The OSX/Apple support thread

[jmorgan]

nyt said:

jmorgan said:

Quite happy with Yosemite. Main gripe for me is the font forced on you so that nice crisp on I had prior Yosemite was gone. I understand that is to be addressed in El Capitan.

I'm glad that it's not just me that had problems with the new fonts. I did this: http://gizmodo.com/helvetica-is-the-worst-change-y... without any problems and the screen is much clearer.

Yeah, saw that and was afraid to take the plunge. Worth it then?


Edit. opps, not the fix I was thinking about? I think there may be another.


Edit 2. Looks like the link for the fonts has breached the copyright.

Think this is the one I saw
https://github.com/jenskutilek/FiraSystemFontRepla...

Might have a bash in a minute.


Edit 3
Old




New



Not sure if there is a big difference, think there may be a setting out?

Edited by jmorgan on Friday 10th July 09:40

[IanA2]

Mobsta said:

PJ S said:

The Yellow input is Composite, RGB is Component – you can forget about those and VGA, since they're all analog.
Have a look on Amazon and eBay for Thunderbolt to DVI-D (or Dual Link, which works with both DVI-I and DVI-D) adapter or cable, depending on if you already have a DVI lead.
The square connection sounds like Optical SPDIF (audio), but in such instances a model or HQ photo of the connectivity would be useful.

In OS X, you should be able to set the calibration independently.

Thank you pyjamas!

Ordered the DVI-D.

incidentally, upon browsing reviews of Yosemite, well, they were dire. Installation aborted. Is the PH consensus the same as the App Store, that Yosemite is pretty much to be avoided at all costs. I have mountain lion and am happy with it anyway, so...

Be careful what you order, not all DVI-D's are equal. I bought a well recommended on-line DVI-D, it lasted about a year. Replaced it with a version which has been seriously better. What I'm saying is that neat might be good but it's better to stick with the apple core...

[Tonsko]

If you can hang on a few months, El Capitan will be out. This is being billed as 'Snow Leopard to Leopard' - that is a bug/stabilty release for Yosemite.

[jmorgan]

Been reading a few things for it. My important stuff is always backed up, might give it an early punt.

[PJ S]

Mavericks is grand, which is why I stuck with it rather than move to Yosemite.
By all accounts, Yosemite is considered to be like Lion – better when the next one came along.
So El Capitan is to Yosemite what Mountain Lion was to Lion.
That all said, Snow Leopard was the best and quickest OS Apple have ever produced, from my experience – it'd be nice if EC managed to recreate that.

[nyt]

jmorgan said:

Yeah, saw that and was afraid to take the plunge. Worth it then?


Edit. opps, not the fix I was thinking about? I think there may be another.


Edit 2. Looks like the link for the fonts has breached the copyright.

Think this is the one I saw
https://github.com/jenskutilek/FiraSystemFontRepla...

Might have a bash in a minute.


Edit 3
Old




New



Not sure if there is a big difference, think there may be a setting out?

Edited by jmorgan on Friday 10th July 09:40

I found that after the yosemite upgrade it was much harder to pick out information on the screen at a glance and if I spent a whole day on the machine I got a headache.
The hack above fixed all of that. I know several people that have gone over to it.

Some people thought that the new fonts might be 'encouragement' to move to retina screens but I found them hard to use on both retina and non-retina.

Each to their own I suppose. My eyes certainly aren't as good as they used to be.

[RRH]

Chaps, having some issues with Sandisk Connect wireless media drive- I've deleted several large files off it to make space, but it's not showing any increase in space - I've tried verify and repair in disk utilities, and can't see any sort of recycle folder on it.

Any ideas?

Thanks in anticipation
Simon

[RRH]

Ahhh, empty trash on the mac and it deletes the hidden trash on the media drive. Sorted

[AstonZagato]

My 2011 MBP as periods where it becomes very, very sloooooooooow. It still works but it can take a minute to switch between open programmes.

