It is indeed missing functionality. You can add (but not change the positions of) some media play buttons like Previous, Next and Show Equalizer to the interface toolbar using Preferences... under the VLC Menu. Clicking the Show All button which appears at the lower-left corner of the Preferences... window will enable a great deal of additional customization, but it's challenging to anticipate or even recall which features are available in Basic, Show All, or both modes.

I'll alert you to a potential hazard: It's mandatory to save any changes you make to VLC's prefs before moving from one preference area to another, much less between Basic and Show All modes. Otherwise, your changes won't be retained--and there's no warning this is the case. Plus, annoyingly enough, the prefs window closes when you do save your changes, and re-opening it always opens in Basic mode. Furthermore, changing an item in one mode can cause changes to occur to seemingly unrelated items present the other, unseen mode--again, without warning.

Also, as far as I know (unless a recent nightly build has re-enabled the option), skins aren't customizable in MacOS and haven't been for years. Oh, here: Let me save you ten minutes of wandering around clicking disclosure triangles looking for the additional media buttons for the toolbar in the Playlist. They're here: Preferences ▸ Show All ▸ Interface ▸ Main Interface ▸ macosx ▸ Appearance

Mind you, if you're determined enough, the Main Interface section is also where you would go to run VLC on a homebuilt Lua or ncurses  interface--and put your buttons wherever you please.


The Deleted Users folder contains DMGs of users that you've deleted. When deleting a user in System Preferences → Users & Groups, you are given the option of saving that user's home folder as a DMG in a Deleted Users folder:

  Save the home folder in a disk image
  The disk image is saved in the Deleted Users folder (in the Users folder).

Selecting the Save the home folder in a disk image option will cause the home folder of the deleted account to be saved in a disk image

If there's nothing in the account that you want any more, you can safely delete the disk image from the Deleted Users folder, or even the entire Deleted Users folder itself.


What happens after an iPhone has its data auto-erased?

Once erased by the failed passcode attempts, the phone will be put in Activation Lock (assuming you have iOS 7 or later and have enabled Find My iPhone). You will need to unlock it using the Apple ID it is linked to. From there, you can restore the phone from a previous backup.


Is it possible to disable the volume drop when a notification comes in (without jailbreak)?

Put your phone into silent mode.

When your phone is set to ‘silent,’ notifications will no longer disrupt your listening experience, and will still come in as banners and vibrate your phone.
If you also want to stop vibrations, open Settings → Sounds & Haptics and disable Vibrate on Silent.
Note that on older phones (iPhone 6 and older, including SE) have a preference area labelled Sounds instead of Sound and Haptics.


Is there a calorie-counting iPhone app that knows about UK foods?

I use the MyFitnessPal app when on my iPhone and I use their website when on my Macbook Pro and find them to be easy to use. They do list the foods you're mentioning on their website here (the list is enormous, look around):

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/brand/list/585

I'm in the USA so make sure they have the foods you want before signing up / buying the iPhone app.


How do I change the Icon for a USB device?

just drag and drop :)

sometimes it does not work so, you do a simple:

COPY: copy to clipboard the icon you want to use
SELECT: select the icon you want to remove
PASTE: paste it


According to arp(4) on an OS X Lion system:

 The ARP cache is stored in the system routing table as dynamically-created host
 routes.  The route to a directly-attached Ethernet network is installed as a
 ``cloning'' route (one with the RTF_CLONING flag set), causing routes to individual
 hosts on that network to be created on demand.  These routes time out periodically
 (normally 20 minutes after validated; entries are not validated when not in use).

You can manually manage the ARP table using the arp command.


How do I set up AU Lab with Soundflower to record and monitor all audio that is playing on my Mac Pro?

You'd have to set Soundflower as the default output for audio (System Preferences->Sound), otherwise it will only accept input from whichever program has been specifically set to send output to Soundflower. Then in AU Lab, select Soundflower as the default input. This should capture everything.


Manually added keychain password not showing on Mac

Try deleting the password. Then try loging in with your normal username and password. Safari should ask you if you want to save the password to Keychain.

In this way macOS will save the website with the correct URL and details.


You can download and try Mog and Rdio for two weeks a piece.  They both also provide Desktop streaming as well.  I've tried both and prefer Mog.


So I've inspected macports sources and it turns out that this warning is displayed, when directory /usr/include or executable /usr/bin/make is missing. While I have working /usr/bin/make, directory /usr/include was indeed missing. Installing command-line tools using xcode-select --install fixed it.


Major issues with multiple external displays after upgrading from macOS 10.12.3 to 10.12.4

The following paragraph is meant as a high level summary of the issue that is occurring, and I attempt to explain the relevant parts in more detail in the subsequent paragraphs.

Immediately after upgrading from macOS 10.12.3 to 10.12.4 I noticed that when my MacBook Pro (Late 2013) boots up or wakes while plugged into my two external displays via Mini DisplayPort, my MacBook has extreme difficulty getting them both working at the same time. The MacBook's screen will turn on and off as it tries to get in sync with the external displays (to start displaying on them as normal). Meanwhile, the displays seem to cycle between receiving a signal and receiving no signal as suggested by the fact that the displays will wake, but then display "No Signal" and go back into power-save mode. Eventually, after many cycles of this, one or both displays may "get in sync" with the MacBook and function normally from there on out. But sometimes it goes through many such cycles without getting in sync. When the displays and the MacBook fail to get in sync after many cycles and continue to cycle as described, I may unplug one or both external monitors and try to get them to sync up individually, which is usually easier than trying both at once. This makes sense because, as I explain below, this problem is effectively a race condition and appears to be compounded with every additional external display in use. Finally, the more serious case is when the cycle I've described ends in the MacBook entering an unresponsive state and requiring a forced shutdown which can lead to loss of data or unsaved work. Furthermore, this whole issue presents itself every time I boot up or wake the MacBook.

To be clear, the displays wake from power-save mode upon receiving a signal from my MacBook (e.g. when it boots or wakes from sleep). But after receiving that initial signal waking the display from power-save mode, the display shows "No Signal" and goes back into power-save mode. Meanwhile, the display on my MacBook goes from normal to a blank screen for a couple seconds and back to normal as it seemingly switches between outputting to the external display and not outputting. This is the cycle that continuously repeats until either each respective monitor gets in sync with the MacBook and works as normal, or the MacBook enters an unresponsive state as described below. In the case where the monitors do eventually get in sync, it appears to occur the moment the monitor waking happens to coincide with the MacBook outputting a consistent signal to that respective monitor. So, it's effectively a race condition. The reason I say the MacBook cycles between outputting to the monitor and not outputting to it is because, while it's in this cycle, I'll observe windows I had open on the external monitor prior to the MacBook sleeping toggle between being displayed on the MacBook's display and not being displayed at all (presumably they're being output to the external display).

As I mentioned above, there is an even more troublesome situation I've now encountered multiple times where, upon waking from sleep, the MacBook will enter the cycle of trying to get in sync with the monitors for a while and then enter an unresponsive state, showing a blank screen. Plugging in and unplugging the monitors from the MacBook or power cycling the monitors seems to have no effect in this situation. Even if the MacBook is recognizing one of the monitors while in this unresponsive state, that monitor is also just rendering a blank screen (but is not going into sleep mode therefore is receiving a signal). My only option has been to force shut down my MacBook after this has happened by pressing the power button and leaving it pressed.

I have two Acer S241HL displays each connected via Mini DisplayPort. I had never had this issue before and it started immediately after I upgraded from 10.12.3 to 10.12.4. In the past, my MacBook's screen might turn on/off once or twice when booting up (and maybe waking?) before all displays were on and rendering properly. But that was always quick and never an issue. This is a much greater extreme and a major inconvenience as I have to wait and sometimes mess with the monitors every time my MacBook wakes or boots up. Even more serious is that it is now dangerous for me to wake my MacBook if I have monitors plugged in due to the risk of it entering an unresponsive state, thus requiring a forced shut down. This can easily cause problems including loss of data and unsaved work.

I've contacted Apple Support to escalate this issue to engineering. They should be aware of this thread, so if you experience this same issue, please comment with details of your setup such as which video out port(s) you're using and what kinds of cables/adapters, as well as any other pertinent information.


2011 iMac with Dead internal HDD. Possible to boot from an external disk?

There is no hard and fast rule for this. Sometimes when a HDD fails to boot, you can boot from another attached bootable disk. Sometimes, however, the HDD fails in a way it won't permit booting from attached drives because it seems to monopolize the bus.

You don't have USB 3.0 or firewire on this, even if it is a late 2011 iMac core i7. So you'd be limited to Thunderbolt or USB 2.0, which is going to be a little slow.

I know iMacs are hard to take apart, but your best bet is to look at the instructions or video on how to install an internal SSD from Other World Computing (MacSales.com) or, iFixit.com. If you think this is possible, it's a cost effective way to really fix your iMac and make it a lot faster.

edit: I wanted to add that USB 2.0 external HDDs are cheap and slow, Thunderbolt drives are expensive, and you can now get a decent SSD to install internally within your budget.


You may use the free app QTSync which supports this feature.


How can I get an iPhone through Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program on my family's Verizon plan?

Yes, virtually any postpaid Verizon customer can sign up for the iPhone Upgrade Program through Apple's web site or in store. (So can Sprint and AT&T customers, although T-Mobile is currently in-store only.)

This is separate from any agreements you have with Verizon, and you will still have to finish paying off your current phone with them.


Where can I remove a desktop in Mission Control?

Enter Mission Control and press Option. A close button will appear in the top left corner of the miniature views of the desktops:

Simply press the close button to delete the desktop. Notice that you can't delete Desktop 1.


I can't get gcc to compile DevIL library

As for your first question: The cleaner alternative to symlinking would be to add /Developer/usr/bin to your $PATH, so the other utilities needed for compilation can be found. That's easy to do:

export PATH=$PATH:/Developer/usr/bin

You could put that into ~/.profile so the path get set each time you open a terminal window.

