finder search window – functionality of keyboard shortcut changes

On my computer, ⌘⌥+T toggles the toolbars on/off.
Maybe you have this keyboard shortcut set to ⌘⌥ + M,N,B,V, or C, such that you accidentally hit both shortcuts?

You can check in your SysPrefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts pane, or just try those shortcuts that are near the space bar.

I suggest this because of your assertion that it happens "sometimes", which is pretty weird.  I did once have my toolbars always missing, which it turns out required some preference file to be deleted or something.  But I've never seen an intermittent issue like that.


Customise Restrictions passcode on iphone

Very much doubt Apple would allow any app to access that API.
The restrictions passcode is so hard you need to wipe the phone & start over if you forget it.

If you really don't want to know what the code is, get someone else to set one & not tell you what it is. You then have the opportunity of changing your mind later, assuming they remember it.


Disable "Return to previous app" button in iOS

This is the standard iOS behaviour and nothing can be done to change it.

For more info, read this answer and subsequent comments on StackOverflow.


The problem: .itmsp folders are shown as files

The Finder treats .itmsp folders as packages, that is, as if they were a single file. For example, in column view, anything contained within the .itmsp folder is invisible, only the document icon is shown:

The Finder considers a directory to be a package if any of the following conditions is true (from the Bundle Programming Guide):

The directory has a known filename extension: .app, .bundle, .framework, .plugin, .kext, and so on (as defined in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Info.plist. This is a binary plist, open it with Xcode: open -a Xcode Info.plist).
The directory has an extension that some other application claims represents a package type (look for com.apple.package in the output of mdls -name kMDItemContentTypeTree <foldername> to find out.)
The directory has its package bit set (if GetFileInfo -ab <foldername> returns 1, it is set.)

Case 2. applies to .itmsp folders: Application Loader.app exports type com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp and sets it to conform to com.apple.package:

$ mkdir foo.itmsp
$ mdls -name kMDItemContentTypeTree foo.itmsp/
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
    "com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp",
    "com.apple.package",
    (...)
)
$ grep -B 5 -A 8 com.apple.package /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Application\ Loader.app/Contents/Info.plist
    <key>UTExportedTypeDeclarations</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>UTTypeConformsTo</key>
            <array>
                <string>com.apple.package</string>
                <string>public.composite-content</string>
            </array>
            <key>UTTypeDescription</key>
            <string>iTunes Package</string>
            <key>UTTypeIconFile</key>
            <string>ITMSP.icns</string>
            <key>UTTypeIdentifier</key>
            <string>com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp</string>

A solution: re-declare type com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp

A solution would be to re-declare type com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp and extension itmsp as a folder and force Launch Services to use the modified type declaration.

  Important note:

  Although it reliably solves the OP's problem, the proposed solution, when applied to other packages, doesn't display them as folders.

  I've found out that the proposed solution seems to work only with file types declared by applications located in an non standard application path.

  This is the case with Application Loader.app, which is located in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/.

  If you are interested in a partial solution check the end of this answer.

To have .itmsp folders be displayed as folders by the Finder follow the next steps:

Open Automator in the Applications folder and select Application:

Select Utilities in the Library list, select Run Shell Script and drag it to the pane on the right:

Replace the default script contents with exit 0:

Save the application as itmspOpener:

Close Automator.
Select itmspOpener.app and show its contents:

Locate Contents>Info.plist and open it with your favorite editor:

Replace these sections in Info.plist:

<key>CFBundleDocumentTypes</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
        <array>
            <string>itmsp</string>
        </array>
        <key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
            <string>itmsp folder</string>
        <key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
            <string>Viewer</string>
        <key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
            <string>folder</string>
        <key>LSTypeIsPackage</key>
            <false/>
        <key>LSHandlerRank</key>
            <string>Owner</string>
    </dict>
</array>
(...)
<key>UTExportedTypeDeclarations</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>UTTypeConformsTo</key>
        <array>
            <string>kUTTypeDirectory</string>
        </array>
        <key>UTTypeDescription</key>
        <string>itmsp folder</string>
        <key>UTTypeIconFile</key>
        <string>folder.icns</string>
        <key>UTTypeIdentifier</key>
        <string>com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp</string>
        <key>UTTypeTagSpecification</key>
        <dict>
            <key>public.filename-extension</key>
            <string>itmsp</string>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</array>

  Note:
  Why kUTTypeDirectory instead of public.directory in UTExportedTypeDeclarations? From Apple's documentation: Important: When using system-defined UTIs in your code, you should use the constants defined in UTCoreTypes.h in the Launch Services framework when available, rather than the actual UTI strings. For example, pass kUTTypeApplication rather than “com.apple.application”. “System-Declared Uniform Type Identifiers ” lists these constants in addition to the UTI strings.

Associate a .itmsp file to itmspOpener and press the button Change All...:

Reset the Launch Services database:

$ lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

(on OS X 10.8 lsregister is located in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/.)
Create a .itmsp folder and list its properties:

$ mkdir foo3.itmsp
$ mdls -name kMDItemContentTypeTree foo3.itmsp/
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
    "public.folder",
    "public.directory",
    "public.item"
)

Because the Launch Services database was reset, now the Finder shows .itmsp folders as folders.
Open itmspOpener.app to load its plist file and register com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp:

$ open ~/Desktop/itmspOpener.app

Start Application Loader.app:

$ open '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Application Loader.app'

Folder foo3.itmsp should still be displayed as a folder.
Check the folder properties again:

$ mdls -name kMDItemContentTypeTree foo3.itmsp/
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
    "public.directory",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)

com.apple.package wasn't added to the folder's metadata attributes, that's why the Finder still displays .itmsp folders as folders!

Automated solution: displaying .itmsp folders as folders after login

To display .itmsp folders as folders after login:

Create itmspOpener.app and modify its Info.plist as described above.
Create /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoader with this contents (the variable itmspOpener points to the location where itmspOpener.app resides, change  as necessary):

#!/bin/bash

itmspOpener="/Users/jaume/Applications/itmspOpener.app/"

echo "$(date): Starting" > /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
sleep 15
echo "$(date): Deleting Launch Services database" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
sleep 15
echo "$(date): Starting $itmspOpener" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
open $itmspOpener >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
sleep 1
echo "$(date): Starting Application Loader.app" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
open "/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Application Loader.app/"

# Wait until process "Application Loader.app" exists
while [ $(ps -ef|grep -v grep|grep -c "Application Loader") -ne 1 ]; do
    sleep 1
    echo "$(date): Waiting" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
done
# Send TERM signal
kill -TERM $(ps -ef|grep "Application Loader"|grep -v grep|awk "{print \$2}")
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "$(date): Application Loader killed" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
else
    echo "$(date): Application Loader could not be killed" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log
fi
echo "$(date): Exiting" >> /tmp/itmspTypeLoader.log

Both sleep 15 before and after running lsregister are of utmost importance. If you don't see the desired result, try different delays.
Create /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoaderLauncher with this contents:

#!/bin/bash

# $1 returns the short name of the user who is logging in
su - $1 -c /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoader &

Set both scripts executable:

$ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoader /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoaderLauncher

Set /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoaderLauncher as login hook:

$ sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /usr/local/bin/itmspTypeLoaderLauncher

Reboot for changes to take effect. After logging in you should see this:

and lsregister -dump should reveal that itmspOpener.app's UTExportedTypeDeclarations takes precedence over Application Loader.app's:

$ lsregister -dump | less
bundle  id:            24748
        path:          /Users/jaume/Desktop/itmspOpener.app/
        name:          itmspOpener
        (...)
        flags:         apple-internal  relative-icon-path  ui-element  has-min-sys-version-by-arch  hi-res-capable  user-can-change-hi-res-mode
        item flags:    container  package  application  extension-hidden  native-app  scriptable  services  x86_64
        (...)
        --------------------------------------------------------
        type    id:            33796
                uti:           com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp
                description:   itmsp folder
                flags:         exported  active  apple-internal  trusted
                icon:          Contents/Resources/folder.icns
                conforms to:   kuttypedirectory
                tags:          .itmsp
        --------------------------------------------------------
        (...)
bundle  id:            24600
        path:          /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Application Loader.app/
        name:          Application Loader
        (...)
        flags:         apple-internal  relative-icon-path  hi-res-capable  user-can-change-hi-res-mode
        item flags:    container  package  application  extension-hidden  native-app  i386  x86_64
        (...)
        --------------------------------------------------------
        type    id:            33832
                uti:           com.apple.itunes-producer.itmsp
                description:   iTunes Package
                flags:         exported  inactive  apple-internal  trusted
                icon:          Contents/Resources/ITMSP.icns
                conforms to:   com.apple.package, public.composite-content
                tags:          .itmsp
        --------------------------------------------------------

Do you see the inactive flag set in Application Loader.app's type export? We defeated Application Loader.

The acid test: .itmsp folders still displayed as such after iTunes update

I recently updated Xcode:

and can confirm that .itmsp folders were shown as folders during the update:

and afterwards:

A partial solution: The package will show contents when double clicked

As commented previously, the procedure detailed above won't work with arbitrary folders that are displayed as packages by the Finder.

