7 annoying iPhone problems and how to fix them

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You love your Apple iPhone. It’s your constant companion. It wakes you up in the morning, keeps you in touch with your loved ones and entertains you when you have downtime.

Apple’s smartphones are famous for their high level of security. While this doesn’t mean they’re unhackable, they’re typically at lower risk of being infected by malware compared to Android phones. Still, it never hurts to be more careful. Tap or click here for seven iPhone security settings to change right now.

The iPhone can do it all. But all that goodwill can fly out the window when you bump into one of these iPhone’s annoyances. Here are some top complaints and ways to fix them.

1. It’s hard to use with one hand

Smartphones are getting bigger, which is excellent as we use them more frequently for streaming and gaming. And let’s not forget that there’s an app for everything. The larger display makes it easier to view, edit and use productivity apps such as email, calendar, documents and presentations.

The problem is that even regular-sized iPhones (the ones that don’t carry the Max moniker) can be unwieldy to use one-handed. Your thumb can’t reach everything, particularly if your hands are on the smaller side.

There are several ways to make your iPhone easier to use when you only have one free hand.

The one-handed keyboard

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard.
Tap One-Handed Keyboard.
Choose Left or Right.
You can also open Messages and hold down the emoji or globe button. Then tap the icon for the left or right keyboard.

Reach for the top

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch.
Turn on Reachability to make it easier to lower the top half of your screen.

2. Your iPhone’s screen brightness keeps changing

Apple’s Face ID does more than just unlock your phone. It also can tell when you’re paying attention to your phone. If you look away, your screen goes dim. Your alert volume also goes down.

You may get annoyed by the fluctuating brightness, so Apple gives you the option to turn off the feature:

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Face ID & Attention.
Turn off Attention Aware Features.

3. Face ID won’t unlock your phone

What’s more annoying than seeing that little lock icon refuse to unlock? Many factors can cause Face ID to malfunction, from a cruddy lens to a bad angle. Here are some fixes:

Check that your front camera lens isn’t dirty or obscured by your case or screen protector.
Ensure your eyes, nose, and mouth are fully visible to your camera.
If you are wearing a mask, you must set up Face ID for it. Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, you’ll be asked to enter your four-digit passcode, scroll down and turn on Face ID with a Mask. Follow the onscreen instructions.
Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode. Check that Face ID is set up and the features you want to use it for are switched on.
If all else fails, reset Face ID. Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, then tap Reset Face ID. Tap Set up Face ID and follow the onscreen instructions.

4. Your iPhone microphone volume goes down during calls

When you’re on a call, your iPhone monitors the noise around you and tries to cut it down so the person you’re talking to can hear you better. It’s a neat feature, but it can sometimes make it hard for them to hear your voice.

Check your microphone volume and if people are still having problems hearing you, you can turn off the noise cancellation feature.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual and switch off Phone Noise Cancellation.

5. You miss having a headphone jack

The last iPhone flagship to ship with a headphone jack was the iPhone 6s. For a while, Apple included a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter with its phones, but that stopped with the release of the XS and XR models. Following that, you had to purchase the dongles yourself.

You don’t have to stick with an Apple adapter, however. There are plenty of third-party options, so you can keep using your favorite wired headphones.

Some Lightning adapters allow you to charge your phone and simultaneously use the 3.5mm port. Charging while using headphones? Now that’s something we truly missed!

6. You miss the home button

The iPhone 8 was the last model with a home button. That was a long time ago, and we understand if you long for that tactile feel. Though you can’t install a physical home button on your phone, there’s a feature that lets you come close:

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch.
Turn on AssistiveTouch. A button will appear on your screen.
Under Custom Actions, change the settings for Single-Tap, Double-Tap and Long Press.
If you want the closest home button experience, set Single-Tap to Home, then drag the button to the middle-bottom of your screen.
Now, whenever you tap that virtual button, you’ll be taken to your home screen.

7. You get notifications from muted conversations

Group messages are a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, but the constant notification pings can be too much. In case you didn’t know, you can silence individual conversations:

Touch and hold a conversation in your list of Messages.
Tap Hide Alerts.
You can also do this within the conversation itself by tapping the name(s) on the top of the screen and then switching on Hide Alerts.

That’s a helpful option, but you’ll still get notifications if someone mentions you in a conversation. You can turn this type of notification off, too. Now you’ll be completely at peace (from that conversation, at least):

Go to Settings > Messages.
Scroll down to Mentions and switch off Notify Me.