50 Common Mac Problems Solved

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100 Snow Leopard Tips, Tricks, and Features

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OS X Browser Speed Wars: May the Fastest App Win

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The Complete iTunes History -- SoundJam MP to iTunes 9

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iTunes 9 Tips and Tricks - Solve the Mysteries of the New iTunes

We present the Ultimate Mac Troubleshooting Guide, so you can banish the peskiest problems once and for all.

Mac problems? Isn’t that an oxymoron? If you just switched to the Mac from Windows, you might be thinking that you accidentally picked up one of your old PC magazines--and, by the way, we’ve got solutions to the seven most common problems switchers encounter, too. If you’re a longtime Mac user, you could even be wondering where we get off accusing the Mac platform of being problematic.

Using a Mac is generally painless and trouble free, but things can go wrong. Usually they’re not catastrophic (for solutions to true Mac disasters, click here). Sometimes the things that go wrong are those little annoying things that you just shrug off--over and over, until you finally have to deal with them.

We’re here to help you tackle the 50 most common problems in eight different categories, once and for all. If your problem isn’t covered here, email us at ask@maclife.com, and we’ll try to solve it in a future issue.

General Mac Problems

The Mac OS is, fundamentally, as trouble-free as operating systems get. But nothing's perfect. Here's what to do when you hit a snag.

1. I want a tabbed finder.

Download the incredibly versatile Path Finder ($40, www.cocoatech.com), which gives you all sorts of features that are missing from the Finder, such as tabs, stacks, bookmarks, and panes. Sounds like fun to us!

Now THIS is the Finder we've always dreamed of. Thanks, Path Finder!

2. I can't print anymore.

This could be caused by a variety of different issues relating to your printer hardware or printer drivers, so you may need to contact the printer manufacturer for more help. But if your Mac is causing the problem, it’s always a good idea to reset your entire printing system by going into your Print & Fax System Preference, right-clicking in the printer list, and choosing Reset Printing System.

3. I travel all over town with my MacBook, and I’m sick of reconfiguring my settings every time I show up at a location I’ve been to before. Why can’t my Mac remember various location settings for me--my default printer, mounted servers, iChat screen name, Bluetooth settings, everything?

Try NetworkLocation ($29, www.networklocationapp.com), which can perform dozens of actions on your Mac whenever you switch to a new location. Best of all, its AutoLocate feature will determine where you are, using the same SkyHook Wireless Wi-Fi Positioning System that your iPhone uses, and it will automatically change all of your settings for you.

If you frequently switch physical locations, NetworkLocation can save you both time and headaches changing your Mac's settings.

4. I forgot my OS X password.

After retyping your password very carefully at least twice to make sure you just didn’t mistype it, you’ll need to haul out your OS X install disk, insert it into your Mac and restart holding down the C button. After selecting your language of choice, in the menubar, select Utilities > Reset Password. Follow the directions and there you go. Just try not to get a lobotomy after resetting it!

5. My CD or DVD is stuck in the optical drive and won’t come out when I press Eject.

After holding down the eject button for several seconds to no avail, restart your Mac and hold down the primary button on your mouse--the trackpad button will work as well if you’re on a MacBook--and during startup the disk should eject.

6. My Mac is not recognizing devices plugged in to one of my USB ports.

First, make sure your Mac’s firmware is up to date--check Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page (support.apple.com/downloads/) and install any firmware updates you find for your machine.

If nothing happens, turn off your Mac, unplug the power cable, disconnect all peripherals, and let it sit for five minutes. Plug it back in, reconnect the keyboard and mouse, turn it back on, and try the USB ports again.

Check the Support Downloads page for firmware updates for your Mac.

If they’re still unresponsive, you will need to reset the PRAM (parameter RAM) and NVRAM (nonvolatile RAM), which stores some system and device settings that your Mac accesses on startup. Shut your Mac down. Then position your fingers above the Command, Option, P, and R keys on your keyboard. Turn the Mac on, then immediately press and hold those four keys before you see the gray screen. Keep them pressed until the Mac restarts again and you hear the startup chime for the second time. Then let ’em go. When your Mac is finished starting up, check those pesky USB ports.

If they’re still not behaving, there’s one more thing you can try before making a Genius Bar appointment: resetting the SMC, or system management controller. Directions for resetting the SMC on your MacBook Pro are found at support.apple.com/kb/HT1411. Instructions for all other Macs are linked from support.apple.com/kb/HT1894.

In Search Of...Search Solutions

Leopard makes finding files and data on your Mac relatively trouble-free, but when it comes to search, there are improvements and tricks you can apply to make it even better. Here are two solutions to common search problems we hear about from a fair number of Mac users.

7. My Spotlight results have stopped working reliably.

If it’s a single non-Apple program that isn’t showing up properly in your Spotlight results, try turning off and on the Spotlight indexing in that particular app.

