Controlling which group new contacts on my iPhone end up in

The iPhone (iOS) allows for very little control over contact groups. There is no way to create a group on iOS but there is a way to create a contact in an existing group. This is done by tapping the "Groups" button in the upper right corner. There will likely be several options here for groups. Tap the one you want to create your contact in, and you should see checkmarks on the other groups turn off. Then tap the "Done" button. You can now tap the "+" button to create a new contact which will be added to the group that you are in.

Note: the following instructions work if you use iCloud for managing your contacts.

To edit groups you must either use iCloud.com, or have a Mac and then use Contacts.app. So, you can accomplish your stated goal by:

Going to iCloud.com, logging in, and selecting "Contacts".
Select the red group icon towards the right of the left page.
Click the "+" button on the bottom right of the left page.
Enter the group name.
This new group should appear on your device.
Tap the "Groups" button in the upper right corner of Contacts.app on your iPhone.
Select the group you just created.
Tap done.
Create your contact.

Someone can then log into iCloud.com and change the group that the contact is associated with.


Alt + left/right on my terminal moves my cursor word by word, however this does not work with backspace. Would there be a way to accomplish this?

In Terminal preferences → Profiles → your profile → Keyboard, map alt-backspace to ctrl-w (\027).


How to show a list of processes that are launched upon a login?

launchd and the Login Items pane of Accounts preferences are the two places that normally start a process when you log in.

If you don't see the item in System Preferences -> Accounts -> specific account ->  Login Items then you will have to look into launchd.

Basically the LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders in ~/Library

Lastly, if they are not there, then it's a system level launchd task that you might want to use launchctl to show or look in /Library instead of the user level library.

Most people just have to manage the preference pane. Here is a snap of mine showing the Activity Monitor selected and ready to be deleted if I press the – button.


It sounds like the home button still works, which is the only button you need to have iTunes recover the iPod for you. Note that recovering the iPod will wipe all of its data completely.

I tried this with an iPhone which I believe was in much worse shape than this and it worked. In my case my phone never got past the Apple logo and would shut down shortly after. Even a hard-drive restoration company wasn't able to access the data, yet the recovery through iTunes did work, so there is hope.

Apple calls this recovery mode.

All you need to do is press and hold the home button on the iPod while connecting it to the PC. iTunes should detect an iPod in recovery mode and allow you to recover the device (again, this wipes out all data completely).


Restarted Mac altogether. Seems to have worked


OS X management profiles / root certificate

MDM (Mobile Device Management) profiles can change many settings within the system. As you suspected, in this case the software update mechanism was redirected to a company server. There were likely other settings as well. If the profile forced all network traffic through a VPN, then the company could view it in transit. You can check by looking in the network preferences for interfaces labeled "VPN" in the interface list.

Since you deleted the profile, you should be ok. Check the network settings, and also look for applications that may have been installed by the profile in /Applications. One other thing to look for, would be CA certificates installed into either the System Roots or the System Keychain. Use Keychain Access and search in the System Roots for anything including the name of the company. Do the same for the System Keychain.


How to stop using Time Capsule as router?

I have a Comcast router XB-6T and it's suppose to be better/faster than using my Time Capsule/802.11ac as a router.

Better/faster is very subjective.  You need to define what "better" and "faster" mean to you.  But for comparison:

Both are 802.11ac devices
Both have Gigabit WAN connection (the XB-6 claims "a maximum" of 1 GB throughput)
Both have Gigabit Ethernet ports.  Apple has 3, Xfinity has 2
Both have dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) radios

So, from a performance perspective, there's really nothing that stands out.

We do have Ethernet cables plugged into the back of the TC that goes to other rooms/devices and one USB on the back of the TC that goes to a printer.

Whether or not you have Ethernet cables plugged into the TC or the XB really doesn't matter.  The TC is plugged into the XB (it must be if you have Internet) then regardless of which device you plug into, they're all Gigabit, so there's no advantage to doing this.  The XB6 doesn't mention USB, so you'll want your TC to act as a print server.

I'd like to know if someone can give me instructions how to no longer use my TC as a router and instead use the Comcast router but also I'd like to keep the same Network Name

In order to configure your Airport Time Capsule, you need the Airport Utility and related documentation:

Airport Utility 6.3.1 for Mac
Airport Utility 5.6.1 for Windows
Airport Utility Users Guide

We don't know and cannot support your Xfiniti device.  If you want to use that device with the same name as your Time Capsule, you'll need to consult their support options.  That said, if you wish to use their WiFi, you have to make sure the WiFi on the TC is either

turned off; or...
set up in "client mode".

There's detailed information on how to do this in this Support Document.  If this is not something you're good with and/or don't know how exactly you want it configured, I highly suggest getting a local tech person to come out and set this up. There's simply too many variables for a succinct answer in this medium.  Additionally, there's no way of knowing how the XB is configured to properly advise you how to configure the TC.
Bottom Line....
If WiFi on your TC is working fine, then there's no reason to change.  In other words, if you're satisfied with the performance, there's no need to do anything.  If you want to maximize the efficiency and coverage of your WiFi, you need to bring in someone familiar with this kind of work.


Where do older versions of apps go when a developer removes them from the App Store

The older versions do not "go" anywhere as such. If you're hoping that there would be some kind of "Apple Archives" web site where Apple offers up downloads of older versions that the developer has requested no longer to be used - then you will be disappointed.
When a developer unticks older versions of an app, what happens is that Apple no longer offers that version for redownload from iTunes in the Cloud (i.e. from App Store on a device, iTunes on a computer, etc).
Note that developer often have good reasons for unticking a version. In the end most developers want as many users as possible using their app. It could be for example that an older version no longers work with newer versions of their server software, or that they found a grave bug.


Is there a way to swipe down instead of up to launch Mission Control?

BetterTouchTool lets you assign arbitrary tap/swipe/click gestures to arbitrary commands.

It supports Lion.


How can I change default print preference to black and white, system wide?

Go to http://localhost:631/printers
Select your printer from the list.
Choose Set Default Options from the Administration drop-down.
Set the options you would like as default.


iOS 10.2 + Safari + Client Certificates crashes Safari

Ok. This clearly has something to do with StartSSL / WoSign (client) certificates.

Even though there is no error and Safari just crashes, everything works when I try self signed client certs or client certs from another root CA.

Very weird ...


Add a word count feature that determines pay (for freelancer paid per word)

Update: I originally had this using a Table. But have now changed it to a Text Object.

Here is you start then.

Save this Applescript as a Stay Open Application.

on idle
    tell application "Pages"
        set ActualCount to count words of body text of document 1

        set calculation to ActualCount * 0.02

        set object text of text item 1 of document 1 to (ActualCount & " words  = £" & calculation as string)

    end tell
    return 5 -- runs every n# seconds

end idle

Now in your document add a Text Object.

In the Text Object Arrange tab in the Format inspector.

Set the Object Placement to Move with text.

And *Text Wrap to Above and Below

This will save the need to manually move the Text Object down the document as you go.

Now run the App. Start typing.

The one thing you will notice is that the real word count sees the word in the table. 329 That is why I have included the word count in the text objects results.  326 words  = £6.5


Blinking yellow light on my Apple Time Capsule

Check out Tesserax's Answer on the Apple Support Communities.

      A persistent, flashing amber light indicates that any of the several potential conditions may require your attention:

  The base station has not yet been configured because it is new, or    the reset switch has been set.
  You have selected a security configuration that is not recommended.
  One of several other conditions, such as a disconnected Ethernet cable or invalid IP address has been detected.
     (ref: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305101)

  If you run the AirPort Utility, it will show an amber circle on the summary >page next to the area(s) causing the

  problem. Click on this amber circle and it should provide an explanation.


Resetting the "Recent places" in "save as" dialog to default

With El Capitan 10.11.6, here's the output from defaults read .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlaces on my system.

(
    "~/Desktop/news",
    "~/Documents/text",
    "~/Documents/text/news",
    "~/Documents/astronomy",
    "/Volumes/Video"
)

Try defaults write .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlaces -array /Applications to restore a value for the NSNavRecentPlaces key.

There is no NSNavRecentPlacesLimit key in .GlobalPreferences for El Capitan on my system. The following list of keys are part of the output from defaults find NSNav which is a long list. I assume these are the default settings. Here are the NSNav keys:

Found 9 keys in domain 'Apple Global Domain': {
    NSNavPanelFileLastListModeForOpenModeKey = 2;
    NSNavPanelFileLastListModeForSaveModeKey = 2;
    NSNavPanelFileListModeForOpenMode2 = 2;
    NSNavPanelFileListModeForSaveMode2 = 2;
    NSNavPanelSidebarKeyForOpen =     (
    );
    NSNavPanelSidebarKeyForSave =     (
    );
    NSNavRecentPlaces =     (
        "~/Desktop/news",
        "~/Documents/text",
        "~/Documents/text/news",
        "~/Documents/astronmy",
        "/Volumes/Video"
    );
    NSNavSortOrder =     (
        NSNavDisplayNameFileProperty,
        1
    );
    "NSNavSortOrder_10.6" =     (
        displayName,
        1
    );
}

Try defaults delete .GlobalPreferences NSNavRecentPlacesLimit to remove the key you added. The discussions article seems to be about OS X versions before El Capitan and may not be relevant or useful with OS 10.11.


Taking screenshots with the command line, but of specific regions

If you do this:

  screencapture -R0,0,34,20 test1.png

you will get test1.png which has 34 pixels width and 20 pixels height.


Easy way to take a screen shot that's NOT color corrected?

The fact that the monitor's profile gets embedded is the only way the OS can preserve the appearance of colors in your photos. If you open a photo in Photoshop, take a screen capture (let's say for now via the built-in OS tool), then open this screen shot in Photoshop (and preserve the profile in the file) and compare both side to side, then you will see that the colors are visually similar even though the numbers for each pixel is different from one to the other.

This is all normal behavior. The colors you see on your screen on a calibrated and profiled monitor is actually raw values sent by the OS to the graphics card which then "assigns" the monitor profile to the values in real time so that the colors look like they should on the monitor. This is the simple explanation of course, there is much more going on in the background.

