When you’re on vacation or out of the office for a day-long meeting would you like to send an auto-reply to email messages that you receive? If your email provider is Rackspace then follow these instructions. Rackspace is a premiere email provider and I regularly recommend Rackspace to my clients. Read More from “How To Set Up An Auto-Reply If You Use Rackspace Email”
How To Search Your Entire Mac’s Hard Drive
Did you know that Apple’s built-in search tool called Spotlight doesn’t search the entire hard drive? There are good reasons why Apple does this (which I won’t go into now), but there are also times when you want to be able to search the entire hard drive. When I’m troubleshooting a problem on a client’s Mac, I often need to search through various folders that Spotlight doesn’t search. I use Devon Technologies’ EasyFind or Thomas Tempelmann’s Find Any File.
Use The Recovery Partition to Securely Erase Your Mac’s Mechanical Hard Drive
Are you retiring an older Mac that has a mechanical, spinning hard drive and its running macOS version 10.7 or higher? If so, here are instructions on how you can securely erase the Mac’s hard drive before you donate your Mac or sell it.
Read More from “Use The Recovery Partition to Securely Erase Your Mac’s Mechanical Hard Drive”
How To Rename Your iPhone or iPad
Here are instructions on how to rename your iPhone or iPad. The names of these devices are often copied from one device to the next so it’s possible that your new iPhone 6 might still be named Tim’s iPhone 4, for example. You don’t want that! Read More from “How To Rename Your iPhone or iPad”
How To Set Gmail As Your Mac’s Default Email Client
Do you use Gmail? When you click an email link on a web site does Apple Mail or some other email client open? If so, you should follow these instructions to make Gmail your default email client. I’ve provided instructions for the 3 most widely used web browsers: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Follow the instructions listed for the browser you use.
[Update February 2019 – If you’ve updated to macOS Mojave then you have Safari 12. The solution I outline below, the mailto extension, does not work with Safari 12. Fred Potter, the developer of a new solution, pointed this out to me. While I haven’t tested his solution, Fred created a Mac application named Open in Webmail. Get Open in Webmail from the Mac App Store where it currently costs 99 cents. This app currently has 8 reviews and an overall rating of 4.9 stars out of 5.]
Read More from “How To Set Gmail As Your Mac’s Default Email Client”
A Cautionary Tale About Why You Shouldn’t Use Dropbox For Backup
This week’s Tech Tip is a cautionary tale. Using Dropbox as your sole backup can be dangerous. I recently became aware of an incident that occurred in the summer of 2014. A user of the free version of Dropbox lost about 8000 files related to his PhD dissertation due to a bug in Dropbox’ Selective Sync feature. This web page provides the full story if you’d like to know the details. Read More from “A Cautionary Tale About Why You Shouldn’t Use Dropbox For Backup”
How To Change Your OS X User Account Picture
Below are instructions on how to change your OS X user account picture. When you took your new Mac out of the box and turned it on initially, you were lead through creating a user account and either had one of the built-in photos randomly assigned to your User Account or you were offered the choice of using the Mac’s built-in camera to take a photo of yourself. Not surprisingly, clients are often not happy with the photo linked to their account. Here are instructions on how to change the photo: Read More from “How To Change Your OS X User Account Picture”
OS X Bash Update Available
A few weeks ago Apple released an update which addresses the bash security vulnerability found in OS X during the last week of September 2014. The security vulnerability was nicknamed shellshock or the bash bug and reportedly affects all versions of OS X as well as many versions of Linux and Unix released over the past 25 years. Read More from “OS X Bash Update Available”
Entering your SMTP Password in Apple Mail
When you reset or change your email account password, you have to enter the new password in two places in your email account configurations in Mail. The first place is in the incoming mail settings. The second place is in the outgoing (SMTP) mail settings. Locating these outgoing settings is not obvious, so I’m frequently asked how to change SMTP settings. Here are instructions for changing your password in the outgoing settings if you use Apple’s Mail application on your Mac, iPhone or iPad. Read More from “Entering your SMTP Password in Apple Mail”
Restarting Fixes A Variety Of Problems
Restarting fixes a variety of problems. It’s true! You might have heard the adage, When in doubt, restart or if you’ve ever called for computer support you’ve likely been asked Have you tried restarting yet? I know I ask my clients this question almost daily. If you’re having a problem with a device, please restart it. This is true for computers, iPhones, printers, wireless routers, as well as other devices. When you’re having a problem, restart any or all of your associated devices. Restarting almost never causes problems and it commonly fixes them. Restarting can also be used as a way to prevent problems.