However, if you just want to be able to double-click a package to open it, there is a way to do it with one bash script and Automator:

The script creates a hidden, temporary folder inside the package, reveals it in the Finder (thus revealing the package as a folder) and then deletes the temporary folder.

  Note:

  The script could instead create a hidden, temporary file. However, I prefer to create a folder because rmdir only
  deletes empty folders, while rm deletes any file, so if, for some
  reason. the script wreaks havoc, only empty folders will be deleted,
  which is probably not as bad as if files were deleted.

Automator bundles the script into an application that will be associated with the package files.

These are the steps to create such an application. I'll use .itmsp files as a package type example in the explanation below:

Open Automator in the Applications folder and select Application:

Select Utilities in the Library list, select Run Shell Script and drag it to the pane on the right:

Set Pass input to as arguments:

Replace the default script contents with this:

for f in "$@"; do
    # If not dealing with a directory, exit
    if [ ! -d "$f" ]; then exit; fi
    # Create a temporary directory inside the itmsp "file"
    tmpdir="$f/.itmspOpener$$"
    if mkdir $tmpdir; then
        # Reveal in Finder
        open -R $tmpdir
        # Delete temporary file
        rmdir $tmpdir
    fi
done

Save the application as itmspOpener:

Close Automator.

Now you have an application that can open .itmsp files as folders if associated with it.

There's a cosmetic problem: as it stands, associated files will have the standard white document icon:

Let's fix this, too:

Make sure Automator is closed.
Select itmspOpener and show its contents:

Locate Contents>Info.plist and open it with your favorite editor:

Replace the value for this key in the CFBundleDocumentTypes array:

<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
<string>itmsp folder</string>

and add this key:

<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
<string>folder</string>

Now, the section looks like this:

Switch to the Finder, select a folder, press ⌘I, select the folder icon in the left top corner and copy it with ⌘C:

Open Preview and select File>New from Clipboard. Save the file as folder.icns:

Copy folder.icns to itmspOpener/Contents/Resources:

Associate a .itmsp file to itmspOpener and press the button Change All...:

The icon of .itmsp files should change to a folder, or at least I thought so: unfortunately, this wasn't the case. So I moved the application itmspOpener to another location (I created a temporary folder on my Desktop, moved it there and back to my Desktop). That refreshed the icon information in the Finder:

Now double click a .itmsp file and watch it open as a folder:


Why I can't remove linux partitions on macOS Sierra

You can't expand a macOS partition to lower block numbers (i.e. to the "beginning of a disk") with on-board macOS tools.

Basically you have to remove all useless partitions, clone or restore your main macOS drive to a new partition on the same drive and delete the old one.

Preparation:

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

Modify partition table:

Open in the menubar Utilities/Terminal

First you should get an overview of your disks and the partition layout:
Enter diskutil list
Example listing:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        500.1 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB    disk0s1
   2:           Linux Filesystem                        499.1 MB    disk0s2
   3:                 Linux Swap                          2.0 GB    disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                        247.5 GB    disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X               248.6 GB    disk0s5
   6:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s6
   7:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s7
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                         *1.3 GB    disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        *1.3 GB    disk1s2
/dev/disk2-~disk14...

/dev/disk1-~disk14 ...belong to the macOS Base System (your recovery system you booted to previously)

disk0 is your main internal disk device containing the EFI-partition (dis0s1), some Linux partitions (disk0s2-disk0s4), your main macOS volume (disk0s5) and two Recovery HDs (disk0s6/disk0s7) one of which is useless - probably disk0s7.
To get a standard partition layout you have to delete a lot of partitions, create a new partition, dd or asr your main macOS volume to a new one and rearrange your recovery partition:
Get an overview:

gpt -r show disk0

Remove partitions (which requires to unmount disk0)

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 7 disk0 #remove 2nd recovery partition
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 4 disk0 #remove Linux 2nd partition (main)
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 3 disk0 #remove Linux Swap
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 2 disk0 #remove Linux 1st partition (booter?)

Create a new partition for a new main macOS with the same size as your old one:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 408640 -s 485511600 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

Get a new updated view of the partition table:

diskutil list

Example listing:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        500.1 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB    disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                        248.6 GB    disk0s2
   5:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X               248.6 GB    disk0s5
   6:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s6

dd your "old" macOS partition disk0s5 to the new partition disk0s2:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
dd if=/dev/disk0s5 of=/dev/disk0s2 bs=1m

(use the proper disk identifiers here: disk0s5 may be different)
remove your old main macOS partition

gpt -r show disk0
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 5 disk0 #use the proper index number of your old macOS partition here

Create a new partition and clone your recovery partition:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt add -i 3 -b 485920240 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
diskutil list #to get the proper device identifiers
diskutil umountDisk disk0
dd if=/dev/disk0s6 of=/dev/disk0s3 bs=1m
gpt -r show disk0
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 6 disk0 #use the proper index number of your old recovery partition here

Expand your new main volume:

diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk0s2
diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk0s2 #if necessary
diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 499g

Reboot to your main volume

Always make certain to use the proper device identifiers - either with diskutil list or gpt -r show disk0!

Finally I recommend to download and install a proper system! Your current system seems to be some public beta of Sierra.


You should be fine. As you note, there are magnets (which are actually fairly strong for their size) in the iPad and Smart Cover. There are no magnetic components aside from the Smart Cover attachment points and the unlock sensor—there's a magnetometer for the compass, but it doesn't use a magnet.

Furthermore, the whole magnets damaging hard drives thing is a bit of a myth. You can wipe them with magnets, but it takes a very powerful one, pretty much nothing you'd have in your home.


How to add image/mount/disk back to the sidebar?

Press command shift G at the same time and go to /Volumes, then drag the folder and drop it to the sidebar. This will work when you cannot find the image on either your desktop and don't have a top level path saved in the finder's sidebar.


Take a look at this article:

https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-6s-camera-filesizes-4k-live-photos-hdr/

The iPhone SE has a 12MP camera. In some conditions a single photo can result in four files - a still and a live photo, plus an HDR version of each.

1.93GB for 133 photos works out to about 14.5 MB per photo, which sounds a little high, but is within reason.


Does iTunes compress images that I sync to my iPhone?

iTunes does indeed compress large images when syncing to the first-party Photos app on an iPhone or an iPad. It calls this process "image optimization" and it even gets its own progress bar when you sync your device.

Currently, the solution is to use some other third party image vieweing app. GoodReader, for example, can handle high resolution images, and there are many others.


iCal calendar for official holidays in Berlin city

schulferien.org lists all german regional publich and school holidays in multiple format in your case, try the following:

  http://www.schulferien.org/iCal/Ferien/icals/Ferien_Berlin_2014.ics


Emptying the trash doesn't move emails out of a smart folder

Your understanding is very correct and one of two things is the root of your confusion and the software not working dependably.

Spotlight is the database where all files get indexed. That indexing then shows which files are mail messages and which are responsive to an ad-hoc search within the mail app or a programmed search which is called a “smart mailbox”
Spotlight can’t work if the disk underneath has errors in the filesystem.

To triage or troubleshoot this, I would log out and then power off the Mac. If you have fast internet and a modern Mac, boot to internet recovery and run Disk Utility to repair the boot drive. This is best since you don’t want to trust your copy of Disk Utility to do a live check since you can’t fix all the things if you have corruption.

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

Next, consider rebuilding the spotlight database for your user account by placing your home folder into spotlight preferences as a private location not to be indexed.

Then do a second restart to let spotlight see your files freshly when you remove the privacy setting. If you have an SSD and less than 100 GB of data in your home folder, the search will need an hour or three to rebuild. Don’t worry if smart folders are not correct while spotlight shows a reindex in process.

Only after you’re sure things are good on the foundation, perhaps look at rebuilding the mailbox envelopes or vacuuming the index.

Mail search not finding messages but Spotlight does

Lastly, I should have put a first warning in - are your backups complete for this mac? Consider getting a good backup before you try to fix anything if you can’t afford to lose any files you have now on this mac.


I see that you don't have the "Slightly dim the display while on battery power" setting enabled in Energy Saver, but do you happen to have "Automatically adjust brightness" enabled in your Display preference pane?

That's the setting that adjusts your brightness based off of the light level detected by a Mac's ambient light sensor. (You may have already thought of this and or maybe it's too obvious but I wanted to suggest it just in case.) Good luck!


Find someone who can lend you a different charger, and a different cable. Your problem is one of charger, cable, battery, or something inside the phone. You try replacing charger and cable first because they are easiest to fix.


iTunes My Music to Apple Music Artist link

just noticed this message after it has been posted a long time ago, anyway here's my answer:

In iTunes artist view (top tab, 'My Music' selected and 'Artists' selected as grouping) select one artist on the sidebar on the left. There are three small tabs just below the artist name after you select one. If you click on 'All' it will show all music from that artist, including apple music (see screenshot below).


