One of the greatest advantages of Apple gear is that it just works. 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 recognised 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 mains, but it isn’t charging. What could be wrong?
In this article, we show you a range of minor fixes and problem-solving tips for your Mac, iPhone or iPad. Whether something’s gone wrong and you need to fix it, 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 all sorts 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.
FAST FIXES FOR MAC
Having problems with your notebook or desktop? We can help
1 Restarting your Mac
Click on the Apple menu in the topleft corner of your Mac’s screen, and from the menu that appears, select Restart. A window appears inviting you to Cancel or Restart. Click on Restart, and your Mac shuts down and reboots, hopefully solving the problem in the process.
