Browsed by
Category: Software

E-Mail Problem Trying To Remove A Bad Address

E-Mail Problem Trying To Remove A Bad Address

Comments 0 Comment

I had a significant failure with my two e-mail applications, Microsoft Exchange and Apple Mail.  The problem started when a friend of mine retired from his job and I was told that I can no longer send him any e-mail to that business e-mail address.  I deleted his entry in my computer for that business address.  But, that was not the complete solution.  The problem with Microsoft Exchange and Apple Mail is when I wanted to send my friend an e-mail, I was presented with his home e-mail address and his business e-mail address.  Why?  The reason is that both mail applications, it seems, scans all the prior e-mail from my friend to find all his addresses.  These applications, it seems, fail to ONLY pull up the address from Contacts.  The solution that I came up with was to use both e-mail applications and do a search for all the mail from my friend.  I then selected only the e-mail that was addressed to his work and deleted all those messages. As a check, I performed a search for my friends name and Mac Mail was ok but Exchange was not.  Exchange showed a small warning that more e-mails could be on the server.   Exchange allowed me to view those messages and  I deleted them.  That seemed to be the solution.  It would be really nice for those e-mail applications to include an option to only show addresses to people that are within my Contacts application.  Now I did discover that Mac Mail does have an interesting option.  Go into Mac Mail > Settings > Rule > then make a rule to delete any e-mail from the person.  Next shows the menu options and correct answers:

Description:
If any of the following conditions are met:   From contains E-mail address of person.
Perform the following actions:  Delete Message.

 

 

 

 

Posted:  3-4-2023

 

 

iMac Problem Of Not Getting Internet.

iMac Problem Of Not Getting Internet.

Comments 0 Comment

NOTE: This computer problem ONLY came about because our house has the option to connect both WiFi and Ethernet connections to our computers.  I suspect that Apple changed their recent operating system to allow for this conflict.  Both  Wi-Fi and Ethernet to be turned on at the same time into your computer.

CAUTION:  The following descriptions and solutions can be rather difficult to understand.  If my explanations are not clear to you, do NOT attempt any of these changes.  If you attempt to make any changes to any computer settings, please write each change down so you can back out if things do not work better.

I have been using iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) for years and began having problems after the Big Sur software was provided (11.5.2).  Over time, I noticed that my iMac was acting very slow (probably unrelated to this main issue).  Then, all of a sudden my iMac failed to connect to the Internet.  It seemed that my problem was with our Internet cable provider.  I was wrong.  A technician came to our house and spent two hours evaluating our system and thinks that the Internet signal coming into the house was just a bit too weak.  He installed an amplifier to boost the signal coming into our house.  He got my iMac to work also by switching out a 1 by 3 with a 1 by 2 cable splitter.  He also was suspicious of our Macintosh Airport Time Capsule unit not performing properly.   But, the next day my iMac failed to show an Internet signal.  What is going on?  I did some research using my cell phone while having lunch with my wife at a restaurant.   The best advice I found, that helped me pinpoint this problem, was to disconnect every device from the iMac and reboot the computer.  Then see if all those disconnected devices made the computer work.  Well, the computer did work perfectly with all those cables removed.  I then reconnected each cable, one at a time, and restarted the computer to view the result.  I found that this pinpointed the problem exactly. I found out that when I connected my Ethernet cable to my iMac, the Internet failed.   I think this was because I always use WiFi to get Internet into my iMac.  So TWO Internet signals were flowing into my iMac.  This is rather odd.  You would think that Apple would have automated this not to happen.  My wife has an iMac and has BOTH WiFi going into her computer at the same time.  But she was told by her employer IT department NOT to upgrade her system until they checked it out for bugs.  So, she is using Catalina 10.15.7.   I went to her computer and discovered that I could NOT activate WiFi and Ethernet at the same time.  The Macintosh programmers with her system had avoided this conflict problem.  So, it seems that the newer update is possibly flawed on my computer.  If this is true, then over two hours of my cable system provider was wasted as well as hours of my time.

