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How to Disable Keyboard Backlighting on MacBook Pro or Air

written by applenws

Keyboard backlighting is one of the best keyboard features on Mac laptops, illuminating the keyboard to help you see the keys better in low light situations. And let’s face it, it also just plain looks cool too. Most MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air users like the keyboard backlighting feature, but there are some users who might not, and there also some scenarios where some Mac laptop users may wish to completely disable the keyboard backlighting feature.

This article will show you how to completely disable the keyboard backlighting on Mac laptops should you want to do so.

How to Disable Keyboard Backlighting on Mac Laptops

Here’s how you can turn off keyboard backlighting on MacBook Pro, Air, and MacBook:

  1. Go to the  Apple menu and to “System Preferences” then select the ‘Keyboard’ preference panel
  2. Under the ‘Keyboard’ section uncheck the box for “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light”
  3. Now press the “F5” key repeatedly (or fn + F5, or find the keyboard backlight button on Touch Bar) until the key backlighting is off

That’s it, keyboard backlighting will now be off. This is visibly obvious, so give the keys a look or take them into dim or dark lighting to confirm.

It’s important to turn off the “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light” setting first, otherwise you’ll find the keyboard backlighting sometimes turns itself back on again depending on what the ambient lighting situation is.

How to Disable Keyboard Backlighting on Mac Laptops

If you want to reverse this change and re-enable keyboard backlighting on the Mac laptop series:

  1. Go to the  Apple menu then to “System Preferences” and choose the ‘Keyboard’ preferences
  2. Under the ‘Keyboard’ section check to enable “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light”
  3. Press “F6” key repeatedly (or fn + F6, or find the keyboard backlight button on Touch Bar) until keyboard backlighting is back on and at the brightness setting you desire

If you’re trying to turn keyboard backlighting on again but see a keyboard lighting locked logo on the screen, it’s probably because the light sensor is being activated by a bright light in the room or from elsewhere. Nonetheless if you’re convinced there’s another issue, follow this troubleshooting guide if keyboard backlighting is not working on a MacBook and you’ll probably be able to fix it pretty quickly.

This applies to the backlit keyboards on MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air, as the Apple desktop keyboards don’t have keyboard backlighting.

If you know of another method to disable keyboard backlighting on Mac laptop, share with us in the comments below!

Source: OSX Daily

January 20, 2019 0 comment
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Battery Draining with MacOS Mojave? 15 Battery Life Tips to Help

written by applenws

Do you feel like battery life has worsened since updating a Mac laptop to MacOS Mojave? Some Mac users have discovered their battery life has reduced after updating a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air to MacOS Mojave 10.14.x, or just that battery life seems to drain faster than expected.

Here we will discuss a few possible reasons for reductions in battery life, as well as offer some helpful tips to improve battery life on Mac laptops running MacOS Mojave.

1: Recently update a Mac laptop to Mojave? Then wait…

If you just recently updated a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook to MacOS Mojave, and now you feel like the laptop battery is draining much faster than usual, then you might be right… your battery life could be worse than usual, at least for the time being.

This is usually because MacOS runs a variety of background activities and tasks for everything from indexing Spotlight, indexing Photos, to managing and syncing iCloud data, to various other background tasks. The effect of this system activity is potentially a temporary reduction in battery life or even reduced system performance as the background processes complete themselves.

The solution to this is quite simple, and requires nothing more than some patience. Just wait until all there background activity completes. Leave your Mac laptop plugged into a power outlet and turned on for a while (leaving it on overnight when it’s not in general use can be helpful for this, just be sure to use a screen saver or turn the display off) and just let MacOS complete the necessary background chores. After a day or two these background tasks should be completed, and Mac performance and MacBook battery life should return back to normal.

Remember you can always check to see how much time a Mac battery is expected to last based on current activity and the current charge by looking in the Energy section of Activity Monitor. This can help to be a reference point for knowing what your current battery life is, as well as seeing how it may change based on various adjustments made using the tips below.

2: Check Energy Saver Battery Settings

Some Mac laptop users may have Energy Saver settings configured in such a way that is not optimal for battery life.

