MELANCHOLY404 TECHNOLOGY

Apple’s iCloud service gives you easy and automatic backups of your iOS devices. You never have to connect your device to your computer, but your stuff is still safe. When backups don’t work though, you’ll need to troubleshoot it.

Make Sure Your Device is Backing Up

iPads and iPhones should warn you if they haven’t backed up to iCloud in a few weeks. It won’t do this if you don’t first configure your device for iCloud backup. Some people just assume it is there automatically, but you still need to configure it. Other times backups just messed up, so it’s worth a check.

Head over to Settings->iCloud and make sure Backup is set to On. That doesn’t mean your device backed up though. Under Back Up Now the last backup should be within the last few days. For iCloud backup to work (according to Apple)  you need to make sure:
•Your device has continuous power.

•It’s connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi.
•The screen is locked.

The typical problem I see is hotels with password gateways. You’re connected to Wi-Fi, but you’re not connected to the Internet. You’ll need to put in a special password on the “capture page” for your iPhone or iPad to connect to the Internet.
If it hasn’t backed up in a while and you meet all three of those conditions, tap Back Up Now. Your iPhone or iPad should finish the backup and your problem is solved.

When in Doubt, Turn it On and Off Again

This works for both the iOS and your iCloud backup. First, toggle your iCloud Backup setting to Off. Then toggle it back on. Tap Back Up Now and see if the backup completes. If not, toggle the backup off and then turn off your iPad or iPhone completely. This is a complete Slide to Power Off not just putting the device to sleep.
After the troublesome device reboots, try turning on the backup again. It just might work! If that still doesn’t work, try signing out of your iCloud account. Go to Settings->iCloud-> Sign Out. After you sign out, Apple techs tell me it is best to sign into another account to clear out the data. Apple warns you the data on the Phone will be removed. Since it is in iCloud, it will come back again. You can sign in with nonsense data by using a random name and password. I use letmein as both the username and password . It won’t log you in, but it still clears out some of your old stuff.

Reboot your iPhone or iPad and then sign out of the fake account. Then sign into the correct account and reboot yet again.

Delete the Old Backup on iCloud

Sometimes a backup can get stuck on iCloud’s end and you need to start from scratch. Just to play it safe, you’ll want to do a manual backup directly to iTunes. You won’t be erasing data on your iPad or iPhone but you will be deleting a backup from iCloud. Since you’ll lose one backup, it is time to create another.
After your iTunes backup, go to your device and go to Settings->iCloud->Storage->Manage Storage. There you’ll see a list of devices. Tap the device and then tap Delete Backup. Apple warns you that this deletes the backup data from the servers. It won’t delete stuff synced to iCloud like pictures and contacts. After you delete the backup, you’ll need to turn the backup back on.

iCloud remembers old devices you backed up to it. If you replaced an old device, you can safely delete iCloud’s backup of it.

When I had this problem recently, a backup on Apple’s servers wouldn’t delete. No matter what I did, there was a stuck backup related to the device. Apple was able to delete the backup on their end.

Make Sure You Aren’t Backing Up Too Much Stuff

If you don’t have enough room in your iCloud account, the backup may not complete. iOS should warn you that is the reason the backup won’t complete. In my experience, it doesn’t always do that, especially if you’re close to the edge in account size. Other times part of the glitch is Apple thinks you’re backing up too much stuff even when you aren’t. You can tell iCloud to backup less of your stuff for troubleshooting purposes. If you’ve reduced your backup size and still don’t have iCloud space, then the problem isn’t a space issue.

Check For Network Problems and Reset Them

If you have a slow upload speed on your Internet connection, the backup may be timing out. If you’re on someone else’s connection (like at work), the backup could be blocked.
Try a different network environment and see if that makes a difference in the backup speed. If all of this doesn’t work, you might need to reset your network settings. This causes your iPhone or iPad to forget all previous wireless networks, so you’ll have to join them again (and possibly remember passwords). Go to Settings->General->Reset->Reset Network Settings and put in your passcode.  After that, reboot your iPad or iPhone and then try the backup again.

Restore Your iPhone or iPad

As a last resort, you may have to erase your device and restore from backup. If you do a backup in iTunes, you can then restore everything. That process is time-consuming, but it works in even the most difficult scenarios. You’ll need to put your iPhone or iPad into recovery mode to do this.

You might just let this problem slide and not fix it. If you ever lose your iPhone or iPad though, you’ll have trouble restoring your data. That’s why you want to get this fixed as soon as possible.

When Apple introduced Yosemite, it changed the way it distributes operating systems for the Mac. Now, you can’t buy a copy of the Mac OS installer. That’s a problem if you have a limited broadband connection or metered broadband connection. You’ll need to create a portable offline installer in these situations.

