Watching 720p and 1080p Movies on a 4K or 5K Monitor

Assuming you're talking about playing the movies on your Mac, the Mac will scale the picture up or down to the appropriate pixel size. If you've ever watched a DVD, or DVD-quality, video on your current monitor then you've already seen this in action because the native DVD resolution is only 480 or 576 pixels high. Conversely I can watch 1080p HD video on my iMac with only a 1680x1050 screen; the Mac scales the video down to fit.

Alternatively, you can set the Mac's display resolution to 1920 x 1080 and let the monitor do the scaling. Either way should work.


Music App crashes frequently under iOS 5.0.1

It seems to be a software based issue. I would suggest backing up and restoring the device using these steps. I know you are wary about erasing all your music, but you can back it up to iTunes before doing this. Make sure you set it up as a new device so as not to transfer any old software back to the phone after the restore.


Is there a way to put switches at the end when using OS X command-line?

Unfortunately the answer is negative unless you are willing to switch to GNU command line utilities. OS/X command line tools derive from BSD sources which process command line arguments differently. This all boils down to usage of the library calls like getopt() in the standard C-library. OS/X command line tools use the standard library functions whereas GNU command line tools use their own, similar, but slightly more "advanced" version of getopt() and companions.

That said, you could work around that by installing GNU coreutils. One way of doing that would be to use Homebrew. That, of course, is not the same thing as making OS/X provided BSD command line utilities to the parse command line like the GNU command line utilities do.


How to stop long downloads/uploads to iCloud when browsing with Finder shared folder in other macs on the same LAN

For simplicity, I recommend using SFTP to transfer files. SFTP moves files using an SSH session. SSH can do authentication by user credentials, or by public keys.

It's secure, fast on modern hardware, and with modern tools, relatively convenient.

Here's one way to do that:

Turn on "Remote Login" in System Preferences->Sharing on the remote Mac (be sure to Allow access for: All users)
Create user credentials on the remote Mac
Download an FTP client that can do SFTP. My recommendation is Filezilla.

Use the FTP client to log in by SFTP to the remote Mac, and Bob's your uncle.


Why is Time Machine not saving Google Chrome History file?

Why Chrome history is not backed up

You are correct that the ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default location you reference is where Google Chrome's history (among other things) is stored.

However, (and I don't recall exactly where I originally came across this), that App developers can determine which files (if any) they want skipped by a Time Machine backup and that Google doesn't allow Chrome's History to be backed up by Time Machine after changes made in 2009.

Although I only use Google Chrome occasionally, I personally get around this limitation by manually backing up the five files not backed up via Time Machine. The five files in question are:

Favicons
Favicons-journal
History
History-journal
previews_opt_out.db-journal

Restoring your missing Chrome history

Now, in terms of restoring your currently missing history, you may have some luck if you have a Google Account. If so, you could check whether you had Chrome Sync enabled. If you did, Chrome Sync syncs your history (as well as bookmarks, passwords, etc) to your Google Account so you can use them on other devices.


What stops step data from the accelerometers on the phone and watch from doubling up?

Apple Health is smart. It automatically aggregates step data, so that every minute, it takes the step count from the last 60 seconds from the device with the highest input and adds that to the daily total. It knows when the measurements from each device were started and when they ended, and it makes sure to not include any steps from two sources measured at the same time. This is a post-processing thing, not in the time of measurement: it's not that the Apple Watch shuts off the iPhone's accelerometer; rather, they both generate step data, as in your screenshot, but Health figures out which step counts to use from both in an aggregation-type process after the fact, getting you the most accurate and complete step count possible, while not exaggerating.


Have you tried Reseting the SMU

  The SMU (System Management Unit) is a microcontroller chip on the logic board that controls all power functions for your computer. If your computer is experiencing any issues regarding these functions, resetting the SMU may resolve the issue. The functions controlled by the SMU include:

  It tells the computer when to turn on, turn off, sleep, wake, idle, and so on.
  It handles system resets from various commands.
  It controls the fan.

  Note that resetting the SMU does not reset the PRAM.

Steps to reset the SMU on:

  Power Mac G5 (Late 2005)

  To reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) computer, either use the steps listed above for the Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or:

  Turn off the computer by selecting Shut Down from the Apple menu or
  by holding the power button until the computer turns off.
  Open and remove both the metallic outer door and the inner plastic
  air deflector.
  Remove the fan assembly immediately to the left of the processor
  module.
  Press the SMU reset button on the logic board.
  Replace the fan assembly, air deflector, and outer door.
  Turn on the computer.

  The SMU reset button is located underneath the lower bank of system memory slots, as shown below:

  Unlike earlier models of Power Mac G5 or Power Mac G4 computers, the Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) and (Late 2005) models do not have a PMU. This functionality has been replaced by the SMU.