Mac Mini 2012: Cant Boot after moving SSD from external USB3 to internal SATA

SOLVED

I ended up swapping SATA positions on the SSD and HDD so that the SSD is in position 2 (nearest the bottom of the Mac Mini).  After that change, plus a Time Machine recovery, the SSD shows up as a boot drive and everything seems to work fine.

I'm not sure why this worked, but it did.


Install OS X replacing Windows on a Mac without losing data

There is no way to reinstall OS X without formatting and losing data. If you want to keep your data, recover the data to another drive or to the cloud.


Disk repair failed after using OS X with hibernated Windows/Boot Camp with MacDrive

I managed to solve the problem on my own by running DiskWarrior who was able to repair everything!


How do I know what to restore from system files?

The erase (or the clean install of the OS) will ensure that only the new user is created. From that point, you can keep track of which files you restore in the unlikely case you feel things have become mixed again - but it's hard to see if you only restored a iPhoto library folder and files in documents how any user identity would be changed on the OS level.


3rd-party SSDs: enabling TRIM without disabling kext signing

See my answer here:

Since the release of 10.10.4, Apple now provides a new tool called trimforce, allowing users to activate TRIM also on unsupported disks. So now you can do:

sudo trimforce enable


First, take the time to check your httpd.conf with:

sudo apachectl configtest

If it's all ok, then try to restart Apach once or twice (look at the log):

sudo apachectl start (or restart)

It worked for me. If it still doesn't start try finding another default httpd.conf


Apple's display adapters over USB-C/Thunderbolt adapter

That's the way it's "supposed" to work, but judging by the reviews on both Apple's own website and on Amazon, (two and three stars respectively), it's not doing so well.

There is however, the Cable Matters Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt Adapter that gets high reviews though (IMO) is not as good looking as the Apple design.  Though for me, it could look like a brick as long as it worked.

That said, generally speaking, I don't like converting signals, it's just another potential point of failure; instead I like going from "native connection to native connection" so it not only reduces the number of physical conversions, but the protocol conversions as well.  While this will be a sore spot with many of Apple customers that invested heavily in adapters for their previous generation MacBooks, the consensus is that USB-C is here to stay.

Your best bet is to put those older adapters up on eBay and get new ones.


Master volume control for multiple audio output OSX

AudioMate gives you control over individual devices on menubar but it cannot change a master volume control for multiple audio output. Soundflower has one flaw that all your device must have the same output or it will not run - for example all of them set to 48K Hz 2ch-16bit. If you have a 4ch USB and a 2ch 3.5cm you will need to change your 4ch USB to 2ch, likewise on bit rate and frequency.


Not really a manual but try this:

Switch to the Finder and select "Mac Help" in the Help menu.
Then search for Finder in the Mac Help window.

Try also the online help at http://help.apple.com/machelp/mac/10.11/ . (Use 10.10 for Yosemite and 10.12 for Sierra.)


Changing my home address in iOS 7 not picked up in Maps or notification center

I was able to clear the map history from Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services -> Frequent Locations. Doing this, changing my contact card and updating my AppleID seem to have solved the problem (Apart from the fact that my street doesn't exist yet).


Occasional system hangups after upgrade to Lion: is it a disk or software problem?

Nobody will tell you for sure (without diagnosing a problem), but you should definitely check both your harddrive and memory (corrupted memory may cause data loss while writing to HD. I had such a problem twice in my life.)

I prefere non-OS specific utilities:

SystemResqueCD
You can install it either on CD or on USB flash drive.
It contains a lot of diagnostic utils. One of them is memtest86+ which you can use to test you memory.

Memtest86+
It's is one of the most recognized software diagnostic tools on the planet. Since 2008 it supports Apple hardware. It checks memory by writing different binary patterns and checking what's actually stored in memory.

Red means bad

MHDD

Official site of this utility is dead, but you can find in here.
That's what you need to check your hard disk drive. I'm not sure that it will work on Apple hardware, but you can plug your hard drive in any PC or in external USB enclosure and check there.


What's triggering my Finder's CPU binges?

"I wish there was a way to "get inside the Finder's head" and see what it's doing. I've tried running a sample of the Finder process in Activity Monitor, but honestly I don't know what it's doing, much less how to interpret the output."

Taking a sample in Activity Monitor is exactly that: getting inside the Finder's head to see what it's doing. While it may seem like greek, I or others here can interpret it for you. Just post it, or make it available for download or viewing (as they tend to be pretty big).

What version of OS X are you using? In OS X 10.5.x and prior, I believe multimedia content ran within the Finder itself, rather than delegating it off to an agent/helper type process, so then the CPU usage may appear higher. For example, previewing a QuickTime movie might make the 10.5.x-and-earlier Finder spike to 60% CPU, while in 10.6 it might be split to something like 10% CPU for the Finder, 30% CPU to the QTKitHelper background process.

Otherwise, I've sometimes seen the code the Finder uses to calculate the size of the contents of a folder cause temporary CPU spikes. (You'll notice something like TSomething::HFSSizerSomething in the stack trace of a sample). Usually it seems insistent on finishing its calculation even if the view you had open that warranted the calculation has since been closed.

In any case, seeing the sample should help pinpoint the issue along with knowing what context led up to the spike. It'll be easier to explain what taking a sample is doing once we have it in front of us to look at.


Do not open your iPhone unless you are an experienced with phone repair person . Better take it to an Apple Store or any cellphone repair shop. Otherwise, use iFix guideline.
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_5s


Want to use multiple email addresses for one contact

It seems like you would need to enter each of the email one at a time. For contact NAME with EMAIL1, EMAIL2 and EMAIL3, you can type NAME in the to: line and Mail will give you the options to choose which email.

For all three you will need to type NAME three times. Although on the to: line it will show NAME three times, if you click on the little arrow next to the name it will show you which email each name refers to. Good luck.


No, your disk is decrypted when you turn off FileVault.

From the Apple Knowledgebase:

  When you turn off FileVault, encryption is turned off and the contents of your disk are decrypted. The decrypting of your disk could take a while, depending on how much information you have stored. However, you can still use your Mac to do other tasks while the decryption is occurring.

It could be that FileVault was still decrypting your hard drive while you were running Mac Booster.


Observing what Spotlight's mdworker is indexing for diagnostic purposes

I’m not sure whether there’s a more detailed log generated by mdworker or mds themselves. You could use fs_usage to see what files they are reading though, run the following in Terminal:
sudo fs_usage mdworker mds

As it says in the man page: “The fs_usage utility presents an ongoing display of system call usage information pertaining to filesystem activity. It requires root privileges due to the kernel tracing facility it uses to operate. By default, the activity monitored includes all system processes except […]. These defaults can be overridden such that output is limited to include or exclude a list of processes specified by the user.”
Here’s a short sample of the output you'll get (I ran this in a narrow window, use a wider one to get the file paths in more detail):
11:07:49  fsgetpath         resourceLog.plist    0.000029   mds
11:07:49  getattrlist       resourceLog.plist    0.000089   mds
11:07:49  listxattr         resourceLog.plist    0.000042   mds
11:07:49  getattrlist       resourceLog.plist    0.000164   mds
11:07:49  getattrlist       resourceLog.plist    0.000029   mds
11:07:54  exit                                   0.000118   mdworker

The exit calls correspond to the messages “Service exited due to signal” in the “system.log”:
Aug  8 11:07:54 […] com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.single.[…]):
  Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by mds[114]

For some more information on fs_usage, there’s an (old) article on ‘macobserver.com’ titled “Mac OS X: Using fs_usage as a Troubleshooting Tool”.


Mountain Lion email share option opens a secondary Mail application

The most likely explanation for this is that you have at least two versions of Mail installed (for whatever reason). Your system default mail application happens to be the old version.

When an application uses the sharing API on ML to write an email, it is opened in the default system mail application. This setting, strangely enough, is inside Mail's preferences (not System Preferences).

Under the General tab is an item called Default mail reader, which is your system default.

In your preferred version of Mail, Open Mail -> About Mail, and note the version. Now select that version of Mail in Mail's preferences for Default email reader.


Is there an app that streams music and adds it to your library?

No. Apple currently does not allow third party applications to add music to your library, so it can only come from the iTunes store or your computer. Applications may let you choose music already in your library and let you control that music, but cannot add music directly.


On a mid-2011 iMac, how do I use Bluetooth on Windows 8?

Boot Camp is currently only meant for Windows 7, and the drivers are only meant for Windows 7. Maybe use Parallels or VirtualBox instead for Windows 8 for now.


Can I disable mounting of network volumes via afp:// protocol in favor of smb://

Two options that may be helpful in your case:

• Close access to TCP port 548 - that should disallow any AFP access.

• Volumes formatted as APFS can't offer share points over the network using AFP. (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208018)


Can I save Thunderbolt Display Arrangement so it is different depending on which Thunderbolt I connect?

Check out the tool I wrote called displayplacer for setting monitor configurations via profiles. Since your goal is to treat the same model monitor differently you may need to use the contextual screen ids instead of persistent screen ids. Be sure to read the Notes section on GitHub for more info on this.


If I sign up for the 3 free months of Apple Music, do I keep Match-ed songs when the trial ends?

