Monthly Archives: December 2019

fixed : how to unzip downloaded .zip-file that appears as .exe-file ?

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Question :

I have just downloaded some zipped archives from a support website, and even though most of them were .zip-files that were automatically unzipped by macOS, some are .exe-files which I can’t open or run on my Mac…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

Sometimes, Windows computers create self-extracting Windows .exe-files instead of .zip-files or .rar-files when creating compressed archives to transport over the internet or using external drives or USB-sticks…

The built-in Unarchive.app in macOS cannot extract these kind of .exe-archives, but various other unzip-apps can.

Just go to the Mac AppStore, find TheUnarchiver.app, download it and use it for FREE ; the .exe-archives will now be extracted as if they were regular .zip-files or .rar-files

enjoy 😉

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fixed : put iTunes Music database on external drive to save space

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Question :

My internal HD is too full, so I want to make room for macOS to run smoothly again. As my iTunes Music database is huge, would it be possible to move that database onto an external HD that is continuously connected to my Mac ?

Is there any option to do so ?

 

Answer :

Yes, it is possible to move your entire iTunes Music database to an external HD. Apple does explicitly recommend to use an external HD that is connected to your Mac directly with USB, ThunderBolt or FireWire. (and Apple explicitly recommends against putting your active iTunes or Music.app database on a wireless drive or network drive)

To do this, do this :

  • get yourself an external HD, preferably one that is using a fast cable connection to connect to your Mac ; Samsung currently has some small and very good external HDs using USB-C for this : Samsung T5 Portable SSD
  • plug the external HD into your Mac
  • goto Applications –> Utilities –> Disk Utility
  • open Disk Utility
  • reformat the external HD as “Mac OS Extended”
  • now, in the Finder, create a new folder on the external HD named Music
  • inside that folder, create 2 new folders ; one named iTunes, the other named Music
  • then, in the Finder, goto Users –> [your name]  –> Music –> Music –> Music Library (if you don’t have one, skip the next step)
  • then drag&drop the Music Library folder into the Music folder inside the top-level Music folder on the external HD you have just created
  • …this may take a while
  • then, in the Finder, goto Users –> [your name]  –> Music –> iTunes –> iTunes Library (if you don’t have one, skip the next step)
  • then drag&drop the iTunes Library folder into the iTunes folder inside the top-level Music folder on the external HD you have just created
  • …this may take a while also
  • when done, open the Music.app (or iTunes.app if you are running an older version of macOS)
  • goto Music (or iTunes) in the top-bar of your screen –> Preferences
  • in the window that opens, select the Files tab, and at “Music Media folder location” click on the Change-button
  • in the Finder window that opens, select the Music (or iTunes) folder inside the Music folder on the external HD and click Open-button
  • back in the Files window, click the OK-button
  • now Music.app (or iTunes) will start up using the Music Library (or iTunes Library) on the external HD (and it will keep using the Music Library (or iTunes Library) on the external HD as its default library from now on)
  • check inside Music.app (or iTunes) to see if all your photos are now available (there’s no reason why they wouldn’t but just to make sure…)
  • now start using this setup as your new Music.app (or iTunes) setup, and if you don’t run into any problems in a few weeks (or even months if you need to) you can delete the Music Library (and/or iTunes Library) that was in the Music folder in your Home folder on your Mac’s internal drive to clear up some space

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : put Photos database on external drive to save space

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Question :

My internal HD is too full, so I want to make room for macOS to run smoothly again. As my Photos.app database is huge, would it be possible to move that database onto an external HD that is continuously connected to my Mac.

Is there any option to do so ?

 

Answer :

Yes, it is possible to move your entire Photos.app database to an external HD. Apple does explicitly recommend to use an external HD that is connected to your Mac directly with USB, ThunderBolt or FireWire. (and Apple explicitly recommends against putting your active Photos.app database on a wireless drive or network drive)

To do this, do this :

  • get yourself an external HD, preferably one that is using a fast cable connection to connect to your Mac ; Samsung currently has some small and very good external HDs using USB-C for this : Samsung T5 Portable SSD
  • plug the external HD into your Mac
  • goto Applications –> Utilities –> Disk Utility
  • open Disk Utility
  • reformat the external HD as “Mac OS Extended”
  • now, in the Finder, create a new folder on the external HD named Pictures
  • then, in the Finder, goto Users –> [your name]  –> Pictures
  • then drag&drop the Photos Library file to the external HD you have just created
  • …this may take a while
  • when done, open the Photos.app while pressing the [ALT]-key
  • in the Choose Library window that opens, click on the “Other Library”-button
  • from the pulldown Finder window, choose your new external drive –> Pictures –> Photos Library
  • then click the Open-button
  • now Photos.app will start up using the Photos Library on the external HD (and it will keep using the Photos Library on the external HD as its default library from now on)
  • check inside Photos.app to see if all your photos are now available (there’s no reason why they wouldn’t but just to make sure…)
  • now start using this setup as your new Photos.app setup, and if you don’t run into any problems in a few weeks (or even months if you need to) you can delete the Photos Library that was in the Pictures folder in your Home folder on your Mac’s internal drive to clear up some space

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : cannot print PDF form from macOS Preview.app

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Question :

I have received an eMail from a vendor that includes a dispatchnote PDF that I need to print.

