Re: log-in password sometimes rejected
Hello Keith
I’ve not encountered that problem but wonder if you updated your computer the problem would be solved!
Here’s a snippet from ChatGPT:-
"As of April 4, 2025, the latest version of macOS Sequoia is 15.4, released on March 31, 2025.? This update introduces Mail Categorization, which organizes incoming emails into categories such as transactions, updates, and promotions, with important emails aggregated in a primary section.? Additionally, macOS Sequoia 15.4 includes an Apple News+ Food section for subscribers, a Sketch style for Image Playground, Memory Movie support for custom slideshows in the Photos app, and new emoji characters.? To update your Mac to the latest version, go to Settings > General > Software Update and follow the instructions."??
I hope this helps.
David?
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On 4 Apr 2025, at 08:51, Keith Parr via groups.io <kg.parr@...> wrote:
This is a relatively new, bought from Apple, M3 MacBook Air 15 inch, running Sequoia 15.3.2.
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Today, for the second time, it has refused my log-in password from the log-in screen.
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Turning the machine off and restarting cures the problem - mercifully!
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Has anyone else noticed this behaviour, please?
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Keith
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log-in password sometimes rejected
This is a relatively new, bought from Apple, M3 MacBook Air 15 inch, running Sequoia 15.3.2.
?
Today, for the second time, it has refused my log-in password from the log-in screen.
?
Turning the machine off and restarting cures the problem - mercifully!
?
Has anyone else noticed this behaviour, please?
?
Keith
?
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__________________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)
Essential But Hard To Find Macintosh Software and Advice
__________________________________________________
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Re: UNITED IoS app locks up after iOS update to 18.4
On Apr 2, 2025, at 12:04?AM, jimrobertson via groups.io <jimrobertson@...> wrote:
?It’s been quite reliable and useful previously.
This morning, I’m hopeful I’m answering my own question. When I woke up I tried again. The app locked up on my iPhone 14 Pro on the just released iOS 18.4, just as it did yesterday evening, BUT when I deleted and reinstalled the app, I discovered that I was installing a new release as of just 8 hours ago. (I had tried that yesterday as well, but MORE than 8 hours ago. The App Store release notes don’t mention anything about the apparent issue I was having yesterday, however.
Thus far I’m able to wander around the app without difficulty. Next up is to see if there’s similar good news for the iPadOS app. When it’s time to check in this afternoon for tomorrow’s flights, however, I’ll have my laptop at the ready to do so in macOS if needed.
For now, Apple ecosystem folks who fly UA might be advised to make sure the app works for them, particularly if you’ve done the 18.4 iOS update, and I’ll report back myself later today.
--?
Jim Robertson
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UNITED IoS app locks up after iOS update to 18.4
I’m flying Thursday to NYC. Unfortunately, after doing a routine OS update on my iPad and iPhone Pro today, the app locks up on launching or spontaneously terminates on both devices. Anyone else experiencing this? It’s been quite reliable and useful previously
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Re: Hard Drive Stops/Starts
On Apr 1, 2025, at 12:06 PM, todhop <hoplist@...> wrote:
Believe it or not, there are drives that are buggy with Macs. Rare, but it happens.
And it almost always seems to be Western Digital rotating disk hard drives. Actually, if you dig through WD’s tech notes, they often document and warn about this. Bombich used to have several Web pages warning not to use WD drives, but I just checked and they have all been taken down. __________________________________________________ Randy B. Singer Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions) Essential But Hard To Find Macintosh Software and Advice __________________________________________________
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Re: Hard Drive Stops/Starts
This is an observed behavior for some drives, an incompatibility between the drive and the Mac OS, but it could also be bad cable, bad power adapter, or failing drive.?
An external drive may spin up anytime the system checks to see what is available even if you are not directly accessing the drive. For instance, each time you open a finder window or spotlight. Some will spin down fairly quickly. If it’s spinning down within seconds of spinning up, that sounds like a power problem honestly. You might also notice when you connect it for the first time, you’ll hear it spin up, hesitate, spin, stop, then spin all the way to mount. That’s often a failing power supply.?
The most obvious symptom would be if Mac OS gives you the unexpected eject warning when it spins down. That’s a hardware problem, or a severe firmware incompatibility. Believe it or not, there are drives that are buggy with Macs. Rare, but it happens.?
Power supplies are, by far, the most common failure of external HDDs.
Cheers,
???????????????tod
Tod Hopkins
Video Producer?Editor?Technologist?
