For a first-week pal and a fifteen-year one alike

Learn it yourself

Nobody here knows all four. Twenty-four of our thirty-one trainers are down as knowing one platform, and one in five of our members walks in with a Windows laptop and a phone from a different world. This is where you go when the device in front of you is not the one you own — whether that is your first week or your fifteenth year.

Practise on a device you do not own ↓

The platform you do not know ↓ Windows and an iPhone together ↓ What members actually ask us ↓

All of it is free, and none of it is ours

Every link here goes to Be Connected, run by the eSafety Commissioner. It is an Australian Government service written for older Australians, it costs nothing, and you do not have to sign up to read it. We point at it and keep it honest; we do not copy it.

Practise on a device you do not own

Start here. Each of these is a working simulator of the real thing in your browser — you can tap through an iPhone without owning one, which is the part no amount of reading solves.

AppleiPhone Practise on it — free, in your browser AppleiPad Practise on it — free, in your browser AndroidAndroid phone Practise on it — free, in your browser AndroidAndroid tablet Practise on it — free, in your browser WindowsWindows laptop Practise on it — free, in your browser AppleApple laptop Practise on it — free, in your browser

The platform you do not know

Windows laptop

The one most of our trainers already know. Here for the pals who came the other way — years on an iPad and never a file system.

Set upThe Microsoft account, and what it owns System settingsThe room everything else lives in Managing filesWhere a thing goes when you save it Managing storageStorage Sense, and what is safe to remove Security and privacyApp permissions, one at a time

Apple laptop

A MacBook is not a Windows laptop with a different badge, and the words for the same jobs are all different.

Set upThe Apple Account — called Apple ID until 2024 System preferencesNot "settings", and that trips people Managing filesFinder, and where downloads land Managing storageDevice storage against iCloud storage Security and privacyThe same job, a different room

iPhone or iPad

The gap most likely to catch a Windows trainer, and the one our members most often bring alongside a laptop.

Set upThe account at the very top of Settings System settingsThe long list, explained Quick settingsControl Centre — where half the questions end Saving and sharing filesWhere a photo actually goes Security and privacyWhat each app has been allowed to see

Android

Nine of our members bring one, and only a handful of trainers have ever held one. The names moved recently, too.

Set upThe Google Account, and what it carries System settingsLaid out differently again Quick settingsThe pull-down panel Saving and sharing filesGoogle Photos, and the copy in the cloud Security and privacyThe permission manager

Windows and an iPhone — the one in five

Fourteen of our members bring both. This is the join between them, and it is the thing trainers ask each other about most.

Photos from an iPhone to a Windows computerThe single most asked-for thing in this club A video from an iPhone to a Windows computerDifferent from photos, and it catches people A file from a Windows computer to an iPhoneThe direction nobody remembers

What members actually ask us

Avoiding common scamsThe judgement, not a setting Remote access scams⚠️ The one that costs our people real money Common email scamsWhat a real one looks like beside a fake Managing passwordsThe list the device already keeps Protecting your privacy onlineWhat is being collected, and by whom What is Wi-Fi?Wi-Fi against mobile data — the bill question All about myGovWhere Medicare and My Health Record sit

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.