Oct 15, 2017
Que pasa
Well I have some good news and some bad news. To be honest the bad news far outweighs the good. The good news is that I put our Shaw internet on hold while we are away and so from Nov. 7th to April 14th I am saving pretty much $500.00 in costs. I do this every year but as I seem to be on a save money kick of late I decided to work out the savings. I was most impressed.
Late yesterday I got a phone call that a mobile Geek would be here today to set up my printers and deal with any questions I might have. Today was to have been a major grocery shop day for me but I stayed home and waited. He arrived about 1PM and ended up being here for 3 very long hours. At this point there was the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good was that the new printer you see here is now wirelessly connected to the laptop, my new desktop and Colin’s old desktop.
It did take him awhile to be able to come up with the program to connect Colin’s older computer.
He then also reconnected both the new iMac and the laptop to the RV printer which you see on my desk above. There is a bit of a problem with that printer in that it needs a physical nudge of the ink cartridges to actually print. We are a bit concerned about this as we really need a working printer this winter as we prepare for our trip to Europe. So we may end up bringing the new printer with us. Problem is that things get really dusty in the RV and I suspect that the reason the RV printer is acting up is because of the dust inside the inner guts. If we bring the new one it will have to live in a plastic bag when not actually printing. We have no control over the dust coming from the horses walking on the other side of our fence. And there is no way we are going to live in an A/C environment and not open our windows. But now that I have the new printer working for all three computers I will have to protect it if we take it with us.
The bad news is that I noticed that I had no bookmarks nor toolbar on the laptop 😯 I have not spent anytime on this computer since I got it back from crashing and they had to upgrade it to High Sierra. Not only that, I discovered that I have just 1/3 of my original mailbox folders. A wee recap, everything worked on Sierra which then crashed as it turns out on both computers, which were then at different times upgraded to the OS High Sierra. The desktop works just fine but not the laptop. Long story short, the very knowledgeable geek mobile guy ( he was an extremely knowledgeable MAC guy ) tried for over an hour with three different methods to transport my bookmarks and tool bar from the iMac to the MacBook Air with no success.
At the three hour mark he told me that he had to go ( his phone never stopped ringing ) as he had only been allocated an hour max to deal with my issues. As it was he would have to cancel some clients who had been waiting a long time to see him and reschedule them which would affect his entire week. Mike appears to work 12 hours per day, 7 days per week.
The ugly happened when I quietly demanded to know how this was going to be fixed. He said that I would have to go back to the store. No way I said. I would not accept that. I said that if he could not fix it then no one at the store could. He simply hung his head and asked want I wanted him to do. I insisted that he call Mr Geek Manager at home now mid afternoon on a Sunday. He blinked but then he called. He kindly put the call on speaker and let me listen in. It was suggested by the manager that the problem was between Firefox and the new OS 🙄 Impossible! Why is the desktop working but not the laptop? I might be blond but I am not stupid. It was suggested that I will need to wait till we come back from Mexico to solve the problem. I don’t think so. I might have mentioned the need to call the TV stations and radio station about this issue. I also asked Mike to please be sure to advise the manager of all he had done to solve the problem to no avail. Next on my agenda is to confront the manager on Tuesday, his first day back.
Oh yes there is the tiny problem of the iMac colored wheel just spinning for a long time over and over before it reacted to even the simplest command such as deleting a file. This is pretty much the main reason that I got a new desktop as I wasted so much time watching that dang wheel spin. And then the last few days it has been even worse. My old computer was so much better. However I was advised by Geek manager last week that problem was due our provider Shaw so I booked them in for a visit. Fortunately I have Shaw coming in tomorrow AM first thing so that will shed some light on this issue.
So there you have it, yet another day wasted on computer issues. Except this is serious as the laptop is our travel computer and I need to be able to use bookmarks re train schedules, etc. Towards the very end I asked Mike to simply set up a new toolbar and I will reset my bookmarks from scratch. He could not do that as it seems that Firefox is corrupt on the laptop. He even reinstalled Firefox three times. So once again I give up. Well for today at least. I need to regain more energy, but I really think that I am done. This is beyond ridiculous.
