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 recognize a charge on your monthly credit card bill. Apple now offers an easy way for you to view all purchases made over the past 3 months. Read More from “Review All AppleID Purchases Within The Last 90 Days”
Suggestions For Troubleshooting Kernel Panics
A kernel panic refers to a very specific type of computer freeze. A variety of things can cause kernel panics. Below is a description of how your Mac behaves when it experiences a kernel panic so you can recognize it if this happens to you.
Read More from “Suggestions For Troubleshooting Kernel Panics”
How To Shutdown CrashPlan After You’ve Switched to BackBlaze
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 account. Instead, we will just unlink all of your Macs from your CrashPlan account and then we will let your CrashPlan account expire. Read More from “How To Shutdown CrashPlan After You’ve Switched to BackBlaze”
Manually Remove Remnants Of Mac Malware
Have you used MalwareBytes to remove malware from your Mac? Malwarebytes does a great job of removing harmful software from your Mac, but it sometimes leaves bits and pieces of the malware on your Mac. These remnants are not harmful to your Mac, but I like to get rid of them anyway. If you are one of our clients and we sent you a list of some files that need to be manually removed here are instructions to guide you. Read More from “Manually Remove Remnants Of Mac Malware”
Enable BCC In Apple Mail
Would you like to be able to use the blind carbon copy (Bcc) feature in Apple Mail? It is easy to enable this feature, but not necessarily obvious how to do so. By default, when you create a new email message in Mail, it only displays lines named To, CC and Subject. To add a Bcc line, click on the View menu and select Bcc Address Field. The two images below depict both the default configuration and how things look once Bcc has been enabled.
Reinstall Mac Operating System From The Recovery Partition
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 macOS.
OS X 10.7 and newer includes a feature called the Recovery Partition. This is a normally invisible part of the Mac’s hard drive. The Mac can start up from the Recovery Partition, and it can be used to erase the hard drive and then reinstall OS X onto that hard drive. Read More from “Reinstall Mac Operating System From The Recovery Partition”
Discreetly Disable Your iPhone’s TouchID
iOS 11, released in October, 2017, adds an Emergency SOS feature, which also gives you a way to disable your TouchID feature. Disabling TouchID could be desired in the event of a mugging or an arrest. Read More from “Discreetly Disable Your iPhone’s TouchID”
Photos’ Enticing But Confusing Album Named “All Photos”
If you use Apple’s Photos application, please read this tip which I think you will find helpful. Apple released Photos for the Mac in April 2015 so the majority of Mac users have migrated to it by now. Read More from “Photos’ Enticing But Confusing Album Named “All Photos””
Moving Email Messages Off Mail Server
Are you getting messages from your email hosting company that your email account is nearly full? If so, it’s time to move some of your email messages off of your hosting company’s email server and into folders on your Mac. Here are some general instructions for how to do this. These instructions assume you use Apple’s Mail application. Read More from “Moving Email Messages Off Mail Server”
Time To Plan Your Upgrade To Office 2016
[Update: February 2019 – A few months ago Microsoft released Office 2019 for both Windows and Mac so you should buy Office 2019 now, instead of Office 2016. Microsoft has announced that support for Office 2016 ends on October 13, 2020.]
If you use Office 2011, it’s time for you to start planning your upgrade to Office 2016. Office for the Mac includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, if you buy the Business version. There are a few reasons for you to start planning to switch to Office 2016. Initially, as of October 10, 2017, Microsoft will not release any more updates for Office 2011. This means they won’t fix any more bugs, release security updates or provide email or phone support. Additionally, Microsoft indicated that they have not tested Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook with macOS High Sierra (aka OS X 10.13) which Apple released in September 2017. Thus, if you choose to use Office 2011 in High Sierra, you might encounter issues. Lastly, Apple has indicated that High Sierra is the last version of the Mac operating system that will fully support 32-bit apps.
[Update October 2019 – While Office 2011 was no longer supported by Microsoft it continues to function reasonably well with macOS Mojave (aka macOS 10.14). Office 2011 does not function at all with macOS Catalina (aka macOS 10.15)]
So the writing is on the wall. Make your plans. When the time comes, you could either buy a copy of Office 2016 or you could subscribe to Office365. Office Home & Student 2016 costs $150. This includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Office Home & Business 2016 costs $230 and adds Outlook. If you want to subscribe to Office365 you can choice from either Office365 Home or Office365 Business plans.
Options For Migrating Off CrashPlan Home
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, everybody’s subscription was extended by 60 days at no additional cost. This way, everybody has at least 60 days to take action. If you recently renewed your annual subscription, say in August 2017, then you have 14 months, until October 2018, to take action.
See If You Rely On Older Apps Before Upgrading To iOS 11
Before you install iOS 11 on your iPhone or iPad, please check to see if you rely on older apps which are not compatible with iOS 11. iOS 11 is Apple’s latest major release of software for iPhones and iPads, released at the end of September, 2017. For many years, I’ve recommended holding off on installing major upgrades since Apple often introduces major redesigns to the user interface and major upgrades often have anmnoying bugs. With the upgrade to iOS 11 there is another reason to hold off on upgrading. iOS 11 no longer supports 32-bit apps. This means that older applications that haven’t been updated in several years will no longer work. Here’s how you can check to see if you have any incompatible apps on your device. Read More from “See If You Rely On Older Apps Before Upgrading To iOS 11”
Make Sure You Backup Your iPhone While Traveling
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 previous tip, How To Backup Your iPhone or iPad. Read More from “Make Sure You Backup Your iPhone While Traveling”
Make Your iPhone Easier To Read
Would you like to make the text on your iPhone or iPad easier to read? I believe the following 3 ways to enlarge text have been available since at least iOS 7 and they continue to be available in the current version of iOS. To turn on any of these options do this:
- Tap on Settings
- Tap on General
- Tap on Accessibility
- Then tap on either Bold Text, Larger Text or Zoom.
