Is there a user-friendly editor for Karabiner complex modifications?

I found Goku (see answer by furins) and a few other tools but none seemed any easier than editing the JSON. In the end I wrote my own scripts which I'll share here.

There are two Python files:

decompose.py takes a karabiner JSON and breaks it up into a many files and directories, so you can edit one rule at a time.
compose.py takes these directories and rolls them into a single JSON that karabiner will accept.

I keep both the single JSON and the decomposed directories (as well as the script) in my dotfiles repo. When I want to alter a keybind, I create a directory for it (easiest method is to copy an existing one and modify) then do a roundtrip encode/decode. Eg.: python compose.py; python decompose.py; python compose.py.

After this my first step is to check git diff to see if my new rule has some error that broke the whole thing. If so, I have many options to revert the changes via git and try again. When done, I test the keybind with Karabiner-EventViewer and its intended use case, and commit.

The scripts are obviously limited and hacky, because they are for personal use (and I think the "proper" solution to this would be to just not use a Mac, har har). I suggest starting with a known-working JSON such as PC-style shortcuts so you can see how the existing rules work. They do work reasonably well, but some caveats:

Each rule goes into a directory. The directory name is built from a number (to keep the rules from changing order and confusing git) and the name of the rule. Obviously rule names can have special characters, but directories cannot, so there's some funny normalization I had to do with that. It can be a bit fragile if you do fancy things with the rule name.
I use PyCharm which has its own keyboard shortcut interceptor. Because of this, all rules are blacklisted from PyCharm at the composer/decomposer stage.

compose.py:

import json
from pathlib import Path

p_decomposed = Path('decomposed/')

# Load scaffold
p_scaffold = p_decomposed / 'scaffold.json'
with p_scaffold.open() as f:
    scaffold = json.load(f)

# Load rules
p_rules = p_decomposed / 'rules'
for p_rule in sorted(p_rules.iterdir()):
    if p_rule.stem.startswith('.'):
        continue
    print(p_rule)

    p_rule_json = p_rule / 'rule.json'
    with p_rule_json.open() as f:
        rule = json.load(f)

    p_manipulators = p_rule / 'manipulators'
    for p_manipulator in sorted(p_manipulators.iterdir()):
        with p_manipulator.open() as f:
            j = json.load(f)

        rule['manipulators'].append(j)

    profiles = scaffold['profiles']
    first_prof = profiles[0]
    complex_mods = first_prof['complex_modifications']
    rules = complex_mods['rules']
    rules.append(rule)

p_composed = Path('karabiner.json')
with p_composed.open('w') as f:
json.dump(scaffold, f, indent=4)

decompose.py:

import json
from pathlib import Path

with open('karabiner.json') as f:
    j = json.load(f)

profiles = j['profiles']
first_prof = profiles[0]
complex_mods = first_prof['complex_modifications']
rules = complex_mods['rules']

# Dump everything except the rules into a "scaffold file"
complex_mods['rules'] = []
with open('decomposed/scaffold.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(j, f, indent=4)

def normalize_rule_name(raw_name):
    """
    Normalize rule name by removing special characters, to make it suitable
    for use as a file name.
    """
    lowered = raw_name.lower()

    filtered = ''
    for c in lowered:
        if c.isalnum():
            filtered += c
        else:
            filtered += '-'

    while '--' in filtered:
        filtered = filtered.replace('--', '-')

    if filtered.endswith('-'):
        filtered = filtered[:-1]

    return filtered

def blacklist_pycharm(manipulator):
    pattern = "^com\\.jetbrains\\."

    if 'conditions' not in manipulator:
        return

    for c in manipulator['conditions']:
        if c.get('type', '') != 'frontmost_application_unless':
            continue

        if pattern not in c['bundle_identifiers']:
            c['bundle_identifiers'].append(pattern)

def process_manipulator(manipulator):
    """
    Gets applied to every manipulator before dumping it to a file.
    """
    result = dict(manipulator)

    blacklist_pycharm(result)

    return result

# Dump each rule to a separate file
for n, rule in enumerate(rules):
    # Normalize name
    desc = rule['description']
    desc_norm = normalize_rule_name(desc)

    # Pull out manipulators and save the rest
    manipulators = rule['manipulators']
    rule['manipulators'] = []

    p_rule = Path('decomposed/rules') / f'{n:03d}_{desc_norm}' / 'rule.json'
    p_rule.parent.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

    with p_rule.open('w') as f:
        json.dump(rule, f, indent=4)

    # Dump each manipulator
    p_manipulators = p_rule.parent / 'manipulators'
    p_manipulators.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
    for i, manipulator in enumerate(manipulators):
        p_m = p_manipulators / f'{i+1}.json'
        with p_m.open('w') as f:
            json.dump(process_manipulator(manipulator), f, indent=4)


Something has been wrong with my finder and Mac. How to fix?

There is a bug in 10.8.2 where occasionally revealing files in Finder stops working and Archive Utilility stops responding whenever you try to extract an archive.

As a workaround, you can terminate appleeventsd from Activity Monitor or with sudo killall -kill appleeventsd. (Without -kill other processes stop responding.) The issue will probably return within a few days or hours though.


iCloud won't let me download some deleted iTunes TV episodes again

Delete them from iTunes, so they don't show up in your TV section. But don't delete them from iCloud. Then they should appear with a download button on the poster for it if iTunes in the cloud is enabled (you will see a cloud in iTunes). You can either click that download button, or go to purchases in the iTunes store and download it from there.

I think what you must've done is deleted the actual file, but not deleted it from iTunes. Normally when deleting something in iTunes, it deletes from iTunes, and then asks you if you want to delete the actual file as well or not.


How do I update the Icon of a program running from /usr/local/bin on the Dock?

There's two main ways of changing the icon for an application.

The first (and free) way is to navigate to the application itself (most likely in your /Applications folder). Right-click the app (MacVim.app), and select "Get Info". Then, drag the new icon onto existing icon displayed in the Get Info pane. In this Adium example, you'd drag the new icon over the Adium duck icon. A password pane will most likely pop up - enter your password and you should be all set.

The other way is to buy CandyBar for $30. CandyBar is a much easier to way to manage large scale icon changes, plus provides an interfaces for organized vast icon libraries. But if you are just looking to change one icon, it is probably overkill.


Erasing the phone in iTunes will remove the restrictions along with everything else.

Per my comment, you can change the passcode for restrictions under Settings > General > Restrictions

By clicking [enable restrictions] it will prompt you for password, you may disable it and then re-enter the passcode.

Reference as well here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2478010?start=0&tstart=0


iPhone 6s Plus experiencing unexpected touch input

It is recommended to get your iPhone inspected by an Apple authorised technician. It appears there is something wrong with the hardware. It is also advisable to update to the latest version of iOS (iOS 11.3 as of this writing). You can try resetting your device (after taking a backup), and see if that resolves the problem.


Stolen iPhone and can't see on find my iPhone

If the phone disappeared from Find my iPhone on iCloud (which is different from being offline), someone must have removed it.
Even if the thief turned it off and reset it, it would remain on iCloud as an offline device until the account owner removes it.

On a side note, if the IMEI lock disables data on the SIM, it makes it difficult if not impossible to find the phone unless the thief goes to a place where the phone has connected to a wifi network before.


How do I upgrade my openssl? A symlink isn't working for /usr/local/bin/OpenSSL

If you run

brew info openssl

you will have the answer :

  This formula is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local,
  because Apple has deprecated use of OpenSSL in favor of its own TLS and crypto libraries.

  If you need to have this software first in your PATH run:
    echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openssl/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile


I cant be sure without checking up the phone, but I fix iPhones and this sounds like a fault in the motherboard, sometimes this happens when you bend your phone a little by putting it in your back pocket or something.

Anyways if you are still under Warranty I would suggest you to go directly to apple, most likely they will replace your phone at no cost.


Difference between an https proxy and a VPN

In your example it is not possible to say whether the HTTPS protocol + Proxy has the same security level as a VPN. It really depends a lot on the specifics - i.e. which VPN software, what settings, etc.

However, in general you could say that it is possible to configure an SSL/TLS encrypted proxy and a VPN software to do the same kind of encryption with the same key sizes etc. so that they are "on level".

When you visit a web site that is by itself encrypted (i.e. using SSL/TLS) many encrypted proxies works by essentially being a "man in the middle". Often this means that you install the proxy server's certificate as a trusted certificate in your operating system or browser, and all traffic from the web site is really decrypted on the proxy server and then re-encrypted for transmission to the client. This allows the operator of the proxy server to read all traffic in clear. Obviously this is a negative.

However some proxy servers work by essentially just passing the raw date to and from the same way a VPN would do - thus keeping the SSL/TLS encrypted connection to the website all the way from browser to web site.

So it depends a lot on the actual chosen proxy server software, its configuration, the circumstances, etc.

Your other question about whether to use free/cheap proxy or expensive VPN is also impossible to answer without knowing the specific. A free system might be really good, and an expensive system might be rubbish. It could also be the other way around.

In general the main difference is that it is easier to configure VPN to handle all traffic coming out from your PC - no matter the application or service. With proxy servers it is really on an application to application basis - so you risk "leaking" information that is not sent via the proxy server.


Macbook Air (2013) trackpad not responding

I tried SMC reset guided by the excellent Apple tech support.  But it did not solve the problem.  Just as PRAM zapping did not.

His suggestion of removing 2 plist items from the library did solve(!) the problem.

~/Library/preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist
~/Library/preferences/com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist

Apparently, one of these two got damaged; trashing them with a RESTART generates fresh plist files. Problem solved, thanks Apple!


I recently purchased a 4K monitor and found out that my 13" MacBook Pro Late 2013 does not support 4K@60Hz even with the Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter. It only supports 4K@30Hz.
According to Apple's support document, 4K@60Hz with a multi-stream transport (MST) display is only supported by 15" model of the same age:

These Mac computers support MST displays at 60Hz:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) and later MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) and later

Source: Using 4K displays, 5K displays, and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac


Splitting large files over multiple DVDs

Using terminal, you can split a file into chunks of the size of your choice.

