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AirDrop Not Working: How to Fix It Between iPhone, iPad and Mac

AirDrop Not Working: How to Fix It Between iPhone, iPad and Mac

In most cases the receiving device is missing for one of three reasons: Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is off, Personal Hotspot is on, or AirDrop visibility is set to 'Contacts Only' without the contact being saved properly. Start with Solution 1 and, if the device is still missing, switch visibility to 'Everyone for 10 Minutes' in Solution 2. The receiving screen has to be unlocked and the devices within a few metres of each other (Solution 3). On a Mac, the AirDrop window in Finder needs to be open and the firewall must not be blocking all incoming connections (Solution 6). If none of that works, switching Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and on at both ends (Solution 5) rebuilds the connection and usually unsticks the rest.

TechResolve Team · Verified on Oct 28, 2026 · 8 min read

App Store Not Downloading Apps on iPhone: 8 Fixes in Order

App Store Not Downloading Apps on iPhone: 8 Fixes in Order

First identify the symptom: the icon sits grey with a frozen progress ring, the Get button does nothing, or an error message appears. A stuck download is nearly always fixed by pausing and resuming or closing the App Store (Solution 2). Install errors and unresponsive buttons are usually account or clock related: check that date and time are automatic (Solution 3) and sign out and back into your Apple Account (Solution 4). If the Get button is missing entirely, app installation may be blocked in Screen Time (Solution 6). Before anything, confirm you have free storage - with none, nothing downloads (Solution 1).

Face ID Not Working: 7 Fixes to Get Unlocking Again

Face ID Not Working: 7 Fixes to Get Unlocking Again

Start with the silliest thing, because it fixes the most cases: clean the sensor strip at the top of the screen and check that a case, a badly fitted screen protector or a finger is not covering that area (Solution 1). If the iPhone says 'Face ID is not available' or asks you to set up Face ID later, restart the phone before touching any setting: that message is usually temporary (Solution 3). If it fails only in certain situations, such as with sunglasses, with a new beard or lying in bed, add an alternate appearance instead of starting over (Solution 4). Resetting Face ID and enrolling again is Solution 5, and it clears most stubborn cases. If the unavailable message comes back on its own after every restart, especially after a drop or a screen replacement, the cause is physical and Solution 7 explains what to expect.

App Keeps Closing by Itself on iPhone: How to Fix It

App Keeps Closing by Itself on iPhone: How to Fix It

An app that opens and closes immediately almost always has a corrupted or incompatible installed version. Start with the basics, which fix most cases: force quit the app (Solution 1) and restart the iPhone (Solution 2). If it continues, go to the App Store and update the app, because sudden crashing is usually patched by the developer soon after it appears (Solution 3). Nearly full storage is a silent and very common cause: free up space before trying anything else (Solution 4). If only one app misbehaves, the definitive route is offloading or reinstalling, and Solution 6 shows how to do that while preserving data. Before deleting any app, confirm its content is in the cloud or in a backup, because not every app keeps data off the device.

iPhone Slow After Update: How to Improve Performance

iPhone Slow After Update: How to Improve Performance

If you updated recently, take a breath: the iPhone spends its first 24 to 48 hours rebuilding the search index, reprocessing the photo library and updating apps in the background. During that window it runs slow, gets warm and uses more battery, and it clears up on its own. Solution 1 explains how to speed that process along instead of fighting it. If more than two days have passed, start with Solution 2, which is restarting, and Solution 3, which is freeing storage: nearly full storage is the number one cause of lasting slowness. Solution 4 shows how to check battery health, because a worn battery makes the iPhone slow itself down on purpose. And if nothing works, Solution 8 has the reset that does not erase your data.

iPhone Will Not Connect to Wi-Fi: How to Fix It Step by Step

iPhone Will Not Connect to Wi-Fi: How to Fix It Step by Step

First find out whose problem it is: if another device in the house browses fine on the same network, the fault is in the iPhone, not the router. If the iPhone keeps asking for the password in a loop or says it could not join, go straight to Solution 2 and forget the network before trying again. If it connects but no page loads, the path is different: look at Solution 5 (networks that need a login) and Solution 6 (VPN, DNS and privacy filters). Solution 4, turning off the private Wi-Fi address, fixes most cases on company, school and hotel networks. Solution 8, resetting network settings, is the ace up your sleeve: it almost always works, but it wipes every Wi-Fi password saved on the device.

