How to enable TCP/IP for Postgres on OS X 10.7 Server?

The Postgres process started by "serveradmin" has command-line arguments added by /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postgresql.postgres.plist.  The default includes -c listen_addresses=, which turns off TCP/IP.

Changing it to listen_addresses=localhost, and restarting Postgres, solved the problem.  (I suppose I could probably also remove the -c argument entirely.)

(One comment I found somewhere suggested that in 10.8 Server, the file you need to edit is /Library/Server/PostgreSQL/Config/org.postgresql.postgres.plist, but I haven't upgraded to 10.8 yet so I can't confirm this.)


The built-in default "Solid Colors" profile randomly selects a background color for each new terminal.

It works by setting the background image to a folder of images, each of which is a solid color. To choose different colors (or patterns, etc.) you can place a collection of images in a folder and set a profile to use the folder in

  Preferences > Profiles > [profile] > Text > Background > Image:

Another feature of profiles is that if you create a new terminal with Shell > New Command or New Remote Connection it will look for a profile with a matching name and select that profile. It will look for a match of the entire command string, a partial match of the command name and arguments starting from the left, and it will also try to interpret the profile name as a regular expression.

This means you can name a profile “ssh” to have it selected for any ssh command, or “ssh hostname” for ssh commands whose first argument matches hostname, for example.


The issue was mine.
I deleted all the existing rules, and remade them from scratch. Some new rules didn't work well at first, but I modified the conditions (adding a condition with a problematic email selected creates a condition based on that email's attributes) and then used the "Apply Rules" selection from the "Message" menu to test their effect.
After a few days of testing, sorting is now almost always correct, and immediate.


This small application runs in the background and shows the current IP
  dddress of your Mac in the menu bar. There are options available to
  customize the appearance of the menu entry. The IP dddress is updated
  regulary. Switch on the Router option if you are behind a router or
  gateway. You can still see your local IP address in the menu.

https://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/Software/IPinmenubar.shtml

  Do you need your computers IP address often? If so, IPMenulet is
  likely the quickest way to have the number handy all the time, it’s a
  free and simple menu item that displays your current external IP
  address in the Mac OS X menu bar, there’s no other frills or features.

  You can download IPMenulet now (direct .dmg download – link changed
  visit dev site instead) or visit the developers website here for more
  information and to view the simple tools source code.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/30/show-ip-address-menu-bar-mac/

And the associated Google Search :

https://www.google.fr/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=ip+menubar+os+x&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=N-0WVve4KMe7bpKHpogO


Apple hardware does not use processor sockets. The CPU is soldered to the logic board. Upgrading a logic board on an older machine is only theoretically possible if there were more powerful processor options created for the same generation of machine, and then the parts and labor cost usually makes this unreasonable compared to the cost of purchasing a new Mac. You will not ever be able to use a current-generation processor in a vintage machine.

If you are unable to upgrade to a new computer, you may be able to find opportunity for increased performance by maxing out your system's RAM and exchanging the internal HDD for an SSD. I highly recommend OWC (macsales.com) as a resource for parts and compatibility when it comes to making these kinds of upgrades to older machines.


My Mac mini's iTunes library does not appear in Home Sharing on my Macbook Air

Go into Preferences and make sure you have Shared Libraries ticked in the Show section of the General Preferences pane.

You might also have the details hidden in the sidebar. If the sidebar has SHARED in grey writing with nothing under it then try placing the cursor to the right of the word (near the right edge of the pane) and either Hide or Show will appear, allowing you to toggle the list.


Up front I have to say that it is known factor that mavericks has (had) some issues with IMAP mail providers. There was an upgrade that supposed to address that.

All in all, make sure you have the correct IMAP settings at your provider.

Here is an example for Gmail.

Starting from the settings in your web mail client (ie Gmail)

Go to your web mail (gmail) and in settings, check all folders (Google calls that Labels) you want to see on your computer (show in IMAP).

Just to make sure:

Disable junk mail filtering in your Mail.app on your computer
Disable all Rules in your Mail.app on your computer.
Also take a look for new mails in the Archive folder, which is an equivalent to the Googles "All Mail" folder.

In Mail.app under Window--click on the activity and see it work once you click the Get Mail. It will show you what is going on.

Here are recommended setting for Apple mail from Gmail:


How do you move up one folder in Finder?

Using keyboard shortcut Command + ↑ moves one level up in the filesystem hierarchy in Finder.

When using Finder:

Command + ↓ opens the currently selected file or folder.
Command + ↑ takes you to the parent of the current folder.


Can't sync music from iPhone to computer

By design, the iPhone will sync iTunes content with one computer at a time. Any attempt to sync such content with a second computer will result in ALL iTunes content being first erased from your phone & then replaced with the content from the second computer. This is a design feature and cannot be overridden. Because you replaced your computer, or hard drive, your phone will see this as a "new" computer. The iTunes content sync is one way: computer to phone. If you have photos that were synced to your phone or music ripped on your own that were not backed up, you will first have to extract them from your phone using third party software such as Touch Copy, before you do anything else, as Apple makes no provision to do so. Try this

Past iTunes, App store, & iBookstore content can be re-downloaded. Read here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519

Once you've done that, do the following in the order specified:

Disable auto sync when an iPod/iPhone is connected under iTunes>Preferences>Devices(under Edit menu if using Windows).
Make sure you have one contact & one event in the supported applications on your computer(iCal & Address Book on a Mac, Windows Address Book or Outlook if using Windows). These entries can be fake, doesn't matter, the important point is that these programs not be empty.
Connect your phone, iTunes running, do not sync at this point.
Store>Authorize this computer.
File>Transfer Purchases(To make sure all purchased content on your phone will be in your iTunes library).
Right click your phone in the left device pane & select "Reset warnings".
Right click again and select "Backup".
Right click again & select "Restore from Backup", select the backup you just made. When prompted to create another backup, decline.
This MUST be followed by a sync to restore your iTunes content, which you select from the various tabs, You'll get a popup regarding your contacts & calendars asking to merge or replace, select "Merge".

Your phone should look just like it did when you started, with no data loss.

You should be good to go.


Oracle VirtualBox installation failed on BigSur M1 Apple laptop

I believe the VirtualBox documentation states the Mac must be Intel based.
VMware Fusion also has a free Player, but does not yet run on M1, Apple Silicon, ARM  Macs.
Parallels has a Technical Preview which requires an ARM version of Windows 10.


Problem solved. It wasn't obvious to me but itwas about global configuration. I played a bit with the command git config --global which set a hidden git config file in my home folder. There was the information regarding another remote I set back then. This remote pointed to a repository which I deleted so git clone tried to fetch information from that deleted repo first. I just deleted that git global configuration file.


How many monitors can be hooked up to a Mac Mini?

Only one Mac Mini (to date) has supported three simultaneous monitors. The Mid 2011 Mac Mini (Macmini5,2) came with an AMD Radeon HD 6630M that was powerful enough to drive two Thunderbolt displays while simultaneously driving an HDMI display. 1

The current Late 2012 Mac Mini, along with the other Mid 2011 Mac Minis, all have integrated Intel graphics that are only able to drive, at most, two Thunderbolt displays or one Thunderbold and one HDMI display.


Are iPhone replacements for software issues free?

It might be free. I had an iPhone 6 replaced for free just last month. The iPhone was 6 months out of warranty, no AppleCare, but was having battery problems. Apple determined the battery was defective and replaced it for free.


4K video file exported from Final Cut Pro cannot be located in iTunes

It will be in the "Home Videos" section of iTunes with the same name as the Project Name from iTunes.

Worth checking with FCPX where it believes it exported it:

Select your Project, and in the Inspector window click the "sharing" button (3-headed arrow, top row of the inspector, next to the "i" button).

If FCPX published it to the iTunes library, it will be confirmed there. If it published it somewhere else, it will show the location.


Remove Window Drop Shadow and Replace with Outline

Try this application, it has a LOT of OSX modifications:

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html


Late note: iPartition cannot handle CoreStorage or APFS volumes & is no longer supported by its author. Coriolis is now a single page site, with unsupported free license downloads for some of its old software.
If you are still on a pre-CoreStorage macOS, then it is still very much the tool to use.

For all my partitioning, I use and recommend iPartition.
iPartition allows you to modify Boot Camp partitions just like regular partitions. iPartition will reconfigure the Windows partitions automatically.

You can use iPartition on drives that contain Boot Camp volumes; in fact, you can even resize your Windows partitions, and let iPartition take care of reconfiguring the Windows boot process for you.


Rescue light red Time Machine backups after El Capitan Update

Hit “enter Time Machine”
Press the key combination shift-command-C
Then (very important) select a red bar to go back in time
Explanation: dull red bars represent backups you cannot access, bright red bars you can
Then from Macintosh HD navigate to desired folder you want to restore
Backups will now be accessible and you can select the folder you want to restore.


How can I open FLAC files in iTunes without doing any kind of conversion?

I've tried Fluke, which has been no
  help, especially since the SetOGG
  script no longer works on Mac OSX
  10.6.

@Phillip Whelan Fluke has had 10.6 support since 2009. If you're experiencing issues with Fluke, which is considered the top offering at present, then I'd be curious about further inspection of the files or your system. Perhaps they are not 16bit/44.1KHz, or wrapped in the OGG Container?


I was looking into doing this also today, and so far the only solution I've found is to use a smart folder, hacked to search multiple locations:

What you want to do is open one of your folders (eg. /Volumes/Portable Library/Resources/) hit CMD+F and then set your desired filtering. eg. I set mine to Kind > Folders.

Save the search as a smart folder (it doesnt matter where) then open up that smart folder in TextEdit and look for the following:

/Volumes/Portable Library/Resources/`

There will be multiple instances of the above string, you want to replace them all with new strings that contain the paths you want to search.

