The eSIM is a weird technological marvel. Where a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) is now a baby-fingernail-sized piece of plastic (Nano SIM) with a few circuits within it, an eSIM is the virtual equivalent that’s handled entirely within software. When you want to add or change a telephone carrier service plan, no more fumbling with the Nano SIM and dropping it into a crevice you’ll never retrieve it from. (Don’t ask.) Instead, it can be as simple as clicking a link or scanning a QR Code.

You can have two eSIMs active at the same time. But these eSIMs aren’t just a text file that’s loaded with settings. Rather, they’re actual programmable circuits within your iPhone.

When you want to reset or fully erase your iPhone 18 Pro Max to hand it over to someone else, sell it, or recycle it if it’s too wonky to use, what choice you make can affect whether the eSIM remains in use for the next person who handles it. In most cases, you’ll want to delete all eSIMs. But there are exceptions: you may want to retain it if you’re transferring a data plan or even a phone number to another family member, or if performing a factory reset to try to solve a problem. (Note that deleting an eSIM doesn’t affect your subscription with a carrier—contact them to end or change service.)

Here’s the pathway to make sure you pick the right option, starting with Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone:

• To erase just eSIMs: tap Reset, Delete All eSIMs, and follow prompts to complete.
• To erase the device and leave it ready for use by another person: tap Erase All Content and Settings and review the list display. One item will be labeled eSIM if there’s one or more installed. Tap it to see what will happen during the following steps.

If you pick the last item, erase the device, tap Continue, and then during the process in which your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max is wiped, you’ll receive a prompt asking if you want to retain or delete the eSIM or eSIMs. Make the choice at that point based on your needs.

You can take a preemptive step if you want more assurance by going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset and tapping Delete All eSIMs. By deleting at this stage, the eSIM won’t even be messed with when you factory reset or otherwise erase the phone.

In the event you make a choice during erasure or reset you didn’t intend:

• If you retained an eSIM: Go through the stages to set up the iPhone with all the default choices, go to Settings > Cellular, and delete the eSIM. Reset or erase the device again. Or, you can call your carrier and ask them to cancel the plan if that was your intent in any case. They will deactivate service connected to the eSIM.
• If you delete an eSIM you wanted to keep: After setting up the device or restarting it, navigate through the website of the carrier to find the tools for reinstalling the eSIM. You may need to call them to get them to send you an image via a text message or install their app for them to push a profile into it that you can then use.

iCloud Photos offers a great way to access all your media across all your devices and at iCloud.com. Some people find it doesn’t meet their needs and want to disable it, but they’re worried about a potential edge case, described as follows:

1. They disable iCloud Photos on their Apple devices and retain images and videos variously based on storage. This unlinks their device-based Photos libraries from iCloud synchronization among them, and between them and iCloud.com.
2. They go to iCloud.com and delete images.
3. Unintentionally, iCloud Photos is re-enabled on a device.

Will step 3 result in images deleted from iCloud.com in step 2 also being removed from the accidentally re-enabled device in step 3? Apple doesn’t document this particular case, but the answer clearly seems to be no. iCloud retains no record of deletions that’s applied when and if sync becomes re-enabled.

Consider that deleting media in iCloud Photos is more like moving media. That is, when you delete an image or video, via iCloud Photos in iOS or macOS or at iCloud.com, you receive a warning that looks something like this (or in a plural form):

Delete 1 item from all your devices? This item will be deleted from iCloud Photos on all your devices.

However, that’s not what happens. Instead, the Photos native app or web app moves your deleted items into the Recently Deleted folder. After about 30 days, they are automatically deleted. (You can navigate to Recently Deleted, select items, and delete them immediately, and they are never recoverable from that moment forward.)

When you re-enable iCloud Photos on a device, by error or intention, iCloud merges photos and movies across your devices and iCloud.com, producing a superset of all images.

If you are running out of space on your iPhone you may be looking at the huge amount of space being attributed to Photos and thinking that deleting all the photos from your iPhone 18 Pro Max would be an easy way to increase your storage.

