contacts weirdness

One of the strange new entries polluting my address book. Click image for full-size version.

Something weird is happening with my contacts list on my mac laptop and iPhone.

Background: Last week, my Macbook Pro’s hard drive crashed during a Snow Leopard install. The Apple Store replaced my drive, installed Snow Leopard, and told me to restore my data from my Time Machine backup. But Snow Leopard wouldn’t let me specify the correct Time Machine backup to restore from, so I had to bring it back to the Apple Store a total of three times (including my staying in the store for over seven hours to make sure my repair was handled correctly) to get them to restore my data. Yeah, the ordeal sucked, and deeply shook my confidence in Apple technology. Here are my tips to avoid a similar crisis.

What’s weird now: After this, my mac’s address book (“contacts” app on the iPhone) contained dozens of duplicate entries. I was able to merge these via the Card –> Look for Duplicates command on my laptop’s address book.

BUT…  I’ve discovered that dozens of new entries (maybe more than 100) have been mysteriously and inexplicably added to my database! Each of these are random collections of 10 or so e-mail addresses. (See picture) As far as I can tell, I have to delete these manually.

WTF? Has anyone else seen this happen? I’m hoping this is just some weird artifact from the grueling restore process, and that after I clean up the random e-mail entries the problem will go away. But it’s just weird…

1. Back up your entire machine onto TWO EXTERNAL DRIVES. It’s a good idea to run Time Machine backup as often as possible. But when you’re running the risk of having to hand over your mac AND your backup drive to a technician (which is always the case when attempting a significant operating system update), it’s a good idea to have a separate copy of your backup in your own possession.

2. Verify the condition of your hard drive. Apple is marketing Snow Leopard chiefly as a way to enhance performance. However, if your hard drive is developing problems (as mine apparently was), that will impair performance. Installing Snow Leopard won’t fix HD problems, and it may even cause your drive to fail during installation (as mine did)

So Verify your disk using your Mac’s Disk Utility before you upgrade. That can indicate HD problems. It’s not a perfect predictor of problems, but it’s at least some help. Had I thought to do this, I might not have lost 3 workdays and be freezing my ass off in an over-air conditioned Apple Store right now.

If your disk verification process indicates problems, and if you’re experiencing decreasing performance, it’s probably a safer bet to get your HD replaced and data restored correctly BEFORE attempting to upgrade your operating system. If you have to go to the Apple Store to do this, make sure they put in the work order that you do NOT want the OS upgraded yet.

3. Check your warranty coverage. I purchased Apple Care when I bought my mac a couple of years ago, and it’s still in effect. So Apple replaced my HD for free. I’m not sure whether the warranty covers drives that are having problems (rather than have already failed), but it’s worth asking about.

4. Line up a backup computer. If, like me, you work or life could get seriously screwed if you lose your computer for a few days or more, make sure you have handy access to a functional backup machine BEFORE doing a significant system update. Load it up with all the software & data you’ll need to do what you need to do, and test it.

Personally, I’m getting a Linux netbook ASAP.

5. Check your ProCare staus. ProCare is Apple’s preferred service program. It costs about $100/yr, and it’s worth it if you depend in your Mac. If you need a speedy repair, make sure you have current ProCare coverage. You van buy it on the spot at the Apple Store if you need it.

6. Don’t leave the Apple Store without your computer the way you need it. If your OS X update goes dreadfully wrong (as mine did), required them to wipe your drive, have the Apple Store staff restore your operating system and data from your Time Machine backup. Don’t do all of that yourself.

My experience shows that this installation/restore process is trickier than Apple claims. It’s surprisingly easy for the Time Machine restoration to not work right with a freshly installed OS. Make them do everything you need do your machine is up and running. Bring this blog post with you if they balk, and stick to your guns.

This means bringing your external HD with your current Time Machine backup to the Apple Store with you, of course. And before you leave, sync your iPhone and make sure it works. My iPhone sync is not yet working, so I’m staying put in this store for now.

