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How to Boot MacBook Pro Without a Battery (Older Models 2006 – 2011)

written by applenws

You may have noticed that sometimes you can not power on and boot a MacBook Pro when it doesn’t have a battery installed. Let’s say you had to remove the battery of an older MacBook Pro because it was swelling, or the battery failed for some other reason, but when you go to power on the MacBook Pro, nothing happens. (To be clear, this article is aimed at older MacBook Pro model years, like a 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, back when replacing a battery, hard disk, RAM, was all fairly easy to do by opening the bottom case).

In this situation, if a battery is removed or totally dead and you attempt to start the MacBook Pro, nothing happens – there is no sound, no system boot, no startup chime, nothing. It turns out that some model year MacBook Pro computers will not boot with a simple power button press after the battery has been physically removed or disconnected.

Of course if you happen to have a replacement battery then you can typically just replace the missing battery with a working battery and the MacBook Pro will boot, but that is not always an option. So let’s discuss how to boot an older MacBook Pro when there is no battery present at all.

How to Boot MacBook Pro with No Battery Installed

We are assuming the MacBook Pro has no battery installed in the computer, meaning there physically is no battery installed. Then, when attempting to boot the Mac or pressing the start button, nothing happens. In this case, you can force the MacBook Pro to boot by following these steps:

Unplug the MagSafe power cable
Hold down the Power button for 10 seconds and continue to hold it down
While still holding the Power button, connect the MagSafe power cable to the MacBook Pro and continue to hold the Power button for another 10 seconds
Release the Power button, then press the Power button as usual to power on the computer and boot the Mac

When the MacBook Pro does boot, the fans will be blasting at full speed for the entire time you are using the Mac.

Also it appears that the MacBook Pro will reduce its own clock speed in this situation, thereby reducing performance.

The only way to stop the fans from running at full speed and to return the clock speed to regular performance is to install a new battery into the MacBook Pro.

I experienced this scenario on an old MacBook Pro 2010 model after removing a swollen battery. Once the battery was removed you can press the power button but nothing happens. However, the above method of disconnecting and reconnecting MagSafe while holding the Power button was successful in starting up the Mac – with fans running at full speed and at reduced clock speed however. Nonetheless, Snow Leopard still runs well!

As you can see in the screenshot below, the “No Battery” indicator is visible, but the MacBook Pro is booted and working.

MacBook Pro booted without a battery

And indeed, this particular MacBook Pro has no physical battery installed as you can see the internals in this picture:

MacBook Pro with no battery will not boot with normal power press

Powering Up a MacBook Pro After Replacing Battery, Logic Board, Hard Drive, RAM, etc too

Apparently the same aforementioned scenario of the MacBook / MacBook Pro not starting up can also unfold when replacing other internal components on these older model year MacBook Pro (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, etc), including replaced logic boards, internal hard drives, RAM, battery, and perhaps other hardware components too.

With some other internal component replacements, sometimes simply plugging in the MagSafe adapter and holding the power button for 10 seconds is enough to cause the MacBook Pro to start.

Also, Check the Power Adapter Wattage

For what it’s worth, in some scenarios where the battery appears dead but is not actually (ie, the charge is long drained but the battery itself isn’t completely useless yet), then you may be able to successfully boot the MacBook Pro with a proper wattage MagSafe power adapter of 85W. These older model year MacBook Pro computers use 85W power adapters, whereas the MacBook and MacBook Air of the same generation used 60W power adapters. Sometimes simply plugging in the proper higher wattage power adapter will allow the MacBook Pro to boot.

This MagSafe power button pressing solution was found on iFixIt forums and it worked for me, so if you’re in a similar scenario with an older MacBook Pro then try it out yourself. If for some reason the above method does not work, the original forum poster does state the following possible workaround involving moving a RAM module to a different slot (if applicable):

“If that doesn’t work then try to remove one RAM memory [module] and switch places and [repeat] the method”

In my case this juggling of the RAM module was not necessary to boot the MacBook Pro (a 2010 model year) without a battery, but that additional tidbit may be valid to you.

This article is obviously aimed at older MacBook Pro hardware, but it may be relevant to other older MacBook models too, including similar model year (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) MacBook and MacBook Air, and perhaps even some newer MacBook Pro models too. By the way, if you’re rocking an older Mac and want to speed it up, check out these tips.

Of course newer model year MacBook (Pro & Air too) hardware does not have user serviceable batteries and in some cases the battery is glued to the top case, so in those situations the ability to end up in a situation where the computer doesn’t have a battery is much less likely, and any troubleshooting scenario is going to be much more extreme requiring a more thorough hardware repair that is far beyond the scope of this particular article. In those situations, take the Mac to a certified Apple Repair Specialist or an Apple Store instead.

