Tip: Let your ai tell you what's new and novel in an iOS or macOS release

I like to wait a month (iOS) or six months (macOS) before applying major updates. By the time I apply them all the useful tips and tricks I read along the way are ancient history.

Instead of trying to keep track of these things before the OS is installed wait until you are ready to pull the trigger. Then ask your ($20/m) ai to summarize known issues and interesting new features, tips and tricks. You can provide context as needed (ex: I am an expert user, etc).

PS. Apple got away from providing PDF versions of manuals and user guides -- but if they still did that I'd drop the PDFs into my Perplexity macOS Space.

Bug in iOS 18.5 eSIM removal - you have to let it update your contacts

When Tello failed to transfer my CenturyLink number I canceled their service. I then tried to remove their eSIM from my phone. Apple's instructions worked -- but the line name remained even with a deleted eSIM.

It's a bug.

When Apple asks if you want to update any contacts using the number associated with the removed eSIM you have to say yes -- even if there are none. Looks like a simple logic bug. Then the entry will be removed.

Porting a landline number to a secondary Ting eSIM on iPhone with primary AT&T account

This was much harder than I expected it to be. Below is a simplified account of what eventually succeeded. I actually started out by trying to transfer from CenturyLink to Tello. That port failed. It was impossible to determine why it failed, each company pointed me to the other. I did learn that the porting process is surprisingly manual, there's an actual carrier to carrier voice call involved.  The porting office is kept away from customers to reduce social engineering exploits. Lastly the all important PIN provided by, in this case CenturyLink, is of a form that suggests the carriers don't take it very seriously. Overall I was left with the impression that carriers have fairly successfully sabotaged the landline porting process. I miss having a government that cared about such things.

My best guess as to why the port from CenturyLink to Tello failed is that CenturyLink takes too long to process the request and Tello is too impatient. It took CenturyLink 4-5 days to complete the Port that succeeded, longer than Tello's 3 day limit. Tello's disinterest in the port process makes me wonder how much time they have as an MVNO.

After some glitches I was able to delete my Tello account (they had a bad link that I'm sure they will never fix).

Now to what worked with an preface of why we were among the last to do successfully port a number from a landline to a mobile company. 

Why we ported from a landline in 2025

We are among the last in America to have a $43/m voice only family landline. It persisted because our ancient security system relies on two of the standard four copper landline wires, and the switching costs were comparable to our monthly landline fee. The landline was purely a message phone, it didn't ring.

It was on the list of things to replace but lower priority since minimal savings and added hassles.

Then copper wires started to disappeared in our metro area. I think wire theft may have peaked for the moment, but the copper side of Century Link isn't paying what it would take to maybe keep the wires working. When the elderly techs come by they beg us to leave copper so they can finally rest.

We want to keep the legacy number so I looked into the 2025 porting options. The only thing that's changed since I last looked in 2015 or so is the eSIM. Mastodon friends suggested voip.ms, but it was obvious that we're not their business. (These days we think a lot about how things get managed after we die, and we assume that the kids are having to make decisions. They are not techies.) Also, canceling voip.ms service requires tedious interactions with their outsourced retention people. A huge red flag.

You still can't port from landline directly to Google Voice. The cost of a landline port would be prohibitive for what is still a "free" service. The AIs claim you can't port from CenturyLink VOIP to Google Voice either.

CenturyLink (fiber) would sell us a VOIP phone service for about $30/m that I'm sure would not have a porting issues. This is modest savings from the $43 landline, but we felt we could do better. Also, I'm not impressed with legacy CenturyLink service. (Their fiber service has worked well for us, they behave like separate companies.)

We looked at using an old iPhone as our home phone with its Apple Voice Mail (requires data). AT&T is our ($$) current family carrier and we could add a $30+/m line from them. But of course there are cheaper options.  Back in 2012 we used H2O Wireless for the kids phones. It's rock bottom service quality but if you work at it you should be able to use them for under $100 a year (prepay, no contract). They are still around! Also familiar from the old days: Tello, Hello Mobile, and Ting. All of which will provide new phones that could be left in the kitchen. We could even use one of our old iPhones. (Note Apple vmail requires some data support, so data-free won't work).

Happily there are better options than leaving an old iPhone on a charger. In the past few years eSIMs have started to work fairly well on iPhones. Our current phones can all handle at least 2 (I think up to 8?) eSIMs. So rather than hassle with an old iPhone holding the number, we ported it to an eSIM on Emily's personal iPhone.

I asked the AIs which had the better customer service among H2O Wireless, Tello, Ting, and Hello Mobile. Tello and Ting won easily. I tried Tello and my initial impression was good, but as noted above the port failed. With Tello you get a temporary number and eSIM immediately, then switch numbers if the port works.

After the Tello port failed we removed the eSIM from Emily's iPhone and tried Ting's $10/m plan. I actually sent a referral from an older Ting account I had but I'm not sure the referral credit thing worked.

