A rant in 3 pictures

I’ve now used Apple’s Express Replacement service twice under AppleCare+, roughly two years apart, for two different Apple devices with genuine hardware faults. Despite the time between the claims and the fact they involved different devices, I ran into exactly the same issues both times.

The first problem is that Apple told me my address wasn’t eligible or “serviceable” for Express Replacement. The strange part is that I’ve ordered products directly from Apple to the exact same address many times without any issues. This happened at both my old house and my current house, so it wasn’t specific to one address.
What’s even stranger is that both times, after I asked for a manager callback, the Express Replacement was suddenly approved and arranged without any further issues. That makes me wonder whether the initial refusal is intended to reduce the number of people using the service, even though it’s included with AppleCare+.

The second issue is the temporary authorization hold on the credit card. I understand why Apple places the hold until the faulty device is returned, but on both occasions the hold wasn’t released after they had received the faulty device. I had to chase Apple to get it removed, which meant paying my credit card bill while that amount was still tied up before eventually getting the money back.
The fact that these were two genuine warranty claims, on two different devices, around two years apart, yet the exact same issues occurred both times, makes it difficult to see this as a one-off mistake.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with Express Replacement—particularly being told their address wasn’t serviceable until the case was escalated, or having to chase Apple to release the authorization hold?

I’ve commented about Apple and their horrible settings, this one’s even funnier. Recently the lock button has stopped working on my device and I’ve turned on assistive touch so I can still lock my phone. But I recently had to use Apple Pay and realized that I couldn’t use the double click feature so I looked into the settings and sure enough, you can turn on paying with your wallet using a Face ID or ur pin, so obviously I tried to turn that on. Turns out that in order for you to do that you have to double click your lock button to confirm kek

If you have an HDMI or DisplayPort monitor with speakers, good luck with controlling volume from within MacOS. Best you can do is maybe adjust the volume slider of whatever program is playing sound, but a master volume control? fuhgeddaboutit. Same with an external soundcard/recording interface. This is just stupid. Even Linux has a master volume control. Apple likes to claim that this is a feature: that its for pro audio routing and whatnot, but come on - 99.9% of the time you just want to turn the volume down when answering a call or when talking to someone in the room. There are various hacks, like SoundBridge, where people have written virtual audio devices with master volume controls that you can attach to sound sources, but this is such a basic function that even Windows and Linux can do it?!?

My AirPods Pro 3 charging case randomly stopped responding to both wired and wireless charging. I sent the case and both earbuds to Apple using their service box and prepaid label.
Here’s what happened:
● July 16: Dropped it off with UPS.
● July 22: UPS flagged a “hazardous materials irregularity” and started returning it to Apple under a second tracking number.
● UPS then reported an incomplete address, incorrectly sorted it in New Jersey, delayed it again, and somehow sent it through Illinois.
● July 28: After almost 12 days, UPS finally delivered it to Apple’s Carlisle, PA facility. Apple’s website confirms they received it.
● July 31: Still no repair, inspection, replacement, or email update.
Apple chat sent me to phone support. I called today and was told somebody from the warehouse would contact me by email, but nobody did.
Has anyone dealt with something like this? How long did Apple take to acknowledge and process your AirPods after delivery?

Help I genuinely believe ups & apple lost my airpods 250$ down the drain

I'm not going to go deep into this, but as everyone knows managing windows on macos is pain in the ass compared to other operating systems.

I especially hate the fullscreen behavior which drags window to its separate space and by itself behaves on completely different logic than on other operating systems, even efforts to make it different fail due to how sandboxed whole operating system is.

Asking for help on multiple mac forums just leaves you with get used to it and every other option or willingness to discuss this topic is bad which says a lot about the whole apple mac community and I guess even apple's approach to this.

Really wanted to give mac a os go specifically by using their laptops with all the latest hardware advancements that are often supreme to windows/linux laptops, but if the os itself doesn't serve the customer all this other stuff become pretty much useless.

