As I was writing my review on the new Macbook, I went to do some final wordsmithing, and noticed that I had two rotating arrows at the top of my screen next to the 4G symbol.
The worst part was that my battery was draining, fast.
After doing some research, I poured over dozens of pages of Apple discussions on the topic, so you don’t have to, and found the solution.
Rotating Arrows Symbol on iPhone or iPad
When you see a rotating arrows symbol on your iPhone or iPad, it means that your device is syncing. The sync process starts automatically when you connect the device to an iTunes account and computer over USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
During the sync process, your device automatically backs up your data to iCloud or iTunes.
How to Get Rid of the Rotating Arrows Symbol on iPhone or iPad
The rotating arrows symbol on your iPhone or iPad will disappear once the device finishes syncing. If you have set up your iPhone or iPad to sync automatically, then the sync process will start as soon as you connect it to a computer.
If you don’t want iTunes to launch when you plug in your device, disable the option by following the steps below:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap on your name.
- Slide the synching toggle to off for all the apps you wish not to synch.
You can turn them back on at any time by going back into that same menu and sliding the items back on.
What does Syncing Your iPhone and iPad do?
Syncing is a way of keeping files in sync across different devices, like iPhones and iPads.
When you turn on syncing on your iPhone, all the photos that are saved to the camera roll will also be saved to your iCloud account.
Any photos that are deleted from your phone will also be deleted from iCloud. If you update one photo, it’ll show up on another device, including your iPad.
If you set up an email like Gmail on your iPhone, make sure to switch the settings to save it to iCloud rather than your iPhone’s storage space, or else it could take up valuable space on both devices!
Syncing allows other Apple apps like Calendar and Contacts to work together seamlessly across different iDevices, so when you add, edit, or delete contacts/events on one device, they’ll show up on your other devices.
Syncing is not only great for making sure that all your photos are backed up in iCloud but also that important files like your contacts and calendar events are up to date across all of your devices.
When you start syncing, any changes you make to apps will be saved immediately. If you’re turning off sync, you can do so any time by going into “Settings” -> “iCloud” -> the desired app. If you want to turn it back on later, just go back into the same menu and click “Turn Back On.”
Doing this once a week will make sure everything is saved correctly.
Types of Syncing on Your iPhone and iPad
There are basically two types of syncing: Wireless and wired; here’s the difference:
Wired Syncing
If you want to sync data that isn’t supported by wireless syncing, then your iOS device needs to be plugged into a computer with iTunes open so it can sync the data through it.
If you don’t have access to a computer for wired syncing, there are still options for you:
You can set up an iCloud Drive or hack together some other solution using Google Drive and Dropbox or another cloud-based solution.
Wireless Syncing
If you enable the “Sync with this [iDevice]” setting on another iOS device (e.g., a newer model), then your older device should start wirelessly syncing its data by itself whenever both devices are connected to the same WiFi network and within range of each other.
If you don’t have access to an additional Apple/iOS device for wireless syncing, you can still sync wirelessly using iTunes.