#Mavericks & iTunes error

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After reinstalling Mavericks, I tried synchronising iTunes (after copying back my library from the previous installation) and my iPhone. I got the following error message “The iPhone “xxx" could not be synced because this computer is no longer authorized for purchasing items that are on this iPhone."

I believe it´s because me and my wife both used the phone, so we had a mix of apps she purchased under her ID and some I purchased under mine. One app is not allowing us to sync
The solution is:
1)on the  iPhone go to Settings->Store. If the following screen appears you are signed in. Press your AppleID and sign out.


You should now have this screen. If you already did, do nothing

2) On iTunes go to Store -> deauthorize this computer. Enter login and password
3) On iTunes go to the iPhone -> Apps. Remove all apps (don´t worry, you will reinstall them)
4) On iTunes, press sync
5) On iTunes go to Store -> Authorize this computer. Enter login and password
6) On iTunes go to the iPhone -> Apps. Reinstall apps.

MacOs #Mavericks: Can read but can´t write to an external drive?

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If you have a big enough USB stick or external USB hard drive and use it with Windows, chances are they are formatted with NTFS.  The good thing is that as of Mac OS X 10.3 and later Apple introduced support for NTFS drives,  however by default it´s read only. Meaning you can see & use whatever the drive has, but can´t add or change information on it (like having a CD-ROM drive). Not an ideal solution.
There are two ways to change this behaviour in MacOS Mavericks, via the Apple driver or 3rd party software

1) Set-up with the Apple driver:
Pros:
- No 3rd party driver needed that you need to spend money with
Cons:
- You need to set it up one device at a time
- Not 100% reliable

1) Make sure your NTFS drive has a name with only one word (i.e. no spaces)
2) Open Terminal: Utilities -> Terminal

3) execute:
sudo nano /etc/fstab
It will ask you for your administrator password

4) Add the following line :
LABEL=<USBNAME> none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
 Replacing <USBNAME> with the name of your external hard disk


5) Press Ctrl-X to exit, and Yes to the question if you want to save and keep the same filename
6) Eject your external drive via Finder
7) Reconnect your external drive
8) In the Terminal window, execute:
open /Volumes
Done!

2) Set-up with 3rd party software
Pros:
Easy to use, no configuration needed. Just install, restart your computer and done
Works with any HDD USB key without needing to configure each new device
Cons:
Not free, but does have 14 day trial

1) Download driver from
http://www.paragon-drivers.com/ntfs-mac/
2) Install
3) Restart
There will be a new icon within System Preferences that allows you to change any permissions you might need and register the software.


4) Plug in any NTFS drive you want, they allow reading and writing.

Enabling TRIM for SSD in MacOS #Mavericks

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On my MacBook Pro I installed a Samsung 430 256GB SSD hard drive.

Unfortunately, Apple set as a default on it´s operating systems (Mountain Lion was also like this) that any 3rd party SSD (not installed by Apple) will not have TRIM support.

 Why TRIM support?

From how I understand it, SSDs are extremely slow in writing vs. their reading speed. They are even slower if the block they are writing to still has data (i.e. you erased something, but the block wash´t rewritten to zero - this happens also with normal HDDs) as it first needs to reset to zero and then overwrite the new data.

As to speed up the disk, most SSDs have a Garbage Collector functionality that is setting the blocks that have erased data to Zero.

TRIM is a communication in-between OS and the SSD that helps define which blocks need to be erased. This leads to less writes - and we all know the big limitation of SSD is the number of write cycles we can do with it.

 

So.. to enable TRIM in MacOS Mavericks

1) Check if you have trim enabled or disabled. Go to Apple symbol -> About this Mac -> More info -> System report

2) In the side panel select SATA/SATA Express and check for your SSD if ¨Trim Support” has yes or no.

3) If it has ¨No¨,  Download a program called Chamelon SSD Optimizer. It is Freewaren you are free to donate to the owner via Paypal.

Get it here: http://chameleon.alessandroboschini.it/index.php

4) Mavericks will not let you open the app due to the security settings

5) Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy

6) Mavericks has a really good new feature where it allows you to raise a security exception for only 1 program. In mountain Lion you would have to change security settings for all apps, execute and then set back. For Mavericks it recognized Chameleon SSD Optimizer gave an error and has a button for you ¨Open Anyway¨. press it.

7) It will still give one warning. Press open

8) When Chameleon opens, press the lock symbol on the bottom left and introduce your administrator / system password. Then just move the TRIM slider to ON.

9) Reboot the machine

10) go back to Apple symbol -> About this Mac -> More info -> System report and see if TRIM is enabled.

