Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Does anyone know how to set up a Mac that has been used by someone before? My dad has given me a Macbook Pro M1 that he has barely used. He wiped it but I think might have not switched off Activation Lock. Now when I start it up there's no way of getting around Recovery Assistant.

And my old man has given me what he thinks is his Apple ID and pword but that's not allowing me to get in. And he can't remember the pword of the machine. Classic boomer.

I was thinking to go to an Apple store and see what's up. My dad lives in Africa so comms are complicated but maybe he tries resetting his Apple ID and giving me the logins. But is there some alternative? I know there are some special startup options where you hold certain keys on a restart...

1 Attachment

Sorry, but if you were able to just bypass that lock by starting up while holding certain keys it would be pretty pointless don't you think?

Had this once a long time ago for my own machine, an Apple store will only unlock it for you if you can proof you are the owner of the machine and proof of ID. If your dad has given it to you then I am guessing the ownership has not been offically transferred. I am not actually sure how the transfer of ownership actually works, I guess it's whatever the Apple ID the machine is logged in with...

It’s now an expensive paperweight if you don’t have the password or proof of ownership for Genius Bar.

I learned this the hard way.

As above.
Your Dad will need to figure out how to reclaim his Apple ID
Until then, they'll treat the laptop the same as if it were stolen

Does he have proof of purchase? Amazon for example have a record of the serial of the laptop when it's sold - partly so that if it pinched by a courier or something then they can report it stolen. But depending on the retailer then you might be able to show proof that it's his.

Thanks all for the advice, and @salad for a bit of patronizing to make the point. I'll explain the Apple procedure to Pa slightly more sympathetically and yes, if worse comes to worse I'm sure he'll have the receipt somewhere that he can show.

I get it that this is a rookie problem, just dealing with a dad who's much worse with tech than he'd like to think and was very miffed to hear that things are more complicated when he thought he'd sorted me out. Just old dogs and new tricks, y'all know how it is!

Update on the glitchy Word/Monterey thing upthread.

The solution, painfully arrived at, was to install an earlier version of Word. But you can't, only an earlier version of the whole Office suite.

Word problem fixed, Outlook problem beginning. I can either run a new version of Outlook (and lose access to my archive), or the Legacy version with the archive. After a couple of days it's clear that the latest Outlook is a dog's breakfast; I will revert to the Legacy version. Memo to Microsoft: Ain't broke? Don't fix!

Meanwhile, MS was also unwilling to accept my proven authorisation. Who’d have thought I’d need to get into my Mac’s Terminal and tap in ‘*defaults write com.microsoft.Word ResetOneAuthCreds -bool YES*’ in order to convince MS365 that I am the user that is already using it!

There goes a day of my life … and another late night just clearing up the mess and catching up!

Thanks to @saalad and @grams.

That sounds like a headache 😅 ..but good to hear you got it working in the end!

@gdkhgd - apologies, didn't mean to come across like an ass, and I'm sorry I wasn't of much help.

Have been through numerous computer dramas with both my parents - and my father also used to live abroad, with bad reception (and fucking Windows Vista back then, ugh).

This might sound stupid, but have you asked your old man already five times if he is really really sure he didn't write down the password of the machine somewhere when he set it up?

How old is the version of Outlook that you have reverted to?

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2024-38021

I have no idea what any of that means.

I've 'reverted' to Outlook 16.88. Actually it's an 'advance' on what I was using!

However it so not-an-advance that I decided to revert to what I had previously been using successfully. Howver MS doesn't recognise my authentication (yet again!) and I've had to go through a lengthy 'new password' process that's like being interrogated by the police. And then it says, 'It may take up to 24 hours to confirm your authentication.'

So here I am, out of comms again, being led by the nose by automated systems. I only want access to what I have been running for years!

The software that we use is constantly being probed for bugs by researchers and hackers, the first to enable what they find to be fixed* and the second in order to exploit said bugs to attack people/organisations.

What that announcement is saying is that as of the 9th of July anyone using Outlook who received a maliciously crafted email with a link in it would, if that linked were to be clicked, allow the attacker to execute commands on the machine in question.

Microsoft fixed that, but this is a constant process - so the older your version is the more likely it is to be vulnerable to this type of attack.

In general you don’t want to allow yourself to be in a situation where you are running software that’s not received updates - especially something as widely used as Outlook as it’s very heavily attacked.

*Unless they work for a government of course…

@salad No worries at all, it's an obvious point! But yeh, the old man is very frustrated and starts harping on about "bring back the good ole days" etc. He said maybe I'd be better selling it for the cash, at which point I suggested we drop this and wait until he's back in the UK (rather than tell him it's effectively an expensive paperweight haha).

Heartfelt thanks to all, it's actually quite simple: if he can't find the pword anywhere I'll tell him to reset his Apple ID and pass on the deets. Failing that we'll try the proof of purchase route.

Yes yes yes (and thanks for the explanation). That isn't the issue here. The issue is:

a. Being forced to 'rollback' (their word) to an earlier incarnation of Office to correct malfunctioning Word software.

b. Thus 'owning;' a different version of Outlook.

c. Being unable to log into new Outlook due to MS inability to process valid authentications.

d. Being unable to revert to 'legacy' (i.e. original) Outlook due to continued MS inability to process valid authentications.

In a perfect world I'd have a new computer and new software that didn't have compatibility issues. Everyone knows running unsupported software isn't ideal. Nevertheless that's where some of us find ourselves.

In that perfect world, Microsoft would answer for their crimes!

Amen

is there a good alternative to adobe creative suite?

also just ordered the new mac mini m4. what is the best solution for extending the hard drive? figured it might be easier to just by an ssd? is it best to buy one of those custom enclosures or just plug an ssd drive in (usbc)?

edit: just saw this from an earlier post: https://www.raycue.com/products/raycue-expandpro-7-in-1-usb-c-hub-stand-for-mac-mini?variant=44593377575068

has anyone tried this?

best I know is the cs is quite a cardcore set of programs and if you can use them you can probably use anything,, I can't - so got the affinity set (£80 promo at the time) two of which I've not opened yet.
It was a recommendation not that far back in this thread - I've had a look at macmost (YouTube or website) tutorials for it and another program was mentioned pixelpro (?) .. they'll be more money in doing cs tutorials but maybe look at tutorial program use before purchasing

Or just go for it as I did because it'll make little difference

I have never owned airtags. I need some now as I am travelling a lot in 2025. I see that there are 3rd party ones that use the 'find my' network, is it worth paying premium for apple? I am guessing privacy is an issue?

Definitely buy apple. Just overall better integration

ah cool! will do.

The third party ones shown up in the Find My app same as the non Apple ones. You may have to do the initial setup through the manufacturer’s app.

They may have worse battery life and they may not to the close distance ranging thing that AirTags do.

The Find My network is encrypted so that side should be the same privacy wise, but that doesn’t mean they might not leak data through other channels.

some airlines (united) actually can use the airtags (if you share) incase of lost luggage. In the app these days now.

I think I'd like to get my son a game controller he can connect to his iPad to make some games a little more enjoyable to play. Does anyone use something like this and have any recommendations?

Would it be best just to use an xbox/PS/Switch controller?

I have used a PS4 controller in the past. Worked well.