AppleScript - Changing Width of Dialog Box and Adding Text

Regarding "Changing Width of Dialog Box", I know of no method to decrease the width of a dialog box.

  How would one increase the width of the display dialog

One unsophisticated method to increase the width of a dialog does exist.

A dialog will automatically widen to accommodate the full width of (so as to not truncate) a button title. Consequently, you can add space characters to the button text (spaced out evenly on both ends for a symmetrical appearance) to increase the overall dialog width.

Using your sample dialog:

It looks funny to have such a broad button, but this is better than nothing, I suppose.

Using this method, you can make an AppleScript dialog as wide as your screen.

I'd prefer that this trick worked with the dialog title instead. But, if a dialog title exceeds the length of the dialog, the dialog title will simply be cut off, and an ellipsis will be appended.


inifinitely regressing "ls" drive under "Volumes"

I think you just accidentally renamed the system volume to "ls", probably by typing it while not realizing the system volume's name was selected. I was able to reproduce your results by just renaming mine in the Finder. To change it back, go to the Finder's computer view (Choose Go menu > Computer, or press Command-Shift-C), select the disk "ls"'s name, change it to Macintosh HD, and press Return.
(Note: it's normal for there to be a symbolic link from /Volumes/systemvolumename to /.)


Safari 10.1: unable to install extension from Apple's official Gallery

Problem solved. It's TripMode. Unload kernel module with:

launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/ch.tripmode.TripModeNKE.plist


How to free up space on Macbook Air for iOS update By keeping files only in iCloud?

Yes - when you untick the check mark for Photos or Documents (likely the two largest items of iCloud space) you are asked if you want to keep a local copy (which you _don’t want to do) or just let the items live in the cloud (which you want - at least temporarily).

Choose to delete the local copy and then you will have the files only in iCloud.

Keep in mind, that after you delete files, macOS will keep space allocated / file content around for a short time as local snapshots or local time machine backups, so you will want to either thin the local snapshots or wait a day for them to age out.

Why does my mac not have free space even after I delete files?

Worst case - you can get an application like Daisy Disk (paid on the App Store, but a free trial from their web site - which has the bonus feature of letting you run a scan as administrator) and it makes it very simple to purge these temporary files sooner if you need. The app also does an amazing job showing you other large uses of space if my guess is wrong about documents and photos being your major space allocations.


Set keyboard shortcuts for launching programs

This can be achieved by using an Automator service and assigning it a shortcut in the Keyboard System Preference pane:

Launch Automator and select “Service” as the type of new workflow to create.
Set the workflow to take “no input” in “all applications”.
Drag a “Run program“ action from the “Utilities” category into the workflow, set it to the app you want to start via a keyboard shortcut.
Save the service under a memorable name.
Go to Keyboard Preferences → Shortcuts (in System Preferences, or chooses “Configure Services” from the “Services” submenu in the Apple menu).
Select the “Services” category, locate your newly created service and assign it a shortcut (make sure it is checked to be active).

Voilà – you have a global keyboard shortcut to start your application. Rinse and repeat as needed. Note Automator services are pretty laggy when first started during a session, but reasonably responsive after that.


Can I have audio from my PC output to Bluetooth while my video outputs to AirPlay?

Just figured it out -

Connect to AirPlay, so that both video and audio streams are going to the TV
Open System Preferences > Sound. Click "output" tab.
Select your bluetooth speakers.

Voila.


How can I delete photos from my iPhone and still retain them on my desktop?

I suggest you to firstly disable My Photo Stream then sync your iPhone with your Mac library (using cable for instance).

In this way you can keep update the photos in your library by importing recent photos from iPhone and at the same time you can remove the pics from your iPhone without losing the copy pic in the Mac.


Model Name: MacBook Air Model Identifier: MacBookAir4,2 Processor Name: Intel Core i7 Processor Speed: 1.8 GHz

Spotlight is re-indexing after the upgrade, which means it's busy all the time, impacting performance and battery life. Never try to judge the performance or battery impact of any major OS X upgrade until the machine has been turned on but idle for at least a week, to give time for the re-indexing to complete.


Ubuntu-like bash completion in Mac OS X?

The easiest way is to install bash-completion from homebrew and follow the provided instructions.

Example output:

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/bash-completion-1.3.mavericks.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring bash-completion-1.3.mavericks.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
Add the following lines to your ~/.bash_profile:
    if [ -f "$(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion" ]; then
        source "$(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion"
    fi

The Homebrew bash completion script has been installed to:
    /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

Bash completion has been installed to:
    /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d
==> Summary
  /usr/local/Cellar/bash-completion/1.3: 188 files, 1.1M

Once you are done, you can create your own scripts under /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/.


How to avoid newly downloaded iOS apps to be automatically downloaded in another device

In each devices settings, you can disable automatic downloads in Settings -> iTunes & App Store and then disable "Apps" in the "Automatic Downloads" section. This will stop apps from automatically being downloaded onto your iPad. You will need to install the specific apps you want on the device manually through the App Store.


Homebrew putty installation does not make the putty command recognisable

Update: Current stable version (.67) of putty can't be build with gtk+2 support on OS X using homebrew. This is a know issue #40951. It seems you can install from HEAD version (brew install --HEAD --with-gtk+3 putty) and for me that is also broken.

brew install putty by default installs from a pre-built bottle. The pre-built bottle for putty doesn't include putty, puttytel or pterm.

If you want putty then can try installing from source. First remove the installed putty formula by running brew remove putty. After that install putty from source by running brew install --build-from-source --with-gtk+3 putty.

NOTE: As of this writing building putty from source is broken with homebrew

If someone is getting an error like this: invalid option: --with-gtk+3, all installation options are removed with the latest version of the brew. source


prevent Microsoft Remote Desktop from starting in full screen mode

Check the display settings - right click your saved session & Edit or click the small pencil icon bottom right of it…

I don't recall what the defaults are - I've had this set up too long to remember - but the above settings work well for me, to open maximised* but not fullscreen on my second monitor, which I have set as you do, not using separate spaces.

*or rather 'the same as I last used it'.


How to delete emails stored locally on my MacBook pro?

What email is the Mail app using? If its not iCloud then you can easily manage how much email is sent to your Macbook directly from the clients website (Gmail, Yahoo, Aol, & etc). If it is iCloud email, then you may want to manage whats coming in. You can also turn mail off and on under iCloud in system preferences.


Apple TV+ (the subscription) - how can I tell what it actually offers?

The easiest way I browse TV+ content is by opening the TV app on iPad and look for the channels. Tap on it, then you can see all the major shows. Also, on each show in the app, look for the service in the text as well as the badging in the lower right corner.

Of course the free episodes can and will change, so I wouldn’t count on things that are free today being so in a month or vice-versa. If you prefer web access: https://tv.apple.com lets you browse and watch off device (AppleTV, iPhone, iPad, etc..) in a native app.
Since the native apps show all channels, not everything is included nor is everything in the app advertisement free, however what you pay for from the + is commercial free, downloadable, playable for the duration of the subscription whether it’s subsidized or paid in cash / store credit.


How do I create terminal session independent env vars on OS 10.10?

shut down and start the computer again.  open the terminal and type echo $ENV_VAR and you should see the value you defined.


Endless spinner when trying to update Xcode in App Store

Here's what I had to do

Upgrade OS X to the latest

This stopped the eternal spinner - instead the spinner showed for a second, then nothing happened
In the past, updating the App Store itself helped

Go to the Updates tab and click UPDATE ALL

App Store asked me for my credentials then ran all upgrades, including Xcode


I would suggest using GIMP. It's a free program that can offer many of the tools that Photoshop does.


Is there a VGA to Thunderbolt/mini DisplayPort adapter?

VGA is an analog signal and your Cinema requires digital so you need more than a simple cable. You need an appropriate interface box, called a VGA to DVI Scaler, such as the Gefen VGA to DVI Scaler Plus. (Shown for reference only—this is not a recommendation.)

You will also need the appropriate adaptor to use the DVI signal with your monitor.

Please note that I don't have experience with these products and can't guarantee results—particularly if your Display is the thunderbolt-equipped model. Contact the vendors to assure yourself that it will work.


Mavericks: Enable virtual keyboard on login screen

This answer focuses on the case where you want to access the virtual keyboard because of layout/external keyboard uncertainties.

If you only have access to a mouse/pad this answer will not help you.

There is a keyboard shortcut that propose you to access to Accessibility Options, and it is working at login screen. (Only on High Sierra.)

Opt-Cmd-F5

And for MacbookPro w/ Touch Bar:

fn-Opt-Cmd-F5 or Triple click on TouchID button

From this new window, you can click and enable the virtual keyboard:

Here is the Mac accessibility shortcuts ref from Apple.

EDIT 2: for macOS Mojave

If the problem is that you're not sure about your keyboard layout, try this:

Opt-Enter : It lets you enter the login in a clear text field. Use it to visually check your layout \o/

EDIT: (added information from comments)

Only available on High Sierra
Shortcut for MacbookPro with Touch Bar


How to remove a large number of unused keywords from Apple Photos app?

Below is a script I wrote and tested over quite a few days.  Whilst Apple's Photos.app is scriptable, you've already observed that it lacks the necessary methods to delete unused keywords.  If you are familiar with AppleScript and the notion of UI scripting, this appears to be the only option available.

Note: For UI scripting to work, you need to provide the necessary accessibility privileges to Script Editor.

My personal view towards UI scripting is generally a negative one, but I have taken extra care to try and mitigate the typical temperamental nature and fragility of UI scripts, and done a few tests on my system to observe a reasonably smooth operation.

However, the one specific feature I couldn't (wasn't willing to) check during testing is how the script performs when there are thousands of keywords, and/or an extremely large Photos library.  I myself have a Photos library consisting of fewer than 100 photos, and none of them had been tagged with keywords, so I created a sample of 20, of which I randomly assigned about half of them.

