Install Lion as second boot option on Mountain Lion machine

Use Startup Disk, in System Preferences, to change your boot disk. From there select the second partition. Restart with the Lion setup on a USB drive. You can install it from there.

If the above doesn't work try holding down the option key while rebooting. That should bring up recovery mode. From there you should be able to select the target volume for the installation.

Do a quick google search on making a bootable disk image either on a USB drive or on a dual-layer DVD disk with Lion by using Disk Utility. This is the method I used to downgrade a Mac from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard.

Let us know if you have tried the above options and what was the outcome.

Some useful links:

OS X Mountain Lion: Change your startup disk
Startup Manager:
How to select a startup volume
Make a Bootable Mac OS X 10.7
Lion Installer from a USB Flash Drive


If I upgrade to OS X 10.7 (Lion), will Intuit Quicken still work?

Unfortunately, no.  Quicken 2007 requires Rosetta which Apple has decided to leave behind in their OS.  MacWorld.com has a great article here with some great alternatives, but right now, you need to either give up Quicken 2007, or wait on Lion until you are ready to do so.

Dual booting is also possible, but it's not a convenient solution to just run banking software.


It appears that the install update of Mountain Lion disabled that feature. You can re-enable it in:

System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom > Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom


My iphone 4s is not being recognised by my itunes

You will need to reinstall the Apple Device manager,

If you are using windows here is the page on apple support that outlines the process below. If you are using OSX see this page here

make sure you uninstall all the itunes apps, including device manager, once thats done, download an install iTunes again.

That should all now work.


iOS 7.1 update from a PC causes my phone dead

Hopefully you did a backup before updating? Right? ;-)

If you have a backup file you simply plugin the iPhone to your computer and follow the last step in this guide ("Restore from a backup").

If you didn't make a backup, try to put your iPhone in DFU mode (guide here) and follow the iTunes instructions to restore the iPhone to default. (You will lose your stuff if you haven't backed it up earlier)


16GB RAM 1067 DDR3 not Booting on MacbookPro7,1 (13 in Mid 2010)

The MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) has, 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM Memory Slots in which Apple says the Maximum Memory is 8 GB.

In order to utilize 16 GB you need, 2 x 8.0GB PC8500 DDR3 (1066 MHz 204 Pin) running Mac OS X 10.7.5 Lion or later and the latest EFI Boot ROM version Firmware for the model Mac you have, which should be MBP71.0039.B0E.

Assuming the link for the RAM you provided for what your purchased is actually what you purchased then therein lies the issue as it is PC3L-12800 1600 MHz and is not compatible with the MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010).

Crucial does not sell, 2 x 8.0GB PC8500 DDR3 (1066 MHz 204 Pin) SO-DIMM for the MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) however OWC does.

See: OWC Memory 16.0GB 2 x 8.0GB PC8500 DDR3.


How can I return the logged in user from inside a pkg which is running as root?

The stat command is run with the -f%Su parameter, where -f means that an output format follows, and %Su means that it should output (%) a string (S) which is the user ID (u) of the file's owner.
Your command then provides the username to the id command in order to get to the username - which seems to be a way roundabout way of getting that, as you could just have asked stat for it initially like this:
stat -f%Uu /dev/console

Doing it like this means you won't have to call id and cut.
The stat command is completely reliable in returning the user id/name of the owner of the /dev/console file (or actually character device). The question is just whether this user is the one, you're looking for. In general, it will work - but you might see a different behaviour than you're expecting when users are also logged in via Remote Desktop. In that case, the last login performed will be returned (i.e. when multiple user's are logged in at the same time).
There's also a different method of getting the currently logged in user by asking the System Configuration Daemon:
scutil <<< "show State:/Users/ConsoleUser" | awk '/Name :/ && ! /loginwindow/ { print $3 }'

The difference between the two is that looking at /dev/console cannot distinguish between root being logged in (i.e. root logins have been enabled by the user), or the computer being sat at the login window - both will return root as the owner of the file. Whether or not this is a problem for you depends on your specific use-case.


For Mac OS X Mountain Lion  10.8.0:

Click on the "Calendars" button on the main window to show the sidebar of calendars.
Right mouse click on the calendar you want to ignore alerts from & choose "Get Info"
Check ON "Ignore Alerts" & click "OK"

Seems as thought you don't have to globally set this preference, you can now selectively choose which calendars have alerts or not, through iCal.


Cannot connect to the internet on my iPhone 4S after upgrading to iOS 5.1

You will need to re-enter the network settings. Updating iOS seems to wipe these settings.

Go to Settings → General → Network → Cellular Data Network and enter all fields.

To use a VPN connection, Choose Settings → General → Network → VPN and then choose “Add VPN Configuration”. Ask your company’s IT guy for the credentials.


Should I use the adapter or the battery?

Read what Apple has to say about notebook batteries:

Apple’s Batteries Page
Apple’s Notebook Batteries Page

EDIT for the lazy(es) who don’t want to read the links:

lithium-ion batteries need to be fully discharged and recharged at least once a month. Go ahead and create an iCal reminder…
Leaving it plugged won’t affect it, as long as you remember to do (1) every 30 days.
If you have to “store” and put your battery away for more than six months, you should definitely store the battery with a 50% charge. Reasons are listed in the corresponding link.
Pay attention to temperatures, they can damage and severely hamper battery operation.

I hope this makes everybody happy.

Now… as a final note: the new unibody stuff coming from Apple doesn’t have removable batteries, however, the battery design is the same… those are lithium-ion batteries, no matter how fancy they make it look. Macbooks do not have a nuclear core in there, so the same rules apply, except that… well, you can’t remove it for storage, so more than ever, remember the 30 day rule.


iOS video player app with short skip forward/backward feature

You can use VLC for iOS.

The app has host of features (just like the Desktop counterpart). You can simply swipe to skip back/forward.


When I search on Podcasts on iPad Pro, found podcasts are in German not English

You can simply select the language in the settings app.
Open the settings app, locate the Podcasts tab and set your preferred language. Simply open the Podcasts app and search in English. Results will now show English podcasts.

If this does not work, use the Feedback App to report back to Apple that there is a bug, since it is working for me on iPadOS 14.4.


I'm Unable to Boot into Mac OS Partition, partition type FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Based on klanomath's answer to the question OS volume shows as type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF', it would appear you are missing a APFS type partition.

I believe you should enter the following commands while booted to Recovery Mode. See klanomath's answer for an explanation.

diskutil unmountdisk disk0
gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0
diskutil unmountdisk disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 168232920 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0


A security update locked OSX.GenieoDropper.A

Sorted: type in the terminal

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine

leave a space after "quarantine" and then drag & drop the .app file.

Then press Return...et voila'!

The -cr flag is for operating systems before (and including) Mavericks. For newer operating systems (Yosemite & El Capitan) you must specify the flag -d along with the attribute (com.apple.quarantine) you wish to remove.


2010 27" iMac - ambient sensor connection on cpu fan

The image below was taken from page 238 of the Apple Technician Guide iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010). There are other images regarding the sensor cable in the document.


Download Ubuntu Live CD and burn it.
Install rEFIt (this step is optional, you can hold 'Alt' to select
partition everytime instead).
Use Boot Camp Assistant (it's in Applications/Utilities) to create
new partition. I allocate 5GB partition.
Insert the live CD into the drive and reboot
Hold down ‘C’ button at the black screen to boot from CD.
Follow usual Ubuntu installation step. In keyboard selection screen,
choose “macintosh”.
In partitioning screen, choose ‘manually edit partition table’.
Delete the 5GB partition just created from BootCamp. Then create the
ext3 partition at the same size. Mount it as ‘/’.
Complete the installation process. Then reboot.
If you install rEFIt, the boot menu will show up. If not, hold
 'Alt' button for a while and select the Windows partition for
 Ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/How%20to%20install%20Ubuntu%20on%20MacBook%20using%20live%20CD

If this doesn't work, then I'll need to know the version of Ubuntu that you have on CD. Rumor is 12.10 has network issues when setting it up. If you don't have anything newer than I'd recommend 12.04.


Two external displays without Thunderbolt

No - you need at least an USB to whatever input your third display (the second external display) accepts.

I suppose some would say you could use another computer and use some sort of virtual screen / VNC software to have the system make a virtual screen and send that data over the network to the other computer to push to the third display.


Are 'coreservicesd' & 'syslogd' disguises for keylogger apps?

Check Code Signatures

If you suspect a process on your Mac is disguising itself as part of macOS, check the process's digital code signature. You can do this with the codesign binary:

/usr/bin/codesign -d -vvvv /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd

If there is no signature, it is not from Apple.

If the Authority fields do not list Apple Root CA, then it is not signed by Apple or one of their partners.


Logitech Ultrathin mouse scroll behaviour on mac

Okay, in the case that anybody has the same problem:

Simply download 5.30.150 and use it. It works like a charm
http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Mice-and-Pointing-Devices/T651-Trackpad-and-Ultra-Thin-Touch-Mouse-issues-with-Logitech/m-p/1458806


Right-click context menu appears slowly with two finger tap instead of two finger click

A delayed reaction to a two-finger tap on a trackpad is caused by MacOS waiting to see if you are going to do a single two-finger tap or a double two-finger tap. Essentially, it thinks you might do another two-finger tap and it doesn't want to show the menu when you might be in the middle of a different gesture.

To speed it up, go to System Preferences > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom and uncheck "Smart zoom." This will disable a feature that lets you zoom in on a specific thing (like a paragraph on a webpage) with a double two-finger tap.

Otherwise, if you want to keep Smart zoom enabled, you can wait the second for the context menu to appear with a two-finger tap, or you can do a two-finger click to make it faster.

As a side note, a similar thing happens on iOS devices. If you have an accessibility shortcut triggered by a triple-press of the home button, then double-pressing the home button is slower to bring up the app switcher. (This may be slightly different on the iPhone X which lacks a home button.)


Command+W doesn’t hide the apps; it closes the current active window. That's why you can't show them up using Command+Tab, because the window is no longer exist.

