Why does my gmail sometimes go to "Recovered Messages"?

Have you added and removed your GMail account recently? I see recovered messages mostly after removing an account and re-adding it.
Another solution would be to try clear Mail offline cache.


Install MS Office (home and student edition) on more than one Mac?

According to this Microsoft page you can only install/use Office Home & Student on one computer.


How can I access my scanner directly without going through System Preferences?

The Image Capture application can do this for you. Just connect your printer and launch the application. It comes with OS X.

Image borrowed from: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4505. You can also find instructions there under the heading How to scan.


Can't restore Time Machine backup to Macintosh HD

Since it says you need to reformat, what you need to do is:

Boot into the Recovery Partition
Click "Disk Utility"
Select "Macintosh HD"
Go to the "Erase" tab
Select the format as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"
Choose a security option from the security option section(I would recommend zero-pass since this is still your Mac) NOTE: If you have an SSD, the security options button will be disabled. This is normal
Hit "Erase"
It may take a while or be stuck. Don't worry. Give it time. The progress bars and estimated time on OS X suck
After it is done, close Disk Utility and go to "Reinstall OS X"
Select Macintosh HD and then proceed as if you were setting up a new iMac without your old backup


AppleScript: Press Enter Every X minutes If Terminal is Open and Application Has Been Idle for X Minutes

Why not fix it in the terminal?

I would suggest something like

while true;
  do <whatever your terminal actions is>;
  sleep 60; #sleep 60 seconds
done;

This will go in a continuos loop. When the program exits, it jumps to sleep 60. Which will cause it to sleep for 60 seconds and then jump back to the execution part.

Although this is not specifically what you asked for, this might be an easier way to deal with it.

A bit closer to what you are suggesting:

 for i in {1..52};
   do <your action>;
   sleep 840;
 done


Image Capture doesn't recognize iPhone 4S

If you have a lock screen password/code etc. then you first have to connect your iPhone to the iTunes on your computer. The two will then perform a handshake where you will unlock you phone and say Yes to a notification on your phone asking you whether or not to trust this computer.

As far as I'm aware, the issue that you were having is that Image Capture does not perform this required handshake, so the phone doesn't know to trust this computer until you connect it through iTunes. PS. You should only need to do this once, after that it should work without iTunes, but don't quote me on that.

As to why iExplore worked, I'm just guessing, but they've been known for finding really cool loop holes in iOS for years, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is just another sweet trick they found. Or most likely they just do the an iTunes-like handshake. ;)


Why is my Mac in "Presentation Mode" after a clean reboot?

Hmm. Looks like this was because of my newly connected USB-C Dell U3219. If I disconnect and restart, I'm not in Presentation Mode.

I was on 10.15.3. Since updating to 10.15.4, this is no longer an issue.

Update - this is still happening on 10.15.4. When this happens, the two-finger swipe from the right edge to the middle no longer opens the Notification Center.


Calculate sum of true/false checkbox cells

To calculate the sum of the checkboxes, where checked is 1 and unchecked is 0, use:

=COUNTIF(A, true)

Replace A with the range of cells where the checkboxes are.

You can combine this with ×2 to multiply the answer by 2, then format as currency.


Have you tried updating your device through iTunes, instead of directly on the device? Click "check for updates" on your device's page in iTunes. This method needs less free space than updating through your phone.

As long as your music is still on your computer, or you purchased it through iTunes, then yes, it will be easy to restore you music if you need to delete it.


I'm not sure what you mean. You need to be more specific. If it's that the Mac is tied to an Apple ID, no: only the current installation and user accounts are.
Yes, you'll need one to download the installer unless you get it some other way (someone else downloads it, you use internet recovery, etc.)
Sort of. To my knowledge, you can only do so if you have a Time Machine backup of relevant files from before your upgrade. You'd be able to move most changes back over once you finished the downgrade, but I don't know of any easy way to restore an older version directly from the current one without losing data.


Logic Pro X Keyshortcut settings - can they be saved to iCloud Drive?

The solution is two-fold.

Here's part one.

Launch Logic Pro X.
Go to Logic Pro X -> Key Commands -> Edit
You will now see the Key Commands window. Click on the Options on the top-left corner of the window.
Choose Export Key Commands and save it to the Music/Audio Music Apps/Key Commands -folder.
Quit Logic Pro X.

Here's part two:

Now launch Finder and enter the Music -folder.
Locate the Audio Music Apps -folder.
Select it and Copy it to Clipboard.
Now, while in Finder, press Cmd-Shift-I to enter your iCloud Drive.
Paste the Audio Music Apps -folder there (or wherever on the iCloud Drive you would like to place it.
Wait till the whole folder and all of it's contents have been uploaded to the iCloud Drive.
Open the Terminal.
Navigate to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs (use TAB to autocomplete Mobile\ Documents.)
Type pwd
Now type cd ~/Music
Type open . to open the Music -folder in Finder.
Delete the Audio Music Apps -folder.
Return back to the Terminal.
Type cd ~/Music to make sure you are there (just in case you started improvising and quit Terminal and are now in your home folder (~/)
Now type ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs - but when you type Mobile, press TAB to auto-complete Mobile\ Documents.
That's all, you can close Terminal.
You can now see that an Alias Folder for Audio Music Apps appeared in the Music -folder in Finder.
Launch Logic Pro X.
Go back to Logic Pro X -> Key Commands -> Edit
This time, select Option -> Import Key Commands and pick the keyboard shortcut file.
Verify that your customized keyboard settings have been accurately loaded.

From now on, your EXS24 Sampler settings, Keyboard shortcuts and other settings will be safely saved to iCloud Drive.


Skype with both system and microphone audio in El Capitan

I have just done this - for skype recording and it works:
My settings are almost identical to yours except: -

in skype I have the microphone as my mic - not as the aggregate device.

I have also added my headphones (!) as part of the multi output device. ie headphones + built in + soundflower (2 chan)

I can now record the entire skype video + audio + the mic input from my end using Quicktime screen recording with the mic input set to the aggregate device...

nb - no "flowerbed" used, no "line-in" used


Does iOS 6 turn-by-turn navigation work with satellite images?

No, it doesn't seem to be possible.  If you are in satellite mode, it switches back to "standard" when you start the navigation.  It's a shame, that would be pretty cool.


Printing one Pages-page twice on a physical paper?

While I don't use Pages.app the macOS print dialog box is pretty standard and that option is to be found in most apps.
In Safari (below) when you go to print, you get this when you select "Layout" from the pop-up menu halfway down the dialog:

You merely need to select 2 pages per sheet and will print a single page "two up" as they say. Note that if you have a two (or 3 or 4...) page document it will print page 1 and 2 on the first sheet of paper.


Command Shift Period (show hidden files) stop working

Just updated OS Mojave and it works again)

Now it's - 10.14.6 (18G103), previous was 10.14.1 maybe.


If you don't have the firmware password, you cannot boot into recovery mode, and thus you cannot make distil bypass the protection. Even worse, there's no way to reset a firmware password than going to recovery mode to disable it (which requires the original password), or taking it to the Apple store with the original receipt so they can disable it for you.

If the problem has to be fixed, talk to the IT department and have them fix it for you.


How can I change subtitle color, background or font used by iTunes?

A quick googling of iTunes skin's yields quite a few results on changing the look and feel of iTunes. I don't know personally how to change individual aspects of iTunes though.


command line ps has stopped working correctly after an update

I have 10.6.7 and your

ps -u `whoami` -o pid,rss,command

producing

  PID    RSS COMMAND
  180    696 /sbin/launchd
  185  19108 /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer
  189     32 /usr/sbin/pboard
  .... etc ....

so, the problem is in your system. So, what return this:

ls -l /bin/ps

should this

-r-sr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  134816 12 okt  2010 /bin/ps

if your ps has other permissions, repair with:

sudo chown root /bin/ps
sudo chgrp wheel /bin/ps
sudo chmod 4555 /bin/ps


How can I re-download music I bought onto my iPhone?

If you go to you purchases on iTunes Store you can still download your purchases, no apple Music subscription needed.


On my MacBook air, it has those keys already on the keyboard, F7 fast reverse, F8 play/Pause, F9 fast forward :)

If you don have MacBook Air keyboard, then you can use the

Space bar for Play/Pause


In Dropbox preferences, uncheck Enable Finder Integration


How do I move existing notes from my iCloud to another folder (gmail, etc)?

Your notes are backed up in iCloud. Go to iCloud.com and you should be able to see them all there.
If you are more comfortable storing them in Google, you can:

Enable notes under accounts (under your Google account) on both devices
Cut and paste the actual text in your iCloud notes into new notes within Google on the notes app. You can’t just drag them over unfortunately.


Does AirPlaying content from VPN protected laptop expose content beyond local network?

No, the airplayed content won't leave your local network.

Your VPN only protects traffic that goes through your internet gateway which is usually your modem/router. (In the less common case that it is a split tunneling VPN, even only the traffic to the remote LAN is affected by the VPN.) However, Airplay connects your laptop with your AppleTV within the local network, so it is neither affected by the VPN, nor does it leave your local network.


How do I selectively sync music to my iPhone?

If I were you, I would pay the $25 a year for iTunes Match. Provided you all share a single Apple ID, this will let all of you use it's features.
The one you are interested in is

Turn on iTunes Match (having synced your computer iTunes to Match already)
Make sure "show all music" is on
Go through and download the songs you like onto your device.
Turn off "show all music"

With that you have only the songs you care about, don't need to even see your kids music, and can manage it all from your phone.
i am an iTunes Match power user, and there are dozens of other ways to use it, but that is a whole different question.


How do I increase display by 120% of normal? Using Mac Air, Yosemite OS

Use:

System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Zoom

More details here


There is no way at all to run Rosetta in Yosemite. Rosetta was included in Mac OS X 10.4.4–10.6.8 (Intel) only.

The Apple license agreement doesn't allow customers to run a Snow Leopard client  in a virtual environment.
So the only legal way to use PPC apps with Yosemite is indeed Snow Leopard Server (Apple part number is MC588Z/A internal link (It only works in their store)) in Parallels (10.0 recommended) or VMware Fusion (at least 6.0.5, 7.0 recommended).


