Can i change the default Mac App Store install folder?

Regarding Mac OS X File System Overview, it seems Apple enforcing the standard compliance for developer to follow their rules on application folder which are within /Applications or ~/Applications. The concern is to comply the way Mac App Store deliver the updates.

if you not comfort enough to use default folder, yes you are still able to move the application which you had download from Mac App Store to another folder with two caveats:

You will be required to enter an administrative password to move the
app from the /Applications folder.
If an update appears in the MAS for an installed app that has been moved you will get an error message about having apps installed
    from another account. To update the app you will have to Delete
the
    app entirely and then install the updated app or Move the app back to the /Applications folder


From the Cell tab of the sidebar you can select the number of decimal places or set it to "Auto". Pick whatever best suits your needs.


Storage not displayed properly in "About this mac" section

I had a similar problem, and rebuilding my Spotlight index solved it for me.

Simply restarting my computer (a less time costly operation), has also worked in the past.


Will Time Machine back up new data and bypass OS back up?

First, I must say if you are running Lion you shouldn't worry about this, as all Lion machines have a "Restore Partition". That is they save all the system files required to restore the system on a special "section" of the disk unaccessible under normal conditions. If you ever do want to access this Restore Disk, simply hold down the option key while your Mac is booting up, and you should see be able to select it.

Time Machine, as far as I can tell, DOES backup system files. It full copy of your drive. Nonetheless, time machine backups are not bootable. You can save space by excluding system files, or any other big files you might not want/need to back up. Here are some articles that might help you with that: Time Machine tips and troubleshooting, Guide To Excluding Data from Time Machine Backups.

If you don't, time machine will leave them, no matter how old the data gets, and it would display an error/warning if you run out of space rather than deleting them. Time machine makes sure to always have at least a single full copy of your system.

Regarding space, you can backup a larger drive with a smaller one, as long as your Time Machine Drive can hold all the space you are using on your larger drive. So if you have 800GB in your system, but have only used 200GB, you could back it up with a 500GB drive, though it is not recommended, because if one day you do fill the drive Time Machine wouldn't be able to have a single full backup. Nonetheless, if you keep your actual disk usage below your Time Machine Disk capacity, you should be fine, with at least one full backup.

My final recommendation is you check those articles and save space for your backup, excluding the system files (Time Machine backups aren't bootable anyways. You'd need an installation disk or a Recovery Drive.) and any other large, unimportant files. Finally, keep an eye on your backup, and if you find out you do need more space I really recommend buying a larger hard drive! Time Machine can come up pretty handy in times of despair!


I created a new folder on the terminal and is not shown in the finder

One of the most probable cause for this to happen is that you inadvertently entered a name which the Finder isn't able to display correctly (or doesn't display to protect us from the complexity of the underlying Unix filesystem).

To check this hypothesis, please from iTerm go into the parent directory of the one you created let's say its name is foo bar and enter:

ls -aBdl 'foo bar'

The -B option will display any non printable character as a \xxx where xxx is the octal value of the non printable character.
This option is very helpful to deal with filenames which cause problems to shells and graphical interfaces like the Finder.


There is no way to download and install this app (unless the developer of the app updates it to work).

  The developer of this app needs to update it to work with iOS 11.

The above message is a bit misleading and is applicable for devices running iOS 11 and later.

The app in question is built in 32-bit mode only. An iOS app could be programmed by the developer in either 32-bit mode, 64-bit mode or both. (Note that only one single app is hosted on the App Store, no separate 32-bit and 64-bit version).

Apple started supporting 64-bit apps first with iPhone 5s which featured a 64-bit processor. All the subsequently released models of iPhone feature 64-bit processor.

Apple has stopped supporting 32-bit only apps starting with iOS 11. To run such apps on iOS 11 and later, the developer need to re-program it with support for 64-bit mode.

If you wish to use the app, your only resort would be to find an iOS device running iOS 10 or earlier (which supports the app), or contact the developer of the app and request them to update it with 64-bit support. You can find the contact information for the app developer on the App Store page of the app.

This is the official explanation by Apple as mentioned on the Apple Support page, About iOS 11 Updates:

  iOS 11 is performance optimized for 64-bit apps. 32-bit apps will need to be updated by the app developer to work with this version of iOS.

Again, the same is applicable for iOS 11 and later.


How to get list of all Wi-Fi networks available in iPhone 5

Download the Airport Utility app from the app store and then in the settings app enable Wi-Fi Scanner.

You get a searchable list and export capabilities of the results. Once you have a scan, you can post those results in a new thread to ask what to do in your situation once you have concrete data.


I assume you 'unlocked' the pref pane with the icon at the bottom left.

You could try using the Terminal command sudo ntpdate -u time.euro.apple.com.

If the command returns errors such as Can't find host or no servers can be used, the network you're connecting to might have a firewall block on ntp servers.


Does macOS come with (the ruby framework) rails?

No, macOS does not come with rails preinstalled.

On a default clean install of macOS Catalinia, if you run the following command in Terminal, you'll see that rails is not installed by default.

% rails -v
Rails is not currently installed on this system. To get the latest version, simply type:

    $ sudo gem install rails

You can then rerun your "rails" command.
%

I also tested this on some earlier versions of macOS and the result was the same.

If rails -v returns version info, then it's installed, but was done after macOS was originally installed.


Whoa, that's a way last resort. You don't have a computer problem, you have a Microsoft problem. Move all Microsoft preference files (plist and plist.lockfile) from both ~/Library/Prefences and ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost, and from /Library/Preferences, to the Trash.

Any Ofice apps in Applications or the whole Microsoft Office folder, move to trash or zip and store in /Users/Shared. Same with Microsoft folder in /Library/Application Support. Start with a clean state.

Log out, maybe even Restart, and try installing again. Sometimes just getting a fresh copy of  Microsoft AutoUpdate into /Libary/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/MAU2.0/ gets it all working, along with letting the apps build fresh Preferences--let MAU find and install updates.


Can employer install any software in Macbook to monitor activity?

It depends, but in most cases, yes they can.

If they issued the MacBook to you, it's their property and they have every right to do as they please with their assets.  There's a simple rule - their company, their rules.

If it's your laptop, they can't force you to install anything.  But that said, you have no entitlement to that particular position.  Again -  their company, their rules.

The first case is pretty cut and dry, so let's explore the second a bit more...
Your employment with a company is conditional, you follow their rules and do what they ask and you get to come back tomorrow to earn another paycheck (yeah, it's a little brutal, but that's what it comes down to).  If they have a policy that says your activity will be monitored and you will use a particular VPN (Tunnelblick), you agreed to those conditions.  So yes, even if it's your laptop, when you agree to certain conditions to work there, you've entered into a contract.  Not holding up your end of it, would be a breach of contract on your part.
Now, remember I said "it depends?"
Well, here in the US, there are contractors (also called 1099s because that's the tax document used to report income).  A contractor is not an employee.  There are laws that govern the relationship between what a 1099 contractor and the employer can enter into contractually.  For instance, if you are hired as a 1099 to market the company's new widget that's what you're hired to to do and that's it.

If they provide you with a laptop, well, it's their laptop so their rules apply.
If it's your laptop, they can't manage you like an employee, because you're not.  If however, their marketing database is secured behind a firewall that requires a VPN to access, well, inherently you'll have to install said software because you won't be able to do the job without it.

Can they monitor your activities?  Yes and no.
If you're connected to their VPN, inherently they can monitor everything you do.  However, when not connected, they have no business monitoring you - your laptop, your rules.  Typically when hired as a contractor, the contract will spell out the metrics you must meet (i.e. sales of so many widgets, so many contacts with X number of prospects per day, etc.)  How they record these metrics varies, but they cannot go outside the scope and micromanage your day to meet those metrics.  If they do, you're no longer a contractor, but an employee.  If this is the case, there are legal ramifications.  What are they?  You need to consult an attorney.  I'm not an attorney, and most importantly, I'm not your attorney.


What's the easiest solution for MDM without a dedicated OSX Server?

Okay by now I figured out a way around the issue. My solution is to rebuild my FreeNAS server into an ESXi Hypervisor, which is capable of running OSX Server in a virtual machine. IMHO that creates quite a big overhead over running an MDM solution from a FreeBSD jail but it gives me a "native" Apple MDM, and the added ability to run other OSes in top of the ESXi aswell.

I see that this is not a generally applicable solution as it requires a server machine capable of running ESXi and a little bit of luck to get OSX to run on virtualized non-Mac hardware. But it works here so I mark this one answered.


What is rapportd and why does it want incoming network connections?

EDIT: It looks like the man page has been updated and now reads:
Daemon that enables Phone Call Handoff and other communication features between Apple devices.

I just had the same experience. The man page states that it is a:
Daemon providing support for the Rapport connectivity framework.
Checking the code signature with codesign -dv --verbose=4 /usr/libexec/rapportd shows it is signed by Apple and in a SIP-protected location (unless you turned off SIP), this appears to be legitimate Apple software. The man page implies it's related to communication, though I've yet to find any real documentation on it.
(Thanks to John Keates for the code-signature tip.)


Apple uses .local for bonjour.

This is reserved for mDNS in RFC 6762.

You should not use this in a mixed network. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local for further discussion.


What's the difference between "transmit rate" and "link speed"?

You already see the answer in your screen shot.

The maximum possible rate is 289.

The current transmit rate is 176.


Drag and drop won't move ALL selected files between Finder windows

I know this is late but I've found a fix.

First, open disk utility and run first aid on your disk.

Second, shutdown the computer fully and disconnect all USB devices.

Third, Press the power button and hold command-option-p-r until the Mac reboots again. This will reset the PRAM.

I hope this fixes your issue like it did for me!


How to run apple hardware test on mavericks?

Since it does not show up with D at start up lets look for it on your hard drive.

The AHT is stuffed into an AHTxx.dmg file and found on the Recovery HD volume that is also hidden.

First you have to make the hidden partitions visible

To enable the see all partitions in Disk Utility (the Debug Menu)

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

In Disk utility now there will be a tab called Debug.

