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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

kennah

Member
Part of the performance increase may be that OS X, like other Unix implementations and modern Windows systems uses free RAM to cache parts of the filesystem.

I upgraded from 6 to 13GB in a Mac Pro; if my typical free+inactive memory at 6GB was N, after upgrading to 13GB, it wasn't N+7GB, but instead ~4GB after extended, casual use.
Yep. We upgraded our Mac Pro from 4gig to 24gig and the thing felt like it had an SSD installed.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Somehow forgot that iTunes would be getting proper notifications. So good. I used a third party plugin for a while but the native ones work better.
 

jts

...hate me...
Okay, this is ridiculous. Why is the VPN server on OS X server so damn unreliable! You can check from the web that it happens to a whole fucking lot of people if not everyone that uses it: it stops accepting connections after some time (it can be days, for example) and you have to restart it altogether.

For me, sometimes it takes some 4 or 5 restarts to do the trick.

Luckily I can just access the through VNC and then restart the VPN. But holy balls this is so unlike Apple.

And I upgraded to OS X server for the VPN server basically :|
 
[VPN woes]

I can't speak to it as I don't use it, but you may be able to get what you're after through SSH tunnelling. Provided you can: know what your IP is and poke holes in your router's firewall, you can forward some non-standard port to your Mac's port 22, and then SSH in, tunnelling an interesting port out.

From the remote Mac:
ssh -p non-standard-ssh-port -L 6000:127.0.0.1:5900 you@hostname

This will tunnel VNC out to your remote Mac. From another terminal:
open vnc://localhost:6000

Obviously, both SSH and Screen sharing (for the above) need to be enabled on the Mac you're accessing.

I know Back to my Mac removes the need for the above, but there might be other interesting things to do with it.
 

mrkgoo

Member
Out fo curiosity, do other Safari users see the google address bar pop up, and the blue bar zip across before loading a URL when clicking a link that opens in a new tab?
 

kehs

Banned
Wow, fuck this 10.8.5 update:

Symptoms

The FaceTime HD Camera on your MacBook Air (Mid 2013) stops working with 32-bit applications (such as Skype, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and QuickTime Player) after installing the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5 update.

Resolution

Apple is investigating this issue.

As a workaround, use an external camera for 32-bit applications that require a camera on MacBook Air (Mid 2013) computers.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5216
 

kehs

Banned
Could you not just use 64-bit versions of those apps?

Is that really a recommendation?

da fuck. I have no control on wether developers make their programs in 32 or 64 bit versions. christ on a cracker.

luckily i found a work around, I had to install old drivers into the system to get old programs to work. this is why i bough a god damn mac for, to avoid this shit
 

mrkgoo

Member
Is that really a recommendation?

da fuck. I have no control on wether developers make their programs in 32 or 64 bit versions. christ on a cracker.

luckily i found a work around, I had to install old drivers into the system to get old programs to work. this is why i bough a god damn mac for, to avoid this shit
It wasn't a recommendation. It was a question.

I was curious if 64-bit versions worked.

I figured most apps were now 64-bit, least of all apples own ones.

Which app are you using that is still 32-bit?

I was also under the impressions that many modern apps are made as universal 64-bit and 32-bit versions, and you could open whichever one. For example, you right-click and 'get info' and flag which version you want to run.

I'm still confused. How does installing an old program get around whatever issue you are having?

It seems like you can't get internal camera working with Skype or something. But I don't see how installing an old version helps.

I guess I'm just have a hard time following.
 

kehs

Banned
It wasn't a recommendation. It was a question.

I was curious if 64-bit versions worked.

I figured most apps were now 64-bit, least of all apples own ones.

Which app are you using that is still 32-bit?

I'm still confused. How does installing an old program get around whatever issue you are having?

It seems like you can't get internal camera working with Skype or something. But I don't see how installing an old version helps.

I guess I'm just have a hard time following.



I'm assuming skype, flash, yahoo. since the cam didn't work on any of those.

Sorry for assholeish tone. I meant it, but it wasn't warranted at all, sorry. =(

I'm just saying, it was part of the last update the messed up the webcam functionality, and it's because they forgot to pack in 32 bit drivers for the camera. -_-

edit to edit: not installing an old program, I had to install old drivers.
 

mrkgoo

Member
I'm assuming skype, flash, yahoo. since the cam didn't work on any of those.

