Getting AirDrop to Work

My iPhone is getting full of pictures and I need to pull some off to store somewhere else. I could store them in iCloud but am not a fan of filling up my online space only to have to eventually figure out where to put the photos. It is much easier to transfer them to one of my computers instead.

A few days ago I tried to set up AirDrop from my phone to my Mac laptop. It should be really simple and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. A quick Internet search says there are only 2 or 3 steps. It took a bit of digging on my part but I eventually figured it out.

Problem 1: Make sure you are logged into your Apple ID account
I recently updated the operating system on my laptop and it automatically logged me out of my Apple ID account. This account is what allows you to access iCloud and iTunes. It is required to tie all of your devices together. Once I logged in, things started working.

Unfortunately all of the instructions you will pull up on an Internet search assume you are already logged in with your Apple ID. I think I stumbled around for quite awhile until I came upon the solution. If you are having any problems, check this first.

Problem 2: Make sure your devices are on the same network
Every morning I go into my home office and log into my office's virtual private network or VPN so I can get at the company network. Remember that I am writing this during COVID-19 and have started my 6th week of working from home. I keep forgetting that when I am on the VPN, I lose access to some of my home devices. I can't log into my Linux server nor can I print to my color laser printer. The moment I disconnect from the VPN, my laptop can see all of those devices again. The same holds true for my iPhone.

I had a picture I wanted to put on my laptop this morning and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I had Bluetooth enabled for both devices and they could see each other but wouldn't connect. Then I remembered all of the problems I have trying to connect to my other home devices and I disconnected the VPN. Then everything started working correctly.

Typical Solutions
My 2 problems are very unique to me and so these may not be an issue for you. If you find yourself having trouble using AirDrop, you will want to try the usual solutions that can be found in any Internet search:

1. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on for both devices.
2. Click on the AirDrop link found on the left side of your finder window and set the "Allow me to be discovered by" to "Everyone". 
3. Make sure AirDrop is set up on your other device as well.

Hopefully one of the typical solutions will work for you and you don't have the same problems I do. However if you do, this list could be very helpful.

Disc vs. Streaming

Recently I mentioned the Disney+ video streaming service. After playing with it for a while, I now have to ask myself what to do with all of the Disney DVD and Blu-ray discs I have. This is not a new problem as I originally owned them all on VHS video cassette. Over the years I have systematically replaced all of my favorites with the DVD and Blu-ray equivalents. Now I don't need any of them as I can get them all on Disney+ wherever I am in the world.

The move from physical copies of media is something the music industry faced over the past decade. Go try to find a CD of your latest favorite song. It can be tough because people have stopped buying CD discs. For a while, people were buying individual songs on services like iTunes. Now everything has gone to streaming. If you want to listen to a specific song, you just go to YouTube and pull up the music video which may or may not actually be a video.

I don't plan to get rid of my Blu-ray collection of movies any time soon. There are a number of my favorite movies that are tough to find on any streaming service. I am still looking for one of my favorite movies on disc that I used to have on VHS. Most people would think it is not that great of a movie but I really enjoyed it as a teenager.

I am also waiting how long it takes for people to tire of paying the monthly fee for access to movies. If you watch a movie several times a week, then paying for the streaming service makes sense. However if you only watch once or twice a month, there are some people that will justify pay-per-view, owning a disc, or owning the digital rights to favorite movies.

Ultimately I think the movie industry will follow the music industry and we will stop purchasing physical discs. While my current preference is to own physical media, I may be in the minority soon. The writing is on the wall.

My iTunes Account Hacked

Several weeks ago I got a receipt from iTunes in my e-mail. I knew that I hadn't made any recent purchases from Apple and so I looked more closely at the transaction. The receipt said that I purchased a $40 gift card for another user. I looked at the e-mail headers to make sure the e-mail really did come from Apple and that it wasn't some kind of hoax. Sure enough, it was legitimate and I knew my iTunes account had been hacked.

