MBP: would 4k external display work as retina when resolution scaled to 1080p?

On macOS you have both choices when connecting such a 4k monitor:

You can choose to have it run at a real 1080p resolution, where the signal sent to the monitor is really 1080p. In essence the image displayed on the 4k monitor would then be visually the same as had you bought a 1080p monitor of the same physical size.

You can also choose (which is most probably what you want) to have it run scaled to "Looks like 1080p". This means that the signal sent to the monitor is really a 4k signal, but user interface elements are scaled to be the same physical size as if you had been running 1080p. This ensures that the system is usable without requiring extraordinarily good eye sight. Note that this means that text is really drawn at the large resolution, which ensures crisp and sharp text, which is easier to read. Images and video are also displayed at a larger resolution (if available), which means you get better picture quality on the 4k monitor compared to a 1080p monitor.

In addition to the two scenarios outlined in your question and above, you also have the third option of running the monitor in a 4k non-scaled resolution. This means that you'll have a very large amount of screen real estate (i.e. room for lots of windows, content, etc.) - but everything will be 4 times smaller physical size - so this is usually only a good choice if you buy a really large monitor (like for example when using a 50 inch TV as a monitor).


Pandora app won't play on Apple TV (4th Generation)

For some reason Pandora doesn't work with Reduce Loud Sounds enabled.

Disable it by going to the Settings app.

Settings > Audio and Video > Reduce loud sounds > off

EDIT: I just discovered you can ask Siri to "Turn Reduce loud sounds off" as well and it is much faster than navigating the settings of course.


How do you edit Internet Accounts in shell?

I found what I needed in
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.mcc.accounts

It's an XML file and it has 4 occurences of each wrong email. Updated and it works fine in Mail.app


Can I see detailed browser history on the iPhone?

Mobile safari does not have that feature and the application sandbox means you likely won't get at that data from another app running on the device without jailbreaking.

Many tools can export the browsing history to your computer - the trial version of PhoneView might be good to start and see if that meets your needs.

History files in particular are stored as .webloc files.


Does 'erase all content and settings' actually erase all data?

As long as you follow the steps provided by Apple to erase your iOS device, it will erase all data on the device.  A simple 'reset' of the device is not the same as 'erase all contents and settings'.

Follow these steps:

If you paired an Apple Watch with your iPhone, unpair your Apple Watch.
Back up your device.
Sign out of iCloud and the iTunes & App Store.

If you're using iOS 10.3 or later, tap Settings > [your name]. Scroll down and tap Sign Out. Enter your Apple ID password and tap Turn Off.
If you're using iOS 10.2 or earlier, tap Settings > iCloud > Sign Out. Tap Sign Out again, then tap Delete from My [device] and enter your Apple ID password. Then go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Apple ID > Sign Out.

Go back to Settings and tap General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. If you turned on Find My iPhone, you might need to enter your Apple ID and password.
If asked for your device passcode or Restrictions passcode, enter it. Then tap Erase [device].
If you're switching to a non-Apple phone, deregister iMessage.
Contact your carrier for help transferring service to a new owner. If you aren't using a SIM card with your device, you can contact them to get help transferring service to the new owner.


Does the VT-d feature on the i7 have measurable VM gains over the i5 on 2013 RMBP?

So there are a bunch of comments about the merit of the question which it seems you e taken the time to look at and assess. I'll jump right in to starting the discussion on upgrading.

Firstly, to be clear you're looking at a new early 2015 13" MBP (I assume you're not interested in a 15", which can support quad core processors and add a whole new layer to the discussion).

Apple's tech specs can be hard to track down, but it looks to me like you got the same processors I did. The i7 supports a turbo up to 3.1 GHz and 4 MB of cache, with the i5s boasting 2.1 and 2.7 GHz processors and 3 MB of cache. You're right in that the i7 supports VT-d, but you'll need some fairly heavy duty software to take advantage of it. The answer about VT-d is that it really depends what sort of virtualization software you're using, my guess being that unless you want to use expensive commercial software, Oracle's VirtualBox will be the first to support that (though I have no reason to expect this, or know when).

This brings us to the next level: is the i7 worth it over the i5 (will there be notable performance gains)? For you (and others with this question), probably. The increased cache, better cache coherency, and outright speed increase will be what you notice. Being that all the processors for the 13" are dual core, I was unable to find evidence that there is any significant difference between hyper threading moving up and down Intel's CPU line (unlikely, they all use the same basic core).


I've created a service called Tasket which Syncs iOS Reminders with Gmail Tasks.  I do this by emulating a Microsoft Exchange server - iOS supports syncing Reminders with Exchange.

Tasket is currently in beta.  I'm just waiting on Google to increase their API quota so I can add more users.  Hopefully people find it helpful.  I like the native Reminders app.


From your output, it looks like the developer tools version of git is missing. You could uninstall Xcode (delete it) and try again a manual install of just the tools homebrew needs.

I prefer to install the command line tools as follows:

Have an admin user/password handy - you don't need to be logged in as an admin - just know the password
/usr/bin/xcode-select --install

That should either error if you have Xcode already installed or command line tools. If you don't have the necessary tools - it will download and ask for installation.

Please note - the Mac App store is having issues right now - you might be doing everything right and need to wait for the server issues to get sorted:

http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

To get past the check you are running into, the command below needs to return a good match that git is Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64:

file $(/usr/bin/xcode-select -print-path)/usr/bin/git


Is Mac OS X's two finger scrolling damaging to your hand?

Out of all the Mac users I've ever heard of/seen, none of them have ever said anything like this. I swift touch of a trackpad of mouse certainly doesn't seem to be any sort of damaging movements. If you end up having problems with it more you could ask a more 'medical' associated person. I've personally never heard anything like it, but muscle pains can be worsened from certain movements causing stress. Good luck!


Can iPhone wake me up if I completely turn it off?

Playing the Clock alarm sound requires the main application ARM processor/CPU to be running the OS and Clock app.  When you "slide to power off", power to the main CPU, radios and audio amplifier is removed.  So, although the iOS device keeps time (as long as the battery isn't completely dead yet), it can't run the Clock app to play any sound.

When you just "lock" the device (quickly tap the top button and the display turns off), the CPU still occasionally gets power (something like a few times per second), and the audio circuits can be powered and active (to allow background music, etc.), so alarms can go off in that state.


Mac Mini Server Push Notification to MacBook

It seems to be indeed push notifications are built-in into Mavericks Server.

Here is a tutorial describing the process how to activate push notifications in Mavericks Server.


iTunes 12 Turn off Repeat Song and Repeat Playlist Separately

In earlier versions of iTunes, "repeat" and "shuffle" were associated with playlists.  With iTunes 12 they are global flags and seem to be toggled by menu clicks; there's no direct property to manipulate.

You can control repeat from Applescript thus:

tell application "System Events"
  tell application process "iTunes"
    tell menu 1 of menu item "Repeat" of menu "Controls" of menu bar 1
      click
      click menu item "All"
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

Options are "All", "One" or "Off"

You can do similar for "Shuffle" with allowed options of "On" or "Off"

tell application "System Events"
  tell application process "iTunes"
    tell menu 1 of menu item "Shuffle" of menu "Controls" of menu bar 1
      click
      click menu item "On"
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

This makes it scriptable to control the status of shuffle and repeat, and you could bind these scripts to keyboard shortcuts.


What are the six openings on the bottom of the MacBook Pro for?

They're vents for air:

…but they're not just for air. They are also used as part of the structural system of the machine.

  The vents are also part of the structural system creating strong beams that actually increase the rigidity of the overall product.

This Apple video explains it very well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neff9scaCCI&t=3m20s


How do I get Xcode 4 to NOT clear the log between runs?

I feel the same way you do about this. That's why I've filed a radar at bugreport.apple.com. Please reference "Problem id: 9153445" when you filed your radar as the this will increases the incident count and making it likelier Apple Xcode team will prioritize a fix.

Since bugreport.apple.com doesn't allow you to search and view another's radar, I've copied the radar I filed at Apple at http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=1144401.

Thanks for reminding me that this regression needs people to start filing radars.


How can I set Numbers to automatically copy a row of data from one sheet to another sheet?

I don't know if it's possible to do this with functions, but it might be. There is a function called VLOOKUP that seems like it would do what you want, but I couldn't get it to quite work in my experimenting with it—a function that exists within one cell has a hard time returning multiple values for multiple cells.

What I think does work, though perhaps not as convenient as you might want, is the filter view. On the right side of the window, if you select the view that says "Sort & Filter" and the Filter tab, you can "Add a Filter" that will match a value in a specified column. Toggling that filter using the checkbox in the corner of that Filter's box will hide all of the rows that don't match that criteria, then it's a simple matter of highlighting all of the cells, copying and pasting to another sheet.

Unfortunately, this won't continue to add rows as you add rows in the first sheet, so if that functionality is something you need, this won't answer your question. If you only need a one-time copy, though, I think that this is the easiest option (and the only one that I know of, but I'm not extremely familiar with Numbers).


Data voice call between two apple phones

Am I missing something obvious here or can you just use FaceTime Audio? Obviously it won't work if you use the keypad, but you can call from anywhere you have their contact card (Contacts, Phone, Messages, FaceTime, even Mail...)

You did say both parties have iDevices, right?


Location service not working as expected in iOS 8.3

The way to fix it is to power off the device and then open Apple Maps when it reboots.

That way you can determine if the maps app cannot work or if it's related to a temporary issue to a problem with the third party apps.


How can I prevent users on Mac from connecting to any WiFi networks and only connect to white-listed networks?

