After I switched AppleID's, now my notes are gone. How can I get them back?
___________

I’m guessing you had notes that were associated with the other AppleID account. Should be a simple fix. We log into that account, pull those notes over to your current appleID notes account, then log back out again. You can use Internet accounts in system preferences to add the other iCloud. Account as a sub account. You will have less syncing options since you'll already have a primary iCloud account. So things like keychain, find my Mac, photos, will not be available to sync but notes will.

Then open notes and just drag the notes from the one account over to the other. Afterward, you can return to system preferences internet accounts pane and remove the sub iCloud account.

I don’t know why, but all my folders and things that were on my desktop before our session, are not there. Please tell me how to restore them. You may recall we switched AppleIDs on my computer.
___________

Sounds like Mike was probably syncing your desktop and documents items to his cloud space. Should be an easy fix. I’m happy to assist but if you’d like to try on your own here’s what you can do:

Go to iCloud.com and log into HIS iCloud account (based on yahoo.com). Select iCloud Drive from the menu.



Locate the items you want back. You can hold down the option key while clicking to select more than one file at the same time. Note, you cannot select folders using this method.
Then hit the download icon at the top. Those files will now be in your downloads folder and you can move them where ever you’d like from there.

How serious is this and do I have to go through and change each one...or is there a better, quicker way to address it?


___________

As I always say: security equals inconvenience. The more secure you want to be, the less convenient it will always be.

So the answer actually depends on several things:

1. Are these passwords all the same across different accounts? In other words, if you Amazon password is the same password as you Panera bread password, that's a sort of bad thing. I think of my password security in layers. Any password related to money like Amazon, PayPal, banking, Venmo, etc… need to be more complicated.

2. Are your passwords too simple like a word in the dictionary followed by a few numbers? Banana1968 or Monkey1970 are not good passwords. If your password is Goheels1, Tarheels1, or Rolltide1 it's time to rethink your security.

Above all, never join open wifi networks that do not require a password to log in. I don't think you really need to book a session to address this. Just ask yourself how important your security is and if it's worth putting the time in to locking things down. Then write down your changes! 85% of my day is spent waiting for people to figure out their passwords.

Ever since our session the other day I’m having trouble finding my cursor. Eventually it just seems to show up but it takes several minutes. Possibly an unintended consequence of something we did?
___________

There's no setting or change a person can make on a Mac that will disable the cursor so it would't be tied to any particular setting. However, it wouldn't hurt to make a couple small changes in system preferences that will force the Mac to rewrite the preference file associated with mouse behavior.

In system preferences go to "Accessibility". On the left, select Display then Cursor on the right side as seen below.



Now increase or decrease the slider and that will change the cursor size. It will also force a file (called a plist file) deep inside your computer to make adjustments. That alone may solve your problem. While at it, check out the "shake mouse" setting as well.

Other suggestions:

Restart your computer while holding down command+option+p+r. Then wait to hear the computer chime three different times. This resets the "parameter ram" and could be of use.

Use a plugged in mouse to see if the behavior goes away. Using a plugged in mouse would tell us where the problem is NOT and would give us a better idea of what to do next. For instance, it could be taking a long time for bluetooth to communicate with the mouse. If you are using a wired mouse, there is no bluetooth involved and therefore we would attack bluetooth settings next.

Lastly, if none of those end up being solutions, it could be that a different process on your computer is running so hard that the mouse is unable to respond due to all the CPU being used for some other task. This is rare but a possibility. Let's try the other solutions first.

Hey Scotty, when we met a couple of weeks ago to try to find my missing papers, you did a cleanup of some malware files. Today I received a message and took a screen shot (below) to see if I need to so anything about it. I eventually will have to click “ok” to get rid of it, but wanted to see if there is anything else I need to do.


___________

Messages like this one have been a very big pain in many Mac user's sides for the last several weeks now. First, it's not malware or anything that will harm your computer even though Apple often words the messaging as such. Instead, Apple is doing a poor job of telling you that some software on your computer is or will soon be out of date and you just update it. This is due to several possible reasons but the most likely reason is the following:

Any piece of software that Apple allows to live on your computer should be "signed" by Apple. These signatures (invisible files that live on your computer that basically vouch for the software saying it's cool) can expire. When they do Apple then presents a freak out screen like this one. Most recently they've done this to HP printer drivers. "HP pinter driver xyz will harm your computer and is malware". Again this is just a poorly worded message on Apple's part.

