Unable to reinstall Mac OSX without an Apple ID that I don't know

You can put up to macOS 10.11 Yosemite on that Mac.

If you have Macs at work see if you can download a copy of it there or from a friend. I have also heard that an Apple genius can help with that at an Apple Store as macOS is free toinstall on any Mac.

Once you have downloaded the OS create a bootable USB key. DiskmakerX will make one for you, there is also a terminal command that you can use to do the same thing.

If you boot from installable media and then wipe the drive before proceeding with the installation that problem with an AppleID will go away and you will be free to register the OS under your own AppleID


How can I use tmutil to figure out which files just got deleted?

Run

tmutil listbackups

to get the list of snapshots available. Pick the one before the problem occured and run

tmutil compare YOUR-SNAPSHOT-HERE | cut -c33- | grep /Users/YOUR-USERNAME

to get a list of differences between then and now. If you leave out the cut part you may also get some indication concerning the actual difference (but it's more difficult to use the result afterwards).


After upgrading to Mojave lpass-cli fails to execute properly?

This issue appears to be with lpass itself, after upgrading to Mojave. The issue was reported in various forms on the LastPass Github project page for lastpass-cli. Specifically this issue: Segfaults on macOS Mojave Beta #427.

The solution is pretty straightforward. Simply upgrading lastpass-cli via brew like so:

$ brew upgrade lastpass-cli

Resulting in this version being installed which fixes the malloc issue mentioned.

$ brew info lastpass-cli
lastpass-cli: stable 1.3.3 (bottled), HEAD
LastPass command-line interface tool
https://github.com/lastpass/lastpass-cli
/usr/local/Cellar/lastpass-cli/1.3.3 (10 files, 216.6KB) *
  Poured from bottle on 2019-04-15 at 15:15:05
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/lastpass-cli.rb
==> Dependencies
Build: asciidoc ✘, cmake ✘, docbook-xsl ✔, pkg-config ✔
Required: curl ✔, openssl ✔, pinentry ✔
==> Options
--HEAD
    Install HEAD version
==> Caveats
Bash completion has been installed to:
  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

zsh completions have been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions
==> Analytics
install: 2,555 (30 days), 5,077 (90 days), 18,589 (365 days)
install_on_request: 2,378 (30 days), 4,832 (90 days), 17,108 (365 days)
build_error: 0 (30 days)

Version details from CLI:

$ lpass --version
LastPass CLI v1.3.3.GIT


What are the control keys available when working in a text field?

The default key bindings are stored in /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict. You can use plutil to convert the file to an XML format, like so:

plutil -convert xml1 -o StandardKeyBinding.xml  /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict

Or, if you have Xcode or Property List Editor, you can open it there.

In addition, you can add your own bindings system-wide to /Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict, or per-user to ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

This page has a nice overview of bindings. I've grown particularly fond of Transpose (⌃-T), which swaps the two letters to the left and right of your cursor, fixing my most common kind of typo quickly.

In addition, there are various additional tricks using the ⌥ and ⌘ keys:

⌘-← and → move to the beginning or end of the line. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.
⌘-↑ and ↓ move to the beginning or end of the document. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.
⌥-← and → move to the beginning or end of the word, or between multiple words. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.
⌥-↑ and ↓ move to the beginning or end of the paragraph. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.


Force constant refreshing of WINE window

I've found a completely horrendous but workable way of fixing my problem. First, download and install Afloat, which lets you set windows as global translucent non-clickable overlays.

Then, create a HTML file whose background switches between pure white and almost pure white 20 times a second. Something like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
    <title>Strobe Light</title>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
      <!--
      var c = 0;

      function strobe() {
        document.bgColor = c ? '#fefefe' : '#ffffff';
        c = (c + 1) % 2;
      }

      function startStrobe() {
        setInterval(strobe, 50);
      }
      -->
    </script>
  </head>
  <body onload="startStrobe();">
  </body>
</html>

Finally, open this file in Safari, resize the window to fill the screen as much as possible, and use Afloat to set the window as a global near-transparent non-clickable overlay. The result? The whole screen (including the WINE window) is forced to update every 50 ms.

Is this completely horrible? Yes. But it works.


Problem installing xcode 4.6.2 on OS X 10.8.5

I had a similar problem.  I was installing 4.60 on OSX 10.9.5 using Parallels. I followed the answer to the question found here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3863980?start=0&tstart=0

That fixed it.


Chrome notifications not appearing on both monitors (dual monitor)?

This is currently not possible.

Google Chrome uses its own code for displaying notifications which Keyboard Maestro doesn't seem to be able to interact with. There appears to be no AppleScript for even detecting notifications and Google Chrome seems to refuse to provide the content of the message to Keyboard Maestro for any sort of macro.

Also, sending Chrome notifications to Growl also doesn't help since Growl still can't show notifications on multiple displays:

How can I show Growl notifications on both displays?


MacBook Pro hard disk failure. How to recover and clean install?

I'm sorry to tell you that your hard drive is dead (or at least is on the way out), and will need to be replaced. If you're not too confident, you can call Apple Care who should be able to recommend a local shop who can sell you a replacement hard drive and install it for you.

Alternatively, it's quite easy to replace the hard drive yourself. If you google it you'll see there's loads of articles and videos on how to do it (here's a good one to get you started). Apple even has instructions on how to change the hard drive in the macbook pro manual, which is definitely worth a read before you crack it open.


How do I end dictation without using my mouse, and without triggering unintended shortcuts?

It's currently not possible to close dictation using voice command. From Apple page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

  When finished, click Done or press the fn key again. Your spoken words then appear in the text field.

The same is for Enhanced dictation

  Enhanced Dictation automatically stops listening when you switch to another window, or if you press the Fn key again, or when you click Done.


Photos on iOS 11 re-uploading entire library to iCloud

If you go to a computer and log in to http://iCloud.com/photos you will be able to see the status of your library as rendered from Apple’s servers in the data center.

If your cloud library is corrupt, you can either:

try and delete it and let it clear up and try a sync up from the one device that has your master copy / most complete library
work with support to convince tier 1 support that you’ve read the instructions and don’t need basic training and need an engineer to look at your account on the server side

If your cloud library isn’t corrupt, you can then decide to wait out the sync or wipe that device and start the iCloud sync over. I’ve had times where things are blank and syncing for three to four days and it clear up so you might need do nothing but connect to WiFi and connect the device to power for a few 8 hour periods to let all the sync / upload / duplicate processes to run.

You might have something the code can’t resolve and need to get Tier 1 to refer you to engineering since Apple doesn’t let people contact iCloud engineering directly and you do need to work through support to get there if needed.


Removing software that came from a pkg file?

Not a direct answer to your question, but you can also use "Suspicious Package", a QuickLook plug-in for Finder, to see what files a package installed: http://www.mothersruin.com/software/SuspiciousPackage/

Depending on what files were installed where, you may be able to find them in Finder and drag to the trash; otherwise you may have to go into Terminal and rm around.


How to change MacBook's performance back to normal after it was reduced?

I installed the Intel Power Gadget to check if anything can be shown.
Then one time I left YouTube running, showing 1080p, and placed the Macbook 12 inch on the bed, and an hour later, I saw that the notification said CPU performance has been reduced, and Intel Power Gadget showed:

so it seems like the Blue Line (for the processor) is showing that it was running at 1GHz.
And then I stopped YouTube, and put something under the Macbook so that it can ventilate better under the notebook base. After 30 minutes, without rebooting the machine, I ran YouTube again and some other apps, and the Intel Power Gadget showed the Mac running at 2GHz or above again. So it looks like the processor speed got bumped up back to normal, but it won't show you any notification:

P.S. When I have some apps running and Google Chrome running with a dozen tabs, the temperature kept on being 60°C and it won't jump back up to the 2GHz range. I had to quit the apps and Chrome and the temperature went down to 50°C, and after about 30 minutes the Macbook went back up to 2GHz. By the way, the processor can go up to 90°C and it was a bit scary... it is almost enough to boil some water.


If you cannot remember the answer, the only Way for you would be to get this rescue email going. You cannot change any details of your account without that email.

Try to rescue your email-account, you used to get the email.


I am getting an error 'pack with invalid duration' using ffmpeg with concat on Yosemite

Make sure the video files are at the same resolution, framerate and timebase. First check what they are now, and if they differ, choose what clip you want to use to base the settings on. You can then convert the others with something like the following command (example with a resolution of 1280x720, 24 fps, a video timebase of 90k, and audio timebase of 48000).

ffmpeg -i original.mp4 -vf scale=w=1280:h=720:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1280:720:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict experimental -video_track_timescale 90k -r 24 -ar 48000 converted.mp4

What does this have to do with apple? Isn't this a general ffmpeg question?


Is there a shortcut or way to use code, to do anything at all with the item currently highlighted by Command+F?

If you select text in Safari (your example) Accessibility Inspector will list among Attributes:

"Passive" text . . AXRole: AXStaticText   /   AXValue: [text of a whole paragraph]
Link . . . . . . . . . . AXRole: AXStaticText   /   AXValue: [link name]

There's not very much functionality to detect there, is it?
Selected text in TextEdit on the other hand will display:

[Any text] . AXRole: AXTextArea   /   AXValue: [Whole text]   /   AXSelectedTextRange: [value]
[Link] . . . . AXRole: AXLink   /   AXRoleDescription: Hyperlink   /   AXURL: [its URL: http://...]

In Safari not too much can be done with highlighted text. Other programs -TextEdit!- that support accessibility more naturally, CAN be manipulated to a higher degree.

If you look at the hierarchy of a quite common button ("edited" on this page) it will reveal itself as:

AXStaticText ["edited"] / AXLink / AXGroup / AXWebArea / AXScrollArea / AXGroup / AXGroup / AXTabGroup / AXSplitGroup / AXWindow:AXStandardWindow / AXApplication

Doesn't sound very inviting to me, searching for a simple button ...
If I had to do a search I'd rather look into a Safari-document's source, text or URL, all of which are accessible, see: Safari's sdef file.


