I have an old iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 15.8.8. Since it’s losing app support and I don’t really care about recovering it if it gets lost, I decided to lock it down as much as possible.

My goal:

If someone gets the phone, I want the data to be basically inaccessible.
If something happens to it, I don't care about getting the device back.
I want as little personal information exposed as possible.

What I changed:

✅ Enabled Erase Data after 10 failed passcode attempts

✅ Set a long, strong alphanumeric passcode

✅ Disabled unnecessary Lock Screen access (Control Center, Siri, notifications, USB accessories, etc.)

✅ Turned off Find My iPhone because I don't want the device/location visible through my account

✅ Removed/plan to remove Medical ID from that device

✅ Reviewing privacy settings, app permissions, and stored data

I know turning off Find My removes Activation Lock and makes the phone easier to reuse if stolen, but since this is basically a disposable device, I care more about protecting the data than recovering the phone.

So here are a few questions...:

Is there anything else I should disable/remove to reduce links back to me?

Are there any hidden privacy settings on iOS 15 I should check?

Is keeping it signed into my Apple Account a bad idea if I want it less connected to me?

I know the iPhone 7 Plus is ancient by now, but it still works and I figured I might as well make it as secure as possible instead of letting it sit in a drawer, plus i use it as a burner phone for when I don't want to use any of my main devices

Why should I check daily for the sound if it is low and increase it? Until when will I keep missing calls and alarms because I don’t hear them? And no not because I was busy or tired sometimes I grab the iPhone17 Pro Max and open the screen then I just see it! Any solution for this issue? The face recognition is off I guess and I am not in silent mode so I don’t think that they are the issue, also please don’t recommend buying a new device actually I have an older phone but it is annoying to switch the SIM cards each time between them. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone. Started my morning off strong by dropping my iphone flat on its back as i got out the car.

I have a scratch on the metal hardware and on the corners of my lenses. As you can see, it still takes pictures just fine, but i don’t know if this will cause a problem in the future.

Not sure if i should fix or leave as it.

thanks

It fell out of my pocket and onto hardwood floor. Is there anyway I can fix it, and then get a part that protects it?

i got silver iphone 8 64gigs for 36$ batterly newly replaced and its really great for my hands obv it doesnt support a lot apps now yet its stilll great i love taking pics from it than my pixel 7 even tho pixel 7 takes better pics its just so refreshing to have a phone thats compact and lightweight

I have a broken OLED. Is this self fixable or do i need to replace my phone/ get a new screen?

I’m getting ready to upgrade my iPhone to ios27 when it comes out - preplanning. However, is there an easy way to identify what apps are not available for download from the cloud when I upgrade. For example. I know that Air Video HD is no longer supported, so when I last upgraded, I used imazing to make a backup of the ipa and then after upgrading, I re-installed from the backup. This is what I would like to do for other apps that may no longer be available.

So does anyone know if is there an easy way to identify all I have installed so I can back them up and restore onto a new device? I understand that some may no longer work, but at least I would find out myself instead of just wondering…

Thanks.

Anyone know a good privacy screen protector I could get on Amazon. I currently have the zagg screen protector but I feel like it’s too expensive ($45) for a screen protector. Yeah I haven’t had really any issues with them but just curious if anyone knows another good brand privacy screen protector for a better price. Thanks in advance.

I’m fine with a steeper price and uglier appearance in exchange for quality. I just bought a case with a ring from Amazon and it broke on day 2 of owning it.

I’m looking at some more reputable brands, but they don’t seem to have cases with sockets, rings, or anything of the sort.

Do you lot have any recommendations for me?

I regrettably didn’t replace my phone after it had a cracked screen for a few months, and it finally gave its life after I sat down on a plane earlier today.

I only have 5gb of iCloud storage, so I’m missing so much after trying that sync method. Most of what seems to have been uploaded to the cloud was stupid ass text messages (3.9gb) smh

I have a ton of notes and photos from my old phone I refuse to lose. I was just returning from a trip to Ireland in remembrance of my Father who passed 10 years ago on the 16th. I took 100+ photos and wrote a remembrance note on our 2-day hike that I really really do not want to lose for obvious reasons, along with tons of music lyrics I’ve written over the years.

Is it possible to transfer all the data from my old phone to the new one I was forced to buy directly after my flight today? The screen still lights up completely, but became totally unresponsive today after losing another tiny piece of glass. I tried connecting to iTunes, but it seems to not let me do anything unless I unlock the phone.

Any help would be INCREDIBLY appreciated, especially given the circumstances of the trip (along with years of writing gone).

So I recently bought a phone off my mate and it’s doing something I’ve not seen before. When I reset it it turns on with vibrant colours and whatnot but after like 5mins of use (not getting hot or anything) it loses all vibrancy and gets like a grey cast that makes it borderline unusable (see last pic) and it just gets worse the longer I use it. All of these pics were taken on the lowest brightness setting by the way.

What the heck is this? I have tried:
Reset phone
Hard reset phone
Reset all settings
Turn all display settings off
Turn auto brightness on/off quickly a bunch of times
It is up to date with iOS

Please help me out!

