Sound on OS X doesn't work after Soundflower install

If you follow this guide, you should be OK. You mentioned in the comments that you've already run the uninstall script, so perhaps you will be able to follow the guide to success. Before doing that, I would check the following:

Find the 'Audio MIDI Setup' utility (Applications / Audio MIDI Setup), and check all the master volume levels on your output devices.
If you are still passing audio through anything other than regular system audio, check all the levels and knobs and such to make sure that nothing else is turned down to 0.

NB: A common problem people have with Soundflower is the master volume being set to 0 by default.

If none of that is the issue, and you follow the guide, you could try my setup, which is like this:

• Go find AU Lab 2.3, and
• Update your Soundflower to 1.6.7 with this fix, available on Github. It has worked for me on Mavericks 10.9.4, it prevents an obnoxious clicking sound as well, and it gives you master faders for Soundflower outputs in the Soundflowerbed dropdown.

NB: If you are not on Mavericks you may not need the updated versions of everything.


How do you specify Firefox 'open file' location?

Open Firefox preferences
Select the "General" tab
In the "Downloads" section set the "Save files to" to be whatever folder you want all your downloads go to.  Alternatively, you can choose the "Always ask me where to save files" option to have it always prompt you where to save the file.


iPad or iPhone doesn't charge until unlocked?

What you are observing is due to a security related change made in iOS 11.4.1.

Using USB accessories with iOS 11.4.1 and later

  Starting with iOS 11.4.1, if you use USB accessories with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or if you connect your device to a Mac or PC, you might need to unlock your device for it to recognize and use the accessory. Your accessory then remains connected, even if your device is subsequently locked.

This setting can be accessed on your iPhone/iPad by going to Settings app → Face ID & Passcode → USB Accessories.

  When the USB Accessories setting is off, as in the image above, you might need to unlock your iOS device to connect USB accessories.

This is turned off by default for security reasons. If you turn it on, your iPhone/iPad will start charging instantly, without unlocking it's connected to your laptop.


How to swipe up into Mission Control and then swipe back down again without lifting fingers?

There is an app called Better Touch Tool. You can download it at their homepage.

First, you hide preview if there is any, and then select Trackpad on the top screen. Before you start adding gestures, make sure to allow it to control computer in System Preferences > Accessibility

As you can see, I already set up the swipe up and down gestures. Below, you can select which gesture will it be (in this case, 3 finger swipe up and down). And under Predefined Action, you can search Mission control.


What is the most efficient order to install Mac OS with Boot Camp and large application suites?

SSDs simply do not conform to this paradigm at all.

There is no inside or outside, early or late, beginning or end, partition border, or any of the old things you associate with spinny rust Hard Drives.
SSDs allocate storage of any data sector entirely where their wear-levelling algorithms decide is 'next favourite'.
It is well beyond the prediction of us mere mortals.

Additionally, modern OSes, Mac & Windows, are optimised to this SSD behaviour & so don't even make any attempt to 'categorise' or 'optimise' data placement at all - often to the detriment of old HDs still in use as boot drives [best get them replaced as soon as poss].

Feel free to put anything on, in any order, at any time.


Annotation/Highlight doesn't work in Apple Preview

You can't highlight text because the format of your screen capture is a bitmap (a set of pixels and not text).

Nonetheless, if the text you wanted to highlight is horizontal enough and not too distorted, you can achieve a nice highlighting effect with Tools > Annotate > Rectangle. Then choose a color which isn't frequent inside your image, let's say Lemon and decrease the opacity to less than 25 % to be able to see the text through as in this example:

If your need is important in volume of text to highlight, you will have to use an OCR software to transfom your image into text.


Malware? .systemRootModeFile in ~/users/me/library

.systemRootModFile and the other files you mentioned are part of Java system preferences and are safe. See this thread.


I can only generalise, as I don't know the game at all, but based on experience running helpline for another online structure...

This all assumes your Mac itself is up to the task & that you are running the most up to date OS. Game devs only concentrate on maintaining compatibility for so long, so as your machine or OS gets older, support dwindles.
If your machine only just meets 'minimum spec', then your gameplay is also going to be 'minimum spec' no matter how fast your connection is.

One thing to be very aware of is that most people think their computer is better than it is. The first thing they do is turn up the settings.
Don't do that.
Run at defaults, they're there for a purpose.

You need to find where the game's servers are & repeat that Speedtest. The Game's own support should be able to help you discover that, or you may be able to query from inside the game, Help/About... to find the IP address & track it down from there.
You can often find that even with a solid connection to local, you can see interference across much greater distances. From my own experience with the game host in Phoenix, AZ, anyone playing from Europe is likely to see ping of 150 - 250ms & easily 20-50% of their speed eaten by the distance.

You need to check what assets the game need to load from the remote servers. For some games it is little more than the positions of other players in real-time; everything else is already on your local disk. Some games download quite hefty assets, as the 'view' of your world changes each new 'view' has to be sent to you.
The larger the asset transmission, the more likely it is that this can get bound at your CPU [download/decode] which will cause the game to stutter.

Don't listen to anyone who tells you you need to clear any local asset caches to "speed it up"... it doesn't, it just means you have to re-download all those assets again, wasting time & bandwidth for you & the others sharing the same server.

Check your normal FPS. If you can get over 60 & the game has a frame limiter, cap it at 60. [this might need some testing, sometimes lower is better, 45 or even lower in extreme cases]. The less the GPU has to do, the more likely it will be able to keep up.
Don't believe the hype from people who tell you that astronomical fps figures are needed. Online gaming is far more ping-reliant than fps.
If you see screen-tearing when panning, try to find a v-sync control in the game. v-sync is usually off, enabling it will make the GPU only update between frames. [You will never see this happen whichever way it's set, as it's all done behind the scenes, but it can reduce tearing.]

One that people forget - just because you can achieve good speeds over Speedtest doesn't mean your router isn't getting 'tired'. Domestic have brains the size of peanuts & are easily confused. They leave ports open that they should have closed, so the next time one's needed it has to re-negotiate. their routing tables get full & are constantly being flushed to make room for new data...
So...reboot all your network hardware, router/modem, any WiFi & hubs/switches... then your puter. Power off everything, wait at least 2 minutes, then power up one every 2 minutes, starting from 'nearest the outside word' inwards. Puter last.
If you are on Wifi & you can wire up instead, do so.

On a Mac, at reboot, set it not to reopen everything afterwards.
Run just the game, nothing else. Browsers eat RAM & if you're in a low RAM scenario then you will start to see memory paging. This is good for the computer, but bad for your gaming experience.

[If I can think of more generalisations, I'll come back & add them. I can't do specifics as I don't know the game.]


Iphone 5s screen recording via reflector and airplay

You can record your iPhone screen in OS X if you connect your iPhone with your Mac via cable. You can then select your iPhone as an input device in QuickTime (or any other recording software).
Note: This will only work if your iOS device has at least iOS 8 and your Mac has at least OS X 10.10


With what info can attacker gain access to my Apple Id?

Have you enabled two step verification? If not that would be the first thing I do after reading this. This makes it so if someone trys to sign into your account it sends a message to all the devices you have associated with your account, presenting you with the name of the device and the location of the device (based on IP)

Try to hack your own account, and find out the steps you need to gain access.

For me when I try to recover my password (the first step a hacker might take) it asks me to confirm my phone number. If you don't know your phone number you're out of luck. If you do know the phone number then it doesn't matter much anyways as a confirmation message is sent to your phone.

I also believe they cannot present your security questions without you not being logged in for 24 hours. That could be Google I'm thinking of though.

After that information here are a couple steps I would take if I was worried about security.

Enable two step verification.
Be sure you use a different password for your Apple Id than you do on any other account (good practice for everything anyway) Never give out your password, be sure to always confirm where you are on the web. Ex. "Google.com" not "Gooogle.com" (Even though this example doesn't work because Google owns both domains, you get the point)
Be sure you have access to the phone number and email address on file with your account.
Ensure the email you have listed for your Apple ID is secure, and uses it's own password as well so a hacker couldn't gain access to that either.
I would recommend using Gmail if you don't already use it with your Apple ID, as I find them to be the most secure email to use.

Don't worry too much, you're in good hands!


Can I connect to my Linux server using "Go > Connect to Server"?

It sounds like you're using (S)FTP to connect to your server. Finder doesn't support SFTP and supports read-only access for FTP. You can use Terminal and the command line SFTP client, or you'll need to use a 3rd party app like Cyberduck or Transmit to connect via FTP or SFTP.

The Finder supports AFP, SMB (Windows file sharing), NFS, VNC, and probably a few others I'm forgetting via the Connect to Server window.

Details on supported protocols can be found in Finder Help


You can do all of these five (five because your second question is actually two separate questions) by subscribing to either iTunes Match or Apple Music service. How you do exactly any of those five, however, depends a bit on which macOS version your Mac is running on.


Make Emacs-style shortcuts behave differently than arrow keys.

I don't know any way to do that in DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

For example selectLine: selects a wrapped or visual line and selectParagraph: selects a non-wrapped or hard line, but I couldn't find methods for moving a non-wrapped line up or down.

One thing you can do is to make command-delete and command-forward delete act on non-wrapped lines:

{
  "@\U007F" = deleteToBeginningOfParagraph:;
  "@\UF728" = deleteToEndOfParagraph:;
}

You can't remap command-left or command-right, so for example this doesn't work:

{
  "@\Uf700" = moveToBeginningOfParagraph:;
  "@\Uf701" = moveToEndOfParagraph:;
}


How can I change the number of times my iphone tries to notify me when I receive an SMS message?

You can go to Settings > Notifications > Messages and change the Repeat Alert option to Never. This will stop it from bugging you twice!


Should important files in iCloud also be backed up elsewhere?

