If the Shift key works in normal context, and if the same combo doesn't work in say Safari, then I'd think the keyboard hardware has an issue, or the keyboard combination is mapped to another function in Keyboard Shortcuts.

I mapped the combo to Show Launchpad and experienced the exact same issue.  Shift works, Ctrl + tab works, but because I mapped the combo elsewhere it was no longer available to apps to use, and Ctrl + Shift + tab failed in Chrome and Safari.

If that is not the case, then its remotely possible that the keyboard is faulty, but since I would expect other combinations to fail if it were faulty, you haven't mentioned any and I assume that none are.


I don't have any experience with the specific drivers, but here is how I would attack the problem.

I would get a USB drive with a Mac partition I can wipe - it should be 20 GB or so (10 might work as well) and I'd download a clean OS installer from the App Store and install a clean OS onto that test partition.

You can use startup disk preference pane to switch between OS and then don't restore any files to the test OS. Just make a test account and apply all upgrades recommended by Tascam (10.9.5 or whatever) and then install just the driver.

You'll then have a clean system to know if the issue is Tascam's to resolve and/or know you can try again with different OS levels if the issue is really a driver-OS compatibility issue.


How do I download macOS High Sierra for offline install?

Answering my own question:

From the App Store, grab the High Sierra installer.  It will launch "Install macOS High Sierra" after the download completes.  Click "Continue", accept the licensing agreement, select the install drive, then the installer will prompt for an admin password.  After that, it will begin downloading to "/macOS Install Data" on the local machine.

The main data file is

/macOS Install Data/InstallESDDmg.pkg

When the download is complete, the installer will prompt for a system restart.  Before doing that, inspect the download directory:

sudo find /macOS\ Install\ Data  -type f -exec ls -l {} \;
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 328        Dec  4 19:03 '/macOS Install Data/AppleDiagnostics.chunklist'
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 2613173    Dec  4 19:03 '/macOS Install Data/AppleDiagnostics.dmg'
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 1948       Dec  4 19:03 '/macOS Install Data/BaseSystem.chunklist'
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 478740408  Dec  4 19:04 '/macOS Install Data/BaseSystem.dmg'
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 2124       Jan  8 08:39 '/macOS Install Data/index.sproduct'
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 4706541399 Dec  4 19:09 '/macOS Install Data/InstallESDDmg.pkg'
-rw-r--r-- 2 user wheel 1584       Dec  4 19:09 '/macOS Install Data/InstallInfo.plist'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 893        Jan  8 07:38 '/macOS Install Data/Locked Files/.disk_label'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 15         Jan  8 07:38 '/macOS Install Data/Locked Files/.disk_label.contentDetails'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3557       Jan  8 07:38 '/macOS Install Data/Locked Files/.disk_label_2x'
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 23520      Dec  1 12:37 '/macOS Install Data/Locked Files/cleanup_installer'
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 269647     May 17  2017 '/macOS Install Data/OSX_10_13_IncompatibleAppList.pkg'

Then, copy the download directory off to another machine for future use.


How to Safely Delete an in-progress Time Machine Backup on Snow Leopard

After trying various techniques the only solution I've found is to connect the Time Machine volume to a machine with a newer version of OS X and run tmutil from the command line, I believe any version from Lion onwards should have this. The command to run is as follows:

tmutil delete '/Volumes/<time_machine_volume>/Backups.backupdb/<computer_name>/<backup>'

Replacing the parts in angle brackets with the correct values or, if you have the backup visible in the Finder, simply type the tmutil delete part in the Terminal then drag the folder onto the Terminal window to enter the path automatically.

Once this has completed, you can simply eject the volume and reconnect it to the Snow Leopard machine, which should just pick up where it left off (though it may re-index the drive during the next backup). This is okay to do so long as you don't do anything else with the drive that could introduce any incompatibilities with Snow Leopard (such as backing up with the Lion onwards machine onto that drive).

I can't help but think that there should be a way to do this by taking advantage of in inodes to locate the parts of the backup that actually need to be removed (i.e - any folder or file where the inode number doesn't match the corresponding entry, if it exists, in the previous backup). I've used this before to quickly print a list of changes between two Time Machine backups, but there's still no way that I know of to delete the other (hard linked) directories.


Customise Mac Terminal command: Control+w

Not directly modifying ctrl + W, but the same behaviour can be achieved using ESC  + delete. Every time, escape key would have to be released and then pressed.

Mac Terminal: Delete a word at time


Win10 / Sierra / Bootcamp - cannot see OS X partition, no CoreStorage, no FileVault

As I do not want to wipe the whole HDD and backup two system partitions, I instead installed Paragon HFS+ for Win10 which ultimately fixed the issue. Give that Paragon merely installs drivers for HFS+ interaction, I tend to believe that the bootcamp drivers must have been affected during one of the Windows Updates, hence suggest others with the same problem to first re-install the bootcamp drivers before turning to Paragon.

The most up to date bootcamp drivers for your apple notebook can be found on the Windows Recovery Drive in the WinPEDriver Folder, you maybe have to assign a drive letter to the partition first (right-click "This PC" > Manage > Disk Management > right-click WINRECOVERY and click "assign Drive Letter").

Hope that helps


If you tap the screen, the top and bottom bars disappear, and you can take your screen shot then. However, taking a screenshot may give you a lower quality result that may not look nice printed out. iMovie (Mac or for iPhone) should be able to do this without a loss in quality, as well as other video editors / certain video players (e.g. VLC).


Is it possible to disable a default keyboard shortcut for a special character, without the use of third-party software?

As a workaround, since I know you use FastScripts, here's a suggestion.

Undo the changes you made in System Preferences > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts > All Applications, by first changing ⌥M back to ⌥⇧⌘V, then delete the Paste and Match Style command you added. Note that you could probably just delete it without first reseting it to its default key sequence, however I do it this way to insure it gets reset properly.

With things back to normal, create an AppleScript .scpt using the code below, saving it as Paste and Match Style.scpt in the Users Script Folder (~/Library/Scripts).

tell application "System Events" to key code 9 using {option down, shift down, command down}

Note that you can also use keystroke "v" in place of key code 9, I just prefer to use key code over keystroke most of the time.

In FastScripts > Preferences... > Script Shortcuts, assign ⌥M to: Paste and Match Style

Now you will not get the µ character when pressing ⌥M when FastScripts is running.


Sounds like you have bad EarPods. Take them back to the store where you purchased them if they are new.


What pointing devices can be used with iPadOS 13?

I have used multiple Logitech Bluetooth mice and they have all seemed to work just fine (my daily driver is the MX Vertical).

I do believe any generic bluetooth mouse works just fine (and by generic i mean it at least has a scroll wheel, 2 buttons and a laser at the bottom)


Big Sur: I'm not able to charge up to over 8%

The first thing I would do is verify the charge cable is capable of handling the wattage of your adapter. (Did you perhaps get an Air adapter or a non-apple cable?)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201700

The second is check CPU usage. A runaway process could out run even a 61W adapter that’s using the correct charge cable.

https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/view-cpu-activity-actmntr43452/mac

Check in Activity Monitor - show all processes: the charging circuitry should be able to net charge past 80% regardless of your “optimize” settings. Only if you have massive energy usage, would this make sense - and on your Mac - it can run the battery down if it’s stuck in a loop - the charger is less powerful than that hardware running 100% on CPU and GPU in some cases.

The third would be to open a support ticket with Apple online to run remote battery diagnostics. They have the best tools to pic apart the health status and recommend any actions. A one time SMC reset is good but now that you’ve ruled that out, I would go straight to the authority to see if they can share with you anything specific about your battery health.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211094

You can look in About This Mac in system information and as long as the status is healthy, you’ll have an official diagnostic log sent to Apple in case you find it degrading and want to seek warranty or out of warranty repairs.
Your case where it’s less than 50% and running but not charging should be very easy for Apple to diagnose remotely.


Do encrypted Time Machine backups work across a network?

According to information from this page, the answer is no, it will not support encrypted Time Machine backups to network-attached storage. They're specifically mentioning Time Capsules and Airport Extremes. The issue Paul Eccles mentioned looks to be related to whether you can backup to NAS with Time Machine at all without regard to encryption status.

The link referenced also seems to indicate you can't use Time Machine encryption on direct-attached storage, but that may be because you can use Disk Utility to encrypted a direct-attached volume instead. Commenter Fracai calls out the classic standby of creating an encrypted disk image, storing that on network-attached storage, and mounting that for your Time Machine backups.

I'll also point out the discussion on that page (which is slightly inaccurate, but mostly on) wherein commenter TrumpetPower! cautions encrypting backups. This is a point worth repeating here. I'll rephrase (more precisely and accurately) what TrumpetPower! wrote:

The purpose of a backup is to preserve availability of data.
The purpose of encryption is to prevent availability of data without the key used to encrypt the data.

If you encrypt a backup, you add complexity to a process designed to simplify and preserve access to your information. With complexity comes increased probability of failure. Thus, the chance that you lose access to your backed-up data goes up. Do yourself a favor and make sure you understand when and why you might wish to encrypt your backups and think hard about how you'll ensure you have access to your encryption key when it counts.


How do I scale down a video without cropping?

HandBrake is a free open-source video conversion utility, which in my opinion, is a must-have app.  It has built in presets for video conversion all of which are customizable.

At the bottom of the attached image, you can see the original video dimensions and the scaled down video dimensions of the conversion

You can create a custom preset and enter your own dimensions


Left headphone have significantly lower volume than right one - Macbook Pro 2012

I found out it was volume setting problem, that could be changed in "Audio MIDI setup"

Plug in the headphones (if there is problem with headphones - if problem exists when using internal speakers, don't plug headphones)

Find in Spotlight "Audio MIDI setup" app:

And open app :

Make sure that channel 1 and 2 have THE SAME volume set up. Set every channel to value "1" as here :

I have no idea how this disproportion in volume happened. But I would like to know. (I haven't tinker with volume before - except simple volume up/down via headphone control or keyboard's function keys)

This answer is based on the "The Hefster's" answer from :

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18797385#18797385

(I post screenshot because https://discussions.apple.com doesn't support linking to stand alone posts)


Will the retina iPad Mini charge with non-certified cables?