Sorry for assholeish tone. I meant it, but it wasn't warranted at all, sorry. =(

I'm just saying, it was part of the last update the messed up the webcam functionality, and it's because they forgot to pack in 32 bit drivers for the camera. -_-

edit to edit: not installing an old program, I had to install old drivers.
Ah, so the versions of Skype and stuff aren't 64-bit?

It was confusing because apple also included their own apps in the list, but most should have 64-bit versions.

But yeah, don't go messing with the system stuff unless you know what you're doing. That said it's probably just a matter of dumping some older 32-bit kept or something.
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
I just bought the current MacUpdate bundle just for ScreenFlow.

https://deals.macupdate.com/bundle/affil/14604

10 apps for $50. And I'm only using one of the apps. Which still ends up being half the price.

So if anyone is looking for super powerful Mac screen recording software, get this bundle before it ends. 8 hours left.

The other 9 apps I don't give a shit about. Maybe TechTool Pro when it is updated for Mavericks, but the rest just looks like shovelware to me. If this bundle had Parallels 9 in it as well as ScreenFlow, it'd be the best thing ever. I'm about due for an upgrade to Parallels (I'm on 8, I've owned the last three versions.) but it's not in this bundle. But hell, ScreenFlow is really awesome and saving half the price is a nice thing.

It has Civ V too if you're one of those people. It activates on Steam so it probably also works in Windows too.
 

mrkgoo

Member
I just bought the current MacUpdate bundle just for ScreenFlow.

https://deals.macupdate.com/bundle/affil/14604

10 apps for $50. And I'm only using one of the apps. Which still ends up being half the price.

So if anyone is looking for super powerful Mac screen recording software, get this bundle before it ends. 8 hours left.

The other 9 apps I don't give a shit about. Maybe TechTool Pro when it is updated for Mavericks, but the rest just looks like shovelware to me. If this bundle had Parallels 9 in it as well as ScreenFlow, it'd be the best thing ever. I'm about due for an upgrade to Parallels (I'm on 8, I've owned the last three versions.) but it's not in this bundle. But hell, ScreenFlow is really awesome and saving half the price is a nice thing.

It has Civ V too if you're one of those people. It activates on Steam so it probably also works in Windows too.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm always skeptical of the bundles. I mean most of the apps are just little tools that you don't REALLY need.

I've bought one bundle in the past and I would say the app I used most was probably rip it.

I used a few others, but when most of them did a pay upgrade to the next level I bailed.

Funny, I'm a little hesitant to pay for apps on a mac, preferring to stick with built in stuff where possible, but buy tons of stuff on iOS.

Hmmm. It says tech tool is compatible with mavericks.

Also pdfpen6 is there. Not TOO bad.
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Thanks for the heads up.

I'm always skeptical of the bundles. I mean most of the apps are just little tools that you don't REALLY need.

I've bought one bundle in the past and I would say the app I used most was probably rip it.

I used a few others, but when most of them did a pay upgrade to the next level I bailed.

Funny, I'm a little hesitant to pay for apps on a mac, preferring to stick with built in stuff where possible, but buy tons of stuff on iOS.
Yeah. They usually throw like 8 pretty useless apps in there that do trivial stupid stuff, but there's always one or two really useful things. I bought the 2010 bundle that came with Parallels 6 I believe it was. The rest of the apps I either never touched or used for a while and realized it was just adding bloat.

They never put two really big apps together though. It's always either Parallels or it's ScreenFlow but it's never both. Oh well. $50 is pretty nice for ScreenFlow. Version 4 is super powerful too.

When I launch TechTool it says not supported yet. It runs but makes me feel weary about doing anything until it's updated.

Can I buy your Deltawalker license off you? It's the only thing I want from the bundle.
I'd give it to you if I thought it was transferrable. It would require my email address and name and I don't know if there's any way to just give it to you. Especially if it is attached to my email address.
 

kennah

Member
I'd give it to you if I thought it was transferrable. It would require my email address and name and I don't know if there's any way to just give it to you. Especially if it is attached to my email address.

Interesting! In the last bundle I got from them (2011) there was an email that contained all the license keys for the software. I didn't know they changed to an email authentication system. No worries, thanks anyway!
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Interesting! In the last bundle I got from them (2011) there was an email that contained all the license keys for the software. I didn't know they changed to an email authentication system. No worries, thanks anyway!
Each app works on a different method. Some will not ask for an email, just the serial number, which might just be a simple sequence of characters. Some might ask for the email and in some cases it will attach to whatever email you use which can be anything, even if it's not the one MacUpdate has. Others actually have the email address encoded into the serial string as a hash which is impossible to tell so if you use the serial it will be glued to that email address. This app looks to be that case. It's a long string of characters with some capitals, lowercases and numbers as well as hyphens and equal signs. I can't tell until it's registered. I don't know if giving you the number will end up filling in my email address in your app and sending me emails about promos for it instead of you.

