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services:printers:print-mac:automatically_connect_drives_on_login

Tips and Tricks


    Perform the steps to map a drive as listed above in the “Map a Drive” section.
    Open “System Preferences” from the Dock.
    Choose “Users & Groups“.
    Select the “Login Items” option.
    Ensure the lock in the bottom-left corner is unlocked. Select it to change it if needed.
    Drag the mapped drives from the desktop to the “Users & Groups” window.
    Check the “Hide” box next to your mapped volume, otherwise a window will open automatically.

Map a Network Drive


Map a Drive

    In the “Finder“, select the “Go” menu, select “Connect to Server“.
    Enter the address to where the resource is you wish to map in the “Server Address” field. (i.e. smb://pcserver1.eecs.yorku.ca/homes)
    Select the + button to save the Server Address to your list of “Favorite Servers“.
    Enter the username and password that is required to access the resource. Check the “Remember this password in my keychain” box if you wish to store the credentials for use at a later time.
    A new icon should appear on the desktop. That is your mapped network drive.
    If you do not see the network drive on desktop, click on "Finder" in the menu bar and choose "Preferences".  In the pop up window "Finder Preferences" check off "Connected servers".

Mac apps that are “damaged and can’t be opened”

Empty your Mac’s cache, by using the Finder window and selecting Go to Folder in the Go menu. Next, type in ~/Library/Caches and hit enter to go to that folder and empty it. 2) Try holding down command + option when you launch the app. 3) Another explanation could be an issue with your Mac’s security settings. Go to the Security and Privacy system preferences, and check the Allow applications downloaded from: Anywhere setting. 4) Try resetting your computer’s PRAM. To do this, shut down your Mac and turn it back on. As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down command, option, P and R. Hold these down until you hear the computer restart and the startup sound playing for a second time.

How to Automatically Empty Trash in Mac OS After 30 Days(From Sierra onwards


This auto-empty Trash feature requires macOS Sierra 10.12 or newer, earlier versions of Mac OS do not have the ability to automatically remove items from the trash can. Remove Items from Trash Automatically After 30 Days in MacOS

  From the Finder in MacOS, go to the “Finder” menu and choose “Preferences”
  Go to the “Advanced” tab and check the box for “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days”
  Exit out of Finder preferences

Once this feature has been enabled, individual items in the Trash in Mac OS will essentially have a 30 day timer where they are counting down until they are automatically deleted. In other words, each file will delete itself automatically after the 30 days pass individually, the Trash doesn’t just empty itself once every 30 days.

You can still manually empty the trash as well.

This has no impact on the Trash aside from deleting the contents automatically, for items and files that have yet to be delete you can still use the Put Back feature, and you can also still use features like Delete Immediately if you don’t want to wait for the 30 days to elapse to trash an item permanently.

Keep in mind that trashing a file is irreversible, if you remove a file you didn’t intend to delete, it will be gone for good unless you made backups with Time Machine or otherwise.

As usual, if you decide you don’t want this feature in use, you can disable it later. Stop Emptying Trash Automatically in MacOS

  From the Finder in MacOS, go to the “Finder” menu and choose “Preferences”
  From the “Advanced” tab, uncheck the box next to “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days”

Some users may have enabled this feature unintentionally during initial MacOS setup or when configuring some of the various other features on the Mac.

The feature is similar to the delete after 30 days feature of iOS Photos Recently Deleted album, where pictures are placed in a delete queue and then removed automatically once the time runs out.

Mac runs slowly after macOS Sierra upgrade

We’ve all been there: You upgrade to the latest OS, which looked amazing on all of Apple’s demos, but find that your once-speedy Mac now crawls along in slow motion. While this could have you reaching for the credit card to order an upgraded Mac, however, there are other things you can try first:

1) Reduce your RAM usage, or possibly upgrade it to make your machine run faster. To easily check which apps are using the most memory, launch Activity Monitor and check the Memory tab is selected. You can then banish the widgets or memory-hogging apps causing your machine to run slowly. 2) Try resetting your computer’s PRAM, as described above. 3) Repairing disk permissions with Disk Utility can also have a big impact. Slow Wi-Fi after macOS Sierra upgrade

Slow Wi-Fi is every bit as annoying as a slow Mac. Here are a few solutions to help you banish this nightmare scenario back to the 2002-era dystopian past it came from:

1) Power off your router and check if it requests any updates. You can also try turning off Bluetooth. 2) Try de-selecting proxies, which you do by going to System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Proxies Tab, and then unchecking any box ticked under Select Protocol. Hit OK, and then Apply. 3) If these suggestions don’t work, you can try deleting your existing Wi-Fi preferences. This means removing system configuration files, so make sure you back up your Mac first. Start by quitting any apps that are using Wi-Fi, then turn it off using the Wi-Fi menu. Next, use the Go folder and select Go to folder.

Now enter: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

Next, select the following files:

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist NetworkInterfaces.plist preferences.plist

Remove these by either putting them in a folder on your desktop or moving them to trash. Now reboot your Mac and, when you’re back up and running, turn back on the Wi-Fi. Hopefully this should immediately work as usual.

How to Allow Apps from Anywhere in macOS Sierra Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper in macOS Sierra is now stricter than ever, defaulting to only allow options for apps downloaded from either the App Store or the App Store and identified developers. Advanced Mac users may wish to allow a third option, which is the ability to open and allow apps downloaded from anywhere in macOS Sierra.

To be clear, the “Allow applications downloaded from anywhere” option is hidden by default in Gatekeeper for macOS Sierra. You can see this by going to the Security & Privacy preference panel, and under the “General” section you will not find such an option for Gatekeeper app allow settings. Despite that, with a little command line intervention you can reveal the third option and regain the ability to open apps that come from anywhere.

This is not recommended for most Mac users, only advanced Mac users and developers who have the ability to accurately gauge app validity should use this method, which involves disabling Gatekeeper from the command line, thereby removing the standard Gatekeeper security mechanisms in Mac OS.

How to Allow Apps from Anywhere in Gatekeeper for macOS Sierra

  Quit out of System Preferences
  Open the Terminal app from the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and then enter the following command syntax:
  sudo spctl --master-disable
  Hit return and authenticate with an admin password

Relaunch System Preferences and go to “Security & Privacy” and the “General” tab You will now see the “Anywhere” option under ‘Allow apps downloaded from:’ Gatekeeper options

Create Alias

  Hold the “Command” key and press “K“.
  Enter the address to where the resource is you wish to map in the “Server Address” field. (i.e. smb://servername/foldername)
  Open the Finder “Preferences” pane.
  Make sure the box next to “Connected Servers” under “General” is checked.
  Right-click on the icon on your desktop representing the mounted drive.
  Choose “Make Alias” (And optionally rename the drive to something more specific).
  Go back and uncheck the box next to “Connected Servers”.

Upon restart or disconnect, just double-click on the alias and it will remount.

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Tips and Tricks

Connecting a Network Drive on MacOS


services/printers/print-mac/automatically_connect_drives_on_login.txt · Last modified: 2022/03/15 11:06 by jas