You may have heard of iCloud Photos and wondered if that would be a way to back up your photos so you can delete them from the iPhone. Or you may already be using iCloud Photos and think they are all backed up in iCloud and can be deleted from your iPhone. But you’d be very wrong!

iCloud can be a little confusing: it’s not a backup it’s more of a sync. So rather than being a way to free up space on your iPhone, it’s more of a way to make everything available on all your devices. That’s not to say you can’t use iCloud to make more space on your iPhone, you can, but probably not in the way you think.

So, in this article, we will explain how you can reduce the amount of space photos take up on your iPhone using iCloud and how you can delete photos from your iPhone 18 Pro Max and not iCloud.

Find out how to save space on your device without accidentally trashing your digital memories.

If I delete photos from my iPhone are they deleted from iCloud?

iCloud Photos is a sync. It allows you to see all your images on all your Apple devices (and at the iCloud.com website). If you delete a photo on your iPhone it will be removed from the iCloud sync. However, you do have a period of 30 days to recover it from the Recently Deleted folder.

To find the Recently Deleted folder in Photos on your iPhone 18 Pro Max follow these steps:

1. Tap on the Collections tab in the Photos app.

   

2. Swipe down to the Utilities section and find Recently Deleted.
3. Unlock the folder.

   

4. Find the photo select it. (If you want to recover more than one image tap on Select and tap on all the images you wish to restore.)
5. If you have selected just one image that photo will open on your screen. Tap on Recover.
6. If you select more than one image tap on the three dots at the bottom right of the screen and choose Recover.

How to use iCloud Photos to save space on your iPhone 18 Pro Max

This doesn’t mean that iCloud can’t help you save space on your iPhone.

If you use iCloud Photos and choose Optimize iPhone Storage you can reduce the amount of space taken by the photos stored on your iPhone.

Apple explains: “When Optimize iPhone Storage is turned on, all your full‑resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your iPhone.” This should significantly reduce the amount of space being taken up by your photos.

The only limit is the amount of space you have available in iCloud. Essentially Apple offers the following:

• 5GB free (this won’t be enough for all your photos)
• 50GB 99c/99p
• 200GB $2.99/£2.99
• 2TB $9.99/£8.99
• 6TB $29.99/£26.99
• 12TB $59.99/£54.99

If you take a lot of photos you might need to consider 2TB or more, but you will be able to share the space with members of your family if you turn on Family Sharing.

How to turn on iCloud Photos

To use iCloud Photos follow these steps:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
2. Tap on the Apple Account section at the top of the screen.

   

3. Tap on iCloud.

   

4. Tap on Photos.
5. Switch the slider beside Sync this iPhone on.

How to optimize iPhone storage with iCloud Photos.

If you want to reduce the amount of space being taken up by photos on your iPhone you need to turn on Optimize iPhone Storage.

Once you have iCloud Photos turned on you can choose for high-res versions of your images and videos to be saved in iCloud, but only small versions on your iPhone.

1. Go to Settings and tap on your Apple Account.
2. Tap on iCloud.
3. Tap on Photos, then tap iPhone Storage.
4. Now make sure that Optimize iPhone Storage is selected rather than Download and Keep Originals.

Once you have turned on iCloud Photos and Optimize iPhone Storage there should be no need to delete photos from your iPhone 18 Pro Max.

What happens if I turn off iCloud Photos?

If you go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos you will see that it is possible to stop syncing your iPhone by switching the slider beside Sync this iPhone to off.

If you do this, and have Optimize iPhone Storage on, you will see the option to remove photos from your iPhone or download the photos and videos to your iPhone.

Assuming you don’t have space on your iPhone to download everything, you might consider the Remove from iPhone option. At this point, you are likely wondering: “If I choose the Remove from iPhone option will all my photos be deleted from iCloud?”

If you never connect that iPhone to iCloud again your photos will remain in iCloud. But, crucially, if you later decide to connect that iPhone to iCloud using the same Apple Account to do so, the iCloud sync will result in all your photos being removed from iCloud to match your iPhone.

