How do I prevent icons from being added to the dock?

How can I prevent this icon from showing up in, and getting pinned to the dock in macOS 10.14?

You can't.

Your Mac is under MDM policies and thusly you can't override what those policies are.

The setting "Keep in dock" has no effect on a separate process that checks to see if an item is in a dock and manually putting it back.  Think of it as you, the user, removing an item, then coming back and manually putting the icon back to the dock; that setting would have no effect there either.

  There is an option to disable the dock icon in the utility config, but
  its effects are org-wide and they won't disable it.

This statement confirms this.  The MDM software/process has the ability to insert the dock icon per its configuration, but, as you stated, your IT organization doesn't want to disable it.  The "trick" that you mentioned was probably addressed in a bug fix.


Automatically update multiple file names?

There are a number of ways you could do this. Below I explain two possibilities.

Do this natively within the Finder

You don't specify what version of macOS you're running. But a feature that was first introduced in Mac OS X Yosemite will do exactly what you need. To use this feature you would use the following basic steps:

Copy the folder named "41777 Co. Name – (Business Cards)" and rename it to "52888 Co. Name – (Business Cards)"
Open the "52888 Co. Name – (Business Cards)" folder
Select all five files within the folder
Right-click on the files
Select the Rename 5 items... option from the context menu that appears (obviously, the '5' will be whatever number of files you selected at Step 3)
Select the Replace Text option from the drop-down menu in the window that appears
In the Find field, enter 41777
In the Replace field enter 52888
Click on Rename

Note: You may want to also check out the Add Text and Format options to explore the other possibilities.

A Better Finder Rename

If you're looking for much more advanced options, or are still using an older version of macOS, then A Better Finder Rename is an option worthy of consideration.

This software provides a huge range of renaming options - too many to cover here - but it's been a well supported package for at least ten years now. You can also download a free trial (assuming you have Mac OS X Lion or above).

Other native options

Mac OS also provides AppleScript, Automator and Terminal, all of which could be used to batch rename files in the manner you want. Since it's most likely that you'll be able to use the Finder option, and because using AppleScript, Automator and/or Terminal is a bit more involved, I won't go into any detail here.

However, should you wish to have more info on these options instead, let me know and I'll update my answer.


How to deter full screen mode moving window to a new display?

If you hold the 'option/alt' key the green button functionality will be changed to fullscreen.


Apple Mail on iOS 10 loses email message when you switch apps?

This is the same behavior I experience following your directions. In addition, the email is not saved as a draft, which would be the expected behavior. Perhaps Apple expects you to start and finish the email without app switching. You should file a bug report immediately.


Stream different videos and sounds to Bluetooth headphones & loudspeakers

OS X itself supports each app using a different device, as long as that app support select a device instead of using the default one.
Unfortunately neither iTunes or Safari supports alternative device unless that's an AirPlay device.

You have still two options here:

get an AirPlay enabled device, so you may choose device in iTunes or Youtube Player (which is powered by HTML 5 not Flash)
get another music app other than iTunes, I'd recommend Vox for Mac[1] which supports play iTunes Library and a lot more, you may choose device in the app.

UPDATE 2016/02/20
AirFoil 5 for Mac[2] now supports set different audio source for different apps.

[1] http://coppertino.com/vox/mac
[2] https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/


Trigger an Automator action with a sound

Mac OS X comes with speech recognition (check System Preferences > Speech panel) but it can't easily recognize a generic sound, only built-in commands.

Now, it is possible to make an automator action or script that is triggered by an arbitrary phrase. However, if by "sound" you mean a beep, blip, crash or other sound that can't be  recognized as a string of phonemes (ie. speech in english or possibly another language) then we're into serious Objective C programming territory here.


Showing hidden files in specific directories?

If you want to hide specific files/folders from Finder (and any Open/Save dialogs) there is always

chflags hidden FILENAME

If, on the other hand, you only want to make specific dot-files/directories (like .ssh or .bashrc) visible in Finder, you may be better of with creating non-dotted symlinks

ln -s .bashrc bashrc
ln -s .ssh ssh

and using them to access the files where needed.


Safari keeps crashing after updating to Big Sur. Termination Reason: Namespace ASSERTIOND

The problem seems fixed as of MacOS 11.2


How can I look inside iOS apps' folders from within iTunes?

You cannot using iTunes, however products such as PhoneView allow you to browse inside folders under the App and transfer files also, all outside of iTunes.


The tilde key was placed in a different place in the keyboard than the place I'm used to. Works like charm.


HD Video Capture software for Logitech Web Cam?

I have the C910 and it's totally working on my Mac Pro and my MacBook Air.

QuickTime can record 1080p, as well as iMovie/FinalCut should.

There is no necessarity for drivers or additional software to get this working on your Mac.


iPad mini: Download images from webpage preserving file name

Some partial solution's I found since:

Using an alternate browser that supports file downloading. Or mercury browser, which doesn't ask for a file name when saving images, but preserves the original file name and is a full alternative browser with features missing from both safari and chrome such as fullscreen and text zooming (though the latter is served by bookmarklets in safari and chrome). Update: "Documents by Readdle" is another viable option; Most notably it provides a "Save As" style dialogue when downloading files or images, which allows changing the file name right away.
Chrome download enabler. Sadly, this is a jailbreak tweak, so I didn't try it, but it would give the advantage of having downloads in the same browser that also syncs tabs and bookmarks with the desktop.


How can i remotely type my passcode while iphone is plugged to my mac

Definitely not possible
no access over computer keyboard if your device has not been jailbrokenwith openssh preinstalled before

You can use iCloud Backup on recognized WIFI networks to sync automatically
if previously enabled, though

  If your iPhone gets recognized by iTunes on your Mac, you are still good to go for a screen replacement considering it not being as expensive as a data loss, nor the lightning keyboard and more important you don't lose your app tokens, for example some banking apps, app-related logins, authenticator apps, etc.


How to disable "look up" context menu in Google Chrome OSX 10.10+?

Unfortunately it cannot be removed. It was marked as WontFix because it's part of the MacOS convention. It has been officially answered here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=543891


I also have Sophos installed. Maybe that breaks internet access? Edit: Seems to be the case. Have a look here: Sophos Website


Change Bundle ID when "upgrading" to an organization from individual dev account?

The answer is somewhere in between actually.

If you setup a new organization account while keeping your individual dev account, you can transfer the app from one account to the other. In this process it is possible for you to choose a new bundle-ID for the app as an update of the app.

However, the end-users devices will treat it as a "new app", which means that it will require them to update the app and the app will have "forgotten" any stored credentials in Keychain, and if you have any kind of sharing with other apps you have made, that group membership will be broken.


Should I be concerned if the helpd process is eating RAM after an upgrade to Lion?

I hope the fine author of Lingon doesn't disapprove of me using his app to answer this, but here are the reasons why helpd will run.

(the daemon of help)

It's hard to tell if this is one of the processes that needs to run a bit the first time it starts and then it will happily update itself more rapidly when needed (like /Applications being changed) as well as early every Sunday AM.

The virtual memory system should keep the RAM fine, so unless you see it constantly - it's just taking the RAM it needs to serve your help menu with fresh and up to date documents.

You can also disable that launchd job if it's causing you grief until you can isolate why.


mysql on OSX suddenly stopped functioning, unable to locate or connect

It appears, evidenced by the backups, that at some previous (recent) point, the Homebrew version of mysql was uninstalled, leaving the data intact.

Reinstalling with brew install mysql returned full functionality.


How to disable screensaver for newly created user?

Have you tried running it as the other user using:

sudo -u NewUser defaults write /Users/NewUser/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver.MAC_UUID.plist idleTime 0

The command I found for setting the screensaver to never start was:

sudo -u NewUser defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver idleTime 0


Upgrade OS X operating system from the command line

Wouldn't appear to be, looking at the man page; unless it appears in the --list arg

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/softwareupdate.8.html

     --l | --list
                 List all available updates.

     -i | --install
                 Each update specified by args is downloaded and installed.  args can be one of the follow-ing: following:
                 ing:

                 -r | --recommended
                             All updates that are recommended for your system. These are prefixed with a *
                             character in the --list output.

                 -a | --all  All updates that are applicable to your system, including those non-recommended
                             ones, which are prefixed with a - character in the --list output. (Non-recom-mended (Non-recommended
                             mended updates are uncommon in any case.)

                 item ...    One or more specified updates. The --list output shows the item names you can
                             specify here, prefixed by the * or - characters.


Searching a TimeMachine backup is tricky - for one thing Spotlight has not indexed the backup (do not tell Spotlight to do this - you will be in for a world of hurt)

Second, you are sort of correct about about TimeMachine being virtual.  what it really is a hundreds of symlinks that link about in all kinds of crazy ways.

Your best bet, is to mount the volume using TimeMachine and recover the file using the interface Apple has provided.

If you are not going to do that, then hopefully you know where the file should be on the original system, and you should navigate to latest/path/to/file.html  where "latest" is the name of one of the directories in at the root of the TimeMachine archive.  Really it is...  If you know what date you want the file from, you could use that date in place of "latest"


Unable to be Repaired & Further Problems

You need to buy a new drive onto which you will copy your data from the borked drive. Preferably, this new drive will be a brand other than Seagate, which has the worst failure records in the industry. Once you have safely copied your data to the new drive, you can then begin to worry about how to deal with the Seagate drive.


Is iOS 4.1 faster than iOS 4.0 on the iPhone 3G?

The rumours are that it is much faster: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/07/27/does-ios4-1-fix-slow-iphone3g-units-yes/


iMessage Alternative for OSX El Capitan, with iMessaging

Mac is a closed system, and Apple takes many safety precautions to ensure that it stays that way, and that nothing is tampered with. Though there are indeed many ways, they all come with a consequence. My advice would be to schedule your Mac for an appointment at the nearest Apple Store and have them take a closer look at it. To schedule an appointment, you can either call in or go to their website apple.com/retail/geniusbar and follow the steps accordingly to your problem. This is the best way to get everything set back to normal.


