Shocked to see my post / request for help on Mac OS cancelled / deleted???

[pm-r]

Having it in writing from before agreeing to replace it should be enough to win in the courtroom.

I know that a lot of areas and jurisdictions are much more prone to suing etc. than they are in Canada, but we were recently informed by our ISP that an old included benefit would be deleted and there wasn't a normal user thing we could do about it, but to their credit, they did give us some other breaks but not of the same monetary value.

As our home construction builder would say — sh*t happens!!! And one carries on…

Some do otherwise… :Blushing:





- Patrick
======

 

[Rod]

phill, your multiple problems taken individually could have simple answers but taken as a whole seem coincidental as they appear to be primarily system issues.

It seems to me that you suspect outside tampering and in this day and age that is always a possibility.

If you wish to eliminate that possibility entirely you will need to take some fairly radical steps which will be rather time consuming and difficult to reverse.
I would suggest that first you install a VPN to both your Mac and your iPhone. ExpressVPN will allow you up to 4 devices on the one account.

The next step would be to initiate two step authentication for your Apple and Google accounts. I would also suggest you change passwords on all of your social media sites, email accounts and Apple ID.
Ensure you have logged out of all other sites such as WhatsApp, Viber, Skype etc.

The next step would be to clone your Macintosh HD to an external HD preferably a fast one eg. Lightning Bolt connection. I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner.
Ensure that you also copy the Recovery Partition.
Now you can boot your Mac from the clone. Try running your device from the clone, logging back into all of your services, it will be identified as a different device but it will contain all of your original data. Do not use an internet connection without the VPN, ExpressVPN has a network lock preventing any traffic if the VPN connection fails.
If all seems normal over say, the next week, use the Recovery Partition on the clone to erase and reformat the Macintosh HD.
You can then use the same CCC app to copy your clone back to your Mac.

This rather lengthy process should have eliminated most possible security breaches and provide security in the form of two way encryption via VPN and two step verification for the future.

 

[philappleton]

Thanks for the vpn advice. I was thinking about this before however having provided evidence to Apple of strange activity I was kinda hoping they may of been more keen to look in to what is happening. If going down the vpn route then why buy a more expensive Mac in the first place?

With regards to emailing tcook I did email him direct and cc the Senior Adviser Rudy who had approved the replacement.

Thanks again guys for all your suggestions. As always I appreciate your time and will keep this thread updated 100% honestly.

 

[philappleton]

Hi Guys,

For those that have been following this thread I'm finally pleased to say my MacAir was replaced yesterday in a Store. Well they actually gave me a credit to the value of the MacAir off of a 15" MacBook Pro. A result at last!

I still had no joy with Apple Support on the phone. They continued to say the Adviser on the phone who had originally agreed to replace my Mac was from America and the rules are different there, even though I have the transcript of the online chat when they agreed. I think that would of been enough to win in a court had it been needed, thankfully not.

In the end I booked a Store Genius Appointment as a last ditch attempt before going to the courts and I returned to the store where it was bought originally. Asked for the Manager and calmly explained the situation and he looked everything up against the MacAir, 22 phone calls apparently! He made a decision in minutes to replace it and the deal was struck for the new Pro.

I'm still slightly confused as to why when AppleCare is Workdwide why if I had been from the USA it would of been replaced but not in the UK.

Anyway for those that have seen the screen recordings of "Unexpected Behaviour" on my Mac then I'm still convinced it has been some sort of Hacker Attack. Therefore I will set it up as new and not from any backups and will also install as few as possible Apps to start with just to see if anything unusual starts after installing any imparticular App.

I will report back to this Thread here if I get any unusual behaviour with a link to a screen recording. Keeping my fingers crossed however I'm not overly confident since the MacPro and Air have the same OS and I'm still convinced the strange behaviour I was getting was too coincidental for it to of not been targeted stacks, plus never was any Virus or Malware etc found on it.

I just hope if I get any strange goings on with my new Mac that Apple look in to this more proactively to close up what ever back door a hacker is using to get to the system for all of us that own Mac's not just myself. I would do what I can to help Apple also.

Many thanks again to everyone's time, help & support

Regards
Phil

 

[chscag]

Always good to hear when things turn out well. I guess the Apple folks in the UK don't care to much for the Apple folks in the "colonies". LOL. Anyway, enjoy your new MacBook Pro and chalk it all up to a harrowing experience. ;D

 

[docx]

Glad you got a new machine in the end. I hope this is the end of your problems.

 

[philappleton]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to give you an update as promised......

