Category: iCloud

Preparing Your Digital Legacy

MacMad Meeting Topic September 2023

What happens to your digital possessions after your death? How can you make sure that they are available (or not available) to your heirs as you wish?

The same preparations that will help your heirs after your death can help you while you are alive. They can help with disaster recovery after a fire, flood, etc. They can help in the event you have to go to the hospital or are temporarily incapacitated. They can help if your phone or computer is lost, destroyed or just quits working.

Apple ID and iCloud

For Apple users, the obvious place to start is your Apple ID. This single ID controls your Apple email account, your iCloud on-line storage and many other things you may or may not be using.

If your heirs know your Apple ID credentials, they can access your stored photos and documents, read your email, unlock your locked devices and prepare computers and devices for sale. Without your Apple ID, they may be completely locked out of doing any of those things.

Apple has a Legacy Contact Provision that you can use to designate a person to have access to your Apple ID after your death.

How to add a Legacy Contact for Your Apple ID

If someone has died without a Legacy Contact, you may still, in some circumstances, get access to their account.

How to request access to a deceased family member’s Apple account

Make a List

Make a list of your on-line accounts and keep it in a safe place for your heirs. Note that probably every company you do business with has an on-line account. The list can be on paper, or in digital form. Just make sure that your heirs will be able to access the list.

You should make some notes as to the purpose and significance of each account. If you have an account at foobar.biz, will your heirs have any idea if that’s important, or why you had it? In a year or two, will you yourself remember why you created that account?

What’s in the List

  • A descriptive name, e.g. A fabulous Example Site
  • The URL of the Web Site, e.g. example.com
  • Username, e.g. John Doe
  • eMail address associated with the account, e.g. [email protected]
  • Password, e.g. monkey123
  • 2FA info, e.g. This site doesn’t support 2FA
  • Notes, e.g. A social media site primarily for dogs

Note that your Username on a site might be an email address or not. Note that the site probably doesn’t have anything to do with the email domain (me.com, in the example), unless the site is an email provider.

Passwords are case sensitive. For handwritten lists, make sure your writing is clear, and that upper and lower case letters are clearly distinguished. One convention is to underline capital letters. eMail addresses are never case sensitive, and are usually written in all lower case.

Password Managers

A password manager is essentially a place to keep a list of all your accounts, while keeping the passwords safely encrypted. This is ideal information for your heirs, if they can get access.

Legacy access is just another reason to use a password manager.

Popular Password Managers include:

You may be able to establish an emergency or legacy contact for your password manager. You may be able to have shared password vaults with your family members, so that they always have access to those accounts.

Things You Should Keep On Paper

You should keep a paper copy of at least your most important accounts and passwords. This would likely include your password manager and passcodes to your devices. You should include backup 2FA (2nd factor Authentication) codes, if you use 2FA for those accounts. Don’t forget to mark on the 2FA codes exactly which service and account they are for. Put all these papers somewhere like a safe or safety deposit box.

eMail Accounts Are Important

You might think that your email is unimportant — just a pile of silly memes and spam. But your email is often the key to accessing your other, more important, accounts. Most accounts require an email address to sign up. If you forget your password (or your heirs don’t know it), the forgot password password recovery process uses your email to reset your password.

This is why you should use strong passwords and good security on your email accounts, and also why you should make sure your heirs can get access.

Keep accounts separate from your spouse

Death is another good reason not to use shared email and other accounts. You don’t want your account to be closed because your spouse has died.

Your Phone is Important

Your phone is another way to access your accounts. The account sign-on or recovery process often includes a text message or phone call with a sign-in code. If you or your heirs lose access to your phone, that process will be stymied.

Apps on your phone are often the easiest way to access your accounts. If you have authenticator app(s) (for 2FA codes) on your phone that you use to sign in, how will your heirs sign in without access to your phone?

Google, LastPass, Microsoft and others have stand-alone authenticator apps.

The Apple Wallet App is probably only accessible on your iPhone or Apple Watch. Your heirs might need that to pay the credit card bills.

Precautions

  • Back up your iPhone periodically, either to your computer, or to iCloud.
  • Make sure your heirs can find your iPhone passcode.
  • Consider adding your spouse’s fingerprint or face ID to your device

If you need to restore a phone because of a forgotten passcode, almost everything will be restored, except Authenticator App data, and the Apple Wallet.

