Do people who have my number see if I install WhatsApp

Afaik everyone with your mobile number and WhatsApp installed can see if you are using WhatsApp, too. I don't know about a way to prevent that from happening, it's the only way to 'find' each other on WhatsApp and to start a chat.


How to use internet on a Wi-Fi only iPad in a residence with no Wi-Fi?

Just buy a cheap router, connect it to one of the ethernet cables in your room, and enable wi-fi.


How to list installed versions of the same program

You have the right command and just need to set the proper option:

which -a pymol will show all instances of the executable pymol located within your PATH.

For example, on my laptop I have git installed in two places:

$ which git
/usr/local/bin/git

provides what will be run when I use the command git.

$ which -a git
/usr/local/bin/git
/usr/bin/git

provides every instance of the executable in my PATH.


Use one of the two forms shown below:

ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl

Or:

ln -s "/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" /usr/local/bin/subl

But do not mix both using quotes and backslashes to escape spaces.


Itunes backup for Iphone folder on Windows 10?

If you install iTunes using the Microsoft Store on Windows 10, the iTunes backup location is %userprofile%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup instead. Try pasting that in to the search bar. I believe the change is due to rules about where apps on the Microsoft Store are supposed to store data. Here's a blog post I wrote going over the iTunes backup locations on different platforms as a reference.


How to make DHCP domain name registration work with OS X?

I believe you need to set the DHCP Client ID in System Preferences > Network > Ethernet > Advanced...


Does installing Command Line Tools for Xcode also install Git?

Yes, the Command Line Tools package does include /usr/bin/git. You can see what files are included in an installer by pressing command-I:

As of 10.8, OS X does not come with git preinstalled.


Disable confirmation dialog when changing File Extension in macOS Finder

Finder > Preferences > Advanced

  Show warning before changing an extension

Uncheck this option to disable the warning confirmation dialog when changing or renaming a file extension in the macOS Finder.


OS X 10.11 Not able to change the folder permission

Some of the root folders (e.g. /sbin /bin) as well as some application bundles (i.e. Apple apps) are protected by System Integrity Protection even if logged in as root or using sudo.

If you want to make changes to protected items disable SIP, apply the changes and reenable it.


Where is the True Tone ambient light sensor on the 2018 MacBook Pro?

I know this has been answered but I thought an image may be useful to anyone else looking for the answer.


I think once you finance it, it's yours and you are just paying off a loan to the finance company.  So long as you pay back your loan, the finance company won't care what you do with it.

I have no idea if the loan would be open or not, though; that's a very good question.


How can I create a bootable drive for ArchLInux on macOS?

There is no command in macOS to format a partition to use a linux file system. In other words, there is no equivalent for the Arch Linux mkfs.ext4 command. There are many possible solutions to this problem. Below is one such solution.

I propose that the best way, to accomplish the creation of the bootable drive, is to boot the Arch Linux operation system on your Mac. This will allow you to use the commands shown in the web link you provided. This boot of Arch Linux will be done from a 1 GB or larger flash drive. The advantage to using a flash drive is that you will not have to install Arch Linux on any of your internal drives.

Manual Approach to Creating a Mac Bootable Arch Linux Flash Drive

  Note: You can copy and paste each command below into the Terminal application window. This will reduce the amount of typing and the risk of type errors.

Download an .iso file. The Mac compatible file I chose to download is named archlinux-2017.12.01-x86_64.iso. You can find this file at this Arch Linux web site. This file was downloaded to my "Downloads" folder. I will assume you will do the same.
Open a Terminal application window. Enter the following command to navigate to your "Downloads" folder.

cd  ~/Downloads

Convert this .iso file to a format that is compatible with flash drives. The command below accomplishes this task.

hdiutil  convert  archlinux-2017.12.01-x86_64.iso  -format  UDRW  -o  target.img

The .dmg characters may be appended to the output file name. Enter the following command to check if this occurred.

ls  target.img.dmg

If file named target.img.dmg appears, then enter the next command to rename this file.

mv  -f  target.img.dmg  target.img

Enter the command below to get a before list of drives.

ls  /dev  |  egrep  ^disk\\d+$

Insert your flash drive.
Enter the command below again to get an after list of drives. Next, determine the identifier assigned to your flash drive (e.g. The identifier that did not appear in step 5)

ls  /dev  |  egrep  ^disk\\d+$

  Note: In the subsequent steps, replace diskN with the identifier assigned to the flash drive.

Enter the command below to unmount the flash drive.

diskutil  unmountdisk  diskN

  Note: If you see the error Unmount of diskN failed: at least one volume could not be unmounted, open the Disk Utility application and unmount the volume(s) (don't eject).

Enter the command below to copy target.img to your flash drive.

sudo  dd  if=target.img  bs=1m  of=/dev/diskN

  Note the following:

  This command will require you to enter your login password.
  To view the progress of the copy operation, press the control+T key, while the command is executing.
  Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster.
  If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using the GNU dd command. Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M.
  If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the drive is not in use. Open the Disk Utility application and unmount the volume(s) (don't eject).

When the 'dd' command completes, you will receive the following pop up message. You should select "Ignore".

  Note: The the disk (flash drive) is readable by your computer. The message should have said: "The disk you inserted was not readable by macOS."

To continue to the next part of this procedure, you will need to leave the flash drive plugged in. If you do need to eject the flash drive, you can either use the Disk Utility application or enter the command given below.

diskutil  eject  /dev/diskN

Initialization of the Micro SD Card

The instructions, you referenced, assume the micro SD card is either uninitialized or has been MBR initialized with no partitions. You may want to preform the following steps to insure your micro SD card is properly initialized.

Enter the command below to get a before list of drives.

ls  /dev  |  egrep  ^disk\\d+$

Using the adapter, plug the micro SD card into the Mac.
Enter the command below again to get an after list of drives. Next, determine the identifier assigned to your micro SD card (e.g. The identifier that did not appear in step 1)

ls   /dev  |  egrep  ^disk\\d+$

  Note: In the subsequent steps, replace diskN with the identifier assigned to the micro SD card.

Enter the following command to initialize the micro SD card.

diskutil  partitiondisk  diskN  1  mbr  free  none  r

Enter the command below to unmount the micro SD card.

diskutil  eject  diskN

Boot Your Mac to Arch Linux

If the Mac bootable Arch Linux flash drive is not plugged in, do so now.
Restart your Mac and immediately hold down the option key, until the Startup Manager appears.
Select the icon labeled "EFI Boot", then select the arrow below the label.
Select "Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI CD" or wait for this to happen automatically.

A Note About Drive Identifiers

Hardware used by machines running the Linux, Unix, macOS and legacy OS X operating systems are given character string device identifiers. In the context of your question, we are only dealing with devices that are drives. The macOS operating system uses diskN to identify HDD, SSD, SD cards, micro SD cards, USB flash drives, etc. The value N is some integer greater than zero. The Arch Linux operating system uses a different scheme. Here, the form of the drive identifier is sdX, where X is a lower case letter in the English alphabet.

Micro SD Card Creation

  Note: Since you are booting to a "Live" version of Arch Linux, I made some changes to the procedure you referenced.

Insert a micro SD card into your computer and record which device identifier it is (dmesg  |  tail)
Make sure it's not mounted (umount  /dev/sdX* or umount  /dev/mmcblk*)
Start fdisk to partition the SD card:

fdisk  /dev/sdX

At the fdisk prompt, create the new partitions:

a. Type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, the return key to accept the default starting sectors, and +100M for the ending sector.

b. Type t to set the type, then c to set it to FAT.

c. Type n, then p for primary, 2 for the second partition, and press the return key twice to accept default values.

d. Exit by typing w.
Create and mount the vfat filesystem:

mkfs.vfat  /dev/sdX1
mkdir  boot
mount  /dev/sdX1 boot

Create and mount the ext4 filesystem:

mkfs.ext4  /dev/sdX2
mkdir  root
mount  /dev/sdX2 root

Download and extract the root filesystem:

cd  ~/root
wget  http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-utilite-latest.tar.gz
cd  ~
bsdtar  -xpf  root/ArchLinuxARM-utilite-latest.tar.gz  -C  root
rm  root/ArchLinuxARM-utilite-latest.tar.gz

Copy boot files to the boot partition:

cp  root/boot/*  boot

Unmount the partitions:

umount  boot  root

Remove the micro SD card from your computer and insert it into the Utilite on the front panel


Odd problems with vim over ssh to remote linux machine

I would recommend changing from x-term256color to xterm for your TERM variable as that seems to have resolved my similar issues.

The things I saw (in addition to the question's symptoms) are often to have  line over-flow issues within the vi session. That is if I type beyond a certain number of columns then the rest of the text is put onto the next line (i.e. with a new line \n character in place). This overflowed text is not displayed in the current vi session but I will see it after reopening.

Another problem is occasionally the cursor is displayed on one line but I will start editing the next line down..... a real pain when you are writing code!


There's a huge possibility that you have a spyware.
Please check this link.

  It is an Application named "SysLogAgent" which is hidden in your home
  folder along with files to launch it at startup and when you log in
  and none of them were detected as infected.

How to remove (Spyware.SniperSpy.B - Removal)?
Please check this link.


How to learn a wireless router's MAC address

Option-click on the Wi-Fi icon. Once the menu appears, press Option again. Now when you hover over any network a tooltip with the MAC address (BSSID) will appear after a short delay.


What other browsers are available for iPad

Dolphin Browser

Gestures: create a personal symbol to access the websites you use the most
Visit your favorite sites with one touch.
Tabbed browsing
Bookmarks Bar
Full Screen Mode


What options to mirroring iPad display to Windows 10 PC that balance cost and performance?

