iOS - Restricting device to work with a single app only

The desired functionality is called Single App Mode, and is available for supervised devices.

An iOS device can be setup for Single App Mode using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) software.

A few articles shedding light on this topic are quoted below:

How to use iOS Single App Mode

  Single App Mode (SAM), often referred to as “Single App Lock” is a feature for supervised devices that restricts the device to running only one app. While Single App Mode is enabled, the selected app will stay in the foreground.

Set up your iPad to give tests and assessments

  Autonomous Single App Mode is a feature of assessment apps that locks iPad in to the app for testing. If your app doesn’t support Automatic Assessment Configuration, you can set up your iPad for Autonomous Single App Mode using Mobile Device Management (MDM) software. Your MDM software installs a profile that identifies your testing app on the device.

How to Setup Kiosk Mode & Lock Your iPad to Just One App – Part 2

  In iOS version 9, Apple introduced “Supervised Mode” which enables a feature called “Single App Mode” on your iOS device. Single App Mode is a feature for supervised devices that restricts the device to running only one app. While Single App Mode is enabled the selected app will stay in the foreground, even after the device is rebooted.


Open URLs without prefix 'http://' from command line

As @Mark said,

  A URL must begin with a protocol ie the bit before the : so what you have is not a URL.

You'll need to create your own wrapper for the open command. For example, you can use this function to prepend http:

function openweb() { open http://$1 }

Run with openweb google.com or openweb www.google.com.

Place this in a profile file such as ~/.bash_profile to be available in all interactive shells.


Where is the search functionality in Apple Music?

You can search directly from the search box in iTunes. Just type artist name and you will get suggestions. You can select the artist name and you will be shown all the songs and albums. There you can stream. Also you can use the iOS Music application search functionality for your favourite artists.


Have you already taken a look at MagicPrefs (free)? It lets you assign custom actions to various gestures and touches, maybe this will let you realise what you want. Since I don´t have a Magic Trackpad near me, I can´t verify this though.


Reservations on buying a mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter

I have several aftermarket mini DisplayPort to VGA adapters (el-cheapo like Monoprice.com) to work perfectly with several Macs and various monitors and projectors.

Moreover, I am ever pleased and surprised at how well VGA works considering the old tech.

It should "just work" for a 20" VGA display. The Displays control panel will let you select resolutions up to the max supported by the display and extend the desktop from your MacBook. Performance should be excellent.

I use a cheap mini DisplayPort adapter ($9) with 2008 and 2010 15" MacBook Pros and various VGA displays and projectors and it has always worked with no fuss, even over way-too-long VGA cables (50') connected to a high-def projector.

VGA is component video so signal integrity means a lot for image clarity. For a desktop 20" LCD display on a normal cable, it will appear fine.


D/A has a German keyboard, LL/A has the American keyboard.


How to display full path to file in spotlight search?

If you want to view the path to the file directly in the spotlight search you can simply hold down cmd ⌘:

Without cmd ⌘:

With cmd ⌘:


Is it possible to have a Mac drive a display as a mirror image (and not simply rotated)

Do you need to flip an built-in display (like on an iMac or MacBook), or an external display?

I'm afraid it's only possible to flip an external display. Here's how to do that (tested with 10.6, but 10.4 should be similar):
Go to System Preferences-> Displays. Go to the Display tab of your external monitor's window. For Rotation: select either 90 or 270.

You can still mirror your displays.


How to allow my Mac OS X 10.10.4 to download from sourceforge.net?

SourceForge is having issues right now. Others are having trouble downloading also. You may end up having to request the author upload the binaries to another source.

I am pretty sure if it was an issue with your configuration, you'd still be able to download just not run, or not have access to the internet at all.


What if I download a different IPSW for a different Device?

Nothing is going to happen. It won't take the IPSW file and give an error, something like:

  The iPhone "name" could not be restored

You should just get the iPhone 6s IPSW file. Another note: You can't get iOS 6 on an iPhone 6s. The lowest version is iOS 9 for iPhone 6s.


Sending specific keys when using Remote Desktop UNIX commands

Checking the profiles man page, the -f flag will:

Automatically confirm any questions, or when used with -s, will retry startup profiles at each startup until successfully installed.

So, my guess is profiles -Df is what you're looking for.


How to automatically switch to English when I switch to particular application?

Go to Settings -> Keyboard and select the rightmost tab (Sorry only got German Os X at the moment, so I do not know the exact english words which will be displayed).

At the bottom there is a checkbox (the label is something with automatic change input source for documents ...) -> check it. Now you have to select the language for every document at first. But every time you switch back OS X will change the keyboard layout.


How to move time-machine backups to a new external disk?

It seems you're not using the standard rsync program that comes with macOS, but rather a different version from for example HomeBrew. In that case you'll probably want to use the --acls option to ensure that proper ACLs are being used.

The "operation not permitted" even as root seems to indicate that you're running Catalina, and haven't given the program the necessary permissions. In Catalina there's a seperate security layer that protects the user from malicious programs - even those running as root. You'll want to open System Preferences => Security & Privacy and give "Files and Folders" permissions and/or "Full Disk Access" permissions to the Terminal.app and rsync programs.


There is a product called Path Finder 6 that offers a feature called "filters and selections," demonstrated here.
You could try selecting all the items in the folder you are searching and applying a Label, then perform a Spotlight search for your item "AND" the additional criteria of "file label" by holding down the option key while clicking on the plus sign.


It is possible that some QL plugins are broken, you should check

~/Library/QuickLook/
/Library/QuickLook/
/System/Library/QuickLook/

for new QL plugins (check the date of the files). Maybe a program installed a new (broken) plugin? But some QL plugins are not inside the Library/QuickLook/ folders you can use

qlmanage -m

to list all QL plugins, with

qlmanage -m | grep -v com.apple

you see only plugins which are not from Apple.


How does automator know that the text that it receives, is an address?

OS X features NSDataDetector which has the ability to detect types of data.

More information regarding the NSDataDetector class can be found on Apple's developer site:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Foundation/Reference/NSDataDetector_Class/


No, you do not absolutely need one.

It is mostly used for synchronizing with your other devices, which you’ve stated that you do not want anyways.

However it will still be most practical if you create a new Apple-ID to be used exclusively for that computer. If you do not, you’ll not be able to download software from the App Store.

Note that you do not have to enter that Apple-ID in any of the systems that would otherwise sync data. Your files, photos, calendars, mails, contacts, etc. will stay completely private and not synced with anything, even if you use an Apple-ID for purchasing or otherwise downloading software from Apple.


Try go into General and restart, This worked for me.


esc button OS X needs to be released on every command

selecting Use option as meta key allows alt/option to be used instead of esc.


I can't create a second partition in Mac

Actually you have a CoreStorage Logical Volume Group on your physical disk named "Macintosh HD" containing a Logical Volume also named "Macintosh HD". The latter is the volume usually visible on your desktop (depending on your Finder settings). The Logical Volume Group already extends across your whole physical disk except an invisible EFI partition (200 MB) and an invisible Recovery HD (~650 MB).

The Logical Volume (499 GB with 456 GB free space) extends across your whole Logical Volume Group.

As a result you can't create a second partition (including the invisible partitions in fact a forth) because you have no unallocated space on your physical disk.

To create a second partition you have to resize the whole CoreStorage stack to create a non-CoreStorage volume or resize the Logical Volume to create a second CoreStorage Logical Volume first.


Where are the sync settings in iTunes 11 for Windows?

I actually had to ask an Apple Genius (at the local Apple Store). Once a pod is "mounted", a little button appears to the left of the iTunes Store button. It says "iPod" and has a little graphic that you can use to "unmount" the pod. If you click the word "iPod" you get to the sync options display. If you click on the graphic, you unmount the pod. There is no indication that the word is clickable, the word and the graphic are on a single button. Lousy UI (at least in that respect) if you ask me. –


Downloading the Current EFI for the 2015 MacBook8,1 Model?

EFI updates are available from the command line:

softwareupdate -la

This is the same information as the App Store app shows. The tools check apple's entire catalog and then calculate locally if any updates are required. You likely are up to date, but this is how to check.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518


Could the battery be dead? If so it may take 5 to 10 minutes hooked up to a wall charger before it will have enough power to reboot. Make sure you use the provided wall charger as most USB chargers don't have enough power and take a very long time to recharge iPads.


Apple A1277 USB ethernet adapter not working on MacBook Air

For reasons best known to itself, Apple chose not to include updated drivers for the A1277 adapter when it released Mavericks. In the screenshot you provided, the 'Product ID: 0x1402' in reference to your adapter reveals it was manufactured by ASIX Electronics, and further indicates that ASIX designates it internally as a model AX88772C. (This information comes from the massive OUI database of model and vendor codes maintained by the IEEE.)

Happily enough, even though Apple no longer continues to support the product, ASIX does. Their current driver version (2.2.0) for the A1277 / AX88772C includes support not only for Mavericks, but for Yosemite as well.

You will find the link to download "Apple Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.10 Drivers Installer" as the first entry in the list of driver downloads on this page of the ASIX site:
http://www.asix.com.tw/download.php?sub=driverdetail&PItemID=136


New iPhone 8 restore not showing sms messages

I have encountered the same situation that some of my photos and messages were not restored successfully. But now, all my files on old iPhone 5S have been moved to my new iPhone 8. It just takes me 5 minutes to transfer about 2000 photos. Maybe you can also get solution here: transfer all files to new iPhone


You can remove most apps when they are not running, so move the app to the trash and then log out of your Mac from the Apple menu - Log out...

When you log back in, the app won’t start since it’s in the Trash and then you can empty it.

As long as it’s a normal app and not one that installed helpers, start at boot, or malware this works for all basic apps. Non-basic apps or ones that run hidden helpers like most Adobe products, Zoom, backup and remote control software need to be uninstalled or deactivated based on how they were implemented.

