Mac geeks, software issues with a 'new' (refurbished) Mac book air.

OK, one of you wonderful geeks must be a Mac expert, I hope you can help me before I throw our ‘new’ Mac book air through the window, set it on fire then drive over it.  I swear If I ever consider buying another Mac (computer, not iPhone) someone just hit me over the head OK?

We’ve always had Macs this century but I'm growing to berkeleying hate the damn things.  My wife is >< close to being completely computer illiterate but somehow she's a wizz with her iPhone.  I mean I will get to the computer and find she’s got 20-30 tabs open as she keeps opening new ones rather than going back.  Every time she wants to change programs she opens it fresh as 'comand-tab' to swap back and forth just will not remain in her brain.  Put her in front of a PC and she’s completly stymied.  The words ‘you do it exactly the same as on your mac’  don’t work.  She even gets in trouble scrolling up and down on a PC, it must be some kind of muscle memory issue as I fail to see the difference between the cursor arrows on an Apple of a PC. 

So a couple of weeks ago our two macs both took a E36 M3 within 24 hours.  One the hard drive crashed and nothing can be recovered.  The other somehow got a hard drive issue (although the data is still accessible I’ve been told) but also the mother board took a crap.  I don’t’ want to spend a lot of money on something that’s really only used photo’s, email and web surfing so I ordered a 2014 era refurbed 13" airbook from NewEgg.  It's got OS x 10.10.3 spotted snow saber tooth tiger or something.

First of all it's got no 'Photo' or 'iPhoto' app loaded on it that's been on every other berkeleying Mac I've ever used. It's not like a PC where you just have all your pictures either in 'Pictures' or directly saved on your HD and can happily click on them, they want a unique berkeleying program and I can't figure out how to DL it.  No the appstore did'nt help. Googling shows I'm not the only one with this issue. Suggestions?

Then I can't even log into berkeleying Google. You go to sign in, either through GMAIL or direct into Google on the Google search page. The little box pops up, I put in my email, but there is no box for my password. You can either hit enter or tab to the next boxes, which are only 'create and account' or 'Having trouble logging ins?' If you hit enter it goes into a never ending swirl of death and eventually opens the 'difficulty logging in FAQ' page after several minuets.  If you hit 'having difficulty logging in'  it just takes you right to the FAQ.  Again, this appears to be a known issue from a couple of years ago. Some people say restarting helps, some say updating your browser helps, some say it cured itself overnight.  None of these should apply to a newly restored machine.  One of the fixes is to add your Google account to the system preferences which I did successfully, but I still can't access my Google account via Safari. To prevent me throwing our 'new' computer through the window I walked away for the night.  My next step I guess is to DL Chrome tonight and see if that works better. Again suggestions?

Then there is the refurb itself which is 100 million billion % totally nothing to do with Apple.  I normally try to buy all re-furbed products. Previously with computers it's always been from Apple themselves, but with phones I've always used third party re-furbers. The items have always exceeded my expectations, but this one is disappointing. There is not a just a dent, but a bend in the corner of the case and there's one small 'bright' spot on the screen. Time to contact the retailer (newegg - good rep from what I saw) and see if I have any recourse.

Frustration level high.  Apples used to be great because they just worked.  Now everything seems to be a chore.

Must resist urge to post anti-Apple memes....... 

Sounds like the PO was a little rough on it and who knows what they did.  I would have assumed that they would have wiped the hard drive and re-installed, but that sounds like it wasn't the case, here.  The latest OS is 10.13.3 and should be a free upgrade.  Not sure how old the Air is, but I would imagine it will update to that.  That should fix your iPhoto issue as it's embedded in the OS.  Given that it might have just been used instead of a refurb, I'd go ahead and install all the latest versions of the apps.  The OS is a few versions old, I assume Chrome and anything else is, too.

-Rob

rob_lewis said:

Sounds like the PO was a little rough on it and who knows what they did.  I would have assumed that they would have wiped the hard drive and re-installed, but that sounds like it wasn't the case, here.  The latest OS is 10.13.3 and should be a free upgrade.  Not sure how old the Air is, but I would imagine it will update to that.  That should fix your iPhoto issue as it's embedded in the OS.  Given that it might have just been used instead of a refurb, I'd go ahead and install all the latest versions of the apps.  The OS is a few versions old, I assume Chrome and anything else is, too.

-Rob

It's been wipped and reloaded, it's factory fresh from an OS content point of view.

I think it would be better to drive over it first, then set fire to it. 

Sorry, not helpful, I know squat about iapple.

EastCoastMojo said:

I think it would be better to drive over it first, then set fire to it. 

I may let you know the results of that later.

Update the OS and then see where you're at.

You're used to a newer version of the OS and in those versions they've introduced some pieces of software and improved the Safari browser among other changes.

Its like going back to Windows 98 or XP from Windows 7 or 10, way too many subtle and not so subtle changes for some to manage.

For your wife, it sounds like an iPad would be a better solution, even an iPad Pro with the larger screen.  Keep one Mac around for those times when you feel you need it.

I’d reinstall the OS from scratch first, someone may have messed up the “refurb”. 

Also, iPhoto has been replaced by a free App Store piece called Photos.  It's not much better, but it is what's currently included.

Duke said:

Also, iPhoto has been replaced by a free App Store piece called Photos.  It's not much better, but it is what's currently included.

Yes but I couldn't DL it from the app store last night.  Right now it looks like I'm going to return it.  See the next post.

Dang.  Drag and drop photo's seem to have stopped working.  Trying again.

So I mentioned the physical issues with the re-furb in the first post.  Here is the dent that stops it closing.

And here's the white spot on the screen.  Two different shots to show it's there all the time on different colors.  No it's not a reflection

Look at the white spot just above the tool bar near the center.  It looks like a reflection but it isn't.  Honestly I may not have bothered with the screen issue if it wasn't for the dent, forget that bend! in the case and the software issues.

Anyway, i just finished an online chat with NewEgg and discovered that although I bought it from them it was fulfilled by a third party.  They are stand up though and have emailed the third party instructing them to send me a return shipping label.

Yeah, I wouldn't have even turned that on if I saw a dent like that out of the box.

That should have been RMA'd right away (or if you're feeling froggy, pull the case apart and repair it yourself, but it would have to have been damned cheap before I'd try that).

First, all the anti-apple crap is not helping Adrian at all.

What OS are you running? You say it's a new install, is it the newest version? The new OS did bring in a new file system, it's possible that the transition got borked on this machine.

Photos came right in with the OS for me. You're 100% sure it's not on there? Click the magnifying glass icon, type "Photos"? If it's an integral part of the OS, I can see why you might not be able to add it as an app.

The inability to log in to Gmail (etc) is an odd one. That almost looks like a network connectivity problem, because that's a problem with the browser not getting the full webpage or not being able to interpret it.

EDIT: seeing the physical damage and knowing you got it from a legit retailer, I think returning it is the best plan.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I only wanted to make sure he didn't set fire to his vehicle 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Thanks Keith,  I’m sure Photo isn’t there. I’ve arranged to return  it. But if there’s anything with the new one I will keep it in mind. Thanks