Macbook Pro WiFi hardware sporadically malfunctioning

My thinking is that the cable connecting to the airport card was
  damaged when I dropped the laptop. Does this seem likely?

You need to diagnose the issue and without actually putting "hands on" the unit itself, everything's just a guess at this point.   That said,  there's nothing in NVRAM or in power management (SMC) that resetting both/either will solve.

The "No WiFi hardware installed" means the hardware isn't being detected by macOS.

There are three possibilities:

It's has a loose connection.
The airport card is failing (possibly coincidental with your drop).
The connector is broken

The first one is easy to diagnose/solve; simply disconnect, ensure that connections are clean, and then reconnect.

If the airport card has failed, you need to replace it with new Airport Adapter.

Finally, if the connectors are broken, you can either replace the cable as you initially thought or if it's on the logic board side, you will need to have the logic board repaired/replaced.


How can I send the current working directory from bash to Terminal?

Did you change PROMPT_COMMAND? The default PROMPT_COMMAND is defined in /etc/bashrc:

# Tell the terminal about the working directory at each prompt.
if [ "$TERM_PROGRAM" == "Apple_Terminal" ] && [ -z "$INSIDE_EMACS" ]; then
    update_terminal_cwd() {
        # Identify the directory using a "file:" scheme URL,
        # including the host name to disambiguate local vs.
        # remote connections. Percent-escape spaces.
        local SEARCH=' '
        local REPLACE='%20'
        local PWD_URL="file://$HOSTNAME${PWD//$SEARCH/$REPLACE}"
        printf '\e]7;%s\a' "$PWD_URL"
    }
    PROMPT_COMMAND="update_terminal_cwd; $PROMPT_COMMAND"
fi


Can't partition hard drive - "corrupt", exit code 8

Your main volume has a minor error (orphaned blocks - invalid volume free block count) which usually can be fixed with diskutil repairVolume diskIdentifier entered in Terminal.app booted from another volume or disk.

Either boot to Recovery Mode (cmdR while booting) or Internet Recovery Mode (altcmdR while booting).
In the menubar > Utilities open Terminal
Enter diskutil list to get the disk identifier of your main volume.

with CoreStorage disabled that's usually disk0s2
with CoreStorage enabled that's usually disk2 or in the upper tenth (e.g. disk17). It's the one with the (internal, virtual) supplement.

If it wasn't mounted enter diskutil cs list to get the Logical Volume UUID and try to mount it with diskutil cs unlockVolume UUID (replace UUID here with the UUID found previously). Repeat diskutil list to get the disk identifier.

Now check the volume with diskutil verifyVolume diskXsY (normal volume) or diskutil verifyVolume diskX (CoreStorage volume).
Then try to repair the volume with diskutil repairVolume diskXsY (normal volume) or diskutil repairVolume diskX (CoreStorage volume).


Upgrade failed to download from Mavericks to Yosemite

That's good that you're approaching things cautiously! However, you do not need to worry about this; Apple has built in multiple levels of protection to prevent you from messing up your computer.

There are two larger protections:

The App store automatically makes sure that the file you downloaded is what you were supposed to download and fixes anything it sees wrong.
When installing, the Yosemite installer double checks that the installation files are all in order and stops the installation if not.

Therefore, you should be okay to just go for it and upgrade.


How to create a private distribution list [group mailing list] in Mail.app?

Send to yourself - some mailers won't send if there's no 'To' recipient
Mail.app actually will, so you could optionally leave the To field blank - though I'd test that your ISP allows it through as well, before relying on that.

Then send to the group as BCC
BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy, as opposed to CC which is just Carbon Copy
i.e. the recipients are hidden from each other.

Show/hide the BCC field from the View menu, or  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   B

Then enter your Group name in the Bcc field; click the drop-menu or hit  Enter  once it's recognised.
The pref you mentioned - "when sending to a group, show all member addresses" - switches between showing the field as "my Group" or "Fred, Barney, Wilma" etc


Many times the Combo Update will resolve problems.  Download that update (on another system if you have to) and install it, then restart. I have not seen generalized WiFi issues after the 10.7.3 update, so it is very likely the combo update will help.


Best Camera setup for iPad Demonstration

First, you need to soft your light source by using light softener or light diffusor. It either can be bought in photo store or you can DIY.

And second, antiglare film over iPad screen will add to a better picture.


How to change my own apple id, so I can upgrade xcode

Ask your employer to enter their administrators password so you can upgrade Xcode.

It sounds like your employer set you up with a normal account that needs an administers permission to do certain things, like update apps.


Excerpt from the from article "How to Block and Report Spam Calls and Text Messages" in the New York Times on Aug 15, 2018 See note below

Reporting text messages is a little bit easier: No matter what phone you have, just forward the text message to SPAM (7726). Most carriers participate in a service that will use this information to try and block future spammers.

...

Users of iPhones can report blue-bubble iMessages as spam with the Report Junk link that appears below messages from unknown users.

Note: you may need a subscription to access this article.


Apple delays charging of cards for purchases on the App Store/iTunes, and hence email confirmations. They do this so they don't need to charge your card multiple times if you happen to buy a bunch of stuff close to each other, saves them from having to pay some processing fees.

I bought Lion on July 20th and didn't see an email confirmation until the 25th, and that confirmation listed the receipt date as July 22nd.


Terminal-App: What’s in front of colon and why does it change with a different network?

The string you see at the beginning of every line of Terminal is not a function of the Terminal application but a feature of any shell on any Unix system.
This string is defined as PS1 = Prompt String n°1.
On most shell this string is defined as containing your hostname as you can get it with the basic command hostname.
Of course, your hostname depend on your method of connection, your ISP, and how your computer name can be established from your DNS servers (Domain Name System).
When your computer doesn't have a connection established to the Internet, this name is its local name as you have defined it in System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name:.
The last component of the line showing you how you connected
the last time you did is the terminal from which you were
connected on your Mac. Each shell session has a virtual terminal on which your shell commands are runs. This is the final part of the terminal name you were using as shown with the command tty.
If the Last login: information looks right to you, then it means your computer wasn't pirated and used by
a criminal.


Is the Photos To Disk third party app still available?

The website is available in the Wayback Machine, and version 2.1 can actually be downloaded through there, although the newer version 3.5 cannot be.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180609143433/http://photos-to-disk.com/downloadbuy.html
The bigger problem, though, is there's no way to buy a license key anymore, because the developer's FastSpring page is no longer available. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way around this.
As a user of an older version of OS X (10.9), I run into this problem all the time while trying to find compatible software, and it's very frustrating! If you're a developer reading this, please consider making a public license key available somewhere before closing shop—future generations may thank you!


Unable to install entrprise app through iTunes in windows machine

Apple have very quietly released iTunes 12.6.3 - compatible with iOS 11 & still containing the App Store.

Apple KB: Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes

You need the direct link, it apparently does not appear as an update.
Mac link.
Windows 32 bit link.
Windows 64-bit Link.

If you've already been using 12.7 you may have luck importing your 12.7 lib  to a clean 12.6.3 Library, as outlined on MacRumors, but I had no joy.

I ended up restoring a backup of my Library [just the catalog not all the tunes] from a time before i updated to 12.7.


iTeleport manages both VNC and RDP connections, and is available on iOS and Mac, as well as Windows even.

Link to Mac App Store is here.

If cost is a consideration, try CoRD. (EDIT: Missed the fact that this was in the OP. My apologies.)

Other alternatives I've tried include iTap and Jump Desktop.


Issue with deleting a Mac account through system preferences

In order to add/delete accounts you have to unlock first:

which will prompt you for an Administrator account/password. Once entered successfully you can select and delete any user not currently logged in.


MacOS can scale any monitor. It scales best to integer numbers: by default 2x scaling, so a 3200 x 1800 would scale best to half that, 1600 x 900.


iMac WiFi connection to my router is unstable

The problem resolved after installing the newest Wi-Fi update.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/24/apple-releases-imac-wi-fi-update-v1-0/

EDIT: after upgrading to Mountain Lion, the same issue occurs again. Anybody encounters the same problem?

Tried to install http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1501. But the package prompt out that 'The package require OS X 10.7' which means not be able to install on 10.8.


Iphone app that will count up or down with voice

I found this app "Voice Over Timer" which looks to be configurable to do close to what you want.

AppStore Link:
https://appsto.re/us/TeCFM.i

edit upon further review, it looks like the countdown can only be announced for the last ten seconds. The AppStore page mentioned a customization but it is a customization from among pre-determined options.


When I double tap on an image url when using Safari, the selected text includes the extension only if the filename is lower case. Why?

This is a quirk of the UAX #29 standard on Unicode word segmentation boundaries.  Basically, this document specifies standard rules for determining what's a "word" in a string of Unicode text.  Cocoa Text (the macOS text subsystem) conforms to these rules when implementing features like "double click to select a word".
Using uniseg, a Python library that implements these rules, we can see the word boundaries for these two strings:
In [1]: list(uniseg.wordbreak.words("JOKd4.jpg"))
Out[1]: ['JOKd4', '.', 'jpg']

In [2]: list(uniseg.wordbreak.words("eFGbq.jpg"))
Out[2]: ['eFGbq.jpg']

In the first case, UAX #29 rules specify there are three words in the text (which you can check by trying to double-tap select each piece one by one).  In the second case, it specifies there is only one word.
This should be standard behavior across Cocoa apps, but overridable by individual apps if they care to.  Chrome, presumably, implements an override for text / word selection behavior beyond the Cocoa default.  I'm not sure if there is a way for users to override this behavior without access to source code.


If the account is associated with Outlook or similar, it has a feature called "mail days to sync". To increase to show all emails, open settings, go to Mail, tap on the offending account, then change mail days to sync from the default amount to the longest period of time. This will restore all previous emails that have gone missing, and keep any new ones.


