What is the fastest way to transfer 200GB data from 2014 Macbook Air to 2016 Macbook Pro

The fastest method is to use Target Disk Mode using the Thunderbolt ports on the machines.

You can refer to this guide from Apple:

https://support.apple.com/en-ug/HT201462

Note that because your MacBook Pro features Thunderbolt 3, you'll need to use an adapter to interface with the older Thunderbolt port on the MacBook Air. The directions on getting the correct adapter is also in that link.

Regarding how long time it will take is hard to calculate precisely - it involves many factors such as the type of SSD in your MacBook Air, the file system used, what else the computer is doing at the same time, etc.

An estimate would be approx. 7-10 minutes.


Apologies for the question.

After further analysis I found ApolloSearch running and busily downloading.
Killing this with MalwareBytes and updating to latest macOS seemed to "fix" the problem.

Not sure why this just seemed to affect Thunderbird, or how it got there.

It would still be handy to know how to kill Thunderbird without losing emails.


Catalina - Video (& Audio) stop often and don't work for a while

I don't know if this is an answer, writing here because I cannot comment yet.

I had the same problem since yesterday. within 5 mins, both my video and audio would freeze and would work fine within the next 2 mins. I tried a bunch of thing. Which might have fixed the problem.
 1. I was postponing my Catalina update. When I encountered this problem, I went ahead and updated it.
 2. I made sure I switch off my bluetooth while not connected to other devices.
 3. I figured Snap Camera was the real cause of this whole problem. The first time I encountered the problem was when I was on a call and tried to stop/quit snap camera that was running behind. So getting rid of it may have helped.
I will continue to test it and post any updates I find.


How to indent a block of text on a MacBook Pro?

It's up to the app to support this. Pressing tab inserts a tab character, so if you have text selected, it will be replaced by the tab. The app must intercept the tab key and perform a special action of adding the tab to the start of each selected line.

You can quickly add a tab to the start of a line by moving the cursor to the start using ⌘← then pressing ⇥ to add the tab.

You can use a Keyboard Maestro macro to add block indent functionality to apps:


Does Facetime on Mountain Lion allow you to share your screen?

There is not a way to do this yet in FaceTime.  Here's the link to a forum where they discuss how "neat" it would be to have this feature.  The discussion is a month old, so fairly recent.

As for Screen sharing, if you're on the same network (either routed, through a VPN, SSH tunnel, or direct connection) then you just select the device in Finder, and choose screen sharing (button in the upper right hand corner) in the window that opens:

The computer that is sharing its screen must have Screen sharing turned on (check marked) in System Settings > Sharing:

Note mine is NOT check marked, so this computer would NOT share its screen using screen sharing.

If you want to Screen share and you are NOT in the same Network, use Messages:

Note Screen Sharing (under the video drop down)is enabled (has a check mark next to it).


Handbrake CLI Transcoded Video not Playable in Quicktime and Itunes

Did you set a flash drive as the destination for the finished video file? If the selected drive runs out of space while Handbrake is copying something, you’ll end up with an unreadable file.


How do I unsync all apple devices for text?

You want to (on your iPhone) open Settings, then go to Messages -> Text Message Forwarding, then uncheck your iPad


Homebrew: SHA1 Mismatch Even After Update

If you're certain the downloaded tarball for sshfs is good can try to force Homebrew to install it with:

brew install -f sshfs

More than likely though, if it still complains, is you've got a corrupt tarball download. You can remove /usr/local/Cellar/sshfs/2.4.0/sshfs_2_4_0, which is the cached tarball that Homebrew downloaded, and have Homebrew try downloading the package anew.

If it still complains about the hash value mismatch, you can edit the recipe and update the MD5 checksum for the file in the recipe and then install. The file to edit is /usr/local/Library/Formula/sshfs.rb. Looking at:

/Users/ian/code/tmp/brew [ian@Ian-Chesals-MacBook-Pro] [13:13]
> cat /usr/local/Library/Formula/sshfs.rb
require 'formula'

class Sshfs < Formula
  homepage 'http://fuse.sourceforge.net/sshfs.html'
  url 'https://github.com/fuse4x/sshfs/tarball/sshfs_2_4_0'
  md5 'c9ea547b9684ec4d85437393a2731322'
  version '2.4.0'

  depends_on :automake
  depends_on :libtool

  depends_on 'pkg-config' => :build
  depends_on 'fuse4x'
  depends_on 'glib'

  def install
    system "autoreconf", "--force", "--install"
    system "./configure", "--disable-debug", "--disable-dependency-tracking",
                          "--prefix=#{prefix}"
    system "make install"
  end

  def caveats; <<-EOS.undent
    Make sure to follow the directions given by `brew info fuse4x-kext`
    before trying to use a FUSE-based filesystem.
    EOS
  end
end

You can see that you need to download https://github.com/fuse4x/sshfs/tarball/sshfs_2_4_0 and recalculate the MD5 checksum for the file and then update the recipe. So:

/Users/ian/code/tmp/brew [ian@Ian-Cs-MacBook-Pro] [13:13]
> wget https://github.com/fuse4x/sshfs/tarball/sshfs_2_4_0
--2012-07-23 13:13:53--  https://github.com/fuse4x/sshfs/tarball/sshfs_2_4_0
Resolving github.com... 207.97.227.239
Connecting to github.com|207.97.227.239|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://nodeload.github.com/fuse4x/sshfs/tarball/sshfs_2_4_0 [following]
--2012-07-23 13:13:53--  https://nodeload.github.com/fuse4x/sshfs/tarball/sshfs_2_4_0
Resolving nodeload.github.com... 207.97.227.252
Connecting to nodeload.github.com|207.97.227.252|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 52812 (52K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `sshfs_2_4_0'

100%[===========================================================================================>] 52,812       288K/s   in 0.2s

2012-07-23 13:13:54 (288 KB/s) - `sshfs_2_4_0' saved [52812/52812]

/Users/ian/code/tmp/brew [ian@Ian-Cs-MacBook-Pro] [13:13]
> md5 sshfs_2_4_0
MD5 (sshfs_2_4_0) = c9ea547b9684ec4d85437393a2731322

In my case the computed value for the download matches the value in the recipe. If it's different for your case it's likely your download is corrupt. You can go ahead and update the recipe if you think your download is not corrupt.

Note: I did a brew update before running the above so I can attest to the fact that I do have the latest recipe for sshfs and that the MD5 checksum for the tarball in the recipe is correct and matches what gets downloaded from github.

Caveat Utilitor if you do this.


Can I use Shortcuts to tell me when to leave for a specific appointment based on Map data?

Set up the appointment in Calendar including the actual location as found in maps/
You can then set 2 alerts, one value is Time to leave.
I think the default for the second alert is Time to leave


It's 2020. Is there any way to get syslog to work on macOS Mojave?

No, the old way of logging is gone. The API to write to the new unified log are published.

https://eclecticlight.co/2018/03/19/macos-unified-log-1-why-what-and-how/
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/os/logging

There are quite a few WWDC sessions covering this as well as hundreds of blog posts with specifics. Depending on what specifically you are trying to do, the unified log can be a quick patch and sometimes be much better than when each log went to a different file.
To address your specific code, you would create an object instead of calling openlog function.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/os/logging/generating_log_messages_from_your_code

Then it’s pretty equivalent to inject your values into the system logging stream. From the command line shell, you can still call logger and nothing has changed. How you compile or interpret your code will govern which API you call, but it’s totally allowed to log still in 2020 on macOS.


Python on High Sierra "No Java runtime present, requesting install"

After much pain and anquish, here is what you have to do:

You can either following the instructions here:
Stack Overflow Answer

Or you can follow the instructions here: Oliver Dowling Shoutout

In short, you have to
edit /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Info.plist (or your equivalent jdk path, only the version will be different) and change:

<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
<array>
    <string>CommandLine</string>
</array>

To:

<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
<array>
    <string>CommandLine</string>
    <string>JNI</string>
    <string>BundledApp</string>
</array>

Then you have to add this symbolic link:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries

sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/server/libjvm.dylib /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries/libserver.dylib

Post comment if you have an issues!


Setting a NVRAM variable in normal boot not permitted but allowed in recovery mode

See this answer from @tubedogg.

It would appear that the change from 10.10 to 10.12 is another step toward including all important security aspects within System Integrity Protection (SIP), meaning that you can't change these things without first explicitly setting privileges. SIP applies to all users on a Mac, including admins and root.

I've just confirmed (because I'm reconfiguring a MacBook Pro with Sierra 10.12.6 just now) that:

Setting boot-args="-v" in recovery mode will retain the setting in a normal boot mode.
Disabling SIP using csrutil disable in recovery mode will allow you to set boot-args in a normal boot session. WARNING: You should not disable SIP unless you really need to - and you should already know how and why!

Again according to @tubedogg, you can also leave SIP enabled, but allow nvram changes from your normal boot session. This might be more appropriate for your needs. In the Terminal in recovery mode type csrutil enable --without nvram and then restart. I haven't tried this option personally, as it's not something I need right now.

I also haven't tried your agc=0 switch. It's not something I've come across, and it wasn't in a list of boot arguments I consulted, although I did manage to find a reference that appears to resolve a very specific GPU hardware problem. I see no real reason why you should not be able to set boot-args="-v agc=0" in the same scenarios I can set boot-args="-v".


Homebrew says my Python installation could cause issues and I'm not sure what to do

When I run brew doctor the first bit of output says this:

Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry and just ignore them. Thanks!

Followed by a warning similar to yours about config files that brew can see which are part of an Anaconda Python install.  So, if you're not having any problems, you shouldn't feel too bad about taking their advice and just ignoring the warning.

However, the reason that you're getting the warnings is because the MacPython install process added a symlink in /usr/local/bin/ to it's Python directory under /Library/Frameworks/....  There's nothing wrong with this per se, but, as you've found, it's always possible that it could conflict with assumptions made by other stuff that uses /usr/local/bin/ (e.g., Homebrew).

