Topic: Macbook/Macbook Pro thread

[Zlen]

I'm mostly running one-two years behind MacOS updates. There is always next to nothing in those updates but headaches due to some part of my fragile software ecosystem collapsing. Last time I did a day-one update was Catalina and it permanently fucked my Wacom tablet functionality, broke half of Adobe apps for several weeks and caused me severe delays and productivity issues. Never again.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

I'm mostly running one-two years behind MacOS updates. There is always next to nothing in those updates but headaches due to some part of my fragile software ecosystem collapsing. Last time I did a day-one update was Catalina and it permanently fucked my Wacom tablet functionality, broke half of Adobe apps for several weeks and caused me severe delays and productivity issues. Never again.

They are mostly OK to be fair.

This one has pretty much nuked my Royal TSX though sadly - the cut and paste issue is mostly OK in apps (But still a bit weird) but RoyalTSX is fucked.

I usually have quite a few Terminal/RDP windows open and now when I have half that number open, it just freezes then restarts every 20 seconds or so.

No doubt a fix is coming around the corner

[Zlen]

They were mostly ok for me, until they weren't.
I'm not really gaining anything important from those updates.
For all I care OS could still look like it did in 2008 and I'd be ok with it.

So better safe than sorry.

[Claire.]

I used to run beta versions (still do on my intel cos stuck on Monterey) and had very few issues, anything I do find, straight on feedback assistant for a whinge and they seem to get fixes through quick.

[Zlen]

Updating MacOS on Friday 13th.
I should have fucking known better.

I bought a second hand iMac Pro six months ago. Machine seemed wiped and ready, logged in with my Apple ID and off I go.

Yesterday after updating it got stuck on Activation Lock screen, asking for what I can only assume is previous owners Apple ID.

I’m trying to get in touch with him via the app we initially used to close the deal, no luck so far. If he doesn’t respond or can’t help - is full wiping the only option I have?

It’s my main work machine, though most of my stuff is on clouds, it would still be very painfull to fully wipe (if that would even solve the problem). Is it worth contacting Apple about this? Can they help?

[Millie]

*parks Sonoma upgrade for a few weeks*

Ha ha - was just thinking the same

[Claire.]

Updating MacOS on Friday 13th.
I should have fucking known better.

I bought a second hand iMac Pro six months ago. Machine seemed wiped and ready, logged in with my Apple ID and off I go.

Yesterday after updating it got stuck on Activation Lock screen, asking for what I can only assume is previous owners Apple ID.

I’m trying to get in touch with him via the app we initially used to close the deal, no luck so far. If he doesn’t respond or can’t help - is full wiping the only option I have?

It’s my main work machine, though most of my stuff is on clouds, it would still be very painfull to fully wipe (if that would even solve the problem). Is it worth contacting Apple about this? Can they help?

If you've got proof of purchase then they can help, but from a quick search about seems you might be able to do it yourself. Is the issue with this that he's not removed the machine from his iCloud devices?

[Zlen]

I have a proof of purchase via second hand marketplace, not sure if that’s of any use.

It seems he didn’t remove it from iCloud and it also has Find my checked. But I’m completely bamboozled as to how it allowed me to log into this machine with my iCloud and add it to my devices. Isn’t that exactly what Activation lock is supposed to prevent?

[Claire.]

https://al-support.apple.com/#/additional-support

You can start there, the local backup thing is a bit concerning, but from another article it seems they make a request to the original owner and if it's not in lost mode or the original owner doesn't register a complaint in 30 days it'll be unlocked. The other party hasn't switched off Find My before wiping it which is why it's only been a problem now.

[Zlen]

Well, the guy did reply via the app I used initially, so that's something. I've had a long call with Apple support and basically I either need a proof of purchase of some kind, or his email/password. He says he has moved since and no longer has the phone used fro two-step verification, but that can be fixed by doing Account Recovery IF he has the email and has indeed been the legitimate owner with this machine on his iCloud.

Otherwise I'm fucked.

[Claire.]

What a farce. Hopefully the fact he's replied is a sign that he's the legitimate owner and gets it sorted.

When I sold an old Air remember the steps to prep it for sale were quite long, more paranoia on my part to even look it up, seems its easier now with the new chips and has the erase all options like iOS.

[Zlen]

Yeah, I mean fair enough having a robust system hardware wise, but it's obviously not working well on the human-UX side. If he is the owner and can wipe the machine, sell it to me, I log in and use it for months - before thus issue crops up, something is obviously not right. There needs to be a designated 'prep to sell' process that automatically removes it from his iCloud. I'm still having a bit of hope, but it's not looking good. There is also an iFixit solution to kill the chip responsible - but it's neither trivial nor cheap to do.

Ruined my weekend this.

[PaulF]

I guess it's treading a fine line.  If it's easy to wipe, it's easy to steal and sell.
Owners 'want' something that has decent deterrents to theft.  And I guess Apple aren't too concerned about the second hand market unless it hampers people selling their products to buy upgrades.

probably true of all manufacturers, but less 'sticky' for companies who have numerous rivals .

[Red-Soldier]

Glad I've always steered clear of all Apple products.

