The Mac Admin's Blog

If you are reading this post, I assume that you know what is FileVault and when you need to enable or disable it. When free, I would try to write a post explaining FileVault. How to Check Status To check the status of file vault within Terminal type the following: fdesetup status This should tell you the status of FileVault How to Enable Filevault To enable FileVault type the following: sudo fdesetup enable You will need to enter your admin password. After this you will be guided through steps to complete it. This key has to be written somewhere as this key will help you to recover your disk incase you forget your password. Once done, you can reboot it. This is to create on a specific user account. How to Disable Filevault If you want to disable FileVault you can. Type the following into Terminal: sudo fdesetup disable This will disable FileVault. So if you are interested to know more about this command, do a man check: man fdesetup

I try to mention the situations and issues that I face in my daily life to ensure the knowledge is spread in fixing real time issues. I was in a situation where I had to turn on Remote Management from CLI. My colleague turned off the Remote Management and he lost the remote session while troubleshooting and there was no one to turn it ON at user's end. Fortunately, we use BOMGAR (remote support tool) and it is capable of running commands on user's machine even Remote Management is turned off. So in order to turn Remote Management On, I ran the following commands in the Command Line of BOMGAR: cd /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources and then: sudo ./kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -privs -all -restart -agent and you are done. The Mac will be ready and you can take remote session again. You can run this command directly on the Mac to enable 'Remote Management'.

Last week I came across this problem and deleting the default keychain did not fix it but somehow could not devot much time to fix it. As the solution was not available on Google, I thought to post it here. The error was:  Microsoft Lync wants to use  OC_KeyContainer_username@company.com . Please enter the keychain password  prompt appeared. Unfortunately I forgot to take the screenshot of the error message but it somehow looks like the regular keychain popup window. Worst thing about this error was that Keychain login screen was not accepting any password that I could think of, even though it was the correct one, which actually made it a strange issue for the people who are into the world of Troubleshooting Mac OS. So lets have a look at Root Cause and then at the Fix. The Cause: Microsoft Lync creates a keychain file to store encryption keys. The file is physically stored in  /Users/username/Library/Keychains  and is named something similar to  OC_Ke...

Some of iOS 7's features -- including hidden settings -- could be killing your phone's battery life. Here's how to make sure your iPhone makes it through the day. Thing is, it's not the standout features like AirDrop or the Notification Center -- it's the stealthy settings buried beneath a stack of menus. If you're noticing a quickly draining battery, or just want to get more juice out of your battery, make changes to these settings. Background app refreshing This welcomed feature finally lets background apps stay active while you multitask. The trouble is that by default  all  apps are set to refresh, uselessly stealing precious battery life. To fix that, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Here, you can choose to disable the setting altogether, or just turn it off for the apps that don't need refreshing. Automatic updates A time-saver no doubt, iOS's automatic updates keep your apps up-to-date so you don't have to. According to...

When you click new message, reply, or forward in Outlook for Mac 2011, nothing happens. Following is the recommended solution from Microsoft. Not all of them will work for you, in my case I had to go all the way to step #5 to make it work and I did not follow step #3 i.e. to validate fonts.  Step 1: Reinstall Safari  To reinstall Safari, contact Apple support:  https://www.apple.com/support/contact/ Safari is a browser installed on your computer. If the browser is not working correctly, Outlook will not function. Therefore, you need to reinstall your browser. You can reinstall Safari browser on your own but if you for any reason can't, contact Apple support. To reinstall Safari, visit  Apple Safari  web site, enter your email address and click Download Now. Follow directions on your screen, then open .dmg file.    Step 2: Download and install the latest Apple software update Click the Apple menu, and then select  Software Update . The Softwar...

The latest version of Mac OS X has a new function in most native apps. The ability to autosave a document. I think this is a great way as you always have the latest version of the document saved, this function also syncs with Time Machine so it save previous copies that you can return to. If, however, you don’t like this functionality, so want to revert to a more traditional way of saving documents, you can turn it off. It is a simple setting change, but like most setting within Mac OS X you have to know where to look. To Turn Off Auto Save Open Up System Preferences. Select The General Preference Pane.  Half way down the list there will be an option to disable auto save. It is titled “Ask to keep changes when closing documents”. Enable this checkbox.  I am not sure if you will ever want to do this... but as I always say - Knowledge wont bite you. 

Did you ever thought of setting up a Screensaver which displays all the RSS feeds of your favorite website? It's really simple if you have a Mac, all you have to do is follow the steps mentioned below: Launch System Preferences (this should be under the Apple icon at the top left corner of your Mac). Under Desktop and Screen Saver option, select the Screen Saver tab.  Try to find the drop down at the left, and expand it. Once done, you will find RSS visualizer, which should be under the Apple heading.  Now enter the RSS url of the website you want to be displayed.

There would be many applications out there in the market but one of those which is definitely super-cool to use, is Hootsuite . Once you sign in to this application, you will find an option as Pending Tweets, this is where you can draft a tweet and schedule it for future. All you need to do is tap on ''Pending Tweets". Go to the next window and write a tweet. Once you are done with tweet drafting, tap on Menu. You will be shown the above screen where you have to tap on Schedule. Set a date and time for your schedule to be posted and tap on 'Set Date' at top right and you are done. Hootsuite apart from giving you additional features, it also has inbuilt browser which opens the url when clicked on. Further you have option to open the url in browser or send to Instapaper or send it via Email / message. It's really beautiful and worth trying.

The steps are simple…                                             …and you are done!

It’s Christmas in October. Lots of people are getting new iPhones, but the rest of us have plenty to celebrate, too, as Apple rolls out iOS 5, iCloud, Mac OS X 10.7.2 and, of course, iTunes 10.5 — the glue that sticks it all together. Fire up Software Update because the mothership has a freebie for you. iTunes 10.5 (download) brings a lot of good things — features we’ve all been wanting for years — to your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac: The New iPod touch from MacMall.com• iTunes in the Cloud: iTunes now stores music and TV purchases in iCloud, making them available anywhere, any time, at no additional cost     • Automatic Downloads: Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices     • Download Previous Purchases: Download your past music, TV, app and book purchases again, at no additional cost     • Sync with your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iOS 5    ...