Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac

Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac, Second Edition

Fix common problems, and handle uncommon problems like a pro!

We may love our Macs, but they can still suffer from significant problems. In the second edition of this essential guide from best-selling author Joe Kissell, you'll learn 17 basic troubleshooting procedures and how to solve 15 common problems, along with an easy-to-follow way to troubleshoot novel problems. Whether your Mac won't turn on, experiences kernel panics repeatedly, or won't print or connect to the Internet, this book has the calm, friendly advice you need to find a solution.

Get the Mac Fitness Trilogy! Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac is part of the Mac Fitness Trilogy, a trio of ebooks that help you keep your Mac in top condition by preventing problems, fixing problems, and improving performance. To read the entire trilogy, use the Bundle Discount at the left to buy this book with Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac and Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac.

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The 17 basic troubleshooting procedures (along with the reasons why they can help) you'll learn are:

Restart your Mac
Force-quit an application
Start up from another volume
Run disk-repair utilities
Erase and restore from backup
Repair permissions
Start up in Safe Mode
Turn off login items
Check preference files
Reset PMU, SMU, SMC, NVRAM, or PRAM
Use Activity Monitor
Check free disk space
Check log files
Clear caches
Check your RAM
Test for reproducibility
Get system information

This ebook contains a lot of information for $10. Seriously, I thought it would be much lighter than it was. It's actually pretty much indispensable. Well done, Joe Kissell and Take Control, I say. —Mark Webster in his mac.nz book review

Joe also explains how to solve 15 common problems, including:

Your computer won’t turn on
Your computer keeps turning itself off
You experience repeated kernel panics
Your Mac is abnormally slow (read Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac for full details)
You can’t empty the Trash
An application grinds to a halt
An application crashes
The keyboard or mouse doesn’t work
You lose your Internet connection
Printing doesn’t work
Spotlight searches fail
Keychain (seemingly) forgets passwords
Apple Mail fails to connect
Time Machine misbehaves
A volume won’t unmount

Book Info

110 pages
Version 2.0
Published May 26, 2011
1.2 MB download
ISBN: 9781615421367
Free sample with Table of Contents, Intro, Quick Start, and section starts.

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About the Author

Kissell, Joe headshot Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS and a Senior Contributor to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.

Book Reviews

AAUG (4/5)
mac.nz (9 of 10)
Contact us for review copies

Author Interviews

MacVoicesTV (Jun-11)
MacVoices (Jun-11)
Contact us for interview requests

Read Me First
Introduction: Don't Panic!
Troubleshooting Quick Start
Prevent Problems
Prepare for an Emergency
Learn Basic Troubleshooting Procedures
Solve Common Problems
Troubleshoot Novel Problems
Learn More
About This Book

Read Me First

Macs are easy to use, but they can experience problems like any other machine. When something goes wrong with your Mac, use this book to discover the solution. This book was written by
Joe Kissell, edited by Adam Engst, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.

Introduction: Don't Panic!

You’ve always heard that Macs are easy to use and less prone to misadventures than Windows PCs. And that’s true. But they’re still only machines. And sure enough, one day it happens: you encounter a serious problem with your Mac and have no idea what to do. Perhaps, since you’re reading this book, that day is today.

Repeat after me: Everything is going to be all right. Now take a deep breath and try again, this time with feeling! Everything is going to be all right. I want you to believe that. Even if you’re feeling panicked right now because your Mac is doing something wonky and you’re facing a deadline, I want you to set aside your anxiety for a moment.

Almost every Mac problem you may encounter has a solution. True, some solutions are more elusive, more time-consuming, or more expensive, than others, but still: don’t worry. I’ve been solving problems with Macs for more than 20 years, and I’m here to tell you that solutions come more easily when you have a clear head and approach a problem systematically. That’s what this book helps you to do.

Make yourself a nice cup of tea. (Keep the tea away from your Mac, by the way—let’s not add to your problems, eh?) Close your eyes and think happy thoughts. Then page through this book to learn the most efficient way to deal with whatever difficulties you may be having.

I’ve seen more than one Mac troubleshooting book that was upward of 600 pages long, and troubleshooting Web sites with thousands of pages of suggestions. By contrast, this book makes no attempt to be comprehensive, because merely listing vast numbers of problems and their accompanying solutions doesn’t help one bit if you have a different problem or don’t realize how your problem is like some other one. What I hope to do, instead, is show you some handy troubleshooting techniques, provide instructions for solving several common problems, and then help you figure out what to do when a problem’s cause or solution isn’t immediately apparent. In other words, I want to teach you how to be your own technical support person—to do what I do when something goes wrong with one of my Macs.

Because my focus here is on getting your Mac back into working order, I intentionally skip over lots of background information and technical details. So don’t worry if you’re unsure exactly why some technique solves your problem. If you’re really interested in the deep background, some exploration on the Web will probably turn up oodles of detail.

