iMac line-in for Microphone is not powered!

Means you can not use a standard microphone.

It has to be one with power-source build in to the microphone.

In your case there are 3 choices.

Buy a line-in microphone with preamp.

Get a USB type Microphone (headset)

Cost reducing alternative:
If you have a Bluetooth headset for your phone (which you should if you making phone calls in the car), you can use it it 2.


I just installed a 240GB SSD in my 2017 MacBook Air, and it will not connect to the internet over my Wifi.

Honestly it sounds like the system never gets far enough to enter internet recovery mode. A sign that there is likely a hardware issue. There are a lot of possibilities but a few spring to mind.

New SSD not seated properly or something got in the connector
Bad new ssd
System damaged when the replacement was done
Incompatible SSD

First I would take the new SSD out, blow the contacts clean with canned air and closely examine the connectors on both ends. Then replace it carefully, making sure everything is seated properly and try again.

I would verify that what you got is what you ordered and that it is indeed compatible with your system. Please include the make/model of SSD in your question. We may be able to help make that determination.

Put the old drive back in and verify it works, if so -sigh of relief- you didn't brick your Mac. If your replacement SSD came with an external USB case you could put it in the case and plug it into the Mac and verify it works. If it doesn't, return it. If it does, call the vendor's tech support. Tell them the symptoms and see what they can do. Possibly replace it, maybe with a different model.


If you're running antivirus software, you may wish to try disabling it and downloading your updates from the App Store again. If that doesn't work, try downloading the combo update from here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1760

You may find that this works where downloading from the App Store fails.


I don't know the first thing about what the UK Data Protection Act covers, but you can clearly see in the iCloud and Mail, Contacts, Calendars settings that you can slide off Mail yet still slide on the other categories of data.

Contacts (addresses), Calendars, Reminders, Notes.

If it's OK to store that sort of information, then your consultant can continue to use Mobile Me / iCloud to put that information in the cloud. Again, you are trusting them to not store actual "protected data" inside an appointment as an attachment (mail message) as well as not enable the mail slider.

You might just decide to require them to use a hosted mail and account that complies with your data storage requirements. Period, full stop. Sometimes that is the cost of doing business as a professional.

Also - you can bank fairly certainly that Apple won't change the drop dead date to finish MobileMe since it's been published for about 13 months now.

http://www.apple.com/mobileme/transition.html

All MobileMe mail will shut off on June 30th, 2012 - presumably pacific time in the US.


How to stop decryption of external drive

The first thing I would do is open Spotlight system preferences and disable indexing of the external drive. It is a privacy setting.

Next, disconnect from the Internet and restart the Mac with the external drive connected. You might need to free up 5 or 10 GB of space to let things have enough room to sort out the decryption.

There isn't an abort that I'm aware of, but you can use diskutil cs list to get a reading on the encryption / decryption progress and plan if you want to let it run or if you'll need to take the external drive to another Mac to let it finish.

If you have a second USB drive, you could install a clean OS onto that drive and hold option. Boot to the empty/vanilla OS on the USB drive and let the external decryption complete.


Procedure to Upgrade SSD without borking-up MS-Office License

Don’t think so. I’m guessing MS makes a signature of your h/w. If you replace or add parts, your changing the signature. Hence the problems.

You should be able to reactivate your license.


It's not clear whether this is a recent change in behaviour, or whether you've had this issue for a while. However, QLColorCode hasn't been updated in a long time and my understanding is that it's started to show signs of its age in recent times, with issues such as conflicting with other QuickLook plugins.

For example, with QLColorCode installed the QLStephen.qlgenerator is not showing text for various text files (instead just showing the typical preview info).

However, some additional things that may be worth trying include:

moving the plugin to a new location, rebooting your MBP, moving the plugin back again, and then rebooting again (or use the qlmanage -r command)
uninstalling the plugin (by dragging it into trash), rebooting, reinstalling it from scratch, rebooting again (or use the qlmanage -r command)
boot your MBP into Safe Mode and then exit by restarting normally
trying the qlmanage -r cache command multiple times

If none of the above suggestions work, then you could try this alternative instead: QLColorCode-extra.

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with QLColorCode-extra.


How to Set, Use iOS 10.2 Parental Controls on iPhone 7 Plus

What exactly do you want to restrict?

You can restrict apps:

Settings > General > Restrictions > Select app.

You can restrict websites, content:

Settings > General > Restrictions > Allowed content.

You can set a Password:

Settings > Touch ID & Passcode.

Or you can use third part apps that block specific content and apps.


Professional Data Recovery solution: what to use?

If you think you might be able to afford professional data recovery, and that is a path you want to try later, then I would advise doing that sooner rather than later as the chance of data recovery diminishes over time.

If you're sure you do not want to go with professional data recovery, but rather want to try do it yourself, I would strongly advice that you stop your attempts with file system repairs, mounts, etc. right away. These tend to do more harm than good. Instead the best way to proceed is to take a copy of the disk and only work on that copy - never touch the original hardware.

In order to take the copy, I would recommend using the program "ddrescue". First install Home Brew, and then run this command in the Terminal:

brew install ddrescue

The ddrescue program allows you to take a bit-for-bit copy of the drive. Compared to ordinary dd, the ddrescue program can skip unreadable sections of the drive, and it is possible to do multiple attempts at reading problematic parts of the drive.

Familiarize yourself with the documentation here:

https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/manual/ddrescue_manual.html

You can find the device name of the disk in Disk Utility. For example it might be /dev/disk2. First ensure that all partitions on the drive are unmounted.

Then the ddrescue command to copy the disk could look something like this for doing maximum of 3 retries on each read:

ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/rdisk2 mydiskimage mydiskmap

Make sure that you have enough disk space on the location where you want to save the "mydiskimage" file.

Now that you have the copy of the disk, you can use various disk recovery / forensics tools to try getting your data back.

In regards to your question about the hardware needed to do professional data recovery yourself: Even though I can confirm that it is done by humans, it is not something the ordinary home user can do themselves. It requires special training as well as special hardware and environment. In theory it is of course possible to arrange for that yourself, but building your own clean room, buying microscopes, etc. is going to cost you a lot more than the professional data recovery company charges for their services.


Disable Apple's two-factor authentication nag

Even if you don't want to set up 2FA, choose the Continue button from the top of the iCloud pane, then you can choose the "not now" option and the warning will disappear.


Aparently it does work if I use the 'root' account, don't know if that's even The Right Way™, but it suffices for now.


Using “old” 5W iPhone 5 Power adapter to charge a new iPhone XR

I would like to know if it is safe to use an “old” 5W Power Adapter (charging brick) from an iPhone 5 to charge my new iPhone XR.

Yes.

  Is it necessary to purchase a new charging brick?

No.

  Could the “old” charging brick damage my new phone (since it is too old)?

No. As it is working fine with an iPhone 5, it will be fine to use it with iPhone XR.

So, yes, it will be fine using the old power adapter from your iPhone 5 to charge your iPhone XR.


Checklist and tools for confirming a Macbook is working correctly

You should be able to use Apple Hardware Test and selecting the More Info button from the Apple menu > About This Mac to get all the info you need.


How do I make Evernote always paste in the matching font?

What you want can be achieved using Paste and Match Style

Edit > Paste and Match Style

Keyboard shortcut shift+⌘+V

This will paste in your clipboard content matching the current style of text in your note.


Logitech Webcam HD C270 not properly recognized by macOS

Many Logitech webcams have only the bare minimum support on Mac. From their descriptions…

  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  Compatible with:
  Windows® 10 or later, Windows 8, Windows 7

  Works in USB Video Device Class (UVC) mode with supported video-calling clients:
   macOS 10.10 or later

The only way I've ever been able to leverage any better behaviour from mine was to get WebCam Settings available from the App Store at $8. There's no free trial, so you'd have to take a punt, but the C270 is listed as supported.

From comments - apparently Logitech do now make software for Mac support.
The C270 can use the Camera Settings app.
My older C920 has a beta Logitech Capture

You are probably best going through from the front page for your own camera if it's not one of these, to see what's specifically on offer.


Under System Preferences >  Users & Groups >  Login Items   Find iTunesHelper and remove it from the list of items that will open when you log in, this is the daemon that runs in the background checking for iOS devices connected.

If you want to disable it for only one device instead of one user, connect the device, open iTunes and uncheck "Automatically sync when device is connected".

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3927

For iPhoto I believe you can have another application open when connecting digital camera, not sure if it can be disabled.  Its a setting in iPhoto preferences, under General.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2500?viewlocale=en_US


You can achieve this with Keyboard Maestro, or probably an alternative.

Disable Caps Lock in System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard > Modifier Keys

Create a Keyboard Maestro macro that is triggered by "This device key:" and set it to trigger when the Caps Lock key is released.
Add whatever action you want to remap it to—if I understand your question correctly, you'd want to add "Type Modifiers" and set it to Control.


Is there a way to show the full path of a Samba share on a Finder window title?

An easier way in the GUI is to right/ctl click the top (dark grey) area of the finder window, select "Customise Toolbar" and drag in the "Path" icon.

Clicking this with the desired folder highlighted will give the path.

You could then drag the folder / share into the list on the left to save as a bookmark and right/ctl click it to rename to something more meaningful to you. Thus not having to worry about the path in the future.

Another quick way to find the path is to drag the folder into a terminal window which will populate it with the mounted path.


How often should I use the battery on my MacBook (which I exclusively use as desktop)?

Taken from https://web.archive.org/web/20110521104819/http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

  Standard Maintenance
  For proper maintenance of a lithium-based
  battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving
  occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged
  in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her
  notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This
  keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a
  desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel,
  Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once
  per month. Need a reminder? Add an event to your desktop’s iCal. When
  your battery no longer holds sufficient charge to meet your needs, you
  may choose to replace it. If your notebook came with a built-in
  battery, you should have the battery replaced only by an Apple
  Authorized Service Provider.


It's generally upto you to keep a watch for any suspicious activity on your Mac to detect presence of a malware or virus. If you are tech savvy and follow news around Apple, you should be able to hear about any newly discovered threat. Apple software engineering team is quite prompt and quickly releases patches fixing any newly uncovered serious iOS and macOS threats.

