How to suppress alert 'this app is not optimized for your Mac'

As mentioned (very briefly) in Apple's guide on how to Prepare your institution for iOS 12 or macOS Mojave, the CSUIDisable32BitWarnings property key can be used to disable the 32bit warning alert.

This can be done in either of the following two ways:

In the terminal

According to this page, the warnings can be disabled by entering the following command in the terminal:

defaults write -g CSUIDisable32BitWarnings -boolean TRUE

To re-enable the warnings:

defaults delete -g CSUIDisable32BitWarnings

To display the current setting:

defaults read -g CSUIDisable32BitWarnings

where 1 means the alerts are disabled, and 0 or a does not exist error message means the alerts are active.

Using a management profile

The same effect can be achieved by preparing a management profile that sets the property key, as proposed by Apple in the above mentioned article. This may be the preferred solution to disable the alerts on multiple Macs.

This article explains how. It also provides a link to a sample management profile. The profile can be installed by downloading and double-clicking it.

For the sake of completeness, this is the example from the above link:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>PayloadContent</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>CSUIDisable32BitWarnings</key>
            <true/>
            <key>PayloadDescription</key>
            <string>Configures com.apple.coreservices.uiagent settings</string>
            <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
            <string>com.apple.coreservices.uiagent</string>
            <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
            <string>com.company.profile.57E80D89-1CA6-4386-8FDE-81DA0292CA3D.com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.FE123766-B72C-4620-9A21-CCABBEB48B2A</string>
            <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>PayloadType</key>
            <string>com.apple.coreservices.uiagent</string>
            <key>PayloadUUID</key>
            <string>FE123766-B72C-4620-9A21-CCABBEB48B2A</string>
            <key>PayloadVersion</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>PayloadDescription</key>
    <string>Disable 32-bit application warnings</string>
    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string>Disable 32-bit application warnings</string>
    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.company.profile.csuidisable32bitwarning.57E80D89-1CA6-4386-8FDE-81DA0292CA3D</string>
    <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
    <string>Company Name</string>
    <key>PayloadScope</key>
    <string>System</string>
    <key>PayloadType</key>
    <string>Configuration</string>
    <key>PayloadUUID</key>
    <string>57E80D89-1CA6-4386-8FDE-81DA0292CA3D</string>
    <key>PayloadVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Update #1

This blog article might be interesting in this context: Mojave’s Legacy Software is doubly wrong

Update #2

File ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.plist seems to maintain a list of alerts and last alert date for 32bit apps. If your alerts keep reappearing, it might help to delete it, but that is just an assumption.

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.uiagent.plist


Multiple user iCloud accounts on same computer

In your account on your partner’s Mac , open the system preferences and turn off iCloud for photos and documents or sign out of iCloud and let the local copies of your data be deleted.

Then if you sign in again, skip the automatic, sync all option and only choose items you need. Photos and documents can be allowed on a space available need or you can just leave all that in the cloud. Choose to optimize the storage if you can.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208682 (iCloud setup)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996 (Optimize Storage)

You can enable settings so only a portion of the data downloads:

Having more iCloud space than actual disk space (on macOS)?

If both accounts enabled optimizations in the manage settings for iCloud, it might work to have all things turned on for full iCloud for both of you.


How to Restore the Default Permissions in Sierra?

This is really quite easy.

Make a back up (Just in case, etc..)
Download and install Mac OS on to the volume using a recovery HD / Internet Recovery or booted from a known good OS external (hold option key when booting)
Clean up user account permissions once the system is fixed.

Since all installs are archive and install, the operation to install Sierra drops a proper, SIP protected, proper permissions system and then calls Apple's migration scripts which should migrate all apps and configurations from the old system with proper permissions in place.

Then you can add a new admin user and remove each old user one by one - leaving their home folders alone. When you rename the old user home as a new short name - when you add those users in - that will fix the permissions on a per user basis.


Way to load an old windows hard drive in boot camp?

Windows licenses, unlike Mac, do not belong to the person but to the machine. They are not transferrable between machines.

Sometimes just changing a hard drive or graphics card would be enough to trigger the 'you appear to be using a different computer' warning, needing you to ring Microsoft to re-authorise.

So, aside from any actual surmountable issues of persuading Windows to run from an external drive [which only Windows 10 will do, iirc] or setting up a fresh Boot Camp partition then making a bare-metal backup/restore to it using Acronis [the only software I know of that can move a Windows install between different physical hardware & still have it arrive in a bootable state] - once it arrives it will not be licensed.

You could, I suppose, at that point buy a new license.


Is there any way to update the Bootcamp assistant app?

Basically Macs what originally were shipped with optical drives should use their drive to install Windows. If your optical drive is not longer available, virtual machine software such as VirtualBox can be substituted, but the installation process becomes significantly more complex. Usually a USB drive can not be used to install any version of Windows on such Macs.

The good news is your machine probably can run Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. If Apple does not support a new versioner of Windows, generally the older drivers can be used to install Windows. I have the current version of Windows 10 running on 2007 and 2011 iMacs.

Also, you probably will need to install Windows to boot using the legacy BIOS boot method. The primary reason for this has to due with the Windows Support Software provided by Apple. The drivers included are designed for a BIOS boot and therefore can cause problems if one attempts as installation using a EFI boot method.


Extract some IPA from iPhone to USB Memory without jailbroken/download from App Store without iOS Device

Apple stopped supporting local backup of iOS apps in iTunes several versions ago. However there are apps available that will back up your iOS device including the apps.
I got iMazing in a Mac app bundle a while back and found it works as advertised and is well supported from the developer. It will back up your iOS device including the apps on it and store it locally on your Mac.
No relation to or interest in iMazing, just a happy customer. There are other apps that do similar things as well.


Automator: Is it possible to resize an image to a maximum file size?

I'm a little confused with the approach on how to properly compress the images you want to work with. As mentioned, there is sips, a working example based on pulling a directory of images and stepping through the list with a resize if the width isn't 800px:

property theWidth : 800

tell application "Finder"
    try
        ## Choose directory
        set imageDir to choose folder with prompt "Please select directory."

        ## Get list of items in diretory
        set the imageList to list folder imageDir without invisibles

        ## Step through images
        repeat with theImage in imageList

            ## Turn path to posix path
            set imagePos to quoted form of POSIX path of ((imageDir as text) & contents of theImage)

            ## Get image width
            set imgWidth to (do shell script "sips -g pixelWidth " & " " & imagePos & " " & "| tail -n1 | cut -d' ' -f4") as integer

            ## if not equal to set variable width resize
            if imgWidth ≠ theWidth then do shell script "sips --resampleWidth " & theWidth & " " & imagePos

        end repeat
    on error error_message
        display dialog error_message
    end try

That is just an example of what you can do with the width. As mentioned in the comment you could check to see which is longer the width or height and resize from there. If you do man sips in the Terminal you can pull all types of info. The above code uses tail and cut to trim the return. Resizing is done with --resampleWidth. You could resample based on height with --resampleHeight.

Regarding the compression aspect, if these are PNGs you can use Optipng. If you want something you can run with PNGs and JPGs you could use Trimage. AppleScript/Automater could also be scripted into using a compression utility. You would just need to call from bin a check if a compression exists:

try
    set checkBin to "(ls usr/local/bin/optipng >> /dev/null 2>&1 && echo yes) || echo no"
    return do shell script checkBin
on error error_message
    return error_message
end try

The above is checking for OptiPNG. If you wanted to check wether something was installed with HomeBrew you could use a similar command on /usr/local/Cellar.

All the above mentioned could be completely done in a Shell Script. It just depends on what you want and how you want to execute the code.


Looking for a monitor for my 2012 model iMac

I have recently added an LG FlatIron IPS234V LED monitor, 1920 x 1080, to my 2011 iMac, that I purchased from NewEgg for about $160.  It connects to the ThunderBolt port through a DVI cable and a MiniDisplayPort to DVI adapter, both from Monoprice, for about $16.

After inserting the MiniDisplayPort adapter in the port, and turning the monitor on, the image appears without any changes to the iMac display.  I am quite pleased with the combo so far, at what seems a reasonable cost. Windows can be dragged from one screen to the other.

I cannot say how this combo would work with a 2012 iMac.  The additional display space remains active even if the monitor is turned off, until the cable is disconnected from the ThunderBolt port.  This is disruptive for remote control, so I try to disconnect the cable before I leave the system.

I have seen the blue screens when I change the display resolution on either screen, but not otherwise.


Apple Business Manager and Apple Developer Program

No - there are multiple avenues for distribution. MDM can assist with many and it depends on the MDM and the app entitlements and where and how you upload the app.
When a developer account expires, you lose control and can’t renew signing certificates. Currently, Apple doesn’t pull these apps, but there’s  no reason they couldn’t in that case from my reading of our contracts in the US.

With B2B custom store, public store with private SKU pricing and more, you have diverse options here.

https://www.apple.com/legal/enterprise/apple-business-manager/abm-us.pdf


Go to Settings → General → Usage and delete the iOS 8 update package from the list.


How to "print" a PDF on a Mac so that is automatically sent by AirDrop to an iOS device?

If you actually use iCloud & iCloud Drive, Print to PDF and then save the PDF to iCloud and it will show on your iPad. Thats why iCloud Drive is there.

Or if you just have to use AirDrop, then:

Why not print to PDF then share the PDF via AirDrop?

It appears to be much easier using either method than to create an automation to get the same effects.


What's the best way to extract audio from a video file?

I finally found the exact combination I needed, and I found it in ffmpeg.

I will expand on the question a bit and spell out the fact that I was already working with mp4 contained video/audio, so MP4 Video (.m4v) and AAC Audio (.m4a). I absolutely wanted an as-is version of the audio extracted from the video.