You would need to be sure you have downloaded a copy of all music before the period ends. You don't lose anything stored locally unless you delete the local files, and even if you delete the local files - as long as you re-download them before the end - you will have playable music locally.

This is covered in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204962


Switching "TrackpadMomentumScroll" on and of using a script

Oh, found it. You'll have to reload the appropriate kernel extension like this:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad TrackpadMomentumScroll -bool false

sudo bash -c "kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleBluetoothMultitouch.kext; kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleBluetoothMultitouch.kext"

After that your trackpad will shortly become unavailable, but will be reconnected and have the MomentumScroll setting.

This still isn't, what the System Settings-App does, because you'll have to enter your password for sudo (and be an administrator), but still it works.


How to use `click` in a shortcut? (Run a service when clicking a link)

BetterTouchTool
You can use better touch tool to remap your clicks on your trackpad or mouse. Here is a screenshot of the rule I created. It copies the url from the hyperlink and sends this to a shell script, where you can handle it as you wish.

The last line actions, "Execute Shell Script" has this configuration:

This just runs an executable script and pastes in the url as its argument. If you don't want to use a bash/zsh script you can use applescript or javascript or python or perl or whatever you are comfortable with by changing the launch path.


Where phpstorm indexes located? And how to change location path?

Adjust the settings in this file:

IDE_HOME\bin\idea.properties

Change these options:

idea.config.path
idea.system.path
idea.plugins.path
idea.log.path

My Source:
https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206827407-Changing-IDE-
default-directories-used-for-config-plugins-and-caches-storage

Here is some additional information:
https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206827437-Directories-used-by-the-IDE-to-store-settings-caches-plugins-and-logs


As of iOS 11, you can only allow phone calls from specific contacts through a global silent mode (Do Not Disturb).

This is defined under Settings → Do Not Disturb → Allow Calls From.

There is no exception list for Emails or Messages yet, even though this feature has been requested for years.


It sounds like the iOS 8 OTA update has downloaded. You can update to iOS 8 to remove the downloaded update package. Also see Remove OTA downloaded (but not installed) iOS 8


What does the clipped corner in the color picker's sample mean?

I got an answer over Twitter. If that user posts it here, I'll delete this answer:

  Usually means a sampled colourspace like Device RGB versus Generic RGB. Toggle the colour sliders toolbar button and click the little rainbow drop down to see the various colourspaces.

It came in two tweets, here and here.


Transferring apps from iDevice to iTunes is no longer supported with iOS 9, see Can't transfer purchases from iPhone to iTunes in iOS 9 for details. Using iTunes to manage app on your iDevice is still possible though, but you need to download all apps in iTunes to do that. To automate this, set the corresponding option in Preferences->Store.


How to switch off "natural" sort order in Finder and enable pure alphabetical sort order?

Apple's Finder has been using "natural" sort order (where strings of digits are ordered as single characters) for file names for nearly 20 years, since OS X 10.0 There's no way to change it as far as I know. If you want the other kind of sort order, you have to use Terminal or a 3rd party app.


Does locking folders prevent .DS_Store being deleted in certain cases?

Yes, locking a folder prevents any files/folders immediately inside of it from being modified, as well as deleting/renaming the folder itself. Items in sub-folders can be edited though.
I should note that the command you had in your question does not delete any DS_Store files, it simply stops them from being created on network volumes.
I'll assume you want to run a find command which deletes all DS_Stores, and yes locking a folder will prevent that from modifying the files in it.


MacBook Pro: OS X reinstall is taking "forever", (over 12 hours) to finish

This is not common.  I have never had this problem and I upgrade to every new version.

I always create a bootable USB installer.  Here are the instructions from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5856.  This will let you check your disk and reformat.  I always reformat so that I know everything is the way it is supposed to be, but it is a bit more time consuming.


Enable or disable Night Shift via Terminal

FWIW, I had the same issue immediately upon upgrading to Sierra, and solved it by uninstalling the NVIDIA Web Driver (not the CUDA driver) as seen below.

This is on a 2014 MacBook Pro with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB graphics GPU.


Mac laptop to TV issue: mirror display doesn't work?

It seems to me that the frequency you have your laptop configured at is not supported by your TV.

When using mirror displays, it usually mirrors your main screen (resolution & frequency). Your main screen would be the one where you have the Dock and Menu bar.

Can I ask why would you want to mirror display on your TV? Is this for watching videos?
If so, I would recommend you to do the following:

Connect your HDMI cable
Click on detect displays, disable mirroring
Install VLC player

With VLC you can use your second screen on full screen mode without the need of mirroring.


Force a link to open in Safari instead of the in-app browser

This is not possible, unless the app was designed to explicitly support opening Safari (with a button for instance).  You can't modify an app's internal messaging to its own webviews on stock OS iOS devices, for app security reasons if nothing else.


Shut the iPhone completely off and turn it back on.

Make sure the iPhone is at 100% charge and still plugged into the charger.

Attempt to do an "over the air" update wirelessly via Software Update under Settings.

If that fails then update the iPhone via iTunes.

Have a look at Update the iOS software on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for steps using either method.

Make sure you have adequate free space to preform the upgrade.  Have a look at If you need more space for an iOS update if need be.


Create a new account with administrator permissions. Log out of your account. Log into the new one. Delete your account.


How to open Cinema Display power supply?

Someone did it.

There's no good way to open it. Use a Dremel to carefully cut around the seam until it was thin enough to crack apart.

There's one huge capacitor (Rubycon KXW 450V 150 uF) that needs to be discharged before the power supply will start up.

Be careful, because it's charged to over 100 volts. Solder a 600 k ohm resistor across it to bleed off the charge a little faster.


How to disable built-in keyboard on OS X 10.9.1?

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

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>APPLE</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x05f3</vendorid>
  </devicevendordef>
  <deviceproductdef>
    <productname>LAPTOPKEYBOARD</productname>
    <productid>0x1234</productid>
  </deviceproductdef>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <device_only>DeviceVendor::APPLE, DeviceProduct::LAPTOPKEYBOARD</device_only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x00, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x01, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x02, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x03, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x04, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x05, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x06, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x07, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x08, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x09, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x0a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x0b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x0c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x0d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x0e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x0f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x10, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x11, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x12, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x13, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x14, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x15, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x16, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x17, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x18, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x19, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x1a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x1b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x1c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x1d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x1e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x1f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x20, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x21, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x22, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x23, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x24, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x25, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x26, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x27, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x28, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x29, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x2a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x2b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x2c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x2d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x2e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x2f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x30, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x31, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x32, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x33, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x34, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x35, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x36, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x37, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x38, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x39, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x3a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x3b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x3c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x3d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x3e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x3f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x40, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x41, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x42, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x43, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x44, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x45, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x46, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x47, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x48, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x49, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x4a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x4b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x4c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x4d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x4e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x4f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x50, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x51, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x52, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x53, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x54, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x55, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x56, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x57, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x58, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x59, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x5a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x5b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x5c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x5d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x5e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x5f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x60, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x61, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x62, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x63, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x64, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x65, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x66, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x67, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x68, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x69, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x6a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x6b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x6c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x6d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x6e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x6f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x70, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x71, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x72, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x73, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x74, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x75, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x76, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x77, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x78, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x79, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x7a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x7b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x7c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x7d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x7e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x7f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x80, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x81, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x82, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x83, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x84, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x85, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x86, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x87, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x88, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x89, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x8a, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x8b, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x8c, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x8d, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x8e, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x8f, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x90, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::RawValue::0x91, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Replace 0x1234 with the ID shown by EventViewer (/Applications/KeyRemap4MacBook.app/Contents/Applications/EventViewer.app).


Why does Time Machine estimate a 109GB backup size, but then need 235 GB?

This discrepancy is odd - most of the time when people see more than a 25 GB error, it's with Time Machine over-estimating the space that will be used rather than under-estimating. You might be on to something where there is abug in calculating things with multiple backup targets - I've not seen that configuration start to misbehave yet - so you might be one of the lucky few to see how things break under that setup.

If you can make this happen repeatedly, I'd submit a bug (or at least poke around) by running the tmdiagnose tool to collect data on the estimates and actualities.

Also, the Backuploupe tool is amazing at getting at space usage and estimate oddities when you use Time Machine. It's not able to catalog both destinations simultaneously yet - but seems to work well enough on Mountain Lion that I still use it regularly.


Blutooth stopped connecting to car automatically

Try making a call using the iPhone while in your car and making sure it has the Chevy MyLink selected.

This happened to me a while back and it was very annoying (iPhone 6s and 2015 Chevy). Some how my default was changed from using the car speakers to using speaker phone.


How to default to "Not open all the apps again" on Mac OS X Lion?

This OSXDaily article Disable “Reopen Windows When Logging Back In” in Mac OS X Lion Completely describes a method of doing this.

  You may have noticed that when you log out or reboot Mac OS X Lion,
  you get a dialog window with a checkbox next to “Reopen windows when
  logging back in” that restores all of your currently open applications
  and windows.

