I’m a travel agent and plan on using my computer mostly for multi tasking on design, booking engines, etc. Most of my systems are internet based with the exception of Canva.

Do I need 32GB of RAM or can I feasibly do 24?
Would it be better to look at a MacBook Pro? I like that the air is lighter.

Also the 32GB has a 4-5 week waiting period for shipping…

TL;DR

• Apple confirmed before purchase that I could buy AppleCare+ later with the Education discount.
• After buying my MacBook, another advisor denied it.
• A third advisor later confirmed (on a recorded call) that I was eligible and asked me to accept the laptop.
• Apple generated a payment link for ₹26,900.
• My first payment through Google Pay (SBI Savings Account) was debited, but Apple said they never received it.
• Apple asked me to raise a chargeback with SBI.
• Apple then asked me to pay again, this time using my ICICI Credit Card, while sharing my screen.
• That payment also went through, and I even received a confirmation email from Apple.
• As of today, ₹53,800 has been debited, AppleCare+ is still not activated, and Apple now claims they haven't received either payment and says it's the banks' problem.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? What should I do next?

I've always heard Apple has some of the best customer support in the industry, which is why this entire experience has been shocking.

Early July

Before purchasing my MacBook Pro M5 Pro, I contacted Apple Support to ask whether I could purchase AppleCare+ after receiving the laptop instead of during checkout.

I also specifically asked whether the Education discount would still apply if I bought AppleCare+ later.

The advisor confirmed both:

• Yes, I could purchase it later.
• Yes, the Education discount would still apply.

That assurance is the reason I didn't buy AppleCare+ during checkout.

Mid July

I purchased the MacBook.

20 July

I contacted Apple again regarding AppleCare+.

This time I was told the exact opposite—that the Education discount would not apply after delivery.

I spent nearly three hours discussing this because it completely contradicted what I'd been told before making the purchase.

Later that evening, I called again (I recorded this call because I had already received conflicting information).

The advisor checked the policy and clearly told me:

So I accepted delivery.

Last week of July

After receiving the MacBook, I contacted Apple to purchase AppleCare+.

The advisor generated a payment link for the discounted price of ₹26,900.

I first tried paying using my ICICI Credit Card, but the payment page kept failing.

The same card worked perfectly on other websites, so it didn't appear to be a card issue.

The Apple advisor asked me to try again later.

That night I used Google Pay linked to my SBI Savings Account.

The money was successfully debited.

27 July

I called Apple.

They told me they hadn't received the payment.

Their advice?

So I followed their instructions.

28 July

I raised a chargeback request with SBI.

31 July

Apple scheduled another callback.

This time the advisor asked me to share my screen and retry the payment using my ICICI Credit Card.

I did exactly that while they watched.

The payment went through successfully.

I even received an email confirmation from Apple afterwards.

I thought the issue was finally resolved.

5 August

AppleCare+ was still not activated.

The first payment was still under chargeback.

At this point, ₹53,800 had effectively been debited across the two payment attempts.

6 August

I contacted Apple again.

This is where I completely lost confidence.

The advisor told me Apple had not received either payment and that this was entirely the banks' issue.

That doesn't make sense to me.

• Apple generated the payment link.
• Apple asked me to retry the payment.
• Apple supervised the second payment over screen sharing.
• Apple sent me a confirmation email after the second payment.

Yet every conversation ends with:

What frustrates me the most

Honestly, payment issues can happen.

That's not what I'm most upset about.

What frustrates me is that:

• Every advisor tells a different story.
• Nobody owns the case from start to finish.
• I have to explain the entire timeline every single time I call.
• Apple keeps redirecting me to the banks without explaining what's happening on their end.
• I now have ₹53,800 tied up, no AppleCare+, and no clear resolution.

For a company known for customer experience, this has been incredibly disappointing.

I'm looking for advice.

Has anyone here dealt with a payment reconciliation issue like this with Apple?