First off, it's pretty easy to install things like ffmpeg, mplayer, things built off them, and similar open source packages nowadays. Between Rudix, Homebrew, MacPorts, and Fink (does anyone even use fink anymore?), third party software is a snap to install.

So, after installing ffmpeg, and having the ffmpeg accessible at the command line, I ran a command like this:

ffmpeg -i videofile.mp4 -vn -acodec copy audiotrack.m4a

ffmpeg: The command.

-i videofile.mp4: The source video file.

-vn: Do not record (do not consider) video data.

-acodec copy: Copy the audio source as-is, here's where all the magic is. ffmpeg will write the audio data out as various supported codecs, but specifying copy leads a bit-for-bit exact copy of the stream. Coupled with disabling video via -vn leaves you with a lone audio track inside an mp4 container.

audiotrack.m4a: The output filename.

I can't believe something like this was so difficult and hidden for so long.

Since I always intend to rip aac audio data out of an mp4 container/video, I wrote a quick little script to do it.

#!/bin/bash

INFILE="$1"
TMPOUTFILE="${INFILE%.*}"
OUTFILE="${TMPOUTFILE##*/}.m4a"

ffmpeg -i "${INFILE}" -vn -acodec copy "${OUTFILE}"

Now, I simply invoke rip_m4a_from_mp4 somevideofile.mp4 and I am left with an audio only version with the same filename, ending in m4a instead.

Simple! For me anyways. No GUIs, lightning fast, this is just one of those things that the command line does better.


What setup allows a Windows 7 client to use OS X 10.6.7 server VPN with L2TP?

Kind of annoying but fairly painless to resolve with a small edit to the registry on windows 7: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926179/


Can iPhoto version 9.6 locate where photo was taken?

If you have taken the photos using an iPhone and location services was enabled for the camera app, then yes you should be able to see the location the photo was taken in iPhoto (as well as the new Photos app that shipped with OS X El Capitan).

To do so just highlight the photo and press CMD + I to bring up the inspector which will tell you the location, as well as a lot of info about the camera used.


Does apple store my credit card information including name card number

The security of Apple Store servers is closely monitored to prevent any unauthorized disclosure or use of credit card numbers and to protect the confidentiality of your personal information.

  The Apple Store uses the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) industry standard,
  the highest level of security available today for web-secured
  applications. SSL relies on a pair of public and private key
  technologies provided by Verisign, Inc. and based on a 40-bit
  encryption algorithm developed by RSA Data Security, Inc.

  Apple decrypts the data, determines your card’s payment network, and
  re-encrypts the data with a key that only your payment network (or any
  providers authorized by your card issuer for provisioning and token
  services) can unlock.

  Apple doesn’t store or have access to the original card numbers of
  credit, debit, or prepaid cards that you add to Apple Pay also. Your
  cards are associated with your Apple ID to help you add and manage
  your cards across your devices.

Source: More on its security with Card Payment's FAQ

You can remove your bank card from iTunes on an iOS device in Settings:

Tap Settings.
Open iTunes & App Store.
Tap your Apple ID (typically your email address at the top of the screen).
Tap View Apple ID.
Tap Payment Information.
Tap None under Payment Type.
Tap Done.

This will remove your card details from your Apple ID. Note that you won't be able to make purchases, download apps or make in-app purchases until you repeat the process but choose a card type under Payment Type (and enter your card details.)

If you're using an Apple Mac computer, you remove your card details from iTunes using the iTunes app:

Open iTunes.
Sign in with your Apple ID (if you aren't signed in already, then choose Account > Sign In).
Choose Account > View My Account.
Enter your Apple ID and Password and press Return.
Click Edit to the right of Payment Type.
Select None next to the Payment Method.
Click Done.

To access the credit card detail for your Apple Developer Program, you can do the following:

Log in to your Apple Developer Account.
Click the Membership menu.
Scroll down to the Settings section.
Click on Edit default debit/credit card.

and you will be directed to the Apple ID website.

Go to Payment and Shipping. and click on Edit.
Modify your desired credit card information.
The Save button will be enabled then click it to save the changes

Note: Once you uncheck Autorenew membership option, you can use it for a year and later it will not auto renew if you don't want.

Source: Apple Support


Usually what I would do is copy the Excel spreadsheets into Word, then use Word's Merge Documents feature (might have been Merge/Compare or simply Compare Documents previously to 2011) to see the differences between them. Depending on how big your spreadsheet is, however, that might not work for you.


If I leave my chargers plugged into the wall socket at all times, do they consume energy or present a safety risk?

It does consume energy. Feel it, it will feel warm or even hot. It doesn't use much, but it is still a good idea to not waste this. Unplug it, or buy a power strip and turn off the power strip when it isn't needed.

To find out exactly how much, you could use a Kill-a-Watt, or read the MacBook Environmental Report (PDF). The current version (MacBook, May 2010, White) says the no-load power draw is 0.010 W. The older version (MacBook, 2008, Metal body) draws 0.15 W at no load. This is quite a difference.

0.15 W means if you left it plugged in for a year you would use 1.314 Kwh. Given a price of roughly $0.20/Kwh this would cost you about 25 cents per year. If the computer is on the whole time (at 14 Kwh) the cost would be about $25/year.


Use Profile Manager (or other methods?) for Network Mounts/Favorites

The files which store Finder favorites and server lists are located in

~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist

The file formats in this directory are sfl2 which is ultimately a form of BookmarkData internally, stored within the plist format encoded as base64. The sfl2 format cannot be modified with current command line tools on macOS 10.14+, although in earlier versions of macOS this was possible using the command line program sfltool.

However if you copy these files from an account already set up with your desired favorites e.g from another machine (this can be done once and repeated on many devices) then kill the process sharedfilelistd the list(s) update within Finder.

The file which stores the server list is called com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteServers.sfl2 and the sidebar list is com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl2

I have personally tested this with the server list, however I'm unsure of the implications of updating the sidebar list without user account path conflicts.


Is it possible to hook up macbook build in keyboard to Ubuntu PC?

Have you tried Synergy? They say that it  lets you easily share your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desktop.

There are some videos on Youtube which show how it works.


Unable to install Xcode using dmg file downloaded from Apple.com

Before doing this you need to delete the unfinished downloads and run this link in browser , which i mentioned below.
You can find the DMGs for Xcode and other development tools on https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ (requires Apple ID to login).
Link for Xcode 7.0.1 you can try this link.
Hope this will help.


The problem  with the date on the computer is related to the cookie's expiration. The website is reporting that the cookie is valid from 1 week (or whatever) when it is created and given to the computer, but when the browser compares the cookie's expiration period to the current system time, it is either a TRUE or FALSE value. Because the date is so far off, it's always a FALSE (it only needs to be 1 second outside the valid period to get a FALSE value).

This is true for Windows too. Most people have this same problem with Windows 8.


Why doesn't /usr/libexec/java_home recognize JDK 1.8?

You need to also copy the Contents/MacOS directory and Info.plist from the 1.7 SDK and adapt them (by changing the version strings in it).

Then you can:

$ export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home
$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0-ea"
$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8*
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home

Note that this is a hack and I didn't try anything else than start java... I was just building on your tip of creating the package.


ScreenFlow won't record screen after transferring data to new MacBook Pro running Catalina

I fixed the problem by using the following command in Terminal:
tccutil reset All net.telestream.screenflow9

Then restarted the Mac.


Unable to open multiple documents in Word or Pages using Command-O in OS X 10.9.4

This seems to be a bug in either Word or the OS. I've seen this behavior since Lion at least, and have been dealing with it myself just today. Have you tried re-associating file types for Word documents? After setting .doc and .docx files to open in Word by default (Get Info --> Open with --> select or re-select Word, then click Change All), I can launch multiple files again without any problems. It may not be a permanent fix, but it works for me.

If you hadn't mentioned that this affects Pages as well I would blame MS Word, but given this, and that reassociating files seems to help, it sounds like an issue with the way the OS is handling these file types.


The only way to solve this problem is to completely backup all the data of phone from iTunes and 3rd party software's such as "Syncios" etc. You may use Cloud storage to save all your photos to them but not to iCloud. Now you would need to restore the phone from iTunes so that every file get refreshed. This will finish all the data now by turning on cloud services you can store your photos back to Camera Roll and they would work as it need to work. Contacts can also be brought back by iCloud or syncing from iTunes.

Do not restore backup from iTunes or iCloud as it has all problems

You can get Game scores from Game center but be carefull I was not able to get my Temple Run 2 gems and score back on phone but my record in on Gamecenter.
You would now do a fresh backup of iPhone using iTunes or iCloud but don't restore previous one

Now its up to you wether you continue using your phone as it is or solve the problem by this way. Try to avoid using icloud photos if you don't know much about it because it was the root cause of my problem

Any future queries I would be willing to answer them.


Crop video that has been taken the vertical way on iPhone

no not really, you could find a third party app, doing this on a comp is easy however! why not use it in landscape to begin with? it drives me crazy when people film in portrait, why? because almost every screen you watch your media on is "landscape"


Strange issues with garage band 10 and sound fonts sf2

Have the same problem,
strange, but works once in a time (don't know the reason) : try it again after having created a different track without DLS


Office Mac 16 - Disable recent items list

Setting to zero Finder's menu recent items count (via System Preferences > General) also sets to zero all Office applications' Open Recent... items count.

Not a definitive solution but a viable workaround until Microsoft fixes the issue (assuming that is a bug that Office apps "touch" all files listed in Open Recent... when File menu is clicked)


How to create an alias for IP address for JDBC connection?