There is a free app called LonelyScreen that will mirror an iPad or iPhone by turning your PC into an AirPlay receiver like a TV (currently a free trial)
I’m not affiliated with the developer and I actually found it by doing a Google search.  I haven’t tested it yet because I don’t have a PC and I was afraid to try boot camp until I started researching it on this site.  But I am going to go for it because this software sounds cool.
I got the instructions from https://www.howtogeek.com/247573/how-to-mirror-your-iphone-or-ipads-screen-on-your-windows-pc/


Unable to find in App Store, able to redownload using iCloud?

Connect each phone to iTunes over USB - choose to transfer all purchases to the computer. When all the apps are on iTunes, you can install them on devices that them even when the store online is "out of stock"


Comparing two folders contents with automator (quick action)

What I want to do is compare the SD directory and the media folder (each one has different structure) and check if both contains the same files, regardless of folders.

The fact that you want to compare the contents of, I'm assuming, a single folder on the SD card against another folder on the, e.g., Macintosh HD containing an entirely different hierarchical directory structure ... IMO a shell script is the better way to go.
The example shell script code, shown below, get saved as an executable and placed within the PATH passed to the shell in, e.g., Terminal, and does the following:

Creates a list of filenames on the SD Card containing the original files to loop through, attempting to find the duplicate files in the hierarchical directory structure of the directory designated as the parent directory containing the duplicate files on the e.g. Macintosh HD, regardless of where within the hierarchical directory structure they may be located.
If the original files do not exist somewhere within the parent hierarchical directory structure that supposed to contain the duplicate files, then the original files that don't already exist get copied to the parent directory that's supposed to contain the duplicate files.
If a filename exist in both locations, regardless of their hierarchical directory structure, a binary comparison is preformed, and if there is a difference it's reported.

Any differences will need to be addressed manually.
Note that because there may be a possibility that a file with the same name exists more than once in the parent hierarchical directory structure that supposed to contain the duplicate files, any reported difference in the binary comparison will need to be manually verified that the file on the SD Card also exists elsewhere in the local media folder.

In Terminal, assumes pwd is your Home directory, run the following compound command:
f="sdcheck"; touch "$f"; open -e "$f"; chmod 0755 "$f"

In the opened sdcheck document, copy and paste the example shell script code, shown below, into the document. Modify the value of dupdir variable to an existing local folder containing the duplicates from the SD Card. Then save and close the document.

Note: I'd move the sdcheck  file to a location that's within the PATH passed to shell scripts, then you'd not have to preface the command with ./, or include it's fully qualified pathname.

Back in Terminal:
% ./sdcheck
Parameter missing!... e.g.: /path/to/directory
Example: sdcheck '/Volumes/SD Card/Media' '/path/to/local_folder'
%

Example test:
% ./sdcheck '/Volumes/SD Card/Media' /Users/me/Pictures/SD Cards
NOTE: /Volumes/SD Card/Media/IMG_0004.JPG AND /Users/me/Pictures/SD Cards/Card 2/IMG_0004.JPG DIFFER!...
/Volumes/SD Card/Media/IMG_0005.JPG -> /Users/me/Pictures/SD Cards/IMG_0005.JPG
%

Example shell script code:
#!/bin/bash

if [ -z "${1}" ] || [ -z "${2}" ]; then
    echo "Parameter missing!... e.g.: /path/to/directory"
    echo "Example: sdcheck '/Volumes/SD Card/Media' /path/to/local_folder"
    exit 1
fi

oridir="${1}"
dupdir="${2}"

if [ ! -d  "${oridir}" ]; then
    echo "The directory \"${oridir}\" does not exist!..."
    exit 1
fi

if [ ! -d  "${dupdir}" ]; then
    echo "The directory \"${dupdir}\" does not exist!..."
    exit 1
fi

while IFS= read -r orifile; do

    while IFS= read -r dupfile; do

        if [ -z "${dupfile}" ]; then
            cp -av "${orifile}" "${dupdir}"
        else
            if ! cmp -s "${orifile}" "${dupfile}"; then
                echo "NOTE: ${orifile} AND ${dupfile} DIFFER!..."
            fi
        fi

    done <<< "$(find "${dupdir}" -type f -name "${orifile##*/}")"

done < <(find "${oridir}" -type f ! -name '.DS_Store')

Using the example shell script code in Automator
To adapt the example shell script code for use in an Automator workflow, application and or Service/Quick Action, it needs to be modified with some additional code added, and is done so below.
The example Automator workflow uses AppleScript to choose the target folders, the SD Card and the local folder to be compared.
The example shell script code and example AppleScript code, shown below, was tested in Automator under macOS Catalina with Language & Region settings in System Preferences set to English (US) — Primary and worked for me without issue1.

1  Assumes necessary and appropriate setting in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy have been set/addressed as needed.

The Automator workflow outline:

Run AppleScript action
Set Value of Variable action

Variable: theSDCardMediaFolder

Run AppleScript action

Options -- [√] Ignore this action's input

Set Value of Variable action

Variable: theLocalMediaFolder

Get Value of Variable action

Variable: theSDCardMediaFolder
Options -- [√] Ignore this action's input

Get Value of Variable action

Variable: theLocalMediaFolder

Run Shell Script action

The Automator actions, code, and settings:

In the first Run AppleScript action, replace the default code with the following example AppleScript code:
activate

set theMsg to ¬
    "In the next Choose Folder dialog, select the target folder on the SD Card..."

display dialog ¬
    theMsg buttons {"Continue"} default button 1 ¬
    with title "Select the SD Card Media Folder"

set theSDCardMediaFolder to ¬
    the POSIX path of ¬
        (choose folder with prompt ¬
            "Select the SD Card Media Folder:" default location "/Volumes")

set theSDCardMediaFolder to ¬
    characters 1 thru -2 of ¬
    theSDCardMediaFolder as string

return theSDCardMediaFolder

In the first Set Value of Variable action, set the value the variable to: theSDCardMediaFolder

In the second Run AppleScript action, replace the default code with the following example AppleScript code:
activate

set theMsg to ¬
    "In the next Choose Folder dialog, select the Local Media Folder."

display dialog ¬
    theMsg buttons {"Continue"} default button 1 ¬
    with title "Select the Local Media Folder"

set theLocalMediaFolder to ¬
    the POSIX path of ¬
        (choose folder with prompt ¬
            "Select the Local Media folder:" default location "/Users")

set theLocalMediaFolder to ¬
    characters 1 thru -2 of ¬
    theLocalMediaFolder as string

return theLocalMediaFolder

Options -- [√] Ignore this action's input

In the second Set Value of Variable action, set the value the variable to: theLocalMediaFolder

In the first Get Value of Variable action:

Variable: theSDCardMediaFolder
Options -- [√] Ignore this action's input

In the second Get Value of Variable action:

Variable: theLocalMediaFolder

In the Run Shell Script action:

Shell: [/bin/bash]
Pass input: [as arguments]

Replace the default code with the following modified example shell script code:
oridir="${1}"
dupdir="${2}"

logfile="/private/tmp/SD_Card_File_Check_Log.txt"

[ -z "${2}" ] && exit

echo "Begin: $(date -j)" >> "${logfile}"

while IFS= read -r orifile; do

    while IFS= read -r dupfile; do

        if [ -z "${dupfile}" ]; then
            cp -av "${orifile}" "${dupdir}" >> "${logfile}" 2>&1
        else
            if ! cmp -s "${orifile}" "${dupfile}"; then
                echo "NOTE: ${orifile} AND ${dupfile} DIFFER!..." >> "${logfile}"  2>&1
            fi
        fi

    done <<< "$(find "${dupdir}" -type f -name "${orifile##*/}")"

done < <(find "${oridir}" -type f ! -name '.DS_Store')

echo "End: $(date -j)" >> "${logfile}"
echo  >> "${logfile}"

open -e "${logfile}"

Notes:
For the use in Automator the workflow was saved as an application.
When the Automator workflow finishes, it opens the logfile in TextEdit for one's review. Here is a sample of what it could look like:
Begin: Thu May 27 14:29:59 EDT 2021
NOTE: /Volumes/SD Card/Media/IMG_0004.JPG AND /Users/me/Pictures/SD Cards/Card 2/IMG_0004.JPG DIFFER!...
/Volumes/SD Card/Media/IMG_0005.JPG -> /Users/me/Pictures/SD Cards/IMG_0005.JPG
End: Thu May 27 14:29:59 EDT 2021

I did not have an SD Card handy to review its hierarchical directory structure and as such I use a DMG image mounted and pathed as shown in the logfile output above.
The testing set of images was a very small sampling, nonetheless the code logic works as expedited as coded.
In the example Automator workflow image below, there is an obvious disconnect in the center between some of the actions. This is wanted and due to: Options -- [√] Ignore this action's input

Note: The example shell script code and example AppleScript code is just that and sans any included error handling does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted.
For AppleScript error handling... Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Can two iPhones access the same iCloud content?

Nope. The same account would need to be signed in on both devices.


It's quite possible that the mailserver (IP address) through which you send your "home email" has found it's way onto a "blacklist". If iCloud is using this blacklist to filter out potential spam then your email will be blocked.

Sometimes the bounced email will give a clue as to the reason for rejection and which blacklist was used (if any).

You can check if your mailserver's IP address is listed on many of the main blacklists with various tools:

"Blacklist Check" on MX Toolbox
Trend Micro - Email Reputation Services


iPhone 5 and 5s lock screen flashing Apple logo

I had this exact same problem. It has to do with recurring calendar events. This mainly occurs when the phone is syncing with Microsoft Exchange, but may occur in other circumstances. You need to find any recurring calendar events and simply delete them. Adding an end date will not fix the problem. It took me about a month of looking through device logs to figure this out.


Restoring a previous "session" (with various open tabs) in Safari—macOS Sierra

Open the Last Closed Tab in Safari on the Mac

Safari lets you undo your action of closing a tab--as long as you act promptly. If you close a tab by mistake and then open a new tab, you won't be able to restore the closed tab with the shortcut below, because the undo feature only works on your last action.

