How can I figure out which keychain entries a process wants access to

First with any Keychain question/problem, run Keychain First Aid, found under the Keychain Access menu.

It is to be hoped you also check the option to Show Keychain Access in menubar, for quick access to all.


How do I get a refund after purchasing an app from the Mac App store?

Do the following steps

open up Your Account in iTunes by clicking Account inside iTunes Store
click see all in the Check Your Purchase History row
click the Report a Problem button
select the App from which you want to refund
explain and write a detailed reason why you think you should get a refund for the app


Microsoft Excel on Mac Error VBA Run-Time 1004 on Application Open - Endless Loop - Cannot Use Excel

Solution is posted here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/975724/excel-for-mac-error-the-application-microsoft-excel-quit-unexpectedly
Delete entire folder that ends in .office


How do I force Safari to show me Google search result pages in history?

Click History > Search Results SnapBack or ⌥⌘S via keyboard shortcut


I suppose it depends on the MDM or are you just looking for the link to get iTunes version to get the IPA so you can then manage your devices:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208079


How do I switch monitor focus with the keyboard?

fwiw, I think this question has already been asked and answered...

Keyboard shorcut to switch focus between multiple displays on OS X Mavericks


Try Kawa.

It’s an open source (free) language switcher for macOS.  You can use custom shortcuts or the menu bar to switch languages.


Using 85W MagSafe inplace of 60W MagSafe 2 for MBP retina 13"

Apple themselves states that it is safe and okay to use a higher power cord on a laptop even if it only requires a lower power one: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2346

The power requirement for your computer really is just a "minimum" power requirement. If you can even call it that. Because they'll actually charge even on lower powered cords, but it will be slower and it's not recommended. MacBooks can officially (meaning Apple supports it) use cords that supply more power than the standard provided by the default cord. The computer will actually only pull what it needs from the cord, it's not as if the cord will force as much power as it's rated for into your computer.

As far as the adapter, there shouldn't be any issues with it. Apple states that it's for using a MagSafe cord with a MagSafe 2 MacBook. Which at least implies that it supports all MagSafe cords, and all their different power outputs. And there's not really a reason I can think of why it shouldn't anyways. There is an 85W MagSafe 2 cord, and I doubt Apple would make an adapter that wouldn't work for those computers that require it.


Time Machine Error - The backup disk is not available

I've now gotten Time Machine to see the older backups. Not sure if the first step is necessary as I noted that Time Machine Preferences took a while to update the "Latest backup" date, so it might have been enough to just perform a backup.

Step 1 - Verify the backups

Following a guide on a similar topic I deleted the
com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist file (on my ReadyNAS this was
located under /c/.timemachine/MachineName.sparsebundle/)
Have Time Machine verify your backups by having the alt-key pressed while clicking the Time Machine icon and choosing Verify Backups

At this stage Time Machine Preferences still states that I have no backups, but by choosing Enter Time Machine I can see the earlier backups.

Step 2 - Take a new backup

After this was done, Time Machine Preferences update both the Latest Backup date and Oldest Backup date to correct values.


GMail on one Mac (only!) stopped working this week

Do you have your account configured with your regular GMail account password or an "App Password"?  Do you have two-factor authentication turned on?

I've had my home cameras configured for several years to send me emails via SMTP using my GMail with an App Password to email me if any motion is detected. I usually get several emails a day but this week suddenly it stopped working.  I generated a new Google App Password and even disabled 2-factor authentication but I still can't send any emails from my cameras.  Again... this has worked flawlessly for 2-3 years with no recent changes to my camera.

I encountered someone else having similar issues here: https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/outlook-365-no-longer-connects-to-gmail-smtp/

I'm thinking google must have changed something.


IOS Settings App Notification Acknowledgement (red dot elimination)

The red dot in notification bar because of notifications in secure zone check it once


Is phone call history available on OS X?

I found my history at:

~/Library/Application Support/CallHistoryDB/CallHistory.storedata


How to automate renaming a file based on its parent folder?

You can do this with an AppleScript. Use the Script Editor in the Utilities folder. Here is a script I wrote for you just now. It works on one folder at a time-- not the top level folder, but the one in your example that is 3587915.

When you run this script it asks you to choose a folder. In this example you would open 3587915 and then click "Choose." Very important: don't choose your 3589919. We are only working on one folder at a time here. If this works for you we can expand to looping through the folders in the top-level folder.

tell application "Finder"
    set the_folder to choose folder
    set the_folder_name to name of the_folder
    set the_subfolders to every folder in the_folder
    repeat with I from 1 to count of the_subfolders
        set name of every file of item I of the_subfolders to the_folder_name & "_" & I & ".pdf"
        move every file of item I of the_subfolders to the_folder
    end repeat
    --
    -- optionally delete the subfolders
    delete every folder in the_folder -- put two dashes in front of this line to comment it out
end tell

Here are screenshots showing you how it works. You should practice on a set of folders that don't matter at first. You can see my starting set-up in the first picture and the result in the second. The captions on the pictures are not showing up (for me) so here is what they should be:

Picture 1: Automator Service, with slightly modified AppleScript.

Picture 2: folder_1, folder_2, folder_3, folder_4, and folder_5 each have a single pdf in them. Only folder_1's contents are shown here.

Picture 3: This is the result. The subfolders are gone. The files are named after the parent folder.

You can save the script as an app. Or, you can run the script within a step in Automator since Automator can run an AppleScript. That's in the Utilities section of Automator, "Run AppleScript." I would include a picture but I am new here and am only allowed two pictures until I am upgraded.

If you want to do it with a service, you use almost the same script, but you have to pass the control-clicked folder. Rather than using the AppleScript step "Choose Folder" you tell your Automator Service to "receive selected folder in the Finder" and you set "the_folder" to item 1 of the input. See the first picture. Works like a champ here!


Microsoft Word for Mac files are not closing

When closing the file, go to the file, press the escape button. this takes it out of full screen. Then press the red "x" in the corner. do this for each file untill no files exist and the top banner still says "word". then click word and select quit word.


play display from MacBook to projector connected to mac pro

Install software like Reflector 2 on the Mac Pro.

Then your MacBook (assuming it can airplay to other displays) will see the Reflector advertisement and push the MacBook screen to the window on the Mac Pro.

Once that's set - set the Mac Pro to direct the Reflector 2 window to full screen on the projector.

Worst case, you'd need software like AirParrot on the MacBook if it's not new enough to AirPlay to a remote screen from the OS level and hardware.


How do I fix Apple Music "Cloud Music Library is not responding"?

After wrestling with this all day, even after iTunes status showed normal, I found this solution:

Open iTunes.
Press ⌘-, to open the Preferences dialog.
Uncheck Show Apple Music, acknowledge the dialog advising you you will stop using iCloud Music Library, then select OK.
Reopen the Preferences dialog.
Check Show Apple Music again as well as iCloud Music Library, then select OK.

This will restore iCloud Music Library.  Note: I could not immediately add music to my library after this without seeing more errors, but the next morning I found my add attempt had succeeded and everything seems to be in good shape.


New USB-C charger to be used on an old MagSafe2 Macbook Pro

There is no adapter that goes from USB-C to Magsafe 2.  Though there is a project to create turn a USB-C into a MagSafe adapter

Tech accessories usually don't go backwards and it's usually because the old accessories don't have the capability to communicate properly with the new devices (i.e. voltage negotiation with USB-C charging).

Unfortunately, you will have to get an older charger to support that MacBook Pro.


If you don't have any Time Machine backups, now would be a good time to make one.

The Desktop Preference in your screen grab is displaying the contents of Macintosh HD -> Library -> Desktop Pictures which appears to be empty.  If it really is empty, you may be able to locate, replace, or download the missing files and that could be a simple fix.  But if there are other issues and it seems that Mac OS X has been damaged, I would think about using Recovery HD to reinstall the OS.  User pictures are located in the /Library/User Pictures folder.  Since Disk Utility has verified and repaired permissions on Macintosh HD, I guess those files are missing too.

Step one: make a Time Machine archive of your Mac Mini on an external drive. Once you are sure it is properly backed up, you could try entering this in Terminal to search the Library folder for the Mountain Lion default Desktop picture:

sudo find /Library -name "Galaxy.jpg"

Or search the entire disk like this (it will take quite some time):

sudo find / -name "Galaxy.jpg"

And just for good measure, run a bit of system maintenance:

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

If you are still in the same predicament and decide to re-install Mac OS X, reboot holding down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo appear.  You should see a list of utilities including Disk Utility (try it one more time) and "Install Mac OS X"  which is a 4GB download, so a good network connection is going to help. After a clean install, you can use Migration Assistant to import Users from the Time Machine archive you made earlier.  Applications are best re-installed from the App Store, original media, or a source you can trust.


It depends - if the photo is out of the Photo Stream Window and your deletion included the message that "this photo will be deleted from all devices" then yes - one delete wipes it forever.

If not, you may need to clean things up using iCloud.com and/or wiping your entire photo stream once you have the photos you wish to keep stored outside photo stream.

You can review the basics on cleaning up Photo Stream here:

How do you erase pictures from the Photo Stream album on an iPhone running iOS 5?

Things have changed since then and you have more options:

If you have sensitive photos, you can add them all to a hidden album. That places them in a "no thumbnail" / no preview state. If that's not enough, look over your current Deleted Items online directly from the cloud using https://www.icloud.com/#photos

That way, you know you are working with the authoritative version of all photos stored in iCloud.

Delete anything you don't need from deleted items to make sure your account is working and make it easy to permanently delete the offending images you want really purged.
Delete the images you want - follow up with purging them from Deleted Items.
Check your devices to make sure they followed the cloud deletion and don't have any stragglers.