7. Check the “Lemon Law” in your state. The details if this federal consumer protection law are defined by each state. In many states, including CA, lemon laws cover not just vehicles but also consumer products. This may give you recourse if you get screwed by Apple on mac-related issues, like a disastrous OS update you paid for.

Also have the phone number of the local Better Business Bureau handy, and be willing to file a complaint if necessary.

8. Don’t attempt a major system update a couple of weeks after having knee surgery. I’m just saying, it makes everything that much more difficult, aggravating, and risky.

I’ve been here about 3 hours so far.

THE HIGHLIGHTS:

1. My mac was increasingly having performance problems, and Snow Leopard is marketed mainly as a performance enhancer.
2. When I tried installing SL, it failed because my hard drive crashed. HD problems were most likely the cause of my performance problems.
3. Apple replaced my HD, installed SL, and told me to restore from my Time Machine backup. The TM restore failed in a weird way.
4. On my 2nd Apple Store trip, they wiped my HD, installed SL, and gave me new instructions for restoring from TM. Last night that failed too.

For more details on exactly what went wrong, see my posts from yesterday and this morning.

So today, on my third visit, my goals are:

1. Get my HD wiped again. Tech reports this was done.
2. Get the regular Leopard OS X installed, NOT Snow Leopard. Really, screw SL at this point! Tech reports this was done.
3. Restore my apps and data from the CORRECT TM backup, something the SL installer would not let me do.
4. Avoid unnecessary walking. I had knee surgery Aug. 13, & doc says I must avoid unnecessary walking until my leg is much stronger, to avoid developing a hard-to-correct limp. Trouble is I don’t own a car, so had to take bus to Apple store, which involved walking a few blocks. I’m staying put in the Apple Store (they gave me a chair) until my mac is fixed. Been here nearly three hours so far.
5. Check everything out BEFORE I sign off on this repair & leave. And if it’s not fixed, they’re getting a big ‘ol dose of NJ loud ‘n pissed, plus possible action under CA’s lemon law. (Been doing sone research, and it applies to consumer products, not just cars.)
6. Get a refund for Snow Leopard. Yeah. Seriously.
7. Try to avoid homicides. Just on general principles. Especially at the Apple Store. Too many witnesses.

If all goes well, my mac will emerge from brain surgery in the next hour. I hope so, because I’m getting hungry.

It’s cold in here. Glad I brought my goodie.

So far I’ve lost 3 days to this. Most of my work-related data is in the cloud, but not having a backup computer leaves me outta that loop. So I’m researching which Linux netbook to purchase. I’ve been wanting one for travel & portability, but now I see having a backup machine running Firefox with all my plugins and that I can actually type on makes the difference to keep me in business.

Because writing on an iPhone truly sucks. I loathe this #^*+%# touch keyboard. Good thing I remembered to charge up & bring my backup battery.

I’ll post again when I know more. Stay tuned.

Please see my post yesterday explaining how a failed update to the much-heralded Snow Leopard OS X left me macless.

Last night, after the Apple Store wiped my brand-new hard drive, I went home and followed their instructions for installing SL again and restoring from my Time Machine backup. The SL install worked; the TM restore failed because the Snow Leopard installer does not allow you to specify WHICH TM backup you want to restore from!

That’s right: SL automatically grabs the most recent backup — which in this case was a backup of the lobotomized virgin system captured after my first SL install.

Tom worked hard for several hours last night via iChat screen share to try to manually restore the correct TM backup. Below are his notes

Right now I’m en route to the Apple Store. I plan to be there when they open and stay there until they fix this. I’ll be updating on this blog and via Twitter” throughout the day.

…BTW, I’m having to run all these errands at a time when my orthopedist has cautioned me to walk as little as possible. I had knee surgery Aug. 13 to repair a torn ACL. I have a leg brace for getting around during recovery, but walking too much now impairs my recovery. So managing this Apple ordeal is putting my physical well being at risk. No exaggeration.

Anyway, here’s Tom’s account of what happened with my mac last night and what I’m trying to achieve today….

This has been an unmitigated disaster.