We again called CenturyLink. Emily's name was on the landline account, so we used her name on the Ting account. We had the correct account number. Emily navigated CenturyLink phone puzzle and got a 4 digit Port code. We submitted the port request with Ting.

There's no way to monitor porting progress from the Ting site but after 5 work days Emily got an email notification.

Then as expected, things got a bit wonky. Ting's documentation on the eSIM assignment process is contradictory and didn't match what happened. We got a link to go to, but the link only displayed a blank page. We tried it from both the desktop and from Safari mobile. When I investigated the Ting account however it seemed like her iPhone was activated.

In fact it appears that Ting was using Apple's eSIM Carrier Activation. Under some conditions, presumably including a port, the eSIM can be pushed directly from the carrier to the target device. No customer interaction needed -- despite Ting's reference to QR codes and the like. (Bit unnerving really.)

After confirming the eSIM was on her phone we configured it. There are several options to look at,  We configured her Vmail response and tested texting and calling. Everything seemed to be in order.

Managing the incredibly annoying Apple Wallet notifications on Sequoia

I loathe Apple's notifications center on macOS. The notifications constantly get in the way of my work, and the most unstoppable ones are related to Daily Cash and Apple Wallet transactions.

The UI to manage these are obscure.  I'll update this post as a I learn more. (I wouldn't mind macOS Notifications if I could see them only when I clicked on something, the current overlay behavior is infuriating.)

1. On macOS Sequoia: 
• go to Notifications:Wallet and turn off "allow Notifications"
• Notifications:Notification Center: turn off "Allow notifications from iPhone" (I turned everything off)
2. On iOS (iPhone)
• For each card in Wallet tap on ellipsis and turn off Notifications
• Notifications:Notification Center: Change Display to "Count" (I made the all the Notification options as restricted as possible).
• Notifications:Wallet: turn off "Show on Mac".

I'm hoping the above will finally kill Notification Center pop-up notifications on macOS (a typically incompetent Apple UI fail) and the endless Cash/Wallet notifications. Once I get this under control (if that's possible) I will carefully liberalize some of the restrictions starting on the iPhone.

Apple is such a fail whale now.

End of software support for the Fujitsu (Ricoh, PFU) ix500 document scanner

Many years ago I bought a (then) Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 document scanner. The hardware has been superb but the MacOS desktop software was always ugly and awkward. Infamously there's no API for a third party to use and no standards support. The current version of the desktop software allows only one active WiFi desktop client to protect revenue on their business line.

In contrast to the desktop app the simple iOS app, ScanSnap.app [ScanSnap Connect Application], worked well for me. It was even multi-user -- anyone could scan from their iPhone.

As of 7/2024 the ix500 still works with a single macOS device by cable or WiFi using the current desktop app. The iOS app is end of life however. A year ago it dropped Google Drive support. A few days ago OneDrive auto-upload started to crash the app following upload (it freezes, needs force quit, the document is lost).

The replacement for [ScanSnap Connect Application] is ScanSnap Home. That app does not support the ix500; it will not connect via WiFi. There is also an end-of-life ScanSnap Cloud app that uses PFU's crazy (failed?) cloud document routing service. I did not test that app.

For now we will probably switch our ix500 to a wired machine connection; I have a de facto home server that will work for that.

I'm playing around with iOS ScanSnap.app to see what still works after disabling OneDrive Auto Upload:

1. If you preview a PDF doc it can be sent to OneDrive from preview without a crash.
2. If you tap on the ellipsis next to a File you can AirDrop or otherwise move it about in iOS Files. 
3. If you use the ScanSnap Edit function, select documents, then choose "Save to the Files app" the documents in <On My iPhone / ScanSnap / ScanSnap / .Files> [1] are copied to <On My iPhone / ScanSnap / ScanSnap> and from there can be manipulated using Files.

I'll update if a learn more. ScanSnap Connect Application was last updated 2m ago but I'm pretty sure it worked until 2w ago. I'm guessing something changed in OneDrive recently. Perhaps it will start working again someday -- like Apple Aperture's peculiar and transient Ventura M1 resurrection.

PS. I have never had Apple's scripting/automation software be useful for anything I really needed it for. It would be nice if there was a way to use it to move things from .Files to somewhere useful but I'd be shocked if that were possible.

No message sound for one iMessage correspondent? User message thread can be both silenced and not silenced.

I thought I'd fixed Emily's messages not generating a tone or haptic notification as per my 4/29/2024 post below. Then the bug recurred. It's fixed again, for now. I had to delete her iMessages - four times. To delete them I first unpinned her then swiped to delete all her messages [1]. Her entry vanished -- only to return a few seconds later. I repeated this 4 times; sometimes the messages showed her profile image and sometimes they didn't. ONE of the four times the message UI showed a mute/silence icon (speaker with a line through it). I un-silenced that one then again deleted all the messages.

Finally there were no messages left for her. When she messaged me it created a new message thread and notifications worked.

