All about keeping your data safe and in more than one place.
Do you use iCloud to store your calendar events, contacts or Safari bookmarks? Do you store files in iCloud Drive? If so, you might like to know about a little-known feature of iCloud. You can login to iCloud.com and restore recently deleted files, bookmarks, contacts or calendars. I believe Apple first introduced the ability to restore … Read more
Are you prepared to handle the theft of your Mac? Unfortunately, I had to test my own disaster recovery procedures when my laptop was stolen this past week. In situations like this, I believe there are two priorities. First, is the data on the Mac inaccessible? Second, can one get up and running on another Mac with … Read more
Were you using the CrashPlan Home backup service? Have you now switched to BackBlaze or some equivalent backup service? Once you know that BackBlaze has completed its initial backup of your Mac then it’s safe to get rid of CrashPlan. It is my understanding that it is not possible to actually shutdown or close your CrashPlan … Read more
Are you using CrashPlan to backup your Mac? Did you get a report indicating that CrashPlan has not completed a backup of your Mac? There are a number of possible causes. Follow these steps to assess the situation. Hopefully, you will gather information that helps you to identify the source of the problem. [Update early 2018 – … Read more
If you use CrashPlan Home then you need to make a change. Code42, the company that makes CrashPlan sent out emails announcing that they are sunsetting their CrashPlan Home product and will focus on CrashPlan for Business. As of August 22, 2017 it’s no longer possible to renew or extend an existing CrashPlan for Home subscription. Additionally, … Read more
When you are away from home, you need to make sure your iPhone connects to wi-fi networks to ensure that it’s getting backed up. This tip assumes that you have automatic backups to iCloud enabled. If you need help turning on this feature or checking to see if it’s on, then please refer to my … Read more
Do you want to make sure that Time Machine backs up an external hard drive, USB flash drive or an SD card that is connected to your Mac? If so, here are instructions to make sure this happens. Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences Click on Time Machine Click on the Options … Read more
When you buy a new Mac you likely want to transfer all of your data and applications from your current Mac to a new Mac. Here are instructions on how to accomplish this migration using a current Time Machine backup of your current Mac. I’m going to provide instructions for two different scenarios. If you’re … Read more
Do you need to retrieve data from a sick or dead hard drive? If you do not have a backup of the data on this disk, then you should consider hiring a professional data recovery company like DriveSavers. DriveSavers has been an industry leader for 30 years. They have a stellar reputation and success rate. In … Read more
Do you need to reconfigure Time Machine to use a new external hard drive? If you read my Tech Tips regularly then you’ll recall that I strongly recommend that everybody setup automatic and redundant systems to backup his or her Mac. If you use Time Machine to backup your Mac to an external hard drive then … Read more