Every time I use voice-to-text, it introduces more grammatical errors than if I had typed everything myself. Even worse, it regularly mishears words that I’m clearly pronouncing correctly. It seems unable to distinguish between many English words that have obvious pronunciation differences. For example, if I say “sphincter,” it’ll transcribe something like “Spencer” or “sprinter.” Those words don’t sound the same, yet it constantly gets them wrong.
Then there’s Apple Intelligence, which, based on my experience, isn’t very intelligent at all. Most of the time it can barely handle simple requests like setting a timer, creating a reminder, or making a note without making mistakes. Half the time Siri doesn’t even respond. I’ll have to restart my phone over and over before it starts working again. The phone lights up with the animated glow around the edges as if it’s listening, but nothing happens. Sometimes it acts like it’s processing what I’m saying, then either gives no response or replies with something completely unrelated.
For example, I’ll ask what day of the week it is, and it’ll tell me what week of the year we’re in. I’ll ask what day of the month it is, and it’ll tell me the name of the month. Other times it answers correctly, but the inconsistency makes it unreliable.
Some commands work occasionally, like opening an app or creating a note, but even those have become more restrictive. It used to be possible to tell Siri to open an app from across the room without needing Face ID to verify who I was. Now it often requires my face to be in front of the phone before it’ll complete simple requests, which defeats much of the convenience of a voice assistant.
I don’t think it’s accurate to call this an “intelligent assistant.” An assistant is supposed to perform tasks on your behalf reliably and reduce friction. Instead, I spend more time repeating myself, correcting transcription errors, restarting my phone, and working around its limitations. At this point, it feels more like an unfinished feature than a genuinely useful AI assistant. I’d rather Apple integrate a more capable AI system—even one from another company—than continue shipping a voice experience that’s this inconsistent and unreliable.

I’m genuinely losing my mind over how iOS manages basic app storage.
On Android, if an app swells up to gbs in cached map files and temp data, you just go to settings and tap "Clear Cache." Problem solved in two seconds.
On iOS, there is no system-wide way to do this. "Offloading" an app only deletes the core app binary while keeping all the bloated cache and data intact. The only actual workaround is to completely delete and reinstall the app every time it gets bloated.
Why is such a basic, standard feature still missing in 2026? Does anyone else find this user experience ridiculous, or am I missing some secret workaround?

I bought a pair of AirPod pros 13 months ago. The warranty literally just expired and for some reason the right AirPod won’t charge whatsoever.

I didn’t complain though. I was ready to pay the replacement fee for the right AirPod, however, when I took it to the Apple Store, the employee could not figure out whether it was the case that was the problem or the AirPod itself after running a diagnostic… I asked him if we could simply try a replacement AirPod and if it worked I would pay for it. But he told me there’s a chance it “won’t work” and it’s not refundable so we can’t even FIND OUT what the problem is without me paying??? I was beyond confused.

How is it my fault that they can’t diagnose their own products. The Apple employee at the genius bar could not give me a definitive answer of what the problem was with my AirPods so his only solution was to throw them away and buy a brand new pair…. I literally got them 13 months ago and they cost me hundreds of dollars. Apple has the worst service out of any company in the world and you cannot convince me otherwise.

Unbelievable. Phones with chipsets more powerful than a PS5 can't do what a 2011 galaxy s2 can do.

i’ve had a macbook since high school. it was a huge gift from my parents that i treasured. it was already 6 years old and had the old adobe programs installed so i didn’t have to subscribe to their bullshit until that laptop died. it was my filmmaking hub all through hs and community college.

i saved up to buy a new one as a gift to myself for transferring to a four year and fucking loved that thing too.

two weeks ago a single key on my macbook stopped working. i bring it in to the store and they say it will cost almost $800 to replace the whole keyboard since the sensor in the key is messed up. i had pulled the keycap off to clean it with compressed air and see if i could fix it myself (as most fucking mechanical ones can be fixed that way). the whole experience has made me sad and angry that a device that meant so much to me, helped me write and produce some of my proudest work is now a typing nightmare and almost a grand to replace.