And I'm certainly not a GCC/LLVM expert, but to me it seems like DevIL's configure script does expect a different version of gcc, one which doesn't expect an argument to the -V switch. My best bet would be to ask around on the DevIL developer's mailing list, as there probably are people who have been confronted with the same problem.


How to stop a key on my Macbook Air keyboard showing the character accent menu?

I would try to reset the long key press, by turning it off and turning it on in Terminal.

Write the following in Terminal:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false [for Lion/Mountain Lion]
defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool NO    [for Mavericks]

and then

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true  [for Lion/Mountain Lion]
defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool YES   [for Mavericks]

You need to log out and in for the changes to take effect. I don't know if you have to turn it off, log out/in, turn it on, log out/in for the system to feel the change.

If it does not solve the problem, there might be some other settings involved.

Also, if and only if you are not using the long key press ability, a quick fix would be to turn it off permanently to prevent the "I" key from popping up the character accent menu.


Just open the photo in Preview, press Command-I (⌘+I) to bring up the Inspector. Click the circled i (ⓘ) tab, and then the Exif tab. At the bottom of the list you'll find Image Number.

This is your camera's shutter count.


Is it possible to reassign the "Pinch with thumb and three fingers" gesture to activate Dashboard instead of Launchpad?

I'm not sure if there's a plist modification you can do to alter the behaviour, but I do know that BetterTouchTool will let you replace the pinch zoom in/out gestures with custom actions. You can assign them to activate Dashboard instead of LaunchPad if you like or any number of other things. It can be a bit involved to set up, but it is very powerful in what it lets you override from the OS X defaults.

TUAW has an article on customizing a Magic TrackPad using Better Touch Tool that demystifies it a bit.


How can I force Mac OS X 10.9 to see the ethernet port of my hub (Asix AX88179)?

After I posted my comment, I contacted support of my product (ianker.com) and after few email exchange they sent me a replacement dongle claiming that I had a defective unit.

I was skeptical but the replacement actually worked!  MacOSX immediately recognised it when I plugged it in directly into the Mac.


How does macOS allow Standard users to ping

Let's take a look at the source code for Apple's ping implementation. Notably, we see this:

if (getuid())
    s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_ICMP);
else
    s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, IPPROTO_ICMP);
sockerrno = errno;

getuid returns 0 if root. So this code is saying, "open the socket in DGRAM (datagram mode) if we are not root. If we are root, open as raw".

So a raw socket is only used when you are root. An IMCP ping packet is a standard DGRAM packet and does not require raw sockets.

However, there are some flags that can be passed to ping that do require root, and for those you will get an "Operation Not Permitted". For example:

>ping -f
ping: -f flag: Operation not permitted

When run as root, I do not get the operation not permitted. So Apple's implementation will let you do standard ping operations which does not require root, but require you to run as root for certain flags and operations.

Depending on if you are root, it may set some additional socket options:

if (uid == 0)
    (void)setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, (char *)&hold,
        sizeof(hold));


share IKEv2 VPN connection via internet sharing (High Sierra)

This can be done using pf.  Using Murus (GUI-interface to pf) static NAT, share internet via your network interface, and also share the VPN interface (mine was ipsec0).


One place to check is chrome://plugins/ in Google Chrome. Just type that into the address bar and hit ENTER. You should see a list of all the plugins that are available through Chrome. If you've downloaded and installed Flash, you should see two entries there. One for your own install and one for the version of Flash that comes bundled with Chrome. It will also tell you there if the plugin is disabled or enabled.

Also if you go into Settings in Chrome and search for "Flash" it will highlight the "Content Settings..." button under Privacy. Check Plug-Ins under there and see whether "Block all" has been chosen from the available "Run automatically|Click to play|Block all" options.

Another thing to check for are ClickToPlugin or ClickToFlash extensions that can be set to selectively block Flash plugins. You can find the installed Chrome extensions with "Extensions" from the Window menu and the installed Safari extensions with "Safari Extensions..." under the Safari application menu.


How can I discover Windows hosts to add a printer

I know this is not a real answer but I have been using Macs in (mostly) PC environments and I find the best way to print to it is by setting up a printer using it's IP address.

I rarely have any success printing thru a Windows print queue, and unless there is a rule that you HAVE to print thru the Windows server save yourself the hassle and just print directly.


How to preserve tray icon position on reboot?

The issue occurs when using iStat Menus v5.2 (or older?) on macOS Sierra.

This issue is addressed in iStat Menus 5.3.


How to switch between two Macs and one Thunderbolt Display?

I do know of a Thunderbolt 2 Dock and KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) device that will allow you to do just this - IOGEAR Thunderbolt 2 KVM, Docking Station, GTD732

There are two key bullet points that address your specific situation:

  Share your peripherals and Thunderbolt 2 devices between 2 computers
  Supports 4K (UHD) resolution. Supports Dual displays with HDMI and Thunderbolt 2 monitors

Unfortunately, I don't know of any Thunderbolt 1 Dock/KVM's. (The MBP 2012 and TB Display are both TB1)

Thunderbolt 2 is backward compatible with Thunderbolt 1 (the main difference being bandwidth)  so in theory, it should work just fine especially since you are connecting just one TB display.

The other major downside is that it's extremely expensive.  For the $320 USD for this device, I personally would go through the pain of switching cables or (what I would most likely do) get a display with multiple inputs.


Can I change the URL for RSS feed in NetNewsWire?

The feed URL can only be edited if Google Reader sync is off.

Select the feed in the left column and press ⌘I to bring up the feed info window.  Click on the triangle next to the URLs entry and you will get a text box that will allow you to edit the feed URL.  There are a bunch of other setting there that allow you to do things like specify how often a particular feed is updated, how long articles are kept, etc.


How can I change the position and size of an image in Apple pages 5.5?

The photo must be selectable and selected for you to be able to manipulate it.
If the image is locked, unlock it with ⌥⌘L.


What is the normal fan speed for the 15'' Retina Macbook Pro?

I've been monitoring my fan speeds for as long as I've had my device. At idle, the lowest it gets is hovering around 2000rpm. The left fan is usually closer to 2100rpm, actually. The maximum speed appears to be 6000rpm, which occurs during gaming and heavy CPU loads.

SMC Fan Control lets you monitor and control your fan speeds. The minimum setting is 2000rpm and the max is 6000rpm, so I think we can safely conclude that these are the standard maximum and minimum values.


OSX 10.9.5 upgrade causes apache/php downgrade

I replaced the following line in httpd.conf:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

With:

LoadModule php5_module /usr/local/Cellar/php55/5.5.12/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

This seems to have restored a lot of my old setup and I can work again.


How Can I Create A Service To Alphabetize A Comma Separated Text String?

I found the/an answer by combining the information
here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/23026003
and here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/3445211

The created service looks like this:

I will probably look into how to modify this to work on batches of tracks, which will be a little bit different since the text, itself, isn't, in that instance, specifically selected, but this works for now on a single track at a time basis.


Stop Safari from loading webpages as Preview images

Try running this command in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DidPromptToFetchRecentHistoryPreviews -bool YES


How can I find out when my Macbook Pro turned itself on?

You could try looking at the output of pmset -g log.  You didn't specify your macOS version, but the last three OS versions (at least) have this utility.

It outputs a log of power-related events:

...
2019-01-30 02:21:22 -0800 DarkWake              DarkWake from Normal Sleep [CDN] due to RTC/SleepService: Using AC (Charge:100%) 45 secs
2019-01-30 02:21:22 -0800 HibernateStats        hibmode=3 standbydelay=1800                                                           187
2019-01-30 02:21:22 -0800 WakeTime              WakeTime: 1.799 sec
...
2019-01-30 08:37:56 -0800 Assertions            PID 3724(PowerChime) Released DisplayWake "com.apple.chimeOnAttach" 00:00:04  id:0x0xe000090b9 [System: PrevIdle DeclUser BGTask SRPrevSleep IPushSrvc kCPU kDisp]
Sleep/Wakes since boot:0   Dark Wake Count in this sleep cycle:7

Dark wakes are when the system wakes up to perform some limited activity.  If you see lots and lots of dark wakes in a sleep cycle it might be somewhat problematic.

More often, it's something like a Bluetooth mouse or other network device being allowed to wake the system, which you might also see in the power log as a wake event.


Can I create something like a macro in Numbers?

There is rich documentation and deep automation support for Numbers being automated with Automator and AppleScript. Here is a mid-tutorial link to where to save your scripts and shows the menu bar to trigger these scripts.

I could see you entering the formula or substituting / selecting the range for which to apply a function quite easily.

https://iworkautomation.com/numbers/script-menu.html

The nice thing about that site is that it has many tutorials as well to cover the scripting syntax / how to use the script editor and all the things you learn in Numbers are general to other apps that have scripting support on macOS - first party apps and third party apps.


How do I sync games save data across different computers?

There are really two answers to this question, and they depend upon how the game is made.

If your game is using Steam's Cloud service, your save games will be automatically copied across your machines. Here's a PC-centric probably incomplete list of games that use Steam Cloud. Not very useful, but the best I could find.
Most non-Steam games will create a file somewhere on your Mac which contains your save data. This save file could be in the game directory, it could be in your Library folder, it could be elsewhere. That's going to change depending on the game, and is up to you to find out. We can sync this file via Dropbox.

Now, if the game lets you choose where to place your save file, you could save it in your Dropbox folder, and let that sync it across devices. Just make sure it's fully synced on every device before loading it.
If the game doesn't let you choose where to save, we're going to have to do it manually. We need to create a symlink, which is kind of like having the same file exist in two places in your filesystem at once. Time Machine makes extensive use of it. Lifehacker have a post detailing using symlinks to sync files and folders for Dropbox. Now, I haven't tested it, and you should be very careful with this. What you want to do is to open up Terminal and do something like this:

ln -s /Users/PutYourNameHere/Library/Preferences/com.nakiwo.doukutsu.plist ~/Dropbox/MySaveGames/CaveStory/com.nakiwo.doukutsu.plist

You're going to need to replicate that on both computers. Now, be very careful with this method, and make sure you back up any files you try this with. I'd be very, very careful about doing it with whole folders, especially important ones like the Preferences folder. But in theory, it should work. Good luck!


caffeinate -i open -W -a Lightroom.app

should keep the system awake as long as Lightroom is running and not idle. To prevent any sleep at all, use -s instead of -i.