It is highly recommended to always keep your OS up to date.


You can go to System Preferences → General and tick "Close windows when quitting an application".

When ticked, open tabs will not be restored when you re-open Safari and therefore not "build up". So just shut down Safari from time to time (cmd + q).


Root user able to access FileVault 2 encrypted drive

Once you've logged in using one of the users set up for FV2, the unencrypted data is available to all users on the computer. All of them: root, admins, regular users, and non-login users like _www or _spotlight.

If you make the disk available to another computer, either by physically moving it or using target disk mode, then no one on the other computer, not even root, can access the data.


Keyboard shortcut within Mission Control for choosing a specific application window?

If you REALLY use Mission Control a lot there IS a workaround that must be configured individually:

[EDIT:] I wrote an "elaborate" Karabiner Elements script (json); it's linked at the bottom of this post.

The very commendable 3rd party software "Karabiner Elements" (interim version) allows to simulate mouse movements in a "general" way, meaning: no exact positioning to screen coordinates, but just movements to left/right/bottom/top (or combinations of these).

Moreover its "mouse moves" depend on your System-Preferences' mouse velocity settings.
But still, if you invest a little time for finding ideal values for your own mouse, you'll be rewarded by a shortcut "script" that allows to (e.g.:) move between visible apps' windows through arrow-key-directing.

A typical code particle looks like this:
{"mouse_key": {"x": 3072} which moves a mouse cursor "fast" to right, "y" values moving up/down ("3072" = max. value; depending on your mouse settings one click would "call" this code several times).

Here arrow keys move cursor, return/enter take a selected window back to your space.

An over-simplified "script" would look like this:

{"title": "Mission control, navigation",
 "rules":[
            {"description": "Mission control, navigation",
             "manipulators": [
                   { "from": { "key_code": "right_arrow"},
                       "to": [ {"mouse_key": {"x": 3072}} ] },
                   { "from": { "key_code": "left_arrow"},
                       "to": [ {"mouse_key": {"x": -3072}} ] },
                   { "from": { "key_code": "down_arrow"},
                       "to": [ {"mouse_key": {"y": 3072}} ] },
                   { "from": { "key_code": "up_arrow"},
                       "to": [ {"mouse_key": {"y": -3072}} ] },
                   { "from": { "key_code": "return_or_enter"},
                       "to": [ {"pointing_button": "button1"] },
                     "type": "basic"     } ]
}        ]  }

As mentioned: this code lacks essential ingredients, is even dangerous:
E.g., in every app you use a "return" or "enter" would be replaced by a mouse click!

So firstly: it is NOT restricted to the "Mission Control" view; reason is: there is no actual app to aim at! … MC's "frontmost_application" is the top one in "normal" view, e.g. Finder or Safari.
This MUST be handled by calling "mandatory" modifiers (I recommend/use: Control & Shift).

Next: above, you have to keep arrow keys pressed while the cursor "rolls" across your screen.
This is improved by making "multiple" (= farther) "jumps" in one key press AND preventing key repetitions.
About 4 to 8 "moves" (= times "arrow" pressed) to get from one end of your screen to the other seems practical to me; the return key will select an app's window and "go back".

I installed a much more elaborated code version on my MacBook-Air – and it works quite nicely.
Maybe, if somebody's interested, I'll post a json file here, once I optimised  all facets of it …
Here is my code for a "realistic" mouse jump behaviour:

https://gist.github.com/clemsam/ef03ed5127fd9783267b60065c70fc17


Does iOS 4.2 improve performance on the iPhone 3G?

From the iLounge article

  Thus far iOS 4.2 appears to perform as
  well as iOS 4.1 did under similar
  conditions. Performance even on older
  devices such as the iPhone 3G is the
  same as iOS 4.1 and thus far we
  haven’t observed any significant
  changes in battery life.


Where does Server.app log upgrade errors?

You may be able to find more information regarding OS X Server migration and upgrade errors in the file:/Library/Logs/ServerSetup.log


iTunes Gift Cards will only work in the same country they were bought in.

  iTunes Gift Cards are not available in Luxembourg, Portugal, or Greece. Gift recipient must have or open an iTunes Store account in the same country as purchaser to redeem gift. The iTunes Store is available only to persons age 13 or older in the U.S. and many other countries; see http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww for a list of countries. Requires iTunes 6.0 or later (7.0 or later for video), compatible hardware and software, and Internet access (fees may apply). Terms apply. See http://www.apple.com/itunes/store for more information.

Of course, if you buy a card for yourself, you’re both the purchaser and the recipient. So only buy iTunes Gift Cards in countries where you have an iTunes Store account.


not using Apple Mail, but using Calendar

In short, you don't. Calendar needs mail to send and receive appointments.

Have you tried simply telling Calendar to not use Mail for automatically retrieving CalDAV appointment requests via Mail?

Wanting to use Calendar for OS X implies you must use Apple's Mail for CalDAV appointment invitations as things stand today on Mountain Lion. You could either forego the Mail integration or select another Calendar like Fantastical or BusyCal.


Homebrew: can't remove 'keg-only' OpenSSL application

As of Homebrew f4d2141 there is a --force option.

brew cleanup --force openssl

References: man brew


Have you looked at this script?

Download 27: Take Picture v1.0
This action will cause the Photo Booth application to take a picture. Requires GUI scripting be activated.


How to get iMessages to sync across an iPhone, iPad and Mac automatically?

iOS (6 and later) combines your phone number with your Apple ID email address, which makes it possible for others to iMessage your phone number and have those Messages sync across your devices.

First, you need to make sure all your devices are on the same Apple ID.

On each iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini):

Open Settings.app
Go to "Messages" and make sure iMessage is On.
If iMessage is on, "Send & Receive" will appear below it. Tap on it.
Make note of the Apple ID at the top of the page.
Select your phone number and email address(es) that you want to sync to that device.

On each Mac: (Mountain Lion or later)

Open Messages
Click Messages -> Preferences
Click the "Accounts" tab in the top.
Select your iMessage/Apple ID account, and make sure "Enable this account" is checked.
Select your phone number and any email address(es) that you would like synced.

The most important part is that everything is consistent across all devices that are necessary.

Message History

The steps described previously will not automatically cause old iMessages to sync across all devices. However, iOS and macOS now support "Messages in iCloud": Apple Support Document. Enabling Messages in iCloud will sync historical messages across all of your devices. Make sure you are running the latest version of macOS or iOS.

To turn on Messages in iCloud on your iOS device:

Open Settings app.
Tap your Apple ID profile at the top of the list.
Select iCloud.
Enable Messages.

To enable on your Mac:

Open the Messages app.
In the menu bar, select Messages -> Preferences.
Open the iMessage tab.
Select the checkbox to Enable Messages in iCloud.

Additional Troubleshooting steps

If you are still having trouble getting new iMessages to sync across the devices try:

Disabling then re-enabling iMessage on each device that isn't being synced to.
Delete all your previous conversations: Some people have reported that they had to delete all of their conversations before things would sync up.
Make sure you have your phone number added to your Apple ID account online.


Boot the mini while holding down the Option (Alt) key. It should give you a menu where you can select the Lion Recovery partition. From there, you can reset the passwords or (if needed) reinstall the OS.


Do any current (early 2012) Macs support Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT)

There is no current implementation of this technology in the current iMac with the requisite Z68 chipset, or any other Mac. I'm not even sure that any other Macs from this (last?) year have the Z68 chipset!


Why does the font change after I paste an image in TextEdit?

I can consistently reproduce this behaviour in TextEdit.app and Notes.app on macOS Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76). This happens with any kind of image insertion (eg. clipboard, drag & drop).

I don't know how to prevent it from happening when you're appending an image to text, but maybe you'll get what you want by inserting an image into the middle of formatted text; then the before/after text preserves original formatting. One thing that worked well for me is typing a space, then tapping the left arrow ◀ key once before pasting an image.

I'll go into more detail below about what else I learned.

The font always reverts to Helvetica 12 pt after pasting an image, regardless of any settings I tried. This seems to be a hardcoded, unchangeable system default. Although I haven't yet tried using TinkerTool to change system-wide font settings.

Peeking into RTFD files

I'm not sure how to peek at the in-memory state of NSTextView but if we save the file to disk then we can inspect the content of the RTF file. We're looking for a font-size directive like \fs12 or \fs24. Actually the original RTF file format doesn't support images, so we're really talking about .rtfd (RTF Directory) bundles here.

At first I compared two files, one where no image had yet been pasted, and another where the image was pasted and then removed. Interestingly, the file contents were identical! This suggests that there is no intentional change of text format settings, and that reverting to Helvetica 12 pt is directly connected to the presence of the image.

Then I inspected a file where I had appended the same image multiple times. The same image directive occurs in repeat without any text formatting directives. In particular, \fs12 never appears in the file.

\f0\fs48 \cf0 Hello World
\fs24 {{\NeXTGraphic Pasted Graphic.png \width500 \height520 \appleattachmentpadding0 \appleembedtype0 \appleaqc}}
{{\NeXTGraphic Pasted Graphic.png \width500 \height520 \appleattachmentpadding0 \appleembedtype0 \appleaqc}}
{{\NeXTGraphic Pasted Graphic.png \width500 \height520 \appleattachmentpadding0 \appleembedtype0 \appleaqc}}

Based on this, I can quite conclusively determine that this pasting behaviour is related to in-memory handling of formatted text. In other words, this seems to be a peculiarity of Apple's implementation of NSTextView.

It seems unlikely to me that this is the behaviour that Apple's software engineers intended to create. If it was intentional, then it would be off-topic to speculate about why. But since it does appear to be a bug, instead I would direct you to Apple's page where you can write feedback for macOS.

Possible leads for future investigation

How can we directly inspect the contents of the clipboard? Is there any text formatting information associated with an image in the clipboard?

We could probably identify a smaller case to reproduce this issue by directly manipulating an NSMutableAttributedString. It's been a while since I did Mac development, but I would probably focus my attention on appendAttributedString: or insertAttributedString:atIndex:.