Add the alias to the file /etc/hosts with a line like this:

123.123.123.123 db

Where 123.123.123.123 should be substituted with your IP-address and db must match the name given as alias in the JDBC connection.

After editing the file, run the following command in the Terminal:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

This will reload the hosts file.


Cannot calibrate indoor run for Apple Watch 6

There is no manual calibration. You can hope that your indoor stride matches your outdoor stride and use it to refine the step lengths.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516

The system calculates stride length based on GPS and pace, so if you’re is off, resetting the existing calibration and repeating the outdoor calibration in straight line / flat conditions might be worthwhile.


OS X Server File Sharing - Airport Extreme Disk via VPN

I know this is an old post, but responding anyway in case people are googling for an answer still.  You can access your Airport Extreme Shared Disk through a VPN from outside the network, all WITHOUT checking "Share disks over WAN".  Here is hows it's done:

Configure your VPN server to also push the routes for your home network.  Below is a sample from my macbook routing table once connected to the VPN:

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
default            172.20.10.1        UGSc          15        2     en0
10.0.1/24          10.2.1.5           UGSc           0        0     utun1

As you can see, the home network traffic gets tunneled through the VPN.

Next step is to "Connect to server..." in Finder.  You can click on "GO" in the top menu bar to get there, or hit Command-K.  Once there you need to provide the url to the file share.  In the case of the Airport Extreme the url should look like this:
afp://10.0.1.1/NAME_OF_SHARE
OR
smb://10.0.1.1/NAME_OF_SHARE

(replace NAME_OF_SHARE with your shared name, mine is Raid5 so the url looks like this: afp://10.0.1.1/Raid5)
For the username and password, provide the credentials as you normally would connect.  For cases where a disk password is used instead of accounts, then the username will be "root", and the password will be the disk password.
All set, the share will be mounted as normal.

**NOTE:  These instructions assume you are on a MAC.


Safari - menu to show live tabs open in open windows

If you have Alfred 2, there is a workflow for selecting Safari tabs by typing. It includes tabs from all windows, but it doesn't group them by window.


How do I stop Apache from starting up automatically?

Are you sure that it is apache you are seeing running. When you do the

ps aux|grep apache

You will see one process ( the shell process that is looking for the string apache)

A running apache server is not called apache it is called httpd, and you will see multiple instances of this (one parent daemon which in turn spawns workers). The apachectl  is reporting correctly that it is not running


Mac mini 2012 graphic upgrade for UE4 Unity3D Blender

I actually wouldn't worry about it too much for Unity3D and Blender - both are very efficient.  UE4 seems to be a bit less efficient.

In the past I've really liked NVidia, but on my late 2011 MacBook Pro (with 8G of normal ram) I'm using a AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB (only 1G graphics!) and am very happy.  Well, happy with Unity3D and Blender that is.  It runs a bit hot sometimes if I have lots of particle effects and such - but I use a fan control software that helps a bunch.  So, I'm thinking either card you've chosen should work for those two apps.

For UE, I'd go to the forums over there.  Last time I used Unreal, I had to run the Windows version and was using Parallels. I was woefully under-powered for that but, I was still able to grade a bunch of students senior capstones (big projects).  So, even my set-up worked.  Just slooooooow. :-)


It was deliberately removed by Apple, so can't be renabled. There are work-arounds, eg. using srm on the command-line, or third party secure delete products.

From: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205267

Finder

Available for: Mac OS X v10.6.8 and later

Impact: The "Secure Empty Trash" feature may not securely delete files placed in the Trash

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

CVE-ID

CVE-2015-5901 : Apple


After Updating Mac to 10.13.5 Guest User Account Appeared?

The Guest User must be enabled [& will do so automatically] if Find My Mac is enabled.

From the Users & Groups pref pane Help file

  Guest access works with the Find My Mac feature of iCloud to help you find your Mac if you lose it. You can locate your Mac if someone finds it, logs in as a guest, and then uses Safari to access the Internet. See Use Find My Mac.


Why does iCloud take up 30+ gigs of storage on my Mac?

Your iCloud Drive contents are cached. After looking over the new storage management features in Sierra, doesn't look like the "Optimize Storage" feature will clear that.

If you go to About this Mac > Storage > Manage > iCloud Drive are there options there to remove files locally? I don't use it personally so mine's empty.  :)


How to make the "Page Down" key on the keyboard move only half the distance as usual

As answered in the question linked to by klanomath's comment, ControllerMate can be used to set up keybindings that simulate scrolling an arbitrary amount.

However, this approach has limitations:

The ControllerMate approach does not take into account the height of the window being scrolled; it advances a fixed distance on its virtual scroll wheel. So this workaround only works well if all the windows you wish to scroll are always the same height.
The default behavior of Page Up & Page Down, as well as Home and End, cannot be overridden in Chrome, at least. It only works if you add a modifier key. Being able to override existing single-key behavior is very desirable, since the whole point of this is to optimize something that is done very frequently.

(Oops! I placed a bounty on this question worth 100 reputation points, not realizing that the points would be "escrowed" and that since I'm not a frequent user of apple.stackexchange.com, I would then not have enough reputation points to comment. Otherwise I might have just commented after klanomath. I'm not attempting to win my own bounty by answering... Hoping someone else can come up with an approach that overcomes the limitations mentioned above.)


You cannot. Safari does not include that functionality.

You can easily achieve sorting using plugins such as SafariSort, but as you write that you do not in want to use any third party tools - you're out of luck.

You should consider using another browser if this functionality is important to you.


Have Mojave's Dark Mode switch PyCharm theme to Darcula

I have come up with a (hacky) way to change themes in JetBrains editors using bash and AppleScript. An example for PyCharm would be something like:

#!/bin/bash

# Switch macOS dark mode on and off
osascript -e '
    tell application "System Events"
        tell appearance preferences
            set dark mode to not dark mode
        end tell
    end tell
'

# Change PyCharm theme

# Assumes default key mappings
# Switch to dark theme if macOS dark mode is on
# 2>/dev/null to suppress error if macOS dark mode is off
if defaults read -g AppleInterfaceStyle 2>/dev/null | grep -q "Dark"; then
    osascript -e '
        if application "PyCharm" is running then
            -- switch focus to PyCharm
            tell application "PyCharm" to activate
            tell application "System Events"
                -- open Quick Switch Theme menu
                keystroke "`" using {control down}
                -- Select Look and Feel
                keystroke "5"
                delay 0.4
                -- Select Darcula
                keystroke "2"
            end tell
        end if
        '
# Switch to light theme if macOS dark mode is off
else
    osascript -e '
        if application "PyCharm" is running then
          tell application "PyCharm" to activate
            tell application "System Events"
                keystroke "`" using {control down}
                keystroke "5"
                delay 0.4
                keystroke "1"
            end tell
        end if
        '
fi

I actually use it as a part of a larger script but the code above should work fine for PyCharm only (or any other JetBrains IDE, just replace application name). If you experience issues, I would suggest increasing/introducing delays between keystrokes like the delay 0.4 in the code above.


Can you prevent a remote wipe from iCloud after it has been issued?

If your iPhone is not password-locked, you can use PhoneView to extract all of your PIM information. Anything that is DRM-protected will not be available via a tool like PhoneView though. I have used PhoneView to retrieve contacts, photos, and voice memos that users needed to keep. I recommend it for just such a task.


What are the green columns/lines mean in Activity Monitor - Energy - Battery?

Since your battery level was rising throughout that period, the green columns would indicate that your laptop was charging/plugged in.


iMac 27-inch, Late 2014, RAM upgrade size combinations

The general rule is you can mismatch sizes in pairs but not in individual slots.
Computers use interleaved memory, which requires each pair of slots to be populated with the exact same RAM. Having mis-matched slots will 'break' the interleaving & slow down the RAM access. As far as I'm aware this isn't 'dangerous' at all, merely slower.

Some machines can also use triple-channel memory, where three matching memory sticks can be interleaved. I don't know whether your iMac can do that, it may only be the Mac Pros that can - though in this case would make your issue harder to solve [I'm just including it for completeness]

So, your ideal way to achieve 32GB would be 4 x 8GB, which is probably cheaper than 2 x 16 anyway. If you keep the existing 4's I would add a pair of 8's.

Crucial's RAM configurator, on a quick search [check for your exact model] shows no 16GB sticks at all.


Why can I not reject the exclusion of a partition in Time Machine?

The problem is that Time Machine is designed for HFS+ formatted volumes.

You might have luck with the Paragon NTFS driver but if the NTFS volume is case-sensitive and your normal mac partition is not, you will have problems backing both up to the same Time Machine volume.

You might be able to use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the contents of the NTFS volume to an image file but not a bootable one.

Also check out this blog which talks about related NTFS issues.


Extract text between two unicode symbols using AppleScript or bash?

This runs with Bash, but it evokes some Ruby code:

ruby - <<EOF
puts /▶[^•]*•/.match("▶the first •2•3•4•5•666643")
EOF

If you decide to use AppleScript, you have a lot of options for what to match against:

on run {input, parameters}
    set var to "▶the first •2•3•4•5•666643"

    set output to (do shell script ¬
"ruby - <<EOF
    puts /▶([^•]*)•/.match('" & var & "')[1]
EOF")

    return output
end run

Alternatively, sed can be used, which is easier for working with files:

sed -E 's/.*▶([^•]*)•.*/\1/' filename.txt


Set the date and time in menubar to be in a specific format

There is a free app called Day-O that is flexible and can do what is being asked:  https://shauninman.com/archive/2016/10/20/day_o_2_mac_menu_bar_clock


How do I know my last Recently Watched Movies in iTunes?

You can do that using a Smart Playlist:

Go to File > New Smart Playlist….
The settings should resemble this, for your case:

Modify whatever settings you wish to modify and click OK.
The playlist will appear in the sidebar.