The new paradigm is…
"Any data which is stored in fewer than three distinct locations ought to be considered temporary."
Late Edit:
Don't use a sync solution as a backup.
iCloud is not primarily a backup solution, it is a sync solution. It will come back to bite you hard if you accidentally delete a file from one device… the helpful sync service will then dutifully delete it from every device.
For 'distinct locations', personally, I use 4, in degrees of 'distance'.

My Mac, which has not only my Mac data but also my iDevice backups.
Time Machine, containing all of 1.

1 & 2 are both in the same building, so if the house burns down, I need another location, off-site.

iCloud, containing only a subset of 1 & 2 [primarily iPhone backups, just because they happen automatically] which is not enough to recover everything in case of disaster.

Backblaze [other offsite backup structures are available] which has copies of everything in 1, 2, & 3 above.

I also have my boot drive cloned, for rapid recovery in case of drive failure, but that is also in the house, so classes as part of 1 & 2.
I consider iCloud to contain my keychain in case of catastrophe. I don't consider it as any kind of 'storage', per se. I don't trust it with my photos or my music, for instance, I have all that data stored in 1, the Mac. I consider my Mac to be the primary location for all my data. It has 13TB of storage & nearly 20 years of unbroken historical data.


How do I Force Google Maps Links to Open the Google Maps App on iOS6?

As Matthieu Riegler said, when you go to the Google maps site you will be prompted to launch the app. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this automatically.


Try to insert a empty disk into your mac. Then, share it with you MacBook Air. Now, you should have a new DVD-Icon in the finder sidebar.

It should now show up in the Disk Utility tool!

Or:

Right-Click on the ISO-Image, and click Burn on CD/DVD after you "connected" the empty CD/DVD to you MacBook Air via DVD-Sharing.


iPhone: doesn't change views when tilted

Found the answer to this question: http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS3805

Make sure that Portrait Orientation Lock is off.


First things first: Always backup your files!

I would start narrowing down the issue, i.e. trying to find the actual cause.

Run First Aid multiple times on your hard drive and see if it is able to repair the disk. You should also try running it in recovery mode.
Save your data before doing this: Uninstall the Adobe Creative cloud completely and delete all Adobe files. If this solves the problem, copy one file at a time back onto your iMac. By doing so, you should be able to tell which file may be causing issues.
Not clear from the question Check if certain programs slow down the machine, e.g. the Adobe Creative Cloud or something else in the background. You can check current processes in the Activity Monitor app.
Reset SMC and NVRAM/PRAM
Check if the problems persist in safe mode
(run Apple hardware test)

Check the different startup modes.
Making a clean install (preferably with an USB installer) is always an option, but will only solve software issues and should not be needed after 6 months.


As far as I know, there is only one way to backup your passwords through iCloud: through iCloud Keychain. To check if your passwords are there, check all of the following:

On iOS: Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Website & App Passwords
On macOS: go to Keychain Access (/Applications/Utilties/Keychain\ Access), and on the sidebar to the left, there should be an entry called iCloud towards the top. Click on that, and sort by 'Kind', which should be the second column by default. Scroll down to the bottom, and you should see passwords with 'Web form password' in the 'Kind' column. Make sure that everything you want is there.


Yosemite upgrade: "Some features require an Apple ID"

You can complete the setup of any Mac with Yosemite installed on it without needing an Apple ID.

You can't use the Mac App Store for anything but core OS updates (printers, safari, etc...)
You can't use the iOS App store for music or books or podcasts, but streaming internet radio does work without an Apple ID.
You can't update the iLife apps that come with a new Mac
You can't use iCloud or FaceTime or Messages or continuity (aka handoff and instant hotspot)

Other than that, the computer doesn't really care that you haven't chosen to enter a valid Apple ID and password (or any Apple ID at all). I'm not sure how you'll download the Yosemite installer without using an Apple ID, but perhaps that is something you don't mind doing once before installing the upgrade.

As part of the installation you do have to agree to the licensing terms or the installer will not run. If you decide to hack that, it's not clear if there are any ramifications, but that item would be off-topic so if you decline the terms, the upgrade won't run out of the box. You don't need an Apple ID to accept or decline the EULA dialog so those really are separate issues IMO.


Use different Country/Region from Family in App Store

This is not possible. All Family Sharing members have to be in the same Country/Region.

As stated in this Support article:

  Not all content and content types are available in all countries or regions. To share purchased content, all family members must use the same Apple ID country or region.

https://support.apple.com/HT201085


How do I deploy a custom app to my iPhone?

You are required to possess the $99/yr developer account with Apple. Without it, you'll lack the sufficient certificates to have the app permanently installed on your device.


Browsing in Finder is extremely slow while fine in Terminal

I found it. It was automounted NFS shares that makes Finder unstable (even for local folders). I used hard,intr mount options so the disconnect dialog was not showing up. Now I use crankd in PyMacAdmin so that they are only mounted when I'm in my home network.


Can I boot from a USB stick containing MacOS if there is an issue with MacintoshHD?

Yes. Mac hardware is designed to boot from an external OS whether it’s an external drive, cheap commodity USB Flash thumb drive, network boot, internet recovery or direct attached disks. The startup manager governs which item is selected and you can connect the OS after you power on the Mac.
It even will search for a bootable drive if the last one stored in Non Volatile Ram (NVRAM) isn’t detected.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255 (Intel only startup keys)

In your specific case, you would need to look at the startup logs for the OS to determine the issue or bring another OS to bear to rule out the first OS or drive you’re using. On slow USB media it can take dozens of minutes to boot, but on fast external media, it should be minutes tops.
Also, a failing drive can bring down the Mac and prevent booting from a known good OS so your option might be to remove the drive entirely (if feasible) to test that or have it repaired.


How can I get control functionalities in the notification center like in Android?

No, this isn't possible. On iOS devices, the only way is via the Settings, unfortunately - at least, on a non-jail-broken device.


Bulk Delete Nest Albums in Photos by Pattern?

Launch Script Editor and create a new script.

Deleting folders named ".@_thumb"

Copy and paste the following script into Script Editor.

use Photos : application "Photos"

run Photos

recurse(application "Photos")
repeat with F in flatten(result)
    try
        delete F
    end try
end repeat

to recurse(_X)
    set _A to a reference to every folder of _X
    if not (_A exists) then return {}
    return (_A whose name = ".@_thumb") & recurse(_A)
end recurse

to flatten(L)
    local L

    if L = {} then return {}
    if L's class ≠ list then return {L}
    flatten(item 1 of L) & flatten(rest of L)
end flatten

Run the script (⌘R).

The second issue you mentioned is trickier because of a bug in AppleScript that returns an incorrect reference to newly created albums.  At the moment, I'm not sure of a workaround, but I will have a think and update this with any thoughts I glean.


Why my Time Capsule shared drive keeps refreshing?

It seems to be a known (or at least widely observed) bug with the Finder trying to display files with non-latin characters in their names on an AFP server (like the Time Capsule) -- see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2426415 for example.


Open Xcode
Select File->New->New Project
Select macOS (OS X in older versions) -> Command line tool
Choose C as type
Fill out the name and the other relevant wizards parts you need
click the main.c file to select it

And you should be good to go


Does the CPU of your Macbook Pro overheat when gaming using a Thunderbolt external GPU?

No, the CPU does not overheat.

There's no extra CPU-load from the fact that you're using an external GPU compared to an internal GPU.

In addition your CPU cannot overheat in a functioning MacBook Pro. The system will use the fans to cool down the CPU. In the event the fans are not functioning (i.e. broken hardware), the MacBook Pro would simply turn off instead of overheating.


What is the normal fan speed on Mac computers

There is no "normal" speed for a fan in a computer.  The fan spins at a speed necessary to keep the CPU temp in the "normal operating range."1

For your particular Mac, the  maximum operating temperature is about 82°C (180°F).  However, keep in mind that this does not factor in other components like heat from drives, adapters, etc. which may also go into calculating when a fan is engaged.

1 See section 5 in Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2400 Product Family Thermal/Mechanical Design Guide May 2012


Early 2011 Macbook Pro DisplayPort 1.2 driver

I had a similar compatibility issue a few years back with a Dell monitor.  After a replacement and multiple support calls, it ended up being the Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.  The embedded chip didn't send the proper info the Dell monitor is expecting.

After I replaced the Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable with a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter and a normal sized DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable, it worked properly.

There is some kind of incompatibility with Dell monitors and MDP to DP cables.  I've used the MDP to DP cable with other monitors without problems but have only had success with Dells when using a MDP to DP Adapter with a DP-DP cable.

Hope this helps!


Is there a way to use my mouse or trackpad with my iPhone

While you can pair a bluetooth keyboard with an iOS device and use it, Apple does not support for pairing a bluetooth mouse or trackpad.

I did find that there is a third-party app for use on jailbroken iOS devices that allow you to do what you want. It provides an alternative Bluetooth Stack which provides the ability to use the trackpad or mouse. See here for more info.


Have you tried something like this?

# Check installed RAM, disable VM if 8Gb or more.

mem_inst=`/usr/sbin/sysctl -n hw.memsize`

if [ "$mem_inst" -ge "8589934592" ]; then
    echo "8Gb+ Memory installed."
        if [ "$action" == "unload" ]; then
            sudo nvram boot-args="vm_compressor=2"
            sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
            echo "vm.compressor_mode set to 2"
        else
            sudo nvram boot-args="vm_compressor=4"
            sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3
            echo "vm.compressor_mode reset to defaults"
        fi
            launch_control $action /System/Library/LaunchDaemons com.apple.dynamic_pager
    else
    echo "Less than 8Gb memory."
fi

This isn't something I wrote, was information I found.


Is there a way to speed up the way Mac responds to my trackpad clicks?

Do you have trackpad dragging enabled?  If so, it has to wait a moment after you tap in case you tap again and turn the action into a drag -- until then, it can't tell if you want to just click, or click-hold-drag.  The only way to eliminate this delay is to turn off trackpad dragging, so there's no ambiguity about what it should do when you tap.


