Proceeding Back Mac OS

Proceeding Back Mac OS

May 29 2021

Proceeding Back Mac OS

Apple includes its own backup software, Time Machine as part of the macOS. It’s an exceptionally easy to use solution. All you need to do is plug in an external storage device, hard drive or SSD.

NOTE:

Between mid October 2019 and mid February 2020 everyone in the Army was migrated to use their PIV Authentication certificate for Email access. You no longer use the Email certificate for Enterprise Email or any CAC enabled websites

Mac users who choose to upgrade (or already have upgraded) to Mac OS Catalina (10.15.x) or Big Sur (11.xx.x) will need to uninstall all 3rd Party CAC enablers per https://militarycac.com/macuninstall.htm AND reenable the native smart card ability (very bottom of macuninstall link above)

  • NOTE: If your Mac came with macOS Catalina, you can restart your Mac while holding down Shift-Option-Command-R to enter Internet Recovery Mode and install the operating system that came with your Mac. Otherwise, follow the steps below to install Catalina back on your Mac. Connect your Mac to the internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
  • So, before you clean your Mac (running on macOS Big Sur or earlier till Mac OS X El Capitan), click the Time Machine icon from the menu bar and select Back Up Now to back up your start-up disk. Wait till Time Machine performs incremental backup of your Mac hard drive or SSD. Next, go through the various methods below to achieve the Mac clean up.
  • Why downgrade macOS Big Sur. Big Sur is a great update to the Mac operating system (read our Big Sur review), with some useful features and some iOS inspired changes.However, as with Catalina.

If you purchased your Mac with OS Catalina (10.15.x) or Big Sur (11.xx.x) already installed, you can skip the uninstall part above and follow the instructions below.

6 'high level' steps needed, follow down the page to make this a painless systematic process

1.Is your CAC reader 'Mac friendly'?
2.Can your Mac 'see' the reader?
3.Verify which version of Mac OS you have
4.Figure out which CAC (ID card) you have
5.Install the DoD certificates
5a.Additional DoD certificate installation instructions for Firefox users
6.Decide which CAC enabler you want to use (except for 10.12-.15 & 11)

Step 1: Is your CAC reader Mac friendly?

Visit the USB Readers page to verify the CAC reader you have is Mac friendly.

Visit the USB-C Readers page to verify the CAC reader you have is Mac friendly.

'Some, not all' CAC readers may need to have a driver installed to make it work.

NOTE: Readers such as: SCR-331 & SCR-3500A may need a firmware update (NO OTHER Readers need firmware updates).

Information about these specific readers are in Step 2

Step 2: Can your Mac 'see' the reader?

Plug the CAC reader into an open USB port before proceeding, give it a few moments to install

Step 2a: Click the Apple Icon in the upper left corner of the desktop, select 'About This Mac'

Step 2b: Click 'System Report...' (button)

Step 2c: Verify the CAC reader shows in Hardware, USB, under USB Device Tree. Different readers will show differently, most readers have no problem in this step. See Step 2c1 for specific reader issues.

Step 2c1: Verify firmware version on your SCR-331, SCR-3310 v2.0, GSR-202, 202V, 203, or SCR-3500a reader. If you have a reader other than these 6, Proceed directly to step 3

Step 2c1a-SCR-331 reader

If your reader does not look like this, go to the next step.

In the 'Hardware' drop down, click 'USB.' On the right side of the screen under 'USB Device Tree' the window will display all hardware plugged into the USB ports on your Mac. Look for “SCRx31 USB Smart Card Reader.” If the Smart Card reader is present, look at 'Version' in the lower right corner of this box: If you have a number below 5.25, you need to update your firmware to 5.25. If you are already at 5.25, your reader is installed on your system, and no further hardware changes are required. You can now Quit System Profiler and continue to Step 3.

Step 2c1b-SCR-3310 v2.0 reader

If your reader does not look like this, go to the next step.

In the 'Hardware' drop down, click 'USB.' On the right side of the screen under 'USB Device Tree' the window will display all hardware plugged into the USB ports on your Mac. Look for “SCR3310 v2.0 USB Smart Card Reader.” If the Smart Card reader is present, look at 'Version' in the lower right corner of this box: If you have a number below 6.02, it will not read the 'G+D FIPS 201 SCE 7.0' CAC on Mac OS 11.xx.x or 10.15.7. I contacted HID (the company that makes these readers) on 14 DEC 2020 to find a way to update the firmware to 6.02. They said there is not firmware update for the reader. If your reader is older, you may need a new one. Please look at: https://militarycac.com/usbreaders.htm to find a compatible one. If you are already at version 6.02, your reader should work fine on your Mac and no further hardware changes are required. You can now Quit System Profiler and continue to Step 3.