Pay attention to the message that arrives when you delete an item. If it says it will be deleted on all devices, you know that device is in sync. If not, you will have to patrol all devices. This is easier by going to Settings - https://www.icloud.com/#settings - and making a check list of all the devices that could have your Photos from the stream.


What is an iPhone app with good support for Twitter lists?

I found "Tweetlist 4 for Twitter" ($5) when searching the app store. Here are some potential work-arounds:

Notifications seem to clear when I click "Notifications" at the bottom of the Twitter app for iOS 10. Try clicking on each notification in succession without clicking on anything in the the actual app. Works most of the time.
A foolproof solution is force touching the notification (if your phone supports it) so that you preview the tweet without even opening the app (only works for individual tweets - doesn't work for "recommendations" or "highlights").
TweetDeck can be used on the mobile web (as well as desktop web/app). You can add your lists as columns and collapse the sidebar so you can see better. You can also click the share button and press "Add to Home Screen" so the web page functions more like an app (edit: this doesn't work as you can't get past the login page but there is a paid app called "DESKTOP LOGIN for TweetDeck" for $3 but it has bad reviews because it isn't worth the money given that it's basically the same as using it in the browser).
Another idea is to set up SMS Notifications. Settings -> Mobile -> Text Notifications -> Check 1st Box: "Tweets from people you've enabled for mobile notifications". That way you'll have a running feed to make sure you didn't miss anything, I haven't tried this myself. SMS Notifications Twitter Help Page

PS: Disappearing notifications are frustrating but I've always been optimistic that Twitter will fix it in the future! Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, has declared that they will make efforts to improve Twitter in 2017. Hopefully this is one of the fixes.


Does resetting NVRAM reset EFI Boot Order?

NVRAM is a standalone chip on your logic board, backed up by small battery.

EFI resides on your SSD. (hard drive)

Showing battery for the PRAM (NVRAM)

So no, resetting NVRAM will not impact EFI.

To restore EFI, you have to reinstall the OS X.


Keyboard has a strange software related Issue

The most common cause of one key not working is that it has been set as the trigger for something, most often either Speech Recognition or Text to Speech.  Double check the settings in your system preferences/speech.


M1 mac mini: Python reports `mach-o, but wrong architecture`

Pypi does not provide an ARM package for this software for macOS.  Only X86_64.
How do I know?
I actually went and looked.
https://pypi.org/project/cffi/#files


There is no way to do that. Unless you already have a copy of the iOS 5.1.1 package for your iPad downloaded, you can only upgrade to the latest supported version for your device.


Is it possible to use an older Canon Scanner with OS 10.11 El Capitan?

VueScan might help. Honestly, you're better off buying a new AIO then trying to get these older machines working. You can also try deleting anything related to this Canon scanner that's on your Mac then checking if Preview will recognize it. I was reading here that some people had a limited amount of success doing that.


Mid '11 Mac Mini won't shutdown cleanly. OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

Firstly, you should update to OS X 10.11.6. It will solve many problems. Download 10.11.6 Update.

Secondly, reset SMC. Here is a link how to do it: Resetting System Management Controller.

If it doesn't help, try clean install: How to Clean Install El Capitan.

ADDITION:

If you can't do clean install using your own mac, make a bootable USB on another mac: Click here.

Also, go to Utilities and run Console.app for inspecting what's wrong with your OS: Click here.

It might be a problem with a hardware, so try single-user mode pressing cmd-s after startup 'chime' sound or verbose mode pressing cmd-v the same way. To read about it Click here.

And read an important post about 7 Mac Startup Options: Click here.


How do I set Outlook as the default mail option in Yosemite?

You can set Outlook as the default mail app following these steps:

Open the “Mail” application in OS X, note that you have to open the Mail app even if you’re wanting to use another mail client like Outlook.
Pull down the “Mail” menu and choose “Preferences”.
Go to the “General” tab.
Look for “Default email reader” and click on the menu to pull down other mail app options. If the mail app you want to use is not shown in this list choose “Select” to browse the /Applications/ folder and select one manually.


How do I get my Macbook Pro back to normal and keep all my files when I'm in "macOS Recovery"?

There are a few things you can try.

1. Use the SDM to try booting from your usual Startup Disk

Use Startup Disk Manager to see if your usual startup disk is available. Follow these steps:

Shut down your MBP
Switch it on and immediately press and hold the option key
Release the key when your bootable disks start appearing
If you see your usual startup disk, try booting from it

2. Try running Disk Utility from macOS Recovery

Boot into macOS Recovery
When the macOS Utilities window appears, select the Disk Utility option
Check to see if Disk Utility can see your usual startup disk
If so, use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk
Assuming it completes okay, try again to boot up your MBP

3. Run Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics

It's unclear from your question the exact model of MBP you have, so it's not clear whether your Mac used Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics (Apple switched to the latter in June 2013)

While the process of using these is slightly different, how to access them is the same:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears
Wait for either AHT or AD to load

If it's AD it'll automatically run the diagnostics - just wait for it to finish and report back
If it's AHT, select your language and click the right arrow to access your test options. I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.

Assuming this finds no hardware problems, it may be time to consider reinstalling macOS.

4. Reinstalling macOS without deleting applications, data, etc

Prior to following this process, you need to ensure:

you have a known good backup of all your data (be it via Time Machine or another process) just in case something goes wrong
your MacBook Pro is able to connect to the internet during the installation process
you have already confirmed that your usual startup disk can be seen by Disk Utility (see 2 above) and that the repair process itself completed without problems

Assuming you have the above sorted, follow these steps to reinstall macOS without deleting your apps, data, etc.

Shutdown your MBP
Power up your MBP and immediately press and hold the commandR keys
Let go of the keys when it's clear you're booting into Recovery mode
Soon the macOS Utilities window will appear
Make sure your iMac is connected to the internet
Now choose the Reinstall macOS option
Click the Continue button
Follow the prompts (to select your disk, etc)
Click the Install button

Once completed, your MBP will restart as normal. This process does not erase your drive and therefore all your apps and data should still be in place. In other words, this process does nothing but reinstall macOS over the previous version on your drive.

IMPORTANT: - Once again, things can go wrong and you should have a backup regime in place. Proceeding without a backup is done at your own risk.


Notifications only show last notification

I rebooted my machine and the problem fixed itself.


Should I buy an iPod touch in Canada in July or wait 'til September and buy it in Europe?

The new model (if one comes out; it's not necessarily certain that one will) will be better. Will it be 45€ better? I don't know, and that's something only you can decide. If you don't need the extra disk space, the 8 GB model should be sufficient (despite what @comradsky's answer says, the internals of the 4th-gen touches aren't any different between the size models except the internal storage space.

All in all, I have to say the same thing I always say when it comes to buying Apple products: if you need it, buy it. If you wait, there's always the possibility that they won't release a new model when you thought they would, so you buy the old model, and then they release the new model a month after you thought they would.

Also: consider looking at the refurbished store on Apple's website. There are (from time to time) fairly good deals on current- or previous-gen items.


What are the purposes and safety to enable the hidden debug menu in Disk Utility?

If you need to ask, you probably don't want to mess! ;)

It's going to let you see things like the Lion Recovery Partition etc that are normally hidden from use.

It's certainly safe to turn the debug menu on.  Whether it's safe to do anything once it is enabled depends very much on your skills.

But it can;t hurt to take a look if you are curious, just remember to turn if off if you don't intend to do anything other than poke about.


Where is Time Machine restoration software installed?

The Time Machine backup can be restored once the  operating system has been reinstalled.

I would create a bootable usb flash drive with the macOS of your choice on it. There are other ways of prepping the drive but I like Diskmaker X. It's free/shareware and the developer has versions available for pretty much every (recent) version of macOS. There are other utilities and there is even a command line option depending on what version you want to install.

Once you have installed your new SSD and installed the OS of your choice you need to restore your apps and data. there are lots of tutorials out there on how to do this but it boils down to a few simple steps. Be sure and have your Time Machine backup drive connected when you do this.

Hold down the ⌘ Commandand R keys to start up in Recovery mode
Select Restore from Time Machine Backup and click Continue.
Select Restore Your System, click Continue and select your backup.

The restore process will take a good long while and the Mac should restart or prompt you to restart when it is done.

While that is an overview and some of the details on the Recovery Mode option from restoring from a Time Machine backup are "best of my recollection" that should do it.


Changing trackpad scroll direction with AppleScript in Yosemite

First, make sure Applescripts has permission to modify apps.
This can be done by opening System Preferences | Security & Privacy | Accessibility and checking Script Editor. This is a one time process and you shouldn't have to check it again.

I ran this same snippet @Bowen provided in his question on Mojave and noticed what he described. I fixed it by adding the delay mentioned by @Bowen in his answer. The box would either check or uncheck now that we have added a small delay.

Here is that example I ran directly from Script Editor:

try
tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
end tell
delay 2
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
        click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    end tell
end tell
end try

Also, In relation to this topic, I built something using ideas from this thread, since folks may want to automate it per their settings. The below script is "Automator ready", or can be exported as an application so you can run it at startup or however you want to execute it. You have to also allow access to the exported application as shown in the image above for "Scroll direction Clicker". This is specific to a Logitech mouse being found, but it can easily be modified to any other type of string/mouse type. It can also be used as a decent reference to build off of for scroll-direction. I for one got tired of flipping scroll-direction when going from mouse to trackpad, and that's how I found this thread.