Disable dismissing reminders from lock screen

Try Settings > Notification Center > Reminders (second entry - with apps) > Show in Notification Center and Show on Lock Screen. Also choose whether you want "banner" or "alert" style notifications.

There is a third Reminders setting on the main settings page, but that only relates to how long you keep old reminders around, and which list of reminders you want to use. HTH


For iOS developers, are GM releases eligible for OTA updates on point releases?

Yes. Excluding any major issues, the GM release for developers is the same as the first release to the public. Future point releases can be updated over-the-air rather than through a manual image install.


Workout App Open Goal vs Calories question

The workout should show an ellipsis (3 dots) on the top right that you can tap. From there select open goal.

See this Apple Support article for more information on workouts.


UNTRUSTED_CERT_TITLE trying to install Sierra

Just to give an actual set of steps to expand on the answer from Sam

Go to Utilities -> Terminal
If connected to Wifi, use ntpdate

ntpdate time.apple.com
If not on wifi, use date command

date 1201160419    # Sets date to 4:04PM Dec 1, 2019
Quit terminal and restart install procedure


iPhone 5 keeps on turning off even in DFU Mode

You need to get the timing right.

Once the screen turns off, release both the power button after 0.5-1.0 seconds. Keep pressing the Home button, though.


Is it possible to enable a Firefox addon using a terminal command on the mac?

What you need to do is create a new Firefox profile.
That profile will be completely different from the default profile that you normally use including the add-ons that are installed.
Command line Mac Command Line Options:
Symlink the Firefox binary (optional)
The Firefox binary is located in /Applications/Firefox.app/Conents/MacOS so I suggest making a symlink to it so you can launch Firefox from anywhere and you don’t have to type out the full path each time.
% sudo ln -s /Aplications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

For the rest of the examples below, I will assume that the binary is symlinked.  If you chose not to, you’ll need to type out the full path.
Launch Firefox Profile Manager
The ProfileManager launches Firefox with a Profile selection box in the GUI allowing you to choose which profile you’d like to use
% firefox -ProfileManager

Create a Profile
This is the quick command to create a profile in the default location which will be in the ~Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles  directory.
% firefox CreateProfile <profile name>

To create a profile in a specific directory, you need to specify either the absolute or relative path
% firefox CreateProfile “profile_name profile_dir”

Launch Firefox specifying a profile
This command will launch Firefox with a specific profile
% firefox -P “<profile_name>“

Use this command if you have Firefox already running and want to have a new instance with a different profile
% firefox -new-instance -P “<profile_name>”


Safari has a problem displaying certain images

It does work on my MBA 10.9.2 Safari 7.0.3 ?

At the moment I do not know what is causing it on your computer.

Here are some initial findings:

That site has some bad formatting to begin with:

For example if you change the Margin to 3 instead of 0 the magnifier will no longer go outside of the image area, which is the first indication of a problem with that link.

The image is set to display in width=166 , height=222, while the Natural size is 3120x4160.

UPDATE:

Since It works on my computer I would say it is your specific Safari installation.

We could go in to trying to repair your Safari (I do not know a quick way to do it)!?, but to be honest, if you have that problem on a bigger scale, I would recommend to reInstall Safari. Unfortunately that means reInstalling Mavericks. So the choice is yours.


How to record photo/video files smaller on iOS

Try using Video Slimmer app in app store.. This app lets you to shrink video files filmed on your iOS device to smaller file size while keeping good video quality. With just several taps, you will greatly save the precious space on iPhone iPad or iPod.


/private/var/db/uuidtext/dsc directory huge size

Sure - the fsusage tool can show all filesystem operations live and you can sort on that path to determine what is doing the writing and back into the details.

sudo fs_usage -w | grep uuidtext

As you mention, the system can self fix by restart and updates. I’d guess OnyX didn’t help, but we’ll need to wait to get it to recur to know for sure.

Also, that directory is where the unified logs are stored, so you could also just inspect your normal logs in console app - if you have a high volume of logs, then your growth is normal and you’d uninstall / fix / suppress whatever is generating all the volume in the logging system.

log stream --info --debug

Also, most people are stunned and shocked to see how many thousands of info and debug messages get logged each and every second on a perfectly healthy mac, so don’t worry if you feel the volume is high without comparing to other computers. Maybe getting stats would be a better indicator:

me@dev ~> log stats --overview
== archive =============================================================
size:               461,012,272 bytes
                    1,141,374,160 bytes (uncompressed)
start:              Fri Jul 19 06:37:25 2019
end:                Sun Aug 18 17:56:08 2019
statedump:          725

events:             [       total        log      trace   signpost       loss ]
                    [  26,036,074 18,105,986         26    234,083          5 ]

activity:           [      create transition     action ]
                    [   7,694,844          0         10 ]

log messages:       [     default       info      debug      error      fault ]
                    [  17,799,660    219,169    105,002    215,663        601 ]

ttl:                [        1day      3days      7days     14days     30days ]
                    [           0     11,021     10,620     94,679     68,285 ]

processes:
          [        events (%total),  decomp. bytes (%total),                           image UUID, image ]
          [     4,728,900 ( 18.2%),    137,984,377 ( 12.1%), 6848C8B5-B410-3D5E-B1F5-6A289006E83F, Activity Monitor ]
          [       800,052 (  3.1%),    100,277,357 (  8.8%), 9C895392-8753-316E-80F0-802610ED6A2C, AssetCache ]
          [     6,498,211 ( 25.0%),     90,979,241 (  8.0%), 26E8D205-980A-3139-B41A-BA2D40EE6294, diskarbitrationd ]
          [        12,103 (  0.0%),     82,909,480 (  7.3%), DF2BBC3F-1663-395D-BEA3-85172E5D5654, sandboxd ]
          [         9,827 (  0.0%),     79,484,156 (  7.0%), 03F25350-02B7-34AD-AF61-5001FCD85D39, sandboxd ]

senders:
          [        events (%total),  decomp. bytes (%total),                           image UUID, image ]
          [     6,498,207 ( 25.0%),     90,979,122 (  8.0%), 26E8D205-980A-3139-B41A-BA2D40EE6294, diskarbitrationd ]
          [       682,424 (  2.6%),     86,726,296 (  7.6%), 74A0A926-957A-3803-9837-CF24592E46D3, libboringssl.dylib ]
          [       145,587 (  0.6%),     82,984,590 (  7.3%), 6993BD8C-C535-3AD7-B511-94EABF989658, GPUWrangler ]
          [        12,027 (  0.0%),     82,908,562 (  7.3%), DF2BBC3F-1663-395D-BEA3-85172E5D5654, sandboxd ]
          [         9,567 (  0.0%),     79,480,144 (  7.0%), 03F25350-02B7-34AD-AF61-5001FCD85D39, sandboxd ]

So 26 million events logged on a computer over a month and it was powered off for 2 weeks this month and lightly used the other couple weeks. On a busy computer I’d see this volume every week and not worry.


How to find out what launch agent or daemon is starting a process

You can grep the output of launchctl list for the pid:

$ pgrep -fl foo
40679 bash /tmp/foo
$ launchctl list|grep 40679
40679   -   com.example.foo

Then for example look for a file named com.example.foo.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/, /Library/LaunchAgents/, or /Library/LaunchDaemons/.

Edit: the Disabled key can be overridden in /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd/overrides.plist, which is modified when launchctl load -w is run as root, or in /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd.peruser.$UID/overrides.plist, which is modified when launchctl load -w is run as the user.

If the Apache plist that comes with OS X was enabled, you can disable it by running sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist.


iPhone not i.d.'ing callers after resetting all settings

The solution to my problem turned out to be reactivating my (Verizon) phone.  Details here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3766509


How to convert an epub file to pdf from the command line?

Calibre has a command line interface, see this part of the manual. Basically you should be able to add /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS to your PATH (or symlink the binaries there into /usr/local/bin) and then run

ebook-convert input_file output_file


What application can I use to increase fan speed of MacBook Pro under Windows 7?

I've used SpeedFan with Windows running in a Bootcamp partitions to access temperature data and control the fan speeds on an iMac. He's very quick to turn around unsupported chipsets and the software tells you if you should report your chipset to the author for addition.


Is it possible to have audio follow window across multiple displays

This is not possible.

Apple does not "link" audio devices and video devices in any way.  As far as macOS is concerned, you have discrete audio devices and discrete video (display) devices.  In fact, you cannot even control audio from a Mac connected via HDMI or DisplayPort

Some Apps (i.e. Vox Music Player) allows you to select a different audio device from the default.  If the App you're using (Safari for example) is playing a YouTube video, it would have to be able to be "aware" of the other audio devices (it's not).

Your app would not only have to be aware of the additional audio devices but the location of it's Window in relation to the monitor it's connected to.  It's highly unlikely app programmers would include that functionality.


This indicates a hardware problem with your phone. Contact AppleCare, or make a Genius Bar reservation at your local Apple Store


How did a user manage to get my multi-window app to run in "Tabbed Windows Mode"?

Just wondering what version of macOS you're running? The other user must be using macOS Sierra, what about you?

In macOS Sierra tabs are supported in any application where it’s possible to have multiple windows open. Based on your description, your app supports multiple simultaneous windows.

Assuming you have macOS Sierra installed, you can activate this in the way you found through your Google search. But if you haven't, then you won't be able to get tabbed windows to work.

If you do have the latest version of macOS Sierra installed, update your question and let me know. I'll see what I can dig up.


Are there non-English books in the iBookstore?

I did searches for Tolstoy, Pushkin, and Dostoyevski and found at least one Russian language book under each one.  Are these not there for you?


How can a script detect if it has access to some Security & Privacy parameters?

Not really.

The permission dialog will only be shown once - after that the only options are to change the System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy >  Automation setting (which doesn’t reset the dialog) or reset the privacy database via the tccutil utility (see Apple’s tech note).

There is an AEDeterminePermissionToAutomateTarget function to determine if it is authorized to send an Apple Event to an application, but AppleScript can’t use it because it uses a pointer for the target application reference.