Step 2c1c-SCR-3500A reader

If you have the SCR3500A P/N:905430-1 CAC reader,you may need to install this driver, as the one that installs automatically will not work on most Macs. Hold the control key [on your keyboard] when clicking the .pkg file [with your mouse], select [the word] Open

Step 3: Verify which version of MacOS you have?

(You need to know this information for step 6)

Step 3a: Click the Apple Icon in the upper left corner of your desktop and select 'About This Mac'

Step 3b: Look below Mac OS X for: Example: Version 10.X.X, or 11.X

Step 4: Figure out which CAC (ID Card) you have

(You need to know this information for step 6)

Look at the top back of your ID card for these card types. If you have any version other than the seven shown below, you need to visit an ID card office and have it replaced. All CACs [other than these six] were supposed to be replaced prior to 1 October 2012.

Find out how to flip card over video

Step 5: Install the DoD certificates (for Safari and Chrome Users)

Go to Keychain Access

Click: Go (top of screen), Utilities, double click Keychain Access.app

(You can also type: keychain access using Spotlight (this is my preferred method))

Select login (under Keychains),and All Items (under Category).

Download the 5 files via links below (you may need to <ctrl> click, select Download Linked File As... on each link) Save to your downloads folder

Please know... IF You have any DoD certificates already located in your keychain access, you will need to delete them prior to running the AllCerts.p7b file below.

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/AllCerts.p7b,

Proceeding back mac os 11

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert2.cer,

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert3.cer,

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert4.cer, and

Double click each of the files to install certificates into the login section of keychain

Select the Kind column, verify the arrow is pointing up, scroll down to certificate, look for all of the following certificates:

DOD EMAIL CA-33 through DOD EMAIL CA-34,

DOD EMAIL CA-39 through DOD EMAIL CA-44,

DOD EMAIL CA-49 through DOD EMAIL CA-52,

DOD EMAIL CA-59,

DOD ID CA-33 through DOD ID CA-34,

DOD ID CA-39 through DOD ID CA-44,

DOD ID CA-49 through DOD ID CA-52,

DOD ID CA-59

DOD ID SW CA-35 through DOD ID SW CA-38,

DOD ID SW CA-45 through DOD ID SW CA-48,

DoD Root CA 2 through DoD Root CA 5,

Proceeding Back Mac Os 11

DOD SW CA-53 through DOD SW CA-58, and

DOD SW CA-60 through DOD SW CA-61

NOTE: If you are missing any of the above certificates, you have 2 choices,

1. Delete all of them, and re-run the 5 files above, or

2. Download the allcerts.zip file and install each of the certificates you are missing individually.

Errors:

Error 100001 Solution

Error 100013 Solution

You may notice some of the certificates will have a red circle with a white X . This means your computer does not trust those certificates

You need to manually trust the DoD Root CA 2, 3, 4, & 5 certificates

Double click each of the DoD Root CA certificates, select the triangle next to Trust, in the When using this certificate: select Always Trust, repeat until all 4 do not have the red circle with a white X.

You may be prompted to enter computer password when you close the window

Once you select Always Trust, your icon will have a light blue circle with a white + on it.

The 'bad certs' that have caused problems for Windows users may show up in the keychain access section on some Macs. These need to be deleted / moved to trash.

The DoD Root CA 2 & 3 you are removing has a light blue frame, leave the yellow frame version. The icons may or may not have a red circle with the white x

or DoD Interoperability Root CA 1 or CA 2 certificate
DoD Root CA 2 or 3 (light blue frame ONLY) certificate
or Federal Bridge CA 2016 or 2013 certificate
or Federal Common Policy CAcertificate
or or SHA-1 Federal Root CA G2 certificate
or US DoD CCEB Interoperability Root CA 1 certificate

If you have tried accessing CAC enabled sites prior to following these instructions, please go through this page before proceeding

Clearing the keychain (opens a new page)

Please come back to this page to continue installation instructions.

Step 5a: DoD certificate installation instructions for Firefox users

NOTE: Firefox will not work on Catalina (10.15.x), or last 4 versions of Mac OS if using the native Apple smartcard ability

Download AllCerts.zip, [remember where you save it].

double click the allcerts.zip file (it'll automatically extract into a new folder)

Option 1 to install the certificates (semi automated):

From inside the AllCerts extracted folder, select all of the certificates

<control> click (or Right click) the selected certificates, select Open With, Other...

In the Enable (selection box), change to All Applications

Select Firefox, then Open

You will see several dozen browser tabs open up, let it open as many as it wants..

You will eventually start seeing either of the 2 messages shown next

If the certificate is not already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating 'You have been asked to trust a new Certificate Authority (CA).'

