What is sort of standard torrent client for MacOS (2019-2020)?

Transmission is the app that I have most often heard people talk about when “torrents on the Mac” comes up.

I don’t know uTorrent, so I can’t speak to whether its functionality is the same as Transmission, but it is very straightforward to use.

Transmission is donation-ware, so you can download and try it out for free.


How power efficient are Apple's bluetooth devices?

I have a Magic Mouse and a Wireless keyboard, and I use rechargeable batteries. I charge them once a month, but I'm sure they'll last at least one more.

All the recent Apple wireless (Bluetooth) products are very smart about power usage and it really doesn't matter wether you turn them off or leave them on. I turn them off only when transporting them in my bag.

Note that the battery percentage reported for bluetooth devices is not accurate. It's based on the voltage of the cell, and since it's different in the Alkaline (1.5 V) and the Ni-MH rechargeable (1.3 V) batteries, it's virtually impossible to distinguish between the two. Not to mention the discharge curve of both.

Changes in 10.6.7 made it more accurate for devices, running on rechargeable batteries - It now treats charge around 1.3 V for 100%.


What PDF Viewer can be used to present slides on High Sierra?

Just a few days ago I have asked the same question at tex.stackexchange.com. User DG‘ has provided a couple of useful suggestions, which culminated  in the following answer:

The delay in rendering pdfs with preview.app can be avoided with the following apps (they are all available through homebrew):

Présentation.app: brew cask install presentation
pdfpc: brew install pdfpc
xpdf: brew install xpdf

Additional Remarks by Daniel

For those who prefer MacPorts: Currently MacPorts provides only the X11 versions, which do not work well for presenting full-screen mode. The homebrew variants are native. You can install them without doing any harm on your MacPorts setup.
The graphical Présentation.app and the console-based pdfpc assume a dual-screen setup and provide a presenter display with the next slide, elapsed time and so on. Both internally pre-render the PDF pages. Depending on the complexity of the slides (transparencies have quite an impact), this may take a while. However, the presentation output is superb.
Apparently, xpdf does not do pre-rendering. While it is fast in general, switching to a new slide causes flicker.


My iPhone Literally Gets Full When I Connect To Computer

Because Autofill is on In your iTunes,
Simply Connect your phone to iTunes then Go to Summary then Uncheck Autofill.


Books are managed by the OS X application iBooks. You have to use iBooks in order to add books to your library. There is no Books section in your iTunes library where you can drag files to.

So just launch iBooks and drag files into the application window, and the books section in the synchronize tab will update immediately. Then, synchronize your device.

Also, if you try to add PDF files using File -> Add to Library, iTunes seems add those files as sound files, and they end up in the Music section of your Library, but won't be copied to your iOS device as PDF files.

Here is thread on discussions.apple.com, and the answer that pointed me to the right direction:

StumbleSally     Midwest - US

Re: how to upload pdf to ipad

Mar 7, 2014 6:56 PM (in response to dawnrber)

With the recent update to iTunes (I'm now on iTunes 11.1.5), the previous directions for uploading an PDF and syncing it with iBooks didn't work for me because iBooks is now a separate program at least on Macs.  Maybe iBooks has been separate for a while, but anyway, here's what I had to do:

Start iBooks.
Drag the PDF from my desktop to iBooks.
Start iTunes.
Plug in my iPad.
Stop the auto-sync/back up process in the center window by pressing on the small "X" (yours may not be set to auto sync when plugged in).
Select my iPad name in the left column.
Select Books from the menu bar just under the iTunes center window (you can skip this step if you want to sync all of your books).
Select the checkbox for the PDF(s) you want to sync (skip if you're syncing all books).
Select the Sync button in the lower right.
Once synced, go to iBooks on your iPad and in the Library, select Collections.
Select PDFs.

You should now see all of the PDFs you synced.


Unless you are traveling and won't have access to your external backup drive, disabling the local backup is OK. I would backup your laptop with more frequency, however, unless all your data is stored in the cloud somewhere.

Lastly, if you take your laptop to work regularly, keep a second external HD in your desk and use Time Machine to create a second backup.


Did it make any problems to your system?

  The ".localized" files simply contain user language dependent data.
  This allows the Finder to display localized folder and file names. A
  good example of this is the "Applications" folder, which on the file
  system is called "Applications" but magically appears to the user with
  a localized name (e.g. "Applicazioni" in Italian).

To restore it:

Open the terminal

Type defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Type killall Finder

Open the finder and go to the Desktop folder
Start Time Machine
Use Time Machine for restoring the .localized file
Open the terminal

Type defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Type killall Finder

Skip steps 1 and 5 if you already see the hidden files in Finder and you like it.


I do not know for the OS X 10.6.8 but on 10.9.5 it works like this

Create new Smart Mailbox

Once it is done finding all emails with attachments

Select all or specific one

Under the Messages tab select "Remove Attachment".

Or

Create a keyboard shortcut for it

System preferences Keyboard - Shortcuts tab

Select App shortcut

Click on (+) sign)

Select Mail in the Application window

Write "Remove Attachments"

Now choose your favorite keyboard combination for it.


iOS Developer Program: I misspelled my address, and now I cannot cancel my enrolment and try again

I would call Developer Support directly to get them to look at the specifics for your account:

https://developer.apple.com/contact/

Choose the Enrollment and Account link and sign in to get your options. It your AppleID doesn't work to sign in, then you need to contact the online store in your country and ask them to connect you with the developer support team. In the US it's 1-800-MY-APPLE.


How does one send MIDI files from iOS Garageband?

Unfortunately the answer is just as simple: you can't.

At least not using GarageBand for iOS only. It doesn't have an "export MIDI" function, in fact you can only export the entire project, not individual tracks, so I suppose it isn't too surprising.

This is not to say it is impossible to get midi from the software instrument tracks in a GB for iOS project.

The first idea that comes to mind is to open the .band file in Logic or GarageBand for Mac (transfer via USB or use the sharing option) then export the project or tracks as a midi file (actually I am not 100% sure about GarageBand, I know you can in Logic).

It would be nice if you could do this without having to resort to using a Mac though, (especially since Apple markets the iPad Pro as being more powerful than many laptops; the iPad version of GarageBand can't do this either) and it's not like it is a fundamental limitation of iOS, it's just GarageBand for iOS doesn't have the feature. If there is an app that can open the .band files saved by GB for iOS and save the software instrument tracks as midi files, you could do what you want entirely on your iOS device.

But it still wouldn't be possible with GarageBand for iOS alone, at least currently. I'd recommend submitting feedback, both in the App Store and the Apple Support website, IMO this would be a popularly welcomed feature if it is implemented, I don't use GarageBand too often so I was surprised the only export/share options was as a bounced audio track and project file.


Is there any way to change the font SYSTEM WIDE on MacBook Pro running OSX Yosemite?

As of today the only 2 ways i know of are:

Hack the CFF headers of a font: github example and put the modified font(s) in a prioritized font folder.
The other one indeed is TinkerTool. However you have to spoof your version of Mac OS X temporarily to make it work. According to this site and this post 4th entry:
Go to System/Library/CoreServices inside your OS X hard drive and open the file SystemVersion.plist with TextEdit. Change the system version listed under "ProductVersion" to 10.9. You should also change "ProductUserVisibleVersion", just so that you can confirm that the edit worked later by going to the About This Mac page.


Finder should already remember both arrange by and sort by modes for all normal folders. But in column view and list view the current folder is the root folder of the window. Or if you use column view, it is usually some location in the sidebar or the computer view.

I don't think there is any way to change that, but if you open folders by selecting them from the sidebar (or for example from Alfred), you could add folders to the sidebar.

I'd actually like the opposite and make all folders default to arranging by none and sorting by name. Deleting .DS_Store files only does that temporarily until you change the sort by or arrange by modes manually.


I removed the battery icon from the menu bar. How do I add it back?

The simple way, goto "System preferences" -> "Energy Saver", and check "Show Battery status in menu bar"


What cheap option is there to use a Mac to produce quality 'Videosongs'?

I can't see any difference to other home/amateur movies? What's so special about it? Have you tried iMovie? Comes with iLife, usually pre-installed on new Macs. Another option would be Final Cut, of course. But that takes some time to learn.


This is a repost of this article I wrote here:  https://discussions.apple.com/message/32385656#32385656

With High Sierra, there is a serious thing people should know about that Apple does not mention.  In my opinion, you should avoid APFS on external drives.

You cannot make a disk image of an external APFS drive.  Period.  No tool can.  This makes backups of such drives problematic.

Solution:  use Mac OS Extended instead of APFS on external hard drives, until Apple fixes this limitation.

After converting my external SSD drive to APFS I found that it was having errors and wished to reformat it and restore.  I've been using Time Machine regularly and my first hope was to somehow restore from there.  However, that was not possible because once you reformat a drive, you cannot restore to it from Time Machine.  Time Machine will see it as a new volume.  Time Machine is intended for restoring particular folders and files back to a functioning drive and does not help you if your drive completely fails!  I learned a lesson there.
Luckily my drive was not in terrible shape, and I also have another drive so I decided to make a backup image and then just restore from that. That's when things got weird.
I went to SuperDuper! which is my backup image creation tool of choice I've had for years.  It refused to list the APFS drive as a source for backup.  Huh.  You can see in this screen shot that although I have an APFS drive, SuperDuper! just doesn't list it as a source for backups.

OK, so I then turned to Disk Utility.  It greys out the "Image from..."  for APFS disks as you can see here:

Carbon Copy Cloner will let you make a backup from APFS to another drive, but will not create an image of it.  If you do, you will get an error when trying to mount the image during the backup process.  So you have to use the whole target drive as a backup.  I usually use disk images so I can have backups of both my internal and external on one external drive.

So there you go.  Personal opinion:  I believe the best plan is to not use APFS anywhere you don't have to.  I have not seen any improvement with APFS anyhow -- the "fast copy" feature of course only works if you are duplicating a large file on an APFS drive, which is something few people really do often.

Hope this information is helpful to someone.

