First ever Mac. Day 1. Incredibly disappointed...Buggy Mac?

[cmecmac]

I bought a new M4 air 24/512 from the Apple Store. This is my first Mac.

And I'm **very** confused...so much so that I'm thinking I must surely have a buggy Mac?

Context: I'm coming from a Dell XPS 9560, which is turned on right next to me, battered and bruised, with almost 8 years of heavy use.

In no particular order:
- On the very initial loadup and signing in etc, it was pretty slow.
- It froze on me during the Apple Care payment, and wouldn't let me move anywhere.
- I'm in Thailand, but it auto-loaded to English. However, certain parts of the settings screen were all in Thai. I had to take a photo and translate it myself. Clicking back and going back in was then in English. Clicking back and going in again was 50/50.
- I downloaded an app called Anki. I only dowloaded this one app. Some time later, I restarted the Mac. Upon it loading back up, I noticed 2 things:
---- The Anki icon/button on my wallpaper screen had been removed.
---- The icon on the bottom toolbar thing had been replaced with an '?'. Clicking it didn't load anything.
- As I type this, I have 1 Safari window open with 5 tabs, email, and settings. It says I am using 15gb of RAM...
- I've had to restart my Mac twice due to text not loading on Safari.
- Right now, I cannot use Safari unless I go straight to a particular site's URL. Simply searching does not work for the search page does not load.
- Youtube has crashed twice, and is crashed as I'm typing this.
- I've had a beachball a few minutes ago with 5 Safari tabs open.
- The sharpness on text is actually not great. I can see that there's some blurriness. Nothing crazy, but nowhere near as sharp as I thought it would be. I'm on the Default display setting. In fact, I'm putting it side-by-side with my old bruised Dell and it's genuinely almost better on the Dell...
- I'm getting incredibly fast wifi speeds compared to my Dell (~800 vs ~<100), but many websites are loading faster on the Dell! I would try to see if searches were similar, but as already stated, searching does not work...
- On Safari, the Google login section that loads in the top right automatically on a lot of sites is 100% in Thai, 100% of the time.


So...is my Mac buggy? If so, the Apple Store is not reachable for me, only nearby auth sellers. Will they be able to help, or?

Needless to say I'm pretty...well...shocked.

Any help greatly appreciated - thanks a lot all.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If I were you, I would Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset > Erase all content and Settings. You will be prompted to sign out of your account. Once you do, the Mac will reboot and your Mac will be as new. You can go through the setup process again. That should resolve the problems. If it doesn't, you may need to talk with Apple Support on the phone to try and resolve. The behavior you described is not normal for a brand new Mac.

 

[Puonti]

To add to the above advice:

You probably (hopefully) downloaded Anki from the official website: https://apps.ankiweb.net/

What you downloaded was a DMG file, which is not the app itself but a disk image that contains the app. After you double clicked that file in your Downloads folder, did you install Anki by dragging the file inside the DMG into your Applications folder? If you did, you should find the app from your Applications folder. If you just double clicked the file inside the DMG you loaded Anki from inside the DMG and didn't actually install it on your Mac.

The now missing icon on your desktop was likely the DMG file which may have been unmounted (closed) when you restarted your Mac.

Seemingly high memory usage is normal for macOS: unlike Windows, macOS doesn't squander RAM by keeping it empty. It makes use of available RAM and releases it as needed.

Your display is likely using a scaled resolution, which is the default for MacBooks. Based on a quick web search it looks like you can change to the display's native resolution by going to System Settings / Displays / Advanced and turning on Show Resolutions as List.

The 13" M4 Air's native resolution is 2560 x 1664, the 15" 2880 x 1864. You'll likely not enjoy the sharpness of the native resolution, though, as using it means everything's tiny. But at least it's going to be sharp.

 

[ChrisA]

Why not go back to the Apple Store and have them explain this to you?

A few random comments...

• Language does not "auto load", you select one.
• 16GB RAM use is normal. macOS will always find a way to use all the RAM it has. Otherwise it would be wasted.
• Web sites load fast if they are cached, take longer if this is the first time loading
• Search Page??? Just type what you are looking for in the address block at the top. There is no built-in search page
• So you are saying the "Anki" app you found is broken. That is not a Mac problem.

 

[cmecmac]

Why not go back to the Apple Store and have them explain this to you?

Addressed in the post: The store is not reachable. It's a flight away.

Language does not "auto load", you select one.

Okay. I selected English. What does that change?

Web sites load fast if they are cached

I'm aware.

take longer if this is the first time loading

Not sure what to respond to this. Did you read the post?

Search Page??? Just type what you are looking for in the address block at the top. There is no built-in search page

Something tells me you are possibly not actually interested in helping, but rather nitpicking at my lack of Mac terminology.

When I use Safari to search on the Internet, I'm having many not-normal problems. The search results are sometimes loading normally, half-loading (no text, but page loads), or not loading at all. Or do we not call it Loading in Mac world?

So you are saying the "Anki" app you found is broken. That is not a Mac problem.

