Q My Mi A3 phone has stopped ringing when I get WhatsApp calls. How do I fix this?
Sultan Mirza
Open Settings on your phone and select Apps. In some phones, it is called App Manager or Manage Apps, depending on the Android version on the phone. Look for WhatsApp and select it. Choose Notifications. Ensure that “Show notifications” and “Lock screen notifications” are enabled. Next, you have to look for “Call notifications”. On some phones, this might be under “In-app notification settings”. Set the ringtone to None.
Let the default ringtone be used. You must allow notifications on the lock screen here too. In the next step, you have to clear the WhatsApp cache. Open Settings. Go to Apps or Manage apps—WhatsApp—Storage and clear the cache and the data. Finally, restart your phone.
Update apps
Q Whenever I start my Lenovo K3 Note smartphone, it tells me that some apps are being optimised. What should I do?
Ashis Chatterjee
Most of the time this occurs because either the software on the phone or apps have not been updated. Go to Settings and update the phone. Next, proceed to the Play Store. Tap on “My apps and games” and accept the updates. See if the problem is solved.
The problem is also often caused in Lenovo phones by the True-caller app. Open Settings and navigate to Apps. Find Truecaller and tap on the three dots and choose “uninstall updates”. This should fix the problem. If you do not have Truecaller, the offending app could be either UC Browser or Facebook. Do the same thing for these apps.
Search lost
Q The search bar is not showing in my Windows 10 computer. What should I do to get it back?
Parul Mitra
The search bar might have been disabled or hidden from the taskbar. Press the Windows logo key and the S on your keyboard together and see if the search box shows up. If not, right-click on the empty area in the taskbar. Search will be right on top. Click on the arrow where you will find “Hidden” ticked. You need to enable “Show Search Box”. This should get you back the search bar.
Delete history
Q I searched for something on Google using salacious words. How can I remove it from the search history?
Name withheld
If you search for naughty stuff fairly regularly, I would suggest you use the Incognito Mode on your browser. This does not keep any record of your activity. In Chrome, press Control+Shift+N to open a new incognito window. In Firefox, press Control+Shift+P to open a new private window.
To clean your search history, go to https://accounts.google.com and sign in to your Google account. Click on “Data & Personalisation” on the left. Click on the arrow next to Web & App Activity. On the page that opens, click on Manage Activity. A new page opens up. On the left, tap on “Delete activity by” and choose the period you want to erase the history for.
Keep hackers out
Q How can I be sure that my router and the firewall are keeping hackers out?
Siddharth Shah
While routers have security settings, going into the settings and changing them can be a bit too technical. However, you can check if you are safe by connecting your computer to the WiFi network. Hackers try to hijack your domain name system (DNS), which is called the phone book for the Internet. It translates names of websites, say google.com, to an IP address such as 172.217.9.238. Communication between the two is critical to direct you to the correct website. Hackers insert bad DNS servers and redirect you to fake versions of a website. Who Is My DNS (https://whois mydns.com) is free a tool that checks your router’s DNS settings for any signs of DNS hijacking.
