Some Mac issues
Discussion
I'm quite new to the Mac world and after some initial struggles am now a big fan. I am however having a few issues which I hope some of you Mac heads can help with.
I am happily using my USB stick transferring stuff around, my Macbook said my stick was full, I sent everything on it to the Trash so there was nothing showing on the stick however it was still saying full. I then plugged into a PC which showed a trash file containing all the "deleted" files, I deleted this file and all is well.....so why could I not see this on my Mac? Why is the Mac putting files I send to Trash in a "shadow' file?? Do I have to format the USB stick for the Mac? Its currently formatted MS Dos Fat16.
I also have a problem with my CF card reader I use for my Camera, I transfer my pics to 'Pictures" on the Mac and they will not open with Preview or I photo, they appear corrupted. It all works fine on a PC. Surely all card readers are compatible with a Mac???
Last thing is my Canon Ixus camera when connected via USB cable does not appear on the desk top, It shows up when I import through iphoto but I don't always want to use iPhoto I just want to dump my pics to 'Pictures' Why is this? On a PC it shows as a USB device and then the PC recognises the Canon.
This is one of the few things I am disappointed with on the Mac, I was lead to understand it was just plug and go with most devices, I have issues with all three USB devices I am using, am I doing something wrong??
BTW I have a new Macbook, top of the range Black one.
I am happily using my USB stick transferring stuff around, my Macbook said my stick was full, I sent everything on it to the Trash so there was nothing showing on the stick however it was still saying full. I then plugged into a PC which showed a trash file containing all the "deleted" files, I deleted this file and all is well.....so why could I not see this on my Mac? Why is the Mac putting files I send to Trash in a "shadow' file?? Do I have to format the USB stick for the Mac? Its currently formatted MS Dos Fat16.
I also have a problem with my CF card reader I use for my Camera, I transfer my pics to 'Pictures" on the Mac and they will not open with Preview or I photo, they appear corrupted. It all works fine on a PC. Surely all card readers are compatible with a Mac???
Last thing is my Canon Ixus camera when connected via USB cable does not appear on the desk top, It shows up when I import through iphoto but I don't always want to use iPhoto I just want to dump my pics to 'Pictures' Why is this? On a PC it shows as a USB device and then the PC recognises the Canon.
This is one of the few things I am disappointed with on the Mac, I was lead to understand it was just plug and go with most devices, I have issues with all three USB devices I am using, am I doing something wrong??
BTW I have a new Macbook, top of the range Black one.
USB memory stick: Moving files to the trash just stores them in a trash folder of sorts which is still on the memory stick itself so doesn't free up any space, as you have found. So the files are still on it until you empty the trash. To do this go to the finder pull down menu marked "Finder" and select "Empty Trash" This will get rid of the trashed files on your USB memory stick and anything you may have put in the trash from your main hard drive too.
Or If you have a 2 button mouse, right click on the trash can, and simply select "Empty Trash"
You don't need to reformat the memory stick. A Mac can read PC formatted drives which is what you are doing now. You could reformat it to a Mac format (may be slightly more reliable long term) but then a PC wont read it any more. So probably best left as it is.
Card Reader: Not sure about this.. It most likely is Mac compatible. Macs are generally very flexible regarding what pict formats they can read, but it still seems as if perhaps you re trying to use one that isnt supported? Are they jpg's or something else?
Digi Camera: I don't know why it would not mount on the desktop. I take it your CF cards are from the same camera? It may be that Canon doesn't use a file format that is entirely Mac friendly (this would be surprising though). Which may explain why you have problems reading it properly. It could be worth reformating the CF cards. Try doing it on the cam 1st, then computer via the disk utility if formatting on the cam doesnt help.
Anyway, you don't have to use iPhoto if you don't want to.. In your "Applications" folder you will find a small app called "Image Capture" which is a basic program to import picts from digital camera's. Open that, and go to the preferences, where you'll notice you can change the default app that opens when you connect a camera, change it to "Image Capture" from then on view your picts with whatever program you prefer.
Hope that helps..
P,
Or If you have a 2 button mouse, right click on the trash can, and simply select "Empty Trash"
You don't need to reformat the memory stick. A Mac can read PC formatted drives which is what you are doing now. You could reformat it to a Mac format (may be slightly more reliable long term) but then a PC wont read it any more. So probably best left as it is.
Card Reader: Not sure about this.. It most likely is Mac compatible. Macs are generally very flexible regarding what pict formats they can read, but it still seems as if perhaps you re trying to use one that isnt supported? Are they jpg's or something else?
