fixed : Synology NAS no longer accessible because Secure SignIn app was offloaded from iPhone

Posted on 12-12-2024 by MacManus.nl

Question :
I want to access my Synology DS218 NAS because I got an eMail from Synology that there is a new system update available, but when trying to login I need the Synology Secure SignIn app on my iPhone. But I haven’t used the app for a while, and now it turns out it has been offloaded by iOS. I’ve re-installed the app, but now my entire account has been erased and syncronisation with my NAS is no longer possible.
I tried to setup my account in the Secure SignIn again, but when trying to do so, I get caught in a loop… I need an access to the app to login to the NAS’ virtual desktop interface… and I need access to my NAS’ virtual desktop interface to setup an account in the Secure SignIn app…

What can I do ?

Answer :
Even though you are caught in a loop, there is a way to get out of this… but it involves a rather rigorous reset… to do so, do this :

make sure you have the Synology Secure SignIn app on your iPhone (you can download it from the AppleStore – there are versions for iOS/iPhone and iPadOS/iPad)
make sure you have SynologyAssistiant.app on your Mac (you can download it from the Synology Download Center – search based on the model of your NAS)
find the tiny button marked RESET (on the back of your NAS)
use a paperclip, ballpoint-tip or something alike to press & hold the RESET button for 4 seconds, until you hear a beep
immediately release the button when you hear the beep
you have now reset the network settings of your NAS, removed the 2-factor authentication and reset the password to blank (but all data on your NAS will remain intact)
now plug the UTP/Ethernet-cable from your NAS straight into your Mac
temporarily switch off WiFi on your Mac (and disconnect all other network & internet connections)
then, open the SynologyAssistant.app on your Mac
when the screen opens, click on “Search”
when your NAS appears in the list of found devices, click on “Connect”
now your webbrowser (Safari) opens
on the first screen, when your account name is asked, type : admin
then click the blue NEXT button
on the second screen, leave the password field blank and click the blue NEXT button
when prompted to enable 2-factor authentication, click “No, thanks”
when prompted to set up adaptive MFA, click “I don’t want to secure my account”
when the recommendation and question if you are sure to proceed appear, klick the blue OK button
now the Reset Password page opens, set the account name you want to use (if you want, you can use your previous account name)
now, if you click at the upper new password field, you will probably be recommended to use a Safari Strong Password, if so, click OK (if no password is suggested, set a long password manually)
make sure you write down this password offline (or somewhere very secure)
then, make sure the chosen password is the same in both fields and clcik OK
when you get the “Success! Your password has been changed.” message, click the “Sign In Now” button
then, you will need to log-in again on your NAS, this time with your new password
if you get a message saying “password invalid” you can ignore it and try again (usually the second time it will just work anyway)
when the webinterface opens, click on your account info (blue person icon) top right
from the pulldown menu, choose “Personal”
when the “Personal” settings window opens, click on the “Security” tab
in the “Security” tab window that opens, select “2-Factor Authentication” and click the blue Apply button
in the pop-up window that opens, choose “Verification code (OTP)”
then put your Synology NAS (a.k.a. “DSM”) account password in the next pop-up window and click the blue OK-button
the next pop-up window advises to download the Secure SignIn app, but since you’ve already done so, just click the blue Next-button
in the next pop-up window you will see a QR-code
now, open the Secure SignIn app on your iPhone and click the OTP-button (bottom-right)
when the OTP-window opens on your iPhone, click the + button top right
then your camera will open within the Secure SignIn app
now, using your iPhone, scan the QR-code that is displayed on your Mac
then, a 6-digit code will be generated on your iPhone
key in that 6-digit code into the “Verification Code (OTP)” field on your Mac and click the blue Next-button
in the “Backup email settings” window that opens (on your Mac) check that your account eMail address is also listed as your Backup eMail address, and verify your eMail address if you haven’t done that already
if “Send verification email” is greyed out and “Verified” is indicated next to it in green, you can click the blue Next-button
in the next window, click the blue Next-button
now, your NAS has been successfully re-linked with the app, so you can close the “Personal” window by clicking the X button (top right inside the window)
when done, in the online virtual desktop (which is still open on your Mac), click the Control Panel icon
in the “Control Panel” window that opens, click “Regional Options” (in the “System” chapter)
in the next window, make sure the “Time” tab is selected (usually the “Time” tab will be already displayed automatically)
then make sure that “Synchronize with NTP Server” is selected in the “Time Setting” chapter
at “Server address:” select “time.google.com” and click the ‘Update Now’-button
even if it says “Status: Checking…” or “cannot connect” you can now click the blue ‘Apply’-button
Note : keep in mind that the codes generated by the Secure SignIn app are time-sensitive, so it is essential that the time set in your NAS is correct and keeps getting updated
you can now close the NAS’ vritual desktop in your browser
now, reconnect the UTP/Ethernet cables from your NAS and your Mac in the way they used to be before your problems occurred (so both your Mac and your NAS will have internet connection)
then, on your Mac, reopen the SynologyAssistant.app
maybe you need to click the ‘Search’-button, but ususally your NAS will already be listed
select your NAS from the list and click the ‘Connect’-button
now, your NAS’ login page will open in your browser
on the first page key in your Synology NAS account name
on the second page, key in your password and put a checkmark at “do not ask again on this device”
on the thrird page, key in the 6-digit OTP code that is shown in the Secure SignIn app on your iPhone
now your NAS’ virtual desktop will open in your browser
there, click on the Control Panel icon
open “Regional Options” again
in the “Time” tab, check that the current time is displayed, that the ’Time Setting’ is on ’Syncronize with NTP Server’ and that ‘Status:’ is at “Normal” (in green)
if not, adjust these settings and click ‘Update Now’
else, close the NAS’ virtual desktop
That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : “validator failed to load please check browser setting” error