Strange stripes in AirPort Utility window


How to enable iCloud Photo Library on new computer without losing existing photos in iCloud

You can safely enable iCloud Photo Library. When you do that, Photos will always treat the iCloud content as canonical. It will download everything from it to the device, and if that device has additional content, it will upload that content, merging it with iCloud, so that new content will also be available to other devices as well.


The '-X' parameter to ssh instructs ssh to open an XWindow session, which is why xquartz is launched automatically.

You can ssh to a remote server without -X and interact with it on a command line, however, to forward the XWindow display needs XQuartz.

To debug the problem you are seeing you may want to:

Ensure there are no errors when you connect to the server (i.e. 'X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0')
Test other X window commands after you establish a valid connection (like xeyes or gvim)
Check the value of $DISPLAY.


Installing Linux on a MacBook Pro and waranty

Installing Linux or any other OS on your Mac does not void your warranty as provided here:

https://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/embedded-mac-warranty-row.html

The only thing you should be concerned about if anything is the fact that Apple will not provide support for Linux if you choose to install it on your Mac.

If you were to experience issues with Linux on your Mac that you suspected were hardware related, Apple can run a hardware diagnostic on the Mac even if OS X is uninstalled from it. So if you ever ran into an issue where your Mac wouldn't start up as you described in your question, Apple should be able to diagnose the issue and get you a repair provided your Mac is still covered under AppleCare.


Replace vertical line with ">" in text copied from Mail and pasted to plain-text

An OS X Service that reformats a forwarded Mail message with Markdown-style '>' quotes — https://github.com/smokris/MailToMarkdown


Fast way to select and delete all photos on an iPhone?

Click 'Select'
Move your finger from the bottom-right most photo and move your photo up to the top left of screen (so the screen starts scrolling up and selecting photos)
Here's the important step, with your other hand, tap the top left of screen (above where your finger on your other hand is). It might take a few tries but it will eventually speed all the way to the top of your photos only taking 1-2 seconds, whilst selecting all the photos along the way.

It's a little tricky, but very much worth it.


You could use Automator to filter the contacts according to that criteria. I haven't actually tried it, and I'm including a screenshot with some of the conditions I'd use just for reference. But still, this might help.


You should be able to boot without a graphics card, but that will be an easy part to find.  The Wikipedia article is quite good about processor families so you have several options there. The apple power supplies are top notch, but you might find an equivalent.

Have you considered buying a scrap Mac Pro for it's power supply? I would be hesitant to spend money if I were not sure of the provenance of the stripped Mac Pro you have. (If the Mac worked, why strip the CPU, GPU and power supply? )

Good luck with your frankentosh!


What does setting Media Kind to Audiobook do?

Jesse Hollington wrote a great guide to Audiobook handling "The Complete Guide to iTunes Books, Podcasts + iTunes U" at iLounge. Basically it comes down to separating AudioBooks from music and providing different sync and management options within iTunes.

Your sync differences are obvious, you get a different sync category enabling you to sync all or selected Audiobooks. One really interesting difference is that on iOS devices, media kind Audiobook lets you adjust playback speed. I haven't tried setting a music track to audiobook and then changing playback speed - might be useful for learning guitar tracks if pitch is maintained.


Should the S be a capital letter in the iPhone S series?

On the official Apple site it's always written with small "s".

You can also use iPhone 6 ;)


Securing Mac Server after Server Admin got fired

There's basically two things you need to do to secure your Mac from a (involuntarily) separated employee:

Secure from outside access
Change all passwords

This is an overlapping approach because neither are 100% foolproof.  However, if you remove as many of the access paths from outside the organization, whatever is missed will be covered by the changed account credentials; and vice versa.
Secure from Outside Access
It sounds like you have the Admin credentials required to change/lock out her account and from accessing the firewall.  So, what you need to check is:

iCloud and AppleID.  Get these changed right away.
Any open ports on the firewall like SSH and VNC.  You don't need a password for these as she can "tunnel" right through. (You will also want to close of Windows RDP (Remote Desktop, port 3389) since you said you had Windows servers.
Turn off SSH and VNC on the Mac Mini for the time being until you can get everything locked down
Remote control software should be removed/disabled (TeamViewer, GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, etc)

Change all Passwords
This one comes down to how "malicious" you think this person is or can be.  You disabled her password, but did she have other accounts or know other people's passwords?
I run into this scenario all the time, small business customers tend to do things that larger organizations have policies against.  For example, someone may be having an issue with their device and instead of remoting in, they will bring their laptop and when asked for the password by the Computer Admin, the user will write it down.
It happens because there is a higher level of trust in a smaller organization.  It's usually not a problem until you have to fire the Computer Admin.  That's just one example.
If you believe the person is malicious enough to do something, have all passwords changed.
Finally, as someone who does this for a living, I can't tell you how important it is to hire an outside consultant who can help mitigate these risks for you.  This is a 3rd party, impartial person (company) who has a financial stake in securing your IT assets will (and should) have the same access as your admin(s).  This way, should something happen, there is a person you can call that is familiar with your network and has the expertise to keep you running.
Best of all, a signed contract (SLA - Service Level Agreement) between you and a vendor is a wonderful thing for end user;  they hold up very well in court.


Word:mac 2011 preserve table formatting on copy-paste

Go to:

Word → Preferences → Edit → Settings  (under cut and paste options use smart cut and paste)
Remove the check mark on "Adjust table formatting and alignment on paste".

Now try copy-paste of a table. It works.


Can I damage an iPhone if I use a 24 watt (5volt) charger?

The 6/6S can take advantage of up to 1.6 amps if the USB adapter can supply it. Using a higher capacity adapter will not hurt the phone, but won't help either. An iPad adapter is 2.2 amps, the iPhone "cube" is 1 amp. So an iPad adapter will charge an iPhone 6 or 6S series slightly faster. Not true for the 5 and earlier, which will only use 1 amp regardless of what is available.


What is the function of `Library/Application Support/updater_mcy/updater_mcy` file?

Virustotal thinks it's ad-ware, based on the name alone.

You can double-check by uploading the file independently to them & see if it agrees.


TCP Congestion Control Algorithm of OSX10.7

This Stack Overflow question should help: How to load a different congestion control algorithm in Mac OS X?

  The LEDBAT congestion control algorithm is built into OSX Lion
  (10.7.X) and does not need to be compiled separately. I don't think it
  would be possible to use LEDBAT in an earlier version of OSX without
  alot of work. LEDBAT provides for 'background' transfers and may be
  selected on a socket by setting the following socket option -
  setsocketopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, O_TRAFFIC_CLASS, SO_TC_BK,
  sizeof(int)). It also seems that the socket's traffic class may
  affected by the DSCP value in the IP header.

  Additionally OSX has had the facility to load kernel modules for other
  network protocols for some time using their Network Kernel Extensions
  (NKE) - for example there is an NKE module that has been developed for
  the SCTP protocol.

Alternatively, another related question might be useful: How do you set the TCP congestion control algorithm on OS X?

  According to
  http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-03/mac_os_x_network_tuning_guide
  you can actually modify the algorthims used by Mac OS X by using the
  sysctl command, but you cannot use anything but the New Reno algorithm


I had the same problem right now. I then found the Atom windows reduced to a pixel-thin line at the bottom left of the screen. I could expand them from there.


You're looking at the very first stickers and logos introduced by Apple Inc in 1975.
The font-face used here is called Motter Tektura and the WikiPedia info can be found here.

The logo itself is not a misprint, but as you can see on this image can be removed from the foil with a result a nice Apple (which is still used by Apple).

ps. can I have one? :-)


Did you visited the iCloud Backup Restore Troubleshoot Site provided by Apple? If so, which steps did you already tried?

This may also help you. The site is describing how to restore your iOS Device from an iCloud Backup.


MacBook HD "Other" all of a sudden almost full

Not sure whether you've already found this, but there are a number of other people having the same issue on the Apple Discussion Groups. There seems to be quite a lot of good information in that thread so I recommend reading it through, but the consensus seems to be that its hidden local backups/snapshots that's causing it.

A few people also used DaisyDisk to find, then delete, hidden space on the hard disk.


How to "chroot" a terminal inside a DMG?

Indeed what I wanted to do is over complicated. A VM is a better option.


Mac ssh terminal set echo on after connection

The easiest transition is probably to just install Putty for Mac. This way you'll be using the program you're already used to with the local echo functionality you want.

You can install Putty for Mac from Homebrew. First install HomeBrew, then run:

brew install putty

to install putty.


No new mail notification at apple mail dock icon when rules apply

Mail does only look at one or all mailboxes for the count, it is set in Mail->Preferences->General, the field "Doc unread count"

You can make it look at a more complex setup by using Smart mailboxes.

In this case I would create a new Smart mailbox say Counter which would contain rules for any of Mailbox is Inbox and the destination folder.


How can I share AppStore 1Password Pro on my MacBook?

If your ultimate aim is to have access to 1Password and all your stored passwords, serial numbers, etc on both your iPhone and your Mac, you need to install 1Password on both devices.

Assuming you've done that, you have a number of options, but since you're wanting to use Dropbox then do as follows:

On your iPhone

Make sure you have synced your 1Password data to Dropbox. To do this:

Launch 1Password on your iPhone
Tap on the Settings icon at bottom right
Go to Vaults > Primary > Sync Service
Tap on Sync with Dropbox
Follow the prompts to finish the process

On your MacBook

Do as follows:

Start from scratch and install 1Password on your MacBook again (i.e. If it's already installed, delete it and then download/install it again)
Launch 1Password
Now, when it launches the first time you should see a screen similar to the one below:

Select the Sync using Dropbox option
Click on the Choose File... button
Navigate to Dropbox and select the 1Password data file (it'll have either a .agilekeychain or .opvault file extension)
Follow the prompts to finish the process

NOTES:

As mentioned above there are a number of ways you can sync data between iOS and macOS. If you still have problems, you may want to investigate other options (e.g. WLAN, iCloud, etc).
The AgileBits Support Forum is actively staffed, so it's a good place to go to seek direct support.