Tailored to be exported as an Application from within Script Editor

try
    set logitech to "Logitech"
    try
        set scriptOutput to do shell script "system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -i logitech"
        if scriptOutput contains logitech then
            tell application "System Preferences"
                activate
                set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
            end tell
            delay 2
            tell application "System Events"
                tell process "System Preferences"
                    set checkBoxOne to checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                    click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                    tell checkBoxOne to if value is 1 then click
                    tell application "System Preferences" to quit
                end tell
            end tell
        end if
    on error errMsg
        log errMsg
        tell application "System Preferences"
            activate
            set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
        end tell
        delay 2
        tell application "System Events"
            tell process "System Preferences"
                set checkBoxOne to checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                tell checkBoxOne to if value is 0 then click
                tell application "System Preferences" to quit
            end tell
        end tell
    end try
end try


Using way more math than should be needed, there is a formula that works. In the dummy spreadsheet above, you would put this in A3 and then copy it into all subsequent rows in bulk, just as you'd expect:

1 + ((    SQRT(8*SUM(  OFFSET($A$2,0,0,SUM(ROW(),-2),1)  )+1)    - 1) ÷ 2)


Upgrade iPad to newer (but not latest) iOS

First backup your iPad in case something goes wrong (if you have jailbroken your device I advice you to save your shsh blobs, it's not necessary).
Next download the os version you want to upgrade to from https://ipsw.me/
Finally open iTunes, cancel if asked for an update. Go to your iPad's summary page. Hold alt/option key (OS X), or Shift key (Windows) and click on restore. A window will show up choose the ipsw your downloaded before and and your upgrade will start. Then afterwards reinstall the backup.


Screen on Max Brightness Appears Slightly Dim After Sleeping, MacBook Pro 2015

Just figured this out for my case. I had already disabled the brightness from automatically adjusting. Every time my computer woke up from sleep however the brightness would still drop to around 50%.
Turns out I also needed uncheck the box to "Slightly dim the display while on battery power"
System Preferences > Battery > Slightly dim the display while on battery power
See the image below:


Why my Mac Mini doesn't boot with external HDD attached?

Assuming you have not installed a third party dual boot loader such as rEFInd, go into the System Preferences and select the internal HD as the "Startup Disk." If you have installed a third party boot loader it may be damaged or you may need to uninstall. If you don't know what a third party boot loader is; you probably don't have it.


Resource is busy, but lsof doesn't think so

lsof does not show all the processes when run as a normal user. Try with

sudo lsof | grep docx

See the SECURITY section of the man page


PowerPoint 2011: How to Insert image with "crop to fit" by default?

One way to do that is to use the "Placeholder" in PowerPoint.

Use View → Slide Master, then choose your layout.
Select "Insert Placeholder" and choose Picture.
Use the cursor to drag the picture to size and position it.

You can make multiple placeholders, but you do not have to use all of them if a slide does not require it.

From now on all new slides (with the chosen layout) will have the placeholders where you can insert a picture and they all will be cropped to auto fit the placeholder, or auto fill.

What you are trying to do is not possible. The Crop to fill will take the original and without shrinking it will use the center part and fill it in the preassigned Place Holder. The crop to fit will have to reduce the original to show it as whole in preassigned place holder.

Here is an example (left and right are place holders) while the middle is the original. So even if using the crop to fit as default the image size will be what your place holder was. Thus using the Crop to Fill is better option while using the Crop tool to move to the part of the image you wanted to show in full size.

The problem with your request is that the Crop to Fit will always require adjustment depending on the original image size.


Slow internet speed with an ethernet adapter on my Mac

You can’t evaluate adapter performance by measuring Internet latency and throughput because those things change - like the Network congestion and load of your service provider at that tine.  You need to do this internally where you control the variables.
Your question is very similar to this one: What dowload speeds is the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter capable of?
You need to use the iPerf3 utility to measure the performance internally. It’s free snd simple to use.
As for differences in performance, it comes down to the quality of the USB bridge in the adapter and the quality of the Ethernet chip itself; they’re not all created equal.  High quality USB to Ethernet adapters will have low latency (ping results) and higher throughput (iPerf3 results).
In your example, the variance in your ping results - 12ms vs 24ms could be due to the quality of your adapter and/or inherent latency of your internet connection.  USB speeds and feeds have nothing to do with this.  Same for your transfer speeds - what you’re seeing is well below USB 2 throughput.  However, it can be affected by the quality of the adapter and/or the inherent throughput inconsistencies of the Internet.
I actually address the “quality” issue in this post: AX88179 ethernet adapter keeps dropping connection. As far as the comment re: Apple branded Ethernet adapters, the answer is any quality adapter with a compatible chipset will work and perform just fine.  Avoid the inexpensive off brand adapters and stick to brands like Belkin, Anker, Netgear, etc.
Setup a small test environment as described in the linked answer so you can eliminate the unreliability of the Internet connection and limit your test to variables you can control.


iTunes: auto ramping up/down to avoid dead air

There is also a trimming function within iTunes that works separately from the crossfade solution proposed by @timothymh. This would work better for your dance scenario. If you right-click a song and select Get Info, you get an info window about the song. Under the Options tab, you can set a start and stop point for each song.

As an example, here I've set this song to start 20 seconds from the beginning.


PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR on 2 of my 3 WordPress sites but only from my MacBook Pro

I would use the developer console in your browsers to start to look at the web site errors. That almost always shows you the error in these cases, however if there are lots of errors, you may spend some time eliminating them one by one.
Here are step by step directions to get the console on Safari. There are some amazing tutorials on FireFox and I know a lot of people prefer that for this exercise so maybe someone has that experience to share here as an edit or another answer.

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/use-the-developer-tools-in-the-develop-menu-sfri20948/mac
https://support.apple.com/guide/safari-developer/welcome/mac

The benefit of these tools is you will have actionable items to take to vendors or ask wordpress experts how that error works and which precise URL triggered it. Most Wordpress pages have about 100 to 300 elements on “one page” so the vast majority of things can work and you still see an error thrown.


Lost partitions after a botched Windows install attempt via Bootcamp

I don't know what exactly happened, usually it works.

To get back to your original disk layout, just format the unallocated space with the Window installer (FAT32 or NTFS), boot to OS X and open Bootcamp Assistant.
Skip building an installation medium or downloading any drivers, just remove the Windows Partition.

If that doesn't work give me a comment. There are several solutions to restore the original disk layout.

Item List:

Actually you have a Fusion Drive.

To build a Fusion Drive several physical disks are combined to a CoreStorage Logical Volume Group.

Disk0 is your physical SSD
Disk1 is your physical HDD
Disk2 is your logical Macintosh HD volume (CoreStorage Logical Volume) which resides in a Logical Volume Group spanning over disk0s2 and disk1s2. Disk2 is no real physical disk like disk0 and disk1 but in the Disk Utiliy context an own "logical" one.
Disk3 is your thumb drive containing the Windows 8 installation environment.


SFTP client for OS X for updating external website

I use Transmit from Panic. It doesn't allow an actual file to file content comparison like a diff, but you can do a simulated sync to see which files will be replaced or deleted.

If you drag one file from window to window it asks you to verify and gives you the information on both files regarding modification dates and times.

You can try it before you buy it. I would think any good FTP client should do a simulated transfer.


What does Mac consider to be "photos" in storage?

On my machine it only counts the photos in any photos library on the drive or one opened from an external drive (which looks weird, when it shows 800GB of photos/videos on the system drive with 250GB capacity, while it's actually on the external one).

This being said you should be able to find the pictures somewhere:

You either have some pictures left in the recently deleted album (as @Ankii pointed out)
They could also be in a different library, which isn't opened
automatically. To open a different library either look for it in
Finder or launch the photos app and immediately hold down the
option key.
If you shared images in a shared album from the mac, they are saved on your mac. (I think the location is: Library/Application Support/Apple/Photos, not 100% sure though and can't verify right now)


Is it possible to sync a folder from Dropbox to iBook in iPad?

No, this is not possible since iBooks does not support bulk importing of content from other applications on an iOS device. The three ways to add books to iBooks are:

Purchase from the iBooks store and download
Sync books through iTunes
Send a single book (not several) from another application on the iOS device with the Open In...iBooks option

Also, iBooks does not have the concept of folders and folder hierarchies. It does have Collections, but there is no way to map folders to Collections from iTunes or any other source.


The image files (the jpgs) exist only once but are hard linked into both libraries. As the Finder doesn't have an (easy) way to identify the hard linking, calculating folder size on ~/Pictures counts these files twice.

Hard links work within one disk volume only, so if you copy data to a Cloud drive or to Windows, you will end up having two seperate files (and really use 168 GB in your case).


Yes.

Every iPhone has enough GSM frequencies to work with any carrier that wants to provide service and/or bill you international roaming.

Of course, in bad coverage areas, higher frequency signals are much shorter range so the traditional CDMA frequencies work better in rural areas.

With 250 plus carriers in 150 countries, you’ll always have some pain in some places, but an iPhone that’s still in Apple support is basically a universal communicator for social, monetary and technical reasons.

And in fact, after looking closer at the Apple page cited, we can see that the four models OP mentioned have exactly the same 41 bands.


That is the boot process happening (or perhaps stuck and not happening ) between the file vault unlock screen and the full macOS being booted. If you powered off the machine during the last reboot, this full disk check could take a long time if you don’t have problems. If you do have problems, it might freeze or never finish.

This isn’t much different than the Sierra process, so the way to diagnose is the same.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573

If you start up in verbose mode, you can see if it stops in a specific spot.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25421


iTunes Store credit can be used only for purchasing content sold on the App Store/iTunes Store, or for upgrading iCloud storage. Official instructions can be found here:

Redeem App Store & iTunes Gift Cards, Apple Music Gift Cards, and content codes

Selling of physical goods is not permitted on the App Store as per the App Store Review Guidelines. Refer specifically to the Business section of the document:

  3.1.5 (a) Goods and Services Outside of the App: If your app enables people to purchase goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry.


Warnings after changing Sudden Motion Sensor with pmset

I worked it out, it was due to Turn display off after x settings. Setting it to Never fixed this.

I'm the creator of this post. I'd close the thread but it won't let me log back into the account. Feel free to delete it.


How does one install "afloat" on OS 10.8/Mountain Lion?