In this case, they are taking issue with the software "Malware Bytes" and letting you know it is expiring or becoming outdated in Apple's eyes. You will often see this type of message after an update or upgrade of your computer's software. In some cases it's a pain to deal with where you might have to fully remove all the components of the older software before installing a new version but most of the time, just going to the Mac App Store and redownloading it will resolve the issue.

Again, this is not malware or a virus. This is Apple telling you the program called Malware Bytes is becoming outdated.

I need to buy a laptop for my mother-in-law. She is also 82. Any suggestions as to which one to buy? She currently works on the same iMac that my mom does.
___________

First, I apologize for any stereotyping I’m about to do...

82 year olds and laptops can sometimes be a little problematic just so you know. Here’s why:

1. Trackpad and elderly motor skills. The sensitivity to one, two, three, or even four fingers touching at one time can lead an elderly user to triggering actions they didn’t intend. So you may want to go into settings and dial down the sensitivity settings on the trackpad system prefs.

2. Eye sight. Increasing the size of the cursor arrow helps a lot. I use it myself. You may also consider changing the resolution of the screen. This can be done in the display settings. You can either choose a large amount of viewable space with everything smaller or less viewable space with everything bigger. Good idea to point her to that area so she can change things herself to fit what she likes.

So if you’re going forward with the laptop idea, she won’t need much. And weight should be a consideration also. So I would look at the new MacBook Air. Apple just released a new version 2 weeks ago so now is great time to buy. They released the M1 processor Air and also in the 13” MacBook Pro. She doesn’t need the pro so I would lean toward this one:

13-inch MacBook Air - Space Gray - Apple


It has a 256 gig hard drive which should be plenty for her needs. Price point $999. I wouldn’t add on anything other than possibly AppleCare if you are into extended warranties.

Is it worth upgrading in the first place? Will Rachel get much benefit - she’s going to use it for law school for the next 3 years.
___________

The new M1 chip is the future but it’s not the present. This means, 8 months from now you will be glad you’re on the M1 chip but for now it there will be some growing pains. Several programs like Microsoft Office are having to run in an emulation mode called Rosetta. I’ve been working with a few M1 machines over the last couple weeks and I can see the potential greatness but there are some hurdles for now.

Suggested email solution for Apple Mail to manage across ALL devices - specifically a) managing unwanted junk email and b) setting rules to apply to all devises.

As info:
I found that when I set a rule up with my Macbook, the rest of the devises wouldn’t see the rules kick in until I turned on my Macbook.
___________

This is exactly right. Rules set up in Apple’s Mail program do not apply to other devices UNLESS the application is open and running on the Mac back home.

I think what’s happening is the Macbook sorts the emails out and then the other devises simply sync to the MacBook.
___________

Yes.

I’m assuming I need to set these up at the source somehow but not sure how.
___________

You can’t set up rules on iOS devices. They are slaves to what’s on the server only. No colors, no rules. You can flag and that’s it.

My fingers on the trigger…still January before upgrading?
___________

Big Sur released late November with 11.0 and was soon updated to 11.0.1. As always I discuraage all users from any .0 release. YESTERDAY Apple release 11.1 so I'd say you are much more safe to upgrade. As always, have a good backup drive before any major upgrade. Just ask the computer I'm currently working on….



Ran updates, didn't have a backup. All is lost.

my machine is acting up.
I’ve attached a screen shot of the error message.
What’s the next step here?


___________
Looks to be Wacom tablet related. Unplug if any usb drivers. Or you can try booting into Safe mode with the shift key down then disabling any third party devices.

That’s my first guess based on the partial screenshot.

Currently we all have iPhones and various laptops. We put Qustodio on each of the kids phones and it's turning out to be a pain.
Would like to set up the apple management to see if it works better.

Would you be able to help with that? If so, what are your prices? There would be 3 phones, 1 is our 17 yr old that we really only want to see his movement, leaving home, arriving home.
The other 2 would be monitoring their gaming time too. They complain that they lose use of gmail with Qustodio which they do need to access for school.

____________

Third party parenting apps are trash. They’re based on using “profiles” on a phone which can be worked around in about 10 seconds.

