Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up normally. Why do these key fonctions no longer work?

It could be your timing if on a bluetooth keyboard. I find it best to hit the keys as soon as i hear the chime, release and hit them again but this time holding them before the chime ends....like a fake pump in football.
But....you can always open up system preferences, startup disk, and select your bootable clone for booting. If it doesn't show up there, the Mac doesn't think it's bootable.

Similar Messages

Why my Startup Manager does not appear when I hold the Option key when starting to boot.

I no longer have the Startup Manager appearing when I hold the Option key when starting to boot.
Instead, the system just boots into whichever OS was last selected in the Startup Disk Preference.
How to get back my Startup Manager so that I can boot up from my external hard disk.
Thank you.

Can you please run the following in terminal and post the output in your reply:
diskutil list; echo; nvram -p | grep boot-args; echo

I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

Hi LamboMong,
just try this:
http://refit.sourceforge.net
install, reboot twice and choose the Windows-Partition on next startup.
(The apple-bootloader doesn't display all bootable harddisks.
With rEFIt you can boot from all partitions/harddisks on your computer.)
I hope that will solve your problem.
Daniel Fernau

Cannot Open A Library File Using the 'Option' key When Launching iTunes

I found that when I tried to open a different iTunes library file then my default by using the 'option' key when lanching iTunes that the iTunes Library file was greyed out.
I looked in the previous Library Folder and noticed that the old file had the extension .itl.
My solution was to add the extension .itl to the end of the of the file name of my iTunes Library files and things then worked when launching with the 'option' key. As an example 'iTunes Terry Library' became 'iTunes Terry Library.itl'. I applied this to all my iTunes library filles and all is well. Of course make a duplicate of the file you are going to change so you have a backup file.
I am using iTunes 10.4 and Sno-Leopard 10.6.8.
MJ

No, choose library works in Windows. The thread you linked to suggested that, on OSX at least, iTunes now behaves like almost every other application in that you can open a data file associated with the application and it opens that data file rather than a different one it had opened in the past. I was hoping things might have actually changed.
In short, holding shift or option while launching the app is a very clunky way of opening an alternative library given the standard behaviour of the GUI where "opening" a data file normally opens the application that can work with it.
tt2

What's wrong with the built-in keyboard on my macbook? The caps button does not work rite, no matter what letter button i push they all come out capitals and the number keys when pushed display the special characters instead of the numbers!

the built-in keyboard on my macbook is not functioning right, the number keys when pushed display the special characters instead of the numbers,
the caps button doesn't work at all, the letter buttons display capitals when pushed whether the caps button is on or off, the shift keys are also out of whack!!
It seems it somehow got relocated to the "0" button because if you push and hold the zero button down the keyboard seems to operate normally, the number keys display numbers when pushed the letter keys display lower case when pushed but release the zero button and your back in the twilight zone!! Can anybody help me resolve this issue? one more thing im using an external usb keyboard right now and it seems to function properly if that helps any.

You would do better in the actual macbook pro forums (this is not).

I want to upgrade from OS X 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard. When trying to back-up to a WD 1 TB external drive, the back-up process stalls at about 4 GB. Grateful for any clues to assist with the backup issue please.

I want to upgrade from OS X 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard, then to Lion. When trying to back-up to a WD 1 TB external drive, the back-up process stalls at about 4 GB download. I would be very grateful for any clues to assist with the back-up process please.

That disk is very probably formated as FAT 32, the normal format for PCs. FAT 32 cannot support files larger than 4 GB; also, it corrupts some types of Mac OS files. If you want to securely backup your mac files, you must have a disk prepared for Mac OS.
Therefore, open Disk Utility, choose again 1 partition for your external disk and, under Options, GUID partition map (it may also be a boot disk for an intel mac), then format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled. Y0u are done.
If you want to exchange data with PCs, you should chose Master Boot REcord and NTFS format, for this you must use a additional utility like NTFS-3G. But note that mac files may also get corrupt in NTFS format.

I have two email accts. set in my iphone,one is the default setting.when I send an email it shows that it was sent from a 3rd email acct. that I no longer use?I deleted it from my phone?

I have two email accts. set in my iphone,one is the default setting.when I send an email it shows that it was sent from a 3rd email acct. that I no longer use,and had been deleted from my phone?