In your case it would look like this:

<string>~/Resources/</string>
<string>/Volumes/Portable Library/Resources/</string>
<string>/Volumes/FreeNAS Server/Resources/</string>

Save the file, then when you open the smart folder it will display search results form all three folders.

If you use the column view in Finder you can move through these folders as if they are all together.

Unfortunately the downside of this is that its searching resursively, so you will get all the folders within your first three, plus any folders in those. I'm yet to find a way to disable recursive search yet...


Importing modules in python gives syntax error

not is a built in boolean operator so you can't use it as the name of a module. If you're trying to load this symbolic negation module: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/PADS/Not.py , you need from Not import * (python is case sensitive)

Incidentally, using from x import * is a bad idea in most cases. It breaks static code analysis, it can hide bugs, and you import all kinds of stuff into your namespace. Apart from a few specific use cases, it's probably better to import only what you need or to leave the module its own namespace.


Cannot fully disable message forwarding (as of iOS 11.3)

The solution appears to be “wait a few months and let Apple deal with it.” This is underwhelming and probably unhelpful to anyone else who stumbles on this question, but it doesn’t seem like that’s a whole lot of people.


Is there a web inspector available on iOS?

I found this app, but not sure how extensive is it compared to a traditional web inspector

Ergo Web Tools by James Finley
https://appsto.re/us/3vdC_.i

Let me know if you've found an alternative or something


How do I join my Apple TV to a different home?

I think you have to reset it to default and then set it up again as new.
Reset your Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD
Go to Settings > System > Reset.
Choose a reset option:

Reset: This option is the fastest way to return your Apple TV to factory settings.  This option doesn't require an Internet connection.

Reset and Update: This option returns your Apple TV to its factory settings and installs software updates. This option requires an Internet connection.

Keep your Apple TV plugged into power until the Reset process finishes.
Source: Apple Support: Reset or restore your Apple TV to its factory settings


Is there any way of Filtering out messages from OS X system log?

if you just wish to hide the error messages that are cluttering up the console log, for easier readability, then this can easily be accomplished by selecting any one of the offending event messages, then click 'Ignore Sender' on the Console toolbar; those messages will then be hidden from view. the event messages are still generated, until you fix the obsolete driver issue, but you won't see them in the Console. see more info HERE and HERE.


How To Securely Erase Free Space Using Terminal?

From the Terminal app you can use the program srm (secure remove).
Simply start Terminal, then type:

srm <filename>

For more info, take a look at the man page.
Excerpt:

  srm  removes  each  specified file by overwriting, renaming, and truncating it before unlinking. This prevents other people from undeleting or recovering any information about the file from  the command line.


Script (tie-able to a keystroke) that slows down the mouse for fine movements? Or app that does this?

Get a gaming mouse that allows you to adjust sensitivity on the fly


Given you’ve already done the work once, you will be the best to know.

SSD - always a great investment, plus they are almost always fungible - you can put them in newer gear with little to no degradation on speed if they still have life.
RAM - low risk upgrade as well. Especially if you don’t need to max it. Add it only when your benchmarks prove you need it - it’s almost always cheaper to delay buying and only buy when your time to fix the software causing RAM to blow up is worth more to you than the cost of more RAM.

That being said - the $800 Mac Mini will run circles around your 2011 iMac performance-wise. Especially if your software stack can transition to 64 bit speed and run in Catalina. Some old software, when migrated to new Mac hardware simply can not run. New outclasses substantially in every other way including power efficiency, GPU, storage, CPU, memory, expansion.
So for me, the tie breaker is the display - if you love and need it, upgrade or sell to buy a newer but used 27” iMac for value. Also, I have a hunch, a lot of people will want to sell their perfectly good iMacs very soon. This includes Apple if you have cash for new and want to make a deal when the line eventually refreshes. Apple will put machines on the refurbished / clearance rack starting immediately when a new model releases and then again when they claw back all the unsold stock from distributors and retail stores globally. With this bump, I wouldn’t wait and I’d shop to price what you need before next Monday and then have your card ready to buy if you get a short-sale opportunity.
With a Mac this old - there will be a very compelling reason to choose to upgrade, decide trade up to slightly less old or “break the bank” for the latest CPU with a T2 chip. Investing in newer everything can be a great value even if you don’t go new at the $400 range.


The answer above is wrong - if one bit on the disk changes, the ECC on the disk will correct it, or the e.g. a application image will become unusuable - cause a "segmentation violation". Change a bit in the node that refers to a file - and the file may be useless.

Do not muck around when you answer "bmick". You obviously do not know enough about hardware and operating systems. In better servers, even the RAM will use ECC to avoid single bit errors.

I see this consistently in the Java VM framework. And the bug is probably what you describe: That a new version of Java VM has changed SUID, the Disk Utilty use a wrong repository for what file permission is supposed to be.

Now Apple, the "Disk Utility" is GNU Open source. Update your repositories when new 3rd party OS components are installed. This makes the software run with apparent hang-ups. The modifications blocks access to files and makes the applications hang and even loose files and make databases corrupt.

To help you, Thunderbird works fine on Linux/Ubuntu, and I can even access the MacOS files from the Ubuntu partition. On MacOS I loose files - and get "Permission Inconsistency". You can look at the Linux list of bugs with HFS+, where they describe this error - that file permission is changed, where this is blamed on the journal update of files that remain open when the system is taken down - "Synced()".

Now, HFS+ on Linux will close the files, and flush the journal. MacOS' journal is not flushed on time, and updated later, and when a "Force Quit" is done you risk an error. Then you update with the wrong answer you introduce errors and for others to replicate these errors are very difficult, because they have exercised extensive effort to find out what they do wrong.

We will not use Ubuntu to correct MacOS, it is so much easier to use Ubuntu without the bugs.


Can Apple Watch unlock signal be used to unlock other TouchID-protected apps?

No, this currently isn't possible.

We know Apple has the ability to use wifi/bluetooth to unlock your Mac with your Watch if you're close to it.  However, Apple has not made such a feature available to 3rd party developers as of this date.


Is it possible to set opening certain apps such as Safari, iWork, MS Office in the full Window mode by default like Mail App (macOS Catalina)?

Yes you can open any app in full window

Use keyboard shortcut

Command + Control + F

Same to exit full window as well


Recording System Audio-Out + Built-in Mic While Using Earphones (Notability or other)

Audio Hijack, from Rogue Amoeba, does a fantastic job with this. Perhaps a bit overkill for your needs, but it allows you to route audio channels to equalizers, to separate or combined files, etc. It's extremely powerful.

Given your use case though, I think Soundflower (which is free) may be just the ticket. Soundflower creates a virtual audio device that allows you to listen to your audio channel and use it as an input at the same time. (For example, you could record and listen to a radio broadcast at the same time).


Why are MP3 files not noticeably compressed by the compression tools within Lion?

As patrix mentioned in the comments, certain types of data (such as MP3, JPEG, MPEG) are not able to be compressed further because they are already compressed.

Compressing a bunch of MP3 files is not going to do much apart from bundling them together in one archive.


Happened to be a change I did to /etc/ppp/options to disable IPSec for another native VPN I had.

I added

plugin L2TP.ppp
l2tpnoipsec

to connecto to a L2TP/IPSec VPN with only L2TP, but with this change  FortiClient SSL VPN stopped working.

Commenting out the two lines restored VPN functionality.


Propagate permissions to subfolders and subfiles

You have to use -R option to make the command recursive:

sudo chmod -R 777 /folder


In April 2017, Microsoft released Visual Studio for Mac. Visual Studio Community is free for students, open-source and individual developers.

It supports development of the following:

Mobile with .NET: Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS
Mac desktop apps
.NET applications (in C# and F# by default)
ASP.NET Web applications
Cross-platform Unity games

Minimum Requirements:

macOS El Capitan 10.11
Xcode 8.2
An Apple ID (for signing into Xcode)

For iOS development, macOS Sierra 10.12 and Xcode 8.3 are required.


There is a circuit board on the battery itself that reports its presence and status to the OS X.

In OS X, there is a piece of hardware run by firmware called System Management Controller (SMC) that takes that information and processes it. Sometimes, the SMC gets confused and needs to be reset following instructions from Apple.

You can also look up your Battery information in the About This Mac, to see what it says.

What could cause the display of the X?

The circuit mounted on the battery itself could have malfunctioned. Normally, it will reserve a minimum charge for itself and not allow the battery to drain beyond that point. But, if the battery was drained to the levels that the built-in circuit can no longer function, it will not report the status and ask to be charged. If you were installing Yosemite, you should have gotten a warning that you are on battery. If ignored, the battery could have been drained completely.

So what can you do other than SMC reset or bringing it in for repair? You can try the coconut app to see if it does something. https://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/


SMEStorage is a cloud storage service, similar to DropBox itself. In the scenario you are referring to, you can use the SME Storage API directly to upload to an external file provider like DropBox.

Effectively like DropBox you can store everything on the SMEStorage Servers and then access it from any OS/Device as long as you have an internet connection.

From reading the documentation it is really a more advanced DropBox service, which allows developers to use their API to have a central point for accessing various storage options.

From what I can determine, like iCloud, the application needs to support the actual API and interface to be able to store data through it, and since iWorks on iOS only supports iCloud, I am not sure if it will solve your problem.


Using an iPad for doing web development and programming

If you're just looking for a straight text editor, Textastic has a lot of nice features.

For full-fledged web development, check out Diet Coda. It has built-in SSH terminal, SFTP, a great text editor, etc.


Can I fix a scratched iPhone 5 rear camera lens?

Well i think you can do it

Lens - http://www.witrigs.com/replacement-camera-lens-for-iphone-5

Video on howto do it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si0M3wak4Q0


Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

Settings that can be stored in NVRAM include sound volume, display resolution, startup disk selection, time zone, and recent kernel panic information. The settings stored in NVRAM depend on your Mac and the devices that you're using with your Mac.

Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.

I also would suggest you try SMC Reset if the above solution doesn't help.

Reset the SMC on Mac

First, shut down your Mac and Press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. Release all keys. And, Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

What the SMC does

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

Responding to presses of the power button
Responding to the display lid opening and closing on Mac notebooks

For more reason, you can check https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


Cannot get free apps from App Store after moving abroad

Often, if you can't download (even free) apps from the App Store, this is because your payment information is not valid (or no longer valid).

From the Settings app, go to the App Store settings, then tap on your Apple ID in blue at the top. After typing your Apple ID password, tap on Payment Information and make sure all the data is present, and correct.

Also - you had to change your Google password? I am confused by this ...


How to migrate from 13 inch MBP to 15 inch with 13 inch's SSD?

In the past, I have just swapped the drives in the two machines, and everything just worked fine.

Take the SSD from the 13" MBP and put it in the 15" MBP.

In the unlikely event that there are any problems, you can always swap the drives back.

EDIT: You might want to boot into recovery mode, and do a 'Verify Disk' in the Disk Utility, to make sure that everything is fine. As suggested in a comment above, consider a PRAM reset and an SMC reset, to make sure everything is on the same page.


How to disable iMessage on a broken iPhone?

The simplest solution is to contact Apple Support (as this article makes clear) since they actually have engineers that can modify which devices and phone numbers are associated with your (or another's Apple ID).

  So, just contact Apple Support.


How can I get a list of programs installed on an iPad?

The only things i can think of, and this probably isn't what you really want, is to go into the App Store on the iPad and hit the purchased button. It should give you a list of everything purchased on the iPad.

Second, and very basically, you could take a screenshot of the screen with all of the apps on it and email it to yourself.


You cannot run a cron task at wakeup. It is possible to run a script at wake with some third party utilities. This thread is old, but probably still relevant.

Possible to run scripts on sleep and wake?


Slow read/write speed (40MBps) with USB-C external SSD on Macbook Pro

I own multiple Samsung T3's and T5's. They are incredible.

The cable is important, and unfortunately, it's impossible to tell which cables are intended for which purposes.

Your 2018 MacBook Pro with Mojave (I have a 2017) does NOT need any kind of driver to use the drive. There's an encryption app on the drive that's worth installing so that you can secure the contents, but that's orthogonal to speed.

Be sure you're using the short cable with the velcro bits when connecting to your T3/T5. For some of my Samsung T3/T5's, the old-style USB-A connector cable is the best one for performance.

Download the (I think still free) Blackmagic Speed Test from the Mac App Store and check the actual performance. Then change cables and you'll see what I mean.

As a rule, if the cable is more than 6 inches long, it's NOT for best performance. If the cable has the Thunderbolt symbol on it, it MAY be for performance, regardless of whether it has a USB-A or USB-C connector on the business end (toward your Mac). Also, DO NOT connect your T3/T5 through any kind of cable extender or dock. There's a distance limitation that you will run into if there's any kind of middle man device.

Before you down-vote me, please do what I've suggested. I literally have a dozen of these things, each 2 TB/$500.


Does WhatsApp keep a backup copy on my iPhone?

Once you free up 3 GB on your iPhone then only you can start taking backup of your WhatsApp and it will permanently store on iCloud will not occupy phone's internal storage.


Creating .DS_Store Files to Prevent Icon Previews

I had a similar situation, I wanted all of my folders containing images to be set the same way under Show View Options. I used Automator: choose "Application" for document type, then select "Set Folder View".  Name the app, then you can drop any number of folders on top of it and it will set the view options to whatever you've selected.


Album art on my iOS device differs from Mac iTunes

I had the exact same problem several times in the last three years (with an iPhone 3G, an iPhone 4 & an iPod touch).

I always solved it this way :

disable music syncing for the device (uncheck everything in the "music" tab)
sync the device at least two times
enable music syncing
sync again

I usually divide steps 3 & 4 in smaller steps. I begin by syncing a few artists to check everything is fine before syncing all the music I want on my device.

I hope this will work for you.


Auto-complete to multiple possible file extensions

Cross referencing your answered cross post so future Googlers can find it
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22854848/specifying-two-file-extensions-in-bash-complete


The best way is to use the built-in HDMI port, but if for some reason you need to use the MiniDP, it's a better idea to use a MiniDP to HDMI cable instead of a MiniDP to VGA cable since VGA is analog, which means it's lower quality video and it has no audio.


Try Safari/Preferences/Search and uncheck Include Safari Suggestions.


Yes, you can see how much storage your Messages are taking up directly on your iOS device by going to: Settings > General > Usage
No, you cannot mass delete from a specific period of time.

If you are sending lots of images and videos, that 40% probably is your Messages database which includes pictures and videos.


Is iCloud is not backing up my iPhone completely?

Here a link to a Macworld article that contains a terrific explanation of how iCloud backups work. The answer to your question is that iCloud performs incremental backups--only what has changed since the last backup will be sent to iCloud on the following backup.

This means that, for example, if the initial iCloud backup contained 2.0 GB of data and then only 0.1 GB of data changed (say, Address Book contacts), then only those 0.1 GB will be sent to iCloud. This saves battery and avoids transferring data that iCloud already knows about. This is the same principle behind Time Machine on the Mac.

(There are other nice things that iCloud does for the sake of efficiency. For instance, your iTunes purchases are not sent to the iCloud backup, only their references, since Apple already has the songs themselves in iTunes)

In general, I would say that if you backup regularly, then each subsequent backup should stay relatively small and should complete in a short time. The exception is, naturally, when you have recently added large amounts of media like photographs or video taken from the Camera app.

I recommend giving that article a read. It is very comprehensive. Hope this helps.


How can I create a Mac Address Book plug-in that also appears in Spotlight?

It appears Spotlight does not make use of Address Book plug-ins.

Extra menu items added by Skype also fail to appear in the Spotlight preview.

It is worth providing feedback to Apple asking for this functionality to be added. It would greatly improve Spotlight.

Context Menu in Contacts.app:

Context Menu of Contact in Spotlight:


I can't get my launch daemon to run my shell script

First I'd check the path of pingtest.sh relative to how it's defined in local.pingtest.plist.

I've not played around with the launch daemon on Macs yet but there may be some special need for it to be in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons instead. Not sure why it'd end up ignoring the other location by the time you're logged in and looking at it but I've seen specifications ignored before on systems so worth a try.

Next I'd check for things like conflicting Label identifiers and that my other keys mean what I think they mean.

Doesn't look like your script is dependent on non-launchd daemons, but those are things to keep in mind.


How can you delete pics on your phone (while on computer) before syncing?

Use Image Capture in the Applications folder. Connect your device and choose it from the sidebar, then select the photos you wish to delete and click the  icon at the bottom.

You can switch the view from list to thumbnails at the bottom too and increase the size of the thumbnails using the slider. Use ⇧-click and ⌘-click as usual to select multiple photos for batch deletion.


iPhone remote apps - “Apple TV Remote” vs ... something else?

They are different "apps".  The one in Control Center is not even a full-fledged app.  You can't switch to it, or close it, like regular apps.  I think I end up using the one from the Control Center more, since it's easy to launch, and I think that's the one that integrates better with Apple Watch (I can use my watch to control the ATV, if I start the remote on my phone first).
Notice the multiple uses of the word "think".  This is not an obvious design choice by Apple.  The Control Center icon should just call a single full app, just like if you click on the Camera, Alarm, etc, in the Control Center.


This one worked for me.

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/3.4.4 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --disable-x86asm


All programs are supposed to "just work", however bugs are unavoidable when humans are programming.

With a brand new install it seems that logging out or rebooting the Mac to test if this fixes the problem shouldn't be a problem. So you might want to give that a try.

If you want to fix the problem without logging out or rebooting, try opening a terminal and running:

brctl log --wait --shorten

This should give you a reasonably readable output of log info from the syncing process. Hopefully this will give you a clue as to why the process isn't progressing.

You can also try simply killing the bird process that handles the synchronization. When it starts again it might progress to completion.


How can i run same application between two macs?

Each application needs to be designed for sharing.  You need to check on each application's ability to share.

Robert


Do you use iMessage? This is the best way to preserve text history, available even after restoring your device to factory settings.


Why does my name not show up in messages

Let's check your settings and see what you have under Settings -> Messages -> Send & Receive. Make sure your "Start New Conversations From" setting is your phone number instead of an email address.

The existing threads with people will still use your email, but when you start a new thread, it will use your phone number properly.


The shared library "Cloud Music Library" is not responding. (503)

Re: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/210759/85275

"According to Apple Support System Status, now, the iTunes Store Service may be unavailable for some users."


CalendarAgent keeps asking for access to "login" after reboot

What I would do in this situation is rename the "login" keychain in ~/Library/Keychains to something like login.keychain.old.

Then I would open the Keychain Access app and drag login.keychain.old into the keychains sidebar. OS X will create a new login keychain. So all you have to do is open the old login keychain list you created and drag the passwords into the new login keychain.

Hope this helps.


Why does macOS show 100% battery and fully charged when "Charge Remaining" is lower than "Full Charge Capacity"

This is completely normal.

The numbers you see here should not be treated exact values - it is impossible to get exact values for the battery. The full charge capacity varies slightly with various factors - including, for example, the ambient temperature in your room.

The battery will ofcourse report a specific number to the operating system, but it would be a bad idea to expect the numbers to match up exactly. I.e. if you just charged until "Charge Remaining" matched exactly with "Full Charge Capacity" that wouldn't be a good strategy. This is why you see that systems from all manufacturers charge to somewhere "near 100%" - for example 95%.


Can you put 2012 macbook air 13 inch ssd in macbook air 11 inch 2012?