Download or Purchase the Mac Operating System

The first step is to go to the App Store and search for the current operating system. Currently, that’s El Capitan. If it’s already installed on your Mac, the App store will warn you the operating system is already on your system. If it isn’t already installed or you didn’t purchase it on your current Mac, under El Capitan it will say Get instead of Download. After you download the operating system, don’t install it. Go to the Install OS X menu and select Quit Install OS X. Don’t delete this file. You’ll need it later.

If you’d like to create an installer for an earlier operating system you purchased, you can still do that from the App Store. Go to the Purchased tab and scroll through your purchased and find the correct operating system. In this example its Mavericks.

The Easy Way: DiskMaker X

DiskMaker X is a free program that does the hard work of creating the USB installer. They do take donations, so if it’s helpful to you, you might throw some money in the tip jar.

After your open the program, it finds the operating system installers on your Mac. In this example, I’ll create an El Capitan installer. Next you’ll need an 8 GB or larger disk. This media can be a USB stick, but I use an SD card. Since most Macs that run Yosemite have an SD card slot, I think it’s easier.

DiskMaker confirms the disk you want to use for the installer. Then it warns you it needs to erase that disk. Confirm again you have the right disk and then click continue. After authenticating your Mac’s administrator name and password, a few minutes later you’ll have a complete installer.

The Hard Way: Terminal Commands

If you’re more comfortable with terminal than using a third-party program, it is possible to create the installer. You’ll need a disk formatted OS X Extended (Journaled) and with enough space for the installer – 6 GB. The El Capitan installer will need to be in your Applications folder and then you’ll type one long command exactly. In this example, I named the external drive El Capitan Installer. You can replace that name with the name of the installer disk you’re using.
After you put in the password, the media creation process begins.

Why Do You Need This?

If you can download it again, why waste a flash drive or an SD card? Ideally, your Mac has a recovery partition you can boot off of to repair problems. Sometimes that partition isn’t there. An offline installer includes disk utility so you can solve problems.

The most common reason though is if your Mac’s hard drive fails. If you only have one Mac, you won’t have an easy way to reinstall the operating system. Creating the installer in advance solves the problem.
Finally, if you want to reinstall your OS to troubleshoot problems, waiting for the installer takes a long time. When things don’t work, you probably wait for a download. If you’re on a slow connection, the download could take several hours.
Overall for the cost of one small USB flash drive or SD card, you can have the peace of mind that you can solve your Mac problems instantly.

Apple's computers and mobile devices could be targeted more heavily by hackers in 2016, experts predict

According to security firm Symantec, the amount of malware aimed at Apple's mobile operating system (iOS) has more than doubled this year, while threats to Mac computers also rose.
Security firm FireEye also expects 2016 to be a bumper year for Apple malware.
Systems such as Apple Pay could be targeted, it predicts.
Apple is an obvious target for cybercriminals because its products are so popular, said Dick O'Brien, a researcher at Symantec.
While the total number of threats targeting Apple devices remains low compared with Windows and Android, Symantec is seeing the range of threats multiply.
Last year, it was seeing a monthly average of between 10,000 and 70,000 Mac computers infected with malware.
"This is far fewer than Windows desktops and we don't want to scaremonger. Apple remains a relatively safe platform but Apple users can no longer be complacent about security, as the number of infections and new threats rise," said Mr O'Brien.
The number of unique OS X computers infected with malware in the first nine months of 2015 was seven times higher than in all of 2014, its research found.
A significant amount of this spike is accounted for by so-called greyware - applications that may not have malware attached but can still be annoying to users, by serving up unwanted ads or tracking their web-browsing habits.
Symantec also found seven new threats aimed at Apple's mobile iOS platform, with jailbroken devices - those that have been unlocked - being particularly vulnerable.
And hackers are also increasingly targeting corporations, where Mac use is now more prevalent.
A corporate espionage group known as Butterfly which attacked multi-billion dollar companies in 2015 developed malware tools that attacked both Windows and Apple computers.

Walled garden

Traditionally iOS has been seen as a more secure platform than Android because of the more closed community that Apple runs for its apps but that is changing, according to FireEye.
While it found that the vast majority - 96% - of mobile malware is targeted at Android devices, iOS is no longer immune.
According to Bryce Boland, chief technology officer at FireEye, attackers are increasingly "finding ways into Apple's walled garden, and that will ramp up next year".
FireEye recently discovered that XcodeGhost, iOS malware that Apple acted quickly to remove from its app store, had found its way into the networks of 210 US businesses.
The attack was thought to be the first large-scale attack on Apple's app store.
The introduction of new payment systems, such as Apple Pay, will add a financial incentive for hackers, making it worth their "time and effort" to develop new malware, FireEye said.
Mr O'Brien said: "We haven't yet seen any threats targeting Apple Pay but anything that involves a financial transaction will be of interest to hackers."