  If you don’t like it and you’re tired of unchecking the box to no
  longer reopen the windows, you can use a third party script to render
  the feature useless. To clarify, what this does is disable the feature
  completely on a constant basis, regardless of whether that checkbox to
  preserve windows is checked or not, the windows will not restore.

Type the following command to download the script, place it in the appropriate location, make it executable, run it, then remove it:

curl http://goo.gl/Z4EFC -L -s -o ~/fixlogin.sh && md5 -q ~/fixlogin.sh | xargs -I % mv ~/fixlogin.sh ~/%.sh && chmod +x ~/121dca51e66073624da420b6e1be61d9.sh && sudo ~/121dca51e66073624da420b6e1be61d9.sh ; rm ~/121dca51e66073624da420b6e1be61d9.sh

The content of the script is for those who want to know what's being executed and/or do it manually is:

#!/bin/bash
echo "#!/bin/bash" > /tmp/loginfix.sh
echo "rm /Users/*/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow.*" >> /tmp/loginfix.sh
mv /tmp/loginfix.sh /usr/bin/loginfix.sh
chmod +x /usr/bin/loginfix.sh
defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /usr/bin/loginfix.sh

Finally, if you want to go back to normal resume behaviour type:

sudo defaults delete com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook


What is the max resolution output by the HDMI port of the MacBook Pro Early 2011

According to EveryMac.com, there were two 13-inch, Early 2011 MacBook Pro models—the 2.3 GHz i5 and the 2.7 GHz i7. It actually doesn't matter which you have. They both have a Intel HD Graphics 3000, which does indeed support an 2560 by 1600 external display. It's your adapter.


Arabic keyboards always have the ability to type English numbers built in.  Just hit the Caps Lock key in MacOS.

In iOS, try doing Press and Hold on a number key.


extend the press and hold app to other keys

Okay, I think it is not possible, therefore I've made this little html app, that mimics the OSX app:

https://openuserjs.org/libs/kasperpeulen/pressandhold

You can find a demo here:http://embed.plnkr.co/jNA28BBb2JFAccPPX61p/preview


How do I ensure that users can run only applications that have been installed in /Applications?

You can easily do this by managing apps for that user in Parental Controls.

See this screen shot to limit apps. It is a per-app setting, so you need to maintain the list of allowed apps. The setting you posted in your question is for managing the code signing status of apps and not for restricting certain apps and certain user accounts.


Xcode will make good use of many cores - especially when running the simulator, unit testing at build time and just coding / compiling / searching documentation.

Also check to see if the processor with more cores has a higher speed boost when only one core is running. The rated speeds are controlled more by thermal conditions under full or benchmark loads and can run faster when the current workload is single thread dominated.

In general, the IO is the first thing to slow down a developer doing multiple normal dev tasks. Next is insufficient RAM and a distant third underpowered CPU. Do take your Xcode installer and some sample projects into an apple store and ask if you could run some tests on an air as well as larger machines. Some specific code bases and settings might be more polarized than the general case and more biased to CPU with larger cache or speeds, but the smallest air is so much faster than my three year old 15 MBP it's not very funny at all.


Safari: bypass "this connection is not private" doesn't work for access through IP address?

The bypass can't be bypassed apparently. Note also that it may fail and keep requesting authentication if your hosts file entry has both short and FQDN specified. In that case you MUST use the FQDN. This is possibly because the Mac will append your local domain to any unqualified host names before checking for permission and (I am guessing) that a remote site identifying as your local machine domain (mymac.local for example) can't be added to the keychain. OR it might be that having ONLY a short host name in /etc/hosts would be OK but if you have BOTH long and short names specified then you must use the FQDN as that is the one that resolves in your host file.


What type of database is the iOS 5 SMS db?

I've pulled my sms.db file of my iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1 (of off live system using scp) and was able to browse the DB as normal using the sqlite client included with OSX Lion. Possibly the current format is somehow incompatible with older versions of the client. The version of the client included with Lion is 3.7.7:

$ sqlite3 sms.db
SQLite version 3.7.7 2011-06-25 16:35:41
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> .databases
seq  name             file
---  ---------------  ----------------------------------------------------------
0    main             /Users/tyr/sms.db
sqlite> .tables
_SqliteDatabaseProperties  message
drafts                     msg_group
group_member               msg_pieces
madrid_attachment          settings
madrid_chat                templates
sqlite> select * from settings ;
1|version|2.0.0
2|notificationCode|*N#
3|useNotifications|0
4|isDefault|1
5|compatibilityMode|0
6|useKeybCorr|1
7|useKeybCapi|1
8|useConfirmSend|1
9|nameorder|0
10|useShowAlerts|1
11|useStatusIcon|1
12|landscape|0
13|appSerial|0
14|lastMenu|0
sqlite>


Does TechTool Pro do anything that Disk Utility doesn't?

As far as the main question (in your title), yes, TechTool Pro does a lot more than Disk Utility does.

In fact, in many ways they're not really comparable products. It's somewhat akin to comparing a butter knife to a Swiss army knife. That is, Disk Utility performs a number of disk-related tasks, whereas TechTool Pro performs all these and a lot of other types of tasks as well.

As for whether TechTool Pro will help you determine what is wrong with your Mac, the best guess anyone here is going to give you is "Maybe."

TechTool Pro is generally an excellent product (it hasn't had a 'perfect' history, but overall it's been quite positive). In fact, Apple even used to provide a cut down version of it to users who paid extra for AppleCare coverage. But only you can decide whether the cost of it is worth it for you or not, especially if you're planning on upgrading in the near future.

As an aside, in a 2010 iMac you may be better off just replacing the hard drive, especially if it still has its original drive in it.

From memory, if it's a 21" model it wouldn't have had the option of an SSD, so the money you'd spend on TTP may be much better spent on an SSD. It'll give new life to your iMac and you could then put it to other uses after upgrading to your new Mac. And when the iMac eventually dies due to other reasons, you could resurrect the SSD and use it as an external drive. Just another option for consideration.


Disabling Voice Control, or at least muting it (iOS 10)

As of iOS 10.2.1 (maybe as early as 10.2), it is possible to disable Voice Control.

Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button

There is a setting PRESS AND HOLD TO SPEAK.  Set this to Off.  The descriptive text is "There will be no response when you press and hold the Home button."

I would like to thank Bob Briscoe for providing this answer, which he received from Apple Support. Since the question is protected, he cannot post an answer himself, so I am posting on his behalf.


Is there a way to slightly adjust the subtitles offset in the VLC player?

The keys h and j should respectively decrease and increase the delay.


BetterTouchTool: Is it possible to use a context-menu item with a gesture?

The current version of BetterTouchTool has a Trigger Context Menu Item action in the list of Predefined Actions.


Why does this bash script not work as an automator service?

Let's start with a small example.

Fire up Automator and create a service with a single "Run Shell Script" step.

Set it to take Folders as input from Finder

Pass input as arguments. Shell is /bin/bash

Bash code:

cd "$@"

for file in *.mov *.flk *.mp4
    do
    ls -1 "$file" >> ~/Desktop/test_file_awk.txt
done

What this does it takes the directory you pass in as "$@" and goes into it then runs the command on all the files in that directory.

"$@" is in quotes to protect against spaces, as is "$file"

So, you can replicate this to your setup:

cd "$@"
i=$(for file in {*.flv,*.mov,*.mp4,*.m4v}
    do
    /usr/local/bin/mediainfo "--Inform=Video;%Duration%" "$file"
done | awk '{total+=$0}END{print total}')

((i/=1000, sec=i%60, i/=60, min=i%60, hrs=i/60))
timestamp=$(printf "%dh%02dm%02ds" $hrs $min $sec)
echo -e "Total duration of video files in this folder:\n\n$timestamp" > _total_duration.txt

Personally, I would change the output to something like:

> ~/Desktop/"$@"_total_duration.txt

So that the data ends up on  your desktop in a file named for the folder, but I have a lot of media directories and I don't want txt files in them.


list files by date added in terminal with function or script or another

Simply create .bash_profile in your home folder or open it, if it already exists:

nano .bash_profile

and add the following lines:

function added {
    ls -a | grep -v '^\.$\|^\.\.$' | xargs -I {} mdls -name kMDItemFSName -name kMDItemDateAdded {} | sed 'N;s/\n//' | grep -v '(null)' | awk '{print $3 " " $4 " " substr($0,index($0,$7))}' | sort -r;
}

Save the mods with ctrl-o, Enter and quit nano with ctrl-x.

Close the Terminal window, open a new one and then simply enter added and you'll get the sorted list of files and folders in your home folder with some glitches though.

The accepted answer in the linked question presents a much faster solution:

function added2 {
    mdls -name kMDItemFSName -name kMDItemDateAdded -raw * | xargs -0 -I {} echo {} | sed 'N;s/\n/ /' | sort;
}


Coloured files and folders - Mavericks and Yosemite

In the App Store a tool called "Foldery" is available. It doesn't change the color of the label, but the color of the folder icon itself. That does the job for me to separate more important things from the lesser important ones - at least on the Desktop.

