Illustration: Angelica Alzona
As my family’s in-house tech support center, I know that it’s easy for certain family members to get overwhelmed when their electronics aren’t doing what they want them to do. Now sometimes, their iCloud is a total mess and won’t sync and no one can figure out why, or the computer is serving up weird errors with no clear explanation. Those are legit problems, deserving of custom solutions.
This article isn’t about dealing with any of that. Sometimes a problem only looks complex to someone who isn’t familiar with their device’s every function, and solving it is actually very simple. Fixing these issues can be very rewarding, with the caveat that after you’ve done it a few times, you can expect everyone to come to you for help in the future. Every. time.
The advice presented here is not gospel; you might find my solution doesn’t fix your dad’s (or whoever’s) particular problem—many tech issues have multiple potential causes, and perhaps the one I’m delving into isn’t theirs. All I can offer is my experience, and, in my experience, these common problems often have a straightforward solution. So instead of ignoring that frantic call, solve that problem. Your dad (or whoever) will love you for it.