(note:  Some might notice and be confused that I'm using a drive called "2 TB backup encrypted HD APFS" as my backup source.  I'm writing this after converting my other drive to Mac OS Extended, so for screen shots, I used my backup drive as an example.  The point still holds.  If you don't understand this note, feel free to just ignore it.)


How do I update iMovie after changing App Store Apple ID and upgrading macOS?

iMovie and the other iLife apps used to be paid-for except with a new Mac, and when the App Store was introduced, it registered the Mac's serial number with your App Store account to allow you to download iMovie etc. for free.

These days, these apps are actually free anyway. The problem in your case is that you still have the old binary around, and this contains the App Store receipt with  your old App Store Apple ID.

Make sure you have a backup of the iMovie app just to be sure, (e.g. Time Machine, or just copy the app to an external HDD or USB stick)
Then quit the App Store app if it's running and delete iMovie from the Applications folder.
Eject any external media that have the iMovie app on as well, so the App Store app can't find any existing copies to update.
Open the App Store, make sure you're logged in with your correct Apple ID.
Find iMovie in the store (just search for it), and hit "Get". This will redownload the latest version of iMovie for free, using your new Apple ID.

Step 3 is crucial, if the App Store can find an existing copy of the app it will try to update it again, running into the same problem as before.


Looking for an App to manage Finder Tags

Ironic Software has several Apps which can do that, f.e. 'Yep' and 'Leap'. Take a look at their descriptions, both are Sierra-compatible.


Arranging Windows/Applications via presets

I'm not sure if it's the best option out there, but the application Stay offers this functionality, albeit in a limited way.

It's possible to configure default window sizes and positions for applications. Saving a state and restoring the state can be done with keyboard shortcuts.

I would however have liked to see more options and different presets, even combined presets with multiple applications in one layout.


Increase KeyRepeat Speed in MacOS Big Sur

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 1
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 10

And turn off press and hold if you haven't: \
defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

I can confirm they work because I am using these settings. Also make sure "slow keys" is disabled in System Preferences > Accessibility > Slow Keys.
Also, although it seems counterintuitive, I checked all my defaults for keyrepeat entries with defaults read | grep -i 'keyrepeat' and found that I had "KeyRepeatEnabled = 0;" in my com.apple.Accessibility defaults.
So maybe setting that to 1 would override the other above defaults and prevent fast key repeat.
To match my setting you can use the command:
defaults write com.apple.Accessibility KeyRepeatEnabled -bool 0

You need to restart your computer for all of these things to take effect! Logging off and on did not change anything for me.


How can I sync Reading List with Windows?

According to Apple's support docs, Safari 5.1.1 for Windows will sync the Reading List via iCloud.

  Safari 5.1.1 includes support for iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services. iCloud stores your Safari bookmarks and Safari Reading List and automatically pushes them to all your devices.

I believe you would need to have Safari up to date. Then, install the iCloud Windows control panel and configure it to sync Safari content.

Then, enable iCloud on all of your Mac/iOS devices, and you should be good to go.


macOS Catalina still uses bash as the default shell

Turns out the terminal app has its own settings for which shell to use.
I had to go to terminal preferences and change the option for Shells open with to Default login shell:


How to delete files on iMac with no menus -- Your startup disk is full

Try deleting files in single user mode:

Restart
Hold ⌘S after hearing the startup sound (it doesn't work if I start holding it before the computer has restarted)
Run mount -uw / (fsck -fy is not needed)
Run something like rm -r /Users/username/.Trash/
reboot


Internet Accounts - Login Issue with Google and iCloud

I'm certainly no expert on iCloud, but I recently had some luck by using the code (as opposed to the password) from my mobile device. You might try that. While it may not fix it, it may give you a more helpful error. That is what happened for me.


How do I block callers from leaving voicemails?

In your Phone app → Recents, tap the ⓘ next to the phone number you wish to block, then tap Block this Call at the very bottom.

You can also tap the ⓘ next to an undesirable voicemail message under Phone → Voicemail.

Blocked callers can still leave you voicemails, but they will go straight into a separate Blocked Messages voice mailbox without raising a notification or ringtone. You’ll never have to listen to them.

You may also try downloading some call-filtering apps from the App Store. Free ones include Whoscall, Truecaller, and Hiya. They use Apple’s CallKit to proactively block known spammers and scammers. I am not affiliated with any of those apps.

AT&T also offers AT&T Call Protect for its own customers, also on the App Store. Other carriers have their own offerings as well.


Watcher is not free, however, it allows setting of a curfew, and some other features that may help you work more productively.


Collection of albums in iTunes? Essentially a playlist of albums?

There does seem to be a way to make Smart Playlists that only include whole albums - you need to love ('Heart') the album (not the individual tracks) and then use "Album is Loved" as one of your smart playlist conditions.

Strangely it seems to only work on my home library - my work laptop with iCloud Match messes up the albums - but it seems to work for my iPad and iPhone syncing, which was my purpose, as I like to listen to whole albums not random tracks.


Problems using Anaconda in macOS Catalina

The problems observed are related to the new system policy for user owned "system folders" like Documents, Desktop etc.

Here is a related syslog entry me trying to execute or open some script/file in $USER/Documents/ with Spyder/iPython:

Sandbox: python(2233) System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/admin/Documents
Violation:       System Policy: deny(1) file-read-data /Users/admin/Documents
Process:         python [2233]
Path:            /Users/admin/opt/anaconda3/python.app/Contents/MacOS/python
Load Address:    0x103cbc000
Identifier:      com.continuum.python
Version:         ??? (???)
Code Type:       x86_64 (Native)
Parent Process:  bash [2232]
Responsible:     /bin/sh [/Users/admin/opt/anaconda3/Anaconda-Navigator.app/Contents/MacOS/run.sh]
User ID:         501

I had no problems to execute scripts in subfolders of Documents though.

One may add an executable to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full disk access (see this q&a), but since too many execs may be involved, it's much simpler to create a new folder (e.g Development, Dev, Anaconda-Dev etc.) in your user folder and move your dev files & folders in there. The permission errors should disappear afterwards.


Upgrading one partition to El Capitan while leaving the other on Mountain Lion

Yes, you can go ahead and  install El Capitan to the smaller partition.

You just need to run the "Install OS X El Capitan" application and select the proper destination volume. I would first use the Disk Utility application to erase this destination volume. You do not have to use a USB drive to install El Capitan.

During the installation, the Recovery volume following destination volume will be update with the proper code. The Recover volume for Mountain Lion will be unchanged. The result will be two different Recover volumes on your internal disk. Each will be given a different label so you can tell them apart.

During the installation, I was not asked, if I wanted to use Core Storage. In the event, you are asked, the answer should be No.

  I verified this procedure by running the "Install OS X El Capitan" application from an internal Yosemite volume. I installed El Capitan to an external drive. The Yosemite volume was unchanged by the procedure.

I also have had Yosemite and El Capitan installed in different volumes on my internal drive for some time now. You can switch operating systems by selecting the Startup Disk in System Preferences.


How to restore recent files back to their folders?

From what I understand, "Recents" are recently accessed files. I have disabled this function on my system. If you have backed up you drive or some folder(s) to iCloud in some way then I would suspect the using "iCloud Drive" instead of "Recents" could give you the folder structure containing you backed up.

At this point these are just semi-educational guesses as I neither use iCloud for file backup or have "Recents" active.


High Sierra restored from ISO to USB drive stops at the stop sign

For those trying to create bootable USB from a downloaded ISO file

In my case it was an incorrect way of burning ISO file into USB pen drive/stick using Disk Utility's restore from a downloaded standalone ISO image file. The USb pen wasn't bootable until it was created from files contained inside the ISO using the above command.

STEPS:

Mount downloaded ISO file by double clicking on it (will mount under /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra)
Run a slightly modified above command and amend source and destination paths if necessary (I used DiskUtility to erase my USB with name set to Untitled and Mac OS Extended (Jurnaled) file type as it failed on APFS file type):

$ sudo /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

More info on different releases: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372


Can the shortcuts app in ios 12 be triggered by location (leaving/entering)

I have the same question. Unfortunately, from what I can find, as of "right now, Shortcuts can only be triggered manually or by voice".

Possible workarounds:

Use IFTTT
Use Launch Center Pro

Apple tends to release things first with basic functionality and then update and add features as time goes on. We can hope...


"codec missing or unavailable" error when importing media file in Adobe Premiere CC

AVI is just a container for a video format, and can contain videos encoded in different formats. The error you're seeing says that Adobe Premiere does not know how to process the video format that's within the AVI file.

First, you would have to find out (or know) the codec used for the video within the AVI file and then download and install the appropriate codec on your system.
To find out the codec for the file, examine it using a tool like QuickTime or VLC and see if you can use the Inspectors in these to get the video and audio codecs for your file.
If these two don't help, you would have to use a media information tool like MediaInspector or AviInfo on OS X or GSpot on Windows. Then search and install the codec for the file.

Here's some additional explanation and information from Adobe on "Troubleshoot file formats and codecs":

  Video-recording devices and video software applications encode files in a specific file format, such as AVI, QuickTime (MOV), and Windows Media (WMV). For a list of the file formats that Adobe Premiere Elements supports, search "Supported file formats in Adobe Premiere Elements " in the Adobe Knowledgebase.

  Some video file formats, including AVI and MOV, are container file formats. The data inside these container files is encoded according to a particular codec. Codecs are algorithms for compressing video and audio data. Many different codecs exist.

  For example, an AVI file can be encoded with the DV codec, a commercial codec (such as DivX), a Motion JPEG codec, among others. (Camcorders that record to miniDV tapes use the DV codec. Some still-image cameras use the Motion JPEG coded.)

  Adobe Premiere Elements sometimes cannot decode video files that were created with a poorly designed codec or a codec that is not installed on your computer.

  Knowing the format and, when applicable, the codec of the files you are working with helps you use these solutions. To gather this information, do one or more of the following tasks:

  Open the file in Apple QuickTime Player and choose Window > Show Movie Inspector.
  If the file is from a camcorder, camera, or other video-recording device, see the device's documentation, or locate the device's specifications on the manufacturer's website.
  Open the file in a third-party application that analyzes media files, such as MediaInfo or GSpot 2.70.


iOS App Store keeps asking for password for free items

No. It’s not removed, but it can get stuck. I would disable this feature and then reboot if you think it’s already enabled. Also, free apps are basically the same as paid - you go through all the same hoops to “buy” save an optional second confirmation for payments.