Long live the old Macs! Does this qualify for retro status yet? Probably not… give it a bit longer.

Source: OSX Daily

June 14, 2019 0 comment

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How to Get Your MacBook Ready to Sell

written by applenws

Photo: David Murphy

I’m getting rid of my MacBook. It’s nothing personal; I have to swap out my G/O Media-owned device for another, slightly slower MacBook. It’s an annoying process, but it doesn’t take a lot of time. In fact, it probably took me more time to come up with the “checklist of things I should do before you get rid of your MacBook” than to do the actual work.

And now, Lifehacker readers, I impart that knowledge to you. Regardless of the reason, there will one day come a time when you’ll be looking to get rid of your MacBook. When you do, there are a few things you’ll want to do to your trusty laptop before you send it off into the sunset—to ensure data security, a smooth transition, and no hiccups for whoever owns it next (unless it’s going right into the recycling bin).

Turn off FileVault

If you’ve been using FileVault, your Mac’s handy full-disk encryption feature, you’ve been living life secure and happy. However, now that you’re getting rid of your MacBook, it’s time to turn this off. It sounds like the exact opposite of what you’d want to do, I know, but you’ll be wiping your drive and reinstalling a fresh copy of macOS. Disabling FileVault will ensure this process goes smoothly—and it’s a good step to take if you’re looking to reset your Mac back to “factory default” settings.

Illustration for article titled How to Get Your MacBook Ready to Sell — Screenshot: David Murphy

Click on the Apple logo in the upper-left corner of your MacBook and click on System Preferences. From there, click on Security & Privacy, and then the FileVault tab, to turn the feature off. Depending on the speed of your MacBook and how much data you have, the decryption process could take anywhere from tens of minutes to a few hours.

Turn off Find My Mac

This is probably a superfluous step, but it doesn’t take very long and it’s something you always have to do when you’re getting rid of an iPhone or iPad. So, why not?

I like to take a minute to make sure I’m no longer using Find My Mac on my soon-to-be-gone MacBook. You won’t be able to toggle this off within the app itself; instead, visit your MacBook’s System Preferences and click on iCloud. Uncheck Find My Mac, type in your password for your iCloud account, and you’ll be set.

Deauthorize your computer

I always forget this step, and I invariably have to reset all of my iTunes authorizations more frequently than most. Before you box up your MacBook and ship it off to wherever it’s going, pull up iTunes—or if you’re on macOS Catalina, the new Music and Apple TV apps—and deauthorize your system via the Account menu (and then “Authorizations,” naturally).

If you don’t do this, then you’ll have to deauthorize everything once you hit five authorized computers and you want to access your account (and all your purchased media) on another. You can only do this once per year, but most people don’t need to authorize that many systems so much.

Unlink other accounts

This one is particular based on how many other services you’ve integrated with your device. However, it doesn’t hurt to deauthorize your MacBook with other services like Google or Dropbox (to name two I use frequently).

If you use some subscription service that limits how many devices you can use, make sure you’ve done this before you ditch your MacBook—especially if the only way to do this after-the-fact is to deauthorize everything, which will require you to sign back in on your other devices.

Sync your Messages to iCloud

If you’ve been doing a ton of chatting on your MacBook, and you want to reference these conversations later, make sure you’re synchronizing your messages to iCloud. Open up the Messages app and click on Messages, and then Preferences. Click on iMessage, and select “Enable Messages in iCloud” for your account. Click “Sync Now” to start the process, and give it a little time to throw everything onto the cloud (viewable by any other Apple device with a similar setting enabled).

While you’re at it, you might as well synchronize other data you aren’t already sending to Apple’s cloud—like your Notes, Contacts, Reminders, et cetera—via the iCloud option in System Preferences (or Apple Account and then iCloud, if you’re already in macOS Catalina).

Log out of iCloud

This one’s easy, and it helps ensure that your old MacBook will never be associated with your iCloud account going forward—especially useful for the buyer, who would likely prefer you to have no visibility whatsoever into where they are.

Pull up System Preferences, click on iCloud, (or Apple Account, in macOS Catalina), and click on “Sign Out.” Your MacBook will ensure that your data is correctly synced to the cloud, but you can skip this process if you know everything is already there.

Once you’ve done this, pull up iCloud’s Settings page—on the web—and confirm that your MacBook is no longer listed as one of your devices. If it is, click on it and remove it.

Back up your stuff

You could put this step anywhere, really. Whenever you do it, make sure you do a thorough scrub of your device to ensure that everything critical to you is backed up elsewhere. Whether you’re dumping your photos (or data) to another cloud service, cloning a drive in Disk Utility, dragging and dropping your critical files to a USB-connected external drive, or making ample use of Time Machine, spend some time with your Mac to ensure you haven’t missed anything.