You can hide application using Command+H. This shortcut won’t close the window, so you can bring all the hidden windows of a application back by using Command+Tab and selecting the application.


So my email keeps popping up on iMessage instead of my number why?

There have been some quirks with this from time to time. As you can imagine, where it says "START NEW CONVERSATIONS FROM" should have your phone number listed as an option.

Try to get it to show up by doing the following, go to "Settings -> Messages" and go to "Send as SMS" and toggle that on. This will shut off iMessages and force your phone to only send SMS messages using phone number.

Try sending a message or two before coming back, then toggle "Send as SMS" off and go back to "Settings -> Messages -> Send & Receive" and your phone number should be listed under "START NEW CONVERSATIONS FROM"


MacOS limit Spotlight results to .app files

If you invoke Spotlight (⌘ + space) and enter search term followed by kind:app you will see only applications (and 'Related searches' block with 'Search the Web' and 'Search in Finder' options)

Refer to Apple support document Search by the type of items to find item types you can use to narrow Spotlight search results.


Check your local area for Mac specialists. I found a tame Mac guy, after I attempted to install the RAM, but didn't seat it properly and broke my screwdriver in the process. He charged me £50, so on Crucial's prices I'm still making a massive saving on Apple's charge.
As a business, they'll be insured against damage.


What is the best way to backup photos & videos from iPhoto online?

First option, there are some excellent services that provide online backup solutions for a reasonable price. Two examples are Mozy and Backblaze. The advantage is that you can set it and forget it, and it will back up all your files (with options for some things you might want to exclude).

Another option is using Dropbox. You can move your iPhoto Library from your Pictures folder to the Dropbox folder and alias it to the original location (drag using ⌘option to make an alias instead of a copy). If you don't alias it, iPhoto should just ask you where the library is stored when you relaunch it anyway.

I don't really think of services like Flickr as backup, they're more of an online photo organizer, but yes they can be used that way too. There is no synchronization, so you have to upload your updated files manually.


Music files showing up on iPhone, but not in iTunes library. How to get rid of them

Settings > music > show all music - toggle to off.


How to fix a broken recovery partition (remove it) when repairing it is not possible?

I removed my partition with

$ diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank /dev/disk0s3

which created a blank space.

I then also had to repair the disk in disk utility. Since then everything works fine.


When printing photos to the Canon TS960 printer from iPhone/iPad using AirPrint, the printer thinks the print job is a CD label

Things like this happen because the Media Type definition in the printer is mis-configured.
In this case "Photos" isn't using a tray with photo paper, it's looking for a CD Label because somehow in the printer the media type for photo became "CD Label"
The User Guide is usually the best place to start with when addressing issues like these and it will be under the section to do with paper settings or handling


macbook with mac OS 10.5.- not booting past apple logo

Firstly the blinking led on the front would have blinked 5 times, indication that the battery has problems or can't be seen by the computer. You should replace the battery or have it tested by Apple.

Also regarding the startup failure, you can hold down "CMD V" which is verbose mode and this tells you what the computer is doing in the background whilst booting up, so if you have a hard drive problem then you might see messages in verbose mode like "I/O error"

To fix the issue, boot up to the installation disc "grey disc" and use disk utility to verify your hard drive.


The best write up for setting up children accounts is here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201084

If you turn off Ask to Buy, your child can buy content with your payment method without asking you first.

Your daughter can spend down your default payment method using your money if you turn off Ask to Buy.


bootcamp install error: "windows could not parse or process the unattend file for pass [specialize]

Just spoke with Apple Support. It appears that I'm using an upgrade-only ISO, not the full retail version. That is why it's failing. MS, in its infinite wisdom, always just assume everyone uses their OS. Big dummies.


It is generated by Spotlight

(see the second post on this link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1071627?tstart=0)

You can make it so that nothing shows up (aka deactivating it) by doing the following.

System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy > +
then select your Macintosh HD (or whatever your HD is called)
then click choose.

Now that should do it.


Can an Apple iPhone 8 charger at all charge a 12.9" iPad Pro 2nd Gen 2017 model totally out of juice after being unused for 1-2 months? Slow charge?

Yes. Plug it in and then turn off the iPad.
A "normal" phone charger only has a power output of 5W, so it will be very slow, but provided the iPad doesn't need that power in use, you can charge it. To ensure, that you actually have more power input than usage you will very likely need to turn off the iPad and even then it will charge very slowly.
If you have a MacBook depending on the  exact model it will charge much quicker. Especially the "newer" ones with USB-C can charge the iPad at a descent rate, because they can provice much more power through the port. However, I would also plug in the MacBook because the iPad has a quite big battery. Be aware that plugging your iPad into your MacBook causes inefficiencies, i.e. you'll be drawing more power in total compared to simply charge the iPad from the wall plug.


MacFUSE is no longer being developed, and there's many bugs with it in Mavericks. FUSE for OS X was the continuation of this development and still works well in Mavericks. I recommend that you uninstall MacFUSE and instead use FUSE for OS X.

ntfs-3g in Mavericks requires this install procedure:

Write in NTFS using Mavericks

You should know if you need FUSE — if you don't need it, there are official removal instructions:

https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/wiki/FAQ#23-how-can-i-uninstall-fuse-for-os-x


How to delete a downloaded voice from Siri in iPhone5s

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech and select the language.

Then tap on Edit, swipe on the language and select Remove.


Yosemite moves all desktops to one display on startup

I am having the same issue and I believe it's a system bug (10.10.1) without any good workarounds.  Even if you have no extra spaces on your secondary display, an extra space will show up on your main display on every reboot.

I will summarize for you the various approaches I've tried and the results of each.  Only the first one solved it totally for me, but it's not ideal as you have to get used to making your secondary display into the new primary display.

(My two displays are different sizes which limits the ways it can be solved.)

If your secondary display is being seen by your Mac as "primary" (does the boot screen Apple logo first appear here?), then you can use Display preferences, under Arrangement, to move the menubar to your secondary display.  I tried it and it fixes the issue, but now everything defaults to the secondary display.  You will constantly see new notifications, new windows, etc. popping up on the secondary display.  Not ideal but it solved the issue of spaces being pushed over to the main display after every reboot.
If your secondary display is being seen by your Mac as "primary" (does the boot screen Apple logo first appear here?), then maybe you can swap the ports where these displays are plugged in.  I purchased the adapters in order to do this, but it was a total failure for me.  No matter where I plugged in my smaller display, the Mac picked this for the boot screen every time.  I even trashed all display preferences and zapped the PRAM to start fresh... no matter what I tried, the smaller secondary display booted as the primary.  Unless you've set the menubar on this same display in preferences, the bug you're reporting will remain.
On the Apple forum, several users have reported that turning off auto-login solved it entirely.  This trick also failed for me.  The boot process looked nicer as you no longer had to look at desktop pictures shifting around and re-sizing, but after logging in, the root problem of spaces shifting over to one display remained.
Turn off the "displays have separate spaces" item in the Mission Control preferences.  Not a practical solution.  This is like killing the patient to cure the disease.  Clearly there is a bug when using separate spaces that urgently needs to be addressed.
If your two displays are the same size and you don't care which one is primary, then whichever display contains the Apple logo on boot will become your primary display.  Use Display preferences, under Arrangement, to move the menubar to your this display.  Then physically arrange them on your actual computer desk to your liking.  This is the only perfect solution, but obviously works only when you don't care which physical display is set as the primary.

EDIT:

Since posting this answer, I submitted this bug to Apple using my Apple developer account on December 18, 2014.  The current status of my bug report (19299246) is "open".  I will update this answer as I track the bug with Apple.


On System Prefs->Keyboard-> Keyboard Shortcuts you need to click on Launchpad & Dock on the left, then make sure "Show Launchpad" is checked.


Disable Confirmation Dialogs in Finder for iCloud Drive

As of macOS 10.12 Sierra, this is possible through Finder's preferences:

  Show warning before removing from iCloud Drive


What is Soft DFU mode, and how do I exit it

To exit soft DFU:

Hold down the Home and Power button for 10 seconds.
Release.
Push Power button.
Your iPhone should boot up and work fine. (At least, it worked for my iPod touch 4G.)


Mac ignores "Display login window as" setting

Do you have FileVault 2 turned on? The FileVault 2 login screen isn't able to show username and password blanks; only names and icons.


Escaping characters in folder nme in Terminal

The problem is you can't use / in the name of a directory. The / is reserved to separate directories. Maybe you could replace the // with different characters?


How can I use variable in AppleScript for name of browser?

That won’t work because the target for an application tell statement is needed at compile time to load its scripting dictionary.  An application’s terminology is defined however the developer wants it, so anything similar between applications is more of an accident than any kind of convention.

The closest you are going to get would be to programmatically build a script as a text string and use it with a run script statement, since the script in the string is compiled when it is used:

set theApp to "Safari"
set theScript to "tell application \"" & theApp & "\" to get tabs of window 1"
run script theScript


I cannot play music in the status "uploaded" in iTunes through iCloud (via Apple TV, iPhone, iPad)

I had this problem recently - I could see the songs in my library on my iPhone, but I couldn't play them. In iTunes, the iCloud status of the files was Uploaded.

What fixed it for me was plugging my iPhone into the computer with my iTunes library, and syncing. It didn't seem to transfer any files (other than doing a backup), but after that, I could play all of my songs on my phone.

This might help for your iPad and iPhone, but unfortunately, probably not the Apple TV.


Why are my songs on my iPhone, but they aren't downloaded?

The circle means the song exists on the device but does not exist in your current iTunes library. You need to either import them again from CD into your library or transfer them from your device.


How to clear the pasteboard / find string from the command line?

The magic words seem to be

pbcopy -pboard find < /dev/null


How to jailbreak 3g version 4.2.1 with firmware 5.15.04?

Not going to tell you how to download apps, as it's in a grey area of legality.

Jailbreaking however, is perfectly legal...

I would suggest using an app called Redsn0w. I believe the latest version should still support older phones, though I have not tried it...

There are many guides on the web for doing this. A simple Google search found quite a few. Just find one thats uses Redsn0w and your good...


Could my Mac have loaded a web page without my knowledge?

