Time machine freezes while copying files with no error message (on Catalina 10.15)

Okay, my Time Machine backups work now, and I can post this answer to my own question.

To print out what files are currently being copied there is a nice command in the terminal:

sudo fs_usage -wf filesys backupd | grep HFS_update

Doing this I could see that my backup froze at certain files, and CPU was at 0.0 usage. However, even after it had frozen, intermittently it made small steps of progress before freezing again (as I could tell from the terminal printout). And even though CPU usage showed 0.0, the total number of CPU hours were very slowly creeping up. So there was some activity in backupd, but so little it rounds to 0.0. Thus I left the computer on over night, and in the morning it had finished. It took 14 hours to finish, including several hour-long pauses when no files were written to the backup drive.

I was using Catalina 10.15.1, but using the newly released 10.15.2 for my second backup disk I can tell that the problem persists. I then reformatted the second disk to see if that would make it any faster. But no, it takes even longer to create a new backup (20.5 hours).

However, after one painfully slow backup has finished it seems to work normally, with much shorter backup times.

Read more here:
https://eclecticlight.co/2019/11/11/time-machine-and-backing-up-in-catalina/comment-page-1/?unapproved=42377&moderation-hash=3183957ce67228fdfbd8a9b757b038dc#comment-42377


Based on my experience with Macbooks, I suspect there is either a loose connector, or (sigh) you have a dying chip on the motherboard (probably video controller).  Genius Bar should be able to diagnose for you pretty quickly.


Triggering Launch Agents for path in sandboxed app using WatchPaths does not work

So I found the solution. And it has nothing to do with sandboxing, but everything to do with the fact that I had a \ in my path because I copied it over from the shell.

e.g.: .../Data/Library/Application\ Support/... should be .../Data/Library/Application Support/....


iCloud Mail doesn't load, but all other iCloud services work fine

It seems it was a temporary problem, as it now appears fixed.


Recover photos from thumbnails in Photos app

The photos are stored in:

~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/

To get there go to your Pictures folder in your users directory and right click on your photo library file. Then right click and select  “show package contents”  I’ve seen the same photo in a variety of sizes in multiple different locations within the photos library. You may get lucky and stumble upon it by using spotlight or manually digging around.

Also look into repairing and rebuilding the photos library database, this may fix the problem for you automatically. Here is a source that discusses the process


Macbook Air 2008 won't boot after error message asking to shut down due to low battery

If you can't boot to a grey screen after resetting the SMC and then connecting a working charger for 15 minutes, you have a hardware issue.

The steps a hardware technician would perform are as follows:

Disconnect everything you can from the Mac
Try a power on when connected to power. (Observing whether the charge LED goes green or orange is an important clue to the health of the SMC/logic board and battery)
Reset the NVRAM and try a boot with the option key held down listening for the blower to start up
Charge for 10 minutes
Reset the SMC again
Now that things you can do externally are basically exhausted, now they would open the Mac case and proceed with observation/testing - perhaps with disconnect the battery and test charging and boot again


What's the "Private" directory in OS X for?

/private has been around for a loooooong time. Every Mac has it.

It is part of your Mac: the directory stores essential system files and caches, along with other databases that your system requires to operate.

I'll give a quick explanation contents of the folders /private/etc, /private/tmp, and /private/var, usually found in /private:

/private/etc

Data files for system use, configurations for various command line tools etc

/private/tmp

System logs, mostly

/private/var

More logs, databases for daemons, virtual memory swap file(s), sleep image etc.

In essence, deleting anything in this directory is probably not a good idea, save for a few files. If you do delete them however, some required essential files will get regenerated on startup.

It's probably a good idea to Google the exact full directory path of any system folders you intend to tinker with before actually beginning to experiment with stuff inside.

I hope this helps.


iOS Developer Account - 50GB iCloud space still available. Will it go away?

This is part of the mail who sent apple regarding this:

  Your complimentary 50 GB of iCloud storage is expiring on November 1st and your account will be downgraded to your original storage plan. If you are using more storage than your original iCloud storage plan, you need to upgrade your plan or reduce the amount of storage you're using. You can view your storage used and upgrade your plan from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac.

So, it will expire in a few days. Did not say anything about how will they do if you are over quota, just tell you to upgrade or free space.


How to make a bootable Yosemite Drive under El Captain (not installation drive)

You can't simply open Install OS X Yosemite.app and install Yosemite somewhere if your Mac is booted to OS X El Capitan. The installer app will obstruct this. You have to use a detour:

Download the Install OS X Yosemite.app from the App Store. The Yosemite installer must be "purchased" previously. You will find it in your purchase list then and you can re-download it. Create a bootable installer thumb drive:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app

You may have to replace the proper path to Install OS X Yosemite.app and the name of your thumb drive in /Volumes/MyVolume in the above command.

Reboot to the bootable installer thumb drive. After starting the installation you will be asked where to install Yosemite. Choose an empty partition which mustn't contain an El Capitan operating system. You may also install to a second thumb drive (> 16 GB).


Some files in Time Machine are being locked

I just tried "Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs" and it looks like it might be helping. I ran this for about 30 minutes, canceled it because it took too long, backed up Time Machine again, and noticed that Time Machine backed up some files that I did not touch. Turns out that these files were the same ones being locked in backups, and in the latest backup, they were no longer locked.

So perhaps I was having permission problems with the files that were getting locked? I don't know if this "fix" will resolve this permanently, or just for now, but it certaily seems to be related.


Is your MacBook charging up properly when you are using it with the charger plugged in?

It might only be drawing 12W of power because your batteries are fully charged and the 12W is only used for your current operation.

Having a charger capable of giving 60W does not mean your MacBook will always require 60W from it.

For example, my MacBook Pro is currently drawing 20.31 V from the power adapter right now.


iPhone 4s can deleted text in spotlight be retrieved

When you delete a message from, for example the messages app, they will be deleted from you iDevice. A way to retrieve the message is restoring from a backup.

Normally the message shouldn't be shown in spotlight when it is deleted, so I unfortunately do not have an answer for that.


launchd process using aerender exits early

(Edited/Updated)

According to this thread on StudioSysAdmins, the problem I'm running into is because of aerender's reliance upon the Window Manager.

  Aerender is a hack that wraps the entirely GUI based After Effects
  application with a basic command line render interface. The AE core
  itself still depends directly on the Window Manager.
  ...

-Robin Scher

I ended up getting around this by using AppleScript (osascript) in the property list like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    ...
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
      <string>/absolute/path/to/run.applescript</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
</plist>

Here is what run.applescript looks like:

tell app "/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app"
  set w to do script "/Users/home/Developer/VideoGenerator/exec/render.sh; exit 0"
  repeat
    delay 1
    if busy of w is false then exit repeat
  end repeat
  #display dialog "finished"
end tell

I tell launchd to use osascript to run aerender in the context of a Terminal window.  A little convoluted, but it works!


How to make MacBook Pro sharing Wi-Fi from iPad?

This is a very interesting situation and one that didn't, for me at least, bring any clear-cut obvious answer. Here is what I found.
First, I created a very similar setup to yours. I connected my iPhone to my Macbook Pro and tethered USB. I had to forget my current wifi network so that I could actually share over my computer's wifi. So, first, double check that your computer doesn't have an active wifi connection (I couldn't tell from your screenshot). A MacBook Pro cannot receive and send a wifi connection - it is a one way street.
I then tried creating a network from the USB connection. This did not work. I then connected my ethernet cable and confirmed that internet sharing worked fine and it was just something about the USB that was problematic. I next proceeded to test Bluetooth tethering. I connected to my phone solely over Bluetooth and once again the computer created a wifi connection. (By the way, the wifi icon changes to a block of gray with an arrow pointing up when the sharing is working). I confirmed on my iPad that it created a perfectly good, and connectable wifi.
I went back and connected only through my USB connection and once again, the computer would not create a wifi. One thing to note about working with this is that there really aren't any errors. If it doesn't work, the only real way to tell is that it won't create a network. While that is fairly obvious, it would be nice to have some error saying why it won't share the USB connection.
The only thing I didn't try was rebooting, but I just started the computer this morning as it was shut down last night, so I see little chance that would work.
In conclusion:
I suggest that you either tether over Bluetooth (and sacrifice some speed, potentially), or just use your iPad to share wifi and Bluetooth.*
* I'm a little curious why you don't do that anyway, but that doesn't matter.


How can I restore the Time Machine exclusion list from a Time Machine backup?

Open that plist from your previous install and look for "SkipPaths". Under that key you should find the exclusion paths you had set on your previous install.

For example from my own it looks like this:

<key>SkipPaths</key>
<array>
    <string>~alistair/Documents/Virtual Machines</string>
    <string>~alistair/Downloads</string>
</array>

That would at least tell you which paths you had excluded before so you could re-add them through the Time Machine preferences pane in System Preferences.


Mac mini Apple bluetooth keyboard DELETE key can't do 'backward delete'

Yes, it does for me: "fn" "delete" does a backward delete.


How to Expose hidden App in Dock as it was in High Sierra?

I haven't found any other option than this, although I'll be honest with me on macOS 10.16 it doesn't work. But I am sure that it will work with older versions.
Just enter this into the terminal here.
defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -boolean yes && killall Dock

You can give it a try and give me your experience.
You can also undo it again no problem.
 defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -boolean no && killall Dock

Activate Dock Exposé
The option shown in this example is available from Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
After changing the properties of the dock, the dock must be restarted.
If you want to activate the Dock Exposé (standard), you can do this as follows:
defaults write com.apple.dock show-expose-menus -bool yes; killall Dock


What is the name of the small circuit board above the trackpad that the flex cable connects to on the MacBook pro retina 2015 13"?

There are two places where the track pad connects - the logic board (red) arrow and to the track pad PCB (red square)

Image Source:  Ifixit.com

If what you're referring to is what's identified by the red square at the bottom of the image above, then it's the PCB. It's  not sold as a separate assembly (AFAIK) and you have to replace the entire track pad assembly (PN# 923-00518). If it's the top portion (red arrow), you have to get the logic board repaired/replaced.