Digi Camera: I don't know why it would not mount on the desktop. I take it your CF cards are from the same camera? It may be that Canon doesn't use a file format that is entirely Mac friendly (this would be surprising though). Which may explain why you have problems reading it properly. It could be worth reformating the CF cards. Try doing it on the cam 1st, then computer via the disk utility if formatting on the cam doesnt help.
Anyway, you don't have to use iPhoto if you don't want to.. In your "Applications" folder you will find a small app called "Image Capture" which is a basic program to import picts from digital camera's. Open that, and go to the preferences, where you'll notice you can change the default app that opens when you connect a camera, change it to "Image Capture" from then on view your picts with whatever program you prefer.
Hope that helps..
P,
Edited by PJR on Tuesday 20th March 14:19
PJR said:
USB memory stick: Moving files to the trash just stores them in a trash folder of sorts which is still on the memory stick itself so doesn't free up any space, as you have found. So the files are still on it until you empty the trash. To do this go to the finder pull down menu marked "Finder" and select "Empty Trash" This will get rid of the trashed files on your USB memory stick and anything you may have put in the trash from your main hard drive too.
Or If you have a 2 button mouse, right click on the trash can, and simply select "Empty Trash"
You don't need to reformat the memory stick. A Mac can read PC formatted drives which is what you are doing now. You could reformat it to a Mac format (may be slightly more reliable long term) but then a PC wont read it any more. So probably best left as it is.
Card Reader: Not sure about this.. It most likely is Mac compatible. Macs are generally very flexible regarding what pict formats they can read, but it still seems as if perhaps you re trying to use one that isnt supported? Are they jpg's or something else?
Digi Camera: I don't know why it would not mount on the desktop. I take it your CF cards are from the same camera? It may be that Canon doesn't use a file format that is entirely Mac friendly (this would be surprising though). Which may explain why you have problems reading it properly. It could be worth reformating the CF cards. Try doing it on the cam 1st, then computer via the disk utility if formatting on the cam doesnt help.
Anyway, you don't have to use iPhoto if you don't want to.. In your "Applications" folder you will find a small app called "Image Capture" which is a basic program to import picts from digital camera's. Open that, and go to the preferences, where you'll notice you can change the default app that opens when you connect a camera, change it to "Image Capture" from then on view your picts with whatever program you prefer.
Hope that helps..
P,
Or If you have a 2 button mouse, right click on the trash can, and simply select "Empty Trash"
You don't need to reformat the memory stick. A Mac can read PC formatted drives which is what you are doing now. You could reformat it to a Mac format (may be slightly more reliable long term) but then a PC wont read it any more. So probably best left as it is.
Card Reader: Not sure about this.. It most likely is Mac compatible. Macs are generally very flexible regarding what pict formats they can read, but it still seems as if perhaps you re trying to use one that isnt supported? Are they jpg's or something else?
Digi Camera: I don't know why it would not mount on the desktop. I take it your CF cards are from the same camera? It may be that Canon doesn't use a file format that is entirely Mac friendly (this would be surprising though). Which may explain why you have problems reading it properly. It could be worth reformating the CF cards. Try doing it on the cam 1st, then computer via the disk utility if formatting on the cam doesnt help.
Anyway, you don't have to use iPhoto if you don't want to.. In your "Applications" folder you will find a small app called "Image Capture" which is a basic program to import picts from digital camera's. Open that, and go to the preferences, where you'll notice you can change the default app that opens when you connect a camera, change it to "Image Capture" from then on view your picts with whatever program you prefer.
Hope that helps..
P,
Edited by PJR on Tuesday 20th March 14:19
Thanks for the reply.
So is there no way of just deleting files from the USB Stick? Like you would on a PC, just delete and they are gone?
And way does the Trash file created on the stick not show up on the Mac? Is there any logic or reason the Mac performs like this? All seems a bit cock-eyed to me!!
I think my CF card reader is just an odd one!! I have reformatted my CF cards in the Canon camera and the pics still would not Preview using the Card Reader. All is fine when importing through the Camera and I have used a different Card reader and that worked well......very strange. May be time to by a new card reader!!
I will try your suggestion re the Image capture in Applications and see how this works.
I am a bit unhappy with the way the Mac is performing with regards to the above. Not what I expected at all!! Has anyone else experianced these problems?
cjs said:
So is there no way of just deleting files from the USB Stick? Like you would on a PC, just delete and they are gone?
