Accessing ancient iOS app(s) no longer available on the App Store?

First of all, if I were to find a copy of the IPA file online, would that be considered piracy?

It won't constitute piracy, primarily because the iOS App Store ecosystem has been designed from the ground up to curb attempts at pirating apps. Even if you manage to find the IPA of the said app, you won't be able to load it on an iOS device. Side-loading app like in Android is not generally possibly in iOS.

  Secondly, assuming such activity is not illegal, are there libraries that .IPAs of ancient iOS apps?

No. There isn't any such library/website which will let you download the IPA file for desired app.

Your best bet would be search the Web for reviews/videos of the game app in action. That way you would be able to study the design at-least in a limited/indirect way.

Additionally, considering the app was discontinued around 2012 which were the days of iOS 6/iOS 7, it's highly likely that the app was developed using a now ancient iOS SDK and using older 32-bit architecture. Even if we hypothetically assume that you'll be somehow able to get hold of the IPA and load it on a device, it won't be possible to run in on a modern device (running iOS 11 or later), which is now installed on around 95% of active devices.

Source: App Store - Support - Apple Developer as on 10 April 2019.

P.S.: Quoting @Tetsujin from the comment below:

  If it's that old & has been unsupported for 6 or 7 years, it might even be worth seeing if the original dev would be willing to give away the old source code. It's obviously something they're not currently making money out of. You never know, it might just happen.


MacBook Pro Cannot Connect to Certain/Some WiFi

Perhaps the "bad home" wifi is using channels 12 or 13?

The answers to this question might help diagnose if this is the issue.


Is there an app that quickly makes an image of selected text?

You can use Automator.

Open Automator.
Choose Application from the templates.

Add a Ask for Text action. Tick 'Require an Answer'
Add a Create Banner Image from Text action.

Tick 'Use text input as image filename'.

Open the actions options options.

Tick 'Show this action when workflow runs'

Add a Lopp Action.

Control + click on the Loop Actions Title bar and select 'ignore input'

From the Loop Actions's drop down menus, select 'Ask to Continue' and Use the 'current results as input'

Save and run.

You will then be prompted to enter your text.
Then after you ok that you will be prompted to Choose you font.
Use the font size to determine the image size.

example 64 in Helvetica Bold gives me about 46x77
The same font but at size 300 gives me 177x360.

In each case I am only using 1 character.

If you want to do it from 'Selection'

Open Automator.
Choose Services from the templates.

Set the 'Sevices Receives input' to :rich text * and
in* any application

Add a Create Banner Image from Text action.

Tick 'Use text input as image filename'.

Set the Text Style drop down menu to : 'Use Style of Rich Text input'.

Optionally you can add a 'Reveal in Finder' Action

The Size is set by what ever the original fonts are.

To use the Service.
  You can select some text, and control click to get a contextual menu. Listed is the services sub menu. Under this you should find your new service that will run on the selected text.


Late 2015 iMac 27 freezes than crashes and restarts - often and apparently randomly

You used a different type of RAM than specified by Apple. It's a small difference, but it is possible that it caused the effect you are describing. You purchased this RAM:

  DDR3L 1867Mhz PC3-14900 SODIMM 2Rx8 CL13 1.35v RAM

Apple's site specifies this RAM:

  PC3-14900 Unbuffered Nonparity 204-pin 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM

What's the difference?
It's DDR3 vs DDR3L.
The "L" stands for low powered. Standard Apple RAM, and replacement RAM from sites such as OWC, operate at 1.5V. Your DDR3L RAM operates on 1.35V.


Can I install any iOS version I wish by picking and choosing which firmware to restore?

Downgrading or upgrading to a no longer current version of iOS is generally not possible once Apple stops signing the old software, as is needed when iTunes is preparing to install or restore an iOS. This signing window typically is closed within days of a new version shipping.

Putting a newer iOS on older hardware that never even supported that OS is near impossible.

As part of the iOS restore process, iTunes has to check with Apple's servers to 'sign' each install of iOS just like App Store apps must be signed to run. Once a new version comes out, Apple stops signing previous releases to keep everyone running the same iOS version and to prevent you from jailbraking your device again after restoring by forcing you to do an update.

If you had previously Jailbroken your device on iOS 6, it may be possible, providing you have saved your 'SHSH blobs' which can 'sign' the install instead of Apple. See this article for some general information around this topic.

This wikipedia page contains a list of iOS devices & the latest iOS they can support - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices


How to make a MacBook look like an iPhone to a gateway

I could solve it, I used this command to change my MAC address:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

But it should have been en1 for WiFi :)

Sorry I forgot my login


Why does (Apple) Remote Desktop, with client ports correctly forwarded, report as "Offline" to administrator's machine?

Does The ARD Administrator client use a ping (ICMP_ECHO) to determine client status?

A lot of firewalls silently swallow echo requests, even of the host is up.  Therefore, you may be getting false reports about host status.


How do I free up space (delete things) taken up by my iPad's Photo Library?

On the newer iOS versions, Apple initiated a delayed trash. This means that things are only truly deleted after they've been in the trash for 30 days.

To force things to delete, go to the photos app, then choose albums in the bottom right corner. Scroll down until you find the "recently deleted" album and click on it. Then click select and choose whether you want to delete or recover either all or just a few of the photos.


How do I open a file from Spotlight in Finder?


CMD + space not working in the first try

i saw this on a user's machine lately.  it was acting very strangely with a couple command keys.

the solution here was to go to keyboard preference pane and clear out all shortcuts and restore defaults for each section.  it seems an app this user installed was grabbing the key-combo for its own purposes, and once removing the customizing it worked well.

it might be this simple in your case.


Can forced shut down damage OS security?

Great Question!

There used to be a time when Mac's power button used to be known as certain death if you had to use it.

A forced shutdown does not damage your hardware, and neither does it weaken your security.

However, it could potentially corrupt your files if you are turning off the computer while they are open or being used (rather common in older models). These files can be anything, from a simple text file, to a bash script, or even to system files (ex. from an update).

Because of this, there's no direct link between your system getting corrupted and your security being compromised. If your system has become corrupted to the point that services fail to load or critical files cannot be loaded (happens if you shutdown computers during intensive operations) you will most likely know about it because your computer will fail to boot, or throw errors.

A corruption in your computer will not suddenly open ports in your firewall, set your password to null, or let programs take over your computer and steal your identity.


Put it into the Airplane mode and switch off the screen while charging. It will charge faster.


Macbook gets stuck on Grey Screen, won't boot normally

I too had this problem twice. The first time the system got stuck, and switched itself off. Then later when I was trying boot it got stuck at the grey screen. When I contacted Apple for support, they told me that my harddrive is not working anymore and replaced it. All data lost. The second time when it happened was when I tried to restart the system and it got stuck at the grey screen. I tried removing all the devices connected to the system and switched it back on. This time it worked. Let me know if I can be of anymore help :-)


Google Chrome uses its own DNS resolver, that's why it behaves differently.
dig command also connects directly to DNS server.
To verify your current DNS server settings on the Wi-Fi network interface use:

networksetup -getdnsservers Wi-Fi

To troubleshoot your problem try:

clearing the DNS server settings (and rely on DHCP) with:

sudo networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi empty

setting the DNS server manually with the command:

sudo networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

create a new location with separate DNS settings by:

clicking on the network icon in the menu bar
choosing Open Network Preferences...
selecting Edit Locations... from the top list box (you might need to unlock settings with administrator's password first) and creating new location
clicking on Advanced... button, selecting DNS tab and adding the DNS servers in the left pane


Jailbreak iPad 3 ("the new iPad") iOS 9.1

A beta of the Home Depot iOS 9.1-9.3.4 32-bit Mixtape Player supports your device on iOS 9.1.

There is no jailbreak for iOS 9.3.5, so take precautions with your jailbreak, especially since Prometheus does not support 32-bit devices.


kernel_task Virtual Memory Size too high

Yes, this is normal behavior.

You can do nothing to wipe/clean it - except rebooting your computer.

There's no benefit from wiping/cleaning it, and no disadvantage from kernel_task having a high virtual memory size in itself. There's no real point in trying to avoid it in the future.


Is there a maximum number of remote connections that can be setup on mac mini?

Not sure if it will help, but I would update 10.9.4 to 10.9.5 as I found 10.9.4 to have a few issues on the servers and Mac I service for clients.

Note: I can't think of any compatibility issues that would be an issues with that update, but assess the software used before you update of course.


iCloud sent mail (from Gmail web interface) not listed

SMTP servers don’t always save a copy of outgoing messages in a Sent folder. Gmail’s SMTP server does, but iCloud’s leaves that behavior up to the mail client (in this case, Gmail's Send As feature).

When using an external SMTP server, it appears that Gmail does not instruct that SMTP server (in this case, iCloud) to store a copy of outgoing messages in its Sent folder; that is why you don’t see the record you’re looking for in iCloud.


Can iSight be used by more than 1 application at the same time?

The simple answer is no - in general the one camera only sends data to one app.

The more complicated answer is that the API (application programming interface) that Apple publishes enforces this restriction. If a developer hooks into the hardware directly or there is a bug in the API, it is possible to share that stream.

So for most Apps made by someone other than Apple, once the iSight is in use by one application, it is unavailable to other applications until the application releases the use of it or the application closes. User Gentmatt rightly points out that this is not the case for Facetime and Photobooth, where Apple is either using an undocumented or private API or accessing the hardware directly so that both apps can share the camera feed.


macOS Messages.app: How to search by recipient/sender?

In the messages app you can start a new conversation with an individual using the pencil icon. If you start a conversation and the existing one is in your message history it will show the past conversation as soon as you select their name.

This will not pull in the message history if you've deleted the conversation from your Mac. It only works if this conversation is in the long list of past conversations.