Reopen Closed Windows in Safari on the Mac

You can also reopen a Safari window with the tabs you had open even days after closing the window or quitting Safari.

If you have more than one Safari window open and close one by mistake, go to the History menu and select "Reopen Last Closed Window."

If you quit Safari and want to restart it with all of the tabs you had open last time, go to the History menu and select Reopen All Windows from Last Session.


How can you change the iCloud account name on iOS 10?

Settings → Apple ID → Name, Phone Numbers, Email → Name


10.7.4 changed my dock background—how do I change it back?

Try this:

Launch Terminal.app from /Applications/Utilities/
Type defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO and press return.
Type killall Dock and press return.


Is it possible to route my iPhone calls through my MacBook Pro sound system?

There are several bluetooth solutions, that should be useful:

Phone Amego ($29) - This should do the trick. Works and has interesting features. I recommend it.
BluePhoneElite 2 - No longer developed and supported. I see almost everything vanished, but I think you should be able to locate a working copy somehow.

Edit: As of OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iOS8 this will be included in the OS itself. It's called Continuity.

ps. I'm not in any way connected to the authors of the software, mentioned in my answer.


Updating a MacPro from Snow Leopard to Mavericks

If the Mac Pro is old enough, then it cannot be upgraded beyond Lion.  Check the listed requirements... My old Mac Pro 1,1 was in this category.

See the chart at the bottom, "latest supported OS" HERE


Xcode 4: key binding for "Focus code blocks on hover"

Go to Settings > Keybindings and search for focus.
Then set your desired keybinding under Code Folding > Focus Follows Selection.


I deleted /usr/local/bin on my Mac. Is there any way I can see what was installed there?

Most GUI Applications don't touch /usr/local/bin, so the Applications in your /Applications folder should still be in working condition. Some do install command line tools, but usually there is a menu item in the help or program menu to reinstall that command line item. Bottom line: If you don't use the command line much, you should be fine. If you use it frequently, you will see a "File not found" error when trying to run the command.

The only way to see what was in there, is indeed a backup.


Is there a macOS alternative to delaycut or eac3to?

If what you are trying to do is extract segments of audio from an audio file and save them to files, then I suggest Audacity.

It is open sourced, cross platform, and probably can do what you need with ease.


Change the default system highlight color

Go to System Preferences > General. Click on Highlight Color.
You can even choose a custom color using Other...

If you are bored of the default Blue, you can change it to one of your taste.


Safari: Picture in Picture stopped working with no reason

YouTube doesn’t offer Picture in Picture unless you have a YouTube Red subscription. The fact you could do it before was possible a glitch.

How can I run a YouTube video in Picture in Picture mode on iOS? on how to do Picture in Picture for free.


Is it possible to turn off Internet access when locking the iPhone?

Unfortunately there's no such feature in the current version of iOS (9.3), but there are some tricks you can still do now to achieve almost what you're asking for.

On iOS 9
In this version of the Apple's OS you can keep open the settings app in the background, keeping it open in the Cellular Data section so you can easily open the app and turn Off or On your Cellular Data before you Lock or after you unlock your iPhone.

On iOS 10
Beta coming on July. Official release coming this Fall. You may also think about updating your iPhone to iOS 10 when it comes out this Fall (or even to the Beta which is coming this July, but may not be very stable), in fact on iOS 10, (if you have an iPhone 6s) you can use the 3D Touch on the Settings app to get straight to the Cellular Data's section.
If you have an iPhone 6 or previous and no iPhone 6s, some coders have found out in the iOS 10 code a 6th toggle at the Top of the Control Center, and it's green. This means either it's for Battery settings or for Cellular Data ones (as they're the only green toggles in Settings).
So we may have a Wi-Fi and a Cellular Data toggle at the Top of the Control Center in iOS 10, and this may help you solve your problem as the only thing you'd have to do is simply switching them Off or On via the Control Center without even opening the Settings app.

Even if you do update to iOS 10, or not, you can still solve your problem by keeping open the Cellular Data's section in the Settings App, as that won't cost you that much of battery life.

Other methods
In the end, as some have already pointed out, if you don't mind about Cellular Data turned on, but you care just about not receiving the 'vibration' when a notification appears, but still want to see notifications on your lock screen, this can be done on the Control Center pressing the moon button.
Doing so you just activated the Do not disturb mode. Although you won't receive upcoming calls this way, in Settings you can specify wether to allow calls from your favorites, everybody or nobody, or even if you want to get notified about repeated calls - as Apple specifies:

When enabled, a second call from the same person within three minutes
will not be silenced.

For further informations about this mode, and how you can customize (and even schedule!), you may want to check out Apple's dedicated Support Webpage for it.
Hope this helped you out.


You could create a launch agent, that starts when you first log in and re-starts if exited. Although I’m sure the app has created one for it self, and some setting might not be set correctly. Create on is quite simple. Here is an example if BetterTouchTool was installed in /Applications folder, and had the executable in MacOS folder in the bundle. You’ll have to restart after creating and saving this plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <dict>
        <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>BetterTouchTool</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/BetterTouchTool.app/Contents/MacOS/BetterTouchTool</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

If you don't wish to restart, you can run this to start the agent:

launchctl load <path to the newly created plist file>

You can change the value of program argument to what ever you like and read more about launch agents by typing man launchd.plist in the Terminal. This will tell you about all the available options. There are also GUI apps to create these plist files for you, my favourite is Lingon X.

Though I would recommend you contact support for the app first, because this can result is in unexpected behaviour and mess with it’s functions. Like even if you force quit it now it’ll automatically launch (it depends on the value of SuccessfulExit key).


Is there any way to change the mac dock's position with a keyboard shortcut?

This AppleScript code works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave.

tell application "System Events" to tell dock preferences
    if screen edge is bottom then
        set screen edge to left
    else if screen edge is left then
        set screen edge to bottom
    end if
end tell

In Automator, create a new Service or Quick Action and add a run AppleScript action to that workflow, adding the above AppleScript code.  Then in System Preferences you can create a keyboard shortcut for that new service.


Can an AppleScript create new variables on its own?

This is an example of using a list to achieve something similar to what you are trying to do, I think:

    set varList to {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15}

    tell application "Google Chrome"
        count every tab of window 1
        set tabCount to result
        set counterOne to 1
        repeat tabCount times
            get URL of tab counterOne of window 1
            set item counterOne of varList to result
            set counterOne to counterOne + 1
        end repeat
    end tell

    tell application "Google Chrome"
        make new window
        set counterOne to 1
        repeat tabCount times
            set tabVari to item counterOne of varList
            open location tabVari
            set counterOne to counterOne + 1
        end repeat
    end tell


Why does my iPhone 7s keep losing Wi-Fi since I installed iOS12?

Before doing anything, have you erased network settings and verified WiFi is stable?

Next, erase all content and settings and retest on a new network.

Apple typically stops signing the previous release within a week of a new iOS, so you could try restoring back to iOS 11 to rule out a hardware failure that was a coincidence. At that point you can decide to see Apple service before upgrading to understand if you have any recourse from them in case a second upgrade also fails.

Many many iPhone 7 era devices work fine, so it’s almost certainly not a widespread bug. If you’re sure you want iOS 12 I would erase and restore the device and then connect to a Mac to look over the system logs if the failure continues.


Why is macOS forcibly renaming my USB drive?

Make sure you properly unmount the USB drive when you remove it. If a volume name already exists in a system and you try to add a volume with the same name it will append -n to the volume name.


Why does the calendar app require access to my emails?

A Google account, whether added for Contacts, Calendars, Emails, or all of the above, is added the same way and requests permissions for all three. You then enable or disable them on the settings panel you see in the background.

It will not interact with your email if you leave the Mail checkbox off


Can Finder delete a file directly and bypass moving it to the Trash?

Delete Immediately @ Github (free)

Download the file Delete Immediately.service
Move the file to ~/Library/Services. You may have to create the folder.
Restart the finder by running killall Finder;
You can also assign a keyboard shortcut to this service in System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts →Services


running a command stored in a bash variable

If anyone else needs to do this, here is the solution I came up with:

#!/bin/bash

VM="name of my VM"
CMD="prlctl exec \"$VM\" ipconfig | grep "IPv4" | grep -m1 -o '\d\{1,3\}\.\d\{1,3\}\.\d\{1,3\}\.\d\{1,3\}'"
IP=$(eval $CMD)

#once you have the correct data in the $IP variable you can do something with it.. I initiate an ssh session, but you can do whatever you like.

I have no idea why eval is needed here.  Someone more familiar with bash will be needed to answer that mystery.


WhatsApp on iPhone: how to switch to a new phone number without losing anything?

It proved trivial:

power down iPhone
change SIM card
turn iPhone on
launch Whatsapp
Whatsapp asks something like "Mobile network changed. Switch to new phone number?". Tap "No"

That's it. All groups, chat history and contacts preserved. My friends see me (and chat history with me) as I never changed SIM card or number.

Later switch back to the original number works exactly the same.

Mind the warning from Whatsapp FAQ: "Please do not swap SIM cards ... frequently, or you will create problems in the verification process." But with two changes "to new and back to the old" in half an hour, I of course didn't experience any problems.


Why doesn't the screen command source my .profile?

For an alias to work in ~/.profile the session needs to be a login shell. Bash, which is probably what you're using, is typically read from ~/.bash_profile.

There's a good explanation of the differences mentioned here:

https://superuser.com/questions/183870/difference-between-bashrc-and-bash-profile


No - the only (recent) hardware that had Lights out Management (LOM) is the now discontinued Xserve. You will need separate hardware to control the power in response to WOL packets (or other signals) to start the current line up of macs from a powered down state.

Apple's current implementation is focused on sleep. The macs need to  - first boot up as they leave the network interfaces listening to wake from only from sleep. Powering down the mac turns off all power to the network interfaces.