This isn't about relative paths. Relative paths work fine.

If what you're trying to do here is create a symlink from Dropbox to BTsync, the problem is that Dropbox already exists. This means the symlink is created inside the Dropbox folder, named BTSync. Delete Dropbox and try again.

If you really meant to create a symlink inside the Dropbox folder, then both these commands work identically.


Put the display to sleep without putting the whole computer to sleep?

You can turn off your iMac (and your macbook) screen without sleeping via the following keyboard shortcut:

 ⌃  +  ⇧  +  ⏏

(Control +SHIFT + EJECT)

Machines like the Air and newer MacBook Pro with no optical drives have the power button in the same place as the eject key and it works similarly for display sleeping shortcuts.


Revive Li-Ion Battery White MacBook (2006)

If a lithium ion battery is drained and left to sit for an extended period of time uncharged, it can go into a "sleep" state that does not enable a recharge by standard charging methods.
I found this info at http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

"Li-ion should never be discharged too low, and there are several safeguards to prevent this from happening. The equipment cuts off when the battery discharges to about 3.0V/cell, stopping the current flow. If the discharge continues to about 2.70V/cell or lower, the battery’s protection circuit puts the battery into a sleep mode. This renders the pack unserviceable and a recharge with most chargers is not possible. To prevent a battery from falling asleep, apply a partial charge before a long storage period."


Using Windows to boot up a hard drive with Mac OS in a virtual window

First, understand that the Mac O/S is licensed only for use on Apple hardware, and as such doing what you want to do is not exactly legal...

Generally speaking it is possible to virtualize the Mac O/S. I, myself, have done this using Virtualbox and an older version of the O/S so I can run some older applications. That said this has been virtualized on Mac O/S, not in Windows like you want.

However it should (YMMV) be possible to take a VM created in Virtualbox on a Mac and copy the files to a PC and run them in Virtualbox on a PC.

However using an installation of Mac O/S on a physical hard drive, I kind of doubt it as PCs have no native way of reading or writing to HFS+ formatted disks. And it is likely that you have to install the O/S within the VM for it to work there.

Also you need special bootloaders and the like to run the Mac O/S on PC hardware. Such is called a Hackintosh and setting up the O/S to do so is a bit of a black art. But plenty of people do it. A bit of searching should pull up relevant links.

There are applications that will let you convert from physical (hard drive) to virtual (VM hard drive file) but I have no experience with that. It might work but depends on your interest in spending the time trying to get it to work.


Mystery computer appearing in the Finder's source list

The message "The server "otseeley-remote" is available on your computer. Access the volumes and files locally" means that what you're seeing in the sidebar is your own computer, not a different machine... why you're seeing it is the real question, and unfortunately I don't have any great answers for you.

More troubleshooting is in order, and if this were shorter I would have posted it as a comment....

There's a very similar question on SuperUser which unfortunetly has no answers... if I were you, I would comment on that question and link to this one. That will bump that question and possibly get an answer to it.

Someone has the exact same issue on MacWorld's forums however they never returned to give any more detail or let us know if the problem was solved...

Do you have an Airport Extreme with a drive attached to it? This person and this person also mentioned seeing the same message with an Airport Extreme device which had an attached USB hard drive.

A lot of people refer to this problem when talking about virtualization software. That was my first thought, but you said you're not using it.

If you turn off your airport card, does the share go away?

If you open the Terminal and type/paste in: ping -c 5 otseeley-remote.local, what do you see?

EDIT: Let's see if this reveals anything. If you use a program like Bonjour Browser, do you see otseely-remote under any of the services? (You can expand all the levels of the tree by option-clicking on the topmost disclosure arrow twice)


Using macport (see the link for download & installation) :

sudo port install libsoup


Fan speed increased after upgrading to SSD

Have a look at Controlling the fan speed in Mac models after an SSD upgrade. Extracted from that article:

  Download the app “smcFanControl“
  Install smcFanControl into your Applications folder
  Open Automator
  Create “New Application”
  Go to Utilities > “Run Shell Script” and delete the word “Cat”
  Copy the following code into the Shell Script:
  /applications/smcfancontrol.app/Contents/resources/smc -k F1Mx -w 1770
  Test the Shell Script by clicking on “Run” and your fan should stop running at full speed
  Save the application to your SSD as “maxfanadjustment”
  Open System Preferences, go to Users & Groups, the tab for Login Items
  Click the “+” to add a new application and navigate to the Automator file you just created and add it.


Why Is the Apple Watch Activity App Distance Incorrect by 500m on a 7km Run?

Apple provide a support article to help improve Activity's accuracy, Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy:

  Bring your iPhone and your Apple Watch.
  Find an open, flat area outside that offers good GPS reception and clear skies.
  Make sure that Location Services is on. To check the setting on your iPhone, tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
  Make sure that Motion Calibration & Distance is on. To check the setting on your iPhone, tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services.
  Hold your iPhone in your hand, or attach it to your body with an armband (preferably) or waistband.
  Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch, and choose Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run.
  Choose your goal, or select Open, and tap Start.
  Walk or run at your normal pace for about 20 minutes.

You may find  Adam C. Engst's Exercising with the Apple Watch: The Hardware insightful. Adam is a serious runner and he too noted the difference in distances measured:

  Accelerometer -- Happily, the Apple Watch does have an accelerometer that enables it to detect your steps, from which it can determine both distance and pace, even if you’re not carrying your iPhone. It calibrates itself when you use it with the iPhone around, and I’m impressed at how accurate it can be. After a few runs, its numbers match quite closely with those collected by my Garmin and with the quarter-mile markings on San Francisco’s Bay Shore Trail, where I was running recently. Unfortunately, accuracy drops significantly if you run uphill (where your stride is shorter) or faster than normal (where it will be longer).


You can't do it with the native messaging system (iMessage only works only with iOS device).

But you can do it with apps like Whatsapp.


A lot of PDF viewers on the iPad allow rotation of PDF files. An example would be GoodReader which is a good app to have anyway if you need offline access to PDFs etc. To open a PDF in GoodReader e.g. from Mail use the "Open with..." button.


Does WhatsApp duplicate files when I share them with different contacts

Only the developer of the iOS client app can answer this. Basically, the answer depends on how the WhatsApp iOS client manage the files locally.

The most reasonable approach would be to avoid duplication by using some kind of mechanism to identify a media file's identify and maintain a single on-disk copy.

While this could be attested to based on empirical evidence, only the actual developer of the app can give an affirmative answer to this.


How can I click on Launchpad and make it to behave like secondary click performed?

If what you want is a clean compact list of applications in your Dock, consider instead adding the /Applications folder to you Dock and setting it to "View as List".


If you use Insert->Object, Word tries to insert the file as an OLE object. This only works if Word knows how to handle the type of file you are inserting. The error message seems to indicate that Word doesn't know this.
What kind of file is it? Do you have an application on your system that can open this file?
Also note that this link will only work on the computer you're working on now. When you transfer the Word document to another computer, the link will break.


How can I get System Information's "Installations" and such to correctly reflect the software I currently have?

The flat files method of saving receipts was ended in 10.5 Leopard.

For Snow Leopard systems and later, the package receipts are stored in a database at /Library/Packages/db, so you'll want to use pkgutil to query and manipulate the receipts inside the database. It's probably a sqlite store, but the man page and all books I've read strongly recommend using pkgutil

 pkgutil --packages #to list the installed packages

And once you've assembled a list of packaged to delete you can pass them into the tool and instruct it to forget those packages.

 pkgutil --forget com.apple.pkg.HP_Chuckwalla

Reading in the pkgutil man page as well as Peachpit Advanced System Administration book should cover any options I forgot to mention.


Can i manage Yosemite 10.10.2 clients with a 10.9.5 server with workgroup manager?

Late answer but I thought it might help. Yes, I believe you can still use WGM to administer / set prefs on Yosemite clients. But you should keep your server version as is. I still have OS X Leopard Server running as OD master and WGM for all my client machines running OS X Yosemite. I also use Profile Manager alongside WGM and it works without problems...


Will closing a MacBook cancel restoration from Time Machine backup?

It will put the MacBook to sleep, which effectively pauses the restore.

Since you're restoring from external media even if the MacBook itself doesn't recover nicely when woken back up you could simply start another restore from the same Time Machine drive.


It depends on what you were doing on the Mac. For instance, if you were doing a lot photo editing the heat build up in that area is normal. This is where the power adapter plugs in and the internal heat-sink is located. The more power processor needed the hotter that area becomes. Not to worry though, the built cooling system in the Mac will take care of the heat buildup.


There are 2 Application folders on your mac. One is located under your home directory and the other is located at the same level as Users. On my machine that is 1 at /Users/myname/Applications and the other at /Applications.  I'd check the other Applications folder for the games you wish to delete.


What does macOS consider "enough space"?

It's based on the available storage space of your device.  iCloud is a syncing system which means it allows you access to your files from all devices signed-in with the same Apple ID.  When you change a file on your Mac, your iPhone will show you that changed file (after the change syncs, of course). You're not changing a copy of a file, you're changing the actual file. So files are kept on your computer and are stored in Apple's Cloud.
This is different than a system like Dropbox in that Dropbox keeps a copy of a file online.  You can have a 64GB iPhone and 1TB in Dropbox space, there's no correlation between the two.
Taking a sidetrack to understand iCloud better, a good explanation is provided by The Mac Observer:

iCloud syncs your data between your Apple devices. If you delete a file in iCloud on one device, it gets deleted on all your other devices. But that means if one device is infected with malware, and your files get messed up, they will be messed up on every iCloud-enabled Apple device.
iCloud Backup is a good start but it’s not a true backup either. This service does back up many things on your device, but it doesn’t back up data that is already in iCloud. Services like Contacts, calendars, Safari bookmarks, Apple Notes, and Messages in iCloud are not included in iCloud Backup. A true backup would back up everything.