It's possible you could buy a salvaged track pad from eBay just to get the PCB, but it's an "unknown."  You could end up getting a track pad with a bad PCB again, but if the price is good, it may be worth the gamble.

Finally, if you got a spark when connecting the flex cable, replace the flex cable as well.  When you see a spark, that means enough voltage passed through the cable to arc which could have permanently damaged the cable - it's cheap enough that you should just do it anyway and not try to salvage a cable of questionable function.


Here's how I'd troubleshoot things using terminal. You can use the console app as well to look at logs, but the serveradmin commands are more detailed than the server app allows currently and historically.

curl localhost - this tests that port 80 is listening and a web server is running.
sudo serveradmin status web - this tests the service named web - n.b. you could have the curl command work and have apache running on port 80 but have your web status STOPPED as several other "services" start up apache such as Xcode, Profile Manager, etc...
Depending if the status was stopped, issue a start sudo serveradmin start web or issue an orderly shutdown and restart sudo serveradmin stop web && sleep 15 && sudo serveradmin start web

If you are not getting anything that makes sense from curl - perhaps look over the web logs:

tail /var/log/apache2/access_log
tail -20 /var/log/apache2/error_log

Once you've narrowed down if the problem is running apache and basic networking/DNS to get localhost to work or if there are problems with the code/content you can take next steps.

Also, looking over the tutorial/lesson - it looks like the selection was on HTTPS and not HTTP, so go back and ensure you are using https://myserver.local and https://localhost or http:// throughout and the server app is configuring the port (80 for http and 443 for https). For simplicity, I've just used port 80 for this answer and my server setup.


How to disable service workers in Safari 12.1? (Mac)

You can try to turn off the feature via the Debug menu.  For me, using Safari 12.1.1, It is listed under

Debug -> WebKit Internal Features -> Service Workers

Note that I am referring to the internal Debug menu, and not the Developer menu.  The Debug menu is activated by writing the key IncludeInternalDebugMenu  into Safari preferences (e.g. defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1 -- under Mojave, you will have to grant Full Disk Access to Terminal.app first; otherwise the setting will not take.)

I'm not sure if this persists across browser restarts, though.


mounting NFS v4 results in "Invalid argument"

You are trying to use:

  mount_nfs -o rwsize=32768 -o locallocks -o namedattr -o noac -o
  rdirplus -o nfsv3 jin.local:volume1/File/ /Volumes/File

Instead try:

  mount_nfs -vers=4  -o rwsize=32768 -o locallocks -o namedattr -o noac
  -o rdirplus jin.local:volume1/File/ /Volumes/File

or

  mount_nfs -vers=4,rwsize=32768,locallocks,namedattr,noac,rdirplus
  jin.local:volume1/File/ /Volumes/File


How can I disable all audio output from my OSX machine when the screen is locked

I figured out you can do this with the "Do not Disturb" feature in System Preferences -> Notifications. I actually had it turned on, but had the checkbox with "From XXX to YYY" time checked. I unchecked that, and made sure the "When the display is sleeping" was checked, and that seems to do it!


Can I combine TextEdit files w/o copying and pasting?

Credit:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2242153?tstart=0

You can achieve this by opening terminal and typing cd [path of the folder where your journals are located] you should replace [ ] with the the folder where your diary entries are written , just drag and drop the folder into the terminal window.(Remember to hit space after typing cd) Then you can merge all the text edit files into one by typing
cat file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt > file4 The file1.txt, file 2.txt and so on will be your diary entries so if you have more just type the name of the file followed by a space and the > symbol will merge all the documents into one file4.txt you can change the name as per your concern.


Is there a way to remove App from iTunes Connect?

There is no way to do it. To delete an app, this must be approved first.

  Apps that have not been approved yet can't be deleted.

Transferring and Deleting Apps


How do I install software from a CD or DVD shared from a Windows 7 PC?

If you copy the CD to a disk image on the PC, you can put the image on a USB stick and transfer it to your Air. I am not sure how to do this on Window, but I'm sure you can find out how to do this somewhere.

WinImage looks like it should do what you want.

Also look at this article on creating CD images on Windows.


How to remove or hide Apple applications from my app folder?

You can hide files from the UI using chflags command.
Assuming you want to hide iBooks app, start your terminal app do the following:

$ cd /Applications/
$ sudo chflags hidden iBooks.app

And you are almost done.  Start finder app and in Applications folder you won't see iBooks app.  But it's still in visible in the Applications Dock folder.  You have to restart Dock app, so the last step is to:

$ killall -1 Dock

and you are done!

You won't see the hidden app in the Dock or Finder.  It will be visibile to you from the terminal when used ls shell command.

Quick note, to unhide app just use the following command:

$ cd /Applications/
$ sudo chflags nohidden iBooks.app

Notice the nohidden flag. Previously we used hidden


The tool being used in the screen shot is "Quartz Debug"

It is part of Apple's free Graphics Tools for Xcode.

To get this app:

download Xcode from the Mac App Store.
Open Xcode and select Xcode > Open Developer Tool > More Developer Tools...
This takes you to Apple's developer download site.  You will need to register a free developer account to proceed.
Select "Graphics Tools for Xcode" to download a disk image with the tools.
Open the dmg and you can copy out "Quartz Debug" to your computer.

Running Quartz Debug should show the FPS meter.  It has various options which allow tweaking of Quartz settings.


What iOS version can be downgraded to iOS 10?

No, It is not possible to downgrade a device running iOS 11 to iOS 10.

When iOS is installed and activated on a device, the installation is verified with Apple's servers.

Apple routinely stops verifying older versions of iOS (by stopping signing them) so as to encourage users to remain on the most latest release.

Currently only iOS 11.4.1 is signed by Apple’s server and it isn’t possible to downgrade past it if it’s installed.


How hard is the glass on Retina MacBook Pro

As you can read on: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5998/macbook-pro-retina-display-analysis
the glass is not the same as on the usual MBP but instead created using two layers of glass.

But the thing is the new Retina MBP does not have the cover glass. That does mean that if you scratch it in a way you are scratching the real LCD and not just a cover glass which would be the case if you scrach the display on a MBP.

Hope you can decide from that whether or not you should use a screen protector.


My MacBook Pro, gets stuck at boot screen and the graphics look weird

Unfortunately you may have hardware issues if yours is an "Early 2011" model, many owners have reported symptoms similar to yours with the culprit being failed ball grid array solder on the graphics processor. There's some info here. The article has a link for a utility that will allow you run solely on the integrated Intel HD3000 graphics so at least you'll be able to continue using your MacBook (in theory at least, we do have an Early 2011 i7 15" on campus but so far it's not had any problems).

Ultimately the fix will either be a replacement logic board or you can try any one of a number of companies offering to "re-ball" or "re-flow" the solder on GPUs. Any company offering Xbox 360 or PS3 repairs should be able to do this.

Here is a link to the "MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues" for your Mac model.


Syncing Google Calendar with iPhone Alarms

All you have to do is to choose a long and loud ringtone as your calendar alert sound. Try it, it works, and doesn't require any technical manipulation. You can change the alert from the preferences (and not within calendar itself).

You will probably have to make a ringtone yourself if the regular ones seem too harmless... A ringtone can be as long as 30 seconds. Here is how to make one: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-make-ringtones-for-iphone/

You can also set a second alarm in calendar for an event. It will be hard to miss two consecutive alerts of 30 seconds!


iOS: Sounds when Headphones Are Plugged in but Silent Otherwise?

The silent switch on the left of the device allows one to completely mute (orange in picture below) or unmute all sounds when no headphones are plugged in.

However, when headphones are plugged in, third-party app sounds (e.g.: game music/sfx, video sounds, etc.) will still play through the headphones whether the switch is activated or not.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to achieve the same behavior for system sounds and Apple apps.


Can I use Google Sync (Exchange, Push) through Mail.app in Mountain Lion?

No, you can't use Google Sync through Mail.app in Mountain Lion.

Google's exchange server m.google.com is not a fully implemented exchange server. It just implements the ActiveSync protocol which seems to be a subset of the exchange protocol for mobile devices. See also this information on Google Sync: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=135937


Can an MDM system (e.g. GOOD) report on iOS app usage?

Yes, Airwatch, Good, and MobileIron all utilize some form of app usage monitoring. For a taxonomy of enterprise MDM systems, and their features, reference this link, specifically under the Application Management subheading.


How can I disable and/or uninstall "Messages" from OS X Yosemite?

While Apple stock OS X apps cannot be deleted, you can remove the your Apple ID's association with the Messages app by opening Messages and clicking Messages > Preferences > Accounts.

From there you can remove your Apple ID (and therefore the phone numbers associated with it) and your problem should stop.


An app that can scan archive files and delete them

To automate things like that, I use Hazel (paid software, 29$).

  Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically
  organizing your files according to the rules you create. It features a
  rule interface similar to that of Apple Mail so you should feel right
  at home. Have Hazel move files around based on name, date, type, what
  site/email address it came from (Safari and Mail only) and much more.
  Automatically put your music in your Music folder, movies in Movies.
  Keep your downloads off the desktop and put them where they are
  supposed to be.


Ideas for reinstalling Mac OS X on a 2009 Macbook Pro whose shift key is constantly stuck down?

Can you get the broken Mac to start in Target mode? You achieve that by pressing T while booting, it might work with the shift key too.

After that you can use the Mac as an external drive, so you can start the installation using the working MBP, pointing the installation to the broken Mac.


Mojave plist error: Path had bad ownership/permissions

Solved. On the new Mac Mini my primary storage is a RAID array of SSDs in a Thunderbolt enclosure. This external storage was marked as ignore ownership.  So, even though it appeared to me to have correct ownership and permissions, when viewed as root everything was owner _unknown,  group _unknown.

When ignore owner was turned off and the proper ownership was applied everything was functional again.


