Tag Archives: Apple

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HOWTO: Re-Index the Spotlight Index on a Mac

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The file search tool Spotlight on Macs is a fast flexible way to find files, except when it isn’t.  Occasionally Spotlight does not find files I know are on my Mac and the index needs to be repaired.  

To force Spotlight to delete an old index and create a new one:

  1. Click the Privacy tab.
  2. Drag the folder or disk that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or click the Add (+) button and select the folder or disk to add.
  3. Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
  4. To add an item to the Privacy tab, you must have ownership permissions for that item. To learn about permissions, choose Help from the Finder menu bar, then search for “permissions.”
  5. From the same list of locations, select the folder or disk that you just added. Then click the Remove (–) button to remove it from the list.
  6. Quit System Preferences. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the folder or disk.  This can take a long time.

How to Free Up Space Used By Time Machine’s Local Backups on Your Mac

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Time Machine doesn’t just back up to external drives. Enable Time Machine on your MacBook and it will create “local snapshots,” too — potentially taking up over 100 GB of disk space on its internal storage.
These local snapshots appear as “Backups” when you look at the visual overview of storage in the About Your Mac window.CHRIS HOFFMAN has written a good article about  how you can free up that space and get more room on your Mac.

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Protecting Macs from Viruses and Malware

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March 11, 2016

For many years, computer viruses and malware were mostly the concern of Windows users.  Mac users faced very few threats. This has been atributed to the Mac’s sibgle digit market share and, some have argued, a more secure product.  One common misconception was that Macs were somehow imune from viruses and malware.  While the number of threats may pale in comparrisln to Windows, Macs are indeed suseptible to attack and more and more are appearing.  The time has come for Mac users to make secutity a priority.   

In the last few weeks, researchers have found the first Mac Ransomware malware in circulation.  Ransomware is software that encrypts the files on a computer making them unuseable to the owner.  The person controllling the malware then demnads a ransom to unencrypt the files.  In most cases, the victim has only 72 hours to pay or the ransom or the malware author threatens to eraswe the key that is needed to restore the files.  Regardless of the size of your business, the loss of data can be davastatiung.  

Add these new threats to hardware failures and theft and the need for a well thought out and executed computer protection plan is more important then ever.

You can find my Mac security recomendations here.

 

 

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How To Delete Files or Folders from a Time Machine Backup

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How

1)  Using Finder, navigate to the location of the file or folder you want purged (the file may no longer be there if you deleted it).

2) Enter Time Machine by clicking on the Time Machine clock icon in your Dock.

3) Select a date when the file was on your computer by using the time slider on the right

4) Once you locate a version of the file or folder on any backup set, select the file and theb click on the action widget.  

 

 

 

 

5) Select Delete All  Backups or right-click on the file and make the same selection.

That's it.   more

Why

Mac OSX Time Machine software is my favorite method for backing up data.  If you use a Mac there is no excuse for not using this built in utility that keeps a backup of your data on an external drive, another Mac, a Apple Time Capsule or, with some tweaks, a network storage server.

Like any back-up software from the dawn of back-up software, deleting a file on your computer will not delete the file from your Time Machine back-up.  A good  back-up solution allows you to recover from an entire disk drive failure as well as  recovering one file or even one email that you accidently deleted.

There are times when you really do want to not only delete a file or folder or email but to purge it from your back-ups.  For example, you work on a project that involves material covered under a confidentiality agreement that requires all material to be returned or destroyed at the end of the project.  Just deleting the files and folders on your computer will still leave copies on your back-up drive leaving you in breach of the agreement and potentially liable for damages if the drive is stolen and the information disclosed.