Why there is no "internal microphone" in my QuickTime player screen recoding audio source?

If the microphone is not listed as an Input device in System Prefs, then that's a larger problem than just QuickTime Player: the OS can't access the mic at all.

Assuming you've turned the Mac off and on already, you could try resetting the NVRAM.

You might see whether updating to Mojave 10.14.6 improves matters.

Beyond that, it's likely to be a hardware issue. Is it possible that anyone's opened up the insides for a battery replacement, or other issue? Perhaps they didn't put the cable back properly.


Bought a used MB air- should I be worried about a root kit / keylogger?

I'm afraid there isn't a meaningful way we can tell you the probability that your system has a root kit and keylogger. The odds are certainly low, but not zero. Furthermore, if this is done well, it would be very difficult to detect.

One way could could check for this problem is if you use the computer to log into your bank account and then the money disappears and your identity gets stolen, perhaps it was infected. Obviously this is not the way you want to check.

While the odds are very low, if there is a keylogger installed, the results could be very very bad. If this Macbook is from mid-2010 or later (check your model for compatibility before proceeding!), you can use Disk Utility to erase the recovery partition, then hold down ⌘R while booting to boot in Internet Recovery mode. This will cause the computer to connect to Apple's servers and re-download the operating system fresh.


It is very unlikely that Apple will ever support this request officially, as it would go against their whole "full-screen" philosophy. However, it ought to be possible to create a SIMBL hack which achieves it.

If you do want the dock visible when using an app - perhaps the best solution is not to use fullscreen, but simply make the app window large by using the green traffic light button or dragging the edges.


How to configure 802.1X without a configuration file?

You need a  .mobileconfig file that includes your 802.1X profile. Acording to apple ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4772 ) you can use the Server extensions of Lion to create it. Alternatively (and easier ) the Iphone Configuration Utility ( http://support.apple.com/kb/dl851 ) can also create it. If you upgrade to Lion from Snow leopard any existing profile is migrated.


Is there any way I can hide all files and folders from the OS X Desktop, but leave the Hard Drive(s), CD's, External Drives, Network Drives there?

What I do is just have a folder on the desktop which I occasionally throw things into when the desktop gets too cluttered - at least you only have one thing visible on the desktop. You could also try https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/48203/desktop-pirate


This used to work in every application for me until I installed Yosemite. Now, It only works for certain applications. The way around this is to use the 'command + (first letter of the button text)'  For example, if you want to choose "Don't Save" then 'command+d'.


Have you tried "Turn off Bluetooth" using Siri?
I'm not suggesting it will work given the weird behavior you're experiencing, just that it might be worth a try. Maybe her response will provide a hint?
Good luck.


How to diagnose a crash from system logs?

Here's good Apple site (Technical Note TN2123) describing Crash Logs.


What Are The Signs of RAM (Slot) Failure?

A hosed slot (other than the obvious visual short circuit if the metal connectors are in contact with each other) will possibly cause the machine not to start.

It can as well damage the memory stick (short circuit) when the computer is turned on with a stick in it.

If the voltage mess is big enough, in theory it could damage more than that (i.e the board).

Electricity in electronics is very delicate and if the wrong current or voltage flows to the wrong place, bad things happen.

Or… maybe nothing happens. Use a magnifier to see if the pins are aligned. If you see some in contact, it’s best to remove the battery and unplug the laptop and try to separate the pins that are in contact, even if you have to sacrifice the slot forever.

Repairing that is probably expensive (800++ u$) because you need to change all the mother board.


Would replacing Macbook's HDD to a new one speed it up?

Your key problem isn't the performance of your disk. Your key problem is the available space on your internal disk.

30 GB out 500 GB isn't enough for your kernel to breath. This is 6% of available free space.
Everytime your kernel is pageing out a page of main memory, it will waste too much time to find tiny available holes within this 30 GB.

Here is my advice:

"don't buy anything": this was a lie, please forgive me :).
If you don't have a free disk available of at least 500 GB, buy one
Clean all your cache files.
Make archives of your old files (put them on a verified external disk)
stay on step 3 until you have at least 20% free space available
(the limit to never reach on a disk is 10% free, at this limit you
will feel any search to find a free block)

If you don't have a free disk available to manage your archives,
buy one (anyway you clearly need one).

if (step 3 = OK) then

Make a full backup of your internal disk on a 500 GB external disk (Carbon Copy Cloner is the easiest way to make it a full bootable image    format).
Boot your Mac from this external disk. Verify everything is running correctly.
Fire Disk Utility and format completly your internal disk.
If this step fail, goto FAIL:.
Make the reverse operation of step 4.: bring back all your data from your external disk to your internal one
boot your Mac from this clean internal disk
fire all your applications together, and confirm everything is working fine

else

FAIL:

If it is impossible to reach this 20% of free space,
only then decide to either double your internal disk capacity
or buy you a new Mac. Considering the age of your Mac, I'd recommand this last option.

fi

To be honest, this will cost you a good day of work.


How do I activate the flashlight during a front-facing camera recording?

It seems you can't.

As soon as you press the record button, the option to enable the torch or flash is disabled everywhere. You must decide whether you need any extra brightness beforehand.

Check this link for more info. Note that what @dwightk said in the comments was spot-on, except that instead of apps there are jailbreaks available if you really need this control...


How can I pad a file to make it a specific size?

An easy way is to open Terminal.app and use the following command:

dd if=/dev/zero bs=1 count=NUMBER >> yourfile

Here "yourfile" should be changed to the name of your file, including the full path to the file. "NUMBER" should be changed to the number of bytes, you want to add to the file.

So if you need the exact size to be 419,430,400 bytes and your file is 110,000,000 bytes, you would replace NUMBER with 309430400.


What does the "NS" prefix to a class name mean in iOS?

It stands for NextSTEP, the operating system that Steve Jobs (caused to be) built after he was evicted from Apple.  Objective-C and the NextSTEP API are the basis of the newer OpenSTEP and MacOS-X APIs.


I updated my OS version to Mojave, and it went away. I still have no idea what it was, but at least it's gone.


What I recommend for you is remapping the keys so that pressing the Control button on your keyboard tells you computer that you're pressing command. That way, you can use the button you're used to automatically without having to set up each shortcut you want. Here's how:

Go to System Preferences (in your Applications folder) and click Keyboard. Go to the Keyboard tab and click the Modifier Keys... button.

Select your keyboard from the Select keyboard... menu.
To give yourself a Windows-like experience, do the following:
In the first menu, Leave Caps Lock alone.
Set the second menu to Command so that the line reads like this: Control (^) Key: ⌘ Command
Change the third menu to Option.
Change the fourth menu to Control.

With this setup, pressing the Control button will make the computer think you've pressed Command. So, any shortcut that says command-v will work when you press control-v. The option key behaves like the alt key. The command button works as the control key usually does on a Mac. You can use it for things such as right-clicking.

Hope this works for you!


But of course Preview!

To resize: Choose Tools > Adjust Size, then enter the size you want to change the image to, then click OK

To crop: Click the "Select", then click and drag to select the area of the image that you want to retain. Next, choose Tools > Crop or press Command-K. If you crop too much, you can press Command-Z or choose Edit > Undo to undo the crop.


This is my essential list, in the order that I install them.

arping
watch
wireshark
figlet
git
gnupg
ipcalc
lynx +ssl
minicom
mtr
ncftp
nmap
pstree
pwgen
p0f
ssldump
stunnel
tcpflow
unrar
w3m
wget


You don't need to use the Ping feature if you don't want to. You can still update iTunes. After updating, just click the icon at the bottom-right of the iTunes window to hide the Ping sidebar and de-select the Ping checkbox in the General tab of iTunes' preferences window.


OSX (Yosemite) Make 2 sided printing the default for *all* applications

First save your print settings as a preset:

Open a document, then choose File > Print. Click Show Details.
Choose any print settings you want to save as a preset.
Click the Presets pop-up menu, then choose Save Current Settings as Preset.
Enter a name for the preset settings, then choose whether to use the preset for only the currently selected printer or all printers.

Then make that preset as default: hold the Option (alt) key when choosing your preset, and it will become Default.

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20131005034126/http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10768


Is there any way to have two applications visible at the same time, with one application not in use overlapping the other

What you're looking for is the option to "float" apps.
Before I give my answer, I should say that you need to do a bit of Google on "How to keep apps on top on mac"
With this, I found that this was already mentioned before in superuser.com
If you are too lazy or have slow internet, the answer mentioned was Afloat, since Afloat is open  source, install guide here.


2017 iMac Windows 10 on BootCamp 6.1 wont shutdown

iMac with bootcamp windows 10 reboots 3 seconds after shutdown (no fastboot, no wol)

I couldn't find a software fix but if you have any type of device or even a hub that supports USB PD connected to thunderbolt 3 port simply removing it while shutting down resolved my issue

by your description I couldn't tell if your issue is same as mine so do check what is connected to tb port


Which upgrades to my iMac 2011 will improve performance the most?

You are the best person to answer that.

Use the Activity monitor and take a look at RAM and HD current usage.

That will tell you what you need most. Usually the more RAM the better, that in turn also removes some load from the HD, but a fasted SSD could help in the initial step of loading the app in to the RAM.

So if you open and close lost of apps and save lots of stuff a faster SSD will help. If you initially open lots of apps, but then just use them, without need to constantly access the HD (SSD) then RAM size matters. See it this way: RAM is the supper fast (temporary) storage between the CPU and the Hard Drive. Without improvement in HD (SSD) the boot up and the shut down will not be faster, but during the normal usage with large RAM you will benefit.


Moving by word no longer working in Word for Mac 2011

According to Microsoft's keyboard site for Office 2011:


Your old Apple ID has presumably been disabled from purchasing apps since you initiated chargebacks with your bank for purchases. This in turn disables receiving updates as well.

You will need to create a new Apple ID. Then sign into the App Store on your device by tapping on App Store > Featured tab (if not already selected) > scroll to bottom > tap on Apple ID: your-old-id@email.com and select Sign Out. Go back to the same place to sign in with your new account. The first time you login you will need to add a payment method, even if you will only be getting free apps. I'd suggest not trying to add the payment method from the bank where you initiated the chargebacks, as that will probably simply serve to get the new account banned too.