These chunks can be then stitched back together again quite easily.  This allows you to spread a large file over a number of CDs/DVDs, or more often floppy discs back in the day when this was more of an issue.

In the following example I have an ISO file of approximately 50Mb, that I split into 25Mb chunks.  I then stitched them back together again under a new name and checksummed them to prove they remain identical:

StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ ls -l
total 99328
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:30 ocz_tools_316.iso
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ split -b 25m ocz_tools_316.iso
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ ls -l
total 198656
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:30 ocz_tools_316.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  26214400  3 May 09:32 xaa
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  24641536  3 May 09:32 xab
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ cat x* > new.iso
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ ls -l
total 297984
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:32 new.iso
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 stuffe  staff  50855936  3 May 09:30 ocz_tools_316.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  26214400  3 May 09:32 xaa
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  24641536  3 May 09:32 xab
StuffeMac:tmp stuffe$ cksum *.iso
1518140433 50855936 new.iso
1518140433 50855936 ocz_tools_316.iso

If you only have a single layer DVD writer (or single layer discs) then changing the command to suit the capacity of your media is advisable, the -b 25m bit will need to be changed to something like -b 4600m for approx 4.6Gb chunks.  Don't try to squeeze every last byte from the first DVD, just in case it is rounding up the capacity, I'd probably advice 3500Mb for you to ensure it will fit as either way it's a 2 disc job.

Should you choose a split size that results in more than 2 files being created, they will be called xaa, xab, xac, xad etc in alphabetical order, and the command to stitch them back together remains unchanged.  You'll  note that the last file is just the remainder, and will typically be smaller unless the split is a direct multiple of the original file - see the following output with a 10Mb split:

-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff   8912896  3 May 10:12 xae
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xad
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xac
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xab
-rw-r--r--  1 stuffe  staff  10485760  3 May 10:12 xaa

Renaming them to be installer_part1 etc might be advisable if you wish to store them for longer than a short time just to transfer them, but ensure you do not change the order of the files when you stitch them back together via a typo etc.

Note that in my example I used an ISO file, purely because it's what I had laying around on my desktop.  You should be able to split your installer file just fine as it is without having to change it, but note that this command works on single files only, and as such you cannot use it on a directory/folder, although you can use it on a zipped directory/folder.  If you are in any doubt as to your source file, you can simply compress the file regardless to save doubt, simply right click on your file and click the compress option to get a zip file out of it.


Connecting a MIDI piano keyboard to the iPad with a MIDI cable

The cable you have is actually not a MIDI cable - it is however the correct cable for many keyboards/stage pianos today. The standard MIDI plug looks quite different (it is round), but in the end you'll be able to transfer the same data over the USB cable you have.
The adapter you need depends on which version of the iPad Pro you have. For the older ones with a Lightning port, you can use for example the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. For newer iPad Pros with a USB-C port, you can use for example the Apple USB-C to USB Adapter.


how do I reset or clear the list of Volumes?

It should be enough to just delete the folder

sudo rmdir /Volumes/3000


How to create a password protected ad-hoc network on Yosemite when not connected to the internet

I'd been looking a long time for this answer as well to be able to play games on a  local network.
Since awhile (for some annoying reason) Apple only allows an active network to be shared over wifi with a password.
To create your own "active" network, in terminal run the 2 following commands.
# Idk if this is necessary. if you lost your 127.0.0.1, creating this should fix it:
# sudo networksetup -createnetworkservice Loopback lo0
# sudo networksetup -setmanual Loopback 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255
##
sudo networksetup -createnetworkservice FakeNet lo0
sudo networksetup -setmanual FakeNet 192.168.1.56 255.255.255.255

This creates a new network conection that (although the preferences show it as inactive) can be shared from the internet sharing preference pane to Wifi with a password.
To share the connection,

go system preferences
Then sharing preferences
select FakeNet as the connection to share from
share to wifi
advanced settings allow a password to be set

Source: https://www.laszlopusztai.net/2016/02/14/creating-a-wi-fi-access-point-on-os-x/


What is the connector used by the MBA's SATA drive?

It is a variant of Mini PCI Express & mSATA:

  Some notebooks (notably the Asus Eee PC, the MacBook Air, and the Dell mini9 and mini10) use a variant of the PCI Express Mini Card as an SSD. This variant uses the reserved and several non-reserved pins to implement SATA and IDE interface passthrough, keeping only USB, ground lines, and sometimes the core PCIe 1x bus intact.[11] This makes the 'miniPCIe' flash and solid state drives sold for netbooks largely incompatible with true PCI Express Mini implementations.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Mini_PCI_Express_.26_mSATA


Some Applications stay in Dock after closing

I don't think it' malware. I have the same problem after installing 10.11.5.
I found a (not so nice) workaround:

When the app is still running: Save all changes and force quit the Application

When already quit the app: Open the Activity Monitor and force quit the Widowserver Process. You'll be logged out. Now restart the mac (don't just log in again) and you can use it without having the icons in the dock.

I think it's an 10.11.5 issue.


SD card reader does not work after upgrading to Mountain Lion

I seemed to have the same problem with the SD card not showing up but when I opened iPhoto it just loaded my photo's off of my sd card. I have a sandisk SD card. Hope it helps :)


Gibberish volume in finder which is inaccessible and un-deletable

Drag it off the Favorites bar?

You didn't give enough details, so I'm not sure you can do this, but hold down the ⌘Command  button and drag it off the Favorites bar (anywhere on the screen).
You will see a cloud-like animation beneath the pointer.
Then, release it.

POOF! It is out of the Favorites bar and your hair. :)


How much does it cost to service a MacBook Pro battery?

See Replacing the Battery in your MacBook Pro for pricing information in various countries. In your case (Italy) it's 130 or 180€ depending on screen size.


High Sierra won't install: for the boot disk it says: "This disk cannot be used to start your computer"

You must turn off filevault before install HS...


Often had two versions of a particular app installed (usually in the standard apps location).

Did this with Excel - never had an issue. Also with Qt at one time.

I just made sure the newest one was the most recent install for any libraries necessary.


How to permanently disable resume on El Capitan

There is a simple method for this, for anyone using Lion+.

Navigate to /username/Library

Cannot see Library Folder: While in Finder > Press and Hold OPT key Down > under GO Menu> Select Library

Once there, you will see a folder named Saved Application State

To disable ALL resume states,

right-click on Saved Application State > Get info
select Locked checkbox

To disable SOME resume states

right-click on Saved Application State/Sub-Folder Name > Get info
select Locked checkbox

That's it.


Find iPhone on another MacBook is not showing my MacBook's old location

It seems like you didn't turn on that feature or you turned it off, which can be done in the settings. If this is the case, then it's not possible to turn this feature back on if the MacBook is already lost.

I recommend turning on Lost Mode if you haven't already.


This is a commmon problem with Hackintosh'ed computers. Is the computer you are using with OSX genuine?

Wether it is a real Mac device or not, the steps to fix this should be very similar. Here is a very long thread describing each step to fix this in great detail.

To start off, I would make sure that your Apple ID is verified. You can check the 'Verified' status of your AppleID by logging into AppleID's online management.


How does Sublime open file with cmd+click on its path in Terminal?

I've checked my suggestion and it worked: if you try to open a file in Finder, this file will be opened with default Application, assigned to its extension. So, if you change default App for this file, you'll get it while opening file from Terminal by click.


Yes, you can import audio files into the iPhone version of Garageband.

Here are the instructions from Apple.


This is a common Flash interaction issue (sounds like). I use the Safari extension ClickToFlash so I can control what Flash runs and when. And, I also use AdBlock to be sure those pesky side Ads don't bother me. You can still run Flash, but you have control and the freezing will hopefully stop.


how can I transfer health data from iPhone 5s to my new iPhone 6 plus?

If you want to back up your Health data using iTunes, you need to encrypt your backup by selecting "Encrypt iPhone backup" in the Summary tab in iTunes. If you don't select this option, your Health data won't back up.


vi shortcuts on bash on mac not working e.g. CTRL + E, CTRL + A

Ctrl-a for beginning of line and Ctrl-E for end of line are Emacs shortcuts, not vi. As such, they will not work in vi.


What types of WiFi does the iPod touch 4th generation use?

According to the specifications, the fourth generation iPod touch supports 802.11b/g/n on the 2.4GHz band.

The first through third generations support 802.11b/g, while the fifth generation supports 802.11a/b/g/n on both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands.


tar is giving a symbol error in a bash install script?

In your example you are using bsd/macos curl with gnu tar, that won't work. Unfortunately many dev programs rely on the apple bash and trying to upgrade things to gnu can break bash scripts.

brew won't even let you install curl "natively"

brew install curl
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/curl-7.54.1.sierra.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
This formula is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local,
because macOS already provides this software and installing another version in
parallel can cause all kinds of trouble.

to fix your problem with the bash script you'll want to rename gnu-tar from tar to gtar, the following will do the trick

brew uninstall gnu-tar
brew install gnu-tar


Spotlight is good for finding things but for whatever reason lousy at telling you where those things are, as you have discovered.

But you can still do a spotlight search in the Finder. Just open a new Finder window and type your search term into the search field in the upper right side of the Finder window.

Once you have located the file/folder you want it will show the path to it at the bottom of the Finder window.

If you hold the ⌘ Command key down while clicking the mouse on the title bar (where it displays the path again) it will give you a pop-up menu that gives you a graphical hierarchy of exactly where that file/folder is.


Finder Window List Mode not displaying properly

You can show the disclosure triangles in list view by opening the View Options (⌘ cmd + J) and changing the Arrange By to None.

Setting this also allows you to click on a header to set the sort order like SL's headers. A 'sort triangle' will be shown.


Disable media controls on iPhone lockscreen

Sorry to say, the answer is no. Although I don't find it intrusive to have the controls there, I wish that it wouldn't blur the background, too. The availability of the same controls in the Control Center makes it redundant.


