4 Setting Up and Using an Apple ID, iCloud, and Other Online Accounts
In this chapter, you learn how to configure an Apple ID on your iPhone and to set up various types of accounts, such as iCloud and Google, so that apps on your iPhone can access data stored on the Internet cloud. Topics include the following:
➔ Configuring and using iCloud
Connecting your iPhone to the Internet enables you to share and sync a wide variety of content using popular online accounts such as iCloud and Google. Using iCloud, you can put your email, contacts, calendars, photos, and more on the Internet so that multiple devices—most importantly your iPhone—can connect to and use that information. There are other online accounts you might also want to use, such as Google for email, calendars, and contacts as well as email accounts provided by your Internet Service Provider (for example, a cable company). And, many people like to access social media, such as Facebook, with their iPhone; you can easily configure those accounts on your phone, too.
Getting Started
To access the cloud-based services provided by Apple, Google, and others, you need to have an account for each service that you want to use. Then, you sign into your account on your iPhone and configure which of the account’s services you use. For example, if you have an iCloud account, you can choose to use it for email, calendars, contacts, and other information.
To use iCloud and access other services provided by Apple, such as the App Store, iTunes Store, and iMessages, you need to have an Apple ID and have that account configured on your iPhone. Similarly, to use Google, Facebook, or basically any other type of cloud-based service, you obtain an account for that service.
This chapter includes sections explaining how to configure several different online accounts you might want to use. Of course, you need to refer only to the sections related to the accounts you actually use. And, after you’ve configured a couple of these types of accounts, adding more is simple because you configure them similarly.
This chapter also explains how to configure how and when your cloud-based information is updated. This is important because having the most current information on your phone at all times can be helpful, but it also causes your iPhone to use more power because it constantly sends and receives information, so you might need to charge it more frequently.
Here are some of the key terms for this chapter:
Apple ID—An Apple ID enables you to access many Apple services, especially iCloud, and make purchases from the App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple’s online store. An Apple ID also enables you to use iMessage to send and receive messages using Apple’s iMessage service. Think of an Apple ID as the “connector” between all your devices; you can start tasks on one device, such as writing an email on your iPhone, and finish them on another, for example, an iPad. Similarly, if you subscribe to Apple’s Music Library, your Apple ID provides access to that music on each of your devices (iPhones, iPads, or computers).
iCloud—This is Apple’s online service that offers lots of great features that you can use for free; if you store a lot of information (especially photos and video) online, you might need to add storage to your account for an additional fee. iCloud includes email, online photo storage and sharing, backup, calendars, Find My iPhone, and much more. If you need additional storage, you can add it to your account for an additional fee.
Google account—A Google account is similar to an iCloud account except it’s provided by Google instead of Apple. It also offers lots of features, including email, calendars, and contacts. You can use iCloud and a Google account on your iPhone at the same time.
Social media—This term refers to various services that provide “social” connections between people or organizations. Popular examples include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can configure these accounts on your iPhone, and then use the associated app, such as the Facebook app, to access the service.
Push, Fetch, or Manual—Information has to get from your online account onto your iPhone. For example, when someone sends an email to you, it goes to an email server, which then sends the message to devices that are configured with your email account. You can choose how and when new data is provided to your phone. The three ways data gets moved onto your iPhone (Push, Fetch, Manual) are explained in “Setting How and When Your Accounts Are Updated” later in this chapter.
Configuring an Apple ID
An Apple ID is required to access Apple’s online services, including iCloud, the App Store, iTunes, and Apple’s online store. You can access all these services with one Apple ID.
An Apple ID has two elements. One is the email address associated with your account; this can be one provided by Apple, or you can choose to use an address from a different service (such as Google Gmail). The other element is a password.
In addition to your email address and password, your contact information (a physical address and phone number) and payment information (if you make purchases through your account, which might be for apps or storage upgrades) is also part of your Apple ID.
If you have used Apple technology or services before, you probably already have an Apple ID. If you don’t already have one, obtaining an Apple ID is simple and free.
If you have any of the following accounts, you already have an Apple ID:
iTunes Store—If you’ve ever shopped at the iTunes Store, you created an Apple ID.