The apps purchased with your old ID cannot be updated by your new ID, so you will need to delete them from your device, then re-purchase them (or in the case of free apps) re-download them. Either way, the app copies on your device right now will never be able to be updated, because they are permanently associated with your old ID.

Note that by deleting the existing copies of the apps, you will probably lose app data. However, if you delete one and immediately re-purchase/re-download the same app with your new ID, the data may carry over - no promises, but I've seen it work before. Do not restart your device between deleting and re-downloading, as doing so will definitely cause the data to be lost. If this works for you, remove and re-download one app at a time so there are no problems with iOS removing the data before the app can be re-installed.


I'd have taken both machines up to 10.10.4 first using the combo updater - as it specifically includes fixes for Migration Assistant.

Then I'd have followed the instructions rather than try it in target disk mode - you need to be running Migration Assistant on both machines, as you must authorise on both.

I've successfully migrated two machines in the past month, one from 10.10.4 to 10.10.4  ...the other from Windows XP… & if it can do that, it can do anything ;-)


Alter inertia scrolling behaviour in Mountain Lion

There no official specific settings to this, although with command line changes you can turn inertial settings on and off full stop.  Unfortunately, especially if you like the inertial scrolling in part, the beth way forward for you is to understand how it works better.

I've nicked this sentence from the ArsTechnica review, as there is no point in re-inventing the wheel:

  Finally, Apple has added iOS-style accelerated scrolling to Mountain Lion. The first three swipes on the trackpad scroll as they did in Lion, but on the fourth swipe, the distance traveled within the document greatly increases. This magnified ratio of finger movement to scrolling distance continues as long as the user keeps swiping repeatedly.

If you like inertial scrolling to a point, then perhaps a workaround is to only use it to a point.  Stopping after 3 scrolls will prevent you from triggering the increased scrolling acceleration.

It's not exactly what you want to hear, but sometimes you need to work within the confines of the system if you wish to pick and choose which bits of scrolling behaviour you wish to apply or not.  Perhaps further preference options will show up in the future (likely as command line changes), but overall you can probably imagine why they have made this change, because it's a good one for most (non-coding) users.


How do I install macOS Sierra now after all these issues?

I've been looking over your other questions and the whole history of your situation and feel like we're missing something here. Not blaming you, I just think something unbeknown has happened (e.g. a power failure at some point you're not aware of that has caused some corruption).

So, I'm suggesting you do as follows:

Start your iMac in Target Disk Mode
Connect it to your MBP (make sure the MBP is connected to AC power)
Run Disk Utility from the MBP to erase the iMac HD (no need to do another secure erase) and also run First Aid
Assuming you don't encounter any errors, do a fresh download of the install macOS Sierra app from the Mac App Store (i.e. do not run the installer from the USB installer you created, but download a fresh copy from the App Store directly to your MBP)
Now run the installer from the MBP
Follow the steps to install macOS Sierra (ensure you select the iMac's HD to install it on)

Let me know if you run into any problems, but hopefully this will resolve the issue once and for all as it eliminates a number of possible problems.


ls: : Operation not permitted - Mojave security?

A less drastic way:

Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and give Full Disk Access to Terminal.

Adapted from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8637915


Ergonomics: fingers to use to press Cmd and Opt keys at the same time

When I need to hit command and either control or option,I generally use my left middle and fore fingers, sometimes middle and thumb, sometimes pinky and thumb.

However, it's not especially often I end up needing more than one modifier key at the same time (ie, I usually only need command or option or control with another key - not together).


Pratika Rana is correct: your icon for Safari in the dock is no longer working. Remove it from the dock by dragging it out or by control-clocking and selecting 'remove from dock'

find Safari by opening finder and choosing Go -> Applications f of the menu. Double-click to open.
Safari, once it starts, will now have a new icon in your dock. Control-click its icon and select 'keep in dock' to make sure it doesn't disappear as you as you quit Safari.


Since Crashplan runs with elevated / non-standard permissions for an ordinary app, you will want to:

Reinstall the same or newer version of the software to correct whatever changes non-standard or half-removed. (Free download from http://www.code42.com/store/)
Run the uninstaller that is inside the package contents of the app. (Documented https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Getting_Started/Uninstalling_The_CrashPlan_App)
Optionally delete these two folders if they exist:

~/Library/Application Support/CrashPlan
/Library/Application Support/CrashPlan


What does it mean to have "custom access"?

Generally, the "You have custom access" can indicate that the file has more complex permissions set than the Finder's Get Info window can display. From this Apple support article:

Custom: If the permissions for an item is set to Custom, the permissions have been configured in a way that is more complex than is provided in the basic user settings.

It's possible that the files on your SMB server have Access Control Lists setup. You may be able to get additional information about these (non-POSIX) permissions in OS X by using a command like ls -ale /Path/To/Folder.

It's probably also worth noting that the Finder may have problems setting permissions on your SMB share. I'd probably recommend configuring some sort of server-side permissions inheritance (i.e., using ACLs) to keep permissions in check on your share.


If you want both arguments in one command, you can use a space to separate:

sudo nvram boot-args="vm_compression=1 serverperfmode=1"


How to save contacts in iPhone so it can be used for transferring it to my HTC Desire?

I am assuming that you sync your iPhone to iTunes on either Windows or Mac, and that these  contacts are then displayable in Apple Address Book or an equivalent program on Windows (Microsoft Outlook, etc.).

The procedure would be to sync all your contacts from the iPhone to the Mac or Windows program, then use that program to export the contacts in a database format that could then be imported into the HTC Desire software, or the software on Mac or Windows that you use to sync data with your HTC Desire.

Update:

Since you have indicated that you are using the iPhone to sync to iTunes on Windows, then this forum may not be the best place to ask this question. You will need to use programs that run on Windows to get the contact data reformatted into a format suitable for importing into the HTC Desire, and you will need to use Windows software to upload it into the HTC Desire as well.

People on this forum tend not to use Windows for these kinds of functions, so I suggest that you also post this question on a Windows-centric and Android-centric smart-phone support forum.


Which version of iOS is the May 12 security paper referring to?

The given information seems pretty generic to me. A statement of how Apple manages security with the iOS devices seems more plausible rather than how security is handled with a specific version of it.

iOS 5 is referred a couple of times in the paper, though, while no earlier version are, but in a very vague way.


Can Backup Directories in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup be removed

Yes, these can be removed without issue. The usual way to remove backups is through the backups list in iTunes Preferences, which shows the name of the device and the backup date, but there's no problem with removing the folders manually in Finder too.


What Would Cause APFS Volumes to Show Up Under the Wrong Disk?

The plain answer is that APFS volumes (from two separate disks) show up under the wrong disk when the containers share a UUID. Of course when you clone a drive, the UUIDs come along - volumes and the container. Possibly it happens when two volumes have the same UUID as well.

I gave up trying to fix the problem with the UUIDs on the containers. The method I know is to use one of the filesystem utilities -

/System/Library/Filesystems/hfs.fs/Contents/Resources/hfs.util
or
/System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util

for example, and since APFS Container partitions don't have a filesystem, I got stuck there, and attacked my problem from a different direction.

To fix the UUIDs on individual volumes:

Say diskDsV and diskFsB (both APFS volumes) share the same UUID. You can change one of them by unmounting the volume and doing this:

./System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -s rdiskDsV

If this is a system drive, it's much more complicated. You have a Preboot volume, and you have to change the name of a folder in the root directory of that volume as well - the folder name needs to be the UUID of the system drive.

Even though 2 volumes are shown on the list, when you click on the disk you can see that there are actually 5. Preboot, VM, and Recovery were created automatically, and for the most part are hidden.

So, to take care of this, find the right UUID for the system volume like this (I'm guessing it's s1 - could be different):

./System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -k rdiskDs1

Then, diskutil list /dev/diskD - you'll see the Preboot volume; let's call it sp. Next sudo diskutil mount /dev/diskDsp, then ls /Volumes/Preboot/ and you'll see the folder. If the name doesn't match the UUID of the correct volume, change it.

Two final steps - see here for more - (diskDspNAME being the mount point under Volumes):

Declare where the boot files are:

sudo bless --folder/Volumes/diskDspNAME/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi

Update the dynamic linker cache:

sudo update_dyld_shared_cache -root /Volumes/diskDspNAME -force


Turn on iPad speakers with piece of headphones stuck in jack

Afaik that is not possible.

My hint to remove the piece:
Use a stick (or something in the shape of it) slightly thinner than the headphone jack. Than apply superglue to the front. Now go into the headphone jack so the adhesive holds on to the item that is stuck. Now wait a few seconds or minutes, depending on how long the glue takes to really stick. Now you might be able to pull it out.
Be careful with the amount of glue you use, you don't want to get any of that left in the headphone jack.


You need to put it in DFU mode before restoring...

This can be done by:

Open iTunes and connect the iPhone to your Mac or PC.
Press and hold the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time. After
exactly 10 seconds release the Sleep/Wake button. Continue holding
the home button until you iTunes pops up a message telling you that
it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.
The iPhone screen will remain black.

NOTE***: It may take a few attempts to get your iPhone into DFU mode. Generally, I hold down both buttons then release the Home button just before I think the Apple logo would appear. If you are still holding both buttons down and you see the Apple logo you are holding them down for too long!


Any way to get the last times the screen was unlocked in macOS?

It appears different versions of macOS use different logs to repersent this. None of which, I have found, show a different log for a "login" or an "unlock". I have answered the next best thing: How to find all logins/unlocks. The following terminal commands will show you the date in time in which a login or unlock occurred.

With the help of this answer, and spending an hour looking through logs I figured this out:

P.S. You can additionally use the helpful --last tag to limit to a specific time relative to now. For example --last 5m would only be the last 5 minutes, --last 5h would be the last 5 hours, and --last 5d would be last 5 days.

macOS Mojave

Check for blocked unlock attempts (Invalid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider activate]_block_invoke"

Explanation: The command will look through the logs and find ones that are from the process "loginwindow" and contain LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider activate]_block_invoke.

