Mac 911: How to enable Reader View automatically for websites in mobile and desktop Safari, and much more
Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems.
two choices ( go.macworld.com/2chc):
> Allow my icloud account to unlock my disk
> Create a recovery key and do not use my icloud account
In both cases, a recovery key is set. However, if you use icloud to store your key, you never see it, and Apple manages the recovery process. All you need is your icloud password and, if you turned on twofactor authentication, a trusted device or access to a trusted phone number. But this introduces risk, as someone who obtained your computer and discovered your password could potentially unlock the drive, too.
I prefer the second choice, as it provides entirely “local” control. No secret is stored remotely. You only face a problem if you forget the passwords to all macos accounts approved for Filevaultbased cold start (from a shutdown state) logins and you lose your recovery key. (I have heard of cases in which account information becomes corrupted, though, and the recovery key is the only way to start up a Mac.)
What happens if, while you’re trying to write down the recovery key, it disappears from the screen? While this seems unlikely it happened to one reader, who doesn’t believe they clicked a button or otherwise caused the key message to dismiss. They wrote in to ask how they could recover the recovery key?
Unfortunately, there’s no method to retrieve the key once it’s been displayed and dismissed. The recovery key is generated and passed through a strong one-way encryption process; only the
result is used to further protect the keys used in Filevault encryption. The recovery key is displayed once. When you dismiss the dialog, macos tosses this original version of it forever. (Entering the precise original recovery key, which is fed through the same one-way process, unlocks the data that it protects.)
If you weren’t able to write the key down before it disappeared from view, you have to disable Filevault encryption and re-enable it to generate a new recovery key:
In the Security & Privacy system preference pane, click the Filevault tab.
Click the lock icon at the lower-left corner and enter an account name and password with administrative access.
Click the Turn Off Filevault button. Confirm you want to disable Filevault by clicking Restart & Turn Off Encryption.
Your Mac now restarts. After you log back in using an account with Filevault permission, macos begins decrypting the entire contents of the drive. This can take quite a while.
When decryption is complete, you can return to the Filevault tab and click Turn On Filevault.
At the Recovery Key prompt, choose the Create A Recovery Key option and write the key down. You might even quickly take a picture of it as a backup.
(But be sure to delete that photo and then permanently delete it from the Recently
Deleted album to avoid any chance of someone gaining access to it.)
Restart again and Filevault begins the slow process of encrypting the startup volume once more.
HOW TO ENABLE READER VIEW AUTOMATICALLY FOR WEBSITES IN MOBILE AND DESKTOP SAFARI
Many websites (including Macworld.com) have sidebars, overlays, autoplaying video, and other distractions—as well as text in a size you may find too small to read.
Reader View is Safari’s way to override the parameters most sites have set to produce a simplified stream of text for which you can adjust the size.
You can enable Reader View easily enough:
> In macos, if Reader View is available, a paragraph icon appears at the far left of the Location Bar. Click it.
> In IOS and ipados, a little A/big A icon appears at the far left of the location bar. Long press it to enable Reader View.
But you can also configure Reader View as a choice for a website.
In macos, right-click the Reader View icon, and then select Use Reader View Automatically On ‘Site Name.’ You can also select Reader Websites Preferences, which opens Safari’s preferences dialog to the Websites tab and selects Reader in the left-hand features list. For any currently open or previously specified site, you can change the Reader behavior via a pop-up menu. With any open sites, the pop-up menu choice immediately enables or disables Reader View in all tabs based on your selection.
In IOS and ipados, tap the Reader
View icon and then choose Website Settings. This site-specific menu lets you configure multiple settings for the website, including turning on Use Reader Automatically.
No matter how you engage Reader View, you can control the viewing size and other display parameters.
In macos, with Reader View enabled, click the small A/large A icon at the far right of the Location bar to choose a background color and typefaces from several options. (With Reader View disabled, you can use the normal Command-plus [+] and Command-minus [–] keystrokes to enlarge or reduce the type size proportionately along with graphics. Press Commandzero [0] to return to the default.)
In IOS and ipados, tap the Reader View icon and tap the small A or large A to vary type size. This works for normal page view and in
Reader View. In Reader View, you can also choose among typefaces and background colors.
HOW TO USE APPLE ID TO CREATE PASSWORDS FOR YOUR APPS
Apple upped its account security for Apple IDS years ago to prevent unwanted and unauthorized third-party access to all your information. Apple relies on Apple ID across all its software and services, but third-party software can only gain access to three kinds of data: email, contacts, and events.
Apple requires webconnected and native mobile or desktop software—on IOS, Android, Windows, macos, and others—that want to use any of those three kinds of data to use a special kind of access. You create a so-called appspecific password for each piece of software to which you want to grant access.
Google and other ecosystems offer a similar approach to reduce the opportunity for exploitation. Apple lets this password be used for email, contacts, and events; some other systems require you lock it down to one of those three services, or even to a task as specific as “retrieving email.”
To create an app-specific password, follow these steps:
Log in to your Apple ID account in a web browser at appleid.apple.com ( go. macworld.com/iapl). (You can only create and manage these passwords at the
website.)
In the Security section, click Generate Password.
Enter a label to remind you on why you created the password and click Create.
The site creates a password that you can write down or select and copy. Click Done.
In the third-party software you’re using, enter your Apple ID email address and this password. No additional steps are required.
You can create up to 25 app-specific passwords. While Apple recommends you create one for each service or site, you can re-use them.
The utility of appspecific passwords is that you can revoke them without resetting your account.
Log in at the Apple ID site.
Click Edit to the right of the Security label.
To the right of the app-specific password generation link, click View History.
The site displays a list of passwords with labels and when they were created. Click the X to the right of the listing and then click Revoke to remove it. You can also click Revoke All to deny access to all third-party apps if you believe something was compromised.
Treat these app-specific passwords with the same kind of care as you would
your main icloud password. Someone who gains access to your email can often use that as a scaffolding to access other parts of your life, such as sending password reset requests to the icloud email address for other services, receiving second-factor login codes for financial institutions, or confirming transactions via email.
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR KID’S ADULT APPLE ID ACCOUNT TO A CHILD ACCOUNT
Let’s face it: a lot of people may have created Apple IDS for their kids for convenience while skirting Apple’s rules about the age at which an account can be created. That’s 13 in the U.S. ( go.macworld. com/13us) and many countries, unless you use the option within Apple’s Family Sharing to create a Child Account.
If you weren’t using Family Sharing, however, and—ahem— invented an earlier birth date for one or more child, you can still rewind the clock and gain the advantages for age-based control within
Family Sharing.
For our family, that includes not just using Screen Time to limit and monitor access to all their Apple devices, but—and the kids actually like this—remotely disabling Screen Time if they are on a sleepover or away on a school trip and we are willing to let them use their screens past our household limits. (That was a selling point to at least one kid, along with access to a much larger pool of shared icloud storage.)
First, add the child to Family Sharing. (See Apple’s instructions on how to invite family members.)
Then, simply log in using the kid’s Apple ID credentials at the Apple ID site ( go.macworld.com/iapl), click Edit in the account section, and change the birth date. Click Done.
If you return to the Family Sharing view on any parental Mac, iphone, or ipad, the correct age is now listed. ■