Live Chat may need an uninstall...

  ... start automatically when you turn on your computer, so you never miss a chat.

If you struggle, the steps to isolate malware and persistent apps might need a follow on question based on how your mac is set up, and the specific of the exact app you have.


iMac 2017 Catalina: camera won't work but seems recognized

The FaceTime webcam has died.
This is basically a duplicate of this question about a MacBook Pro camera but you've done a lot more diagnostics.
You've got two options:

Replace the FaceTime webcam.  I don't recommend this option unless you intend to do other work inside your iMac like upgrade your hard drive to an SSD.  This requires removing the screen which means you'll have to cut through the adhesive holding the screen to the frame; it's a very time consuming and tedious task requiring the purchase of adhesive strips for the display when reassembling

Get a USB Camera.  While my FaceTime camera works, I actually use a USB webcam (Logitech Brio) so I can get 4K resolution which is much higher than the FaceTime HD camera's resolution of only 1280x720.  The color is also much more vibrant on the Logitech making for a much better picture.

Basically, the fact that it doesn't work in Safe Mode (after a reboot) and doesn't work with Apple’s own built in software that works with it (i.e. FaceTime and PhotoBooth), pretty much says this is a physical issue.  Unless you're up for removing the glass on the iMac, go with an external USB webcam.

Future Diagnostics:
I just wanted to provide some pointers for future diagnostics for folks who may be looking to solve this (or other hardware issues).  Here are some tips to guide you in diagnosing the problem:

Hardware can be "recognized" but not work.  It's like having all 4 wheels removed from your car.  It will start, shift into all the gears and no engine light will turn on, but you car isn't going anywhere.
In this case, the controller (aka the USB bridge - an IC or “chip”) can still work, but the sensor (what captures the image) just dies. So, the system still see's it attached to the USB bus, but you get no image.

Plugging in another USB Webcam is the best diagnostic test.  The integrated FaceTime camera is also attached to the USB bus so if a different USB webcam works and the integrated one doesn't it's pretty much guaranteed that the issue is the camera itself.

Running Safe Mode (Hold ⇧ Shift
while booting) is an excellent troubleshooting tool as it eliminates 3rd party software and drivers (kexts).  Also, since it requires rebooting, you know everything is starting "fresh."

Apple Diagnostics (Hold D while booting) is also an excellent tool, but it sometimes cannot detect things that don't generate errors (like in this case).
Like your eyes, you may lose function as you age (the failure), yet you don't experience pain (the error code).  This is why we do alternate tests.

Disabling security is not a good idea.  SIP only protects certain folders from having things written to it.  Disabling security, especially when the device was working before won't yeild much return in the way of diagnostic info.

Resetting the SMC and NVRAM is rarely a fix for anything.  You'll see these recommendations everywhere and the result is usually fruitless.  It's because the SMC handles power and cooling (fans) while the NVRAM handles the pre-boot environment like setting the boot device, and initial boot screen resolution.  There's nothing in it that addresses peripheral devices like webcams or software.

Updating your OS is always a good idea.  Apple's been known to break things with updates and new OS releases.  Now with APFS and it's ability to take snapshots of your hard drive, the converse is now true - rolling back is a good idea if you apply an update and something breaks.  APFS allows you to roll back your OS to a point where it was working - it's an "undo" for your Operating System.


Automator: Archive a folder, whilst excluding certain files

Automator won't be enough to do this.

You'll have to devise an applescript (or some other kind of script) to do the filtering, since the automator action "Filter Folder Items" will not work recursively. Any folder will not have the undesired extensions so will be added, even if the folder contains files with those extensions.


Autocorrect for specific people and the language they use

When editing text, right click and choose "Show Spelling and Grammar":

Select Automatic by Language:

This works for me, I use two languages (English and Italian).

Edit: This is for Spelling and Grammar, the setting for autocorrect is in Keyboard->Text:

You'll also have to add the languages you will use in the Languge & Region panel of System Preferences.


How do I stop Messages from my iPhone 6s from appearing on my Mac?

On your MacBook, open Messages, then go into the menu bar Messages → Preferences → Accounts. Select your account labeled iMessage, and under Settings, either uncheck Enable this account or click Sign Out. You could also uncheck your phone number and every email address under You can be reached for messages at.

This will stop your Mac from being able to both send and receive iMessages. If you had Text Message Forwarding enabled for your Mac, this will stop it also.


Can I connect two 34" LG 34UM95-P to a Retina Macbook Pro 13?

You ABSOLUTELY can do this.

The statement on the box is wrong. You can use either two mini-display port to displayport cables, or two Thunderbolt cables.

My statement was based on the fact that you can (according to Apple's documentation) run two Thunderbolt monitors on that laptop, and the available resolution on the Thunderbolt cable is clearly capable of 3440x1440.


continuity not working except for receiving calls, iMessages and AirDrop

This is so hard to troubleshoot - I wish I had some good tips. Calls and iMessage probably are relying on APNS push notifications and AirDrop happens on demand - so you might have some blockage or delay in the full continuity system.

Are you able to take the devices to a location where WiFi and Bluetooth are not congested like an empty field or a house with one Access Point?
Are you confident Bluetooth works on the devices (and is ON)?
Are you confident WiFi works on the devices (and is ON)?

Sadly, the “sign out of iCloud and/or reset all settings / erase all content and settings” ladder of escalated troubleshooting on iOS is likely the way you’ll get this fixed. But, you might lose any apps that aren’t available for re-download or downloaded on iTunes (if you have older apps that aren’t for sale anymore). Also, that three step process takes a lot of time for devices with 60 GB of iCloud content or more.

Sorry for the “non-answer” answer but I wanted to explain there is no good consumer level debugging or logs that are publicly documented to get at the root of what’s happening with continuity.


Exploring the files in a MobileSync backup

Here's the DIY method:

Navigate to the following directory:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

You'll get a cryptic list of folders.  Inside each folder will be a large number of files with cryptic names.

Open these files in Quicktime Player.

There may be thousands of them but if you sort by size you should get video, audio and photos to float to the top.

Alternatively you could try one of the applications that is meant to do this such as iPhone Backup Extractor (There is a free and a paid version I have not tried either myself).


The iPhone could not be restored. An unknown error occurred (9)

I was able to fix this issue by plugging my iPhone into another Windows machine, then placing the iPhone back onto the original machine, then doing a restore on the iPhone.


Does the Mac mini with M1 support the LG 5k display?

So far, it does not. Just connected my new M1 to my LG Ultrafine 5k and it blanks out randomly despite using the same connection that works fine with my 2018 Macbook Pro and despite the M1 Mini driving a 4k VewSonic (HDMI) without any issues (which looks quite nice, but would prefer to be able to use the 5K and its built in camera.


iMac tripping breaker just by plugging it to electricity, without even pushing the power button!

DANGER! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Don't try to plug it in. That sounds like a hard short. Get it to an Apple Store or an authorized repair center. Hopefully, it's under AppleCare or some type of warranty. Each time you try to plug it in you risk doing irreparable damage to the iMac or, worse, possibly causing a fire or life-threatening shock hazard.


Not with paragraph styles, no. You can do this with a single cell table which can be inlined and have a left border style different to the others.


I learned how to export the notes from the iBooks, I'm using to present my seminars at College.
I sherched a way to import them to another eBook and i didn't find, i hope Evernote be a good option to you.

Step 1 – Inside iBooks, you can click on a book.

Step 2 – Click on the book you want to get the highlights from.

Step 3: Click the menu button next to Library at the top

Step 4: Click on “Notes”

Step 5: Click on the arrow at the top right corner and click “Edit notes.”

Step 6: Click Select all (top left corner)

Step 7: Click Share (next to Select all/ Select None) and then Choose Mail

Step 8: Choose Mail and send the email to Evernote or to yourself.

Step 9: Go into Evernote and Sync and your card will appear (usually it goes to the Inbox unless you’ve set it up differently)

Font: Coolcatteacher


After upgrading, the existing printer instances (CUPS and BR-Script3) worked as they had in OS X Mavericks (and earlier).  Both suffered from the inability to remove the job from the queue after printing, but this isn't related to Catalina.

I created a new printer instance, using the Brother MFC-8840D BR-Script3 driver and everything works as expected, including clearing the queue.

Note: OS X does not recognize the device's scanner feature, so I cannot use Preview to Import from scanner....


Mysterious "Staff" account on my school laptop

Staff is the default group that all users on OS X are in. You're simply seeing that 'staff' is the group that's set to have read permissions on your home directory (as it should be).

Although the group has read permissions on that directory, you'll notice that they do not have read permissions on most folders and files within. Here is some additional info on permissions and groups

If you like terminal, you can use the id command to tell if a user is really a user or a group.

id `whoami`


How can I update my (super old) Mac OS when the App Store shows no available updates?

I would start first opening this link in safari.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969

Don’t take the bait in step 4 trying to get you Catalina, You want this next link first...

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

While it’s downloading check your backup is solid. The upgrade and updates don’t intentionally erase data, but better safe than sorry.
Also, seriously consider an internal SSD if you move to APFS and past High Sierra.


Bug with the automator action "rotate an image" and tags

Yes the Tags do get wiped on mine.

As an example of resetting them. You can collect the tags first apply your changes and then reset them after.

1, set the first Set Value of Variable  to the file path (input)  :var named File

2, Pass the file path to a Run Applescript : collecting the tag info.

This example works on a single file.

Code:

on run {input, parameters}
set tag to do shell script "xattr -px com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags" & space & quoted form of POSIX path of (item 1 of input)
return tag

end run

3, pass the result on to a Set Value of Variable :var named tag

4, Get value of Variable :var File:  ignore input from the above action.