In theory, the only affect library volume or keyword count should have on script operation is the length of time it takes to execute.  But, with AppleScript, there may be timeout issues that prematurely abort the script; and with UI scripting, the probability of it throwing an error tends to increase with running time.

Specific notes regarding these uncertainties on performance are expanded upon below the script.  If you run into any issues, please report back and I shall consider how to implement a fix.  There ought to be no adverse effects should the script not perform ideally (i.e. you won't lose any photos).  Suboptimal performance ought to only result in an incomplete purge of keywords.

#!/usr/bin/osascript
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# pnam: PHOTOS#DELETE UNUSED KEYWORDS
# nmxt: .applescript
# pDSC: A UI scripting-dependent script to remove keywords from Photos.app that
#       have not been assigned to any photos

# plst: -

# rslt: «list» : On successful completion, the script reacquires an updated
#                list of disused keywords and returns the result (hopefully
#                an empty list)
#       «err » : Script failure throws an error.  Running the script again
#                with Photos.app already open may yield a different result.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# sown: CK
# ascd: 2019-01-07
# asmo: 2019-01-07
# vers: 1.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
use sys : application "System Events"
use Photos : application "Photos"

property process : a reference to application process "Photos"

property _M : a reference to every media item
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# IMPLEMENTATION:
activate Photos
open the keywordManager

set everyKeyword to the list of allKeywords()
set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()
set disusedKeywords to difference(everyKeyword, activeKeywords)

tell the keywordManager
    tell its keywordEditor
        open it
        select disusedKeywords
        delete
        close
    end tell
end tell

set everyKeyword to the list of allKeywords()
set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()

close the keywordManager

set disusedKeywords to difference(everyKeyword, activeKeywords)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# HANDLERS & SCRIPT OBJECTS:
script keywordManager
    property window : a reference to window "Keywords" of my process
    property scroll area : a reference to scroll area 2 of my window
    property button : a reference to button "Edit Keywords" of my window
    property menu item : a reference to ¬
        (menu item "Keyword Manager" of ¬
            menu 1 of ¬
            menu bar item "Window" of ¬
            menu bar 1 of my process)

    script keywordEditor
        property title : "Manage My Keywords"
        property window : a reference to window title of my process
        property scroll area : a reference to scroll area 1 ¬
            of my window
        property table : a reference to table 1 of my scroll area
        property group : a reference to group 1 of my window
        property button : a reference to (first button of my group ¬
            whose accessibility description = "remove")
        property menu item : a reference to ¬
            (menu item "Select All" of ¬
                menu 1 of ¬
                menu bar item "Edit" of ¬
                menu bar 1 of my process)
        to open
            if my window exists then return
            tell the keywordManager to if not ¬
                (its window exists) then ¬
                open it

            click the keywordManager's button
            with timeout of 10 seconds
                repeat until the my window exists
                    delay 0.5
                end repeat
            end timeout
            perform action "AXRaise" of my window
        end open

        to close
            if not (my window exists) then return
            click button "OK" of my window
        end close

        to select |keywords| as list
            local |keywords|

            set focused of my table to true

            click my menu item

            script deselect
                property list : |keywords|
                on fn(x)
                    if the value of x's text field 1 ¬
                        is not in my list then
                        set x's selected to false
                        return true
                    end if
                    false
                end fn
            end script

            filterItems from rows of my table ¬
                given handler:deselect
        end select

        to delete
            if not (my button exists) then return 0
            click my button
        end delete
    end script

    on menuItem()
        tell my menu item to if exists then return it
        false
    end menuItem

    to open
        if my window exists then return false
        tell the keywordEditor to if ¬
            (its window exists) then ¬
            return close it

        click my menuItem()

        # tell sys to keystroke "k" using command down

        with timeout of 10 seconds
            repeat until my window exists
                delay 0.5
                set my process's frontmost to true
            end repeat
        end timeout
        perform action "AXRaise" of my window
    end open

    to close
        if not (my window exists) then return
        click (value of attribute "AXCloseButton" of my window)
    end close
end script

on allKeywords()
    script |keywords|
        property list : accessibility description of ¬
            every checkbox of the keywordManager's scroll area ¬
            whose role description = "keyword checkbox"
    end script
end allKeywords

on currentKeywords()
    script
        property keep : keywords of _M
        property list : strings in unique_(flatten_(keep))
    end script
end currentKeywords

on __(function)
    if the function's class = script ¬
        then return the function

    script
        property fn : function
    end script
end __

to filterItems from L as list into R as list : missing value ¬
    given handler:function
    local L, R

    if R = missing value then set R to {}

    script
        property list : L
        property result : R
    end script

    tell the result to repeat with x in its list
        if __(function)'s fn(x, its list, its result) ¬
            then set end of its result to x's contents
    end repeat

    R
end filterItems

to foldItems from L at |ξ| : 0 given handler:function
    local L, |ξ|, function

    script
        property list : L
    end script

    tell the result to repeat with i from 1 to length of its list
        set x to item i in its list
        tell __(function)'s fn(x, |ξ|, i, L) to ¬
            if it = missing value then
                exit repeat
            else
                set |ξ| to it
            end if
    end repeat

    |ξ|
end foldItems

on difference(A as list, B as list)
    local A, B

    script
        on notMember(M)
            script
                on fn(x)
                    x is not in M
                end fn
            end script
        end notMember
    end script

    filterItems from A given handler:result's notMember(B)
end difference

on union(A as list, B as list)
    local A, B

    script
        on insert(x, L)
            set end of L to x
            L
        end insert
    end script

    foldItems from A at B given handler:result's insert
end union

to flatten:L
    foldItems from L at {} given handler:union
end flatten:

on unique:L
    local L

    script
        on notMember(x, i, L)
            x is not in L
        end notMember
    end script

    filterItems from L given handler:result's notMember
end unique:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------❮END❯

Uncertainties on Threats to Performance

Regarding the volume of photos in your library, the line I am most mindful about is this one:

property _M : a reference to every media item

the effect of which will come into play at the points in the script where the property is dereferenced, i.e.

set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()

The function of this line is to retrieve a list of all keywords currently assigned to at least one photo.  In order to do this, every single photo in your library needs to be enumerated (retrieved), and its keywords property evaluated.  This happens virtually immediately at the start of the script; and again after purging keywords to determine if the purge was complete.  It's a time-consuming process, and therefore a potential timeout threat for the script.

One ought to be able to extend the default timeout value like so:
    with timeout of 600 seconds
        set activeKeywords to the list of currentKeywords()
    end timeout

or it may be necessary to slightly alter the syntax in retrieving the photos so that the script directly targets the Photos app at the point of enumeration, instead of by way of property references; and then to enclose the Photos command within a timeout block.  But, for now, I've left it to see if the script will run on your system using the default timeout, which might not be a constraint if the enumeration takes place synchronously (and I don't know whether or not it does).
Regarding UI scripting potential roadblocks: the Photos AppleScript dictionary doesn't provide a way to retrieve all keywords that exist in the app.  The way the script works around this is to open up the Keyword Manager and read off the name of every keyword label that it detects under the section "Keywords".  What I don't know is whether every UI element containing a keyword label is loaded when the Keyword Manager window gets created; or whether they get loaded piecewise when a user scrolls through the list.  The latter situation would be irksome, as it would result in an incomplete list of keywords and then an incomplete purge.

One obvious solution would be to run the script multiple times to perform multiple purges until the are no remaining purgeable items.
When considering the worst-case scenario, analysing the script appears to have one of three possible outcomes (regardless of how the script terminates, be it through completion of its run or by throwing an error):

Either the script does nothing (nil result);
OR an incomplete purge occurs (partial success);
OR a complete purge occurs (success).

There does not seem to be a way for the script to fail in a way that negatively impacts the Photos library, so the worst-case scenario appears to be the nil result.  However, if we assume I can be wrong, you may want to put a margin on error on the potential worse-case scenario.

This margin is up to you and your judgment, which is tough to make when you perhaps don't know what types of things I'm typically wrong about.  If it helps, I would say label it impossible for the script to delete any of your photos, because it does not perform any filesystem operations.  If impossible is not good enough, then the clear precaution to take is to backup your entire Photos library beforehand.  Depending on the size of your library, this may range from simple to pain-staking for the sake of a near zero-chance event.

What the script does do (obviously) is read and edit lists of keywords.  So, while it ought not to be possible, it wouldn't be foolish to consider that all of your keywords for all of your photos might just disappear.  Should you want to cover yourself for this unlikely event, then I provide this "scriptlet" that you can run beforehand in order to back up your keywords:

property path : "~/Desktop/Photos.Keywords.Backup.plist"

backupKeywordsToFile at path
--! CAUTION: Uncommenting the line below
--! WILL OVERWRITE ALL KEYWORDS FOR ALL PHOTOS
-- restoreKeywordsFromFile at path
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# HANDLERS & SCRIPT OBJECTS:
use framework "Foundation"

property this : a reference to current application
property _0 : a reference to missing value
property _1 : a reference to reference

property NSDictionary : a reference to NSDictionary of this
property NSString : a reference to NSString of this
property NSURL : a reference to NSURL of this

to backupKeywordsToFile at fp as text
    local fp

    set fURL to NSURL's fileURLWithPath:((NSString's ¬
        stringWithString:fp)'s ¬
        stringByStandardizingPath())

    script
        use application "Photos"
        property _M : a reference to media items
        property properties : [keywords, id] of _M
        property keys : item 1 of my properties
        property refs : item 2 of my properties
    end script

    tell the result
        repeat with i from 1 to length of its keys
            if (item i of its keys) = missing value ¬
                then set item i of its keys to {}
        end repeat

        tell (NSDictionary's dictionaryWithObjects:(its keys) ¬
            forKeys:(its refs)) to set [success, E] ¬
            to its writeToURL:fURL |error|:_1
    end tell

    if E ≠ missing value then return E's localizedDescription() as text

    success
end backupKeywordsToFile

to restoreKeywordsFromFile at fp as text
    local fp

    set fURL to NSURL's fileURLWithPath:((NSString's ¬
        stringWithString:fp)'s ¬
        stringByStandardizingPath())

    script
        property result : NSDictionary's ¬
            dictionaryWithContentsOfURL:fURL ¬
                |error|:_1
        property mediakeys : item 1 of my result
        property E : item 2 of my result
        property keys : null
        property refs : null
    end script

    tell the result
        if its E ≠ missing value then return its E's ¬
            localizedDescription() as text

        set its keys to its mediakeys's allObjects() as list
        set its refs to its mediakeys's allKeys() as list

        repeat with i from 1 to length of its refs
            set x to item i of its refs
            set keys to item i of its keys

            tell application "Photos" to set ¬
                keywords of media item id x ¬
                to keys
        end repeat
    end tell
end restoreKeywordsFromFile

In backing up your keywords, the script will have to enumerate the entire Photos library.  Therefore, regardless of whether or not you need the backup, running this script first will give you an indication of how slowly/quickly your library can be read.