I collected my new MacBook Pro two months ago however I didn't get to use it until 2 days ago due to going away working offshore. I set the new MacPro up as a clean install and didn't set it up from any backups. Also as 1 Apple Senior Adviser told me that even some of the apps on the Apple App store can cause strange things to happen. I didn't agree with this due to the fact any App on their store should be tested by them and safe.

Anyway due to all the strange goings on with my MacAir I even agreed to not install ANY apps and would just keep the system a clean MAC OS so any strange things happening couldn't be blamed on other software or apps. I did in the end install two apps, one was a screen recorder - Screen Recorder Pro to record and strange activity on my new Mac and the other was Elmedia Player Go so I had a movie player for files like wmv etc.

Unfortunately after only using my new MacPro for 2 days I already have had some unexpected behaviour and needed to speak to Apple Senior Advisers twice and now going to be sending them the screen recordings of what has been happening. Once I have had time to upload them to Youtube I will post the links here with a description of what the problems are.

Due to the fact the new Mac is fresh, still not even put any of my music or any other Apps apart from the 2 new ones I bought, didn't install Google Chrome etc and I already have starting to experience strange things and this time I am hoping Apple takes it a bit more seriously in getting it resolved as this is looking more and more like a hacker as I suggested before on my MacAir which leaves all of us on the MacOS open to attack.

I will do everything I can to help Apple and I'd be happy to even give them my MacPro so their software engineers can extract the pure machine code from the heart of my system to try and see what the solution is to getting this resolved and having a safe working laptop.

Will post again in the next couple of days once my clips are on youtube for you to see

Best Regards
Phi

 

[pigoo3]

Thanks for the update Phil...and hopefully Apple will get to the bottom of things.

- Nick

 

[Rod]

What "unexpected behaviour" is it exhibiting?
You deem to be assuming that apps or OS are at fault. It is my experience that odd behaviour is more often the result of
Intrusion by outside influences. What measures have you taken to ensure your online security. Eg, network password, account passwords. Do you use a VPN? Have you scanned for malware? Do you use Ghostery? Do you use 2FA or 2SV. Have you changed your Apple Password recently? Etc.

 

[philappleton]

Hi Nick / Rod,

Thanks both of you for taking an interest in this. If you can bear with me please until I get home on the weekend and I will endeavour to get the screen recordings safely uploaded to youtube where you can view them.

I just need to get time to trim the recordings to just where things go wrong.

Once all done I will post again here with the links and short description

Thanks & Regards
Phil

 

[philappleton]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay in getting this update done. As I was trying to trim screen recordings to show the problems I was getting fresh problems.

Now please bear in mind that I had all sorts of strange things going on with my MacAir even after fresh MacOS installs twice etc and Apple trying to give me a reason was that some of the Apps I had downloaded from their App Store could conflict and cause strange things to happen. Because of this I thought that when I got this MacBook Pro I would not set it up from any Backups and set it up as new. Also I wouldn't install any apps or my music etc and just run it in effect with just the MacOS running to see if anything happened therefore Apple couldn't blame anything else. So the only thing I did install was the Screen Recorder Pro which I need to record the screen along with the Quicktime built in recorder and the only other App I loaded was Elmedia Player Go, both from Apple's App Store.

Well already and within 2 days of starting to use the new Mac I've had a lot of weird stuff going on and if you follow the below with links to the recordings on Youtube you can see for yourself

https://youtu.be/wze14VsKmg0
Not able to change movie default player

https://youtu.be/NdkB9h8bPnA
Another clip of not being Abe to change default player

https://youtu.be/zbnSHVSp-t0
Strange error message regarding Finder

https://youtu.be/qQQaBdwos6I
Not able to change default player and then screen recorder crashes for no reason

https://youtu.be/8F7nv2Jj3hs
Mac running unusually slow and so done a test to compare it to iPhone on same network

https://youtu.be/M9eHoj_0SfU
When trying to change the default media player it instantly jumps back to the previous player

https://youtu.be/Qm-NtHYQwJg
Mac internet running explainably slow and speed tests show iPhone running much quicker on same network

https://youtu.be/O9qOqULeCQg
Not being allowed to rename a screen recording

https://youtu.be/fxctcPics2k
Being prevented from backing up my screen recordings by saying file to big

https://youtu.be/mcgEjjn5hB0
Problem with trying to play a screen recording back up from google drive

https://youtu.be/oOWs6mAH_-k
Not able to trim clips in Quicktime

https://youtu.be/jqnngOEd69A
Being stopped from changing google account on Safari

https://youtu.be/gaTMJ8G22SE
Not able to play from Google drive even though 50mb internet available

https://youtu.be/KyxAh_wTYHg
Backup of screen recording to google drive no longer play

https://youtu.be/_qpbnl7K5pQ
Problem with Quicktime Screen Recorder not letting me select drop down menu for microphone

https://youtu.be/5J2DqWD8XAQ
Media Player crashed for no reason

https://youtu.be/Ufg0VYNiaV8
Screen Recorder Recording being corrupted to stop be getting proof of what is happening

https://youtu.be/T1JAQjOIXKI
Two strange error message I wasn't expecting

https://youtu.be/oQRfhRbucSA
Not able to make a window bigger because no double cursor available