What is parent process of all the processes in iOS?

The name of the equivalent process on iOS and macOS is launchd.

It is run with PID 1 and it the parent of all other running user-space processes. The objective of launchd is similar to initd - having the responsibility of launching other processes during boot and various other phases of the system lifetime.

This is in thread with traditional Unix-based systems, where PID 1 is reserved for the process that is responsible for launching the user space part of the system. This was traditionally initd, but on modern systems that is often replaced with alternatives such as launchd (on macOS), systemd, upstart, and other init systems.


showing multiple regions for holidays in Calendar Version 7.0 (1841.1)

You can add as many as you like - http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars/


If you updated iTunes to 12.7 then that explains the missing app loading.

Try to go back to iTunes 12.6 and then check. If the apps are still missing, you may need to restore them from a backup before iTunes 12.7 changed the syncing of apps to your device.

https://www.macworld.com/article/3230135/software-entertainment/how-to-install-itunes-1263-and-replace-itunes-127.html


"control +a" not working on mac, but "control + e" works

The reason was application Music Player for VK Lite. When quit it, control+a start working again.


How to transfer Mac Yosemite Notes to Mac Sierra

Why not just sync your notes using iCloud?

If they aren’t currently associated with your iCloud account, just copy them over to that account (within the Notes app) on the machine running Yosemite. Then, enable iCloud on the machine running Sierra, checkmark “Notes” to sync under iCloud preferences, and then you’ve successfully transferred them.

It’s a much easier solution than navigating through the filesystem and manually selecting the data.


The iPad with 3G is sold unlocked. In the UK, the iPad with 3G will work with Orange, Three, O2, and Vodafone.

To be pedantic, the iPad's 3G connection will not work with carriers such as T-Mobile USA, which in part uses the 1700 MHz frequency for 3G. The iPad with 3G supports the necessary frequencies to fully work in the UK with Orange, Three, O2, and Vodafone, and SIMs from these carriers can be swapped seamlessly.


Various iOS apps log out randomly, lose all data & settings

A found a 'satisfactory' workaround. As I commented on the question, I was having the bug after I decided to close all applications using the app switcher and then start every application on my phone.

My 'solution' is to close all applications in the app switcher and then turn off the device. Then, turn on the phone.

Since that, I have not had problems.


How to run a sudo command on mac? .. problem with mysql server

On OS X Yosemite you should add the script in:

/Library/LaunchDaemons

using this name for the script:

com.mysql.mysql.plist

and this content:

<!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?-->
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <dict>
       <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
       <false/>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.mysql.mysqld</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe</string>
      <string>--user=mysql</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</plist>

you will get MySQL started automatically every time you reboot the Mac.

be sure to set proper privileges to the script:

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist
sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist

Just tested on OS X 10.10.2 while moving out of MAMP PRO and it works like a breeze :-)


Launchd based daemon exit with abnormal code 1, without crash log

Ok, I've just realize that i left exit(1) in my code. this was part of non deamon leftovers, and that what caused the abnormal exit.


How to swap command and option modifier keys with a script in OS X Lion

I was able to modify some of the scripts already out there, and get them to work in Lion. To create these scripts:

Run the Applescript Editor
Create two new empty script files (command-N)
Paste in these two scripts
Save them as something like "swap command option" and "restore command option" or whatever you'd like
You can test them by running them in the applescript editor.

Here is the script to swap command to option, and option to command:

#
# Script to swap the Command and Option keys
# in the System Preferences Keyboard settings.
#
# Helpful if using a PC keyboard
#

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
    click button "Modifier Keys…" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"

    # Select keyboard: pop up button
    click pop up button 5 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"
    # The 4th choice there.. my USB Keyboard
    click menu item 4 of menu 1 of pop up button 5 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    # The Option Key pop up
    click pop up button 2 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"
    # Change it to Command, the 4th choice
    click menu item 4 of menu 1 of pop up button 2 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    # The Command Key pop up
    click pop up button 1 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"
    # Change it to Option, the 3rd choice
    click menu item 3 of menu 1 of pop up button 1 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    click button "OK" of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    end tell
end tell

tell application "System Preferences"
    quit
end tell

Here is the script to swap them back:

#
# Script to restore the Command and Option keys to their defaults
# in the System Preferences Keyboard settings.
#

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
    click button "Modifier Keys…" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"

    # Select keyboard: pop up button
    click pop up button 5 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"
    # The 4th choice there.. my USB Keyboard
    click menu item 4 of menu 1 of pop up button 5 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    # The Option Key pop up
    click pop up button 2 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"
    # Change it to Option, the 3rd choice
    click menu item 3 of menu 1 of pop up button 2 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    # The Command Key pop up
    click pop up button 1 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"
    # Change it to Command, the 4th choice
    click menu item 4 of menu 1 of pop up button 1 of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    click button "OK" of sheet 1 of window "Keyboard"

    end tell
end tell

tell application "System Preferences"
    quit
end tell

To make these scripts easy to access, you can go to Applescript Editor Preferences and check "Show Script menu in menu bar". Then, copy your scripts to your home directory Library/Scripts directory, i.e. /Users/ryan/Library/Scripts

Now you can access them right off the menu bar script menu.


AppleScript: if selection empty, select all

The reason you get an empty selection, i.e. when nothing is selected and set my_selection to (get selection) returns, e.g., insertion point before character 1 of text document 1, the if statement block fails with the

tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "a" using command down

portion of the code because TextWrangler doesn't have focus.

The keystroke command goes to whatever has focus, so before you have System Events keystroke something, activate the target first, e.g.:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    activate
    -- delay 1 -- # Uncomment and or adjust the value of the 'delay' command as/if necessary.
    set my_selection to (get selection)
    set nb_mot to count words of (my_selection)

    if nb_mot < 1 then
        tell application "System Events"
            keystroke "a" using command down
            display dialog "Select all"
...

That said, you can omit the activate command and use the following example AppleScript code:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    set my_selection to selection
    set nb_mot to count words of my_selection

    if nb_mot < 1 then
        set my_selection to characters 1 thru -1 of text document 1
        set nb_new_mot to count words of my_selection
    end if

    set var_1 to (replace "(" using "(" searching in my_selection options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false})
end tell

Note for clarity, I've remove the display dialog and delay commands along with all of System Events code, and other unnecessary code, as the following line of code is all that's necessary if the nb_mot is < 1:

set my_selection to characters 1 thru -1 of text document 1

The Event Log and Result of this example AppleScript code is:

tell application "TextWrangler"
    get selection
        --> insertion point before character 1 of text document 1
    count every word of insertion point before character 1 of text document 1
        --> 0
    get characters 1 thru -1 of text document 1
        --> characters 1 thru 499 of text document 1
    count every word of characters 1 thru 499 of text document 1
        --> 70
    replace "(" using "(" searching in characters 1 thru 499 of text document 1 options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false}
        --> 3
end tell
Result:
3

As you can see it replaces the three ( in:

set var_1 to (replace "(" using "(" searching in my_selection options {search mode:literal, starting at top:false, wrap around:false, backwards:false, case sensitive:false, match words:false, extend selection:false})


In general, it's up to the App to detect and decide not to use cellular data over Wi-Fi data and you are correct, that in absence of a process actively using Wi-Fi - it goes asleep. Even if the app prefers Wi-Fi - there can be a burp where it drops signal or sync with the base station and falls over onto cellular.

You can test an app quite easily by pulling the SIM card and seeing how it behaves as the device goes to sleep. I don't use pandora - but most apps that stream also have a setting to avoid cellular usage if they don't pause the stream when a networking change is detected.


Run everything in Rosetta 2 on Silicon Mac

In Finder, go to /Applications/Utilities/ (or press CMD+Shift+U).

Select "Terminal.app"

Press CMD+I (capital i) for "Get Info"

Check box for "Open using Rosetta"

As shown here:

After that, any process in Terminal will behave as if it is on an Intel Mac. This is the best way to run brew right now, and they have said that there will be a process to move over to ARM when the time comes.
If there are other apps that are compiled for both Apple Silicon and Intel, but you always want to run them under Rosetta, repeat the "Get Info" » "Open in Rosetta" process for each app.


Full screen zoom: follow keyboard focus doesn't work well

I can't help you with Word, etc., but here's how to get it to stop recognizing the Cintiq:

Go to System Preferences.
Open the Displays pane.
Click "Detect Displays."

If the Cintiq is turned off, this should fix it. When you want to re-detect it, simply turn it on and Detect Displays again.

If you want a quick way to access Detect Displays, there's a menu bar icon that can be enabled for Displays tools while you're in the same preference pane: Tick "Show displays in menu bar" and you can have quick access to that as well as a few other relevant things.


How do I configure my Terminal app with bash and iTerm2 with zshell and oh my zsh?

If your default system shell is bash, your Terminal should start with it. You can check it on General tab under Terminal Preferences. Should look like the following:

If bash isn't your default shell, you can change it by typing:

chsh -s /bin/bash

To configure iTerm2 with zsh you have to open Preferences and change the command on General tab on your default profile. You have to enter /bin/zsh or whatever shell you want.

To install oh-my-zsh type the following:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"


Is there a way to completely disable Dock?

This article from Lifehacker.com.au suggests setting the Dock autohide delay to 1000 seconds, like so:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 1000; killall Dock

To restore the default behavior:

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay; killall Dock

The author says he sets the delay to two seconds, so he can still get to the Dock in those rare cases when it's needed.


This is how it worked for me:
1. Render invisible files visible.
2. Then open the bash_profile in your home directory with any text editor and write down whatever you need to, f.ex.:
'export PATH = /this/is/some/complete/path/name:$PATH'
Adding ':$PATH' lets the system search for other pathnames stored somewhere else (so do that only when editing system variables).
':' in general enables you to ad multiple paths.
3. Don't forget to reload the affected files by typing into the bash 'source /filename', for the changes to take effect.