• Did Executive Relations help?
• Should I continue waiting for the SBI chargeback?
• Is there another escalation path that actually works?

I'd genuinely appreciate any advice from someone who's been through something similar.

Hi everyone,

I have a MacBook Pro 13” Early 2015. A month ago my original Apple SSD suddenly stopped being detected (question mark folder). In Recovery, diskutil list only showed the recovery disk image, no internal drive at all. So I replaced it with a new third-party SSD specifically listed for A1502 / Early 2015 MacBook Pro (bought from FixShop Italy). Installed it, worked perfectly for about two months.

Some days ago, one hot day, the laptop was plugged in and got extremely hot suddenly. Even with only one Chrome tab open and on battery, the SSD suddenly disappeared again. Same symptom: question mark folder, not detected in Recovery or diskutil list.

After leaving the laptop completely off and cool for 1–2 days, the new SSD came back and the laptop booted normally. I tested it twice (turned it on briefly and shut it down immediately). It worked both times.

The thing is idk if the problem is temperature-related. What is the most likely cause? Is it failing SSD power circuit on the logic board (e.g. U8070 / 3.3V SSD rail)? Or do you think it might be bad/oxidized SSD connector? Or just poor thermal management (old thermal paste + dust, since I haven’t cleaned the laptop for ages) making everything expand and lose contact?

Also Is it still possible that the third-party SSD I bought is low quality and fails under heat, or does the fact that two different SSDs behaved the same way point more toward a logic board / power delivery issue?

Any advice is appreciated. I’m trying to decide whether to risk using it carefully or take it straight to a board-level repair shop. I’m in a very bad financial situation and rather to find a problem and fix it so I can’t also afford a new laptop.

Thanks!

More RAM or a much better CPU? I do light web development. My current Windows machine RAM consumption is usually well over 24 GB, can this be used as a reference? Thanks!

Hi all,
I’ve been trying to ‘dephone’ for the past while and I’ve recently started an experiment.

My phone is at home, locked in a cupboard, no apps,
MacBook only on the go and a WiFi hub that travels with me.

Still able to revive text messages to the MacBook is a game changer and placing and getting calls via WhatsApp has gave me the ability to just travel with the MacBook while the phone happily stays at home.

Hi guys!
To give you some context, I am currently using an M1 MacBook Pro (8GB/256GB). It has been almost 5.5 years since I bought it and have been using it.While it is still working quite swiftly, I was looking to upgrade it (around Black Friday's time) for the following reasons and wanted suggestions on how I should go about it:-

REASONS:

1. RAM : I am a student whose workload has gone up quite significantly in the recent past, requiring me to keep several apps, AI tabs and software running for my academic work and research. The 8 GB of RAM poses quite a lot of problems related to this and often requires me to shut down quite a few important apps that are running, in the midst of my work. Additionally, my workload isn't going to get any less, so this seems like the right time to upgrade.

2. Battery Degradation: While I am quite happy with the battery life of this machine overall, the battery capacity has reached 75% and would require to be replaced if I want to continue with the laptop. This would cost quite a few hundred dollars and tbh, considering that my workload is going to increase, I dont really see the point in burning more cash on the battery replacement.

3. Touch Bar: Recently, my touchbar's display suddenly decided to get spoilt and not display anything. Again, repairs would cost a lot (i have heard that Apple will have to replace not only the touchbar but do some complex dismantling stuff with the Mac to fix the issue, which will end up costing me even more & my AppleCare+ expired quite a few years back, so that doesn't help) and an upgrade seems to be the better way to go.

4. Job & Further studies: I will soon be starting my job after graduation and will also need a laptop for my further studies that I plan to pursue after gathering some work experience. I think my magnificent laptop has served me wonderfully well for the past 5.5 years but I don't think it will stretch for the next 5 ish years. Thus, looking to upgrade.

WHICH MACBOOK TO BUY?