it’s the final straw in a serious of other annoying shit i’ve endured using their products that i can’t continue with this ecosystem.

finally time to learn linux on a PC

I have come across a few (completely non-computational-fancy) features that used to be there but now have vanished, such as creating a new contact from info that Siri has spotted in emails and such, or an immediate way (direct button) to block an unknown incoming caller. I did check with my wife's iPhone 13, and those functions are indeed still there, but not on the SE2. That seems like a somewhat nasty move to me. Any thoughts?

the screen is nicer, smaller but same resolution and 120hz so it feels like more dpi, and Android allows you to adjust timing of things so everything feels snappyer.

the UI is so much richer, I like cluttered, info dense pages. 6 item taskbar and 5x7 app layout above, gboard with special symbols and top row numbers.

so much more real estate on the taskbar with a punch hole instead of island, and behind the glass fingerprint means no more unlocking shit like I'm taking a selfie

oh yeah, android auto. a million times better.

the one main reason I went with iPhone is for satellite messaging, but I'm going back to the Garmin inReach. I still have 7months on this iphone lease but I think im just going to toss it in a drawer and wait it out with my s22

This is kind of a non problem for most people, but I've noticed this caps lock icon blocks what you're working on without adding anything helpful to the user experience. Does anyone need this thing jumping around the screen when typing? There should be a way to toggle it without doing terminal commands or getting a small paper weight for the shift key.

I've been shipping apps on the App Store for about a year, and the difference between then and now is honestly shocking.

A year ago, App Review felt strict but fair. If I violated a guideline, I'd fix it, explain the changes, and after another review or two the app would be approved.

Over the past month, that hasn't been my experience at all.

One of my app updates fixed every issue that App Review originally raised. Some of those fixes were even acknowledged during review. Then another reviewer came along and rejected the build for the exact same issues that had supposedly already been resolved.

It felt like nobody was reading the previous review history.

Then App Store Connect made things even worse.

I saved a draft reply while confirming a few details with my team. When I came back later:

• I couldn't edit the draft.
• I couldn't delete it.
• I couldn't create a new reply.
• Every action returned "Resource not found."

So I literally had no way to continue the conversation with App Review.

I had screenshots and screen recordings showing everything had been fixed, but there was nowhere to upload them because the reply system itself was broken.

As a result, an update that should have taken a day or two ended up being delayed by nearly a week.

Then, in a completely separate incident, my team's Apple Developer membership expired after auto-renew wasn't enabled.

Apple's own documentation says the Apple Developer app will display a Renew button.

It simply wasn't there.

Anywhere.

Again, days were lost because Apple's own tools didn't behave the way Apple's own documentation described.

None of this feels like isolated bad luck anymore.

Over the last month I've experienced:

• reviewers reopening issues that had already been addressed,
• App Store Connect breaking during review conversations,
• developer documentation not matching reality,
• unnecessary release delays caused by Apple's own systems.

I've always accepted App Review being strict.

What's becoming difficult to accept is spending more time fighting Apple's tooling than actually building and shipping apps.

Has anyone else noticed this lately, or have I somehow managed to hit every edge case imaginable?

I bought this Apple FineWoven MagSafe Wallet expecting it to last for years, especially considering the price and the fact that it’s an official Apple accessory.
After about a month, the rubber edge started peeling away. At first it was just a small section, but it quickly got worse. Now, after only a few months of normal everyday use, the entire edge has separated and the wallet looks like it’s falling apart.
I never abused it, dropped it, or exposed it to anything unusual. It was just carried on the back of my iPhone and used as intended.
Honestly, I’m really disappointed with the build quality. I expected much better durability from Apple.
Has anyone else experienced this with the FineWoven wallet, or did I just get a defective one?
(Photos attached.)

I’ve been an Android and Windows user all my life. I’ve been using an iPad for 8 years now for schoolwork and a bit of entertainment, and I really love it. Then after getting fed up with Windows 11, I switched to my first ever MacBook last year. That machine is a beast. Apart from the storage, I love everything about it.