5,Pass it onto the Rotate Images Action

6,Get value of Variable :var tag:  The image path from the Rotate Images Action will also be collected  by this action.

7, Pass the file path and tag array on to a Run Applescript

on run {input, parameters}

    set theFile to item 1 of input
    set theTags to item 2 of input
    do shell script "xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags" & space & quoted form of theTags & space & quoted form of POSIX path of theFile

end run

This is just an example which worked on my simple tests and you may want to test it on copies first.


New Corsair ram beeping on late 2008 MacBook

3 beeps indicate that the RAM didn't pass the system test. As the 2x4GB Corsair RAM also gives you a Blue Screen Of Death on your HP I would say that the RAM is faulty and your only option is to return it.

Try shipping it to a friend in the US or to Amazon.com directly as you're not in the US anymore.


Apple Pay on the Web requires my phone and email. Is that information shared?

Only being asked these details while on a Mac enabled me to use desktop Safari's Network Inspector, and actually see what's being sent to the server.

When prompted, I couldn't choose an existing contact, so I had to create a new one (but it wasn't added to my Contacts either, even though the payment went through). Lets say I used John Doe with +1 (505) 842-5662 and myemail@example.com.

The request was sent to https://ticket-shop.example.com/api/v3/payment/applepay/fast-checkout with the following data:

{
    "paymentData":{
        "paymentData":{
            "version":"EC_v1",
            "data":"SOME_BASE64_LOOKING_STRING",
            "signature":"SOME_BASE64_LOOKING_STRING",
            "header":{
                "ephemeralPublicKey":"SOME_BASE64_LOOKING_STRING",
                "transactionId":"SOME_HASH"
            }
        },
        "paymentMethod":{
            "displayName":"MasterCard 1234",
            "network":"MasterCard",
            "type":"debit"
        },
        "transactionIdentifier":"SOME_HASH"
    },
    "eventAlias":"example-standup",
    "consumerContact":{
        "emailAddress":"myemail@example.com",
        "familyName":"Doe",
        "givenName":"John",
        "phoneNumber":"+1 (505) 842-5662",
        "phoneticFamilyName":"",
        "phoneticGivenName":""
    },
    "_csrf-frontend":"SOME_BASE64_LOOKING_STRING"
}

So Apple Pay did share that information with the merchant. Moreover, in a confirmation e-mail I received from them, they used the test name I entered while paying, not the name they have on file for me.

So apparently some merchants will request this additional info, while others don't. I couldn't find any official sources, so this is merely an observation that didn't fit into a comment, and not an answer.


How many displays can a Mac Mini 2014 drive

I've tried it with 3 displays, but no go.  Any combination of 2 displays work, but not 3 at the same time.


How to activate iPhone with forgotten details

Well you would need to get the Apple ID first, then reset it with your Apple ID.

To recover your ID password: iForgot


How to drag folders from Finder into Final Cut without mouse [automator/applescript]

I think you should try keyboard shortcuts through which you can drag folders from Finder into Final Cut without mouse    https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12724?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US


Yes, you can get UHD working through that blu-ray drive. Copyright decrypting, hardware acceleration etc are all features implemented in prior chips so they're definitely in  Kaby Lake. Display is HDCP 2.2.

I think the biggest difficulty here will likely be in finding good software. I would plan on having to buy some, shop around and find the best one for you. I don't have any recommendations for software but I know that it should work & looking around there's at least some software that claims to do this.


Is it possible to change the "Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse is present" setting with a keyboard shortcut?

This can be done natively with no third-party anything needed, simply and easily using AppleScript and UI Scripting.

The example AppleScript code can be implemented in a number of different ways, as a script, an AppleScript application, or as an Automator service , the latter of which can have a keyboard shortcut assigned to it.

Specifically how to implement as an Automator service has been covered more then enough times that a Google search should provide an answer on how to do that. I know I written directions for it more times than I can remember.

The following example AppleScript code works for me and toggles the "Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present:" check box:

if running of application "System Preferences" then
    try
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    on error
        do shell script "killall 'System Preferences'"
    end try
end if
repeat while running of application "System Preferences" is true
    delay 0.1
end repeat
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "Mouse" of pane id "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events"
        click checkbox 1 of group 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
    end tell
    quit
end tell

Note that the value of the delay commands may need to be adjusted for your system, and or additional delay commands may or may not be needed. Adjust values of and or add/remove the delay commands as appropriate.
This was tested and works under macOS High Sierra; however, note that depending on the version of OS X/macOS you're running, the click checkbox ... line of code may need to be adjusted depending on the version of the OS.

For example, with macOS Catalina you'd need to use:

click checkbox 2 of tab group 1 of group 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


How do I change the color of my Dock on Mac

As far as I know, there's no image that you can change to change the background of the Dock. However, you can give the image to DockMod which will let you change the background.


Got an answer in the original Stack Overflow question, Is it possible to evaluate an expression in launchd's ProgramArguments array?

It is possible by means of this bash command:

/bin/bash -c '/bin/launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v1.8)'

The plist file you want is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>test.so</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>/bin/launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v1.8)</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ServiceIPC</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
</plist>


Can't send mail using Mail.app since update to Mavericks

I have had the same problem... Spent two days then found it so simple:

Open Mail.app and go to your SMTP account settings;
Click on the Advanced tab and change the authentication method to password;
Input your mail as username and the password;
Voilá! Outgoing mail traffic working!


Why won't Facetime ring when somebody calls me?

Go to ‘Settings’, then to ‘Do Not Disturb’ and make sure it is set to allow all calls from FaceTime.

Go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Sounds’, and make sure you have a ringtone for calls / FaceTime set.

Finally, make sure your iPad is not in Mute mode by swiping from bottom of the screen upwards and tapping the ‘Bell’ icon to disable it (or, if you have an older device, and you have ‘Mute’ set under ‘General / Use side switch to...’, switch the side switch on). Having Mute mode enabled will prevent the device making any sound when called.


What's the right way to backups photos when using iPhoto?

Your iPhoto Library is contained within a database file on your computer. This file is located here:

/Users/(yourusername)/Pictures/iPhoto Library.photolibrary

That is the file (or technically, package file) that you will want to ensure is backed up to backup your iPhoto pictures.

As mentioned previously in comments, I recommend that you backup your entire hard drive instead of just your pictures. You can use a tool like Time Machine to backup to an external hard drive, or a service like CrashPlan to backup to the cloud.


How to include recent security patch (APFS plain password vulnerability) into already downloaded macOS High Sierra installer image?

You can't merge an update into an older macOS installer app easily. So you have to re-download the full installer to get the most current version. Check that you don't get the restricted (20 MB) installer only app.

After downloading the first full installer (without installing it), move it to a folder and create a dmg choosing the folder (or alternatively zip the app).

Then install the upgrade or trash the macOS installer.app.

After Apple announces and publishes a new installer (not necessarily as a point release update), download it again. Repeat the steps above. If you don't need the old installer.dmg anymore, trash it. I usually keep them.

Under certain circumstances (often after moving the macOS installer.app to an arbitrary folder) downloading the new release will replace the old macOS installer in-place.

To check the build version grep the the file /Contents/Info.plist for DTSDKBuild:

grep DTSDKBuild -A1 .../Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Info.plist

The golden master's build version was 17A362a.

The first installer's build version available to the public was 17A364.

The latest build version as of today is 17A400 (small installer) or 17A403 (large installer).


Synology does have this walk-through for doing what you want to do.

I will mention that (quite some time ago) I used a Synology NAS as a time-machine target disk, and I did get it to work, but found it to be highly error-prone. Not what you want in a backup. Also slow. I'm using a drive with a direct USB3 connection now and am much, much happier with that.


Caps lock + letters A to l not working on mac USB keyboard

Seems like a hardware problem you should be able to replace it under the warranty if no liquid was spilled over it.


How can I take selfie by running a console command on Mac?

The easiest way to do this is a program called "ImageSnap".  You can take iSight photo's by typing the command imagesnap into terminal.

All commands:

 USAGE: imagesnap [options] [filename]
Version: 0.2.5
Captures an image from a video device and saves it in a file.
If no device is specified, the system default will be used.
If no filename is specfied, snapshot.jpg will be used.
Supported image types: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, BMP
  -h          This help message
  -v          Verbose mode
  -l          List available video devices
  -t x.xx     Take a picture every x.xx seconds
  -q          Quiet mode. Do not output any text
  -w x.xx     Warmup. Delay snapshot x.xx seconds after turning on camera
  -d device   Use named video device

Just incorporate imagesnap commands into a cron job or workflow of your command.  ImageSnap is also available thru homebrew:

brew install imagesnap


How to export an email from Mail application?

Actually that functionality is beyond simple. Drag the email from the Mail.app window to the desktop. When you reach the desktop the pointer then contains acircular green "+"

Drop the email there and you now have a single message as an .eml file


Mount a samba drive, with password from keychain

Here's how I did it

mkdir -p /Volumes/work \
&& mount -t smbfs //admin:$(security find-internet-password -D "Network Password" -l "share name" -w)@server/work /Volumes/work

The keychain access was a bit tricky, I found the answer and wrote it there. The important part was the capitals when specifying the secret kind.

You'll need to be able to create directories in /Volumes as well. This answer helped me.


Why retina mac book pro won't output signal to second monitor via mini display, but detect it?

Your model should support 2 external monitors at max resolution of 2560x1600.

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors.

Check your resolution settings, if the cables are working.

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP704?locale=en_US


If you suspect your Mac may have malware or adware installed on it, I would recommend trying BitDefender, a lightweight antivirus app for Mac (available for free on the Mac App Store), which I have found to be especially good at detecting both adware and malware and then removing it. BitDefender scans your machine when prompted (good for an ongoing issue) but does nothing in the background.

