How to

How to set up carrier billing as payment method for App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

In October 2015, Apple began rolling out support for carrier billing on iTunes in select markets, starting with Germany. This feature joins the existing payment methods accepted on the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store and permits customers to have apps and media bought through these content stores charged to their monthly mobile phone bill or deducted from their prepaid amount.

If your carrier supports it, you too can opt-in to pay for your iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store purchases—and your Apple Music membership—through mobile phone billing.

In this tutorial, we're going to cover setting up mobile phone billing as your payment method in the iTunes Store, App Store or iBooks Store.

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How to only transfer Activity and Health app data to a new iPhone

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Transitioning to a new iPhone is made simple by iCloud backups, iTunes, and a few clicks or taps. Apple ensures it is easy to move from a fully loaded and setup device to a completely fresh iPhone with the same information, using their backup options. Most laypeople, almost always choose to restore new iPhones from their backups; however, more technically inclined concerned people tend to start with a fresh iPhone and do not restore from backup to prevent carrying over any unwanted information.

Earlier this week Christian highlighted two methods for upgrading to a new device and retaining your Activity and Health data. Method #1: use a third-party app to import your Health data, but it lacks Activity logs. Method #2: backing up your old device to iCloud or iTunes and restoring from backup, as I've described above.

But, what if you want both your Activity and Health data, but a fresh setup too? Step inside to learn how to install both, yet only, your previous device's Activity and Health data on your new iPhone. 

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How to disable Apple Music Connect

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 1, 2017

If you choose to hide Apple Music on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, the Music app gains a new Connect tab.

Described by Apple as a place where “musicians give their fans a closer look at their work, their inspirations, and their world,”Apple Music Connect permits music lovers to view and follow an artist's stream, like and comment on their posts and more.

Apple Music Connect is basically Ping 2.0. The feature is a tad crude in appearance and feels rough around the edges so little wonder that some folks don't view Connect as valuable enough for it to deserve its own tab.

Wouldn't it be great if you could get rid of the Connect tab? Thankfully, there is.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that the Connect feature couldn't be disabled: Apple has made sure to burry and hide it in an obscure place. In this post, I'm going to explain precisely how you can disconnect from Connect in Apple Music on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Mac.

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How to jailbreak iOS 8.3 or iOS 8.4 on Mac using a virtual machine

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Although the iOS 8.3/iOS 8.4 jailbreak was a surprise, it was no surprise that the release was limited to Windows only. While this can make some Mac users feel bitter, it's actually not a very big deal at all.

Thanks to the awesome virtual machine software that we have on the Mac, it's super-easy to jailbreak an iPhone on our Macs, even if said jailbreak is Windows only.

In this complete tutorial, I'll walk you through the entire process of setting up the virtual machine, installing a valid version of iTunes, and jailbreaking your iPhone.

The most impressive thing about this tutorial is that it can all be done in less than 18 minutes (not including the necessary file downloads), and it's 100% free to do.

If you're a Mac-only user, there really is no excuse for you not to be jailbroken if you want to be. This method is tried and true, super-reliable, and it just works. In fact, by sticking to this method and following my video, you'll likely be able to avoid many of the pitfalls plaguing those who are experiencing issues with the TaiG tool.

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How to fix the TaiG 20% timeout for the iOS 8.3 jailbreak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 23, 2015

Thankfully, the 20% error that was causing us problems earlier today has been solved. If you received this error, you need to downgrade your version of iTunes.

I decided to downgrade to iTunes 12.1.0 as suggested by several of my Twitter followers, and just like that, it worked. If you're having problems with TaiG 2.0.0 hanging at 20% completion for the iOS 8.3 jailbreak, then try downgrading your version of iTunes.

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How to transfer your music to a new computer using iTunes Match

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated September 1, 2015

iTunes Match is a paid service from Apple that allows you to store all your music in iCloud, regardless of where it originated from. For example, it could be music imported from CDs, downloaded from online music stores, or even music that was downloaded in ways that go against copyright laws. In short, iTunes Match matches or uploads all your music to iCloud so you can stream or download it from any of your Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and Apple TV.

With that said, iTunes Match offers an easy way to move your iTunes library to a new computer without having to deal with transferring files from one hard drive to the other. In this post, I will show you how to transfer your iTunes library to a new computer using iTunes Match.

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How to transfer your iTunes library to a new computer

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 12, 2017

The best thing about getting a new computer is that, well, you're getting a brand new computer. It's exciting to have a shiny new toy to play with, making you wonder how you could have been using that old machine for so long.

To me though, the major downside of getting a new computer is that you have to set it all up from scratch. I'm not going to lie; some of that is part of the fun, but it can also be stressful and time consuming. Take migrating your iTunes library to your new computer for example. There is nothing really fun in that, and if you have a large library, it could take hours.

In this post, I will show you how to move your iTunes library to a new computer. Unfortunately I won't be able to save you time or stress, but at least, you'll have simple instructions on how to do transfer all your iTunes songs, albums, album covers, and playlists to a brand new computer.

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How to unlock the Apple Watch Activity app on iOS 8.2, no jailbreak required

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

A few days ago, we showed you a detailed walkthrough video of iOS 8.2's Activity App. Today, we'll show you how you can go hands-on with this brand new app.

In the tutorial that follows, we'll walk you through each step needed to get the iOS 8.2 Apple Watch Activity app running on your iPhone today, even though the Apple Watch is still weeks from releasing. No jailbreak required.

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How to setup a new iPhone from an iTunes backup

IDB Staff ∙ Updated April 14, 2017

We previously wrote a guide on how to setup a new iPhone from an iCloud backup, but that is limited by the fact that Apple only gives you 5 GB of free storage. If you have more than 5 GB of music, apps and other data, and you do not wish to pay for additional iCloud storage, you will have to resort to an iTunes backup. Read ahead for step-by-step instructions on how to setup a new iPhone from an iTunes backup.

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How to create an Apple ID without a credit card

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 8, 2023

Having an Apple ID is a prerequisite to do just about anything related to Apple services. If you want to buy music on iTunes, download apps in the App Store, or use iCloud, you must have an Apple ID.

A few years ago, linking a credit card to an Apple account was mandatory. But Apple has changed its stance and has been letting users create an Apple ID without a credit card for a while now.

Whatever your reason might be to do so, we are going to show you how to create an Apple ID without a credit card...

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How to delete old iPhone backups

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated December 24, 2018

Manually backing up your iPhone or iPad, or taking advantage of iCloud automatic backups, is the best way to guarantee that you will be able to get all your data back in the event something goes wrong.

Whether you choose to backup via iTunes or iCloud, you might want to delete this backup at some point. Maybe the backup file got corrupted, or maybe you're running out of storage space on your Mac or in iCloud. Or maybe you have an entirely different reason to delete your iPhone or iPad backup file.

Whatever the reason is, we've got you covered. In this post, we will learn how to delete an iPhone backup from a Mac and we'll also see how to delete a backup file from iCloud.

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