Yes, it will work as they are the same type SSD between those two models.


Starting with macOS Sierra 10.12.3, Apple has added a Live Photos Smart Album to Photos. It may be accessed from the Sidebar (View → Show Sidebar) or in Albums view (View → Albums).

It is still not possible to setup a custom Smart Album with Live Photo as a criterion.


Catalina: How to add System Events to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Automation?

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'keystroke "echo hi"' -e end tell
will add an entry System Events under ther terminal emulator where you run it from in the automation section.

If you receive execution error 1002 again, uncheck and recheck System
Events under Automation again.
If you receive  execution error -1743: Remove the app from the Accessibility/Bedienungshilfen section and add it again

execution error: Not authorized to send Apple Events to System Events. (error -1743)
execution error: Keine Berechtigung zum Senden von Apple-Events an System Events. (-1743)

If you receive execution error -1719: Add /System/Library/CoreServices/System Events.app to Accessibility/Bedienungshilfen via 'Choose File' dialog

execution error: System Events got an error: osascript is not allowed assistive access. (-1719)

Possibly lock and unlock between rechecking/readding or run multiple times or prefixed by sleep 1 &&. These new security settings unfortunately still seem a bit messy (good links for further reading there!):

Hopefully this gets worked out before Mojave ships.

Nope :-(
By the way, osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e "keystroke key code 53" -e end tell ran twice will add the entry for the program itself under the program.


"Ghost text" in terminal, Yosemite + TotalTerminal (formerly Visor)

This one helped me:

  Open your Terminal preferences, go to Profiles > Window > Background (Color & Effects), and set a light blur.

  I use 30% to keep anything in the background from disturbing the readability of thin fonts on an already translucent window, so I never noticed the "burn-in" effect when moving to Yosemite.

Source: http://discuss.binaryage.com/t/text-burn-in-when-using-transparent-backgrounds-since-yosemite/2849

However I set blur to 1% and "ghost" text disappeared.


What Makes an macOS "Package" Show as a Package?

Short answer

To register a document as a package, the developer of DayOne would have had to modify the document type information in the DayOne app's information property list (Info.plist) file.

Long Answer

A package is a file system directory used by macOS and iOS. It's basically a directory that will appear as a single file, but which may in fact contain a preserved state of files and folders. So, a folder could have a number of subfolders and many files, but as a package it will be displayed to users like a single file. For example, in macOS the Finder will see a package as a single file to avoid users mucking around with the actual  contents. However, users can view the contents through various methods such as right-clicking on the package and selecting Show Package Contents from the context menu.

Apple's Bundle Programming Guide, available on their Developer site, has a whole section on Document Packages. Below are some relevant quotes:

  To register a document as a package, you must modify the document type
  information in your application’s information property list
  (Info.plist) file. The CFBundleDocumentTypes key stores information
  about the document types your application supports. For each document
  package type, include the LSTypeIsPackage key with an appropriate
  value. The presence of this key tells the Finder and Launch Services
  to treat directories with the given file extension as a package. For
  more information about Info.plist keys, see Information Property List
  Key Reference.

  Document packages should always have an extension to identify
  them—even though that extension may be hidden by the user. The
  extension allows the Finder to identify your document directory and
  treat it as a package. You should never associate a document package
  with a MIME type or 4-byte OS type.

Source: Bundle Programming Guide

On the off-chance you can't access the document, let me know and I'll include some additional quotes from the page.


I found my answer here. The basics of the answer is in these steps.

make sure you're signed into iMessage on your non-iPhone device.

Jump over to your iPhone and confirm you're signed into iMessage and iCloud with the same account here, too.

Still on your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.

Flip the switch to enable it on one device at a time.

This worked fine for me.
Apple's relevant support articles on the differences between iMessage and SMS messages as well as the full steps to enable this (with screen shots) are here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207006
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201349


There is a second clipboard in OS X, called the kill-ring. Press Control ^+K to "kill" (cut) the rest of the current line to the kill-ring, and Control ^+Y to "yank" (paste) it.


Word file compatibility between mac and pc

Does anyone know if there might be any problems opening these kind of files?

You won't have any problems. With the pre-installed Pages app on Mac, you can easily open any .docx and .doc files. They will be converted to .pages documents that can't be opened on Windows PCs, but you can easily export any documents from Pages as .docx files that can be opened on PCs.

An easier solution is to use the web-based Google Drive (née Google Docs) that will let you natively open .docx, sync them to your Google account on all your computers, and edit them from anywhere, including your Mac. Or, if you'd prefer the Microsoft-based approach, you can download the Office suite onto your Mac, which works just how it does on PCs.

  Can I preserve the formatting and styles on a mac?

I've had no problems preserving format and styling of a .docx document on Mac, using Pages or Google Drive. You will have no problems with a modern program like the ones I've suggested above.

tl;dr: You can totally use Pages, Google Drive, or Word on your Mac to open, edit, and export documents without losing any formatting.


How to fix homebrew error: "invalid active developer path" after upgrade to OS X El Capitan?

Run the following commands to fix the above error

sudo xcode-select --install
sudo xcode-select -switch /

I found the answer on https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/23500

I also had to do this:

sudo chown -R $(whoami):admin /usr/local

Because of some permission issues. However, do this only if you have to.


A couple of thing are not making sense in your description. When you boot to Recovery HD, you should also have about 15 lines of df output with devices running from disk0 to disk12 or more (it varies between OS X 10.8 and 10.11).

In your example, if you want to wipe all contents on what's normally named Macintosh HD and in your case is disk0s2/Macintosh Hard Drive - you could issue the command:

diskutil eraseVolume JHFS+ Macintosh\ HD disk0s2

The \ is needed to escape the space between "Macintosh HD" - quotes would work as well if you prefer that. I would just use Disk Utility to erase the volume and rename it Macintosh HD since that is far easier, there in the main menu of items, and doesn't need any care with spaces, quotes or messing up the disk0s2 and erasing the wrong area of the drive.

The reinstallation problem might be solved by erasing the storage, but that's probably a better stand alone question.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

The above article walks you through how to use Recovery HD to erase and start over if that's your eventual goal.


Recurring prompt to confirm Style Sheet when opening Safari - How can I get rid of it?

One solution might be selecting a css file that does exist. Any plain text file with a .css extension should be fine. This might fix whatever setting is corrupted.


Enable Do Not Disturb in Notification Center when certain app is open

Sure. Create a Keyboard Maestro macro that runs when the app launches and runs an AppleScript to turn DND on.

Then create another one for when the app quits which runs another AppleScript to turn DND off.

AppleScript can be found here: http://m.tuaw.com/2013/02/04/applescripting-notification-center-scheduling-do-not-disturb/


When Apple Maps shows alternate routes they'll appear in a lighter color then the primary route and touching the alternate route shift the darker color to it, changing the route details, while the previous focused route is now the lighter one.


Migrating from MacPorts to Homebrew. Is there any specific advice in how to minimize disruption?

A bit off-topic but wanted to share my experience on this topic.
About 6month / a year ago, I decided to do some cleanup and uninstalled port and fink to the benefit of brew, which I prefer.

Today... Got the three again. Why?

brew as my main source
port provides MANY more packages than brew and I needed some of them (like wireshark+nox11)
fink for some rare packages (I think I only reinstalled it for some dpkg utils)

Just my 2 cents, not everyone needs these packages. But before uninstalling port, check twice the packages you need ;)


on-demand launch agent restarting automatically

It probably won't help, but you could try sleeping for a few seconds before exiting. From Daemons and Services Programming Guide:

  Important: If your daemon shuts down too quickly after being launched, launchd may think it has crashed. Daemons that continue this behavior may be suspended and not launched again when future requests arrive. To avoid this behavior, do not shut down for at least 10 seconds after launch.


Add printer via lpadmin with custom queue

You do use %20 if you need the space between two words. I had had made a mistake in the spelling which caused me to think it didn't work.

Also, in case anyone needs it in the future, if you access the CUPS webinterface and select Manage Printers it will give you the correct lpd address syntax.


MacOS Automator: Save new text file in current folder

Since you did not include your workflow, what type of workflow it is, or which version of OS X/macOS you're using, I can only offer an example of how you can set a variable to use for the Where: in a New Text File action in an Automator workflow.

I have a Temp folder, which I created, in the root the Macintosh HD, and in this folder I created two plain text files, named Filename1.txt and Filename2.txt, each of which contain a single line of text, "The name of this file is Filename1.txt" and "The name of this file is Filename2.txt", respectively.

The following Automator workflow works with selected Finder items in Finder's frontmost window, or the Desktop as appropriate if no other individual Finder windows are frontmost with a selection, and using a Run AppleScript action sets a variable to the parent folder of the first item selected to be used as the Where: in a New Text File action. and creates a file named Combined.txt.

Note in the image below, there is a break in the link between the Set Value of Variable action and what is the second Get Selected Finders Item action.  This disconnect is created by selecting Ignore this action's input under Options in the second Get Selected Finders Item action.

The variable inputParentFolder was dragged and dropped from the Variable section at the bottom of the workflow pane into the Where: in the New Text File action.

As you can see in the image below, the workflow completed successfully combining the content of the two selected files in Finder into a new file named Combined.txt in the same folder as the selected files.


iOS 10 broke my decimal separators, any way to change them back?

Yes, please have a look at Settings > General > Language & Region.

After "Preferred Language Order" you see a setting for "Region". Change it to your preferred setting.

If it is already set to your correct region setting, set it to another region and then back to your preferred region.

Let me know if this works for you.

edit:
Make sure to check the "Region Format Example" field. It displays how the decimal separator will look like.


Garbled screen after upgrading to Mavericks on Retina

This looks like GPU failure/overheating. Try cooling your laptop and see if it still occurs. Maybe Mavericks has just tipped it 'over the edge' in terms of demands and caused a problem that was going to occur in the next couple of months.