If you want constant protection in the future (that promises to block this kind of adware/malware from being downloaded onto your Mac in the first place, and has fulfilled its promise twice for me) you can try Avast, which is also free (but not available from the Mac App Store, just their website).

Hope this helps, let me know if this fixes the problem or not!


For me it's in the file

/etc/pulse-hosts.bak

You have to edit this file to customize your hosts directives

When you are going to reconnect/connect using the Pulse Secure VPN, it's going to merge the directives from the

/etc/pulse-hosts.bak

with the content from Pulse directives and creates the

/etc/hosts

2018 Update

With the newer version of Pulse Secure you have to exit the program first (check your active process).

Modify your host (/etc/hosts) and then restart Pulse Secure.


How do I prevent OS X 10.8 from autoconnecting to a specific wireless network?

From another answer: How to disable automatic wifi connection?

  The only way to stop from automatically joining a preferred or known wifi network, is to not store the password for that network and type it in each time without clicking the "save password" button.

If you have a network remembered, and the credentials stored, there does not appear to be a way to prevent the system from trying to connect to it on sight.

Another answer with a somewhat related conclusion that may shed more light on the way the wifi autoconnect works: Prevent my Mac from connecting to an unsecure Wi-Fi network?


How to enforce backup of an .ipa from iPad to iTunes/Mac?

File - Transfer purchases from "device" command in the iTunes menu is intended to move all apps as well as any other purchased content to an iTunes library that lacks those items.


In the Finder, under the File menu, select "Find" (Command+F). In the window that opens, leave the first pulldown menu at "Kind", go to the next pulldown and select "Image" then hit enter. Assuming you set the search to "This Mac," the Finder will then list every image file on your computer, allowing you to see exactly where they are.


I am assuming you are using iPhone 4 from your tag.

Press Home button
Go to the Photos app
Long hold on the picture that you want to attach to the email. A 'Copy' pop up will appear, copy.
Go back to Mail.
Paste your photo into Mail.

Note that the photo will be in full size and might make the size of your outgoing mail quite large.


Maybe you will appreciate this script.  Basically the code will get all of the email addresses from the senders of all emails located in your junk mailbox and will make a new mail rule for each..;. Setting the name of the rule to the extracted email address.  In the event there are duplicate items in the senders list, all duplicates will be removed before adding the rules.  Additionally, a dialog box will appear giving you the option to enable the newly created rules.  This code should prove to be a huge time saver.

This works for me using the latest version of macOS High Sierra

set isRunning to application "Mail" is running

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    if isRunning is false then
        delay 12
    else
        delay 2
    end if
    set junkEmailAddressesNoDupes to {}
    set junkEmailAddresses to sender of every message of junk mailbox
    if (count of junkEmailAddresses) is 0 then
        set zeroJunkMail to button returned of (display dialog "You Currently Have 0 Junk Mail Messages" buttons {"OK"} with icon 1 default button "OK" giving up after 10)
        if zeroJunkMail is "OK" then
            if isRunning is false then
                tell application "Mail" to quit
            end if
            return
        end if
        if isRunning is false then
            tell application "Mail" to quit
        end if
        return
    end if
    activate
    display alert ¬
        "IMPORTANT" message "Please Make Sure The Top Level Junk Mail Folder labeled" & " " & quote & "JUNK" & quote & ¬
        " Is Selected" as warning ¬
        buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} ¬
        default button 2 ¬
        cancel button 1 ¬
        giving up after 30
    delay 10
    repeat with i from 1 to count of junkEmailAddresses
        set thisItem to item i of junkEmailAddresses
        set thisEmail to extract address from thisItem
        set end of junkEmailAddressesNoDupes to thisEmail
    end repeat
end tell

set junkEmailAddressesNoDupes2 to removeDuplicates(junkEmailAddressesNoDupes)

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    set checkRulez to button returned of (display dialog ¬
        "Please Make Sure These New Junk Mail Rules Do Not Contain Any Valid Email Addresses That You Don't Want Tagged As Junk" & linefeed & linefeed & (junkEmailAddressesNoDupes2 as list) buttons {"CANCEL", "OK"} ¬
        default button 2 ¬
        cancel button 1 ¬
        with title ¬
        "NEW JUNK MAIL RULES" with icon 1 ¬
        giving up after 120)
end tell

if checkRulez is "CANCEL" then
    return
end if

repeat with i from 1 to count of junkEmailAddressesNoDupes2
    set thisItem to item i of junkEmailAddressesNoDupes2
    tell application "Mail"
        if not (exists of rule thisItem) then
            make new rule ¬
                with properties {name:thisItem}
            tell its rule thisItem
                make new rule condition ¬
                    with properties {header:"", expression:thisItem, rule type:from header, qualifier:equal to value}
                delay 0.1
                set delete message to true
            end tell
        end if
    end tell
end repeat

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    set enableRulez to button returned of (display dialog ¬
        "Enable New Rules?" buttons {"Cancel", "No", "Yes"} ¬
        default button 3 ¬
        cancel button 1 ¬
        with title ¬
        "New Rulez" giving up after 30)
end tell

if enableRulez is "Yes" then
    tell application "Mail" to set enabled of every rule to true
else
    return
end if

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    set applyRulez to button returned of (display dialog ¬
        "Would You Like To Apply Your New Junk Mail Rules To Your Current Junk Mail?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} ¬
        default button 2 ¬
        cancel button 1 ¬
        with title ¬
        "APPLY THE NEW RULES?" with icon 1 ¬
        giving up after 30)
end tell

if applyRulez is "Yes" then
    tell application "System Events"
        tell application "Mail" to activate
        click static text 1 of UI element 1 of row 5 of outline 1 of scroll area 1 ¬
            of splitter group 1 of window 1 of application process "Mail"
        delay 1
        keystroke "a" using command down
        delay 0.5
        keystroke "l" using {option down, command down}
    end tell
else
    return
end if

on removeDuplicates(lst)
    try
        if lst's class is not list then error "not a list." number -1704
        script k
            property l : lst
            property res : {}
        end script
        repeat with itemRef in k's l
            set itm to itemRef's contents
            if k's res does not contain {itm} then ¬
                set k's res's beginning to itm
        end repeat
        return k's res's reverse
    on error eMsg number eNum
        error "Can't removeDuplicates: " & eMsg number eNum
    end try
end removeDuplicates


Late 2012 Imac 27'' constant beach ball loading and slow downs

It might help to examine how the machine's resource usage looks inside of Activity Monitor...Are the CPU cores maxed out? How about RAM usage - is there any green showing in the pie chart? Lastly - is the Disk Activity tab showing excessive write rates constantly occurring?

Does the performance of the machine increase when you quit out of particular applications (namely Parallels?)

A defective hard drive could cause slowness, but this may be accompanied by other symptoms (crashing, audible clicking, logging of I/O errors). It may be prudent to run the Apple Hardware Test just to confirm tht the hardware is in good shape.


How to exclude mailboxes within a smart mailbox?

Well, in Mail 4.5 (on Snow Leopard) it's easy: add a condition "Message is in Mailbox" to your smart mailbox's filter. In my case, that "Gmail" mailbox is a sub-box of the (unified) Inbox.


Discrepancy between availble space and capacity on external HD

Try using Repair Disk in Disk Utility to fix any disk anomalies, or run fsck -fy / in single user mode.


While trying to enable the root user, I got the error

dsenableroot:: ***Failed to enable root user.

So I looked into that and found out thanks to an answer to Why would dsenableroot NOT work on a 10.7.5 OSX Server? that I had to check my root user in the file /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/root.plist.

Sadly, the file was missing. And this was the root cause of the problem: I didn't had a root user. After copying it from another macOS installation,

sudo started working again
id did no longer show the membership to nogroup
the command dscl . read /Users/root said that it finally found a user
and I was able to find root in the directory browser


Some photos are sharp on the phone but low-res on icloud.com/photos

We have discovered a workround for this issue:

Duplicate the problem image on the phone.
Use "markup" in the photos app to make some miniscule invisible change.  e.g a one-pixel black dot with a semi-transparent pen in some shadowed (but not completely black) region.
Save the modified image.
Wait a couple of minutes and the duplicated image appears on www.icloud.com/photos and is the full resolution version, as expected.

It's worth mentioning that just duplicating the image alone doesn't work: the duplicate will appear on the icloud web-page, but still be fuzzy low-resolution.  Also, modifying the duplicate using other editing controls like exposure, warmth, tint and so on isn't enough of a change to force the upload of a full resolution version, presumably because those parameters are held separately to the original image data (so repeated tweaking doesn't degrade the image).  My guess is modifying the actual image pixel data changes some hash value computed for the image and convinces iCloud there's something needing uploading.
It's a good enough solution for the handful of images we want to see properly uploaded at full resolution.
The most slightly annoying thing about it is that, while the duplicated and modified photos still seem to have the original date attached, www.icloud.com/photos now displays them at the end of the album and unlike the phone app there's no sort options provided.  Not a big deal though, as her main reason for using the iCloud website is just to download images to the desktop PC.


You may be [not] seeing the other partitions on the drive, Recovery & EFI, which will be contributing to that 'extra' space.

Try enabling the debug menu in Disk Utility, then enabling all partition view…

Quit Disk Utility
Open the Terminal utility
Run the following Command:
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
Relaunch Disk Utility
In the new Debug menu, enable 'Show every partition'
check if EFI & Recovery add up to the 'missing' space
For me, EFI is tiny, approx 200MB, but Recovery is approx 1.2GB
I don't have an LVG, so there may be a 4th partition governing that.


After further investigations i found that LoaderAgent is part of the AVG LinkScanner installation. So download the installer and use the uninstaller in the dmg. It removes the LoaderAgent.app and supplemental files and folders.