Check for valid unlock attempts (Valid password or Touch ID):

 log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider deactivateWithContext:]_block_invoke"

Explanation: The command will look through the logs and find ones that are from the process "loginwindow" and contain LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider deactivateWithContext:]_block_invoke.

macOS High Sierra

WIP

Check for blocked unlock attempts (Invalid password or Touch ID):

...

Check for valid unlock attempts (Valid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "LAClient evaluatePolicy:options:uiDelegate:reply:]_block_invoke"

macOS Sierra

Check for blocked unlock attempts (Invalid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "Verify password called with PAM auth set to YES, but pam handle == nil"

Check for valid unlock attempts (Valid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "SecKeychainLogin result: 0, password was supplied"


Xcode 8: Unable to Accept License Agreement on OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

Try using xcodebuild to accept the license. Quit Xcode and run the following:

sudo xcodebuild -license accept

You may need to use xcode-select --switch first to switch Xcode version if you have multiple Xcode apps on your system.


How to remap right Control key to Command/apple key?

Karabiner should be able to do that for you.

If this is a USB device, you might be able to do use Keyboard Maestro too.


My text messages are received by my wife's iPhone and iPad

If you're sharing an AppleID for iMessage this is expected behavior.  You can also double check to make sure you don't have any conflicting settings.

From iMessage settings, verify Text Message Forwarding:

Navigate to Settings (app) > iMessage > Text Message Forwarding

Then verify your send and receive addresses:

Navigate to Settings (app) > iMessage > Send & Receive

Those are the 3 pieces that would be causing an issue on your end.


Open the sheet and use Find & Replace.

Command-F or Edit -> Find -> Find...

For most Apple productivity apps, Command-F can be used to find text in that app.


Is there a way to access the TOR network on iOS devices?

I suspect you would be able to use TorVPN's PPTP Server, just make sure you switch the "Send All Traffic" switch on the VPN configuration settings to "on". Otherwise it will be astoundingly ineffective :).

Note that I have not used this service, but knowing what iOS supports (L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, Cisco L2TP), I have a hunch that it will work.


Get alerted whenever someone uses your Mac?

I found an article on Macworld that suggested two apps:
Hidden
Undercover

Their pricing is quite different. Undercover charges $49 for unlimited use on 1 device, while Hidden charges $2.50/month for 3 devices. If you want a free option, I think Mackeeper's Anti-Theft feature is free, but I don't trust them.

Update: I found a free app called Prey which looks much more legit than Mackeeper.


Change Local Admin passwords across the network

Based on the fact that Remote Management and Remote Login are disabled, you are limited to two pathways:

Installing remote screen sharing software like TeamViewer  to connect to the machine via the web which you can then administer.  The downside to this is that decent performing apps like this will cost money - and they're quite expensive
Going to each machine and not just enabling the password, but turning on remote login and/or management as well.

I prefer the latter option because it will ultimately give you much more control over your network connected nodes.  As for security, you can configure sshd on each machine to only allow logins from an SSH key.  See this answer on how to log in with keys rather than username/passwords.

You didn't mention how many Macs you have on your network and the project could be considerable. However, just chalk it up to experience as to why enabling (but securing) remote management tools is critical in networks.

You can change the password via the command line:

dscl . -passwd /Users/Lele


Secure iPhone data whilst getting repaired

My first instinct was to backup the iPhone, factory reset and wipe it and then hand it over to the repair shop. Once received from service, factory reset and wipe again, and restore the data from backup.

This is an extremely safe approach. While the concerns raised in the question are well-researched and fairly obvious, this approach may involve a lot of work & time from your side. If I were in the situation, I'd do the same to remain extra cautious.

iOS is a fairly safe and robust platform and the likelihood of getting unintended data transfers (to and from) are very low when the device is locked. The likelihood can be further strengthened manyfold just by turning off the iPhone or restarting and not unlocking it (even once).

With recent releases of iOS 11.4.1, Apple has further strengthened the device security by introducing a feature called iOS Restricted Mode, which when enabled (it is enabled by default) restricts unauthorised access over the device Lighting Port. You should update the iPhone to iOS 11.4.1 and turn on the setting.

Learn more about iOS Restricted more here:

Using USB accessories with iOS 11.4.1 and later
Apple’s USB Restricted Mode: how to use your iPhone’s latest security feature

Last but not the least, It will be a  good idea to learn about the credibility of the repair shop before handing over your device.


I can´t receive an app transfer on iTunes Connect

If you are unable to initiate the transfer after reading the how-to, contact developer support.
If you don't see that a transfer in has arrived when the sender sees it processed, contact developer support.
If you have gotten the software to accept the transfer and you just need to wait a day for any bulk processing, then wait a day.

Last resort, https://developer.apple.com/support/


How can I write files to iPod's internal disk on Windows?

Got it

I used iPhoneBrowser and I could easily add photos to iPod Touch Library :)

But there is a problem, with this, I don't get the photos/videos on the PhotosApp on the iPod Touch :(


Can I use the macOS Photos app to mirror photos from an iPhone?

No, iCloud Photo Library is Apple’s tool for doing what you want to do. They don’t provide another way that doesn’t use iCloud.


Very slow Intel 660p 2 TB M.2 in Icybox enclosure

SSDs use flash cells to store data. At first, only one bit could be stored in each flash cell. As technically got more advanced, more bits could be stored in each cell. This allows SSDs to become cheaper. There's a major disadvantage, though: writes are way slower. When your drive is new, it uses the QLC (4 bits per cell) as SLC (1 bit per cell), which is much faster. As you fill it up, it has to convert SLC cells into QLC cell, and soon you only have QLC cells. This is only made worse by the fact that you're not running TRIM commands. TRIM tells the drive which space is not in use anymore, which means whenever you write to an empty space, you don't have to erase the cell before you write to it. That's why you don't see any performance increases after deleting files, it still things the drive is full, and thus won't use the "SLC cache" feature.

Relevant video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OffzVc7ZB-o


iPhone says it is verifying update, but it's stuck on lock screen

Let the battery deplete. After the device shuts down on it own, leave it for a few mins and then put it on charge.

If that fails, you might have to repair the hardware or connect it to iTunes / Apple Configurator 2 to update over lightning connection.


Why does GarageBand have the older window control buttons?

Garageband probably draws its own window. I'll try to explain:

You see, when creating an app, you can use a stock window which the OS provides, and automatically comes with all the functionality of a window, or you can "draw" your own custom window, in which case you need to code everything yourself, and provide the button images.

Garageband's window is different from the "stock windows": it has that wooden left and right borders, which require the buttons to be pushed to the right. That means they probably draw their own window, which allows this level of customization. The garageband app has bitmaps for the buttons and draws them itself, instead of "asking the OS to do it".

Other apps simply call for the "stock window". If the OS changes this "template", all the windows that rely on it automatically change.

Other apps might use custom windows too, but embed bitmaps for different visual versions of OSes. Nevertheless, this is a lot of work for minor details and not all developers do it.

I guess this will be addressed in a future version of Garageband. It's not a big deal as you say, so perhaps not soon, but yeah, I would also prefer the app to be more consistent to the OS.

Hope it helps!


How to fix mouse scroll delay/threshold/deadzone

I was having this problem in Mac OS 10.12 and 10.12.1.  I searched and could not find a good answer related to this.  I did upgrade to 10.12.2 a couple of days ago and, even though there is no mention of changes related to mice in the release notes, my problem went away.


User directory taking up an additional 100GB+ of space

Take a look at Time Machine, it may be keeping local snapshots.

From Apple Support:

  Because Time Machine removes local snapshots as needed, Finder and Get Info windows don't include them in their calculations. To see how much storage space local snapshots are using, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu, then click Storage. The space used by local snapshots is labeled Backups.

You can disable them, but they get automatically deleted if you need space:

  If less than 20% of the total storage space on your startup drive is available, Time Machine removes local snapshots, starting with the oldest, until you have more than 20% free space.
  If less than 10% or less than 5GB of storage space is available, Time Machine removes local snapshots more quickly. When only one snapshot remains, Time Machine stops creating new snapshots. As free space increases, Time Machine at first replaces the previous snapshot with a new one, then eventually resumes creating snapshots as normal.


"Other" taking up over HALF of my storage space

You can try Daisy Disk and it will give you a pictorial view of your drive and what is taking up space. It has a free trial so you can use it without buying it.  There is also a free app called Disk Inventory X which does about the same but lists the sizes of everything it "sees". It also makes a colored map of you disk. I highly recommend you use these to scan your disk.

How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?
 and linked: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/linked/5353


Macbook Air iPhoto does not see albums on the iPad

You could use a 3rd-party app such as the free WiFi Photo Transfer to access all those pictures on your MacBook Air. It uses a web browser to access the photos, so you don't have to install any software on the MacBook Air or deal with syncing.

The whole process is easy:

Launch the app on the iPhone or iPad
On your computer, you type in the address it tells you to in a browser.
You can then choose to either download a specific picture or entire albums.

Another benefit is that none of the pictures are sent to the Internet.


Particular websites blocked when using Internet Sharing

Have you tried connecting to these sites directly with the iMac whose internet connection is being shared jb1785?

I've had some very bad luck with trying to share internet connections (I was trying to share a VPN from a MacMini to an Apple TV or Samsung BluRay player. Not easy, not high performance and not reliable.

What do work brilliantly are those little white Apple USB Ethernet Adapters (I'm assuming you don't have Ethernet on that MacBook Pro or you'd be using it). Buy the Apple one as others are either clunky or unreliable (very occasional system crashes but occasional is too much). Bringing in a second Ethernet cable should be easy but if it's not you could drop a small ethernet switch in front of the iMac for very little money for 100 BaseT and not much money for 1000 BaseT.

Daisy chaining sounds like a good idea but you are exponentially increasing your chances for nagging network issues and losing time.


How do install OS X El Capitan onto a VM

Preface:

This how-to targets VirtualBox because the OP uses it. I strongly recommend to purchase Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion though. A lot of features like drag-and-drop, change the monitor resolution etc. don't work properly in VirtualBox (or I don't get it to work).

