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Mac 911 Tips, tricks and solutions for your Mac problems
Bugs & Fixes: When email duplication gets unruly
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” – Cassius, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Cassius would have made an excellent tech support guru. When struck with a computer problem, we often assume the cause must lie with faulty software or hardware. Only later do we discover that the true cause is our own misunderstanding.
Case in point: I had an annoying symptom with Outlook 2011 for Mac. Periodically, when I received an email from friends, I would get two copies of the message in my Inbox. This duplication only seemed to happen when the message had multiple recipients. As such, my first thought was that my name had been included twice on the senders’ cc-lists. However, careful checking of the lists determined such was not the case.
So what was going on? I could find no common thread that tied together the messages that were duplicated. Suspecting a bug in Outlook, I turned to Microsoft for help. To my pleasant surprise, a Microsoft webpage covered exactly this problem: Duplicate email messages appear in Outlook for Mac 2011.
Creating freeze frames in iMovie '11
Reader Gary Duffel finds that iMovie ’11 may not yet be his bag. He writes:
I am not able to copy a freeze frame in iMovie ’11. This was available in iMovie ’09, but was not made available in iMovie ’11. Does anyone know if Apple is planning on adding this feature to the current version of iMovie?
No. And the reason why is because the feature is already there. You’ve just missed it.
If you want to add a freeze frame from content in your iMovie library, move the cursor to the point in the clip where you’d like the frame and Control (right) click. From the contextual menu choose Add Still Frame to Project. As commanded, that still frame will be added to the end of the current project. By default the frame will last for four seconds. You can adjust its length by double-clicking on it to produce the Inspector window and changing its duration in the appropriate field.
Creating a still frame from an iMovie library clip
You can also add a freeze frame from content that appears in the project area. As you did before, move your cursor to where you’d like to create the frame, Control (right) click, and choose Add Freeze Frame. In this case the frame is created at the point where you placed your cursor, rather than placed at the end of the clip. This makes sense as it’s common to create freeze frames to extend a portion of a clip—either because you want the “camera” to linger a bit longer on the shot or you need to lengthen the shot to accommodate something going on in your sound track.
Software » Networking Utilities
Cure for a nagging AirPort Utility
Reader Glen Franklin has had it with AirPort Utility’s pestering. He writes:
I’ve read reports of the latest AirPort update (7.6) causing problems for some people so I’ve decided to avoid it until the next update comes along. The problem is that whenever I wake my Mac, AirPort Utility launches and reminds me about this update. Is there a Software Update setting I can adjust to keep this from happening?
In this case Software Update isn’t the culprit but rather AirPort Utility. By default, it’s configured so that whenever an AirPort Base Station displays a blinking yellow light, AirPort Utility launches and attempts to explain what’s going on. In your case, AirPort Utility is aware that you’re not running the latest firmware, which causes the blinking light, which, in turn, causes AirPort Utility to launch and display the message.
You can put an end to this by launching AirPort Utility, choosing Preferences from the AirPort Utility menu, and unchecking the Monitor AirPort Wireless Devices for Problems option. Do this and AirPort Utility will no longer automatically launch when the base station blinks yellow.
As for this firmware update, there have indeed been reports that it causes problems for some people. For that very reason I too have stuck with version 7.5.2. However, last week at Macworld|iWorld, I asked those who’d know how safe this update is. The general consensus was that it was perfectly fine. So, you might give it a go.
Bugs & Fixes: Short URLs render Safari’s history useless
When I can’t quite recall a critical detail from a webpage I visited a few days ago, I typically search Safari’s History to locate it. Increasingly often, I am wasting my time.
Why? Because many of the URLs I load in Safari come from my Twitter feed. These URLs, in turn, are wrapped by t.co, Twitter’s official URL shortener. The primary function of shorteners is to allow tweets to contain URLs without the links eating up too much of Twitter’s 140 character limit. That’s fine. However, an unintended consequence is that, when these URLs show up in Safari’s History, they all have a title of “(no title)” and an indecipherable “http//t.co/” address.
You can probably see where this is headed. Without a title or full URL, there is no way you can locate or identify any of the webpages represented by these shortened URLs. The shortened URLs have a similar negative effect on auto-completion in Safari’s Address Bar. Given how many of the webpages I view originate from Twitter, the end result is that Safari’s History function has become next to worthless for me.
Surely, I thought, there must be a work-around. I searched the web in hope of finding a tip that would rescue me. I found nothing…until this week: Detox, a recently released Safari extension, claimed to “automatically expand shortened t.co links on the Twitter site.”
The mystery of Safari's disappearing video
Reader Kevin Mullane has gone on Safari and found himself lost. He writes:
A few weeks ago Safari stopped showing video for some websites. YouTube works, but the highlights videos from mlb.com don’t. My kids use the Mac as well and I’m afraid they messed something up. Any ideas?
My guess is that your kids have been mucking around in Safari’s preferences. Try this: Choose Help -> Installed Plug-ins. Anything appear on the resulting page? No? Then I have your answer.
Open Safari’s preferences, select the Security preference, and take a gander at the Enable Plug-ins option. Dollars-to-doughnuts, that option is disabled. Switch on that option and the Flash plug-in will be enabled, allowing videos from sites like mlb.com to work as they should.
Why do the YouTube videos play when others don’t? They’re HTML5 files rather than Flash. HTML5 doesn’t require a plug-in.
Deleting files within Lion's Applications folder
Reader Ted Adams is particular about what is and isn’t in his Mac’s Applications folder. He writes:
Is there any way to get rid of the applications I have no use for that are included with Lion? I never use GarageBand, Stickies, Calculator, Chess nor several others. They do nothing more than clutter up my Applications folder. How do I trash them?
