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Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Troubleshooting Roundup Two

David W. Martin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:37:31 -0500

Apple's Mac OS X v10.6 was released two weeks ago and for most of us the transition from Leopard to Snow Leopard went by without incident. However, we've spent part of the last few weeks scouring Apple's discussion boards and support site for solutions to problems people have been reporting with the upgrade.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.1 Security Content

The first update to Snow Leopard, according to Apple, only contains one security update. That update is an upgrade to Flash Player plug-in for Safari. The upgrade brings the plug-in to version 10.0.32.18. You can find more information about the plug-in at Adobe.com.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.1 Update

This update released last week and Mac|Life covered it here.

Problems with MAMP and MAMP PRO

Mac|Life recently published a how to for this incredible tool that you can use to design and code web applications that rely on a webserver running Apache, MySQL and PHP on your Mac. Problems with the older versions prompted the developer to release version 1.8.2 of MAMP and MAMP Pro that is compatible with Snow Leopard. You can download the update from the vendors website.

Installing Snow Leopard and finding 'System Events.app'

When we installed Snow Leopard Mac OS X v10.6 over v10.5, and then after restarting the last time, a window came up right after logging asking for us to locate 'System Events.app. '

We called AppleCare and asked about this issue and their advice was just to hit Cancel on the prompt. We did this and on subsequent reboots the message never reappeared. It was theorized that this belonged to some app that have been previously installed, but could not be identified. The file is part of Mac OS X and it is located at: System/Library/CoreService/System Events.app and appears in some user accounts in Account preferences under Login Items.

MacBook Pro Display Gamma Fix

We found a problem with how colors display on the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro models. The problem, with a suggested work around, can be found on Apple's discussion board. Expect a fix for this in a future OS update where appears to be an accidental omission of settings for a particular display panel used in 13-inch MacBook Pros.

Where are my ODBC and Server Admin Tools?

Snow Leopard does not include the ODBC utility as part of its installation so you must download and install it yourself now. In addition to that if you had the Leopard Server tools installed previously, their updates don't appear in Software Update. You must download and install them yourself if you still need them.

SuperDrive Update 2.1 Unexpectedly Quits

Apple has released a support document on what to do when running the SuperDrive 2.1 update that can affect your computer after it updates and then restarts. The fix prevents the Update from reloading and then crashing on subsequent restarts.

VoiceOver Command Changes for Snow Leopard

Apple has published a support document that details the differences in VoiceOver keyboard commands between Mac OS X v10.5 and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard. OS X v10.6 includes new keyboard commands and support for standard gestures on Macs with a multi-touch trackpad. If you've used this feature previously you might find yourself having problems since two VoiceOver keyboard commands are completely different in Mac OS X v10.6.

MobileMe Sync Log Changed

If you are trying to troubleshoot MobileMe in Mac OS X Snow Leopard the filename has changed from "dotmacsync.log" to "mobilemesync.log" and it is now located in ~/Library/Logs/Sync ("~" equals your Home folder). This Apple support document gives you all the details including the steps needed to view the log inside of the Console application.

Apple Releases HP and Canon Printer Drivers

If anything Apple's Snow Leopard fails pretty badly out of the box for printer support. While it was a good idea not to load all those drivers by default, to save disk space, it turned out to not be such a hot idea. In some cases the system wasn't going out automatically to Internet or the Snow Leopard Install disk and getting the drivers when they were needed. Some of these problems were addressed in the v10.6.1 update and others were not. Now Apple has posted downloads for Hewitt-Packard (HP) and Canon printers.

MobileMe Subscribers Experience E-mail Problems (Again)

Cory Bohon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:52:57 -0500

The Apple Discussion Boards have been ablaze recently with reports of MobileMe e-mail not working correctly, making us lose count of the number of MobileMe outages. Many users are complaining that when they attempt to send e-mails, the connection to Apple's servers time out and they are prompted to select a new SMTP server (the type of server/connection used to send out e-mails).

MacNN says that some users are reporting that after changing their outgoing server to "smtp.mac.com" they regain the ability to send e-mails. Apple had problems with MobileMe since its launch, and while many of the problems have subsided over time, e-mail has almost always been a little wonky.

If you're experiencing this problem the best thing you can do is contact Apple. You can also post a response to the Apple Discussion Board.

MobileMe iDisk iPhone App is Live

Roberto Baldwin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:03:36 -0500

Apple released their MobileMe iDisk app for the iPhone/iPod touch today. The app allows MobileMe users to view files stored on their iDisk on their iPhone. The app also allows the sharing of files directly from your iPhone with, or without, a password for download.

You won't be able to edit the files via your iPhone, but it's a great way to share or view files while on the go.