Okay whilst none of these issues have caused me any financial loss and some are just small issues however lots of small issues add up and as I mention in the video screen recordings it just all seems very targeted that some one is getting inside my Mac for what reason I don't know however that can see I have some recordings and now they are also trying to corrupt them and prevent me from backing them up yo either my Google Drive or Portable HDD.

How can all of this be pure coincidental?

I thank everyone who takes some time to have a look at these problems / screen recordings and if anyone has any ideas then I would love some help.

I have also sent these to Apple however after sending all the screen recording of the strange stuff on my MacAir along with system logs etc they never ever done anything about it except for Kindly give me a credit for the value of it against this MacBook Pro. I'm hoping now that they can see strange stuff happening on a brand new machine then they must finally admit it must be a hacker getting in through a back door and finally they do the responsible thing and look in to this. I'm happy to do what I can to help and they can even have my Mac to send back to the experts who write the MacOS. No disrespect to half the Senior Advisors who you get through to but none of them are programmers and the only way to get this resolved is to obviously close whatever back door someone is using.

Thanks and looking forward to any comments and help

Best Regards
Phil

 

[philappleton]

Hi Guys, Especially Administers and Moderators

After posting the problems I’m now having with my MacPro I’ve haven’t heard anything from anyone and I was really hoping for some help.

Is it because this original post is too old and no one is seeing it and I should post a new one regarding these new issues or is it just because everyone is at a loss as to why I am getting these issues?

If someone can please advise, thanks

Best Regards
Phil

 

[MacInWin]

No, do not start another thread. The MODs will just join it to this one anyway.

 

[pm-r]

Is it because this original post is too old and no one is seeing it and I should post a new one regarding these new issues or is it just because everyone is at a loss as to why I am getting these issues?

It could be due to the length of time required to read and go through all your posts as well as all your videos and some may be like myself and can't understand what you're explaining with your accent that I at least can't understand properly.
All the same as two cousins of mine…
Sorry…

And I might add it took to the #7 post to discover what you were using and that was back in May 2017:

It's a 13inch I5 with 256gb SSD and 4gb Ram and running macOS Sierra 10.12.4 which is the latest as far as I'm aware.

I haven't gone through all four pages or 53 posts to see what you might have done to correct any problems like reinstalling the OS or running the correct Mac OS COMBO Update.etc.





- Patrick
======

 

[philappleton]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for your reply. I know it would be very time consuming to go through all of it but long story short on my MacAir it was feeling at times I wasn’t in control and someone else was hacked in and controlling it. Even Apple Senior Advisers admitted it was unexpected behavior. We twice wiped it clean and reinstalled the MacOS yet almost immediately strange things would happen. Even though I was the only user with guest switched off there were permissions being changed on things and even I was being refused permission to change things. In order to show Apple I started doing screen recordings so they can see with their own eyes rather than me explaining, however then very coincidentally even though the screen recording was saved as a MP4 and would play it would become corrupt even though all other MP4 files were okay.

Finally after all the continued problems and the MacAir was under AppleCare they agreed to replace it and so at that time I paid the difference to upgrade to a MacPro. I have set the new Pro up as a new machine and not from any backups and only installed 2 Apps from the App Store, one is a screen recorder and one is a media player. I haven’t even installed any of my music or pictures yet as I wanted to run it in effect as a clean machine to see what happened and almost immediately I’m having issues I shouldn’t.

For example I’m being told I don’t have permission to change default programs to open things with etc. 15 Screen recordings were posted here a couple of days ago.