It's so easy to shift on old, Windows based systems.

[Hedley Lamarr]

Glad I've always steered clear of all Apple products.

It's so easy to shift on old, Windows based systems.

And all the inherent privacy concerns that come with them.  I'm glad Apple make it so difficult to pass on machines to be honest.  Obviously it's a ballache for people like Zlen and hopefully it gets sorted, but if my Mac got taken out of bag or something It's good to know they can do next to fuck all with it.

[zero zero]

And all the inherent privacy concerns that come with them.  I'm glad Apple make it so difficult to pass on machines to be honest.  Obviously it's a ballache for people like Zlen and hopefully it gets sorted, but if my Mac got taken out of bag or something It's good to know they can do next to fuck all with it.

I agree.

What a strange reason to wade in to an Apple thread.

[PaulF]

I agree.

What a strange reason to wade in to an Apple thread.

Haha, HL is the North Bank of this thread

Staying slightly off topic, but I don't want to be in other apple threads.  Does anyone use bitwarden on an iphone.  Until passkeys become defacto, I'll be using it, but I want to migrate the iphone loving fam onto something other than copying lists of passwords between diaries every year .

[Andy @ Allerton!]

And all the inherent privacy concerns that come with them.  I'm glad Apple make it so difficult to pass on machines to be honest.  Obviously it's a ballache for people like Zlen and hopefully it gets sorted, but if my Mac got taken out of bag or something It's good to know they can do next to fuck all with it.

You think that people that know what they are doing wouldn't be able to do stuff with your Mac?

Ah that's so cute and quite refreshing in this day and age

[Hedley Lamarr]

You think that people that know what they are doing wouldn't be able to do stuff with your Mac?

Ah that's so cute and quite refreshing in this day and age

Says the 'IT expert' that can't manage to make one of the most basic operating systems work.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Says the 'IT expert' that can't manage to make one of the most basic operating systems work.

The Mac isn't a basic operating system. From the ones I've used, I'd say the ZX80 was probably the most basic. The Mac and other modern operating systems are very complicated beasties.

When you say I 'can't get it to work' - then what do you mean? It runs thousands of processes in backgrounds and sometimes new updates break some stuff - usually not stuff written by Apple. Linux and Microsoft have similar issues - Linux less so because the teams that do the Linux updates are better than Apple and better than Microsoft.

I've used probably 50 operating systems on various systems over 40 years of working in IT, so I'd remove the quotes from IT Expert myself. But each to their own.

[PaulF]

To be fair. An IT expert would leave the mac in the bag

[Andy @ Allerton!]

To be fair. An IT expert would leave the mac in the bag

To be fair, the Mac is a great system for developing and doing good stuff on. As it's basically a stolen Linux wrapper, you can run stuff from command line and in the UI seamlessly and it's a great environment when it works.

Windows machines are much, much, much, much more powerful for their buck and running stuff in WSL2 is great, but there are some issues when you are using Windows UIs with WSL2 as they sometimes cannot 'see each other' - so you need to do some work arounds and the development experience is sometimes a bit clunky. I have the entire Jetbrains suite though, which allows you to use WSL2 straight from the IDE and interfaces well with stuff like Docker Desktop and Github Desktop - though you can do both through the IDEs.

The best of both worlds are Linux, but they simply don't have the support that Microsoft and Apple machines have for the UI. If you are using the command line then they win hands down. If you want to use a decent UI and so on then, sometimes not so good, but Linux UIs - like VSCode and the like are improving every day.

My Linux boxes are a little slow though as they mostly are on old windows Laptops I installed Linux on - still decent, but can't really compete with a modern Windows or Mac machine.

[Riquende]

I have the entire Jetbrains suite though, which allows you to use WSL2 straight from the IDE and interfaces well with stuff like Docker Desktop and Github Desktop - though you can do both through the IDEs.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/02a723LsoFA&amp;pp=ygUOYnJ1aXNlciBpdCBndXk%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/02a723LsoFA&amp;pp=ygUOYnJ1aXNlciBpdCBndXk%3D</a>

I'm not sure how many people remember 'Bruiser', it had a young cast that would go on to become mostly all-star but didn't make an impact at the time.

[zero zero]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/02a723LsoFA&amp;pp=ygUOYnJ1aXNlciBpdCBndXk%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/02a723LsoFA&amp;pp=ygUOYnJ1aXNlciBpdCBndXk%3D</a>

I'm not sure how many people remember 'Bruiser', it had a young cast that would go on to become mostly all-star but didn't make an impact at the time.

"Jetbrains suite"

[...]

My Macbook Air M1 screen broke randomly - I've had it for 2 years ish. To replace the screen it would have cost around £550, the value of the laptop if I'd sell it with a working screen.

My only option seems to claim a refund under consumer law, but it appears that Apple have to write me a report saying the device was faulty when I bought it.

It's absolutely not on. There has been no damage to the laptop.

Anyone had anything similar happen?

[Claire.]

My Macbook Air M1 screen broke randomly - I've had it for 2 years ish. To replace the screen it would have cost around £550, the value of the laptop if I'd sell it with a working screen.