If you’re still getting Spotlight results for an app that you got rid of a while ago, you may not have completely deleted all of the data or databases that are associated with that program.

Spotless gives you a nice GUI for managing, deleting, and rebuilding your Spotlight indexes.

If it’s an Apple program--or your entire Mac--that isn’t working properly in Spotlight, try re-indexing your whole hard drive by going into the Spotlight System Preference, clicking on the Privacy tab, then dragging your hard drive into the list. Wait a moment, and then remove your hard drive from the list again.

If you’re still having problems, you may need to bring out the big guns by using Spotless ($17, www.fixamac.net), a Spotlight index-management tool that can help fix most Spotlight problems.

8. I need more power, flexibility, and customizability with my Spotlight searches and Spotlight results.

Get HoudahSpot ($25, www.houdah.com), which lets you create extremely detailed search requests and customize the results to your liking.

HoudahSpot handles Spotlight searches with much more flexability than Apple's built-in Spotlight search.

3 Essential Utilities

Three more Mac problems solved--before they happen!

9. Disk Warrior

($100, www.alsoft.com) This is a great preventative maintenance tool for rebuilding your Mac's directory and keeping your mac running quickly and smoothly. It's also a great emergency tool for repairing disks that have missing files or will no longer mount.

10. Cocktail

($15, www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php). This general all-purpose utility will clean the caches on your machine, run the UNIX maintenance scripts, unlock hidden features of your Mac, and much more.

11. SuperDuper

($28, www.shirt-pocket.com). This disk cloning utility is great for backing up or transferring all the data on your entire computer to a fully bootable state.

Next Page: Email and Web Problems...

COMMENTS: 19

TAGS: troubleshooting, guide, Feature, Mac Problems, Solved

COMMENTS

Video
Submitted by heosat on Wed, 2009-11-04 21:14

You missed two great video solutions, the free Evom which converts any video type to an iTunes compatible format and it can suck down flash videos from the web. Secondly there's RipIt ($20) which will make exact copies of your DVDs and if you use the beta it will even compress the movies. Both are available from http://www.thelittleappfactory.com

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More problem solvers
Submitted by willemvzyl on Thu, 2009-11-05 03:35

Onyx is another great multi-purpose system maintenance tool that can verify your Startup Disk, clean caches, run daily / weekly / monthly maintenance, etc., and it's free.http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html Dropbox is what I use for backups and synchronization of files between Macs, PCs, and my iPhone - A free account will give you 2Gb of online storage space. Files are immediately synchronized and Dropbox's versioning system will let you revert files to older versions.
http://www.getdropbox.com/

VisualHub is my favorite video convertor. Although discontinued by the original creator, it is open source and the people who still work on it make downloadable binaries available.
http://www.techspansion.com/

Screenshots in OS X can sometimes be a pain, especially with the unintuitive key combinations you need to use. There's a full list of combinations and options here:

http://www.geekology.co.za/blog/2009/01/taking-screenshots-on-the-iphone-and-in-mac-os-x/

... as well as details on how to take screenshots from the command line, timed screenshots, and screenshots in different file formats here:

http://www.geekology.co.za/blog/2009/02/mac-os-x-quick-tip-taking-screenshots-from-the-command-line/

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50 Mac Tips
Submitted by darhk on Thu, 2009-11-05 05:48

Great. I did as instructed in #7. Dragged (drug?) my hard drive into the Privacy section of Spotlight. But I can't drag it out again! Now spotlight doesn't work at all. How can I remove the HD?

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Same as anything else..
Submitted by jeffsters on Fri, 2009-11-06 19:20

Select the hard drive from the list and click the "-" button in the lower left corner of the list.

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50 mac tips
Submitted by watcher on Thu, 2009-11-05 07:37

nice advertising by the first two posters; spare us please

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huh?
Submitted by jeffsters on Fri, 2009-11-06 19:22

I see you followed up...edited...disregard!

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50 mac tips
Submitted by watcher on Thu, 2009-11-05 08:32

you know, I take my prev comment back, poster #2 is helping, I shot from the lip, known as flaming I think

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BIG AD!
Submitted by jeffsters on Fri, 2009-11-06 19:23

#8 tells us to "Get HoudahSpot" while ignoring that MUCH of what HoudahSpot does is built into the Finder's "Find" command under the File menu! Just keep clicking the "+" button and you can add all kinds of content and meta data criteria.#10 Instead of the $15 Cocktail try the freeware Onyx first!#11 Instead of the $28 Super Duper try the freeware Carbon Copy Cloner and see if that fits the bill(BTW:the same application the Apple retail stored uses)Anyway, sure there are some good products here, but the 80/20 rule applies and for many there are no cost options that fit the bill just fine that would hope would have been mentioned as well.

