What do I need to do to get my Apple Watch apps to launch quickly?

The biggest thing you can do is delete all the apps except the few you want to be “fast”. Then benchmark and only add others till your performance is acceptable. Be sure to power off your watch, then try launching apps a couple times to get the stable time and not first launch time.

All third party apps on the Watch currently are going to be slower than grabbing the iPhone, unless you can't get at the phone due to social constraints or it being inaccessible in a bag or pocket or some distance from you and the watch.

This is because Apple has made every effort to let no code run on the watch at release. Third party apps get to run nothing on the watch. They don't get access to the digital crown, force touch, regular touch, sensor data or the speaker/microphone directly.

They only pre-load some potential answers and pictures (think flash cards and a small photo album) and all the work gets done on the iPhone OS. If you want an answer quickly, get your phone out and access the apps there directly. That saves the Watch from constructing a network connection to the phone, waking it up if needed, activating the app in the background and then telling the app what to do so that the phone app can then tell the watch what images / text to display. If those assets are not pre-loaded on the watch, you then have to wait for them to transfer.

The watch will be faster than the phone only when the phone can push events to the watch on its own behalf. For Dark Sky - perhaps you have a severe weather alert that the phone detects in the background or due to a push notification from the Dark Sky servers to the phone using APNS. Then the phone knows there is a watch and pushes a notification to it. You'll get that notification on the watch before you can pull out your phone.

Worse, most of the apps that are shipping are programmed only in the Xcode simulator and not by developers that have used the watch. A select few developers had the chance to tweak their app with pre-release watches and in the past few weeks with hardware, but most apps just can't be great yet.

It's like reading a book about how to learn to ride a bike and then playing with a bike riding simulator. Developers need to go out and ride their bikes and crash, skin their knees, crash some more before they know how to actually ride that new bike.

Here are some developer perspectives explaining this in more detail:

Your Apple Watch app probably sucks
Overcast Apple Watch app redesign

The two apple watch apps I was involved in were not shipped. After evaluating the risk of shipping a smiling , we decided the benefit of being "First" wasn't worth the high chance of wasting our time and our user's time until we actually know if the app would be useful.


Multiple macs self-assigned IP on ethernet (wifi okay though)

I'll answer and accept this question as I'm certain now that the problem is the interaction between modern Macs and my Cisco switch. I can kind of fix the problem by:

Setting the Mac ethernet "hardware" tab to manual 1000T/full duplex
Setting corresponding switch ports to 1000T/full duplex
Turning off the switch green ethernet facility
Making sure switch is at the latest firmware release

This seems to work well until the Mac sleeps, then the connection is lost again. I'm still trying to work out how to work around that issue.


Does Apple allow crypto-currency mining in ios app?

A quick skim through the App Store Review Guidelines didn't reveal anything obvious.

That said, section 2.4.2 currently contains the following:

  Design your app to use power efficiently. Apps should not rapidly drain battery, generate excessive heat, or put unnecessary strain on device resources.

I'm guessing that would be the clause they'd use to reject any crypto currency mining, which would by definition be CPU/GPU intentive.


How to use Dropbox for applications with Lion Versions support?

My take on this is that Apple does not want users to see iCloud as another Dropbox or (even worse) another iDisk. Although I am not certain of what I about to write, my theory on iCloud based on what I have read so far is that there will not be an iDisk-like drive or a Dropbox-like special folder. Instead, iCloud's approach will be app-centric in that you will open the app you want and then get your files from iCloud regardless of which iPad, iPhone or Mac you're using at the time. In the practical sense, that most likely means that iCloud will "magically" get you the latest file as you switch contexts, but not the file's Versions history--that will be for now a Lion-only feature.

I do not anticipate Dropbox integrating with Versions or iCloud any time soon because it is not in the best interest of Dropbox for you to use iCloud and vice-versa. Especially considering how both have a vested interested in earning your storage needs business (And this is even more true for Dropbox than it is for Apple). At the technical level, there is no reason why they wouldn't be able to coexist: Lion would see the Dropbox folder as any other folder and allow you to keep its Versions history. Dropbox, in turn, will see the hidden folders used by Versions as folders it needs to sync up--unless Dropbox does not currently support syncing hidden folders. I have not tested to see what Dropbox does with them

It is important to remember that Dropbox's very own version history is kept at their server. That means that there would not be a physical conflict between the historic files Dropbox keeps track of and what Lion keeps track on that same folder for Versions. It will be up to you to choose where to go and look: On Lion's friendly Versions UI or on Dropbox's web-based file history. Of course, the caveat is that the individual historic entries won't be exactly the same. I guess you can say there will be two "versions" of the same story (pun intended).

I do not think there is a need for a workaround as there really is no technical conflict. iCloud and Dropbox will both do their thing and I will probably end up using Versions in Lion to browse the file history of all of my files, even those in the Dropbox folder, because it is friendlier to use. If I cannot use Versions on a particular file because its app doesn't yet support it, and if this is a file that I have in Dropbox, then I will go and take a look at the Dropbox website to get its version history. Hope this helps.


PuTTY is using different key format than the OpenSSH and OpenSSH is failing to report correctly the errors about unknown format in some versions.

If you want to use the PuTTY key in OpenSSH, you need to convert the private key to OpenSSH format in PuTTYGen (as described on SO):

Open PuttyGen
Click Load
Load your private key
Go to Conversions->Export OpenSSH and export your private key
Copy your private key to ~/.ssh/id_rsa


Change user password without the old one on macOS Catalina

You'll have to reboot the Mac in recovery mode, open a terminal, the issue the command "resetpassword". You will have to reset the password for every account on the system or it won't let you proceed.

The really horrible thing about this new Apple "security measure" is that it allows malware authors to create accounts on your computer that you can't delete unless you know the procedure I outlined in the above.

Followup:

The reason for this is because the account that you want to reset the password for has a Secure Token set. If the account was created at the GUI level or at the command line using "sysadminctl", and was created as an admin account, then it most definitely has a Secure Token set.

Followup #2:

Not all Macs will have the SecureToken enabled on all accounts, this is usually the case where the Mac originally came with some version of Mac OS prior to Catalina. No, root doesn't even have this token enabled. However, the SecureToken capability has been around since High Sierra and was set any time that Migration Assistant was used or if FileVault was ever enabled. If a Mac was upgraded to Catalina, the user who ran the upgrade will get the SecureToken set on their account even if somebody else has it too. Those users will be the only ones who can grant the token to other users or revoke it and this has to be done at the command line with sysadminctl, you will also need to know the password to any account that you intend to modify. As of Catalina, if you forget the password to any account with the SecureToken enabled, no other users can reset that account password unless you know the current password. In which case, you will have to reboot the Mac into recovery mode and reset the passwords for all user accounts. Thanks Apple! (NOT)


iPhone 7 Won't Play Music on Bluetooth Headphones

I realized that it stopped working after I updated to the latest version of iOS.  After going into the Bluetooth settings and "forgetting" the headphones and then re-pairing it worked fine.


The Command to enter login items is not working in 10.8

I didn't have AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary in ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist but only in /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist.

Most login items are stored in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist. The paths are stored as alias data, but you can also add login items with AppleScript:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make new login item at end with properties {path:"/Applications/TextEdit.app", name:"TextEdit", hidden:true}'


Can I change the application icon of an Automator script?

After the script has been created do the following :

Find the source app with the icon you want
Get Info of the source app (cmd-i)
Click on the icon inside the source app's info window
(Not the one in the big Preview section at the bottom, if you have one of those; the little one in the top-left corner.)
Copy it (cmd-c)
Get Info of the automator script (i.e., the destination app) (cmd-i)
Click on the icon inside the destination app's info window
Paste the icon from the clipboard (cmd-v)

This method works for every files in Mac OS X.


How to modify view of sub-directories inside a directory?

The answer is Go to Finder > View > Hide Preview ;)

(Still new to Mac OS)


Playlist folder not showing songs from all child playlists

I had this happen to me for the second time recently. I just fixed it!
I thought I looked up a fix the first time, which I haven't been able to find.
However this is what I did just now.

I copied the name of the playlist to the clipboard,
then I simply deleted the whole playlist (for me this was fine because it was one of MANY playlists in the folder, this one only having one song in it).

Created a new playlist in the folder, pasted the name in, then added the song to the playlist! Pop! It showed up in the folder now!

For you, I would probably drag all the songs to a new playlist outside of the folder, delete the playlist inside the folder, then either re-create the original playlist by creating another one in the folder and dragging all the songs from the 'backup' (outside the folder), or perhaps try dragging the 'backup' back into the folder straight away.

*you could also try using the "New Playlist from Selection" function (command-shift-n) (under the file menu) (assuming Mac Platform).

I of course can't try any of these other methods until I encounter this problem again.

PLEASE NOTE: deleting the SONG from the playlist and then adding it again had NO EFFECT. The reference to the playlist itself seems to be the problem/bug.

I'm running v10.5 (141), but this happened on an older version as well.


Preview says "The file couldn't be saved" for a pdf document

Once you annotate a regular PDF doc, Preview will prevent you from directly saving the file.

You will have to remove the annotations or, as you already found, do a Print -> Save to PDF.


Recomendations for where to assign the hash (#) key

I assume you're on a non-US keyboard - my US mac keyboard has shift-3 as #, where my £ is on my UK keyboard.

I think this rather depends on your key usage. Most normal users never use the ` or ~, so that top left key would work. I use them both quite a lot though.

Another alternative would be to use System Prefs to switch to the US layout. Most of the keys are exactly the same, and you'd get the usual shift-3 for #. Not quite one-button, but an easy solution, nonetheless.

F5 and F6 doesn't get much use on my keyboard at all, nor do F13-F19.


How do I stop iTunes 11 from randomly match SD and HD episodes of a TV-series?