Don’t do this step in a rush. Make a mental map of everything you do in a typical day (or week), and make sure the files you regularly access are saved somewhere else.

Erase all your stuff

When you’re ready to wipe your laptop clean, restart it. As your system boots, hold down Command + Option + R. Once you see your MacBook’s loading screen pop up, you can stop holding the keys down. After a bit of time, you’ll boot into your MacBook’s recovery mode. Open up the Disk Utility app, click on your primary disk or volume, and select the Erase option. I recommend reformatting it with APFS and using the GUID Partition Map scheme (as does Apple).

Once you’ve wiped your drive clean, exit Disk Utility and select Reinstall macOS. This will install a clean copy of the latest macOS version that’s compatible with your device, a nice gesture for whoever is getting your MacBook next (if anyone).

Source:
LifeHacker

June 10, 2019 0 comment

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Mac Randomly Double Typing Keys or Double-Spacing Between Words? This Might Fix It

written by applenws

Have you ever been typing on a Mac laptop keyboard and noticed that hitting the spacebar sometimes randomly inserts double spaces between words? Or maybe you’re typing some other letter and randomly two of that key is doubled-typed? Some MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook users have discovered this happens seemingly at random, where hitting a key or the spacebar actually inserts two spaces or two characters instead of one, which is a nuisance at best and problematic at worst.

Mystery double key presses are a well-documented issue with some MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook computers, and while it’s not clear what causes the issue or how widespread the problem is, if you’re encountering the double typing issue yourself, you may find a settings change in Mac OS can help reduce the frequency, or even fix it entirely. We’ll also cover a few other possible troubleshooting options for addressing double typing issues on Mac laptops.

How to Fix Double Typing Key Problems on MacBook Pro & MacBook Air

Note this settings change may not resolve the double typing problem for everyone, but for some Mac laptop users it does appear to completely remedy the double typing key and double spacebar issues. It’s a simple settings change either way and thus is worth a try, here’s what to do:

Pull down the  Apple menu and go to “System Preferences”
Go to the “Keyboard” preference panel, and choose the Keyboard tab
Locate the “Key Repeat” slider setting and adjust it to the “Off” position

How to fix double typing keys on Mac by turning off key repeat

Exit out of System Preferences
Open any typing application (TextEdit, Word, Pages, etc) and try to replicate the double-typing issue by typing sentences and phrases as usual, the double space and double typing issue should be resolved

If you’re able to successfully type sentences, phrases, spaces, keys, letters, numbers, and anything else without double-typing occurring, then your issue may be resolved entirely by this simple settings change. If the double typing problem is now resolved when this feature iso ff, that could indicate a bug associated with the Key Repeat functionality in MacOS, though that’s purely speculation.

Unfortunately not all MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air users will have such luck, and some Mac laptop owners may discover they issue persists despite changing the key repeat settings.

Mac Laptop Still Double Typing? Clean the Keyboard!

If the Mac is still double typing characters and spaces, the next thing you should do is clean the Mac keyboard, which can be made easier with an app called ‘Keyboard Cleaner’ that temporarily blocks the keys on a computer so that they can be pressed down without inserting any characters. Typically wiping down the keys with a very lightly damp cloth or

If you have a 2016 or later MacBook Pro with the newer flat keyboard design, then you can also choose to follow this official instruction set from Apple on cleaning a MacBook / Pro keyboard which involves a series of gymnastic movements of the computer with precise angle instructions, rotation suggestions, and directional recommendations on how to blast a keyboard with a third party compressed air canister. It’s a fascinating support guide, and the method described using compressed air might work to resolve key issues for you.

Help, my MacBook Pro / MacBook Air keyboard is still typing double-spaces and double keys!

If you cleaned the keyboard and made the above settings change to Key Repeat and yet you find your Mac laptop keyboard is still randomly repeating keys when pressed once, it is possible the MacBook Pro, MacBook, or MacBook Air keyboard has a physical hardware problem.

The good news is that Apple actually has an extended service program for faulty keyboards on some Mac laptop models, including all 2016 MacBook Pro models, all 2017 MacBook Pro models, all 2015, 2016, and 2017 12″ MacBook models (note the keyboard program does not include any 2015 MacBook Pro or Air model, which had a completely different keyboard design). In fact, the first keyboard issue identified by Apple with the faulty keyboards on some Mac laptops is “Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly”. Thus if your Mac laptop falls in that model release year, you may be able to get a free keyboard repair. If you aren’t sure which model year Mac you have, you can check when a Mac was built and what the Mac model is with these instructions.