They pop up so often and I just intuitvely click it and it goes away all the time. But what exactly is it. Always pops up in random areas of the phone

So, since Iast update my locked screen shows the video player when I touch the screen.

I get that this is a great feature but what if I don’t want it to been seen by someone else, like if I’m checking what time it is on the bus or if I got company at home and they for whatever reason touch my phone so it lits up.

even if I close the window of the site where I watched the video it still sometimes show the last played video. Problematic if your been watching something dirty and your grandma accidently touches your screen just to be shown naked people in or a closeup of a bodypart..

Can I change this cause I haven’t found anything when checking the settings.

I’m in the UAE and getting this on both an iPhone SE 2 and iPad 9:

Service not allowed — FaceTime can’t be provided in your country or region.

The devices use different Apple IDs. Both are on Wi-Fi with a US VPN and region set to United States.

The SE previously had FaceTime working before I reset it. My UAE-spec XS Max and 16 Pro Max still have FaceTime working, using the same VPN method.

I’ve tried different VPN servers, Wi-Fi networks, restarts, network reset, automatic date/time, region changes, signing in/out, and checking restrictions.

Has anyone in the UAE managed to activate FaceTime on a newly reset iOS 26 device recently? Could new activations be blocked, possibly due to the current war situation?

Disclosure: AI helped write and format this post.

How do i stop my phone from changing words after i have FINISHED typing sentences???? I know iphone now has phrase prediction, how do i turn it off because it is changing the meaning of my sentences and I am not catching it every time it does it!

Just to highlight how insane and extreme this issue is: I am shopping for a house and my fucking phone decided to tell the agent that I want to put in an offer when I said I did NOT want to. I was actually looking at the text when it changed the words. I could not believe it. Imagine if I sent that without noticing the change.

It is changing meaning in very serious ways.

There has to be a way to disable this without removing autocomplete entirely.

I cant use this feature to transalte the language I actually want. English is already my phones primary language so I dont know why its forcing polish on me. I tried removing polish entirely and changing my region but nothing works

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help because I'm completely out of ideas.

I have an iPhone 17 that was purchased on 1 January 2026, so it's still under Apple's Limited Warranty.
A couple of days ago, my phone suddenly lost cellular service and has been stuck on "Searching..." ever since.

Here's everything I've tried:
- Tried 3 different physical SIM cards. None of them are detected. eSim option also isn’t working.
- Restarted the phone multiple times.
- Reset Network Settings.
- No recent drops or physical damage.
- No water or liquid exposure.

The phone works perfectly fine on Wi-Fi, but it just won't connect to any cellular network and constantly shows "Searching...".

Has anyone experienced this before?
What ended up being the cause?
Was it a software issue or a hardware issue?

If your iPhone was under Apple's Limited Warranty, did Apple repair or replace it for free?

I'm planning to take it to Apple, but I wanted to hear if anyone else has gone through something similar.

Thanks!

When it comes to most platforms I’d verification processes I need assistance in verifying ID with phone and number

sitting here, staring at the alarm going off on my lock screen with no noise or vibration happening what can I do to actually make this work? This is the third time this week It has made me a few minutes late.

I’ve been building a small iPhone app called KeyMind and would really appreciate some honest feedback before launch.

It’s a custom keyboard that can suggest your next word or complete your sentence using the text around your cursor and context you choose to add. It also includes swipe typing and an AI chat directly inside the keyboard.

Suggestions use Apple’s on-device model, so your writing and saved context aren’t sent to a KeyMind AI server. Accounts are optional.

You’ll need an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone running iOS 26 or iOS 27 beta. English is the only supported language for now.

I’m mainly looking for feedback on:

- Missed key presses or slow responses

- Suggestion quality and refresh speed

- Swipe-typing accuracy

- Anything confusing during setup

Brutally honest feedback is welcome!

Hi everyone,

I have an iPhone with 256 GB of storage, and it's now almost completely full (about 99%), mostly with photos and videos.

I'd like to transfer everything to my PC and then free up space on the phone. What's the best way to do this? Is a USB cable enough, or do I need a specific app or another method?

My main concern is preserving everything exactly as it is:

• Original photo and video quality
• Live Photos
• Metadata (dates, locations, camera info, etc.)
• Albums and organization

Ideally, if I ever decide to copy everything back to my iPhone in the future, I'd like the photos and videos to appear exactly like the originals, with all their information intact.

What would you recommend? I've never owned an iPhone before, so I'm not sure what the best approach is.

My friend hinted i should do a serial number check and im seeing purchased 1 January 2007, should i be scared ?

I have had my 15 for 2.5 years. Lately it keeps slowing down and texting is the worst. It just freezes and I have to wait like 15 seconds for it to start working again. Sometimes all I get is a white screen when I open the texting app. I have restarted the phone and made sure I have the latest update, nothing helps. I assume it's just the planned obsolescence where they program the phone to start acting up, so I will buy a new one. That is in fact what I am doing because I can't live like this. But then an odd thing happened. My girlfriend's 17 pro max just started doing the same thing. It's like we caught a virus or something. Has anyone else experienced this lately?