337: These HEViC Files Are Wreaking Havoc

Topics:

-Joe joins the crowd in the cloud 

-The biggest issue affecting Joe in his move to the cloud is “van-width”

-An unexpected issue was dealing with his Dropbox data. Joe's PSA: Symlinks in Dropbox = no bueno.  It just got stuck "checking for changes" for days on end. Found a relevant link: “stuck on checking for changes" issue, which said that the solution was removing symlinks from inside the Dropbox folder. It included a handy command to list all symlinks in the Dropbox folder: 
find ~/Dropbox -type l -exec ls -lah {} \; 

-The old days of Mac HelpMate comes up as Joe is sifting through his Dropbox data

-A new type of filesystem link (like symbolic links and hard links) to be aware of, called a firmlink: 
https://eclecticlight.co/2019/10/13/last-week-on-my-mac-more-than-adventurous/

-Jerry is very happy to report that ClarifyIT has a beta that is 64-bit capable!

-After some finagling, Jerry finally figures out how to get Paste and match style working in the latest version of Microsoft Office

-In updating his Mail Chimp and testing with one of his email addresses, Jerry gets a random tips & tricks newsletter

-Upcoming show on marketing is an idea the CCP staff is kicking around

-Google Ads halts Jerry’s marketing plans by saying he is in violation of terms.  Getting in touch with the right people at Google turns out to be an even bigger challenge.

-Facebook and Instagram marketing can be region specific.  Or is it?

-Sam almost has a major mishap in his travels to Alaska 

-HEVC and HEIF wreaking havoc on Joe's MacBook Pro: com.apple.iLifeMediaBrowser.ILPhotosTranscodeCache in ‎⁨~/⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Containers⁩ ▸ ⁨com.apple.ScreenSaver.iLife-Slideshow-Extension⁩ ▸ ⁨Data⁩ ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Caches⁩. This folder grows to consume all available disk space on his Mac running 10.14.6 Mojave.

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335: Your Emergency Contacts Have Been Notified

Topics:

-Sam is off to an undisclosed location in Alaska

-As Jerry complains about Sam’s darkened contact photo, Joe talks custom contact photos

-Jerry has a head smack moment as he too, is affected by the certificates expiring for Apple’s macOS installers. Here are direct download links for macOS installers with valid certificates:
Catalina - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201475
Mojave - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190
High Sierra - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969
Sierra - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202
El Capitan - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886
Yosemite - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210717

-Joe talks about how time consuming it can be to update the installers, especially since he has multiple PsiTool drives 

-Jerry offers a tip which deals with the Expanded Control Strip (System Preferences>Keyboard>Touch Bar Shows) that overrides Control Strip settings that would appear per app

-Backblaze PSA: Business Groups have the ability to keep Version History for 1-year or Forever; this applies to external hard drives that may have been unplugged for more than 30 days for example. Thanks Dan Monge @ Mac I.T. Pros, supporter of the show. 

-BackBlaze B2 is the method Joe uses for his Synology clients.  He has found success in charging clients a flat fee based on the amount of data they have.  Jerry challenges his pricing method

-Joe vents about working with clients that don’t see the light with their IT needs

-Jerry talks about his automation setup when he connects his iPhone 11 to CarPlay.  While in the midst of a ride in his car, he has an incident where attempting to reboot his iPhone caused a 911 alert and for his emergency contacts to be notified.  Jerry researches and learns how to force restart his iPhone:
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios

-Through all of this, Joe recommends going to Apple’s support article about their SOS features:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208076

-Late breaking news from Jerry - Ubiquiti released their UniFi Dream Machine, which acts as a gateway, router, switch, & access point: https://store.ui.com/products/unifi-dream-machine

-Jerry really likes the Synology RT2600AC router (https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/RT2600ac).  Similar feature set but it also includes a USB port, where you can plug in a drive for network backup

-PsiMac now offers a monthly network maintenance and updates service. But he does have a PSA. He ran into an unexpected issue when testing notification emails were failing. As it turns out, he found that the “test email” button in UniFi simply doesn’t work. 

-Another PSA from Joe - he was receiving multiple notifications about UniFi devices being connected, even though they had not disconnected.  UniFi support didn’t have any reasoning so the advice is to turn that feature off at this point.

334: The Debacle Before The Debacle

Topics:

-The New York City support edition

-Sam had a sizable job in NYC and had to request assistance from Joe & Jerry

-But first, Joe discusses his upgrade to the iPhone 11 Pro and working with the dual SIM feature

-Joe finds out that it is not possible to activate an eSIM with an existing phone number

-Jerry can relate after recalling an experience with his Apple Watch

-To add insult to injury, Joe has an issue with the actual purchase transaction 

-Joe’s NYC client story is a tale of woe that has his team dealing with a network support group that operates from another country and doesn’t keep US based support hours 

-Pop quiz time as Joe reveals how to gather MAC address details from a Ubiquiti USG Pro

-Joe has a PSA about the USG Pro as well

-With the time that Joe has left to Sam, he shares a story of a big job in size and manpower that entailed backing up, wiping and provisioning roughly 200 computers in three weeks.