The PDF opens fine in Preview.app, but when I try to print it, everything seems to work fine, only the print doesn’t come out of the printer…

I can’t find the problem : the PDF appears in the printer’s Job List, the status bar fills up completely, the printer makes some noise to indicate that it is receiving data, the print job is deleted from the Job List, and nothing comes out of the printer… there are no error messages, no indication what so ever that something went wrong… the pint just won’t come out of the printer…

I checked to see if there is something special about the PDF-file that might be causing this, but I can’t find anything special about it… the PDF is not locked or anything…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

Even though it is not clear where this problem comes from, the solution is simple : use Adobe Reader (a.k.a. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC) or Adobe Acrobat Pro if you have it.

To do so, do this :

  • go to https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/otherversions/
  • at Step 1, 2 and 3 set the right OS, language and version, then click the Download Now button to download Adobe Reader
  • when the download is done, install Adobe Reader on your Mac
  • then, open Adobe Reader
  • and open the hard-to-print PDF from Adobe Reader
  • as soon as it starts appearing on-screen, you can press [CMD] + [P] to get to the printing screen
  • from there, just try to print again…
    • note that this is not your regular macOS printing screen, so you might want to check if all settings are to your liking before you give the actual print-commando (you might have to set things like double sided printing again)

The fact that the file is not printing from Preview.app, but it is from Adobe Reader, might indicate that the PDF was created by Adobe Acrobat Pro on Windows and that there is a problem in the version of Acrobar Reader that was used that causes this problem to arise…

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : manually update firmware on Samsung SmartTV

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Question :

I have my Samsung SmartTV set to automatically do its software updates (actually, these should be called automatic firmware upgrades), and when I let my TV search for new software updates, it tells me no new updates were found.

However, on the internet I found info that suggests that newer versions of the firmware are available for my Samsung SmartTV, just not in my region for some reason.

Is there any way to get these upgrades anyway ?

 

Answer :

If you want to upgrade the firmware on your Samsung SmartTV manually, do this :

  • turn on your TV
  • press the MENU-button on your remote control
  • in the window that opens, on the left, select Support
  • on the right, scroll down entirely and select Contact Samsung 
  • on the page that opens, at the bottom, the Model Code is displayed : write this down ! ( eg. “UE50JU6400” or “UE32J5200” )
  • then ‘arrow to the left’ on your remote control
  • then, on the left, select Support
  • on the right, select Software Update
  • now, on the right, the Current Version is displayed : write this down ! ( eg. 1530 )
  • now, on your Mac (or PC), go to https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/search/
    • note : for unknown reasons, go to the UK website, not the US website, to find the latest firmware upgrades
  • there, typ your model number in the entry field and press the ENTER-key
  • all available firmware upgrades for your TV will now be displayed
  • if the latest version that is available for download is newer than the version listed at Current Version on you TV, download the latest version from the website
  • when the download is done, macOS will automatically unzip it for you to a folder with the firmware upgrade in it
    • if your download turns out to be a .exe-file, use TheUnarchiver.app (available for FREE on the Mac AppStore) to unzip it
  • your firmware upgrade file should now be a folder named “T-….”, and have a folder named “image” inside it
  • plug an empty USB-stick into your Mac
    • the USB-stick must be FAT32 formatted (as nearly every brand-new USB-stick will be)
  • then, drag&drop the folder with the firmware upgrade onto the USB-stick
  • when the copying is done, select EJECT to disconnect the USB-stick from macOS
  • then, you can safely unplug the USB-stick from your Mac
  • now, you can plug the USB-stick into your TV
  • then, turn on the TV (if it wasn’t already on)
  • wait for about 2 minutes, then press the MENU-button on your remote control
  • in the window that appears, on the bottom left, select Support
  • then, select Software Update from the list
  • in the next window, select Update Now
  • now, a pop-up window should display “Do you want to search the connected USB device for update files?”
  • if so, click YES
    • if not, make sure your USB-stick is properly plugged into your TV (if that still won’t work… go back to your Mac and check if your USB-stick is okay)
  • when the TV finds valid firmware files on the USB-stick, the text “A new software version is available. Update from version **** to version ****?” will be displayed
  • then, click YES to start the firmware upgrade
  • a window with a progress bar will be shown now
    • note : during the upgrade process, do NOT unplug the USB-stick or turn the TV off !
  • when finished, the TV will shut down and restart by itself
  • just to make sure if the firmware upgrade was successful, click the MENU-button on your remote control
  • then, select Settings, then Support, then Software Update
  • check if the version listed at Current Version is newer than the version you previously had

That’s it… you’re done !

enjoy 😉

fixed : finding faces in imported old iPhoto pictures

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Question :

I have imported my old iPhoto database into Photos.app as you described in your post on this subject. [click here to view the original post] But now I’ve got them into Photos.app it turns out that the faces I had tagged when I was still using iPhoto are not automatically recognized by the Faces function of Photos.app…

Is there any way to solve this ?