OS-X: How to copy files according to their file types from an external hard drive onto an OS-X computer?

One option would be to run the following script in Terminal

#!/bin/bash

find /Volumes/NAME_OF_EXTERNAL_DRIVE -type f -print | while read f; do
    case "$f" in
       *.jpg) cp "$f" "~/Pictures/${f##.*/}"
              ;;
       *.mp3) cp "$f" "~/Music/${f##.*/}"
              ;;
       *) echo "Don't know how to handle '$f'"
          ;;
     esac
done

Add lines for additional suffixes and target folders as needed (and also keep in mind that .jpg is not the same as .JPG).


On Mojave it is simpler than I thought.

Clicking the power/fingerprint button will quickly bring the login screen out, with the other user already chosen, ready for the password to be inputed.

After the login it will be possible to switch with just fingerprint-click + fingerprint (for authentication).

That's pretty convenient!

Note: I am not sure if that was active also before, or if the alternative user is chosen based on what are the most active/logged users (because, in my case, the proposed user for login is not the only other user present on the system).


Installing ffmpeg in mac os "command not found"

When you ran the first command, you pressed "any other key" than RETURN, and so you never actually installed homebrew.

Re-run the first command and make sure to hit the return (enter) key when asked.


Is it possible to find or wipe a lost iPod Touch if Find My iPod was not previously activated?

In short, it is, unfortunately not possible to activate Find my iPod on a device that is no longer in your possession.

If Find My iPod was actually enabled, you can go to www.icloud.com and login to your Apple ID to see more information on the device and to set it so that the data is erased after being connected to the internet (if it wasn't already). If you log in to the iCloud web portal and the iPod isn't shown, then it was likely not enabled. In this situation, it would be impossible to activate it.

Remember, either way, the iPod must be connected to the internet in order for any changes to be made.


If its the mountains in black and white with the sun behind clouds.. It's in this pack: http://www.redmondpie.com/download-os-x-snow-leopard-wallpapers/


I use a similar model of MacBook Pro (15” Late 2013).

The batteries have something called charge cycle (1 charge cycle = 1 full charge and discharge). The MacBook Pro battery typically retain 80% charge holding capacity after completing 1000 cycles.

Although the advanced lithium-ion batteries in MacBook is meant to last for several years before they begin to lose their overall charge capacity, there will eventually be a time when it will need replacement.

This is reported by macOS by alerting you about battery condition. You can also view the current cycle count of the battery by going to Apple Menu → About This Mac → System Report... → Hardware → Power → Battery Information: → Health Information: → Cycle Count.

There are also various 3rd party apps which you can use to determine the current battery health status. coconutBattery is one such popular tool.

Once you are convinced that the battery need replacement, it is strongly advised to do so.

Also, the top case, keyboard, trackpad and the battery comprise of a single unit in the MacBook model you own. The entire unit will need replacement. (I got mine replaced a few months ago). That explains the hefty price tag.

  Which problems can be expected by continuing to use a MacBook Pro Battery already due for replacement?

Continuing to neglect replacement may end up damaging other components thereby leading to more expenses. In my case (pun intended :-D), the battery started swelling which could have also ended up damaging the logic board assembly.

Other obvious issues include, lesser backup than expected, random shutdown under load and possibility of reduced performance at times.

If you haven't done so in the last 5 years since you bought the MacBook and macOS is alerting you about it, it's highly recommended to get the battery replaced for extending the lifetime of your MacBook Pro.


Not for the faint of heart, but I've done some research into iPhone daemons, and deleting/ disabling certain ones can have an impact on speed. Here's a lesson from BigBoss about the subject. Here's a list of daemons and what they do (I found this really helpful).

Hope this helps!


How can I log into the desktop environment as Root on a new mac running 10.6 or 10.7 without creating a user account?

You can still use SUM by holding Cmd + S when booting up.  If I recall correctly from the last time I did it, that should automatically give you root.


Make windows go completely off screen in "show desktop" hot corner

That option is not available using the show desktop via hot corner.


How to view the To-Do-Bar in Outlook for Mac?

I suppose this is documented by the choice of words:

Outlook for PC - Use and customize the To-Do bar

That view isn't present on Outlook 2016 version 16.13 or less for macOS.

You'll need to run on windows or try the webmail app. If you search "to do bar" in the help for Outlook - you'll find you can't even put things in to the ribbon yet and there's a link to request it on some web site.

In the mean time, you'll likely need to open a couple main windows and look over your tasks and calendar.


Which OS for a 2GB RAM MacBook Air from 2011?

It will take Sierra - which means unless you already have any earlier OS in your App Store purchase history, that's the only one you can get for it.

Source: Everymac


Playout video from iTunes 12 to external monitor

Play the video in fullscreen mode, and active mission control click ^ + ↑, drag the fullscreen playing video to the external display. Another way, you can play the video via Quicktime player


MacOS Bug Sur can format drive but can't mount it

After a bit of "googling" I can see the problem occurs to other people too.
Try to follow the guide proposed below before you go a step further.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252126476
Just to reason a bit more on the problem: have you modified the settings of the stick via software or hardware ( e.g. moving an unlock button)?
This guys solved with a software different from Disk Utility, but I don't think it is necessary.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252081600


If the iPhone decides that the cellular data connection will provide a better connection quality, it will choose that connection over a poor Wi-Fi connection. However, given no other choice (because you've turned off cellular data) the iPhone will attempt to maintain the poor connection over Wi-Fi.

There is no way around this other than to improve the Wi-Fi connection or to disable cellular data manually.


I tried replacing the "dock" folder in System > core services with that one from 10.7.1, it actually made launchpad icons smaller again, but at every start up it takes some time to load the dock an the desktop background, and the dock is not working properly, I'm trying to figure it out changing something in the dock folder instead of replacing it whole.


How do I install one extension for all Firefox profiles?

You need to put the global extensions (.xpi files) into the /Applications/Firefox.app/MacOS/extensions folder (when you select Firefox.app, right-click and "Show package contents").

If Firefox doesn't recognize the xpi, try to install it for your profile, then move it from ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>.default/extensions to the path mentioned above.


MacBook Pro does not sleep/require password at all

Possible System Management Controller (SMC) issue?  Can you try a SMC reset and test your conditions again?

Link here...

What the SMC does.  The SMC is responsible for these and other low-level functions on Intel-based Mac computers:

Responding to presses of the power button
Responding to the display lid opening and closing on Mac notebooks
Battery management
Thermal management
Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS)
Ambient light sensing
Keyboard backlighting
Status indicator light (SIL) management
Battery status indicator lights
Selecting an external (instead of internal) video source for some iMac displays


Mac OS 10.15 Catalina: where is the first time boot presentation of new features stored?

Open Finder, help menu > See what's new in macOS.

It takes one at: https://help.apple.com/macOS/mojave/whats-new/


Is there a way to refresh symbolichotkeys.plist without logging out?

You can restart the SystemUIServer by killing the process in Activity Monitor. It will auto restart. I think that should give you the desired effect without a reboot/logout.


Check for a cellular settings update:

  You can manually check for and install a carrier settings update with
  these steps:

  Make sure your device is connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network.

  Tap Settings > General > About. If an update is available, you'll see
  an option to update your carrier settings.

Try updating your device:

  Plug your device into power and connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi.

  Tap Settings > General > Software Update.

  Tap Download and Install. If a message asks to temporarily remove apps
  because iOS needs more space for the update, tap Continue or Cancel.
  Later, iOS will reinstall apps that it removed. If you tap Cancel,
  learn what to do next.

  To update now, tap Install. Or you can tap Later and choose Install
  Tonight or Remind Me Later. If you tap Install Tonight, just plug your
  iOS device into power before you go to sleep. Your device will update
  automatically overnight.


Shortcut to insert / paste email address?

Built in to the operating system is text replacements, so if you open Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Text Replacement you can add your own text replacement shortcuts. For example, you might add "e@" and have it expand to your full email address, such as "email@domain.com". It will automatically expand when tabbing away from a field or hitting the space key on your keyboard.


Find the redeem code button in the iBook store.
Enter Your Promo Code
Push redeem button
After you entered your promo code, you will (hopefully) get a message saying that your item is downloading.


How to upgrade gnu make in OS X El Capitan

Yes, you can run:

brew install homebrew/core/make

on earlier systems this was:

brew install homebrew/dupes/make

This will install make 4.2.1.

Another option, if you want to retain the system installed make version, is to install remake instead.

brew install remake


Is there a tool like Furigana that I can use on iOS Safari?

You can use a bookmarklet. Just sync your Safari or Firefox bookmarks with iTunes. Every bookmarklet you have on the desktop will be available on mobile Safari on the iPhone.

Or you can add the bookmarklet directly from within mobile Safari on the iPhone:

Step 1: Select the line bellow and copy it:

javascript:void(document.location='http://trans.hiragana.jp/ruby/'+escape(document.location))

Step 2: Navigate to hiragana.jp and tap on the '+' button to save a bookmark

Step 3: tap on the bookmarks icon then on 'Edit'

Step 4: Select the bookmark you just added

Step 5: tap on the address, then on the gray 'x' to clear the field

Step 6: tap that field again and select 'Paste'

Step 7: you're done


If Disk Utility (booted to Internet Recovery Mode) can't repair the error, there is nothing else than booting to your main volume, backing up everything to an external disk and after rebooting to Recovery Mode deleting the Logical Volume and re-adding a new one.

If that fails you have to delete the Logical Volume Group as well. Create a new one - including a new Logical Volume.

Restore your backup and boot to your main volume again.

Finally enable FileVault and encrypt your main volume.


CLI softwareupdate does not find updates

The CLI tool softwareupdate is only for OS X updates provided through Apple's software update catalog, or whichever .sucatalog is set in preferences for catalogs provided by OS X Server's Software Update service.