I did other things of course. I can't disentangle them all. I removed her Contact Card's iCloud.com email but left her me.com email (clue!). I quit and resumed iMessages (Messages.app) and Contacts. I set her Contact back to the default message tone.

But I think the important fix was removing ALL of her messages.

Here's my guess as to what's going on -- and why this bug will affect very few people.

1. It's possible for a Correspondent's message thread to be in a state of being silenced and not being silenced such that the silenced icon will not appear but the correspondent is silenced.
2. It may be that this bug ONLY impacts people who have both me.com and iCloud.com emails associated with a single AppleID (old time legacy users).
3. This bug is activated, I'm guessing, when a correspondent (Contact) is a participant in a group Chat that has been silenced and then un-silenced. (Because it showed up around the time I did that.)
4. Although we (usually) see only one message thread per correctly configured Contact, in reality it appears there are several identities merged to look like a single user. I had long suspected this, but seeing how deleting thousands of messages sent over a decade seemed to expose identities with different attributes strengthened my suspicion.

I'll update this post if I learn more or if the bug recurs.

- fn -

[1] I really didn't need any of that data.

---

Initial version of this post from April 29, 2024

I got a message tone for every sender -- except Emily. Who is my most important correspondent.

So I went debugging. I asked Perplexity for fixes and got a good set of responses -- except for the non-existent DND setting (click for full res):

I tried all but reset Notifications since I have a vague memory of annoying side-effects from that. I also checked "hide alerts" (which is probably where the DND thing comes from -- that was an old term) on her Contact and that was off (not enabled). I toggled it for good measure.

I didn't want to remove and restore her contact as I thought that might mess up Photos.app naming. So I tried removing her phone numbers. Without any numbers in her contact iMessages did generate a tone -- but the default tone, not the custom tone. Still, it was something!

When I added in Emily's cellphone number that caused the custom tone I'd set to become active. (I also added back another number with no effect.)

So the bug is gone for now. I'm guessing it's something deep in the bowels of Apple's SMS/iMessage integration with AT&T (our carrier). The variable tone with and without the phone number is a clue.

Not receiving SMS two factor authentication codes for Facebook, Instagram, others: remove blocked numbers

A friend was not receiving Facebook SMS two factor authentication codes on his iPhone. I removed all his blocked numbers and he received the code. We assume he accidentally blocked the number Facebook uses to send SMS codes.

You can see blocked numbers in Settings:Phone:Blocked Contacts (it's actually a list of blocked numbers, not a list of blocked Contacts). If iCloud sync is working you see the same list in Messages on macOS.

iOS App Update hangs without an error message in infinite download: a general approach

Apple's FairPlay DRM management is notoriously fragile. It can be confused by family sharing, Screen Time controls, payment method changes, and, heaven forfend, mixed Apple IDs on a device.

Once Apple's DRM gets confused there's often no user accessible error message (PS. This is a bug [1]). The app just hangs. So when I realized my (manual) App Store updates were not completing I was not completely surprised. Recently I had:

1. Changed payment methods. I made my Apple Card's award balance (1-2% transaction) the default payment method (so it always gets emptied)
2. Enabled Screen Time account change restrictions to mitigate the harm of Apple's biggest current security issue.

I fixed the problem in the usual way (see Apple's article on this as well):

1. [Switch to manual update if you've been using automatic]
2. Verify Apple ID payment methods look correct
3. Turn off Screen Time [Apple doesn't mention this.]
4. Restart phone (power off/on)
5. Download a new free app from App Store [An old method, still useful]
6. Verify I can now update one of the pending apps.
7. Update All
8. Turn Screen Time back on.
9. [Turn auto update back on if you like that.]

-- 

[1] Failure to generate a user notification of a failed interaction is, of course, a bug. Regardless of whether there's a bug in the interaction processing (which there is, so that's another one).

iPhone Recovery Key attack vector kills your iCloud access: Workarounds pending an Apple fix including Apple ID protection

Someone who has your iPhone passcode can lock you out of your Apple iCloud and Apple ID services -- as well as take control of your iPhone and have access to all passwords stored in Apple's Password Manager (iCloud Keychain).

This can happen when someone steals your phone and obtains your passcode by the simple measure of threatening to kill you. Or they might see you enter your passcode or surreptitiously record entry. In bars drugs can be used to facilitate the process. This is often done as part of "borrowing a phone" for an "emergency call". (Never let anyone you don't trust with your life and wealth touch your phone. If it's an emergency make the call for them but ensure they don't record your passcode and don't let go of the phone.)

Once the thief has your phone and passcode they can change the victim's Apple ID password. This prevents the victim from locking the iPhone. The victim could still do the Apple ID password recovery process, so to get more time with the phone the thief can set a Recovery Key. If a Recovery Key exists they can change it. Setting a Recovery Key this way disables Apple ID password recovery. This gives the thief an unlimited time with the phone. It also locks the user out of all their Apple ID associated services and products including video, music, personal photos, personal documents, family sharing, other Apple devices, and the like. From the thief's perspective the Apple ID lock out is merely a side-effect. They may even feel a tiny qualm of sympathy for their victim. They do it to prevent iPhone lockout.