The installation of El Capitan is a dual-stage process. You first have to create a Yosemite VM and then update to El Capitan.

The script below apparently doesn't work with El Capitan. A "bootable" El Capitan iso boots to an EFI command line only. The intermediate step of creating a Yosemite.iso seems to be inevitable.

Download the latest VirtualBox installer, the latest Yosemite installer and the latest El Capitan installer.
Install VirtualBox
Use the following shell script to create a bootable Yosemite.iso. The script assumes that Install OS X Yosemite.app was downloaded to the folder /Applications.

 #!/bin/bash

 # Create bootable Yosemite ISO

 # Mount the installer image
 hdiutil attach /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_app

 # Convert the boot image to a sparse bundle
 hdiutil convert /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg -format UDSP -o /tmp/Yosemite

 # Increase the sparse bundle capacity to accommodate the packages
 hdiutil resize -size 8g /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage

 # Mount the sparse bundle for package addition
 hdiutil attach /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build

 # Remove Package link and replace with actual files
 rm /Volumes/install_build/System/Installation/Packages
 cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/Packages /Volumes/install_build/System/Installation/

 # Copy Base System
 cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/install_build/
 cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/install_build/

 # Unmount the installer image
 hdiutil detach /Volumes/install_app

 # Unmount the sparse bundle
 hdiutil detach /Volumes/install_build

 # Resize the partition in the sparse bundle to remove any free space
 hdiutil resize -size `hdiutil resize -limits /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage | tail -n 1 | awk '{ print $1 }'`b /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage

 # Convert the sparse bundle to ISO/CD master
 hdiutil convert /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage -format UDTO -o /tmp/Yosemite

 # Remove the sparse bundle
 rm /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage

 # Rename the ISO and move it to the desktop
 mv /tmp/Yosemite.cdr ~/Desktop/Yosemite.iso

Copy the above lines, paste it into a new document prepare_yosemite_iso.sh on your desktop with a decent editor (below I use nano) and make it executable. In Terminal enter:

touch ~/Desktop/prepare_yosemite_iso.sh
nano ~/Desktop/prepare_yosemite_iso.sh #paste the content of the script here, save the file to disk with ctrl-O and quit nano with ctrl-X
chmod +x ~/Desktop/prepare_yosemite_iso.sh

execute the script:

~/Desktop/prepare_yosemite_iso.sh

After several minutes the iso with the name Yosemite.iso will be moved to your desktop.
Start VirtualBox and create a new Yosemite VM with the default settings.
If your Mac contains a Haswell processor you have to change the the cpuid in the VM. Enter the following in Terminal:

VBoxManage list vms #to list all available VMs
VBoxManage modifyvm <name_of_vm> --cpuidset 00000001 000306a9 00020800 80000201 178bfbff

Attach Yosemite.iso to the optical drive
Boot the VM, format the hdd, then install and configure Yosemite.
Copy the downloaded Install OS X El Capitan.app to the Applications folder in the VM. Use a network share on the host to accomplish that.
Start Install OS X El Capitan.app and update the VM to El Capitan.
To enable some screen resolutions shut down the VM and enter in (the host's) Terminal:

VBoxManage setextradata <name_of_vm> VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode N

where N can be one of 0,1,2,3,4,5 referring to the 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1920x1200  screen resolution respectively
Do Ruby development...


Shortcut to move point to beginning / end of current line

You can use Emacs set of shortcuts:

Beginning of the line ⌃ CTRL+A
End of the line ⌃ CTRL+E


Check brew and brew-cask for valid package names

To get a list of invalid brew formulas:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
for formula in ${brews[@]}; do
    brew info ${formula} >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo ${formula}
done

To get a list of invalid casks:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
for cask in ${casks[@]}; do
    brew cask info ${cask} >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo ${cask}
done

(brews and casks are the arrays defined in your setup script.)


How can I make example.com and www go to http://www.example.com/wiki/projects?

In the server app. Go to the websites menu and under the "Server Website" click the pen icon to edit. The add a redirect of "http://www.example.com" and/or "http://example.com" to "http://example.com/wiki/projects"

Done.


What should I be looking for in a used iPod touch?

First thing to look for is whether the unit has suffered water
damage. All Apple devices have two moisture sensors. One in the
headphone jack and the other in the cable connector port. They will
colour pink or red on water contact:

The next thing is the physical condition of the unit. Scratches,
scuffs, or other physical signs of trauma. This one is rather
intuitive, but what people don't often look for is 3rd party repair using shoddy parts. Look for bulges in the seal around the screen or scratches on the screws (which are signs the unit as been opened). A keen eye can find these discrepancies, and if you do, steer clear. Knock off, aftermarket displays (or so-called OEM replacements) don't have the same capacitative capabilities that the original units do.
Check the battery next, make sure it charges and shows the correct
charge/not charging icon. If the unit responds when a cable is
connected and disconnected, then there likely won't be any damage to
either the internals, the battery, or the connector.

At the end of the day, trust your gut. If it even smells like too good of a deal, walk away. Ideally, it would be great to find a unit that is still under warranty and then extend that warranty with Apple Care. Another avenue would be to look to Apple's website for refurbished products. They all come with the same warranty as all new Apple products. Honestly, this would be the way I would go about it. You will get a "like" new product at anywhere up to a 30% discount. Like this 64 GB iPod Touch.


Cleaning ‘staining’ off bottom of MacBook screen

I've encountered something similar before and from the looks of it, the glass/plastic coating is etched.

A user once tried to clean their screen with acetone (nail polish remover) and it physically damaged the glass coating.  In the pre-Retina days, the glass was replaceable so it wasn't a costly fix.

Unfortunately, for the 2015 models, the glass and LCD are glued together so you will need to replace the entire assembly.

IFixit.com has an excellent guide on replacing the display assembly.  It's not difficult, per se, it's time consuming and you must exercise a good bit of diligence (it's not something you going to speed through) when disconnecting the components as they can be damaged.  If this is not your cup of tea, have a pro do it for you.  Read the guide anyway, this way you know what to expect of the tech that does the work.


How to avoid the GUI password prompt when using `osascript`?

You can suppress the password interface by modifying your Mac's authorization rights.

Use the built-in security command line tool or authbuddy to change the system.preferences.accessibility right to allow:

sudo security authorizationdb write system.preferences.accessibility allow

Opening up the system.preferences.accessibility right will permit any user to change the accessibility settings without a password prompt.


Apple TV can't always be detected by Mac & iPhone

I had the exact same problem. My Mac, iPhone, or iPad wouldn't connect because the icon disappears at random intervals.

You can try plugging in an Ethernet cable, however this doesn't seem to permanently fix the problem.

What I did was get a new router that supports dual band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz). The iPhone uses 2.4 GHz and my Mac and AppleTV use 5 GHz. There was less traffic that way (because of splitting the bands over different devices) through the router and the AppleTV is always detected. This forced the AirPlay option to always appear on my devices.

You can check my question and other possible answers here AirPlay option disappeared?


Too many apps; not enough space on my iPod

iCloud can be used to back up your device, but it's not a repository for Apps not in use. However, once you've purchased an app you can redownload it from the iTunes store, free of charge, as long as the app is still available.

You will lose the configuration files and any data files that wasn't saved out to an external source. (This would be the same for any app removed from the device.

To download a purchased app:

Open the App Store app on your device.
Tap the Updates tab in the lower right hand corner
Tap the Purchased pane at the top of the apps list.
Tap the Not On This iPod tab near the top of the screen.
Tap the download from the cloud icon for the app you want to
    install.


How to prevent html5 videos from using built in mac fullscreen

I'm afraid that's not possible.

Since all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari) all use the native Fullscreen API, you're stuck with the slow animation...

I researched wether there were any work arounds or tricks but there doesn't seem to be. You're not alone in being annoyed.

Only thing you can do is to use Flash when available, or, upgrade to Mavericks where the animation is minimal and quite a bit faster. 10.9 happens to be free so the entry barrier isn't that high.


Is it safe to use my Indian MacBook Pro charger in America using a simple adapter?

Absolutely fine, so long as the original to adapter interface makes a good connection.

Alternatively, you could try to find a specific flat pin adapter to run directly from the charger - this is just a simple eBay UK search with similar plugs … http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/apple-us-plug


What is the CTRL+x+e equivalent for MacOS's Terminal?

Control+X+E works on the macOS Terminal. Generally CTRL is not substituted for Cmd in terminal commands.


Does the 2019 iMac use proprietary SSD controllers or connectors?

These models support a 7 mm tall SATA III (6 Gb/s) hard drive for the primary storage (using the 3.5" size as opposed to the 2.5"), and getting the Fusion drive means you'll also get what's called a small "blade" SSD via a PCIe connector. Without this you can't attempt what you're wanting to do.

So, in summary:

Primary storage uses a 3.5" 6 Gb/s SATA 3.0 connection
Secondary storage uses a NVMe PCIe "Blade" connection

However, getting a compatible "Blade" SSD is not as easy as walking into any computer store and buying one. You will need to purchase one from a vendor that specialises in Mac hardware to ensure you get what you need.

I haven't actually seen inside a 2019 model 27" iMac yet, so can't give you a definitive answer in terms of height clearance.

Recommendation

Before biting the bullet and ordering one of these machines, I would take a look at the following to ensure you can get what you need and also do what you want.

How to Upgrade or Install a SATA Drive (SSD or HDD) in the Main Drive Bay of a 27-inch Apple iMac (2012 - Current)
How to Upgrade or Install a PCIe SSD in a 27-inch Apple iMac with Retina 5K Display (2019)
OWC Solid State Drives For iMac 27-Inch (Late 2013 - Current)
OWC Complete Hard Drive Upgrade Kit Including Tools for all 27" iMacs 2012 & Later

Since you have the skills necessary to perform this upgrade, I would focus on ensuring you can actually get a compatible SSD with the storage you need.

NOTES:

For something like this I also recommend contacting OWC to discuss your requirements.
There would be no need for you to get the 3TB capacity Fusion drive in order to be able to do this, unless you want that capacity for whatever you intend to do with it later.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation whatsoever with OWC.