See this question for more info. In short, you're taking your device's life in your hands when you don't use legit products. You have a multi-hundred-dollar device, do not cheap out on the thing that's directing nontrivial amounts of electricity into it!

Authorized products aren't that expensive and you can be sure that you won't have strange things happen.

Newer devices will straight up refuse to work without the authentication chip in the cable. Previous devices (and maybe iOS versions) would still charge, but display the error, or do so at a reduced rate.


How to remove a container disk and reclaim space with main partition? (Similar to another question)

To convert a container to free space requires two commands. For example, disk1s5 is a APFS container. To convert to free space, you would need to enter the following commands.

sudo diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk1s5
sudo diskutil eraseVolume free none disk1s5

Free space can be added to a container, if the free space reside immediately after the container. In your case, if you converted disk1s5, disk1s4 and disk1s3 to free space, then you probably would be able add this free space to disk1s2, by entering the command given below.

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1s2 0


Retina display support for XQuartz X11 applications

Yes, you are correct. The problem is X11, XQuartz and their lack of support for the Retina Display. This is a long known issue.

In the linked thread, jeremyhu states:

  X11 just doesn't work well for resolutions outside of the 72-90 DPI range. This is an upstream X11 issue that needs to be solved before we can really do anything about it in XQuartz.

Not sure this will help you, but at least since last August, RealVNC has supported Retina displays.

Also you might try running X11 with your Retinia display at full resolution to see if this mitigates the issue. You can accomplish this with SwitchResX, among other software that is available to access other resolutions.

SwitchResX is a commercial third party application, but it is available to try for free and for download. Probably because it is technically a hack to use the full resolution of Retina Displays, it appears to be unavailable on the Mac App Store.

Another option to try is using NoMachine's nxclient/nxserver technology. I can't find anything that says it has Retina Display support, but a post in their forums leads me to believe that there is at least some support for Retina Display resolutions in the current version.


iMac beeps 3 times repeatedly when trying to boot up from a Mac OS X install DVD

3 tones indicate a RAM failure, my recommendation is to remove all the RAM sticks and verify one by one; to identify which one is damaged.
If you need more information check this useful link:
About Mac startup tones


Getting a rented movie from iPod touch back to the PC

You will have to rent the movie again if you did not watch it within 30 days of renting.

The movie will disappear from your iTunes library
You will not be able to transfer the movie from your iDevice to iTunes

More information here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1657


Can't see external HDD partition in Disk Utility

David's answer already explains what probably happened to your drive. You accidentally partitioned the drive instead of erasing just a volume.

According to your statement your drive contained two partitions previously:

First partition: 280 GB
Second partition: 1720 GB

After repartitioning the drive only one partition is left:

First and only partition: 228.4 GB

This probably means that the second partition wasn't affected - only the entry in the MBR was removed.

You should be able to recover the partition by simply adding a second partition in the MBR.

To detect the former boundaries of the lost partition you have to search for specific strings on the disk which determine the first and last block of a (former) NTFS volume.

The specific strings are either NTFS or BOOTMGR/bootmgr.

The content of the block depends on your locale, so searching for "BOOTMGR is compressed" (found in an English NTFS Partition Boot Sector) is not necessarily successful. "BOOTMGR" (English/German) or "bootmgr" (Spanish/French?) should work though. I haven't tested non-latin Windows systems.

Examples

First block of a German NTFS volume:

Last block of a German NTFS volume:

This can be done by dd'ing the device to grep.

Example:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 bs=512 skip=2048 count=512 | grep -o -a -b "BOOTMGR"
421:BOOTMGR
512+0 records in
512+0 records out
262144 bytes transferred in 0.010566 secs (24810155 bytes/sec)

The explanation of the command:

Copy /dev/disk2 with a block size of 512 Byte to stdout, but skip the first 2048 blocks of disk2 and stop after (another) 512 blocks, pipe it to grep, treat the output as text, search for "BOOTMGR" and finally show the byte offset(s) of the matched pattern in front of the respective matched line.

In your case the result 71010552671:BOOTMGR of sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 bs=512 skip=446333006 count=150000000 | grep -o -a -b "BOOTMGR"means:

The byte offset is 71010552671 Byte after the last block (block 446333006) of the currently existing HDD1 volume on disk1. In blocks that's the relative block 138692486 or the absolute block (446333006 + 138692486) = 585025492.

This means two things:

Your previous partition 1 probably had a size of ~ 299 GB (= ~278 GiB) instead of 280 GB
Your partitions aren't aligned properly to 4k blocks because neither 446333006 nor 585025492 are divisible by 8

The last block of the vanished NTFS volume can be expected in the last 10,000 blocks of disk2. The appropriate command to search for it is then

sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 bs=512 skip=3907019167 count=10000 | grep -o -a -b "BOOTMGR"

With the result of the command you can determine the last block of the vanished partition 2.

With the first block and the last block you can add the lost partition with fdisk to the MBR.

To crosscheck the size you can extract the partition size in sectors in the partition boot sector at offset 0x028 and field length of 8 Bytes and the sector size at offset 0x0B and field length of 2 Bytes.

In the example screenshots above that's FF E7 DF E8 00 00 00 00 (= 3906988031+1) and 00 02 (= 512 Byte).

The diskutil info output for the example volume (visible in the screenshots) is:

...
Disk Size:                2.0 TB (2000377872384 Bytes) (exactly 3906988032 512-Byte-Units)
Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
...


Why are the hidden files/directories seen in Terminal color settings?

If I understand you correctly, this likely has to do with how terminals work. In bash they are hidden by most aliases of ls.

Try ls -a or \ls -a if that isn't working. This is to show all files and escape an alias you might have.

Put simply, the terminal doesn't care about finder preferences because it isn't finder.

If not, then perhaps terminal simply doesn't respect the finder settings.


Where can I get install discs for OS X 10.5 to max out a Powerbook G4?

Firstly, I'm not sure where you heard that 10.6 shipped less than six months ago. It actually shipped in August 2009, making it over 12 months old.

Old system software tends to sell at a premium. I'm not sure why, but it may be at least partially because Apple no longer produces them. However, as Apple only sells 10.6 as a stand-alone OS (that is, it doesn't sell upgrade versions, just full) you can legitimately buy 10.5 from anyone with a copy who has since upgraded to 10.6.

There are plenty of places to buy 10.5 if you're willing to shop around. Keep an eye on this search and this search and see what turns up. For instance, this eBay sale is currently going for $40.


Is it possible to renew an Apple Enterprise License prior to deadline

You can renew at most 30 days before expiry.

  Alternatively, you can renew manually starting 30 days before the expiration date of your existing membership or any time after it expires.

https://developer.apple.com/support/renewal/

This does not lose any days of the membership though, since renewing ‘early’ does not take effect until the previous membership expires.


I have an iPhone 6 and forgot my passcode!

If you have forgotten your passcode, the only option available to you is to erase your iPhone and start again. Unfortunately, if you haven't got a backup of your data, this will mean you will lose any data you haven't already got saved somewhere. However, on the positive side, any purchases (free and paid) using your Apple ID will still be intact as you can sign in again and redownload them.

While the only option is to erase your iPhone, you do have multiple methods of doing so. I recommend you read If you forgot the passcode for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or your device is disabled.

The above Apple support document will explain your options, including how to restore any data you do have backed up.


How do I lock my MBP screen without locking my keychain?

If you have a screensaver you can lock that with your password so whenever screensaver tries to quit it needs a password. To set this up, first set up your screensaver if you don't have one. Then open System Preferences/Security and Privacy. Click the first tab in that window named General.  The 2nd line on this box allows you to set a password associated with the screensaver.


Choose providers in ios 9 spotlight suggested news

I think the news section in spotlight search is linked to your iOS news app, try changing sources there to see if it has any effects. You may also want to take a look at your spotlight search settings.


Problem with two-finger swipes on my magic mouse. Is there any form of fix?

Try this little utility: http://www.magicprefs.com/

It allows you to override mouse gestures, map them to your own actions, etc.
It also has a graphical view to show you what you're doing, which can be very useful in figuring out what you're doing wrong.


uninstalling adware bundled with adobe reader etc

The best tool I know of for removing adware from a Mac is AdwareMedic:

http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php


Streaming local content from iPhone to Apple TV without WiFi or data connection

Yes this works!
You must switch on Bluetooth on both devices.
Afterwards go to the Control Center and check if AirPlay is diplayed. When the AirPlay Button don't show up you might restart and try it again. When it's working you have to turn on 'Mirror'. That's it.


Upgrading Python 2.7 to 3.8 : Recommended?

You can install Python 3.8 using homebrew. The instructions to install homebrew are on homebrew's home page. Currently the instructions are entering into a terminal window: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
The instructions to install Python 3.8 are on the homebrew page for Python 3.8. Once you've installed homebrew, enter into a terminal window brew install python@3.8
This won't replace your stock Python installations, it will be installed into a separate location to avoid causing problems with stock legacy software. User legacy software may require you to explicitly specify the full path for the version of python it requires.
I'm not aware of a method to find all software that uses the stock versions of Python.


How do I find out what my time capsule is doing?

From Time Capsule 802.11n (4th Generation) - Setup Guide:

If Your Time Capsule Status Light Flashes Amber

[..]

For more information about why the light is flashing, open AirPort Utility, select your
Time Capsule, and then choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu. Click Base
Station Status to display information about the flashing light.