Make Minecraft (or Java Preferences.app) run on Java 7

What is the terminal output stating the error?

Looking at this discussion:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-games-33/minecraft-not-running-on-java-7-a-929983/

The error output indicates that the Minecraft Java binaries are linked against 32bit versions. Looks like you have 64bit installed. Does your Java7 installation support 32bit?

Also, are you running the latest Minecraft code/mod updates/etc?

Edit:

Given the error message in the answer, it lead me to this:

2 things are needed to be changed to make it run on OSX x64 and this is what i done..

1) add in x86_64 to the Info.plist as follows:
JVMArchs

i386
x86_64
ppc

2) Set the execute flag on the JavaApplicationStub file
chmod +x /Applications/Minecraft.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub

now it works :)

That was found at:

https://getsatisfaction.com/mojang/topics/osx_x86_64_minecraft_execution_fixed

Via:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/487766-fixed-lsopenurlswithrole-failed-with-error-10810/

Regarding checking java version:

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_43"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_43-b01-447-11M4203)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.14-b01-447, mixed mode)

Indicates 64bit server VM in mixed mode. When testing with '-d32' and 'd64', the java runtime should report back with a help screen vs erroring out, though this doesn't rule out 32bit/64bit libraries in the paths that are missing.

java -d32

java -d64

But the chmod above might help more.

Note, I don't use Minecraft.app to start up MineCraft when I run it on a Mac. I do the following:

My wrapper script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
java -Xmx3048M -Xms2024M -cp "$1" net.minecraft.LauncherFrame

And I run it by:

./run-minecraft minecraft.jar

I have the parameter because sometimes, I like running 3rd party wrappers around the MineCraft application itself.

AddOn:

Btw, this is the alternate method I use to fire up MineCraft, since MineCraft.app on the Mac has never worked reliably for me.

http://minecraft.net/download
Download the JAR file for "Minecraft for Linux / Other"
Test firing up with:

java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -cp minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame


Can Airport Extreme be configured to work with a free dynamic DNS service?

Apple's Airport Extreme doesn't have DDNS support built in so it can't update the service itself. But it also doesn't prevent any other client from talking to the DDNS service and updating the records to point to the Airport.

You don't need to be on the router to get your public IP address; you can get get it from any client anywhere on your network that has Internet access.

The basic way DDNS works is that

You set up a DDNS domain and account to which you will sync periodically to.
The DDNS client requests an update from the DDNS server; the client and server authenticate, and compare the IP address the client is sending with the IP address in the DNS record.
If the records are the same, nothing is done and you continue on.  If there is an update, the server updates its DNS record.
The DDNS DNS server propagates those changes throughout the Internet meaning GoDaddy's, Google's, etc. will accept the changes.
At some point, this change hits your ISP and their DNS servers so a nslookup of your IP address will return the correct domain name.

I had a router that didn't support DNS, so I created a script that ran via cron on my web dev server VM that updated it; it worked with no problem.  So, in reference to your "answer", it's your IP cameras that are doing the DDNS updates for you.


How can I obtain the Full Name of the currently logged in user via Terminal when run as root?

Simply use id -P $(stat -f%Su /dev/console) | awk -F '[:]' '{print $8}'

id -P $(stat -f%Su /dev/console) yields:

adminuser:********:501:20::0:0:AdminUser:/Users/adminuser:/bin/bash

awk -F '[:]' '{print $8}' yields the 8th term (the "RealName") of an output separated by colons.

As proposed by fd0 you can alternatively use:

id -P $(stat -f%Su /dev/console) | cut -d : -f 8

which is even more simple/elegant.


How to get rectangle annotation coords in preview?

If you do a command-shift-4 (the command to do a screenshot of a selected region) your cursor turns into crosshairs and listed with the crosshairs are the x,y coordinates.


Apple ID not supported - Use a Managed Apple ID Error

To work around this issue:

open https://appleid.apple.com, login with your old Apple ID and change the email to a new address (eg. my@example2.com)
on the Mac/iPhone with the issue, add this new Apple Id as a secondary iCloud account
enroll with your Managed Apple ID
remove the my@example2.com Apple ID from the device (which can now be deleted)


Why does OS X Yosemite - Disk Utility has no options for me?

I don't have my mac on me, but I remember this happening to me in the past. See, I may be wrong, but I don't remember seeing those options available for me on my primary partition. Now, if you are trying to access DiskUtility from within the recovery partition OS, then you should be able to see all options. I highly doubt MacOS would let you erase or partition a primary partition (exception: the bootcamp app), while it's in use by the OS.

You can always run the first-aid, but not modify the partition table on the existing drive (while being used as the primary OS storage) without messing something up (e.g., from within Terminal)

Hope this helps.


Closing your Apple Activity rings when watch is being repaired (and unpaired from iPhone)

You can manually add workouts and other health data via the Health App directly or using 3rd party Apps. This will also apply the data to the activity app (and rings).