Have you tried directly editing the info in iTunes?
For example, you can manually select all of the season 4 TV shows, right click, press the "Get Info" button (Not what most people expect)

You should see a window like this (when selecting multiple items), which you should be able to directly modify the season number:


iMac freezes complete, except mouse pointer. What can I do?

I had this problem as well, it turns out that migrating from a prior version was the problem, specifically kernel extensions that used to worked now "sorta" worked until they didn't.

Using Lingon (see the Apple Store), it was possible turn on and off various services to locate the problematic one(s).  Using Onyx it was possible to clear out the kernel caches.

For me it was some historic SnapZPro extensions that needed updating.


Can I remove all missing songs without having to do it one at a time?

Here's a work-around I found:

Create a playlist in iTunes and call it whatever you want (I called
mine "existing songs").
Go to your "All Songs" view, select your entire library, and drag it into the "existing songs" playlist. iTunes will not add missing songs to this playlist, which means "existing songs" will only include songs without an exclamation point.
Create a new smart playlist with the rule "Playlist is not
existing songs". Name it whatever you want (like "Exclamation").
Your new smart playlist will contain only the missing songs, you can re-download them or delete them as you wish.

Source: LifeHacker


Xcode stopped detecting SVN repository changes after installing other version controlling apps

If you look at the release notes for Xcode 10 you will see that it has dropped support for SVN repositories.  If you need SVN support then you will need to use a third-party SVN client.


Mount SMB share without 2GB filesize limit on OSX Lion

Since Lion, OS X does not come with Samba, but with another implementation of SMB/CIFS.

OS X documentation does not have an option for large file.

You perhaps simply need to update your OS X installation. I have OS X Mountain Lion, and files of 3GB are copied over SMB without trouble. Either you need to upgrade to Mountain Lion or to a newer Lion release.

Other possibility, your server does not support large file and needs an upgrade.

PS: you should avoid cross-posting on multiple stack exchange sites at the same time.


Folders disappeared from iCloud Drive following path name change

Depending on the number of files you have, iCloud Drive can take a while to get itself situated.

I would move the files somewhere safe that is not part of iCloud and is easy to get to. Leaving them where they are should also work. Then, turn off iCloud Drive and follow all the prompts. It’ll want to “finish updating,” which you can skip. It’ll leave a folder in your home folder that’s an archive of some files it thought may not be uploaded yet.

Once everything is off, re-enable it. Wait until everything comes back. This can take a long time (hours) and it may look like nothing is happening. It will finish.

Once everything is back, make sure your data is all there and delete the old stuff.


Settings have many MDM hooks. You can experiment for free cloud based solution like JAMF now to get started.

https://signup.jamfcloud.com

Carrier settings are much more tricky, most get set by the carrier over the air and depend on whatever sim is sent out and physically installed, so you’ll likely need something other than a MDM for that.


You cannot at this time.

The option to disable 3G no longer exists for the 4S. No word on why Apple disabled the feature. It may be a proactive move to dump old technology as the phone still supports 2G and will switch to the slower network if 3G is not found.

There is a rather large discussion regarding this matter on Apple's forums.


iMac logging out whenever seemingly stressful programs are launched

The cause for your issue is most likely related to the graphics processing unit (GPU) of your iMac. This is what's commonly referred to as a graphics card.

Some games and applications will place the GPU under a much heavier load compared to others.

For example, using a word processor will not tax the GPU much at all, but using applications such as Photoshop, Maya, Render, Final Cut Pro, Motion, etc will place a much heavier burden on the GPU. I'm not familiar with Roblox, but it's likely that it's also taxing the GPU heavily.

Normally this would not be a problem, but if your Mac has a GPU that has developed a problem, it'll be enough to effectively cause it to crash in such a way that your Mac has to reboot. In this scenario it's a hardware fault that may mean repairing or replacing the GPU.

Some Mac models were more prone than others to these types of problems. For example, the 27" iMac model from mid-2011 was the subject of a graphics card replacement program for exactly this type of issue.

However, it doesn't necessarily have to be a hardware fault. Software can often cause problems. For example, it could be a conflict between software, drivers, etc or a lack of graphics memory (especially if running multiple apps simultaneously). You could try troubleshooting this further by only running one application and seeing what happens. Perhaps testing in Safe Mode may be an option as well.

Remove any CUDA and NVIDIA drivers

Since you're running macOS Mojave (or above), you should be aware that any CUDA and NVIDIA drivers you have installed aren't supported.

To remove these:

Launch Terminal (found within your Utilities folder)
Copy and paste the following commands, one by one, into Terminal followed by pressing enter on your keyboard. Each time you do this you'll also have to enter your Admin password.

sudo rm -rf /Library/Extensions/CUDA.kext
sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/CUDA.framework
sudo rm -rf /Library/LaunchAgents/com.nvidia.CUDASoftwareUpdate.plist
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/StartupItems/CUDA
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/cuda

Go to Apple > System Preferences
Right-click on the CUDA preference pane
Select the Remove "CUDA" preference pane option

OPTIONAL: If you also have NVIDIA Web Drivers installed (that's a 'yes' if you have the NVIDIA icon in the menu bar), then follow these additional steps:

Still in System Preferences, click the NVIDIA Driver Manager preference pane
Select the Graphics Drivers tab
Click on the padlock and type your password
Click the Open Uninstaller button
Click Uninstall
Complete the Uninstall process and restart your iMac


OSX Yosemite Prohibitory Sign on Startup

Wondering what you meant by PRAM reset due to the fact that technically, on the Intel models, it's now called NVRAM even though you still have to use the P and R keys. If you have ethernet, you can hold down command-option-r at startup to boot to directly from Apple and run First Aid in Disk Utility. If you have a battery that can't be readily removed, you might want to reset system management (SMC) by ensuring that the Mac is turned off, then disconnecting everything except power, then pressing and releasing together shift-control-option and power on/off (eject) buttons. Then do your NVRAM reset again. That can help about half the time. (NVRAM reset is starting then immediately pressing and holding command-option-p-r until the startup chime plays a few times, at least three.)


How can I achieve page-up and page-down in OS X?

If you have a full keyboard you can use the pgup and pgdown keys on your keyboard, near the numpad.

If you are not using a full keyboard, function, labeled fn on your keyboard, plus the up and down arrow keys will give you a page up and down.

For certain applications, particularly in shell / terminal / tty windows, the expected behaviour is achieved with fn+shift+arrow up/down


How do I save the photos I took on iPhone on my iPad?

Presumably you are referring to My Photo Stream, which deletes photos after 30 days or 1000 images, which comes first. You don't say which version of iOS you are running, but the below will work on v8.

You can save photos to your device from My Photo Stream by tapping the Share icon (an upward pointing arrow) from any photo, then tapping Save Image. You can also select multiple photos first (tap Select at the top right of the album view, then tap on images to select them), again followed by tapping the Share icon then Save Images.


How to fix curl throwing "error setting certificate verify locations"

The problem arises because OS X doesn't keep its CA certs in the file system; they live in the "System Roots" keychain. You can see them with the Keychain Access app (found in your Applications/Utilities folder).

For those tools that don't know how to talk to the keychain (like curl), you can export these certs to a folder of your choice, say /etc/ssl/certs to be consistent with most linux distros. You can either drag and drop them out of Keychain Access into a finder window, or select them and choose "Export items..." from the file menu. With drag and drop it always seems to use the binary .cer format, whereas most CLI tools want base64-encoded PEM (commonly using the .crt file extension). You can export in pem format from keychain access, but it only seems to export one cert at a time even if you have multiple certs selected. To work around this, I wrote a bash script to batch convert .cer to PEM format .crt files:

#!/bin/bash
#Convert all .cer files in this folder into PEM format .crt files
shopt -s nullglob
for f in *.cer
do
        openssl x509 -inform der -in "${f}" -outform pem -out "${f%.*}.crt"
        rm "$f"
done
chmod 444 *crt

To use it, make a folder, put this script in it (I called it cerconv.sh), drag and drop all your root CA certs into it, open a terminal in that folder and just run bash cerconv.sh.

To avoid nefarious things swapping out your CA certs, I added a line to chmod them all as read-only.

This may all be unnecessary - I certainly have no trouble with git(hub), homebrew, curl etc without having to do this, and have done for years - but at least you now know how to get the certs.

This approach is better than using -k in curl because you're not compromising your security.

Update: I just discovered the security utility on OS X. Here's a command that uses it to to export all certificates from your system keychain into a single .pem file that should be usable with curl:

security export -p -t certs -k `security list-keychains -d system|cut -d '"' -f 2` -o certs/certs.pem


Apple Configurator refreshes as soon as it finished

I had the same problem so I thought I'd share my solution:

After the device goes to refresh again, manually stop the refresh. Once you are able to clear the refresh screen and see the settings for that device, it should refresh correctly in the future.


No more multi-language detection autocorrect in mac os x 10.7.5?

You should find the setting in your System Preferences.

Select Automatic by language or your choice.


changing camera to thunderbolt display for google hangout

Click the Options button at the bottom of your chat list.
  Select Chat settings… from the menu.
  Adjust the selections in the drop-down menus for your camera, microphone, and speakers.

Source: https://support.google.com/chat/answer/162176

[alternative]

June 2015 (latest)

Within a particular Hangout, you can know click on the Settings button at the top

and change your audio and video settings.

This allows you to switch between the laptop's camera and the display's camera.

February 2014 (possibly outdated)

By clicking on Options in the Hangouts app in Chrome:

the only thing I could see was:

which didn't take me very far. So you can click on Gmail > Chat list > Chat settings:

Or go to Gmail > Settings > Chat [Note: this only worked for me (on Chrome) if I didn't have the new Hangouts list in Gmail, but rather the "old chat" interface. With the new Hangouts list, I'm still not sure how to go about it since the Chat options seems limited to "Chat on" or "Chat off".]