This update catalog does not contain details for Mac App Store apps, such as Xcode.

You can restrict the Mac App Store to only show softwareupdate updates by running the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.appstore restrict-store-softwareupdate-only -bool yes

You can read more about the softwareupdate CLI tool in the man page.


Does iOS now delete text messages on iPhone without warning?

Have you changed any of your iMessage details in that time frame?

As I understand it, if anything changes in your iMessage settings (for instance, removing a 'receive at' or changing the account you use, your phone will purge all of the messages it no longer thinks belong to it (as, I suppose, you would expect). However, I added an email address to mine fairly recently and all my iMessage history with my mum vanished.

I would check with the other party and see if they still have the record - if so, then your phone has elected to purge it and probably thinks you don't need it. If not, is there a time limit on iMessage storage on Apple servers? (seems unlikely and that shouldn't cause it to purge from the phone).


How to delete an iOS app you can't find in Springboard?

Oops, found it.

Settings / General / Usage / Manage Storage / app / Delete App.


Logitech Options can reverse the scroll direction on a per app basis - however it reverses the entire scroll action, not just the zoom direction.

Top right, select the App you want to affect, then select Standard or Natural in the Scroll Direction drop menu.

If you have an older [or just less darned awkward than my MX2] mouse that doesn't use Logitech Options, you may be able to achieve better results with something like SteerMouse which can do most tasks on a per app basis, including Zoom…

Until recently, SteerMouse & Logitech Options would fight each other badly, yet SteerMouse couldn't see all of the buttons on my MX2 properly, so I've been stuck with Options for a while & cannot test SteerMouse in this instance.
Edit: Tested again 19 Sept 2019 - they still fight each other & SteerMouse can't use the Gesture button properly, so I'm still on Options.


Can I output video to my TV using a MacBook Pro?

Yes. You just need the right video and audio adapters.

Apple sells two adapters to connect your MacBook's Mini DisplayPort to DVI or VGA. Neither of those will include audio, so you'll also need to get audio cables. Your TV likely includes either optical or composite (RCA) jacks for one or more of your DVI or VGA connections.

For HDMI, you'll need a third-party adapter like this one. Note that this one does not carry audio either. The most recent 13" MBP does put audio out over that port, but I'm not aware of any adapters that can use the audio yet. That same site also sells third-party VGA and DVI adapters that are much cheaper than Apple's.

I can't vouch for the quality of the third-party adapters, but I buy most of my cables there, and I've always had good results.


In the end, i send it to some expert to check on it.
There is two reason the machine is slow:
1. KVR ram is used for the machine
2. The HDD is most probably faulty.

Swap this two things out it worked fine.


Considerations when connecting an 11" 2011 MBA and 13" 2012 MBP to a 2560x1440 Dual-link DVI monitor

It should be fine. Apple themselves offer to sell you a 27" display along with the laptop so it clearly is capable of driving that many pixels.

I myself use a 15" 2012 MBP Retina with one of those mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapters (hooked up to a Hazro 27" monitor, so cheap no-frills much like you're considering) and its been pretty good. This is in addition to also driving a cinema display of the same size, so I have two external monitors.

I read a lot of reviews around the Internet before buying it, and there's a few horror stories (most of them say make sure you get one with firmware 1.03, but there's no way to tell what firmware you have, till you plug it in! - fortunately mine was 1.03 from the off).

The only issue I have with mine is occasionally (maybe once or twice a day) the Hazro monitor goes blank for a second, then comes back on. I have no idea whats causing this, the MBP doesn't even notice (doesn't try to rearrange windows or anything) and its infrequent enough that I just live with it. It may be a slight incompatibility between some of the equipment.

I do suffer from some occasional oddities if I unplug the external monitors while the MBP is asleep, then wake it up (the internal screen won't come on, I think its the graphics card drivers crashing at the unexpected situation) but I don't believe thats related to the Dual-Link DVI.


Can the Google play store be downloaded on the iPhone with my Google
account?
Answer: No you can't download Play Store in any Apple device.
If not how do I download games & apps & what do I use to
do it?
Answer: You can't access your Google Play purchases, so you will need to use App Store to purchase/download again any app you want, iTunes app to purchase music, iBooks app to purchase books...
Do I have to have an iCloud account or iTunes account?
Answer: You have an Apple Id and you will use that to log in into iTunes and iCloud, you have some 5GB free storage, if you want more you need to pay.
Can I use my Gmail/email account or do I need to have a Apple
email account?
Answer: You can download Gmail app from App Store, you don't need to use Apple accounts, although you get one when creating your Apple Id account.

Finally, you can easily get step by step tutorials for any of this topics if you search in Google like How to... setup iCloud Account, create an Apple Id, etc


How to export conversation history from Microsoft Communicator for Mac (2011)?

After running this command,

find ~ -type f -exec grep "special search string" {} \; -print

I was able to find the Conversation history at

/Users/<my_mac_user_id>/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Communicator History/<my_communicator_login_id>

Just copying the entire folder to new mac solved my problem.

"special search string" is an unique string you would have used while chatting with your friends/colleagues.


Change the current iTunes song's rating after it finishes playing?

with timeout of 600 seconds
    tell application "iTunes"
        set cur to current track
        repeat until current track is not cur
            delay 1
        end repeat
        set rating of cur to 40 -- 2 stars
    end tell
end timeout

This would select the next track and set the rating of the previous track to two stars:

tell application "iTunes"
    set cur to current track
    next track
    set rating of cur to 40
end tell


Apple don't make a modem, but depending on your internet/cable/fiber provider, you may be able to encourage them to give you one for free.

I have Virgin Media in the UK and new customers receive a new Super Hub free (which can easily be configured to be a slave modem, you just turn the wireless off). The same is true of most of the free 'hubs' provided by networks these days.


Audio problems with videos converted for viewing on iOS using VLC

Turn off the auto timzone detect and set your time zone to a city in Canada (that's in the same time zone as you). There are legal issues with one of the codecs in the USA. VLC checks for location by timezone setting to allow an easy workaround.


OpenPort is a program used to create a tunnel from your machine to the Internet. Essentially allowing your, or others that are given access, to connect to your machine from the Internet to remote control it, copy files, etc.

It is normally used in situations where the machine cannot be placed directly on the Internet. For example in home user setups your machine can be stuck behind NAT, home firewalls, etc. that makes it difficult to access it from the Internet. OpenPort connects from your machine to a server to create a tunnel that will easier connection from the Internet.

You pay a monthly subscription for the server service for OpenPort, although they have a limited, free plan as well.

If you haven't knowingly installed OpenPort.io, I would uninstall right away. It is safe to remove in as so far that it doesn't come standard with the Mac, so it is an optional extra. You might want to take a backup before removing, if after removing you realize that it was actually yourself that installed the app for some purpose and want it back with your own configuration.


Can I run apps on iPhone without paying to be a developer?

You need to make your apps in Xcode 7 to run on your iDevice without any developer program. You need to sign in with your Apple ID. For more details visit the Xcode 7 site. It's in beta 6 now.

https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

If you need Xcode 6 or lower, paying the fee is the only alternative.


Spotlight search to Bluetooth settings hindered by "Bluetooth file exchange"

In Finder open /Applications/Utilities.

Next open System Preferences then choose the Spotlight preferences. Select the Privacy tab.

Now drag Bluetooth File Exchange from Finder to the Spotlight Privacy tab to exclude it from Spotlight (this will work because what is seen as app in by Finder in macOS is actually a folder, although you have to right click it in Finder and Show Package Contents to see it).

Now try Spotlight again with "blu".

If any other apps come up before Bluetooth preferences, drag them also into the Spotlight privacy pane.


Disable the physical Silent Mode switch on iPhone SE 2020?

No

 Is there a way to disable that switch, to prevent my iPhone SE from ever going into silent mode?

There is no way to disable the working of the physical silent switch.
Flash for alerts
If you keep missing calls due to the switch inadvertently getting flipped, you may consider enabling LED Flash for Alerts, a setting that flashes the iPhone camera's flashlight for alerts.
This may help with catching your attention if the iPhone is on silent mode either intentionally or inadvertently.
In iOS 13, the setting can be enabled by going to Settings app → Accessibility → Audio/Visual → LED Flash for Alerts.

Flash only in Silent Mode
While this setting has been around for a long while in iOS, an interesting enhancement to the setting introduced in iOS 13 is the ability to have your iPhone's LED flash only when it's in silent mode.


How to recover previously saved text file after an overwrite and a reboot?

There is little hope unless one or both of the editors squirrel away copies of the file for you or embed the undo buffer in the document.

It really depends on the editors and the settings.

One last ditch effort is to use the mdfind command. If that file had a memorable string or misspelling you could see in an instant if any files on the disk contain that string. If you search for a common string, you'll have a lot of false positives, but it's worth a shot.

In this case, even software that recovers deleted files won't be of use when another editor truncates the file. It was shredded and not simply deleted

On a personal note, We all learn this lesson about data loss in a personal way, usually many times over.

It's not overkill to have both version control and an automated backup system.

Time Machine is marvelous in that it makes hourly snapshots so you lose at most an hours work. Files that have been around for [a day|a week] are saved for [a month|until the drive fills]. It really works well in practice, and if you have local backups, you might even have snapshots more often than one an hour to recover a file. Sorry to hear you lost work, it's never a good feeling.


You would want to power off the phone immediately and then get a quote from a forensic / data recovery company if the data is worth paying for. I’m not aware of any tools to do recovery yourself, but perhaps someone else has that answer or an explanation why that’s not viable or cost effective.

There are going to be all sorts of scam software, so here are two reputable companies that do recovery. One says they work with iOS, the other does not but I trust them for Mac recovery and they might have some recommendations worth exploring.

https://www.ontrack.com/services/data-recovery/mobile/
https://www.prosofteng.com/data-recovery-services/

Since iCloud has a deleted photos album, be sure o check that as it works even without an iCloud backup. Sorry you’re in this place, too late to make a backup when the data is already gone. Try not to lose the lesson now...


