And the hints just keep on coming. Remember my last month’s post where I dropped a bunch of tech-related tips for you to file away? By popular demand, I’m back to give you a few more you may find handy, whether it’s on your computer, smartphone or just being online. The following are not tips I’ve received from so-called tech gurus, but ones I discovered either purely by accident (aka dumb luck) or just my own dogged determination to find an answer. (There MUST be a pony in here somewhere!)

I’ll start with my latest encounter with an Apple “Genius.” Recently, I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 18.3.2. I did so reluctantly because it’s never simple. Upgrades always take you out of your comfort zone, delete things you like, add things you’ll never need, etc. But I went ahead with the upgrade just to stop the hounding of notifications to do so. 

It ended up going pretty smoothly – that is, until I wanted to check on some photos my sister had sent in previous texts. I went to the area where all her photos are stored. They were gone. So were photos from other friends’ texts. Now I’ll admit, I seldom check on those pix. But when you want them, you want them. For reference. For nostalgia. Whatever. I felt sick to my stomach. I called Apple Support, steam blowing out of my ears. Barely controlling my temper, I told the Genius what happened. She put me on hold for a few minutes, only to come back to tell me that yeah, with the upgrade, those photos were eliminated. “What?” I said in a modulated scream, ”Why would Apple ever want to do that?”  “I know. I know. I’m sorry. It’s happened to me, too,” the Genius empathized. 

I still couldn’t believe it. The software Geniuses at Apple could not be that stupid. I sat at the edge of my bed and started to look at my settings. Maybe I had something turned off. I made sure that everything in the Messages app that said “shared” was turned on. It was. Nothing seemed awry. I went back to my sister’s texts where the photos have been stored...and suddenly...several started to appear. Slowly, more and more popped up, with a message saying something like, “Indexing may take time to complete.” Sure enough, the following day, all the photos were back in place. A big “Whew!!!”

So there it was. The “indexing” process. Something I learned a while ago when the same thing happened to all my emails. I should have known! I so badly wanted to call Apple back and inform them of what they obviously did not know. Maybe I will. But for now, I can’t help but gloat. HEY APPLE, WHO’S THE GENIUS NOW!

The lesson: Instead of panicking at what you think may have been lost, wait. It does take time to “index” -- get things back in order – photos and emails. If in a day or two everything is still missing, I then give you permission to call Support. And scream.

(This one tip took longer for me to explain than I thought. Will continue with more in the June post. Stay tuned.)

-- Laura Stigler