It appears that this did work. I did find that my X11 app had the extra Afloat options in the Window menu. Reading around, it seems it only works on Cocoa apps, so I guess X11 is Cocoa but nothing else is.

I also found a downloadable dmg installer. I'll try this out too.


Can one access the iTunes Store Wish List via either of the two iOS app stores?

Not at the moment, but when iOS 7 is released later, the wishlist feature will be available using a button in the corner of the app (source)


White backgrounds on iPhone showing inset, very light, yet visible pink rectangular area

This seems to be an issue on a lot of iPhone 5/5s models. Supposedly, Apple has replaced the screens for free in the past, but the phone is old enough now they probably don't offer replacements any more.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5324198?start=0&tstart=0


Why won't the Finder sort when clicking on the column headers in this different list view?

You could also select View > Arrange By > None, press ⌃⌘0, or change the arrange mode from the pop-up menu on the toolbar.

See also Finder: Difference of "Sort by", "Clean Up By" and "Arrange by" - Ask Different.


Failed downgrade - iPod touch with broken home button

You need to get your device into a state called Recovery Mode, and then iTunes will automatically detect your device and let you restore to the latest iOS. For an iPod touch 4th gen, there are a few tools that can get your device into Recovery Mode for you without the use of hardware buttons. The best ways are to use redsn0w or iRecovery, but the steps are really complicated to use those utilities. There is a tool called RecBoot that claims to work, but I haven't used it, so I can't speak to it.

Edit: I actually had to use RecBoot the other day, and it worked great.


Sending Pictures from iPhone - Orientation is Wrong

The iPhone takes photos in whatever the orientation of the sensor is then uses EXIF data to instruct proper rotation.

Your friend's e-mail is ignoring (or stripping) the EXIF data. There's no way to fix it on your side.


Can I back up the saved WiFi passwords on my Mac?

All WiFi passwords are stored in Keychain.
So you need to make a backup of the keychain folder.

Location:

~/Library/Keychains/


You can add a line like

%admin ALL = !/bin/rm -rf /

to your sudoers file to prevent the execution of the command with the specific options.

Or, if you want to exclude several commands, you can work with command aliases

Cmnd_Alias DANGEROUS_CMNDS=/bin/rm -rf /, /bin/rm -fr /
%admin ALL=!DANGEROUS_CMNDS

You can also try to play it safe by using

Cmnd_Alias DANGEROUS_CMNDS=/bin/rm -rf /, /bin/rm -fr /, /bin/rm / *, /bin/rm * /, /bin/rm -rf / *, /bin/rm -rf * /, /bin/rm -fr / *, /bin/rm -fr* /
%admin ALL=!DANGEROUS_CMNDS

but there still might be other ways you can shoot yourself in the foot with rm so be careful anyway.

But keep in mind that all matching is done on the full string of the command, so sudo rm -rf /Volumes would still work (as would cd /; sudo rm -rf .).

PS: By all means, use sudo visudo to edit the sudoers file and NEVER edit it directly

PPS: I obviously didn't test this with rm (only with /bin/echo instead)


Is there a way I can set the Tab key as (part of) an application keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard shortcuts?

You could cp /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/KeyBindings.dict ~/Libary/Application\ Support/TextMate/ and add:

"\t" = shiftRight:;
"$\t" = shiftLeft:;

That would prevent expanding snippets with tab though.


Water spots on screen after liquid got in iPhone 6, fixable?

Sure, you can swap the LCD and battery while you’re in there. Up to you if you want to replace more like the digitizer.

I’d live with it for as long as you can until you determine if the contact fluid will corrode anything else or if you won’t use the phone for another 13 months.


Adding an entry to the hosts file on iPod touch 4G?

No, there's no access to system-level files without jailbreaking.


Automatically delete temporary ~/Library/Application Support folders

I suggest you use a guest account on OS X if you want certain home directory files automatically erased for you. A guest account's home directory gets cleaned up when you log out.

From http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh35549.html:

  Important: Files created by a guest user are deleted when the user logs out. A temporary home folder is created for the guest user’s files, but this folder and its contents are deleted when the user logs out.


I found the proper way to do this (also works for Yosemite):

Install Homebrew and cask if you don't already have them:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask

Uninstall any previous versions of osxfuse (unsigned kexts are banned now):

brew cask uninstall osxfuse

Update Homebrew and install osxfuse and ntfs-3g

brew update
brew cask install osxfuse
brew install ntfs-3g

You need to create a symlink for mount_ntfs, in order to make drives mount automatically:

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original
sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs


If this were the 2018 model, you could "trash" it and not worry (too much at least)  about your data (there's actually some vulnerabilities, but that's for another day and another question).  The T2 chip would make it virtually impossible for anyone to access it.  If you encrypted your drive, then you're essentially protected from bad actors trying to steal your data.
Booting in Target Disk Mode
If you boot your computer from an "off" state, just hold down T for about 30 seconds - that should be enough time to allow your Mac to enter TDM.  Normally, you'd see a USB icon on the screen, but now you're forced to guess; 30 seconds should be sufficient.
Once the target is started, boot your "good" Mac using the "bad" one as the startup disk.  You should then be able to get in and wipe out your data.
Genius Bar
This is something the folks at Apple can assist with. Your particular model had something called a "Lifeboat" circuit integrated with the SSD.  You could literally have a dead MacBook logic board, but with a Data Migration Tool kit you could access the SSD to recover your data.  It's an expensive tool, so it's not DIY, but Apple and 3rd party repair shops would have this so they could offer the service.
Does it have value?
As unlikely as it might seem, your machine still has value.  Apple makes it impossible to obtain certain chips like the SMC.  It's made by Texas Instruments (TI), under an exclusivity contract; nobody can buy it in the open market.  So, if an SMC dies, the board repair companies cannot buy the component to fix.  So, they use donor boards for this type of repair.
Normally, donor boards were sold as complete units.  Now, they are literally being "carved up" like a Thanksgiving turkey - a wing here, a thigh there, etc.  (Seriously, not kidding).  If you want to sell off your board, remove the logic board and put a drill through the solid state drive.  That will ensure that your data is secure.  They wouldn't be able to use that component anyway due to the security, but it doesn't hurt to take it one step further.  For a "map" of where the SSD is, just take a look at the iFixit Teardown for your model.
Get a second opinion
Before you trash it, have someone who specializes in board repair take a look at it.  Rossman Repair in NYC does this and is considered one of the best (not affiliated, just a happy customer).  Without putting hands on, I obviously can't give you a budgetary quote, but you could conceivably get this repaired for less than $500 USD (guessing here).  It doesn't hurt to get a second opinion.  The plus side here is if it's not worth repairing, they can recover your data for you.


Apple Extended Keyboard 2 - Caps lock key doesn't work in macOS High Sierra?

I found a solution:

  Go to System Preferences > Accessibility

  When the accessibility window is open — on the left part of the window
  – click Keyboard

  Then there will be the 2 options — for sticky keys, and for slow keys
  — click the box next to slow keys to enable it — then click the
  Options... button – a new window will come up with a slider to change
  the acceptance delay — by default this is in the middle. Slide the
  button all the way to the left, so that it is the shortest time
  possible.

It comes from How to remove caps lock delay on Apple MacBook Pro aluminum keyboard when booted to Linux which also may contains why it did not work from the beginning.

Thanks to @MattSephton who provided the link in a comment.


Why my RAM runs at 800 MHz in 4 slots of my mac pro instead of 1066?

I believe this issue is caused by the fact that the Nehalem based Xeon processor you have is one of the "Triple Channel" variants, meaning that when you install the fourth stick of RAM you are forcing the memory into the non-channel diversified mode, similar to using 3 sticks of memory in a dual channel system.

This is supported by the fact that you're experiencing the issue only on the 4th stick as well as a fairly large amount of of the supporting documentation surrounding the MacPro and the processor itself.


This seems actually to just be a result of my poor programming. I was trying to perform drawing from a thread which was not the same thread that called Gtk_Main, resulting in undefined behaviour and the various error messages above.


Copy a Time Machine "backup" from the TimeCapsule to a HD

The document Transfer Time Machine backup ups from one disk to another is correct.  You can't copy a Time Machine backup to your APFS drive. If the drive does not have important data you can erase it exactly as described in the Apple article and copy your Time Machine backup.

But, I don't see any benefit in that for you. Copying ahead of time will not be quick as the complete set of backups must be copied.  Migration Assistant will only bring across the data requested (typically from your most recent backup) and will be quicker.


As you phrased this, it generally occurs because the login password was reset at some point, and now the "login" keychain is protected with a different password than the account as a whole. The other possibility is that the keychain is set to lock automatically. Both issues can be addressed using Keychain Access, which lives in your Utilities folder.

If you do not know the password:

Choose Preferences from the Keychain Access menu.

Click Reset My Default Keychain

If you do know the password, but Keychain is auto-locked

Highlight the "login" keychain on the left of the main window.

Choose Change Setting for keychain "login"… from the Edit menu

Adjust settings as desired. By default, keychain does not lock automatically.


I enabled FileVault, now my desktop background reverts to stock at each reboot?

This almost always has to do with corruption in the ~/Library since I've seen this come and go well before FileVault 2 came out.

Have you tried making a second user account and testing if the problem persists for a new user account?

If not, you'll need to poke into the ~/Library/Preferences folder, sort by date and see which files get updated when you change the desktop background and drag those preference files to the trash. (don't erase trash just yet in case you drag too many or the wrong preferences to trash).

Reboot and test - still not deleting the files. Once you think you've isolated the files (or file) where desktop pictures is stored, make a note of the file and empty the trash and the time.

That way if something else messes up, you can restore that file or resume the process of clearing selective preference files.