The best part, it's free. (If you don't count the MobileMe annual cost)

MobileMe iDisk [iTunes link]

Set Up Find My iPhone on Multiple iPhones With One MobileMe Account

Roberto Baldwin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:06:45 -0500

Find My iPhone, to many people, is the ultimate integration between the iPhone and MobileMe. With your iPhone connected to your MobileMe account you can quickly find your lost, or stolen, iPhone and return to your landscape texting ways.

Unfortunately, some families have multiple iPhones and only one MobileMe account. If your wife, husband, or any family member or close friend, has an iPhone and a penchant for losing it, there is a way to add Find My iPhone to their device without dumping your entire email, contact and calendars on their iPhone.

1. Navigate on the iPhone in question to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

2. Tap on Fetch New Data. Turn on Push. You'll need this to communicate with MobileMe in a timely fashion.

3. Return Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap on Add Account... Tap the MobileMe option

4. Add your super-secret information. Note: Once you place your MobileMe account on another iPhone or iPod touch, that person has access to your email and contact information.

5. Turn off the other MobileMe options. Your kid probably doesn't care that you have a meeting at 11:30 to discuss the latest proposal. Turn on Find My iPhone.

6. Fire up your favorite browser and head to Me.com. Click on the Settings tab and then on the Find My iPhone option. After about 15 minutes, the iPhone will show up with its location.

UPDATE: On the Find My iPhone page, each phone will get its own map. There is no need to "choose" which iPhone is being displayed. Just scroll down to see the rest of your activated iPhones.

I personally have four iPhones set up on my one MobileMe account with no problem. Have fun ~~stalking~~ finding your family's iPhones.

Coming Soon: Official iDisk iPhone App

Arvind Srinivasan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:04:32 -0500

File sharing and remote file access has always been a compromise on the iPhone. Yes, it IS more convenient than in Windows Mobile, but not much more.

Applications like Air Sharing (app store link) are essentially the only solution to transferring files to and from your iPhone. Soon, Apple have their own solution. They are developing an official iDisk app that will allow you to not only view any document stored on your iDisk, but also share them with one click sans email attachments. After all, sharing is caring. Of course, you will need a subscription to MobileMe.

However, there will still be some shortcomings. As with Air Sharing, there is still no way to edit those documents on your iPhone. Until that happens, the utility will be fairly limited. Apple has not given a release date for the application, but we will keep you posted when they decide on one.

More MobileMe Woes for Airport Extreme and Time Capsule Users

David W. Martin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:36:44 -0500

Apple recently went through a significant round of product refreshes that included the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule. The upgrades to both of these devices included one feature we nearly missed in the 7.4.1 firmware.

The feature was the addition of a MobileMe tab in the Advanced section of the AirPort Utility. The purpose of this is to allow users to access their Time Capsule's internal hard drive, or in the case of the Airport Extreme, an attached drive over the internet using MobileMe. Simply enter your MobileMe login credentials and you are all set. Or so we thought.

For many, this feature does not currently work and for those that have gotten it to work, it doesn't work correctly. It was the topic of some serious discussion on Apple's support forums in early March, but once people could not get it to work properly, the consensus was to give up and wait on Apple.

I submitted a question to Applecare during the first week of March. I was assigned a case number and checked on its status today. Apple still does not have a solution and the problem has been sent to engineering to be resolved. Consensus with the Applecare employee seemed to affirm what I had already surmised - this feature just does not work yet.

It's not known why, but it is thought that perhaps the feature was released before MobileMe was ready. After all, that would not be the first MobileMe mishap since the service was released during the turbulent iPhone 3G rollout last year.

If you or someone you know has gotten this to work please leave a comment. In the meantime even we are stumped and waiting to see what Apple does next to fix it.

6 Tips to Make MobileMe Yours

MacLife Staff — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:50:00 -0500

Apple announced MobileMe in June 2008 with big promises that it would become the data-sync service “for the rest of us.” But when it launched on June 30, those promises quickly turned hollow when problems plagued the service. In an uncharacteristic mea culpa, Apple admitted in mid-July that it had released MobileMe before it was ready, automatically extending all paid subscriptions by 30 days.

Not quite a year later, the service works as smoothly as advertised. Still, there are several handy ways to customize MobileMe so it behaves exactly how you want it to. Though Apple continues to improve MobileMe’s Help functions, we dug around to come up with a shortlist of easy customization tricks you won’t easily find within MobileMe’s built-in Help or in Apple’s support knowledge base.

Modify The Sync Frequency From The 15-Minute Default

The only issue we wish Apple would address is the frequency of automatic syncs, which defaults to every 15 minutes--it’s just not often enough. However, if you’re willing to spend $25 and put on your true Mac geek hat for a few minutes, there is a way to change the 15-minute sync interval so MobileMe syncs more often.

If you assume choosing automatic syncing for MobileMe in your System Preferences will enable instantaneous data exchange among your Mac(s), iPhone, and “the cloud,” you’d be wrong. Auto sync only happens every 15 minutes.

