Sudden loss of iMac Ethernet port
you would have to change every one of the scripts. A much simpler approach, which does not require any AppleScript, would be to use a basic rule to move messages to different custom mailboxes in Mail according to the sender’s address, then to manually save from each of those mailboxes as needed.
[ IOS Music disappearing from iPhone
I don’t use iTunes Match, and I am not even too sure which version of iOS my iPhone 5s is running, but the Music app keeps removing songs from my phone and putting them back into the cloud. This makes it impossible for me to listen to those tracks when I don’t have an internet connection. How can I prevent this?
[ ÉLISE GOYETTE ]
Discover which version of iOS your iPhone is running by going to ‘Settings > General > About’, and check Software Update alongside that — it’s worth updating to the latest version to gain fixes for security issues, and to smooth out earlier issues with iCloud, backup and other things.
It sounds like your device is automatically managing its storage and, when it runs low on free space, it’s sacrificing songs in Music. When you tap the row for a track that’s stored in the cloud (which will be tracks you have bought from the iTunes Store), the Music app downloads a copy to your device, but it only persists there for as long as you have plenty of free space. To ensure an item stays on your device, tap the adjacent ellipsis, then tap the cloud with a downwards-pointing arrow. Download progress indicators appear next to relevant tracks, and will eventually change to tiny device icons, telling you iOS’s automatic storage management will no longer clear those items off your device. To manually get rid of such an item, tap its ellipsis, then the device icon, and pick ‘Remove Download’.
To see only music that’s available offline, tap ‘My Music’, then the category selector (just under the ‘Recently Added’ row) and turn on the switch labelled ‘Only Downloaded Music’.
[ WINDOWS ] To defrag or not defrag?
My new Windows 10 PC has a 512GB solid-state drive. I was advised not to defragment SSD drives, but when I open the
Defragment and Optimise Drives’ desktop app, it seems defragmentation is being carried out by Windows. This reveals a hidden partition and my C drive, complete with an ‘Optimise’ button, but can you clarify exactly what’s going on and what settings I should apply? [ ALBERT MCCRACKEN ]
Nick Odantzis replies: Windows 10’s defrag tool is designed to work with both traditional (Defragment) and solid-state (Optimise) drives. The process of optimising the drive basically ensures that its TRIM function is run, which, in turn, basically ensures the SSD’s performance (particularly when writing files) is kept at its peak. Albert helpfully included a screenshot of his setup, which allowed us to confirm the drive had been correctly identified as a solid-state drive, which means Windows optimises rather than defrags it. It also confirmed that the default settings meant that Albert’s SSD drive is being automatically optimised on a weekly basis, meaning there’s no need for him to run the tool manually.
[ WINDOWS Fix paging file error
I wanted to move my Windows 10 paging file to another hard drive for performance reasons. When I attempted to do so, Windows warned me that I should keep an 800MB paging file on the boot drive in order to record errors. However, since following its advice I keep getting the following error on boot: “Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration”. Can you assist? [ ROD TURNER ]
Nick Peers replies: It may seem counterintuitive, but what you need to do is ignore Windows’ warning and move the whole paging file over to your new drive. In other words, repeat the process you followed previously, but be sure to select ‘No paging file’ for drive C before clicking ‘Set’ and ignoring the warning. Then set your other drive as normal.
What seems to be happening here is it appears Windows 10 now moves the location for recording crash information to the same drive as your paging file — this renders the original warning redundant, but, more practically, ensures there’s no error on startup either. My iMac had been working perfectly on the internet, but when I restarted, it lost its Ethernet connection, complaining it had become disconnected. Its cables are fine. What can I do apart from connect the iMac using Wi-Fi?
[ ORSON HUGHES ]
There are two likely explanations. More worrying is hardware failure: restart it with just a wired USB keyboard and mouse connected, holding D before the grey screen appears at startup to run Apple Diagnostics (on Macs released after June 2013) or Apple Hardware Test (on Macs from before June 2013). If it passes the tests, you can be fairly confident the cause is a software driver issue. Back in February, Apple pushed out a silent update to its security protection which inadvertently disabled Ethernet ports in some Mac models. Review your logs using Console, looking back in the seconds after it last started up for complaints about a kernel extension (kext) being in the exclude list.
Further information is on my blog at bit.ly/1Szrh4a.
IT MAY SEEM COUNTERINTUITIVE, BUT WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IS IGNORE WINDOWS’ WARNING AND MOVE THE WHOLE PAGING FILE OVER TO YOUR NEW DRIVE.