Upgrading Leopard Server from 10-client to Unlimited

Success! I purchased an open-but-unused retail copy of OS X Server v10.5.4 RTL Unlim Client (product number MB605Z/A) and replaced the license key on my server from the 10-client version with the Unlimited key included in the new box. 30 seconds later I was up and running! So yes, it is simple to apply the new key and upgrade your access, and the exact version number does not need to match that which you already have installed.


Interrupted Mac App Store Download - Xcode

Click on Purchases by keeping the ⌥ key pressed (option key). It will need 10 seconds to initiate the tab (more or less), but afterwards you'll be able to re-download any purchased app.


Yosemite (> 10.10.x) randomly freezes and crashes on my MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011

I had the same problem since a couple of days. Here's what I've done to (apparently) fix it:

Created another Administrator account. Logged onto that account. Removed DropBox, Skype, Viber, Evernote.
Why? Those where the only applications my new account did not run, and my new account never experienced any crashes.

I then got back to my primary account and downloaded the latest version of Skype (7.1) and Viber. I am now running Skype and Viber as before. I had no use for DropBox or Evernote anyway.

I used to have crashes shortly after restarting. I am now on my second hour with a solid machine. I don't know if this will stay so, but at least you can see if it is any help to you.


How do I run my automator service without opening automator?

In summary, to create a keyboard shortcut to run your Automator service you will need to use:

Automator to create your service so that it'll work the way you want
System Preferences to assign a keyboard shortcut to the service

Below are the steps involved for each.

1. Create a service using Automator

You're on the right track with your Service, however you need to change where the Service receives no input from. Below are the instructions (from scratch so that it's useful to others):

Launch Automator (usually found within your Applications folder)
Go to File > New
Select Service and click Choose
In the top right hand of the window that appears, ensure that "No input" is selected from the Service receives drop-down list
Ensure the In drop-down list is showing "Any application" (Note: This is where you went wrong as you had selected Finder)
In the second column containing the long list, find "Get Specified Finder Items" and double-click on it
This will add the Get Specified Finder Items window on the right
Now click on the Add... button to select the design kit folder you're wanting to copy
Once again in the second column containing the long list, find "Copy Finder Items" and double-click on it
Save the service using a meaningful name (e.g. Duplicate Design Kit).

Now to the next step.

2. Creating your shortcut

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts
Select Services from the sidebar
Find your service (it'll be in the list on the right-hand side)
Add a shortcut by double clicking on the service name
Now go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy
Select Accessibility in the sidebar
Click on the + sign (you may need to unlock the padlock if it's locked)
Add Automator
Add Finder (to find this you will need to navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app).
Exit your System Preferences.

Now you should be able to do two things:

1. Run the service from any application by going to the Services list within any Application menu (e.g. Finder > Services, Safari > Services, TextEdit > Services, etc) and select the service you just created.

2. Use the keyboard shortcut to run the service.

Let me know how you go.

[UPDATE]

For an unknown reason the OP found that he needed to restart his Mac before the Service was available. I mention this here in case it helps someone else trying to achieve the same thing.


Why when I make a change to a project on xcode the previous project is affected?

My guess is that it would be either user error, you keep opening the same file, or the clone is in the same directory as the original so it edits them both because Xcode doesn't know which one to actually edit.

What to try:

Make sure you are opening two separate files when you check.
Quit Xcode entirely and open the project again.
Move either the original file or the clone to a different folder. EX: Move it from desktop to downloads or documents
Change the name of the file


Unfortunately, there’s no “don’t ask me again” option. iOS 13 will keep asking you about the apps using your location in the background unless you tap “Change to Only While Using.” iOS won’t warn you about apps that can only access your location while you’re using them.


Creating a symbolic link in /bin is not working

You're missing the '/' at the beginning of your app and sudo as /bin is owned by root and you can't actually write to it as a normal user. As you currently have it, it would only work if your present directory was the system root. This assumes of course that the Sublime Text app is in your main Applications folder.

Try this…

sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /bin/sub

One afterthought: It's considered bad practice to change the content of /bin and /usr/bin because any upcoming OS X upgrade may wipe the content there. /usr/local/bin is the usual place to install user-provided binaries in, so

[[ -d /usr/local/bin ]] || sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/sub

might be the better option.

Or (as you probably never need to run Sublime Text from within a shell script), simply define a bash alias

alias sub=/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl

which should be added to your bash startup file to make it stick

echo "alias sub=/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" >> ~/.bashrc


Assuming you have an iPhone(*), you can create custom vibrations, and name each that identifies the unique customized levels, patterns, or other features that make it as unique as any custom vibrations you create.  The iPads my husband and I have do not have this useful functionality, but newer versions may have custom vibration functionality.
To create a custom vibration, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and select any assigned ring tone, opening a new page, with additional info and options, the first option defines the current assigned and labeled vibration. If you tap on the name currently set, a new window opens, revealing all pre-set vibrations you can choose from if replacing the current one set for a different pre-designed vibration.  And next on this settings page is the functionality to “Create Custom Vibration.” Press the “>” on this option to access additional vibration settings.
A new window opens, the design somewhat like a workspace with enough room to create lengthy and complex patterns via the speed, tapping variations, generating an audible preview of this custom vibration. Save your custom vibration, giving it a name that most aptly represents the nature of it’s intended design.
This is how you create custom vibrations on iPhones manufactured after the 6S+.  What I don’t know is whether your custom vibrations are included in the app for which a custom vibration would be very useful.  If my reply here ends up working beautifully for you, OR if get stuck at the part where it should be updating the selected custom vibration, it is very likely due to my lack of knowledge of the settings, and become an expert on the use, functionalities and configuration settings, and come back to share and educate your followers on this topic.
Good luck!


Can iCloud be used to sync personal videos in the Videos app?

The right way to do this is to use iCloud Photos. All media in Videos.app on iOS should be either from the iTunes Store or synced from iTunes – non personal made videos should be in there.


With ABC (formerly US) Extended, ʒ is made by typing option-shift ; and then z.

In general, to see which key does what, use Keyboard Viewer.

More info about ABC Extended can be found here. And here.


Upgrading MacBook with Crucial RAM sticks

The MacBook Pro (MC700) early 2011 supports 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAMs. Check the sticker on the RAM-module or on the packaging if it fits. Here is a link to all compatible modules with product numbers.

If they fit formally and physically put them in and run the Apple Hardware Test/extended memory test.


Why is Icon List not appearing in Xcode?

The real key name you're looking for is CFBundleIconFiles. Xcode displays short human-readable names for several keys; this one should be called "Icon files", but you can enter the key directly.

See this Stack Overflow question for more discussion.


You could try "stat" with the "%k" format option.  According to the man page this is the "Optimal file system I/O operation block size".  Command line is:

stat -f "%k" FILE

Where "FILE" is any regular file on your system (e.g. "~/.profile"). It should say "4096" or something like that.  I cannot 100% guarantee this is what you're looking for, but it seems close.


13" 2017 MacBook Pro closed-clamshell mode with Dell U2715H

The monitor will not be able to charge the laptop, no. Therefore the MBP will not by default work in closed-camshell mode when connected only to the monitor and not to another external power source.


Will my warranty be valid in other countries if I buy an iPad in Korea?

Yes. But with a cost.

From Apple's iPad warranty docs:

  If you seek service in a country that is not the country of original purchase,
  you will comply with all applicable import and export laws and regulations and be responsible for
  all custom duties, V.A.T. and other associated taxes and charges. Where international service is
  available, Apple may repair or exchange defective products and parts with comparable products
  and parts that comply with local standards. In accordance with applicable law, Apple may require
  that you furnish proof of purchase details and/or comply with registration requirements before
  receiving warranty service. Resources with more details on this and other matters on obtaining
  warranty service are described below.


Use Mac connected to cable router (no WAN) as the Gateway of the LAN

Internet Sharing

Open System Preferences, under the Sharing pane, you can configure Internet Sharing:

Share your connection from: select your 3G USB modem
To computers using: Select the interface that your router is attached to (I assume ethernet0)

With that set, you will need to configure your router to use the iMac as the gateway (by plugging it into the WAN port or somehow configuring that in the router's UI).


Swap Fn and Control key on a MacBook Pro


Common shell / editor shortcuts for Mac OS X

This is definitely possible, see https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/TextDefaultsBindings/TextDefaultsBindings.html for a good discussion of text system key bindings.

To accomplish what you're after save the following to ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
    "^u" = "deleteToBeginningOfLine:";
    "^w" = "deleteWordBackward:";
}


Does iOS 9 update require iOS 8.4.1 to be installed first?

this problem occurs when you already have a downloaded update (for example, you have downloaded 8.4.1 but not installed it yet).
Easiest way to correct is to delete the update (Settings-General-Usage-Manage Storage - look for iOS8.4.1 (or whatever version has been downloaded).

After deleting the old update, a check for software update will show iOS9


Xcode / Working for a completely distinct application but parallely to another one

Correct me if i misunderstood your question. You want to work in a machine with different developer account. Yes you can.

Go to Xcode>Preferences>Accounts and sign in with as much developer id you want to use. Make sure that you have all the certificate, public key and privet key pair in your Mac Keychain. For details you can refer this link

Next time when you work on an app in Xcode please choose the team from target settings


LogMeIn Hamachi "Network" menu gone in Lion

Just found out now that you have to click the connect button first and then it works perfectly.


Netboot Image - Where is the user generated data stored

When you NetBoot, the read-only NetBoot DMG file gets mounted read-write via the use of a Shadow File. Any Mac OS X DMG file can be mounted with a Shadow file. When a Shadow file is in use, any data which would be written to the DMG file is instead written to the Shadow file, and when data is read, the data will be read from the Shadow file first before the DMG file.