Other problems you might encounter:
When defining multiple variables be aware that it parses in order, so if you use f.ex.
'export PATH = $ANOTHERPATH/some/directory'
make sure to define ANOTHERPATH before defining PATH.

And make sure you really know your OS's file system.


Use the HomePod to turn on TV and Receiver

No.  This cannot be done.

The HomePod does not have an HDMI interface (HomePod Technical Specifications), so consequently, this would be physically impossible to do.

In fact, even Mac's with an HDMI interface don't support the CEC protocol.

Incidentally, if you want to connect your HomePod to your Apple TV, this is possible as a (limited) control and as an external audio device.  The latter is self explanatory, so let's look at the former use case as detailed in this article.

  When you connect your HomePod to an Apple TV, you can control it only
  minimally, such as to pause, resume, and adjust the volume. (You can’t
  even turn off your Apple TV.) For more complex voice commands, you
  must use the Siri Remote.

Emphasis Mine

If you want to send complex commands to your Apple TV, you'll need the remote (at least at this time).


Install BootCamp drivers in Windows 10 to fix bluetooth and keyboard issues

Unless you have one of the very early Intel Macs, the Windows Support Software is suppose to be available to the Windows installer during the installation process. This is so the Windows installer can access any drivers included in the Windows Support Software that are not already part of the installation software provided by Microsoft.
If you have an older Mac and are using the current Windows 10 release, then most likely any required drivers in the Windows Support Software will be already included in the Windows 10 release. In this case, having the Windows Support Software available to the Windows installer during the installation process may not be necessary.
Once Widows is installed, additional software can be installed by executing the Setup.exe application included in Windows Support Software. Afterwards, additional software can be installed through the Apple Software Update application. Windows Update may also provide software.

Your question indicates you downloading the Windows Support Software after installing Windows. You can post a comment, if I am wrong about this.

My best guess would be you used the Boot Camp Assistant on a Mac of a different year and/or model to download the Windows Support Software. This is a common mistake. If you did this, then most likely the wrong Windows Support Software was downloaded.
The other possibility is your Mac Pro is older than the 2013 model. In this case, Apple does not support Windows 10 for your Mac. If this is true, then you should have included this in your question.

The fact that you do not mention running Setup.exe, but instead mention BootCamp.msi, indicates that you did run Setup.exe which terminated early with an error message. The message either states lack of support for Windows 10 or you have the wrong version of Boot Camp.


The project README explains that it is compiled and loaded using make. While you need Xcode's Command Line Tools, it doesn't contain an xcodeproj so you don't open it with Xcode. The instructions require you to download the CLT package, then use make.

Xcode with Command Line Tools is required to compile this module.

xcode-select --install

make
make load to load and disable Turbo Boost (will ask for admin privileges)

 cd /path/to/NoBatteryNoProblem.kext-master
 make
 make load


After the upgrade to El Capitan, Photos crashes

Create a new library, and import all of the other images from the Masters folder. Photos allows you to import images in sub folders, so dragging the masters folder should work.


What is the best iCharger that charges from AA batteries?

I’ve had “decent” experience with this one with an iPhone 3GS.

I’ve brought that one after reading from someone who actually tested it; you can find his little post: Here.

I didn’t test with all those batteries, but I can say that a pack of 4 AA batteries will charge the iPhone from 10-20% to 100%, but the batteries were drained in the process. An expensive idea… but a life saver if you really need it.

  But for long trips away from power
  sources, non-rechargeable lithium AAs
  are by far the best


Even as admin, I cannot edit DefaultFonts.plist for Notes.app. What am I doing wrong?

Several of Apple's bundled applications are protected by SIP (System Integrity Protection). As a result, they cannot be modified, even with root privileges. The -lO flag for ls will show you if a file or folder has restricted status:

ls -lO /Applications/Notes.app/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/DefaultFonts.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  restricted,compressed 538 Aug 20  2018 /Applications/Notes.app/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/DefaultFonts.plist

If you want to proceed, you'll have to disable SIP, make the modifications, and then consider re-enabling SIP. (I strongly recommend not leaving it off, as it provides valuable security for your Mac against malware and other issues like inadvertent destruction of system critical files.)

If you don't like Apple's procedure for disabling SIP, You'll find many webpages explaining how to disable SIP. Here's one.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204899

However, it's possible that altering the app directly may compromise its code-signed status. (Again, a security feature designed to stop apps from running if they've been modified.) You may need to look for another way of changing the font in Notes.


Software update wants to install Command Line Tools. Why? I have no Xcode installed

With macOS it is possible to install the command line tools for Xcode seperately from Xcode.

If you did have Xcode installed, the command line tools would be updated with Xcode updates. As you haven't got Xcode installed, these tools are updated from Software Update alongside macOS updates instead.

Installation of the command line tools is triggered by running one of the included programs from the Terminal or via a third party app. The first time that is done, you're asked if you want to install the command line tools, and then everything in that package will be installed.

This is commonly done when installing for example Homebrew, MacPorts, or similar software. It is also used together with lots of open source and other third party software. The command line tools are not only for developing software, but contain many utilities that are of value generally.


Discrete GPU throttles after rMBP (late 2016) has been on for a while

Our work lab Mac typically run very well for a week to a month between reboots. On high Sierra, since the initial build - we are seeing stability degrade from hours to days instead of weeks.

If you can report your details - tests, scripts, sample files or apps - to Apple, you'll likely get some sort of explanation or learn when it’s fixed. In fairness, this isn’t unusual for beta and for new system chipsets and both of these are in play. Also, most of our apps are absolutely not ready yet and the filesystem is also still being tuned, tweaked and functions rolled out.


How to use new Macbook Air's power adapter with previous generation MacBook Pro?

Apple only produces an adapter to connect the original Magsafe to Macs with Magsafe 2. It doesn't provide one to go the other way around. At the moment I'm unaware of any third party product that does this (and given the lack of third party Magsafe accessories in general, I wouldn't expect one any time soon).


Way to tell where a password dialog is coming from?

In System Preferences you go to Security and Privacy.

Code signing is a component of this.  Choosing Mac App Store and Identified developers requires the use of Code Signing certificate.  If you want to be able to install anything unsigned, you will have to select "Anywhere."  This allows you to install anything, but it allows you to install anything :) See this pic:


MacBook Pro has kernel panic same time every time

This panic signature reminds me of a panic I saw a while back that was caused by Norton AntiVirus, which you have installed. In fact, here is someone on the Norton forum seeing the same thing. It's possible that you have a daily scan in the 5-6pm timeframe which hits this bug.

If you’re not already running the latest version of Norton AntiVirus, update to the latest.
If you are on the latest version and this panic continues to happen, uninstall Norton AntiVirus. Specifically, this means making sure that its four kernel extensions are uninstalled. You can verify via kextstat | grep com.symantec.
If the panic continues after uninstalling Norton, uninstall your other KEXTs (Black Magic, Soundflower, SoundGrabber).
If panics continue, we can start to debug them by adding symbolication to your panic output: Disable SIP, run sudo nvram boot-args="kextsyms=1", reboot, and collect & upload a new panic report.


How do apps installed via Mobile Device Management behave?

Having an MDM doesn't change the permissions and app deletion behavior on iOS so it only facilitates getting a redemption code onto the device.

What really matters is who signed the app. If the app is signed from Apple - then it doesn't matter if it came from iTunes, iCloud restore, MDM or Apple's app store. A user can either delete all apps or no apps based on the iOS profile in force.

Now, for enterprise signed apps (or developer signed apps), you can tie a signing certificate or trust chain to a configuration profile and ensure that apps signed by that cert get deleted when the profile is deleted.

So a user can decide to remove one app or remove all apps or remove the profile. But the user can't remove the profile and have the apps remain.

This is a nice general overview. If you select a particular MDM solution (Casper, AirWatch, Mobile Iron, etc..) or just use iPhone Configuration utility or Apple Configurator - you can re-ask this to nail down your particular deployment scenario and we can dive deeper into what you seek to accomplish.


Force Preview to use freehand mode by default

By default the drawing engine in Preview can't be changed (in El Capitan or earlier) as it's a vector base drawing system. So it will always have some level of smoothing applied to it based on the algorithm Apple is using.

You can however turn off some of the smoothing for documents that store the drawing in vector format like PDF, but this will have a minimal effect at best for most drawings.

If you want to try turning off the vector smoothing under Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Go into the Preview -> Preferences... and choose the third tab PDF.

Un-checkmark Smooth text and line art.

Beyond that there isn't a way to turn off the math that drives the drawing tool in Preview.


How to force iMessage on iPhone to download messages stuck on Apple's servers?

I have no solid reference to back this up, but I have seen it empirically many times over many years & devices.

Once a message has been received & read by your account, no matter what device, other devices will no longer receive that message.

There may be a timeout period - as you can clearly see when you have your phone & Mac next to each other, receiving at the same time. The one that last 'spoke' will be the one on which an incoming message will actually 'ping' & the other will wait about a minute before also pinging...

...But if one is off [& this is the bit about which I have no real information ... how long it needs to have been off & remain off], & the message is received & read on the other, then the first will never receive the message at all.

The same can be seen if your phone is outside reception range & a message is received on the Mac [at home]. You only discover the message when you get back home.

See related: How to tell Messages "I'm not at home"?


How to fix sandbox violations by airportd?

Those sandbox violations aren't ever something that causes a beachball in my experience. They may be logged at the same time, but are coincidence and will happen when the beach ball isn't in progress.

To dig in to the beachball - which app is spinning or are all?
Can you run a sysdiagnose (in activity monitor) on the app?


How do I setup iMessage to correctly deliver to multiple devices?

It's less a bug than getting the people to send you an iMessage to your email and not your phone number.

The database actually has two accounts for you and since they are not merged / unified on the server end, you will end up with two accounts / two endpoints and messages to one are not combined with messages to the other.

iMessage in iOS6 does a much better job of unifying several emails and phone numbers, but in 5.0.1 there is no unity. I still like to have one address for my "caller ID" so that contacts tend to reply to my preferred account.