To allow downloading from the App Store without having to enter your password every time for free apps follow these steps:

Go to Settings
Scroll down and click Itunes and App Stores
Click Password Settings
Toggle off "Require Password" under Free Downloads.

You will now be able download apps without having to enter your password.

UPDATE

I since found the issue was localized to a bad home WiFi/router which blocked access to Apple servers. This can be verified by:

signing out of App Store in settings
trying to sign back in
getting an error message
disconnecting from WiFi, using cellular
signing back in
getting the “verify payment alert”
entering credit card Security code or selecting “none” payment type
this enables Touch ID for purchases


How can I install Safari, without a browser or itunes access?

As @Graham Miln suggested, it is most likely set this way in restrictions, assuming your phone isn't jail broken. Go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions and enable safari.

There is no way to install or uninstall Safari on an iOS device - it is a part of the operating system, nor is it possible to "have iOS installed on the PC"


No you can't, but you could edit the vertically oriented wallpaper to match the aspect ratio of your monitor.


OS X dialogs: Can I use 'Enter' to invoke the *currently selected* button instead of the default one?

Updated:  Explained here https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/69305/44377

Also, I use KeyCue to find most-if-not-all shortcuts in any context.


Font display issue with 2018 Macbook Pro on External Monitor (2016 MBP is fine)

From the photo you posted it looks like the Dell is running wrong (low) resolution. Check that.

Also
Check what Profiles is used for the Dell.

In Color Sync Utility, in the Utility Folder.

In there you can run verify and repair function.

and verify what profile is used for the Dell.

Some background:

Apple's ColorSync Utility is built in to OS X. ColorSync profiles are used in image-rendering devices so colors will match across different devices. For instance, if you have two monitors attached to your system that are of different makes or models, then it is likely their pixel response ranges are slightly different. As a result, reds may be more vivid on one monitor than on another one, or the blues may be deeper. These variations can be allowed for by creating a color profile for each device, so when image data is passed between them they will display it accurately.

In my case, I do not have Dell to show you its profile.

Some more reading material.


How can I check what permissions an app store app will request before installing it?

The iOS App Store does not display the permissions the app will request.  You can view certain info about an app prior to downloading:

Seller
Size
Category
Compatibility
Languages
Age Rating
In-App Purchases
Copyright
Developer Website (link)
Privacy Policy (link)

Unless the developer indicates the required permissions in their app description, Privacy Policy or Website, you will not know until the app requests that permission.


Using TextMate, how can I wrap everything in PHP tags?

Simply add a new command called for ex 'Wrap in ' in your php bundle editor (Bundles->Bundle Editors->Show Bundle Editor)

In the Activation choose: Key Equivalent and hit: CMD+SHIFT+W (or whatever you'd like that's not already taken).

Leave the scope selector to source.php

In the snippet window write:

<?php  $TM_SELECTED_TEXT ?>

Now select anything and hit CMD+SHIFT+W and you're done

Sorry I couldn't upload an image to show you I've just signed up.

EDIT I now have enough reputation to upload the image:


How do I save a text file with a Ruby (.rb) file extension?

You could only save as .rtf because the file was rich text. To make it plain text, simply press ⇧ shift-⌘ command-T or go Format > Make Plain Text, then you can save as .rb.

Try not to use TextEdit: there is no syntax highlighting and code completion, not to mention that you have to manually turn off those wrong quotation marks.


Can I access TimeMachine data from a machine other than the one that was being backed up?

You can navigate your backup drive in the Finder.
Mount it, go to the Backup folder > [name of machine] > [name of volume] > latest > Users > [user name] and restore the files you want.

(You can also choose a date instead of latest to restore earlier versions of the files/files that have been deleted.)


In ~/.bash_profile you should amend PATH to prefer binaries supplied by homebrew. You can do this with the line:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

After changing .bash_profile you will need to open a new Terminal.app window to see the change take place. Alternatively, you can source ~/.bash_profile to load in the profile into the current session.


AFAIK it's not possible in Mac OS X as it is now.

Windows tools you've mentioned are probably relying on Windows 7 native ability to create ad-hoc WPA-protected networks. There is no support for that in Mac OS X and since WPA encryption on ad-hoc network is not defined by the WPA standard it will probably never be.


What's the maximum wattage that can be used to charge AirPods - both via Lightning and wirelessly?

The AirPods charge at a maximum of 5W over Lightning or wirelessly.
Connecting the case to a faster charger (for example an Apple 18W charger) is perfectly okay, but the case still won't charger faster.


How to receive notification of HTTP access

The key is your access logs.  Assuming your webserver is properly configured, each time a page is served it should provide some level of detail in the access logs.  This can be turned off for sites with enourmous traffic loads, but for your bog standard (assuming) apache install on a local machine I imagine you are not looking as a massive load.

So, what you need is a method to examine the access log periodically (or real time) either by checking timestamps, or tailing the content etc.  Once this is sorted, you need a way to push it into growl.  Growlnotify is a command line utility that will accept output from other commands and use it as the basis to provide a graphical growl notification.

At this point you need to decide if you want a simple "You have visitors!" message, or something that includes the details, say which page was served to which IP address etc.  That's your choice, and makes the code you need to write that bit more complex or simple.

Check the following example (sorry, I use ksh, you may need to modify):

#!/bin/ksh
while read access
do
growlnotify -t "HTTP_Access" -m "You have visitors!
done < /http/access/log/folder/log1.log

Obviously this will churn out far too much info and be generic, so you need to add your own special blend of a) configuring Apache to only log to the level you need, and b) filter out the entries anyway, possibly formatting while you go, e.g.:

#!/bin/ksh
while read access
do
formatted_access=`echo $access | grep -v "unwanted strings" | awk '{print "Time "$1", IP"$4}'`
count =`echo $formatted_access | wc -l`
case $count in
(0)
# No line matched criteria
;;
(*)
growlnotify -t "HTTP_Access" -m $formatted_access
;;
esac
done < /http/access/log/folder/log1.log

Throw this into an automator service, and away you go.


Adjust numbers (iWork app) formula to add if 2 cells are 0, leave blank

If I understand what you are trying to accomplish, the formula can be simplified to this:

IFERROR(IF(OR(A2,B2),A2+B2,""),"")

Since 0 resolves to false and OR takes Boolean values, just check for 0 in both cells and return the empty string.  (If both are false then the true event is not evaluated.)  Otherwise, if both are empty, the IFERROR will return the empty string as, for some reason, an empty string in Numbers is not treated as a Boolean false like in programming languages such as JavaScript.

See the example below.  This will work in Numbers on macOS or iOS.


It’s a “feature” and currently cannot be disabled. Man I hope they change that.


Bidirectional sync between Outlook and iPhone?

iOS is designed to sync media with iTunes while syncing mail and other information through online servers. Based on what I know, syncing your iPhone with Outlook means that iTunes reads your email account information (server names, login credentials, etc.) from Outlook, and configures your iPhone to access the same email accounts.

From this point, you can keep Outlook and iPhone "synchronized" by allowing them to continue accessing the same centralized email account(s). The email server behaves as the master copy, and both clients access it and retrieve the data.

You may need to configure your email server to allow IMAP or Exchange access in order to see the behavior you want. This will depend on your email provider.


iOS - Recovering data from device after reset

If the new User do not have to password for your appleID or an iTunes Backup, he'll not be able to restore any of your data after the iPad have been wiped.


Put monomac at the same directory level as maccore
Go to monomac directory
Run make


iPod Nano 6G stops playing when display turns off

Most of the approaches to this error concern problems with the headphone jack and plug, so it was in this case.

Simply cleaning of the jack with compressed air didn't solve the problem. I had to scratch the inside (the part, the tip of the plug connects to) of the jack carefully with a paperclip and clean again with compressed air afterwards.

Be aware that you may damage the iPod and void your warranty this way!

Annotation:

I don't know, if it was dirt or passivation that caused the erratic behaviour.
The correlation with different ear buds is undeniable. This may be the cause of small differences within the specifications of the connectors, the headphones, or the MP3 device. Since I never had problems with other MP3 players, I tend to blame Apple.


Is there a way to force Safari on my iPad to always display desktop sites?

There is no way to force Safari to do this,

There are browsers on the app store which work around the mobile site to teh non mobile site. One such browser is Atomic ($0.99 or free)

Hope that helps.


How to view Terminal keybindings in macOS?

To see which key combinations are supported in Terminal, look through the menus or open the help page from the help menu.

A utility I find quite useful is CheatSheet which lists all key combinations currently available if you press and hold Command key for a few seconds.


Where are widget screen positions (coordinates) stored?

Dashboard widget positions are stored in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dashboard.plist (where USERNAME is your username on your Mac) and can be accessed by using Xcode to edit or possibly even TextEdit. When you open the file, you're looking for the values under 'layer-gadgets' and then 'Item X' (where X is the widget's position number in the Dashboard layout). Just locate and change 'pos-x' and 'pos-y' for your widget.

Good luck!


Is Safari allowing extensions to be installed by stray clicks in a web page?

It’s far more likely they installed software that says it’s for “playing videos” or “flash player malware / adware” or just installing Java which loads cruft now a days unless you carefully read and correctly opt out.

If you run Malware Bytes anti Mac - what specific malware and adware are your parents getting in to? That would give you specific bad actors and then be able to target specific behaviors or training needed.

You could try installing a locked down browser like Brave, but I’m guessing they’ll want something that has un-desired add on and you’ll either need to outsource the cleaning or remove the admin account. Even iPads get hijacked with bad ads that pop up scam messages. It’s a never ending war of social engineering that you’re fighting here.


Can my MacBook 1,1 be upgraded to anything higher than Snow Leopard? and can the machine be updated in its specs?

No, your MacBook model cannot be upgraded to a version later than Mac OS X 10.6.8 because of restrictions imposed by Apple.

