Get in and Out of Recovery Mode on Iphone W/o Computer

While it's rare, there could be a day when your iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, or 12 Pro Max isn't responding, where taps and swipes on the screen do nothing, and the Side button won't let you force a restart. The culprit could be any number of problems, from corrupted files to b ...more

If your new 2020 iPhone SE is frozen, unresponsive, or won't load the system, and a standard power down and up procedure didn't work, there are few more things you can try. Force-restarting the device may do the trick, recovery mode is a last-ditch option, and DFU mode is your ...more

In a welcomed Wednesday twist, iOS 13.4 public beta 3 follows the release of developer beta 3 by just three hours. While that isn't super uncommon for most beta cycles, it is for this one. Apple waited 24 hours between dev beta 2 and public beta 2, and five full days between d ...more

So far, iOS 13.4 hasn't been a disappointment. From new Memoji stickers, a refreshed Mail toolbar, and even the beginnings of controlling your car with your iPhone, Apple's latest iOS update is looking like a good one. That's why we're excited that Apple just released the thir ...more

Making the jump from an older iPhone, or even an Android phone, to the iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, or 12 Pro Max can be a big one. It's not just the change of a new smartphone — it may have had a huge impact on your wallet too. So whenever the device goes berserk, is unrespons ...more

Beta software can be exciting because you get to experience cool new features before most other people. But it can have unwanted consequences such as bugs, UI glitches, and horrible battery life that'll make you wish you never installed it. If that sounds like you with iOS 16 ...more

Following in the iPhone X's footsteps, the iPhone XS and XS Max, as well as the iPhone XR, have all ditched the iconic Home button last seen on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which is one giant leap toward Jony Ive's ultimate vision of an iPhone that's a clean slab of glass. However ...more

Whenever something goes wrong with your iPhone, or whenever you want to downgrade from an iOS beta back to the regular iOS release, you can restore your iPhone to your last saved state. Restoring to an iCloud backup is great but won't work in all situations. Plus, if you saved ...more

Apple's innovations often involve more taking away than adding on. The company has released seven iPhones that omit the home button, the latest batch including the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max. If you recently picked up one of these devices for the first time, you might b ...more

With Touch ID on iOS devices, it's a little more difficult to lock yourself out. However, it can still happen if you don't use it, have a busted fingerprint scanner, or use an older device that doesn't have Touch ID, which means you're passcode dependent (unless you have zero ...more

Jailbreaking gives you root access to the iOS file system, allowing you to install third-party apps and tweaks on your iPhone that aren't available in the App Store. It opens up a whole new realm for what your device can do, but it can also cause instability across the system ...more

With the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and the exclusive iPhone X, Apple has come full circle in transitioning its users away from the home button present since the first iPhone a decade ago. This gives us a window into Apple's design philosophy moving forward, but it also presents some n ...more

We recently ran into a serious iPhone 6 issue here in the Gadget Hacks office, where the device was stuck in an infinite bootloop with intermittent red and blue screens (of death?) and an unresponsive touchscreen and buttons. From what we can tell, we weren't alone, though som ...more

The volume buttons on the side of your iPhone can do more than just adjust the volume levels for media, ringers, alerts, Siri, and other sounds and voices. You can use them to perform different actions in certain apps and even create custom actions using the Shortcuts app. It' ...more

The iPod changed the music and electronics industries when it was first introduced way back in 2001. It is credited with ushering in the age of "connected devices," and has held a huge market share of around 70% for years. At the height of its popularity, the iPod made up almo ...more

Last week, HTC released their new Droid DNA smartphone in hopes of gaining more traction in a smartphone world currently dominated by Apple and Samsung with their popular iPhone and Samsung Galaxy lines. The new Droid DNA boasts a 5-inch 1080p display—the highest resolution fo ...more

After an update on Sept. 22, 2020, the Checkra1n jailbreaking tool expanded its compatibility to include iOS 12.0 to iOS 12.2, as well as iOS 13.5.1 to iOS 13.7. More importantly, however, it now can jailbreak iOS 14 on select iPhone models, with more support coming soon. The ...more

It started in Australia, and now seems to have made its way statewide—hackers are remotely locking iOS and Mac devices, holding them for a $100 ransom. Users awoke to the loud "lost iPhone" ringtone, with a message on their lock screen stating that "Oleg Pliss" has hacked thei ...more

Hackers have stolen over 225,000 Apple user's account information from countries all over the world—including the United States, China, and France—in what many are reporting to be the biggest known Apple hack in history. Using a type of malware dubbed “KeyRaider,” hackers hav ...more

Have you ever been locked out of your iPhone? Maybe you forgot your passcode. Or perhaps someone with access changed the passcode as a prank. Your iPhone's display could have even been damaged and unresponsive. Whatever the reason, there's an easy way to get back access to you ...more

Downgrading your iPhone from iOS 8 beta back to iOS 7.1.1 is a really simple process, and a very necessary one if you're experiencing frozen screens and apps that either unexpectedly quit or don't even work at all. In my experience, any app that uses Safari to bring up pages, ...more

With the iPhone X, Apple introduced a brand new way for iOS users to interact with their iPhones. Gestures took the spotlight, as they very apparently replaced functions you would normally execute on the Home button. But swipes aren't everything for the new iPhone XS, XS Max, ...more

Since the iPhone X has no Home button, the Side button has some heavy lifting to do. So not only is the Side button responsible for all of its usual duties, like sleeping and waking the device, it has to do everything the Home button did too. That's a lot of work for one butto ...more