Install ClamXav and run a scan with that. It should pick up any trojans.
17" 2.2GHz i7 Quad-Core MacBook Pro  8G RAM  750G HD + OCZ Vertex 3 SSD Boot HD 
Got problems with your Apple iDevice-like iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? Try Troubleshooting 101

Since I have the newest version of itunes, I can't back up like normally. The only way is to considilate files and then put them on an external drive which I don't have. Are there any other options? If I can't back up to a disc like I used to, can I inste

Since I have the newest version of itunes, I can't back up like normally. The only way is to considilate files and then put them on an external drive which I don't have. Are there any other options? If I can't back up to a disc like I used to, can I instead just keep everything on my ipod and then if I have to get a new computer or something just download all my songs from the ipod to my new computer's itunes? Will that work? Will I still be able to keep all my songs that way?

I'm going to assume the consolidating files does not work due to hard drive space limitations.
Since you're moving to Windows 7, have you tried using the Windows files and settings transfer utility? That will move everything for you to the same location on the new computer, it also allows some control over what actually gets moved.
Alternatively, if you know the location of all of the media, it can be manually moved by copying it from the old computer to the new computer in the same location.
Also, using the Apple article on moving the library, take a slight twist on what it says. Move the iTunes library to the external drive, update the settings in iTunes to reflect the library being on the external drive, then consolodate it.
The options are endless for moving the library... it simply takes a little effort to make it happen and possibly a twist on existing "standard" methods depending on your unique situation.

HT2731 I have 2 iPhone 4's in my name. How do I stop from sharing my photos from one phone to the other. When I take a photo it shows up on my husbands phone and vise versa. We have our iCloud turned off

I have 2 iPhone 4's in my name. How do I stop from sharing my photos from one phone to the other. When I take a photo it shows up on my husbands phone and vise versa. We have our iCloud turned off in both phones.

well i think one of you should change yalls name on the iphone its may not be the icloud but the names

When I imported my photos to iphoto 11 from an external drive they were no longer chronologically organized in folders by year & month. In fact, it changed the dates & years of the files so I can't even manually organize them.

When I imported my photos to iphoto 11 from an external drive they were no longer chronologically organized in folders by year & month. Instead, they all went into one folder within a 2011 folder. In fact, it randomly changed the dates & years of all the files so I can't even manually organize them now.

Are you sure that iPhoto is the app for you?
iPhoto is designed to help you organise your Photos, but you seemed focussed on organising files.
The idea is simple: organise them as you want in the iPhoto Window. As I said above, as you never access the files on the HD then how iPhoto stores them is of no relevance. (It's by date of import BTW).
Where are you seeing these changed dates? In the iPhoto Window ? Somewhere else?
Regards
TD

HT1620 Where do I look for the security key when I download an item. Your website says your key is 0xD0261077

Where do I look for the security key when I download an item. Your website says your key is 0xD0261077?

Your question is somewhat terse, and I might infer you're conflating the PGP key used for Apple security-related email communications with cryptographic hashes (message digests) used to verify the integrity and the origin of files, and with digitally-signed binaries. While these areas are somewhat related, details vary. (If you're already familiar with this stuff, my apologies.)
The Apple PGP key is used to sign (verify) messages from the security folks at Apple, and can be to encrypt messages sent to the Apple security folks. See this Apple Security PGP web page for details on using the PGP key for message verification and for message encryption.
File downloads are implemented differently, and will generally involve a particular cryptographic hash or message digest (and not necessarily a PGP key), and what might be used used varies by the particular website and the download involved, with some sites using the older and insecure MD5, and with others increasingly using some variation of the less-insecure SHA cryptographic hash. Depending on the scheme used, these can protect against corruptions, or can also be used to sign the binaries. The system that Apple is encouraging developers to use is called Developer ID.
Shell commands used and useful here include md5 and various openssl commands for the sha hashes/digests.
If you have a particular public web site or file download, post a pointer and I'll have a look.

I have a MacBook pro version 10.6.7 with snow leopard. After an scheduled software upgrade I could not open Quicken (It said it could not open the files). Now I can only open it if I have my external drive on. Can you help?

