Troubleshooting Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iOS 4 and iPhone 3G is a match made in... what's the opposite of heaven?

by Chris Rawson (Jul 22nd, 2010)

Update: It's true -- the 4.1 update does wonders for the iPhone 3G's health and happiness on iOS 4. Do you have an iPhone 3G? Me, too. Have you updated it to iOS 4 yet? If the veins are popping out of your neck and your skin is turning green, you probably have. If your iPhone 3G hasn't been ...

Readers: How to get satisfaction from Apple support on iPhone 4 issues

by Steven Sande (Jul 2nd, 2010)

Apple's rumored policy is to not give away the $29 bumpers to consumers, and DIY bumpers may not suit your style. So, how do you get the golden ticket, in this case the free bumper? It seems that documenting your case carefully and showing that you've performed all of the recommended fixes in ...

iPhone sync problems after iTunes update traced to leftover plugin

by Kelly Guimont (Jun 23rd, 2010)

In case you are on the road to an iOS 4 update (and be careful), you might want to double check your work. Remember, first you have to update iTunes to 9.2, which will then allow you to download the iOS 4 update. After I updated iTunes, I went in to make some changes to what I had synced and take ...

How to squash a syncing bug in iTunes 9.1.1

by Chris Rawson (May 7th, 2010)

iTunes 9.1 brought a feature to all iPods that had previously only existed for the Shuffle: the ability to sync lower bitrate, 128 kbps AAC versions of songs. With only a modest reduction in sound quality, enabling this feature saved nearly 2 GB of space on my 16 GB iPhone 3G. After enabling it, the ...

What to do when your Mac dies

by Chris Rawson (Apr 30th, 2010)

In general, Mac hardware is very reliable. Like any complex gizmo, a Mac will have its quirks, but only rarely do those quirks turn into a full-on, machine-killing meltdown. When that does happen, as it recently happened to my wife's MacBook, there's a few things you can do to keep the death of your ...

iPad Wi-Fi issues continue to irritate

by Michael Rose (Apr 7th, 2010)

This morning, we spotted this write-up on Apple 2.0 about dealing with iPad Wi-Fi issues. Since this is the iPad's number one usability issue -- poor Wi-Fi throughput and lost connections -- users are on the prowl for solutions, even ones that may sound a little offbeat. In this case, one ...

Some iPad owners experience Wi-Fi connection issues

by Dave Caolo (Apr 5th, 2010)

Many iPad customers spent the weekend playing with their new devices, and several reported iffy Wi-Fi performance. One thread on Apple's Discussion Boards describes a weak or inconsistent signal. "My signal keeps fluctuating from strong to weak, while my MacBook and iPhone show a consistent ...

Mac 101: Eject a stuck disc

by Dave Caolo (Dec 15th, 2009)

Now that the holidays are approaching, you'll probably be asked to service your relatives' computers. "You like computers, right? Will you take a look at this for me?" Prepare yourself, it's coming. Some fixes are easy, including the stuck disc. It can happen for a variety of reasons that we ...

Some tips when visiting the Genius Bar

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Dec 10th, 2009)

Nobody likes it when their shiny Apple gear breaks. About a week ago I walked in to the Apple Store here in Knoxville to meet with an Apple Genius about my iPhone 3GS. It seems my phone was crashing much more than normal -- I logged around 90 crashes in the five months or so that I had the device. I ...

Mac 101: Building a bootable diagnostic and repair flash drive

by David Winograd (Dec 2nd, 2009)

More Mac 101, our tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Update: You cannot install Snow Leopard on an 8 GB flash drive. I was incorrect in writing that an install of Essential System Software would take 3.81 GB. As a few of our commenters pointed out, and as is the case, in testing I erroneously ...

Getting bit by the Gmail "exceeded IMAP bandwidth limits" bug

by Steven Sande (Nov 21st, 2009)

I have a couple of Gmail accounts set up with Google Apps, so that Google is hosting my email using my own domain names. While those accounts have been working flawlessly for quite a while, I suddenly ran into issues a few days ago where Apple Mail couldn't pull email from the server. I could use ...

Bug tracker: Snow Leopard guest accounts eating files?

by Dave Caolo (Oct 12th, 2009)

Update: Cnet reports that Apple is acknowledging the problem, while calling it "extremely rare." There's a few threads on Apple's Discussion Boards describing a problem that's affecting some Snow Leopard users. An issue with the Guest account feature in SL appears to be chomping down on user data ...

Quick and dirty troubleshooting

by Dave Caolo (Sep 21st, 2009)

There's a great post at creativebits today listing some basic troubleshooting techniques. I like it because it lists some simple tasks that anyone can perform. Some of the tried-and-true techniques include: Restarting Quitting unused apps Installing updates Re-installing a misbehaving ...

iPhoto 8.0.3 updater bug bites many

by David Winograd (Jun 13th, 2009)

Yesterday I tried to open up iPhoto '09, and was greeted with a screen telling me that my iPhoto library needed to be updated. This was sort of odd, since I had run the program many times since the software update of June 4th bringing the program to version 8.0.3, but what the heck. I clicked on ...

Take Control of Maintaining, Troubleshooting your Mac

by Steven Sande (May 25th, 2009)

Author Joe Kissell has been informing and entertaining Mac users for years through his books, TidBITS columns and Macworld articles. He's recently finished a pair of books for the Take Control ebook series that will help you learn how to keep your Mac running at its most efficient pace, as well as ...