The “Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro” from Apple covers many modern Mac laptops with the new flat key keyboard design. Interestingly, the 2018 model year MacBook Pro and 2018 MacBook Air are not included in the keyboard repair program list, despite those Mac laptops having the same flat keyboard design, and despite some users have issues with double-repeating keys as well (yours truly included with a max-spec 2018 Retina MacBook Air, hence part of the motivation of this article).

Regardless, if you have a 2018 model year Mac laptop that is experiencing the double-key press issue, and cleaning the keys or disabling the aforementioned ‘Key Repeat’ does not work to resolve the double-typing keyboard issue for you, you might want to reach out to Apple Support anyway, because many 2018 Mac laptops will still be covered under the limited warranty.

Did the above key repeat trick stop your Mac laptop from erroneously and randomly typing double spaces and double key entries? Did you find another solution? Share your experiences with the random double key press issue (assuming you’ve encountered it) in the comments below!

Source: OSX Daily

March 13, 2019 0 comment

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How to Disable Keyboard Backlighting on MacBook Pro or Air

written by applenws

Keyboard backlighting is one of the best keyboard features on Mac laptops, illuminating the keyboard to help you see the keys better in low light situations. And let’s face it, it also just plain looks cool too. Most MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air users like the keyboard backlighting feature, but there are some users who might not, and there also some scenarios where some Mac laptop users may wish to completely disable the keyboard backlighting feature.

This article will show you how to completely disable the keyboard backlighting on Mac laptops should you want to do so.

How to Disable Keyboard Backlighting on Mac Laptops

Here’s how you can turn off keyboard backlighting on MacBook Pro, Air, and MacBook:

Go to the  Apple menu and to “System Preferences” then select the ‘Keyboard’ preference panel
Under the ‘Keyboard’ section uncheck the box for “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light”
Now press the “F5” key repeatedly (or fn + F5, or find the keyboard backlight button on Touch Bar) until the key backlighting is off

That’s it, keyboard backlighting will now be off. This is visibly obvious, so give the keys a look or take them into dim or dark lighting to confirm.

It’s important to turn off the “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light” setting first, otherwise you’ll find the keyboard backlighting sometimes turns itself back on again depending on what the ambient lighting situation is.

How to Disable Keyboard Backlighting on Mac Laptops

If you want to reverse this change and re-enable keyboard backlighting on the Mac laptop series:

Go to the  Apple menu then to “System Preferences” and choose the ‘Keyboard’ preferences
Under the ‘Keyboard’ section check to enable “Adjust keyboard brightness in low light”
Press “F6” key repeatedly (or fn + F6, or find the keyboard backlight button on Touch Bar) until keyboard backlighting is back on and at the brightness setting you desire

If you’re trying to turn keyboard backlighting on again but see a keyboard lighting locked logo on the screen, it’s probably because the light sensor is being activated by a bright light in the room or from elsewhere. Nonetheless if you’re convinced there’s another issue, follow this troubleshooting guide if keyboard backlighting is not working on a MacBook and you’ll probably be able to fix it pretty quickly.

This applies to the backlit keyboards on MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air, as the Apple desktop keyboards don’t have keyboard backlighting.

If you know of another method to disable keyboard backlighting on Mac laptop, share with us in the comments below!

Source: OSX Daily

January 20, 2019 0 comment

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Battery Draining with MacOS Mojave? 15 Battery Life Tips to Help

written by applenws

Do you feel like battery life has worsened since updating a Mac laptop to MacOS Mojave? Some Mac users have discovered their battery life has reduced after updating a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air to MacOS Mojave 10.14.x, or just that battery life seems to drain faster than expected.

Here we will discuss a few possible reasons for reductions in battery life, as well as offer some helpful tips to improve battery life on Mac laptops running MacOS Mojave.

1: Recently update a Mac laptop to Mojave? Then wait…

If you just recently updated a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook to MacOS Mojave, and now you feel like the laptop battery is draining much faster than usual, then you might be right… your battery life could be worse than usual, at least for the time being.

This is usually because MacOS runs a variety of background activities and tasks for everything from indexing Spotlight, indexing Photos, to managing and syncing iCloud data, to various other background tasks. The effect of this system activity is potentially a temporary reduction in battery life or even reduced system performance as the background processes complete themselves.

The solution to this is quite simple, and requires nothing more than some patience. Just wait until all there background activity completes. Leave your Mac laptop plugged into a power outlet and turned on for a while (leaving it on overnight when it’s not in general use can be helpful for this, just be sure to use a screen saver or turn the display off) and just let MacOS complete the necessary background chores. After a day or two these background tasks should be completed, and Mac performance and MacBook battery life should return back to normal.