Thank you for your help. Truly, truly. You addressed all issues and successfully fixed everything. God bless you.

 

[cmecmac]

If I were you, I would Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset > Erase all content and Settings. You will be prompted to sign out of your account. Once you do, the Mac will reboot and your Mac will be as new. You can go through the setup process again. That should resolve the problems. If it doesn't, you may need to talk with Apple Support on the phone to try and resolve. The behavior you described is not normal for a brand new Mac.

Alright, I'll see how it is tomorrow. Thank you. Took hours to set up, but hopefully would be quicker the second time after the initial learning curve.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Alright, I'll see how it is tomorrow. Thank you. Took hours to set up, but hopefully would be quicker the second time after the initial learning curve.

Hang in there. The first time is always the hardest. I experienced a lot of frustration and questions my first time, not to mention going through the setup process several times because I didn't have any real knowledge or experienced user help.

 

[cmecmac]

What you downloaded was a DMG file

Ah, I see. Thank you.

I just followed the same as I did on my Dell many (many) years back when I first downloaded.

Will re-do it properly, thanks a lot.

Seemingly high memory usage is normal for macOS: unlike Windows, macOS doesn't squander RAM by keeping it empty. It makes use of available RAM and releases it as needed.

Ah, okay, that's smart then in that case. Although I had thought that keeping RAM needlessly high is not particularly healthy for the device? That said, the bar is still green in the Monitor. I assume the PhDs would have programmed it to keep green, and thus keep healthy.

The 13" M4 Air's native resolution is 2560 x 1664, the 15" 2880 x 1864. You'll likely not enjoy the sharpness of the native resolution, though, as using it means everything's tiny. But at least it's going to be sharp.

I see. Yeah I tried the super small text, but I've no clue who is using that or why it's even an option. It's like I'm at the other end of the room.

That's frustrating, but at least it's not an error on my end.

Appreciate your time, thanks a lot.

 

[cmecmac]

The first time is always the hardest

Depends how one's nerves are.

I experienced a lot of frustration and questions my first time,

Aint that the truth.

 

[Ruggy]

I bought a new M4 air 24/512 from the Apple Store. This is my first Mac.

And I'm **very** confused...so much so that I'm thinking I must surely have a buggy Mac?

Context: I'm coming from a Dell XPS 9560, which is turned on right next to me, battered and bruised, with almost 8 years of heavy use.

In no particular order:
- On the very initial loadup and signing in etc, it was pretty slow.

Mac OS doesn't boot it compiles. That is, the kernel commands are locked away in a chip and then it recompiles the OS from scratch so yes, it will take longer that Windows if you have just switched on.
The recompiling has a lot of advantages for security, but it is slower to start.

- It froze on me during the Apple Care payment, and wouldn't let me move anywhere.

You did this via a browser? Because this sounds like the browser.
Safari has a lot of security built in and it can be a pain sometimes.
If you go to the Safari tab in the bar at the top and click on it, about half way down you'll see 'settings forXXX' and the site you are on. If you click on that you'll see 'content blockers ' and that's enabled by default so uncheck that.
That can block a lot of payments for things where it's got to connect to a bank for instance

- I'm in Thailand, but it auto-loaded to English. However, certain parts of the settings screen were all in Thai. I had to take a photo and translate it myself. Clicking back and going back in was then in English. Clicking back and going in again was 50/50.

That doesn't make sense to me, sorry. Maybe that'll sort itself out but that doesn't sound right

- I downloaded an app called Anki. I only dowloaded this one app. Some time later, I restarted the Mac. Upon it loading back up, I noticed 2 things:
---- The Anki icon/button on my wallpaper screen had been removed.
---- The icon on the bottom toolbar thing had been replaced with an '?'. Clicking it didn't load anything.
- As I type this, I have 1 Safari window open with 5 tabs, email, and settings. It says I am using 15gb of RAM...

Something missing there for the button hence the ? Missing font or image?
The memory shouldn't be anything to worry about. It's a bit like if you have an enormous bed you tend to stretch out. It does it too and it'll use as much memory that's available but it uses it extremely efficiently and if you need to do a lot more it will still be ok. I think it preloads a load of stuff or leaves it in memory in case you need it, but in any case, unless you are getting error messages that isn't something to worry about.

- I've had to restart my Mac twice due to text not loading on Safari.

What text is that? Is it something to do with a font you are trying to use? the Mac doesn't use quite the same fonts as Windows as MS guards some of them and won't let them be used - so the mac has to use something similar. I forget what they are called now but is it possible it's something to do with that, trying to do something with Windows fonts that aren't on the Mac?

- Right now, I cannot use Safari unless I go straight to a particular site's URL. Simply searching does not work for the search page does not load.
- Youtube has crashed twice, and is crashed as I'm typing this.

Both of these things look like you are having a firewall issue. Or something in the browser. It isn't your computer.

- I've had a beachball a few minutes ago with 5 Safari tabs open.

There's something going on there. Maybe something in a web page messes it up. It's about the only time you see that when you have some sort of bad script.

