Apple Remote Desktop is a great improvement over previous versions, yet there still isn’t an easy way to back up your complete database. There is a way to export your computer list yet it doesn’t keep the passwords. If you are like me you won’t remember every password typed in the last year. Here is a quick and easy way to back up your whole database:

First open up Terminal inside your Applications Folder under Utilities.
In order to do back up your database we will be using command line commands.
The first command backups the actual database and then saves it to your desktop:

sudo cp -R /var/db/RemoteManagement/ ~/Desktop/RemoteMangement/

The second command back ups your Apple Remote Desktop 3 preference file to your desktop:

sudo cp -R ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist ~/Desktop/com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist

Back up the files to somewhere safe or burn them to a cd.

To Restore - reverse the commands

sudo cp -R ~/Desktop/com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist

sudo cp -R ~/Desktop/RemoteMangement/ /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db/RemoteManagement/

Here is a question I received: “Is it possible to download a video from YouTube so that I can use it during a presentation?”

First make sure it is legal for you to use the video in your presentation.

Second, there is a great application on the Macs that grabs a video from YouTubeand other video sites and converts it into a Quicktime file. The program is called PodTube. It was free but it is now is an expensive $5. You can demo PodTube for up to 5 movies before you have to purchase it. If you are a FireFox user sorry it will only work with Safari. Yet Podtube could also download videos from Daily Motion and MySpace Videos.

That is the easy way to download videos. I’ll post later on a more nerdy way to download videos from websites.

Sometimes your Apple laptop doesn’t respond when you press the power key. You can easily start to move into panic mode. I just had a client almost slip into this mode. The problem was her laptop battery has competly drained. I could of waited until the battery was charged for a little bit. Yet to show that her laptop was fine I reseted the Power Management Unit (PMU). To reset the Power Management Unit , take out the battery, disconnect the power adapter and hold down the power button for 15 seconds. According to Apple the Power Management Unit controls, “backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.”

So reset your Power Management Unit when your Apple laptop is giving you trouble sleeping, waking or turning on.

Hope you enjoyed this quick tip to keep your Apple Happy!