iPhone | At Home with Tech

August 20, 2023

You Can’t Save your iPhone’s Soul if You don’t Activate this Setting

If you ever need to clone your iPhone should your device meet an untimely end, a simple setting buried in your old device is the key to success.

You may not realize it, but across the years, you’ve been building and nurturing a look and feel for your iPhone. It comes in the form of all the apps you’ve downloaded and how they’re organized on your screen. It creates an experience that’s unique to you and feels perfect, because it is. You’ve made it that way.

When you want to upgrade to a new iPhone or need to because of less-than-optimal circumstances, Apple has a process to perfectly restore all your settings and apps in your new device (passwords too). That is if you follow all of the iCloud rules.

But if you miss a step and disaster strikes, you can never transfer your iPhone’s unique personality that you’ve lovingly crafted into a new phone model. You’ll effectively lose its ‘soul.’ Sure, you can manually put all the pieces back together into a new iPhone, but the clone will never be exactly the same.

That’s what happened to me.

R.I.P. My Dear iPhone
Last time, I shared how I effectively killed my iPhone after a little kayaking mishap that submerged it in ocean water.

Thankfully, I had backed up all my Apple apps in iCloud, and when I activated my replacement iPhone at The Apple Store, those apps were already in place, loading in my important data.

But when I searched for all my other apps, they were nowhere to be found.

I was still grieving the loss of my former iPhone. (It had been less than an hour.)

Now, the pain started to pile on.

iCloud 101
Yes, I’d previously been following good iCloud back-up protocols and had properly saved everything of importance to iCloud:

Photos
iCloud Mail
Notes
Messages
Contacts
Calendars
Music

It was all safely stored for me.

So, restoring all of that in my new iPhone was easy. (Plus, I pay for 2 TB of Apple cloud storage to cover all my family’s devices and related files.)

I thought I had it all covered. But I didn’t.

My non-Apple apps had vanished. Here’s why…

We Can (Mostly) Rebuild It
Apparently, my old iPhone didn’t have the little iCloud backup switch in ‘Settings’ activated to its green state. I had somehow missed that.

And without that critical piece of back up flicked on, I had forever lost the snapshot of my old iPhone’s set up. All the settings, the home screen layout and all my non-Apple apps.

Now, I needed to download all my non-native Apple apps again (they were readily available in my ‘Purchased’ section in the App Store app), reorganize them and then (the worst part) re-sign into every one of them again.

That was a big project and a massive pain.

It took me the better part of a week to get my apps back in order and running properly. (You don’t realize how heavily you’ve become reliant on your phone for your day-to-day needs until you don’t have access.)

And then when I was done, I still didn’t have my old iPhone’s exact layout back. It was inevitably a bit different. (You’d otherwise need a photographic memory to restructure it perfectly.)

How to Turn On iCloud Backup to Save your iPhone’s Settings
So, if you want to avoid my Humpty-Dumpty fate, be sure to have the specific iCloud Backup switch turned on in ‘Settings.’ It’s embarrassingly simple. Go to:

Settings
Your Name (on the very top)
Your Name’s iPhone (in the third section from the top)
iCloud Backup
Flick the virtual switch to green
That’s it

Silver Lining?
The only upside to my rookie iPhone mistake is I had the chance to slim down the apps on my new phone to the apps that I actually use today. (I didn’t download the ones that I haven’t opened in years.) So, I was able to create a better-organized layout for myself.

No, it’s not my old iPhone. That’s gone. I’ve permanently lost that comfy layout.

However familiar, that’s not necessarily the best layout for me today. It was created organically across many years and through previous iPhone models.

Creating a fresh app structure from the ground up has its advantages. It certainly better represents my current needs. It’s more efficient. It makes sense.

Now I just need to train myself to remember where everything is!

Everyone Risks a Kayaking Kerplunk
Sure, we can all regularly update and reorganize the app structure on our phones. But who really takes the time to do that?

I should be thankful that I was given the opportunity to properly refresh and optimize my own iPhone experience. Right?

On the other hand, just flicking the green iCloud switch is a whole lot easier.

And better yet, think twice about bringing your iPhone on your next kayaking trip without a waterproof bag.

But as careful as you may be with your tech, there’s always some kind of kayaking kerplunk just around the corner for everyone.

So, plan ahead and make sure that the iCloud Backup switch is on!

August 13, 2023

R.I.P. My Dear iPhone

There are any number of ways that an iPhone can die. It’s particularly painful when it’s due to human error. Here’s how I killed mine.

The opening scene fades up on a beautiful shot of my wife and me enjoying an afternoon kayaking excursion while our son is away at sleepaway camp.

It was a sunny, summer Saturday, and we were soaking in our experience. Our kayaking route took us a mile and a half out to a little island near Norwalk, CT.

It was all perfect. But there was turbulence for me ahead.

A Three-Hour Tour
I had taken precautions to protect my iPhone and wallet by stashing them in a water-resistant belly bag.

When we approached the shoreline of the island, we had to, of course, pop out of our kayaks and take a few steps through a foot of water to complete the first half of our journey.

Those fateful steps turned out to be a doozy for me…

The Sinking of the Barrett
I immediately began to lose my footing as I struggled to stand upright. And with each step, I moved into deeper water, continuing to slip on the slick stones beneath. There was also a bit of current that further pulled me off my balance.

I know I can continue to make excuses, but as I’m sure you’ve surmised by now, I simply fell in.

And yes, my belly bag fully submerged in the salty water.

I pulled myself out of the drink as fast as possible, unzipped the bag and peered inside. Both my wallet and iPhone were drenched, although they were not resting in a pool of water. My belly bag had at least prevented that.