This only works for folders and not for documents, of course. But it might fill the void left by Apple's strange decisions partially.

I also would love the get the old label colours back, the little dots are hardly useful and especially hard to see from a distance.


Problem with displaying file path in Finder's Get Info -> Where

You can select the file and press Option + Command + C to copy the pathname to the clipboard.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/252179/192890

You can also use Control + Option + right click in macOS Mojave (copy as pathname will replace copy file in get info modal). Little change but I just found it. Still works on networked drives too.


I have an iPad mini 2, with ios 7.2, can i manually upgrade to 8.1.2 and still jailbreak it?

No, you cannot. Apple is no longer signing the 8.1.2 update, as can be seen in the chart at The iPhone Wiki.

Edit: The screenshot got partially cut-off, but the upshot is that all devices that support 8.1.2 were listed under the same item, and all stopped signing on 10 February 2015.


Is there a floating-ruler app for macOS?

I've used Free Ruler for Mac OS X in the past. I'm amazed that still works just fine. However, it does not allow click-through.


Change default mail application without configuring mail.app

RCDefaultApp allows you to pipe mailto: links to an app different to the app you have set as the default mail app.


How to remove the 10-minute delay for a scheduled Shut Down?

You don't need paid apps to do this as it's very simple using Bash (the default shell in Terminal).

You can have the computer shutdown by issuing the command in Terminal

$ sudo shutdown -h now

If you try it, it will shutdown your Mac immediately.

What each part does

sudo = run as the root user
shutdown = the command to shutdown the system
-h = halts the system
now = immediately

So, if you wanted to shut the computer down 5 minutes from now, your command would be:

$ sudo shutdown -h +5

You can even schedule it for a reboot (-r instead of -h) at a particular time (11:00pm every night)

$ sudo shutdown -r -h 23:00

While that command all by itself, would do what you want, it's limited because of sudo; you'll need to enter your password when it's run.  This means you'll have to be on-prem at each machine each time you want to issue the command (every day), so we need something that will run the command as root so it will be automatic.

Writing a Bash Script

The script for this is quite simple; it's a single line that calls the shutdown command:

#!/bin/bash

/sbin/shutdown -h now

Call it auto_shutdown.sh and save it to a convenient location.  Make it executable by issuing the command:

$ sudo chmod +x auto_shutdown.sh

This will set the execute bit and allow the system to process it as a program.  Now you have your script, you just need something to execute that script at a predetermined time.

Using Launchd to schedule your job

launchd is the service management framework that starts/stops/restarts processes, services, daemons, etc.    To set up a job to kick off with launchd you need two items:

type of job to be run; run as the user for one user, as the user for all users, or a job run by the system as root.  We want the last one.
plist (XML file) that describes the job.  The key elements that you need to focus on right now are the ProgramArguments that calls the script and the CalendarInterval which specifies when the jobs should be run.  For this example, call your plist  user.com.autoShutdown.plist (no other reason for that naming convention other than it follows Apple's conventions.)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
 <plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.user.autoShutdown</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Path_to_Script/auto_shutdown.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <array>
    <dict>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>21</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>30</integer>
    </dict>

</dict>

This plist is set to run the auto_shutdown.sh script every day at 11:30pm.

Since we want to run this as root, copy the plist to the /Library/LaunchDaemons directory.

$ sudo cp com.user.autoShutdown.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons

Finally, load the job into launchd:

$ sudo launchctl load com.user.autoShutdown.plist

That's it.  Every day at 11:30, the system will automatically shutdown.

Replicate across all your machines

Copy both the script and plist to each machine and load the job into launchd.  You have just set the shutdown time for all machines and it didn't require 3rd party ($$$) utilities.

You can find info on all the commands listed here by looking up their man page.  Type man <command> for the command you're interested in.

man shutdown
man launchd
man sudo
man launchctl


Reinstallation of Barclays Mobile Banking keeps previous installation's data, even after I completely remove app from iPhone

In the Barclays app, go to Settings → Cancel my registration and follow the instructions.


Since I note that it sometimes beeps three times when turning on (and then it doesn't boot) I assumed that one of the (newly bought!!) RAMs is faulty. Having two of them I removed the first and booted again. After a few minutes it crashed. I therefore assume that the first one is fault. I exchanged the RAM modules and run it now with the other one for almost an hour. No problems so far..


Why does my Mac have Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD1?

When you installed your vmware, you must have partitioned your HD and allocated some storage to the virtual OS. Macintosh HD 1 is the result of a partitioned drive. If you go to disk utility you will be able to see this. I am not sure if you can undo the partition without formatting the entire drive.


Would you be willing to just use a keyboard shortcut instead?

⌘ Command↑ Up

Voilà.


Does an old Intel Core Duo Mac Mini have enough performance to run the latest Garageband?

I did some searching and found this (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20020233-263.html):

  As with all of Apple's new software, iLife '11 requires a Mac with an
  Intel processor. iLife '11 is also only compatible with Mac OS X
  10.6.3 or newer (the current version is 10.6.4). Your machine must also have at least 1GB RAM and about 5GB of available disk space
  (though it is recommended that users retain at least 10 percent of
  their hard drive space and leave it open).

  A DVD drive is required for installation, and users must have a
  minimum screen resolution of 1,280 x 768 pixels.

  Some features of iLife '11 require greater minimum specifications.
  GarageBand "Learn to Play" requires a Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo or
  better processor. 24-bit recording in GarageBand requires a 24-bit
  audio interface that works with Mac OS X.

So I guess I will go for a Mac Mini with at least a Intel Core 2 Duo.


Taking the front fans out of an Mac Pro Early 2008 to clear out the dust?

There is only one screw holding the main pair of front fans in the Mac Pro 3,1 - but the assembly itself must be pulled square towards you, as it's slotted... and can be a bit resistant to being removed first time [especially as it's had 10 years to set itself firmly in there].

Note: If you've a full-length graphics card in, you will have to remove it first, in order to remove the aluminium cover over the CPUs. That's magnetic & just pulls away.
You'll also find the CPU heatsinks will be clogged more than the fans you're trying to clean.

This is the screw you already found...

Once that's out, pull square from the top right & bottom left - here it looks like they're using a PCI slot cover to assist, though I've never used anything other than bare hands

This is what you're trying to overcome - the drag on this channelised slot which keeps it all square, plus the fan plug/socket behind the assembly.

Picture Source: Apple - Mac Pro 3,1 2008 Service Source
The rest - experience ;)

I just looked at iFixit's take apart - though they lump the 1,1, 2,1 & 3,1 all in the same category - they mention a second screw at the bottom of the assembly; which I don't recall ever seeing on a 3,1.
However, it looks like one of those screws that the first engineer to disassemble it takes out & never replaces because it's so awkward to get to ;)

I don't have a 3,1 I can open up right now to check - & it is most definitely not mentioned in the specific 3,1 service source manual.


When opening a DMG file, how do I get it to open up in front of the windows?

I created a Folder Action script in Applescript, that might do just what you want.
Copy and paste it into a new Applescript, and save it as an Application (without a starting dialogue!) into "/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/".
You can then attach it to any folder (most likely your ~/Downloads/ folder ) by right clicking on the folder and selecting "configure folder actions" from the services drop-out menu. Activate Folder Actions and let the script watch the folder.

What the script basically does, is react on items dropped into the folder it´s attached to and if the dropped item is of Kind:"Image" it attaches the Image as a Volume via the "hdiutil" command line tool.

You can configure it´s behaviour by setting the openWindow and makeFrontmost properties in the Script; this can also be done by double-clicking on the Script after you have saved it as an application - it will then ask in two dialogues on what it´s standard behaviour should be.

I hope this helps,

Asmus

 property openWindow : true
 property makeFrontmost : true

 on run

    display dialog "Do you want to bring the Finder to the front after new items are added?" buttons {"Don't Activate", "Activate"} default button 2
    if the button returned of the result is "Don't Activate" then
        set makeFrontmost to false
    else
        set makeFrontmost to true
    end if

    display dialog "Open Folder after adding new files?" buttons {"Don't Open", "Open"} default button 2
    if the button returned of the result is "Don't Open" then
        set openWindow to false
    else
        set openWindow to true
    end if

 end run

 on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving addedItems

    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in addedItems
        set itemKind to the kind of (info for item i of addedItems) as string

        if itemKind is "Disk Image" then
            set itemPath to (quoted form of POSIX path of item i of addedItems)
            try
                showImage(itemPath)
            end try
        end if

    end repeat

 end adding folder items to

 on showImage(itemPath)

    set volumeMountpointInfo to do shell script "/usr/bin/hdiutil  attach " & itemPath & " | grep Volumes"

    if (openWindow is true) then
        if (makeFrontmost is true) then
            tell application "Finder" to activate
        end if

       set currentDelim to text item delimiters
       set text item delimiters to tab

       set volumeMountpoint to POSIX file (text item 3 of volumeMountpointInfo)

       set text item delimiters to currentDelim

       tell application "Finder" to open folder volumeMountpoint

    end if

 end showImage

====

second Applescript to determine the kind of file dropped into a folder

On adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving addedItems
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in addedItems
    set itemKind to the kind of (info for item i of addedItems) as string
    display dialog itemKind
end repeat
end adding folder items to

Edited Needs to be "Disk Image" rather than "Image"


Can Time Machine backups become corrupted when backing up to a NAS?