This is an Apple design problem. They need to fix it. Basically the iPhone passcode has far too much power -- especially since it has to be tapped in far too frequently and thus relatively easy to enter. Secondarily the benefits of the Recovery Key are limited to a few people and the with this technique in common use the risks dwarf the benefits. Apple should disable creation of new Recovery Keys immediately while they come up with a better fix.

TidBITS has one of the best descriptions of the problem following a somewhat confused WSJ article. I suggest also reading TidBITs preceding article on the problems with iCloud Keychain.

I was aware of most of these issues, but the Recovery Key hack is new to me. Again, if an attacker has control of your iPhone they can change your Apple ID password, locking you out of your photos, documents, Apple services, Apple media you've purchased, subscriptions, software, and more. At this point you can ordinarily reset your Apple ID password [1] through a tedious series of authentication steps or with the help of a previously specified Recovery Contact [2]. However, if you have set a Recovery Key you can't use these methods. You have to know the Recovery Key. If a thief sets or changes the Apple ID Recovery Key to prevent locking of the stolen iPhone you are truly screwed. Once you set the Recovery Key yourself Apple no longer stores it [3]; they can't recover your Apple ID even if they wanted to.

Apple has to fix several things here. It's insane that a six digit iPhone passcode allows access to all of the iCloud Keychain (Apple Password Manager) and setting up a Recovery Key. The power and risk of the Recovery Key is a separate problem and creation of new Recovery Keys should be disabled until there's a better fix.

In the meantime we've taken two steps on our our iPhones:

1. Emily and I set each other up as Recovery Contacts to facilitate doing an Apple ID password reset in the absence of an Apple Device.
2. Follow the recommendation of TidBITS to use Apple's Screen Time feature to prevent Account Changes. This requires setting a separate 4 digit ScreenTime code (PIN). When you do this Apple seems to require entry of Apple ID credentials that can be used to reset the ScreenTime PIN, but if you tap "cancel" you can continue without this step. That means an attacker can't use the Apple ID credentials they've stolen to unlock the account settings; they can't change an Apple ID password and they can't set a Recovery Key. (I think this can trigger an Apple Bug with App Updates and mixed Apple ID - see this article.)

I have not yet deleted all of my iCloud Keychain entries. I will go through mine and delete a few key ones. Apple really and truly needs to secure iCloud Keychain with an optional separate credential [4].

I do NOT recommend setting a Recovery Key.  An attacker with your iPhone passcode can change it anyway, and you won't be able to use Apple's standard Apple ID password recovery method.

- fn- 

[1] One time I tried to use login with Apple on a calendar service provider (Stanza). Apple evidently decided that was a bad idea and instantly locked my Apple ID. I had to follow the password recovering steps. If I'd set a Recovery Key and did not know the Key I'd have lost access to my Apple ID content (photos, etc) for all time.

[2] Setup a recovery contact NOW.

[3] I presume that when you do a standard password reset, or a Recovery Contact does a password reset for you, that behind the scenes Apple is using the Recovery Key they keep.

Apple's App Store Apple Account balance: updated due to transition to Apple Cash

Update 5/1/2023 - a few months after writing this I realized Apple is in the midst of a very poorly documented multi-year transition.

There are currently two "gift cards" - Apple Gift Card (AGC) and App Store & iTunes (ASIGC) gift card.  The AGC used to be only useful for buying things at Apple Stores (or online equivalent) but sometime in the past few years the AGC could be used to to buy apps and media. 

The ASIGC works as below. Apple's check balance advice remains incorrect; the balance displayed in the App Store UI is not updated reliably. However, I don't think the ASIGC is long for this world. Which probably explains why Apple hasn't fixed the balance display or the use of the old term "iTunes".

The AGC can be purchased through a web interface - https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-giftcard/giftcard. When I bought it for my son using his iCloud email the balance showed on his phone wallet as Apple Cash. The Apple Cash balance also shows under his Account as did the prior ASIGC balance, but in a different location inserted at the top of the screen (it doesn't show there on my iPhone!).

The Apple Cash account is also used to hold purchase rebates (1-2%) from an Apple Card. I see my Apple Card balance there. I use the payment method selection control; my first payment method is Apple Cash, the second is Apple Card. When I view my son's payment methods at appleid.apple.com I see Apple ID (that is in fact holding his Apple Cash balance) and the fallback payment is "Apple Cash", but it's MY Apple Cash not his. (In fact there's a 3rd payment method --after these two charges roll over to me via my Apple Card, but the current UI can only show two.)

Note the weirdness here. In the case of a non-organizer family member the Apple Cash balance shows up here labeled Apple ID rather than Apple Cash!