  1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”, then go to “Energy Saver”
  2. Go to the Battery tab
  3. Make sure that “Power Nap” is disabled for Battery, and that ‘Turn display off after’ is set to a reasonably short time on battery (a few minutes or less), etc

Power Nap and Turn display settings as Battery life tips for MacOS Mojave

Some MacBook Pro users have noticed that Power Nap was turned on for battery power, which can theoretically lead to increased battery draining when a Mac laptop is in sleep mode, since it allows for some limited system activity even when a computer is sleeping. Power Nap is fine for using with a Power Adapter, but on Battery power it’s best to leave that setting off.

3: Check for Energy Consuming Apps

You can see what Mac apps are using battery energy quickly by using the battery menu. If you see something in the list that is drawing significant power and you’re not using the app, quit it, or address the behavior that is causing notable energy consumption.

  1. From anywhere on the Mac, pull down the battery menu
  2. Wait for energy use data to load under the “Apps Using Significant Energy” section for quickly seeing energy consuming apps, take action as needed (save work and quit the app, etc)

See what apps using significant energy in MacOS Mojave

4: Investigate Energy Consuming Processes

You can investigate energy usage for all processes, apps, and tasks on the Mac with Activity Monitor, this can be helpful for finding errant processes that are hogging battery power, or for simply locating an obvious battery draining app or process:

  1. Open ‘Activity Monitor’, found in /Applications/Utilities/
  2. Click the “Energy” tab to see apps energy usage

find processes using energy and draining Mac battery

Pay attention for what apps and processes are running and potentially using energy, though note that many system specific tasks or processes may simply need to complete their task before they no longer consume notable energy resources (for example, if you recently updated system software, or rebooted a Mac, or are actively running Time Machine in the background for system backups, etc, you will likely see processes related to those activities).

5: Reduce Screen Brightness on the Mac Laptop

Reducing screen brightness can lead to a dramatic improvement to battery life on any electronic devices, Mac laptops included. Whether it’s a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook, you can improve battery life by reducing screen brightness. Lower the brightness to whatever is tolerable to your usage situation, obviously if you’re in a dimmer lit area then having a low screen brightness is more acceptable than in a bright room, so use discretion.

You can adjust screen brightness from the keyboard (or Touch Bar), or from the Display preference panel.

Reduce screen brightness to improve battery life on Mac laptops

6: Turn Off Visual Effects and Transparency in MacOS

MacOS has a variety of visual effects with transparent backgrounds and animated motions that all look great, but they also require some system resources to render. Turning off the visual eye candy can potentially help to improve battery life simply because it reduces resource usage:

  1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”, then go to “Accessibility”
  2. In ‘Accessibility’ select the “Display” settings
  3. Check the boxes next to “Reduce Motion” and “Reduce Transparency”

Disable visual effects on the Mac

Some Mac users may notice that turning on Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency can speed up their computer a bit too, particularly on older machines, or if you frequently have many windows open. And of course some people just prefer the way that things look and function with these features turned off as well, so even if you don’t discover any performance change you may appreciate the customization anyway.

9 Additional General Battery Life Tips for MacOS Mojave

Some other general tips to help improve battery life in MacOS (Mojave or otherwise) are as follows:

  • Install system software updates in Mac OS when they become available
  • Install app updates when they become available
  • Quit apps when you are finished using them
  • Reduce the total number of apps open at the same time to reduce system resource usage
  • When you are finished using them, close any open Finder windows that automatically update (like “Recents” / All My Files, smart folders, etc), or that sync to a cloud service (iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc)
  • Turn off unnecessary Location Services, as found in System Preferences > “Security & Privacy” > “Privacy” > “Location Services”, turning off extra location services
  • Consider resetting SMC on the Mac if the battery drain issue is associated with something like constantly running fans, or other unusual behavior
  • If your wi-fi is problematic in ways that can impact power consumption, like dropping connections, then consider troubleshooting any wi-fi issues in MacOS Mojave to reduce the energy use of searching for new wireless connections
  • Review some general battery life tips for MacBook and Mac laptops

How has your battery life been with MacOS Mojave? Does your MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air have better or worse battery life since updating to MacOS 10.14? Did the above tips help to resolve any battery drain issues you may have been having? Share with us your experiences with battery life and troubleshooting in MacOS Mojave by leaving a comment below.