I can’t help feel though that the issues i’m Having are too targeted to be any kind of infection and can’t help feel it is a hacker in the system live whilst I am. For example the other day over a 3hr screen recording there were 3 times where unexpected issues were encountered and so instead of sending Apple a 3hr recording I tried as I normally do to trim out some short clips of a minute or two and for no reason my trim function in Quicktine wouldn’t work. Next I think I’d better back up the 3hr clip because from experience and for no reason they seem to coincidentally corrupt and please bear in mind these screen recordings are my best proof of what is happening for someone to help me which is also the last thing a hacker would want me to have. So now I try to save this recording to my portable drive so I can trim the clip on another machine however it kept telling me my file was too big for the file structure of the drive. The file size was 2.85gb and the drive is good for files up to 4gb so again it felt like someone was working in real time against me preventing me from backing up the recording. Lastly I try to back it up to google drive just so I have a good backup copy and whilst it took a while to upload I do have a Fibre Optic connection to myself. When it finished uploading and said upload completed okay I try to play the movie from my google drive but it wouldn’t play, the video clip had Magically become unplayable. That 3 separate failures all incorrect trying to stop me getting proof of what I believe is a hacker in my Mac and each failure was different software. The Trim function not working was QuickTime, The saying the 2.85gb clip was too large to save on my portable HDD when it wasn’t too large was in Finder and lastly the upload to google drive that then won’t play was in Safari. All a coincidence???? Sadly I don’t think so and if my system is being hacked in to then there is no reason why anyone else isn’t.

I work Electronics and IT and have and am at a loss how someone is getting in to my system or why so many changes are happening especially on the brand new machine. I have a Firewall on my router and the Mac firewall is switched on.

Sorry about my accent in the recordings, I’m from Bristol. I was trying to give a voice over as to what I think is going on that shouldn’t be.

Anyway, any help that anyone can give would be appreciated. I’m back in contact with Apple and even they are taking this more seriously now strange things have happened on a brand new clean machine

Best Regards
Phil

 

[pm-r]

@philappleton

Hi Patrick,
Thanks for your reply.
… … …
Best Regards
Phil

Hi Phil,

I must admit some things seem awfully strange and abnormal, and I hope you get them all solved satisfactorily at some point fairly soon.

Regards,
Patrick
======

 

[philappleton]

Hi Patrick,

I hope so to and will keep this thread updated with an honest and accurate report as to what is going on because this is looking more and more like someone is hacking my system as there seems to be no other answer and if there is a backdoor in MacOS that a hacker is using then Apple need to close it as this can be affecting others as well. I've also got an expensive laptop that ive not put any apps or my music on etc. as I'm keeping the system as close to MacOS so Apple can be sure no Apps are causing the issues.

I sent Apple a copy of the clips and chased the senior adviser I spoke to up today so hopefully will get some resolution soon. Even today I had some problems and will post a link to a few clips later or tomorrow.

Quicktime was crashing for no apparent reason and in System Preferences under Accessibility for Keyboard when turning on sticky keys they were being switched straight back off again and on the on screen keyboard when pressing caps lock then capitals showed on the on screen keyboard but when I pressed them only lower case came out.

Best Regards
Phil

 

[philappleton]

Also meant to say when things were going wrong I tried to run a system diagnostics and it failed with a warning message "Could Not Run System Diagnostics" The operation Couldn't be completed. (POSIX error -60006 - Unknown Error: -60006

 

[MacInWin]

Phil, can I ask what are your living accommodations? That is, do you live with others, or on your own? Do you have close neighbors? Do you share the Internet provider with anyone? How are you connecting to the router/modem for the Internet? Do you have alternatives for that connection?

I ask because there are no known easy ways for someone to take over a Mac the way you describe it, particularly if you have not installed anything on it and it is just as it came from the factory. I know you HAVE installed things on it already, as you described them in an earlier post, but if you go back to factory standard, about the only way for anyone to hack into your Mac is through physical presence.

So, do you live with others and do they have any access to your Mac at all? Is it ever alone with them? Do the problems you see show up as soon as you boot it from a new installation, or do they take a while to appear? What happens if you turn off WiFi and don't connect to any network at all? Do the issues show up then? You need to totally isolate the virgin installation, with NOTHING installed, to see if it's truly gremlins or something you have inadvertently installed yourself. Then you can try connecting to a trusted internet connection (one you KNOW is safe) and see if the issues occur. If they don't, then you can know that it's something in the way you are connected from your living accommodations that is allowing some unknown actor to get to your system. And by "get to" I mean physically, not through the connections. With a virgin OS (nothing installed) and a trusted connection there is NO way for you to be hacked from outside.

 

[pm-r]

Also meant to say when things were going wrong I tried to run a system diagnostics and it failed with a warning message "Could Not Run System Diagnostics" The operation Couldn't be completed. (POSIX error -60006 - Unknown Error: -60006

I didn't even realize that the Mac OS X even had any direct involvement until I read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX

Still, way over my head and understanding.

…because this is looking more and more like someone is hacking my system as there seems to be no other answer and if there is a backdoor in MacOS that a hacker is using …

Simple fix and test — just disconnect that Mac from the Internet or even any possible LAN sources and also disable, i.e.: turn-off any Wi-Fi!!!

If things are still acting up, try restarting and use Safe Boot Mode option and note any changes.




- Patrick
======