First problem: HD failure during install of Snow Leopard.

Apple installed a new hard drive and Snow Leopard.

Amy went home, and tried to restore her data and apps from Time Machine. That restore failed. However, instead of choosing “restore from time machine,” when Snow Leopard launched for the first time, she chose “do not transfer my information at this time.” She then ran Time Machine restore from within Snow Leopard.

Second problem: Time Machine did not restore everything to ‘/’, it restored to a directory “/Macintosh HD”

Amy returned to Apple store. They did a clean wipe, and upon returning home she chose “restore from time machine.”

This worked except for one problem: Time machine had been running during the previous install and restore. As a result, the last backup it had on hand was the “virgin” install from the previous day. None of her applications or data and different user account name.

Since the username Amy chose for the new account on the laptop is not the same as the username in the Time Machine backups, Time Machine did not allow her access to the old backups. It only allowed access two the two snapshots that were created previously.

We created a second user account of the same name as the one on the Time Machine backup to see if it would allow access. It did not.

At this point, the only option is to manually restore everything using sudo and command line copying from the Time Machine backup to the laptop.

The only problem is that I have restored applications that are not going to run with Snow Leopard (i.e. we can not now get iChat to work so I can continue screen sharing). Since iChat disconnected my screen sharing session last night, I was unable to finish resetting file permissions for her documents (chown -R amygahran:staff ~/)

What we want:

1 Forget Snow Leopard. Install virgin Mac OS X from original install CDs.

2. Do a restore from Time Machine. However, you’re going to have a problem here. Upon booting, and choosing “restore from Time Machine,” Time Machine will not give you access to anything older than the more recent backup. That backup was performed under Snow Leopard of the virgin system. It is not of the applications and documents we need.

We want the machine back the way it was before this nightmare began.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

From The Onion, of course… Hat tip to Tom Vilot.

I’ve been hearing the rumor, and Gizmodo claims it’s true: Apple is supposed to debut the next-generation iPhone on June 9, during the keynote address of its Worldwide Developers Conference. I would expect it to go on sale in the US pretty soon after that. (But of course, you never really know with Apple.)

Apparently this new iPhone will include 3G network compatibility. That’s really important for people who want a true multimedia content creation and distribution tool, not just a phone. It’s also likely to have real GPS — which is far more accurate and useful than the crappy fake GPS the current iPhone uses (based on cell phone tower triangulation). That’s important if you want to accurately geocode the content you create (photos, video, etc.).

BUT… the new iPhone is not likely to be the complete Max Headroom device that journalists and mobloggers really need. Because it’s not likely to get a much better camera (currently just 2.0 megapixels). And it’s not likely to support a Bluetooth keyboard. And it’s not likely to get a built-in video editor. So it’s still meant mainly for mobile content consumers, not creators.

In other words, the new iPhone still won’t be as good a product as Nokia’s N95 already is — at least not as far as journalists and mobloggers are concerned.

Nevertheless, I might soon end up settling for an iPhone — unless Nokia pulls its US service act together damn quick. (Specifically, before the new iPhone goes on sale in the US.)

Why? Because the new iPhone might be barely good enough for much of what I need a mobile device to do. More importantly, Apple has proven, through its service practices, that it stands behind its products and cares about customers’ experience after they buy. Apple understands and respects that users of high-end phones run their lives on those devices, and thus cannot tolerate being without them for more than a few days at a time.

Meanwhile Nokia’s dearth of US local service centers, requirement that customers ship damaged or dead phones to Nokia at their own expense, and warranty that allows Nokia up to 30 days to return a phone — plus its risky, clunky, PC-only firmware update process — convey the message that Nokia doesn’t really care much about its US customers. (At least, not after they fork over $500-$700 for an N-Series phone.)

And when it comes to must-have, multi-use mobile devices, service quality is at least as important as product quality. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that, for me, service is more important — since evidently I am willing to compromise (within reason) on the product I want in order to get the service I need. I doubt I’m the only journalist/moblogger willing to make that tradeoff.