Verify disk reports error, recovery os repair + fsck says disk is fine

Try repairing only your back up> select> disk(external) in Disk Utility>First aid > Repair disk permissions> and see if problem resolves!


Why am frequently asked for access to my Keychain?

The Local Items keychain was introduced on Mavericks and holds iCloud keys for offline use.

However, sometimes OS X will repeatedly ask you for the password. This can be solved by deleting the folder named with an UUID like A8F5E7B8-CEC1-4479-A7DF-F23CB076C8B8 from ~/Library/Keychains/ and then reboot. No keys will be lost in this process.

This is described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5362


Yes — if you simply minimize the FaceTime window (⌘ Command+M) or hide FaceTime (⌘ Command+H), video will pause while audio still functions as usual.

(Similarly, on iOS, pressing the home button will pause video and allow you to use other applications while audio still works.)


Hide all files of the same extension in Finder

OK I've changed the Peter Hosey's fs-notifier, so that it will set the newly created .pak files hidden. You will need Xcode for the compilation.

Please change those lines in his code:

In Notifier.m change 25th line to:

 stream = FSEventStreamCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, newCallback, &context, (CFArrayRef)paths, kFSEventStreamEventIdSinceNow, /*latency*/ 1.0, kFSEventStreamCreateFlagUseCFTypes | kFSEventStreamCreateFlagFileEvents);`

In fs-notifier.m file change the whole body of the gotEvent fuction (lines 34+) to:

NSArray *eventPaths = eventPathsVoidPointer;
if (*eventFlags | kFSEventStreamCreateFlagFileEvents) {
    NSURL *fileUrl = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:[@"file://" stringByAppendingString:[eventPaths objectAtIndex:0UL]]];
    if ([fileUrl.pathExtension isEqualToString:@"pak"]) {
        [fileUrl setResourceValue:@YES forKey:NSURLIsHiddenKey error:nil];
    }
}

Note: In order to compile the sources you might need to set the 64bit architecture.

After the compilaton you'll launch the program with the path to the directory you want to monitor.

I've tested it and it works, however I don't know what's the impact on the system.

Edit: To hide .pak files already created, run this command:

find -x /path/to/folder -name \*.pak -exec chflags hidden {} +

Answer from superuser.


App Store download disappear after the installation

I took @Tetsujin comment and solved this by deleting all files related to the App I was trying to install. EasyFind is an easy way to find hidden files. Otherwise you can use the search in the finder, but that requires several steps.

Then I deleted all library files and the App itself was sitting in some ApplicationSupport directory, together with a Zip file. I deleted the whole App folder (Kaleidoscope in my case) which resided inside of the ApplicationSupport directory.


Send args to Firefox when launching from terminal

In order to pass arguments to an application opened by the open command, use both the -a and the --args options.

Example: open -a Firefox --args -private-window

From the open man page: open [ −a application] file ... [ −−args arg1 ...]


transfering itunes library win-> mac - is it possible?

Short answer: just copy the iTunes folder from the Windows machine to the mac.  It works fine, I did it myself last year with no problems.

Longer answer with more details at http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html


Given son-in-laws old imac, it is still registered under his iCloud and need to switch it to mine.

You can sign out of his iCloud and then in with yours (or create your free iCloud account if you don't have one). This can all be done in System Preferences.

Open the  (Apple) menu in the top left corn
Open System Preferences
Click on iCloud
If your son-in-law's account is still signed in, click the "Sign Out" button in the bottom left corner

At this point, the iMac should be signed out of his iCloud account. On this same screen, you can sign in with your iCloud account and turn on/off the various services you would like to use.

Like a commenter mentioned above, another option is to start fresh by erasing the hard drive. If that is the route you'd like to take, this Apple reference can help walk you through it:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904


Device name on router is different than OS X hostname

There are three different hostnames that macOS/OS X uses:

ComputerName
HostName
LocalHostName

Each of these values can be found in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

ComputerName

scutil --get ComputerName

This is Apple "friendly" name for the computer and can be found in System Preferences >> Sharing >> Computer Name.  According to the man page for scutil, it is described as "The user-friendly name for the system."

According to Apple, the ComputerName is The AppleTalk name and the default name used for SLP/DA1.  It's a zero-configuraiton protocol that allows you to set up a simple network without a DNS/DHCP server but allow you to reach the different resources via a host name.

HostName

scutil --get HostName

According to the scutil man page, the HostName is "the name associated with hostname(1) and gethostname(3)". This name can come from any of the following sources:

The name provided by the DHCP or BootP server for the primary IP address
The first name returned by a reverse DNS (address-to-name) query for the primary IP address
The local hostname
The name “localhost”

(In my virgin install of El Capitan, the HostName defaulted to LocalHostName)

LocalHostName

scutil --get LocalHostName

This is for Bonjour2 services on the LAN.  This is how, on a small LAN without DNS/DHCP, Apple computers can discover and interact with resources such as file sharing on other machines, printers, etc.  This name gets set when you initially configure your Mac.

TL;DR

It is using "the first name you ever set" because during initial setup, it set the LocalHostName which it assumed would forever be.  When you re-configured using the GUI, you changed the ComputerName which did not modify the LocalHostName.

If you wish to fix this in your router, simply set your LocalHostName using the command:

scutil --set LocalHostName MyNewComputerName.domain

1 SLP/DA Service Location Protocol/Directory Agent. The Service Location Protocol is a service discovery protocol that allows computers and other devices to find services in a local area network without prior configuration.

2 Bonjour is Apple's implementation of zero-configuration networking, a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and hostname resolution.


How do I resolve 501: Method Not Implemented in MRD for OSX El Captain?

After a lot of trial & error, I figured out the most logical assumptions & got it to work. It goes like this (in-case anyone else finds the same problem & is looking forward to an answer):

Determine the host gate way
Physically access the computer
Open up Windows Services (if host is Windows)
In Services, look for Remote Desktop Services
In Remote Desktop Services, click Properties & drop down to Automatic if not already
Restart the Machine (Optional)

Try again with your MBP, and with Wireless connection, you need not set any additional GW info on RDP Client. Food for thought is - this could be one possible way out of many other circumstances you run into. Make sure RDP services aren't disabled on the GW which's suppose to distribute the connection packets & route it the way it should.

Let me know in case I could additionally help with something entirely different if the circumstances are different & RDP services are already not disabled.


How to have Mail.app in Lion sort messages within a thread oldest to newest (like gmail)

Go to:

Preferences -> View Tab

Then uncheck the bottom item labelled "Show most recent message at the
top"


Android Studio 2.1 very slow build, macbook blows very loud

Android 2.1.1 is available, I have updated studio from 2.1.0 to 2.1.1 and works.
On studio 2.1.0 I was facing same problem.


One way would be to copy the files from the command line using rsync: It supports a flag --chmod, so you can say, e.g.,

rsync -a --chmod=u+w /Volumes/name-of-the-CD/ /wherever/

to turn on writable flag for the user (you). Beware, though, that rsync takes a while getting used to, especially when recursively copying directories. Whether or not you end the name of the source directory with a slash actually makes a difference …


Applescript to update year tag for audio files

I created an AppleScript for you that will parse the filenames of any selected iTunes tracks and set the year tag accordingly.

Paste this into AppleScript Editor and run it (or save it as an application):

tell application "iTunes"
    repeat with theTrack in selection
        set theFile to location of theTrack
        tell application "Finder" to set theName to name of theFile
        set theYear to my parse_year(theName)
        if theYear is not "" then
            set the year of theTrack to theYear
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

on parse_year(filenameText)
    -- returns the year if it exists in filename with form song-1965.mp3, else returns empty string
    try
        set yearResult to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of filenameText & " | perl -ne 'print $1 if s/(?<=-)(\\d+)(?=(\\..*|$))/$1/'"
    on error
        set yearResult to ""
    end try
    return yearResult
end parse_year

A few notes:

It doesn't go through the whole library, only the currently selected songs (you can of course select your whole library).
It only matches filenames with that end with a - followed by a number (and optionally an extension).

It will match these:

songname-1946.mp3
anothersong-1977
songname-1965.someextention

But not these:

songnoyear.mp3
song123
song-1232-someothertext

It will overwrite any year already entered in the metadata.


This is one of the wonders of the Mac. Most Mac applications are packaged up in what's called an "application bundle." It's basically a glorified folder that contains all of the code and data for the application. So, instead of having an application installed to C:/Program Files for example, the app is self-contained. These programs don't have to be "installed" as everything they need is already present in that app bundle. Most apps save user preferences and other user data to the ~/Library folder, but the app itself can normally be placed anywhere on your system.

You can run those apps from the Downloads folder, though it's generally better to drag them to the /Applications folder on your Mac. This keeps your apps better organized. And occasionally, some apps are improperly coded to work only from the /Applications folder. It's just best practice to keep everything there, but it's by no means required.

Some Mac apps do have an installer (such as Microsoft Office) as they install files in various places on the machine that are required for the app (such as fonts).


iTerm2 settings are reset upon app close

When I transferred my iTerm2 profiles over from Mavericks to Yosemite I ran into the same problem. I found that apple caches application preferences so after you make the changes try running sudo killall cfprefsd to clear to preference cache. This seemed to do the trick for me.


Apple products have International warranties but only in the countries where it has, it's own Stores. In India, there are no Apple-owned stores yet. They are Resellers authorized by Apple but they won't service your device because you won't possibly be taking it to Apple-owned stores. I hope this suffices your query.

https://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/ipad-english-a.html


MBP E2015 Sierra keyboard/trackpad unresponsive

I did some research and apparently, the early 2015 MBP is known for having trackpad/keyboard cable issues. I reset the cable and boom it works!


Why is there a left bracket before my bash prompt?

I figured it out. I went to View->Hide Marks and the [ characters disappeared.


Is there a way to "unsubscribe" from group texts in iOS?

As Messages and SMS integration + iMessage is designed today, this can not be done.

