iCan't: Gmail SMTP Server Settings

It is common practice for people to have multiple Gmail accounts now-a-days. Therefore, if you’re a Mac Mail user with more than one Gmail account, you may have noticed a problem with your email messages sending from the improper Gmail account. For example, I have a personal Gmail and a business Gmail (MKEM) account, and I had issues where every message i tried to send from my personal account sent from my MKEM account. It was extremely frustrating to receive personal messages to my business account that was supposed to be kept as organized and clean as possible. So, I went on a solution hunt.

I discovered that you have to point each Gmail account at their own, specific outgoing SMTP server, and make sure that the aforementioned server is the only server each one uses.

This needs to be done in the Mail applications Preferences/Accounts tab. Highlight the Gmail account(s) in question, and by the Outgoing Mail Server drop down, Edit SMTP server list. Once you’re in said window, create (or rename) SMTP servers for each Gmail account that you own. Its helpful if you name each server after the account that you will be attaching to it. When you’re done with that, go back to the Accounts window and make sure your Gmail accounts are attached to their corresponding SMTP servers. And, this is very important, make sure the “Use only this server” is checked for all Gmail accounts.

Then, when your account are properly bound to their SMTP servers, go back into the “Edit SMTP server List”, and make sure your account information (email address and password) are entered properly in the Advanced tab for each server.

After you restart the Mail application, your improper message sending problem will be completely alleviated. I hope this helps you, as this saved me a whole lot of headaches.

iCan't: Copy Large Blocks of Files

It sucks when I discover stuff the hard way, but it works out well for you.

Recently, 7TB of data had to be copied from our Apple Server to a Windows Server 2012. We had an entire five-day holiday weekend to do it. We succeeded, but there was a slight snaffoo where the copying would randomly stop, causing us to go through the folder tree and find where the copy left off. Then, we would have to start the copy again from there.

We found that copies really don’t like aliases. So before you go through the same hassle we did, make sure you get rid of all the aliases in that block of files. Make your copy go as smoothly as possible.

Happy loading bars!

iCan't: Outlook 2011 Error 12.24.12

A user of mine was having an issue with folders not syncing in Outlook 2011 on a brand new Mountain Lion iMac build. It appeared that every main folder, save for the inbox, would not sync upon connection to the Microsoft 365 sever and he would get an irritation and persistent error "Folder Notes cannot sync with server."

Upon further research, after going into the Microsoft web portal, I discovered that not only is his Notes folder completely empty, but it is also undeletable! There was also around 600 items in both his Sent and Deleted folders which did not show up on the Outlook client side.

The easy but frustrating fix for this one (his inbox has over 22 thousand items in it) was to just delete the profile on the client side and re-add it. After about an hour of syncing and downloading he was as good as gold again.

iCan't: Call Forwarding - AT&T

If you’ve switched from a Nokia or a Samsung or a (insert random phone brand here) to an iPhone recently, you may have noticed that you’re missing the ability to specialize your call forwarding. The iPhone has one Call Forwarding option: Call Forwarding. That’s it. No option to forward just unanswered calls. No option to forward just calls when you’re line is busy. That is, no options visible...

Little did you know, there is a way (but only tested on AT&T)! So, go to your iPhone’s dial pad and calm down.


To call forward if you’re unreachable:
     *62*<desired phone number># + CALL

To call forward when you’re line is busy:
     *67*<desired phone number># + CALL

To call forward when the call goes unanswered:
     *61*<desired phone number># + CALL

To end the call forwarding, hit *61* (or 62 or 67) + CALL

I hope this helps all you folks with company-owned iPhones in your possession.