What is the correct version of xcode for mojave 10.14.4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode#Xcode_11.x_(since_SwiftUI_framework)

For macOS 10.14.4, Xcode versions compatible are: Xcode 10.2 - 11.3.1.
Xcode 11.4 onwards requires macOS Catalina, 10.15.2
With a free Apple Developer account, one can download older versions of Xcode (all the way back to Xcode 2.3 as well as new as 11.5 at https://developer.apple.com/download/more/
Also a nice catalogue:  https://xcodereleases.com/


How can I fix my terminal when editing the PATH in .bash_profile has the startup hang and I get no prompt?

OK - no worries. You did in fact mess things up, but here's an easy way to fix things.

Open TextEdit (or whatever editor you like graphically on the Mac)
Open a file and go to your home folder (click or press Command Shift G and type ~ and return)
Show hidden files (if needed) - Command + Shift + .
Open .bash_profile

Delete everything or comment out anything that contains PATH= and save the file (you can save as to save it to your Desktop if you want to fix it up rather than start new).

Then open a new terminal window to check your work. If it works, close out the broken sessions and make sure you incorporate the old path when you add things:

This is safe:

export PATH="/usr/local/sbin:$PATH:/path/to/whatever/bin"

It's safe since the old $PATH is included on the right of the =

What isn't safe is when

export PATH="whatever"

All the other parts of the path are now gone, with only whatever left and the last = wins, so your path is missing very important items instead of adding things to the default path, you broke it temporarily. No worries, this is a phase of passage - everyone needs to break their shell dot files to learn. Welcome to the club.


How can I forward all my iCloud emails to a Gmail address?

In iCloud Mail, click the Action pop-up menu in the sidebar (as in the picture), then choose Preferences.

In the General pane, select Forward my email to, then type the forwarding address in the text field.

If you don’t want to store a copy of each forwarded message in iCloud, you can select: Delete messages after forwarding.

Keep in mind that storing copies of forwarded messages decreases your available iCloud storage space.

At the end clink: Done.


Show text using Large Type without relying on third-party applications

A slight variation  on @iolsmit answer.

Do the same first action.
But when you select 'where' to save in the Banner action.
Choose other.
The Choose folder dialogue will pop up.

Now press down the keys: command + Shift +G

This will slide down will show up.

In its text field; Type or copy & paste:

 ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems

Then click GO. This will take you to the Users temporary folder.

Choose it as your selected folder. It will show as 'TemporaryItems'

Now add the action: 'Run Shell Script' in place of 'Open Images in Preview'

The the 'Run Shell Script'; Use its drop down menu for Pass input: as Argument

clear out in text that is already in the large text field. (i.e cat)

And type or paste this in.

/usr/bin/qlmanage -p "$@"

Save you new service.  And test

What happens is a new file is saved in your temp folder and the quick looked to display it on the screen.
Hit space to dismiss it as normal.


Product to overlay MacBook Pro Touch Bar with physical keys

One solution (albeit, a bit of a hack) that I found is to place a wireless magic keyboard over the top of the  built-in laptop keyboard.
If you place it in the right spot, it doesn't press the underlying keys (although see Karabiner information below to stop this issue).
As someone who despises the low action of the butterfly keys, this has the double benefit: (1) it restores traditional escape and function keys, and (2) it provides the awesome keyboard experience of the magic keyboard. It also means that you can use the trackpad.
It can also help to use Karabiner to disable the built-in keyboard when external keyboards are plugged in. This overcomes the problem of accidentally activating the keyboard undeath when pressing firmly on the magic keyboard.
For details on how to do this, see this post: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/235266/11747


Why the iPhone doesn't automatically switch 3G off when connected to a wireless network?

Although your iPhone will use WiFi when available, that's only to save your cellular data limit being reached as quickly. Your iPhone keeps the 3G antennas active (while the internet is in use) for the following reasons;

In case you have 'flaky' WiFi; your iPhone will switch between WiFi and cellular without you noticing to keep a reliable connection working source*
In case you leave WiFi range; your iPhone can then immediately switch to cellular and use it right away without any delays.
In case your WiFi network doesn't have a 'proper' internet connection; if your WiFi network can't load certain pages (either because it's configured incorrectly, or because of a fault/security settings) your iPhone will use cellular to load those pages if possible. **

So, to answer your question, the iPhone keeps your 3G connection live while the phone is using the internet in some way so you can have a reliable connection. Your phone will only turn it off automatically when/if the phone is trying to save power.

*I believe the toggle to enable/disable this feature has been removed, but the feature still exists (and remains always on).

**I've seen this happen with those WiFi networks which would make you fill in a form/login before using the connection. The phone would be connected to WiFi, but apps would be using 3G to load new content as I was not yet logged in


How do I download links (to PDFs) with one click in Chrome for Mac OS X?

Go to Chrome settings > Advanced

Click on privacy settings > Content

Scroll down to Plug ins

Click on

  Disable Individual plug-ins

Disable the

  Chrome PDF Viewer

That will unfortunately disable it for all PDF preview.

But the good news is

now you have the simple one click on a PDF link and it will offer you to download the PDF file.


External Monitor Flickering when Chrome is running

I reset System Management Controller as suggested here.
(for macbook touchbar, make sure that you really press the power button, not just touch it).

But this did not seem to help as problems reoccured. What seem to have helped now is disabling hardware accelerations for Chrome browser. Go to chrome://settings and disable it and that could solve the problem


My charger has stopped working. I have AppleCare. How do I go about getting a new charger?

You can always initiate service from https://locate.apple.com and choose your provider of choice. The online self service is much, much better now, so starting with Apple support is often the fastest way for you to get things through the hoops and to a technician to do the exchange for you if a mail in exchange isn't offered.

In your case, you can direct the service to Ireland at https://locate.apple.com/ie/en/ and just click the box that says service.

Not all resellers also provide service, so doing a little digging usually saves you a trip and some time.


Apple will not show you the real panel resolution, only the scaled resolutions.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-retina-display-faq/macbook-pro-retina-display-hack-to-run-native-resolution.html

Try this.


Share folder in VirtualBox Host=Mac OS, Guest=Debian

Not sure about Debian but in Ubuntu I had to do the following after setting it up in the VB GUI:

mkdir /home/username/OSX # one time
sudo mount -t vboxsf OSX /home/username/OSX # each time


Suddenly, menu bar applications have blue badges

I see the same thing for Google Drive. Blue around the dots. I don't think this is a problem with your system, more that the highlight color selected in Preferences is being added to a menu item because of the way the company coded the app. Some apps are great at integrating (e.g. Dropbox, which went to great lengths to get a custom sidebar icon) and others are not (e.g. Google, which has weird bugs like this in the display of some apps).


laucnhd and kernel task writing excessively to disk. Clean my mac suggests cleaning apple system logs

Woah - your launchd is quite busy. Before you run any clean, I would save your work and do a shut down and then safe boot. The safe boot is when you hold the shift key after the startup chime sounds (or would sound if silenced).

This startup will take quite some time and it sets aside things link font cashes, all non critical kernel extensions / drivers / program start up.

Once the Mac is running - check on the activity monitor and grab screen shots to compare to yours above. After 5 minutes, you should have a very idle system. If not, disconnect from all networks and repeat the safe boot one time.

At that point, you’ll know if the core OS needs to be reinstalled if it’s not behaving in safe boot mode. If it does behave in safe boot, try a normal boot.

Next up if the normal boot fails - try making a new user and setting that user to log in at boot and restart.

Sorry this isn’t a “do this to fix” sort of answer, but you’ll need to triage a bit to get a feeling if this is software related and user/OS software related.

The log files themselves don’t cause issues - it’s the configuration or changes you brought to the standard install that’s logging all the messages. Imagine a leak in the basement - clearing the logs is hiring a contractor to come pump it out, rather than figuring out what’s leaking in the first place.


I would say the best option might be to get software like Carbon Copy Cloner or use Disk Utility to clone the existing drive to another drive / external drive.

Then you could clean off the files on that OS and test that booting to it still works. Once you have something that works - you can re-clone or repeat the deletions on the main drive.


That line is called command prompt.

dhcp-74-148 is you hostname that you received from dhcp server.

~ is where you currently are (which directory) - tilda means you are in your home folder, /Users/[username]

: just separates hostname from current directory.

You can change format of command prompt by changing $PS1 variable.
And - if you're interested - check out some bash shell tutorial for more information.


Display dialog with current iTunes album cover

Yes it is. Here is what I came up with. It's late so it's a bit rough I'm afraid...

download Pashua - a free tool for custom dialog boxes
copy app and Pashua.scpt to Applications folder
Paste following code and adjust to your liking.

EDIT: Artwork code taken from this answer.

#
# Start of code
#
global f, a

tell application "iTunes"

    tell artwork 1 of current track
        set d to raw data
        if format is «class PNG » then
            set x to "png"
        else
            set x to "jpg"
        end if
    end tell

    set a to album of current track
end tell

set f to (((path to temporary items) as text) & "cover." & x)
set b to open for access file result with write permission
set eof b to 0
write d to b
close access b

-- Get the path to the folder containing this script
tell application "Finder"
    set appPath to (path to applications folder)
    #set thisFolder to (container of (path to me)) as string
    set thisFolder to appPath as string
    if "Pashua:Pashua.app:" exists then
        -- Looks like the Pashua disk image is mounted. Run from there.
        set customLocation to "Pashua:"
    else
        -- Search for Pashua in the standard locations
        set customLocation to ""
    end if
end tell

set customLocation to ""

log "customLocation: " & customLocation
log "f: " & f
try
    set thePath to alias (thisFolder & "Pashua.scpt")
    set pashuaBinding to load script thePath

    tell pashuaBinding
        -- Display the dialog

        try
            set pashuaLocation to getPashuaPath(customLocation)
            set dialogConfiguration to my getDialogConfiguration(f)
            set theResult to showDialog(dialogConfiguration, customLocation)

        on error errorMessage
            display alert "PashuaBinding: An error occurred" message errorMessage as warning
        end try
    end tell
on error errStr number errorNumber
    display dialog errStr
end try

-- Returns the configuration string for an example dialog
on getDialogConfiguration(pashuaLocation)

    if pashuaLocation is not "" then
        set img to "img.type = image
              img.x = 0
              img.y = 50
              img.maxwidth = 128
              img.tooltip = Album Art
              img.path = " & (POSIX path of pashuaLocation) & return
    else
        set img to ""
    end if

    return "
# Set window title
*.title = Currently playing...