That said, I know that Nokia has recently woken up to the fact that its US customers are so very displeased with their service, and they are starting to try to make amends. Here’s where that’s at so far…

Today, Nokia blogger Charlie Schick writes that Nokia Care USA (Nokia’s US service/support division) is now “interested in getting directly engaged” with discussing US service issues in public with US consumers.

Charlie’s helping Nokia Care craft a plan to conduct this conversation “over the next few weeks,” since “We here at Nokia Conversations have taken this discussion as far as we can. And I do not think we or this site are well suited to take this discussion where it needs to go.”

That’s some progress — but it many not be fast enough given Apple’s plans and US consumers’ impatience.

Charlie also noted “I do know that in the past three weeks the head of Care USA has been exploring and working on something concrete that she attributes to the conversation going on [in the Nokia Conversations Blog]. I do not have the details, so do not want to say anything further until the head of Care USA is ready to tell us the whole thing. Indeed, we are trying to give them some space so that they come out on their own and speak for themselves.”

That also sounds interesting — but once more, time is of the essence.

What I want to know is: Will Nokia take most of the risk of their fancy phones off US consumer’s shoulders? Specifically, will they devise a way to guarantee that they will repair, replace, or deliver loaners for damaged or dead N-Series phones to US users within, say, seven days? (For a start — 2-3 would be a better goal. Apple already moves that fast.)

Most critically: Can and will Nokia USA put that kind of solution in place by the time I can buy an iPhone? (Or very shortly after that launch.)

We’ll see. Meanwhile, tick, tick tick, Nokia… I still hope you succeed in the US, but it’s really up to how fast you’re willing to move at this point.

I’m happy to report that there has been some progress (small, but real) from Nokia in terms of addressing it US service problems, which I’ve written about extensively.

First, here’s their most concrete step forward so far: Today, Nokia announced that the long-awaited firmware update for the US N95-3 should be available by early June.

Note that this does not mean Nokia has improved its firmware update process — which (as Beth Kanter, Robert Day, and I noted) is PC-only and very cumbersome, confusing, and annoying. And, in my experience, Nokia’s firmware update process is also risky — it’s what bricked my N95 in April.

…But still, a lot of US N95-3 users have been waiting (and waiting) for this firmware update. News that it’s coming soon appears quite welcome in that community, judging by the initial comments to the announcement.

Also, I’m encouraged to see that Nokia’s Conversations Blog yesterday launched a series of posts on its myriad US service problems. So far, there’s been:

• May 15: Introductory post, in which Nokia promises to specifically respond to my six suggestions for their US operations.
• May 15: A post on US repair turnaround time.
• May 16: A post about the forthcoming N95-3 firmware update.

I think the fact that Nokia has made this discussion so public, and is respecting and addressing concerns raised by users, is a very positive step. Frankly, this is far more than most major companies are willing to do. Nokia is willing to publicly acknowledge its significant problems, and doesn’t seem to consider this inherently risky or bad for business. Many, many companies and organizations could take a lesson from Nokia on this front.

That said, Nokia’s blog does try (understandably) to put as positive a spin as possible on its US service problems. As far as I can tell, they’re not painting a specifically inaccurate rosy picture — but so far they haven’t directly tackled the hardest issues.

Therefore, it’s still up to current and would-be US users of Nokia N-Series phones to keep pushing for clear answers to our most pressing questions and concerns. This is going to take time, folks.

Here’s what I mean…

US SERVICE TURNAROUND TIME:

Short-term fix: Earlier I suggested that one measure Nokia could implement immediately that would help restore US consumers’ confidence would be to guarantee a 7-day US repair/replacement turnaround time. On May 15, James at Nokia wrote:

“Whilst there is a stated 30 day turnaround in the warranty policy, this is designed to capture all Nokia products and typically applies to older products where spares may not be readily available. Nokia USA assures us devices are typically returned within 7-10 days and that 85 per cent of those returns happen within seven days. This is much closer to the time frame Amy (and we) feel is acceptable. To be special, we reckon a five day turnaround for Nseries devices would help boost confidence somewhat.”