Posted on 17-01-2020 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I am trying to validate my account on the NVidia GeForce website to start using the NVidia GeForce Now gaming graphics server to play games like Fortnite on my old MacBook.

But whenever I try to go through the online account validation process, I encounter this error : “Validator failed to load. Please check browser setting.”

What is wrong ? And how can I fix this ?

Answer :

What you are experiencing is that the ReCaptcha validation website add-on can’t load… this might occur because of various reasons, but it’s most likely because you are trying to access this webpage from within a restricted user-account on your Mac.

To by-pass this error, do this :

open the website
when prompted to do so, add all blocked websites that are being presented as blocked (you’ll have to typ your admin login & password for this)
if things seem to hang, quit the app and reopen it (each time you repeat this, you’ll make a tiny progression towards the final login process)
keep repeating these steps until the ReCaptcha “I’m not a robot” checkbox appears

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : WordPress.com Contact Form refuses to send to my main eMail-address

Posted on 29-01-2014 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I have a WordPress.com-website with a Contact Form on it that is used for people to subscribe to my mailing list. I want to change the eMail-address that each filled-out form is being sent to. I managed to get the online form to send to my secondary eMail-address (or any other one), but not to the one I actually would want : the one that is my main eMail-address.

What is wrong ?

Answer :

As always, the devil is in the details…

WordPress.com has a great option to easily include a Contact Form into a webpage. Such a Contact Form can be used as an actual contact form (so you don’t have to disclose your eMail-address on your website), but it can also be used for making a Feedback Form, a Subscription Form or a Registration Form for instance.

By simply clicking the “Add Contact Form” button while typing your Page or Post, you will be shown a popup window to configure your Contact Form. There you will be shown 2 tab pages. In the “Form Builder”-tab page you can configure the Fields that the visitor should fill out (so, the questions (s)he should answer). In the “Email notifications”-tab, you can give the eMail-address that the form should be sent to, and the subject line to be used.