You might want to look into virtualenv as a way of managing your Python development environments in general.  I haven't given this much thought, but I'd be tempted to remove those links that MacPython put in /usr/local/bin/ and create a virtualenv that points to whichever MacPython version you want to use for a particular project.


How to modify the CSS of the Google Hangouts extension window in Chrome (e.g. TamperMonkey)

Try a different extension. On Chrome, using the Stylish extension did not work for me. However, Osprey amd Stylus (with the exact same code) did. (The latter two are in fact just forks of Stylish — created because of privacy concerns related to Stylish now being part of an analytics company — but somehow they work whereas the original does not.)

The code I used for the style is the same as yours:

.Dkouue {
    display: none;
}


Switching inputs from MacBook Pro Speakers to External Headphones

In my experiments so far:

It happens frequently in YouTube in Chrome but apparently not in YouTube in Safari or in iTunes.
I've seen it happen repeatedly on two Mac laptops and with multiple headphones. (Both Macs are on Mojave since they need to run 32-bit apps.)
Plugging in headphones does switch the Sound preference and the Sound menu bar menu to "External Headphones" even though it doesn't route the audio to the headphones.
When in this unfortunate state, the keyboard's Mute and Volume buttons don't work, that is, they don't alter the sound coming out the speakers.
Between all the above points, we can rule out hardware problems including flakey headphone jacks.
Resetting parameter RAM doesn't help.
Adjusting settings in Audio Devices in the Audio MIDI Setup utility app hasn't helped.
To get Audacity to switch to headphones, you have to ask it to rescan audio devices, then go into preferences to select the headphones. That usually works.

Funky workaround:

Pause YouTube in Chrome.
Start playback in iTunes (it will play through the headphones), then pause it.
Resume YouTube playback in Chrome.
If that didn't work, pause YouTube, wait a few seconds, then try again.

Hypothesis: Some apps don't respond as well as Apple's apps to macOS's complicated sound output switching.

In Zoom: It turns out the Zoom app has its own menu to pick the output device. If it's not doing what you want, open this menu (next to the microphone button) and pick the desired device or pick Same as System (which seems to me ought to be the default if not the only choice).


App Compatibility doesn't work on iPhone 5c

iOS 11 is a 64-bit-only OS. Apps that were only built for previous 32-bit iOSes will not work on 11, which is where the incompatibility comes from.

Your iPhone 5c is a 32-bit phone, so it will not support iOS 11. As a result, there aren't app compatibility issues for it.

Apple's list of phones supported by iOS 11:

iPhone X
iPhone 8
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone 7
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s Plus
iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
iPhone SE
iPhone 5s


Oddly enough this usually has a simple fix to it. Yes you may have to reinstall MacOS but that can be done over top of what you already have with no danger of losing anything. However another approach might be in order.

Download the latest combo update from Apple here. Run it, and reboot when done. it is likely to fix the issue.

If not then boot into recovery mode and reinstall your OS. You will then likely have to re-apply any subsequent updates again to the base system that was just reinstalled.


Can I turn a Windows machine into an AirPlay destination?

If you only want to stream audio, try Airfoil Speakers, part of Airfoil for Windows


Is it possible to have two phones (one of which an iPhone) on the same number without changing the SIM card?

Yes

Yes it is possible. I think they developed this for the fixed car-phones. Some providers support 2 simcards with the same number. How it works:

The phone that had a connection and some communication to the cell-tower last will be the primary phone.
When you make a call, that phone becomes the primary phone.
When you change locations (change cell-tower), that will be your primary phone.
If your primary phone is not on the network, your secondary phone will become the primary phone.

The primary phone is the only phone that can receive calls. Both phones can call.
Ask your provider for more info.

This is based on my experience (Vodafone, Netherlands). And I am sure there are better descriptions out there ;)


Turned out the settings were intentionally hidden by our IT department using AirWatch.


Anil (https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/40587/anil) answered in this question (Applications Don't Show Up in Spotlight). It worked for me on Sierra.

Here is his solution:

Turn off spotlight:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

Unload it:

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

Load It:

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

Turn on spotlight again:

sudo mdutil -a -i on


Accidentally created a folder containing a copy of itself and so on

This is entirely possible to create by making a hard link to the parent directory using the terminal 'ln' command. The OS just won't know that MyProject inside of MyProject goes to the same place. It is curious how this may have happened, though.


namedFolder only exists in the scope of your tell block. Define it first thing so that it will persist after you’re done with Finder.

set namedFolder to ""
tell application "Finder"
    ...
end tell
return namedFolder

Alternatively, you could just put the return statement inside the tell block.


Zero for fan speed can be often a sign phisical damage of a fan or its connector. If resetting of SMC won't help, then it is what I said.


Unity Case sensitive file system on macOS

Although MacOS has options to work on Case Sensitive disks, most of its applications [mainly 3rd party apps] do not work well on Case Sensitive disks, for historical reasons. Yet this is a future step to next versions to correctly work on Case Sensitive.

Please use any Case Insensitive disk/share to be able to not run into troubles.

Eg:
Many applications can't differentiate thisfile.txt from thisFile.txt so if you have both on any case sensitive disk, the App may get into trouble. Others may work well. It's like lottery.

MacOS [operating system] works relatively well on case sensitive disk, but 3rd party apps may not work so well.


Yes, it is possible to just close the libraries and move them to an external HD. This will take long time to copy across (leave it overnight) but will work.

Moving them to an offsite solution is not supported by iPhotos/Photos/iMovie and so your mileage may vary. There are some third party software solutions that can help with the management of large libraries. Bear in mind that something cloud-based will be very much slower to access unless it also uses local disk space - which was what you were trying to avoid. It's great for offsite backup, but not for browsing, editing, etc.

After you've moved to the external hard drive, if you then run iPhoto/Photos while holding the ALT/option key, you can choose to create a new library to start fresh. We do this on Jan 1 each year and put the whole year of photos and videos in one library so that it keeps to a manageable size.


I have a Macbook air mid 2012 and it still runs like it is brand new. If I were you, I would get an external, backup everything you have on there. Do an internet recovery through disk utility and it should run like its brand new! Ive had issues like this before and what I suggested has been successful for me every time.


Try resetting the PRAM:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379


How to use osascript to open the Terminal App in a new window and make sure it's on the top of all other windows?

Activate

Use the AppleScript command activate to bring the Terminal.app application to the front:

tell application "Terminal"
    activate
end tell

Using osascript this becomes:

osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to activate'


Remove keyboard and dictation icons in iOS 11.x text entry

That gap is present on the iPhone X keyboard and at this time cannot be changed. You're not the only one who finds this irritating, so Apple might release a change in a future version of iOS, but for now you're unfortunately stuck with the gap.


How to connect notes with links in Notes.app?

There is a workaround. You select the note, then choose the Collaboration button not the Sharing one as you might expect. Then you get a list of ways you can share the note and one of them is Copy Link. You'll have to then enter any e-mail address before the Share button becomes active.

After you click it, note will become shared. To get the link to this note, click Collaboration button again and you will see button 'Copy Link'. Click it and then you can insert copied link into another note or wherever you want to.


Can Time Machine files be restored across different OSs?

Each mac can only run versions of macos that apple allows.

You need to look up your older machine in a database like http://mactracker.ca/ to find out if it supports el capitan.

There is a five release difference between the two macOS.  The new OS will use much more ram and run slow on an old machine.


What's the best adhesive to use when reattaching an iPhone 5 home button?

I realize this is an older question, but a common problem for several iphone models. Might help someone.
 The whole assembly is larger than the home button hole. Problem is the round plastic button does come loose from the whole assembly. It is glued in place and can break free.
As long as everything is functioning correctly, it wouldn't hurt to put a dab of glue on and stick it back in. Be careful not to use too much, as it could cause more problems!
Good luck


Macbook Pro HD/SSD Dock mount drives as read/write

Natively, Mac OS X cannot write to NTFS formatted volumes.  There are downloads like NTFS-3G which can enable you to read/write to NTFS partitions, but I've had mixed success with them.

If you want to format the drive so you can perform read/write operations and want to boot from it, please follow this link.  The format you want drives in is HFS+ (Mac OS X Extended Journaled).


When you run a command in bash (or any other Unix shell), the shell searches for this command in a number of directories. The list of directories is stored in the variable called PATH, paths are separated by :.

The command in question extends the already defined $PATH by two additional paths:

/usr/local/bin which is the usual place user-provided commands get installed to
The output of $(brew --prefix coreutils)/libexec/gnubin which points to some utility commands required by brew

To see the current value of PATH, run echo $PATH in Terminal.


How do I enable extended mode with dual monitors in OS X 10.11.6?

The first thing you should try is resetting the PRAM/NVRAM.

Resetting your PRAM/NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). Here’s how to reset this:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).

For good measure, you could also reset your SMC.

For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own (i.e. it's a built-in battery), here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter or power cable plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

After doing these resets, try again to use your displays in extended mode. Let us know how you go.


What is the correct RAM for a 2010 MacBook Pro?

According to the free app MacTracker, a mid-2010 Macbook Pro has:  Memory Slots 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM. And has a maximum memory of 8 Gigs. I've read that Macs are sensitive to memory chips too. So I'd make sure the numbers above were followed. I upgraded my iMac with chips from Crucial. Works fine.


How do you enter binary numbers in OS X Calculator?

Click "show binary" button, this shows in your screenshot, and then you can click the "bit" you want to set.


How to use the Homebrew installed git on Mac?

Thanks everyone for helpful answers. In my case adding

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:${PATH}"

in ~/.bash_profile followed by

source ~/.bash_profile

solved the problem for my user.


OS X El Capitan - Cisco Built-in VPN client - split traffic

For the first part (how to split traffic), I had the solution with the two following code lines

sudo route add -net <REMOTE_SUBNET> -iface utun0
sudo route change default <LOCAL_GATEWAY_IP>


Graphics glitch - checkered pattern in Chrome

A temporary solution is to turn off the GPU rasterization option in chrome://flags. It can solve the graphics glitch issue but definitely not the best solution. Need to wait for Chrome's official patches.