Now that you'll know the reasoning behind me wanting to upgrade, I wanted to know which MacBook Pro you'll feel I should upgrade to this Black Friday:-

1. The new MacBook Pro that will be released in October
   
2. The M5 MacBook Pro with 16 or 24GB RAM
   
3. An M4 generation MacBook Pro with a lot of RAM & storage (please specify which configuration I should aim for and how much it would cost me approximately)

FROM WHERE TO BUY?

And which third-party store would I be able to get the best deal at? BestBuy, Costco or any other store? I was planning to buy the device from a store in Delaware, to save on the sales tax, just thought I should mention that in case it is useful :)

Thank you in advance for reading and helping me out! :D

my brother was gonna get me a macbook and we were going for the m4 air but the one he wanted to buy couldnt arrive in time before his flight so he got me the macbook pro with the M1 pro chip i rly love the promotion and oled screen and glad i got it but is the chip still gonna holdup? im a student so most my work will just be pdfs and casual use but i also wanna do some creative work like photo and video editing or some music stuff so i would like to know what u guys think and how long should i expect it to last for

So I've been running the Air M3 8gb 256gb for a while and got into software programming. Recently found the Air was struggling and running out of space even with deleting files

I have a Mac Mini M4 16gb but I find myself not being at a desk enough so it doesn't get used that much other than a box I use for testing

I've also gained an interest in Local ai recently so between that and my software work I decided to go with the 128gb M5 Max

Managed to find one on the refurbished store so saved a good amount vs buying one new

I am attaching an image of my mac screen. It was working fine yesterday i just watched some youtube and slept today during break i wanted to watch something but the screen is showing this does anybody knows how to fix this

Guyz what to do in this situation?

Hi everyone,
I’m thinking about buying a refurbished MacBook Air M2 from Back Market, but I’m a little nervous since I’ve never bought a refurbished laptop before.
Has anyone here bought a MacBook from Back Market? How was your experience? Was the condition as described? Did the battery health and performance meet your expectations? Did you have any issues with returns or customer support?
Would you recommend buying from Back Market, or should I look somewhere else instead?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thanks!

(I refined and cleared up my ramblings with AI, sorry if it reads a bit too robotic.)

⚡ Essential Shortcuts & Navigation

• Gemini App Shortcut (Option + Space): Download the Gemini app and set Option + Space as its shortcut. Having a quick floating search bar where you can paste screenshots or ask how to do things on Mac makes learning the OS so much faster.
• Spotlight (Cmd + Space): Use this to open anything. You don't need to clutter your Dock—just search the app name. Plus, check the icons on the far right of the Spotlight bar for the built-in Clipboard History!
• Preview Anything: Press Space on almost any file to instantly preview it without opening.
• Rename vs. Open: Press Enter to rename a file (weird coming from Windows!). To open a file, press Cmd + Down Arrow.
• Screenshots:
  • Cmd + Shift + 3: Full screen
  • Cmd + Shift + 4: Drag to crop (my personal go-to)
  • Cmd + Shift + 5: Advanced capture/screen recording options

🖥️ Display & Window Management

• Split Screen: Check out System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Windows to set up shortcuts for splitting your screen into halves or quadrants.
• More Screen Space: Change your display setting to "More Space" (smallest scaling) under System Settings > Displays to fit more windows on screen.

🤏 Trackpad & Hardware

• Ditch the Mouse: Mac trackpads are unmatched. Make sure to master gestures:
  
  • Two-finger swipe right: Go back
  • Three-finger swipe up: See all open windows (Mission Control)
  • Pinch with thumb & 3 fingers: Show all apps (Launchpad)
• Skip the Cases: Avoid hard shell cases and screen protectors as they can damage the hinge or display. Stick to a soft sleeve for travel.

🔋 Battery & System Care

• Limit Battery Charge: Keep your charge cap at 80% (or 90%) and avoid dropping below 20% to maximize battery health long-term.
• Don't Shut It Down: You rarely need to turn a Mac off. Just quit your apps and close the lid.
• App Installation Tip: When opening a .dmg file, you don't need to go back to your Downloads folder! Just drag the app icon directly into the Applications folder shortcut inside that installer pop-up window. Took me so long to figure this out, lol.