Will 27' 2560x1440 Korean IPS monitor (brand: Crossover) with DVI-D output work with MBP retina?

The problem with the high resolution is that the monitor uses a dual-link DVI-cable as it is needed to provide such a high resolution. The Dual-link cable is not a normal DVI-cable and therefore will not work as expected with a normal adapter. The adapter you have linked should suffice thou. But beware that the ad says no adapters and no Macbook, this could be a warning towards people trying to hook up a "HDMI to single-link DVI"/similar or to owners of an old Macbook. We can't know that from the information given from the ad and you should consider contacting the seller.

It can work(you can even say it should work), but looking at this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4036890?start=0&tstart=0
it's not guaranteed that it'll work.


This should work, but, as this is working with tech, you never know:

Open System Preferences.
Select Network.
Select "Wi-Fi" on the sidebar (AirPort if you're running SL or earlier).
Click "Advanced..." in the lower right.
On the Wi-Fi tab, click the plus sign beneath "Preferred Networks".
Enter the name of the network that you want to connect to.
In the security drop-down, select "Any (Enterprise)".
Log in with your username and password.
Press OK.


Unexpected payload found for message 9, dataLen 0

I have had similar issue comparing a different message code, here is Cisco's explanation of deauth reason code 9:

  9  Station requesting (re)association is not authenticated with responding station NOT SUPPORTED

From: 802.11 Association Status, 802.11 Deauth Reason codes

Not sure if that helps. Good luck.


Short answer

Please try brew cask install puppet-agent. Hiera is included.

More details

I tried installing the https://downloads.puppetlabs.com/mac/hiera-1.3.4.dmg file that the cask recipe install manually and got the following warning:

  This package is incompatible with this version of OS X and may fail to >install.

  Installing this package may damage your system, and the installation may >fail. To stop the program and the installation, click “Cancel >Installation”.

I did some googling and found that 1.3.4 is very old.

from: https://tickets.puppetlabs.com/browse/HI-533

  Hiera 1.3.4 is old (> 2 years). Much older than OSx 10.11.6. There are >later releases of hiera,"

from: https://docs.puppet.com/hiera/3.1/

  To get started with Hiera, you’ll need to do all of the following:

  Make sure it’s installed. Hiera ships with Puppet agent, so install the >puppet-agent package if you haven’t already. (Linux, Windows, OS X.)


How to check what is preventing MBP from graceful shutdown/restart and fix it? [Now with log entries]

Complementing other answers …

Observe verbose mode during restart or shut down

Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode

– if you start in verbose mode, then restart or shut down will be similarly verbose.

Hint: if things in verbose mode seem to not progress beyond a certain point, allow maybe five minutes before either:

forcing a restart (Command-Control-power); or
forcing a shutdown (press and hold the power key).

If a forced restart does not succeed, that could be another clue to the cause of the problem(s).

A related question, albeit not problem-oriented: Can anyone interpret verbose shutdown messages?

The problem-oriented case here should be easier to resolve for lupincho. Fewer tea leaves.

To start in verbose mode without keying Command-V

A preference can be stored in NVRAM. Enter the following command in Terminal, and be prepared to enter your admin password:

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

The next start of the system will be verbose.

sysdiagnose

Before each restart or shutdown, in Terminal:

sudo sysdiagnose

It's time consuming, but you need not investigate the results of all runs. Pay attention only if a problems arises.

For a case such as lupincho's:

the run of sysdiagnose may reveal a problem before a restart or shut down
the end result of sysdiagnose may be of interest following a forced restart or shut down.

More specifically: if a run of sysdiagnose fails to progress beyond a certain point, knowing that point can help to gain a sense of the underlying problem.

During the run you can use the following key combination, repeatedly, to see whether things are progressing:

Control-T

For the allmemory part of the sysdiagnose routine, Apple's two minute estimate may be wildly inaccurate. Be patient.

If you suspect that sysdiagnose fails to progress beyond a certain point, then key:

Control-C

If repeated use of Control-C fails to abort sysdiagnose, then (in my experience with Mountain Lion) it's almost certain that an attempt to restart or shut down the operating system will fail.

Shutdown monitoring

In Finder, go to:

/private/var/log/shutdown_monitor.log

This file is typically empty, but may contain items of interest following a problematic shutdown. (I have little experience in this area.)

If the only stray process at shutdown is WindowServer

It's not unusual to have stray processes at shutdown. A stray can be problematic only if it is not killed.

If you suspect that WindowServer is not killed, and that this particular stray is contributory to shutdown failure: ask yourself whether any third party software makes nonstandard use of the WindowServer process.

Quick Look of a GrabFS view of WindowServer on Mountain Lion, with two displays:

If Lion is similar, then my gut feeling is that the cause of shutdown failures lies beyond WindowServer.

Guesswork, based upon results of launchctl

Whilst the machine is running normally, what response to the following command?

sudo launchctl list | grep  --invert-match com.apple

Wonder whether any non-Apple software is contributory to the problem. Anti-virus, anti-malware software?

Following an upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion

Aim for:

/private/var/log/com.apple.launchd/launchd-shutdown.system.log

It seems the default is one log per shut down, with a maximum of two so there's also:

/private/var/log/com.apple.launchd/launchd-shutdown.system.log.1

Following any forced restart or forced shut down, you might choose to set aside a copy of the most recent of the two. If force is required on any more than one occasion, you can compare files to see whether a pattern emerges.

Generally

Don't rule out the possibility of an issue with third party software, even release quality. Little Snitch may be well written and widely respected but:

when problems such as the one in this question become extended or too puzzling, any non-Apple kernel extension deserves attention.

I tested Build 12A269 of OS X 10.8 for around two weeks before it was released, with particular attention to shut down behaviours in difficult situations. Whilst I have not watched any videos from WWDC 2012, I do have a sense that Apple has worked very hard to prevent the need for force in all but the most difficult situations.

Building upon David DelMonte's answer

At least on Mountain Lion, I see the load of Little Snitch 3.0 Preview 2 (3857) very early – before shutdown logging begins. If things relating to this KEXT are similarly late around shutdown time, then maybe an issue will be not evident in the usual log files on disk.

If ever you discover the cause of the problem – with either Lion or Mountain Lion – I'll be pleased to know.

In the meantime, with big thanks for the bounty, a closing thought:

kextstat -l | grep --invert-match com.apple


I wrote a patch for Radium to make it work on Catalina (and hopefully later macOSs as well).
https://github.com/zvonicek/radium-fix-launcher


What is this menu bar icon with three connected dots and a down arrow?

LibreOffice update icon.

Googling the image led me to MacRumours Forums

  It is the LibreOffice update dialog box that triggers this. Clicking
  that icon opens the LibreOffice update dialog box, but it does not put
  it in front of other applications. That is what is leading to
  everyone's confusion about this icon.

  To verify, I closed the update dialog, put LibreOffice in front of my
  other windows, and clicked the icon. The update dialog appears again.


Where that icon on my OS X menu bar comes from?

I don't recognize the icon, but I may have a way to find out which app it belongs to.

Bartender is an app that organises the menu bar apps, but can also show which apps are already there.
It's a paid app, but you can install the trial, find the mystery app, then uninstall Bartender.

A screenshot from an installation of mine.

Tip: If you just want to remove the icon you may be able to ⌘-drag it away from the menubar, but for that to work the app needs to be an Apple built-in app or use the same menu bar hooks.


SMS messaging when tethered to phone in Yosemite, not just iMessages

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-send-sms-texts-in-yosemite-3582821/

Follow the link above it worked for me. All the best.

Make sure you are signed in to iCloud on both your iOS device and Mac using the same Apple ID.


User folder icons replaced by generic folder icons after 10.9 upgrade

Fix:

Restore the default icons
1. Go to the info view of each folder.
2. Click at the icon in the top left corner
3. Reset the icon via Command ⌘+X

Workaround:
You can copy a folder icon to another folder.

There is a solution to bring the folder icons back:
1. Create a new user
2. Go to the user folder of the new user
3. Select the Documents folder
4. Create a new folder with on an USB stick or at some location that can be accessed from both users (You can also create the folder in /Macintosh HD or however your OS X installation partition is named)
5. Open the Info view of the Documents folder (via Command ⌘+I or via File -> Get Info)
6. Open the Info view of the folder you created
7. Tap on the folder icon displayed in the top left corner, left to the Folder name (It should be surrounded by a blue line)
8. Copy the icon via Command ⌘+C
9. Tap on the folder icon in the Info view of the folder you created and place the icon there via Command ⌘+V
10. Do these steps for all folders in the users directory that have lost their icon
11. Switch back to the user with the missing icons and paste the icons of the folders you created into the folders inside the users directory

I hope that I explained these steps well enough. If you have any questions, just write a comment under this answer

Please notice, that if the folder icons get changed in future versions of OS X (like in Yosemite), you will have to go through these steps again in order to get the new icons


(Airpods) Very poor connection/choppy quality between Airpods and Macbook

Thank you for providing more information.
Out of the BT profile we can see that your RSSI signal strength is low (borderline low).

About RSSI, it is used to measure the BT signal strength (also WiFi).
It is bit confusing since the values are invert. means the lower the number the better the signal.

As of this moment it is not clear why is it 72 !

As you say you are close to your Mac so the distance should not play a role in this case.

Your RSSI should be lower than 60.

The high 72 would explain intermittent connection.

As for why is it so high, it is difficult to determine from where I stand. In most cases it is just some interference from another device, like from the WiFi which also operates at 2.4 GHz band. Try turning your Mac's WiFi off to test.

If you whish to investigate Apple provides a way to do it.

Apple provides tools to actually test your Bluetooth in real time
.
It is on the Apple Developer site, but you must register/Log in to get them. You can find it under "More Downloads for Apple Developers"

Then download the additional tools for xcode 10
That package contains the Bluetooth Explorer.app that will analyze your RSSI signal in depth.

It will look something like this

Sorry I can not help you further at this time.


How to use Character Viewer with only keyboard and no mouse?

The Character Viewer has two states, as seen below.