So when you ask "At what point will the Mac start offloading things to iCloud?", the answer is that it always offloads some things to iCloud. You can fine-tune your storage needs vs speed in accessing files.
On your Mac when you select "Optimize Storage", it will move things like movies and TV shows that you've already watched from local iTunes storage to iCloud (freeing up some of your drive space).  You also have options to store other items, like email attachments, in iCloud.


Contents of Images Folder in AddressBook - 3 million-plus files and counting, tens of gigabytes

It's possible as you mentioned these files are coming from macOS trying to synchronise your Facebook contacts with your Contacts.

This setting is in System Preferences > Internet Accounts.

As you can see there is an option to include you Facebook contacts in your address book, and additionally the Update Contacts button which tries to match your contacts and update details about them like birthdays and photos.

If this is going wrong for some reason it could create a large amount of files which as you've pointed out while not individually huge would take a very long time to move or delete.

Try turning off this feature, and waiting for the files to finish deleting, it may help to reboot between turning off the feature and removing the files.


MirrorDisplays error every 30 seconds in system.log

I had the same log complaints.
They are the result of macOS detecting the secondary HDMI display and some code quality issue.

Uncheck "System Preference > Display > Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available." After reboot the log output will be gone.


As everyone else has pointed out, check your syntax/spelling.  Here is much more info regarding SIP and csrutil.

Are you sure the recovery volume you used is 10.11?  If you booted from internet recovery, it will bring you to the OS that shipped with your device.

Finally, remember that any status set via csrutil will be erased upon NV clear.  There is really no 'permanent' way to set it.


How can I identify the first occurrence of a repeating event in Calendar

One out-of-the-box method is to drag the event to the desktop, creating a .ics file. When you have a QuickLook of the .ics file by pressing the space bar, a preview of the recurring event will come up with the event's start date in the title bar.
Works with Big Sur.


Select different credit card for work related App store purchase

I just found this on Google searching for the same thing. I wanted to buy a $50 app that I'm using exclusively for work purposes (Things 3), and wanted to use my business card to feed it into Quickbooks and write it off.

Unfortunately, as of today, you're going to have to create a separate Apple ID associated with your business/business credit card. I'm a developer so I basically already had one set up to develop iOS apps with my business card.

Once you do that, on Mac OS, in the App Store app, just hit Store -> Sign Out, and then sign in with your business Apple ID - buy your app - and then switch back.

Apple should make this easier but I bet the number of people buying business related apps that they want to write off is like 1% given the number of people using it for personal purposes.

As far as like, sharing the apps between your accounts - that I'm not sure about. Once I bought this app, it just works, and lives on my Macbook. The family account sounds like a solid option to explore.

Hope that helps you!


Try removing the keys and cleaning under with cotton buds, there are some tutorials on how to do this safely - check your keyboard layout and settings in system preferences too.


What's the name of the iOS / OS X calculator app that has 'variables' functionality?

This sounds like the app Soulver which is available on Mac OS X and iOS.  It allows you to use a mixture of natural language and spreadsheet/calculator functions to perform easily readable equations.


bypass activation lock on i pod touch 5th generation

You can't, you have to contact the previous owner to remove the activation lock.


How to update macOS to latest release of current version?

Download and install the Catalina 10.15.7 Combo Update from Apple.


Should we change the availability date when we resubmit the app in to App Store?

There's no need to manage an availability date and it is separate than the review submission process and only is considered once approval is granted for the app to be sold.

If your date is in the future, it will sit and wait to go on sale when that future data arrives.
If your date is in the past, it will go on sale as soon as approval is processed and the store can update the database.

You might in the future hold your patch until the first review finishes, since you may have put yourself at the end of the queue by resubmitting. If the first review gets rejected, you still need to resubmit and can bundle the fix then. If the first review gets approved, you can then decide on how long it took and whether you push the change you had before releasing or if you want to release with that issue.


WindowServer High CPU using external monitor - Big Sur

If you're using an usb mouse, I've noticed that my gaming mouse causes the WindowServer to use a lot of CPU.
Turning transparency down in accessibility settings has helped quite a bit.
As of Dec 9th, 2020, it looks like it's still happening intermittently with one 4K display and my 2019 Macbook Pro.


Why does my iPhone5 playing songs through my Apple TV times out after three songs?


MacBook Pro Mid 2010 13" freezes/restarts when applying pressure on specific part on the back

I used to repair these computers, but I'm not up-to-date with service options. My answer assumed that the computer hasn't been repaired before.

tl;dr: I suggest visiting an Apple Store or an Apple Service Provider and asking for a new top case, bottom case, and logic board.

It sounds like you're describing two issues:

The MacBook crashes when you press in a certain area.
The MacBook randomly crashes with the "you need to restart your computer" message.

The second issue sounds like a kernel panic. That might be a software issue, but more often than not, it's a logic board hardware issue in these Mid-2010 MacBook Pros. There used to be a quality program (or replacement program) for the logic board's video issues, but it has ended. So, odds are, you're overdue for a replacement logic board. But eight years is pretty good for a computer that has survived falls and third-party modifications.

However, replacing the logic board might not resolve the first issue. It sounds like there is something shorting out the logic board, which causes the computer to restart. The "something" might be a dent in the top case (the top part of the computer containing the keyboard, power button, and trackpad) or the bottom case (the bottom part screwed into the top case) making contact with the board. I've seen cases like this before where the customer kept coming back for the logic board every time, when it was a dented bottom case all along.

In any case, you definitely do need a new logic board if any part of it is damaged. A service technician might be able to offer a more definitive answer. I don't think it's very expensive to get these computers repaired at an Apple Store (it's at least cheaper than a new computer), and I don't think that Apple Stores care very much about third-party modifications.


iPad mini 2 has encountered a problem while installing an update

Your daughter's iPad mini isn't broken, but she will lose everything not stored in iCloud (contacts, documents, likely photos will all be alright).

In order to get the iPad back to normal you'll need to restore it with iTunes on your Mac or PC (it comes with OS X on a Mac, but will need to be downloaded from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ if you don't already have it).

To paraphrase this Apple Support link:

Plug the iPad into your computer by using the Lightning-to-USB cable
included with it.
Open iTunes
Select the iPad in iTunes
Click "Restore" or "Restore from Backup" if you have one
The iPad will need to be set up as if it was just taken out of the box, but it will be running iOS 9.2, the newest update.


Mail replies do not use the receiving address as the reply from address

This may be because a certain account is locked into a particular SMTP server.

Open Mail Preferences by typing Command + , or Mail -> Preferences
Click the Accounts tab.
Click on an account and make sure "Account Information" is selected.
In the "Outgoing Mail Server" section, make sure the "Use only this server" is not checked.
Do this for every account.


Dual boot with Windows 10 on 2011 Macbook Pro with APFS

You probably were suppose to install Windows to BIOS boot, instead of EFI boot. However, if all the hardware is working, there is no harm in EFI booting.

The fact that you do not see Windows label on the Start Menu is another indicator that you probably were suppose to BIOS boot Windows.

I am not sure why you can not properly select Windows from System Preferences. Again, this may be because you are EFI booting Windows. Or, there is something else wrong, but there is not enough information in your question to diagnose the problem. For example, you may have Windows boot files in the EFI/BOOT folder, but not the correct files in the EFI/Microsoft folder on volume labeled EFI in disk0s1.

BTW, you can select to the default operating system to boot from macOS and/or Windows by installing rEFInd on your Mac. This may also require installing an (script) application to select the default in both MacOS and/or Windows.

Adding an Windows Icon and Label to the Startup Manager Menu

Boot to macOS.
Download a collection of icons from the sourceforge web
site Mac icns. Use the Finder application to open the
downloaded file mac-icns.dmg.
Open a Terminal application window and enter the command given below to mount the EFI partition (/dev/disk0s1) containing the Windows boot files.

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

Enter the command below to copy the Windows icon file os_win8.icns to the EFI volume.

cp /Volumes/mac-icns/os_win8.icns /Volumes/EFI/.VolumeIcon.icns

This will add the following Windows icon to the Startup Menu.

  Note: When finished, you can use the Finder application to eject the mac-icns volume.

Use the command shown below to change the label that will be shown below the Windows icon on the Startup Manager menu.

bless --folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT --label "Windows"

Use the Finder application or enter the command below to unmount
the EFI System partition labeled EFI.

diskutil unmount disk0s1


How can I get my iOS app approved and avoid the 30% Apple Store Fees?

Speaking from some experience -- Apple is pretty strict about this requirement, and will not look kindly on attempts to circumvent it.

  Do I just put a login screen on the app and then text below it that says "An account is required to use the app. Visit our website to register”

Apple will probably object to the language "visit our website to register", and may additionally reject your application because it is nonfunctional without an account.

Apple has been known to make some exceptions -- for example, Netflix requires a login and has no in-app signup. This is likely to be a special case, though; it's unlikely that you'll be able to have the same rules applied to your app.

  Alternatively, can I put an actual link there as long as it's not to a shopping cart page? Such as "An account is required to use the app. Visit www.example.com to register.”

No. Any link which can be followed to a signup page -- even if it's a circuitous path, e.g. a link to a terms-of-service page which links to a support page which links to your home page which links to a signup page -- may be used as grounds to reject your app.


How can one sort files without knowing their extension?

Don't need to use Python, you can do this on the command-line command: file

eg.