And way does the Trash file created on the stick not show up on the Mac? Is there any logic or reason the Mac performs like this? All seems a bit cock-eyed to me!!
And way does the Trash file created on the stick not show up on the Mac? Is there any logic or reason the Mac performs like this? All seems a bit cock-eyed to me!!
Ahh, it's the same thing in Windows with the Recycle Bin, it's actually a hidden folder on the drive, you can set it to insta-delete but by default it'll move stuff to this one location until you empty the bin. To empty the trash on the USB stick mount it (i.e. plug it in) and down on the dock just select 'empty trash' (click+hold on the trash icon if your using a puck style mouse or right click if you're on a normal mouse). Works on my SMB network shares, can't see why it wouldn't on your USB stick.
In a larger sense what you've just discovered is the . file/folder system. Basically any file or folder can be hidden from none-superusers by putting a fullstop at the start of the filename. So, as an example:
A file called 'smbuser' is visible to you.
A file called '.smbuser' is hidden unless you sudo su - in a terminal and then type 'ls' and poof it appears.
I'm sure finder has an option to show them somewhere but never looked TBH. And yes, it does take a while to get used to but on the other hand it's the way things have been done since before Windows was a glint in Gates' eyes
Regarding the USB files, that got me a little bit when i first used my MBP. Once you have pressed the "send to trash" option, you just have to remember to "empty the trash" option BEFORE you remove the stick. If you don't do this and plug the USB stick in a windows computer it still states that the USB stick is full. It sort of is cock-eye'd i guess, but it might be useful one day if you hit delete too early...?
Interested to see the alternative iPhoto option. Might try that myself as i have had similar "difficulties" getting used to the system sometimes. The MBP keeps trying to do things for me without explaining and i'm not used to that - more used to putting everything where *I* want it on my old MS machines. Its taking me a bit of time to get used to the mac way, but to be honest i usually find once you've worked it out it works very well.
Interested to see the alternative iPhoto option. Might try that myself as i have had similar "difficulties" getting used to the system sometimes. The MBP keeps trying to do things for me without explaining and i'm not used to that - more used to putting everything where *I* want it on my old MS machines. Its taking me a bit of time to get used to the mac way, but to be honest i usually find once you've worked it out it works very well.
There are a number of small programs to help "look under the hood" of your Mac.
Most recently I have been using TinkerTool
Free and easy, you can tinker with all sorts of preferences, including the ability to see hidden files. You still can't "delete" from the .Trashes folder, but it shows you where everything is. Go to "Finder" in the menu bar at the top of the screen and you'll see the option to "Empty Trash" or "Secure Empty Trash".
If you haven't already looked at the Apple Discussion Forums on the Apple website, head over and have a look - somewhere in there there is every question ever asked.....
Most recently I have been using TinkerTool
Free and easy, you can tinker with all sorts of preferences, including the ability to see hidden files. You still can't "delete" from the .Trashes folder, but it shows you where everything is. Go to "Finder" in the menu bar at the top of the screen and you'll see the option to "Empty Trash" or "Secure Empty Trash".
If you haven't already looked at the Apple Discussion Forums on the Apple website, head over and have a look - somewhere in there there is every question ever asked.....
cjs said:
So if I have my USB Stick mounted and 'highlighted' and then empty the Trash will it just clear the Trash file in the stick or will it empty all trash on the Mac?? Sometimes I don't want to empty all my trash until I have checked through to see if I need to keep a file etc.
It doesn't have to be highlighted.. But basically, files from the memory stick that you trash are still there in a hidden 'trash' folder. You can actually still view those files as they will be in the trash can on your desktop/dock which you can view just as you would any folder. However, this shows all files, be it on your hard drive or memory stick.
I guess I can see why you are slightly confused about it all. But its somewhat inevitable that macs work a bit differently to what you are used to. Its just a case of readjusting some. Im sure you'll soon get used to it!
P,
I am getting the impression my new Mac is not as straight forward and as 'intuitive' as I was led to believe. While I find many things far better than a PC, some things seem to make no sense, I can't understand why I can not just delete files on a USB stick so they are removed from the stick and not held in an invisible file, can I assume its the same situation when using an external HD??
Other things that infuriate me is no Right Click....why don't they just make that a standard feature? If I plug a mouse in its there, why is it not on the Macbook? No real delete key, its actually a backspace (I have to press two buttons to Delete...Why??)