Can't login to iMac even with correct password first time, works with the same password after another user logs in and logs out

The comment from daniel Azuelos provided the solution for me. I had to remove and re-add my own user to the Filevault (since I was added already apparently):

sudo fdesetup remove -user myuser
sudo fdesetup add -usertoadd myuser


I found this workaround:

open TextEdit.app
switch to Plain Text (Format -> Make Plain Text or Cmd-Shift-T)
search in Spotlight
drag item into TextEdit.app window

It also works if you drag the file from Spotlight into a terminal window.

I am not sure if there is a more convenient way to do it. If there isn't, I hope Apple will fix this soon.


Getting "Missing Security Answer" when changing Game Centre nickname

Apple's troubleshooting article has details on how to proceed with troubleshooting Game Center.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS3970

Why not start there and ask a second, more detailed question if one of the steps has you confused or stuck. Without more details edited in to your question, it's hard to guess where you are stuck in the process.

It might be as simple as you following the steps above and then entering the correct "answer" to your changed security question from https://appleid.apple.com


There is nothing you can do about it, if the HDD is really gone. If you don't have a backup of your old phone, then you just need to gather all the lost data from your memory.

Of course, if you still have the HDD, you could try and take it to a shop that restores data from broken drives, maybe you'll get lucky.


wvous-tl-corner is the top-left hot corner. Use ‘tl’, ‘tr’, ‘bl’, ‘br’ for each corner respectively, and use -int 0 to disable that corner.

To find the integer for activating the hot corner of choice, make the change in System Preferences, then use defaults read com.apple.dock wvous-tl-corner.

Don't forget to restart the Dock too after writing using defaults: killall Dock.


What is the function of /home in Snow Leopard?

It's got an NFS automounter map mounted on it, so NFS home directories will be automatically available there.  Quoting man auto_master:

  The auto_master file contains a list of the directories that are to be
  automounted.  Associated with each directory is the name of a map that
  lists the locations of the filesystems to be automounted there.  The
  default map looks like this:

#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master            # Use directory service
/net                    -hosts          -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home                   auto_home       -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers        -fstab
/-                      -static

The default auto_home on SL expects to get the home directory-to-machine mapping from NIS or LDAP, but you can add entries manually.

You can remove the auto_home line from /etc/auto_master and sudo killall automountd (which should cause launchd to rerun it with the new map) or reboot.  Alternately, add your sshfs mount to /etc/auto_home (and again restart automountd or reboot).


Alternative Notification System for Macos || Program or CLI to Display Image/Emblem/Icon at corner of screen (no text or box)

The premiere notification third party notification system for macOS is Growl:
https://github.com/growl/growl
The project was just recently marked as retired (less than a week ago), but you can still download the code and use it. It is very easy to use Growl to trigger a notification from a shell script.
If you can live with the built-in macOS notifications, you can use a command like this from your shell script:
osascript -e 'display notification "Mode change" with title "Mode change"'

This uses the built-in AppleScript function for displaying a local notification. You can ofcourse change the text to be whatever you want, like "Bindings turned on", and so on.
If you want to write your own application to display the notification, you could start looking at this sample application code from Apple:
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/FunkyOverlayWindow/Introduction/Intro.html
It is basically an overlay window that appears on top of every other window at all times. If you make it small, you could use it to display a color when you want, and let it be fully transparent at other times.


Mac keyboard layout incorrect when using Windows 7 and VMWare Fusion

You are using a US keyboard layout. Switch it to UK.


Found the answer myself.

http://wiki.github.com/tcurdt/iProxy/

w00t!


what is the difference between a Movie and a TV Show in iTunes Library?

The only difference between those two categories is how iTunes groups things by default. In the Movies view, there's not grouping. All movies are displayed alphabetically by default. In the TV Show view things are grouped by show -- so you get a single icon for each show and you drill down to access the episodes within the show.


How to remove/delete a partition in single-user mode?

Boot to Recovery HD or internet recovery since the Disk Management Framework isn't loaded in single user mode:

diskutil unmount disk0s3
diskutil reformat disk0s3

If you run into more problems - diskutil verifyDisk and verifyVolume and their repair variants might help to get at the underlying error condition on your volume.


How can I unlock an iPhone 4 without the original receipt? (UK)

Three UK will provide unlocking for a device on payment of a fee. The requirement of the sales receipt may be their attempt at a fraud/theft prevention mechanism to make sure that stolen phones cannot be unlocked and reused.

If your friend purchased the device from 3 then he should be able to verify identity with them through payment history, and enable the route to unlocking the device.

When unlocked you will not receive and unlock code like some devices, instead the identity of the phone is passed to the Apple activation servers so then next time the device connects for activation it receives the unlock command.


Can I create a service in Automator that will run without having a file selected?

Yes, at the bottom of the Service receives drop down you’ll find a no input option. You should be able to activate it from the services menu (under the application menu, i.e. Finder → Services).


Heatmap in Numbers (colouring cells by their numeric value)

Yes, you can do it in Numbers but it's not a simple command as far as I know. Your spreadsheet should have numbers in each cell and that represents the size and shape of your color map. Select your matrix and under the Format menu of Numbers, click on Conditional Highlighting. That gives you a pane that looks like so:

In the top right you see a button for Add a Rule. Click this button and set up your rules for your heat map. See next image.

I used only 4 colors but I just set up this quick example. You can have as many as you want, you just have to set the rules correctly. It the Add a rule your get a pane like shown below to select your rules.

I used the rule "Between two numbers" because it was easiest for this example...


Can you have symlinks across various backup disks/ volumes?

Yes, symlinks can be pointed anywhere. They’ll only function correctly when the destination is mounted, but that’s to be expected.

Something which might not be expected is if for some reason the path doesn’t match. The most likely reason would be if an incorrect mount occurred previously or two partitions have the same name, causing one partition to mount as /Volumes/Name (1), which won’t match what your symlink is looking for. If something doesn’t seem right, check everything is in order in your /Volumes folder.


Pair your iDevice and Mac (Turn Bluetooth on for both devices, setup Bluetooth device, etc.)
Now go to Bluetooth Preferences. You should see your iDevice in the list of devices.
Click on the iDevice and then click the gear at the bottom of the list (next to + and -). There will be an option called "Update Services."
Click "Update Services" option AND press the the "Device" that is your computer on your iPad under the list of devices in SystemPreferences/General/Bluetooth. (Ex. on the iPad, under system preferences/general/bluetooth I have a list of 2 devices, Apple Wireless Keyboard and MBP. I press MBP to attempt to connect using the iPad)
For some reason, Updating Services makes the two connect. You'll get the two linked rings in the top left corner next to "iPad" or "iPod" or "iPhone."

There's an excellent thread in the Apple Community forums about how to do that:   https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3125423


You cannot downgrade a photo library, since downgrading overall is unsupported. Your files are not lost, however, since the Photos library is a bundle that still contains your originals. You have the following options:

If you use iCloud Photo Library, create a new Library and configure it with iCloud. It will pull down your photos.

If you have access to a machine with Big Sur you have two routes:

Configure that machine with your iCloud and set up iCloud Photo Library. The photos can be uploaded, then your Catalina machine can download them.
If you don't want to set up iCloud Photo Library, use that machine instead to export the files. Reimport them to a new library on this machine. Verify the process with a small batch to ensure quality.

If you cannot do either of these and must be on Catalina, you must open up the photo library and extract the originals manually. If you locate the library in Finder (Usually located in the Pictures folder) and right click it, click Show Package Contents. There is an originals folder that contains all your unmodified images. You should be able to import this folder.

These options are listed in order of best to worst. Only use approach 3 if none of the other approaches are viable. Even if you don't have a second laptop, considering installing Big Sur on a second volume (here are instructions for the beta, but they apply for the regular release as well) and using that to upload to iCloud Photo Library or Export.


No Network Access on Macbook air either through Wi-Fi or tethered to a phone

I've had similar problems with macbooks. I've found that going into "Network Preferences" / "Location" / "Edit Location" and creating a new location can work.

Here's another option:
set your IP manually to an IP the router will accept, instead of by DHCP. If your other devices connect at 192.168.1.25, for example, configure yours to 192.168.26 (keep it close to other IPs in case your router is set to limit to specific IPs). Apply your changes and try connecting.


Your asked about the trust-worthiness of an algorithm. The answer to your question is a firm and absolute "No" - users can not rely on the algorithm to not record/send conversations or other private audio. Some algorithms are definitely better than others, but no algorithm is perfect - what is invented by the human mind can be defeated by the human mind.

Let's muse over another word in your question: rely. Reliance is not a binary state of mind; it's much more subtle than that. Consider that we may rely on the mail carrier to deliver our mail each day, but as the consequence of failure is not catastrophic, we do not rely upon it heavily. OTOH, if you are a diabetic living in a remote location, your reliance on the mail carrier's delivery of your insulin has far greater implications.

The "threat" is also a factor in our reliance. Security-wise, perhaps the thing we have going for us is that nobody really cares what we say or write or do. But if we happen to attract attention to ourselves - perhaps as a suspect, or the target of a criminal enterprise, or have become involved in "matters of national security" as this chap recently did, then our level of reliance on algorithms - and computer security in general - becomes a different matter. And so it is with your reliance on Apple's algorithm: does the mail carrier bring you junk, or does he/she deliver insulin?

Finally, let's consider the other variable in reliance: the quality of the algorithm. Reliance is not a binary state, and no algorithm is perfect. Nevertheless we must still consider how good it is in determining how heavily we should rely upon it.

Unfortunately it is a practical impossibility for us to know how secure Apple's algorithm is:

it's not open source - people outside Apple have to disassemble the code to inspect for flaws. They cannot read the source
even if it were open source, it wouldn't be perfect
even if it were perfect, Apple still makes mistakes
Apple could even abuse their privilege or not catch an employee that attempts this abuse

Instead, and as a substitute for a quantitative analysis of the algorithm itself, perhaps the best we can manage is an attempt at objective assessment of some facts. Consider the following:

A complete and massive failure of the algorithm would be bad for Apple's business. Consequently, it seems likely that Apple would put a serious effort into the algorithm, and safeguards for the data.
Apple has weighed up Siri's business value against the risks of failures of their algorithm, and have made the decision to retain Siri. Impose may be a better word than retain in this case as Apple has not provided an option to remove or un-install the Siri software.

