Got a tip for us?

The Complete Guide to Every iOS 27 Feature

24 iOS 27 Tips Worth Knowing

by Chris Smith

Most of what has been written about iOS 27 describes Siri AI. These are the iOS 27 tips that are easy to miss. Settings buried two panes deep, a gesture Apple removed quietly, and features with a catch worth knowing first.

Every tip here is new in iOS 27 release, and comes from my own testing rather than from Apple’s feature list.

1. Where Siri went

You can bring up Siri (by default), as in previous releases, by saying “Siri” or “Hey Siri,” or by pressing and holding the side button. However, the change introduced in iOS 26 that let you double-tap the bottom of the screen is gone. In iOS 27, you can swipe down on a Home screen to reveal the new combination of Spotlight and Siri: a field labeled Search or Ask. You can type into that field, or tap the Dictation icon and talk to Siri that way.

2. Set the Liquid Glass level

When you upgrade to iOS 27 or iPadOS 27, the last stages of the installation present a new screen that lets you choose to adjust Liquid Glass using a slider. If you don’t make the adjustment at that moment, you can do so later, or change your initial choice. Go to Settings > Appearance > Liquid Glass.

This new screen offers a slider you can drag from the left edge, which Apple describes as “More Clear” (most Liquid Glass effect) across a range to the right: “More Tinted” (most opaque). Apple makes it easy to visualize by providing a scrollable preview that shows Liquid Glass elements overlaid on a webpage with images and text.

3. Flatten Liquid Glass completely

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and enable Reduce Transparency. This flattens Liquid Glass, removing transparency and providing an almost identical look to iOS 18/iPadOS 18. The level of Liquid Glass you have enabled doesn’t have an effect.

Use Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Increase Contrast to bump up the difference in tones. In iOS 27/iPadOS 27, the difference appears slight, where it was sharply distinct in the previous releases.

4. Why the slider is locked

You can’t change the Liquid Glass intensity when either of those two options is enabled. When you attempt to change the Liquid Glass setting, you’re told that Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast must be disabled. You can tap Turn Off.

5. Give alarms their own volume

It took this long for Apple to let you set the volume of alarms and timers hitting zero seconds separately from your ringtone volume. Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and, under Alarms and Timers, disable Match Ringtone Volume.

6. Stop clinging to dead Wi-Fi

In iOS 27, Apple rebranded the Wi-Fi Assist feature as Connectivity Assist, and if you had Wi-Fi Assist enabled—it was by default—you’ll find the new feature already turned on in Settings > Wi-Fi.

7. Use both FaceTime cameras

After many, many years of FaceTime supporting a single camera view on iPhone, you can now use the front and back cameras simultaneously. The proviso? You need an iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, or iPhone Air and iOS 27. The other person or people can see your dual-camera feed only if they have iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27. (This builds off the dual-capture mode in the Camera app on those models introduced in iOS 26.)

To use the dual-camera mode, in an active FaceTime session (or before someone has joined), tap the Flip Camera button in the inset selfie view. This shows both cameras by default.

8. Share location for any period

Previously, you could share your location for an hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. Now you can set a custom period of time.

9. Hide your location silently

If you’re sharing your location with someone, you can hide your location from your end until the next morning (at 4 a.m.), and they’re not notified. They’re also not told when you resume sharing, or “unhide” your location. They simply see you with a “location unavailable” label.

10. Photo keywords, at last

It took many years, but you can finally apply keywords to media in the Photos app on an iPhone and iPad. Huzzah? (Keywords are a useful way to link images for searching and organization.) However, you can still only apply keywords to items one at a time, as opposed to singly or in selections of two or more on a Mac. To add keywords, tap the info button, then tap Add Keywords.

11. See only what you selected

When you make a selection by tapping the Select button in the upper-right corner of any multiple-item view in Photos, a new Show Selected button appears at the bottom. Tap it, and it reveals just the items you chose. You can adjust the selection or view the images and videos in a carousel. Tap Deselect All to remove the current selection.

12. Two albums appear by themselves

Apple adds two new albums in Collections > Utilities. Captured by Me contains images or videos you created using any iPhone or iPad, such as via the Camera app or by taking a screenshot. The Identity Documents album uses machine learning (not Apple Intelligence) to collect scans or photos of personally identifying documents. (Identity Documents hasn’t yet appeared for me in iOS.)

13. Upgrade a Shared Album first

In iOS 27/iPadOS 27 (and on macOS 27 and at iCloud.com), you have access to several new features. However, you must first upgrade an album: select the album in Collections > Shared Albums, tap the More button, then tap Upgrade Shared Album. This may take some time—minutes or longer—depending on the size of the items in the library and your internet connection.

After upgrading, you have access to the following:

  • Full-resolution photos and videos are now supported across all common formats.
  • You can filter by photos or videos. Tap the Filter button, then tap Media Types.
  • There’s a Create Shared Album option for any existing album. Tap the More button, then tap Create Shared Album.
  • Albums can be set to expire after 30 days, but only when created. After creating a Shared Album from an existing album or by tapping the Add button in the Collections > Shared Albums view, enable Make Album Temporary.
  • You can create an upload link that allows anyone—not just people with access to the album—to upload images. With the album selected, tap the Share button, tap “Only invited people can join,” and choose Anyone with the Link. (This is similar to other kinds of sharing across iOS 27/iPadOS 27.)
  • A recent activity log lets you see changes made to the album, including emoji reactions. (This doesn’t yet appear to be in place.)

14. Save a video still

You can extract a frame from a paused video to save as an image. Tap the More button and choose Save Video Frame.

15. Make Photos sync now

Photos often decides to pause syncing to iCloud to avoid draining the battery, even when the battery is quite full. You can now go to Settings > Apps > Photos > Sync Immediately and choose For Today. This prioritizes syncing instead of preserving battery life for the remainder of the calendar day. If Low Power Mode or Low Data Mode are enabled, Photos will still pause until those modes are turned off, such as by recharging the phone for the former.

16. Slideshows without Memories

Slideshows can now be built from any album or even a selection of media, rather than relying on memories.

17. Search a podcast’s episode notes

If you navigate to a podcast’s view of all of its episodes by tapping the podcast and then tapping Episodes, you can now search against the title and show notes of all listed episodes.

This doesn’t search transcripts, which Podcasts generates for some shows. It searches only the per-episode notes published in the podcast feed.

18. Watch a page for changes

On any page, tap the Page Info button and choose Notify Me. Here’s the interesting part: You write in plain language what you want Safari to check for, then tap Next. Safari will check daily by default. You can tap Edit while creating the notification or afterward to switch to hourly, weekly, or monthly, and set the time of day.

19. Scan a card into Wallet

You can create entries for cards, membership cards, and other kinds of barcode/QR code-related proofs of entry or membership from scratch, a task formerly available only for third-party apps and websites.

Tap the Add button in Wallet, then tap Create a Pass. You’re guided through a few steps, one of which lets you scan the existing card, so that Wallet can pull in its number, barcode, or QR code. You can fill out details that aren’t present on the card or captured by Wallet.

20. Share details at the till

Entirely new is Tap to Share with merchants at the point of sale, such as in a store or at a fair. This makes in-person Apple Pay more akin to Apple Pay in Safari. Tap to Share lets an entire set of interactions occur before you pay. You start by approving a connection with a merchant’s iPhone that has a supported payment app. (Ostensibly, this may encompass not just companies like Square and Stripe, but in-house developer apps for retailers like Old Navy or Lowe’s.)

Once you begin, you can choose what you share with the business—like contact details, a shipping address, or your email. This also means you don’t have to state this information aloud or rely on the merchant typing it in correctly! A merchant can offer to sign you up for a membership or loyalty program. You can use a pass from the merchant, or they can issue one, related to discounts, credits, or other transaction-related purposes. Finally, you see the full cart as a digital receipt before completing payment with Apple Pay.

21. Read anything in Accessibility Reader

Accessibility Reader used to require a shortcut trigger. Now, you can use the share menu in any app to open content in the reader.