The complex state, that needs to be clicked first and doesn't seem to allow keyboard-only activation:

The simple state, that gets automatically activated when invoked and is a joy to work with using only the keyboard. Tab key is used to switch between emoji categories:

You can switch between the states by clicking the friendly but almost invisible icon in the top-right corner (don't know what it's called, doesn't have any tooltip).

To summarize, click the friendly icon, activate the Character Viewer, stay with the keyboard.


How can I search for photos taken at a specific time?

OK, so it turns out Aperture can do it with a Smart Album.

Date lets you specify Capture Hour of Day

EXIF lets you specify Capture Hour of Day, Capture Minute of Hour and even Capture Second of Minute

Interestingly, iPhoto honours and displays this Smart Album but will not let you edit it.

Hope that's of help.


Where does Thunderbird, on OSX, store its offline folders?

I'd say you are looking at the right place.

I've configured Thunderbird to use IMAP to sync with Gmail. In that scenario, my sent emails are located at

/Users/<username>/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<randomcharacters>.default/ImapMail/imap.googlemail.com/\[Gmail\].sbd/Sent\ Mail

This SuperUser answer has a screenshot which shows how to look up the location for a particular account:


Could not uninstall Confer application on my mac

Rebooting mac in safe mode let the confer app be moved to trash.


Speaker and camera of my MacBook Air aren't working after installing windows

Have you tried re-installing the drivers?

From Apple official page:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1836?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Facetime drivers:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1831?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Hope this helps.

Cheers.


The Time Capsule is part wireless router and part hard drive. The wireless-part is always on, and creates a constant low humming from the fans, there isn't really anything you can do about that, other than unplugging it whenever it's not needed. If it's part of a larger WiFi-network and can be spared at some hours, that might be an option.

The hard drive's fans are a bit louder because it needs more cooling. The TC is meant to be silent when the disk isn't being accessed, and it shuts down the disk automatically after 5 minutes or so (not exact) of disk inactivity.

If your TC is constantly whirring like the disk is being used, make sure it isn't! If it isn't, you could try unplugging it from the power for a few seconds and turn it on again and see if that helps. If it doesn't help, there might be an issue with the disk and it's fans, and you might want to contact Apple for technical support.

I can't think of a way to manually putting it to sleep or power down the hard drives, other than disconnecting the disk from all your computers (AirPort Utility 5.6 has a nifty button for this under Disks).


Is there a faster way or keyboard shortcut to close files without saving in Preview?

In a "Save As" window, press ⌘Delete to close the window and delete the unsaved file.

This essentially selects the "Delete" option from that "Save As" window.

Pressing Escape selects the "Cancel" option. Enter selects "Save".


Can InDesign CS6 and CC run well on Mojave 10.14.5?

You can have both CC and CS6 installed at the same time. Creative Suite works well for me on Mojave, though there are some minor interface issues.
Adobe's own website states that InDesign CC works on 10.13 and later. https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/system-requirements.html
CS6 definitely won't work on Catalina, of course. However, I'm not sure why you should need two versions of InDesign. The later one is just an updated version, which can still open old .indd documents without problem.


0% GPU Usage on iMac 2019 with Radeon Pro 560x, help!

It may well be a software bug that Activity Monitor and other tools don't report any GPU usage. Alternatively, exactly what GPU% is measuring may be not what we think. Obviously, the GPU is doing something. You may get additional information in Activity Monitor > Window > GPU History.
My 2014 MBP with an integrated graphics unit also reports 0% GPU on every process. I can just get WindowServer to report 5% by scrolling a window like mad for several seconds.
From the spec, your 2019 has only the discrete Radeon GPU (since it doesn't need to fall back to a lower-power integrated unit like a laptop). So it has to be using the GPU if you're seeing stuff on the screen.
If you're not seeing any actual problems with the display, or performance issues with 'heavy' graphics tasks, then I'd say there's nothing to worry about.
Bear in mind that a lot of common tasks are actually trivial for modern hardware these days.
"Looking at data on what the OS is doing always leads to worry about whether it's the right numbers." ;-)


Recording screen via Quick Time Player along with the sound

QuickTime alone won't capture computer audio along with a screen capture, but combined with a free utility Soundflower, you can do this.

MacWorld has a step-by-step guide, but the basic idea is to install Soundflower and set your computer audio out to Soundflower, so system sounds play to it and not to the speakers. Then in QuickTime, when you set up a new screen capture, select Soundflower as the audio source. Then you can do a screen recording and capture system audio at the same time.

Note that this is the free but messy version. Software like Screenflow does this sort of thing very well, but costs $99.


Why can't I see some of my notes from my iphone on my macbook?

It is possible you have an email account with "Notes" enabled on your iPhone, but don't have the same account set up on your Mac.

On your iPhone, in the Notes listing, tap "Accounts" in the upper left corner. Mentally review those accounts.

On your Mac, click the Navigation icon that shows two lists next to a box, and makes sure the accounts are the same.

If the accounts aren't the same, setup the missing accounts on your Mac in Mail Preferences. Also, if you have an Note "Account" on your iPhone that is named something like "On my iPhone", transfer those notes to an account that syncs. You can accomplish that by, tapping the Share icon in the note, tap "Copy", tap "Notes" to view your list of notes, tap "Accounts", tap an account that will sync to your Mac, tap the "+" icon, tap and hold, paste the note that. (Hopefully you don't have too many notes that need that action).


Fast and easy OS X app, to copy and paste and store and retrieve, code and text back fast?

You can select snippets of text and drag them to the Desktop, thus creating a Text Clipping file that you can drag back to another app.


How can I set quiet hours for OS X time announcements?

I would use applescript and iCal to schedule enabling and disabling this feature. On OSX Lion you'll need to have 2 scripts one to enable it and one to disable it.

This is the script to enable save it somewhere in your home directory I called it time_announce_on.applescript :

do shell script "defaults write ./com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs TimeAnnouncementPrefs -dict TimeAnnouncementsEnabled -bool YES"

Then in iCal setup an appointment to recur every morning at the specified time you want to enable the announcements and have the alert 'run script' and load the above script.

Then all you need to do is have the disable script which I called time_announce_off.applescript :

do shell script "defaults write ./com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs TimeAnnouncementPrefs -dict TimeAnnouncementsEnabled -bool NO"

Then setup another appointment in iCal for the time of night that you want to disable this and have it run the time_announce_off script.

I tested this in Lion 10.7.3 and it works. For 10.6 I believe you just need to remove the ./ from the beginning of the com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs (but I haven't tested this).


macOS Maps - any way to change the default starting point for navigation?

You could disable "Your Location " for Map

Then you would get this in Map ..

And have to enter the Starting and the End points


How to stream from iTunes(on iMac) to iphone/ipad on same network, at the same time?

Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil can stream to multiple computers and iOS devices (using a free iOS app). It can stream from iTunes, or from many other applications.


How to change the spell check language in Pages 5?

This is actually an OS X issue and not a Pages issue since Pages uses the system dictionaries.

You can use this support article to find the answer:

http://help.apple.com/pages/mac/5.2/#/tanf3d8c3e49

You will see that Romanian spelling dictionary isn't something that ships with 10.11 - but you can add custom dictionaries under the spell check multiple language section at the bottom of the page.

Open System Preferences on your Mac, click Keyboard, then click Text. (System Preferences is under the Apple menu at the top-left corner of your computer screen.)
Choose Set Up from the Spelling pop-up menu.
Do any of the following:

Drag the languages in the list into the order you want them checked.
Select the checkbox next to languages you want to be checked.
If you have a dictionary file you want to use, copy it to the Spelling folder in your Library folder.

The last option is what you need. You could start with a free dictionary and perhaps pay for a better one if you can't make a dictionary or locate/make a better free one.

https://github.com/dummas/Dictionaries

The panel where you get instructions to add the Romanian (or other) files looks like this:


Prevent OS X Mavericks from autoquitting applications for sleep

Go to System Preferences, choose "Security & Privacy" and click on the locker on the lower left. Insert your password and click on "Advanced" on lower right.
Uncheck "Log out after ... minutes of inactivity"


LibreOffice contains a database application, Base. There are several available Address Book templates, which you could modify.

(I note that SuperCard are blaming Apple for 'going back on their promise to release a 64-bit Carbon framework'. A 64-bit version was noticeably absent in 2007, and Apple deprecated Carbon in 2012...)


Videos not autoplaying in Safari in 10.12

There is a hidden setting in Safari that disables auto-playback of videos.

To enable auto-playback, paste the commands below in Terminal.app (CMD+Space, type "Terminal"). Quit Safari first.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool true
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool true
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool true
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool true

You may need to reboot your Mac.

To disable auto-playback in Safari use the commands below:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool false
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool false
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool false
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool false

In case this should not work, please let us know if the video-playback works with the Safari Technology Preview.


You can easily create a second iTunes library when you launch iTunes by holding Option (on a Mac) or Shift (on Windows). This allows you to specify a file name and location for the new library which you can populate with whatever media you like. When you want to switch back to your regular library, just hold down the appropriate key again when relaunching iTunes and select the original library file.


How do you stop iPhoto/Aperture launching when you sync an iPad?

Open Image Capture, connect the iPad, select it when it appears in the list on the left.  On the lower left will be a selector for what app to open when it connects, you can pick None.


If we use SoundFlower to record the system's audio output, then we can't hear it at the same time?

No. You can still hear the sound by creating a new audio device in Audio MIDI Setup. Go to the SoundFlower menu and click "Audio Setup". Audio MIDI Setup should popup up. Create a new multi-output device (click the + in the bottom left hand corner). Then set the settings as pictured below:

This will allow you to capture the system sound and still hear it through your speakers/headphones.


How to downgrade subversion to version 1.7

Whatever your underlying motivation or use case is: I personally recommended that you do not downgrade. Downgrading to Subversion 1.7 will put your Mac at risk.

Also, for technical reasons, Subversion 1.7 cannot run on El Capitan or later unless a developer is willing to spend considerable effort.