$ file *
Sams.jpg:               JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, aspect ratio, density 72x72, segment length 16, Exif Standard: [TIFF image data, big-endian, direntries=10, manufacturer=Apple, model=iPhone 7, orientation=upper-left, xresolution=150, yresolution=158, resolutionunit=2, software=Photos 1.5, datetime=2016:11:13 14:09:31, GPS-Data], baseline, precision 8, 4032x3024, frames 3

So, you can dump that data out, and sort it for the paths you want.

eg.

alex@smiley:~|⇒  find . -type f -exec file {} \;
./.bash_history: ASCII text
./.bash_login: ASCII text
./.bash_profile: ASCII text
./.bashrc: ASCII text
./.bashrc.bak: ASCII text
./.cache/fontconfig/0f0db7876307790c19e1f91eb9095080-le64.cache-4: data
./.cache/fontconfig/1487dd4aecf3164c4a11193169052443-le64.cache-4: data
./.cache/fontconfig/2d5afd1bf94294700ac1600496f0236c-le64.cache-4: data
./.cache/fontconfig/3f80be19c668e16fc38439c9c84a1bc7-le64.cache-4: data
./.cache/fontconfig/49aa604a5ac92994756d3008e408245c-le64.cache-4: data
./.cache/fontconfig/558352270fb122ca08359d23b5a778d4-le64.cache-4: data

etc.

Filter the output for images, using grep:

From the directory storing your back-ups:

find . -type f -exec file {} \; | grep image

alex@smiley:~|⇒  find . -type f -exec file {} \; | grep image
./.gradle/caches/minecraft/assets/objects/92/92750c5f93c312ba9ab413d546f32190c56d6f1f: PNG image data, 32 x 32, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced
./.gradle/caches/minecraft/assets/objects/bd/bdf48ef6b5d0d23bbb02e17d04865216179f510a: PNG image data, 16 x 16, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced


Weather App where icon shows current temperature and weather on iPhone?

There are two apps, Celsius and Fahrenheit, that I know of that will add badges to their icons to attempt to give you an up-to-date temperature at a glance. I say attempt because the badge approach doesn't support negative numbers so if your temperature dips below zero for either of those two scales you won't know.

But without jailbreaking your phone that's as good as it gets. The App guidelines from Apple don't let third party apps change their icons.


This turned out to be the DVI-cable. For some reason, the DVI-cable works better with my PC than the Mac. I plugged it in via VGA and it works.


Is it safe to use my US iPhone/iPad charger with international plug adapter?

The short answer to your question, "is it safe," you kind of answered yourself.  It depends.

Is it technically possible? Yes. My Apple- (and non-Apple-) branded adapters show a range of 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz. I've used them as-is in the US and Europe without issue. While you should be "just fine," don't just take my word for it. Read the labels on the power supply.

Generally, when the voltage drops, the powered device (or the drawing side of the power supply itself) makes up for the difference by drawing more current. (I've seen this numerous times on 48VDC-powered systems: when the voltage drops much below 44V, circuit breakers trip and/or fuses blow because the current exceeds the rated amounts.) Without a breaker or fuse, that excess current causes elements inside the power supply to heat up beyond tolerances and eventually burn up.  Surges in voltage can overrun the semiconductors as well, with a similar result.

Special shut-off circuitry in some power supplies is supposed to kick in, protecting the adapter and the powered device. Cheaper adapters may not have this kind of protection, or they become the protection for the device by sacrificing themselves.

I would bet that in more developed/commercial areas where the power is more trustworthy, an adapter will be fine. For extended use cases, like a laptop plugged in for a number of hours while in use, especially in sketchy areas, you might want to invest in something that helps smooth out the voltage (surge suppressor, for example) or the transformer/regulator you mentioned.


Is it safe to upgrade iPhone 5C to iOS 9?

The iPhone 5C will run iOS 9 fine, as iOS 9 requires no greater hardware than iOS 8. My inferior iPod Touch 5th gen (comparable to an iPhone 4S, two years older than the 5C) became slow upon upgrading to iOS 8 but didn't get any slower when upgrading to iOS 9.

As always, do a backup before upgrading.


Is there any port of start-stop-daemon for OS X?

You need to look at launchd which uses *.plist setup files in:

/Library/LaunchAgents/, /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

Under /System/Library/LaunchAgents/ and /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ are the ones provided by Mac OS X.

When you e.g. install postgresql form Macports, there will also be installed an org.macports.postgresql93-server.plist file under /Library/LaunchDaemons/ (it is a link to a .plist file which is installed under /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server), but the daemon isn't enabled at install.

The content of this .plist file is (the key <key>Disabled</key><true/> need to be set to false, if you need to enable the daemon):

<?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>Label</key><string>org.macports.postgresql93-server</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/opt/local/bin/daemondo</string>
    <string>--label=postgresql93-server</string>
    <string>--start-cmd</string>
    <string>/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server/postgresql93-server.wrapper</string>
    <string>start</string>
    <string>;</string>
    <string>--stop-cmd</string>
    <string>/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server/postgresql93-server.wrapper</string>
    <string>stop</string>
    <string>;</string>
    <string>--restart-cmd</string>
    <string>/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server/postgresql93-server.wrapper</string>
    <string>restart</string>
    <string>;</string>
    <string>--pid=none</string>
</array>
<key>Debug</key><false/>
<key>Disabled</key><true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key><true/>
</dict>
</plist>


Do Pages, Numbers and Keynote for Mac/iOS offer real-time collaboration on shared documents like Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iCloud do?

Yes, you can use Real Time Colaboration on a computer with at least
iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.


It is possible to do, but I do not see an option for a wired option. Please see EpocCam WiFi Virtual Webcam by Kinoni on the App Store

OR

Connect your iPhone to one a USB port on a Mac, then launch QuickTime. From there, you can click File > New Movie Recording, from there, you will be given a record button with an arrow beside it. Click the arrow, and under "[iPhone Name]" select your iPhone and start recording.

Disclosure: I have no connection with the app whatsoever. It’s just what was found in a quick search.


Which one is faster? iMac 27 with Quad Core i5 2.7GHz or a Macbook Pro 15 with Quad Core i7 2GHz?

They are the same, or the i5 would be infinitesimally faster, which would translate into no real world difference (certainly none above perceptual thresholds).

This article compared the i5 750 (2.66 GHz clockspeed) vs. the i7 860 (2.8 GHz clockspeed). Data shows the i7 inched ahead by an average of a 3% performance improvement on the whole. Make note that this is a lopsided comparison in favour of the i7 (if only marginally). The Macs you list would favour the heavier clockspeed on the i5. The i7 has hyperthreading (hence seeing the 8 cores) but that doesn't do enough to give it a substantial lead.

The article also shows the i5 outperforming the i7 in power consumption, which should be a deciding factor when buying a notebook.

But at the end of the day, you are comparing a notebook with a desktop, so it's a little lopsided. The iMac has a much better video card and a larger screen with a higher resolution. There is much more to a system than the CPU. On a whole, the iMac is a faster (better) machine, but not portable.


Can software cause the home button to stop working on iOS?

Apple has a Support document describing ways to reset/restart an iPhone:

Restarting your device

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider.
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.

Resetting your device
Note: Reset your device only if you are unable to restart it.

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button together for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.


Cannot see or delete photos from "Synced from iTunes Library"

Are you able to turn on photo syncing in iTunes? We could try syncing a photo, and then turning off syncing again to see if it deletes the old synced files.


This is a bug in the rpm port. I have filed bug report 35048 for you. I've also listed a workaround there and described how the maintainer of the port can fix it so the workaround is no longer needed.

The workaround is to install from source:

sudo port -f uninstall rpm
sudo port clean rpm
sudo port -s install rpm


process to reliably connect Mac Wi-Fi to iPhone personal hotspot?

@tubedogg's suggestion fixed my problem: make sure the iPhone has the Settings > Personal Hotspot screen visible when I attempt to connect with the Mac.   I've done that now the last 5 or so times and it's worked every time.


Let Windows 8.1 use 5k pixels of my iMac 5k? (Boot Camp)

Back in 2015 there was a Bootcamp Update that came through Apple Software update (ATI/AMD driver), which enabled full 5k resolution for Windows 8.1.

Sadly Apple pulled this update silently. I only know the version number of that gorgeous driver: 15.201.2001-15005a-295390C

But the only way to get it, is a private person, which did that update and did not delete the installer, usually located in: "C:AMD/".

If I once get that driver back, I will share with everyone! Maybe someone can help?


How to route map between two distinct points?

Drop a pin and add the location to your bookmarks.
Drop another pin and tap the directions button.
Select the first location as the location in your bookmarks and the second location should already be set to the second dropped pin location.


What does iOS Settings → General → Usage indicate?

This is the amount of data the app is storing on the phone, plus the size of the app. If an app isn't saving data, it may be caching data of some kind.

Without getting into code level details, this Storage pane is simply showing the space used by the sandbox (directory) that iOS makes to store each specific app and all the files, temporary files, preference files, caches and other assets as it runs.

Any user of iOS can look into some of the storage for each app using a tool like PhoneView but to truly look at all the files and determine which folders and files make up the 36.5 MB of the Testing_demo app (for instance), you will either need to jailbreak the iOS device and measure the filesystem directly or make use of the profiling tools in Xcode to analyze the writes made by your app.


Installing ghostscript using MacPorts fails

The problem is that macports is trying to use /usr/bin/gnutar, but can't find it. I think this happens because your version of macports was not built for mavericks, and therefore doesn't know where the tools (such as gnutar) actually are. There are different versions of macports 2.2.1, depending on your version of OS X.

You should reinstall macports (for mavericks) from the binary here: https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.2.1-10.9-Mavericks.pkg

you should probably also run xcode-select --install


What's the easiest way to remotely access my own computer?

I was trying for a few days to get ARD to work on a remote computer running macOS Mojave, any other OS was fine just not Mojave. I found a link on the web suggesting it doesn't work as it used to and might require user(s) to open up screen sharing for you. That of course doesn't work when you are supporting many computers remotely.

What I was able to do to fix my problem was to VPN into the remote network, SSH into the computer and modify these 2 plists:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.remotemanagement.plist

and

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

using my computers plists as a reference. Once they were modified I moved them back to the remote computer and then ran a repair on disk permissions. Rebooted the computer remotely and it worked for me. I certainly hope this is a fix (a very unnecessary fix I must say). Give it a go.


Apple Mail shows plain text instead of HTML email

I opened ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist in Xcode and searched for PreferPlainText.  It seems to want either YES or NO as a value.

I set it to NO and saved, then relaunched Mail.app.

HTML (Rich Text) mail is back.