- The sharpness on text is actually not great. I can see that there's some blurriness. Nothing crazy, but nowhere near as sharp as I thought it would be. I'm on the Default display setting. In fact, I'm putting it side-by-side with my old bruised Dell and it's genuinely almost better on the Dell...

Again we'd have to look at everything.

- I'm getting incredibly fast wifi speeds compared to my Dell (~800 vs ~<100), but many websites are loading faster on the Dell! I would try to see if searches were similar, but as already stated, searching does not work...

It sounds again like you have a firewall issue- and don't ignore the router and something with the way it connects.
You have poor latency by the looks of things.

- On Safari, the Google login section that loads in the top right automatically on a lot of sites is 100% in Thai, 100% of the time.

No idea I'm afraid.

So...is my Mac buggy? If so, the Apple Store is not reachable for me, only nearby auth sellers. Will they be able to help, or?

I don't think so. It's almost certainly something in the OS.
Sadly, coming from Windows and bringing things over may be part of the problem I'm afraid.

Needless to say I'm pretty...well...shocked.

Any help greatly appreciated - thanks a lot all.

Thinking about it, practically all your problems there are probably to do with fonts. The sharpness of text, missing text even the beach ball maybe? Maybe Thai isn't well supported, maybe it's something to do with the fonts needed for Thai or something not being installed or a bad font, Window font simulation?
Good luck. I hope there's something there for you.

Update: I did a quick search and it does sound like it's font porting.
Check your mac has the following fonts installed for Thai: Thonburi.ttc, Sarabun.ttc, Krungthep.dfont, Ayuthaya.dfont
(Applications → Font Book)
If you've copied fonts from Windows, some aren't Unicode and they don't work

 

[cmecmac]

Mac OS doesn't boot it compiles. That is, the kernel commands are locked away in a chip and then it recompiles the OS from scratch so yes, it will take longer that Windows if you have just switched on.
The recompiling has a lot of advantages for security, but it is slower to start.

You did this via a browser? Because this sounds like the browser.
Safari has a lot of security built in and it can be a pain sometimes.
If you go to the Safari tab in the bar at the top and click on it, about half way down you'll see 'settings forXXX' and the site you are on. If you click on that you'll see 'content blockers ' and that's enabled by default so uncheck that.
That can block a lot of payments for things where it's got to connect to a bank for instance

That doesn't make sense to me, sorry. Maybe that'll sort itself out but that doesn't sound right

Something missing there for the button hence the ? Missing font or image?
The memory shouldn't be anything to worry about. It's a bit like if you have an enormous bed you tend to stretch out. It does it too and it'll use as much memory that's available but it uses it extremely efficiently and if you need to do a lot more it will still be ok. I think it preloads a load of stuff or leaves it in memory in case you need it, but in any case, unless you are getting error messages that isn't something to worry about.

What text is that? Is it something to do with a font you are trying to use? the Mac doesn't use quite the same fonts as Windows as MS guards some of them and won't let them be used - so the mac has to use something similar. I forget what they are called now but is it possible it's something to do with that, trying to do something with Windows fonts that aren't on the Mac?

Both of these things look like you are having a firewall issue. Or something in the browser. It isn't your computer.

There's something going on there. Maybe something in a web page messes it up. It's about the only time you see that when you have some sort of bad script.

Again we'd have to look at everything.

It sounds again like you have a firewall issue- and don't ignore the router and something with the way it connects.
You have poor latency by the looks of things.

No idea I'm afraid.

I don't think so. It's almost certainly something in the OS.
Sadly, coming from Windows and bringing things over may be part of the problem I'm afraid.

Thinking about it, practically all your problems there are probably to do with fonts. The sharpness of text, missing text even the beach ball maybe? Maybe Thai isn't well supported, maybe it's something to do with the fonts needed for Thai or something not being installed or a bad font, Window font simulation?
Good luck. I hope there's something there for you.

Update: I did a quick search and it does sound like it's font porting.
Check your mac has the following fonts installed for Thai: Thonburi.ttc, Sarabun.ttc, Krungthep.dfont, Ayuthaya.dfont
(Applications → Font Book)
If you've copied fonts from Windows, some aren't Unicode and they don't work

Really appreciate your time with all of that. Thank you very much.

 

[ChrisA]

Mac OS doesn't boot it compiles. That is, the kernel commands are locked away in a chip and then it recompiles the OS from scratch

Recompiles the OS from stratch?? To do that you would need the source code for the entire OS in the Mac and it would take hours. I think, rather, you mean there are some config files that get read. All OSes do this. "compile is a very technical word with a precise meaning. That can't be happening.

 

[EdelweissPirate]

Recompiles the OS from stratch?? To do that you would need the source code for the entire OS in the Mac and it would take hours. I think, rather, you mean there are some config files that get read. All OSes do this. "compile is a very technical word with a precise meaning. That can't be happening.

You’re exactly right. The claim that MacOS gets compiled from scratch on boot implies that the entire source code for the OS ships with each Mac. That’s insane in addition to being false.