I prefer to do this with MDM supervision as that’s the easiest way.

https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment-education/choose-a-mobile-device-management-solution-asm1c1be3511/web
https://www.fleetsmith.com/
https://app.jamfnow.com/devices

I would start with the free JAMF Now trial since I’ve used it but I hear great things about FleetSmith.
Here is the specific portion of MDM that lets you disable WiFi and push only the approved networks to each managed device.

https://support.apple.com/guide/server/work-with-configuration-profiles-apddda213639/mac


You can install unsupported operating systems such as Linux or older Windows versions by not using the bootcamp assistant.

Open disk utility and create a partition, format it FAT.
Then reboot whole holding alt/option and boot from the install-disc (CD, DVD, USB drive, ...) and install as usual.

Now comes the tricky part. Since the OS is not officially supported by Apple your on your own regarding driver-install. You'll be able to just use the regular drivers from the vendors for things like audio and wifi, for apple specific drivers, you can use the drivers that are downloadable by boot camp assistant. They single drivers are usually easily accessible in the package, you just can't use the Install-Everything App that Apple bundles with them.

Alternatively, use virtualization is a good option.


Your assumption that it locks up because the iTunes library is located on the NAS is likely correct. Some NAS's offer a setting/app to run an iTunes-Server. If your NAS offers something like that you should use that instead of just putting the library on a shared drive. (E.g. http://qnap.com/en/index.php?lang=en&sn=2674)

If your NAS doesn't have iTunes Server functionality you could try going through the NAS settings and see if there are power-saving options like "spinning down the harddrive" that you can disable. By disabling those settings the NAS will remain active all the time and there will be less of a delay when iTunes tries get the next track etc.

If you need more help you should post the exact model of your NAS and people may be able to tell you something more specific.


Did you try to update your iTunes before putting the iPhone on DFU mode?
It should be the problem since I had this problem before and when I did update to iTunes it worked :)


Recommending specific brands and models can be tricky (and this list will probably be out of date in weeks), but at the moment some of the SSD models that get positive comments from Mac users include:

Samsung 840 Pro series
Samsung 840 Evo series
Crucial M500
Sandisk Ultra Plus

As long as the drive doesn't require any additional software to be installed, you can be almost certain that the drive will work fine with OS X. That said, once you've narrowed down one or two models I'd recommend doing a brief search online to see if there are any drawbacks or known problems, just to be on the safe side.

TRIM won't be supported with a third-party SSD, but you can use TRIM Enabler to work around that.

Personally, I have several Samsung 830 and 840 drives and a Crucial M500 and can recommend them all highly (top of the pile would be the 840 Pro).


Project screencast of a Mac on remote controlled second computer

If you are happy to have content on the Mac projecting the image, you can use remote access via VNC or ARD. This approach has Mac A acting as a gateway to view and control Mac B.
Virtual Network Computing / VNC
You can use VNC to remotely connect to and control another computer. VNC is free and built into OS X.
VNC has the benefit that you can use two different types of computers. VNC is not specific to OS X. You could have a Linux computer could control a Mac, or a Mac control a Windows computer.
Apple Remote Desktop / ARD
Apple sell a product that builds upon VNC called Apple Remote Desktop. ARD allows you to more fully manage and control a Mac computer across a wired or wireless network.


Which solutions are available for printing on the iPad to a HP LaserJet 1020 printer?

Apple has indicated printing will be available with the iOS 4.2 release, currently scheduled for November 2010.


The recommended way is to use the Thunderbolt (Mini DisplayPort) to VGA converter.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/B/mini-displayport-to-vga-adapter?mco=MTA4NDU0NjA

The Apple HDMI does not supply signal to VGA monitors.

The Cable you have is good, but only for Digital monitors and VGA is Analog type. OK if you are sufficiently confused now, just get the Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter and it will work.


Repair disk from single user mode (fsck fails)

You can try to force fsck_hfs to rebuild the catalog by running

fsck_hfs -Rc -d /dev/disk0s2

or (if you want to avoid having to answer the prompts)

fsck_hfs -y -Rc -d /dev/disk0s2

Of course this will only fix logical damages and keep failing if the disk itself is damaged.


From the screen shots you posted it appears that your Mac doesn't think it has any sound output devices.

This could indicate a hardware fault.  If after rebooting your Mac there are still no output devices listed in System Preferences > Sound try running a system report.

You can access this by choosing About this Mac from the Apple () Menu and then pressing the System Report... button.

On the left of the System Report window there should be a section for Audio.  If you select that you will get a list of Audio devices.  If that is empty you most probably have a hardware fault and need to take your Mac to an Apple Store for repair.


What's the canonical name for the "sunburst" waiting animation?

The canonical name is the "asynchronous progress indicator" but in most user documentation it is described as "a progress indicator (that looks like a spinning gear)". The Apple Publications Style Guide (non-Apple source!) is a nice reference for learning what Apple considers the correct terms for writing about these details correctly.

The four specific types of generic progress indicators that Apple provides to developers are:

asynchronous progress indicator (spinning gear)
determinate progress bar (moving bar)
indeterminate progress bar (spinning striped cylinder)
spinning wait cursor (colored pinwheel)

I'm writing a short postscript since many confuse the spinning gear with the colored pinwheel:

The colored pinwheel is colloquially known as the spinning pizza of death or SPOD cursor due to user frustration when it appears to signal a hung process. It is the worst indicator for the user to see since it means the programmer either didn't or couldn't keep the main program responsive. We as users have no clue what part of the program is waiting for something to progress, only that it's stuck.


MacBook Pro stopped working, won't turn on, MagSafe adapter blinking green

I took it to the lab, there they unplugged the battery and plugged it back. That solved the problem.


Emojis are handled like any other fonts, the corresponding font file is stored in /System/Library/Fonts/Apple Color Emoji.ttc. So there are no images per se which you could reuse (even ignoring any potential copyright problems).
Three options on how to get emoji images (without programming a little tool to parse the font file directly):

use the Character Viewer as described in this answer and a screen grabber to get an image from the emoji you are interested in
use Font Book to look at the characters/glyphs available in "Apple Color Emoji"
use Google Image Search to find bigger image file representing the emoji you need


Two red lines/bars in iTerm2 window and error message about session ending, what is going on here?

I've seen this several times. It's caused by exiting an iTerm window. If you type exit in the window you'll be able to reproduce this behavior. I would check whatever command executes when iterm opens. This is defined in preferences.


Add an App and give it permissions to access Downloads in Catalina

I have the same error and I find the reason here.

The reason is your Octave 3.8.0 is too old for your OS Catalina, you should download a new version of Octave(4.4.1 or 5.1.0). You can download the new version:
https://wiki.octave.org/Octave_for_macOS.


This is more of an extended comment rather than an answer, but comments can only contain inline code and not fenced code blocks.

I'm unable to offer insight regarding your first issue, as I am not using Apple Mail at present, but is probably a bug as I'm aware other users have reported that set the enabled of every account to false doesn't work, and that seems relevant to your situation.  The second issue is most likely a bug as well, but possibly one that can be worked around, given that the other enumeration constants you listed are still working.

To illustrate a test case, you can try and execute this line of code:

return "axmd" as constant

and you should get back the md5 constant used by Mail.  This doesn't need to be inside a tell app "Mail" block, but it can be and may make more sense to place it inside one in your final script when using the password enumeration code.  The enumeration code for password is "axct", and hopefully when you execute this line of (test) code:

return "axct" as constant

you'll get back the password constant.  Probably the best way to make use of this in your script is to do so something like this:

tell application id "com.apple.mail"
    set axct to "axct" as constant
                .
                .
    # Other bits of your code including where
    # you define "theAccount", which should be
    # variable containing a reference to an
    # object with class 'account'
                .
                .
    set the authentication of theAccount to axct
                .
                .
    # Rest of your Mail-specific code
end tell


How many external HD (not 4K or 5K) displays can I use with the 2016 13" MacBook Pro with Touchbar?

Officially it will support one display at 5120 x 2880 pixels at 60 Hz or up to two displays at 4096 x 2304 pixels at 60 Hz. Of course, this is the 5K and 4K you're probably already aware of.

However, unofficially you could use more than two external displays via various adaptors, at or below the above resolutions. How many you can use will depend on the specs of the actual displays used. Also, you need to be aware that your MBP fans may start spinning at much faster speeds depending on your setup.

You may find the following info of interest to you. While not directly about the 2016 MBP, the info is still relevant.


Force a sync of iCloud Keychain from iOS to macOS?

This is how you can force an iCloud keychain sync as per Apple Support document, Get help with iCloud Keychain

  If you want to sync iCloud Keychain with other devices

  Make sure that your new device has the latest version of iOS and the latest version of macOS. Then, make sure that your device is on a Wi-Fi or cellular network. If the connection appears strong, try these steps:

  Turn off iCloud Keychain on all devices.
  Turn on iCloud Keychain on the device that has the most up-to-date keychain items.
  Turn on iCloud Keychain on your other devices. They will be updated with your new iCloud Keychain.


Airport Express difference between MC414LL/A and MC414Z/A?

It is to do with the difference between the power cable shipped with it and possibly some regional legal restrictions.

The model number is MC414.

MC414Z/A is the European variant.
MC414LL/A is the US variant.
MC414C/A is the Canadian variant.
MC414J/A is the Japanese variant.
MC414B/A is the UK variant.

etc...


script to cycle through multiple pdfs and want to close the windows

It worked for me. Are you sure access for assistive devices is enabled (in the accessibility preference pane)?

You could also try running tell application "System Events" to set UI elements enabled to true. Or something like removing /var/db/.AccessibilityAPIEnabled, turning the setting off and on, and restarting.


Can a Macbook 4,1 use 64bit architecture?

If you simply have software that needs to run as 64bit then yes it is compatible, if you have software that needs a 64bit kernel (rare) then no it is not compatible. From looking at the website where it shows system requirements it shows it needs a 64bit capable CPU, which is what your MacBook has, same CPU as my iMac. As you can see below on my Late 2006 iMac with 2GHz Core 2 Duo running 10.7.5 with a 32bit kernel and all 64bit processes.