# Introductory text
txt.type = text
txt.label = Track/Album Info
txt.default = Album: " & a & return & "
txt.height = 10
txt.width = 300
txt.x = 150
txt.y = 130
#txt.tooltip = This is an element of type “text”

db.type = defaultbutton
#db.tooltip = This is an element of type “defaultbutton” (which is automatically added to each window, if not included in the configuration)
" & img
end getDialogConfiguration

#
# END of CODE
#


macOS 10.12: MacBook Pro Retina takes hours (literally) to boot

It appears it was a hardware issue... I hope. Machine is currently with Apple having the logic board replaced. I recently discovered that the discrete GPU was not showing up under System Report, nor could gfxCardStatus detect or force it to be used. It seems my machine was one of the "very few" impacted by the nVidia chipset issue affecting machines from about 2011-2013, and apparently OS X is resilient enough that it just carries on in the face of soldered-on hardware suddenly disappearing, and doesn't consider that something worthy of bothering the user with.


Are purchases from the App store single or mulitple user licencing

You can install software from the MAS on multiple Macs. The only limitation in the EULA is that the software either is used by one person on multiple computers, or by multiple users on a single computer. So installing for multiple users on different computers would be a breach of the EULA (even though technically still possible if both computers are linked to the same Apple ID for purchases).

See http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html

EDIT: I'll have to ammend my answer even though it was already accepted. While the above is true for commercial use, for personal, non-commercial use in one and the same household on the other hand the above EULA restriction is not true.


How to send letters to all the recipients at once Apple Mail?

The send shortcut is ⇧⌘D. Hold this down to send the emails.


Can a USB-C to mini DisplayPort cable be used with USB-C to Thunderbolt ports?

Here are some basic rules about Thunderbolt and DisplayPort cables:

Any Type C Thunderbolt 3 cable is also a USB-C cable.  Only quality USB-C cables are also Thunderbolt 3 cables.  In other words, avoid cheap ones.

Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 cables, while they carry the mDP signal are not mini DisplayPort cables.  mDP cables are not Thunderbolt cables and vice versa.

Thunderbolt cables can only be used on Thunderbolt ports.

mDP cables can be used in either mDP ports or Thunderbolt ports

Source:  TrippLite.com

So do I need a different cable if the only thing that is changing in the configuration is that instead of a mini DisplayPort on the iMac, I have Thunderbolt port on the iMac.

Yes.  The 2011 iMac (27" only) support Target Display Mode via Thunderbolt only.  You will need the following:

Thunderbolt 1/2 cable
Thunderbolt 3 to Legacy Thunderbolt Adapter

The 2011 iMac is a very different animal compared to the 2010 that uses DisplayPort.  To connect to it via Target Disk Mode, it requires a TB connection. So you'll need a proper adapter and cable to make this work.


Diagnosis or Hardware Test on a mid 2009 Macbook Pro with MacOS 10.9.2

The Apple Hardware Test is included in the installation DVD. Insert it, hold D and boot from it.

If you don't have the installation DVD at hand, have a look at https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest


iOS5 split keyboard not playing well with some apps, including Apple ones

The new keyboard abilities in iOS 5 could cause quite a few problems for applications which haven't been updated to detect their use. In order to move content out from under the keyboard when it is shown, the application receives a notification whenever it is shown or hidden. However, if the keyboard isn't in the default position, the notification that it is about to be shown is not sent. Instead, there is a new notification which indicates that the keyboard is about to move. If you go back and forth between the default position and split/undocked, the application receives notifications that the keyboard moved, as well as notifications that it is shown and hidden. My guess is that Apple chose to have the status be "hidden" if the keyboard is not in the default position because it might not be necessary to move content in this case, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

What you are seeing with iMessages is that the keyboard is "hidden", so the app doesn't move its content. If your keyboard was undocked but not split, you wouldn't be able to read whatever was under it at all. Since it is split, the system adds a partially transparent box in the middle so that the entry field isn't floating on nothing, so the message is only mostly blocked.

The situation for Facebook is similar. It automatically hides the send button when the keyboard is hidden. Since the system doesn't send the "shown" notification if it is split, Facebook doesn't show the button if it's split either.

The only thing you can do is file a bug with Facebook and Apple. For Facebook, load the page for it in the App Store and click the "Send Feedback" button. For Apple, go to https://bugreport.apple.com/ (free developer account required). It is possible that Apple meant to send "shown" notifications for the split keyboard, in which case that is the real bug, but they should figure that out when they investigate the hidden messages.


How to automatically close an OS X apps after not being used for a number of minutes?

You could use Quitter by Marco Arment: https://marco.org/apps


Using Apple's IR remote to simulate a left/right mouse click or navigate presentations

I know that there are a few ways to add support for various apps, but you might want to consider paying for Mira.

I've used it for a few 10.6 and 10.7 laptops and it works great.

There's also Remote Buddy, although I've not tried it personally.


My iPad Mini won't turn on after charging

If you are not near an Apple store or Authorised Service Provider then call up AppleCare (apple.com/contact) and they will help you try a few steps and if they come to the conclusion that your iPad needs to be swapped then they will send you one. Pretty sweet deal. I encourage purchasing AppleCare+ as well while you talk to the phone agent because you have a small period of time to purchase it and it is a fantastic investment.


What exactly does Background App Refresh in iOS 7 do?

The setting to enable or disable Background App Refresh is applicable for both WiFi and cellular. There is no way to disable it only for cellular data. So yes, apps that use location services can drain your cellular data plan.

Possible solutions:

Restrict which apps are allowed to use background refresh. You can thus limit the amount of data usage by turning on this setting only for the apps that you need background refreshes for.
Turn off cellular data for specific apps from Settings->Cellular (this page also shows the cellular data used by your apps). This would completely restrict those apps only to WiFi all the time though.


Is it possible to revert to non-beta Yosemite?

On System Preferences → App Store you have an option called Your computer is set to receive pre-releases Software Update seeds, use the button Change and select Do Not Show Pre-release Updates.


How can I ssh mount an Ubuntu server's filesystem?

You can use Transmit. It’s a commercial program, but it does what you want.


Did you buy your phone from someone in the UK (where the EE network is available)?

According to Apple your phone should automatically update carrier settings when you connect to a new network. I assume you have the correct APN defined? If you're not sure, take a look here - having the incorrect APN may prevent the update from working.


How do I resync itunes to my music library?

Open iTunes on your PC/Mac
Select File in the top left corner from the menu bar.
Choose Add to Library… and select the missing media.
You will be able to see your songs and playlists in the Music section.


Can't mount primary HD, Disk Utility shows Invalid Node Tree Size

Use DiskWarrior. It is exactly the purpose of the software to fix such errors.
If DiskWarrior can't solve it. Use something like DataRescue to get the data, then reformat and reinstall.


Using Partitioned External Harddrive with Bootcamp

If you installed the Windows Support Software, then Windows should be able to recognize Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted volumes. AFAIK, Windows can not recognize APFS volumes without third party software. If an external HDD contains a ExFAT formatted partition, then any version of Windows running on a Mac can access the volume. Although, older versions of Windows may need a to have an update installed. Here, I assume the external HDD is using a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table or GUID Partition Table (GPT).

Note: There are newer Macs running Windows that can access APFS containers for the purpose of selecting the system to use to start up your computer.


How make Mac OS mail Connection Doctor forget older accounts

Apple's Mail app stores the settings for SMTP servers apart from the settings for IMAP/POP3 servers. In my experience, this often leads to the fact that after deleting mail accounts, the SMTP servers are still visible in the connection doctor although all other data regarding a certain internet/email account have been removed.

In case the connection doctor shows you only the SMTP accounts of the already deleted mail accounts, please proceed as follows:

Open Mail > Settings > Accounts > SMTP-Server > Edit SMTP-Server list
In the dialog which opens: Select entries in the server list
Remove items by clicking on the minus-symbol below the list

In case the connection doctor also shows you the IMAP or POP3 account information of the  already deleted mail accounts, proceed as follows:

Quit Mail
Re-add the accounts using System Preferences > Internet Accounts
Open Mail
Quit Mail
Remove the accounts using System Preferences > Internet Accounts


execute login items one after another instead of all at once?

You could make an automator action that starts each item serially, with staggered delays, or sleeps to ensure a delay between each start, and then simply place that single script as your startup item :)


I'm sorry to say, but it's gone... G.O.N.E.

Unless your PC/Mac has the files, its gone. Check to make sure you still have Contacts, Photos, Apps, Music, Videos on your iPad AND on your PC/Mac by going into the respective apps and by checking iTunes.

Also check to see if you have a backup of your iPad by following these steps:

Connect your device to the computer that has your backup.
Install the latest version of iTunes.
Choose File > Devices > Restore from Back up.

If it has the backup, well make sure that it hasn't got anything on it. If it does, sync that information over before restoring.

Good luck!


How to get into the split screen mode in Maxthon?

