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Fix Mac OS X 10.7.3 Update Problems, CUI Errors, Stuck Installs, and Crashes

Feb 1, 2012 - 89 Comments
Fix OS X 10.7.3 Installation Problems with the Combo Updater

Mac OS X 10.7.3 update was just released, and for the vast majority of users the update installed trouble free. But not everyone was so lucky, and a series of problems have cropped up for some users, ranging from being stuck on an endless spinning loop progress indicator, to apps crashing nonstop, to a very … Read More

Fix Safari Crashing on iPad and iOS

Jan 29, 2012 - 60 Comments
iPad Safari

We’ve been made aware of some ongoing issues with apps crashing constantly on iPads running iOS, and all iPads are potentially impacted with Safari being particularly sensitive and seemingly crashing anytime javascript or a video loads and sometimes with just general web browsing. At worst, Safari won’t even launch and crashes immediately, and often the … Read More

How to Install the Older Preview App from Snow Leopard in Mac OS X Lion

Jan 27, 2012 - 45 Comments
Snow Leopard Preview running in OS X Lion

Preview in Mac OS X Lion brought with it several improvements and new features like digital signatures, but it also removed some very useful abilities like the file size estimator, Save As, and added the sometimes obnoxious Auto-Save. If you miss the old version of Preview from Snow Leopard, and you either have a Mac … Read More

Stop Spotlight from Indexing Time Machine Backup Volumes & External Drives

Jan 24, 2012 - 11 Comments
Stop Spotlight from Indexing Time Machine Drives

The default behavior for Spotlight is to start indexing any drive as soon as it’s connected to a Mac, a task that can take a very long time with larger volumes. The problem is that for larger external backup drives and Time Machine volumes, you don’t necessarily want it indexed by Spotlight. This is particularly … Read More

Fix “Error Establishing Database a Connection” When Using Absinthe

Jan 20, 2012 - 85 Comments
Error Establishing a database connection in Absinthe jailbreak

Some users with the new Greenpois0n Absinthe jailbreak for A5 hardware are encountering a database error when they are at the end of their jailbreak and trying to launch Absinthe on the device itself. If you see the “Error establishing a database connection” at this stage in the process, it’s easy to fix: Launch “Settings” … Read More

How to Access Wikipedia During the SOPA Blackout

Jan 18, 2012 - 18 Comments
Use Wikipedia during SOPA blackout

SOPA and PIPA are two terrible internet censorship bills that are dangerously close to passage in the USA, and Wikipedia has blacked out their web site in protest. …but what if you really need to use Wikipedia today? What if you’re a student and your paper was due yesterday and you need to do research? … Read More

Rebuild the Spotlight Index

Jan 17, 2012 - 38 Comments
Rebuild the Spotlight Index

Do you need to rebuild the entire Spotlight index on a Mac? It’s easy to do, but can take a while. This tutorial will show you how to start the reindexing process of an entire drive in Mac OS X, we’ll do this using the Spotlight control panel, and we’ll cover an alternative method as … Read More

Reset iPhone to Factory Settings

Jan 17, 2012 - 73 Comments

If you want an iPhone to appear as brand new from a software standpoint, you need to reset the device to it’s factory settings. This is ideal if you plan on selling an iPhone or are going to transfer ownership of the device to another individual, and it can also be a very helpful troubleshooting … Read More

Fix an iPhone Stuck on Apple Logo During Boot

Jan 11, 2012 - 100 Comments
iPhone detected in Recovery from DFU

Occasionally through the standard iOS upgrade process, but most commonly when jailbreaking, the iPhone can reboot and get stuck on the Apple logo at boot. This basically looks like the “” against a white or black screen. Turning the phone on and off generally doesn’t help, as you’ll be continuously stopped at the white Apple … Read More

Check the Apple Support Profile & History of All Your Registered Apple Hardware

Jan 4, 2012 - 3 Comments
Apple Support Profile

The Apple Support Profile page provides an excellent dashboard to check technical support history, status, and warranty information for all registered Apple products under ownership. Assuming you have used the same Apple ID (email address) for all purchases and registrations, you’ll find every Apple item you’ve bought and registered here, including Macs old and new, … Read More

How to Check Wireless Signal Strength and Optimize WiFi Networks in Mac OS X

Dec 28, 2011 - 47 Comments
Monitor wireless signal strength

Wi-Fi Diagnostics is an incredibly useful utility to troubleshoot and optimize any wireless network and the signal strength of computers that are connecting to it. This utility first came bundled in Mac OS X Lion and works with all wireless routers and not only the Apple branded ones, meaning you can improve the performance of … Read More

iPhone Home Button Not Working or Unresponsive? Try This Fix

Dec 22, 2011 - 285 Comments
iPhone Home Button

From time to time, the iPhone Home button can become less responsive to clicks, and pressing the button will either result in a delay, lag, or sometimes complete unresponsiveness requiring multiple clicks. While this could be symptomatic of a hardware issue caused by moisture damage or dropping the phone, sometimes you can fix the response … Read More

Fix “No SIM Card Installed” Error on iPhone 4S by Installing iOS 5.0.1 Build 9A406

Dec 16, 2011 - 9 Comments
No SIM Card Installed error on iPhone

The recently released iPhone 4S specific build of iOS 5.0.1 resolves an ongoing SIM card issue that was effecting some users. The issue would cause some iPhone 4S’s to not recognize a SIM card, with the iPhone reporting a “No SIM Card Installed” or “Invalid SIM” error message, in addition to the phone not connecting … Read More

Slow iPhone Wi-Fi? Speed Up iOS Wireless Connections with Faster DNS Servers

Dec 16, 2011 - 18 Comments
Set iPhone DNS

If your iPhone Wi-Fi connection seems inexplicably slow, particularly when having moved from one wireless network to another, try manually setting custom DNS servers. This speeds up the response time and your wireless connectivity in general.

How to Disable (or Enable) Spotlight in Mac OS X Mavericks & Mountain Lion

Dec 10, 2011 - 74 Comments
Enable Spotlight in OS X Lion

Completely disabling and reenabling Spotlight in Mac OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, and OS X Mavericks can be done with the help of the Terminal. The following command unloads the Spotlight mds agent from launchd, thereby preventing the daemon from running or indexing any drives entirely. Open up the Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities/) … Read More

Workaround for Having No Scrollbar Arrows in Mac OS X

Dec 9, 2011 - 67 Comments
Keyboard as a scrollbar arrow replacement

Although you can set scrollbars to always display in windows, there is no option to show the actual scrollbar arrows anymore in Mac OS X. A simple workaround to get used to this is to start using the keyboards up and down arrow keys instead:

MacBook Air Won’t Sleep? Fix it with an SMC Reset

Dec 7, 2011 - 4 Comments
Reset SMC on a MacBook Air

I’ve gotten in the habit of immediately putting my MacBook Air to sleep by shutting the lid, by far the easiest method if you’re on the go. Typically this works without a hitch, but today the Air didn’t sleep when shut. Because the MacBook Air has no moving hard drive or sleep light, I didn’t … Read More

How to Reset a Forgot Password in Mac OS High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, by Using an Apple ID

Nov 23, 2011 - 9 Comments
Reset a Password in Mac OS X with the Apple ID

Forgetting a user account password can be a major frustration for Mac users, but fortunately there are a some simple and secure ways to recover and reset a lost password on any Mac. One of the best ways to handle this situation and reset a lost password is to use an Apple ID, which allows … Read More

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