Tag Archives: error

tip : make sure your TimeMachine-update is useable

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Question :

While doing a regular check on my Mac with Disk Utility, it just informed me that I have a potential hardware failure, should save a many data as I can and reinstall.

So I was planning on doing a TimeMachine-backup and disk-reformat, followed by a clean install of OSX and copy-back from TimeMachine.

But… I recently found reports on a bug in TimeMachine, that might prevent TimeMachine from recognizing the latest backup…

Is there a way to make sure that my latest TimeMachine-backup is useable ?

 

Answer :

This bug seems to occur with unfinished TimeMachine-backups, either due to disconnection, unplugging or switching from WiFi to Ethernet or vice-versa…

As with all things in life, nothing is 100% sure or secure…

But if you want near-100% assurance that your latest TimeMachine-backup will work after a ‘clean install’, do this :

– make sure your Mac is connected to your TimeMachine-backup-disk in only one way, so if it’s an external harddisk disconnect the Ethernet-network cable and set AirPort/Wifi to OFF, to have the connection ‘only via USB’ or ‘only via FireWire’ and if your TimeMachine-backup-disk is a NAS or TimeCapsule, disconnect from AirPort/WiFi (and preferably connect the Ethernet-cable from the NAS or TimeCapsule straight into your Mac, and if possible, stop all other network-connections over Ethernet, by disconnecting all cables, and shutting down AirPort/WiFi) to have the connection ‘only via Ethernet’

– do a new “Back Up Now” in TimeMachine, and make sure it finishes completely before you do anything else (preferably, shut down all other apps before backing up also)

– then startup the Migration Assistant-app (from the Utilities folder in the Applications folder), and type your Mac’s administrator-password when asked

– in the first window, select “From a Mac, Time Machine Backup or startup disk”, and click “Continue”

– in the next window, select the disk that your TimeMachine-backups are on (if you’re on a Time Capsule, you will need to type your TimeCapsule-password when asked), and click “Continue”

– in the next window, a list of all backups (a.k.a. sparsebundles) available on the disk will be displayed ; now you will have to wait a little for each sparsebundle to display what the date is of the backup-version that can be retrieved… if that date matches today’s date, you have a perfect backup available, and you can exit the Migration Assistant-app by repeatedly clicking the “Back”-button

…but if the date is different, or the “No Volumes Found in backup”-error is displayed, your backup is useless for easy recovery ; you will have to exit the Migration Assistant-app, and start over the entire backup-routine explained above, and then check again in the Migration Assistant-app …you have to keep repeating this entire routine until you get today’s date displayed below the backup’s name

If you do not do as described above, you are in serious, enormously time-consuming trouble…  (even though this doesn’t always mean that your personal data is lost… everything might be lost, but… it could also mean you will have to repair the sparsebundle-files and/or it could also mean that you will have to copy everything back ; folder-by-folder or even file-by-file… either in the Time Machine-app or in the Finder ; and all applications will have to be manually reinstalled again…)

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fixed : SMS (iMessage) not delivered from iOS 7 iPhone to iOS 6 iPhone

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Question :

Lately, some of my friends have complained to me that they did not receive my recent SMS-es at all…

…I was completely sure I had send them, and when I look inside the Messages-app, they’re properly listed as a blue SMS (= an iMessage).

Any idea what could be wrong ? …and how to fix this ?

Answer :

There seems to be a problem/bug/incompatibility between iOS 7 and iOS 6 when sending iMessages from iOS 7 to people who have not yet upgraded to iOS 7 and are still on iOS 6.

FYI : in iOS 7 and iOS 6, the Messages-app auto-detects if you’re sending a text message to an iPhone or not :

– if your text message turns Blue, it has been sent as an FREE Apple iMessage

– if your text message turns Green, it has been sent as a ‘good-old’ (payed) SMS

Fixing this problem/bug/incompatibility is rather simple, even though it’s really annoying…

But the real problem for you-as-a-user is that it’s really hard to tell on forehand if your ‘SMS’ (iMessage) will be delivered or not…

The only thing you can do ‘as an iOS 7 user’ is this :

– in Messages-app, select the recipient and type a text message as you normally would

– when it turns Green, just send it out (it will be send as a regular SMS)

– when it turns Blue, and you’re not 100% sure the recipient is using iOS 7, hold your finger on the text until a few extra options appear, then choose “Send as text message”… now your text message will turn Green and be send (as a regular SMS)

– when it turns Blue, and you’re 100% sure the recipient is using iOS 7, just send it out (it will be send as a FREE Apple iMessage)

…and when you’re not sure if this did go okay after you’ve send the text message : see if there is a red circle with a white exclamation mark next to your (Blue) text message…

…if there is, click on it and choose the option “Send as text message”

…and if you get any complaints from people that they didn’t receive your SMS since you’ve upgraded to iOS 7, select the text message again, hold your finger on it a little longer and select “Send as text message” from the options that appear.

Good Luck !