Source: OSX Daily

December 12, 2018 0 comment
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How to Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting Automatically from Inactivity on Mac

written by applenws

If you’d like the keyboard backlighting on a MacBook Pro or Air to turn itself off after the Mac laptop has been inactive for a determined amount of time, you can toggle a system setting to allow for that.

This setting is aimed at specifically the keyboard backlighting, independent of what’s going on with the screen or the Mac itself, which is what makes this different from the general Energy Saver settings that turn off the Mac display or cause a MacBook to sleep after inactivity.

How to Automatically Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting with System Inactivity on MacOS

  1. From the  Apple menu, choose ‘System Preferences’
  2. Select “Keyboard”
  3. Under the ‘Keyboard’ tab of keyboard preferences, check the box for “Turn keyboard backlight off after 5 secs of inactivity”

    4. Disable the keyboard backlighting with inactivity on Mac

  4. Optionally, adjust the inactivity before the keyboard backlight turns off by clicking the dropdown menu and selecting one of the following: 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes
  5. Exit System Preferences

As mentioned earlier, this is separate from other Energy Saver features that cause the Mac to sleep or the display to sleep after inactivity, as this only impacts the keyboard backlighting.

Keep in mind you can also manually adjust key backlighting by pressing the proper FN keys (typically f5 and f6) on the Mac laptop keyboard as well.

Whether or not this setting could impact battery life is debatable, as the lights used to backlight the keyboard are undeniably highly efficient. Nonetheless they do draw power, so you may find some minimal difference one way or the other, if so feel free to share with us in the comments below about whatever change you notice. Perhaps that’s why this feature is not in the Energy Saver section of System Preferences, where you won’t find settings for the keyboard backlighting. Instead you’ll want to go to the Keyboard preference panel on the Mac, which is logical given that it’s a keyboard preference.

The aforementioned steps pertain to this feature in modern MacOS releases. In earlier versions of Mac OS X, there was a slider with the time options instead, and a ‘never’ option which had the same effect of simply unchecking the “Turn keyboard backlight off after inactivity” box in modern MacOS Keyboard preferences.

If you enabled this setting and you leave your Mac alone, the keyboard backlighting will turn off in the set time if the computer is inactive. Keep that in mind if you come across your Mac laptop and the keys aren’t lit, or else you might think the keyboard backlighting is not working at all, or as intended.

The backlit keyboards on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook are one of the Mac laptops great features, and keyboard backlighting makes using a Mac laptop in a low light situation or at night an extra joy.

Source: OSX Daily

December 1, 2018 0 comment
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How to Add Custom Buttons to the Touch Bar on a New MacBook Pro

written by applenws

Photo: David Murphy

We’re back with another Apple-themed issue of Tech 911, where I give it my all to help you figure out the issues you’re having with your computer, smartphone, device, or life.

This time around, I’m getting a little personal. My girlfriend Jessica just got a brand-new MacBook Pro—keyboard issues be damned.

It can feel a little jarring to go from physical buttons to the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar, especially when you’re used to being able to just function-key your way through system commands in macOS.

I don’t remember exactly how she phrased it, the gist of Jessica’s question was “Where is that button that makes all my windows pop out?”

She was referring to the Mission Control button on her previous MacBook, which defaults to function key F3. There’s no F3 on the Touch Bar of the new MacBook when you’re looking at your macOS desktop. The bar is almost blank, with a gaping chasm between Esc key and your Control Strip.

You can pull up your function keys by simply pressing the function button, but you still won’t see the icons that used to live under them. (And, obviously, pressing a virtual button like F3 after hitting the Function button is going to do whatever F3 does, not summon Mission Control.)

So where did Mission Control go? If you look at the default icons on the Touch Bar—found in its Control Strip—you won’t find what you’re looking for. However, if you tap on the left-most arrow, that expands the Control Bar to show you the full range of shortcuts that you used physical buttons to access on older Macs. And right there, fourth from the left, is Mission Control.