The subversion17 formula was deleted from Homebrew last month, albeit for unrelated reasons. Before it got deleted, a comment in the formula said:

  # Requires system OpenSSL headers to build. >El Capitan no longer ship them.
  # Note this means that this subversion is linked against an outdated OpenSSL
  # and really should not be considered secure.

In other words, not only is Subversion 1.7 unsafe to use on macOS; also, El Capitan or later versions of macOS cannot run 1.7 because the required header files are missing.

For the same reason, well-known Subversion download sources, e. g. WANdisco’s download page, offer Subversion 1.7 releases for OS X Yosemite or earlier but not for current macOS versions.

An alternative approach would be that you post a new question (or edit your existing one) to give more information on what your underlying motivation is.

What are you actually trying to achieve specifically with the 1.7 release?
What specific issue(s) do you anticipate, or have already encountered, using the latest release of Subversion instead, or any other version control package?


Prevent Photos, iTunes, etc. opening when new device is connected

The Photos problem could be solved by typing the following into a Terminal defaults write com.apple.Photos shouldAutoLaunch 0 and defaults write com.apple.Photos canAutoLaunch 0

You can stop iTunes from opening by going to System Preferences>Users & Groups>Login Items and remove iTunes Helper from the list.


How to get overview of keyboard shortcuts from OS X?

I find the free app CheatSheet is a great way to show what shortcuts are available, Install it and it runs in the background, then just hold the ⌘ key down for a couple of seconds without choosing an operand to get a list of all active short cuts of the current application.

CheatSheet uses the Accessibility API to read the menus of the current application, but you need to turn on support for Assistive Devices to allow this - the app shows instructions how to do it.  Because of this, it can only show the shortcuts that are obvious, and it might not show shortcuts that are not displayed via your apps menu bars, but nevertheless it's a brilliant way to learn an apps common shortcuts - once y ou have held down the key to show the list, you can then continue to type in the shortcut you want, so it doesn't need any new workflow to use it effectively, just a pause if you are not sure what you want to use.


IOS 7 - Google Calendar - Fantastical edit mode shows GMT timezone

GMT, also called UTC or Zulu time.

Is the basis time (zero) for all time zones clocks world wide.

When the Time Zone Support is turned on, the Calender will rightly so show the GMT for you to decide which time zone is to be used.

It has to do that logically, since you are on time zone support (means automatic switching the time zone) if you travel. So you have to tell it which time zone to use as fix point for that event.

Let me try to make it clearer:

You set a meeting for the Vancouver time at 8:00.
Now you travel to New York and the Calender will automatically move that time to New York time, if the time zone support is turned on, if it is not turned on you would miss that meeting reminder, since it will still show as Vancouver time.

You can either leave it on, and choose the time zone, or turn off the time zone support. If you do not travel outside your PST time zone you do not need the time zone support.

But...there is always a "but".

If you have meeting attendees from different time zones, and not always up to speed of the time differences, calling a meeting at 16:00 Vancouver time with someone in NY would mean 19:00 for them. Here is where the time zone support comes handy for you to look up.

In your Fantastical 2 you can turn it on/off here:


Conditional formatting when checkbox checked

If I think what your asking is what I think might work have you selected from the bottom of what you want to the top?


So for my issue so far I have changed the view mode on the monitors from 'Vivid' to 'sRGB' and it seems to have sorted out the monitors a fair bit.
I will still try another cable, but for now, things are looking a lot better


How do I remap a key in macOS Sierra, e.g., Right Alt to Right Control?

Apple's Technical Note TN2450 describes how to remap keys.  Running the following command will remap Right Alt to be Right Control.

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":
    [{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000e6,
      "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000e4}]
}'

Note that the above command is not switching the Right Alt and Right Control.  They will both be Right Control.  If you have a MacBook, you will not notice this until plugging in an external keyboard.  If you want to switch Right Alt and Right Control, you need to add a second switch command, like the following.

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":
    [{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000e4,
      "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000e6},
     {"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000e6,
      "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000e4}]
}'

The table at the bottom of the Technical Note has a list of hex values for each key.  To generalize the above answer to switch any keys, you must or the hex value from that list together with 0x700000000.  The following Python code demonstrates one way to do this.

In [1]: def convert(val):
   ...:     int_val = int(val, 16)
   ...:     int_ref = 0x700000000
   ...:
   ...:     return hex(int_ref | int_val)
   ...:

In [2]: r_alt = '0xE6'

In [3]: print(convert(r_alt))
0x7000000e6


Best way to run Shell commands on VirtualBox Guest

Finally got it working after about 8 hours of trying different things:

VBoxManage guestcontrol "vmname" run /bin/sh --username usr --password pass --verbose --wait-stdout --wait-stderr -- -c "echo test"

Hope this helps someone else!


On the keyboard, press ⌘, (command-comma) or go to Safari → Preferences...

Choose the General tab and set a home page in the Homepage field.


What are the downsides to using Time Machine?

Here are some of the limitations you have to accept or mitigate if you choose Time Machine:

Time machine requires an apple specific HFS+ filesystem to store backups.
The backup isn't bootable.
The backup doesn't record differences inside a file. Large (database) files with tiny changes make each incremental save longer and move more data. This also can eat up storage space faster if these type files are not excluded and potentially backed up another way if they can't be regenerated after a restore (like mail stored on IMAP servers)
It must be an external drive or an official apple network destination like TimeCapsule or Mac OS X Server to be a supported by Apple.
It will delete backups according to the official scheule ( hourly backups combine and expire after a day. Dailies expire after 31 days. Weekly backups can be deleted if there isn't enough space to contain the estimated size of the next backup.  In odd cases or if there is a bug, you could end up with all the history gone an one copy of the last backup.
The destination volume must be larger in size than the boot volume.

Once you are aware of these limitations, it's fairly easy to work around all but the first limitation with some planning and/or extra software / hardware. The HFS+ format for storage is pretty inflexible with no realistic mitigation or workarounds.


Is there a Mac keyboard shortcut to "Select Current Line"?

To select an entire line of editable text, assuming a left justified language...

If the insertion point cursor is at the beginning of the line, press:

Command–Shift–Right Arrow   ⌘⇧➡

If the insertion point cursor is at the end of the line, press:

Command–Shift–Left Arrow    ⌘⇧⬅

If the insertion point cursor is at any other part of the line, press:

Command–Left Arrow, Command–Shift–Right Arrow   ⌘⬅ ⌘⇧➡

Note that in this previous key sequence set, that you can keep the ⌘ key pressed while pressing/releasing ⬅ then press ⇧➡ so as to eliminate pressing/releasing the ⌘ key twice.

See the Document shortcuts section in Mac keyboard shortcuts.


Based upon your descriptions, it appears to be an active bug related to smart search and regular search.

On page two of that discussion, one of the posters stated the following:

  Here is what finally fixed for me. I went in mail.app (whose search
  was totally misbehaving too), and I rebuild all the mailboxes in my
  accounts. (Select all the folders, "Folder" menu, "rebuild") When this
  finished, I rebuilt my index again, restarted and... it is working
  like a charm since then!


Mac Finder: Getting the path of a directory or file as as string

Ctrl-click (or two finger click) on the file you want the path from, then press Opt and select "Copy as path name" (or what it's called in english) from the context menu.

You can also just select the file and then press Opt-Cmd-C to copy the pathname to the clipboard.


Escape character ^] not working from Mac terminal

Turns out if I hit return after Ctrl+] it works.


Is there a limit to the number of USB and Serial to USB devices my Macbook Pro can connect?

No, but if you connect too many devices through USB hubs, but, as @patrix mentioned, you might experience slower data transfer rates and delays.


Deleting (intrusive?) Facebook files ok?

While I am not aware of the insides in detail, but I can comment(answer) on some.
/System/iOSSupport/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/FacebookSettings.axbundle
/System/iOSSupport/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/FacebookSettings.axbundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookSettings

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.duozy.com/article/44379.html&prev=search

http://yesanotheriphoneblog.blogspot.com/p/apple-apps-removal-list-60.html
indicate that these should be deleted from an iPhone after jailbreaking or otherwise to delete Facebook app from the iPhone. No comment on macOS there. However, I don't even have this(FacebookSettings.axbundle) on my Mac and never had FB on iPhone either.

/System/Library/Accounts/Access/FacebookAccessPlugin.bundle
/System/Library/Accounts/Access/FacebookAccessPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookAccessPlugin

https://opensource.apple.com/source/kext_tools/kext_tools-326.1.12/systempaths.plist.auto.html
lists them for some reason.

All the tiff, png, icns files are just images and icons and I wouldn't mind them sitting where they are.
For the news one, it's a JavaScript file and it can be worth reading, if it's readable, to see what it has.
For the last two of Firefox, I routinely delete the Profiles folder every time YouTube's suggestions become obsolete or one sided. So you can delete that folder using Finder (yay!) and see if it comes up again. It could be a good thing to save to protect you from tracking!


uptime: /dev/ttys003: No such file or directory

Terminals are numbered sequentially. The first terminal opened was 000, so I opened 3 more so that the 003 number would be used. I closed all extra terminals and uptime worked without error again.


Is there a way to play 5.1 surround via Apple TV?

Yes. The Apple TV can pass through 5.1 AC-3 to a receiver if you set up the file correctly. Apple has the full details in a knowledge base article, but basically you need to set up your mp4/m4v file with a stereo AAC as the default audio track, then put your AC-3 track after it, disabled. On the Apple TV, you need to enable it by turning on Dolby Digital Out in the Audio Settings.


How to change lower case am/pm on the menu bar to uppercase?

Since my system is german, I'm not 100% sure, but try this:

go to 'Language & Region' in the System Preferences

open 'Advanced Options'

go to tab 'Time' and see if you can customize the way it's displayed


Homebrew mutt(1) file permission weirdness

Ok, I still don't know what's going on with the .mbox thing.  I suspect that's a mutt/mail config issue of some sort.

BUT... I have a solution for the inability to write /var/mail/username.

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100609140550467

dseditgroup -o edit -u john -p -a john -t user mail
dseditgroup -o edit -u john -p -a conrad -t user mail

(john is the admin user)

I added both users in question to the mail group and now both users can use mutt (no command-line arguments) to read their mail spool.

