Christina Warren • Feed
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Christina Warren @filmgirl.bsky.social

What the fuck does this symbol mean? I've seen stuff saying it's downloading something in Safari (I was but I'm not now), that storage is being altered, that sync is occurring. Wtf is this?

A blue restart looking icon of unknown origin on an iPad.
aug 24, 2025, 10:09 pm • 39 2

Replies

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Michael A. Kellar ⚪🌹 @michaelakellar.bsky.social

image
aug 25, 2025, 2:25 pm • 2 0 • view
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Jason Cross @jasoncross.org

It looks like it's inside a Dynamic Island window, which to me makes it seem like likely a third-party app? 🤔 Tapping on it doesn't open anything?

aug 24, 2025, 10:21 pm • 0 0 • view
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James O’Loughlin @jamesoloughlin.bsky.social

Never seen that symbol before 🤔 Do you sync your Download folder with iCloud (not sure that’s even option but it is for Desktop and Documents folders)?

aug 24, 2025, 10:14 pm • 1 0 • view
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Kuba Suder 🇵🇱🇺🇦 @mackuba.eu

Yeah I don't think I've seen it either…

aug 24, 2025, 11:57 pm • 1 0 • view
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James O’Loughlin @jamesoloughlin.bsky.social

ChatGPT says “gear with circular arrows means that some process (like iCloud syncing, Spotlight indexing, or an app update) is running in the background.” Must be true.

aug 24, 2025, 10:17 pm • 0 0 • view
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Kirk McElhearn @kirkville.com

I’ve never seen that. The gear icon suggest that it’s settings for something.

aug 24, 2025, 10:21 pm • 0 0 • view
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🆘Bill Cole 🇺🇦 @grumpybozo.toad.social.ap.brid.gy

@filmgirl.bsky.social my GUESS based on long immersion in Apple's visual vocabulary (but no specific knowledge): backing up settings to iCloud.

aug 25, 2025, 5:56 pm • 1 0 • view
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Christina Warren @filmgirl.bsky.social

That sync looks different and is never on the top status bar. I’ve seen people say it’s about downloading from Safari, which I was doing, but it’s not documented anywhere.

aug 25, 2025, 5:58 pm • 1 0 • view
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David Harrison 🇨🇦 @dharrison.bsky.social

I’ve had this happen after doing a download as well, and it seems to persist afterwards but goes away in a reboot. I wonder if there is a bug where it doesn’t get cleared?

aug 24, 2025, 10:14 pm • 3 0 • view
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Christina Warren @filmgirl.bsky.social

Yeah that was my exact scenario. Cleared after a restart. Bizarre

aug 25, 2025, 3:22 am • 2 0 • view
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🦀 Shawn Morris 🦀 @theshawnmorris.bsky.social

Firmware update? At least that's what I would guess based on the gear (settings) and circular arrows (update) But no actual idea

aug 25, 2025, 2:04 pm • 0 0 • view
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Eshu Marneedi @eshumarneedi.com

It’s not even documented in Apple’s iPad status bar k-base article. support.apple.com/guide/ipad/l...

aug 24, 2025, 10:14 pm • 3 0 • view
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Barry Dorrans @blowdart.me

It indicates you’re about to get cranky

aug 24, 2025, 10:10 pm • 28 0 • view
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David Buchanan @retr0.id

the "we're winding you up" icon

aug 24, 2025, 10:24 pm • 16 0 • view
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Bob Starr @bobstarr.xyz

More info here:

The icon indicates that your iPad is synchronising with
aug 25, 2025, 2:19 pm • 1 0 • view
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Julián Gustavo Gómez @juliangomez.co

your phone’s just gearing up

aug 25, 2025, 1:15 am • 0 0 • view
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Dan Stirk @jdanielstirk.bsky.social

aug 25, 2025, 2:29 pm • 1 0 • view