Tag Archives: Mac AppStore

fixed : ValiDrive alternative for macOS

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Question :
I have purchased a 2TB USB-stick for a discount price. I thought that was an incredible deal and when I received it it looked great and my Mac even recognises the USB-stick as properly and sees 2TB of available disk space. I can even reformat the drive and it will still remain listed as 2TB… incredible !
But as the brand name on the product and the packaging do not add up, I got the feeling that at least something is off… so I googled some and found that it is common practice with USB-sticks with extreme memory sizes to turn out to be fraudulent or even counterfeit products… in-factory the firmware has been hacked to make the USB-stick appear as a large volume drive, but when in use, but when in use the data copying either stops when the maximum amount of actual (hardware) memory capacity is reached (4GB or 8GB or sometimes even more) or the data copying keeps on going endlessly but is at the same time erasing previously copied data…
That is really bad news…
Now there is a tiny piece of software for Windows that can check if a drive has been tampered with like that : ValiDrive by GRC (Gibson Research Company) …but that’s Windows-only…

Is there any app for macOS that can do the same ?

Answer :
YES there is !
Even though there is no official version of ValiDrive for macOS and drive checking apps like Disk Utility, TechTool Pro, CleanMyMac X and WD Drive Utilities are not (yet) able detect these hacked drives… there is a macOS-app that can :
Drive Capacity Tester by Sascha Simon Software ( available on the Mac AppStore )

Here’s how to use Drive Capacity Tester to verify USB drives :
– plug the USB-stick into your Mac
– if there is still data on the USB-stick, backup all data from it, then trash everything or reformat
– when there’s no more data on the USB-stick, open Drive Capacity Tester
– then, in the list, select the USB-stick
– in the popup window that appears, just leave Size at “Full” and Steps at “Write and verify data” and click the “Start Test” button (there is no nessecity to pay for the Pro-version… but it is of course very kind of you to support Sascha Simon by buying the Pro-version)
– now, if the countdown underneath the “Writing Files” status bar just counts down to zero, just let it finish… if it finishes regularly, you’re good : the drive is what it is supposed to be
– but… if the countdown underneath the “Writing Files” status bar counts down extremely fast, then loops and restarts the countdown… you can be sure that it is a faulty USB-stick
– in that case you can stop the “Writing Files” process as it will probably get you nowhere… (or you can let it run till it finishes, if ever, hoping you will find how much memory space there actually is on the drive

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : can’t connect new iPhone (iOS 12) to MacBook Air Late 2010

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Question :

I have a new iPhone 8 (running iOS 12) and I want to connect it to iTunes on my MacBook Air (Late 2010), but when I connect them using the Lightning-to-USB-cable I get an error message saying the software on my Mac should be updated.

I found that I had OSX 10.10 Yosemite installed, so I used the Mac AppStore-app to upgrade to macOS 10.13 High_Sierra. That went smoothly, so I also installed all available updates for my apps from the Mac AppStore. Then, I ran into a strange error : I can’t upgrade to the newest version of iMovie because my version of macOS doesn’t meet the minimal system requirements…

I also ran iTunes, but even now my iPhone 8 isn’t recognised when I connect it…

I found that for some reason macOS 10.13.4 is installed, and not 10.13.6, but still : Mac AppStore says “no updates available”…

Is my MacBook Air late2010 not meeting the minimal system requirements for macOS 10.13.6 for some reason ?

I looked up my MacBook Air late 2010 in MacTracker, and found that is should be able to run macOS 10.13.6 so why won’t it install ?

How can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

For reasons unknown, you need to upgrade your MacBook Air to macOS 10.13.5 manually using this download :

download macOS 10.13.5 upgrade

And only after macOS 10.13.5 is installed, you can manually upgrade to macOS 10.13.6 using this download (this is an incremental upgrade, not a combo upgrade) :

download macOS 10.13.6 upgrade

After macOS 10.13.6 is installed, you should be able to update to the latest versions of iMovie and iTunes via the Mac AppStore.

