PC to Mac as painlessly as possible

[So]

dmsims said:

Speaking of child tests have you found the # key yet?

Is it next to @ which I also struggled to find?

[julian64]

Brainpox said:

Quite a lot of angry Windows users here. Maybe you should try using Macs?

Nope I just see someone who wants new features but not prepared to put in any effort to learn.

It was the same with every iteration of windows. Apple creams off all the disaffected. Its a buttoned down pretty front screen and works very well at that.

I actually advise it for anyone who doesn't really want to understand a computer or anyone over the age of sixty. Trying to get an eighty year old couple to use it at the moment because windows will been a never ending request for support, and a mac will just work.

'With great versatility comes great responsibility', if you don't mind the movie quote murder.

[So]

julian64 said:

Nope I just see someone who wants new features but not prepared to put in any effort to learn.

You talking about me?

I want to use that new fangled Internet and what’s it called? Email. Oh and the cutting edge Office suite of applications.

Not exactly rocket surgery is it.

[NDA]

So said:

Now, I am being told above that Mac and iphone is different, but if the ethos is the same I anticipate that a Mac will do a better job for us.

I switched to Apple Macs around 4 years ago - after a lifetime of PC's. I was there at the dawn of computing too - so have seen it all.

Unfortunately on PH the opinions are so polarised that it's hard to get any consistent advice.

My corporate budget for computing was pretty unlimited for my own devices but I was never a 'power' user - just email (multiple email accounts), some of my own presentations, browsing, word processing and viewing spreadsheets. Despite this, PC's and particularly laptops, were forever plagued with one problem or another - our IT guy was always in the office fixing things.

Since moving to a Mac 4 years ago, not one problem. Ever. The thing just works.... same for my MacBook. And it works very well - intuitive and clever.

However.... if you're a power user (and I may not be using the correct expression) and need to take a deep dive into the functionality of the computer, then an Apple is not the thing to buy. It's quite a curated experience - not unlike their phones to be honest. My FD wouldn't want a Mac as he's a serious spreadsheet user and I think prefers the PC.

Macs are more expensive - but then I'm typing this on a 2013 MacBook that has never crashed (not once). I'm happy with that.

[So]

I am not the main user of the new Mac but I am the one who is getting asked how it works so I am having to learn to walk again. Stuff like where’s the @ and how to copy and paste.

One thing I have yet to suss is why contacts aren’t syncing. The user is logged in with the same Apple ID as the phone and texts and photos have synced but not contacts. I can and will call Apple but if anyone knows what I am doing wrong please let me know.

[julian64]

So said:

julian64 said:

Nope I just see someone who wants new features but not prepared to put in any effort to learn.

You talking about me?

I want to use that new fangled Internet and what’s it called? Email. Oh and the cutting edge Office suite of applications.

Not exactly rocket surgery is it.

Not particularly talking about you. I could be talking about any mac vs windows thread on here for the last millennia. It all boils down to the same thing. If windows starts to hide its settings, become less flexible and more rigid people hate it for being too like the buttoned down mac system. If windows makes life more accessible for more flexibility and versatility then its considered open to abuse.

Likewise MAC can't win. Its considered hostile to any third party software making developers jumps through hoops and generally denying them access. Most developers I know hate the mac for its attitude toward developing which is why you don't seem much scope and range of software for it in comparison to windows. What it is good for is people who say 'I only want it for office and internet'

So by and large people who say 'I only want it for office and internet' are not interested in learning the finer points of computing and would be better served by a mac for those reasons. It isn't an insult, but I think you have to be honest about what you want out of a computer and the time you are prepared to put in.

[megaphone]

So said:

I am not the main user of the new Mac but I am the one who is getting asked how it works so I am having to learn to walk again. Stuff like where’s the @ and how to copy and paste.

One thing I have yet to suss is why contacts aren’t syncing. The user is logged in with the same Apple ID as the phone and texts and photos have synced but not contacts. I can and will call Apple but if anyone knows what I am doing wrong please let me know.

On the Mac look in System Preferences>iCloud and make sure what you want to sync is ticked. You'll need the Apple ID.

Also in System Preferences>Mouse>Point & Click, make sure secondary click on right side is ticked, that will bring up copy and paste on the right click, same as Windows.

[BlueMR2]

megaphone said:

So said:

I am not the main user of the new Mac but I am the one who is getting asked how it works so I am having to learn to walk again. Stuff like where’s the @ and how to copy and paste.

One thing I have yet to suss is why contacts aren’t syncing. The user is logged in with the same Apple ID as the phone and texts and photos have synced but not contacts. I can and will call Apple but if anyone knows what I am doing wrong please let me know.

On the Mac look in System Preferences>iCloud and make sure what you want to sync is ticked. You'll need the Apple ID.

Also in System Preferences>Mouse>Point & Click, make sure secondary click on right side is ticked, that will bring up copy and paste on the right click, same as Windows.

I don't use iCloud myself.

So I have to choose the device in iTunes, select info and then tick to keep contacts sync'd.