How to play MP3s on iPhone 5s without iTunes?

Contrary to the other answer, the current version of dropbox supports playback of MP3 files. Starring a file, i.e. marking it as a favorite, will download it to your device and make it available offline, so you will be able to listen to it without an Internet connection. Mega also supports playing MP3 audio on IOS and offers a bit more free space than dropbox.

What you won't be able to do is have your MP3 files appear in the Music app.

As for playlists and playing more than a single file at a time you'll need a third-party cloud streaming app, such as CloudBeats (paid, supports other cloud storage services besides dropbox) which worked for me but I didn't like it enough to want to buy it. There are also other apps in the appstore if you search for "streaming player" In any case, imo, this is not the way to go. I choose to stream all my music collection via Google Music - works equally well on IOS, Android or a desktop web browser.

This lifehacker article has a review of audio streaming solutions.


There may be a couple of reasons for it.

First option, try applying these tweaks:

Disable or turn off Personal Hotspot.
Sign out from iCloud.
Restart your other device.
Sign in to iCloud again.
Then re-enable Personal Hotspot.

After refreshing and enabling Personal Hotspot on both your iPhone  and other device, retry connecting through Wi-Fi.

Second option, toggle Airplane Mode on and off.

This is another simple old trick you can try to get rid of minor errors affecting the phone’s wireless radios including Cellular Data and Personal Hotspot. It works by giving a quick restart to the Wi-Fi features on the phone. Here’s how it’s done:

Tap Settings from the Home screen.
Select Airplane Mode.
Toggle the Airplane Mode switch to turn the feature ON. This will disable wireless radios on the phone.
While Airplane mode is enabled, turn your iPhone off and then back on again.
After it boots up, go back to Settings-> Airplane Mode menu.
Then toggle the switch to disable Airplane Mode again. Wireless radios on the phone are then re-enabled.

After performing the Airplane mode, go to your iPhone Settings->Mobile Data menu, then make sure that Mobile Data is enabled. If necessary, toggle the switch to enable the feature.

Third option, Reset network settings on your iPhone

This will erase your Wi-Fi networks and other network-related settings and server settings on the phone. Network errors and Internet problems that are tied to incorrect network configurations are likewise cleared out in the process. Here’s how it’s done:

From the Home screen, tap on Settings.
Tap General.
Scroll down to and tap Reset.
Select the option to Reset network settings.
If prompted, enter your device passcode.
Then tap the option to confirm network settings reset.

Your iPhone will reboot automatically when the reset is finished. As soon as it boots up, set up and reconnect to your Wi-Fi network or enable Mobile Data and Personal Hotspot to retry using and sharing your Internet connection with your other devices


Alarm clock for iPhone/iPad which permits me to choose custom sound track without apple music, exists?

The salvation came from Reddit.
You can use the beautiful iMazing, it can sync items back and forth between devices without using Apple's iBloat


1st Reboot after fresh Yosemite Install - Chime + Apple logo + status bar...then

Might it be a Macbook Pro from 2010 to 2012 that you performed the installation on? It sounds an awful lot like the motherboard issue that these models suffer from....


It is a bit hidden, but it is possible:

Open System Preferences
Click on Accessibility
Scroll down a bit and click on Mouse & Trackpad
Click on Trackpad Options…
Enable dragging
Select "three finger drag"


If Firefox doesn't support this, you can use Plain Clip as a workaround.


El Capitan causing built-in trackpad and keyboard to freeze intermittently

2 GB of Ram is not enough. make it at least 4GB or even better 8GB, easy to do and cheap. It should be the exact specs. Look at OWC or Crucial website.


How to send existing photos to photo stream?

Drag the photos from the album to your photo stream. Careful though; I did this and can't find a way to undo what I've added to my photo stream!


trying to revive a mac pro 1.1 without a disk drive or preinstalled software

Using a ghost image (a duplicate of the drive of another mac pro) I managed to get it functioning correctly without the need for a DVD / CD reader.


Can you, and if so, how, set a repeat rate for mouse buttons?

You can do this with a a product called ControllerMate.  They have a feature called the  Auto-Repeater Building Block

  The Auto-Repeater building block provides a way to automatically
  repeat events at a fixed rate.

  An Auto-Repeater building block has one ON/OFF input and one ON/OFF
  output. While the input is ON, the output turns ON and OFF at a
  predetermined rate.

  To configure an Auto-Repeater building block, enter the rate at which
  it should turn its output ON and OFF. The rate can be given as the
  number of repeats per second, or seconds per repeat.

(They provide an example on the page linked above)

Basically, if the Building Block detects an "on" state of an input (holding the button) it will auto repeat whatever you tell it to repeat at a set rate.

You will have to bypass the programming of the mouse and use this to program it.  I have done this with my Logitech MX Professional mouse and a second (Logitech) keyboard which I have reassigned keys to complex macros.

Controller Mate has an unlimited trial period that is limited to 10 "building blocks" meaning you can have a single work flow of 10 blocks or 5 flows of 2 blocks or whatever combination so long as it has no more than 10.  However, at $25, it's a very reasonable solution.


Currently, there is no one button way to cancel or stop all the updates started by pressing the "Update All" button, maybe in a future release of iOS we can have a Cancel All or Pause all. Submit your feeback to Apple, here.

The current solution is to manually stop updating each app that was started updating:

First turn off your data if you are concerned with burning through metered data. Switch your iOS device into Airplane mode via Control Center
Open the App Store app, switch to the "Updates" tab.
Then tap on the download progress circle for each app that is waiting to update.


Block emails from specific sender only in Mac OS mail program

I think your best option would be to set a rule so that if the sender is this than archive message, I wouldn't recommend deleting the message as (depending on your mail server's settings) it may delete the message also on your other devices.

Hope this helps,

Tiferrei


OSX password issue with special chars in recovery mode

What happens if you go in to terminal and type resetpassword?  That should take you to a dialog to reset your password.  You have to select your disk and your user account along the way...

Warning:  Changing your password like this might break your keychain.


FTDI USB device not removed after unplugging

I've found the Apple FTDI driver behaves more predictably than the one from FTDI.

Use kextstat | grep FTDI to see which driver you have. On my MBP I had com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver (2.3) ... which exhibited the (unwanted) behavior described by the OP.

I removed that driver with sudo kextunload -b com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver.

Next time the FTDI dongle was installed, the apple FTDI driver was loaded automatically. kextstat|grep FTDI reports com.apple.driver.AppleUSBFTDI (5.0.0) ... Now I can remove and replace the dongle and it continues to be recognized by the Arduino IDE.

Hope this helps.


What is answering at port 80 when httpd is down?

Nothing. Your browser is likely returning a cached response. Try Shift+Reload or clear your cache and reload. Then, you should see no response.


iPhone X - Does wireless charging speed differ depending on the exact location of the iPhone on the charging mat?

The Qi standard (that the iPhone uses for wireless charging) allows for multiple types of chargers regarding phone placement.

Some chargers require you to place the phone at a very specific place in order to charge. They will generally not be able to charge at all if you place the phone incorrectly.

Most chargers allows so-called free placement, where you can place the phone any place on the charger (within reason) and get full speed charging. This is done by actually having more coils than really necessary within the charging surface. Those directly underneath the phone are then used and activated, whereas the other are not. This allows the charger to work across the full surface independently of phone placement.

The standard also allows for chargers where the coils actually move to place them underneath the phone. I haven't seen such charger available for ordinary home users though.


What do I need to read/recover data from the hard drive of an Apple II CX?

Wait and buy a used Classic mac with a SCSI port that works. Also Ultra SCSI cards for PC's go for $25 to $50 on the internet, so you could go that way with a cheap PC or borrow one.

Any computer can image the drive into an ISO CD image so you can get it to a Mac to mount the filesystem and read things.


How can I view the full name of drop down items on iOS?

You could try selecting the item and then viewing the dropdown list in view mode, not selection mode. But As far as I know there is no way, in selection mode, to change how Apple presents the choices.


What are alternatives for Menumeters on El Capitan?

I just ported MenuMeters for El Capitan, please go to http://member.ipmu.jp/yuji.tachikawa/MenuMetersElCapitan/.


Convert an already recorded stereo track to mono in Garageband

This was driving me mad, but I now use an very smooth way based on JHerran's answer. It has the virtue of only requiring Garageband and is quick.

N.B. I assume your track has a single region: if not you will have to shift-click to select all the regions in the track that you want to convert.

Click on the track that you want to convert. The single region should automatically be highlighted.
Command-D or >Track>New Track with duplicate settings to create a new track
Command-V to paste the original regions to the new track
Shift-Click on the original region(s) to highlight it again
Command-J to join the regions, select "Mono" for the mix-down
The mix-down will replace the original stereo track - you can now click on the temporary track and Delete it.


What are good sources for iPhone 4/iPad wallpapers?

Mantia (who now works for Apple) has a nice selection of geeky iPhone/iPad wallpapers. Some of his stuff is featured at the Iconfactory, along with some other wallpapers by Dave Brasgalla, Gedeon Maheux and others.


The size difference of a few hundred kilobytes can be attributed to the PDF version and encoding.

Recent versions of PDF introduced features to reduce the file size. These features included compressed object streams in v1.4.

A PDF file can look identical but be stored on disk in nearly infinitely different forms. The application responsible for creating the PDF is critical to getting the smallest possible file size.

Most applications, such as Preview, will call out to a general purpose PDF framework or library to deal with the file format. This will result in well formed files with minimal effort by the application's developers.

Other applications may create PDFs highly-tuned to their content and needs. The PDF specification allows for creative reuse of content, de-duplication, and optimisations that require knowledge of the document's purpose and intention. This requires significant effort and is increasingly rare.


Try restarting in Recovery mode by holding the right command key and R during power-up. If that works (i.e. you boot into Recovery mode), then try doing the same with the left command key.

