It’s that (shall I say wonderful?) time of the year when our screen-obsessed children have to put their devices down and dig into their “old school” books. School starting is a great time to do a quick check on your kid’s devices.
We’ve put together 5 back-to-school things you can check to make sure things are running smoothly and that your kids are ready to face the new year.
1. Make Sure Backups Are On and Working
A phone is going to break or get lost. Some issue is going to come up and you want to make sure there is a backup to fall back on. Apple makes it easy to do.
Settings > iCloud > Backup
- Make sure iCloud Backup is on
- Check when the last backup was (only happens when on Wi-Fi)
- This is a good time to also check that there is enough iCloud space. If need be, upgrade the size of the backup or have your child delete some of their pictures/videos to free up some space.
With this in place, you can go grab a new device, restore it from the backup and be off and running in no time.
2. Calendars in Sync?
One of the greatest gifts iCloud gave us shared calendars. Now every person in your family can have individual calendars represented in their own beautiful color. So in one view you can get the whole picture of what’s happening with your crew. Just make sure things are working as you want.
Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > iCloud
- Make sure Calendars is turned on
Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Calendars section
- Make sure the “Default Calendar” is the right one from their iCloud account. This will be the calendar that all new events are added to.
Home > Calendar > Click the “Calendars” link at the bottom and make sure all the calendars you want them to have are present and in the color they want. You can also click the red “i” next to any calendar to delete unwanted ones.
3. Restrictions in Place and Set Correctly?
You can limit things like access to certain apps, in-app purchases, installing/deleting apps, as well as set the level of content allowed (G/PG/PG-13, etc.) It’s a little thing, but it allows you that one extra layer of peace knowing your child won’t have stumbled onto something they didn’t mean to.Settings > General > Restrictions
- You can get fairly granular with these settings
4. Do you Recognize all the Apps?
We will be highlighting a few apps in coming weeks that you should be on the look out for, but in the mean time, take this time to do a bit of an inventory on which apps are being used. It helps battery life, storage size, data usage, etc. Much like cleaning out your garage, if they haven’t used it in the past 6 months, delete it! It will always be available from the cloud to re-install if they like.
5. Family iCloud All Set Up?
One of the greatest gems created by Apple is Family iCloud. It allows you to share purchases (Apps, Music, Movies, iBooks) as well as Calendar and Location.
Settings > iCloud > Family
- Make sure all your family members have been invited/accepted.
- You can then make sure that all applicable devices are found under the Find iPhone app on your phone. This app is a MAJOR life-savor.
I hope this school year is the best yet for you and your family!