In the color management world there is only 2 options when you wish to play around with colors and profiles: assign or convert colors. When switching from one color space to another (i.e. from RGB to CMYK), your only option is convert since the laws of physics apply here. Within the same color space, if you assign profiles (or remove them, i.e. assigning nothing) you preserve the numbers while sacrificing (to various degrees) the appearance of the colors. When converting, you preserve the appearance of the colors while sacrificing the numbers in the file.

In your case, you need to convert the screen shot to a device-independent profile like Adobe RGB, or a device-dependent but easy to play with like sRGB. You can do that in Photoshop or Preview, as long as you do convert and not assign. Removing the profile is not really helping, since the numbers will have no meaning...


Don't want iBooks to always paste the "Excerpt From" of what I have copied

Here is a solution that requires no third-party software and lets you keep using the standard ⌘C shortcut to copy text in Books.

1. Create a Quick Action “Copy without Citation in Books”

Open Automator and choose File > New (⌘N).
For the type of document, choose Quick Action. This will allow us to create a keyboard shortcut for it later.

Configure the workflow as follows:

Workflow settings

Workflow receives current [text] in [Books]
(Leave the other three settings at the default)

Add in the actions list:

Copy to Clipboard

Use ⌘S to save the Quick Action. Name it “Copy without Citation in Books”.

The “workflow receives current text in Books” setting in the workflow bypasses the clipboard-modifying behavior of Books. Thus, the workflow needs no extra action to strip the text added by Books.

2. Give the Quick Action a keyboard shortcut of ⌘C in Books

Open System Preferences > Keyboard. View the Shortcuts tab and select App Shortcuts on the left.
Click the + button to add a new App Shortcut.
Fill in the sheet as follows:

Application: Books
Menu Title: Copy without Citation in Books
Keyboard Shortcut: ⌘C

Click Add. You will see the shortcut appear in the list:

And you’re done. From now on, when you want to copy your selected text in Books, just press ⌘C and the exact text will be copied.


Unable to format pendrive, diskutil error

Click on "Initialize..."

or if the useer your login with can adminastrat the computer then try adding "sudo " and entering your password when prompted.

So:

sudo diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ PenDrive disk2


Log into the desktop remotely and automatically

For now, I'm going to just configure the computer to login automatically at boot.  Instructions for Mountain Lion and Yosemite.

If anyone knows how to configure this via the Terminal, rather than System Preferences, I'd prefer that solution.


The sparsebundle is a disk image file and probably contains your Time Machine files. If you double-click it, it should be mounted. If not, launch Disk Utility and open it from there (File > Open Disk Image...).

In order to delete backups, enter Time Machine, select a snapshot (time) and right-click in the Finder window. From there you can delete the snapshot by clicking Delete Backup. Watch out no more confirmation will be asked! You can also delete all backups / snapshots of a file or folder by selecting Delete All Backups of ....

If you are more the Terminal kind of person you can also use tmutil. This would look somewhat like this:

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Time_Machine_Disk/Backups.backupdb/computer/date/

You should only use these methods and not delete files manually from your mounted sparsebundle image.


Any general method for iPad to output in 1080p when connected to TV by HDMI?

From the comments and based on actual results,
the iPad Air model I have has an output resolution strictly limited to the resolution of the screen.
As this screen has a lower resolution than my TV (where the screen is < 1080p), this translates to black bars appearing to the left and the right of the display on the TV.
In addition, the output frame rate is noticeably worse with such an output adaptor shown in the original post, showing a 30 FPS video at around 20 FPS.
There is no known software fix to this as it is a limitation imposed by the hardware itself.
Alternatively, I can zoom in the TV to make use of the full screen, at the cost of even worse resolution with the lower output video frame rate even more noticeable.


Why does it take so much time for "Require Password" to get turned on/off?

This is not a thing anymore (or maybe just means your device is slow, running poorly):

FaceID makes this setting go away entirely
Turning off FaceID I am able to tap the toggle 6 times in 8 seconds. (Three complete on/off events)

It’s absolutely not instant to enable this as the system has to generate cryptographically secure tokens and store them in the Secure Enclave. Actual work has to be done when you modify this item. From my screen recording, it appears the disable is close to instant and the enable takes the majority of the duty cycle time.


This is normal functionality and has been present on the original iPhone OS on the very first iPhone back in 2007.

What you are seeing is that the iPhone is allowing you to send messages that are longer than the SMS limit, and when you do that it automatically splits the message into the number of SMS messages required to send your message.

If your recipient has an iPhone, they just see the original un-split message as the iPhone puts it back together for the recipient.  Other devices, such as your friend's Android device, just show the discrete SMS messages in the order they were sent.


In the Skype Meetings App, how can you control your USB/external headset volume?

This one has both stumped and annoyed me for a while.  I had been unable to find a solution to this online but, eventually, I figured it out so I figured I'd share my discovery.

To modify the volume you need to click on the speaker icon on the Mac menu.

After clicking on the speaker icon, a little menu will show up showing the available audio devices.  Select your headset and then the hot-key volume controls and the volume slider will adjust the volume on your headset.

Once you've modified your volume settings, you can set your primary audio device back to what it previously was.  Your settings on your headset will remain the same, even if you adjust the volume on your primary speakers.

It's pretty simple once you figure out but wasn't immediately obvious.


Is there a command to remove previously installed package?

You can use pkgUtil for it.

$ pkgutil --pkgs # list all installed packages
$ pkgutil --files the-package-name.pkg # list installed files

After visually inspecting the list of files you can do something like the following:

I leave this up to you as modifying files with root user maybe a bit risky

$ pkgutil --pkg-info the-package-name.pkg # check the location
$ cd / # assuming the package is rooted at /...
$ pkgutil --only-files --files the-package-name.pkg | tr '\n' '\0' | xargs -o -n 1 -0 sudo rm -i

To remove directories as well as files, list the directories from the package using:

$ pkgutil --only-dirs --files the-package-name.pkg

The following command could be used to attempt removal of each directory, although be aware that when System Integrity Protection is active, there are some file paths that not even the root user may modify. Nevertheless — and needless to say — extreme care should always be taken when removing files with root privileges.

$ pkgutil --only-dirs --files the-package-name.pkg | tr '\n' '\0' | xargs -o -n 1 -0 sudo rm -ir

Once you’ve uninstalled the files, you can remove the receipt with:

$ sudo pkgutil --forget the-package-name.pkg

For more details, see the pkgutil main page.


How can I delete everything from my MacBook Pro before selling it?

On Snow Leopard, you would need to boot from an external OS to wipe the drive.

On Mountain Lion (or Lion), the system makes a recovery HD so you can self-wipe the Mac. This is a much, much faster and easier task, so I recommend you upgrade first and then do the wiping using a recovery boot and Disk Utility.

I personally would do these steps (and you could skip the first three steps if you wish since things are going to get erased later whether you clean up first or not):

Make a new admin account on Snow Leopard - call it Apple or something generic and set it to be the account that logs into the Mac.
Log out of all accounts and reboot
Delete your account and let the system do a quick delete of the content
Install Lion or Mountain Lion
Install updates to the OS and then shut down the Mac
Reboot into OS X Recovery - hold down Command-R during startup
Use Disk Utility to do a seven pass erase or whatever level of wiping you prefer.
Quit Disk Utility to go back to the main Recovery menu
Reinstall your OS on the cleanly wiped drive from the main menu
Power off the Mac once the OS has been installed so that the buyer gets that "Welcome to the Mac" experience but no chance to recover your files or data

If I were doing erasing of a personal Mac, I would do a one pass zero and then enable FileVault on Mountain Lion. That would take the zeroes and then encrypt each block securely - so that no two blocks would be identical on the drive. If there were work data, I might repeat zeroing it and turning on a second FileVault pass or follow whatever policy work approves for disposal of confidential data. In reality, anyone that wants to recover data from a one pass write of zeroes needs to take the drive apart in a clean room and image it with some high priced tools, so scrambling things with FileVault seems like enough overkill to me.

Also, you might look here for answers and comments on selling a Mac with software that is licensed for download like Lion and Mountain Lion - most people ask the seller for an email and gift the purchase to them so that the buyer has a legitimate copy. My steps above won't keep your Apple ID on the Mac and the intaller self-deletes itself, so at worst, the seller could undelete that one file and recover the Apple ID email you used. To counter that, you could boot into recovery after the OS was installed and wipe the free space using Disk Utility.

Reinstall Mac OS X Mountain Lion before selling a Mac
Where can I get a copy of Mountain Lion that I can resell with my Apple hardware?


Will this memory fit into my MacBook Pro?

I have here two helpful Links for you:

Apple Support Serial Number &
Apple Support Memory Upgrade

I don't have experience with this memory, but i think it should work ;) But please use the provided Links and double check everything. I don't know how it is in Jp but in Europe you can send the RAM back to Amazon if it does not work. "Normally" a wrong RAM is not warming you Macbook.

I hope this will help you and sorry if we can't provide for every RAM Module Experience ;)


Why does my Mac accumulate too many processes?

You have the program Surveyor Power Management from Aptean installed. This is usually installed as part of a corporate setup, and is used to manage power saving settings across all the company's computers.

Unfortunately it seems that the program has a bug where it is not compatible with High Sierra right now. The effect you see is that it spawns processes intended to set power saving settings, but due to a bug it spawns them over and over again because it "thinks" that they failed. This severely limits performance of the computer and eventually halts it completely.

The only thing to do is to report this to your IT department and/or directly to Aptean to ensure that the software is fixed and updated.


MacBook Pro touchpad not clicking? (Hardware issue?)

Check your MacBook's battery. My trackpad stopped clicking consistently, and then sometimes locked in click-down, keeping me from de-selecting things. When I opened it up I noticed that the battery was puffed up a bit. If I removed the battery and closed the case, the trackpad clicked just fine. Apple replaced the battery and all's good.


No, a permanent magnet of any reasonable size would not damage your computer.
You are not endangering your computer by having the case near the computer.
The SSD in your computer is not affected by magnets of that type at all.