These facts do not shed much light on the actual quality of Apple's algorithm, but they do speak to motives and motivation. We can safely conclude that Apple has reasonably strong financial incentives to design a reliable algorithm. However, it also seems safe to conclude that Apple considers our private data to be within their purview. Why else would they not provide an option for removal of Siri to accommodate their customers' preferences?

None of this is intended as "Apple-bashing". I am an Apple customer - I have spent more money than I'll ever admit on their products. But I feel it's also important to be realistic. Apple's interests do not coincide perfectly with ours. Should we rely on Apple's judgments and algorithms to protect and safeguard our security and privacy? I hope this answer has provided a little food for thought.

Epilogue:

I have just read @Bradley's answer to this question. I have to say that if the allegations leveled by Apple's contractor in Ireland over the "Siri Incident" are true, then Apple deserves far more than the "Apple-bashing" I tried to avoid in my answer. They deserve substantial fines - perhaps even criminal proceedings. It is simply unacceptable that anyone or any organization be allowed to use their wealth and influence to trample the rights of others. More to the point of answering this question, this episode (if true) speaks volumes on how we should consider relying on Apple's software.


macOS: Terminal scrolls past file boundaries

I managed to eventually find the settings to stop this behavior.

In Terminal, it was Preferences -> Profiles -> Keyboard and check the box for "scroll alternate screen"

In iTerm2, it was Preferences -> Advanced -> set "Scroll wheel sends arrow keys when in alternate screen mode" to Yes.


Can iOS-devices take sound in and send to Airplay?

I found a solution. It is described in detail below.
What you need

a RIAA preamp with USB Audio output, such as a Behringer UFO202
Apple's Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter
an iOS device with GarageBand installed

The steps you need to follow

Connect your record player to the RIAA preamp

Connect the RIAA preamp to the camera adapter.

Connect a Lightning USB cable to the camera adapter (unless you want to run this on battery power).

In GarageBand (on your iOS device), select Audio Recorder as the instrument (see screenshot below taken from an iPad):

Turn on monitoring

Select Stereo as the Channel and enable the Monitor option (see screenshot below)

OPTIONAL: It may be a good idea to increase the Out volume (use the vertical slider on the right)

Switch on your record player

Set your iOS device to use Airplay speakers for sound playback

Now, everytime you want to use your record player you can just connect your iOS device to the RIAA preamp and it'll become an input selector.
NOTE: If you get a warning about delays and latency you can just dismiss it.


Using iPhone7 as a microphone for MacBook

Try this steps:

Download Microphone Live on your iPhone
Put the iPhone in Airplane Mode (not sure why, maybe it works even without this step)
Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a Lightning to USB cable
Open Audio MIDI Setup on macOS
Go to Window and click on Show iOS Device Browser
Click Enable under your iPhone
Open the previously downloaded app on your iPhone
Open Preferences on macOS
Go to Sound then Input and your iPhone should appear in the list
Select your iPhone and you should be good to go!


How to restore a missing Recovery HD partition

Yes, you can. Be sure to have a full Time Machine archive on an external device before you begin, and check your MBP meets the minimum system requirements before you buy.  The Mountain Lion installer will create Recovery HD, if it doesn't already exist.

In case you choose to do a clean install, which is quicker, import your account afterwards from the Time Machine archive using Migration Assistant: you can pick and choose exactly what you want to import from the archive, and the Apple utility will sanitise imported user preferences so they are Mountain Lion compatible.

Alternatively, if you are comfortable using Terminal,  Lloeki's answer to How can I create or recreate a Lion recovery partition has much to recommend it.


How to either simultaneously delete photo from photo stream and all devices; or

Turn off the automatic stream button for streaming file from cloud to Mac and iPad, this may work.


Do you have text message forwarding enabled on your iPhone and iPad? If you go into the Messages settings on your iPhone, you will see some settings that you will need to enable in order to send SMS/MMS. Your iMessages are working because that only requires an Apple ID but you need to allow your iPad to send SMS/MMS via your cellular account from your iPhone. Good luck!


Is it safe to change Apple Watch battery with more capacity?

It turned out that the battery of difference series of Apple Watch is not compatible with each other, due to their connector interfaces are very different. [reference]
So, as much as safety has to be concerned, the idea won't work in the first place.


Mounting Remote Server for editing files on my Mac

It looks like the software might not be installed the right way, or in the right place.  On a Mac, the easiest way to install sshfs and fuse is with Homebrew.

Install Homebrew http://brew.sh/
brew install sshfs

This will install dependencies such as fuse4x.  Read all the instructions that appear -- some of other steps may be required, such as

brew link fuse4x
sudo /bin/cp -rfX /usr/local/Cellar/fuse4x-kext/0.9.2/Library/Extensions/fuse4x.kext /Library/Extensions
sudo chmod +s /Library/Extensions/fuse4x.kext/Support/load_fuse4x


How to list audio card IDs from terminal

system_profiler is the tool in mac OS to show hw or sw configuraion.

Get the datatye you want to look for using --listDataTypes.

$ system_profiler -listDataTypes | grep Audio
SPAudioDataType

Then fire the command,

$ system_profiler SPAudioDataType
Audio:

    Intel High Definition Audio:

      Audio ID: 128

        Headphone:

          Connection: Combination Output

        Speaker:

          Connection: Internal

        External Microphone / iPhone Headset:

          Connection: Combination Output

        Internal Microphone:

          Connection: Internal

        S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio Output:

          Connection: Combination Output

        HDMI / DisplayPort Output:

          Connection: Display

    Devices:

        Built-in Microphone:

          Default Input Device: Yes
          Input Channels: 2
          Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
          Current SampleRate: 44100
          Transport: Built-in

        Built-in Output:

          Default Output Device: Yes
          Default System Output Device: Yes
          Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
          Output Channels: 2
          Current SampleRate: 44100
          Transport: Built-in


Install Bootcamp on external drive where OS X installed

http://twocanoes.com/products/mac/winclone

When deploying bootcamp, accommodate ever-evolving OS X capabilities with some research. Bootcamps are always temporary.


Formatting 'defaults domains' output on multiple lines

Never mind. Not sure why sed didn't work the way I wanted it to, but I just used:

tr ',' '\n'

and it worked fine.


Nothing changes for accessing AIM chat using the new Messages app (that integrates iChat features with iMessage features).

Just go to Messages -> Preferences -> Accounts to be sure your @mac.com account is entered with a password and enabled for use.


open new tab in iTerm and execute command there

Use tell session -1 of current terminal to write text "pwd":

activate application "iTerm"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using command down
tell application "iTerm" to tell session -1 of current terminal to write text "pwd"


Why isn't my system producing an audible system beep in iTerm2 or Terminal?

Turns out that I hadn't selected an alert sound yet in System Preferences. Once I chose an alert sound, all three of the above methods produced audible system beeps, in additiona

To enable audio alerts, I chose an alert sound from the Sound tab of the System Preferences:

I chose "Sosumi" out of nostalgia for my IIci days.

Alternatively, this can be set as described in this answer, though iTerm2 needs to be restarted for it to take effect in Sierra or El Capitan:

defaults write com.apple.systemsound com.apple.sound.beep.sound /System/Library/Sounds/Sosumi.aiff


How do I unlock my Mac without having to click my name?

Just by typing the first letters of the user's name should select that user. Afterwards, as you say, pressing Enter will prompt for the password.


How do I clear individual types of browser data in Safari?

For cookies: The option to delete all of your cookies stored on your hard drive lies under your under the “Privacy” tab. There, click on “Remove All Website Data…” then click “Remove Now.” To delete individual cookies, click “Details…” under the “Privacy.” From there, find the specific cookie and delete it accordingly.


OWC aftermarket 1TB disk missing in Mac Pro after erase process; not found in diskutil, startup list, or install-to list

I was able to see the disks once I used Option-⌘-R as opposed to ⌘-R. It seems that the disk for whatever reason was not showing when recovery attempted to install straight into Mojave. Using Option-⌘-R started the OS install with Catalina and from there the disks were visible and installation could proceed.


Set a Display colour profile via Terminal or AppleScript? (Macbook)

Somebody wrote a customdisplayprofiles command (in Python) for changing display profiles from the command line. I haven't tried it out, though.


Why I can't get out of EFI firmware update 2.7 on my MacBook Pro?

Sometimes 'Software Update' fails and you are stuck with an incomplete update if this happens you can try to download the update as package direct from Apple (MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.7)

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1499

Install the package, maybe this will fix the problem.


Go to the "Settings" app

"Mail, Contacts, Calendars".
Tap on your Gmail account
In the dialog that comes up tap the big red "Delete Account" button at the bottom.


Does anything else not work, or is it just the “Reply” button? A few things you could try:

Restart Safari—or your computer. Sounds dumb, but it's amazing how often this does the trick.
Use the menu item “Safari -> Empty Cache…” to clear Safari’s cache.
Try to use your company’s webmail in another browser. There may be a subtle bug (or feature?) in the website’s code that Safari is not handling properly. Here are a few alternatives:

Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Opera
OmniWeb
Camino
Internet Explorer, on Windows, just to check. Even in this day and age, some websites still only work properly with IE.
Netscape Navigator (Yuk yuk yuk. Just kidding, don’t download this. For the love of God, don’t download this.)


Why does my external USB drive power off even when set not to?

Some brands ignore your preferences in favour of their own power down schedule. Most notably Seagate.

The only thing you can do is change to another brand of drive that respects your preferences.


Open new Terminal tab in current working directory doesn't work

So I found the problem with the Terminal and I'm posting the answer hoping it can help others. The problem was in the definition of the PROMPT_COMMAND environmental variable. I changed its definition from

export PROMPT_COMMAND='history -n;'

to

export PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND ;} history -n"

appending at the end of the existing PROMPT_COMMAND instead and this solved the problem.