When NetBooting, there are three kinds of images, each with three different methods of mounting the DMG and storing the Shadow file:

NetInstall Images are made from a Mac OS X Installer DVD or an Installer Image downloaded from the App Store. They have no Shadow file, the root partition / is read only and there is no swap.
NetBoot Images are made using System Image Utility from an installed Mac OS X system. the Shadow file is stored on the first hard disk in the hidden /private/netboot folder
Diskless Netboot Images are the same as NetBoot Images but the Shadow file is stored over the network using Apple File Protocol (AFP)

In the case of Diskless Netboot (The most powerful), the Shadow file is stored in the NetBootClients0 folder of the Library/NetBoot folder on the server machine (Or NetBootClients1, NetBootClients2, etc, where the number matches the number of theNetBootSP` folder in which the Net Boot DMG resides)

To make a NetBoot image a Diskless Netboot Image, use the "Make this image available for Diskless booting" checkbox under the image settings in Server.app:

You also need to have AFP File Sharing enabled, and you need a guest writable sharepoint for the NetBoot directory. (I do not recall if Server.app creates this automatically) Apple has a document about troubleshooting Diskless NetBoot which is helpful. AFP548 also has some great hints

  When a client machine boots a specific net boot image, my understanding is that it copies at least the most necessary parts of the image via network and stores it somehow on its local resources

This is not technically correct. When you NetBoot, the Mac OS X Kernel mounts the root filesystem (/, the boot volume) over the network. So nothing is stored locally. When data needs to be read (E.G. an application is launched) it is read over the network, rather than from your hard drive. No data is copied from the server to the local machine.

When changes are made, for example, a new file is saved, then the Mac OS X kernel needs to write those changes somewhere, and that's where the Shadow file comes in. As described above the Shadow file might be on the first local hard drive, but it might also be stored over the network. If it is stored over the network, then the Mac OS X client can actually unmount the drives and do things like running Disk Utility. It can even have the hard drives completely removed.


How do I tell if a device is doing USB 3.0 and not downgraded to USB 2.0 for some reason?

Try  menu >  About this Mac > System Report...
Select USB on the left, then find your device in the list.
The reported speed ought to be a giveaway. Mine shows it's only running at USB2 speeds [but that's because I don't have a USB3 machine]

List of speeds & common names…
USB 1.0 / Low-Speed: 1.5 Megabits per second (Mbps)
USB 1.1 / Full-Speed: 12 Mbps.
USB 2.0 / Hi-Speed: 480 Mbps.
USB 3.0 / SuperSpeed: 5 Gbps.
USB 3.1 / SuperSpeed: 10 Gbps.


Send batch emails from terminal with attachments

curl
You can bypass setting up mail and use curl to talk directly to your SMTP server. See using curl to send email for more details:
curl --ssl-reqd \
  --url 'smtps://smtp.gmail.com:465' \
  --user 'username@gmail.com:password' \
  --mail-from 'username@gmail.com' \
  --mail-rcpt 'john@example.com' \
  --upload-file mail.txt

mail.txt file contents:
From: "User Name" <username@gmail.com>
To: "John Smith" <john@example.com>
Subject: This is a test

Hi John,
I’m sending this mail with curl thru my gmail account.
Bye!

To attach a file, see the link recommended by lhs, curl : send html email with embedded image and attachment.


I accidentally deleted my "contacts" app on my iPhone. How do I get it back?

Unless you have jailbroken your phone you can't delete the Contacts app. Most probably it's either in a folder or on a screen somewhere. To find it again

press the Home button repeatedly until the search screen is shown
Type "Contacts"
Select Contacts app from search results

If you can't find it, you could always back up your phone (to save the current settings) and also take screen shots of the various screens you have set up. Then go to the settings app and Reset the home screen layout.

Worst case is you wait while you restore your backup if this doesn't return contacts to the first screen.


Pros:

ability to install apps not found in Apple's App Store
ability to customize the OS, UI, etc. to remove minor annoyances and trick out your iPad

Cons:

you will definitely be unable to upgrade to new versions of the OS without having to re-jailbreak
your iPad may be less stable
you can't bring your iPad in for warranty service without undoing the jailbreak
time & energy: researching and performing the jailbreak, finding/installing non-App Store apps, keeping abreast of the latest jailbreak status in the face of updates, etc.

I've gone both ways depending on my needs -- my iPhone is jailbroken, my iPad is not.


How to restore manually Saved State files of Terminal?

It seems that the windows.plist has been corrupted during the backup, as it's empty.

The Terminal restores correctly when doing the following test:

Run Terminal.
Type anything like: echo test 1.
Kill the terminal explicitly, e.g.: killall Terminal.
Run again, it should have the previous message/state.
Removing files and restoring from it, it'll have the same state.

The corrupted .plist file can be manually rewritten by the following hacky steps:

Convert plist into its XML representation (Terminal will still recognise it):

plutil  -convert xml1 -o windows.plist windows.plist

Edit the file to match its windows id (NSWindowID) to the appropriate files. Or create as many new windows manually to have the same files, kill the terminal, replace only the window .data files and re-run again.

However if the data files are not inconsistent with plist file, the Terminal will restore the default session overriding your files.


At least a fix for this in Chrome will be dragging and dropping the file to the fileupload control on the page.

Drag the file to "Choose file - no file selected" and drop it there, it will be ready for upload.


Sync iPad & Dumbphone Contacts via Bluetooth?

This is not likely to happen, as you need to mannualy accept a bluetooth data transfer, so it will not sync exactly, what you are doing is basicly sending a contact card to the phone.

Source - my Mom and her really dumbphone.


Are there any iOS apps that let third-party developers extend functionality?

Nope. As a developer, I know this is not possible unless the "child" app is installed as an app, supports a URL scheme, the "parent" app knows about, and their interaction can be limited to launching each-other back and forth.

Note: the situation with jailbroken devices and in house applications is different, but I assume you don't care about those.


How can I diagnose or fix the CalendarAgent occupying a whole CPU on Mountain Lion?

May have to kill and rebuild Calendar db:

Disable the Calendar service from your account in System Preferences → Internet Accounts
Remove the preferences/database files for Calendar:

rm -r ~/Library/Calendars/ ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist

Re-enable the service.

Source: http://robert.accettura.com/blog/2012/08/19/how-to-stop-calendaragent-from-eating-cpu/


It appears that a cookie (probably X-APPLE-WEBAUTH-HSA-TRUST) is stored when you choose to trust the browser. Clearing cookies should essentially disable this functionality and require a 2FA code to log in again.

When you sign out of iCloud using the browser (Click your name in the top right corner and Sign Out), you are also presented with this dialog:

If you uncheck Remember me on this browser so I don't have to verify my identity next time. and sign out successfully, the browser will require a 2FA code the next time you log in.


Shortcut to a specific accessibility feature

For Switch Control, see my answer to: applescript access switch control through system preferences
For Head Pointer:

How is it possible to check the box you mentioned for Head Pointer?

         Quoted question from comment under the OP.
Test this example AppleScript code in Script Editor to see if it works. Then try it again with the activate command commented out. e.g.: # activate
It may only work with System Preferences being visible, you'll just have to see.
if running of application "System Preferences" then
    try
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    on error
        do shell script "killall 'System Preferences'"
    end try
    delay 0.1
end if

repeat while running of application "System Preferences" is true
    delay 0.1
end repeat

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "Head_Pointer" of ¬
        pane id "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "System Preferences"
        repeat until (checkbox "Enable head pointer" of ¬
            tab group 1 of group 1 of window 1 exists)
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
        click checkbox "Enable head pointer" of ¬
            tab group 1 of group 1 of window 1
        delay 0.1
    end tell
end tell

tell application "System Preferences" to quit

Notes:
The example AppleScript code can be use in a Automator Service/Quick Action and assigned a keyboard shortcut in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services
Or there are several third party applications that can trigger AppleScript scripts, with assigned keyboard shortcuts , e.g. FastScripts.
Note that I am not affiliated with the developer of FastScripts, just a satisfied user.

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


Is it ok that a MacBook turns on from sleep with the lid closed when MagSafe is connected/disconnected?

This should not be happening.  I have this same problem and it started happening after the most recent MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Update 2.0 was installed on 11/9/2012.  Prior to this update install, the laptop would never wake up from sleep when the adapter was connected or disconnected.  Does your also try to eject the DVDROM drive when you unplug it from power after it's been asleep for a while?


How to best configure storage for pro level video editing?

Without more details about what camera you're shooting with, and what type of color space and compression you're working with, it's hard to give definitive answers for some of these questions. But...

1) Yes. In general you'd want to keep your app separate from the media. Usually you'd have OS X and your editing software of choice installed on the system's main internal drive. It would be kind of silly to have them installed on an external drive anyway.

2) The only situation where you should have the app and any media on the same drive is where the only drive you have is your internal drive and everything's getting stored there. This is fine for home use, but in a professional situation this would limit disk throughput prohibitively.

3) Depends on what format you're compressing to. It's all about bit-rate. FW800 is roughly 800 Mbits/second or 100 MB/s.

It's important to realize that, depending on your drive, this can be further limited by the drive's speed. Even though the FW800 connection can carry 100MB/s the drive may not be able to read or write fast enough to saturate it.

You really need to think about what format(s) you're exporting to, how fast the machine you're building can encode to those formats, and what kind of data rates that produces. That'll give you a number to shoot for.

If exporting HD in H.264 codec on a 2-core machine, even a USB 2.0 drive (max ~30MB/s) can usually keep up, so it really depends on what you're doing.

4) This is where you really need as much speed as possible. If your footage is coming mainly from compressed sources, like an HDSLR, or AVCHD or HDV camcorder this will reduce the amount of bandwidth you need. If you have uncompressed footage, it'll be exponentially greater.