You can also select “Monitor base station for problems” in AirPort preferences.
If the base station has a problem, AirPort Utility opens and walks you through
solving the problem.


Will my iPhone charge slower if I connect it to my laptop?

Most computer can’t charge an iPhone as rapidly as the dedicated wall chargers sold by Apple. The exception to this generalization is some macs do charge iOS devices rapidly. The iPhone 4 and most other iOS devices are designed to charge at higher currents than the baseline USB can power.

Many newer Apple products will provide up to 1100mA of charging current at 5V even though the USB specification limits current to 500mA at 5V.

This will certainly charge an iPhone 4 faster than most computers or "by the spec" USB chargers. The The iPad 10W charger is much faster than the iPhone charger so I don't know who would win in a race - a mac with extra operating current, the US iPhone adapter, the UK iPhone adapter or perhaps the Swedish iPhone adapter

The Mac/USB bus details are documented at Apple Computers and Displays: Powering peripherals through USB as well as in the iPad: Charging the battery article. The nice picture is from the "Powering through USB article".


Why does Settings.app make reference to requiring a SIM card for the Auto Call setting of Emergency SOS, and not for the entire feature altogether?

Emergency numbers can be called without a SIM card in may countries & many phones, including iPhones are designed to allow this, even from a locked screen.
All other numbers need a valid SIM, active account etc etc.


Do non-smartphones exist that are able to sync with any OS after Mountain Lion?

Sync Mate 4 was best to support Nokia S40 sync over Bluetooth.

Yet it is not working under 10.9 or 10.10. And their new version 5 dropped support for S40 altogether.

So going further probably the only way is to setup Virtual Machine with older OS of your choosing and run it from time to time just to sync.


How to set a default user on the login screen without automatically logging in?

You can activate the "require password" option in system preferences:

Whenever you are done working you can then just close your MacBook or set it to sleep (instead of logging out or shutting it down, which I assume is what you normally do). If you open it up again after the specified time you are prompted to enter your password, but you are still able to switch user.

Achieving this behaviour after a complete shutdown however is not possible, i believe.

EDIT: Maybe there is a way to achieve this after all, since that is precisely what happens after the installation of a macOS update (that required reboot) is finished. Maybe a specific boot flag that can be set or some config in a plist file...


How secure is Apple File Protocol from Airport Extreme

AFP (Apple Filing protocol) is unencrypted for the most part. Authentication is the only place where encryption is used, and it is negotiated between client & server. I believe that the Airport Extreme offers DHCAST128 and DHX2 UAMs (User Authentication Methods), both of which encrypt the user's password with CAST-128 (they differ in how they come up with the key used to do the encryption, DHX2 is better).

AFP with either of the above UAMs is susceptible to Man in the Middle attacks and I would not recommend it for use over the Internet. AFP can be tunneled through SSH for better security, but I don't think the Airport Extreme supports that usage.


How to use script to open an app if it's not the front most app, and hide it when it is the front most app in macos?

res=$(osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to get name of application processes whose frontmost is true and visible is true");
if [ $res == "Kim" ]
then
    osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to set visible of process \"Kim\" to false"
else
    open -a 'Kim.app'
fi

I did it like this, it works but excutes very slow, how to optimize this?


Run program if connected to specific wifi?

You can use ControlPlane where you can set up rules to carry out tasks such as opening apps based on various criteria which includes connecting to Wi-Fi.

  ControlPlane supports multiple contexts where a context is defined as a location or activity you are performing.  Using evidence sources you can create a set of rules that tell ControlPlane what context to apply to your environment.  When ControlPlane enters or leaves a context a set of Actions are performed.

ControlPlaneX, an unofficial fork of the open source project, has kept the project working to Mojave.


Shell not finding commands after I changed my .bash_profile file

When you did:

export PATH="~/.composer/vendor/bin/laravel"

You changed the system default PATH to something nearly useless. You should never replace PATH, you should only append to PATH.

Remove the following two lines from your ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH=/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.5.10/bin:$PATH
export PATH="~/.composer/vendor/bin/laravel"

And replace them with the following:

pathadd() {
    if [ -d "$1" ] && [[ ":$PATH:" != *":$1:"* ]]; then
        PATH="${PATH:+"$PATH:"}$1"
    fi
}
pathadd /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.5.10/bin
pathadd ~/.composer/vendor/bin/laravel
export PATH

This is a safe way to append to your PATH environment variable. It only does the append if the path isn't already in the list.


4K monitor on a non-retina mid-2012 Macbook Pro

I tried to watch a 4k resolution movie on the same model MB Pro non-Retina you've got. There's no chance to watch it smoothly. I also tried to send it to an 2k display which I've got at home.  I'm  going to try out the one at my family's place which has 4k capability


iMac monitor leaves watermark-like window stamps after a while

The proper jargon seems to be a burn in. This extensive post at the apple forums holds a lot of answers.


Is there a way to merge Time Machine backups?

You can still access data from "dee's backup" by selecting "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" from Time Machine's Dock menu. (Right click or click-and-hold on TM's icon in the Dock.)

TM is holding onto both sets of data because even though YOU know you copied all the data from the old machine to the new, all TM knows is that a bunch of data just showed up on the new machine. It doesn't know where that data came from, but knows it should be backed up.

When TM, running on "dee's Macbook Pro", needs to delete files to make room, it can only delete files backed up from "dee's Macbook Pro". Even the root user on that machine has no authority (and cannot give TM authority) do delete some other computer's backup files.

You don't need any of "dee's iMac" backup. As you say, everything from that computer got copied over, and none of it has been needed since last year. It's time to let it go. To do that, open the Backups.backupdb folder on your backup disk, and delete the subfolder named "dee's iMac". (I'm assuming you're backing up to an external disk connected to your MBP. Details will be different if you're backing up to a Time Capsule or a network volume, but the principle is the same.) Time Machine won't let you modify that backup in any way except that it will allow you to delete it in its entirety. You'll need to authenticate as an admin to do that. And it will take a while. You should be able to delete it using Finder, but if not you can enter the Terminal command:

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/"disk name"/Backups.backupdb/"dee's iMac"


Where can I find iOS Enterprise Developer Program terms of use (license)?

Take a look at the iOS Developer Enterprise Program FAQ. The key points are:

No ability to distribute apps on the App Store.
Only allows you to distribute your apps to employees or members of your organization through Ad Hoc distribution.
The program is for companies/organizations to develop and distribute proprietary in-house apps to their employees.
If you want to develop for other company than yours, that other company should enroll in the program and add you to their development team.


There most common cause for this error, is a time/date issue.

If you notice the time and date are wrong during the installation, try the following:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/166746/164066

There's more info on the error here:
http://osxdaily.com/2015/01/19/fix-os-x-install-errors-cant-be-verified-error-occurred-preparing-mac/


Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination

On the 'host/storage/backup' Mac

Go to System Prefs > Sharing
Enable File Sharing
Add a folder as the back up destination (note, you might want to partition a section of the HD for this) under "Shared Folders"
Right click, Advanced Options
Select "Share as Time Machine backup destination"

Then on the 'working' Mac, as long as both devices are visible to each other on the network, you should see the 'backup' Mac as a TimeMachine destination.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202784#mac


Company Device Management on Separate User?

Unfortunately you can't because it would be a massive security hole.

It's called mobile device management, not mobile user management and this is for a reason - how secure would it be if all the user had to do to bypass corporate security policies was create a new user?

If you want to keep your personal data on your personal Mac secure from corporate entities and their MDM software, use a different Mac.  It's probably very feasible that the company can provide you a loaner Mac for this event.


How to permanently disable (defective) graphics card in MacBook Pro?

I have had this same problem with this same card. I know that it won't boot when I see horizontal blue bars through the Apple logo at the login screen, it goes to white-screen after that and the fans rev up.

I've found the most reliable way to boot up is to let it advance to the white/grey screen after the Apple logo, then I close the lid and wrap it in a blanket or put it in my laptop sleeve. It will overheat and automatically shut down. Almost every time it will start up in that state.

It used to be tense but after 9 months of this it's pretty standard.


How to properly use MacVim on OS X? (And, to delete the duplicative *.app via Finder)?

First, you can certainly delete all the outdated version of MacVim leaving only the newest.

To run MacVim from the command line you need to call the mvim script which is in the app itself, somewhere like /Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/bin/mvim. The best way to do this is to use a bash alias in your .bash_profile file, alias mvim='/Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/bin/mvim


Deleting individual messages on Apple Watch

Per the user manual, deleting texts is an all-or-nothing action. It removes the whole conversation. There does not appear to be an option to remove a single text. (Similarly, you cannot delete one email out of a thread, only the whole thread.)


Apple software update was stuck at downloading now its stuck at cancelling

For my situation, none of these solutions worked for Windows 10. I resolved it by going to the iTunes site, download and run the full iTunes install, rather than just the update.


Is there a way to find out which app on an iPhone just made a sound?

You should check your Notifications settings (Settings -> Notifications) and see which apps have "Sounds" turned on. I also recommend restarting your phone.


Can I put an Airport Extreme in client mode (sharing printer only)?

On a Windows version of Airport Utility ctrl-click on the "wireless mode" menu will give you an additional option "join a wireless network".  Without ctrl the option is hidden.


Make sure that both your Mac and iPhone have calendar in iCloud turned on. If they do, try logging out of iCloud and then logging back in. If not, try using another calendar account like Yahoo or Gmail.


How can I disable Safe Boot or the Shift Key?