What's the best way to share and edit documents between iPhones with separate Apple IDs?

Short answer: Dropbox (preferably with Dropbox-aware apps).

Longer answer: It depends a lot on what type the documents are, and what apps you use to edit them.

Anything that only has iCloud as a sharing mechanism won't work, without exporting via email or some other means (which would seem to defeat the point). For the foreseeable future, iCloud documents are tied to individual accounts.

Dropbox is probably your best bet - either a shared account, or shared folders between individual accounts. The app itself can open files in whatever application supports them, but then you're dealing with multiple versions again. If at all possible, use apps that have built-in Dropbox support to avoid this.

If you're dealing with plain text, there is a vast selection of Dropbox-enabled text editors out there. Brett Terpstra has a heavily detailed comparison here.

For other formats, it may be a bit more hit and miss. For Office documents, Office2 HD and Documents to Go both advertise Dropbox sync, but there may be more out there.

For PDFs, PDFPen does Dropbox sharing, and is a great app. PDF Expert has similar functionality.

If you narrow down what sort of document support you need, I'm sure others can chime in with suggestions.


The document “Example.dmg” could not be opened. Disk Utility cannot open files in the “Disk Image” format

So, this solves the problem of how to get the file to open. I don't know why the "open with" was not working, but after several hours of trying different search strings in Google, I found this article that explains how to change the default to the disk image mounter instead of the Disk Utility: How to change default apps on the Mac.

Steps are copied below:

Go to the Mac's Finder.
Find the file type you'd like to open with a specific app, and select it.
Click on the File menu and select Get Info.
Expand Open with: by clicking on the triangle to the left.
Select the Open with: menu, then choose the app you'd like to use to open all documents like that one.
Click the Change All... button.
You'll get a dialogue box asking you to confirm your choice. Click Continue.
Close the Get Info window.

Worked like a champ.  I don't know how this got changed in the first place (my Macbook did not change), but that is another question.


Installing Windows on MBP 2015 (Mojave) Using Boot Camp, Error: Not enough space!

This question has been asked before here a Ask Different. One possible answer is the disk (drive) where the software is being saved is actually too small. On your model Mac, the Boot Camp Assistant creates a temporary ExFAT formatted partition where both the Windows 10 ISO files are copied and the downloaded Windows support software files are saved. The Windows ISO file can vary in size. The determining factors is the version, edition and language. Also, the size of the Windows support software depends on the model/year of the Mac. Evidently, certain combinations of size factors can lead to space errors. So, while most users probably are not having problems using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows, there are a few with space issues.

Older Macs use a FAT32 formatted flash drive to install Windows. Certain Windows 10 ISO files contain files which to larger to be stored on FAT32 formatted flash drives. When this occurs, the Boot Camp Assistant will produce a space related error message.

Users also have reported that Time Machine has limited the space available to install Windows. See the question Bootcamp: The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned.

Finally, users have reported cases where they are able to use either the Disk Utility application or the diskutil command to shrink the macOS partition by the desired size and create space for Windows to be installed, but can not get the Boot Camp Assistant to do the same. For example see: Mojave bootcamp assistant limits partition size.

If you are having space problems, then you should first make sure you have installed the latest version of macOS that is compatible your Mac. This includes installing all available applicable updates. If you are still having space problems, then consider using the following steps to install Windows.

Use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows support software. In this case, you are prompted where to store the files to be downloaded.
Use the Disk Utility application or the diskutil command to create space for Windows.
ExFat format and 16 GB or larger flash drive and copy the files from the Windows ISO and Windows support software download.
Boot from the flash drive and install Windows. Basically, you are installing Windows the same way as anyone who owns a PC.

An example of one user who recently successfully installed Windows 10 using this method can be found at the answer to the question Mojave bootcamp assistant limits partition size.


Sharing Mac internet connection from wifi to Iphone USB not working (Mac OS Catalina)

sorry for the short answer but simply, your interface for iPhone USB is not there. To add it back, Go to Network Preferences and then click the Lock icon and enter your password. Then, click the "Plus" icon at the bottom. This will present you with a few choices. See if you can choose iPhone USB.

If that doesn't work, then open Finder and see if the device is recognized. If it is recognized, then that means that you might have a problem with the charging cable or something like that.

The best options would be to update to the latest iOS and macOS on your devices and then try using another charging cable from Apple. You can also use Safe Boot to check your Mac for issues. See this for more on Safe Boot: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Good luck!


Will a deactivated iPhone still receive iMessages and emails?

If your phone gets close to any WiFi network it has been connected to before it will reconnect and receive whatever is pending (iMessages, Mails etc.). Depending on your Notification Center settings and/or the strength of your password (if any) the person holding the phone will then also be able to read them.

But

are you sure the phone is gone and not just laying somewhere you haven't been looking at?
you still can use Find My iPhone to erase everything on the phone (which will be executed if the phone goes online again)


Wireless or Wired Apple keyboard for programming?

I prefer the wired version primarily because it has a 10-key pad, the dedicated page up/down and home/end keys, and the arrow keys aren't so tiny.


How to include secondary drives' files into 'All My Files' feature

'All My Files' is a Smart Folder, that is, a saved Spotlight search, named myDocuments.cannedSearch:

and located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/MyLibraries. You probably shouldn't modify it, as it is a system file.

However, you can create your own Smart Folder using 'All My Files' as a template:

Select 'All My Files' and click 'Show search criteria':

Choose 'This Mac' to search the entire computer:

Click Save and specify a name, for example 'All My Items Everywhere', and a location for your Smart Folder (the default in ~/Library/Saved Searches should be OK).

The Smart Folder will appear in the sidebar.
Select 'All My Items Everywhere', right click and arrange by kind:

to get a similar output as 'All My Items':

The downside of creating your own Smart Folder is that you can't configure the Finder so that new windows display 'All My Items Everywhere'.


Can a normal SIM be modified to work as a nano-SIM?

No. You could cut it to the same dimensions, but the risk to damage the chip is high. Additionally the nano sim is slightly thinner, so it still wouldn't be a good fit.

I suggest you exchange your sim card with your operator. Note that there exist adapters to fit a nano sim in a larger form factor though.


Why does text appear blurry when zooming in Safari until you release your fingers from the trackpad?

Probably to give a smoother and better user experience while browsing the web. If it did it in real time all systems wouldn't be able to handle it that well.


Renaming files with special structure in a quick way

This could be a job for pax, assuming that there is a consistent naming convention.

cd directory

pax -rws/filep/fileq/ filep-* /path/to/copy/directory


When I power off the iPod, and restart it, does it re-open all previously open applications?

These applications are not necessary "running".  The multi-tasking tray doubles as a "recently used" list.   So although you may not have run these applications in the past week, they are listed in the order they last ran (however long ago that was).

So, to answer your question, no the iPod doesn't restart all previously open applications.


How do I prevent prompts to update to iOS 10

Short answer, No.
Apple really, really, really wants you to upgrade.

Longer answer...
You'd need to be able to block the domains

appldnld.apple.com
mesu.apple.com

on every WiFi access point you meet.


"Internet Sharing" via "Ethernet" is not working

Apple Network Sharing is very unreliable across different OS and different network channels. I've lost a lot of time on this. Enough so that I'd suggest getting a simple good quality router and setting it up to pick up the wifi ethernet and redistribute it via ethernet. Make sure to set the access point router to act as a bridge (i.e. it would continue to obtain DHCP addresses from the central router). That way you can share to other devices on the master network.

You may find you get faster and more reliable internet on your MacBook Pro as well as the aluminum hulls are not particularly reception friendly, especially in comparison with a router with proper antennas which can be positioned as you like.

I'm doing something similar but using powerline adapters (more reliable than wifi) to bring the internet to the access point router.


How to retrieve deleted photos (duplicate) from iphone?

Finally I end up using Wonder Share (Mac)


How do I prevent applications from taking over my screen?

It depends on how the application goes to full screen. If it is "standard" full screen that was introduced with Mavericks, moving the mouse cursor to the top of the screen should reveal the menubar with an option to "restore" the Window size.

Even if it is via another mechanism (vis special code), standard app switcher options should work. your options include:

Cmd + Tab - swicthes between apps
F3 on a standard Apple keyboard opens Mission Controls*
You can set up hot corners (System Preferences -> Desktop and Screensaver -> Hot Corners) to go to desktop or all windows by moving your mouse cursor to a corner of the screen to go to desktop or another app
Connect an additional monitor (if on a laptop)

*This is not technically F3. It is the shortcut got by pressing F3. You may have to Try Fn + F3 depending on how your heyboard is setup.


OK - this is an odd one. The most straightforward solution would be to use Time Machine to restore /Applications from the backup prior to it becoming marked as a package and not as a folder.

Barring that, You will need to boot into single user mode and delete /Application/Contents and perhaps some other files (it's hard to know what exactly else got messed up) by mounting the filesystem in read/write mode.

 /sbin/mount -uw /
 rm -rf /Applications/Contents
 # and optionally
 mv /Applications /badApplication_package

Alternatively, you could try rebooting with Command R and just reinstalling the OS - hoping that /Applications gets corrected. If you were worried about the rm command, you could also rename /Applications and reinstall your OS - hand moving back just the Apps you need being careful not overwrite things again.

This is a rare problem to face - so congratulations on forcing yourself to learn how packages and apps get made on OS X the hard way.


Calendar from Google Calendar not syncing to the iPad

I had the same problem. I unmarked to sync the calendar (deleted all events from the iPad) and then marked back to sync, and all got back to work.