22. Captions for any video

Your iPhone and iPad now generate captions from any uncaptioned video you’re watching in Photos and other supported apps. (This isn’t related to tvOS or TV app captioning.) If captions already exist, you can have them automatically translated between supported languages.

23. iPad tips: the menu bar

In iPadOS 26, the menu bar had to be triggered either by swiping down from the top of the display or by hovering with a pointing device, at which point it would appear. It then hid, after a short delay, when it wasn’t in use or being hovered over.

In iPadOS 27, the default behavior appears similar, but there are two significant changes:

  • The app name always appears on the far-left side of the menu bar, at the upper-left corner of the screen.
  • To unfurl the menu bar, tap or drag over the app name.

Along with that new behavior, you can also opt to have the menu bar remain in place, persistent at all times. Go to Settings > Multitasking & Gestures, then disable Automatically Show and Hide Menu Bar.

24. React to a keyboard connecting

Apple previously didn’t offer a way to trigger an automation when a keyboard was connected to or removed from an iPad. This frustrated some users, who interact with their iPad differently when a keyboard is connected—such as in a dock-style environment—and when they are using only the touch screen or an Apple Pencil.

Now, you can use Shortcuts to create automations based on whether a keyboard was connected, disconnected, or the keyboard connection state changed. This includes the “Set multitasking mode to” item. You might want to switch between Full Screen Apps and Windowed Apps when using your iPad without a keyboard. You’d have to set up two shortcuts: one would trigger when the keyboard was attached; the other when detached.

For more iOS 27 tips and tricks, see the complete guide to every iOS 27 feature. There are also 36 changes that owe nothing to AI that I recommend you to check out.

Tags: iOS 27, iPadOS 27
Show Full Article

How to Upgrade to macOS 27 Without Losing Data

by Kevin Hollington

An in-place upgrade to macOS 27 Golden Gate is safe enough. Most people will never think about it again. But a few things can cost you data if you meet them unprepared. An installer that deletes itself. A backup that cannot restore what you excluded. A recovery mode that will not take you back.

Here are the step-by-step instructions that you should follow to upgrade to macOS 27 without losing data. I tested these fifteen steps on my Mac rather than rehashing apple’s instructions. The first eleven happen before you click Install.

1. Check your apps first

RoaringApps maintains a wiki that lists thousands of Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps and the current status of their compatibility with various operating system versions (including macOS 27), as reported by users. Although this list is neither exhaustive nor definitive, it provides a quick way to check on the apps most important to you.

Remember to check for updates of setting panes, status menus, browser extensions, and other system enhancements too.

2. Update apps before, not after

The installer looks for, and disables, certain types of incompatible software—but there’s no guarantee it will find everything. Given the choice, you’re usually better off upgrading third-party software before you install a new version of your operating system. (You may occasionally run into an app with a newer version designed to run only on macOS 27; in such limited cases, you may have to install the updated software after upgrading to macOS 27.)

3. Clear Time Machine exclusions

The most important drawback for our current purposes is not a flaw in Time Machine as such, but rather the fact that, for any of numerous good reasons, you may opt to exclude some items from Time Machine (by going to System Settings > General > Time Machine > Options and adding files or folders to the Exclude from Backups list). If you do that, those files can’t be restored if and when you have to revert to an older version of macOS. So, fair warning: you can use Time Machine if you like, but first remove everything from that list and make sure Time Machine completes at least one run.

One type of backup that will not suffice for this particular purpose is an online backup using a service such as Backblaze. I like Backblaze and use it myself, but because it excludes many types of files and is unavailable to the macOS installer or Migration Assistant as a data source, it can’t be used to restore an entire Data volume after a failed upgrade.

4. Do not use Software Update

Apple offers major upgrades through Software Update, and a badge appears on the System Settings icon. You can use it, but I recommend against it:

  • The downloads may be smaller, but you don’t get a standalone installer. That means you can’t copy it to another Mac or make a backup of the installer in case you need to use it again .
  • As a consequence of not having a full installer app, you can’t make a bootable installer .
  • The installer you get via Software Update does not prompt you to choose a destination ; it can be used only for updating the copy of macOS on your current startup volume. That also means this approach can’t be used with a clean install. So, if you try using Software Update for an in-place upgrade and you have a problem, you’ll have to download the full installer anyway to switch to Plan B.

5. Download from Apple only

The easiest way to proceed is to obtain a direct download link that points directly to Apple’s servers. I can’t overemphasize how important it is to download directly from Apple. Apple doesn’t publicize such links, but the site Mr. Macintosh has very helpfully collected them for us. The site Mr. Macintosh collects the correct links; they all point to swcdn.apple.com, a legitimate Apple download server.

6. The installer installer

You might be thinking, “Don’t I want an app called Install macOS 27? What’s InstallAssistant?” In fact, InstallAssistant.pkg is a simple installer that merely puts the Install macOS 27 app in your Applications folder. So, once that file has finished downloading, double-click it and follow the prompts to run the installer, which is really the installer installer. When it’s done, you’ll see Install macOS 27 in your /Applications folder, unless you chose a different location. You can then delete the InstallAssistant.pkg file.

7. Move the installer somewhere safe

I presume the reason for this is that, once macOS 27 is installed, Apple wants to give you back the 21 GB or so of disk space the installer was taking up, since you likely won’t need the installer in the future (and can download it again if you do). But what if you want to install macOS 27 on multiple Macs—or reinstall it later on the same Mac—without having to download that huge installer again? I’ll tell you what: you’d better put that installer in a safe place before you run it! If it’s anywhere else—your desktop, ~/Downloads, or wherever—it won’t be deleted after it runs.

So, before you do anything else, I suggest that you either ⌘-drag the installer to move it from /Applications to another location, or Option-drag the installer to copy it to another location—preferably another volume—so if it is deleted, you’ll have a spare. Or, create a bootable installation volume, as I describe next.

8. A bootable installer needs 32 GB

To move ahead with a bootable installer volume, you’ll want a flash drive with at least 32 GB of free capacity. (A 32 GB USB flash drive can be found for under $10 online or at your favorite local electronics store.) Then you follow a simple procedure to put a bootable installer on that drive and, when the time comes, start from that volume and run the installer.

Next, you’ll use a command-line tool called createinstallmedia that is buried inside the installer (and thus is a method that Apple officially sanctions). Using this tool requires a visit to Terminal, but it’s really a matter of copying and pasting one line from Apple’s website into Terminal and replacing the name MyVolume with the name of the drive you’ll be using. Apple offers complete instructions, and they’re not painful at all.

9. Two things before you start

Before you run the installer, if you haven’t already done so:

  • If you are installing onto a laptop, connect its AC adapter to a power source. (If you forget to do this, the installer will prompt you.)
  • Quit all open apps. (The installer attempts to do this for you—and prompts you if it can’t—but you might as well take care of this beforehand.)

10. Ignore the time estimate

If you insist on watching the installer’s progress bar gradually make its way across the screen, beware: its time estimates (“About 43 minutes,” “Less than a minute,” etc.) are notoriously inaccurate, especially near the beginning and end of the process. And remember: a watched installer never boils.

11. Where your old software went

The macOS 27 installer automatically checks for certain categories of incompatible software and moves any such files safely aside into a Relocated Items folder in /Users/Shared.

The installer can’t know about every potential software conflict with macOS 27—it disables only software that loads automatically on startup and that runs in the background, such as drivers and other kernel extensions. Ordinary apps are never moved aside, even if they can’t possibly run under macOS 27.

12. Confirm the upgrade finished

Not sure whether you’ve successfully upgraded since you missed the end of the process? Choose Apple menu > About This Mac. If the window says 27.0 or higher at the top under “macOS,” you’re running macOS 27!

13. Safe mode, step by step

If your Mac will not start, safe mode disables some third-party software and checks your disk for certain types of errors.

To enter safe mode, choose Apple menu > Shut Down and wait until the Mac has fully shut down. Then press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options” on the screen. When the Options icon appears, select your startup disk, hold down the Shift key, click Continue in Safe Mode, and then release the Shift key.