Other Accounts

Every web site and company will have its own methods for account security and recovery. There are a few things you can do to make account recovery easier for you and for your heirs.

Establish backup email addresses, and backup telephone numbers if the site supports them. Add your trusted spouse’s phone, for example as a secondary method of receiving login codes.

Similar to your Apple ID, your Google account is multifaceted. It governs Gmail, Google Photos, Google Pay and Google Drive (and more). Many people have important documents and precious photos in Google Drive and Google Photos.

If you can’t or don’t want to provide credentials to your account to your estate, you can set up a policy with the Inactive Account Manager. You can specify what happens to your Google account when it becomes inactive for a specified time — presumably when you have died. You can give access to specified people, and/or specify that your account is to be deleted.

Many accounts have no legacy or inheritance feature. The survivors have to go through a process with a death certificate or letters of administration to gain control of the deceased account.

What’s Most Important to Your Heirs

  • Where’s the money?
  • How can I get access?
  • Where’s the tax information for final IRS return?
  • Where are the family photos?
  • How can I delete or close the account?
  • How can I sell the device?
  • How can I cancel the subscriptions?

Other Things to Consider

Financial Accounts

  • Banking
  • PIN
  • Investment
  • Insurance
  • Cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges
  • PayPal
  • What will your heirs need in order to pay all the bills?
  • Retirement accounts
  • IRS.gov, ID.me accounts. Heirs need to file your final tax return.

Home

  • Alarm Codes
  • Keypad codes (door locks)
  • Safe combinations
  • Websites for alarm systems
  • Solar generating systems
  • Home Monitoring services

Cars

  • Pin and Keypad codes (yes, some cars have these)
  • On-line account credentials (yes, some cars have these)
  • SiriusXM subscription
  • Dashcam account
  • SunPass account (toll transponders)

2FA Keys

  • Physical Keys, (Yubikey)
  • 2FA Apps
  • BACKUP CODES – make sure you have printed out backup 2FA codes for your accounts and stored them safely

Other Companies & Web Sites in General

  • Frequent Flyer Miles, Travel Points (can be valuable) Airline miles – often not “officially” transferable, but can be if you have the credentials
  • do you have an email account at your ISP that you use?
  • Genealogy – you did it for your heirs, right?
  • Access to family tree
  • Access to DNA test results
  • Amazon
  • music, photos, videos, books

What would your heirs need in order to sell your computer?

iPad and iPhones, Apple Watch

Digital Media (usually can’t be officially transferred)

  • Purchased Music
  • Purchased Movies & TV Shows
  • Purchased Software (Software Licenses)
  • Purchased eBooks

Social Media Accounts

  • How your heirs might notify folks of your passing
  • Heirs might want to close the account(s)
  • Access to photos stored on-line
  • If you didn’t use your real name/birthday on FB or others, your heirs might not be able to delete or memorialize the account because the details on the death certificate don’t match.

Clubs and Organizations

  • Club accounts
  • Webmaster signons
  • Treasury accounts
  • Domain name registrar accounts

May Meeting Notes: Contacts and Calendars

Here’s some useful information from this month’s meeting on Contacts and Calendars.

The contacts and calendars apps exist on both the Mac (computers) and iOS (iPad & iPhone). The different versions can cooperate and share data via iCloud, but they are not the same. The Mac version can do some things, such as edit contact groups that the iOS version cannot do.

Here is Apple’s Support Article on Contacts for the Mac.� It is an overview of Contacts and how to use them.

And, similarly, here is Apple’s Support Article on Calendars on the Mac.

Besides Apple’s pre-defined Holiday calendar and your own calendars, you may find public calendars for various topics and groups on-line which you can subscribe to. For example, here is the MacMAD meeting calendar. �If you subscribe to that, you will see our monthly meetings. If any changes are made, you will see the changes automatically.

Meeting Notes Email and iCloud

Our April, 2019 meeting was on email and iCloud.� Here are some helpful links from that meeting. Fittingly, the slides are shared through iCloud.

 

iCloud and Cloud Storage Meeting – January 2019

Here are the files from last night’s MacMAD meeting.

How better to share the information about iCloud than through iCloud? So, these links are to the presentation as iCloud documents.

Here are the slides in Keynote.

Here is the spreadsheet in Numbers.

When following these links, iCloud may ask you to enter a name for “collaborating”. You may enter any name you like, and click Join.

