Troubleshooting

Time Machine backups and Aperture are like oily water

Posted on May. 7, ’08, 9:25 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

For you Aperture users out there who have noticed particularly heavy disk usage during a Time Machine backup, here’s the explanation for those woes: according to an Apple knowledge base article, if Aperture is running when a Time Machine backup occurs and the Aperture library is included in the backup.

Turns out Time Machine doesn’t really like that, so it will exclude your Aperture library from the backup. Instead, it’ll wait until you quit Aperture and then back up your entire library, not just the changes since the last backup.

Not terribly convenient, but then again, neither is Apple’s workaround, which involves disabling Time Machine’s automatic backups and then backing up manually when you’re not running Aperture. In fact, the doc goes so far as to say “Avoid performing backups or restores while Aperture is running.” Great.

I’m not an Aperture user myself, so I haven’t run into this—how about you guys?

Apple #1 in tech support, again

Posted on May. 5, ’08, 6:21 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Hardware

We love lists here at MacUser, especially when Apple holds the top spot — or, in the case of People’s “100 Sexiest Men Alive 2008”, when Steve Jobs does.

Wait, what? Oh right, lists!

This time, it’s Consumer Reports surveying users on the quality of tech support. Among all the computer manufacturers, Apple comes in at number #1 in both desktops (81% satisfaction) and laptops (83%). In desktops, Dell is a distant second with 56% while HP and Compaq rot at the bottom of the pit with 47%. As for notebooks, Lenovo takes the second spot with 66%, while Gateway, last, receives a paltry 54%.

In its report, the magazine cites the Genius Bar as an example of great support, with 90% of problems solved. For more gory details, read Macworld’s full article or pick up the June issue of Consumer Reports.

What are your experiences with Apple support and the Geniuses? Personally, I’ve only had to deal with them for a dead iBook G3 out of warranty and a dead iPod, also out of warranty. Needless to say, I wasn’t very successful.

Great moments in Knowledge Base history: TS1170

Posted on May. 5, ’08, 8:30 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Humor

We poke fun at Apple from time to time (lovingly! always lovingly!) for their somewhat terse documentations in their software updates. But tech writing, like any other field, has it’s ups and downs. The ever famous “swarm of bees” article still has a fond place in my memory at the top of the list for Apple documentation. But somedays you can’t think or write straight for love, money, or Steve Jobs (not that we imagine he pays a lot of attention to tech support documents).

So I imagine is the case with knowledge base article number TS1170 or, if you prefer its formal title: “.Mac Sync: RSS status doesn’t not sync between Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.”

Oh, you rascally double negative! How did you get in there? Fortunately, the voluminous text of the article clears things up: “If one or more of your Safari Bookmarks is an RSS feed, .Mac Sync will not sync the number of read/unread articles between Mac OS X 10.4 and Mac OS X 10.5.”

Oh, okay. Got it. Wee’re on the same page now, got it. Anyway, now that we’ve ascertained precisely what kind of problem we’re seeing, what can we do about it? Please, tell us, o underpaid support writer!

This is normal.

Right. Thanks. It’s going to be one of those days, isn’t it?

Email annoyances and solutions

Posted on Apr. 30, ’08, 2:42 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Tips

I have four email accounts — down from 11 last year — that are constantly slaughtered by work emails and newsletters and, of course, an unholy daily barrage of spam that tries to convince me I need V1agra or C1al1s or sexy underwear or cheap prescriptions or a low-interest mortgage or designer footwear or Microsoft Office or stamps (??) or a date or… Well, you get it.

What I’m trying to get at is managing email is pretty crazy for me, and I imagine it is for plenty of you too. Brainiac Breen (two references in two posts!) over at the Mothership recognizes this problem, and has written up a bunch of tips for fixing annoyances and better managing your messy mail.

If you’re like 99.7 percent of computer users, your e-mail client gets more of a workout than any other software you use. And given the amount of time you spend with this particular software, it’s not surprising that minor annoyances you’d forgive in other programs become a Big Deal when you encounter them hour after hour, day after day. I’ve rounded up some common e-mail problems and provided solutions to help you keep them under control.

Tips include deciphering Windows-specific mail files, fixing sluggish email clients, sending email when you’re out, saving server space, and more. Check the article for all the frustration-easing info.

Internet Sharing issues reveal subnet snare

Posted on Apr. 25, ’08, 9:17 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Troubleshooting

Some days, all your technology works. I’m not quite sure, but I think that’s the first and third Thursday of every month. Or maybe that’s street sweeping. Other days, the time you spent in the trenches of the IT industry come back to you in lurid detail: the smell of sweat, of fear, the screams pummeling your ears. Today was such a day.

The proposition seemed simple: I was connected to a wireless network at my local cafe, and I wanted to share that connection (over Ethernet or FireWire) with a friend of mine on his own MacBook. Easy peasy, right? Turn on Internet Sharing and connect a cable.

Well, that’s what I thought. Only it didn’t work. As Homer once wrote, “FAIL.” Very puzzling. His computer would get an IP in the 192.168.x.x range, and it even had Bonjour support—he could connect to my computer, we could chat via Bonjour, but he couldn’t get to the outside world at all. What. The. Hell?

Days like this—dark days where even souls fail to see the light of the sun—Google is your best friend. I searched on likely keywords for a while, then decided to narrow my focus to Apple’s support boards, where I found this illuminating post, which contained the following tantalizing detail:

Basically, both ports on the Mac Pro were given the same subnet. This confused the Pro, as it didn’t know which port to forward TCP packets. It was stopping all packets from the Mac Mini.

