The IT Nerd

On Monday, Apple released a ton of software to the world. And that as is typical for me caused my phone to ring and my inbox to fill up from people who had minor “quirks” in terms of how the software looked and functioned that annoyed them. I’ve collected the common “quirks” into this article along with how to fix them. I’ll start with Safari 15. It has a feature that colors the Tab Bar. If that annoys you, here’s how to turn it off:

1. Go to the “Safari” menu, then “Preferences”
2. Go to “Tabs”
3. Uncheck “Show color in tab bar”

Now this same feature exists in iOS/iPadOS 15. Here’s how you disable this same feature in those OSes:

1. Go to “Settings” then “Safari”
2. Under the “Tabs” section turn off “Website Tinting”. Note: On iPadOS the option is called “Show Color in Tab Bar”

Safari on iOS and iPadOS 15 also moved the address bar to the bottom of the screen by default. Based on what my clients are saying, it’s not a popular change. But you can change it back to the top easily:

1. Go to “Settings” then “Safari”
2. Under the “Tabs” section, select “Single Tab”

watchOS 8 removed the dedicated bed icon for activating sleep mode. That caused a few calls from clients of mine who used Apple’s sleep tracking feature. In watchOS 7, you simply had to swipe up from the bottom and click on the bed icon to activate sleep mode. Now in watchOS 8, it’s tied to the new Focus Mode feature which Apple defines as “A powerful new set of tools gives you more control over how you prioritize your time and attention. So you can find balance and stay focused on whatever you’re doing in the moment.” The problem is that this change is confusing lots of users. To save you stress of figuring it out when you’re going to bed, here’s how you activate sleep mode:

1. Swipe up from the bottom to display Control Center.

2. Find the moon icon, press and hold it to get the menu pictured below.

3. Choose Sleep.

Finally, some of you might have issues with iOS 15 where you might have problems with Bluetooth devices (Bluetooth headsets specifically) and WiFi. The solution could be classified as a “nuclear option.” But it seems to fix most things that have been reported to me.

1. Go to Settings
2. Go to General
3. Go to Transfer or Reset iPhone
4. Go To Reset
5. Click on Reset Network Settings

The reason why I call this the “nuclear option” is that you will have to re-join any WiFi networks that the phone was paired with after you do this. Which by extension means that you will need to know the passwords of said networks before you go down this path. It also seems to reset some cellular options like roaming preferences and WiFi calling. But it seems to clear up strange Bluetooth and WiFi issues. Thus it’s worth trying.

Do you have an “quirks” in watchOS 8, iOS/iPadOS 15 and Safari 15 that you’ve come across and fixed? Please leave a comment below and share your wisdom. Alternately, if you have a “quirk” that you need help with, leave a comment below and I will try and assist you.

UPDATE: Someone emailed me asking where Private Browsing Mode was in Safari on iOS/iPad OS 15. I am not sure why Apple did this, but it is buried in the tab menu:

If you click on it, you’ll be given the Private option:

Click on it and you’ll be in Private Browsing Mode.

Choose done. To get out of Private Browsing Mode, simply follow these steps and choose “x Tabs” where “x” is the number of tabs that you have open.

This entry was posted on September 22, 2021 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Tips with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.