I have been using Apple products since high school, and since then I have had my fair share of problems with its products. Don’t get me wrong - I love Apple. I’d work for them if I could. But that doesn’t change the fact that Apple has been known for giving people a plethora of technical issues. Figuring out what’s wrong with your product can be incredibly frustrating - and sometimes costly. I have found some solutions to some common problems that I thought I’d like to share with ya’ll, so hopefully some of these can help you or someone you know.

iPhone/iPad

First thing is first. Back up your product. Yeah it sucks if your phone or iPad is broken, but it sucks even more if you get a replacement and you have to start all over. Backing it up to your computer (through iTunes) or to iCloud is one of your most useful tools, because then you never really lose all the stuff you have on your product.

Second thing is second. If your product is being glitchy, reboot it. I know, I know - it sounds so cliché. But turning it off and turning it back on can really help relieve whatever problem your product is having. To do this, what you wanna do is hold down your lock screen/sleep-wake button and your home button simultaneously for about ten seconds until the screen goes black and lights up again with the Apple logo. After doing so, check out your product to see if it’s working how you would like it to again.

One thing that may help you is thinking of investing in insurance for your product if you are accident prone or just very unlucky with electronics. Apple’s Apple Care is pricey (ranging around $300 for three years of insurance) but if you think you’ll be using it a lot, consider investing in it.

Dropped in Liquid

This is a nightmare. Especially considering that Apple Products aren’t waterproof. (Side rant: Why haven’t they made their products waterproof??? Android is already on that waterproof game and they are Apple’s biggest competitor). Anyways, partial - if not complete - submersion of your product can equal an automatic disaster. If you think your product is salvageable, drop it in some rice to absorb any of the moisture and leave it for a couple of hours. If it still works - great! You’re all set. If it’s still dead, unfortunately you’d have to look at getting a new phone. Apple (as well as Apple Care) doesn’t cover water damage so you would essentially have to pay the price of a new phone. Either way, I would invest in a lifeproof type case. That way, if you were to ever drop your phone in liquid again, at least it’ll stay dry this time. (Trust me, I did this two days ago - I know from experience).

Cracked Screen

So let’s say you drop your product one too many times and the screen cracks. Depending on the severity of the crack, it can be a distraction to use the product if not almost impossible without cutting yourself on the cracks. If you are still under warranty, take it into Apple and see if they can replace your screen for a reduced price if not for free. Otherwise, you can take it to one of those technical kiosks that fix cracked screens and get your screen replaced.

Won’t Charge

So you plug in your product and it won’t charge. This can be extremely frustrating. This could be due to one of three things - two of which you can fix yourself! It could be due to the cord being wonky, in which case all you have to do is change the cord. It could also be due to your port being clogged with something. In this case, you can either get an air compressor or a toothpick and clean out any potential gunk that got stuck in there. The third case could be that your port just died on you. Unfortunately in this case if you don’t have the means or skills to buy the parts to replace that, you would have to send that in to Apple for them to either fix it or to get a replacement - which means money.

Hardware Issues

Say, for example, your lock screen button or your volume buttons aren’t working. This can be frustrating, but there is a way around it. If you go to Settings —> General —> Accessibility —> Assistive Touch, you can control all sorts of things from this little circle that has now been put in the corner of your product. You can control everything from the volume to opening the control center to locking your product or even turning it off. If this is the case, however, and you do decide to turn your product off, you would have to plug it into a computer in order to get it to turn back on.

Restoration Issues

Say you get a new product, and you want to restore it from an old backup you have. You plug your product into the computer or you go to iCloud, but it says “This backup cannot be restored because the software is too old. Set up your product as a new phone/iPad.” Don’t freak out. There’s a way to fix this. This is due to the fact that the software that the backup has and the software that your product has are different. What you would want to do now is go ahead and set up your product as if it were new and then update the software on that product. Once everything is up to date, go ahead and try restoring again, and it should be peachy.

Mac

Again, first thing is first. Back up your computer. I would suggest getting an external hard drive from a tech store like Best Buy. They sell external hard drives with compatibility for PCs, Macs, and both. Use Time Machine on your computer to easily back-up all of your stuff.

Spill

Typical nightmare. You spill your drink on your computer. The software itself is fine, but now your keyboard/trackpad won’t work. Unfortunately, this is an Apple fix, but in the meantime, you can use an external keyboard and an external mouse to navigate your computer

SD Card Port Won’t Read SD Card

Say you’re a photographer and you want to upload some of your pictures or videos onto your computer. You plug your SD Card into the SD Card port but nothing happens. This has been a common problem for the Macbook Pro with Retina. One solution would be to plug in the card as normal, and then pull it out ever so slightly. This has worked with a lot of people. Now, say you have my luck and it doesn’t work. No problem - just get a MIDI cord from any tech store (shouldn’t be more than $10) and plug it into your computer directly from the camera. Voila! You can now view and upload your pictures and videos again.

Constant Pop-Ups

Now, it’s highly uncommon for a Mac to get a virus/trojan/malware - but it’s not impossible. If you’re getting a lot of pop-ups for no apparent reason, it’s highly likely that you’ve got some malware on your computer. Don’t panic though, this should be an easy fix. Take it to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store (make sure you make an appointment online!) and they should be able to get that malware off for you, free of charge.

Volume Icon Grayed Out

So you’re hanging around, and you really want to watch a video or play some jams. But the volume isn’t coming through, and when you try to adjust the volume, your computer won’t let you, even though you don’t have any headphones plugged in. Freaky, but not an issue. There’s a tab inside of your headphone jack that can read whenever you plug something into it, switching from “external audio” mode to “headphone” mode. Sometimes, when pulling out your headphones, the tab doesn’t get released, so your computer still thinks that you have headphones plugged in. Just plug in some headphones and pull them out and you should see the volume turn from gray to black again. Easy fix.

Hard Drive Failed

I remember I was doing homework on my older Macbook Pro one day and it just crashed on me. Out of nowhere. I totally started freaking out. But I shouldn’t have, because this is also a relatively easy fix. Make an appointment with the Genius Bar and they’ll figure out if it’s one of two things:

1) The software itself failed.

The guys at the Genius Bar will just reinstall the software and you’re all set - free of charge.

2) The hard drive itself is corrupt.

In this case, you would have to purchase a new hard drive, which they can install for you and install the software.

In both cases, you would lose everything you had on the computer, which sucks. Unless, of course, you had a backup on an external hard drive (first thing’s first!). Then all you have to do is plug in that external hard drive and use Time Machine to reinstall whatever it is that you had on the drive.

Technology is frustrating, but we rely on it whether we like to or not. And when things go awry, it can feel disastrous. But take a deep breath and a step back, and try some trouble-shooting before you go and drop a chunk of cash to get it fixed. I hope these tips and tricks helped!