A caveat: This tip involves editing a .plist file, which isn’t something average Mac users are generally encouraged to do--or interested in bothering with. A .plist file is a property list, essentially a list of user settings for certain apps or functions on your Mac. Property lists are different for different user accounts (more on that below).

Start by installing PList Edit Pro ($24.95, www.fatcatsoftware.com/plisteditpro). Locate the .plist file for MobileMe syncing frequency, located on your Mac here: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple .DotMacSync.your_MAC_address.plist.

It takes a little wrangling--and a $25 cash outlay for PList Edit Pro--but the app lets you easily change the MobileMe sync frequency from 15 minutes to an interval of your choosing.

Since you want to edit the property list for yourself (and any other user account on your Mac), start in the folder on your hard drive most likely named with your first initial and last name (or the first initial and last name of each user on your Mac).

Once you’ve opened com.apple.DotMacSync.your_MAC_address.plist in PList Edit Pro, you’ll see an item under Root called AutoSyncInterval. If you’ve set up MobileMe to sync automatically in System Preferences, the number that will show up is 15. Double-click 15 and change it to the sync frequency you prefer. We changed ours to 5, for example, so MobileMe would sync every 5 minutes. Save the file (Command-S) and close it. Your MobileMe data should now sync at the interval you’ve selected.

Trick MobileMe Into Syncing Your iCal Subscriptions

MobileMe doesn’t automatically add iCal calendar subscriptions to your calendar in MobileMe, but there is a workaround that allows you to get the info into your calendar across multiple computers and your iPhone or iPod touch.

If your needs are as simple as ours, you may just want your home country’s 2009 holidays added to iCal. If you live in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, or Romania, you can get the iCal subscription you need from www.calendarlabs.com. Apple offers hundreds more free on its site.

Start by subscribing to the iCal calendar(s) you want: On your Mac, launch your Web browser and visit www.calendarlabs.com/ical-calendar-holidays.php. You’re presented with a number of choices for 2009 federal holiday calendars. (While you’d think it would be simple enough to grab the 2009 U.S. holiday calendar from Apple’s site, we found it faster to get the file from CalendarLabs, www.calendarlabs .com/). In addition to federal holidays, Apple’s site has calendars for the moon phases, sports team schedules, and many more. Click on the calendar you want to subscribe to. A window appears asking what app to use to open the file. Find iCal in your Applications folder. When you select iCal and click Open, you’re shifted to an iCal window with the URL to that calendar subscription. To add it to iCal, click Subscribe.

To save a few clicks, in iCal, choose Calendar > Subscribe, type in the URL shown in the screenshot, and click Subscribe.

Now you have to trick iCal and MobileMe into adding the iCal subscription(s) to MobileMe by exporting each one, then importing it back in to iCal, then syncing. In the case of our 2009 U.S. holidays, in the iCal sidebar, select the calendar subscription you want to sync to MobileMe, then choose File > Export and save it someplace easy, like your Desktop. Next, in iCal, uncheck the calendar you just exported to avoid duplication on the local iCal Mac, choose File > Import, select the Import An iCal File radio button, click Import, and select the file you just saved to your Desktop (it should have a file extension of .ics). To avoid confusion, in your iCal calendars list, rename the calendar so it’s different from the name of the calendar listed under Subscriptions; we changed the name U.S. Holidays to just holidays, for example.

Sync this new calendar to other Macs via MobileMe: On the Mac on which you just subscribed to the new calendar, sync to MobileMe by choosing System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync > Sync Now (or click the Sync icon in your taskbar and select SyncNow from the drop-down). You can also let it do its thing on its regular auto-sync schedule. Your newly subscribed calendar data should appear on your calendar in MobileMe, and now, when you go to another Mac and sync it with MobileMe, everything should match.

Thank goodness we won’t miss out on Groundhog Day and Lincoln’s Birthday, now that we tricked iCal and MobileMe into syncing an ’09 holiday calendar subscription.

Finally, you’ll want to sync your iPhone or iPod touch devices to MobileMe too. On your iPhone or iPod touch, press the Home button, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Your MobileMe account. Slide or tap the on/off slider next to calendars to On. You’ll see a warning that informs you that your calendar info will be removed from your iPhone. This shouldn’t be a problem because it will all reappear after you sync with MobileMe, but if you’re unsure, sync your iPhone with your computer in iTunes before completing this step, so you’ll have a backup.

Just as we did with the publicly available U.S. holidays calendar,  you can follow similar steps to get your Google calendar data synced to MobileMe by exporting it as its own file then importing it back  into iCal.

Securely Share Files Via Your iDisk Public Folder

The beauty of iDisk is that it gives you access to files you may keep on your home Mac from any Web browser at any time you need them. Using the Public folder within iDisk, you can also share these files with others.