Can one stream photos to Shared Photostream from Finder on a Mac?

You can use iPhoto to add to a Photostream from your Mac.

I have Aperture using mine so I cannot fully test it with iPhoto without switching it off in Aperture. But is should work the same way by importing the images into iPhoto which also allows you to organise them.

And then using the Share feature to share to iCloud. ( photostream )

The share with iCloud startup dialogue in iPhoto:

You can have multiple iPhoto libraries and open any of them as the Library to use by holding down the option/alt   ⌥  key when Launching iPhoto.

You should get a dialogue similar to this:

This means you should be able to import a SD card to it's own Library
Although it maybe easier to just organise within iPhoto and a singe Library

When selecting an image in Finder. The Share contextual menu does not offer up iCloud. So it looks like no with Finder at the moment


How do you convert video within 10.7 without any 3rd party software

Yes it's possible, just right click on the video file within finder and choose the encode selected video files.


Add and remove multiple tags at once from a file or a folder

Here's two commands that lets you copy tags from one file to another.

xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags \
"$(xattr -px com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags /path/to/original)" /path/to/copy
xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo \
"$(xattr -px com.apple.FinderInfo /path/to/original)" /path/to/copy

You can iterate through various files to copy the tags to multiple destinations. For applying the above to various files based on the results of a find command (which lets you automatically iterate through results of various searches), see my answer here:

How to tag files (with Finder tags) using parts of a file name?

Here is a small bash script using the previously mentioned commands. You can use it, for example, in Automator.

#!/bin/bash
# copy Tags from 1 file folder to the next

TAGS_FROM="$1"
TAGS_TO="$2"

if [[ -e "$TAGS_FROM" ]] && [[ -e "$TAGS_TO" ]]; then
  xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags "$(xattr -px com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags "$TAGS_FROM")" "$TAGS_TO"
  xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo "$(xattr -px com.apple.FinderInfo "$TAGS_FROM")" "$TAGS_TO"
else
  echo "Unexpected input, usage:"
  echo "$(basename "$0") /path/to/original /path/to/copy"
  exit 1
fi

Here is an example of an automator/apple-script (still using the bash commandline...). First set some attributes for this automator.app, then drag a file onto the app. The file will then copy the attributes from the automator.app to itself. I am no Applescripter, so improvement is always welcome.


Can the Airport Express base station be extended?

Looks like the answer is Yes.

From Apple Forums:

  The AirPort Express can only "extend" a wireless signal....using
  wireless only....from another AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule, or
  AirPort Express.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4650868?start=0&tstart=0


How to change part of file Quick Look previews?

You're on the right path with qlmanage.  Unfortunately, using qlmanage is the last step in assigning a Quick Look generator to your file type.  You first have to obtain the generator, or write it from scratch.
So, to quickly answer both of your questions... yes, you can change what QL displays and yes, you can do it for a single file type.
To see what generators are associated with what file types, use the -m flag.  Here's a sample of the output
% qlmanage -m

  com.apple.iwork.pages.pages-tef -> /System/Library/QuickLook/iWork.qlgenerator (209)
  com.microsoft.powerpoint.ppt -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (40)
  public.comma-separated-values-text -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (40)
  com.apple.ical.ics.todo -> /System/Library/QuickLook/iCal.qlgenerator (906.3)
  com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript -> /System/Library/QuickLook/EPS.qlgenerator (906.3)

Within each of those directories is code, very similar to a macOS Application,  that  generates a QL preview; so you can, in fact, create a preview to your specifications.
As for how to create that code, see the Introduction to Quick Look Programming Guide to get started.  The code is written in ANSI-C or Objective-C.


Attempting to share a video in iMovie '13 results in error -50

That error isn't the most helpful, but you can do several things to rule out some easy problems:

Export onto a different drive - plug in an external with at least 10 GB of space assuming your movie isn't more than 20 minutes long.
Change the size and try re-exporting to your disk.
Open the console app and search All Messages for iMovie errors and post them if they are not clear to you on next steps.


Where to insert a custom item in /etc/hosts file?

You can add it anywhere you want in the body of the file.

Additionally the following works also:

127.0.0.1   localhost website.dev website.org

and for me even this works (but I don't think it's recommended):

127.0.0.1   localhost, website.dev, website.org

For the sake of a better overview I prefer:

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.0.1   website.dev
127.0.0.1   website.org
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
...IPv6 stuff...


I suggest you try Karabiner Elements where you can do what you want (but I don't know HOW fast).
You'd have to import a VERY simple "Complex Modification" to press two key presses in a row.
Something like this:

{"title": "Make single letter click twice FAST …",
 "rules": [
        { "description": "Press 'x' twice.",
         "manipulators": [
           "conditions":[{"bundle_identifiers": [ "^com.game.name" ],
                                        "type": "frontmost_application_if" }
                         ],
                 "from": { "key_code": "x",
                          "modifiers": { "optional": ["any"] }
                         },
                   "to": [
                          { "key_code": "x" }, { "key_code": "x" } ],
                 "type": "basic"
} ] } ] }

Karabiner comes with "EventViewer" which will tell you in its tab "frontmost application" what name it expects (keep "^" !).
(HERE is an example which explains the importing into K-Elements.)


How to type monospaced numbers using system font in macOS?

The standard way to do this would be Format > Font > Show Fonts, click on the gear wheel at top left, then on Typography, then select the right variation for numbers.


How to Log In to Flickr in iOS 7 with a Google Account

The work-around solution I've found for this does not require "starting fresh", though it does involve some degree of "new" account creation. You must create a new user@yahoo.com email address linked to your existing account using the method below:

Visit yahoo.com
Click the "Sign In" option at the top right
Choose the "Google" option to sign in with a Google account
In the pop-up window that follows, log in with your Google/Gmail account
Click on "Mail" in the top right
Follow the prompts to create a new yahoo account, using a new/available user@yahoo.com email address
Once this process is complete (was a bit "buggy" for me when creating, asking for password re-prompts then giving errors, but still did actually work), you should be able to use the username (e.g. the "MyUserName" from MyUserName@yahoo.com) and password you chose to log in to Flickr; I recommend visiting flickr.com and using these yahoo credentials to ensure your content is present as expected
If all of the above was successful, you should be able to connect iOS 7 to Flickr via Settings > Flickr by logging in with your yahoo ID and password


How do I fix this sudo permission issue - UID 503, should be 0 - El Capitan

Try to repair your sudoers file from Recovery Mode:

Boot to Recovery Mode by pressing cmdR while booting.
Open Terminal from the menubar -> Utilities
Enter cd "/Volumes/main_volume_name/private/etc". Replace main_volume_name by the real main volume's name (check diskutil list), keep any spaces and upper/lower case characters as they are. If you use quotation marks like in the command here you don't have to escape spaces with a \
Enter chmod 440 sudoers
Enter chown root:wheel sudoers
Check the file with cat sudoers. The default sudoers file should look like this:

## sudoers file.
##
## This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
## Failure to use 'visudo' may result in syntax or file permission errors
## that prevent sudo from running.
##
## See the sudoers man page for the details on how to write a sudoers file.
##

##
## Host alias specification
##
## Groups of machines. These may include host names (optionally with wildcards),
## IP addresses, network numbers or netgroups.
# Host_Alias    WEBSERVERS = www1, www2, www3

##
## User alias specification
##
## Groups of users.  These may consist of user names, uids, Unix groups,
## or netgroups.
# User_Alias    ADMINS = millert, dowdy, mikef

##
## Cmnd alias specification
##
## Groups of commands.  Often used to group related commands together.
# Cmnd_Alias    PROCESSES = /usr/bin/nice, /bin/kill, /usr/bin/renice, \
#               /usr/bin/pkill, /usr/bin/top

##
## Defaults specification
##

Defaults    env_reset
Defaults    env_keep += "BLOCKSIZE"
Defaults    env_keep += "COLORFGBG COLORTERM"
Defaults    env_keep += "__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING"
Defaults    env_keep += "CHARSET LANG LANGUAGE LC_ALL LC_COLLATE LC_CTYPE"
Defaults    env_keep += "LC_MESSAGES LC_MONETARY LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME"
Defaults    env_keep += "LINES COLUMNS"
Defaults    env_keep += "LSCOLORS"
Defaults    env_keep += "SSH_AUTH_SOCK"
Defaults    env_keep += "TZ"
Defaults    env_keep += "DISPLAY XAUTHORIZATION XAUTHORITY"
Defaults    env_keep += "EDITOR VISUAL"
Defaults    env_keep += "HOME MAIL"

Defaults    lecture_file = "/etc/sudo_lecture"

##
## Runas alias specification
##

##
## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Same thing without a password
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group sudo to execute any command
# %sudo ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow any user to run sudo if they know the password
## of the user they are running the command as (root by default).
# Defaults targetpw  # Ask for the password of the target user
# ALL ALL=(ALL) ALL  # WARNING: only use this together with 'Defaults targetpw'

## Read drop-in files from /private/etc/sudoers.d
## (the '#' here does not indicate a comment)
#includedir /private/etc/sudoers.d

Since your sudoers file is very small (67 bytes) you are probably missing some or all content. You may have to add/replace at least the lines without a prepending "#":

Defaults    env_reset
Defaults    env_keep += "BLOCKSIZE"
Defaults    env_keep += "COLORFGBG COLORTERM"
Defaults    env_keep += "__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING"
Defaults    env_keep += "CHARSET LANG LANGUAGE LC_ALL LC_COLLATE LC_CTYPE"
Defaults    env_keep += "LC_MESSAGES LC_MONETARY LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME"
Defaults    env_keep += "LINES COLUMNS"
Defaults    env_keep += "LSCOLORS"
Defaults    env_keep += "SSH_AUTH_SOCK"
Defaults    env_keep += "TZ"
Defaults    env_keep += "DISPLAY XAUTHORIZATION XAUTHORITY"
Defaults    env_keep += "EDITOR VISUAL"
Defaults    env_keep += "HOME MAIL"

