Answers...

to commonly asked questions.

Reciepents getting weird emails from me.

Good morning! Hope all is well. Wondering the best way to fix a problem. I apparently have an issue with my email - maybe malware. A few people said they are getting weird emails from me - they are coming from a different email but say my name.
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I’d love to see one of those emails. Could you have someone possibly forward one to me? There are often details in the header data of emails that can help us figure out what’s going on. It is very possible that this issue has nothing to do with your actual computer and everything to do with the security of your email. If this is a gmail account, they have a good security feature that gives one the ability to see where your account is being used and on what devices. Regardless, the very first step you should take is to change your email password just to be safe.

Printer not printing correctly. Possible onboard memory corruption.

I need your help for printing from my computer and scanning. 
My problem is when I try to print images of decorating products from my Mac from the internet or emails my printer often says printer full or another error code (I am not saving anything on my printer to my knowledge).  If I turn it off and on I may get a few items to print and then it sends the error again. That’s why I wondered if I needed a special printer for my Mac? Or do I need to save the images in a certain type of format before I print? Does this make sense? My printer is a HP M477fnw.
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Based on this description this seems very likely a printer specific problem. More specifically it sounds like the printer's onboard memory is having trouble keeping a temporary copy of any document it needs to print. All printers have a small amount of memory that holds the job on the printer while it prints then that file is removed from memory to make room for the next print. The HP M477 is a good printer and should have no issues printing from any Mac. A couple of things to try before looking at a new printer:

Resetting defaults on the printer itself. Using the printer's interface (the screen on the printer) navigate to the settings menu and look for a "Reset Defaults" button. This would reset the printer back to the way it shipped from the store. Using this option should reset the printer's memory and may allow it to function correctly. There is another reset that has to do with the wifi network but that is unlikely the issue.

Another option to try would be to use a different driver. There are two types of drivers the printer will use when printing from a computer. The driver written by HP and the driver written by Apple called "AirPrint". AirPrint is the standard driver now for all printers but could result in some functionality issues. To choose the drive you'd prefer to use (I suggest testing with either driver and see if that resolves the problem) do the following:

Open system preferences
go to "printers and scanners"

Select the printer in the left column and hit the minus key at the bottom. This will remove the printer.


Now hit the plus sign to re add the printer. The printer will show up in the list (if correctly on the network via wifi, ethernet, or usb cable).
Looking below, it should give you the option to chose which driver. Try one. Print several items. If that doesn't work, repeat the process to remove the printer, re add the printer, then choose the opposite driver.



If you do not see the HP driver in the list, you can download it from HP's website. They may have an updated driver for your specific Operating system version. example: 10.12, 10.13, 10.14.


These ideas are completely separate. One deals with reseting the printer itself, the other deals with changing the driver on the computer. You can try both to see if that resolves the issue. My instinct is telling me it's an onboard memory issue. Due to the high cost of that specific printer, I wouldn't suggest replacing it until you've tried both steps here, you may also try directly connecting via a USB cable instead of wifi if that is the case, then last resort, contacting HP support which is generally a horrible experience.

Warning: never pay for technical support from HP. There are many fraud scams out there pretending to be a tech support company that require a credit card before they will answer questions. I've had several clients bitten by that.

What alternatives to iMovie can you recommend?

We tried to download Final Cut Pro on our Mac Book but were unsuccessful. Is there a way to do it? Or can you recommend another video editing program for her Mac Book that would be an upgrade from iMovie?
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Can you tell me of some good alternatives to iMovie?

Final Cut is available only through the Mac App Store. You can find the App store in the applications folder on your Mac. It is possible that the version of the operating system you have installed on your computer may be older than what Final Cut currently requires. The Mac App Store will tell you if this is the case prior to purchasing.

If you'd rather go with a different option, Adobe Premier Elements is a good alternative and is less expensive. There's also a free trial available.

Davinci Resolve has a free version as well that's worth checking out.

Our gmail is mixing together

My gmail and wife's gmail have gotten mixed up again. Can you tell me how to fix?
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In regard to your gmail issue: The mix up could be happening by a: not understanding the difference between the "Inbox" and the separate mailboxes in Mail. When Mail.app has multiple email accounts, there is a risk of a person accidentally sending an email from the wrong address. When sending an email, always check the outgoing email address in the email prior to hitting send.

I prefer to never click on the Inbox at the top. Doing so means that you're looking at all email accounts in one box. I prefer to select the mailboxes below individually:

How do I print from image capture?

I'd like to understand how to print using image capture from my computer? Are u able to tell me quickly how to print from email or internet through image capture?
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Image Capture is not a program that you would normal use to print a document. Image Capture is a program designed to pull images from a device such as a scanner. It can also be used for other purposes like recovering images from an iPhone. But the major purpose of image capture is to simply scan items with a scanner.

As far as email: to print an image that has been emailed to you, you can double click on the image first. The image will open in the appropriate program. Example: word documents will open in Microsoft word, pictures would open in Preview, PDFs would open in preview. Once Preview is open you can then choose Print from the dropdown menu or command+P will also do it.

Please let me know if you have a more specific question.

soagents and callservicesd running high CPU

Two background processes called:

soagent
callservicesd

…where running out of control. This is an uncommon but not unheard of, problem with MacOS syncing with contacts via either Google or iCloud. It could be caused by a corrupt contact entry although I didn’t see evidence of that. I was able to calm the processes by clearing out some files that live in the ~/Library/Containers/ files that are relevant to contact syncing. Hopefully by merging all the gmail contacts into your iCloud contacts, then resolving the soagent and callservicesd issues once again we may be in the clear. Several programs need access to contacts in order to function: Word, Messages, FaceTime, etc…All of these programs would be effected by those rogue background services maxing out your CPU.

If you would like to look at what’s going on in the background on either computer, open “Activity Monitor” (you can find it by searching with Spotlight). Once open you can order all the processes by CPU usage. While it’s normal for some processes to run at or close to 100% for a small amount of time, this should not go on for very long and within one minute the computer should drop down to below 20% for most processes. Exceptions would be Photos, viewing Video in Youtube or iTunes, and other intensive programs. But for day to day work, you shouldn’t see 2 or three processes running super high.

I realize some of the technical parts of this email won't mean much to you but I just wanted to give you those notes in case we run into this in the future. It could save time troubleshooting.
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