Yes, all the things you’re hoping to do are possible with Screen Time, Apple’s built in parenting controls. You’d need all their devices in your hands, you’d need their Apple IDs and passwords. You’d enable screen time and place a 4 digit code within the screen time settings in order to prevent the children from altering those settings. Their apple IDs would join your family giving you the power to adjust settings without having to be on their devices.

As for the 17 year old, you would be able to track and watch their movements, be alerted to when the leave, arrive etc.., but Apple consider’s 18 year olds adults so you’d only be able to use the limiting features of screen time until his 18th birthday. You’d still be able to track them and be notified of their movement but they would gain the ability to turn that off if they chose.

My rate is $130 per hour pro rated after the first hour. Terms available at sellsconsulting.com/terms

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Keep getting prompts to upgrade; is Big Sur safe yet?
___________

Safe, yes. Stable, yes. Would I upgrade? Not yet.

I say wait until mid Jan. I’m seeing several issues, mostly with the new Apple M1 chip but best just to wait a bit. They did put out a very VERY big .0.1 update a couple days ago but that seems to mostly address Rosetta, their new translation software for the M1.

Just be be safe, I’d say chill for a couple more weeks. Once 11.1 is out (their on 11.0.1 at the moment) then I think you can pull the trigger. Software update or the App Store will tell you what the currently available version is.

Excel spreadsheets open upside down and how to fix?
___________

Definitely a very rare and bizarre problem but not unheard of. As you've probably discovered, scrolling to the bottom of the spreadsheet then back up usually forces a correct redraw of the data but that is only temporary. To try to solve this for good, first thing you want to do is make sure you have the latest version of Office.

To update Office to the latest version, first open either Word, Powerpoint, or Excel then, under the Menu bar, select "check for updates". For the super geeky, you can find the updater at Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate

Once the Updater App launches, be sure to check the box in the bottom left to just keep Office up to date automatically.



To make matters more complicated, Apple is in the middle of a transition to the new M1 chip which means all applications have to be re written specifically for that chip. Office has not yet released an M1 version so that means it's running via a translator called "Rosetta 2". It's invisible to you but important to know just in case the upside down issue is related. Doubtful it is because the upside down issue existed prior to the M1 chip being released. Just worth mentioning.

If neither of these things works then the next thing to try would be to remove some of the cache files associated to Office. Depending on your level of ability it may be better to have me remove those. Run the updates first and if you still need assistance, I can remote in via Zoom of course.

There are many methods out there one can try to limit your child's time on Xbox. Some routers allow for limiting the device's time using the serial number (aka: MAC address). There are several third party device control apps like Bark, Circle, Our Pact that profess to limit Xbox and other gaming access. The one I want to focus on is the new Xbox family app. This is Microsoft's preferred way to have parents limit game play and so far seems to be pretty promising but you'll have to get it set up first.

Now it's important to note first that your child will always find a way around any parental controls in order to get what they want. There is no perfect 100% solution. All these apps and methods do is send a message that you as a parent have certain expectation. In other words, don't rely completely on a piece of software to replace your parenting skills.

Xbox family will require you know a few things.

1. What is the email address and password your child uses with their Xbox/Microsoft account? If you don't know it, you can use this page to help you figure it out.
2. What is your email address and password to your Microsoft account.

3. Download Xbox Family on your iPhone (available in the App Store). You can use the same Microsoft account that you have used if you've purchased Microsoft Office in the past. If you are unsure of or need to create a Microsoft account, you can do so within the app or go to at Microsoft.com then choose "sign in".

. .

4. If you've never used your Microsoft account to play xbox games, you'll be asked to make a "gamertag". This is a silly name people go by when playing. This step is unimportant and you can usually just accept whatever suggestion they give you.

5. You are now the organizer and ready to add family members to your family. You'll now be asked to either create or invite your child. I suggest starting with INVITE. Your child already has a Microsoft ID whether you realize it or not. Creating one for them will just give them two. So choose 'invite" then log into the email they used in the past to set up their xbox account (as discussed in step 1) and await the email confirmation.



6. Once your child shows up as a member of your family on the screen below, you'll be the organizer and they will be a member. Time to start controlling!