Just for record keeping, my earlier answer:

  Which AVG Antivirus did you install? Did you get the installer package from a reliable source?

  The latest AVG Antivirus for Mac doesn't create a folder named AVG in /Library/Application Support/ - at least for me using the free installer and not subscribing to any additional services or installing AVG Cleaner or PrivacyFix. Instead the folder is named com.avg.Antivirus. Especially it doesn't contain a LoaderAgent.app in any of the subfolders. Moreover I can't uninstall it "using the AVG website".

  To get rid of the remnants of your AVG deinstallation, download and install "LaunchControl"

  Open the app and search for avg in Global Agents/Global Daemons.

  Uncheck all radio buttons to disable the jobs

  Quit LaunchControl, go to /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchAgents, check for plists containing avg and open Terminal.app

  Enter sudo launchctl unload <-Drop the *.plist here and hit Enter to unload all related services. If the plist is a symbolic link or an alias right-click it and choose "Show Original" and use the original plist. You have to enter an admin password then.
  Repeat that for every plist containing *.avg.

  Then enter sudo rm <-Drop the *.plist here and hit Enter
  Repeat that for every plist containing *.avg.

  Navigate to /Library/Application Support/ with
  cd /Library/Application\ Support and hit Enter.

  Then enter sudo rm -dfR AVG and hit Enter.

  Restart your Mac.


Can I update the flagged emails in Mail 10?

Two possible solutions…

Flagging conversations can be a bit confusing.

In Mail, go to the Flagged mailbox and click >> to expand conversations with flagged messages.
Flag/Unflag individual messages or entire conversations to suit.

If that's not the problem, common mailbox display problems can often be corrected by rebuilding mailbox indexes.  This can be done per mailbox with Mail's Mailbox > Rebuild command, but it can be simpler and quicker to force a rebuild for all mailboxes en masse by manually deleting the index files.

These instructions work for Sierra. Previous macOS versions had slightly different naming schemes within the Mail folder.

In Mail, choose Mail > Quit.
In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder… and enter this path:

~/Library/Mail/V4/MailData/
Delete all files whose names begin with Envelope Index (e.g., Envelope Index, Envelope Index-shm, Envelope Index-wal, etc.)
Reopen Mail and when prompted, Continue to import your existing mailboxes.


I'd try VLC in Terminal:

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC qtcapture://

Ask on their forums. If there isn't an option to delay the direct display, you can always "stream" it to another VLC process and let it buffer for 15 seconds.


What determines the label displayed in the "Kind" column of an OS X finder window and in search box labeled "Kind"?

CFBundleDocumentTypes

To answer your first and second question:

OS X applications are able to register document types with the system. They do so by declaring those document types within the CFBundleDocumentTypes section in the Info.plist file which resides inside the application bundle.

For example, you can find the entry for the LaTeX kind by opening Terminal.app and invoking this command:

$ grep LaTeX -B4 -A7 /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app/Contents/Info.plist

The resulting XML chunk defines the three-way relationship between the application, the name of the bundle type (aka Kind), and the respective file extensions:

<dict>
    <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
    <string>Editor</string>
    <key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
    <string>LaTeX</string>
    <key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
    <array>
        <string>tex</string>
    </array>
    <key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
    <string>TeX</string>
</dict>

For more details about document types, see the section CFBundleDocumentTypes in the document Registering the File Types Your App Supports from Apple’s Developer Library.

Spotlight searches

To answer your third question:

  Can I change that option box to show "LaTeX"

Open the drop down box and choose Other. A text box appears; type the name of the file kind you wish to search for, or any substring of it.

If the Other option won’t appear in the drop-down list, you might need to enable the option first by going to System Preferences » Spotlight and ticking the checkbox next to Other.


How do I use Soundflower with El Capitan on my MacBook Air and hear my computer audio while recording with QuickTime?

This solves the problem: open Audio Midi Set Up (via search, or in Apps>Utilities) and on soundflower 2ch slide the master down to zero and back up to max for both input and output.  Works fine now.


That depends on your service provider. In the US if you use T-mobile with an unlimited plan the answer would be no.

If you pay for data the answer would be yes. The hotspot on your phone is set up to use your mobile data.

One way or another, you pay for tethered data based on what service provider you choose and what plan you choose.


If you mean doing an upgrade install from the recovery partition, it does replace many system files with the initial versions. It might not replace all files though, and for example setting or cache files might also be corrupted.

If you have backups, it won't take that long to try it out and see if there are still things that don't work. I'd just erase and reinstall OS X though.


Command+S At Boot Doesn't Activate Single-User Mode

Figured it out. I'd changed my keyboard layout to Dvorak which apparently isn't honored at boot, defaulting to QWERTY. I pressed Cmd+O (where the S would've been) and it worked.


Very old question but I thought I'd mention that some people (including me) chown the homebrew /usr/local/ directory so you can run everything in it without issue. I used:

sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local


MacPorts: Continue installing other updates after error

The -p seems to work for me.

From the manpage:

-p       Despite any errors encountered, proceed to process multiple
         ports and commands.


Seeking good quality DVD ripping software for PPC G5, 10.4.11

Use the RipIt App. Choose the Compress option and within the Applications preferences you can specify the output file format. I have to say they made the process simple and worry free. I am using it on Snow Leopard so my experience may not be the same as yours.


Prioritise spotlight search results in El Capitan

In System Settings > Spotlight > Search Results, disable as many items as you can.


How can I solve an iPhone 4S restore failure loop?

Try RecBoot from sebby.net for Mac (and Windows).

The RecBoot application lets you put your iPhone into and out of recovery mode easily.


How to check if my HD is case sensitive or not?

You can use terminal to read the File System Personality:

diskutil info /

Look for the fields named below:

   File System Personality:  Journaled HFS+
   Type (Bundle):            hfs
   Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

If the file system is case sensitive, you will see Case-sensitive Journaled HFS in the first pasted line and Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) in the third.

Disk Utility will also show you this from the info window for any File System it can see.


How do I map the keyboard media control keys to switch tabs instead?

You can use a private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PREV,
    KeyCode::BRACKET_LEFT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_NEXT,
    KeyCode::BRACKET_RIGHT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

For some keyboards you might need to replace __ConsumerToKey__ ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PREV with __KeyToKey__ KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_MUSIC_PREV.

See the source for the key code values and predefined settings.


Applying Windows-style Bulk Renaming Mechanism in MacOS

The build in Finder application supports bulk renaming...

In Finder: Just select the files you want to rename, right click on them, then click rename...


Can't login with iCloud Control Panel for Windows. Constant server error

Had the same problem. Turning off all antivirus temporarily and firewall seemed to fix it


Restrict Access to wifi for certain devices

You might easily manage this using Timed Access Control settings with a default rule that prohibits wireless internet during off hours.

Then you could set up devices that have exceptions to the rules (or the opposite - block certain devices while letting most clients unfettered access).

To get to the screen above, run Airport Utility and then choose Network and enable Timed Access at the bottom of the visible window.


How to remove old device from Safari iCloud Tabs?

From Apple's iCloud Tabs support article (emphasis added):

  If you can't access the device that shared the tab, the tab will automatically be cleared from the list after 14 days if the tab isn't updated.

So, any leftover tabs should be gone after two weeks.


I'm pretty sure these images are intended to remind you that the computer is trying to connect to a couple of Bluetooth devices, the second of which appears to show the underside of a Magic Mouse. You should be able to remedy this by performing the NVram reset upon restarting, except that when the screen lights at the last startup cycle, you'll have to immediately press and hold "Option" to select your USB drive to boot from again. You may also have to initiate Safe Boot Mode before the NVram reset. These procedures may take a while, especially when booting from a USB drive.


It is actually okay to raise the system limits - for example up to 65536 open files. 162 sockets over 5 hours is a relatively low number. It is not going to affect system performance in any way, and does not use up any kind of significant resources.

Ordinarily sockets will eventually go away by themselves after a timeout. However in your case, they're listed as being in state CLOSE_WAIT. This means that the kernel is waiting for the application to call close() on the socket descriptor, and they will not go away automatically.

ath is supposed to be doing just that - so it seems like you've either hit a bug, or have some kind of serious misconfiguration that makes ath behave incorrectly.

As a temporary measure, you can get the sockets closed by closing the ath process. You can see the process ID in your output from lsof, and then use the kill command to close it up. You can start it again from:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AirTrafficHost.framework/ath


Reset the iTunes Library

Open the iTunes music folder in Finder ( it’s in your home folder / Music / iTunes) and drag iTunes Music Library.xml and iTunes Library.itl out on the desktop. This will reset iTunes next time you start it, but don’t start it yet. We’ll be working on the xml file, while the itl file is just there for backup.

Change the location of where iTunes keeps the music

In the iTunes preferences > Advanced, click on “change” next to the “iTunes music folder location”, and select your hard disk.