-Mac Deploy Stick (MDS) by Two Canoes is an excellent deployment tool that Sam explored on this job:  http://twocanoes.com/products/mac/mac-deploy-stick/

-Sam wraps up by telling a funny anecdote in corporate IT

333: Justin Esgar of ACEs Conference 2020 & Virtua Computers

This week we welcome Justin Esgar of Virtua Consulting Group & Virtua Computers

-ACEs Conference just completed its 5th year!

-2019 introduced a new format of less speakers and more round table discussions

-ACEs 2020 has been announced!  May 19-20 in Atlanta, GA

-Code CCP at www.acesconf.com will get you 10% off ticket prices

-Justin talks about his support team including his wife, employees, and board of directors.

-Coopetition, a term that Kim Mannit coined, is a big part of the discussion in how the Apple consultants community operates

-Justin recently rebranded his business, Virtua Computers, to Virtua Consulting Group.  This change incorporates his different businesses into one umbrella.

-A new product from Virtua is Your Computer Inventory, where you can share specific computer inventory information with your clients: www.yourcomputerinventory.com

-Justin talks about learning from his app, SignMyPad, where he sold it at a price in the App Store but didn’t have a subscription model that became popular years later.

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332: Interview With Adam Engst Of the TidBITS Content Network

Topics:

This week Command Control Power is joined by  Adam Engst of the TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/ . The TidBITS Content Network provides professionally written, edited, and illustrated tips and articles that its members can use to update their blogs, create a vibrant social media presence, and power email newsletters that people will actually read.

TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/

Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS, one of the oldest and most-respected Internet-based newsletters, distributed weekly to tens of thousands of readers. He has written numerous technical books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles - thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993 (with Northwest Nexus for Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh), and the highly successful Take Control electronic book series. In addition, he has collaborated on several Internet educational videos and has appeared on a variety of internationally broadcast television and radio programs. His indefatigable support of the Macintosh community and commitment to helping individuals has resulted in numerous awards and recognition at the highest levels. In the annual MDJ Power 25 survey of industry insiders, he ranked as the second (2000), third (2001, 2002), fourth (2003), fifth (2004), and third (2005/2006) most influential person in the Macintosh industry. He has also been included on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community for both 2006 and 2007, and he was named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And how many industry figures can boast of being turned into an action figure?

-Jumping right in to the Catalina & iOS 13 discussion, Joe & Adam discuss their advice for not upgrading early

-Data loss??  Missing emails?? These are huge bugs that seem to out in the wild now that Catalina has been released

-Check out the TidBITS article: Six Reasons Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy (https://tidbits.com/2019/10/21/six-reasons-why-ios-13-and-catalina-are-so-buggy/)

-Joe has some follow up about the client that upgraded on his own

-The Group talks about walking the fine line between fear mongering and good advice

-Both Joe & Jerry discuss their methods of alerting customers about Catalina

-Voice Control is a feature of Catalina that Adam says could be very helpful for those that could benefit from it

-In today’s “bozo client corner”, Joe wanted to find out if Jerry had any clients that proceeded with upgrades on their own.

-Adam talks of the point of view he tries to put across to the reader since fear is not a good motivator

-As Adam watches someone force quitting all apps on his iPhone, he offers some friendly advice on why that should not be a regular practice.  Here is a TidBITS article from 2017 that describes the tech behind it: https://tcn.tidbits.com/why-you-shouldnt-usually-quit-apps-on-your-iphone/

-Jerry has a troubling client story with personal data and not only offers good advice but also considers an opportunity for another revenue stream

-Invitation to our listeners to share their “traffic stop moments”

331: Catalina Witt

Topics:

-Jerry teases that there are more things to come from Synology

-Jerry is listening to The Shining on audio and talks of the value of audio books

-“Catalina Witt” is a reference to the latest operating system that goes over Joe’s head

-Joe thinks a new corner called “Bozo clients” is in order as he recalls the clients that want to upgrade their operating system day 0

-On the flip side, he has quite the yarn to spin about a client that just won’t pull the trigger on managed services, yet proceeds to run OS updates without considering the ramifications.

-Jerry offers a bit of tough love in how he should approach this situation with a client that doesn’t seem to want to spend the time or the money to do things correctly

-Our friends at the TidBITS Content Network provide us with quality redistributable material that offers advice like why clients should hold off on Catalina upgrades 

-There are some bugs in Catalina that Jerry has experienced in his personal dealings

-Joe has an “I should have know this segment” about the Apple Watch

-The hosts are sharing a brain as they both have some things to say about Backblaze.  In Joe’s case, he has some information to share about the .bzvol directory, which it places at the root directory of all drives that are backed up: https://www.backblaze.com/bzvol.html

-Jerry’s story has a shocking resolution recommended by Backblaze support. As stated by their support team:
“Thanks for collecting those logs! They were very helpful. The inherit is timing out on our end while trying to assemble the backup state index files to prepare them for the download part of the inherit. This means your older backup state’s indexes are too large for the inherit process to handle and parse correctly. You will need manually transfer your license to continue with our services.”

-Another tidbit Joe shares about Backblaze deals with their 30 day backup limitation. He discusses some little know facts about that timeline:
https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664898-What-happens-to-my-backups-when-I-m-away-or-on-vacation-

-Arq is another backup solution that Jerry recommends is on the same price point as other vendors.
https://www.arqbackup.com