Tips, tricks and solutions for your Mac problems
Arushi writes in with an interlocked problem that has a few ways you can unpick it for a solution:
My iCloud Photo Library is enabled, and I want to disable it, since there is very little storage left in my iCloud subscription.
It’s not quite a Hobson’s choice, but if you don’t have enough local storage, how can you proceed?
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Eric Desrochers happily runs Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard—and that’s a version that a lot of people remained delighted with for a long while, particularly the 10.6.8 final release.
If I was to upgrade to a newer, or even the newest OS, will the new OS be able to use the Snow Leopard era Time Machine backup to restore my things on the updated OS? Or am I doing backups more or less for nothing?
Time Machine backups can be used to do a full system restore of a dead hard drive or computer, but also migrate just user files, applications, and some settings from one computer to another. You can do this during system setup of a new Mac, after installing a fresh copy of OS X on a computer, or even using Migration Assistant while OS X is up and running and you’re logged in.
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Vanessa Monique Smith wonders about deleted files:
Without using additional software, can I find files I have deleted on Mac OS X El Capitan?
This is a rich question, because there are so many possibilities. Apple doesn’t include an “undelete” tool as such, but it has a lot of ways to back out of a deletion before the file is gone for good, and third-party software you may already be using can help, too:
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I receive email from readers constantly trying to fly their operating system ship out of the gravity well of the iOS or OS X public beta program in which they enrolled. OS X can be easier to escape, as you can roll back to an earlier version by installing it (in most cases) in place on your Mac without deleting any apps or documents. (Some folks have done so and use our instructions for leaving the beta program, and still get update notices, however.)
iOS betas are more of a pain, because you can’t simply roll the system backwards with a simple installation. Instead, you have to have made a full backup before you install the iOS beta—fire up your time-traveling machine if you didn’t. To revert, you must restore that backup. It’s a reason to hold off on mobile betas if you don’t want to back up to back out, and lose any non-backed-up changes, like which apps you’ve installed since performing the backup, screen layouts, and certain non-cloud-stored local data.
Remove this profile in iOS 9 to stop being informed about beta updates.
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If you’re using Apple’s two-step verification system for logins, I have just one (not two) questions for you: do you know where your Recovery Key is?
A friend recently went through a multi-week set of interlocked problems when he was locked out of his Apple ID account on his iPhone, and couldn’t find his Recovery Key. He wasn’t ultimately able to get Apple to unlock his account. (During this period, his phone also locked up for a few days and he couldn’t receive texts or alerts, either.)
He had forgotten he’d enabled two-step verification, which is the older of Apple’s two methods of using a second piece of information to validate that you’re the accountholder. With the two-step system, Apple uses something akin to Find My iPhone to provide a code on your iOS devices or sends an SMS that you use to complete your login.
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Natasha Scott asks about finding a simple way to work between two different versions of Pages: Pages ’09 (version 4) and Pages 5. She writes:
From my research online it appears that they do not work compatibly together; I need to be able to open the documents he sends to me and edit them.
I was also curious if there was any way for me to download the version of Pages ’09 so that I have the same version my work associate has.
You’ve got a few different ways to sort this out, but I’ll start with the second question first, as it may be simpler. While Apple no longer sells the iWork ’09 suite, of which Pages ’09 is a part, third-party sellers offer it via Amazon and other sources. Looking at Amazon, I see a number of “new” copies available for about $20. (Check the New box under Condition in the far left column of the Amazon page.) I wouldn’t buy “open box” copies, and I’d only purchase from sellers with high ratings and a history at Amazon. As of El Capitan, Pages ’09 still runs just fine.
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After my third credit-card number was stolen this year, I had to make the rounds of recurring payments to get them changed. But I hit a snag. I had used Apple’s in-store iPhone Upgrade Program to purchase my iPhone 6s, which is handled by Citizens One. But even though I ostensibly should have had loan information somewhere, I couldn’t find a digital or print copy of any of it.
Stranger still, that iPhone doesn’t show up as an Apple Store purchase in my account, even though everything else I’ve bought from Apple online and in an Apple Store is listed. I visited Apple’s site to find more information, and there’s none there, either. I called an Apple Store help number listed on the site, went through phone trees, and when I answered legitimately, the tree said it couldn’t help me and hung up. I tried a few paths with the same result.
I went to Citizens One’s Web site, which required an account number number to register and get started. But my monthly statement from the loan processor, sent via email, only contained the last four digits of my account number. Good on them for security, but bad for me.
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Mac 911
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