Beware Fake iCloud or App Store emails

There has been a recent spate of phishing emails purporting to come from Apple. Typically they show some sort of a purchase or subscription that you supposedly bought from Apple. As always, DO NOT CLICK LINKS in emails.

If you want to check your account, do so from within iTunes, or by logging in at iCloud.com or Apple.com yourself.

In the email there are some suspicious indicators if you look for them. First of all, the email is not from the domain apple.com.

Second, the mail addresses you as “Valuable Customer”, not by name.

This email is fake!

The bad guys expect you to be outraged that you are being charged for something you didn’t order — and that you will rashly click on the link they provided.

I don’t know what happens when you do that. Probably, it is a fake imitation of the Apple sign-in page where your credentials will be stolen. However, it may be some kind of attack that takes place merely by visiting the site.

Be safe out there, folks!

Two-Factor Authentication for Apple ID

Two-Factor Authentication and One-Time Passwords

MacMAD Meeting Topic for June 20, 2017

Your Apple ID is your single set of credentials for everything from Apple, including:

  • Email
  • iCloud files, calendars, contacts, etc.
  • Photos
  • purchases on the iTunes store
  • buying hardware on the Apple Store

This is pretty important stuff, right? You don’t want your credentials to fall into the wrong hands!� Until recently, those credentials consisted of only your username and password, which seldom change. If a bad guy got hold of those, he’d have complete access to your Apple identity.

To help prevent that, Apple set up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).� With 2FA, in addition to username and password, you must also give a verification code. Verification codes are sent to your phone or other trusted device. The verification code is different each time you log on.

Two-Factor Authentication is optional for users. However, you may now be forced to use it if you use certain apps — those which access your iCloud account.

Some apps require access to your files in iCloud, and therefore need your iCloud credentials to do so. This is fine, but you don’t want them to have the keys to your entire kingdom, do you? You don’t want a calendar app to order a new Macintosh, or delete your photos.

To control such apps, Apple now requires them to access iCloud using a One-Time password. This allows them to bypass 2FA, but using a special password which is only useable by that app for limited purposes. Once you give a one-time password to an app, and it uses it, it can never be used again for any other purpose.

You do not need to store or remember one-time passwords. If for some reason you need to re-authorize an app, you can simply generate a new one-time password for it.� Dennis explains how to do all this in these slides from this month’s meeting:

Apple Two-Factor Authentication 2017

 

 

 

The Best Shared Shopping List App You Already Have!

I set out recently to find a shared iOS shopping list App to replace my family’s paper grocery shopping list. I had some pretty simple requirements:

  • Easy-to-use sharing between family members using different iCloud accounts
  • Ability to review the list in the store and mark items off
  • Ability to review and revive completed items (We’ve got milk this time, but we’ll need it again soon)

I spent some time in the App store looking at reviews and didn’t see anything I wanted to buy. Some otherwise useful apps had a bad reputation for crashing. Others were just too complex. Some needed a subscription and a sign-on for sharing to work. It’s just creepy that the vendor would be watching everything on your shopping list.

Eventually I found it. An app that was already on my phone that met all my requirements and didn’t need any additional sign-ups, plus you can use Siri to add items to the list by voice.

The app is:� Reminders — the humble Apple Reminders app that comes with iOS.

Here’s an overview from iMore on how to set Reminders up for sharing.

A couple of tips:

  • You can have more than one list.
  • Remember the name of your lists: “Shopping List” and “Grocery List” aren’t the same to Siri.
  • When you invite someone to share your list, they may have to sign on to iCloud on the web the first time to accept the invitation, but after that it can be strictly iPhone-to-iPhone.
  • Everyone invited has equal ability to add, delete and edit items on the list.
  • Tap at the bottom of the reminders App screen to see your other reminder lists.

Enjoy!

Fight Calendar Spam

Recently, I have been receiving mysterious spam calendar invitations like the one below. You may have received them also.

fullsizeoutput_6b35I never saw a corresponding email. Even worse, the only options are accept or decline. Either one sends a message back to the spammer, confirming my email address! This junk is coming through your iCloud account. Here are instructions for preventing this type of spam from The Dangling Pointer blog. �

Since this is associated with your iCloud calendar, it affects both iOS and Macintosh.

They probably didn’t get your email address from anywhere. It appears they are trying big lists of likely email addresses @icloud.com.

