13-inch MacBook Pro Solid-State Drive Service Program

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Apple, Companies, Hardware, Macintosh

Do you have a 13-inch MacBook Pro that you bought between June 2017-June 2018? If so, please see if your Mac is affected by Apple’s service program which they introduced in November 2018.

Apple has determined that a limited number of 128GB and 256GB solid-state drives (SSD) used in 13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) units have an issue that may result in data loss and failure of the drive. 13-inch MacBook Pro units with affected drives were sold between June 2017 and June 2018. Read More from “13-inch MacBook Pro Solid-State Drive Service Program”

How To Fix Outlook’s Search Feature On A Mac

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Email, Software

Do you use Microsoft Outlook 2011, Outlook 2016, or newer, on a Mac? If your copy of Outlook has lost its ability to find emails, here are some suggestions on how to fix Outlook’s search function. Microsoft has written a thorough article outlining all possible causes and fixes when Outlook’s search function stops working. This is great, but I think this article might overwhelm the typical person since it is quite dense and a bit technical. In my experience, the most common cause is a corrupt Spotlight search index. Read More from “How To Fix Outlook’s Search Feature On A Mac”

An Extension Cord For Your Mac Laptop With USB-C Power Adapter

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Hardware, iPhone and iPad, Macintosh

Do you own a Mac laptop with USB-C ports? If so, it came with a USB-C power adapter. Did you notice that Apple no longer includes an extension cord with this USB-C power adapter? If so, you might be interested in Ten 1 Design’s Stella, which is a well designed extension cord. Read More from “An Extension Cord For Your Mac Laptop With USB-C Power Adapter”

If You’ve Forgotten The Password For Your Encrypted iPhone Backup

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Backup, Hardware, iPhone and iPad, Local Backup

Do you backup your iPhone to your Mac? I recommend that you manually backup your iPhone to your Mac, every few weeks, even if you already backup your iPhone automatically to iCloud. When you backup your iPhone to your Mac you have the choice to encrypt the backup or not. The advantage of encrypting your iPhone backup is that the backup will include information not stored in an unencrypted backup such as email account passwords, wi-fi settings and health data. There are 2 significant disadvantages of forgetting the password used to encrypt your iPhone backup. First, you cannot restore that backup onto your iPhone. Second, it was very difficult to work-around the forgotten backup and create a new backup of your iPhone on your Mac. Finally, starting with iOS 11, Apple introduced an easy way to work-around a forgotten iPhone backup encryption password. Read More from “If You’ve Forgotten The Password For Your Encrypted iPhone Backup”

How To Download Older Versions Of The Mac operating system (macOS)

Posted on by Tim Hannon in macOS (formerly OS X), Software

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 unless you saved your own copy of the installer for the older version. I recently learned that some older versions are still available on the App Store.  Read More from “How To Download Older Versions Of The Mac operating system (macOS)”

USB-C Adapters For Your New MacBook Pro Or MacBook Air

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Hardware, Macintosh

Have you bought a new Mac laptop that comes with USB-C ports on it? If so, you will likely need to buy one or more adapters in order to connect device too it. Below, I discuss a number of different adapters that will likely meet your needs. You might also wonder why Apple switched to this new type of port. Cynics might guess that it’s so Apple can sell adapters, but I don’t believe that’s the case. Instead, I think it’s because these new ports are smaller, faster and more versatile than every type of port that has come before. These new ports are very compact so laptops can be thinner than ever. These ports are very fast so data can be transferred very quickly to peripherals.  This next part can be a bit confusing, but it’s actually more accurate to call this new type of port a Thunderbolt 3 port. Thunderbolt 3 ports do everything that USB-C ports can do, but they can do more. This article focuses on USB-C hubs and adapters. If you want to read about Thunderbolt 3 hubs check out this review.

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Unable To Sign-Out Of iCloud

Posted on by Tim Hannon in iCloud or AppleID, Services

Have you ever gone to your Mac’s iCloud System Preferences and clicked the Sign-Out button and then had your Mac fail to properly sign-out of iCloud? Typically, signing out of iCloud is a straight-forward process, but on rare occasions, I’ve encountered difficulty. If you’re having this problem, try one of these options that have worked for me. Apple introduced the iCloud System Preference pane in OS X Lion, version 10.7.5. Before that it was called MobileMe.

[Update October 2022: Starting with macOS 13 Ventura System Preferences has been renamed to System Settings. If your Mac is running macOS 13 Ventura or newer then go to the iCloud System Settings in lieu of iCloud System Preferences.]

