SMS messages appear in Messenger

A person recently was very confused. They'd sent messages using SMS and to their surprise the messages were in Messenger, leading them to wonder if they'd sent the messages using Messenger by mistake.

The person hadn't made a mistake. They had sent and received the messages using the default SMS client on their mobile phone.

The problem for them is for no apparent reason and through nothing they believed they'd done, the SMS messages now also appeared in Facebook Messenger. Since they'd never before appeared in Facebook Messenger, this made them wonder if they had errored and sent the SMS message in Messenger. They hadn't.

The problem is something had changed. Whether through their own mistake or perhaps just as likely, an update to Messenger, SMS messages were now appearing in Messenger and that to them was confusing.

This is simple to fix. You can turn of SMS integration in Messenger through the Messenger settings.

Once the setting is turned off in Messenger, SMS messages no longer appear in Facebook Messenger.

Keeping messages separate helps those not as comfortable with technology. If messages appear to have been sent from Messenger when they haven't, this can create confusion. People often have trouble distinguishing between the various messaging technologies on their mobile. Keeping each application separate helps them grow and learn their applications. When they're ready and they want to, then they can start integrating their messaging into their preferred application, or simply continue using the applications separately. Their choice.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

IT support.

Replacement battery for MacBook Air from Amazon. Third party battery or Apple battery?

I don't do hardware repairs on computers for clients, but when my own aging MacBook Air's battery was reaching end of life, I weighed up the options. Purchase a replacement battery from the Apple store at $189 and wait quite some time for an appointment and then probably a number of days to get the replacement done. Didn't really appeal to me.

The second option was to purchase a third-party battery online. I really don't trust eBay with large purchasers, as I've found a number of suppliers are companies I wouldn't deal with again. I hadn't actually purchased from Amazon but the marketing gave me a feeling the Amazon name is important and we feel like we're buying from Amazon. The reality is you're still dealing with a third party supplier.

The main advantages of purchasing the third-party battery was code, it was $63.99, the opportunity to learn from performing the repair myself and the reduced time I would be without the computer.

I purchased a battery from the Amazon store around June, but since I was going on holiday the following month, I didn't want to take the chance my computer wouldn't work. So I waited until I returned, caught up with everything and then around September installed the battery. Nothing. Nada. No power.

Contacting the supplier was easy and they forward a list of suggestions. I suspect it was a standard list. Carried out all the tests which took quite a few hours. I let them know the serial number reported by coconutBattery didn't match the serial number on the battery. The battery reported no charge and wouldn't charge. The supplier sent a replacement battery. I didn't have to return the dud battery.

The new battery installed fairly easily, over a dozen screws and the connector was hard to position correctly, but nothing too hard. Performed the recommended charging routine I found on a YouTube video. The battery was up and running and reported 96% charged when charged fully.

Over the coming weeks I watched as the fully charged capacity dropped and within around two months the battery was storing less then 80% which is considered end of life. I contacted the supplier who then offered a partial refund of half the money. This sounded good but at the end of the day I really had purchased a useless battery. It seems a common tactic to offer a partial refund and it makes you wonder if the supplier knows they're selling products that aren't good enough. In this case I was happy for the issue to go on to Amazon, as I don't feel products that aren't what is being purchased should be allowed to be sold. I let them know that I really had a battery that was now past its end of life. The company then refunded all the money. There was no request to return the battery.

Two batteries, two duds.

For me this was a good lesson. I like to try new things because sometimes you learn something new that helps me help others. I've found a couple of businesses on eBay selling dud products so I don't buy anything big and only if I'm prepared to lose the money. The catch is if they ask you to return a faulty item the return postage may exceed the cost of the item. Cheaper to write off the purchase and suppliers know that. At first I fell for the partial refund, but now if a product doesn't work, doesn't work as it should, I simply let the suppliers know. It's then up to the suppliers what they choose to do. So far suppliers have been good. Based on comments on the supplier reviews, they most likely know their products aren't up to spec, but if people don't complain, the business wins and the customer loses. There's a lot of talk on the internet that third party battery suppliers often sell dud products. That was the main reason I tried Amazon this time instead of eBay.

Overall, whilst this did waste a considerable amount of time, the outcome has been good. Based on this experience I would not recommend clients purchase third party batteries online, but instead purchase from Apple as you know what you're getting. In my case I was not out of pocket. The MacBook Air requires a new battery and a new power supply (the cord has simply perished over time). My need now for the MacBook Air is reduced and less money was spent purchasing a light inexpensive Windows 10 based notebook than replacing the battery and power supply.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Outlook 2010 won't open. Error message You need Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later to use the feature.

A client had issues because their browser was failing to open websites. They also wanted their computer cleaned up. The browser (Internet Explorer 9) would not upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 so they were happy to use Google Chrome instead.

The next day when they found when the tried to open Outlook 2010 they received the error message: You need Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later to use the feature.

The upgrade of their Microsoft Internet Explorer from Internet Explorer 9 to Internet Explorer 11 had failed. What wasn't noticed was the failure in installing Internet Explorer 11 had removed Internet Explorer 9. There was no longer any Internet Explorer available for Outlook to use.

The Microsoft site now only has Internet Explorer 11 to download and install. All previous versions have been removed. This a shortcoming of Microsoft's approach. In my opinion Microsoft should provide an archive of older versions of software but instead removes older software. Perhaps to push people to upgrading. The result is users are forced to look to third party sites to find older Microsoft software and often that means potentially exposing users to malicious sites.

The user was happy to continue to use Google Chrome as their browser. Given Windows 7 reaches end of life in under a year, Google Chrome means they'll most likely be able to continue using their computer into 2020, whilst Internet Explorer may no longer be supported. The real problem is Outlook required an active version of Internet Explorer to work.

I was able to download a copy of Internet Explorer 10 from a third party site (softonic.com) and scanned the file to ensure the file contained no malware. However, the installation did not appear to complete successfully, or at least there was no message at the end and the install screen just disappeared.

At this point I was stuck. There was probably a partially installed version of Internet Explorer 11 installed, but not working and not registered in the Registry. Next I decided to uninstall Internet Explorer 11 which can be seen in Add/Remove Programs if you show all the updates. There was a very old version of Internet Explorer 11 from around 2011 installed. Even though the computer had Internet Explorer 9 as the active browser, Internet Explorer 11 had previously been installed but not active. I ran the uninstall on Internet Explorer 11.

Weirdly what then happened was the more recent install of Internet Explorer 11 appeared in the list of software. Internet Explorer 11 still wasn't working. I ran the uninstall of Internet Explorer 11. At this point Internet Explorer 10 now became available. I tried to again install Internet Explorer 11 which again failed so it was not possible to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer for Windows 7.

At this point the user had Internet Explorer 10 installed and their Outlook was again working. Whilst not ideal, the user had everything they wanted. Outlook was working and they were happy to use Google Chrome. The potential benefit of Google Chrome is it may continue to work when Windows 7 reaches end of life whereas Internet Explorer 11 may no longer be supported.

It is not particularly satisfying when a computer won't install all the latest updates. Sometimes however it isn't economically feasible to fix an issue and it is necessary to reach a compromise. To fix this computer may require a complete reinstall and the cost would far exceed the value of the computer, which in this case was around eight years old. The user was kept informed at all times and from their point of view, everything is working and they have a path going forward into 2020.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

PS. If you download software from a third-party site make sure you perform appropriate scans to check the software is safe.