If you can afford it, I would recommend replacing the topcase and keyboard as Apple suggests. If like me, you can't afford it or are open to a hack fix, then read on.
The problem
Yesterday, a little water spilt on my 13" MBP keyboard. I turned it around immediately, drained out the water and used tissue to suck it all up but the keyboard was still acting funny. I turned it off and left it out in the sun for a couple of hours and turned it on again but problems remained. My warranty had run out just a month ago and I knew Apple would not cover this under warranty. I tried to clean the shift keys and left it overnight with some rice on them with hopes that the moisture might get sucked out. Nothing worked. (The rice bit is an urban legend that seems to work with some electronics). Went to the Apple Store this morning and was told that they wouldn't even take out the key and clean it, and that the entire top case would have to be replaced. A total bill of 156 Euros which I cannot afford. I had a USB keyboard that would let me use the Mac for the moment so I decided to try to work out a fix.
Symptoms

Boots in safe mode everytime (which I later found out was because the shift key is pressed)
Cannot login because password is in lower case or has numbers
Cannot boot in super user mode and try to disable keys or override password as some commands won't work in uppercase (I wouldn't recommend this anyway because its super user mode)
All text is in caps and numbers are symbols as though shift key is always pressed
Audio doesn't work
Keyboard viewer would not always show the shift key pressed. The key seemed to get pressed at random

Fix

Hold the Option button down on boot to bypass the Safe Mode ensure a normal boot

At the login screen, plug in a USB keyboard and enter your password to login. Switch to “French- Numerical” keyboard and use the Caps Lock key to invert uppercase to lowercase. Note the layout of this keyboard is different, make sure to look up an image of this layout before you type in your original  password.

Change your password to one that uses all caps and no numbers

Download and install KeyRemap4MacBook .

Use a combination of the functionalities of the Keyboard Viewer and KeyRemap4MacBook to figure out which shift key is the problem. In my case, I found out that it was only my left shift key.

Disable the left/right shift key on KeyRemap4MacBook and click on the 'Reload XML' button to make that take effect.
If only one shift key was the problem, then you are done. If both shift keys were shorted, then its likely other keys are too. In which case you should probably just replace the entire thing. If you think other keys are not affected, then you can use KeyRemap4MacBook itself to remap the shift functionality to a lesser used key like the Left Option key.

Under System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items , add KeyRemap4MacBook as an application that should start on login. This will ensure that your disable/remap of the shift key is active every time you login.

Usage change/Things to remember

Remember to hold down the Option key everytime the computer boots or
reboots to bypass safe mode. The fix above is at the software level.
The key is physically still shorted at the hardware level and will
affect boot.
Remember that at the login screen, the disable/remap is    not
active. So your password now has to be all caps and only letters.

As soon as I can save some money, I will get my topcase and keyboard replaced but until then this solution works great with minimal change. Hope this helps!


Any way to make swipe up and down work consecutively?

Try the F3 button (for Exposé). Maybe you'd like the experience better. Now it is two key presses instead of needing to lift your fingers off the trackpad/ keyboard.


I had the same issue this morning, it's because the beta has expired. You shouldn't need to restore, you can just update to the latest firmware (this will leave all your photos/messages/apps etc as they are):

Download the latest .ipsw for your device from http://developer.apple.com/.
Update to the latest version of iTunes.
Plug your phone into your computer and select it from the devices on the left in iTunes.
Alt-click on "Check for Update" button and choose the downloaded .ipsw.


Why do my environment variables keep getting wiped out in Mac OS Catalina?

You need to create a file ~/.zshrc and put your export statements in there. The shell does not magically remember what you exported last time. You will need to put them in a file that will get sourced each time you start your shell, such as .zshrc.


How can I type Lithuanian stress characters (e.g., ą́, ė̃, m̃)?

For info on how to add combining diacritics to any character with ABC Extended, see this page

http://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/mac/codemacext/

For example, m̃ is made by typing m and then option-shift n. ė̃ is made by typing option w, e, then option-shift n.

The keystrokes for adding acute  ́ and grave  ̀ are option-shift e and option-shift `.

You might want to create a customized version of the Apple Lithuanian keyboard using Ukelele to adding keys for the combining diacritics used to indicate stress.  Here is one you can try.


Could I use an older iMac as a second monitor for a Dell Latitude E7250 w/mini display port?

The Thunderbolt port can be used for Mini-DisplayPort. In theory, you should be able to use Target Display Mode because you are using a Windows machine as your primary display. [See Use your iMac as a display with Target Display Mode and How to transmit my PC onto my iMac?. However, as mentioned in the latter link, you can use Microsoft Remote Desktop. Therefore, you could try using a Mini-DisplayPort to Mini-DisplayPort cable, but Microsoft Remote Desktop would be a safer bet.

Instructions for Target Display Mode:

Update: the Late '09 iMac can accept Mini-DisplayPort connections, so you should be able to use a Mini-DisplayPort cable.

  Make sure Make sure both computers are turned on.
  Connect the Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt cable between the two computers.
  Press Command-F2 on the keyboard of the iMac that you want to use as a display.
  To exit, press Command-F2 on the keyboard of the iMac that you want to use as a display.

(from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592)

Instructions for Microsoft Remote Desktop:

  Download the Remote Desktop Client from the Mac App Store.
  Set up your remote PC to allow remote connections. (Allow Remote Access in Control Panel)
  Create / Edit Remote Desktops, or add Remote Resources using the Remote Desktop client.

  Creating a Remote Desktop

  On the Connection Center screen, click New.
  In the Edit Remote Desktops window, enter information for the remote desktop connection
  Click the close button to save the remote desktop.

(from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn473012(v=ws.11).aspx)


This is correct behavior. You should not under any shipping OS be able to paste to that directory.
Much better to use a script or PATH or environment variables to extend your library in /usr/local/lib or other locations intended for customization. The OS manages the /usr/lib/ directory so your files will get stomped the next time an OS update happens or cause other breakage.


Getting 'module' object has no attribute 'bindtextdomain' launching meld

I just fixed this issue by uninstalling/reinstalling all versions of everything.

$ APPS=$(brew list)
$ brew uninstall --force $APPS
$ brew install $APPS


To start, you'll want to power off your MacBook Pro, and clean it thoroughly (but carefully) with a microfiber towel. If you do this dry, you run the risk of abrasion and scratches, but you also don't want to soak your MacBook Pro with any liquid.

External Cleaning
Use an electronics screen cleaning liquid, preferably one with an "Apple Approved" label. Don't use anything alcohol-based or otherwise corrosive externally, as it will damage the rubber and plastic parts. Spray the cleaner directly on the microfiber towel, not your MacBook Pro.

Most Apple approved screen cleaning liquids leave a thin film you allow to dry, then gently polish away, not unlike wax on a car. Avoid open ports, thoroughly but gently clean the keyboard, hinge area, and speakers. These areas tend to accumulate a lot of gunk.

Internal Cleaning
Here's a step-by-step tear-down of the 2013 MacBook Pro.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Late+2013+Teardown/18695

In addition to their required tools, you will need:
• Electronics Cleaning Liquid, usually sold as "Screen Cleaning Liquid"
• Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths
• Electronics Cleaning Swabs (lint free Q-tips) optional
• Paper Towels
• 70% or (ideally) 90% Isopropyl Alcohol
• Medium bristle toothbrush or paintbrush (optional)

You may want to invest in an anti-static wristband: They're inexpensive, and will save sensitive electronic parts. If you do not have one, disassemble your MacBook on a wood or metal surface, protected by a static-free towel: Microfiber works well, but only the "smooth" type, not the terrycloth type.

In Step 12 of the tear-down, you will see the fans being removed. This is optional: A good cleaning with canned air will most likely rid you of the problem. Take care not to blow the fans around too much. You won't clean them this way, and it may be bad for the motors. As an "extreme cleaning" option, replacing the fans will also get rid of the smell.

Take special care in wiping out the aluminum bottom case door -- The bare aluminum door, not the electronics -- with an electronics cleaner and a microfiber cloth or paper towel. Dirt, dust and debris tends to accumulate there.

You can gently clean the circuit boards in your MBP with 70% or 90% Alcohol (do not use Rubbing Alcohol with high water content), but this will depend on your comfort level working with electronics. Avoid the battery while doing this. Isopropyl evaporates quickly, and is used for liquid damage remediation for this reason. I have used it to thoroughly clean my 2009 MacBook Pro several times, and am typing on it right now.

Be careful and gentle with the electronics, and clean it well. Good luck!


Which video player can play 1080p mkv on iPad Mini Retina?

Give AVPlayerHD a try. I can't say I've tested 10bit 1080p video on it with an iPad Mini Retina, but it used to work flawlessly for 10bit 720p video on an iPad 2. Since there's a big difference in specs between the two iPads, I don't think  you'll have issues playing your videos with that app.


When reconnecting my laptop to an external monitor, the USB ports stop working

Thanks @Buscar웃 for answering this. The problem was Outlook. Dang Microsoft.

Turning off Outlook before I reconnect the Thunderbolt display cable solves the non-responsive USB device issue.

Huge bonus points to whoever can get MS to fix this issue in Outlook 2011. For those interested in the error messages associated with this issue, see the console messages link above.


How can I print a path with a home directory replaced by ~ in terminal?

Here's a function:

pwdr () {
  pwd | sed s,$HOME,~,
}

Add this function to a profile file and use pwdr.

In bash you can also use parameter expansion and avoid the call to sed by using the rather magically looking

echo ${PWD/~/\~}

The ${...} expression can be used anywhere a shell variable can be used as well, the echo is just for demonstration purposes.


Can you resize a Keynote slide without resizing text?

Keynote files are zipped XML files. I created some little Apple Script to resize keynote files.

Some caveats:

It always resizes all slides, no selection possible. Maybe you can export the slides you want to resize to another file and only resize this, afterwards merging it back.
It requires xsltproc which is not included in Mac OS X by default. Choose between

Install XCode (from Mac App Store, command line tools only are fine, too) or
Install libxslt, eg. using homebrew: brew install libxslt

Following the comments, Apple changed the data format from Keynote '09 to the current version. Please save your document as a Keynote '09 document, as the script is not (yet) able to deal with the new format.