You might have experienced Safari's Top Sites feature. It tries to keep an up-to-date cache of pages in the Top Sites list, which includes a thumbnail rendering of the site.


Store attachments locally in Mail.app when using IMAP

You will want to make a new mailbox with storage only on the Mac or use the Archive function in Mail to archive an entire folder/mailbox.

The built in help will guide you through the Archive path.

I just make folders "On My Mac" with the year, and then make Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 folders inside to keep each relatively small - you might only need one folder per year or one folder.

Once you move the message and are comfortable that it's on your mac with attachments intact, delete the original message from IMAP and your quotas will be happier.


Quick Look not working for CSS and JavaScript files

You don't need any 3rd plugin plugins to Quick Look source code/ASCII text  files. Invoking Quick Look by pressing the spacebar on JavaScript/CSS source code file (which are plain text ASCII encoded) will show you the plain source code text.

Here's what QuickLook shows when invoking Quick Look on a JavaScript file named callback.js:

Installing QLColorCode using Homebrew by running brew cask install qlcolorcode and invoking Quick Look on the same file immediately thereafter shows this color coded output:

Follow the installation instructions on the project homepage to make sure your have correctly installed the plugin:

  This is a Quick Look plugin that renders source code with syntax highlighting, using the Highlight library.

  To install Highlight, download the library manualy, or use homebrew brew install highlight

  To install the plugin, just drag it to ~/Library/QuickLook. You may need to create that folder if it doesn't already exist.

  Alternative, if you use Homebrew-Cask, install with brew cask install qlcolorcode.


Delete a rented movie that is only partially downloaded

Somewhat bizarrely it is not possible to delete downloads in the iPhone iTunes.

The only way to delete the download, is to contact Apple (the iTunes section) and they will delete it for you. (you can contact support through the desktop iTunes app, or here)


So my idea is after I've connected to the network, ssh to my home server.

For SSH into a remote server you can use many apps available on the App Store. My favorite one is Prompt.

  Then from my home server ssh back onto my iPad.

You can't SSH into an iOS device without jailbreaking (unless you are an Apple engineer). You would need to jailbreak first and then install the OpenSSH package from Cydia.

  Or is there an even simpler solution that I'm missing?

Why do you need to SSH into your home server if you're just using it to get into the iPad?  Seems like a lot of trouble, and you might need to mess around with port forwarding on the iPad's network.

SSHing into the iPad by connecting to localhost should do the trick. I assume you've jailbroken and installed all the utilities you need onto the iPad. Shouldn't be too bad as it looks like they're all open-source programs and you can recompile them if you really need to.


If I earn over $150 in my account, for example: $500, how much money
  will I receive?

Depends on what you mean by "earn". There are two stats: "Sales" and "Proceeds". If your app receives $500 (sales), Apple will take its cut (like 33%) and you will earn like $335 (proceeds).

You can go to iTunes Connect, then Sales and Trends, and you will see the two stats there.

  I've known that Apple will fund every month, additionally, after 45 days of the first day of the month, is that correct?

If by "fund" you mean "send money to my bank account", this isn't always true. Apple will normally do it every month, but there are cases in which it will delay the payment for several months (this tends to happen if your proceeds exceed a certain threshold - I imagine its for security/verification reasons). So it is possible that Apple will retain the profit of 2 or more months and pay at another month.

And yes, I believe that the very first month of sales (or 45 days) is always delayed. So your first payment will usually correspond to the first two months of sales.

  I started sale of my app at July 16, 2015, so what day does money
  arrived to my bank account?

Well, you will definitely not get anything on July. I suspect that you won't receive a payment in August either. You will probably receive your first payment on September (or late August), and from this point on, further payments will occur each month (normally).

  In addition, how do I calculate this?

Go to iTunes Connect. There is a section (I forgot how it is called, I think it is "financial" or "payments" something like that). You can observe here how much Apple owes you per month. This amount is what they are supposed to pay you.

Since you begun sales very recently, it is likely you won't find any data here yet.

Apple can be late with payments. It's normal. Simply keep track of the "amount owed" in iTunes Connect and you're pretty much guaranteed that the payment will be performed in a future.


Recommended partition size MacBook Pro (Mavericks) for Windows 8.1, Windows database app?

Windows 8.1 takes 20GB (16GB for x86), a database application like MSSQLS takes 1-5 GB depending on the features you install.  A database with 10,000,000 entries is roughly 1-10 GB.

150 GB is a lot, IMHO, but it depends what else you want to do with it and how much memory you have available of course.


How to put or move downloaded files in different folders depending on file type?

I don't know of any Safari extension doing this but you may use Automator to create a folder action attached to your preferred download folder sorting files according to their extension or kind to various folders. That's even independent from the browser you usually use.

The article here outlines the workflow which sorts *.dmg and pictures:

  Create the workflow
  In the Finder, create two folders on the Desktop. Name the first Disk Images and the second My Pictures.

  Launch Automator (in your /Applications folder) and in the workflow template that appears choose Folder Action and click Choose. In the resulting window, click the Folder Action receives files and folders added to pop-up menu, select Other, and navigate to the Downloads folder inside your user folder. Click Choose. Select the Files & Folders library and drag these actions, in order, into the workflow area: Filter Finder Items, Move Finder Items, Get Specified Finder Items, Get Folder Contents, Filter Finder Items, and Move Finder Items.

  In the first action (the first instance of the Filter Finder Items action), leave the first pop-up set to All. Then, configure the next row of pop-up menus to read File Extension is dmg.

  In the second action, Move Finder Items, drag the Disk Images folder onto the To: Desktop pop-up menu.

  In the third action, Get Specified Finder Items, click the Add button and navigate, once again, to the Downloads folder. Click Add. Click this action’s Options button and enable the Ignore this action’s input option.

  Leave the Get Folder Contents action alone.

  In the next Filter Finder Items action, leave the first pop-up set to All and then configure the row of pop-up menus to read Kind is Image. Finally, in the last action (Move Finder Items) drag the My Pictures folder on top of this action’s To: pop-up menu. Save your workflow and give it a name.


Is it possible to change display resolution with a keyboard shortcut?

Yes you totally can achieve this without running additional apps.  On my system I created two different scripts.  One script for adjusting the display resolution higher and one adjusting display resolution lower. On my system I just enabled both scripts as dictation commands but if you create a new Service through Automator, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to those services..

First, here are the two scripts I started with.

This one is for making the display resolution higher: if my display resolution is already at the default position

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "displaysDisplayTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.displays"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences" to tell window "Built-in Retina Display"
    click radio button "Scaled" of radio group 1 of tab group 1
    click radio button 4 of radio group 1 of group 1 of tab group 1
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

Running that script will result in this:

This next script is for making the display resolution lower: if my display resolution is not set at the default setting

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "displaysDisplayTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.displays"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences" to tell window "Built-in Retina Display"
    click radio button "Scaled" of radio group 1 of tab group 1
    click radio button 3 of radio group 1 of group 1 of tab group 1
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

Once I made sure both scripts work correctly, I then opened up Automator and created a new service for the display resolution higher and added the appropriate script as shown in the following image.  I saved this file as rez_higher.workflow

From here, I opened up system preferences/keyboard/shortcuts/services. I located that new service I created and assigned it a keyboard shortcut

After this, just follow the same procedures to create a new workflow and service for the display resolution lower


bsdtar gives (Empty error message) when trying to extract an ISO

This isn't a great solution, but it's possible that the bsdtar shipped with High Sierra is buggy (if I get time, I'll bisect the libarchive repo to see where this occurred).

A workaround is to install the latest with homebrew:

brew install libarchive

This formula is keg only, though so you'll need to add $(brew --prefix libarchive)/bin to your PATH to be able to invoke with just bsdtar.


Risk of altering folder structure in Apple Photos?

Everything is named per the database and systems, so please resist the urge to move anything.

You can secure that data with an encrypted disk image if needed or encrypt the whole drive transparently with the current FileVault scheme if that’s what’s the main concern.

Unless you want to export out the files to disk, I wouldn’t touch it.

The best tool for making sense / merging / duplicating photos is https://fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/ in my experience.


Are all Verizon iPhone 5S are GSM Unlocked globally?

The SIM slot on all Verizon 4G LTE devices is unlocked from the time of purchase.


If you open the system and disconnect all power, eventually the SMC has to restart, but that's not necessarily the same as a signaled clear.

We would need to have the schematics of the SMC and the firmware to know for sure, but if you don't feel you want to repair the keyboard and can't otherwise use the Mac without an SMC reset, I would disconnect the battery for maybe 24 to 48 hours. You've already done the brief disconnect of power so this likely is a situation where you need to have the boards replaced or repaired.

Assuming there's no damage due to repairs, $300 for a mail in repair was an option until the 2013/2012 models went vintage.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

If it's purchased in Turkey or California, you still have time for the Apple repair at the approximate cost above.


Which macOS tools require Python 2 (rather than Python 3)?

As well as xattr, other scripts in /usr/bin/ are smtpd.py and systriage.

A number of Automator actions for working with PDFs have at their heart python scripts -- the ones for combining PDFs, watermarking PDFs, extracting pages and converting images.

Quite a few scripts in Server.app are python.

It's not so much that they're definitively "not compatible" with python3, but that they've not been updated for over 10 years and haven't been tested. The scripts have not been updated to ensure that they will continue to work when called in other scripts and workflows.

Catalina will be the last version to include python 2.7, and it does so purely to ensure that these 'legacy' scripts will continue to work without any extra effort.


Can't erase 2nd hard drive from recovery

I've put in a new hard drive cable, and all the issues are fixed


Readdle cross-app integration: Documents and PDF Expert

The Documents app works very well together with the iPhone and iPad versions of PDF Expert (by the same company). You do need to go through the share dialog and you could use another tool such as PDF Pen Pro if you prefer or wanted a universal app for editing PDF that you locate and move using Documents app.

Since iOS abstracts away the filesystem, unless you are careful to push changes back to a cloud storage location, you can get files duplicated, wrong versions and revisions. I don't think there is a silver bullet solution at this point for iOS file management other than using a single app that syncs directly to a shared folder.