Your file-sharing buddies can add your iDisk Public folder to their Finder.

Two things to keep in mind when stashing files in iDisk for your own use or to share with others in your Public folder: You’re limited to a file size of up to 1GB when uploading via me.com using a browser. To upload a file to iDisk, log in to MobileMe at me.com, click the iDisk icon, then click the Upload icon (an up arrow in a small white circle). To save time, you can also mount iDisk on your Desktop and plop files up to 2GB in size there using the Finder. To do this, open System Preferences > MobileMe and click the iDisk tab. At the bottom of the window, turn iDisk Sync on by clicking Start. This is where you can also set a password and manage user privileges for anyone who goes to your Public folder to view or access files. The URL for your Public folder is  public.me.com/yourmobilemeusername. If you set a password, the username is the  word public.

They can also get to your Public folder from the Finder by choosing Go > iDisk > Other User’s Public Folder. In the box that appears, they just type your MobileMe username—and, of course, the password, if you’ve protected the folder with one.

Now, to put files into your Public folder, open a new Finder window, and drag files from their location on your Mac’s hard drive to Public on the name of your mounted iDisk “drive.” Voilà—file sharing made relatively simple.

Add Photos To MobileMe Galleries From Your iPhone or iPod Touch

Select an album in the Gallery and click the icon that looks like a switch, then check the box that allows you to upload photos via email from your iPhone or iPod touch.

The best thing about this is what a time-saver it can be, particularly if friends and family habitually share their photos with you via email. First you need to set up the albums in your MobileMe Gallery to accept new photos from an iPhone. In MobileMe, click on the Gallery icon. If you want to change the settings on an existing album so it will accept photos sent from your iPhone, select the album and click the Settings icon. In the dialog that appears, check “Adding of photos via email or iPhone,” then click Publish. Now, when you receive a photo via email, or snap a photo on your iPhone that you want to add to a MobileMe gallery, the option to Send To MobileMe appears among the email options that appear when you tap the Send icon at the bottom of the screen.

After a photo has been saved to your Camera Roll, adding it to your MobileMe Gallery is a matter of tapping the Send icon at the bottom of the screen, tapping Send To MobileMe, and choosing the album from the resulting list.

Eliminate Duplicate Dock Items and Dashboard Widgets

When you first set up MobileMe syncing on your primary Mac, if you select the option to sync Dashboard Widgets (System Preferences >MobileMe > Sync), you may experience duplication when you go to use another Mac that is synced with the same MobileMe account—particularly if you had duplicate Dashboard widgets installed on both Macs.

The same Dock items on all your Macs—continuity is a beautiful thing.

To set things right, set your Dashboard widgets exactly as you want them on one Mac, sync with MobileMe, then, when syncing your other Macs, allow MobileMe to replace the data on that Mac with data from MobileMe.

The same concept can be applied to Dock items too. We also love the fact that you can sync System Preferences for each MobileMe account, so when you change prefs on one Mac, they’ll apply to your other Macs whenever MobileMe syncs.

Change iSync Prefs to Minimize “% change” Pop-ups

Don’t waste your time with inconsequential 5% data-change notifications. Change the percentage in iSync prefs instead.

Depending on which Macs (iPhones, iPod touches, etc.) contain most of your contacts before you start using MobileMe regularly, you may encounter messages when MobileMe syncs warning you that “Syncing with MobileMe will change more than 5% of your Contacts”…or calendars or other data. Rather than worry about this or trying to get to the bottom of exactly what the alerts mean, we prefer instead to change iSync preferences so the number of changes has to reach a higher threshold than 5 percent to trigger an alert. Open /Applications/iSync, choose iSync > Preferences (or just type Command-,) then under Protect Your Data On This Computer, click the Show Data Change Alert in the drop-down to the right from 5% to something higher (we chose 25%).

This way, your Mac will only notify you when more than 5 percent of a certain data type will change as a result of MobileMe syncing.

Phishing Scam Targets MobileMe Users

Florence Ion — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:14:20 -0600

A new phishing scam targeting MobileMe users into providing their credit card information has surfaced the internet.

A scammer has sent out spam that appears to come from Apple, which directs users to a website that looks exactly like Apple’s. Users who follow the email link are then asked to enter in their personal information, including billing information.

The email arrives from noreply@mw.xom and the headers indicated that it actually originates from a server operated out of the United Kingdom. The email contains various formatting errors that should immediately tip off users that it’s a fake. The URL in the email links to http.apple-billing.me.uk.

It can be difficult to distinguish between what’s real and what’s harmful, since Apple has sent out a fair share of emails that appear just like the spammer’s fake ones. Check out below to see what the emails look like to make sure you don’t fall for the scam.

When in doubt, go directly to Apple's site without clicking on the URL from within an email.It's better to be safe than sorry.