Also see this blog for a decent writeup about this mess.


PDF from Windows shows up fine on screen in Preview but prints as question marks in boxes

My guess is there's an issue with the character encoding in the document. Unless you're up to playing with OCR (optical character recognition), try the following:

Open the document in Preview.
"Export" the PDF as a PDF from Preview (crazy, I know). Do this from the Preview menu instead the print dialog.
Print the exported PDF.


Install oracle 12c database in OS X Yosemite without Virtual Machine

Oracle Database 12c doesn't run on OS X, so I guess you'll have to stick to a VM running a supported OS (see http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html):


Prevent the slide-out from appearing in fullscreen safari

There isn't a way to stop this from happening with conventional methods (i.e. through settings or modifying a .plist file.) It has also been around since Safari 9 from what I can glean from my researches. Search on this site, and in Google in general, to find ways to 'trick' Safari by moving the Dock to the left side of the screen, changing some parameters through a defaults write command to a .plist file and setting up some trackpad swipes and whatnot. Complicated and ultimately a kludge.


Is there a way to queue up the next song on my iPhone?

As they say in the iPhone world, "There's an app for that" (Review) :-) It's called OnCue.


Adobe Photoshop error message about display driver with my MacBook Pro

Make sure you're using the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.

http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2011/03/keeping-photoshop-up-to-date.html

Your MacBook should be working just fine, my late 2009 iMac still runs like a champ.


iPhone 6s incoming calls won't start when Apple headphones are connected

You absolutely will want to do some tests or work with AppleCare / support on this. I get the same very seldom, and if yours happens each / every time your diagnostic logs could let Apple fix this for everyone (assuming there are bugs in the code on answering calls).

Almost certainly not battery, but it could be.

I would make a full backup then try in order:

Reset network settings and test.
Make final backup then don't backup next steps.
Erase phone, set up as new and test.
Erase again, restore final backup and test.
Don't forget to set up backups again.


I want to create a script in script editor that will press a key and then press enter every 60 seconds

How to send enter key using Applescript

In order to send the enter key in applescript you can use:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 36
end tell

Alternatively:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 76
end tell

The Difference between the two:

As shown here key code 36 is used to send the key Return.

key code 76 on the other hand is used to send Enter.

(@user3439894 Pointed out that key code 36 is typically used.)

Fixing Applescript not being able to send keystrokes

  Go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Accessibility. From there delete the application and add it again.

Article

More Info

Sending Keystrokes:
How to send special keys Applescript, How do I automate a key press in AppleScript? and List of Apple Key Codes

Fixing applescript not being able to send keystrokes: Application is not allowed to send keystrokes


Force mac to show at least two updates using softwareupdate -l

I'm pretty sure that softwareupdate is only going to show you the most recent update. It wants to update you from what you have to what's current, and it doesn't show other updates that might have happened in between.

If you want to download past versions of Xcode, you should go to Apple's developer site, where every version of Xcode since version 3.0 in 2007 is available. If you have a developer account, you can get them at http://developer.apple.com/download/more/. If you don't currently have a developer account, you can sign up for free at https://developer.apple.com/programs/


2018 Mac Mini - Won't boot when power applied

Is FileVault enabled? If so, that would prevent the scheduled boot from working.

See here: FileVault and scheduled boot


How can I circumvent XProtect and re-enable Java Applets?

You can disable the XProtect updates in System Preferences => Security => General, and there uncheck the box "Automatically update safe downloads list."

Now you can change the version info in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.meta.plist


Syncing Contacts and iCal between multiple Macs and iOS?

I've been extremely happy with iCloud syncing between MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad. Once set up it works flawlessly and reliably unlike MobileMe which I had for years and was useful but never totally trustworthy. iCloud really is a great solution for syncing address book and calendar and reminders. I'm also enjoying it's syncing of bookmarks and other safari browser data.

My only caveat about it is that some MobileMe users have had some issues in doing the move. None of these issues to my knowledge have been unsolveable but there have been some bumps. For users with an Apple ID and no legacy of MobileMe use it's extremely smooth to set up.

All iOS devices need to be running iOS 5, Macs need latest version of Lion.

http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/


iPod Touch 2nd Generation (Used) boots into Apple Logo when dead, then shuts off. If charged however, everything is normal. What is going on?

"You do realize this device is almost 10 years old, and that the battery is probably showing its age? I suspect that any amount of calibration you attempt isn't going to make much of a difference and will continue to present you with perplexing results." - IconDaemon

"The firmware in the 2nd generation might not be as advanced as what's found in the iPhone 5. In addition, the 2nd Gen Touch can only take iOS 4.2.1. Perhaps a combo of these two things, in conjunction with an old/failing battery, may be causing this anomaly. I don't think you'll get a satisfactory conclusion to your quest -- it may simply be an unusual set of circumstances that is leading to what you are seeing. Lastly - it doesn't seem as if the 2nd Gen is malfunctioning in any other way. In the immortal words of Lennon/McCartney - Let it Be." - IconDaemon

The battery meter will display unpredictable fluctuations in the percentage due to the battery being very old, causing the device firmware to be unable to accurately measure the percentage remaining.


MacBook Pro display suddenly has a very faint warm/pink tint

Old answer, provided as background
I handed in my computer with the problem to an authorized service partner. At first they didn't recognize the error, but after some further convincing from my part they claim to have spoken with Apple about it.
The authorized service partner claimed that the problem with warm hue is a software bug introduced in one of most recent versions of MacOS High Sierra (spring 2018), and it afflicts various Mac models. They claim that Apple is aware of the problem, and a fix will applied in an upcoming MacOS patch.
Edit, May 2021
As of MacOS Big Sur 11.2.3 (2021-05-04), Apple haven't applied a fix, as the problem persists.
Upon multiple further contacts with Apple, it has become clear that Apple's support are not aware of this issue. They have asked for video evidence when the issue occurs. I would encourage users who experience this issue to contact Apple and send video evidence to get the issue noted.
Since Apple isn't recognizing this issue, I have unmarked my answer as a solution.


Had a similar "stuck in message" problem. Powering off/powering on fixed the issue....


How can I take a screenshot of the app switcher in macOS?

Use the timer option in the new screenshot popup app.

 Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   5
Select Capture Entire Screen on the left & 5 seconds from the Options menu

Click Capture.
During that 5s countdown, hit  Cmd ⌘   Tab ⇥

The resulting image will contain the switcher [intentionally tiny picture]

Interestingly, whilst composing this answer I discovered you can open the Screenshot app, then take a picture of it using the 'old'  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   3  command ;)


Does turning off wifi improve battery life?

Yes, turning off WiFi will save power.
In case you are not using any data it will but if you still gonna use cellular data with Wi-Fi off then it might be that you actually get less of battery life since data on cellular uses more battery than on WiFi especially if signal is weak.

For example for iPhone 6 (for 5 it was about the same) specs for Power and Battery are:

Internet use: Up to 10 hours on 3G, up to 10 hours on LTE, up to 11 hours on Wi‑Fi


What is the correct shasum of InstallESD.DMG for OS X 10.10 Yosemite?

The correct sha1 of InstallESD.DMG for OS X 10.10.0 Yosemite is eebf02a20ac27665a966957eec6f5e6fe3228a19.

There's no way to correct corrupted downloads, so you have to download it again.


How to screen capture high-quality for printing for 300 DPI?

Taken from here.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf
killall SystemUIServer

Several other choices besides pdf and default png, see link.


I'm not at all sure this will work for you, but since nobody else has responded...

I set up a manual email account yesterday on both Mac and iOS, and my ISP warned me that both on Mac and on iPhone I needed to add "INBOX" as the IMAP Path Prefix in the Advanced Settings for the account, or else I would have trouble moving messages from Inbox to Trash and Junk. I was having a similar problem moving messages to Trash, and that did the trick. You might give it a try, since it's easy to undo if it doesn't work.


How can I show again the text next to "Computer" in Finder? Only the icon shows

Try going into System Preferences, then Sharing.  At the top of the window should be a field labeled "Computer Name".  Type in what you want and it should correspond with what you see in Finder's Sidebar.


How to turn-off the heuristic guessing of (kanji + okurigana) while doing Japanese input?

That is indeed a new feature for El Capitan:

Mac becomes even more fluent.
Japanese
Live conversion for keyboard input.
OS X El Capitan dramatically improves the ease and speed of entering Japanese text. With an enhanced vocabulary and improved language engine, it automatically transforms Hiragana into written Japanese as you type — eliminating the need to press the space bar for individual word conversions.

You can disable Live Conversion under System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources > Japanese, or the shortcut in the Input Menu Item by clicking Open Japanese Preferences:


Tethered jailbreaked iPhone 4S is stuck on the Apple logo because the battery died

I fixed it. I won't delete the question because I think this may help other people... but if mods want to delete it, then go ahead.

Today when I woke up the battery had died again, so I took advantage of this (because now it won't turn on everytime I tried to turn it off). Redsn0w has an option to boot the iphone/ipod if it's off while on tethered jailbreak, but it won't work with iphone 4S because it has A5, not A4; but I used the DFU instructions there to make sure it was done correctly (there's no screen that will tell you it's on DFU mode, but redsn0w will pop up a message telling you it doesn't support your device). Then I opened iTunes and it recognized it now and asked me if I wanted to restore it, and that's it... at least it works now.

In fewer words:

Let the battery die.
Plug it on your computer and let it charge for a minute or so.
DO NOT turn it on. Try to put it on DFU mode (if you don't know how
or need to be looking at the instructions with the seconds needed on
each button then download RedSn0w and cick on Extras>Boot).
Start the phone and go to setting reset and reset the phone and cydia or tethered jailbreak will removed from your device


Setting two tabs to split view in one action when using safari macOS catalina

If you have two safari windows open (command + n) then you can press long on the green button on the top left of one of the two windows and the following window will appear:

Then you can choose where you want this page on your screen, left or right, and then on the other side where you selected you can choose the other safari pages. There are keyboard shortcuts for what I don't know ... But a little less expensive than your version


How to see the members of an Active Directory group in the Mail application

To my knowledge, you cannot do this directly within the Mail.app on a Mac. However, you may be able to accomplish this using Directory Utility (hidden away in /System/Library/CoreServices), depending on how your system is configured. My work Mac is bound to AD and it works for me.