Make sure at the least you know all of the above.
There are no hard and fast rules about buying second hand products, but mostly common sense and getting the greatest idea possible about what you're buying before committing.
If its from a friend or someone you know, you're immediately in a better position as its easy to see the phone and hopefully you can trust them.
If it at any point however seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The price on the site for a new iPhone 4 is currently £429 for 8GB so the question to ask is why are they selling it for half of that. It may be because they just have no need of it and aren't looking for lots of money and want a quick sale, or they may have got water damage, been unable to charge it, and are trying to get rid of it for as much as possible. (I had a water damaged 3GS and if someone had offered me £200 for it I would have laughed at them!)

I would ask for a serial number so you can use the support section of Apple's website to check about warranty, etc.

Perhaps a picture of all surfaces to show any scuffs or marks.

And ask if it is locked to a network. Its very easy to unlock if you are techno-minded but you can be charged to do it at a lot of places. (This is not a huge issue for the most part.)

Other than that it's mostly common sense, if you want to go as far as ask for a video showing it working fine, then that could work. ButI would say, if it doesn't feel right at any point, just don't bother, save for a little longe,r and buy a newer one from a reputable source. Not to say this person isn't completely honest at all. But it's better to be safe and wait a little than get a broken phone and be down £200. I hope that helped, maybe at least to confirm what you might have thought.

Also, it's important to know if the phone is GSM or CDMA (which will affect what plans you can buy), and which carrier it's locked to -- if any. This is especially important with iOS6, which can only be factory unlocked.


How do I activate Mouse Keys with an apple script or the command line?

I was also not able to automate enabling "Mouse Keys" by key stroking the "Option" key 5 times. However, I was able to figure out a workaround using this... keystroke "z" using {command down, option down, control down}.  On OS Catalina, as you can see in the following image, using this keyboard shortcut will open the Accessibility Options overlay window.  And once this window is open, you can set Mouse Keys to On or Off.

Here is the Accessibility Options overlay window which opens when using that keyboard shortcut.

Here is the AppleScript code I created which automates the process of enabling Mouse Keys.
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "UniversalAccessControl"
    keystroke "z" using {command down, option down, control down}
    delay 3
    click checkbox "Enable Mouse Keys" of window "Accessibility Options"
    delay 1
    click button "Done" of window "Accessibility Options"
end tell

I saved my version of the code as a .scpt file and added it to the Script menu in the menu bar for testing purposes. Using Automator, you can easily create a new "Quick Action" and add the AppleScript code, save the file then in System Preferences, you can create a keyboard shortcut for the file.
The following GIF demonstrates the process.

————————
If the entire process I just mentioned does not work for you, this following code may do the trick.
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "z" using {command down, option down, control down}
    delay 3
    repeat 4 times
        key code 48 -- Tab Key
        delay 1.5
    end repeat
    key code 49 -- Space Key
    delay 1
    key code 36 -- Return Key
end tell


The rumors aren't false, but perhaps misleading. Unlike face detection in, say, iPhoto, this isn't about actually associating a face with a contact you already have (through similar photos), but rather about helping the camera focus on what you'll likely want to have in focus (namely, faces). Here's Apple's marketing text on it:

  This camera loves a face.

  With new face detection, the iSight camera is smart enough to know whether you’re taking a portrait or a group shot. It focuses on the most prominent face in the frame and balances exposure across up to 10 faces. So you’ll definitely catch smiles. And maybe even a smirk or two.

You'll know face detection is working from the green rectangle that appears.

New to 5.1 is that more than one such green "detected face rectangle" may show up:

  Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces


KeepAlive with NetworkState not working for agent

Check the manpage (man launchd.plist) to see if NetworkState is implemented.

For me, on macOS Mojave, it is not:

KeepAlive <boolean or dictionary of stuff>

This optional key is used to control whether your job is to be kept continuously running
or to let demand and conditions control the invocation. The default is false and therefore
only demand will start the job. The value may be set to true to unconditionally keep the
job alive. Alternatively, a dictionary of conditions may be specified to selectively control
whether launchd keeps a job alive or not. If multiple keys are provided, launchd ORs them,
thus providing maximum flexibility to the job to refine the logic and stall if necessary.
If launchd finds no reason to restart the job, it falls back on demand based invocation.
Jobs that exit quickly and frequently when configured to be kept alive will be throttled
to conserve system resources.

    NetworkState <boolean>
    This key is no longer implemented as it never acted how most users expected.


Mobile Me Family Pack Accounts: Do Sub-Accounts have their own syncing features?

Yes a family pack allows you to create 4 additional usernames that have all the features of the main account, the only difference being that they are limited to 5gb of storage.  I upgraded to a family pack and used one of the 4 additional accounts for my girlfriend so she could use Find My iPhone (before it was free with an AppleID) she can also sync her bookmarks, dock, prefs, etc just like my account.

The only thing I am not 100% sure is if she can also create alias email addresses like I can on my main account but I believe she can.


The boot process usually starts with npvhash=4095 in kernel.log.

And you can find #define NPVHASH 4095   /* MUST BE 2^N - 1 */ in OS X kernel XNU source code pmap_internal.h.


All you need to do is erase on source. That message is telling you you have too many packages from sources. Just delete on source.


Why do so many IMAP providers not work properly with Mail.app?

You might want to avoid things like Notes, Calendars & Reminders as these try to create folders on you IMAP server and put data from your Notes.app and Calendar.app in those folders that the IMAP server may not like. At least from Lion up, when you setup email from the System Preferences, it tries to create these other services on the IMAP server.

Note that IMAP is a standard which means every one that makes an IMAP server might have a different "standard"; remember "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from." --Andy Tanenbaum

Regarding GMail, personally I have a GMail account as my Apple ID and added iCloud email under that account. So when I set up my iCloud service it only sets up everything on iCloud. Then I setup GMail using the System Preferences, but turn off Notes (keeping Calendar & Reminders). If you leave Notes checked, it puts a "[IMAP]/Notes" LABEL in your GMail.


how to access Macbook Pro hard drive after network boot (OptCmd-R)

Based on this question

NOTE: I am assuming you are in recovery already.

Commands are like this.

Open Terminal from the menu bar (under Utilities)
Change directory: cd /Volumes
List all volumes: ls
Change to the volume you want to access. For example, usually the Mac disk is called "Macintosh HD". So, you would do, cd "Macintosh HD". Replace "Macintosh HD" with the name of your drive
At this point, you can see all files like you would normally.


Is there an easy to use Bible program for both OS X and iOS?

Logos Bible Software
For both Mac and iOS, as well as Windows, Android, and web based. It has several different versions, some are paid, and some free. It allows you to search within a Bible. Other features include Bible words studies, passage guides, highlighting, and reading plans
iOS App Store Link (iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch compatible)

Logos for Mac


Would the new HandOff app in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite work on iOS 7?

No, you need both iOS 8.1 and OS X 10.10 for this to work.


Risks of publishing the computer serial number on the Internet

If you have AppleCare phone support, one could, in theory, use your serial number to contact AppleCare for free support.  Otherwise, there's no risk to sharing a serial number when selling your Mac.


No method to install OS X system on to Mid 2011 imac 27"

This question is a year old but I am going to answer it incase someone else runs into this same issue.

I just bought a mid 2011 27" refurb iMac from IBM and they scrubbed the HD completely.  This eliminated pretty much every option there was for installing an OS on the Mac.

The problem is that when these models shipped they had either Lion (10.7) or at the earliest Snow Leopard 10.6.6.  They are not backwards compatible with the Snow Leopard retail DVDs Apple offers, which is OS X 10.6.3.  These iMacs originally shipped with installion DVDs but Apple would not send them to me.

Here's what I had to do:

Download/or otherwise obtain an OS X 10.6.7.iso file from wherever you might find something like that.  It will be an disk image for a DVD not intended for this model of iMac, and it will not work.

I bought the retail DVDs (10.6.3) from Apple, and they did not work.  I got a RAM Error message (three tones) at boot.

If you have both you can splice the installer package files from the retail DVDs (which work with any Mac) with the installer package files from the 10.6.7 disk image and create a "universal" OS X 10.6.7 installer disk image.  This is not fancy it's a simple matter of copy and paste.  Detailed instructions for this process can be found here.

After I had the modified .iso file I converted it into a .dmg using this terminal code.  Again, very simple.  Nothing to be afraid of.

From there I used "Carbon Copy Cloner" and Cloned the .dmg file I created through this process unto a thumb drive (needs to be at least 8gb).  Worked like a charm.  Just pup it in a usb port and turn on the iMac.

You can also (possibly) use Disk Utility which is a built in utility and "restore" the image to your thumb drive, but I wasn't having any luck with my Disk Utility boot disks and so I decided to try another utility.  My feeling is that it likely would have worked this way if i had used DU.

Make sure your thumb is formatted for GUID.  Just a word of caution. I intend to upgrade to Yosemite.  The install of Snow Leopard works, but I don't fully trust it and my Airport card is non functional.  Certain things went wrong in the installation process obviously, but it's good enough to boot, and then upgrade, or maybe try to install a fresh unaltered version of Snow Leopard if that's your desire.

I hope this helps someone out.  I've tried dozens of different ways to just get this iMac to boot an OS and this is finally the one that worked.  Apple Support was zero help. Good luck!

I've since updated Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and airport is now working. Everything is very smooth and functional.  No problems.


Why does my computer hibernate when it sleeps?

Have you tried resetting the SMC?

Here’s what you do for your particular model of MacBook Pro:

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

You can read more info about this on Apple's article about when you might want to try an SMC reset:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


Disk Utility won't let me create or resize partitions

I had the same problem as you, and i searched all the forums and i found that if you turn off FileVault it should work.


