Photos 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
We 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
Are 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 Google Chrome on your Mac? Do you let Chrome save some of your web site passwords? Did you know that you can view a list of all saved passwords as well as the passwords themselves? Use these instructions to learn how to view web site login passwords saved by Chrome.
Read moreDo you use Firefox on your Mac? Do you let Firefox save some of your web site passwords? Did you know that you can view a list of all saved passwords as well as the passwords themselves? Use these instructions to learn how to view web site login passwords saved by Firefox.
Read moreDo you use Safari on your Mac? Do you let Safari save some of your web site passwords? Did you know that you can view a list of all saved passwords as well as the passwords themselves? Use these instructions to learn how to view web site login passwords saved by Safari in your Mac’s … Read more
Have you upgraded your Mac to macOS 11 Big Sur or a newer version of the Mac operating system (macOS)? One of the many new features is that the Menu Bar can be customized more significantly than before. While I appreciate this capability, Apple actually made it harder to add the battery percentage to the … Read more
Is your Mac’s hard drive getting full? Have you ever noticed that Apple designates some of your storage space as purgeable space? What is purgeable space? Apple introduced the concept of purgeable space in macOS 10.12 Sierra. If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or newer, you can easily see if it has so-called purgeable … Read more
Did you know that you can bypass using your Mac’s Trash and simply delete a file immediately? Somehow I failed to learn that Apple added this feature in 2015 with OS X El Capitan (aka OS X 10.11). Deleting a file is usually a two step process. First, move the file to the Trash, then … 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
Did you Mac fail to adjust its clock this morning when Daylight Savings Time ended? If so, please configure your Mac to automatically adjust it’s date and time, by doing the following: Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences Click on Date & Time Click the Date & Time button. Use the image below … Read more
Every fall for the past decade or so, Apple has released major updates to macOS and iOS, the operating systems used by Macs, iPhones and iPads. Despite Apple’s frequent reminders to install these major updates, I think it’s foolish to install them as soon as they’re released since they typically introduce significant change, may contain … Read more
If you’ve upgraded your Mac to macOS High Sierra or macOS Mojave you have likely seen an alert that looks like the one shown below. I’ll explain what this alert means and how you should handle this situation. Microsoft Word 2011 is only one of many applications that can trigger this alert, but Word 2011 … Read more
Do you think your Mac abruptly installed an update to your Mac’s operating system on its own, without your permission? While it is possible for this to occur if you have automatic updates enabled, I have also had clients inadvertently instruct their Mac to install macOS updates. This occurs because people get confused by the choices … Read more
Would you like to make sure that your Mac is not configured to automatically install updates to the Mac operating system (macOS)? If so, follow the instructions for the version of macOS installed on your Mac. To determine which version you have installed, please click on the Apple menu, in the upper left corner, of … Read more
Have you noticed that once Apple releases a new version of the Mac operating system (macOS) that previous versions vanish from the App Store? Have you ever needed to reinstall one of these older versions of the Mac operating system (macOS)? It can be challenging to do this since Apple does not make older versions readily available … Read more
Do you want to encrypt an external hard drive or USB flash drive connected to your Mac? Encrypting the drive will protect the data on that drive. Each time that drive is connected to another Mac you’ll need to enter a password before the drive is available and before you can view or edit the … Read more
Do you want to completely erase a Mac and reinstall its operating system? Perhaps you are about to give away this Mac. Or, perhaps your Mac is acting up and you want to start with a clean slate. Here are instructions on how you can erase the hard drive and reinstall OS X, recently renamed … Read more