Use it to show hidden partition.

You will now see the Hidden partition called Recovery and EFI.

Mount the Recovery to see the files in finder and find the AHTxx.dmg

If it is not there, try using internet recovery with cmd-r.

see this for more options.

Also, you might be able to download a copy of AHT using this link and providing the correct 4 digit model number. (upekkha on Github provides a handy list of mac models with the accompanying download link and more info.)

Apple does not publish that list since it is kind off back door to they service.

Here are few of them

2579 for Mac-F4218FC8 iMac6,1

2535 for Mac-F4218EC8 iMac5,2

2534 for Mac-F4228EC8 iMac5,1

2533 for Mac-F42786A9 iMac5,1


I know of none that are worth downloading.

You could easily record it yourself using AirPlay mirroring on the iOS device and a screen recording program like Reflector and Screeny if you have access to a machine that runs OS X.


MacBook Pro Certificate - no value specified - Business Category : Private Organization

It’s perfectly normal, and there’s no need to do anything (except click on OK to close the window) or worry about it. Safari is just showing you the encryption details for the apple.com website — you may have accidentally clicked on the green padlock.


Managing a Child's iPad Without Another Apple Device?

What’s wrong with setting a parental restriction passcode and not letting your child know the iCloud password for the account you set up?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304

Pretty much everything you have set up is easily achievable in solo mode. You could also sign up for an MDM like Jamf Now

https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-now/

That adds far more options than a family AppleID and has many classroom features and integrations. It’s free for op your first three managed devices and Apple specific MDM.

Longer term, you might pick up a used phone or iPod touch that can run the latest iOS and manage the shared family AppleID but many of the family features work best with an iOS device for you to manage things remotely from the iPad you leave with your child.

You have discovered all the drawbacks so your problem statements leads me to believe you don’t have any more major surprises. Two last recommendations, if your child is less than 13 you need to manage their password and agree to all terms for them. Use your account and birthdate and just don’t give them the password ever. Use a password service like 1Password to save all details about your AppleID, the birth date you entered (people often mis type that when they are wanting to get their account set up), security questions and answers and the password, passcode, unlock PIN, parental PIN, etc...  document everything and keep your proof of purchase if you need Apple to unlock the device if iCloud gets locked by your child entering the password wrong too many times.


Count pages in PDF (for non-technical, mac using person)

Simple.

Create an Apple Script and export it as an Application and then send the Application to her.

AppleScript Code:

set totalPages to 0
set numDocs to 1
set myFiles to choose file with prompt "Select all PDF's" with multiple selections allowed
set nummyFiles to length of myFiles
set progress total steps to nummyFiles
set progress completed steps to 0
set progress description to "Processing PDF's..."
set progress additional description to "Preparing to process."
repeat with i in myFiles
    set progress additional description to "Processing PDF " & numDocs & " of " & nummyFiles
    set progress completed steps to numDocs
    set myfile to POSIX path of i
    set pageCount to (do shell script "/usr/bin/mdls " & quoted form of myfile & " | /usr/bin/awk '/kMDItemNumberOfPages/{print $3}'") as integer
    set totalPages to (totalPages + pageCount)
    set numDocs to (numDocs + 1)
end repeat
display dialog "There are " & totalPages & " pages in this PDF"

Open /Applications/Utilities/Script Editor.app
File>New
Copy and Paste above code
File>Export
File Format: Application
Send Exported Application


How can I recover a standard user's password using the admin password?

Nope is the general prognosis for this.

Assign them a new password if you don’t intend to crack / reverse engineer the password or hope to find it stored in a plan text file.

https://github.com/octomagon/davegrohl

If you just need to get at the files and not crack to get at the user keychain, use the system preferences and an admin account to make a new password for the user account in question.


Mail Script that moves messages with download links to a folder

I assume you're wanting to use a trigger in mail to triage messages as they come in. You will create a local mailbox named "Music" or whatever, and then set the mailbox property of the message to "Music" if its source data contains any of the trigger URLs. Set up the rule using a script like this:

property urlList : {"box.com", "dropbox.com"}

using terms from application "Mail"
    on perform mail action with messages theSelectedMessages for rule theRule
        repeat with thisMessage in theSelectedMessages
            set theSource to source of thisMessage
            repeat with thisURL in urlList
                if thisURL is in theSource then
                     set mailbox of thisMessage to mailbox "Music"
                    exit repeat
                end if
            end repeat
        end repeat
    end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from


Close [X] kills Chrome/Firefox/Safari Tabs

Yes, this is how it's supposed to work. Closing the window will literally close the window, but quitting the application closes the application, saving the state of the application (if it supports it) including the windows. The red × does not quit the browser—it just closes the window. The browser itself is still open.


Can I watch 1080p torrents while downloading?

We need a torrent client that can download the movie file parts in order, not randomly.
We need a player that supports playing incomplete files.
We need a connection that is faster than the movie’s bitrate (and a torrent with enough peers obviously).

The torrent client

Previously I used BitThief. It is developed by a technology institute in Zurich. It didn’t have a polished GUI and took a little bit too much CPU while downloading.

There's new client I found thanks to @diimdeep. It is called qbittorrent and it is awesome.

You can see that while downloading it downloads as a normal torrent client – the parts are downloaded randomly:

But there is an option:

After that we can see that the rest of the file is being downloaded sequentially (blue – downloaded, green – requested):

The connection speed

How can we tell if the speed is good enough? By the estimated time of arrival (ETA):

If the movie is 1.5 hours and the ETA is 17 minutes, then the speed is sufficient.

The player

The player is and always has been mplayer (I don't know why the domain is Hungarian)

low cpu usage
plays almost anything (although very rarely it crashes and burns)
lots of options (boosting volume, control of cache on streams, indexing...)
arrow keys navigation (I can't live without that)
playing incomplete files (and reindexing them, which allows navigation)

I use MplayerX - a nice OSX gui. Download and associate movie files with mplayer (avi, mkg):

The final step is to to play the file after the downloading started:

That’s it.

Happy watching.


One safe boot can clean a lot of space, so restart and hold shift. Then log in and check, restart from safe mode and continue if needed.

I like following the mange your storage section here to locate and
delete things. It sorts by size so you can quickly scan and move on
if any one category won’t free up the space you want cleaned.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

Once that is done, go to reduce clutter and start cleaning. Or choose a third party tool if you prefer another tool. "Other" taking up over HALF of my storage space


Do AirPods charge batteries with Qi now?

Yes, but...

Current AirPods can only be charged with a Qi-compliant charging pad if they're in the appropriate case. By appropriate case I mean Apple has launched a new optional charging case that supports wireless charging for AirPods.

[EDIT]

You may wish to read:

Apple announces a wireless charging case for the AirPods
Apple Intros AirPower Charging Mat, Wireless Charging AirPods Case

  Apple revealed a new AirPods case that works with Apple's new AirPower charging pad. To charge the new wireless case, you place it
  on the AirPower. If your AirPods are in the case, you’ll see an orange
  light if they’re charging, or a green light when they’re nearly fully
  charged. If no AirPods are in the case, the light still goes on when
  you open the lid, but it indicates how much battery life is left in
  the case itself: orange for needs charging and green for good life
  left.

  As of this writing, Apple has not released pricing for the new
  wireless case, nor has the company said that it will replace the
  original case with the new one with a new pair of AirPods. The
  wireless case will be available in 2018.

Source: See second link above


Even if there isn't any obvious cable damage or bulging, the adapter could be failing. If the adapter is not one of the newer L-Shape Magsafe plugs, the need for a SMC firmware update is moot, but it's helpful to have the system up to date regardless.

Have you confirmed if a second, known-good adapter works on your Mac?

Updated: An SMC reset can also correct magsafe LED issues. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964


Password not working (it said the password I typed in was wrong)

It has been a while since I have tried this so I assume it still works

Turn off your Mac (choose Apple > Shut Down).
Press the power button  while holding down Command-R. The Mac will boot into Recovery mode.
Select Disk Utility and press Continue.
Choose Utilities > Terminal.
Enter resetpassword (all one word, lowercase letters) and press Return.
Select the volume containing the account (normally this will be your Main hard drive).
Choose the account to change with Select the User Account.
Enter a new password and re-enter it into the password fields.
Enter a new password hint related to the password & click Save.
A warning will appear that the password has changed, but not the Keychain Password. Click OK.
Click Apple > Shut Down.
Now start up the Mac. You can login using the new password.

Or you could google "reset mac password" and follow the instructions I found and pasted in above.


"Command not found" lines on terminal startup

There are a couple of things wrong in your ~/.zprofile:

You have hard-wrapped (i.e., inserted newline characters inside) the alias lines, causing bin to start its own separate line. You need to keep everything on one line.
Shell aliases that include whitespace need to be enclosed in quotes.
You have multiple identical lines, which is generally not useful.
The invocation source ~/.zprofile is recursive and was probably intended as a shell command for you to manually enter after editing ~/.zprofile.

I suspect that ~/.zprofile should simply read:
alias gtkwave="open -a /Applications/gtkwave.app/Contents/MacOS/gtkwave-bin"

EDIT:
Here is a straightforward way to replace the contents of ~/.zprofile:
echo 'alias gtkwave="open -a /Applications/gtkwave.app/Contents/MacOS/gtkwave-bin"' > ~/.zprofile

Note that if there are any other directives that you want to keep (you should examine all of the contents first, e.g., cat ~/.zprofile) then you need to edit instead of overwrite it. You can use any text editor you like. E.g.,
open -e ~/.zprofile

or
vi ~/.zprofile


Solved this by first going into the terminal and finding the disk identifier:

diskutil list

Then, with the identifier I used the following and it successfully reclaimed all of the disk free space:

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 0

Be sure to replace /dev/disk0s2 with the identifier of the partition you want to expand.


Partition one disk with 2 different filesystems

Yes, but…

You can use Disk Utility to partition your portable HDD into two separate partitions. You can then format one in the Mac format of your choosing. You can format the other as FAT, but you cannot format it as NTFS from within Disk Utility.