Deleted 1 of 2 partitions in Mac OS High Sierra and cannot see it any more with Disk Utility

You received the error message because the Apple_KernalCoreDump partition resides immediately after the Apple_APFS partition. This I was able to verify.

I can not think of a reason to keep the Apple_KernalCoreDump partition. So, I would enter the commands given below to add the free space to the Apple_APFS partition.

diskutil  erasevolume  free  n  disk0s3
diskutil  apfs  resizeContainer  disk0s2  0

If after deletion, the Apple_KernalCoreDump partition reappears, then I would assume you drive is corrupted. In this case, I would backup important files, repartition the drive and reinstall macOS.


How can users find out or download what information Apple has about them?

Apple does in fact provide such a service, although it's not yet an instant1  download scenario like what is offered by Facebook and Google. To access the information Apple currently has about you, follow these steps:

Go to: https://www.apple.com/privacy/contact/
A Privacy Questions page will open
Select the Privacy issues option from the drop-down list
A form will appear with six mandatory fields
Enter your region, name and email address (Note: Apple will use this info later to help it match your identity, so you will need to answer these truthfully)
Enter something appropriate for the subject
In the Comments field enter a small description of what you're after. You do not need to go into any great detail - simply request a copy of any personal information they have and a history of anything you've purchased/downloaded from Apple services
Click on the blue Submit button
A Thank You message will appear
Apple will initially respond by requesting further information from you (e.g. your street address, phone number and details about Apple products you own)
After verifying your identity Apple will send you a .zip file containing your information

NOTE: Be patient - your request is likely to take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

1 It's not necessarily an instant service from Facebook or Google, but you'd typically be able to download the data within a few hours. While Apple is moving towards a similar self-serve model, it's not currently ready in most parts of the world, although it will be available in Europe before the end of May 2018.

Below are some related articles which may be of interest:

I downloaded all my Facebook data. This is what I learned.
How to download your Google data and what you'll find.
Apple took 8 days to give me the data it had collected on me. It was eye opening.

NOTE: I have no affiliation with USA Today or the author (Jefferson Graham) of the above articles.


Cannot share clipboard when using Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to Windows7

You should try to make sure the process rdpclip.exe is running in your Windows 7 box.
If it is, try killing it and restarting it.

This process transfers the clipboard contents over RDP.


How can I write a script to open multiple terminal tabs and execute code in them?

This is a little bit hacky, but you can achieve this in AppleScript. If there is a predetermined number of tabs you want, and preset commands you wish to run, this isn't difficult.

tell application "Terminal"
    -- Activate it.
    activate

    set targetWindow to 0

    -- Get a window that's not busy.
    -- If there are no open windows, open one.
    if count of windows is greater than 0 then
        repeat with currentWindow in windows
            if currentWindow is not busy then
                set targetWindow to currentWindow
            end if
        end repeat
    else
        do script ""
        set targetWindow to window 1
    end if

    -- Do command 1.
    set firstCommand to "cd ~/Desktop; clear"
    do script firstCommand in targetWindow

    -- Open a new tab.
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "Terminal" to keystroke "t" using command down

    if count of windows is greater than 0 then
        repeat with currentWindow in windows
            if currentWindow is not busy then
                set targetWindow to currentWindow
            end if
        end repeat
    else
        do script ""
        set targetWindow to window 1
    end if

    -- Do command 2.
    set secondCommand to "cd /Applications; clear"
    do script secondCommand in targetWindow

    -- And so on...
end tell

Of course, replace firstCommand with whichever command you actually want to run, and so on. For whatever reason, Terminal doesn't really have an accessible way to create new tabs through AppleScript, so the long, hacky looking line in the middle just tells Terminal to type ⌘T to open that new tab, and then new commands will execute in it.

You can run this AppleScript as is, or use it in Automator to create a new service, which you can then execute from anywhere using a keyboard shortcut if you'd like.

Extras - If you want to fire some script/command in the newly opened terminal session, you can refer this


Problems with enhanced features in -regex of utility "find"

It appears there is a bug in the native MacOS find in which its -regex option does not correctly handle any of the Shortcuts described in man re_format. The following command seems to work:

find -E . -regex '^(.*)([[:digit:]]{2})' -print

This slightly simpler variant also seems to work:

find -E . -regex '.*[[:digit:]]{2}' -print

In short, grep -E and finds -regex option don't seem to handle regular expressions in exactly the same way.


How can I tell if my iOS device is currently jailbroken?

Basically, if you can execute arbitrary code or write to arbitrary disk locations, you're jailbroken.

iOS security researcher Stefan Esser (also knows as i0n1c) has developed an application called System and Security Info to determine if an iOS device is currently jailbroken by testing for the abilities that you gain from jailbreaking.

Update: Apple has taken down System and Security Info.


Does OSX Mavericks prevent third party software from having a "Save as" option?

The answer to this question is complicated.  Way back in Lion, Apple began to offer optional API's to software developers that would make it easier for applications to manipulate different versions of saved documents.  The most noticable repurcussion of these updated APIs was the replacement of the Save As.. menu item by Duplicate and Rename... menu items.  For those interested in the details, the best guide is the relevant section of John Siracusa's masterful Lion review.  However, use of these new APIs was optional, and the old functionality is still supported in Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

Most non-Apple software still uses the old Save As menu for now, but in Mavericks some of the Apple applications have migrated to the new Duplicate menu.  As far as I know, Apple has not announced any plans to make the Duplicate model mandatory in the future, so this inconsistency is likely to stick around for a while.

Bottom line: In Mavericks, most applications still have the Save As... menu item.

Photoshop in Mavericks, using the familiar Save As... menu item:

Textedit in Mavericks, using the new Duplicate menu item:


In reality, little to none. The best result would be having less downloaded junk in your normal user account.

OS X is sandboxed by default. Applications are by default run in a sandboxed environment without root privileges. Your best bet for security is trusting the sources you download code from, and being wary of code that asks for administrator or elevated privileges.


Is it possible to use Linux USB drivers on Mac OS X?

No, because of completely different executable-architectures.

Only if you're willing to recompile them for OSX and they're Darwin based.


If you didn't install system accounting on this Mac, there isn't any way
for you to get the processes back at the time of this bad event.

You can find when this mouse was connected for the last time by searching in the /var/log/kernel.log.
On more recent versions of OSX (Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra) /var/log/kernel.log is merged in /var/log/system.log.
Within a terminal or xterm just type:

grep -i usb /var/log/kernel.log

or on more recent versions of OSX:

grep -i usb /var/log/system.log

If you need to search back further, just use the compressed and saved previous versions with:

bzgrep -i usb /var/log/kernel.log.[3210].bz2

or on more recent versions of OSX:

zgrep -i usb /var/log/system.log.[3210].gz

To check who was connected on your system, just use the last command.

If you want to have a basic auditing function on your system, you may easily start by turning the system accounting on. Here is how to turn it on.
All these commande have to be typed with the root account. (Be carefull any typed letter, even a space counts).

/usr/bin/sudo -s
[...]
mkdir /var/account
touch /var/account/acct
accton /var/account/acct
exit

You can immediatly check that from now on and forever the kernel is registering any program launched:

lastcomm

As a simple example of use, the following command will show you which commands where used since the startup of the kernel accounting:

lastcomm root


How is Macbook Air, Macbook Pro's Solid State Drive compared to Intel or Crucial Technology ones?

The AnandTech Review of the fall 2010 MacBook Air models has some graphs comparing the performance of the built-in SSD to some other SSD drives, including some Intel models. Their conclusion is that the built-in SSD is quite good, though not the best available on the market.

Keep in mind that the storage drive speed is only one factor determining the computer's overall speed. The MacBook Pro models are available with SSD drives as well and will give you better overall speed than a MacBook Air. The AnandTech review of the early 2011 MacBook Pro models includes details about their SSD options, but no direct comparison between the SSDs provided by Apple and market models. They do state "Apple offers an array of BTO (Build to Order) SSD options, however the drives are likely of average performance."


Relocated Home directory to exFAT partition => Skype freezes

The best way of resolving this would be to create a partition to hold just your Home folder and then use /etc/fstab to mount the partition at /Users/<username>.

Otherwise a symbolic link between the new location of your Home and /Users/<username>is the best way to go. ln -s <new_home> /Users/<username>. Of course this replaces the current /Users/<newname>.

Frankly, I find this too much trouble and usually just trim my Home folder by moving such things as my iTunes library, which is easy and well supported by iTunes.


Macbook sometimes drops my wifi connection and can't reconnect for a few minutes

If you were to run the Wireless Diagnostic tool each time the network dropped, you might be able to look over the logs once you have 5 to 10 events and see if you can determine a pattern. It's hidden in the folder /System/Library/CoreServices/ and also available if you hold the option key and click on the wireless icon in the menu bar.

Once the tool runs and deposits the diagnostic data on your desktop - you might run it a second time and use the Utilities window to see if you can see interference or other issues on the Performance view.

That section where the noise jumped up was when I turned on our Microwave.


How do you change file associations on an iPad?

You can and you can't at the same time. Safari will load the PDF automatically and display it but it will offer a "Open In" button where you can send the PDF to another application if it is configured by the developer to accept PDFs (eg. iBooks, GoodReader, etc.) At present there is no way to direct it directly to another application unless that application will take a URL you could copy and paste.


Is there a way to disable "Top Hits" in the Safari 6 address bar?

The Top Hits section uses the top two sites from your history, so if there are certain sites you don't want showing up in Top Hits, just press option-command-2, and delete the offending sites. (I don't know how to remove it though.)

Edit:

As noted in the comments below, the keyboard shortcut to access History is now Command-Y.


iCloud Why Are Some Album Tracks Uploaded Instead of Matched

If you notice in your screenshot, the files that were uploaded were ripped at 128kbps. This causes enough audio artifacts in the file to throw the acoustic fingerprinting that was used when iTunes Match first launched. It has since been improved and issues like this with lower bit rate files are now much less common.