Defaults    lecture_file = "/etc/sudo_lecture"

and

root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

with:

/Volumes/main_volume_name/usr/bin/nano /Volumes/main_volume_name/private/etc/sudoers

The file should finally contain at least the following content:

Defaults    env_reset
Defaults    env_keep += "BLOCKSIZE"
Defaults    env_keep += "COLORFGBG COLORTERM"
Defaults    env_keep += "__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING"
Defaults    env_keep += "CHARSET LANG LANGUAGE LC_ALL LC_COLLATE LC_CTYPE"
Defaults    env_keep += "LC_MESSAGES LC_MONETARY LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME"
Defaults    env_keep += "LINES COLUMNS"
Defaults    env_keep += "LSCOLORS"
Defaults    env_keep += "SSH_AUTH_SOCK"
Defaults    env_keep += "TZ"
Defaults    env_keep += "DISPLAY XAUTHORIZATION XAUTHORITY"
Defaults    env_keep += "EDITOR VISUAL"
Defaults    env_keep += "HOME MAIL"

Defaults    lecture_file = "/etc/sudo_lecture"

root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

The file requires a trailing empty line! (Please don't simply copy the above because the last line here doesn't contain a new line but a zero-width space)
Boot to your main volume and log-in as an admin
Enter sudo xattr -c /etc/sudoers to remove the (false) attributes.
Restore the complete sudoers file with sudo visudo /etc/sudoers by editing in the above default sudoers' content
Finally the file info should reveal the following:

host:~ adminuser$ ls -laO /etc/sudoers
-r--r-----  1 root  wheel  compressed 2299 31 Jul  2015 /etc/sudoers

It hasn't to be compressed though and the date will obviously be different.


Suggestd Crash due to SGSqliteDatabaseError

Try to unload the daemon:

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.suggestd.plist


How many times can really I share a purchased app with other people

The limits are only enforced on the authorization level. The license terms of the app store are very confusing to me (I have to read them many times and I never know if I'm remembering some past wording or what it really says today). It also has all the various stores - each with different terms for rentals, movies, music, subscriptions, Mac Apps, iOS apps, business use and personal use.

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html

One computer that is authorized to download apps can sync over USB to hundreds of devices. I have never heard of a hard limit to the max number of devices per computer.  Via USB, you can share any or all your apps with countless people. This is called out in the current license terms as follows:

  (i) You may download and sync an App Store Product for personal,
  noncommercial use on any iOS Device you own or control.

If you sync in manual mode, you have to designate this account as the "primary" account. That's it

There are further restrictions when you want transfer that app to another computer or update the app. You don't have to register the iOS device containing your app unless you want to update over the air ( OTA ) from the app store instead of from the computer you control.

Each device is said to have a 5 account limit ( according to the license wording - i've never tested it to see this happen in practice)

Your Apple ID likely has a 10 device limit - 5 of which can be computers. This limits your ability to share your Apple ID. ( but not the apps themselves )

I haven't poured over the store license so keep in mind that you might have more technical capability to share than your license permits. I am also not a lawyer - so I don't know if two people can be considered to "own or control" the same device. Just like you can drive without a license - you can operate software without a license. Be nice and know what you are getting in to.


What happens if I buy a paid game while it's free?

When it's available for free and you buy it you get it for free.
It's impossible to charge you afterwards because when you decide to download it because it's free. You don’t get refunds if the price goes down or charged if it goes up.
Many apps become free over time, and that's one of the ways how I save a lot of money.
So in short, free = free (watch out for in-app purchases though, they are never free!)
To give you a better detail about updating apps:

It's free if they update the same app, not if they decide to put a complete new application in the AppStore.


Licensing around running VMWare ESX on a mac mini hosting multiple OS X guests

The OS X EULA does allow for OS X to be virtualized on Apple hardware as both host and guest.  This is why (as you note) VMware Workstation does not support OS X virtualization, but Fusion, ESXi, and vSphere do.  All versions of VMware's apps check to ensure that you are running on Apple hardware and you are running a supported OS (as not all versions of OS X allow virtualization).

Apple doesn't make it easy to purchase a Volume License.  You either need to buy it directly from Apple (it's not on their website, you have to call them) or through a third-party reseller.

You are completely correct that the EULAs are unclear about the question of running 3+ OS X VMs on a single OS X host.  This is a legal question, and not a technical one.  For that matter, so is the limitation about which versions of OS X can be virtualized (ex: 10.6 virtualization requires the Server edition, and all VMware applications block you from virtualizing the Standard edition).  If the EULA were clear that you could not virtualize 3+ OS X VMs, or if Apple had said anything to VMware about it, VMware could limit you to 2 OS X guests per OS X host.

If virtualizing OS X is your goal, you should talk with someone who is in Apple Enterprise Sales about what you want to do.  EULA questions really can't be answered in any meaningful way by anyone else.


How to change which Aiport Express a MBP is connected to?

There are multiple ways to change which access point you connect to.

Using the GUI

Open network in your system preference
use the Join other networks and find the airport Express in your WiFi choices
check the Automatically join this network.
click on Advanced and move that access point to the top of your list.

If for some reason this does not work then use the Terminal

There are 2 or more ways to select the network using Terminal.

There is the ifconfig command line, which is in depth network setting, I would not use that one right now.

the other is Networksetup command line which is replacement for the GUI method mentioned above.

You would use the output from the airport command and the networksetup utility to adjust properties such as connecting to a new Wi-Fi network.

First, scan for networks with the "airport -s" option (you can skip this if you know your SSID you want to use.

and then use the SSID of the listed networks with the

networksetup -setairportnetwork <device name> <network> [password] command.

 should be the "en0" which is your WiFi

or

networksetup -switchtolocation "location name"


Is it possible to close windows from App Exposé

Since you can't close the windows thru Mission Control you can just use the Finder to close the windows.  The Finder windows that are open can be easily closed by clicking on the finder in the dock. That will bring all Finder windows to the front, one after another. Then all you have to do is click on the red dot in the left upper corner of each window.


iTunes splitting albums containing songs from multiple different artists

This may help.  Select the affected songs and invoke “Get Info” (Cmd-I, I think). On the resulting panel, click the “This album is a compilation” box (something like that). Close the info panel and hopefully you’ll be in business.


Running perl shell script from AppleScript on Mojave

The issue is that you need to quote file paths for unix, using the quoted form of command in AppleScript.  In other words, line three should read:

set theFolder to quoted form of (POSIX path of myFolder)

The problem happens because Mac variables can legally contain special characters — like spaces and single quotes — that the unix system uses. So, if you were to choose a folder named "My Test Folder", AppleScript would return its posix path as /Users/username/My Test Folder, but the command line invoked by do shell script would read that as three separate arguments, not one single file path. The quoted form of command quotes and escapes any unix special characters in the line of text so that they are not interpreted as special characters by the shell.


Mac Pro (2018) Boot/Update/Shutdown Issues (Blackscreen and "macOs coud not be installed on your computer"

Possibly a Combo Update could remedy the situation, as your Mac seems to not like the update, or it could be lying to itself about having which prerequisites are required, or more likely, the package appears to be either unsigned or un-executable.

The Combo Update for macOS 10.13.4 is available from Apple at This Link


If you are lucky you have more than 1 backup file on your hard disk if you are doing the manual backup. Go to ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and move the most recent backup (the one that you don't want to restore) temporarily to another location and then try to restore the backup in iTunes again.


Disk Partition is disabled for newly format disk

The command below assumes the external drive is still disk3, as shown in the OP's image.

diskutil  partitionDisk  disk3  2  GPT  JHFS+  Seagate1  500G  JHFS+  Seagate2  R

This command will erase the entire contents of the external drive.


How to make the iMac go to sleep after certain amount of time?

The sleep settings have changed due to the new Haswell chips. Because wake-up from sleep is so quick now, and because of the new automatic sleep modes in the CPU, the only thing drawing significant power is the display. Therefore, Apple deemed a sleep setting was only necessary for the display.

Click that last Power Nap checkbox if you want the computer to periodically wake up to do updates and check for mail, etc.


YouTube videos play back at unwatchably fast rate with Safari on the latest Big Sur beta... anyone else?

This is a commonly reported bug that occurs 'sometimes'. Another solution, short of rebooting, is to kill the coreaudiod process.
You can do this in Activity Monitor, or in the Terminal with sudo killall coreaudiod
https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/29/macos-fast-video-playback-bug-fix-coreaudiod-video/


Does unsupported RAM effect display cards?

Yes. Apple uses some of your RAM as VRAM as explained in this answer.

So using unsupported RAM can affect your integrated video card.  Try switching back to the stock modules that came with the device and see if you can still replicate your problem.


Deleting Photos, what iCloud saves and how to access things from iCloud and device storage issues

Your question is probably about 5 ones about how things work, so I'll address the elephant in the room.

You need to decide how you want your photos to be stored.

Where do you archive them for long term storage?
How many can you afford to lose?
When and how will you clean up all the photos that come from dozens of places so that your long term albums don't have hundreds of internet cat meme pictures and screen shots from iOS?

I would recommend sitting down with a nice cup of tea or coffee and a large piece of paper and just list out what devices you want to take pictures from, what the master collection looks like, and how you'll manage things coming in to and out of that master collection.

Once you've done that, you can look at iCloud through a web browser - https://www.icloud.com/#photos and get a good picture of how close that "master collection" is to your ideal collection.

Then look at your Storage Settings - https://www.icloud.com/#settings

If you are running short, pay a little $$ for one month to buy yourself time and space to get everything safely into iCloud.

Then you can decide if you have a computer to hold things and want to make use of the free iCloud photo stream to get all your photos onto that computer or if you want another solution (google has one, dropbox has one, yahoo/flickr has one, many custom services exist for amateurs and pros to store photo libraries online).