In any case, both of  Gmail > Chat list > Chat settings and Gmail > Settings > Chat take you to the same place, where you can select which camera to use.


What is the maximum safe current for Mac Pro PSU?

Not all of the listed items have a voltage of 12 V. E.g the HDD+ODD has only 5 V and the CPUs have a much lower voltage. According to Intel the voltage of the Xeon® Processor X5670 maxes out at 1.350 V and the TDP is 2 x 95 W (and not 2 x 12 V x ~46 A = 1104 W).

So just adding all currents and multiplying them with 12 to get the wattage is not appropriate here.


Prevent Mac from connecting to WiFi networks with same name as preferred network

Obviously you joined neighbors network once upon a time.

Since you have the "Remember networks this computer has joined" Enabled, it will remember it.

Find it and delete it in networks - advanced, or just delete both and next time reconnect in the coffee shop, but do not connect to Free WiFi if showing up when at home.

The fact that they have the same name showing "Free WiFi" is only for us humans, the computer use BSSID to identify the stations.


Is it normal for iOS updates to fail or to take hours on launch day?

This is quite expected for several hours (and sometimes even a day later at popular times like first thing in the morning) as Apple tunes the servers that host the download images. Usually, things smooth out several hours after the launch and if you have this issue for more than a day, I would contact support just in case it's your device that is having problems.

Even more important than the download servers are the activation servers that verify the software wasn't corrupted or tampered with as they seem to be preventing many people from updating even after the software is downloaded and installed on the device.

It's not unrealistic that thousands or even a million devices are all asking to download the files at the same time, and if you wish to get a good download here are some strategies:

Go to a network with an OS X Server Caching service so that the first person to download the package will cause it to be cached so that all the subsequent downloads are a local transaction
Use iTunes (or Safari) to download the update rather than perform an over the air (OTA) update as shown above.
Wait out the rush and get your update several hours or days later.

Hopefully, enough servers are available so that this isn't "normal", but even on a fast connection to the internet you might have some delays in upgrading on launch day.


It is here:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LoginUIKit.framework/Versions/Current/Frameworks/LoginUICore.framework/Resources/OtherUser.png


How to tell what apps are not being used?

In iOS 11, you can set up your ipad to move unused apps. Go to Settings and then tap General. In General there is a page for iPhone Storage. Here there is an option to remove unused apps. If you enable this then unused apps will be removed.

Someone reported on this site that they had a problem with there iPad not accurately determining the last used date. That person was getting this "app never used" setting for all apps. I assume you want to avoid that.

If you scroll down on same page where you enable the removal of unused apps, there is a list of all apps on your device. Under the name of each app is the last used date. Make sure that that field does not have "Never Used" for apps you know you have used.


Should I have my MBP "take breaks" while working hard, or are its fans sufficient?

Your processor automatically throttles itself when it gets too hot, OS X automatically sets the fan speeds appropriate, and in the off-chance your computer gets too hot, it will automatically shut off.

You don't need to worry about a modern computer getting "over-worked".


What's the difference between "Empty Trash" and "Secure Empty Trash"

This excerpt from Tech Republic explains it quite well (emphasis mine):

  The Secure Empty Trash command prompts Mac OS X to perform a
  seven-pass* erasure of the file Instead of just removing a directory
  entry to the file or files in question, Mac OS X's Secure Empty Trash
  command initiates a series of seven different passes in which random
  information is written to the hard disk sectors previously occupied by
  that file. In fact, Apple states that this secure erasure meets United
  States Department of Defense security standards.

*This is incorrect. It's a 1X pass. See edit.

In comparison, "Empty trash" does not write over the 'deleted' data at all - it just marks the blocks where this data is stored on your HDD as available for use. It does not erase the actual data you discard.

Writing over a disk even one time takes a while. Simply telling the system "these blocks are now available to be written over" takes no time as well.

You should use "Secure Empty Trash" if you are deleting sensitive information and you want to make sure it won't be recovered in the future.

Edit:

That Tech Republic article is incorrect. As Andrew Medico correctly pointed out in his answer, securely emptying the trash performs a 1X pass. From Apple's Training Manual:

  There are varying levels of security offered depending on the number of passes and whether each path uses a specific data pattern or random data. Disk Utility in OS X offers multiple sanitization options for an entire volume or free space. A seven-pass erase option is available that meets U.S. Department of Defense standards (DOD 5220-22M).

  Users can also initiate sanitization while deleting files using the Secure Empty Trash command in the Finder. This command overwrites files as they are deleted using a single-pass erase.

While the Erase Free Space option in Disk Utility offers 7X pass, the secure empty trash feature is only a 1X pass. Tech Republic seems to have conflated the two.


How to revert to Lion from Mountain Lion?

The Time Machine backup should do a pretty good job keeping all of your documents and most of your settings and should be backwards-compatible*, but I recommend making a complete, bootable backup of your previous system so that you're guaranteed to be able to restore your machine to exactly as it was before updating.

I'm a fan of Carbon Copy Cloner (free trial) for making the backup. Back up to a clean disk or partition using CCC and tell it to copy everything. It will also help you
clone your Lion Recovery HD onto the backup disk.

Once the backup is done be sure to try booting from it to make sure everything worked.

*Should be, but I haven't personally tested.


Are there any iOS devices that run iOS 7 but won't be upgradable to iOS 8?

As far as I know, the iPhone 4 is the only device capable of running iOS 7 that can't be updated to iOS 8.

Ref: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_iOS#iOS_8 - & others


How can I add a universal keybinding for a program?

This can be answered by this other question. Basically, you're going to want to create an Automator action and assign it a global shortcut using the Keyboard preferences panel.

Edit: @bmike , the dupe you referenced didn't answer his question. The one I linked to does.


AppleScript “delay” command not working since switch to Yosemite

Note: The issue with delay was fixed in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

@2oh1, you have the right basic idea in your answer, but here's a complete and correct answer:

The only reasonable way to work around this is to invoke "delay" within a loop that ensures the desired duration elapses before continuing. The best way to do this is to override "delay" with a custom handler:

on delay duration
  set endTime to (current date) + duration
  repeat while (current date) is less than endTime
    tell AppleScript to delay endTime - (current date)
  end repeat
end delay

This enables you to leave the rest of your script unchanged and you can use "delay" normally, e.g.,

delay 5
display alert "I like cake!"

[NOTE: Normally, the custom handler would use "continue delay duration" to invoke the built-in "delay", but I found that, although this works within Script Editor, it returns an error when used within an applet (“Can’t continue delay. (-1708)”). I worked around that issue by directly telling AppleScript to handle the delay command instead of using "continue" to get there.]

The issue is that delay processes user input while pausing the script, so you can still click on menus or windows displayed by an applet, and there is a bug (fixed in 10.11) where user input causes delay to not wait the full duration before resuming script execution. If you don't interact with the applet, delay works correctly.


Win10 Bootcamp on 2016 15" MBP woes (I think it's due to macOS not copying over ISO contents to internal partition)

Moved my win10 ISO onto someone else's 2013 MBP, created a bootable USB thumb drive there, popped it back into my laptop and copied over $WinPEDriver$ and BootCamp from WindowsSupport folder downloaded on my machine over it. Was able to install onto the existing bootcamp partition and all went well. :)


Mouse sticks only when dropping with drag and drop.

I had a similar problem and solved it by relaunching the Finder (Force Quit).


How to make a jailbroken iPhone appear un-jailbroken to network provider?

The network provider can't see if it's jailbroken or not. They might be able to detect if you're using Skype over 3G or other non-3G apps but they won't be able to discover it by simply jailbraking it.


How can I enable internet sharing to work automatically in Mac OS X Lion?

Under Network on the system preferences, in on the wireless pane on the macbook pro, you should see Preferred Networks. Make sure the iMacs network is on top and all the require administrator authorization to: are unchecked.


Try to put the file into the Files app, either by exporting it from the Photos app via share menu > Save to Files or by putting it into the iCloud Drive folder on the Mac.

Them, in the Files app, select the movie file, choose the share menu here again and select "Open in VLC" (somewhere in first row of icons below the AirDrop area).

Btw. the excellent Subler macOS app allows modifying the track metadata inside the video, so the subtitle track could be shown as "English" instead of generic info.

https://subler.org


Automatically put maximized window to first workspace

I presume you mean fullscreen?

Maximising will fill the current Space. Fullscreen will always go to the right of all existing Spaces. There's no way to change that.

Personally, I never use fullscreen because of that behaviour [amongst others]
Fullscreen apps cannot be on numbered, instantly-recallable Spaces, which just breaks any chance of having a sensible workflow.

Have a look at What is an efficient way for developers / power users to use OSX window management and Spaces on a single screen? for an alternative working method.


How to configure `ipfw` on Lion, Mountain Lion?

ipfw is configured in /etc/pf.conf

You can configure the ipfw using a GUI in IceFloor.


Have you considered Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba? http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/


Updating Xcode looping the download process

I had issues to download Xcode 8 from App Store too. Just when is going to finish installation process, something happened and Xcode started downloading again.

I just needed Xcode 8 installed as fast possible. So I just passed to another step.

Thank you Apple, for dev apps there is a alternative to download them. Any version of Xcode and its tools, you can download through developer.apple.com, to check all tools that you can download come to this link. If you just need Xcode 8 this link is your friend.

Now I have Xcode 7 and 8 in my system. You can delete your old Xcode 7 if you want.

Sure, you need at least a free apple dev account to download them. Just enter your appleID and agree to Apple terms.

Note: App Store shows me to update Xcode, maybe because I still have Xcode 7 installed.


Automator and/or AppleScript to automatically Command-F2 to enter Target Display Mode

keystroke "120" is not the same as key code 120; the former taps the keys 1, 2, and 0.

I've had success with the following AppleScript, but you can also try key code 120 and key code 113.

tell application "System Events" to key code 144 using command down


Since I've enabled iCloud a while ago, I'm not sure if that'll work the same way for local calendars.