I would suggest reinstalling Google Chrome rather than going to the trouble of manually replacing the icon. Download it here.

Oh, and to restore all your bookmarks, history, etc., go to Prefs>Personal Stuff>Sync. Login with your Google Account and ta da! All your bookmarks and data are synced. Then, when you reinstall Chrome, login again, and all your data will be restored.


How do I disable iMessage on every computer I installed with my email address?

Though I don't believe there's any way to do a broad-sweep method, you can disable it on a case-by-case basis on OS X and iOS.

OS X

Open the Messages app, then in the menu bar hit Messages -> Preferences. Click on the Accounts button, then your iMessage account in the sidebar. Uncheck the box labeled "Enable this account."

iOS

Go to Settings -> Messages and turn iMessage off.


New Macbook Pro 2019 has high temperature with low CPU usage

CPU Temperature was at 57deg Celcius

This is well within normal temperature range.
You can try resetting your nvram if you think your fans are spinning up out of error. Otherwise I'd request you install something that monitors fan speed eg. smcfancontrol and update your post with the fan RPM at idle.


How to resolve lock up after mouse click?

A possible workaround is to disable graphics switching:

Though this will affect battery life.


PF Firewall : Every time I use `pfctl`, I get errors about ALTQ support

I am probably missing something, because this does not seem to be a complex question. If you what to screen out these 2 error messages, then enter the command given below.

pfctl >2 >(grep -v -e "No ALTQ support in kernel" -e "ALTQ related functions disabled" 1>&2)

I omitted any parameters that would normally occur between pfctl and >2. A function could be defined which would simplify the use of this command. One such function implementation is shown below.

pfctl() {
    command pfctl "$@" >2 >(grep -v -e "No ALTQ support in kernel" -e "ALTQ related functions disabled" 1>&2)
}

Under certain conditions, the above solution could result in the output appearing "out of order". This could be corrected by piping the output through the cat command. In other words, you could use the command given below.

pfctl >2 >(grep -v -e "No ALTQ support in kernel" -e "ALTQ related functions disabled" 1>&2) | cat

Also the function could be replaced with the one given below.

pfctl() {
    command pfctl "$@" >2 >(grep -v -e "No ALTQ support in kernel" -e "ALTQ related functions disabled" 1>&2) | cat
}

References
Bash Redirections Cheat Sheet


Try running this command in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal:

chmod -RN ~/Library/preferences

and then restart.


On the iOS device, open Settings → Safari → Advanced and enable Web Inspector.
Connect the device to your Mac over USB and open the website in Safari on your iOS device.
On your Mac, open Safari → Preferences → Advanced and enable Show Develop menu in menu bar.
Choose Develop → your iOS device name → your Safari window to open the web inspector for the iOS device on your Mac.


How does one download El Capitan from the App Store using High Sierra

If the older Mac has a recovery partition, there are three different key combinations you can use to select different O.S. versions to install from internet.

If it doesn't have a recovery partition, you might still be able to use Internet recovery.


Preview: Opening more than 12 pdf files in new windows

You can use the mastodont Adobe Reader.

In fact, this app from Adobe, formerly named Acrobat, was the app provided in Macs, before Preview existed.


How do I compile Apple's Security framework?

This ended up being a lot more complicated than I think rightly fits this site's Q&A format. Even so, I didn't want to leave this question hanging, since I did get the framework to build, kindda.
This repository should build fully in 10.9.5 running the latest compatible version of xCode, and using the 10.9 SDK. https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Wowfunhappy-Mavericks-Security-Framework
I used the "User Framework Search Paths" to add libraries, but because it's an absolute rather than a relative path, you may need to update it on your machine. This should be trivial even if it is a bit tedious—all of the actual frameworks are included in the Git repository. These Frameworks come from a combination of opensource.apple.com (preferred wherever available for obvious reasons), samdmarshall's reverse-engineered private SDK, and the Darling project.
The built Framework does not appear to actually function—replacing it on my hard drive makes the computer (a VM, thankfully) unable to boot. I initially expected this to be a code signing issue, but it doesn't look like that's the problem. But, still, it built!
tl;dr I wasn't making some stupid oversight, Apple's opensource releases are basically impossible to actually build without additional reverse engineering. Luckily, that reverse engineering work has largely been done by various projects, but seemingly not to the point where you can build something that actually works.


How to find third-party photo extensions

As of now there only a few extensions for Mac OS X Photos. Many more will be rolling out in the near future. So the extensions available right now are:

BeFunky Express
Intensify
Tonality
Noiseless
Snapheal
Affinity Photo
Pixelmator
DxO Optics Pro
External Editors for Photos
Picktorial
Polarr
HayPhotos
Lochkamera


Reversibility of encryption depends on whether you converted volume to encrypted one or created encrypted volume. So if you want the process to be reversible — create disk first, then encrypt it using diskutil. From this it seems that in your case you should copy all data to another disk, erase this one (creating unencrypted partition), encrypt it and move data back.


Using Apple Remote Desktop for managing iOS devices?

Unfortunately Apple Remote Desktop does not support managing iOS devices at this time. The closest parallel would be Apple Configurator 2 which targets iOS automation in a similar manner to Remote Desktop.

I suggest investigating MDM solutions:

Profile Manager in Apple's OS X Server app
Casper Suite or Bushel by JAMF Software

These three options run either on any Mac you have or can be hosted in the cloud.


This is one of those trial and error situations that you'll just have to explore.  I know for sure that Read/Write from backing up do consume both CPU and Memory. So if your backing up a ton of data and especially if your Hard Drive is the mechanical kind not SSD then in my experience playback of music from iTunes or files actually on the computer.
The only way to really know is first you must take out some variables. If your internet connection is solid use youtube or another streaming service so that we can somewhat negate the read/write of a file being played off the Hard Drive (buffering does do some of that for streaming but I'd wager not as much). Ok now to test!
1. Make sure your Mac has all it's updates and firmware updated. With very few exceptions all newer bluetooth revisions can speak with older bluetooth. Backwards compatible that is. But it would be good to make sure it's not an OS issue first.
2. If you have another bluetooth speaker try and recreate the issue by using it instead and then doing a backup.  If nothing happens then great you have just figured out that it's probably your bluetooth speaker that's failing somehow. (which would be weird but hey stranger things have happened) If it still cuts out move to step #3.
3. To figure out if interference is the cause get the longest cord you have that connects to your external backup and move it as far away from the Mac. Be sure to put it away from "line of sight" path of your bluetooth speaker.  Now do a backup. If it was the issue I'd really consider getting a new backup drive as that would be crazy that it was putting out that much interference.
I hope this gave you some guidance on maybe where to start. I know there wasn't a solution nor was there a bunch of technical OS stuff you could try because honestly there shouldn't be a correlation to bluetooth acting up when doing a backup between the OS and your speaker. I listen from a bluetooth speaker all day with 4 external backup drives and a ton of audio gear (grounded mind you but still making tons of interference).  So the only thing I can see it being is either speaker, OS or Hard Drive hurting while doing a backup so it can't play properly.


No USB connected, receiving error message "USB devices disabled: Unplug the device using too much power"

This could be a hardware problem.

You have more things connected to USB than you are aware of.  Looking at the "System Profiler" under the "USB" section, we see a number of things:

FaceTime Camera
Bluetooth
Trackpad*
Keyboard*

* Not shown because I am on an iMac

There could be an issue with any/all of these devices or there may be an issue with one of the power rails (the circuit that delivers power to these devices).

First thing to do is run Apple Hardware Test (AHT).  Hold the D key while booting from a powered off state with the AC adapter connected.  Next, try running things in Safe Mode (hold Shift while booting).  If the problem persists, the issue is definitely hardware.


That's not actually on  Opt ⌥   F1 , it's on the "special functions" keys, so it's triggered by the  symbol rather than the actual F-Key.

To get the 'true' F-key you could either press  Fn   Opt ⌥   F1  or alternatively swap all your F-key Functionality in System Prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard

 sorry for the emoji, couldn't find anything better ;-)


How can I update my macOS 10.14.6 to latest version?

macOS 10.15 is macOS Catalina. The former is the major version number for macOS, while the latter is the marketing name. Both are essentially the same operating system.
So, you do not need macOS 10.15 to install macOS Catalina. You can go to Mac App Store and search for macOS Catalina, or use the following link to access the macOS Catalina page on the Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314
Once you have the page open, click on the GET or the  button to download the macOS Catalina installer.
Once downloaded, the installer would launch automatically and guide you through the installation of macOS Catalina 10.15.
Using the Mac App Store would also let you automatically get the current latest update of macOS Catalina, which is macOS Catalina 10.15.6 (6th point release of macOS Catalina).
Should you encounter any issue with installation, make sure you are logged in with an account with administrative access.
Also, make sure you have a backup of your critical data for a very less likely case where the installation may fail.


AppleScript: How to close notification alerts from a specific application?

I tested the following example AppleScript code under macOS 10.12.5, and it closed the Alerts style messages from Calendar.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "NotificationCenter"
        set windowCount to count windows
        repeat with i from windowCount to 1 by -1
            if description of image 2 of window i is "Calendar" then
                click button "Close" of window i
            end if
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Note: This is example AppleScript code which contains no error handling. Add appropriate error handling as needed, required and or wanted.


Apply automator action to original instead of copy

Ok, I find out a way to do it with variables.
Basically I set a new variable before the duplicate, duplicate the file, get the previously set variable, and then scale the image.


Safari 9 Key Command. Go back to previous page

The menu command to go back a page is "History" > "Back".

The command key equivalent is ⌘[


How can I disable App Store update notification for non-admin users?

There's no way to do this without sticking some funky commands in the command line. Best option is to just disable the update notifications system-wide (such as suggested in your article/link) and have the admin users check for updates manually.


The issue was due to a dockbar application grabbing the focus occasionally. One such culprit: older versions of Google Drive, as seen here: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/drive/epLdP4Bny5w/gKQsxwDMoUAJ

However, any application can grab and keep focus.