This is not exactly what the OP asked for, but it might partially solve the problem:
- Enrol a fingerprint and select a passcode,
- disable "iPhone Unlock",
- change "Require Passcode" to the maximum ("After 4 hours" in my case).

This will allow you to use Touch ID in Applications, but will require passcode for unlock only once in a long time.


How to Remove Default Web Browser Option

Open system preferences and go to general (or search for default web browser).

Set Safari as the default.


Recurring "error code -50/invalid argument" resolved by reboot, better solution sought

Error 50 is a generic - iTunes has failed to write a file and the article listing specific store errors (expand the section on Specific Conditions and Alert Messages to reveal -50 in that section) deals with the usual problems where the store is failing or the network is failing.

If the error is bubbling up from the filesystem (or you get the error from Finder), then it's often an "illegal" character in the file or folder name. Look to remove or rename files with emoji, unicode characters or more mundane characters like : & or /

In your case, it's very likely the drive is the cause. You can and should look in the console app to see what other errors happen around that time. Look for I/O errors - disk0 - or just run disk utility and have it verify / repair the catalog file. This will confirm the guess that the drive is failing and the errors are not some software problem.

You could export the current library xml to the desktop and start over with a brand new iTunes library file just to rule out corruption in that file, but then you would have two problems at the same time - terminal unable to write a file and iTunes unable to write a file. Occam's razor (and my experience) says it's the filesystem/drive - not two identical software problems.

Spinning hard drives do track the sectors where a bad write has happened and try to keep track of them so the system won't notice files not vein written, but as a drive ages (or if this mechanism fails) you will get unrecoverable errors more and more.

Also - it's often hard to tell if the catalog structure is bad (which Disk Warrior, Drive Genius and plain old erase in Disk Utility attempt to fix assuming the drive works properly). But if the underlying hardware is failing, you'll need to move to a new drive.

I would just make another backup and zero the drive and look for errors during the zero / reinstall. If the errors persist, it's time for a new drive once the pain of reboots is more than the cost of a new part costs.

In your specific case of an old PPC machine where repair is invasive and the cables likely to be brittle, I would just re-install the OS onto an inexpensive and many GB external drive and run the mac from a cheap USB drive (most iBooks will boot from USB, but not all will) - leaving the potentially failing internal drive sitting unused, unmounted and spun down. It's rare for a failed drive to take down the machine so you can just leave it alone for minimal cost if you can tolerate the iBook running on an external drive.


Some versions of files are stored temporarily locally, when you're away from the TimeCapsule. These are on your MacBook and can therefor be accessed without the TimeCapsule present. As soon as the Mac syncs back with the TimeCapsule, they are longer stored on your local drive, therefor you'll need a connection to the TimeCapsule to restore them.
"Mobile Backups" in the Library
It won't keep so much files forever, as it deletes some after a time. Hourly versions are only kept for a week I believe. From then on it's daily versions.


Yes, a shutdown cause value of 5 means it was a totally normal shutdown.

A "Shutdown cause was a PWROK event" basically means that your system shutdown with no power supply issues - as in PWROK = Power Okay.

A "Shutdown cause was a THRMTRIP# event" basically means that your system shutdown due to a thermal trip - most likely due to overheating - so your Mac shuts down to protect itself from damage.


How to debug Safari CPU utilization and spinning beach ball?

Adblock runs against every frame in the page. This is probably not all of your problem, but it is significant, at least it was for me. Switch to ublock and you should see a difference. Read the advanced docs and graduate to the the firewall style usage of this tool, and you will be very pleased.


giving MBP priority for Siri when iPhone and iPad are close by

Your Apple devices actually negotiate between them to decide which device is closest to the speaker, and there is no way to control which device gets priority.

As you suggest, if you flip over your iOS devices, they will not respond to 'Hey Siri' (this can be changed in Accessibility settings) which is the only control you have over the situation. The Mac has similar controls if the lid is closed. Also, if you have bluetooth off on any of the devices, they are not part of the negotiations, as they communicate with each other via Bluetooth.

For details refer to this Apple Support document:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208472


How can I restore my iPhone 4s without getting the newest software?

There are places online where people have kept the IPSW files, if you trust them not to have tampered with this then you could find the right one and when you are in iTunes Option/Alt + Click the Restore button and it will take that IPSW file.

I am not 100% sure if this will work because iOS has to check with the iTunes server and I am not sure if it will activate a phone on an old version... I think it will but can't be sure.


Mac book Pro is very slow on wifi connection

Excellent work with the details. The transmit rate and MCS index indicate that your mac has a high-speed connection to your router and that it's not an interference issue.

My next step would probably be timing me file transfer using Wi-Fi from the Mac to the PC or vice versa. You can enable filesharing on the Mac quite easily. download some YouTube movie from the Internet so that you've got something that will take 15 to 30 seconds to transfer so you can time it with the stopwatch.

It's hard to guess whether flash that runs the speed test.net simply running slow or you've actually got a legitimate speed issue with the Mac.

You'll also want to watch the activity monitor and the console application to see if you have io errors and if the network throughput matches the disk io which should all matching your benchmarking test.


Can I request refund for an app that I purchased previously, but has now become free to download?

You may or may not be eligible to get a refund. Only the relevant team at Apple can answer that for you.

Consider going through this Apple Support article first: Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple.

You should also consider contacting the customer support for the app to query if they have an update to the app in progress which will enable it to work on the recent/unsupported versions of macOS.

On the other hand, their app is still supported on older (prior to recent) releases of macOS and either some technical or business reason(s) may be preventing them from updating it to work with latest macOS.


Can I get podcasts on my iphone and stop them on my mac?

The way I did it was to plug my iPhone into my Mac as I would normally to sync it and then select the iPhone in iTunes and go to the 'Podcasts' menu to disable 'Sync Podcasts', clicking on Apply to confirm the change. Once I was sure this was disabled, I re-synced my iPhone and double checked there were no issues as the fix was still easy at this point! There were none so I moved onto the next phase - now you can either:

Delete the podcasts from iTunes altogether (I did this as my main aim was to save space on my SSD), or
Change the iTunes podcasts settings to only update manually (i.e. if you don't click on Refresh in the podcast section of iTunes, they will not download)

It's been a couple of weeks for me and no problems so far.

Hope this helps! Sorry I can't put up any screenshot to help guide you through yet, I don't have enough reputation points to do this yet as I've just discovered this board :)


How do I stop the sync attempts for an app?

Go to iTunes and select the device.

Select the Apps tab.

Press the Will Install button so that it removes the status and returns to an Install button.

 →  →
Press Sync.


Keychain prompt - Switch to other window via keyboard

I'm afraid as a security precaution it is not allowed to be switched away from the password prompt. Otherwise malicious apps will be given chance to record your inputs.


Many audio apps hang in High Sierra after an upgrade from Sierra

Mine is caused by an audio unit. Removing it fixes the problem. User and system audio units are in the folders

~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ (be careful when you change the system audio units)

Some other audio add-ons seem to cause similar problems according to this web page https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2017/09/29/fixing-an-important-high-sierra-incompatibility/


How can an old Apple ID be merged into the newer ID?

As of now, you cannot merge multiple Apple IDs into one Apple ID. It has been rumored but it is not possible at the moment.


When MobileMe upgraded calendars - it removed the group option. iCloud does not have a folder/group data structure.

BusyCal does let you create groups to manage your local view of iCloud (and other) calendars, but doesn't change iCloud's limitation to not have those groups appear on the server end of things.

Their blog is an excellent source to get clear and well prepared discussion on the changes MobileMe has made as well as how iCloud is different.


No longer able to AirPlay from iTunes to Homepod directly

Since you're saying this used to work the way you want it to, then perhaps resetting the HomePod back to its default settings will do the trick.

To fully reset it, follow these steps:

Unplug the HomePod
Wait at least five seconds and then plug it back in
Wait at least another five seconds
Press and hold the top of the HomePod with your finger
Keep your finger there even after the spinning light turns red
Continue to keep your finger there even after Siri announces that HomePod is about to reset
Finally you will hear three beeps to indicate that your HomePod has been reset
You can now take your finger off

Once your HomePod is reset you will need to set it up again from scratch.


Is 110 degrees fahrenheit on average bad on a 2019 MacBook Air? (And other problems)

Is this normal? Yes.

Does anyone else get this issue? Yes.

Do you think a hard reset could solve this issue? No.

As for the battery: some 'settling' over the first few months is expected, but I'd try to take it to Apple before it's 12 months old.


If your books are really PDFs, and there are no security restrictions, you could use Adobe/Acrobat Reader with its commenting tools.


Officially, no. You can't install appstore apps on the simulator, your best shot would be to talk with SwiftKey and see if they give you access to the source code, this way you could compile it to the simulator and activate the keyboard, but I really doubt they would do that.


The iCalendar specification outlines what is required in an .ics file.  In short, a simple .ics file looks like this:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:19970610T172345Z-AF23B2@example.com
DTSTAMP:19970610T172345Z
DTSTART:19970714T170000Z
DTEND:19970715T040000Z
SUMMARY:Bastille Day Party
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

The UID is a unique identifier.  It's mostly used for sequencing multiple iCalendar requests.  The iCalendar specification gives guidance for how to create it:

  A good method to assure uniqueness is to put the domain name or a
  domain literal IP address of the host on which the identifier was
  created on the right-hand side of an "@", and on the left-hand side,
  put a combination of the current calendar date and time of day (i.e.,
  formatted in as a DATE-TIME value) along with some other currently
  unique (perhaps sequential) identifier available on the system (for
  example, a process id number).  Using a DATE-TIME value on the
  left-hand side and a domain name or domain literal on the right-hand
  side makes it possible to guarantee uniqueness since no two hosts
  should be using the same domain name or IP address at the same time.
  Though other algorithms will work, it is RECOMMENDED that the
  right-hand side contain some domain identifier (either of the host
  itself or otherwise) such that the generator of the message identifier
  can guarantee the uniqueness of the left-hand side within the scope of
  that domain.