Is there a USB-C PoE adapter for iPad Pro?

You could use something like this to turn 802.3at POE+ into data and USB-C power, then use a short USB-C cable and a short CAT6 cable to immediately patch into one of these (haven't personally tested this adapter but it should work in theory).  Not ideal since it requires multiple adapters, but a workable solution.


How can I create a custom alert sound in Mountain Lion?

You need add the sound file to /System/Library/Sounds/, or ~/Library/Sounds. (If you don't know how to locate that easily, you can search for "sosumi", and follow the breadcrumbs at the bottom of the finder window.)

The sound file needs to be converted to AIFF or WAV format. Macworld has a good writeup on how to do this using iTunes or garageband.

Then, in System Preferences->Sound->Sound Effects, it will show up as an option for your system alerts.


Why is My iPhone's Lock Screen Wider than Usual? Serious iPhone issue

If it's a software issue you can fix it resetting the phone back to factory defaults (just make sure you back up first).

If it's a hardware problem like the screen doesn't work or touchscreen is not responding to touches then there's no simple fix. You can only resolve this by repairing the broken hardware.


How can I create or recreate a Lion recovery partition?

First, open a Terminal.

Status before:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
  #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
  1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
  2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            127.8 GB   disk0s2

Get Lion Recovery Update v1.0 (431.91 MB)

Mount RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg

$ hdiutil attach ~/Downloads/RecoveryHDUpdate.dmg

Extract data from RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg

$ pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion\ Recovery\ HD\ Update/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg ~/Desktop/RHD

Mount RecoveryHDMeta.dmg (in the RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg package)

$ hdiutil attach ~/Desktop/RHD/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/RecoveryHDMeta.dmg

Run tool that will finally resize current partition and create recovery

$ ~/Desktop/RHD/RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg/Scripts/Tools/dmtest ensureRecoveryPartition / /Volumes/Recovery\ HD\ Update/BaseSystem.dmg 0 0 /Volumes/Recovery\ HD\ Update/BaseSystem.chunklist
Creating recovery partition: finished

Status after:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
  #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
  1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
  2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            127.2 GB   disk0s2
  3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3


Mac swift process blocks system, high memory pressure

To clean your build in Xcode (under Product menu) and deleting cache in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ (not the whole Developer folder, as it has simulators etc. too) was my original suggestion.

Finding on Stack Overflow got me these:

Restart your Mac.
After making a copy of your project in a safe place, right click on the project file and select "Show Package Contents". Delete the .xcworkspace file and rebuild your project. Use the backup file if it persists.
Bugs in Swift which can be triggered by

Declaring arrays in multiple lines
Programming errors.
Several concatenations in one line

  ...it was caused by a 20 item array literal. Had to switch to different syntax.

and so on..

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24782721/xcode-swift-indexing-forever
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13831559/xcode-stuck-on-indexing
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26494082/swift-xcode-index-freezing-or-slow

New ones:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58874341/xcode-indexing-takes-ages-and-uses-gigabytes-of-memory says cocoapods.
And https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58649756/xcode-uses-huge-ram-memory-90gb This and some under the search Xcode swift memory indicate that it might be a new bug.

Your best bet is to use search and sort feature on SO, see linked and suggested questions to find problems in your code. Might even want to use source control to move back to the part where it was not problematic. After you've exhausted your search and trials, edit the question, I'd put a bounty. If it is not helpful, ask mods to kindly migrate.


Find which Safari window is playing video?

In Safari 9 (and probably later), a blue speaker icon appears in the URL bar of all windows whenever any window is playing audio. You can click on this to mute the current tab (if it's playing audio) or all other tabs (if the current one is playing audio).

This icon also has a hidden feature: If you click and hold on it, you will see a list of all the tabs that are currently playing sound. Click on one of those, and the corresponding window will be brought to the front. Then you can stop that particular video.


There was a way to do this a few years ago. I think it was on SL with some third party software, but sadly I can't remember what it was called. Could be discontinued though...

Edit: I remembered: Put the app to the desktop where you want to have it. Right click on dock icon, go to options and select the space you want to assign the app to.


It could take several hours to delete photos from iCloud. You're deleting 2500 photos so it could take more than 24 hours to delete them depending on when you've plugged your iPhone into power and connected it to wifi.

You are aware that once these photos are deleted they're gone for good (unless you have another backup somewhere) and you can't get them back?


Using a script to notify when a Personal Storage device was inserted into Mac

Although not a script, this tiny bit of Swift code, will report any disk insertions either physical or virtual. It may be of assistance to you:

import Foundation
import DiskArbitration

let session = DASessionCreate(CFAllocatorGetDefault().takeRetainedValue())

DARegisterDiskAppearedCallback(
    session!,
    nil,
    { (disk, context) in
        if let name = DADiskGetBSDName(disk) {
            print("Disk inserted: " + String(cString: name))
        }
},
    nil)

DASessionScheduleWithRunLoop(session!, CFRunLoopGetMain(), CFRunLoopMode.defaultMode.rawValue)

RunLoop.main.run()


macOS: How to take a picture from camera after 1 minute

You could do this using a Terminal tool like ImageSnap. ImageSnap can be installed using Homebrew:

$ brew install imagesnap

Or downloaded from GitHub.

You can then schedule a photograph using the -w argument:

$ imagesnap -w 60

imagesnap -h for all the options, including a time-lapse mode.


Are there any keyboard shortcut prompt applications?

While this is not a solution you're asking for, you can try adding shortcut in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Application Shortcuts for menu item 'Show Help Menu' (I'm not sure if it's enabled by default).

Then after pressing this shortcut you can type command name and help system will search for that in menu. I guess names of actions fairly often - Close Tab is quite easy to guess, as you just need to start typing 'Close'.

I hope this will help.


In TextEdit, if I type two `-` it is converted to one longer `-`

Go to Edit → Substitutions and disable Smart Dashes.

You can disable this globally in System Preferences: Keyboard → Text. Disable ‘Use smart quotes and dashes’.

To only disable the dash substitution globally whilst leaving smart quotes enabled by adding the substitution to System Preferences: Keyboard → Text. Add a new entry set to -- for both ‘replace’ and ‘with’ to disable the substitution. This works because entries here override the OS regardless of whether substitutions are enabled.

To disable the dash substitution globally without this workaround, you can disable NSAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled:

defaults write -g NSAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled 0


Apple documents that every release of their photo app if things change.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517

Pretty easy to put the library outside the home folder of the users and share.


How to stitch several photos into a single one using Mac OS X in 360 mode or simple?

I found Hugin to be the best free alternative to PhotoSynth. I only used the Windows version but they have Mac builds too.

PTgui is a commercial alternative to Hugin using the same core library. I remember giving it a spin and not being impressed over Hugin.

Another commercial alternative is Autopano (started as a free GUI to panorama tools and went beyond that with PRO and Giga versions). I has a more polished look and feel and the Giga version is targeted at really large panoramas (think 26 gigapx).


Cannot connect to Linked In on Chrome or Safari on OS-X SSL Issue

I wouldn't start randomly trusting individual certificates for websites. That just sounds like a bad idea. Without the chain of trust to confirm the provenance of the certificates it just seems like too much of a risk.

One option is to visit DigiCert's site and download the specific DigiCert certificates that are missing and install them. You appear to still have the High Assurance EV Root CA certificate installed that the site uses, so you can be confident that you are downloading them from the proper source. Just download the file and open them, Keychain should launch and accept them.

https://www.digicert.com/digicert-root-certificates.htm

I'd also recommend running Keychain First Aid. You can find it on Keychain's application menu.


Is it worth upgrading my jailbroken 3G to iOS4?

I've done it and it's not worth the trouble.  I'm considering rolling back to 3.1.2.

The beneficial changes are minimal (and most can be provided by a jailbreak app), and the performance decrease is very noticeable.  I've found that crashes are much more frequent as well.

My advice: Don't do it.


This has been possible for some time on the Mac OS (since 10.6), just hidden. In almost any text field or app you are typing text into you can hit F5 or Option-Esc to bring up the equivalent of the iOS autocomplete list. This is different than the auto spellchecking system built into the Mac.

This is similar to the answer given by @Greenonline, but works in almost any app that was developed using Apple compliant text fields. Just as an FYI, the Firefox web browser is an example of an app that DOES NOT comply with this, as well as many web based Javascript text editors that watch for special key inputs (like the ones found on this web site).

If the auto spellchecking is NOT turned on for your system for some reason you can enable it by going to:  menu -> System Preferences.. -> Keyboard -> Text tab and checking Correct Spelling Automatically to on.

If you are looking for an alternative to the built in functionality, then you could look at BBAutoComplete as an alternative.

It was created years ago as a free plugin for BBEdit (no longer needed since version 9 on has autocomplete built in). But the plugin can be used with any scriptable application including Word and TextWrangler.

If you are looking for a writing app specifically then I would look at Scrivener.

The cool thing about Scrivener's autocomplete is that it lets you set up separate autocomplete list for each project. This comes from the fact that it was designed for writers working on projects that might need to have specially created autocompletes for fictional characters or locations that aren't in a standard autocomplete system.

I hope this helps!


Finder icons without thumbnail preview and a cross?

Although it looks 99.9% complete, I think the Mac still thinks they are being copied over.
The 'thermometer' at the bottom of the icon would suggest this; the x at the top is so you can cancel before the operation is complete.

I'd try a reboot & see if that fixes it, otherwise try copy over again, maybe to a different folder.

If you were to look at them in List View, then the thermometer would be to the right of the file name, as either the same type of icon or as a 'pie chart', depending on version of macOS
Two views of a partially copied file, Icon & List.

 These were done with Apple Remote Desktop, so the X is in that app's interface, not on the icon.


Is there an iPhone app that acts as a radio signal strength sensor?

