Start here›The settings tour
Your device, explained
Twelve things worth understanding before any task. Not how to do anything — what each one is, and what it does for you. It is the hour that works best with somebody who feels the device happens to them.
How to use this in a lesson
Sit beside them with their own device, not yours, and go down the list. Do not fix anything unless they ask. The job is the tour, not the tidy-up — and the moment somebody understands what a setting is for, half the questions they came in with answer themselves.
It takes about an hour. It is worth every minute of it, and it is the one lesson that makes every lesson after it shorter.
Which account am I signed into?
The name and password the device uses to know it is you. Almost always an email address. Most people have more than one and have never been told which is which.
It decides where your photos go, which contacts you see, and what you could get back if this was lost tomorrow. Two accounts is the reason something is “missing” — it is not missing, it is in the other one.
“Let’s find out who this device thinks you are. Not your name — the email address it is signed in with.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Wi-Fi, and mobile data
Two different ways of reaching the internet. Wi-Fi is the box at home. Mobile data is the phone company, and you pay by how much you use.
Knowing which one you are on tells you whether something big is free or costs money — and why things stop working the moment you walk out the front door.
“Right now, is this on your home wifi or using your phone plan? Let’s look together.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Storage — what is filling it up
The room inside the device itself. Not the internet, not the cloud. The thing in your hand.
When it is full nothing new saves, the camera refuses, and updates stop. Seeing what is actually using the space means you can make room without deleting anything you would miss — and it is very rarely the photographs.
“Let’s see what is really taking up the space. I would guess it is not what you think.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Notifications — why it keeps buzzing
Every buzz, ding and little red dot, and the list of who is allowed to make one.
You get to choose who may interrupt you. Most people have never been told they are allowed to turn any of it off — and turning one off breaks nothing.
“Which of these do you actually want to hear from? We can switch the rest off.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Making it bigger and easier to read
Text size, zoom, brightness, contrast, and bold text.
The device arrived set up for a thirty-year-old in a bright room. This is where you make it yours. Bigger text is not giving in — the setting was simply wrong until you changed it.
“Before we do anything else — can you read that comfortably? Let’s fix it if not.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Sound, and the volume that is not the volume
There is more than one volume on a phone: the ringer, whatever is playing, and the alarm. They are separate.
It is why you can miss a call on a device that plays videos loudly, and why turning a video down can silence your phone for a fortnight.
“There is more than one volume in here. That is usually the answer to “I missed the call”.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Getting in — PIN, face or fingerprint
How the device checks it is you before it opens.
It means nobody can pick it up and read your messages. And a face or a fingerprint stops you typing a code twenty times a day, so it is easier and safer at the same time, which is rare.
“How do you get into it at the moment? There may be a way that is less work and safer.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Passwords — where they are already kept
The device is very likely remembering most of your passwords already, in a list you are allowed to look at.
You do not have to remember them and you do not need the notebook. And when a new device asks for one, you can go and look it up rather than starting again.
“You already have a list of these. Let me show you where it lives.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Privacy — what the apps can see
A list of what each app has been allowed to use: the camera, the microphone, where you are, your contacts, your photos.
You can say no to any of them, one at a time, and watch nothing break. Most apps ask for far more than they need, and nobody ever goes back and checks.
“This is what each one has been allowed to look at. Let’s see whether you agree with it.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Updates — why it moved
The people who made it sending changes to the device.
They close the holes scammers use, so they matter. They also move things and rename things — so when something looks different this morning, this is usually why, and nothing has been broken or stolen.
“If it looks different today, this is nearly always why. It is not you, and you have not done anything wrong.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Backup — is any of this actually saved?
A copy kept somewhere else, so that losing the device does not mean losing what is on it.
It is the difference between losing a phone and losing thirty years of photographs. Very often it is switched off, or full, and the person had assumed otherwise for years.
“If this went in the harbour this afternoon, what would you still have? Let’s check rather than assume.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
Finding it when it is lost
A way to make the device ring, show itself on a map, or lock itself from somewhere else.
It only works if it was switched on before it went missing. Five minutes now, while it is on the table in front of you.
“This one we do today, because the day you need it is far too late to set it up.”
Windows · Apple laptop · iPhone or iPad · Android — to be filled in with the device in your hand, not from memory.
The screen going dark while you are still reading
How long the device waits before it locks itself. It is called Auto-Lock on an iPhone and Screen Timeout on Android.
A new phone arrives set to thirty seconds or a minute. That suits somebody who reads quickly and nobody else — the screen goes black halfway through a recipe, a text message or a set of instructions, and it has to be unlocked again. Two to five minutes changes how the whole device feels, and almost nobody knows it can be changed.
“How often does the screen go black on you before you have finished reading? Let us fix that now — it is two taps, and it is the first thing I would change on any new phone.”
iPhone: Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → change 30 seconds to 2 to 5 minutes.
Android: Settings → Display (or Display & Touch) → Screen Timeout → 2 minutes or longer.
Filled in by Judy — sent through the box on this site.
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.
Computer Pals for Seniors Northern Beaches · The Tramshed, 1395a Pittwater Road, Narrabeen
Bridging the Gap · Established 1995 · compalsnb.org.au