Note: for me the problem was a very outdated version of Google Drive.


restore Mac OS Mountain Lion to factory settings without discs or time machine backups

OK,

Reading you question lets clarify few things first.

You say Control-R! but it has to be the Command-R.

Then you say you can get in to the Safe mode!. If so:

With your Mac running in Safe Mode, you can troubleshoot the issue you were having, such as by deleting an application that's causing problems, removing a startup or login item that's causing issues, or launching Disk First Aid and repairing permissions.

If you get in the CMD-R mode use the option 4 first to see if it can be repaired.

If your Mac problem is a little less common — your hard drive has failed or you’ve installed a hard drive without OS X, for example — Internet Recovery takes over automatically.


iTunes: how can display multiple versions of a movie in SD and 1080p/720p HD as one movie?

Download Subler (http://code.google.com/p/subler/). It open your HD version of the movie in Subler and make sure you check off and mark it as an HD version. This then adds the meta-data so it know's it an HD movie.

Also, make sure it's marked as a Movie. Normally it'll appear as Normal.

Finally, you need to add a meta-tag on the first tab. ContentID needs to be populated, and it has to be unique to your library, and the same for both files. Basically, pick a random number and shove it in.

You can then re-add the movies and it'll bundle them together. At this point you can remove them from iTunes (select and delete). I would choose the Keep Files option, and just drag them back to iTunes to get it re-add them.

Personally, I use iVi (available from the Mac App Store) and if you select the options for both SD and HD output it will do all the work for you.


how can i disable switch screen animation in catalina?

yabai + BetterTouchTools
yabai is a window manager for mac. If you want to get rid off all animations completely and move very fast around your computer, then this is the way to do it. It is a command line tool so you will need to pair it with some kind of key mapping or mouse/trackpad mapping utility.
You can use BetterTouchTools to remap your trackpad motions. I used it to map three finger swipe to a yabai command that changes between spaces instantly.
Map "3 Finger Swipe Left" to "Execute Terminal Command (async)" with the command:
/usr/local/bin/yabai -m space --focus next

and "3 Finger Swipe Right" to "Execute Terminal Command (async)" with the command:
/usr/local/bin/yabai -m space --focus prev

disabling most other animations
Unfortunately I haven't found a way to change macos defaults to completely turn of this fade animation but this should speed up most other animations that may be annoying you (or you didn't notice but would be glad to have them disabled).
This link has a pretty good catalog of different options that can be disabled/enabled/changed to speed things up and remove annoyances. Some similar to what you want:
| Command | Description |
| --- | --- |
| defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool false | Don’t animate opening applications from the Dock |
| defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0.1 | Speed up Mission Control animations |
| defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect -string "scale" | Change minimize/maximize window effect (faster) |
| defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0 | Remove the auto-hiding Dock delay |
| defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0 | Remove the animation when hiding/showing the Dock |
| defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime -float 0.001 | Increase window resize speed for Cocoa applications |
need more speed?
yabai + karabiner
I use Karabiner to configure tab to act as a window managing modifier key if I don't press it alone (i.e. if I don't want to just press tab). Doing this you can resize windows, arrange them, move them to other spaces, and change focus between spaces/windows all with the keyboard. I also have caps lock configured as a modifier key that launches/focuses applications. This way you can go directly to the application you want and use yabai to have it open instantly.
Here is my Karabiner configuration if you want to get more into window management. I mostly use Goku to do my Karabiner configuration because it makes it easy to do complicated mappings.


Software to duplicate external hard drive formatted ExFAT

I'm assuming you have nothing on the new disk and essentially want to mirror what is on the old disk to the new disk.

You can use the following command line, substituting the proper names for Source-Disk (old) and Destination-Disk (new).

rsync -xavH /Volumes/Source-Disk/ /Volumes/Destination-Disk/

Note: The slash at the end of each path has significance, so don't forget to include it when changing the name of Source-Disk (old) and Destination-Disk (new).  Also, if there are spaces in them, make sure you either escape the spaces with a backslash \ or quote the pathnames, but not both.

Explanation of the options used:

-x, --one-file-system    don't cross filesystem boundaries
-a, --archive    archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)

    -r, --recursive    recurse into directories
    -l, --links    copy symlinks as symlinks
    -p, --perms    preserve permissions
    -t, --times    preserve times
    -g, --group    preserve group
    -o, --owner    preserve owner (super-user only)
    -D    same as --devices --specials
        --devices    preserve device files (super-user only)
        --specials    preserve special files

-v, --verbose    increase verbosity
-H, --hard-links    preserve hard links

Note: Because symlinks are being copied to the Destination-Disk volume the volume name of the Destination-Disk will need to be renamed identical to the Source-Disk, afterwards, for the links to files on the disk itself to track.  See the SYMBOLIC LINKS section in the rsync man page for additional options that can be used to modify how the symlinks can be treated.


s3-us-west-2-w.amazonaws.com

AWS in this domain name stands for Amazon Web Services, while S3  stands for:

  Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) provides a fully redundant data storage infrastructure for storing and retrieving any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the Web.

US and West probably refer to the location of those servers. (I use Amazon's Glacier to backup some of my data to the cloud so I recognize this pattern)

This means your iPad is uploading data to Amazon's cloud servers, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's Amazon's apps, since many developers utilize AWS within their own apps for tracking, monitoring, hosting, and storage.

Proposed solutions:

I suggest either/both of the following, none of which are "perfect" solutions:

You're saying that no matter what you do, the data is still uploaded. This means that this app has "Background App Refresh" enabled. Go to Settings, General, Background App Refresh, and make a list of "prime suspects"1, disable background app refresh for these apps one-by-one and see if the uploading stops after you disable the background uploading for this app. (The app would still be able to upload if you use it)
(This won't work if your iPad is WiFi only) iDevices actually provide you with stats on cellular data usage by app. Go to Settings, Cellular, and scroll down until you see a heading: "Use Cellular Data For". Now, take a couple of screenshots at different times, and see if the data usage increases for an app that you haven't used since you've last seen the uploading process.

1 Would be really helpful if you edit your question with this list as well.


The license for GarageBand (accessible from About Garageband) states:

  H. GarageBand Features and Support. Except as otherwise provided, you
  may use the Apple and third party audio loop content ("Audio
  Content"), contained in or otherwise included with the Apple Software,
  on a royalty-free basis, to create your own original soundtracks for
  your video and audio projects. You may broadcast and/or distribute
  your own soundtracks that were created using the Audio Content,
  however, individual samples, sound ￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼ sets or audio loops
  may not be commercially or otherwise distributed on a standalone
  basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole or in part as audio
  samples, sound libraries, sound effects or music beds.

If you include these loops in a larger work (i.e. you mix them in and they don't simply stand alone as a single sound), then you can sell or re-distribute that work under the terms of your license to those sounds.  You cannot distribute the loops themselves on their own as you would then be reselling / repackaging the  Apple loops.

If you were to create a composition that contained solely a single Apple loop, and tried to distribute that, it would not be allowed by the license.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201808


Minimize graphic effects for better performance?

You can go to system preferences, accessibility, display and check reduce transparency
You can also lower the resolution on the external monitors in the system preferences,displays menu.
and make sure automatic graphic switching is turned on in system preferences, energy saverAnd try setting the wallpaper to a solid color.


How to backup live photo as 6s feature in dropbox or other

The iOS app Photo Sync can auto-upload Live Photos to your Dropbox Account and as an option delete those after successful upload.

The live photo will be – as usual with all these work-around solutions – split into two parts, a „YYYY-MM-DD hh.mm.ss.jpg“ and a „YYYY-MM-DD hh.mm.ss.mov“. (The naming scheme can be freely adjusted to your needs.)

Another seamless option is Google Photos. Works absolutely clean and straightforward. Live Photos can be viewed and played in Google Photos as used to from the Apple Photos app.


How do I change the default Space for an app in Mission Control?

You can do this from the dock.

Switch to the space you want to pin your app to, then access the options menu from its dock icon:


Make sure you've correctly set your Apple ID in the Settings section, for both Facetime and Messages applications, in your iPad.


Can Siri be instructed to scroll pages for me in Safari?

In my honest opinion, using Siri on the Mac is extremely frustrating and has huge limitations. Again, in my honest opinion, enabling Enhanced Dictation in System Preferences is the way to go. Not only do you have access to dozens of pre-existing Dictation Commands, you can also create your own custom Dictation Commands.

Using Automator.app is a good place to start getting your feet wet with making new dictation commands.

So to answer your question, not only can you scroll using Dictation Commands, you can completely navigate through websites using Dictation Commands.

For example, while using Safari if you were to speak the dictation command "Show Numbers", this is what you would see...

And if you wanted to click on the link "add a comment", under your original post, all you need to do is speak the actual number (69) which is in the little blue arrow pointing to that link


How do I have both custom show tv art and custom episode thumbnails?

It looks like an episode can have multiple artwork attached. I'm not sure how TV.app determines what to show for the show's thumbnail, but I've been able to Get Info for an episode, go to the Artwork tab, and select Add Artwork to add more than one image to an episode.
I haven't tested this thoroughly, but I set all the episodes to have the series thumbnail, then added an individual thumbnail to the first episode and it works as desired so far (TV shows screen shows series thumbnail and episode list shows episode thumbnail).


Meaning of square brackets in a Preview search

Sounds like the search is actually a Regular Expression search, and by enclosing your search term in brackets, instead of searching for the word 'concept' you were searching for the presence of the letters 'c', 'o', 'n', 'e', 'p' and 't'.


Why is “Spotlight Web Content” using so much VRAM and CPU?

The Spotlight Web Content process is part of Spotlight Suggestions. When you start to type in Spotlight or the Safari address bar, Apple sends what you are typing out to their servers to suggest possible web matches and pre-fetch web pages based on what the system thinks you might be looking for.

For example, if you start to type N E, it may pre-load netflix.com.

As far as why it using so many resources, that's difficult to say. Is this the first time this has happened? It may have crashed. Keep an eye on it and see if the issue reoccurs.

