I have troubles with my eMail on my iPhone, so I started to look for solutions in the iOS Settings.app ; I don’t know if this is relevant for the solution to my mail-problem, but I found that when I try to adjust the settings for Fetch New Data (in the Settings.app > Mail > Accounts > scroll down to bottom) is turned OFF, and when I click on it the entire Fetch New Data settings page is greyed out, so I can’t switch it back ON and have my mail checked automatically…
What is wrong ? How can I fix this ?
Answer :
Relax, there’s nothing wrong… it’s just strange that iOS isn’t telling you why the entire page is greyed out and how you can fix this… The thing is : your iPhone is in Low Power Mode (a.k.a. Battery Saving Mode)… (if you look closely, you will see that the battery indicator top right is yellow in stead of white or green) To fix this, do this :
swipe down from the battery indicator top right
in the window that opens, scroll down to the white tile with the battery (in yellow) and click on it
now the tile wil turn dark and the battery will turn white
if there is no battery-tile, then go to Settings.app > Battery and switch the slider at Low Power Mode to ON
to check, go to Settings.app > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and you will see that you can now set everything as you like
I have been abroad for some weeks and was using my MacBook and Hotmail-account there, and when I returned home, I could no longer connect to my Hotmail-account from macOS Mail-app… also, in my recovery/alternate eMail-address, I have gotten a warning eMail form the Microsoft account team that reads :
Microsoft account
Verify your account
We detected something unusual about a recent sign-in for the Microsoft account [your Hotmail address]. For example, you might be signing in from a new location, device, or app.
To help keep you safe, we’ve blocked access to your inbox, contacts list, and calendar for that sign-in. Please review your recent activity and we’ll help you secure your account. To regain access, you’ll need to confirm that the recent activity was yours.
[blue button reading “Review recent activity”]
Thanks,
The Microsoft account team
When I click the blue button to verify my Hotmail-account, everything seems to go okay, but when I tried to access my Hotmail-mailbox using the macOS Mail-app, I got an error message that the connection could not be made…
What can I do to fix this ?
Answer :
For some reason your Hotmail-account settings in macOS have been messed up.
To fix this, do this :
open Mail-app
click on “Mail” (top-left, next to the Apple icon in the macOS menu bar) and in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “Preferences”
in the window that opens, click on the Accounts-tab (in-between the “General” and “Junk Mail” tabs)
NOTE : do NOT click on “Accounts” in the Mail-app pulldown menu !! …as clicking on “Accounts” from the Mail-app pulldown menu will take you to the “Internet Accounts” settings in System Preferences, and NOT to the Account settings in the Mail-app !! …the two are not the same !!
the window will now be names “Accounts” and show a list of your eMail-accounts on the left
in the list on the left, click on your Hotmail-account
then, click on the “Server Settings” tab, and correct your settings to this :
Incoming Mail server (IMAP)
User Name: [your Hotmail address]
Password: [your Hotmail password]
Host Name: map-mail.outlook.com
[put checkmark in checkbox] Automatically manage connection settings
I really like the ‘flag message’ option in the macOS Mail.app to quickly flag messages I have read but want to keep around to act on later. The option to differentiate the flag color makes it even more useful for me.
Still… on my iPhone and iPad I can see the flag colors I have set on Mail.app in macOS, but I can’t seem to change the flag color… I can just flag a message, but it will automatically (auto-magically ?) set the color and I can’t seem to change it…
Isn’t there any way to change the mail flag color on iOS and/or iPadOS ?
Answer :
Yes, there is…
But… it might not be were you would expect it…
To quickly flag a message in iOS or iPadOS, do this :
when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, select the mail message you want to flag and slide it to the left
now, you will see 3 options : “More” (grey), “Flag”/”Unflag” (red) and “Archive” (purple)
click on “Flag” and the mail message will be flagged
…but the flag color cannot be chosen or changed this way
An alternative way to flag a message in iOS or iPadOS is this :
when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, click&hold the mail message you want to flag
now the mail message will open in a new window, with a menu list below it
click on “Mark…” from the menu list
in the next menu that opens, click on “Flag” and the message will be flagged
…but the flag color cannot be chosen or changed this way
But… the way to also be able to choose or change the flag color in iOS or iPadOS is this :
when going through the list of mail messages in Mail.app, select the mail message you want to flag and slide it to the left
now, you will see 3 options : “More” (grey), “Flag”/”Unflag” (red) and “Archive” (purple)
click on “More” ( do NOT click on “Flag” here ) and a pop-up menu will appear with full options
in the pop-up menu, click on “Flag” and you get the option to pick a flag color (or to unflag entirely)
note : when you choose or change a flag color, you will be returned to your inbox, but when you click “Flag” or “Unflag” here, you will stay in the pop-up menu and have to close it manually (by clicking the X-button top-right) to return to your inbox
For my social media I regularly want to create a .gif-animation from small clip out of an .mp4-video file that I have, but I don’t have a lot of video-editing skills or specialised software.
Is there a simple way to do this ?
Answer :
There are lots of ways to do this. And no video-editing skills are required to do the most basic, but with some editing you can quickly get better results.
I would recommend buying the $5 GIF Brewery 3 from the Mac AppStore and doing the editing in QuickTime (or iMovie).