However, take the same disk to a Windows computer, mount the FAT partition, and the use whatever program Windows uses for reformatting (sorry, I haven't really used Windows much since Windows 3.1/MS DOS 6.2), and you have what you are looking for.


Repair options of a (really) Broken HFS+ "Invalid extent entry" volume?

Though it still cannot handle APFS, the single best 'fixit' app for HFS+ has always been DiskWarrior. idk whether they do a free trial.
Failing that, you're into 'file scavenger' apps, which are going to be poor on a drive full of hardlinks.


Which parts of MBA-13" mid-2011 can be upgraded?

Here is what I found so far:

wifi: upgradable to 802.11 AC, with third-party QuickerTek QCard2 (manufacturer gives dimensions: V1= 18.07mm x 39.9mm, but contradicting answers on whether it's compatible with MBA2011 13"). I asked for feedback on it in a separate question; haven't tried it myself yet)


How to get rid of "Finish Setting Up Your iPhone" badge?

After restoring my iPhone from a backup using iTunes, I was already signed into iCloud with my Apple ID. Yet I had this "Finish Setting Up Your iPhone" message and badge on the Settings app, which was super annoying. Whenever I tried to "finish" the setup, the set up would never finish because I was already signed in!

To resolve this (make sure you have a backup of your data before proceeding!), do the following:

Settings > Your Name > Sign out

Enter your password (this will turn off Find My iPhone which is ok)
You will be asked what info your want to keep on device. I didn't keep anything because I backed up my phone before this using iTunes.

Settings > Finish Setting Up Your iPhone

Follow the process, sign in with your Apple ID and password and finish all the steps.

Now everything works and there is no more red notification icon on the settings app on the home screen!


Wiping my New MacBook Pro after Using Command Q to Stop Migration

I suggest you use Apple Mac's Disk Utility, select the disk or volume in the LH column that you wish to clear, specify a format and name and click on Erase. Also select Security Options if you wish to prevent any recovery of previously deleted files.


Process in /System/Library/Frameworks/Accounts.framework/Versions/A/Support/accountsd taking almost all ressources (Catalina - MacOS 10.15.6)

On Catalina, anything in /System is mounted in a read-only, protected volume, and so almost certainly is part of the OS and not malware.
Secondly, ramping up CPU or memory is usually not indicative of malware. Malware generally tries to hide itself, not advertise. It can be poorly written, of course. (As can the OS.)
There are many reports of MacOS processes going a bit wild every now and again: sometimes they may need to do a bit of work and then calm down; other times they may suggest a problem which needs to be fixed.
Why is the accountsd process eating so much CPU?
Accountsd using lots of CPU constantly
Process "accountsd" has over 500% CPU usage
This blog suggests that you may need to delete a local keychain folder inside <user>/Library/Keychains (which may cause some passwords to be forgotten).
https://waal70blog.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/accountsd-and-secd-high-cpu-usage-on-catalina/
An alternative offered is just to reboot to Safe Mode (hold Shift at restart), then restart normally.


Incorrect firmware could be something that you can not recover from and result in a trip to the Genius Bar or another authorized service center where they can work with engineering to determine if user error or a bug resulted in the incorrect firmware loading or if they need to re-flash the EFI or just replace the logic board to get back to the proper / supported version of firmware for your hardware.

In the past - when a firmware revision has been problematic and there are reasons for a substantial portion of the user base to want to regress to an earlier version of firmware, Apple has released firmware recovery toolsto the public. In your case, I don't see public versions of the firmware you seek, so these may only distributed to service centers and not end users or not something Apple has released a tool to remedy. You still can seek service options since firmware is something that can be exchanged with a part swap as part of a repair.


What will occur if the .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder is deleted?

Just because one cannot see something's purpose or value doesn't mean there isn't one!

If you delete the /.DocumentRevisions-V100 directory it will break the Document Revisions feature in OS X until you reboot. At which point the /.DocumentRevisions-V100 directory is recreated.

Somewhere along the way the Document Revisions feature changed, i.e. it's not the same in OS X 10.11 as it is in OS X 10.8, e.g. in OS X 10.8 in TextEdit I can click the down arrow to the right of the filename in the title bar of the document and select Browse All Versions..., and it opens the Time Machine interface when I can view the various versions of the document that are stored within the /.DocumentRevisions-V100 directory. This is not the case in OS X 10.11. I'm not sure when this feature changed to have less importance then it used to have in e.g. OS X 10.8.

In OS X 10.11, if you delete the /.DocumentRevisions-V100 directory, without rebooting, and create a new document in TextEdit and save it, then reopen and edit it, then click the close button... you'll get the a dialog box, "Do you want to save the changes made to the document You can revert to undo the changes since you last opened the document." and if you click the Revert Changes button, it errors out with "The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory" until you reboot.

Note: This assumes you have Ask to keep changes when closing documents checked in General under System Preferences.

If you want to clean up what's in the /.DocumentRevisions-V100 directory, then close all applications except for Terminal, and use the following command:

sudo rm -rf /.DocumentRevisions-V100

Then reboot.

NOTE: Make sure you have a proper Time Machine Backup and be very careful using the above command, make sure it is properly formed and there is no space between / and .DocumentRevisions-V100! You have been warned!

It would actually be more safe to do it in two steps, e.g.:

cd /
sudo rm -rf .DocumentRevisions-V100


I would check the webcam connection first maybe even disconnect and reconnect. If you can't do this, a local IT guy or apple store might do it. Google it to find what it looks like.


This can happen for a number of reasons and you might not know why.

First, do the easy stuff, like you already did.  Search with Spotlight, check for a new Home screen by swiping to the right, and check all your folders.

If those don't work, try a hard reset.  After you restart the iPhone, search for the app again.

If the app is still missing, delete the app and reinstall it from the App Store.  To delete the app (in iOS 11), go to Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage and find the app.

Tap the app and on the next screen select Delete App.

After the app's deleted, go back to the App Store and redownload the app again.  Hopefully, it will install correctly this time and you'll be able to see it on a Home screen.


How to see all the open folders I have currently?

I didn't exactly understand what you meant by "icon list" or generally what you are asking, but i guess you mean that you have several Finder windows open, and you want to easily see all of them. You have a few ways of accomplishing this task:

You can use Mission Control, either by using the swipe gesture (three-finger swipe up on a trackpad or two-finger swipe up on the magic mouse) or by pressing F3. This will neatly organize all the current windows open in your space (aka desktop or full-screen application).
You can use the more specific App Exposè, which shows you all of the current windows for a specific app. So focus on just one of the Finder windows, and go into the App Exposè by either using the swipe gesture if you have it enabled (which is the same as the Mission Control gesture, just down instead of up), or by (I think) pressing FunctionF10.
Lastly, you can see a list of all the open windows on a specific app (on your case Finder) by right-clicking (or Control-clicking) it's dock icon.

If you find yourself having a lot of folders open a lot of times, I REALLY recommend that you tabs instead. You can always open a new finder tab by pressing command+tab and you can press command+option+tab to toggle the tab bar.


Most program icons look the same after high sierra update

Do you have League of Legends installed on your Mac ?
It seems to be the cause of the issue for many other mac players.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/bug-report/rA0p1rYx-client-updating-on-mac-high-sierra-messes-up-other-application-icons

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do until Riot acknowledged the problem and deploy a fix.


Is there a way to configure apps to download automatically similar to podcasts in iTunes?

There currently isn't a way to do this. Especially with iCloud app downloading, I don't think there's any technical barrier to automatic updates. I think it's probably an intentional decision by Apple to keep app updates manual. That way, users are not surprised when an app suddenly changes UI or gains/loses features. However, I personally think the benefits of auto-updating are greater than the costs, especially for the users who never ever update apps.

I'd highly suggesting taking a trip to apple.com/feedback and submitting this as a feature request. I'd love to see this as a preference added in. Apple (surprisingly) does place a lot of stock in user feedback, so the more requests about a certain issue, the better.


I called Apple iTunes provider support - US  : 0014089744897 about this. They told me that they are aware of the problem, having had alot of calls about this today, and are looking at it


It sounds like a corrupted contacts file. Restore your iPad from backup, then go into iTunes and tell it not to sync contacts to your iPad. This should remove all the contact data. Now try to open Contacts. If it opens and it is empty, it is good. If it still doesn't open, then this method won't work. Assuming it opened, go back into iTunes, tell it to sync contacts again. This will add all the contacts from your computer back onto your iPad. (This assumes that you store your contacts on your computer in the Address Book app. If not, you probably will lose all your contacts...)


First off, you can check out a website that lists a lot of these things: http://secrets.blacktree.com/

I, however, just took a brute-force solution:

Copy the Preferences folder

$ cp -r /Library/Preferences before

Launch System Preferences.
Make a change via the GUI.
Probably best to do one change at a time,
  e.g. I changed "Display Login Window as:"
       from "List of users"
       to   "Name and password".
Quit System Preferences.

Copy the Preferences folder again:

$ cp -r /Library/Preferences after

See which files changed:

$ diff -ur before after
Binary files before/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist and after/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist differ

Compare the two versions.
Since they are binary files, you'll need to convert them to XML for comparison.
I use an alias for this:

$ alias plist='plutil -convert xml1 -o /dev/stdout'
$ diff -u <(plist before/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist) <(plist after/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist)
--- /dev/fd/63  2013-01-23 18:20:29.000000000 +0200
+++ /dev/fd/62  2013-01-23 18:20:29.000000000 +0200
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
    <key>RetriesUntilHint</key>
    <integer>3</integer>
    <key>SHOWFULLNAME</key>
-   <false/>
+   <true/>
    <key>lastUser</key>
    <string>loggedIn</string>
    <key>lastUserName</key>

At this point we have located the setting.  Confirm we have it with defaults:

$ defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWFULLNAME
1
$ sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWFULLNAME -bool false
$ defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWFULLNAME
0

Launch System Preferences and confirm it changed.


Who is able to access iMessage on Apple's servers?