To put this in context, this is not new information, and it doesn’t address the issues I raised, which focus on certainty:

• Certain about maximum wait time. The 30 days that Nokia’s warranty currently allows for turnaround time is far too long for such a must-have device. Overnight replacement or loaners (similar to what AT&T offers, according to Ricky Cadden) would be ideal — but for now I’d be willing to settle for just being certain that I’d have a working unit back in my hands in a week. Nokia’s 30-day wiggle room, plus numerous user reports of longer waits, is a worry I’m not willing to tolerate for a $600 must-have device. The point here is not average speed, but a guarantee.
• Certainty that the problem will be fixed. User James Roblimos commented, “What about the numerous reports of people who get their phones back with the same issues they’ve sent them in for? I’ve read numerous horror stories of owners sending in their phones …with hardware problems, only to get them back several weeks later and the only thing the warranty techs did was flash the firmware (sometimes not even that).” [Examples here.]

In this comment I asked Nokia to please respond directly to these core concerns. We’ll see what they have to say next.

US SERVICE LOCATIONS:

In the post about US repair turnaround time, James of Nokia also wrote:

“If you live in NYC or Chicago, you can roll your phone into the local Nokia Flagship store where it’ll be repaired within three days. This is on a par with other device manufacturers in the US, but as Amy rightly points out in another part of her post, there simply isn’t the breadth of Nokia service centres in the US to make this feasible for the masses. That though, could be about to change.”

This is good news for Nokia users in those two cities — which doesn’t include, well, the vast majority of the US. And I’m also curious what user actual experiences with Nokia’s in-store service have been in those cities.

If you’re in NYC or Chicago, I’d love it if you could drop by the Nokia store there and see what the in-store staff have to say about how they handle service, replacements, and loaners. And if you’ve had service done in those stores, how did it go? As we’ve seen with Nokia’s phone customer service, sometimes the reps say very different things from Nokia corporate. It’s worth an on-site reality check.

CLUNKY, RISKY FIRMWARE UPDATE PROCESS

Again, Nokia’s notoriously clunky, PC-only firmware update process is what bricked my N95. Today, James at Nokia contended that Nokia’s update proces really isn’t very risky:

“The NSU [Nokia Software Update] team tells us that over 8 million devices have successfully been through the update process and the failure rate is ‘very low’.”

…If that’s true, then why did the Nokia customer service rep who Beth Kanter spoke to on April 17 tell her that Nokia discourages users from doing the firmware update except as a last resort to combat severe functionality loss? That doesn’t sound very “safe” to me.

Also, Nokia support has claimed that the firmware update bricking problem happens when you try to install a US firmware update on a non-US phone. Since I bought a US N95-3 from Amazon, that creates further concern — are N95 retailers selling non-US phones as US phones?

Who needs all these layers of fear, uncertainty, and doubt? It may be that Nokia needs to train its customer service reps better on this issue, they’re sowing considerable concern in the US market.

In this comment today I reiterated to Nokia that their firmware update process (not just the firmware version) is a huge hassle for US consumers — and far inferior to the user experience offered by their main US competitor, Apple.

In my comment I’ve asked Nokia to specifically comment on whether, when, and how they plan to make firmware updates less painful — and also Mac-friendly. We’ll see what they say.

NEW PHONES SHOULD HAVE NEW FIRMWARE

Especially since Nokia’s firmware update process is so awful, it’s especially discouraging that right now brand-new N95-3s are being shipped to US customers with old firmware. ZDnet’s Matthew Miller wrote:

“Nokia’s support for these high end devices will have to get much better before I can recommend people go out and spend US$500+ for a device optimized for U.S. 3G bands. Every other Nokia N95 has received a firmware upgrade, except for the N95-3 North American version that actually came out before some other devices. This apparent lack of support for loyal N95-3 buyers has left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and this kind of treatment should not occur in the future if Nokia wants to reach U.S. customers.”