The other day it pretty much stopped. A bit of telephone support from Apple and it was diagnosed as a disk fault. I had to reformat to get rid of it. Everything was backed up to a Time Capsule so there was no loss of data.

However it is still occasionally slow. Anyone else had this? Hard drive on the way out?

Also, in the new photo app, my older photos are either black rectangles or blank spaces when viewing thumbnails. Clicking on the black square brings up the photo.

Reading the net, editing each one will correct it but there are hundreds! Anyone know a batch solution?

[kazino]

I would like to make a clone of my current external hard drive as I have all my photos, apps etc stored on it. Could you recommend me an app that would be able to clone and then be able to update when I want to update the backup drive.

At present I am just copying and pasting the entire drive from time to time.

[SlidingSideways]

Disk Utility (included in OSX) will do the job. Select the disk and then the "Restore" option in the main panel. Read the instructions carefully.
If that looks a bit scary SuperDuper or Carbon Copy CLoner are very good too.

[Leithen]

SuperDuper. It's Smart Update feature allows quick incremental updates.

Are you using Time Machine as well?

[IanA2]

I've used CCC successfully. Free (iirc) for the first few times. Like it so much I bought it....

[jmorgan]

I let Time Machine get one with one external and CCC with another 3. Then installed OS X on one of them just in case.

[ReaderScars]

Yosemite, 2015 MBP

Password issue - reformat the only resort?

I recently created a new password via Securitty& Privacy. Was asked to enter my current password, which I did.

Was asked to enter the new password and to verify it - which I did and it was accepted.

Now when I go to boot up, the new password isn't recognised. I boot as admin so the password was system wide, with the exception of the firmware password, which I remember.

Filevault is on but I don't have the character string because the most recent one wasn't saved - the one I have is not recognised due to restoring my non apple phone and therefore wiping the screenshot off the phone, bringing in an old one from the restore.

However I do have my Apple ID details and the firmware password. An Apple Genius said that recovery mode and a wipe is the only option left if I can't recall the errors I made in the new password.

Any thoughts on this at all please? Wiping the HD and reinstalling the OS is something I would DEFINITELY like to avoid.

TL;DR
New password created with keystroke errors, isn't recognised anymore, can't login/boot
Filevault string not recognised

Apple ID intact and Firmware password recalled - any hope of recovering password or any other way of getting into the machine?

[Tonsko]

Will it boot? If so all unixes can boot into 'single user mode' (Hold Command-S on boot). This will allow you to do admin tasks (is why that it is said 'if you have physical access to the box, that box is yours').

Have a read of this:

http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/reset-forgotte...

Or this for the other google searches related to the issue if that doesn't help:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=boot+yosemite+in...

I did see two notes about Yosemite SUM:

• You cannot enter single-user or verbose mode if the computer owner or administrator has enabled Open Firmware Password Protection.
• When in single-user mode, the keyboard layout is US English. [Taken from: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201573 ]

One final note - be very careful what you do in SUM.

HTH.

Edited by Tonsko on Monday 24th August 21:26

[ReaderScars]

Thanks Tonsko, I'll do some reading. When I start it up I see my name at the log inpage with one of the desktop images full screen but blurred in the background.

I can Command R at start up and also get into recovery mode, but continuing gets me to a splash screen with lots of Bienvenues, Wellkommen etc etc - which I presume is the Reformat/Reinstall page - haven't gone past that point in case wiping starts.

[ReaderScars]

I can't get into Single User Mode - there is a firmware password in place but I'm not given the option to enter it, unless that's what the black screen with the big white padlock is for?

[Tonsko]

ReaderScars said:

I can't get into Single User Mode - there is a firmware password in place but I'm not given the option to enter it, unless that's what the black screen with the big white padlock is for?

That's what you get when you press CMD-S?

[ReaderScars]

No, if I cmd-s it just takes me straight to the usual log in page where I see my name and the field for the password.