See iOS Security, pp30–32:

  iMessage

  Apple iMessage is a messaging service for iOS devices and Mac computers. iMessage supports text and attachments such as photos, contacts, and locations. Messages appear on all of a user’s registered devices so that a conversation can be continued from any of the user’s devices. iMessage makes extensive use of the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). Apple does not log messages or attachments, and their contents are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can access them. Apple cannot decrypt the data.

  When a user turns on iMessage, the device generates two pairs of keys for use with the service: an RSA 1280-bit key for encryption and an ECDSA 256-bit key for signing. For each key pair, the private keys are saved in the device’s keychain and the public keys are sent to Apple’s directory service (IDS), where they are associated with the user’s phone number or email address, along with the device’s APNs address.

  As users enable additional devices for use with iMessage, their public keys, APNs addresses, and associated phone numbers are added to the directory service. Users can also add more email addresses, which will be verified by sending a confirmation link. Phone numbers are verified by the carrier network and SIM. Further, all of the user’s registered devices display an alert message when a new device, phone number, or email address is added.

  How iMessage sends and receives messages

  Users start a new iMessage conversation by entering an address or name. If they enter a phone number or email address, the device contacts the IDS to retrieve the public keys and APNs addresses for all of the devices associated with the addressee. If the user enters a name, the device first utilizes the user’s Contacts app to gather the phone numbers and email addresses associated with that name, then gets the public keys and APNs addresses from the IDS.

  The user’s outgoing message is individually encrypted using AES-128 in CTR mode for each of the recipient’s devices, signed using the sender’s private key, and then dispatched to the APNs for delivery. Metadata, such as the timestamp and APNs routing information, is not encrypted. Communication with APNs is encrypted using TLS.

  If the message text is too long, or if an attachment such as a photo is included, the attachment is encrypted using a random key and uploaded to iCloud. The key and URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) for the attachment are encrypted and signed, as shown below.

  For group conversations, this process is repeated for each recipient and their devices.

  On the receiving side, each device receives its copy of the message from APNs, and, if
  necessary, retrieves the attachment from iCloud. The incoming phone number or email
  address of the sender is matched to the receiver’s contacts so that a name can be
  displayed, if possible.

  As with all push notifications, the message is deleted from APNs when it is delivered.
  Unlike other APNs notifications, however, iMessage messages are queued for delivery
  to offline devices. Messages are stored for up to seven days.

If implemented properly, this means that your messages on Apple's servers can only be decrypted by devices that you registered with Apple for iMessage before they were sent.  Furthermore, you must connect the device to Apple's push service within 7 days of message transmission or else the messages will be purged.

However, that is a big "if":

There is no independent audit of Apple's codebase, so the devices that you and your correspondents use might contain "backdoors" (deliberate or otherwise) e.g. weaknesses in key generation or information leakage through covert channels—and that's assuming the devices themselves are "secure";
There is no way that your correspondents can verify that the discovered public keys (received from Apple's directory) are actually paired with the private keys you hold on your devices—Apple could substitute them for those of a "man in the middle" or simply add an additional public key for a device that you do not own but which will then be able to decrypt all messages destined for you (you can attempt to detect such attacks by querying for your public keys from another account and verifying the response, although there is still no guarantee that Apple aren't providing a different response to other parties);
As always, security is only as good as the weakest link: your correspondents have full, unencrypted access to your conversations and any compromise of them or their devices would lead to a total compromise of your communication.


Automatically convert cooking recipe units

Here’s a shortcut I’ve made that does this: Apply Conversions.

Given input, either from

a note (tap the Share button in the upper-right)
selected text in any app (tap Share from the selection menu)
the current clipboard (run the shortcut from the app or the widget)

the output will be produced. See the example below:

When importing the shortcut from the link above, you will be asked to enter your conversions. These can be edited at any time by editing the shortcut.

The shortcut is as follows:


What app can I use to create mockups for websites?

Balsamiq Mockups is a good one, fairly cheap and very good - http://balsamiq.com/


If the SMC reset did not work it seems likely it could be a hardware problem. I would guess it's going into a fail safe mode causing the fans to always run full speed. This could happen if a temperature sensor malfunctioned , I would recommend taking the system into an Apple Authorized Service provider.


There is a good chance you have an unpaid balance from a previous transaction. This can happen for a number of reasons such as insufficient funds in your bank account.

If you have an unpaid transaction, iTunes requires you to add a valid payment method before you can continue using the iTunes Store/App Store. Even for free items.

You can see if you have any unpaid purchases by going into your 'Purchase History' (see example below) or contacting iTunes Support via email or phone.

More info: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT203005


Prevent Image Capture from opening when a memory card is inserted

Your Mac doesn't really know the difference between a Camera and the SD card. It treats them all pretty much the same. So, in the iPhoto Preferences you can select 'Do Nothing' when a camera is connected, and that will stop Image Capture launching.

iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> General


Fastest way to preview all images in a deeply nested directory tree?

From terminal app:

find . -iname '*.png' | xargs open


MacBook Pro 2020 with 2 x Dell U2518D monitors

Your issue is very much like the one in this question about a MacBook with only two USB-C ports as well:  MacBook 4K/60Hz adapter is working directly, but not via USB-C hub
While you have two Thunderbolt ports, the MacBook only had USB ports that supported DisplayPort.  So, in your case, you have a couple of options:

Plug one display into one of the USB-C ports and use the USB-C Hub w/ Power Delivery as described in the answer in the above linked question to connect your devices and your charger.

Use a proper Thunderbolt 3 Dock.  The problem that you're having with the Belkin Thunderbolt 2 dock is that while Thunderbolt is technically backward compatible, Thunderbolt 3 uses passive cables where as Thunderbolt 2 cables were active.  A number of "high bandwidth" devices like storage and display require an active cable which the standard USB-C cables are not.
I recently wrote an answer about this for the question LG UltraFine & replacement Belkin USB-C cable gives blurry text.  Basically all (quality) USB-C cables are Thunderbolt 3 cables.  However, not all are active.  Active Thunderbolt 3 cables carry power and cost about $50USD more than regular ones.  I believe this is why your Belkin dock isn't working properly.

I would go with the first option: using the USB-C hub with PD.  This gives you a lot of options out of the gate without spending too much money.  If/when your needs outgrow the hub, go for the Thunderbolt 3 dock as you'll have much more room for growth.
You can try getting the active TB3 cable, but to me, it's more of a bodge and I'm not convinced the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter carries power.  There are lots of folks looking for Thunderbolt 2 docks because they have 2017 and older MacBook Pro laptops they'd like to expand but can't because of product availability; it could fetch a nice price online and help pay for that Thunderbolt 3 dock.


Apple Watch Series 4 + iPhone XS Not Staying Connected

For some reason, with the latest Apple devices, if you immediately pair your new Watch to your new phone on initial setup, the Bluetooth connection doesn't appear to "stick" beyond the initial connection. The first time your phone goes out of range of your watch, will permanently break the connection.

Once you unpair and re-pair your watch to your phone, the connection will start working properly again. So you must pair your watch to your phone after your phone is completely set up, in order to get the connection to stay.

Also, it will give you an Unpairing Error when you attempt to unpair from the phone side. You then have to completely factory reset your watch, then restore the watch from an iCloud backup when you re-pair it. This is the only way I've found to fix this problem, and so far the fix appears to be permanent.


Trouble transferring photos from PC to iPad

On a Windows PC the iOS device may show up as a mountable volume. If you open Windows Explorer is your iPad there?

If so open it and look for a folder called Pictures (or similar, sorry it's been a while). If so you can just drag your pictures into that folder.

Granted iTunes is a beast but it makes transferring things between a computer and an iOS device so much easier. Is there a specific problem you are having with iTunes or do you just hate it because it's a bloated pile of inefficient code?


I believe Mint.com does exactly that:
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/accounts/

They have a website as well as iPhone and iPad apps.


You can use Ukelele to create your own keyboard layouts, or (more realistically) edit a copy of an existing one.


Recognise installed iOS version by serial number?

The serial number will allow you to view the model and technical specifications of the phone. Using this information, you can 1) find the original iOS the phone ran, and 2) find out the iOS(s) with which the device is compatible with.

However, you can't remotely find the current iOS version or specific update to that version based on the serial number alone.


Is there a shortcut to connect Bluetooth headphones on iOS?

Confirm that your iPhone Bluetooth is always on

Confirm that you don't have a competing device trying to connect to your headphones

Depending on your headphones, they may have a parameter in which they only auto-connect to the last device.  Do you connect them to anything else?

Experiment a little bit with the connection - What is the exact sequence by which you try to get them to auto-connect?  Maybe you need to unlock your phone before turning on your headphones?  Or try opening whichever app you're using to listen to music (I assume) before turning on your headphones.

If none of that is useful this article on AppleToolBox discusses various Bluetooth troubleshooting specifically written following the iOS 12 update.

Good luck!


Unable to View Web Browsing History in Safari 10.0.2 on macOS Sierra

Yes, I have the same issue. It started when I upgraded to Sierra, I got Safari 10.0.3. Rather than reinstall all of macOS, I'm waiting to see if this is a bug in syncing between Sierra and iOS through iCloud.

Here are details of my thinking.

Frequently Visited in Favorites isn't showing anything either.

I got a History.db of 61,6 MB in my ~/Library/Safari/ folder and I manage to see some iCloud macbook browsing history on my iPhone running iOS 10.3.1.


How to improve the performance of a Ubuntu Virtual Machine running in VirtualBox?

I could not find a solution to my problem by using VirtualBox. After a week of trying out VMware Fusion I can say it has given me no issues. It runs smoothly and works well with my use-case. I don't see any apparent issues there in terms of how windows or other GUI elements lag.


Selection of Wi-Fi using AppleScript in Big Sur

It seems I've found the problem. The issue is that the selection of the element, rather than returning "kat", it returns "kat, secure network, 2 bars" and that is why "ends with" or "equals" does not work. To fix that I can use "starts with" but adding a comma after YOUR_SSID_HERE.


Finder rejecting/renaming file extension?