I’ll talk about each in turn.
Bold Text – If you tap on Bold Text to turn it on, you’ll be notified that you need to restart your iPhone. Go ahead and do this. Upon restart you’ll see that the text names of apps is bold. In fact, this is a systemwide adjustment. Text everywhere will be a bit thicker.
Larger Text – If you tap on Larger Text you’ll be able to turn on this feature and adjust a slider to control how much larger you want the text to be. Unlike Bold text, this is not a systemwide adjustment. Only apps which support Dynamic Type will use larger text. The Contacts app is an example of one app that uses Dynamic Text so use it to figure out where you want to position the slider. I recommend that, for starters, you position the slider to the right of center.
Zoom – If you tap on Zoom, you’ll be able to turn on this feature. Once this feature has been enabled you then need to know how to invoke it. You must double-tap 3 fingers on the screen. When you do this, the entire screen will zoom in. Thus, you’ll only be able to see a portion of the screen. To move around the screen, you can drag three fingers. Finally, to get out of zoom mode, double-tap 3 fingers again.
Share A Bluetooth Speaker With An iPhone and iPad
Have you ever wanted to share a Bluetooth device with 2 or more iOS devices? For example, do you want to share a Bluetooth speaker or a pair of Bluetooth headphones with both your iPhone and iPad? Sharing one Bluetooth device with multiple iOS devices can cause confusion. This tip will help you to understand and handle the confusion. Read More from “Share A Bluetooth Speaker With An iPhone and iPad”
How Edit Text On An iPhone or iPad
Do you know how to edit text you’ve typed on your iPhone? I am regularly surprised to find people who do not know it’s possible to do this. Let’s imagine that you’ve typed several lines of text in the Notes app, then you notice a typo back on the first line. You don’t need to delete all of the text back to the first line. Instead, you can do this:
- Simply tap your finger next to the typo. This will move the cursor, aka the flashing vertical line, to this location.
- Press the backspace key to remove the typo and then type the correct letter(s)
How To Empty Safari’s Cache
Are you having problems viewing one or two particular web sites in Safari? Were you previously able to view these web sites? If so, a common cause of this problem is corruption in Safari’s cache. Cache is temporary storage. Specifically, it contains recently viewed web pages. Occasionally, these temporarily stored web pages can get damaged. Thus, it can be useful to know how to empty this temporary storage. Here’s are instructions for emptying Safari’s cache on your Mac.
- Open Safari
- Click on the Safari menu and select Preferences
- Click on the Advanced button, at the far right end.
- Insert a checkmark next to Show Develop menu in menu bar.
- Click the red dot to close this window
- You’ll now see that the Develop menu is listed between the Bookmarks and Window menus at the top of your Mac’s screen.
- Click on the Develop menu and select Empty Caches, which is about half-way down the list.
Unfortunately, you will not see any confirmation that the caches have been emptied. Just trust that they have been. Next, open a new window in Safari and try to visit the web site that was giving you problems previously. Hopefully, this web site will now be displayed properly.
NuGuard iPhone Cases Are Great
Are you looking for a good case to protect your iPhone? Would you like the case to be easy to put on and take off? Would you like your iPhone well protected when you drop it? If so, I think you should consider NewerTech’s NuGuard iPhone case. It is a great value and comes in a variety of colors. It is a one-piece case that easily slides on and off. Its drop protection meets military standards (MIL-STD-810G). You can currently buy NuGuard cases for a range of iPhone models from the 4 through the 7. They also sell iPad cases but I’ve never used any of them. Read some reviews or watch some drop test videos. My last two iPhones have been protected by NuGuard cases. I dropped each phone dozens of times and they escaped unharmed every time.
Use Mail’s VIP Feature To Highlight Your Most Important Messages
Do you have a cluttered Inbox? Do you value emails from a few people more than all the rest? If so, you should make those few people VIPs. By designating a person as a VIP then emails from that person will appear in the VIP Mailbox which appears, separate from and below your Inbox. Here are some instructions on how to use this VIP feature. Read More from “Use Mail’s VIP Feature To Highlight Your Most Important Messages”
How To Make Sure Time Machine Backs Up Your External Drive
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.
If your Mac is using macOS 12 Monterey or older, use the instructions listed in Section 1
If your Mac is using macOS 13 Ventura or newer, jump to Section 2.
Section 1 – if your Mac is running macOS 12 Monterey or older
- Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences
- Click on Time Machine
- Click on the Options button in the lower right corner
- Look at the list of items under “Exclude these items from backups”
- If your external hard drive, USB flash drive or SD card is listed, click on it to select it and then click the minus sign icon. This will remove it from the list of excluded items. Thus, Time Machine will backup this drive or card.
- Click Save
- Click the red dot to close the Time Machine Preferences window.
Section 2 – if your Mac is running macOS 13 Ventura or newer
- Click on the Apple menu and select System Settings
- Click on General
- Click on Time Machine
- Click on the Options button in the lower right corner
- Look at the list of items under “Exclude from Backups”
- If your external hard drive, USB flash drive or SD card is listed, click on it to select it and then click the minus sign icon. This will remove it from the list of excluded items. Thus, Time Machine will backup this drive or card.
- Click Save
- Click the red dot to close the Time Machine Preferences window.