If macOS 27 starts up normally after a safe boot, a third-party extension or startup item may be the culprit. Check in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons and ~/Library/LaunchAgents for third-party items that haven’t been updated recently (older items are more likely to have compatibility problems).

14. Why recovery mode cannot downgrade

Even though you can do lots of things after starting in recovery mode—including reinstalling macOS—you probably can’t use recovery mode to downgrade to your old version because recovery mode doesn’t let you install arbitrary previous versions of macOS. Your only option is the most recent version of macOS that will run on your computer: probably not what you need.

In case you were thinking you can restore from a Time Machine backup in recovery mode and use that to get back to your older system…sorry, but no. Although Time Machine used to back up your full startup volume, ever since Big Sur, it backs up only your Data volume, not macOS itself. That’s why a Time Machine backup alone can’t restore an older version of macOS.

15. Build an older installer

If you have to downgrade to, say, Tahoe, and you don’t have a bootable duplicate or a bootable installer volume, you’re not necessarily out of luck. While running macOS 27, you can still download the Tahoe installer and use it to create a bootable Tahoe installer volume. The same goes for older versions of macOS.

For everything the release changed, see the complete guide to macOS 27 Golden Gate. There are also 35 changes that owe nothing to AI.

Now that you know how to upgrade to macOS 27 Golden Gate without losing data, there are 13 smaller tips worth knowing about the release. There is also a complete guide to macOS 27 Golden Gate that I recommend you check out.

Tag: macOS 27
Show Full Article

13 macOS 27 Golden Gate Tips Worth Knowing

by Tyler Stephen

macOS 27 Golden Gate is a refinement release. Most of what it changes is small, and easy to walk past.

These are the macOS 27 Golden Gate tips that are easy to miss. Switches buried two panes deep, right-click menus with no other route, and two settings Apple moved quietly. Every one is new in this release. I tested each macOS 27 tip on my MacBook Pro rather than reprinting Apple’s feature list.

1. Turn Siri on later

You can always enable or disable Siri later: go to System Settings > Siri > Requests once macOS 27 is up and running and choose your desired setting.

2. An update switch moved

While you’re at it, make sure App Store is set up for automatic updates. In Sequoia and earlier, the Software Update pane of System Settings included an “Install application updates from the App Store” switch. That’s no longer there in macOS 27; instead, it’s right here: go to App Store > Settings and select Automatic Updates.

3. Why Mail says optimizing

The first time you launch Mail under macOS 27, a window may inform you that it’s “optimizing” your Mail database. This step should take no more than a few minutes, and is necessary because the macOS 27 version of Mail has updated the database format it uses to store information about your messages.

The massive overhaul in Siri technology also comes with a complete redo of Spotlight searching in macOS. The new indexing process can apparently take longer—potentially far longer than the previous Spotlight indexing. You might see a note that Siri and Search are optimizing in Settings > Siri or Settings > Spotlight until this is complete.

4. Liquid Glass tips beyond the slider

macOS 27 adds a Liquid Glass slider in System Settings > Appearance. To get rid of most transparency altogether, you must still open System Settings > Accessibility > Display and turn on “Reduce transparency.” That makes the menu bar, menus, sidebars, and toolbars opaque, while greatly reducing the transparency of the Dock and certain other elements. However, paradoxically, it also removes the shading from sidebars, making them less clearly separated from the rest of the window.

5. Right-size a Finder column

In column view, right-click or Control-click in any column, choose Show View Options, and check “Resize columns to fit filenames.” The columns autosize to the width of the longest names in each one. Uncheck that box to go back to regular sizing. You can also right-click or Control-click the double-bar button at the bottom of a column divider to show a menu with Right Size This Column, Right Size All Columns Individually, and Right Size All Columns Equally, where “right size” is Apple’s term for sizing determined by filename length.

6. Search without Siri

Here are the four categories:

Apps (⌘-1): In this view, only apps are shown (regardless of where they’re located on your Mac). Recently used apps appear at the top, until you start typing.

Files (⌘-2): Similarly, in this view, only files and folders appear, but that includes apps, too! Again, recent files appear at the top (below Suggestions, explained in a moment) until you start typing.

Actions (⌘-3): Actions are activities (some provided by Apple, others provided by third-party apps) that you can access directly from Spotlight without opening apps or performing additional steps.

Clipboard (⌘-4): Spotlight can keep track of things you’ve put on your clipboard previously, including them in search results, as long as this feature is enabled (as it is by default): go to System Settings > Spotlight, scroll to the bottom, and turn Results from Clipboard on or off.

7. Copy a note as Markdown

You can use Edit > Copy as Markdown Edit > Copy as Markdown to copy styled text from a note with Markdown tags, ready to paste elsewhere.

Oddly, as of publication time, there’s no corresponding Paste as Markdown command, but perhaps that’s coming in the future.

8. Link to a note section

If you use section headings in your note, you can insert links elsewhere in your note that jump to them. Choose Edit > Add Link (⌘-K), choose the section heading from the Link to Section pop-up menu, and click OK.
Finally, you can now add horizontal divider lines in your notes by choosing Edit > Insert Divider Line (⌘-L).

9. Upgrade an old Shared Album

In Photos, rght-click or Control-click an album in the sidebar and choose Upgrade Shared Album; this walks you through a series of steps, after which Photos spends a considerable amount of time—perhaps hours—thinking.

10. Two-finger swipe to refresh

In any app that already has a refresh or reload mechanism (such as Mail and Safari), you can swipe down with two fingers on a laptop’s built-in trackpad, a Magic Trackpad, or a Magic Mouse to refresh the page, just as you would (with one finger) on an iPhone or iPad.

11. Control Center when mirroring

You can now, finally, access Control Center on your iPhone from iPhone Mirroring—choose View > Control Center or press ⌘-4. And you can even watch copy-protected videos (such as those from Apple TV) on your iPhone while using iPhone Mirroring.

12. Hide your Lock Screen name

A new “Show user name and photo” switch is on by default, giving you the same behavior seen in Tahoe and earlier. But if you turn it off, usernames and photos no longer appear when your Mac is locked, which might be better for privacy in settings where a Mac may be visible to the public.

13. Fill passwords from another manager

In the AutoFill & Passwords category, there’s a new “AutoFill from” switch, with entries indicating which app(s) can be used to supply AutoFill data. By default, Passwords is the only option (turned on by default), but if you have one or more third-party password managers, they may also appear here.

If you have not upgraded yet, start with how to upgrade without losing data. For additional macOS 27 Golden Gate tips and tricks, see the complete guide to macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Tag: macOS 27
Show Full Article

15 Siri AI Tips Worth Knowing

by Kevin Hollington

Siri AI is the flagship of the version 27 releases. Most of what has been written about it describes what it can do. These are the Siri AI tips and tricks that are easy to miss. Settings that are not obvious, shortcuts Apple has not documented, and two limits that explain most failures. I tested these Siri AI tips on my iPhone, iPad and Mac rather than reprinting Apple’s feature list.

iPhone showing the Try Siri AI \(Beta\) option.

1. Which Siri are you running?

Open the Siri pane of Settings on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings on a Mac. It tells you whether Siri AI is currently engaged, which is not always the case:

  • If you see the new monochrome Siri icon, that means your device is currently configured to use Siri AI.
  • If you see the old, colorful Siri icon, that means it’s not.

Among the reasons the old icon might appear are that your device, or Siri, is set to an incompatible language, that the two language settings described below don’t match, or that you have turned off Siri.

2. The silent language trap

Initially, only English is supported for Siri AI, though Apple plans to add more languages over time. As a result, if you set language to anything other than English, your device reverts to the old Siri—with the old icon—rather than Siri AI, with the new one.

In addition, both your Siri language and your system language (in Settings > General > Language & Region > Preferred Languages) must be identical—including the dialect, if applicable on your device. For example, if one is set to English (United States) and the other is set to English (Canada) on a Mac, you’ll get the old version of Siri. Make sure the two match—and note that switching your system language may require a restart.