How to provide a default value to the "Ask For Text" automator function?

Enable "Ignore this action's input" for the "Ask for Text" action to retain the default value you have specified.


How to buy an iPhone 6s and use it in China?

I'd like to buy a new model iPhone 6s 16 GB ("Rose Gold" color) and use it in China.

First off, the iPhone 6S is a great choice. It's the gold-standard of all phones, but whatever you do, DON'T buy the 16 GB model. This isn't an iPhone 3GS or a cheap Android phone, it's a brand new iPhone 6S and it shoots 4K videos. Formatted, with iOS on it, you should have less than 12 GB to work with. Put 2 HD movies on it, and your just about out of storage. Get at least the 64 GB model, it's way worth the $100, IMO, plus when you go to sell it for an upgrade in a few years, you'll get back most of that $100, anyway. Me? I've already bought a 128 GB iPhone 6S on Verizon.

  When purchasing it in Apple Store, what options should I choose so the phone will bear no service contract which is useless for me?

Not a lot, other than get the iPhone on T-Mobile, which should be available to buy outright ($750 for 64 GB model) and will come SIM-free and without a contact, just make sure that it will work on whatever carrier you wish to put it on in China.

  How to make sure it is "unlocked" so it can be used with a local service company in China? What sort of SIM card does this iPhone require for it to be compatible?

Apple doesn't sell unlocked iPhone 6Ss, yet. I asked an Apple rep about this and they said maybe in a few months, but there is the very small chance that your carrier doesn't require the iPhone to be unlocked, like Straight Talk, but probably not in China.

  Could the interface language be set to Chinese language?

Yes. China and the US are Apple's biggest customers.


Spam (or just email) filters in iOS Mail.app

This is definitely something they should have implemented by now since large umbers of people are now using their smart phones as their primary email reader.

Currently, this is how I'd do it:

In iOS Mail tap on the Search field at top of screen
Type [SPAM] in the search field
The screen will show results under various headings
Swipe up until you see the Subjects heading
Now tap on the Subject contains: [SPAM] option
This will bring up all results matching that criteria
Now tap on the blue Edit option at bottom right of the screen
Select all emails
Tap on Mark > Move to Junk

However, you may be able to achieve a more automated approach by creating a Shortcut with the Shortcuts app. I'm heading out now for a most of the day, but if I get a chance I'll try and create a shortcut and edit my answer to explain how I created it.

In the meantime, if you'd like to explore this as an option and you don't already have the app installed, you can download Shortcuts from the App Store.


Right click selected text on a link, but only copy raw text

right click, but instead of clicking copy link, click copy

EDIT:
open automator. Choose new document. choose quick action. change the top settings to:

Add a copy to clipboard action. Save it.

When you want to copy something, select, then right click it. Select services>whatever you saved that quick action as (eg. "copy")

This is probably not the most efficient way to do this, but it works


Can't mount or repair Transcend 1TB external HD

Try using a great app for Mac like Disk Drill, Data Rescue 4 or R Studio to recover your own data, another option is to bring it to a computer store, and they can do it for a fee, as Best Buy does for around $450-$1200. If you prefer a free way, then I recommend using TestDisk, an open source project that will help recover and perform sector by sector scan drives.

I would just leave the drive plugged in and use one of the applications, if the drive is still able to spin (as I'm assuming it is because it will populate in disk util). In Disk Drill, you can click the settings icon beside your drive and click "deep scan". For a 4TB HDD, it takes around 3 days. It should be fine if left running for a few days, and eventually, it will allow you to mount your old drive, and transfer the files to a new drive. Docs for TestDisk are available here

Best of Luck!


Where to find a list of iTunes Internet Radio Station URI's?

Assuming you want a source of radio stations that will play through iTunes, SHOUTcast is as good a starting point as any. Go for the .M3U streams, these will open and play in iTunes.


How much more storage than iOS 7 does iOS 8 ACTUALLY use up?

The Ars Technica iOS 8 Thoroughly Reviewed article pegs it at 600MB difference on the iPhone 5.

DEVICE  SPACE AVAILABLE    (IOS 7.1.2)  SPACE AVAILABLE (IOS 8.0 GM)
32GB    iPhone 4S (AT&T)    27.4GB      26.6GB
32GB    iPhone 5 (VZW)      27.3GB      26.7GB
32GB    iPhone 5C (AT&T)    27.2GB      26.5GB
64GB    iPhone 5S (AT&T)    56.0GB      55.1GB


How can I recover deleted iWeb and iDVD?

iWeb and iDVD does not work in Yosemite anyway—crashes immediately on launch.


Is it possible to connect an iPhone/iPad via WiFi Protected Setup (WPS)?

No, you cannot do this (source). You should strongly consider not using WPS anyway, as it has a number of documented security issues. Apple has a page which describes recommended router setup for connecting an iOS device, which might help.


Is it legal to run Xcode on OS X Lion Server in a virtualized environment in Windows?

Maybe if you boot Windows on authentic Apple Mac hardware?


Adding new rule for emails containing header

Yes.

If you go to Preferences Rules and Add Rule then the first of the condition pop up lists has Edit header list.. as the last choice. In the dialog click on the + and add in X-hashcash. Done.


How do I stop my external hard drive from using all my RAM?

The external drive by itself won't use RAM. Check the processes that are running in Activity Monitor — you can sort by RAM usage.


The manual way is to go to the system folder using finder go to folder command
shortcut Shift Command G ⇧⌘G

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/

Rename the original icon and then name the new icon file with the original name.
Will need to be an admin user and enter your password when doing this

Using a dedicated program may be easier see Liteicon for a free download.

The file will need to be a Mac icon file .icns

I create my icons with Affinity Designer export to a 1024 X 1024 PNG then use iConvert Icons to make the icon files.
Any photo or vector graphics tool will work and there are other converters.


As far as i remember (afair), there was native Ggl Hangouts app (with 32bit components) for older macOS, but Ggl discontinued to share those files. Even if it was obtained it will not run in Catalina.
So an option that regular or power users can do is, use Wine-project software, it is an emulator type of software, it allows to run Windows app in macOS/Linux/Unix, etc,

and afaik the project & project's users have began to collaborate+work on supporting 64bit-only macOS (Catalina, Big Sur, etc).
It is better for this case that Wine is installed by using a package-management type of software, (if Ggl Hangouts was available as stable option, and you were using 32bit supported macOS, then installing Wine directly w/o pkg-mngmt sw would've been fine).
See this answer here (Load Wine by using MacPorts).
( MacPorts is a package-management type of software )
( Homebrew (is also another package-management software, but it) violates Privacy-Rights and creates risks1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ..., so i will not suggest to use that, but you are free to choose whatever you want to use )

GH = Google-Hangouts.
There was also a native Ggl Hangouts 32bit app for Windows, but Ggl discontinued files for this too, but some caching/wayback site may/can be used, to obtain it, (if you have original file's hash/checksum code known).
And another option is, if GH standalone app was already installed on a PC/Windows computer & you have access to that computer, then you need to copy Hangouts exe (executables), DLLs (lib), etc files, into your macOS computer's one of the folder, & then you can use Wine app to run the exe file in macOS/Catalina.
I have shown many/Various ways to use Google-Hangouts(GH) web-service (aka: chat network, aka: IM network) on Catalina (and Mojave) in below linked answer's EXTRA-INFO section, if you have time & respect for different choice/preferences, then read this linked answer here:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/400885/133434
( as i have posted the link, i will not repeat info here again )


The problem here lies in the fact that there are "Apple" compatible headsets and "Android" compatible ones.  The reason is because of the TRRS (tip, ring, ring, sleeve) connector at the end of your headset.  See the photos below:

If you notice, the Mic and Ground connectors are swapped.  While your microphone works because microphones don't care about polarity, the switches (volume up/down) won't work because it will be connecting to the "mic" conductor and not the "ground."

The way the volume up/down buttons work is that one of the signals is shorted to ground  So, for instance using the "Android" (OMTP) pinout, if you press "Vol Up" then pin A and pin D is shorted.  But, on an "Apple" product, pin D is the Mic and nothing happens.  This is obviously really simplified.   In actuality, there is most likely a change in resistance different that what is already there from the left/right speaker or mic.

Notice the switches.  Let's use SW3 (FF/Next) as an example.  When SW3 is open, the microphone is connected and completes the circuit (green trace).  When SW3 is closed (as in pressed), it shorts the circuit before getting to the microphone bypassing it, it goes through a 600ohm resistance and completes the circuit at ground (yellow trace).  The phone then sees the 600ohm resistance as a signal to "skip" passes that to iOS and iOS skips to the next song.

The same happens vol up/down, I just don't have the schematic for those.  If you use an adapter that has the ground in a different place, the circuit will never get completed thus the signal never gets to the phone.

There is no software that's going to fix this because to get a signal to the hardware so that OS X can "sense" it, something must be shorted to ground.  Shorting to mic does nothing so the system can't see it.

This is why this is not an Apple issue, but an Android one.


Buscar found the solution (noted in the comments):

Apple had released a v12.1.1 for 64-bit machines that allowed earlier encoded videos to be imported properly.

The URL is http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1784

Busker thank you!


How can I play music from my iPhone through my computer?

I know I'm replying on an old question, but I came in here googling.
My iPhone 4 had the same behavior, I just updated to iTunes 10 and I my music is no longer greyed out.

In essence: upgrade to iTunes 10 and you should be able to do this.


can an iPad be linked to two different iTunes accounts?