Maximum number of audio channels over HDMI

No.
It's not a Mojave limitation, per se - DisplayPort can only carry 8 channels, up to 192kHz 24-bit, max bitrate 36,864 kbit/s

Source Wikipedia - DisplayPort


ImageMagick. Multiple SVG files are only allowed for PDF and PS output

/dev/stdin was superfluous.

When I removed it, it works perfectly:

${BASEFOLDER}/tools/recolour.sh $1 $2 $3 $4 | rsvg -f png -w ${5} -h ${5} -o ${6}.png


Generate and view macOS system performance report

iStat Menus can record up to 30 days of CPU utilisation, load average, memory pressure, memory usage, swap usage, disk usage and network upload/download rates, among others.


VeraCrypt after Sierra upgrade: mount_osxfuse: the OSXFUSE file system is not available (255)

The following script from this link fixes the problem:
https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/issues/315

I called this kextclean:

#!/bin/bash

function status() {
    kextstat | grep org.virtualbox.kext > /dev/null 2>&1 ;
    vbox=$((1-$?))
    kextstat | grep com.github.osxfuse > /dev/null 2>&1 ;
    fuse=$((1-$?))
}

status

if [ "$1" == "vbox" ] ; then
    if [ $vbox == 1 ] ; then
    echo "Already vbox"
    else
        sudo kextunload -b com.github.osxfuse.filesystems.osxfuse
        sudo kextutil "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox/VBoxDrv.kext" -r "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox"
        sudo kextutil "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox/VBoxNetAdp.kext" -r "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox"
        sudo kextutil "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox/VBoxNetFlt.kext" -r "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox"
        sudo kextutil "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox/VBoxUSB.kext" -r "/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox"
    fi
elif [ "$1" == "fuse" ] ; then
    if [ $fuse == 1 ] ; then
    echo "Already fuse"
    else
        sudo kextunload -b org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB -b org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt -b org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp
        sudo kextunload -b org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv
        sudo kextutil /Library/Filesystems/osxfuse.fs/Contents/Extensions/10.12/osxfuse.kext
    fi
elif [ "$1" == "status" ] ; then
    echo "vbox = $vbox"
    echo "fuse = $fuse"
else
    echo "Run $0 <vbox|fuse|status>"
fi


How can I change the cellular DNS server on iOS?

I'll cover the no-jailbreak scenario and leave editing or another answer for someone that knows how to change this by modifying iOS.

Without a jailbreak, no. The cellular data is governed by APN settings. You can change these with the iPhone configuration utility and some learning.

The Wi-Fi settings are easy to override using the device itself, but it's not global but instead an override on a per-network name basis. Go to the network settings for a specific Wi-Fi. Under the detailed screen (tap the blue > sign once you are connected) and swipe up to expose the DHCP / BootP / Static IP address part of the screen. You can tap to edit DNS and append, delete or substitute your choice of DNS settings from that screen.

When I need to run a custom DNS, I often use VPN to get to a router with known settings and this works over Wi-Fi and cellular data since all traffic goes to the VPN where I can control the DNS. This requires time and a server (Amazon web service free tier is ideal for low cost hosting).


How to close all windows of Mac OS X Finder?

Yes, you can use the shortcut ⌥ option + ⌘ command + W.


Can OS X apps access my contacts even if I don't give them permission?

As this was an upgrade install, you had used Skype already for quite a while, right? I assume that Skype is simply displaying its own database which it build-up before Mountain Lion.

I myself don't use Skype, so I just installed it and used my firewall to monitor what files Skype accesses:

During the setup I was also prompted by Mountain Lion if I wanted to grant access to my contacts. I denied access. If I had granted access to my Contacts, the firewall would have intercepted as a second barrier (I've set it up this way). But this was not necessary.

After several restarts Skype had written to ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/, but your contacts are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook. As you see in the first picture, Skype never gained access to my contacts.

And indeed, there are no entries in Skype's own address book:

So what you have probably achieved now in Mountain Lion is that Skype will not gain access to any new Contacts that you add to your address book. When Skype had access to your contacts in Lion, it copied them already and there's nothing you can do to undo that.


How can I provide useful feedback to Mac Photos software designers?

Apple does provide a feedback form where you can submit suggestions/complaints/ideas.

You won’t get a response, and there are no guarantees they will implement your ideas, but I’ve seen good evidence on a number of occasions that Apple does take such feedback seriously.

When voicing your concerns just remember that respectful discourse is far more likely to make an impact.


How can you unhide the file extension of an application created in Automator?

I believe that the System automatically by default hides the .app filename extension regardless of unchecking the Hide extension checkbox upon being saved and the Hide extension checkbox on the Get Info sheet will be grayed out when the .app filename extension is present. You'll need to send feedback to Apple on this one.

The only way I know how to override this in Finder is to check the Show all filename extensions checkbox under Advanced Finder Preferences. This of course then shows all filename extensions that are set to hidden, not just the .app filename extension.


Voice Control is launching on its own,also since updating to ios10 there is no menu to turn off Siri between Sounds and Touch id and password

Siri is disabled under Restrictions. To re-enable Siri, go into Settings > General > Restrictions, enter your Restrictions password, and enable Siri and Dictation.


Use Mac OS X's Console (found in /Applications/Utilities) to monitor your system logs by filtering their contents.
Check first system.log and console.log. Logs display their information in reverse chronological order,  scroll down to reach content around 11:00am.


Reset admin password without the old password

You can reset the password in Mojave by entering recovery mode and using the "resetpassword" utility via the terminal:

Boot your Mac while holding CommandR. When you get the Apple logo release the keys and allow the Mac to come up in Recovery Mode.
When you get to the macOS Utilities dialog select Terminal from the Utilities menu
Type resetpassword into the terminal window. In a few seconds the reset password utility will open and allow you to reset the password on your account.


As of Microsoft Teams Version 1.3.00.30874, this is no longer occurring on macOS Mojave 10.14.6


MBA 2017 won't boot up in macOS, but will in Ubuntu

While the "Unsupported CPU" and "Unsupported PCH" messages in the log appear concerning, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that this is what's causing the problem. The fact is I've seen these messages before in Macs that run perfectly fine.

I see you've already reset the SMC, but you haven't mentioned resetting the NVRAM and this is something you should also do.

Reset your NVRAM

For your model MBA you'll need to follow these steps:

Fully shut down your MBA
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again (i.e. wait until you've heard the startup chime a second time)
Let go of the keys and let your MBA reboot.

It's not clear to me if you still have macOS installed or not:

If not, then shut down your Mac again and switch it on and immediately press the option key and let me know what drive options (if any) appear on the screen.
If so, what happens when your MBA boots up after the NVRAM reset?


How can I change Finder tag name or color?

Go to Finder → Preferences → Tags. You can rename/delete tags by right-clicking and modify the coloured tags with the control at the bottom.


How to allow users to reset passwords in Time Capsule accounts?

No - this is a big admin bottleneck if you aren't going to set up a machine to re-share the disk or just share files and back up to the disk so you can have more of a server based permissions and account management toolset.


Macbook Pro with Lion: scrolling via trackpad vs. mouse

There is a workaround, and it is called Scroll Reverser. That screenshot says it all; you can invert scrolling per-axis and per-device.


To show installed php extensions from port, try port installed | grep php53- or  instead of port list.


Can I drag a document window to an email message to attach it?

Grab the little icon in the title bar of the document window and drag it into the message window in Mail. Works for Preview documents and should work for most, if not all, applications.


For those who are unaware, these "ports" in question are not network ports, they are Mach kernel ports and are used by the kernel for interprocess communication.  There is a fixed number of Mach ports that your system can have open, so to answer your third question; yes, this could cause problems for you as you approach that limit.  Given that the port count is so high, increases to as high at 90K or more, and that nothing else on the system is using anything close to that number of ports, I think it is safe to say that Dashlane is leaking Mach ports.
To answer your first question, I would say that this is unintentional behavior on the part of Dashlane.
And to answer your second question, I am not experiencing this issue; so some other people do not experience it.
Check out this great post on leaking Mach ports in Chrome for more geeky information:
https://robert.sesek.com/2012/1/debugging_mach_ports.html
What I would do in your case:

Uninstall Dashlane.  Also delete files from ~/Library/Applicaiton Support/Dashlane
Reinstall Dashlane using the installer on their website
Watch to see if the problem returns, and if it does, contact Dashlane support with the version numbers of the software you are running.


Automator Applescript - Use 1 Ask For Finder Item Selection for two different Actions

To refer back to the value of a previous action, you can use the Set Value of Variable action and the Get Value of Variable action as appropriate, e.g.:

Ask for Finder Items action
Set Value of Variable action
Some other action.
Some other action.
Get Value of Variable action
Run AppleScript action
Some other action.

You should also check [√] Ignore this action's input in the Options section of the Set/Get Value of Variable action as appropriate so its action is logically disconnected from the next action.
In the example Automator workflow below, there would be other actions between the Set Value of Variable action and the Get Value of Variable action as wanted.
Note: If the Run AppleScript action is the last action in the workflow, then you do not need to include the return input line of code.


How can I use a pre-existing AppleID with Mac App Store without a billing address?

If you want to use an existing Apple ID, you're out of luck. You need a card to be entered and accepted, so you'll have to pay for one or get a friend to trust you to add it and then remove it immediately after confirming your account for the store.

You probably also can pay a US bank to provide you with an account and debit card, but that can be more expensive than many find ideal. Many businesses sell addresses as well if you can't use one from an acquaintance.

You can usually make a brand new Apple ID following these steps:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204034

It's generally a bigger pain to have two Apple ID, so I would encourage you to not set up a new ID just to avoid the temporary delay of getting a legitimate address and card for temporary use.

Once you have your account verified, you can use store credit for just about everything on the Mac App Store. One note, that if you do this too many times on one device, Apple usually blocks new account creation on that device without a credit card. Unscrupulous people took advantage of that to manipulate app store ratings in the past.