You can also disable Spotlight Suggestions and that should stop this thread from appearing altogether.

Go to System Preferences > Spotlight and uncheck Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web Searches. Then, in Safari, go to Preferences > Search and uncheck Include Spotlight Suggestions.


This is because there are apps on his iPad that were assigned to your account. As a result, he will either have to re-download (re-purchase) them on his device (more on that below), or will have to sign into your Apple ID every time he wants to update those apps. When he synced with iTunes, it obviously synced your apps over to his iPad.

To rectify this problem, you will need to plug the iPad into iTunes and then de-select the option to sync apps (at least in iTunes 10 this should be under the "Apps" tab). It should ask you if you want to clear the apps off of the device. When prompted, accept the message. This should clear all your apps off of his device.

After this, he will need to re-download, and/or re-purchase, the apps that he wants on his iPad.


Free Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) certification materials?

Go here for Apple official info: http://training.apple.com/certification/macosx

Take a look at the Exam Preparation Guide for the test you want to take. It's a PDF with tons of questions. If you can answer those with confidence then you can pass the exam.


Finding EyeTV Activation Key from existing install?

The above didn't work for me.

I followed this link instead: https://www.geniatech.eu/eyetv/faq/how-do-i-recover-my-lost-eyetv-activation-key/

I then downloaded the "EyeTV Reporter" application which enabled me to make a full backup and re-installation my copy of EyeTV on my new Mac (without being prompted for any serials).


I had this problem and the following seems to have resolved it. I'm not sure if steps 2 and 3 are both required so you can try one and then the other if you prefer.

Remove symbolic links
Clear your icon cache:

sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.dock.iconcache -exec rm {} \;
Clear your caches:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/*

sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*
Restart
Recreate symbolic links


How do I find the current Mission Control space number from the command line?

I found this post on the main SO site.. Seems simple enough (er not really)..

Hope this helps.


How to center horizontally / vertically for text: extend the bounding box.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any way to do this for other items! I am actually surprised I didn't find it very limiting myself. There are several snapping options, but even when activating “Layers” (not active by default), the snapping happens only on edges, not on center (and it is very small, not as easy to manipulate as in the iWork suite, for example).

Tutorial for Inner Shadows on Pixelmator on YouTube (it's a workaround that consists of duplicating layers). Made with / for Pixelmator 1, but I couldn't find more info for Pixelmator 2.

In Pixelmator 2, you can choose which tools you want to add to the toolbar. Unfortunately, the Transform tool is not offered.
However, as you outlined yourself, the Transform tool is just one keyboard shortcut away. You'll have to resolve to ⌘F.


How to clear the settings of default app to the files with special file extension?

It's free, and configurable per extension.

http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/


Mac os Sierra 10.13.1 : Unable to create an account

I found a solution finally, the problem was that my current user has no password set. After setting a password, everything is working!


To see your system keyboard shortcuts go to:

System Preference >Keyboard >Shortcuts

To apply subscript formatting (automatic spacing) in PowerPoint 2011

⌘+SHIFT+MINUS SIGN

To see all PowerPoint shortcuts go here


How do I combine a JPEG and MOV into a Live Photo?

Have you tried adding both files to Photos on a Mac? In a quick test I did, Photos (v2.0) seems to recognize that the files belong together and shows them as a single Live Photo. I found you don't even have to add the files at the same time for this to work. The test I did involved simply taking a Live Photo on my iPhone, copying it to my Mac using Image Capture (which results in a separate JPG and MOV file), and then importing these files into Photos.

A few caveats though:

I’m not sure how Photos recognizes that the files belong together. Presumably this is based on some piece of metadata in the files. If the files you received have been processed in any way, this piece of metadata may have been lost.
In my quick test, I only got this to work with Photos on Mac. I also tried this with Photos on my iPad (iOS 10.3.3), but I wound up with a photo and a movie, rather than a single Live Photo. Once you have the two files on a Mac as a single Live Photo though, you should be able to transfer it as such to an iOS device using AirDrop or some other means like iCloud Photo Sharing.


NTFS-3G unmounts NTFS partitions because it "did not receive signal in 15 seconds"—what signal?

I stumbled on a post on IM.GETTING(THIS);, which explained the issue — and even provided a fix!

  The problem seems to stem from the binary "fuse_wait" from NTFS-3G that's run as a final part of the mounting procedure - for some reason it can't detect that ntfs-3g mounted the volume and stays on a hopeless loop trying to detect this condition until it gives up after 15 seconds. So my workaround involves replacing the fuse_wait binary with a script that does more or less the same thing, but actually detecting (sort of) the mount operation and not timing out.

The fix

(Assuming the use of MacFUSE & NTFS-3G)

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait.original
sudo touch /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo chown 0:0 /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo nano /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait

Copy & paste:

#!/bin/bash

MNTPOINT=$1
shift
TIMEOUT=$1
shift
MNTCMD=$1
shift

$MNTCMD "$@" &> /var/log/ntfsmnt.log
MNTCMD_RETVAL=$?

if [ $MNTCMD_RETVAL -eq 0 ]; then
        until [ `/sbin/mount | /usr/bin/grep -c "$MNTPOINT"` -ge 1 ] || [ $TIMEOUT -eq 0 ]
        do
                       sleep 1
                let TIMEOUT--
        done
fi

[ $TIMEOUT -eq 0 ] && RETVAL=1 || RETVAL=$MNTCMD_RETVAL

exit $RETVAL;

Save. Then:

sudo nano /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs-3g.fs/ntfs-3g.util

Change the following line:

DEFAULT_NTFS_MOUNT_OPTIONS="auto_xattr"

to:

DEFAULT_NTFS_MOUNT_OPTIONS="auto_xattr,noatime,noappledouble,auto_cache"

Save. Reboot. Smile.

For details and alternative methods I wholeheartedly recommend reading through the aforementioned article and thank him, not me.


What does update_terminal_cwd do in the terminal of OS X

It updates the prompt to echo the Current Working Directory (CWD) and is defined in /etc/bashrc:

update_terminal_cwd() {
    # Identify the directory using a "file:" scheme URL,
    # including the host name to disambiguate local vs.
    # remote connections. Percent-escape spaces.
    local SEARCH=' '
    local REPLACE='%20'
    local PWD_URL="file://$HOSTNAME${PWD//$SEARCH/$REPLACE}"
    printf '\e]7;%s\a' "$PWD_URL"
}


iOS - How to set iOS to ask for the passcode only on boot?

Nothing like this exists for iOS devices. You can either set it up to ask for a passcode all the time or never, but not only when you turn it back on after restarting.


Attaching External HD to Airport - Is It Secure?

Disks connected to an Airport router aren't, by default, accessible from the Internet. This is for a few reasons:

Your ISP is almost certainly running firewalls that would make it hard to do this anyway.
By default, disks are only accessible from your local network.

That said, it's possible to make a disk accessible from the Internet if you want to - see this post on the Apple support forums. If you don't specifically take those steps, the disk won't be publicly accessible.


Keynote for iOS does not support this. Apparently Apple does not provide any mechanism for screen-recording (video) within iOS 7, and will not permit any third-party app that enables this. There have been some apps that can do screen recording on iOS 7, but they require jailbreaking the device, and are not authorized by Apple through the App Store.

The only way that I know to achieve this is by one of the following:

1) move your Keynote document that you created on iOS to Keynote on Mac OS X, which has a video export feature

2) If you have a Windows PC, you can use Reflector for Windows, which enables live video and audio recording of a "screen share" of what is playing on your iOS device. You establish a connection between your iOS device and your Windows computer, enable "Record" in Reflector, and then play back your Keynote document in full screen on your iOS device. You then have a video on your Windows computer that you can further edit.


How to recover storage from "Videos" pseudo app?

So a system restore (I actually upgraded to iOS 13) fixed the problem. I had been trying to reduce the size of the backup before upgrading, but perhaps it would not have affected the backup size.

This article gives background info on why there might be "zombie" storage usage even after deleting the files: How to Delete Documents & Data on iPhone or iPad. (TDLR: "caches, app data, preferences, login details, and assorted other app-specific information")


I want it to be "Sold out" for the next month while still having the ability to release updates.

There is no such provision available on the App Store, hosting the app while users can’t purchase/install it. Most likely explanation would be that it interferes with the overall UX and has the potential of causing confusion.

  I am considering changing the price of the app to the max tier and writing "Sold out, restocking on xx.xx.xxxx" in the promotional text.

Hiking the price temporarily would not be an advisable approach. It will likely bring negative publicity to the app. This approach (especially with regard to the promotional text) could also cause the app update to get rejected.

If you would like to control when the app update gets released on the App Store, you can choose to manually release instead of automatically release when approved when submitting the app update.

Manually release a version - App Store Connect Help


I have a 256GB Macbook Pro but only shows 142gb of storage

For some reason the remaining space is not partitioned.

Get a good backup since an erase and reinstall should fix things.

Before you erase, boot to recovery HD and try to repair the Macintosh HD and also repair the drive itself.


Folder automatic action to rename files added to folder with random names

Okay total different approach.

Use AppleScript only.

Step 1: Create folders (input and output)

Step 2: Create script

on adding folder items to theAttachedFolder after receiving theNewItems

    set text item delimiters to "."

    set outputFolder to POSIX file "/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Desktop/random/output/"

    tell application "Finder"
        set all_files to every item of theNewItems as list

        --now we start looping through all selected files. 'index' is our counter that we initially set to 1 and then count up with every file.
        repeat with index from 1 to the count of all_files

            set x to ""
            repeat 10 times
                set x to x & some item of "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890"
            end repeat

            set new_name to x

            --using our index, we select the appropriate file from our list
            set this_file to item index of all_files
            set file_name_count to text items of (get name of this_file)

            --lets check if the current file from our list (based on index-number) has even any file-extension
            if number of file_name_count is 1 then
                --file_name-count = 1 means, we extracted only 1 text-string from the full file name. So there is no file-extension present.
                set file_extension to ""
            else
                --yup, we are currently processing a file that has a file-extension
                --we have to re-add the original file-extension after changing the name of the file!
                set file_extension to "." & item -1 of file_name_count
            end if
            --let's rename our file and add the file-extension to it
            set dupeFile to duplicate this_file to outputFolder
            delete this_file
            set the name of dupeFile to new_name & file_extension as string

        end repeat
    end tell

end adding folder items to

Step 3: Save script in ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/

Step 4: Right mouse click on input folder > Services > Folder Action Setup

Step 5: Connect script to folder.