They're all already gone..
go back to Maxthon version 4.4.8.1000
you'll get it all.. back :D


Safari (and system) share menu - Messages and other items missing in Sierra

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203129
This is the fix according to apple. I have a very similar problem but this fix enabled only one or two extensions for me. I ran it 3 times. I'm still looking for more info


A suspicious 'installer' was executed on my macbook. What would be the safest course of action?

Run something like Malware Bytes (formerly Adware Medic), try and find out what the actual filename of the item installed was and search the internet.


What are pros and cons for MacPorts, Fink and Homebrew?

Definitely Homebrew. I started with Fink, then switched to MacPorts (happier), then Homebrew (much, much happier). These are my reasons for using each (a pro list if you will):
Fink

Apt-based - feel right at home if you come from a Debian-based environment

MacPorts

Unlike homebrew do not depend on MacOS library that may change in the future.
Install everything in /opt/local
Nice variants system that lets you customise the build
Easy and intuitive port files, also allows you to add your own
supports many versions of OSX and macos going back to Tiger including PowerPC versions see other answer

Homebrew

Maximum leveraging of what comes with OS X. Unlike Fink or MacPorts, it does not require you to build/install ruby and libraries from scratch just to install some small Ruby-based tool.
Installs into /usr/local
Install without root access
Every installed package is cleanly sandboxed into its own cellar so you don't have stray files all over your system, just symlinks from bin, man, etc.
Has guides and automation to create your own formula files (ie. package descriptors)
Written in ruby and all formulas are concise ruby scripts

pkgin

Everything installed in /opt/pkg/
backed by pkgsrc community and Joyent
Known to work on NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, Solaris, Debian, Mac OS X, Minix

https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/install-on-osx/
http://pkgin.net/


How to add a Safari toolbar button that runs an AppleScript

Another solution, and this is really dependant on what you want to do, is to use Services to execute your Applescript.

It doesn't create a toolbar icon, but will allow you to create a service from your AppleScript. You can then define a shortcut key in the System Preferences Keyboard Services pane

This page over at automatedworkflows.com shows an example as well as a link to the rather useful ThisService program.


Move files from a single folder to multiple folders, based on filename

Assuming that these files are all in the same folder and the numbered folders are part of that folder as well, open Terminal and run

cd path/to/folder
for i in *.pdf; do
    mv "$i" "${i:2:2}/"
done


How to delete text from an edited picture in preview?

There is a way to remove text from a picture that you have added with Apple's Preview application.

Open the picture with Preview, try to find as area where the background is the same as where the text is.

Select an area with the mouse, and copy it and paste it into the picture.
It will pop up in the center of the picture.
Use the mouse to move it over the text.
You can paste it several times as needed.
Save and quit the application.
Re-open Preview and Open Previous.

Select the picture you just edited and the text will be gone.


From OS X: About OS X Recovery

  Which version of OS X is installed by OS X Recovery?

  If you use the Recovery System stored on your startup drive to    reinstall OS X, it installs the most recent version of OS X previously installed on this computer.
  If you use Internet Recovery to reinstall OS X, it installs the version of OS X that originally came with your computer. After installation is finished, use the Mac App Store to install related updates or later versions of OS X that you have previously purchased.

So as long as the local Recovery disk partition is intact it will install, at this point in time, OS X Yosemite 10.10.4.


Maps on iPhone gives me completely wrong distance estimates

This is just a speculation and based on observation, but it seems that Maps will use the last place the iPhone "checked in" as point where it thinks you are to calculate distances.
When you click/tap on the specific entry, it then gets the actual GPS coordinates to then draw the map/calculate directions.
The way I solved the issue was to search for my place of interest in Bing (yeah, the Bing App) because it gets the actual GPS coordinates, runs the search, and then hands off to Apple Maps.


Preventing google search for custom top-level domain

To just avoid connecting to Google, open Safari's preferences, click on "Search" and then change the search engine to something else.

To prevent that domain from going to any search engine, add a Safari bookmark with the full URL (including the http:// or https:// protocol). Once the domain is bookmarked it should come up when the user begins typing the name in the address bar.

The user's machine will still need a way to route traffic to the custom domain, either via DNS settings, or by adding an entry to the /etc/hosts file on the user's machine.


How can i get itunes to backup my iphone with limited disk. I linked the backup dir to an ext drive with space yet still won't backup?

Perhaps it is better to move something else to the external disk, like the music or movies library. These are normally very large and thus this gives you ample space on the startup disk.


How can you simultaneously change the name of a song in iTunes and the actual file

If you're willing to do it using an app, there are a few apps that do it.

1-One is freeware and called "Tagger",

Here is what Tagger allows you to do, in terms of renaming options:

2-another app is called "Tune Instructor", which works as an iTunes plug-in (freeware too).

3-another one is called "Metadatics". This one is shareware (9$).

4-If you're good at more complex solutions, then maybe looking into [Applescript]5 would be a good idea.

5-Doug's free iTunes scripts also have iTunes applescripts to help you rename your files.

I didn't try the 2 and 3, but they're probably all good solutions. 5 is usually a very good source of scripts. Try them and chose what you like best!


Create an Applet. The script below should get you started. Save that Applet to place of your preference (/Applications/). Select any text file and press ⌘+I(nfo) > Open With: > Other > Select you Applet, then click change all. Now whenever you open any text file that applet will run, which will open the file in vim.

on open theFiles
    tell application "Terminal"
        activate
        -- If there are no open windows, open one.
        if (count of windows) is less than 1 then
            do script ""
        end if
        set theTab to selected tab in first window
        set filePath to POSIX path of item 1 of theFiles
        do script "/usr/bin/vim " & quoted form of filePath in theTab
    end tell
    return
end open

on run
    --  Handle the case where the script is launched without any dropped files
    open (choose file with multiple selections allowed)
    return
end run


If the source and the destination of the file is on two different volumes, OS X's default is to copy the file rather than move it. In reality, what you want to do to the file is to copy it to the new location and then delete it from the old, whereas if you move a file to the same volume it's originally on, it will just change the recorded location of the file.

You can achieve "move" (copy-and-delete) functionality in Finder by holding Command when you drag the file.


Is there a Developer and Inspect feature in Mail.app

To inspect the underlying code of a message, you can use View > Message > Raw Source.


I just wanted to take the opportunity to answer my own question with a (slightly overdue) update.
After I upgraded to iOS 7, the behavior is actually a combination of the above. Now, hitting any key, including the square key, goes to the unlocked state.
So that's nice and corrected now...


Is it possible to boot from an encrypted external hard drive?

It should work, but if you use SuperDuper! a workaround is necessary:

I backed up my main system volume (hereinafter referred to as "System") to the unencrypted! backup volume (hereinafter referred to as "SystemBackup"). After rebooting to SystemBackup i tried to encrypt the volume SystemBackup, which wasn't successful, because the Recovery HD on the backup disk is missing. SuperDuper! only creates a copy of the system volume.

To get around this you first have to install a working system on the backup disk or use another way to create a Recovery HD volume on the backup disk and then erase the main backup volume again.
Backup your main system volume to the backup volume.
Boot to your (bootable) backup volume SystemBackup
Enable File Vault 2 in the system preferences.
Reboot to SystemBackup like advised and continue encrypting.
After encryption has finished boot to your main volume again
Now backup your main volume as usual using SuperDuper!

In my second/third attempt i used CarbonCopyCloner. In contrary to SuperDuper! CCC creates a backup, which usually includes the Recovery HD:

Backup your main system volume to the unencrypted! backup volume. You might have to initiate the backup of the Recovery HD manually. In my first attempt it was backed up automatically and in a second attempt i had to initiate it manually.
Boot to your (bootable) backup volume SystemBackup
Enable File Vault 2 in the system preferences.
Reboot to SystemBackup like advised and continue encrypting.
After encryption has finished boot to your main volume again.
Now backup your main volume as usual using CarbonCopyCloner.

Even after completely deleting my main disk (File Vault volume & Recovery HD) to simulate a disk failure, i have been able to boot to my system backup volume.

Don't encrypt the backup volume in the Finder (e.g. control-click on the the volume) before or after backing up your main volume!

An important note from the CCC knowledge base:
Mac firmware cannot "see" FileVault-protected volumes larger than 2.2 TB when the disk is attached via USB. If attaching the disk to your Mac via Firewire or Thunderbolt is not an option, create a 2TB partition at the beginning of the external disk to work around this limitation.


Bluetooth performance worse after Yosemite update

This looks like a bug in Yosemite. I have this issue and other people have it also.

I think we can just wait until it is fixed or return to Mavericks. I have tried resetting SMC and some other "fixes" from the internet without success.

OS 10.10.1 Yosemite has Bluetooth Audio Delay (lag, latency)


You can set when the profiler stops by opening the Record Options dialog by choosing the File menu and then Record Options.

From there you can set to stop recording after either a time limit (i.e. specified number of seconds) or window limit (i.e. record the last x seconds before you pressed the stop button).

The yellow gear and other icons there are used for marking which type of method it is. For example the yellow gear are system methods such as for example malloc (i.e. not part of your own source code). Your own source code would be displayed with a dark avatar icon.


Backup iPhone contacts etc to move to new iPhone

iCloud is your most hassle-free bet. On your 5s, go to Settings > iCloud. You'll find the following settings.

• iCloud Drive: Any apps turned on here may store content in iCloud without the use of iCloud Backup. This means when you get your new phone, you can set it up as new and still have access to the same content if you redownload the apps.

• Photos: This one's a bit trickier. You have switches for both iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Photo Stream. These are two separate things and the only reason to have both on at the same time is if you have devices on both iOS 8 or later and devices prior to iOS 8.
iCloud Photo Stream is available starting with iOS 6 (I believe) and only stores your most recent 1000 photos. It does not keep track of which photos are in what albums, does not keep track of edits, and when you get your new iPhone it will only download the most recent few hundred. iCloud Photo Stream does not take up your allotted iCloud storage space, which is 5GB if you're not paying monthly for more.
If you're willing to take up more of your allotted space, assuming you have enough, iCloud Photo Library is a better option available on iOS 8 and later. It has no limit on how many photos it can hold, also stores videos, keeps track of edits and albums, and allows your new phone to get all of the same content with no limits.