Still, that’s a convoluted way to access it, and there are a few tricks you can do to put Mission Control—or other virtual buttons—more front-and-center on your new MacBook.

How to customize your Mac’s Control Bar

First, click on the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your Mac and select System Preferences (or just click the icon on your Dock).

Select Keyboard, and then select Customize Touch Bar. You’ll now be able to move your mouse cursor down to your Touch Bar to remove any icons you don’t want on your Control Strip or, if you expand it first, the full Touch Bar. Swap out what you own’t use for what you will, or rearrange icons to an arrangement that better fits for your needs. The power is yours.

One important caveat, though: The Control Bar can only be so big. You get four easy-to-access icons, but that’s it, no more.

If you aren’t happy with that—and I’m certainly not—head back to the Keyboard settings window. In there, look for the “Press Fn key to…” option, and set that to “Expand Control Strip” for an easier way to show even more button shortcuts.

You can also set the Touch Bar to show the Expanded Control Strip by default (via the “Touch Bar shows…” menu), but the option is a double-edged sword: It’ll be easier to use your various system controls, but you’ll lose out on the specialized app controls that pop in and out as you switch through various programs.

Why Apple can’t just let you expand your Control Strip by default and flip the Touch Bar over to App Controls when necessary, I’ll never know. I think the best bet is to just remember the function key trick, which will give you all the old hardware keys you’ve abandoned without ruining most of the point of the Touch Bar.

Do you have a tech question keeping you up at night? Tired of troubleshooting your Windows or Mac? Looking for advice on apps, browser extensions, or utilities you can use to accomplish a particular task? Let us know! Tell us in the comments below or, better yet, email [email protected].

Source:
LifeHacker

June 15, 2018 0 comment
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How to Join the Class Action Lawsuit Over Apple’s Crappy MacBook Keyboards

written by applenws

If you bought a new MacBook or MacBook Pro in the past few years, you may have a case against Apple. A new class-action lawsuit claims the company knowingly sold laptops with defective keyboards. Here’s what you need to know about the new lawsuit and how to get involved.

What’s the problem?

Apple first introduced its new butterfly-switch keyboards in 2015 with the 12-inch MacBook (the one without any regular USB ports). The thinner key design made it possible to slim down the laptop’s profile without cutting down on responsiveness—at least, according to Apple. A year later, the same keyboard showed up on new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros.

It didn’t take long for things to go south with Apple’s keyboard “upgrade.” As it turns out, Apple’s butterfly-switch keys can become unresponsive if any sort of dust or debris gets under the keyboard. Worse, fixing this through Apple can cost as much as $700 if you’re out of warranty, and repairs take a week.

Apple hasn’t officially responded to keyboard complaints—or a growing petition demanding Apple recall MacBooks using said keyboards—though it did set up a webpage showing people how to clean out the keyboard with a can of compressed air. That’s something, right?

Who qualifies for the class action lawsuit?

If you bought a MacBook with butterfly-switch keys, you probably qualify to join the lawsuit. That includes any 12-inch MacBook model from 2015 or later. It also covers the MacBook Pro from 2016 onwards (with or without the Touch Bar). And you don’t have to have a messed-up MacBook to participate. Girard Gibbs LLP (the firm behind the new suit) doesn’t specify that you need to have experienced any keyboard issues in order to join the class-action lawsuit.

How to join

Girard Gibbs has an online form you can use to give them your contact info and the details of your experience with Apple’s new MacBooks. If you prefer to talk on the phone, you can also call (866) 981-4800 for a free consultation.

Of course, you don’t actually have to do anything to be a part of the case. As long as you bought a laptop that qualifies, you’ll be included in the class action lawsuit once everything shakes out. Start thinking about what you might do with the sweet $20 you’ll make if the lawsuit prevails—as tends to be the case with litigation like this.