Luckily, PDF Expert does just that and works with a plethora of server backed storage options - Dropbox, WebDAV, Google Drive, FTP / SFTP, Office 365 / SkyDrive, Box, Oxygen and Huddle currently:

Even better, you can set up sync to minimize the chance that you will forget to upload or download a changed document.


How can I add a city to my list and create a corresponding if-then string?

Your code doesn’t need to rewrite itself. else already takes care of all cases that are unaccounted for:

property cityList : {"City A", "City B", "City C", "New City"}
set choice to choose from list cityList with prompt "Choose your city:"
if choice is false then
    error number -128
end if

set city to choice as string
if city is "New City" then
    set lat to my customLat()
    set lon to my customLon()
    set city to my customCity()
    set x to the length of cityList
    set the end of cityList to "New City"
    copy city to item x of cityList
else
    set lat to 1
    set lon to 1
end if


Why does touch bar sometimes ignore first touch?

This has been an issue since precisely macOS High Sierra beta 3. In the release notes for this pre-release update1, ‘heuristics’ were updated with regard to preventing accidental Touch Bar inputs.

Since that update, pressing the Touch Bar too soon after another keyboard input too close to the Touch Bar will invalidate the Touch Bar press. The key will illuminate but only very briefly and the input will not pass. It is then necessary to press the key again for it to go through. Notice the difference between q-esc and 1-esc.

According to event viewer I observed while recording that video,

4 of the 5 q-esc presses passed through the esc
(the last press I slightly missed the activation area of esc, which was something else mentioned in the release notes: the activation areas were reduced in from the edges), and
0 out of 5 1-esc presses passed through the esc.

I installed macOS updates on my external disk first and I could instantly replicate this issue when using beta 3 and had no problem with beta 2.

I filed a radar per the instructions given in the release notes for anyone who had feedback for this change, with my view of the problem this change made for people who are more accurate with their Touch Bar key presses. Unfortunately, this radar was closed as won't be fixed.

It is my impression this delay is a feature: part of the remedy for people who provide spurious inputs to the Touch Bar, which was something complained about constantly on virtually all the reviews I read and watched, yet not something I've ever experienced myself.

1 Even though High Sierra is released, I am unsure as to whether the release notes for pre-release versions of macOS can be reproduced here for those who are not part of the developer programme.


Trackpad and mouse require two taps/clicks to register first click

The issue was with jiTouch. Once I uninstalled jiTouch and restarted my computer, everything went back to normal. I'm now using BetterTouchTool, and it seems to be working perfectly.


Numbers app on iPhone not syncing with iCloud

In your iCloud Settings on your iPhone, System Preferences > Your Name > iCloud, there should be an option for Numbers (and Pages, and Keynote as well, if they're installed), which should be set to 'on'. The option is likely under iCloud Drive.
If you disable any of these for any reason, say something like Reminders, iCloud won't sync that data between your devices.


I can suggest the following:

You could use the Freeware 'XtraFinder' (http://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder). There is a workaround for OSX 10.11 to enable and it works great. I use it for File- and Folder Colors/Labels, a feature i missed very much and now i got it back ;-)
The function you are looking for is "bright Text on dark background" for which you can define the colors to your liking for the window content. You cannot change the color of the window Frame, Title and Tabs, though.
You could use the commercial 'Pathfinder' (http://www.cocoatech.com/pathfinder/). It's often promoted as a Finder-Replacement and has tons of useful functions. One of them is hidden in the Preferences - the "Appearance"-Settings. Here you can configure nearly all display elements of PF. They offer a 30 Day Trial.

I hope one of these help you solve your Problem.


It may be a format issue. In non-iOS products, there's something called a format. If you originally synced it to a PC, then it won't sync with a Mac (and vise versa). The only way to sync it with the other computer is to format it. This (hopefully) won't be a problem because of iTunes in the cloud, which syncs your music throughout your computers. I hope this helps!


Is there an app that can save dual-display window states and automatically save/restore them when I disconnect/reconnect the dual display?

I do use Stay and am happy with it :)

But I also use another app that I really like called Slate ( https://github.com/jigish/slate ). Slate is open source (and free), and does allow to define things like Stay (profiles: layouts of windows - which I think will fit your needs), but also allow move windows with keys combinations, and many other interesting things...

I also have dual display setups and managed to get things working fine with Stay. I have 3 setups two in dual display and one without external display and it works just fine, restoring the windows to their positions when I connect a particular profile (I previously configured... I had to create some simple rules). I use Slate for moving windows around with the keyboard... I think it is a good combination :p

Cheers!


How to make an alias link to a Windows server folder

Drag to the Dock or Sidebar

You can drag the Folder to your dock (between the trash and the separator to the applications), or to the sidebar in Finder.

Create an Alias
You can also create an Alias:

Click the icon to select (highlight) it, and in the File Menu, choose "Make Alias".
Drag the folder holding down both the 'Option' ⌥ and 'Command' ⌘ keys together while you release the mouse button (a small arrow will appear in the lower left of the icon).

An Alias, like a Windows shortcut, is an icon that can be placed in any folder or on the desktop.


How Does FileVault 2 Full Disk Encryption Affect SSD Garbage Collection

First off, SSD garbage collection and Trim are very different animals. Garbage collection is based on moving existing data, deleting stale data and creating empty blocks in which to write new data. The drive's understanding of the data is nothing more or less than data is there or it isn't. There is no concept of a file system in an SSD's controller. All writes are done at the block level rather than the page level and a block must be erased before it can be written. A drive's garbage collector knows nothing whatsoever about FileVault.

In basic garbage collection without Trim, when the OS deletes the file, it doesn't actually say anything to the controller about the data being stale and available for deletion. The OS merely tracks the address space. The drive will understand that the data is stale in that address if/as/when the OS gives the drive a write command for that address.

So, where Trim comes in is that when a file is deleted at the OS level, the controller on the drive is immediately given the information that the data at that particular address is stale. That enables the drive to handle its housekeeping as soon as convenient upon deletion. And that reduces write amplification.

The improvement of Trim on SSD performance is true even with SandForce. See:

http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=345371&d=1340805193

The diagram clearly indicates that there is increased free space for garbage collection with Trim enabled even when using DuraWrite technology.

That out of the way, on to the meat of your question about FileVault 2: Because garbage collection occurs in the SSD without any knowledge of file systems, there is no difference to the SSD whether FV has been enabled or not. To the SSD, there is either valid data, stale data or no data at a particular address.

While whole-disk encryption gives the impression that the data is locked inside a suitcase. That isn't the case. FV2 is scrambling the bits being stored in the pages and blocks. The file allocation and structure of the file system itself remains the same whether FV2 is used or not. And this helps explain why a user can continue to use their system even when a disk is being encrypted or decrypted.

So, in summary, Trim is an enhancement to garbage collection and should be enabled regardless of the controller in use. FileVault 2 will not cause problems for SSDs and users can expect normal write amplification, performance degradation, etc. over time for FV2-encrypted SSDs versus non-encrypted SSDs of the same make on the same system with equivalent use. FV2 volumes will benefit from the use of Trim just as much as non-FV2 volumes.

My system: Early-2008 MacBook4,1; OS X Lion 10.7.5; Crucial M500 960GB SSD; FV2 encrypted; Trim enabled

Useful links for further reading:

http://blog.macsales.com/11051-to-trim-or-not-to-trim-owc-has-the-answer

Does FileVault 2 interfere with TRIM when using an SSD?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3202467?tstart=0

https://superuser.com/questions/315803/how-do-i-resize-a-filevault-2-encrypted-partition (not necessarily 100% related, but still interesting and relevant)


Option + b results in ∫ Instead of Jumping Back a Word

Option-B has always been mapped to ∫ in OS X, and option-B has never been mapped to jumping back a word in emacs. What you're thinking of is the meta-B shortcut, which is only sometimes mapped to the option key depending on the app. In the Terminal you can enable it by going to Preferences > Settings > Keyboard and checking "Use option as meta key".

You're also probably confusing it with the Ctrl-B keyboard shortcut to jump back one character. That's the emacs shortcut that is available in all OS X apps. You can jump back one word using option-Ctrl-B, delete one word using option-Ctrl-D, etc.

If you want to use option-B and the other emacs shortcuts across all apps, you'll need to install some additional software for triggering the emacs behaviors when pressing the OS X keyboard combinations, as seen in this thread:

Emacsify OSX throughout: word-forward (⌥ + F) and word-backward (⌥ + B) instead of 'special characters'?


You probably deleted your Logical Volume and the superior  Logical Volume Family.

To create a new one boot to Recovery Mode, open Terminal and simply enter:

diskutil cs list #to get the lvgUUID (UUID of the Logical Volume Group)
diskutil cs createVolume lvgUUID type name size

or in your case:

diskutil cs createVolume C970ADA-0D05-42AA-9E9C-403ED0E5335 jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%


Can I wirelessy copy my videos from iPhone to Mac?

Try Photo Transfer App

  Easily transfer photos and videos between iPhone, iPad, Android and Computer.
  No cables or extra software required.

$2.99 in the app store.


iPad enter key on keyboard for joining WiFi network

You probably have a Join key on the right of the keyboard. That's the enter key for joining the network.

On touch keyboards, it's possible to re-label the keys in order to match better the behavior of the key to the specific application or context. When hitting enter in the WiFi connection panel it's synonymous to trying to join the WiFi network.


Mac Pro Memory - Should I use 8 RAM slots in dual-channel mode or 6 RAM slots in triple-channel mode?

The direct answer to your question is you will get marginally higher peak memory bandwidth with 6 matched memory modules running in triple channel mode than you will with 8 matched memory modules in dual channel mode.  However, there are no guarantees that your machine will perform the tasks you use it for any quicker in either mode.  You need a more in-depth analysis than that.  Firstly, here are the memory replacement instructions for your Mac.  In summary, the instructions for your model go like so:

  Dual-processor computers have eight
  memory slots, four per processor. You
  can install 1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB DIMMs.
  Each processor’s memory controller has
  three memory channels. DIMM slots 1,
  2, 5, and 6 have their own channels;
  slots 3 and 4 share a channel and
  slots 7 and 8 share a channel. For
  optimal memory bandwidth, all six
  memory channels should be used, and
  memory should be balanced across the
  six channels. Note: Populating slot 4
  or 8 slightly drops maximum memory
  bandwidth, but depending on the
  applications used, overall system
  performance may benefit from the
  larger amount of memory.