MacBook Pro is slow, will adding RAM help?

Upgrading to 8GB will give your more memory-intensive applications a bit more headroom and allow them to avoid unnecessary swap-file usage. Upgrading to an SSD will give a more substantial speed boost overall - apart from dramatically improved OS and application startup times, any applications writing to and reading from a swap-file will also see considerable speed improvements. Your Mac only supports SATA II but the speed improvement will still make the investment worthwhile.


Delete a currently-open file directly in the application?

I use this AppleScript:

tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
    set f to POSIX file (path of document 1) as text
    close document 1
end tell
tell application "Finder" to move f to trash

A hackier version that works with a few more applications:

try
    tell document 1 of application (path to frontmost application as text)
        set f to path
        close
    end tell
on error
    tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 whose frontmost is true)
        value of attribute "AXDocument" of window 1
        set f to do shell script "x=" & quoted form of result & ";x=${x/#file:\\/\\/};x=${x/#localhost/};printf ${x//%/\\\\x}"
        keystroke "w" using command down
    end tell
end try
POSIX file f
tell application "Finder" to move result to trash


Try to access window menu of Firefox, the oldest window at top of the list


iOS notes app - drawing tools disappear when using Pencil

An update to iOS 13.5.1 seemed to fix the issue. I got the hint in the Apple Discussion forums https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251558519?answerId=253012468022&page=1


Connect New MacBook (USB-C) to Apple Cinema Display 30" (Dual-Link DVI)

There IS a solution to this problem, I searched and purchased quite a few adapters but finally I got it to work:

1) Purchase this USB-C to Display Port adapter:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00YBH6WDM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2) Purchase this Display Port to "Active Dual Link DVI". It is important that it is an active converter and not a passive one:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00856WJH8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Sorry for the German pages but I am sure you can find it also in other countries' stores.

Connect that combination and also don't forget to connect the active converters power through USB.

If it starts with a scaled resolution, don't worry, there is a key combination (option or command scaled resolution) and you get the highest one.

Works like a charm!
I know it's pricey but I love my 30" Cinema Display.
I also got my old MOTU Firewire audio interface with apples TB3 to T2 and then TB2 to FW and an additional FW cable from Belkin to run.

Now I use my exact same setup as with my old MacPro but it's the MacBook Pro 15" with Touch bar. Logic Pro with a Project of 40+ Audio Tracks does put a load of 50% to the system :-)

If you need more info just answer here, I can help :-)

UPDATE: The following item is USB-C to Dual Link DVI-I (which can take DVI-D). No need for multiple adapters. Alas, this does not support the 30" Cinema Display, according to the product page:

  "The USB-C to DVI adapter will not work with Apple Cinema Displays or the Dell 3007WFP. These monitors require a true DVI-D signal. Please
  note this before purchasing"

https://www.pimfg.com/product-detail/USB31C-DVIF-1


Downgrading to iOS 8.1.2

Since iOS 8.1.3 is the latest version of iOS, you can’t simply open up iTunes and “update” to an older version. You have to add on a couple more steps, but luckily it’s fairly easy.

Before you do anything, make sure to back up your iOS device because this method will wipe your iPhone or iPad clean. Luckily, we have a handy guide on how to do just that.

First off, visit this website and download the iOS 8.1.2 IPSW for your specific iOS device. These files range between 1.5 GB and 2GB for iPhones and iPads, so be aware that it may take a bit of time to download it.

Once you have the file downloaded, plug your iOS device into your computer and open up iTunes. Go to your device’s summary page and hold down the Option/Alt key on your keyboard or Shift if you’re on Windows. Keep holding down the key as you click on Restore in iTunes.

Next, browse to find the IPSW file that you downloaded and open it. iTunes will begin restoring your iPhone and will install iOS 8.1.2.

After the process is complete, your iOS device should now be running iOS 8.1.2. From there, you’ll want to restore your backup by going to the device summary page in iTunes and clicking on Restore Backup. Give it time to restore all of your apps and settings, and eventually you’ll be back to running iOS 8.1.2 just like you were before updating to iOS 8.1.3.

Word for word from: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/01/27/how-to-install-ios-8-1-3-update/


Delete incompatible ScreenFlow version from MacOS Sierra

Removing ScreenFlow from Your Computer

To uninstall ScreenFlow, simply move the ScreenFlow application to the trash. (The ScreenFlow license is stored separately, so you do not need to re-activate your license if you reinstall ScreenFlow.)
To completely remove ScreenFlow from your computer, move the following files to your trash:

/Applications/ScreenFlow
/System/Library/Extensions/TelestreamAudio.kext
/Library/Preferences/net.telestream.screenflow.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.vara.screenflow.LSSharedFileList.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.vara.screenflow.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.vara.screenflowhelper.plist
~/Library/Preferences/net.telestream.screenflowapp.LSSharedFileList.plist
~/Library/Preferences/net.telestream.screenflowapp.plist
~/Library/Preferences/net.telestream.screenflowhelper.plist


Running iOS apps on Apple Silicon leads to permission error

Turns out this is a limitation of Apple Configurator 2. When exporting apps using iMazing, apps launch without an issue.


Use headphone jack as line in for microphone on MacBook Pro Retina

For those Macs with a single shared input/output jack, the key to using a microphone is to have the correct plug. I'm guessing your're not seeing the input options because your microphone jack doesn't have three rings on it (Apple headsets with microphone have three rings)? If that's the case, you'll need to get a splitter cable so that the Mac realises that a microphone is available. See here for more information.


Message icon says I have messages to read but I do not. How do I delete the shown numbers?

Try signing out of the iCloud account you use for iMessage and sign back in. Settings -> iCloud -> Sign Out. See if that helps.


How to use iTunes Match with two user accounts on the same computer?

There's a kind of easy way to solve this as I found out recently. All it involves is using the same credit/debit card details on both iTunes accounts.
Yes, a little bit of a nuisance and there's no logic at all as why it would be this way but it solved it for me with my Macbook that I share with my daughter. 2 separate Apple ID's and 2 separate iTunes match accounts on the same Mac but she just pays me in cash if she buys something...


Is it possible to install lower version os in ipad?

It is possible to downgrade to iOS5. You will just have to "trick" iTunes into thinking you are restoring from one of you backups.

Just make sure to first make a backup of your current settings. Then it's just a matter of restoring from the "fake" backup(IPSW-file).

You can download an IPSW(backup file) from http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_downgrade_back_ios_5


Your Game Center account is linked to your Apple ID. Your nickname is not important, as one can change it whenever he wants. Just launch Game Center and sign into it using your Apple ID and password. As far as Game Center data goes, it's probably lost unless you wish to restore one of your backups, if you have one.


How can I get my trackpad settings to work on the login screen?

Open Terminal and enter the following commands

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

In Finder

open Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences
Ctl+click/right-click a file called .GlobalPreferences.plist and click 'Get Info'
Change the permissions to allow you to alter it but make a note/screenshot of what they are first. (be careful here!)
open the file by double-clicking

Property List Editor will run and open the .plist file

Click 'Root' at the top of the window
Click the 'Add Child' button
Add an entry called com.apple.mouse.tapBehaviour
Make it a Number type
Set the value to 1
Save the file

Back in Finder, reset the permissions to what they were

In Terminal enter the following commands

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

Reboot and the next time you login you should be able to use Tap to click

If you run into issues with Terminal commands or with the plist file make sure your capitalization is correct, case matters!


Dim screen brightness of MBP, using AppleScript (and while using a secondary monitor)?

Having a secondary monitor was not the issue, it was that I also needed an external keyboard.

When using an external keyboard, the brightness key codes change from 107 and 113 to 145 and 144 respectively, to lower/raise the brightness level.

For anyone interested, the correct key code events that works with an external keyboard (tested/works with an external Apple keyboard) are:

To lower the brightness all the way use:

tell application "System Events"
    repeat 16 times
        key code 145
    end repeat
end tell

The above code will lower the brightness all the way, regardless of where it's currently set. If it's already set at anything below 100%, any extra lower key code events, while still executed, are done so harmlessly and are just ignored when the above code runs.

To raise the brightness to, e.g. 75%, use:

tell application "System Events"
    repeat 12 times
        key code 144
    end repeat
end tell

Note that if you want a smother transition, add a delay 0.02 command to each repeat loop, otherwise the transition can appear quite abrupt.


Is there a way to access the menubar icons using the keyboard?

If you have "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" checked in System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard tab

Ctrl + F8 moves the keyboard focus to the icons in the menubar

If you have "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" unchecked in System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard tab

Ctrl + Fn + F8 moves the keyboard focus to the icons in the menubar

Although the leftmost user-installed ones on my computer cannot be accessed, you can then use the cursor keys to move ← → and ↓ to bring up the menu associated with the icon.

In addition, Ctrl + F2 (or Ctrl + Fn +F2) moves keyboard focus to the menubar items.


How do I add VTT subtitles to a MP4 video to view on an iPhone iOS?

Wow I finally found a solution. I found
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FFMPEG_An_Intermediate_Guide/subtitle_options
and
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HowToBurnSubtitlesIntoVideo
so I tried a few things and found this worked.

  C:\Users\Chloe\Videos>"\Program Files\WinFF\ffmpeg.exe" -i russian_ark.mp4 -i russian_ark.vtt -vcodec copy -acodec copy -scodec mov_text russian_ark_sub.mp4

Unfortunately WinFF doesn't have options for subtitles in the GUI. I don't know what mov_text is but luckily FFMPEG can understand VTT and convert to it and Apple can understand mov_text. I tried to use -scodec srt but it kept giving me an error track 2: could not find tag, codec not currently supported in container. Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Operation not permitted. I didn't want to hard-code the subtitles as described in the second link, but I was almost ready to.

Thanks to Insomniac Software for letting me know Apple can't do this automatically, not even with iTunes.