You should see a button that says Calendars in the top left corner in iCal on your iPhone. Tap it, then tap Edit. You should now be able to add a calendar and assign a title and color.

Please let me know if this works for you.


Your GUID partition table lacks its backup part: the second GPT header and table.

Your gpt output should look like this:

      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  232762432      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  233172072    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  234441608  253955527
  488397135         32         Sec GPT table
  488397167          1         Sec GPT header

To repair this you have to recreate a new complete GUID partition table.

Preparation:

Backup your current Mac
Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably El Capitan or Sierra) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably El Capitan or Sierra).

Repair partition table

Open in the menubar Utilities > Terminal and get an overview:

diskutil list

You will presented with at least 13 disks. Choose the disk identifier of your internal 250 GB disk. Usually this is either disk0 or disk1. Below I assume it's disk0 - use the disk identifier you have found in your environment in the commands below.
Verify/repair the main disk/main volume:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

If the disk/volume requires repair use the same commands but replace the prefix verify by repair (e.g. repairDisk)
Get the partition table:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

To modify the partition table of a disk, you have to unmount the main volume and the disk:

diskutil umount disk0s2
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0

destroy your current pt and create a new one:

gpt destroy /dev/disk0
gpt create -f /dev/disk0

add all previous partitions (as listed in the gpt list):

gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk0
gpt add -i 3 -b 233172072 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 232762432 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

check that the secondary header and table exist:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Resize your main partition

Check if the disk identifier is the same:

diskutil list

Verify/repair the main disk/main volume:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

If the disk/volume requires repair use the same commands but replace the prefix verify by repair (e.g. repairDisk)
Resize the second partition with diskutil:

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 100%

Verify the resized volume/disk again.

Enter exit and quit Terminal. Reboot to your main volume.


Weird message appeared, like spam, black screen, green button?

That's an operator message which gets displayed directly on the screen and doesn't get added to the usual SMS messages. My bank uses them to send me the login PIN for electronic banking whenever I want to log in.


Define "Legacy Mac" we will need the model to make an educated guess.

I have an older iMac that (just barely) supported Sierra, but once Sierra was installed it became so sluggish as to be practically unusable. So I wiped it and set it back to Snow Leopard. It is now running at an acceptable and usable speed.

You could use an external drive and make an image of the boot volume, then upgrade and see how it feels. If the new OS does not work well on the Mac then it should be simple to wipe the drive and image it back to the internal drive.

You have then only lost a little time and no data. just depends on how valuable your time is.


How to import photos to iPhone without getting unable to delete them?

You can use iExplorer. It is available for both Mac and PC.

You can easily access data and import it from your iPhone without Jailbreaking your device.


Since you have moved the system disk around, the Mac doesn't know where it is so it takes a few seconds to look for it.  You need to tell the system which disk will be the boot disk and where it is located.  After you have moved the disk to the bay, Open the System Preferences>Startup Disk window and choose the bay disk.  When you restart, the Mac will know exactly where the boot disk is and your bootup time will be a lot faster.


Save Hollywood has been updated for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and is available as freeware.

Other paid app options are Video Screensaver (on MAS) and My Living Desktop.


Google Authenticator on iPhone 7 can not edit/remove entries

In the blue top bar with the "Authenticator" title, on the right you have the two buttons, one with a plus sign to add entries and one with a stylized pencil that allows you to edit the list.

Tap the pencil button, tap the circle on the left side of any entry you want to delete (the circle will fill red) and at the bottom of the screen a button to delete the selected entries will appear.


How to keep original "date created" when copying via Terminal?

There are many reasons why one would rather use RSync instead of cp. RSync's default version on MacOS is 2.6.9, which is more than 12 years old as of today, and has several known bugs, and this is one of them. Apple won't include the updated versions on the new releases of the Mac OSX because of GPL3-related stuff.

To address this issue:

Install homebrew in your Mac, if you don't have it already

  /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install the new version of rsync available on brew:

  brew install rsync

Certify that your rsync version is at least 3.1.3:

  fabiosl@macpro ~ $ rsync --version

Copy your files using the --times and --crtimes

  rsync -times --crtimes /sourcedirectory /destinationdirectory


Excessive "Opening application for the first time" dialogs

This warning pops up every time an application wants to register a URI handler (a something:// protocol). Normally, your approval is saved by LaunchServices, but that database can become corrupted. Try resetting it by doing a

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -all local,system,user

in Terminal. The warnings should pop up once for each application again after that, then be gone for good. If they keep coming, something is resetting the database on its own (a clue would be that the default browser / mail app / RSS app / FTP app you set keep resetting to the Apple provided ones).


Current Version is: OS X el Capitan 10.11.6 What's Next?

The highest version of macOS you might be able to run is High Sierra - why not download that installer or try sierra?

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208202
http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-39476-20191023-48f365f4-0015-4c41-9f44-39d3d2aca067/InstallOS.dmg

As commented - we have several questions on how to download specific versions if that’s the thing that’s blocking you.

How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS?


How to backup an encrypted Core Storage volume off-site?

Proposed solution:

You have an Amazon EC2 instance, with elastic block store large enough to hold the whole of the image you intend to backup:

backup-host.yourdomain.com:
/mnt/EBS/my-desktop-backup/coreimage.dmg
/mnt/EBS/my-laptop-backup/coreimage.dmg

Where:

/dev/ebs-disk-001 -> /mnt/EBS/my-desktop-backup
/dev/ebs-disk-002 -> /mnt/EBS/my-laptop-backup
etc.
etc.

or

backup-host.yourdomain.com:
/mnt/EBS/my-desktop-backup_coreimage.dmg
/mnt/EBS/my-laptop-backup_coreimage.dmg

Where:

/dev/ebs-disk-001 -> /mnt/EBS

Your initial backup would take a long while to sync, but if you employ rsync to sync, then you can eventually have the remote image catch up to your local image's changes.

Once it is caught up, you can then initiate an EBS snapshot on Amazon's side for the EBS volume containing your encrypted image.

Rinse and repeat for each backup period + snapshot you want to have backed up to the remote server, taking the following items/requirements into account:

The Encrypted Image needs to be unmounted.
The remote image copy needs to be 100% synced with the unmounted local image.
The snapshot needs to be done with the remote EBS volume sync'd, filesystem buffers flushed, and with no changes pending.

With this, you will be able to do the incremental backups using Amazon's cloud technology.

S3 has some serious limitations, which would not suit your needs, for this particular purpose.

The EC2 instance, if fully backed by EBS, can be shut down when you are not doing a remote sync. Ie, when your backup kicks off, you can have it fire up the instance via Amazon's EC2 API, and get the dynamic name or IP address. Once it confirms it is up, it can kick off the rsync backup. When done, it can shutdown the remote image and initiate an Amazon EBS volume snapshot action.

Edit:

rsync does chunk/block level diffs for larger files. You can specify the size of the block diff:

--block-size=SIZE

You can also specify the data stream being sent to the remote server to be compressed, saving you on traffic.

Caveats about S3 vs EBS:

Unless the solution you employ supports splitting the single large file into segments and sending them in parallel, Amazon S3 throttles the data being sent down to under 400KB/sec after a certain size.

I employ rsync differential backups on my servers to S3 as compressed tarballs. Even at tarball sizes of about 500MB, S3 will throttle. In order to work around this, you need to split the file you are sending up into parts, otherwise, the backup to S3 will take forever.

Whereas an EC2 instance with EBS volumes will be faster and not require the need to split files, simplifying backup and restoration.


-bash: /usr/local/php5/bin/curl: No such file or directory

Given your $PATH has /usr/bin in it, which is where you're finding curl, you should be fine.

Can you run alias to see if it's being overridden somewhere.

alias curl


iphone sends log files to desktop Console app via wifi

I believe I have found the culprit...iMazing...or rather, iMazing's communicate-to-iOS-device-via-Wifi feature.

At some point over the last year or so, I had installed iMazing which, for those who are unaware, is an iOS device management and backup utility.  And as mentioned above, one of their features is communication with iOS devices via WiFi.  When this is enabled, it uses the same lockdown\usbmuxd application that XCode and others use.

SIDEBAR: "usbmuxd" is a daemon that allows communication to\from iOS devices via USB\WiFi and is the underlying transport control-plane for the "lockdown" service.

Anyway, after installing iMazing, I then at some point enabled the WiFi connection feature but later forgot I had done so.  However, when the feature is enabled in iMazing, it doesn't show as such in XCode nor does it always show as enabled in iMazing.  Therefore, it will not always be readily apparent that iMazing is the reason why the usbmuxd channel is open.

In any event, I was able to get the iMazing instance of usbmuxd closed and then everything began working as expected.

Last, a little insight as to why this wasn't readily apparent when digging into the OS.  The primary reason is because when looking at all of the elements that relate to usbmuxd & lockdown, there was literally no clue that a 3rd party application had opened up the usbmux channel to the device.  When looking at the IP connections to the device, everything looked exactly as it does when the connection is spawned by XCode's "Connect via network" feature.  But again, when checking that feature, it showed as disabled.

In the case of iMazing, the only OS level clue that it had opened the usbmuxd channel was an entry in the app's Devices.plist.  The entry in question is labeled "WiFiConnectionOn" and has a binary value of "YES \ NO".


Is it big deal to use some icons borrowed from other app in the App Store?

Icons are definitely not freely copy-able. Apps in the App Store still enjoy the copyright protections afforded under intellectual property laws in your region.

If you've found an app with icons that you're smitten with try contacting the developer about it. Often developers will purchase icon sets from icon factories like iconarchive.com (link omitted on purpose). These icon sets are licensed to you, for use in your applications, and come with the necessary license to allow you to redistribute and profit off any product that includes them. You can find free and paid-for icon sets out there. The developer might be forthcoming if they purchased their icons from a factory.

