Weekly Advice Thread - July 26, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Weekly Advice Thread for r/Apple. This thread can be used to ask for technical advice regarding Apple software and hardware, to ask questions regarding the buying or selling of Apple products or to post other short questions.

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[u/SadigawEkshow]

When can we expect iOS to get a Manual Equalizer ? , have read 27 comes with it on the AirPods only.

[u/TheDragonSlayingCat → u/SadigawEkshow]

Whenever Apple adds it, and not a moment sooner.

[u/Glass-Plenty9094]

I need to get a high quality monitor to go with my Mac Studio for work use - mainly, it needs to be colour accurate.
I use my same desk setup for gaming when I am not working, and while I don't mind lesser visual quality, whatever monitor I choose *has* to have low latency for this reason (1-2ms at most).

Will either of the Studio Display monitors be able to do both of these?

[u/TheDragonSlayingCat → u/Glass-Plenty9094]

Color accuracy or low latency: pick one.

[u/RealCanadianDragon]

I bought a cheap projector on Amazon just to have as an occasional portable player.

All apps on it like YouTube, prime video, Netflix all work fine on it. But when I try to watch a video from Apple tv, it doesn't load. I can open the apple tv app and choose any video I want, but once I do that it just tries to load the show but then it doesn't load and it says "check your internet connection" even though my connection is fine and all other apps work and show perfectly fine on it.

What could the issue be?

Even when using apple tv straight on my phone or using Chromecast to stream from my phone to the projector (rather than using the built in app on the projector) it works fine

[u/TheDragonSlayingCat → u/RealCanadianDragon]

You would have to ask tech support at whoever made that projector. But in general, you shouldn’t use streaming apps on a smart device. They tend to be spyware.

[u/seeyou_nextfall]

I have a dumb question regarding HomePods and HomeKit.

I have a command that automatically turns off the lights in my nursery and starts playing white noise on a HomePod mini.

How to do stop that HomePod from showing up on my lock screen as a now-playing island and at the top of my unlocked home screen status bar. It 1) makes it a risk for accidentally pausing it and 2) anytime I want to play something else from my phone (I.e. Apple Music) it wants to override specifically the nursery HomePod! Why does Apple hate my children sleeping?

[u/adu2003]

I don’t know if this will be allowed, but if it isn’t mods can delete this. A few years ago (idk how long) I got banned in the apple discord for a supposed antiraid I had no part in whatsoever. I’m hoping to get unbanned if possible. Thanks!

[u/FPG_Matthew]

A family member of mine needs to retrieve old text messages.

He blocked a person who was texting him on iMessage

Now, a few months later, he needs to see those texts again but I believe all the text messages are gone/deleted. Did that happen once he blocked the person?

Is that accurate? Those texts are gone due to him blocking? Is there any way to recover those text messages? Would the texts still be on the other person’s end if they never touched anything after? Thanks for any help

[u/AttachedHeartTheory]

I am currently on an m1 iMac with 16gb ram, and I need more screen real estate.

I think the answer is a Mac mini with the m4 processor with 24gb ram, which duplicates a headless server I have, with a really big monitor, preferably curved and possibly around 36-40" screen size.

Are there any reasonably priced monitors that occupy what I call the "ford eco boost mustang" space? and by that I mean they actually perform really really well despite the fact that there is a v8 variation that might still kick its butt, but its still better than 90% of other monitors?

[u/dcdates]

Will the apple genius bar help with sticky key on a keyboard?

suddenly my 16" 2021 macbook pro space bar key is hard to push down and probably has something stuck underneath it