Apple Online Store—As with the iTunes Store, if you made purchases from Apple’s online store, you created an account with an Apple ID.
Find My iPhone—If you obtained a free Find My iPhone account, you created an Apple ID.
Another way you might have already obtained an Apple ID is during the initial iPhone startup process when you were prompted to sign in to or create an Apple ID.
If you don’t have an Apple ID, read the next section to obtain one. If you already have an Apple ID, move to “Signing In to Your Apple ID” to learn how to sign in to it on your iPhone. If you both have an Apple ID and have already signed in to it on your iPhone, skip to the section “Configuring and Using iCloud” to learn how to configure iCloud on your iPhone.
Obtaining an Apple ID
If you don’t have an Apple ID, you can use your iPhone to create one by performing the following steps:
On the Home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Sign in to your iPhone.
Tap Don’t have an Apple ID or forgot it?.
Tap Create Apple ID.
Enter the information required on the following screens; after you’ve completed all the required information on a screen, tap Next. (If Next is gray, that means you haven’t provided all the required information on that screen. After you have provided all the needed information, Next turns blue.) The first step is to provide your name and birthday. You are guided through each step in the process.
During the process, you’re prompted to use an existing email address or to create a free iCloud email account. You can choose either option. The email address you use becomes your Apple ID that you use to sign in to iCloud. If you create a new iCloud email account, you can use that account from any email app on any device, just like other email accounts you have.
You also create a password, enter a phone number and verification method, verify the phone number you entered, and agree to license terms. When your account has been created, you sign in to iCloud, which you do by entering your iPhone’s passcode.
You might then be prompted to merge information already stored on your iPhone, such as Safari bookmarks, onto iCloud. Tap Merge to copy the information that currently is stored on your iPhone to the cloud or Don’t Merge to keep it out of the cloud.
When you’ve worked through merging your information, you’re prompted to sign in to the iTunes and App Stores to make sure your new account can work with those services, too. You can choose to review your account information now or skip it and configure it at another time.
When the process is complete, you’re signed in to your new Apple ID; skip ahead to “Configuring and Using iCloud” to learn how to change its settings.
Signing In to Your Apple ID
You can sign in to an existing Apple ID on your iPhone by doing the following:
On the Home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Sign in to your iPhone.
Enter your Apple ID (email address).
Tap Next.
Enter your password.
Tap Next. If you are using the same Apple ID on another device, you’re prompted to enter the verification code sent to those devices. See the sidebar “Two-Factor Authentication” for more information.
Enter your verification code; if you weren’t prompted to enter a code, skip this step.
Enter your iPhone’s passcode. You might be prompted to merge existing information on the iPhone with your iCloud storage.
Tap Merge to copy information from your iPhone onto the cloud or Don’t Merge if you don’t want that information copied to the cloud. You might be prompted to perform this merge step more than once depending on the kind of information already stored on your iPhone. If you don’t have any information that can be merged, you skip this step entirely.
When you’ve finished these steps, you are signed in to your Apple ID and can configure it further using the information in the next section.
Two-Factor Authentication
For added security, Apple uses two-factor authentication for its services. This requires that you have two pieces of information to be able to access your Apple accounts. One is your Apple ID login information (email and password). The other is a verification code that is sent to other devices on which the Apple ID is already configured (called trusted devices). This makes using Apple services more secure because even if someone was able to get your Apple ID and password (which is unlikely), he would still need the verification code to be able to sign in to your account (meaning he would also have to be able to access another device on which your Apple ID is already configured, which is very, very unlikely). In general, you should use two-factor authentication when it’s available (it requires that you have at least two devices that can use your Apple ID, for example, an iPhone and a Mac).
You can configure two-factor authentication for your Apple ID in the Password & Security settings on the iCloud Settings screen. There, you can enable or disable two-factor authentication, change your password, edit trusted phone numbers, or get a verification code.
