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Apple Authorized Reseller B&H Photo has issued two deals on Apple’s 2019 13-inch MacBook Air, with a $550 discount on the upgraded system itself — and an additional $50 off the laptop bundled with AppleCare.

Blowout MacBook Air deals

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macOS Big Sur, Apple’s upcoming release of its Mac operating system, will finally let you watch 4K HDR Netflix content, but it turns out it’ll only work on 2018 or later Macs with Apple’s T2 security chip, according to a new Netflix support document (via Apple Terminal).

That means the full list of Macs that can watch 4K content on Netflix, at least for now, is as follows:

• iMac (2020)
• iMac Pro
• Mac Pro (2019)
• Mac mini (2018)
• MacBook Air (2018 or later)
• MacBook Pro (2018 or later)

There’s an easy way to check whether your Mac has a T2 chip, as Apple points out on its website.

Disappointingly, older iMacs and pre-2018 Mac laptops that could theoretically play Netflix 4K content, whether on their built-in displays or via an 4K or 5K external monitor, won’t be able to. It’s not clear why the T2 security chip is required: Netflix didn’t have an immediate answer for us, and Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

But if we had to guess, that T2 chip might be able to better handle 4K content because it acts as a co-processor. The T2 chip has built-in video processing power including support for the popular HEVC codec, according to a marketing slide from Apple’s October 2018 event. On its website for the latest iMac, Apple says that the T2 chip “makes transcoding HEVC video up to twice as fast as the previous generation.”

We’re not sure if Netflix uses HEVC for these high-res streams, but if it does, perhaps the T2 chip is key in helping 4K Netflix play smoothly on Macs.

If you want to watch 4K Netflix and have a compatible Mac once macOS Big Sur comes out this fall, you’ll also need to subscribe to Netflix’s $15.99 per month Premium plan. And you can only watch 4K Netflix content using Safari, not other browsers, according to Netflix’s support doc.

Mac users aren’t the only ones with specific requirements for watching 4K Netflix, though: on Windows, you need to be on Windows 10, using Microsoft Edge or the Netflix app, with a 4K-capable display and a machine with a powerful enough CPU or GPU.

In what is the lowest price we’ve ever seen, Apple’s MacBook Air (2019) with AppleCare is $800 off for two days only, bringing the premium model that’s loaded with upgrades down to $1,149 with the extended protection plan.

Rock bottom price on MacBook Air + AppleCare

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Following the release of macOS Catalina version 10.15.7, an increasing number of users have experienced an issue with a system process named “accountsd” showing very high CPU usage in Activity Monitor, causing their Mac to slow down.

One user in the Apple Support Communities shared a screenshot of “accountsd” with CPU usage above 400%, rendering their 2018 MacBook Pro “useless.”

While this issue has popped up occasionally over the years, there has been a noticeable uptick in complaints across the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors Forums, Twitter, Reddit, Stack Exchange, and elsewhere since the release of macOS Catalina version 10.15.7, with users attempting to troubleshoot the issue.

What is accountsd?

Accountsd is a daemon, part of the Accounts framework. Apple’s developer documentation says this framework helps users access and manage their external accounts from within apps, without requiring them to enter login credentials.

The Accounts framework provides access to user accounts stored in the Accounts database, which is managed by the system. An account stores the login credentials of a particular service, such as Twitter, and you use those credentials to authenticate with the service. When you integrate the Accounts framework into your app, you don’t need to store account logins yourself. Instead, the user grants your app access to use their account login credentials, bypassing the need to type their username and password. If no account for a particular service exists in the user’s Accounts database, you can let them create and save an account from within your app.

How to fix accountsd CPU usage?

Affected users have offered a wide range of potential solutions, but your mileage may vary.

Some users have managed to solve the issue by signing out of their Apple ID account under System Preferences > Apple ID > Overview > Sign Out, restarting their Mac, and then signing back in to the account, but this has not worked for everyone.

Some users have solved the issue by resetting their Mac’s SMC and/or NVRAM.

One user on Stack Exchange believes the issue relates to a bug with file indexing on the Mac. Their solution involves resetting the indexing by navigating to System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy and adding (+) your storage drive (“Macintosh HD” by default) to the “Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations” list. Then, remove (-) the drive from the list, and the Mac will begin reindexing. The indexing process can temporarily slow down your Mac, so these steps are recommended to be completed overnight.

As for more advanced troubleshooting, some users have had success with navigating to “~/Library/Accounts” and renaming the file “Accounts4.sqlite” to “Accounts4.sqlite.testbackup” or using more complex Terminal commands, but proceed with caution, as these solutions could impact your iCloud accounts or syncing.

Apple has yet to acknowledge this issue. Should a software update be released with a fix, we will update this article accordingly.