Troubleshooting method:

I used two applications to show me if there was a problem or not on my computer screen.  These two computer programs would definitely show me failure because both show very nice large windows on my computer screen:

  1.  Airport Utility was important for showing me if we were getting the Internet cable provider signal or not.  At the top of the this display screen is a round globe, probably representing the Earth.  Just below this globe shows whether I am connected to the Internet or not.  The color dot before the word Internet is what you need to check.  Green is good WiFi connection.

 

2.  Ring Doorbell computer application was also pretty nice in that it was a go or no go revealing I had a problem or not.   This application would fail to show my Ring cameras and doorbell if my home WiFi input system failed.  I used both these empirical indicators as my test meters.  I had both these applications opened on my computer screen during all my tests.

Solutions:

  1. Unplug the Ethernet Cale going into your computer.  This is the most simple solution.  This assumes that your WiFi is working and turned ON at your computer.  It also assumes that you favor Wi-Fi over Ethernet.  If you do not get a signal into your computer, then go into the System Preferences > Network and turn that port on (explained next).
  2. The next solution is way more complicated and requires more steps to complete.  But, this system gives you more specific control, if you understand this process.  Go into your System Preferences by mouse clicking the apple logo in the top left corner of your screen.  Select System Preferences from the rather long drop down menu.  This will then show you a really large list of system operation options for you to modify.  Mouse click on the Network menu option.

Once Network is chosen, you should see all the individual signals going in and out of your computer.  In the image below, you can see that my computer had BOTH Ethernet and Wi-Fi turned on!  The solution was to turn OFF Ethernet and turn ON Wi-Fi.  It is my opinion that Apple programmers made a mistake by allowing both Ethernet and Wi-Fi to be active.  On my wife’s iMac, the programmers had solved this problem.

 

The above configuration was my problem because, as you can see BOTH Ethernet and Wi-Fi are connected!  I went into the menu and turned off Ethernet as seen in the image below.

The way you turn on and off any signal connection using this system preference is to look just below the list of connections where you will see this very small control panel at the bottom.  I enlarged this panel image below for you to identify it better.

 

The + is used to add a new signal.  (Do not use this right now)

The – is used to delete a signal source shown in the list above.  (Do not use this right now)  

The above menu item shown above is what you need to look at.

Mouse click on any signal input and this small menu item gives you the option to turn that signal OFF if it is currently ON.  It also allows you to turn that signal ON if it is currently OFF.  If Ethernet shows on the list, you can then turn it off.  I recommend that you do not remove it as you may want to turn it on some time in the future.  Make sure that WiFi is turn on if that is your favorite method for getting Internet.

OPTION: 
You can also reverse the above instructions and turn OFF WiFi and turn ON Ethernet.  It is your choice.  But, if you have my problem that the computer fails with both on, then make sure you choose one or the other.  

OPTION:
My house has both Ethernet and WiFi.  If your home system is the same BUT you have a failure with one of those systems, then go to your computer and make sure the signal system in your home that IS working is now turned on at your computer so your computer can continue to receive Internet signals.

 

 

Posted August 30, 2021

Hard Drive For Lightroom

Hard Drive For Lightroom

Comments 0 Comment

My daughter asked us to find still photographs of a friend of hers.  I came to realize that I had digital photographs spread around in a lot of devices.  I have a very large collection of hard drives, USB finger drives, old cell phones, etc.  I also realized that I had taken lot of super 8 movies and DVD movies.  It stands to reason that all this effort would be lost if I could not devise a method for passing these treasures on to my children.  I already had subscribed to the Adobe suite of products and in that package is Photoshop, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom.  I wanted a solid state hard drive to store the sill images and a larger SSD to store the movies.  While I was at a local computer store buying a bluetooth headset I mentioned to the salesman that I also needed a really good SSD drive.  I wanted a 2TB and my son recommended that I get a Samsung.  The salesman took a look at his stock on hand and recommended the Samsung 2TB SSD T5.  I purchased it because he showed me the Internet reviews that gave this drive a really high score.  But, at home trying to get this drive to work with my Macintosh laptop running Big Sur Version 11.4 the drive really showed problems.