Also, you need to know how many streams you want to be able to read from the disk at the same time when editing. Crunch the bit-rate numbers for the formats you're shooting in and you should get a total that you can try to equate to the speed of a source drive.

5) Because of the differences in speed requirements I just outlined, and the fact that during encoding, you'd be reading from and writing to the same drive, I'd say your instinct is right here. For consumer situations having everything on one drive is fine, it's just slower.

6) You could probably add eSATA to only the MacPro, but have a look at Thunderbolt instead. The drives are still expensive right now, but if you need something VERY high end, you can get insane speeds beyond eSATA or USB 3.

7) By electronic drive I'm assuming you mean an SSD. Having an SSD as your Mac is a great thing. It does so much for the user experience, that if you can afford it, just get it.

What I think you're asking though, is if you should use it as a scratch/temp disk? There's been some debate about the longevity of SSDs when it comes to high amounts of reads/writes (which is what a scratch drive does all day), so right now I'd still probably say it's not cost effective as a scratch drive.

If you're getting the iMac and want to trick it out, get the configuration with the SSD + internal HDD. Use the SSD for the OS and apps, and dedicate the HDD to be used as a scratch disk.

From there, for your externals, you have lots of choices. The iMac has one FW800 and two Thunderbolt ports. Something you didn't ask about, but is very important, is ingesting footage. When importing footage into the machine I assume you'd want that to be as fast as possible as well.

If your drives are on the FW800 bus, you'd want your card reader on the USB bus to maximize the bandwidth available. i.e. Read over USB, write over FW800, rather than trying to do both over either, essentially halving your bandwidth.

If you end up with thunderbolt drives, get a FW800 card reader, which will dramatically speed up your ingest (once your cards can keep up). The Thunderbolt bus has more than enough headroom at this stage (10Gb/s) to handle reading and writing at the same time, so no worries there.

Another thing you should think about is backup. If you can afford a pair of Thunderbolt RAID 5 arrays (one for source, one for export), do it. You'll thank yourself later.

I hope I provided some general advice, but there are lots of configurations you could put together. It really depends on your needs. You need to look at what you're shooting on and exporting to, and how you edit, then do some calculations.


How can I choose by keyboard the autocorrect suggestions?

When the autocorrect suggestion is showing, you need to press the DOWN key, then you can use left and right to select if there is multiple. After that hit return. No mouse/trackpad interaction required. :)


Changing OS X behaviour after crash recovery

To your first question:

Open System Preference -General settings, and select following:

To your second question: (actually we do not like to have more than one question, but since they are related...) that is a Safari settings.


In iTunes, what happens if you select that m4b, then look at "Create New Version" in the menu?


Is there a way to effectively clean a Smart Cover without causing damage?

I have found ironicly that using a Microfiber cloth does the job and also cleans the microfiber inside part of the cover.

I find that when you use it as a stand the inside of the cover collects anything you are standing it on and will the put this dust/debris onto the screen when its closed.

To add to this looking at the Apple website on Smart covers, the microfiber lining is the same colour as the polyurethane, yet the actual product is grey (just like in the video on the same page).


Unable to connect internet from any browser but chrome

Open Network Preferences, and:

verify IP
verify gateway
verify DNS

Your IP address is either static or dynamic. Static: you put in your IP info. Dynamic: your gateway provides the correct IP info.

Open Terminal.app, and type:

 ifconfig -a

That will show you what network interfaces you have. One of these is your primary route and your default gateway. You can only have one default gateway. Even though you may have many interfaces (ethernet, wireless and firewire, etc), there's only one default way to go if the request is not local.

So check for default route by typing in Terminal.app:

netstat -nr | more

The top two resulting lines will tell you who's the boss.

Then ping the gateway.

ping <IP address>

If it doesn't work, reboot and try again. You should at a minimum ping your gateway and ping your DNS before it's worth it to troubleshoot individual applications.


What is the name of the Automator application process?

The Automator.app's main process is called "Automator".

You should be able to Force Quit it from the Apple menu, or from right-clicking its Dock icon.

Of course, Automator workflows that are still running will be entirely separate processes.


How to easily move all notes to another folder?

There is an app named Note2Txt which will convert all your notes to a text file. One file for each note. it runs very fast and you can store the text files wherever you like.  It works fine normally but i had a problem with it on Catalina.
There is also an app named Exporter which will convert all your notes to Markup files. Again you can put the output to any folder you like and have write permissions.
Both of these apps will convert all your notes to files. You can use the Notes app to convert a single note to a PDF but that doesn't run in batch mode.


Ethernet via Thunderbolt display with MacBook Pro 2017 (A1707)?

It looks like this other post provided the hint that I needed to get this working! MacBook Sierra display ethernet needs constant re-starting

Unplugging the display and then plugging it back in fixed the problem! What a pain!


My iMac boots but the screen doesn't work

I'd first try increasing the brightness. F2 or fn + F2 (depending on user preference settings for the function keys)is the hot key for brightness on the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard.

If that doesn't work, a trip to the genius bar or a repair center would be my next step.


How do I access my apache web-server (running locally) from Windows 7 running on Parallels?

First ensure you have set the type of your VM network as "Shared Network" (in Parallels open the VM Configure window > Hardware > Network). Don't know if it works with another network type.

From Parallels: browser test your OS X localhost:

  Parallels creates a little DHCP network for your virtual machines, and the OS X machine itself is at the gateway IP.   Go into Parallels > Preferences > Advanced > Network and the gateway is most likely the Start Address with a 0, 1 or 2 in front of it.  For example, my Start Address is 10.211.55.1 and in Internet Explorer I type http://10.211.55.2 to hit the webserver I have running on OS X at http://localhost:80.

So, go to your guest OS (Windows) and edit the hosts file (on Windows it's located at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) to enter this Parallels gateway IP (in my case 10.211.55.2) and name of the VirtualHost you've configured in Apache:

10.211.55.2 myvirtualhostname.localhost
10.211.55.2 myvirtualhostname2.localhost

This does the trick as that IP address is going to be maintained by Parallels and will not change as you change your location.

Now you can access to myvirtualhostname.localhost (or whatever your VirtualHost is named on Apache) from guest's browser.


Boot Camp only detects two out of three monitors

From http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204154

How many Apple Thunderbolt Displays can I use with a Mac in Windows 7 or 8 with Boot Camp?
Most Mac computers can support one Thunderbolt display using Windows. The iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) and Mac mini (Late 2014) can support two, and the Mac Pro (Late 2013) can support up to six.


My MacBook Pro won't exit out of iPhotos

There are two ways to exit an application that is stuck:

Hold alt+cmd+esc and then Force quit the application that is not responding.

If that did not work force shutdown the computer by holding the power button for 5 seconds or longer.

In both case you will lose all unsaved information.


Is Java UDP communication broken on macOS?

No - UDP isn't fundamentally broken on macOS (or any of the other AppleOS)

The definition of UDP is unicast data packets and due to the send and forget nature of the casting, delivery of these is sometimes jokingly called unreliable data packets.

As a troubleshooting step, my first triage step would be to establish that the switch and router are actually delivering the packets to the macOS interface. Wireshark or a management tool on your network would be excellent tools to record these packets to see if they are being delivered.

I wouldn't worry about people saying TCP is more or less reliable than UDP since UDP has many technical advantages for streaming performance and you are on the correct path focusing on a specific java application that consumes data on a specific Mac in your network. Lots of your details are good, but it's kind of like detailing the pressure in the tires and the color of the paint when you actually need to know if the driver took a right down your street.

Are you able to run Wireshark and verify the packets or get access to the network logs to verify the sender and also you might need to do a little research on UDP and ask a follow on question if this actually is more about networking.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5970383/difference-between-tcp-and-udp


Here's one USB option. Haven't tested it personally, though, but seems better than some of the alternatives involving plastic shells and such.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5L013-Laptop-Security-Alarm/dp/B000RPVHDC


Replacing all white spaces with commas in a 46MB text file

TextMate can sometimes be very slow with big files like this.

I recommend using a command line utility like sed.

sed 's/ /,/g' orig.txt > modified.txt

will do what you need extremely quickly.  Obviously replace the filenames with your actual filenames.


Yes. http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

  Video mirroring and video out
  support: Up to 1080p with Apple
  Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA
  Adapter (cables sold separately)
  Video out support at 576p and 480p
  with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i
  and 480i with Apple Composite AV
  Cable


Do not disturb is a feature that isn't supported in iOS 5.


Preview App bug - "Highlight" shortcut not working normally

Try clicking the highlight button (while not having any text highlighted) and select the highlight colour. It'll show a check mark beside the one you choose. Then unclick it and try the highlight shortcut again and it should make the default that colour highlight.


What is the Documents & Data item used for in the iCloud preference pane on my Mac?

Well, at the moment, there isn't much to see with that option.  However, enabling Documents and Data sync allows applications on your Mac to sync their data with iCloud, just like iWork on iOS does.  But, most Mac applications have not been updated to support this feature yet (even Apple's iWork suite doesn't support this yet).  However, this does allow applications to sync with any other Macs and iOS devices that you own, so I recommend leaving it on so you are prepared for app updates that support iCloud.  iA Writer is an example of an application that already uses iCloud to sync between both Macs and iOS devices.


What privacy setting must be enabled to use Night Shift's Sunset to Sunrise option?

Update: Rebooting isn't required! See response below. The rest of this answer is correct.

Rebooting didn't help and I couldn't get Apple's official instructions (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH26239?locale=en_US) to work, either.

I ended up unchecking "Setting Time Zone", rebooting, and then rechecking "Setting Time Zone" after the reboot. Selecting Sunrise to Sunset was then accepted without complaint.

Here are the complete instructions, using variations on Apple's official instructions:

Uncheck the Setting Time Zone option: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Privacy. Select Enable Location Services, scroll down to System Services, click Details, deselect Setting Time Zone, then click Done.