 

Answer :

Yes, there is, but it’s not as easy as you might have hoped…

There are 2 sides to your question, so let’s answer both separately :

  1. How to find people in pictures imported from iPhoto ?
  2. How to get people from iPhoto pictures into Photos.app Faces database ?

HOW TO FIND PEOPLE IN PICTURES IMPORTED FROM iPHOTO ?

When you import an iPhoto database into Photos.app the faces you had tagged way back then are not recognized as Faces, but as Keywords… so the easiest way to find pictures of  these people is this :

  • open Photos.app
  • click on “Photos” in the list on the left (the top option, in the Library chapter)
  • then click on the “Showing: All Items”-button (top right, just below the “Search” field)
  • from the pulldown menu, select “Keyword Manager”
  • in the separate “Keywords”-window that pops up, in the bottom part, named “Keywords” you will find labels with all the names of the people you had tagged in Faces of iPhoto
  • select the label of the person you were looking for (don’t mind that the label is greyed out, in this situation they are still selectable) and drag&drop it into the top part, named “Quick Group”
  • then click on the red button top left to close the “Keywords”-window
  • now, back in the main view of Photos.app, click on the “Showing: All Items”-button (again…)
  • from the pulldown menu, select the name of that particular person at “Show Only Keywords”
  • now, you will only see pictures with this particular person you where looking for
  • scroll through the photos and find the pictures you were looking for
  • remember to put the “Showing Only: …”-button back to “Showing: All Items” before you quit Photos.app

HOW TO  GET PEOPLE FROM iPHOTO PICTURES INTO PHOTOS.APP FACES DATABASE ?

After you have created keywords for people you were searching for in Photos.app, you can start to get them into the Faces database of Photos.app… to do that, do this :

  • make sure that the button top right is labeled “Showing Only:…” (in which the dots are substituted by the person’s name)
  • now, dubble-click on a photo that the person is in
  • the photo will enlarge and all faces that are recognized as faces will have a circle around them with a label below them saying “unnamed”
  • if the face of the person you had in mind does have a unnamed-label, click on the label and substitute the “unnamed” by typing the person’s real name over it
  • if the face of the person you had in mind did not get a label automatically, you will have to add it by hand… to do so, do this :
    • click on the “info ( encircled i )”-button top right
    • in the popup window that opens, click on the “plus ( encircled + )”-button
      • make sure that you do this when the name tags are visible in the photo, else it will have no effect
      • if the name tags aren’t displayed, click anywhere on the picture and they will reappear
    • when you click the “plus”-button, a circle wit ha name tag labeled “Click to Name” will appear in the middle of the picture
    • drag this circle over to the face of the person you would like to tag
      • if the circle is too big or too small, you can adjust its size by moving the dot on the right side of the circle
      • if for some reason you want to delete the circle, click on the X-sign on the left edge of the circle
    • then click on “Click to Name” and typ the name of the person whose face is in the circle
    • when done with this picture, proceed to the next picture by swiping from right to left
    • when done with tagging, go back by double-clicking anywhere on the picture
      • after that, you can even get out of the selection of this particular person’s photos by going to the “Showing Only:…”-button and changing it into “All Items” (so the button will say “Showing: All Items”)

Yes, it a painstakingly labor-intensive job to put all those name tage back in to each and every old picture, but you will have to do this for a lot of old pictures before Photo.app’s own Faces function will start to recognise and label people in those old pictures automatically…

enjoy 😉

 

fixed : (re)format a drive in FAT32 MBR using macOS

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Question :

I need to reformat a USB-stick in FAT32 MBR.

Is it possible to do that on a Mac ?

 

Answer :

Yes, you can.

To (re)format a drive, like a USB-stick, external HardDisk or external SSD in FAT32 MBR (MBR = Master Boot Record) do this :

  • plug the drive (USB-stick) into you Mac
  • make sure that there are no files or documents you need to keep left on the drive (USB-stick)
    • copy all files and documents you are not willing to lose to your internal disk space, or to another external drive
  • goto Applications –> Utilities –> Disk Utility
  • double-click on the application’s icon to startup Disk Utility
  • in the window that opens, click on the View-button (top-left) and select “Show Alle Devices”
  • then, select the drive (USB-stick) from the list of drives on the left
    • it should be listed in the “External” chapter
    • make sure you select the drive itself, not the formatted partition that is on it
      • drives are listed entirely on the left (and have a small triangle in front if they are formatted)
      • partitions are listed shifted slightly to the right of the devices list
  • then, click on the Erase-button (top-center, just below the Disk Utility name)
  • in the pulldown window that opens, select these settings :
    • Name : Untitled [ …or any name you prefer, the choice is up to you ]
    • Format : MS-DOS (FAT)
    • Scheme : Master Boot Record
  • then click on the Erase-button
  • now, wait for the process to complete
  • then, click on the Eject-icon (underlined triangle) next to the name of the drive (USB-stick) in the list on the left
  • when de drive (USB-stick) disappears from the list, you can unplug the USB-stick (or external HD or SSD)
  • close the Disk Utility app

That’s it !

enjoy 😉