In the example above, I've created an organizer Microsoft account and a family member account called "s". He's the child who the organizer can control.

.

As you can see, there's a ton of variable controls you can use to limit your child's Xbox time including, time ranges, amount of time, age restrictions, Minecraft solo or group play, etc…
Another great thing about this app is that each week you can check out a report on your child's overall xbox usage (just like Screentime parental controls for iPhone). That's a good visual aid to help figure out how much time to allow or pull away from your child's gaming world.

Note: The one thing I have not yet tested personally is the managed user's ability or inability to simply sign out of the account on their Xbox and then into a different account, therefor circumventing parental controls. I'm sure that Microsoft prevents this by either sending the organizer a notification or disallowing it directly on the box itself.

Overall, I think the Xbox family app is the easiest way to influence your child's gaming. Before the app, parents had to use the xbox itself to try to manage things and kids just laughed as they watched their parents try to navigate through menu screens. Using the app, at least this way, us old people are able to use an interface that's a little more familiar to us, an iPhone app.

There's a lot more info at:
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/apps/family-settings-app

Game on.

Do you have a favorite multi-charging stand? One that can my iPhone, iPods, and Apple Watch all at once.
___________

Not really. Since they all have different wattage requirements and connectors or interfaces, there’s no one fits all solution. You really have to pay attention to what charger you use with what device. Example: iPad charger will charge the iPad much faster than an iPhone charger due to wattage requirements. Some USB ports will charge faster than others for the same reason.

There are also differences between Apple Watch year chargers. It’s all convoluted at the moment until all devices adapt the new USBC standard. iPad is there, iPhone is not yet. It still uses the Lightning connector which is proprietary to Apple. Conductive charging is available on the iPhone and watch but not the iPad. So everything is still in a transition and until it’s all standard, there’s not one dock solution that I can recommend.

Can I still get Catalina? I can't find it on the App Store.
___________

Yes. Apple has a stupid policy of removing public access to old versions of the operating system when they release a new one. This is ridiculous as there are many reasons people could still use a link to old versions. Say you have a computer that is too old to update to the latest version but you can't find its last supported OS. Even using recovery mode, that only takes you back to the OS the computer shipped with then you're just back to the same situation. Bad choice by Apple. Good news though. They've not taken old OS access down completely, only removed it from public view unless you know where to look. Here's a direct link to Catalina, still available (for now) in the Mac App Store. It's free.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12

Is there still a use for this  desktop?
It’s prob 8-10 years old


___________

If the hard drive is still functional ( that particular model iMac was down for hard drive failure over time) then yes, it would be useful to someone. It will not move to the latest version of the OS (Big Sur) however it will at the very least, take MacOS 10.13 High Sierra or even possibly macOS Catalina 10.15 which would make it plenty useful for someone. If you'd like to recycle it however, you can use this link to see if it is eligible.

I have not downloaded Big Sur per your advice (thanks by the way)
But even in my Catalina 10.15.7 OS I’m still getting messages that using my
(already present) scanner will damage my computer. What should I do?
Error message has me moving app from dock to trash, which I’ve done.
Now trash won't empty.
___________

I've seen this several times in the last few weeks. Due to a conflict between HP and Apple, the software drivers your printer/scanner uses is no longer considered "authentic" by Apple. No, it will not harm your computer. But it is a pain. Apple is no longer "signing" the old drivers so you'll need to remove the old driver and reinstall a new version. Here's a few things to try:

In system preferences, go to Printers, select the printer on the left side and then delete it by hitting the minus key. Now go to Macintosh HD/Library/Printer/ and toss out the folder called "HP". Next you'll go to HP's website and search for your printer model and download the new driver. If you run in to any issues, you can just go straight to system preferences and re add the printer again. The Mac should automatically download a new version of the printer/scanner software except this version will be "signed" by Apple and considered legit.

As far as the trash not emptying, it may be because items are considered "in use". If a restart doesn't resolve it, you can always use activity monitor to find the running software, kill it, then empty the trash. I realize that's easier said than done but that's the process we'd use most likely. Hopefully just reinstalling the printer drivers will resolve everything.