The first order of business was to log in and change my password. I was too late. The hackers had already done that and I couldn't even log into my account. The only thing to do was to get a hold of Apple and request their help. If you go to the Apple website and click on the support tab (upper right corner), there are a list of products. As the hack took place on iTunes, I clicked on the iTunes button and it took me to http://www.apple.com/support/itunes. I spent some time going through the various links only to discover they contained information on how to do things, not talk to a real person. There was a section at the bottom of the regarding the "Apple ID Support" with a link that said, "Start here." I gave it a click and there was a link on the next page that said "Contact Support." I clicked it and went to a page with yet another link. By this time, I figured they really were trying to keep people from contacting them by obfuscating how to really get a hold of them.

I kept clicking away and eventually got to https://expresslane.apple.com/Symptoms.do. The page asked for an issue description along with some other questions, which I filled out. I then had the option of signing into my iTunes account. Since my password was changed to something I didn't know, I clicked the "Continue" button. Underneath it had some text that said, "Without signing in." I was presented with 3 options (your mileage may vary depending on time of day): Phone, Chat, or E-mail. I was in a hurry and so I chose the phone option. It gave me a number to call, which I did. I was asked for some information and was immediately put on hold. Furthermore, I was told it would be about 20 minutes before they got to my issue. Not wanting to wait on the phone that long, I hung up. About 10 minutes later I got a call back from Apple and they were able to help me resolve the issue.

None of the money in my account was used to purchase the bogus gift card and so there was no need to re-credit my account. I was able to change my password and security questions. While I never did have any credit card numbers associated with my iTunes account, had there been, I would have made sure to remove them. While you may feel you can trust online merchants to store your credit card information, I reserve the right not to. After this, I will be very careful whom I let store those numbers.

A Tale of Two iPods

A little while ago I had a very good contact at Apple Computer. He was my counterpart while I was working for one of their software partners and was a very nice guy. Every time I would visit him, he would take me to the employee store and tell me I could get anything I wanted using his significant discount. Most of the time I didn't want to impose upon his generosity and so I left empty handed. However once I felt it would be good for company relations if I made a token purchase. I decided on a top-of-the-line iPod.

I had always wanted an iPod even though I had an MP3 player. I opened the box on the flight home and inspected my new toy. It was really quite the bargain but still wasn't in the family budget. I couldn't expense it even though I only purchased the gadget as a goodwill gesture between Apple and my company at the time. I decided that the best tactic was to tell my wife I got it for her. If she didn't want it, then I had a new toy.

Little did I know that my wife had wanted a new iPod as well and was happy with the gift. She put her music on the device and left me the task of making it fit in the family budget. With a little creativity, things worked out and I didn't have to sell one of the children.

Then my wife got a new Samsung mobile phone that doubled as an MP3 player. She thought this would be great because she could put all her music on her phone for those jogs with the dog. My oldest son saw this as an opportunity to get a free iPod. As soon as my wife started using her phone, he promptly wiped out my wife's music and loaded it up with his own. I had my iPhone at this point and my son knew I wouldn't try to take it.

Unfortunately the Samsung phone isn't nearly as convenient as an iPod. My wife would buy songs from iTunes but not be able to convert them to MP3 files so she could load them on her phone. After several months, she had had enough and wanted her iPod back. Naturally my son felt victimized because he was loosing his music player. He resisted and resisted but finally decided that there were too many privileges he enjoys and doesn't want any of them revoked.

My son has the same phone as my wife and decided he would try to use that. Unfortunately the iPod has a 60 GB capacity while his phone only holds 1. His PSP can also play music and it has 4 GB of memory. Since he only has about 3 and a half gigs of music, the PSP would actually work for him. The only problem is that his battery is old and lasts about 10 minutes before dying. So he started looking at getting new battery for the PSP.

Saturday I get a call from my son who was at the local Kmart. "Dad," he said, "Kmart has the best prices on PSP batteries but it is still $30." I suggested that he look at the price for a new memory card for his phone. It might be cheaper. A half hour later he walks in the door and shows me his new memory card. Not only was it 4 GB, but it also came with a mini USB adapter so he can plug it directly into any computer's USB port to load it up with songs. It was half as expensive as the battery and so my son was happy.

As for that little problem about not being able to play songs purchased on iTunes, my son figured out a way around that. It involves creating a CD with purchased songs for use in a regular CD player and then converting the songs to MP3s. Leave it to a teenage kid to figure out how to make everything work.