What is the HD proximity sensor in a 2009 iMac?

I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding your question exactly, but the 2009 iMac has six temperature sensors. The HD proximity sensor refers to a sensor that's not physically connected to the HD itself, but is near the HD.

Some software (typically utilities that control fan speeds or provide monitoring data) will use proximity sensors to get a pretty good guesstimate of the actual temperature of certain hardware components. There are various reasons why a proximity sensor may be used in addition to (or instead of) a directly connected sensor.

The aforementioned utilities will use these readings for various reasons (e.g. to determine fan speeds where the user has chosen to override the default System Management Controller (SMC) for this purpose). In most cases it's just to display the data to the end user for monitoring purposes.

In your case iStat Menus 5 is simply showing you the temperature reading of this particular sensor. I suspect the dash "-" next to it indicates that your iMac does not have a HD proximity sensor.


iPhone 5S overheating with very short battery life

The battery in your phone is dying. Continuing to use it and charge it could cause it to catch on fire. You can take it to Apple to be repaired/replaced but will probably cost a lot as it is an older phone or you can take it to a local phone "fix-it" place to have the battery replaced.

It looks like https://www.batteriesplus.com will replace it fot $60 or you could go the ifixit route and do it yourself.

I do recommend that you replace the battery soon, I had a 3GS years ago with the exact same symptoms, the battery eventually expanded so much it broke the back of the phone and could not be repaired.


Can I remotely access my Mac from Linux using screen sharing?

You can take either one of the following two approach:

1. VNC

This is pretty simple, you'll need to go to System Preferences → Screen Sharing and then click on Computer Settings. From there you can select VNC viewers may control screen with password: and supply a password.

2. Wi-Fi Wakeup

Go to System Preferences → Energy Saver. You can only do this with the Mac running on power (if it's a portable). You'll need to enable an option tick called Wake for Wi-Fi network access.

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Problem

If you're running this release of OS X Mountain Lion, you may find this doesn't work.

  Q:

  No Wake-on-LAN possible since updating to ML

  Hi everybody,

  since updating from OS X 10.7 to 10.8 (clean install), Wake-on-LAN does not work anymore. Setup: Mac mini (Early 2011) connected to Time Capsule (2nd gen) via devolo dLAN. Mac mini goes to sleep after 30 minutes and eventually disappears from the network. Sending Wake-On-LAN packets or using Back To My Mac fail, it simply won't wake up.

  Wake-on-LAN worked smoothly under 10.7 after some problems. Any ideas?

  Thanks and regards

  Steffen

However, OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 fixed this.


Mac is mirroring my monitors through miniDP

The adapter in question only supports Windows 10 - it won't work on a Mac.

Connecting two displays via one of the Thunderbolt 3 connectors on the MacBook Pro 15" with TouchBar is usually done via daisy-chaining through the display. This is only supported by Apple for Thunderbolt displays - not DisplayPort monitors.

The cheapest  way to connect your monitors is to use two ports, as you mention. However it is not necessary buying two of those expensive dual-display adapters. Instead you can use a simple USB-C to DisplayPort cable. For example this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B01J6DT070/ref%3Das_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1484165396&sr=8-1&keywords=usbc%20displayport%204k&linkCode=ll1&tag=radianexuscor-20&linkId=a1ef8c98169f6005d21382dca77d66e4&utm_source=tr.im&utm_medium=no_referer&utm_campaign=tr.im%2FCable_Matters_USBC_DP&utm_content=direct_input

Buying two of these ($15.99) will allow connecting the two monitors to your Mac.

Hopefully you can return your adapter for a refund.


How to edit files on/copy to an NFTS external hard drive?

I have faced similar problem with my WD external 1 TB drive formatted as NTFS.

For writing, you'll need to install a proprietary NTFS driver for macOS called Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac.

You can follow the instructions on this support article on WD website, How to Install the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac.


iPhone 4S - sudden drop in battery percentage

I ended up replacing the battery myself. Have no issues with the new battery.


How to stop dfwu1013.info from popping on my screen when ever I try to Google anything?

Highly likely to be malware. Try reinstalling Chrome. If the problem persists, run an antivirus scan. Also try looking in the extensions or apps page in Chrome and remove unrecognized software.


Is there a free wordpress client for mac?

If you are a casual blogger then your best bet is to use the web client built into your Wordpress installation, just log in to your blog and away you go.

And I believe that the Wordpress app for IOS is free...


They are from a new app called Tips, added with iOS 8.

It will post occasional tips & tricks on your lock screen, but you can launch the app itself & browse through them any time you like.


How do I change the number of desktops in Mountain Lion?

Open "Mission Control" (icon should be in the Dock or else through Launchpad) and move your mouse to the upper-right hand corner. A '+' sign will appear allowing you to create an additional virtual desktop. The dimmed half of a new desktop appears in the upper left if the dock is changed to the right side of the screen but otherwise is in the upper right when the dock is in the left or the bottom.
Add a Desktop

Remove a Desktop


Faulty iPhone 4S battery - how can I test a battery to measure its integrity?

I have always liked to test a battery by running the device until it shuts down and powers off.

When you connect it to the standard wall charger, it should take between 2 and 4 hours to charge. If your battery is done charging in an hour to 1:30, then it's not really getting the intended amount of current and should be replaced.

Similarly, if it won't charge fully (or very much close to full) in less than 4 hours - something also is amiss either with the charging, measuring or battery itself.

By timing the charge time, you eliminate any background task, GPS, WiFi drain, etc.. and just can see the time it takes a fixed amount of current to enter the battery and be stored chemically.


Visio TV attached with HDMI to iMac zombie

Your TV is not actually turned off, it’s in standby.  And since many consumer electronics companies utilize the CEC signaling over HDMI so other devices can turn it on/off, the Mac is interpreting that it’s still on.

You’ll have to disconnect your Mac or turn off the monitor from the mains themselves.

Possible solution

I’ve been looking at a product from a Pulse-8 that claims to have a USB CEC adapter that allows you to control the CEC signaling from a computer.  I haven’t tested it for a number of reasons not limited to many other projects, proximity of my iMac an my living room TV, priority, etc.  However, since it “intercepts” the HDMI signal and overrides the CEC signaling, it may solve the problem.  I’m not saying it does, but it may be worth looking into.

Additional solution - there is an “HDMI CEC-less” cable that doesn’t have the CEC signaling pins - this too, could solve your issue.


I don't know how to dim inactive icons in the Dock. However, some people prefer the old-style two-dimensional dock that you can activate. It's certainly easier to discern which apps are open on this view.

To activate the 2D dock, open Terminal. Then type in the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

From there, you can log off & back on, and your Dock will have changed. If you ever need to revert this setting back run the above command again, but change the word YES for NO.


If the app is not the active running app, then, unless it meets strict criteria, it cannot start itself to perform such an action. There are a number of limitations for VOIP apps and music players to allow them to stay running, but in your case what would probably work best is a local notification that uses a custom notification sound. This allows you to register a notification for the time of the alarm which will be triggered regardless, as it will not be your app doing the work, but the OS instead which obviously maintains the notifications daemon at all times. Certainly for a "real" push notification you can then have a custom sound, I recall the demo at the relevant WWDC where an ESPN app used a clip of music from their TV channel as the sound, but I am unsure if you can acheive the same with a local one - I don't see any reason why not. Obviously there will be limits on file size and possibly length also, so a full track of music may not be possible.


How / is it possible to compare files on your hard drive with those in your time machine backup?

I realize you tagged this as a Snow Leopard question, but if you upgrade to Lion, the new tmutil command-line utility will let you compare backups:

Usage: tmutil compare [-a@esmugtdrvX] [-D depth]
       tmutil compare [-a@esmugtdrvX] [-D depth] snapshot_path
       tmutil compare [-a@esmugtdrvX] [-D depth] path1 path2

Perform a diff of or against backups.

In the first form, tmutil will compare the computer to the latest snapshot.

In the second form, tmutil will compare the computer to the specified snapshot.

In the third form, you can compare arbitrary things to each other, including things on the computer to things inside your backups.

The compare verb allows you to specify what properties to compare. The default property set is equivalent to the -smugt option set. Specifying any property option overrides the default set.

# this means "compare using the basic -smugt metadata set"
$ tmutil compare

# this means "compare all metadata supported by tmutil and data forks"
$ tmutil compare -ad

# this means "compare extended attributes, ACLs, file modes, and data forks"
$ tmutil compare -@emd

Options:
    -a   compare all supported metadata
    -@   compare extended attributes
    -e   compare ACLs
    -s   compare sizes
    -m   compare file modes
    -u   compare UIDs
    -g   compare GIDs
    -t   compare mod times
    -d   compare file data forks
    -r   ignore specified root paths and just compare descendents
    -D <depth>   limit traversal depth to <depth> levels from the beginning of iteration
    -E   don't take exclusions into account when comparing items inside volumes
    -v   enable verbose mode (enables reporting of all identical items, which is noisy)
    -X   print output in XML property list format


The Apple Product Security page states:

  To report security issues that affect Apple products, please contact: product-security@apple.com
  ...
  PGP key information
  You can use Apple's Product Security PGP key to encrypt sensitive information sent via e-mail. The e-mail address is used to monitor for potential product security issues. Because we focus our response efforts to have the greatest impact across Apple's product line, we generally will not respond to the e-mail messages unless further information is needed for a security issue.


Can I charge my MacBook Pro 2015 without using MagSafe 2 power port?

It is neither possible nor advisable to charge your MacBook Pro using Thunderbolt or USB ports.

It is possible that either your MagSafe 2 port or the charging adapter is damaged. Please stop plugging in the charger if you spot burnt marks on either one of them. It’s recommended that you get your MacBook Pro inspected by an authorized Apple technician. You may be eligible for free service and replacement if you are covered under AppleCare.