 

Beginner’s Guide to Email Usernames and Passwords

Beginner’s Guide to Email Usernames and Passwords

Email is one of the most basic services that people expect on their Mac, iPhone or iPad. It is also one of the things that many beginners have trouble with. If you have a good understanding of your own email accounts you will have an easier time using all on-line services.

The Basic What’s What of Email

Email Address

An email address is a string of characters that the email system can use to send or receive email. Usually an email address belongs to a single person or to a company.

Here is a typical email address:� [email protected]

Email addresses must be in this specific format:� The first part is a username then one at sign: @, then a domain name. Email addresses must not contain any spaces.

Email addresses are usually given in all lower case.

When you create a new email address, always create it in all lower case

However, the part of the email address after the @ is not case sensitive for the purposes of sending email. So, mail sent to any of the following addresses should all reach the same recipient.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

The username part of an email address (the part before the @) is often treated as case sensitive by email clients and servers, so always use the same capitalization.

Email addresses are public. They are not secret. They should not be used as passwords.

Your Email Provider

You should know who your email provider is. It is usually a well known company.� Most people have email provided by their Internet Service Provider (ISP). Many people have email accounts with more than one provider.

Sample email addresses for common email providers:

Google – [email protected]

Apple – [email protected]

Yahoo! – [email protected]

Notice that the email domain is not necessarily identical to the company name.

Customers of Bright House Networks in central Florida have email addresses like:

[email protected]

The rr stands for Road Runner, which is Bright House’s name for their internet service.

Remember your Email Address and Password – Exactly

It seems obvious, but you need to memorize your email address and password or write them down someplace safe, preferably both. If you can’t access your email, you may lose access to other services as well. Your email account is the key to your on-line kingdom. Pay attention.

Your Email Password

After your email address, the other thing you’ll need to access your email account is your password. When you first create your email account you will be asked to create a password. You should do so very carefully, and write it down in a safe place. Passwords should be kept secret.

  • Capitalization of characters in passwords always matters

  • Do not reuse any part of your username or email address in your password

  • When logging on, your password must match exactly the expected password

Unfortunately the exact rules for what is allowed or required in passwords varies depending on the site or email provider you are using. The following rules are a good starting point.

  • Create a password at least 10 characters long

  • Use a mixture of UPPER and lower case letters, numbers and symbols

  • Avoid dictionary words and names

Example passwords:

Randomly generated: Nm4$tL&vWv

Easier to type on iOS: mtvv4$&NLW�� (don’t need to shift keyboards as often)

Too Easy to Guess: ABC.def.123

Very bad: 7/December/1941 �� (especially if that’s your birthday)

Watch out for letters and numbers that can be easily confused. Is that a lower-case ell or a one?� A zero or an oh? It might be best to avoid using these confusing letters/numbers in your passwords. Be sure to be extremely clear about these distinctions when you write down your password, so you can decipher it when you need to enter it again.

Logging On

You will want to log on to the Mail app on your Mac or iPhone. Your credentials will be your email address and password.

Most email providers also provide a web mail service where you can connect to their mail system directly without using an app. Usually this is good for situations when you want to read your mail while using someone else’s computer. However some people use email that way all the time — it’s your preference.

For example, if you have an email account through Google’s gmail, you can log on at gmail.com, or mail.google.com. There you should enter the same email address and password you created initially.

Confusion with Other Services

Many web sites, maybe most web sites, want you to log on using an email address even if that site has nothing to do with email. Why do they do that? Because it identifies you uniquely — no two people can have the same email address. That makes it easy for the site to keep you separate from all the other people using the site, and to recognize you when you return.

For example, eBay is an auction site. It has nothing to do with email. It invites users to sign in using their “Email or username”.

You may use your email address as your username on some site, and others insist on it. Almost all sites want to you to enter your email address even if they give you a different username. This is so they can use email to help you reset your password if you forget.

Here’s the important thing:

Even though you may logon to a site using your email address, that’s just a coincidence.

Do not reuse your email password at a different site – Make a new password

Ultimately you should have a different password for each site you use, e.g. one for Facebook, one for Yahoo!, one for eBay, even if you use the same email address to log on to each one. I know it can be difficult to remember these. So, you must have a system for writing them down or remembering them.� This is why password manager apps are so popular.

For Beginners: Write down your usernames & passwords neatly for each site

There’s a lot more to say about email, but this is enough for one beginner article.