If the developer has designed the icons on their own they may choose to license them to you or they may say no. In which case: respect their wishes or you may find yourself on the receiving end of a cease-and-desist letter that prevents you from selling or giving away your app to the masses.


How do I add a folder to the Library using a UNIX command?

The command to create a folder is:

mkdir "/Users/myuser/Library/Application Support/Google/MyFolder"

(you'll need to substitute your own folder name ofcourse)


Macbook pro early 2011 model motherboard short circuted on connecting data cable to USB port

I youtubed/googled the issue and all I needed to do was remove the battery plug on the logicboard and I guess the system resets and it worked again. MacBook Pro alive.

How did I learn this? This happened to me at well. I had my MacBook Pro 17' connected to my Thunderbolt Display and when decided to charge my ipad using the USB and when I connected the iPad, everything shutdown. I couldn't even power it back on. Took it to apple store and they told me 500 bucks. WHAT$$$ They don't even diagnose the problem.


How to boot into recovery mode on Catalina?

I would get a backup and not worry about the recovery partition until you have time for an erase install or some processes that can take an hour (or more if you don’t have the Catalina installer up to date and downloaded).
Your disk layout is generally good - no issues that are easy to diagnose and fix. In the mean time make sure all your data / backups are current. When you’re ready, you will want to get an external drive and erase the drive completely (not just erasing a volume, but complete erase per this page)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496

Many people will select Macintosh HD and erase it, rather than erasing the container, so be sure you follow the “How to erase your disk” part and not “How to erase a volume on your disk” portion.
Then run the installer to install on the blank drive - once that is done, you can hold the option key to test things boot, migrate data in from backup and make the call if and when you do the erase on the internal drive.

If you wanted to try a half measure, delete any old installers you have (including stand alone bootable installers) and get a copy of Catalina fresh from the App Store and run that installer one time. It might fix the built in recovery partition, but I really don’t like messing with things at this point. Yes, we could fix your one issue - but it shouldn’t have broken and what else might be broken as well that you don’t know about. Better to erase IMO.


My iphone X with latest iOS says 'Location Shared by another device' but I have no other device

Once upon time, not long ago....

You shared your location with Family or with a Friend.

How to remove old friends from sharing location ?

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.

Tap on Privacy.

Tap on Location Services.

Tap on Share My Location.

Tap the friend you would like to remove

Tap Stop Sharing Location


WhatsApp chat history transfer different Apple ID

Nope, the easiest and only way to transfer WhatsApp data from one iPhone to another is if you have the same Apple ID's.


Change hosts file does not have any effect

I'd recommend  Gas Mask (freeware, no affiliation) which not only eliminates the need to try hack it in terminal, but also allows you multiple versions of the hosts file, switchable on the fly, instant response.

To use, Create a new file - it will setup the defaults automatically. Copy/paste any existing setup you want to carry over from any file to any other. Add any new data in the same format - it's very lenient on formatting, tab or space.
Save, then activate.
You can swap profiles any time the app is running, otherwise your last chosen will persist.
Activating a profile makes it immediately available.
 Note: the use of 127.0.0.1 rather than localhost for IPV6 is non-standard, but just seems to make the Mac behave better


How can I tell which apps are using up my graphics memory?

I am not saying you are wrong, but the GPU memory is normally used for rendering the current laptop 2D display, and then for the calculations for 3D display (games), and GPU acceleration (modern browsers).  I've used, programmed various computers for many years, and yet to see an issue related to an application using to much GPU memory.

But ISTRC MBP from 2010 onwards(?) have two GPU's the integrated (intel) and the discrete  (NVIDIA GeForce 320M in mine).  The MBP has good battery life due to when rendering text, images for the screen the low energy intel is used, but when game, videos are played and need more GPU processing is required the NVIDIA graphics chip is used.  Maybe you have an issue with the NVIDIA graphics?

It's maybe more likely that it could be a 'wait' caused by an issue with the filesystem, hard drive, or maybe elsewhere.  A failing hard drive will not report loads of activity when accessing a file that the hard drive controller takes extra long to read from.

It may help people to help you if you say how often it happens, whether the spinning beach ball appears, if it's a case of just taking a few moments to close windows, and then it wakes up again quickly or slowly?

Next time it happens try closing one application set of windows, say Chrome, and then wait (5 minutes) to see if that fixes it, and then the next try the other.  As it's likely to be only one application that is the main issue, and you'll do best in trying to narrow it down.

I've MacBook that getting a little slow occasionally but it's not gotten to the point where I need to correct it.

Good Luck!


Is it possible to force the MacBook Pro HDMI output to specific resolution/refresh rate?

The answer is: Yes, this is possible.

I found a piece of trialware called SetResX that lets you set arbitrary real resolutions on the HDMI output, and it works!

I also found a video tutorial here that explains how to do that yourself with a substantial bit of effort, and without the nice UI, but I haven't tried that method.


Sadly, this is simply not possible in macOS. The Google Drive app, and now its successor Backup and Sync from Google, give the actual folder named "Google Drive" its custom icon in the conventional way, much the same way you could paste a custom icon on any other folder.

Unfortunately, all custom folder icons are ignored when displayed as Favorites in the Finder sidebar. You can confirm this by adding any folder with a custom icon to the sidebar. You can also show your home in List view to see that "Google Drive" does indeed have a custom icon optimized for that tiny display size. Finder is simply designed to ignore it, presumably to keep the Finder user interface as uniform as possible.


macOS X Catalina cannot be installed on Macintosh HD

The problem is that you have a third-party internal SSD. You need an OWC firmware update in order to upgrade past High Sierra.

Installing High Sierra on OWC Aura SSD - missing firmware partition


Upload to iCloud Photos without adding to Recents album?

It's true that the Recents album does show imported photos first, regardless of when those photos were originally taken. I'm always slightly annoyed by this when I import an older SD Card from my camera.

Try to ignore the Recents album.

Instead, use the Photos tab section in the main view. These photos are arranged by date.

In iOS 13, they are given a nice Years / Months / Days view to quickly zoom in to times and events.


How do I add a sub list with different bullets in Pages

You can use different Bullets & Lists style for different indentation level in Pages.

After entering the 1st level item (i.e. 1. Test in your case), simply press the Enter key. This will automatically create a list, mark the entered text as the 1st item of list, assign default spacing between text and the number, and add numbering for the second item on the next line.

Now, simply press the Tab key to create a sub-list. Change the bullet & list style as desired under Format sidebar.

Repeat for every subsequent level of indentation.


ios defaulting to music in control centre

Use Siri Shortcuts. One built-in command is to say "Podcasts" and Siri will resume media playback in the Podcasts app. If you want more specific podcast shortcuts, look into Overcast.


How to create a Mac bootable gparted or Parted Magic thumb drive?

The following steps have been tested on macOS Mojave 10.14.6 and I confirm I was able to boot GParted on a 2019 MacBook Air (with secure boot disabled). That being said, the keyboard and trackpad didn’t work as drivers are not yet available on live distros. Also, the new T2 chip currently prevents live distros from accessing the SSD (another driver issue).

Step 1: Open Disk Utility.

Step 2: Click on View (upper left) and select Show All Devices.

Step 3: Select your thumb drive and click Erase.

Step 4: Select MS-DOS (FAT) as Format and GUID Partition Map as Scheme.

Step 5: Click Erase.

Step 6: Download the latest gparted-live-1.0.0-3-amd64.zip.

Step 7: Double-click on gparted-live-1.0.0-3-amd64.zip to unzip folder.

Step 8: Copy all files from gparted-live-1.0.0-3-amd64 to your thumb drive.

You now have a bootable version of GParted that should work on your Mac!


Have you looked at MailTags? I believe that in addition to tagging email messages you can also attach notes to messages. It is an add-on to Mail.app: http://indev.ca/MailTags.html. They also have a preview for Lion: http://indev.ca/MailTags3.html.


How can I tell if my MacMini 2012 power supply is dead?

I found this page:
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/571061/Complete+Dead+-+How+To+Check+Power+Supply+Vs+Logic+Board
There was a correct DC voltage on each of the pins, so I believe the problem is elsewhere...


Time Capsule isn't being found by AirPort Utility

The Airport Express, Airport Extreme and Time Capsule units have a reset button located on the back that will restore the unit to factory default settings. See http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3728 This will allow you to reconfigure the unit.


Profiles - maintaining programs on different profiles

You can't have user profiles on macOS (at least not as such), but you can create different user accounts in System Preferences and use these for specific but different purposes (e.g. one account for gaming, one with all your personal documents, one for Internet access, one for your financial stuff, one account for system administration etc.). As long as you only give Administration privileges to the system administration account and apply tight control on data shared between the accounts this may work quite well.

As for applications, you usually install them in /Applications anyway which makes them available to all users. What probably would defeat the purpose of the whole endeavor though is to come up with an elaborate scheme to share user-specific configurations between accounts. So if you happen to use Numbers or Pages in several user accounts you will need to set preferences individually in each account.

Having said that, I doubt that macOS in its current form (with iCloud access more or less built-in in a lot of background stuff) really allows this kind of separation. The hassle of switching accounts all the time and of tightly controlling data exchange between them probably outweighs the gain in security (of course, keeping the Administrator separated from the everyday user account is always a good idea).


New emojis don't show on Mac, only on iPhone

You need Mac OS X 10.11.1 (El Capitan) on your Mac to see the new emojis.


Cannot update HomeBrew: Permission denied

If you are using OSX High Sierra chown operation is not permitted in /usr/local/ in this case use:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/Homebrew/


Macbook pro doesn't go to sleep after left inactive

In this instance, use Activity Monitor.app to kill process pid 251(coreaudiod).

Tracking Down Idle Sleep Problems

Below is an overview for tracking down why your Mac will not idle sleep.