As you’ve likely noticed, many of these applications can’t be trashed the normal way. When you attempt to drag Chess, for example, to the trash, you’re told that it’s required by the OS. This is nonsense, of course. In truth, Apple locked down many of its applications so that they can not be easily disposed of. This is to protect newbies from doing the Bad Thing by chucking applications they may someday need.
But it’s your computer and if you don’t want these applications, by all means, give them the boot. The easiest way to go about this is to launch Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities) and, at the prompt, enter sudo rm -rf followed by a space and then drag into the Terminal window the application you want to delete. If you were to drag in the Chess application the command would read sudo rm -rf /Applications/Chess.app.
Press Return and you’ll be prompted for your administrator’s password. Enter it (no characters will appear on screen) and press Return. The application will be entirely deleted from your hard drive.
Bugs & Fixes: Re-running on empty
Like a bacterial infection that an antibiotic doesn’t entirely kill, a computer issue can come back to bite you despite you applying what seemed to be a successful solution.
Case in point: Back in November, I posted an article (Running on Empty) where I described how my friend’s iMac had bogged down to such an extent that she could not get any work done. Beyond the overall slowness, she could not save files or send email. I eventually tracked down the cause—her hard drive was completely full: zero GB available. The quick solution was to delete about 10GB of unneeded files. All was good.
It was an easy fix. But I remained uneasy. I knew that my friend placed minimal demands on her iMac. About all she used it for was web browsing, email, and photos. I doubted that she had actually filled up her hard drive just on these activities.
My guess was that there was something else going on; something behind the scenes was eating up her drive space. If I was right, I expected that I would be hearing from her again.
Keeping Mac OS and data on separate drives
Reader Ben Connolly is interested in keeping some distance between his Mac's operating system and data. He writes:
I’m planning to get a new Mac and I’d like to keep my system on one drive (perhaps an SSD) and my data on another drive. How do I go about this? Is it possible to keep my Home directory on a drive other than the startup drive?
It is. In the past you’d copy your Home folder to the other drive and then point to it via symbolic links but that’s no longer necessary. When setting up your new Mac I’d do this.
Run through the usual setup process. Once you’ve completed that process connect the drive you’d like to save your data to. Copy your user folder from the Users folder at the root level of your hard drive to the external hard drive. (You’ll have to enter your username and password to authorize this.) Launch System Preferences and choose the Users & Groups preference (called Accounts in versions of Mac OS X prior to Lion). Click the Lock icon at the bottom of the window and enter your administrator’s name and password and click Unlock.
Hold down the Control key, click on your account name, and choose Advanced Options. In the sheet that appears, click on the Choose button next to the Home Directory field. Navigate to the home folder you moved to the external drive, select it, and click Open. You’ll see that the path to that folder now appears in the Home Directory field—/Volumes/DriveB/yourusername, for instance. This is your new home folder. Anything that’s normally saved in your home folder—pictures, movies, documents, music, and preference files—will be stored here.
When new apps and old iOS devices don't mix
Reader Steve Paulson finds that old and new iOS devices don’t always mix in pleasing ways. He writes:
I have a second-generation iPod touch. Several others in my home have 4G iPod touches. When apps are updated, my iPod is often obsolete—an app that once worked fine on my iPod is replaced by a version that now only works with the new iPods. Is there a way I can access the older files I know are still on my computer to add to my iPod and leave the newer ones for them?
I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more compelling case for creating another iTunes library. Your ointment is so fly-ridden because you’re trying to manage too many devices from a single library. As you’ve noticed, when you update your and others’ apps via iTunes, never versions that aren’t compatible with your iPod replace the older versions that are. And when someone else using the library with a newer iPod updates their apps on the iPod and then syncs it back to iTunes, iTunes transfers those newer versions from the updated iPod and the older versions are biffed into the trash.
So, clumsy though it may be, you need to create an iTunes library that is just yours. You can do this by quitting iTunes, launching it again while holding down the Option key, and then choosing to create a new library.
When you do this you’ll begin with an empty iTunes library. You’ll then need to add to that library any files that you want to sync with your iPod touch—this includes not only apps but also media files. You can do that by dragging the files into the media area of iTunes’ Source list. If you don’t want to create a second copy of these items, open iTunes’ preferences, click the Advanced tab, and disable the Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library option.
Bugs & Fixes: Solving Mac App Store download errors
When you purchase an app from the Mac App Store, it normally downloads and installs exactly as expected. But not always.
One error that has cropped up for numerous users over the past year states: “The product distribution file could not be verified. It may be damaged or was not signed.” When this error appears, the download of the purchased app fails.
The symptom seems more likely to occur if you are running Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.x) than Lion (OS X 10.7.x), but it has been reported with both OS versions. A potential solution is to delete the App Store app itself from the Applications folder and reinstall the app. To do the reinstall for Snow Leopard, download and run a combo update (such as Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo). An Apple Support Communities thread offers more details. If you’re running Lion, another thread confirms that reinstalling OS X via Lion Recovery should similarly work. I assume running the OS X Update 10.7.2 Client Combo would also succeed.
For those willing to take a more “techie” route to a solution, you can avoid a time-consuming reinstall. Instead, use the Console utility to identify the folder, located in the /var/folders directory, that is “failing.” A problem with the folder appears to precipitate the App Store symptom. The “corrupt” folder may vary (with names such as 3p or q1) but will be cited in the Console log. Once you’ve targeted the folder, delete it; the symptom should now be gone. A new folder will be created as needed. This works whether you’re running Snow Leopard or Lion.
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