3. Just type what you want

This automatic recognition of your query type means you don’t have to think about how you formulate a search or question: type what you want and let Siri figure it out. If the results list for a search doesn’t suffice, elaborate on what you’re asking.

Using Siri AI to draft an email.

4. Send one question to ChatGPT

You can also explicitly add “ChatGPT” to a request—for example, “Ask ChatGPT the best way to fry an egg.” This works with spoken requests, too!

To route a single question to ChatGPT from the Search or Ask field:

  1. Activate Siri using a method where you can type to it.
  2. Touch and hold in the Search or Ask field on an iPhone or iPad, or Control-click/right-click that field on a Mac.
  3. From the menu that appears, choose Ask > Use ChatGPT.
  4. The text in the field changes to ChatGPT. Enter your query.

5. Plain Spotlight, on a Mac

What if you just want a plain Spotlight search, without Siri’s involvement at all? You can still have it, with some extra effort.

On a Mac, activate Siri and type a search term, then press ⌘-2 to search for that term only within files and folders. You can also press ⌘-1 to look for apps, ⌘-3 to look for actions, or ⌘-4 to search your clipboard history.

Siri AI is shown on a user's Mac.

On any device, you can also specify as part of your search term where Spotlight should look—for example, “Files about cats”, “Contacts named John” or “Emails about Apple”.

6. Keep talking, don’t restart

However you navigate to activate Siri, you can immediately type or speak something after its response to whatever your first question or requested action was.

This can be useful if Siri’s first response or action wasn’t sufficient, or if it provided information or succeeded and you want to follow up by using context. You don’t have to define your scenario once again, which Siri often required before Siri AI.

7. Slow Siri down

It has long been possible to choose among various male- and female-sounding voices and even different dialects, and Siri AI adds even more choices. But now, you can also adjust Siri’s speed and expressiveness. If you want a zippy, flat, “just the facts” response; a relaxed, cheerful response; or anything in between, you can go to Settings > Siri on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Siri on a Mac, and click or tap Voice. On this pane, you can select a base voice and then drag the Pace and Expressivity sliders as sample responses are played to dial in exactly the tone you prefer.

This feature requires more advanced chips than are needed for Apple Intelligence. See which devices support Siri AI.

8. Stop Siri talking back

You have two choices as to how Siri responds to requests:

  • Spoken Response: Siri speaks responses when you speak to Siri, but provides textual responses when you type to Siri.
  • Silent Response: Siri almost always provides textual responses. But note that even with this setting, Siri speaks responses if you’re driving or wearing headphones—and possibly in other limited situations.

9. Pin, share, or speak

You can pin a selected conversation, which anchors it at the top of the list. To pin on a Mac, choose Conversation > Pin Conversation, or right-click or Control-click and choose Pin from the contextual menu. On an iPhone or iPad, you can swipe left and tap the Pin icon, or touch and hold and choose Pin.

To share a specific response—not a conversation as a whole—as a PDF, you can click the Share icon on a Mac, or touch and hold the response on an iPhone or iPad and choose Share.

In any conversation in the Siri app, you can click or tap the microphone button to speak your request rather than type it.

10. Control what Siri keeps

Your device can store all your Siri conversations indefinitely, or it can delete them after 30 days or a year. To configure this, go to Settings on an iPhone or iPad, or System Settings on a Mac, then Your Name > iCloud > See All > Siri, and choose 30 Days, 1 Year, or Forever from the Keep Conversations pop-up menu.

The same pane controls syncing. You can disable Sync this Device, which is enabled by default. The Keep Conversations setting is synced with the main Siri retention setting: change it here, and it’s changed globally, not just for iCloud.

11. Summaries did not disappear

Options that were formerly part of Writing Tools, such as Summary, Key Points, List, and Table, no longer explicitly appear in the Write/Edit with Siri interface, but you can still use them. In the Edit with Siri field, you can type “Summarize this” or “Make this into a list”, for example, and Siri does just that.

12. When the Siri icon is missing

If the Siri icon doesn’t appear (as is the case in Messages, for example), you can right-click or Control-click (on a Mac) and choose Ask Siri, or tap once to bring up the text menu (on an iPhone or iPad) and then tap the Siri icon to display an “Ask Siri about this” field.

13. Turning Siri off changes less

Unlike in the previous two generations of Apple’s operating systems, you can no longer disable Apple Intelligence completely, and if you want to disable Siri (along with portions of Apple Intelligence), you must scroll to the bottom of the pane, click or tap the red Turn Off Siri button, read a long description of all the things that will stop working if you do, and then click or tap Turn Off Siri.

Even if you turn off Siri, “Visual Intelligence will continue to work but with more limited capabilities,” though Apple doesn’t spell out what those limitations are, and other Apple Intelligence features such as Write/Edit with Siri, Image Playground, and Shortcuts continue to work. All this is Apple’s heavy-handed way of pushing these new features, even if you actively dislike them and don’t ever want to use them.

14. The shortcut you cannot change

One thing you might be surprised not to see in the Siri settings pane is a setting for the keyboard shortcut that invokes Siri on a Mac. Although you can change the Spotlight keyboard shortcut and the shortcuts used for Siri screenshots (in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Spotlight and Screenshots, respectively), there’s no evident way to change the Siri shortcut to anything else.

15. Two limits worth knowing

Remember that the data has to exist for Siri to answer. I rely on a third-party email client, so Siri seems to have limited access to my email stores for now. But nearly everything else i do is stored in and synced by iCloud.

The second limit is music. Siri only knows about locally stored music from its metadata, as far as i can tell, or at least without asking further questions. For additional Siri AI tricks, see the complete guide to Siri AI.

Tags: iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27
Show Full Article

How to Turn On FileVault and Encrypt Your Mac

by Tyler Stephen

FileVault prevents access to your Mac at startup without the password for an account with permission to boot the computer. Instead of loading macOS, enabling FileVault has your Mac pass control after startup to a very simple program that resembles the standard macOS login window. Entering a valid account password on this screen allows that program to access the encryption key to unlock the startup disk and proceed seamlessly (and invisibly) into your regular Mac session. Because FileVault is integrated into macOS at such a deep level, there’s only an on/off button. You don’t need to manage any of the parts.

On Macs without a T2 chip or Apple silicon processor, FileVault also performs full-disk encryption (often called FDE). But that’s automatic and cannot be turned off on T2/Apple silicon Macs.

Starting in macOS 26 Tahoe, FileVault is automatically enabled for all users in new installations and via upgrades. It can be disabled; read on to find out if you have a reason to do so. If you didn’t previously have FileVault enabled, the first time you start up in Tahoe, you will see a message that “Your Mac is [sic] Protected by FileVault.” The dialog further explains that the Passwords app has the critical Recovery Key (see where to find your FileVault Recovery Key).

Apple also got rid of a lingering potential path for crackers and government intrusion by switching from relatively insecure storage in iCloud to fully secure storage. This is welcome!

Should you ever disable FileVault?

FileVault is an additional protection for all users that prevents unwanted access to their data. However, despite my strong recommendation to enable it, it is overkill for some people that could result in them losing access to their data in specific circumstances.

What are those circumstances?

First, they would have to either be unable to remember or find their macOS account password, or the FileVault login data for accounts would have to become corrupt and reject a legitimate password.

Second, they then couldn’t find or gain access to their FileVault Recovery Key, discussed in where to find your FileVault Recovery Key.

Most people enter their macOS account password routinely and are unlikely to forget it. But it is the case that you can experience a problem that scrambles the normal startup FileVault login. If so, your FileVault Recovery Key is your only hope. If that becomes irretrievable, you’re sunk.

So before you proceed, consider if protection for your data when the computer is turned off is worth the risk of disabling FileVault.

How startup encryption works

Full-disk encryption puts a layer between the operating system and a storage drive that automatically decrypts all information coming off the drive and encrypts it as it’s written. This means all information on the drive “at rest” is fully encrypted.

