Troubleshooting

Dropbox is one of the more popular cloud-based syncing and storage tools, and offers Mac users a convenient way to transfer files from one system to another, or share files with colleagues. Dropbox can sometimes give you errors, saying that it cannot transfer something because it does not have permission to access some of the files being copied.

If this happens, then it could be because of an improper permissions setup with the Dropbox configuration files in your account, or with the files currently being copied.

If a permissions error such as this occurs, then the first thing that might … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions sent in by our readers.

This week, readers asked questions about whether or not a memory upgrade will result in more power draw and affect battery life, managing a nonfunctional SD card after a crash, how to dismiss update notifications for one application vs. another in the Mac App Store, and how to undo a command that forces the system to boot to Safe Mode at each start-up.

I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in … Read more

One of the new features Apple has added to OS X in the most recent version is a dictation service, where you can speak phrases and paragraphs and have the system input them into any supported text field.

Being a global service, Dictation is available in most browsers, word processors, and other programs where you might input a considerable amount of text.

When enabled in the Mountain Lion "Dictation & Speech" system preferences, then when in a text field you simply need to press the Function key twice, and the small dictation indicator will appear. Spoken phrases will … Read more

When you boot OS X or attach a hard drive, the system will automatically try to mount any available volumes so you can access or format them for use. However, there may be times when you don't wish this to happen.

For example, if you have a dual-boot setup such as OS X 10.7 on one partition and OS X 10.8 on another, then you may wish to prevent one boot volume from being easily modified and perhaps corrupted when you are in the other operating system.

To do this, you will need to make use of … Read more

OS X Daily has recently unearthed a neat trick in OS X, that enables you to easily pause and resume running processes. This can be beneficial, especially when troubleshooting a program you are running that's taking quite a bit of CPU power and bogging down the rest of the system. Instead of quitting the program, you might simply like to pause it for a short while.

One of the commands in the Terminal is the "kill" command, which is commonly used to force-quit a running process by its process ID (PID).

In addition to "kill," … Read more

If you have installed Adobe software on your system, then you likely have installed various accompanying updaters that periodically check for updates from Adobe's support servers. These updaters should run seamlessly in the background; however, there are times when an odd configuration of them may result in annoying distractions.

This may particularly happen if you have updated your system with additional Adobe software, uninstalled and reinstalled (especially after restoring from a backup), or otherwise have modified your Adobe software installation. If affected, the problem may manifest as a brief display of an Adobe-related updater, and may even affect the … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions sent in by our readers.

This week, readers asked questions about how the OS X quarantine system works for managing malware, why items disappear from the screen when the mouse is moved to the corner, and what to do about iWork creating file locks on external disks.

I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: How OS X detects and quarantines malicious files MacFixIt reader Dhiraj asks:

Apple uses its Mac App Store program as the means for providing not only third-party software, but also OS X system software and updates. When you choose Software Update from the Apple menu, the system will open the App Store, which will check the computer for all software purchased and managed through the store. However, in some instances the download doesn't complete and the program may even hang, showing a spinning pinwheel cursor. You may not even be able to restart your computer, which obviously can be frustrating to deal with.

There are a couple of approaches you can … Read more

Do you have an external hard drive that you cannot write to on your Mac? While most external storage media's default formatting and other setups should make them both readable and writable on most Mac systems, there may be times when this is not the case.

NTFS formatting The first detail to check is if the drive is formatted to the popular NTFS format used in Windows systems. Often commercially available drives will be formatted to FAT32 and therefore be fully compatible with both Windows and OS X; however, many popular drives (especially high-capacity ones) may be formatted to … Read more