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From Michelle: I’ve got quite a few dups in my itunes library right now and can find plenty of information as to how to fix that problem; however, I am wondering how they ever get there to begin with? The dups I have in my account seem so random – some are from cd’s I have imported, some are from cd’s or songs I have purchased from the itunes store and sometimes only certain songs from a cd will duplicate and others will not…I don’t understand how/why that happens. I know that I have not downloaded the same cd or bought the songs twice. Can you offer any feedback on that?
Hi Michelle! I’ll admit that this really is puzzling. I’d like to think that I know what I’m doing with my Macs, but when I check for duplicates once a year, there are hundreds. I really don’t know how all of them got there, but I have a few guesses. First of all, I have never subscribed to the theory that iTunes is buggy and duplicating songs on its own. Others may disagree, but I’ve never noticed that to be the case. The reality is that there are many ways to import songs and albums.
Here are just a few: have iTunes automatically import a CD when you insert it (you can change this in the General iTunes preferences). You can insert a CD and then press the Import button in the iTunes window. You can drag music from folders on your hard drive to copy music to your iTunes folder. You can double click an audio file in the Finder and have iTunes open it (which adds it to your music library). This list goes on and on…
I think what happens most often is that people either reimport a CD that they forgot they imported months ago or don’t realize they literally imported 5 minutes ago (it’s pretty easy to forget this when you’re multitasking). If you’re downloading music, it’s pretty easy to double click a song because you want to hear it. Well, when iTunes starts playing it (for one second or the entire song), it’s copied into your library. It doesn’t go away, so you may forget it’s there. I also think, especially if you have large collections of music, that you simply have albums with the same songs. I have a huge Miles Davis collection, and I have four copies of “Someday My Prince Will Come,” each one from a different album.
I’m guessing that many of us have duplicate entries in our phone address book, and we have far, far fewer entries in there than we do in iTunes, so some duplicates are simply going to sneak in there. All you can do is try to stay on top of it.
From Grace: I recently bought sims 3 for my mac book. I bought it from amazon.co.uk and i didn’t look into it too much as it said that it would work on mac so I assumed it would work. I installed alright but on the creator screen the sim is just a black shilouette and the neighbourhood screen graphics are jumpy at best. I read on the forums that its because mac books have GMA 950 and that isn’t supported, Is there anything I can do to make it work? EA people are useless. Please help.
Sorry, Grace. You will not be able to get the game to work on your machine. Basically, all these games coming out for Mac OS X are specialized conversions of the Windows version of the game. As such, they are not compatible with the GMA 950 MacBooks because those MacBooks do not have dedicated video cards (the computer borrows some of the RAM to pretend to be a video card). Oddly, if you were to install Windows via Boot Camp, you could probably play the Windows version of the game, though the video performance may not be great. I once had an old black MacBook with the GMA 950, and I wanted to try Myst Online. I had the same experience you did. Unfortunately, GMA MacBook owners are out of luck. Luckily, all the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros have dedicated video cards, but I know how you feel.
From Michael: Today when i went to my mac (OS X 10.5.7, 2.4 ghz intel core 2 duo, 4gb 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM) and it was running very slowly. I had it set to restart in the morning but it didn’t. I’ve been trying to restart it all day but it always closes all windows and then just shows my desktop background with the loading/processing circle going… I’ve done the permissions and used onyx to clean what i could. It’s still not running well and I still can’t shut down or restart. It appears that i can log out just fine and other accounts are not experiencing the same problem… Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Michael. This problem really requires more dedicated time to solve, so I’d recommend taking it into an Apple Store for help. Obviously, you could use another account, but that doesn’t solve your problem. Knowing that other accounts work, we can limit the problem to your account, which is helpful. Here are a couple of things worth trying:
- If you automatically log into your account (rather than using the login screen), reboot your computer and wait until your screen switches from the grey Apple to the blue screen. Then, quickly hold down the Shift key until your account finished loading. (If you use the login screen, immediately hold down shift after you have entered your password and clicked to log in.) This disables your account’s startup items. If this solves the problem, open your System Preferences, go to Accounts, and delete your startup items.
- You need to know how to use the Terminal for these tips since you can’t log into your account. Basically, you’ll need to enable sudo, then navigate to your home folder (in the account that’s causing you trouble), then go into your Library folder. Delete the “Caches” folder and restart. If still a problem, go into your Preferences folder (again, in your user’s Library folder) and delete: com.apple.desktop.plist, com.apple.Dock.db, com.apple.Dock.plist, com.apple.loginwindow.plist, com.apple.loginitems.plist, com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, and the “ByHost” folder. That’s a lot of files, so you’re going to lose some settings, such as your Desktop background and your Dock items, but nothing that cannot be reset after you get your account working.
- If the above still does not solve your problem, you’ll really need more 1-on-1 advice.
From JJ: I’ve just completed a short Film & I’m trying to figure out how to compress the large Movie File so that I can upload It unto the internet, e-mail it, post it on my website, etc.
Realistically, JJ, I’d need more info than this to help you, such as the software you’re using, the length of the movie, the size of the file you want, the resolution of the film, etc. If you’re just using iMovie, you can select “Export Movie,” from the Share menu and make several versions of the movie. I’d suggest exporting an H.264 video and change the resolution of the film to suit the file size you need.
From Peter: Hi, I’m experiencing several problems with my macbook. It seems that several keys on my keyboard are associating themselves with other keys. For example, every time i press space, it will activate both the caps lock and the space (I’m manually correcting my typing) and vice versa, pressing “p” puts in both p and a “/” and vice versa, so TYP/ING normally IS like THIS. Also “6″ does some unknown command but does not actually put a 6 with it. When I need a 6, I have to copy and paste it from another source. This problem started occurring after a normal boot up. Please help!
Peter, I’ve seen this a bunch of times, and every time, the keyboard was shot. I’d take it to an Apple Store or mail it in for repair. The problem, however, is that it often occurs after a liquid spill, so be forewarned that the repair may not be covered under warranty. If it’s not the keyboard, however, let me know how you fixed it, as other readers surely will be interested.
From Linda: How can I save the print jobs in my print queue, so I can delete the printer?
Hi Linda. I’m not saying this can’t be done, but in the 20 years I’ve been using Macs, I’ve never come across a way to do it once you’ve sent the job to the printer. If someone out there has a solution for Linda, please let her know in the comments.
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