Privacy Pane wont let me add a preference pane to control my computer

This is a known bug in the latest OS X Yosemite. You can’t select or drag prefPane extension file from the Finder window dialog.

When you’re prompted with the same screen, press Command+Shift+G and enter the path to the packaged application at:

~/Library/PreferencePanes/FunctionFlip.prefPane/Contents/Resources/

Check out the gif to see how it works.


When a reseller sells Macs, they are supposed to report the sales data properly back to Apple. If this data is not reported, the "sales date" in Apple's system is the date the reseller bought it, not the date you bought it from them. Apple is requesting your original proof of purchase, which you've provided.

In general, if it is clearly shown that you have attempted to purchase AppleCare within your one-year period you should have no issues getting this registered, even if the date creeps slighly past the one-year mark. A good option as well is to visit a local Apple Store if you have any issues, with any documentation. I have seen store Geniuses and Managers go out of their way to ensure issues like this are resolved appropriately.


Is the Apple Music app for Android like the iTunes store?

No, you can't buy apple movies, books etc except music. There is no way to do that via android device.But you can watch Apple TV on a smart tv.


Macbook Pro early 2012 SSD retire block count

The Block count number you have should not be a problem.
Taking some information from The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
If your SSD has a 20KB block size, that means that there are about about 25,165,824 blocks for a 480GB SDD and thats not including any of the extra storage that some SSD manufactures include. So only haveing 16 bad blocks out all those block does not look like a problem at all, as for a number that would indicate a failing drive, I am not sure what that would be but I can assume that would be the number of extra block the Manufacture provides, once your SSD uses that up, then you start loosing storage capacity.
According to OCZ Product sheet

Vertex 3 2.5” SSD  512GB 480GB VTX3-25SAT3-480G 842024025559

Of Note the 512GB is the Raw Capacity, so it looks like there is 32GB of extra space for block failures, so that works out to about 1,677,721 total extra blocks of storage.
If the drive is causing problems like spinning cursors, slowness or crashes see below for more suggestions.

A possible solution try formatting the SSD 1 more time and try running it with out TRIM enabled or any other 3rd party SSD tools software. See if the drive can work on its own with just a clean install of OS X, with out any weird crashes.

If the drive starts acting up again after the clean install and no 3rd party trim enabler on, it could be that there may be a hardware / software incompatibility between the SATA controller on the Mac and that particular drive. I would try to verify the drive is working OK by placing it in another computer or external hard drive case, etc.
And also try searching around on the web for issues between MacBooks and your particular brand of SSD.

If the drive is acting weird on all testing computers and interfaces, then you would have a confirmed failed drive and would have an evident need of a getting the drive replaced under warranty.

Note: If your having a rough time with the SSD drive it would not be a bad idea contacting OCZ support and explaining to them the issue you are having, they may already have a solution figured out.


Attempting to revert to Mac OS X Mavericks, now can't get out of OS X Utilities!

Restart your Mac to Recovery Mode by pressing cmd R at startup
Launch Terminal from the menubar Utilities->Terminal
Enter the following command at the Terminal prompt:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Press enter
Quit Terminal
Start Disk Utility and enable Show every Partition in the Debug menu
After a few seconds all partitions should be visible
Activate the partition Macintosh HD if it's present and greyed out.
Erasing/formating of Macintosh HD should be possible now.

If this doesn't work quit Disk Utility and according to this site

Start Terminal and enter following command at the Terminal prompt:

diskutil cs list

This will give you a list of the CoreStorage volumes on your system.   Your old FileVault 2-encrypted drive should be the only one listed.
Copy the Logical Volume Group (LVG) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVG should be the first UUID listed and it’s the one you want to delete.
Next, run the following command:

diskutil cs delete lvgUUID #replace lvgUUID here by the UUID you found above

This will delete your CoreStorage volume and reformat it as an unencrypted HFS+ volume.

If it's still impossible to erase Macintosh HD or if it's not present consider the Internet Recovery Mode or a USB Recovery drive and format the whole internal drive.

Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by  pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot to the recovery netboot image which is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.
In the opening window choose Disk Utility and format/partition the internal drive. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table (available with the Options... button). Quit Disk Utility.
Plug in your Time Machine backup drive.
Start Time Machine and recover your old system


It will happily sit and wait for you to install it at your leisure.  Apple even recently started background downloading this onto people's devices without them even requesting it, so that it is there when they want it.  Suffice to say that some people did not appreciate this, especially as it takes up a lot of space just sitting there, which is the only downside of just downloading.


You need to export the images from Machine A to the Finder, then import that to machine B.

There's no other way to do it that won't get edited versions etc.


Download pics not shown in "DCIM" folder to PC

The bar in iTunes counts photos in Photo Stream which are not contained within DCIM. These photos, whilst they might have been taken on the device, can't be obtained over USB.


When you adding APFS container, you should be able to use APFS (Encrypted)

I found that after added, it will be shown as 'APFS (Encrypted)' in Disk Utility.app. In diskutil list, no encryption status is metioned.

I didn't find out how to encrypt / unencrypt an existing APFS volume in Disk Utility.app. Maybe some diskutil command will do it.


Apparently it was a failure of the key, I asked Lacie and they sent me another one.

So if you come across the same issue contact Lacie.


To uninstall all files/packages installed by the shell script simply undo all commands executed in the script logged in with an admin account:

Open System Preferences -> MySQL and stop the service if it's running
Open the folder /Applications and drag SequelPro - if it was installed - to your trash.
Open Terminal and enter sudo rm -R /usr/local/mysql-5.6.26-osx10.8-x86_64 to remove the mysql folder
Enter sudo rm /usr/local/mysql to remove the soft link
Enter cd /Library/LaunchDaemons && ls
Search for the *.mysql.plist (the launch daemon plist of mysql) and remove it with sudo rm com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist.
Remove the my.cnf file with sudo rm /etc/my.cnf
Remove the mysql socket soft link and the superior folder with sudo rm -R /var/mysql
Remove all installed mysql package receipts with sudo pkgutil --forget package-id.
Example: sudo pkgutil --forget com.mysql.launchd The name of the other two packages are com.mysql.mysql and com.mysql.prefpane
Remove the file MySQL.prefPane in /Library/PreferencePanes/
Finally cd to /usr/local/bin and check the existence as well as the creation/modification date of the file pidof. Remove it if both dates match with the installation date of mysql.

Addendum

To remove the MySQL installation from System Info -> Software -> Installations (which is a "cosmetic problem" only) remove the MySQL dict entry:

<dict>
    <key>date</key>
    <date>2015-10-13T15:06:35Z</date>
    <key>displayName</key>
    <string>MySQL 5.6.26-community</string>
    <key>displayVersion</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>packageIdentifiers</key>
    <array>
        <string>com.mysql.mysql</string>
        <string>com.mysql.prefpane</string>
        <string>com.mysql.launchd</string>
    </array>
    <key>processName</key>
    <string>installer</string>
</dict>

by editing the file InstallHistory.plist in /Library/Receipts/ with sudo nano /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist or with TextWrangler.


Modify Bluetooth plist DeviceCache and retain changes?

I found the answer!

Mavericks caches preferences so you need to load your changes into Mavericks' cache.

The key is to do: defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist in terminal after making your changes to the bluetooth.plist and before turning bluetooth back on.

See here: https://github.com/OpenEmu/OpenEmu/issues/1041#issuecomment-39808894 for a full writeup.


Mavericks has an extra security mechanism, Gatekeeper, in System Preferences->Security & Privacy->General you can allow apps downloaded from: Anywhere.


You can do this with Bartender.

This allows you to rearrange and hide menu bar items, including items that Apple prohibit from moving such as Spotlight or Notification Center. It also lets you move items to a secondary bar or to be hidden until a keyboard shortcut is pressed.


How to switch focus to the application that opens the link/file from an email?

I found the solution, albeit it was an answer to a different question.
This fixed another problem I was having wherein I had to click on an application in the dock, twice, to switch to it. This is now fixed. I ran the following commands
defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool YES

then restart the Dock with the command:
killall Dock


How can I right click on a Mac using only the trackpad in a dual-boot environment?

If you have a MacBook Air you can "right-click" by placing two fingers on your trackpad and clicking with one of them. Of course this work when you are using OS X.

You can configure this option (if it isn't already configured) by going to Settings > Trackpad > Secondary click

If you are using Windows with Boot Camp instead, you should install the additional driver provided by Apple. They should allow you to right-click in the same way you do it on OS X.


How to create a shortcut/alias for the "NTFS for Mac" preference?

Mac OSX has two more locations where preference panes can reside:

/Library/PreferencePanes/ - This is where system wide 3rd party panes are installed. (The folder you looked in (/System/Library/PreferencePanes/) is reserved for core OS preference panes.)
~/Library/PreferencePanes/ - This is where user-specific panes are installed.

Search these two locations and if you find the NTFS for Mac preference pane there create a short cut as a link to the file.


MacBook air shuts down abruptly while using directly with a charger, is it because I am not using battery backup?

It's quite likely to be because the battery is not providing power.
The charger's job isn't to power the computer, it's to charge the battery.
This is significant when the computer wants a lot of power for brief periods. The battery is capable of providing this short burst of full power; the charger is not, so the computer crashes.


Neu allows you to do this. It's shareware and is currently priced at $10. There is also a fully functional free demo you can use. You can purchase it from MAS or from within the demo version.
About Neu:

Neu is a simple application that makes it easier to create new documents in the Finder, without you having to open an application first.
It does this by adding "Create Document..." and "Create And Open Document..." menus to various places, including the main menubar, the Dock, and the Services menu that the Finder shows when you right-click on something. You can also trigger Neu from any application using a special key combination.
Neu lets you choose what to make from a list of templates, which are simply existing files. Once you've chosen a template, Neu creates a copy of it, brings the Finder to the front, and selects the new file.
Neu comes with some pre-defined templates, but you can add your own, so you can customise the types of new file available to suit your needs. It can make a blank text file, an empty letter, a shopping list, or anything else that you want. You can have one template, or a hundred - it's up to you.