Optionally, reboot (Although I'm not sure this step is necessary, it's what I did. [Users have reported this is not required])

Check the Setting Time Zone option: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Privacy. Select Enable Location Services, scroll down to System Services, click Details, select Setting Time Zone, then click Done.


There was a firmware update for the MBP that addressed unexpected shutdowns...might try that and see if it solve the problem. Look here


How to investigate fragmentation of one file?

HFSDebug was a decent tool on older version of OSX, however I do not beleive it is Lion compliant.

http://www.osxbook.com/software/hfsdebug/

The original maker of HFSDebug recommends File Xray, a commercial program to do the same tasks and more - check it out here

http://filexray.com/


Well, as long as your iDevice is not jailbroken, sadly there is no way to fully do that, but you can disable some of them here:

Settings > Privacy > Location Services > scroll all the way down to the bottom > System Services

(At least with the iOS versions up to 7)


Set the Working Folder of `.app` Created by Apple Script

One way to handle this is to set a variable, e.g. myPath, and build out from there.

set myPath to POSIX path of (path to me as text)

The myPath variable will be returned in the form of:

/path/to/AppName.app/

You can then concatenate  myPath and addition path segments and filename as needed.

Note that when using this in a do shell script command, use quoted form of to allow for spaces in the path filename.

Have a look at the AppleScript Language Guide and more specifically: path to (application)

  path to (application)

  Returns the location of the specified application.

  ...

    me

      The script itself. For script
  applications, this is the same as current application, but for script
  documents, it is the location of the document.


How to send encrypted email using Mail app?

This is how it works here, with the help of a self-signed root certificate:

Step 1: Alice creates a self-signed root certificate

In the Keychain app, select Keychain Access > Certificate Assistent > Create a Certificate Authority
Select

Identity Type: Self Signed Root CA
User Certificate: S/MIME (Email)
Let me override defaults: yes
Email from: Enter an email address for the root CA (could be Alice's)
On the next dialog, select Sign your invitation: no - optionally create a CA web site
On the next dialog, enter whatever CA data you want
On the next two dialogs, leave Key Pair Information as is
On the next dialog Key Usage Extension

Include Key Usage Extension: yes
This extension is critical: no
Select: Signature, Certificate Signing (optionally more, but not required for a root certificate)
On the next dialog, leave Key Usage Extension for the user's certificate as is
On the next dialog, optionally set Include Extended Key Usage Extension = yes, if you want to use the root CA for more than just email certificates - but always leave This extension is critical = no
On the next dialog, leave Use Basic Constraints Extension = Use this certificate as a certificate authority
On the remaining dialogs, leave selections as they are
On the last dialog Specify a Location For The Certificate, you can select System, and also select On this machine, trust certificates signed by this CA = yes

Step 2: Alice and Bob trust the the root CA

If Alice hasn't already trusted the CA certificate during the previous step, she now selects the new root CA certificate in her Keychain app and explicitly trusts the CA certificate
Alice exports the public CA certificate in .cer format and publishes it to Bob
Bob imports the public certificate and explicitly trusts this CA

Since Alice and Bob have explicitly trusted the CA, all certificates signed by this CA will be automatically trusted on their computers.

Step 3: Alice creates an email certificate for herself.

In the Keychain app, select Keychain Access > Certificate Assistent > Create a Certificate
Enter Alice's name, then select

Identity Type: Leaf
User Certificate: S/MIME (Email)
Let me override defaults: yes

Leave next dialog (serial no. etc.) as is
On the next dialog, for Email Address, enter Alice's email address this certificate is intended for, optionally fill out remaining fields as desired
On the next dialog Choose An Issuer, select the CA created in step 1
On the next dialog, keep Key Pair Information as is
On the next dialog Key Usage Extension
Include Key Usage Extension: yes
This extension is critical: yes
Select: Signature, Key Encipherment (optionally, adding Data Encipherment seems to be possible, but do not add more!)

On the next dialog, leave Key Usage Extension for the user's certificate as is

On the next dialog, optionally set Include Extended Key Usage Extension = yes, but set This extension is critical = no

Select "Email Protection*, add more if you want to use the same certificate for other purposes

On the next dialog, leave Include Basic Constraints Extension = no
On the next dialog, select Include Subject Alternate Name Extension = yes

Leave This extension is critical = no
Enter the email address (again) in the rfc822Name field. Optionally add more email addresses, separated by space, which you may want to use the certificate for

On the last dialog Specify a Location For The Certificate, you can select Login

Step 4: Alice creates a certificate for Bob

Now Alice repeats step 3 to create a certificate for Bob, then exports his certificate in .p12 format, gives it to him, and Bob imports it into his keychain.

Note: This is the easiest way to create Bob's certificate, yet not the recommended way. This is because Alice creates Bob's private key, so Bob has to trust Alice. Actually Bob would use the Certificate Assistent on his computer to Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority.

Step 5: Alice and Bob send each other signed messages

Alice sends a signed email message to Bob, and Bob sends a signed email message to Alice. If all went well, the signatures will display as trusted because both trust the CA certificate.

Step 6: Alice and Bob can exchange encrypted email messages

Both can reply to the signed message using encryption with the reply message.


How can I clean left-over files from upgrades from Tiger to Lion?

Unlike Windows, the system files for OS X are quite efficient in size and stable in structure, so I don't think you will find much opportunity there to free up disk space.  Preference files are relatively tiny and any system-level bundles were very likely deleted along with the entire folder.

Where you will probably find the most "junk" is various caches and junk files left over from old applications.  Look in your ~/Library and ~/Library/Preferences folder and remove folders belonging to removed applications.

There is much more you can do, but rather than possibly screwing up your system, I suggest using utility software such as CleanMyMac.  I have freed up 44 GB according to that app.

Before you do anything else, get GrandPerspective, so you can see what is actually using up space.


Can I plug my Iomega hard drive into my new BT Home Hub and access the tunes stored in it from my MacBook Pro wirelessly?

You can connect a USB hard disk to the home hub, and access it as an SMB network drive. There are instructions on the BT website.

You would be able to open your iTunes library from the network drive, but the home hub doesn't have an iTunes server built in (or at least the v2 I have doesn't, and I can't see any mention of it in the v3 features) so it won't appear as a shared library in iTunes.

Make sure the drive is formatted to Fat32 and it's basically plug and play.


How delete an application that is bundled with macOS?

Apple's apps in /Applications and /Applications/Utilities as well as some other usually invisible system files and folders are protected by System Integrity Protection in El Capitan and later. You have to disable SIP temporarily to remove apps fallen into disgrace.

How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA “rootless” on OS X 10.11, El Capitan?
Reboot to your main system and remove the app with sudo rm -rf /Applications/TextEdit.app.
Enable SIP again by booting to Recovery Mode gain but entering csrutil enable in Terminal.app.

After a system update or upgrade TextEdit may reappear because it was updated.


Exclude files from "central metadata store"

The command mdfind uses the Spotlight backing store.   If you go to the Spotlight pane of System Preferences and select the Privacy tab you can exclude files or folders from being indexed.

It is also possible to modify the exclusions list at the Exclusions array of /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist but this does not appear to be officially supported.   Current exclusions can be read using the command:

sudo defaults read /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist Exclusions

New entries to the Exclusions array can be added using the command:

sudo defaults write /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist Exclusions -array-add 'path/to/exclude'

where /path/to/exclude is a path relative to filesystem root.

These entries appear in the System Preferences privacy list but do not appear to actually affect the search results even after running sudo launchctl stop com.apple.metadata.mds && sudo launchctl start com.apple.metadata.mds:


Why has the basic search function on external drives stopped working for one particular drive?

OK this is really weird, but it turns out that the cause was the one-character name of the disk...
It was named "Q", but when i renamed it to "Q backup" it was suddenly searchable again.
Does not matter wich letter, or even a digit, as soon as I only use one character the disk becomes no longer searchable.
When I give its name 2 or more characters - voilà, searchable again.


How to define an array with a single `defaults` command?

-array takes individual array elements as individual arguments.

defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array \
  '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; }' \
  '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; }' \
  '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; }'

The ‘\’ are used to keep the shell waiting for the next line, so they can be omitted if written on one line. You don't need to use delete first: unlike -array-add, -array replaces the entire array with the new contents.

If you don't want to do it this way, here's an alternative: you can pass the data structure as a string. This is closer to the examples in your question and works the same.

defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 '(
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; } )'


Listening to music with MacBooks lid closed

Your MacBook will normally always go to sleep when you close the lid, and that unfortunately will stop the music playing.

But there is a way to stop your Mac from going to sleep when you close the lid with a simple shell command.

Disable sleeping when lid is closed:

sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1

Re-enable sleeping when lid is closed:

sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0


Try using Mac OS X Server installed on the Mac Mini. Technically you should be able to install configure and mange users, applications etc all on the Mac Mini. Then you should be able to login via the MacBook Pro as a user on the server and pull down a configuration of Apps etc that you set up on server for your user accounts. See Considering OS X Server for home users.

This is just one example and it may be irrelevant to some people, so to understand the scope of what OS X Server has to offer it is best to look at all of its services lumped into four general categories: Account Management, File Sharing, Network Administration, and Web Services.
User account management
...
Beyond the directory itself are the domain management features of OS X, with which you can bind client Mac computers (such as your desktop iMac) to the server so the usernames and passwords in the server can be used to log in to the client Mac system. With this setup, you do not need to make new accounts on a system every time you want to allow someone to use a computer. Instead, you can go to the server and enable an account for a workstation, and that user can go log in to that system and use it. Additionally, if you purchase new systems all you need to do is bind them to the server and users can then log in to them with the same restrictions that they have on your other Macs (such as access only to certain applications, and only specific settings being available to them).