In the iPhone modding scene, the Checkm8 bootrom exploit, by developer axi0mX, led to a powerful jailbreaking tool known as Checkra1n. With it, you can jailbreak a variety of iPhone models without worrying about it getting patched later on. But in the past, it required you to ...more

If you couldn't wait to test drive iOS 9 before its official release this fall, you probably have the beta software on your iPhone right now. However, if you're not a fan of all the bugs and glitches that accompanies it, it's not too late—you can still downgrade back to the la ...more

Cheap Chinese knockoffs have been around for ages, but recently, skyrocketing demand has led to a massive influx of counterfeit smartphones. Sellers on Craigslist seem to have no trouble getting ahold of these fake devices, then passing them off as the real deal and turning a ...more

Semi-untethered jailbreaks are here to stay, as evidenced by iOS 11's Electra method, Chimera for iOS 12, and even the new bootrom-based Checkra1n tool for iOS 13. While not as convenient as fully untethered, re-enabling a semi-untethered jailbreak is still pretty easy once yo ...more

Apple's iOS 14.0 update has come and gone, and now we're sitting on iOS 14.2, the latest version of the iPhone's operating system. While it may be too late for you to revert to the last iOS 13 version, if the iOS 14.2 firmware is giving you problems or you're not just digging ...more

Back in 2010, iOS developer Daniel Amitay developed a camera security app for iPhones that used an unlock screen almost identical to that of the iPhone. The app was removed in mid-2011 (though, it eventually reappeared in early-2013, still available in the iOS App Store today ...more

If you want to try out one of Apple's beta programs on your iPhone — whether that's by becoming a developer, joining the public beta, or using an IPSW of an available beta update — there's always a possibility that you'll want to go back to the stable iOS version you were usin ...more

So far, iOS 13's major point updates have all been pretty exciting for iPhone. We've seen iOS 13.1, 13.2, and 13.3 come and go, offering more than 60 new features and changes combined to that very first version of iOS 13. While iOS 13.3.1 was a minor update, its successor, iOS ...more

This is an intermediate guide on how to easily fix or retrieve data from a bad hard drive. What we're trying to do: 1. Fix a hard drive with a corruption problem (i.e., blue screen) or that is full of viruses to the point of being inoperable. 2. Retrieve data from a hard dr ...more

So, you're all excited you went ahead and 'upgraded' your iPhone 3G to IOS 4.0X so you could reap all the benefits of all the new features. As it turns out, many of the best features in IOS 4.0X are not available for the 3G, such as the Bluetooth keyboard, selectable backgrou ...more

March is looking to be an eventful month for Apple. Even with coronavirus throwing the tech industry into uncertainty, we still expect Apple to release the iPhone SE 2, the long-awaited follow up to the iPhone SE. Is it possible we'll also see iOS 13.4 fully released this mont ...more

Your brand new iPhone SE packs the latest A13 Bionic chip into the form factor of the iPhone 8. With all that modern tech, you'd expect your iPhone to be unstoppable. That said, no smartphone is perfect, and sometimes, the iPhone SE will give you trouble. If your device is fro ...more

Whether it's spotty data coverage, bad customer service, or a high monthly bill, at some point many of us consider changing carriers. The problem is, we often don't want or need to change our devices. Since it's now legal to unlock devices to bring to new carriers, getting dev ...more

Apple's iOS 14.5 is the biggest update since iOS 14.0 came out, with over 50 confirmed features and more being discovered every day. There are new emoji, support for AirTags, more privacy controls, and exciting upgrades to Siri, Maps, Reminders, Podcasts, Music, and even Short ...more

Essential just dropped the Oreo Beta Program for their flagship PH-1 phone. Users have been eagerly awaiting this update as the early Nougat builds of the PH-1 software have suffered from numerous performance issues and lag. The good news is that you can grab the Oreo update t ...more

Apple's latest offerings, the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max all feature the A14 Bionic system on a chip, the fastest chipset ever seen on a smartphone, running 50% faster than any other CPUs. But despite the advanced technology, even the iPhon ...more

Since the San Bernardino shooting in 2014, Apple's been engaged in a game of cat and mouse with law enforcement. Authorities want access to evidence on criminals' iPhones, but Apple wants to protect all of its customers' personal data equally. The latest installment in this sa ...more

Like an overbearing mother, Apple will constantly nag you through annoying red bubble alerts about iOS updates that are ready to install. Fortunately, you don't have to take this issue lying down, as there are ways to prevent your iPhone from receiving OTA updates and their co ...more

Surprising? No. Exciting? Absolutely. After a grand introduction by at the Apple event on September 10, 2019, the iPhone 11 is finally here. We may have known nearly everything about this new iOS device ahead of time, thanks to the usual surge of reliable leaks and rumors. Th ...more

Android 11 won't be available as a beta update for Pixel devices until May 2020. Until then, the only way to try the latest Android version is by manually installing it. Usually, this means carrier models are left out since their bootloaders are locked, but there's still a way ...more

Flashing ROMs can be a tricky process, and sometimes you can end up leaving yourself without a ROM at all, often referred to as a soft brick. If you accidentally wiped your internal memory before a flash or forgot to download the ROM before wiping your system partition, don't ...more

TWRP is the premiere custom recovery for Android because of how many devices it supports and how simple it is to use. But installing it in the first place hasn't always been the easiest thing to do — until now. With the help of a Magisk module, you can finally use one Android ...more

When it comes to modding your Android device, you'll want to be familiar with the TWRP name and what it stands for. It's a tool that you'll be using to make NANDroid backups or to install just about any mod file you can think of — the number of uses is quite awesome. You'll mo ...more