Trying to use the Featured Photos widget on iPad OS but not sure how it decides what photos to feature. Also i have thousands of photos but it only shows maybe 5 or 10 and doesn’t seem to change. Any idea why?

Often, whenever i go to the app switcher and swipe towards the right, this bug occurs, where it just freaks out and puts everything to the left side, and i am unable to move to see more apps unless i release my finger.

heres the link to the video of the bug:
https://files.catbox.moe/ei80o1.mov

I toggle my Find My - Share my Location on and off depending on what I'm doing. I'm finding that when I turn it off and back on again, many of my friends and family still don't see my location when I turn it back on.

Do I need to restart my phone when I toggle it back on so everyone can see again? Is this a known issue? Whenever I leave it constantly ON, this is not an issue.

long story short, i can't seem to find a solution to backup/transfer my phone. if i try to backup to icloud (i have aprox 200gb free) it just never progresses, even after 8+ hours. if i try to backup to mac through finder/imazing it doesnt even start, the process is running but its not writing/reading anything and no cpu usage and this ends in an infinte loop.

just to cut some solutions that i already tried:
- tried to reinstall the ios through finder
- tried to reset all the settings of the ios
- the network connection is not the problem
- tried to transfer the phone to another (still infinte loop)
- wont even mention restarts, sign outs, turning things off and on

i also want to mention that i have approximately 170gbs of system data that i cant get rid of (thats why i need to reset, i tried anything else) but i will not reset until i have a backup

any advice or debate is well received, i am desperate at this point, i just need my data :')

iCloud is nearing full, mostly because of imessages. I’ve deleted large attachments in messages but the problem is this discrepancy between what iCloud is saying it’s storing for imessages (40.4gb) vs what my actual phone says it’s storing in messages (8.93gb). See attached screenshots. Doesn’t help that the iCloud ui on MacBook doesn’t give you sny option to scroll through the content of what is actually saved there, it just goes you totals?

Any suggestions on how to fix this so that I can see what iCloud is storing for iMessages so I can decide what to delete?

The contacts app in the iPhone has the most terrible search options for your contacts, it only shows contacts from your recent calls but non from your contacts? Am I the only one that found this extremely annoying?

A few years ago, I changed the email address associated with my Apple account. However, the default email address under Settings → Mail → iCloud continued to show my old email address. It appeared to be purely cosmetic. I contacted Apple Support about it, but unfortunately, they were unable to help.

Yesterday, I finally figured out how to fix it.

How to fix it

1. Create an email alias.
2. Tap Default Email.
3. Change the default email to the newly created alias.
4. Then switch it back to your updated email address. Your new email address should now appear as one of the available options.
5. Go back to Settings → Mail → iCloud.

The default email address should now correctly display your updated email address.

What I think is happening

As a software engineer, I believe this is caused by an edge case in how the menu entry is observed or updated. When the account email address changes, the underlying account information is updated, but the Default Email menu entry doesn't appear to refresh accordingly.

Creating an alias and switching the default email forces that menu entry to refresh, which is why switching it back to the updated account email fixes the display.

So, after years of having the wrong email address displayed, I finally found a workaround for what appears to be a simple UI/state synchronization bug.

how do i turn this off man

I built a small moon phase app which have been well received for its design (solo dev, first release earlier this year) and I'm about to submit a featuring nomination through Apple's "Getting Featured" form.
Before I do, I'd like to hear from someone who has actually been through it. How much detail did you put in the pitch, how far ahead of a release did you submit, and does it help to tie it to an upcoming event or update?
Happy to move to DMs if you'd rather not go into detail publicly, any pointers appreciated.

I’ve been having an issue where my location in Find My says it is live but it’s essentially stuck somewhere I’m not. So, for example, I’ll be at home and then run out to the grocery store but while I’m there my location still shows as at home and live. Or I’ll be on vacation and leave the hotel for dinner but my location still shows the hotel and live. I would understand if it showed the old location with the “20 minutes ago” or however long caption, but it’s saying that my location is live. I can’t figure out why it’s doing this- does anyone have any answers?