I have a MacBook pro version 10.6.7 with snow leopard. After an scheduled software upgrade I could not open Quicken (It said it could not open the files). Now I can only open it if I have my external drive on. Can you help?
All the information that I had input on Quicken is gone. I have to have the external hard drive that I use to back up to be able to use quicken now. It is as if it was erased from the laptop hardrive

Try repairing permissions. My favorite way is with a utility called AppleJack. Info and download here. It's free. It only works when you boot in Single User Mode. When restarting or booting, hold down the Command key and S keys.
You will get a very different startup screen that looks like the Terminal app has hijacked the screen. Just let the lines of text scroll by. When that happens you will get a text entry prompt. Type in "AppleJack" without the quotation marks.
A DOS looking menu will appear. Choose 1 or d to run Disk Repair. If you get a message that Disk Repair found and corrected errors, run it again. Repeat until you get the "your disk appears to be ok" message. This rarely happens with my experience, though. This does the same thing as as booting from an external drive and running Disk Utility's repair. Only, no external drive is required!
Next, choose 2 or p to repair disk permissions. This will take a little while. AppleJack warns that it will take up to an half hour to run repair permissions. It'n never taken more than about ten minutes for my MacBook Pro.
As permissions are repaired, you will see each repair scroll on the screen. When done, the menu returns, choose q to quit. Then at the prompt, enter "exit" without the quotes. Your MacBook Pro should restart into Mac OS normally after this.
Hope this helps.

Problems with using Option key when starting up

I have 3 internal drives using a PCI card (2 slots) that allows me to use large drives with more capacity than stock allowance on my G4 Quicksilver 867 mhz 1.5 GB RAM tower.
All drives are Seagate Baracudas ATA: 2-400GBs and 1-200GB. I bought the 400s at the same time.
My main drive has OSX 10.4.11 (#1), and it is backed up to Baracuda #2 (400GB) which is a slave to my Main drive (using SuperDuper All files for a mirror bootable copy). The 3rd drive has Leopard 10.5.1 for learning and trying Leopard.
On the second PCI slot is the smaller 200GB Baracuda.
After backing up using SuperDuper (Main to #2) as a mirror, I see #2 in the Apple > Prefs > Start Up Disk.
After the first backup I can see all 3 drives when using Option key at startup, but instead of seeing the names of each drive under the normal hard disk icons, #2 has a SCSI icon underneath the hard drive icon, it's name (Mac BU) is missing and I can't start up to it. The other #1 and #3 looked as expected. I chose #1, it launched, fine.
On second backup, #2 is still in Prefs > Start up Disk panel, but this time doesn't show up on when using the Option key at start up. I have replicated this, but erasing #2, rebacking up twice.
With only the #1 and #3 drives showing at start up with Option key and #1 selected in the Start up Disk panel, I chose #3 (Leopard) in the Option window view, and my G4 froze at the gray apple screen. I hard shut downed, powered up and the G4 defaulted to Main (10.4.11)
I selected #3 Leopard in Prefs > Start Up Disk, restarted OK.
I restarted with the Option key (only #1 and #3 show) and now my main drive didn't have it's name only the SCSI icon under the normal hard disk icon like #3 was doing. UGH!
Nervously, I chose #3 with Leopard and the G4 started up to it OK.
I then reselected my Main #1 drive in the Start Up Disk panel, restarted to #1 OK.
OK, problems summary:
1) I can't use SuperDuper to create a blessed bootable #2 drive at Option start up, but I mention this for more info about a possible problem at Option startup, more than I want comment on SuperDuper potential bug / conflict.
2) I didn't try choosing #3 in the Start Up Disk panel, as I was affraid the G4 would freeze and then I might not be able to select either of the other #1 or #3 at Option start up as something is wrong with using Option key start up, and #3 would have been selected in Start Up Panel, which I was afraid I might not be able to get to again.
2) When I start up either of #1 or #3, I get momentary black screens after the gray apple screen at Option key start up and then again after the apple progress bar. This doesn't happen when I start up directly either drive when the drives are selected using the Start Up Disk panel
When using the Option startup, I am experiencing the above problems.
Whew, I know, but does anyone have any input and fixes?
Thanks, in advance,
Steven