Confirmations Galore
Many changes you make to your Apple ID, such as adding a new email address or changing security settings, result in you receiving confirmation emails and notifications from Apple on all of the devices tied to your account. These are helpful because they confirm the actions you’re taking. If you ever receive such a notification when you haven’t changed your account, carefully review it. In many cases, especially email notifications, these unexpected notifications are attempts to get your information for nefarious purposes. Don’t respond to emails you don’t expect even if they appear to be from Apple (if you make a change and then receive an email, that is expected). Instead, log in directly to your account on your iPhone or other device (such as a computer to log into the iCloud website) to make sure it hasn’t been changed by someone else.
Signing Off
If you don’t want to continue accessing your Apple ID on your iPhone or you want to sign into a different Apple ID, tap Sign Out at the bottom of the Apple ID screen. If Find My iPhone is enabled, you need to enter your password and tap Turn Off to continue the process. You might be prompted to keep some information on your iPhone; if you choose to keep that information, it remains on your iPhone but is no longer synchronized to the information stored on the cloud. After you have completed the process, you can sign in to the same or a different Apple ID using the information in “Signing In to Your Apple ID” earlier in this chapter.
Configuring and Using iCloud
iCloud provides you with storage space on the Internet. You can store content from your iPhone, computer, or other devices here, and because it is on the Internet, all your devices are able to access that information at the same time. This means you can easily share your information on your iPhone, a computer, and iPad, so that the same information and content is available to you no matter which device you are using at any one time.
Although your iPhone can work with many types of online/Internet accounts, iCloud is integrated into the iPhone like no other (not surprising because the iPhone and iCloud are both Apple technology).
There are many types of content you can store in and access from your iCloud account, including the following:
Photos—Storing your photos in iCloud protects them and makes them easy to share.
Email—An iCloud account includes an @icloud.com email address (unless you choose to use an existing account instead). You can configure any device to use your iCloud email account, including an iPhone, an iPad, or a computer.
Contacts—You can store your contact information in iCloud.
Calendars—Putting your calendars in iCloud makes it much easier to manage your time.
Reminders—Through iCloud, you can be reminded of things you need to do or anything else you want to make sure you don’t forget.
Notes—With the Notes app, you can create text notes, draw sketches, and capture photos for many purposes; iCloud enables you to use these notes on any iCloud-enabled device.
Messages—This puts all of your messages in the Messages app on the cloud so you can access them from all your devices.
Safari—iCloud can store your bookmarks, letting you easily access the same websites from all your devices.
News—iCloud can store information from the News app online, making reading news on multiple devices easier.
Stocks—If you use the Stocks app to track investments, iCloud ensures you have the same investments in the Stocks app on all your devices.
Home—If you use your iPhone for home automation, using iCloud ensures you have the same automation controls on all your devices.
Health—This allows the information stored using the Health app to be available to multiple devices. For example, you might track information on your Apple Watch and want to be able to analyze it on your iPhone.
Wallet—The Wallet app stores coupons, tickets, boarding passes, and other documents so you can access them quickly and easily. With iCloud, you can ensure that these items are available on any iCloud-enabled device.
Game Center—This capability stores information from the Game Center app on the cloud.
Siri—It can be helpful to manage Siri information on multiple devices; this setting puts that information on the cloud.
Keychain—The Keychain securely stores sensitive data, such as passwords, so that you can easily use that data without having to remember it.
Find My iPhone—This service enables you to locate and secure your iPhone and other devices.
iCloud Backup—You can (and should) back up your iPhone to the cloud so that you can recover your data and your phone’s configuration should something ever happen to the iPhone itself (if you lost it, for example).
iCloud Drive—iCloud enables you to store your documents and other files on the cloud so that you can seamlessly work with them using different devices.
App Data—When iCloud Drive is enabled, you can allow or prevent individual apps from storing data there. For example, if you use the Books app on an iPhone and an iPad, you can store Books information on the cloud so that you always pick up reading where you left off when you change devices.
Configuring iCloud to Store Photos
Storing your photos on the cloud provides many benefits, not the least of which is that the photos you take with your iPhone are automatically saved on the cloud so that you can access them from computers and other devices, and your photos remain available even if something happens to your iPhone, such as if you drop it in water and it stops working. To configure your photos to be stored in iCloud, do the following:
In the Settings app, open the Apple ID screen.
Tap iCloud.