Remember you can always check to see how much time a Mac battery is expected to last based on current activity and the current charge by looking in the Energy section of Activity Monitor. This can help to be a reference point for knowing what your current battery life is, as well as seeing how it may change based on various adjustments made using the tips below.

2: Check Energy Saver Battery Settings

Some Mac laptop users may have Energy Saver settings configured in such a way that is not optimal for battery life.

Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”, then go to “Energy Saver”
Go to the Battery tab
Make sure that “Power Nap” is disabled for Battery, and that ‘Turn display off after’ is set to a reasonably short time on battery (a few minutes or less), etc

Power Nap and Turn display settings as Battery life tips for MacOS Mojave

Some MacBook Pro users have noticed that Power Nap was turned on for battery power, which can theoretically lead to increased battery draining when a Mac laptop is in sleep mode, since it allows for some limited system activity even when a computer is sleeping. Power Nap is fine for using with a Power Adapter, but on Battery power it’s best to leave that setting off.

3: Check for Energy Consuming Apps

You can see what Mac apps are using battery energy quickly by using the battery menu. If you see something in the list that is drawing significant power and you’re not using the app, quit it, or address the behavior that is causing notable energy consumption.

From anywhere on the Mac, pull down the battery menu
Wait for energy use data to load under the “Apps Using Significant Energy” section for quickly seeing energy consuming apps, take action as needed (save work and quit the app, etc)

See what apps using significant energy in MacOS Mojave

4: Investigate Energy Consuming Processes

You can investigate energy usage for all processes, apps, and tasks on the Mac with Activity Monitor, this can be helpful for finding errant processes that are hogging battery power, or for simply locating an obvious battery draining app or process:

Open ‘Activity Monitor’, found in /Applications/Utilities/
Click the “Energy” tab to see apps energy usage

find processes using energy and draining Mac battery

Pay attention for what apps and processes are running and potentially using energy, though note that many system specific tasks or processes may simply need to complete their task before they no longer consume notable energy resources (for example, if you recently updated system software, or rebooted a Mac, or are actively running Time Machine in the background for system backups, etc, you will likely see processes related to those activities).

5: Reduce Screen Brightness on the Mac Laptop

Reducing screen brightness can lead to a dramatic improvement to battery life on any electronic devices, Mac laptops included. Whether it’s a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or MacBook, you can improve battery life by reducing screen brightness. Lower the brightness to whatever is tolerable to your usage situation, obviously if you’re in a dimmer lit area then having a low screen brightness is more acceptable than in a bright room, so use discretion.

You can adjust screen brightness from the keyboard (or Touch Bar), or from the Display preference panel.

Reduce screen brightness to improve battery life on Mac laptops

6: Turn Off Visual Effects and Transparency in MacOS

MacOS has a variety of visual effects with transparent backgrounds and animated motions that all look great, but they also require some system resources to render. Turning off the visual eye candy can potentially help to improve battery life simply because it reduces resource usage:

Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”, then go to “Accessibility”
In ‘Accessibility’ select the “Display” settings
Check the boxes next to “Reduce Motion” and “Reduce Transparency”

Disable visual effects on the Mac

Some Mac users may notice that turning on Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency can speed up their computer a bit too, particularly on older machines, or if you frequently have many windows open. And of course some people just prefer the way that things look and function with these features turned off as well, so even if you don’t discover any performance change you may appreciate the customization anyway.

9 Additional General Battery Life Tips for MacOS Mojave

Some other general tips to help improve battery life in MacOS (Mojave or otherwise) are as follows:

Install system software updates in Mac OS when they become available
Install app updates when they become available
Quit apps when you are finished using them
Reduce the total number of apps open at the same time to reduce system resource usage
When you are finished using them, close any open Finder windows that automatically update (like “Recents” / All My Files, smart folders, etc), or that sync to a cloud service (iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc)
Turn off unnecessary Location Services, as found in System Preferences > “Security & Privacy” > “Privacy” > “Location Services”, turning off extra location services
Consider resetting SMC on the Mac if the battery drain issue is associated with something like constantly running fans, or other unusual behavior
If your wi-fi is problematic in ways that can impact power consumption, like dropping connections, then consider troubleshooting any wi-fi issues in MacOS Mojave to reduce the energy use of searching for new wireless connections
Review some general battery life tips for MacBook and Mac laptops

How has your battery life been with MacOS Mojave? Does your MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air have better or worse battery life since updating to MacOS 10.14? Did the above tips help to resolve any battery drain issues you may have been having? Share with us your experiences with battery life and troubleshooting in MacOS Mojave by leaving a comment below.

