File photo - A customer holds an iPhone 6 on display at the Fifth Avenue Apple store on the first day of sales in Manhattan, New York Sept. 19, 2014. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)
The iPhone is widely known as the pinnacle of smartphones and mobile technology. We love our iPhones for the intuitive navigation, seamless design and integration between our favorite apps and the iOS operating system.
So why is it that iPhones seem to run into so many problems? From a battery losing its charge in the blink of an eye to never seeming to have enough storage space and everything in between, it feels like there's something when it comes to these sleek gadgets.
We read the Apple blogs, documented the complaints and came up with solutions for the things that bug you the most. These fixes may be quick, but don't let that fool you. They are lasting and effective.
So grab your iPhone and let's get started on ridding yourself of these annoyances.
1. Low storage capacity
Has this ever happened to you? You go to take a photo or download a song on your iPhone only to be stopped by a message saying you can't because you don't have any storage left. There's no way you're getting rid of the priceless photos and music you have on there now and deleting contacts isn't an option.
So what do you do now?
You check to see what's happening with your iCloud storage, that's what.
iCloud is the online storage program available to all Apple users. It comes pre-installed on all Apple products. I'm sure you've seen the prompt to sign up or sign into your iCloud account and saving digital files on your iPhone or iPad is pretty much impossible to do without it.
To access your iCloud storage settings on your iPhone equipped with iOS 8 or later, tap Settings >> iCloud >> Storage >> Manage Storage. If you're using an earlier version of iOS, tap Settings >> iCloud >> Storage & Backup.
You get an initial 5GB free, and once that's all filled up you can purchase more space. The first available upgrade is about $1 a month, and that ups you to 20 GB of iCloud space.
You can purchase up to 1TB of space on the cloud if you need it for $19.99 a month. You can use the space to back up your photos, calendar events, documents, notes, contacts and whatever else you can think of without having to delete anything on your iPhone.
If you want to add more storage space to your plan, go to Settings >> iCloud >> Storage >> Change Storage Plan. You can select from a number of different options and price ranges that will be automatically deducted from the card listed on your iTunes account.
2. Below average battery
There's been one big complaint from iPhone users since the launch of the very first model in 2008; the battery is a piece of junk. You can use your handy smartphone to surf, chat, call and so much more, but only for a limited time because of the poor battery life.
A few things can be blamed for the less-than-perfect Apple battery, but one of the biggest energy vampires on your iPhone gadget is your screen's brightness. Dimming your screen, even just a bit, can save you hours of battery life.
To change your brightness settings, first open up Settings >> Display & Brightness. On the Display & Brightness screen, first switch the "Auto-Brightness" option off.
Auto-brightness dims and brightens your screen depending on the time of day, and often overcompensates, causing your battery to suffer the consequences. Now, slide the Brightness slider to the left to dim the screen.
The dimmer the screen, the more battery life saved. Try to keep your brightness at a comfortable level. There's no need to cause eyestrain just to save an hour of battery life.
Another big energy hog is apps running in the background.
Just because you press the Home button on your iPhone doesn't mean that an app is closed. In fact, your iOS gadget usually leaves the app running in the background. To make sure that an app that you opened isn't sucking up your battery life, here's how to shut it off:
Unlock your device and then quickly press the Home button twice. Swipe left to see all of the apps that are currently suspended on your device.
To shut off a suspended app, swipe up on the miniature app screen. Once the mini app screen disappears, it's shut down until the next time you open it.
3. Stop the tiny text
Not all gadget screens are easy to read. The print can seem too tiny, your fingers can seem too fat, but the problem is really with the keyboard itself. Luckily, there are several ways you can make the screen easier to read.
Go to Settings >> General >> Accessibility and turn on Bold Text and Larger Text. You can choose either one or both, depending on your preferences.
Just note that in order to turn on bold text, you will need to restart your iPhone or iPad. From this menu, you can also Reduce Motion, which will come in handy if the animations make you a little nauseated.
There's one more trick for making text bigger and it lets you zoom into anything you want on any screen.
Go to Settings >> General >> Accessibility to turn on the Zoom feature. Then, use three fingers to double tap and then you can zoom in and out up to 500% in any application like Mail, Safari and your Home and Lock screens. This will also work if you want to zoom in on an Instagram photo.
If the bigger text doesn't cut it, you can also get a bigger and better keyboard for your gadget. Click here to see the bigger keyboard options you have, including SwiftKey and Flesky.
4. Really deleting photos instead of archiving them
You open up your Photo Gallery and what do you see? About 25 photos of the wall, up your grandkid's nose from the selfie they tried to take and other blurry shots. You should be able to delete them all in a flash but for some reason, Apple developers made things a little difficult this time around.
If you have managed (like everyone has) to mistakenly delete a photo, iOS 8 now has an easy way to recover it with the new "Recently Deleted" album. Of course, that might just mean an annoying extra step if you are someone who thinks, "If I did delete a photo, I meant to."
If this is the case, then we have a solution for you.
You need to get in the habit of tapping "Select" and then "Delete All" in the Recently Deleted album, immediately after you delete a photo. That way you will be sure to permanently get rid of those pesky, unwanted photos, without the worry of them lurking around - eating up storage and making your iPhone run much slower.
5. Predictive text makes texting a pain
Texting can already be a pretty tricky tool to master, add in a keyboard that completes sentences for you based on what it "thought" you might say, and you have a nightmare. That's what happened with the release of iOS 8 over a year ago.
iOS 8 has a default feature that claims to understand how you write. As it "learns" you, it makes suggestions about the next word you might want to use. The idea is to make texting faster but most of the time it actually takes up time because you have to go back, erase and retype what you were trying to say.
If this is happening to you, or if you don't like it, it is easy to shut off. To do so, go to Settings >> General >> Keyboard >> Set the "Predictive" option to off.
On the Kim Komando Show, the nation's largest weekend radio talk show, Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today's digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com. Kim also posts breaking tech news 24/7 at News.Komando.com.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.