Time Machine really wants an HFS- formatted volume. Try creating a sparse disk image on the NAS and backing up to the image.


This a the behaviour defined by Apple for iPhone apps on iPad. There is nothing you can do.


Some short tidbits, followed with analysis:

You don't need to pay for the OS on a Mac that shipped with Lion or Mountain Lion.
Recovery HD ships with all the above Macs, but it's not visible in Disk Utility and could also be deleted, corrupted, or suffer a hardware failure.
Internet Recovery will let you re-download a recovery image from Apple's servers even if there is no hard drive connected in your iMac.
Booting from an external drive with OS X or a Recovery HD or a netboot drive (of which Internet Recovery is one free option) will allow you to totally wipe the entire drive in a Mac.
Most people are fine using Recovery HD to wipe their Macs as it erases the entire Macintosh HD portion and lest you start cleanly without needing to touch the Recovery HD.

Rather than boot to Command-R, I would boot to the startup chooser (just hold the option key) which should paint a grey screen with both the Macintosh HD and the Recovery HD - letting you choose the second. From there, if you have a fast internet connection (or don't mind waiting), you can use Disk Utility to zero the drive and then reinstall the OS that shipped with your iMac.


My Photos & Camera storage decreased drastically, but how?

The "Optimize [device] storage" setting, associated with iCloud Photo Library does not work instantly, so it may explain the behavior you describe. It needs to upload your originals to iCloud and then it may kick in only if you seem to need space on your device.

From an article on Macworld:

  If you take a photo with your iPhone (or other iOS device) camera, iOS doesn’t downsample or optimize images or video until it’s uploaded it to iCloud Photo Library and the storage is needed on the iOS device.


My MacBook Pro Mid 2012 screen is black and then just vertical stripes (like a glitch). Why and how do I solve this?

This is a common problem with 2012-2013 Macbook pro's, and is caused by the connection to the GPU card cracking. Apple is offering a repair program where they will fix this for free. If you have an Apple Store near you, I would suggest taking it in and having them fix it.


Is this external USB3 drive really this slow for my Macbook TimeMachine backup?

The speed you see there is not unusual. I have seen various USB3 external harddrives vary from about 60 MB/s to about 120 MB/s. These speeds can be expected from ordinary hard drives - you'll to buy an SSD to get much higher speeds.

However please keep in mind that these speeds are the bulk transfer speed. I.e. if you transfer only one large file without any file system overhead, you would obtain these speeds.

A backup will contain lots of small files which are individually stored. The random access read/write speeds of these portable USB drives are usually much lower than the bulk speed.

Compared to my experience, it is not unusual for the first Time Machine back to take 10 hours.


How to vertically align a text block at the bottom of a page in Pages?

The only way I can think of is to use footnotes.

They do exhibit the asked for behavior, and you can delete the automatically-inserted number/sign in the footnote itself.

The limitations, though, are threefold:

You have to use end of page footnotes, and since this setting is document-wide, you can't use any other footnote style.
This fake footnote will increment the footnotes count.
Most annoying: the insertion point that is bound to the content can't be deleted. It is good that you can define at which exact point you want your bottom block to be pushed to the next page. However, you will have to make the insertion point invisible, and there is no pretty way of doing it. I guess the “least bad” way to do it is to make the text color 100% transparent, and put the insertion point at the end of a paragraph, so that its spacing does not impact the text around.


I am pretty sure the super drive is not different from any other optical drive.

I have removed the superdrive from my 2011 Macbook to make place for a second hard drive. I put the superdrive in a bay and can now use it as an external hard drive with my macbook or computer with another OS (such as Windows).

You could use any other external optical drive with your macbook. See for instance this post on macworld:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac/what-mac-compatible-dvd-r-drives-can-you-get-we-take-look-at-apple-superdrive-alternatives-3500390/


Refresh timing of Google Contacts Sync on iOS?

Your Gmail account is setup to use Fetch, which you have scheduled Every 30 minutes.

Your iPhone will thus sync contacts with your Gmail account every 30 minutes. You may set this to Every 15 minutes if you would like more responsiveness. Note that it may then take up to 15 minutes for your contacts to update, although it could happen much faster.

New data will be pushed to your iPhone from the server when possible is only an explanation for what Push does, and not a blanket statement for every account you have setup.

As you can see from the list underneath it, only iCloud is configured to use Push updates. Holiday Calendar and Gmail are both configured to use Fetch, which operates on the schedule you select at the bottom.

The reason for this is iOS simply does not support Push with Gmail. In fact as of iOS 10 you can only use IMAP Push with iCloud and Yahoo accounts. Apple has never explained this limitation, which does not exist on macOS. It is possible there was a partnership between Apple and Yahoo, since Steve Jobs made a big deal out of providing Push email with Yahoo during the iPhone’s original reveal.

However, as of  iOS 11 it appears that any IMAP server that supports IDLE (including Gmail) will finally work with Push.


Is there a way to lock a folder's icon without making its contents Read Only?

You're exactly right. Here's how to lock the file that controls the icon:

Show hidden files.
Navigate to your folder.
There will be a file called Icon inside it.
Go to the Get Info window for that file and check the Locked checkbox.
Try to change the icon. You can't. Ta-da.


How can I add an action to search for the selected Terminal text in Google?

You could use the one that's built into iTerm2 … (which is a viable replacement for Terminal anyway, if you don't know it yet)


What are the alternatives to Activity Monitor that will summarize cpu time over time?

I'm a huge fan of Bjango's iStat menus, which allows one to conveniently place various monitors (CPU, disk usage, network up & down, battery, memory, temperature sensors...) up in the menu bar.  Each one can be pulled down like a menu for additional details.  It's a $16 app.  You can try before you buy.

Edit:  it looks like they have released another monitoring application called MiStat that is a separate app instead of living in the menu bar.  This allows them to place it in the Mac App Store.  It's available for a $4.99.

Edit: I'm sorry, I must have not read your question carefully enough before I posted.  I do not know of any GUI tool that is able to aggregate CPU time being consumed by several similar processes as you describe.   The best idea that I can think of would be to write a script that wraps the top or ps commands and adds up processes that match a regular expression.   This strikes me as a market opportunity for a nice utility.   Could you describe a little more of how you would like such a thing to behave?


MacBook SSD replacement — sudden motion shock sensor in optical bay?

This solution may not directly answer your question, but it may be relevant: I would advise you against putting your HDD in the optical bay.

I tried that. Putting the SSD in place of the HDD, and moving the HDD in the optical bay, which is just under the keyboard… And I got to hear the noise of the HDD spinning and the noise the heads when accessing cylinders… Bad idea. After a few hours, I switched HDD and SSD.

So, I would recommend you to leave the HDD in its bay and to put the SSD in the optical bay. That way your question is solved, and you don't get to hear the HDD working.
And if you notice an extra delay when booting, just select the SSD (which is in the optical bay) as booting drive in the system preferences. You will need to enter your password twice, once and for all. Then, your mac will immediately find the SSD when starting up.


Automatically connect to shared device when detected

You should definately check out google first.

I'm guiding you in the right direction:
This is a start click here.


Forgot to remove sim card and possibly sign out of icloud before selling!

If you did a "Erase All Content and Settings" - then you have definitely logged the device out of your iCloud account. This function deletes everything stored on the phone, including accounts, app settings, app data, the apps themselves, documents, photos, etc.

If you had "Find My iPhone" enabled, the buyer of your phone would not be able to setup the phone without entering your username and password. I.e. they would have complained to you by now that the phone is essentially bricked. As weeks have gone by, it is far to assume that you either logged out of "Find My iPhone" or never had it enabled on this phone.


You are actually connected to the AirPort.  Whether the router is up or down wouldn't matter, as your wifi will show the stats of your connection only to the AirPort device.


As for the first part of your question, you can't revert the changes, there's no ⌘
Z or undo command, but you can set the permissions to a good guess of what it was before. More on this in the first bullet below.

To install software in /usr/local you must have write permissions in the directory (and its subdirectories). There are several ways to achieve this:

Set the owner to yourself. That's what you did with sudo chown -R $USER /usr/local. My Linux sysadmin background tells me this is not the standard way, because /usr/local is outside your home directory and shouldn't be owned by you. But I wouldn't say you damaged anything irreparably.
Use sudo, but you don't want to be required to use it.

(From my point of view the best solution. Why? sudo protects you from yourself. You think twice if you need to type sudo (unless you are following a tutorial from http://howtonode.org :-) ).)
Set ACLs. Nice way to separate the original permissions from your added permissions. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_control_list for more info on ACLs.)
Configure groups. Add yourself to the group that owned /usr/local  and change permissions to g+rwx/g+rw. Cumbersome. Don't do that.