How to backup photos so you can delete them from iPhone

If you want to remove the photos from your iPhone and still have them backed up there are some ways to do this.

Here are a few options to consider.

Option 1: Use Google Photos

One option is to use Google Photos to back up your iPhone photos. The steps are as follows:

1. Download the Google Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Allow Google Photos to access your iPhone.
3. Choose the option to Back Up and Sync.

With Google Photos up and running all the photos you take on the iPhone will be backed up. This should mean that if you delete photos from your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max they will remain in Google Photos.

Option 2: Back up to a Mac

You could save all the images synced in iCloud Photos to your Mac. Assuming you have enough space on your Mac this may be an option.

1. Open Photos on your Mac.
2. Click on Photos in the menu bar.
3. Choose Settings.
4. Click on iCloud.
5. Choose Download Originals to this Mac.
6. With this option selected high res versions of all the images in iCloud will be downloaded to the Mac. Expect it to take some time!

Note that unless you turn off iCloud Photos your entire library will still be synced via iCloud, so if you delete something from your Mac it will be removed from iCloud.

There are other ways to import your photos from your iPhone to your Mac.

You can import images directly to Photos on a Mac. To do this:

1. Plug your iPhone into your Mac.
2. Open Photos.
3. Click on your iPhone in Devices.
4. Wait while your Mac prepares to import from your iPhone.
5. Once you can see previews of the Photos on your iPhone you can choose which ones you want to import.
6. Click on Import.

You can also use Image Capture to import photos to a folder on your Mac.

Both of these options will take a long time if you have a lot of photos stored on your iPhone.

Once you have backed up your photos from your iPhone to your Mac you might want to consider backing up your Mac, or moving your Photos library to an external drive.

Storage space on an iPhone is definitely at a premium, what with the quality and size of photos and videos increasing all the time and our photo libraries now stretching back years. If you use iCloud though, then there’s an easy way to reduce the amount of space your images are taking up on your iPhone 18 Pro Max without having to remove them from your device.

In this article, we explain how to reduce the amount of storage taken up by photos on your iPhone by moving them to iCloud and help you avoid some of the pitfalls that come from not fully understanding what iCloud offers.

How to save photos to iCloud

iCloud Photos is part of Apple’s iCloud service for storing and syncing data. If you choose to use iCloud Photos, all of your photos and videos on your iPhone, and any other Apple device you own, can be moved to the iCloud and synced from there to all your devices.

The important thing to note here is that while your photos are now in iCloud, if you were to delete them from your iPhone you would actually be deleting them from iCloud. We’ll discuss this in more detail below as it is a common misconception that iCloud Photos is a backup that allows you to delete photos from your iPhone – it isn’t that!

The other issue is the space required. You get 5GB for free when you set up your iPhone, but obviously, this won’t go very far if you’re an avid photographer or chronicler of life. To get more storage you’ll need to move to a paid iCloud+ plan, but this isn’t too bad as Apple offers a wide selection of capacities and you can always increase these later if you find you’re running out of space.

Here’s the current monthly prices for iCloud+ storage:

• 50GB: $0.99/£0.99
• 200GB: $2.99/£2.99
• 2TB: $9.99/£8.99
• 6TB: $29.99/£26.99
• 12TB: $59.99/£54.99

It might sound like a lot of money but the alternative is paying even more for a 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max or backing up your images in another way, of which there are plenty. But we think using iCloud Photos is the simplest and most user-friendly way to save space on your iPhone without deleting your photos.

If you want to use the storage space for your partner or kids as well, then you’ll want to take a look at how to set up Family Sharing.

How to move photos from an iPhone to iCloud

Setting up iCloud Photos on your iPhone 18 Pro Max is very simple. Once you’ve signed up for the iCloud plan that suits your storage requirements, follow these steps:

To set up iCloud Photos:

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud.

   

2. Select Photos.
3. Enable Sync this iPhone.

This will now sync all of the images in your Photos app to the iCloud server (if it wasn’t already doing that). You’ll want to be on a Wi-Fi connection for this, as it could burn through your data plan if you have a lot of photos and videos to sync.