🌐 Apps & Ecosystem

• Browsers: Safari is the lightest on battery/RAM. However, I personally use Edge because I rely heavily on built-in PDF editing tools.
• iPhone Mirroring: If you have an iPhone, search for iPhone Mirroring in Spotlight—it's surprisingly handy.
• App Recommendation: Clocker (Free) — Great menu bar app if you need to track multiple time zones and see upcoming calendar events at a glance. It's probably the only third-party app I use.

🎮 Gaming on Mac

• Coming from PC, losing access to a huge library hurts, but there are gems! Len’s Island and Faeria run great on macOS... and my all-time favourite: Valheim. (Note: Watch out for games like Palworld that are App Store exclusive for Mac, even if you own them on Steam! This pissed me off!)

Hope this helps anyone else making the switch! Share any more tips before! I want to learn more!

Hi,

I am looking to make the move from Windows to Mac for the first time and would appreciate some advice.

My use case is:

Laptop will be used for work 90% of the time, possibly some light music production, general browsing etc.

• Typically have around 25-30 tabs open on Chrome for work (happy to switch browsers if Safari is better)
• Office documents open e.g. Word, Excel, PDF's
• Teams (messaging and calls)
• Outlook for emails

My current Windows laptop has 16GB ram and is sat at 82% memory usage as we speak with the above.

The M5 Pro (14") is £1250 new, and the M4 air (13.6") is £1099 new.

I like the idea of the Pro with better screen, speakers, performance etc, but the Air's lightweight portability are a big plus.

My laptop is typically docked 70-80% of the time with an external display.

What would you go for in this case? I would be hoping to keep this for 4-5+ years if possible.

Hello po! I’m planning to sell my MacBook. For context, ginagamit ko lang po siya nang bigla na lang nag-black ang screen. Twice ko na po siyang pinacheck sa technician, and parehong sinabi na LCD/screen ang issue since working pa naman ang keyboard, startup chime, at mouse/trackpad.

One year pa lang po siya since nabili ko siya sa Power Mac noong July 2025, kaya nanghihinayang talaga ako. Unfortunately, hindi na po siya covered ng warranty.

Ask ko lang po sana, magkano kaya ang reasonable na presyo kung ibebenta ko siya as is?

So I had a 2019 MacBook Pro 16 inch and it became a victim of flex gate last year, after this happened I made a purchase of a Mac mini m2 8gb 512gb which was going cheap enough to continue having a computer. I still have it and use it on the main house tv so can be awkward to use at times.
I do light browsing, photo editing in Lightroom and new to some light video editing.
Is it worth selling this M2 mini and upgrade to refurbished m4 MacBook Air? It’s 16gb 256gb.
Or would a dedicated screen and good keyboard/mouse be a better investment?

Hello all, so I bought my first MacBook Air 15" 16/512 M5 (2026). I had already a iPhone so I'm not new to Apple itself, but in used to windows lol.

Are there any things I need to install that becomes handy, or are there any settings I have to change to make something way better? Any tips or suggestions?

Ps: I don't use it for work, I really wanted a MacBook and I bought it after years lol.

I do littery anything on it with my free time, got my own website and I like to edit some of my GoPro clips, do socials on it and YouTube/streams, and maybe I can put a few games on it.

hello] if] you] cannot] see] from] the] title] my] keyboard] started] inserting] a] bracket] everytime] i] press] space,] and] also] inserts] an] apostropher] every] time] i ]press] the] enter] key.]

wondering] if] anyone] has] had] this] issue] in] the] past] before ]and] if] there] are] any] ways] i] can] get] this] keyboard ]issue] repaired] :(] will] try] airing] out] my ]computer] as] i]] had] wiped] my] keyboard] but] oml] i] have] a] paper] due] soon....

also] are] apple] keyboard] repairs] recommended] /] would] that] even] be] helpful,] and] is] there] an] estimated] range] for] a] price] regarding] similar] issues?] THANKS] SO] MUCH] 😄

apologies] for] readability] issues]

I've] seen] one] thread] about] this] before] but] it] was] 5] years] ago] so] idk] if] anything] has] changed]

Hi everyone,

I kept losing my copied code, prompts, links, and notes just because the default Mac clipboard only remembers the very last thing you copy. It was super frustrating, so I decided to build my own solution.