For a workout:

Open "Health"
Select "Browse" at the bottom
Scroll until you find "Workouts"
Select "Add Data" in the top right corner.


Chrome showing the site's security certificate is not trusted for GitHub

An old certificate expired on July 26h, 2014. Many users had it stored in their keychains, causing the errors you saw. Here is a detailed solution:

Based on https://www.yesthatallen.com/fixing-an-old-digicert-issue/

Instructions for clearing expired DigiCert SSL certificate on OSX

Launch Keychain Access via Spotlight

⌘-Space
Type "Keychain Access"
Hit return

Ensure expired certificates are shown; enable "Show Expired Certificates" in the "View" menu.
Search for "Digicert".
Right-click the certificate with a red X and select "Delete DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA"
The certificate may not look removed until Keychain Access is restarted
Restart your browsers
You should once again be able to access the affected sites.
Run Software update if problems persist, to make sure the latest root certificates from Apple are in place.


Setting up /usr/local is something there are nice tools to help with when it gets changed.

I would install homebrew since it has a brew doctor command that will tell you how to fix all permissions in the /usr/local/

Your error is spotted in the first line. If you install gofortran in /usr/local/bin then the make command is wrong trying to execute /usr/local/gofortran - permission denied is the same as "there is no program to run there.

Once you reinstall things - what does "run anything" look like specifically? You might need to ask a follow-on question detailing what you're trying to do in stead of how you tried to fix the error.


Trash directories on mac - How to find them and how to properly clear them

Spotlight can locate folders with a specific name on all mounted and indexed volumes (but it's not going to be the answer - bear with me):

mdls ~/.Trash/

This will show you that the kMDItemFSName is ".Trash" so you might try mdfind to do a spotlight search

mdfind "kMDItemFSName == '.Trash'"

Sadly, this won't find the trashes since Apple has made them invisible and probably excluded them entirely from the spotlight indexing. But, this is the best Apple way to search for general files.

So now, you need to crawl the filesystem:

find / -name .Trash -print

This will throw filesystem errors, so you'll need to engage root - be careful with sudo - you can ruin a system so you can't boot if you move or delete files (which is what you're about to do - find things and then delete them)

 sudo find / -name .Trash -print

Even without the sudo you'll find most of the trashes since your user should be able to write to Trash to store files there.

Now, there is a tool faster than find (it may take tens of minutes or perhaps hours if it starts crawling remote or connected drives)

locate .Trash

The locate database won't likely be built when you ask for it, so follow the instructions it prints if you don't have a pre-made locate database to consult. Happy scripting. Feel free to ask a follow on question on how to delete if you need that help too, but this answers how to find files specifically hidden system ones like the various trash files.

Or, you know - just tell Finder to empty the trash from the command line:

How can I empty the trash from the Terminal?

Boom, now you're done super fast no matter where or how the folders are named.

osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to empty'


The accepted answer only works when the NFS server allows connections on non-reserved ports (i.e. >1024).

The exports man pages say it:

  exportfs understands the following export options: secure

  This option requires that requests originate on an Internet port less
  than IPPORT_RESERVED (1024). This option is on by default. To turn it
  off, specify insecure.

For my CentOS 7.3 box this is not the case by default and I had to add insecure to the mount.

So for MACOS client to work you'll have to add the insecure option to your nfs server in your export

E.g.: /my/export 192.168.5.0/24(insecure)

If that's not possible: using mountyou can supply an option to allow reserved ports from the Mac side:
sudo mount -t nfs -o resvport server:/my/export nfs


Nobody can get into your keychain without the password.

You may be able to protect your home folder if you are running a version of OS X with the original Filevault, which was introduced in OS X Panther (10.3) and replaced by Filevault2 in Mac OS X Lion (10.7). So if you are running 10.3 through 10.6 then all you have to do is enable Filevault protection. The old version encrypts a user's home folder.


Run my Mac command “chsh -s /usr/local/bin/false” and can't log in to my account again

OK - bummer situation, but probably pretty easy to get around.

Boot in single user mode, mount the drive as read&write by running /sbin/mount -uw /, remove the /var/db/.AppleSetupDone file and make a new admin account
Use that admin account to change back the shell for your user.
Log out and check your account.
Clean up the “temporary” admin account if you wish.

Nothing can go wrong, except for perhaps FileVault or no backup or a firmware password so if you can finish a backup or might have another admin account already - using that would be much better in case the above outline isn’t workable for you.

iMac is stuck in a login loop

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860


How to trust browser again on my iOS Device?

Go to Settings → Safari → Advanced → Website Data, search for ‘apple’ and delete apple.com.


How to forcefully remove status bar icon?