Also, lots and lots of relevant details:

Can I download a free app from the App Store without a credit card?
How to use an existing Apple ID to download free apps from App Store without using Credit Card?
I have an Apple ID but it is not associated to App Store. I have tried to associate it, but it wont let me without a credit card. How to proceed?
How do you use an existing AppleID on iOS App Store without providing a credit card number?


Mac Mail keeps losing the 2 factor auth passwords for Gmail

I had the same problem. I updated to Sierra and then Mail kept asking for password but did not help when I re-entered them. I dug deeper and found the ports needed to be corrected (in Mail Preferences). Did that and it works now.


I'm taking my 2010 iMac in for SSD installation. What is best way to secure my iMac?

Everything is going to get deleted anyway. Replacing one of the drives in the Fusion pair will render both parts unusable and very difficult to recover data from.
Assuming you've got a backup, which you will use to restore your data onto the new SSD, then you will lose nothing by erasing the Fusion devices.
Normally, the best practice for securing sensitive data is to encrypt the volume, but there's no point in this instance, as it takes time and is quite stressful for an elderly mechanical drive.


Is there an iOS PDF reader with support for PDF layers?

I think the DocuWorks viewer will, but does not seem to be available in the U.S. store right now for some reason.


Can I use SketchUp with a Macbook's trackpad?

Yes!

Orbit - Cmd+Ctrl and click/drag
Pan - Cmd+Ctrl+Shift and click/drag
Zoom - Two-finger scroll up/down (no click necessary)


Using RVM and installing rspec gem for Ruby

RVM controls which Ruby your current shell points to, but it doesn't install a user-controlled Ruby for you by default. If you haven't installed any specific Ruby versions via RVM, the only Ruby you have is the one OS X installed and that requires sudo permissions to write to.

You can see available Rubies with:

> rvm list

rvm rubies

=* ruby-2.1.2 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default

In my case I have 2.1.2 installed and it's both the current Ruby and the default Ruby when I start a new shell:

> which ruby
/Users/ian/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.2/bin/ruby

To install a Ruby version with RVM do:

> rvm install ruby-2.1
No binary rubies available for: osx/10.10/x86_64/ruby-2.1.3.
Continuing with compilation. Please read 'rvm help mount' to get more information on binary rubies.
...snip...
Install of ruby-2.1.3 - #complete
Ruby was built without documentation, to build it run: rvm docs generate-ri

Now that you have an RVM-managed Ruby installed that's owned by you specifically you can gem-install anything you like without needing to use sudo:

> rvm list

rvm rubies

 * ruby-2.1.2 [ x86_64 ]
=> ruby-2.1.3 [ x86_64 ]

# => - current
# =* - current && default
#  * - default
> rvm gemdir
/Users/ian/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.3
> gem install packer-config

That gem has been installed for the 2.1.3 version of Ruby that RVM put under ~/.rvm for me. If I was to switch to the 2.1.2 version via rvm use ruby-2.1.2 I would not see that gem, I'd have to re-install it to make it available to that Ruby version.

You can also manage gems as sets so they're not even shared with a Ruby install. See the gemset basics on the RVM web site for more details.


Failing to restore my iPhone 4S from iCloud backup over wifi

I had the same problem. Tried for days to get it to work. On my 17th try, the restore completed. On that try, I was keeping the display active by tapping it every 40 seconds for around 2 hours and I had also turned off all encryption on my router. Not sure what caused it to work this time.

The weird thing is, the restore finished when the status bar said there were "about 3 hours" left in the restore. Seems like it miscalculated the size of my backup or something like that.

Apple really needs to figure this out.


How to access IPhoto on my external hard drive

Right click the iPhoto library, pick "show package contents" then open the folder "Masters" or "Originals". They'll be organized by date in there. You can just drag the entire "Masters" folder into your new iPhoto and they'll get imported.


Can I pay in shops with my iPhone 6 Plus via NFC using Apple Pay?

On http://www.apple.com/iphone-6/apple-pay/ it says "Coming in October".

[UPDATE]

Now that Apple Pay has launched, refer to Countries and regions that support Apple Pay for the most up-to-date listing of where it's supported.


Can I set up Boot Camp in a headless mac pro?

Is it doable? (setting it up without a screen)

No. Installing Boot Camp will reboot the system into the Windows installer. You will need to see the screen to complete the installation. Any remote desktop software you've set up in macOS will be unavailable in Windows, including during the Windows install process.


Paralells Reports Missing Operating System with Windows 10 bootcamp Partition

Actually, after my comment above I played around a bit and got to the same screen as the original post.

However: you should choose edit partitions. Chances are there will be 2 partitions of which the second was not selected (which was my actual windows drive).

Selecting the second partition instead of the first actually resolved it for me.


How many monitors can the new retina MacBook Pro handle and at which pixels resolutions?

The Other World Computing Blog shows that the new MacBook Pro 15" with Retina Display Can Run 3 External Displays:

  image source: http://blog.macsales.com/

These resolutions were used:

Retina on laptop @ “best for Retina”
iMac used as a display @ 2560 x 1440 via Thunderbolt
iMac used as a display @ 2560 x 1440 via Thunderbolt/DisplayPort
LG monitor @ 1920 x 1200  via HDMI

Quote from the MacRumors news article on that:

  This makes the Retina MacBook Pro the first Mac -- other than a tower-based workstation like the Mac Pro -- to natively power four displays simultaneously.


MacBook Pro goes into hibernation immediately after login, how do I fix this?

If you've reset the SMC and it's still showing the problem, then you will need to take it in to an Apple Service Centre. The 13-inch 2012 MBP is still supported, as it was sold up to October 2016.

The 15-inch model is considered "Vintage" and Apple no longer provides hardware support. (Though it might be worthwhile taking it in anyway and smiling sweetly: my local Apple Store says they will continue to fix vintage hardware if they still have the parts.)

Batteries are the one part of a laptop that you can expect to fail over time and need replacing. If you can get it replaced, then that's a small price to 'refresh' your laptop and extend its useful life.


Macbook Pro does not recognize bootable USB drive

The Problem is most likely that the USB Drive was not properly formated and is missing the EFI Partition. You could check via the Terminal by using 'diskutil':

diskutil list

The Result is a list of all Drives and their partions. A bootable USB Drive should have a separate partition like this:

/dev/disk11 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *16.0 GB    disk11
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk11s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X 10.11 Installat... 15.7 GB    disk11s2

The easiest solution would be using a third party tool. You should try again using the Freeware 'DiskMaker X'. It formats and creates a bootable USB Drive with the OSX-Installer in a very easy and reliable manner.


it is possible they are updating or doing something with there servers as they say at this time .. try later


Error starting apache httpd-2.4.4 configured with mod_jk

Found the problem. I was pointing to the wrong apxs version (httpd-2.2) while configuring the mod_jk build.

native$ ./configure CFLAGS='-arch x86_64' APXSLDFLAGS='-arch x86_64' --with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs

After compiling mod_jk with the right apxs file, httpd started without any issues.

native$ ./configure CFLAGS='-arch x86_64' APXSLDFLAGS='-arch x86_64' --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs


Does upgrading my iCloud plan extend my previous subscription?

The terms are listed deep in this link to the iCloud terms and conditions:

  The applicable storage fee for an upgraded storage plan will take
  effect immediately; downgrades to your storage plan will take effect
  on the next annual billing date.

So a literal interpretation would be you would not get any credit for the unused portion of the year you paid for the initial storage if you upsold yourself before that year term expired.

In practice, Apple has been generous with giving pro-rated refunds for AppleCare when you cancel it (but that is listed explicitly in the T&C for AppleCare) and has extended MobileMe storage for free - so you could either get the lower storage tier added to the end of the higher tier (which would be a bit of a complicated thing for Apple to track - especially if you did two buys in one year).

I suppose you could open a ticket with billing support to see if they have a current policy on how they handle up-sales from one paid tier to another, but I would expect the initial purchase to end when you upgrade to a higher tier before the anniversary unless you contact Apple and they offer you a credit or extension as an exception and not something that is programmed into the system.


nrpe (icinga) client service doesn't load/run

If you have already installed NRPE-OSX there is no need to create a second LaunchDaemon.

The installer creates - besides a user nagios and group nagios - a file named com.nagios.nrpe.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons with almost the same content as yours.

In addition you probably didn't change ownership of the file to root:staff and UserName/GroupName (admin/staff) in the plist are presumably false.


Which incoming ports do you need to open in osx firewall?

As a rule of thumb: If you provide a service on your Mac, you have to open the appropriate incoming port(s).

Example:
If you have a standard web server running on your Mac, you have to open the incoming port 80 (http) and/or port 443 (https). You may customize those ports in the web server config (e.g. 10080/10443) and then would have to open the respective ports and close the default ones. To access the web server you would have to enter www.mywebserver.home:10080 in your browser.

From the viewpoint of a client the ports mentioned in the Apple list are all destination ports (To which port do i have to send a message to get a proper reply?). The source port may be an arbitrary one (mostly above port ~10000).

From the viewpoint of a server the ports mentioned in the Apple list are all source ports (or "incoming ports").

So if you don't provide any services you may block all incoming ports.
As such Automatic Updates is no service you provide on your Mac, because you don't run a Software Update Server.

A different thing are AirDrop, AirPlay (and besides some push services), which don't look like servicing (like a traditional server) but indeed do. If you didn't exclude local networks previously in the firewall settings, you have to open the respective incoming ports on the servicing host(s).


Will using my iPad as an external monitor negatively affect it's lifespan?

With regard to your question about a realistic lifespan:

I would define the life expectancy of any device as however long its user can use it for its intended purpose. Which will cease to be the case when something physically breaks or when functionality is phased out (e.g. AirDisplay functionality is removed in a future update). It is impossible to predict if and when either of these things will happen to your iPad in the next few years. There are simply too many factors involved.