Are there any audiobook apps that will remember where you last left off?

You can use Apple's iBooks app for iPhone/iPad to playback audio books and mp3 files and resume playback. With mp3s you may need to change the "media kind" option from Music to Audiobook in iTunes.

Import your audiobooks or mp3s to iTunes. Select your mp3 file in iTunes, right click and select Get Info from the pop up menu (or just press Command I) to get into the file's properties window. Click on the Options tab then change media kind from Music to Audiobook.

You can then sync your mp3/audiobooks from iTunes to your iPhone if you select to sync manually or sync everything


Where are the system spellchecking dictionaries?

The spelling dictionaries you are interested in appear to be located in the following location (checked on 10.8.4 and 10.6.8):

/System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service/Contents/Resources/

The word lists are stored in this directory by language, so U.S. English is in the English.lproj folder.

However, these files are stored in a binary format that I haven't deciphered yet...


How can I remove errant podcast entries in iTunes?

In iTunes, edit the bad podcast (Right click on it and select 'Get Info'). It will give an error and say it can't find the file and ask if you want to locate it. Say Yes and point the podcast to one in your recycle bin that is already deleted. Actually, any mp3 file will work. You could also make a copy of an existing one to use. Then you will be able to delete the podcast and send the file to the recycle bin. You can then use the same file for the next errant podcast.

If you are deleting the podcasts from a (smart) playlist, then use Shift+Delete (on Windows) or Option+Delete (on OS X) to remove them from both the playlist and the library.


How can I see how long my computer has been active (as in not idle)

You can also find the idle time in UNIX by running

ioreg -c IOHIDSystem

And looking for the returned HIDIdleTime

Or you could run a shell script on idle like so, just call it every 30 seconds or so using LaunchD. Make sure to put the launchd xml file in /Library/LaunchDaemons so it runs even when no user is logged in, or /Library/LaunchAgents/ if you only want it to run when someone is logged into the machine.

#!/bin/bash
idl=$"`ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | awk '/HIDIdleTime/ {print int($NF/1000000000); exit}'`"
idletime="600"
if [ $idl -gt $idletime ]; then
#Your
#Code
#Here
fi


Apple store apps won't download but have a iCloud symbol

I know my answer might be late for you, but maybe it can help somebody else. I had the SAME frustrating problem with the GOOGLE CHROME APP and I solved it this way:

Go to Settings --> Storage & iCloud Usage
Go to the section that says ICLOUD
Click on Manage Storage
Click on Joana's (Your name) iPhone
At the Backup Options turn off Chrome
Go to the App Store and try to download the app again. Hopefully, it will start downloading! For me this solved the problem.


How can i disable menu blinking after selecting a menu item in macOS

It seems this is just a core MacOS feature built in - if you go into system preferences and General, you can change the color to graphite if you prefer, make it less irritating. Apple made this choice because "It is a visual clue to help the user understand they have selected this option", and after this it is executed.


'Update' volume appeared after High Sierra install

Note: This answer assumes the reader does not have a Fusion drive.

When selecting the Erase button on the top of the Disk Utility window, you should see a popup window similar to the one shown below.

If instead you see a popup window is similar to the one shown below, then you are not erasing the entire drive. If the drive is not visible on the left side of the Disk Utility window, then press the key combination ⌘2 to show all devices.

When erasing the entire drive, you should select APFS for the format and GUID Partition Map as the scheme, as shown below. (Although, if you chose Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then the macOS installer would automatically convert to APFS.)

From the way I read your question, I do not think you erased the entire drive. You would probably be better off starting over and erasing the entire drive. This should eliminate the Update volume.
Also, consider this: Big Sur uses a newer version of APFS than is known to previous versions of macOS. So if the APFS container was created or updated by Big Sur and all you did is erase a volume before installing High Sierra, then the verify and repair software included with High Sierra may not function properly. So if you need to verify or repair APFS, you should first boot to a Big Sur version of macOS recovery. This is why you would be better off starting over and use the Disk Utility that came with the High Sierra installer to erase the entire drive.


Find the PID in activity monitor then in a terminal run sudo kill -9 PID and voilà


You need to wait for the activation email — there's nothing else you can do and trying to contact anyone else until then may cause confusion. You used a different name than the name on the card used to purchase the membership, so you will need to complete another activation step. This seems to be manually initiated and you need to wait for the email, which may take up to two weeks.

You will be given further instructions which may include information on cancelling the membership and being instructed to pay using a card with your own name, which was the final resolution in my case.


MacBook Pro 2019 Upgrade to Big Sur left me stuck in a boot loop

Given that you can get to 95% of the install, I'm going on the assumption that you don't have a firmware password nor FileVault enabled.
First thing I would do is go a step further with the erasure of the disk.  More than likely, you've got APFS containers set up and if one of the volumes is corrupt and you're not properly removing it (via the format), this boot loop could be a symptom.  So, let's wipe it clean and put a plain macOS file system on it (not APFS).  When you boot into Recovery, launch Terminal and type the following command:
$ diskutil JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0

Normally on a MacBook laptop, the internal drive is disk0, but to be completely certain, you can do a diskutil list and look for the "internal" drive, similar to what's below:
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

Next, once you've done that, reboot your Mac, again into Recovery.  You likely don't have to reboot, but let's start nice and clean.  As for operating systems, you should be able to install Catalina, but if you run into issues, try installing Mojave.
When you go to erase the disk this time using the GUI version of Disk Utility, erase it again, but this time use  APFS format so it can create the necessary volumes in the container.  Then proceed with the install.
This should "get you back to back to zero" - a phrase that means back to where you started.  When you go to install Big Sur, get an external USB 3 drive.  It doesn't have to be large - 64GB should be fine, but I recommend USB 3 for the speed.  Don't install Big Sur (or any beta OS for that matter) on your "work machine."  If things go sideways, like they did here, you'll have trouble getting back.  By installing and booting from a USB drive, you can easily revert back to your original macOS.


MacBook not letting me log out of Guest Account

If you're not positive that your bro has Guest Account access set up, OS X introduced a new feature related to 'Find My Mac' that creates a sandboxed fake Guest Account in order to make it easier to recover your mac in case it gets stolen, luring the thief to go and connect to some random Wi-Fi with the guest account.

Maybe that's what's going on, you could easily restart and login to any account you like though.


Safari Autofill is using the wrong Contacts card

Check that the correct card is selected as your "Me" card in Contacts. Open Contacts and select "Go to My Card" from the Card menu. If the wrong one is selected, find the correct one, select it and mark it with "Mark This My Card" from the card menu.

Within Safari Preferences you could also check the AutoFill tab. Make sure "Using info from my Contacts card" is ticked.


When you create an account on a Mac, it is 501.

The 2nd account you create is 502. And so on.

When you use rsync, it copies the files as your User ID because that's all a non-root user can do.

When you ran rsync as 'sudo' it thought you wanted to copy the user as well as the file.

You should be able to fix it with

sudo chown -R $USER /path/to/rsync'd/files/

ps - you can see your user number using the id command in Terminal.


How to get photos from my phone to my mac as quickly as possible?

Airdrop is best solutions for that but it's seems your MacBook unable to detect your iPhone because it's older version.
However in your MacBook there has an option under Airdrop like "Search for older device" you can use this option for older device to transfer your photos or you can use Image capture(through spotlight search)


Use laptop keyboard as an external keyboard for my ipad

The 1Keyboard app allows you to use your Mac keyboard to control an iPad or iPhone. It's great app that I have used for years on both devices. It doesn't allow you to use the a mouse or trackpad, though, but for typing it works flawlessly. (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the app maker.)


So, the answer is

route -n get -inet6 2606:4700:4700::1111

I find this syntax extremely cryptic and, the worst part, it is impossible to figure out from the help output and even understanding this after reading the man page is tricky.


Quick way to enable only the web searches I want in Quicksilver

The latest Web Search plug-in from http://qsapp.com/plugins/ has newer lists that don’t rely on Blacktree. You should install it.

And if you don’t want to use the defaults (I don’t), just go into Preferences → Catalog → Plugins and uncheck them. No need to go digging into bundles and hacking at their property lists.

From there, you can add your own using the method if your choice. (Manually, bookmarks, OmniWeb search shortcuts, etc.)

Changes you make inside the plug-in’s bundle will be destroyed on every upgrade. Use the catalog preferences to ensure your search list stays around.


How to safely and successfully use Bootcamp?

I've never run into any issues like that using Bootcamp. Bootcamp allows you to natively boot into Windows instead of OSX, so it gets all of your resources. All the processor cores, all the RAM, and the entire graphics card. The only decision you have to make is how big your partition has to be for Windows.

How much space you assign to Windows depends on how much stuff you plan on putting in your Windows installation. Windows 7 itself takes close to 16 GB of hard drive space. You'll want plenty more for game installations, Windows Updates, and other things.