In my comment today, I asked Nokia if they could update their existing inventory of N95-3s so that no device is shipped with outdated software. Again, we’ll see what they have to say.

KEEP TALKING

…So that’s where this conversations stand as of today. I’m grateful to everyone who’s added their voice to this discussion. I’ve notified several Nokia and N95 user forums about this ongoing discussion on the Nokia blog, so hopefully even more folks will be chiming in.

In my opinion, so far Nokia does seem to want to improve its US service — and they can only do that if we’re telling them what we really need from them, to keep them on target and accountable

(Note I also posted a video overview of this situation on Seesmic.)

As you might have guessed, I’m a pretty busy person. If I didn’t have a good electronic calendar program, with alerts and reliable backup, I’d be totally lost. That’s why I’ve been a devoted user of Apple’s iCal program for about 10 years.

A few months ago, when I upgraded to a Macbook Pro with the Leopard OS (original install, not a Leopard upgrade), iCal started getting weird on me. I’ve been to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store twice about it, and have yet to find a problem. But I’m getting concerned, because I depend so heavily on this program. If it totally flames out on me, moving to a new solution will be a big hassle.

So I’m hoping some of my readers, or someone in the iCal support forums, is smarter or luckier than me and the folks at my local Apple Genius Bar.

Here are the iCal problems I’m experiencing, and what I’ve tried (unsuccessfully, so far) to diagnose and fix it. Your ideas and suggestions for further measures are most welcome…

MY ICAL PROBLEMS

I upgraded to a Macbook (Tiger OS) to a Macbook Pro (Leopard OS) about three months ago. Apple’s migration assistant had a problem copying my iCal data over automatically, so we (Tom Vilot was helping out) transfered that data manually into iCal.

Initially I had a problem with my calendar alerts not working. The first visit to the Genius bar fixed that.

Remaining iCal problems:

• Export not working. This problem is new, just started about a month ago — but it’s the one that concerns me most. Periodically, I had been exporting data from my main iCal calendar and uploading it to Google Calendar as a backup. Now, when I try to export that calendar, iCal just freezes on me and I have to force quit the program. (Yes, I am using Time Machine to back up all my data, but still…)
• Long delay to switch views. When I try to switch from, say, month view to week view, or from one month to the next, it takes iCal about 15 seconds to complete the switch. I also see a long switch when I try to turn my main calendar off and on in the left sidebar. That’s more annoying than worrisome, but I’d like to fix it.

• Can’t delete old events. I’ve tried several time in the iCal advanced preferences to have iCal delete all events older than 30 days. It looks like it accepts that choice, but then never actually deletes the old events.

I’m pretty sure my problem has something to do with some corruption or problem with my main calendar file. I say this because these attempted solutions had no result (the problems remained):

• Creating a new user account with a clean iCal, then sharing my main calendar file over to that user account.
• Reinstalling the entire Leopard OS from the discs supplied with my Macbook. (There’s no separate iCal installer, you have to reinstall Leopard to reinstall iCal.)

So: What can I try next to diagnose or fix this problem? Is anyone else having similar problems? Your suggestions are welcome, please comment below. I’m also posting this to the iCal support forum.

However, my Macbook is not doing so well. Something went wrong with the power system and I can’t charge it. Most likely the electrical outlet adaptor I’d been using fried out and took with it either my laptop’s power adaptor or battery. I don’t think the hard drive or motherboard is fried because the machine worked until the charge ran out completely. But I cannot charge my machine at all right now, that’ll have to wait until I’m stateside. Sunday or Monday I’ll be visiting an Apple store in the states to diagnose the problem, replace the components, or replace the machine.

I’m just accepting this as a backhand blessing from the Goddess of Serendipity, who continues to smile upon me (or laugh at me, I’m not sure which sometimes). It’s good for me to take an enforced online vacation. I’ll live.

Anyway, Barcelona ROCKS! Come here if you can. Meanwhile I’m off to tour a Gothic Cathedral, followed by more tapas. I could live like this, I think — although I would need a functioning computer as some point or my head might implode.