The United States celebrates Thanksgiving today, and many Americans are getting ready for family gatherings, watching football games, enjoying their downtime during the holidays, and looking for bargains as Christmas shopping approaches. If you’re the “technician” in your family, chances are someone will ask you for help with their iPhone or Mac. Here are some tips to make them work better!
Get the latest version of iOS and macOS
If someone in your family is using iOS 13 or an older version of macOS, Thanksgiving is the perfect time to update. They’ll get all the latest features from iOS 16 and watchOS 9, and can stay up-to-date even longer with automatic updates.
All of Apple’s fall operating system updates have been out long enough that you can feel safe updating them. Keep in mind that the current versions are the most secure out there, so it’s a great idea to keep your family up to date with these patches and fixes.
Before updating macOS Ventura, make sure your system is backed up – more on that later. If you’re only going to do one thing for Thanksgiving tech support, checking for updates should be (even more so than peeling potatoes).
Confirm iCloud is set up
iCloud Photos
If you’re going to watch a family member’s devices, make sure they sign in with their iCloud account before doing anything else. It may sound crazy, but I saw it with my own eyes: in 2022, someone could use iOS without iCloud.
To check if your family members are signed in to iCloud, go to Settings > iCloud. While you’re in this section, scroll down and make sure they’ve completed a backup recently – if not, immediately trigger a manual backup so it completes before the iOS upgrade.
Once you have verified that iCloud Photos is enabled, go back to the main screen and check if they have enough space on their iCloud account. If you back up your photo library to iCloud, losing a device won’t be worse than forgetting where you put the charger.
On macOS, you’ll want to enable iCloud (Apple logo > System Preferences > iCloud). Then open the Photos app for it to sync properly.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can enable iCloud Photo Sharing.
Time Machine and cloud backups
Although your family may not have their external hard drive with them, you should strongly encourage them to back up their Mac at regular intervals. Amazon offers a number of reasonably priced external drives that are easy to use with Time Machine.
If they don’t have a drive, you should ask them to order one and set it up at Christmas. You can check that Time Machine is working by going to System Preferences > Time Machine.
If they don’t have a Time Machine backup and want one, you can recommend a service like Backblaze. It only costs $70 per year. I have a few co-workers who didn’t want to remember to plug in an external drive to do backups, so they just opted for Backblaze. Backblaze will automatically back up all files on your Mac or PC. Offsite backups are especially crucial in the event of fire, flood or theft; Once installed there is nothing more to do.
Check Chrome Extensions
Chrome is a popular browser among Mac users thanks to its easy syncing with PCs and robust extension ecosystem. I tend to find instances where it has been loaded with bloatware by PC owners, and luckily, these add-ons are relatively easy to remove.
Go to Window > Extensions. Look for anything abnormal (PDF converters, etc.) and delete it. Also check its default homepage (DuckDuckGo is the safest option). If your loved ones are complaining about constant pop-ups when they try to browse the web, it’s probably due to an extension that installed its own search engine. Be sure to include this tech support at Thanksgiving dinner!
General cleaning of macOS
Although macOS is very secure, you can still get malware by clicking on a random pop-up ad asking you to download a new flash player etc. My favorite malware cleaning tool is Malwarebytes or CleanMyMac X. Malwarebytes is a free download. , and there are paid options for automatic scanning in the future. You can do this for free if you want to run a quick scan and remove it.
If you need to do general maintenance, delete large files to free up space, or uninstall apps, check out CleanMyMac X. It’s the best macOS maintenance tool on the market. It’s great for cleaning up space, uninstalling unused apps, and more.
Discuss Wi-Fi upgrades
I get more and more questions about how to improve home Wi-Fi connections. At any one time, there may be 60 devices connected to my home network – mostly HomeKit-enabled devices and accessories, but also computers, iPhones, and iPads.
I’ve been using the eero Pro 6E around my house since working from home, but for someone with less demanding needs, the regular eero 6 model will be a fantastic upgrade. Here is my full review. If your family is complaining about poor Wi-Fi in their home for remote work, you can confidently recommend eero to them.
Thanksgiving Tech Support Recap
It’s high time you got all your friends and family ready for the New Year by making sure their devices are backed up, updated, and free of malware. Avoid controversial topics like web apps vs native apps – it’s Thanksgiving!
Photo by Jure Pivk on Unsplash
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