On the iCloud screen, tap Photos.
To store your entire photo library on the cloud, set the iCloud Photos switch to on (green). This stores all of your photos and video in iCloud, which both protects them by backing them up and makes them accessible on other iOS/iPadOS devices (iPhones or iPads) and computers, (including Macs, Windows PCs, and via the Web).
If you enable the iCloud Photos feature, tap Optimize iPhone Storage to keep lower-resolution versions of photos and videos on your iPhone (this means the file sizes are smaller so that you can store more of them on your phone), or tap Download and Keep Originals if you want to keep the full-resolution photos on your iPhone. In most cases, you should choose the Optimize option so that you don’t use as much of your iPhone’s storage space for photos. (You can still access the full-resolution versions on the cloud, for example, to download them to a computer.)
Ensure the Upload to My Photo Stream switch is on (green) (if you aren’t using iCloud Photos, this switch is called My Photo Stream); if you’re not enabling this, skip to step 8. Any photos you take with the iPhone’s camera are copied onto iCloud, and from there they’re copied to your other devices on which the Photo Stream is enabled. Note that Photo Stream affects only photos that you take with the iPhone from the time you enable it, whereas the iCloud Photos feature uploads all of your photos—those you took in the past and will take in the future.
If you want all of your burst photos (photos taken in sequence, such as for action shots) to be uploaded to iCloud, set the Upload Burst Photos switch to on (green). In most cases, you should leave this off (white) because you typically don’t want to keep all the photos in a burst. When you review and select photos to keep, the ones you keep are uploaded automatically.
To be able to share your photos and to access photos other people share with you, set the Shared Albums switch to on (green).
Enabling iCloud to Store Information on the Cloud
As you learned earlier, one of the best things about iCloud is that it stores email, contacts, calendars, reminders, bookmarks, notes, and other data on the cloud so that all your iCloud-enabled devices can access the same information. You can choose the types of data stored on the cloud by performing the following steps:
In the Settings app, move to the iCloud screen. Just below the Photos section are the iCloud data options. A few of these have a right-facing arrow that you tap to configure options, whereas most have a two-position switch.
The types of data that have switches are Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes, Messages, Safari, News, Stocks, Home, Health, Wallet, Game Center, and Siri. When a switch is green, it means that switch is turned on and the related data is stored to your iCloud account and kept in sync with the information on the iPhone.
To store data on the cloud, set an app’s switch to on (green). You might be prompted to merge that information with that already stored on the cloud. For example, if you have contacts information on your iPhone already and want to merge that with the contacts already on the cloud, tap Merge. If you don’t want the contacts currently stored on your iPhone copied to the cloud, tap Don’t Merge instead.
If you don’t want a specific type of data to be stored on the cloud and synced to your iPhone, tap its switch to turn that data off (the switch becomes white instead of green). That data is no longer stored on the cloud.
Swipe up the screen until you see the additional list of apps below the iCloud Drive switch.
Enable or disable the apps to use iCloud to store documents and data. Just like the other options, when you enable an app, its data and documents are stored on the cloud and can be shared with other devices. If you don’t allow this, the data is stored only on your iPhone.
To Keep or Not to Keep?
When you turn off a switch because you don’t want that information stored on the cloud any more, you might be prompted to keep the associated information on your iPhone or delete it.
If you choose Keep on My iPhone, the information remains on your iPhone but is no longer connected to the cloud; this means any changes you make exist only on the iPhone. If you choose Delete from My iPhone, the information is erased from your iPhone. Whether you choose to keep or delete the information, any information of that type that was previously stored on the cloud remains available there; the delete action affects only the information stored on the iPhone.
Configuring Your iCloud Backup
As with other digital devices, it’s important to back up your iPhone’s data so that you can recover it should something bad happen to your iPhone. You can back up your iPhone’s data and settings to iCloud, which is really useful because that means you can recover the backed-up data using a different device, such as a replacement iPhone. Configure your iCloud backup with the following steps:
On the iCloud settings screen, tap iCloud Backup.
Set the iCloud Backup switch to on (green). Your iPhone’s data and settings are backed up to the cloud automatically.