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On Mar 28, 2025, at 4:54?PM, Jim Willett via groups.io <jimwillett@...> wrote:
My external hard drive case is hooked directly to the Mac Mini M4 via USB-c on both ends. I wish the drives would just spin down and stay that way until I access files from one of them. ?However, even if I am just reading on Safari they spin down and seconds later spin up and then down again shortly after that. ?It is annoying. ?I use a Mac Mini M2 at my work place with an external drive. ?That external drive spins down and stays that way until I access something on it. ?
Thanks to everyone who has made a comment about this. ?
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__________________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)
Essential But Hard To Find Macintosh Software and Advice
__________________________________________________
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Re: Tracking sleep in iOS/watchOS
On Mar 27, 2025, at 9:33?AM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:
Start the sleep schedule a little before you actually usually go to sleep, and end it a little after you usually get up. If you nap outside those limits (e.g., afternoon) it will note the ties but not analyze the details.
I remain puzzled about this. What I’m doing each evening involves putting my watch on the charger each evening, then back on my wrist when I’m ready to go to sleep, AND making sure I log in to the watch then. After convincing myself that I made reasonably accurate recordings if I manually activate the watch’s “sleep” app when retiring, last night I put the watch on, entered its passkey, but did NOT manually trigger the watch’s “Sleep” app, but it still recorded stages that made sense to me. It’s possible that I haven’t always had the watch on my wrist at the beginning of my programmed sleep “schedule,” so I’ll track (and perhaps actually TEST that.
--?
Jim Robertson
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Mac Mini M4 SSD upgrade - results
I recently wrote about the external drive spinning down and up constantly on my Mac Mini M4.? I’d mentioned that it was a 256 SSD and that I had ordered a replacement SSD.? It came this week and I have run into a problem.? I installed the new 2TB SSD.? When trying to install restore the Mac in DFU mode I am getting a window which reads: The Mac “Mac” could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (2006).? This happened with three tries with the latest download software, clicking Option and Restore, to select the downloaded software.? I also tried with an earlier version of the software.? Might anyone have seemed advice to how I might proceed?
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Also, my wife has the same set up - M4 Mac Mini with 256 SSD. I installed her’s with a new SSD and all went well.
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Note for those interested: The SSD from Expand Mac Mini was a complete kit with screwdrivers and tools to do the job completely. ? The other SSD was from Amazon and was just the SSD - no tools included.? In case you wonder, the SSD from Expand Mac Min is the troublesome one, though my problem may not be with the SSD.
Also, I found one of the Mini’s hard to get off the bottom cover.? I actually broke a plastic prying tool trying to open it.? And in one, the screw on the original SSD was extremely tight and required a great deal of pressure to budge it.
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And that’s all I know about that.
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Thank you,
Jim Willett
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Re: Hard Drive Stops/Starts
My external hard drive case is hooked directly to the Mac Mini M4 via USB-c on both ends. I wish the drives would just spin down and stay that way until I access files from one of them. ?However, even if I am just reading on Safari they spin down and seconds later spin up and then down again shortly after that. ?It is annoying. ?I use a Mac Mini M2 at my work place with an external drive. ?That external drive spins down and stays that way until I access something on it. ?
Thanks to everyone who has made a comment about this. ?
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Re: Hard Drive Stops/Starts
Ah, the huge difference was that when mine stopped, I was not actively doing things. Only on rare occasions was I in the middle of something and the drive had to spin up. It didn’t shut down in the middle of something.?
Because it is not directly connected, it sometimes spins down, but more like an hour plus of inactivity.?
The OP hasn’t said if he is directly or indirectly connected, or if he changed to a direct connection. ?
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On Mar 27, 2025, at 07:50, todhop <hoplist@...> wrote:
? On Mar 26, 2025, at 3:20?PM, Brent via groups.io <whodo678@...> wrote:
So I don’t care that my “external drive” starts and stops.
It’s was a huge annoyance for me. On my M1 Mac Studio it causes a noticeable pause in Finder response anytime an action triggers the HDD drives to spin up. 9 times out of ?10, I don’t want data from that drive, but I’m still waiting because the system is waiting for the drive to come online.?It was pretty much the only time I ever had to wait for anything so it was glaringly frustrating.?It happened many, many times per day.?
Important note: ?The “Keep Drives Spinning” scripts do NOT keep drives from “sleeping” when the system sleeps. If the OS tells the drives to spin down, they do. No power wasted by drives spinning when the system is sleeping.