Unfortunately this decision has to be made upfront, and changing the size later down the road isn't straight forward (though possible). You can repartition the drive, but the Windows NTFS partition is not going to expand to use the unallocated disk space. That usually requires booting into another linux OS and extending the partition. This in itself has always been somewhat risky. If you do end up having to resize partitions, backup both OSX and Windows completely.

I've had little to no problems using Bootcamp. Perhaps it's matured more since you last used it. The only problem I run into is Windows will only ever see the discrete GPU, so the battery doesn't last terribly long.


If you want to prevent usage of the app completely, you can enable restrictions (Settings > General > Restrictions) and turn off the toggle for News.

iOS 10 also lets you delete default apps like News, but keep in mind that it could be re-downloaded from the App Store (unless you enable the restriction for Installing Apps too).


iMessage and iCloud have lots of issues with delivery, sync, and reliability. There's no fix, but you can always write feedback to Apple or file a bug report (free developer account required).


It is Graphic for iPad.  It was Autodesk Graphic, but it appears Autodesk sold it back to founders they acquired 3 years ago.

http://www.graphic.com


Travel time not automatically generated in Calenders

Try reentering the address so that Calendar registers it as an address (addresses will be suggested to you when as you type) rather than a mere string - that worked for me.


Trackpad and keyboard of MacBook Pro unresponsive

While I agree with Tetsujin that you need to ask the repair shop for details, it probably helps to understand some terminology.

"Top Case", at least to me, is a bit of a misnomer.  You would think it would be the "top" or the case around the screen not the part that has the keyboard assembly...but hey...it is what it is.

Anyway... the top case is the general term for the entire assembly that has the top cover of the Logic board, the keyboard, track pad, and power button.

When there is an issue with any one of these components, people generally say "it's the topcase" because it is royal PITA to change the individual components out.  However, on the MBP 2014 model, you can replace the trackpad w/o disassembling the topcase.  It still is a PITA, though.

Here are some instruction on that repair for your reference.

Now..... "why did it go bad?"  Any number of reasons from liquid damage, hitting it too hard, or it just wore out.

Is it defective and can you get it replaced?  Yes.

The follow up question is "is your MBP under warranty or AppleCare?"  If not, then you will be paying for the repair out of pocket.

I hope that sheds some light on the problem.


How to copy file/folder beginning with dot from Mac to PC without hidden attribute?

Let's assume for this example that your ".htaccess" file is located in the root directory of your mounted Windows share. Let's also say the Windows volume is called "WindowsShare". Finally, let's say you want to copy this file to your Desktop.

Open Terminal. Type in cd /Volumes/WindowsShare. Then type in cp .htaccess ~/Desktop. You can modify this as needed based on your file locations and file names.


How to increase mouse tracking speed beyond the maximum for MacOS Mojave 10.14?

The app SteerMouse has multiple adjustments for tracking speed and acceleration, which go beyond the limits imposed by the macOS controls. I've used it for years to resolve the same complaint. SteerMouse 5.3.8 works happily on Mojave.


How to restore the AddressBook database from backup

First, the database file is ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/*.abcddb (with abcddb meaning Address Book CoreData database). The files in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Metadata have extensions like .abcdp (Address Book CoreData person) and .abcdg (Address Book CoreData group). The metadata files can serve as a backup if the .abcddb goes bad or missing. So if you want to restore those abcdp files, you need to:

Back up your Address Book data
Quit all applications
Move, rename, or delete the .abcddb file mentioned above
Put the abcdp files into the Metadata subdirectory listed above
Launch Address Book.app
Select and drag the contacts out to save them in one or more vCard files
Restore your Address Book backup created in step 1
Import the vCard(s) created in step 6

If you need any help or clarification on this technique, please leave a comment. I hope this works for you!


How do I make Outlook download images automatically/by default

Outlook Mail Settings

Go to Preferences... ⌘+, in Outlook
Select Reading under Email
The Security settings allow you change "Automatically download pictures from the Internet:"

In all messages
In messages from my contacts
Never

The default is never, that is why the 'banner' appears.  Change it to one of the other options based on your preferred usage.


Time Machine: Can I back up different clients to different disks?

Yes - assuming you have OS X server running on the Mac Pro, you could share each drive under a different name and enable both for Time Machine backups.

You could then configure some portion of the machines to hit share A and the rest to hit share B. Since each computer stores backup contents in a sparse disk bundle, you could even shift a backup or two to the other drive and then reconfigure things if your initial allocation wasn't working after some time passes.


iTunes - don't know how to moves songs from library to library in same computer

Here's what I do. I drag the items from iTunes to a folder, such as one on the Desktop. When you drag items from iTunes, their actual files will copy to a folder or window. I then quit iTunes, launch it again, choose the other library, and drag that folder onto the iTunes window, or to an empty playlist.


Bash script to click button on an HTML page

You should consider using opensource Selenium.

With a Selenium IDE plugin to Firefox you can record your actions (opening a page, clicking on a button), replay these songs, and generate Python or Ruby scripts rich you can customise and call from CLI.

Sample script testing default Apache availability might look like this:

#!/usr/local/bin/python

DEST_URL='http://webserver.dev/'

import unittest
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.proxy import *

class WebInterfaceTest(unittest.TestCase):

  def setUp(self):
     self.driver = webdriver.Firefox()

  def tearDown(self):
     self.driver.quit()

  def test_web_interface(self):
    self.driver.get(DEST_URL)
    self.assertIn('Apache2 Debian Default Page: It works', self.driver.title)

if __name__ == "__main__":
  unittest.main()


USB-C to Lightning cable: Connecting iPhone to USB-C peripherals

No, plugging your Lightning to USB-C cable into a display with USB-C inputs would not allow the iPhone to send video to the display.  The Lightning to HDMI adapter actually has a small computer (as in small enough to fit in a single chip) inside to do the HDMI conversion.  Here's someone that tore one of those adapters apart:  https://boingboing.net/2019/07/29/teardown-of-apples-lightning.html
If you were to connect your iPhone to most USB-C docks then it's not likely to do much but maybe charge your phone.  Most USB-C docks rely on the connected host to provide a DisplayPort signal, and the dock has a chip in it (perhaps much like that Lightning dock) to provide the HDMI conversion.  Maybe a dock like you describe exists, I just have my doubts.
The Lightning to USB-C cable I have, which is not from Apple, can only charge my iPhone and provide USB 2.0 data to and from my MacBook.  I tried plugging in different USB-C devices and it doesn't appear to support attaching anything else.
This brings my own question to this answer...
Would an Apple Lightning to USB-C cable be able to do more?  Such as allow for USB 3.0 speeds to my MacBook Pro for things like being an internet hot spot, or move files back and forth?  Or allow me to connect USB-C drive and transfer files?
I'm rather disappointed with the Lightning to USB-C cable I have.  I was expecting far more than just a USB 2.0 cable.  I was not expecting HDMI out of such a cable, just something more than 12 watts charging and faster USB data than 480 Mbps.


ok, there's an eject button:

I held that down at boot.  Still get the grub error, but at least the DVD's ejected.


I was wondering if I could put some sort of file in the root directory of the thumb drive that would turn it into one.

No this wouldn't work
Auto-running applications is not supported in macOS (see stackexchange question How do I automatically run an application on USB attach or CD insert on Mac OS X?).  You would need to persuade your target user to run a program/script in which case it is just a program/script and nothing like a rubber ducky.
A rubber ducky only looks like a USB - it simulates keyboard input through hardware. Hak5 describe history of USB RUBBER DUCKY here:

Did you know the first USB Rubber Ducky was invented by Hak5 founder Darren Kitchen while working as a sysadmin?
Tired of typing the same commands to fix printers and network shares again and again, the device evolved out of laziness.
He programmed a development board to emulate the typing for him - and thus the keystroke injection attack was born.
Needing a case - a miniature bath time friend, the rubber ducky, was requisitioned.

and current version is

Featuring a fast 60 MHz 32-bit CPU, convenient type-A USB connector, Micro SD expandable memory, programmable payload replay button, JTAG interface with GPIO and DFU bootloader


Where is the screenshot property list now located in Mavericks?

Looking at my MBA with 10.9.2 it is still in the

  User/myname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.screencapture.plist

As it turns out, the .plist will only exist (be created) if you modify the screencapture settings, like location to save and others.


How to port forward port 25565 on airport time capsule

The port forwarding settings on Airport Utility require a private IP to be specified - is the port definitely forwarding to that IP address? Try setting it up as static on the device instead of reserving a dynamic IP.


Using the iPad Pro with Apple digital AV Adapter and headphone jack adapter

The USB-C port on the Digital AV Multiport adapter is for charging only. It doesn't carry any data at all - and therefore also not sound.


Set a passcode on the device.  End of problem.


Restore Time Machine Backup on an older OS

I did the same thing by using a USB installer and migrated data from the Time Machine backup during the install (it's one of the choices during the install). In my experience the data (minus the OS) should come back to Mojave but it may not be visible in the list of backups to choose from when choosing a backup source during the install. To explain further:

When I installed Catalina I chose to migrate data from the Time Machine backup of Mojave which was successful. In the brief period of time I had Catalina it made maybe 1 or 2 Time Machine backups. When I chose to erase the SSD, and install Mojave again, Catalina appeared to have changed the file extension of the backup from .sparsebundle to .backupbundle . This stopped Time Machine on Mojave from being able to show me the backup to select (imagine my heart rate). So, erased again, installed Catalina, and after browsing the Time Machine backup in Finder, I could see the old backup there, changed the file extension from .backupbundle to .sparsebundle , erased the SSD again, installed Mojave and presto, the previous Mojave backup was visble again. The data migrated successfully for the most part (except my Contacts which is a whole other story).


Why does my Terminal window close automatically?

If you have a system administrator that has blocked terminal, you should get permission from your system administrator to unblock it.


Move focus between buttons in confirm dialogs OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

There are two ways to allow the Mac to move focus between dialog boxes.

