Computer Pals Northern BeachesFor the Trainers

Start here›The same thing on four devices

The same thing, four names

How do you do this on devices?

This page is for the problem in front of you now. Where a setting lives, on whichever of the four they have brought in. If what you want is what to teach next week — ten sessions across a whole term, in an order — that is A term’s plan. Some subjects sit on both, on purpose: you teach accounts as a session, and you look accounts up when it breaks.

One in five of our members brings a Windows laptop and a phone from a different world to the same lesson. The hard part is not the buttons — it is that the same thing is called something different on each one, and nobody ever says so out loud. This says so out loud.

Looking for something particular? The one search box covers these ten, the settings tour, every recording and every answer.

The ones where the difference IS the answer. A member with two devices meets these, and the other trainer sitting beside them does not necessarily know why.

How to use it

Read the one idea to the member first. It is true whatever they own, and it is usually the part that was missing. Then use the name for their device and go and find it together.

⛔ It deliberately does not give you the taps. Menu paths change with every release — two of the names on this page changed in the last two years — and a wrong instruction followed in front of somebody costs more than looking it up together does.

Something to put in their hand

Every question below has a free eSafety course against it, chosen for the device they actually own. Print the sheet for that device, circle the two or three you covered, and give it to them on the way out. It comes out as two pages — measured, not assumed, so nobody is caught short standing at the printer with twenty to run off.

Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android

Free, from the eSafety Commissioner And if the gap is yours, not theirs The sheet above is for the member. This is the same library pointed the other way — for the trainer who has met a device they do not own. Twenty-four of our thirty-one are down as knowing one platform, and every one of the others has a working simulator you can practise on without buying anything. Learn it yourself →

1. Which account am I signed into?

The one idea, true on all four

Every device is signed into an account that owns the photos, the contacts and the backup. It is almost always an email address, and most people have more than one without knowing it.

What it is called
WindowsMicrosoft account
Apple laptopApple Accountcalled Apple ID until 2024
iPhone or iPadApple Accountyour name at the very top of Settings
AndroidGoogle Account

⚠️ A Windows laptop and an iPhone have two completely separate accounts that know nothing about each other. That is the single most common confusion in this club, and it is not the member being muddled — it genuinely is two different things.

2. My storage is full

The one idea, true on all four

There are two different storages and they are both called storage. One is the room inside the device. The other is the room in the cloud that you rent. Either can fill up, and the messages barely distinguish them.

What it is called
WindowsStorageand Storage Sense
Apple laptopStorageunder General settings
iPhone or iPadiPhone Storageand separately, iCloud storage
AndroidStorageand separately, Google account storage

⚠️ When a phone says it is full it usually means the cloud account, not the phone. Deleting photos off the phone will not fix that, and people delete precious things trying.

3. Where have my photos gone?

The one idea, true on all four

Photos live in an app, and the app may or may not be copying them to the cloud. The copy is what survives a lost phone.

What it is called
WindowsPhotosand OneDrive
Apple laptopPhotosand iCloud Photos
iPhone or iPadPhotosand iCloud Photos
AndroidGoogle Photos

⚠️ Windows laptop plus an iPhone means photos in two places that do not talk to each other. “It is not on my computer” is usually true, and usually not a fault.

7. Why does it keep buzzing?

The one idea, true on all four

A list of who is allowed to interrupt you, which almost nobody has ever edited.

What it is called
WindowsNotifications
Apple laptopNotifications
iPhone or iPadNotifications
AndroidNotifications

⭐ The easy one — it is called the same thing on all four. Worth saying out loud to somebody who has decided everything is different everywhere, because it is not.

9. Finding it when it is lost

The one idea, true on all four

Make it ring, see it on a map, or lock it from somewhere else. Only works if it was switched on before the device went missing.

What it is called
WindowsFind my device
Apple laptopFind My
iPhone or iPadFind My
AndroidFind Hubcalled Find My Device until May 2025

⭐ One idea, three different names, and one of them changed last year. This is the whole reason this page exists.

10. Is this a scam?

The one idea, true on all four

The one that has no settings answer at all. It is a judgement, and it is the same judgement on every device.

What it is called
Windows—
Apple laptop—
iPhone or iPad—
Android—

⭐ Included precisely because there is nothing to look up. Send them to Scam Watch on the club's own site, and to eSafety. The device is not the answer here; you are.

To take home — free, from eSafety · the same one whatever they own

Not here? Ask it.

If you looked for something on this page and it was missing, that is worth more to us than anything already on it. It means a member asked you something we have not covered. Put it here and it gets answered for everybody.

Names checked 29 August 2026

Two changed recently: Apple ID became Apple Account in September 2024, and Find My Device became Find Hub in May 2025. If you meet one that is wrong, say so here and it gets fixed the same day — a page like this is only worth having if it is kept honest.

Computer Pals for Seniors Northern Beaches · The Tramshed, 1395a Pittwater Road, Narrabeen

Bridging the Gap · Established 1995 · compalsnb.org.au