Only while a Mac is active is stored information vulnerable to interception: macOS holds the encryption key in memory to allow it to encrypt and decrypt data on the fly. This allows a Mac to treat an encrypted volume as if it were effectively not encrypted at all while the volume is in use, including letting you share the volume over a network and back it up to an external drive, a networked volume, or an internet service, and use sync services like Dropbox, iCloud Drive, and OneDrive.

Whenever a Mac is shut down, a drive is an inaccessible vault, with no more information accessible than a lump of solid metal. The key material necessary to decrypt its data can’t be accessed.

The introduction of the T2 chip, and, later, Apple silicon, removed all overhead, and Apple made the decision for security reasons that FDE is always enabled on T2/Apple silicon Macs, even if FileVault is not. This also means T2/Apple silicon Macs can enable or disable FileVault in seconds, if desired.

However, without FileVault enabled, the drive is automatically decrypted on startup even before an account password is entered! That’s the piece that FileVault fills in.

With an Apple silicon Mac, the startup process without FileVault begins with operations that retrieve the security key, which is mediated by the Secure Enclave. If the SSD drive is removed from the Mac, which in modern Macs is difficult enough to be infeasible, the decryption information remains in the Secure Enclave left behind. It seems unlikely a thief or corporate or government spy would take the drive and not the whole computer, however.

Additional protections available in Apple silicon, combined with changes in macOS (starting back in Big Sur), allow that Mac to unlock the system files to boot directly into macOS without exposing any user data files.

Your data and Mac remain protected until a valid account password is entered, at which point the key protecting the data is made available for use, and startup proceeds. This may feel like enough for you. However, Apple seems to think it isn’t, and thus enables FileVault by default in Tahoe.

Encrypt external drives

You can also encrypt any mountable SSD, HDD, or disk image that is not configured as a macOS startup drive.

There are two primary ways to encrypt non-startup volumes:

  • Control-click or right-click in the Finder: This is the easiest method, and will take place in the background. Control-click or right-click the volume and choose Encrypt. Enter and verify a strong password, preferably one you generated in a password-management app. Add a hint if you think it will help. Click Encrypt Disk. This converts the drives in the Finder without losing any data. (Disk Utility, by contrast, can change a volume’s format type to the encrypted flavor, but it always erases the volume—and warns you before you proceed.)
  • Disk Utility for disk images: Disk Utility can also create encrypted disk images, though it uses a different method. Choose New Image > Blank Image, then choose 256-bit AES from the Encryption menu. You’re prompted to enter and verify a password, but not store a reminder tip. Set other parameters as needed and click Save to create the image.

In the future, you have to enter the password for a volume to mount an encrypted volume or disk image in the Finder or to access it via Disk Utility. When mounted, the drive appears as fully decrypted to the Finder, just like a startup volume with FileVault, and can be shared, synced, and backed up.

Apple notes carefully that passwords created for any encrypted drive other than the startup volume aren’t managed in the Secure Enclave. You have to manage them yourself, and they don’t come with the same high level of protection.

Apple will no longer support Encrypted HFS+ after Golden Gate. If you have an HFS+ volume you encrypted in a previous macOS release, this is the time to remove encryption or upgrade the volume to APFS. You can perform both operations in Disk Utility.

Tags: macOS, Security
Show Full Article

How Private Your Files Really Are on a Shared Mac

by Kevin Hollington

If you’re the only person who ever uses your Mac, none of this applies. Otherwise, you should know a few things about what sorts of access other people may have to your data.

First, if everyone uses the Mac via a single account—without having to log in and enter a separate username and password—all bets are off. Whatever’s available to you is available to everyone else. I’m not a fan of that arrangement. Ideally, every human who uses your Mac should have a unique username and password. (I might make exceptions for kids too young to type their own passwords. See how to set up safe user accounts on a shared Mac.)

But let’s say each person does have a separate account and password, and each one diligently logs out (or shuts down the Mac) after every session before the next person logs in. Then what?

How ownership and permissions work

macOS, as a variety of Unix, relies on the properties of ownership and permissions for each file. To oversimplify a bit, each file and folder has a designated owner—usually one of the individual account holders or the system itself—and a set of attributes assigned to it that specify who can access it, modify it, delete it, or execute it, in the case of files. (Apple adds a number of Mac-specific attributes on top of that.)

But there are owners and there are owners. macOS Standard account owners can access files, apps, and folders in all public places, like the system-wide Applications folder, but they can modify and add items only in specific locations: their own home folder (/Users/username) and the Shared folder in the main /Users folder. No other standard user can view files in any other users’ home folders, except the default Public folder, which is read-only and has a Drop Box item (not Dropbox, the service) that other users can drag items into, but then not see afterwards (write-only). For day-to-day segregation of one person’s data from another, this system provides a reasonable barrier.

An administrator can assign additional access to all non-system files and folders by changing ownership to a user, creating a group and providing group read/write access to a folder, or changing permissions to make things readable and modifiable by anyone with an account.

Where the barrier breaks down

But that reveals the weakness, no? An administrator has “root” access, which is the top-level permission holder in Unix. Anyone with an administrator account and working knowledge of the Unix command line can access everyone else’s files by opening the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities, entering sudo -s, and supplying the administrator account’s password.

They can also restart in recovery mode, and use Terminal there to avoid any safeguards or monitoring tools that might be installed in macOS. With an Apple silicon Mac, an administrator can share the entire Mac as a volume on another Mac via macOS Recovery, too.

Standard users also have some options to get around the protections that should prevent them from seeing other files:

  • Filching your password: Anyone who knows or can guess your login password can log in as you and access all your files. Of course, you have a terrific password that you’ve kept completely safe from everyone else, right? Fine, but there are still other problems.
  • Attach your Mac’s startup drive to another Mac as an external drive: If you start up your Mac from an external drive someone could attach that drive to another Mac to which they have administrator permissions and access all the files on it. If it’s protected with FileVault, they only have to have an account enabled for FileVault on the original Mac and know the password. While other users’ files appear locked when the Mac’s drive is mounted, they can be copied over and unlocked by entering an administrator account password on the destination Mac.
  • Can’t attach volumes and other stuff while locked: Apple lets you require approval to attach new peripherals, SD cards, and other accessories to your Mac. See the Mac settings worth changing. If your Mac is locked, nothing can be approved.
  • Connect your Apple silicon Mac to another Mac: Mac Sharing Mode is a feature introduced with Apple silicon Macs to let you mount one Mac as a volume on another Mac. Mac Sharing Mode turns a Mac into a file-sharing volume, instead of appearing as an externally connected drive. (This is functionally equivalent to, but less risky than, the Target Disk Mode available on Intel Macs.)

To use Mac Sharing Mode, connect an Apple silicon Mac to another Mac of any vintage with a USB or Thunderbolt cable. Restart your Mac in recovery mode, choose Utilities > Share Disk, and then select the volume to share. On the other Mac, the sharing Mac appears as a network volume.

In addition, someone who has access to backups of your files on mounted or unencrypted volumes or drives can likely access all of them without file ownership and permission getting in the way.

For all these reasons, the only safe assumption is that anyone else who has an account on your Mac or physical access to it could conceivably access your files. Although your data is fairly safe from casual access by nontechnical users, you should not think of ownership and permissions as a significant roadblock.

Moral of the story: Don’t give other people’s accounts administrator access if you don’t trust them and you can prevent giving them such privileges.

If you can’t, another option is to use encrypted disk images or volumes in which you keep the password to yourself. You can use the Finder to encrypt volumes and Disk Utility to create encrypted disk images; see how to turn on FileVault and encrypt your Mac. Unmount these disks when they’re not in use.

Tags: macOS, Security
Show Full Article

The Difference Between Security, Privacy and Anonymity

by Chris Smith

Security has a broad meaning in everyday life, but a more specific one when it comes to data, networks, computers, and mobile devices.