Apple does not provide any public APIs for interacting with any of the device radios, and would not approve any app that did so with a private API.


LIGHTROOM: Missing files on ThunderBay Raid Drive after internal Hard Drive crash

Lightroom doesn't store images in the Lightroom catalog, it only stores the editing metadata. If Lightroom can not locate the images, they may be missing (!) or simply not where Lightroom is expecting them. The first step is to manually locate your images to confirm they are still in place on your harddrive (or wherever you had them). If the images are NOT where you expect them, and you can not find them manually, you may have lost or destroyed the images.  Lightroom can not help recover the images, as it does not store the images in the catalog.

But if you find the images, then perhaps the Lightroom catalog has lost track of them, or they are in a renamed location (you changed the user name, which changes the top level directory in MacOS). The first step is to look at the menu tree on the left in the Library module. If any images or folders are listed as "missing' (with an exclamation mark: "!"), then inspect them to see what folder/drive they are attempting to connect to.  Make sure the location in Lightroom matches the location on your drive.

This article is extremely good instruction on how to reattach images to the Lightroom catalog, and I will simply point you to it rather than reproduce all intricate instructions here. However, this article guides you on reconnecting images to the Lightroom catalog.


How can I start a Hangouts phone call with Applescript/Terminal?

This script I wrote works for me.  You may need to adjust a few of the delay values, depending on the speed in which your computer launches your browser etc.

I actually wrote this script and saved it as an application and then I enabled it as a dictation command

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    set URL of document 1 to "https://hangouts.google.com/"
    delay 8 --adjust this value if needed
    set the clipboard to "1-234-567-8910" -- enter the real phone number
    tell application "System Events"
        click button 5 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of group 1 of tab group 1 of splitter group 1 of window "Google Hangouts" of application process "Safari"
        delay 1
        click button "New conversation" of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of group 11 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of group 1 of tab group 1 of splitter group 1 of window "Google Hangouts" of application process "Safari"
        keystroke (the clipboard)
        delay 2
        key code 36
    end tell
end tell


Downloads folder removed from the bottom

You can just drag the folder from Finder.

The folders on the right side of Dock are called stacks, and you can also add them for other folders. See Mac Basics: Stacks.


Can I make my own kernel extensions on El Capitan?

Rootless can be completely disabled on OS X El Capitan (though not on iOS, for hopefully obvious reasons). Therefore if you don't mind foregoing the ostensible benefits it provides, you can essentially revert to Yosemite's security model - which is to say, unsigned kexts can be used, but it requires preparation to do so.

It may not be able to be disabled in future versions of the OS, but for now it can be turned off.


Enable/disable Time Machine depending on network connection type

This AppleScript will check if the Ethernet connection is active, and then run a Time Machine backup if so.

First, disable Time Machine in System Preferences. The below method will run it automatically.

While connected to Ethernet, you will need to run one command manually to confirm which interface Ethernet is assigned to. Run this command:

ifconfig

It should output a screen full of information. What you are looking for is a section labeled en with a number after it, and whose last line is status: active, like this:

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING>
    ether 00:25:00:ef:30:3c
    inet6 fe80::225:ff:feef:303c%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
    inet 192.168.1.68 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
    media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
    status: active

Note the number next to en at the beginning - this is the interface that your Ethernet connection is running on. In the script below, where it says en9, replace 9 with the number from above. (If you have a Mac Pro, it will most likely be en0 or en1. Otherwise, it will likely be en0.)

if (do shell script "ifconfig en9 | awk '/inet/ {print $2}'") is not equal to "" then
    do shell script "/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/backupd-helper &"
end if

Save this as EthernetTimeMachine.scpt into your home folder (/Users/<yourusername>/).

Next open up Terminal and type the following command:

pico ~/crontab

This will open up a text editor to allow you to schedule this script to run on an hourly basis, just like Time Machine does by default. Paste this line:

@hourly osascript ~/<yourusername>/EthernetTimeMachine.scpt

Press control+X then type y and press return to save and exit.

To disable it, go back into Terminal, again use the command:

pico ~/crontab

Then delete the line you added above and use the same steps to save and exit.


In my knowledge, you can't make more than one review for one version of an app.
So if you tap the review button and you have already made a review, it will show the old review again and you can edit it.


My wireless has been set to “inactive”, how do I reactivate it?

The toggle to make a network adapter active/inactive is somewhat hidden. Select the AirPort adapter, then click the button that looks like a gear at the bottom of the list. This will open a dropdown and you can select "Make Service Active":


How can I use Dropbox for iPhone and iPad backup and not iCloud?

Tubedogg is right; there is no way to directly back up to your dropbox.  However, if you have your heart set on storing your backups in dropbox, you could back up to your computer and use a sym link to route iTunes' backups to a dropbox folder


On Mountain Lion the calendar files are stored in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Calendars/.
If all is correct you will find a bunch of folders that end in .caldav or .calendar, that contain another folder named Events which contains the events in the form of .ics files.


diskutil eraseDisk results in Error: 12: POSIX reports: Cannot allocate memory

It could be likely that you are not running the command as admin (Unix root) user.

To run a command with administrator privileges use the sudo command so:

$ sudo diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk1

The error message can lead one astray giving the impression that something else is wrong but it is likely a permissions issue.


Need my automator script to display the regular shutdown prompt before shutting down

Use the menu item instead:

tell application "Finder" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Finder"
        click menu item "Shut Down…" of menu 1 of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell

If you use another system language than English use the proper shut down command instead.
At least in OS X 10.11 you have to allow Script Editor/the resulting app to control your computer in System Preferences -> Security -> Privacy -> Accessibility.

You have to copy the menu item exactly including spaces. E.g. the three dots are not three dots but an ellipsis: alt; -> … (en-US keyboard layout)


Turn off internal display without closing lid

Run sudo nvram boot-args=iog=0x0 and restart. It restores the behavior on 10.6 and earlier where the internal display is not turned back on if the lid is opened in clamshell mode.

You can delete the variable with sudo nvram -d boot-args.

Other related questions here and at Super User.


Unable to upgrade from OS X Mavericks to OS X Yosemite

It means it isn't available in your region yet. You just need to give it a bit of time.


You can disable iCloud Backup in Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → iCloud Backup by switching the switch off.


How can I assign a custom icon from a graphic file to another file in Lion?

When Preview fails, I turn to the Web Browser, master of all filetypes.

Open the image in Safari, Chrome, or Firefox by dragging it to the app's icon or using
File-> Open.

Right click on the image and choose Copy Image (be careful not to use Copy Image URL or Copy Image Location).

From there, use the standard procedure of pasting into the Get Info window.

If the image you want to use is a PDF, you'll need to create a rasterized version that you can copy from the web browser. You can still use Preview for this: open the PDF, choose File-> Export and set the format to PNG. You can open the exported version and copy that.


Error while entering Apple ID (entered someone else's ID)

You seem quite panicked and distraught. Your question was very confusing and you may have misunderstood the situation, but from what I could have gathered I can provide these pieces of advice:

The old owner may have incorrectly removed the device from their iCloud account. This is a very easy mistake to make and has happened many times before. To correctly remove it, both you and the old owner need to carefully follow the instructions here (under "If you no longer have your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch") otherwise the device may never be recoverable.
You may have misread the instructions and inputed the incorrect information into the incorrect fields. Press the back button on the screen until you return to the language selection screen and setup using the instructions here. Preferably, to reduce confusion, use quick setup, to auto-setup wi-fi and iCloud, if your wife (not you) have an iOS device, other iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, running iOS 11 or later. You can find the version number by going to Settings > General > About > Software Version.
You may have somehow broken the setup instance and the device needs to be reset. To do this follow the instructions here while making sure to choose update (if available, otherwise choose restore), when prompted. Note, this requires you to enter recovery mode, and should be perfectly safe provided the connection isn't interrupted (e.g. unplugging or turning off your computer) while the device is restoring. You shouldn't have to use DFU mode. Once you return to setup, follow the instructions above in part 2 to setup your device.

If after following these steps, you still can't setup the device, your best option is to go into an apple store and get them to correctly assess the issue your having and get them to fix it.


Change from Mac OS Extended File to APFS in order to install Mojave

The internal drives of Macs are converted to APFS when upgrading to macOS 10.14 Mojave and yes, macOS Mojave boots from APFS just fine.

More specifically, when Mojave is installed it will convert any internal drive (including SSDs, HDDs and Fusion/Hybrid Drives) from HFS Plus to APFS.

This is an important distinction as prior to macOS Mojave, only SSDs were converted to APFS, and this explains some of the confusion over time regarding how macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra and macOS Mojave have managed things as APFS has continued to evolve.


Documents in Word need to be saved in a 'Recent Place' first

If you click the disclosure triangle next to the filename, you'll see a Finder-like window. That will let navigate to any folder (or disk) that you want.


Is there a technical reason not to upgrade a MacBook's RAM past its listed maximum?

Most new Macs have memory that’s not packaged for mechanical installation. The exceptions to this are the MacPro and 27” iMac and Mac Mini with Intel CPU.
If your machine has end user replaceable RAM, anyone that is skilled at troubleshooting bad RAM shouldn't shy away from learning what they give up when they install third party RAM in their Mac.
Basically, you give up having AppleCare or the Warranty cover that part and perhaps them diagnosing a problem they can't reproduce with factory RAM installed.
As you probably know, an intel designed (or influenced) chipset and logic board will often run with more memory than Apple will install in the factory, as an upgrade or even list as "supported" yet reputable memory vendors have been providing details on which machines will run reliably when loaded with high quality RAM that meets the technical requirements if not the marketing requirements from Apple.
I would look to sites like RamJet or Crucial or OWC/MacSales that have covered aftermarket upgrades to Macs for years and have established a reputation for having good warranties and information on determining if a specific RAM configuration is expected to be reliable on a Mac.
You of course may run into issues and bugs where certain chips fail oddly or tuning isn't ideal, but the time you gain in having more RAM often outweighs the time / expense of doing some hardware support if you run into issues and want to swap back in the Apple factory RAM to ensure you're not to blame for any oddities or failures by pushing the line on RAM.