Some drives and connections are worse than others so experiences vary a lot. I’ve had this system for over two years, but only in recent months did the problem get unbearable. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting and could not find a specific cause or a solution other than this app. Directly attached portable drives don’t do this. It’s mostly cheap, large externals. Hubs make a difference, but none of these factors are easily controlled. I keep multiple drives attached all the time and change drives frequently. I never know when this is going to pop-up but once I tell the app to keep a drive active, it remembers that drive forever.
Cheers, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? tod
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Re: Tracking sleep in iOS/watchOS
On Mar 27, 2025, at 9:33?AM, Jim Saklad via groups.io <jimdoc@...> wrote:
Start the sleep schedule a little before you actually usually go to sleep, and end it a little after you usually get up. If you nap outside those limits (e.g., afternoon) it will note the ties but not analyze the details.
I’ve done that, which is WHY I stated that I think I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do, but my schedule DOES explain why my occasional afternoon naps get recorded in pastel blue rectangular blocks.
--?
Jim Robertson
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Re: Tracking sleep in iOS/watchOS
… or WHY it is that I must MANUALLY activate the watch’s “Sleep” app each night in order to have it guess my sleep stages (I’ve NEVER purposefully terminated it. I checked my Watch Settings on my phone, and they don’t seem to require manual launching of the Watch’s “Sleep” app).
I am guessing that it is because you haven’t set up anything AUTOMATIC. Did you try my suggestion from March 25th?
I’m currently on a original Ultra watch (since October 2022), but I was doing this with its predecessor as well.
Under Settings / Focus [on the iPhone] I have Sleep Focus set with a time schedule (in my case, 1AM to 9AM). Maybe that is what you need to do.
Or, on the watch, open that Sleep App, and scroll down until you get to “schedule”…
Start the sleep schedule a little before you actually usually go to sleep, and end it a little after you usually get up. If you nap outside those limits (e.g., afternoon) it will note the ties but not analyze the details.
jimdoc@...
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Re: Tracking sleep in iOS/watchOS
On Mar 27, 2025, at 7:22?AM, Bev in TX via groups.io <countryone77@...> wrote:
Perhaps the following Apple Support article will help:
That DID help a bit, but also to me indicated that this part of the watch’s user interface is a horrid mess. If I double-click on the digital crown, a reduced-size image of the currently foreground “app” appears on the screen, identified solely by its app icon, and the display reverts to a list of ALL apps if I do nothing within the next few seconds. If I DO “swipe left” repetitively, ultimately I get to a screen that reports “recently used apps appear here,” but it’s still unclear whether that is actually a list of OPEN apps, or whether they self-terminate if memory requirements demand it, or WHY it is that I must MANUALLY activate the watch’s “Sleep” app each night in order to have it guess my sleep stages (I’ve NEVER purposefully terminated it. I checked my Watch Settings on my phone, and they don’t seem to require manual launching of the Watch’s “Sleep” app).
--?
Jim Robertson
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Re: Hard Drive Stops/Starts
On Mar 26, 2025, at 3:20?PM, Brent via groups.io <whodo678@...> wrote:
So I don’t care that my “external drive” starts and stops.
It’s was a huge annoyance for me. On my M1 Mac Studio it causes a noticeable pause in Finder response anytime an action triggers the HDD drives to spin up. 9 times out of ?10, I don’t want data from that drive, but I’m still waiting because the system is waiting for the drive to come online.?It was pretty much the only time I ever had to wait for anything so it was glaringly frustrating.?It happened many, many times per day.?
Important note: ?The “Keep Drives Spinning” scripts do NOT keep drives from “sleeping” when the system sleeps. If the OS tells the drives to spin down, they do. No power wasted by drives spinning when the system is sleeping.
Some drives and connections are worse than others so experiences vary a lot. I’ve had this system for over two years, but only in recent months did the problem get unbearable. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting and could not find a specific cause or a solution other than this app. Directly attached portable drives don’t do this. It’s mostly cheap, large externals. Hubs make a difference, but none of these factors are easily controlled. I keep multiple drives attached all the time and change drives frequently. I never know when this is going to pop-up but once I tell the app to keep a drive active, it remembers that drive forever.