Ah ha. Now we’re getting somewhere. Unfortunately, there was no link directly to the post where he found the solution, but knowing that subnets were an issue, it was simple enough to assign a manual IP address to my Ethernet connection (I chose something in the 10.0.x.x IP range, since my AirPort connection was already using the 192.168.x.x range), give him a manual IP address in the same range, and voilà: Internet. Case closed. Well, except for getting to shout “I am the king of the world!” That got me some odd looks.

Now, if only Apple would design Internet sharing to be smart enough to take care of this for me. That would make me the happiest panda of them all.

They don’t make iPods like they used to

Posted on Apr. 7, ’08, 1:48 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

James Daley of The Independent is sure—sure as shootin’—that mischievous invisible gnomes are rendering iPods unusable just after they escape warranty. This is one of those bizarre conspiracy theories that gets trotted out every once in a while, intimating that somehow Apple has designed their devices to die precisely at the moment when you will have to either a) fork over money to pay for the repair or b) buy a replacement.

Though there’s no solid evidence that Apple deliberately kills iPods through software updates when they get to be about two years old, the fact that these expensive devices rarely last for more than 24 months is hard to swallow.

Boggle. Not only is there no “solid” evidence, there is actually no evidence at all. In fact, there is more evidence that I personally faked the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Eleven years before my birth.

The Terrifying Case of the Nine Beeps

Posted on Apr. 3, ’08, 10:02 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Troubleshooting

We often poke fun at Apple for the terse nature of its software update releases notices. But could such a habit become downright dangerous? This morning, we were pointed to an Apple knowledge base article both cryptic and worrisome in its brevity. We reprint the complete text of the article here, for your edification:

Some MacBook Air computers may not start up into Mac OS but instead start up to 9 beeps - 3 short, 3 long, 3 short.

To address this issue, please visit your nearest Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider, or call Apple directly.

Anyone with a basic grounding in Morse code will recognize the short, long, short pattern as Morse code for “SOS.” But what does the MacBook Air need saving from? I mean, if you’re in close proximity to say, a giant iceberg, well, okay. But sitting quietly at your desk? Does it mean you’re in imminent danger of being hit by a meteorite? Maybe it’s just the Air’s way of saying “no, don’t put me in the manila envelope again, pleeeeeeease.” Without an ability to speak the MacBook Air’s language, we have no way of knowing.

One thing is for certain: if ever you hear your MacBook Air give ten beeps—or you start seeing weird symbols showing up on the screen—then get the hell out of your house.

[Thanks, Ken]

Apple read John Mayer’s crash report

Posted on Apr. 2, ’08, 3:14 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Troubleshooting

A week ago, MacUser’s Senior John Mayer Correspondent Derik DeLong wrote about a post on the musician’s blog detailing an iTunes crash and the resulting report he sent to Apple.

Thus, the question on everyone’s — and Mayer’s — mind: Does Apple actually read those crash reports? Welp, John posted a new blog entry with a semi-surprised “yes”:

Word of my problem initially made it’s [sic] way to Apple not by way of my public profile, but by a technician receiving the report as they would anyone else’s and passing it along internally until word reached my friends at the company.

…Turns out Apple really does read crash reports, and takes them seriously enough to have a department whose only objective is to log, group, prioritize and resolve bug issues. One of the technicians told me that in some cases they’ll ask a customer to send in their device while sending out a replacement immediately. And in the most extreme cases, they’ve been known to send a technician to a customer’s home.

There you have it. So instead of frustratingly ignoring the crash report box that pops up when an app croaks, considering reporting it — especially if you’re a famous musician-friend of Steve Jobs.

Firmware Restoration CD brings your Mac Pro back from the dead

Posted on Mar. 28, ’08, 9:11 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Troubleshooting

So you went ahead and tried to apply yesterday’s Mac Pro Firmware Update and something went horribly awry. Your power went out while you were in the middle, or your dog chewed through the power cable (No Fluffy! Bad Fluffy! No biscuit!). Either way, there you are, with a giant brick of a Mac Pro.

In the words of Douglas Adams: don’t panic. Everything’s going to be all right (well, I’m not sure about Fluffy—I’m a blogger, not a veterinarian). But in terms of your Mac Pro brick, it’s all cool. Apple’s posted Firmware Restoration CD 1.5, which allows you to restore the firmware of the early 2008 Mac Pro (other Intel Mac users will need to get Firmware Restoration CD 1.4 and Firmware Restoration CD 1.3).

As a heads up, you’ll need a second computer in order to create the disc—and your MacBook Air isn’t going to cut it, I’m afraid. And remember: you can always go to an Apple Store or Authorized Reseller or your buddy Mitch’s house if you don’t have a second Mac. The above knowledge base doc will walk you through the process of restoring your firmware.

If you’ve successfully updated your firmware, however, you should know that this software is entirely useless to you. And, no, it won’t bring Fluffy back, no matter how much you try. I’m sorry.

[via The Mac Observer]

iPod Reset Utility nurses iPod shuffles back to health

Posted on Mar. 25, ’08, 11:05 AM PT by Aayush Arya

Category | Troubleshooting

If your iPod shuffle has stopped working and iTunes is unable to restore it back to full health, you’ll be glad to know that Apple has released iPod Reset Utility 1.0.3 today to get you back on track.

The utility bypasses iTunes (misbehaving little brat that it is) and directly restores your first or second generation iPod shuffle. As you must know, restoration entails complete deletion of all the data on your device and reinstallation of the iPod software. If you didn’t know that, step aside with your hands up and drop the shuffle to the ground, immediately.

Note that this utility requires administrator privileges to work its magic. If even this sucker can’t fix your iPod, the poor thing needs professional help. So go seek out a Genius Bar in your nearest Apple Store.

The utility can be downloaded for both Mac and Windows and from Apple’s support website.