Look inside iTunes Library to see what the problem is

If your iTunes library is huge, it’s a good idea to use Terminal to look at the first few lines, which you can do easily with

  head -n100 /Users/ME/Desktop/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml

(you can just type “head -n100 ” and drag the file onto Terminal to let OS X type out the name for you)
The output will be something along the lines of

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
      <key>Major Version</key><integer>1</integer>
      <key>Minor Version</key><integer>1</integer>
      <key>Date</key><date>2012-08-13T21:09:21Z</date>
      <key>Application Version</key><string>10.6.3</string>
      <key>Features</key><integer>5</integer>
      <key>Music Folder</key><string>file://localhost/Volumes/HD1T/Music/</string>
      <key>Library Persistent ID</key><string>C326B89DCF4457DF</string>
      <key>Tracks</key>
      <dict>
          <key>41557</key>
          <dict>
              <key>Track ID</key><integer>41557</integer>
              <key>Name</key><string>Fifths (Jazzanova 6 Sickth Mix)</string>
              <key>Artist</key><string>Ski</string>
              <key>Album</key><string>Jazzanova: The Remixes, 1997-2000</string>
              <key>Grouping</key><string>where:de</string>
              <key>Genre</key><string>ambient-synth-90s</string>
              <key>Kind</key><string>MPEG audio file</string>
              <key>Size</key><integer>19718194</integer>
              <key>Total Time</key><integer>482925</integer>
              <key>Disc Number</key><integer>2</integer>
              <key>Disc Count</key><integer>2</integer>
              <key>Track Number</key><integer>1</integer>
              <key>Track Count</key><integer>10</integer>
              <key>Year</key><integer>2000</integer>
              <key>Date Modified</key><date>2008-12-05T14:26:06Z</date>
              <key>Date Added</key><date>2012-07-14T07:42:37Z</date>
              <key>Bit Rate</key><integer>320</integer>
              <key>Sample Rate</key><integer>44100</integer>
              <key>Play Count</key><integer>12</integer>
              <key>Play Date</key><integer>3321087305</integer>
              <key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2009-03-28T10:15:05Z</date>
              <key>Rating</key><integer>80</integer>
              <key>Album Rating</key><integer>80</integer>
              <key>Album Rating Computed</key><true/>
              <key>Artwork Count</key><integer>1</integer>
              <key>Persistent ID</key><string>E5B52C3DE807B7DC</string>
              <key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
              <key>File Type</key><integer>1297106739</integer>
              <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/Users/ME/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/Ski/Jazzanova_%20The%20Remixes,%201997-2000/Fifths%20(Jazzanova%206%20Sickth%20Mix).mp3</string>

You need to look out for the file:// bit of the xml. Here it is telling me that it is looking into /Users/ME/Music/, i.e. my home folder instead of my external hard disk.

Use sed to fix the path and create a new xml file

sed is a nifty unix utility which you can use from Terminal. It can open a file, go through it line by line, change things on each line, and then put the result in another file.

sed 's/file:\/\/localhost\/Users\/ME\/Music\/iTunes\/iTunes%20Media\//file:\/\/localhost\/Volumes\/HD1T\//'  < /Users/ME/Desktop/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml  > /Users/ME/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml

Here’s a breakdown of what the command does.

sed calls the sed command - it stands for Stream Editor

’s/…/…./’ sed will itself need instructions, which are strings hence the ’ (apostrophe). s/a/b/ means “if you find an a, substitue it with b”

file:\/\/localhost\/Users\/ME… this is the string we are looking for. Note that given that forward slashes are used by sed for s/…/…/, if you need them in the string you have to escape them with backward slashes

file:\/\/localhost\/Volumes\/HD1T\/ the string we are replacing with

< /Users/ME/Desktop/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml The less than sign means “use this file as input” - in this case, the xml file I had dragged to the Desktop

>  /Users/ME/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml and this means “create this file as output”. We are asking sed to recreate the xml library file from the one on the desktop, but changing some bits around as it does so

Create a broken iTunes library

Now this is important - if you just start iTunes now, with the new .xml file there and no .itl file there, nothing will happen. iTunes will ignore the xml file, and just reset to an empty library. But if iTunes finds a broken .itl file, it will use the .xml file we just fiddled with to recreate the .itl file. The easiest way to create a broken .itl file is from terminal:

  touch ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Library.itl

which will create an empty file - broken enough for iTunes.

Restart iTunes

Now iTunes will finally pay attention to the xml file - it will show a dialog saying ‘Importing ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’…” This may take a while, even though it isn’t actually copying mp3 files around.

Source: http://gotofritz.net/blog/howto/fixing-itunes-cannot-find-music/


Can't force quit frozen iTunes in OS X Yosemite


Where can I find the autocorrect / user dictionary on the iPhone and how can I have a look into it?

You can view the files in iTunes backups of your iPhone using iBackupBot. Open the software, choose your Backup, then sorted by Path find Library/Keyboard/dynamic-text.dat.

It's not possible to view the user dictionary directly from the device without jailbreaking. Jailbreaking does not delete the dictionary.


How can I track total data usage for individual apps on iOS7?

Data Usage - Onavo Count - Data manager =
tracks each app =
would be perfect and its free


First thing to check would be that you have at least one Calendar selected in prefs…

Edit your question to add further information if this does not fix your issue.


AppleScript 'choose from list'. How can I run a different command if multiple sections are chosen?

One possible answer:

set choices to {"Render Node 1", "Render Node 2", "Render Node 3"}
set answer to choose from list choices ¬
    with prompt "What would you like to do?" with multiple selections allowed and empty selection allowed
if answer is not false and length of answer is not 0 then
    set delimiter to ""
    set counter to 1
    set value to "Render Node "
    repeat with appitem in choices
        if answer contains appitem then
            set value to value & delimiter & counter
            set delimiter to " & "
        end if
        set counter to counter + 1
    end repeat
    set value to value & " App"
    -- tell application value to activate
    display dialog value
end if

or maybe:

set applist to {¬
    "Render Node 1 App", ¬
    "Render Node 2 App", ¬
    "Render Node 1 & 2 App", ¬
    "Render Node 3 App", ¬
    "Render Node 1 & 3 App", ¬
    "Render Node 2 & 3 App", ¬
    "Render Node 1 & 2 & 3 App"}
set choices to {"Render Node 1", "Render Node 2", "Render Node 3"}
set answer to choose from list choices ¬
    with prompt "What would you like to do?" with multiple selections allowed and empty selection allowed
if answer is not false and length of answer is not 0 then
    set counter to 1
    set value to 0
    repeat with appitem in choices
        if answer contains appitem then
            set value to value + counter
        end if
        set counter to counter * 2
    end repeat
    set value to item value of applist
    -- tell application value to activate
    display dialog value
end if


There's a few reasons why this can happen, but to start with I would try two very simple things: (1) plugging the drive into a different port, and (2) trying a different cable.

If that doesn't work I would try using Disk Utility from macOS Recovery.

You don't specify the version of macOS you're running, but you should be able to use these steps to use Disk Utility from macOS Recovery

Fully shutdown your iMac
Power up your iMac and immediately press and hold the Command ⌘ + R keys
Let go of the keys once you see the Apple logo
Eventually you'll see the macOS Utilities window
Now select the Disk Utility option
When Disk Utility opens, use it as you normally would to try and format the external drive

If you still have no joy, post a comment below to let me know what happens.


How to quick launch an app in the Dock via a keyboard shortcut?

On my laptop I press the Spotlight keyboard shortcut, type the first 3 letters of my app and press enter. It takes 1 second and voilà.


Can't unmount external disk used with Music app due to AMPLibraryAgent process

You can try force unmounting the drive. It unmounts the drive if some process is already using it.

diskutil unmountdisk force /dev/disk2


You are right lots of myths.

and  more info this "kb/ht1446"

Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

The battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate and to keep the battery operating at maximum efficiency. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months after that. If you normally leave your Apple portable computer connected to AC power and very rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month.

Portables with built-in batteries (aka MacBook Air)

Current Apple portable computer batteries are pre-calibrated and do not require the calibration procedure outlined in this article.

In summary:

The battery has no memory effect & can be charged whenever you like. You can't overcharge it, & charging automatically stops when your battery is full.
The two biggest killers of Lithium batteries are heat & frequent full discharge/recharge cycles.
For calibration reasons (to make your battery status indicator accurate) you can discard but not less than 20% once in a few months.

Best way to prolong the life is to keep it as cool as possible. That might mean do not take your lap top in your bed, do not keep it in the sun, ect.


How to route traffic out a non-standard interface using pfctl?

You could try some kind of re-write script - the tcprewrite tool in linux (it may not exist in OSX) can rewrite packets stored in the a tcpdumpfile. You could then couple this with TCPrelay which, er, replays the re-written tcpdump pcap files.

https://linux.die.net/man/1/tcprewrite

If that seems too much effort (tbh, I could see why) you could try some proxy software that offers some kind of re-write capability. A quick google has shown Charles to be one such, imagine there are others. There is a cost associated with this one, but you can trial it.

https://www.charlesproxy.com/documentation/tools/rewrite/

As I say, I'm sure others are available. No affiliation with Charles, just the first one that I found.


iTunes cannot locate missing files after I've moved them to a USB

do a search for your files, and in a finder window, drag them to the following directory where your iTunes file is located:

iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically Add to iTunes

This will process them and put them back in your iTunes library.
You can move directories containing files as well, you do not need to sort your folders before, but if you don't like the way that iTunes automatically organize your files on import, you would have to reorganize.


How to run httpd on macOS without Apache

There is a LaunchDaemon service for Apache in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons, org.apache.httpd.plist. You can load it using:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

Obviously you'll need to configure httpd.conf appropriately first.

The -w should set the .plist's Disabled key to false so it will start on boot.

NOTE: load is classified as a legacy sub-command of launchctl but still works in High Sierra. I attempted to start Apache with sudo launchctl enable system/org.apache.httpd but it didn't seem to do anything, possibly because I have no idea how to use enable. :P

DOUBLE NOTE: Apache needs elevated privileges, hence nothing happening when you just ran httpd. sudo httpd will work but again configure it first.


I would suggest that just hiding the date is not going to convince anyone, since it is normal to find the dates where they supposed to be.

If there is no date one will be very suspicious.

What you have to do is to modify the date so that it looks the way you want it.

First learn where the information is stored.

Lets say you are using MS word documents.

Under File click on properties > statistics (you will see the dates).

This part is fun, but do not screw it up.

Go to your system preferences and change the date that will become your

  original save date

.