If that fails, you have a defect keyboard that needs replacement.


Can I remove the stock camera app from iOS 9 or later?

Short answer: no.

As of iOS 10, here are the stock apps that users can remove:

Calculator
Calendar
Compass
Contacts (iPhone only, contact information is retained in the Phone
app)
FaceTime
Find My Friends
Home
iBooks
iCloud Drive
iTunes Store
Mail
Maps
Music (if removed, you won't be able to use it with CarPlay)
News
Notes
Podcasts
Reminders
Stocks
Tips
Videos
Voice Memos
Watch app (you'll have to unpair your Apple Watch before deleting it)
Weather

As you can see, the stock Camera app is not one of these. I imagine there are ways to forcibly remove it, but you may lose that functionality of your iPhone permanently.


Time is based more on the size of the files versus a limit on the device. As in, You can only put (less than, due to OS and formatting, etc) 8 or 32GB (On a 8GB, usually you have a little over 6GB to play with, on 32 I think more like 29GB or so).

The 'time' capacity was just done using an average file size and the capacity. The same would be for 'songs' or 'videos' it can hold, like how iPod Classics were 20000 songs in your pocket.

Some quick notes found from a random site while searching:

(For Audio)

  Well first of all with addressing
  overheads , indexing etc actual
  storage space is more like 7.95Gb 15Gb
  and 29Gb respectively .Generally
  speaking , the number of songs which
  can be stored on your device depends
  on the filesize of each song.No two
  songs are the same size usually , a
  number of factors can affect this. The
  two main factors affecting the size of
  an audio file arequality( Bitrate and
  bitdepth) and time ( how long the song
  is). Therefore to predict the  number
  of songs your 8,32 or 16Gb Ipod Touch
  can hold , a few assumptions will be
  made based on the average user's mp3
  listening practice. Here we will
  assume each song is Cd quality
  (44.1KHz sample rate) 128Kbps bitrate
  and  4 minutes long i.e 3.75Mb per
  song.   An 8Gb can hold about 2,120
  mp3's songs A 16Gb drive could store
  about 4,240 mp3's On a 32Gb drive you
  could store about 8,480 mp3's

(For Video)

  Typically you can get a DVD movie at
  700mb when you download it. This gives
  On an 8Gb drive you could store about
  10 movies On a 16Gb drive you could
  store about 21 movies On a 32Gb drive
  you could store about 44movies You can
  compress the movie down to a much
  smaller filesize and it will still
  look good on the small screen ,
  allowing you to cram many more movies
  in there. Apple claims the Ipod Touch
  can hold up to 10 hours , 20 hours or
  40 hours of video with the right
  factors.Their claim is based on H.264
  1.5-Mbps video at 640-by-480 resolution combined with 128-Kbps
  audio.

As you can see, its not really an exact science of capacity of time. Same goes for CDR and DVDR's - the times are just estimations due to usual encoding and such.

I think Apple dropped this type of information from its advertising/tech specs because especially with the newer devices (which may need more space for OS) it would look like the storage capacity went down (as in, used to be x number of songs at y GB's, now x minus some number of songs at the same y GB's). The only one I see it on anymore is the iPod Classic, and if you have one with that large of a drive, you probably aren't counting much anymore either.

In your case I would probably keep the larger one (unless you need the money), because its never to bad to have extra space.

Update:
Do to the updated question (wondering about HD video recording), according to this site, one hour of HD video is about 4.73GB. So with the 8GB you would get maybe less than an hour and a half, and with the 32GB about 4 hours.

Another site has even more information on calculations.


iOS 11 share-sheet not including Messages option

I’d try installing the iOS 11.01 update via Settings > General > Software Update.

For more information, refer to: iOS 11.0.1: What’s New Or Changed?


Compare content of two folders, including subfolders

Terminal: diff

You can compare two folders in Terminal using the following command:

diff -rq /path/to/folder1 /path/to/folder2

To ignore folder hierarchy you can copy all the files out of a folder into a third folder, then compare these:

find /path/to/folder2 -mindepth 2 -type f -print -exec cp {} /path/to/folder3 \;


You could clean the lens of your iPhone internally and see what that black object is that blocks the clear view. I've done this when some dust or tiny particles slip into the iPhone...

It's very easy and you won't do any harm with it,  if you follow the instructions carefully!

Open up your iPhone according to the tutorial on iFixit
Use a slightly moistened ear-swab to clean up your iPhone lens

To reassemble your iPhone, just follow the steps on iFixit in reverse order.

If you find a piece has slipped, once correcting that, you can also clear out all dust from your lens and it can solve your issue.


How to get videos and music in the same screen?

Although the concept of 'easier' is subjective, the simple answer is no. You can get the identical result (bringing up the movies) by going to the View menu > Media Kind > Movies.

The View menu also shows the associated keystroke commands to accomplish mouse-based actions. Cycling to the Movies window is Command-2.

If keystrokes are 'easier' for you, then perhaps the answer is 'yes'.


Preview can't do this.

ImageMagick can, and nearly anything you can imagine.

You can easily install it with MacPorts (see MacPorts Home):

port install imagemagick

Let's say your original image is porsche-911.png:

Enter in Terminal the following command:

convert porsche-911.png -alpha set -channel A -evaluate set 50% porsche-911-50%.png

which will compute from your original input porsche-911.png the output
porsche-911-50%.png:

If you want to learn more about this great free tool, read:

ImageMagick home.


Are the Apple text-to-speech voices copyrighted?

You are not free to use them for any purpose, only for personal, non-commercial use while running Apple software. Read Mac OS X Lion Software License Agreement for full details (section G, it is rather short and clear):

  Voices Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you may use the system voices included in the Apple Software (“System Voices”) (i) while running the Apple Software and (ii) to create your own original content and projects for your personal, non-commercial use. No other use of the System Voices is permitted by this License, including but not limited to the use, reproduction, display, performance, recording, publishing or redistribution of any of the System Voices in a profit, non-profit, public sharing or commercial context.


How can I reduce the 70 GB of storage that is classified as system space on my MacBook?

You can use the build-in Storage Management.app for inspecting what file is consuming large amount of disk space

Another software Daisy Disk is very useful for disk space visualising, so you can easily find out the large directories or files by checking the sector area (for directories that contains its files and sub directories)


Is there a way to have BBEdit automatically save files when switching to a different application?

BBEdit has "Attachement Point" scripts that are automatically run during different conditions. Here is a list of Attachment Points:

http://www.bbeditextras.org/wiki/index.php?title=Attachment_Points

Here is a script that should do what you want:

https://gist.github.com/benspaulding/1287814


You can only connect the Web Inspector to an iOS app with the get-task-allow entitlement, so you can't connect the inspector to an app you're not able to debug.
If your iOS device is jailbroken, you can install inspectorplus which allows you to connect the Web Inspector to any web view in any app.


How to sync time between Windows and OS X?

The easy way is to set Windows to use UTC, I didn't test with Windows 8 but I think will work.

Start with Windows and create a new file with the name setUTC.reg and paste this text inside:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
"RealTimeIsUniversal"=dword:00000001

save and close, after double click to add the value to the windows registry.
Restart Windows and set the time, after the time zone will not change anymore.


A few things you can try (ordered by "assertiveness"):

Start with Command-Option-Escape to bring up the Force Quit dialog and see if it's there. If it is, force quit it (sounds like you've already tried this).
Open Terminal, and run ps -eaf | grep Firefox. If Firefox appears in the list (note that there will always be an entry for grep Firefox, this is not what you want, the actual Firefox will be listed as something like /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox), note the PID (the second column, a number), and run kill -9 <PID>.

If neither of these work, try restarting the Dock (maybe Firefox actually isn't running but the Dock is confused):

Use the same ps -eaf | grep Dock.
There should be a process called /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock, note the PID and run kill <PID>.
The Dock should disappear momentarily and then restart.

If all this fails, easiest thing to do is probably just reboot your machine. If the usual shutdown dialog fails, press and hold the power button until the computer powers down.


Automaticly and seamlessly sync iPhone photos as soon as they're taken (over the air)

I too have tried to find something to do this, with little success. Documenting what people have tried may be helpful, so here's my list:

Cinq -- offers to sync with iPhoto on the Mac, or to the filesystem on a Mac or PC; only works for photos taken within Cinq
DropPhox -- syncs with Dropbox; only works for photos taken within DropPhox
Eye-Fi -- syncs to local machine, and lots of online services (Picasa and Flickr but not Dropbox); free (although nags to upgrade); will sync photos that were taken with any camera app on the iPhone; requires (as far as i can see) an Eye-Fi card to set up an account and get it working

All of these have their drawbacks; would love to find the app that can upload all photos automatically.


How to recover the built in Directory Service data?

There is a daemon that backups the directory /private/var/db/dslocal nightly. If the backup hasn't occurred since the removal of the user then the info could be restored. The archive is /private/var/db/dslocal-backup.xar.

An alternate solution for "system" users and groups:

Rebuild the corresponding user and group plist's from /private/etc/passwd and /private/etc/group.


After resizing the VM disk (in my example I added 24 GiB to the default 40 GiB) you will get following listings after opening the VM's Terminal.app and executing the commands diskutil/gpt in the VM:

Initial VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ sudo gpt -r show disk0 listing:

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ sudo gpt -r show disk0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640   82206864      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   82616504    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   83886040          7
   83886047         32         Sec GPT table
   83886079          1         Sec GPT header

After adding 24 GiB to the VM's main disk:

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (external, physical):
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *68.7 GB    disk0
    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
    2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD             42.1 GB   disk0s2
    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ sudo gpt -r show disk0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640   82206864      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   82616504    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   83886040   50331655
  134217695         32         Sec GPT table
  134217727          1         Sec GPT header

This means: the additional 24 GiB (50331655-7 blocks) are added at the "end" of the virtual disk - only the second gpt header/table is moved - and the Recovery HD blocks the expansion of the main volume.

