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Restore Apple Notes in Sierra and High Sierra

6/5/2018

Super fast one. You lost your notes in the notes app. You have a backup (hopefully), here's where you go to retrieve them:

/Users/[youruserfolder]/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes

Simply copy the folder "group.com.apple.notes" from your backup to the same location on your Mac.
Boom, notes are back.
You're welcome.

Dropbox Permission Problem Mac

4/26/2018

Sometimes Dropbox wont install/load if there was a previous version installed, or if you changed the name of the home folder on your Mac. Get it up and running again.

Open terminal in your utilities folder.
Paste and hit enter: mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old
Paste and hit enter: mv ~/.dropbox-master ~/.Trash/dropbox-master.old
Open your root library folder and delete the folder "DropboxHelperTools"
Restart your Mac.
Download the latest Dropbox here, and install.

You're welcome.

Export google chrome passwords.

3/23/2018

Maybe you wanna start using 1password or lastpass, but you have all your passwords saved in google chrome. Export them, duh, it's easy.

Open google chrome.
in the URL bar type: chrome://flags
in the next window you'll see a search bar, type: password
a few results will come up, look for "password export" and "enable" it with pull down menu to the right.
restart chrome.
in the URL bar type: chrome://settings/passwords
in the next window look for the heading "Passwords" and click the three vertical dots, select "export."
in the next warning window select "export passwords."

A CSV file will be downloaded that contains all your passwords. You can import that to most password applications.
DON'T LET ANYONE GET YOUR PASSWORD CSV FILE. DELETE IT ASAP.

You're welcome.

Erase APFS and revert to HFS in High Sierra

3/10/2018

There are lots of long blogs about how to do this. Some are written for the beta version of High Sierra and are wrong. Here's the quick and dirty on trashing your APFS disk in High Sierra and go back to HFS.

Why?
APFS is brand new disk partition type that Apple introduced in High Sierra. Although it has some benefits, I don't care for it. Anything that apple releases that is brand new, be wary, there are usually issues with it. Also, if you're a mac tech reading this, upgrading OSes or converting from HFS to APFS to solve performance problems is not a solution. If you need help understanding why, email me.

***WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR HARD DRIVE. MAKE A BACKUP***

FIX:

boot into the recovery partition by holding command-R during boot.
click utilities in the top menu.
select terminal.
type and hit enter: diskutil list
you'll see the list of all the drives. look for "APFS" then the disk identifier to the right, something like "disk0"
type then hit enter: diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk-identifier-here

That's it. You can now re-install, re-store, re-image to your HFS disk however you like. You're welcome.

Lost Admin user on macOS. Create New one.

2/1/2018

if you've goofed around and tried to change your user name though the advanced settings in your mac, you may have ended up with your user switching back to a standard account. if you only started with one account, then you've left yourself with no admin account. Aaaand you can't change anything. Here's is what you do:

reboot your mac
hold command-S before you hear the chime
you'll see a bunch of verbose text fly past. when it's done...
enter: mount -uw /
hit return
enter: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
hit return
hit control-D on the keyboard to restart.

Your mac will now boot and start the setup wizard again. Go ahead and create a new admin user.

You're welcome.

Tame your Mac Screenshot Desktop mess!

12/14/2017

Here's a quick one.

The Situation: you have a million screenshots on your desktop. You curse mess and want to take control. Great! Set a folder to keep all the screenshots automatically, rather than turning your desktop into unwieldy monster.

The Fix:

make a folder on your mac where you want to save your screenshots. Name it whatever you want.
open the terminal.
paste in this command: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location
don't hit enter yet. after the the word "location" enter a space then drag and drop the new folder you created for the screenshots into the terminal window. That will auto fill the path to the folder, and should look something like this (if the folder is on the desktop titled "Screenshots"):

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/yourusername/Desktop/Screenshots

now hit enter!
next, enter this command and hit enter to reset the system to activate it: killall SystemUIServer

That's it! Now when you take a screenshot it will be saved to the folder you created rather than the desktop. You've tamed the beast. Pat yourself on the back. You're welcome.

Creating folder in Mac needs password?! Reset User Permissions in Sierra and High Sierra

9/5/2017

From the Finder menu bar, choose Go > Home. Your home folder opens.
Choose File > Get Info. An Info window for your home folder opens.
If the Sharing & Permissions section at the bottom of the window isn't open, click the triangle in that section to open it.
If the Lock button at the bottom of the window shows a closed lock , click the lock and enter an administrator name and password.
Click the Action menu in the bottom corner of the window, then choose “Apply to enclosed items.” Click OK to confirm the action. A progress bar appears at the top of the window.
When the progress bar completes, open the Terminal app, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
Paste or type this command in Terminal, then press Return:
diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`
When the process completes, quit Terminal.

if Terminal says that permissions reset on user home directory failed (error -69841):

enter: chflags -R nouchg ~
Then enter the diskutil command again.

Allow apps from anywhere macOS, Disable Gatekeeper Security

8/29/2017

This one is quick. You're running Sierra and you've downloaded an app from the web, but when you try to open it you get an error that says "appname.app is damaged and cannot be opened..." Sierra gatekeeper security is strict, but there is an easy way to enable non-certified apps to open.

Open the utilities folder.
Open Terminal.
Paste in: sudo spctl --master-disable
Hit enter.
Enter Password.

You can now open any app.
**proceed at your own risk, apps that the system doesn't want to open could be malicious**

You're welcome.
to re-enable the security follow the same steps but instead enter: sudo spctl --master-enable

Reset Apple Setup Assistant on High Sierra (and previous OS's, too).

8/21/2017

The MacOS setup assistant will only run once. If you've created a user and you're unhappy with it, or you want to migrate another user over you might want to reset the OS so the SetupAssistant runs again on next boot. The setup assistant differs from the Migration Assistant by allowing you to choose a specific restore point from a time machine, rather than just the last backup. This is great if you need to go back to a stable OS before you had problems. Here's how:

Launch Terminal from the Utilities folder
copy in: sudo rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Enter your password.
Restart your mac.

If you lost your admin access, you can do this process through the Safe Boot (thanks commenter*):
1. Boot into Single user mode (cmd+S)
run the following commands:
mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot
On next reboot the system will start the Setup Assistant again. You're welcome.

Malwarebytes for Mac, Free Version. Avoid the Subscription!

8/16/2017

I'll keep this short and sweet. Malwarebytes has for many years been the go to tool for Mac users to easily find and remove malware from you Mac, FOR FREE. Recently they released version 3.0 which is now a subscription based model and only runs in a trial mode. They clearly went the route of building a user base with a free tool then switched it on us.

Welp, here's the last FREE version of Malwarebytes for Mac that will remove malware for FREE! Of course, don't accept the upgrade if prompted to do so. Enjoy. You're welcome.

DOWNLOAD MALWAREBYTES FOR MAC, FREE EDITION!

Author

We're some guys and gals in San Francisco who fix macs. We can remote in and help you with stuff. It's like our job or whatever.

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Or call:
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