Apple Solves iPhone 5.6 Carrier Update Mystery

"After three separate calls to Apple Support, I was able to reach a representative this morning that finally answered the infamous 5.6 carrier update mystery that quickly followed after iPhone OS 3.1.2was released last week.

The Apple rep indicated that the 5.6 carrier file update addresses a specific issue that some iPhone users were experiencing after the 5.5 update enabling MMS was rolled out on Friday, September 25th.

When sending photos or videos in an MMS message, the progress bar would stall at about 90% then result in an error ending with a (!) red exclamation point next to the MMS message. The associated message failed to be properly sent, though standard text messages worked as normal. The 5.6 patch addressed that particular MMS issue. "

Read the full story by Ray Basile

Snow Leopard Critical Bug Found -- Guest Login Can Delete Account Data

A "critical flaw has been found in Snow Leopard. Reportedly, Snow Leopard users have been making the unpleasant discovery that logging into a guest account and then logging out can delete user information on all accounts. Apple computers store user info such as pictures, documents, and downloads in a common location, much like Windows "My Documents".

Describes user "parshallnet" to Apple, "When I logged into my MacBook Pro this morning, it was as if I had logged into my Guest Account and not my standard user profile. No icons on the desktop, the desktop wallpaper was the default 'space' photo and not the one I had assigned, no documents in the docs folder, apps behaved as if I'd never opened them before.”

Continue reading the full story by Jason Mick

Data losses in Snow Leopard bug

Users of the new Apple operating system Snow Leopard are experiencing massive data losses when logging into their machines under a guest account.

The problem appears to affect those who had a guest account enabled before upgrading to Snow Leopard.

The problem appears to affect those who had a guest account enabled before upgrading to Snow Leopard.

Users have in some cases lost their entire main profile, including sites, pictures, videos and documents.

The problem, reported by more than 100 users on discussion forums, surfaced shortly after the OS's August release.

Indications are that the Snow Leopard bug simply treats the principal account like a guest account - meaning that the account profile is wiped clean when logging out.

Users who first log into a guest account and then into their normal account have found it to be completely reset to factory default settings, with none of their personal data or files visible.

Continue reading the BBC story

Snow Leopard data-munching bug predates Snow Leopard

Howls of Jobsian distress date to November 2007!

Fanboi complaints of a mystery data-munching Mac OS bug began well before the arrival of Snow Leopard, Apple's latest desktop operating system. Similar tales of woe date back to at least November of 2007, when Jobsian cultists were still using the previous Mac OS version, just plain Leopard.

"Nooooo!!! This morning I had access to Guest Account and than all my data were lost!!!" wrote one user over the weekend. "I had 250GB of data without backup and I lost everything: years and years of documents, pictures, video, music!!! Is it possible to recover something? Please help me!!!!"

But it appears the same bug predates Snow Leopard (aka Mac OS X 10.6). Sebastian Mondial, a Hamburg-based journalist with the German News Service, reported what would appear to be an identical problem with a postto the Apple support forum on November 13, 2007. Mondial was hit after a clean install of just plain Leopard (version 10.5.1).

See the full story by Cade Metz in San Francisco

Possible reasons and fixes for Time Machine slowdowns

Time Machine has been a great backup solution that has for the most part worked quite well; however it has not been without its glitches. Despite the majority of initial problems being addressed by Apple, there will be times when the backup process seems to just hang or stall out, without giving any apparent errors or notifications.

Read some possible solutions here