Try Bartender. This lets you hide (as well as re-arrange) menu bar items, as well as providing a secondary menu bar so that you can hide icons from the main bar but still have access to them on a keyboard shortcut or menu bar item.


How can I resolve a permission error when installing gnuplot from homebrew?

sudo chown $(whoami) /usr/local/include
chmod +w /usr/local/include
brew link lua


How do I add the LaunchPad Icon to the Dock after upgrading fom Snow Leopard to Mavericks?

The Launchpad.app is located in your /Application Folder.

You can either

navigate with the Finder to your /Application Folder and drag it to your dock
search Launchpad.app in Spotlight and CMD+Click the App. Your Finder will open and you can drag the App to your dock


macOS High Sierra, Messages won't search at all

I finally got a solution for this in the Apple forums.  Still not sure why it worked but, here's what was suggested:

  In Sys Prefs>Spotlight>Search Results, uncheck "Mail & Messages" (and leave it unchecked), then
  add your drive to Spotlight's exclusion pane, wait, then remove the
  drive from the exclusion pane, wait for Spotlight to rebuild it's
  index.

I had to leave the machine overnight but this morning, Messages search works again.


How to enter boot menu without command key?

You could try installing rEFIt, which will give you a boot menu every time you boot up.

http://refit.sourceforge.net


How can I open apps at a specific window size together?

Position your windows how you desire, then run the following AppleScript for each application.

tell application "Terminal" to tell window 1 to get bounds

This will return the bounds of the window, such as:

{200, 200, 700, 700}

Once you have your bounds of each window you wish to include in your specific window layout set, use the following to set the bounds:

tell application "Terminal" to tell window 1 to set bounds to {200, 200, 700, 700}

You can use multiple lines to set multiple window bounds at the same time.

Once you're happy with your layout, Script Editor can save the script as an application (File → Export and choose File Format: Application). This can then be added to your Dock for easy access.

If the application you're trying to manipulate is not scriptable, such as Sublime Text, you can use System Events to tell the application. This will require you to enable Accessibility control in System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Accessibility.

To get the bounds of a window of a non-scriptable application, you can use:

tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Sublime Text" to ¬
    get {size, position} of window 1

This will return the size and position of the window, such as:

{{500, 500}, {200, 200}}

To set the bounds of a non-scriptable application, using the result of the previous code:

tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Sublime Text" to ¬
    tell window 1 to set {size, position} to {{500, 500}, {200, 200}}

If the application whose windows you are trying to manipulate are not open prior to running this script, use the following:

tell application "Terminal" to activate

This can be combined with setting the bounds using:

tell application "Terminal"
    activate
    tell window 1 to set bounds to {200, 200, 700, 700}
end tell

No delay is necessary since AppleScript will wait for the application to open.


Increase timeout on MacBook Touch-ID log-in?

No configuration option exists to change the 48 hour requirement (that I’ve seen) but you should not be locked out sooner than that unless you are resting another finger on the sensor or a co-worker is pranking you.

Is there a way to force a password check on a Macbook using Touch ID

Assuming you aren’t getting 48 hours, I’d be curious the count / settings you could dump using bioutil and perhaps purging all the fingers and setting them up again.


It's funny, but have you tried to scroll the page?

The first block of apps is empty, but apps that support file sharing is in another block at the bottom.


Missing Lyrics option in Music app in iOS 11.1

This is a known bug in iOS 11.1+ (11.2 and 11.2.5). There is an Apple Discussion with over 1250 users saying they are having that issue. I am not sure if there is an open Radar ticket for this bug.

Update: Fixed in iOS 11.4.


Catalina Keyboard shortcuts preferences missing 'full keyboard access'

The UI was simply changed in Catalina. In Catalina, ticking "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" is identical to selecting "All controls" in Mojave. Unticking "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" in Catalina is identical to selecting "Text boxes and lists only" in Mojave.

You can confirm this using Terminal in both versions of macOS and seeing what changes in the output from defaults read (redirect the output to a file and diff the two files). Switching between the radio buttons on Mojave and enabling/disabling the checkbox on Catelina both only change the following preference:

defaults read "Apple Global Domain" AppleKeyboardUIMode

When "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" is ticked (or "All controls" is selected) the value is 2. When "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" is unticked (or "Text boxes and lists only" is selected) the value is 0.


From within the application that you want, just go to the application menu and click "Hide Others"(shortcut alt-cmd-H)

You can create an AppleScript and/or find third party software(like MagicPrefs) to create a shortcut for this action or an "App" in the dock that can do this.


Viewing pictures on iPad from Mac server gallery-style

I have tried several apps/servers but most of them are either not user friendly or have limited functionality.
AirPics (yellowbek.com/airpics-app/) is limited to stream iPhoto and Aperture. Not user folders.
AirPhotoServer (www.airphotohd.com) too much bugs in server app, just poorly written piece of code.
PhotoStreamr (http://www.photostreamr.com) is working, it does fulfill the requirements, server app has some nice custom settings like user folders, password protected private folders, internet access (from outside of home network). iPad app is ok, just ok, you can feel here and there that user interface it is not polished to perfection, but functional part is perfect.
Unfortunately these apps are not updated often.