Mac OS X pstopdf utility defaults to Letter page size

If I remove all page size information from a PostScript file, then Preview renders it on a Letter page, even though my default Paper size in CUPS is A4.
There are no user-accessible options or preferences that I can discern. It's certainly undocumented, if it exists.
You may be better off trying to explicitly define the page size in a2ps.
Alternative PDF creators, like GhostScript, offer greater control over the output.


Can I check iPhone, iPad, Watch battery on Mac?

[This is not a final answer as long as this line exists]

Assumptions I am making:

I am assuming you are on the latest version iOS and macOS.
You have the same account logged into the iPhone as well as Mac.

Even if you keep personal hotspot toggled off — unless you’re sharing your cellular connection with someone else — the latest versions of iOS and macOS still see available hotspots from devices with the same iCloud accounts enabled as part of Apple’s Continuity feature.

Here is how to see the Battery Percentage of your iPhone on a macOS system:

Make sure you have same iCloud account logged into iPhone and macOS device.
Turn on Wi-Fi from macOS.
Then click on the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar and wait for your iPhone to appear on the list. You can now see the graphical indicator of your iPhone’s battery level.
But if you want to know the precise percentage of your battery level follow further steps.
Hold on option key.
Then click on the Wi-Fi icon on the menubar.
This time when your hover pointer over the device, you should be able to see the battery percentage of iPhone.


Hide all files with a specific extension from Finder

If you just want to modify the saved search, copy it somewhere from /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/CannedSearches/Today.cannedSearch, show package contents and open search.savedSearch in a text editor, and add this to the first RawQuery key:

&amp;&amp; kMDItemFSName != *.log &amp;&amp; kMDItemFSName != *.upload &amp;&amp; kMDItemFSName != *.json

You can drop it on the sidebar by holding command.


I have not tried this but I can see two possible issues

the arguments with spaces should be two arguments e.g. <string>-p 2222</string> should be <string>-p</string><string>2222</string>
From a the launchd.plist man page

  This key maps to the second argument of execvp(3). ... Please note: many people are confused by this key. Please read execvp(3) very carefully!

the execvp(3) man page says that there arguments are filename, arg0, arg1,... and that arg0 is the name of the file so your first argument should be /usr/libexec/sshd-keygen-wrapper repeating Program.

A simpler way might be to remove Program altogether and only have ProgramArguments or just use Program and give the command as if typed into command line.

Another way of making this easy is use a GUI program like Lingon or LaunchControl


App offering audible alarm for low battery on Mavericks?

You could write a short script and run it via cron every couple of minutes.

pmset -g batt

Running the above will show your current battery usage. You can then parse it out and you can make it alert you with something like:

say "low battery power"

That will speak out "low battery power. Or to make it beep:

printf "\a"

I have a desktop, so can't see the pmset output, a quick google shows something like this would do it:

if [[ `pmset -g batt | awk -F'[^0-9]*' '{ print $3 }'` -lt 10 ]];then say "Battery low";fi

You can put that into a cron to run every 5 mins or so.

To add this to cron to run every 5 minutes, do:

crontab -e

and type in a line that looks like this:

*/5  *  *  *  *  if [[ `pmset -g batt | awk -F'[^0-9]*' '{ print $3 }'` -lt 10 ]];then say "Battery low";fi

Then save and exit. The crontab editor will be whichever is set as your default editor in $EDITOR. For me that vim, default OSX it's nano.

crontab -l

That lists out your crontab. For more info see: enter link description here

To use launchd, you'd be better off putting that into a shell script, then putting a launchd plist file in your ~/Library/LaunchDaemons folder. That's somewhat out of scope of this answer, Lingon is a great tool to control LaunchD files. See LaunchD for more information. You shell script would be be the same command as used above, with

#!/bin/sh

as the first line. Save it somewhere, make LaunchD run it.


In the shell you may use the command dsmemberutil to get at least the user SID:

Example to get the SID of a user by username:

% dsmemberutil getsid -U username


Mac equivalent of ALT+010 for Windows (Replace Carriage Return/Line Breaks)

In most macOS applications ControlEnter works, and in Excel ControlAltEnter works in cells, and even in Find and Replace it will enter a space, but it doesn't appear to search.

Similarly \n which is an escaped new line doesn't work, nor does copying and pasting a new line character from another application.

In word ^p works as an escape character but again not in Excel.

It looks very much like this isn't possible in Excel for Mac. The best thing I could suggest at this point is to ask for Microsoft to fix this via their feedback forum:

https://excel.uservoice.com/

The last option I was going to suggest was using Numbers which is the Apple version of Excel, it works very well in general but has the same limitation from my testing.

Last option would be to use Excel for Windows via a Remote Desktop application like Citrix, a simulator like WINE or a virtual machine like VirtualBox, Parallels or VMWare.


how to Quick Look text files with custom file extensions in Finder

update

With the new macOS release in 2019, the macOS Catalina, this approach is banned.

Install QLStephen, a QuickLook plugin that enables viewing of text files with arbitrary filetypes.

To install, copy the *.qlgenerator file to ~/Library/QuickLook/.


Installed Firefox Beta and now Bing is default search engine in location bar

You can set it to Google in Firefox Preferences. Go to Search tab and select Google as default search engine.


Figured it out.. : must be ;. My mistake..


Duplicate a Safari tab along with associated browsing history (OS X)

Not a solution (yet), but fyi you might want to keep an eye on this, if it gets implemented: https://github.com/thiemo/duplicatetabbutton/issues/2


No, never. Defragmentation is helpful on spinning platter-based drives, if the filesystem doesn't handle it (which HFS+ generally does, on a Mac), because it takes time for the disk to spin around to the right spot, which has to happen more often if one chunk of data is split between several locations. See Access Time.

A solid state drive has no moving parts, so there's no mechanical delay. Reading a section of data takes approximately the same amount of time no matter where it's located in the flash.

Defragmenting a solid state drive is actually harmful because it forces the drive to move data around for no good reason, and flash chips have a limit on how many times they can rewrite a section.


How to recover an iPod Classic that won't turn on and doesn't appear as a drive?

Here's something that worked for me:

Put the iPod into a ziploc bag and seal it tightly.
Put it in the freezer overnight.
Take it out in the morning.

I thought that it was just an urban myth, but as the iPod was apparently dead, why not try it? I was (pleasantly!) shocked to see it start up again the next morning.


How do I make an app go full screen to the LEFT of my desktop?

If I have understood your question correctly, you can achieve this by the following:

1. Launch Mission Control
2. Add a new desktop by clicking Add to the right
3. Drag the desktops in order of preference
4. Exit Mission Control
5. Navigate to the desktop you want an app to open on then right-click the app icon in the dock, choose Options and select This Desktop underneath Assign To (this assigns the selected app to the active desktop in either full screen or normal maximised views)

Note that when you drag the desktops, the naming will always be ordered numerically from left to right. So if you began with a single desktop, adding any subsequent desktops will change the name of the original desktop to Desktop 1. If you drag another desktop to the left of Desktop 1 then Desktop 1 will become 2.


What is the difference between iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream

iCloud Photo Library puts all your images in the cloud, allowing access from any device you are signed into. It requires enough space on iCloud to store all of your photos.

Photo Stream just shares your new photos with your other device, but they aren't actually in the cloud. This doesn't require you to have enough storage space for your photos.


Watch folder that only processes one item at a time?

Try Hazel from https://www.noodlesoft.com

I haven’t had any processes that run that long, but in my experience Hazel always seems to operate sequentially on files, and won’t start a new process until the old one is done.

It’s an invaluable Mac app, IMO. I use it exclusively instead of
Folder Actions. It’s a paid app, but there is a free, full-featured demo available. The developer is also very helpful and the app is well-maintained. Highly recommended.

I think your only other alternative is a lock file, which is awkward, as you mentioned.


Will installing Mountain Lion require a complete refresh of my Time Machine backup?

There is absolutely no requirement to start from scratch, the fact that a lot of OS files will have changed just means that the next run will be large, but the historical data you have already is good to stay around.

In fact, starting afresh is a really bad idea, because you will (assuming you use the same disk) lose all your historical files and the ability to revert to previous versions, or retrieve deleted files etc.

As things stand, keeping using the same store will allow you to even revert back to Lion if you so desired, the worst that can happen is the new OS install changes being large enough to fill your backup disk and force the removal of some of your older backups, but even so it's worth keeping with the same backup.


Connect the iPhone to a Mac or PC running iTunes and do a complete Restore to factory settings. This will wipe out all media & data and install the latest version of iOS for that device.

If you don't have a Mac or PC for this task, on the iPhone itself, you can go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase all content and settings.

NOTE: Be sure to disable Find My iPhone if you have it enabled, and logout of any iCloud services.


Free space on my jailbroken iOS device is rapidly declining -- how do I figure out why?

This is usually an issue with being unable to properly remove temporary data.

It's root cause could be one of two things:
1. The permissions for the .Trash service is corrupt

Or

There is issues in the directory of the storage component.

Either way the solution is to restore the device and setup as a new iPhone.
Erase all content and settings should work fine too if it wasn't jail broken.

Happy travels!


Autodeleting resource forks on FAT disks

There are many ways to remove .DS_Store files; it really depends on what your exact needs are for the method you decide to use. To automatically remove them when you login/logout would be quite different from ejecting a disk, since it's a completely different process. You can disallow .DS_store for from being allowed to write to network disks, etc. by opening up Terminal and entering:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

to manually remove already present .DS_Store files you can use:

dot_clean /path/folder

which merges any such files with the parent file.


Should I reformat a disk if Disk Utility asks me to?

Since the error that showed up the first time was just Can't open (Resource busy), I wouldn't worry about it. It didn't actually do anything the first time. I'm guessing you had a file open or something and it couldn't unmount the volume to repair. I think the reformat message shows up if a repair fails, for any reason, even if it has nothing to do with the filesystem.


How do I get Safari to prompt me before allowing cookies

Safari Cookies (10.5-10.6?)
...is a cookie manager that I've used in the past. It's the only cookie manager I know of for Safari. I couldn't install it in Lion just now. I assume this is because they released a non-free version for lion.
I don't recall whether this extension prompts the user when cookies are stored. Features which you need are:

Automatic mode: Only keep cookies/Flash cookies/Databases from sites which are in your Favorites, BookMarks, Top Sites, or History.
Save favorite cookies to a whitelist.