What you could do is:

block the people and leave SMS / iMessage enabled
place that conversation on Do Not Disturb so you don't get notifications from that group
enable no notifications for either SMS or iMessage
turn off iCloud Messages entirely
disable SMS entirely

Just as you can't block a number or email from sending you an iMessage - there is no technical way to get others to not send you a group message (other than by exerting social pressure to exclude you from further communications).

I haven’t been able to find anything playing on my phone, and several forum posts suggest that it can’t be done:

On Mac Rumors, sla252 writes (November, 2011):

  Just got off the phone with Apple tech support. They admitted there is no way to remove yourself from an iMessage group chat. The tech guy says the best thing we can do is go to http://www.apple.com/feedback

There’s also a Reddit thread in which huntard713 suggests (October, 2011):

  Settings-Messages. Turn group messaging off.

It's now November 2011 and I can’t find this setting on my iPhone, and this was in response to a slightly different problem (about who sees the other participants in a group iMessage, so I don’t know how effective this.

I’m sorry this doesn’t really answer your question; for now at least, it looks like you can’t leave a group iMessage.


Removing a file from a protected folder in Mojave

You can remove the file without disabling SIP by booting to Recovery and then deleting the file in the terminal. The system disk is actually mounted read/write in Mojave Recovery, so the trick is that you have to refer to the drive by starting at /Volumes/yourdrivenamehere.  So in this case the command to remove the file would be:

rm -rf /Volumes/yourdrivenamehere/Library/SystemMigration/History/Migration-1C2FCFF8-A394-409D-8DB3-E7885C0D5E81/QuarantineRoot/Library/StagedExtensions/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext


Blurry photos occur because:

skin oil or other cruft (pocket lint) is on the lens
the camera software is focusing on distant objects (when you want a closeup,) or focusing on close objects (when you want a distant object.)

If you are having trouble focusing, tap in the yellow focus box on the screen. You will notice that the software shows a larger yellow box when it detects a closeup shot, and a smaller box when it detects a distance shot.


Is a 16-day Apple Beta Review time normal?

No, this is not a normal review time.

Review Times

You can get a gauge of average App Store review times on http://appreviewtimes.com

  This site tracks the average App Store review times for both the iOS and the Mac App Store using data crowdsourced from iOS and Mac developers.

The current average iOS review time is 2 days.

Having submitted an expedited beta review, there is nothing you can officially do but wait. As a developer, the review process can feel capricious.


Are iPhone Wireless Chargers Good for Batteries?

Wireless charging is neither good nor bad for batteries; it's just an alternate way of getting the magic pixies (electrons) back into their cage (battery).  This is analogous to asking whether the interstate or the turnpike is better for your car. Both will get you to the same destination, but there are trade-offs from one to the other (i.e. the turnpike may be more direct, but they charge a toll where as the interstate is free, but it meanders around)

Source:  Mouser Electronics

Above is a generic block schematic of a wireless charging circuit with an external charger.  Even though the charger is "outside" the device, it's still connected into the charging circuit to the Line Drop Out circuit/chip and the battery.  What that does is regulate where the device gets it's charge from - if it's "high", it will get the power from the charger.  If "low," it will get it from the wireless coil.  But in the end, there's only one destination - the battery charging circuit.

A better question is....What works for you?

Wireless charging is slower but more convenient.
USB/Power Adapter charging is faster, but you're tethered to something.
Wireless charging has an inherent cool factor
Wired charging is tried and true
There's no connectors to wear out with wireless chargers
Wired chargers securely connect (you don't have to put it in just the right spot) connect

Basically, it boils down to what is a better solution for your personal requirements.


How to disable default Mission Control shortcuts in terminal?

I was able to figure this out. Here is what I did:

Step 1

Generate a file with your current default settings:

defaults read com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist AppleSymbolicHotKeys > file_a

Step 2

Manually change the settings you want in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts

Step 3

Generate a new comparison file from settings after making your change:

defaults read com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist AppleSymbolicHotKeys > file_b

Step 4

Diff compare the two files:

diff file_a file_b

Step 5

Disable only the keys that appeared in the diff, example:

defaults write com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist AppleSymbolicHotKeys -dict-add 82 "
  <dict>
    <key>enabled</key><false/>
    <key>value</key><dict>
      <key>type</key><string>standard</string>
      <key>parameters</key>
      <array>
        <integer>65535</integer>
        <integer>124</integer>
        <integer>8781824</integer>
      </array>
    </dict>
  </dict>
"


Problems with color consistency on Apple Thunderbolt Display

I use a couple of Apple scripts to move windows to specific positions when I switch between using the Cinema display and using just the Air.

Blog: http://www.andrewcassell.com/blog/2012/remember-mac-window-positions/

Github: https://github.com/cassell/Mac-Window-Posititioner


Folders in trash won't get deleted? Says they are "in use"

There can be multiple trash folders.  There is a trash folder on your startup drive.  This is the one you are referencing.  There are other trash folder.  There is a trash folder in each of your other partitions.  When you drag something to the trash folder on another partition, it gets placed in the other partition's trash folder.

You look only on the startup drives trash folder. Since you have seen nothing in the startup drives trash folder, the folders to be deleted must be on some other partition.

You should look on your other computer. Notice the name of the trash on your startup drive is .Trash  .  Notice the name of the folder on your external drive is .Trashes  .

https://discussions.apple.com/message/29843847#29843847

Sorting through these commands may provide clues. Notice that the files are placed in the 501 folder which is you uid.

mac $ cd .Trashes/
mac $ pwd
/Volumes/hps+/.Trashes
mac $ ls -l
ls: .: Permission denied
mac RC=1 $ sudo ls -l
total 0
drwx------@ 4 _unknown  _unknown  136 Dec 23 14:31 501
mac $ sudo ls -la
total 0
d-wx-wx-wt@ 3 _unknown  _unknown  102 Dec 23 14:31 .
drwxrwxr-x  9 root      wheel     374 Dec 23 14:31 ..
drwx------@ 4 _unknown  _unknown  136 Dec 23 14:31 501
mac $ cd 501
/Volumes/hps+/.Trashes/501
mac $ ls -la
total 16
drwx------@ 4 mac  staff   136B Dec 23 14:31 ./
d-wx-wx-wt  3 mac  staff   102B Dec 23 14:31 ../
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac  staff   6.0K Dec 23 14:31 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Dec 23 14:30 hi
mac $ pwd
/Volumes/hps+/.Trashes/501
mac $ ls -la
total 16
drwx------@ 4 mac  staff   136B Dec 23 14:31 ./
d-wx-wx-wt  3 mac  staff   102B Dec 23 14:31 ../
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac  staff   6.0K Dec 23 14:31 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Dec 23 14:30 hi
mac $


With a jailbreak it's hard to know for sure what's going on, but I'd restore your device and update to the latest official version of iOS.  I know that you might want to keep your jailbreak, so this may not be a great solution for everyone.


Can't boot on OS X partition after resizing Windows partition

Presumably Windows messed up with your OS X boot code.
You have to rebuild this code.
Since OS X tools can not handle a false flagged partition you have to set the correct partition flag and afterwards rebuild the boot code using OS X Disk Utility.

Since you can't boot from the now unaccessible recovery partition you have to have Linux-tools and a second Mac (accessing your messed up hard disk via target mode 2nd stage) or a OS X install DVD/USB-key by the hand.

Let's go:

Download the latest gParted iso file here: gParted

Burn the iso to a CD or transfer it using the tool of your choice to a USB drive.
For help to create a gParted Live-USB look here: Live-USB

Boot your Mac using gParted-Linux.

Go to the gParted-tool.
(First window will be opened automagically on the desk.)
Select the (probably your first) HFS+ partition and do the right click.
Be aware, this is not the first 200 MB EFI-partition!!!

Now edit the partition info.

Tick the square for the msft-type.
Remove the mark. Do not mark any of the available marks.
Write out the changes.

Leave the tool and reboot into a OS X-Install-DVD or prepared OS X install-USB-key (or as forementioned connect your dead Mac-HDD to the other Mac via Firewire or TB now accessing the disk in target mode)

Open OS X Disk Utility.

Tick on the Apple HDD, let Disk Utility repair the partition layout.
Check the OS X-partition too and reboot into your OS X again.

Hold the alt-key and choose the OS X boot volume.
Be happy.

for background stuff from the sources please check search for:

Apple tech notes
steelpangolin

or search for "apple tech notes tn2166" or "steelpangolin invalid-bs_jmpboot-in-boot-block-000000/"

Update:

this is for hdd that has NO hybrid partition only, sorry otherwise this is not for you
please be prepared prior to any further coming desaster

so

make a bootable copy of the stock or newly installed OSX (minimum space required ca. 10GB) to an external drive

or

create a bootable setup-stick of the setup-image (contained in any OSX Install.app)
This will speed up the recovery and makes you more independent from huge downloads  esp. over slow lines.


How to disable Mac OS X's autocorrect but still show spelling suggestions?

When a suggestion happens and the word is underlined in blue, then right click the word and goto Spelling and Grammar and uncheck Correct Spelling Automatically.


Quicktime recording: help, I did 1/2 of an interview with my headphones on, interviewee can barely be heard :(

In short, no.

Assuming the levels were set for your own voice, in close proximity to your mouth, that would make the other voice 1 or 2 meters away & also likely speaking to the back of the mic, which would usually be in its rejection zone. That is going to be impossibly low to successfully recover with any clarity.

The best you could hope for would be to edit out each time the other person speaks to a separate audio track; boost the volume, then see if you can manage to de-noise it... that's the fun part.
Decent de-noiser plugins start at expensive & go up to really, really expensive.
Even so, they cannot work miracles.

Izotope RX is about the best there is.
They do a 'home' bundle for a mere $129- RX Elements
the 'RX Standard' package for an eye-watering $399
or the full-blown 'RX Advanced' package for a "please sit down first & take a deep breath" $1199

No affiliation, merely a satisfied user


What is Application Loader and why does it want to open EPUB?

Application Loader is the app used to publish content you've created on the App Store. In addition to actual Apps, this also includes ebooks in EPUB format. It's part of Xcode and no, it can't display EPUB documents, so you may want to tell OS X to always open your EPUB documents with Stanza again (this association likely got overwritten when Xcode was last updated).