Why am I getting "Error -1,752" when trying to save in Script Editor?

The problem is that the file is a plain text file. When I originally created the file in 2007, Script Editor could apparently save uncompiled .scpt files. Now, however, as described  in Can't save AppleScript file when created by touch, .scpt files must be compiled. Uncompiled files can be saved with the .applescript extension.

I know this is nearly a duplicate of the question linked above, but I added it because as of OS X 10.11 El Capitan Script Editor gives an error number for this problem. I couldn't find any other references to this error number so I thought it was worthwhile to get the error number in a question title.


Wifi stays connected but Internet connection drops constantly - Macbook Air 13"

What version firmware is present on the net gear?  Does this also occur if you are hardwired in?  Can you disable the N band temporarily to see if that changes anything?


This works in my tests and should give you a starting point.

I use two actions to get the folder and its contents.

Get Selected Finder Items
Get Folder Contents

Then using a 'Rename finder items'  Action. I change the extension with it's settings set to:

Replace Text

Find: tiff  in extension only    -   ignore case Yes

Replace:  tif

Then a 'Run Shell Scrip' Action  using the unix command sips I change the format of the files to jpeg and then back to tiff. This removes the alpha channel.

It's settings are :

Shell: /bin/bash
Pass input: as Argument

With the code:

for f in "$@"
do

 /usr/bin/sips -s format jpeg  "$f"; /usr/bin/sips -s format tiff  "$f"

done

To use I select the folder with the Images and run the workflow on it.
It will also work on a single  or multiple images if that is what is selected instead of a folder

Update.
User @chananelb  pointed out that the is an Automator Action that can change the file type. But since they did not put any instructions in how this could be done. I will add it here as an alternative option.

The input of the service stays the same. And the first action as discussed in the comments should be Get Folder Contents.

All other actions can be removed and two actions of Change image type  should be added.

The first Change image type  is set to jpeg.

The second is set to tiff.

Thats it simple.

Open bigger image


What do these different terms for system memory in OS X mean?

Free memory

This is RAM that's not being used.

Wired memory

Information in this memory can't be moved to the hard disk, so it must stay in RAM. The amount of Wired memory depends on the applications you are using.

Active memory

This information is currently in memory, and has been recently used.

Inactive memory

This information in memory is not actively being used, but was recently used.

Used

This is the total amount of memory used.

VM size

This is the total amount of Virtual Memory for all processes on your Mac.

Page ins / Page outs

This refers to the amount of information moved between RAM and the hard disk. This number is a cumulative amount of data that Mac OS X has moved between RAM and disk space.

Swap used

This is the amount of information copied to the swap file on your hard drive.

See official Source for more details.

The high memory usage has occurred ever since Mac OS X Lion. I don't really now why this is. But generally it's good if your RAM is being used.

If you clear your ram too often, programs start slower because they have to be loaded into the RAM again.


How can I run Final Cut Pro on an 2011 MacBook Pro?

VMWare Fusion 11.5 supports your hardware, your os and can virtualize the newer macOS. There is a free download so you can make sure it runs before you spend for a license.

https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/fusion-evaluation.html

You do not need the pro version.


Recover iPhone backup manually from iCloud

Unfortunately, you are very limited in what you can do with that backup. In fact, there is literally nothing you can do with an iCloud backup unless you restore the backup. This can be done, however, on any iOS device (as in iPhone, iPod, or iPad), that is at least the iOS version that the stolen device was on. For example, if the iPhone 4 was running iOS 6, you will only be able to restore to a iOS 6, or 6.1 device.

If you are on a Mac, you should have easy access to Calendars, Contacts, Notes, Reminders, and such data. If you are on a PC, you can access most of that by going to iCloud.com. This isn't really the data that you've backed up, though, and it's really data that is just "synced" through iCloud. Either way, Contacts, are typically pretty important.

If you own a Mac, you should be able to get your Photostream pictures by installing and opening Photostream. This doesn't capture videos, though.

If you do have an eligible iOS device that you can do a restore on, be sure to back up that device locally before wiping. It might also be advisable to make sure that device doesn't do a backup of the newly erased setup to iCloud. If you keep that iCloud account disabled on that device, you should have an easy restore from iCloud, and a backup in iTunes should something go wrong.


Backing up to an internal drive of another machine

You have two options to allow Time Machine on your Mac to use an internal drive on another Mac Pro as the destination for normal backups from your MacBook.

Neither is a great option, but here they are.