One day I would like to blog about things other than computers 🙁
Meanwhile our forecast had dictated our business future. Colin worked all weekend and has interiors scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Then that is it. No more photography till next spring.
So wish I could say that I was done by end of day Tuesday.
Thanks for putting up with all this computer garbage. I breathe deep and realize that in about a month we will be back in paradise and you will all be joining me there 😉
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Too frustrating, I have only taken my Mac to an Apple store and my issues have been solved no problem.
If we had an Apple store that is who I would be dealing with. I can’t afford to be without a computer for weeks on end as we run a business so I can’t send the computer to them.
Not familiar with Firefox on Apple products but Firefox syncs all my bookmarks across my laptop, phone and tablet (Windows and Android). Do you have Sync installed and working?
Is the tech familiar with Firefox?
The tech was well versed in Firefox. Yes he tried to do the sync thing several times but the laptop would not accept it. There so something wrong with how the laptop was formatted so it will have to go back in for yet another time. Frankly I can’t even remember the number of time I have brought it in. Close to ten at least.
As you know I have all macs, the same that you have and all new models. I stopped using Firefox 2 years ago after it became buggy on my older iMac and went to Google Chrome until this High Sierra update and now I use nothing but Safari. Besides in the near future Firefox will be charging their users money for whatever speeds the users want to use. You can read about that on CNET.com
Back to your computer.
I find it simpler to export my bookmarks to the desktop of one computer to it’s own file on my desk top. Then I EMAIL that html file to myself to one of my other email address. I open that email on the computer WHERE I want the bookmarks or in your case the one that is having trouble accepting the transfer over the ‘air’ or ‘cloud’ or synch.
I save that file onto the desktop of the computer needing the bookmarks.
Open Safari, Firefox or Google Chrome and IMPORT that html bookmark file FROM your desktop TO your new computer.
They should show up automatically on your “Favorites Bar” at the top … if not, check “VIEW” at the top and see of the Bookmark Bar or Favorite Bar (name depending what browser you use) and make sure those bars have been checked for the bookmarks to show up at the top of your screen.
I appreciate all your input Steve. First off I always used Safari but had to switch to Firefox as neither Safari nor Chrome were supported by Mountain Lion. At the moment I am comfortable with Firefox and the last thing I need right now is to add another change to the mix.
The tech yesterday did this or something similar to this when the sync would not work. I have the HTML files on the desktop in a file folder. The laptop would not accept the transfer. Everything you write here was done. It was at that point that the tech said that Firefox was corrupt and he deleted it and restarted it about three times. so tomorrow I will take the laptop back in when the manager is back from his days off. The thing is that it all works on the desktop but not the laptop with a combo of High Sierra and Firefox.
That is sooooo frustrating. It sounds now that it might be possible that the hard drive on your laptop, even though it is new … is corrupted in some way or even a hardware problem. If it were me with these problems I would ask that manager for a refund in exchanged for a brand new laptop.
Having your desktop work and your laptop not proves to me that there is something wrong with the hardware in the laptop. No matter how it was before … current it’s messed up as you know.
This is nothing more than an FYI .. don’t take this wrong … but Safari was supported by Mountain Lion BECAUSE Safari is the Apple Browser that is built into their operation system and comes with your computer.
I understand completely wanting to stay with Firefox due to familiarity. I have used Firefox now for a few hours and at one time I had 20 different tabs open with websites, I opened spreadsheets, documents, iMessage and Photos all at the same time … I could not make it crash.
My only issue with Firefox is … it’s a “data hog” and since I pay for 20Gb per month I have to watch my internet data usage closely. Consequently I have my Activity Monitor on and open at all times to track data usage up to the second and shows any surprises in downloads.
