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How do I make sure NOTHING changes after a reboot or restart? Happens as ofgten as 3 times a week.

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

Dan Maloney
Dan Maloney
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At home, I do not have a problem - but I usually leave my laptop on. I am traveling and am using a VPN that locates me back in USA. Otherwise nothing seems different. If there is a power outage here (often), or I am prompted to restart after auto-install of Mac updates, or my battery gets low enough to turn off the screen (only once for this), it is like I have a clean slate - no autofill, add-ons, history, bookmark, search and homepage setting - everything defaults to original. I must reenter password on every site I go to and reenter any non-default setting. Is there a setting I am missing that can prevent this? I will be in this India location for several months, so I prefer this not to keep happening. BTW, I am unsophisticated and need to know how to reach or alter any files involved.

At home, I do not have a problem - but I usually leave my laptop on. I am traveling and am using a VPN that locates me back in USA. Otherwise nothing seems different. If there is a power outage here (often), or I am prompted to restart after auto-install of Mac updates, or my battery gets low enough to turn off the screen (only once for this), it is like I have a clean slate - no autofill, add-ons, history, bookmark, search and homepage setting - everything defaults to original. I must reenter password on every site I go to and reenter any non-default setting. Is there a setting I am missing that can prevent this? I will be in this India location for several months, so I prefer this not to keep happening. BTW, I am unsophisticated and need to know how to reach or alter any files involved.

All Replies (3)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Electronics, especially computers, don't like brown-outs or blackouts. Losing power can cause errors on the hard drive. Plus, anything not saved to the hard drive is forever lost.

I suggest Not using the computer when the battery is low. There are Uninterruptable Power Supply units available that can give you time to finish your work and do a proper shutdown.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Uninterruptable+Power

Dan Maloney
Dan Maloney Question owner
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I normally do not use my computer when it is only on battery power. As I said that issue happened once. (And it was inadvertent). Where I am there may be several power outages in a day. My issue often happens when there is neither of these problems, but simply when there are updates installed by Apple and I have to restart to make them effective. My real question is whether there is some setting I am unaware of that instructs a restart to restore all former settings/data and which allows me to continue as if there had been no interruption. I lose EVERYTHING other than saved data files: bookmarks, preferences, autofills - as if I am a new user.

FredMcD
FredMcD
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That question should be asked of Apple. System updates should not change user settings.

Every now and then, create backups of important files and settings. For greater safety, you could use an external hard drive.

I think there are also 'cloud' servers that can help.