Open Directory Utility. Click on Directory Editor. View "Groups" in node pertaining to whatever your AD server is. You should be able to now search for the AD group you'd like to mail to. Unfold the data for "GroupMembership" and you should see the complete listing of members of this group.

I know this is a bit roundabout, but it does work.


There is no way to do that without copying all data to a second disk, formatting the first as HFS+, and copying the data back.

The file size limit under ExFat is about 16 Exabytes, which is higher than the maximum possible volume size. And HFS+ is similarly crazy: 8 Exabytes is the limit. Which means that you should never have to worry about file size again! (The developers of FAT32 probably thought the same though :p)

Next time, please make use of websites like Wikipedia before posting these sorts of questions.


Why does Page Down/Up using Fn+Down/Up not work on some applications?

I just tested in my FF ver. 29.0.1 with Fn arrow UP and Down and it works on my MBA 10.9.3

More information on FF shortcuts.

For FF you can also customize the shortcuts.

I do not have the IntelliJ to test.

Some applications use the own keyboard shortcuts and override OS X settings.


MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015): SSD replacement

Ok, thanks to @nekomatic and @GioValerio. I guess that one of JetDrive 820 drives should be sufficient for my purposes.


All Lion and later (10.7) OS X should have a recovery HD by default.

If you haven't changed your configuration, it likely does still have the recovery partition.  Find out by holding Option while booting. Now, the recovery HD only has disk formatting tools and terminal and the ability to connect to the App Store to re-download the installer. It doesn't actually save the installer to the drive.

Barring that, I would download the Mac OS from the App Store and put it on a thumb drive for a reinstall.


Using simple copy and paste to get the song list out of the new itunes 11

Hmm, don't have this problem.
Is the Edit/Copy entry enabled for you?
Because if I hit copy, and then paste into a text file, for given screenshot I obtain :

  2 of 12   Aquele plano para me esquecer       Adriana Calcanhotto     O micróbio do samba Brasileira  6   60  3:01
  6 Suavemente      Elvis Crespo    5* /
  Top40     Latin   2   100 4:24
  12    La Camisa Negra     Juanes  5*/Top40        Pop     100 3:35
  1 I Need A Dollar     Aloe Blacc  5* /
  Top40     Soul    4   100 4:04

is it what you're trying to achieve?


Different enterprise signed apps on same iOS device

Yes, it's possible. Apps can be installed from multiple enterprise locations on the same device. Whilst I haven't been able to find a citable source, I have personal experience as I have apps from an enterprise organisation installed on my device as well as the SE iOS beta app which is distributed through enterprise.


How to copy my Mountain Lion system to another drive?

Cloned drives are generally not a problem. You don't want to do a simple drag/drop.
SuperDuper from ShirtPocket will clone your drive and ensure it's bootable. CarbonCopyCloner will do the same.

There are some more details in How can I get my laptop's existing system onto a new replacement drive?


Screen brightness decreases when I middle-click

What you need to do is change the key mappings on your mouse. What this does is tells your computer what to do when you press key X.

For Mac…

  MapKeyboard is a free program to remap your keyboard. Using MapKeyboard, you can alter any key on your keyboard to function as a different one or altogether disable it as well. This is an essential tool for laptop users and other people with keyboards whose keys differ from the standard 101 keyboard layout.

For Windows…

  SetPoint Software

  Logitech SetPoint™ software lets you customize your mouse buttons, keyboard F-keys, and hot keys. Use SetPoint to control tracking speeds and configure other device-specific settings. It can also notify you of our device’s battery status, and whether Caps Lock and Num Lock are on.


Best approach to backup and migrate Boot Camp

The best way to migrate a Boot Camp partition is to make an image of the partition and then restore that image to a blank partition.

Use Disk Utility to make an image of the BOOTCAMP partition, then repartition as 2 partitions1. Make sure that the BOOTCAMP partition is the same size or larger than before, then use the Restore tab to restore the image to the partition.

1 The repartitioning can be done with either Disk Utility or Boot Camp Assistant.


On an iPhone, how to stop app from running in the background, as disabling "App Refresh" doesn't seem to do it?

Here's Apple's definition of Background App Refresh:

  Apps can continue to run for a short period of time and are then set to a suspended state so they are not actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. They will instantly launch when you return to them. Certain tasks or services can continue to run in the background. To lessen the effect on battery life, normal app background refreshing is scheduled for efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged into a power source, or being actively used. When Background App Refresh is on, apps that take advantage of this feature can refresh themselves in the background.

A key part of that definition is ...apps that take advantage of this feature....  Perhaps Nike coded their app to take advantage of some of those features while continuing to run in the background (to update your exercise location, stats, etc).

There's a good read for this on Background App Refresh in Layman's Terms and I would recommend you read it to get a better understanding on how the system is setup and how it's used by apps.


Unless your MacBook Pro lacks a FireWire port, you can use Target Disk Mode to have the iMac reboot and act as a FireWire drive.

From there, you could use Disk Utility (or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper or other tools) to make a bootable copy of the MBP's OS onto the iMac's drive.

Alternatively, you might buy Mountain Lion or use a past Lion purchase from the app store to download an installer and run it from the MBP. You could choose to install the OS onto the "external drive" that is the iMac. Then you could chain the second iMac (or repeat this activity).

It really depends what OS you want and can run on the iMacs.

Your first step is to run the serial number of the iMacs to this page and see what Apple's service name for each Mac. From there, you will know what OS shipped and if the Mac can run Lion or Mountain Lion.

http://support.apple.com/manuals/#

Just enter the serial number in the address bar past the # or enter it into the form on the web page. You can always order replacement media from Apple, but there will be a charge for that. The other suggestions to buy a retail packaging DVD to install will likely be an inexpensive way to acquire an install OS once you have determined what OS can run and which OS you want to run.


Merging folders when copying & pasting in Finder

Because of a lot of complaints of people used to the Windows way, merging folders is now a feature in OSX Lion :

This merge dialog will only show up if:

destination folder isn't empty
destination folder contents are different from to be copied one

So the way to merge folders in an officially supported way is to upgrade to Lion :-)


How do I see version numbers of my apps on iOS?

On your iPhone:

Open the Settings app
Go to General->Usage
Under the Storage section, wait till it shows the list of apps
Click on the app you're interested in to see the App Version, the App Size and the amount of data it has stored on the device.

This works only for third party apps. The Apple provided stock apps will not show this information.

In iOS 11 the method described also works for Apple provided stock apps.


Can't delete old Time Machine backups from Trash

I fixed this by using tmutil delete.
First, I changed directory into where all the trashed backups were being kept:
cd /Volumes/MacBook\ Pro\ Backup/.Trashes/501

Then, I checked all the files in the directory to make sure I knew what I was deleting. This showed me a list of folders named by date:
sudo ls

Afterwards, I was able to use tmutil delete to delete all the backups:
sudo tmutil delete *

From now on, whenever I want to delete old backups, I will use tmutil delete on the backup folder.


MacBook Pro 16" Speakers Spontaneously Making Strange Noise. How do I fix this?

Can you report there as well https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251560058?
You are not the only one....
My guess is that it is not the sound card as headphones work fine, but could be a driver / compatibility issue with the speakers. Def looks like a driver/OS not working as expected to me
My issue happened with the exact same version: MacOS Catalina 10.15.6


Open iTunes preferences, there's a "Devices" tab that shows you any backups stored on that computer, but if you've never connected it in between I can hardly imagine there's an older backup.
Did you connect your phone to any computer in the last 8 months, or did you eventually use iCloud backups? You could check those as well..


Transfer Clash of Clans village to another iPhone

You'll want to use iTunes or iCloud to which to back up your iPhone prior to replacing it. For example, if you backup to iTunes and enable encryption, all your data and passwords will be covered as well as your apps. When you get the new phone, you would then immediately connect it to your system and use iTunes to restore your data to the new phone from backup.

As long as your backup and restore do not have any CoC action in between, your level information should transfer at par.


Would now be a good time to go ahead and replace my hard drive or am I
  good to wait for a little while?

The answer comes down to your answer to the question "What's your data and time worth?"

The bottom line is that the rotational (mechanical) drive that services your data is at it's end of its useful life. It could go on for another 6 months or last just another 6 hours.  It's impossible to know for sure.  What we do know is that it is starting to fail.

The best course of action (in order of priority) would be the following:

Make a (Time Machine) backup
Upgrade to an SSD or new HDD
Migrate your data from your old drive

I go into detail about the above steps in a similar post.

It's best to do it when you can schedule your down time as opposed to dealing with a forced down time because the drive invariably failed (and usually at the most inopportune moment).


Directories treated by OS X as executable

They are called Packages or bundles.

From Apple's Documentation:

  A package is any directory that the Finder presents to the user as if it were a single file.
  A bundle is a directory with a standardized hierarchical structure that holds executable code and the resources used by that code.

Apparently there is a special "Package Bit" that's set on those directories.


Duplicate songs in Apple Music after syncing

You can make iTunes detect duplicate songs by going to View -> Show Duplicate items and delete your duplicate songs from here.

If some of the songs you have haven't been downloaded for offline play, you can also click in View -> Only Music Available Offline to show only the songs that you've downloaded on your system.


Beware of legal issues.

You can but you'll need to jailbreak, use extra hardware (plug a mic into the headphone jack), or use 3rd party SIP software. For example, Google Voice has an iPhone app, and Google Voice supports call recording. Google Voice does announce to both parties that it is recording the call.


How does changing key photo in Live photo differ from burst mode?

Changing the key photo of a Live Photo is not a replacement for burst mode in terms of quality.