It is highly likely that even if you could install a later version, your system would run unstable and/or slow.

Regarding upgrading your hardware, yes, it's possible, but I'd say you'll have a hard time finding parts (other than RAM, which is pretty easy to find and replace) since production for this model was discontinued in November 2006.

Also, note that even if you do upgrade your hardware it will not enable you to install a later version than 10.6.8. Your computer will still be recognized as a MacBook 1,1.


Creating different quotas for specific machines with Time Machine?

AFAIK there is no option to limit backup size on the client (macOS) side of things. For server-side limits two options come to mind:

create individual partitions for each Mac to be backed up and size accordingly (on Macs you could also use sparseimages but I don‘t know whether these are available in your setup)
create individual users on the server for each Mac to backup, and assign disk quotas with whatever Linux tools available

PS: I know that the options listed lack the specific commands. But AD is focused on Apple products so solving Linux side problems is out of scope. If you need help in implementing one of the options it might be better to ask a specific question on {askubuntu,unix}.stackexchange.com.


Charging a USB type-c equipped MacBook Pro with a non-Mac charger - would it harm the battery?

There are two questions here:

Will using a non Apple USB-C charger harm the computer/battery?

No, as long as the charger is from a reputable supplier there is no reason to expect any physical harm from using other brands of charger, power is power, and the MacBook will only accept the amount of power it needs to fulfil it's need.

Will keeping my battery topped up at all times, no charing/discharging harm the computer/battery?

Yes and no, this is a particularly complex subject, but sufficed to say your battery like a person needs to remain active to be healthy, but equally overdoing it is going to wear it out prematurely.

So your device has a rated number of battery cycles, typically about 1,000 on modern devices. A cycle is one full discharge and recharge in however many little bits that takes, so limiting how much you discharge and recharge the device can prolong the life.

However the battery needs to remain active, and keeping it fully charged all the time can do harm as it's constantly keeping the battery topped up...

There is a really good article from Apple which I don't want to reproduce here that you should read:

https://www.apple.com/batteries/


How to move app bundles safely on the command line

The copying of files on the Mac command line is a curious thing.

If both the source and the destination are on HFS, HFS+ or APFS file systems then cp will preserve special macOS attributes and since fairly early versions of macOS all extended attributes.

If you want to be slightly more secure you can use the -a option to cp which preserves absolutely everything including modification time, access time, file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions.  Access Control Lists (ACLs) and Extended Attributes (EAs), including resource forks, will also be preserved. It also copies, rather than follows, symbolic links. Personally, this is what I use for copying apps.

For a total guarantee, including copying to other file systems such as FAT or NTFS you should use ditto —-rsrc which saves all the neat stuff in .AppleDouble files on those file systems.

If you want more information I heartily recommend a close reading of the man page of both.

mv is safe as houses so long as you are on the same volume and fine if both source and destination volumes are macOS formats.

By the way, you mistyped your example. It should be cp -pR, which is essentially the same as cp -a.


Thanks to LCC for pointing out LaunchControl. It indicated the ownership of /Library/LaunchDaemons was incorrect.

The solution to this problem was to be sure /Library/LaunchDaemons had ownership root:admin, and permissions for the directory were rwxr-xr-x


To this day, there is no way to password-protect apps on iOS without jailbreaking. If you are familiar to rooting an Android device, it is somewhat similar to jailbreaking. If you already have jailbroken or want to jailbreak your Apple device, check out this link. If you decide to jailbreak, you can get password-protecting features through tweaks such as bioprotect or appscan if you have touchID. If not, there are similar tweaks that offer the same password-protecting features. If you aren't wanting to jailbreak your device, there is no other way. Hope this helps!


How to Import photo from screensaver Mac

Open the screen saver preference pane and see what folder has the files. If you can locate that, open photos and import from that location.


How can I truncate filenames after X number of characters using Automator or AppleScript?

Do we have to be concerned about the names being the same? If not, this should work for you as an embedded AppleScript in Hazel:

tell application "Finder"
    set original_name to name of theFile
    set short_name to characters 1 thru 10 of original_name as string
    set name of theFile to (short_name & ".png" as string)
end tell

You'd set Hazel to run this rule on "any file" then "Run AppleScript" (embedded).

You can change the number of characters easily. I picked ten. Do what works for you. Also, I guessed that your images are ".png" files-- you would change that to ".jpg" or whatever.

I hope this helps you!


Why does this shell-script dim my bash colors?

Because your function told it to do so?

See wikipedia tput page, IBM tput tutorial  & man tput

Google bash prompt & tput and you get quite a few suggestions on how to set up your prompt.

Comment out the function you posted in your ~/.bash_profile.
Start a new terminal. Things should be normal again.


You do not have a virus.

Websites and ads can open the App Store and can compose new emails. However it is very bad behaviour of websites or ads to open the  App Store without users consent.

What website did you visit?


iOS 8 Handoff does not work between iPhone and iPad

Ok, so the problem here was that somehow my iPhone was connected to iCloud... But it wasn't at the same time... This is really weird, and Apple should at least notify on this somehow, because my iPhone was connected to iCloud and synced. Wow.

Worked the same for me, though also required e) after a) to d):

a) going to the apple discussions (as mentioned) to 'register' my device(s) with my apple id. (weird)

b) turning iMessages off and on (on both devices)

c) turning my icloud off and on (on both devices) (scary dialog boxes, push on)

d) turning by bluetooth off and on (on both devices)

and finally, after none of that worked,

e) turning both devices off and on.

Presto, it finally worked.  The feature only seems to work if the email or message or calendar (whatever you want to hand-off) is actually open on the screen on one of the devices.  Unlock other device and the email or messages or whatever icon appears bottom left.  Swipe it up and roll.

I have had a few of these issues with icloud and apple id's.  Seems like you really have to reset all icloud and messages services to get hand-off working properly.


What is it that prevents using a 3rd party SSD in a 2015 rMBP?

The reason for the "incompatibility" is simple: there is no SATA-based SSD in this Mac. Apple is transitioning away from SATA-Based SSD drives and moving towards PCIe based SSD drives.

I thought there were a couple of manufacturers that had upgrade parts for PCIe SSDs and a quick search for "MacBook Pro PCIe SSD" should yield some results for you.


iPad won't let me update apps after update to iOS 14

As of June 17, 2020 you can not turn off two-factor authentication and you can not use some features without enabling it. It was optional, highly encouraged and opt-in on iOS 12 and iOS 13.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915

Can I turn off two-factor authentication after I’ve turned it on?
If you already use two-factor authentication, you can no longer turn it off. Certain features in the latest versions of iOS and macOS require this extra level of security, which is designed to protect your information. If you recently updated your account, you can unenroll within two weeks of enrollment. Just open your enrollment confirmation email and click the link to return to your previous security settings. Keep in mind, this makes your account less secure and means that you can't use features that require higher security.

I have not tested the unenrollment in the two week grace period but have no reason to believe it won’t work as described. The services Apple ties to two-factor (which is easily confused with the previous two-step process)  have been changing outside the iOS major release cycle
The only thing that’s changed with iOS 14 is Apple removed the opt-in UI since the services themselves are now forcing the upgrade in security.
You still want to closely manage all the security at this page whenever a device gives you a hassle or unexpected challenge. (This much hasn’t changed in many years)

https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage

Once you review your current settings above and make the security page happy, you may have to choose between this model requiring a second factor past your password and managing the prompts, trying it and declining the features or just letting the features that mandate this fail and go unused.  It appears you could also keep using older software with two-step or relying on the security questions and just a password for existing AppleID.


Mac Hard Drive Storage Decreases even without downloading anything

Could be anything. App updates, new apps, a virus that downloads stuff for you, automatically installed software, or a host of other things.

If you did have an application on your Mac like Dropbox or Google Drive, (either of which could automatically be downloading stuff onto your computer) it could be that, but you do not.

Here's what you should do: download an antivirus app (like BitDefender or Avast). Run a full system scan in whichever you download and make sure no viruses come up, as some malicious software could be doing this.

Then try downloading Grand Perspective, which shows you everything that's taking up space on your mac. Run it through your entire hard drive. See what comes up, and save your scan; then try scanning again when your available space decreases again.

Please report everything you find out in a comment below so I can further assist you!


The folder name contains a space which means that the shell interprets it as two separate arguments. Either escape the space with a \ or enclose the string in ".

cd "folder name"
cd folder\ name


Ext2 utility "e2cp" alternative for OS X

To the best of my knowledge, you've got two options to mount ext2/3 filesystems in OS X:

fuse-ext2 plugin for Fuse for OS X: open-source projects that appear to be fairly active.
ExtFS for Mac OS X by Paragon: Currently $20 with a free 10 day trial; their page is a little confusing referencing "ExtFS for Mac® 9", which appears to be the version 9 iteration of their product, not Mac OS 9.


My apologies for not being able to give you a 100% answer. But I did find a informative post about the LED strength of an iPhone 4 (should be the same for the 5 - not the 5S).

Using a combination of direct and reflection lux meter readings, and comparing the same readings to lights of known lumen output, I'd roughly estimate the iPhone 4 LED is about 5 to 10 lumens in normal continuous use.
It briefly gets significantly brighter when used as a camera flash, but it's too brief to measure with my lux meter. I'd estimate it's about 4x brighter, which is around 40 lumens, but only for about 1/4 second.

Source
I hope this helps!


I think this is more likely a problem with Spotlight. Try running the terminal command

mdfind "kMDItemAppStoreHasReceipt == 1"

to see if it is still somewhere on your machine. If the file doesn't actually exist, try forcing Spotlight to reindex.


How to remotely change slides out of order when displayed on an iPad?

Your friend could set up a Keynote presentation on the iPad.
The Keynote presentation can then be remote controlled from the second iPad with Keynote Remote:

Keynote Remote lets you control a Keynote presentation on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch from another iPhone or iPod touch in the room.
While you present, view your current slide and presenter notes in portrait, or the current slide and next slide in landscape. Swipe forward to advance and swipe back to return to the previous slide.