Load OS X server on the Pro and set it up minimally to share that drive as a Time Machine backup destination. Your Mac will see the drive as long as the two computers have any sort of network connection and your Mac will quite happily send files to it's server as if it were a Time Capsule or other NAS device that supports Time Machine.
Shut down the Mac Pro and boot it in Target Disk Mode. This involves less expense (if you already have a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable) and less setup time (server could take hours to set up the first time) but it means you can't use the Mac Pro when the MacBook needs to back up. It also means you can't use the ethernet (or any other network) to perform the backup. Thunderbolt is practically limited to 2 meters by the longest copper cable being sold and the max length it could be is 3 meters until a fiber optic version of the protocol gets released. FireWire can work up to 100 meters, but cables that long are pricey and rare.

Since neither of these is a good option, you could also look at getting some free software like CrashPlan. This software would be installed on both computers and each could back up to the other (or you could only back the portable to the Pro - one way backup) and you could have all the files stored on the one drive.

The downside is it's not Time Machine - but it is quite solid software that many, many businesses depend upon for valuable data.

Sorry there isn't a quick - do this and that to make the Pro serve up a drive as a Time Machine destination - but hopefully one of the three options will let you work out a plan.


Why are my Events in iOS 8 iPhoto in a completely random order?

It's a bug.
No fix at all right now.

I've tried all the usual suspects, re-order in iPhoto, delete & re-add all my Events, clear & re-sync everything.

Events arrive in random order whatever I do… a different random order after each of the attempts to fix.

There's been a lot of discussion on the Apple community site about it, no-one's found a fix, the bug is known to have been reported already.


How do I stop iCal from always asking for a password?

Have you seen the following menu in Keychain Access app?

Open Keychain Access app (use spotlight!), select your login Keychain and in the Edit menu:

select 'Change Settings for Keychain “login”…’

This brings you the following screen:

If you have either of those, iCal will find the Keychain locked when it tries to sync.


Bootcamp Windows 7 Installation on Macbook Pro Late 2008 with MiniDisplayPort Monitor (Broken Laptop Display)

I can not guarantee this is going to work. Good luck!

  I assume Windows is detecting your broken display and does not know the display is broken. I assume broken means you can not see anything on the display. I also assume the external display is not mirroring the broken display. If all of this is true, then the problem is: How to get Windows installed to a point where the external monitor can be set as the main display.

There is an old answer that would require you to install VirtualBox 5.2, which would be compatible with Yosemite. Ignore the update regarding an improved procedure. The following steps would need to be added to the instructions.

At step 23, when running the sysprep application, Choose Enter System Audit Mode instead of Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE), as shown below.

At step 25, after Windows starts, execute the following steps.

On the external monitor, right click and select Screen resolution, as shown below.

If a window similar to the one shown below appears on the external monitor, then skip to the next step. Otherwise, while holding down the  option key, press the space bar. Release both keys. Next, press and release M key, followed by the → cursor key. Finally, wiggle the mouse in the external monitor display, until the window appears. If the windows does not appear, use the cursor keys to move the window to the external monitor.

In the window, click on the second display, then check off the box Make this my main display, as shown below. Next, click on the OK button to close the window.

Execute sysprep again, but with the following settings.


What has changed Finder list view in Lion to make "Calculate all sizes" exponentially faster?

Before Lion, the File Size column in Finder.app would display the size each file requires on the hard disk, not the exact file size. For example, 1 byte files were displayed as 4 KB because they do in fact take up 4 KB of space on a HFS-formatted system. There was no easy way to see the actual file size of 1 byte, other than opening File › Get Info (or using a different app, like Terminal.app and then using ls -lsa, or a Finder.app replacement like TotalFinder.app).

(Back in the day, I reported this as bug 8926275 on bugreport.apple.com.)

As of Lion, this behavior has been corrected, and the File Size column will now show the exact file size for each file rather than the size it allocates on the hard disk (which depends on the file system anyway).

Since these sizes are the same numbers you’d get from the ls binary in Terminal, they’re much more efficient to calculate.


Make Outlook default mail application on a Mac

If it's greyed out, you obviously have an Admin restriction.  Your option is to get the Admin to change this setting for you.  I am assuming that Outlook is the default mail client of your organization.  Just explain to him/her that it's very inconvenient to have Mail as the default that always pops up when Outlook is the company standard.


How can I read PDFs in scrolling mode on an iPad 2?

This may be a solution - please give feedback so I can correct.
Login with the same appleid on a more modern apple device (iphone etc) or possibly on a desktop computer.
Purchase (for zero dollars) the apps "USB disk" with the purple logo and  "Adobe Acrobat".
On the ipad 2, open App Store and either look at "Purchased Apps" or browse to find the identical apps you already "bought", and download them.
The option to download an older version should appear.
The abovementioned apps have a version that works under 9.3.5 on ipad 2, open .pdf and use vertical scrolling. I just checked!
I also recommend you get the Chrome browser at the same time as some websites will work with it when Safari will not, and its availability may be terminated...