I have found charges do go first against this "Apple ID" (his Apple Cash) then against my Apple Cash (currently $41.71). Incidentally, note if you can connect to a non-child family member's appleid you can see their balance and they can see the family organizer's cash balance.

If my son were a minor I'd have more options to manage Apple Cash. As it is this is a big improvement on a few months ago (below). It's obvious that in the US at least the ASIGC is obsolete and Apple will transition to the AGC. They still have a ways to go; they have added a savings account feature to Apple Card; I wonder if they'll add one to Apple Cash.

--------- original post

Apple's "Apple Account" holds cash that can be used to purchase apps, media and subscriptions. Money is most often added to an Apple Account through App Store and  Gift Cards iTunes gift cards. Users can also directly add money to their personal Apple Account from a payment method, but there are few times that makes sense. If a user is a member of a "Family" then the money comes from the Family Organizer's payment method (usually this is a bad thing). If a Family Member purchases something it will come out of their Apple Account balance first then any residual charge will come out of the Family Organizer's payment method (not the Family Member's payment method).

Apple Accounts are poorly documented, especially when they intersect with Family Sharing. Sometimes the support documents are incorrect or incomplete. For example, the check balance article for Mac tells users to look below their name in the App Store app:

That doesn't work very well though. You can see the problem in this screenshot taken from my son's account

His account shows $150 as a balance, but that's wrong. If you click on Profile and drill down to this Accounts page (requires authentication) you will see the correct amount of $135.37. Evidently the amount displayed on the App Store screen is copied there from another system and there's a time lag. In my testing I've found that the lag is at least a day and I suspect it only updates when one checks the Apple Account (requires authentication). So, in reality, the Apple Account is the only way to know this number.

Apple doesn't mention this, but you can also get to this Accounts page (which has the accurate numbers) from iTunes/Music. You can't get to it from the web however; appleid.apple.com doesn't have this data. My guess is that Apple is still using their 20yo iTunes infrastructure for the "Apple Account" (authentication doesn't support Apple Passwords OR biometrics) and that the display in the App Store is a bit of a hack. 

The Apple Account is a legacy system that is much older than Family Sharing and doesn't support it very well. I'm guessing Apple has been trying to replace the iTunes backend for a years and that the version we see is in maintenance mode. Perhaps they will transition to the emerging Apple Pay infrastructure. For now we have to workaround the issues.

Apple Family Sharing and reviewing family member charges

Apple's family sharing is complex and problematic. Family member charges are paid first from the Apple Account balance then secondarily to the Family Organizer account. Charges for members under 18 can require pre-authorization, but this cannot be done for over 18. The user interface for viewing Apple Account balances is obviously an old hack that would never pass any true review.

The Family Organizer receives emails with family member transactions on them. There's no comprehensive historic view of all family transactions however. A support article recommends using https://reportaproblem.apple.com, but that has only a 90 day history. Each family member can see their own transaction history on their Apple device, there is no web interface I know of for this comprehensive history. Recurring subscriptions are billed to the organizer but may be viewable only from the member account.

Essentially if a Family Organizer wishes to review family charges they need to do so within 90 days and they need to use reportaproblem.apple.com. Tracking emails is a less effective approach. To review older purchases the Organizer will need to use a family member's device or macOS account.

PS. Apple managed Subscriptions appear in the iOS/macOS subscription list, but 3rd party (ex. YouTube channel) subscriptions only. show up in the User's account view. You will see the recurring charge (monthly, etc) in reportaproblem.apple.com. Subscriptions must be managed in the host app, Apple only handles the billing.

Managing sync issues in the Apple Notes app - what I do

I use Apple's Notes app fairly often. It's come a long way from early days but it has its share of bugs. The two I run into most often are formatting bugs and especially sync failures.

Formatting bugs seem to be related to frequent edits to a note using Notes app styles and character formats. Sometimes editing stops working in odd ways. I have to create a new Note and select all/paste into the new Note.

Sync bugs are more common and more serious. There are two kinds of sync bugs - global application sync failure and note specific failure.

Global sync means no notes are synchronizing and perhaps no iCloud content. I've seen that with iCloud password changes. I recommend never changing an iCloud password, Apple really doesn't want it to change. I had to recently because trying to use the Stanza calendar on the Saint Paul Saints web site with Apple integration triggered an instant Apple account lockout and mandated password reset (be afraid).

If iCloud sync doesn't work after a password change and iCloud seems to be properly authenticated first try restarting your iPhone or Mac. Then, on an iPhone, try sending an iCloud email. That last may require you to YET AGAIN enter your iCloud password. With luck the credential problem may resolve for all iCloud functions.

Single note sync failure may be something I see because I'm using Notes across the latest version of iOS and Mojave. I suspect it's actually fairly common even on Monterey/iOS though.