If you have          Fill in these slots
Two DIMMs            1 and 2
Three DIMMs          1, 2, and 3
Four DIMMs           1, 2, and 5, 6
Six DIMMs            1, 2, 3 and 5, 6, 7
Eight DIMMs          1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 6, 7, 8

To determine whether you would benefit from more total RAM or from keeping your RAM in triple channel mode would require benchmarks.  It's difficult without measuring usage to say whether there will be any benefit from adding more RAM.  If you run a compile with Activity Monitor running are you using all the RAM you have?  Is disk I/O particularly high?  If disk I/O is high but your RAM is not fully utilised you may be better off with an SSD hard drive to run your compilations from rather than adding RAM, check for paging to disk during the compile.  The important thing here is to find the bottleneck rather than hoping that adding RAM will make things run quicker.  It may even turn out that the CPU or the compiler is the bottleneck.  If you have two 6-core CPUs, can your compiler use all that processing power?

I know I've probably raised more questions than I've answered but it's worth considering them if you're looking for a performance improvement for your investment.

If you are a programmer you probably understand these concepts anyway but here's a link to a codinghorror article just explaining the process of finding bottlenecks which I think is easy to read.  The OS in this case is windows but the principles are the same.  You can use Activity Monitor or a third party resource monitoring tool to determine the bottleneck.

For example, to determine whether your system is running out of RAM, fire up Activity Monitor.  Near the bottom of the window, select the tab button labelled 'System Memory' and take a look at the pie chart and figures listed beneath.  Here's an example from my system.

The figures in this screenshot you should be interested in are Free and Page Outs.  Free shows how much RAM is currently available, Page Outs is an indicator that your system is running out of RAM and has had to write temporary data to disk.  Anything above 0 in Page Outs means you could potentially benefit from more RAM.  You could perform whatever activity you expect to push your system with Activity Monitor open and monitor these figures throughout.  This should help you determine whether you will get any benefit from more RAM.  For completeness, here's what each item represents.

Free: Memory not in use
Wired: Data which must remain in RAM and can't be moved to disk
Active: Data which is currently in memory and has been accessed recently
Inactive: Data which is currently in memory but is no longer being used.  For example, if you recently quit an application, its data is kept in memory for faster relaunch but it will be used by other application if you run out of Free memory.
Used: The sum of Wired, Active and Inactive memory

Here's a really nice link too for Mac performance questions http://www.macperformanceguide.com/


Numbers 09 has the SUMIFS function, which operates the same as in Excel. Numbers 08 does not appear to have it, but it has SUMIF.

You should still be able to do what you are trying by combining two logical statements.

Without using the function, you could also build a new column by multiplying values by a logical statement. For example:

=A3 + A4 × (B4>2)

This will only add A4 if B4 is greater than 2...

Or in your example, make a column using AND:

=A2 x AND(B2<10,exact(C2,"female))

Then sum that column. Values that don't meet both criteria will be zero.


No, there is no way to do this with the default Now Playing screen.


Upgrading My Mac Os X without losing data

Normally, installing an updated version of MacOS should not cause any data loss. If you launch the installer app downloaded from the Mac App Store, then the new OS is installed leaving all your existing apps and data in place.

However, you should ALWAYS have a backup to mitigate the loss of any data. Things can go wrong; disks can fail; hardware can get stolen, catch fire, drenched with water, etc, etc.

There are a large number of posts here from people who have accidentally lost their data while trying to do something. These exist as warnings.

Files without a backup are waiting to be lost.


iPhone 4 Filters won't show up on Instagram

This is a known behaviour for pictures edited from camera or photos app on iOS. When you try to load the picture onto Instagram, It loads the original version of the picture (without any filter) that was taken.

If you want the picture with iOS Camera filters - Screenshot the picture once you apply the filter and load the screenshot-ed picture on Instagram.


You have an airplay icon, not an airplay mirroring icon on a 4th generation iPod. You need a 5th generation to get mirroring. On the iPad, there is an option for turning mirroring on and off. So on my iPod 4 I get sound but no video on my TV when using Netflix, for instance. On my ipad I get both sound and video.


Wiping the entire internal storage may have been a bad idea, as it also contains the Recovery Partition, and some 'keys' used to authenticate Secure Boot. (Also note that by default, you can't boot to a USB external: you need to set the Secure Boot options to allow that.)
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208198
Your best bet is to install it from another Mac using Target Disk Mode.


How do you sync iPhone 5 with macbook to import iMovies?

iMovie for Mac and iMovie for iPhone are unfortunately two separate and incompatible tools. You simply won't be able to transfer the iMovie projects to iMovie on Mac.


How do I get Sublime Text's open-file GUI to show hidden files?

You can press ⌘ cmd + ⇧ shift + . while the dialog is open, which will toggle show/hide hidden files.

In OSX 10.9 and up (Mavericks, Yosemite, ...) you need to be in the List View of Finder.


Creating Automatic Period local backup of folder

If you want a local backup you can run a bash script that creates an archive of your home directory.

zip -r pathToBackup.zip /Users/username

This can be expanded upon with bash to:

Add password protection and encryption with the --encrypt option
Run automatically at certain times with cron
Append timestamps to name of backup file
Keep only a certain number of backups
etc...


I suspect you will by now have seen the problem reappear. The fix you described had a side-effect that ended up, for a time, solving the problem.

I believe that the problem had to do with the security context in which your terminal's shell was attempting to launch programs that try to connect to the window system.

My solution to this problem, whenever it has occurred from my Terminal.app shells, has been to use reattach-to-user-namespace (https://github.com/ChrisJohnsen/tmux-MacOSX-pasteboard). For example, at a bash prompt:

tk-mbp:~ tommy$ wstorm Projects/my-webapp
Trace/BPT trap: 5
tk-mbp:~ tommy$ exec reattach-to-user-namespace -l bash
(reading ~/.bash_profile)
tk-mbp:~ tommy$ wstorm Projects/my-webapp
tk-mbp:~ tommy$ # that worked...

When you rebooted as part of the fix you reported, it had the side-effect of creating a shell process whose connection to the security context of your windowed login session was not stale, as it had been before when the commands were failing with "Trace/BPT trap: 5". So although there might have been a real problem with the PATH setup, I believe it was the refreshing of the shell's process environment that was the true fix.

FWIW, I've got reattach-to-user-namespace installed via Homebrew.


I had installed on my MBP mid 2010 a Samsung SSS 830 250GB.
With SSD you will solve all the problems caused by HD latency and speed (in my case speed up is around 10x).

Of course you also take advantages on speed when you use swap memory with an SSD. It's like when you write and read something from a disk.

In summary, if you want a huge speed up go for an SSD.
I think the best SSD) now is the Samsung 850 Pro 256GB  (storage / price.
RAM upgrade is required only if you do intensive computation / gaming / image or video editing.


You can use Handbrake to rip it to a file, then just copy to iTunes. Handbrake is free and has a very simple to use interface. Just select the DVD in the file browser,  choose a preset and you'll be on your way.


How can I prevent iTunes from automatically opening the downloaded audio files?

Go to Safari preferences

Disable the Open safe files after downloading


How to switch between fullscreen applications in OSX (Mavericks)

This doesn't let you switch straight to a target app, but ctrl + cursor keys will let you move left and right through your spaces to reach the full screen app.

The shortcut can be changed in system preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Mission Control.


My macbook suddenly thinks its display is 800x600

Simple solution. Head into system preferences and click on the display icon on the second row. Click on the display bar at the top (on the left of colour) and scroll through your different display options (I recommend 1280 X 800 but you can have whatever you want. Double click on the display option you want and there you go!


How do you fix an Apple Hardware Test (AHT) configuration?

For Apple Hardware Test to work, you need to ensure you're using the correct version for the model of Mac you're testing.

Assuming you have the model identifiers correct:

the MacBookPro6,1 is a Mid 2010 17" MacBook Pro which uses AHT 3A175
the MacBookPro8,3 is a Early 2011 17" MacBook Pro which used AHT 3A211

My guess is that you're trying to run the same version of Apple Hardware Test (AHT) on both machines, and this is where you're running into problems.

[UPDATE]

Below are direct links to download each of the above versions of AHT directly from Apple:

AHT 3A175
AHT 3A211

You can run AHT from a bootable USB drive, but first you will need to copy the AHT onto your USB drive and bless it so it can boot your MBP.


Macbook Air recognizes battery while starting, but later says "no battery available" (battery icon X)

Unfortunately, intermittent battery connection failures can also be a result of spilling water on the computer.  It's not just a case of either it works or not.

You'll need to take the computer in to a service center. The technician will likely try swapping out the battery first to see if that does the trick. Otherwise, you might be looking at a full logic board replacement.


On iPad Mini, AppleTV doesn't work with Google Hangout video chat

I googled around for it, but all I found was this question asked with the same words on other fora.

The second link has someone giving the answer I thought likely: the app disallows AirPlay. Some app makers don't want you to watch their iOS content on your TV. HBO Go was a notable example, but they updated their app to allow AirPlay streaming to AppleTV in February 2013 (see here). While I can't find any documentation that the Google Hangout iOS app does not allow AirPlay, the behavior you describe is at least consistent with that hypothesis.


AppleTV is not accessing the iTunes Store after updating software to version 5.2

I was able to accomplish a restore by plugging the AppleTV into my computer with a Micro USB cable, and using iTunes to restore it.

(I kept digging and found this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4367)

After doing the restore, re-connecting to my Wi-Fi network, and putting in our iTunes account info, the rental showed up immediately, and we can browse the store content again!

Still haven't had time to watch it the movie, though...

Edit: We were able to successfully watch the movie last night.