How to save space on iPhone 18 Pro Max using iCloud Photos

This bit is key if you want to reduce the space your photos library is taking up on your iPhone.

You have the option to switch to a mode that stores the full versions of your photos and videos on the iCloud servers while keeping much smaller (in file size) ones on your iPhone. This means you still have full access to your images, but they won’t take up as much storage space on your device.

Usually, this is turned on by default when you set up the Photos app, but it’s always a good idea to see if this is actually the case. Note, if you don’t have a huge photo library and want the full-size files on your device, this can be achieved by turning off the feature as well.

Here are the steps for enabling the smaller images on your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
2. Select Photos, then tap iPhone Storage.
3. Enable Optimize iPhone Storage.

Now the file sizes of your photos and videos should be more storage-friendly on your iPhone, while the original files and formats are safe on iCloud.

You can download the full-resolution version of any photo and video when you want to. For example, when editing an iMovie of a collection of your videos.

Can I delete photos on my iPhone if they’re on iCloud?

No. No. No. This is a common misconception, but one that can lead to disaster. iCloud does indeed have your files on its servers, but the nature of iCloud is to allow you to sync your photos and videos across all your devices. The problem with misunderstanding this is that when you delete the image from your iPhone or Mac, iCloud syncs this action universally. Meaning that it gets deleted from all your Apple devices, as well as the iCloud servers.

If you’ve accidentally removed a photo from your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max, then all may not be lost as Apple gives you a 30-day grace period to recover these files.

How can I back up my iPhone photos and videos?

As we’ve established, iCloud is great for accessing your photos and videos on any of your devices, but, as a long-term backup solution, you should consider another service or two. The adage of ‘if something is backed up only once, it isn’t backed up at all’ definitely applies here.

Basically, you’ll want to sign up for other storage services such as Google Photos, Flickr or Amazon Photos, as they all offer easy and safe ways to store your images, often for free or at least monthly prices that are affordable and well worth paying to ensure that your photos and videos are secure for the long-term.

Leo Kostizen wants to use iCloud Photos. However, he’s worried that once he’s enabled the cloud-based photo syncing and storage system on his iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max and his Mac that a deletion in one place deletes the items everywhere.

If a deletion is made on any device, the same picture is deleted on all devices connected to the cloud…What if I retain full-resolution pictures on my iMac? Will the deletion also be made here?

I can see a grandchild accidentally deleting a few pictures and me not even realizing that they are gone. I always keep a backup but it would be difficult to tell whether I need to restore.

An excellent point and concern. To my knowledge, you can’t lock down Photos to prevent deletions entirely.

Should a photo or video be deleted from iOS or macOS if you have iCloud Photos enabled—yes, it is deleted everywhere, whether you’re deleting an optimized version or the full-resolution one on a Mac.

However, the deletion isn’t immediate without an extra step. Instead, iCloud Photos moves it to a Recently Deleted album. Items are moved here and retained for weeks. Deleted photos and videos are kept in the Recently Deleted collection for 30 days.

In Photos, tap Collections, tap the Recently Deleted collection (below Utilities), tap View Album, then unlock your iPhone. You can tap Select, choose one or more items, then tap the More button and tap Recover, and they’re moved back to the main library. You can also immediately delete items if you’re trying to recover storage space, by choosing one or more photos and videos, then tapping the More button and tapping Delete—in that case, they’re immediately deleted.

iCloud Photos’ mission is to sync photos and video across all your devices, providing access to a single set of media across your hardware and via iCloud.com. Not everybody wants that, however. Some people want different sets of media on different devices. That’s possible, but it comes with risk and challenges.

If you don’t have iCloud Photos already set up, you can skip ahead to the section on backing up media without using iCloud.

Switching from iCloud Photos to locally stored media

If iCloud Photos is enabled on one or more of your devices—that’s on any iPhone or Mac—some copy of your entire set of images and movies are on each device. When Optimize iPhone Storage is turned on, all your full‑resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your iPhone.