Back Me Up on This
You can manually back up your iPhone’s data and settings at any time by tapping Back Up Now on the Backup screen. This can be useful to ensure recent data or settings changes are captured in your backup. For example, if you know you’re going to be without a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet for a while, back up your phone to ensure that your current data is saved in the backup.
Managing Your iCloud Storage
Your iCloud account includes storage space that you can use for your data such as photos, documents, and so on. By default, your account includes 5 GB of free storage space. For many people, that’s enough, but if you take a lot of photos and video and use iCloud Photos, you might find that you need more space. It’s easy (and relatively inexpensive) to upgrade the amount of room you have on your iCloud Drive. You can use the STORAGE section on the iCloud settings screen to manage your storage space as follows:
Move to the STORAGE section located at the top of the iCloud settings screen. Here you see a gauge that displays the amount of space you have and how that space is currently being used. The gray portion of the bar indicates how much free space you have; if this portion of the bar is very small, you might want to consider upgrading your storage space. The colored bars show the data being used by various types of data or apps, for example, Photos.
Tap Manage Storage. At the top of the resulting iCloud Storage screen, you see the same storage information as on the prior screen. Under that, you see the tools you can use to manage your storage.
To change the amount of storage space available to you, tap Change Storage Plan and follow the onscreen prompts to upgrade (or downgrade) your storage.
Swipe up the screen to review all the apps that are currently using iCloud storage space and to see how much space they’re using.
Tap an app to get details about how it’s using iCloud space.
If the app works with documents, you see the list of documents and how much space each is using (if it doesn’t use documents, you only see a total).
Delete or Disable?
When you delete documents or data from your iCloud storage, that content is removed from the cloud. This also means it’s removed from every device using that data on the cloud. If you want the app to stop storing data on the cloud, but keep the data on the devices currently using it, prevent it from using iCloud storage as described previously in “Enabling iCloud to Store Information on the Cloud” instead.
To remove documents and data from iCloud, tap Delete Documents & Data, Disable & Delete, or Delete Data. After you confirm the deletion, the app’s data is deleted from your iCloud storage. (Of course, make sure you have this information stored in another location if you are going to need it again.)
Setting Up Other Types of Online Accounts on Your iPhone
Many types of online accounts provide different services, including email, calendars, contacts, or social networking. To use these accounts, you need to configure them on your iPhone. The process you use for most types of accounts is similar to the steps you used to set up your iCloud account. In this section, you learn how to configure a Google account and an account that you might have through your Internet provider, such as a cable company.
Configuring a Google Account
A Google account provides syncing for email, contacts, calendar, and notes that’s similar to iCloud. To set up a Google account on your iPhone, do the following:
On the Home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Passwords & Accounts.
Tap Add Account.
Tap Google.
Tap Continue.
Enter your Google email address.
Got Google?
This section assumes you already have a Google account. If not, you can tap Create account on the Google Sign in screen (shown for step 6) to create an account and sign into it at the same time.
Tap Next.
Enter your Google account password.
Tap Next.
Enable the features of the account you want to access on the iPhone—which are Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Notes—by setting the switch to on (green) for the types of data you do want to use or to off (white) for the types of data you don’t want to use. Just like iCloud, when you enable a type of data to be stored on the cloud, it’s available to your iPhone and to any device signed into your Google account.
Tap Save. The account is saved, and the data you enabled becomes available on your iPhone.
Google Password
You can’t change the password for a Google account in the Settings app on your iPhone. You have to change the password elsewhere; the most common way to do this is by accessing your Google account via the Google website. After you’ve changed your Google password, you’re prompted to enter the new password the next time your iPhone attempts to access your account.
Setting Up an Online Account that Isn’t Built In
You can access many types of online accounts on your iPhone. These include accounts that are “built in,” which include AOL, Exchange, Google, iCloud, Outlook.com, and Yahoo! Setting up an AOL, Exchange, Outlook.com, or Yahoo! account is similar to configuring a Google or iCloud account on your iPhone. Just select the account type you want to use and provide the information for which you are prompted.
