Menu

mac

YouTube Videos Stuck in Fast Forward?

, ,

That was really odd. On Safari in Mac OS 11.1 Big Sur, YouTube videos were playing in fast forward with no audio. Using Chrome, the video playback was stuck, but the audio playback was fine.

My simple fix was to restart my Mac. Googling this issue, it seems like fast forward playback of any videos on the Mac has been an on-again-off-again issue for years. The “most unfortunate” solution offered was hosted on YouTube where I couldn’t see the solution in 2 seconds of fast forwarded playback. But the offered solution is accurate – force quit the coreaudiod service using Activity Monitor.

Here’s the solution described in text and augmented with video.

Configure an Old Apple AirPort Express

, , , ,

Still got a working Apple AirPort Express and want to configure it using a newer macOS such as 10.12 aka Sierra? Follow these helpful instructions.

The biggest gotcha is joining the correct wifi network name. For me, my reset AirPort Express was advertising a network of “Apple Network”. But if you follow steps 6 and 7, you have to change the name to “Apple Network” and append the last 6 characters of the AirPortID to “Apple Network” so it looks something like “Apple Network 1a2b3c”. Once that’s done, your Mac should be talking with the AirPort Express.

Now fire up the AirPort Utility 5.6.1 Launcher (skip the update notification) and you should see your AirPort Express available for configuration. Made a mistake? Reset the AirPort Express and start over.

On a related note, the original 802.11g version of the AirPort Express does not support bridge (aka client) mode according to Apple.

My New MacBook Pro

, , ,

At work, I was fortunate enough to order the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and accessories in November. After a prolonged ordering process, my (third party) order finally went through. After not hearing any more after a few days, I contacted the company that replied with a tracking number. Albeit a slow delivery of about a week for early January, at least, my order was on its way.

This past week, our receiving department informed me that I had a package. I went to pick up my new MacBook Pro and found this.

Yup, that’s it. Whenever I order a laptop, I always buy a spare power adapter, and that’s what arrived, not the actual MacBook Pro. No word when that’s arriving…

Fighting with macOS Optimized Storage

, ,

I’ve been fighting with the new macOS Optimized Storage feature today. I accidentally enabled this feature while trying to free up space on my drive. Optimized Storage does make it easy to see what’s taking up all the space and then free up that space.

But then you end up with this Purgeable space that isn’t living up to its name. See that cross hatched section? That’s the purgeable space weighing in at 104 GB. The actual free space is that blank section at 32 GB.

optimized-storage.png

I’m trying to restore a Time Machine backup of a virtual machine, and that single file is roughly 55 GB. But when I start the restore, my Mac complains that 23 GB of space is needed to complete the restoral. Doing the math, 32+23=55 GB makes sense, but there’s all that purgeable space that can easily cover the additionally needed space. So what’s up with that?

I’m trying to see if I can deactive Sierra’s Optimized Storage which I’m hoping deactivates the Purgeable space, immediately making it free space.

Can’t Rebuild the Database for Mac Outlook 2016

, , , , , ,

My Mac Outlook 2016 (aka Version 15) has been running real slow so I wanted to rebuild its database to clean up any nagging issues. Holding down the Option key while starting up Outlook 2016 does nothing. There’s a reason for that – there is no database to rebuild anymore.

According to this Microsoft Office for Mac blog post, the database has been replaced with SQLite that runs its own maintenance as needed. When fixes are needed, SQLite takes care of them silently says the post.

El Capitan Coming September 30

, , , ,

Don’t forget that the launch of Mac OS X 10.11 aka “El Capitan” is coming up on Wednesday, September 30, 2015. Read about its features and if you absolutely can’t wait, you can run the Pre-release/Golden Master version.

I can say that the GM version runs adequately on a mid-2007 iMac with 6 GB of memory. I won’t be taking advantage of all the El Capitan features on this aged iMac, but performance is okay for an eight-year old machine.

Load More