Useful Websites For Mac Admins & Advanced Users

 Among others, I rely on these two websites for help related to installation and management of MacOS. I have many Macs, many models, spanning many years.

It's a jungle out there, but thanks to MrMacintosh and TechRechard, my Mac admin life is made a bit easier.

They both offer links to downloadable Apple Installers, and various procedures to manage your Macs. Recommended.

Also, the Mist project on GitHub is an app that facilitates the selection and download of Apple Installers and Firmware updates.

Do you have other sites to recommend? Let me know in the comments.

Bitwarden desktop (macOS Apple Store version) does not recognize my email + password combination all of a sudden (with Solution)

 Bitwarden desktop for macOS is acting up today, not recognizing my credentials. I tried several times, no go. I tried to uninstall the app, but then encountered a problem on the Apple Store:

"We could not complete your purchase. Bitwarden can’t be installed on “Boot Mac Mini Intel Catalina” because macOS version 12 or later is required."

So now I can't install Bitwarden, even an older version, because I'm on Catalina 10.15, the new version is for 12 and above, and Apple Store / Bitwarden is not offering to install a previous version.

SOLUTION: go to Bitwarden.com, select Download, Desktop, DO NOT CLICK on MacOS because it will open Apple Store and we are back to our problem.

Instead, Open the drop down menu: "View desktop installation guides".

Scroll down pass the Windows installers to macOS (Mojave 10.14 and later.) There is a link to Standard installer (you can also click on the following link: Bitwarden.dmg.)

Click on the link to download the installer and install manually. Voilà!

On reopening Bitwarden everything works as it should, no more error message with my credentials.

Installing macOS High Sierra Onto MacPro 5,1 (cMP5,1) Patience Required!

Retracing all my steps to install a fresh macOS HighSierra on my cMP5,1 2012.

Bought a new SSD, stuck it into the Optical bay and connected it to the second Sata cable.

Emptied internal x4 Drive Bay, 16GB RAM, Radeon 5770 stock, nothing else connected but Apple Keyboard + generic mouse.

I made a USB High Sierra installer and started the computer, zapped the PRAM, it started from the USB and loaded the installer fine.

I went into Disk Util and erased the SSD using APFS. [***Do not do this! Read on!***]

Got the Firmware Update Required window:

Clicked onto Shut Down button... Nothing happened.

Went to the Menu Bar, clicked onto the Apple Logo and Shutdown from there.

Pushed and held Mac power button, LED flashed, got the long Beep, computer restarted, but no Firmware update happened.

Again got the Firmware Update Required window... What the f*^%$?

Again clicked onto Shut Down button, nothing happened.

Again went to the Menu Bar, clicked onto the Apple Logo and shutdown from there.

Again pushed and held Mac power button, LED flashed, got the long Beep, computer restarted, this time it went into Firmware Update (fat update bar instead of thin one.)

After 5 min. the computer restarted by itself, Sierra installer loaded.

Clicked Continue, then got a window "To download and restore macOS, your computer's eligibility will be verified with Apple". What???

Went back to macOS Utilities and turned on WIFI and connected to the internet. Came back to the same point...

I canceled, restarted, clicked again on install, this time it didn't show this window, go figure. Went to the installer, but it DIDN'T LIST MY SSD in the disk selection for install... !! Arrghl!

Hence do not format your SSD to APFS prior to install.

Went to macOS Utilities, Disk Utilities, tried to erase/reformat the drive to no avail (could not unmount it, and I could not see it to force unmount it.

Shutdown, removed the SSD, went to a second computer, erased the SSD, this time formatted GUID/macOS Extended.

Put it back into the computer, started again, into the installer, and bingo!

Selected the SSD and started the installation at last!

15min. later, booting into High Sierra. Success at last!

Disk Util confirms that the SSD has been erased and reformatted to APFS as part of the installation.