Left part you add your input folder, click on folder in the left list.
At the right list you choose your script.

Step 6: Add a bunch of files in the input folder. They are getting random names in the output folder and are deleted from the input folder.

Do not forget to change the outputFolder value inside the script!


Mac Mail is highly customisable to individual needs.

I like to keep it organized by using Mail Rules.

I created folders in Mail (on my Mac) named Bank, Utility, Phone, and many others.

Then in Mail > Preferences > Rules I set up so that if a mail arrives from one of those, it will be moved to the appropriate folder, and I will not miss it. (It shows in particular folder as unread as long I did not read it.

I also have rules set up to Delete some emails from specific sources. The combinations are almost endless what you can do to keep your Mail organized.

Mail Rules is the way to go, no need to create new keyboard shortcuts.

Example..for Sprint Phone emails..

You do not have to type they email address, just select it in Mail before creating the rule and it will show up.

One more trick. For some of us we want the mail to remain as Unread  till we say so (and do not want the automated mail feature marking them as read as soon we touch it).

To do so just drag the mail "Preview window" down till it disperses and mails will remain Unread till we tell it otherwise.


What iPad app can I use to manage the locations where I took some photos?

You might be interested in one of this choices:

my favorite

MapProjector with Google Maps

Features:

Create an unlimited number of maps with unlimited landmarks
Photos - Import photos from your Photo Album using their own locations.

Exif Wizard

Then there is the iPhoto app for iPad :)


In El Capitan: Safari wiped the extension database?

I use OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) and I was preparing to ask:

Where, on disk, does Tampermonkey for Safari store user data e.g. scripts?

Your question seems to answer my question!

(I had used fseventer to monitor file system activity whilst installing a script, but nothing conclusive was observed.)

In my case I assume that Tampermonkey dataloss resulted from an uninstall, followed by a reinstall, of various extensions.

Background

Two sets of answers to frequently asked questions:

http://tampermonkey.net/faq.php
https://forum.tampermonkey.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=78

The Tampermonkey forum is limited, seeking Safari finds nothing:

  The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: safari …

http://tampermonkey.net/faq.php#Q106 explains how to export scripts, but I never imagined that losing (or removing) the database of extensions would also lose user data associated with any extension.


Can I submit a new app version to apple without cancelling a pending release?

No, you'll need to cancel the current pending release, upload the new app, go thru the Review process again, and then you can release it.

This way Apple, and the users, can be sure that developers are not putting malware or viruses in code that's already been reviewed and approved for release.


Spotlight borked after macOS Sierra update

Did you reboot after #4 above? I think that should work... If not this may help:

sudo touch /.metadata-never-index

Reboot...

sudo rm /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
sudo rm /.metadata-never-index

And reboot again. You can try this for every volume.

See also: http://www.filetypehelp.com/purpose-files-metadataneverindex-file-extension/


Keyboard shortcuts with Dvorak keymapping

You could try using "Dvorak - Qwerty ⌘" instead of straight Dvorak.  It uses the Dvorak layout for regular typing, but keeps the Cmd shortcuts the same as what's printed on your keyboard.


How to restore default Mountain Lion font distribution?

Starting in Lion, Apple added a Restore Standard Fonts… command to Font Book. Open Font Book and choose File > Restore Standard Fonts…:


How to download the .mov for later viewing?

Usually, Apple put it's keynotes in iTunes Podcasts, where you can download them.

Look for Apple Keynote and download the ones you want.

Just note that there might be delay, often less than a week, before they released the latest keynote.


How to stop macbook spotlight from showing internet website and dictionary?

Uncheck "Spotlight Suggestions" under System Preferences > Spotlight

Farther up, there is also a "Bookmarks & History" that could be relevant.

(oh, and you might want to uncheck the "Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Look up" there below)


How do I get my computer to reboot when it crashes when it tries to wake up?

Regardless of the state of the Mac, holding down the power button will always kill it and allow you to cold boot. Make sure you're holding the power button down long enough—hold it down longer than you think is necessary.


trackpad stops working on 2009 Macbook Pro

A great way to rule out hardware versus software issue is to create a new user and see if the problem still occurs when logged into the new user.

System Preferences>Accounts> + (may have to unlock first). For ease of use, I'd make the new "test" account an administrator. When you are done, log out and back into your regularly used account. System Preferences>Accounts> - (delete home folder and all contents).

If the issue persists, it should be related to hardware and not software.

Hope that helps!


There is no problem with this. Account name and home folder name can be different.

It’s okay even if you are using your MacBook alone.


Can’t log out of iCloud on iPhone - ‘Verification Failed’

I just solved this by making sure under cellular you have “settings” enabled. I didn’t have it toggled in and I was not on a wifi service when I was trying to log out of iCloud.


Does a removed version of Catalina use storage that generates a "low volume storage message

The first thing is to look at your storage allocations.

Open system information and click on the storage tab. If it shows a blank area - just quit all your open apps and set the machine to not sleep for an hour and return

Once the space is there, if you have purgeable data - that will go away when you need it (and if you're reading things correctly, you'll purge with that little space). If you don't have data that's able to be purged, click on the manage button to decide which bucket needs cleaning.

It's unlikely you have a second OS sitting, but it is possible.


How do I reset safari to a state equal to that of a new user?

This website has a list of steps you could take:
http://www.macissues.com/2015/06/22/how-to-fully-reset-safari-on-your-mac/


Apps for (very!) simple spreadsheet purposes

Numbers provides customisation to its UI which allows you to strip most of the features from the main window, leaving you the most basic of functionality.

The toolbar is customisable (right-click on toolbar and choose Customise Toolbar). You can use this to remove features you don't wish to use so that they do not show on the toolbar. You can also go further by hiding the toolbar completely.
The inspector on the right can be hidden from the View menu (View → Inspector → Hide Inspector). All that's left is the main window with the spreadsheet.

Hiding the toolbar and inspector gives you a window that looks like the following. UI can't really look more basic than that!


Microsoft Word on MacBook Pro: Tab problems

There is an old trick I learned on a help desk well over 10 years ago which USUALLY still works.

In the problematic document, turn on paragraph marks. It's in the ribbon under "Paragraph." or Press COMMAND-* (Mac) or CTRL-* (PC) [EG SHIFT COMMAND/CTRL 8].

Select All in the document. Use the edit menu or click in the document and COMMAND-A (Mac) or CTRL-A (PC).

Scroll to the bottom of the document and locate the very LAST paragraph mark at the very end of the document.

Press the shift key and click just to the LEFT of the last paragraph mark, thus de-selecting it.

Now everything in the document is selected EXCEPT the last paragraph mark.

Release the shift key, and tap COMMAND-C (Mac) or CTRL-C (PC).
Create a new empty Word Document.

Click in the document and paste what you just copied from the old, problematic, document into the new one. Save the new document under a different name and see if your formatting/behavior issues have gone away.

When I learned that trick I was told that MS Word stores document formatting in the last paragraph marker. Regardless of whether that is true or not it will often fix problematic MS Word documents.


How do I downgrade from Yosemite 10.10 to Mavericks 10.9?

Backup Mavericks using Time Machine first (if possible)

  Follow these steps to get a copy of Mac OS X Mavericks:

  Open the App Store.
  Enter your Apple ID and Password and click Sign In (if App Store requests it).
  Click Purchases.
  Scroll down to find Mavericks.
  Click Download.

  Now that you have downloaded the Mavericks file you will find it inside Applications.
  Revert to Mavericks by creating a Mac OS X USB boot drive.

  How to make a bootable Mavericks install drive

  You can use this file to turn an 8GB USB Flash into a Mac OS X Mavericks boot drive. With this USB Boot Drive you can wipe the hard drive on your Mac, and install a fresh copy of Mac OS X Mavericks. If you have your Mavericks Time Machine backup, it can be used to reinstall all your files and programs (otherwise you’ll need to setup your Mac from scratch using the files you backed up to an external drive or cloud storage solution).

  Using a Mac OS X Mavericks boot drive to perform a fresh Mac OS X installation

  Shut down your Mac (Choose Apple > Shut Down).
  Insert the Mavericks USB Flash Drive into your Mac.
  Startup the Mac while holding down the Alt key.
  Choose the USB Flash Drive Volume.
  Choose Utilities > Disk Utility on the Install Mac OS X window.
  Select your main Volume in the sidebar. Now click Erase > Erase (warning, this removes everything on the volume).
  Click Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
  Tap Continue on the Install OS X window.

Check out this MacWorld article. It explains each step in detail.

Note: In some rare instances, it may be necessary to format the Macintosh HD partition before installing Mavericks. **This will erase your entire hard drive ** so be sure to back up any files you need before going this route. I've outlined the steps to do this below:

1.) Boot the Mac from the USB you made using the steps above.
2.) Open Disk Utility and erase the drive entitled (Usually) "Macintosh HD". You can rename it whatever you like.
3.) Install Mavericks.


JavaVM.framework deleted and not anymore able to install Java

Ended up to reinstall Lion using Recovery. Data/Applications are kept even no need of a backup and then Java install prompted again on 1st usage.


Macbook air '14 adapter on new Macbook pro

Yes, the plugs are designed to be interchangeable. (In fact, Apple sells a 'World Travel kit' that just consists of all the different plugs.)
It's not really an 'adaptor', as such: just a switchable part at the end of the cable.
The three-pronged plug is a UK power plug.


You can find the location of a Spotlight result by highlighting the result and pressing ⌘+Return. This will reveal the location in Finder.

As it's the setup app, it's probably safe to delete, but you can also move it to a location that Spotlight won't search to remove it from the search results but keep the data.