(As an expedient hack to get rid of the visual flag/error message for .mbox, I did:

touch ~/.mbox
chmod go-rwx ~/.mbox

)


Can I gift a song from the iPhone iTunes app?

Gifting only works from iTunes on a computer.

Perhaps it could be added if enough people ask to spend money that way.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

You can also gift from store apps with iOS 6.


Export album as set of sequentially-named images to a folder

If you select all the photos that you want to export, you can go to File -> Export. You can then chose to export the original files or compress versions. In either case, you can choose to have the exported files keep their original file names, or just be pure sequential (1.jpeg, 2.jpeg, 3.jpeg, etc), optionally starting with a prefix of your choice.


I'm not sure about if you can just copy over. Why is your user folder on a separate drive?? Anyway. I do have another suggestion. I got an ssd drive to use for my main drive, cause it's like ten times faster. I then ordered this thing that is basically the same shape as a cd Rom drive, but it holds a laptop hard drive. I removed the cd Rom drive and replaced it with that, which holds a terabyte drive. I partitioned it in half. 500gb is for my time machine backup, and the other 500gb is for extra storage. Or "external", without being external. I don't use DVD or cd's anymore, so it made sense to me. Good luck.


Upgraded to Lion: Time Machine spends a LOT of time indexing backup

From your situation, it's hard to tell if this is normal or if the process is somehow stuck.

You can monitor what is happening from the Time Machine system preference while the backups are taking longer than expected.

For more detail - fire up the Console.app and type backupd in the String Matching / filter control. You might be able to determine if the process is taking a lot of time deleting old backups or something else. You'll also see the timing and the volume of data that might help if you are having slower transfer over the network than before.

Good luck hunting down a cause...

[Edit - responding to additional details on the mount aborting - index failing to get ready.]

OK - this likely won't fix itself. It's always nice to follow the recommended systematic steps to troubleshoot time machine, but I might start first with a verify pass of your existing backup files.

To verify, hold the option key and click your Time Machine icon in the menu bar - the verify process should get you a more concrete error you can understand or it might just fix the issue altogether. Your mac is timing out waiting for a preliminary steo to finish and it's not clear why.


iOS Siri: How to add multiple items to Reminders?

Siri can perform only one action at a time.

So to add five different items to a shopping list you need to activate Siri five times. The same is true for other actions like “wake me up at 6 and set a timer for five minutes”.


Using a virtual disk in VMware you can avoid dedicating space to Windows 7 that is just free space, unlike a dual-boot where you'd have to allocate a partition that has all the free space you will ever need.  (Probably true with other VM solutions, but I don't know.)  While a VMware virtual disk does not auto-shrink, it starts out small (on the host disk) and only grows as needed.  So that would be the smallest storage solution.

I would not expect USB 2.0 to perform well enough to run a Windows VM off of it, but I never tried.  Firewire would be OK.


Actually the answer to your specific question is no. Apple will support some (limited) domains (Messaging, Lists, and Notes). Music streaming is not one of them.

SiriKit on HomePod
With the intelligence of Siri, users control HomePod through natural voice interaction and can conveniently access iOS apps that support SiriKit Messaging, Lists, and Notes. Siri recognizes SiriKit requests made on HomePod and sends those requests to the user’s iOS device for processing. To prepare your app, make sure that your SiriKit integration is up to date and that you’ve adopted all of the appropriate intents.
Test the voice-only experience by using Siri through headphones connected to your iOS device with iOS 11.2 or later.

https://developer.apple.com/sirikit/


Using Automator to save text to a SPECIFIED text file (not a new file)

You could use an Automator workflow/application using a Run Shell Script action with:
/usr/bin/pbpaste >> '/path/to/filename.txt'
echo >> '/path/to/filename.txt'

Notes:
Check out the manual page for: pbpaste
You can read the manual page for command in Terminal by typing command and then right-click on it and select: Open man Page
The echo >> '/path/to/filename' line adds a single line feed to the end of the file after the pasted text. You can add addition lines for more line feeds if you so choose.
In place of the echo command you can also use, e.g.:
printf '\n' >> '/path/to/filename.txt'

Adding additional \n for more line feeds, e.g. '\n\n'.
If you update the file while it's opened, it is not doing to show the updated contents, you need to close/reopen the file to see additional updates to it.

If you want to do it with AppleScript, then in place of the Run Shell Script action, use a Run AppleScript action with the following example AppleScript code wish uses a slightly modified handler from Reading and Writing Files:
set myFilename to (path to documents folder) & "Clipboard Text.txt"

set cbText to ((the clipboard) as text) & linefeed & linefeed

writeTextToFile(cbText, myFilename, false)

on writeTextToFile(theText, theFile, overwriteExistingContent)
    try
        -- Convert the file to a string
        set theFile to theFile as string
        -- Open the file for writing
        if theFile contains "/" then
            set theOpenedFile to open for access theFile with write permission
        else
            set theOpenedFile to open for access file theFile with write permission
        end if
        -- Clear the file if content should be overwritten
        if overwriteExistingContent is true then set eof of theOpenedFile to 0
        -- Write the new content to the file
        write theText to theOpenedFile starting at eof
        -- Close the file
        close access theOpenedFile
        -- Return a boolean indicating that writing was successful
        return true
        -- Handle a write error
    on error
        -- Close the file
        try
            close access file theFile
        end try
        -- Return a boolean indicating that writing failed
        return false
    end try
end writeTextToFile

Notes:
The handler from the linked Apple support document was modified to handle both POSIX and HFS+ file paths.


Issue turning firewall off on OS X El Capitan 10.11.2

I'm going to put a short answer on how I'd troubleshoot this since this isn't the intended behavior.

Make a backup of your Mac - just in case.
Try a simple python web server in terminal.app

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

You should see text like: Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ... and get a pop up like:

If you don't, perhaps delete the entire firewall preference and restart the Mac once the backup is complete.

sudo -H mv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist ~/Desktop

That way you can inspect/move the preference file back if desired. If you still cannot get the firewall pop up after the restart, recheck the firewall system preferences and optionally see if you might have a configuration profile that might be enforcing some firewall settings that you do not control.

If you have no profiles icon, you can probably rule that out.


Why can't I install an app (says "could not be found")?

Ok, in iTunes on the computer, it says "Downloaded". But on the device itself, go to

App Store -> Updates -> Purchased -> My Purchases

and select the "Not on this iPhone" tab. That shows all apps that didn't get transferred. Click the cloud icon to download them.

This even preserved the apps' data, because I had done a backup first.


Audio Interface is not showing up in System Preferences Output Input

Unfortunately, Focusrite doesn't support Saffire 6 any longer with MAC Catalina 10.15.x. They stopped after the 10.15 update. It's useless to me now.


IPad deleted from Apple ID and now I can't reset it

Do you get to the part of the setup where the device asks for the Apple ID used to setup the device and the password or says activation lock?  If so then the device is still likely connected to the Apple ID that was used to set up the device.  If you log into the Apple ID website and remove the device or remove it from the account on another device in settings, that does not remove activation lock.  You have to erase the device via iCloud.com or the Find My [Device] app to remove activation lock/Find My Device.  You can also try setting up while connected to a computer with iTunes on it to try and get past the verification error in case it happens to be a problem with your internet connection.


Idle does not mean the CPU stops. The CPU can never actually stop. At best, the CPU can go into a continuous loop, but this still requires the use of electricity. This use of electricity produces heat.

Idle means the operating system is waiting for something to do. In this case, the CPU may be use less electricity, but the electricity usage does not go to zero. I would image the temperature is more a function of the fan speed, which I assume in a correctly working Mac is high enough to protect the hardware.


Is installing Windows on Macbook Pro for Game development good and efficient

If you look at it objectively, then yes installing Windows in BootCamp is both "good" and "efficient" in the sense that (a) this is a supported configuration for your computer that will not "break" anything, and (b) you'll be able to make full use of the computer's hardware's performance.
On the other hand, I don't see you couldn't keep using macOS for game development as well. There's no rule or general recommendation that Windows is always "best for game development" - far from it.
If you're planning to develop a game for the Mac or for iOS users, I would stick with the Mac. If you're developing a game only for Windows users, there's good arguments for running on the same target as your own users.


Cannot kill Bitdefender process after uninstalling it, no launch daemons found

It is blocked by one or more of the extensions it installs: FileProtect.kext, SelfProtect.kext, TMProtection.kext

You should always use Bitdefender's uninstaller at /Applications/Bitdefender/BitdefenderUninstaller and not these other apps you mentioned. Follow the instructions at https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1784/

If that doesn't work, that page links to another page that covers the manual removal process. https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1446/


My early 2008 MacBookPro has a different DVI and the adaptor I need is not in stock anywhere

According to my research, it is called Micro DVI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-DVI

It looks like it can be found here.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=micro+dvi+to+vga+adapter&tag=googhydr-20&index=electronics&hvadid=25104013878&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=474849483470589268&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_4bxv9jd5o7_b


Why doesn't iPhoto open automatically upon SD card insertion?

A common fix for these type of issues is to reformatting the card with the camera and try inserting it again. Make sure you copy the photos from the SD Card to your computer first.


Upgrading to iCloud Drive is a one-time, irreversible action. You can not go back from iCloud Drive to Documents & Data—your Apple ID has been permanently upgraded.

  Migrating to iCloud Drive will disable Documents & Data syncing for your iCloud account on OS X Mavericks and earlier Macs, as well as iOS 7 and earlier devices.

Source: OS X Yosemite release notes


automator: get a folder if it dropped or ask for one otherwise

You can do whole workflow in AppleScript:

on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theItems
    repeat with anItem in theItems
        -- your code goes here
    end repeat
end adding folder items to


Incoming text message auto filled the "TO" field?

This spammer must have acquired these contact numbers from an email account's contacts page belonging to one of the people who received this. Then, they sent a text message to some of the contacts they found. The To field is auto-filled by your phone with all the people who received the text. For instance, if I texted a message to you and some guy (let's call him Joe Smith) the To field would be filled with "To John Ramos and Joe Smith", indicating that any text you send in that group chat will go to the people in said group chat; that's exactly what's going on here.