As for randomizing, this won't be easily possible with Keynote—you can only script it with AppleScript on a Mac, but there are apps like Screens and others that would turn the iPad into a remote screen for a computer so you could do your randomizing and controlling remotely.
A custom web app or setting up a web server that cycled among random images each time you tapped the screen would be also inexpensive to code, but it's not really using presentation software and you'd need to have a remote to toggle the change if touching the screen was really not an option.


Duplicate Google Calendar Entries in iPad Calendar App

I've had this problem since back during the days of Mobile Me, worked with Apple on it by sending copies of my calendar, and even managed to get the problem to happen at their end via their website and without having my computer or devices involved.

Apple initially tried to pawn the problem off as Google's, though disabling Apple's cloud and using Google alone works perfectly.

In short, I don't think you're doing anything wrong.  In the end, I had to have them completely delete the account on the Cloud, create a new one, and re-push everything back, starting with an empty calendar.

From my own experiments, the problem for me seemed to originate when a calendar event on Google spans more than one day (like over a weekend) is synchronized with Apple. It did not replicate calendars that didn't have these entries. Every time Apple synchronized, it seemed to add more calendar entries. My iPad produced warnings of horrific amounts (I have the screen shot around here somewhere), my Mac slowed to a crawl, eventually forcing me to have to disable the Cloud.

My notes are here:
1) http://www.wwco.com/~wls/blog/2009/07/25/mobileme-sync-problems-resolved/
2) http://www.wwco.com/~wls/blog/2012/06/23/resetting-mobilemess/

While I got my own problems sorted out, Apple's solution was pretty much (and I'm rephrasing here), "we're dumping Mobile Me soon, hopefully iCloud won't do it, and if it does, that's now another group's problem ...not ours."

On a Mac, the problem will eventually reach the point where iCal won't open. Here were my notes to Apple:

"Completely unable to open iCal without the spinning pinwheel of death, I put on my developer hat and did the following (though I have no idea how a mortal user would know how to do this):

$ cd ~/Library/Calendars
$ rm -rf Calendar\ [CS] *
$ du -h .
(find the largest file size entry and remove it, for example)
$ rm -rf 74D1E7F2-3CA2-44E8-9690-093227ACF17C.caldav

This lets iCal start, and during the upgrade process, there's barely enough time that if you're lucky you can open iCal preferences.

It gets worse.  The console log goes wild with 500 messages per second.  Meanwhile, Finder slows to a crawl and won't even handle right-click menus."

4/18/11 7:04:42 PM  [0x0-0x3d03d].com.apple.iCal[769]   line 1,1: expecting FREQUENCE, found 'INTERVAL' as token type 6
4/18/11 7:04:42 PM  [0x0-0x3d03d].com.apple.iCal[769]   line 1,1: expecting FREQUENCE, found 'INTERVAL' as token type 6
4/18/11 7:04:42 PM  [0x0-0x3d03d].com.apple.iCal[769]   line 1,1: expecting FREQUENCE, found 'INTERVAL' as token type 6
4/18/11 7:04:42 PM  [0x0-0x3d03d].com.apple.iCal[769]   line 1,1: expecting FREQUENCE, found 'INTERVAL' as token type 6
4/18/11 7:04:42 PM  [0x0-0x3d03d].com.apple.iCal[769]   *** process 769 exceeded 500 log message per second limit  -  remaining messages this second discarded ***
4/18/11 7:04:43 PM  [0x0-0x3d03d].com.apple.iCal[769]   line 1,1: expecting FREQUENCE, found 'INTERVAL' as token type 6
...hundreds of times...

To get anywhere, I had to use an outgoing firewall (LittleSnitch) and turn off connectivity to Apple.com -- things instantly sprang to life. If your Mac knows about the Apple cloud, then iCal will recreate files, even if you don't have an Apple cloud account configured in its preferences.

In looking at the log messages and examining the CalDAV, the most suspicious entry was this:

DTSTART:20070311T020000

The ending date format looked off. I'd expected a YYYYMMDD, but have no idea what 020000 represented.

I'm hoping the above blog data gets you a bit closer in sorting things out. Again, I doubt its you.

If you're going to mess around with any of the raw file system, please, please, please make a backup. Noting that complete removing ~/Library/Calendars seems to solve things using the scorched earth methodology.


This might be simpler using EasyFind from the App Store [freeware]

A search [including invisibles] for apple.photos immediately after launching Photos holding  Opt ⌥ , then quitting, shows several modified files, including

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Photos/Data/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Photos.savedState
/private/var/folders/nc/c83zpk8x7kd9qrxrd3nnbfym0000gn/T/com.apple.Photos.librarychooserservice

It might be useful [after making sure you have a good backup] to test out some of those. SavedState is always a prime candidate for this type of thing, I'm less sure about the chooserservice, but it sounds apropos.


Duplicate keyboard input after upgrading to macOS Catalina

Do you happen to have Wacom settings/software installed? Seems that completely uninstalling all Wacom software and deleting its other files solves the issue.

Looks like doing so solved the problem for me, testing for 10 minutes and the issue doesn't occur.

Logitech settings may be a reason too.

Kudos to rakdavid.


The first thing I would try is starting your iMac in Safe Mode as follows:

Fully shut down your iMac
Restart your iMac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. do you still notice the lag)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your iMac as normal
Test again to see if the lag still persists

Once you've tried the above let me know if the lag was still noticeable in Safe Mode and also when booted in normally again.


How can I extract audio files from an app?

Use Apple Configurator 2 to update the app on your iOS device, but before disconnecting the iOS device, copy the iOS app out of the Configurator's temporary directory.  See:

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

for how to find this directory.  If the media assets of an app are not encrypted or obfuscated, you can sometimes find them by unzipping the .ipa file.


Is it possible to close a script with a keypress?

I’m not quite sure if my solution will help you or not.
I have a whole bunch of different AppleScripts attached to folders by use of Folder Actions and I also run AppleScripts directly from the Script Menu in the menu bar.
Occasionally one of my AppleScripts decides to misbehave and freezes or gets stuck and trying to quit the running AppleScript from the spinning gear in the menu bar does not work either.
My solution in these circumstances is to run this following AppleScript code.
tell application "System Events"
    set pidList to unix id of application processes whose name is "osascript"
end tell

set text item delimiters to space
do shell script ({"kill -9", pidList} as text)
set text item delimiters to ""

I saved the AppleScript code as a .scpt file and run it using Voice Commands, but you can just as easily use the code in a new Automator Quick Action then assign it a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences.

NOTE: One of the drawbacks of this solution is that if you are running several scripts at the same time, this will force quit each one. As far as I know, there is no way of knowing which osascript belongs to which running AppleScript. (Not knowing which is which forces me to force quit each one.)
Again, I don’t know if any of this will help you or not.  If nothing else maybe it will help spark some ideas for you.


MacBook Pro (2008?) running Lion 10.7.5 - how its 'obsolete' status will affect my photos etc

Here's more information on vintage and obsolete products that may be of interest to you.

Your questions actually covers two main concerns. I'll try and address these below:

Web browsing: Many users of older Mac hardware and/or versions of the OS do tend to install additional browsers in order to be able browse more modern websites. Firefox in particular is useful for this, but others use Google Chrome. Either way, this addresses the websites acting funny issue in most cases.
Photos: In terms of iPhoto, this was superseded by the Photos app which was released with the OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 update in April 2015. In most cases users have just converted their iPhoto Library to become the Photos Library. In some cases, users still maintain both (although there is no need to do this - not only is it doubling up on valuable storage space, it's also a pain to do). Regardless, my point is that your iPhoto Library will not be lost because (1) it can be converted to the Photos Library in future and (2) you have Time Machine backups of your data. So, unless you have manually set your Time Machine backups to not backup your iPhoto Library, there's really no need to manually export all your photos from iPhoto.

Your MacBook Pro

As an aside, I wanted to add that all 2007-2008 era MacBook Pros are capable of running Mac OS X versions up to El Capitan 10.11.6. If your MacBook Pro is indeed one of these you may want to consider whether you'd like to upgrade your OS so you can have the benefit of a more modern browser and software such as Photos. In this way, when you do eventually upgrade your hardware, the risk of any software incompatibilities will be reduced.

Of course, before upgrading your OS you would need to confirm your model of MacBook Pro and its hardware configuration. You can do this by:

going to Apple > About This Mac to view your processor and memory details, and
to get the exact model, click on the  More Info...  button and look for the Model Identifier (it'll be something like MacBookPro5,1).


Can iOS apps retrieve user access logs after being deleted?

No in general and by design. When the app is deleted, the os removed the container in which the app saves data. Unless the app saves data in a group container or runs on a jailbroken device and stuffs logs outside the sandbox, even reinstalling the app won’t recover the deleted data.


Issues using a non-Mac mouse with MacBook Pro

Have you tried utilizing the Logitech drivers?
https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024690714--Downloads-MX-Anywhere-2S-Wireless-Mouse


Folder/File Name "Truncation" or "Wrapping"

With me (El Capitan) the following works fine:

defaults write com.apple.finder MaximumLabelLines 2; killall Finder

On my oldie iBook-G3, Tiger-OS 10.4.11, it is:

defaults write com.apple.finder FXMaximumLabelLines 2; killall Finder

Here's a goodie for "Tigers" who'd like to have icon text to the RIGHT on their desktop, too:

defaults write com.apple.finder DesktopViewOptions -dict-add PropertiesLocation rght; killall Finder

(BELOW is: "botm")

Moreover you can define icons' grid spacing on your Tiger's desktop this way:

defaults write com.apple.finder FXLabelHorizontalPad [# of pixels]; killall Finder
defaults write com.apple.finder FXLabelVerticalPad [# of pixels]; killall Finder

For [# of pixels] insert a number -- try lower ones first (3 - 10) as they add up with lots of icons…


Apple Mail always needs to "rebuild" Exchange mailbox for new mails

As MS Exchange keeps all of your data on the server there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't just remove that account. Delete any leftover mailboxes from mail.app and then re-add the Exchange account. I find that often fixes issues between mail.app and Exchange.