The video segment of a Live Photo is 960×720, which is a huge drop in resolution.
Burst mode takes full resolution photos.


Can I use my iPhone 4s (jailbroken to unlock) in Australia?

if your iPhone is already unlocked (e.g. jailbroken and ultrasn0w installed from Cydia) then you don't need to do anything. Just put in the SIM you want and it should work.


My activity lists a lot of processes. Is it normal?

MacOS launches many processes to do all the jobs that it needs to do. The number of process "triggered by you" is a small proportion of the total.

In general, if there isn't a "problem" -- such as one process using up all your memory or CPU resources, or a general sluggishness -- then I would assume all is well. Your memory usage certainly seems to be well within acceptable limits. (Low, green memory pressure, little Swap.)

You do have a lot of mdworker_shared processes. Processes starting with "md" usually belong to Spotlight. Sometimes Spotlight can work hard, indexing your disk, and launching several processes to do this. You should let this continue.
The MTLCompilerService processes are Metal support services, used by apps that leverage Apple's Metal graphics framework.


Macbook Pro Retina 15" (late 2013), is it possible to run 1 extra display at 60hz in a best resolution than full hd?

According to EveryMac.com

"This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 2560x1600 on two external displays via Thunderbolt. Alternately, it can support a single display up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt and a single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz via HDMI."

EveryMac is your friend when it comes to Mac details and specs. I find it better (often) than the official Apple support site.


Login to OneDrive OS X with School/Company account

I didn't know there were two separate versions of OneDrive, one for schools/companies, that is called OneDrive Business and one for normal Microsoft Accounts that is just called OneDrive. According to the official homepage OneDrive for Business is not available (yet) for OS X. Although as stated here, it is coming and a preview version is available for download now. And fortunately, it works.

  OneDrive for Business is also making its debut on OS X today, in the form of a sync client available as a public preview from the Microsoft Download Center.


If I create a Game Center account, will I lose my Clash of Clans village?

You won't lose your clash of clans progress by making a Game Center account.


How to disable "Eject device before disconnecting or turning it off." finder notification

I don't think you can eliminate this warning.
Normally you shouldn't even think of eliminating it, but I can see your use-case for not needing it for this specific device.
I would be more inclined to prevent the volume from mounting in the first place, then it will never 'not be properly ejected'.
You can prevent it from mounting using fstab.
I wrote an earlier answer on using this, so I'll link to that rather than covering the same ground again. The question itself is entirely unrelated, but the answer contains step by step for fstab
I do not know, however, if this still works as advertised in Big Sur, with the protected OS partition. Someone else would have to help you through that, if it's not mutable any more.
Time Machine restore to new partition, different computer


How to change the Shift+Click hotkey in Safari?

If you disable "cmd-click opens a  link in a new tab" in Safari Settings (Tabs) then cmd-click becomes "Opens a link in a new window".


Why I am unable to switch bash to the one installed by homebrew?

Okay, so apparently this was happening because tmux was holding on to the original bash version (even though I had exited tmux and reloaded it's config). tmux kill-server followed by relaunching tmux fixed it for me.


For some reason I can't open files on drive

First thing, make sure that it's no locked and that you have the correct permissions :

If you have extended attributes you can get rid of those by doing the following :

1- Do ls -l@, under the file it will give you something like "com.apple.FinderInfo". Copy that
2- Do xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo path/to/file

If nothing works then your last option is to sudo it :
sudo open path/to/file

Also see if you can open it using a mac that those not have Tuxera installed on it.


Trying to set a F8 pause/play dictation command

Separated the two applications into two separate dictation commands using applescript in automator. The latter controls the Youtube video on the tab Chrome last interacted with, which is essentially perfect.

on is_running(appName)
    tell application "System Events" to (name of processes) contains appName
end is_running

if is_running("iTunes") then
    tell application "iTunes"
        playpause
    end tell
else if is_running("Spotify") then
    tell application "Spotify"
        playpause
    end tell
end if

to clickClassName(theClassName, elementnum)
    tell application "Google Chrome" to (tabs of window 1 whose URL contains "youtube")
    set youtubeTabs to item 1 of the result
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        execute youtubeTabs javascript "document.getElementsByClassName('" & theClassName & "')[" & elementnum & "].click();"
    end tell
end clickClassName

clickClassName("ytp-play-button ytp-button", 0)

--clickClassName("ytp-prev-button ytp-button", 0)
--clickClassName("ytp-next-button ytp-button", 0)


In a blank document, go to Insert → Object → Microsoft Equation Editor to insert new equations. (If you were using Word for Mac 2011, it would be Insert → Equation.) Do you see that menu item or not? If not, note that Equation Editor isn’t part of the default install, and you might not have it. You’ll need to pop your install disc back in and do a custom install of it. Check the Value Pack Installer.

(Source).


How to turn on Youtube Subtitles in AppleTV?

The Apple TV doesn't support YouTube closed captioning.
The closed captioning you've enabled is where video files have subtitles.
The same functionality was missing on the pre-iOS 6 YouTube app, so I'm not surprised that it doesn't exist on the Apple TV.

If you want to submit feedback to Apple about this, you can do so here.


If all you need is a firewall, that is well documented how to turn it on and make exceptions to the default rules.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201642

In the advanced settings there is a “block all incoming connections” toggle for that specific simple configuration.


How do I enable 3 finger swipe down for App Expose in El Capitan

System Preferences -> Trackpad -> More Gestures -> App Expose

And one thing changed since 10.10: From 10.11 it is
4 fingers
instead of
3 fingers

It will never work with 3 fingers again, get used to it as a 4 finger gesture.


Find out if my iPhone is unlocked without purchasing another SIM

Three methods work for deteriming if an iPhone is unlocked:

You see the one time message from iTunes when it restores a phone that previously was locked and now is unlocked.
You contact your carrier and they will tell you if the phone on your account has been unlocked.
You swap the SIM with one that isn't from your carrier and it works.

Apple maintains a nice article explaining which carriers offer an unlock as well as other iPhone related services. If you didn't buy the phone yourself, it could have been sold originally as an unlocked phone in which case you would need to know this fact or experiment with two SIM to know if that device is in fact one that is authorized as an unlocked device.


How do you move ALL the data from an old drive to a new drive

Provided you have an enclosure for the HDD or SSD that you can connect via USB, you could use a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner. (CCC has a 30-day trial and is $39.99 to purchase after that. I've had good experience with CCC, but other free or paid utilities may work better for you.)

The convenient part of using CCC or another utility is that it can make the disk bootable, which is required for swapping the disks like you are asking. If you don't make the disk bootable, it won't boot.

If you don't have an enclosure, you can use an empty external hard drive as a middleman. Use your utility to make a bootable copy of your HDD on your external drive, physically swap out the HDD and SSD, boot to macOS from the external drive, then make a bootable copy from the external drive to the new SSD.

If you don't have an external drive or an enclosure, you may have to reinstall macOS and all your other applications and replace your data.


Yes.

Airplay is really a technology platform that allows for streaming media on a local network. It isn't concerned with the type of device that is producing the media or consuming it.

To start with, support may be limited and may not come from Apple. However, certainly that will change with demand. For example:

There is an iOS app called AirPlayer which allows streaming of media to an iPhone/iPod/iPad.
There is a Mac proof-of-concept app also called AirPlayer which allows streaming of media to a Mac.


Apple Script: 'activate' an application in fullscreen

Allow the Script Editor to access Accessibility in System Preferences, & try this script. You should define the application name properly.

set MyApps to {"Google Chrome", "Skype", "Finder"}

repeat with MyApp in MyApps

tell application MyApp

    activate

    delay 3

    tell application "System Events" to tell process MyApp

        set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of window 1 to true

    end tell

end tell

end repeat

or if you have a single application then

tell application "Safari"

activate

delay 3

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Safari"

    set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of window 1 to true

  end tell

end tell


Mirror macbook air screen to external display and then extend that display with another external display?

You will either need an Apple TV and a thunderbolt to HDMI/DVI/VGA cable OR some thunderbolt dock capable of multiple outputs.
And then check out the final option at the bottom here PH19039


I don't know what motherboard setup they used, but it might be ATX. Can you post some images of the innards and the backside? Then we might be more able to say what would be doable.

(Edit: it'd definitely possible: here's instructions from someone doing essentially what you're talking about: http://www.inventgeek.com/projects/p4mac/OverView.aspx.)

I have a Sawtooth PowerMac G4 and it has a fairly standard ATX motherboard. I'm planning on pulling its innards out and putting a microATX board in there. I'd recommend getting the ATX specifications and a ruler and seeing if all the holes are in more or less the right place. So what you're thinking of is definitely possible.


ubuntu style change workspace in osx mavericks

This was actually a feature in Mac OS X Leopard (v10.5) and Snow Leopard (v10.6), but was changed in Lion. The general Mac term is “spaces”.

TotalSpaces2 brings back a grid setup, like in Ubuntu and the older versions of OS X.


This happened to me last night. Close the App Store and Re-Open. Hit Update again next to the 10.8.3 description and it should start up again. This happens when your download connection drops out. The App Store application is actually just a web browsing frame which caches cookies with a delay for queries so it sometimes takes a minute to "refresh" itself to try again.


iPhone 5s display behaves strangly on swipe/click

This sounds like the digitizer is failing.

The digitizer is a "glass layer" that sits on top of your LCD display to accept input (taps, swipes, etc.).  This can begin to fail for any number of reasons from physical damage, to water damage or even aging.

The iPhone 5S has the digitizer and LCD as a single assembly, so to replace one, you'll have to replace both.  iFixit has an excellent guide on how to do this.  However, if doing this type of procedure is not your cup of tea, you should take it in.

(Though the 5S is 6 years old now; it's probably time for a new phone).


Control Arrow Keyboard Shortcuts in PyCharm

Yes!

Open System Preferences
Open "Mission control"
Disable that hotkeys.


