I have to send in my Mac Book Pro to be serviced. I was instructed to log out of all my apps. Can someone please instruct me how to log out? It seems odd that there isn’t an obvious way to do it. Thanks!
Welcome to the forum!
On your MBP when Scrivener is open, you can click on the Scrivener menu and then select “Quit Scrivener.” That will close the program.
You can also scan the apps and programs shown in your Dock. Apple’s default for apps in the Dock is to place a small dot below the app’s icon in the Dock. That’s the indicator letting you know the app is open somewhere.
You can click on any app that has the dot, which will bring your Mac’s focus to that program. Then, you can use that program’s “Quit” command to close it.
You can also select the Apple logo on the upper left of the screen and then select “Force Quit…” to see if any programs are still running. Finder will always appear there as an active program. However, if no other programs are shown, then nothing is running on your Mac.
Since Scrivener doesn’t have an active web connection, there isn’t really anything to “log out” of. Shutting down the computer will shut down Scrivener, too.
It would be a good idea, though, to make sure you have a good backup of your Scrivener projects (and any other critical data) before sending the computer in. One easy way to do that is to connect an external Time Machine volume (if you don’t already have one) and just let it run overnight. Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support
Thanks Ruth. I guess I wasn’t clear enough. I have figured out how to “Quit” but not “Log Out”. In my mind, the difference between the two is quitting just closes the program but doesn’t prevent someone else from opening it right back up. Whereas the term “logging out” would seem to indicate that in order to log back in one would need to enter a password.
I suppose I should have asked “Is Scrivener password protected? And, if so, how do I log out?”. Any help you can offer would be much appreciated!
Your whole computer and all the data and programs (including Scrivener) stored on it should be encrypted and password protected by default. So you would simply log out from macOS. ⇧ ⌘ Q Or even better: Shut down the machine (don’t just close the lid!), also via the menu.
This situation is slightly different in that I am having my computer serviced which means any/all technicians will have to log in to my computer (i.e. get past the initial Apple log in). I suppose the best way to describe what I am looking to achieve is what I have done with my Google account in advance of shipping it to the repair facility—I have signed out of it so my email, calendar, photos, etc. are not accessible to someone who doesn’t have the password (even if they click on the app).
It is beginning to dawn on me that once everything has been backed-up (which I have already done) I should just uninstall Scrivener before sending the MBP in to be serviced. Is that the only way to prevent a technician from possibly reading my work?
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Scrivener is not password protected. If you want to prevent people from reading your work, you should either remove the project files (not just Scrivener itself) from the computer, or place them on an encrypted volume.
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After backing everything up (Time Machine would be perfect), you could treat the machine like you would when selling it: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support
Once you get it back from Apple, you can easily restore everything from the TM backup.
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Thanks, everyone! Now that I know my Scrivener work is not password protected, I will follow the suggestions re: making it (temporarily) unavailable. I am new to Scrivener so all of your comments helped.
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Just to be clear, Scrivener is more like Word than what you seem to be thinking of. Uninstalling it or whatever else you may be thinking of will not delete all of your proverbial .docx files throughout the entire computer. Your projects are still there, and if anything made more accessible to the completely unaware than otherwise, since they will just be a folder full of word processing files if you don’t have Scrivener installed.
I do think, if you aren’t terribly familiar with how computers work in general, or where your files are saved, and you’re worried about some blue shirt reading your writings, it would be best to get some help from a friend in getting the whole system backed up and deleted. Chances are high Apple is going to do that anyway, so you definitely want that backup. Never hand your computer over to repair without a full backup.
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I’d be more focused on “logging out” of sync services, like dropbox, google drive, etc… that might mirror any deletions done on your device if it’s hooked up to the internet. Not that they’re likely to just trash your files-- they’re more likely to format the drive and reinstall the operating system, which will erase everything, but isn’t the same as dragging your Dropbox files into the trash.
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True. And Apple’s step by step “before you sell…” guide should do the trick. It’s the ultimate logout.
All the advice above is good, and you should do what makes you comfortable! But I wanted to comment on this specific concern:
Realistically, a technical has zero interest in reading your random files on your computer, nor the time to do so. They do not care. They just want to fix whatever technical problem you have as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next repair job.
I’d actually be more concerned about a friend/acceptance getting nosy than some stranger.
But again, do what makes you feel comfortable! 
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Just adding the voice of an actual support person to the chorus. We are not interested in your work. We don’t care if it’s good, bad, or controversial. We just care about solving whatever the issue is as quickly as possible.
Now, if you have material that is legally protected as confidential, or that might be illegal in your country, that’s another matter. If you’re a public figure or if the technician is someone you know personally, they might be tempted to snoop. Trust your own judgment. But as a general principle, no, technicians don’t care about your writing.
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I had no idea things were going to start feeling hostile on this message board. I realize there would be .0001% chance that anyone would be interested or stumble upon something I had written. I suppose I was just looking to feel comfortable that my computer files were protected when it left my side. FedEx has lost some important packages of mine over the years and I think I was concerned about that, as well. I wasn’t accusing technicians of anything nefarious—I was simply trying to do what the tech company asked me to do, which was to log-out of everything as well as back-up my material. And, as I noted in one of my first posts, I had already backed up everything (done without the help of a friend, a suggestion in one of the posts that seemed to carry with it a bit of generational snark).
To those members of the community who took the time to offer actual help—rather than to those who wanted to imbue my technical question with a negative connotation—your comments were very much appreciated.
Not to deny your own feelings, but I’ve re-read this discussion 3 times now, and I cannot find anyone being hostile. Nobody’s attacking your work–a few are noting that technicians are too busy to riffle through thousands of files on your/any customer’s hard drive when they’re paid to fix the issues with your computer and move on to the next paying gig as fast as is reasonable, but as far as I can tell, nobody has disparaged you or your work so far.
If you’re referencing other discussions… yeah, some people are pretty cranky, but it’s a lot less hostile than most forums I’ve been on, if that’s any consolation.
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“No one is attacking my work”? I posted a technical question which had/has nothing to do with ‘my work’ so I genuinely don’t understand your comment. Maybe it was meant for another thread? As far as my use of the word “hostile”—I thought the post that used all bold letters to let me know that technicians DO NOT CARE seemed aggressive, considering the neutral tone of my query. Finally, as I explained in my previous post, the point of this whole exercise was to make any/all data on my computer hard to access if my computer ended up being lost or in the wrong hands. Now that my question has been answered, it would be great if we could call it a night.
Oh no, I’m very sorry that my comment came across as hostile and aggressive to you, @slangygirl! I was trying to reassure you, not upset you, and I’m sorry it had the opposite impact. 
I personally find it reassuring to remind myself that most strangers are too busy with their own lives to bother with mine. Which is maybe a little sad, but it means that even if I worry that everyone must be staring at me or wanting to find something to embarrass me with or whatever, in reality they’re not really thinking about me one way or the other. I find a sort of relaxation or release in reminding myself about this anonymity.
So if I needed to hand over my laptop with my writing on it to a tech and I felt a little nervous about them reading my writing, I’d feel better by remembering that the tech doesn’t care about me and so has no reason to bother reading my writing.
It sounds like perhaps that thought does not reassure you the way it does me, and for that I apologize.
⌘Q will do it.
padding to 20 characters.
… and spend a few days registering software again.