You can check whether Optimize iPhone/Mac Storage is enabled in these locations:

• In iOS, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos > iPhone Storage
• In macOS, open Photos and go to Photos > Settings > iCloud.

If your set of synced media is optimized, then you don’t have a full-resolution version of all images and videos on that device. Make sure one of your devices does (most likely a Mac), and that it has enough storage to download the full library. The easiest method is to force Photos to perform a download:

1. In Photos for macOS, go to Photos > Settings > iCloud.
2. If you don’t have Download Originals to this Mac checked, do so. This will start a full download.
3. Uncheck the iCloud Photos box.
4. Photos prompts you to confirm, but offers two choices. Pick Download, which ensures that all images in any state are downloaded to your Mac.

When the operation is complete, iCloud Photos will be disabled and you’ll have a full local copy.

I’d suggest waiting until that point before you disable iCloud Photos on devices that you don’t want to continue syncing with and via iCloud.

Your media remains on iCloud.com as a backup even if you disable all devices from syncing with it. But it’s no longer kept up to date with any device that has iCloud Photos disabled.

Before you downgrade or cancel your iCloud+ plan, download or remove content that exceeds your new storage amount. If your iCloud storage exceeds your new storage plan capacity, iCloud won’t sync or update your information.

On devices that no longer have iCloud Photos enabled, any images you capture or add to the Photos library are retained only locally. If you don’t use iCloud Photos, your Photos Library is part of your iCloud Backup.

Backing up photos without iCloud sync

Your photos and videos are likely some of the most precious things you own, even if they only exist as bits on a computer or mobile device. Once you disable iCloud Photos on your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max, images aren’t necessarily automatically backed up the moment they’re captured or added.

On an iPhone, you have to engage a bit more effort:

• Sync via a Mac: You can use the Photos app to import images from your iPhone to your Mac. This is manual, so these backups occur only when you physically connect your mobile device via USB to your Mac.
• Sync via Google Photos: Google can automatically sync photos with Google Photos installed without occupying much storage on your device. (This is also an option for macOS.) Google’s storage prices aren’t far off from Apple’s.
• Sync via Dropbox: Dropbox can automatically sync images from an iPhone using an app on the device or when you plug in a mobile device (or camera) to a Mac. Dropbox also charges about the same as Apple for cloud storage.

An Apple Account lets you sync all sorts of data across your devices. But what happens when you add your personal Apple Account to a work machine or vice versa? While contacts, calendar entries, and notes may be easy to delete or sort out, you could wind up with unwanted photos and videos from a work account on your personal machine—or, more likely, personal photos on a work account. With iCloud Photos active, those images and movies are synced and backed up across your linked devices!

Warning! Many of the steps below are not reversible. Double-check before proceeding that you’re sure you know the correct accounts on which your media lives.

The solution is fortunately straightforward:

1. Log out of the wrong Apple Account on all the devices you need to disconnect from that set of iCloud Photos.
2. Decline when prompted to delete all the media from the device. There’s no reason, as your unwanted images and videos will still be synced in iCloud storage.
3. Log back in with the correct Apple Account on all the appropriate devices.
4. Using a Mac to proceed is easiest. With iCloud Photos active, find and delete the media that shouldn’t be in that account’s synced image and video set. When warned that the media will be deleted from all your devices, click or tap Delete. (I offer more tips below on this step.)
5. When you’ve completed removing all unwanted media, click the Recently Deleted album in the sidebar, then click Delete All and confirm the permanent deletion by clicking Delete.

Now there’s no trace of any images or videos you selected across all synced devices associated with the currently logged-in Apple Account.

If you had iCloud Photos enabled on both work and personal accounts, then you will have to repeat steps 4 and 5 on the account that you remain logged into that has unwanted images. For instance, if you connected a Mac at work to your personal Apple Account, after first following the steps above to remove the Apple Account and unwanted images and videos from your work account, then you will need to go to a device connected to your personal Apple Account and remove unwanted work media.

