OS X El Capitan: The Missing Manual

Where to Get Troubleshooting Help

If the basic steps described in this appendix haven’t helped, the universe is crawling with additional help sources. Apple’s Support website is a great resource. But the truth is, you’ll find more answers faster using Google than you ever will using individual help sites. That’s because Google includes all those help sites in its search!

Suppose, for example, that you’ve just installed the 10.11.2 software update, and it’s mysteriously turned all your accounts into Standard ones. You could go to one website after another, hunting for a fix, repeating your search—or you could just type El Capitan 10.11.2 standard accounts into Google. You’ll get your answers after just a few more seconds of clicking and exploring the results.

Help Online

These websites contain nothing but troubleshooting discussions, tools, and help:

• Apple Discussion Groups (http://discussions.apple.com). The volume and quality of question-and-answer activity here dwarfs any other free source. If you’re polite and concise, you can post questions to the multitudes here and get more replies from them than you’ll know what to do with.

• Apple’s help site (www.apple.com/support). Apple’s help site includes downloadable manuals, software updates, frequently asked questions, and many other resources.

  Its search box is your ticket to the Knowledge Base, a collection of 100,000 technical articles that Apple technicians themselves consult when answering calls for help.

Help by Telephone

Finally, consider ...