You may now merge the main partition with the recovery partition. The recovery partition in the VM will be deleted (this doesn't affect your real Recovery HD):

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" /dev/disk0s2 /dev/disk0s3

with the result:

/dev/disk0 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *68.7 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            68.4 GB    disk0s2

You may recreate the Recovery HD by downloading and reinstalling El Capitan in the VM. This should not affect any personal data or installed apps in the VM.

Alternatively you may convert the main VM volume to a CoreStorage volume - this will keep the VM's Recovery HD:

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ diskutil cs convert /dev/disk0s2

After a reboot enter in Terminal:

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ diskutil cs list

Then enter:

VM-Mac:~ VMuser$ diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size

with lvUUID: the UUID of the Logical Volume found in the previous command and size: a size in t, g, m (e.g. 35200m or 36g). Start with a size of (disksize-1000m). In my example that's 67700m  If you get an error like:

  Error: -69771: The target disk is too small for this operation

choose a slightly smaller size until you are successful.


OS X 10.9: where are password hashes stored

Starting with Lion, OS X introduced a shadow file per user that is a plist dictionary that contains password hashes and other GID/UID/kerberos and open directory type keys.

The shadow files are stored on the filesystem at /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users. They are in plist format so you'll need to use the plutil command to view them or use the defaults command to extract/write specific keys if desired. Only the root user has access to the files.

To view the contents of a shadow file for a user:

sudo plutil -p /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/<username>.plist

To get the hash:

sudo defaults read /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/<username>.plist ShadowHashData|tr -dc 0-9a-f|xxd -r -p|plutil -convert xml1 - -o -

Where <username> in the above examples is the user you're looking for the hash for. You want the <data> section that corresponds to the <key>entropy</key> key in that plist output.

To continue on to try and crack the password see this tutorial.


OS X 10.11.6 Missing over 200GB of disk space

Ok, I found it. Some time ago, I replaced my backup drive and the latest old backup from the previous drive seems to still reside on my disk. The old backup image was hiding under /Volumes/name-of-old-drive/. I could delete it safely with: sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/name-of-old-drive/Backups.backupdb/name-of-my-mac/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.

To make sure that you do not delete any current backup, I recommend to temporary eject the currently used backup drive.

That was not easy to find, so I hope some other people will find this answer if experiencing similar problems.


As per this wikipedia article,

  Batteries gradually self-discharge even if not connected and
  delivering current. Li+ rechargeable batteries [like the kind in a
  MacBook] have a self-discharge rate typically stated by manufacturers
  to be 1.5-2% per month.

Basically, even if you are not charging or discharging your Mac battery at all, it will still lose 1-2% of its capacity every month (on average). You stated your battery age as 7.2 months, and your original battery capacity as 6960 mAh. (Side note: anyone else can find out their battery capacity, original capacity, and battery age with this tool.) Assuming it discharged 1% a month while in storage for 7 months, that means your battery could have lost 487 mAh while in storage. So, it is perfectly reasonable for your 7 month old battery to have lost 350mAh.

It is a little frustrating to have a somewhat old battery when you have purchased a new computer, but that's just how it goes. Li-ion batteries last well for about 4-5 years, so 7 months isn't too long on that scale. You will probably need to replace your Mac's battery (or get a new computer) in 2021. So, you have plenty of time to enjoy your new Mac before things even start to go downhill. But yes, that small battery discharge is normal; remember that it occurred over 7 months, not 3 days.


MacBook Pro 2015 15" with ASUS PB279Q 4K @ 60Hz

In order for your connected display to use DisplayPort 1.2 you also need a compatible cable. I'm not sure about the third-party cable you were using but I believe the Apple Thunderbolt cable only carries DisplayPort 1.1a signals.

If you buy a third-party cable that's confirmed to support DisplayPort 1.2, 60Hz MST should work properly. The DisplayPort products database may help in that regard.


How do I reset my MacBook Pro to factory settings without the original install disc?

'Factory reset' can be done with Apple's Internet Recovery by holding  Cmd ⌘     R   at the boot chimes.

Check your machine is capable of this or whether it requires a firmware update to do it before actually trying it, or you may end up with an unusable machine & then have to get hold of OS Install disks.

You may also  want to go to Disk Utility & do a secure erase first, just to lessen the chances of someone trying to recover your old data [unlikely but possible on a simple wipe & install]


Fix slow startup after utility disk repair on a SSD

The problem may arise because the Disk Utility did not correctly finish the repair of your disk, and by doing so did not give back the boot flag to your SSD.

Go to System Prefences > Startup Disk and select your SSD as a Startup Disk
Try to reboot and see if it changes anything

Else, read this thread with many different, quite helpful inputs:

  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4550751?start=0&tstart=0


It's not a Quick Look plugin, but Sound Studio it is fairly lightweight, and displays the waveform:

However, I'm afraid I don't think you'll find the waveform itself to be particularly useful for determining duplicate songs.


How can I create an APFS fusion drive in Mojave using my SSD and HD?

Nothing could be easier with Mojave : just enter the following command at the command prompt

diskutil resetfusion

The process is done completely automatically. Just take care that the detected hard drives solid state and mechanical are correctly determined before answering Yes.

Sample command output :

-bash-3.2# diskutil resetfusion

Internally-located hardware disk devices known to the currently-running macOS:
Rotational                               (disk0)
Solid State                              (disk1)

Volume exported by partitions or storage systems hosted on the above devices:
Macintosh HD                             (disk23)

WARNING: All of the above will be erased
Do you want to continue? (Enter "Yes" to proceed to erase) Yes

Forcing unmount of all volumes on the solid-state (SSD) disk drive
Started on disk1
Finished on disk1
Forcing unmount of all volumes on the rotational (HDD) disk drive
Started on disk0
Finished on disk0
Partitioning the solid-state (SSD) disk drive
Started on disk1
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Finished on disk1
The partition that will become the solid-state Core Storage PV is disk1s2
Partitioning the rotational (HDD) disk drive
Started on disk0
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Finished on disk0
The partition that will become the rotational Core Storage PV is disk0s2
Creating a Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Started
Unmounting disk1s2
Touching partition type on disk1s2
Adding disk1s2 to Logical Volume Group
Unmounting disk0s2
Touching partition type on disk0s2
Adding disk0s2 to Logical Volume Group
Creating Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Switching disk1s2 to Core Storage
Switching disk0s2 to Core Storage
Waiting for Logical Volume Group to appear
Discovered new Logical Volume Group "515C316B-D0E8-4507-AF51-3B7F6F65B74A"
Finished
The new Core Storage LVG is 515C316B-D0E8-4507-AF51-3B7F6F65B74A
Adding a Logical Volume to the Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Started
Waiting for Logical Volume to appear
Formatting file system for Logical Volume
Initialized /dev/rdisk23 as a 571 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 49152k journal
Mounting disk
Finished
The new Core Storage LV is 60BD449A-F95B-49D7-B55D-81978D4567FF (disk23)
Confirmed that your new volume "Macintosh HD" (disk23) is a Fusion Drive
Operation successful


Is it possible to create a custom keyboard and upload it to the App store?

Yes, lots of people have done this, you can find many custom language keyboards in the app store.  You should make sure there is not one there already by searching the store for the language you are talking about.

Have a look at the Keyman app.  It already has lots of keyboards and I think offers ways to create new ones.

Keyman

For developer info see iOS Custom Keyboard


If you enabled iCloud for Safari in the iCloud settings, your bookmarks are already stored in the Cloud.


How to find which template is used in existing Xcode project?

In most cases, you can determine it by looking at the Story Board (*.storyboard, often * is Main).
Here we see the possible templates.

Then, how the typical story board layout looks for the...

Master-Detail Application

Page-Based Application

Single View Application

Tabbed Application

Game (which also features SpriteKit framework)


How to turn off the Terminal's "Allow mouse reporting"?

The View > Allow Mouse Reporting menu item does not enable the terminal Mouse Reporting behavior, it merely controls whether Mouse Reporting is allowed.

This gives the user a means to temporarily bypass Mouse Reporting when it has been enabled by application programs, to interact with the terminal view for short periods of time. Also note that you can use the Fn modifier key when clicking, dragging and scrolling to temporarily bypass Mouse Reporting.

Mouse Reporting is not enabled unless application programs running within the terminal request it. Application programs normally do not enable it by default, and must be configured to do so. For example, to enable Mouse Reporting in Vim, one puts set mouse=a into ~/.vimrc.

If you do not want Mouse Reporting to be enabled, configure the appropriate application program(s) to disable it.


Simply hold the Command key when you click the app in the dock and it will open the location of the app rather than opening the application as normal. Once you have the app open in finder you can right click the name of the folder at the very top of the finder window that opened and it will show the path to the app.

Alternatively you could right click the app in the finder window and click "Get Info" to show a panel like this with the path to the app:


According to Apple's official documentation, it is by design that shell scripts invoked from AppleScript's do shell script action do not inherit the $PATH variable from your login shell's environment.

Accordingly, Apple instructs users to use full paths to commands when invoking shell scripts from AppleScript rather than relying on the $PATH variable in the environment.

In the script in your example, you could replace rm with /bin/rm

According to the aforelinked documentation, this is the intended, documented behavior; a script that expects the environment's $PATH to be set for do shell script commands is a script with a bug.

That said, if you absolutely need to use relative paths and use $PATH to complete them, you could prefix any shell script called by do shell script with the command PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin;


Mac username & password for proxy settings keep resetting by itself

This worked for me. Here's what I did:

The solution is to ensure that you have working proxy settings saved in the system keychain, not just your personal login keychain.
So when you next get one of these dialogs:

Note the server name that is requesting authentication, the port (usually 8080) and if it is an http or https request. Typically it will be something in the form https://someproxyserver.someorganization.com:8080

See if you already have an entry for that server in your login keychain. If not, make one manually, (being sure to enter the whole thing as per the example above with the :8080 at the end). Typically that there needs to be two separate keychain entries per proxy server, one for http and a second for https, though syncdefaultsd only uses https.