How to identify the largest files in a directory including in its subdirectories?

I like spotlight better than crawling the filesystem for speed reasons. This doesn't directly report sizes so you can sort top 10, but you can quickly (fraction of a second) locate places where large files exist.
mdfind 'kMDItemFSSize > 2000000000' | grep "$(pwd)"

More options are on this thread. Add or remove zeroes or pick your size threshold for finding large files.

As to your syntax errors and other problems you'll face is handling spaces in files and directories, hence the " " around $(pwd) so you can quickly get in territory where you need to learn a bit more about shells, pipes, white space and escaping words / variables. Worst case, isolate each one element above so you can learn what the output of the find command is telling you and they layer back the filters / processing once you have valid results.
If all you are after cleaning large files and you don't need a script and want to learn that later. I recommend system information, storage management or Daisy Disk. Finder also can calculate all sizes well for me in preferences if you want to interact as you navigate.


Is there a way to automatically delete all cookies in Safari upon exit?

You can use the private mode which erases cookies(I think) and your history upon closing the windows.


What kind of cloth and cleaner do the people who work at the Apple store use to clean MacBooks?

I use iKlear on my Retina MBP. I can recommend them, however, they are a bit expensive. I have seen workers clean MBP's screens with it(though not in an official Apple store, but in a store that sells only Mac related products).


This may not be the answer you are looking for but I thought I'd boot it out there just in case. Assuming you have sufficient RAM (6 - 8GB) it might be easier to install Ubuntu (or any Linux dist.) in a virtual Machine. Parallels and VMWare Fusion are the two big commercial virtualization apps, but I have found that the free (and frequently updated) VirtualBox is easier than doing a dual boot system with the added benefits of it being quite easy to have both running at the same time.

As virtualbox is free you could try it and see if it suits your needs...


Update Xcode from 4.6.1 to 4.6.3 for Homebrew

I have just found this on GitHub Gists.

Try enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

Solved my brew doctor problem of Homebrew not recognising updated version of Xcode.

Also see this Homebrew compatibility guide and ensure that your OS is compatible with Command Line Tools on their own or if you need the full version of Xcode.


I faced the same issue and what I did was the following:

Go to Finder -> Applications
Movde Xcode.app to trash. (This will alert you if you want to cancel update).
Agree to cancel update from alert.
Go to Trash -> Xcode.app, right click and click on "Put Back"
Re-start using Xcode and continue with your work.

If you do not wish to hamper your work while you wait for XCode to update and you are in a slow internet connection, go to https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ and download latest version of xcode dmg (close to 6 GB) after you login in your apple developer account.


Restrict iPad's 3G internet connection to certain applications

This is possible as of iOS 7.

To disable certain apps' ability to use Cellular Network data, open the Settings.app and select "Cellular". Scroll down and you will notice a list of Apps which request cellular data access. These are all on by default.

This list is helpful for two things: first, you can see which apps have consumed the most data; second, you can disable certain apps from using the cellular data network. Keep in mind, when you disable that app, it is only preventing it from using the cellular network, and the app will still function normally on wifi. You can now go through and curate the list as you see fit. Even system apps, such as Mail, and Settings, are in the list.

At the bottom of the list, you can see another line titled System Services. In there is a list of non-adjustable services that use the data connection. It will tell you how much data has gone to each one. You can use this list to determine if you should make any other changes. For example, Personal Hotspot is at the top of my list. This doesn't surprise me and is fine. However, for you, if it is at the top of your list and you doesn't use that feature, this could be a concern, and you should verify that the feature is disabled. Also, Siri (if your device supports it), and iMessages are in the list. Both of the features can be disabled elsewhere in the Settings.app.


What does "Reinstall macOS" do, exactly?

It does exactly what it says it does–reinstalls macOS itself. It only touches operating system files that are there in a default configuration, so any preference files, documents and applications that are either changed or not there in the default installer are simply left alone. No doubt it is a bit more complicated than that but all a re-install does is replace the old files with "fresh" versions.

No doubt there are preference files and other things that are deleted/modified but Apple seems to have gone to great lengths to ensure that reinstalling the operating system won't delete anything that you have subsequently installed/modified.


Quickly send pre-written response on Mac mail?

Quickly insert a standard response on macOS

Prepare your response

Open TextEdit.
Create new empty document (CMD+N).
Type your desired response.
Select the text (CMD+A) and copy it to your clipboard (CMD+C).
Confirm by pressing return.

Teach macOS your response

Open System Preferences
Go to Keyboard > Text
Press the + button and enter a unique shorthand (e. g. rresponse1). It will be replaced by your standard response.
Press Tab to go to the next field and paste your response from your clipboard (CMD+V).

Use your response

Open your desired macOS application and click inside a text field.
Type your shorthand (rresponse1) and a space character.
macOS will expand the text for you automatically.

Does this answer your question?


Why do I have to use sudo although I'm already a member of wheel?

Answering based on system defaults (because of lack of the information in the question):

[~]# ls -ld /Library/WebServer/Documents
drwxr-xr-x  5 root  wheel  170 Feb 21  2016 /Library/WebServer/Documents/

[~]# ls -l /Library/WebServer/Documents
total 72
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   3726 Feb 21  2016 PoweredByMacOSX.gif
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  31958 Feb 21  2016 PoweredByMacOSXLarge.gif
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel     45 Jun 12  2007 index.html.en

Members of group wheel do not have write permissions to the /Library/WebServer/Documents directory nor the files inside.

Hence adding any account to the group wheel will not allow this account to write files in/to the above directory.


Connecting Apple monitor to Dell latitude E6540

Stepping down from DisplayPort to DVI or VGA is a relatively simple & cheap task.

Unfortunately, going the other way is not so simple... & certainly not so cheap.

I've managed to find these 2 examples of DVI - > DisplayPort adapters, though for the prices you could just about buy a new monitor instead.

I would also be very, very certain that the Apple monitor is, in fact DisplayPort & not Thunderbolt. The connectors look the same & you didn't specify the model in your question.

http://www.startech.com/uk/AV/Converters/Video/DVI-to-DisplayPort-Adapter-with-Audio~DVI2DPA

http://www.amazon.com/AT-DP400-Displayport-Converter-Designed-Convert/dp/B003CWEXWO


Keystone Fetch / ksfetch

The ksfetch process on OS X is part of Google Chrome's update mechanism. The ks prefix is an abbreviation of Keystone. The process appears to be responsible for fetching updates to Google's products. It is this role that uses your bandwidth.

Using slick's answer you can disable the corresponding process that uses ksfetch.

Alternatively, it appears possible to adjust the frequency of update checks:

  Entering the following code into your terminal will make it check once a week rather than every few hours:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 604800

To learn more about, follow the links below:

Little Snitch + Google Chrome = ksfetch issues
ksfetch, little-snitch, the escalation of mutually fooling …


Why is Face ID on used iPhone X and XS often not working?

The simplest explanation is that they've had their screens broken and the replacements weren't done by Apple themselves.
The FaceID [and TouchID] secure enclave chips cannot be replaced by anyone other than Apple. If they are in any way disturbed by a third party, they will cease to function.
This is a security measure.


Why is Terminal.app corrupting my tcsh history?

Are you cutting/pasting commands and picking up some of your prompt by accident?

It's not quite the answer you're looking for but throw sed -i.bak -e "s/\x1b[[0-9;]{1,5}m//g" .history into your .logout or cron it and you shouldn't have to clean it manually again.


The error message you listed is the result of using one of

 export $VARIABLE
 export /a/path/to/something
 export *more or less anything which is not a syntactically correct variable name*

instead of

 export VARIABLE

in one of your initialization files. To find the offending line you need to look into all the .profile, .bash_profile and anything sourced/called from there and grep for 'export ' to find it.

As it seams to be related to the installation of either PEAR or MAMP I would start looking at any additions done by these installations.


OSX Froze, Fails to Boot in any Configuration

Sorry to say it does sound like a drive failure. Does it have a recovery partition? Try booting with COMMAND-R held down see if it boots there, maybe that part of the drive is still functional and Disk Utility can do some repairs...

But honestly, I would contact the seller or manufacturer and see about a warranty replacement.


Is Transmit Power Control technology implemented in iPads?

This is a Broadcom question, and not an Apple question.  However, I wanted to provide some basic info on how the "low power mode" of the WLAN chip and iOS.

Lowering the transmit power is handled by the wireless chip, not by Apple itself.  For example, in the iPhone5 it uses the Broadcom BCM5334 chip which is capable of low power consumption (40-50% less than the previous generation) and "dramatically reduced standby power by 3 orders of magnitude."

Looking at the specs of the BCM4334, we find that it has "Programmable dynamic power management"  Going into the details we find that it the BCM4334 WLAN power states are described as follows:

  Active mode — All WLAN blocks in the BCM4334 are powered up and fully functional with active carrier sensing and frame transmission
  and receiving. All required regulators are enabled and put in the most
  efficient mode based on the load current. Clock speeds are dynamically
  adjusted by the PMU sequencer.
  Doze mode — The radio, analog domains, and most of the linear regulators are powered down. The rest of the BCM4334 remains powered
  up in an IDLE state. All main clocks (PLL, crystal oscillator or TCXO)
  are shut down to reduce active power to the minimum. The 32.768 kHz
  LPO clock is available only for the PMU sequencer. This condition is
  necessary to allow the PMU sequencer to wake up the chip and
  transition to Active mode. In Doze mode, the primary power consumed is
  due to leakage current.
  Deep-sleep mode — Most of the chip including both analog and digital domains and most of the regulators are powered off. Logic states in
  the digital core are saved and preserved into a retention memory in
  the always-ON domain before the digital core is powered off. Upon a
  wake-up event triggered by the PMU timers, an external interrupt or a
  host resume through the HSIC or SDIO bus, logic states in the digital
  core are restored to their pre-deep-sleep settings to avoid lengthy HW
  reinitialization.
  Power-down mode — The BCM4334 is effectively powered off by shutting down all internal regulators. The chip is brought out of this mode by
  external logic re-enabling the internal regulators.