Disable OS X feature to reopen windows at login time

This bug has been fixed with the Lion update 10.7.4:

The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes fixes that:
Resolve an issue in which the "Reopen windows when logging back in"
setting is always enabled.

(click here for more information)


How to save changes in a CSV file using Mac Numbers?

Try to keep it as a .csv file.

While you have numbers open go to the menu bar and click on file > Export to > CSV...


iPhone iCloud contacts and over the air sync

You are correct: the iCloud sync sends data to and from the iCloud servers, and the Wi-Fi sync sends data to and from your computer running iTunes.


Installing system files in home directory?

The answer to all your questions is No

To understand the file system you may like to start with File System Basics.

The three /Library locations are for different purposes though, as you have guessed, there is some overlap.

Briefly, the purpose of each is:

/System/Library:  Files which allow OS X to start and run.
/Library:  Other important system and application support files which are not specific to each user.
~/Library:  System and application support files which are specific to the user.

So files in /Library/Application Support/x are used by all users of application x and those in ~/Library/Application Support/x are specific to the user.  Some applications will only use one or the other, whilst some use both.

Moving folders/files between /Library and ~/Library is likely to cause applications to malfunction or system components to fail.  Moving LaunchAgents or LaunchDaemons is especially dangerous.

Even worse, touching /System/Library is likely to prevent your Mac from booting!

Also, files inside application bundles must remain where they are - moving them will break the application.

So, in conclusion, don't move folders around as OS X expects files to be in their right place.


From Apple:

  If you have already configured the iCloud Find My iPhone service on
  your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac you can use it to locate your
  missing device, display a message on its screen, make it play a sound
  at full volume (even if on mute), remotely lock it, or remotely wipe
  (erase) it to protect your privacy. Please see the following articles
  for more information:

The phone is pretty much useless to who ever found it.

But consider following as first step:
I just found your phone and it is locked and I have no idea to who it belongs, so there is not much I can do to return it. I could go to police station (but who has time to do that).
If you are so kind you would send a message to your phone with your contact information, email or phone number, I would contact you to arrange the return.


Getting a message that says "iCloud storage is full" even though it clearly isn't?

Click the Apple menu and select log out.
If a program is stuck and you can’t log out after saving work, the issue could be your machine was stuck. Reboot and watch the status after a restart.
If your log out was clean then power off your Mac for 30 minutes.

This lets whatever process runs on the server where Apple stores your documents to time out. Restart. Sometimes I’ve had to wait overnight with my iCloud off but usually this clears in time. Worst case, a call to Apple support would be needed if your other iCloud functions work and the Mac software is not hanging up.

It is unlikely you need to check online, but your case looks to be a problem completing the upload, not no space in the cloud.


Restore back up from iphone 4s which i put sim card into different 4s without losing data from the new one?

Connect your personal iPhone to a computer with iTunes and manually back it up.
Connect your work iPhone to the same computer and manually back it up
Restore your personal iPhone with the backup from your work iPhone

All the data from each phone will be kept in it's own file on your computer, and you won't need to rely on iCloud/3G/WiFi to ensure the data is saved correctly.

Use iTunes
You can use iTunes to back up and restore your content on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Note that iTunes and iOS do not support installing backups of newer versions of iOS onto devices using earlier versions of iOS.
Back Up
To back up the content on your iOS device, follow these steps:

Make sure your computer has the latest version of iTunes.
Connect your iOS device to your computer.
Choose File > Devices > Back up.

If you're using iTunes 10.7 or earlier, right-click the device from the list and choose Backup Now.
You can also back up by syncing your iOS device with your computer. When you use iTunes to sync, backing up is the first step.
To verify that the backup finished successfully, open iTunes Preferences and select the Devices tab. You'll see the name of the device along with the date and time iTunes created the backup.

Restore from a backup
If you need to restore your device to resolve an issue, follow these steps:

Connect your iOS device to the computer that has your backup.
Make sure this computer has the latest version of iTunes.
Choose File > Devices > Restore from Back up.

If you're using iTunes 10.7 or earlier, right-click the device from the list and choose Restore from Backup.
Source: Apple Support


How do I get Apple Hardware Test working on a refurbished Mac?

For this model, Apple Hardware Test actually comes pre-installed on the hard drive.
If you've reformatted or replaced the original hard drive, it's possible to install Apple Hardware Test back to it from a downloadable disk image, but you need to boot the system using the Recovery partition on another disk to do it:

Download the appropriate Apple Hardware Test disk image for your machine (partial list at https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest)

Reboot into recovery mode, by holding the option key down at boot, and then choosing the recovery partition from the menu

Open Disk Utility, mount the Apple Hardware Test disk image, and then quit disk utility (with the disk image still mounted)

Open Terminal from the Utilities menu

Copy the System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics folder from the disk image to the new drive:
 cp -R /Volumes/AHTBTwo/System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics \
 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices/

This copy of Apple Hardware Test is now installed; you should now be able to launch it by restarting while holding down d.

Background:
The drive supplied with the machine had a recovery partition on it, but I don't know if that had the appropriate version of Apple Hardware Test for this machine. In any case, I also neglected to copy the recovery partition across to the new drive when I copied the Macintosh HD volume.  I had done that using a Mac OS X Install Disk's copy of Disk Utility with the new drive on a USB adapter before I installed it in the MacBook.
To get a recovery partition back, following the nice guide at https://www.lifewire.com/create-os-x-recovery-hd-on-any-drive-2260909 I manually took a disk image of the recovery partition on the old drive using a Terminal command:
sudo hdiutil create ~/Desktop/Recovery\ HD.dmg -srcdevice /dev/disk2s3

and then ran Disk Utility and made a partition for it on the new disk, and restored that partition from the Recovery HD.dmg disk image.
That gives the new recovery partition on the new disk the right contents to be a recovery partition, but it still has the default partition type code that Disk Utility sets, which is for a regular Mac OS X partition.
To change the partition type value for the recovery partition, which is normally prevented by the integrity protection in Sierra, I rebooted from the recovery partition on the old disk, and then ran the commands in a Terminal there:
diskutil unmount /dev/diskXXX
sudo asr adjust --target /dev/diskXXX -settype Apple_Boot

(Use whatever Device shows up in Disk Utility for the new recovery partition in place of diskXXX)
At that point I had a usable recovery partition on the new disk, and I could follow the steps up above to add Apple Hardware Test.


How to identify the 3 thermals sensor connectors from the mac mini motherboard?

I suspect that you have found the answer via other means, but I'll answer it for the next person that finds their way here.

I was looking for a way to repair the connector on the motherboard when I found this question unanswered.  I'll continue my search after answering.

So, after much double checking:

One of them is for the DVD.

This is connector J5550. From your perspective, the left one.

One of them is for primary HDD near the connect.

This is connector J5560. From your perspective, the right one.

One of them for the primary HDD on the side (glued).

This is connector J5520. From your perspective, middle one

PS: I would recommend including your Mini model in the future.


That should be enough space. Try downloading Xcode from the Apple Developer Downloads section. You may have more luck there.


In iTerm, why is a command shell's command not picking up things on my $PATH?

Environment variables like PATH and TERM are normally inherited from the shell. When you run the script directly, they are unset.

You can run the script as a child process of a login shell by setting the command to bash -lc "~/.bin/sshb servername".


How can I get repeat 1 and still skip to next song when clicking next

Found 'Beat - Music player' from MonkeyBits, works great. Has strange controls but it's a great replacement to the rubbish apple music app (asking you on each screen to register to their music program).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beat-music-player/id605037069?mt=8


How To Remove old login screen of MacOs?

Seems like somehow you're stuck at Mojave's Preboot environment.
With FileVault 2 on, the Preboot environment (the Mojave one that you see), instead of full-fat macOS, is booted first to ask you for your FileVault 2 password in order to decrypt your data and then, proceed to normal macOS startup procedure (when you see the Big Sur startup interface).
The strange thing is that the preboot environment itself should be upgraded along with your recent Big Sur installation, but wasn't. If you're using MacBook Air 2018 or later, T2's magic may be to blame.
The solution is: manually updating your preboot environment. Here are a few suggestions:

Enter macOS Recovery, and

Install Big Sur again
OR, if that still didn't work, turn off FileVault 2 and:

In macOS Utilities, open Terminal.
Run sudo diskutil list to get Preboot's identifier (usually disk1s3).
Run sudo diskutil apfs deleteVolume IDENTIFIER.
Install Big Sur again like in method 1.

Either way, your data should be unaffected. But be sure to make a backup in case something bad happens. Make sure to turn off FileVault 2 and wait for it to get fully decrypted before proceeding to recovery method 2.


What happens to TestFlight apps for external testers after (paid) release?

I've had mixed experiences with whether users see the app show in Updates at all in the App Store. Generally it's safer to suggest that users will have to navigate through the App Store and search for your app to find 1.0. This is in line with what Apple says:

  When the test period is over, you will no longer be able to open the beta build. To install the public version of the app, download or purchase the app from the App Store. In-app purchases are free only during beta testing, and any in-app purchases made during testing will not carry over to public versions.

https://developer.apple.com/testflight/testers/

App Store does not provide free copies of your app to TestFlight users — they will have to purchase the app, but users can keep the TestFlight build for free until the build expires. You can provide promotional codes through iTunes Connect to your TestFlight users if you wish to give them a free copy of the app.


Set DisconnectOnLogout=NO:

sudo /Sy*/L*/Priv*/Apple8*/V*/C*/R*/airport en1 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

Replace en1 with the interface number of your AirPort card, if it's different.


Per-process CPU doesn't add up to total in Activity Monitor?