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Video Conversion
Submitted by Apple879 on Fri, 2009-11-06 15:01

Zamzar.com is another free video conversion site.

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Annoying MacLife Problem #1
Submitted by srminton on Mon, 2009-11-09 10:04

Almost every time I try to read your multi-page articles (like this one), at some point the pages are interrupted by an advert. Fine, except that afterwards I'm sent right back to the first page of the article. How about a handy tip to solve this one? ;)

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omega watches
Submitted by benet (not verified) on Tue, 2009-11-10 19:01

Every little chat Salon 1000 ah!replica watchYou are my best's buddy
34tgd

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Screen shots
Submitted by edwinblaw on Thu, 2009-11-12 07:38

Really appreciate the "Tips" and the added "comments." Confirm my use of Cocktail and Superduper.

Have also found SnapPro X to be great for all forms of screen shots. Very flexible and acurate. Costs a few bucks but worth it to me.

Don't worry about the "plugs." Most of us realize someone has to pay the rent.

Ed

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Internet speed
Submitted by edwinblaw on Thu, 2009-11-12 08:54

Since neither the question nor the reply mentioned WHAT speeds they were talking about it occurs to me that we are not always aware of what we SHOULD be getting.

Recently we switched to AT&T U-Verse (fiber-optic package: phone, TV and Internet) for the increased potential bandwidth.

In addition to a number of added feature for phone and recording TV and better HD they "said" 18 Mbps D.L. Phone (VOIP) & TV were as advertised, very pleased, but ... DL was less then 10 and upload about 450Kbps.

Since we were getting 12-14 D.L and 1.5-2.5 U.L with Cox Cable we returned for the internet and kept the Phone and TV. Now, my point is that there are such things as copper connections between the fiber-optic and our modem. We are two blocks from their sub-station. Can't connect a 12" pipe to a 6" and expect no reduction in flow. The same is true of DSL and cable so suggest first contact the source and determine what the actual output is at your modem. May save a lot of aggravation and fooling around with the Mac. If feed is what you should get, then .... welcome to the world of upgrading to some part or all of a new system. For different reasons we are are doing just that ... somewhere between great and ugh!!

ed

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#22 size and color
Submitted by edwinblaw on Thu, 2009-11-12 09:07

Agree on learn full size Photoshop but Photoshop Elements is just as good for most of us and only about $80. Lots on good help is available and works well with iPhoto.

One thing you may come to like with just a little effort is the use of "layers." Sure makes for some fun pics ... really good stuff.
As you probably know PSE can be set as the "editor" in iPhoto either as default or selective (I use) only when you want to go to the extra trouble.

Good luck, good shooting,

ed

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#47 sharing Libraries
Submitted by edwinblaw on Thu, 2009-11-12 14:40

Baffled ... where did you get that screen? Using 10.6.2, my Preferences>sharing only provides a menu of selections in a sidebar .. no top menu bar with General, Playback, Sharing, etc.,etc.

Like the question, I want to share iTunes across two Macs.

Or ... how to copy an iTunes Library from one Mac to another? .. or synchronize them?

thank you,

Ed

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Three addendums to this article.
Submitted by Doc Izzy on Sat, 2009-11-14 10:52

Browsing other Time Machine Disks:In 10.6 you don't need to have a dock icon, you can hold down option when clicking the Time Machine icon in the menu bar for the "Browse other Time Machine Disks" command (I think this works in 10.5, too, but don't have access to it right now).

Resetting System Password: Pre 10.6 if you use your start-up disk to reset your system password you will end up with frequent keychain errors because it was created with your old password as the encryption key. The solution is to go to /users/~username~/Library/Keychains and delete the file "login.keychain". Then launch Safari - it will prompt you to recreate a default keychain. Note that doing so will cause you to lose all saved passwords in apps that use the keychain, including Mail. In 10.6 after resetting your password it should prompt you to create a new default keychain - but if it doesn't just follow these directions.

Sharing iTunes Music: You failed to include the new Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9 which allows copying songs between registered Macs and Windows computers.

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Why Cocktail over Onyx?
Submitted by tuqqer on Mon, 2009-11-16 19:02

I've always been curious why anyone chooses Cocktail ($15) over Onyx (free)?

Onyx seems to do more things, it's completely free, and it's very stable.

I may be wrong; perhaps Cocktail does something that Onyx doesn't?

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great post
Submitted by watermeter on Tue, 2009-11-17 18:57

great post,thanksPatch panel

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Quick Look -Power Point
Submitted by reggielv on Wed, 2009-11-18 02:06

MY mac will not open pp documents in mail any longer. Not sure what has happened. Any one have any tips on how this can be fixed? OS 10.5.8 on G4 Power Book ( reggie.lv@gmail.com)
Thanks

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