 

Enjoy!

Time Machine Issues after upgrading to #Mavericks: Black screen or non-available Backups

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I currently have an Apple Time Capsule serving the Wi-Fi of my house and handling the automatic Time Machine backup of two Macs. I had some issues installing Mavericks, which forced me to do a fresh install. I thought everything would be okay because I had all my information on my Time machine, right? Not exactly.

After installing the operating system I tried doing the Apple migration. However, what Time Machine managed to recover wasn’t exactly my old computer as it left orphans. Some applications were not installed but continued to have the Preferences panel in the System Preferences (Such as the go pro cuneiform, or the perian), or if they were kept at the dock there would be a question mark in it´s place.

Instead of trying to figure out what was right and what was wrong on this installation, I reinstalled Mavericks again and decided to get the information I needed out of the Time Machine like the documents folder, then the Desktop, etc… 

This is where the problem started. On entering Time machine on the time bar to the right, my previous backups where light purple - they could´t even be selected.

Solution:

1) connect to Time Machine via LAN cable and to WiFi - it´ll be much faster

2) Press the Option (alt) key while pressing the time capsule symbol on the menu bar. There will be a new option ¨Verify Backups¨ where ¨Back Up Now¨ was.

3) Let it Verify. When it is finished, the the bars will be Purple, and the Time Capsule will go into them

 

Problem #2 - After all this Time Machine would show me black boxes only, vs. the normal finder window!

 

The black screens are because the Time Machine has defaulted into a folder that it has not backed up. i.e. If you are in the Applications folder before getting into Time Machine and it does not have that folder backed up, it will show the black screen.

Solution:

1) Open finder (outside of Time Machine)

2) Go to your computer, or press CMD-Shift-C. 

3) Select the hard drive that you have backed up

4) Enter Time machine again via ¨Enter Time Machine¨ on the menu bar

5) You should be able to navigate to /Users/<your user name> and get any file you need

 

 

How to Log-in to Flickr in #Mavericks with a Google account

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I had some difficulties setting this up as the shortcut to set-up Flickr in MacOs Mavericks does´t work with google accounts. Putting your gmail address and password (or application specific password if you have 2-step verification does´t work).

However I have found a work-around:

1) Login to the flickr webpage

2) Hover over your logo on the top right hand corner then click on ¨settings¨

3) Click on Edit your yahoo! preferences

4) On the Yahoo! webpage that appears, login with your google credentials

5) Click on the top right corn Mail symbol

6) Set-up a yahoo email address and password.

7) In MacOs Mavericks go to Settings -> Internet accounts

8) Press the + sign

9) Scroll down on the right panel to Flickr:

10) Add the login details of the yahoo email address and password you created with 6

How to setup Hotmail or Outlook.com with IMAP on MacOS #Mavericks

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After today´s complicated installation of Mavericks that made me do a fresh installation, I had to set-up all services again.

Despite having a better protocol with Exchange support, which has support within Mavericks, Microsoft has decided to limit exchange support to mobile devices (iPhone, Android and Windows Phone) and keep desktop clients except for Outlook 2013 cut off. The solution to not install POP3 which does´t allow synchronisation in-between devices is to use IMAP. 

This is step by step instructions on how to install a Hotmail or Outlook.com on the mail app of Mavericks:

1) Go to Settings, click on internet accounts

 

2) On the right list, scroll down to ¨Add other Account…¨

3) Put the radio button next to ¨Add a Mail account¨ and press Create

3) In the add a Mail Account screen:

      Full name: The name you want to appear when people receive your emails

     Email address: Your hotmail / Outlook email complete address 

     Password: Your hotmail / Outlook email  password

Press next 

3) It will say account needs to be manually configured. Press ¨Next"

Account Type: IMAP

Mail server: imap-mail.outlook.com

 User name: Your hotmail / Outlook email complete address 

Password: Your hotmail / Outlook email password

Press next 

4) After displaying ¨verifying¨ it will say ¨Additional account information required. Press next

Port: Change from 995 to 993

Use SSL: Checked

Authentication: Password

Press next 

5) In the outgoing mail server screen:

SMTP server: smtp-mail.outlook.com

 User name: Your hotmail / Outlook email complete address 

Password: Your hotmail / Outlook email password

Press Create

 

and you are done!!!

 

P.s. If you have two-factor authentication enabled for your Hotmail or Outlook.com account, before the above, create an application-specific password as your normal account password will not work.

Here's how to create an application-specific password:

1. Go to outlook.com / hotmail.com and login to your account

2. Go to Account Settings

3. Open Edit security info

4. Under App passwords, open Create a new app password