Hi Dave.
Well... good news / bad news
Turns out, I have an Acard 6280M and have 3 drives connected to it as mentioned (#1 & 2 are mirrored using SuperDuper with 10.5.1, #3 is a clean install off a new Apple OSX disk 10.5, then updated to 10.5.1)
I also have a Firewire external drive, that I used SuperDuper to make it a mirror of #1, using the same procedure backing up #1 to #2, to test SuperDuper.
The firmware update directions tells you to start up off a drive not on the PCI card, I used #4.
While running off #1, I selected #4 in the Start Up disk pref and it booted OK! This seems to rule out SuperDuper being the problem - of creating a mirror from #1 to #2 (both on the Acard) and then not seeing #2 in the Option key boot screen.
I applied the firmware, which directs you to first update the Acard driver to 2.06, which is included in the folder with the firmware updater.
I did this and then applied the firmware updater.
I then applied the driver upgrade to drives #1 and #2 (10.4.11) while running off #4. I did not apply the driver update to #3 (10.5.1) and restarted, using Option key.
All 4 drives appeared successfully on screen as expected with their names!
Then I selected each drive one by one:
#1 = kernal panic. Hard shut down, used Option key again
#2 = kernal panic, same as #1
#3 = froze at gray Apple screen - no spinning gear. Hard shut down.
Tthankfully, left Start Up disk pref to be #4 external and on restart, let the system boot off without going to the Option screen. #4 booted OK. Whew...
So all 3 drives on the Acard, won't boot. I was concerned it was the 2.06 driver, but since it wasn't applied to #3 Leopard drive, I'm assuming the firmware is the issue and perhaps not compatible with 10.4.11 or 10.5.1?
Two things I've not tried:
1) With #4 selected in Sys Prefs, then using Option key and selecting #4 there too to see if using the Option key selector is a problem too.
2) Selecting any of #1, #2, or #3 drives in Sys Prefs and restarting without Option key selector.
My fear is that if my last working drive #4 isn't the default drive set in Sys Prefs, if Acard isn't the problem alone and there is also a problem selecting any drive using the Option key - even #4, then if #4 isn't the default and all 3 Acard drives panic on regular boot (non-Option key) and I have to hard restart, will keep defaulting to whatever drive I set in the Sys Prefs and not be able to get back to #4.
Should I just go to my local computer store and see if they have a newer model PCI card and trash my existing one as I may have ruined it with the firmware updater?
Thoughts?

I have Elements 13 (I have the hard copy) installed on my iMac using Yosemite. I do all my iPhoto work on an external drive where I have copied my iPhoto Library, can I also install Elements 13 on my external harddrive or drag Elements 13 over from my iMa

I have Elements 13 (I have the hard copy) installed on my iMac using Yosemite. I do all my iPhoto work on an external drive where I have copied my iPhoto Library, can I also install Elements 13 on my external harddrive or drag Elements 13 over from my iMac so that I can do work with Elements 13 via the exteranl hard drive? Thanks tb

Yes you can store images on an external hard dive and have them referenced in Organizer. It’s best to export copies to separate folders/subfolders and that will ensure iPhoto does not get corrupted.
Alternatively you could continue to use iPhoto with the Elements Editor set up in the iPhoto prefs as your external editing app. Then there is no need to use Organizer and no need to duplicate your images.
You can then call up photos directly from iPhoto as normal with the additional option e.g.
Double-click on a thumbnail to edit in iPhoto editor.
Control (right) - click on a thumbnail to edit in the elements app.
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-elements-iphoto-mac-os.html

Losing connection to external drives, tried disc utility got a message "No live updatin...? Retried new connections; is there a way to test the external usb hub? The drives will occasionally display in Apple profile. Any help would be deeply appreciated

Losing connection to external drives, tried disc utility got a message "No live updatin...? Retried new connections; is there a way to test the external usb hub? The drives will occasionally display in Apple profile. Any help would be deeply appreciated

It's not just you, I can't authorise my phone. It seemed to go down just after I started the update (it wasn't my fault though). I am using chrome, and it does not seem to be a firewall issue, or the bannerblock issue that I read about else where, since I dont have that program installed. Strange though how the support forum is still running. If I go to http://www.apple.com/support I get nothing, but googling topics allows me to see em.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up.

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