As an aside I stopped using mail.app for exchange connectivity (for work) for reasons that there are times when mail.app, Calendar, contacts, reminders, etc. just don't behave as expected when connecting to an Exchange server. Microsoft's (free, last I checked) Outlook client is actually an excellent mail client and I have never had a problem with Outlook on the Mac or on my iPhone.


You could also import a file like this to TextExpander:

not,¬
or,∨
and,∧
l,←
r,→
lr,↔
ll,⇐
rr,⇒
iff,⇔
all,∀
some,∃
nsome,∄
neq,≠
xor,⊻
nand,⊼
nor,⊽
oplus,⊕
qed,∎
equiv,≡
top,⊤
bot,⊥
vdash,⊢
models,⊨
nmodels,⊭

I made a text file for HTML5 entity names based on http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-entity-names/byalpha.html. Many of the abbreviations are the same as TeX / LaTeX character commands.


With a huge help from nohillside, here's a quick fix:

Remember to test run on a test folder.

find ~/Documents -name '*.asd' >> ~/Desktop/logHiddenASDfiles.txt
find ~/Documents -name '*.asd' -exec chflags hidden '{}' \;

First command uses >> to not to override existing logs, it always appends content to the file.

To undo the hidden flags,

find ~/Documents -name '*.asd' -exec chflags nohidden '{}' \;

The log file might not be of immediate use since you might move or delete some files. If you use the older file for unhiding the files, some of them might throw errors.


Can I forcibly change where iTunes keeps my mobile applications?

You have to go into advanced preferences in iTunes and you should see a box displaying your current iTunes Media folder location, with a button prompting you to change it.

If you select your folder there it should work for you.

EDIT:
A better way to move your iTunes content, is to move your entire iTunes library (you ~/Music/iTunes folder) into a new location. Then close and reopen iTunes while holding the Option key, when prompted to choose an iTunes library select the new location and everything should be stored in that new iTunes library folder (you can actually name the folder whatever you would like).


How can I add external Interface to my OS X with a valid IP?

In System Preferences -> Network click on the + to add a new interface, in the popup choose Ethernet.
This will not create an additional en1 or en2 interface, but add an additional address to your en0 interface.


Meditation timer that reports mindful minutes to the Health app?

Sattva - Meditation Timer & Tracker

Sattva is the world’s first advanced meditation timer and tracker with challenges, trophies and guided meditations to inspire you to meditate everyday!

Has the features you requested:

Apple health kit integration for mindfulness (minutes)
Apple Watch app


Mojave: Finder can't load any thumbnails. Even after reinstall the system

Sketch is making that issue. You can try it, delete sketch and all thumbnails will appear instantly.

I have reported a bug already.


Just bought MacMini M1, not happy with BigSur can I install Catalina and if so how?

The minimum OS you can run on an M1 Mac mini is macOS 11 Big Sur.
It will not run Catalina.
Sorry.


How can I download files from Linux to macOS only using the existing SSH connection?

You can actually the sz program for downloading to a Mac as well.

If you want to be able to run scp on your Mac to download files from the Linux machine when it is behind NAT, you'll need to setup a port forward in your router to forward your public IP address port 22 to port 22 on the Linux PC's local IP-address. You'll then enter the public IP address when running scp on your Mac.

However a perhaps more "user friendly" option is to use a service such as for example Dropbox. If you install that on both your Linux computer and Mac, you can send files back and forth that way without worrying about NAT.

Another option is to use VPN-software to connect both your Linux and Mac to the same virtual network. Then you can use scp as you're already using on the local network to copy files.


Reverting back to Mavericks from El Capitan

There is no real way to easily downgrade any version of Mac OS. You have two choices here.

If you made a backup image of your HD before you upgraded, back up the files that have changed since then, boot from that image and restore it to your boot drive.
Back up your current HD, Wipe it and reinstall the previous OS. Then reinstall your apps and restore your data from the backup.

Honestly sounds more like an issue with Pages than with the OS, but since I don't use Pages I have nothing useful to suggest other than removing and reinstalling the app. Perhaps if you edited your question asking for help with Pages on El Cap....


Child process exited with status 254 error when extracting a tar.xz file

Same error here (tried GNU tar and the one included in OS X).

You are missing the xz compression program which tar tries to use.

Either install a precompiled xz from Sourceforge or, if you are like me, download the source from http://tukaani.org/xz/ and compile it yourself:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

(Unless told otherwise, ./configure installs xz in /usr/local/bin. You possibly want to add it to $PATH.)

Then:

$ xz --decompress cclive-0.7.11.tar.xz
$ l cclive-0.7.11.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 jaume 1832960 2012-12-12 15:18 cclive-0.7.11.tar

Now untar as usual:

$ tar xf cclive-0.7.11.tar


Freeware includes ssh terminal and file transfer support for Mac OS?

UNIX Philosophy

macOS is built upon a UNIX philosophy. In your situation, that means many smaller dedicated tools instead of one monolithic tool. Most of the features you want are part of built-in macOS tools. These tools are accessible by macOS's included Terminal.app.

For Secure Shell connections, use ssh
For network file transfers, use scp or rsync
Port forwarding is typically part of your router's interface, not the local computer.


Why does Terminal swallow Ctrl+up/down keystrokes?

In the Terminal preferences, go to Settings and select Keyboard in the panel. There you can set various key combinations to send whatever string you wish to the shell (or the program currently running).


How to create third partition after Macintosh HD and Boot Camp partitions?

Solution 1:

Shrink the Mac partition.
Create TWO partitions in the remaining space.
Set up windows in one.
Set up data in the other.

While I have not run the windows 7/8 installs, the older versions would present an interface to use an existing partition if present.  If not present, it would default to using the entire remainder of the disk, but this could be over-ridden.  So you may have an option in an ordinary install to not use the entire remainder of the disk.

Solution 2:

Use an external drive as your Data drive.  Using a cloud drive such as DropBox, or Google Drive is also a possibility.

Opinion warning:
I'm not a fan of multi-boot.  The stuff you need to do is always in the OS that isn't running.  Many sad tales of installation processes that were unkind to foreign OSs.  Now that both Parallels and Virtual Box have reasonable performance, I consider that for most uses, a virtual machine is a better solution.

So...

Solution 3.

Run windows in a virtual machine, and either export a file system via Samba (SMB) or by the virtual environment's file sharing system.  This alternative can be expanded to allow DOS VMs Linux VMs, Solaris VMs.  Note that screen handling can be kludgy for any OS that doesn't have the appropriate extensions.

Solution 4.

Run Windows on a separate box and connect to it via Remote Desktop.  Again, clunky.  But I know guys who use their iPad this way to connect to their windows box at work.  Not sure how much serious work they get done this way, but fetching the power point presentation they left at work may be sufficient.

Solution 5.

Run windows on a machine next to your Mac so that you can spin your chair.

Bootcamp makes the most sense if you actually need to use the same hardware at maximum performance.  But unless you are needing access to massive amounts of data from both OSs an external hard drive or even an 8 Gb thumb drive is likely addequate.

If performance isn't as critical, then running in a VM gives you access to both environments, and the additional security of having a mac beteen your windows box and the cruel world.  (Yes macs can be pawned, but it now means that an attacker has to get through 2 OSs defences.)

The Remote Desktop solutions require a reasonably high speed data link.

The 2nd computer solution is less than ideal for portability.

Hope this helps.


You should be able to accomplish this by dragging the menubar to the bigger monitor in System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement. My guess is that the app will display it's main content on the monitor with the menubar assigned to it.

I worked on software that did this many years ago and this would have worked for that program.


How can I disable search suggestions for Safari 6?

In the Privacy tab of Safari preferences, check the box to Prevent search engine from providing suggestions.


Controlling audio output's sample/bit rate on OSX from command prompt

Here is an AppleScript that fixes the default audio format of the default output card before launching Spotify (tested on El Capitan only), but I prefer very much a solution that does not depend on GUI:

set desiredRate to "44100.0 Hz"
set desiredDepth to "2ch-16bit Integer"

tell application "Audio MIDI Setup" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Audio MIDI Setup"
        if not (window "Audio Devices" exists) then
            click menu item "Show Audio Devices" of menu "Window" of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1
        end if
        tell group 1 of tab group 1 of group 1 of splitter group 1 of window "Audio Devices"
            click button 1 of combo box 1
            select (text field 1 of list 1 of scroll area 1 of combo box 1 whose value is desiredRate)
            keystroke return
            click pop up button 2
            click menu item desiredDepth of menu 1 of pop up button 2
        end tell
    end tell
end tell
tell application "Audio MIDI Setup" to quit
tell application "Spotify" to activate


that's quite simple!! That means you need a new battery...

The % indication is not always most accurate, specially on older batteries.

....when your iPhone automatically shut down yet the usage indicates that you still have about 8 or 11 percent. that means your battery is dead or almost,not to mention your iPhone shut down while it indicated it still have about 20 or 30 percent!!!

I had that experience, I just replace my iPhone 4s battery these days since I found the same problem happened on my phone, it automatically shut down yet it says it still has about 11 percent of battery


In the past, a similar range of error codes has been network related errors, so if your firewall/router/DNS is filtering Apple network IP (perhaps relating to OCSP shenanigans or just running something like PiHole) you might retry your installation from a very open network. Another thing to try would be a different network connector and reboot your home router / modem network setup to be sure it’s in a clean state.
Mostly, that error is designed to get you to Customer Support however, so starting that chat might be worthwhile if you don’t feel like troubleshooting this without vendor notes on what that error code signifies.

https://support.apple.com/

It’s also seldom popular to just wait a day, since you likely had a reason to recover your mac, but many problems do sort themselves out when it is server side and your process is correct. Without experiments, though, it’s hard to know which situation you face.


Consider running a bouncer like ZNC http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC somewhere, or using a paid service that does the same. I use ZNC on a Mac mini at home and it keeps me logged into IRC and sends me a push notification when my nick is mentioned. Great way to stay on IRC.


My iphone for the first time vibrate twice for one message

Normally you could disable the "Repeat" in

go to settings > notifications >  select messages  > scroll down to repeat alerts > select never /.


