HOW TO CONVERT OLD .LWP
AND .SAM DOCUMENTS?
These were saved years ago by
Lotus Word Pro. .lwp docs can
be converted using online
services like bit.ly/
mac354cldcvtr. .sam docs will
need to be opened using an old
PC version of Microsoft Word,
or converted offline by a
service bureau.WHY DO UPDATES
ARRIVE SO LATE IN
THE APP STORE?
This is new with the Catalina
version of the App Store app,
which can take several days
to show them in the Updates
section. Either turn on
Automatic Updates in its Prefs,
or check regularly by selecting
Updates then pressing Cmd+R
to refresh its list. That should
reveal all pending updates.WHY CAN’T I UPDATE
ALBUM ARTWORK
IN ITUNES?
Many have had problems in
Catalina’s Music, and some
using iTunes in older macOS.
This occurs when iTunes has an
AirPlay speaker enabled: turn
that off, and updates should
work again.DOES PREVIEW’S PDF
HIGHLIGHTING WORK
IN 10.15?
It has several bugs and readily
gets confused, failing to show
the last highlighted section or
using the wrong colors. You’re
better using a third–party
alternative such as PDFpen,
PDF Expert, or Acrobat Reader.Your bank, like most, now requires two–
factor authentication to gain access to its
browser–based online banking service. You
should be able to configure that using its
mobile banking app, where you may be able
to opt instead for it to send a passcode as
a text message. If you can’t do that, but it
requires authentication through the mobile
app and that keeps returning an error, you
should contact the support desk for youronline banking service so that they can talk
you through setting it up.
Some services now require you to use an
external PIN reader to generate a one–time
code which enables features like this:
Barclays, for example, provides its
customers with a Mobile PINsentry for
the purpose. Older services could require
extensions which often resulted in
compatibility problems.Sparse bundles are a type of disk image
which stores the contents of a virtual disk in
“bands” of fixed size within a bundle folder.
These are sparse because, unlike regular disk
images, they can grow in size. While they
grow larger without any intervention, until
they approach the max size you set, if you
remove files and folders from sparse bundles
they don’t automatically shrink again.
Disk Utility doesn’t offer any command to
compact sparse bundles. The easiest way is
using C–Command’s DropDMG from the App
Store, which is more comprehensive in its
support for all types of disk image.
Otherwise, open Terminal and type:
hdiutil compact myDocuments.
sparsebundle
This will compact the sparse bundle
named myDocuments.Sometimes sparse bundle storage
won’t compact much as its contents are
fragmented through the storage bands. You
can try defragmenting the sparse bundle
when it’s been mounted, then compacting
it using DropDMG, or copying its contents to
a new sparse bundle.> 2FA for online banking
When I try to access online banking on my MacBook Pro, I’m told to verify my identity
using my bank’s mobile app. When I go to do that, it returns an error. How can I fix this?> Compacting sparse bundles
I’m using an encrypted “sparse bundle” in APFS for private documents. How do I get it
to reduce in size, as that isn’t available in Disk Utility?Image rights: Apple.DropDMG is for anyone working with disk
images and their relative sparse bundles.Each bank uses a different system to secure
entry to its online banking services, which
now often use two–factor authentication.
Ask
70 SEP 2020 maclife.com