Most calendar applications are pretty forgiving of malformed .ics files.  If your events are pretty simple (no recurrence, no invitations, etc), it's probably not too difficult to knock together an AppleScript (or whatever scripting language you prefer) to create these for you.  Here's one AppleScript for it from StackOverflow.


Remove partition and restore the space without erasing

Disk utility can't resize the last partition on a drive.
One way would be to use GParted to move the partition and then resize it.

Boot the Mac with a Ubuntu Live CD.
Run GParted and move the second partition to the beginning of the free space;
Reboot to Mac OS X.
Verify and repair the external disk with Disk Utility. It found a minor error on the volume header of the second partition.
Resize the second partition to the end of free space.

In your case it's a bit easier, since you're only occupying half of the drive.

Create a new partition in the empty space
Clone the second partition to the first one
Delete the 2nd partition
Resize the 1st partition


I have just activated (Nov 20, 2014) an iPhone 4s that had been on the Verizon System. It had to be unlocked for international use. It had to be active on the Verizon System to do the unlocking. The previous owner of the phone kept the sim card so it does NOT have a sim card installed. It is 100% functional on the Tracfone system.  I am not on any plan preferring to add minutes/text/data as I need it.


TextEdit app always opens with File Open dialog

I find this behaviour irritating too. I believe Mountain Lion introduced a new Open dialog to provide the option to save a new file in iCloud so that it’s available from other iOS devices. You can disable this feature by going to System Preferences > iCloud > iCloud Drive Options then untick TextEdit.app and any other apps that have a similar behaviour.


Why don't changes in the bashrc file work on a new terminal window?

in my ~/.bash_profile have this code

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    . ~/.bashrc
fi

@Mark have a greate answer here.

I found a link that clear that case at Unix FAQ for OSX.

It wrote

  Bash Startup Files

  When a "login shell" starts up, it reads the file "/etc/profile" and then "~/.bash_profile" or "~/.bash_login" or "~/.profile" (whichever one exists - it only reads one of these, checking for them in the order mentioned).

  When a "non-login shell" starts up, it reads the file "/etc/bashrc" and then the file "~/.bashrc".

  Note that when bash is invoked with the name "sh", it tries to mimic the startup sequence of the Bourne shell ("sh"). In particular, a non-login shell invoked as "sh" does not read any dot files by default. See the bash man page for details.


Problem Installing Lion on MacBook2,1 using USB

Thank you all for your help. I finally managed to make it work. It seemed the problem is somehow related to USB boot support of MacBook2,1. This is how it worked for me:

use these 5 steps if you're upgrading from 10.5.X to 10.7.X

Copy /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist to desktop
Open it in an editor (I used TextEdit)
Under ProductVersion change 10.5.X to 10.6.X
Save and Authenticate
copy it back to /System/Library/CoreServices/ overwriting the original SystemVersion.plist

use these 8 steps if you have a problem with USB boot.

Using BootCamp Create a 5GB partition
Open Disk Utility
Select Lion installation file (DMG) and click on Open
From main pane Click on Restore Button
From left pane Drag and drop ESD (below the DMG) onto Source
From left pane Drag and drop the newly create partition onto Destination
Click on Restore button below Destination
Restart and hold Option key. Now the partition is available in the boot menu.


If your Mac is capable of running internet recovery, I would boot to the Recovery HD or full on internet recovery to see if the OS is the culprit.

If you can't join any networks from recovery HD it's very likely a hardware or severe interference issue is at play. At that point, you could take your Mac to one or two different networks that are known to work with Macs and test.

Being able to isolate the major systems helps when it's hard to guess what is happening.


How many monitors can the 13" retina MacBook Pro output to?

You can drive 3 including the internal on the 13". However, you cannot run 3 external displays even if not using the internal.

source: I have one and have tested this.


Your Mac uses your phone's cellular connection to place the call. What's happening is that your are calling yourself, which most mobile operators parse as dialing into voicemail. What you hear is a request for your voicemail PIN. If you dial your own number from your iPhone, you'll hear the same request.


Does OSX have a "plug & play driver" concept?

For local devices/services you can use the System-Profiler to check all available devices in your computer. Most devices are directly supported through Apple and thus you don't have to install any drivers. For some 3rd party tools like external Audio/Video systems you may have to install the drivers supplied with the tools, but you should be able to discover the devices through the System-Profiler.

For devices and services available through the network Apple has developed a plug and play system called Bonjour. It allows zeroconf of e.g. printers and file-sharing services. There is a 3rd pary tool called Bonjour Browser which is advertised to be able to discover all services/devices available through Bonjour. I never used the software and can't comment on how well it works.


Boot Camp: The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned

That 715.8 GB "Macintosh SSD - Data" looks to be a remnant of Catalina. Catalina creates a System disk and a Data disk and uses firmlinks to make them appear as one drive in Finder.  But the System disk is read only.
Meanwhile your macOS High Sierra volume is using only that volume for everything.
I think if you delete the APFS Volume Macintosh SSD - Data 715.8 GB disk1s1 you'll have enough free space.  You backed up your data right?


Skype for Business has no sound and I am not able to make calls

Apparently (according to IT) a restart of the Exchange server and the Skype server (in the right order) was enough to solve the issue.


Can outlook365 for mac be installed and connect to an email server via a script?

Absolutely. Mac administrators script this all the time. Microsoft has employees that are on the mac admin slack and publicly provides training documentation on the preferences that the Outlook app and office suite have for easing on boarding.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ESX5td0y0OP3jdzZ-C2SItm-TUi-iA_bcHCBvaoCumw/edit#gid=0
https://macadmins.software

If that’s too dry or verbose, you can start with a much nicer package of 25 pages of wiki goodness on setting up Outlook.

https://github.com/talkingmoose/Outlook-Exchange-Setup-5/wiki

I would start small and then iterate, solve little problems first and then get more complete over time as you can save time based on how many machines you are setting up. Also remember, at some point, no automation will save you time if you spend more time learning than just setting up a handful of Macs but conversely, no amount of time will be wasted if you can never set things up manually. You’ll always come out ahead in that case.
This is a well established script and you might be able to adopt someone else’s solution with just a few hours or reading or even less if you already script on macOS.


How to use different mailboxes (sent folder) in Outlook for Mac

On the client-side, no.

On the server-side, there are updates to Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 that address this.

If there is some reason that you can't update your Exchange server, then you could get around this on the client-side with a bit of work.  If the senders BCC the design@domain.com address when sending mail from that account, you could have a server-side rule on design@domain.com which automatically moves mail that is BCCed to design@domain.com to the Sent Items folder.  This isn't by any means a perfect solution, but it might work until you can update your Exchange server.


Is it possible to enable TRIM for an external SSD?

I realize this question is over 4 years old, but I'm adding a comment because this page was the first hit for a Google search on the subject and some of the comments are outdated whereas others were plain wrong.

Apple added native TRIM support in OS X 10.6.8 but only for Apple OEM SSDs. To get around that restriction, software such as Cindori's TRIM Enabler allowed TRIM to be used on 3rd party SSDs. Later, OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) introduced a security requirement called kext signing which prevented TRIM Enabler from working without completely turning off kext signing. Then in OS X 10.10.4, Apple introduced a “trimforce” command which enabled TRIM on 3rd party SSDs without turning off kext signing. (I have sources but Stack Exchange won't let me post more than 2 links)

Contrary to many of the comments here, the interface DOES matter. The vast majority of USB enclosures do not support TRIM, but allegedly there are some that support it such as the JMS 578 USB bridge controller (source: http://bbs.pceva.com.cn/thread-125643-1-1.html). All five of the USB 3 enclosures / docks I have support it. Firewire supposedly supports TRIM, but I haven't tested it. Most Thunderbolt enclosures should support TRIM, and I currently have TRIM enabled on a SanDisk Extreme SSD in an Akitio Thunderbolt 2 enclosure. I used the trimforce command in terminal to enable it.

In order to check if your enclosure supports TRIM, you’ll want to go to Apple > About This Mac > System Report > Hardware > SATA/SATA Express > and look for “TRIM Support” under the enclosure specs. If TRIM Support is not listed, your enclosure most likely does not support TRIM. If it is listed but says “No”, you can try turning TRIM on by using the trimforce command in terminal. Just open Terminal and type “sudo trimforce enable”. Once your computer restarts, check System Report again to see if TRIM Support changed to Yes.

Finally, TRIM does matter, even for modern SSDs with sophisticated garbage collection. I experienced this firsthand when my SanDisk SSD started slowing down as it got older before enabling TRIM on it. There’s a good, but somewhat outdated article about it here: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/ask-ars-my-ssd-does-garbage-collection-so-i-dont-need-trim-right/


How Do I Permanently Disable Hot Corners on Mac?

Yes, there are some terminal commands to set your default setting to "none".

Disable top left hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-tl-corner -int 0

Disable top right hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-tr-corner -int 0

Disable bottom left hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-bl-corner -int 0

Disable bottom right hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-br-corner -int 0

In the “wvous-XX-corner", for the XX, tl is top left, tr is top right, bl is the bottom left, and br is the bottom right.

For the numbers at the end, “0” is nothing, “1” is disabled, “5” is start screen saver, “2” is Mission Control, “3” is Notifications”, “4” shows the desktop, and so on.


Can I control broken iPad from computer?

My iPad Mini has the similar broken screen, why not go to the third party service to change a new screen, which works well.

You can transfer files between iPad and computer, however it can't work as the second monitor.


How to stream live Apple Event on Apple TV (4th gen)?

The App is called "Apple Special Event".

Have a look at: Apple Events app brings March 21 keynote to Apple TV


That’s most likely not related to Mac OS or Bootcamp, but rather a Windows issue. There’s barely enough information from your side to estimate what’s the problem here, but most likely it’s an issue with the windows bootloader. From a Windows install disk or USB stick, open up a command prompt, and execute the commands bootrec.exe /fixmbr and bootrec.exe /fixboot. These should reinstall the bootloader.