Also check out On Mobile Accounts and Syncing  where there is more research to be done at on how well OS X server does mobile accounts. It looks like Apples Offial name is Portable Home Directories as referenced from OS X Lion server spec under Client Management, this should allowing syncing to occur for your files in your home directory.


cannot access files in trash previously on external harddrive

The drive-wide Trash contains the deleted files of all users, with one directory per numerical User ID. Run
ls -l /Volumes/edrive/.Trashes

to see that 503 is a directory, and
ls -l /Volumes/edrive/.Trashes/503

to see its content.
PS: You can see your own user id by running id -u . If it is not 503 you'll need to run sudo ls -l /Volumes/edrive/.Trashes/503 instead.


How can I tell if I have the 64-bit version of iTunes installed?

On OS X, you can open iTunes and go to iTunes -> About iTunes and it will tell you. On Windows, you can get to the same dialogue by going to ? -> Info, it won't tell you though. You can open the task manager and if there is a *32 behind the process name, it is 32 bit.

It looks like the Installer is 64 bit but the application remains 32 bit on Windows.


You could try the Mimi Music app, which has that feature. The App Store page lists iOS 9 as the minimum requirement, so there's a good chance it will run.


Why is a secure erase 'not necessary' for SSD's?

Not so much that it's not necessary...
I'm a couple years late to the party, but it might be worth pointing out that Apple (who has now entirely remove "Secure Erase" options from the Disk Utility app) hasn't really removed the option because it "isn't necessary" — according to its El Capitan security release notes, they did it because they can't guarantee a secure erase:

Description: An issue existed in guaranteeing secure deletion of Trash files on some systems, such as those with flash storage. This issue was addressed by removing the “Secure Empty Trash” option.

Glenn Fleishman, gives a good overview of this in "How to replace El Capitan's missing Secure Empty Trash." The fact that, currently, the only DoD/NSA approved SSD sanitation procedure is smelting or shredding the drive into a fine powder somewhat echoes the challenge in being able to wipe a drive, for sure.
It is pretty difficult to recover data from an SSD...
As Trane Francks explained, recovering data from an SSD is, by default, pretty difficult. The data isn't necessarily encrypted, but it is distributed data over many locations in order to perform as few writes as possible to a single location (both for performance and for drive longevity). So once data is deleted, find the place a file used to reside in is like putting together a multi-million piece jigsaw puzzle (all before any garbage collecting the drive may decide to do). It is possible to recover files from an SSD, but this usually requires a lot of extra effort.
To make it hard for recovery tools...
Encrypting a SSD with any kind of suitably secure key, and then erasing that key, makes it virtually impossible to recover any data. This can be done, on a Mac, by enabling FileVault, booting into recovery mode, unlocking and then deleting the drive with Disk Utility.
If you're just looking to make sure stuff is securely erased without nuking existing data, you could try using the diskutil terminal command — the command line version of DiskUtility, wherein secure erase options have not been removed:
sudo diskutil secureErase freespace 0 "/Volumes/[Disk Name]"

This should attempt to write and delete a couple tempfiles which will fill up the entire hard drive. In doing so, every available space should be filled and then cleared.
Good information on all these options can be found in "How to Securely Erase a Mac SSD".
Also, you can always try to run some data recovery tools to see if there is data that is still immediately available.


I need to extend the range of an Airport Extreme?

You can use your extreme to extend your TC.  See the Apple doc here. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4259


Mac OS X Mavericks Changes Default Font of Online Math Expressions Generated by MathJax

I believe you need to install the STIX fonts mentioned on this page.

  In Mac OS, open the Font Book application (it is in the Applications
  folder). Drag the fonts from their archive folder onto the “All Fonts”
  collection at the top left of the Font Book window. If you want to
  install them for everyone on your computer, drag them to the
  “Computer” collection instead. Alternatively, you can double-click on
  each font and select the “Install Font” button in the font window that
  appears.

*If that happens to be the ugly font you're referring to, then I would presume you could uninstall it, or disable it, and MathJax will use another (default) OS X font in place of it.

  See this question/answer for details.

There is also a fix listed here that will allow MathJax to use TeX fonts instead of STIX.


iTunes and iPod Touch "Payment was declined"

It turned out that my bank was declining the purchases. Problem solved.


Updated to iMovie 10.1.6: Movies and projects missing

OK, it works properly after I uninstalled iMovie entirely and ran an 'app cleaner' to be sure and reinstalled. iMovie proceeded to properly recognize and import previous iMovie 10 and 9 versions.


Firefox Developer Edition [and others] not opening in macOS Catalina

Ok... I figured it out.

Disable the block

sudo spctl --master-disable

Launch Firefox and allow the update to complete then re-enable the block.  I bet this will also resolve other software not opening as well.

sudo spctl --master-enable

Thanks to @Mark for the reminder about the Beta forums.


How to turn off animation while navigating browser's history

You could simply disable scroll-to-navigate in the mouse/trackpad preferences, and instead use the two-finger swipe (or three, on a trackpad).


Mac use Cmd-Opt-Control-Shift-, (comma) as a hotkey

Command-Option-Shift-Control-, starts a system diagnose process. I'm not really sure about the specifics, but try it and you'll get a zip archive with some information in it.


How to modify Hardware UUID of a macOS Sierra Virtual machine in VMware fusion/parallel desktop

The text file that Fusion uses to assign this is editable when the VM is powered off (don't suspend, shut down the OS):

Turn off VM
In machine folder, change uuid.bios section in <>.vmx file (f e.g. uuid.bios = "aa aa ...").
In machine folder delete .nvram file
Boot VM

In "About this MAC" you must see


How to contact directly Apple about Scams in iPad Apple Store?

An iPhone/iPad/etc. comes with 90 days telephone technical support.  The number you should use should be on the Applecare document for that device, I guess?


Is there a keyboard shortcut to move a window from one monitor to another?

UPDATE: Spectacle is no longer maintaned.  The website forwards users to Rectangle, see Jack's answer or https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle/releases.

I just tried Spectacle, great app and it's free.
This is what it can do with the selected group of windows.

You need to activate accessibility support.
System Preferences > Accessibility > Enable access for assisted devices
As per comments: The accessibility option in Mavericks is now in
System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility


Safari crash and refusal/failure to reload

1st thing to try is go to ~/Library/Safari/ & move the contents of the Extensions folder somewhere else.
Try again.
If successful, quit, add back one at a time, restarting Safari between each to eliminate which one was responsible.

Alternatively, go to ~/Library/Saved Application State/ & delete the entire folder called com.apple.Safari.savedState


Difference between filename and . filename in macOS terminal

. /path/setsas.sh loads the variables and functions from the script into your current shell session.  It's the same as running source /path/setsas.sh.  Running path/setsas.sh on the other hand spawns a new process.  The variables and functions will not be accessible from your current shell.  That's why the commands weren't working for you.


Does macOS Sierra support Server Side Copy via SMB and/or AFP?

Unfortunately, the source code of the AFP driver is not free software, so it's difficult to give a definitive answer on that. However, it appears that Netatalk supports copyfile, so it's likely that the answer to that question is yes.
If you look at the source code of the latest version of the macOS smbfs driver, you can see that it does implement the copyfile operation (see smbfs_vnop_copyfile)

According to the release notes, OS X did that since ca. 2013:

  8) Added Server Side Copies (OS X SMB Client <-> OS X/Windows SMB File
  Server)

Whether that actually gets used with FreeNAS, I cannot tell - I have no access to a FreeNAS system.


Weird sound when doing something forbidden

You can customize this sound in your System Preferences Sound settings


iPhone: Disable syncing for mail account, but keep existing e-mails

MS Exchange is a system not too different from the way IMAP works: most of the mail is kept on the server and generally only recent mail and/or headers are kept on the local PC.

You can keep your mail but it is a bit of a work-around. Essentially you need to create a bunch of new mailboxes that mirror your folders on your Exchange account. You would go to

Mailbox > New Mailbox... > Location > On my Mac

Give the folder a name and repeat for any other folders you want to save, making sure that when you create the new folder it is "On my Mac"

Once that is done, open the Folders of the Exchange mailboxes one at a time, select all the emails (Command A) and drag them to the correspondingly named folder you just created. repeat for all folders.

Remember that Exchange may not have downloaded the whole email and you may just be dragging the email headers from one mailbox to another. Without a connection to the Exchange server that is the best you can do.

Now you could delete that account without fear of losing your email.

It is possible to get an archive of your email account, assuming the Exchange server admin is willing to or allowed to do so. On an Exchange server you can export a mailbox or whole email account to a PST file. Once you have the PST file you can use Outlook for the Mac (or a free conversion utility) to open the PST file and view your old emails.


Does installing iOS 7 disable Find My iPhone?

No, Find My iPhone will remain activated. Using Update to update the device will keep your settings, including the device's Find my iPhone status.

If you put your device in recovery mode or DFU mode then once the restore has taken place the activation lock will be enabled and you will be prompted to bypass the Find My iPhone with your Apple ID.

However, if you attempt to restore the device in iTunes, you will be prompted to deactivate Find My iPhone before the restore can take place.


How can I hide the onscreen keyboard in the iOS messaging app?

This is not possible at all right now.
Like you said, you can back out and go in again to dismiss keyboard.
Other option is to tap the 'edit' button on top right. That will dismiss keyboard but it will go in edit mode. When you cancel out of edit mode keyboard will come back.

Apple should do something to easily bring up and dismiss keyboard...

Update: With iOS 5, you can swipe messages down all the way pushing the keyboard downwards. Initially I thought, "why not just swipe down the keyboard itself to dismiss?" But now it makes sense because you start scrolling down to see previous messages and keyboard naturally goes away when you do that.


Difference between Apple's Thunderbolt ethernet adapters?