Yes you can. Just go to :

Settings > iTunes & App Store

Then log out and log in with your Id and you can redownload all the stuff your purchased thanks to iCloud. His data will be unaffected and remain on the device.

Alternatively you can turn on Family Sharing which does the same thing but a little more user friendly by going to :

Settings > iCloud > Set Up Family Sharing.


It's likely that the controller for the trackpad and keyboard (I believe it's one chip for both) is dead. I had an issue where the keyboard and trackpad on an older pre-unibody model would become non-responsive, but the rest of the top case components were fine (power button, back light). It was tracked to a faulty controller in the top case, but the solution was to replace the whole thing.

iFixit sells replacement top cases, but they're rather pricey ($299.95 for the A1260-compatible part). You might be able to find a cheaper one used on Ebay or elsewhere. The repair itself is fairly straightforward.

Have you tried plugging in a USB mouse or keyboard yet? If the problem is what I think it is, that should work fine.


You need to backup your phone, reinstall the operating system and then recover the data back.

This should resolve the issue, however if not, then you may need to setup as a new iPhone.

Here are the instructions on Apple's website


Use applications as video sources for apps like Skype?

Take a look at webcamoid, manycam, and Magic Camera and the corresponding VLC plugin.

Be aware the Magic Camera download seems to be bundled with malware and the VLC plugin is very outdated.

softwarerecs.stackexchange.com is also a good place to ask.


I want to sync my previously never synced iPhone to a Mac. Is there a risk of data loss?

Yes - there always is a risk of data loss even though the software (iTunes and iOS) are designed to let you make a backup and transfer all data before it erases anything.

Best to go online / call apple or visit a store and research how to prevent an automatic sync for your version of iTunes and the steps to back up / transfer that content before you start.

Without knowing your iOS version and iTunes version it's hard to be more specific. It should go fine, but best to be prepared beforehand.


Caps Lock key mapped to a second Control key, reset after wake in Mountain Lion

I have the same issue on a 2010 MacBook Air with its internal keyboard. Not every time it wakes up, though. I did a clean install of Mountain Lion. I didn't have such an issue with Lion on the same machine.


They're shortcuts for developers to start time profiling an app using Instruments, which is a developer tool that's installed alongside Xcode. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruments_(software)


Is the case insensitive comparison broken for mdfind?

It's working for me (Sierra). Specifically, the form you're used to works:

$ mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.audio" && kMDItemTitle == "*ciao*"'c
...[non-album tracks]/Bella ciao.mp3
...Unreleased/Bella Ciao.mp3

I had no luck with the other form (... "==[c] ... "). The docs you linked to were from 2011; I found references from 2014 that use "your" form so it looks like the online docs are old and wrong! Unfortunately this suggests there's something wrong with your system, rather that with your queries. Sorry, I'm not sure what the next step would be.


Like camcorders or actioncams, is there any way to see what is being recorded on another cellphone?

This almost certainly isn't the answer you were looking for, but if not it may be useful for others.

If you have an Apple Watch, you can actually use that to view what is being captured within the iPhone's camera frame, both for photos and video. You can also use the Apple Watch as a basic remote to control the iPhone's camera (take photos, start/stop recording, etc). Obviously, this only works for the iPhone the Apple Watch is paired to, not for other iPhones or devices.


How can I create a well-structured PDF with macOS?

In Word for Mac 2019 (Version 16.41 (20081900) if I go to File -> Save As and choose File Format PDF it displays an option, "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service)".  It then asked permission to use the online service.  When testing in macOS Preview the Table of Contents shows Heading Two and Three assuming Heading One is the title.  Setting an actual title with the title style now shows the Title and the 3 headings in the PDF table of contents.
So I think this will work without needing more advanced PDF tools such as Adobe Acrobat.
You might want to produce an actual Table of Contents in Word that might help as well but it wasn't necessary.  I just applied the Heading Styles in Word to the headings and made the body portions the normal style.
Also in Word there is "Check Accessibility" under the Tools menu.
Tested doing same in Pages and that produces a table of contents with the style headings as well in PDF.  But Word allowed for collapsing the headings while Pages generated the headings in a linear fashion in the table of contents.


Can I undo changes made via "defaults write"?

Yes, usually you can just use defaults delete

If for example you have run

defaults write -g NSScrollAnimationEnabled -bool false

You can undo the changes by running one of

defaults delete -g NSScrollAnimationEnabled
defaults write -g NSScrollAnimationEnabled -bool true

(In all cases you need to restart the application to apply changes)

Even if the preference key had some value before you used defaults it shouldn't matter if you delete the key.

It is generally safe to delete preference keys or even complete files,
and they can usually be recreated by OS X or applications.

The property lists modified by defaults are stored in directories like

~/Library/Preferences/
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/

You can edit a plist in a text editor after converting it to XML with

plutil -convert xml1 FILENAME


The location of the httpd.conf in lion is the following:

/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

And you will search for the line to change that has the following:

Listen 80

The rest of that document you linked should work.

I would however recommend using MAMP for much better control of apache and mysql.

MAMP


My 1/8" headphone output is not giving me full level in one ear

Short answer:
With your headphones plugged in, go to Preferences > Sound, and check the balance between your L and R channels.

Long answer:
I read that some people did not hear anything through their headphones and had solved the issue by unchecking the "mute" option under the sound section.  Mine was already unchecked.  The balance was fine too, but my headphones were not plugged in.  When I put them in and opened up Preferences > Sound and looked at the balance, it was pushed to the right.  Sliding it center fixed my problem instantly!


Can the Macbook 12 inch handle XCode/Eclipse for Android/iOS development?

The question is quite opinion based. Can it handle development - absolutely. Will it be fast enough - now that's a matter of your personal reception of "fast enough".

The MacBook is quite a capable machine. It will run Development-Tools without any issues. It will perform lower than a MacBook Pro CPU and GPU-wise, so it really depends on your personal needs. Use something like Activity Monitor to keep an eye on your current system load during your daily tasks. If your machine is often at it's limits, you will have to take sacrifices with a MacBook. If your machine idles a lot and is only pushed to the edge rarely, you'll probably be happy with the machine.


CPX ports are virtual ports that use your existing COM ports to communicate with your Datacard printer. No additional hardware is needed. Setting up an additional port in this way tells Windows to use a software component (called a Port Monitor) for printing to your Datacard printer.

From: http://www.datacard.com/downloads/ViewDownLoad.dyn?elementId=repositories/downloads/xml/150i_2XX_PrinterDriverInstructions_Win95-98.xml&repositoryName=downloads&index=0


Windows 7 Windows Explorer can't see iPhone 5S any more

Check device manager to see if the iphone is listed, or if you have anything with a question or exclamation mark.

Edit- also check disk management (just type diskmgmt.msc on start menu and press enter, or into windows + R run box and press enter) to see if the drive is possibly detected without a letter assigned.


How can I format my disk to APFS if I can’t boot in Recovery Mode?

If you see the spinning globe icon at boot, and are prompted for an Internet connection, then technically you're in Internet Recovery Mode, which doesn't rely upon any local partition to boot.

If you can get your device connected to your network, either by using an Ethernet adapter or temporarily using a different or open wireless network, you'll be able to format the internal drive to APFS.

You may also wish to investigate using Mac Deploy Stick to create a bootable USB installer.


Installing from a .pkg or .mpkg file on Mac OS X Lion

The update did not work for me, as I had already run it. It broke after the update. I still had the problem. In Finder, I could see that the file extension icon was not the gold/tan box icon that goes with Installer. There are two ways to do this. 1) In Finder, right-click, or get to the property window, and "Open With" and navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/Installer.app. There is a checkbox to always open with this app. -or- 2) Open Installer itself and drag the mpkg file into it. Run the installer.

Both of these should run, and also change the mpkg icon in your Finder.


Is there any way to crack a password-protected disk image?

An article written by someone else who did that:

http://blog.whitehatsec.com/cracking-aes-256-dmgs-and-epic-self-pwnage/

The author did get his cracked, but had to borrow a supercomputer to do so even after he got custom software designed to use partial knowledge of the password he had chosen.

It shows how hard a general cracking effort would be, but also how choosing a short or known pass phrase makes it practical in some cases to hire an expert to bypass even a good solid encryption scheme.


How do I display long list of client on a page using keynote

I hope I unterstood what you want...

I tried to create an example: scroll_example.zip

Follow these steps:

Create all your client names
Group them all to one object (if they're all in one textbox, skip this step)
Create an action for that object -> Move
Set the action from bottom to top and specify the duration
Place your object outside your slide and end position of the move action is of course in your slide (see the example)


Does iPhoto show up under Purchased tab of your Mac App Store? If yes, you can try deleting the app from /Applications and try installing (downloading) it again from Purchased tab.


Mavericks - I need to be notified when a wifi network becomes available

You could use Shell script in  a Applescript Application that checks the available  wifi list. And pops up a notification when the one you want is in the list.

The code is commented to explain how it works.

on idle -- A on idle handler will run the code within it and then set the app to idle. Using little cpu. It will then repeat this every #n of seconds ( determined by its return number)
    set theWifi to "weehronetwork" -- the wifi SSID
    set theList to paragraphs of (do shell script "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -s| awk '{print $1}'") -- get the wifi list
    if theList contains theWifi then

        display notification with title "The WIFI" subtitle (theWifi & "  IS BACK UP") sound name "Sosumi" -- display a notification.

    end if

    return 60 -- run again in #n seconds

end idle

Save the Applescript as an Application and check Stay open.

When you first run the App. and it displays a Notification, it will then be shown in the System preferences --> Notifications. From here you can determine the Notification type.

Note. I have used a sound in this code. But if you uncheck 'Play Sound for notifications' the sound will not play.


Where can I find a comprehensive and detailed technical software manual for OS X?

The Missing Manual series is pretty comprehensive for the whole OS, though they don't cover shell commands deeply.

The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood covers more of the specifics you are looking for.