• Mail: Stores emails from any iCloud email accounts. If the accounts are not email, you will likely still be able to get your stuff on the new phone when you sign in again.

• Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes: Stores the associated app's content without the need for a backup.

• Safari: Stores bookmarks, reading list, history, iCloud Tabs, etc.

• News: Stores information on what you've subscribed to and liked/disliked.

• Wallet: Stores passes, cards, etc.

• Keychain: Securely stores your saved passwords from websites and apps to the cloud.

• Backup: Everything above will work seamlessly without needing a backup, and when you get your new phone you can just "Set Up as New" and it's all automatic. If there is some stuff you want to keep not covered above though, such as an app not supporting iCloud Drive, you can turn on backup and in Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage > your backup you can choose which apps specifically you want backed up. If that app is already turned on in a step above, it probably doesn't need turned on in Backup.
If you use Pages, Numbers, or Keynote make sure Use iCloud is turned on in Settings > Pages, Settings > Numbers, and Settings > Keynote.
If you're using Backup, when you get your new phone you'll need to do "Restore from iCloud Backup" instead of setting up as new.

• If you don't have enough iCloud space, you can always experiment with other clouds like Dropbox, but iCloud is the most seamless. There's also iTunes Backup like you mentioned which is easy but not quite as seamless.


There is a solution to your problem:

Filesystem verification can be stopped by booting to single-user mode, and then typing in order:

/sbin/fsck -fy
reboot

Could not unmount disk is because you are probably using it. Try booting from Recovery HD. If problem persists, boot Recovery from USB or use Internet Recovery to partition disk.


Simplenote doesn't support adding photos.


Stuck at the login screen syncing home share

Very strange issues with this macbook. In the end bringing it up in Safemode once and then a clean reboot allowed it to work. I didn’t even have to turn off homesharing


Enable flash player audio access in safari for a website permanently

Flash has a control panel is system preferences that you can make these settings changes.

In my version (admittedly older) there is a tab for "Camera and Mic" where you can manage camera and microphone settings by site/


Bluetooth audio delay / lag, reason completely unclear to me

Bluetooth lag is a known problem with some, but not all, remote speakers, headsets, etc. We have several Vizio sound bars that have a definite lag, but a Harmon-Kardon speaker set that doesn't. In some cases, adjusting a specific Bluetooth system parameter in Terminal can help with the lag. This works on some of our Vizio sound bars, but we had to hard-wire others to guarantee no video syncing issues.

sudo defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" -int 40

The -int value can be experimented with to troubleshoot, but I'd be cautious and not be too extreme in the values you try.

I found this information at this link and this one.


How to get music from Dropbox to ANY mp3 music type app

It's really not possible to get music from Dropbox into the music app on your iPhone. Apple does not support getting music onto your iPhone that way. The Dropbox app will play the songs but is hardly a music playing app.

You mention Linux. Do you have a Mac or a Windows PC? The best way is to add the songs to iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC and then sync your files using iTunes. Apple does not make iTunes for Linux and iTunes is the only supported way to get music from your computer onto your iPhone.

Not being a Linux guy there may be a Linux application that will get the music onto your iPhone without iTunes. Maybe there is a Linux guy here that knows if there is such a thing. I don't know, sorry.

Apple is all about making it simple to do basic things for the majority of people. Those of us at the geeky/nerdy end of the spectrum often face these frustrations. You can either continue to be frustrated, or just relax and do it the Apple way, using Apple software. There are a number of things that have always annoyed me about Apple software and Macs (+ iPhones...) in general. But I have learned to accept the limitations because I don't like Windows and Linux just annoys me. But that is just me, you have to do what works for you.


Will getting my new iPad engraved delay its delivery?

In my experience, yes, there will be a delay.

The thing is that when you order engraving (at least it was like this when I ordered), Apple does it in a factory somewhere in China, and ships it from there, which takes forever (it took a little more than a week if I remember correctly to ship it to New York).

If you don't order the engraving, Apple can send an iPad that they have in stock somewhere much closer to where you are, which will be faster.


Storage Management on Catalina displays nonexisting apps. How to fix?

From the Steam Knowledge base on Uninstalling from macOS:

Just dragging the Steam program to the Trash will not fully uninstall Steam. The additional steps below are required.

Open Applications and drag Steam to the Trash.

click Go in the menu bar, hold down the option key until you see the Library folder, and open that folder from the drop-down.

Navigate to Library/Application Support/Steam

Delete Steam data from your computer with one of the following options:

If you don't want to lose any game data: delete all files and folders in /Steam EXCEPT FOR the /SteamApps folder (this contains your game downloads and any local save files.)

If you're removing all Steam data from your computer: delete the entire Steam folder.

Empty the Trash by selecting Finder -> Empty Trash

Reindex your Hard Drive
If Storage Management (like Steam) is just a front end to all of the system services and it just may not be updated.  If it is still showing that the Application is there, it may be required to re-index your drive.  In Terminal, issue the following command:
% sudo mdutil -E /


How to find out if an App in the Mac App Store is 64 bit

If the app in question was updated after June 2015, or if it was released after February 2015 the app it's 64 bit.

Why:

Apple stopped accepting new apps without 64 bit support in february 2015 and stopped accepting updates to existing apps without 64 bit support in June 2015.


Mac with 2 monitors. How to change screens?

One thing you could try is resetting the NVRAM of your Mac to see if that resolves this.

You don't specify the model of your Mac, so below are some generic steps that will work to reset the NVRAM on all Mac models:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then immediately press the commandoptionpr keys.
Keep these keys pressed down for at least 20 seconds!
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).


Removing IMAP mail on iPhone not visible in Outlook trash

Make sure that the messages are not being trashed into the generic mail trashcan on the phone. The need to specifically be trashed in the IMAP account's trashcan.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > (Your IMAP Account) > Account > Advanced > Deleted Mailbox and make sure Trash on the Server is selected. Not Trash on the phone.


Determine which application the media keys will control

There was an app (no longer supported) called Media Key Forwarder that allowed users to decide which app would receive the Play/Pause command. Its code is open source.
It wasn't the only one: BeardedSpice also allows users to control the play/pause button behavior, and it's also open source.
I quickly browsed their source codes looking for a specific piece of code to embed here but it was not immediately obvious to me. Nonetheless, I think it's a good start and might help.


"Dead Zone" in multiple-monitor configuration

Check the layout of your displays in the "Displays" preference pane:

Normally it's not possible to position your displays such that there is an actual gap between them (at least on Lion), but perhaps moving them around will fix the problem.


Can I get @me.com email address when I only have @icloud.com address?

You cannot. Apple has retired the ability to get a new @me.com email address, just like they did for the @mac.com email addresses back in 2008. Existing accounts are grandfathered in, but you are unfortunately out of luck.


How do I change fonts and add colors in Contacts?

The Contacts app uses the system font. To change font or font size in Contacts.app, you must change it for your whole system. There is a way to change the system font from San Francisco font to Lucida Grande font which may be more appealing to you. There is a small app that lets you pick between San Francisco and Lucida Grande fonts for your system. This web page provides a link to the application or you can go straight to it here.


Keynote Master Slide Text Box Placeholder Relative Position

This is not possible.
You can achieve a similar result by putting both text elements into a single text (placeholder) box, then define different paragraph styles for "Name" and "date range" with the desired spacing before or after the paragraph in the "Format > Text > Spacing" sidebar.


OS X Finder sorting by date shows some files in incorrect order

Caching.

Not all Finder dialogs use the latest information available for a file to improve performance. Information such as that is loaded asynchronously, but this sometimes fails and doesn't show the correct information.

If a directory is taking too long to load, Finder may sometimes prefer to load partial information rather than not listing the directory contents in a timely manner. If this data is never loaded, it is never cached and is consistently listed incorrectly in certain circumstances.

This can usually be fixed by remounting the partition (if applicable) or restarting.


How can I transfer messages from iPhone 4 to iPhone 5?

You can backup to iCloud, and then restore to your new phone. This will ensure that not only just your messages but all your data will be transferred over to your iPhone 5.

Here is a very helpful article on using iCloud for backup and restore.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4859


Simulate user login using command-line utilities

To quickly switch between accounts/logins, enable and use Fast User Switching. First login will (of course) take a while as usual, but afterwards switching is very quick. And unless you run big CPU-hogging applications in several accounts at once the additional resource needs are minimal.


Unlinking a work laptop from my personal Apple devices

Your best bet would be to follow these steps on the MacBook Air:

Backup any data you may want to keep (including data on iCloud)
Open iTunes
From the menu bar go to Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer
Enter your Apple ID and password
Click Deauthorise
Now also go to Apple > System Preferences
Click on the iCloud preference pane
If it's selected, then deselect the Find My Mac checkbox
Now totally sign out of iCloud
Exit System Preferences
Launch the Messages app
Go to Messages > Preferences > Accounts
Select the Accounts tab
Sign out of any personal accounts
Follow these steps to reinstall macOS

Now you're MacBook Air is ready to hand back.

OPTIONAL: If you can't do Step 15 (e.g. you're not allowed to, etc) then you could also do the following (assuming you're allowed to):

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Users & Groups
Click on the + sign to add a new account. When you do, ensure that it is an Administrator account.
Exit System Preferences
Restart the Mac and login to the new user account you just created
Once you're logged in, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Click on the - button to delete your original account. Select the appropriate option and click on Delete User.

Now your MacBook Air is ready to hand back.