Why does my terminal show % instead of $? (macOS Big Sur)

I can't find an accepted answer to dupe this to, and since it's always been answered in comments, I'm going to make it a real answer so we can point people here. (Yes, it should be on Ask Different, but it gets asked here a lot.)
See macOS different Prompt meaning `%` vs `$` and Updated my shell to zsh, command prompt now ends in a % for a couple of recent versions.
You've switched from bash to zsh (this became the new default in 10.15), and zsh has a different default prompt. The commands you find online will still be fine. You don't type the leading $. That's just indicating where the prompt is (and in zsh it's %).
If you wish to switch back to bash, use the following command to change your default shell:
chsh -s /bin/bash


Turns out, there's a Preview preference that controls what actual size actually means:

If you want points to correspond directly to physical pixels, choose the first option.
(Not sure how it affects Retina displays though!)


How can I stop the prompt "Do you want Microsoft Office to automatically update?"

Copy-paste from answers.microsoft.com.

The nagging is sent by Notifications in the macOS and can be turned off in System Preferences-->Notifications as mentioned above.
This has no effect at all on when and how Microsoft AutoUpdate works. I just ran MAU to test this. You can still choose "Automatically Check," which will ONLY check (not download and install) and then will alert you if there are updates.
Disabling MAU in Notification Center has no effect on this. I disabled it and the nagging is no longer there. MAU provides its own pop-up notification WITHOUT triggering  macOS notification.


macOS (Catalina 10.15.7) - Save dialog - no way to filter/search

I think the crux is searching for a folder vs searching for a file.
Search in open and save works as well as Finder for me - just a different interface and limited space, less affordances are present, but as a long time user of search, perhaps I just have gotten used to the limitations and don’t even see clearly how it’s failing you.
When I need more space to search, I open a second Finder window and use spotlight search (sidebar search, tag search, Smart Folders, complex searches) to my hearts content and then drag the file I find into the save box.
It really helps you can drag and drop folders and files and they instantly update the file open and file save dialogs.
Any time this doesn’t work, I find one of two things.

The app isn’t using a standard dialog. You need to patch that app or select a new app so things are easy again
Spotlight itself is failing - this is easier to detect in Finder for me, but you can also detect this in app file dialogs if you are keen and know the results should show and do not.

The key win for me is having second display and drag/drop of files from outside the save box. You also might love a tool like DefaultFolderX - I used it heavily years ago but have gotten used to working with the OS and not needing extensions.

https://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/

The author is a long time supporter of Apple users and has superb value / customer support in my experience. The tool does amazing things - I just work on so many macs, that in stalling a bunch of tools doesn’t work for me unless I can’t live without that tool. Don’t take my not using it to mean it’s not awesome - it is absolutely amazing and well worth a trial.


Understanding the contents of com.apple.spaces.plist

I assume the IDs under each windows property are the IDs of the applications in each Space. Is that correct?

That appears to be correct. I confirmed this by saving copies of com.apple.spaces.plist over time and matching the changes in its contents to windows I moved back and forth across Spaces. There is a delay of a few seconds from when you move a window to when the plist is updated to reflect that change.

  Can I somehow, by editing this plist after a reboot, restore these window IDs to the Spaces they were assigned to before a reboot, and thus get all my windows back to where they were?

This doesn't seem to be possible. The plist appears to be a write-only source of information. That is, the OS periodically writes out what it's holding in memory to this file. But it doesn't update what's in memory by reading from this file.

I tested this on macOS 10.15.4 by making edits to the plist. They were ignored by the OS and simply overwritten with the current state of my windows and Spaces.


This was a commonly discussed issue on the Evernote message boards when Lion debuted.  I've seen all sorts of "fixes" including hacking an old version of Evernote.  Fortunately, there's a much easier option.

Print something
Choose "Edit Menu..." from the PDF menu in the Print dialog
Click the "+" button then navigate to Evernote, highlight it and click "Choose"
You will now have an option called "Evernote" in the PDF menu in all of your system print dialogs.  Choosing this option will print to pdf, and open that pdf in a new note in Evernote.

This process has been tested on 10.7.2 with Evernote 3.0.5.

I hope this is helpful.


You can just install the new hard drive and if you have a connection to the internet when you first boot up you can download Mac OS X directly from apple.  If you hold the alt key while the machine is booting it will take you directly to Internet Recovery.

Some features like iPhoto will be missing from this "free" version however they are very cheap and easy to install afterwards via the app store.

This process was tested on a 2011 MBP, also because you have to download the entire OS the process is quite lengthy.


email is missing from my settings on iphone 5c

Believe it or not, you can delete the Mail app from the home screen.

Go to the App Store and see if you can re-download it or install it.

If that doesn’t work, open the setting app and look for any Profiles that restrict apps. Lastly, look in general for restrictions to eliminate Mail.

It’s likely a configuration change that was made to the device. Worst case you can back up the device and then restore it from iTunes if needed.


How to add location info to Calendar using "Quick Event"

As far as I know (and I'm purposefully not citing anything here, because I have found absolutely nothing on the topic after much Googling, other searching, etc.), as of El Capitan there is no way to achieve this.

My rather simple workaround is to type out my event, such as

  Dinner with Will on Wednesday at 7 PM

And then to quickly tab to the location field in the event inspector, and fill in the event's location there there, e.g.:

Happy to update this answer as a more fulfilling solution presents itself.


Mavericks has a sophisticated RAM management software.

The good old days where you did the job of trying to keep as much RAM free as you could are obsoleted. Someone had the good idea of what is the purpose of RAM that is not used.

So use it all or as much as you can and manage the dynamics so it does not overun to Swap.

What it means it will continuously optimize the RAM usage while prioritizing the accessibility the speed to which applications open.

It uses a feature called Compressed memory to gain RAM space.

The measure of its success is not to have swap (if possible), which is using the hard disk as RAM, that slows it down.

In your case there is no swap or compression so the slow down you are experiencing is not your RAM.

Also looking at your memory pressure it is in normal levels.

You have 8 Google windows open totaling in 250 MB of RAM (that is also normal), but that could lead to slow down opening all of them at once.

To find out what is slowing it down you need to look in the console and publish some lines here at the time stamp of opening a application that takes long time to load.

As for kernel, it is normal for it to use up to 500 MB of RAM for all its jobs it has to do.


Keeping the mac awake when running certain applications?

I use caffeine to avoid the system to sleep, you can configure the time is "awake" as well: http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/

Edit to update as caffeine hasn't been updated for a long time, Amphetamine seems to work OK https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amphetamine/id937984704?mt=12


Where can I buy a spare power cable for a i5 Mac Mini?

Provided it connects fine you should be ok. It uses a standard power plug with this design. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4806

Otherwise any sort of Apple Service Provider or http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/23-190


How to view iCloud files without downloading

iCloud Drive is not designed to do what you're looking for.  iCloud is a syncing solution and not a backup solution.  It's designed to provide you with access to all your files from all your devices, keeping them all in sync.  It doesn't allow selective file downloads (specifically for what you need).

The only option you have (apart from storing the largest files on a different cloud-enabled provider, like Dropbox), is turn on Optimize Mac Storage from System Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> Options.  You didn't mention the OS you have so I'm assuming it's Sierra.

See this Apple Support page for other ways of turning on optimized storage using iCloud Drive.  From that page:

  Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra can save space by storing your content in the cloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in the cloud automatically. Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.


Sync between Mac & PC version control system

I was facing the same question a while ago, and I decided against a solution based on Dropbox or similar tools.

Take a look at https://bitbucket.org/ - they offer free private Git repositories.

If you don't mind hosting your stuff on a public repo, you could also use GitHub, but if it has to be private, check out BitBucket. This is a real Git host, so you can pull/push, even if your machines are on different networks.

Dropbox always sounded like the wrong way for this. It can certainly work, but why do it like this when you can use a real Git host for free?


How to block internet access of all apps (except browser) when using 3g usb modem?

Yes, (assuming you are using Mac OS X), but you're not going to like the answer: pfctl. (Prior to OS X 10.7 Lion, the firewall was ipfw.)
Also, alternatively, you can use the GUI to configure pfctl (or ipfw).

Also, OS X includes an application firewall :

Allowing specific applications
To allow a specific app to receive incoming connections, add it using Firewall Options:

Open System Preferences.
Click the Security or Security & Privacy icon.
Select the Firewall tab.
Click the lock icon in the preference pane, then enter an administrator name and password.
Click the Firewall Options button
Click the Add Application (+) button.
Select the app you want to allow incoming connection privileges for.
Click Add.
Click OK.
You can also remove any apps listed here that you no longer want to allow by clicking the Remove App (-) button.

There is also a third party application that is very popular called Little Snitch that will do what you ask.

Although I wouldn't recommend it for your purposes unless you were using it to learn about it for its own sake, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and above includes a sandbox facility (be sure to read the man pages listed under "SEE ALSO.")


Is it possible to screencast from an iOS device to a Chromecast?

Casting (mirroring) the entire screen of your iOS device to Chromecast is not possible. Apple TV uses an Apple proprietary technology called AirPlay for screen mirroring.

Casting is only available for compatible apps which have added support for Chromecast. In compatible apps, you will be shown a rectangular button with little wireless icon in the bottom left corner, as shown in the image below:


How to fix the App Store after upgrading to macOS Catalina?

What I have done is delete the App Store key chain entry in Finder, Application, Utilities, Keychain Access and the search for appstore. Delete just that one. (MacOS Catalina)


Keyboard or touchpad shortcut to move windows between screens?

There's nothing built in, but there are third-party programs that provide this functionality. I use the free open source Rectangle which provides shortcuts ctrl-opt-cmd-→ to move to the next display to the right and ctrl-opt-cmd-← to move to the next display to the left. It also provides shortcuts for other positioning of windows (e.g., left/right third/half/two-thirds, top, bottom, etc.).


Do you have an Apple store in the area where you can take both the charger and Mac and have them test each?

Best Buy (especially, including Geek Squad) or office supply stores can probably also test both parts, and often the local schools (especially high school art dept.) will have Apple devices and maybe your library too - anywhere someone might have similar devices and parts to help check your pieces out.


I use Prompt 2 by Panic. It's an excellent terminal app / SSH client, and works on the iPad too (in fact, it's even better on the iPad).

