Annoying iOS 8 features

How to get rid of iOS 8’s most frustrating features

Stop your iPad ringing when you get a call on an Phone

If you’re finding it annoying getting phone call rings on both your iPad and iPhone then you can turn off the phone feature on the iPad. On your iPad, go to Settings → FaceTime and set iPhone Mobile Calls to Off. Boom! No more ringing iPad..

Stop predictive text

Don’t like the new QuickType suggestions sitting above the keyboard? Just go to Settings → General → Keyboard and set Predictive to Off. Alternatively you can tap and hold on the Language icon and slide your finger over to Predictive to set the switch to Off.

If you can’t decide whether you want the predictions on or off, don’t worry - it’s easy to pick and choose when the predictions appear. Slide your finger up and down on the QuickType suggestions to show and hide them, depending on your mood and/or their current effectiveness.

Remove Health app

Apple’s new Health app promises to be a revolution in medical data tracking and health care. Sure, maybe one day. But for now, most people are wondering what this new Health app is doing on their home screen. Health seems to be the new Stocks – the useless app you can’t get rid of.

But you can drag it into another folder, like Extras, where it’ll sit alongside Tips and Compass as the unloved apps. Or drag Health and Stocks into a folder and call it Nope, Nada or Not Today, Thanks! Then drag it to the last Home Screen where it’s out of the way.

Stop iOS 8 from suggesting new apps for you to buy

Apple has introduced a new App Store suggestions features in iOS 8. You will either find this newfound flow of new apps helpful, or think Apple has a cheek to be advertising its own apps while you search for things on your device. If it’s the latter, you can turn off the suggestions. Go to Settings → General → Handoff & Suggested Apps and set App Store to Off.

Missing Camera Roll

The Camera Roll (which showed all the Photos stored locally on iOS devices) has gone missing! If you go to Settings → Photos & Camera and set iCloud Photo Library (Beta) to Off at least the Photos app only shows images snapped or synced with your iPhone or iPad (rather than all your pics from all your devices).

If you want to see recent additions, open the Photos app and tap on Albums → Recently Added. That’s as good a solution as we can offer for now, but we’re looking into workarounds.

Missing keyboard

If you find your third-party keyboard keeps disappearing then first try to turn off Guided Access. We have heard that it interferes with the operation of some keyboards.

If that doesn’t work then you’ll need to remove the third-party keyboard and wait until an update for the keyboard is issued that fixes the problem (this at least gets you the regular keyboard back). Click Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards and swipe your finger left across the keyboard that’s missing; now tap Delete to remove it. The keyboard is still installed as an option in iOS and can be turned back on at a later date.

Permanently delete photos

Some of the more astute of you might quickly notice that you don’t actually delete images from iPhoto any more. Instead they are sent to a folder called Recently Deleted where you (and anybody else who has your phone) can view them.

Tap Albums → Recently Deleted to view the images, and you can tap Select → Recover to bring them back or Select → Delete them again to permanently remove them. The ability to send short video and audio snippets in the Messages app is a fantastic alternative to typing out a text message. But these audio and video snippets are automatically removed after just 30 days. This is a real shame if you enjoy the message.

Tap Keep underneath any message you want to hold on to, or head to Settings → Messages → Keep Messages and choose either 1 Year or Forever.

Stop video and audio messages from disappearing

Remove the faces that appear in the App Switcher

It’s surprising us how many people really don’t like the hovering faces that appear when they switch apps in the App Switcher (the app preview windows that appear when you double-tap the Home button).

It’s easy enough to get rid of them, though: tap Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars → Show In App Switcher and set Phone Favourites and Recents to Off to get rid of them.

Stop app alerts

When you first set up your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch in iOS 8 it feels like every other minute it gives you an alert about an App running in the background, and asks you if you want it to Continue.

It’s worth taking five minutes to figure out what apps you actually want to be checking for stuff online when your iPhone or iPad is sitting in your bag. This will stop it from giving you alerts about those apps. Tap Settings → General → Background App Refresh and go through all the apps and decide which ones get to refresh in the background, and which ones don’t. This gets rid of the alerts and, for a bonus, it also helps to extend the daily battery life of the phone.