The %CPU column is percentage of one [virtual] core. The total summary is percentage of entire CPU. So if, for instance you have 4 real cores, 8 virtual, the maximum possible total figure in the %CPU column would be 800%
if you want to check how many cores you have, Use either Window menu > CPU usage or CPU history.  The number of stripes is the number of virtual [hyper-threaded] cores. Halve that to get your total physical core count.
This shows 12 cores, 24 HT cores…


Filing Sent messages in a folder other than sent messages folder

I'm doing this for quite a while. Mac mail does not do it for you. However is works in this way: every sent message has an automatic copy to myself. In a rule I copy the received message with myself as the sender to a mailbox xxx.
1.Mail / Preferences / check Automatically Bcc: myself
2. Mail / Preferences / Rules / Add rule / "if any of the following conditions are met": from - contains -  Move message to Mailbox
good luck!


Wi-Fi network created but not allowing connection to the Internet

The first thing to try is to enable Internet Sharing from System Preferences -> Sharing.

Now choose the right source and destination, connect your device to WiFi shared network and try to navigate.


Use iMac 27" in Target Display Mode with Raspberry Pi

What I have found out is that TDM (Target Display Mode) on my mid 2010 27" iMac only works with the following resolutions:

720p (1280*720) or lower
Native (2560*1440)

Any device that tries to output something in between, gets a signal it has to change it's resolution to 1280*720. Many devices can automatically do this (Xbox 360, PS4), but some can not (PS3, Raspberry Pi). This means that, if you want to use a device that can't automatically change resolution, you have to set the right resolution BEFORE you connect it to the iMac with TDM.

For the Raspberry pi, this means you have to use the following two lines in your config.txt:

hdmi_group=1 // VGA 60Hz
hdmi_mode=4 // 720p

Read more about the config-file here.

Since the Raspberry Pi doesn't support 2560*1440 (it does support 2560*1600 though), you won't be able to use the iMacs beautiful 1440p-screen to its full potential, but at least it works!

If I ever find a solution to add a custom resolution, I'll update my answer.


Is there any way to upgrade my jailbroken iPad to a higher jailbreakable iOS?

Short answer

No, unfortunately not.

Explanation

Without any manually saved SHSH blobs for your desired version of iOS and your device you cannot upgrade to this version of iOS.

Check https://api.ineal.me/tss/status to see which firmware versions are currently being signed by Apple.

As of today Apple signs only this iPad 4 (iPad 3,4; 3,5; 3,6) firmware:

10.3.3    14G60

Additional Resources

You may check whether there are SHSH2 blobs available for your device:

https://tsssaver.1conan.com

You can get you ECID by

Lauching iTunes
Connecting your device using a Lightning cable to your computer
Selecting your device in iTunes
Clicking the serial number twice


Report a problem with an app I purchased on the Mac App Store

Apple will give refunds, though it’s not a very advertised thing.

Point your browser at the Mac App Store Support Page, which can also be found in the right side bar of the Featured page in App Store.app. From there choose Account & Billing. From the Specific Request select menu, This app didn't function as expected should be the option you’re after.

Be polite, state your case, ask nicely (don’t demand a refund), and you should have good luck.


iOS — Is there any way to send a gift to a user of another App Store?

There is no way around what you've already found.  Different countries have different rules so Apple enforces the rule when gifting apps.
You can send an Apple Gift Card to the recipient to have them buy the game.


Why does the diskutil shows I have two local hard drives?

If you run diskutil corestorage list, you will get a more detailed list:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 62933502-BEAA-43E6-BDFD-D061365F059D
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         222140432384 B (222.1 GB)
    Free Space:   0 B (0 B)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume F96E64AE-1ADD-46C6-A64B-2578D6DFE536
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     222140432384 B (222.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 0BAEBD36-8C41-4D0F-A66B-1203DAD5649F
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Conversion Status:       Complete
        High Level Queries:      Fully Secure
        |                        Passphrase Required
        |                        Accepts New Users
        |                        Has Visible Users
        |                        Has Volume Key
        |
        +-> Logical Volume B719B24B-31B2-4890-BE9F-5BD924723237
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          221803835392 B (221.8 GB)
            Revertible:            No
            Revert Status:         Reboot required
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

There’s a Physical Volume (disk0s2) and a Logical Volume (disk1).

This sheet explains the situation quite well:

As you can see, you need a Logical Volume; a Physical isn’t enough.


According to MacTracker.app:

Display Connection    1 - HDMI port or Thunderbolt digital video output
Display Support   Supports an HDMI-compatible device while using one Thunderbolt display or support for two Thunderbolt displays
Display Modes Dual display extended, video mirroring, and AirPlay Mirroring
External Resolution   Up to 2560 by 1600 (Thunderbolt) or 1920 by 1200 (HDMI)

Concluding: You need a Thunderbolt display adapter for your new display


Mac App Store apps without internet connection

YMMV. Every once in a while when the transferred app is opened for the first time, it will need to validate the Apple ID which the app was downloaded with, so most of the time it will work, but sometimes it won't.


What do I really lose if I backup my iPhone to iTunes without transferring purchases?

I understand the apprehension!

In reality, though, you do not stand to lose anything. The only reason to transfer those purchases to your computer would be to save bandwidth and time by not re-downloading everything. You will still lose associated app data (e.g. login information, cache, etc.), but that would happen even if you did back up those apps to your computer.

In short, you will be fine without transferring purchases.

Hope this helps!


Yes. Use the Migration Assistant and choose your Time Machine backup.


Using USB-Keyboard (connected my mbp) to control IPad via Bluetooth Connection

It is not currently possible to control a non-jailbroken iPad in the way you've described.

Out of curiosity, is there a reason it has to be an external USB keyboard and not the keyboard built into the MacBook Pro itself?

Perhaps if you mention why you'd like this functionality (e.g. game control? typing into a notepad app?), someone could propose an alternative.  The Ask Different users can be quite creative when questions are worded broadly enough.  :]


I want to test an iphone app on my windows laptop

Apple only allows building and testing apps on a Mac. There no simulator available for Windows.

Installing a virtual machine on your PC with OSX running on it is against Apple's EULA.


Why does the MacBook Air have five pins on the charger?

From MagSafe Wikipedia page

Pin 1 - Ground
Pin 2 - V+ @ 16.5 V DC
Pin 3 - Charge control pin
Pin 4 - V+ @ 16.5 V DC
Pin 5 - Ground

The inner large pins are V+ (16.5 VDC). Measuring with no load will give  6.86 V DC; the full 16.5 V is provided to the proper load.
The outer large pins are ground.
The tiny center pin is a charge control pin that assists with changing the LED color, as well as reporting the connected adapter type and serial number to the connected Mac.


Is there any way to expedite a MBP 2011 discrete GPU failure

My reputation is too low to comment so I am writing it here.

bob gave you wrong information.

If you go to Apple's official page https://www.apple.com/sg/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
it says that

  The program covers affected MacBook Pro models until December 31, 2016 or four years from its original date of sale, whichever provides longer coverage for you.

The longer would be until 2016 December for you.


Is Apple Wifi called AirMac or AirPort in other countries?

Apple's Internationalization Resources

Apple provide a wonderful set of glossaries and tools to help with internationalization. These include translation strings for popular languages.

From Apple's internationlization page, look for AppleGlot and Localization Glossaries. After logging in using your Apple ID, filter the downloadable files by name; try both Gloss and Glot. The following result will appear for Gloss:

  Glossaries - OS X

  The newest translations of strings from OS X 10.9.2 are available here. These files can be used by AppleGlot as translators to help streamline the localization process. These files can all be viewed with TextEdit in Mac OS X.

The glossary files are designed for use with AppleGlot but are viewable using a text editor. The lg files are XML formatted.

Within these glossary files you will find pairs of phrases in English and the counter part language. Inside NetworkProf.lg the following two sets appear:

  <TranslationSet>
    <base loc="en">wireless, 802.11, wifi, wi-fi, AirPort</base>
    <tran loc="ja">wireless ワイヤレス ワイアレス 無線, 802.11, wifi ワイファイ, wi-fi ワイ・ファイ, AirPort エアポート エアーポート AirMac エアマック エアーマック</tran>
  </TranslationSet>

…and…

<TextItem>
  <Description> airport status summary strings </Description>
  <Position>AIRPORT_NOT_CONNECTED_TO_NETWORK</Position>
  <TranslationSet>
    <base loc="en">%@ is turned on but is not connected to a network.</base>
    <tran loc="ja">%@ は入になっていますが、ネットワークには接続されていません。</tran>
  </TranslationSet>
</TextItem>

I expect these will be a treasure trove of help for your translation.


How to add multiple phone numbers to iMessage?

Yes, there is a way to add more than one number to iMessage. Just establish cellular service and SMS capability from any carrier you choose for each phone number you wish to have for iMessage. On each iPhone that has that service, sign in to iMessage.

I've had three numbers with one Apple ID in the past, so it wasn't a problem other than the obvious one of having three phones.


Automator action not supplied with the required data

It is still not totally clear what it is you're trying to accomplish, however, here is an example workflow that you might find useful.

First Automator Workflow

Broken into two working segments:

First Segment:

Ask for Finder Items
Rename Finder Items: Add Text
Copy Finder Items
Run Shell Script

Settings: Shell: bin/bash and Pass input: as arguments

Replace the default code with the code below.
This is what's used to remove up to and including the $ in the basename of the filename.

Code for Run Shell Script action:

cd "$(dirname "$1")"
for f in "$@"
do
    mv "$(basename "$f")" "$(printf "$(basename "$f")" | sed -E 's/^.*\$//')"
done
echo "$(ls -1)"

Note: The echo "$(ls -1)" command is not really necessary in this use case and was used in this example just to show the filenames had been changed and to show that in the Results pane.

Update: New code for Run Shell Script action:Use this code instead of the original code, above. I've modified it to be a bit more efficient having to call basename once, instead of twice. (I have not updated the code in the Run Shell Script action in the original image below.)

cd "$(dirname "$1")"
for f in "$@"; do
    n="$(basename "$f")"
    mv "$n" "$(printf "$n" | sed -E 's/^.*\$//')"
done
echo "$(ls -1)"

Note: See also the second Automator workflow, shown after the original image below, which negates the need for the Second Segment:, as its Run Shell Script action is coded to handle the renaming that takes place in the second segment, adding prefix- and swapping -proc for -suffix.