As a general rule, we talk about security when we mean a means of reducing the likelihood of harm. You go through a security checkpoint at the airport. You have a home security system. A lecture is canceled due to security concerns. An ad for a bike lock claims it offers high security.

With computing and networking, however, security is more specific: it’s the measures you take to prevent harm to you by the extraction, interception, loss, or corruption of your data.

You may also see the term exfiltration, which sounds highly technical but simply means the extraction of data from a device, often over a network, to a malicious or unwanted recipient.

It’s rare that a violation of your device’s security would result in physical harm to you or anyone else—unless someone attacks you while also stealing your equipment. That’s quite rare in a home or office, but it can happen when out and about, where an assault or threat of it could lead you to reveal your iPhone passcode or other passwords.

While it’s also rare to be attacked, or even drugged, to get your passcode, it does happen often enough that Apple added a new protection. See how to turn on Stolen Device Protection.

But even without a physical assault or fear of it, you can suffer emotional harm from the sense of invasion or damage that results from an invasion, particularly if someone violates your security to steal personal information that is then disseminated or used against you.

You can also certainly incur financial damage (theft of identity or money), waste your time (canceling credit cards, changing passwords), find yourself spending hours coping with the aftermath (removing malware, restoring deleted files), and so on. If your Mac became part of a botnet, you could also harm other people’s devices. As a result, your ISP might temporarily cut off your internet service to block attacks originating from inside its network.

Apple’s security options through the mid-2010s focused mostly on resisting attacks carried out over a network and exploits that relied on software that was downloaded and installed with or without your permission. In the new era stretching back nearly a decade now, Apple shifted to giving you tools and automatically protecting your data when someone can take physical control of your device.

The company also puts a lot of attention on blocking exploits and malware in macOS, which, because it allows any software to be installed, remains more vulnerable; the network as a vector for compromising a Mac is nearly entirely ignored. It’s different with iOS and iPadOS, as the key vector for attack there seems to be phishing text messages and attachments, which has led Apple to a constant cycle of hardening Messages and related components.

Protecting against physical attacks requires your device to resist intrusion. That intrusion might be someone merely sitting down in front of a Mac for a few minutes and extracting the contents of your drive without leaving a trace, popularized by hackers in movies. But it more frequently includes deterring a thief who has purloined your iPhone, iPad, or Mac—whether for a period of time or forever—from successfully cracking it at their leisure.

As a result, you now should think both about the digital sense of security and the physical sense:

  • The digital part involves protecting your passwords and passcodes, guarding against remote attacks over the internet, and halting the delivery, installation, and deployment of malware.
  • The physical part involves configuring and understanding Apple’s features that deter hands-on attacks, such as plugging in a USB or Thunderbolt device or even an SD Card that performs an exploit, and up to and including someone removing a motherboard or an SSD or hard disk drive or disassembling an iPhone or iPad. It also includes enabling Stolen Device Protection on an iPhone, Apple’s current highest level of optional physical security enhancement.

Improving your device’s security reduces the chance of certain harms:

  • Loss of data
  • Data taken off your device and sent elsewhere
  • Degraded performance
  • Malware that locks files or sends private data elsewhere
  • Loss of control over your device, including being locked out
  • Hijacking of your Apple Account, which could lead to permanent loss of access to the account

How security, privacy and anonymity differ

Security is closely related to privacy and anonymity, but distinct. Here’s how to keep the three terms straight:

  • Security is freedom from danger or harm.
  • Privacy is freedom from observation or attention.
  • Anonymity is freedom from identification or recognition.

You can have security without privacy (imagine living in a house made of bulletproof glass). You can also have privacy without security (think of a changing room at a clothing store with just a curtain). And you can have both privacy and security without anonymity (think of a royal family ensconced in a castle).

When it comes to your digital life, these concepts—especially security and privacy—go together more often than not. Many of the harms or dangers that might befall you if your security is insufficient involve the exposure of personal data, so one of the biggest reasons to have better security is to maintain your privacy. Or, to put it the other way around, many of the things you can do to protect your privacy are, in fact, security measures.

Which of the three you most need shapes everything else, and that depends on your own risk profile.

Tags: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Security
Show Full Article

How to Set Up Automatic Security Updates on Apple Devices

by Dave Johnson

It’s a fact of life: software has bugs. And some of those bugs result in security vulnerabilities. Fortunately, most major software vendors, including Apple, have teams of programmers working constantly to identify and fix security-related bugs.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read breathless news reports about some newly discovered and seemingly disastrous Apple security issue, only to see a software update from Apple fix it a few days later before any damage occurs. This is Apple’s normal pattern, and it’s why you should never lose sleep about the security crisis du jour.

However, Apple security updates don’t help unless you install them! If you have automatic software updates turned off and ignore alerts or badges, you could be needlessly putting your devices and your data at risk from problems that were solved months or years ago.

Software updates fall into several categories, all of which can fix security issues:

  • Major upgrades, such as from macOS 26 Tahoe to macOS 27 Golden Gate or iOS 26 to iOS 27
  • Minor updates, which can be small increments for big fixes (27.1.0 to 27.1.1), or larger ones when they include feature changes but not a full operating system upgrade (such as 27.0.1 to 27.1)
  • Standalone security updates that fix specific pieces of system software, usually stuff deep beneath the surface (most common with a Mac)
  • Updates to individual Apple apps (Safari, Music, Books, QuickTime Player, etc.)
  • Updates to third-party apps

Which of these should you keep up with? Ideally, all of them, but at a bare minimum, install the standalone security updates. After confirming you haven’t heard of any problems others have had, install minor updates. Major updates require more planning and involve much more than security fixes.

To learn about all Apple software updates with security implications, see the Apple security releases page. Click a specific update to read the security details.

Zero-day exploits

Apple, Google, Microsoft, security firms, anti-malware software developers, independent security consultants, and “gray-hat” hackers (not criminals, but they don’t always play by the rules—or laws) are constantly on the lookout for significant flaws to fix them and release updates before they become a zero-day exploit or zero-day attack. That’s when there’s literally zero days to patch the problem.

Malicious parties—including nation-state actors, such as the security agencies of major countries—may hold zero-days in reserve or use them in such a limited fashion that they remain available for some time. It’s the job of all software developers to patch zero-days before they’re exploited.

It’s much more often the case that ugly bugs are fixed by Apple before they’re exploited in the wild; or the exploit is so tricky, it requires physical device access or incredible sophistication, timing, and targeting. Apple will flag particularly severe exploits and recommend immediate installation when necessary. This happened on April 16, 2025, when Apple pushed out updates across their operating systems to fix zero-day exploits that the company said were already used in the wild in individually targeted attacks.

Zero-day exploits that aren’t reported to Apple and other companies responsibly—sometimes for significant “bug bounties” these firms and zero-day projects pay out—are sold on the gray market and used for pinpoint government operations. These are often ones most people would feel are illegitimate or violate human rights, such as three separate zero days used allegedly by the United Arab Emirates to hijack a single human-rights advocate in their country.

In most cases, Apple releases security updates for the current version of macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, and the previous three—or even four. If you aren’t at least on the third-most-recent version of one of these operating systems, you risk being vulnerable to known security problems that Apple won’t ever fix.

Apple also looks backward quite a ways with hardware, letting you upgrade fairly old Macs, iPhones, and iPads to at least one of the third-oldest operating systems, if not the current one. With Golden Gate, support covers all Apple silicon Macs; Tahoe included four Intel models from 2019 and 2020. iOS 26 and 27 look back to the iPhone 11 series (2019), while the cutoff points for iPadOS 26 and iPadOS 27 are very complicated.

Often the initial releases of new operating system versions (27.0.0, say) have significant bugs that Apple fixes quickly. So it’s fine to wait a few weeks on major upgrades, by which time enough others will have tried out the new release that you can judge how stable it may be for you.

Apple delivers minor and major updates and security updates through Software Update: go to System Settings (Mac) or Settings (iPhone/iPad) > General > Software Update.