No Idle Sleep Assertion

A NoIdleSleepAssertion assertion is the most likely reason your Mac is not sleeping.

To see more about which processes are blocking sleep, run this command in Terminal.app:

pmset -g assertions

This will list active assertions and their owning application or process. Expect to see audio visual, network sharing, or printing related responses.

If a hidden process, such as pid 251(coreaudiod), is responsible, you can kill it using Activity Monitor.app. Afterwards rerun the pmset command above to check the assertion has been removed.

Common Causes

This Apple Discussion forum thread, My Mac don't go sleeping since Lion Update, contains numerous people who also encountered this problem. The same causes will affect OS X 10.9.

Check for stuck print jobs; a pending print job will keep your Mac awake
Check for audio visual or presentation programs that may restrict sleep while playing


USB 3.0 Ethernet dongle (AX18879) not working with 10.11.4

In Terminal.app issue the command:

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 rootless=0"

Remove the NetworkInterfaces.plist file to regenerate a new one:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

Remove the device from System Preferences.app > Network
Reboot your Mac
Plug-in USB dongle
Re-add device in the System Preferences.app > Network


There was an error in Security & Privacy preferences

I saw the same error, and I was able to solve this via a reboot--hope that helps!

I can't say for 100% certainty, but I believe I still had some pending updates that had not yet installed: I remember when I was scanning the output of syslog that I also saw some references to a class being implemented in two different files, so I thought that could have been an artefact of an update that had not yet completed. Again, I admit to being a little unsure as to the exact cause of the problem and solution, but this was what worked for me.


How can I check that my Apple Watch is backed up before upgrading to iOS 9?

User fuzunspm shows how to see the size of the last backups. You can probably trust things if the dates and sizes there make sense.

Apple has an article that explains the non-upgrade/normal backup scenario, so one avenue is to perform the following steps in order.

Verify that the iPhone is backing up to iTunes using a password to encrypt the backup and/or use iCloud for backup. (Health data is not backed up otherwise)
Verify that the watch and iPhone are in range an paired by using the watch glance that shows Airplane Mode/Do Not Disturb/Silent and ping the iPhone.
Run one backup before unpairing the watch (or one each to iCloud and to iTunes if you are worried that iCloud could be too busy on launch day or your network would be slow to restore from iCloud)
Open the Apple Watch app on the iOS 8 iPhone and choose Unpair Apple Watch - this forces a complete backup of the watch data to the iOS device
Run a second backup (or second pair of backups) to iCloud and/or iTunes.
Consider saving the iTunes backup folder contents (compress the folder and save it to an external drive, etc...) just in case.

At that point, you can run the iOS 9 update. If you want to re-pair the watch, that would be fine since you have a known backup with the data embedded in the iOS backup.

Also, once the iOS 9 update is done, you will want to run the Apple Watch app to update your watch to watchOS 2.0 if you wish. It happens as a second/separate step to upgrading to iOS 9 on your iPhone.


Is running Linux through a VM as fast as running it natively on MacBook?

If you do not need real performance, you should run a VM. It's MUCH easier to install and the support with mac is better. For instance, you won't have any problem with your trackpad under a VM.
However, if you need some huge performances or direct hardware access, you should run linux natively, if you want to run Kali Linux and do some pen testing, using a VM would be a pain because it would slow down a lot cryptography and access to the wifi drivers for exemple.

So for what you want to do, I suggest you to install a nice linux distribution on a VM, for instance a Debian based linux like Ubuntu. If you can afford a paid VM software like VMWare it would be much smoother and better integrated with your Mac, but for your purpose, I think VirtualBox would do the job !


just got new imac with fresh Mavericks install, old data still remaining, how to find and delete?

You do not need a disk to reinstall Mavericks, since it has a recovery partition that will download Mavericks and do a fresh install, if you prefer to do that.

Erase and reinstall Mavericks: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14243

Otherwise, you can probably just delete the user account, which will offer to delete all the user's info, freeing up considerable space.


Photos not downloading latest images to macOS

Make sure that your Mac is still uploading photos. Open the photos app and then go to the word Photos (next to File and Edit in the status bar) and then click on preferences. Then go over to the iCloud tab and you'll probably see that photos are uploading but the blue bar isnt moving or present. Click on the pause iCloud Photo Library button. Wait a minute, check your connection. Then unpause it and make sure that you Mac has a power cable plugged in and the screensaver/sleep timer turned off.

It should start uploading/downloading again in amounts.

That should fix your issue. If you have tried that before and it hasnt started the process then see if you can refresh your iCloud connection by signing out and then signing back in. That usually gets things moving again.


How can I get my device's unlock passcode from the KeyChain?

The unlock code (passcode) is not stored in the Keychain, so you cannot find it there.

In fact, the unlock code is not stored at all on the device. This is by design.

When you enter the unlock code it is used, together with other information, as the passphrase to decrypt an encryption key that is stored on the device. That key then makes it possible for the phone to read your other, sensitive data.

Without the user entering the pass code the phone cannot access the encryption key, and thus cannot access your sensitive data.

For more details, read page 12 of this document:

https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf


What unit does the activity monitor use in the energy tab?

It's a proprietary unit calculated from other available data about a process, including but not limited to CPU utilisation, both short-term and long-term averages (think load averages).


Alternative to iTunes for managing videos?

There's Usher, by ManyTricks, for $35. I haven't used it myself, but it looks great and follows iTunes/iPhoto's design principles. I trust ManyTricks to make a good app: they're behind my favorite window manager, Moom.


The 'brand/marketing name' & the model designation number don't ever match.
The iPhone 6S's model designation is 8,1 [regular 6S] or 8,2 [6S Plus]
You can see a list of all models, including marketing names & model designations at Everymac's iPhone Specs page
They actually went out of sync with the second ever iPhone released. It was called the 3G, even though it was only the 'version 2' & carried the designation 2,1, because of its new 3G phone capability, rather than the previous GSM. After that came the iPhone 4… even though it was the 3rd gen not 4th, & they've been out of sync ever since.
They did briefly re-sync for the iPhone X, but the next year's XS threw that out again.


How to sort files by date in Safari file picker

The 'Sort by' drop menu is at the top of your file-picker - using a crop of your own pic as example...

you get these choices...


How does one add boarding passes to Apple Wallet?

If your airline is Delta

Check into your flight with this page of Delta's website on your iPhone/iPod Touch (have your flight's confirmation number ready). When you complete your checkin, you will be given an option to add the pass to your Passbook (aka Wallet app). Tap into that, then press the Add button to add the pass to your wallet. Then you can skip the check-in kiosk at the airport if you have your phone and the pass handy.

Any other airline

Download the airline's app (yep, only Delta lets you use the mobile site to add a boarding pass to Wallet) and open it up. Here are some apps from the major carriers (though don't fret if your airline is not on this list, it's rather incomplete; just search for it in the app store):

United
JetBlue
Alaska
American Airlines
RyanAir

Proceed into the app (have your confirmation number or loyalty account info ready) and choose the Check in option (location of this button varies between apps). Follow the instructions to check in, and at the end, you'll see a button to Add to Passbook or Add to Apple Wallet. Press that, then press the Add button in the Navbar and you'll be set.


I would say it's your adaptor. I had the exact same behaviour. Changed the cables over and it started working again.

I've had it happen on HDMI cable and mini display port/thunderbolt adaptor.


Is there a way to show a badge icon for Reminders app on iPhone?

Badges now show for reminders as of iOS 6, released September 2012.


You need to restore Snow Leopard image in Disk Utility to GUID partitioned drive or flash stick. Only after that it will be possible to boot from it.


Applications in ~/Applications not shown in Applications folder in dock

Each item in the dock is a single folder.

OS X does not have merged folder views except in Finder where there are Smart folders

However you could create a smart folder in Finder of Kind is Application and drag that to the Dock


You should be able to simply boot up off of the Windows USB installer, and install onto the second drive. You may need to temporarily remove the OS X drive before installing, as I have heard windows doesn't like seeing other OS's. You may want to do anyway, just to make absolutely sure you are not harming the OS X install.

Once you have it installed, you will want to install the Bootcamp drivers. You should be able to download them online.


How to clean up partitions after OS X is moved from HD to SSD

Why do I have an Apple_Boot on disk1 after the entire disk was erased?

I am not sure on this one. Seeing the size (134 MB) I don' this this is the actual boot partition itself.

-

  What is the EFI and Apple_Boot?

EFI is the Extensible Firmware Interface system partition. This is a special partition that holds boot loaders for all the OSes installed, in other partitions:

  The EFI System partition is a partition on a data storage device that
  is used by machines that adhere to the Extensible Firmware Interface.
  It contains the boot loader programs for all operating systems
  installed (in other partitions) on the device, device driver files
  (used by the firmware at boot time) for other devices, and system
  utility programs that are intended to be run before an operating
  system is booted.1

-

  Is it normal that the type of the Recovery HD is Apple_Boot?*

Yes. Otherwise you cannot use the recovery partition to recover when the OS on the other partition(s) has crashed, right?

The recovery partition is actually replacement of the OS install disk.
From OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery

  OS X Lion includes a new feature called Lion Recovery that includes
  all of the tools you need to reinstall Lion, repair your disk, and
  even restore from a Time Machine backup without the need for optical
  discs.


MacBook Pro Mouse and Keyboard freeze after opening the Lid

UPDATE: The NVRAM reset ended up being only a temporary fix. The answer here was the real solution. The problem seems to either be with VM software or closing the lid with a VPN running (the latter was the problem for me). Disconnecting from the VPN before closing the lid fixed the problem.
Original post:
This is a bit late, but resetting the NVRAM seemed to work for me:

Restart your laptop
When the Apple logo comes on screen, press and hold option + command + P + R
The logo should go away and come back after a few seconds, and hopefully that should be it!


What is a Kernel Panic and what does it mean?