As confident as I am that most Mac problems have straightforward solutions, I must point out that some problems can’t be solved with a few mouse clicks or other clever fiddling. If flames are shooting out of your Mac or the screen is in a thousand pieces, you’ll need more help than I can provide here. Even simpler hardware problems, such as a faulty component on your logic board or a busted power cable, may require a trip to the repair shop. And a few—very few—hardware problems are either entirely beyond repair or more costly to repair than is worthwhile. Nevertheless, don’t panic. By the time you finish this book, you’ll not only know how to solve most problems, you’ll have the tools and techniques you need to prevent many problems in the first place, or at least to nip them in the bud. And even if you have a problem that requires professional help, following the steps in this book will help you talk to a repairperson more effectively.

If you don’t have any problems right now and are merely reading this to prepare yourself for future mishaps, good for you! You’ll especially appreciate the information in the first couple of chapters about preventing problems and preparing for an emergency.

This book is designed to help troubleshoot problems with any version of Mac OS X from 10.4 Tiger onward, though many of the techniques also work with older versions. At press time, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion hadn’t yet been released, but based on my preliminary testing with preview versions, I expect that nearly everything in this book will continue to work with it. Use the link in Ebook Extras, near the end of the book, to check for any new information or updated versions of this book.

Font of knowledge: One large category of Mac trouble I don’t cover here is font misbehavior. If you need help troubleshooting a font-related problem, read Sharon Zardetto’s Take Control of Font Problems in Leopard. It hasn’t been revised in several years, but it remains the only book on the market about font problems and much of its advice is still worthwhile.

Troubleshooting Quick Start

When your Macintosh has problems, you undoubtedly want to jump right to the solution. So feel free to skip immediately to Solve Common Problems and see if your symptom is listed there. If not, and time permitting, I recommend reading this book in order, because earlier sections provide useful background information for later sections. However, you may also try the steps in Troubleshoot Novel Problems, following the cross-references as necessary to earlier parts of the book where certain procedures are described in detail.

Prepare for Trouble

Even if your Mac is healthy now, take steps to keep it that way. Read Prevent Problems.
When your Mac starts acting up, you’ll be glad to already have a toolkit with which you can diagnose and fix it. Learn what you need to have on hand in Prepare for an Emergency.
Most of the steps you’ll go through when a problem occurs rely on several common procedures. Learn how to do these tasks before problems arise so that fixing them will be easier. See Learn Basic Troubleshooting Procedures.

Solve Problems

If your Mac misbehaves, the problem may be something that many other people have experienced (and that’s easily repaired). Start with Solve Common Problems.
Not all problems are common. If you encounter something not covered in the previous section, learn how to solve it—or find someone who can—in Troubleshoot Novel Problems.

Find More Information

For further instruction in troubleshooting, check out the electronic or printed books in Learn More.

What’s New in the Second Edition

In the roughly two years since the previous version of this book was released in 2009, Mac OS X has undergone lots of changes, as have third-party tools. In addition, I’ve accumulated more troubleshooting advice I wanted to share. As a result, I’ve made extensive changes in this edition. Some of the most significant changes include:

Information on Apple’s USB Software Reinstall Drive, other flash drives, and Lion’s Recovery HD volume in Acquire a Secondary Startup Volume
Suggestions for alternative ways to Start Up from Another Volume
Updated instructions (for 10.6 Snow Leopard and later) in Erase and Restore from Backup
A thoroughly revised list of resources in Reset PMU, SMU, SMC, NVRAM, or PRAM
Improved guidelines and updated information in Check Free Disk Space
Revised instructions (now supporting Snow Leopard and later, and Microsoft Office 2011) in Clear Caches
Expanded information about bad RAM in Your Computer Keeps Turning Itself Off
Additional suggestions about what to do if You Experience Repeated Kernel Panics
Drawing from Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac, a revised discussion of easy things to try if Your Mac Is Abnormally Slow
Ready-to-use solutions to even more common problems:

Spotlight Searches Fail
Keychain (Seemingly) Forgets Passwords
Apple Mail Fails to Connect
Time Machine Misbehaves
A Volume Won’t Unmount

Updated information about Apple’s support offerings in Ask the Vendor for Help

What Was New in Version 1.1

Version 1.1 of this book was thoroughly updated to reflect the latest Mac hardware and software, including the correct procedures for troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and later (while maintaining information on working with older versions of Mac OS X). Along with hundreds of minor changes and additions throughout the manuscript, this version includes the following major changes:

An updated and expanded list of disk-repair tools and other startup options, including those applicable to the MacBook Air: Acquire a Secondary Startup Volume and Start from a Remote Disc
A new sidebar describing AppleJack: AppleJack
A tip for reading troubleshooting tips when your computer is out of service: Have a Printed Copy of This Book
Greatly expanded lists of utilities for identifying large files, finding duplicates, and uninstalling software: Check Free Disk Space
A new sidebar about tools for deleting caches: Cache-Clearing Utilities
Revised instructions for using Apple Hardware Test: Check Your RAM

What kinds of problems does this book help with?