I emptied my precious contents and placed them on a flat piece of wood in the sun that was conveniently positioned on the sand in front of me.

My iPhone was blinking the Apple logo, trying to reboot itself.

Uh oh. That wasn’t good.

So, I powered it down, hoping that my iPhone would dry out over the next 24 hours and return to its normal state.

But it didn’t. The next day when I turned it on, my iPhone struggled to boot up and then promptly crashed, regressing back to the Apple logo.

My next step was a desperate visit to Apple’s Genius Bar.

My Experience at Apple’s ER
It felt like I was in an emergency room watching a failed attempt to preserve life. My iPhone lay on a table, plugged in to a diagnostic monitor. Its life was draining away.

The Genius Bar technician grimly evaluated the diagnostic scan. The store manager and a sales specialist watched with me. I signed a waiver allowing my phone to be wiped in a last-ditch effort to bring it back to life.

And then it was over. My iPhone had flatlined.

There was no hope. The Apple Genius called it at 12:33pm.

DOA. Repair not possible.

How to Move On
At 12:34pm on an August Sunday, I had officially lost my beloved iPhone Xs Max, my constant companion for the past five years.

Yes. If you were wondering, I had not just drowned a newer iPhone model. Still, I had paid a whopping $1,249 for it. But time marches on, and my phone was clearly past due for replacement by the ‘Lester Operating Standards.’ And I was looking forward to upgrading to an iPhone 15 model this fall.

Soon. But not soon enough. That window wouldn’t open for another six weeks or so.

Of course, I immediately needed another phone.

But I didn’t want to pull the trigger on an iPhone 14, because that will shortly be last year’s model.

Then, the solution hit me.

I wasn’t the only Lester who required an iPhone. There was another.

The Lester Family Plan
My thirteen-year-old son needed an iPhone, and I was planning on getting him an iPhone SE during my planned Apple Store visit for my iPhone 15. It was to be a father/son trip. We’d get our iPhones together.

But that well-planned moment evaporated the moment my old iPhone died.

Of course, I’d need to buy the iPhone SE now and use it as a bridge for the next two months before handing it over to the next generation.

Yes, that meant a variety of compromises, but I knew I could handle going old school for the next two months.

Everyone at The Apple Store following my predicament approved of my strategic choice and within minutes, I had a new iPhone in my hand.

Error in the Cloning Process
The iPhone SE began sucking in my iCloud data. But I quickly realized something was wrong as it tried to fully replicate its former self.

I had missed a simple step in my iCloud back-up planning. And now, that would cost me.

Next time, I’ll explain what I did wrong, and how you can avoid my fate…

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November 27, 2022

How to Improve your Street Photography by Ignoring the Details

Usually there’s not enough time to focus on setup when capturing a photographic moment. So don’t. Here’s what to do instead.

When you walk about in the city, do you sometimes see moments that would make for a perfect photo, if only you had a camera in your hand? Yes, me too. In fact… all of the time.

Sure, my iPhone is always right there in my pocket as I move throughout New York City, and I often grab for it to capture a fleeting image right in front of me. It’s all about how fast you can get off a couple shots before the scene shifts and the opportunity evaporates. I can’t tell you how many photos I’ve missed over the years that were taken just a few seconds too late.

Use a Camera Strap to Speed Up your Response
Wearing your camera around your neck can trim away critical seconds, as you don’t have pull out your camera.

I recently bought a strap made by Peak Design (Slide Lite) for my Panasonic Lumix LX10. I got it for my family’s trip to Grand Canyon and the famous mule ride we took along the rim.

The strap was originally a one-use purchase. Why would I ever want to ruin the small form factor of my compact camera by attaching a bulky strap to it? But then I tried an experiment and wore the camera during one of my trips into New York City. And I quickly realized that strap was my ticket to better street photography.

Be Ready for the Photo
Discarding the concern that I would look like a tourist, I’ve now worn my camera several times walking uptown from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan to visit my father. And let me tell you, having my camera right there near my hand is a game changer.

If you wonder why you may see any number of people walking about the city with cameras in their hands or about their necks, I think they’re all waiting for the next photo to appear. And they intend to be ready!

Point and Press
In my ongoing exploration of street photography, I’ve also been trying out an alternate shooting strategy. It’s simply to proactively point my camera at a potential scene as I walk by. Before I actually see anything worth capturing, I press the shutter a few times, move on and hope for the best. It’s all about playing the odds that the camera captured an image I didn’t have time to spot and process.

It’s about meeting a moment and reviewing it later to see if there’s actually any visual interest in it.

Happily, this technique has yielded unexpected success.

Photo Finish at the Track
My father likes to tell a story from the 1970’s when he practiced his own amateur photography with his old SLR camera. He was at Yonkers Raceway and had a seat up close near the finish line. As the horses crossed by in a flash, he simply squeezed his shutter button to burst through his 36-photo film roll.

Later, when he picked up his developed pictures from the photo store, he quickly sifted through the group. He saw a bunch of useless mushy blurs… all except for the last photo. It was perfect. It was like a shot you’d see on the sports page of the New York Post.
My father met the moment, pointed in the right direction, and his camera did the rest.

Your Speed Factor
Whether you see a moment or anticipate one, snapping your photo as quickly as possible is the key factor to better street photography. Plus, it really doesn’t matter what you see. It’s what your camera captures.

So, you might want to ignore more of the details and focus most of your attention on getting your camera going and its general position. Keep it simple. There’s often not more time for much else. You probably won’t know if you got ‘the shot’ until you review it later.

I’m still very much a student of this art form. That said, here are a few examples from my recent walks in Manhattan.