Found the answer in a related question here: Prevent automatically appending file extension when renaming file

The solution was to turn on the Show all filename extensions option in the Finder preferences; for some reason having it disabled forces Finder to append a "sensible" extension to files. This also solved a problem where my .gitignore and .htaccess files were being appended with an invisible .txt


In order to amend your PATH so that /usr/local/bin
is ahead of /usr/bin do the following:

execute . ~/.bash_profile
execute PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH" in the current shell
restart Terminal

You may also want to amend /etc/paths so that /usr/local/bin is listed before /usr/bin. You'll need to sudo your editor in order to do that.

sudo open -t /etc/paths

Bear in mind that if you edit /etc/paths there is a risk that non-terminal applications may pick up your locally build version. Just FYI.

A little more information on paths.

/bin (and /sbin) were intended for programs that needed to be on a small / partition before the larger /usr, etc. partitions were mounted. These days, it mostly serves as a standard location for key programs like /bin/sh, although the original intent may still be relevant for e.g. installations on small embedded devices.
/sbin, as distinct from /bin, is for system management programs (not normally used by ordinary users) needed before /usr is mounted.
/usr/bin is for distribution-managed normal user programs.
There is a /usr/sbin with the same relationship to /usr/bin as /sbin has to /bin.
/usr/local/bin is for normal user programs not managed by the distribution package manager, e.g. locally compiled packages. You should not install them into /usr/bin because future distribution upgrades may modify or delete them without warning.
/usr/local/sbin, as you can probably guess at this point, is to /usr/local/bin as /usr/sbin to /usr/bin.

This source helps explain the filesystem hierarchy standard on a deeper level.

And you might find this article on the use and abuse of /usr/local/bin interesting as well.


Macbook pro with latest opp system upgrade

Open system Preferences and go to iCloud.

When you opt out of storing documents in the cloud it should fix things. If not, log out then restart the Mac.


Unfortunately that is not possible, anyone with wired access to the AEBS has full connectivity, and also skips any other access restrictions or authentication for that matter.

However, you could use an AirPort Express for example to create a second guest network. When creating tgat network, you can use the same SSID as the guest network configured on the AirPort Extreme (make sure you also use the same encryption parameters and password) and clients will transparently switch to the one with the best signal reception while moving to different locations.


Clone one Mac and restore it on multiple Macs

On the Mac that you wanted to clone

Connect an external Hard Drive to your Mac.
Open Time Machine in System Preferences and setup the backup of your system.

This may take some hours depending on your type of external drive.

On the other Mac where you want to transfer that clone

Shut down the system
Connect the Time Machine backup disk created earlier
Power on Mac whilst holding the Command + R buttons. This will take you to recovery.
Choose Restore from Time Machine backup and press Continue.

This will make an exact clone of the first Mac.
For other systems also follow the same steps.


What does Control key do, other than its usage in terminal and right click?

The Control key is used as a modifier for various purposes in different applications. In OS X, it is also used for Emacs bindings supported in many applications.

The Apple HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) that is recommended for application developers discourages the use of the Control key (the closest equivalent to the Control modifier key in Windows is the Command key on OS X):

  As much as possible, avoid using the Control key. Because the Control key is already used by some of the universal access features—as well as in Cocoa text fields where Emacs-style key bindings are often used—it should be used as a modifier key only when necessary.

Here are some examples of shortcuts from Apple's KB on OS X keyboard shortcuts:

  Sleep and shutdown shortcuts with Control

  Command-Control-power button    Force your Mac to restart
  Control-Media Eject  (⏏)    Show restart/sleep/shutdown dialog
  Command-Control-Media Eject  (⏏)    Quit all applications (after giving you a chance to save changes to open documents), then restart the computer
  Command-Option-Control-Media Eject  (⏏)    Quit all applications (after giving you a chance to save changes to open documents), then shut down the computer
  Shift-Control-Media Eject  (⏏)    Put all displays to sleep

  Finder shortcuts with Control

  Command-Control-I      Get Summary Info
  Command-Control-Up Arrow      Open the folder that contains the current folder in a new window

  Application and other OS X shortcuts with Control (may not work in some applications)

  Control-A      Move to beginning of line/paragraph
  Control-B      Move one character backward
  Control-D     Delete the character in front of the cursor
  Control-E     Move to end of line/paragraph
  Control-F     Move one character forward
  Control-H     Delete the character behind the cursor
  Control-K      Delete from the character in front of the cursor to the end of the line/paragraph
  Control-L      Center the cursor/selection in the visible area
  Control-N      Move down one line
  Control-O      Insert a new line after the cursor
  Control-P      Move up one line
  Control-T      Transpose the character behind the cursor and the character in front of the cursor
  Control-V      Move down one page
  Control-Tab      Move focus to the next grouping of controls in a dialog or the next table (when Tab moves to the next cell)
  Shift-Control-Tab      Move focus to the previous grouping of controls
  Control-F1      Toggle full keyboard access on or off
  Control-F2      Move focus to the menu bar
  Control-F3      Move focus to the Dock
  Control-F4      Move focus to the active (or next) window
  Shift-Control-F4      Move focus to the previously active window
  Control-F5      Move focus to the toolbar.
  Control-F6      Move focus to the first (or next) panel
  Shift-Control-F6      Move focus to the previous panel
  Control-F7      Temporarily override the current keyboard access mode in windows and dialogs
  Control-F8      Move to the status menus in the menu bar
  Command-Option-Control-Comma (,)      Decrease screen contrast
  Command-Option-Control-Period (.)      Increase screen contrast
  Command-Shift-Control-3       Capture the screen to the Clipboard
  Command-Shift-Control-4      Capture a selection to the Clipboard
  Command-Control-C     Copy the formatting settings of the selected item and store on the Clipboard
  Command-Control-D     Display the definition of the selected word in the Dictionary application
  Command-Control-V      Apply formatting settings to the selected object (Paste Ruler Command)
  Control-Right Arrow       Move focus to another value or cell within a view, such as a table
  Control-Left Arrow       Move focus to another value or cell within a view, such as a table
  Control-Down Arrow       Move focus to another value or cell within a view, such as a table
  Control-Up Arrow       Move focus to another value or cell within a view, such as a table
  Control-Space bar      Toggle between the current and previous input sources
  Option-Control-Space bar      Toggle through all enabled input sources

  Universal Access shortcuts with Control

  Option-Control-F8 or fn-Option-Control-F8      Open VoiceOver Utility (if VoiceOver is on)
  Option-Control-F7 or fn-Option-Control-F7      Display VoiceOver menu (if VoiceOver is on)
  Option-Control-Semicolon (;)      Enable/disable VoiceOver Control Option-lock
  Command-Option-Control-8      Invert/revert the screen colors (OS X Lion or earlier)
  Command-Option-Control-Comma (,)      Reduce contrast (OS X Lion or earlier)
  Command-Option-Control-Period (.)      Increase contrast (OS X Lion or earlier)


Using timed access control in airport express

You have to press Enter after changing the time fields (so the cursors jumps to the next one). It's kind of user-unfriendly, bites me a lot of times as well.


How do I edit PDF Annotation Text Properties after creation?

It does work in Lion, the way you tried it.

In Snow-Leopard you have to select the text itself to change the font(size) by first clicking/selecting the text-field to get the selection rectangle (for re-sizing or moving - as you described) and then click a second time on your text to select all the characters. Now your text should be selected (visible by the highlighting) and you will be able to change the font-size in the Text Properties field.

Edit 2012-01-04:

I could reproduce the problem described and also found a simple solution. If you open your pdf and re-arrange pages or rotate them and then try to change the formating of existing text fields it (sometimes) fails.

The solution/fix is to click the window (menu-)bar of the "Fonts" window, then click on your text field again and finally chose the new font variant → and it will be applied :D


How can I remove Emoji keyboard from iOS8?

Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards. You'll see English and Emoji.

On the top right corner is the word Edit. Press Edit, and then tap the red button followed by Delete to remove the Emoji keyboard.


Compatible RAM and SSD drive for macbook pro 2012 MD101

As long as you can confirm the laptop is indeed from mid-2012 (later models have the memory soldered in), then these specs should work for you with either a 13" or 15" laptop (Apple started soldering memory in 17" laptops after 2011):

204-pin
PC3-12800 DDr3 1600 MHz type RAM

(Found at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1270)

As far as hard drives go, I'd personally recommend a Crucial SSD, but yes, any solid state drive will work.

Hope this helps!


How to find the process listening to the localhost on OSX?

Your Mac's built in webserver is turned on.

  To Turn On: sudo apachectl start

  To Turn Off: sudo apachectl stop

The process you are actually looking for is httpd, the Apache server.

$ ps -ef | grep httpd
  0 76078     1   0  3:56am ??         0:00.32 /usr/sbin/httpd -D FOREGROUND
 70 76084 76078   0  3:56am ??         0:00.00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D FOREGROUND
501 76139 76048   0  3:58am ttys000    0:00.00 grep httpd

The file that is being loaded is /Library/WebServer/Documents/index.html.en, because /Library/WebServer/Documents is configured as the DocumentRoot in the default /etc/apache2/httpd.conf file that is included with OS X.


Implications of disconnecting the closed lid sensor/battery level indicator

The negative side is that it may power on (via paired bluetooth mouse or keyboard) while in your bag. Everything else is like having installed InsomniaX on your book.


How To Change the Color of My Browsers Background Safari

You can invert colors from System Preferences -> Accessibility. As mentioned in your comments, a webpage's background is in control of the developer/webmaster.


macOS (Big Sur) Internet installation fails near the end

Below are the steps to install Big Sur from a flash drive when the Startup Security Utility disallows booting from external media.

Use your Mac or another Mac to create the USB flash drive Big Sur installer. See the Apple website How to create a bootable installer for macOS.

Boot to Big Sur Internet Recovery. In other words, start or restart the Mac mini and immediately hold down the Option+Command+R key combination until the spinning globe appears.

When Recovery Assistant window appears, select one of the following options.

Choose an account and enter a password.

Choose Recovery Assistant→Erase Mac… from the menu bar.

Proceed until you reach the image shown below.

If necessary, use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive. When finished quit the Disk Utility.

