Do you use Backblaze to backup your Mac? It’s a great way to create an off-site backup of your Mac’s data. Backblaze tends to automatically install minor updates but it won’t install major upgrades on its own. Here are instructions on how to manually install a major upgrade of Backblaze on your Mac, such as upgrading from … Read more
Do you need to scan something? Your iPhone or iPad can now make light work of scanning short documents into PDF format. Learn how here:
Read moreDo you want more security for your iCloud account? Apple’s Advanced Data Protection can now provide end-to-end encryption for nearly all iCloud data. But be aware that Apple won’t be able to recover your account if you forget your password.
Read morePhotos has long provided a hidden album you could use to hold images you wanted to keep a little more private. Until this year, however, it was security through obscurity: anyone who knew to reveal the album in Settings > Photos on an iPhone or iPad or by choosing View > Show Hidden Album on the Mac … Read more
Apple has unveiled the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips and announced the M2 Mac mini and M2 Pro Mac mini, plus the M2 Pro and M2 Max models of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Oh, and a new HomePod! Read all about it at:
Read moreWe aren’t quite ready to recommend that everyone upgrade to macOS 13 Ventura, but if you use Microsoft Office with macOS 10.15 Catalina, you should start planning for an upgrade. Microsoft has announced that current versions of its productivity suite—Office for Mac 2019, Office for Mac 2021, and Microsoft 365—will receive updates only if your Mac is … Read more
Password management company LastPass suffered a breach in which encrypted customer passwords were stolen. We explain what happened, how LastPass users should react, and what lessons other organizations can learn.
Read moreAre your digital photos a mess? Do you feel overwhelmed when you think about trying to organize them? Do you spend too much time looking for specific images? Do you wonder if your photos are backed up? If you answered “yes” to these questions, then consider this 4-week digital photo organizing class being taught by Mirja … Read more
Have you ever struggled to find your Mac’s cursor? Do you have a really large monitor or multiple monitors? If so, it’s easy to lose track of your cursor. Here are two ways to help you locate it. Starting with OS X 10.11 El Capitan, in 2015, the Mac operating system (macOS) will temporarily increase … Read more
Do you use the Photos app on your Mac? Would you like to feel more comfortable using it? If so, consider joining Mirja Heide, a professional photo organizer, for one of her hour-long Wednesday Workout classes this summer. Learn more about Mirja at Refresh Fotos. She is offering 4 Zoom classes on Wednesdays in June, … Read more
Are your digital photos a mess? Do you spend too much time looking for specific images? Are you looking for a way to get rid of duplicates in your photo collection? Then you should consider hiring a photo organizer such as Mirja Heide of RefreshFotos.
Read moreDo you use Time Machine to backup your Mac? Is Time Machine configured to backup to one or more hard drives? Has one of your backup hard drives died? If so, you want to remove that drive from Time Machine’s configurations. If you don’t remove it then Time Machine will repeatedly remind you that you … Read more
Do you have some older Apple products, like an iPad, iPhone, Mac or Apple Watch that you no longer use? If so, you can send them to Apple and get either a credit towards a future purchase or an Apple Gift Card. When I learned this recently, it was news to me. For years, Apple … Read more
Do you use Backblaze to backup your Mac? It’s a great way to create an off-site backup of your Mac’s data. In September 2021, Backblaze version 8 was released. Backblaze tends to automatically upgrade itself, but for reasons I haven’t been able to identify, Backblaze version 7 doesn’t seem to always upgrade itself to version 8. Here … Read more
Since a very full hard drive can produce unwanted and erratic behaviors on a Mac, I typically recommend keeping at least 10% of your hard drive’s capacity available. In other words, you want your internal storage to be less than 90% full. Determining the fullness of your Mac’s hard drive is not as easy as … Read more
Is your iPhone, iPad, or Mac nearly full? Do you receive a lot of photos and videos via text message? You might consider storing your text messages and their attachments in iCloud to free up storage space on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Have you ever setup a new iPhone, iPad or Mac and notice … Read more
If you haven’t already removed Adobe Flash Player from your Mac, now is a great time to do this. Adobe Flash was once the primary format for animations and video clips on the Web, but Apple never permitted Flash on their iPhones and iPads. I believe this marked the start of the shift away from … Read more
On November 12, 2020, Apple released the next version of the Mac operating system (macOS). It’s name is macOS Big Sur. Like all major operating system upgrades, it’s prone to have some significant bugs and/or will make some of your older applications incompatible, so please hold off on installing this major upgrade for a while. … Read more
Do you use Zoom? If so, you should be sure to update it regularly. Zoom’s popularity has skyrocketed due to all of the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Zoom application has a history of security and privacy issues. Thus, I strongly encourage you to regularly check for Zoom updates and install them … Read more
Do you use either CrashPlan or Backblaze to backup your personal data files on your Mac? Starting with macOS Mojave (aka macOS 10.14), Apple implemented tighter privacy restrictions. Consequently, you now need to explicitly grant permissions to CrashPlan and Backblaze so these applications can access all of your files and folders on your Mac. Here … Read more