The algorithm that is used to lower power consumption/output will be specific to Broadcom and unrelated to Apple.  iOS only puts the chip into power one of the power states; it doesn't manage the power states.

Now, for the main question...

  Is Transmit Power Control implemented in iPads?

If it uses this chip (iPad3), then YES.

  The BCM4334 also supports Transmit Power Control on the STA together
  with standard Bluetooth TPC to limit mutual interference and receiver
  desensitization. Preemption mechanisms are utilized to prevent AP
  transmissions from colliding with Bluetooth frames. Improved channel
  classification techniques have been implemented in Bluetooth for
  faster and more accurate detection and elimination of interferers
  (including non-WLAN 2.4 GHz interference).


Uninstalled XCode still paused in 'Purchases,' will not resume or delete

Try clearing com.apple.appstore from the TMPDIR.

open $TMPDIR../C

and

open $TMPDIR../T

find com.apple.appstore and delete it from both the folder.  Then restart the App Store.


Logout hooks were deprecated in 10.4, but they still work as of 10.9.

sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook ~/.logouthook
echo $'#!/bin/bash\nsay a' > ~/.logouthook
chmod +x ~/.logouthook

The value of the LogoutHook key can only be a path to an executable and not a shell command. The logout hook is run as root.

The defaults command modifies /var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist. Adding a LogoutHook key to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist doesn't work.

If a logout hook takes long enough to run, a gray screen is shown until the logout hook terminates. There doesn't seem to be any time limit after which logout hooks are forced to terminate.

I haven't figured out any way to run programs on logout reliably with launchd. When I tried trapping signals like EXIT, the code in the trap was only run when I logged out to the login window and not when I shut down or restarted.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>test</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>bash</string>
    <string>-c</string>
    <string>trap 'echo a>/Users/username/Desktop/a;say a' EXIT;while :;do sleep 10;done</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>


Even though Homebrew has blacklisted sshpass, you can still install it through third-party formula such as hudochenkov's:

brew install hudochenkov/sshpass/sshpass

There are several things to consider before doing this though:

It's a third-party formula which may not be updated as routinely as the brew core, so you could potentially miss out on key security updates.
SSHPass has been blocked for a reason, it's bad practice and there's likely to be a solution other than SSHPass - the page for SSHPass even states that:

  Most user should use SSH's more secure public key authentiaction instead

  Sourceforge


Is it possible to install OS X Mavericks from one Mac to another?

You can't "install" it, but you can clone an image of the OS on your laptop using Disk Utility and save it to an external hard drive, then restore that image (also with Disk Utility) onto your Mac mini.

Even better, if you can use Target Disk Mode (requires both Macs have either Thunderbolt or FireWire), you can use the same restore feature in Disk Utility to clone directly between the drives without requiring the external media/image file.

This will of course wipe your Mac mini drive in the process and won't give you a clean install.  If you're OK with that though, then it might be an option if you really can't afford the download.


Apple site on Safari not working properly

Figured out. Ghostery was blocking an Omniture tracking script: http://images.apple.com/metrics/scripts/s_code_h.js

Thanks for the tip, bmike.


How common are stuck or dead pixels on the MacBook Pro?

I've had a number of Mac laptops, starting with a PowerBook 100 way back in the dark ages. I've been fortunate, I guess, that I've never had a stuck pixel.

You're fortunate that your retailer is working with you, as Apple considers a single stuck pixel to be within acceptable limits. That is, they don't promise zero stuck or dead pixels, so generally you'd just be out of luck. [Worth noting: ISO 13406-2, the standard for flat panel displays (more analysis here)].

If you find this happening again, though, you might try one or more of the (non-Windows) suggestions at How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor.


Is users' discussion/chat on Jailbreaking allowed in an Apple-approved app?

Unless Apple is hosting the user-generated content and the discussion of jailbreaking is in violation of the terms of use of that site, I don't see how Apple could take any action  against such a discussion.

There are certainly people using various Facebook, Twitter, and other public communication apps on their iPhones to discuss jailbreaking.


Facebook notifications do not open a browser window when clicked

I'm also having troubles with the native Facebook alerts.
They just don't work as advertised, that's why I was searching in the web and found this article http://lifehacker.com/5943851/glow-for-fb-stuffs-unobtrusive-facebook-notifications-in-your-menu-bar

That app did it for me :) you click the Notification Center popups and you'll be redirected to the corresponding subject, e.g. the photo, a comment or a message thread.


OS X Automator: Using custom command in AppleScript's "do shell script"

What's the fully qualified pathname of the executable?  If it's not within in the $PATH that's passed to the do shell script command, which is /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin, then you'll need to use the fully qualified pathname of the executable.

To make an executable available globally, it must be in a directory that's included in the $PATH.

You can also add an alias or symbolic link to the target executable to a directory that's in the $PATH if you do not want to either append the path to it in the $PATH however keep in mind if the executable is dependent on files that are within its directory then adding the directory path to the $PATH is what you'll need to do.


Can anyone share original IO80211FAMILY kext for OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5

Run the 10.8.5 combo updater, from https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1676?locale=en_GB

This will ensure all updates since 10.8.0 are applied.


Many times, alternative words are available, as shown by a blue underline. Right-clicking the word and selecting the alternative word will 'train' the system over time to better understand what you are saying. Also make sure that Enhanced Dictation is enabled in System Preferences.


Expected incremental backup performance on Mid-2015 MacBook Pro

With those sorts of times it would appear that Acronis does a brute-force scan of the whole filesystem comparing each file.

But since 10.7 (Lion) macOS provides a mechanism called FSEvents that allows an app to be notified about changes so it can do its job in a much more efficient way. Time Machine uses FSEvents.

So, to answer your question: Your times are about right for software that is doing the scan inefficiently. As a Time Machine user I see far shorter times for much more data (600GB on SSD to external 1TB HDD over Thunderbolt) using my 3GHz i7 MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013) running High Sierra and APFS.

My recommendation is that you change software to one that is more modern in its approach.

PS: Time Machine would backup your old Mac and restore to a new Mac, though it does it using its usual loose files approach rather than a single monolithic image. It would also only backup changes to your Parallels VM – no such luck for a VMware Fusion user like myself.


Opening up the calendar and allowing it (or forcing) to sync will do the trick, though oftentimes imperfectly.

To force calendar to sync, open it up and the tap "Calendars" at the bottom, then swipe down.

As far as "imperfectly" goes, I mean it doesn't seem to sync all tasks all the time. I haven't figured out what the pattern is there, but it seems that it's usually recurring tasks that have issues.


Try restarting it by holding down the Digital Crown and side button together until you see the Apple logo appear. When that doesn’t work, set it on charge for 15 minutes and repeat. After an hour and no life, you might need a hardware repair or service technician to diagnose it from the service port.


How can I block all ports except 443 on macOS Catalina

Apple's application firewall is designed to have many exceptions to work with its services so the system prefs will take a lot of clicks. I will suggest a more command-line way to accomplish this large change in port access for the built-in pf firewall (no need for extra software).

Here is a simple rule set that will block all traffic except for ports 80 and 443 (http and https).  I don't advise saving it in your /etc/pf.conf in case things go sideways - a simple reboot (if you have pf set to load at boot) will fix things.  I used the filename ~/pf_rules01.conf, you can call it what you like.

Create the rule file

# Set the interface to be used
if="en0"

# Default Deny Policy
block all

# Skip the loop back interface
set skip on lo

# Set http(80) & https (443) ports #
web_ports = "{80 443}"

# Pass in only web traffic
pass in quick on $if proto tcp to any port $web_ports keep state
pass out quick on $if proto tcp to any port $web_ports keep state

Test the file

Before you enable the new rule set (keep in mind that you specifically asked for all protocols to be blocked except 443), you can check for syntax errors with the command:

$ sudo pfctl -n -f /path/to/rulefile

The -n tells pfctl to just parse the rules
The -f specifies what file to load; the default is /etc/pf.conf

Enable pf

If all is good, enable the rule set with the -e flag

$ sudo pfctl -e -f /path/to/rulefile

Testing...

From another machine, issue the command telnet <machinename || IPaddress> 80 of the host running your web server.  If everything works, you'll receive something similar to the following:

Trying 192.168.1.123...
Connected to testmachine.home.
Escape character is '^]'.

Success!  You can also try pointing your browser to the address and if you get a response from the server, it works.

Caveats

This blocks all traffic with the exception of 80 and 443 (http and https).  If you are SSHing into this box, you will lose your connection because it's not passing SSH (port 22) in or out (maybe pass 22 as well?).
en0 is my network adapter (wired).  Yours may be different.  To get a listing of your network interfaces, use the ifconfig command.  They are usually at the top of the output starting with en0, en1 etc.
This was tested on a FreeBSD server running dhttpd (not Apache). You can't test unless you have something listening and responding on the ports you're interested in.

I typically don't run any sort of web server on my Mac, but in VMs
for the sake of portability, security, and stability.  However, pf
is based on BSD and the rules and commands are identical.
If you want to turn this off just issue the command sudo pfctl -d and it will disable the pf firewall.


How do I stop a deleted purchased apps from continously charging me?

It's likely you made an in-app purchase of some sort of subscription. To check and deactivate the subscription, manage you Apple ID account in iTunes by clicking View My Apple ID in the Store menu.

Enter your password and on the resulting page you should see subscriptions listed under Settings with the number of subscriptions.

Click on the Manage link to the right. There you should be able to cancel any recurrent subscription plans.