Check all three boxes to allow the certificate to: identify websites, identify email users, and identify software developers

or

'Alert This certificate is already installed as a certificate authority.' Click OK

Once you've added all of the certificates...
• Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
• Preferences
• Advanced (tab)
• Press Network under the Advanced Tab
• In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now (button).
• Quit Firefox and restart it

Option 2 to install the certificates (very tedious manual):

Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)

Preferences

Advanced (tab on left side of screen)

Certificates (tab)

View Certificates (button)

Authorities (tab)

Import (button)

Browse to the DoD certificates (AllCerts) extracted folder you downloaded and extracted above.

Note: You have to do this step for every single certificate

Note2: If the certificate is already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating: 'Alert This certificate is already installed as a certificate authority (CA).' Click OK

Note3: If the certificate is not already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating 'You have been asked to trust a new Certificate Authority (CA).'

Check all three boxes to allow the certificate to: identify websites, identify email users, and identify software developers

Proceeding Back Mac Os X

Once you've added all of the certificates...
• Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
• Preferences
• Advanced (tab)
• Press Network under the Advanced Tab
• In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now (button).
• Quit Firefox and restart it

Step 6: Decide which CAC enabler you can / want to use

Only for Mac El Capitan (10.11.x or older)

After installing the CAC enabler, restart the computer and go to a CAC enabled website

Proceeding Back Mac Os Download

NOTE: Mac OS Sierra (10.12.x), High Sierra (10.13.x), Mojave (10.14.x), Catalina (10.15.x), and Big Sur (11.1) computers no longer need a CAC Enabler.

Try to access the CAC enabled site you need to access now

Proceeding Back Mac Os Catalina

Mac support provided by: Michael Danberry

Have you been experiencing general slowness in Apple’s Mail application, particularly when switching between mailboxes? Do you have some Smart Mailboxes that show incorrect message counts, or contain “ghost” messages that don’t exist any longer in a real mailbox? If so, the following solution might resolve the issue…then again, it might not.

Before you proceed, please heed the following warning: a very small number of people have reported that this fix caused them to lose a number of e-mail messages. As such, you’re on your own if you want to try this fix, and it is highly recommended that you back up your e-mail before proceeding. To do so, copy your user’s Library -> Mail folder to another location. (Make sure you quit Mail first.) All done? Good. Now, if you try this and something goes wrong, you can just replace the original folder and be back up and running in no time.

Mail uses a sqlite database (version 3) to store information about your messages—everything except the message content, basically, is kept in the database. To make access to the records in the database as fast as possible, the data is indexed. This index can be found in the file named Envelope Index in your user’s Library -> Mail folder. Over time, as you receive, delete, and move messages around, this index can become large and a bit cluttered with references to messages that no longer exist. As a result of these changes, Mail may start to exhibit slow downs, ghost messages, or other odd message-related behavior. The fix, then, is to rebuild the database’s index file.

You can do this from within Mail using the Mailbox -> Rebuild command, but you’ll have to do so one mailbox at a time—the menu option is grayed out if you have more than one selected. For me, with 50 or so sorting folders, that’s not a good option. Instead, you can use one of two methods to rebuild the index.

The Brute Force solution

This solution forces Mail to build a completely new Envelope Index from scratch. It’s not my preferred solution, but it will ensure that you’re starting with a completely clean index file.

Quit Mail, and in the Finder, navigate to your user’s Libary -> Mail folder, and then move the file named Envelope Index out to the desktop. When you relaunch Mail, it will tell you it needs to import your messages. Click Continue and then just wait—it took about a minute to import 9,900 messages on my MacBook Pro. When the import is done, you should be looking at Mail just as it was before—but with any luck it will be running more quickly, and any odd message-related issues you were having should be resolved.

The Terminal solution

Open Terminal and type this command:

When you press Return, nothing will seem to happen. Just wait, though; you’ll get Terminal’s prompt back relatively quickly. Launch Mail, and you won’t be asked to reimport your messages, because the index itself still exists; it’s just been cleaned up. There’s a lot more detail on this procedure, as well as a number of comments on its effectiveness, in this post on the Hawk Wings Mail.app blog.

IMAP accounts

When you clean the index in this manner, any locally-cached messages and attachments from IMAP accounts will be dumped and downloaded again from the server. Typically, this would be any IMAP messages that you leave in your inbox; if you drag them to a Mail folder you’ve created, then the message and attachments are downloaded and stored locally. So after rebuilding your index, access to messages (and attachments in particular) may be slow at first, as Mail goes about downloading the previously-cached attachments. If you’ve got a lot of sizable attachments on an IMAP account, you’ll really only want to try this solution on a fast Internet connection.

My experience

I’ve never lost any mail doing this—really, you shouldn’t, as you’re just rebuilding an index file—and the first time I ran it, it made a notable difference in the time required to switch between folders. What used to take a second or so became nearly instantaneous. But please, if you’re going to try this, make sure you have a good backup before proceeding.

Proceeding Back Mac OS

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