Some more odd behavior.

None of this is life and death stuff, but a bit frustrating.

The computer has locked up a few times lately and required a hard re-boot. Coincidentally, that has never happened until I upgraded to Mohave. I doubt there is necessarily a cause and effect relationship, but in the interest of accuracy I thought it might be appropriate to mention that.

Each time the computer crashes, it makes odd changes to a few programs.

1.) The mail program stopped functioning completely. I get a pop up window that says to put in the password. The password function in system preferences just sits there when I put in the password and never actually adds the password. I have 3 separate mail accounts on gmail and they all behave the same way. I can use the email directly from Gmail, so that's not an issue. I just like the convenience of having everything in one place.

2.) Three times now, the default search engine changed from Duck Duck Go to YAHOO! I have NEVER used Yahoo on this computer.

3.) This is the biggest issue.
My Mac user name password are no longer valid. Apparently, my user name changed. APPLE chose a user name from one of my email accounts that I have never used in any correspondence with Apple. When I tried changing it back and use my old user name it would not allow me because that user name was already used. The password that it accepted is now no longer valid either, so I can't get anything from iTunes or the app store. It WILL however let me do OS upgrades.

4.) There is always a notification that my iCloud preferences need to be updated. When I open up the screen, it says "some services will not be available until I sign in again". However, it won't let me sign in because the Apple ID setting have to be changed, but ...... I'm unable to change it because "my apple ID or password are incorrect". Which, I have no idea. For the record, I have never (to my knowledge) ever used iCloud. I'm far too paranoid to ever use the cloud for anything.


None of this is anything more than very frustrating for me, but it is getting pretty cumbersome. I'm not much of a computer guy, and I'm always a nervous wreck when software doesn't work. I suppose it's something I could have unintentionally screwed up, but I don't ever get into the inner workings of the OS so I have no idea what i could have done.

I have run some diagnostics, First Aid, Onyx and Malwarebytes, but no problems were found.

ken

on reading this back, perhaps I should have asked about one issue at a time.

Another odd issue. The last email I wrote using the Mac Mail program, went to the recipient 152 times. It also shows up in both the sent and draft folders hundreds of times. Might be time for a new mail program.

ken

Let me talk a bit about items 3 and 4.

Basically, Apple doesn't change your account. So if it got changed, someone changed it. That's worrying if it actually happened that way as that means someone has access to your account and password. Not good.

Now, you did mix some terms in describing #3. What did you mean by, "My Mac user name password are no longer valid?" I ask because what you log into on your Mac at boot up is an Account name and password, but what you use to sign into the Apple store is the AppleID and password. The AppleID and password are also used at the iTunes Store, but that's a different store than the Mac App Store. And there is yet again another Apple function for logging into iCloud, but most of the time that is the same as your AppleID and password. (Not your Account password on the Mac itself.) So which "Mac user name password" are you talking about in #3? BTW, upgrades are no longer in the App Store, but managed through System Preferences, where there is a "Software Update" pane.

For Item #4, what do you mean by "when I open up the screen?" What screen are you talking about? Again, you referenced the AppleID, which is needed to open the Mac App Store and iTunes because that AppleID has an associated payment method to pay for any software or services you purchase with the AppleID account. iCloud has little to do with it, although if you have an AppleID then you have access to iCloud for syncing, even if you don't use it to store anything.

From your description of your search engine being hijacked in #2, I suspect you do have some malware on the system that is not being caught by Malwarebytes. Have you updated Malwarebytes recently to get the latest threats?

And the Mail issue is just bizarre, but I cannot help or comment because I know nothing about Gmail at all.

And how about giving some information about the system locking up that requires hard reboot? That is not normal and may be the fundamental cause of all the other issues. macOS does NOT like to be hard rebooted and can degenerate over time if repeated hard reboots are done. So what seems to be the trigger for the hard reboot? If we fix that, maybe the other issues will go away, too.

Well, if your AppleID has changed, and you did't do it, I would recommend you call Apple support to see what is going on. They may or may not be able to help, but at least it's worth calling.

I didn't mean to imply that all those Apple things (Mac App Store, iTunes, iCloud) require separate logins. They all just use AppleID. However, it's possible to have separate logins for each if at each offering, instead of logging in with an existing account one creates a new AppleID. I could see that someone who doesn't remember their AppleID gets frustrated and just creates a new one to get on with whatever they wanted to do. And if they don't use the AppleID frequently enough to remember the login details, they could do that again for iCloud, iTunes, whatever. However, for the 99% case, I suspect most folks have just ONE AppleID.

You said:

There is a dialog screen for updating preferences that doesn't allow me to update. A notification flag pops up for the Gmail password. When I click on that the dialog screen appears but it requires a user name and password for iCloud.

Click to expand...

Again, what dialog screen? Is it from System Preferences, or from some Preferences page from some app, or from Gmail? Hard to tell from the description so far.

The high number of drafts is a known phenomenon. Don't know if it's a bug or feature. Mail takes copies of draft messages as you type them in, but is supposed to clear them out when the message is finally sent. 500 seems a bit high, unless you edited the draft a lot of times before sending it. But I've seen 10-12 drafts in various stages before it finally gets sent. You can always delete the drafts manually. And it's logical for the drafts not to be in the Gmail drafts folder as the drafts are done on your Mac using Mail, not transmitted to Gmail. If you used the web version for Gmail and created a message there, it would be in the Gmail draft folder but not on your Mac. Hope that makes sense.

You might also try one of the Ad blockers to see if that keeps your search engine from being changed. There are some websites that will reach out and make unwanted changes, mostly dodgy ones with some shady purpose. But it can also happen if an ad on a website decides to make the changes as well, so it's not always dodgy sites. Ad blockers normally prevent the execution of the Javascript that is the major source of these hijacks.