How can you sync "learned spellings" between Macs

The spellings are located in various files in ~/Library/Spelling. Namely, LocalDictionary and various localisation files such as en_GB. You can sync this entire folder using a sync method of your choice.

To sync via iCloud, symlink the folder to/from a folder in ~/Library/Mobile Documents.
To sync via Dropbox, symlink the folder to/from a folder in your Dropbox.


No.

It’s not possible to connect to an iPhone to its own Personal Hotspot network as a client. iPhone can only be connected to one Wi-Fi network, so any attempt to join a network will turn off Personal Hotspot.

You can tether to any other device, though and get your download on cellular data from the other plan.


Is it possible to disable macOS requesting permissions via Apple Watch, but still use it to unlock Mac?

So is it possible to keep the unlock my computer with Apple Watch feature, but disable it for all other requests?

macOS doesn't provide any setting under the Security System Preference that lets you disable app authentication while keeping the setting to unlock the computer via your Apple Watch. It's either all in or out.

However, if you prefer not moving your hands away from the keyboard to Apple Watch or even Trackpad, you can still authenticate via keyboard. If you need a handy way to navigate through the on-screen controls, you can enable Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls under System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts.

Enabling this lets you use your keyboard to navigate between on-screen controls. Such as, in the following, you can use the Tab key to navigate to the Use Password... button and use either the Enter or Space key to press the button and enter the password, all without moving your hands away from the keyboard.

  Similarly, is it possible to disable Touch ID on the MacBook Pro for unlocking things, e.g. when unlocking the secure system preference, but still keep it to unlock the computer from lock/sleep?

You can go to System Preferences → Touch ID and uncheck Use Touch ID for all the items except Unlocking your Mac.


I think I've fixed my problem. I had 1000+ movies in iPhoto, and since iMovie just treats them as 1 huge "event" it was trying to open an event with 1000+ movies in it. My HD only had ~10GB empty. I exported them all out of iPhoto, moved them to an external HD, separated them out into individual folders and imported each folder 1 by 1 as a separate event, keeping the files stored on my external HD. I've now got my 3 years of video files all imported and have created 3 different projects which I've taken to completion and posted to Youtube. iMovie is lithe and snappy once again!

So, tips for speeding up iMovie:

Free up HD space so you have >10~15% free
Make sure your events don't have too many video files in them (anything over 50 is getting close to the upper limit it seems)
Consider an external HD, preferably SSD (You can use multiple drives to hold your "events". You're not just limited to your primary HD)


Is it possible to change the "Quick Look" zoom modifier key?

To have System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom use e.g. ^⌘8, instead of ⌥⌘8 as shown in the image below:

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Accessibility > Zoom and change the keyboard shortcuts from the default, as shown in the image below:

To as shown in this image below:


Why does connecting a Macbook Pro to a 2160p external monitor via Mini-DP result in a mess of green/purple colors?

First thing I'd try would be a different cable.

Apple has this to say about non-compliant Display Port cabling, though not specifically in response to your particular issue, but Google brought me there whilst on that search...

  Certain cables advertised as being VESA 1.1a compliant may contain a construction issue that may result in the DisplayPort power pins at either end of the cable shorting together. VESA 1.1a compliant cables must isolate the DisplayPort power pins at either end of the cable.
  To learn more about the VESA 1.1a DisplayPort Interoperability Guidelines, visit www.vesa.org


How can you find out if your iPhone ever got wet?

Those sensors are no electrical sensors, but pieces of paper that change from white to red when they get wet. There are up to two spots you can look at without opening the device. Have a look inside your headphone jacket and your dock connector. (use a torch/flashlight as lint or dim light can make these orangish-pink indicators hard to discern!)

Have a look at this page.

Here's the diagram for an iPhone 4/4S:


Mac Pro (5,1 - Mid 2010) + Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter + DVI Monitor = blank LCD

The Mini DP adapter was not fully plugged into the machine.  It required a little more force than I was comfortable using to fully seat.


Apple Time Machine doesn't see my WD My Passport 2 TB using USB 3.0

The following command line, using tmutil, will force Time Machine to use your mounted disk as its destination. If the disk is mounted as /Volumes/MyBackupDisk, run:
sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/MyBackupDisk

P.S. tmutil is very useful, also for deleting backups and working over the "operation not permitted" error.


Log into www.appleid.apple.com and from here you will see all the devices currently logged into your Apple ID, you can also delete devices that you don't recognise.

Here's what it looks like from my account.


How to choose which FaceTime number to call

I'm not sure there is a standard way. It certainly isn't easy to find by using the Contacts or the Facetime app. But, it can be done:

Send a text message to the specific number you want to Facetime
call.
Open the conversation thread.
Click "Contact" in the top right.
Click the symbol for calling.
Choose "FaceTime Audio".


How do I close Chats tabs in Skype for Business for Mac?

I found that clicking the tab once selects the tab and moves the cursor to the chat box. A second click on the tab selects the tab, then you can press the delete key to delete the tab.


iCloud mail: Is there a way to block emails from an address for a week?

As Richard Dickins you can set a rule on the server this can be done on iCloud as well as Google and I think on most others.

You create a new folder and set a rule to send the mail there so not in inbox or showing a notification or adding to the count of unread,  but you have to add a separate reminder say in Calendar setting the alert as an email to remind you to read the mail.

You can also do this on OS X mail if that is the only mail reader you use, this can be automated with Applescript to copy these messages back to the Inbox


What is "applessdstatistics" doing on my non-SSD, non-Fusion drive iMac?

For whatever reason applessdstatistics started appearing for many non-SSD users after the macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update. Apple is aware of the issue.

As you've discovered, if you do not have an SSD it is totally safe to disable applessdstatistics with:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.applessdstatistics.plist

And no, there is no need for you to re-enable it.

[EDIT]

After reading the comments I thought I should add some additional info about this issue.

Based on the advice provided by Apple on 8 February 2017, there are actually two issues that appeared around the same time concerning applessdstatistics. I describe these below:

The first issue is the one directly referred to in the OP's question. This is the issue of Macs with only hard drives suddenly having applessdstatistics appear and start reading data from the hard drive (typically in 4GB lots). applessdstatistics is only supposed to run on Macs with a SSD installed, not on Macs with traditional hard drives installed. This issue has affected a large number of desktop users with internal hard drives, primarily older iMacs (although this may only be because there are more iMacs in the field compared to Mac Pros and Mac Minis). I am unaware as to whether it is affecting MacBook models with only hard drives installed (as Little Eden implies in their comment below), but I am aware of the following issue (see 2 below) which could be what Little Eden is referring to.
The second issue, however, does affect various MacBooks (and other Macs) which do have a SSD installed. The issue is not the presence of applessdstatistics and the fact it is running, but the fact it results in high CPU usage. applessdstatistics has been running in the background of Macs with SSDs installed for a long time without issue until macOS Sierra 10.12.2 was released. However, after this release it has resulted in high CPU usage and, in some cases, a noticeable amount of noise coming from the machine.

Notes:

The 2nd issue (re high CPU usage and noise levels) is also affecting some non-SSD Macs affected by the first issue.
It is my understanding that Apple has an open ticket on this issue (i.e. I think it's the one ticket for both issues as they're related) and that a future update will resolve this.


How to specify DNS on iOS when connected via VPN?

The DNS settings over a VPN connection should be forced by the VPN server. This makes sure DNS queries get routed securely over the VPN, and allows you to see private services on the intranet that may not be exposed as public DNS records.

It's possible the VPN server may not be telling iOS what DNS server to use, something that could be solved by a configuration change in the VPN server?


Bootable drive for MacBook Air without CD/DVD drive?

Simply with other bootable devices like USB thumb drives or USB/ThunderBolt/FireWire External drives !

Or if you absolutely need a CD/DVD Drive you can use a USB SuperDrive.


OS slows down when I connect external monitor

Kernel task exists to slow things down when the system gets hot. Have you ruled out a temperature rise when running more pixels adds GPU and CPU load? Especially if you run closed clamshell mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207359
Why is kernel_task using so much CPU?
What exactly does kernel_task do?
rMBP kernel_task spikes when connecting more than one external monitor

I would expect your Catalina activity monitor to show a GPU tab but maybe that’s only on some hardware. I also would be sure you’re running the latest EFI and firmware and reinstall the OS from recovery on top of your system. Check system information and build which are circled in red.


You could possibly write an AppleScipt to go through selected tracks, and change the name that way, but you would have to make sure you only select the ones in that format.

Ive had to do this a few times before, and have tried various apps, but usually end up just digging in and doing it manually. While it takes time, I can give a lot more care to each thing, espc. artwork and genre at the same time. I usually just take a night and go through everything in groups (like artists starting with an A, then a B, etc).


How to change the default behaviour of the fullscreen/maximize button?

Spectacle has been discontinued. They recommend using Rectangle.

Use spectacle, a free open source app that has a bunch of handy window management shortcuts.
While it doesn't change the default behavior of the green button, it makes it superfluous for me to do so as I can do everything using keyboard shortcuts without using the mouse.
For full screen, press:
cmd + option + F
It also has a bunch of options for 1/2 screen, 1/3 screen, top half, bottom half, etc.


Can Automator distribute a large number of files into counted subfolders?

This should do what you've asked for. As coded, the only thing you may need to change in the bash script is filesPerSubDir="128" if you want a different file count per subdirectory within the parent directory that's passed to the Run Shell Script action.

Add a Run Shell Script action to your Automator application/service/workflow and set Shell: /bin/bash and Pass input: as arguments. Remove the default code and then copy and paste the code below into the Automator Run Shell Script action.