In my own experience, we have a 1st gen iPad (bought end of 2010) in the office that is on 24/7 (no screen timeout) as an interactive wall calendar and it is still going strong. On the other hand, one of my coworkers bought a 3rd gen iPad a few months ago and it died after a few weeks of use (he apparently got a lemon). I hope you see my point: There are so many factors involved in determining the lifespan of a certain device that it is impossible to say what will happen to your iPad: Sometimes you get lucky, but there are no guarantees.

With regard to your other 2 questions:

As far as screen life is concerned, 'screen burn' only occurs on the old-style (CRT) monitors. Also, the backlight is provided by LEDs which are supposed to have a pretty long lifespan.
As far as battery life is concerned, there are some pointers at http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html and at http://thehowto.wikidot.com/prolong-battery-lifespan-for-ipad on how to maximize your battery lifespan.

I hope this helps.


How do you enable Google Location History on an iPhone?

I found the answer myself. For some reason, enabling the device through the Google app did not work, however the same screen in Google Maps works fine.

Open the Google Maps app > Menu > Settings > Location history > Enable the device.


Reformat Mac SSD drive so fast - did it really work?

If the drive in question is an SSD then using the 7-pass erase option will not function the same way as on an HDD. On an HDD data is written by using a tiny, and very powerful magnet to flip the magnetic field's direction all over different parts of the disk, and smaller magnetic fields sometimes called "Ghosts" will be left after writing new data to the drive, allowing old data to be recovered by looking at what direction the magnetic field used to flow in. For this reason the 7-pass erase flips the field of the entire drive to the down position (or "0") from beginning to end 7 times in a row, to get rid of any lingering Ghosts. Plus on an HDD files are usually stored as a single stream of data, or in large chunks in only a couple of different places on the drive.

However, and SSD writes data by running a lot of electricity through narrow canals, causing the metal to heat up until the "bit" begins to melt. To stop all this excess heat from killing the drive an SSD writes each file in teeny-tiny chunks, scattered all over different parts of the drive, usually in a very random looking way. Since none of the files are actually intact as a single stream of data the way they are on HDDs, the only thing that allows the computer to figure out what files any of those tiny chunks of data belong to is the Partition Map, which is a record of where on the drive all the parts of a file are.

Basically, when you erase an SSD the only part of the drive that actually gets erased is the Partition Map, because without it to tell the computer where all the different parts of a file are the entire drive looks like a garbled mess of gibberish to the computer. This is why it takes so little time for your drive to secure erase 7 times over, the only part getting erased is that record of where files are, not the files themselves. Since that record is only a few hundred megabytes it only takes about as long to wipe it once as it would to copy a few hundred megabyte large file to another folder.

In the end you should also be careful when using multi-pass erase methods on an SSD, because the excess heat re-writing the same part of the drive that many times creates could be enough to damage it.


Can I still use time machine if I encrypt my drive with file vault?

Yes, you can still use Time Machine backups even if you encrypt the boot drive with FileVault.

Note that when setting up Time Machine backups, you'll have to select that the backup should be encrypted as well, otherwise your data will be stored unencrypted in the Time Machine backup.


How can I show a slideshow of pictures in multiple subfolders while keeping them in order?

While iPhoto may work for some, it doesn't come bundled with every Mac and it's not free. It also relies on a library.

The quickest, cheapest (free) and easiest way to view/slideshow a folder and its subfolders is using Sequential. Just drag it to your Applications folder, run it once so it shows up on your Open with menu, right click on a folder, choose Open with > Sequential and hit the 5 key (for a 5 second slideshow).

Check its preferences if you want it to always start in full screen and its menus for aditional hotkeys (show thumbnails bar or skip to previous/next subfolder, for example). Besides supporting images, it also supports PDFs and archives (.zip, .cbz, .rar, .cbr) and you can choose to display them sequentially (folder's default order) or randomly.


Adding the Print Document Option To The Right-Click Contextual Menu?

As suggested on this blog, you can use the following applescript :

tell application "Your Printer Name Here"
   activate
   print theFile without print dialog
   quit
end tell

To add it to the contextual menu, do as usual : Create a new automator service with this script.

Don't forget to select Service receives selected file and folders in the app you want (At least Finder but it can be from any app).


Where can I find logs for failed sudo attempts on macOS Sierra?

The sudo logs now go to the new unified logging system in macOS 10.12, which can be searched using the log command.

For example, to show all sudo logs from the last 3 hours:

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "sudo"' --last 3h

To search all sudo logs for messages containing the string "user NOT in sudoers":

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "sudo" and eventMessage contains "user NOT in sudoers"'

Use man log or log help show to learn more about how to use the command.


I am an avid user of iBooks, and I hope I can be somewhat helpful. Because I am new to Stack Exchange, I am unable to ask questions/comments on your original post, therefore some of this information may be irrelevant to you.

You mentioned that on your iPad and iPhone, you have the settings set to sync across devices. To clarify, click Settings > iBooks; make sure Sync Bookmarks & Notes and Sync Collections are green. It sounds like you have this already, so then...
Click Settings > Your name at the top > iCloud. Make sure iBooks is still marked green. Make sure iCloud Drive is also green.
On your Mac, open up iBooks. At the top menu bar, click Store > Authorize this computer.. this should ensure your computer can use anything added from iTunes/iBooks store. Also, click Sign In in the same menu setting (Store). Make sure your Apple ID is signed in.
Click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen and hit System Preferences. Click iCloud. Make sure your account is signed in. make sure iCloud Drive is on, and click settings next to it.
If iBooks was open, quit/force quit it. After it quits, open it. It may prompt you, "do you want to use iCloud sync?" If it does, say yes. Click iBooks > Preferences > General, make sure "sync across all devices is checked."

Your items will have a cloud icon on them. A cloud with a solid lining indicates the book is fully in the cloud and downloadable; a cloud with a dotted lining indicates the item is being uploaded into the cloud.

I believe the issue is with your iCloud Drive. iBooks purchases sync with your Apple ID, and technically other stuff you add does as well, but the other items, from my understanding, actually live in your iCloud Drive. You also may need to update your Mac.. sometimes syncing is weird with older stuff (you said Sierra; not sure if High Sierra or old Sierra). I am not sure this information will be helpful to you.

Also, this might be helpful. I apologize if all of these are things you have already done, but since I am new, I am unable to ask you questions yet. Good luck. I assume I can edit this answer if everything else fails... I do not have my Mac with me at work today, so I can't view my own settings. I can look when I get home if it would be beneficial.


Why does my Asus PB277Q screen keep waking up while the Mac it is connected to is sleeping?

This is because this monitor is for 75 hz but in high sierra or later I think this feature not work good now, I have this monitor and I have this problem, but you can use this monitor with your make, you go to display settings, select this monitor and change HZ 75 to 60 and it's works good.


You need to go to Twitter.com in to your account and change some stuff there.

Mute a single Account

If you click on "More" in the twitter timeline there is the "Mute", to stop seen someones tweets.

If you want to be radical then Disable applications access for all:


Strange thing happening with drag and drop on finder

It sound like a macOS bug. If the side effects are still present, try restarting Finder service by the following commands:

launchctl stop com.apple.Finder
launchctl start com.apple.Finder


iPhone Photos shown on preview but gray when opened

I used to have this problem too. Quickest fix for me was to preview the photos one by one and open the editor for each one. I didn't have to do any fixing per se. After I saved them they appeared in the photos app normally. It was simple fix for me.


iOS 7.1 - Where do emails go to when I 'archive' them in Gmail App?

When you archive things in gmail, it just removes the 'inbox' label on it. If you want to find the archived email, just search for them or you can click on the label 'all mail' on the left. The same goes with gmail online. see more at https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6576?hl=en


Choosing Dictionary.app spelling language

The Dictionary.app supplied by Apple only has English and Japanese, regardless of what language you set your OS to.  You can add modules as explained here:

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2011/12/more-dictionaries-for-dictionaryapp.html

Dictionary.app has nothing to do with spellchecking, that is done by other parts of the OS.  You can change the spellcheck to Spanish in Apple apps by going to Edit > Spelling and Grammary > Show Spelling and Grammar.


Touch Bar no longer allows for switching between media controls in High Sierra?

This has been fixed. Running Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.1


Change Default Table Style when opening a CSV file

I'm not aware of the possibility of changing the default, but a useful workflow is:

set up the doc with the exactly the styles you need,
'Save as template' to the template chooser,
open Numbers
new doc with your new template
drag the CSV onto the table

Actually pretty quick to execute (after initial template configuration) and very flexible (allows different styles for different purposes). In combination Launchbar (etc), this is pretty seamless and doesn't involve any messing about with positioning windows, etc.


As an admin, open the /Applications folder, and drag the Server.app icon to the trash. An alert should pop up, saying the the server will be shut down, and a bunch of uninstall scripts will run. Your data will still be in /Library/Server.

You can empty the trash or pull it back out, if you want to keep it.

Then you should be able to upgrade the OS in peace.


Is it true that if I let Google Photos store all photos, then I can back up to iCloud with minimal storage?

There are 4 questions here.

How can one answer 1st one without going to opinions? If you don't feel that those notes etc., are important, better to save bandwidth and space.

2nd also depends on how much is your rest of the backup. One can also have no documents, huge media collection or vice-versa. I am running 5 GB and I put less urgent/ important photos on Google Photos. iCloud is used for documents also but they're more or less distributed over accounts.

3rd: It's up to you to decide. You can test and verify which settings work best for you. If something piles up, decide whether you really want it synced or not.

4th: I doubt that all emails(in non-Apple accounts) are backed up by iCloud. Only iCloud emails count against iCloud Drive quota.