Can't control monitor volume with keyboard on 2018 Mac mini

I basically had the same issue when connecting my ViewSonic VA2265 monitor to my 2018 Mac mini using a HDMI cable. When selecting the VA2265 from the Sound pane of System Preferences, the volume was set to maximum and could not be adjusted. I can adjust the volume by using the controls on the monitor, but this was not desirable. Below is a screen shot.

The solution I used was to plug a stereo cable between the monitor and the Mac mini External Headphones jack. I then configured the monitor to select this jack for sound input. Below is a screen shot.

The volume can now be controlled from the keyboard.


Do I have to authorize purchased iOS apps to run on iOS devices?

Apple has worked hard to try to avoid the situation you mentioned. It is a major pain to have apps downloaded from different Apple IDs on one iOS device. For example, someone bought an app for me, but used (obviously) their Apple ID. Anytime I wanted to update that app, they had to enter their Apple ID in. That also meant that clicking "Update all" in the app store didn't really work. I finally got frustrated and bought the app myself.

So the short answer to both of your questions is basically yes. You can download it for a friend, but, anytime they update, you must autenticate for that app. Everything else should work normally.

You mentioned iPhone vs. iPad - as I'm sure you're already aware of, note that the app must be compatible for iPhone and iPad for what you mentioned to work.


Is there any Terminal command to find the files installed by a particular App?

Files created by apps are usually in /Library and subfolders likes Application Support, Caches...

The files are not created by a specific user "AppName" but with your user account rights (or root one for some of them). So there is no way to locate App created files, unless if the app correctly named them.

So you can use the find command like that:

$ find /Libray -name "*AppName*"

http://www.techradar.com/how-to/computing/apple/terminal-101-using-the-find-command-1305633

Grep command can work too:

$ ls -la /Library | grep "AppName"


Determine valid iMessage address on a Mac?

If it is not an e-mail address registered for the service, it will turn red.

Additionally, you will get an error message when trying to send the message.


No.  All non-system apps are forced to obey the volume setting and/or the mute switch.  Only Apple's Clock app can produce audible alarms in these cases.


Can I use 45/60/85W MagSafe era MacBook chargers interchangeably?

There is a lot of misinformation in some answers. I will give some facts along with my reasoning.
All MagSafe adapters, when plugged into a mechanically matching receptacle on a MacBook/MacBook Pro, are designed to run safely. This is a given for the systems to receive safety certifications. So no, a 60W adapter won't overheat when connected to a machine that needs an 85W adapter. It will clearly run at full capacity for longer than a higher wattage adapter or even fail to keep up with the energy demands of a machine using more than 60w giving you a flat battery if you run a deficit of energy “while charging”.
The MacBook it's plugged into won't operate in a "brownout". It will operate safely, but the CPU performance will be diminshed. The below explains why.
A MacBook's power management works very simply: it maintains a balance of power between the power consumed by the loads and the power available from the sources. There are two sources of power:

power adapter,
battery as a power source.

There are two loads:

battery charger,
the machine (logic, drives, memory, screen, speakers, USB devices, etc.)

Both loads are adjustable and the power management's function is to adjust them as needed.
The battery as a power source is exclusive of the battery charger: a battery may operate as a power source, or the battery charger may operate, but never both at once.
The power management must maintain the following inequality balanced, in terms of power: (power adapter + battery as a power source) >= (battery charger + the machine). The loads are prioritized: the machine has priority over the battery charger. The power management system also knows the electronic nameplate of the power supply and thus its rated power.
Thus, given an available input power, the machine load is satisfied first, and any leftover power is provided to the battery charger. If there isn't enough power left for the charger, the battery is by definition discharging unless it has no charge left. This is important. Conversely, a fully charged battery will demand a zero charger load, and that's fine.
If there isn't enough power for the machine, the load shedding kicks in and throttles the CPU (and perhaps GPU - I don't recall offhand). The CPU load shedding will, by design, always manage to balance the power. The 60W supply, even if connected to a 17 inch MBP, will satisfy all internal and external loads (USB, FW, drives, screen), except for the CPU and GPU. So the latter will be throttled to maintain the power balance. That's why the performance will be poor with an inadequate power supply.
Since the machine load takes priority and doesn't shed until there's insufficient power available, the battery will be always discharging whenever the supply can't provide sufficient power to cover the machine's needs. This means that with a 60W charger, the battery will charge only during light CPU load. If you have both cores going full-throttle, the battery will be always discharging until it reaches a zero charge state.
The rate at which the battery charges will also depend on the machine load. The battery charger can consume up to ~30W or so. With an 85W adapter, that leaves about 55W for the machine, and it's insufficient to power a full machine load. Since the machine load takes precedence, the power available to the charger will vary depending on the entirety of the machine load: CPU/GPU, drives, USB/FireWire, screen, etc. With a very high machine load, the charger is left with very little power to use, even with an 85W supply, and will take very long to charge the battery. The longest I've seen was 20+ hours with everything going full blast (full CPU+GPU load, all USB and FireWire ports delivering full rated power, all drives spinning, screen at full brightness, speakers blaring).
Finally, the supply's electronic nameplate is stored in the chip residing in the MagSafe jack. If the MagSafe jack is damaged or doesn't have the nameplate chip, the power manager does two things:

Assumes a 60W power supply.

Disables the battery charger.


Transferring files using ssh on terminal

Have you tried, while logged on to Computer A :

scp (Computer B user)@(Computer B address):/Users/(Computer B user)/Desktop/(file_name) ~/Desktop/

It's more explicit than using ~, which may not behave as you might want it to on the remote machine - although it will be fine for local file specifications.


Is it possible for each of my iDevices to have its own iCloud backup?

One iCloud account is the primary account and only that account can use Find My Phone and Backup services, so to have one account with multiple devices implies that that same account also gets the iCloud backups.

However, iCloud doesn't co-mingle a backup from one iPhone 5 and another iPhone 5 (although you may want to choose different names for each to avoid confusion when restoring if you happen to have two of the same device).

Unless you are OK switching up accounts manually to push a backup to an alternate account and then switch right back, there currently isn't a way to do this with stock / unjailbroken iOS.


Connect your iPhone to your computer. Once you open iTunes, you will see a check mark on Sync only checked songs in the main window for the device. This will only sync the songs checked in your library for that device (iPhone) and will delete the ones you don't want.

Make sure that check mark is selected.

In your iTunes music library, deselect the songs you don't want on your iPhone.

For your iPod, you can leave it unchecked and all your songs will sync.

This should solve both problems you are having.


Can Grapher plot periodic functions, other than trigonometric ones?

Yes, indeed it can:

Square wave: try something like y = (-1)^round(x)(but with proper formatting). Something like y = (round(x+0.5) - round(x)) - 0.5 would also work.
Sawtooth wave: try something like y = x mod 1 or, more elaborately, y = 2((x-0.5) mod 1) - 1. However, something like y = x - round(x) would also work. If you don't like any of these, try something like y = x - floor(x).

The triangular wave is left as an exercise to the reader ;-)

Of course, you can also use the truncated Fourier series, but that may be too wiggly for your taste.


What is the real meaning of the "WiFi strength" indictor?

it is just a bug of the icon at manu bar, if logging out and back is not working or even rebooting your mac, try this:

Click the icon- turn wi-fi off- then turn it back on again
Do a reboot
3 Reset the router (unplug it from the mains and leave the capacitors to drain for half an hour or so)
Do an SMC reset which appertains to 'unusual system behaviour' like yours Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
There is some advice on plists here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4149916 but it concerns an aberration post-Mavericks install with regards to the presence of an exclamation mark on the icon. Apple hid the library a couple of upgrades ago so if you want to go this route eventually then hold the alt key down whilst clicking Go on the Finder menu bar.

source: Mac Forums


Any way to see waveform when using Quick Look on an audio file?

Snapper from Audioease has been the best I've found so far.  I have it set to launch at log in so I don't even have to think about it.  It activates the waveform view you're asking for just by clicking once on any audio file.  It also has many other features like format conversion, export, etc.
It's not free but is entirely worth the cost with the time it saves me.


Can I install an IDE (PATA) optical drive in a 2009 Mac Pro?

Short answer:

As long as you have only one optical drive installed in your MacPro, you have a full 5.25" bay either under or above it available to stuff something into. I have a pair of SSDs installed in my lower optical bay.

Shorter answer:

If the IDE-SATA adapter is smaller than the optical drive, I'd pull the chassis and see if it fits.


How to change computer name as it shows up in AirDrop?

You can opt out of AirDrop on a Mac quite easily.

turn off WiFi
Use an OS X Profile to disable sharing via AirDrop (MDM such as OS X server.app's profile manager can do this easily)

Setting the name should be easy to test. Open the sharing preference pane and make one Apple an Orange. Watch that the names change. If not, you've got a caching issue with your network and might want to power off all AppleTV and Airport devices at the same time to get a clean start to that cache. I haven't figured a more elegant way to purge the collective shared cache of bonjour names that works as well as a total outage there.


I was having the same issue. I turned off the "Search Engine Suggestion" and the "Safari Suggestions" in Settings under Safari. Try and see if that works.. It worked for me!!


Are there any native cursive fonts on ios 7+

You can check out Snell Roundhand, source: http://iosfonts.com


How do I restore a Mac to its original macOS version?

FIRST: Please read What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac on Apple's website.

As for your question, it doesn't state what model MacBook you're trying to sell, so it's not clear if Mac OS X El Capitan is the original OS it shipped with.

However, your best bet is to boot into macOS Recovery using the ShiftOption⌘R keyboard shortcut. This keyboard shortcut is designed to install the version of macOS that originally shipped with your Mac.*

To do this:

Fully shut down your Mac
Power up your Mac again but immediately press and hold the ShiftOption⌘R
Keep the keys down until you see either an Apple logo or spinning globe appear on screen (Note: If you have a firmware password set on your system, then let go of the keys when the password prompt appears)
Once the Utilities window appears you'll be in macOS Recovery Mode

Now choose to reinstall macOS and follow the prompts.