Keep in mind that there technically is no difference "between OS X and Unix." Mac OS X IS a Unix


iPhoto pictures lost, then found - how to save them to hard drive

If you are fine with starting over with albums and face recognition, don't worry about the folder structure. The metadata on the photos (assuming they are JPEGs) will even give you back a lot of events. (iPhoto makes events automatically using the timestamps).

I think face-recognition and keywords and ratings and all of that is going to be gone, but just save the image files you want to keep and forget about the rest.


To me it sounds like the Bluetooth device is experiencing a firmware issue when trying to communicate with the device running on iOS 7. I'd try either putting fresh install of iOS 7 on your iPhone, or getting in touch with LG. It's most likely an error on their part.


How do I see disk usage within a Fusion Drive (CoreStorage Logical Volume)?

iostat command check out the complete article from JollyJinx blog.

http://jollyjinx.tumblr.com/post/34638496292/fusion-drive-on-older-macs-yes-since-apple-has


I ran the following commands (again) yesterday and they didn't seem to fix the issue

sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100
sudo mdutil -i on /
sudo mdutil -E /

Then this morning macOS wanted to install some updates* and everything is back to normal now.

* a Safari update asked me to terminate "Spotlight.app" first, I found that odd because the only way to do this (to my knowledge) is through CLI or Activity Monitor


How to manually "file" files into folder, quickly, only using the keyboard

If your Mac is running Mavricks or later, you could try opening multiple tabs using CMD+T in a Finder window to rapidly copy/move files from the  "source" folder where your scanned files are located (in the first tab) to other "destination" folders visible in the other tabs. Press CTRL+TAB to move forward to the next tabbed window or CTRL+SHIFT+TAB to move backwards to the previous tabbed window. If you know which destination folders you'll be moving your files to then you can open a tab with each of those folders visible before you get started.
Do your file preview & rename in your first tab, then press CMD+C to copy the file. Press CTRL+TAB however many times you need to move to the destination tab then press CMD+OPT+V to move the file into that folder.


Mavericks Server /Work group manager issues

SOLVED FOR ME.

I don't recall seeing this before in Snow leopard (the interface was slightly different...), on the same line at the message "Viewing local directory /Local/Default. Not Authenticated." there is a small triangle --- clicking on this reveals a drop menu.

Select LDAPv3 from the list.  Then click on the lock at the far end of that bar.
Authenticate as DIRADMIN and it works.


Switch to different app in different desktop instead same desktop

There are many variants on this question...

In short, Spaces is not designed to accommodate any app on more than one Space.

So the simple answer is, "No."

Possible alternative workarounds...

Use  Cmd ⌘   `  to switch between open windows of the app you just switched to.
Use dedicated key commands to switch to a specific Space rather than App - by default  Ctrl ⌃  plus  [number]  - & remember where each one lives. This is my preferred method, which I've been using since Spaces was invented.


I have El Capitan and can not install a DMG file

In this YouTube video, they teach you how to fix this. Anyway, after El Capitan, Disk Utility has been completely changed, so now, in order to disable the checksum verification, you can just open a Terminal window and type:

defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify -bool true

Then open again your .dmg. Now it should work.


If it's a trademarked name then you will have a problem.  It might get through the app review process the first and second time but eventually, the trademark owner, in this case, 20th Century Fox, will find out and and ask/tell you to remove it (or go to Apple to have it removed).


How do I change date and time on photos on IOS?

You can do this photo at a time by first downloading the Exif Metadata app. Once this app is installed, open it and allow it to access your photos. Select a photo and then near the bottom of the screen, you'll see EXIF followed by metadata. Scroll all the way to the bottom and you should see an Edit Exif button. Press this button and press on the date of the image. it should be the 1st displayed line. You'll be able to change the date.

The app is free from the app store. it has an in-app purchase for the pro version.  The pro version claims you can do multiple files at once. I haven't figured out how.

If you have a Mac computer there is a way to change the date on all at once. Just let me know, in the comments, if you need this.


How to exit Assembler back to Applesoft Basic on Apple II GS

You can just type Ctrl-C.

(Or Ctrl-B if you don't care about wiping any Applesoft program in memory. Also, ">" is the Integer Basic prompt. The monitor prompt is "*".)


What causes all iWork apps to have blank, unusable documents after a reinstall?

I had a little trouble getting iWork '09 to work correctly on Mountain Lion.

When I tried to create a new document from template chooser, it was blank, and I could not do anything.

When I tried to open an existing file, it said it "file  could not be opened".

This applied for Numbers, Pages, and Keynote.

This is how I solved it,

Moved the iWork Folder in Applications to Trash.
Removed /Library/Application Support/iWork '09
Re-Installed iWork (I had installation Media).
Then installed the Mountain Lion iWork updates.

Hope that works for you.


MacBook Air display turning off when on top of other closed MacBook

That sounds strange, but it's possible that the bottom Mac's closed screen is tricking the top Mac's sensors into thinking that the screen has been shut.

What if you try inserting some "distance" between the two Mac's?  For example, sandwich a thick book in-between the two computers?

In any case, I really cannot imagine there would be any damage to either device.


I haven't used iMovie specifically but I have used Final Cut Pro X. And AFAIK they source media the same way.

Generally, it works excellently if you keep the following things in mind:

The external drive needs to be "fast enough" (Basically: USB 3 or Thunderbolt)*
To save power most external HDDs will enter sleep mode after a certain amount of inactivity. When that happens, it'll generally take a couple of seconds for OS X to wake the drives when you start poking around in iMove again.

(Optionally, HDD sleep can be disabled in System Preferences > Energy Saver but unchecking Put hard disks to sleep when possible)

Short answer

USB 3 should be totally fine for you.

Long answer

"In the old days" (or on older Macs), when using USB 2 drives, you'd run the risk of not being able to read/write fast enough. But with your use-case and a modern Mac, that shouldn't be a problem.

The main rule: In general, the faster the drive, the better. This means Thunderbolt over USB 3 and USB 3 over USB 2 and so on. Opting for 7200 RPM instead of 5200 RPM is also a great choice. In the end it comes down to how much you're willing to spend.

I can't point to an official source but Apple-Certified trainer Larry Jordan has a great article that explains the above points in detail. Also, I work at media company so I have a bit of experience on this.

*I could throw numbers at you but since you mention "camcorder" and "iPhone" as sources, I'm guessing that telling you the number of ProRes 422 streams each connection type can handle, would be immense overkill :)


Can iTunes auto play a song related to the one I've just listened to (not in a playlist)?

So, apparently that's the radio / station feature. Just need to click the three dots button of a song and select Start Station.

Thing is, that button (Start Station) was grayed out for me. According to a random suggestion I found here, I was able to solve it by deleting the preferences file from my library (%USERPROFILE%\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\.iTunes Preferences.plist on Windows 10).


Applescript causes long error messages to be logged in system.log

I just discovered that a nested tell will stop the errors, ie

tell application "System Events"
    set activeApp to short name of first process whose frontmost is true
    tell application activeApp
        repeat 5 times
            display dialog "Hello world" giving up after 2
            delay 2
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Still don't know why though...


Changing Apple ID on Macbook to match ID on iPhone and iPad

Sign out of the old Apple ID on the mac, knowing that you need to keep all the content there. Apps will lose permissions / update while you switch in the proper Apple ID.
Sign in with the proper AppleID so you can share all the data and other apps. They when you have an update, sign back in with the original AppleID (only if you want) to allow updates to the previously purchased apps, but not lose the data syncing from iCloud on the same account on both platforms.


AppleScript auto-responder with incrementing number

A simple way of implementing the auto incrementing would be to use an AppleScript property variable:

property responseNumber : 42

Property values are "remembered" between calls to your script.  So, in your handler simply use:

set responseNumber to responseNumber + 1

However, the property value is reset whenever the AppleScript is compiled. So you would need to manually change the 1 in property responseNumber : 1 to the latest value when you changed the script. Using a file is therefore a more robust method and using a preference file to record the current property value means you can use built-in functionality.

A basic AppleScript example (with no error checks nor testing, since I don't use Mail), to give you an idea:

property responseNumber : 42
property prefFileName : "your.domain.in.reverse.emailresponder.plist"

on perform_mail_action(theData)
    my readPrefs()
    tell application "Mail"
        set theSelectedMessages to |SelectedMessages| of theData
        repeat with theMessage in theSelectedMessages
            set theReply to reply theMessage
            set the content of theReply to "Thank you for your email." & return & "Your number is #" & (zeroPad of me given value:responseNumber, minimumDigits:7) & "." & return
            send theReply
            set responseNumber to responseNumber + 1
        end repeat
    end tell
    my writePrefs()
end perform_mail_action

on zeroPad given value:n, minimumDigits:m : 2
    set val to "" & (n as integer)
    repeat while length of val < m
        set val to "0" & val
    end repeat
    return val
end zeroPad

on readPrefs()
    -- Get the path to the property list
    set plPath to (path to preferences folder as text) & prefFileName
    tell application "System Events"
        set plContents to contents of property list file plPath
        set responseNumber to value of property list item "ResponseNumber" of plContents
    end tell
end readPrefs

on writePrefs()
    -- Get the path to the property list
    set plPath to (path to preferences folder as text) & prefFileName
    tell application "System Events"
        set the value of property list item "ResponseNumber" of contents of property list file plPath to responseNumber
    end tell
end writePrefs

Save this script in your ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.mail folder and set-up a Mail rule to call it.

You'll also need to create the appropriate plist file in your ~/Library/Preferences folder with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>ResponseNumber</key>
    <integer>42</integer>
</dict>
</plist>


After disabling iCloud Photo Library, cannot re-enable due to insufficient iCloud Storage

A suggestions I've seen on other Q&A forums is to use another device with iCloud Photo Library enabled and wipe the Library so there is enough space for all your photos to be re-added.

If you don't have another device with iCloud Photo Library, I believe you can delete the files from General > iCloud > Storage > Manage on an iDevice.


