El Capitan Clean Install still can’t authorize Messages!

So I decided it had been too long since I have done a clean system install, and since I am having so many OS X problems, I decided to do a clean install. I found an old small hard drive, and wiped it and installed El Capitan on it.

After re-install I tried Messages, and low and behold, I still am getting the can’t authorize iMessage message! WTF! And I have a serial number in my about this mac, and have no replaced the motherboard or processors or even ram! THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING! It worked fine until El Capitan!

Honestly I can only think of one thing it could be, and I hope it isn’t. I have this Wifi and Bluetooth Card from MacVidCards to enable Handoff, Continuity and Airdrop. It worked fine in Yosemite, but maybe Apple did something to stop it in El Capitan, and that is stopping me from being able to use Messages in El Capitan. Maybe.

Going to also go through all my internet accounts and see if paring them down helps. I don’t know, this is so damn frustrating!

Mac Peformance Guide on a new Mac Pro

Mac Performance guide fields a question on why their isn’t a new MacPro tower.

And hopefully they have it right, that Apple is not dropping it, but waiting for Thunderbolt 3, which can go over a USB 3.1 cable, and leave it all one port.

Still doesn’t answer the need for real PCI slots and the ability to use normal video cards (especially NVIDIA cards), but it would make for a much simpler machine. If a port can be USB, Video or Thunderbolt with the same connector.

Larry Jordan has a good article on how Disk Utility has been emasulated in OS X El Capitan

Larry Jordan has a good in depth article on the emasculation of Disk Utility in OS X El Capitan. He goes into how Soft Raid is the best solution to create software Raids in El Capitan.

Of course Soft Raid has always been a better solution than Disk Utility, but it is also a $179 solution to something that you used to be able to do for Free in Disk Utility!

Major Problems with El Capitan: Continued Again

My problems have been continuing with El Capitan.

Now it is iTunes that is really a mess. It is so slow, that it is barely functioning, with a beach ball lasting hours at times. My wife and I were trying to stream a movie from my computer to my Apple TV, and it froze up and stayed that way for hours. iTunes is just wrecked at this point.

I might have been able to fix Photos, so it goes to the correct Library. I had to use Fat Cat Software’s iPhoto Library Manager to do it though. When I opened iPhoto Library Manager 4, it showed 2 Libraries, and one was the one that Photos was trying to use, and it was an empty Library that I never created, and was showing up RED. So I deleted it, and iPhoto seems to go to the correct library now.

Still have been unable to get Messages to function at all, though I was able to make it go further by repairing permissions using Onyx, since that functionality has been removed from Disk Utility (as well as the ability to create Software RAIDs). And since it doesn’t even work for a brand new account, or after a re-install of el capitan I am kind of stumped.

My next step is to format another drive and install El Capitan on that and see if I can get Messages to work on that. I don’t really want to do that, but I can think of no other way to get Messages to work. My current system does go back quite a ways, so a clean install might be in order, though I don’t want to, as I have all the programs I want installed, but it looks like that may be my only recourse at this point.

Will keep updating to tell you how things are going.

Major Problems with El Capitan: Continued

So I forgot some things in my last post and have since upgraded to 10.11.1 and wanted to share some more on my issues with El Capitan.

Photos no longer remembers my photo library and instead asks every time which one to use, though if it just used the last one it used it would be fine, but instead it starts up and says it can’t use the current library and I need to chose one. Fun fun fun.

Next continues from a problem I mentioned the last time. Because of the new security features of El Capitan, of which there are no fine controls, certain applications must ask permission to function, and you must give that permission every time you use them. One such program is iTeleport Connect, which I use to VPN into my computer. So when I restart it no longer can log into it, I must type in my Admin password to make it work. The problem arises when I must remotely restart my machine, or even worse when I do a system update.

Since I run a PC based NVIDIA GTX 670 as my graphics card, when I do a system update, it doesn’t function until the latest NVIDIA driver is installed. Previously what I had done, is install the update, wait for it to restart and then use iTeleport Connect to VPN into my computer and install the newest NVIDIA driver, and walla, when I restart my video card is working fine and I can go about my day. Since El Capitan no longer allows iTeleport to work without first entering my Admin Password, and since after a system update I can no longer see my computer, I have to pull my video card and re-install my old GTX 270 the machine came with, and then update the NVIDIA drive, restart to make the driver work, then shut down and install my GTX 670 and then start up. Then I have a working video card. Much more of a pain than being able to VPN in and install using my iPad. If I had money I would get a new video card that is flashed for Mac, so I could install the new driver, but I can’t afford that.

And now we come to the 10.11.1 update. Not only did I have to do the swapping video cards rigmarole to get my computer up again, but when I restarted the system was lets shall we say funky. I couldn’t open some programs and many of my system preferences didn’t work, they just wouldn’t launch. And the best part was the fix. I ran the latest version of Onyx, and repaired Disk Permissions, and when I restarted everything functioned again. So obviously the new internal Permissions Repair did not work correctly, and with Disk Utility no longer having that functionality I had to use a 3rd party software to fix the System Install and allow things to work again!