* For users of older Mac models this option will install the closest version of macOS still available to the original that shipped with it.


What to do if a distribution certificate is expiring for an app store app

You can renew the certificate by selecting the certificate and clicking Renew. This means you won't have to resubmit the app just to update the certificate.


Is it ever possible for a disk/volume to be mounted anywhere other than in /Volumes?

Sure - use the mount command by hand using a command line shell and terminal application.

Here’s how to mount a SMB share manually.
Here’s how to mount a AFP share manually.

Interrupting a direct attached disk mount is not as easy. (or documented here yet AFAIK)


Cannot mount remote USB drive over network after installing network switch

It fixed itself after 3 days. Seemingly it was a permissions issue that coincided with my adding the switch, but I have no idea how or why it suddenly decided to start mounting normally again.


How do I change the phone number ID on iMessage on iPad?

The only way to register a phone number as a Receiving/Sending id on iMessage, is via an iPhone.

Meaning: you can only register an iMessage phone number as an id if you have access to that phone number and you activate your iMessage account with it on an iPhone.

If you want your iPad to receive your iMessages (sent to your phone number) you have to:

Activate iMessage on your iPhone with your phone number and Apple ID (your carrier might charge you for this process);
[On your iPad] Go to Settings -> Messages -> Enable iMessage.
Then, on Send & Receive make sure the Apple ID is the same as in your iPhone and your Phone Number should be listed.

If you have already activated iMessage on your iPhone, on your iPad under Send & Receive you just have to log in with the same Apple ID as in your iPhone.

I also advise you to set the same id for Start New Conversations From on all your devices.


Why does my iPod Touch show Spotlight differently?

I had this happen when I ran a beta version of iOS (8.0 beta 3 iirc). A reboot sometimes fixed it, but it kept coming back. The next beta fixed it for me.

Try rebooting, and check your accessibility options for greyscale (I have it in the triple-click home button menu, which I guessed was the culprit). Try disabling all accessibility options.

If you really want this gone and the above answers don't work, try a factory restore.


From comments...

Best guess, another 3 years.
No-one really knows, but they tend to keep updating the last 3 versions. They claim 5 years active, 5 years passive support for any device, so another 3 years would exceed that.

MacSales supported OS list would seem to corroborate that - Mac OS Support Guide


Connecting MacBook Pro to multiple monitors, one in portrait (vertical) mode

Yes, simply go into System Preferences->Display.  A new window will pop up on your primary monitors, as well as your external monitors.  The external monitors should have a "Rotation" drop down menu, in which you can select "Standard", "90º", "180º", and "720º".  If you select "90º" and hit "Scaled" under the resolution option, you'll see that the standard width and height are all swapped, and that 1080x1920 will be the default option (but you shouldn't have to set it to scaled. Default for Display is probably the best option).


Find logged on user and network home directory with a bash script

This script:

#!/bin/bash
w -h | sort -u -t' ' -k1,1 | while read user etc
do
  homedir=$(dscl . -read /Users/$user NFSHomeDirectory | cut -d' ' -f2)
  echo =$user= =$homedir=
done

will do the following:

find all users logged in (via ssh too!) w -h or can use the who command too
sort and find unique users sort -u -t' ' -k1,1
for each logged user

read username
find his home directory from the DirectoryService daemon via the command  dscl
print out username and his home directory


If OTA upgrades are stuck, plug into iTunes and testore it there.


How do I get iTunes to play nicer with external tagging applications?

This is what I have done:

I backed up all my files, and then deleted ALL my music from my iTunes Library. I could swear I said "delete from iCloud", but that obviously did not occur. Some of the aforementioned data stuck around, and I didn't lose playlists I was quite concerned I had neglected to back up.

I tagged my files externally, re-imported them into iTunes, and everything began to work fantastically (well, mostly, but the issues are better left for another question).

Fast forward to about two days later, certain songs started exhibiting the same corruption. I again have songs that are tagged as being on disc 1 of 128602 discs (note: completely wrong). iTunes Match is definitely at play here. But I assumed that already.

I've been looking into how other apps interact with iTunes, and stumbled across iTunes integration plugins for MusicBrainz Picard. The tagging app I prefer to use en massé.

I don't know if these plugins are still compatible with Picard, Picard has come a long way (especially as of the 1.0 release last week) since these plugins have been touched; But there is a lot of interesting notes. The author talks explicitly about notifying iTunes that there are changes, something the plugins will apparently do, but also points you BACK TO MusicBrainz, which lists some additional steps you can take to updating iTunes.

I have an AppleScript that will invoke the "refresh selection" suggestions per MusicBrainz, but I have not yet fixed my tags... again. And even after that, I don't know exactly how long it takes for tags to revert and become corrupted again.

This road is still worth investigating further, but it's a hard one. I'm not exactly sure how to dig into the iTunes Scripting Bridges or other internal facets of iTunes itself in order to reliably update tag data from external applications, but that's certainly what should be done. Update it, and tell iTunes you updated it. Especially when an external repository of metadata is at play.


Why do I have a dozen copies of certain preference file in my ~/Library/Preferences folder?

Yes these are temporary file created by the NSUserDefault class when storing new preferences.

First, the temp file is created, then filled with the data and then the temp file replace the older one and gets deleted.

For some reason the were not deleted. You can check but I'm sure .Globalpreferences.plist has a more recent modification date than .GlobalPreferences.plist.jFulwSB. If it's in fact so, you can delete them.


Lost Dropbox context menu entries, file and folder status indicators in Finder after updating to Yosemite

It turns out Dropbox' self-updating wasn't functioning. The program was several versions behind current.

I was able to restore Finder context menus and sync status by going to the Dropbox download page, downloading and re-installing Dropbox. After getting version 2.10.41 the sync status indicators and context menus were returned to the main Finder windows when browsing under my Dropbox folder.

I did not have to uninstall or even stop the currently-running Dropbox service instance. The installer took care of all of that.

The latest Dropbox version that run properly with Yosemite is 2.11. Go to : https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=121399 and click on "offline installer" link for Mac OS X. Don't forget to restart your Mac after installation.


You can delete videos from the Videos app by tapping and holding on the thumbnail, then pressing the red X that appears in the corner (just like deleting apps from your home screen).

To delete audio podcasts, find them in the Music app, swipe your finger across the name of the podcast (or episode) and press the delete button. (The same way you would with emails.)


What is the best way to transfer a large number of files between an iMac and a Macbook Pro?

Aside of using the Target Disk mode, which is sort of rough way, you can use the build in Migration Assistant already located in your Utility folder.

It is designed to transfer information from- to but also to place it in the right position, unlike the Target disk mode.


coreFoundationUnknownErr when creating an application with osacompile from an applescript

I was mistaken about the Applications directory name.

I wrote /Application/Spyder3.app instead of /Applications/Spyder3.app

I'm sorry


Macbook failing to connect to 5GHz networks

Most likely your Airport Card has failed.

On your particular Mac, it uses the BCM94360CS custom SoC (System on Chip) that supports dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth.  The critical part related to your issue is the "dual-band" WiFi; it uses two different radios, not one.  So, it's completely plausible that one radio has failed (5GHz) while the other (2.4GHz) continues to function; this is what you're seeing.

Image from iFixit.com

To verify that it's not a software issue, you should boot into Safe Mode (hold ⇧ Shift) and/or Recovery Mode (⌘ Command R).  If the problem persists, it's a hardware issue.

You'll just need a replacement AirPort adapter which is fairly inexpensive.  It's also a fairly straight forward fix, basically remove the back cover, disconnect the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna, then remove the AirPort card. Replace with the new one and reverse the procedure to reassemble everything.  iFixit.com has an excellent step-by-step guide you can follow.

However, if opening the back of your Mac is not your cup of tea, let a professional handle it for you.


Ultra HD monitor with Macbook pro 13 mid 2014

Ok, it seems like macbook pro 13 mid 2014 theoretically can serve  3840x2160x60hz, but apple won't support it.

There is a tool called SwitchResX, it can help maybe, but it requires System Integrity Protection to be disabled while install. I don't like the idea of disabling system security things in mac os, and i'm not even sure that it would work well.


Not the final answer but a hint in the right direction: I thoroughly recommend DaisyDisk for identifying disk usage. You can drill down by folder to show what you need. Good luck!


The errors shown suggest that you installed curl (v7.48.0 or much older) via homebrew or with another custom installer. The system's own original curl (v7.43.0) is located at /usr/bin/. Additionally it seems that curl is not installed as keg-only. This means that the homebrew curl is soft-linked to /usr/local/.

You may either update and repair brew/curl, modify curl.cfg to reflect proper paths or modify your PATH variable.

Or use the full path to the original curl: /usr/bin/curl


Is any version of OS X/macOS vulnerable to the Year 2038 problem?

All versions before OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" have the year 2038 problem. Most installs of 10.6 and all installs of 10.7 "Lion" fixed the main cause of the problem. It's almost gone, but the year 2038 bug might survive in a few apps.

My old PowerPC Mac runs OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger". I went to Date & Time in System Preferences, and tried to enter a date after 2038, but it reset the date to December 31, 2037. It knows that something's wrong in 2038.

OS X is derived from Unix by way of BSD. Apps for OS X use BSD system calls for things like opening files and connecting to the internet. BSD has a long history and some of its system calls come from the 1980s. One of its system calls is gettimeofday(), which first appeared in 4.1cBSD. UC Berkeley released 4.1cBSD in 1982, more than half a century before 2038. The time from gettimeofday() is an integer of type time_t. It counts seconds, where zero is the Unix epoch of 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.

In my old PowerPC Mac, time_t is a signed 32-bit integer. This causes the year 2038 problem. A signed 32-bit time_t has a range of -2147483648 to 2147483647. This can only hold times from 1901-12-13 20:45:52 UTC to 2038-01-19 03:14:07 UTC. When this overflows, gettimeofday() will flip the date from Monday the 19th of January 2038 to Friday the 13th of December 1901.

