refurb, I bet you wouldn't notice! Sure, there some that are pretty worn out and tough refurbish, but considering the bulletproof armor people encase their phones in these days, it can be really hard to tell they swapped the battery and reset the system.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Even if it was a refurb, I bet you wouldn't notice! Sure, there some that are pretty worn out and tough refurbish, but considering the bulletproof armor people encase their phones in these days, it can be really hard to tell they swapped the battery and reset the system.

Absolutely. I still wouldn't have grumbled, as long as the battery was new!

I have even taken the opportunity to start fresh instead of restoring from my backup. It has forced me to install on the apps that I need, as I need them. A bit of a hassle, but a good excuse to tidy things up!

[TorqueDog]

I'm testing it right now and I'll report back shortly with some results, but I've been experiencing a weird issue with my iPhone SE on the latest iOS 10.1.1.

My battery on the SE will last me -- easily -- from 9 AM - 11 PM and I'll go to bed with 20% remaining. That's with heavy use of e-mail (Outlook and OWA app), texting, WhatsApp, IG, occasional games, Groove Music, and OneDrive lurking in the background to back up my photos. WiFi and Bluetooth are always on, screen brightness is set low.

But as soon as I board an airplane and put the device into airplane mode, the battery takes a royal sh*t-kicking like I've never seen before. I did the YYC -> YEG -> YYC loop for lunch yesterday (needed the segments to maintain my Air Canada status) and my battery dropped from 92% to 36% in a matter of three hours... two one-hour flights with an hour and a bit between them. Once I was back on the ground, that 36% lasted me from 2:30 PM until around 9 PM yesterday when I finally threw it on the charger at 5%.

This is completely the opposite behavior I expect. My Lumia 950XL had dreadful battery life while being used for normal things and would be dead by dinner if I hadn't charged it at some point during the day, but on Airplane mode, the thing sipped at the battery quite sparingly.

I wish iOS had more customizable battery usage metrics. 24 hours or 7 days doesn't help pinpoint what is going on in a three hour window where my battery gets decimated.

[burn_this_city]

My 6S is exhibiting similar battery issues. Dies often with 35-60% battery life and has no tolerance for the cold. Apps like Pokemon Go kill the device during loading when the battery is half or less.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

My 6S is exhibiting similar battery issues. Dies often with 35-60% battery life and has no tolerance for the cold. Apps like Pokemon Go kill the device during loading when the battery is half or less.

My wife just got this fixed for free at Apple Store. I think Apple released a statement that they would replace the batter ton all 6s for free.

[OldDutch]

Came in to post the same thing:

https://www.apple.com/support/iphone...ectedshutdown/

EDIT: Link is to Apple's website where you can put in your 6s Serial and see if you qualify. Mine and wifes did.

Don't pay for a replacement until you verify on the link, although I doubt Apple would scam anyone who wasn't aware. Oh and if paid in the past for a fix/replacement go back and they are supposed to refund you.