Can't find log out button for Gmail on iPhone

Logging out needs to be done in Settings:

open Settings
scroll down to Accounts & Passwords, tap on it
tap on your Gmail account
delete it from there

This will just remove your mails and account info from your phone, it will not delete the account as such.


Apple Mail keeps asking for google login since Sierra 10.12.4 Beta

I am not sure what else you've tried so far, so I'll begin from scratch:

Disable two-step verification

In the past, I've found that two-step verification caused issues between OS updates. Use Google's website to disable two-step verification for your accounts. You can reenable it later. If you aren't using two-step verification, continue.

Re-authenticate

Completely remove the affected accounts: System Preferences > Internet Accounts > select account > click minus icon
Add the accounts again. You should see a Google-branded login frame in the window.

If you are able to do this, continue monitoring for the issue. If you've already tried this, please update your answer with what is currently happening and the steps you've taken.


I do not know how to monitor the console for a specific message and send an alert.

However, there is a alternative approaches to monitoring or even block a specific ssh activity.

Without taking any credit (other than finding it), I would advice you to look up at some suggested solutions here that might apply to your situation.

Getting notified when someone logs into a server using SSH or Remote Desktop


How can I analyse Others data in my iPhone?

Whatsapp might be causing the problem.delete it but if you want to backup your whatsapp contents,see if you can do that with Whatsapp itself beforehand.after removing whatsapp check the memory size and then re-install the app.


How to change back to my Apple ID for updates in App Store

What ever was downloaded under your Dads Apple ID stays his.

Any app download under his Apple ID will continue updates under his Apple ID. You can not change that.

Sign out of your Dads Apple ID.

In order to change that and have your apps, you need to use your Apple ID and re-download stuff to be yours from now on, including updates to your apple id.

Applications from appstore are Apple ID associated.

Simply stated: Delete all apps that were downloaded under your Dads Apple id and download them again under your ID.


Is it safe to connect external screen to MacBook via USB-C from the warranty perspective

Safety and reliability
In this context, "safety" refers to a products ability to function as advertised with no adverse affects to it nor the device in which it interfaces.

Is it safe to connect external screen to the MacBook via USB-C from the warranty perspective?

Why wouldn't it be safe?
The idea behind standardizing on USB is so that you can plug in 3rd party devices to expand and enhance the functionality of your computer.  If plugging in devices voided your warranty, they wouldn't put the port there and instead we'd still have (our cherished) MagSafe power connectors.
If it wasn't safe to do something, the manufacturer wouldn't market that function as a feature of the product.

Power Delivery

Since power is supplied to MacBook there is a (small) risk to damage the laptop.

Technically speaking, anything you plug into your laptop has the potential of damaging it.
Since USB 1.0, power has always been supplied - 5V @ 500mA.  It is only since the USB Power Delivery Specification was implemented that more power can be delivered; up to 100W or 20V @ 5A.
This is why you should always stick to known brands and avoid the cheap knockoffs.1  It's a timeless adage -  you get what you pay for -  but it still holds true today.  That said, it still doesn't rule out the possibility of a manufacturer defects.  While very rare, they do happen; your expensive Dell or LG could potentially damage your MacBook.

Technically, we're plugging in a non-standard power adapter; can it void the warranty?

If you are plugging in a display that provides power  and conforms to the USB PD specification, especially if it's USB-IF certified  it's not "non-standard."  That device is designed to connect, interface with, negotiate, and accept power.  You plugging in this device, does not void your warranty.
Apple decided to go from a (beloved) proprietary power connector - the MagSafe - to a widely adopted industry standard connector that literally has "universal" in the name: USB-C.  Simply using a different charger doesn't void your warranty.  If damages arise because it was defective, that's a different story.
Is the Macbook 12 inch's USB-C charger interchangeable with other USB-C chargers or devices?
From a pragmatic point of view using your Dell or LG monitors as the basis of your postulate, how can you possibly have a "genuine Apple" charger coming out of a third party monitor?  This would mean that the moment you connect a non-Apple monitor you void the warranty.   Until recently, Apple had exited the display business when they ceased production of the Thunderbolt Display in June of 2016.3  The display provided charging via a MagSafe connector; the Thunderbolt port didn't supply power. Therefore, it would be virtually impossible to "officially" charge a later model MacBook with this display.

Warranties

Do screen manufacturers such as Dell or LG have any agreement with Apple?

Speaking as someone who worked in product management for a hardware manufacturer (in a past life), there are no agreements between companies that spell out any sort of liability assignment or otherwise with respect to each other's hardware.  From a practicality standpoint, this would be absurd - think about how many display vendors there are.  That alone would be next to impossible to manage.  Now, expand that to all the different USB devices and accessories.  There's no way to manage warranty reciprocity agreements to that scale thus making it totally unfeasible.
From the perspective of the manufacturer, the warranty generally covers the products fitness or in other words, it's ability to do what it says it will do.  If you read the fine print, there will always be a clause exempting coverage for misuse/abuse.
From Apple's own warranty language, they basically say this:

This Warranty does not apply to any non-Apple branded hardware products or any software, even if packaged or sold with Apple hardware. Manufacturers, suppliers, or publishers, other than Apple, may provide their own warranties to you – please contact them for further information. 2

What Voids Your Warranty
In short, misuse, abuse, and anything that's covered in the warranty language.  Ultimately, it comes down to what you can prove.  Here's a short excerpt from the hardware warranty; I encourage you to review the whole section at the link provided.

Software distributed by Apple with or without the Apple brand (including, but not limited to system software) is not covered by this Warranty. ... Apple does not warrant that the operation of the Apple Product will be uninterrupted or error-free. Apple is not responsible for damage arising from failure to follow instructions relating to the Apple Product’s use. 2

Can Apple Void Your Warranty Solely for Using a Third Party Accessory?
No.  The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act4 (in the US, your country's laws may differ) gives protection to consumers in that installation or use of third party accessories cannot void the warranty unless they it can be proven that the part or accessory in question is the reason for the failure.
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) specifically addresses this in warning letters sent to several companies5:

...companies can’t void a consumer’s warranty or deny warranty coverage solely because the consumer uses a part made by someone else or gets someone not authorized by the company to perform service on the product.

(Hover for  Opinion)

 This means that warranty void stickers6 and using your Dell monitor that conveniently supplies power to your MacBook Pro for charging cannot void your warranty.  Period.

Legal Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer; more importantly I'm not YOUR lawyer.   I don't play one on or for any content provider.  While many references have been made to legislation as well as agency opinion in this answer, my opinions are my own and should not be construed as legal advice. Seek out your own lawyer if you have a specific and/or real world question.

1 Cheap USB-C Cables Could Kill Your Phone or Laptop; Gizmodo, Feb. 2016.
2 Apple One Year Limited Warranty- US ; https://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/embedded-mac-warranty-us.html
3 Wikipedia:  Apple Thunderbolt Display
4 US Code - Title 15, Chapter 50, Sections 2301-2312
5 FTC staff sends warranty warnings; Federal Trade Commission Business Blog; Fair, Leslie; April 10, 2018.
6 FTC: Ignore That Sticker Saying Your Warranty Will Be Voided; Laptop Mag; April 11, 2018


How to direct internet connection to iPhone USB and not Wifi

There are at least two ways! First make sure that the iPhone is above WiFi in the network service order; that makes it the default for all traffic.  Then you can either:

Use SSH's -b <ip> flag to bind SSH to your desired IP. So if your WiFi IP is
111.111.111.111, ssh as per usual with ssh -b 111.111.111.111.
Add a static route to your remote host routing through the desired IP. If your desired IP to connect from is 111.111.111.111 and your remote host is 222.222.222.222: $ sudo route add 222.222.222.222 111.111.111.111. then SSH normally. When you're done, tear down the route with $ sudo route delete 222.222.222.222 111.111.111.111.


Macbook pro latest retina: Output to monitor with VGA

You can connect the Thunderbolt port to a VGA adapter for your VGA monitor.
I'm pretty sure it does not matter. I'm not sure if a simple HDMI-to-VGA adapter even exists.
The Macbook Retina that I have has 2 thunderbolt ports and one normal-size HDMI port.

This MacRumors topic contains some useful info as well:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1426993


Can I create two different Docks that I can switch back and forth between?

You could use an Automator service or one of the global-keybaord-trigger apps to run a script that switches between two different Dock preference plist files and then relaunches the Dock.

#!/bin/sh
#you'd have a dock-work.plist and dock-home.plist file

cd ~/Library/Preferences/

if [ -e dock-is-work.state ] ; then
    rm dock-is-work.state
    touch dock-is-home.state

    #save changes to existing Dock setup
    cp com.apple.dock.plist com.apple.dock-work.plist

    #copy home setup to main preference location
    cp com.apple.dock-home.plist com.apple.dock.plist
else
    rm dock-is-home.state
    touch dock-is-work.state

    #save changes to existing Dock setup
    cp com.apple.dock.plist com.apple.dock-home.plist

    #copy work setup to main preference location
    cp com.apple.dock-work.plist com.apple.dock.plist
fi

osascript -e "tell application \"Dock\" to quit"

(I haven't done bash if-then-else in awhile, so this might not execute as is.)


I am also having this problem, and I also live in RO.

I have reported a bug to Apple, they asked me to install some certificates and send them logs after i was trying to activate that switch. But that was like a week or two before making 8.4.1 update so i kinda starting lose hope. Reply them back and no response since then.

It might be a problem in this country..because none of my friends can't activate it.