Xcode 6&7 performance on Macbook Air 2012-mid

I use both Xcode 6 and the 7 Beta on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro with a 2.66GHz Intel Core Duo, 4 GB of RAM, and a 260 GB Intel 530 Series SSD. It's good enough for me to develop apps on, though it's not like I'm using Metal to make 3D games or anything. I personally wouldn't get a MacBook Air, as it's just not a performance laptop and you'd get a lot more out of a slightly older MacBook Pro. The one I have is pretty good for what I use it for: Xcode, Final Cut Pro X, web-browsing, etc. But that's not to say I wouldn't want a newer MacBook Pro.


Migrating Linux/cyrrus IMAP into Lion server dovecot

There's a Cyrus2Dovecot migration tool developed by Freie Universität Berlin.

  Cyrus2Dovecot is a full-featured command line tool for converting the e-mails of one or more users from Cyrus format to Dovecot Maildir++ folders. It allows for performing a server transition which is fully transparent to both POP and IMAP users.

And other migration solutions in the Dovecot wiki.


How do I make passphrase prompts for ssh keys appear in the terminal, not as a graphical prompt?

the password for your key is managed by ssh-agent and it defaults to ask for your password using the GUI you mentioned. You could:

Unlock your key using the shell frontend to ssh-agent by calling ssh-add. In this case you might want to lock your key with ssh-add -D before you log out of the box.
Circumvent ssh-agent by temporarily unsetting the SSH_AUTH_SOCK variable ssh uses to connect to the agent. You can do this for a single command like this

SSH_AUTH_SOCK="" git push

or for the whole shell session by calling unset SSH_AUTH_SOCK.

Marcel


You don't need a Mac running OS X Server in order to take advantage of Spotlight.  Personally, I have a Synology NAS with AFP, SMB and NFS shares that Spotlight has indexed.  (I do avoid SMB because it is much slower than AFP or NFS)

From the client (iMac or Macbook Air) mount the shared folder as you normally would

From terminal on the client run the command:

mdutil -i Volumes/<mount-point>

The "-i" tells mdutil to enable indexing.  The "-s" only prints the indexing status.


It depends on how you run Windows and the amount of RAM you have in your Macbook Air (4GB or 8GB)

If you're running Windows through virtualization software like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion, indeed expect performance issues.  The system has to run 2 OS'es and definitely on a 4GB Macbook Air this might require some serious disk swapping (granted, swapped to a quite fast SSD indeed).

However if you're talking about Bootcamp, I'd expect quite the opposite: it'll run better on your MacBook than on a similar spec'ed PC laptop.
Apple has done a great job on supplying the correct hardware drivers and your system will probably run like a charm - even with the 4GB version.

As you know 'Ask Different' is a Apple oriented stack, and it will be difficult to find people - including me -  endorsing it.

You might be one of these 2 types of users:

Type 1.
You've worked on Windows for your whole life and, while you love the outer design of the Macbook, you don't feel ready to move to OSX.
Today, most of the software available on Windows has similar solutions available on OSX.
I've been there. and strongly suggest you do the same as I did.  Go for OSX, cold turkey.  It will feel awkward first, but I promise you won't regret it.  Risk is high you're going to hate Windows later.

Type 2.
You're working on OSX but you need software not available on OSX.  In our organisation we do have Macs equiped with Windows via VMWare Fusion just because there are no alternatives:

ArcGIS: while we use QGIS on OSX internally, we still need ArcGIS because our partners use it.
Specific analyzing/flashing/config & maintenance toolsets for certain hardware
Specific webbased tools only available for Internet Explorer (certain java tools and ActiveX components)
Chances are low any of these will ever be available under OSX but the day they are available, VMWare will go, that's for sure.


Missing partition in my iMac Fusion Drive - can't do school work!

Your Windows partition isn't missing after erasing it! You gained some unallocated disk space.

To reinstall Windows with Boot Camp Assistant you have to restore the ~vanilla Fusion Drive state. You can try to resize the whole Core Storage stack with the command with: diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size. In your case that's:

diskutil cs resizeStack 9449131B-67F8-4D97-82D6-F2BDEDB48B6C 1022g

If you get an error "... not enough space ..." choose a slightly smaller size like 1021500m or 1021g.

After poking around with Disk Utility or the Windows Disk Management tool (e.g. trying to remove/resize a Boot Camp partition with Disk Utility) the resizeStack command often fails with a cryptic -8xxxx error message because some internal CoreStorage structures are corrupted. Your OS X volume usually isn't affected though.

Then you have to either backup the OS X partition with Time Machine, rebuild a vanilla Fusion Drive and finally restore the TM backup or install OS X from scratch after rebuilding a vanilla Fusion Drive.

Then you can launch Boot Camp Assistant and install Windows 10 again.


Here's how I understand it. Mobile apps that run on iOS 7 can indeed be set up to (either manually or automatically) connect via VPN, but the devices have to be managed with OS X 10.9 as the backend VPN server and MDM. This is intended to separate the corporate connection (which may be carrying sensitive data) from the personal one.

Functionally, a payload (XML file) will be pushed to the iOS device. The VPN payload is designated by specifying com.apple.vpn.managed as the PayloadType value. The VPN payload contains VPN connection information, but relevant to VPN-By-App, the OnDemandMatchAppEnabled key is enabled:

  If true, the Per-App VPN connection starts automatically when apps
  linked to this Per-App VPN service initiate network communication.

Additionally, there is a VPNUUID key:

  A globally-unique identifier for this VPN configuration. This
  identifier is used to configure apps so that they use the Per-App VPN
  service for all of their network communication.

And a SafariDomains key:

  This array contains strings, each of which is a domain that should
  trigger this VPN connection in Safari.

So, the short answer to your question is Yes.


The problem was the "iTerm" app's conflicting settings with the shell. To resolve, I've reset "login shell" command in iTerm preference window:

  iTerm.app -> Preferences -> Profiles -> General -> Command -> Click on "Login shell"

Then, I executed chsh to modify it as /bin/zsh.

To reproduce the problem (having $SHELL set as /bin/bash/, even though the login shell is /bin/zsh), I just had to change "iTerm" setting back to "Command: /bin/zsh/".


View and delete individual messages directly from POP server in OS X Mail

If accounts are inside a global Inbox, open the Inbox reveal arrow
Right Click the individual account Inbox > Get Account Info

Select the Messages on Server tab
Wait for it to load, then you can select & delete any/all messages on the server


You can revert application toolbars to their 10.x look by setting NSWindowSupportsAutomaticInlineTitle.
defaults write -g NSWindowSupportsAutomaticInlineTitle -bool false

-g sets this globally (all applications), or you can specify a bundle identifier for a single app. Restart the application for the change to take effect (restart Finder with killall Finder).

However, I think your Finder window is too small, it's still just one click to change those settings with macOS 11 UI.


Compatible SSD for Macbook Pro (replace HDD)?

I don't think there is compatibility concerns, SSDs are pretty safe nowadays. Your model has SATAII, therefore the best SSD you can get is the Mercury Extreme Pro 3G from OWC (macsales.com). You can get a 115 Gb for roughly 200$, and your experience with your MB Pro will improve considerably.

I would not choose a smaller capacity though, as all SSDs with a capacity below 110/120 Gb are much slower, no idea why. And OWC's are the absolute best around, with a 3-year warranty.

Not only that, SSDs require a firmware upgrade from time to time, and OWC is the only company with a native Mac OS X updater. Much better experience in my opinion.

Enjoy the speed! :-)


It's a system-reserved key combination so you won't be able to remap it.


Dashboard contact widgets can't find any results?

Before doing this save your current work.

Open System Preferences, then go to Security & Privacy section. In Privacy tab select Contacts from the list left side. In the right panel check Dashboard in the list. By selecting the Quit Now button your Dashboard will quit and it might cause logging out and closing your applications. Login again and in Dashboard remove and add the Contact widget again.


TotalSpaces, running on 10.8.4, allows me to switch between full screen apps using the three-finger swipe on the trackpad, and allows me to assign specific apps to their own desktops. I haven't found a better app for my workflow, which allows me to switch between 7-8 specific desktops every session.


Can't create partition on free space with Disk Utility

Your volume Macintosh HD is a Core Storage Logical Volume and part of a Core Storage volume group and thus can't be modified by iPartition or Disk Utility.

You have to boot from an external disk, a thumb drive or in the Internet Recovery Mode to be able to modify the volume with some Terminal commands.

The following diskutil cs resizeStack command is vastly undocumented and as such potentially destructive.

Please backup your Mac OS X before proceeding.

A 2nd computer or an iPhone with the stackexchange credentials to enter the site or the chat is usefull.

Please start Terminal from /Applications/Utilities and enter  diskutil cs list to get an impression.

Example output of diskutil cs list

$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 08436957-C5CD-4DC6-B9FA-05B51A3EEFC8
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         86908663234 B (80.94 GB)
    Free Space:   35364864 B (35.4 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume FFC67A8D-65A8-415E-A594-D7A6BED71844
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     86908663234 B (80.94 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 56C0E988-502B-43D5-90DD-EFBE58143896
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 4F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          86479166504 B (80.54 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Your Mac OS X partition (Macintosh HD) visible on the desktop is equivalent to the Logical Volume F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4.

Reclaim the free space:

After resizing some dozens of disks with diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID I never had a problem with the Recovery HD. So step 1-6 may be considered dispensable and you may directly start with step 7.