Option 1

  1. Make sure you’re signed in to your Mac using a User account that has administrative privileges. (Explaining how to do this is outside the scope of this article.)
  2. Go to /Applications/Utilities and double-click Terminal to open it. (Before you use Terminal, please make sure you have a full backup of your Mac. Issuing commands in Terminal improperly can have very adverse effects on your Mac.)
  3. Type this command: defaults delete MobileMeAccounts
  4. Press the Return (aka Enter) key and type your user account password if prompted.
  5. Now, see if you can sign out of iCloud successfully. Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and click on the iCloud button. Click on the Sign Out button.

Option 1 is based on information provided at BenCoding.com

https://bencoding.com/2017/02/12/forcing-icloud-logout-on-your-mac

Option 2 – Warning: Deleting these files mentioned below will cause every account you have setup in the Internet Accounts System Preferences pane to be deleted, most notably this would include your email account(s). Thus, you would need to re-add these other accounts that would be deleted.

If you know how to access the invisible Library folder in your User Account then delete the following files:

~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist and the contents of

~/Library/Accounts

Click on the Apple menu and select Log Out

After your Mac has logged you out of your account, you’ll be taken to the Login screen. Select your account and login again.

Now see if you can sign out of iCloud successfully. Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and click on the iCloud button. Click on the Sign Out button.

Free, Online Audio Recorder And Video Converter

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Miscellaneous

Have you ever needed to record your voice or make a video recording of yourself? Have you ever needed to convert an audio or video file from one format to another? A company named 123apps LLC offers free and easy to use online tools. If you’re concerned about privacy, please review their privacy policy. I used the audio recorder recently to record some new messages for my voicemail system. My voicemail system required .mp3 files. QuickTime Player can make audio recordings, but it produces .m4a files. I could convert the .m4a file to .mp3 format using the online audio converter, but it was quicker to use the online voice recorder since it produces .mp3 files. Read More from “Free, Online Audio Recorder And Video Converter”

Assign Custom Names To Flags In Apple Mail

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Email, macOS (formerly OS X), Software

Do you use the Flag button in Apple Mail to tag some of your messages with a small red flag icon? This is a quick way to mark some messages so they’ll get your attention when you review your Inbox in the Mail application. Did you know that Mail offers 7 colored flags? Did you know that you can assign custom names to each flag?

Here are instructions for renaming the flags. It’s easy but not obvious how to do this since you have to first assign each color of flag to at least one email message.

  1. Open the Mail application
  2. Click on an email message
  3. Click the Message menu, select Flag, and then click on one of the 7 flag colors to assign this color to the selected message.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each of the remaining flag colors until you have assigned all 7 colors to one or more email message.
  5. On the left-hand side of Apple Mail click on tiny arrow that appears to the left of the word Flagged. This will reveal a list of all of the flags.
  6. Control-click on the current name of one of your flags and select Rename Mailbox.
  7. Type in a new name for this flag. In the image below you can see that I’ve changed the default flag names to General Flag, Reply Needed, To Do, etc

Apple Mail Flags

How To Delete Old iPhone Or iPad Backups From Your Mac

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Backup, Computer Basics, Local Backup, Maintenance

Is your Mac’s internal storage nearly full? If so, you may have seen an error message indicating that your startup disk is nearly full. I typically use OmniDiskSweeper to free up storage space on a Mac. One of the easiest techniques I use to free up some storage space is to remove backups of iPhones or iPads that haven’t been used in months. Use these instructions to remove iPhone of iPad backups that you no longer need which are taking up precious storage space on your Mac.

  1. Open iTunes by clicking on its icon on the Dock, if present, or open it from your Applications folder.
  2. Click on the iTunes menu and select Preferences
  3. Click the Device button
  4. Review the list of backups listed. If you want to delete one, click on it
  5. Click the Delete Backup button
  6. You will be asked if you really want to do this. If you do, click the Delete button
  7. Click on iTunes and select Quit iTunes

How To Delete Old iPhone Or iPad Backups From iCloud

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Backup, Hardware, iCloud or AppleID, iPhone and iPad, Online backup, Services
Do you want to delete a backup of your iPhone or iPad from iCloud? There are two reasons you might want to do this.
  1. 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 one is able to start fresh and successfully backup his or her device.
  2. If one has stopped using an older iPhone or iPad it’s possible that the last backup of this device remains in one’s iCloud account. If this backup is more than a year old then it’s highly unlikely that one would ever want to recover data from this backup. Thus one might be wasting storage space in one’s iCloud account.

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Should I Purchase Microsoft Office Outright Or Get An Office 365 Subscription?