In case that doesn’t work, it’s most likely an issue with your Windows installation. Since Windows isn‘t as repairable as Mac or Linux is, it’s likely that reinstalling windows (save all data, format the partition from disk utility in Mac OS and install from the Windows install media again, as you did in the first place) is the best bet to go.

Anyways, since your question is most likely not related to Apple, you’re good to ask in a Windows QA site like superuser.com how to fix your Windows boot (there’ a lot of answered questions already so just search).


Trying to burn a CD: "hdiutil: imageinfo failed - image not recognized"

The Image File created by Burn.app is a RAW Image and does not contain a recognizable filesystem that OS X understands and why hdiutil fails. It's also why an "Audio CD.isoInfo" file needs to be created, so the Burn.app can burn the image it created back to optical media (CD).

Since you created the Audio CD Image with the Burn.app then why don't you just use the Burn.app to burn the Audio CD Image to optical media (CD)?


Import new signature without using isight

Send an email to yourself with the signature you made on the other
mac from the other mac.
Open the email on the mac with the broken iSight.
Select the signature and copy (cmd + c) it.
Go to Mail/preferences/signatures and create a new signature.
Paste (cmd + v) in the signature box.

Is this what you mean?


Is it better to just close the lid on a macbook pro or should I shut it down?

That depends on you; many computer users almost never shut down their computers. It's fine to put it to sleep if you know you are going use the computer again soon. Sometimes though, it's best to shut it down if you're not going to use it for a day or two, as it will save a little bit of energy and heat from being wasted in your laptop. Also, shutting down completely wipes away the computer's RAM, which might have some corrupt/junk data left in it from various things the computer does. It also lets the computer's components cool down. I definitely recommend you shutting down at least once a month or so.

  When I restart a computer, and I have multiple desktops open, will the desktops all restart with settings saved to reopen applications on those same desktops?

From Os X 10.8 and later, yes they will, all your desktops will survive reboots and all the applications will "remember" in which desktop they were open. Though, when you hit 'restart' you will be prompted a message to confirm, and there will be this option: Reopen windows when loging back in, make sure it's checked.

  If I have an application open on desktop 4 and options --> this desktop so that the application only opens on desktop 4, will desktops 2 and 3 automatically open if I did not have them open at restart?

No, they won't. As I said earlier, if you have desktop 1-2-3-4 open and then you restart the system, they will reappear then. If you close a desktop, for example 2, desktop 3 will become desktop 2 and desktop 4 will become desktop 3.
So if you have only two desktops open and you open the app that was saved to work on desktop 4, former desktop 2 and 3 won't appear, the app will just bind on the new desktop where you open it.

  At restart, if I just open the application that is saved on desktop 4, will applications 2 and 3 restart automatically?

As stated above, they won't.


Prevent iTunes from Opening with Windows Start?

Check the Startup folder in the Start menu. Otherwise it could be an option that is built into iTunes' settings.


iPhone 8 proximity sensor not working after display switch

No, you don’t need to take any further steps. There are no additional settings for the proximity-sensor. I see only this steps to repaire your sensor:

Restarting your iPhone
Trie to restoring from a backup
Trie to restoring to factory-settings
The proximity-sensor is malfunction (already delivered defective, or by assembling), so change the display again with a new one

If no step is helpful, I would advise to contact the apple support and make a appointment to show the iPhone bug.


Turns out Firefox does not implement this, while Chrome does.


How to downscale for an external display?

Assuming you want to extend your desktop and not just mirror it:
The Mac does this by default, for more fine grained options go to System Preferences → Screen, a window for the TV will appear, where scaling options is avaliable. For even more options hold down the Alt/Option key while clicking on "Scaled"


Is there an iPad app that will 'play' a large PDF file as a slideshow?

Presentations are meant to be presentations. If you're going to do the process that 3rdparty suggested, I highly advise that you convert the PDF into a presentation friendly format (jpgs are fine if you want to "fudge" it), but invest in Keynote for the iPad and use it!

Keynote iPad's presentation skills are really astounding. Digital Laser Pointer, private presenter's notes on the iPad and the external display you connect to displays the full screen presentation (requires the VGA video out cable or some equivalent products, the composite/component video cables might work too). Transitions, animations, rich media, everything.

It sucks that you already have it in a PDF, but if you do the work to convert it, the iPad will help you present it wonderfully.


Had this issue with a server computer. The only reliable (I have used this for 6 months+ without a single issue) native solution I found was by using the caffeinate command.

The command I use to prevent sleep is caffeinate -s.  You can add a time limit with the -t [# of seconds] flag but since you want it never to go to sleep you don't need it.

Heres the man page:

CAFFEINATE(8)             BSD System Manager's Manual            CAFFEINATE(8)

NAME
     caffeinate -- prevent the system from sleeping on behalf of a utility

SYNOPSIS
     caffeinate [-disu] [-t timeout] [-w pid] [utility arguments...]

DESCRIPTION
     caffeinate creates assertions to alter system sleep behavior.  If no
     assertion flags are specified, caffeinate creates an assertion to prevent
     idle sleep.  If a utility is specified, caffeinate creates the assertions
     on the utility's behalf, and those assertions will persist for the dura-
     tion of the utility's execution. Otherwise, caffeinate creates the asser-
     tions directly, and those assertions will persist until caffeinate exits.

     Available options:

     -d      Create an assertion to prevent the display from sleeping.

     -i      Create an assertion to prevent the system from idle sleeping.

     -m      Create an assertion to prevent the disk from idle sleeping.

     -s      Create an assertion to prevent the system from sleeping. This
             assertion is valid only when system is running on AC power.

     -u      Create an assertion to declare that user is active. If the dis-
             play is off, this option turns the display on and prevents the
             display from going into idle sleep. If a timeout is not specified
             with '-t' option, then this assertion is taken with a default of
             5 second timeout.

     -t      Specifies the timeout value in seconds for which this assertion
             has to be valid. The assertion is dropped after the specified
             timeout. Timeout value is not used when an utility is invoked
             with this command.

     -w      Waits for the process with the specified pid to exit. Once the
             the process exits, the assertion is also released.  This option
             is ignored when used with utility option.

EXAMPLE
     caffeinate -i make
:


Introduction
The problem lies with the fact that WhatsApp does not store a history of your chats on its servers (except undelivered ones). That means that unlike other messaging providers, WhatsApp cannot simply repopulate your chat history on every device because there is no central location (server) that stores them for you. While this is a great step towards privatizing your chats, this makes things all the more difficult for your case.

Analysis

In early 2017, WhatsApp has encrypted its backups to iCloud, which means that if you lost your iPhone prior to
this, you may (optimistically) be able to read them in plain text.
This would probably require you to connect the iPhone via cable to a
third-party app on your Mac/PC like iPhone Explorer or
iExplorer. I used these years ago to extract files hidden in
the file system of an old iPhone 4. But I think it is saved to say
that there is absolutely no guarantee that you will even be able to
open any WhatsApp files you may find (due to encryption).
It seems to be entirely possible, however, to restore your current iPhone from the backup of the old one and view your messages that way. For what its worth, you are better off not risking your current chat threads, so do a backup of your current state. Therefore you can always restore it to today's version if things start to go wrong.
You may be interested in this article which discusses ways to transfer chat histories to other phones (Android, in case you switched to one - you didn't mention).

Conclusion
Based on the (limited) options available to you, I'd recommend trying the second one first as you will have the greatest chance of actually reading the messages, compared to option one and three. Please read through this guide to learn how to restore your chat history. I am interested if it works for you. Let me know how you get on.


How to quit multiple application on mac using an automator app?

An Automator app doesn't usually stay open after its run if all it's doing is opening a few apps. That said, since you want to open and close the same apps with a single app that stays open and then closes the target apps when you quit the app that opened them, I would choose to do this with a stay open AppleScript application.

The following example AppleScript code, shown below, will open the three apps in the theseApps list and then close them when you close the app made from this code.

In Script Editor, copy an paste the example AppleScript into a new untitled document.

property theseApps : {"Contacts", "Dictionary", "Notes"}

on run
    repeat with thisApp in theseApps
        activate application thisApp
    end repeat
end run
on quit
    repeat with thisApp in theseApps
        quit application thisApp
    end repeat
    continue quit
end quit

Obviously, change the names of the app in the example AppleScript code to meet your needs.

Now save the script as an AppleScript application while checking the Stay open after run handler check box.

The example AppleScript code, shown above and as is, when saved as a stay open AppleScript application, worked for me without issue on macOS High Sierra.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.


How do I upgrade to iOS 9.3 without enabling iCloud Drive?

The brother-in-law resorted to a chat session with Apple support, and after wading through a lot of boilerplate, he was advised to choose "Continue". It seems to have worked. He did not, however, get any answer to how such a textbook example of how not to write a dialog box got past Apple's UI designers.


Yes, there is one fan in both Late 2013 iMacs (21,5" & 27").


Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Tap your Exchange account (for you, it will likely say Exchange) > Tap on your exchange email address (i.e. daniel@example.com) > scroll down to Description (past Username and Password), then enter the new name in there.


The newest release of NOOK for iPad and iPhone now supports comics and manga.


How to find out why OS X is requesting privilege elevation for an app?

It is not possible to know at the time the credentials are requested. The security mechanisms in OS X do not require pre-authorization of specific actions.

Applications and other processes are asking for one or more authorization rights. Each right grants the application specific capabilities:

  Authorisation Rights

  Authorisation rights are a core part of Mac OS X's security. Rights determine who can and can not access specific functionality. Administrators of Macs often need to change the defaults that ship with Mac OS X.

Use Console.app to view the /var/log/authd.log. This log file contains every successful and unsuccessful attempt to gain these rights.

If granted, the application is then free to perform actions with this new raised level of authorisation. Occasionally the actions are also logged in the authd.log file.

User Interface

The process responsible for showing the security user interface is part of OS X and not part of the requesting application. The application is likely in /System/Library/CoreServices.

The requesting application does not and can not access the credentials interface.