Though I don't believe the script could mess anything up, please do a backup before applying it!

keyresize now resides on github.


How to set command line permissions after npm install

Adding Terminal permissions in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy corrects this issue.


Is the screen dimmer even over on windows?  If so the florescent tubes (there are multiple) could be failing partially or completely.


How can I know if I have any Notifications with newer OS X Notifications bar?

The icon does not change color (other than when you temporarily disable Notification Center, but that only lasts until the following day). The other things that happen, such as banners, icon badges, etc are the actual "notification".

To temporarily disable Notification Center (until the following day), Option+click on the Notification Center icon. The icon will turn grey to show it is disabled temporarily. Clicking on it reveals a message that notifications will resume tomorrow. Dragging the Off slider to the right will re-enable it immediately.

To permanently disable Notification Center, follow these steps from OSXDaily:

Launch Terminal.
Enter the following command:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist

Enter the following command:

killall NotificationCenter

This disables it for the current user only.


When moving a file to another volume, where does the original go?

The file is deleted on the spot. Which means technically it's still on the disk as a deleted file until the system overrides it. But with a running operating system, it's very unlikely you'd be able to get it back with a data recovery tool. Data Rescue does deleted file recovery, but the data you seek is most likely already overwritten.

It's also clear that the "missing" data was lost long before you moved it. Time Machine is your solution here. Keep going back until you can find a copy that is not missing the data.


How can I delete all Time Machine backups of a given folder?

You must enter Time Machine by going to the menu icon and clicking on it. One of the options is to "Enter Time machine". This will bring up all your backups on the screen. When I right click on a folder I get the options shown below.

If you chose "Delete All Folders " it should do what you want.


According to the manual, HTC Sync Manager allows batch transfer of photos to your computer (page 10).


Xcode: debug step into key conflict (F7)

Check "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" in Keyboard Preferences.


Is there a way to "Find My Friends" from the desktop, rather than iPhone?

On MacOS 10.10, "Find My Friends" can be accessed by clicking "Details" when viewing a friend in the Messages application.

You can also share screens via "Details" as well, from the desktop Messages app.


What input voltages does the 85W Magsafe 2 power adapter accept?

"Input: 100-240V~ 1.5A 50-60 Hz Output:20V [DC] 4.25A max"

The answer is in fact on the side of the adapter. There is text on the plug end and on one of the narrow sides of the adapter. The input information is on the narrow side, in low-contrast light-grey fine print on a white background (thank you, Apple). With a light and a magnifier, my old eyes were finally able to make it out.

"[DC]" refers to a symbol with a solid line next to a dashed line, meaning "direct current".


How can I move a MS Word "toolbox" when the grab area is behind the OS X menu bar?

I've had success with problems like this by changing the display resolution to a lower value. This will often force floating palettes to reposition themselves. If the palette moves, reposition it to an accessible spot and switch back to the original screen resolution; you can now position the palette where you wish.

This also works for modal dialogs or pop-up windows where the controls are positioned off-screen, though it may require jumping to a higher resolution (if available) to have access to the window or menu controls.


Effects of logging in to same Apple ID on multiple macOS accounts (single computer)

If you turn on iCloud drive it will take up additional disk space, you can simply disable that part of iCloud to avoid that. Otherwise you will probably see a small amount of disk usage but nothing that will really affect your computer unless you're very low on available disk space.

As far as your other concerns I haven't actually tried this but I can't imagine you'd have any problems and if you were a client of mine I'd set it up for you. Think about how many people have 2 users or more users on their computer and share the same iCloud account. iCloud doesn't actually sync a lot of application settings and this would be no different than having two computers setup both with iCloud on them, which tons of people have without issue.


Triple Boot: "Missing operating system" on Windows 7 partition after Ubuntu installation

I was able to fix the issue.

The MBR table was messed up after installing Ubuntu. Windows needs an active partition entry in this table. In my case partition #7 (checking the output of diskutil list disk0) had to be written into the MBR again.

The MBR is visible with: sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

To recreate the MBR I used the gdisk tool which made it easier, available here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/

To allow editing the MBR the SIP had to be disabled first temporarily as follows:

boot in Recovery OS by holding Command + R
go to Utilities -> Terminal
enter csrutil disable

Then after restarting and back in macOS again I entered following commands:

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
r (Recovery/Transformation)
h (make hybrid MBR)
7 (GPT partition # I wanted to add)
y (placing EFI partition first in the MBR)
enter (for default MBR hex code 07)
y (set bootable flag)
n (no more partitions)
o (check new MBR)
w (write new MBR)
y (proceed)

Finally enabling the SIP in recovery mode with csrutil enable again.

The final MBR looks as follows (sudo fdisk /dev/disk0):

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 60821/255/63 [977105060 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   2 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  785698815] <Unknown ID>
*2: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 785698816 -  191406080] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

Helpful was this post to explain the GPT and (hybrid) MBR things:
https://superuser.com/questions/1216055/hybrid-mbr-triple-boot-on-a-macbook

as well as this one on how to actually use gdisk:
http://nerdr.com/bootcamp-partition-lost-repairing-mac-partitions/


You need to use the Time Machine app to browse your Time Machine disk rather than looking through the disk with Finder.

Navigate to the folder where the files/folders are missing in Finder.
Open Time Machine.app.
Select the files/folders to restore and click Restore.


Booting internally from a harddrive that was used on a different Mac

What operating system(s) are we talking about here?  If you installed say, a retail copy of Snow Leopard on one machine, then transferred the HD to another machine, that might work.

But if you installed your OS using the disks that came with the machine, those disks are specific to the machine itself: they're streamlined with various drivers and whatnot, is my understanding, and will not work in another machine.

I'd have to read up again in the CCC documentation but I believe there are also instances where files that are hard-coded with UUID's or MAC addresses or something that need to be properly re- created when moving a drive to another machine.


How can I tell if I have the bootcamp windows drivers installed

The ‘Boot Camp drivers’ are two main things: Boot Camp Control Panel (for adjusting Mac-relevant Boot Camp settings) and drivers for hardware components. This is why Boot Camp refers to the ‘drivers’ as ‘support files’ because there's a little more than just drivers for Windows.

Windows 10 can automatically install a few of these hardware drivers, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi without the need to run their installers provided by Boot Camp (occasionally even newer versions are available outside of the Boot Camp drivers). Whilst these drivers are installed as part of the Boot Camp support files, identifying whether they are part of the Boot Camp drivers is an effort in futility.

The Boot Camp control panel can be found in the notification area if running, or in the Start Menu or Program Files folder. You can see if the software is installed in Programs and Features in Windows.

Without knowing why it's useful for you to know whether Boot Camp is installed, it's not really possible to say where to look, as there are too many independent components which make up the Boot Camp Windows support software.


Edit: This solution worked only temporarily. In my case, the problem is on-and-off and there is no way to know when it is going to happen.

This exact same thing was happening to me, but in Firefox. This answer from ElementaryOS-SE solved the issue for me. The solution is to basically install the plugin h264ify. From the GitHub page:

  By default, YouTube streams VP8/VP9 encoded video. However, this can cause problems with less powerful machines because VP8/VP9 is not typically hardware accelerated.
  In contrast, H.264 is commonly hardware accelerated by GPUs, which usually means smoother video playback and reduced CPU usage.


Here's what I used to do back in the day when hard drives were swappable in MacBooks (and PowerBooks before, I'm old.)

Put the SDD in an external exclosure and connect it to the Mac.
Clone the HDD to the SSD.

Use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, both are great and have generous trial versions.
You now have a full backup AND a functional bootable drive.

Swap the HDD with the SSD.

The HDD is in the external enclosure. You can use it as a backup, both SD and CCC let you update/sync your clone drive.
Your Mac is now on SSD. Everything works just like before only much faster.

That's it! Enjoy!


Applescript character count in words with combining diacritics

I did a bit of experimentation, and I get varied results. Fortunately, one of those results was 4. I did this by outsourcing the calculation to Python:

on run {input, parameters}
    set var to "wx̀y"

    set output to (do shell script ¬
"python - <<EOF
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
print len(u'" & var & "')
EOF")

    return output
end run


Well it appears that the files are cache files and are deleted regularly as part of keeping the drive clean and not cluttered with random thumbnails/logs/whatever other cache files are stored. Its pretty obvious from the entry that operation run is CACHE_DELETE so I wouldn't worry too much.

Also, from the image it says "category: daemon". If you are not aware, a daemon is a background process that takes care of small nitty-gritty things for you, like starting services, clearing unneeded caches, and many many more. You can utilise certain daemons to regularly run tasks for you like cron for example. Its nothing to be worried about and its vital to any operating system.

If you are suspicious of malware, you could regularly check the files on your drive by running du -sh every so often to see the space used on the drive. If there is space free that you did not delete, then it may be the case. There are many other ways to check for malware deleting files theoretically (antivirus, disk space, running processes etc) - but if you do have malware on there without your knowledge, then you have much larger problems than it deleting your cache for you :)


Office 2008 ships with a Portugese (and a Brazilian alternative) proofing tool as part of the package.

Source: Microsoft's list of proofing tools


How can I move my iPod music to an iPad?

Check this out: How-to: get music, videos, and photos off your iPod or iPhone.

After you get the music off of your ipod and into your computer/itunes you can just sync it normally to your ipad, or any other idevice for that matter.


Folder won't delete from Trash for "Can't delete "_ImageItems" because its pathname is too long"

You can use the command line in the terminal.
rm -rvf ~/.Trash/*

For completeness sake the options here from the rm man page:
-f  Attempt to remove the files without prompting for confirmation,
     regardless of the file's permissions.  If the file does not exist,
     do not display a diagnostic message or modify the exit status to
     reflect an error.  The -f option overrides any previous -i
     options.