If it's just one note that won't sync between two devices you can check out Apple's web client view of Notes. That will tell you which device is off but it doesn't help with the fix. As far as I can tell there's no sync failure resolution built into Apple Notes. If Apple's sluggish iCloud sync means you have edited one note on two devices when they weren't in full sync then that particular note will no longer sync. No error messages, no offer to sort things out, no creation of two versions, it just quietly sits in isolation.

The workaround is to create a new note and confirm that syncs. Then on each separate device move the content from the now isolated notes into the new syncing note. Then delete the notes that didn't sync on each device.

Synchronization is a problem some seem to have solved (Simplenote for example), but Apple is not among this elite group.

Apple Watch Sleep App: Reinstallation and setup

My son has an Apple Watch SE running watchOS 9.3.1 (current). I'd never touched an Apple Watch but we wanted to get some data on sleep issues so I dug into it a bit. It turns out that the Sleep app is a frequent topic of Apple Discussion posts. I'll summarize what I learned here in case Google miraculously works and it's helpful to someone else.

References that were actually helpful:

• Apple Watch User Guide - Track your sleep
• Apple Track Sleep with Apple Watch and iPhone 
• Identify Apple Watch 
• Restoring Sleep App (reddit): "Open https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sleep/id1505627600 on your phone, then share/text the link to yourself and open it on your apple watch, then download the sleep app"

Key discoveries

1. It's not obvious which Apple Watches support the Sleep app. It seems to work on any device that can run the latest OS. His SE qualified.
2. It's possible to delete the Sleep app from Apple Watch. His didn't have it; he may have accidentally deleted the app. App Store search is utterly broken so it's hard to find it to reinstall. Reddit had directions (see above) that worked.
3. Once you have the Sleep app reinstalled you need to follow the directions on Apple Track Sleep with Apple Watch and iPhone carefully including this part: "If you paired your Apple Watch after completing Sleep setup, you can still turn on Track Sleep with Apple Watch. In the Watch app on your iPhone, tap the My Watch tab, then tap Sleep. Then tap Track Sleep with Apple Watch to turn on this setting."
4. The reports are well done but they are only viewable on the iPhone or Apple Watch. There's no export or print function [1]. Third party apps may have more capabilities, but the App Store is a sewer so I didn't want to wade into it.  Instead I did a bunch of screenshots from his iPhone and used Picsew to stitch them together and Preview to create a PDF with the reports.

- fn -

 [1] You can export all heath data as XML. This produced a 180MB file that BBEdit was able to open. It's not helpful.

Family member not getting iCloud+ family subscription for 2TB storage - "Use Family Storage" in Settings (Family Sharing)

A family member was seeing only the default 5GB of storage. I prepared to the usual fixes like restart phone, upgrade iOS, leave and restore iCloud and, finally, remove from family and add back in.

Turned out the fix was much simpler as of iOS 16.3.

Settings:Apple ID: iCloud: Manage Account Storage: Use Family Storage.

After I selected this option they got access to our 2TB and the "Use Family Storage" option went away. Instead they had "Change Storage Plan". Tapping that gave the option to leave Family Storage.

Apple's docs mention something about an iMessage going to family members to give them the option to use Family Storage. I suspect that didn't get attention.

Once I'd fixed the problem I used the new keywords to search for Apple documentation. Google found nothing (though it's really bad now) on the Apple site except a post from 2 days ago. So this might be newish.

Update 1/17/2024 

In the 2024 version of iOS and macOS (Sonoma) a friend ran into a similar issue. The family organizer had purchased the 2TB plan but my friend was only seeing the 200GB he paid $1 a month for. This time we found an Apple support document on the problem. If someone is paying for anything beyond the default free storage they have to manually switching into the family plan and end their subscription. This is now found on an iPhone in the newish Settings:Family:Subscriptions.

1. Go to Settings > Family.
2. Tap Subscriptions.
3. Tap iCloud+.
4. Tap Use Family Storage.

Also, when updating this, I discovered a 2017 post I'd done where I ran into a similar problem. That might be worth a look too.

Apple Music subscriptions stop working when I changed my Media & Purchases Apple ID

Apple digital rights management (DRM, FairPlay in this case) is very complex, particularly when one adds Family Sharing or has an atypical Apple ID setup.

In our case, for reasons that made sense 10-15y ago, my iCloud Apple ID is different from my Media & Purchases Apple ID. My iCloud Apple ID is the family organizer and my Media Apple ID is a family member.

Over the past few years I've been trying to migrate to using a single Apple ID on my phone. I have migrated all but one family member.

Migration has been difficult. I don't think Apple has published a transition guide. You can't, of course, transfer purchases or media or subscriptions. There's a risk of losing a lot purchases and Apple is unlikely to help.

I looked at doing a test migration on a macOS Monterey account of mine but it seemed Monterey did not a user to change only their Media Apple ID. [Later I found you can. In Monterey, unlike iOS, it's obscure how you do this; it doesn't show up in an Apple ID. You change the Media Apple ID through the App Store (Sign Out, Sign In).]