Source: OSX Daily

December 12, 2018 0 comment

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How to Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting Automatically from Inactivity on Mac

written by applenws

If you’d like the keyboard backlighting on a MacBook Pro or Air to turn itself off after the Mac laptop has been inactive for a determined amount of time, you can toggle a system setting to allow for that.

This setting is aimed at specifically the keyboard backlighting, independent of what’s going on with the screen or the Mac itself, which is what makes this different from the general Energy Saver settings that turn off the Mac display or cause a MacBook to sleep after inactivity.

How to Automatically Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting with System Inactivity on MacOS

From the  Apple menu, choose ‘System Preferences’
Select “Keyboard”
Under the ‘Keyboard’ tab of keyboard preferences, check the box for “Turn keyboard backlight off after 5 secs of inactivity”

Disable the keyboard backlighting with inactivity on Mac

Optionally, adjust the inactivity before the keyboard backlight turns off by clicking the dropdown menu and selecting one of the following: 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes
Exit System Preferences

As mentioned earlier, this is separate from other Energy Saver features that cause the Mac to sleep or the display to sleep after inactivity, as this only impacts the keyboard backlighting.

Keep in mind you can also manually adjust key backlighting by pressing the proper FN keys (typically f5 and f6) on the Mac laptop keyboard as well.

Whether or not this setting could impact battery life is debatable, as the lights used to backlight the keyboard are undeniably highly efficient. Nonetheless they do draw power, so you may find some minimal difference one way or the other, if so feel free to share with us in the comments below about whatever change you notice. Perhaps that’s why this feature is not in the Energy Saver section of System Preferences, where you won’t find settings for the keyboard backlighting. Instead you’ll want to go to the Keyboard preference panel on the Mac, which is logical given that it’s a keyboard preference.

The aforementioned steps pertain to this feature in modern MacOS releases. In earlier versions of Mac OS X, there was a slider with the time options instead, and a ‘never’ option which had the same effect of simply unchecking the “Turn keyboard backlight off after inactivity” box in modern MacOS Keyboard preferences.

If you enabled this setting and you leave your Mac alone, the keyboard backlighting will turn off in the set time if the computer is inactive. Keep that in mind if you come across your Mac laptop and the keys aren’t lit, or else you might think the keyboard backlighting is not working at all, or as intended.

The backlit keyboards on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook are one of the Mac laptops great features, and keyboard backlighting makes using a Mac laptop in a low light situation or at night an extra joy.

Source: OSX Daily

December 1, 2018 0 comment

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How to Add Custom Buttons to the Touch Bar on a New MacBook Pro

written by applenws

Photo: David Murphy

We’re back with another Apple-themed issue of Tech 911, where I give it my all to help you figure out the issues you’re having with your computer, smartphone, device, or life.

This time around, I’m getting a little personal. My girlfriend Jessica just got a brand-new MacBook Pro—keyboard issues be damned.

It can feel a little jarring to go from physical buttons to the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar, especially when you’re used to being able to just function-key your way through system commands in macOS.

I don’t remember exactly how she phrased it, the gist of Jessica’s question was “Where is that button that makes all my windows pop out?”

She was referring to the Mission Control button on her previous MacBook, which defaults to function key F3. There’s no F3 on the Touch Bar of the new MacBook when you’re looking at your macOS desktop. The bar is almost blank, with a gaping chasm between Esc key and your Control Strip.

You can pull up your function keys by simply pressing the function button, but you still won’t see the icons that used to live under them. (And, obviously, pressing a virtual button like F3 after hitting the Function button is going to do whatever F3 does, not summon Mission Control.)

So where did Mission Control go? If you look at the default icons on the Touch Bar—found in its Control Strip—you won’t find what you’re looking for. However, if you tap on the left-most arrow, that expands the Control Bar to show you the full range of shortcuts that you used physical buttons to access on older Macs. And right there, fourth from the left, is Mission Control.

Still, that’s a convoluted way to access it, and there are a few tricks you can do to put Mission Control—or other virtual buttons—more front-and-center on your new MacBook.

How to customize your Mac’s Control Bar

First, click on the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your Mac and select System Preferences (or just click the icon on your Dock).

Select Keyboard, and then select Customize Touch Bar. You’ll now be able to move your mouse cursor down to your Touch Bar to remove any icons you don’t want on your Control Strip or, if you expand it first, the full Touch Bar. Swap out what you own’t use for what you will, or rearrange icons to an arrangement that better fits for your needs. The power is yours.

One important caveat, though: The Control Bar can only be so big. You get four easy-to-access icons, but that’s it, no more.