You did 1. and want to revert the changes, 2. you don't want, and I don't recommend 4., so I'll explain 3.:

Let's first "revert" the changes you made. /usr/local was probably owned by user root, group wheel. You can set it as follows:

$ cd /usr/local
$ sudo chown -R root:wheel .

Set the ACLs so that you have all permissions:

$ cd /usr/local
$ sudo chmod -R +a "$USER allow delete,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,writesecurity,chown,list,search,add_file,add_subdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directory_inherit" .

(see man chmod, section ACL MANIPULATION OPTIONS for details.)
You will see that all files have a + appended, ls -e shows the ACLs:

$ cd /usr/local
$ ls -la .
total 0
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 root  wheel   374 Oct 10 21:57 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 12 root  wheel   442 Sep 22 13:44 ..
drwxr-xr-x+  3 root  wheel  3774 Oct 10 21:57 bin
-rw-r--r--+  1 jaume wheel    0  Oct 25 14:53 myACLtestfile
drwxr-xr-x+  3 root  wheel   136 Jul 26 18:55 include
drwxr-xr-x+  4 root  wheel   442 Jul 26 18:55 lib
(...)
$ ls -led bin
drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root  wheel  3774 Oct 10 21:57 bin
 0: user:jaume allow list,add_file,search,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,writesecurity,chown,file_inherit,directory_inherit
$ ls -le myACLtestfile
-rw-r--r--+ 1 jaume  wheel  0 Oct 25 14:53 myACLtestfile
 0: user:jaume inherited allow read,write,execute,delete,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,writesecurity,chown

(I've tested the commands above, but I may have made a typo. As best practice I recommend that you run the commands above in a test directory. You could do mkdir ~/tmpacl. Then cd ~/tmpacl and sudo rsync -av /usr/local/ . to copy the contents of /usr/local to ~/tmpacl. Then skip cd /usr/local in every section above to apply the commands to ~/tmpacl. When you are done, rm -rf ~/tmpacl.)

Now you can install software (or do anything, for that matter) in /usr/local without sudo.

Notice that any file you create in /usr/local will belong to you (as myACLtestfile in the listing above), so you will see that some files are owned by root and others by you.

(If you change your mind and want to go back to the wonderful world of sudo, delete the ACLs as follows:

sudo chmod -R -N /usr/local

and set permissions to root:wheel:

sudo chown -R root:wheel /usr/local

)

** EDIT **

If the setup routine of the software you want to install uses /usr/bin/install this may be a much simpler solution. Add:

alias install="sudo /usr/bin/install"

to ~/.bashrc. Then do . ~/.bashrc for changes to take effect.

Then edit /etc/sudoers with command sudo visudo, add:

<your username> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/install

and save and close the file with :x.

(If you use other install command elsewhere in the filesystem, like GNU install, change the path above appropriately.)

For this to work the software must use /usr/bin/install. This is usually the case with make install.

** /EDIT **


How do I backup iMessages to my PC for free?

Have you tried extracting them from your back up file? See this link.


I haven't used it personally, but it looks like Subler will do what you want.

Here is the proper format you need to use for the chapter file: https://code.google.com/p/subler/wiki/ChapterTextFormat

  Subler will allow you to add chapters. You just need to drag and drop a
  text file in the right format into Subler. You don't write them in in
  the Subler GUI.

  The Subler site explains the format. It took a lot of trial and error
  for me to get it right and it is time consuming so I haven't done it
  in a while. Otherwise, I'd tell you how I did it.

  Once you add the file, you will have a new row under the Video Track
  and Stereo rows called Chapter Track. You can edit the Titles in there
  if you want to, but if you created the file correctly, you shouldn't
  have to.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=901354


"Cycle Through Windows" Menu Item is Missing

Most applications have never had a menu item for it. I don't know why Finder and Terminal do though.

⌘` should cycle through windows by default, but if it doesn't, check if the shortcut has been disabled or changed in System Preferences.


Spanish to English and English to Spanish dictionary for Dictionary app?

The latest MacOS versions already include Spanish dictionaries which can be enabled in preferences in the Dictionary.app (⌘+,).
The answer below is for converting and installing third-party dictionaries from other popular formats.
To create a dictionary for the built-in OS X Dictionary.app you will first need pyglossary to convert to the AppleDict format from the input format which can be ABBYY Lingvo DSL, Babylon BGL, Stardict IFO, etc (see all supported formats).
Once the AppleDict source XML is generated, the Apple Dictionary Development Kit is used to generate the native binary files that the Dictionary.app can use.
Proceed as follows:
Installing dependencies

Install Xcode command line tools:
 xcode-select --install

Install the Auxiliary Tools for Xcode from https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ — you'll need to login with your iCloud or Apple Developer account. Mount the DMG file by double-clicking it in Finder, and copy the folder Dictionary Development Kit to /Developer/Extras (as root) (or to ~/Developer/Extras as a normal user as pointed out by richard-möhn):
 mkdir -p ~/Developer/Extras/
 cp -r '/Volumes/Additional Tools/Utilities/' ~/Developer/Extras

Install Python 3 via homebrew (OS X comes with Python 2.x preinstalled):
 brew install python3

Checkout the pyglossary project:
 mkdir -p ~/projects
 git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ilius/pyglossary.git ~/projects/pyglossary

Install lxml and BeautifulSoup, the parsers that pyglossary depends on:
 pip3 install lxml beautifulsoup4

Now everything is ready to do the actual conversion.
Performing the Conversion

Convert the source dictionary (in this case Babylon BGL) to AppleDict:
 python3 pyglossary.pyw --read-options=resPath=OtherResources --write-format=AppleDict webster.bgl webster.xml

NOTE: This operation can take significant time if the dictionary is big.

Compile the generated AppleDict sources to OS X Dictionary.app binary files. Pyglossary creates the AppleDict sources in a subfolder named the same as the source file.

OPTIONAL: By default the dictionary name will be derived from the file name of the input file. If you want to modify the name to something else then open Makefile in a text editor, and set the title in the DICT_NAME variable (make sure you include the quotes).

    cd webster ### subdir name is derived from the source file
    make
    make install

NOTE: make can take significant time if the dictionary is big. For huge dictionaries it can take over 10 minutes.

make install copies the generated dictionary to ~/Library/Dictionaries.
Now if you restart the dictionary app and and open preferences (⌘+,) the new dictionary will appear in the list. Click the checkbox to enable it.
Other formats, for example ABBYY Lingvo DSL require more steps such as re-encoding from UTF-16 to UTF-8. Here is a wrapper script for DSL to AppleDict conversion.
Here are some Free dictionaries in Babylon BGL format. There are also literally hundreds of dictionaries available in DICTD, Stardict and ABBYY Lingvo DSL formats.


Get rid of the "US International PC" layout and instead use "US" or "ABC".  You do this in system preferences > keyboard > input sources.
(US International PC is a special layout adopted from Windows which is intended to make it easy to write the accents needed in common European languages.)


Can you type a tilde on the key under Esc on a European ISO keyboard set to US?

Having tilde next to the left shift is normal for Apple ISO (European) English keyboards.  If you want to put it somewhere else, you will have to use an app like Karabiner or Ukelele to customize the layout.

If using an external keyboard is acceptable, you could try to get an ANSI (US) keyboard (with no key between z and shift) someplace.  It will have the tilde below ESC.

Do not use the layout called "US International PC", since it treats tilde as a dead key for making accented characters, and requires extra steps to create an ASCII tilde.

Here is a custom US layout that should put tilde under escape.


Trick mac into thinking battery is connected (if I unplugged it)?

Your question assumes that something is wrong on the basis of your battery health only being at 70%. It's not clear how you're getting this figure, but a battery health of 70% after 300 cycles sounds perfectly reasonable to me if what you're measuring is the number of cycles remaining. Otherwise Battery Health is not usually represented by a percentage value, but in terms of Normal, Replace Soon, Replace Now, and Service Battery.

While it used to be in years gone by that Apple recommended allowing your battery to drain somewhat on a regular basis, this is no longer the case. In other words, keeping your MacBook Pro plugged into an AC power source for prolonged periods will not mess up your battery.

You may want to refer to what Apple has to say about their batteries for more information.

In summary:

Apple lithium-ion batteries use fast charging to reach 80% of their capacity and then switch to slower trickle charging to complete the charge.
Charge your MacBook Pro whenever you want. Many people believe you need to let them discharge 100% before recharging. This is not true.
Ambient temperature is one of the biggest factors in battery health/life. MacBooks are designed to work at their best when ambient temperatures are between 16° to 22° C (62° to 72° F).
It’s important to avoid exposing your MacBook to ambient temperatures higher than 35° C (95° F)
If you're ever going to store your MacBook for long-term without usage, it is best to store it totally powered down and at only about half charge.

Also, some of the latest research suggests that one of the most important determinants of what ruins a battery is time, and that's not something you can do anything about.

Finally, there is no way of safely tricking your Mac into thinking that your battery is connected when it's not. It will cause other issues for your MacBook and, in the event of a power failure, you have no built in uninterruptible power supply.