One is by going into System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts and clicking the All Controls Radio button on the bottom.

Another way to do is is by hitting Fn+⌃+F7 to toggle between All Controls and Text boxes and lists only (^+F7 if you haven't switched the apple media keys to Fn keys).


From the Mac OS X 10.5 Help

  Use quotation marks around text to
  search for exact phrases — the same
  way you do with most Internet
  searches. For example, enter “trip to
  France” in the search field to find
  items on your computer that contain
  that exact phrase. If you didn't use
  quotes, the search results would
  include items that contain any of
  those words.


If I erase my iPhone, will this erase my iCloud too?

No, factory resetting your iPhone will not alter your iCloud. Upon setting up your iPhone again you will be given the option to reconnect to your iCloud account if you desire. iCloud also stores iPhone backups that you can restore your phone from. Apple's apps are really good about storing items in iCloud, however many others are not. If you are worried about losing your content, be safe and make a local backup to a machine through iTunes, just to be safe. Alternatively, I believe you could schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar and have them reset your phone for you.
EDIT: If you have "Find My iPhone" enabled, no one will be able to use that device without your iCloud login credentials.


Downloading an old app released for an older version of iOS

Honestly I do not believe it is possible. You may have to find yourself an iOS device that already has iOS 7 on it in order to download this app.

It is also likely that even if you could download it, it just would not run as iOS has changed a lot since iOS 7.

If you have an iOS device that supports iOS 7 you may be able to jailbreak it and install an earlier version of iOS (iOS 7) from unauthorized download locations. But that is way beyond the scope of what we discuss and support here. So you would have to go elsewhere for help with that.


Any way to export multiple playlists to m3u at once?

Just using iTunes by itself, I do not know of a way to export multiple playlists at the same time, as one can only select one playlist in the Sidebar at a time.
Normally to export a playlist in iTunes one would, e.g., select the target playlist in the Sidebar and then click: File > Library > Export Playlist…
This then brings up a Save dialog box, e.g.:

To semi-automate the process I assigned a keyboard shortcut of ⌘E to the Export Playlist… in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts, as shown the image below.
This allows me to easily bring up the Save dialog box without having to navigate the menus, and I can then just use the keyboard to easily walk through saving one playlist after the other.
It's easy to get into a rhythm, select the first playlist, then ⌘E > enter > down-arrow > ⌘E > enter > down-arrow > etc.

To further semi-automate the process, you can use a bit of AppleScript in Script Editor.
Example AppleScript code:
activate application "iTunes"
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
    repeat 1 times
        keystroke "e" using command down
        delay 0.5
        key code 36 # return key
        delay 0.5
        key code 125 # down-arrow key
        delay 0.5
    end repeat
end tell

Change repeat 1 times to the number of times you want it to repeat.
Then in iTunes select the first playlist on the Sidebar and then run the script from Script Editor.
This example AppleScript code assumes you've already once selected the Where: and Format: and will use the default names in the Save As:, none of which are the same, and there are no playlists currently at the Where: that would interfere with the limited example AppleScript code. Otherwise, additional coding will be necessary.
If you want to use the example AppleScript code without assigning a keyboard shortcut for the Export Playlist… command, then in place of keystroke "e" using command down use:
    click menu item "Export Playlist…" of ¬
        menu "Library" of ¬
        menu item "Library" of ¬
        menu "File" of ¬
        menu bar item "File" of ¬
        menu bar 1 of ¬
        application process "iTunes"

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Jailbroken iPhone stuck on Apple Logo after installing tweak

Usually, there are at least 5 ways to fix an iPhone stuck on Apple screen after jailbreak:

Force restart the iPhone;
Use the Volume Up, Home and Power buttons;
Update or restore iPhone in recovery mode;
Restore iPhone in DFU mode;
Use a third-party tool.


Change the shortcut of cmd+Q for all applications

This should change the shortcut to ⇧⌘Q for most currently installed applications:

defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add $(mdfind kMDItemContentType==com.apple.application-bundle | grep -v { |
sed 's/.*\//Quit /g;s/\.app$//g;'"s/'/\\''\\'/g;s/^/'/g;s/$/' '\$@q'/g" | uniq | tr '\n' ' ')

You could also use KeyRemap4MacBook to change ⌘Q to some other key combination or require holding or pressing it twice to quit an application.


Open up the terminal and try:

zipinfo zipFileOfInterest.zip

If you really want some "verbose" information output, then enter:

zipinfo -v zipFileOfInterest.zip

The "-v" option will output a bit more information :)

Also, try man zipinfo to get the rundown of what options/etc is available.

You can also try:

unzip -l zipFileOfInterest.zip

These will allow you to peak inside the .zip without extracting what is inside.


Sync/transfer TV Shows and Movies from iPhone to Mac?

This answer has instructions which should be having the effect you desire.


Go to iTunes Menu > Preferences > Advanced (Tab).

In there you can change the iTunes Media folder location. Make sure you have your new drive connected first and select the location on the new drive you want to move it to. Press OK.

IIRC it tries to move your files immediately. If not, after clicking OK in the Preferences window, go to File > Library > Organize Library. In here, check "Consolidate files". Then hit OK to start the process. It will start moving all your files from ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media to the new location you selected. Even if it does something after you change the location, you might want to consolidate just to be safe.

This process will keep your library intact, and relink all the items in your library to the new copies of the files. However, keep in mind that the iTunes library file itself (very small) will still be stored at ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl. You DO NOT want to delete that.

It leaves behind the original media files at ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media. After verifying that the copy was successful, you'll want to delete that folder, not the entire ~/Music/iTunes folder.

Good luck!


How can I delete Image Capture's history of past "Scan To" folders?

Here's a workaround that just succeeded for me.

In the Image Capture utility, open the Scan To: pop-up menu, and remember each folder in the "history list" part. Not just the name of the folder, but its parent folder.
Quit the Image Capture utility.
In Finder, rename each of the folders from the "history list" part. You don't need to delete the folders, but you do need to be sure that nothing exists at the path where each of the folders was.
Run the Image Capture utility again. Open the Scan To: pop-up menu. The history part should be empty.

Worked for me, on Mac OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.


Does send last location work with location services off?

Location services need to be turned on in order for Send Last Location to work. If it's turned off, like you have it, no location will be tracked.

You can turn on Location Services in Settings > Privacy > Location Services and then turn off Location Services for each individual app if you don't want the apps to have it. Unfortunately, that's the only way to do it.


Can I read the synced iBooks books from iTunes as well?

The books and PDFs are stored, as all other media files (if media organization is turned on), in your iTunes Media Folder (Music/iTunes/iTunes Media). You can use Adobe Digital Editions or any other ePub reader for OS X to read them.


Macbook Pro won't go past OS X Utilities

I tried repairing the hard drive in Disk Utility with first aid, but it says it can't complete the repair

Upon this kind of error, the first thing to understand is that you can't
achieve anything of any value with your internal disk as long as it is
in this unusable state.

This explains fully that your Mac is automatically trying a recovery.

Get (or make) a bootable USB key or DVD installer (they should be safe and obviously not built with your unsafe MacBook Pro).

Boot from it.

Start Utilities, Disk Utility and try to repair your internal disk
from a safe version of Disk Utility.

If you succeed,

then install a clean version of the version of MacOS X you can install
from an external safe medium (USB key or DVD installer),

else replace your internal disk.


The Boot Camp Assistant works under very strict conditions. Failure occurs when any one of the conditions is ignored. In your case, the condition was using Sierra. Apple expects you to install the latest version of macOS available for your model Mac.

The firmware needed to allow booting from ExFAT formatted media is installed when upgrading to High Sierra. Since you are using Sierra, your Mac probably has not had this firmware upgrade. The default Windows 10 ISO file, downloaded from Microsoft when running macOS, contains the file install.wim, which is to large to store in a FAT32 formatted volume. However, the Windows 10 ISO or USB flash drive, created using the media creation tool, substitutes a install.esd file for the install.wim file. Basically, .esd files use a better compression algorithm than .wim files. The result is the install.esd file can be stored on FAT32 formatted volumes. You could use a ExFAT (or maybe FAT32) formatted flash drive to transfer the Windows 10 ISO, created using the media create tool, from machine running Windows to your Mac running Sierra.

  Note: I do not know, if the install.wim file contains the same data as the install.esd file. There may very well be extra files in the install.wim version that Macs need that does not exist in the install.esd version.

Your model Mac is designed to BIOS boot Windows 7 and UEFI boot Windows 10. When BIOS booting Windows, the installation drive needs to be hybrid partitioned. The Boot Camp Assistant automatically determines, if hybrid partitioning is needed for a Windows installation by inspecting the Windows USB flash drive. Of course, the assumption is the files on the flash drive were created by the Boot Camp Assistant. From the way you worded your question, apparently the only files on the flash drive were put there by the Microsoft media creation tool.

The GUI Windows installer will only install for BIOS booting when the installation drive is hybrid partitioned, otherwise Windows will be installed for UEFI booting. Your model Mac should install Windows 10 to UEFI boot, primarily because the Windows Support Software is designed for a UEFI booting Windows 10.

  Note: The message No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key is a indication the firmware is trying to BIOS boot the Windows installation media. The media should be UEFI booting.

Options:

Try using the ISO file which can be created using the media create tool.
Upgrade to a newer version of macOS.
Install Windows using the macOS and Windows CLI. This option requires many steps which were omitted from this answer.


Does Thunderbolt support chaining multiple monitors to a MacBook Pro?

The MacBook Pro allows two Thunderbolt displays to be hooked up. apple.com/displays


Try PortMap -- it's free, universal binary (PPC and Intel), and supports a variety of routers.  Just have it map ports 22 (SSH) and 5900 (VNC).  Note: I'd recommend  using nonstandard public ports, to cut down on the number of password-guessing scans you'll get, and also making sure you don't have any accounts with easy-to-guess passwords (because you'll still get a few scans, no matter how creative you are with port numbers).