How can I set the display settings using command line

Use screenresolution on newer os versions

 git clone https://github.com/jhford/screenresolution.git
 cd screenresolution
 make dmg
 ./screenresolution set 1920x1080x32@60

csreen did not do any thing for me on os x 10.10.5. These steps worked for me.


OSX Yosemite bootable usb drive circle slash ("no" symbol)

The boot problem seemed to have been related to a disk error on the hard disk of the mac. I ran the disk utility and it detected a problem with the macbook's HDD (something with doubled file links), which it then repaired. The computer was still slow and unresponsive after the disk repair. After that the boot from the USB worked fine, and I was able to clean install OSX Yosemite.

I recovered the computer from my time machine backup, excluding applications, and now the computer is noticeably faster and more responsive. I don't know whether a specific application or accumulated OSX sludge was responsible for the slowdown, but I'm happy I went through the pain of the clean install.


How can I create a script with multi command

You have saved your file as a Rich Text Format file (.rtf)

In TextEdit.app

Open your file and use the Make Plain Text menu to change it to the correct format for coding.

Using anything other than plan text will mean that the file includes formatting code  for styles and such that is visible to the shell layer but not to the user when viewing the file.

For example.

Rich Text Format file with the extension changed is still a rich text file

Reading it from the command line.

$ cat foo.command

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf1344\cocoasubrtf720
{\fonttbl\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Menlo-Regular;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;\red43\green39\blue19;\red234\green234\blue234;\red37\green127\blue159;
}
\paperw11900\paperh16840\margl1440\margr1440\vieww10800\viewh8400\viewkind0
\deftab720
\pard\pardeftab720

\f0\fs26 \cf2 \cb3 \expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
defaults write com.apple.finder \cf4 \expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
CreateDesktop\cf2 \expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
 -bool true}

Change to plain text and re saved.

Read from the command line.

$ cat foo.command
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true

( examples are for illustration only and not how to do the actual coding)


Sierra Finder aliases appearing as generic icons

It is a bug in 10.12.1, there is no current permanent fix.


What operating system was installed on the original Apple 1?

According to Mactracker, it was "Apple Integer BASIC with optional Cassette Interface".


How do I get Pages for iOS 7/8 to use the TAB key on a bluetooth Keyboard to change the indent level?

No. Apple would have to add an additional function for the bluetooth-users, which they hadn't until now. So it's not possible to use the tab-key, because you can't change the button-functions in the iOS-iWork-apps.


Not Receiving Standard SMS on iMessage for Mac

Unfortunately, Messages for Mac only sends iMessages, and unlike Google Voice, doesn't send SMS messages. This limits Mac Messages to only be able to send and receive iMessages from other iMessage enabled devices (such as iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Macs). Also, another result of this is the fact that only iMessage threads will sync over to your Mac - SMS threads won't (as you have noticed).

This is indeed a limitation of the software, and not a configuration problem.


How can I screen record iPhone and Android screen at the same time visible right next to each other?

Does this help? Maybe you can use QuickTime for the iPhone and the options on this link for the Android. Then export the Android video.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/android-screen-recording-apps/


If my adapter says 1A or 2.1 which port should I use for my iPod nano?

It doesn't actually matter.
The iPod will require 1A, but as Amps are "pulled" by the deive rather than being "pushed" by the socket, the end result is the same whichever you plug it into.
You will only notice a difference if you plug in an iPad which needs 2A. If it can only pull 1A it will charge more slowly.


Several older model macs are not compatible with Mojave. This site will list what Macs can run Mojave.  The only 2010 model listed is for an Mac Pro with a specific graphics card.


You have to set the scroll back buffer.  This option is found under Profiles >> Terminal.

You can either set the number of lines in the buffer to the number of lines you want to scroll back, or check the box for "unlimited scrollback".


Chrome slow when loading local virtual host

The solution was to move the domain in the /etc/hosts file to the same entry as localhost.

127.0.0.1   localhost domain.com

See this StackOverflow thread.


How to remove a font downloaded through Font Book?

You can replace them with themselves, but manually installed, with the shell command:

cp /System/Library/Assets/com_apple_MobileAsset_Font5/*/AssetData/* ~/Library/Fonts/

Then, from the “User” section of the sidebar, select all of the fonts you want to remove, and the system-installed version should be removed as well. An alternative way is to resolve the duplicates by keeping the manual version, and then removing that as well.


Booting iMac in Recovery partition takes forever

Ok, so in the mean time I have:

Updated OSX from 10.10 to 10.11
Tried regular recovery again, and now it worked. Guessing the update fixed the recovery disk somehow.

Now in process of restoring the mac.