If anyone could confirm it doesn't hide the email address in the serial, I'll gladly give it to you as I don't see myself really using it. Though it might be useful at some point. (I do code a lot.)
 

kehs

Banned
How do I change the default settings for a guest user? Speifically the trackpad to be set to "touch to click".

windowsusers amirite?
 

kehs

Banned
Thanks, I'll look into that.

I got another update for my air. It's supposed to fix my hd cam , but it looks like it just fucked up what i fixed last time.

jobs!
LLShC.gif
 

Sanjuro

Member
2011 2.5 Mac mini / 256 SSD / 8 GB RAM

Figured I would see if I could generate some extra results. Basically, having an issue where I get the rainbow wheel.

- It doesn't freeze the system or slow anything down.
- It only shows up for a second or less.
- Usually appears when mouse is moved or item is clicked. I normally see it in browser use (any browser), but again that is primarily the programs I have open anyway.

So, it's not necessary a problem, but I'm curious of the cause.

- I've done a fresh/clean OSX install.
- Permissions and all that jazz.
- I have a SSD. Verified and have always enabled TRIM support.
- Have run Apple Diagnostics test.
- Reset PRAM.

I've worked in an Apple authorized store for a couple years, doing tech work as well. So, I'm pretty familiar with most things. Just can't seem to put a finger down on what triggering it...ultimately it probably doesn't really matter and I'm just anal about those things.
 
Figured I would see if I could generate some extra results. Basically, having an issue where I get the rainbow wheel.

Look in Console.app: All Messages immediately after it happens.

I had SBOD after upgrading to 10.8 on two Macs; one was an old version of VMWare Fusion, one was SuperDuper! looking for a volume to mount to fire a backup job.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Look in Console.app: All Messages immediately after it happens.

I had SBOD after upgrading to 10.8 on two Macs; one was an old version of VMWare Fusion, one was SuperDuper! looking for a volume to mount to fire a backup job.

I've checked it. So far nothing when it happens. Again, it happens for only about a split second. I've left it open an running and have seen nothing for that quick duration.
 
I've checked it. So far nothing when it happens. Again, it happens for only about a split second. I've left it open an running and have seen nothing for that quick duration.

Huh. The beachball is an automatic response when the OS detects an unresponsive window, the log should note anything that causes that.

This page describes a couple of things that sound like your problem.
 

bud

Member
lately, i've noticed that whenever i drag a picture from a website to the desktop or a folder, it automatically opens up that folder. it wasn't always like this. it's a minor nuisance, but it's annoying nonetheless.

how do i make it go back to normal? i'm on 10.6.8.
 
lately, i've noticed that whenever i drag a picture from a website to the desktop or a folder, it automatically opens up that folder. it wasn't always like this. it's a minor nuisance, but it's annoying nonetheless.

how do i make it go back to normal? i'm on 10.6.8.

In Finder, hit cmd-, to bring up its preferences. Under the General tab there's a slider for controlling the delay or turning it off entirely.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Huh. The beachball is an automatic response when the OS detects an unresponsive window, the log should note anything that causes that.

This page describes a couple of things that sound like your problem.

Oh, I know. It's such a quick split second it appears I figured it wasn't doing much of anything. Console seems to agree.

Boggling my mind.
 

X-Frame

Member
I am getting a 4 TB External HD today and am looking for suggestions on how to partition it. My computer SSD is 500 GB.

I want at least a 1 TB partition (double my computer size) for Time Machine.

I also want a bunch of space to move large files like ripped movies and things I don't need on my computer at all times.

Lastly, I feel like I want at least a 3rd partition of 500 GB for space to clone my drive, just in case. Does that make sense or no?

So that is:

500 GB for Cloned Drive
1 TB for Time Machine
2.5 TB for everything else

Is that a good plan?
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
Sounds like a good plan to me. Especially the keeping multiple backups part. Though in my case I eschew the buggy (With networked backups) Time Machine route and paid for an online backup that works the same way and provides security in case my house burns down or a thief in the night steals my computer AND my drives.

I wouldn't have that much space for Time Machine though. Make it a little smaller. And only backup your Home directory excluding Library. The clone will take care of backing up the system stuff as that rarely changes. Use TM for just Home and save some space. How much of your 500GB do you use?
 