Why cant I Cut a picture? If I want to Cut a pic from a file and Paste it elsewhere I can't do it, why?
In 'Pictures' if I want to remove say a block of 10 pics I cannot highlight the first then Control Click the last to highlight them all, I can do this on a PC why not on a Mac?
These may be trivial little things but they are spoiling what is a far better overall system compared to my old PC.
Other things that infuriate me is no Right Click....why don't they just make that a standard feature? If I plug a mouse in its there, why is it not on the Macbook? No real delete key, its actually a backspace (I have to press two buttons to Delete...Why??)
Why cant I Cut a picture? If I want to Cut a pic from a file and Paste it elsewhere I can't do it, why?
In 'Pictures' if I want to remove say a block of 10 pics I cannot highlight the first then Control Click the last to highlight them all, I can do this on a PC why not on a Mac?
These may be trivial little things but they are spoiling what is a far better overall system compared to my old PC.
Edited by cjs on Thursday 22 March 09:27
On an eMac here so not sure how the keyboards compare.
My external drive is just like the internal but its not set up to boot (something I must change) but erasing and copying as per my work issue lap top. Right click is control+click. I am quite used to that never having had a personal PC. I understand you can get a two button mouse?
I can cut and paste OK. There is quite an extensive help section with all the keyboard short cuts. apple+c=cut and apple+v=paste etc.
Selecting pictures, I just click the first then drag the rest or to pick out odd ones, click first and apple+click the rest.
I am more than happy with the way it works, but then I have never had a PC as a personal use computer.
My external drive is just like the internal but its not set up to boot (something I must change) but erasing and copying as per my work issue lap top. Right click is control+click. I am quite used to that never having had a personal PC. I understand you can get a two button mouse?
I can cut and paste OK. There is quite an extensive help section with all the keyboard short cuts. apple+c=cut and apple+v=paste etc.
Selecting pictures, I just click the first then drag the rest or to pick out odd ones, click first and apple+click the rest.
I am more than happy with the way it works, but then I have never had a PC as a personal use computer.
Getting your head round the use of the Shift, Ctrl, alt/option and Apple/Command keys can take time, but once you've mastered it, you'll be fine.
In iPhoto for example, select the first photo, then Shift click the end of the selection and all in between will be selected.
Ctrl click in most applications will replicate the right click. In some, eg the Dock, you can simply hold down the mouse button for a range of options to appear.
In iPhoto for example, select the first photo, then Shift click the end of the selection and all in between will be selected.
Ctrl click in most applications will replicate the right click. In some, eg the Dock, you can simply hold down the mouse button for a range of options to appear.
cjs said:
I can't understand why I can not just delete files on a USB stick so they are removed from the stick and not held in an invisible file, can I assume its the same situation when using an external HD??
Yes, and not only that but it's the same on a PC too. If you delete something from a stick on a PC then it goes into the wastebasket. If you empty the wastebasket then it empties everything that is in there.
If you really want to delete stuff without it going into the wastebasket you can fire up the terminal and use 'rm' or 'srm'.
www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html
cjs said:
Other things that infuriate me is no Right Click....why don't they just make that a standard feature? If I plug a mouse in its there, why is it not on the Macbook?
It is. Use two fingers on the trackpad and click or use ctrl-Click.
cjs said:
No real delete key, its actually a backspace (I have to press two buttons to Delete...Why??)
Because your MacBook keyboard hasn't got that keypad on it.
cjs said:
Why cant I Cut a picture? If I want to Cut a pic from a file and Paste it elsewhere I can't do it, why?
You can. If the picture is a selectable object then just select it and cut/copy. If not then you can grab it with cmd-shift-4 and draw your selection rectangle around the bit you want to grab.
cjs said:
In 'Pictures' if I want to remove say a block of 10 pics I cannot highlight the first then Control Click the last to highlight them all, I can do this on a PC why not on a Mac?
You can. You use click to select a single item, shift-click to selct a contiguous range and cmd-click to select disjointed ranges.
cjs said:
These may be trivial little things but they are spoiling what is a far better overall system compared to my old PC.
No they're not, you're just being whingy 'cos it's different.
edit : correct partial screen grab key sequence
Edited by Strangely Brown on Thursday 22 March 11:57
jmorgan said:
On an eMac here so not sure how the keyboards compare.
My external drive is just like the internal but its not set up to boot (something I must change) but erasing and copying as per my work issue lap top. Right click is control+click. I am quite used to that never having had a personal PC. I understand you can get a two button mouse?