I can’t remember what our discussion of Adobe Flash Player was except to ignore the updates. I am getting a notification that it will automatically uninstall unless I update it.
So far I am choosing to ignore it. Do I still need it on my computer?
___________

Do not interact with anything that says "Flash". As I discuss with many people, it's the most commonly used word that malware publisher use to pretend to help you. With that said, Adobe (the company that created the software called Flash) has discontinued it. The internet as a whole, has decided to stop using the old outdated technology. This means that any website that still uses flash to show things like embedded video, dancing images, interactive content, will no longer be displayed starting Jan, 2021. If you feel you may be looking at something fraudulent, feel free to send me a screenshot. (comman+shift+4 then drag over what you are seeing). Overall, there's nothing you need to do. Keeping your computer's OS up to date is always a good idea. Currently 10.15.7 is the latest version of Catalina however OS 11 Big Sur has been released although I am not currently green lighting that for people. Better to wait just a little longer, say mid January.

Adobe is providing an "uninstall" link as Flash reaches end of life but I don't know if you're looking at the legitimate uninstall or something false.

Long story short: don't update, don't uninstall, don't interact with flash at all because I can't guarantee you're not being tricked without actually seeing it.

Here's Adobe's statement on flash end of life: https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html

Recently saw a story about hackers being able to breach our computers and phone information from public chargers. Does this really happen and do those Data Blockers that look like little USB drives help to prevent that?
___________

Anything is possible. Yes, it is completely realistic to suspect that malware can travel through our normal infrastructure. The good news is that it's pretty rare for this to happen. As a general rule, do not join open wifi networks like hospitals, airports, coffee shops. You are at a much greater risk of handing over data through open wifi than you are by using a public outlet. To be safe, instead of using an open USB port at a place like an airport, just take your charger along with you and plug directly to a wall outlet. By using the actual charger that came with your device, you'll eliminate any need for the filtering device like you mentioned earlier. I wouldn't bother using one of those. Long story short: don't join open wifi networks. Open wifi networks=networks that do not require a password to join.

I have a questions regarding the software overlay on our Wifi. I purchased two Mac Airbooks for my kids and their Chrome browser does not work when they are on our wifi network. It works on other wifi networks.

My wife and I are both using Chrome on our devices, one being a Mac and other a Lenovo.

Apple Care Support could not resolve the problem for us. T

Both kids use Chrome for their online schooling.

Could this be related to the software you added for us on the wifi?
___________

Very odd that chrome wouldn't work but Safari would on the MacBooks. This would doubltly be related to the actual wifi router. Either the entire computer is allowed to join and access the network or it's not. The routers don't check for the type of browser being used. Which leads me to think the issue is somehow onboard each of the MacBooks. It is very possible this could be solved remotely so feel free to schedule a session if you need. I could zoom into and control each of the MacBooks to try to resolve the issue. But I'd first need to know 100% that you see that SAFARI is working on the MacBook just fine but CHROME is not. If that is true, then we can proceed from there. If SAFARI is not working, then that leads us down a different path. Let me know the answer to that first question.

I have one small issue trying to send out an group email to 265 parents. It won't go.
___________

Several things could be at fault.

1. You could have misspelled email addresses in your outgoing list. That could prevent the entire list from going out.
2. Your ISP might be considering anything over 30 recipients as potential spam and blocking such a large outgoing email group.

The easiest way around this is to use a service like MailChimp. It’s free up to around 2000 recipients.

Which computer should I buy? I know, it’s very broad. I only use it for internet, emails and some spreadsheet work. The iMac that I’ve had for the last five years has just been soooo slow. I’m looking for something that’s a lot faster.
We replaced the hard drive a little over a year ago and that hasn’t helped much.
Any insight would be helpful
___________

Apple has just started a transition to a new type of processor. They are leaving the “Intel” brand and beginning to use their own processors. They’ve always designed their own processors for iPads and iPhones so they’re moving that same idea over to their computer lines. The MacBook Air and 13” MacBook Pro lines are the first to get the new processors. This means the iMacs and larger 16” MacBook pros are in line waiting. They should be available mid 2021. So you might consider a 13” MacBook Pro. It checks the speed box for you, checks the better hard drive box (solid state, no longer the old spinning drives that are just not that fast) checks the portability box, and gets you a little more time into the future with the new processor.

Your thoughts on this Range XTD for our home?


___________

No. I never suggest people mix router manufacturers. These third party extenders are problematic.