Limits of Time, Use, or Both

OS X's rights are often limited by time or use. As an example, the authenticate-admin-30 right is limited to 30 minutes. Other actions are limited to a single use; such as launching an assisting process just once.

As OS X has been developed, Apple have tended towards restricting initial rights. With OS X 10.11, even root the once super user has been limited by default. All with the aim of better layering security.


Where is the manual for the Apple iPhone Podcasts app?

Is there somewhere that gives more than just a cursory explanation of how to use it?

Probably not - Apple's not big on providing manuals when they don't think they're necessary.

  For example, when does it chose to download podcasts?

Probably hourly. There's no option to change this that I can find.

  Can you force it to update the podcasts without going one by one and clicking on the download link?

It downloads new episodes for subscribed podcasts automatically.

  Will it download over cellular?

Yep, it does. It also streams over cellular, and well enough that I didn't notice that that was what it was doing at first. (I'm on Verizon 3G.)

  Can it download the podcasts but play through the normal music app?

Nope. It's totally separate. (There's rumor/suspicion that the Music app won't even have a Podcasts section in iOS 6.)


You can use the following command:

ps aux | grep -w Z

From ps man page:

The state is given by a sequence of characters, for example, ``RWNA''.
The first character indicates the run state of the process:

I       Marks a process that is idle (sleeping for longer than about 20 seconds).
R       Marks a runnable process.
S       Marks a process that is sleeping for less than about 20 seconds.
T       Marks a stopped process.
U       Marks a process in uninterruptible wait.
Z       Marks a dead process (a ``zombie'').


Will anything bad happen if I just delete my thumbnail cache?

This is a bit of a guess, but I'm assuming if you switch off the icon preview & preview column, then the system would have no need to generate preview icons...

You might need to do this for all 3 view types, Column, Icon & List, from View menu  > Show View Options  Cmd ⌘   J
Example [using a RAMDisk, as it was just conveniently populated]...


How much space does Apple music offline songs take up?

Apple Music offline songs are stored in this directory:

/Users/[your-user]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Apple Music

A normal Song with a duration between 3:45 min and 5:02 min is about 7MB to 11MB large. rule of thumb is to calculate 10MB per Song and you are on the safe side.

For Example a Maroon 5 song:

12 This Summer.m4p
(8,5 MB on disk)
/Users/bMalum/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Apple Music/Maroon 5/V (Deluxe)
Duration: 03:44


High Sierra forgets display layout on reboot

Your MBP uses Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) to store various settings. It may be worth resetting this.

To reset the NVRAM on all Late-2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models (with and without Touch Bar) follow these steps:

Shut down your MBP. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then immediately press the commandoptionpr keys.
Keep these keys pressed down for at least 20 seconds!
Let go of the keys and let your MBP reboot normally.

Note 1: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Note 2: If your Mac is using a firmware password, you will need to disable the firmware password before resetting NVRAM.


Simple app for taking/storing photos on a server

Dropbox is likely the best for storing photos in the cloud. It allows you to easily, and simply select photos from your library and then upload them to the Dropbox cloud.

The one caveat is that it is annoying to restore images because you have to go to each picture and restore it individually. Who knows, perhaps they will come out with an update that will fix that.


Mathias is correct about the proper way to sync photos to your iPad. Sharing photos from iTunes approves them for Home Sharing, a system designed to share iTunes Store purchases and media amongst family members.

Apple Knowledgebase: iTunes: Setting up Home Sharing on your computer

Home Sharing can also be used to allow access to photos from an AppleTV.

Apple Knowledgebase: Setting up Home Sharing for Apple TV (2nd generation)


The only way I've found to do the installs I need is to disable SIP! Was attempting to avoid this but it seems the way to go.

Do not know yet if the login issues is still unresolved!

Note: Login Issue NOT resolved!


What you want to do sounds possible with the steps you describe, except for 3). You haven't said which MDM server you plan on using but I'll assume it's one that implements the concept of Managed Apps.

Once your device(s) are enrolled with the MDM server, it can automatically push down whatever apps you wish to the device (either in-house/corporate or App Store). Those apps are considered Managed and you will have some control over them, including the ability to remove them remotely.

In specific answer to your questions:

Yes, once you have set up an MDM server and configured the APNS certificate (from https://identity.apple.com/pushcert/) you can enrol and manage devices through it.
Yes, once the device is enrolled you can push apps to it. The mechanism for this differs a little depending on which MDM server you use. Most will allow for auto-push during enrolment or a push notification prompt asking the user to install from the MDM server's App Store.
In order to use AppLock, the device must be Supervised. To enable Supervised mode on an iOS device, it must either be configured physically via a Mac + Apple Configurator or be a device purchased through DEP (Device Enrolment Program). Devices can be Supervised through an MDM server (so over-the-air) but they must be purchased as a DEP device through an authorised reseller in a supported country. Devices that are purchased outside the DEP program cannot currently be converted to DEP / Supervised at a later date.


I almost accidentally saw this question and decided to provide an answer in case you're still didn't find one in the documentation.

To open files with associated programs you need to add the following command to your ~/.vifm/vifmrc file:

filetype * open %c

Then both l and i keys will work for you as expected. See help on :filetype and :filextype in the documentation.

This doesn't work out of the box, since different systems have different open commands and the default behavior is to open all files with Vim (for example, xdg-open for Ubuntu 16.04, as opposed to the aforementioned "open", which is specific to Mac). Maybe new version will contain a set of open commands for different systems in sample vifmrc file, so it will work from the beginning.


How to restore Chrome "size-to-best-fit" zoom functionality?

Try to hold on option key and click the "green" button.


How can I buy an app from the App Store and download it to my wife's iPad?

Gift an item on an iOS device

Find the item in the App store or iTunes store that you wish to gift.
Tap the Share icon in the upper right.
Tap the Gift icon.
Sign in to the iTunes Store with your Apple ID.
Type the email address for the person you want to send the iTunes Gift to.
If you want to, add a message.
Pick the day you want to send the gift.
Select a theme for your gift.
Tap Buy, then tap Buy to confirm.

Gift an item on Mac or PC

Sign in to the iTunes Store with your Apple ID.
Find the item in the App Store or iTunes Store that you wish to gift.
Click the arrow to the right of the price and select Gift This.
Type the email address for the person you want to send the iTunes Gift to.
If you want to, add a message.
Pick the day you want to send the gift and click Next.
Select a theme for your gift and click Next.
Confirm your gift purchase and click Buy Gift.

Ref: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201783


Is that possible to check an iPad's total power-on lifetime since its manufacture?

It is not generally possible to determine the total power-on lifetime of an iOS device.

To determine how much the device is used, a better indicator is to determine the battery charge cycle count. A single charge cycle count is equivalent to one complete discharge or the device's battery. For a new device, the cycle count value is a low value between 0-2.

To determine the battery charge cycle count, you can use an app such as coconutBattery.

Additionally, if you are running the current latest version of iOS 12, you can determine is still covered under limited warranty. On your iPad, go to Settings app → About and look for an item named Limited Warranty. It will show the warranty expiry data. The devices whose warranty has expired, this item is not shown altogether.

The last mentioned approach uses the device serial number and fetches the warranty expiry date from Apple's servers. Since the limited warranty for iOS devices bought from Apple is for 1 year from the date of purchase, I think it's a good measure that can be used to determine the genuinity of the device.

These two approaches should help you with confidently getting answer for your concerns.


iPhone keyboard dictionary is not restored from iCloud backup

You can try SwiftKey. But the issue with 3rd party keyboards is that they might very well be transmitting whatever you type back to their servers. You never know. That's the reason I still haven't installed it on my iPhone. I had it installed on my Android because I controlled it using a firewall. iOS doesn't have any, unfortunately.


Will a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) power up in clamshell mode?

An easy way to spoof a monitor connector is to use a VGA adapter, and connect a VGA Dummy-plug (sometimes called a "VGA Terminator").

There are a number of tutorials on how to make your own - here and here are other (though these involve soldering).

You can also buy them in DVI-A and VGA flavors.

If you want something that spoofs a DVI-D interface into thinking there is an attached monitor, it is a lot more work.


MacBook Pro battery drains quickly, shows Service Battery when restarted

No. The service battery warning indicates an abnormal (but perhaps not to be unexpected) situation.  You'll want to call Apple or visit a repair shop for a diagnosis. Chances are 10 to one or more that your battery should be replaced.


Automate taking a screenshot of specified area

screencapture has a -R option for specifying the area. It is not mentioned in the man page but it is mentioned in the help message:

$ screencapture -h
screencapture: illegal option -- h
usage: screencapture [-icMPmwsWxSCUtoa] [files]
  -c         force screen capture to go to the clipboard
  -C         capture the cursor as well as the screen. only in non-interactive modes
  -d         display errors to the user graphically
  -i         capture screen interactively, by selection or window
               control key - causes screen shot to go to clipboard
               space key   - toggle between mouse selection and
                             window selection modes
               escape key  - cancels interactive screen shot
  -m         only capture the main monitor, undefined if -i is set
  -M         screen capture output will go to a new Mail message
  -o         in window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window
  -P         screen capture output will open in Preview
  -s         only allow mouse selection mode
  -S         in window capture mode, capture the screen not the window
  -t<format> image format to create, default is png (other options include pdf, jpg, tiff and other formats)
  -T<seconds> Take the picture after a delay of <seconds>, default is 5
  -w         only allow window selection mode
  -W         start interaction in window selection mode
  -x         do not play sounds
  -a         do not include windows attached to selected windows
  -r         do not add dpi meta data to image
  -l<windowid> capture this windowsid
  -R<x,y,w,h> capture screen rect
  files   where to save the screen capture, 1 file per screen


How to hide FaceTime audio macOS High Sierra Version 10.13

This seems like a bug.

Also other people had this kind of question too: Apple discussion

I have found three temporary workarounds (the last one is the best). All of them force quit the process FaceTimeNotificationCenterService:

Open Activity Monitor and search for FaceTime. Then select FaceTimeNotificationCenterService, press the red circled button and choose Force Quit.