How to Free Up Space on iPhone Without Deleting Your Photos

How to Free Up Space on iPhone Without Deleting Your Photos

Start by opening the device storage screen to see your apps listed by size: that list tells you where the space went (Solution 1). On most full iPhones the bulk sits in three places, and none of them is the photo library: large apps you barely use, videos and music downloaded from streaming services, and years of attachments piled up in Messages (Solutions 2, 3 and 4). Offloading an app frees the program's space and keeps your data, so nothing is lost. If you use iCloud Photos, Solution 5 keeps the full-size versions in the cloud and leaves only light ones on the device, without deleting a single image. Leave Solution 8 for last, when System Data is bloated with no explanation.

iPhone Not Charging: How to Tell If It Is the Cable, the Port or the Battery

iPhone Not Charging: How to Tell If It Is the Cable, the Port or the Battery

Solve this by elimination, swapping one part at a time: port, cable, power supply and socket. The number one cause is pocket lint packed into the bottom of the charging port, and cleaning it (Solution 1) fixes a huge share of cases people assume are the battery. Then change the cable (Solution 2) and the power supply (Solution 3), because those three steps cover nearly everything. If the device shows no sign of life, force a restart (Solution 4) and leave it charging for half an hour untouched (Solution 5). Only after all of that is it worth looking at Battery Health (Solution 7), and remember that slow charging or stopping at 80 per cent is usually normal behaviour, not a fault.

iPhone Battery Draining Fast: How to Diagnose and Fix It

iPhone Battery Draining Fast: How to Diagnose and Fix It

Before changing any setting, open Settings > Battery and go into Battery Health: the maximum capacity figure decides the rest of the path (Solution 1). Above 85%, the battery is fine and the drain comes from a setting or a specific app, which the per-app usage screen points to in a minute (Solution 2). Between 80% and 85%, the battery has started to age and the adjustments in Solutions 3, 4 and 5 still make a real difference day to day. Below 80%, no setting brings back the lost runtime: 80% is the threshold Apple itself uses as the reference for a consumed battery, and Solution 9 explains how to decide on a replacement. If the drain started suddenly and battery health is good, the likeliest cause is an app with location set to Always (Solution 4), or an iPhone that has just updated and is still reindexing, which settles down within a few days (Solution 6).

iCloud Storage Full: How to Free Up Space

iCloud Storage Full: How to Free Up Space

Start by looking at the map under Settings > your name > iCloud > Manage Account Storage (Solution 1). In most accounts the biggest culprit is backups of iPhones and iPads the owner no longer uses (Solution 2) - deleting those usually frees several gigabytes at once and affects no device in use. One thing to be clear about: with iCloud full, your iPhone's backup has stopped, and the real risk is not the on-screen warning, it is having no copy of your data.

iPhone Stuck on the Apple Logo: How to Get It Running Again

Start with a force restart (Solution 1) - the button combination depends on your model, and this is what fixes most cases. If the phone returns to the Apple logo, use recovery mode and choose Update, not Restore (Solution 3): that reinstalls iOS without erasing your data. If the freeze started during an update, that is the most likely cause.

How to Back Up an iPhone with iCloud and with a Computer

How to Back Up an iPhone with iCloud and with a Computer

There are two routes, and ideally you use both. The iCloud backup (Solution 1) runs by itself every night and is what saves you if the phone is lost, but it depends on account space. The computer backup (Solution 2) is free, unlimited and faster to restore, but only happens when you remember to do it. One detail that catches many people: neither includes what is already synced with other services - and the iCloud backup does not hold your photos if iCloud Photos is on.

iPhone Will Not Update iOS: How to Fix It

iPhone Will Not Update iOS: How to Fix It

The exact symptom points to the cause. If the update never appears, your model may already be on the last version it supports (Solution 1). If it hangs on "Checking for update", it is the network or the servers (Solution 3). If it fails during installation, it is almost always free space - and iOS needs considerably more room than the file size (Solution 2). Updating through a computer (Solution 6) gets around most stubborn cases.

How to Block Unwanted Calls and Texts on iPhone

How to Block Unwanted Calls and Texts on iPhone

For one specific number that keeps calling, block it straight from the call history or the conversation (Solution 1): it is the fastest route and covers calls, messages and FaceTime at once. For a flood of different numbers, blocking one by one is pointless: turn on Silence Unknown Callers, which sends anyone not in your contacts straight to voicemail (Solution 3). For texts, use unknown-sender filtering, which moves them to their own tab without deleting anything (Solution 4). Report what arrives as junk (Solution 5). And understand the limit: a lot of telemarketing uses spoofed numbers, different on every attempt, and blocking numbers does nothing against that (Solution 8). Never reply, never press a key and never call back an unknown number: that confirms the line is live.