The recommendations for a good GIF-animation for most social media are (suggested by .gif-database GIPHY) :
duration of about 6 seconds (shorter is better)
file size close to 8MB (smaller is better)
video resolution of 480 pixels (or 720 pixels maximum) on the shortest side (depending on either landscape or portrait view, or square, or any custom size)
total number of frames of 100 maximum (less is better)
If you just want to turn part of an existing video into a GIF, do this :
then, in the pulldown menu, click on “Movie Inspector”
then, check out the number that is at “Encoded FPS” and remember it (you need this later)
then close QuickTime.app
now, open your source video in GIF Brewery 3
then, in the video slider below your video, slide the green slider to match the first frame of your desired GIF
and slide the red slider to where you want your GIF to end
click on the PLAY-button (black triangle left of the video slider) to preview your GIF
if the preview-length is not okay, readjust the green and/or red slider to improve your clip
now, in the editing window, click on the Resize-button top left
then, in the popup window, make sure “Maintain aspect ratio” is checked
then, move the Scale-slider until either Width or Height is 480px (if the clip size is less than 5 seconds, you could also stop the Scale-slider at 720px)
now, in the editing window, click the Settings-button top right
then, at “Frames Per Second” set the fps to match the “Encoded FPS” of the original video
again, click on the PLAY-button (black triangle left of the video slider) to preview your GIF
if the preview-speed is too slow, adjust the Speed-slider to a higher value (anything less than 110%, even 103%, will usually do)
if the preview-speed is too fast, adjust the Speed-slider to a lower value (anything over 95% will usually do)
then, make sure there’s a checkmark at “Optimize GIF colors”
then, adjust the ColorCount-slider to 48
again, click on the PLAY-button (black triangle left of the video slider) to preview your GIF
if the preview looks okay, leave the ColorCount-slider at 48
if the preview looks too dark or otherwise odd, adjust the ColorCount-slider to a higher value like 96, 128, 216 or 256, but make sure to set it as low as possible
then, click the “Create”-button (at the bottom, slightly right of the middle, with a beer glass in it) to generate the GIF
then, click on the Save-button (bottom right)
in the popup window, type the name you want your GIF to have, set the location where you want it stored and click the Save-button
then, browse the Finder to find the GIF’s icon and ALT-click on it
first, select “Get Info” from the popup menu and check if the file size is 10MB or less
if the file size is over 10MB, go back to GIF Brewery 3, lower at least one of the values you have set there and create an extra version of your GIF that has a file size of 10MB or less
as mentioned before, the main values you can adjust are :
Length of the clip
Scale / Resize (might make the picture more grainy)
Frames Per Second / FPS (might make motions less fluent)
Color Count (might make the colors less vibrant)
then, ALT-click on the GIF’s icon again and select “Open with” from the popup menu and select your internet browser (probably Safari) to preview the animated GIF
If you are happy with the end result, you are ready to post the GIF on your social media
this will convert to an .mp4 video with 1280×720 resolution at 30 frames per second and AAC sound (file size ca. 2MB per 10 seconds)
Note : even though the frame rate and screen size are the same, the βGmailβ-ready file will be much smaller than the βiPhoneβ-ready file, even though (or rather βbecauseβ) this comes with the downside that quick-moving objects will blur in the βGmailβ-ready video (compared to the βiPhoneβ-ready video that hardly has any blur and is similar in size and quality to the βFast 720p30β preset in Handbrake)Β
Ever since installing macOS 10.14 Mojave I have only gotten my primary Gmail account up and running. My secondaryΒ Gmail account that I only want to use for eMail though macOS Mail.app still isn’t setup properly : I keep having a “Login Failed” warning displayed in the upperΒ right corner of my All Mailboxes window and my mails are nog getting through…
How can I fix this ?
Answer :
macOS 10.14 Mojave has a new way of handling your eMail accounts compared to previous versions of macOS, OSX and MacOSX : it is no longer possible to setupΒ any eMail accounts in Mail.app only ; any eMail account that you want to use in Mail.app must be entered as an account that is setup for macOS to be used systemwide.
To get rid of the “Login Failed” error, do this :
open Mail.app
go to Mail –> Accounts
this will open the Internet Accounts pane of System Preferences
there, select the failing eMail account (Gmail address or otherwise Google hosted eMail address) from the list on the left
since you only want to use this eMail account’s eMail services, make sure there is a checkmark at “Mail” and there is no checkmark at “Contacts”, “Calendars” or “Notes”
when done, close the window by clicking on the red button top left
then, back in the Mail.app’s main window (entitled “All Mailboxes” at the top) click on the “Login Failed” error message that is top right (just below the search field)
now Safari will open up a (Private) window entitled “Sign in with Google” as shown in the picture below
now, just allow macOS to access your Google account (exactly as you are asked to do)
then close the Safari window (since it’s a Private window, which is indicated by the URL field that is dark instead of the regular white colour, you should make sure you close the window as continuing in this or any Private window may prevent you from logging in to any of your favourite websites since no cookies are accepted)
back in Mail.app you will now see that the “Login Failed” error message is gone and that your secondary Gmail account is now receiving mail properly
I had a complaint about the amount of spam I was getting from one particular sender, so our system administrator asked me to send him samples of the eMails in EML-format so he can have a look into the eMail-headers and adjust the spam-filter.
But how do I export eMail messages as EML-files ?
Answer :
EML is short for eMail ; an .eml-file is the typical way for macOS (and MacOSX) to store individual eMails that are not in your mailboxes.
The easiest way to export an eMail message from Mail.app to an EML-file is to Drag&Drop :
in Mail.app, select the one eMail that you would like to export
click on the eMail and drag it out of your Mail.app onto your Desktop (simply put : “Drag&Drop”)
now, on your Desktop, the eMail will be automatically be saved as an EML-file
you can double check this by right-clicking on the eMail-file on the Desktop and choosing Get Info ; at ‘Kind:’ it will be listed as ‘Email message’, and at ‘Name & Extension:’ it will be listed with the ‘.eml’-file extension if you uncheck “Hide Extension”
Then you can share the eMail as an attachment in another eMail or put it on a USB-stick or upload it to your system administrator or whatever you like.
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