#!/bin/bash

filesPerSubDir="128"

for argument in "$@"; do
    if [[ -d $argument ]]; then
        cd "$argument" || exit 1
        dirName="$(basename "$argument")"
        fileCount="$(find . -maxdepth 1 -flags nohidden -type f ! -iname ".*" | awk 'END{print NR}')"
        subDirCount="$(( fileCount / filesPerSubDir + 1 ))"
        for (( i = 1; i < subDirCount+1; i++ )); do
            find . -maxdepth 1 -flags nohidden -type f ! -iname ".*" | head -$filesPerSubDir > .moveList
            if [[ -s  .moveList ]]; then
                mkdir "$dirName $i"
                while IFS= read -r file; do
                    mv "$file" "$dirName $i"
                done < .moveList
            fi
        done
        rm .moveList
    fi
done

The image below shows a testing of the code and the workflow completed successfully as noted by the green circles with the check mark. This is just and example of how to implement the Run Shell Script action, it can be done numerous ways however you just have to pick what method you want to pass the Folders in Finder to it, the rest is done by the script.

The image below shows the code with syntactical highlighting and is included as it helps in reading the code (especially when the code isn't commented, sorry don't have time at the moment).

Note: The bash script is not coded to handle an embedded newline in the name of a filesystem object, which IMO doesn't belong there in the first place! Feel free to modify as needed/wanted to suite your needs, adding/modifying code and or additional error checking if/when wanted/needed. Additionally, this is by no means the only way to code  the script to handle what you want automated but it's what I threw together to get something posted for you. If you have any questions, just ask.


This is likely a status item, not a menu extra. (Not being able to move it around or remove it by holding ⌘ and dragging is the way to find out.)

In Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities), set the pop-up menu to "My Processes" and look for anything that sounds related to the scanner vendor. Also, check ~/Library/LaunchAgents for a file that mentions the vendor in its name. Lastly, check System Preferences → Accounts → (your account) → Login Items.


Can I save iCloud documents to the Documents folder as well as to iCloud?

You can save a document to as many places as you like by using "Save As". There is nothing special about iCloud on that level, it's just another "place" you can select in the Open/Save dialog.


Software Screen Tinting, or Colour Overlay for Mac Users with Dyslexia

I would suggest that you look at Nocturne:

It allows you to invert the screen colors and create a night mode, which is much easier on the eyes.  It is also under the apache license, so open source and free to use.


What is the effect of permissions on external drives?

Anyone with the same user ID as you have on your main machine will be able to read the disk. The, usually hidden, user Ids start at 501 and increase. If you are not the first user on a machine you will not be able to read the contents of the drive.

I've gone round and round with this. If you need a secure drive then you need to encrypt it with a password. There are ways to do this using the tools built into Mountain Lion, or you can use a third party solution like True Crypt.


Apple Photos face recognition: cloud or local?

Is face recognition performed in the cloud or locally on each device?

According to Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207368

“When you search your photos, all of the face recognition and scene and object detection are done completely on your device”

Now, about your issue, here are some things you should know and can try that might answer your question.

in order for your devices to build up the curation of faces it needs to be plugged in (according to the initial pop-up you receive after purchasing a new device and opening the photos app)
As you take photos the curation process will always be running, since you have a huge database of images, allow your device to sit with the photos app front and center.
As far as I am aware, Apple does not automatically add people to the People album (probably to save processing power). You must find a photo of the person you would like to see filtered from your library and enter a name. This will add them to the People album and begin sorting all images of that person immediately from all photos.

I just tried this with my iPad and iPhone, and both devices have empty People albums until I add my name to my face manually and then all photos where I appear are sorted.

Edit: Faces that appear constantly throughout your library might appear in the People album on their own, but you should still add whomever you desire manually for best results.


Have you tried putting your iPhone in recovery mode? http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263 or https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5269891


Cheapest option for split screen video editing?

The cheapest option is to use quartz composer to assemble the individual clips and mix them down. It is not designed like iMovie or Final Cut Express with shortcuts and ready build transitions, but it is free with Xcode 3. You have to register and agree to Apple's developer tools restrictions before downloading Xcode 3. You want the free program at the bottom of the page.

A more expensive solution would be something like ScreenFlow where you could make several self contained movies and then play them back for recording on the screen. By arranging and synchronizing multiple quicktime windows on your desktop you could record what you see on your screen. I have seen amazing works that were recorded as a screen capture. It's also not ideal, but if you are good, you can do wonders. Quicktime has free screen recording as well, but ScreenFlow makes it easier to crop out parts of the screen, catch the audio and automate moves and edit.

Lastly, Final Cut Express is the best tool and it sells for under $200 US.  It is the same engine as Final Cut Pro, but lacks all the other tools like Motion and Color that assist in cinema quality effects and editing.

Only you can know your budget and how much your time is worth. Start free and only pay for software when your time is worth more to you than the cost of the tools.


The time machine shouldn't care about free space as it will just remove the oldest backups to make space. Mine was stopping mid backup a bunch so I had to hit skip backup then boot down with the drive still connected and back up again then hit back up now and it worked.


iSH doesn’t come with many binaries. You need to install ‘man’ and curl yourself.

apk add man curl

~# man
-ash: man: not found
~# apk add man
fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.9/main/x86/APKINDEX.tar.gz
fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.9/community/x86/APKINDEX.tar.gz
(1/2) Installing mdocml (1.14.3-r0)
(2/2) Installing man (1.14.3-r0)
Executing busybox-1.29.3-r10.trigger
OK: 168 MiB in 87 packages
~# man
usage: man [-acfhklw] [-C file] [-M path] [-m path] [-S subsection]
           [[-s] section] name ...
~#


What is the correct behaviour of the "down arrow with horizontal line" key on an iMac keyboard?

It was formerly labeled "end" and should function exactly as you described.
Its function is app-specific. While it's up to the developer to interpret its meaning and implement it in code, exactly what it's supposed to do is not strictly defined anywhere. You can peruse Apple's Human Interface Guidelines but it won't tell you exactly what to do with that particular key, but that document's general principles state user input should always do something the user expects.
Lacking specific guidance it's reasonable to look to the examples Apple provides in their own apps. Using Safari as an example (because I happen to be using it right now) that particular key will scroll to the end of the webpage, no matter how long it might be. In other words, exactly as you expect and not as you experienced in the example you provided. Pressing it again should do nothing assuming the displayed webpage is still at its end. That suggests the app in question is not following Apple's Human Interface Guidelines.
What can you determine from Apple's Human Interface Guidelines? Whereas it does not define that particular key, it provide suggested actions for Down Arrow, Control-Down Arrow, etc. By trial and error I determined that ⌘ Down Arrow performs the same function as the End key—the one you're asking about. I suppose that's relevant if the user doesn't have a full size keyboard as in your picture.
Finally, even Apple occasionally fails to observe their own Human Interface Guidelines. Calling their attention to that fact in a bug report might get them to address such an oversight... eventually.


Can I use slower or fastest Memory in my MacBook Pro mid 2012? Different speeds? Different sizes?

Only two MBPs match your description, and they both require:

204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM.

Either MBP 13" & 15" can take 16 GB (actual) but are equipped by Apple with 8 GB.

Simple answers:

Use the RAM speed the MBP was designed for (in this case 1600 MHz.)
You can use differing sizes, but performance will suffer as interleaving (dual-channel) will be disabled.
Do not mix speeds (see #1.)


If you use the Spotify desktop app, the media keys on OS X work by default (sometimes iTunes randomly "retains" the keys: just reboot). For the best results, don't keep iTunes and Spotify open at the same time.

If you use the Spotify Web Player, you can enable the media keys using BeardedSpice, a free application which enables you to control web-based media players using you keyboard media keys. It also works for YouTube, for example.


iTerm2 has this functionality.

It's actually really easy to use and works exactly like you describe - you select your type and then middle click to paste within iTerm.

iTerm2 has many more features that make it far and away better than PuTTY and the best part is that it's free (as in beer) like PuTTY.

Above screenshot, I have selected the content of my Guest directory.  No clicks or keyboard shortcuts have been pressed.

In the image below, I simply press CommandV and paste it from the clipboard to TextEdit.  This is out of the box functionality - I haven't made any modifications to key combinations within iTerm2.


How can I use multiple browser versions at one time?

Firefox

Firefoxes is a shell scripts that will install all major versions of Firefox on OS X, and set up separate profiles so you can use them simultaneously. Currently it installs:

Firefox 2.0.0.20
Firefox 3.0.19
Firefox 3.5.9
Firefox 3.6.28
Firefox 4.0.1
Firefox 5.0.1
Firefox 6.0.1
Firefox 7.0.1
Firefox 8.0.1
Firefox 9.0.1
Firefox 10.0.2
Firefox 11.0
Firefox Beta
Firefox Aurora
Firefox Nightly
Firefox UX Nightly

You can set it up so it only installs the specific versions you want.

Optionally, the script can install Firebug for each version of Firefox too.

It will also set icons that contain the version number:

Safari

For Safari, check out Multi-Safari.

Chrome/Chromium

For Chrome/Chromium, install any version you want, change the app name from Chromium.app to e.g. Chromium 19.app for clarity, then disable auto-updates for that version.

Opera

Download old Opera versions here: ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/mac/

IE

Get VirtualBox and then run this ievms script. It will automatically download legal Windows images for testing purposes and set up virtual machines for every IE version you need.


Go to Preferences → View and disable Paragraph marks. This option, when enabled, overrides the button on the ribbon. Disable it to control the marks using the ribbon button.


Can I retrieve the configuration data of the standard iPhone weather app?

The configuration information is stored in

/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.weather.plist

This single property list contains all the preferences, including a 'Cities' array which holds info about each of the defined cities.

Whilst each city does have an 'UpdateTime' it doesn't contain when each city was selected and since all the cities are saved in the same file you can't use the date modified to tell when a city was selected.


Is there a decent application for personal finances that support multiple currencies on OSX?

iBank sure does:

  Go global. Just like your Mac, iBank works worldwide. With multi-currency support, you can set a default currency for any account, download exchange rates and calculate transfers between accounts automatically. iBank supports localization for British English, and now includes full French language support as well.