Read More from “Restarting Fixes A Variety Of Problems”
iText Express A Great, Free, Easy-To-Use Word Processor
I use iText Express as my everyday word processor. I know that Microsoft Word is the defacto standard and Apple’s Pages is a common alternative. I own both and use Pages when I want to easily mix text and graphics to create a newsletter or flyer, but I find that iText Express meets my everyday writing needs. Read More from “iText Express A Great, Free, Easy-To-Use Word Processor”
Limit The Number Of Messages In Your Inbox and Sent Folders
Do you have thousands of email messages in your Inbox or Sent folder? If so, read on to learn how this can cause problems as well as better ways to organize your messages. Recently, I’ve had a string of users who have been negatively impacted since they’ve had over 10,000 messages in either their Inbox or Sent mail folder. Read More from “Limit The Number Of Messages In Your Inbox and Sent Folders”
Selecting New Passwords
I know you subscribe to my Tech Tips to get pearls of wisdom and nuggets of knowledge. Not this week. This Tech Tip is just for fun. Hope you enjoy it. I know we can all relate to this scenario.
Computer: Please enter your new password.
Person: cabbage Read More from “Selecting New Passwords”
Use Remote Disc To Share A CD/DVD Drive Between Macs
Did your new Mac come without a built-in CD/DVD drive? If you have an older Mac you can use a feature called Remote Disk to share the older Mac’s CD/DVD drive with your newer Mac. Here are instructions on how to set up that feature: Read More from “Use Remote Disc To Share A CD/DVD Drive Between Macs”
Configure Your Mac to Not Sleep
I’m able to provide remote support for my clients. In order to remotely connect to a Mac, it needs to be on and awake. Here are instructions on how to configure your Mac to never sleep. The instructions vary based on the processor in your Mac. To determine the processor, follow steps 1 and 2 below. Read More from “Configure Your Mac to Not Sleep”
Avoid Apps Like MacKeeper, TuneUpMyMac and MacBooster
This Tech Tip is a cautionary tale. As a general rule, I recommend that you avoid installing apps that claim to tune-up or optimize your Mac. Last week, I worked on two Macs whose performance was negatively impacted by MacKeeper, MacBooster and TuneUpMyMac. A third Mac’s web browsing had been hijacked by Conduit Search. It’s not clear if any of these applications are actually malware, but I consider them all annoy-ware at a minimum. Read More from “Avoid Apps Like MacKeeper, TuneUpMyMac and MacBooster”
Burn DVD of iPhoto Slideshow using iDVD
Here are instructions on how to burn an iPhoto slideshow to a DVD. Specifically, these instructions are for people who have the current versions of iPhoto (9.5.1) and iDVD (7.1.2) and want the slideshow to automatically start playing when the disc is inserted into a DVD player. Read More from “Burn DVD of iPhoto Slideshow using iDVD”
Connecting Bluetooth Devices To Your Mac
Would you like to use a wireless keyboard, mouse, or trackpad with your Mac? Bluetooth is a wireless technology that lets one connect various devices such as keyboards, mice, printers and speakers. The maximum range of Bluetooth is about 30 feet. People like the idea of Bluetooth devices since it reduces cable clutter. However, Bluetooth devices use batteries, so it becomes important to keep these in stock. Also, if you choose to use a bluetooth keyboard or mouse, I recommend that you have a spare old-fashioned wired, USB keyboard or mouse stashed in your closet in case the Bluetooth device ever acts up.
Here are some general instructions for connecting a Bluetooth device to your Mac: Read More from “Connecting Bluetooth Devices To Your Mac”
Forwarding or Deleting Select Text Messages
Have you ever wanted to delete or forward an individual text message from your iPhone or iPad? Here are some simple instructions: Read More from “Forwarding or Deleting Select Text Messages”
Safe Boot Your Mac
Does your Mac get stuck during the startup process? If so, then you might want to try Safe Boot to see if you can get your Mac to startup successfully. Safe Boot is the process of making your Mac start up with a bare minimum of system software. It also forces an inspection of the hard drive. Read More from “Safe Boot Your Mac”