Good:

  • Very small.  I was shocked to see a 2 TB so tiny!
  • Comes with two USB cables.  The first cable is your normal USB interconnection to your computer.  I think the second cable can be used to interface with your cell phone, not sure.

Bad:

  • The drive worked with the format but I changed the  installed format to Mac OS Extended.  Then the drive failed to work.  I spent days trying to get the drive to work with any format but it appeared to be lost.  I returned the drive to the store and got my money back.
  • The management software was awful because I could not remove it’s desktop window and that application window took up a lot of space.

Caution Note:  Some hard drives offer security protection such as password or even finger print to gain access to the drive contents.  I reasoned that I had no reason to protect our photographs.  More importantly, I do NOT want to impede any family member from opening the hard drive for any reason!  The whole idea is to share the contents.  

I researched for a while why the Samsung SSD T5 would not work and found a number of Internet reports that blamed the new Macintosh operating system Big Sur. 

I then knew that I had to find a SSD that would run on a Mac.  I finally decided upon two possibilities after hours of  Internet research.  Here is my favorite review:

https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/best-ssd-mac-3600870/

  • LaCie
  • SanDisk Extreme

I could not find any LaCie selling for a low price.  I finally found that COSTCO was selling the 1 TB SSD at a local COSTCO store and I rushed over and picked up their last one.  It took three store staff about one hour to find it because it was placed in a rather obscure location (being the last one).  This SanDisk is no longer being supplied in the local stores, I was told. But, COSTCO was selling the SanDisk Extreme 2TB SSD from their web site.  I also purchased that one to store my movies.  Both of those hard drives were being sold at significant discounts.

As soon as I connected the SanDisk 1 TB SSD to my laptop I formatted it for Mac OS Extended and it has worked perfectly.  Also, I do not see any annoying SanDisk computer screen application appear.  The hard drive just works.  The 1 TB drive came with a carabiner clip.

 

Note that the cable that comes with the SanDisk appears to have the same connectors at both ends.  That is NOT the case.  One end has very small tabs. This end needs to be inserted into the USB adapter as shown in the image below.

 

 

I then discovered hard shell cases for the SanDisk SSD.  I purchased one for each SSD.  

 

 

Put up July 1, 2021

How To Get Rid Of Political E-Mail In Apple Mail

How To Get Rid Of Political E-Mail In Apple Mail

Comments 0 Comment

Some time ago I made the mistake of donating some money to a political candidate.  That was a mistake.  My e-mail address was provided to a really large group of other candidates so my mail box quickly began to get filled with all sorts of political e-mail.  They all were asking for money.   I recommend you send donations by snail mail and NOT use any of our e-mail addresses in any way.

Here is my solution.

1:  If you feel like donating to any politician using e-mail, use one of your seldom used return e-mail address in ALL correspondence.  This solution only helps a little.  If you need a quick e-mail address, I recommend getting one from Google, which is a real simple process.

2:  You will be getting a lot of political e-mail so here is how to get rid of it using Macintosh Mail:

Open any one of your political e-mails that you received and look carefully at the top of the e-mail where the header information is.   There are typically four lines at the top left corner:

 


Line #1 is in bold letters and shows you who sent you the message.
Line #2  shows a short sentence about what the message contains or is about.
Line #3 is TO: (your name appears here.)
Line #4 Reply-To: shows the e-mail address for the sender.

It is a rather simple process.  Just use your mouse and right click on line 1 or 4 and a drop down menu appears. Select “Block Contact” and no more messages should be seen any more from this address.  But, all this does is you no longer will see any of their e-mail in your message box.  

You have another option and that is to find all the past and current e-mails from this sender and DELETE them all.  To do this, again right mouse click on line 1 or 4 and now choose the menu option to Search for: “(line 1 contents “.    Once you have chosen this option your Mail computer screen should show all the messages it found from this sender.  Take your mouse and left mouse click on the top message and then carefully scroll down to the bottom of all those messages and now press SHIFT key, keep that key down and right click on the bottom message.  When you have done this, all those messages should turn blue color telling you that you have now selected all of them.  Do a simple right mouse click on any one of those blue messages and another rather large menu will show.  You have a lot of options to choose from.  I choose to Delete but you can also do other actions.