-R[-r]  Attempt to remove the file hierarchy rooted in each file argument.
         The -R option implies the -d option.  If the -i option is speci-
         fied, the user is prompted for confirmation before each direc-
         tory's contents are processed (as well as before the attempt is
         made to remove the directory).  If the user does not respond
         affirmatively, the file hierarchy rooted in that directory is
         skipped.

 -v   Be verbose when deleting files, showing them as they are removed.


I'm sorry that you've had such a difficult time asking this question on Stack Exchange. I haven't been able to find a better/more up-to-date book, but most of Mac OS X is CPU architecture-independent anyway, and the book you're reading does contain an appendix that discusses Mac OS X on x86 hardware and the corresponding similarities and differences between PowerPC hardware:

  Appendix A, "Mac OS X on x86-Based Macintosh Computers," highlights the key differences between the x86-based and PowerPC-based versions of Mac OS X. Besides this appendix, the book covers the details of several key x86-specific topics, such as EFI, GUID-based partitioning, and Universal Binaries. Most of Mac OS X is architecture-independent, and consequently, the majority of the book is architecture-independent.


Add bottom margin or scroll past last line in Mac OS Terminal

I here what you're saying however the only thing I know of is to use the clear command.  It keep's the history intact while returning the prompt to the top of the Terminal window.

I added an alias for clear to my ~/.profile file. Or ~/.bash_profile file if using it instead.

alias c='clear'

Now I just press CEnter.  Then scroll back into the history as needed.


I've had trouble with VPN before on my setup. I fixed my problem, but I had to do a couple of weird things first. Could you tell me more about your settings?

Under System > Preferences > Advanced...

Under (tab) DNS > DNS Servers: Do you have your DNS servers set?

a. If so, are they something like 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.4?
   You may need to change your home router's IP address if so.
Under (tab) DNS > Search Domains: do you have a search domain set?
ie. domain.local

I hope changing those settings helps. If not let me know and I'll try to help. VPN has been enormously frustrating for me in the past.


How can I create an alias for Finder in OS X El Capitan?

Run the following command in Terminal (it will create a symbolic link for all users):

sudo ln -s /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app /Applications

Or just for currently logged on user:

ln -s /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app ~/Applications

Finder will appear in the applications list opened with Launchpad.


unable to boot Mac OS after installing bootcamp

Try using single user mode to repair your disk: http://osxdaily.com/2013/08/07/how-to-repair-a-mac-disk-with-fsck-from-single-user-mode/


Audio player that can adjust playing speed

The VLC media player is probably best suited.

It is Free
It plays .wav (and almost 100% of anything else out there)
It shows the Playback Speed settings.

It allows speed setting as fine as 0.04 X increments.


How can I find out the size of a video file on my iPhone 6 camera roll?

The Shortcuts app made this actually rather easy nowadays. Configure it as an extension for the share sheet, then activate it in any video (or photo) within Photos.

PS: Shortcuts is part of recent versions of iOS. For first time users it might help to have a look at the Shortcut Manual.


Is it impossible to delete/move a file named "␀" on mac?

You can attempt to remove the file by its inode number. List the files in /Library
with the -i option

ls -il /Library

The first column is the inode number of the file. Then use find

find /Library -inum XXXXXXX -delete

where XXXXXX is the inode number of the file.


How can I adjust the sequential numbering scheme when exporting Photos?

Select the photos to export and then press: ⇧⌘E

In the Export sheet, select the Photo Kind: and then select Sequential for File Name:, while leaving Sequential Prefix: blank, and Subfolder Format: to None.

Click the Export button.

Select a location for the photos to be exported to and click the Export button.

For the number of photos you mentioned, "~200", this will take a little while.

When the exporting is finished, then in Terminal change directory to the location of the exported photos.

cd /path/to/exported/photos

They will be named e.g. 1.png, 2.png, etc.

Use the following compound command to rename the files for a three digit zero padded filename.

for f in [0-9]*\.*; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(printf %03d "${f%.*}")"."${f##*.}"; done

The files will now be named e.g. 001.png, 002.png, etc.


Can OS X automate creating a reminders from a page in a web browser?

If you want to add a selected text as a reminder

Open Automator
Create a new service
Service receives selected text in any application
Add a Run ApplScript Action
Add the following script
Save it

the script :

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Reminders"
        set theReminder to (make new reminder with properties {name:input})
        activate
    end tell

    return input
end run

Now when selecting text, you can with a right clic add it as a reminder. If you want that only in Safari. Replace the any application with Safari at the top of the Automator window.

And if you don't want to show the Application Reminders when adding a new one, just remove the line  activate in the script.


How to ensure that all networking goes through my ssh proxy?

Assuming that ssh is running on localhost (or another machine on the local subnet), the easiest thing to do is to shut down your routes so that nothing can get outside.  netstat -nr will show you your current routes.  Mine looks like this:

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags    Refs      Use  Netif Expire
default            192.168.0.69       UGSc       93     4438    en1

192.168.0.69 is my default route.  If I take that route out:  route delete default 192.168.0.69 then I cannot get to any machine not wired to my network.  Once screen sets up your proxy, you should have access back.


"Could not find RubyGem rails" on 10.7.1 Server

Try upgrading rubygems or try uninstalling rails and installing back again using gems.

gem update --system
gem uninstall rails
gem install rails


How can VoiceOver users activate links after the first one, in a message with multiple interactive items?

I've found one way, but it's not great:

Tap or swipe to select the message containing multiple links
Do a two-finger rotate gesture until the rotar says "Links". For me one rotation left (anti-clockwise) from the default position seems to usually reach Links
Swipe down repeatedly until the desired link is selected. It'll now go through each interactable item in the message (not just links), so in this message it'll select the number then select the link
Double-tap the screen while the link is active to activate it


MacOS 10.14 Mojave public beta public Wi-Fi problem

Found a solution!
If you get a similar problem like this one:

The solution is to visit the following URL directly from Safari:
http://captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html

You should be able to connect immediately.

For some reason, Mojave is not redirecting or opening that page properly, hence the error.


What are the required conditions for Photos to start a facial scan?

The conditions are unclear at this time.

  Apple does not inform on how photoanalysisd or photolibraryd work. It is something they need to address properly. As far as I know, photoanalysis uses CoreML and Vision to analyse what images contain, not only Faces in People. So if you search for mountain, it should retrieve images of mountains.

When it comes to how this daemon actually work, I've looked at the process and how it responds to different changes in the macOS environment. From a bit of trial,
I think I've figured out how to make it work in a somewhat expectable way. To summarise, the following technique (if you will) should help you crawl about 1K images an hour.

  Note: this depends on the hardware you are currently running on. You milage may vary.

Prerequisites:

Have photos imported into Photos.app
Have manually marked faces of people you want Photos to recognise.
Make sure you do not have any items in your library that can cause havoc. You can use Smart Filters with Unable to Upload.
Ensure that your power settings are set to never sleep. (Screen saver can still be on).
Plug your Mac to power, it will be running for a while depending on your collection size.

Solution:

Close all apps, reboot your Mac, make sure you untick the "Reopen windows..." before you reboot. We want macOS to return to desktop without any apps loading.
Also make sure you have disabled any apps from starting with macOS too: Users & Groups > Your User > Login Items

Then, once rebooted:

Open Activity Monitor.app and search for photoanalysisd. It should not be found (but leave the window open).
Open Photos.app, wait a minute, then close it. You should see photolibraryd and photoanalysisd in Activity Monitor.app now.
Give it a minute or two (or maybe 10), and now you should see photoanalysisd begin to churn through your photos rather quickly.

For the best possible result, make sure you leave the Mac running over night. If you have a lot of images (50000+) you probably need to do this a couple of nights.

  A few things to consider.

  The daemon can take some time to get it going. When I open Safari it starts churning. You can try this if you don't see any activity after 10 minutes.
  photoanalysisd can hang up some times. If this happens, check if photolibraryd is doing something (check Activity Monitor.app). If this is the case, It is probably pushing updates to the library.
  It can sometimes help if you leave your iPhone/iPad unplugged. It seems that Photos only work on a single device at one time.
  If there is no activity for a while and you don't manage to solve it with the above. Reboot and repeat.

The above has worked for me on 12K photos. I've re-imported them twice to confirm. It took me two days total (by making sure it starts and leave it over night).

Enjoy.


I have a problem about Backup and Sync in mac big sur?

The current Big Sur release is an early beta, you should report any errors you find directly to Apple.


Force Mail.app to show manual configuration options

tl;dr - Enter an incorrect password when setting up the account for the first time

Open Mail → Accounts….
Click the + to add an account.

Select Add Other Mail Account… and click Continue.

When the password is required, enter an incorrect password.

It will request that the account be configured manually.

Follow the instructions to add your mail configuration.


I restarted my system and now this is working, it's invoking my app when the DVD is inserted.  There's nothing in the instructions suggesting that a restart is required, but that seems to be the key to making this working.  I didn't test whether logging out and logging back in would be sufficient.


After you've got the overlay with the previous, uncorrected spelling, you can press the down arrow key, then Return/Enter. This accepts the selected, uncorrected spelling.


Using the ALT key in Windows with Parallels

I was able to get the desired effect by holding down the ctrl+alt keys, then releasing just the ctrl key to use the alt function.

Hurrah! No editing keyboard preferences required. Hope this helps someone else too.


Console log is telling me that database is locked for many apps. How do I unlock?

Just ran into this issue on a relative’s iMac and this worked:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203538


Is there a way to send Google Notifications to the Mac OS X Notification Center or to Growl?

On Chrome 57 for the Mac, go to chrome://flags/ and find the Native Notifications settings, enable them and restart Chrome.


How to change permissions for etc folder mac?

The /etc directory on a mac isn't a directory at all, it's a symlink (shortcut). It redirects to private/etc.