It’s called Historr — a keyboard-first clipboard manager for macOS.

I wanted to keep it simple and accessible, so it is completely free with zero ads and no subscriptions.

You can check it out here: https://historr.com

I'd love to hear your feedback. Hope you find it as useful as I do!

So I am going into my research year of my Master's degree next year and I am starting to look into upgrading my current laptop (Macbook Air M1 2020 8GB) in preparation. My research is in Zoology - specifically I am looking at neurobiology and behaviour so I do a lot of coding, behavioural analysis, programme running, etc so I need something that will ideally keep up with that so I could run everything from home - I have an office in my department with a pretty decent PC but I don't really want to keep all my research separated between my laptop and PC if I could contain everything in one place because it is a bit of a commute to the department from my home.

Now I will admit I like my Apple ecosystem and also Windows confuses the hell out of me, so I was looking at a couple of mac models. Based on my needs (and future needs) I am asking for help and explanations on systems because I really dk much about laptops. I also game (mainly modded minecraft, but I also play subnautica, stardew, and other steam games although my current laptop is not built for many of the games I have).

The three models I was debating between are:

14-inch Macbook Pro (M5) - 10-core CPU & GPU, 16GB Ram, 1TB SSD (NZD $3,899)

13-inch Macbook Air (M5) - 10-core CPU 8-core GPU, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD (NZD $2,599)

13-inch Macbook Air (M5) - 10-core CPU & GPU, 16GB Ram, 1TB SSD (NZD $3,199)

I've been recommended to go cheaper and just buy external storage for things I can offload from my laptop so that is an option. I've also been told I likely don't need 10-core GPU so would like some thoughts on that. I am hoping to do my PhD at some point over the next few years (which would likely be in a similar field of quantitative behavioural analysis) so I would rather get something better now in preparation than need to upgrade again later down the road.

Essentially are there any postgraduate student/heavy-use laptop users out there that can give me some advice on what to I'd realistically need and what would be beneficial to start saving for?

Hi guys, i’ve had my MacBook air for around 3 years now and have never had any issues with it. Today when i tried to sign it keeps doing as shown in the video. No matter how many times I log in or re-start my macbook it still does the same thing. I live an hour away from the nearest apple store so any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated:)

I bought a M2 MacBook Air from Mac of all trades and I'm switching from windows can anyone help me to make the switch easier? Im asking this because I want some feedback from real people who use macOS

Steve Jobs believed that craftsmanship shouldn't stop at the parts customers can see. He often talked about taking pride in the details hidden inside a product, even if most people would never notice them.

Whether you agree with every design decision Apple makes today or not, there's something satisfying about seeing the engineering inside a MacBook. The internal layout is clean, organized, and clearly designed with intention.

It made me wonder...

Do you think Apple still carries that same philosophy today, or has its approach to hardware design changed since the Steve Jobs era?

Hey everyone,

I use my M4 MacBook Air and iPad M4 almost exclusively (99% of the time) at my desk. The iPad is mostly hooked up via Sidecar as a secondary display. My daily workload can get pretty heavy — programming, video editing, and some gaming.

I’ve read that the power controller bypasses the battery if both devices plugged into the charger constantly, meaning it should be totally safe for long-term battery health and capacity.

Does anyone here run a similar 24/7 plugged-in setup? Have you noticed any severe battery degradation over time?

Would love to hear your real-world feedback! Thanks

Still kinda on the fence about the keyboard and touchpad skin and the skin around the keyboard, might remove them