Open Terminal and type killall -kill FaceTimeNotificationCenterService then press return (⮐)

With this command you essentially Force Quit the process. (For more information type man killall; -kill sends the signal kill instead of the default signal term to the process)
For a more permanent solution you start Automator make a new Application. Here you go to Utilities and drag Run Shell Script to your workflow. Write killall -kill FaceTimeNotificationCenterService in the text field and you can save the document.

As a shortcut you can place this Application in your dock so it needs only single click to activate.


Disable boot chime on late 2009 MacBook without macOS installed

The Start up chime resides in the NVRAM.

To disable it in OS X  run sudo nvram BootAudio=%00

I found this for Linux:

# efivar -l | grep SystemAudioVolume
 7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82-SystemAudioVolume
 7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82-SystemAudioVolumeDB

# efivar -n 7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82-SystemAudioVolume -p
GUID: 7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82
Name: "SystemAudioVolume"
Attributes:
    Non-Volatile
    Boot Service Access
    Runtime Service Access
Value:
00000000  00                                                |.               |

# efivar -n 7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82-SystemAudioVolumeDB -p
GUID: 7c436110-ab2a-4bbb-a880-fe41995c9f82
Name: "SystemAudioVolumeDB"
Attributes:
    Non-Volatile
    Boot Service Access
    Runtime Service Access
Value:
00000000  00
#

SOURCE


Can't find uninstaller in Folx downloader.mac.dmg

OS X is a bit different. After putting the application itself in the trash, you should probably use safari preferences to remove the extension. Once you do that you do that, you might want to log out and back in.  Then empty the trash.

Alternatively you can look in the library folders - use finder go menu and choose "Go to Folder" and look in both below locations:

~/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins
/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins

Note the space is encoded with a \ but you can skip that most of the time if you are not pasting into terminal or scripting. Delete any plugins to be nuked and reboot if you removed any from the second system library folder. Then empty trash.


How to parse output from diskutil activity in bash script

The delay is probably due to buffering.

Try xargs -L 1 bash myScript.sh if you can process the data line by line.


Should I install new drivers on Bootcamp?

Since you didn't mention you had a backup of the system or if you are equipped to troubleshoot a driver issue, you should probably not update things unless you have a problem.

Apple vets the drivers it provides to be sure they work well with Mac hardware - so although you are free to update drivers, you are skipping that vetting process. Unless the driver manufacturer messed up, you will should be as fine as any other user updating the driver so it's more an edge case of them not testing the new driver on Mac hardware than something that should break.

Apple's drivers are typically for the screen resolution, trackpad, system sensors and it's unlikely those need a change since your Mac hardware hasn't changed in most cases.


Is it possible to use Image Capture to scan over WiFi with an EPSON SX620FW, and how to set that up?

I've got an NX420, and I can use the scanner with Image Capture over WiFi. What did it for me was installing the drivers that came on the CD (the ones Apple included didn't do it, and neither did the ones on the Epson website).

You might try that.


Are there common causes of a text message sound in the night, but no text message?

It sounds like you have another app that may be giving you untimely notifications. You can check by opening Settings.app > Notifications. Scroll through that list and tap on each application that you don't want sound notifications on. Scroll down slightly and turn Sounds off.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no (easy) way to look up notifications logs. I say easy, because notifications logs should be accessible with a jailbreak, however, as of writing, there is no jailbreak available for iOS 6 - if you have that installed.

As a last resort, if you are on iOS 6, you can also schedule Do-Not-Disturb times, from when you go to bed to when you get up. One thing you could do to verify that it is indeed the text tone, is change the text tone to something different. If the different sound goes off at night again (or anytime without a text message actually appearing to come in), that would narrow it down to it indeed being a pseudo-text-notification. At that point, Do-Not-Disturb, would seem like a reasonable "hack".


Since macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Apple has provided three different macOS Recovery options. These are described below:

commandR to reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac, without upgrading to a later version
optioncommandR to upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac
shiftoptioncommandR to reinstall the macOS that came with your Mac, or the version closest to it that is still available

So, the best options if you're wanting to install macOS High Sierra from Recovery mode is to use the:

commandR shortcut (since that's the last version of macOS you had installed), or the
optioncommandR shortcut as that's the one for installing the latest macOS compatible with your hardware.


Restoring data from both an iCloud and iTunes backup

First of all, I see that I can restore those: Notes, Reminder, Apple Mail, Apple Contacts, Apple Calendar, Photos.
Then, you can also restore MANUALLY for those contents: Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks.

PS: I'm using IP 5S. ^^


accountsd process uses all CPU - AMSAccountStoreCache error

I also tried some things, like removing keychain with a UUID name, but that did not work. For me signing out of iCloud account solved the 300% CPU of accountsd.


MacOS Contacts App — How can I tell to which address book an entry belongs?

I'm not sure if this is obvious, but in the Contacts App, Click on View->Show Groups.  Then you can select the contact in either group?


APFS encryption is done with the AES encryption algorithm in XTS mode with a 128 bit keylength. This is the same algorithm, mode and keylength used by earlier versions of macOS too (i.e. with HFS+ file systems).

As you mention Windows BitLocker, this is actually the same method and strength that Windows has recently started using in the newer versions of Windows 10.

Regarding your other questions about guest users and account passwords - this really has nothing to do with APFS encryption. This is instead handled by a layer above called File Vault 2.

File Vault 2 with APFS is really the same as with HFS+ with the one difference that APFS has built-in encryption support (i.e. the AES-XTS-128 for encrypting the data) where HFS+ needs encryption added as layer on top of the file systems (i.e. via Core Storage). In practice there's no real difference for most end-users.

In any case, all the key handling that makes full disk encryption work for the end-user to handle such things as booting from an encrypted drive, user accounts, guests, recovery keys, etc. are all handled by File Vault 2 - which is seperate from the file system itself.


Try downloading reflector, it will mirror your screen, allowing you to use a screen recorder on your Mac to record it.


Why opening application with shortcut doesn't behave the same as opening it from the dock

Thank you! I have received another solution which works as expected (as if the app was opened from the dock): I have created an AppleScript with activate application "Zotero". I still don't understand why the Launch Application behaves differently.


Mac chrome can't drag and scroll in bookmark folder

This works by emulating the middle mouse, I did so using a preset in bettertouchtool for this function made by the dev
https://community.folivora.ai/t/emulate-a-real-middle-click-including-dragging-with-the-trackpad-e-g-for-cad-programs/1076
you kind of have to use both hands on the trackpad but it works once you figure it out, probably do-able with other programs too.


There is no way to do this in the Settings and I am sure this is no app to do this without a jailbreak. Some apps offer an option to turn off sounds in Settings, but if there aren’t any options there is no way to go around it.


Why Isn't the Dock Showing/Hiding Correctly

I am using 10.14.6 also, and have noticed no issues with the dock on my computer, except I just use Auto-Hide for the dock so it disappears until I need it. Whenever I move the mouse to either screen the dock pops up -- but this might because there is still only one visible instance of the dock.

But I noticed something similar to what you describe on a coworker's 27" iMac the other day.

On the second monitor was the Mail app and Finder was the active app on the primary screen. The dock was on the screen with the Mail app. Moving the Mail app to the primary screen the dock moved.

I don't know what the rules are for the dock, but if it gets stuck try toggling on/off hiding. (Right-click on the separator between standard an recent apps, then select "Turn Hiding On/Off").


No entry grey screen with spinner with new SSD

Posting this from my working OS! The problem was with selecting encryption when formatting the drive. I reformatted without, painstakingly downloaded Lion again and all seems to be working fine now.


Unfortunately you have found the conundrum Microsoft has placed before you. There is no way to run Access natively on a Macintosh. You can try Parallels or Bootcamp to run Windows on the Mac, and then within Windows, Office Access, but that seems a little like a Frankenstein solution.

I know this sounds heretical from the completely Mac-centric IconDaemon, but sometimes Microsoft wins and you have to bite the bullet and run a PC.

Have you considered purchasing access (pun intended) to a co-located Windows server? This company offers such a service. (No financial or other ties to Colocation America - I just Googled and this was the first company to pop up.)


Build fails with configure: error: could not make ./config.status

So finally it works, but I can't say it's solved because I don't have the exact cause of the problem.
It turns out that this could be a PATH related issue. I came across this post that mentions the possibility of a PATH causing problems.
Though I could see nothing related to ruby or java or python on my PATH, I had previously played around with rbenv, jenv, and pyenv. The only thing I currently had was npm-packages on my PATH.
So I just commented out everything related to PATH on my ~/.bash_profile and tried the configure again, and voila!, it works! The config.status file is created, configure --help also displays the help info, etc.
I've yet to figure out what was the offending segment on my PATH. But for the moment, I'm happy that I'm able to start building at the command line again! Hope this helps someone facing similar problems in the future.


Trying to install vsftpd via mac ports on snow leopard

The man page for the config file for vsftpd should be of some help. If you set listen=YES in the config file, then vsftpd will be configured to run in standalone mode. It will then not be needed to be run from inetd or xinetd.

However, if you don't wish to run vsftpd in standalone mode, you will have to look at the man pages for launchd and launchctlto figure out how to set upvsftpdto load vialaunchd. Thexinetsystem was replaced withlaunchd` on Snow Leopard.


iPhone pictures won't delete and keeps "restoring" after deletion using iTunes sync

I was looking further into this and I found out that on my Macbook Pro's System Preferences. In the iCloud settings, the "Photos" setting was checked and in the Options next to that, the "My Photo Stream" and "Photo Sharing" was also checked.

I think this was the main problem. After I used iTunes to sync with the photos maybe there was some cache settings or something residual left on the iPhone which let to it being continuously restoring.

This is the fix which I used. It is fine now.