The fix is to transition from 32-bit time_t to 64-bit time_t. For OS X, this transition happened along with another transition from 32-bit pointers to 64-bit pointers, but 64-bit pointers require a 64-bit processor. Apple has only provided 64-bit time_t for 64-bit processors. It is possible for 32-bit processors to handle 64-bit time_t, but Apple never provided that feature.

Apple's compilers have supported 64-bit integers on 32-bit processors since OS X 10.0 "Cheetah", when time_t had 32 bits and off_t had 64 bits. In Unix and BSD, off_t is the size of a file, or an entire disk. A 32-bit off_t would limit OS X to disks under 2 GiB. Apple defined off_t as 64 bits, so OS X worked with larger disks. Apple defined time_t as 32 bits in 10.0, so a transition to 64-bit time_t needed to happen later.

For my old PowerPC Mac, the header file <ppc/_types.h> defines __darwin_time_t as long. For Intel Mac, the header <i386/_types.h> does the same. In OS X, long has the same size as a pointer. So when pointers became 64 bits, long also became 64 bits, and time_t also became 64 bits, fixing the main cause of the year 2038 problem.

Apple's 64-Bit Transition Guide says, "Prior to OS X v10.6, all applications that shipped with the operating system were 32-bit applications. Beginning in v10.6, applications that ship with the operating system are generally 64-bit applications." I know from Wikipedia that 10.6 required an Intel processor and 10.7 required a 64-bit Intel processor. A Mac running 10.6 on a 32-bit Intel processor must have had 32-bit apps. I conclude that most Macs running 10.6 and all Macs running 10.7 have 64-bit apps with 64-bit pointers and 64-bit time_t. Apple released 10.7 in 2011, well before January 2038.

With 64-bit time_t, the year 2038 bug is almost gone, but it might survive in a few apps. Old 32-bit apps might still run on newer systems. Also, 64-bit apps might contain coding mistakes or outdated designs, causing them to convert a 64-bit time_t to 32 bits. This is a problem for all systems, not only macOS.

There is also Mach time. The kernel of OS X mixes BSD with Mach. Most apps get the time from BSD using gettimeofday(), but there is a way to go around BSD and get the time from Mach. This is more difficult: the program would call mach_host_self() to get the host port, then host_get_clock_service() to get the CALENDAR_CLOCK, and finally clock_get_time().

In my old Mac running 10.4 "Tiger", <mach/clock_types.h> declares the time as an unsigned int (inside struct mach_timespec). This is an unsigned 32-bit integer, with range from 0 to 4294967295, which is from 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2106-02-07 06:28:15 UTC. This would exchange the year 2038 problem for the year 2106 problem. It can't reach year 29,940.

I suspect that host_get_clock_service() was obsolete since 10.0 "Cheetah", because Apple provided faster ways to get the time. These were BSD's gettimeofday() for calendar time, and Apple's mach_absolute_time() for monotonic time. The preference for gettimeofday() put the problem in 2038, not 2106.


Where can I get formail for OS X El Capitan (10.11)?

It’s included with the procmail formula:

brew update && brew install procmail


How can I get a video *into* the photo/video gallery on an iPad or iPhone?

I'm surprised nobody has answered this correctly.

The solution is to open iTunes, click on your iPhone, go to the Photos tab, then Sync Photos for the folder that contains the photo and video subfolders you want to sync.  Each subfolder will then be sync'ed to your iphone UNDERNEATH the Camera Roll as new Albums, and these are treated seperately than the Camera Roll and will always remain synced.

Furthermore, apps that can access the Camera Roll almost always can also access Synced Albums, so this should really work well for you.  I keep a whole bunch of old photos and videos on my iPhone at all times using this method and it works great.

As a bonus, unlike the Camera Roll, these Synced Albums don't get backed up in iTunes, so it won't slow down your Backup like a growing Camera Roll will.


Reuse Time Machine backup drive after migration to new machine

Apparently with macOS Sierra your new Mac can inherit your old Time Machine disk and likely with High Sierra, too. I recently moved the main drive from a failing 2011 mini to a new-to-me 2012 mini. I was prepared to erase the Time Machine disk and start over, as suggested by the first commenter, but I plugged it in and out of curiosity was looking at its contents in Finder. A dialog message popped up asking if I wanted this computer to inherit the Time Machine backup from my previous computer. It cautioned that if I wanted to do this I could no longer use the backup on the previous computer. Fine with me. My previous backup is now associated with the new computer with no problems.

Apple support doc outlining when and where you can inherit a Time Machine disk: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25698?locale=en_US


2016 MacBook Pro sometimes loose fingerprint on restart

I just got off a call with Apple Tech Support.

They suggested holding the P key with the touch/power button the next time my Mac is frozen. That will bring up options to safe-reboot without losing fingerprints.

I'll have to wait for the next freeze event to verify this.


Location services not working in OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Got around to looking at this again, with some searching on the WWW and the assistance by telephone with a 'senior' apple advisor.

What I found on the WWW was reports of com.apple.geod showing  "not responding" in Activity Monitor.
This process is needed for Location Services, so if it is crashed location services won't work.

Force Quitting the process in Activity Monitor seemed to enable Location Services, but on restarting the Mac com.apple.geod crashed again.

So (on the advice of Apple) I removed com.apple.GEO.plist from MacBook Pro HD▸ Users ▸ username ▸ Library ▸ Preferences
(from hold down option Finder>Go>Library then select Preferences - if you don't hold down option, Library is a hidden folder).
Then I restarted the Mac. This time everything seemed to work. So maybe it is just a corrupt .plist file.
I get the "Location" icon in the menubar now.


What application uses a red cone icon with a notch in it?

That appears to be the icon for Autodesk AutoCAD (see the red icon in the screenshot).

Here is another view.


How can Apple produce new iPhone 6s if iOS9 is not yet ready

Complete speculation - however...
'beginning mass-production' does not necessarily mean building the first complete, packaged device on that day.

Presumably different suppliers will start making circuit-boards, adding components, machining the metalwork, glassware, etc etc.

All this may have a lead time of a week to 2 months.

At some point, all the critical components will come together in one place & assembly can begin.
After assembly, then they are then ready to add an OS.

That might only be happening this week, or maybe not even until next week - & iOS 9 is very likely to be ready by the time that happens.
Traditionally, the GM is released to developers within hours of the Keynote speech - which will be next Tuesday, 9th Sept 2015

It's anyone's guess as to how far in advance of that the manufacturers may get it [if at all], but we have to assume that it is sufficiently ahead of time for that gathering stockpile of completed phones to be initted, packaged & shipped in time for the release date; which will be announced on Tuesday.

They've done this before, we have to assume they're well-practised at being able to hit that date, & that the production line is designed to be run on that method.


How do I forward a meeting request from my iPhone?

There is an app for that.  It is called "Forward My Meeting."


How to understand if a customer mac is retina display?

The only Model that came with the following graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB graphics were the Mid-2010 Macbook Pro's (Non-Retina):

"Core i5" 2.4 15" (Mid-2010)

256 MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
256 MB Intel HD Graphics*

"Core i5" 2.53 15" (Mid-2010)

256 MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
256 MB Intel HD Graphics*

"Core i7" 2.66 15" (Mid-2010)

512 MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
256 MB Intel HD Graphics*

"Core i5" 2.53 17" (Mid-2010)

512 MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
256 MB Intel HD Graphics*

You can check the following link for a complete list: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-unibody-faq/macbook-pro-unibody-video-processor-types-nvidia-dedicated-integrated.html


Can iTunes on Yosemite use ExFAT? On Mavericks I think you can

I have my whole library on exFAT HDD. Just move iTunes folder from ~/Music to somewhere on exFAT hdd, create a symbolic link for iTunes folder and put it back in ~/Music.
But there is an issue. iTunes works a bit slowly than usual and shortly freezes while changing a tracks.


Can I use iPhone earbuds as a microphone on my MacBook?

In short, the microphone won't work as a microphone the way you're trying it, but the earbuds will.

Longer answer...

In order to use the microphone from your iPhone headphones, they must be plugged into the headphones socket. You can see in the images below that the MacBook Pro "Sound" preference pane recognises that they have a microphone and switches the "Built-in Microphone" to the headphones one when they're in the headphones socket.

If you plug the iPhone headphones into the Mic/Line-in socket, it seems to be only set up for a standard stereo 3.5mm jack, and so will use the earbuds (both of them) as microphones — a stereo microphone effectively (though they're not great at picking up sound or well matched to the hardware as microphones, so will require lots of amplification).

Sound preference pane without the headphones plugged in the headphones socket:

Sound preference pane with the headphones plugged in the headphones socket:

Plugging the iPhone headphones into the Mic/Line-in socket shows no change (i.e. looks like the top image) and having tested it, only the earbuds seem to produce any response in the computer (i.e. they're connected but the microphone isn't).


From your question we can assume that you are connecting via WiFi and the WiFi icon on the menu bar is telling you that you are well connected.

The next step is to make sure you are getting a valid IP address. Open System Preferences > Network and click on the WiFi connection on the left. On he right it should now say something like "WiFi is connected to AccessPoint and has the IP address 192.168.1.21". There should also be a little green button next to the WiFi in the left hand pane.

If that is all ok then open "Terminal" and type "ping -c 2 www.google.com" and see if it then types

PING www.google.com (74.125.237.179): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 74.125.237.179: icmp_seq=0 ttl=58 time=27.140 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.237.179: icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=24.797 ms

--- www.google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 24.797/25.968/27.140/1.172 ms

you know the network appears to be working well and the problem might be your browser.


Why does a deleted contact's name continue to show up in Messages?

Unfortunately, this issue is rooted within iOS itself. Your phone automatically caches contacts for messages so that they can quickly be accessed when you're typing in a name or number, rather than querying the contacts app every time.

The only solution I have found to this is a full factory reset.

The reason being that data from the Messages app can only be changed by the phone itself, because of the nature of iOS, therefore the only way to force the phone to overwrite the caching in the messages app is to force the phone to overwrite the data in all of its apps.