How do I troubleshoot screen capture utilities only capturing one side of audio?

The task as asked is in effect "how to sum two inputs to one, stereo to dual mono?" one side being the mic/line etc, the other side being just silence.
If you could persuade QuickTime, or any other recorder to record only mono audio this would be one way. If you need additional music etc that must be in stereo, then somehow you need to persuade the Mac itself to sum both yout input channels to mono.
I cannot seem to find any way to achieve that with the Mac itself, nor much of the commonly-available audio routing tools - Audio Hijack, Loopback, Audio-Midi setup etc, testing with Aggregate inputs & everything I could think of.
All I did manage to achieve was to sum before sending to the Mac. In my case, it needed the input software of my Line 6 interface. Setting the input to only one of the 2 potential channels Line 1, Mic 1 etc, then the software itself was doing the sum to mono for me & the Mac would then be happy to place it in the centre of the stereo image.
Setting the input to Stereo Line/Mic etc would send to just one side or the other.
Presumably, this would be considered 'expected behaviour' for a stereo source, though it does look like if you use the Mac's headphone input or a webcam etc, then it already 'knows' there is a single mic, not stereo.
Interface image, just as an example -

 I didn't take the time to clean the 'amplifier' setup to be straight clean, so it still looks more like a guitar amp & pedals. That doesn't affect the routing, only the audio quality]


I would think your problem is determining "service order." The basic magic you see happen in the System Preferences > Network where the highest ranking connected service sorts to the top.

This Mac OS Hints article discusses a similar problem and solution.


How to open multiple Kindle books at the same time?

I haven't tested this specifically with Kindle, but it works for most apps that don't normally open a second instance...

In Terminal
open -n
(note the space after -n)
then drop the Kindle app onto the Terminal window to auto-fill the path to it & hit  Return⏎

back in Terminal,  Opt ⌥   ↑  then  Return⏎  will repeat that command & should open a second instance.


How to preserve MacbookPro battery from degradation?

Your battery life is based on age and cycles, not so much what you use them for.  Your battery has no idea if you are streaming music from your favorite service or your are crunching numbers to calculate ∏ to the nth digit or just surfing Stack Exchange.
The more draw you put on it, the more it is going to discharge requiring you to plug it back in to recharge it.  Basically, the more you use, the more charging cycles it is going to go through.  Video uses more CPU, so more draw, so more recharging.  Sleeping, virtually no power draw, so less recharging.
You can get good info on battery life directly from Apple:  www.apple.com/batteries/
So, how do you lengthen the life of your battery?  Reduce the number of cycles it going to need to go through.  Optimizing/Updating your software, turning off services can all help; but only so much.  Paying attention to the ambient temperature and not operating it in extreme conditions definitely helps; but I doubt you are in the Arctic or in the middle of the Sahara so this doesn't apply as much as you would think.  However if that's the case, battery life is not your biggest concern.
In the end it comes down to you are going to have to replace your battery.  When is the question and there is no prognostication for that.  If you have work to do, do it.  If you want to watch a video, watch it.  If worrying about the battery is something that you have to do because you can't (or is very difficult to) afford to replace it when it can no longer hold a charge, this is not the device for you.
Since Apple, Dell, Lenovo all warranty their batteries for a full year and offer extended battery warranty for a relatively small amount, you can probably expect at least 2 years with good performance.  They have already run the numbers and wouldn't warranty something they knew there was a good chance they would have to cover.  Remember, they are betting you won't have to use the warranty service.
My advice if this is really a concern is to find out how much battery replacement is and budget for it.


Settings --> Notifications ---> Messages

Then just click the "Show on lock screen" button to turn it to off mode (no green showing).

Edit: As far as I know there is no way to turn off this feature with stock iOS. You may be able to find a specific app to change this feature with a jailbroken iPhone.


Dragging an email with attachment to another mailbox looses attachment

The file may be in /Users/uname/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads

(This is where Mail stores unsaved attachments)


Can I dual boot Mac mini with Windows 8?

Yes you can.

Windows 8 support was provided to Boot Camp in version 5, along with drivers for the Mac hardware.

  Boot Camp 5 adds Windows 8 (64-bit) support. Use the Boot Camp Assistant and a USB drive to install the latest Boot Camp drivers for your computer. These new drivers support both Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows 8 (64-bit). You should download the newest drivers available any time you install Windows.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639

Per the quote above, you can use the Boot Camp Assistant to partition your drive, then install Windows 8 from ISO or disc.

You can find the full guide to installing Windows through Boot Camp on Apple's Help site:

Apple: Boot Camp Help: Install Windows on your Mac

To summarise:

Open Boot Camp Assistant from /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant.app.
Follow the instructions to partition your disk.
Let it reboot using your install media.
Install Windows normally.


Is my computer infected by the Recycler virus?

I presume you're referring to folders called $RECYCLE.bin and not RECYCLER (the latter is the recycler virus created folder).
These $RECYCLE.bin folders exist because they're created by Windows (through Parallels) because of the shared folders feature in Parallels (using which you can access folders on the other OS directly). These are not from a virus and you should just leave them as they are - they hold files/folders you delete.
This thread titled "$RECYCLE.BIN folder created?" in the Parallels forum provides a concise answer from the support team:

The $RECYCLE.BIN folder is created due to the shared folders and shared profile of Parallels.
You can disable it under Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Shared Folders.

To make things simpler in your usage of Parallels, you may also want to explore the "Levels of integration - Like a Mac or Like a PC" knowledgebase article.


I'd be tempted to go for the 'fix it even if it's not broken' approach...

Fix permissions, check & if necessary repair disk, using Disk Utility
Reset Home folder permissions & ACLs using OnyX  - Maintenance tab/permissions, tick the box at the top then Execute.
Update to 10.10.5 using the 10.10.5 combo update, not the delta from App Store


You can show the full URL in the address field by going to to Safari > Preferences > Advanced and check the box "Show full website address." This won't, however, show the website favicon, but it's better than nothing in my opinion.


In order to try to localise the problem, try adding an additional user to your iMac, and see if this new user also has no sound.

If the new user has sound, then you can be sure it's not a hardware problem. If the new user has no sound, then it looks like it's a hardware problem.


Is there any way to disable the tone when changing the volume on Mac

Yes. If you open System Preferences (found in /Applications/Utilities, or select it from the  Menu) and choose the Sound pane, there is a checkbox at the bottom of the Sound Effects tab which controls the default behavior (content edited out of image). The shift key overrides this, so if you uncheck the box holding shift will play the sound instead.


I've lost administrator access and /var/db/.AppleSetupDone is read only

You can run the command as superuser (explanation on wikipedia)

Either run

sudo rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

or

su

to log in as super user and then regularly run the commands.


From the Mac mini - Technical Specifications webpage:

  Video Support

  Support for the following combination of maximum concurrent display setups:

  Up to three displays:

  Two displays with 4096x2304 resolution at 60Hz connected via Thunderbolt 3 plus one display with 4096x2160 resolution at 60Hz connected via HDMI 2.0

  or

  Up to two displays:

  One display with 5120x2880 resolution at 60Hz connected via Thunderbolt 3 plus one display with 4096x2160 resolution at 60Hz connected via HDMI 2.0

So, yes, your model of Mac mini supports using three displays concurrently without using an external GPU.


Unified Inbox in Mail does not display all emails

My guess is that one of your clients is removing emails from the server - last time I used POP this was the default, and it was one of the best reasons for switching to IMAP. If any of your clients is doing this then those emails will not be appearing on your other clients. Have you checked this on each client that you access those servers with?

I know you didn't say you access those emails from multiple places but it's a common thing to do.


At the Startup Manager (accessed with holding alt/option at boot), with your macOS volume highlighted by the up arrow, hold down ctrl (which transforms the up arrow to a circular arrow) then choose the macOS volume. This will set this volume to be used as the startup disk in the future.


There's no requirement that you must use a "Pro" model in order to use the debugging tools in Safari. The MacBook Air has the exact same functionality. In fact there's no specific hardware requirement for this - it might as well be macOS running in a virtual machine on a computer running Windows.

Ofcourse there are other differences between the Pro and Air machines regarding performance, screen size, weight, etc.

Depending on your needs, you might be able to get by with renting a remote Mac online. Several services exists (Such as MacStadium) that allows you to rent Mac for a month or even by the hour. The Mac is accessed with remote desktop software. You could use remote USB software such as VirtualHere to access your iPad over USB from the remote Mac.

In order to do remote debugging of the web site on the iPad, you'll need to first enable it on the iPad:

Open Settings => Safari => Advanced
Toggle "Web Inspector" to on

Then plugin the iPad with a USB cable to the computer, and then do the following in Safari:

Open the Safari menu => Preferences => Advanced
Make sure "Show Develop menu in menu bar" is checked

Now you have the web inspector (what you call debugger) setup.

After opening your web site on the iPad, then open Safari on the computer and access the Develop menu. You'll find your iPad in the list, where you can choose your web site - the web inspector with debugger will be shown on the computer.


Since you said it's not listed under Manage Storage or in iCloud or GameCenter, here are some other things to look for or try

An in-app account unrelated to your apple accounts. Some apps use this for things like saving your progress cross platform e.g. progress on ios device shows on android device. If it has one you'll want to log out and create a new account. Also check social media sign-ins as this could affect it as well.

A reset progress button in the app settings, you may have to hunt through menus but many apps have something to completely reset all information/progress within the app.

Signing out of iCloud and GameCenter before reinstalling the app will help diagnose if that is the problem, and most apps will ask which save file to use on the next start up.


Actually i also experienced this. I got this solved because I read a thread regarding this. It's happening because we install some certificate to our iPhone. For me I installed google something management certificate in order to use the google sheets. You can remove it by go to General>Profile.

Hope this can help you.


iCal Sync with Google Apps Other Calendar

I solved this issue by going to https://calendar.google.com/calendar/syncselect and unchecking my teammate calendar from the sync.

This is not totally fine because I cannot see my teammate calendar from Calendar but at least I can use it for my different pro and personnal calendars without being bugged by notification when my teammate are invited to an event.