First you have to backup your Recovery HD: Start Terminal.app and enter
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1 press enter and quit Terminal.app
Start Disk Utility and enable 'Show every Partition' in the Debug menu
After a few seconds all partitions should be visible
Choose Recovery HD on the left side and mount the partition Recovery HD

Verify the disk

Create a disk image of Recovery HD and save it read-only externally

Check the disk image for restore

Detach all external drives
Restart into Internet Recovery Mode by pressing altcmdR
or a bootable Mavericks or Yosemite Thumb Drive (full system or install).
start Terminal from the menubar/utilities
enter following command at the Terminal prompt:

  diskutil cs list

Copy the Logical Volume (LV) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVUUID should be the fourth listed. In the above example the alphanumeric is:
F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4.
Run the following command:

diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID partsize

According to the number found above it would be:

diskutil cs resizeStack F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4 100%

If you get an error ("A percentage value (100%) cannot be specified for this operation.") use this instead:

diskutil cs resizeStack F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4 0g

This will hopefully expand your CoreStorage volume to allmost full 120 GB. Depending on your disk this will take several seconds (SSD) or minutes (HDD). After a successful resize check with diskutil list if the  Recovery HD still exists.
Quit Terminal.app and start Disk Utility and verify the expanded volume.
Reboot to Recovery HD and your main drive. Delete the disk image created in step 5 if everything works as expected


How can I merge two clips into one split view using iMovie?

For iMovie 10 and above:

Drag and drop the clips that you want to show at the same time to the timeline and make sure one is above another in the timeline.

Click the Video Overlay Settings icon above the Viewer window and then select Split Screen option from the drop-down box.

https://filmora.wondershare.com/imovie/split-screen-in-imovie.html

Select a clip or range that you want to show at the same time as
another clip, and drag it above a clip in the timeline.
When you see the green Add icon (+), release the mouse button.
If the video overlay controls aren’t shown, click the Video Overlay
Settings button.
Click the pop-up menu on the left and choose Split Screen.
The split-screen controls appear above the viewer, and cropped
versions of both clips appear in the viewer.
To change when the split-screen effect appears, drag the split-screen
clip in the timeline so that it connects to a different spot in the
clip below, or drag it to a different clip. You can also drag the ends
to lengthen or shorten it.
To apply the change, click the Apply button  in the split-screen
controls.

https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/movb8c659f55
As for selecting the audio from the two clips, you need to detach the audio from the video and adjust their locations on timeline.

In the timeline, select a video of interest
Choose Modify > Detach Audio (or press Option+command+B).

Now it behaves just like any other block that you can move, overlap, trim etc.
https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/#/mov267936bb2


mac mail sort by date newest at top by default

If you change the sort by clicking on the table headers it should stay that way across launches.


Try this...

Power on your Mac while holding the option key on your keyboard.  If done correctly, and assuming a firmware password is not set, you should see your internal hard drive show up on the display.  This is just to verify what you should see.
Now, power on your Mac while holding the option + control keys.  Do you see the same screen that you did when you only held option?  If so then your physical control key (really the whole keyboard) is faulty.  The logical next step would be to replace the keyboard.  If not, your Mac booted normally without showing you the screen in the first step, then your control key is working properly.  Since option + control is not an actual modifier when booting it is ignored and the process continues normally, this would tell us that both keys are functional and recognized at the hardware level.  At this point you could try repairing or reinstalling your operating system.

Hope that helps narrow it down for you.


Unable to map \UA using DefaultKeyBinding.dict

An easy alternative is to make a custom layout with Ukelele.  See if this one does what you need.


Boot to Single User Mode with Startup Manager

I am not sure how old your Mac is, but for Macs made in at least the last 10 years, this should work.

After booting to the Startup Manager, you can hold down the control key while selecting the operating system to boot. You should see the straight arrow change to a circular arrow. The selected operating system will now become the default.

Additionally, many Boot Camp arrangements allow the default boot operating system to be selected from the Windows Control Panel.


The bottom of any Finder window if you toggle Show Status Bar from the View Menu...

Will then add this to the bottom of the window [It's selected on a per window basis, as far as I can tell]


Simple way to see a list of installed iOS apps with their storage space size?

iOS 5 has now introduced a new feature under Settings > General > Usage that perfectly displays the amount of data taken up by every app on the device, sorted by top offenders.


Behavior for dragging multiple mail items in OSX is different than dragging single.

As some users have commented, there just isn't an implementation in the Apple Mail application to do this, for some reason. An alternative is to make a new mailbox in Mail (Menu -> Mailbox -> New), copying/moving the emails over there and right clicking on the mailbox, choosing Export. This will make a mbox-file with the emails that can be opened with most email applications.

You can also mark all the emails you want to save, choose Save As from the File menu, and save them. This will save them as a single rtf-file.

It's strange that Apple hasn't implemented this, they definitely should. I looked into an Automator-solution as well, but the mail-actions are very limited, unfortunately.


Installing Windows 7 on Mac. A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing

Everyone seemed to think that re-burning the disk would fix the issue. It did for a lot of people. But I had a purchased copy that I didn't burn.

The fix for me was to let Windows boot up. You'll see the black screen with a progress bar where the windows installer starts up. Start tapping F8. You might have to hold Alt/Option while tapping. I tried both just to be sure the menu would pop up. Then select: Disable Driver Signature Enforcement.

Doing that let me continue through the installer.


Annoying WiFi Issues with new MacBook Pro

For "mysterious" wifi connection issues, I have a blanket method that I do with any client Mac that has them, and it solves the problem in about 80% of cases, and in the remaining 20% of cases it is hardware.

So try this: Go to the folder

/Library/Prefecrences/SystemConfiguration/

and remove the following files:

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist
com.apple.smb.server.plist
com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist

You need admin to do this. Immediately after thrashing them, reboot. Removing these settings files will not 'mess' with your Mac in any, unless you have some very specific network setup you need to preserve, but doing so will in my experience solve many network hiccups.

If that doesn't help, one might suspect firmware or hardware problems.


You can edit Date and Time in iPhoto, and do it in batches too: Photos Menu -> Adjust Date and Time - and it will also correct the date and time on the original file if you choose to.

Another thing to consider: iPhoto catalogues the images on import. If you subsequently change the metadata with a 3rd party App, iPhoto won't recognise this. It will not rescan for changed metadata, so while you're original files may be corrected, it'll make no difference in iPhoto.


Installing specific iOS version on iPhone 4S

This answer can be pretty short and easy:

I don't see why it should be 7.0 but you can only upgrade to the newest version around (this is iOS 7.1.1 as we speak). This is because Apple blocks signing the devices with older firmware files.


Usually this is done with

ls -G

Personally I'm using an alias, e.g. in .bash_aliases which is loaded by .bash_profile

alias ls="ls -G"

However, there's another option, i.e. turning on CLICOLOR in your shell, e.g. by adding the following to your .bash_profile

export CLICOLOR=1


When using Mail with Gmail IMAP, how to move emails to different folders and not label them?

Gmail has a guide on how actions on IMAP clients correspond to Gmail actions. In order to remove items from your inbox in Gmail, you will need to delete them from your inbox in Mail.app -- this will "archive" the message in Gmail rather than moving it to the trash. The trouble with this is that emails that you move to a folder in Mail.app probably won't show up in your Mail.app inbox until you refresh it, so it may take a few steps to move and archive a message. Unfortunately, Gmail behaves so differently from normal mail services that using it with a standard IMAP client tends to be a pain. However, the reference in the link above should help you figure out which actions in Mail.app correspond to various Gmail actions.


Office 365 newly purchased is not launching on my Big Sur Mac? What can I do?

One easy thing is to use a browser (other than Safari) and go to https://portal.office.com and make sure your license is set up.
Depending on which of the many versions of Office was sold to you, you might want to start with Microsoft subscription support to know which level and version of the programs you purchased so you can activate and sign in correctly. The applications are all the same, but the license you bring to the app enables the features your account provides.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/home/contact

Once the licensing is clear, then you can make sure you’re signing in to the apps and they pull the same license as your online check allows.


Automating Creation of Hundreds of Symlinks in Finder

Finder doesn't know about symlinks but Terminal does. So

ln -s ~/iTunes/*/Movies/*/*.mp4 /path/to/plex/folder/

should do the trick (paths need to adapted to your local paths).


GraphicConverter can handle this format (and just about every other bitmap image format). When saving the image, you need to select "show all" from the file-format popup menu in the save dialog in order to reveal this format as an option.


The Pi likely formatted the filesystem as a Linux ext4 filesystem.

Type cat /etc/fstab and check the filesystem type of your / partition (look to see if it says ext4).

You can enable ssh on the Pi and use scp to copy the files across to your mac.  You can use sudo raspi-config on the Pi, go into the "Interfacing Options" menu and enable ssh.

You could install ext4 filesystem support on the Mac to make it possible to mount the sdcard.  To do this, you would install FUSE for macOS and make sure you install the ext4fuse filesystem handler.

There are numerous articles that walk through the steps required.  Here is just one example:  https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2017/mount-raspberry-pi-sd-card-on-mac-read-only-osxfuse-and-ext4fuse


Why is a Retina MacBook running 1440x900 grainy under Boot Camp?

This is because of how Retina is implemented on these new systems. In the Mac OS (and iOS for that matter), resources are doubled in size, therefore each point is roughly the 4 pixels.

To the system though, it still reports the 1440x900 size, even though the actual pixel count is 2880x1800. The Mac OS knows how to handle this looking for @2X resources or using native code to render things at a higher resolution offscreen before painting to the screen.

While on Windows though, it is outright seeing the 1440x900. Since Windows doesn't really have a built in way to handle the 'Retina' feature that the Mac does, things would be grainy. You would see the same problem on a Mac App that doesn't use native text or image rendering, that hasn't been updated yet.

So the only way to make it look crisp on your Windows install would be to run at 2880x1800 - which would be hard to see, or a higher resolution than 1440x900 that you felt comfortable with depending on stretching/artifacts/etc. That is until Windows does have some possible feature like this and implemented in a similar way.

When connected to your external display though, Windows is seeing the 1280x720 px, and rendering that correctly, but at whatever your native resolution is. Also, the pixel density on the larger display may be different.

It comes down to the easiest way to understand - the pixel doubling/retina features are an OS feature, not a hardware feature.


As I've mentioned in the other topic...
If the checkbox is already enabled, but it doesn't work, disable it, logout when prompted to, login again, re-enable it and at the next login you should find the HiDPI settings in the Displays settings.


Had free GarageBand now it's the full version. Never paid for it, what happened?