Using the latter feature, you will accept cookies on a per website basis - not per cookie basis. This allows you to block vast amounts of cookies without spending too much time managing them.
The developers have released a version for Lion which is not free:
Cookie (Mac App Store)
You can download a trial on their website.
Other stuff
Also consider the following extensions to block cookies and protect privacy.

Ghostery: Full detection of tracker scripts, img tags, and iframes from over 600 data collection services.     Blocking capability for each detected element.
Adblock: Hides ads and also prevents some related cookies from being download. You can include lists which will allow you to block more than just ads. E.g. EasyPrivacy List, Antisocial List, Malware Domains List.
Incognito: Incognito protects your privacy by blocking Google Adsense and Google Analytics on non-Google pages. In addition, it allows you to optionally block Facebook and Twitter content on third-party websites as well as embedded YouTube movies outside of the YouTube website. Google also provides other extensions to opt-out of their tracking. However they are not yet available for Safari. (IBA Opt-Out, Keep my Opt-Outs)
Google Analytics Opt-out (beta): Official Google extension. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.


I was able to change lock screen wallpaper but can't change of that screen which comes after sleep on MacBook pro

The best way to fix it instead of going through your cache is to use a free utility called Onyx.

It will enable you to change it very easily to whichever photo you like!


Activity Monitor > View > All Processes, Hierarchically ought to do it, with a bit of scrolling...


Can I transfer a PDF to iPhone then use gmail to send it by email?

The commercial answer is to install a good quality PDF viewer. Even better would be to install GoodReader which started out as a PDF handler but can now handle a number of different file types and do any number of things with them, including email.

http://www.goodiware.com/goodreader.html

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goodreader-for-iphone/id306277111?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4


How to tell if Macbook is using 802.11ac

When you're connected to the Wi-Fi network, hold down option and click the Wi-Fi icon in the OS X menubar. You'll see additional details about your connection, including one item labelled PHY Mode:. That will show you whether you're connected via 802.11ac, n, g, etc.

There's also a Channel: entry that tells you the radio frequency and channel.


Does the iPhone Mail app mark gmail messages as spam?

Moving the message to the Spam folder will mark it as spam on the gmail server as well as moving it to the spam folder.


Check out Keka - the free Max OS X file archiver

  With 7z and Zip you will have the
  opportunity to create password
  encrypted files to better protect your
  privacy. It's as easy as write your
  password in the box, and drag and drop
  files to Keka in the dock.

Another way is to run the command in your Terminal.app:

$ zip -e myzip.zip <files>

After the command you will be prompted for a password. Instead of the single files you can specify a folder, too.

I don't know of any more apps that allow you to create archives with many formats. For decrompression there are multiple great apps (The Unarchiver, Stuffit Expander).
You can give 7zipX a try, too.

Some paid alternatives:

BetterZip
StuffIt
Archiver


Does the Apple Smart Keyboard work for all iPads?

In general, no. The contacts and physical size of keyboards make it very unlikely you can swap parts. Make sure the return policy is good or use the Apple Store app on your iPad and link your device so it shows which parts are compatible with your device.


It seems like the top row of keys on your mac are configured to behave as function keys only in combination with fn key (bottom left). Follow the steps below to change the setting

Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
From the View menu, choose Keyboard.
Click the Keyboard tab.
Enable "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys".
Close System Preferences.

Now the blue color functions in top row will act in combination with fn key and esc, f1, f2 etc will behave as standard function keys.


How to change the boot order of APFS volumes?

I discovered the answer on my own:

Open System Preferences
Search for "Startup Disk"
Click the volume that you'd like to be the default


Tried to do a complete fresh install of Sierra. "Permission Denied" when I go to Install

This one should help it

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7860429

Needed to erase and rename the Drive to Macintosh HD


Rather than removing a Wi-Fi network, it appears you've removed the Wi-Fi service. In OS X prior to 10.10, this means the AirPort shows Not Configured.

To allow configuration of AirPort, you need to add the Wi-Fi service back to the list of services:

Go to System Preferences → Network and click the + button to add a service.
Select Wi-Fi as the Interface and provide a service name.

This will allow configuration through the menu bar item.


In native mail app, under the "mailboxes" left pane, should be two lists. Top one is "inboxes" and bottom is "accounts". Select gmail account you wish to edit in the "accounts" list (bottom).

You should now see a list of "mailboxes" (apple's wording) which are the same as your gmail labels. Tap "edit" in top right of that pane and tap " new mailbox" on bottom.

You can now type in the name of label you want to create. If you want nested labels, drill into mailboxes below.

This should do the trick.


Logitech C615 on Macbook Air (Mac OSX 10.8.2)

The simple answer is "yes". I have Mountain Lion and just received my C615. I'm able to record photos and movies, using the provided LWS software, and play them back via QuickTime. Cannot speak for other apps. Be aware that many of the features (e.g., zoom) that are available on Windows are not (currently) available on the Mac.


How do i get back my old user account after upgrading to OS X Yosemite 10.10.2?

Apple (modified a bit) helps:
This guide should/will work if your old user was the only account and the newly created user has the User ID 501.

Log out of your newly created account (user2), then log in to an admin account. The admin account needs to be a different account than the one newly created. If necessary, create another admin account (user3).

Go to the Users folder on the startup drive. The Users folder contains the home folder of the account you want to get back (user1), the newly created admin account (user3) and the newly created account while upgrading (user2).

Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.

Click the lock icon in the Users & Groups pane, then enter the admin name and password that you used to log in.

From the list of accounts, open a shortcut menu by Control-clicking the account that was created upgrading to Yosemite (user2). Enable the radio button "Allow user to administer this computer" if it is disabled. Choose "Advanced Options" from the shortcut menu.

Check the User ID it should be 501 (If it's not 501 stop here and add a comment to my answer please)

Change the "Account name" field and the "Full name" field to match the name of the old home folder (user1) in the Users folder and the old full name.

Change the "Home directory" field to match name of the old home folder (user1) in the Users folder.

Click OK, then close System Preferences.

Log out of the current admin account, then log in to the old account (now user1 again).
Verify that your old files and folders are visible and the account is working normally.

Delete the admin account (user 3) created in step 1.

Delete the user folder of user2 with sudo rm /Users/user2


How many finder action undos are possible?

Empirically, five, but not always.

I wouldn't rely on it; if you disturb the queue in any way you can find it's just one.

Test by duplicating a small file 7 times, then undo til it stops... 5 steps.
Trash the dupes.

Test again, duplicate the file 5 times. After the 5th copy, 'break the chain' by then copying one of those files to another partition.
You're down to one undo step.


For Mac OS X standard windows use drop shadow with folowing parameters: black #000000 color with opacity 60%, angle 90º, distance 25px, size 50px, spread 0px.


OSX Window server vulnerabilities on catalina

Apple does not use X11 or XQuartz in any way. It's an entirely third-party app, created to run the X windows environment inside Apple's own Quartz graphics system.
The last build of XQuartz was released in 2016. Most people only use it to run particular software, like FontForge. They are unlikely to use it as a general computing environment.
I suspect that the security problems you mention only exist within the X environment, rather than bleeding out into MacOS's own window server. Apple has introduced all sorts of security features to restrict applications' operations and scope of influence, so I would be very surprised if these flaws existed.


How can I list my Applications by date installed?

Since applications are just copied to the drive anywhere (/Applications is simply a nice place for multi-user systems but apps run anywhere they land as long as it's readable) there is no mandatory place to record the installation.

Have you considered using Time Machine to construct a history?

I use BackupLoupe which will index all of your backups, so you can search and know the first backup that has that App. It's not a true installation time, but it's close within a week at worst if your backup runs at least that often.

You'll have to add some software that explicitly inventories your mac periodically to assemble such a list. Most of these apps are geared to remote management and not cost effective for one or a handful of macs.


Is there a real benefit to removing applications from the iOS multitasking bar?

In a word, No.

Apple didn't want to hand over the responsibility of application and memory management to the user, and personally I'm glad that they made that decision.

The purpose of the multitasking bar is to allow users to switch between apps and to quit apps in order to open them afresh (in case of crashes or weird behaviour).

iOS doesn't actually allow 3rd party apps to continually run in the background. There are several methods that Apple have provided to developers which allow a sort of pseudo background tasking functionality.

Long and short is, iOS is pretty damn good at managing memory usage and will kill applications in situations where RAM is running extremely low to prevent a total OS crash.

My advice is, let the OS handle it.


What's your strategy for archiving emails in Mail.app? Do you archive your Sent & Trashed emails too?

I use Mail app's "smart mailboxes" instead of copying and moving the actual messages in Mail.
For example, to archive July 2011:

create a new smart mailbox,
name it "Mail Archive July 2011" or whatever,
set the find criteria to "Date Received is in the date range 1 Jul 2011 to 31 Jul 2011",
you will probably want to check the "Include messages from Sent"
Hit okay and in a moment you have a folder contain all of July's email
Right-click the smart mailbox and choose the "Archive" option and save.

After this you have the option of keeping the smart folder or deleting it. Spotlight (in OS 10.6.8) searches the .mbox archives Mail produces, so your archive remains searchable.


2019 MacBook Air still sucks down battery when sleep

A while back Apple introduced something called "Power Nap."

Basically your Mac will still do some background tasks while asleep. I am guessing that this might be what is going on.

Go to

System Preferences > Energy Saver

and look for "Enable Power Nap while on battery power."

I would guess that it is checked, un-check it and see if that helps.

Also there is a good shareware app out there called Coconut Battery that will give you some detailed info on battery health and usage, you may want to look into that as well.


Need help with applescript and wolfram alpha interface

Use the section's name to click on the "Copyable plaintext" button :

first section = pod_0100, second section = pod_0200,  third
   section = pod_0300

Use the button's index :

('action subpod-copyablept ')[0] = the first "Copyable plaintext" button in a section.
('action subpod-copyablept ')[1] = the second "Copyable plaintext" button in a section.