Source:
LifeHacker

May 14, 2018 0 comment
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MacBook Can’t Use Mouse & Trackpad at the Same Time? Here’s the Fix

written by applenws

Some Mac users may find that if they connect an external mouse or trackpad to their MacBook or MacBook Pro, the internal built-in trackpad then no longer works. This may appear like a bug, and some users may think it’s a hardware problem, but the good news is that the inability to use both a mouse and trackpad at the same time on a Mac almost always has a simple software solution.

This walkthrough will quickly show you how to fix this issue and get a MacBook Pro or MacBook able to work with both the built-in trackpad as well as an external mouse or external trackpad.

How to Fix Inability to Use MacBook Trackpad & Mouse at the Same Time

This applies to all MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air hardware that is also using an external tracking device, whether it’s a mouse or trackpad, USB or Bluetooth. Here’s how you can resolve this issue:

  1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
  2. Choose “Accessibility”
  3. Select “Mouse & Trackpad” from the accessibility sidebar options
  4. Uncheck the box next to “Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present”

    5. Fix Mac to use both internal trackpad and external mouse or trackpad at same time

Now go ahead and try using both the external mouse or trackpad and the internal trackpad together again, it should work just fine as expected. If you had previously disconnected the external tracking device, go ahead and reconnect it again.

You should not need to reboot the Mac for any change to take effect.

If for whatever reason the MacBook is still unable to use both tracking devices at the same time, you may need to go further to troubleshoot Mac mouse and trackpad issues, often it’s an issue with battery life of an external device, a USB port or cable, crud jammed into the optical lens or accumulated on a tracking surface, or some odd preference issue where removing the relevant plist files can resolve the difficulty.

Many Mac users enable this setting if they have cats or kids, or if they find themselves in another situation where the built-in trackpad on a Mac is frequently being touched or bumped against while they’re trying to work with an external pointing device. But of course if you forgot to disable it, or if you didn’t realize it was enabled in the first place, you may lead to the conclusion that there is some problem with the Mac, the trackpad, or the mouse, when in reality it’s simply a software setting to avoid unintentional tracking motions and input.

This is a setting that is only relevant to Macs with built-in trackpads, meaning the laptop line including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook. If you’re having issues using two different pointing devices on a desktop Mac like an iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro, it’s more likely to be related to an incompatibility between devices, some conflict in software, or perhaps a hardware issue.

Mouse and Trackpads have been around for so long you could imagine they may be completely trouble-free by now, but like all technology there is always some potential for quirks. Some of the more common issues with mouse and trackpads are an inability to click, single-clicks registering as double-clicks, Bluetooth devices repeatedly disconnecting, or other weird behavior, most of which is easily troubleshooted through steps detailed in each article.

Source: OSX Daily

April 13, 2018 0 comment
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Where’s the Startup Boot Sound on New iMac & MacBook Pro?

written by applenws

The Mac startup boot chime has been around for decades, and is one of the most notable features defining a booting Mac.

Nonetheless, the latest MacBook Pro and iMac models (from late 2016 onward) are quiet and no startup boot sound, meaning the Mac boots up completely silently instead of making the traditional chime sound when the Mac starts up.

A lot of Mac users have wondered why there Mac is not making the startup boot sound anymore, and the next question is if it’s possible to return the startup boot chime to the new Mac hardware.

New Macs do not have a startup chime sound effect

Mac models dating before late 2016 will have the startup sound effect and familiar chime. Mac models built after late 2016 do not have this sound effect on boot, except for the 2017 MacBook Air. This information comes directly from Apple Support:

Mac models from early 2016 and earlier make a chime sound when they start up. Mac models from late 2016 and later don’t have a startup chime.* …. *The only exception is MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017), which does have a startup chime.

So if you have a new Mac and it’s not making a startup sound, that is why. It doesn’t have a startup sound effect.

Older Mac models do have the startup sound chime sound, and older Mac models can both disable and enable the startup chime.

Can you re-enable the startup boot chime sound effect on new iMac and MacBook Pro?

If you have a new Mac model that has arrived from the factory and does not have the boot sound, the answer is (currently) no. Of course this leads people to the obvious question, “can I enable a startup chime sound on the new iMac or macBook Pro?” but, currently, there is no proven or effective way of doing so.

