Category: iphone

Posted on

Roaming in Berlin

Berlin

This week I travelled to Berlin for a conference. I had issues with roaming when I went to Spain in the summer, it took an online chat (or two) to get that sorted. It wasn’t easy at first when I was in Dublin in September, but that sorted itself out relatively quickly. So I did wonder what would happen when I arrived in Berlin.

Well no issues whatsoever. As soon as I turned off airplane mode, I connected to a network and I could make calls and use the internet.

Though I have an unlimited data contract with Three they do stipulate a 12GB fair use allowance when roaming. I wasn’t too concerned as I knew I wouldn’t be streaming or downloading large files.

I was also able to connect to eduroam (wifi) at the conference, so that saved me some data.

Posted on

Used Apple Pay in a shop

Though it was July 2015 when Apple Pay was introduced in the UK, I have never actually used it until August this year! I bought some parking on my phone and used Apple Pay to pay for it.

It was only today that I actually used Apple Pay at a till! I paid for some shopping using the system at one of those “unexpected item in the bagging area” machine.

I know I should know this, but it was quite a seamless experience. I did have to double tap, which I didn’t think I would need to do.

Well done that now, do I need to do it again? Probably not.

Posted on

All fine with Three in Dublin

This week I travelled to Dublin for a meeting. The last time I was in Dublin was in 2016 and that was my first trip abroad having changed mobile phone contracts in October 2015. Back then I had no issues with roaming.

I was able to easily join the Three Ireland network, make calls, send texts and use data with no problems or worries.

Having had a few issues with roaming in Spain last month, though got them sorted, I wasn’t expecting too many issues in Dublin.

Having arrived in Dublin, my phone failed to connect to a network. I was a little annoyed.

However I changed my Network Selection settings from Automatic and chose the Three network.

This then connected fine and I could make calls and access the internet.

Posted on

Roaming issues in Spain

Spain

I joined Three in 2015 and my first trip abroad was in March 2016 to Dublin.

I was able to easily join the Three Ireland network, make calls, send texts and use data with no problems or worries.

Since then I have been aboard to Spain, France, and Bulgaria; each time I was easily able to join a network and roam easily and freely.

I changed my Three contract in June 2021 and didn’t expect any problems roaming going forward.

Arriving in Spain, this week, though my phone would not connect to any network. My son’s phone (also on Three) did connect fine. So I knew it was an issue with either my phone or my contract settings.

Having arrived at the hotel, I joined the wifi. I went onto Three online chat to sort out the roaming, which after two chats, I got sorted. It was a problem with not having international roaming activated, but also have a zero spend limit on the phone. Having sorted those things out I was able to make calls and use the internet in Spain.




Posted on

Has 15.5 fixed My Photo Stream?

In a previous post I mentioned I was having issues with My Photo Stream having upgraded my iPhone 13 to iOS 15.4.

I noticed that photographs I had taken with my iPhone 13 were not being uploaded to My Photo Stream and shared across my other devices.

This was an annoying bug, as I did use this feature a lot, using photographs I had taken on my iPhone and then using them with my Mac.

I did try a temporary fix my changing the camera mode, it was set to High Efficiency, so I switched it to Most Compatible.

However this wasn’t a real fix, as though some photographs were uploaded to My Photo Stream, not all were.

I have now upgraded to iOS 15.5 and though there wasn’t a mention of fixing this bug, I did notice that yesterday all my photographs were uploaded to My Photo Stream, but I was still using Most Compatible mode. This morning I switched to High Efficiency and took a few photographs and allwere uploaded to My Photo Stream.

screengrab of iOS screen showing My Photo Stream working

So here’s hoping that bug is now fixed.

Posted on

Temporarily resolving an issue with My Photo Stream on my iPhone 13

I have managed to resolve an issue having taken photographs with my iPhone that My Photo Stream was not then updating across my devices.

It was in the past week that I noticed that photographs I had taken with my iPhone 13 were not being uploaded to My Photo Stream and shared across my other devices.

I first did the usual trick of going into settings for the Photos app and turning My Photo Stream off and then back on again, however this made no difference.

What was weird was that the photograph I had taken weren’t been uploaded, but the edited versions from Snapseed or Instagram were being added to My Photo Stream.

This photo of the Bristol Harbourside didn’t upload.

This version I edited with Snapseed did.

I checked back through my iPhone camera roll and there was a range of photographs missing from My Photo Stream.

It was working fine on the 16th April, but had stopped updating on the 17th April.

Doing an initial Google search didn’t help, with most references referring to turning My Photo Stream off and back on again, which I knew didn’t work. I powered off the iPhone and back on again, that didn’t resolve the issue either.

My Photo Stream was working fine on other devices. Took a photo with the iPad and it was uploaded to My Photo Stream. On the iPhone if I created an image with Snapseed it was uploaded to My Photo Stream. 

That got me thinking that the issue wasn’t with My Photo Stream or the Photos app, but was with the Camera app.

Now doing a Google search I found that others were having a similar issue. It appeared to be related to the 15.4 iOS update.

Going through the settings for the Camera app I checked the formats setting.

Settings > Camera > Formats

To reduce file size, capture photos and videos in the High Efficiency HEIF/HEVC format. Most Compatible will always use JPEG/H.264. Cinematic video, 4K at 60 fps, 1080p at 240 fps and HDR video require High Efficiency.

This was set to High Efficiency, so I switched to Most Compatible.

As a result the next photograph I took was uploaded to My Photo Stream.

I switched back to High Efficiency and the problem came back. It was apparent that the HEIC images were not being uploaded to My Photo Stream, though they were with iOS 15.3 and earlier.

So for the moment I have a temporary fix, so when I take photographs with the iPhone 13 they will upload to My Photo Stream.

Posted on

Replaced the iPhone

With my iPhone 8 randomly turning off and then always turning it off, I had it replaced with a new iPhone 13.

iPhone 13

I decided not to transfer the full iPhone 8 settings over to the new phone and start (nearly) afresh.

Sometimes I will “clone” my old phone when I have a new one, but most times I like to start from scratch and install the apps I need as and when I need them. This means I don’t install stuff I have stopped using.

What I did do, was copy over my “settings” so I could automatically connect to my known WiFi, use saved passwords and so on.

I configured the phone for multi-factor authentication for work and this was nice and simple.

Overall it was an easy experience moving over to the new phone.

Posted on

iPhone 8 still randomly turning off

I wrote about the problems I was having with my iPhone 8 randomly turning off.

It is still doing it.

It doesn’t do it when it is connected to the charging cable.

So though it probably is software, I wonder if it is a physical problem.

Still not sure of the next steps.

Posted on

iPhone 8 randomly turning off

iPhone
Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

On Saturday I started having a problem with my iPhone 8. I was attempting to take a photograph when it turned itself off. I turned it back on and found it had just 10% battery charge. Initially I thought I had forgotten to charge it, but I was sure I had. It then turned itself off again. It wouldn’t switch back on, so as I was out, I left it to deal with later.

At home I connected it to the charger and switched it back on. The charge was 100% so I disconnected it from the charger. It then turned itself off (as before). I turned it back on again and it then showed a charge of 10%. Bizarre behaviour.

I then did a reset of all the settings.

The iPhone then behaved as though I had applied a system update. It restarted itself and looked anew.

I did think maybe an aborted system update had caused the problems.

However today the same issue with the iPhone randomly turning itself off. So not sure what to do next. I think I might have to undertake a full reset of the phone.