When that’s done, you will see the ‘Contact Form script’ displayed between square brackets ( i.e. between a “[” and a “]” ) in the Edit Page or Edit Post window of your WordPress.com Dashboard. More info on this can be found here.

So much for the general intro into using Contact Forms in WordPress.com.

Here’s the actual answer to your question :

Normally, the ‘Contact Form script’ will start with something like :

{contact-form to=’myself@provider.com’ subject=’your subject line here’}{contact-field label=…. etc. ; note that in reality the { and } will be displayed as [ and ]

…in which ‘myself@provider.com’ is the eMail-address that the filled-out from will be sent to, and ‘your subject line here’ is the prefab subject line that will be used on each of those eMails.

Now the thing is, that when the contact-form to=’myself@provider.com’ is missing, it is because this eMail-address is exactly the same as the eMail-address that is set as the default eMail-address of your WordPress.com-account. In that case, the filled-out forms will NOT be send out via eMail, they will only be visible in the Feedback (main menu) –> Feedback (sub menu) chapter in your WordPress.com-Dashboard.

Note #1 : if you input your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address into the “Email notifications”-tab page, it will not stick ; put differently : it will not be included in the ‘Contact Form script’, so no eMail will be send out !

Note #2 : even if you manually edit the ‘Contact Form script’ to include your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address, no eMail will be send out !

So, if you need the Contact Form to be send to the eMail-address that is also your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address, the only option to fix this is to change your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address…

Note #3 : your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address can be changed in your account settings, which can be found here :

– go to ‘your account name’ (top-right in your Dashboard, next to the looking glass-icon)

– then select ‘your account name’ from the pop-up window, and the “My Account”-page will open

– there, you can change ‘Email Address’ (into an eMail-address that you ar NOT using to send your Contact Forms to)

Note #4 : when changing your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address, you will get 2 eMails from WordPress.com : the first one will be sent to your ‘old’ eMail-address, asking you to reply immediately if you don’t agree with a change of your eMail-address (so do NOT reply to that one) ; and a second one will be sent shortly after that to your ‘new’ eMail-address to confirm the change of your WordPress.com-account’s eMail-address (yes, you should reply to that one to confirm)

That should fix it 😉

fixed : set IMAP eMail for Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com in OSX Mavericks Mail.app

Posted on 12-11-2013 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I’ve just upgraded to OSX 10.9 Mavericks, and I’ve always though it was extremely annoying that Microsoft only allowed POP eMail for Hotmail.com for MacOSX, but I kept my Hotmail-account alive for al these years since I actually liked it, even after I switched to Mac…

Recently I heard that Microsoft is finally allowing IMAP access to Hotmail.com eMail, but I can’t figure out how to set it up on my OSX 10.9 Mavericks Mac…

Can you please help ?

Answer :

Yes, you’re correct : IMAP eMail has finally come to Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com eMail.

Since setting up Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail on iOS has been rather simple and painless, we were hoping that the introduction of OSX 10.9 Mavericks would bring this joy to MacOSX also…

note : instructions for setting-up Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail on iPhone/iPad can be found here.

…too bad however… for some reason this is still not integrated in OSX 10.9 Mavericks…

Even though OSX 10.9 Mavericks has some new features regarding Mail.app and setting up Internet Accounts, these won’t get you anything more useful than the previous instructions for setting-up Hotmail/Live/Outlook-eMail on MacOSX 10.7 Lion and OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion (which can be found here.).

Important note :

New to OSX 10.9 Mavericks are the iCould-synced Internet Accounts

…but in this case they’re NOT helpful, just adding more confusion :

In OSX Mail.app (version 7.0), in the “Mail” in the top menu, there is a listing named “Accounts” (right below “Preferences”) ; that will open up the “Internet Accounts”-window (which actually is in “System Preferences”), there you can set up a (regular/corporate) “Exchange”-eMail account, but it’s not compatible with Microsoft’s own “Outlook.com Exchange”, so you won’t be able to use it for setting up an IMAP-version of you Hotmail.com/Live.com/Outlook.com-eMail account…

So : let’s hope Apple will integrate easy-setup of Outook-IMAP in one of the future versions of OSX 10.9 Mavericks…

Good Luck !

fixed : change shortname and Home folder name in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion

Posted on 14-09-2013 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I have imported all data from our old Mac to our new Mac, but the on the new Mac I want to use a different account name than the one that was coupled to the account on the old Mac. To do so, I have to change the Account Name, the Short Name and the Home Folder Name.

