May 23

May 23 Top 3 questions I get as a previous Apple employee

From managing storage on an iPhone to the AppleCare debate, be your own genius with answers to these top questions.

The backstory

To know me is to know that I love Apple. Since a very early age I’ve loved watching how they innovated the Mac, I’ve owned every iteration of the iPhone and I have worked for them both in New York and Minneapolis.

Sign of a good company, even now, having been away from Apple for four years, I love everything about it!

Friends and family who know this often seek my advice on all things Apple. I absolutely love fielding these questions and some of them come up more often than others. So, I wanted to answer three of them here in hopes they prove helpful for you in the future.

Why is my storage full?

We’ve all been here before. That message of death pops up when trying to take a photo that our storage is full. If you’ve been with iPhone for a good part of its 13-year history, this one could be confusing simply because at its inception, there wasn’t the divide between iPhone storage (physically on your phone) and iCloud storage (stored in the cloud and does not take up space on your phone).

Make sure to read that “storage full” message clearly. If it refers to iPhone storage being full, navigate to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see what’s taking up all that room on your phone.

Photos

For most people, the top culprit will be the Photos app, where all of your selfies, inspirational quote screenshots and blurry concert videos live.

If this is the case, you’ve got two options, go through your photos/videos and delete ones you don’t want, or look into expanding your iCloud storage so that stuff can live in the cloud and only be downloaded when you use it.

All iCloud accounts come with a bit of storage, but it’s not enough to sync contacts, calendars and other data in addition to your entire photo library. Therefore, the first paid storage plan (50GB) is $0.99 per month, or $12 per year. A no-brainer. This storage can then be used for backups (a copy of your iPhone’s info and all its settings) in case you lose your phone or need to transfer information to a new device.

With iCloud storage, you can navigate on your iPhone to Settings > Photos > Optimize iPhone Storage. What this means is that you will be able to see your entire photo library on your phone but the photos and videos will only be downloaded from the cloud when you click on them. After using them, iCloud will place them back in the cloud, freeing up the physical storage on your phone.

Messages

Caveat: my family is horrible at this one. Friends, texting photos and videos over text message is destructive for your phone’s storage if you’re not careful.

If you don’t see Photos as the top storage feeder in your settings, but Messages instead, navigate to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. If you have it set to “Forever,” it means that all of those weird memes your friends send you are going to live on your phone forever. I’ve got mine set to 30 Days, and for all you hoarders out there, you can now include messages as part of your iCloud storage as well. Go to Settings > [User name] at the top > iCloud > toggle Messages ON.

Alternative to sending photos and videos over text message? Create a Shared Album. Go to Photos > Albums > click the + at the top-left corner. This way, all of those shared photos/videos/GIFs will be saved in the cloud and not on your phone.

Podcasts

Apple’s Podcasts app is border-line too helpful. It likes to download new episodes of your favorite podcasts onto your phone automatically, unless you tell it not to.

If Podcasts is taking up space on your phone, first delete the downloaded episodes. Navigate to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Podcasts. Click “Edit” and delete the episodes.

To set yourself up for success going forward, go to Settings > Podcasts > Download Episodes. Turn it “Off.” The only time you’d ever need to download a podcast (this goes for music as well) to your phone is if you were going to be without wifi or a cell signal (i.e. plane rides, dungeon laundromats in NYC).

Should I buy AppleCare?

Yes you should, with practically every Apple product you buy. Why? Because it’s technology and for whatever reason, sometimes it fails us. Most Apple products come with a one-year limited warranty (i.e. a speaker goes out, the display doesn’t work barring any physical damage). AppleCare+ for the iPhone for example, extends that coverage to two years and also covers a good portion of physical damage (i.e. liquid damage, cracked screens).

For example, if your iPhone were to stop working because of physical damage and needed to be replaced entirely, under AppleCare+ it’d be $99 for a full replacement. Without it, the cost of a brand new phone.

I think about AppleCare like insurance. Do I know I’m going to use it, no, but if any of the what if’s come true without it, the price of the insurance far outweighs the cost without it.

My own way of going about this with my iPhone? Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program. You pay monthly for your phone and that price includes AppleCare+, therefore when you upgrade your phone the next year, your payments stay the same (unless you change to a bigger/fancier iPhone) and your AppleCare+ renews each year so you never fall out of coverage.

Which iPhone should I get and when should I buy?

Before I go on, why are you looking for a new one? Have you exhausted all of your options before deciding to buy? Reason I ask is that these devices, contrary to some beliefs/blogs, last for a long time if you take good care of them and are knowledgeable about what could prolong the life of the device.

If the phone is slow, make sure to check your iPhone storage as indicated above. A phone with little storage on it will start to malfunction, i.e. run slowly or even power off completely without prompting. Also, try turning the phone off and back on again. You could also try a hard reset. Note: this will not erase any information from your phone. Here’s how to force a restart on your iPhone.

But, if you’ve exhausted these measures, and you’ve spoken to someone at Apple about it and they’ve diagnosed its battery R.I.P. or discovered liquid damage, let’s talk purchasing.

If you must purchase your new iPhone today and it’s not late-Fall/early-Winter, be aware that the new line of iPhones usually comes out in October/November therefore an iPhone that’s “last year’s model” in September is about to be two generations old in a matter of a couple of months.

No, you do not need to newest, most expensive iPhone, nor can we presume that everyone can afford it. However, if you’re in the market for purchasing, keep in mind that technology hardware innovation (i.e. new phones) moves so fast that technology software (i.e. iOS, the operating system on the phone that make it look and function the way it does) must move with it and therefore older devices get left behind. So, purchasing an iPhone that’s already two years old means that it will have a hard time continuously upgrading to the latest and greatest software updates year after year.

Gone are the days of your wireless provider telling you you’re ready for your “free upgrade” and here to stay are the days where we see our phones as more of a subscription like Netflix or Hulu. I’d recommend purchasing your phone directly from Apple and even if you aren’t someone who wants a new phone every single year with the iPhone Upgrade Program, Apple also has interest-free monthly installment payment plans as well.

As always, if you have any additional questions, DM me on Instagram @ericlkomo.