MoneyWell does as well:

  Transaction-Level Exchange Rates
  Do you bank in multiple currencies? MoneyWell has you covered. You can track your spending in your primary currency while having accounts in several other currencies and store both amounts in each transaction.


My first thought would be to create them as Automator Services (or Quick Actions in macOS Mojave and above).

Doing this will then add them to the Services menu available within all apps. For example, if you created a Service called Duplicate Folder, you coudl run that from the Services list within any Application menu (e.g. Finder > Services, Safari > Services, TextEdit > Services, etc).

Create a service using Automator

This is an example of how to create a service in Automator that runs an AppleScript code:

Launch Automator (usually found within your Applications folder)
Go to File > New
Select Service and click Choose (Note: in macOS Mojave and above, select the Quick Action option)
In the top right hand of the window that appears, ensure that "No input" is selected from the Service receives drop-down list
Ensure the In drop-down list is showing "Any application"
In the second column containing the long list, find "Run AppleScript" and double-click on it
This will add the Run AppleScript window on the right
Now, replace the (* Your script goes here *) bit with your script
Save the service using a meaningful name

Now you should be able to run that service from any application as described above, that is from the Services list within any Application menu.

Of course, at Step 6 you can select different options depending on what type of script you want to run.


How does one use different languages in Pages headers and footers?

Pages 5 can no longer tag text according to language, to have this feature you must go back to using Pages 4.   For spellcheck, you select the dictionary via Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar.


Applescript won't play movie when waking from sleep

OK, I finally figured it out after writing 4 or 5 different iterations of the code. Adding a delay statement before 'tell document 1' worked— the script was running too quickly and trying to play the final before it was open.

Thanks, Lri!


I modified the 'com.apple.screencapture.plist' file and now my screenshots don't save

Assuming that you are running the latest version of macOS, with iCloud Drive activated and the "Desktop & Documents Folders" option selected, the ~/Desktop is no longer your regular desktop folder, as it's synchronized with iCloud.

My suggestion: drag any file from your desktop to a terminal window, and it will show the full path for the file in the desktop folder.

Hope it helps.


The best way to go, in my opinion, for a flawless and easy experience would be iTunes Match. It doesn't only allow you to play your tunes on iOS devices, but also on other desktop computers running iTunes, and it Syncs everything via the cloud, including all your metadata, so basically you'd have your iTunes library wherever you have internet.

It costs 25 USD a year (plus extra storage, if you have more than 5GB of songs that are not in the iTunes Store), though if you can spare it you not only get the syncing, but also the upgrade of all your tunes to 256kbps ACC sound.

Home sharing also works, and does update your play counts if you enable it to under Preferences > Sharing, but it will pretty much just open a "read-only" version of your library on the rest of the computers; you cannot edit metadata, change rating, or even browse your library in any but the list view mode, plus of course, if the computer disconnects from the network it looses all access to the music, for Home Sharing makes no local copy in each machine.

Other methods should work, I believe, to share your music, but yeah, I remember I tried some time ago and I didn't manage to keep the iTunes Library file and thus data like play counts in sync.

Btw, I believe the file iTunes Library.itl is the main resource for the Library Database, and the iTunes Music Library.xml file is just a "backup" and a way for other applications to access data of the library if they need it, so you would need to keep in the .itl file in sync.

Good Luck!

Kevin


3 finger swipe gesture while on guest user account

Thank you @thanasissdr for answering your own question:

To enable 3-finger swipe on any account, go to System Preferences > Accessibility.
On the right, choose Mouse & Trackpad.
Click "Trackpad Options..."
Check "Enable dragging" and select "three finger drag" from the drop-down list.

Here's the Apple discussion that answers this question.


I realized that I was using zsh. To change I executed chsh -s /bin/bash to change my shell to bash.


Is pinch and zoom functionality not available in iPhone 5 iOS v 6.0.1?

Yes - that feature is not available on any of the devices I tested running iOS 6.0.1. In fact, I've never known pinch and zoom to work on any iOS device while the camera is in video mode.

The video camera appears to be fixed zoom on the following:

iPhone 5
iPhone 4
iPad Mini
iPad (3rd generation)

Have you found somewhere that this should work? (Or some OS where you can zoom) I have always corrected the crop and zoom of video on post production using iMovie so perhaps I've missed this as a feature in the past.


How to make a high-resolution capture in the Preview application on Mac?

If you just want to make a quick copy of a graphic inside a PDF for your Evernote, scale it big enough and make a (rectangular selected) screenshot of it (⌘⇧4).

As for copying a graphic from PDF into Photoshop: I think it would be a good strategy to save the PDF as TIFF (selecting a high enough resolution in the export dialog) and then cutting out the region that you need. This way, you can get an even higher pixel density / resolution than you would with a screenshot (simply because you can make the exported image larger than your screen).

A note aside: if the chart in your PDF was a vector graphic (scalable without losing quality), converting it to a bitmap graphic will always lead to some quality loss. But Photoshop cannot handle vector graphics, of course.

To your question about the copy-paste behavior: I think it's because of the way Mac OS X's pasteboard works. It copies the whole PDF from Preview (along with the information about your selection rectangle) then, on pasting, maybe guesses or lets the receiving application decide which part of the information in the clipboard it wants to use. Photoshop seems to say "just give me the whole PDF page, regardless of the selection", while the Evernote's rich text editor says "give me the selected part, converted to an image"...

It's a bit like, if you copy formatted text from a Web site, then paste it into a word processor that supports rich text (such as Word), it will keep the formatting, otherwise (if it's a plain text editor), it will pull only the text content of the pasteboard object, ignoring the formatting.


Do you have your system sound muted or volume turned all the way down?  Even for the non-hearing-impaired the Mac will use visual bells (at least some of the time) when sound output is turned off.


How do I find out which folder an app is in in iOS 11?

It works if you tap on it in the list of hits.  E.g if I search for "Pages", tap on my top hit in the highlighted list of hits, it shows me the app, Pages and to the right is the folder name "Office" (in my case).  Or "Stocks", tap the top hit, and I see the Stocks App, and it is in the indicated folder "Little Used".

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8102281

Also confirmed on my own iPhone 7 Plus ios 11.3.1


Bad Aspect Ratio in Quicktime on Video from Camcorder

You can use ClipWrap ($50) to rewrap your AVCHD videos to a Quicktime/Final Cut compatible format.

Then, deinterlace your videos using JES Deinterlacer and export them preserving full quality (huge files though).

So the workflow is the following:

Add videos to ClipWrap, select as output the "Rewrap (don't alter video samples)" option and save them to a new location.
Open JES Deinterlacer and drop all videos to input's "hot-box"
Select Project properties:

For 1080p30 go to Project > Deinterlace > Top Field, Adaptive, Local
For 720p60 go to Project > Standards conversion > 1280x720 60p

Finally, go to Output > Export > QuickTime Movie

Settings > Compression Type > Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
and export the video!

So, your videos will be ready to import them to Final Cut.

I hope that helped!

Edit:

If you want to transcode the video files, just for viewing them in Quicktime, then you would have to select H.264 when exporting from JES Deinterlacer, than the Apple ProRes which is suitable for editing.


I just contacted Apple Support and they confirmed this was a new Apple ID authentication issue. Basically, iCloud has deemed that my account should not just have one password, but a dual-verification which, once completed, generates app-specific passwords for each device used (Apple devices or not).

Two-step verification for Apple ID
Using app-specific passwords


Screen time: restrict web content on iOS only

Thanks for the nudge from @X_841 I ended up turning off screen time altogether for my macOS device in System Preferences > Screen Time


How can I port apps from OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to OS X 10.7 Lion?

No.  Apple does not distribute these apps individually.
Even if you copy them from one Mountain Lion system to a Lion machine, they are very likely to not work as they are relying on system level framework (or functions in these frameworks) that won't be available in OS X before ML


Apple yanked iOS 9.3 for almost all devices which means you can't install it.


AppleTV: can I watch movies from third parties?

As seen on Apple website, the supported video formats are:

H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

So in order to play your DivX movies you have either to transcode them into a supported format using tools like Handbreak, or to jailbreak it so it will support more video formats.

In my humble opinion, Apple TV is the best device for streaming music, listening/watching podcasts, streaming your photo libraries from your mac to your TV, and if you are an iTunes store fanatic then buying/renting movies from the iTunes store.

If your main interest is watching divx/mkv's, then I would suggest you to look for something else.


If you want to completely disable all cellular abilities (calls, texting, data) you could simply take out the SIM.  True GPS still works fine, as that does not use the cellular network.


Encrypt folder on Mac without dmg file so that the contents can expand in size

You can use a sparse bundle which will expand when the contents increases in size.

Enable advanced image options in Disk Utility.

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility advanced-image-options 1

Open Disk Utility and select File → New → Disk Image from Folder… or press ⌘N.
Select the folder that you want to encrypt and press Image.
Choose sparsebundle as the Image Format, and choose the level of encryption you require.
Choose a password to encrypt the image and click OK.

If, after removing some files from the sparse bundle, you wish to decrease its size, you can compact it:

hdiutil compact /path/to/folder.sparsebundle


How to put the email signature at the bottom in replies?

The Apple Mail app on your iPhone does not allow for the positioning of your signature to be altered. Oddly, the Apple Mail app on your Mac does allow for that.

There are alternative email applications on the iPhone which do allow this to be configured. AirMail is one of them. At $5, it's not a free application.


Calendar and Time Zones in iOS 9.2 & OSX 10.11

I have spent a lot of time in order to have clean calendar entries for flights over multiple time zones. I couldn't find any good solution, because iOS and OS X only support ONE time zone per event (by the way, so does Microsoft Exchange).

The best solution I found was to create two events :

One for the take-off, specified in its local time zone.
One for the landing, also in its local time zone.

And when your phone or computer changes time zone, you have the correct local time.

In a perfect world, an event should be able to have 2 time zones (one for the start time and one for the end time). Apple could do it, but it would probably break compatibility with other applications like Outlook.