I think there are no differences in the hardware, just the regional identifier for the product. There might be differences in the packaging however. Here in Eastern Europe the ZM model is being sold.

Here is an incomplete list of country codes (unconfirmed, source):

AB - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
B - Ireland, UK, also used for some replacement phones
C - Canada
CZ - Czech Republic
DN - Austria, Germany, Netherlands
E - Mexico
EE - Estonia
ER - Ireland
FB - France, Luxembourg
FD - Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland
GR - Greece
HN - India
IP - Italy
J - Japan
KH - Korea
KN - Norway
KS - Finland, Sweden
LA - Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru
LE - Argentina
LL - USA
LZ - Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
MG - Hungary
MY - Malaysia
NF - Belgium, France, Luxembourg
PL - Poland
PO - Portugal
PP - Philippines
RO - Romania
RS - Russia
SL - Slovakia
SO - South Africa
T - Italy
TA - Taiwan
TU - Turkey
X - Australia, New Zealand
Y - Spain
ZA - Singapore
ZP - Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia

Here is another article showing explaining Apple product codes.


Can Mail.app be configured to insert a blank line before the text of the previous message in a reply?

Not ideal but:

Go into Preferences: Signatures, create a new Signature, erase the name and e-mail address, and hit Enter once to create a blank line. Then check the "Place signature above quoted text" box.

Note: once a signature has been saved with actual text, Mail won't let you blank it out, so make sure you do this with a new sig, rather than editing an old one.


Which Apple Developer program Should I enroll to create Passbook passes

You need to enroll in the iOS developer program since Pass Type Identifiers are not available to Mac developers and no identifiers are available to Safari developers.


Problem with libxml2-2.8.0 version on OS X Lion

You can do either of

remove /usr/local/lib/libxml2.2.dylib, copy a working libxml2.2.dylib from another Mac with the same OS X version and recreate the symlinks to look like the directory listing below
reinstall OS X Lion on top of the existing installation and reapplying all the system updates.
get libxml2.2.dylib from your backup and apply option 1

PS: I managed to do the same thing with one of the more essential libraries a few months ago, leaving only option 2 (because nothing useful worked anymore). With hindsight I probably could have booted from DVD to apply option 1, but I would still have needed a trusted source for the library because the DVD was for 10.7.0.

pse@Fourecks:~$ ll /usr/lib/libxml2.*
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel       15 Feb 12 11:51 /usr/lib/libxml2.2.7.3.dylib@ -> libxml2.2.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  2321840 May 10 20:34 /usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib*
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel       15 Feb 12 11:51 /usr/lib/libxml2.dylib@ -> libxml2.2.dylib


How can I identify the macOS version from the command line?

I don't know if all of this is imposed by Darwin, the manual page seems like it maybe is a Mac OS X (sic in my manual page as of Sep 2019) thing, but there is the awesome sw_vers:

$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.14.6
BuildVersion:   yadda yadda yadda
$ _


Xcode: How to determine which DeviceSupport is useful?

Yes, Xcode keeps device support files for old devices and it's safe to delete them.
If you want to know which ones are still in regular use, you can check the 'Date Modified' attribute:

or you can connect your devices to your Mac and check the OS version / build number in the Devices window of Xcode:

The arm64e version is for iOS devices with the A12 chipset or above: see the Stack Overflow question Xcode arm64 Vs arm64e and the list of devices with those chipsets on Wikipedia:

Apple A12
Apple A13


How can I take a larger screenshot on my iPhone?

Natively available in iOS 13 and later
This functionality is now built into iOS 13 by Apple. Safari running in iOS 13 lets you screenshot the entire webpage as a single continuous image.
To do that, open the desired webpage in Safari, and simply take a screenshot as you would normally do on your device, and tap on the thumbnail shown immediately shown towards the bottom left.
You'll be presented with two options at the top in a segmented control:

Screen
and

Full Page

With the Full Page item selected, tap on the Share icon in the top right to share the capture via desired medium. AirDropping it for instance, exports a single PDF file, which can be easily exported into a desired image format.


How to download a binary from brew without installing brew?

Go to https://brew.sh  or https://formulae.brew.sh and search the tool of interest.
On the formula page, like Qt5 https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qt#default, click the JSON file link: https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/qt.json
Find the link to the binary which is hosted at https://bintray.com as of now in the field named "url". Download the binary for your macOS version which can be found in the url itself.


How to create keyboard shortcut for WiFi toggle?

Step 1: Find out device ID of Wi-Fi

$networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder | grep Wi-Fi
(2) Wi-Fi
(Hardware Port: Wi-Fi, Device: en0)

In this case it is en0

Step 2: Create a "Quick Action" using Automator.app. Set "no input" in "workflow receives" in "any application". Drag and drop "Run Shell Script" and add the following shell script to the text field.

if ( networksetup -getairportpower en0 | grep -q Off ); then
 echo "network is off. turning ON";
 networksetup -setairportpower en0 on
else echo "network is ON. turning OFF";
 networksetup -setairportpower en0 off
fi

Save the file in automator as, say, wifi-toggle

Step 3: Set keyboard shortcut by going to Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Services

Scroll down. Look under "General". You should see an entry for "wifi-toggle"


Accepted answer didn't work for me but the following free command-line tool did;

https://github.com/CdLbB/fb-rotate

Once compiled (see readme) just ./fb-rotate -d 0 -r 0


You can run a semi-autonomous second instance by downloading and installing the webkit nightly build. You could run an older build if you're not keen to experience the bleeding edge bugs that sometimes creep into the builds.

http://nightly.webkit.org

It's not truly a second safari, but you don't get your hands dirty worrying about two instances of the app trying to read / write to the same files for history, bookmarks, etc...


Can I limit the notification noise to one device when I get a message?

Pick it up on one, the others go silent.

Just checking the lock screen on an iDevice is not sufficient, you need to swipe & open.
On a Mac, bringing Messages to the front will do it.


How to view my posts and responses on official Apple Support Community website?

After you sign in, the main Welcome screen displays. Here's a screenshot of the top right portion of that sreen:

At the top right, select "My subscriptions." That should return a list of the threads to which you're subscribed, and I think one is automatically subscribed to threads one starts.

I don't know if subscriptions (or their listings) are automatically cancelled after a period of time.


Most third party calendar tools on iOS offer this. I can really recommend fantastical, which offers the option you're looking for. See this site.

  Time Zone Override: When enabled, Fantastical will always show dates and times in the selected time zone. When disabled, Fantastical 2 will use the time zone configured in iOS's Settings app. This option is useful if you are traveling but still want to see your schedule in your home time zone.


Is any protection for display needed against scratches from keyboard?

On old Powerbooks (the G4 specifically) the keyboard would sometimes leave an annoying permanent imprint on the screen. However, with any new Macbook, this is not an issue: the keys are now softer and further away from the screen, so they should never touch.

In my experience, trekking around with my rMBP, no protection is needed: I've traveled pretty roughly with the computer with no protection on and the screen is in perfect condition (even if I look closely). Just make sure no dust or other particles are on top of your keys because the added height may cause it to touch the screen.

As far as why Apple ships MBs with foam screen protectors, it is apparently to protect they screen during the roughness of shipping (where there is significantly more bounce for the keyboard and screen to deal with than you'll subject it to in your use of it); I think any damage is rare enough that you don't need to protect the screen, though Apple does want to ensure that every MB is opened upon delivery in perfect condition (thus the foam insert).

tl:dr: Don't worry about it! You're much more likely to damage it by spilling liquid onto it, dropping it, or leaving it around pets.

For more, here's a forum discussion about your question.


How can I disable the firewall on OS X after forgetting how I set it?

As the dialog explains, you can turn off the firewall in the Security preferences pane (or Security & Privacy, on newer versions of OS X).


Macbook Pro macOS upgrade without losing applications (not owned under my Apple ID)

The update process deletes no application, so the update doesn’t make you lose anything. Upgrade processes can migrate known broken software to a new location, but there’s almost always a log file explaining what and why that happened.

However, you can’t roll back an update if an application breaks, so you might lose the ability of the program to use a license key, be supported, or even launch/run when your system changes.

Get a good Time Machine backup or other clone / backup so if your system breaks (whether you break it unintentionally with an update you apply, whether it breaks due to an update that self-applies or whether it breaks due to breakage, eventually all programs will stop running).
Think if you can reinstall the app if you erase your Mac, reinstall the older version / unpatched version in terms of time and hassle and knowledge.
Check with the vendor so you know your support options, both DIY / Free / Paid - this is key since the vendor can even kill your apps without an upgrade. In fact, Adobe just did this:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/05/13/adobe-warning-of-legal-problems-if-users-keep-using-old-versions-of-creative-cloud-apps

In general, it’s safe to upgrade since Apple designs the system to not touch apps and settings, but even with that design, sometimes a bug ships and you get breakage for something that should have been easy and non-intrusive.


The iOS will hyperlink things such as addresses, and phone numbers, in things such as emails. If it doesn't do that, it is simple to tap and hold the address, copy it, and paste it into maps.


macOS Disable mouse acceleration in certain apps

You can globally use the following command in Terminal (you must log out to take effect):

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

To know what the current acceleration is, use this command:

defaults read .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling

For most mice in macOS, the default is set to 3 or 2 but some users may find values as low as 0.25 or 0.12, it generally depends on what type of mouse you are having and the current version of macOS. The moderate value is 0 to 3.

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling 0

Look at this useful AD post: How to disable mouse acceleration in Yosemite?

Also, for TF2 game you can definitely use Apple Automator: How to Use Automator in macOS

  ¡Hope this helps!


How do I programatically kill the CCLibrary process by PID?

Rather than continuously killing the processes, there's a way to uninstall Adobe's Creative Cloud application manager, mentioned in this thread.