The book will help you get more comfortable and efficient with troubleshooting on a Mac, so that you can more easily identify problems and possible solutions. The ebook assumes that you are using Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, or 10.6 Snow Leopard, and it has some look-ahead information about 10.7 Lion.

The book doesn't particularly look at font-related problems, because Take Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X (primarily covers 10.4 Tiger) and Take Control of Font Problems in Leopard (as you can guess from the title, this ebook is about 10.5 Leopard) offer many pages of advice for solving font problems. And, Snow Leopard didn't have enough unique font problems to justify creating another edition of the Leopard ebook.

This book will help you identify if a particular application is causing a problem, and it offers general advice for solving a problem caused by an application, but it doesn't delve deeply into specific problems with specific applications. So, if you need help with a problem such as making your columns work in Pages, making Excel behave, or figuring out if wacky InDesign behavior is a bug or a feature, this book isn't the one you want.

Will this book tell me how to fix the search function in Address Book that causes it to freeze when I search for a particular address?

Brendan F. wrote in to ask this question. Here's our reply:

The book doesn't specifically answer your question, but it does help you get into the troubleshooting frame of mind. For instance, you could check if it's just that one address (then likely everything else is fine, but that address needs to be deleted and rekeyed), or if it's several addresses (time to delete your Address Book data file and revert to a backup, with fingers crossed), or if it's all addresses (try deleting caches/preferences, updating the app if you are behind on updates, and/or reinstalling it). The book would give you somewhat more specific directions, but since it's general to all applications, it won't tell you exactly how to, say, find and delete the Address Book data file.

If you need help from an Address Book expert, checking resources such as the Apple Support Forums, a Macintosh consultant, or a Genius Bar, is probably the route to a solution. The book specifically notes these—and other—ways to ask for and find help.

Can I read this ebook on an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Kindle?

There are lots of great ways to read our ebooks on these devices. For more details, please read our latest Device Advice.

Ask a Question

Feel free to ask us or post on our GetSatisfaction site if you have a question about this book!

Video Viewing in Lion Freezes New iMacs

August 6, 2011 --

Take Control author Kirk McElhearn reports in a TidBITS article, Video Viewing in Lion Freezes New iMacs (4 August 2011), about a freezing problem that can occur when new iMacs running Lion attempt to play video after being woken from sleep. Find out the details, the symptoms, and what Apple has done so far to address this issue. (Note: I, too, have a new iMac running Lion, and have seen the problem first-hand.)

—Michael E. Cohen

Get Inspired to Do Troubleshooting by Listening to Joe and Chuck

June 7, 2011 --

You can now listen to (or watch) author Joe Kissell talk with host Chuck Joiner about Macintosh troubleshooting on the MacVoices podcast (episode #1174) or watch the full video version on MacVoicesTV (episode #1163).

Find out what Joe thinks has changed in recent years with troubleshooting and why enhancing your troubleshooting skills remains important, plus get inspired to think like a troubleshooter. Joe also discusses some recent troubleshooting experiences that he's had personally with his own gear, and the solutions that he's found.

—Tonya Engst

Snow Leopard Font Update from Apple Addresses Problems in 10.6.7

April 27, 2011 --

Apple has acknowledged the font-related troubles in Mac OS X 10.6.7, by releasing the Snow Leopard Font Update. Apple details four specific problems fixed by the update, including:

An issue in which some OpenType fonts don’t display correctly in certain applications
Printing problems in Preview
PDF files not opening in third-party PDF viewing applications
Invalid font errors when printing to PostScript printers

My hope is that the update, which weighs in at a mere 3.77 MB, fixes the OpenType font encoding definitions in such a way that it will resolve all the problems that Mac users have been experiencing since 10.6.7 shipped slightly over a month ago. Apple recommends that all users of 10.6.7 install the update, and while it’s hard to argue with that suggestion, if you’ve been holding at 10.6.6 because of 10.6.7’s font-related woes, I recommend staying there until the community has confirmed that the Snow Leopard Font Update really does fix the problems.

—Adam Engst

Serious Font and Printing Problems in Mac OS X 10.6.7

March 28, 2011 --

Here at Take Control HQ, we're hearing about serious font-related problems introduced by Apple's recent release of Mac OS X 10.6.7 Snow Leopard. If you print to paper or PDF, you should not install this update. I expect that Apple will issue a fix shortly. Meanwhile, if you'd like to learn more about the problem or if you've already installed 10.6.7 and need to learn about workarounds or reverting to 10.6.6, consult OpenType PostScript Fonts Troublesome in 10.6.7. In the article's comments, Steve Werner also suggests an easy workaround for people using Adobe applications.