Select Utilities→Terminal from the menu bar. This will open a Terminal application window.

If you have not already done so, plug in the USB flash drive Big Sur installer.

Enter the command below to launch the Install macOS Big Sur application from the USB flash drive.
"/Volumes/Install macOS Big Sur/Install macOS Big Sur.app/Contents/MacOS/InstallAssistant_springboard"

Install macOS Big Sur to an internal drive volume.

References
HT208198: Startup Security Utility
HT201372: Create a Bootable Installer
HT211983: Use of InstallAssistant_springboard


I think I've found a way. Remove any places that are already assigned to individual photos in the album/event. Then select all the photos and set a location. It should now assign that location to all the photos.


Has Apple indicated that some 2019 MacBook Pros have a fault relating to power, battery or shutdown issues?

At this stage it's too early in the product cycle for this model to know if this rates as a known issue for Apple.

However, any product, no matter the type or manufacturer, can have a fault and having bad batches of components is not unheard of. Apple does use warranty extension programs, replacement programs and repair programs if/when it identifies there's a definite issue to address. At this stage though it would be pure speculation, even if a handful of MacBook Pros presented with the same issue.

You indicate you've reset the SMC as per Apple's instructions, but just to be thorough your model MacBook Pro has a T2 chip and you have two options for resetting the SMC (the 2nd to be tried if the first fails).

Resetting the SMC on a 2019 MacBook Pro

Fully shut down your MBP.
Press and hold the power button for at least 10 seconds
Let go of the power button and wait 5 seconds
Power up your MBP again

Once you've reset the SMC fully charge your MBP and see how you go. If it's still misbehaving, reset the SMC again but with the following steps instead:

Fully shut down your MBP.
Press and hold the right shift key and the left option and control keys for 7 seconds before then also pressing and holding the power button (or Touch ID button) down for another 7 seconds (i.e. the keys will end up being held down for 14 seconds, the power button for 7 seconds)
Let go of all three keys and the power button
Wait 5 seconds
Power up your MBP again

Now test your MBP again.

If the above fails, then I'd be talking to Apple Support to explain what's happening. If they can't address the issue then you're entitled to a refund or replacement, but you'll want to get onto it straight away so that a case is logged this early in your ownership.


How to move an iPod or iOS device from one computer to another without losing anything?

Your question can be rewritten in short form:

iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
Where are my iOS backups stored? - expand the section About Syncing and Backups and you'll see

iTunes places the backup files in the following places:

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Windows XP: \Documents and Settings(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista and Windows 7: \Users(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

I linked to the official articles since things do change and cutting and pasting the steps today might not be right if things change in a month or two. Don't worry - the article about music moves everything except the iOS device backups. If your device is working, there's no need to move backups unless you want to keep older ones or save time the first time you sync with the new iTunes.


Edit TCC.db to bypass "'Foo.app' wants access to control 'Bar.app'" on own machine

To access the TCC.db database directly is no longer supported by Apple, even if you disable SIP, because of their policy of protecting users from big companies that like to track everything you do online, and also used to do this stealthy bypass without asking permission to users. However, even in Mojave, there is a way to circumvent this, but with a catch: that only works if a given computer is enrolled in an MDM program. To know more about the MDM program go here.
In order to bypass this for several computers you can use the python script tccprofile.py available at GitHub.
As far as I know, this is the only way to bypass the need to ask user permission from Mojave onwards.


Safari stopped auto-filling saved password data, any 'fix'?

This is only a partial answer covering a slight alleviation for:

  Yet another marvellous new 'feature' - Safari 11.1 now will not auto-fill any login data unless you specifically click the first field, select the login drop menu, select the login…

My personal grievance with this situation is that there seems no way to use the keyboard for this and being forced to use the mouse/trackpad to hit a usually tiny caret to achieve the desired result. Using the keyboard for this task would be at least much faster and less error prone.

Unfortunately, it looks as if you still may use Tab to get to the username field, but after that all keyboard actions seem to be inert and it's back to using a pointing device?

That seems to be amplified by a bug. If you Tab past the username field and into the password field, then Shift+Tab back into the username field, then the information is auto-filled in for the most recent credentials and you may even select other identities with the cursor keys.

This behaviour differs depending on the page in question and also has its level of practicality depending on the page design: how many fields there are to tab into, before reaching the desired one.

On a relatively cleanly designed page like Apple's developer program login page the behaviour is as described above. On other pages the behaviour can sometimes be different and even be more like it was before. For example, Microsoft dedicated login pages preselect an open field and it's just a cursor down + Return to go forward.

This was tested on 10.12.6 and with Safari Version 11.1.1 (12605.2.1).


The reasons for this problem were twofold, it has turned out.

About half of the missing space was in SIP-protected folders that are not found by programs like du or OmniDiskSweeper, not even when they are run as root. A safe boot fixed that.
The other half was indeed (see How to thin your local Time Machine Snapshots on macOS High Sierra mentioned in a comment to my question) in time machine local snapshots.

The LC_SEGMENT error may have been a red herring. Checking the APFS system with the machine in TDM attached to another Mac did not notice any problems with the file system.

Time Machine does provide a risk for boot file systems that are pretty full and that have a volatile content (large size of additions and removals). And these days, you cannot turn local snapshots off anymore.


List of all homebrew package names (not a count)

You can use brew search to get a complete list of all available packages.
This website provides a great search functionality to search in all the packages


Late 2019 Macbook Air with Intel Core i5 8GB RAM 128 SSD

No, the processor is soldered. I highly doubt buying a logic board is a good choice. You can't buy it from Apple, so you're stuck with third party options. It's also fairly likely that a working logic board that you want is going to be fairly expensive, maybe even more expensive than just buying a new laptop.

Your best value is sell this mac - perhap helping someone get it set up so they are happy paying full price and then order the gear you want paying the delta in what your sells for and what the new costs.


Mail won't open after installing the security update for 10.6.8

After an OSX update (10.6.4, 10.6.6, 10.6.8 caused this issue to me) I had the same problem.  For the third time in 2 years.

If you're lucky this issue causes one hour wasted to reinstall from DVD, then re-apply patches hoping it will work the first time.

Now if you're tired of this, I have THE definitive solution for you: install thunderbird (which will import your messages even if mail won't open !).

Like with any other operating system it's best to keep operating system and productivity applications from separate providers to minimize risk of something like this happening.

After you move to thunderbird you can move your mail history anywhere, even on windows or linux.

Incidentally, this will also get you a more powerful mail client instead of mail which - besides the upgrade issues - is a really basic client.


How to get a specific dictionary to be used to show a word entry in the inital dictionary view that arises from Spotlight?

Great question and it's one that comes up more often than not.

Here is a link to a similar question submitted to AskDifferent a few years ago: How to switch language of OS X dictionary?

You could also try this:

Open the Dictionary app and navigate to Dictionary/Preferences.

In Preferences select or de-select the languages you prefer.

It may be that 'German' is still set as the preferred language, so de-selecting it may then allow you to remove it as you were initially attempting to do.

Also, after making these changes, try restarting your Mac. Sometimes this helps things reboot in proper order and get rid of processes and other 'crud' that may be clogging the Mac's Memory.

'Hope this helps!

~


Can iOS apps be safely deleted from iTunes?

The apps can be safely deleted from iTunes without affecting either the apps currently on the device or your backups. When you perform a backup, all of your data is backed up regardless of the apps you have in iTunes.

However, when you restore from a backup, apps are re-download from the iTunes Store. If one of your apps is no longer available on the store for some reason, that particular app won't be restored. If you still have a copy of the app on your computer, you'll be able to install it on your device from iTunes. (I'm not sure what happens to the app's data in this case, however. I suspect it depends on whether you're restoring from an iCloud backup or a local backup, but I've never had the chance to test it.)


Use iPad as output device without iTunes?

What you call anti-competitive is kind of the point of DRM -- if it could overridden by simply writing a new program, it wouldn't be much of a stopping point.

In any event, you don't really say except at the bottom, but the implication is that you are trying to watch content purchased from iTunes. Is that correct? If so, you may be much more limited. If it's not purchased content, there are more options.

Next you will need a way to essentially broadcast content to the device. For years I used Air Video. You need to download the app to your device to act as the receiver, and the server app to your MacBook to act as the, well, server. Note the above app does not support DRMed content, such as items purchased in iTunes, but it does support most everything else you can throw at it.

Then, while on the plane, you will need to set up a direct WiFi connection. On your MacBook, go to the WiFi menu bar icon, click on it and choose Create Network. Give it a name, choose a channel, and enable a password for it.

On your device go to Settings > WiFi and tap on your new network. Enter the password, and you should be able to stream content using the Air Video client on your iPad.


Where can I download old iOS versions from Apple?

As far as I'm aware Apple doesn't offer the links directly, but iClarified has a complete list of iOS downloads for all models of iPhone available here. It came in handy when I downgraded my old 3G back down to 3.1.3


How can I use a non-amplified mic on a MBP?

You can't get good results with an unpowered microphone without a cable adapter or USB interface. The best bet is to purchase one of the many USB to audio interface dongles available. A favorite of mine is this one from Monoprice in California, which costs under $10. It includes a stereo headphone output and a mono mic input. It will also handle  powered microphones, such as the Audio-Technica ATR-3350 lavaliere mic. I have two of these mics, and they offer excellent value for money (about $20).


iMac (El-Capitan) - Trying to make Wi-Fi as a priority over Ethernet

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Network.
Click the Action pop-up menu , then choose Set Service Order.
Drag services into the order you want.
Click OK, then click Apply to make the new settings active.


Try to

move the ringtones from iTunes to the Desktop (or any other "safe" place)
delete them from iTunes and sync
copy them back into iTunes and sync again

It worked for me this way.


Can I delete Applications-folder from desktop?

Yes, it's a shortcut - the telltale small arrow gives that information.
You can safely delete it, it will not delete the original.


Plug the iPad into the original Apple charger (the one that came with the iPad) for a few hours.  Your computer's USB port may not provide enough power if the iPad's battery is completely discharged.  The iPad charger is rated to provide twice as much charging current as a typical computer USB port.