Posted on by Tim Hannon in iOS and iPhone/iPad Apps, Software, Spreadsheets, Word Processing

Are you trying to decide if you should buy Office for Mac as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription or as a stand-alone product? [Note: Microsoft 365 used to be called Office 365, but Microsoft re-branded in in early 2020.] While cost is one important consideration it is not the only one. I’d like to point out a few other considerations that I think you should keep in mind as you make your decision. It is important to know that regardless of whether you buy Office as a stand-alone product or as part of Microsoft 365, you get the ability to download and install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc on your Mac. Microsoft offers a web-based version of these applications.The online versions are only available if you have an Microsoft 365 subscription. The online versions are cleverly named Word Online, Excel Online, etc. Frankly, I don’t believe I’ve ever used them so I can’t comment on how similar or dissimilar they are from the full desktop versions. Microsoft 365 subscribers get access to new versions of Office when they are released, which is typically about every 3 or 4 years. For example, Microsoft made the following Mac versions of Office: Office 2011, Office 2016 and they released Office 2019 in September 2018. Read More from “Should I Purchase Microsoft Office Outright Or Get An Office 365 Subscription?”

Beware Of Sextortion Scam Emails

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Passwords, Security/Privacy, Virus/Malware
Have you received an email which starts off by listing one of your passwords and then goes on to indicate that a video recording of you watching an adult content video which will be sent to your friends unless you pay a few thousand dollars in bitcoin? Please don’t believe everything you read. Emails like this are scams. The first report I received of this type of scam email was in July 2018. Soon thereafter this article about sextortion scam emails appeared on Sophos’ website. Sophos is a British security company. The one truthful part of the email is that the spammers do possess one of your passwords. If you still use that password, please change it anywhere you use it. That’s all you need to do. Everything else in the email is bogus. Nobody installed spyware on your Mac. Nobody has video recordings of you.
Here are some additional actions you could take:

Easily Record Audio Or Video On Your Mac Using QuickTime Player

Posted on by Tim Hannon in macOS (formerly OS X), Software

Have you ever wanted to make a video recording of either yourself or your Mac’s screen? Have you ever needed to make a quick audio recording of your voice using your Mac? You can do this easily using Apple’s QuickTime Player. QuickTime Player is a free application and it comes bundled with the Mac operating system (macOS). I believe these features exist in all versions of QuickTime Player version 10, which was introduced alongside OS X Snow Leopard in 2009. I think that having the word Player in QuickTime’s name throws people off and they do not realize that it can be used to both create (or record) audio and video as well as play a variety of audio and video files. Read More from “Easily Record Audio Or Video On Your Mac Using QuickTime Player”

How To Import Mbox Files Into Outlook 2016

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Email, Software

Do you use Outlook 2016 on your Mac? Have you ever needed to import email messages stored in an mbox file? Mbox files are a common way to store email messages on computers using the UNIX operating system. Since the Mac operating system is a derivative of UNIX, Apple’s own Mail application stores its email message in an mbox format. I recently needed to import some email messages, stored in mbox files, into Outlook 2016 and was surprised to learn that Outlook 2016 can’t import mbox files. While there are some third-party applications that will let you import mbox files into Outlook I didn’t want to spend $40-$50 to accomplish this. Instead, I used Outlook 2011 for Mac, as an intermediary. Read More from “How To Import Mbox Files Into Outlook 2016”

How To Encrypt A USB Flash Drive

Posted on by Tim Hannon in Encryption, Security/Privacy

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 files on the drive. Apple makes it easy to encrypt an external drive.The feature is built into macOS, the Mac operating system. Right-click (or control-click) on the drive’s icon on your Mac’s Desktop (or in the left-hand sidebar of a Finder window) which causes a menu to appear. Read More from “How To Encrypt A USB Flash Drive”

Get Directions To Your Favorite Locations On Your iPhone

Posted on by Tim Hannon in iOS and iPhone/iPad Apps, Software

Do you frequently drive to a handful of destinations such as your home, office, gym, coffee shop, restaurant or storage unit? Did you know that you can mark these frequently visited locations as Favorites in the Maps app on your iPhone? Then you can easily get directions to these destinations. Even if you know your way to these destinations, it can be handy to ask Maps for directions since it’ll often offer 2 or 3 routes and point out the fastest based on current traffic conditions. Read More from “Get Directions To Your Favorite Locations On Your iPhone”

How To View Hidden Files On A Mac

Posted on by Tim Hannon in macOS (formerly OS X), Maintenance, Software, Utilities

Did you know that there are thousands of invisible files on your Mac? Have you ever needed to locate or delete one of these invisible files? Here are a couple of ways to be able to access the invisible files and folders on your Mac. A cautionary note, Apple makes these files invisible for a reason. They do not think the typical person needs to access these files and they are right. However, there are instances, such as when one is trying to manually uninstall an application or troubleshoot a problem that one needs to be able to access the invisible files on one’s Mac.Please be cautious when working on files that are typically invisible. If you do not know what a file’s purpose is, leave it alone. Some files are critical to the proper functioning of your Mac. Read More from “How To View Hidden Files On A Mac”