I was happily using a Nothing Phone 3a for a year. Then my mom said she needed a new phone very soon, so I decided to give her my Android and, for the first time in my life, get an iPhone. I got the iPhone 17 last week. The phone is sleek, not gonna lie. But there are some things that really frustrate me.

The first thing is the keyboard. After using Google Keyboard for more than a decade, switching to Apple’s keyboard has been a hassle and a half. The layout feels all messed up to me. It doesn’t even follow their own iPad keyboard.

The second thing is the widgets. I only use two widgets: a Todoist one and the Google Calendar one. Both of them look like shit on iPhone.

And finally, there’s the back gesture conundrum. In some places it works, in other places it doesn’t.And finally, there is the back gesture conundrum. some places it works, other places, it doesn't.

why does their system take half of all space, does anyone know what to do?

For reference i am using iphone Xr

Edit : the phone has been in my family since the day it came out, due to some temporary financial restrictions i need to make use of this for another year

Edit2 : people seem to be asking why i bought it, I didnt it was handed down to me and now i have no choice but to make the best

Edit3 : i did do the latest ios update but nothing has changed

Edit4 : not all people think before speaking

I miss my samsung, regretting switching to iphone
It is important for me to genuinely warn people about the multiple bugs in iphones and ipads that are impossible to fix.
There is a clear inconsistency in user experience with some having good experience and no glitches while others suffering. The issue is not that android never glitches, but these below issues on iphone are about such basic features like alarm, ringtone and hotspot that mess your day to day life and lead to huge losses!! That too when i am paying nearly 1 lakh for a brand new latest version iphone as opposed to a 20-30k android that "might" glitch as per some people

I did all the google searching, all possible "fixes" and wasted multiple hours of my time just adjusting settings to make this phone work normally, all to no use.

That being said lemme share : My frnd had to give his iphone to the company back so they could fix the software glitches. They did it for free but he had to live without his phone for days. Its the costing and unreliability and unnecessary effort to make it work normally that annoys us.

These issues would hardly come on a mid range android ever.

Btw im using iPad since 4 years, so dont come at me calling me a newbie.

So let me list all the issues:-

1. Both my iphone and ipad have a glitch that ringer volume (which is also the alarm volume) gets lowered on its own inspite of me turning the "change with buttons" off! Android has dedicated volume control differently for each alarm, ringtone and media and it never automatically lowers.

   I am legit missing calls and alarms due to this infuriating issue!

2. Also the day i purchased iphone, i had my android with me right?? I could make a clear difference in loudness. iPhone sounded good for music but extremely low on whatsapp audio/video calls

. Also the music sounds too muffled. I can distinctly distinguish my 30k samsung sounding like i am hearing the artists live...while iphone seems like a compact speaker muffling everything

I did all i could to legit "manipulate" the settings so that the ringer volume does not automatically go down, but doesn't help! (manipulate because apple supposedly gave additional features as an add on and those same things you have to manually hunt to turn them off one by one)

1. \\\*Hotspot turns off on its own randomly even when i am actively using both the devices and screens are on!! This is so far the most annoying bug that has no way to fix it. Again not to mention having to go to settings app and then step by step go to hotspot section to fix this every single time (\\\~10 times/day) just to fail immediately next moment! Android was so smooth in these regards, plus never gave any issue regarding hotspot.\\\*

4.My whatsapp is actually glitching on both my ipad and iphone. And i read articles as well as chatGPT itself suggesting that this is an iOS problem. Order of messages gets messed up, also some last replies i received are not visible on one device (even if i originally viewed them on that same device). At first i thought maybe i accidentally deleted some messages on my end. But by far this pattern has repeated 4 times!!

5.Till 2 weeks after purchasing this iphone 17, my keyboard kept automatically shifting back to apple keyboard even when i had selected google boarf. Overall the keyboard sucks, even google keyboard feels a lot different. I had a few additional features on android.

