Change common iPhone settings

Use Settings (located on the Home screen) to configure and customize your iPhone settings. You can set your language and region, change the name of your iPhone, choose different sounds for notifications, and much more.

The settings for specific apps are explained in the chapters for those apps. The following sections give some examples of common settings, including how to find them.

The Home screen with several icons, including the Settings icon, which you can tap to change your iPhone sound volume, screen brightness, and more.

Find settings

Go to Settings , swipe down to reveal the search field, enter a term—“iCloud,” for example—then tap a setting.

The search settings screen, with the search field at the top. The search term “iCloud” is in the search field, and the found settings are in the list below.

Set the date and time

By default, the date and time, visible on the Lock screen, are set automatically based on your location. If they’re incorrect, you can adjust them.

Go to Settings > General > Date & Time.
Turn on either of the following:
- Set Automatically: iPhone gets the correct time over the network and updates it for the time zone you’re in. Some networks don’t support network time, so in some regions iPhone may not be able to automatically determine the local time.
- 24-Hour Time: (not available in all regions) iPhone displays the hours from 0 to 23.

To change the default date and time, turn off Set Automatically, then change the date and time displayed.

Set the language and region

Go to Settings > General > Language & Region.
Set the following:
- The language for iPhone
- The region
- The calendar format
- The temperature unit (Celsius or Fahrenheit)
To add a keyboard for another language, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards, then tap Add New Keyboard.
See Add or change keyboards on iPhone.

Change the name of your iPhone

The name of your iPhone is used by iCloud, AirDrop, your Personal Hotspot, and your computer.

Go to Settings > General > About > Name.
Tap , enter a new name, then tap Done.

Set up mail, contacts, and calendar accounts

In addition to the apps that come with iPhone and that you use with iCloud, iPhone works with Microsoft Exchange and many of the most popular Internet-based mail, contacts, and calendar services.

Go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Add Account.
To add a mail account, tap an email service—for example, Google, Yahoo, or Aol.com—then enter your email account information.
To add a contacts or calendar account, tap Other, then do any of the following:
- Add a contacts account: Tap Add LDAP Account or Add CardDAV Account (if your company or organization supports it), then enter your information; see Use other contact accounts on iPhone.
- Add a calendar account: Tap Add CalDAV Account, then enter your information; see Set up multiple calendars on iPhone.
- Subscribe to iCal (.ics) calendars: Tap Add Subscribed Calendar, then enter the URL of the .ics file to subscribe to; or import an .ics file from Mail.

For information about setting up a Microsoft Exchange account in a corporate environment, see the Apple Support article Set up Exchange ActiveSync on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

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iPhone User Guide