Changing the Account Name and the Home Folder Name is easy, but if I only change those two, things get messed up completely…

I can’t find a way to change the Short Name also.

How do I do that ?

Answer :

It’s rather easy to change the account’s naming in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, but… exactly as you mentioned : if don’t do it exactly right, you’ll screw up your Mac completely…

Here’s a step-by-step guide to do it :

1- first & foremost : BACKUP ! make sure you start by making a complete backup of your Mac before you start this action ! (the easiest way to make backup is of course a Time Machine backup)

2- login on your Mac using an administrator account different than the account you want to change the name of (if you don’t already have such an second and/or administrator account on your Mac, just create one in the “Users & Groups” section of the System Preferences – you can delete it after the name change is complete)

3- now, go to Apple –> System Preferences –> Show All –> System –> Users & Groups

4- then, in the Users & Groups window that opens, click on the padlock icon (in the bottom left corner)

5- then, select the account you want to change in the list on the left side, and in the Password-tab on the right, at “Full Name:” type the new account name you want to use for this user account

6- then, right-click (or press CTRL while clicking) on the account you want to change in the list on the left side, and a small popup will appear saying “Advanced Options” ; click that

7- in the Advanced Options pull down window, read the WARNING first, then at “Account Name:” type the Short Name you want to use for the renamed account (let’s assume you want to rename to “newshortname” ; this name can’t have spaces in it !) and press OK

8- then, go to your Desktop, and press the SHIFT + CMD + C key-combo (or in the Finder go to Go –> Computers)

9- in the Finder window that opens, go to [Mac Hard Disk] –> Users and then select the (account) folder that has the old name you want to get rid of, and click on it’s name so it will light up ; then replace that name with the new Short Name you want to use (so “newshortname” as we called it before)

Note : it’s hard to believe it’s so easy to change these folder names, as you can mess up your entire Mac in doing so…

10- then go back to Apple –> System Preferences –> Users & Groups, and right-click (CTRL-click) on the account name you’ve just changed a few moments ago, and select “Advanced Options”

11- then, in the “Advanced Options” pulldown menu go to “Home Directory:” and change the “/Users/oldshortname” to “/User/newshortname” and press OK

12- now go to Apple –> Log Out… and login using the renamed account (if you want you can now delete the temporary Administrator-account you had made in System Preferences –> Users & Groups)

That’s it…

Enjoy !

fixed : set IMAP eMail for KPN Planet.nl, Telfort.nl and T-Mobile Online.nl

Posted on 01-09-2013 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I am using a KPN Planet.nl eMail-account on my Mac, my iPad and my iPhone, but when I open (or delete) an eMail on one device, the same eMail will remain unread on my other devices, so I have to redo all actions I do with my eMail on all three devices. That’s a complete waist of time and enormously annoying ! Isn’t there any way to get around this ?

Answer :

Yes there is !

A little background info :

Internet-hosting providers used to give free eMail-hosting with your subscription. In the days that most people only had internet-access from only one computer and one location (home), the POP3-protocol was a good way to handle this and every internet provider therefore offered POP3-eMail services…

…nowadays most people have multiple internet devices and want to access the same eMail-account/mailbox from all those devices. With POP3 that is possible, but it comes with the problem you’re describing…

The best way to get around this problem is to use an IMAP-eMail service (like Gmail) or wait until your local internet-provider also supports IMAP-eMail…

When using an IMAP-eMail service, al your devices will have the same read/unread/deleted-info instantly synced over the internet.