The answer of the popup window is appended to the end of the document.

EX ( query : "how many tablespoons in an ounce"):

if the script click on the first Copyable button in 'pod_0200' section, the
script return "2 tbsp  (tablespoons)"
if the script click on the first Copyable button in 'pod_0100' section, the
script return "convert 1 fl oz  (fluid ounce) to tablespoons"

--

if (button_pressed is buttonResearch) and (text_returned is not "") then
    set theUrl to "http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=" & encode_text(text_returned, true, false)
    tell application "Safari"
        tell window 1 to set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:theUrl})
        tell me to say "let me look that up for you now"
        tell document 1
            repeat -- wait until loaded
                delay 2
                if (do JavaScript "document.readyState") = "complete" then exit repeat
            end repeat
            do JavaScript "document.getElementById('pod_0200').getElementsByClassName('action subpod-copyablept ')[0].click()" -- show the popup window
            set theAnswer to do JavaScript "document.body.lastChild.getElementsByTagName('pre')[0].innerHTML;" -- get the answer in this popup window
        end tell
    end tell
    activate
    display dialog theAnswer
end if


You may find that just like with most unix like systems OS X uses a salt and a hash.

I would review some of the answers on AskDifferent such as:

What type of hash are a Mac's password stored in?

  Your password and the salt is grilled by sha512 many times, then the
  result is base64'ed and reverse xxd'ed. Together with the salt and the
  iterations it's xxd'ed and base64'ed again.


Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard doesn't work on macOS Sierra

I don't know about your Macbook, but I got it to work with a late 2016 Macbook Pro with an adapter to go from the USB-C ports to the traditional Type-A USB-Ports. (Hyperdrive by Sanho) So far the Microsoft Sculpt works very well. (Some of the PC-only Fn keys don't work e.g. the search button, but it's not a major issue)

I used Karabiner Elements to change the key assignment a bit. I can recommend this guide: https://www.themtparty.com/archives/6286


My 13” MacBook Pro 2020 Thunderbolt port not working/charging

I bought this brand new MacBook Pro few weeks ago, now one of the two Thunderbolt ports are not working.

Return it. Charging (I’m not referring to “Battery Health Management) is not something that’s regulated by the OS. It’s something that’s handled by the charger and the USB controller that negotiates charging current (you don’t boot the Mac to charge it).  I was recently reading a tech article where one one these controllers can fail for one port will “kill” the charging for all ports (have to find the article).  Could it be this?  Possibility or possibly not. Point is, you have a hardware issue that’s not going to be fixed by OS tweaks, unfortunately.
Given that this is brand new and you’re already running into issues, you need to return it. Not for repair, mind you, but for refund/replacement. It’s unacceptable that new products fail this suddenly. Don’t put the burden on your shoulders; put it on Apple’s (my consumer advocacy side coming out).


Not as far as I know currently, no. You can talk to the developers on Twitter: @panic


What happens to an iTunes season pass for a TV show if the show is cancelled before the end of the season?

It is stated in the terms and conditions that you get a credit for the pro-rated shortfall should the studio fail to deliver the quantity of episodes you purchased.

Retail price means the price you paid divided equally by the episodes promised and not whatever a la carte pricing might also be available outside the bundled pass price.


How could my Mac be turning the screen off when it's set to "never"?

Try this:
sudo pmset -a standby 0

I think this has been helping with my 2018 MacMini (on Catalina) display wake problems. Standby is different from sleep, and not in the Settings GUI. standby 0 will make sure your Mac never goes into hibernation. (That command must be entered in the terminal, and will ask for your password. You must be using an administrator account, or one on which sudo has been enabled.)
There are also two workarounds for this that may be helpful.

Always turn the monitor on first, before waking the Mac (touching keyboard or mouse).

If you get the black screen, try putting the Mac to sleep and waking it again in a few seconds. You can put it in sleep by moving the mouse to the “sleep” corner set up in System Preferences, or with a key combination like Cmd-Option-Eject or Cmd-Option-Power (varies with keyboard type). Then wake it up after a few seconds by moving the mouse or pressing "Shift".


When would the US apple store provide Unlocked iPhone 5S?

By the time an unlocked iPhone 5S becomes available in the US Store, it will be also available in the UK.

If you are in a hurry, you can grab an unlocked iPhone 5S from the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Hong Kong and many other stores around the globe.


Emacs 24 and TextExpander snippets not working

I would suggest that even though emacs is running as a Cocoa application, it is not necessarily using a standard Cocoa text input box / field, due to the complexities of a emacs enviroment. So emacs in this case is probably more similar to a X11 program wrapped into a Cocoa gui and does not know how to communicate with TextExpander.
As referenced from TextExpander Support, but anyways contact their support to get the definite answer.

Does TextExpander work with Java, X11, and/or Parallels?
Not at this time. Mac OS X's assistive devices key logging does not support these environments. TextExpander relies on assistive devices key logging to capture keystrokes and so does not work in these environments. We continue to explore ways we might support these environments in a future version of TextExpander.


For a very short window (a few hours) - Apple pushed an update that disabled the ethernet driver for some of the Macs.

If you can connect to WiFi and run this command:

sudo softwareupdate --background

That would fix the issue if yours failed to operate due to this bug. The details are covered at

https://support.apple.com/HT205956

Also some more details are on this post:

Ethernet not working on MacBook pro retina 13


Does iOS backup include the OS and related questions

No, the backup does not include the operating system. However iOS can be easily downloaded from the internet, so that is not a limiting factor in itself.

The main problem is that you cannot downgrade an iPad to iOS 8 at all. The original iPad only supports up to iOS 5, and the next-oldest iPad - the iPad 2 - supports iOS 9. As it is only possible to downgrade to the iOS versions that Apple actively is signing, which only includes the latest versions available for the hardware, you're out of luck.

Your only possibility is to buy a used iPad that has iOS 8 on it.

I would recommend instead getting an iPad with a newer iOS, as there's serious security implications to running older iOS versions - and then search for a replacement app, or ask the original developers if you can convince them to update the app for newer iOS versions.


Contact names missing on calls and messages

Maybe you had Facebook contacts on and turned it off when trying to solve the other issue.

Check on Settings > Facebook to see if contacts are on.

In order to be able to call and that incoming calls are identified your contacts need to have the phone listed. It also may need to be written in a specific format (+country code (area code) number, for instance).


Unable to export .p12 certificate from Keychain Access

I had the same problem when logged in via VNC / remote desktop - it appears that if your mac detects a 'security risk' it will prevent you from pressing the "Always Allow" / "Allow" buttons.

No error message is shown and the box doesn't shake (although the button does highlight blue when clicked.)

The same issue seems to exist with KVM programs such as Synergy.

To solve the problem, simply log in to your mac using a physical keyboard and mouse, ensure remote desktop / KVM connections are turned off and try clicking the "Allow" button again


Machine name set to new-host-X instead of the name set in Preferences

Try using sudo scutil --set HostName shiny and sudo scutil --set LocalHostName shiny then close your shell (Terminal window) and open a new one.


Reinstalling macOS but not option of "Restoring from Time Machine backup" shown

I’ve always had luck just installing the os version I want. Then when the setup assistant runs, connect to the Time Machine backup and proceed to select what you want to restore.


Why does my FCE export to DV take forever?

I figured out why it was taking so long. The reason was because I store all my video on an external USB drive. When I exported it, I exported it to that external USB drive. To fix the problem, I exported from the external USB drive to the internal drive.

Update: I also found out that I need to render all my video first, then export it. This dropped the export time from days down to 20-45 minutes. One of my other problems was that I needed to make sure my footage was in the Apple Intermediate Codec format. Then, FCE doesn't have to bend over backwards to accommodate an "unsupported" format.


Nothing to do with the router in the end. The source of the fault was a Layer 1 issue with the iPhone itself (D'Oh!): the case was absolutely CRUSHING TX performance as the screenshot after case was removed from the iPhone shows:

Performance skyrocketed immediately after removing the phone's case.
I always figured there would some degree of a hit from using a phone case on signal performance, but I was absolutely stunned at actually how much there was.
Anyhoo, hope this helps others improve crap performance due to these snazzy phone cases we all love so much ;-)-
The offending case (wood with some sort of rubberized material lining it) is pictured below at Dan's request:


Can't load boot camp Windows 7 after resizing Mac partition

Don't change any partitions after instaling Windows 7 Bootcamp, otherwise Windows 7 won't work.


Is it possible to sync an iPad via iPhone without a computer

There is no designated option to sync music between an iPod Nano and an iPhone.

Neither the iPod Nano nor the iPod Shuffle have WIFI capabilities, so they can not use iTunes in the Clooud. Id est you have to sync you iPod with iTunes on a computer.


You can do it with a .dmg.

Open Disk utility
Select New Image or File > New > Blank disk image
Choose the name, where to put it, the size (it will be pre-allocated)
Choose an encryption
Leave the other settings by default
Choose a password

Now, all you have to do when you want to access that folder, is open the .dmg file.

And it's free.

I found an app that took care of all of that in 2-3 easy steps but can't seem to find it again. You might have more luck.


Touch ID needed when creating a file in external ssd

If you don't need the remains Time Machine might have left on the external drive, starting Disk Utility and reformatting the disk (to APFS in case of an SSD) should get you back on track.


How to delete iTunes once and for all from the command-line?

I haven't tested this yet, but softwareupdate seems to support adding ignored updates:

softwareupdate --ignore iTunes

--ignore ...
            Manages the per-machine list of ignored updates.

--reset-ignored
            Clears the list of all ignored updates.

[...]

sudo softwareupdate --ignore iCal iPhoto

      Ignored updates:
      (iPod, SafariUpdate)

This might prevent iTunes from getting reinstalled when you upgrade OS X:

sudo rm -r /Applications/iTunes.app
touch /Applications/iTunes.app
chflags hidden /Applications/iTunes.app


Here is the download link of iPhoto 9.4.3

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1650?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Other versions here:

https://support.apple.com/downloads/iphoto


What can *.itc files contain when not PNG or JPG?