How could I install Boot Camp drivers to my Windows partition?

Probably your Boot Camp partition is hosed and couldn't be removed simply.
So i would try to reinstall Windows 7 with your pre-made (Microsoft's bootable USB creation tool!) thumb drive.

Attach the Windows 7 installer thumb drive to your Windows server,  format it if necessary (FAT32) and create the bootable Win7 install thumb drive again with the Microsoft tool.

Download BootCamp5.1.5621 on your server

Extract BootCamp5.1.5621.zip

Copy the extracted files and folders ($WinPEDriver$, AutoUnattend.xml, BootCamp etc.) to the root of the thumb drive.

The file/folder structure in the root of your thumb drive should look like this:

Detach the thumb drive from your server

Attach the thumb drive to your Mac

Reboot your Mac and immediately hold the alt/option button until you see the boot menu

Choose your thumb drive as boot volume

Try to reinstall Windows 7. You might have to reformat your existing Windows partition with the disk management tool of the Windows 7 Installer (don't delete or resize it!).

If that doesn't work reboot to Mac OS X, start Boot Camp Assistant and try to remove Windows 7 completely.
If the removal fails check several answers here to remove your Boot Camp partition manually:
remove-windows-7
i-messed-up-the-fusion-drive (both require a Time Machine backup)
or some other answers here.
Before doing that post a comment and i will give advice depending on your partition layout.
Start Boot Camp Assistant from scratch to install Windows 7.


How to show the macOS menu bar on fullscreen mode

I don't know if this is considered full screen but if I click on green button in top left corner of app while holding down option key, the app screen will maximize but leave apple menu visible.


It's possible that the Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs option in the resetpassword tool will correct those permissions for you, though I'm unsure how 'deep' into your home directory it will reset.

This blog post gives the steps for Lion, which appear to be the same in Yosemite (Note: that last link details instructions for resetting a password, which is obviously not what you are doing here, which is why I linked to the Lion instructions. However, the same tool is used in each process):

  Restart, and before you hear the chime, hold down the Command and R keys.
  You’ll be at the Repair Utilities screen. Click the Utilities item in the Menu Bar, then click Terminal.
  In the Terminal window, type resetpassword and hit Return.
  The password reset utility window launches, but you’re not going to reset the password. Instead, click on icon for your Mac’s hard drive
  at the top. From the dropdown below it, select the user account where
  you’re having issues.
  At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the Reset button there.

  The reset process takes just a couple of minutes. When it’s done, exit
  the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac.


How to access web dev servers running on localhost with non-standard ports from the network?

This may be considered a duplicate question as I arrived at the solution from this answer.. I didn't give up searching, sorry about that.

To help others I'll mention what I got wrong.

I didn't have to change any firewall or sharing settings - it was to do with where the application was being hosted. I assumed that when I viewed 192.168.0.164 from the other Mac, it'd magically map to the host's 127.0.0.1... that is not the case!

So instead I explicitly hosted the application on 192.168.0.164 instead of 127.0.0.1 and it worked fine!


How to stop iOS Mail from automatically downloading attachments?

Most attachments in emails are actually remote images. You can stop iOS Mail from downloading remote images as follows:

Go to Settings
Tap on Mail
Under the Messages heading, toggle Load Remote Images off

In terms of stopping other attachments (e.g. MS Word documents etc), there is no such option to prevent downloading these. However, the way it should work is as follows:

When your iPhone is connected to the internet via a cellular network, any email attachments over a certain size will not download automatically.
Instead, for these attachments you would have to manually select them in the body of the email to download them.
When your iPhone is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi, all email attachments will download automatically.

As far as I'm aware there is no way to stop this, although there may be 3rd party email apps that give you this option.

If you're sure that emails are taking up a lot of space on your iPhone, you may need to rethink how regularly you delete older emails. You can also filter emails by attachment and then delete the oldest ones to free up space. Another option is to set up a Mailbox for emails with attachments so it's easier for you to manually manage them.


Open your preferences and go to "composing" amd change the setting for "Send new messages from:", close the preferences, quit mail, and then reset your preference to what you want.

If this doesn't work, make sure you don't have any Mail plugins installed.

Check the folder(s) if they exist:

$HOME/Library/Mail/V2/Bundles/
 $HOME/Library/Mail/Bundles/


It sounds to me like screen sharing is not enabled on the MacBook Pro. To fix this, we will remotely enable screen sharing using SSH. If remote login is also not enabled, this answer will not work.
Open the terminal app, and type:

ssh username@169.254.94.117

Then enter the password for that username. Then type:

sudo defaults write /var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd/overrides.plist com.apple.screensharing -dict Disabled -bool false

This will prompt you for an administrative password. Enter it, then type:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist

This will enable screen sharing on the target computer. Please comment with any questions or comments or if this solution doesn't work.


What is the correct way to take screenshot for the Mac App Store Submission?

See the docs — in the last row of the table it says:

  One screenshot is required for Mac apps.
  Up to four additional screenshots can be uploaded. Screenshots appear on the store in the order they were uploaded in iTunes Connect.
  Screenshot requirements are:

  72 dpi, RGB, flattened, no transparency
  High-quality JPEG or PNG image file format in the RGB color space
  16:10 aspect ratio
  One of the following sizes:

  1280 x 800 pixels
  1440 x 900 pixels
  2880 x 1800 pixels


I also suffered from the same and in the end contacted apple support who made me generate a support pin after logging into Apple ID and then did something on their end to resolve the issue. they said I sent messages to people not in my contacts.

but i still suggest checking if network provider blocks accessing iMessages.


Change carrier settings in iPhone post iOS7, possible?

Just go to http://www.unlockit.co.nz on your iPhone and follow the instructions. There are similar sites as well that do the same thing, and you don't even have to be jailbroken. There are some tweaks that enable the APN settings in the Cellular section of the Settings app, though, if that's what you really want.


From the App Store Preview for FaceApp - AI Face Editor it states:

  This app is available only on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Also:

  Requires iOS 11.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Based on that, I'd say no.


How to backup iPhone to iTunes for the first time (data stored on the iPhone, not on iTunes)

Yes, if you do a direct sync, your apps will be wiped out. You should transfer the apps to the new iTunes by doing this:

  Files -> Transfer Purchases from iPod

This step should transfer your apps to iTunes. You can also see this Apple.SE post for a similar situation. After transfering purchases, you should then be able to sync with the new iTunes without losing your apps. The same situation holds for music.


Can I link an image without embedding in Mac MS Word 2016?

Insert → Field (from the menu or ribbon).
Choose Links and References → Include Picture.
Add double quotes to the end of the ‘INCLUDEPICTURE’ string and enter the URL of the image.

To prevent Word from caching the picture which would increase the file size, and to require Word to the image to be downloaded each time, choose Options…, then add switch \d.

  \d Graphic data is not stored with the document, reducing the file size.

Click OK on both dialogs to insert the image.
The image will need to be downloaded by Word, which will likely prompt you to confirm this.


Are email Attachments technically always inline, or does macOS Mail not allow conventional, non-inline attachments?

There is a definition in the MIME specification for both inline and attachment files within email messages, but (from the Wiki page linked above):

  As of 2010, a good majority of mail user agents do not follow this
  prescription fully. Most users are unaware of how to set the
  content-disposition to attachment. Many mail user agents also send
  messages with the file name in the name parameter of the content-type
  header instead of the filename parameter of the content-disposition
  header.  This practice is discouraged.

In short, whether the sender and recipient follow the spec, or do things differently, is uncertain.


Ordering an iPhone from different region

The good news is your country is not entirely locked out of the Apple ecosystem and you will be able to make an AppleID and host it in your country of Georgia and have access to the App Store.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204411

Past that, it’s not great news since many services will require you to have your AppleID hosted in a different country. Much of Apple’s offering is not directly offered to the country of Georgia. I lack experience on the cellular carriers, but since iPhone are sold in Turkey directly from Apple and from two resellers in Armenia - you likely have easy access to carriers to register the eSIM or put a physical GSM SIM in your new phone and have it work perfectly. There is zero hassle on swapping SIM at your convenience on unlocked phones from the US - no downside to buying from us other than you may have to ship it back for warranty service if Apple requests that when you ask for service. Nor many down sides, bit I can’t get you details lacking a good knowledge of carrier status in Georgia.

Also, you shouldn’t run into issue importing it after checking the Global Trade Compliance information that Apple publishes.

https://www.apple.com/legal/more-resources/gtc.html


How can I prevent OSX upgrade messing up my apache ant install

OS X used to come with a version of Apache ant, but not since OS X 10.9.

I think that previously I must have installed into /usr/bin directly from the apache site but that is a bad idea because on upgrade anything Apple doesn't recognise in /usr/bin is removed (although a copy is moved to /Library/SystemMigration/History/Migratio**********/QuarantineRoot).

Instead I should have installed into /usr/local

I did this using homebrew, installation of homebrew and then ant with homebrew was easy and I did not have to manually setup any paths, however note if you need to install custom jars they need to be put into (i.e /usr/local/Cellar/ant/1.9.6/libexec/lib) libexec/lib which is non-standard, there is no libexec folder in the standard version of ant. Other than I have had no other issues with the homebrew version of ant.


Archive Utility can't open some gzipped text files based on their contents

Someone in another forum sleuthed this out. If you run Archive Utility in the terminal, it shows a more complete error message:

Error unarchiving Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=79 "Inappropriate file type or format" (Missing type keyword in mtree specification)

Turns out Archive Utility on Catalina is misdetecting text files as mtree files, which is a documented way to misconfigure libarchive (bug 1; bug 2).