You won't be able to chmod the directory, because it belongs to the root user by default. If you want to chmod it you'll have to prefix the command with 'sudo' to run as the superuser.

Bearing that in mind, make sure you know what you're doing before you start playing around with system directories and their permissions.


Internet sharing from USB iPhone to Wifi on OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite not working

Using the Bluetooth connection to my iPhone works, while USB does not.


How can I set to show window switcher an all displays when I hit Cmd+Tab

Unfortunately, there is no such option available on Mac OS.

Nevertheless the application switcher always appears on the same screen on which the Dock is.

If you use OS X Yosemite or newer and have the option "Displays have seperate spaces" enabled in your system settings, you can move your mouse pointer all the way down to the bottom of one of your displays and the Dock will appear on this screen. This is the only way I know to select on which display the application switcher shows up.


How to allow mouse pointer to move to smaller display?

Don't think possible for the reasons Tetsujin noted above. In past my workaround for different sized monitors was to position them corner to corner - e.g. top left or top right. It was easier to remember (for me) that the mouse would only slide to the other screen if I put the pointer in the corner of the current screen. Also meant windows I slid to the edge of current monitor would not accidentally slide partway onto the other screen.


As long as it's explicit in the privacy policy, it should be ok. Have you considered adding HealthKit capability?


Can I use the same time machine backup for two macs?

In a nutshell: No, you can't.

A backup is not a synchronisation solution so there is always a 1:1 relationship between your main drive(s) and your backup. You can use Time Machine to backup multiple computers to the same network drive, but the backups will always end up as separate bundles.

To transfer applications/data from one Mac to another once, have a look at Migration Assistant (/Applications/Utilities/Migration\ Assistant.app). To share data with ongoing updates from several machines, consider defining remote access/folder sharing on a master drive or look into rsync.


Is it safe to install Sierra with Apple Store blocked?

I am providing the whole solution as it might help other too. This was executed by myself a couple of months ago. As you will have a macOS High Sierra offically from App Store also, it is safe to run the following option.

First, you need one reference Macbook Pro or Mac mini whatever you can get.

From the reference machine, download macOS High Sierra from the
link below and follow the first step of clean install macOS Sierra on your USB:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?ls=1&mt=12

That link should open the MAS and take you to the macOS High Sierra download page.

Clean Install macOS Sierra on your startup disk

Create a bootable flash drive with macOS Sierra.
First, make sure your USB flash drive is formatted and named as “Untitled”.

•  To format a USB drive launch Disk Utility (Finder -> /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).

•  Select your USB drive under External.

•  Click the Erase tab at the top of the Disk Utility window. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the format list. Then, click the Erase button. When the process is complete, click Done, and close the Disk Utility window.

•  If your drive is named something else, you need to rename it (Open Finder -> right click on the USB drive and choose Rename).
Now, your USB flash drive is ready.

•  Launch Terminal

•  Enter the following text into Terminal:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app –nointeraction

•  Hit the Enter key.

•  Terminal will ask you for an admin password (the one you use to log in). It won’t display characters when you type, so just do it. Hit Return. You’ll see that Terminal erases your drive. Then, Terminal will copy the installer file to your disk. This will take a few minutes. When the process is complete, the Terminal window will report "Done."
You can quit Terminal and your bootable macOS Sierra installer USB drive is ready for use.

On your main Apple device

Plug in the bootable macOS Sierra installer USB drive to your Mac.

Restart your Mac while holding the Option or Cmd+R. Make sure to keep it pressed!
When Mac restarts, you’ll see the macOS Startup Manager with a list of bootable devices that your Mac can start up from.
Use the arrow keys to choose your USB drive with macOS Sierra installer. Press Enter.
Select Disk Utility.
In the window, at the top of the left bar, select your Mac’s Main Drive (it looks like a MacintoshHD).
Select the Erase tab located next to the First Aid button at the top.
Near the center of the window, select the Format drop-down list and select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) type.
Click Erase (Note: this will erase all your data from your main drive!) and give the drive some time to format.
When it’s done, close Disk Utility and select “Install macOS” from the menu.
Select your main drive and install the new macOS Sierra 10.12.

Follow these Sierra install instructions and enjoy your newly clean-installed macOS Sierra.

Note: A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the Internet, but it does require the Internet to get information specific to your Mac model, such as firmware updates. If you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network, use the Wi-Fi menu in the menu bar.


Blacking out a part of a PDF, or redaction of text

If you are looking for a no-cost way in Preview.app

File->Export (or save as)
Export PDF to TIFF file format (it's a multipage image format)
Open TIFF file
Export TIFF to PDF file format

Maintains page structure, OCR will be lost.


How can I stop an HDMI switch from sending an unsupported signal?

After suggestions in the comments, I tried an active adapter instead of a passive one.  While the adapter may have been flakey, for some reason, Amazon deliveries for the past week have been completely inept and I wasn't about to risk dealing with that again to return the adapter and get a replacement.  Instead I went to Best Buy and got a different HDMI switch.  I'm not going to link to it because, although it solved this problem, it had another issue.

I'll be trying another adapter when it arrives and if that works, I'll post information on it.

In the meanwhile, I was using a Kinivo 3 Output HDMI switch.  While it handled the normal DVR and BD player video signals, it was not able to handle the video signal from either display adapter from my iMac.  Be aware of that issue if you are looking at that brand of an HDMI switch.

EDIT: I have to add that, after experimenting, while I was using a switch that worked for my display adapter, I found an issue with the connector.  Bottom line: The connector had a very narrow "fail range."  Most of the time it was plugged in, it'd work, but there was just one angle that would make it fail.  Of course that angle was the angle it was in when in the Kinivo switch, where the signal would not go through.  Once I swapped it with another cable, it worked fine.


How to close a file and a folder using bash?

The open command opens a file in the default application for that file. To close the file in that application, you will need to control the application to close the file. This will depend on what the application is—not all applications support AppleScript control for example and quitting the app is not the same as closing a file.


Why might a MacBook not detect an Apple A1152 Mighty Mouse?

With a problem such as this, the first thing you must always try is to connect a different USB mouse. If one works, and the other doesn't, then the problem is almost certainly with a defective mouse, and not with the computer. This is a basic troubleshooting step known as "isolating the fault".

In all problems of this sort (not just with mice) you need to test with a second peripheral that you know is working correctly, which we refer to as the "known good" item.


iMac 27" late 2009 running OSX 10.10.4 - please explain time machine to me?

Two TB should be more than enough. It's a good idea to start with an empty HDD, so if you had any data on it; that could be the problem is. It could also be because the drive was configured for Windows OS.

If you want to use the HDD as time machine and to store other stuff you should partition it. It's simple just open Disk Utility, select the disk, go on partition tap, and the plus button. Make sure the format is Mac OS Extended, then make the new partition of about 1.5 TB. After it's done, you should see two drives connected. The old one (0.5 TB) should still contain all your data from before if it was less than 0.5 TB. You can just format the new one if you like. Then just restart the Time Machine process; from Time Machine Preferences Pane > Select Drive.

You also configure which file you don't want to backup, things which you can just download again, from the options button in Pref Pane.


iOS 10 message effects send to phone number but not email address

This may sound bizarre but you obviously have searched and checked and/or corrected the most common reasons of why it does not work correctly.

There is one thing that I am seeing a lot of on forums that you have not mentioned.

  I fixed this by going to Settings/Messages, then turning iMessage on
  and off.


Running 3 External monitors from a Macbook Pro Retina 13" Mid 2014

It looks like your computer can only drive up to two external displays (officially, at least). https://support.apple.com/kb/SP703?locale=en_US


Convert case-sensitive HDD to journaled insensitive?

Most utilities don't want to deal with the hassle of making sure all the file names work when going from a case sensitive filesystem to a case-insensitive one. For that reason, you'll want to back up, wipe and then restore the files.

You'll want to have a plan for handling a collision when:

FilEa.DOC
filea.doc

Happen in the same folder since they can coexist in a case sensitive world but not the other.


Is it possible to get digital audio output from a MacBook Air (2011), like on other Macs?

Yes its possible and here is an example of a USB to Digital audio output adapter, just like the ones found on other Macs, but external.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB Analog & Digital Audio Adapter


How do System Preferences remain unlocked?

What you are describing is the standard way, the Mac OS X do it.
You have to do the following to get around the five minuts loop hole: Guide to lock system preference

It is assert by using plist files which I hold system times etc. or that is how it was done i Snow Leopard and older.


Desktop Safari: Disable "This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory"

defaults read will tell you what options you can set.

It does not appear that there is a defaults write command available as far as I can tell. It's possible to get a list of the commands with defaults read com.apple.safari and there's quite a few that are cryptic, so I could be wrong though (and would love to be corrected on this as I have this problem too with something that uploads and processes data resulting in losses occurring).

There doesn't seem to be an option in the 'Develop' menu to control this. There is an option to 'Get Safari Technology Preview' that might help if this is changed in an experimental version but that's pure speculation.

Safari 11.2.1 on MacOS 10.13.6 - options will be different on newer/older versions.


First run Disk Utility & check the drive, then try running the Combo Updater instead of the downloaded delta.

Google can always easily find these, but the one for 10.14.3 is here -
Apple Support; Download macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Combo Update


I wrote a free terminal tool called displayplacer that lets describe your monitor layout as a terminal command. I then use BetterTouchTool to execute these profiles via hotkeys. I have the same issue as you, when I plug in my monitors the layout randomly changes.

For example, on my 4 monitor setup at home I have this profile: displayplacer "id:A46D2F5E-487B-CC69-C588-ECFD519016E5 res:3840x2160 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0" "id:F466F621-B5FA-04A0-0800-CFA6C258DECD res:1440x900 color_depth:4 scaling:on origin:(-1440,1437) degree:0" "id:4C405A05-8798-553B-3550-F93E7A7722BB res:1440x2560 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(3840,-363) degree:270" "id:18173D22-3EC6-E735-EEB4-B003BF681F30 res:1920x1200 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(960,-1200) degree:0"

Also available via Homebrew brew tap jakehilborn/jakehilborn && brew install displayplacer


Most likely the battery has died or is no longer being recognized by the system. To verify it is not the latter Apple has a KB article that will help with resetting the SMC.