Are you sure these sounds aren't the mechanical clicks of the keyboard?


How can I initiate a Google Voice phone call from the command line?

You can find the google voice command line script Here

With it, you can simply type

./googlevoice.pl call 12345678

To do a call. Other features like SMS and cancelling a call is there as well.


Removing app from iOS app store and notifying users that the app is no longer supported

However you want to notify your users is up to you.  Doing so is not a technical question but more of a choice of whatever's easier/faster/convenient for you.  If you have the ability and desire to notify users before you shut down, my suggestion is to do that.  Users might not be happy with losing use of the app but at least you'll have the respect of knowing that you gave everyone ample notice.

There is no customary procedure because every app and user-base is different.  I would also recommend contacting your users with every method you have available.  If you can popup a message, do that; if you can send an email, do that; if you can post to Twitter/Facebook, do that.  There's no way to overcommunicate an app shutdown.

The only thing I would recommend against is creating an app update that just shows a message about the app shutting down.  Users will feel tricked and you'll have a mess and lost of confidence.

If users can still use your app without any further updates from you or without your backend services, let them use it.  Once you remove the app from the App Store, users will not be able to restore it from backup; once it's gone, it's gone.

UPDATE: Per discussion in the comments to this answer, there appears to be a difference between restores done via iCloud and iTunes. @Hitechcomputergeek points out iTunes can back up actual apps, while iCloud only backs up their data and re-downloads the app itself from the App Store (like if you had first downloaded it).


How to install Windows 10 on unsupported Mac?

A different user recently posted a similar question on superuser. Since my answer was accepted as correct, I will repost it below.

The Basic steps to install 64 bit Windows 10 are as follows. I assume here that your current configuration is the default "Out of the Box" OS X installation.

Download the correct Boot Camp Support Software for your Mac.
Transfer these files to a FAT formatted flash drive. For your Mac,
use the same software as for a 64 bit Windows 7 installation. These
files can be found at Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621
Use the Disk Utility to reduce the size of your OS X partition. In
the empty space, create a FAT formatted partition with the label
BOOTCAMP.
Burn the Windows 10 iso file to a DVD. You can use the Disk Utility
to do this. I always use a RW DVD. This takes longer to burn, but is
reusable.
Restart the Mac with the DVD in the optical drive. Hold down the
alt/option key and select the DVD icon with the label Windows.
Install Windows to the Boot Camp partition. You will have to tell
the installer to reformat this partition as NTFS. DO NOT CHANGE THE
PARTITIONING DURING THE INSTALLATION PROCESS.
At some point during the installation, the computer will reboot.
When it does, it will boot to OS X. This is to be expected. Go to
System Preferences and instruct OS X to boot back to Windows. The
installation process will continue.
After the Windows installation has completed, install the Boot Camp
Support software stored on the flash drive. To accomplish this, you
will have to right click on the icon and select Compatibility Mode.

I do not consider the process to be that difficult. The most challenging step is creating the FAT formatted partition labeled BOOTCAMP. If something goes wrong, you are in danger of loosing data on your OS X partition.


Why can't I AirPlay mirror my iPhone XS FaceTime video to my AppleTV in landscape rotation?

my wife's iphone xs is in the mail, so this is speculative, but i would guess the new resolution is causing an under/overscan issue to manifest. Try adjusting on the apple tv and see if it works.

On Apple TV 4K or Apple TV (4th generation), go to Settings > AirPlay > AirPlay Display Underscan.
On Apple TV (2nd or 3rd Generation), go to Settings > Audio & Video > Adjust for AirPlay Overscan.


My hard drive is broken on my Mac, I have a new one, but how can I install OS X?

You can purchase Snow Leopard from Apple for $19.00US and install it from a optical disk reader. Once Snow Leopard is installed, (it needs to be v.10.6.8,) upgrade to Yosemite through the App Store. Make sure your MacBook is not too new to run Snow Leopard, though.


Blued and syslogd Eating CPU and Flooding system.log

Blued and syslogd are both daemon processes. Blued is your Bluetooth daemon process and syslogd is is your logging console daemon (crash reported, console log files etc). Blued is connected to your console daemon so I guess that blued is actually the cause of your problem while the syslogd issue is only a result of the blued's problems. Looking at the error it seem that there is an communication error and your blued process is just waiting for a response from a device. The error is that your blued command is your host communicator interface (HCI) and an request is send but without a response. It's weird that blued waiting from the kernel from a response it putting it in a 100% CPU state.

Disconnect every bluetooth device in your device list and turn off every device that tries to connect to your Mac. Now re-connect every device again to your mac.
Remove all bluetooth caches

Turn off bluetooth
Remove /Library/Preferences/com.apple.bluetooth.plist
Remove ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.*.plist
turn bluetooth on again

If you turn bluetooth off from the bluetooth menu, does blued eat less cpu? If you turn bluetooth on or off the blued keeps running. If the blued keeps running normal when bluetooth is turned off it could be an hardware issue
Did you update the bluetooth firmware up to the latest version as well as your mac OS X software?

edit:
option 5, it could be caused by cheap and crappy bluetooth hardware connected to your mac of course.


I have one of these scanners and have noticed it can be sensitive to how it's connected on the USB bus. If the problem continues, try connecting it directly to a USB port on your Mac instead of through a hub (if it's not already directly connected).


Your Twitter app should not actually have your password stored on your iOS device.  Rather it should have a security token, specifically an OAuth access token.

Have you tried resetting your password via SMS?


How to remove Kaspersky icon on menu bar?

Here is the official uninstallation tool for OS X:

http://media.kaspersky.com/utilities/ConsumerUtilities/Uninstall_Kaspersky_Internet_Security.zip

Download and run this package to completely remove the app.


I deleted my Apple ID Calendar on iCloud, how do I get it back?

You can log into iCloud.com from any computer and recreate calendars. Once that empty calendar populates to your devices, you can re-enter any appointments by hand or load a backup file containing the events as works for you.


Python version different to Python Framework version

It is possible to have multiple different python installations on macOS. And the user is able to choose where they are installed.

For example, I have the standard Python that comes with macOS, as well as one that came with Anaconda that I use for my Python development.

To make things easier, I linked my system Python to Anaconda's Python interpreter. However, this does not delete the Python version in my system's library, merely stops linking against it.

If you're ever confused which interpreter is being used to run your code in terminal, I find a simple way to find out is to simply type the Terminal command "which python". That will quickly output the location of the Python interpreter being used by your system by default. In my case it outputs "/anaconda/bin/python".


Do AirPods directly benefit from better LAN Wi-Fi?

In a nutshell - no WiFi doesn't help the AirPods at all.

Problematic interference on the 2.4 GHz frequency range could hurt bluetooth quality, so I suppose you could power off the WiFi gear and test if that's in any way related to the signal issues you are seeing with AirPods.


Which MacOS (Sierra) Services are spy services/daemons from Apple?

Diagnostic and usage reporting services are controlled in System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Diagnostics & Usage. Uncheck both boxes to disable reporting.

You would have been asked to opt-in to reporting when you first set up your computer. You are recommended to use the official switch in System Preferences to disable this reporting. There's a handy switch for you to use, unlike a certain other OS!

If you really want to manually disable the services…

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.ReportCrash.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ReportCrash.Root.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DiagnosticReportCleanUp.plist

With regard to what is reported, full details can be found in that System Preferences pane:

  If you opt-in to sending diagnostic and usage information to Apple, it may include the following information:

  Details about app or system crashes, freezes, or kernel panics
  Information about events on your Mac (for example, whether a certain function, such as waking your Mac, was successful or not)
  Usage information (for example, data about how you use Apple and third-party software, hardware, and services)

About Diagnostics & Privacy


System font display issues since upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion

First, you said you are on 10.7. Have you run the updaters to update your system to 10.7.3, with all of Apple's updates and patches?

Most likely you are dealing with duplicate fonts that are incompatible--old ones from your old system and newer versions of the fonts with the same names that came with 10.7.

Here are some things you can try:

Run the Font Book application, selected all the fonts, and run "Look for Enabled Duplicates" and disable the duplicates. Then select all fonts, run "Validate Fonts", and remove any that are reported as corrupt.

Use a utility like Cocktail to delete all your font caches, repair your disk permissions, and reboot. (There are several other programs that provide you with a way to delete your font caches, and there is also a method to do this via Terminal and the command line).

Download the free TinkerTool and see what it reports about your system font settings. See if you can use TinkerTool to reset the font settings to their system defaults.

If none of the above work, or if you learn from Font Book that the basic fonts that you need are corrupt, then you should re-install 10.7.3 on your existing system (this will not hurt your data) and run Software Update and apply all patches. But first you need to delete any duplicate fonts or corrupt fonts.

I believe you can download the Lion 10.7.3 installer from the Mac App Store onto your existing installation and run the re-installation procedure from there.


Why does my son's name come up on my icloud messages when I use my mac to send one?

More info would be helpful.

But assuming you are using the messages.app that comes with macOS.

Open messages, go to the messages menu and select preferences > Accounts.

It is likely that the account that messages is using is your son's. You can uncheck his account (or just delete it) and add yours. And by "yours" I mean the same account you use on your iPhone/iPad which is usually the email address associated with your AppleID.


Automator quarantine Gatekeeper workaround?

Signature Check

Check your Automator application is being signed correctly. Do this using the command line tool codesign. Use the following command in Terminal.app to view the code signature associated with your application:

codesign -d -vvvv /Applications/MyGreatAutomator.app

Does the output mention your developer identifier? If not, revisit how you sign your application as it may be broken.

Quarantine Flag

The quarantine flag is applied to files downloaded from the Internet. This flag can be manually removed using this command:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MyGreatAutomator.app


How can I keep 200 recent photos on my iPhone and the rest on my Mac?