[So]

megaphone said:

So said:

I am not the main user of the new Mac but I am the one who is getting asked how it works so I am having to learn to walk again. Stuff like where’s the @ and how to copy and paste.

One thing I have yet to suss is why contacts aren’t syncing. The user is logged in with the same Apple ID as the phone and texts and photos have synced but not contacts. I can and will call Apple but if anyone knows what I am doing wrong please let me know.

On the Mac look in System Preferences>iCloud and make sure what you want to sync is ticked. You'll need the Apple ID.

Also in System Preferences>Mouse>Point & Click, make sure secondary click on right side is ticked, that will bring up copy and paste on the right click, same as Windows.

1. It's ticked.

2. Thanks for that, I will take a look.

[NDA]

cmd A : select everything
cmd C : copy
cmd V : paste

In terms of address book not syncing - are you talking about the phone, a Mac, or both?

[So]

NDA said:

cmd A : select everything
cmd C : copy
cmd V : paste

In terms of address book not syncing - are you talking about the phone, a Mac, or both?

Contacts are on the phone, they won't sync to the Mac. I have logged into the iCloud account online and they're not there either, so I presume they aren't leaving the phone.

[NDA]

Try (on the phone):

Settings/contacts/import SIM Contacts

Then

Settings/Accounts & Passwords/iCloud - turn on Contacts (switch to green)

Could be that.

Personally, I'd have my contacts with Gmail or Yahoo rather than iCloud - but let's see if the above works.

[So]

NDA said:

Try (on the phone):

Settings/contacts/import SIM Contacts

Then

Settings/Accounts & Passwords/iCloud - turn on Contacts (switch to green)

Could be that.

Personally, I'd have my contacts with Gmail or Yahoo rather than iCloud - but let's see if the above works.

Tried this. Still no contacts.

[So]

megaphone said:

Also in System Preferences>Mouse>Point & Click, make sure secondary click on right side is ticked, that will bring up copy and paste on the right click, same as Windows.

The machine is using trackpad only. But going into trackpad settings it explained how to copy and paste using two fingers.

[WinstonWolf]

So said:

NDA said:

Try (on the phone):

Settings/contacts/import SIM Contacts

Then

Settings/Accounts & Passwords/iCloud - turn on Contacts (switch to green)

Could be that.

Personally, I'd have my contacts with Gmail or Yahoo rather than iCloud - but let's see if the above works.

Tried this. Still no contacts.

To check where your existing contacts live:

Open the Contacts app (or open the Phone app and select Contacts).
In the upper left corner, tap Groups.
The list of groups that appears is separated by account (for instance: Gmail, iCloud). You can tell which contacts are in which groups by unchecking the "All [ACCOUNT_NAME]" group, tapping Done in the upper right corner, and looking to see what contacts are still visible to you.

[RobDickinson]

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/201...

"In one of Apple's biggest security blunders in years, a bug in macOS High Sierra allows untrusted users to gain unfettered administrative control without any password."

Comical...

[So]

WinstonWolf said:

To check where your existing contacts live:

Open the Contacts app (or open the Phone app and select Contacts).
In the upper left corner, tap Groups.
The list of groups that appears is separated by account (for instance: Gmail, iCloud). You can tell which contacts are in which groups by unchecking the "All [ACCOUNT_NAME]" group, tapping Done in the upper right corner, and looking to see what contacts are still visible to you.

Ah that may be it.

It suggests they are in Outlook, though the phone doesn't have Outlook on it and neither does the Macbook.

[ZesPak]

So said:

Ah that may be it.

It suggests they are in Outlook, though the phone doesn't have Outlook on it and neither does the Macbook.

Maybe just an exchage server or an Outlook account u used when setting up the phone?

Is your email @outlook/@msn/@hotmail or something?

If yes, go to http://www.outlook.com, try to log in with your email, your contacts should be there.

[So]

ZesPak said:

So said:

Ah that may be it.

It suggests they are in Outlook, though the phone doesn't have Outlook on it and neither does the Macbook.

Maybe just an exchage server or an Outlook account u used when setting up the phone?

Is your email @outlook/@msn/@hotmail or something?

If yes, go to http://www.outlook.com, try to log in with your email, your contacts should be there.

The Apple ID email is [e-mail] but as I recall we did link that phone to an outlook.com account for the purposes of sycing a calendar.

We're about to put Office on the Macbook, so I presume I can locate that Outlook.com account and sync the phone contacts onto the Macbook that way. Perhaps use Outlook as the mail app too.

[ZesPak]

So said:

The Apple ID email is [e-mail] but as I recall we did link that phone to an outlook.com account for the purposes of sycing a calendar.

We're about to put Office on the Macbook, so I presume I can locate that Outlook.com account and sync the phone contacts onto the Macbook that way. Perhaps use Outlook as the mail app too.

Yep, I'm pretty sure that's where your contacts reside. You can download them from there as well.
Outlook.com -> 9-dot grid in the upper left corner -> People -> Manage -> Export.