Okay, so I just got the iOS 17 update, and I was pretty pumped to try out this new StandBy mode. I’d seen some stuff about it online, and it looked neat – you know, turning your iPhone into a little smart display when it’s charging.
First thing I did was plug my iPhone into the charger. I made sure it was connected to the power source. Then, I put it on its side, just like the instructions said. But nothing happened. The screen just went black like it normally does when it goes to sleep.
- Tried it a few more times, thinking maybe I didn’t do it right.
- Flipped the phone this way and that, but still no StandBy mode.
So, I thought, maybe there’s a setting I need to turn on. I went into the Settings app and looked for “StandBy”.
- I found it, and sure enough, there’s a toggle for it.
- But guess what? It was already switched on!
Then I remembered I have an older iPhone. I looked it up online to see if my phone even supports StandBy mode. And there it was – StandBy mode only works on certain iPhone models. Turns out, my old phone isn’t one of them. Bummer.
But for those of you with newer iPhones, I figured I’d save you some trouble. I went online and found that you can try resetting all settings if it doesn’t work.
- You go to Settings, then General, then Transfer & Reset.
- Tap on Reset, and select Reset All Settings.
- It says you just follow the on-screen instructions after that.
Finally I got it working
I got my wife’s iPhone 14 to test. I connected the charger and the iPhone to the power source and made sure the iPhone was sleeping and placed on its side. It was still not working! So I went to Settings and found the toggle for StandBy. I turned it off and turned it on again. Then I put it to sleep and repeated the previous steps. It worked! I saw the StandBy mode activate, showing the clock and some widgets. It was actually pretty cool, just like I’d seen in the demos.
So, yeah, that was my little adventure with the iOS 17 StandBy mode. A bit of a letdown for me, but hopefully, this helps some of you out there get it working on your phones!