iPhone Overheating: Causes and What to Do in Each Case

iPhone Overheating: Causes and What to Do in Each Case

Before worrying, look at what the phone was doing. Charging, updating iOS, restoring a backup or running GPS for a long time heat the iPhone on purpose, and that passes on its own (Solution 1). If it gets hot sitting idle, screen off and untouched, the cause is usually an app stuck in the background (Solution 3) or a battery at the end of its life (Solution 8). Take the case off and get out of the sun before any test, because those two alone are enough to trigger the temperature warning (Solution 2). If the screen goes dark with a temperature warning, nothing is broken: the iPhone is protecting itself and comes back once it cools. Never speed up cooling with a fridge, a freezer or cold water.

How to Recover Deleted Photos From an iPhone: What Actually Works

How to Recover Deleted Photos From an iPhone: What Actually Works

Start with the Recently Deleted album (Solution 1): it sits at the bottom of the Photos app, in the albums view, and holds what you deleted for 30 days. That solves the vast majority of cases, including when the photo vanished 'by itself'. If it is not there, check the Hidden album (Solution 2) - it is common for a photo to have been hidden rather than deleted. If you use iCloud, open the same account on another device or in a browser before touching anything (Solution 3), because deleting in iCloud deletes everywhere. If a computer or iCloud backup exists from before the deletion, that is the safest route (Solutions 5 and 6), with the caveat that restoring a backup replaces the device's current content. Be realistic about the worst case: past the 30 days, with no backup and no copy elsewhere, there is no reliable recovery, and any promise to the contrary deserves suspicion.

iMessage Stuck on 'Waiting for Activation': How to Fix It on iPhone

iMessage Stuck on 'Waiting for Activation': How to Fix It on iPhone

Before changing anything, know two conditions that explain most cases: the iPhone needs an active plan with mobile data switched on, and activation can take up to 24 hours. If your device has no SIM or is on Wi-Fi only, that message will sit there no matter what you try. With an active plan, start by setting date, time and time zone to automatic (Solution 2), because the check fails silently with a wrong clock. Then turn iMessage off, restart the phone and turn it on again (Solution 3). Also check that your number is ticked under Send and Receive (Solution 4). If none of that works, resetting network settings usually unsticks it (Solution 7), but that erases saved Wi-Fi passwords, so leave it until after the other attempts.

How to Transfer Everything From an Old iPhone to a New One Without Losing Anything

How to Transfer Everything From an Old iPhone to a New One Without Losing Anything

If you have both iPhones in hand and the old one works, use Quick Start: turn the new one on, hold them next to each other and follow the assistant (Solution 1). It is the most complete route, because it transfers straight from device to device without relying on a cloud backup. If iCloud is out of space, request the free temporary storage Apple grants to people switching phones before you start (Solution 2). Without both phones together, restore from an iCloud backup (Solution 3) or from a computer (Solution 4) - the computer route is faster and, if you tick the encryption box, it also carries saved passwords and health data. Set aside time: the transfer itself can take anywhere from twenty minutes to a few hours, and afterwards a handful of items always need manual attention, such as the Apple Watch, banking apps and two-factor verification codes (Solutions 6 and 7).

iPhone Not Recognized by Your Computer: How to Fix It

iPhone Not Recognized by Your Computer: How to Fix It

If the iPhone charges but the computer shows nothing, the problem is nearly always the cable: some cables carry power only, with no data wires, and they look identical to good ones (Solution 1). Test with a different cable before anything else. Next, unlock the iPhone and tap Trust on the prompt that appears on its screen, because without that permission the computer sees nothing but a battery (Solution 2). If the prompt no longer appears, Solution 4 explains how to bring it back. On Windows, Apple's driver is the third suspect (Solutions 6 and 7); on a Mac, the iPhone shows up in the Finder sidebar and may simply be hidden (Solution 8).

iPhone No Sound: Silent Calls, the Speaker and the Side Switch

iPhone No Sound: Silent Calls, the Speaker and the Side Switch

Start with the silliest and most common cause: the iPhone's side switch or Action button, which puts the handset on silent with no warning on screen (Solution 1). Next check whether a Focus or Do Not Disturb is active, including on an automatic schedule (Solution 2). If videos have sound but the phone does not ring, the ringer volume is separate from the media volume and sits at zero (Solution 3). If nothing makes a sound anywhere, the iPhone is probably still sending audio to a headset or to the car over Bluetooth (Solution 4), or the speaker grille is clogged with dust (Solution 5). And if the only issue is hearing the person on a call, jump straight to Solution 6.