Separate download of Photos App for Yosemite

If you use Time Machine, just restore the app (and its data, if applicable) from an older backup. If not, reinstalling OS X is probably the best idea, as Photos is not available on the Mac App Store and I definitely wouldn't try to download it elsewhere (so don't just type "Mac Photos.app installer" in Bing or Yahoo or Dutch and download whatever comes up). You could copy the app over from a friend or family member, though, if you wish.


Apple often uses employee's photos for things like this.

When filling iPhoto with content for on stage demos and later demos in their stores Apple will often request photos from their employees, through an open submission contest.  Obviously not every photo gets used but more often than not the family photos you're seeing are shared from an employee somewhere within Apple.  I've tried to find some of the old articles that outlined this process but they've either been buried away or removed at the request of Apple.

Knowing that, my best guess is this was a son, nephew, grandson, etc of an Apple employee around the time that Apple was looking to change the Preview icon.

Hardly a definite answer (we still don't know who he is) but it might be the closest we get.


Can Mail count unread messages (for the Dock icon) from only some of my accounts?

Do a SmartMailbox with the folders from which you want the counts to come, and then select that in Mail's General settings --> "Dock unread count" (it's the fourth drop down list)


What is a good replacement for the 'df' command that is broken on macOS Mojave?

The new command to purge snapshots is seriously faster and more well engineered than the previous local store.

It does require a new syntax, so you’re correct, Apple has forced us to learn more and change.

Joshua was in your situation as well and has a very detailed explanation:

How to thin your local Time Machine Snapshots on macOS High Sierra

Apple tools take a while to classify what’s purgeable, but that is getting better.

macOS not showing the actual free space
Why do system information and du show drastically different numbers

If you don’t see immediate clearing of space, it’s a sign your disk has accounting issues and you need to boot to internet recovery or plain recovery on an external drive and repair the wrapper and container.

APFS/High Sierra - `tmutil deletelocalsnapshots` not deleting snapshots


Why does not Calendar.app sync to exchange calendar on Mac OS X?

I found these steps on the Apple site and modified them - the modifications work.

open Calendar
Calendar -> Accounts
Disable exchange calendars
Reboot

Now re-enable

open Calendar
Calendar -> Accounts
Enable exchange calendars


Find out which network user is using a file, causing "The operation can’t be completed because the item ... is in use"

I have often been able to delete otherwise not deletable files by deleting the file in Terminal:

sudo rm /path/to/the/file/to/delete

Without sudo it still fails for me but ad it and files vanish like magic. If you don't know the specific unix file path just type "sudo rm " and then drag the file into the open Terminal window and it will insert the file.

Press ENTER, authenticate with your admin password and the file SHOULD vanish.


I recommend heading on over to AppleInsider.  They keep some really neat matrices of all the major Apple products and their prices at various online retailers.

For example, the pricing matrix for the iPod touch shows this for 2 Dec 2011:

The best price is bolded.  It looks like you can get anywhere between 5 and 10% off an iPod touch, depending on which store you buy it from.  I'll also throw out there that if you have a friend who works for Apple, you might want to talk to him/her to see if they could help you get a discount as well.


Weird screen problems---iPhone 5S, iOS 8.3

Fixed this by:

Resetting phone until screen flicker went away, then updated app store items. Still didn't need to upgrade to 9.0.2.


Remove multiple app badge icons with one script?

The following example AppleScript code was tested under macOS High Sierra.

The following is modified code from my answer you linked in your OP:

This version acts on applications in Notification Center in System Preferences that are defined in the appNameList list.

Change the application names and or add or remove them in the appNameList list as needed:

Example AppleScript code:

set appNameList to {"Calendar", "Games", "Mail", "Messages"}

if running of application "System Preferences" then
    quit application "System Preferences"
    delay 1
end if
tell application "System Preferences"
    set the current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.notifications"
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events"
        tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
            repeat with i from 2 to (count rows)
                select row i
                delay 0.25 --   # Do not set any lower, increase if necessary!
                set theValue to (value of static text 1 of group 1 of UI element 1 of row i)
                repeat with thisApp in appNameList
                    if theValue contains thisApp then
                        --  # Use 0 with clickCheckBox() to check the check box.
                        --  # Use 1 with clickCheckBox() to uncheck the check box.
                        my clickCheckBox(1)
                    end if
                end repeat
            end repeat
        end tell
    end tell
    quit
end tell

on clickCheckBox(i as integer)
    tell application "System Events"
        tell group 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
            --  # if the value of checkbox is 0, it's unchecked.
            --  # if the value of checkbox is 1, it's checked.
            if value of checkbox "Badge app icon" is equal to i then
                click checkbox "Badge app icon"
            end if
        end tell
    end tell
end clickCheckBox

System Preferences does not need to be visible for this to work and why there is no activate command in the example AppleScript code. Additionally if System Preferences is already open, it is first closed before the rest of the code is processed. This is done for a couple of reasons, the first of which was already stated and secondly seeing the UI Events processed is a visual distraction and can be annoying.

Also note that the value of the delay commands may need to be adjusted for your system, and or additional delay commands may or may not be needed. Adjust values of and or add/remove the delay commands as appropriate.

This version acts on all applications in Notification Center in System Preferences.

Example AppleScript code:

if running of application "System Preferences" then
    quit application "System Preferences"
    delay 1
end if
tell application "System Preferences"
    set the current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.notifications"
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events"
        tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
            repeat with i from 2 to (count rows)
                select row i
                delay 0.25 --   # Do not set any lower, increase if necessary!

                --  # Use 0 with clickCheckBox() to check the check box.
                --  # Use 1 with clickCheckBox() to uncheck the check box.

                my clickCheckBox(1)

            end repeat
        end tell
    end tell
    quit
end tell

on clickCheckBox(i as integer)
    tell application "System Events"
        tell group 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
            --  # if the value of checkbox is 0, it's unchecked.
            --  # if the value of checkbox is 1, it's checked.
            if value of checkbox "Badge app icon" is equal to i then
                click checkbox "Badge app icon"
            end if
        end tell
    end tell
end clickCheckBox

For a version that acts on just one specific application in Notification Center in System Preferences, see my answer to: Disable badge for specific app with a script

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any other error handling then what's shown and is meant only to show one of many ways accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


Why is the input level of the external mic so low?

Microphones are hooked up to a pre-amp to boost the signal before recording. The internal microphone on the Mac probably has a built-in pre-amp while the external jack doesn't. Typically external mikes are connected to a sound or mixing board before hooking up to a computer.


I just tried to clean my iPhone lightning charger port with the graphite out of a mechanical pencil and now it won't charge at all

Graphite is a really good conductor of electricity - so the chances are what you just managed to do is connect together all the contacts in the socket.

I think you probably need professional cleaning now.

If the phone had a removable battery, then I'd say remove it, grab some spray contact-cleaner from Radio Shack/Maplins etc & douse it... but not while the contacts are still live.


You can't upgrade a beta device to the final GM release. You need to restore the device with final public iOS 5 release.


What does "More…" mean in the Finder's "All my Files" view?

Simply put, the aptly named button "More…" loads more results.

By default† the "All My Files" smart folder is arranged by kind and sorted by last access time. Arranging means those blocks that contains files belonging to its category type (e.g. Movies or Music) and sorting means the order the files are sorted within the block.

All My Files is all about you, so ask yourself: what would be your most typical use–case scenario involving this smart folder?

I use last access time for both arranging and sorting the folder. I have categories of "Today", "Yesterday", "Last 7 days", "Last 30 days" and "Earlier" and within every category the items are sorted by the last access time during its period.

Now, this is where the More… button shines: All My Files folder is a smart folder which means the contents are generated by a Spotlight search. That means the more results it tries to query the longer it takes to make the contents usable. Question is, would you rather

see the most relevant files quickly
see the whole lot of your files after staring at slowly updating, laggy, maybe blank Finder window for quite some time?

For reference, when both arranging and sorting the All My Files by last access time, the results I get after consequent presses of More… button are:

Today: 2 → 3 → 4
Yesterday: 14 → 15 → 16
Last 7 days: 185 → 193 → 198
Last 30 days: 354 → 364 → 373
Earlier: 9445 → 19425 → 72145

After the second press the button is gone, probably indicating all the available files have been found.

Now the odds are the file I'm looking for can be found from the initial search (which already returns 10000‡ results)—and if not, the All My Files folder may not be the best tool to search for the file in the first place.

Honestly, at times I'd wish for a Less… button, for even more responsive All My Files usage; 10000 results are more than enough.

Finally, if you happen to realize the All My Files folder doesn't quite suite your workflow, you can, of course, remove it from your sidebar.

†) I'm not 100% if these are the default settings, but I could assume so.
‡) You might notice that after the second press I get a total of 20000 results—there's some logic applied!


Unable to locate an executable at "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_144.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/apt" (-1)?

To install AirCrack (as the author has indicated is his intent), you can either use MacPorts, Brew, or build from the source.

Apt, Yum, Pacman, and other package managers do not exist on macOS; the closest you'll get is MacPorts or Brew.


Yes, you can and it's quite common practice.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191

One concern might be how the memory channels are laid out, as it's generally better to have symmetrical RAM configurations to balance dual-channel access. (so you'd want each channel to be 4+8)


Restoring from Time Machine Backup – Cannot replace Mac HD

My assumption from how your question is worded is that you're trying to recover an entire HD, not just a single file, folder etc.

Instead, to do a full restore of your Mac you need to boot into macOS Recovery and use the Restore from Time Machine Backup utility.

You may find the following Apple Support resources helpful:

About macOS Recovery
How to move your content to a new Mac
How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac


If you delete a photo from iCloud Photo Library, it prompts you whether you're OK with the picture being deleted from all of your devices.

The best way is to each person to have their own Apple ID. If all the three macs are your personal machines, disconnect two of them from iCloud Photo Library and switch on Photo Stream, that way the two machines will get the new photos and you can delete the ones you don't need.