Have you tried using an app called smcFanControl. It's a nifty little program that can directly control the speed of your fan.
You can also check the CPU temperatures to see what's making it hot - if indeed something is. Even when it gets hot it can take a while to cool down again.
It's usually something in the background that causes this.
Open Activity Monitor in Utilities, and click on the CPU tab, so that the programs that are running show up with the heaviest users first. That will show you what's using most resources, and thus causing your fan to run.
Things like iCloud, Dropbox, Photos updates as they synchronise with the cloud services can also cause a lot of activity, thus overheating the system and causing the fan to overrun.


Change the icon of a single, specific file

Open the image that you would like to be the icon in Preview.
Press ⌘A to select the entire image and press ⌘C to copy it.
Get Info (⌘I) on the folder.
Click the existing icon in the top-left and press ⌘V to paste the icon from Preview.

To revert back to the default icon, Get Info on the folder, click your icon and press ⌫.


You can change the 'new message sound' in the mail preferences, as well as disable other sounds (send message 'swoosh' etc.).  Granular control outside of that isn't possible via the GUI.  See screenshot.

As per here Changing New Mail Sound in macOS Sierra, you can copy custom sounds to ~/Library/Sounds and they will show up as an option to select in Mail preferences.

One could then programmatically use the defaults command  to select your custom sound via Terminal or script if you run the following command from within the folder "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences":

defaults write com.apple.mail NewMessagesSoundName -string filename

where "filename" is the name of the file, without the extension, of what you copied to ~/Library/Sounds


How do I get Automator actions for Microsoft Powerpoint and Word?

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 (and 2008) includes several Automator workflows, but Microsoft is no longer providing Automator actions for Office 2016.

So, you must run an AppleScript from the Automator workflow

Here is the script (edited):

on run {input, parameters}
    set theOutput to {}
    tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint" -- work on version 15.15 or newer
        launch
        set theDial to start up dialog
        set start up dialog to false
        repeat with i in input
            open i
            set pdfPath to my makeNewPath(i)
            save active presentation in pdfPath as save as PDF -- save in same folder
            close active presentation saving no
            set end of theOutput to pdfPath as alias
        end repeat
        set start up dialog to theDial
    end tell
    return theOutput
end run

on makeNewPath(f)
    set t to f as string
    if t ends with ".pptx" then
        return (text 1 thru -5 of t) & "pdf"
    else
        return t & ".pdf"
    end if
end makeNewPath

This script return path of the PDF files to the next action.

Here is the workflow:


Backup Time capsule content for later restore

Install the replacement back up device first.
Let the replacement drive finish at least one complete back up.
Secure shred the data on the old one.


Is there an app/extension similar to The Great Suspender but for Safari?

Safari Extension called The Suspender by Brian Watkins

https://utahbrian.com/the-suspender/


On how many devices with the same iTunes account can you share an app?

As far as I know, there isn't a limit. As long as the account is associated with the device, then any apps from that account can be put onto that device. If you own more than one device, you don't have to purchase the app again. You could own one hundred iOS devices and pay for just one app.


Sleep keyboard shortcut on M1 MacBook Pro

On my M1 MacBook Air, the following works: press Touch ID with any finger not registered with Touch ID to lock the Mac. Then press Esc to Sleep.


This might help...  when using a trackpad on a MacBook, tapping does not, by default, click the mouse...   there is a setting (System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Tap to click) that must be enabled.

You might try checking for that...  or something similar, to enable "tap to click" for the monitor (if possible).   I can't say 100% this will work, as I've never seen a touch screen used with a Mac... however hopefully this helps.


Disk scan shows account Guest uses 74 gigabytes; Can I reclaim space?

Disk Expert may be giving you the spaced used by "Users" which will include your stuff as well as Guest Users. If this is the case then erasing stuff under "Guest" will not buy you much. When I run Disk Expert I get space used by "Users" and the space used by me. Did you get a space for your user account? You should have unless you are the guest user. I also got a space labeled as "Files of user: Guest - Size 13.4 GB" so you should have similar spaces from Disk Expert. That is you should have a space for User that is bigger than the space for your account and the space for the Guest account. You should also have a space for both Guest and your home directory. By space I mean a section of the mapping for Disk Utility. See image below.

If you are sure the 78 GB are from guest users you should contact them and see if they need any of the info on the Guest Users account. If not you can delete the files under the guest user account. Be careful not to erase other directories and make sure there is nothing under guest user that you want to keep. The Guest user account was intended for "guests" to use your computer. If you haven't allowed others to use your computer I would not delete anything until I knew what was there.


Install Boot Camp 6 Without Internet Connection

You will have to manually do it without using Boot Camp Assistant. This is the best guide I have found (archive 2016-07-09). You will have to create the partition then manually install the drivers once Windows is installed.


How to record/stream iPhone 4 screen with iOS 7?

Unfortunately the use of such software has a pre-requisite of AirPlay Mirroring, which is not supported by an iPhone 4 at any OS level, hence teh requirement for an iPhone 4s minimum.  If you had a device that supports it, then it's pretty straightforward (take a look at this answer elswhere on AskDifferent) but with an iPhone 4, you are out of luck unless someone can suggest a way of enabling it with a Jailbreak hack.


How can I determine the sound volume from within a python script?

You have a couple of approaches you can use here.

AppleScript via osascript CLI

You can use AppleScript directly via the osascript CLI to get and set the volume like so:

Get volume - Echos a number from 0 to 100

$ osascript -e 'output volume of (get volume settings)'

Set volume - Where 50 is a number from 0 to 100

$ osascript -e 'set volume output volume 50'

Get mute state - Echos a string of 'true' or 'false'

$ osascript -e 'output muted of (get volume settings)'

Set mute state - Where 'true' can be 'true' or 'false'

$ osascript -e 'set volume output muted true'

Using osascript module in Python

If you have Python3 installed and Xcode you can install the osascript module like so:

Install Xcode

$ xcode-select --install

Install virtualenv

$ pip3 install virtualenv

Create a Virtualenv project, and activate it

$ virtualenv venv
$ . venv/bin/activate

Now within this custom Virtualenv environment, install Python module

$ pip3 install osascript
Collecting osascript
Collecting public (from osascript)
Collecting runcmd (from osascript)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in ./venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages (from osascript) (41.0.1)
Collecting temp (from osascript)
Collecting psutil (from runcmd->osascript)
Installing collected packages: public, psutil, runcmd, temp, osascript
Successfully installed osascript-2019.4.13 psutil-5.6.1 public-2019.4.13 runcmd-2019.4.13 temp-2019.4.13

Here's an example Python program that will set the volume to 100

$ cat vol.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3

import osascript

osascript.run("set volume output volume 100")
code, out, err = osascript.run("output volume of (get volume settings)")
print(out)

Running this will set to 100 and then display the volume's level

$ ./vol.py
100

References

How to change volume with Python?
Pipenv & Virtual Environments
Why am I getting an “invalid active developer path” when attempting to use Git after upgrading to macOS Catalina?
Set/get OSX volume/mute from the command line
PyPi - osascript


In the latest public release of iOS, you need to follow these steps:

Tap on the Settings icon.
Tap on General.
Tap on International.
Tap on Keyboards.
Tap on Add New Keyboard.
Select Spanish.

The Spanish keyboard is now added system-wide in addition to your default keyboard (let's say it was English for this example). Now whenever you see a keyboard layout on your screen, you will see a new button with a globe icon on it on the bottom-left corner of the screen, right next to the "123" button that switches to the numeric/symbolic keyboard.

The globe button works like the "123" button in that it alternates between your International keyboard layouts. In this example, it will alternate between English and Spanish layouts. The spell checking and the auto-complete only work for whichever language you have have selected. In other words, you won't get English auto-complete when the layout is Spanish, which makes sense.

I use this feature all the time when composing e-mail messages in Spanish. Here's another tip: Tap and hold on the "n" key to get access to the "ñ" character. Also, tap and hold on any vowel to get the "á", "é", "í", "ó", "ú" and "ü" characters.

Hope this helps.


How do you check how much current a Mac USB port can deliver?

The Knowledgebase article Apple Computers and Displays: Powering peripherals through USB contains some general guidelines and illustrates using System Profiler (System Information in Lion) to provide information about the output (according to specifications) of a Macs USB ports.

If you want to test the real world voltage output of a given USB port on an individual Macintosh at a given load you will have to use a test device. (USB Test Circuit)


It already is on your local network.  You need to know either the IP address of your Mac or name of your Mac.  You can get the name of your Mac by clicking the Sharing option in System Preferences.  It'll be at the top.  You can simplify the name to make it easier for others.  For example, if you name your Mac AppleServer then everyone on the network should be able to find it at AppleServer.local.

If you want it accessible from anywhere in the world it is much more involved.  Start by figuring out what the IP address is of your Mac and on your broadband router either set your Mac has the machine in the DMZ or setup a port forward for port 80 to the IP of your Mac.  Your router's manual should describe how to do this.

In case your Internet Access Provider gives you a dynamic IP you may also want to check out services like DynDNS so your external users don't have to ask you for your current IP address every time.


Do I need to enroll in "Apple Developer Program Enrollment" for creating a certificate?

There is a long rambling discussion here on this topic but the crux is: yes, to get a Development Certificate without a Mac you need a full developer account.

An alternative is to get your hands on a Mac, from where you can do everything for free up until the point where you need to distribute your app to the App Store.


How to know which apps to shutdown when there is overheating?

The recent Firefox release (32) has a tendency to run in to conflict resulting in very high CPU consumption. That leads to high speed fans.

Mozilla has released a fix (32.01), but the results are yet to be seen.


Encrypt old Time Machine backup for archival purposes?

Warning: I haven't tested this procedure, and there's at least one report of this converting the volume to APFS, which might cause trouble. So I can't really recommend this, I'm just posting it for the record.
An encrypted Time Machine backup is just a regular Time Machine backup stored on an encrypted volume (or an encrypted disk image, if it's on a network server -- not relevant here). Therefore, you can convert an unencrypted TM backup to encrypted just by encrypting the volume it's stored on. For some reason, this option isn't available in Disk Utility, but you can do it in the Finder by right-clicking (or Control-clicking) on the volume, and choosing 'Encrypt "volume name"'. You'll need to enter an encryption password (be sure not to lose this!), and then leave the disk attached for possibly quite a while as it converts the entire thing to encrypted format.
Note that @Allan's comments about TM not really being suitable for archiving still apply, whether the backup is encrypted or not.