Once you have login keychain entries for the proxy server, double-click them and ensure that under Access all applications are allowed, and that your user name is saved.

Now for the fun bit. Option-drag and drop these entries into your system keychain. Click on the system keychain, and confirm that they are there, and that all the settings are exactly right.

For good measure, do a shift-restart then a normal restart.
You should now get no more annoying dialogs for that particular proxy server. If your proxy server has more than one alias, or if you have several, then whenever you get a new unidentified dialog, repeat the above.

Source: Apple Support Discussions thread


Wifi much slower after security software download

Uninstall both would be my recommendation.

a vpn can send all traffic elsewhere so that has to be slower than letting you unfettered access to sites by the fastest route.
Mac security software generally opens you up to more vulnerabilities then they patch and slow you down as well.


If you want to create a service on demand create a service with Automator and enter

/usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm "Ubuntu" headless &

with the same settings as in your screenshot and that's it.

And here is a nice icon for the service to get rid of the default one:

Coipy and paste it in the info window.

If you want to start it at log-in create a shell script somewhere in your User folder and a plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents:

Start Terminal and enter:

mkdir ~/bin
cd ~/bin
touch vboxmanage.ubuntu.sh
chmod 755 vboxmanage.ubuntu.sh

Use a text editor or nano to edit the script and add:

#! /bin/sh

/usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm "Ubuntu" headless

Then create a plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents with the name com.vboxmanage.ubuntu.plist and the content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.vboxmanage.ubuntu.plist</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/YourUserName/bin/vboxmanage.ubuntu.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Modify the file:

chmod 644 ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vboxmanage.ubuntu.plist

and launch it with:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vboxmanage.ubuntu.plist

Afterwards the VM will be started after every log-in to your account


No. An application is (broadly) a list of instructions to the OS. Each new OS contains new instructions that applications can use.
MS Teams requires instructions that are only found in iOS11 and later. Your OS doesn't recognise these.
Some apps do keep older versions on the App Store for older OS/hardware to use: but I don't know the history of when Teams was ported to iOS.
An iPad2 is 9 years old. While you can always keep using the same software for as long as the hardware works (I'm surprised the battery's still going!), if you need newer software, then you have to have hardware that's closer in age.


What are the short-cuts to click buttons on a MacOS message box?

Actually, you can achieve the same behaviour in macOS!

First, you need to do as follows:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard
Select the Shortcuts tab
Tick the All Controls radio button (see below)

Now exit System Preferences

Once you've done this, you can use the Tab key to navigate the various options (incl. buttons) in Dialog boxes. In the screenshot below I've selected the Don't Save button.

Once selected, just press the space bar as you would in Windows!


Is it possible to use USB output and audio port output at the same time?

The short answer is YES.

What you are asking is called "aggregating your device."  This is done through MIDI Audio Setup found in Applications -> Utilities

In the image below, MIDI Audio Devices is opened up.  I have highlighed the two output audio devices I want to aggregate; notice both of them are outputs (0 in/ 2 out).

When you click the "+", select "Create Aggregate Device"

When you create your device, just select the devices from the right you want to aggregate into one.  In my example, I have selected the Built in Audio and my USB Codec from the previous example.

Close MIDI Audio Setup.  When you open Sound Preferences, you will see the new output device.  Select your new aggregated device to have sound output on all devices.


Location information is not shown in "Years" view of Photos App

I think it is probably down to visiting lots of countries maybe?
For example, I have currently visited 7 countries this year (2018) and I am sure my info was there a month ago.
It seems to be a sequence as someone has mentioned already with ‘this country, this country & 3 others, where it doesn’t seem to mention 4 others or 5 others etc.
Another thing.... info does not show for me in 2015 either... that is the year I visited various Caribbean islands), so it’s probably a multi country thing.
Maybe there is something in that?


iTunes shows many of my apps with "Update" but when I synch nothing happens

The iPod you are using (presumably the iPod 4) is no longer taken into consideration when new apps are being developed, nor is the operating system on it as both of these are obselete. This is the reason nothing happens when you sync your iPod. However iTunes just thinks that an app you are using is out of date and should be updated, without considering the device attached. So there is probably no way to single out the incompatible updates.

Hope I helped!


Run

diskutil eject disk2s2

Repeat that and sudo fuser -c /dev/disk2s2 to kill or quit any processes that are blocking the eject.


It is quite common for GUI programs to be unable to handle large text files. Although 40MB doesn't sound like large regarding todays standards, but that might bloat up to a lot more in memory depending on how the application is written. And GUI applications often aren't the most efficient ones.

You might want to split up the text file in multiple smaller ones using the terminal. First, check if you can open the file using less filename.csv in the Terminal, and if the characters read fine. If not, the file might be corrupted, and that might be the issue.

For the acutal splitting, try using something like this on the terminal:

#!/bin/bash
N=10000 # Number of lines per file
i=1
j=0
filename="hugefile.csv"
extension=.csv
while [ $i -le $(wc -l $filename|awk '{print $1}') ]
do
    newfilename="$(basename $filename $extension)$j$extension"
    echo $newfilename: $i
    sed -n $i,$((i+$N))p $filename > $newfilename
    j=$((j+1)); i=$((i+$N))
done

Copy and paste that into a plain text document (e.g. TextEdit in plain text mode or nano on the Terminal) and name it split.sh or something similiar. Customize the paramters N and filename as needed, e.g. enter the desired count of numbers per file in N=... and the filename of your sourcefile as filename="...". This will generate the neccessary amount of files in your current directory to cover all the lines of the source files in smaller files of N lines each. The files will have a number appended, e.g. hugefile0.txt to hugefile9.txt or something like that.

Now you should be able to open each of these files in your desired application. It's often desirable to work with smaller portions of one large file than with the whole file at once. You could even open the resulting CSV files in Numbers one after another and copy the lines from each file into one large Numbers document. That way the importer probably won't hang on such a large file.

In case you get any errors regarding sed or awk, that's because Mac sed and awk are different than the regular sed or awk. In that case, you might need to install regular sed and awk from something like macports or homebrew.


I managed to fix the problem by adding a dummy contact - when I saved it, the contact information was visible again. Just deleted the dummy contact afterwards.


Rename application so I can search for it with spotlight

Select Show in Finder
Select the name of the app
Press enter
Type the new name

Bob’s your uncle. You might need to quit the app before the rename works or shows in the dock, though.


I want to restore the "All My Files" folder/view to the finder sidebar

Go to the Finder Preferences, go to the Sidebar tab, and then make sure the "All My Files" box is checked:


How do I clone a hard disk excluding some directories?

Both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper can clone and omit files or directories from the clone.


Whatever message you wrote when you put it in Lost Mode will still be displayed after you erase the device, so no they won't necessarily know the difference.
If the phone hasn't been put in Lost Mode and wasn't protected by a passcode (ie. they've been able to keep using it) then yes, of course they will notice if the phone resets and everything disappears.

Whatever actions you take will come into effect whenever the phone gets back online. Your question is a bit unclear so if by "notify" you mean "gives them the option to stop the erase" then no, of course not.

For more see this Apple page.


Why does Safari add a weird extension to YouTube links?

The Youtube webapp is adding that to the link (or URL, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL).
The characters after the question mark in the link is the query string (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string). It's one of the ways data can be passed to the server. The "v" parameter specifies which video to show. The ampersand ("&") separates parameters.
I can't find any reference as to what the "frags" parameter does. "%2C" is a comma (",") that's been percent-encoded (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding), so that part is setting the "frags" parameter to "pl,wn".
It's definitely not a problem. Everything is fine.


Does 'family sharing' require that members use same apple ID for both iTunes and iCloud?

To use Family Sharing, you need to have the same Apple ID on both iCloud and iTunes.  It looks to me like you'll need to decide which Apple ID's your family wants to use and stick with that.

On a side note, I don't understand why you'd want to have seperate ID's for each service.  I'm sure you have a good reason but I would strongly recommend using only 1 ID for everything Apple.


How do I get Safari to always display the tab bar?

As it turns out, you do this through the "View" menu, rather than through "Preferences":

Close all tabs but one, so you only have one tab open
In the "View" menu, click "Show Tab Bar" which will make the tab bar appear
This preference will stick, even if you close and reopen Safari

Simple, but not what I expected!


In Safari, how can I allow a site to locate me, after I have refused?

I will try to answer in the following order

3 - Settings are remembered for the whole site. Not for the page.

2 - There is a settings under Preferences -> Privacy, for this. You can select either to be prompted once a day, only once or deny all the time.

1 - I don't think there is no way to do this directly. But I think you can work around it by changing the settings in answer 2 to prompt daily, visit your website, allow locations when prompted and disable the settings back to prompt once if you want to

More on location services https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204690


If your volume control adjusts itself after you restore the device to factory settings, it's likely a hardware error in a button or the headphone jack.

Therefore the steps to fix this are:

Back up your device
Restore the device
Take it in for service (assuming the issue doesn't resolve itself)


I had the same problem and wrote a little AppleScript to handle this. You can find the app here: https://github.com/biafra23/Default-Fluids

You need to make this script your default browser.
This can be achieved with Safari:
Menu -> Safari -> Preferences -> General -> Default web browser

The source is in https://github.com/biafra23/Default-Fluids/blob/master/default_browser.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/main.scpt

It contains sections like this:

if this_URL contains "facebook.com" then
  tell application "/Applications/Fluids/facebook.app"
    activate
    open location this_URL
  end tell
else if
...
else
  -- default browser here
  tell application "/Applications/Firefox.app"
  activate
    open location this_URL
  end tell
end if

You need to make changes to those according to your setup with the AppleScript Editor.

