By Dan Moren
January 31, 2025 12:43 PM PT
The Back Page: Troubleshoot to kill
Though we often laud Apple for its devotion to user-friendly technology, there are the rare occasions when dealing with their products and devices are…less than scrutable.
For example, recently the company finally1 put up a support document explaining how to update the firmware on AirPods. The process, which users have theorized about for years—since Apple never officially said how it works—turns out to be downright simple: Just put your AirPods in the case, close the lid, plug the charging cable into the case and then into a charger, keep the lid closed for “at least” 30 minutes, open the lid and check the firmware version to see if it successfully updated.
Why are you laughing? I haven’t even written a joke yet.
Anyway, the AirPods procedure is hardly the most outlandish that Apple’s ever published. So I’ve gone ahead and collected a few more handy resources for dealing with Apple technology that can sometimes feel capricious.
Fix AirDrop: Sometimes AirDrop works perfectly. Other times it works imperfectly. Which is to say, it does not work. In those cases, you may need to reset the AirDrop system. Before you go hunting for a button to press in Settings, Apple’s made that procedure far easier: it’s all in the name. Just lift your Mac or iPhone to head height and drop it right through the air onto the floor. If that doesn’t work, it’s because your device is now broken and you need to buy a new one. Problem solved!
Make Siri correctly interpret your requests: We’ve all been there. You ask Siri to play the classic “Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra and it turns off your living room lamps. You ask Siri to add bread to your shopping list and it turns your lamps red. You ask Siri to tell you what the temperature is and it sends some helpful information to your phone about the average temperature in Boise. And also turns on the lamps in your living room. But it turns out there’s a very simple way to get Siri to correctly interpret your requests: first set the built-in language to French. Then, JUST. SPEAK. VERY. LOUDLY. AND. SLOWLY. LIKE. YOU’RE. AN. AMERICAN. TOURIST. Siri’s snide looks are thrown in for free.
Force iCloud to sync: Ah, iCloud, the Swarm of Bees™ of Apple’s products. If you’ve been using it for any length of time, you’ve probably run into the issue where something just won’t sync. A calendar event. Messages. Your mail. And yet now you have thirty reminders telling you that you need to change your smoke alarm batteries. Fortunately, the solution is easy as pie: Just log all your devices out of iCloud. Then visit your local goat farm and dedicate a sacrifice to the dread god Glog-Raggopth, all praise his name. Log back into your devices one at a time, while murmuring the ancient Enochian spell for resolving sync issues, and presto! Your mail’s all there. Also possibly some other people’s mail. And souls. Look, troubleshooting is an imperfect science.
Home accessories listed as Not Responding: You and me both, home accessories. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to adjust your smart thermostat only to have to walk downstairs and tap on it by hand like an absolute animal. The good news is that fixing this HomeKit problem is as simple as turning off your house and turning it on again. Just find your breaker box, flip the master switch at the top, wait 30 seconds in the cold dark of your basement, and turn it on again. By the time you’ve reset all your clocks, your home accessories will be responding again, if they know what’s good for them.
Deal with the imposition of onerous tariffs: Do you have a million dollars to donate? I don’t know if it’ll fix it, but it can’t hurt.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]