Best of luck. The site will be here for you to ask more narrow questions once you have decided how to steer your ship. It's hard for us to advise you on broad plans - but once you make the broad plans - we can help you navigate certain bends in the river or certain customs officials that are prickly to get your on your way to happy photo management.


How can I control sound from different applications?

There's a nice open source app, BackgroundMusic, that provides for per app volume control in OSX10.10+:


Can I use 4k Dell P2715Q monitor with Thunderbolt 27" on the Retina MacBook Pro 13" (late 2013)?

According to Apple, the 2011 and later MacBook Pro's can support up to two Thunderbolt Displays (2560x1440)

The Late 2013 MacBook Pro will support two external displays with a resolution of 2560x1600.

A 4K resolution is 3840x2160.

So, your MacBook will be able to drive both monitors, the Thunderbolt at full capability and the Dell at reduced resolution.  It won't be able to drive any monitor at 4K


Creating an image from a Time Machine backup – "Operation Cancelled"

For some reason, this only works via command line using the hdiutil tool.

First, open Disk Utility, right click the source drive (the Time Machine volume), and choose Unmount. Do not eject it!

Then, open a Terminal window, and enter:

diskutil list

You should be able to locate your volume. For example, in my case, it was listed as follows:

/dev/disk5 (external, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Backup Apollo          +500.0 GB   disk5
                                 Logical Volume on disk4s2
                                 8577521E-D394-45A0-BB7E-26F9E19C1FE7
                                 Unlocked Encrypted

Copy the identifier, /dev/disk5. This is what we want to convert into an image.

Then, run the following command, which will create an encrypted image of the source volume:

hdiutil create /Volumes/Data/Backup.dmg -encryption -stdinpass -srcdevice /dev/disk5

Here, /Volumes/Data/Backup.dmg is the target file. Change it according to your needs.

You need to use sudo to run this command (left out for security reasons), so when you're sure it's correct, run sudo hdiutil create ….

After hitting Enter, you will be asked for an encryption password. This takes a while, but it works:

Elapsed Time:  7h 15m 52.227s
File size: 293424025874 bytes, Checksum: CRC32 $753B4175
Sectors processed: 976562496, 968645649 compressed
Speed: 18.1Mbytes/sec
Savings: 41.3%
created: /Volumes/Data/Backup.dmg

For more options, run man hdiutil.


Gatekeeper refuses validly signed application

An rpath Problem

I was able to solve the issue thanks to some external help.

When opening the Console application, I was seeing this message, which comes from the XProtectService, which is apparently the real reference in terms of GateKeeper

default    11:00:31.445713 +0200    XprotectService    File /Volumes/Steve 2/Steve.app/Contents/MacOS/Steve failed on rPathCmd /Users/example/tmp/buildSteve/QtConcurrent.framework/Versions/5/QtConcurrent

Which means that the issue was actually some bad rpath. The rpath is used to find and load frameworks needed by an application.

I wrote a python script to recursively fix the rpath, and now it works.

The script changes the executable's rpath using Apple's install_name_tool. This is not something user's should ever need to do and is exclusively something for an application's developer to fix before deployment.


One of the new features that arrived in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is the ability to resize a window from any edge.


Firefox and Chrome do not share clipboard - what's wrong?

I've had the same issue ongoing now for about a year I'd say.  The only workaround I've found is to restart the browser(s) which is a hassle.  I'd really like to find a solution for this.  I thought it was my older MacBookPro (6 years old) but I just upgraded to a brand new one and the same problem happens on a daily basis.

I'm using macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6
Chrome version 69.0.3497.100 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Firefox version 62.0 (64-bit)


You might be experiencing an HDD cable failure.  I've had to replace a few of them from 2009-2012 laptops.  They run about $40CAD on Amazon; you'll need your exact model number to find a compatible one.  To find that, hold option, and go to Apple > System Information.  Look for the Model ID, it'll be something like

  MacBookPro11,2

Good luck!


How can I get the "Look Up" option to find results?

The lookup option is finding the selected word in a dictionary. The reason why you got nothing is probably because it can’t find definitions of command words.

To find a definition of a command word your best shot is to google it.


SMS forwarded to email just shows up in SMS again?

The forward button will only forward to SMS.

Alternatively, you can copy the messages and paste them into a new me


Sometimes when Electricity is turned back on by the power company, there is something called the surge.

It is a high Voltage spike, very, very short, and most appliance will survive, but some wont.

Aside of getting new charger, please buy a surge protector to prevent that happening again.

If you want to make sure it is dead, use a Volt meeter and check the chargers output pins.


How do I disable context menu key from Windows Keyboard?

Provided you are not running macOS Sierra (which from a previous question, I know you are). Support for Sierra is promised to come.

Install Karabiner.

Run it and on Change Key tab search for "Application Key" (or navigate to "For PC Users" -> "Change PC Application Key (Menu Key)".

Select the mapping "Application Key to Control_L".

To disable completely you'd have to edit ~Library/Application Support/Karabiner/private.xml (examples). The key code (reference) is PC_APPLICATION, so the following line will add a menu entry:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Disable Windows context key</name>
    <identifier>private.disable_windows_context_key</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::PC_APPLICATION | ModifierFlag::NONE</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

(press "Reload XML" in Karabiner window to apply after editing the file)


Zoomed out on ipad how to set normal view

The accessibility zoom feature can be turned on and off with a double three-finger tap.
To control the zoom level, double three-finger tap and hold the second tap, then move your fingers up and down the screen to zoom in and out respectively. Pan with three finger drag.


Downgrade to older version of app while keeping app data?

If you have the app binary IPA cached and ready to install, yes you can try that by wiping the device, reload the data and only restore the app version you control.

This is not something that’s been easy or even possible for most people without prior setup work in the past few years as iTunes no longer manages local IPA downloads.

ground control might work if you’re already using that
Apple configurator might be able to help if you already use it

In almost all cases, the answer is no. Even if you’re a dedicated IT department, you will need to plan to prevent upgrades until you test things as opposed to have a roll back option.

App upgrade and installation is one way forward by very intentional design. Work with the vendor to fix your issue in the next build or choose to not use the app are the practical choices for the vast majority of cases.


Can ISPs monitor apps that one uses on iOS?

Your ISP would be able to see what servers the app is connecting to, so most likely yes. If you wouldn't like this to be possible, you can use a VPN to reroute your connection through other computers and make it harder to trace.


MBP with Mountain Lion 10.8.3 loses connection to system SSD at random times and freezes

A firmware update for that SSD was released early this year: have you updated?  The release notes mention:

  Resolved a power-up timing issue that could result in a drive hang, resulting in an inability to communicate with the host computer. The hang condition would typically occur during power-up or resume from Sleep or Hibernate. Most often, a new power cycle will clear the condition and allow normal operations to continue.

(Personally I'm using a CT128M4SSD2 and have decided not to update unless I encounter issues.)


Why does Spotlight give a wrong value for `cos(pi/2)`?

It's due to the lack of precision of pi and due to the overall all lack of precision in the built-in system.

pi = 3.1415926536

pi/2 = 1.5707963268

cos(1.5707963268) = -5.103412e-12

FYI =  5.103412e-12 = 0.000000000005103412 ~ 0

About the overall system precision :

3.141592653589793238462643383 = 3.1415926536

In Python we get following :

>>> float("3.141592653589793238462643383")
3.141592653589793

As we can see there is a problem with the precision since it doesn't even match the float representation.


Does it look like a Fake iPhone 6 or original? Specially The accessories. I'm confused with power adapter (rounded Pin)

Unfortunately, there is no way to tell with such low quality images, you would need to be hands on with the device.

Looking at the accessories would not really help as those could be cheap replacements that are fake with a real iPhone.

You need to have a look at the device hands on and download some apps on the App Store and try logging into FaceTime and calling another Apple device.

In case you are considering purchasing this, please make sure the device is not logged into iCloud Find My iPhone, otherwise this could indicate the device is stolen, and in future you won't be able to use the device if you erase it and try to set it up again from scratch.

EDIT: Regarding the actual power adapter it self, this is a European iPhone power adapter but it does look significantly different from what is on Apple's website: https://www.apple.com/support/usbadapter-european/


Some files disappear from an APFS snapshot

The problem lies in the way tmutil works for snapshots, I've created a different question about it.


Replace windows installation on Macbook pro with Ubuntu

First step would be to delete the Windows partition using a program like Disk Utility of GParted (which is often included in the Ubuntu live disk). This will give you some unallocated space that you may be able to expand the MacOS partition to.

After you've increased the size to what you want, you can run the installation of Ubuntu and create a new partition out of the remaining unallocated space. This can usually be done during the installation process.


The solution may be actually easier than you think!

If you get Error erasing disk error number (-69888, 0) A error occurred erasing the disk. message when trying to create a bootable USB, make sure the USB drive is not currently used by the system or your apps (think open Finder windows or current directory in Terminal).


iPhone 4 no longer detects SIM card, how can I fix it?

Take it to the Apple store if there is one near you. Usually they will switch out the phone if still under warranty.


Safari autofill multiple e-mail adresses

It will default to the first email address in the list, so put the one you want to use for autofill first in your address book and it will then use that one.


Is it possible to customise iOS 10's Control Center?

No, it is not possible to modify the functions in Control Center prior to iOS 11.


how to add button to Finder toolbar to call python script with current folder as argument?

See if this works.

Download the Get first Finder Window Path BETA 10.9 automator action from from my blog : my_very_first_automator_action

The action returns the path of the front most finder window. It does not take any input from above actions. The post explains it all :-)

Create a new Application document in Automator and add the Get first Finder Window Path to it. Then just add you Run shell script after it.

Save as Application. And then do the drag and drop.

I would test it with your code but I do not have the python slideshow...

Note from Apple documentation in regard to Third party Actions.

  Installing Actions When your action has been thoroughly debugged and
  tested, build a deployment version of the bundle (using the proper
  optimizations). Then create an installation package for the action (or
  add the action to your application’s installation package). The
  installer should copy the action to /Library/Automator or
  ~/Library/Automator, depending on whether access to the action should
  be system wide or restricted to the installing user.