Second Segment:

Ask for Finder Items

Options: [√] Ignore this action's input

By checking this option you'll see, in the image below, there is a wanted disconnect between the previous action and this one.

Rename Finder Items: Add Text
Rename Finder Items: Add Text

See the image below for other applicable settings of Automator actions, as shown in the OP.

As you can see in the image below, all actions completed successfully and did as programed, with the Results pane of each action showing the results of it's action.

Second Automator Workflow

To be used instead of the First Automator Workflow.

Ask for Finder Items
Rename Finder Items: Add Text
Copy Finder Items
Run Shell Script

Settings: Shell: bin/bash and Pass input: as arguments

Replace the default code with the code below the image.

The results of the first three actions in this second Automator workflow are the exact same as shown in the first workflow above, therefore I've left the Results pane hidden for these actions. However, the Results pane for the Run Shell Script action shows the wanted results.

Code for Run Shell Script action in the Second Automator Workflow:

p='prefix-'
s='-suffix'
t='-proc'

cd "$(dirname "$1")"
for f in "$@"; do
    n="$(basename "$f")"
    if [[ $n =~ ^.*\$.*${t}\.${n##*.} ]]; then
        mv "$n" "${p}$(printf "${n%.*}" | sed -E -e "s/$t/$s/" -e 's/^.*\$//').${n##*.}"
    fi
done
echo "$(ls -1)"

Update Note: I've modified the code by placing the variable assignments outside of the for loop, as that is the only code you should need/want to modify as necessary (and they don't need to be within the for loop). I have not updated the image of the Automator workflow to reflect this update.

You could, if needed/wanted, add a different second segment to this second workflow, but the code in this  Run Shell Script action eliminates the need for the two Rename Finder Items: Add Text actions that were in the second segment of the first (original), workflow.

Note: I will update this with an explanation of what the code is doing in Run Shell Script action, as soon as I can.


Bootcamp and Filevault 2 boot to OS X before a restart allows Windows to load

I think it's a timing issue, you need to ensure that you press the option key early enough in the boot process to stop the normal boot and subsequent Fielvault login.  The best way to do this is to ensure you have not muted the machine to you get the "bong" noise when you start/restart your machine.  You need to hit alt/option immediately when you hear this, and keep it pressed for 5 seconds or so.


How to use the antishake option for iMovie

Not sure if anyone is still looking for the answer to this but as far as yosemite is concerned these answers are wrong.  You simply drag the clip or movie into the timeline as normal and click either the entire clip or section that you want and then you click on enhance.  Once you do that you now make sure to click on the video camera icon and the option for Stabilize Shaky Video will show and you can select it


Depending on what carrier you have you can try the following:

If you have visual voice mail you should be warned when you are at or near the limit in Phone > Voicemail
Try calling your own number. Most carriers use that to access your voicemail. If it asks for a password, it will most likely default to the last 4 digits of your phone number. Once connected it will most likely tell you if your voice mail is full. You can also delete messages from there.
If the above option does not work, call your carrier and ask how to access your voicemail.
If all else fails you call from a different phone (house phone or friend) and test it out. You could also use a spoofing service and call your own number.


Mute all notifications for Microsoft Teams?

You can manually turn off notifications for this app in the settings :

Settings > Notifications > Microsoft Teams > Allow Notifications

There's no built-in way to mute for X hours, but you may be able to do it with Shortcuts.


Applescript - Automator - tomorrow keyboard shortcut

You are trying to add the day in the wrong spot. Try this:

set thedate to ((current date) + (days * 1)) as string
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke thedate
end tell

The "current date" returns the time in seconds, so you have to add one day worth of seconds (86,400 seconds in a day, but I'm sure you knew that) to get tomorrow. Change the multiplier to get more days in the future or past by using a negative value for the multiplier.

Note that not all days have 86400 seconds (DST change is +/- 3600, Leap seconds, etc…) so on some days it may be an hour off.


How do I increase size of Virtual Memory in Mac OS Catalina?

The short answer, is you do nothing. The system decides what memory gets swapped to disk and allocates space as needed. The system allocates virtual memory addresses up to ~18 exabytes so that it can then swap as needed.

Note: Unlike most UNIX-based operating systems, OS X does not use a preallocated disk partition for the backing store. Instead, it uses all of the available space on the machine’s boot partition.

You may just have to choose programs that use macOS better if your system is in memory pressure and you can’t wait for things to work. Virtual memory and swap guarantee that programs eventually run when you over load the actual resources available. There is no need to change any tuning or limits on iOS or macOS.
Even better, containers let you share space and not get jammed with pagefile.sys blocking space. I recommend exactly what you propose, APFS containers to share all possible space. Add an inexpensive external drive and let time machine back everything up so you are free to experiment without losing any games or data.


Does Touch ID work differently between Apple Pay and iPhone unlock?

No. You may experience slower response times due to presence of moisture or dust on or under Touch ID sensor or finger/thumb respectively.

Cleaning/Drying the Touch ID sensor/finger usually resolves the lag issue.

iPhone 6s and later (excluding iPhone SE and all Touch ID equipped models of iPad) have a second generation Touch ID sensor which is much faster at recognizing finger/thumb geometry.


How can I stop F8 key from bringing up Mission Control?

I ended up with this problem, too, after upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion. I really needed my F8 key working as a standard function key for my job. I also really didn't want to delete my entire symbolichotkeys plist, though, so I did some digging.

If anyone else is having this issue still, you can edit your com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist (located in Library/Preferences) with a basic text editor. Once you're in there just do a search for the number 75. Keys 75 and 76 (76 is the slow animation for when you hold down shift) are the ones for F8 activating mission control. You can just delete those two entries and your F8 key will become just another normal F-Key again. F9 will still work for mission control and you won't lose any other hotkey settings either.

As usual, always make a backup of these files when you're messing with them.

Good luck to anyone else with the issue, and thanks to those here who'd already provided some input and answers.


How can I export a video to WMV format in Lion?

According to this chart from Telestream site you can use Compressor 4, QT7Pro and MPEG Streamclip (never used Episode 6 so don't know what it is). You can probably install QT7 from here.


How to boot into Windows on SSD from macOS

Generally, it is not recommended to boot a Windows installation from a different computer. However, do so has been known to work.

  You should make sure Secure Boot is set to detect and boot from external drives.

You should first determine if the external drive is using a GUID partition table (GPT) or a MBR partition table. This can be done by looking at the output from the command diskutil list. If you see GUID_partition_scheme for the drive, then the drive is using a GPT. If you see FDisk_partition_scheme, the the drive is using a MBR partition table.

If the drive is using a GPT, then the Mac Startup Manager should detected the boot files on the external drive. Detection of the boot files does not guarantee the Mac will be able to boot Windows. For example, there may be drivers that need to be added to the drivers store. This can be done using the Windows 10 installation media.

Your model Mac can not boot from Windows installed on disk that is using a MBR partition table. If the drive is using MBR partitioning, then there is not enough information posted in your question to tell if the partitioning can be converted to use a GPT. If not, then you might be able to use a third party partitioning tool to make room for adding a GPT. After converting to use a GPT, the UEFI boot file files will need to be added to the drive. Also, you probably should add the drivers from the Window Support Software. This can be done using the Windows 10 installation media.

Update 1: Create an Empty EFI Partition

  The EFI partition is where the Windows boot files are stored.

You can going to need a EFI partition. You can use disk2s1 for this. Below are the steps to backup this volume.

cd ~/Desktop
diskutil unmountDisk disk2
sudo dd if=/dev/disk2s1 of=backup2s1.bin

Next, reformat the partition.

sudo diskutil FAT32 EFI disk2s1

Finally, use gdisk to change the partition type of disk2s1 from 0700 to EF00

Update 2: Create a USB bootable Windows 10 flash drive installer.

  You will need to boot from the flash drive in order to run the commands to create the boot files and transfer the drivers to the driver store.

Use the Disk Utility to erase a USB flash drive. Use the name WINSTALL, format ExFAT and scheme Master Boot Record.
Download the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft. This is free and you do not need a product key.
Use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows Support Software.
Mount the Windows 10 ISO and copy all the files to the flash drive.
Copy all the Windows Support Software files to the flash drive. The $WinPEDriver$, BootCamp and (Optional) AutoUnattend.xml files should appear in the root folder of the flash drive.

Update 3: Install the Boot Files and the Drivers

Boot From the USB flash drive. When the first window appears, enter a shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt window.
Use the diskpart command to determine the drive letters for the Windows WINSTALL volumes. (i.e. enter list volume) Here, I will assume the letters are C and D, respectively. Also, assign the EFI volume the drive letter S. See diskpart for more information.
Enter the following command to create the boot files. If needed, substitute your Windows drive letter for the letter C. See bcdboot for more information.

bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI

Add the drivers to the drivers store. Often this step can be omitted. If needed, substitute your Windows drive letter for the letter C and your WINSTALL drive letter for the letter D. See dism for more information.

dism /Image:C:\ /Add-Driver /Driver:D:\$WinPEDriver$ /Recurse  /ForceUnsigned

  You can ignore any error messages produced.

If you succeed in booting Windows, install the Windows Support Software.


Is there a way to have Siri make a web call?

This can now be done with the Shortcuts app. All you need to do is create a shortcut that runs the “Open URLs” action. Inside this action, you need to put the URL you want to open when run. When you have finished, name the shortcut the command that you want to tell Siri to run it.


How do I actually disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth in iOS 11 Control Center?

As @mikeScott already answered in the comment, you can’t do it with control center.

You have to

go to settings > Wi-Fi or
use Siri (turn off Wi-Fi)


Added memory does nothing to performance

The (good) old days where you had to manage your RAM usage are history.

Apple OS X does that for you.

Keeping free RAM is thing of the past. It did not make sense anyway to keep unused RAM.

The OS X manages the RAM for maximum efficiency, and speed.

In doing so it will load the RAM up to what is needed.