Since it seemed couldn't test on Monterey without trying a full Apple ID transition I made the changes on my iPhone.  Let's say my iCloud Apple ID was "Sam" and my Media Apple ID was "Linda". So my device Apple ID configuration was Sam/Linda.  After the change it was Sam/Sam. Sam is the Family Organizer, Linda is a family member. Linda owns our app and media purchases -- at least that's where they show up when I look.

I was particularly curious how Apple Music would work including test playlist sharing. Unfortunately I couldn't test the playlist sharing because Apple Music didn't work at all! As far as iOS was concerned I didn't have an Apple Music subscription. It offered to give me 6 months free. I also didn't have any Playlists or other configuration. Music (iTunes) configuration is tied to the Media Apple ID, not the iCloud Apple ID.

To recap, Sam is family organizer and Sam/Linda purchased the family plan Apple Music subscription. Linda shows up in Family Sharing as a family member. Once I became Sam/Sam I had no access to Apple Music. Reviewing Family Sharing it appeared that Sam should have access to Linda's Apple Music subscription. That doesn't work.

Apple's Family Sharing problem support page says:

... Make sure that you're using the same Apple ID for Family Sharing and Media & Purchases... 

They don't say how to migrate to that idea of course! Obviously it was possible to use a different Apple ID for Family Sharing and Media (Apple Music worked before). I don't know if the changes made to my device impacted any other family members (wish I'd checked!), but it appears for a Family Organizer device to see Apple Music they have to use the same Apple ID used at time of purchase.

Somewhat surprisingly Apple let me revert back to Sam/Linda on my iPhone. (I think there was some time limit/change limit on Apple ID media changes.) After a period of sync I had my old playlist and Apple Music access.

My guess is that to make the change to Sam/Sam and keep Apple Music I'll have to end my current subscription (tied to Linda) then change the Media Apple ID then resubscribe for the family. (In practice I'll end all subscriptions for Linda before the change.)

Managing multiple Apple Store Apple IDs in Monterey: how to sign out and thus change default Apple ID for app update and purchase

There's a lot of complexity in Apple's software, but my nomination for the ultimate complexity is the web of undocumented and slowly changing rules and tools around Apple's Digital Rights Management (FairPlay) including rights to use media (music, video) and software (apps) for both individuals and family members.

I don't think anyone truly understands it all, not even Apple's senior developers. Sometime in the past decade Tim Cook said he'd fix the Apple ID problem and then things went silent. It's a nightmare. I remember when changing a phone number associated with an Apple ID could switch the ownership arrangement for device history (presumably a matching problem between disparate databases).

My most recent experience with this was trying to fix the default Apple Store Apple ID used to for Mac App Store DRM on my wife's Air Monterey account. It was defaulting to an Apple ID we used to share for iTunes purchases 10+ years ago. I've been slowly disentangling it for 4 years now and the rules change with each macOS/iOS release. Currently there's a bit more tooling to sort out who owns what on a Mac but it's obscure.

As far as I can tell the controls for this are now hidden in the App Store app. That kind of makes sense, because the rules (and Apple's DRM contracts) for movies/TV, music and apps are all likely different. You have to go into the App Store app, which can show the apps associated with multiple Apple IDs, then you have to sign out from the menu:

After signing out the default account for App Store purchases was her Apple ID.

Her Music account seems to be based on her Apple ID, but I didn't check to see if changing the App Store Apple ID changed that too. It would make sense if Apple were to have separate rules though. 

I think the complexity of Apple ID DRM may be one of the reasons Apple never provided a multi-user iPad for families. (Our shared iPad has its own unique Apple ID but is a member of our family sharing.)

Wi-Fi Calling not working? Your probably SIM-swapped and your IMEI is wrong and you don't have HD Voice

When Emily complained of poor call quality I tried enabling Wi-Fi calling on her 13mini -- and got this error message:

Oops! 

We've hit a bump, but we should have it straightened ... ERR0093-WS 

Don't worry, it will never get straightened. This is a crap error message. A pixel page gave me the answer.

Chances are you SIM-Swapped this phone to avoid an infuriating $50 activation fee from AT&T. Turns out that only seems to work, the IMEI in AT&T's system doesn't update. If your plan has HD Voice (most do) it's not working and Wi-Fi (WiFi) calling won't work.

We called AT&T new line support (chat was down) at 611 and after a bit of careful navigating got a human being in "advanced technical support" who updated the IMEI number for us. You may also be asked for the ICCID number. After a phone restart and waiting a few minutes Wi-Fi calling worked. Her voice quality also seemed better.

I did this for a different phone and the first agent said I needed a new SIM -- then (accidentally I think) dropped me. A second agent wanted IMEI and ICCID then told me to restart the phone. It seems to take 3 minutes or so for the change to propagate and enable Wi-Fi calling (and HD Voice by the way).

If you SIM swap to avoid AT&T's #$@$ $50 activation fee you should probably call support or take your phone to an AT&T store to fix the IMEI there.