I can cut and paste OK. There is quite an extensive help section with all the keyboard short cuts. apple+c=cut and apple+v=paste etc.
Selecting pictures, I just click the first then drag the rest or to pick out odd ones, click first and apple+click the rest.
I am more than happy with the way it works, but then I have never had a PC as a personal use computer.
My external drive is just like the internal but its not set up to boot (something I must change) but erasing and copying as per my work issue lap top. Right click is control+click. I am quite used to that never having had a personal PC. I understand you can get a two button mouse?
I can cut and paste OK. There is quite an extensive help section with all the keyboard short cuts. apple+c=cut and apple+v=paste etc.
Selecting pictures, I just click the first then drag the rest or to pick out odd ones, click first and apple+click the rest.
I am more than happy with the way it works, but then I have never had a PC as a personal use computer.
So if you send items to the Trash can from an External drive does a Shadow (invisible) Trash file stay on the Ex DH until you empty the Trash?
Also what I can't understand, I can right click on a two button Mouse the same as a PC but not on the Mac trackpad button, I have to press control as well...why cant they make right click a standard feature? Its very infuriating if you jump between PC and Mac as I do.
I understand I can cut and Paste using command Keys however that can be long winded, I want to right click on the mouse and Cut which I can't do on a Mac however I can right click and paste.....very strange
Re pictures, I have worked out that I can click a pic then drag a group in with it, its just easier to control click as I do on a PC.
I think I am still thinking with my PC head on, and as I use both systems its going to take me a while to get used to the Mac, its becoming more obvious to me that a PC/Microsoft system is better in quite a few instances.
Still prefer the Mac though!!
Don't know about the file after deletion. I delete it, it goes from the directory. That's as far as I worry about it. If you are worried, you can erase empty space to a few different levels to destroy deleted data. Its in the disk utility application.
No track pad on the eMac so no help there but you can get a few options depending on what application will allow what by holding the control and clicking in a window or getting an extra Tab in safari when clicking next to an open tab etc. It depends where the pointer is when you click.
Some info on the shortcuts here
I can drag with the one button mouse then control+click for options or use a keyboard short cut directly.
Easy for me as its all I am used to, I don't get on with PC's.
Not forgetting to repair permissions as well, found a few glitches were solved as I don't leave the puter on all the time.
Others are more versed than me (see posts above) here, but the help section in OSX is handy for keyboard shortcuts and the support on the apple web site especially the forums are useful. I do find that sometimes you have to think sideways for a search on the Apple site at times.
No track pad on the eMac so no help there but you can get a few options depending on what application will allow what by holding the control and clicking in a window or getting an extra Tab in safari when clicking next to an open tab etc. It depends where the pointer is when you click.
Some info on the shortcuts here
I can drag with the one button mouse then control+click for options or use a keyboard short cut directly.
Easy for me as its all I am used to, I don't get on with PC's.
Not forgetting to repair permissions as well, found a few glitches were solved as I don't leave the puter on all the time.
Others are more versed than me (see posts above) here, but the help section in OSX is handy for keyboard shortcuts and the support on the apple web site especially the forums are useful. I do find that sometimes you have to think sideways for a search on the Apple site at times.
cjs said:
So if you send items to the Trash can from an External drive does a Shadow (invisible) Trash file stay on the Ex DH until you empty the Trash?
Also what I can't understand, I can right click on a two button Mouse the same as a PC but not on the Mac trackpad button, I have to press control as well...why cant they make right click a standard feature? Its very infuriating if you jump between PC and Mac as I do.
Also what I can't understand, I can right click on a two button Mouse the same as a PC but not on the Mac trackpad button, I have to press control as well...why cant they make right click a standard feature? Its very infuriating if you jump between PC and Mac as I do.
Read my earlier post.
cjs said:
I think I am still thinking with my PC head on, and as I use both systems its going to take me a while to get used to the Mac, its becoming more obvious to me that a PC/Microsoft system is better in quite a few instances.
No it isn't, you're just not doing it right ... yet.
cjs said:
Still prefer the Mac though!!
Attaboy!
cjs said:
Leithen said:
Right click problems - easy solution - buy a bluetooth mouse.
I know I am using a Mouse, my query/comment/complaint is why cant Apple just add the right click option to the click button on the Macbook, why do I need to use Control or two fingers on the track pad.
'Tis an age old Jobsian quirk, of which many mountains of blog entries have been filled about...
Don't expect it to change too soon.....
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