Open the document and save it. (that will become your creation date)

Now change the system date to the date you should have submitted it or day before.

Again open the document and make some kind of small modification then save it again.

That will become your modification date.

Here is a sample I just made (notice the dates are not from today but from what I choose them to be).

You are done.

Do not open and modify the documents after your have changed your system date to today.


Is there a way to log outbound HTTP requests that pass through my Airport Extreme?

I would suggest you to install Squid  HTTP Proxy through Brew Package manager

Squid is a HTTP Proxy and will log and cache all Browser requests passing through it.Since we are installing Squid on your Mac, it will log only the one's passing through it.

Procedure :

Install Brew using Terminal.app
 Make sure Brew is ready to be used by used by running following command:

$ brew doctor

If not ready follow the instructions.

(Generally this requires you to upgrade XCode to latest version.

Install Squid

$ brew update && brew install squid

Point your Browser  to use Proxy localhost:3128


Right click on the file, go under informations, scroll down to permissions and click on the lock. Then enter your administrator password to unlock it. Then, it you're not allowed to read, write and execute click on the +, select your username on the list and press select. Then change the combobox to read, write execute.
Then, you should be able to open your file by right clicking and clicking on open with -> Tunnelblick.


Is there software to test the hardware of MacBook Pro (Retina 15-inch, Mid 2015)?

Okay, the first things I would do are reset your SMC and NVRAM. Instructions follow.

Reset your SMC

Your computer's System Management Controller (SMC) can be reset as follows:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Take a note of whether the fans and/or anything else improves and report back.

Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). Here’s how to reset the NVRAM on your particular MBP:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Run Apple Diagnostics

Now to answer your question about testing the hardware. If resetting the SMC and NVRAM don't resolve your issue, you can follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your MBP
Restart your MBP
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.


How do I get system_profiler output from a lot of machines in a network?

For reading a text file of hostnames into an AppleScript list, see Read textfile into list in Applescript.

For looping over hostnames within your AppleScript list see An AppleScript list iterate/loop example:

set myList to {"Hello", "Goodbye", "I must be going"}
repeat with theItem in myList
  say theItem
end repeat

do shell script

To avoid launching Terminal.app, use the do shell script command:

tell machine "eppc://<ip address of remote machine>"
    do shell script "system_profiler -detailLevel full > /tmp/sysprofile.txt"
end tell

This can be run without launching a supporting graphical application.

I am assuming you can not access the remote host via secure shell, only via Remote AppleEvent access eppc.

Returning the File

Read the contents of the file within your AppleScript's tell machine block and save it locally outside of the tell machine block.

Alternatively, have you considered transferring back the system profile file via ssh or scp? Consider having your AppleScript to connect to your Mac and copy back the collected system profile.


To control default opening software for PDF centrally?

In the Get Info window for any PDF, there should be a section called Open With. You can choose an application from the pop-up menu (Mine says Preview, since I've already changed it, but yours will say Adobe Reader).

Once you change that to Preview, you can click on the Change All button to make it so all PDF documents open with Preview. Mine is grayed out for the same reason; all PDFs on my account open in Preview by default.


VMWare Fusion is opening .docx files in Wordpad

Take a look at these two questions:

Problem with "Always Open With" in OS X
How to setup a default program opening an unknown file extension?

It sounds to me as if the correct application will launch once you tell OS X which application it should use.


Two Clash of Clan accounts under one Game Center account

How open are you to creating a new Game Center account?

If yes, then follow the steps below:

Steps are taken from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4314?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Open the Game Center app
Tap on your email/username and click sign out
Tap on the Create a new account button
Follow the steps on the screen
Sign in to your new GC account and open Clash of Clans
Congrats! Your village should be linked to the new GC account. To test it out, sign in to another device with Clash of Clans and tap on OK/Confirm

If no, well..... * shrug *. IDK what to do.


According to this resource, the game picture shown uses various icons downloaded from http://xicons.macnn.com. However, this address does not exist anymore. The only reminder there about icons is on the forum and leads to an old http://www.xicons.com, which does not exist either and redirects to https://interfacelift.com now. However, there are no similarly looking icons there (amongst freely available), probably due to long time passed.


Apple documentation on memory says that

  The inactive list contains pages that are currently resident in physical memory but have not been accessed recently. These pages contain valid data but may be released from memory at any time.

inactive + free can be considered as the free memory


How to persistently define aliases in Terminal

If you use bash, add the alias commands to ~/.bashrc and save a file like this as ~/.bash_profile:

. ~/.bashrc

When bash is invoked as an interactive non-login shell, it reads .bashrc but not .bash_profile. When bash is it is invoked as an interactive login shell, it reads .bash_profile but not .bashrc.

Terminal and iTerm open new shells as login shells by default, so many OS X users just use .bash_profile as their personal configuration file. For example tmux and the shell mode in Emacs open new shells as non-login shells though.

.profile is also read by other shells like ksh. If both .bash_profile and .profile exist, bash only reads .bash_profile when it is invoked as an interactive login shell.

See https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html for more information.


If you have an external drive where everything is backed-up, the easiest thing would be to erase the HDD choosing Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then restore from the backup.


Since retina Macbook Pro have their memory soldered to the mainboard I won't be possible to have more memory than sold by Apple.

About the last non retina MacBook Pro (mid-2012). It's 16GB


Terminal: grep command usage with '[' character as target, not function

Brackets should be escaped with \, because it's a special character. Your command will look like:

tail -1 system.log | grep " su\["

Special characters

From this site You can learn about special characters in bash.

  What makes a character special? If it has a meaning beyond its literal meaning, a meta-meaning, then we refer to it as a special character. Along with commands and keywords, special characters are building blocks of Bash scripts.

\ is a special character and it could be used as:

  [ ]
  test.

  Test expression between [ ].  Note that [ is part of the shell builtin test (and a synonym for it), not a link to the external command /usr/bin/test.

  [[ ]]
  test.

  Test expression between [[ ]]. More flexible than the single-bracket [ ] test, this is a shell keyword.

  [ ]
  array element.

  In the context of an array, brackets set off the numbering of each element of that array.
  Array[1]=slot_1

  echo ${Array[1]}

  [ ]
  range of characters.

  As part of a regular expression, brackets delineate a range of characters to match.

  $[ ... ]
  integer expansion.

  Evaluate integer expression between $[ ].


There are several ways you can fix this issue.

Reset NVRAM
Try starting up in Safe Mode
Press and hold the power button for a few seconds until your computer turn off, then release the power button.

Source: Apple Toolbox


How to identify file type for a bulk lot of files and attach suitable extension to each

This is rather easy combining some standard tools:

file for looking up the mime type
tr to remove the slashes (otherwise, you'd have nested folders for different file groups)
well, some obvious mkdir and mv commands

for file in *
do
    mime=$(file --brief --mime-type "$file" | tr '/' '_')
    mkdir -p "$mime"
    mv "$file" "$mime/$file"
done

Alternatively, you could also directly list file extensions for each expected mime type and automatically rename them appropriately.

for file in *
do
    mime=$(file --brief --mime-type "$file")

    case "$mime" in
    "image/jpeg")
        extension="jpeg"
        ;;
    "text/plain")
        extension="txt"
        ;;
    "application/pdf")
        extension="pdf"
        ;;
    *)
        continue;
        ;;
    esac

    filename="${file%.*}"

    mv "$file" "$filename.$extension"
done

Be aware, that for sake of readability I did not take care of file names containing spaces. If you have them, you'll have to apply one of the patterns to deal with spaces in file names. As it rather seems you're not having them I left them out, as they make the scripts looking much more complicated as they are.


How do I make the iPhone app emulator retina-size?

There is no option to change to retina or 4" screen size for iPhone apps running on the iPad.  You should use the simulator in Xcode instead (or get another device).


How can I use Logitech Options to lock my screen with my MX Ergo?

In Logitech Options, you can assign a keyboard sequence to a button.  For this example, I assigned the top button  on the side (the one highlighted in green) the shortcut to lock the screen CommandControlQ.

Now, when I press the button, it's as if I've pressed the keyboard shortcut.


All the files and folders within private are needed to run the Operating System and it exists in every version of OS X. The folder private has lost its hidden attribute.


Numbers.app force me to download Chinese fonts but the download always fails

I found out that the problem comes from the failure of download on Fontbook.app. Following this question and answer, I finally downloaded the font successfully and the popups no longer show up in opening the app.

Solution

Go to System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FontServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Fonts/Subsets/ and download it directly.


I have experienced losing APN settings every iOS version upgrade. That was fixed by using a provisioning profile containing the APN settings. Now the APN settings are maintained during iOS upgrades.

Therefore a workaround in your (though different) situation could be to create a provisioning profile for the APN settings using the iPhone Configuration Utility.

And load that APN provisioning profile to the iPhone.


chflags nohidden will unhide a hidden file/folder.

You can press Command+Shift+. to show all files regardless of any other state (in macOS Sierra and above.)

Alternatively, you can run the command defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true then relaunch Finder (any version of macOS.)


Solved - I'd misread ^-CMD-F as SHIFT-CMD-F rather than CTRL-CMD-F


Open Terminal while logged in as your usual user, then run

mkdir ~/.ssh
sudo sh -c 'mv /var/root/.ssh/* /Users/'$USER'/.ssh/'
sudo chown $USER ~/.ssh/*
sudo chgrp $(groups | cut -d \  -f 1) ~/.ssh/*
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/*

This assumes that you haven't created any ssh key pairs as your usual used (and therefore don't already have files in ~/.ssh).

PS: Some explanations:

First sudo moves the content of root's .ssh folder into the one of the current user. Needs to be done by calling a subshell (sh -c) because the wildcard part (/var/root/.ssh/*) only works after the sudo has changed the current user to root. $USER is an environment variable containing the name of the current user
Third sudo changes group ownership of the copied files to the primary group of the current user. As there is no convenient environment variable for this, the output of groups (which lists all groups a user belongs to) needs to used. Please note the two space characters after the \.