Check in System Preferences for - iCloud >> Photos is unchecked.
Check in System Preferences for - iCloud >> Photos >> Options >> "My Photo Stream" and "Photo Sharing" is unchecked.
Temporarily delete account for iCloud settings on iOS device - Settings >> iCloud (This didn't affect my main iCloud account only deleted my information on the device)
Re-sync iOS device with iTunes.
Set up your iCloud account on iOS device again.

Hope this helps for anyone having this problem.


How can I remove email addresses from Mail's autocomplete?

I've had this same concern and from what I understand Apple does not provide a method to accomplish this cleanup. There are many threads in Apple Support discussion board and they always end suggesting to email Apple the request for this ability.

However, if you own a PC, this gem popped up:

Can't delete Unwanted Email addresses, Auto-fill in saves them all !


What does "The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time" message mean and how can I fix it?

This message typically occurs due to some temporary server side issue. For troubleshooting an error message like this, you should view Apple's system status.

There is no user-side fix. You have to simply wait for Apple's services to come back online.


View SSL/TLS certificate in Safari 5+ when no padlock icon shown

Recent versions of Safari do not appear to display the lock icon or certificate unless all content loaded by the page is https. For example, if the page URL is https but it loads a JavaScript file via http, no lock icon.

The only workaround I've found so far is to run the openssl command in Terminal, like this:

echo ^d | openssl s_client -connect host.example.com:443

This will show you the certificate chain back to whatever root authority is used to sign, if any. "verify error" will show things like "self signed certificate".


is it possible to use iCloud to share Pages files on a Mac amongst users

The only way to share documents with other people via iCloud (at this time) would be to give them your iCloud password—not a great idea, particularly if it's also your iTunes Store ID.

Using the shared folder option of DropBox is sounder practice.


Preview: offset when moving in page history

I have not seen this behaviour since macOS Mojave. The issue is fixed.


How does Apple AppStore rank search results?

I'd venture to guess and say that the App Store ranking algorithm is a company secret, much like Google's web search rankings. It seems to me that the radical changes in placement you are witnessing are as much the fickleness of App Store customers as anything else.

Correlation isn't causation by any means, but it seems fairly clear by your description of the events that if you want a lot of downloads you will either have to make it free (and perhaps ad-supported?), or your alarm clock app needs to do something so unique amongst the plethora of alarm clock apps that customers will feel compelled to pay for it.


how to stop krisp.ai app from starting on boot

Open System Preferences.
Go to Users & Groups.
Choose your nickname on the left.
Choose the Login items tab.
Check startup programs you want to remove.
Press the “–” sign below.
You're done.


Accessing Apple Mail's mailboxes remotely, maybe over SSH?

What I would do is first make sure you're using IMAP to connect to your email (which should be the case anyhow —— I can't think of any good reasons to use POP), then use a terminal email client such as Alpine or Mutt, both of which are easily installed with Mac Ports or Homebrew, or built yourself.

This way, all your email will be perfectly synchronized, with iPhone, webmail, Mac Mail, Alpine, etc


Is there an OSX app/way to batch rename files via a purely text interface?

Emacs can do this.

Open Emacs
C-x C-f and open the directory. It will open in dired-mode.
M-x wdired-change-to-wdired-mode RET

You can now edit the filenames just as you asked.  Pressing C-c C-c will end wdired-mode and perform the modifications.

  wdired-change-to-wdired-mode is an interactive autoloaded Lisp
  function in `wdired.el'.

  It is bound to   .

  (wdired-change-to-wdired-mode)

  Put a Dired buffer in Writable Dired (WDired) mode.

  In WDired mode, you can edit the names of the files in the buffer, the
  target of the links, and the permission bits of the files.  After
  typing C-c C-c, Emacs modifies the files and directories to reflect
  your edits.

  See `wdired-mode'.


How to remove scratches from 5th generation iPod?

I found on this site Repair iPod Scratches yourself Cheaply that you can use something called Brasso to clean the back of it. It has a mild abrasive in oil. it will cost you about 5 dollars. Then to clean the face, either a microfiber cloth or a t-shirt.

EDIT:
You could try Ice Creme its designed for iPods and Macs (or so it says).


How to automate Voice Control to manipulate the currently selected text?

Sorry I have zero knowledge of JavaScript but I do have somewhat of a solution for you using only AppleScript without the need for Automator.
This following AppleScript code will take the selected text in any application, replace the spaces with hyphens then will replace your original selected text with the new hyphenated text.
-- Copies Selected Text To The Clipboard
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay 0.1

-- Uses The Text From The Clipboard And Replaces Space Characters With A Hyphen
set hyphenatedText to hyphenateText(the clipboard, " ", "-")
delay 0.1

-- Inserts The New Hyphenated Text Replacing The Original Selected Text
tell application "System Events" to keystroke hyphenatedText

(*
someText is the selected text containing the characters to be replaced
replaceTheseListItems are characters from original text which you want replaced
replacementListItems replacement text characters
*)
on hyphenateText(someText, replaceTheseListItems, replacementListItems)
    set originalText to someText
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to replaceTheseListItems
    set tempText to text items of originalText
    set text item delimiters to replacementListItems
    set cleanedText to tempText as text
end hyphenateText

Save the AppleScript code as a .scpt file (Hyphenate Selected Text.scpt). Then open Finder and select your new script file.  Once the file is selected, and with voice control activated, simply say the command “Make This Speakable”.  When the new dictation command dialog box opens, Assign it a new voice command

For demonstration purposes I added this script file to the script menu and ran it from there


ImageMagick complains when image is missing while stitching together tiles of an image

You should be able to do this with wildcards. The shell will expand to existing files:

convert -append 0_*jpeg 0a.jpg &&
convert -append 1_*jpeg 1a.jpg &&
convert -append 2_*jpeg 2a.jpg &&
convert -append 3_*jpeg 3a.jpg &&
convert -append 4_*jpeg 4a.jpg &&
convert -append 5_*jpeg 5a.jpg &&
convert -append 6_*jpeg 6a.jpg &&
convert +append *a.jpg 0_final.jpg


If I understand things, you wish to walk away from the “old email” entirely - lose all cloud data, lose all purchases and make a new iCloud / AppleID on your new email.

If so, you’re going to need a few things and some luck or a call to Apple Support. Here are some limitations.

If your device is activation locked, you can’t walk away from the old iCloud - you have to recover that account. You will need to prove to Apple using a rigorous process (they will not deviate from the script, some steps will take days) if you can’t provide the security questions, receive a secondary email or remember and enter the password.
If your new email is associated in any way with the old AppleID / old iCloud you can’t use it for a new account or even associate it with a new account.

Assuming all of the above are OK, you would sign out of every iCloud using the old - all mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV. Then you would set up your new AppleID - have it use your new email and then proceed to sign in on each device.


Do you have a ~/.bash_profile? If so, then that will be preferred over the ~/.profile startup script. Next, verify the setting of your path (echo $PATH). Also (and this may be a dumb question) are you actually logged in as GuardDog_02? In other words, is ~ identical to /Users/GuardDog_02?


iOS is a beautifully designed operating system. Part of what makes it so great is the troubleshooting protocol, which is basically: (1) power cycle the device or (2) restore from a backup. I have an iPad and iPhone 4S that have separate configurations but are linked to the same iTunes user ID. This means that while I effectively have all the same apps available to me, I don't have to have them installed on both devices. As an example, my wife and son went out of town last week. I removed all of my apps that had important data that syncs between everything (he's 14 months old, and has an uncanny knack for manipulating the iPad in only the most unfortunate of ways), added some new videos and infant-appropriate games, and so forth. Basically I configured it to be an entertainment device specific for him, for that trip. When they return I'll simply connect it to my Mac and restore it to the state it was in the moment before they left. Gorgeous, simple, and hassle-free.

The point is that Through iTunes, you have pretty granular control over what gets synced between your computer and the device. As far as backups go, see this article for detailed information about what does and doesn't get backed up to your computer. Of course, you can also backup information to iCloud. This is similar, but not identical to, the backup on your computer. This article lists what gets sent to iCloud. Having trouble deciding which service(s) to use? Apple even provides some pros and cons to consider in this article. As far as I know and can tell, stopping app syncing does not erase the apps, it merely stops backing them up beyond the current backup state. Deleting an app directly from your iPhone, however, "...will also delete all of it's data" (per the iOS warning message). That part is fairly transparent and self-explanatory.

If you don't want an application to be re-added to your iPhone, just use the "Apps" panel in iTunes and deselect the check boxes next to the apps that you've deleted from the device. You can also de/select the check box labelled "Automatically sync new apps." This will prevent them from showing up again. Rinse and repeat for the other panels (e.g., Music, Photos). If time is a factor when it comes to syncing podcasts (this is mostly what I sync, too), I would try to do it at a time of day when it's a non-issue, like when you're eating breakfast or engaged in some other routine. Let it sync when you won't be messing with it anyway, and it is immediately a non-issue.

Hope this helps with your question!


WiFi Connection Lost Periodically - Must Reboot iPod Touch to Restore

Numbers starting with 169... are self assigned numbers and means the iPhone can't find a DHCP server to connect to.
This used to happen to my iPhone on an earlier OS version (3 point something). I haven't seen it for a while. Switching to and from "Airplane Mode" was enough to get the iPhone to acquire a new address.

PS. Is this an answer or a comment?


Notes created via Siri don't sync with Gmail until they're manually edited

I'm having the same problem on my iPhone 6 S. Like you, if I edit the Siri-created notes, they sync. In addition Siri won't create iCloud notes on that device (which is why I have reverted to Google notes.)

My work-around is to move all the notes to iCloud, which I then process on my Mac. That way, they keep the same time stamp, and I can do this in bulk on my iPhone 6 S (Notes.app) using Edit → Move All. Obviously not helpful if your other devices don't use iCloud.

my old iPhone 5, which I've kept, has none of these problems. Yet both my phones use the same OS (9.1). I'm considering keeping the old phone for Siri note-taking purposes until this gets sorted out, as I rely heavily on this feature.

I've logged a bug with Apple Bug Reporter.