Configure automatic security updates

Apple wants you to install updates as soon as possible on all its operating systems. The approach you take may be different between a Mac and an iPhone or iPad.

On a Mac

Software Update shows whether you’re up to date and notes any available updates if you are not. If you’re a major system update behind (or further), it also shows an area at the top urging you to install it. In a secondary area below, the pane may read “Another update is available” for Safari and security updates, and you have to click “More info” to discover which are and proceed to install them.

It also runs in the background and displays a red badge in System Settings indicating quantity. You can’t disable this.

You can completely automate minor macOS, security, and other updates—in fact, that’s the default. (Major macOS updates require direct action.) Go to System Settings > General > Software Update and, to the right of Automatic Updates, click the info button to see settings and make changes.

  • Download new updates when available: This includes all the updates listed below. The advantage is that they are either installed automatically or available for immediate installation if you install manually. Disable this if you’re bandwidth-limited or pay for bandwidth and want to plan downloads.
  • Install macOS updates: This includes all “dot” updates, like moving from 27.0.0 to 27.0.1 and from 27.0.1 to 27.1.0.
  • Install system data files and security updates (Golden Gate) or Security Responses and System files (Tahoe): Apple used to use the term “Rapid Security Response” for these security updates; I’m guessing they now incorporate more kinds of security fixes? Previously, the company explained those updates addressed exploits that Apple discovered were already happening in the wild, not just identified by researchers. These fixes are installed automatically when this option is turned on—no reboot required.

Apple moved automatic App Store updates from Software Update to the App Store app in macOS 26.

In most cases, you can view a list of available updates, deselect or select items in the list, select items to view their contents, and click Install Now to proceed towards installation. Updates that require restarting your Mac are marked with “Restart Required” after their title in the detail section, and you’re warned when you click Install Now that you will need to let the updater restart your Mac to complete the update.

The next major operating system update past what you’re running used to appear as a short entry with a More Info link. But in Monterey, Apple transformed the upgrade notice into a full advertisement that listed all the available features. Minor updates still use the More Info link to tell you what to expect.

When preparing to install updates that require a restart, make sure you have no unsaved files, no open Terminal windows, and nothing in progress in an app. Often, this can halt a restart—particularly an issue if you walk away hoping to return with the update done. I always wait until my Mac restarts before leaving.

In addition to the Software Update setting for system data files and security updates, make sure the setting introduced in macOS 26.1 is enabled: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Background Security Improvement. With this enabled, Apple can update certain parts of the system, such as components of Safari and system libraries used by multiple apps, without requiring a full incremental update and restart.

On an iPhone or iPad

Software Update on an iPhone or iPad, in Settings > General > Software Updates > Automatic Updates, offers options similar to those on a Mac. If you enabled Automatically Install, you’re alerted that an update will happen overnight the next time the device is plugged in and idle. This option also hides the next two: Automatically Download and System Files > Automatically Install.

Even if you don’t want updates to be installed automatically, enabling downloads for iOS/iPadOS Updates lets you avoid waiting for a download to happen when you make the decision to trigger an update manually—the file is ready to go.

Everyone should leave System Files enabled for automatic updates, for the reasons given above.

As with macOS, Background Security Improvements should also be turned on. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Background Security Improvements, and make sure it’s enabled.

Configure App Store updates

The App Store is where you buy apps and acquire free apps, including those with in-app purchases, that have gone through additional layers of vetting by Apple. One advantage is that you don’t need to use the app or visit a website to check whether the latest version is installed.

On a Mac, the App Store has an Updates item in its left-hand navigation bar. Click that, and you can see available updates. You can also use App Store’s Preferences to control automatic updates: select or deselect Automatic Updates.

On iPhone/iPad, the default is for updates to be quietly updated in the background. You can change this in Settings > Apps > App Store, where you can disable App Updates. You can see the queue of updates waiting to happen in the App Store app: tap the account button in the upper-right corner and then tap App Updates. Any apps with pending updates appear under an Upcoming Automatic Updates label. You can force a check for updates by swiping down and releasing, and you can tap Update All to force an immediate app update.

Update everything else on a Mac

Software that didn’t come from the Mac App Store must be updated separately. Fortunately, most apps include an automatic, configurable update check whenever you launch them, and also check for updates periodically. You can disable this in nearly all apps, though I recommend keeping the feature on, or enabling it if it’s turned off by default.

If you haven’t seen update notifications lately, or aren’t sure how your favorite apps have automatic updates configured, now is the time to check. Launch each app, select its option to check, and install updates.

Some apps use “check for updates” as a way to sell you on a paid upgrade to the next version of the product. I don’t mind seeing this once or twice, but some software I use brings up a paid update available message at every launch; not cool.

How Apple numbers its releases

Starting with fall 2025 operating system releases, Apple reset their numbering system to the last two digits of the following year, starting with 26. So 2026 releases are iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, tvOS 27, and watchOS 27; and 2025 releases were iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, tvOS 26, and watchOS 26.

Tags: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Security
Show Full Article

Everything New in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27

by Chris Smith

Apple tends to release operating system changes as a two-beat sequence, like our heart going LUB-dub: The LUB beat is a major flex, like the introduction of Liquid Glass across all their operating systems in 2025. This year is a “dub,” a building-or-rebuilding year, in which Apple largely tweaks the previous cycle and offers incremental improvements, though some may feel quite large. If you have just upgraded, ten of them are worth trying first.

The 2026 set of releases, numbered 27—like car models are numbered in fall for the following year—is a “dub.” We see the rollout of the long-promised Siri upgrade, called Siri AI. Along with its improved performance, Siri AI and Apple Intelligence both extend much more deeply into apps and system functions across nearly all platforms. That’s the flagship feature.

This includes significant improvements to on-device searching. When you use Spotlight in iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 on devices with Apple Intelligence support, the Spotlight field has changed from Search to Search or Ask. You can perform searches or ask Siri questions via the same entry field, which expands Spotlight’s reach and Siri’s scope.

Starting in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 (as well as macOS 27 Golden Gate), Apple has leaned very heavily into so-called artificial intelligence to enhance the overall operating system experience and many apps. They rebranded Siri as Siri AI on devices with the minimum required hardware. (Check whether your device qualifies.)

Apple also offered four additional areas of focus:

  • Interface tweaks: Apple devoted significant time during their Worldwide Developer Conference presentation in June 2026 to stepping way back from interface overreaches with the Liquid Glass interface. Apple made a number of worthwhile improvements in macOS 27, but far fewer in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. The key change is a Liquid Glass slider—also in macOS—that lets you choose a degree of translucency. In iOS 26.1/iPadOS 26.1, Apple added a binary choice of Clear (original flavor) and Tinted (somewhat less translucent). In iOS 27/iPadOS 27, that choice is now a slider.

The company also provided minor improvements to iPadOS 27, following the significant overhaul and improvements introduced in iPadOS 26, which were generally well received. See what’s new for iPad.

  • Child safety and Screen Time: Nobody loves Screen Time, because it works erratically and doesn’t always map to what parents want to limit. Apple has regrouped and reworked Screen Time to better allot time. Let’s see if it works better, too! Child safety enhancements include intervening for gore and violence, and better oversight of new connections in FaceTime, Messages, and Phone.
  • Accessibility: A cornucopia of individual improvements in Accessibility adds up. Among them: on-device subtitles for any video across all platforms, developer access to FaceTime that will let sign language interpreters join a call, and greater use of Apple Intelligence to describe things in images and in Magnifier.
  • Communications: While Apple didn’t perform the same kind of huge overhaul to FaceTime, Messages, and Phone in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 as they did in the previous releases, I’ve provided a one-stop shop for changes affecting those apps, as well as cellular and Wi-Fi.

Apple also discussed in the lead-up to the release of the new operating system how much faster everything would be, but a list of those promises doesn’t help you get more familiar with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27! Because this book doesn’t benchmark these sorts of changes, I can only say: you should be pleased.