I doubt it, but if you are sufficiently motivated, you might be able to use ukelele to create your own keyboard layout with arrow key equivalents on them. However, note the following caveat from the ukelele manual:

  There are some limitations imposed by Apple:

  Mapping the arrow keys to something else, or other keys to arrow keys, is problematic. It will work in some applications, but not others.

Suddenly, this seems like a much less attractive option.


How to backup Time Machine's backup to a cloud?

You should use multiple levels of backups, not a series of backups.

The difference being with a "series" of backups (backup of a backup of a backup etc.) you run the risk of backing up garbage if there is a failure making subsequent backups worthless (think of a failed bulb in a string of Christmas tree lights).

It's also important to note that backup is a strategy, not a product you buy.

Having multiple levels of backups works by taking different paths to securing your data.  The key here to recovery is to not get your system back up and running, but being able to get back working as quickly as possible.

To illustrate the difference and the usefulness of this strategy, think about what you would do if something catastrophic happened (your Mac physically blew up) and you couldn't get another Mac for a week, but had access to a PC.

Time Machine backup for the whole system
Documents & Data

Replicated to on site NAS
Synced with OneDrive cloud service

Application settings (Preferences, templates, etc.)

Synced to iCloud drive
Replicated to on site NAS
Synced with OneDrive cloud service

As for the NAS, (I personally) use one with a with RAID one for hard drive redundancy with multiple USB hard drives for backing that up.   How is this configured?

NAS with RAID HDDs

USB backup for whole system
USB backup for incremental daily backups
Synchronization with additional cloud service (OneDrive, DropBox)

What does all of this accomplish?

Let's take a look at a single document (maybe a payroll spreadsheet):

Document -> Time Machine
         -> Sync to OneDrive
         -> NAS -> RAID Array
                -> NAS backup to USB drive
                -> Selected volume backup to USB drive
                -> Selected volume sync to OneDrive

What this means is that your document is in many places with three different paths minimizing the chance of data loss if any one path fails. Also, by not depending on Time Machine as the only backup strategy, you can get back working if you are in a situation where you have no access to an equivalent or newer Mac.

Does this work?

Absolutely.  I run at least 3 VMs on my iMac and when the HDD crashed I had everything back up and running on a PC I had the garage running within 30 mins while I waited for the replacement parts to arrive.

Could I have used dedicated for pay services?  Certainly, but if you depend only on what's out of the box with these services and not strategically implement their services, you may end up with backups of data that are of no use.


Apple Watch Cellular activation in China

Note that there's no slot for a physical SIM card on the Apple Watch. You must add the SIM card to your iPhone. This can either be a physical SIM card, or a virtual SIM-card known as an eSIM. An eSIM usually takes the form of a letter or email containing a QR-code that you scan with the camera in your phone.
If you have a recent iPhone, you can add both a physical SIM and an eSIM to your phone at the same time. So it might be easiest to ask your friend to purchase an eSIM, and scan the code on your phone.
Note: In some places it could be illegal to get others to buy phone services in order to circumvent legislation.
Also note that there exists different models of the Watch that supports different radio bands - the watch you have bought in Shanghai probably won't work with cellular in North America. Apple has a list of the models and bands here:
https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular/#table-series-6
Apple's lists here that there are unique restrictions on Apple Watch cellular usage in China - stating that for China Mobile you can only use it with subscriptions opened in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Tianjin, while for Chine Tleecom it can only be used with subscriptions opened in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.


You could connect your multifunction printer via USB to a computer and use printer sharing to enable other machines to print through it. The downside is, as you point out, it is often less reliable, and you can only print from other computers when the host computer is on.

You could connect through your Time Capsule. Some multifunction printers only support scanning when directly connected to a computer.

You could get a new wireless multifunction printer that supports scanning wireless. This requires a more sophisticated machine, as the scanned documents have to go somewhere.

It is possible there is a way to make your multifunction printer work as a scanner while attached to the Time Capsule, but it's a property of the device, and you didn't specify what you're using.

So in the absence of more information in your question, this is my answer.


Can the contents of a partition be recovered after partition table is overwritten?

Quick and Simple: Since it's a GPT disk you can run gpart recover /dev/disk1 to fix the table. You blew away the first ~700MB of the drive, so any partitions touching that area are gone too (more or less). The rest of the disk should be fine. I'm not sure if OSX comes with gpart, so you may need to download it somewhere.

The longer details: Concerning the partition(s) that were only partially overwritten, some of the files may be recoverable. The tools to do so are much more complicated and you'll be wanting to find someone who really knows what they're doing for this. If you're concerned with any of these files don't even try anything except unplugging the drive. Also, the overwritten data can probably be recovered by a data recovery service, but this would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Also, if this was a MBR disk you'd be completely hosed unless you happen to know the exact size and offsets of all partitions. This information can be printed from fdisk, but it's best to simply not make mistakes like this.


The following links will be helpful in getting you started with OS X Lion Server. Without knowing exactly what your client setup is, I simply provided general information in regards to OS X Lion Server. Hopefully it is organized in a fashion that is beneficial to you.

Standard Server documentation

Lion Server
Lion Server Support (Nearly everything needed for basic management)
Lion Server Advanced Administration
Xsan2
Apple Server Diagnostic User Guide

Apple's new Profile Manager

Profile Manager

More on Profile Manger
iOS4 Education Deployment Guide (outdated, but helpful | also applies to business)

Admin tools are still available

About Server Admin Tools 10.7.3
About Server Admin Tools 10.7.4

NAT/DHCP tips
DNS tips

Step by step (very simplified)

Simplified Server install | Utilize the documentation above to fill in the gaps
Simplified Administration | Utilize the documentation above to fill in the gaps


How to mitigate Bash risk while waiting for a patch (sans a recompile)?

There is a patch for Mountain Lion, see http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1768.


My calendar won't work on my iPhone 4 since upgrading to iOS8. I am unable to save events

I struggled with this for quite a while. Out of nowhere, I could not add any events or reminders to my calendar, and the (+) in the corner of my calendar was grey. Super frustrating!

Go under settings. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.  You must click on individual accounts, and move the slider for calendar to the "on" position. For instance, I have an iCloud account, and multiple gmail accounts listed. I clicked on each account, and turned on all of the calendar sliders.

This fixed the problem, and I am now able to add events, and view birthdays and events.


What possible data can I lose if I backup iPhone to iTunes and then restore?

What is not included in the iTunes backup itself:

Media (synced with iTunes but not in the backup). Videos, music, podcasts, etc.
Books (can be synced with iCloud or exported with third-party iTunes replacer if stored locally). Includes both ePub and PDF stored in iBooks app.
Apps that are no longer on the AppStore and not accessible via Purchased > Not on this phone (as you've already mentioned). But app
data is still saved in the backup and can be accessed with
third-party apps.
App data of some apps. App developers decide what to include in the backup, so be careful with messengers like Viber or Signal (they
can have a separate backup way, check google), or with important
docs. Media players usually don't include tracks/videos as well.
Some data that is synced with iCloud. For example, if you have iCloud Photo Library with "Optimize storage" enabled, iTunes backup
will include only thumbnails of photos if full-size version is stored
on the cloud.
Emails.
App cache (most of the "Other" data).

Should be all if not mistaking.


Can I see my CPU and memory usage meters in the menu bar?

I use MenuMeters for this functionality, and have a hard time living without it.  How do other people know when their web browser is finally done downloading a page, or YouTube stalled out, or iPhoto still working, or ...?

MenuMeters is freeware, but well worth the donation.

The original author has stopped maintaining MenuMeters, but someone new has taken over for El Capitan.


I've heard of this happening before, but can't put my hands on a link right now.

Try this applescript, save it as an App
It refreshes the contents of all open Finder windows by switching them to another view then back again.

tell application "Finder"
    set theWindows to every window
    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
        set this_item to item i of theWindows
        set theView to current view of this_item
        if theView is list view then
            set current view of this_item to icon view
        else
            set current view of this_item to list view
        end if
        set current view of this_item to theView
    end repeat
end tell


Is there a keyboard shortcut for "Show Hidden Files" in the Finder in El Cap?

There's no shortcut.
You could make one, but it would require a Automator action, containing a script, and set up as a Service, & will re-launch the Finder each time it's used. [Mavericks could do it without relaunch but no other OS]

For the number of times I actually use it, I just keep the script accessible instead.

--Toggle Invisibles
set newHiddenVisiblesState to "YES"
try
    set oldHiddenVisiblesState to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
    if oldHiddenVisiblesState is in {"1", "YES"} then
        set newHiddenVisiblesState to "NO"
    end if
end try
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles " & newHiddenVisiblesState & "; killall Finder"

Copy paste to Script Editor & save as an App.
It will toggle visible state each time it's launched.


Wrong Macintosh HD icon after Catalina Upgrade

None of the workarounds mentioned in comments worked for me, so I decided to write a separate answer for people with the same trouble.

Experienced the same issue since the upgrade from Mojave 10.14 to Catalina (10.15.1), felt unreal and confused. Spent 10-15 mins searching and troubleshooting trying to fix but no luck (including Get Info - Upper Left corner - select the Icon - ⌘ + delete - it didn't work).

Mysterious and no one can explain how and why it happened (if you can, please_).

Disk Utility.app show the same Chrome Disk Image icon, didn't find a way to force a refresh or delete it.

I was hoping that the issue would be fixed by macOS patches but obviously NO up until 10.15.4, that's why I ended up here lol.

So the solution that worked for me:

In Terminal (or iTerm2)

open /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources

Open internal.icns in Preview.app
Select all icons included by using ⌘ + A and copy to clipboard ⌘ + C
In Get Info UI, click on the upper left corner icon to select it
Paste ⌘ + V, if this does NOT work, use the file menu - Edit - Paste,
the latter worked like a charm for me, finally...