Download Adobe's Creative Cloud Cleaner from this link:
http://download.macromedia.com/SupportTools/Cleaner/mac/AdobeCreativeCloudCleanerTool.dmg
Then select ONLY Creative Cloud
Then "uninstall selected" and reboot

And your fans will finally fall silent.  The other apps still work.


Unable to transfer files from external hard drive

Even reading with NTFS can be an issue with the OS X system. Assuming you don't have any individual files that are greater than or equal to 4GB, I would switch to a more OS X - compatible format like FAT32. This is both readable and writeable to/from OS X and Windows systems. I would reformat the drive to be FAT32, retransfer your data, and then try the transfer onto the OS X system.


iCloud Drive or music creation (or both?)

If you go to Sytem Preferences/iCloud you'll see an option button as shown below.

Click on the options button and you'll get a new pane. At the bottom of this pane is a checkbox to optimize Mac storage. See the figure below.

This option can effect the free space on your hard drive. read the description next to the checkbox to determine which setting you want.


How to configure default phone call app on Mac

Open FaceTime on your Mac, select FaceTime > Preferences, select Settings, then change Default for calls to FaceTime.

via https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7715107


Terminal command to kick selected users off my network

Unless your desktop is the central proxy server you will have to go through the router. Just because you can see other machines with arp doesn't mean you can do anything with them.

Kicking them off the network via the router will usually be total - does the office staff depend on the network do do their jobs?

A better way is running your own DNS server. You can then simply redirect any time-sucking service somewhere else in a manner that makes it look like the site is temporarily down, like this:

*.facebook.com IN A 192.168.1.252

192.168.1.252 runs an Apache vhost site named facebook.com, it serves up a clone of the FB maintenance page for any URL.

It will take a very network-savvy user to figure it out, and you won't be the demon boss (at least not right away). Turn it on and off regularly to maintain the illusion that it's the other service.

Or for more fun: Upside-Down-Ternet.


I was able to get these files from time machine by accessing the time machine from the terminal. I used the following commands

sudo tmutil listbackup

this listed all the backup directories, their names contain the date of the backup.
then

cd <to the backup I wanted>

then

cp -R <iPhotos backup folder> <Pictures folder>

during this command, I did get a warning for one of the image files. My guess is that Finder cannot handle this situation.


Why have an email address associated with iMessage?

In the past, the main reason to iMessage to emails, was so that users could receive them on their Mac, iPad, or iPod Touch. However, iOS 6 and Mountain Lion allow the user to sync Messages across all their devices. This works great as long as the recipient has a iPhone, and have updated their software to the latest version. If they just have an iPad, for example, you would want to text their email address, as they wouldn't have a phone number to associate with. Also, some people don't update their devices as soon as one comes available, and as a result, some may still be using iOS 5 which wouldn't support that functionality.

Beyond those reasons, there should be no reason, why not to text someone's phone number. In fact, that is basically all I do.


How do I delete route to "link#8" gateway on OS X?

This worked:

sudo route -n delete default -link 8


You can also use gpgtools (https://gpgtools.org) it is got all the possible GPG tools you are probably going to need (they also have a gpg plugin for Apple Mail) and adds  Services for signing/encrypting/decrypting/etc. to the contextual menu (right-click->Services).


How can I properly remove Linux and resize the partition if it's showing FFFFFFFFFFFF-FFFFF-FFFFF without turning off my Macbook?

Download and install gdisk.

After downloading, you can remove the quarantine by entering the following command.

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/gdisk-1.0.4.pkg

Enter the commands given below.

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
t
2
af0a
w
y

You can also use the gpt command, but gdisk has the advantage of being atomic. In other words, no changes are made to the GPT until you enter the y command.

If you want to try using the gpt command without first booting to macOS Recovery, then here are the commands. I warn you this might cause the computer to hang.

sudo -f gpt remove -i 2 disk0
sudo -f gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 1796865488 -t apfs disk0


iPhone contacts aren't syncing to iCloud

This is what worked for me after speaking with a very helpful Apple senior tech agent:

Open Settings> Mail, Contacts, Calendars> Contacts – Default Account = must contain a check next to iCloud.That’s it! Now all future contacts created on your iPhone (on your iPad, do the same as above), will also appear in iCloud and Outlook (if you’ve also set up Outlook).

If you have contacts that are already only on your iPhone/iPad then you’ll want to: Open Phone> Contacts> Groups (top left corner)> Hide All Contacts (top left corner). Then select/Checkmark all email accounts/accounts you see listed and make sure that iCloud it NOT check marked here while you’re fishing for all those rogue contacts. Click done and what will then be displayed, are contacts that you saved somewhere other than iCloud. Then recreate these contacts you see, one by one, by going into iCloud.com, your other iDevice or Outlook on your desktop and create them as new contacts. For best results I recommend that you DO NOT press save for the new contact until you FIRST press delete* on the non-iCloud contact you are about to make a copy of. Of course press delete only after you’ve copied all of the contact data.

To delete a contact on your iPhone/iPad: Contacts> select the contact> tap Edit (top right corner)> Scroll to the bottom and select Delete Contact.


In iOS 9 or newer, you can head into Settings and then Battery on their iPhones for a list of all the apps that are using the students' batteries. Tap anywhere on the list of apps that appears in settings there to reveal exactly how long each app has been open in the last 24 hours or the last 7 days.

No need to install an app, no need to configure anything. Make sure you go into battery settings once on each phone before your trials begin so that it starts recording battery usage data per-app.


OS X Mavericks Screen brightness auto adjusting even when option is disabled

I was just struggling with the same issue—it really annoyed the hell out of me. What helped me was a good ol' SMC reset:

See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 on how to do it.


Is it possible to link Private Keys and Certificates across Keychains?

It is not possible to link private keys and certificates across multiple Keychains. There needs be a third hidden item called an identity that bonds these two items together. The identity, certificate, and private key need to be in the same Keychain.

Specify the Keychain

Using Keychain Access, create a separate Keychain with a certificate and private key in each. In your situation this will mean creating two separate keychains.

Tell codesign to look for your specific Keychain using the command line option --keychain; the path provided to the Keychain must be absolute.

You can provide this option and path to codesign within Xcode through the build settings user interface.


Mac OS X Lion boots very slowly takes 2 minutes to start

Try a...
PRAM Reset

Shut down the computer.
Press and hold the ⌘+⌥+P+R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Why could this help? ->
Information stored in PRAM includes the startup volume choice.


With "Optimise iPhone Storage" mode, is it possible to tell iPhone to keep some photos/videos always locally available?

When using Optimize Storage, iCloud Photo Library does not have a feature to select photos to permanently store on device. If you’d like to send feedback to Apple, you can use www.apple.com/feedback

Personally, I’ve worked around with this limitation a few times by viewing photos I want ahead of time. Granted this won’t work for all situations. However, it worked for me when I wanted to show my grandmother in law my wedding photos. I know these steps work with up to at least 100 photos.

  Tap the select button in the Photos App.
  Select photos you would like to view offline.
  Tap share and choose an option such as Mail.
  Wait for the “prepare” overlay to complete.
  Cancel the share.

While this works, it’s not a permanent download. If your device begins to run low on space, your selected images may be replaced with small thumbnails.

There maybe other methods to share photos to another app that will permanently store photos on the device. I’ve not looked into this though.


How can I share my Macbook's Network to iPhone, surpassing the 802.1X protection?

Usually on school campus you'll have wifi too, and also 802.1X protection is there for a reason.

The only way to share internet from a 802.1X protected network , I think, is by creating a VPN connection on the mac (this will only work if your school's network allows it which i doubt).

To do this go to your nettwork settings, unlock it (padlock) and click the plus sign to add a VPN connection.

Next you choose VPN connection, in this example i'll be using vpnbook.com/freevpn since it provides a free reliable service. So change the type to PPTP.

Now the interface is created and you need to put the credentials provided in the free PPTP section of vpnbook.com/freevpn (vpn server / login / password)

hit connect and it should work

The last thing now is to share this VPN connection, you need to go back to share settings and choose the interface you just created

I can't post more than two links(images) since this is a new profile, if you need more help comment.


Parallels doesn't recognize Windows 8 Bootcamp

I have searched high and low for this one.. turns out that there is a way to manually configure a VM from your bootcamp partition to appear within Parallels running in OSX even if the option to use an existing windows installation does not get displayed.

Check this out - http://kb.parallels.com/en/112941

Essentially what you're doing is pointing a new parallels VM file to the partition on the HDD/SSD that has the windows boot loader.


Is a rented movie tied to the download PC?

Without using an iPod that supports HD movies then no. You are correct in thinking that it is tied to the device Apple thinks it is on.

Source: See Update at the bottom


False file permission denied error when opening one specific word document on my Mac

The permissions look okay.  Maybe you're not (or are no longer) the owner.  Try opening Terminal.app  Then type: chown USER ~/Desktop/FILE replacing USER with your username, and FILE with the filename plus the extension, assuming it's on your Desktop.  If you've executed the command successfully, it will seem like nothing has happened.  If you fail, it will complain, but you're not going to harm anything.

Then try to open it.

Aside from that, I'd maybe you could have encrypted it by mistake?


Windows compatible USB > LAN adapter compatible?

To answer my own question:
Googling for the model of the device and mac "KY-RD9700 mac" brings up a list of solutions which involve setting csrutil disable in safe mode. So they should work.


From this tutorial on MacWorld, here is a way to show hidden files in the Finder:

Open a terminal, and enter this command at the Bash prompt:

$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Then restart the Finder with the following command (also from terminal):

$ killall Finder

The next time you open a Finder window, your hidden files should be visible.

To echo what Oliver said, you can also use chflags to alter the "hidden" property on a specific file. (chflags man page)

chflags nohidden hiddenfile.ext