Tips, Tricks and Articles about your Technology iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android, Office 365, Google services, iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, Apps, Social Media, Zoom, and more. |
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 Just last week, I went to use my new AirPods Pro for a Zoom meeting. I had already done this multiple times without issue.
However, this time, I found that I could not connect to the AirPods - no matter what I did! Not only would they not connect to my MacBook Pro - they would not connect to ANY of my Apple devices. When I took them out of their case, the light on the case was flashing orange. Nothing I did seemed to help - even following the instructions on the Apple Support website for re-setting and re-pairing the device would not work. A call to Apple's help line did not, initially, shed any light on how to resolve the problem. I about 40 minutes on the phone to the level 1 support agent with no positive result. It was only when I was transferred to an engineer that the problem was resolved with a relatively simple fix, but one that I did not see mentioned anywhere during hours of trawling the internet for solutions. Here's the solution, for anyone else who encounters this problem.
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 During the past week, I was asked to take a look at a small business client's Windows computer, which was very slow in opening Word and Excel documents. She wondered if it was time to look at getting a new PC, given that her current computer was several years old.
For appointments such as this, I always go through a series of checks to look for obvious things that may be chewing up processing capacity and memory on the computer. Here's a Microsoft support article that provides a great list of these things that you can look at yourself if your own computer is a bit on the slow side.  Subscriber Ruth D has asked if there is something she can do to stop her phone conversations from cutting out on her iPhone 7. She says this only started happening when she upgraded to the iPhone 7.
 I had a call today from someone who could not get her Zoom or Skype apps to enable the microphone on the iPhone - something that was a major issue given that she needed to join meetings for work.
The Settings that can block the use of the microphone and camera by apps are in Settings -> Privacy. Normally, the issue if the microphone is not working is that Zoom/Skype is not enabled in the Privacy -> Microphone or Privacy ->Camera settings. However, for this particular client, there seemed to be no way that she could make Skype or Zoom even appear in the Privacy settings for her microphone. Here's what we did to resolve the problem. Here's a checklist for improving your Mac's performance
They do say patience is a virtue but there is nothing more frustrating than a slow start-up of your MacBook or iMac, especially when it should only take around 30 seconds - normally!
And we are all familiar with the frustration of apps that take forever to start, or to do whatever it is they should do. That ‘spinning beachball of death’ can really raise the blood pressure.  Client Joan C contacted iTandCoffee last week with a puzzling problem. Her computer was receiving emails, but her iPad was not showing any of the new emails.
It looked like she was successfully connected to Wi-Fi - and turning off her router and turning it back on did not solve the problem. Here's what ended up solving this problem for Joan.
I you ever find that your Mac's screen colours go haywire - perhaps darkened like the example above, or even showing black and white - watch this short video to find out how to bring back the correct colours!
 If you are lucky enough to have an iPhone 8, don't make the same mistake I did last week!
While assisting a client with an iPhone problem, I needed to do a 'forced reboot' of her iPhone. On the iPhone 6s and earlier, this is achieved by holding the Home and Sleep buttons at the same time for about 10 seconds, until the Apple symbol appears - at which point, you let go of the buttons and wait for the device to finish startup and bring up the lock screen. On the iPhone 7, the combination of buttons required to force reboot changed to the Sleep and Volume Down buttons. So, on iPhone 8, I made the mistake of assuming that the force reboot process would be the same as for the 7. Boy, did I jump when a siren sounded and a screen popped up about contacting emergency services! Pressing the Sleep and volume button and the same time activated the Emergency SOS feature of iOS 11. (Read more about this here: Use Emergency SOS on your iPhone) So how do you 'force reboot' and iPhone 8? On the iPhone 8, a 'forced reboot' is achieved very differently. Press the volume up, then volume down buttons in quick succession, then press and hold the Sleep switch until the screen goes black and the Apple appears. Then you can release the Sleep switch and wait for the device to start up. Here's an article about this: Learn more great tips like this How to 'Force Reboot' your iPad or iPhone is just one of the topics that we cover during the class series 'Introduction to the iPad and iPhone', which we are running again at iTandCoffee, from Thursday October 26 2017, 10am-12pm. Select the button below for more information and to book online, or call 1300 885 420. 9/8/2017 0 Comments Have you done a 'health check' on your Mac lately? Thank goodness I did one today!
If you have been having trouble with your Mac - perhaps finding it is slow, or getting the 'spinning beachball of death' far too often, it may be that you have problem with your Mac's hard drive. Or there may be a simpler fix for your problem.
I was asked this week if it is worth downloading a product like 'Clean My Mac' or MacKeeper' to do a cleanup of a mis-behaving Mac. My answer is a big NO, that I would not download any such app. I would instead use some build-in utilities provided by Apple on your Mac, as well as performing some basic checks and tasks. A checklist for improving your Mac's performance Before you go looking for other potential causes of problems with your Mac, go through the list below. (iTandCoffee Club members can get the detailed instructions for how to do each of the below in the Handy Hint: A checklist for fixing a slow or misbehaving Mac.)
If you are not yet a member of The iTandCoffee Club, you can find out more about The Club here ». Club membership gives you access to a huge library of great tips like this, as well as free sessions, discounts, great online content and more.
We even have a great competition running - join the club before December 2017, and you go into the draw to win an iPad*.
What of the none of the above helps?
I should say here that if you haven't done a backup lately, then it is probably time to do one NOW, to avoid losing your precious files, especially your photos, should you be unable to 'recover' from the problems that are occurring on your Mac. If none of the above suggestions seem to resolve your Mac issues, it's time to look at whether there are problems with your Mac's hard drive, RAM, and maybe hardware. In fact, it is worth checking your hard drive's health on a regular basis. In writing this article and recording the Handy Hint to demonstrate how to check your hard drive, I actually found that my own Mac had an issue that needed to be fixed! Thank goodness I checked! Checking for problems with your Mac's hard drive is quite easy, using a utility that is provided on every Mac. iTandCoffee Club members can learn about how to find and use this utility in the below members-only tip.
What to do if a problem is found and you are told to use 'Recovery' mode to attempt a repair
When you perform this check of your Mac hard drive, you may find that a problem is detected that can't be resolved immediately (as happened to me today!), and that you are told to attempt a further repair from a mode called 'Recovery'. Learn about how to access and use Recovery Mode in the below Handy Hint for iTandCoffee Club members.
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More tips for troubleshooting Mac problems
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