If you accidentally had a large number of media items sync, selecting them visually or one at a time may be too tedious. Instead, consider using a smart album to select images. This may be possible if, for instance, you have a personal iPhone 18 Pro Max that you took nearly all pictures and shot all video on, and it’s different from any work mobile device you have.

In that case, you could use this method in Photos for macOS:

1. Choose File > New Smart Album.
2. In the conditions list, select Camera Model from the first popup. Try to find your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max (or other camera) that may be uniquely associated with the set of images you want to remove from the list of camera models. Select it, and the number of items matched appears.
3. Name the smart album to identify it and click OK.
4. Photos creates the smart album and selects it. Choose Edit > Select All or press Command-A.
5. Press the Delete key, then click Delete.
6. Click the Recently Deleted album in the sidebar, then click Delete All and confirm the permanent deletion by clicking Delete.

In step 2, you can also click the + to add more conditions:

• With Any selected after in “Match [popup] of the following conditions” add more camera models to match any of them.
• With All selected for matching, you could add a date criterion (Date, is in the range) if you know all or most of the media comes from before you started a job; or conversely, after if you’re removing work images from a personal account.

Dara Hogan has a problem that a lot of readers share: two Apple Accounts that are both used for iTunes and iCloud. They wonder about resolving this:

One thing that I don’t fully understand is why iCloud can’t be used as a solution to this problem? Would it be possible for me to set up a new, third Apple Account and to sync both existing accounts to it and then delete them and implement the new, third Apple Account on all my devices?

Dara also notes the reason for staying put, which is a common one for many of you, and is the reason that I continue to use an older Apple Account for iTunes and a newer one for iCloud.

Everything is in sync (which is why I haven’t moved to using just one Apple Account before now). If I add a new contact on my iPhone it pops up on my iMac. Likewise with Calendar entries. Also, the 385 physical CDs that I’ve uploaded to iTunes on my iMac are also there on my iPhone and music I’ve purchased from iTunes on my iPhone are also on my iMac.

So here’s the problem. You can’t migrate your email. You could make sure one Mac (better than iOS for this purpose) was up to date with contacts and calendars, and you’d use Mail or another IMAP-supported mail client to download all email that was stored on the server to local storage.

If you used iCloud Photos or Sync Library or iTunes Match, you’d want to be sure that 100 percent of the synced material is stored locally on the Mac, too. (In iCloud Photos, set the iCloud settings to download full-resolution images.) You’d also need to make sure you’d cleared out iCloud Drive of any files you need.

Then you could disable iCloud and be sure to click every dialog that asks that you want to keep information stored locally. Now, you can create a new Apple Account you plan to use with iCloud synchronization and enable synchronization for all the services.

However, a lot of provisos:

• You might be able to migrate purchases that you’ve made from your secondary Apple Account — like apps, music, and other content — to your primary Apple Account.
• If you want to keep using one of the emails associated with your other Apple Accounts—especially to send email using that address as the return address—you need to keep an entry in your mail programs for it. (You can forward iCloud email, though, and that may be enough of a solution for many people.)
• There may be Apple-associated or third-party connections to the Apple Accounts or associated email addresses, so you may regularly have to log in or enter passwords in any case.

If that all works for you, then a third Apple Account (or consolidating sync to one of the two existing ones) should work out just fine.

If you’re experiencing problems with your AirPods, such as strange battery drains or intermittent audio, it could be that they need resetting. Yes, the classic ‘turning it off and on again’ as sung in unison by IT support technicians the world over.

But how can you do this on a device that has nary a button in sight? In this article we show you the quick way to reboot your wireless earbuds.

Manually resetting your AirPods

Since their introduction in September 2016, AirPods have gone on to be a huge success for Apple, with the majority of reviews heaping praise on the earbuds for their simplicity and reliability.

Of course, this can feel a bit frustrating to read if your AirPods won’t connect to your iPhone 18 Pro Max, or the charge lasts for less time than it normally would.

It should be a case of just opening the charging case and letting the Apple software do its thing. But, if this isn’t the situation for you, there’s a quick method you can try to get things back on track.