Well thanks @beroe for the link.

After some digging I wrote a little documentation of .itc files.

.itc files are actually wrapper of images that are either PNG, JPG or ARGB raw files. .itc files can hold multiple images with different size. Most of the time there are 3 images of (128*128, 256*256 & 400*400).

I wrote a little bash script that convert all .itc files into jpg or png and puts them in ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/Images.


Why doesn't my iPod touch (5th Gen) have FaceTime?

You should at least see a FaceTime icon in Settings:

If you don't, FaceTime may not available in your country. According to Wikipedia and Apple these countries don't support FaceTime:

Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Pakistan

If that's not your case, please check this document. It explains what to do to troubleshoot a missing FaceTime app. This is the relevant section:

Note that FaceTime may not be available on devices purchased or used in certain countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In Settings > General > Restrictions, verify FaceTime and Camera are On.
Disabling Camera also disables FaceTime.
Update to the latest version of iOS.
Restore your device:

Back up your device to iCloud or iTunes.
Tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
Note: This will erase all user data from your device.
When complete, configure your device by selecting your region and language and then restore your data using the iCloud or iTunes backup.
Note: When setting up and restoring a backup from iTunes, ensure that your computer's language, country, and date and time are set correctly.

If you still cannot locate the FaceTime app, try turning it on at Settings > FaceTime.


Is iBooks Author suitable for producing poetry?

Yes. Actually, what iBooks Author excels at is letting you format your text precisely, with elaborate styles and style sheets, and preventing the user from changing the font, point size, or theme. You get tremendously precise formatting and layout, and the user can't change anything at all in landscape orientation, while they can scale font size a bit in portrait orientation.

Here's the main drawback that I have just discovered myself: iBooks Author will only output books that can be read on an iPad with iOS 5 running the new iBooks 2.0. The book you create with iBooks Author cannot be read on an iPhone or iPod Touch or anything running iOS 4.2.1 or iBooks 1.0.

Secondly, the file size of a book that is all text (no illustrations) is HUGE. I'm talking 20 times as large as it should be. I've tested it. A book that was 900K in size created with other tools becomes 20MB in size when created in iBooks Author.


Second screen is detected by OSX but isn't turned on

Multiple monitors connected as your by DisplayPort (and/or HDMI converted from DisplayPort) served by a USB-C dock won't work on macOS. It will work on Windows, which is what Lenovo advertises.

For macOS you'll need a Thunderbolt dock instead to be able to do this.

A different solution is to plug one monitor into the dock, and the other monitor into the Mac. However you'll need to connect two cables to the computer this way, which is probably what you want to avoid when using a dock.


How to permanently put TextEdit in the Open with... menu list?

The only way to do this with all file types is to create a service in automator, which actually should make things easier for you.

Open Automator and select "Service".
In the "Service receives selected..." dropdown, change it to read "receives selected files and folders in any application"
Select Utilities from the library menu in the left pane and double-click "Run Shell Script"
Change the "Pass Input" dropdown to "as arguments"
Delete the default script and replace with the following:

if [ -f "$1" ] ; then
    open -a "TextEdit" "$1" ;
fi

Save this file as whatever you want it to show up as in your contextual menu, something like "Open With TextEdit" and you're done, you'll now have the option to open any file with text edit.

It won't be in the open with menu, it will be a separate item in the contextual menu grouped with any other services you have running.

On a side note, if you're developing on a mac you should really think about using a better text editor like TextMate or TextWrangler or Sublime Text, some of these even add the service for you to save you doing all of the above.


Have you checked out Recent Tab List? It's a Safari extension that allows you to manage open tabs and recently closed tabs in Safari.

You can reopen closed tabs quickly, as well as switch to open tabs. It also provides search functionality, so you can search for a tab. This is particularly useful if you have many tabs open across multiple windows.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with this extension.


How can I install an application from a .pkg without admin password?

You might be able to extract the main .app file from the .pkg using "Pacifist", downloaded from http://www.charlessoft.com/

Depending on what system settings are updated (or, if any global libraries or frameworks are installed) by the installer, this process may or may not work completely.


Cannot delete mail from storage in Usage section of IPhone

Try rebooting the phone. Press and hold Home+Sleep until the Apple logo appears.

If that doesn't work, and the email account you are using with Mail is not connected using POP3, then try removing the email account and re-adding it. Go to Settings app > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > tap on the specific account > Delete Account. Confirm that you want to delete it, and reboot the phone - press and hold Home + Sleep until the Apple logo appears. Re-add the account by going to Settings app > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.


Ok I found the solution. I Installed the right APN settings via http://www.unlockit.co.nz

Then I disabled the "EU internet" setting.

update: I guess the "EU internet" enabled setting is the reason who I couldn't change the APN settings...


For accessing CoreStorage encrypted volumes, you can use the freely available libfvde software on Linux:

https://github.com/libyal/libfvde

For APFS encrypted containers you can use either the commercial software "APFS for Linux by Paragon Software":

https://www.paragon-software.com/us/business/apfs-linux/

or the freely available apfs-fuse software:

https://github.com/sgan81/apfs-fuse

Both are read-only.

Note that apfs-fuse is marked as "experimental", so YMMV. However as it is read-only it shouldn't do any harm to do your data.


How to restore Parallel's Applications folder?

The way I was able to resolve the issue is by launching Parallels and then going into the "configure" settings. Next, I went to the Options > Applications, and checked "Show Windows applications folder in Dock".

Apparently when you drag the folder out of the dock, it will automatically uncheck this setting for you. In fact, if you try adding the folder manually and then launching Parallels, it will automatically remove the manually added folder.


Does Reinstalling Mac OS from Recovery Clears App data?

Yes, reinstalling macOS under these circumstances1 may erase app data.

If you don't have a Time Machine backup (and you really really should), then the other options you have are:

export your bookmarks from Firefox as a html file
export your bookmarks from Chrome as a html file
ensure your Notes files are synced to iCloud

You would then just copy the HTML files you exported onto an external USB drive for importing back later, and your Notes files will be available to your other Apple devices (or via the web) assuming you have other Apple devices with iCloud enabled.

Finally, you could also use Chrome's and Firefox's built-in syncing services to save your bookmarks.

NOTE: If you don't use iCloud, you could always just copy and paste your Notes into another app from which you can save them onto an external disk (e.g. TextEdit, Pages, MS Word, etc).

Further reading

Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks
Google Chrome Help: Import or export bookmarks
iCloud: Notes overview
Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac

1 It's unclear what you mean by 'disk errors', but if these are such that your startup volume needs reformatting then your data will be lost.


How to fix/clean burnt MagSafe 2 connection

Yes, those are definitely burnt and this is because the sand allowed a gap just large enough that the electrical current arced from the adapter to DC-In port.

You can't clean this with alcohol - that's actually the last step.  What you need is something that's mildly abrasive.  You may have more luck cleaning the MagSafe adapter because those are pins where as the DC-In board are four conductive "dimples" surrounded by the most fragile plastic you'll ever run across.

What you can try:

Solder Wick.  Take a small piece and using a blunt tool (pen, pencil, etc.) and work it back and forth like a Brillo pad.
A very tiny piece of 800 grit sand paper (tiny enough to fit inside the DC-In port indentation) and work the same was as described with the solder wick.
Make a slightly moist paste of Bar Keepers Friend and water and "scrub" with a cotton swab (when I say slightly I mean just shy of being dry).

Once you've "scrubbed" the contacts, you can then use the alcohol to clean the contacts properly.  Basically, it's like cleaning "burnt on" anything  in the kitchen - you've got to scrub it off first, before you polish it.  Until you get it clean, it's not going to make proper contact.

If all else fails, the DC-In board is actually very cheap and very easy to replace.


Prevent iOS device from sleeping if plugged to charger

In the past there was an Cydia App called ScreenDimmer.

I hope you can find this application via your iPhone and fix your problem.

One of its features:

  Doesn't dim the screen if the battery is being charged.


This is quite easy if there's no back story to why you feel hosts file is not the right solution. You also might have problems if you're not used to pasting things in Terminal, but if that's the case - you can ask a second question for help on that too!

Copy and paste the following lines into Terminal:

cd
mkdir diy_proxy
cd diy_proxy
cat > index.html << EOF
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://apple.stackexchange.com/" />
EOF
python -m SimpleHTTPServer

To kill the python web server, press: Control-C

The lines do the follows:

get you in your home directory/folder
make a folder to hold the index file that will redirect your browser
go to that folder
send characters to the file index.html until you see EOF (and don't include it)
This is the magic that tells your browser to redirect
ends the content to save to file index.html
start a lightweight web server on port 8000 to serve up the index file


High Sierra - The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged

Same error happened to me when I received an update from 10.13.1 to 10.13.2.

If you boot with shift button pressed, you will be able to enter safe mode and try to download and reinstall an update.
It did not help to me so I booted holding Option key and chosen regular Mac HD (not an update volume). Booted to my Mac without safe mode and tried to reinstall this update. Somehow it worked out in several reboots.


Stop finder using cover flow in icon view

Right click in the folder you have the problem.
Select Arrange by > None.
Right click again and select Clean up by > Date Created.


macOS - Difference between /Library/Preferences/ & /Library/Managed\ Preferences

Managed Preferences were used by Casper Suite (now Jamf Pro).
According to the Casper Suite Administrator's Guide v9.97:

Managed Preferences are manifest files that define preferences for computers and users. You can use the JAMF Software Server (JSS) to create Managed Preference profiles, which contain groups of Managed Preferences. You can also specify the users and computers for which a profile should be applied (called “scope”).

But Managed Preferences has been removed since Jamf Pro 10.0.0:

The following functionality has been removed:
[...]

Managed Preferences—Support for managed preferences has been removed. It is recommended that you use macOS configuration profiles to define settings and restrictions for computers and users.

[...]

They were based on the now deprecated Managed Client for OS X (MCX).