If iTunes won’t update, you need to (re)install it manually, using this download :

download iTunes

After installing the latest version of iTunes, connect your iPhone to your Mac using a Lighting-to-USB-cable. Now, an extra update will be downloaded, which will put an extra Devices-button in the iTunes and your iPhone will be recognised in iTunes.

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : my Mac can’t unzip this file I’ve downloaded

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Question :

Someone just sent me a file over WeTransfer. After downloading it turns out to be a .zip-file, but when I double-click on it to unzip as usual, the Archive Utility does start the unzipping but ends in an error each time, claiming the .zip-file is broken.

I’m pretty sure the .zip-file isn’t broken… what can I do ?

 

Answer :

Even though OSX/macOS’s built-in Archive Utility is your default choice for zipping and unzipping files and folders, it turn out not to be the best choice for unzipping. (Especially .zip-files created on Windows PCs seem to be problematic every now and then…)

The solution is simple : just use an other app to unzip.

There are various payed alternatives like Stuffit Expander and WinZIP, but there’s no need to buy an app for this as most FREE apps ( like The Unarchiver ) will do just fine.

To install & use another app to unzip do this :

  • download a FREE zip/unzip-app from the Mac AppStore
  • after installation, lookup the .zip-file on your Mac ( it will probably still be in your Downloads folder or on your Desktop )
  • right-click on the .zip-file’s icon and select “Open with…” from the pop-up menu
  • then choose your zip/unzip-app from the list
  • …and wait for the file to unzip

That’s it ! enjoy 😉

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fixed : macOS Sierra downloaded but installer won’t run

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Question :

Since the latest version of OSX (entitled “macOS Sierra) has been yesterday, I wanted to install it on my Mac. I clicked on “download” in the Mac AppStore and  the download started ; on the dedicated product page I could see the status bar filling up and finally stating “downloaded”… but then, nothing happened…

The download wouldn’t install…

I re-checked if macOS Sierra does support my Mac, it does. So I tried restarting the AppStore-app, I tried logging out my iCloud/AppStore-account & than logging back in, I tried rebooting my Mac, I tried rebooting in SafeMode, I tried FirstAid in the Disk Utility app, I tried clicking 10 times on the “downloaded” button repeatedly, I tried installing the DeBug-menus & cleaning the AppStore cache, I tried deleting the hidden AppStore downloads folder… and I tried various command line solutions found online in the Terminal app… nothing helped… I am still stuck with the button under the macOS Sierra icon saying “downloaded”… and nothing happens…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

You are probably not (really) going to like this answer, because this will set you back hours & hours, in which you can’t use your Mac ; but it’s the only way known to solve this, and you need to have a recent TimeMachine backup (or alike) for it :

  1. shut down your Mac
  2. disconnect all cables  from your Mac (except your keyboard & mouse if you haven’t got a MacBook)
  3. restart your Mac, and be quick to press the [CMD]+[R] key-combo during startup (your Mac will now start up in Recovery Mode)
  4. in the “OS X Utilities” window that appears, select Restore From TimeMachine Backup and click Continue
  5. in the next “Restore Your System” window, click Continue
  6. now first make sure that your Mac can connect to your TimeMachine-harddisk by plugging in it’s USB-cable, plugging in your Ethernet-network-cable or connect to your WiFi router
  7. then select the hard drive that has your TimeMachine backups on it and click Continue
  8. in the next window, make sure you select the most recent backup that is from before you tried to download macOS Sierra ; only if you’re sure you’ve selected the right backup, proceed and click Continue
  9. now wait (or do something more useful in the mean time) and wait and wait ; this is going to take hours and hours ; putting back a TimeMachine backup this way will go a a speed of about 30BG per hour, so if your hard drive is 500GB it may take you about 15 hours (yes, an entire night and an entire morning…)
  10. finally, once the TimeMachine backup-reinstall is done, your Mac will restart… just let it
  11. then, when logged in, open the Mac AppStore-app and notice that the button under the macOS Sierra now says “download” ; click on it
  12. after the download has completed, you should now see the installer window popup on your screen… proceed from there…

that’s it… it’s simple, but very time-consuming…

enjoy !

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