Yet, Firefox’s newer model looked really nice, was “bug free’ on my Macs … both computers.
Your blog post got me curious so I downloaded Firefox from their website on my iMac and MacBook Air. I also ‘exported’ my book marks from the browser I use to the desktop of both computers.
I closed Safari … Opened Firefox.
It had picked up an old file of Firefox bookmarks deep in my computer and they showed up on the new Firefox upload. So I did a “show all bookmarks”…deleted everyone of them.
I then while in Firefox “imported” bookmarks FROM THAT DESKTOP FILE.
That will put them into a folder where you click the top one and shift key the bottom one to select all bookmarks and move them to the Firefox Bookmark Toolbar.
I’ve been looking through all of the sites I normally use with NO issues so far on both computers. Both of my computers are using the latest version of the High Sierra macOS.
I have never really used the options of synchronizing bookmarks or files between my iMac in my computer room and my MacBook Air on the kitchen table. Just a guess but that might be one reason I don’t have some of the problems you talk about when trying to get your bookmarks (favorites) to show up.
I will let you know if I have any issues running Firefox on the same new operating system you are using. I need one more cup of coffee and the hounds need their morning walk before I can really test Firefox at full speed and do something to see if I can get Firefox to mess up, hang up or if I can get that Apple ‘spinning beachball’ that you speak of.
I sure wish we lived closer. Anyway this is too much for me to deal with but I am printing out your suggestions and will bring them in with me tomorrow. I will let you know how it all goes.
Meanwhile, Shaw our provider was here for an hour this morning and in a nutshell the laptop, Colin’s older desktop and my iPhone and his all work at very fast speeds. Not so my new imac. In fact as the speed test is happening it seems to slow down here and there like a speed bump, then continue the test. The Shaw guy said it seems that something was running in the back ground which of course we can’t see. He is going to see if one of their top computer guys can come and check out my situation.
That is really strange about your change in speeds with different computers and your provider. BUT what that does show, the problem is specific to one computer, your iMac.
Here is how you can see what is running in the background …
Lower right click on your App Folder … it’s on your dock below and should be the folder with the “A”.
Inside that folder, all the apps or folders are automatically alphabetized …. open the UTILITIES folder.
Double click the program called Activity Monitor.
You will see 5 different tabs at the top of this program. I use the one called Network to track and see my data used on a constant basis.
Click on the tab named Memory … Then click the ‘memory’ section so the largest amount of data is on top … that means you have sorted all the programs running in the background by the most data to the least amount of data it is using.
Most likely the process named “kernel_task” is the leader … that is just your computer doing normal running. My #2 is Safari …. IF there is a program running that is slowly the speed of your internet on Shaw IT WILL SHOW UP HERE.
Have your Shaw Tech guy/girl check that out.
More frustration, I can see why you finally lost it. It seems as no one is helping you. We use HP and Asus and only have apple phones so I am of no help to you. We are getting the same crappy weather, days of rain. Buddy is almost refusing to go out.
That is exactly how I feel,that no one is helping me. That is one thing I don’t miss about the girls, trying to make them go out in the cold or rain.
Just keep thinking of sunny skies and warm sandy beaches!
Believe me I am. But I need two working computers with me.
I’ve avoided Firefox like the plague. It has only caused me problems over the years. When I have had to use it to open wifi at a hotel or airport, it spins and spins an spins and never opens. I prefer Chrome over anything else.
Say no to Mac. That’s just my personal opinion. I prefer vanilla.
Get to Maz as fast as you can. Time for a break 🙂
I really appreciate the heads up on Firefox. Also that you prefer Chrome. I think I will do a poll on that.
Vanilla????
Microsoft. Unfortunately, we are living in a limited world of technology. You have three choices; Mac, Microsoft or Linux.
The most vanilla of the three is Microsoft.
ALWAYS DISCONNECT MY TV AND INTERNET AND ONLY PAY FOR MY PHONE. IT FEELS SO GREAT SAVING MONEY!!! YES.