I don't have an answer to your specific question--keeping the 200 (exactly) most recent photos on your phone, but I can give you a suggestion that may satisfy the spirit, if not the letter, of your request.

Connect the iPhone to your Mac and load the photos into iPhoto (or Aperture if you prefer). Choose the option to delete the photos after they've been loaded into iPhoto. This removes the photos from your camera roll.

In iTunes, set your iPhone to sync to selected Albums albums... and include events from the last three months. (Other time frames are available). You can also include albums, events or faces that you want to always keep on the phone. (for example, I have an album that contains a variety of photos of my niece and nephew from various events.) You can create Smart Albums that include photos meeting defined criteria, for example photos of my nephew taken within a certain date range AND containing the keyword "sailing". This will put a selection of recent (and special) photos into your iPhone Photo Library (and into the various albums within that Library). All of the photos are kept on your Mac (and should be part of your backup scheme) but the defined subset, plus the contents of your camera roll, will be on the iPhone.

As noted above, you can do the same thing using Aperture if that's your preferred photo management solution. iCloud can also help to automate the transfer of photos from iPhone to Mac, but you need to run iPhoto from time to time and I like to move my pictures into titled projects. (I'm an Aperture user.)

Again, it won't give you exactly 200 pictures, but it will give a subset selection of recent--or desired--photographs.


MacBook fans are running high even under normal load

You should first determine if your computer is actually working harder due to some process(es) using a lot of CPU when they historically have not.  Open the Activity Monitor app and check your CPU idle percentage.

If your system is using a lot of CPU, the higher fan speed is likely justified.

If you are consistently showing >90% idle, while your fans are racing, you likely have a 'mechanical' heat issue (such as dust/grime on heat sinks or some air blockage.)

If it IS a dust issue, I'd expect you would have noticed the fan gradually increasing its 'unloaded system' speed over time.

There are also products that will let you monitor various sensors in your computer.  Some will also let you control your minimum fan speed.  My favorite is iStat Menus which has lots of options for what you want to watch and how you want to see it.


As the documentation suggests, you need to locate and edit the file: /opt/lampp/etc/extra/httpd-xampp.conf

The hard part for me was locating this file. The solution I found was to ensure the stack volume was mounted:

From there, you can click the explore button, which will open /opt/lampp/. You can then navigate to etc/extra/httpd-xampp.conf from the Finder window that is opened and edit with any editor you want.

Alternatively, once the drive is mounted, you should be able to access the volume through Finder:

Hopefully, this helps.


How can I remap the left keypad keys of a Kinesis Freestyle keyboard on macOS Sierra?

Unfortunately the answer linking to the "auto-repeater" software would have the unwanted result you mentioned of trying to remap the basic ⌘-arrow keys.

As I'm sure you know by now it's not possible to remap the keys on the Kinesis Freestyle keyboard as it's not programmable.

They answer this question in their FAQ on their website:
https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/support/technical-support/faqs-freestyle-keyboard/

Disclaimer, I know this is 7 months old at this time but it's a top Google result and didn't have a proper answer


How do i align the page numbers in a toc to left in Pages?

I'm not sure, but it seems as though you used Pages' built in Table of Contents feature to automate the formatting. It appears that the special indent settings were accidentally removed, but luckily it is not hard to put them back.

If you did use the built in tool, it should be very easy to fix. Click anywhere within the region of the table of contents (this will select the object). Then click on the ruler to create the special indent setting that will control where the page numbers will go. That should do the trick!

If you ever would like to delete the indent settings, all you have to do is click on the blue triangle representing the setting you would like to remove and drag it out of the ruler and let go of the mouse. Here is an example screenshot of the ruler with indent settings and a table of contents:


Can I update my iPhone 4S on iOS 6 to iOS 8?

There won't be a problem.

I'm not 100% sure that upgrading to iOS 8 will be in your best interest, though, because I've seen lots of reports of people with 4Ss having performance problems on iOS 8.


You don't mention which AppleTV you own, so I am going to assume that it's the currently available model, or at least generation, because it's probably more likely, and its easier to answer :)

The answer it that you cannot move stuff onto the AppleTV, it's a streaming only solution.  Whilst it has a small amount of internal storage (I think 4Gb for the 1st version of the 2nd Gen model that I have) this is used to buffer streaming, particularly for movie rentals from iTunes etc.

So to simply view, rather than move, content that is held on your Mac Mini, or any device come to that, is to ensure that it is playable in a player that offers the chance to use AirPlay to wirelessly stream the content.  You'll need to be on the same LAN as the AppleTV to see the device, but assuming you are you should simply see it as an output source when you click the AirPlay symbol in the player.


Can't adjust volume/play music on iPhone 4

This might be caused by several things, one of them being your phone believing it's connected to an external speaker through the 30-pin connector. When your phone believes it's connected to an external speaker, it assumes the speaker controls the volume, so you can't control the volume. In addition to that, the phone will attempt to transmit any audio through the 30-pin connector. I can't really think of any solution, other than trying to connect and disconnect from a charching cable or docking station, or try a restore.

I assume you've already attempted to reboot the phone, another thing you could try is to connect it to some headphones with the mini-jack port and see if you're able to control the volume with them plugged in. If you have a cotton swab that can fit in the 30-pin connector, you can also try to clean it (do NOT use water, soap or acid, simply a dry, clean swab).

If nothing helps, I suggest you hand it in for a check-up at the nearest Apple Retail store.


New mailbox not getting created in new macOS 10.12.1

I was having this issue as well, but stumbled across the answer, at least on my system. In the Mailboxes sidebar, try hovering over the name of the Mailbox within which you've tried to create new mailboxes...you should see a '+' as well as a 'Show' option appear to the right of the Mailbox name. Click 'Show' (not the '+'). The sub-mailboxes you've created should now appear beneath the main Mailbox.


Problem with Windows 10 Installation on Macbook Pro Late 2011

The problem is that Windows thinks you have two screens attached. You aren't seeing any icons or windows because they're opening up on the "other" screen, which you don't have (you're seeing the "secondary" screen).

Short story:
Because you nuked the macOS partition and installed Windows from scratch, Windows likely installed in EFI mode, which is not supported on non-Retina (i.e. pre-2012) MacBook Pros.  It also explains why audio doesn't work.  If you had used the BootCamp Assistant to install Windows, it would have correctly prepared the hard drive and BIOS compatibility support for Windows.

The easiest, fastest way to fix this would be to attach a 2nd screen (you'll need a miniDP adapter) and configure Windows to ONLY use whichever screen the panel corresponds to.  Otherwise, you must take additional steps to get Windows installed correctly without the BootCamp Assistant:

Option+Boot your MacBook Pro with the Windows media attached.  You should see two boot options. One says "EFI Boot", and the other just says "Windows".  Choose the one that says "Windows"
Once you are booted to Windows setup, hit Shift+F10 (Note that you may need to also use the Fn key). This will open up a command prompt.
From the command prompt, enter the following commands, one-by-one:
NOTE: THIS WILL ERASE YOUR HARD DRIVE!

diskpart
select disk 0
clean
create partition primary
exit
exit

NOTE: Yes, you really need to type exit twice.
Reboot the computer again (just for good measure) and Option+boot to the "Windows" option again.
Install Windows normally from this point on, selecting the partition you created in step 3 when it asks.

Long story (TL;DR):
Apple was the first to market with a laptop that could switch between CPU-integrated and discrete graphics controllers.  Because Windows and the hardware of the era did not support this configuration at the time, Apple implemented some clever hacks to get it to work.  Firstly, they used custom video drivers that could copy the contents of video memory between the CPU's reserved system RAM and the GPU's dedicated RAM. The display is connected via a dual-channel LVDS connector. And finally, both GPUs (along with the mini-DisplayPort and optical audio) are wired to a hardware GMUX chip that can dynamically switch between the two.  MacOS handles the coordination and synchronization of the switch when it needs to happen, so it appears seamless and transparent to you, the user.  All of this was horribly unsupported by Windows at the time.

On top of this, Apple began using the UEFI firmware spec back in 2005 when they switched to Intel processors, but this feature didn't commonly begin appearing in PCs until Windows 8 got released back 2012 (although Windows 7 supported it).  This has nothing to do with graphics switching, but Apple had to write a BIOS Compatibility Support Module (CSM) into their firmware (which emulates a legacy PC BIOS) to run Windows XP on Macintosh hardware.

Apple was already accustomed to supporting Windows on incompatible hardware through the CSM since 2005, so when graphics switching came around, they just extended the CSM to play nice with Windows and ignored UEFI support since Windows didn't support it anyway.

The CSM provided the following hacks to Windows:

UEFI is disabled.
The discrete GPU is powered on.
The GMUX chip switches to the correct LVDS channel to drive the display off the discrete GPU, locks the Thunderbolt port into mini-DisplayPort mode (no Thunderbolt support in Windows on 2011 models), and locks the audio to the analog output so the internal speakers will still work (no S/PDIF support in Windows either).
The discrete GPU's video ROM is copied to the correct RAM I/O ranges that Windows would expect.

This allows Windows to boot with the integrated graphics, Thunderbolt port, and optical audio-out ports completely invisible to it.  The CSM is invoked when an MBR partition table is detected on the hard drive (Macs also used GPT long before Windows did). And the BootCamp Assistant makes a hybrid GPT/MBR partition table for you that satisfies both Windows and macOS.

Now we get down to your situation:

Windows 10 fully supports UEFI and GPT partition tables, so it happily booted in UEFI mode and installed to your GPT-partitioned hard drive just fine.  But without the MBR partition table present (which Microsoft ONLY supports in legacy BIOS mode), the CSM did not get invoked, and therefore the hacks it provides do not get used.