And I was hoping this would fix my Messages not being able to log in, but no of course it didn’t. I still get the stupid activation error when I try to sign into iMessages in the Messages app.

So far El Capitan is a nightmare, and nothing has wowed me to show me that this is a worthwhile update.

Scott Simmons at PVC has started a series on a Mac Editor switching to PC, well worth a read

Scott Simmons at the Pro Video Coalition was given a Dell Workstation laptop and has started a series on Editing on it after being used to Mac for years. The article is just getting started on it, but it is an interesting read and I look forward to reading more about it.

Personally I never edit on a laptop and do most of my editing on a Mac Tower (or even a QUO hackintosh at one place I work), but with the “new MacPro” (I put in quotes since it has been so long since the trashcan has been released without a single update) I have started to think that my next edit system may very well be a PC Workstation with an NVIDIA TITAN graphics card instead of the MacPro trashcan.

Major problems with El Capitan

http://www.apple.com/osx/

Well Apple recently released it’s next OS X upgrade, OS X El Capitan, and for me at least it has nothing but trouble.

I run a MacPro 4,1, which is rapidly again, but still works well for video work (especially with an NVIDIA GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM of it), and so far my upgrade to OS X El Capitan has been a nightmare.

First off Messages no longer works for me. I cannot log into Messages with my Apple account, it says that I can’t activate my account. I have been trying solutions since it came out, including deleting preferences, resetting my keychain, setting up a new account (and it still wouldn’t work there), and re-installing El Capitan, but still it does not activate. So Messages is just completely broken for me. And I am not running a Hackintosh, nor have I changed mortherboards and lost my serial number (it still shows up in about this Mac).

And then there are the problems with Mail. While my accounts have come over, it seems it has removed the passwords from the outgoing mail servers, and since they are so badly hidden within Apple Mail (in advanced and you have to select custom in a drop down menu to get to them), it is a super pain to go in and re-enter all of my passwords so that I can actually send mail! And this seems to have happened with my mom’s computer as well, and I can’t easily fix it, since I can’t log into Messages to do video chat and take over her computer! ANNOYING!

And while the startup seems quicker now, my finder is very slow and so is iTunes! And my first step on any repair has always been to repair permissions, but you with Disk Utility at least, you can’t do that anymore. That feature has been removed as the system is supposed to do that itself when you install a new program, but I would like to be able to do that myself. Now Titanium software’s Onyx still says it does that, I am not sure you should anymore, though I am going to try it.

Now Alsfot’s Diskwarrior works on El Capitan, but it’s repairs have not helped my system at all. And TechTool Pro needs to be updated to work so I can’t try that.

And another annoyance is that iTeleport Connect, which I use to VNC into my computer from my iPad needs you to enter your admin password every time it starts in El Capitan, so if the machine restarts I can no longer VNC into my computer without first being there to enter the password! I am sure this is a security feature, but I have saved my Machine using iTeleport when some driver screwed up and I was still able to VNC in, but with it not able to log in on it’s own I can’t do that anymore! FRUSTRATING!!!

And that is to say nothing of pretty much the whole Adobe Video suite not working at all in El Capitan! And there is no word from Adobe of an update (other than some word that their previous demo of After Effects running on Metal [of of the new big features of El Capitan] and running 8 x faster will likely not be coming to consumers) that will fix this. Hopefully they are working with Apple and an update is coming, but so far there is no word.

So far El Capitan is a huge bust for me, and I wish I hadn’t upgraded at all. Apple should not have released this until the bugs were worked out, and important software like Adobe’s Creative Cloud actually worked!

Apple has refreshed it’s entire iMac Line, with a 4K 21.5 inch and all 27 inch models now 5K

Apple has refreshed it’s entire iMac line. They all sport Thunderbolt 2 ports, and there is now a 21.5 inch 4K display (Starting at $1499), and they have made all 27 Inch Models 5K (at $1799-2299)! AWESOME!

And they have upgraded their wireless keyboards, mice and touchpads with rechargeable batteries with a month life that charge and pair using lightning cables.

The iMacs are pretty exciting as editing machines, especially with Thunderbolt. I would still prefer NVIDIA graphics over the AMD that Apple now uses across it’s line, but they are still good cards.

Light L16 Camera


Not a video camera (though it will shoot 4K video), but a new type of camera, that offers features like the Lytro (being able to refocus an image after you take it) using new technology has been announced, the L16 from Light. I first red about it at RedShark News.

This is basically a flat camera body with 16 tiny lenses with different focal lengths and light sensitivity mounted sidways with 45 degree mirrors, and in any one photo 10 of the lenses fire and advanced computational power combines them to create an over 50 mega pixel image. And if you zoom with the touch screen, it fires more long lenses to create a zoomed image, and while everything will be in focus to begin with you can then refocus using their software.

Sounds like some very cool tech, thought a bit pricy at $1699 ($1299 if you pre-order with a $200 downpayment), and it does seem pretty large in all the videos. Not like a smart phone, but certainly smaller than a DSLR.

I will be very interested in seeing how this actually performs when it comes out!