Cheers, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? tod
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Re: Tracking sleep in iOS/watchOS
Perhaps the following Apple Support article will help:
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On Mar 26, 2025, at 12:32?PM, jimrobertson via groups.io <jimrobertson@...> wrote:
I’ve confirmed to my own satisfaction that sleep tracking requires nightly “activation” of the Sleep app ON MY WATCH, which is the one thing that surprises me, but I don’t know whether the watchOS has a user interface that permits the user to tell what apps ON the watch are currently running.
--
Bev in TX
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Re: Upgrade OS from High Sierra on 2017 iMac
On 26 Mar 2025, at 10:49, Randy B. Singer via groups.io <randy@...> wrote:
On Mar 26, 2025, at 2:59 AM, Otto Nikolaus via groups.io <otto.nikolaus@...> wrote:
What I’m asking is, “where does it tell us that this is for OS X 10.14?” At the link that I gave to start this discussion thread.
Scroll down to the bottom. Thanks, Randy. I didn’t go back far enough in this thread. Otto
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Re: Upgrade OS from High Sierra on 2017 iMac
Brent wrote: > I am now retired, disabled, don’t get out of the house much, and broke.
Me too! But I'm somehow managing, with occasional help from family.
Brent wrote: > By using your own monitor, rather than the iMac, you can lower your cost, and if anything goes wrong with the display, is much cheaper to replace, if you don’t use an Apple display. One of the things that was failing on my MBP was the keyboard, once again. So a Mac mini makes good sense, especially if you are on a budget.
I've never even seen a Mac Mini. But I just now looked online. Cute! And you've convinced me that's probably the way for me to go. Until my most recent 2 iMacs, I had a desktop Mac and a non-Mac large display. I'll pay more attention now. And definitely consult this group when the time has come for a new computer.
Patsy
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Re: Hard Drive Stops/Starts
Thanks Tod for reminding me.?
I use a Drobo, a proprietary RAID, purchased in June of 2009. When plugged directly into my Mac, it runs most of the time and the proprietary diagnostics are able to work. When plugged into another device like an Airport that acts like a router, so my other Macs can access the data on it, it starts and stops, and the diagnostics can’t find it.?
Besides, what is the big deal if the external drive stops when not in use. It takes only a second to be accessible again. I have had the RAID in operation continuously for almost 16 years. In that time, I have only had one drive fail, and upgraded to larger drives. I love being able to hot swap the drives.
So I don’t care that my “external drive” starts and stops. In fact, the only physical maintenance other that to swap out the failed drive, has been to shut it down about once a year going into summer, to clean out the dust bunnies. And to be honest, my 2002 Quicksilver Power Mac G4’s internal fans that is under my desk, is noisier than my Drobo which is placed on a shelf pointed at my right ear.?
Brent ?
On my late 2012 Mac mini running 10.15.7?
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On Mar 26, 2025, at 8:29 AM, todhop < hoplist@...> wrote:
This is a major problem with newer macs and external HDDs, particularly if connected through a hub. That OS setting stops the OS from actively putting the drives to sleep, but it doesn’t keep them awake because modern external drives commonly? have their own spin down routines which this does not override.?The problem is worse when the drives are connected through a hub.?
You will see the “Adrenaline” app recommended for this. Don’t bother. Adrenaline does not solve this problem. It keeps the system awake but does not keep drives spinning.
I use the “Keep Drive Spinning” app.?
This app simply installs a resident script that periodically writes and rewrites a tiny hidden file to keep the drive activated. That is all it does. The app itself simply configures the scripts and installs them but does not need to run in the background. It is drive specific so you can configure only the drives you want. The app has been around for a very long time and has been continuously maintained by the developer.?
For a long time I kept one drive awake by continuously playing music from it, but that’s not a convenient solution. ;)
Cheers,
???????????????tod
Tod Hopkins
Video Producer?Editor?Technologist?
I have a new Mac Mini, 16/256 (currently 75 GB available) with the latest Sequoia update.? Attached to it is a hard drive enclosure that I’ve been using for a couple of years with a 2015 iMac, 16/1T running Monterey.? With the iMac the hard drives would spin up and stay running while the iMac was in use.? With the Mac Mini the drives spin up when I wake the Mini but are regularly spinning down and then almost immediately spinning up again. I have turned to OFF “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”. Any idea as to how to stop the drives from spinning up/down so frequently? ?I am hoping this may be due to the small internal storage, which I have ordered a 2TB replacement, and maybe this will solve the problem with the external drive.? ? Thanks in advance to responses.? Jim Willett ?
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David G Brooks
todhop
Brent
Jim Saklad