I have tried everything on the internet to solve my problem and nothing

  UPDATE:
  I have made it, I activated by mistake following these steps:

Change AppStore Store from Romania to SUA
Go to Settings -> Music -> And switch iClound Music Library on
Get back to your Ro Store, and it will remain like this!!!! :)


Submitting apps built with beta versions of an OS or beta versions of Xcode are not officially supported, but you can build apps with a normal version of Xcode on a beta OS by changing the OS version prior to archiving the app inside Xcode.


macOS Notes app: zooming in on sketches made w/ iPad Pro

You should be able to double-click on your drawing which opens it in a new note window. In this new window you can scale image or just zoom in.


Iphone: outgoing email iCloud account and gmail

You can setup your iCloud account to send using the Gmail SMTP server.

Setting => Mail, Contacts, Calendar => iCloud => Account => Advanced (Mail) => Outgoing mail server (SMTP) => Other SMTP Serveres => Add Server here you can set up the Gmail SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com - remember to choose the Gmail server, and de-activate the iCloud SMTP server afterwards.

The mails sent will however appear in iCloud's sent folder.

The iCloud sender email address will however still be the iCloud address. If you use the build in Mail.app, you can manually choose your Gmail address (and the mail will appear in Gmail's sent folder), but how you can use this one, the way you want to use it - I don't know.


AppleScript to create a new Outlook email using selected text as subject?

See if this works for you:

set varSubject to "Hello"
set varContent to "GoodBye"
set varName to "Jon Snow"
set varEmail to "jsnow@castleblack.org"
tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
    set newMail to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:varSubject, plain text content:varContent}
    make new recipient at newMail with properties {email address:{name:varName, address:varEmail}}
end tell


Here it is:

  /usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Safari"' -e "activate" -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'keystroke "f" using {control down, command down}' -e "end tell" -e "end tell"

Here it is in a clearer form (but you can't run it this way):

/usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"Safari\""
-e "activate"
-e "tell application \"System Events\""
-e "keystroke \"f\" using {control down, command down}"
-e "end tell"
-e "end tell"

And this is it as formatted AppleScript:

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "f" using {control down, command down}
    end tell
end tell

It works by first opening a Safari window if one is not currently open. Then it simulates the Control ⌃-Command ⌘-F keystroke which tells the Safari window to become full screen.

If you want to make the window the max-size it can be without becoming full screen (i.e. taking up all the space below the menu bar at the top):

tell application "Finder"
    set desktopSize to bounds of window of desktop
end tell

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    set bounds of window 1 to desktopSize
end tell

Which would become this in Terminal:

  /usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\"" -e "set desktopSize to bounds of window of desktop" -e "end tell" -e "tell application \"Safari\"" -e "activate" -e "set bounds of window 1 to desktopSize" -e "end tell"

For Chrome, do this:

tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    make new window
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "f" using {control down, command down}
    end tell
end tell

So it would be this in Terminal:

  /usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"Google Chrome\"" -e "activate" -e "make new window" -e "tell application \"System Events\"" -e "keystroke \"f\" using {control down, command down}" -e "end tell" -e "end tell"

Hope this helps!


WiFI does not work on Windows 10 BootCamp - Drops in and out

Answer: Set the Power Output of the Broadcom 802.11ac Network Adapter to 25%

The solution was found with a Google search for "macbook pro wireless disconnects randomly bootcamp windows 10" which returned the following video as result 2 Fix APPLE bootcamp wifi drop out

My System:

Macbook Pro 10,1 (Early 2013)
Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
Driver Version: 7.35.118.73

I have been suffering with slowly degrading WiFi connection over the last couple of months (approximately).  Recently, it has got the the point where the connection will drop out and reconnect 2 or 3 times per minute.  That was really only noticeable when using a VPN connection over Cisco AnyConnect - otherwise browsing just appeared to be very slow at times.  I found that disabling the WiFi and re-enabling it would provide relief for a few minutes.

Things I tried that did not work:

Installing later drivers (not signed by Microsoft) Broadcom_BCM43xx_7.35.317.3-Win10 accessed from Search for Broadcom 43XX drivers - result 1
Unchecking the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option on the Power Management tab of the Device Properties Dialog.

I hope this works as well for others as it has for me...


Update your billing info? :-)

https://reportaproblem.apple.com/

Usually this happens if the credit card check fails. To fix, log into your account in iTunes and either update the credit card details or add a new one:

open iTunes
go to the iTunes store (Shift-Cmd-H)
click on your Apple ID at top left and select "Account"
Billing info should be the second line in the overview, select "Edit" at the right


Plug in your power adapter and turn the machine off. Press and hold control+option+shift+power buttons for 5 seconds. This resets the System Management controller, which is in charge of power flow through your machine and also things like the speed of your fan.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3964

If that does not help, the computer may still be damaged. Where did you have it repaired?


You have pretty much answered your own question.

Tried SSD on another system and it works, CHECK
Old drive works fine, so it's not the Mac, CHECK

This points directly to the only other piece of hardware you haven't tested elsewhere, the adapter. So, unless you can test that adapter and drive in another similar Mac I would say you should replace the adapter.

Note that I have been doing computer support (Macs, PCs) for a long time and have learned that nothing is always as simple as that. Your issue seems cut and dried, and if I was a betting man I would bet on the adapter being the culprit. But computers are complex beasts and don't always yield to logic. They're too complicated, too many parts interacting in too many ways, for everything to be bug free.


Can Mountain Lion take a sleeping Mac and write the RAM to disk after a timeout?

According to the pmset man page,

  hibernatemode = 3 (binary 0011) by default on supported portables. The
       system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and
       will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from memory, unless
       a power loss forces it to restore from disk image.

But then also

  standby causes kernel power management to automatically hibernate a
       machine after it has slept for a specified time period. This saves power
       while asleep. This setting defaults to ON for supported hardware. The
       setting standby will be visible in pmset -g if the feature is supported
       on this machine.

  standby only works if hibernation is turned on to hibernatemode 3 or 25.

(which it is by default on supported portables)

  standbydelay specifies the delay, in seconds, before writing the hibernation image to disk and powering off memory for Standby.

On my machine, with settings that I believe are default, when I type pmset -g |grep standbydelay I get the result of 4200, meaning that after 70 minutes of sleep, the machine cuts power to the memory and restores from the memory image saved to the hard drive.

If your settings do not look like this, the pmset command just might be your new friend.


Why file links appear in the folder sidebar and how can I prevent this from happening?

You might accidentally be pressing the shortcut commandT which means “Add to Sidebar” in the Finder but is used for many different things in many other applications. So if you think another application is frontmost where actually the Finder is you'd accidentally add the currently selected file to the sidebar. Happened to me a few times.


Macbook pro won't start after update to Mojave

I've solved my problem, I've simply deleted the content of the folder /Library/Extensions


Can damaged hard drive weaken Mac's security?

The entire question boils down to this:

  How would I know if hard drive is damaged?

Your computer would start to fail - as in crash, errors would be thrown, it would freeze and perform slowly.

When a drive gets damaged, it doesn't suddenly read incorrect data or modified data; the data is corrupted.  Data that can't be read will with cause (at minimum) an error or crash.

Can it weaken security?

Your computer wouldn't be functional by the time it weakened security.  For example, if you are running File Valut, a damaged drive won't decrypt your drive; it won't function. Period.

If you somehow crash your firewall config, SIP (system integrity protection) will throw errors that system files have changed.

So, how do you know if your hard drive is damaged?

If you start getting crashes or freezes or performance problems, one of the things you can do is diagnostic like Apple Hardware Test (AHT).    If you want to just check your disks, there is a nice GUI from Clever Files called DiskDrill (free for the basic utilities, $$ to activate the pro features).  This will help you be proactive.


How to remap "right option" key to "control + option + command + shift" in Karabiner?

You can edit the karabiner json file:
~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json

Look for this part in your profile:

"complex_modifications": {
    "rules": [ ]
}

Then add a new rule:

                "rules": [
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Change right option to command+control+option+shift.",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "right_option",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "optional": [
                                            "any"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_command",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_control",
                                            "left_option",
                                            "left_shift"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ]
            }

Restart the karabiner, it should work now.


I had the same problem and solved it successfully by rebuilding the mailbox (menu "Mailbox", then "Rebuild".


iOS Camera Roll and Photo Stream workflow

A photo stored in the Camera Roll is permanently stored on your device (until you delete it). Only 1,000 photos are saved in the Photo Stream on an iOS device, so if enough photos are uploaded to your Photo Stream the old ones will be purged. (But a Mac or PC will save all of the photos in your Photo Stream by default.)

According to Apple, the downscaling does only apply on iOS devices — if you have Photo Stream set up on your computer, those photos will be full-resolution.

On your Mac or PC, your photos are downloaded and stored in full resolution. On your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV, your Photo Stream photos are delivered in a device-optimized resolution that speeds downloads and saves storage space.

Yes — to delete multiple photos, just tap the action button in the upper right corner, select some photos, and tap the Delete button.


How does HealthKit resolve recording of the same activity by multiple sources?

HealthKit is pretty smart with your data. For every source in the Health app, you can set the priority of difference apps. Tap one of the metrics in the Health app tap Share data > Edit to drag sources in the right order.

If other apps request data, HealthKit will automatically merge the datasets, probably based on timestamps. It picks the high priority app first, and fills the gaps in data with the number 2 app, etc.

This WWDC would be a great start to get a complete overview.


Finding the Holy Grail of PIM. (Was: is there a good replacement for AddressBook Lion?)

You could have a look at Cobook. I've just started using it and it seems like it unifies things pretty well. It uses the default OS X address book as a backing so that everything syncs nicely to your iPhone. It will also pull in data from your social networks so there's your added functionality.