I don’t want to say everything else is miscellaneous, as there are hundreds—maybe thousands—of other changes. (You can find extensive rundowns.) Instead, let me say that Apple’s extensive work means many apps and system features have been modified, matured, or enhanced, as you will see in the rest of the book.

How Apple numbers its operating systems

Apple began their current numbering system in 2025, with the releases of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS all with a base number of 26 for 2026. This continued in 2026 with the release of all operating systems numbered 27.

Before this, Apple incremented their operating systems differently depending on whether they were initial or subsequent releases. A change described as coming from an older version will therefore show an 8- or 9-number leap—say, from iOS 18 to 26 or 27—even though “26” is the very next version after “18.”

Apple Intelligence reaches into a dozen apps. Where to find it in each one is set out separately. For the upgrade itself, start with which iPhones and iPads can install iOS 27, then how to install it.

Tags: iOS 27, iPadOS 27
Show Full Article

How Thieves Steal iPhone Passcodes, and How to Stop Them

by Stacey Butler

The reason for the above change appears to stem from some extraordinary articles in the Wall Street Journal. In February 2023, the Journal published a story with an alarming headline: “A Basic iPhone Feature Helps Criminals Steal Your Entire Digital Life” by Joanna Stern and Nicole Nguyen. The article noted that individuals were reporting and police departments confirming that an increasing number of thieves were stealing people’s iPhones and coercing or extracting the corresponding passcodes through in-person methods. With the iPhone and its passcode, the thief could unlock an Apple Account using a loophole.

If you don’t enable Stolen Device Protection, you remain susceptible to this real-world exploit, and should read on.

How physical passcode theft happens

The Journal article details multiple kinds of attacks, the most prevalent of which is shoulder-surfing criminal teams, which involve one thief interacting with you and another surreptitiously watching you or recording you.

For instance, one ne’er-do-well might offer to take a couple’s photo. They take the picture, but then sneakily press and hold the volume up/standby button on the phone and tap Cancel (see how to set a stronger iPhone passcode) This requires a passcode to unlock, which someone might naturally enter. However, Stern explained on a podcast that tests with 4K iPhone video indicate someone could easily record your passcode entry from nearly across a room. Then it’s just a snatch-and-grab operation.

Even more disturbingly, the reporters interviewed a number of people who said they were physically assaulted and coerced into revealing their passcode and giving up their phones, or waking up believing they were drugged with their phone missing and later account issues. (The prevalence of druggings at bars has become something awful.)

The reporters explained a criminal can reset an Apple Account password with nothing more than an iPhone passcode and possession of the iPhone. At that point, if someone uses iCloud email with their financial and other accounts, the thief can send password resets and receive second factor SMS and device-based tokens to validate changes and logins. One victim, an economist, lost access to her Apple Account and everything attached to it, and told the reporters that about $10,000 vanished from her bank account within a day.

While Face ID and Touch ID can’t be used to extract your passcode and then reset your Apple Account, they can be used against you if you’re drugged, threatened, or in custody of a government that compels their use. See how to set a stronger iPhone passcode for how to disable Face ID or Touch ID quickly.

We don’t know the scale of these attacks, as there’s no comprehensive accounting and Apple hasn’t made a statement. Does it happen to hundreds of people a year in the United States—the article’s geographical focus—or tens of thousands? Because of that two-thief passcode approach, I’d put my money on hundreds to thousands where the passcode is obtained when an iPhone is stolen.

The Journal raised important questions about how tightly Apple has linked a passcode to the ability to log in to an Apple Account. That led Apple to create Stolen Device Protection.

None of this is the fault of crime victims entering their passcode in public or…being drugged or mugged. Rather, the person who stole from you—I mean, it shouldn’t even have to be said that it’s that person who did wrong.

Before venturing forth into the world:

  • Set a longer or more complicated passcode. This makes it harder for a thief to see or capture what you’re entering.
  • Enable Face ID or Touch ID. This prevents unsophisticated shoulder-surfer snoops. Coupled with the Stolen Device Protection option, it dramatically reduces your exposure to Apple Account and other data hijacking.
  • If you need to enter your passcode in public, make sure there’s no direct line of sight other than your own. Holding your hand over your phone or peering through your fingers is unfortunately not a ridiculous strategy. (I never enter my ATM PIN without holding my hand over the keypad.)

ATMs are also a prime spot for “skimmers” to be attached where thieves have a camera and sensor to grab your card number and PIN. Never use an ATM if anything around the keypad looks suspect, such as a raised external surface around any part.

  • Make sure Find My is turned on. This will help you later if you need to erase your device remotely.
  • Remove from your Photos library any images that show your passport, driver’s license, or Social Security number, or any other cards or information that contain numbers useful for information theft. (“Surely the writer of this book hasn’t left his…oh, no.” Deletes many images.)

This might deter most instances. But for best results, if you consider yourself possibly at risk, read on to enable Stolen Device Protection.

What to do after a theft

Stolen Device Protection doesn’t prevent robberies. If your device is brazenly or violently stolen, here’s what else you can do:

  • Access Find My: If you have access to Find My from one of your other devices right away, use a native app. Otherwise, you can use the Find My app on someone else’s device or log in to iCloud.com and use Find My there. (You have to have your iCloud password memorized or available through some backup method or other device, of course.)

Next, consider doing one or all of the following:

— Put the device in Lost Mode: If you have Stolen Device Protection enabled, putting your iPhone in Lost Mode could make it more recoverable as the thieves won’t be able to do anything useful with it. If the thieves haven’t powered down the iPhone or put it into Airplane Mode, it might immediately enter Lost Mode, or enter it the next time it has even the briefest internet connection. Because Find My is on, and the thieves can’t disable it, your iPhone retains Activation Lock, making it difficult or impossible to resell or reuse the phone.

— Erase the device remotely if it’s online: You can opt instead to try to erase your phone. If it’s online at any point, erasure is immediate, and Activation Lock remains on. In fact, it’s still trackable even after being erased with iOS 15 or later.

— Remove the device from your account if it’s offline: I recommend that if you don’t have Stolen Device Protection enabled and your iPhone is showing as offline, consider whether to remove the iPhone from your Apple Account on another device or via iCloud.com. This prevents Find My tracking, but it also halts iCloud syncing, so there’s a tradeoff.

  • Change your Apple Account password immediately: You may, ironically, need another trusted device connected to your account to do so.
  • Change important financial and email account passwords: If you don’t have Stolen Device Protection enabled, you should change critical passwords elsewhere; with it on, you might consider doing so anyway. After erasing or disconnecting your device, you can create new passwords they won’t have access to. (If you can’t erase or disconnect your device, turn off Passwords syncing in iCloud on your remaining devices.)
  • Call your phone company: If you haven’t enabled Stolen Device Protection, you can block your device from receiving SMS messages by calling your carrier. Have them remove the phone number from the SIM and disable the line temporarily at least. (If you wisely set a PIN for your cellular account, you’ll need that PIN to get the account locked, too.)

This experience can be scary. Theft and assault always is. If you can summon the strength to act quickly, you can minimize harm.

Automatic restart after three days

In late 2024, law-enforcement departments began to exchange stories of iPhones that had been unlocked and were kept carefully in that state in locked, shielded storage areas had spontaneously rebooted. While Apple didn’t make an announcement, iOS 18.1 apparently included a “reboot after inactivity” timer, according to reporting by 404 Media.

iPhones have two general states: Before First Unlock (BFU), which happens after a restart, and After First Unlock (AFU). An iPhone is easier to rummage through for investigative or illicit purposes in the AFU state, when its internal storage has been unlocked and other kinds of access remain available, even if some data remains protected by a passcode or biometrics.

Apple now apparently starts a three-day timer (as of 2026) when an iPhone is in the AFU state. If it’s inactive for that period of time, it restarts, putting it back into the harder-to-crack BFU state. Security researcher Matthew Green told 404 Media it wasn’t about blocking police access—but criminal use. He told them, “This feature means that if your phone gets stolen, the thieves can’t nurse it along for months until they develop the tech to crack it.”

Tags: iOS, Security
Show Full Article