On your iPhone 18 Pro Max go to Settings > Bluetooth and tap the More Info button next to your AirPods. From the menu that appears select Forget This Device.

Place the AirPods into the charging case, close the lid, then wait 30 seconds. The muttering of incantations is entirely optional at this point.

AirPods 1, 2, or 3, or AirPods Pro 1 or 2: Open the lid, then press and hold the setup button on the back of the case for about 15 seconds, until the status light flashes amber, then white.

AirPods 4 or 5, or AirPods Pro 3: Open the lid, then double-tap the front of the case three times. When you successfully reset your AirPods, the status light flashes amber, then white.

Now, hold your iPhone close to the case and follow the instructions that appear on the screen. Hopefully your AirPods should connect without issue.

What to do if your AirPods won’t charge

Before making a trip to the Genius Bar to get your AirPods looked at, here are some simple checks you can try.

First, ensure that all of your cables are firmly connected and that the charging case and its supplied charger are plugged in correctly. Next, place your AirPods in the charging case, again being careful that they are seated correctly.

Try charging the case for around 15 minutes. After this, but while still keeping the charger connected and the AirPods inside, open the lid and hold the case close to your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Wait a couple of seconds and you should see the AirPods status windows appear. Look to see if there is a charging icon (the little lightning bolt) next to the AirPods.

If not, you might have a hardware problem that requires technical assistance. In this case, contact Apple Support to arrange an appointment.

Notifications can be very useful: reminding you of upcoming appointments, new episodes of podcasts you enjoy, alerting you to important emails or Messages you don’t want to miss, or letting you know that you’ve received messages on your social media platform of choice. But notification overload isn’t fun. Here’s how to lessen the number of pings you get on your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max.

How to stop notifications for certain apps

There are likely to be some notifications you want to receive and others you’d prefer not to see. In that case it is easy to tweak which apps can send you notifications.

When you first install an app, you’ll usually be asked whether you want to allow notifications. While you may permit this at the time, if the various messages get too much you can always turn off notifications for that specific app via Settings.

Stop notifications on iPhone 18 Pro Max

Here’s the steps required:

1. Open Settings > Notifications.
2. Scroll down and select the app you want to disable.

   

3. Turn off Allow Notifications.

How to hide notification previews (keep messages private)

One reason you might want to stop notifications is if they risk revealing information to anyone else. Most notifications display a summary of their contents, which can be a nightmare if you’re trying to plan a party for someone in your family or are awaiting a job interview invite while still at your present place of employment.

Thankfully, it’s possible to remove the content previews without stopping the notifications entirely. Here’s how it’s done:

Hide notification previews on iPhone

1. Open Settings > Notifications.
2. Tap a specific app or go to the next step for a general setting.
3. Tap Show Previews.
4. Select Never.

How to disable all notifications

There isn’t a direct setting that will allow you to turn off all notifications, but there are features that achieve the same goal. You can use the Scheduled Summary feature that will hold back all non-urgent notifications until a specified time of day. Then you’ll be presented with them when you deem it more convenient.

To set this up, take the following steps:

Turn off notifications on iPhone 18 Pro Max

1. Open Settings > Notifications.
2. Tap Scheduled Summary.
3. Turn on Scheduled Summary, then tap Continue (if it appears).
4. Select the apps you want to include in your Summary.
5. Schedule times for the notification summary.

Do iPhone notifications use data?

One reason that you might want to turn off notifications is that you’re worried about the amount of data that might be used up by your iPhone constantly accessing the internet to check for any push notifications. While this process does involve data, it should only be a minimal amount and certainly not enough to burn through your data plan.

If you’re worried about this though, you can check how much data is being used by opening Settings > Cellular > System Services and checking Push Notifications.

Hopefully, all of these tips will help you get on top of all the possible distractions that come with being connected to the internet. If you still find your mind ill at ease, maybe give meditation and mindfulness apps like Headspace or Balance a go, to see if that makes things a little more bearable.