Glastonbury Digital Café

11/08/2026

An older couple came into the Digital Cafe on Monday to get some help with gmail and their iPhones.

One of them was unable to login to gmail, but luckily they had a recovery phone number registered to their account. A few minutes later we helped them reset their password and login again.

We made sure both of their email accounts had recovery methods.

It's worth checking that your email account has a recovery method such as a mobile phone number or backup email address, or both. This can save you a lot of bother, because if you get locked out of your account, you can lose access to your contacts and all of your emails.

If you would like some help doing this, pop in and see us at St Johns Church on Mondays from 10:00am to 12:00

07/08/2026

Be careful what you ask AI. It generates responses by predicting the most probable next word based on patterns it learned during training. However, the most likely text is not always the truth. It aims for what looks convincing.

06/08/2026

Could you make a difference? Talk to us or contact Spark-IT Project

Have you ever thought about volunteering? 💚

This week, one of our volunteer Digital Champions shared a story that perfectly captures why volunteering can make such a difference.

Maggie came to one of our weekly digital support sessions, which are held in community spaces across Somerset. She'd been locked out of her GOV.UK account and couldn't access important information about her pension and benefits. It had been causing her weeks of stress and anxiety.

Our volunteer helped her regain access. The relief was immediate.

Maggie burst into tears. She asked if she could give our volunteer a hug because she was so overwhelmed and grateful that someone had taken the time to help.

Afterwards, our Digital Champion said:

"It made me realise that I'd been able to make her life a little easier. That single encounter made me realise why I am a Digital Champion."

Sometimes volunteering isn't about doing something extraordinary.

Sometimes it's simply sitting beside someone, listening, solving a problem together, and helping lift a weight from their shoulders.

If you've ever wondered whether you could make a difference, perhaps becoming a Digital Champion is where your story starts.

Find out more about volunteering with Spark iT by getting in touch.

https://www.sparksomerset.org.uk/spark-it/



Spark Somerset

03/08/2026

Sometimes the problem isn't what you first thought it was. A lady came into our digital cafe today with a phone that wasn't charging. We tried a different charger with no effect and then a different lead and the phone started charging.

Did you know, old charging cables and computer leads can be recycled, so even if they aren't any good, the metals in them can be extracted. Our partner Donate It will take old cables

27/07/2026

Our volunteers had another successful Digital Café at St John's Church today.

A lady came in and asked us to look at her phone which had several pop up messages saying her phone was infected. We identified a recently installed app for reading PDFs as the culprit. After removing the app, her phone was back to normal.

There are lots of apps such as pdf readers and QR code readers which are not needed on modern phones as they will natively do these things without additional software. Some of these apps have malware in them and should be avoided.

We spoke to another person who wanted advice on setting up a website and we gave her some ideas to think about.

We made a bootable USD stick and put Linux Mint on it. Bootable USBs can be used to test different operating systems without installing them first. You just plug the USD drive into your laptop and boot it up. When you are finished, power off the computer and unplug the USB drive and everything is back to normal.

21/07/2026

We rely on donations to provide refurbished devices to people who need them. Consider donating your old devices to help others.

Thank you to our wonderful team of volunteer Digital Champions at Glastonbury Digital Café for all their support.

They give up their time to help people who need access to the internet but might not have the skills or the access to devices or internet.

Our partnership with Donate It and The Fixy project means that we can also help people connect to essential services by getting unwanted and recycled phones and laptops to those who need them.

If you have an old phone hidden at the back of a drawer, please consider donating it (it will be professionally wiped of all data). Your unused devices could help someone reconnect with support, opportunity and hope.

Together we can reduce electronic waste and help people in our community stay connected.

Thank you 💚

Resource Futures Spark Somerset

20/06/2026

Do you have an old phone or laptop collecting dust? Our partners Spark-IT Project and Donate It can give old devices new life by refurbishing and redistributing them through Digital Cafes across Somerset.

Drop your unwanted devices at our Digital Cafe on Mondays between 10am and 12 at St John's Church, Glastonbury.

19/06/2026

This is how organisations should work together.

Simon takes your calls plus the best gossip from the county.

30/04/2026

Hello everyone! We have some exciting news to share regarding Glastonbury's digital support hub.

It’s clear that the Glastonbury Digital Café has become a vital spot for many of you to get a handle on your phones, tablets, and laptops. To make sure we are reaching as many people as possible, we are undergoing some big changes!

What’s Changing?
We are evolving to bring you even more activities in more community spaces, making it easier than ever to drop in for help.

Beyond our usual tech support, we’ll be introducing new activities to the community and we will need your input to shape our sessions.

Follow the page to be notified of developments. 👍

There has never been a better time to get connected. 📱💻✨