X-Frame

Member
Sounds like a good plan to me. Especially the keeping multiple backups part. Though in my case I eschew the buggy (With networked backups) Time Machine route and paid for an online backup that works the same way and provides security in case my house burns down or a thief in the night steals my computer AND my drives.

I wouldn't have that much space for Time Machine though. Make it a little smaller. And only backup your Home directory excluding Library. The clone will take care of backing up the system stuff as that rarely changes. Use TM for just Home and save some space. How much of your 500GB do you use?

I was considering if 1 TB for TM was too much, usually I don't go over 300 GB used space on my SSD, but I felt in case I ever get over 400 GB, if my TM partition wasn't big enough I'd never be able to enlarge it without erasing some data somewhere else right? I am not sure how that works. Or if a day comes when I upgrade my SSD to a bigger one or get a new computer. I could probably do 750 GB, but I read a bunch of places to do 2x the size of the computers storage for TM.

I only cloned my HD once with a trial/demo version of CCC, but never regularly scheduled cloned backups. I don't think I need to pay for CCC, as I will try Superduper. They're comparable right?

And I also just recently learned that you can exclude folders from TM backups; I plan to exclude my Downloads folder at least since that is always changing with random crap, plus possibly my Videos folder. Excluding the Library folder for system stuff makes sense too!
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
I only cloned my HD once with a trial/demo version of CCC, but never regularly scheduled cloned backups. I don't think I need to pay for CCC, as I will try Superduper. They're comparable right?
CCC is so much better. Unfortunately it's not free anymore. I used to hold it high back when it was. Still, it's useful enough to be worth the money.

But they're probably comparable. Whatever. They probably both use Rsync. CCC is worth the extra money though. But I wouldn't know. I was grandfathered in for donating $5 years ago before they started charging for it.
 
Though in my case I eschew the buggy (With networked backups) Time Machine route

FWIW, Time Machine to Mac and Linux servers has worked fine for me since 10.7 and Ubuntu 12.04.

I plan to exclude my Downloads folder at least since that is always changing with random crap, plus possibly my Videos folder. Excluding the Library folder for system stuff makes sense too!

I exclude everything except my home folder, and in that I exclude Downloads.
 

The Real Abed

Perma-Junior
FWIW, Time Machine to Mac and Linux servers has worked fine for me since 10.7 and Ubuntu 12.04.
FWIW, Time Machine over network has always given up and timed out and completely stopped working after a few days on every OS I've tried using it on since 10.6. Even on 10.9. I give up. CrashPlan may not have the pretty space interface, but it works. Also I have the unlimited plan which means I could use 50TB of space if I needed to.
 

bud

Member
In Finder, hit cmd-, to bring up its preferences. Under the General tab there's a slider for controlling the delay or turning it off entirely.

i turned it off entirely, but the problem's still there.

just to make sure that i explain this properly: when you drag, for example, a picture from a site to a folder on your desktop and hover it over that folder, the folder will then automatically open.

this is not what i'm talking about, however. the folder opens even when i immediately drag and drop the picture into it.
 
That's weird, bud.

FWIW, Time Machine over network has always given up and timed out and completely stopped working after a few days on every OS I've tried using it on since 10.6.

Yeah, I don't care about the pretty space interface, but I've been backing up my MacBook Air to a share on my Mac Pro in the nearly two years since I bought it. I migrated the backup to the newer Mac Pro a month ago without many issues (convinced the MacBook Air that it was a local backup at first...).
 

X-Frame

Member
I'm having a very strange issue with iTunes Match right now .. Any changes that I made or make to my library, since 6:12 PM EST time tonight, are not sticking, and it's driving me crazy!

If I go into my library right now and change the genre to an album, and then update iTunes Match, it'll revert the genre back to what it was before.

Or even if I just hit Update iTunes Match right now, it'll change my library exactly how it was before 6:12 PM tonight. That means any songs that I deleted (and from iCloud), seem to continue to return.

Any metadata changes that I made or make on or after 6:12 revert to pre-6:12 PM. I've imported several albums after 6:12, up until exactly 6:24 PM until I realized this, all where I made metadata changes to them, and nothing is sticking.


I'm worried about importing anything else. Or just having iTunes Match update again and un-do all my changes.

Does anyone have any idea of what could be going on? Why it's stuck at my library snapshot on 6:12 PM tonight? What can I do to fix this? I already tried turning iTunes Match off and on, and re-adding the computer. I already tried restarting. Not sure what else to do.