If your system appears to be slow, it is usually not the RAM, but some process eating up the CPU.

You can look up in the Activity monitor to see what is it.


Weird folder setup in Big Sur compared to Mojave. Lots of questions

Everything is correct.  This is all due to the split of the system volume (Macintosh HD or whatever you called it) into a read-only volume and a read-write volume.
Start by looking at the disk with Disk Utility.  Press Command-2 (or tick Menu -> View -> Show All Devices).  You should see something like this (the names will be different):

Within the APFS container you can see two volumes.  In myself case BethSSD and BethSSD - Data.  In what follows replace these with your own system volume name.
BethSSD is the read-only (highly protected) volume created by the macOS install and has the same content same on every Mac with the same version of macOS.
BethSSD - Data is a read-write volume and contains everything not part of the read-only volume. As well as your files, it includes all the application you have installed.
So we have two volumes and both will have applications - so Finder does some trickery to show them as one.
Taking your three locations (but in a different order) and a fourth:
2 The applications on the read-only volume are the Apple macOS applications and can be seen in /System/Applications.
4 (what you have not seen): In Terminal do ls /System/Volumes/Data/Applications. Here you will see all the applications you have installed - but none of the inbuilt macOS apps.
1 and 3. macOS combines the two locations above into one using "firmlinks". These are what you are seeing as/System/Volumes/<name>/Applications as well as /Applications.
I hope that helps.  To go much further requires much mind bending!


Severe GPU throttling freezes 2019 MBP16 after 30 minutes of Civilization VI

I wrote a answer to a similar question; it comes down to the design of the MacBook in relation to the thermal requirements of the CPU and GPU.
So, as to your suspects, I concur that poor thermal design being right there at the top.  As for poor application of thermal paste, it may be a factor, but even the most perfect application of the most efficient thermal paste will only account for a minuscule improvement in heat transfer.
I don't believe it's faulty drivers - could they be more efficient?  Sure, what couldn't?  I also don't believe that you have a faulty GPU, however, the way to confirm that is to benchmark the GPU.  Essentially stress test it to see if it fails.
Could it be a bug in Civ6?  That's likely as well.
As for the reliability of the machine to do the job, I believe you'll be fine for what you bought it for - programming and music.  These machines are very popular for both of those tasks and personal experience with using a Mac in audio recording/production found that even lower end Macs with ample memory and no GPU were up to the task.
I find that MacBook computers (and most laptops for that matter) aren't the appropriate platform for games.  There's a reason most of the gaming rigs you see are desktop builds with ridiculous cooling mechanisms at the forefront.  In fact, I've seen a 2012 iMac (which is essentially a MacBook Pro in a desktop config) outperform a 2015 MacBook pro with essentially the same specs.  The iMac was able to run it's CPU at a higher speed for longer because it remained cooler longer.
Bottom line:  You should be safe with your Mac for work purposes and if you want to game, I'd build a gaming rig.  Besides, it's just pragmatic to keep your recreation off of the device that pays the bills, but that's just my philosophy so YMMV.


I actually encountered this problem recently on Ubuntu. It happens when tmux can't determine the number of colors supported by the terminal and sets it 8. If I run tmux -2, 256 colors are set and the command suggestions work as expected.

I found a detailed explanation here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/118806/tmux-term-and-256-colours-support


One way is to set a Hot Corner to show the Desktop.

This is done via: System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver > Hot Corners...

Then select Desktop in the pop-up list for the corner you'd like to show the Desktop when you move the mouse to that corner.


Where is load presets option in Terminal preferences?

The person in that video is using iTerm2, a free third party terminal replacement. You can get it here:

http://iterm2.com/


You definitively have the find syntax wrong here :-)

To search for a file across the builtin disk use

find -x / -name filename.ext -print

If you want to search across all disks (including USB drives etc) use

find / -name filename.ext -print


How to remotely control iPhone 6 which dropped and right side screen is not working

Turn your phone sideways and use landscape mode. If you are using the software switch you won't be able to do this as it's on the right side of the screen.

If that is the case, connect the phone to iTunes, make a local backup, and take it in for servicing. Either a new screen or a new phone. When you get it back, reconnect to iTunes and restore from backup. Everything will be the same as before.


How to pin output volume control to screen?

The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar supports sliding the volume button directly to control the volume, thus in one swipe you can adjust the volume. The volume control is pinned to the right side.


Xcode Helper does not have the accessibility permissions needed to run tests

Where can I find "Xcode helper"?

The Xcode Helper app is located inside the Xcode bundle:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Xcode/Agents/Xcode Helper

To get rid of the error message:

Open System Preferences.
Select Security & Privacy>Privacy>Accessibility. Unlock the panel, if necessary.
Press the "+" button, navigate to:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Xcode/Agents

add the Xcode Helper app and press Open:

Enable it:


How can I get my mail rules from Mavericks to Sierra without doing them over one by one

There are a couple of things you can try, but these seem to be a bit hit and miss (i.e. they don't seem to work in all cases).

Before I go any further, Apple Mail rules are stored in a property list at: ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist

Notes:

The "~" in the above path denotes your user account name.
The "Library" folder is hidden by default. In order to see it, go to the Finder and while you press and hold the option key, click on the Go menu and select Library from the drop-down menu.
In your case it may not be in the 'V2' folder - it could be in a 'V3' etc, but in Mavericks the default was 'V2' and in macOS Sierra it should be 'V4'.

Method 1 - copy the SyncedRules.plist file

This is what I'm guessing you've already tried. Namely, find the correct copy of your rules .plist file and copy/restore this across to the correct location within your new macOS Sierra location. By correct location I mean that in macOS Sierra there will probably be a new 'V4' folder - so copy the file into that folder!

Method 2 - create a new user account

This method involves creating a new user account but not enabling iCloud in it so you can access all your old rules.

More specifically:

Go to Apple > System Preferences
Select Users & Groups
Create a new User Account (you may need to unlock the padlock in order to do this)
In Login Options ensure you have Automatic Login set to off, and that you have Show fast user switching menu enabled
Exit System Preferences
Log into your new user account but do not log in to iCloud (i.e. totally skip this step)
Copy across your V2 or V3 etc folder into the Mail folder located within the user's library folder (see notes at beginning of answer on how to make the library folder visible)
Now open Mail
This should start a process to copy across all your Mail data from the V2 or V3 or V4 etc folder you copied across

Once finished, you should be able to see your rules etc. If you can, you can try to copy across this new folder to your other user's account (however, be aware this may not be preferable as you will replace existing data that may be more recent - although you could try just copying across the SyncedRules.plist file. Remember to copy it across to the correct location (see Method 1 above). However, if you have iCloud enabled, you may want to also copy this across to the

If this doesn't work, but you can see the rules, then at least you can now see them if you need to take screenshots etc to recreate them.

Let me know how you go - especially if you feel you're close but just not quite there.


Stop synchronising the call history log between iPhones on shared Apple ID?

Try turning off iCloud drive on all iPhones. You can optionally keep it on in one of the iPhones, but make sure it's turned of on all others sharing the apple ID. This worked for me.


Remote desktop iPhone app vs BT Home Hub 2.0

I was about to buy that app, but I'm a long time user of LogMeIn Free were from here (Denmark) I help my mum and dad as well plenty of friends with their computer related problems back in my home country (Portugal)

LogMeIn Free was a fantastic as free solution, no hassle with proxies, routers or anything as it works with port 80 (http traffic).

So I bought the LogmeIn Ignition App and continue to use my access to all computers that i used before. It's a bit expensive ($29.99) but I bought it within a promotion discount and works marvelous and super fast!

I can now access any windows or mac computer from my iPhone or iPad with no worries.

It's just an idea.


How can I update billing information for the non-managing account in a family sharing group?

The billing information was not updating on my end because it was not entered correctly on the parent account. Errors in the expiration date of a card or the security code make it seem as though a new card is in use on the parent account, as the new card number will show up. Security information will need to be verified on the parent account before any family accounts can make purchases.


How to get rid of "what's playing"-notifications in iTunes 11.1?

You can turn them off in the Notifications preference pane by changing the alert style for iTunes to "None":


In iTerm2 Command Click on URLS does not work when inside a tmux session

To use the normal mouse behavior in tmux you have to keep alt pressed. So click on the link while pressing cmd+alt. The same applies when selecting text.


What options exist to reliably have three partitions and Boot Camp on Apple Hardware?

Always have a good backup before you attempt any partition and/or filesystem changes!
That said, here are some answers to your list of questions.
1. ability to shrink/expand/add/delete partitions safely after both OSes installed, while safely preserving the data

By default, Disk Utility allows resizing only through changing the end of a partition (not the beginning). If you need to resize any partition both ways (like "shrink partition for one OS to expand partition for another"), then there may be a need to physically move data to accommodate that. This can be done only with third party tools like iPartition, which supports "non-destructive resize of HFS+ (including case-sensitive and journaled), FAT and NTFS partitions" (taken from the Coriolis Systems website). Even with a third party tool, you may not be able to resize partitions around in every combination that you can think of (you also need adequate free space to consolidate all files).

2. ability to upgrade to newer versions of OS X without risk of losing Windows or Data partition

You can do this without issues with the setup you have linked to.

3. ability to upgrade / reinstall Windows without risk of losing OS X (including OS itself, applications, user data&settings) -- [1] has it

This is also possible with the setup you have linked to.

4. ideally, data shared for read & write between Windows and OS X

The free solution to do this is to have the data partition formatted as FAT32. But this would limit individual file sizes to 4GB. Also, FAT32 does not have journaling, unlike NTFS and HFS+ that do. So recovery from data corruption is possible through some rudimentary means, but not as reliable as other filesystems.
By default, OS X can read NTFS (Windows) volumes, but not write to it. On the other hand, by default, Bootcamp allows you to read the OS X volume, but not write to it.
There are third party applications to allow read/write access to HFS+ volumes from Windows and to allow read/write access to NTFS volumes from OS X. The most popular ones being the solutions from Paragon Software.