MacBook Pro won't boot after remove boot partition

You should be able to net-boot by holding command-option-R at startup (it has to be online of course). This will give you the option to reinstall Mac OS X, and you won't have to erase your disk to do it unless the disk is already damaged/corrupted.


Do alternatives to the default Twitter app use less data?

I'm not aware of another app that uses less data but you can reduce your data usage on Twitter for iOS 10:

Settings -> Data -> Video auto play -> Use wifi only

This will stop videos from playing automatically. I suggest you reset your cellular statistics and see how much data you use now. If you want to go even further you could turn off Image previews on that same "Data" page.


Power down the system (using the standard Shut Down in the Apple menu) and then start it up again. Shutdown should remove the nologin file for you.


Chrome: full screen shortcut does not work

Open the Chrome Settings (in the menu) and click "Show advanced settings." Remove the take a look at next to "Use hardware acceleration" and then attempt again.

If that does not work, press F11 to make Chrome itself fullscreen. Once you've watched the video, press F11 once more to exit the fullscreen mode


Bash doesn't support `show-mode-in-prompt` readline option for `vi` editing-mode on macOS?

The show-mode-in-prompt option was introduced in bash 4.3 (from this SO answer) but Apple supplies version 3.2 (which is probably why zsh will become the default for new users but this old bash will remain for Catalina at least.)

So you need to install a newer version of bash. Package managers like Macports, fink, Homebrew and Nix will have a port of this.

e.g. for Macports . Install Macports as per the guide basically download and eun an installer from the downloaded .dmg

Install bash to /opt/local/bin by

sudo port install bash

Then add to Terminal or iTerm preferences to change the command that is ruin to be this bash explicitly.

This currently gives you bash version 5.


How can I copy only one page on iPad pages app?

open the document and at the top, you see an icon that looks like a page divided into 1/3 and 2/3. See the image below. Tap on that icon and you'll see "Page Thumbnails". Turn that on and then tap on the document. You'll see the thumbnails on the left. Tap on the Thumbnails you want and you'll get an option to copy or edit.


username different in Terminal and System Preferences

In Terminal the whoami displays your Short Name. This Short Name is also found as the name of your Home directory.

When you go into System Preferences and look at the user on the left it displays your Full Name.

Mac OS X does not let you easily change your Short Name, but you can change your Full Name from System Preferences.

Refer to this knowledge base from Apple if you wish to change your Short Name.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428


How to prevent iTerm2's Hotkey Window from changing desktop?

iTerm developers answered that this feature is already in a nightly build


Is it possible to configure the 2013 Airport Extreme to use a syslog server?

Well, I bought one and tried.

AirPort Utility 5.6.1 complains about incompatible hardware and missing parameters, but apart from that it works :) It's possible to configure the syslog server.


this mac can't connect to icloud because of a problem with gmail

Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts.

In the left pane, select the Google/GMail account.

Below the left pane, select "-" to delete the account. This won't delete the GMail account or whatever emails may be in it, but will terminate this Mac's ability to communicate with Google/GMail via the Apple Mail.app.

Sign out of iCloud. Wait a bit.

Sign back into iCloud.

Return to System Preferences > Internet Accounts. Select "Google" in the right pane, and re-enable the Google/GMail account on the Mac.


Here's the deal w/ iTunes in regards to moving your Users directory to a separate drive or partition; it turns out that the Shared directory must remain on the system drive. For example, in my context the path should be /Mac/Users/Shared where 'Mac' is my system drive. The other users stay in /Volumes/Pig/Users/..., i.e., arrow and wildcat.

I believe the permissions I listed above are incorrect and they've since been changed to:

/Volumes/Pig - 644 system:admin

/Volumes/Pig/Users - 644 system:admin

/Mac/Users/Shared - 777 arrow:admin

Correcting the permissions to their current settings didn't solve the problem on it's own, moving Shared to the same drive as the iTunes binary did.


I encountered the same problem. I solved it by creating an empty file called RECORD in the virtualenv directory.

On my machine, the command to run in Terminal was

 touch /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11.6.dist-info/RECORD

That's it. After doing that, pip install virtualenv --upgrade worked for me.


Shortcut to create/remove desktop in Mac OSX 10.8

I would use Automator's watch me function to record the keys and mouse actions needed to add a new screen.

Barring that, you'd need to hack the plist and restart finder or get third party MouseTools to help with UI automation.

See this post for those options:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9606221/


Can macOS High Sierra write to NTFS external drives?

You actually can, and I just did it.

In short:

note the label of your NTFS volume.
edit /etc/fstab even if it doesn't exist, e.g. with sudo vi /etc/fstab
Add this line for every NTFS volume: LABEL="VOLUME_NAME_WITHOUT_QUOTES" none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
Re-plug your drive.

You will not see the drive in Finder's "Devices", because this option requires nobrowse to work, but it is mounted in /Volumes/<ntfs_label>


Hand-writing annotations on Keynote or PDF slides

Preview has a sketch function that you can use to “write” after a fashion.
I don’t possess a wacom graphics tablet so no idea how it would perform with that.


Why is saying verification required on my iPhone 5c?

Apple's servers are responsible for deciding if your device and account are in proper standing to make a purchase.

One of two things is happening:

your device is not working properly - most likely due to having two accounts and/or wrong date or other software corruption
your account on the server needs adjusting

With the little information you provided, more triage is needed to know which. You could get a second iOS device and wipe it clean / update it. If you can sign in and make one purchase there - try entering your card and verification details once there. Then making a second "purchase" which could even be a free app download, you will know if the problem is in Apple's side or on your device.

Alternatively, you'll have to start changing one thing on your iOS device and re-testing. If you have a backup, you could erase all content and settings and then set up the device making sure the date/time are correct and then repeat the steps above.

If not, make a backup and then start here:

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/features/

You'll either use the Apple ID support link or perhaps try checking the status of the App Store or another link that grabs your eye - posting a new question here with update and details on your issue.


Getting per-user websites working on Mountain Lion server

I also had this problem, and (after only a few hours of head-to-desk impact) found the answer here on AD, from 16 months ago.

Apache 2 `UserDir` problem in OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) Server after upgrade from Lion (10.7)

If you look at /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and your DocumentRoot is /Library/WebServer/Documents/, you might not notice that the error you're getting is about a DocumentRoot with a subtly different name.

/Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/httpd_server_app.conf refers to serving stuff out of /Library/Server/Web/Data/, which corresponds the server you seem to be running.

You (like me) may be a bit surprised about that. It would've been nice for the Server.app install to drop a helpful README in /etc/apache2.  You wisely tested that you had the correct config directory, but were thwarted -- httpd_server_app.conf #includes a bunch of files from /etc/apache2/extra/.


Yes, Apple is still signing iOS 6.1.3 for the iPod Touch 4th Gen. So you should be able to upgrade to it through iTunes when it prompts you to update it.

Or you can also manually update it through iTunes:

Download the iOS 6.1.3 firmware (from the above link)
Connect the iPod to the Mac and run iTunes
Go to the device screen
Press Option and click the Update button to open a File Browser window
Choose the IPSW file you downloaded


How well does Windows 8 RTM run on rMBP via BootCamp

I'm having a lot of problems running Metro Apps, some of them crash or fail to load.

Contacted microsoft via microsoft answers and they told me that the broadcom bluetooth may cause the problem.  The driver is from 2009, I'm trying to get an updated driver from apple or other source.


Beside BTT, there is some free option that let you customize your Touch Bar as you like (with the customize widget they provide) and can make iterm2 appear thanks to the dock widget : Pock & EnergyBar

TouchSwitcher  & Rocket are also a good call as they are only about quick launching an app.

There is also My TouchBar My Rules who claims to be just like BTT, but free ! However it's looks like it's not very user friendly (but never had the chance to try it so far)


How to stop Catalina from continually telling me I need to sign in again?

If signing in several times doesn’t resolve this and you can’t or won’t wait it out, signing out completely appears to get this prompt to go away.

iCloud Keychain refuses to setup on Catalina

You do of course have to deal with the side effects of signing out like choosing to delete or keep local copies of iCloud data and then setting up your iCloud preferences and settings.

If you have a good backup, you could also try force quitting the system preferences app before you log out of the account.


Well now I have to take a stab at this with the information and comments you have provided. I am going to guess that the OS is damaged, probably the WindowServer is screwed up (http://www.macinside.info/process.php?name=WindowServer).

This can be resolved with a reinstall of the OS. You should have any data loss but of course make sure you have an active backup of all files just to be on the safe side.

To test though you could turn off the OS function of restoring previous sessions and then restart the computer holding down the shift key. With the shift key held until you see the spinning gear. This starts your system in Safe mode where only Apple daemons are allowed to run. WindowServer is a part of the OS and if it is indeed damaged then the issue will appear (after some time maybe) in a Safe OS.


Pages 5: Increase indentation in table of contents?

You can set the indentation for each heading type in the TOC in Pages 5. Select a heading in the TOC then open up the Format Panel, go into the Text tab and change the Indents/First value (see pic). This updates the TOC's indentation for that type of header.


How to securely delete versions in mac os lion

I can't think of a targeted way to do this, but this should do the trick. Delete the versions that you want to delete using the method outlined in the question you linked to. Then use Disk Utility's "Erase Free Space" option (or diskutil secureErase freespace [level] [device]) to write over the data.


Timemachine - Turn off "No Backup for X Days" for secondary Disk

Since the backup volume is offsite, you can simply remove it from the list in Time Machine settings whilst it's away from home. When you add it back, Time Machine will pick up the existing backup. That's what I always do myself.

As for performance, the first backup after adding the volume back has a longer preparation step (presumably for computing the diffs) but that also happens anyway after a few weeks when Time Machine stops maintaining the diffs as changes on the file system occur in real time.


Is there anyway or work around to enjoy the dark mode feature of macOS Mojave without updating to it?

Briefly, no.

Why not install Mojave on a second drive (or just maintain a backup) so you can test things out with the new feature that shipped so you can revert as needed to your old system or data?

The framework and app updates to support this new feature are widely baked into the OS so you would need to have a poor excuse for dark mode by inverting the entire display using accessibility on High Sierra and lower.