  NOTE: In my case, I didn't select all icons included in the icon resource file, so the paste ended up with a wrong one, when I use the file menu - Edit - Undo, it just refreshed to the correct Icon, hmm... Anyway, it worked. Thanks to @user3439894 and OP @jjathman


How can I Unlock a iPhone 4S bought in London, in Denmark?

If it's carrier locked, only the carrier it's locked to can unlock it.

If you want an unlock phone, the easiest way to get one is buying directly from Apple. These factory unlocked phones will unlock as soon as you connect them to iTunes (and with iOS 5 possibly the first time you turn it on).


iPhone 4 cannot connect to internet after iOS6 update

There are multiple things to check on (in the order you should try them):

Check your settings on "Cellular Data" as they might disappear with the iOS6 update (that's what happened to me anyway)
Try turning on and off your flightmodus
Reset your Network settings
Try rebooting your iPhone
(Restore your iPhone)

Although the latter isn't the ideal solution, it might solve your issue. But only try this in worst case scenario (since it's pretty radically).

Anyhow, if neither of above options solved your issue, you're not alone. I recommend you pay a visit to your Apple Store.


How do I increase "ulimit -u" (max user processes)?

http://blog.ghostinthemachines.com/2010/01/19/mac-os-x-fork-resource-temporarily-unavailable/ talks about this issue in great detail.

When you do sudo launchctl limit maxproc, you're viewing or changing the system-wide launchd limits.

When you do launchctl limit maxproc, you're viewing or changing the launchd limits for your user.

One thing to keep in mind is this:

  The root user can increase the hard limits of the system-wide launchd,
  without a reboot.  However, you cannot change a user’s launchd hard
  limits without a reboot (even if trying to do so as the root user).

Basically, the hard limit (the right hand column) that is displayed when you initially do launchctl limit maxproc will be the limit that you can set using ulimit -u without rebooting.  Logging out and back in will not work.  Even if you change whats displayed by launchctl limit maxproc, the initial hard limit remains.  See this answer for a bit more info on the relationship between ulimit and launchctl limit.
To raise that limit, you have to

edit/create /etc/sysctl.conf to raise the maximum processes supported by the kernel

kern.maxproc=2500
kern.maxprocperuid=2500

edit/create /etc/launchd.conf to raise the hard limits of the system-wide launchd at boot time

limit maxproc 2500 2500

reboot

Also note that 2500 seems to be the maximum limit that kern.maxproc can be set to.  I'll ask a question about this as soon as I reboot and have enough free processes to open another Chrome tab.


Mac had High Sierra, had to install Lion from Internet Recovery into a new hard drive, can't install High Sierra

You should be able to do the following:

Launch the Mac App Store app
Select the Purchased tab
Look through your purchased items to find OS X Mountain Lion (Note: There's nothing stopping you from also selecting either OS X Mavericks or OS X El Capitan)
Now click on the Download option on the right of the listing

This will download the OS X installer allowing you to upgrade from OS X Lion. Once you're upgraded, you'll then have the option/ability to upgrade to macOS High Sierra.

NOTE: If you can't see your Purchased list, or download the item, make sure you're actually signed into your account (i.e. look under the Store menu).


How to modify cupsd.conf on 50+ machines

cupsenable - stop/start printers and classes

You should not need to use sudo to resume print queues. The CUPS command cupsenable can be run by a standard user.


My mac would not boot so I formatted the drive and now it has no OS

When you formatted your drive, you must have been "standing" on some other boot drive ... backup (??). That said, clone its OS to your newly formatted drive. Use Carbon Copy Cloner ... the best. If you don't already have CCC, get it and install it on the drive where you "stood" to do your original formatting.


Can I edit the same Pages document on both my iPad and my Mac?

No, downloading it from iCloud won't create a copy. All of your changes will be synced back to iCloud from both devices, and conflicts will be dealt with appropriately (a dialog to you).

As long as both the Mac and the iPad are connected to the same iCloud account, you will be presented with a list of your documents whenever you start Pages on either your Mac or your iPad.


There is no setting exposed directly to the user to make that change in the Bluetooth menu behavior, i.e. e.g., in System Preferences > Bluetooth > [] Show Bluetooth menu in menu bar, it only determines whether or not it's shown on the menu bar, not which menu is displayed by default or with modifier key(s) pressed upon being clicked. That is hard coded into /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Bluetooth.menu.  Nor do I know of an indirect setting, e.g. using the defaults command, that can be used to achieve that which you've asked.

You'll just have to continue to option-click to get the secondary menu and shift-option-click to get the tertiary menu, or of course just click to get the default menu.


OSX Applications folder window has become 'unsortable'

Finder has had separate arrange by and sort by modes since 10.7. That usually happens when arrange by is set to something other than none.

The pop-up button on the toolbar always changes the arrange by mode, but View > Arrange By turns to Sort By when you hold option, and for example ⌃⌥⌘6 sorts by size.


Naming a folder xxyyzz.download creates safari file?

You can remove the bundle document type for the .download extension.

You'll have to edit /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info.plist and remove the entry for the download extension under Document Types. The only disadvantage to this is that, whenever Safari updates, you'll have to do this again as your changes will be overridden.

I'd also make sure you make a backup of the Info.plist file first, before you make changes, incase you move the wrong line(s) or Safari gives you any issues after making the changes.


Show icon to indicate microphone and/or camera are being used

There’s a product called Oversight that does this. It’s a donation-ware product meaning it’s completely free but donations to support development are encouraged.
It’s accessed through the menu bar, but if something accesses a device, it will post a notification

I’ve used this before for users who who were concerned about malware accessing their camera and it worked well.  I haven’t tested in Catalina, but it should work though (IMO) it’s not necessary due to the security permissions model in Catalina. If you don’t grant an app access to a device, it can’t use it.


Is there a shortcut which invokes the "Login Window..." fast user switching command?

Control+Shift+Eject

or

Control+Shift+power-button

The latter doesn't seem to work in Mac OS X 10.11(.6), but the former still works.

To guarantee that the login window is shown immediately after entering one of the above shortcuts, make sure to change the relevant security setting to require a password (i.e. require logging-in) immediately "after sleep or screen saver begins":

Enter ⌘+space to open Spotlight search.
Type "security" and hit Enter when "security & Privacy" is suggested; the "Security & Privacy" settings should be shown.
Ensure you're on the "General" page.
Change the "Require password ..." setting to "immediately".

Source for info about the password security setting:

How to lock your Mac like you did on your PC - fixedByVonnie


Have you searched for "TouchBarServer" ? Maybe this is the process you are looking for ?


How do I see the number for an unknown caller who is not in my contact list?

Whether the caller's number shown or not does not depend on your contact list. It is the information which is provided by the carrier (AND the caller because the caller can disable it and you won't see any number even if the caller is in your contact list).
If you see "unknown" that means the CallerID was not provided. If it's provided then you would see the number of the callers even if they're not in your contact list.


Generally, updating OTA (over-the-air) is pretty safe, but it's always advisable to have a backup. Doing an update won't clear anything on the device unless something goes drastically wrong.

In my experience, the larger the jump in OS build, the more risk there is of something going wrong with the update. 9 times out of 10, it goes off without a hitch, but every now and then something else comes in to play that can cause the update to fail.

What I would suggest you do is back up your device to iCloud if possible, plug it in to make sure it has a constant power source and can't run flat, and then reset your settings. Don't worry, resetting your settings won't erase any content, but you will have to set things up again such as your home screen layout and your background. To do this:

Open "Settings"
Navigate to and tap "General"
Scroll to the bottom and tap "Reset"
Tap "Reset All Settings"

You may be asked for your pin and iCloud password at this point so go ahead and enter it. Remember, you won't lose any saved information!

The reason I recommend this is that sometimes there can be a preference that you've changed that can cause a hiccup, or the settings have corrupted somehow and the update will freak out about it (this happened fairly infrequently when I worked at an AASP). Doing this will make sure there's no residual "fluff" before you do the update.


Can't boot, fsck -ya in single user says 'Disk full'

I had this same problem. After a few hours I did manage to solve it by sort of hacking the boot process. The problem is OSX detects some error upon boot and calls up fdsk to solve it. Then fsck returns error code 34 and the boot script halts the system. I tried and failed to disable the fsck call. But... I did succeed at cheating at the boot script and have fsck return a 0 exit code, which worked.. This is what I did:

Disable System Integrity Protection in Mac OS X. Instructions here.

Log in to Single-User mode (instructions here) and mount the file system as readwrite.

You need to replace /sbin/fsck with a script that returns exit 0. To do so try the following commands:

mv /sbin/fsck /sbin/fsck.backup
echo '#!/bin/bash' > /sbin/fsck
echo 'exit 0' >> /sbin/fsck
chmod +x /sbin/fsck

You might get some error messages about SIP being disabled but it did work for me. You then reboot.

Upon reboot, OS X will detect the 'problem' and call our fsck script, which will return a 0 exit code and you'll log in your system.

If you succeed I suggest you back up all your important data and reinstall OSX. If you don't, remember you don't have a proper /sbin/fsck anymore so any program relying on it (maybe Disk Utility?) might have an unexpected behavior.

Good luck.


How to remove locally synced contacts after iOS 7 and Mavericks upgrade

Syncing through Sync Services is not possible anymore for contacts as Sync services was removed from Mavericks.

You'll have to manually delete the contacts/calendars/etc. on your iOS device by going to the bottom of the contact and selecting the red Delete contact.


How can I get an unreadable Flash Drive to work?

Can you get the disk identifier? In Disk Utility, select the drive and choose "Info" – it should read something like disk1 or disk2 or so. (But NOT disk0; that's your internal HD!)

Then open a terminal, and type in

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskX

(where diskX is of course the disk identifier you got earlier.)

Type in your admin password, and it should overwrite every block of the disk with 0x00 (i.e. erase it).

Then, you can format your drive.

[Please be cautious when doing this; I'm not responsible for anything if anything goes wrong ;-)]