Using the same iTunes library with two different versions of iTunes

Sharing a physical library between iTunes instances won't work due to various reasons (e.g. incompatible library formats, conflicting access) but you won't need to do that. Home Sharing in included iTunes for exactly this reason and allows you to access the library of Mac #1 from Mac #2 (or vice versa, depending on where your library is actually stored).

There are actually two options here:

Open iTunes Preferences on the Mac were the library is stored, go to Sharing and make your library available to the local network. You should now see the library in the sidebar of the other Mac
Create an Apple ID if you don't have one already and use it to enable Home Sharing via File > Devices > "Turn On Home Sharing" on all involved computers. The benefit of this approach is that it also works with iOS devices and Apple TV. For details see Understanding home sharing and Setting up Home Sharing on your computer.


TestFlight review process vs. App Store review process

Yes, because the TestFlight review is not as thorough or complete.

The assumption (based on what I've seen over a few years as a developer) is that builds in TF are still in development and things can change.  It's not a slam-dunk that builds will be accepted into TF because they do some review on them.

For the AppStore, a full review is performed again as if you didn't do TestFlight.  I'm guessing they review any notes from the TF team but I don't have proof of that.

So yes, it's possible to be in TF and then fail the AppStore review.  It’s also possible for the opposite to happen, you could struggle more in TF review and then breeze through the store process.


There is option 'When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application' in Mission Control preferences. Does unticking it delivers expected behavior?


does leaving a hotspot on when no one is connected use data?

if it does it will be a very minimal amount. But it will drain your battery(if its a wireless device) and others have a chance of connecting to it if you leave it on (even if its password protected they have a chance of hacking it)


The reason they both still exist is because they are still separate services being offered by Apple. Users of MobileMe prior to the announcement of iCloud paid a yearly subscription fee for the service. Rather than refund those customers, Apple will continue to offer the MobileMe services only to those subscribers who have an active subscription.

MobileMe stopped accepting new customers around June 2011. If I am not mistaken, it will be until June 2012 that those users will end their subscriptions. At that moment, all MobileMe services will stop functioning and I expect Apple to update OS X so that the MobileMe System Preferences panel will be removed.

This article by Apple contains more information on the transition from MobileMe to iCloud, as well as a comparison table that shows which MobileMe services will continue to exist in iCloud. The short version is that with the exception of iWeb publishing, MobileMe Photo Gallery and iDisk, the rest of the MobileMe features will be found in some way or another in iCloud. Hope this helps.


Make username@machine bold in Terminal's ZSH shell but not the command's output

Just terminate the bold text after the current working directory with %b
PS1="%B%n@%m %1~%b %# "


Ensuring replies to group messages go to the whole group rather than just the individual who sent the original

If you send a group message on your iPhone, anyone else who uses iMessage will respond to the entire group. However, if a message recipient is using standard SMS (such as a user on an Android, etc.), their response will be a standard SMS message back to you.

So if you want a true group message, ensure everyone is using a Mac or iOS device, with iCloud and iMessage enabled. If you are in a mixed environment with non-iOS users, you might look at a third-party messaging app that works on all platforms.


Syncing iOS photos to MacBook - Photo Stream behaviour?

Photo Stream only saves either your last 30 days' worth of photos or your last 1000 photos, whichever you hit first. However, in iPhoto on the Mac, the "automatic import" feature (which I believe is enabled by default) will automatically copy any photos in your photo stream to your Mac's local hard drive.

  So I think selecting "Photo Stream" in iPhoto shows the temp store, but they are also saved into a Event where they will remain even after being removed from Photo Stream.

Correct (again, as long as you have automatic import enabled. You can double-check the setting in iPhoto preferences).


You can get the dmg file from here: https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

While downloading the dmg please check the system requirement. Because you will need a combo dmg file if you are upgrading from say 10.10.2 to 10.10.5

On detail page of the dmg there is a System Requirements button at the bottom, please check the system requirement from there.


Securing my data when recycling iPod at the Apple Store

Yes, your backed up data in iTunes from your 2nd gen iPod should be able to be restored into a new 4th gen iPod, based on my experience upgrading from a 1st gen iPod Touch to an iPhone.
Regarding clearing data, check out this ZDnet blog post. It includes information about the Erase all Content and Settings option that you can use to wipe the iPod, including a quote from Apple Support. More specific details for all Apple iDevices can be found on this Apple page.


Upgrade Mac OS from El Capitan to Sierra

Apple has machine friendly names for Sierra  here.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

Since you didn’t show that, use Everymac's Ultimate Mac Lookup

This is a MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.0 13" (Unibody), maximum macOS 10.11.x - so, no, it's been upgraded as far as it will go.


The first thing I would do is run a cleaning utility (like Onyx), reboot and see if cleaning up caches, running disk repair, maintenance scripts, etc. does the trick.

Failing that go to Apple support and download the latest Combo Updater that matches your current OS version and run that. Combo updaters often fix odd macOS behavior.


What is causing Safari to crash when dragging image or text?

Seems to have something to do with the color profile.
Changing it to either Generic RGB or sRGB IEC61966-2.1 prevents the crash, if you can live with the uncalibrated color scheme.

More here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/31703564#message31703564


Notifications stopped working for Messages (Mavericks)

The issue might be the way that you have your notifications for Messages set. If you go under Notifications -> Messages, you will see something that says "Messages alert style:" and will have the option to select None, Banners, or Alerts.

Make sure you don't have "None" set as your alert style. You can also set the badge counter to show for when you get a new message by clicking the "Badge app icon" option lower on the screen.


What is main difference in a portable external HDD and a regular external HDD?

There's a small difference. A portable HDD draws power directly from your computer while an external HDD draws power from a power adapter plugged into the wall. Durability will vary depending on quality. If you're using a portable device (such as a laptop) it is suggested to use a portable HDD so you don't have to plug it in elsewhere. It should also be noted that portable HDDs draw more power from your computer which may result in faster battery consumption on portable devices or worse performance on devices using a very little amount of power (such as a Raspberry Pi).


Run the Migration Assistant utility on the new computer, and it'll walk you through migrating the account to the new computer.  It's actually good that you used a different name on the new computer, since that means it can bring over the entire account (by its original name) and it won't conflict with the account you've already created on the new (/temporary) computer.


AppleScript editor cannot save .scpt file

This is happening because .scpt extension is used for compiled scripts, just use .applescript extension and it will work just file.

Yet another example of the stupid coded error messages.


How to accept Apple Music Family invite without iOS/macOS?

No - you'll want to find a spare iOS device for your father's account to log in and accept the invitation. (or backup / wipe / set up your device for him - then wipe / restore your backup so that you don't mix streams of data signing out and then signing in as his account).

This would clearly be a bug and something you might be able to call Apple Support to see if they can push an alternate way to authenticate your father to the group.

My guess is the account is either blocked and needs apple push notification to tie it to a physical device one time and then it will work from windows. I've done this a handful of times for people that primarily are on Windows without needing to engage official support.


What functionality does the in built Mac speech recognition have?

Speech does support dictation, menu item and button selection, and some programs have "speakable items" for their own features.

It doesn't natively support the rest, but you can write scripts or Automator workflows to do what you want, and make them "speakable". When you've finished writing the scripts, use Speech to "Make this speakable" while each file is selected in the Finder, one at a time. This will put an alias in the Speakable Items folder, so make sure you put them somewhere where you won't then rename, move, or delete them.


How to copy all files with extension/filetype in terminal?

cp ~/Desktop/*.jpeg /Volumes/flashdrive/

will copy all of the files on the current user's desktop with extension ".jpeg" to the drive named "flashdrive".

If the above command produces an Argument list too long error, then the safest most efficient way to handle it is to use a for loop like this:

for f in ~/Desktop/*.jpeg; do cp "$f" /Volumes/flashdrive/; done


Find my iPhone works with iCloud id, as explain here, So if you are using same iCloud ID and she knows the password then she can trace you, Its better to change your iCloud ID or at least change its password.

Or you can disable the location services to disable tracking by going in Setting > Privacy > Location Services


Is there a way to do SMS from the PC with iOS?

There is currently no way to send SMS from a PC or a Mac.

As you mentioned you can currently send iMessages from a Mac, and you will be able to send both iMessages and SMS from a Mac once OS X Yosemite is released (according to apple.com)

EDIT:

A quick Google search for "send iphone sms from pc" found this: http://www.myphonedesktop.com/


Looking for a way to run a command depending on OS version

You can get the OS version using sw_vers -productVersion.

$ sw_vers -productVersion
10.13.2

You can test on this in a shell script using

if [[ $(sw_vers -productVersion) == 10.13.2 ]]; then …

To test any 10.12 or 10.13 version, you can use parse the output such as with this

if [[ $(sw_vers -productVersion | sed "s/10\.\([0-9][0-9]\).*/\1/") == 13 ]]; then …


How do I enable ntpd to serve ntp clients (using macOS 10.14 Mojave)?

From Macrumors (in the Mojave 'All the little things' thread):

Time sync: ntpd has been replaced by timed: not the old school unix one, but a new apple invention.

Have linked the timed Man page for ya:

https://www.unix.com/man-page/mojave/8/timed/


What is com.apple.bird? Why does it grow so big?

Bird is part of iCloud and the files in the folder might be owned by any app using iCloud.  I wrote a simple Python script to try and find out who owns the files in the directory:

$ python blame-bird.py
4R6749AYRE.com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator            0.00MB
com.apple.shoebox                                   0.00MB
com.apple.TextInput                                 0.00MB
iCloud.com.apple.iBooks                             0.00MB
57T9237FN3.net.whatsapp.WhatsApp                 6904.66MB

Accounted for: 6904MB.  Still unaccounted: 1879MB

So on my Mac WhatsApp is the biggest culprit.  I filed a bug report with them (although I am not sure if it's really their fault).


Boot into single user mode.

Delete the file /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and then type exit and press return

At that point, the system will boot back to the normal setup process (keeping your old users intact) You will be guided through the steps to create a new admin user so pick a short name that doesn't exist on the Mac and you can then re-grant your normal user admin rights if you wish.