Next, tell your computer what to do with deleted e-mail.  Go to Preferences > Junk Mail.  I chose to move all the junk mail to the Trash.

 

 

I hope this helps.

 

Posted September 28, 2020
Updated September 29, 2020

 

 

Scrivener Will Not Allow You To Change Text Color

Scrivener Will Not Allow You To Change Text Color

Comments 9 comments

One day I was driven nuts because Scrivener, my favorite long format writing application, was typing red text.  I tried everything.  I went to text color and chose black but it simply would not take.  I went on the Internet, conducted a search and there were no answers.  I just kept poking around until I found the solution.  I must have left off with my writing project with first revision which turns all the text to red.  I only had to choose the menu item “Format > Revision Mode  and then mouse down to “None” to get my text color to become black again.

 

Avantree DG40S Bluetooth USB Finally Works After 3 Days Of Trying

Avantree DG40S Bluetooth USB Finally Works After 3 Days Of Trying

Comments 0 Comment

I recently purchased Avantree DG40S Wireless 4.0 Micro USB Adapter for my Toshiba Satellite A505 laptop. It would NOT work. I sent Avantree support the following e-mail:

Support,

I received from Amazon the Avantree DG40S Wireless 4.0 Micro USB Adapter.
Delivered Wednesday, May 16, 2018
My laptop is Toshiba Satellite A505-SG025.
Operating system: Windows 10.
Audio Bluetooth Headsets are Apple AirPods.

Problem is the Apple AirPod headsets will not stay paired. I hear no audio.
What I have done:

  • Updated all of Windows 10.
  • Updated all the Bluetooth devices.
  • I have tried to pair my headsets to your DG406 Bluetooth USB numerous times.
  • I have tried inserting your DG406 Bluetooth USB into all 4 USB ports on the laptop and have rebooted Windows after each port change, trying to get the device to operate properly.
  • I have tried to get “choose your output device” to show anything other than speakers. No success.
  • I have performed “Troubleshoot” when available. I get a message that the headsets are not connected.
  • The Bluetooth device flashes continously a LED light when inserted in my laptop USB ports.
  • Your DG406 appears as a Bluetooth device (CSR8510 A10) and will pair with the headsets but will NOT stay connected. My headsets only connect for a second or two and then disconnect.

Solution:
I am not exactly sure what made the headsets work so let me go through some of my last efforts:
I kept finding that I had Realtek audio in my laptop. I searched and found their Windows 10 drivers and installed them. I then tried to pair my headsets but now I found that the USB port at the rear left did not allow the Bluetooth device to flash it’s LED.

I selected Troubleshoot and Headphones – AirPods No jack information available. I had done this numerous times but now I ran this task with the Bluetooth device plugged into the left front USB port. The results of the test shows a list of audio possibilities that the computer will then start testing. I believe I chose the AirPods and this time something new took place. I noticed that pop up windows appeared that indicated that Windows was installing new software to recognize the AirPods. Then the computer window for Sound that shows “Choose your output device” now showed Headphones (AirPods Stereo). The Windows screen for “Bluetooth & other devices” showed the Audio list of devices as “AirPods Connected voice, music”. That was new.  Previously it only would show AirPods Paired.  The computer screen never before showed “Connected”.  I took one of the AirPods out of its holder and there was my test audio running. I finally got it to work after 3 days of trying everything. What a royal pain!

PS: I purchased this Bluetooth because my very old D-Link DBT-120 would cut out at about 8 to 10 feet from the laptop.    The old device worked perfectly with my new AirPods with absolutely no difficulty except I was getting tired of having to pull the AirPods out of my ear when I went to the kitchen to get some food or tea..  The new device worked for about 20 feet so I could now keep listening to my music while in the kitchen.