If you aren’t happy with that—and I’m certainly not—head back to the Keyboard settings window. In there, look for the “Press Fn key to…” option, and set that to “Expand Control Strip” for an easier way to show even more button shortcuts.

You can also set the Touch Bar to show the Expanded Control Strip by default (via the “Touch Bar shows…” menu), but the option is a double-edged sword: It’ll be easier to use your various system controls, but you’ll lose out on the specialized app controls that pop in and out as you switch through various programs.

Why Apple can’t just let you expand your Control Strip by default and flip the Touch Bar over to App Controls when necessary, I’ll never know. I think the best bet is to just remember the function key trick, which will give you all the old hardware keys you’ve abandoned without ruining most of the point of the Touch Bar.

Do you have a tech question keeping you up at night? Tired of troubleshooting your Windows or Mac? Looking for advice on apps, browser extensions, or utilities you can use to accomplish a particular task? Let us know! Tell us in the comments below or, better yet, email [email protected].

Source:
LifeHacker

June 15, 2018 0 comment

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How to Join the Class Action Lawsuit Over Apple’s Crappy MacBook Keyboards

written by applenws

If you bought a new MacBook or MacBook Pro in the past few years, you may have a case against Apple. A new class-action lawsuit claims the company knowingly sold laptops with defective keyboards. Here’s what you need to know about the new lawsuit and how to get involved.

What’s the problem?

Apple first introduced its new butterfly-switch keyboards in 2015 with the 12-inch MacBook (the one without any regular USB ports). The thinner key design made it possible to slim down the laptop’s profile without cutting down on responsiveness—at least, according to Apple. A year later, the same keyboard showed up on new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros.

It didn’t take long for things to go south with Apple’s keyboard “upgrade.” As it turns out, Apple’s butterfly-switch keys can become unresponsive if any sort of dust or debris gets under the keyboard. Worse, fixing this through Apple can cost as much as $700 if you’re out of warranty, and repairs take a week.

Apple hasn’t officially responded to keyboard complaints—or a growing petition demanding Apple recall MacBooks using said keyboards—though it did set up a webpage showing people how to clean out the keyboard with a can of compressed air. That’s something, right?

Who qualifies for the class action lawsuit?

If you bought a MacBook with butterfly-switch keys, you probably qualify to join the lawsuit. That includes any 12-inch MacBook model from 2015 or later. It also covers the MacBook Pro from 2016 onwards (with or without the Touch Bar). And you don’t have to have a messed-up MacBook to participate. Girard Gibbs LLP (the firm behind the new suit) doesn’t specify that you need to have experienced any keyboard issues in order to join the class-action lawsuit.

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How to join

Girard Gibbs has an online form you can use to give them your contact info and the details of your experience with Apple’s new MacBooks. If you prefer to talk on the phone, you can also call (866) 981-4800 for a free consultation.

Of course, you don’t actually have to do anything to be a part of the case. As long as you bought a laptop that qualifies, you’ll be included in the class action lawsuit once everything shakes out. Start thinking about what you might do with the sweet $20 you’ll make if the lawsuit prevails—as tends to be the case with litigation like this.

Source:
LifeHacker

How to Join the Class Action Lawsuit Over Apple’s Crappy MacBook Keyboards was last modified: May 14th, 2018 by applenws

May 14, 2018 0 comment

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MacBook Can’t Use Mouse & Trackpad at the Same Time? Here’s the Fix

written by applenws

Some Mac users may find that if they connect an external mouse or trackpad to their MacBook or MacBook Pro, the internal built-in trackpad then no longer works. This may appear like a bug, and some users may think it’s a hardware problem, but the good news is that the inability to use both a mouse and trackpad at the same time on a Mac almost always has a simple software solution.

This walkthrough will quickly show you how to fix this issue and get a MacBook Pro or MacBook able to work with both the built-in trackpad as well as an external mouse or external trackpad.

How to Fix Inability to Use MacBook Trackpad & Mouse at the Same Time

This applies to all MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air hardware that is also using an external tracking device, whether it’s a mouse or trackpad, USB or Bluetooth. Here’s how you can resolve this issue:

Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”

Choose “Accessibility”

Select “Mouse & Trackpad” from the accessibility sidebar options

Uncheck the box next to “Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present”

Now go ahead and try using both the external mouse or trackpad and the internal trackpad together again, it should work just fine as expected. If you had previously disconnected the external tracking device, go ahead and reconnect it again.

You should not need to reboot the Mac for any change to take effect.

If for whatever reason the MacBook is still unable to use both tracking devices at the same time, you may need to go further to troubleshoot Mac mouse and trackpad issues, often it’s an issue with battery life of an external device, a USB port or cable, crud jammed into the optical lens or accumulated on a tracking surface, or some odd preference issue where removing the relevant plist files can resolve the difficulty.