In general, a kernel panic is defined by Apple as "In UNIX, a panic is an unrecoverable system error detected by the kernel."

That quote comes from Apple's Technical Note TN2063: Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics

In your specific case, the main program that starts and stops everything else on the system has an unrecoverable error in one specific instance at one specific point in time.

launchd is the failing component that needs to run always.
The rest of the information would need to be looked at by an engineer, Typically one employed by Apple, that has a deep understanding of the lowest level of code that runs on the processor.

The next steps for you will depend on how often the error happens and if the machine can start itself up after you power it off.

You could also review these two questions for more details on how to troubleshoot your computer going forward if you wish.

Understanding kernel panic error log
How can I troubleshoot Kernel Panics on my iMac


If the old Airport Express was connected directly to your cable/DSL modem and the new Time Capsule replaced it (again, directly connected), you may need to reboot the modem (generally by unplugging it and plugging it back in, maybe holding down the reset button) to reset its DHCP. You may also need to do this in a particular order, generally 1) shutdown Time Capsule, 2) reboot modem, and 3) restart Time Capsule.

Reason: some broadband modems seem to only assign one internal IP at a time and only check for a device on startup.


Are you allowed to promote a Patreon page on your iOS app?

Let’s assume you’re not a charity or fundraising for one.

Technically, no since in 3.2.1 (vii) it says you’re allowed to promote voluntary giving, provided 100% of the funds go to the recipient — but Patreon takes a cut of the funds pledged / gifted.
Realistically, probably yes. If your app is otherwise fine, Apple might not reject you solely for having to pay processing fees.

As long as you’re not just trying to dodge in-app purchase, I would say make your app and submit it for review. Also, look at IAP for a tip jar I addition to the patreon option. People can and will tip you if they love the app. Also, worst case is you have to find a payment processor where you pay all transaction fees up front or separately so Apple can see 100% of the linked gift goes to you.

Also, if this is all your app does, don’t bother. You’ll need a compelling app that provides obvious value for free or paid and can’t just be a “here’s my patreon, fund me” shell.


Missing headers in macOS 10.15 (Catalina)

Recently I also updated to Catalina and got the same problem.
As it was mentioned there is no equivalent package macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg for Mac OS 10.15 which solves the problem for Mojave.

There are several things you can do which worked for me.

Always try

xcode-select --install

Some answers recommend to agree with the license. I'm not sure if it's helpful but I did it anyway

sudo xcodebuild -license

and type agree.
Apparently you can find these headers in a /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.sdk/usr/include directory. So you can add it to some environment/build system variable.


There are two tools I know of that do this: (1) BackupLoupe (which is a GUI application) and (2) timedog (command-line Perl script).


Apple San Francisco font usage for websites as a system font

Encouraged Behaviour

In Apple's case, Myles Maxfield of WebKit explained how to use the system fonts:

  Web content is sometimes designed to fit in with the overall aesthetic of the underlying platform which it is being rendered on. One of the ways to achieve this is by using the platform’s system font, which is possible on iOS and OS X by using the -apple-system CSS value for the “font-family” CSS property. On iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, doing this allows you to use Apple’s new system font, San Francisco. Using -apple-system also correctly interacts with the font-weight CSS property to choose the correct font on Apple’s latest operating systems.

WebKit is an Apple funded and directed project.

More generally, HTML/CSS can specify either local or remote fonts be used. If a specified font is available locally, it is presumed legal, and used by the browser.

If the site is distributing a font, then the site must have a licence for the font's distribution and use.


My project has disappeared from iMovie -- can you help me get it back?

Open Finder, on the far left of your Dock, then click "Applications" on the sidebar, then double-click "Utilities", then "Terminal". In the window that shows up, paste this in:

term="$(osascript -e 'text returned of (display dialog "What do you want to find?" default answer "rcproject")')"; d=0; for x in $(find ~ -iregex ".*$term.*" | sed 's/ /\ /g'); do let d++; osascript -e 'on run argv' -e 'tell app "Finder" to reveal (POSIX file (item 1 of argv) as string)' -e end "$x" >/dev/null; if [[ d -gt 10 ]]; then echo "Press Control-C to quit."; fi done; if [[ $d -ne 0 ]]; then open -a Finder; else v="$(osascript -e 'button returned of (display dialog "No files were found. Try again looking everywhere?")')"; if [[ $v = OK ]]; then for x in $(find / -iregex ".*$term.*" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/ /\ /g'); do let d++; osascript -e 'on run argv' -e 'tell app "Finder" to reveal (POSIX file (item 1 of argv) as string)' -e end "$x" >/dev/null; done; open -a Finder; fi; fi; open ~/Movies/ #END

If you're having trouble selecting it all, double-click the first word ("term"), then scroll all the way to the right, then hold shift and click on where it says "END".

Press return ↩ if another window doesn't show up.

Then, the window should ask what you want to find. Leave what's in there at first, because rcproject should match all iMovie files. If it says it couldn't find any files, click OK. If it still couldn't find any files (it might take a long time to look), then repeat the above with something else (like Klass 6B-9B). I doubt you will find anything else, unfortunately.

A Finder window will pop up with your Movies folder. If any others show up behind it, try dragging those things (only .rcprojects will work for this) into the iMovie Projects folder in that window.

I don't know where it says you have two projects, but if this doesn't work, it's possible that the file got corrupted somehow…


Notification from FaceTime won't disappear!

What fixed it for me was to open up FaceTime and simply Quit out of it.


How long should it take to enable FileVault 2 on a fresh Lion installation?

You might find that the time taken relates to the size of the volume to be converted (not limited to the amount used).

Personal estimates of duration may be difficult.

Expect the most reliable estimates to be offered by System Preferences. If the system was only recently started, don't expect an accurate estimate of time; and don't be surprised if the estimate rises occasionally.

For more detail than is given by the progress bar in System Preferences: in Terminal you can run the following command, which will display a tree view of the CoreStorage world:

diskutil coreStorage list

Within the tree you'll see sizes; amounts converted.

If a volume is heavily used during conversion, it might slightly extend the time taken to complete but for your 10 GB used I would not expect there to be any difference. Use the volume as you normally would until conversion completes.


⌘CMD-drag to get the item out of the toolbar.


You should try accessing the SMS db from the command line. Some explanation is here: How can I export SMS text messages from my iPhone?

If you see old messages, you can find the corrupt one and retrieve them. If the Sqlite dump command doesn't show them, and the size of the DB implies they are not there, it is likely they are gone.

If you can find old copies of that file in backups, look there, otherwise I think the messages are permanently gone.


Blurry font when connecting MBP Mid-2012, Retina to an HPes 27" display

How are you connecting to the display?

I've used screens in the past (a particular model dell springs to mind) which applied sharpening to the HDMI input by default, resulting in "crunchy-looking" type. That could be worth checking.

It's also fair to say that the MacOS doesn't always handle transitioning windows from retina to non-retina screens -- I've seen plenty of instances where the windows fonts in FCPX become extra-jagged until some magic combination of moving the window from screen to screen and/or rebooting the mac solves the issue. That's with a mix of screens, including the thunderbolt display.


Play music on iPhone via a mixer with wireless connection

You can control iTunes on a Mac or PC easily from an iPhone, using Remote which I think would be a lot more reliable than trying to establish a solid bluetooth/wifi connection to stream music to an audience who may not appreciate the occasional silence if the connection goes down ;)

Use it with a running playlist & even if you temporarily lose connection from the remote, at least it will never go quiet.


macOS Startup Manager is very slow and laggy

I am suffering from same issue since December.

This is a hardware error, unfortunately it is hard to prove it to apple care. They will try os reload, factory reset ... before they realize it is hardware error.

Same issue here, noticed it in FileVault, but then realized it is there even on Boot selection section or even Diagnosis section. Disabling FileVault won't solve the issue, it will just cover it up.

I wasted a lot of time with software sides of things, reinstalling OS and all. they all didn't help. It is a Hardware issue.

I realized I have this issue once I started using SD Card reader for storing my files and extending my 128gb MBP. If SD Cards goes in, even for 1 second, and then take it out, boot is going to be slow until I do a NVRAM reset. Apple care didn't find any issue first time but second time they admit there is a hardware issue in my Macbook and they replaced it. I will report back issue returned.

You need to bring it to Apple care, and describe the issue in detail. I had to print a A4 paper with a detailed description (told them issue happen when put in a sd card and then take it out) and screenshot of diagnosis page showing SD Card error in diagnosis boot page (because for some reasons, it was randomly showing that error and apparently when I give my Macbook for first repair, it passed test 100% successfully) Reception who receive my Macbook, she didn't really reflect things I told to her to technician. She even typed issue of my macbook as "Booth up slow", you get the idea.

There are many users like us. I guess there are many other users who have this issue but are not aware of it. they just think it is normal to wait 30 to 60 seconds for boot and they never use filevault or boot option menu. I have found some here, this are all from SAME underlying issue:

macOS Sierra FileVault enabled freezing at login
macOS Sierra boot problem related to Apple SD Card reader driver
macOS Sierra slow to accept password at login
Whenever I enable FileVault, OSX is super slow to boot. I never had this problem before and don't know what changed.
OSX Startup Manager (Boot drive selection screen) slow/un-responsive in Macbook Pro (early 2015)
OSX Boot drive selection screen is slow, un-responsive and takes forever to load in Macbook Pro (early 2015)


Get list of recent activity and time of that activity

Depends on what you're looking for... you'll see any commands that required sudo in the system.log file. But there isn't a generic 'log activity' type of service. With Apple Remote Desktop you could enable some additional logging to see which users log in, log out, and what apps they use.


The following works for me:

set thisFile to "/Users/danielbeck/Downloads/test.key"
tell application "System Events"
    tell application "Keynote"
        activate
        open thisFile
    end tell
    tell process "Keynote"
        click menu item "Export…" of menu of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell

Changes:

activate makes the application frontmost, AFAICT.
GUI scripting requires the process of application "System Events", not the application of the same name.
You need to enter the actual ellipsis character … (Opt-; on International layout) instead of the HTML entity.