There are other types of accounts you might want to use that aren’t “built in.” An email account included with an Internet access account, such as one from a cable Internet provider, is one example. Support for these accounts isn’t built in to the iOS; however, you can usually set up such accounts on your iPhone fairly easily.
When you obtain an account, for example, email accounts that are part of your Internet service, you should receive all the information you need to configure those accounts on your iPhone. If you don’t have this information, visit the provider’s website and look for information on configuring the account in an email application. You need to have this information to configure the account on the iPhone.
With the configuration information for the account you want to use on your iPhone in hand, you’re ready to set it up:
On the Home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Passwords & Accounts.
Tap Add Account.
Tap Other.
Tap the type of account you want to add. For example, to set up an email account, tap Add Mail Account.
Enter the information by filling in the fields you see; various types of information are required for different kinds of accounts. You just need to enter the information you received from the account’s provider.
Tap Next. If the iPhone can set up the account automatically, its information is verified, and it’s ready for you to use. (If the account supports multiple types of information, you can enable or disable the types with which you want to work on your iPhone.) If the iPhone can’t set up the account automatically, you’re prompted to enter additional information to complete the account configuration. When you’re done, the account appears on the list of accounts and is ready for you to use.
Configure the switches for the data sync options you see. For example, to use the account for email, set the Mail switch to on (green).
Tap Save. The account you configured is available in the related app; if you set up an email account, you access it with the Mail app.
Multiple Accounts
There is no limit (that I have found so far) on the number of online accounts (even of the same type, such as Gmail or email accounts from an Internet provider) that you can access on your iPhone. (You can only have one iCloud account configured on your iPhone at the same time.)
Configuring Social Media Accounts on Your iPhone
Social media apps are useful for doing things such as keeping in touch with others, sharing your opinions and reading the opinions of others, and exchanging photos. Examples of these types of social media include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Your iPhone is ideally suited to these because you can easily download and configure these apps to work on your phone.
Unlike Google, iCloud, and other accounts that are configured through the Settings app, you configure your social media accounts directly in their apps.
To use a social media app, you perform the following three steps:
Download and install the app you want to use.
Configure the app to access your social media account.
Configure other settings for the social media app.
The details of downloading and installing apps (step 1) are provided in Chapter 5, “Customizing Your iPhone with Apps.” Examples of steps 2 and 3 follow.
Facebook is one of the most popular social media channels you can use to keep informed about other people and inform them about you. Use these steps to download and configure Facebook on your iPhone:
Use the App Store app to download and install the Facebook app on your iPhone (see Chapter 5 for the details of working with the App Store app).
Tap the Facebook icon on a Home screen to open the app.
Already Signed In?
If you’ve previously signed into Facebook on the phone, you see that account on the opening screen. Tap the account shown. You’re prompted to enter your password; when you do, you sign in and can jump to step 10.
Don’t Have a Facebook Account?
If you don’t already have a Facebook account, you can create one by tapping Create New Account on the opening screen in the app or on the Log In screen. Follow the onscreen instructions to create a new Facebook account and log into it.
Tap in the Email or phone number field.
Enter the email address, phone number, or Facebook account name associated with your account.
Enter your password. (If you don’t know your password, tap Forgot Password? and follow the onscreen instructions to reset it.)
Tap Log In. The first time you sign into the account on your iPhone, you’re prompted to configure several settings associated with how the app works. After the first time, you don’t have to do steps 7 through 11.
If you want to receive notifications from Facebook, such as when someone posts on your Timeline, tap Allow; if you don’t want these notifications, tap Don’t Allow.
To use your photo to sign in instead of typing your account name, tap OK.
If you want your account’s password saved so you don’t need to enter it when you log into your account, tap Save Password; if you prefer to have to enter your password, tap Not Now.
To Save or Not to Save?
Saving your password is convenient because you don’t have to enter it each time you sign into Facebook. It also means that anyone who can access the Facebook app on your phone is able to sign into your account. If you have your phone protected with a passcode (which you should), it’s probably fine to save your password. If you don’t use a passcode or you let other people use your iPhone, you might want to choose Not Now and enter your password each time.
If you want the app to be able to access your iPhone’s location, tap OK. This enables it to use features that change the information you see based on where you’re using your iPhone. If you tap Not Now, Facebook can’t use your location information.
