WHY DOES MY MAGIC
TRACKPAD STOP
RESPONDING?
They’ve been prone to this
since their introduction:
it’s caused when their
Bluetooth connection drops
out, so they lose their
“click” and feel dead. This
could occur frequently in
older macOS versions, but
is uncommon in Mojave.
Give it a moment and
it should reconnect.CAN I GET A 35MM
SLIDE SCANNER?
High–quality slide scanners
are getting harder to find
these days. Your best
options now are using
a high–res flatbed scanner
with a film carrier, for
several slides at once, or
a DSLR copying adapter,
which is slower but gives
excellent results.Your browser complained because
that’s an unsecured website in
Senegal, and not a good source
of software! Check your Mac for
malware — use a tool like the
free version of Malwarebytes
(malwarebytes.com). Once you’re
happy you didn’t get more than you
bargained for, uninstall that driver.
If your printer supports AirPrint,
that’s the preferred connection. It’s
“driverless” and supports wireless
and USB connections. If your printer
doesn’t support it, macOS still
delivers software for many older
models directly to your Mac
when you set one up.
In the Printers & Scanners pane,
select any old printers and click
the – (minus) button. Turn on your
printer, click +, select Default at the
top, then select your printer. Set
the Use pop–up menu to AirPrint
and click Add. If that doesn’t improve
things, try Epson’s driver from its
official site at epson.co.uk/support,
which uses HTTPS (a protocol) to
secure the connection.
That process may not return your
audio volume to normal, though. In
that case, also try resetting the
NVRAM and checking both the
Sound pane and Audio MIDI Setup
(see opposite).
Why does my printer driver affect audio?
When I tried obtaining a new printer driver from Epson at epson.sn, Firefox complained that it was a dodgy site,
but I managed to download and install it. Now my Mac’s audio is much quieter, and the printer still isn’t working
properly. What’s causing this?
When a drive mounts and can be seen by Disk
Utility, you’ll normally want to try the First Aid
feature. If that app can’t see the drive, try
a third–party tool such as Drive Genius (trial
available, prosofteng.com) or DiskWarrior
(alsoft.com). Due to the drive’s format, if it’s
recoverable, one of those should help to
retrieve much of its contents. If those
contents are valuable and it’s worth spending
more serious money, don’t try anything more
yourself, but send the drive to a specialist
data recovery service. They generally charge
by results, so the more they get back, the
more you’ll pay for their service. Note that
this isn’t a cheap option.
Disks formatted using APFS are far tougher
to recover, as it’s relatively new and few tools
currently offer comparable support.
How can I fix my unmountable disk?
I have an old hard drive connected to my Mac via an external case, and it’s in the Mac OS
Extended format. Suddenly it won’t mount on my Mac, though it spins and its light comes
on. How can I recover its contents?
If Disk Utility can mount a damaged disk, use its First Aid tool. If it can’t help, use a third–party product instead.
Many recent printers support AirPrint, which offers the
simplest route to getting the hardware connected to, and
working with, macOS.Tech Support & Techsplanations
maclife.com SEP 2019 77