It is not as convenient as choosyosx but its free.


I have tested the following script (written to address another question here-- this one--Is it possible to change a Finder List View column width in AppleScript?
tell application "Finder"
    activate
    set the_window to window 1
    set current view of the_window to list view
    set the_options to list view options of the_window
    set the_name_column to first column of the_options whose name is name column
    set the_items to name of every item of the_window
    -- get the longest name (count of characters)
    set longest_name to 0
    repeat with I from 1 to count of the_items
        --check for invisible files, which we don't need to consider
        if character 1 of item I of the_items is not "." then
            if (count of characters of item I of the_items) > longest_name then
                set longest_name to count of characters of item I of the_items
            end if
        end if
    end repeat
    -- this only works if the text size is 12. The multiplier 7.5 could be changed
    -- if the text size is something else.
    set desired_width to longest_name * 7.5
    set width of the_name_column to desired_width
    -- we have to close and reopen the window in order to see any changes.
    -- there might be a "refresh window" command but I don't know it.
    set the_target to target of the_window
    close the_target
    open the_target
end tell

That script will set the width of the Name column, in a window viewed as list, to be about as big as it needs to be in order to fit the longest name of an item in the window. It works (for me) in macOS 10.11.6 and 10.12.6.
The key is recognize that you don't "set the width of the name column of window 1." Rather, you "set the width of the name column of the list view options of window 1." That's pseudo-code but it tells the story. See the script for details.


How do I move a window to my secondary monitor above the menu bar?

SOLUTION: Move your mouse, while dragging a window, up through the menubar faster.

Go to System Preferences -> Display.
Select the Arrangement tab, and arrange the secondary monitor so that it sits on top of your MacBook monitor.

You should be able to move your application window up to the secondary monitor now.

As mentioned in the comments, if the menu bar is blocking you from moving windows up to your secondary monitor: go to the Arrangement tab and drag the little menubar representation from one screen to the other.  (The solution says drag the window THROUGH the menu bar FASTER i.e. quickly.  This works!!)


No, you don't need a backup any more. iTunes Match stores nothing in the Cloud, it activates your songs in the iTunes Store, and only the songs iTunes doesn't have are uploaded to the Apple Server.

But if your HDD suffers damage, you have to download all your 50 GB again.


Where can we find Apple Technical White Papers?

Developer Documentation

Apple publish their technical documentation, including occasional white papers, on the sub-domain developer.apple.com.

Apple currently promotes https://developer.apple.com/documentation as the official source of technical information about their products.

Archive

The archived documentation contains many useful documents. These are marked as no longer being updated, but their contents are accurate at the date of publishing.

Of particular interest will be the technical notes. These documents contain a wealth of information, such as the excellent TN2083: Daemons and Agents and TN2124 Mac OS X Debugging Magic.


This computer is no longer authorised for purchased items

You've probably authorised the computer with a different iTunes account from the one that the iPad is using. Have you tried deauthorising it and then authorising it again? (If you've purchased iPad apps on both the iPad and the Mac, using different iTunes accounts, then you've got a problem.)


It's not that F4 is set as Launchpad, it's that you have your F-Keys set as 'special function' keys & that special function happens to be Launchpad. (The set of little squares printed on the key next to F4 - each of those icons represent the special functions)

If you look at the first tab of that pref pane - Keyboard - You'll see that box is unchecked…

Once you do that, your 'real' F-Key will come into play, with whatever you set it for in the Shortcuts pane.
Alternatively, you can temporarily swap special function/F-Keys by holding  Fn


yEd is free and is available for OS X, Windows and Linux.


What are some ways to work with / search flagged emails on iOS?

In iOS there's very little you can actually do with the flags except for visual cues.

On the Mac however, you can filter flagged email into a Smart Mailbox which will keep a live view of your mail matching search criteria, such as mail flags.


Are frayed cables of Apple lightning cord or Macbook Power Adapter covered by warranty?

According to Apple One (1) Year Limited Warranty – Accessory:

  This warranty excludes normal depletion of consumable parts such as
  batteries unless failure has occurred due to a defect in materials or
  workmanship and, damage resulting from abuse, accident, modifications,
  unauthorized repairs or other causes that are not defects in materials
  and workmanship.

This is the term that Apple store or service providers often rely on to reject warranty of cases like you mentioned. They could say it was caused by abusive usage behavior, or by accident thus violate the warranty term.

If you are specifically looking to confirm has Apple ever issued a recall/repair program for frayed lightning cable then the answer is No.


External Hard Disk Problem - doesn't mount / can't first aid / can't erase using disk utility

The following error appears if disk has GUID partition table and doesn't have EFI system partition (or it is less than 200 Mb):

Error: -5344: MediaKit reports not enough space on device for requested operation

Even if you are not planning to use this external HDD for booting, Mac OS's Disk Utility requires this partition to exist.

You can create it with gdisk (GUID fdisk):

(First leave some unpartitioned space in start of the disk by moving partitions or backing up data)

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1):
First sector (34-1953525133, default = 40) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (40-1172342001, default = 1172342001) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 512M
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): EF00
Changed type of partition to 'EFI System'

I created it with size of 512 Mb to be sure (200 is enough) and its hex code is EF00.

I'm not sure if it is required for Disk Utility, but it's better to format it with FAT32:

sudo newfs_msdos -F 32 <your partition device, i.e. /dev/disk1s1>

Additional information:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_System_Partition Gentoo Wiki, includes information how to create it with gdisk
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_System_Partition Arch Linux Wiki


Adjusting screen brightness based on application

I'm using a little menubar program called ControlPlane.

It allows you to create "contexts". You define what evidence sources the program keeps an eye on, and when it detects the activation of some evidence source, it switches to a context and performs a set of actions that you've set it to do. It has a lot of actions to choose from, but if you don't find what you like, you can also set it to run an applescript that you've written, just remember to save the script as an application, for otherwise it will simply open the script as a text in Script Editor. I think you could try something like this:

Create a context and call it "video".
Set the activating trigger for the context to be, when it detects that VLC is frontmost. (Haven't looked but there might be further settings for using fullscreen as the trigger). - Then, add an action to the trigger: On arrival... to the "Video" context.... , no delay.
Create another trigger so that when ControlPlane detects you're no longer in that context (because the evidence source such as a specific open application has become false), Create an action "On departure... to the "Video" context... And set the brightness value back to normal.

I use ControlPlane in concert with a key binding program called BetterTouchTool.

If I wanted to have ControlPlane change the brightness level not whenever VLC is open, but whenever it's in fullscreen, I might first create the ControlPlane brightness action thing described above but set it to never look for evidence and change context spontaneously on its own. Instead, I could write an AppleScript which would command ControlPlane to toggle that context.

In BetterTouchTool, I could then select VLC as the application in question and create a new keyboard shortcut for it to override what it originally has. I think  + F normally toggles fullscreen mode in VLC. In BetterTouchTool, you could assign  + F to do multiple actions of your choice:

Toggle fullscreen AND run the applescript application which commands ControlPlane to change brightness.
Hit +F again with VLC foremost, and it would toggle that action set again.

BetterTouchTool also has an action to change the display brightness so you can also just skip ControlPlane, but I explained the whole ControlPlane thing in case that you actually do want to automate something for some apps without having to press any keys yourself.

I'm assuming that you're on a laptop or an iMac, are you? Because these brightness commands don't work for external monitors.


I'm not sure about Apple's current policies, but you might be able to order replacement DVDs via an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Store -- if so, they'd be treated a bit like repair parts, not as retail items.  Also, note that you'll need disks specifically for your model, as there was a special build of 10.5.7 (build 9J3050) with support for the new hardware in the Mid-2009 MBPs.

Another possibility would be to borrow an older Mac that can boot 10.5.0, install the base OS and update it to 10.5.8, and then clone the volume to your MBP.  I'm pretty sure the drivers etc for that model got rolled into the standard build of 10.5.8, so it should work properly.  For cloning, I recommend putting one of the computers into target disk mode, so it essentially acts as a FireWire disk; then boot the other computer from a third volume (your MBP's 10.6 system should work), run Disk Utility, and use its Restore feature to copy the 10.5.8 volume onto a blank partition in the MBP (be sure the enable the Erase destination option).

In case of trouble, once you have the system installed you should probably make a disk image so you can restore it if anything goes wrong (you're running tests, right?).  Again, while booted from another volume (e.g. 10.6), run disk utility, choose File > New > Disk Image from Folder (don't use the from device option), select the entire bootable volume as the source "folder", save the image as either compressed or readonly on some volume with plenty of free space (compressed takes a lot longer to create, but the space saving is generally worth it).  Once that finishes, choose Images > Scan Image for Restore, and select the newly created image (again, this takes lots of space as it actually copies the entire image in the process of "scanning" it).  When that's finished (it takes quite a while -- everything in this process does), you have an image that can be used as a Restore source in Disk Utility.


How should I proceed when I get the "Unable to Purchase" alert from the iOS App Store?

According to a previous discussion on the Apple Discussion boards, you should sign out and sign in again in your Store settings.

And if that doesn't work, their is always another fix, which involves downloading a 3th party software. No jailbreak required!


Use MacBook Air or Pro for app development?

This is a very difficult question to answer, it depends so much on what sort of development you are doing, even if you will have access to an external monitor or not.

Really, what I think you are asking is if an Air is capable of running Xcode for minor development tasks.  As if it isn't, you know that the Pro would be.

Certainly an Air is capable of running XCode, but on the smaller screens it's not going to be a comfortable experience as XCode does enjoy vast amounts of screen real estate if it can get it.

Also, the lack of a full size keyboard may be annoying when coding on a laptop keyboard, whether it's the Air or the Pro, I bought an external keyboard simply to have access to full size keys for forward delete, home/end etc etc.

