tnw2933
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Time Machine backups causing issues for some Apple Silicon Mac users
I received my 16 in. M1 Max MacBook Pro on launch day (October 26th and I have never been abled to get TM to complete a backup. From the very first backup it has always gone about 97% to completion and then given the error message TM "waiting to complete backup" which it never does. In fact, I have now turned off automatic TM backups since it just keeps repeating this behavior over and over while never showing any time machine backups in finder but showing GB's of files in Apple>About this Mac>Storage. I contacted Apple Support over three weeks ago and spent at least 8 hours over two days trying to resolve the problem. None of the following solved the TM issue: (1) Formatting the USB 3 TM disk as APFS; (2) Setting up and running TM in Safe Mode; (3) Creating a Test User account and running TM; (4) Trying other USB3 external HD's for TM including one brand new USB3 HD; (5) Reinstalling the Mac OS Monterey. The Apple Senior Specialist collected diagnostic information and forwarded it to Apple Engineers. She sent me an email the next day (which was about three weeks ago) to tell me that Apple Engineers admitted there was a TM problem with the new Apple Silicon Macs and that they were working to resolve it. Since then I have heard nothing further. I am now using Carbon Copy Cloner to make backups of my M1 Max. This problem is the subject of an 18 (or more) page thread on Macrumors. Be thankful if you have an M1 MacBook Pro and have not had this TM problem, but it is not isolated to a few users.
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Final Cut Pro X update brings 8K speed, social media crop tools, better proxy workflow
If you are editing Canon 5 Canon raw footage be advised that this Final Cut Pro X update (10.5.9) does not support the Canon raw plugin and that Canon raw footage cannot be edited until the plugin is fixed to work with this new version. In FCP 10.5.8 the Canon raw plugin downloaded from the Canon web site worked fine, and I had no problems editing Canon raw in FCP X, but sadly this is no longer the case. Resolve, however, handles the Canon raw footage perfectly. I hope that Canon and/or Apple will address this issue as soon as possible.
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Apple issues Meltdown and Spectre fixes for older Mac operating systems
I installed this software update on my Early 2008 Mac Pro running the latest El Capitan with everything working fine prior to installing the update. No problems or error messages were encountered in installing the update. However, upon rebooting I was taken to the login screen, entered my password, and the spinning wheel kept spinning. After 20 minutes I shut down the computer, used recovery mode to reinstall the OS, and tried to boot again. Once again I got the spinning wheel and could not get past the login. Fortunately I had a day old clone and I was able to boot my Mac Pro with this clone with no problems. I then used Super Duper to copy the clone's OS back to my Macintosh HD, and I could then boot the Mac Pro without problems. I repeated all of this twice. Each time I tried to boot after installing the security update, I could not get past the spinning circle after putting in my password. I have now used my clone to restore my Macintosh HD and I am booting and using the Mac Pro without any problems. I do not plan to install this update, and I believe that I have clearly shown that the update is flawed for my Early 2008 Mac Pro. I submitted all of this feedback to Apple.
Tom
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Watch: Apple's iMac Pro vs 2013 Mac Pro (Part 1) - benchmarks and specs
My problems with the USB ports on the iMac Pro have all occurred when no hub of any type was used. The USB drives were plugged directly into the ports on the rear of the iMac Pro.
Tom, have you used a different external USB3.0 Hub?
I had a very similar problem with the Mac Mini, as I had 4 external drives, Keyboard, mouse and CAC card reader all on a 3rd party powered USB3.0 Hub. The USB3.0 spec allows over 1000 mA (1 Amp) per USB port, however the power supply for this USB3.0 hub was only 1500mA (1.5A) for 12 ports. When you power up, a load of this type will cause the USB Hub to hang, and this hang means that the I/O Controller on your Mac is not getting a non-posted response from the USB, so it hangs (ie. waits forever).
I replaced the $30 Hub with one that was rated for 40.0 Watts vs 12.5 Watts, and my problems immediately went away.
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Watch: Apple's iMac Pro vs 2013 Mac Pro (Part 1) - benchmarks and specs
The Senior Advisors that I have talked with do not have an iMac Pro to even attempt to replicate the problems with. I have not only asked for a replacement but I have offered to have Apple put a charge on my credit card for a second iMac Pro identical to the one I now have in order to send me a new iMac Pro by Advance Placement ensuring the minimum down time while an exchange is made. So far, all I get out of The Senior Advisors is "let's keep working on this" and that is the status that has held for The last two weeks plus.randominternetperson said:
Sounds like a bummer. Just curious, have they acknowledged that they can reproduce the problem you're experiencing on their own machines? If not, have you asked for a replacement?tnw2933 said:I received my 10 core iMac Pro on December 26th 2017. I noticed immediately that 95% of the time when I woke my iMac Pro from sleep all the external USB drives were ejected. This occurred for various external USB3 hard drives from different manufacturers as well as with a Sandisk Extreme 64 GB USB3 flash drive and a 16 GB USB2 Kingston flash drive. I also discovered that I could not boot into Windows 10 if any external hard drives were connected and that I could not use the Option key> Storage Manager to boot into Windows 10 regardless of whether USB drives were connected or not. I filed a formal case with Apple Support on January 2, 2018 and I have since been in touch with a total of five Apple Support contacts regarding these two issues -- three of whom are Senior Advisors. To date, the problem still exists, and I still have an open case with Apple. I have been using the iMac Pro with Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 2 external hard drives without any problems as long as I do not attach USB drives to the iMac Pro and put it to sleep.
I have also done extensive editing in FCP 10.4 (latest version) with my iMac Pro. While some things are indeed faster than my fully maxed out Late 2013 Mac Pro cylinder, I have found that for many common tasks the CPU's and presumably the graphics card are not being used to full efficiency by the iMac Pro in FCP 10.4. Overall, I have been disappointed with my purchase of this nearly $9,000 computer and especially with the fact that after more than two weeks of working with Apple Senior Advisors (who in turn are passing along information to an engineering team) I am no more able to effectively utilize USB external hard drives with my iMac Pro than I was the day I received it form Apple.
Tom