One theory promoted online and originating from some web forums was that you could re-enable the Mac startup chime sound effect by turning to the command line. The claim was that by launching Terminal app and entering the following command syntax:

sudo nvram BootAudio=%01

Supposedly, after executing that properly, the startup chime would be enabled on the Mac again.

But it turns out that nobody bothered to actually test this out, because it does not work.

Go ahead and try it yourself. You can execute that command on a new silently booting Mac, but it will not actually re-enable the startup boot chime sound effect on a Mac which does not support the startup chime sound.

There’s also various claims that resetting the NVRAM on the Mac would somehow re-enable the startup boot sound, but that’s also not the case on the newer Mac models which do not have the startup sound chime.

So why did that command surface online and the claim spread? Presumably it originated from the idea of basically reversing the standard process of disabling the Mac boot chime using a similar nvram command, which, unlike newer Macs, is possible on older Mac models from before late 2016.

The ability to toggle the system startup sound on and off is not new, in fact you’ve been able to use the nvram command to disable the boot chime on Macs for years, and you can also temporarily mute the boot sound with a keypress, it’s just the late-2016 onward Mac hardware that has opted to disable the boot sound effect chime.

Whether or not you like the boot chime on start likely depends on personal preference, though many longtime Mac users enjoy the sound effect, while some users find it to be unnecessary. It’s possible that a method of re-enabling the startup chime will arrive sometime, but at the moment it’s not possible, and currently all new Macs do not have the sound effect on boot. And that’s why your new iMac or MacBook Pro is not making any sound effect on boot!

Have any questions, thoughts, or tips about the startup chime on Macs? Let us know in the comments!

Source: OSX Daily

July 14, 2017 0 comment
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How to Prevent iMessages From Accidentally Appearing On Other Devices

written by applenws

GIF

If you own multiple Apple devices, you’ve probably signed into all of them with your Apple ID. You’ve also probably noticed that when you get a Facetime call your computer rings, or when you get an iMessage your iPad beeps. For most of us, this is a small annoyance worth fixing. For others, it’s a potential privacy nightmare.

Case in point, the lurid tale of now-former Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, whose goofy love poetry iMessage thread with his former political advisor and mistress accidentally synced up with his state-issued iPad that he also happened to share with his wife. Whoops.

Chances are, most of us want to keep access to iMessages on just our phones and maybe a laptop, and we don’t need it on every Apple device we own. Here’s how to audit where you’re signed on and prevent something like this from happening to you.

See All the Devices You’re Signed Into

First things first, lets give your Apple ID a little audit to see every device you’re signed in on.

  1. Head to your Apple ID page and log in.
  2. Scroll down to the Devices section and take a look at where you’re logged in.
  3. If there’s a weird or old device here, click on it, then select Remove to log out.

Now, you should know exactly what devices you own that are still linked up to you Apple account.

Turn Off iMessage On Extra Devices

You probably do not want to log out of you Apple ID entirely on every device. Good news though, you can turn off just Messages (and Facetime, while you’re at it).

How you do so depends on which device you’re on:

On iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

If you don’t want iMessages showing up on an iPad or on an old iPhone, it’s easy to disable:

  1. Open up Settings > Messages.
  2. Set the iMessage toggle to off.
  3. You may also want to disable Text Message Forwarding, which sends regular non-iMessage SMS messages from your phone to Messages on your Mac or iPad. Tap the Text Message Forwarding option, then uncheck any devices you do not want SMS messages to go to.

On a Mac

If you don’t want iMessages showing up on your Mac, you just need to log out:

  1. Open up Messages.
  2. Click Messages > Preferences, then select the Accounts tab.
  3. Select your iMessage account, then click the Sign Out button.
  4. To log out of Facetime, open Facetime, then head to Facetime > Preferences, then click Sign Out.

Now, your messages won’t sync up anywhere you don’t want them to.

Share Your Purchases Without Sharing Your Private Data

There’s a chance that one reason you might be signed into your Apple ID on multiple devices is because your family doesn’t want to purchase the same apps, music, or movies multiple times. Well, in that case, you’re doing things wrong. Don’t share your account with your family; set up Family Sharing so you can both have individual accounts.