As for the locking up, could it be related to a slow internet and things hanging up because the Mac is waiting for the data from the other end? I ask because your four examples (Photos, Firefox, Safari, Amazon) all require internet. Have you tried "Force Quit" to try to see what is hung up? Also, in Activity Monitor, look for anything in RED as those apps are not responding and may be the one that is hung up.

Ken, do you have any other devices logged into your Apple account? Like an iPhone or iPad. If so has your login information on them changed?
Can you login to your Apple account via the iCloud web site https://www.icloud.com/#iclouddrive You might want to try this on a different device.
Where I'm going here is; if you can use your usual Apple account information to login to apple and your other logged devices are working as usual then all of these odd behaviors are limited to your MBP and that suggests some sort of Malware intrusion to me.

Well, if your AppleID has changed, and you did't do it, I would recommend you call Apple support to see what is going on. They may or may not be able to help, but at least it's worth calling.

CALL apple support? I didn't know that was even possible.

I didn't mean to imply that all those Apple things (Mac App Store, iTunes, iCloud) require separate logins. They all just use AppleID. However, it's possible to have separate logins for each if at each offering, instead of logging in with an existing account one creates a new AppleID. I could see that someone who doesn't remember their AppleID gets frustrated and just creates a new one to get on with whatever they wanted to do. And if they don't use the AppleID frequently enough to remember the login details, they could do that again for iCloud, iTunes, whatever. However, for the 99% case, I suspect most folks have just ONE AppleID.

You said:
Again, what dialog screen? Is it from System Preferences, or from some Preferences page from some app, or from Gmail? Hard to tell from the description so far.

A pop up dialog saying the email passwords must be changed takes me to system preferences for internet accounts. The emails are listed, but I'm unable to change anything.

The high number of drafts is a known phenomenon. Don't know if it's a bug or feature. Mail takes copies of draft messages as you type them in, but is supposed to clear them out when the message is finally sent. 500 seems a bit high, unless you edited the draft a lot of times before sending it. But I've seen 10-12 drafts in various stages before it finally gets sent. You can always delete the drafts manually. And it's logical for the drafts not to be in the Gmail drafts folder as the drafts are done on your Mac using Mail, not transmitted to Gmail. If you used the web version for Gmail and created a message there, it would be in the Gmail draft folder but not on your Mac. Hope that makes sense.

The drafts are not deleted after the message is sent. It has never sent all of them via Gmail before this. I get that if I send emails directly from the web version of Gmail he drafts won't show up on the Mac.

You might also try one of the Ad blockers to see if that keeps your search engine from being changed. There are some websites that will reach out and make unwanted changes, mostly dodgy ones with some shady purpose. But it can also happen if an ad on a website decides to make the changes as well, so it's not always dodgy sites. Ad blockers normally prevent the execution of the Javascript that is the major source of these hijacks.

I use AdBlock. I'm pretty careful with websites. I've been using TorBrowser more and more lately. It doesn't allow Javascript. I have the current version of Malwarebytes

As for the locking up, could it be related to a slow internet and things hanging up because the Mac is waiting for the data from the other end? I ask because your four examples (Photos, Firefox, Safari, Amazon) all require internet. Have you tried "Force Quit" to try to see what is hung up? Also, in Activity Monitor, look for anything in RED as those apps are not responding and may be the one that is hung up.

I don't generally even leave wifi on.

The computer hasn't locked up or crashed in a couple of days. There is nothing red on activity monitor, memory pressure is a thin green line, CPU usage less than 10%, typically 4 or 5%.

You have no idea how much I appreciate your indulgence. I'm just getting frustrated now. I'm gonna step away from this **** thing for a couple of days. Thanks for your help.

ken

Ken, do you have any other devices logged into your Apple account? Like an iPhone or iPad. If so has your login information on them changed?

My wife has an iPad, and the Apple account doesn't work there either.

Can you login to your Apple account via the iCloud web site https://www.icloud.com/#iclouddrive You might want to try this on a different device

Negative. It tells me my user name or password are incorrect.


Where I'm going here is; if you can use your usual Apple account information to login to apple and your other logged devices are working as usual then all of these odd behaviors are limited to your MBP and that suggests some sort of Malware intrusion to me.

LOL ...... seems as good a theory as any.

I must have spent 30 hours doing the same thing over an over trying to figure out what I overlooked. Is that not the classic definition of insanity?

ken

I recommend you go to Apple.com. Here is a link: https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=home&PRKEYS=

Pick the area in which you want support. In your case, probably AppleID, then keep following the prompts to set up a call with Apple. I've used this support from Apple plenty of times to sort out strange things.

Yeah, I think I'd go with that idea. It's difficult when we can't see what you see. There are just too many possibilities.
First thing you need is one known Apple ID to work with. Write down what you do know, accounts, user names, passwords etc before you ring them.


Sent from my iPhone

Thanks guys. This has been a bit of a frustrating exercise. I'm getting a little concerned that the computer or the OS have an issue. I have everything backed up on time machine. I'm just not going to use it for a while until I have some more time. If it isn't on, it can't crash. In the mean time, my $39 dollar Kindle is working perfectly for everything I need at the moment.

Thanks again.

ken

Your Kindle is not as customizable as your Mac. You've probably done things on the Mac just because you can, and some of them are squabbling with each other.

You might want to try logging in under a new User Account to see if the problems go away. If they do, then migrate all your files to the new account and start fresh.

toMACsh said:

Your Kindle is not as customizable as your Mac. You've probably done things on the Mac just because you can

Click to expand...

I'm not really one for customization. The only thing I do is upgrade, usually a month or two after the fact, (not into being the guinea pig) and I'm terribly paranoid about screwing things up. I think the only customization I've done is changing my desktop picture and using stacks to clean up my desktop.