Use only the left option key as meta key in Terminal.app

If you aren't totally set on using Terminal, I believe that iTerm2 has a setting to just use one of the option keys as meta. If you are, is there a setting to maybe use the Esc key as meta? I know that it's more convenient to use the option key, but the Esc key might be easier to set.


Using TextFree with a Google Voice account that uses Google Apps account

The way I solved this was by waiting to be invited to the TextFree beta which has voice. It will allow you to accept voice calls, which is what is required by Google Voice to verify a phone number.


To paraphrase your question:

You ran Boot Camp Assistant on a 2011 iMac to create a Windows 7 install disk on a USB drive using an existing Windows 7 install CD.

This worked when installing Windows 7 into the Boot Camp partition on that iMac but it is not recognised when attempting to do the same on an older iMac.

Is that right?

If so your problem may well be that some of the drivers required by the older Mac are not on the USB drive. Try creating the install USB using Boot Camp on the older Mac and it should work fine.


E-detailing on the iPad - what are the options and pitfalls?

1) Yes, if you join the paid Apple developer program, you can install apps on your own devices without going through the app store. You won't need to release an app to be able to use it. (It's also possible to run self-signed apps on a jailbroken device without joining the program, but that's kind of a pain.)

2) You can cache web applications locally, but there is some extra work involved in doing that. However, it's probably not as steep a learning curve as learning Objective-C. Here's a little information about developing these apps, from the excellent Dive Into HTML5. Local web apps won't be as fast as native apps, and you won't have access to hardware features, like the camera. You can't even upload photos from Safari (which local web apps always run under).

3) Yes, you can add video to presentations in the iPad keynote app. If you go this route, you might also want to get an app that allows you to fill out and sign contracts on the device. There are several of these, but I don't have any experience with them, so I can't make any recommendations.


macOS High Sierra (10.13) Upgrade Fails With Endless Kernel Panic Loop

Sorry for the lack of specificity, but I finally was able to get macOS High Sierra (10.13) installed on my Mac mini (Late 2012; 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5) with 16GB of memory and an internal disk that is a plain hard disk drive; not an SSD.

I reset the System Management Controller (SMC).
I reset the NVRAM.
I disconnected all USB peripherals—including a simple/small unpowered USB hub—except for a direct connection between keyboard and mouse and the system.
I then ran Onyx and cleaned all caches—“System” and “User”—before launching the “Install macOS High Sierra” installer.

Crossed my fingers, let it do what it had to do and lo and behold… Everything went as expected!

The only hint of something I noticed before doing this—that might help someone—is I had a bootable USB backup of my main system disk attached during the last failed attempt to upgrade and—this is important—it didn’t seem like I had an explicitly selected startup disk set. The system seemed to just always default to my internal hard disk drive, but never explicitly had that set. I made sure to set that after I reset the SMC and NVRAM. Like I said, not 100% sure that is the cause but it is something to keep in mind.


The AppleID is used for a number of services such as iCloud storage and purchasing apps from the Mac app store. An AppleID isn't required to create an account, however, so you should be able to skip the 'create an AppleID step'.


Worn out (stripped) screws in Macbook Pro - how to remove?

I would use locking pliers to take it off, then take the screw to a local fastenings store who should be able to sell you a similarly sized screw with exactly the same thread.

You may want to add Loctite, Apple usually uses Blue 242 Loctite on their screws. You can get cheaper brands, but make sure it's coloured blue — that's the strength of the glue.


It might be necessary to rebuild the Spotlight database by running

sudo mdutil -E /

and waiting a few hours. I had the same issue in the past and rebuilding the index resolved it.


Does restoring a backup to your iphone overwrite all data on the phone?

Yes. When an iOS device is restored from a backup, everything that was on the device before the restore is removed from the device.


Will installing Lion on a MacBook 5,2 improve performance?

I was going to add only a comment, but it was too long. The truth is that Speed/Performance is almost always relative when the difference is not too big. The question is, would Lion be a better option for you? I certainly find some of the Lion "new features" almost a must-have for my daily workflow. The overall OS improvement makes it better for me.

The truth is, that the first releases have proven to be more disk intensive/CPU intensive in a few tasks, presumably because there are more services (autosave, resume, etc.) running in the background. This alone may be the culprit of most of its "performance" problems. It has slightly improved, but I've seen very fast Snow Leopard installs. To be fair, SL have had a few point releases already, and Lion only 2, so one can assume that it will get faster over time as things are optimized (at least this is what has been happening with Apple for the past eight years).

All in all, evaluate wether you find Lion a good addition to your OS rather than the raw performance. Some people really like the SL "Spaces", Dashboard, Exposé, etc. on the other hand, Launchbar, Mission Control, AutoSave, etc. are features that some people hate, and most of the time, there's no way to revert to the "previous" behavior.

In the end, you get used to it, but it takes some time.


Do YouTube videos buffer for offline playback on Google's iOS app?

Yes, assuming you don't quit the YouTube app after it loads. You can also do this with the YouTube website; play a video, it starts loading the video with a QuickTime-like player, and you will see it buffer. If you start playing the video in the Safari and exit Safari (while it's still in the background), you can double-tap the home button to bring up the audio controller and hit Play.


How to download an audio file from a web site on iOS?

No.  This is not possible at this time without using a third party app. I use GoodReader for this—and other—tasks.


Uncheck Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps under System Preferences -> General.

In Mountain Lion, this option has been changed to read, Close windows when quitting an application with fine print to explain that open documents will not be restored.


Unless you have some window manager that's causing this, it might be a transient thing where the external displays disconnect and windows all collect.

There are some nice window managers that let you automate fixing things so I'll mention them in case no one can confirm this is a specific bug or steps to control for this like ejecting all the displays or preventing sleep.

Is there a way to exactly position a window?
How to move windows on Mac as in windows from keyboard?
Move windows around a desktop -- and to different desktops -- using only the keyboard?
Window management app on mac os x?


If you have sufficient space on your drive to duplicate your user account temporarily…

Copy your home folder /Users/old-username to /Users/new-username.

sudo cp -a /Users/old-username /Users/new-username

Create a new user account in Users & Groups. Enter the new-username as the username when creating the account. You will be prompted with the following:

  The Users folder already contains a folder with the same name as the home folder for this account.

Choose Use Existing Folder.
Log out of your old-username and log in to your new-username.
Once you've verified everything is as it should be, you can delete the old-username account.
If permissions are incorrect, continue from step 7 of the next section.

If you don't have sufficient space to duplicate…

You even more so need a backup before proceeding with this method.
Create a new user account or use an existing secondary administrator account. This account must not have either old-username or new-username. Log in to this account. Make sure you are not using Fast User Switching and old-username is correctly logged out.
From this account, rename /Users/old-username to /Users/new-username using Finder.
In Users & Groups, unlock the preference pane, right-click on old-username and choose Advanced Options…. You'll be presented with the pane you screenshot in your question.
Change Account name to new-username and Home directory to /Users/new-username.
Quit System Preferences. Do not log in to new-username yet.
Shut down your Mac and boot into the Recovery HD by holding ⌘R on boot.
Open Terminal from the Utilities menu and run resetpassword. A new dialog will be shown.
Select new-username from the accounts list, then click Reset for Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs.
Once complete, restart and boot normally, then log in with new-username.


limited "where" options when saving Word document using OSX El Capitan

Click the little down arrow next to the 'Save As' field. That will expand your options to show the Finder-like interface and expose extra controls like the checkbox that allows you to suppress hiding the file extension.


Can't update to Java SE 8u181 from 8u171 on El Capitan

Solved. Basically, I forgot that I had to install not the JRE, but the JDK as a workaround for some LibreOffice bug. The JDK does not allow updating through the Java preference pane.

As soon as I manually updated the JDK, the Java preference panel said I had the correct, 8u181 update.


You can’t run iPhone apps on Windows. Heck, you can't run them on OS X either.


15.4" Retina MacBook Pro (Mid 2012): Broken metal pieces from connector on the motherboard

If it is the connector for the part you have circled in red in the left picture on the bottom row, that is a microphone assembly, containing two microphones. So if i understand you correctly in that the connector where the flat cable contact for this assembly slides into, on the motherboard, partially broke, you will now probably not get any mic input registered on your Mac, although I am uncertain if this model also has a mic in the lid next to the camera.


Don't copy songs into iTunes folder just use them from file system

In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced

Uncheck Keep iTunes Media folder organised and Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library

Screen shot provided by @Wheat Williams:


How did Starbucks send bold text in an MMS to Messages?

In Settings > Messages, turn on Show Subject Field. The subject will display in bold when an MMS is sent.


Opening a pdf file from the command line

You have a couple of problems here.

First, the message ""can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" refers to the application.

Open Skim from the Finder and it will pop up a dialog telling you it is from an unidentified developer. Click on OK. Now open the "Security & Privacy" pane of System Preferences and under the General tab you will have the option to open the application anyway. Click "Open" and the app will open. You only have to do this once.

Second. Open a PDF in Skim and zoom it to the amount you require to be able to view it with your vision problems. Turn on or off the Contents and Notes panes as desired. Now select "Use Current View Settings as Default" under the PDF menu.

Now when you open a PDF in Skim it will be at the right zoom settings so open -a Skim.app example.pdf will work for you.


Mac open file dialog - "search" function - does not show all matching files

Typing directly into a Finder window doesn't generate a 'search' as such;  there is no filter generated, it merely selects the first match to your typed string.

So, if your folder is sorted by anything other than Name, then it will find the first match, yet not necessarily the first alphabetically - in your case it should find the newest match.

Setting the sort to Name, the same string will find & select the first match alphabetically - the others will be directly beneath it, unselected.


How to disable auto-completion in Safari

Try Prefs/Search - disable everything except search engine suggestions [which are 'live' not historical]


Can I make Xcode app icon with 512x512 icon instead of recommended 1024x1024?

Your app icon is displayed in many places, including in Finder, the Dock, Launchpad, and the App Store. To ensure that your app icon looks great everywhere people see it, provide it in the following sizes.