  Instead of installing your action separately, you can put it inside
  the bundle of your application, especially if the action uses the
  features of that application. When Automator searches for actions to
  display, it looks inside registered applications as well in the
  standard Automator directories. The advantage of packaging your
  actions inside an application is that you don’t need to create a
  separate installation package to install the actions. To install the
  actions, users need only drag the application to a standard location.

  Action bundles should be stored inside the application wrapper at
  Contents/Library/Automator. Thus, if your action is MyAction.action
  and your application is MyApp.app, the path inside the application
  would be:

MyApp.app/Contents/Library/Automator/MyAction.action

  You can either manually copy an action into this location (after
  creating the necessary subdirectories) or you have Xcode copy it using
  a Copy Files build phase. If you copy an action into an application
  bundle but the application is already installed on a system, you must
  get Launch Services to recognize that the application has new content
  to register (that is, the new action) by changing the application’s
  modification date. You can do this by entering the touch command in
  the Terminal application.

sudo touch /Applications/MyApp.app

  Or you can rename the application in Finder to something else, change
  it back to the original name, and then launch the application once.


Mac Calendar does not sync to google - error CalDAVMoveEntityQueueableOperation

It could be something simple as your account settings.

Lets check if your password is missing from the CalDAV account setup.

(iCal->Preferences->Accounts->yours@you.com CalDav->Account Information->password).

Enter your password even it it shows something there just to make sure it is correct one.

then Go Offline then Go Online under the Calendar menu and to synced it up.

Also go to the Google calender settings and make sure sync is enabled.


Removing emojibubbleshooter chrome notification

Game Center(or simply Games)
is an application that comes with any Apple-made device(no need to delete it).
"Games alert"
should be broken up into "games | alert style"
Strings before :
not really a part of this question but: Seems to be some kind of ID string.
Removing the ad
has nothing to do with Games, you have to do it in Chrome settings(somewhere with "notifications" or similar)


What steps are needed to create a new user from the command line?

Here is a shell script I wrote at work to handle this as part of the NetInstall process (creating a local administrator account automatically during imaging process).

#!/bin/sh
. /etc/rc.common
dscl . create /Users/administrator
dscl . create /Users/administrator RealName "Administrator Account"
dscl . create /Users/administrator hint "Password Hint"
dscl . create /Users/administrator picture "/Path/To/Picture.png"
dscl . passwd /Users/administrator thisistheaccountpassword
dscl . create /Users/administrator UniqueID 501
dscl . create /Users/administrator PrimaryGroupID 80
dscl . create /Users/administrator UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . create /Users/administrator NFSHomeDirectory /Users/administrator
cp -R /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj /Users/administrator
chown -R administrator:staff /Users/administrator

Some notes to mention:

I have this saved as an executable ".sh" file.
Since it executes during NetInstall it runs as root, and needs to run as root to work properly. You can also subtract the first two lines, add a "sudo" to the beginning of each subsequent line, and manually run these as individual commands in Terminal.
Modify UniqueID from 501 to a number that you will know is safe on all systems (501 is taken by the first account created on a Mac, generally something higher like 550 will probably be safe, depending on how many users you have on your system).
PrimaryGroupID of 80 creates an Admin user. Change to PrimaryGroupID of 20 to create a Standard user.
I've imaged well over 50 Macs this way with no issues. I use this account to run commands via SSH, to push out patches via ARD and to do local desk-side administration.


Time Machine cannot write to network drive under Mountain Lion

My take from this Apple Discussion thread is that the solution causes Time Machine to create a full new backup rather than adding to the other backups, but previous backups will be kept (not sure of actual behavior). Anyway, here is the posted solution (edited formatting and grammar for readability):

  By default, the WD Sharespace creates a hidden share called WD_Backup
  and a user called wd_backup with a default password of backup.

  Using the example in the blog:

    sudo tmutil setdestination afp://user:pass@host/share

  and assuming the following: (all default settings with the exception of the WD Sharespace Server Name)

    Server Name: TimeMachine

    Volume Name: DataVolume

    User: wd_backup

    Password: backup

  You should execute the following in Terminal:

    sudo tmutil setdestination afp://wd_backup:backup@TimeMachine/WD_Backup

  In addition, you can validate that you are using the correct User and Password details by:

  Launching the Finder and clicking on 'Go' from the menu
  Clicking on 'Connect to Server...'
  Entering: "afp://TimeMachine/WD_Backup" in the Server Address field and clicking 'Connect'

  You'll be prompted to enter the Username and Password to the share; the default username and password are stated above.

  If your machine cannot resolve the Time Machine Server Name, then replace "TimeMachine" with the IP address of your WD Sharespace server; this will mount a drive to the WD_Backup folder, underwhich you will find the .sparsefile that Time Machine uses to store your backup.  All this is covered in the WD Sharespace User Guide on page 46 under the Time Machine configuration section.

Note that the original poster also wrote:

  However, if entering afp://wd_backup:backup@192.168.1.150/WD_Backup
  instead of afp://192.168.1.150/WD_Backup it gets to mount it from
  the Finder window (Command+K). I have tried this while writing this post,
  because as you were so sure that it worked (even though for me the
  "straightforward" solution does not work) I decided to try this last
  thing!   Right now it is backing up everyting, so thank you very much
  for all your help!

Good luck!


Are there apps that enable "sticky" / "magnetic" / "docking" windows?

Divvy was my tool of choice for a while. It works like Zooom/2, so it will not fulfill your needs completely, just as the other suggestions on this question.

Stata 10 used to have 'magnetic' windows but the functionality disappeared, much to my sadness, in Stata 11. This change makes me believe that OS X must be resisting that functionality.

I think that the whole Exposé logic is working against that kind of functionality in the minds of many (but not mine: I am very sympathetic to your problem, I hate messy screens too).


Mophie juice pack is being drained too fast?

I uninstalled the SpacePack software and the battery does not drain quickly/too fast any longer.  However, I don't have access to the 32GB of storage now either.  Moreover, the latest SpacePack application only supports iPhone OS 8 or later [bummer].  Check your: Settings > Battery and notice the SpacePack application slaying your battery usage.


If you don't have Find My iPhone enabled:
On your iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud and tap Sign Out on the bottom. Then just sign back in with your new email address.

If you do:
Go to the link below and use it to reset the password for the old email.

You can manage your Apple ID at appleid.apple.com.


Mac OS install drive not being recognized by computer

You could plug it in, hit "Ignore", open "Disk Utility", and attempt to "Repair" the disk. Otherwise, try to initialize the disk and copy the folder contents.

P.S. Just as a side note, I would recommend using an external hard drive(SSD or HDD) to run OS X, since it would operate a little faster.


How can I use Applescript or any other utility to send a daily text message to my bank?

I found an answer to this via google. This Applescript will send the iMessage:

tell application "Messages"
          send "Text of Message" to buddy "+61mobilenumber" of service "E:*icloud email address*"
end tell

I saved that as an app, then set a recurring iCal event that will open the app at the time I set every day. Voila! Beautiful.


Disabling /usr/bin/svn to use brew installed svn

There is a better and safer way to specify which version of an executable you want your computer to use without having to modify the executables that came pre-installed on your Mac. It's generally not recommended to alter your default system tools in any way.

You can take advantage of the PATH environment variable, which allows you to list several directories that you want your Mac to search in when looking for executables.

In order to use the latest version of svn, or any other tool you installed  in /usr/local/bin with Homebrew (or MacPorts, manually, etc), you want to tell your Mac to first look in /usr/local/bin before it looks in the default /usr/bin. You do that by defining the PATH in your .bash_profile, which is a file that gets loaded automatically every time you open a new Terminal window.

You can write the PATH to your .bash_profile by running this one-liner from the Terminal:

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:~/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

This command takes everything between the single quotes (echo) and adds it (>>) to a file called .bash_profile in your user’s root (or home) directory (~/).

To have these changes take effect, you can either quit and relaunch Terminal, or run this command:

source ~/.bash_profile

If you want to do it all manually, open your .bash_profile with your favorite editor, then add this line to it:

PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:~/bin:$PATH"

and save it. Then quit and relaunch Terminal.


Disabling Photo Stream with Shared Apple ID

If what you are trying to achieve is to give your kids' devices the ability to download apps that you purchased on your device(s), then you probably do not want to log them in to your iCloud account at all. Instead you need to go to the App Store settings, and enter your Apple ID in there, to allow the store to use your ID.

The advantage of this is that you can create each of your offspring an iCloud login of his/her very own, meaning that they can turn on iCloud backup without eating your storage, and to save their own Photo Stream, contacts, et cetera.

Also you can have them appear as different people under Find My Friends.


How do I control which monitor an application will appear on?

On Mac you can configure each app to open on a certain monitor.  They don't adapt to different monitor setups, they go where you configure them.    But there are a bunch of non-obvious steps to do it.

1) In System Preferences -> Mission Control you have to set "Displays have Separate Spaces" to True.  Otherwise, all your monitors are one "space" and application assignments are impossible.

2) You have to have your monitor(s) plugged in.

3) At least one of your monitors has to have two or more Desktops of its own.  If you have one Desktop on each Monitor, that's two or more altogether but it's not enough.  You have to create another Desktop on either monitor, even if you don't intend to use it.  That's the key to unlocking the elusive menus that allow you to configure this.

4) That was easy, wasn't it?   With all that out of the way, start any app, right click on its Dock icon, choose Options and there you will see "Assign To".  As far as I can ascertain the options are:

All - The app will open on the monitor where you started it from, and appear in all desktops on that monitor.
Desktop on Display 1 : The app will always open on Display 1, in whichever Desktop is active.
Desktop on Display 2, 3, etc: you get this.
None: The app will open in the active desktop on the monitor where you started it.   If you unplug monitors, Apps configured for specific monitors will also behave this way.

Now go do that for each app you want to configure.