Category: Mac OS X

  • Installing Mac OS – An error occurred while preparing the installation…

    Issue Installing Mac OS X on iMac’s blank formatted hard drive. Installation runs for 5-10 minutes and then fails with following error: An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again. Tried installing OS X El Capitan (10.11) and OS X Sierra (10.12) – the same error occurs in both cases.

  • Mac OS L2TP/IPsec VPN connects but no access to remote network

    Issue L2TP/IPsec VPN successfully connects to a remote VPN server, but Mac OS still has no access to the remote network. Resolution To resolve the issue I had to select “Send all traffic over VPN connection” in VPN network Advanced settings.

  • Merge split iMac Fusion drive (SSD + HDD) back into one

    These instructions shows how to merge an original iMac Fusion drive that for some (installing Windows, messing with Disk Utility) was split into separate SSD and HDD drives. Warning: performing below steps will irrecoverably wipe both SSD and HDD drives. Make sure you have all your data backed up.

  • Parallels error “Windows cannot access \psf…”

    Issue Following error is displayed when trying to open files stored on Mac’s disk using Windows 10 running in Parallels. Error appears regardless of whether Coherence mode is enabled or not.

  • Upgrading svn on Mac OS X

    This is a quick way to upgrade svn (subversion) on Mac OS X. In this particular case it was Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and svn was upgraded from v1.7 to v1.9.

  • Apple Photos displays incorrect thumbnails for some photos

    Apple Photos on Mac OS 10.11 (El. Capitan). Some photos have mixed up thumbnails. Basically this means that preview thumbnail is one photo, but when a user double clicks on the thumbnail, a completely different photo is displayed…

  • Apple Photos on Mac OS – iCloud download stuck on “Updating”

    Issue Macbook Air (MacOS 10.11 – El Capitan) with empty Photos library cannot download photos from iCloud (previously uploaded by another Macbook). iCloud Photo Library status in Photos > Preferences > iCloud stuck on “Updating” for over 24 hours. Restarting computer, pausing iCloud upload, re-creating or repairing Photos database doesn’t make any difference.

  • Crackling and popping audio noise in iMove videos

    Quite recently, while on holiday I have been taking some videos with Sony A6000 mirrorless photo camera. To help with wind noise I also brought Sony ECM-XYST1M external microphone. I normally edit video with Sony Movie Studio, but since I had a Macbook with me, this time I decided to edit my videos using iMovie.…

  • Another account from the same organization is already signed in…

    Issue Trying to active Microsoft Office for Mac 2016 a Macbook Pro. After entering valid Office 365 Business Premium user account login details following error message is displayed: Another account from the same organization is already signed in

  • Create Mac OS X (Yosemite) Bootable Installation USB drive

    All steps need to be completed on a Mac computer. Download Mac OS X (Yosemite) from Apple App Store

  • Apple Mail – Change Default Sent Folder for IMAP Account

    If Apple Mail didn’t automatically assign a correct folder on the IMAP server as its Sent folder, this can be easily fixed.  Simply select the correct folder in the folders pane on the left-hand side. Then from the menu select Mailbox > Use This Mailbox As > Sent Mailbox.

  • Stop .DS_Store file creation by Mac OS X

    Mac OS X has an annoying habit of littering network shares with .DS_Store (Desktop Services Store) files. If you only use Mac OS X and other Unix based systems you may never actually see them, but in mixed environments they can become a bit of a nuisance. There is nothing critical stored in .DS_Store files, just Finder…