So you may find that a Mini, with external kb/monitor may be your best alternative, depending on your financial limits etc.


The first trick was to remember where I put the cable, which is apparently called the "Apple 30-pin cable".

Having the original Mac or iTunes was not necessary.  I plugged the iPod in to a Linux device (although this should also work from any Mac with a Terminal window).  I located where the device was mounted (let's say it was /Volumes/iPod) and then ran the following command in a terminal:

rm /Volumes/iPod/iPod_Control/Device/_locked

I then ejected the device and it was unlocked!


How can I remotely control an iPhone from a Mac?

An iPad or iPod Touch and FaceTime is the best solution. Any old book or stand can prop the latter to show what’s on the former screen in real time to you.

Nothing else compares for ease of setup, quality and responsiveness.


Is there any way to run incompatible apps from future versions of macOS?

In a word, No

There are differences in macOS versions, and if an app says "macOS Catalina or later" it means that it requires something that is specific to, introduced in and not in earlier versions of macOS.

For example if you have an app that requires macOS High Sierra or greater it will also (likely) work on Mojave and Catalina too, but not on Sierra.

So, sorry, but that app was written to use a feature of Catalina that is just not there in previous versions of macOS.

You could contact the developer and ask if it is possible but I would bet no.


MailTags from http://www.indev.ca can provide you with a number of ways to tag messages in Mail.

You are not going to get a lot of love out of Apple's mail.app otherwise.


Make ls command sort by file type (e.g. directories and file extension)

As you've found out, the Darwin version of the ls command doesn't support the -X | --sort=extension option. This option is unique to the GNU version of ls.

You can obtain the GNU version of ls for your system. The easiest way to do this is through the Homebrew package manager and porting system. With Homebrew installed do:

brew install coreutils

to add the GNU Core Utilities package to your system. All the utilities will be prefixed with g so they don't collide with the default Darwin utils that OS X ships with.

With the GNU Core Utilites installed you can now do:

gls -X

And you'll see the output sorted as you desire.

If you want to use the GNU Core Utils instead of the utilities that come with OS X you can put the following line in your ~/.bashrc file:

source /usr/local/Cellar/coreutils/8.14/aliases

And you won't need to use the g prefix on the commands any more. I'll say this isn't an entirely safe thing to do as some of the GNU utils differ from the bash built-ins and Darwin tools in how they behave, enough so that they might screw up other things in your shell session. So do this with caution.


Simultaneously using Airplay and headphones

iTunes can stream to multiple output devices simultaneously and it's done inside the iTunes app, not the System Preferences.

Here are the steps from Apple Support Page:

Connect your computer, Apple TV, AirPort Express, or other AirPlay-enabled accessory to the same Wi-Fi network.
Open iTunes on your computer.
To the right of the volume slider in iTunes, click "AirPlay icon". You'll see this icon only when an AirPlay-enabled device is on the same Wi-Fi network.

Click the name of the device that you want to stream content to. The Apple TV  or speaker  icons next to each device show the type of content that you can stream.


CMD +  T
Adjust document color.
Adjust text color.


Does there exist an iPhone application that can call an online API (RESTful or otherwise) triggered by geofences?

Looks like Locative can do this:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/locative/id725198453?mt=8

https://github.com/LocativeHQ


Some purchases NOT showing up on my Apple TV (4K)

Make sure that you are signed into the same Apple ID username (email) and password. If you are, sign out and then sign back in to see if that helps. If that still doesnt work, then you may need to call Apple Care tech support for account assistance.


If you've forgotten the email address for your Apple ID, you can use one of the recovery emails in the account at https://iforgot.apple.com.

If you don't have any recovery email addresses and can't remember the original Apple ID email address, you can't recover your account.


Sidecar extends your display and audio is not a component of a display.

Use your iPad as a second display for your Mac with Sidecar

This is just another way to extend your desktop with another monitor.  When you do that, you don't extend your audio as well.  Audio is a different entity all together.  In the support document linked above, there's no mention, whatsoever of audio.
It's probably confusing that when you connect a monitor with built in speakers via an HDMI cable that the display supports audio.  That's not entirely accurate - as stated before, display and audio to macOS are two distinct entities.  It will see the speakers of the display as an audio device and you have the option to send audio there or to the internal speakers or to any other connected audio device.  So, while it's built in, they're not tied together.
Sidecar doesn't make the speakers of the iPad appear as audio devices to your Mac.


What is AXVisualSupportAgent, and why does it eat my RAM?

I don't know what the process does but this reference has a description of a way to prevent it from using a lot of cpu time. The process is related to the accessibility settings on your computer. To reduce the time taken open system preferences and click on accessibility. Turn off the zoom function and turn off image smoothing. There are other things listed in the link. The link is originally in Japanese but the googletranslation was pretty good I think. It was also mentioned that the problem really started with Catalina.


Multiple Monitors using separate "spaces", yet have screensaver stretch as if one space macbook pro

This is not possible with the current macOS. It would be necessary to write a screen saver that explicitly understands you want to draw across multiple screen surfaces.


How to combine two images into one on a Mac?

I often have to do this with images of plots of data.  I use the command line tools that come in the Imagemagick package; I think I installed it on my system with MacPorts. You could also choose to install with brew (brew install imagemagick).
The actual tool you want to use from Imagemagick is the convert tool.  If you have your two 320x428 images, say a.png and b.png, you can do
convert +append a.png b.png c.png

to create a new file, c.png, that has the a.png on the left and b.png on the right.  Alternatively, you append them vertically with -append (instead of +) and a.png will be on top of b.png.  With convert, you can do a ton of other things.  For example, you can switch to a different image format for the output
convert +append a.png b.jpg c.tif

This isn't a GUI application, but maybe some others might have a better solution.  Alternatively, you could put this in some sort of automator script.
2020-12-10：
I used it on 2020-12-10 and now the correct code is
convert +append a.png b.jpg +append c.tif


Why does StorageManagement keep quitting whenever I want to look at storage?

Reindex the Spotlight Index by following these steps:

Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
Click the Privacy tab.
Drag the folder or disk that you want to index
again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from
searching. Or click the Add (+) button and select the folder or disk
to add.

To add an item to the Privacy tab, you must have ownership permissions for that item. To learn about permissions, choose Help from the Finder menu bar, then search for “permissions.”

From the same list of locations, select the folder or disk that you just
added. Then click the Remove (–) button to remove it from the list.
Quit System Preferences. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the
folder or disk.

From: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716


Disk Utility and diskutil (which Disk Utility uses behind the scenes) are refusing to increase the size of your APFS container because your recovery partition, "Recovery HD", appears to be in the way (though, for whatever reason, Disk Utility is not making this apparent in its diagrams). This probably became the case due to a direct upgrade from a pre-APFS version of macOS (i.e. Sierra or earlier) to Mojave; if you do a fresh install of Mojave, an APFS volume called "Recovery" is created inside the same APFS container used for your macOS installation, rather than a distinct HFS partition called "Recovery HD".

From the info you've provided, your 250 GB disk appears to be partitioned as follows:

+------------+---------------------------+-------------+-------------------------+
| EFI System | APFS container            | Recovery HD | Free Space              |
| Partition  |                           |             |                         |
| (210 MB)   | (125 GB)                  | (650 MB)    | (125 GB)                |
+------------+---------------------------+-------------+-------------------------+

But let's confirm this is the case: please share the output of sudo gpt -r show disk0 to see the GUID partition table proper.

If this is the case, you'll need to move the "Recovery HD" partition to the end of the disk, and then you should be able to increase the size of the APFS container which contains the "mint" APFS volume where macOS is installed. I am unsure if this could render your recovery partition unbootable, but it seems highly unlikely.


Reply/to address for replies to emails that received no reply

You should check the recipient/ To email address if that mention your name then it will come on to your email address.


Applescript to set terminal window to specific size

Scaled-down values need to be given to osascript. You'll need to experiment as CJK said.

In my case, I want a size that is the same proportions as HD (1920x1080), but maximize my screen width. I made my Terminal the full width and height of the screen (manually, not with the "full screen" button because I want to preserve the menu bar). Then ran:

osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to get bounds of front window'

=> 0, 23, 1440, 900

So, it looks like the menu bar is 23 pixels, and the width used by osascript is 1440. 1440 width in an HD ratio is 1440x810.

So, the command for me that results in a max width window that is HD ratio is:

osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to set bounds of front window to {0, 23, 1440, 833}'

The 833 is 810 + 23 to account for the menu bar height.


The shell uses a space character as a separator between words, so paths containing spaces always must be put in "" when used (which implies that it is recommended/best practice to ensure that all paths and file names in shell scripts and init files are properly quoted):

ANKI_MEDIA="/Users/<username>/Library/Application\ Support/Anki2/me/collection.media"
cd "$ANKI_MEDIA"

You can also use \ to protect a space but this only works for literal paths, not for variables:

cd /Users/<username>/Library/Application\ Support/Anki2/me/collection.media

If applying quotes each time you change into this directory is inconvenient you can use an alias instead:

alias cdanki="cd '$ANKI_MEDIA'"


If you have the optional command line tools that XCode will install for you, codesign is the tool of choice.

Using the Terminal app:

$ codesign --display -vv /Applications/GarageBand.app/
Executable=/Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/MacOS/GarageBand
Identifier=com.apple.garageband
Format=bundle with Mach-O thin (i386)
CodeDirectory v=20100 size=24489 flags=0x200(kill) hashes=1218+3 location=embedded
Signature size=4169
Authority=Apple Mac OS Application Signing
Authority=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority
Authority=Apple Root CA
Info.plist entries=27
Sealed Resources rules=14 files=2021
Internal requirements count=2 size=500

And a non-Apple signed app..

$ codesign --display -vv /Applications/iTerm.app/
[snip]
Authority=Developer ID Application: GEORGE NACHMAN