If you have gotten a new 64gb iPhone starting with the 5s, iWork and iLife apps come pre-installed. You don't have to purchase them once you purchase a new device. The same is true for an iPad.


Safari created a strong password but did not remember it

Sadly this is a problem that happens with certain websites, and sometimes due to a small hick-up. (of you followed some of the links on google they all have there reasons, Im sure I don't have to repeat them here)

Why they haven't got a feature (like Dashlane) to show you the recently created but not saved passwords is a mystery to me.
AFAIK you'll have to reset your password.


iOS / iPhones in Enterprise: Deployment of App Store apps in batch

If the apps were purchased through the Volume Purchase Program, you can install them using Apple Configurator. Add the VPP codes, connect the devices and click install. Alternatively if the apps are free you can simply drag the app into the app list and install it that way.

For more information regarding this, see this Apple KB article:

Apple Configurator: Using Volume Purchase Program (VPP) Redemption Codes

Otherwise as you mentioned the Caching Server in OS X Server would cache a copy of the app so that downloads would come from your server instead of over the internet.


Photos.app is not syncing when using hotspot. How to treat hotspot as a regular Wi-Fi on macOS?

So, finally I got the workaround to solve this issue.

You need to setup a VPN connection for that.
Probably you can use any VPN connection, but I used OpenVPN and used Viscosity as a client.

You can install OpenVPN either locally or using remote server using this bash script.

After connecting to the VPN it assumes that it connected to the real internet not a Wi-Fi hotspot. I assume that it's because it cannot access iPhone router IP address. So theoretically blocking iPhone's local network could work as well.


You can create small Apple Script and save it as an app.

on open {dropped_item}
    tell application "Finder" to set the clipboard to the POSIX path of the dropped_item
end open

Place this app on the Dock (easier to use). Then inside your pdf viewer you have small file icon on the top title bar -> drag it on top of the newly created app. With this, file path will be copied to the pasteboard.


The actual problem is that side loading of apps without needing an Apple signed certificate was added to iOS 8. You'll want to upgrade your iOS and Mac OS to get to the level where Xcode can self-sign and self run based on your free AppleID instead of a paid and signed developer certificate.

It that fails, you would have to get a newer device to use the free entitlement of running code you self-sign and side load from Xcode.


PowerPoint presentations won't open on mac but I can see their preview on Finder. It says password-protected but it is NOT password-protected

It's shown because Preview can open PowerPoint files in view only mode; so I suppose you can open it with Preview.


For updating a device using iTunes, you must, first, ensure that you're using the latests iTunes Version. Then just:

Connect your device the computer.
Select your device when it appears in iTunes under Devices.
Click Check for Update in the Summary pane.
If an update is available, iTunes prompts you to download and install the update.


Strange indeed!

It runs from USB but not when you put the hard drive back in the computer?

In any case check your disk for problems.

  Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line.
  Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the
  Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer.

  On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt
  button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several
  seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the
  Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart
  with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
      At the command-line prompt type:

/sbin/fsck -fy

Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes,

  it'll display this message if no issue is found:

    ** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK

If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:

    ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK

  (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal
  thing to do).

When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.

But it could be just the flat cable connecting the hard drive to motherboard !


Can the playlists and ratings be recovered from iOS devices when an iTunes library is lost?

On Windows I used SharePod for this some years ago

SharePod is easy to use and works! Heres some of the main features:

Add & remove music and videos from your iPod
Add, remove and edit playlists
Add & remove album art
View and backup photos
Copy music, videos and playlists from your iPod to PC
Import music/videos into your iTunes library, including playlists and ratings
Tag editing
Drag n' drop to and from Explorer
Simple, clean interface
Quick to load and use with no unnessary complicated features
Support for iPhone and iTouch

And whats more, SharePod is completely free! SharePod was designed from the start to be lightweight, quick and responsive, it has all (well hopefully most...!) of the features you need and none of the features you dont.


Can authorised seller store not real apple store able to activate my ipad 2?

No. An Apple Authorized Reseller (AAR) or Apple Premium Reseller (APR) cannot activate your iPad when it has an activation lock.

You could try to call Apple Care so they can help you with activating your account. Take a look at this website to find the Apple Care number for your country.


What are the "sleepimage" and "swapfile" documents?

swapfile0, swapfile1 and so on are swap files. You can sort of think of them like "backup" RAM. When your computer doesn't have enough RAM to accomodate the memory requests of all your programs (which is almost always, this is normal), it uses these files to "write out" part of what it had in RAM.

The sleepimage has a very similar use, except it's used only when your Mac hibernates/wakes up.

Deleting any of the swapfile* files is likely to mess up your system, but you can safely delete sleepimage. However, it's kind of pointless, it will probably be recreated the next time you put your computer to hibernation. If you really want to delete it, you'd have to use sudo rm, since root owns the file.

Finally, it's normal for the sleepimage to take up to 4 GB; it will usually take the same space as your RAM.

EDIT You can delete /var/vm/sleepimage safely, but it will be recreated when you put the Mac to sleep. If you run sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0; sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage, the Mac will use a normal sleep mode (like desktop Macs by default) and it won't recreate /var/vm/sleepimage. See this post with more information.


How can I stop this process from trying to launch every 10 seconds?

I finally figured out where the files were: they were in hidden folders and I don't/didn't know how to use Finder's normal search to look for hidden files. I read that to find where these files are, I had to use Finder's Go -> Got to Folder feature and type the location you want preceded by the ~ character, i.e. ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/RealNetworks and then the applicable folder/file. Once in this folder, I could use Finder's normal search feature to search for files with "wondershare" and "AnjoyTunesHelper" in the name. I found a bunch, deleted them, rebooted and now my system.log file is nice and clean!


Does the image open and appear in Preview.app? If not, the Finder will also not be able to open and create a thumbnail.

Show Icon Preview

Assuming the file is a valid image and does open in Preview.app, make sure Show icon preview is enabled for the Finder's view:

Select the file in the Finder
Select Finder > View (menu) > Show View Options
Enable the Show icon preview checkbox:


How to get rid of the grey bar in safari?

Go to View → Hide Status Bar or press ⌘/


The problem with files like MP3 or AAC is that they are actually already compressed.  The MP3 and AAC codecs have advanced compression schemes designed specifically for audio.  You'll find that doing additional layers of compression on these types of files will make very little difference in disk space usage and will probably not make it worth your trouble.

EDIT: Sorry I got confused.  The OP asked about video, but the same applies.  Video content is compressed and you'll get very little benefit from further compression.  It's really not worth messing with.


OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Mail keep quitting unexpectedly. This started happening after the last update

I found the source of those repetitive crashes : a rule that tried moving email in a directory that does not exist anymore. Under 10.10.2 Mail would simply not do anything. Under 10.10.3 Mail 8.2 crashed and corrupt the mail index. Simply fixing the rules did solve my problem.


"I see everything working fine on the Mac but cannot update OS and neither do bootcamp."

If you can boot to the Fusion drive and read the contents of the disk, then the VERY FIRST THING you should do is make sure that you have a backup. Only then should you think about upgrading or messing with BootCamp.

"What can be done to fix this without losing all the data I have on the hard drive?"

Backup your disk. The only way to ensure that you will not lose any files is to have at least one copy on another physical device. Then, if something goes wrong with this disk, you will still have your files.

A Fusion drive is made of two separate devices: an SSD and a mechanical hard drive. Two devices means two separate points of failure. The mechanical hard drive is much more vulnerable to breakdown than the SSD. If one part of the Fusion drive breaks, then EVERYTHING is lost.

You may be able to 'repair' the Fusion by erasing the disk: or the errors may be so great that nothing will work. Either way, you can only try when you have a backup.

You may need to replace the mechanical drive -- ideally with a new, fast SSD -- or you can use an external SSD drive, which should still be faster.


If I buy an app from the app store, do I have to stay logged into the app store?

Yes, although there are many questions that cover the same ground already on SE.

You can DL app store apps (including Lion) on your girlfriend's computer. Then she can log into her own apple account and buy other apps. The only thing you need to be aware of is that for updates, you can only update the apps you bought with that particular account. So if you want to update Lion (not likely as it will come through software update) or other apps, you will have to re-log into your account.

I believe most apps have a 5 computer limit.


mds and mds_stores constantly consuming cpu

As you know, the mds and mds_stores are Spotlight activities.

The reason why your Spotlight is so active could be a number of things; it could be you have an app or multiple apps constantly changing some folder contents.

First let's check whether Spotlight is the cause of the fans running so much. To test this, run the following in your terminal:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

this turns off indexing of files, and should result in a clear slow down of the fans if mds and/or mds_stores are to blame.

To turn indexing back on, run

sudo mdutil -a -i on

After this you could run the complete re-indexing of your hard drive (be aware this could be an over night job), it will delete your Spotlight data base forcing it to start over.

sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100/*

The next and final step would be to add others to your (do not scan), privacy settings.


LT: Is there any benefit to iOS 8 family sharing for couples without kids?

yes, most likely.  it has single credit card app store purchases, and can...
"share purchases from iTunes, iBooks, and the App Store without sharing accounts"
pretty useful, i think


Why are 2 Mac Pros on a separate subnet directly connected seeing very low transfer rates?

My first guess would be the crossover cable you're using to connect them. Gigabit ethernet requires a different crossover wiring than 10- or 100-megabit ethernet, and if you have the wrong kind, the computers will either figure out the problem and switch to a slower connection, or just get massive amounts of errors. I don't have 2 Mac Pros handy to check myself, but you can check this in the Network Utility's Info pane: Select the relevant interface from the pop-up menu, then check the Link Speed listed on the left, and the error counts on the right.

If this is the problem, I'm pretty sure the fix is easy too: just use a straight-through CAT-5 (or 5e or 6) cable instead. Pretty much all modern network interfaces do auto-MDIX meaning that the interface can do the crossover internally. Again, I don't have Mac Pros handy to test, but I'm pretty sure their ethernet interfaces support this.