The issues were bugging me no end so I decided to bite the bullet n do the unthinkable: I reset my iPhone and Mac.
Issues that cause me to take action
I was running iOS 26.2 beta n it was buggy and causing Facebook, Whatapps, notes etc to hang often.
My Mac’s 1Tb ssd internal drive was out of space, uninstalling apps did not recover all the disk space I had as a fresh Mac .
Warning:
- backup all your iPhone n Mac data before you do this at home, folks.
The backups will give extra peace of mind - On Mac I used image capture app to copy all my phone photos to external disk/ssd drive
- You need one device logged into your Apple ID as you do the reset, in my case an iPad, to verify your Apple ID login after you refresh your iPhone/mac.
- You need your Apple ID n google email n passwords to login back to Apple n google.
Action taken
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iPhone: Reset & delete all content on my iPhone 15 pro max
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I did not restore any data from my manual backups to save space n speed up my iPhone
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Mac: Erase all content n setting , reinstall macOS 15.7.2 on Mac mini m4 pro , then upgrade to macOS 26.1
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I did not restore any data from my manual backups to save space n speed up my Mac, except the latest coding projects
Impact after erase of data on Mac n iPhone
- iPhone runs faster without hanging, has lots of free space.
macOS 26.1 fresh install only take up 25.2 Gb. I recovered a lot of disk space. Mac runs faster. - Contacts, Passwords ,Journal, Freeform, Reminders, Notes apps auto sync to iPhone n Mac after Apple ID sign in.
- Iphone Health app require basic setup and will auto sync data back from iCloud.
- I was doing the iPhone and Mac reset at the same time, the whole reset process took about 2.5 hours.
- And you need more time to reinstall the apps you actually use. Xcode, cursor, Apple Developer, WhatsApp, Singpass, bank app etc.
- after reset of iPhone is completed, need to reset Apple Watch and pair to iPhone.
Conclusion:
The phone and Mac are both faster and have more space. The effort was worth it. It’s like having a new iPhone and Mac again. Should have done it sooner.