Alan Siu's Blog

Tag: ios

  • Dealing with iCloud accounts on DEP-enrolled iOS devices

    I’m not sure how many other schools deal with this, but we found out something rather curious the other day, and it’s been confirmed by Mosyle (our MDM) and a couple of folks on the MacAdmins Slack. My understanding was that a DEP-enrolled MDM’ed iOS device would not allow an iCloud account (regular Apple ID,…

  • iPhone cookie error when adding a Google account

    If you are on iOS 12.0.1 and getting a you’ve reached this page because we have detected that cookies are disabled in your browser error message every time you try to add a Google account to Mail—and you’re certain that cookies in Safari are indeed not blocked—update iOS (to 12.1, as of this writing), and…

  • Preventing alarms from going off on MDM’ed iPads

    If you have alarms set on iPads (either an actual alarm or an alarm from the “bedtime” portion of the Alarm app), you can’t disable the alarm by blocking the app. All blocking the app does is prevent the user from launching up the app. To prevent the alarm itself from going off, you have…

  • Factory-resetting a disabled iOS device

    A user came in with a disabled iPhone (too many password attempts) and couldn’t factory reset it. We tried to get it into DFU mode, but we couldn’t easily. Turns out, if you just plug it into a computer that has Apple Configurator 2 installed, you can use Configurator to restore the device (without having…

  • LockDown Browser in iOS crashes immediately after launch

    If LockDown Browser on your iPad opens and immediately crashes, the way to fix it is to uninstall and reinstall the app. Swiping away the app, updating the app, updating iOS, doing a home-power reset all do not fix this issue (at least not at the time of this writing).

  • When you can’t draw, erase, or highlight in Notability on iOS

    A user wasn’t able to draw (with a finger) using the pen tool in Notability. Highlighting and erasing were also not working (just seemed to move the note about in Notability). We worked with the user on the usual troubleshooting steps (kill the app, do the home–power button reset, make sure iOS and Notability are…

  • Guided Access mode after a reboot on iOS 9 vs. iOS 10 vs. iOS 11 vs. iOS 12

    iOS 12 Update: Just tested on iOS 12, and it gets out of guided access mode after a reboot. iOS 11 Update: Just tested on iOS 11, and it stays in guided access mode after a reboot. Same with iOS 11.1. Update: Just saw an iPad with 10.3.3 not get out of guided access mode…

  • Unknown error 9 or 9006 for restoring an iPad

    If you get an unknown error when restoring an iPad to factory settings and you know your iTunes is up to date and you don’t have anything weird blocked on your firewall or web filter, it’s likely the cable you’re using. Apple has a full list of troubleshooting steps. Just keep in mind that you…

  • Troubleshooting “iTunes could not back up iPhone / iPad because an error occurred”

    If you get an unspecified error when backing up your iOS device, there are a myriad of potential solutions (anything from looking for phantom apps on your iPhone/iPad to ignoring a local computer backup and going for an iCloud backup instead). Apple also has an official guide for things to try. For the one user…

  • Disappearing Notability notes when using iCloud sync

    We’ve seen a couple of instances of students’ Notability notes supposedly syncing to iCloud but really just disappearing. In these cases, we’ve looked closely with the students at their settings and checked both the iPad and their iCloud Drive account through a desktop/laptop computer, and—as far as we can tell—the missing Notability notes are stored…

  • Adding Google Apps “Other Calendars” to iOS

    If you’re using Google Apps for Education and add a Google account to Mails, Contacts, Calendars in iOS, you may notice only your primary calendars (and not “other calendars”) showing up on your iPhone or iPad’s Calendar app. If that happens, just visit www.google.com/calendar/syncselect while logged into your GAFE account, and then check the box…

  • iPad apps open instead of updating

    If you have a user with a bunch of apps to update in the iOS App Store, but tapping the Update button opens the app instead of updating the app, check to make sure her iOS is up to date. For example, if you have a lot of pending app updates and are still on…

  • Get photos/music off an iPad or iPhone using Ubuntu Linux

    Disclaimer These instructions work for iOS 8 (tested on both an iPhone and an iPad) using Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) and Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid). The instructions will still likely work in other versions of iOS and Ubuntu, but your mileage may vary. What’s the problem? If you take pictures with your iPhone or iPad and then…

  • iPad Gmail Mail “password missing” error

    This randomly happened after we set up a slew of iPads with the same email account (Gmail on Mail), and sending messages put the outgoing message into the Outbox with an error that the password is missing, with the options to Cancel or go to Settings. Going to Settings, though, offers no option to input…

  • Adding a fax number to iOS contacts

    It’s not super obvious how to add a fax number to a contact in iOS (iPad/iPhone). When you edit a contact and add a new number, the only two immediately apparent options are home and work. If you tap on one of them, you’ll some hidden options appear, including home fax and work fax.