However, it's not free.


In Fullscreen, disable auto-hiding Mac menu bar

So it seems someone found a working solution, at last.

First,

close your VMs
Quit VirtualBox

then as root (or sudo ...)

copy the file somewhere as backup, then edit (eg vi) /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Resources/VirtualBoxVM.app/Contents/Info.plist
and add the line shown in the middle

the line <key>LSUIElement</key> <string>1</string> to be inserted between LSCanProvideIMVideoDataSource and NSHighResolutionCapable

<key>LSCanProvideIMVideoDataSource</key>    <true/>
<key>LSUIElement</key> <string>1</string>
<key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>          <true/>

save, then start VirtualBox again (I didn't have to log out/reboot).

The VM will not show anymore among the opened apps icons, but you can double click the VM in the VirtualBox to switch to it.

The whole post by Maestro is here.


How do I stop my Mac from ringing when I get a phone call on my iPhone?

Easy Peasy.

System Preferences > Notifications > FaceTime > uncheck 'Play sound for notifications'

Alternatively, you could just turn on 'Do Not Disturb' from the Today/Notifications widget easily when you need it by clicking on the notifications button in the menu bar and scrolling up the 'Do Not Disturb' setting will scroll into view


Disk Utility cannot erase USB drive (error -69877: couldn't open device)

This is an attempt to write a canonical QA for this issue, as per the Meta post:  Where is the list of canonical questions stored for Ask Different? This answer is based off a number of pre-existing answers expect it to be periodically edited with the goal of becoming a comprehensive information resource. *

Can't Access the Device

If you're having an issue where you can't access the device there are a couple things to check first:

Check for write protection.

On SD cards, there is a physical "write lock" switch that may become enabled.  Make sure it's in the "up" position.  If it's write protected on every SD , you may have an issue with the logic board itself.
On USB flash drives, there may be a physical switch or it may be write protected from via a write protect bit, or the chip may be modified from the factory.

Make sure you have the correct privileges.  Sometimes the drive may have had user privileges assigned to them.  Using an Admin account will usually get around this.

Fixing the Device

There are a few steps you can take, but all are destructive to the data on the device.

Erase Disk.  As the name implies, this does a simple erase of the disk and marks the free space as "empty" with no file system  or partition scheme.

$ diskutil eraseDisk free Empty /dev/diskX

Re-partitition the Disk.  I like to force a rewrite of the partition map to something that macOS is familiar with like a GPT partition and HFS+ file system.  You can use MS-DOS with MBR as well.  use diskutil listfilesystem to get a full list of supported file systems.

$ diskutil partitionDisk diskX 1 GPT HFS+ Untitled 100%   ← GPT with HFS Format

$ disktuil partitionDisk diskX 1 MBR FAT32 UNTITLED 100%  ← MBR with MS-DOS

Zero out the disk.  Using this command writes zeros to every block of the raw device, meaning you're bypassing everything and accessing the device itself.  This is the nuclear option because it will overwrite every single spot on the device with a zero.  Triple check the device name!

$ diskutil unmountDisk diskX            ← Only if necessary (you get a "Resource Busy")

$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskX bs=1m

If none of the above works, it's likely the device has failed.  On SD cards, this is actually quite common. Ask any photographer and they'll tell you that SD cards fail usually in the middle of paid gig which is one of the reasons they now make D-SLRs with dual memory slots

* Existing Questions/Answers

Couldn't open device
Disk Utility won't erase my USB flash drive ("Couldn't open device")
How can I fix Error: -69877: Couldn't open device after interrupted formatting process?
Unable to format USB disk (Error: -69877: Couldn't open device)
Disk Utility Cannot erase USB Drive (Error: -69877: Couldn't open device)


System Preferences → Mission Control → Show Desktop. Hold down a modifier key to affect which keys are shown.

You can also see more keyboard shortcut options through System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Mission Control → Show Desktop.


Use Automator to copy single folder to multiple locations

Yes this can be done in Automator.

Create a new Workflow and add a Get Specified Finder Items action adding the core template folder to it.

Add a Copy Finder Items action, one for each of the Client sites.

For each Copy Finder Items action, do the following

Check the [✓] Replace existing files check box.
In the To: list box, select: Other…

In the Choose dialog box:

Navigate to the admin folder of the appropriate Client (number).
Click the Choose button.

Having done this for each Client the workflow will then copy the core template folder to the admin folder of each Client folder, thus replacing it and it now having the contents of the updated core template folder in each of the Client folders at the designated location.

If you want to be able to know, more easily, which Client the Copy Finder Items action is for, do the following instead:

Check the [✓] Replace existing files check box.

In the To: list box, select: New variable…
In the Variable Options dialog box:

Change the text for Name: to an appropriate designator, e.g.: PathToClient1
In the Path list box choose Other…, then navigate to the admin folder of the appropriate Client (number).
Then click the Choose button.

By creating a variable name for each Client folder there is no ambiguity which Copy Finder Items action is for which Client folder. Although this does assume you select the proper target folder for each. ;)

Folder structure before Automator workflow:

Automator workflow:

Folder structure after Automator workflow:

Folder structure after updating the core template folder and running the Automator workflow again:


Crucial M500 480gb SSD Replacement for stock HDD on Late 2011 MacBook Pro keeps freezing

I ran into somewhat similar troubles, and discovered that there were many bad blocks on the drive (also from Crucial). Using Disk Utility to do a 1-pass security wipe (choose "Security Options" from the Erase tab in Disk Utility while the drive is selected and ) solved the problem entirely. Do this while started up from another disk (or the Recovery partition if you don't have another disk, like a OS X Install Flash drive).

Also consider installing Trim after you get everything installed, though be aware that there are some issues with Yosemite.


Application keeps bouncing on dock and won't open

Disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands 2 and so I cannot predict what the results of this process will be. Your safest bet is to go the Mac App Store page for Borderlands 2 and use the Borderlands 2 Support link. All Mac App Store apps are required to have a ‘support’ link, although some are more useful than others. The one for Borderlands 2 looks like it will lead to actual, official support, so I suggest you try that first.

That being said, the following is the troubleshooting technique that I use when trying to figure out why a Mac App Store app won’t launch.

Use at your own risk, etc. Remember that I’m just some guy on the Internet (allegedly!) giving you free, un-guaranteed advice. I almost always have a complete, recent, fully bootable backup on my Mac just in case something goes wrong. So should you, especially before mucking around with stuff.

1) Quit The App

We’re going to be moving the app’s preferences file, and you don’t want to do that when it is running. That would be a bad idea.

2) Use the Finder:

Use the Go → Go to Folder menu item

Enter ~/Library/Containers/ as shown here:

Click “Go” (or press Enter) and you will see all of the various “Containers” used on your Mac.

n.b.: Tread carefully. Apple hides the ~/Library/ folder because mucking around in there can cause problems.

This is what mine looks like:

Yours will look different but similar. Hopefully you will be able to tell which one goes to the you are trying to fix.

I am going to use com.multimarkdown.composer.mac (MultiMarkdown Composer 2) just because it’s easier to work with a specific example.

Find the “Saved Application State” folder for the app which will not open.

You will find it inside the app’s “Container” folder (above) → Data → Library → Saved Application State

Inside that folder will be one more, which ends with “.savedState” and contains the information used to restore the windows which were open when you quit the app.

Move that folder to the Desktop, or even the Trash if you want. Then re-launch the misbehaving app.

If it still won’t launch I’d repeat the process but instead look inside the ”Preferences” folder instead of ”Saved Application State” and I’d look for the file which doesn’t look like a link or an alias (in this case, com.multimarkdown.composer.mac.plist) and I would copy that file to the Desktop or the Trash, understanding that I was effectively deleting all of my saved preferences. Then re-launch the misbehaving app.

If that didn’t work, well, then I’d probably do something desperate like move the app’s entire folder from ~/Library/Containers/ (such as ~/Library/Containers/com.multimarkdown.composer.mac/) to the Desktop or the Trash and try one last time.

After that I might even delete the app and download it again from the Mac App Store.

(If you need to see any of the images in a larger size you can find them all at http://media.tjluoma.com/askdifferent/116501/.)


Macbook connects to modem, internet works, but modem -> router, no internet

Disabling the WiFi Signal on the Netgear CG3000D WiFi Cable Modem

You may have a standalone router that you would like to continue to use and are having problems with connecting to your router. The device may be causing a conflict because the router portion of the device is also active. You can turn off the WiFi network of the device, turning it into a modem only, and be able to use your router without an issue.

Completing this procedure disables the SSID for the Netgear CG3000D Home Device. This allows customers to use their own standalone wireless router.


Windows 10 Professional, Macbook Air , cirrus logic on Bootcamp

quick update:
* The color of the slider volume control has nothing to do with this issue. it just represent the current theme win 10 is using

I've downloaded cirrus logic driver CS4208(AB 126) and so far so good...i will update it that didn't work


How to set proxy on OS X Terminal permanently?

Your http proxy (just for some web sites not https ones and not for the rest of the internet) can be set for each terminal session by adding the line

export http_proxy="username:password@ip address:port number"

to your ~/.bash_profile file

Note this will only affect command line programs.


Airdrop option not showing Finder in mac

Tried the following steps and it worked:

First disable airdrop using:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser DisableAirDrop -bool YES

Then enable airdrop using:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser DisableAirDrop -bool NO

Restart mac


How can I use Blackberry emojis on my non-jailbroken iOS device?

iOS 8 supports 3rd party keyboards. There are several that speak in icons and gifs and whatnot. Check the AppStore for something you like or even develop your own.


I don't think the tool does what you wish. It treats scan as "check all channels" and may not even obey restrictions if you set them by hook or crook on which channels are allowed on the interface. It allows you to pre-filter by SSID name as opposed to channel:

airport --scan=whatever

For sniffing, you can use the Wireless Diagnostics application, but it's not command line based/enabled as far as I can tell.

Once you start the program, look in the Window menu for the options available on your OS (the tool is improving over time IMO with more features and capabilities).

You are right and the authors of the airport manual page agree that "airport more information needed here"