This means, in addition to Archive Utility on 10.15.4 failing to decompress some simple text files like "hello", it will also do surprising things with text files that match the mtree format. For example, decompressing "hello type=dir" will create a directory that can only be deleted with sudo:

% echo "hello type=dir" | gzip > hello.txt.gz; open hello.txt.gz
% ls -l
total 8
d---------  2 jcushman  staff  64 Apr 20 09:36 hello
-rw-r--r--@ 1 jcushman  staff  35 Apr 20 09:36 hello.txt.gz


Server is a separate app from the OS, that you download from the Mac App Store. It will be listed in the Purchases of the AppleID that was used to buy it.
You could also copy the app from your backup, and it will create all the necessary folders from scratch. (You may want to copy over the contents of /Library/Server, and other files, to restore your server settings.)


How do I install Skype for Business on my Mac?

Microsoft has officially released Skype for Business for Mac on October 26th, 2016. You can find the official download link here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54108

If you are using Homebrew (and Cask), you can install Skype for Business for Mac with the following commands:

brew update ; brew cask install skype-for-business


El Capitan: After upgrade Mac won't connect to CardDAV-server

Something is clearly broken with El Capitan and CardDAV, but I could make it work by:

properly set up the standard /.well-known/carddav and /.well-known/caldav redirects (see your CardDAV server documentation to see the destination URL)
use the Manuel settings type - there are now 3 types of CardDAV configurations in El Capitan: Automatic, Manual and Advanced. In my experience Advanced is really broken in 11.11.0, but Manual can work with a server configured as described in #1


VNC connection to Mavericks Screen Sharing drops WiFi connection

This happened to me with Yosemite, actually ran into a comment that worked for me here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mavericks-drops-wifi-when-connecting-in-with-vnc.1694085/

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement VNCAlwaysStartOnConsole -bool true

Another option would be to use wired, then it worked for me as well (no setting changes needed).

From https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4170694?start=0&tstart=0 it appears that "maybe" the root of the problem is that it's trying to revert to a login screen (and...doesn't do it right? mine definitely did not ever return to a login screen, it just killed the wifi). So perhaps there's a possibility that if you can get your "wifi" to remain active in login screens (and/or your mac "starts" at the login screen) then you could connect via WiFi and not have it disconnect, and not need the above.  I could not find any way that worked for me to leave my wifi active while logging out, to test this hypothesis, but YMMV.

Another hint: when using wifi with "WPA2 Personal" and the above set to "false" when I connect, it actually works, VNC connects to a "new remote" session, not the currently logged in user (i.e. new login screen) (it also allows me to logout and not disconnect the WiFi, something the "Enterprise" wifi doesn't allow me to do at all).  So my latest hypothesis is that "sharing" stronger encryption connected wifi "WPA2 enterprise" isn't allowed somehow (since it's also disallowed in the "Internet sharing"), and when it tries to open a new session, which is disallowed over the wifi ("sharing wifi" not allowed, for instance, in the sharing pane) it forces a disconnect.  But connecting to the current user is OK.


Newsfire archives entries as long as you want it to.


Text substitutions for superscript and subscript

Here is one solution using the command line:

Converting numbers to super/subscript

The sed utility allows you to use a translation table to convert characters to other characters:
$ echo "abc513" | sed -e 'y|0123456789|⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹|'
abc⁵¹³

$ echo "abc513" | sed -e 'y|0123456789|₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉|'
abc₅₁₃

From there, we can write a tsubst script:
$ cat ./tsubst
#!/bin/bash

function superscript { echo "$1" | sed -e 'y|0123456789|⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹|'; }
function subscript   { echo "$1" | sed -e 'y|0123456789|₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉|'; }

function phrase_from_shortcut_pattern {
  if [[ "$1" =~ ^\^(.+)$ ]]
  then
    # ^ -> superscript
    echo "$(superscript "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}")"
  elif [[ "$1" =~ ^_(.+)$ ]]
  then
    # _ -> subscript
    echo "$(subscript "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}")"
  else
    echo "$1"
  fi
}

phrase_from_shortcut_pattern "${@}"

That script takes one argument, a Text Replacement shortcut pattern with a ^ or _ prefix to indicate a super or subscript transformation, and returns the corresponding phrase:
$ ./tsubst _answer42
answer₄₂

$ ./tsubst ^answer42
answer⁴²

Generate phrases from lists or ranges of shortcut patterns

With that script, we can use bash loops and substitutions to generate phrases from a list of shortcut patterns:
$ for p in _42 ^42; do echo "${p} -> $(./tsubst "${p}")"; done
_42 -> ₄₂
^42 -> ⁴²

Or a range of shortcut patterns:
$ for p in _{6..8} ^{9..11}; do echo "${p} -> $(./tsubst "${p}")"; done
_6 -> ₆
_7 -> ₇
_8 -> ₈
^9 -> ⁹
^10 -> ¹⁰
^11 -> ¹¹

Adding text substitutions from the command line

This is the tricky part... I found one command-line utility that does its job well: shortcuts.
$ shortcuts read
0: "jrv" —> "J’arrive !"
1: "omw" —> "On my way!"

$ shortcuts create "xyz" "XYZ"

$ shortcuts read
0: "xyz" —> "XYZ"
1: "jrv" —> "J’arrive !"
2: "omw" —> "On my way!"

$ shortcuts delete xyz

$ shortcuts read
0: "jrv" —> "J’arrive !"
1: "omw" —> "On my way!"

Automatically adding Text Replacement entries...

Now we can compose the two utilities to add entries to the Text Replacements preferences:
$ for p in _42 ^42 _{6..8} ^{9..11}; do
>   ./shortcuts create "${p}" "$(./tsubst "${p}")"
> done

$ ./shortcuts read
0: "^11" —> "¹¹"
1: "^10" —> "¹⁰"
2: "^9" —> "⁹"
3: "_8" —> "₈"
4: "_7" —> "₇"
5: "_6" —> "₆"
6: "^42" —> "⁴²"
7: "_42" —> "₄₂"
8: "jrv" —> "J’arrive !"
9: "omw" —> "On my way!"

And the result in the Text Replacements preferences:


Shell set environment variables for command

The variables are set only in the current scope, to make them visible in a program that is called or after a source (e.g. . file) you need to export them.

Thus program_variables.config should be

export VARIABLE="value"
export VARIABLE2="value2"

Then just run the executable,

This can all be in one script to run the executable

#!/bin/sh
export VARIABLE="value"
export VARIABLE2="value2"
run_program

Save this file and make it executable.
Then just use the name os this file as the program


How to get the "securely erase" function of Disk Utility on El Capitan & Sierra

Use diskutil from Terminal.  The following command

diskutil secureErase 0 /dev/diskX

Will erase your disk, identified by X, with a single pass of zeros.  You can get a list of the options available to you by issuing the command without any options:

$ diskutil secureErase

Usage:  diskutil secureErase [freespace] level MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Securely erases either a whole disk or a volume's freespace.
Level should be one of the following:
        0 - Single-pass zeros.
        1 - Single-pass random numbers.
        2 - US DoD 7-pass secure erase.
        3 - Gutmann algorithm 35-pass secure erase.
        4 - US DoE 3-pass secure erase.
Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Note: Level 2, 3, or 4 secure erases can take an extremely long time.

Secure Erase and SSDs

You don't need to do a secure erase of an SSD because a a standard erase is already more than enough to secure your data.  The reason you needed multiple passes or even the DoD 7 pass secure erase was because with traditional hard drives (HDDs) the data was stored on magnetic platters which left a residual magnetic imprint even when wiped.  This is how COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) utilities like Disk Drill  software is able to reconstruct a drive. This is not the case with an SSD; nothing is magnetized.

In fact, it is recommended (read that to mean highly advised) that you don't do a secure erase because you would be shortening the life expectancy of your SSD due to the increased write operations.

Per Apple:

  Note: With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not
  available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD
  drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from
  an SSD. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption
  when you start using your SSD drive.

Now, if TRIM is enabled (and it should be if your Mac came with an SSD from the factory), it will handle the task of freeing up the blocks of data no longer in use making them available for immediate writing.

Regular HDDs didn't do this.  When you deleted a file, it only deleted the pointer to the data, not the data itself.


My Internal SSD is Not Showing Up in Diskutil

I found the solution. I have an NVME SSD because of that Yosemite or El Capitan can't see it. I just created an High Sierra boot USB and that solved my problem.


Does iPad mini gets scratched easily without a case?

I believe white one is more succeptible than black one. As far as the case, I picked up a clear case on ebay (shipped from Jersey) to go with my smart cover for $3.98 and it is pretty thin, maybe adds 2mm to the overall thickness. Just something to look at.


Yes. Quit iTunes. Move the iTunes folder to the desired location. Then, make a symbolic link to the moved iTunes folder, drag that symbolic link to the Music folder, rename the link to be exactly "iTunes" and you are done.

An alias won't work. It has to be a Symbolic Link.

I made my symbolic link using an Automator Service. Automator is not set up to make Symbolic Links out of the box, so you have to get something third-party to enable it. Here is a link to a good article on how to get the piece you need and also how to make and use the Automator Service. Here is the link:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/automator-create-symbolic-links-dropbox-mac/

There are other ways to make a Symbolic Link but you only need one, so here you go.

You don't have to change anything at all in iTunes. That's the beauty of this method. The symbolic link satisfies iTunes' need to have an iTunes folder in the Music folder, while pointing to the real iTunes folder somewhere else. Just be sure you name your Symbolic Link "iTunes" after you move it (don't try to rename it before you move it-- you will be trying to name it the same thing as the real iTunes folder).

You can always throw away the Symbolic Link and put the iTunes folder back in the Music folder if you'd like, so you really have nothing to lose. Try it!


Completely disable a keyboard shortcut for one application

This works on MS RDC v10 but not the old v8.

Replacing Close  Cmd ⌘   W  with a 'garbage' command effectively removes the hot key from the interface - though it doesn't make it work as Close Tab in Windows, it seems to just ignore it.
 Ctrl ⌃   W  does close tabs [as expected].


If I delete an episode from my iPhone, will it still be available on iTunes?

It depends on two things:

If you have a computer or another device set to automatically download purchases, you will have that copy as long as it is online and the download completes successfully.
If your account is in a country that allows TV eposides to be re-downloaded (usually called iTunes in the cloud) you could re-download the episode later as long as the studio doesn't withdraw it from sale or download.