Thank you!!

UPDATE: I tried holding the SHIFT Key down while turning off Match, exiting iTunes, rebooting, and then opening iTunes and re-activating iTunes Match and it seems to have fixed the problem. I've been importing more albums today, slowly, and each time Match updates and sends results back to me, my metadata is not changing. So hopefully that did it!
 

corn_fest

Member
Has anyone else noticed static when playing FLACs through VLC? It's definitely only when using VLC on OS X, since they play fine in Clementine or on Windows. Sort of annoying. I might try going back through old versions of VLC to see if I can find where the problem starts.

Edit: after extensive testing I can conclude that this problem first appears in VLC 1.1.8.
 

Number45

Member
Can anyone explain why the COMMAND+SHIFT+A (archive) command doesn't work in mail.app? It works in Finder (opens the application folder), but I just get a dull beep when I try it in mail.app. :(
 

Jake.

Member
i have a question regarding spotlight and searching - lets say i have a filename called 'neogafrules.jpg'

if i search for 'neogaf' in spotlight, it comes up. however, if i type in 'rules' nothing shows up at all. it appears to be only searching the start of filenames - is this normal and can it be changed?

it seems to be counterinuitive to me - what if i have a file from ages ago called 'thisisanoldfile.jpg' and can only remember that it has 'old' in the filename? if i go to search for it nothing will be found.
 
it seems to be counterinuitive to me - what if i have a file from ages ago called 'thisisanoldfile.jpg' and can only remember that it has 'old' in the filename? if i go to search for it nothing will be found.

Presumably too many matches? I don't know. Partial text only works at the beginning of words. Put spaces or underscores in your files names: 'old' will match 'this_is_an_old_file.jpg' and 'this is an old file.jpg'.
 

bud

Member
lately, i've noticed that whenever i drag a picture from a website to the desktop or a folder, it automatically opens up that folder. it wasn't always like this. it's a minor nuisance, but it's annoying nonetheless.

how do i make it go back to normal? i'm on 10.6.8.

i turned it off entirely, but the problem's still there.

just to make sure that i explain this properly: when you drag, for example, a picture from a site to a folder on your desktop and hover it over that folder, the folder will then automatically open.

this is not what i'm talking about, however. the folder opens even when i immediately drag and drop the picture into it.

anyone?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Any issues running a Mac mini completely headless (no keyboard, mouse or display attached)? I use it as a plex server and minecraft server, but recently the only display I need has been for plex playback. I'm thinking of switching to a roku 3 for playback, and putting the mini in a cupboard out of the way.
 

kennah

Member
Any issues running a Mac mini completely headless (no keyboard, mouse or display attached)? I use it as a plex server and minecraft server, but recently the only display I need has been for plex playback. I'm thinking of switching to a roku 3 for playback, and putting the mini in a cupboard out of the way.

Shouldn't be a problem at all. Obviously keep a keyboard and mouse handy to plug in if you ever need to, but you can set them up to run automatically and remote in to check up once in a while.

We're going to be doing something similar in my studios soon I hope with Mac Minis serving a custom Plex operated through Logitech Harmony remotes and synching the videos/music every night automatically from a central server.
 
I'm having problems keeping my Wi-fi open when I close my 2013 MBA's lid in order to keep downloads going. I installed first NoSleep and then Caffeine thinking they would solve this, but they don't seem to work. At some point (not sure when), the Wi-fi loses connection to the network and the download fails. I've noticed that when I reopen the computer, it has to reconnect to the network, indicating it lost it at some point. Any thoughts?
 

Aroo

Neo Member
It's official happened. iTunes is running better on windows 8 than my mac. iTunes crashes not stop when I try to manage my iPhone or iPad. It completely messed up all my music art (wrong album covers on the wrong albums etc..) iTunes crashes without fail every time I try to manage my apps and music on my iPhone.


:(
 

kennah

Member
Kind of a random question - does anyone know of a way that I could use to specify which network connection a piece of software uses.

Usage example - I want to make it so that Chrome will use my wifi only while Finder, Safari, Mail and Calendar use the Ethernet only.

Any thoughts?
 
Anyone have the 802.11ac AirPort Extreme/Time Capsule?

How's the new firmware Apple released this week? Did it fix the reliability issue some people where having? Apparently, Apple accidentally disabled Spanning Tree Protocol according to a poster on MacRumors.
 
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