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Do you want to delete a backup of your iPhone or iPad from iCloud? There are two reasons you might want to do this. Sometimes, if one is unable to successfully backup an iPhone or iPad to iCloud, it’s because the current backup is somehow gumming up the system. By removing the existing backup then … Read more
Did a friend or colleague tell you that he or she did not receive an email that you sent? If so, here are the initial steps that you should take to identify the reason for this. The problem could be on your end or on his or her end so let’s start by trying to … Read more
Have you replaced your iPhone, iPad, Mac or AppleTV with a newer one? If so, did you remove that older device from your iCloud account? It is prudent to review the devices linked to your AppleID account and to remove devices that you no longer use. You can have a maximum of 10 devices connected … Read more
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
Do you use Rackspace as your email provider? Did a legitimate email from a friend or colleague show up in your Spam folder? If so, you could add your friend or colleague’s email address to Rackspace’s Safelist. A Safelist is sometimes called a whitelist and is the opposite of a blacklist. Emails from people listed … Read more
Do you use Gmail? Do you access your Gmail account using Safari, Google Chrome or another web browser on your Mac? Do you like Gmail’s look and feel? I don’t like Gmail’s interface at all. Fortunately, Google lets you customize Gmail’s interface extensively. Here’s a list of the changes I made to make Gmail easier … Read more
Do some legitimate emails that you receive end up on your spam folder? You may be able to prevent this from happening by putting the sender’s email address on your email server’s allow list. Before we talk about how to do that, let’s start by reviewing the general process of how emails get identified as … Read more
Have you ever wanted to view a list of items you’ve recently purchased using your AppleID? This would include all purchases made within iTunes, the iPhone App Store or the Mac App Store. Perhaps you need a receipt for your bookkeeper. Perhaps you want to review what your kids have bought. Perhaps you do not … Read more
Is your AppleID tied to an email address that you no longer have access to or no longer use? If so, Apple offers step-by-step instructions on how to change your AppleID to use a new email address. Before we jump to the instructions, let’s start by reviewing some important background information and talk about some … Read more
Did you know that Dropbox lets you share any file with anybody, even if they do not have their own Dropbox account? In 2011, I wrote about how to do this using Dropbox’s Public Link feature. The Public Link feature let you share any file with anybody, but it required you to put the file inside … Read more
Do you use Dropbox? If you ever change the user account name on your Mac then Dropbox will break and will display a fairly cryptic error message. Here are instructions on how to fix Dropbox. Click the Dropbox icon that appears in your Mac’s menubar, click the gear icon and then select Quit Dropbox Open … Read more
Washington State now has over 200 drop-off sites for recycling compact fluorescent lights (CFL), high-intensity discharge lights as well as fluorescent tubes. In a previous Tech Tip I listed how to recycle CFLs in Seattle. The drop-off locations listed on the websites mentioned in this older Tech Tip are no longer the only locations. All recycle locations … Read more
Is Comcast, aka Xfinity, your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? If so, you should be aware that starting November 1, 2016 they’ll be implementing monthly data caps in some cities. You can get the full details in this Business Insider article about Comcast. In a previous Tech Tip I wrote about Comcast implementing and then removing monthly … Read more
What is webmail and why would you want to use it? Webmail is a term that is commonly used in two ways. It’s used to describe web-based email services like Yahoo Mail and Google’s Gmail. Webmail is also used to describe web-based access to any email account. For the past decade or more, nearly every ISP or email … Read more
Did you know that your iCloud username and password, your iTunes Store username and password and your AppleID username and password are all the same? Please re-read that last sentence and give it time to sink in. I commonly hear from frustrated computers users who don’t understand this important fact. All too often, when I look … Read more
Does your Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner have problems feeding documents? I love my ScanSnap and have used it nearly every day for many years. It finally had problems reliably grabbing pages and feeding them. The pages’ leading edge would get stuck and I’d have to fuss a bit to get the paper to feed properly. Earlier … Read more
Would you like some guidance on selecting a new printer? Clients often ask me to recommend a good printer or tell them which printer they should buy. These requests are actually surprisingly difficult for two reasons. First, there are numerous printer manufacturers and each company makes a range of printer models which are often updated yearly so it … Read more
Do you get emails that you do not want to receive? We all do. I hope you know that you should often click the unsubscribe button which appears at the bottom of these emails to truly stop receiving those messages. But, do you know when you should not click the unsubscribe button? Here are some guidelines: Use the … Read more
Are you trying to start using a new email address and stop using an older one? For example, are you moving homes and thus will no longer be able to keep your old comcast.net email account? Or did you change jobs and thus need to stop using your old employer’s email account? If so, here’s … Read more
Do you use Apple’s Calendar application? If so, one of the easiest ways to add an event to your calendar is the often overlooked Quick Event feature. Here are instructions to add an event to your calendar using Quick Event. In the upper left corner of the Calendar window click the plus sign (+) button. Type … Read more