In the Netherlands, internet providers like Wanadoo/Orange/T-Mobile/Online and Tiscali/Telfort have only recently added IMAP-support, but especially KPN Planet Internet (who used to be the no. 1 internet provider in the Netherlands) has always denied IMAP on their eMail-services… until now…

So…

Here’s the settings info you’ll need :

Online.nl (successor to Wanadoo.nl & Orange.nl)

– incoming (IMAP) mailserver : imap.online.nl [port 143 ; needs SSL]

– outgoing (SMTP) mailserver : smtp.online.nl [port 25 ; no SSL & no TLS]

Telfort.nl (including Tiscali.nl)

– incoming (IMAP) mailserver : imap.telfort.nl [port 143 ; possibly no SSL]

– outgoing (SMTP) mailserver : smtp.telfort.nl [port 25 ; no SSL & no TLS]

Planet.nl

– incoming (IMAP) mailserver : imap.kpnmail.nl [port 143 ; seems to need SSL]

– outgoing (SMTP) mailserver : mail.kpnmail.nl [port 25 ; no SSL & no TLS]

And here’s the recommended way to upgrade your mailboxes from POP3 to IMAP :

1- first, upgrade on your computer (Mac/PC) :

– 1A – in your eMail app’s account preferences, set your POP/POP3-account to inactive (delete the check-mark in front of “enable this account”) ; not entirely deleting this account will enable you to get (really) old eMails back if you might unexpectedly need them in the future

– 1B – add a new eMail account, name it something like “your eMail address” + “IMAP”, and use the mailserver-settings mentioned above ; for the login-name and password, you should use exactly the same as previously used for your POP/POP3-account

– 1C – exit the preferences window by pressing the small red button, and confirm that you want to save these changes

2- only then, upgrade the eMail-settings on your iPhone and iPad :

– 2A – go into “Settings”, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”, select the small arrow right next to your previous POP/POP3-mail account, and in the next screen click the red button “Delete Account”

– 2B – then restart your iPhone/iPad by pressing the HOME-button and the ON/OFF-button at the same time until the Apple-logo appears on screen

– 2C – after that, go into “Settings”, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” again, and add a new eMail account, name it something like “your eMail address” + “IMAP”, and use the mailserver-settings mentioned above ; for the login-name and password, you should use exactly the same as previously used for your POP/POP3-account

Note that for KPN Planet.nl you will probably end up with the wrong (automatically generated) settings for mail severs, password and login-name since KPN Planet.nl has always chosen to use it’s own, highly unconventional settings… so you will have to manually edit those (again) after the account has been created…

…if your iPhone/iPad keeps trying to record the IMAP-seetings as a POP-account, just try again… (starting at 2A)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

fixed : correct login-password not recognized at login

Posted on 07-06-2013 by MacManus.nl

Question :

I just started up my Mac, and in the in log fields I typed my login name and my password…

I’m 100% sure I typed the right password, but I get a message that the password is wrong… and even if I retype my password (which is 100% correct), I still get that same error-message…

Any idea what can be wrong and how I can fix this ?

Answer :

If you’re sure you’ve typed the right password, the problem is not the password, but the login-name… (even if OSX’s error message clearly says it’s the password that is wrong)

What probably went wrong, and is not obvious to the user’s eye, it that you have one (or more) space(s) typed in front of your login-name…

So you’ll just have to entirely erase the login name (hit the Backspace-button a few extra times, just to be sure) and the password, and then type them again.

That’s it !

😉

MacManus.nl

helping hundreds of happy Applers each day

Tag Archives: account

fixed : “validator failed to load please check browser setting” error

fixed : WordPress.com Contact Form refuses to send to my main eMail-address

fixed : set IMAP eMail for Hotmail.com, Live.com and Outlook.com in OSX Mavericks Mail.app

fixed : change shortname and Home folder name in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion

fixed : set IMAP eMail for KPN Planet.nl, Telfort.nl and T-Mobile Online.nl

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