What is the best way to print them without having to print them one by one, or combine them into a merged PDF using 3rd party software...it only prints out the page at the default paper size, it does not give me any print options.

You have to set your print options in the document itself so you shouldn't have to specify any options.  For example, if you wanted this particular job to be in color on the card stock found in Tray 2, you would have defined in the Page Setup that it was on "card stock."  In the printer setting, you define that tray 2 has card stock in it, so when the print job is called, it will automatically "know" that its to pull paper from Tray 2.
Use CUPS
Well, macOS uses CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) to handle it's printing tasks.  Part of CUPS is lp where you can submit jobs to be printed.  This gives us a few options here:

You can specify options for each or a batch of similar jobs
You can create a queue with predefined options and just send a job to that queue.

A couple of examples:
To print out all of the PDFs in a directory formatted landscape, you could just issue the command
$ lp  -o landscape *.pdf

To print out a doc file on A4 media, you could issue the command
$ lp -o media=A4 MyPaper.doc

See Command-Line Printing and Options for more details.
The other option is queues (filters) that allow you to specify a predetermined set of options and send your print jobs to them.  The beauty is, you can have any number of filters for a single printer.  The downside is there's a lot more work up front to set these up, but the pay off is if you have lots of jobs, it will be much more efficient.
You can review the CUPS documentation on how to set up filters, but I've found the FreeBSD tutorial on setting up filters a bit easier to follow.


Do iPhone chargers need any certification to correctly work?

It is not necessary that the charger is MFI certified to work at all, nor is it necessary to get fast charging working. Depending on the model of your iPhone and iPad, you can use a standard USB-C charger to charge the device - fast or slow.


Are there known bluetooth LE issues using OSX 10.12.5 that result in missing packet data?

The issue of packet loss was due to the different minimum connection intervals allowed on different operating systems and the amount of data my peripheral was attempting to output. Due to the requirements of the project we need fairly high throughput. My original assessment of getting positive and negative results from the same operating system were incorrect due to some confounding variables. The same packet loss was occurring on all mac machines I tested. Greater packet loss was occurring using os x vs using ubuntu because there is a theoretical limit on the minimum connection interval of 20ms for all apple software interfacing with corebluetooth. I'm not sure if ubuntu imposes a similar limit but I was definitely observing less packet loss using ubuntu. My hunch is that there is no artificial limit and the connection interval could have been at the ble minimum of 7.5ms but I will have to do some more research to figure out what the number actually is.


The first thing that you can try is doing a hard shutdown by holding both the power button and the home button for at least ten seconds. If your device still does not turn on or respond, you can try putting it into DFU Mode (recovery mode). To do this, start by plugging your device into your computer with the USB cable. Then hold the power button for around 5 seconds. While you are still holding the power button, press and hold the home button for an additional 10 seconds. At this time, release the power button but keep holding the home button for around 15 seconds. At this point, iTunes should recognize your phone as a device in recovery mode. To exit recovery mode, hold the power button and the home buttons until the device begins booting.


Is my Bluetooth Connection to Magic Track Pad Encrypted?

All bluetooth connections to Mac OS X are lightly encrypted by default as part of the pairing process. Unless someone is bringing an intentional effort (e.g. technical knowledge and specialized hardware) to bear, your keyboard and data connections are more secure than a good WiFi network. Cracking encrypted bluetooth is not easy unless you can access the computer or capture the pairing session data.

Apple's Bluetooth keyboard, for example, has a pretty complex passphrase that is unique to each device. The trackpad, magic mouse and keyboard all use the same Broadcom bluetooth chip as well.

To paraphrase, the level of protection depends on the length and uniqueness of your device's passphrase, and how often you change it (which only happens when you re-pair a keyboard, for instance, not sure if it even changes then for the trackpad).

For details see how secure is Bluetooth encryption? (though beware, it's from 2004); also Which wireless keyboard is most secure? has some interesting reading, but doesn't really focus on BT security.


By default, iTunes is not going to copy your Music CD tracks from one Mac to the other, though Apple does offer more than one paid method to have them moved for you.

There are free ways too, multiple of them, and this article from Apple goes over some options: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204318


Remote control of iPad pro from another touchscreen display

Unfortunately, Apple does not allow remotely controlling an iOS device, but if you are jailbroken, you can use the Veency tweak:

Open Cydia to search for and install Veency.
Respring when prompted.
Go to Settings > Veency and choose the settings you want.
Figure out your IP address by going to Settings > Wifi > click the "i" next to your currently connected network and the IP address should be listed there.
Open up a VNC client on your computer and connect to your device by inputting the IP address when prompted.


Switching Apple ID on iPad (without losing progress)

I think most people worry about this when they stop sharing an iPad. I used to hear these concerns all the time at the AASP I worked at. Let's address each issue in turn.

Apps will still remain associated to your mom's Apple ID, but they won't disappear. If you sign out of your mom's account and sign in with the new one, the apps stay exactly where they are. The only snag is, when it comes time to update, you will be asked for your mom's Apple ID and password to update them.
None of the data saved in apps will disappear when you switch an Apple ID as it is all saved locally on the device (except in the case of online games such as Clash of Clans etc, but they usually require you to log in with a 3rd Party service such as Facebook which then stores your save data instead).
Unfortunately, the Game Centre achievements are linked to your mom's Apple ID and if you sign out of hers and in with another, those achievements will disappear. Often, games feature a local achievement board which will remain on the device, and there is a chance it would sync to the new Apple ID, but in most cases I'm afraid you'll have to get those achievements again. But hey, look at it this way, that old game you haven't played in months? You can have some more fun with it again trying to set your old high score! ;)

You can have a look at another post of mine here where I talk about backing up and restoring save games on an iPad when switching users. You can use the information in there to backup your saves, then delete the games and re-download them with the new Apple ID to circumvent the annoying need for your mom's Apple ID whenever they need to be updated.

Obviously, any purchased apps and games would need to be re-purchased if you do this, so I would recommend your mom enable Family Sharing on her Apple ID and add the new Apple ID to the family so you can access her purchases without paying for them again.


iOS 11 crashing/freezing when apps launch

This is a bug that many ios 11.0 to 11.0.3 users are facing. On iOS 11.1 developer beta 5 however, it seems fixed. iOS 11.1 should be rolling out soon and it fixes this issue and many other battery issues. Until then, there isn't really any good solution. Hope this helps.

On iOS 11.1, if you still get the error, just back up and restore. That should work.


If I understand your question correctly you can:

sign into your our Game Center on your iPad 3
delete the app from the original iPad (making a backup first)
sign into your friend's Game Center on your iPad
reload the game and verify the correct village loaded

Once that is done, you should have both villages intact.


Reset/reformat FileVault-protected machine without login password, macOS Catalina

Firmware password is something you need the password or Apple’s willing assistance to bypass.
FileVault and data encryption is trivial to erase by booting to another OS (Internet Recovery is often the easiest other OS) to wipe and reinstall.
Firmware password and hardware failures are the only things that interfere with an erase and install in my experience, once you have reviewed a couple support articles.
Here are the relevant references and definitions:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455 Firmware
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314 Recovery
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496 Erase


Keynote - playing slide - three finger swipe won't switch applications

Three finger swipe won't work in Keynote 2013.

There is quite a complicated way to exit and flip applications here.

There is a simple way to flip to the last used application by pressing H.


How can I create a new imovie theme (or customize an existing one)?

The themes are stored within the Application bundle itself, which is code signed, so even if you figure out how to modify them - the OS will not want to run the tampered application.

You might be better off with the Pro Version of the tool if you need to customize a theme and control or you might be able to create the title and end sequences in Motion and use iMovie for the rest of the editing. That's far less expensive than the Final Cut Pro price - but you can test drive that for free if you wish.

https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/


How to find culprit blocking TCP ports 80, 443, and 5223 on macOS?

There are two things you confuse:

FaceTime and iMessage require communication on ports specified in the article for outbound connections.
Your "Permission denied" message is related to opening the port 80 for inbound connections. It's not because of any process blocking it, but if you want to make a process listen on a port less than 1024, you need to use root, so:

sudo python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80


How to Assign CTRL-Super-T to BASH Shell

Open automator, New > Workflow/ Service.
Add "Launch Application" to the workflow:

Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Right click on the General > Show in Finder. Or alternatively navigate to /Users/you/Library/Services.
Copy the workflow there.
In system Preferences, it will show up and then bind a shortcut to it.


I've set up iCloud music library but iMac still shows 25 G used, Why is this?

It's not moved to iCloud; it's just uploaded, as a kind of backup. You can just remove the music via iTunes; it will ask you if you want to delete it from iCloud as well, or if you only want to delete the local copy.

Have you set up backup via iCloud for your iPhone and iPad? If so, you can delete the mobile applications; the apps themselves are not backed up (so they don't take iCloud storage space) but will be readily downloaded from the App Store archives when you restore a backup. (Backup via iCloud does take storage space, but for local files and settings.)

[EDIT]

Should you ever want to re-install an app to your iPhone and/or iPad that is no longer available on the App Store (or an older version of an app that's no longer available) then having a local copy is advantageous.

However, assuming you have a backup regime in place (e.g. you have Time Machine enabled) then your iTunes library should already be backed up, so in theory you'd still have local copies of your apps available (at least until they're overwritten).


List of Macbook Pro's with user replaceable parts

All new Retina MacBook Pro models don't have user serviceable parts. You can still buy a non-retina MBP which do have user serviceable parts. I believe the latest model is Mid-2012. It is a bit old but it is the only MBP that you can change components without the need to solder things.


Can you give me buying advice of a 6970 card in a 27" iMac for just Photoshop, Lightroom, no video or games?