With Family Sharing, you can share each other’s iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases without actually sharing accounts. This means your phone calls, iMessage conversations, Safari browsing history, photos, and everything else that’s linked to your Apple ID remains yours and yours alone. With Family Sharing, one person is the family organizer who sets it all up. That organizer adds other users to the account, then confirms any purchases someone else in the group tries to make. Theoretically, you could also do this with your personal account and a work account, which would help keep private data private.

Again, set up here depends on which devices you have:

On an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

  1. Go to Settings and tap your Apple ID.
  2. Tap Set Up Family Sharing, then tap Get Started.
  3. Tap Continue to agree to being the Family Organizer, then follow the rest of the instructions to add additional members to your family group.

From here on out, you can manage, remove, or add new family members by heading to Settings > iCloud > Family.

On a Mac

  1. Open up System Preferences.
  2. Click iCloud.
  3. Click the Set Up Family button, then follow the rest of the instructions to add additional members to your family group.

You can now manage, remove, or add family members by heading to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Finally, the last thing you’ll want to do is enable two-factor authentication if you haven’t already. This not only secures your Apple ID and every device connected to it, it also prevents you from doing anything on accident in the future because it requires a few extra steps to sign in. With two-factor authentication, when you sign into a device for the first time, you need to authorize it with a verification code sent to another, trusted device.

For example, if you get a new MacBook, you can’t sign into your Apple ID on that MacBook until Apple sends a code to your iPhone. Yet again, set up depends on which device you’re on. This might sound cumbersome, but Apple’s implementation is less annoying than other options, and the security is well worth it.

On an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

  1. Open Settings, then tap your Apple ID.
  2. Tap Password & Security.
  3. Tap Turn on Two-Factor Authentication, then follow the directions on screen to finish the set up process.

On a Mac

  1. Head to System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details.
  2. Click the Security tab.
  3. Click Turn on Two-Factor Authentication and follow the directions on screen to finish the set up process.

Now, your Apple ID is not only secure, it’s also much less likely you’ll accidentally sign into a device without realizing the repercussions of doing so.

Beyond all that, one final thing: do not link your personal accounts to your company-issued devices, especially if you work for the state. It’s not only bad form, it’s also a privacy nightmare. Besides the fact that you may potentially look like a dummy when someone in your IT department figures it out, most company-issued devices grant access to everything you do on that device to your company. Which is to say, if you send an idiotic, racist, scandalous, or whatever other stupid message to a friend on that device, your company might just happen upon it.

Source:
LifeHacker

April 12, 2017 0 comment
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How to Enable Mac Volume Control for HDMI or DisplayPort Audio

written by applenws

If you connect a Mac to an external monitor using HDMI or DisplayPort, you’ll often lose the volume controls on your keyboard. Depending on how you use your Mac, this can be kind of annoying. Here’s a weird workaround.

When you connect a MacBook or whatever other model of Mac to a display with an HDMI or DisplayPort, macOS has the reasonable expectation that you want to control the volume from that external device. This makes a lot of sense if you’re connecting a Mac to a TV or a projector, because you probably want to control the volume using that remote. It makes a little less sense on desktop monitor. There’s a real weird workaround to regain control of the volume from the keyboard:

  1. Download and install SoundFlower.
  2. Download and install SoundflowerBed. This is old software that hasn’t been updated for a long time, but it’s the only solution I’ve found that works.
  3. Click the SoundflowerBed icon in the menubar and select either DisplayPort or HDMI as you output.
  4. Click the speaker icon in the menubar and select Soundflower. You can also go to System Preferences > Sound and choose Soundflower as the output device.

That’s it, you should now be able to control your sound volume from your keyboard’s media keys again. There’s another method of doing this using the Audio MIDI Setup tool, but I was never able to get that working properly. Even though it’s incredibly old SoundflowerBed worked for me, though it occasionally decides to prevent my computer from sleeping for some bizarre reason. Regardless, at least I don’t have to reach 12 inches to change the volume on my speakers anymore.

Source:
LifeHacker

March 26, 2017 0 comment
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