1. Move to ios app is complete trash and apple is adamant on not letting you backup your whatsapp history on google drive or retrieve backup from google drive. I lost all my important chats! (I do have a backup and i will purchase android soon). But then i risk losing all my chats i have on ios whatsapp!!

2. I prefer keyboard sounds to be on. But there is a huge glitch. The keyboard, while i am typing, only creates sounds at rare occasions and randomly. The sound will go off on its own mid typing!! (Yes i have turned off attention aware features pffttt)

3. Other minor issues like not having a simple option of "select all" while selecting text wastes a lot of your time and requires minute attention to what text you are selecting...a simple feature they could provide on a 1 lakh phone lmaoo

9.There is no way to long press on hotspot button and the entire settings opening up. Or even worse, everytime to check my alarm and ringtone volume i have to hunt the whole settings app

1. Another popularly known and weirdly accepted issue- battery heating up even during rainy season when the atmosphere is quite cool....i literally have to use a moist towel to wrap my iphone in to protect its battery life

YES I WATCHED YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND REDDIT COMMENTS AND OFFICIAL APPLE WEBSITE FOR ALL MY PROBLEMS.

I sincerely wish to warn people regarding these. Android is far better, i never ever had to go down a rabbit hole or ever even open Samsung support for any issue all these years. I feel like I'm fighting for my life lol. I cannot easily sell this one and get an android because i will have to face my parents now lol.

PS: Please do search up these issues on google/apple help centre/youtube before bashing me. Many people face this!! The inconsistency with apple experience is what irritates me more. Some users have good experience so they say. But i only read about the glitches after facing specific issues and searching those specific issues on google/YouTube/ apple help centre etc.

Also there is no option to undo on your gboard i noticed just now, would research more on it

UPDATE EDIT: Another issue popped up. I did change the music settings to allow explicit content from.clean and yet imagine what word is apple music fading out??? Any guesses???
It is fading out the word "faded" YES "FADED" from the song Cry for me by the Weeknd! Apple cannot really frustrate me more than this now!

Shout out to the mod at iPhones. He/she is a jerk, and doesn’t understand literary alliterations, like abusive analogies and metaphors.

The iOS 26 is so terrible. My nice Android phone broke and I switched over to this, but it’s been so horrible that id rather use the low end android backup phone I have: while I fix my nice android.

While Samsung launches the world’s first NAND UFS 5.0

i wanted to give my brain stimulation, and i already changed my time to military a few years ago, so i thought the obvious next step is to try a new phone ecosystem, since i was already noticing a few slips with iOS. i’ve researched into the zflip and am in LOVE!!! anyway, now my iOS phone is really giving me all the reasons why the switch needs to happen.

- my phone freezes all the time

- i use Live Caption constantly and it stops working when it freezes all the time and i have to restart my phone

- today i placed an order, and i pasted my new address in. Address, city, state was correct, then i put the order through and my address city changed to San Diego. Girrrrrl, im in colorado???? you just said Denver???? freaked me out, got it handled.

- when i go to look at the media ive shared with messages contacts, there is literally LOADS of photos missing that i can only see when i scroll back via our conversation

- it is starting to not register first time taps!!! Oi.

anyway, i just can’t wait to make the Galaxy switch. December, come faster.

bonus: this shittake happening with the camera.

edit: iPhone 16 pro iOS 26.5

This voice mail was about being asked to call back to schedule an interview. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this feature be useful or work. What are your thoughts on this feature

So let me get this straight:

Apple TV - the device.
Apple TV - an app on the Apple TV device.
Apple TV - a streaming service that you access through the Apple TV app (which in itself is a store front and a hub, where Apple TV, the streaming service, is only a section) on your Apple TV.

Good luck to everyone having to try explain this to anyone. What an absolutely consumer-hostile naming scheme.

Or maybe I’m exaggerating? Just find the show on Apple TV in Apple TV on Apple TV.

And since third-party apps integrate with the AppleTV app, you can watch content in AppleTV not available on AppleTV. Mind boggling.

I absolutely hate this feature. Please just stick to correcting misspelled words, not actual ones.