Well, it appears that some features of Photoshop CS5 may perform better with a good graphics card. One of these features that is particularly obvious is the new 3D functionality added to Photoshop. Also, there's an Adobe TV episode titled "Photoshop's Graphics Card Power Helps You Save Time". Here's a description of the episode:

  Use the power of your graphics card to navigate to any area of an image with new, ultra-smooth zooming and panning. Edit at the highest magnification and use the new Rotate View tool to smoothly turn your canvas for distortion-free viewing at any angle.

If you check out this Adobe Forums thread, they talk about the features that use the GPU (which can benefit from a better graphics card). Here are some of these features:

Mercury Graphics Engine: "The Mercury Graphics Engine (MGE) represents features that use video card, or GPU, acceleration. In Photoshop CS6, this new engine delivers near-instant results when editing with key tools such as Liquify, Warp, Lighting Effects and the Oil Paint filter. The new MGE delivers unprecedented responsiveness for a fluid feel as you work."
Adapative Wide Angle Filter
Liquify
Oil Paint
Warp and Puppet Warp
Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt/Shift
Lighting Effects Gallery

Also, Adobe posted a blog entry titled "How to tune Photoshop CS5 for Peak Performance", and in it they say this:

  Photoshop is taking advantage of the powerful processor contained on these cards (called the graphics processing unit or GPU) to help speed up performance and activate a set of special GPU-accelerated features such as canvas rotation, panning and zooming, Adobe Repoussé, and Adobe Pixel Bender® filters.

So to sum it up, a better graphics card would greatly improve performance when doing 3D work with Repoussé and also with 2D work to an extent, but I guess you would have to determine for yourself if you're going to use Repoussé or the various filters that benefit from a better graphics card. In my opinion, if you can spare the money, then I would go for it, because you never know what you'll do in the future, but it's definitely not necessary to buy one.


I live in Taipei, how can I get help by chat in English?

You can switch the country (and the language) at the bottom of https://getsupport.apple.com/


Video file does not appear under Windows Explorer

You have to install iTunes to get a better driver. With this the 4 GB file is recognized. The default Win 10 driver can't do this ...


iPhone almost always defaults to Music app over Spotify

It's nothing to do with your iphone it's generally an option on your stereo settings. On my ford fusion, I can select between two apps - Podcasts and Music. I guess it depends on whether your stereo was precisely developed for iPhone or it is generic for any other bluetooth connection.


Publishing multiple iOS apps using different developer accounts

Does Apple monitors what apps upload from the same Mac?

No.

  Can I run into any troubles?

No.

  Does this interfere with apps review?

No.

You should be absolutely fine given that you have proper distribution certificates setup for both the accounts and you use the correct ones while creating the app archive and publishing them.

Publishing apps for different account is a routine activity performed by freelancers and companies engaged in offering bespoke iOS development services.


How do i remove favorites folders from my ipad on ios 9.1?

I bet you're also syncing your iCloud bookmarks to PC and didn't think it was relevant.

I fixed this issue for myself earlier today by going into Chrome on my PC and deleting all the multiple "Bookmarks Bar" folders I found. It seems a new one was created any time a change was made in the iOS Favorites folder, and I guess when Chrome would then try to sync its own bookmarks back to iCloud, that's when it would create the duplicate folders on the iPad and iPhone.

If the issue comes back then I may just disable iCloud bookmark syncing on the PC entirely.


People keep recieving facetime calls from my phone but I have not called them, Also when when they answer it is a different person. what has happened?

Seems to me your apple id is compromised and someone else is using it.
Though I don't know why they'd call people in your contacts list.
I'd suggest resetting your password ASAP!


Disk Utility says Bootcamp partition has storage left but in Windows, the C: disk says there is no volume left?

Very likely pagefile &/or hiberfile, each of which can be the same size, or even larger than, your total RAM size. You can remove/disable the hiberfile but not the pagefile.
Having only 8GB free space on a drive is actually critically low anyway. You ought to have at least 10% even on a large drive/boot volume. On a tiny drive unfortunately you really need even more. 15 - 20 GB would be the minimum free space I'd recommend on a drive that size.
How-to-Geek has an article on how to disable hiberfile - What Is hiberfil.sys and How Do I Delete It? which I won't précis here as it's really a Windows issue not Mac. Basically, you stop Windows from allowing Hibernate then you can delete the file.
There are many disk/map/storage apps for Windows so you can see what may be using more space than you'd like -  I don't use Windows enough to know which might be best suited. This site lists several of them. Hongkiat - 10 Best Disk Space Analyzer for Windows 10
It is possible to customise your pagefile size, but I would recommend against this, & certainly against reducing it below your RAM size, as it can cause crashing/memory issues.


You have to use proper capitalization because paths in arguments are case-sensitive and I'm not sure if the double quotes are set properly to escape the blank. So try instead:

ditto -V smb://10.XXX.XXX.XXX/C/Users/john.smithy/Documents /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/john.smithy/Documents

or

ditto -V smb://10.XXX.XXX.XXX/C/Users/john.smithy/Documents "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/john.smithy/Documents"

This doesn't apply if one or both of the "Documents" folder really have the name "documents". At least the standard OS X volumes and users folder have the names Volumes and Users!


How do I suppress iTunes internet connection alerts when listening with Wi-Fi disabled?

Today I chatted with Apple Support who told me this is now expected behaviour, that iTunes looks for a connection. Not great.

I have recently moved to El Capitan and use iTunes 12.5.4, I too get this message even when I am offline.


How to see Gmail labels on the actual emails, in Mail.app?

So, check the following in Gmail:

Open up Gmail
Click the gear in the top right to open settings
Goto 'Labels'
Ensure the 'Show in IMAP' checkbox is ticked next to any labels you wish to see as folders in Apple Mail.

I hope this answers your question, and that this is what you where looking for.


What happens when someone in the US clicks on a GB itunes URL?

The view from Chicago is below. The prices are in GBP. When I click on the View in iTunes link, the prices change to USD.

Staying in my browser, if I change gb to us in your original URL, the prices change to USD but everything else seems to stay the same.


Why I can add folder to `On My iPad` location but I cannot add folder to `On My iPhone` location?

This is a new feature of iOS 13.
Your iPad is on iPadOS 14.2 so has the feature and your iPhone is on iOS 12.4.8 so does not have the feature.


Damaged iMac Display - Any Solution for Grey Vertical Column Lines?

Yes. Unfortunately, you damaged the display.
If seen this exact problem (different size and location of the bar) and it was due to a “hit” to the display along the edge of the glass.
These LCD panels are few and far between now in terms of availability. You may be able to source it used via eBay or find an iMac “for parts” that hopefully has a good LCD. Your other option would be to get a new(er) model And sell that as parts to help fund the replacement
Can you modify the display?  Unfortunately no. The screen is still reporting that it’s 2560 pixels wide (EDID data). It’s hard coded into the firmware so you can’t override it to trick macOS that it’s smaller and render the display output so it “bypasses” the defective part.


Does MBA early 2014 base model support 3440 x 1440 (WQHD ultrawide 21:9) external monitor?

Yes, Flawlessly!!!! in the image there is a lie the  2560 x 1080 is not 34-inches is 25-inches and that one is connected trough display link usb-hdmi adapter from toshiba, the 3440 x 1440 is 34-inches but you need thunderbolt cable, the macbook air early 2014 can run them both! Super happy!!! to the toshiba adapter I can even plug another 1920 x 1080, so I wonder if through daisy chain it can run two 34 inch... well the answer is yes!!


iPhone 5s won't turn on after water damage

I answered a similar question (probably a duplicate?) here: iPhone 6 water damage dark screen issue

There is a good post about using various methods such as silica, Damp-Rid, kitty litter and other products that work much better than rice.

An excerpt from that answer: Try the rice thing for a few days, you have nothing to lose at this point. When I used to take calls for AppleCare I had several customers tell me this worked, the idea being the rice would suck the water out. I don't believe it's really a great idea but it can't hurt at this point.

Having said that, your phone is pretty much toast, per the other answer. When I was lent out to the Apple store, we saw Macbooks and phones come in where the customer said they had "dried it out" but "it wasn't working" a few weeks later.

Invariably we'd open the thing up and see some residual water in there.

Sorry to say, you are probably on the road to a new phone. :( Now if you try a third-party place to repair it, at least the last time I worked for Apple about a year ago, if you put third-party parts in there Apple will never touch it to do a repair. Unlike Macs where you don't "void the warranty," any third party parts in an iOS device precludes Apple from doing any repairs in the future.

So balance out free (rice) vs. third-party screen (cheaper) vs. shiny new iPhone 6S!!

NOTE: Apple has an out of warranty replacement program but it's not a sure thing they'll apply it to a wet phone.


Problem with 1 Mac (out of 4 different Macs) having issue connecting to Airplay

I have not been able to fix the problem, after about 3 hours of trying.

Fortunately i found a work around which is Airparrot, it seems slightly counter intuitive to use a 3rd party app to run an native OSX function when speaking to another Apple product, but it works really well on the machine i was having an issue with.


It turns out the answer is reasonably simple, and completely obtuse.

You need to open the "Audio MIDI Setup" application (in /Applications/Utilities, if you haven't moved it), show the "Audio Devices" window (if it isn't open already), and choose the USB High Speed Audio device (hopefully there's only one - it should show '0 in / 2 out' for the DA-300).

The default format for output is 352800 Hz, but the DA-300 only supports 192000Hz.  Simply change the format popup for Hz to 192000 and you should be in business.  Both 2ch-24bit and 2ch-32bit sound work, although depending on your source data you may be happier with 24bit.


Turn on iCloud Photo Library without creating duplicates or zombies

In theory, it will detect all the duplicates on your Mac and not upload them. I suspect, but don’t actually know, that a photo on your Mac that you’ve previously deleted from iCloud Photo Library by deleting from your iPhone is going to get uploaded again. One thing you might want to do is create some albums on your iPhone and your Mac that you can use to look at what happened. For example, if one album has all your Mac photos in it while another has all your iPhone photos in it, after the upload completes, you can create an intelligent album of all the photos that were on the Mac but not on the iPhone during the time period that you took your iPhone photos. Those are likely to be the ones you deleted. Photos in Recently Deleted might get picked up as already deleted. Or maybe the engineers were super clever and have a checksum log of every deletion ever made.