My only option seems to claim a refund under consumer law, but it appears that Apple have to write me a report saying the device was faulty when I bought it.

It's absolutely not on. There has been no damage to the laptop.

Anyone had anything similar happen?

Have you taken it to apple and they've refused to fix it? It's less than 6 years old so if it's a problem with internals of the machine they will sort it.

[...]

Have you taken it to apple and they've refused to fix it? It's less than 6 years old so if it's a problem with internals of the machine they will sort it.

They quoted me around £500 to fix the screen, they don't care that I haven't dropped or damaged it myself.

[Ben S]

To be fair. An IT expert would leave the mac in the bag

The bag will help hold the bricks when you chuck the sack of shite into a lake.

[Claire.]

Did you interrogate the member of staff on why they're asking you to pay? If there's no obvious damage to the outside case, I'd want a breakdown of what they think has happened.

[Claire.]

They quoted me around £500 to fix the screen, they don't care that I haven't dropped or damaged it myself.

https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/09/16/almeida_v_apple.pdf looks like they're going to court over it, though can't find out when yet.

[...]

https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/09/16/almeida_v_apple.pdf looks like they're going to court over it, though can't find out when yet.

oh wow! and yes it's incredibly incredibly frustrating. I had to buy a new laptop for work.

[CraigDS]

Anyone here work between both an Apple laptop and desktop?

Got a Macbook a month or so ago and finding myself traveling more and more and taking my Mac Mini with me to plug in places was getting a pain in the arse.

Just wondering if anyone who does work between two have any tips and tricks to make life easier?

[Zlen]

My work-work is all on Google Cloud, my personal work is on iCloud. So picking up and continuing work is easy and seemless. You can share folders between Macs to, if you aren’t synced on cloud.

[Claire.]

I do similar but my workflow is different and I just use GitHub/dropbox/iCloud. All browser tabs and stuff are synced through either iCloud or google acc.

[Zlen]

So a pretty miserable update on my iMac Pro.

My attempts to get any meaningful cooperation from the seller have all failed. I got a single message from him via the online marketplace, saying he is sorry, can't get the Apple ID and has given me a number to his former colleague who can fix it via some boot hack. I messaged repeatedly, to get even some traction to try and restore it via Apple ID and do this properly - no reply. Since what I had at that point was a brick - I got in touch with the guy he mentioned and arranged to have it bypassed.

The process would limit me to using not the latest OS, for which I don't care and I would also likely lose all my data - but I can manage as most of it is on cloud. There was also always a chance of it getting blocked again, but not that likely and could be bypassed by ust linking it via my other Mac and running a small application. We arranged for pickup, he did his job though it was a tricky bypass because my machine got locked not after a hard reboot, but during the system update. But it got done in the end. Took a long time as he was mostly working on this after hours, as a favour to the seller guy, but fuck it - I waited.

He organised the shipping back, wrapped it in ungodly amount of protective materials and after another long wait during the Irish bank holiday weekend - it finally arrived today. Smashed. Box looks fine, no protective material was removed. Machine screen is smashed. No idea yet if it boots or not, will check later. Wonderful people of UPS have ignored all the FRAGILE warnings.

I'm pretty disheartened at this point. Don't really feel like pursuing this any more, would simply chuck it in the bin and write it off. It's fucking cursed for whatever reason. May as well burn my savings/get a loan and buy a new computer - forget this one ever existed. I feel like I both did nothing wrong throughout and made all possible mistakes at the same time.

[Claire.]

:| oh fuckin ell mate, I'm sorry to hear that, are UPS going to pay out on insurance for the damage?

[Zlen]

Like hell they will.
I raised a case for it, but I don't have high hopes of anything happening.
In the meantime, my soul is dying with every day I spend working on the small Macbook screen.

[Zlen]

My home computer story had a happy ending after all. Well, not in regards to the iMac Pro, that is still messed up and basically useless. I packaged it up and put it up for sale, will probably get few hundred for it and it will be scrapped for parts. Shame as it's a great machine that could have been good for most tasks for good few more years. But after I discovered the chasis is bent and I really can't replace the screen panel - I took a loan out and was looking at buying a new machine.

Since it's 4-5k I asked my company could we do some deal where they procure it, I pay for it out of my salary or whatever - just so I don't pay VAT for it. No reply from them so I forgot about it and went about lining up a machine to buy. And literally on the day I was about to buy one, they came back to have a chat. Turned out they have a project where they can claim back 50% of costs for tech equipment and were happy to simply buy the machine outright. I expressed my endless gratitute by absolutely beefing up the sweet jesus out of the hardware. So flying to my address now is a Studio Display and Mac Studio with Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 38‑core GPU, 96GB memory and 2TB SSD. I am going to have some fun alright.

[Claire.]

that's amazing Zlen, made up for you!

That's the setup I'm considering at the mo when it's time to retire this iMac, let me know what the studio display is like in comparison to the 27 5k!

[Zlen]

Thanks. Yeah, Im also interested in the display. There is no differentce in resolution but it is a new panel and has higher brightness, possibly slightly better colour accuracy I think. Have to say, once you work on these retina screens - there is no going back. Everything else feels like playing tetris.