Waking display from terminal, general waking

The easiest way to do this over SSH is to use caffeinate  -u (available since OS X 10.9 I think) to simulate user activity.

Add the flag -t 5 to specify a timeout of 5 seconds (else you'd have to ctrl+c out of caffeinate, it seems).


Keyboard response rate is too low, and character suggestion popups appear periodically

The characters appear when a key is held down, it's the same as on an iPhone to make it easier to type accents and things. Those are alternative S characters.

You can turn it off using:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

in Terminal.

However, that doesn't explain the overall response rate, just the characters.

For the keyboard rate check Accessibility in System Prefs. You might have Slow Keys enabled in the Keyboard section. You might also want to check under options at the Acceptable Delay in that panel.


How do you start and stop the Spotlight server in Yosemite?

I'm on 10.10, and I have this service.

$ ls -l /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata*
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   1.6K Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.index.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   1.6K Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   922B Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.scan.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   856B Jul 30 01:33 com.apple.metadata.mds.spindump.plist

The you can load/unload with this command:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist


Connect 30" Apple Cinema HD Display to 2018 Mac Mini

Re connecting a Mac mini 2018 to 30" Apple Cinema Display*:

* Apple Cinema Display 30" refers to TFT-LCD model (M9179LL/A) only! This does NOT work for the LED apple cinema displays.

You need the following:

Power Adapter of the Apple Cinema Display
The apple mini display port (mini DP) to Dual Link DVI adapter (sold second hand only, 30-150 USD) apple number MB571LL/A A1306
and
USB-C to Mini Display Port adapter from LMP (https://lmp-adapter.com/?s=16138) (ca. 30 USD from new.)

This combination runs smoothly at 2560x1600


Apache problem with hostname on OSX 10.8.4

This problem seemed to slowly evaporate when I started using sudo apachectl -k stop (though this could be just coincidence).  It now seems I can switch between servers using

sudo apachectl stop and /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start,

and then back with

/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop and sudo apachectl start

no problem.  I haven't been able to find any documentation on apachectl -k (beyond apachectl help).


Recovering Data from iPad Stuck in Boot Loop upon Update to iOS 9

All relevant data is in /var/mobile/. You don't need anything from /. The Notes database in particular is located at /var/mobile/Library/Notes/notes.sqlite. Without knowing anything else about your situation, the most effective way for you to backup your data might be to just copy over the entire /var/mobile/ directory.

Also, only versions of iOS 9.1 and lower can be jailbroken at the time of writing. And no, you can't restore to iOS 9.1.

Another thing you could try is to go into Recovery Mode, backup with iTunes, update to the latest version of iOS while still in Recovery Mode, and then restore your iTunes backup.


Cmd-O opens the file in its default application.

Also, Cmd-P opens the file and starts the print dialog (not supported by all applications).


How do I format an encrypted Integral Secure Key?

i have the same Integral Secure Key and i can transfer all data without any kind of encryption and store it; for all more private data i use the encryption function. so there is no need to re-format the usb to store data 'more easily"


Are old users eligible for introductory pricing?

Probably, yes. Given the quote from Apple's documentation below (emphasis mine):

  Based on the receipt, you will find that new and returning customers
  are eligible for introductory price or free trial discounts as
  follows:

  New subscribers are always eligible.
  Lapsed subscribers who renew are eligible if they haven't previously received an introductory price for the given product (or any product
  within the same subscription group).

However, do ask App Store Connect Inquiries directly. They will be able to provide an absolute and authoritative answer.


Problem with iTunes Store and updating WhatsApp

It sounds very much like the phone wasn't wiped & set up as your own new device.
This means that you will need the old login data for everything you need to do on the phone - this is not good.

You will need to get your cousin to make sure the phone is removed from his iCloud account, then you need to wipe it & start afresh.
You will lose all existing data, but currently, nothing on the phone belongs to you.

See What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


How do you encrypt a file or a single folder worth of data?

There are plenty of utilities that will create a simple encrypted volume/image for you, I've used Exces, but I got it in a bundle, otherwise seems a little bit expensive. I know there are others. Exces does what it says and nothing more.

It creates a volume where you can drop anything (folders, files, etc.).

After you close it, you need the password to re-open it and access its contents. If you lose it, you're hosed.


If I understand correctly, you just need to install VMware Fusion first, which will allow you to install and run Windows XP as a virtual machine, so that you can install and work with that important software of yours.

If you still have a backup copy of your old XP virtual machine (it's a large single file, if I remember correctly), you should be able to run that. Again,  after you have installed VMware Fusion.

Installing Windows using BootCamp is a very different thing (dual booting) and is indeed not supported for XP anymore.


Fluid: when I try to login, my Fluid App launches the default browser instead

Fluid Apps try to keep your browsing limited to the website or webapp you chose when you created the Fluid App. Therefore, any Fluid App will send you to your system default web browser (like Safari or Firefox) if you browse to a URL "outside" that website.

Now, determining what constitutes a "website" is more black art than exact science. "Website" is in scare quotes because a website is a rather vague idea that may include documents and resources that are located on different servers... and therefore located in different URL domains.

Also, the login flow for many websites often quickly and quietly redirects you thru several URLs that may or may not look anything like the home URL you provided. This will cause Fluid to defer browsing to the system default browser.

Your Fluid App looks at any URL it is asked to display and tries to guess whether the resource at that URL is part of the same "website" as the home URL you provided. This is a tricky guessing game, and Fluid can never be 100% accurate out of the box.

The good news is that Fluid has a whitelist/blacklist feature for allowing/disallowing browsing to any URL pattern you choose. Basically, you need to define what constitutes your Fluid App's "website" to control what your Fluid App is allowed to do.

To configure this feature, go to your Fluid App's Application Menu (to the right of the Apple menu):

Preferences > Whitelist Preference Pane

In the Whitelist Prefpane, you can add/edit/remove URL patterns that will keep your Fluid App browsing only to URLs you would like. Select the "Allow browsing to URLs matching these patterns:" radio button.

In the "Pattern" table below, you should add a Wildcard Pattern for any URL which you want to your Fluid App to visit. Star ("*") is a special Wildcard character in this table. Star means "match anything here", and is a powerful way to easily include or exclude very large groups of URL patterns.

Alternatively, you can use full Regular Expressions instead of Wildcard Patterns by wrapping your URL pattern in forward slashes / like: /http:\/\/google\.com\/.+/. If you don't know what Regular Expressions are, forget I mentioned them. They're much more complicated, and Wildcard Patterns can almost always get the job done more easily.

If you find that your Fluid App is unnecessarily kicking you out to your default browser (say, Safari) you should try to determine the first URL that is loaded in Safari. This first URL is the one that Fluid thinks is not part of your "website". After determining that URL, you should add a pattern to the table described above to match that URL. I suggest applying stars liberally to the pattern so that Fluid will be more accepting of browsing to a similar URL.

Fluid also ships with a fair amount of "special case" code by default for some of the more well-known webapps. Basically, this means that Fluid has a collection of URL patterns that are known to work for some of the more popular webapps (especially ones that quickly redirect you to URLs that don't match the common home URLs), and Fluid will automatically insert these patterns on first launch. Gmail is a good example and the default patterns for Gmail are shown in the screenshot above.


Open Ports and Network Config Needed For Home Sharing

As mentioned in this Apple support document the following ports have to be open:

Home Sharing uses TCP port 3689 and UDP port 5353 to communicate with shared iTunes libraries.

Additionally port 123 (TCP/UDP) has to be open to set the time automatically.

This is a list of all ports for Apple-related protocols, in case there are any remaining issues - Apple KB: TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products


iCloud "message size violation" when sending zip containing more than 127 files

I just ran into the same problem : zipped two 11.5 MB Xojo compiled apps. Sending from me.com or sending to me.com gave the 'message size violation' error.

To bypass this possible 127-file limit, I created an empty disk image with Disk Utility. Mounted it and copied the two apps onto it. Unmounted and zipped it and sent it via me.com : that worked.


How to fix system.log filling up with servermgrd "Record of type dsRecTypeStandard:Config named 'ServicesInformation101004'?

This is happening because OS X is creating lots of files in:

/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/config

Delete files from Terminal

Due to  the high number of files involved don't use Finder but use Terminal instead.

$ cd /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/config

Permission denied

You might have difficulty doing this due to not having enough permissions to enter that folder, in that case get yourself super powers:

$ sudo su

Delete files

You need to delete all of the ServicesInformation.... files, for example:

$ rm ServicesInformation*

Too many matches

You probably are not able delete all files in one run due to the high number of matches. In that case do delete the files more selectively. In my case, this worked:

$ rm ServicesInformation1{1,2,3}*
$ rm ServicesInformation1*
$ rm ServicesInformation2{1,2,3}*
$ rm ServicesInformation2*
...

Reboot

And my the message is gone from system.log and the CPU usage has gone from 100% to below 1%.

partial source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1481182?start=45&tstart=0


How do I add Unix executables to the Parental Controls 'Allowed Apps' whitelist?

You could take the approach suggested here.
Open the terminal, then switch to your child's user account with:
su - [username here].
Go to the bin directory you mentioned above:
cd /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements/bin
Then, give all users permission to execute all the files in the bin directory:
chmod a+x *


How do I get my HP PHotosmart 7520 setup to scan to mac?

Try opening Preview and choosing File -> Import from Scanner


Bluetooth connection, JBL Flip3 to Mac Pro

Try long-press on the bluetooth button on the Flip 3. That should make it discoverable in the Bluetooth preferences in the Mac.