If it is the former it's time to replace the battery. If you are under warranty take it to a nearby Apple store. If not they can still do the repair but it will cost you. Depending on the model you have replacing the battery can be trivially easy (open the latches on the bottom and pop out the battery) to "just give up and cry yourself to sleep."

More info on your make and model would help us determine where your hardware falls in that spectrum and how many cycles you might expect on your battery before it disconnects itself like you have noticed.


Why does dragging a space in Spaces lag awfully?

Mine is slow too. Note that it works with the mouse, not the graphic, so you can click, drag, release, and move out of Spaces, and the effect will have worked, even if the graphics didn't finish yet.

Also, dragging an empty space is, for me, much faster, so if I want to swap an active work space with an empty one, it is better to drag the empty to the active than the active to the empty.


How can I limit the number of results returned by an expensive filter expression in AppleScript?

Thus, my question is whether there’s a way for me to get "at most 5 results" in a single query?

No, it cannot be done in a single query.
If you want to loop through a given count downwards then the following example AppleScript code is how I'd do it:
set maxNumber to 5
set searchString to "a"

set matches to missing value
repeat with i from maxNumber to 1 by -1
    if matches is equal to missing value then
        try
            tell application "Notes"
                set matches to id of ¬
                    (notes 1 thru i in default account ¬
                        whose name contains searchString)
            end tell
        end try
        if matches is not equal to missing value then exit repeat
    end if
end repeat

return matches


MBA bricked by water damage – test whether just keyboard broken?

You could first try to reset the SMC, which you can find out about here.  If you the LED indicator on your MagSafe charger does not change, then you can assume that at least the keyboard is broken.  It really would be best to open the case and either reconnect the battery or inspect the keyboard's connection to the logic board.


Setting font weight in Terminal.app for El Capitan

Starting in OS X El Capitan 10.11, Terminal's font smoothing is reduced for light-on-dark text, so that the overall weight is closer to the weight of dark-on-light text, improving readability by opening up counters (the open spaces inside glyphs like “e”), for example.

You should find that it matches Safari's text rendering for light-on-dark text. It addresses the issue referred to in the question you linked:  Is there a way to make the terminal's font less blurry?

This new behavior is automatic and doesn't read the AppleFontSmoothing preference.

If this is important to you, I recommend filing a bug report asking for either Terminal's new behavior to honor the AppleFontSmoothing preference or to add a Terminal-specific preference to control font smoothing.

Update: As of macOS Sierra 10.12, this behavior has been tuned to not reduce the font smoothing as much for light-on-dark text, matching Safari/WebKit more closely, and it does not apply at all to Retina displays. In addition, it once again honors the AppleFontSmoothing preference, making the smoothing lighter relative to the AppleFontSmoothing value. The end result is that the weight of light-on-dark text should look as close as possible to the weight of dark-on-light text with the same AppleFontSmoothing value.


Can I cancel iTunes Match and subscribe again without reuploading my music?

I actually wrote an article on this.  The relevant part:

  When you end your iTunes Match sub, you can only access songs you’ve
  downloaded, they will not be available to download after the sub ends.
  You can continue to play the songs that exist on your device.

  Your iTunes Match library will only be stored online for 30 days after
  you cancel.

http://demianturner.com/2015/11/itunes-match-vs-apple-music/


iPad Wi-Fi connection issues, including showing as connected with Wi-Fi disabled

I would do a factory restore to your iPad.

Yes that does automatically update your iPad to iOS 11 but you can update to the lates iOS 10 update as well. The issue you have here is related to the software (and sometimes the connection with your other devices like an iPhone).

Use http://ipsw.me/# as your source for iOS 10 updates for the iPad. Make sure that you backup your iPad if possible (iCloud Backup or iTunes) then download the file you need (choose it based on your exact device) and then save it. Go to iTunes and where it has restore iPad, press and hold on to the "Option" key on Mac (ALT on Windows) and click on restore. That should let you select the update file where you saved it and then use it to restore your iPad.

If you need any assistance let me know.


This will be a synthesis of three things:

Making a homebrew formula that will dump the Applications you care about into the homebrew location. This will require some ruby knowledge and a short read of the homebrew wiki.
Making a script to copy/shove/move the files from the homebrew location to /Applications or ~/Applications or an alternate destination with administrator permissions
Learning enough about git to grab the tools. You likely won't be able to merge your "formula" with the homebrew repository since it's against their policy to re-distribute software you don't possess the permission (rights) for software code publication.

If you want to do this as a learning exercise, have a great time learning. There are far better tools to package OS X binaries like Package Maker, JAMF's Composer, or Iceberg.

If you were uncertain if homebrew was your best option, I'd start with Iceberg and a tutorial like this to handle the permissions.


"X11 could not be opened" then "X11 canceled restart"

You can force X11 to quit, which will allow for a normal reboot but won't fix whatever problems are causing X11 to fail to launch / hang / otherwise misbehave.

Open terminal and type:

 killall X11

You might use sudo to kill any X1 processes that you don't own, but use care with root and killing processes.


Videos in Messages chats look terrible on iPhone 11 Pro

Do you have Send As SMS, Text Message Forwarding, or Low Quality Image Mode enabled under settings? Low Quality Image Mode is most likely culprit. Go to settings->messages->Low Quality Image Mode (Scroll all the way down)


Installing iOS 9 public beta (pb) 3 with iTunes

I would try again with the latest public beta - for many reasons in addition to being a more stable installation experience.

If you have access to a developer certificate/account, the quickest way forward is to log in to developer.apple.com and download the beta build 13A4325c then point iTunes to it for the restore.

Since you have the other method to install the beta - using a signed profile to change the provisioning of the device OTA, you have a longer road ahead.

Wait it out (bad advice, but if you have time...)
Wipe the device after backing it up, place it in recovery mode and restore from iTunes. Then re-enroll in betas and hope you are on a fast network next download. Also, be sure the date/time are correct on the device before enrolling the profile.


It looks like there is, as you mention, a file permission problem, or maybe the Contacts database is corrupt.

In either case, try rebuilding the database:

Open Contacts and export your contacts with File>Export...>Contacts Archive....
Quit Contacts.
Open ~/Library/Application Support/ in the Finder (you will need to switch to the Finder, press Shift⌘G, type ~/Library/Application Support and press Enter).
Rename ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook to ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook.bak.
Start Contacts. You will notice that there are only two contacts: Apple and you. Delete them.
Import the previously exported contacts with File>Import....


I need Git. Is it better to install command line tools (183mb) or `brew install git`?

You need the command line tools to install Homebrew anyways, see:
https://docs.brew.sh/Installation

  Requirements

  An Intel CPU
  macOS 10.12 or higher
  Command Line Tools (CLT) for    Xcode: xcode-select --install, developer.apple.com/downloads or Xcode
  A Bourne-compatible shell for installation (e.g. bash or zsh)


How can I boot in single-user mode for terminal with grey screen?

It might be easier to boot in target disk mode to erase a machine that’s not healthy enough to boot to recovery. As you know, you’ll need to assemble an external OS and modify it to prevent graphics drivers to get around your failed GPU / logic board. Target disk mode often works in this case since only the firmware is running - no OS.
Both of these require you have another Mac running in my experience.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/transfer-files-mac-computers-target-disk-mode-mchlp1443/mac
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255

Option is the startup manager you need if Internet Recovery or built in recovery fail.


/usr/local/bin is a suitable path for non-GUI applications. For example, you might put rsync 3.0 in there as compiled 'rsync3'.

This folder is listed in $PATH by default.


Setting caps lock key to CTRL but still function as caps lock if I press for long enough

Using KeyRemap4MacBook, you could add this to private.xml:

<autogen>--HoldingKeyToKey-- KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::VK_NONE, KeyCode::CAPSLOCK, Option::NOREPEAT</autogen>

The threshold for holding a key is 0.2 s by default, but it can be changed in the second tab.

This would change fn+caps lock (control) to caps lock:

<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::CONTROL_L, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::CAPSLOCK</autogen>


How to force MS SharePoint URLs to open in Safari when Chrome is set as default browser?

This worked for me!

Open Automator (usually found in your Applications folder)

Go to File > New (or just press commandN to create a new item

Choose "Service" (it's the one that looks like a cog)

Select options based on the picture below
Note: To get the "Run Shell Script" part, just drag that option from the list on the left pane.

Save the service

Now the Service name will show up when you right click on a link, giving you the option to open URLs in safari.


iOS 6 has a new setting to mix the sound. I would check there first, and then see about other sources to see if it's particular to how you are routing the sound to the car (cable or bluetooth).

Hopefully, it's a software setting that got set on you as that's the easiest thing to correct.


Help with a bash script to proceed if bundle id is found

mdfind does not produce an unsuccessful exit code but you could pipe the results to grep which does. The code would look something like this:

mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = com.apple.Terminal" | grep -q Terminal || installer ....

|| is logical or.

It could also be written

if mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = com.apple.Terminal" | grep -q Terminal
then
  :
else
  installer ...
fi


How to enable HiDPI mode on external display in OS X 10.9 Mavericks?

Running

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

nd restarting worked for me:

I only tested it with the internal display of an iMac though.


iPhone 6 contacts appearing that I don't know

Possibly you have a service enabled on your iPhone which adds another set of contacts. (It might be Facebook contacts or whatever else.)

Check the Groups in Contacts and try switching the different groups off to see which one's adding the contacts you're seeing. Once you know which group is responsible for that, you can clean that up.