The recent wave of bad Apples

Recently, we placed a call in to Apple Support and requested to speak to a senior-level support executive to discuss some issues, for which we've been noticing more and more incoming calls from Apple owners.

Below is a summary of the three most-prevalent Mac-related problems and when appropriate, the response from the very professional and knowledgeable Jonathan at Apple. It is worth mentioning that Jonathan confirmed that these issues are some of the most common calls he currently receives at Apple Support.



The "Too-Many-Accounts" fiasco currently going on with Apple / iTunes Store / App Store / iCloud / MobileMe sign-in credentials.
They know, are aware of it, but as of yet have done absolutely nothing to resolve this horrible mess. Jonathan told me to urge our customers to call in when they have difficulties, as the more calls get logged the sooner Apple will take note. However, I have a problem instructing my clients to spend 1-2 hours on the phone with AppleCare only to be told there is no resolution to this problem. In fact, Apple will tell you to pick one account, sign in to every Apple device with it, import and merge your data, and simply stop using the other accounts. Make sure all computers / iTunes software are authorized to play music/apps purchased on every Apple ID you have, beforehand; here is a link explaining how. Apple cannot merge accounts together, cannot delete accounts, and will not do anything to resolve the confusion caused by this multiple-ID phenomena they've engineered. If your data is not syncing properly, if your purchases are not transferring properly, or if you have any other issues with iCloud, sync, App Store, MobileMe, etc, please call us immediately for help- we've helped straighten this out dozens of times already.



Software compatibility issues with OS Lion remain prevalent among our clients who are professionals in the media, entertainment, and journalism industries, particularly due to restrictions on downgrading to Snow Leopard.
10.6.4 was the last actual Snow Leopard installation DVD that was issued, and while it's possible (albeit difficult) to downgrade back to Snow Leopard after upgrade a machine to Lion, it is not possible to downgrade to/install Snow Leopard on a machine that came with Lion natively installed. For this, you'd need a 10.6.8 installation file, which is not available from Apple (forcing you to rely on a hacked or torrent'ed OS installer file, not something we recommend at all).
So where does this leave folks? Apple's official party line is to purchase and install third party dual-boot software like Parallels (yech) or VM Fusion (ugh) and then install SL on the new partition it creates. Horrible workaround! We have several clients that have scoffed at this advice, instead choosing to return their brand new Lion OS Macs back to the Apple Store, and instead purchasing a brand new Mac with SL native rom a third party retailer like this one, or hunting for vintage parts at sites like this.
When I told Jonathan at Apple about the fact that Apple may be facing a lot of Lion and Mountain Lion returns from professionals who simply need Snow Leopard unless they allow for downgrading, he said it definitely won't happen because Apple is "trying to promote the future" and w/r/t the software companies who don't yet support the new OS's, Apple is trying to "get everyone else on board." As of now, it seems to us that a lot of folks are going to jump ship instead.


iWeb/iCloud/iPhoto expiration and online Journal publishing inconsistencies/confusion.
You've probably received the fateful June 30 MobileMe expiration email by now, and if you're like a lot of people you have no idea what's going to happen to that lovely little website you made and keep updated in iWeb. Well, if you used iWeb to publish your site directly to MobileMe for hosting, it's going to be phased out. If you have your own unique domain (or URL, as in: www.thisisyourdomain.com) and a hosting company (like GoDaddy, BlueHost, NetworkSolutions, HostExcellence, etc) then most likely nothing is going to change for you, since iWeb can publish sites and changes to sites directly to your hosting company for live updating.

The interesting thing here (and another big loss for Apple) is that under MobileMe, you paid $100/year and basically got all the iCloud services (contacts/calendar/mail sync, Find My iWhatever, and some online storage to which you could publish your iWeb sites). Under iCloud, everyone gets 5GB free (more than enough for the syncing services and Find My...) but no web publishing/hosting. If you were on MobileMe and migrated to iCloud, Apple probably kept you on the $100/year paid subscription, which allows you 25GB of storage on iCloud, but still no web publishing! Apple's solution seems to be to tell folks to signup with GoDaddy for website hosting and tell them you want to move your iWeb site to GoDaddy. There are so many things wrong with this workaround:
1) GoDaddy has both long hold times and a shoddy customer service record.
2) GoDaddy is extremely difficult to leave once you move your site there.
3) Many GoDaddy customer service reps will have no experience with iWeb and therefore Apple's customers are likely in for a nasty surprise when they call in.
4) WTF is Apple doing recommending a hosting company anyway? iCloud has more than enough capability to host iWeb-designed sites.

If Apple expects its longtime MobileMe subscribers to paid another $120/year in hosting AND keep a paid iCloud subscription when they can do everything they need with a free iCloud account, it seems to me Apple stands to lose $100/year from thousands of unhappy customers. If you are in this boat and want to ensure that your iCloud doesn't renew on a paid version, go into System Preferences>iCloud>click Manage in the bottom right, and make sure "auto account renewal" is not selected.

This website is also a great resource for folks who use iWeb to publish their websites, and contains a lot of valuable details about the upcoming sunsetting of MobileMe / migration to iCloud.

Another workaround for this, to continue using devices like the iPhone and iPad for publishing text and photos to the web, is to use the iPhoto iOS App-only version. We've outlined in full detail with screenshots how to do this in our last blog posting. However, Apple has still declined to add the Journal publishing feature to iPhoto on their computers, prohibiting any desktop web publishing directly from their iPhoto software. We urge Apple to add this feature to iPhoto, and remain scratching our heads as to why it's still not supported.


Finally, we learned a little-known fact about Apple's hardware warranty. If you purchase a peripheral device (like an external monitor/cinema display, or a printer, or even a USB keyboard) Apple provides you with an automatic 1-year warranty. However, if you use any of these devices with an AppleCare 3-year warrantied product, and purchased at about the same time, the 3-year warranty applies. For example, if you bought a MacBook Pro with extended AppleCare, and a wireless Magic Trackpad at the same time (with no extended warranty), the MBP's AppleCare will apply for all three year to the Trackpad.