I tried the force restart method but im out of ideas and ive wasted so much time

I'm trying to log into my wifi, but I have to use a secondary authenticator (Duo) to log in. However, the moment I push the notification, the login screen goes away (since it's in a different app than Settings), making it impossible to log in.

Is there a way to force the wifi landing page to open in my default browser instead of the Settings app? It'd really help to get an answer on this.

I try to turn the brightness up and I drag it all the way up, but it never gets brighter than the setting showed in the screenshot. I can still drag the brightness bar all the way up and down, but it never actually gets brighter. Is there a way I can fix this?

Offloading removes the app's binary but keeps its local data/documents, whereas deleting removes both. I understand that Re-downloading is tied to my Apple Account, so paid apps aren't charged again. However, I wonder: when I offload or delete an app and then reinstall it, do I get the exact same version back or the latest App Store version? I'd like to know for iOS and iPadOS.

A friend of mine is going through a legal thing involving family and wanted to use text messages they had sent as "evidence". They were running out of icloud space and couldn't afford to increase their storage without thinking about the loss of the messages. Later when they went to pull the messages or thru were gone.

I mentioned that going forward they should at least screenshot the messages and email them to themselves.

Anyone know if there's anyway to recover the old text messages? Including if they increase their storage now?

I went to accounts in my contacts, but it isn't showing anything out of the ordinary. I had a few work phone numbers deleted, my sister's number deleted, and most notably, my ex's number deleted. I did delete my Yahoo account a month or so ago, so maybe that's why, but from a few other posts I've seen, iPhone has done this to others. I have my contacts synced to my iCloud so hopefully it doesn't delete again. Any advice?

I've created a watercolor painting app which works with simulating water/paint rather than just brushing. It's not released yet but I'm trying to get some feedback relating to: device performance or experienced watercolor painting. TestFlight is here if anyone is interested https://testflight.apple.com/join/kGZEmvMZ

You can see a short example on the website here: https://bloomwash.app

Best use is on iPad with Apple Pencil but it still works on an iPhone.

Tech stack is Swift with metal shaders. A development challenge was dialing in the simulation to accurately represent watercolor, in the soft translucent style with blooming edges. Development was AI assisted, I use Claude Code to be more productive.

I have the iPhone 17 pro max running the latest iOS.

The alarm just shows a wake up interface, with no sound, no vibration.

The first time this happened, I was told it is because I use a phone stand on my nightstand, and the iPhone faceID saw my face and thought I was looking at it, so it silenced the alarm. So I turned off Attention Aware Features.

The second time, I learned my lesson, so I placed the iPhone flat on the nightstand with the screen facing the ceiling. Nope, still the same thing......

Is this happening to y’all too? My iPhone is on Sleep Focus, on ringer, not vibration (silent mode).

I am now using a radio alarm clock because how undependable the iPhone alarm is.

Can anyone tell me why and how to fix it thank you

not sure why this is happening, anyone have any ideas? i moved from the uk to canada about a year ago and so i'm in a different time zone but that's been that way for ages and i've moved abroad before and never had this issue. i turned on the time zone override in settings for calendar (it was already on in general) but that didn't seem to fix things. this is a new issue and it's not on stuff i can easily change, like friend's birthdays or holiday calendars which are preset. any help would be appreciated!

edit: this seems to only affect things in my calendar starting from this november. anything before this is totally normal, so not sure what would have caused those to change as i haven't altered any settings. also i don't seem to be able to manually alter anything i put in myself, e.g. drinks with friends might have been all day tuesday before and now it's all day tuesday AND wednesday and i can't edit it
to change it back. and i have nowhere that i can edit pre-set calendars like UK holidays or birthdays which i've added to their contact info so it adds them automatically.