Reset PRAM in MacMini 3,1 (Early 2009) and now it won't boot at all, but powers on and chimes

I fixed it. Hail Mary solution was to unscrew and take the cover off the SuperDrive, manually remove Leopard install disk #2, lay install Leopard disk #1 in there (much easier than expected), then power on with C key. (I think it was the second try, I believe I hit and held C before hitting power.) Then I got the Apple logo and was asked if I wanted to install Leopard. I erased the drive and installed Leopard. Booted perfectly after install. Now I'm installing Snow Leopard (from upgrade DVD, which I still had), and afterward I'll install El Capitan by download (the OS I had before).

If that didn't work, I was going to buy a new Mini tomorrow morning. It was the last thing I could think of.

So apparently the PRAM reset screwed up my HD real bad. Before the PRAM reset I had very recently run disk repair from DVD and from the boot HD and repaired permissions in Terminal (like within 12 hours before).

If anyone cares to advise, what's the best way to install a Time Machine backup from my external HD after I install El Capitan? Migration Asst? Recovery Mode? Thanks.


How can I set the default browser depending on time of day?

Not nearly as complicated, but perhaps of value, is the app Choosy. It allows you to choose your browser every time you open a link outside of a browser. While this might sound onerous, it's actually pretty transparent, and I find it very useful in the leadup to going live with a new web project and testing in multiple browsers over and over and over…

Might suit the bill if one added keystroke isn't a problem. Of course, once you're inside Safari, links clicked will open in Safari (although there's even a way to modify this behavior.)

FWIW.

Choosy


It looks like the developers have decided to isolate each new version to be an app in its own right.
Owning v1, 2 or 3 does not automatically get you v4.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/goodreader/id777310222?mt=8

  The amazing 4th edition of GoodReader® app is a universal app for all your iOS devices.

  This version is a further step in development of our original groundbreaking, best-in-class GoodReader app. If you're a user of the old GoodReader app, we welcome you to upgrade to this 4th edition of GoodReader.

This would mean that unless you have a local backup of the app, it would appear it is no longer on the iTunes Store to re-download.


MacBook currently has quiet SSD, will adding extra HDD cause constant noise?

Certainly it depends on the drive.  From my experience using Apple laptops that contained HDD's, there was NO noise unless the drive was failing (an unfortunately common occurrence).  But some HDD's are definitely louder than others.

One thing to clarify though: you will not hear the drive "spinning".  You may hear the drive being accessed. The primary source of noise is the actuator arm, not the spindle/platters.  When idle the drive should be silent.


The concept behind having a drop box is write Only for others and read only for the owner of the Dropbox (the user in this case). So If you are looking to have a shared folder then try creating a new folder in your user's public folder or on your Macintosh HD and share it. Let us know if you find problems with this approach.

My understanding of the question is you are looking for a common folder between your MBP and iMac and not about applying proper share permissions on the DropBox folder.


Configure Preview to auto reload pdf and stay at the same location

There seems to be no way to make Preview.app do this, but Skim offers this feature.

On my system, using pdflatex, Skim will 'jerk' for a split second as it reloads, but it does return to the right position on the current page.


Set PATH variable so that it is detected in all applications, even outside terminal. (El Captain)

The loginwindow process sets a user's environment. It sets the variables TMPDIR and PATH, consults Directory Services and sets SHELL HOME USER LOGNAME . PATH is set to /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin unless modified by launchd (in the more current versions of OS X). This is the PATH variable available to the user's processes unless modified by that particular process (cron as an example sets the PATH to /bin:/usr/bin).

Terminal emulator applications start your shell as a login shell thus the PATH is modified by reading the various shell startup file. Any process started by your shell now inherits the new PATH variable. Other applications using a shell do not read any shell config files and use those environment variables available in the current environment. An application may modify the environment by using the LSEnvironment key in their Info.plist.

As of Yosemite, you can change the PATH variable in the following form.

sudo launchctl config user path <path>

in your case you want /usr/local/bin at the front of the path.

sudo launchctl config user path /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

reboot your system and the new PATH will be set by loginwindow.


Can I create a Windows VirtualBox image on a Linux computer and then use it on my OS X Mac?

Yes, you can easily copy virtual machines between systems.

The easiest way would be to just create the virtual machine on your linux machine, and when you are ready to copy it over, you can export it as an appliance.  This will give you a single file to copy over to you Macbook Air.

Once you have the file copied over to your Air, you can then import it there, and you will be all set to try it out.


Battery life not like advertised on new MacBook Pro

Get a program like gfxCardStatus to monitor which graphics card is in use, and watch out for Flash or other processor-hungry apps in the background.

Everything @bmike said in his comment is correct, too.


You have several options:

Boot to the recovery partition, open disk utility and delete the other non-recovery permissions and then create a new JHFS+ / APFS depending on the macOS version.  (credit Jean_JD in a comment)
Create an external macOS Installer flash drive. Hold the Option key and boot from the flash drive then delete the internal disk entirely including the recovery partition then install macOS. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Boot to Internet Recovery Mode,If you use Shift-Option-Command-R during startup, you're offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. If you use Option-Command-R during startup, in most cases you're offered the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac. Otherwise you're offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. Connect to WiFi and delete the foreign FreeBSD partitions and install.


mac mail blacks out messages with dual monitor setup on mackbook air

This is a common issue on High Sierra Mail. It’s caused by a compatibility issue with some of the graphics cards. I was able to fix it by changing the Color Profile.

Go to System Preferences>Display>Color and then switch to a different profile until you find one that both looks good and fixes the problem.

You can also try and use the calibrate feature to create a custom profile.

For more info on how to change the Color Profile: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25231?locale=en_US

More info:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8135091


How to get a clean install of Windows 10 to activate?

According to Apple's Knowledge Base article, your iMac isn't supported directly in Boot Camp.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204990

You should probably get VirtualBox or another VM solution to run the Windows 10 as that would bridge the driver gap better than trying to piece things together yourself. It might be possible, but I don't know where you'd start on it...


If you have the Fitbit Connect installer software the Downloads folder on your computer, just run the Uninstall Fitbit Connect.app:

If you don't have the installer, download a new version here, then run the Uninstall app.

It is also a good idea to reboot after the uninstall process completes.


How to limit the traffic generated by mDNSResponder?

Despite its name, mDNSResponder handles both local multicast DNS ("mDNS", which will not be adding to your cell bill), and regular unicast DNS (which is not generally local, and will be adding to your cell bill). The figures in Activity Monitor don't distinguish between the two. My guess is that most of the traffic is local (mDNS is a bit chatty), but you'd have to run some tests to be sure.

There is a way to cut down on actual DNS traffic: a lot of the DNS lookups your computer is doing are probably from web ads, and some forms of ad blocking will prevent those lookups. Unfortunately, I haven't looked at this in a while, and don't know which types of blockers work early enough to prevent the DNS lookup. Essentially, there are three levels at which a blocker can work:

Detect and block ad content very early, and block fetching the ad content before the DNS lookup is done (leading to minimal network traffic).
Detect and block ad content after the lookup is done, but before the ad content is fetched (leading to slightly more network traffic).
Detect and block ad content after it is fetched (leading to full network traffic, ads just aren't displayed).

One ad-blocking method that's guaranteed to work at the first level is installing an alternate /etc/hosts file with faked entries for known advertising server domains. There are a variety of these available, for instance at Steven Black's github (which has a bunch of them with different groups of servers, also has scripts for building your own). If you want to do this, there are installation instructions here, although I'll add one step: make a backup copy of the original /etc/hosts file first!


Can I use a Mid 2011 27 inch iMac (Thunderbolt) as a display for a PC?

No - currently, only computers with a ThunderBolt port (combined DisplayPort + PCIe data) will work for video in mirroring on an iMac. This means a small selection of other Macs that ship with thunderbolt currently work.

There could be adapters later that help, and perhaps a firmware update, but even a MacBook Air that you buy today with DisplayPort out won't work with the iMacs expecting thunderbolt in.


Download app bundles from App Store to run on iOS Emulator on Mac

There's multiple points to address here:

1) The Appetize service is not an emulator. It allows you to run native mobile apps in the browser in order to provide apps demos, training, testing, etc. However it does so not by emulating the ARM CPU of an iOS device, but instead works by running the Intel version of said apps natively on an Intel CPU - while providing a "simulated" operating system that maps onto the browser.

2) The app bundle you need for the Appetize service is usually obtained by building the app for the Xcode Simulator. This requires you to have the source code for the app. If the app you want to run on the Appetize service is not open source, and you have not developed it yourself (or otherwise obtained the rights for the source code) - you cannot use this method.

3) The apps you download from the App Store are meant for execution on ARM CPUs. They cannot be directly used with the Appetize service, as that requires Intel executables. However, if you do want to obtain the files, it is possible (contrary to the other answers to your question). The easiest way of doing this is to use iTunes to access the App Store and download the apps, which are then accesssible on your local disk drive. This requires you to use either iTunes 12.6.3 (or older) or one of the other solutions described here:

How do I download an iOS App (IPA) file to my Mac after iTunes 12.7 update?

4) Very recent development has shown that it is indeed in some cases possible to translate an app built for the ARM CPU for the App Store into an app built for the Intel CPU meant for the Xcode Simulator (or the Appetize service). This is done by exploiting the fact that Apple these days requires app submissions to include bitcode. You can read more about that here:

https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/blog/20190518-Translating-an-ARM-iOS-App-to-Intel-macOS-Using-Bitcode

5) The most practical way of achieving your goal of running the eWeLink app on your Mac in order to control light switches is to run the Android version of the app through an Android environment for the Mac, such as for example BlueStacks.