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fixed : “Service Battery” warning

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Question :

When I started up my Mac today, and looked at the battery indicator in the top menu bar, I noticed that there was something unusual… so when I clicked on it, the pull down menu did not show the usual battery info. It showed a warning saying “Service Battery”.

As I do not believe my battery is dead, this looks like a bug to me… is it ? And what can I do about it ?

Answer :

The “Service Battery” message (a.k.a. warning) just indicated that your battery has not been calibrated for a long time… this might occur when you have not once fully used your battery ; you have not used your fully charged battery until it was completely empty once in the last three months… this is noting serious, you just need to do so again.

More on this can be found on Apple’s website :

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

In short, for any MacBook or MacBook Pro that has a removable battery, the battery calibration routine is :

1- plug in the power cord and charge until the battery is fully loaded (so until the LED-light in the connector stays green) [ during this you can still use your Mac ]

2- leave the power cord connected for at least 2 more hours [ during this you can still use your Mac also ]

3- unplug the power cord and leave your MacBook (MacBook Pro) running until the battery is empty [ during this you can also keep using your Mac, but remember to save all your open work when you get a warning that your battery is nearly empty ]

4- when your MacBook (MacBook Pro) goes to sleep when the battery is completely empty, just let it.

5- then let your MacBook (MacBook Pro) ‘rest’ for at least 5 hours

6- when the 5 hours are over, reconnect the power cord and fully charge your battery again [ during this you can use your Mac, in a normal, modest way, just don’t exaggerate : use as little applications at the same time as possible and shut down any non-vital applications that are running in the background ]

That should be it, but if it doesn’t work for you, you might want to try this :

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

More info on doing so, can be found on Apple’s website :

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

And if that doesn’t help either, you will probably have a non-original Apple battery, or if you do have an original Apple-battery, it is probably broken due to falling or shock.

Either way, you’ll probably need to buy a new battery… [ note : from experience, I can tell that an original Apple-battery is better value-for-money even though the price is high ; imitation batteries usually start out right, but then suddenly die within about one year… ]

fixed : NSURLErrorDomain Error while updating through Mac App Store

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Question :

When I tried to install the updates that were available in the Mac App Store today, I got a “NSURLErrorDomain”-error, and the update refused to install…

…what can I do to get the update installed anyhow ?

Answer :

This is the type of error that you might encounter when trying to upgrade a piece of Apple software in the Mac App Store on OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion.

The fix is relatively simple (ironically, this does render the use of the Mac App Store obsolete) :

Go to the Apple website, download the update you’re having problems with there, and install it manually.

http://support.apple.com/downloads/

That’s it.

e.g. when trying to upgrade Safari 6 to Safari 6.0.2 you might get the error message “(NSURLErrorDomain error -3001.)(102)” ; you can fix that by getting the right update here :

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/53/02/041-8081/2jwp4wjrwygtm4lc608qy4h0n4a9yyq 37g/Safari6.0.2Mountain.pkg

e.g. when trying to upgrade Mountain Lion itself to version 10.8.1 through the Mac App Store, you might get the error message “(NSURLErrorDomain error -1100.)(102)” ; you can fix that by getting the right update here :

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1571

e.g. for the manual update to OSX 10.8.5, go here :

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1675

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fixed : “Your browser is not supported” error in Safari on iCloud.com

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Question :

I have OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion with Safari 6, but when I try to log in on iCloud.com, I get a message saying “Your browser is not supported. To use iCloud, we recommend using the latest version of Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.”

The error on iCloud.com is the worst, but I also get reminders on other sites like Facebook and ANWB.nl that my browser isn’t recent enough, and I should update…

I can’t upgrade as I am already on the latest version of Safari.

I’ve tried switching the User Agent under the Develop chapter in Safari’s menu bar, but whatever I try, when I restart Safari, it automatically defaults back to a custom User Agent string that reads :

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible- MSIE 6.0- Windows NT 5.1- SV1- .NET CLR 1.1.4322

What can I do ? this is getting on my nerves…

Answer :

the solution is rather straight forward : delete all plist-files associated with Safari manually

here’s how to do so :

– in the Finder, in the upper menu bar go to “Go”

– then “Go to folder…”

– in the popup window type “~/library/preferences”

(that’s how you get into the hidden Library-folder)

– then drag these files to the Desktop (you might not have all of them on you Mac) :

com.apple.Safari.plist

com.apple.Safari.plist.ByIRcYZ

com.apple.Safari.plist.lockfile

com.apple.Safari.plist.RRS.plist

com.apple.Safari.plist.RSS.plist.lockfile

– then restart Safari and check if everything works as you would like it to

– if so, drag those .plist-files you just moved to the Desktop to the Trash

…that’s it

FYI : theoretically you could also have replaced the custom User Agent string by the proper one for Safari 6 :

Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A5355d Safari/8536.25

…too bad that your Safari will probably not be able to save that though, so you’ll still have to follow the directions outlined above…

more User Agent strings can be found here :

http://www.useragentstring.com/_uas_Safari_version_.php