How do I decrease excessive network buffering over Wireless-N

I don't have any specific recommendations when tweaking network configurations. However, I did come across one blog post that discussed various network settings that could be adjusted in /etc/sysctl.conf:

kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=4194304
kern.ipc.somaxconn=512
kern.ipc.maxsockets=2048
kern.ipc.nmbclusters=2048
net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1
net.inet.tcp.win_scale_factor=3
net.inet.tcp.sockthreshold=16
net.inet.tcp.sendspace=262144
net.inet.tcp.recvspace=262144
net.inet.tcp.mssdflt=1440
net.inet.tcp.msl=15000
net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive=0
net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
net.inet.tcp.slowstart_flightsize=4
net.inet.tcp.blackhole=2
net.inet.udp.blackhole=1
net.inet.icmp.icmplim=50

You'll definitely want to back up the original file before fiddling with these system settings. Various readers also contributed to a lengthy discussion in the comments for the blog post.

Apple Support also has a KB for OS X 10.7 detailing changes that can be made to the MTU for Ethernet, which might also be adjusted for performance issues. However, there were no specific instructions for Wi-Fi.

There's an associated Support KB for older versions of OS X (10.4 and 10.5) that details changes for both Wi-Fi and Ethernet - you may be able to apply use the Wi-Fi instructions in Lion.

If you take the first path (adjusting the sysctl.conf settings), some trial and error may be necessary.


You can use Script Editor and AppleScript to create an AppleScript application which opens the URL in a new tab in Safari, as in the following example:

set theURL to "https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/293859/how-can-i-add-a-web-link-in-launchpad"

tell application "Safari"
    tell front window
        set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:theURL})
    end tell
end tell

Change the value of set theURL to "..." to the appropriate URL, and then save this as an application to the Applications folder.

It will then be available to Launchpad and Spotlight, as well as other ways and means to open any other application.

You can also change the icon of the app, and there are instructions on the Internet on how to do that. E.g., Create custom icons for files or folders on Mac. Also, if you want to go the more technical route, have a look at: Create Your Own Custom Icons in OS X 10.7.5 or Later

If you use a different Browser then Safari, the code can be modify as necessary for that particular Browser.

For Google Chrome:

set theURL to "https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/293859/how-can-i-add-a-web-link-in-launchpad"

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell front window
        make new tab with properties {URL:theURL}
    end tell
end tell

For Firefox:

set theURL to "https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/293859/how-can-i-add-a-web-link-in-launchpad"

tell application "Firefox"
    open location theURL
end tell

If you get an warning like "YourApp.app" wants access to control "Google Chrome.app" every time you run it, you may need to give it Full Disk Access. Go to System Preferences then Security & Privacy then Privacy then Full Disk Access, and add your app to the list. See this answer for more.


2 Solutions. 1 using Bash the other using Bash wrapped in AppleScript.

Solution #1

Create a new AppleScript with /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor
Type the following code:

do shell script "rm -rf /Volumes/*/.Trashes/*" with administrator privileges

Save the file to somewhere convenient and run it whenever you need to clear the USB Trash
This can be executed by double-clicking on it

NOTE: This will empty the Trash for all connected volumes including your internal hard disk. If you have connected 5 USB drives and a Firewire hard disk, it will empty the trash for all of them.

Solution #2

Fire up your favourite text editor (mine is nano)
Paste the following code into your text editor and save the file

#!/bin/bash
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/*/.Trashes/*

Save the file to somewhere convenient with the extension .sh and then make it executable with chmod +x {filename}.sh from Terminal
Run that with ./{filename}.sh

NOTE: Same note as above. This is executable from Terminal.


Could I recover pictures from an itunes backup missing PLIST files?

If the backup isn’t encrypted, then the photo files themselves will be intact photo files, regardless of the missing metadata files. (An encrypted backup without the Manifest.plist and Manifest.db would be another, sadder, story.)

Decipher Backup Browser should be able to read the backup without the metadata. https://deciphertools.com/decipher-backup-browser.html If the backup has the Manifest.db, you should see a Camera Roll Gallery section. If there’s no Manifest.db (or it’s an old Manifest.db) use the “Camera Roll Recovery” or “Photo/Video Recovery” sections.


Does the MacBook Pro need both Ambient Light Sensors to function correctly?

On my 2015 Macbook Pro, what looks like two ambient light sensors is actually a light sensor on the left of the webcam, and a green LED on the right of the webcam that lights up when Facetime is open to let you know the camera is in use.

The sensor on the left can be tested by waving a flashlight in front of it and observing the keyboard dimming. The light on the right can be verified by opening Facetime.


This fixes it (after changing apache to run as the user who has node or by giving access to _www).

putenv('PATH=' . getenv('PATH') . ':/usr/local/bin');


MacBook Pro Retina, questions about 2nd monitor for gaming

The GPU on your MacBook Pro will be driving two displays, which is a lot of pixels — gaming performance will definitely be affected by the addition of the second display. You'll probably have to drop the resolution of your games to get an adequate framerate.

As for the latency question, a wired second display won't have additional latency just because it's a second display.


How do I perform a right-click-drag with the trackpad on Windows 7 under Bootcamp?

If you plug in a mouse it works, I don't have a mouse though so I've been hoping to find a solution to using the trackpad, and since Control-click doesn't work, I'm stuck.


setting up new me.com to activate iCloud when I already have one

You need to clarify your questions a little, but it sounds like you are trying to set up a new iCloud account directly on your iOS devices, and wanting to use your own Mobile Me account as the template (as it were).

The best way to do this, is to go to a computer and log into me.com using your Mobile Me account to verify it's still active. From there, you can move your MobileMe account to iCloud by visiting me.com/move.

You also will want to read over two articles that discuss FAQ about the transition...

Creating an iCloud account: Frequently Asked Questions
Apple IDs and iCloud

Once complete, you will then be able to include your iCloud details during the account setup on your iOS device, and it should just work as the existing me.com address will already be converted to an iCloud one.


How can I play songs across Apple Music playlists?

You can create a new Smart Playlist, and add in the rules to pick from each of the playlists you've already defined.

From your music library: File --> New --> Smart Playlist

Then set it up using rules similar to these:

You want to match music for any, and then click the + to add as many rule entries as you want, one for each playlist.


One of the Apple-supported ways to do it is the following AppleScript command:

tell app "Safari" to quit

Use the following one-liner to run the same thing from your shell:

osascript -e 'tell app "Safari" to quit'

Or, use the bundle ID if that’s more your thing:

osascript -e 'tell app id "com.apple.Safari" to quit'


Merging two email accounts in El Capitan

Well I did nothing aside from waiting and 'synchronising' the account regularly, and thanks to the magic of IMAP the messages that had been in the POP account reappeared (I had chosen the option to save all the incoming and outgoing mail on the server).


Why are so many Mac downloads a .dmg just that contains a single .pkg?

Technically, a .pkg is not a file, but a folder.  So  maybe collecting it into a single file is essential for downloading.


How can you wipe and reinstall OSX on a Mac Mini (which has no optical drive)?

Without an optical drive, how can you clean the disks and still be
  able to reinstall an OS?

Simplest and cheapest way: create a bootable volume from the OS X Installer on a USB Stick.

2 days ago I used the (free) DiskMakerX to clone the 10.10.3 OS X Installer (it works also with older OS X versions) from AppStore to a USB Stick and used that bootable clone to start from it and install OS X on another volume. Everything worked fine.


Are there any downsides to installing Lion Server on my laptop rather than Lion?

Actually you have to have Lion to get Lion server which means that the cost is really $30 + $50. Server configures your computer to host wikis and mail server. It really isn't meant for day to day consumer uses. I wouldn't recommend it.

If you want to try Lion server I recommend installing it in a Virtual Machine (VMWare, Parallels, VirtualBox) and playing with it that way.


A possible workaround for the airplay/wifi issues is to use the following terminal command

sudo ifconfig awdl0 down

This will disable AWDL & Airdrop but will allow you to have bluetooth on with airplay...

sudo ifconfig awdl0 up

will re-enable.

Credit to Mario Ciabarra who detailed the problem and solution in his blog post.

Another workaround that may be of benefit to some is to make sure ATV software is up to date, and then switch off bluetooth while using Airplay. This resolves the problem for me.

Also, I seem to get best results when in extended desktop mode instead of mirrored although I haven't tested it really. This was definitely the case in Mavericks.

Hope that helps!


Finding eBooks (.epub) via content on my Mac

Here's an open source plugin you can use to do what you're asking.

https://github.com/jaketmp/ePub-quicklook

Simply follow the installation instructions on their page and according to the description, it will then index it for use with Spotlight. There's also a plugin for Quick Look support on the same page. To download a tested version, go to "Releases" and get the latest version.

At the time of writing this, that is version 1.7.


Text input trouble on OS X Snow Leopard - text doesn't show up before mouse click

Is it possible that the mouse button is sticky or not clicking properly? This would mean that the cursor could be someplace on screen but the software is trying to follow mouse movements and expects you to click again where you want the text to go. We did have a mouse button on a MacBook Pro that just would not function properly, although the problem was different – you had to pound it to have it register. We ended up with a Bluetooth mouse that works brilliantly.


How do I remove a disk image that I created myself?

The disk image itself is basically treated as a file by Finder. So, after ejecting the disk image (assuming you had it mounted), all you need to do is delete the disk image like like you would any other file.

For example, right-click on the disk image and select the Move to Trash option and then empty the trash. Likewise, you can just select it in Finder and use the commanddelete keyboard shortcut to move it to trash and then empty it.


You have two options depending on your needs:

You can have you OS and all your data installed on an external drive and then boot from your external drive by connecting your drive, and booting your mac while holding the option/alt key and select your external drive
The second option is to move you home folder to the external drive; this is done by many users who have a combination of an SSD and a HHD but you can do something similar depending on your needs. Here is a very straightforward tutorial on how to move your home folder to an external drive