What's the chance AT&T will ever give up on its activation fee grift? Would be nice for them to just do an eSIM without the fee.

PS

• Business customers can change their own IMEI.
• AT&T's activation page may also allow an IMEI update but you'll probably get charged and it might mess up your account. AT&T used to have a "Wi-Fi calling troubleshooting tool" but it's been removed.

The AT&T / Apple eSIM activation fee scam: $30 "discount" and a $30 activation fee

This is what you see when you go to buy an iPhone from Apple these days and pay full price:

You can choose "Connect to a carrier now" or "Connect on your own later". In this case they are the same price. 

If you choose "Connect on your own later  there's no additional fee. You swap the SIM card from your old phone and go.

If you choose "Connect to a carrier now" you will get an unlocked phone but it has an eSIM. It will also be "activated"; when that happens the eSIM is enabled and the old SIM card is disabled. Carriers charge a fee for activation. For AT&T it's $30.

So in this cases you pay $1,100 for the iPhone and there's a hidden fee of $30 from AT&T if you go the eSIM route. (I suspect if you switch a phone from SIM to eSIM you will also be charged $30.)

Sometimes Apple may choose to list the "Connect to a carrier now" with a "carrier discount" of $30. In this case they'll display the cost of the phone with the discount applied; the "Connect on your own later" will be $30 more. But if you choose the cheaper option you will get charged the $30 from your carrier. So Apple is .... lying about the price. Apple probably gets a kickback from the carrier,

Just choose "Connect on your own later" and pay the real price up front.

Twitter version:

AT&T's various fees, including this one.

Update 9/11/2022: For a semester in Italy we converted my daughter's physical SIM to an eSIM using the iOS convert to eSIM feature. Our next bill will tell us if there was a fee associated with the conversion.

1Password WiFi broke with my new iPhone - how I fixed it (for now)

I pay about $4 or so every month to 1Password because I have not yet been able to replace it. Reason enough to dislike them, but there's worse. 

We use 1Password's legacy WiFi sync with 1Password 7. It dates from the days that 1PW was merely mediocre. It was flaky and annoying but it mostly worked. We didn't have to put our lives into the hands of company that could be hacked or acquired at any time (China, Russian ... who wouldn't want those yummy credentials?). Even now that we pay monthly (not yearly, because I plan to leave) we still use WiFi sync.

Every so often we get this:

WiFi sync is deprecated and unsupported now, but there is still a troubleshooting page. Check WiFi, restart everything, restart router, toggle WiFi sync on/off, etc. That usually works, but this time was different. Nothing worked.

I'd just replaced my iPhone 8 with an iPhone 13 Pro, so I had a hunch what was wrong. [1] There was something broken in the authentication process between my phone and the MacBook running the desktop version of 1Password. I needed a button that said "reset authentication" -- but that doesn't exist. I could delete 1Password and reinstall, but it had been a few weeks since my last sync. Who knows what I'd changed. I didn't want to lose everything.

This is what I did:

1. I saved copies of things I knew I'd changed to a local text file
2. I discovered iOS 1Password has a backup/restore feature and I could transfer that to a Mac by iTunes. You can actually unzip the backup and browse it in SQLite, including the database schema (I think passwords are encrypted though).
3. After I saved my backup to my Mac I deleted and reinstalled 1Password. As I'd guessed this allowed me to sync again. (Bad Bug 1Password Inc. But you don't care.)
4. I then went back to my Mac, copied the backup using iTunes back to my iPhone, then did a restore on the iPhone
5. I then did sync again.

It's not quite as simple as that. I had to quit and restart 1Password a few times. At one point 1PW for iOS was only showing me sync options for Dropbox! Somehow, after some restarts and tweaks it seemed to sync. Did it all sync properly? I have no idea. For now it's no worse than it ever was.

Once Apple Passwords get the notes feature (holds secret questions) we'll migrate to a hacked together approach of Apple Passwords and a shared Secure Note and I'll finally be done with 1Password.

Update: looks like the process lost my authenticator codes.

[1] I dread iPhone swaps. I try to do them no more than every 5 years. All kinds of pain happens.

Can you edit photos in Halide App? (No, you can't)

Halide is a popular image app. I've had it for a while but only with my iPhone 13 Pro did it feel worth using. The manual focus in particular came in handy.

Then I went to edit my image and I couldn't figure out how to do it. I'm not the only one, Google captures the common question but the responses are useless. The Halide app description and web site don't help with figuring out how to edit. I tried all kinds of gestures and swipes and taps and holds...

Yeah, you can't. It's not a photo editor. All the adjustments are like doing manual setup on an SLR for Raw or HEIC or JPEG.  You have to edit in a different app (including iOS photos). Halide is a replacement for Camera.app, not for Photos.app.

In retrospect it makes sense, but it confused the heck out of me. It doesn't help that the Halide user guide has a weird chapter on editing.

Google isn't what it once was, but maybe one day it will use this post to answer the common questions.