The USB-C Multiport Adapter Update 1.0 improves the compatibility and reliability of your Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter or Apple USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter. This update is recommended for all users.
Ah yes, firmware updates for dongles.
Category: Kbase of the Week
Kbase Article of the Week: If an Error Occurred While Updating your Apple Studio Display ⇢
Sometimes I forget there’s a whole dang computer in the Studio Display, then I come across a link like this one:
If a warning symbol appears on your Studio Display, your display is in recovery mode and needs to be updated.
If an error occurs while updating your Studio Display, a warning symbol and support.apple.com/display/restore appear on your screen. Use the built-in display on your Mac or another display connected to your Mac to update your Studio Display.
Kbase Article of the Week: Mac OS X: About File System Journaling ⇢
Journaling is a feature that helps protect the file system against power outages or hardware component failures, reducing the need for directory repairs. This document explains some of the benefits of using this feature and how it works.
Journaling for the Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) file system enhances computer availability and fault resilience, which is especially noteworthy for servers. Journaling protects the integrity of the file system on Xserve and other computers using Mac OS X Server in the event of an unplanned shutdown or power failure. It also helps to maximize the uptime of servers and connected storage devices by expediting repairs to the affected volumes when the system restarts.
Kbase Article of the Week: Install Mac Pro in a Rack ⇢
I don’t often think about the rackable Mac Pro, but I can’t wait to own one in about 20 years.
Kbase Article of the Week: Zoom in on the Touch Bar on Mac ⇢
If your Mac has a Touch Bar and items in the Touch Bar are hard to see, you can turn on Touch Bar zoom, which displays a larger version of the Touch Bar on the screen.
Sorta Kbase of the Week: Using Migration Assistant over Thunderbolt ⇢
This isn’t strictly a support document, but I wanted to post about it so I can find it again in the future. Here’s Marco Arment on Mastodon:
Got Thunderbolt Migration Assistant working!
Kbase Article of the Week: Apple Style Guide ⇢
The Apple Style Guide provides editorial guidelines for text in Apple instructional materials, technical documentation, reference information, training programs, and user interfaces. The intent of these guidelines is to help maintain a consistent voice in Apple materials.
Writers, editors, and developers can use this document as a guide to writing style, usage, and Apple product terminology. Writers and editors should thoroughly review the guide to become familiar with the range of issues involved in creating high-quality, readable, and consistent materials. Apple developers and third-party developers should follow these guidelines for user-facing text.
Kbase Article of the Week: Use the Touch Bar on Mac ⇢
If your Mac has a Touch Bar, you can use familiar gestures—like tap, swipe, or slide—directly on the Touch Bar to adjust settings, use Siri, access function keys, and do tasks in different apps.
I want to write a lot more about the Touch Bar at some point. It was an interesting idea, but clearly one that users and developers mostly rejected. That doesn’t happen every day with Apple products.
Kbase Article of the Week: Gloom Filter in Motion ⇢
Apple Support, describing the Gloom filter in Motion:
Creates a muted, dark glow. The image is darkened, and areas of detail are evened out into larger regions of color. It’s spooky.
I’ll let you be the judge of that:
Kbase Article of the Week: Using the iPhoto Library Upgrader Tool ⇢
You can use the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool to prepare your library to work with the current version of iPhoto or Photos for OS X.
When you open a library created by an earlier version of iPhoto, you might see a message that says “Library version too old. Please upgrade your library ‘iPhoto Library’ using the free iPhoto Library Upgrader available from Apple.”
The iPhoto Library Upgrader prepares libraries from iPhoto ‘08 (v7.x) or earlier so that you can use them with the current version of iPhoto or Photos for OS X. If your library was created by iPhoto ‘09 (v8.x) or later, you don’t need to use this tool.
‘As If It Were a Swarm of Bees’ ⇢
Last week on the Six Colors podcast, Dan Moren mentioned a very specific Apple support document that I was able to find via the Wayback Machine:
As if it were a swarm of bees, you should stay away from the SyncServices folder in Mac OS X. Removing or modifying anything in it—or in subfolders within it—may cause unexpected issues. This folder is located in your Application Support folder, in your Library folder, in your Home folder.
Kbase Article of the Week: Mac Computer Status Indicator Light Behavior ⇢
The status indicator light (SIL) on Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro has different patterns based on the state of your Mac. These patterns also occur on some earlier MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac models, though not all Macs have a SIL. If you have a Mac Pro, learn about the status indicator light behavior on Mac Pro (2023) or Mac Pro (2019).
I still wish Macs would show a pulsing LED when asleep. Even the machines listed in this document just show a solid LED when running and sleeping. I miss that little touch of useful whimsy.