Location, Location, Location
Allowing Facebook to access your location means the app can tailor your experience based on where you are, such as identifying events close to you. If you are okay allowing Facebook to use your location, I recommend you choose Allow While Using App so that your location information is available to the app only when you’re actively using it. If you’re concerned about making your location available to Facebook, tap Don’t Allow. The app still works fine, but it can’t provide any information to you based on your location.
If you tapped OK in step 10, tap Allow While Using App to limit Facebook to using your location only while you’re using the app, Allow Once to enable the app to use your location only one time, or Don’t Allow to prevent it from using your location.
Use the Facebook app to post comments, add photos, and so on.
Facebook Settings
Like most of the apps that you install on your iPhone, the Facebook app has settings you can use to change how it works. To configure these settings, open the Settings app and tap Facebook. For example, you can prevent Facebook from updating its information when you’re connected to the Internet with a cellular connection by setting the Cellular Data switch to off (white). You might want to do this if you have a limited data plan so that the Facebook app only transmits or receives information when your iPhone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Setting How and When Your Accounts Are Updated
The great thing about online accounts is that their information can be updated any time your iPhone can connect to the Internet. This means you have access to the latest information, such as new emails, changes to your calendars, and so on. There are three basic ways information gets updated:
Push—When information is updated via Push, the server pushes (thus the name) updated information onto your iPhone whenever that information changes. For example, when you receive a new email, that email is immediately sent (or pushed) to your iPhone. Push provides you with the most current information but uses more battery than Fetch or Manual do.
Fetch—When information is updated via Fetch, your iPhone connects to the account and retrieves the updated information according to a schedule, for example, every 15 minutes. Fetch doesn’t keep your information quite as current as Push does, but it uses much less battery than Push does.
Manual—You can cause an app’s information to be updated manually. This happens whenever you open or move into an app or by a manual refresh. For example, you can get new email by moving onto the Inboxes screen in the Mail app and swiping down from the top of the screen. With this method, you have to take action to get updated information, but it uses the least amount of power (assuming you aren’t constantly manually updating the information, of course).
You can configure the update method that is used globally, and you can set the method for specific accounts. Some account types, such as iCloud, support all three options, whereas others might support only Fetch and Manual. The global option for updating is used unless you override it for individual accounts. For example, you might want your personal email account to be updated via Push so your information there is always current, whereas configuring Fetch for email associated with a club of which you’re a member might be frequent enough.
Configuring How New Data Is Retrieved for Your Accounts
To configure how your information is updated, perform the following steps:
Move to the Passwords & Accounts screen of the Settings app.
Tap Fetch New Data.
To enable data to be pushed to your iPhone, slide the Push switch to on (green). To disable push to extend battery life, set it to off (white). This setting is global, meaning that if you disable Push here, it’s disabled for all accounts even though you can still configure Push to be used for individual accounts. For example, if your iCloud account is set to use Push but Push is globally disabled, the iCloud account’s setting is ignored.
To change how an account’s information is updated, tap it. The account’s screen displays. The options on this screen depend on the kind of account it is. You always have Fetch and Manual; Push is displayed only for accounts that support it.
Tap the option you want to use for the account: Push, Fetch, or Manual.
If you choose Manual, information is retrieved only when you manually start the process by opening the related app (such as Mail to get your email) or by using the refresh gesture, regardless of the global setting.
If you choose Fetch, information is updated according to the schedule you set in step 9.
If you choose the Push option in step 5 and are working with an email account, choose the mailboxes whose information you want to be pushed by tapping them so they have a check mark; to prevent a mailbox’s information from being pushed, tap it so that it doesn’t have a check mark. (The Inbox is selected by default and can’t be unselected.)
Tap Fetch New Data (<).
Repeat steps 5 through 7 until you have set the update option for each account. (The current option is shown to the right of the account’s name.)
Tap the amount of time when you want the iPhone to fetch data when Push is turned off globally or for those accounts for which you have selected Fetch or that don’t support Push; tap Manually if you want to manually check for information for Fetch accounts or when Push is off. Information for your accounts is updated according to your settings.