Also, when you enable iPL on the Mac, iCloud is going to want you to have sufficienct space available to add every photo on the Mac (since it doesn’t know about dups yet) so you may need to increase the amount of space you are buying. You can reduce your plan after it’s completed if you don’t actually need the space.

The reconciliation can be a long process (days or even weeks) depending on the size of your library, the speed of your Mac, and the speed of your connection. It doesn’t actually upload duplicates, it just does some kind of a checksum comparison to detect them.


What can be done to fix a 2011 iMac that will not boot past the white screen?

Here is what you know from your excellent details:

The keyboard isn't working since all of the shortcuts get handled from the firmware in the Mac.
The Mac can't find any bootable OS X due to corruption or hardware failure

Why the keyboard isn't working isn't yet clear. I would disconnect everything including the power and then remove both RAM sticks - noting which was on the top and which was on the bottom.

Next, plug the Mac in and power it up with nothing connected. You should get three beeps indicating the POST (power on self test) detected no RAM. If you have severe hardware problems, it won't know the RAM is missing and you'll know you need to get inside to fix it.

Assuming this works, power it off after waiting to see if it boots in 5 minutes time (really wait that long for the Apple logo to show up). While you are waiting listen carefully for rhythmic noised from the hard drive. It shouldn't keep seeking past the first 45 seconds and if so - you will know the controller or the drive is faulty. It should spin quietly after a few minutes or be reading the drive if it's corrupt and the hardware / OS is trying to fix things.

Next - power it off by the button and put the "top" piece of RAM in the "bottom" slot and repeat. Lastly - if you get to the white screen at this point, try another keyboard (command-s or shift held down are the best options here for troubleshooting) to see if you can isolate the failure further.

I tried to make some assumptions about what is wrong and you can edit the question or ask another with the step that fails referring to this question if you want to isolate things further before attempting a repair.


dtrace/dtruss command to see what files a command tries to open?

You may want to try iosnoop.  See here: http://dtrace.org/blogs/brendan/2011/10/10/top-10-dtrace-scripts-for-mac-os-x/

It's been a long time since I used it; the Sierra/High Sierra equivalent is fs_usage, so maybe you have access to that too.  Also if you install Homebrew (brew.sh), you can download and install many command-line utilities not already present in the OS.


Fake Chromium showing on launchpad and won't uninstall

Check System Profiler → Software → Applications to see if you have it installed somewhere else. You can see where it's installed to by looking at the "Location" tag.

If it looks fishy, I'd recommend downloading Malwarebytes and running a scan to see if there's anything fishy.


The operation can't be completed because the item is in use …

Posting the OP’s solution:

The trash can be emptied using:

rm -rf ~/.Trash


USB Stick works on iMac, but on MacBook Pro not

I know the reason ! It works with an USB-Hub with additional power. Plugged into the Macs directly, no stick is working.
On Windows-based machines (even in the Bootcamp on my iMac) the stick is working. It seems, that windows usb-drivers gives more power to usb devices (?)...


Optimal Memory Layout for Late 2015 iMac

I recently bought RAM from a thirdparty vendor and faced the same issue/question. Well, initially not (for a day or so) but after I wanted to play some games in Windoes 10 on bootcamp (Battlefield1 and Dragon Age Inquisition, both using the Frostbite Engine) I faced some issues. Both games crashed to the desktop after 5-20 minutes of gameplay. This did not happen before I added the two new RAM modules and I changed nothing else.

I had 2x8GB original RAM installed in slot 1&3 and I placed the new modules into the slots 2&4. After I noticed the crashes I searched the internet and also found the apple instructions mentioned (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191). But the guide doesn't mention anything about the correct slot usage.

Contacted the vendor and they told me that it would be best to use slot 2&4 for the larger RAM modules and 1&3 for lower modules. But of course all my modules were 8 GB - so equal size.

Searching the internet I found some sites suggesting that memory modules of the same type should be in the same bank.

I thought to give it a try and placed the original modules in slots 1&2 (bank 0) and the new modules in slots 3&4 (bank 1). After that change the issues with the game crashes were gone.

I know, its not a scientific answer with hard facts but I would still suggest this layout. Cannot tell if this is a good layout for dual channel mode though.


iPhone calendar: How do you set up an event for next year?

Just run the spinner forwards.  Go past the end of this year and you'll be in next year.

Or, go to the date in the calendar first before adding the appointment.


Mac mini starting itself when power is applied

Have you tried removing any usb such as external hard drives? That's probably the issue


Can't use keyboard shortcuts to switch spaces unless I'm in mission control

I've found that some mission control problems are resolved by restarting the "Dock" process (which handles the job of Mission Control).  If you care to try that, the Terminal command is:

killall Dock

(But first use killall -s Dock to make sure the command will only kill the one process.)


Latronix KVM stopped working after last java update

Once I reverted back to the Apple provided java packages, it fixed my problems.

The article for this download is:

Java for OS X 2012-006: How to re-enable the Apple-provided Java SE 6 applet plug-in and Web Start functionality

Update: Note that for some people, the Java 7 update works with Lantronix Spiders. I can confirm that a colleague with the same model Macbook Pro has no problems using the latest Java 7 update. Another with a Macbook Air experiences the same issue, which is also resolved by rolling back.


No audio when AirPlay mirroring from MacBook Air to Apple TV

Found a solution on Apple forums, posting it here in case anyone else runs across this problem. I had to:

Turn off AirPlay Mirroring
Open Sound.prefPane and select Apple TV as the output
Turn AirPlay Mirroring back on

For some reason it appears you have to manually set the sound output before connecting AirPlay Mirroring

Source


SMC is short for System Management Controller.

The SMC manages hardware conditions related to temperatures and power consumption. Therefore a reset can only help in problems that are related to such.

Possible cases where an SMC Reset could be necessary include (according to Apple):

fans running fast but should not
keyboard backlight, battery indicator light, display backlight or magsafe LED behaves incorrectly
power button does not respond
closing/opening the lid does not work properly
battery not charging properly
system unusually slow


Can't install macOS on macbook air a1237

Unfortunately, the newest version of OS X released by Apple for your model Mac is Lion (10.7.5). You can purchase Lion from Apple for 19.99 USD. However the website states you first have to have Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8) installed before installing Lion. AFAIK, Snow leopard is no longer available for purchase from Apple. It is possible to buy used copies of Snow Leopard and it is also possible to download free copies. Downloading a free copy would violate Apple's license.
All of this really does not matter, unless you have some really old OS X compatible software to use. Basically, Lion is to old to access the web and be compatible with any current software.
Officially, the most current version of Windows available for your model Mac is 32 bit Windows 7. However, you might be able to run 64 bit Windows 10, but with a processor speed under 2 GHZ and only 2 GB of RAM, I would expect Windows 10 would be sluggish to run.


Mucked up disablement of Notifications Center

From the launchtl man page, it looks like it might need the -F parameter to force loading.

launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchAgents

I can't tell if it needs sudo too, though it might, as the LaunchAgents folder is root:wheel rwxr-xr-x


Network homes / synchronized mobile homes with OS X and Active Directory

Use SMB and set it back to V1 on a windows file server


How to disable unread counter/badge on Dock app icon

To force all apps to stop the dock-bouncing, it's all or nothing, but you can launch the terminal and type this command:

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE
$ killall Dock

To re-enable dock-bouncing, type FALSE instead of true.

To remove badge icon, go to System Preferences > Notifications and select the app. You should then see the option to disable badge icons. Note: You may have to restart the app or restart the computer (simple logout/login should do) for the changes to take effect.

If you don't see it there, then I'd try perusing the Line Chat preferences or help menu to see if they have the option of disabling it.


You also need to have write permission to the directory the file is in:

sudo chown $USER /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/Info.plist
sudo chown $USER /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents

After you have edited the file, change the owner of the plist and the directory back to root:

sudo chown root /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/Info.plist
sudo chown root /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents

You could also run cp /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/Info.plist ~/Desktop/ (which changes the owner to you), edit the file on the desktop, and then run sudo cp ~/Desktop/Info.plist /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/Info.plist (which changes the owner back to root).

Or use another editor:

sudo nano /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/Info.plist


Synchronise folders on different Macs using rsync

The best way is to continue to use rsync so as to maintain /destination synchronized with /source.

1st run:

rsync -avE /source /destination

next runs:

rsync -avE /source /destination

The -a option = --archive == -rlptgoD.

The -E option means copy extended attributes and ACL, and is mandatory on HFS+ filesystems.

Warning: the standard version of rsync on OS X, version 2.6.9 (see rsync --version) still
have problems with extended attributes.
These problems will be shown thanks to the -v option.

A verification of the output of rsync is mandatory.

This version 2.6.9 is too old and causing too many problems.

I advise any user willing to maintain in sync directories between
different Macs (or between a Mac and another Unix machine) to install
rsync version 3.1.2.

Here is the method I use:

install MacPorts: MacPorts home page

go to the Quickstart section, install Xcode
choose the right version to install (Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan)

Upgrade your PATH so as to find the port command in it
for example, I installed it in /local/bin and modified my PATH
like this:

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

Install rsync 3.1.2:

port install rsync

With this version of rsync, the right options to use will be:

rsync -avAX /source /destination

and if you read me thus far, you are pretty good enough now to read

man rsync

to get the light from the source.


How to automatically delete mail from specific sender?

You don't actually need Automator for this.

Open your Gmail account in Mail
Create a mail rule for that account which deletes messages from the senders you want to get rid of
When saving the rule, you will be asked whether you want to apply the rule to the mails in the current mailbox


If it is not available by Apple in the initial configuration then it is NOT a supported drive. Your best bet it to try and plug it in and see if it works.