Many Mac users enable this setting if they have cats or kids, or if they find themselves in another situation where the built-in trackpad on a Mac is frequently being touched or bumped against while they’re trying to work with an external pointing device. But of course if you forgot to disable it, or if you didn’t realize it was enabled in the first place, you may lead to the conclusion that there is some problem with the Mac, the trackpad, or the mouse, when in reality it’s simply a software setting to avoid unintentional tracking motions and input.

This is a setting that is only relevant to Macs with built-in trackpads, meaning the laptop line including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook. If you’re having issues using two different pointing devices on a desktop Mac like an iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro, it’s more likely to be related to an incompatibility between devices, some conflict in software, or perhaps a hardware issue.

Mouse and Trackpads have been around for so long you could imagine they may be completely trouble-free by now, but like all technology there is always some potential for quirks. Some of the more common issues with mouse and trackpads are an inability to click, single-clicks registering as double-clicks, Bluetooth devices repeatedly disconnecting, or other weird behavior, most of which is easily troubleshooted through steps detailed in each article.

Related

Source: OSX Daily

MacBook Can’t Use Mouse & Trackpad at the Same Time? Here’s the Fix was last modified: April 13th, 2018 by applenws

April 13, 2018 0 comment

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Where’s the Startup Boot Sound on New iMac & MacBook Pro?

written by applenws

The Mac startup boot chime has been around for decades, and is one of the most notable features defining a booting Mac.

Nonetheless, the latest MacBook Pro and iMac models (from late 2016 onward) are quiet and no startup boot sound, meaning the Mac boots up completely silently instead of making the traditional chime sound when the Mac starts up.

A lot of Mac users have wondered why there Mac is not making the startup boot sound anymore, and the next question is if it’s possible to return the startup boot chime to the new Mac hardware.

New Macs do not have a startup chime sound effect

Mac models dating before late 2016 will have the startup sound effect and familiar chime. Mac models built after late 2016 do not have this sound effect on boot, except for the 2017 MacBook Air. This information comes directly from Apple Support:

Mac models from early 2016 and earlier make a chime sound when they start up. Mac models from late 2016 and later don’t have a startup chime.* …. *The only exception is MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017), which does have a startup chime.

So if you have a new Mac and it’s not making a startup sound, that is why. It doesn’t have a startup sound effect.

Older Mac models do have the startup sound chime sound, and older Mac models can both disable and enable the startup chime.

Can you re-enable the startup boot chime sound effect on new iMac and MacBook Pro?

If you have a new Mac model that has arrived from the factory and does not have the boot sound, the answer is (currently) no. Of course this leads people to the obvious question, “can I enable a startup chime sound on the new iMac or macBook Pro?” but, currently, there is no proven or effective way of doing so.

One theory promoted online and originating from some web forums was that you could re-enable the Mac startup chime sound effect by turning to the command line. The claim was that by launching Terminal app and entering the following command syntax:

sudo nvram BootAudio=%01

Supposedly, after executing that properly, the startup chime would be enabled on the Mac again.

But it turns out that nobody bothered to actually test this out, because it does not work.

Go ahead and try it yourself. You can execute that command on a new silently booting Mac, but it will not actually re-enable the startup boot chime sound effect on a Mac which does not support the startup chime sound.

There’s also various claims that resetting the NVRAM on the Mac would somehow re-enable the startup boot sound, but that’s also not the case on the newer Mac models which do not have the startup sound chime.

So why did that command surface online and the claim spread? Presumably it originated from the idea of basically reversing the standard process of disabling the Mac boot chime using a similar nvram command, which, unlike newer Macs, is possible on older Mac models from before late 2016.

The ability to toggle the system startup sound on and off is not new, in fact you’ve been able to use the nvram command to disable the boot chime on Macs for years, and you can also temporarily mute the boot sound with a keypress, it’s just the late-2016 onward Mac hardware that has opted to disable the boot sound effect chime.

Whether or not you like the boot chime on start likely depends on personal preference, though many longtime Mac users enjoy the sound effect, while some users find it to be unnecessary. It’s possible that a method of re-enabling the startup chime will arrive sometime, but at the moment it’s not possible, and currently all new Macs do not have the sound effect on boot. And that’s why your new iMac or MacBook Pro is not making any sound effect on boot!

Have any questions, thoughts, or tips about the startup chime on Macs? Let us know in the comments!

Source: OSX Daily

Where’s the Startup Boot Sound on New iMac & MacBook Pro? was last modified: July 14th, 2017 by applenws

July 14, 2017 0 comment

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