5. ideally, no third-party [paid] tools / drivers required for the whole scheme to work

See the above points. It's not possible to eliminate FAT32 from the scheme without third party tools/drivers (free or paid).

6. ability to easily transfer the whole setup to a new HDD (complicated for [1])

Transferring to a larger HDD is going to involve some manual work. There is no easy way to clone it out since your partition size requirements in the larger HDD would be different. While partitioning would require some work, cloning all these partitions to another drive of the same size is possible using disk based cloning utilities like Clonezilla (this is feasible with larger disks with the partitions already created, but would require some more work for the OSes, especially Windows, to recognize the new size).

7. ideally, ability to have more than 2 partitions under Windows (i.e. 2+ data partitions)

You can have multiple partitions, but the overall partition management is better managed through OS X.

8. risk of any OS to corrupt any partition should be not larger than in a single OS setup with its native partition

This is more of a filesystem and cross platform filesystem driver question. Although third party tools/drivers for NTFS from OS X and HFS+ from Windows have existed for years, they cannot be guaranteed to be bug free. Without native read/write implementations from either OS for the other's filesystem, a regular backup (or even two) is a good practice to follow!


I want to remove all songs from iPhone 5, have unchecked and synced but iTunes still says I have 5GB of audio!

Assuming you're running the latest iOS (iOS6)

From the Home Screen, go to Settings > General > Usage

Wait while it loads your apps, then select music.

Then tap 'Edit' and delete your music.


Make backup of Time Machine volume on Time Capsule

Can I copy those .sparsebundle files to an external hard disk and expect them to work as Time Machine backup resources again?

Almost certainly yes.

Modes and ownership

Ideally, use chmod(1) and chown(8) to have the mode and ownership, of the copy of the disk image, consistent with how Mountain Lion normally creates a local disk image for Time Machine.

Example

GPES3E-gjp4-1:~ gjp22$ sudo ls -al /Volumes/tall/com.apple.backupd/GPES3E-gjp4-1.sparsebundle/
Password:
total 16672
drwx------@ 3 root   staff     10  7 Jun 19:07 .
drwxr-xr-x  8 gjp22  staff     10  6 Jun 18:57 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff    500  7 Jun 18:03 Info.bckup
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff    500  7 Jun 18:03 Info.plist
drwx------  2 root   staff  78855  7 Jun 19:07 bands
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff    444  7 Jun 18:02 com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.bckup
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff    444  7 Jun 18:02 com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff   1473  6 Jun 21:28 com.apple.TimeMachine.Results.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff  10698  6 Jun 22:24 com.apple.TimeMachine.SnapshotHistory.plist
-rwx------  1 root   staff      0 19 Mar 19:36 token

– and for each band, you should have:

-rw-------  1 root  staff

Attaching the copy of the disk image

With Terminal, for the example above:

sudo hdiutil attach -readonly /Volumes/tall/com.apple.backupd/GPES3E-gjp4-1.sparsebundle/

If you use Terminal from within Recovery OS: you'll probably not need the sudo prefix to the command.

Additional detail

  … whether I can still restore …

You require:

a copy of a Time Machine destination, a copy that will be good for restoration
not an additional Time Machine destination.

Assumption

You wish the copy to be usable, for restoration only, in the event of loss or failure of the Time Capsule.

If the disk is attached from a local image where modes and ownership vary from the norm for a local image:

OS X or Recovery OS might use that disk without difficulty; I can't be certain.

Thoughts

If you're preparing for the possibility of loss or failure of a Time Capsule – and restoration from a copy of what was there – then think a step further, to backing up without the original Time Capsule. (If you wish the copy to be writeable by Time Machine, that could be a separate question.)

All things considered

It's probably quicker and simpler to use the external hard disk, or a part, as a Time Machine destination.


Convert a PC path to Mac path with AppleScript

From what I can see, there's nowhere that P: gets replaced by your Mac path smb://perkinswill.net/projects. Adding another replace for that seems to get the script working for me, see below. If you have other servers with other paths, you can add those in in a similar fashion.

Note that by changing the actual opening command from tell application "Finder" to do shell script it also handles spaces in paths, at least in my environment (which is slightly different from yours).

on searchReplace(theText, SearchString, ReplaceString)
    set OldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to SearchString
    set newText to text items of theText
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ReplaceString
    set newText to newText as text
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to OldDelims
    return newText
end searchReplace

on run {input, parameters}
    set myClip to the input
    set mytext to searchReplace(myClip, "<", "")
    set mytext to searchReplace(mytext, ">.", "")
    set mytext to searchReplace(mytext, ">", "")
    set findIt to "\\"
    set replaceIt to "/"
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mytext, findIt, replaceIt)

    -- Add these three lines for any path you wish to be able to open
    set winPath to "P:"
    set macPath to "smb://perkinswill.net/projects"
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, winPath, macPath)

    do shell script "open " & quoted form of mylocation

    return mylocation
end run


A… is a model number, referring to the model of device.
M… is a part number, referring to a specific configuration of a model.

For example, for devices with various configurations such as whether a device is unlocked and international, the model number will be identical to a US device but the part number will differ.


How to upgrade an iPad without losing data?

First, make sure that iTunes is signed into the iPad owner's Apple account. It is best if this is done in a separate login account on the computer so you do not loose any of your saved apps and backed up data.

Then from there once you plug it in to a full backup to the computer, no upgrading yet! Always do a full backup before an upgrade. Once backed up go and do the upgrade. This will wipe all data on the iPad! Once the update is installed, it will then restore all the prior apps, data, music, movies, pictures and books the tablet.

After that, everything should be golden.

(This is based on my experience upgrading an iPhone 4 from iOS 4 to 5.)


Is a 2014 Mac mini fully compatible with Sierra?

I would suggest re-installing the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac, without upgrading to a later version. This can be accomplished by pressing and holding Command-R immediately after pressing the power button to turn on your Mac mini.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904


App Store update and softwareupdate in terminal hang indefinitely

Thanks for the help on this! I finally figured it out, well sort of. I found in the logs a recurring softwareupdate error where a mkdir command was failing. Ended up searching around on that and fixed it with:

sudo rm -rf /var/folders/zz/zy*

Appreciate the tip on the Console app. I didn't know about that and it led me to the answer!


No - encryption/decryption is a completely separate process that will not affect what the OS sees as data (files/folders) versus available space.

You will need to run a file recovery program, such as DiskDrill or Data Rescue; the chance of success at retrieving your files will vary.

Finally, you should seriously consider a proper backup solution, anything from Apple's built-in Time Machine to 3rd party solutions like CrashPlan or BackBlaze.


photos library shows blanks after updating the library

I hate to answer the obvious, but now that you are updated on the OS, I would try once to repair again and open a case with Apple. Worst thing is you spend a little time and someone here has a better answer in the mean time.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204967

In the past there was a repair and a rebuild, but it seems Apple has streamlined their advice before you seek their help. I would hate for you to take more drastic action if there is a bug they have to fix on the rendering and processing side. What if your library is (and was) intact and the code needs fixing?


How can I get full information from Console in macOS Sierra?

sudo log config --mode "private_data:on"

Show private messages in Console.app for Sierra


Can AirPods' double-tap to Play/Pause be made to work in other macOS applications than iTunes?

I don't know much about Macs but this is how I got it to work with VLC (generic options described below also):

Set the AirPods bluetooth options to open Siri on double tap
Have something running in the background checking if Siri is open
If it is open, execute Play/Pause and close it, then go back to checking if Siri is open

These are the two scripts required to get the above working:

MacBook-Pro:~ user$ cat airpods_controller
#!/bin/sh
while :; do
    pid=$(ps x |grep Siri.app|grep -v grep|awk '{print $1}')
    if [ -n "$pid" ]; then
        kill -9 $pid
        osascript -e 'tell application "VLC" to play'
    fi
    sleep .5
done

MacBook-Pro:~ user$ cat airpods_controller_launcher
#!/bin/sh
ps x |grep airpods_controller|wc -l|grep 2
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    nohup ./airpods_controller &
fi

To have it start automatically, just add airpods_controller_launcher to your startup items under Mac Settings and it's hands off from there. Check the checkbox to make it hide on startup and in Terminal options, set the terminal to close on success if you don't want the window to hang around.

To get it working by simulating media keys instead of osascript (to be more generic), the following looks like it would work:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/13396296/494354

To get it working with Chrome and some other apps, this may help: https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice


Faster way to close OS X Windows with only a mouse

If you are using Magic Mouse - there's BetterTouchTool where you can set custom gestures.
For example you can assign ⌘+w to three fingers click globally. Here's how this looks like:

You can also assign actions to "Normal Mice" if it has additional keys.


What happens if I format my iPod Touch 2G?

iOS doesn't expose a "real" filesystem over USB. On my work Windows PC (without iTunes installed), one can see only the photos, and Windows recognizes it as a camera. (Also, it won't let you format it.)

So, since it's a fake filesystem, it probably won't accept the formatting commands.

If you try it, please tell us what happened!


I see a process autofsd, which is performing the auto mount, but I run Mac OS X 10.12.6 so maybe that is different.

When I run automount it updates the mounts (from the auto_master file)


What constitutes "significant changes" when releasing a new TestFlight build that has passed beta review?

Significant changes would be adding a new code SDK, new advertising, new IAP purchases - basically anything that isn't just a little change to some refactoring or some new cosmetic changes.

If you are changing tens of lines of code and tens of classes - that seems minor unless your code base is extremely small.


Do you have another Mac you can connect the keyboard to? If you can isolate whether or not this issue occurs only with your iMac or only with your iMacs keyboard, you can figure out where things are going wrong. Let us know if you're able to test the keyboard on another Mac or test the Mac with a different keyboard.

If you don't have access to either of those things, I'd recommend taking a trip to your local Apple Store and having them test it out. They'll have extra Macs and keyboard and a Bluetooth diagnostic to run as well.