512px × 512px (512pt × 512pt @1x)
1024px × 1024px (512pt × 512pt @2x)

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/icons-and-images/app-icon/

Technical Q&A QA1686 lists the specific uses of each icon size in iOS, but I can't find an equivalent resource for macOS.
You should use an actual 1024px image if at all possible. An upscaled icon may be rejected by App Store Review.


How to turn off autocorrect for iPhone 6 Mail?

Make sure you’re using the apple keyboard.
Since keyboard setting changes made in the Settings apps only apply to be built-in Apple keyboard, you’ll need to make sure that you’re using it. Touch and hold the globe key on your keyboard to change back to your Apple localized keyboard.
You could also disable autocorrect in the companion app for your custom keyboard, in your case the SwiftKey app.


Highlighting touches/gestures on an iPad

As far as I know, doing this in the way you say, seems to be impossible (thats not to say it might not be changed).

I think I've seen something like this in screen-captured videos before, so I think it's possible.

This was almost certainly on an Android device, where there is a system setting to enable visual presses. If only it was also an iOS feature.

What would I do in your situation?
Take advantage of the fact that the iPad is plugged into the Mac, and use the mouse to point out bits you want to emphasise (I'm not entirely sure how Zoom works on Mac/how plugging in the iPad works, but if the cursor doesn't show up, you could try screen sharing your entire desktop not just the ipad screen app)
If that doesn't work for you could try;

Attaching a bluetooth mouse to your iPad and using that to point at anything (works better than the mac if you want to be able to use the mac for other things)
Circling whatever you want to draw attention to, then undo after
Using the assistive touch icon on the screen as a makeshift 'cursor' by dragging it around the screen to where you need it, then letting it go back to the edge when you don't (although its quite big, and will continue to take up space on the screen even when not in use)
Changing applications to something that has a laser pointer tool

Making a blank keynote presentation > opening thee 'more' menu (3 dots in a circle) > rehearse slideshow > annotate (the icon that looks like a pen drawing), will allow you to do basic drawing and pointing, although you might be able to find something else
If you do end up changing apps, check the settings of each app you test, as the devs may have added a touch input setting, (I have seen it in very random apps, although none of them would fit with drawing diagrams)

Hopefully you can get something helpful from this.


I've wiped my WiFi icons and don't know which file to restore

You are correct, I've uploaded a copy of /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreWLAN.framework here:

http://depositfiles.com/files/4cg5rhv5t

You can test that file (or use your backup) if you want. As always, you might rather reinstall the system than trust a file on the internet - even if I uploaded the correct file and had no ill intentions, the file could change before you download it, so it's always safer to get a file from your backup set or the verified install media from Apple.


How to speed up old MacBook Pro15 inch late 2007 with 4GB RAM (2.4 GHz)

Things to consider - you'd have to check whether any of these are worth the money on such an old machine though.

Larger, faster HD, or even an SSD. You don't say how big the existing drive is but those machines came with 120, 160 or 200. In any case, 12GB spare is really not enough for the machine to 'breathe' properly.
Assuming it's never been done in the life to the machine - defrag, using iDefrag (only good to Mavericks, not Yosemite) or similar - bear in mind this may take more than 24h to complete, especially with so little free space.
Add more RAM - that machine will take 6GB, as a 2GB stick & a 4GB stick. I would always use something like Crucial's configurator app to be sure you're getting the right thing.

Data Source: EveryMac


Set up Gmail to work properly with Apple Mail

Besides Google's "official" guide to configure GMail with a desktop client (see Wheat Williams' answer) I think this guide is pretty good and helpful:

http://www.macworld.com/article/157846/2011/03/mailgmail.html

It' a detailed step-by-step guide an features several screenshots.

Regarding the sent messages (your first point):

  "Select the [Gmail] -> Sent Mail subfolder and choose Mailbox -> Use This Mailbox For -> Sent"


Can I force a cache refresh in Safari running on iOS?

Force quit did not work reliably for me in iOS 8. What did is using private mode for testing:

Open the page in private mode (and bookmark it so you can open it later).
When you need to refresh, close browser "tab" (you can stay in Safari and private mode).
Open the page again (use the bookmark you created in step 1).


You are correct - both folders are not needed.

Once the new folder is set, you can consolidate all the media there, make one last backup of the old structure and delete it.

I’ve not seen them split often, so make sure you have a backup in case you find any old files didn’t migrate. Also, keep backing up - some people have felt that Apple Music was so good they stopped backing up only to learn months or years later that some tracks they wanted were substituted for ones close like non-explicit versions, etc.. The cloud isn’t your backup plan, it just makes it easier to sync. A cloud database also can get deleted or corrupted so test your backups from time to time.


How to test hard drive - diskutility reports defective drive as perfectly fine

I reccomend Disk Drill.  Their diagnostic and monitoring tools are free, but the recovery functionality (if you need it) is what you will have to purchase.

There's also a very robust set of command line (CLI) tools available as open source:  smartmontools.  This is a available as a macOS binary package so you don't need to install via brew or MacPorts.

Important:  One thing to keep in mind when diagnosing external drives is that you have two components:

the drive itself
the USB enclosure

I have had USB enclosure's fail (the USB to SATA portion) that looked like a drive failure.  The best way to get around this is to remove the drive (if you can) and use a separate USB-SATA Adapter.  What you are doing is eliminating one of the components from the diagnostic equation (the USB interface) with a "known working" component.  They are cheap (approx $10) to keep for diagnostic purposes.

That said, a drive diagnostic is not a "quick status check."  To find bad blocks you may need to do a "deep scan" because a bad block isn't reported until the drive encounters a bad block.


Can't see imported pictures on my iPhone

You haven't imported them—just copied them into the folder. The Photos app doesn't know that the photos are there. You need to import them properly, through iTunes or saving them manually on the device.


Copy a table in a Microsoft Word document, using AppleScript

I simplified the example and was able to find a solution to the invalid "copy object xxx" command syntax. I still don't understand the the actual format for "copy object ..." in Word, but this works!
Script to select the first Table in an MS Word document and copy it to the Clipboard. Can be enhanced to read a folder of documents and process each one. Using list of tables can process multiple tables in a doc.
tell application "Microsoft Word"
activate
    set firstTable to table 1 of active document
    select firstTable
    copy object selection
end tell


Can I make my Mac have two passwords for one account?

Short answer: No. There is no way to specify this in macOS. I've never seen this ability in any operating system I've used in 35+ years in the profession.

You can set a firmware password on your Mac, adding an extra level of security before a user login, but it is not recommended.


Is it practical to use Gmail for mail and calendar and Exchange for contacts while using iOS Mail?

I had that configuration - and also used for friends & family -  and it worked just fine.

The only drawback is that mail is no longer pushed to your phone. But apart from that, it's the best solution to have Gmail (actually working) and Google Contacts / Calendar on your iPhone.


Can I wake up iPhone by double tapping the screen?

You can't do this natively as part of the built-in functions of iOS.  There are a few apps that allows knocking, one is called MacID.  I've used it for a few years and the developer is very responsive to support issues.


How to "refresh" a mounted NFS folder from my router in Finder?

Using the Connect to Server in Finder you can set the URL and force a refresh.  In Finder Go > Connect to Server or Command ⌘ + K From there you can add the URL to your server.  This Apple support article has further details.  I hope this helps.


Why do I have an "iMessage" and an "SMS" thread for my contact?

iMessage threading is a total mess. I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2, both with iOS5. So does my brother. Not including regular SMS messages sent/received with iOS4, I now have three different threads of messages from him on my iPhone, seemingly depending on which device the message was sent/received on. I have two on the iPad, but these don't correspond exactly to any two from the iPhone.

I understand that iMessage (like FaceTime) can only address contacts by email address on a WiFi-only iPad, and can address by both email and phone number from an iPhone, but these all resolve to the same Apple ID on the server, and to the same contact on the device. Surely it should be possible to merge these conversations, either on the server (by Apple ID) or on the device (by contact).

Perhaps a fix will appear in a future iOS update but for now this rather takes the edge off an otherwise cool new feature.


iPhone 4s blank screen despite working speaker and vibration

It ever happened to my iPhone 5 twice. All I did was left my iPhone until the battery drained off. Then I charged my phone the next day (or when you think the battery is drained already). It worked well afterwards. If it doesn't work for you, you should take to Apple repair shop. Hope it can work for you!


The "circle with a line through it" is known as the prohibitory symbol. Typically this means that your startup disk contains a version or build of macOS that your Mac can't use. In your case it seems something else is going wrong, but, if I read between the lines correctly, it seems your main goal is to upgrade to macOS Big Sur anyway.
The best course of action is really to make a full current backup of your system and then reformat your drive before re-installing macOS.
You have a number of options open to you, such as using the Option-Command-R keyboard shortcut at startup to upgrade to the latest macOS that is officially compatible with your Mac (and assuming macOS Big Sur is compatible, then this will be what is installed).*
If using this option you'll have the ability to reformat your drive using Disk Utility first before opting for the Reinstall MacOS option. More information on using macOS Recovery to reinstall the Mac operating system is available on Apple's website: How to reinstall macOS.
Another option is to just create a bootable installer for macOS and then boot up from that to install macOS Big Sur. You can opt to fully reformat your drive before doing the installation. More information is available from Apple's website: How to create a bootable installer for macOS.
Regardless of how you go, the main thing here is that you're broadly following this order:

make a full and current backup of your system
reformat your drive
reinstall macOS
transfer across your files etc

Following this order means whatever is causing your 'wonky' Catalina installation really shouldn't come across with you.
NOTE: -
Keep in mind that many users have had issues with macOS Big Sur, so whether you should make the jump yet is really only a decision you can make.
* If your Mac has the Apple T2 Security Chip and you've never installed a macOS update, this will install the latest version of macOS previously installed on your Mac.


have you changed the settings in dolphin to "real controller"?