Your Mac does not have a discrete GPU in it (you would've gotten no video at all if it did), but it DOES still have that GMUX and dual-channel LVDS.  Without a discrete GPU, the video ROM and memory I/O ranges map correctly for an Intel-integrated GPU, and it uses both LVDS channels.  Windows is correctly seeing an Intel-integrated GPU, but is incorrectly seeing each LVDS channel as a different screen.  Also, it has no access to audio because the GMUX never switched the speakers to the analog audio output.

Long story short, you MUST use BIOS Compatibility Support to run any version of Windows on a 2011-model MacBook Pros.  And the only way to kick the CSM into action (without the BootCamp Assistant's help) is to manually create an MBR partition table on the hard drive so the firmware sees it when you power the machine on.  And the only way to create an MBR partition table in Windows is to completely destroy the GPT table first (that's what the clean command to Diskpart does in the instructions above).

Got it?  :-)  Sorry if all that was too technical.


Can you run a 4k monitor at 30hz with a late 2011 MBA?

No, this is not possible. As Apple states, the only models capable of supporting 4k resolutions (3850x2160 UHD) at 30 or 60 Hzs are the late 2013 Mac Pros and late 2013 Macbook Pros:

  "You can use 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs with your MacBook Pro
  (Retina, Late 2013) or Mac Pro (Late 2013) computer. You can use these
  displays at the following resolutions and refresh rates with the
  built-in HDMI port

  3840 x 2160 at 30 Hz refresh rate"

In fact, this is the default configuration.

Though these two models also are capable of supporting 4k @ 60 Hz refresh, multi stream transport must be enabled on the external display.

The same applies to your Thunderbolt port. Thunderbolt 1 is not capable of driving 4K displays. Thunderbolt 2 is.


Keyboard shortcut in Finder for selecting a different custom Favorite?

You could use an application like Alfred or Automator services to assign shortcuts for opening folders:

If you want to open the folders over the current Finder window, you could use FastScripts to assign shortcuts to scripts like this:

tell application "Finder"
    reopen -- open a new file browser window if there are no open ones
    activate -- make Finder frontmost if the script was run with a global shortcut
    tell window 1
        set target to POSIX file "/Library/"
    end tell
end tell

Default Folder X allows adding custom shortcuts that work in both file dialogs and Finder.


MacBook updated to OS X Yosemite version 10.10 and experiencing problems with hard drive & iPhoto

Unsigned kexts are no longer allowed to run by default in Yosemite.

Solutions include...

upgrade to one of the [paid] NTFS apps that still work - Tuxera or Paragon
Requires you to fully uninstall NTFS-3G first
disable the Mac's kext policy - easiest way might be to install TRIM Enabler, which will do it for you [though I don't know if it would install with no SSD present, never tested]
or the long way - [this is untested, method from cindori, the makers of TRIM Enabler - it might only be for that app]
Boot your Mac in Recovery Mode by holding  ⌘ Cmd   R   during boot
Open the Terminal from the menu bar
Run these commands, replacing YourDisk with the name of your Mac disk

rm -rf /Volumes/YourDisk/System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext
cp -r /System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext /Volumes/YourDisk/System/Library/Extensions/IOAHCIFamily.kext
touch /Volumes/YourDisk/System/Library/Extensions
kextcache -u /Volumes/YourDisk

Wait until it finishes (can take up to 1 min)


Is there any way to use a 2011 iMac as a monitor for a non-Thunderbolt PC?

Sorry, no. There are some PCs and motherboards coming out now that support Thunderbolt, but because of how Thunderbolt works, it's not something that can be added on later to something that didn't initially support it.


Preventing Chrome from signing me out from Gmail when browsing in icognito

If I'm correct, using incognito mode means it doesn't save cookies or other caching method to keep you signed in on your device.


The operation couldn’t be completed. (MCMailErrorDomain error 1045.)

I had the same problem in Mail / OS X 10.10.2.

After long searches for an answer, I solved the problem simply inserting again my passoword for the SMTP account.

Even though the stored password was correct, it didn't work until I inserted again the password. Go figure why it didn't work before !!


Why is Mac OSX temp. directory in weird path

The reason for having these folders instead of a more simple /tmp that you might know from other systems is to prevent a number of security issues. Mainly some programs create files/folders/pipes in /tmp that could be used to exploit that program or user data. Therefore these programs need to ensure that the file permissions on those files are such that other user's programs cannot access them.

The problem is that this is sometimes forgotten or ignored, and this creates security holes. This is not only the case on macOS, but also on Linux that you mention as your comparison. There exist similar solutions on Linux to this problem, but contrary to macOS, they're usually not installed by default on a home user setup. On Linux these solutions are known as "polyinstantiated /tmp directory" and "PrivateTmp".

The solution on macOS is to have a seperate temporary files folder for each user. This way one user cannot interfere with other user's temporary folders (due to name clashes or intentionally).

The placement in /var/folders is most probably just to keep it away from /Users, which would otherwise be a logical place to store something for each user. The reasoning is that this folder contains things that are temporary of nature, and therefore you do not want it in /Users, which could be a network share on a server, and most probably included in backups, etc.

The odd name "k7jkgy2s3_99p4vhlbx3" you see is actually just generated from the unix uid (user id, 32-bit) and the users uuid (universally unique identifier, 128-bit). Those two are concatenated and then converted into a file name by mapping each set of 5 bits to a character from the set '0123456789_bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz'. This makes it harder for programs to intentionally opening up file paths for other users, as they would need to know this name in advance.

The folders "pd" and "zz" that you call TLDs are simply the first two characters of the above mentioned encoding. The idea is that if you have a large corporate system then you wouldn't want to have thousands of folders (one for each user) inside the same folder. Instead you have fewer folders that are combinations of two characters (like pd, zz, bc, etc.) - and in each of those you then have for example hundreds of folders for those users.

The folders below that again, "C, T, 0" are just identifiers to specify that the contents of those folders are "caches", "temporary files" and "user files" accordingly.


how do i stop the predictive typing suggestions

Prediction and autocorrect are two different features. What you are describing is autocorrect. You can disable autocorrect by following:

Settings > General > Keyboard > Toggle Auto Correction off.

The issue you are describing however sounds like it stems from you accidentally entering a password into a plain text field which has been added to the autocorrect dictionary. You might try resetting the dictionary first to see if it resolves your problem:

Settings > General > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary.


How can I reset Safari when Safari is broken?

One of the very first things to try when Safari is "behaving poorly" is to launch it in Safe Mode.

Quit out of Safari then just hold down ⇧ Shift while you launch it. That turns off all third party extensions and often lets you do some cleanup when you have stuff installed in Safari that is resistant to being turned off.


Using a touchscreen (ipad) without fine motor skills

ios has several accessibility features that might help you and your wife get the most from the iPad. I would start with touch accommodations, switch control, and assistive touch based on my understanding of where your  challenges and abilities are today.

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/
https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/mobility/


You can daisy chain up to 6 Thunderbolt devices from a single port, so you can connect the display via an adapter to that without any problems.


Can I make an iTunes playlist comprised solely of songs that lack iTunes genius information?

I'll answer that it's not currently possible in hopes that someone can answer this and prove I'm wrong on this.


How to clear Trash after deleting old user profiles on macOS Catalina?

I had a similar problem. I have an iMac running Catalina 10.15.7 but I think my solution will work for any recent OSX version.
Basically, I had an unwanted user folder inside my Users folder but this user didn't appear in the System Preferences > Users & Groups menu and so, it appeared that I couldn't delete it from there.
If that's the problem you face then, go to the Users & Groups menu, authenticate yourself (click on the padlock and enter your credentials), then click on the '+' to add a new user. Give this user exactly the same name as the unwanted user you want to delete.  The new user will be created in Users & Groups.  Now click on the '-' to remove that user. You will see a dialogue box asking you to choose from 4 options. The one you want is 'Remove the user's home folder from the computer'. Click OK and you'll find the unwanted user folder inside your Users folder is no longer there.
You can find more instructions on this here : Delete a user or group on Mac - Apple Support
But, unfortunately, I only discovered the above solution AFTER I'd made the mistake of dragging the unwanted user folder to the trash. Once the unwanted user is in the trash, there appears to be nothing you can do to remove it by any of the normal means - if you try to empty the trash, you get a system message advising that 'Voice Trigger' is in use and another that says 'Library' is in use.  I tried dragging it back to the Users folder and my desktop and it just created a copy and left the original in the trash; I tried the 'delete immediately' option; I changed the permissions on the folder to allow an Administrator to read & write (and hopefully delete - but that didn't work); I tried a number of Terminal commands; I tried installing an app called iTrash that forces deletion of 'stuck' items; I revealed the hidden files / folders in my own User folder (using cmd-shift-dot) and found the 'bin' folder with the unwanted user inside - I opened that and found the culprit 'voice trigger' folder. I tried setting the permissions on that to Admin read & write but even that didn't work; I tried booting into safe mode and seeing if I could delete from there but that didn't work either. Nothing seemed to work.
The solution
So, here's what I did. I have a bootable clone of my hard drive on an external drive as insurance (made with Carbon Copy Cloner). I plugged that drive in and set it as the startup disk (System preferences > Startup disk) and rebooted. Once the mac had booted off the external drive, you can see the internal MacintoshHD drive in the left panel of the finder window in the usual place. I opened the MacintoshHD and navigated to my own User folder and use cmd-shift-dot to display the hidden files and folders therein. I found the .Trash folder and inside it was the rogue unwanted user folder I had been trying to delete. Only this time, as I'd booted off of the external drive, the unwanted user folder wasn't in use by  anything so I was able to drag it to the trash (ie the trash can in the dock) - and was able to empty the trash in the normal way.
I switched the start up drive back to the MacintoshHD and rebooted and voila - the rogue unwanted user folder had gone from the trash.
Hope this helps someone.


Try

chflags hidden "/Volumes/RamDisk"

And restart your finder with

killall Finder