As far as I know the DRM aspects are built directly into Windows so won't work on OS X. Best bet would be virtualization I'm afraid!


VDCAssistant seems to be causing perpetual crash reports

Apple has changed something that interferes with some applications/drivers using the webcam, mirroring the screen (Airplay and Airplay-like) and providing USB graphic cards.

Uninstalling those (make sure to use Google to find what kernel extension they installed), make sure the system rebuilds the kext cache by running

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

and restarting solves the problem for most people posting to that list.

List of applications I found that might cause the problem, mostly out of a lengthy thread in the Apple support forum:

Air Display
AirParrot
AirServer
DisplayLink Driver
iDisplay
Parallels
Splashtop virtual display driver
ScreenRecycler
VMWare

Not all of this must be affected, and some are actually debated in the thread (like Parallels and VMWare). They might just do the touch mentioned above which some users probably didn't do.

Sadly this all didn't help me, so I decided to give up the camera until Apple fixed this and disabled the VDCAssistant (must be repeated after each boot, when the problem still occurs, and whenever something wanted to access the webcam). Has the advantage over deleting/renaming that you don't have to remind yourself undoing that if it finally is fixed; but you realize very well if the problem still persists after a reboot...

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.cmio.VDCAssistant.plist


Magic Trackpad 2 force touch settings Problem iMac!

This might need some triage to narrow what you've tried. Restart, new user, apply software updates. Before even that point, you should back up to Time Machine or your chosen backup method.

reset the NVRAM and SMC would rebuild the pre-boot hardware and software settings
restart the OS cures a temporary situation
installing new OS would rule in or rule out software issues

To expand on the initial triage steps above:

I would pair another trackpad (external) since that would tell me if your software or settings were causing this (some trackpads may not even do haptic, so I could see a check to see if the hardware had that and then the software draws what you see intentionally) in which case you would erase the Mac and reinstall the OS - verify the hardware shows haptic and restore your data and apps.

If it's not software, then hardware repair would be needed to see why your trackpad isn't being sensed as haptic since at that point you know your software is good.


How to trigger a bash script from right click in Safari on a particular URL?

No - Safari is designed to not run code like that.

Could you imagine the damage someone would do with a malicious script to delete all a user's photos if they get them to click a link that could say anything and link to a malicious script underneath?


Reformatting and restoring just data on Lion

This is a broad question in which you need help defining a strategy.

If you want a truly clean start, yes, I would consider these steps.

Back up your entire system to a disk image file on an external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!
Check all your crucial system settings on the startup disk, such as Internet connection settings and network volume connections. Un-register iTunes, the App Store, and any other applications with copy-protection that need to be un-registered.
Erase your system hard drive, make a clean install of Snow Leopard, download all Apple updates and security patches.
Then re-connect the external hard drive, mount the disk image of the backup, and manually drag over only your documents, not any system settings.
You will then need to laboriously download and re-install all your third-party applications and App Store purchased applications, and re-register them.
You must then decide what configurations and files from your /Library/ and ~/Library/ need to be migrated from your old disk image to your new system. Making these decisions one-at-a-time rather than using Migration Assistant will ensure that you avoid "cruft" or "useless clutter".
Make sure that you retain your backup disk image for quite a while so that you can go back and get more data from it if you discover that you have overlooked something that you need, like fonts or folders in ~/Library/Application Support/.

I underwent this process myself when I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion. I made this decision because my system had been migrated from Tiger through Leopard to Snow Leopard and had many years of "cruft" that I wanted to be free from, particularly some third-party KEXT files where I was not certain what was working correctly and what was not. But going this route takes a tremendous amount of time and attention to detail. You could spend more than one full eight-hour day working with this if your system is as old and complex as mine is.

So weigh your options and decide what you want to achieve, and how much time you are willing to devote to it. But make backups of everything first, and retain those backups!


This seems like a definite hardware problem.

You can take it to a retailer, send/take it to Apple, or do it yourself.
Here are DIY instructions and parts ($99)


I ran into a similar situation with an iPad running iOS 6. Powering it down, then back on again fixed it. Hard to say for sure if we had the same issue, but it's worth a try. Toggling the Auto-Lock setting might also be worth a try.


The app is renamed “Find My” and you can use Siri to locate it if your spotlight search is messed up or just updating after the update.

Not all of Apple’s documentation online is updated yet, but here’s a great starter if the Guide app that ships with iOS 13 doesn’t help you enough:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210400


How to correctly pipe output into "say" in terminal

Based on mankoff's answer, this works:

leave +1 2>&1 | while read line ; do echo $line | say ; done

although leave no longer vanishes into the background and lets you carry on typing. Similarly:

leave +1 2>&1 | while read line ; do echo $line | say ; done &

will make it vanish into the background, but will also speak a (harmless) process ID number as well. So neither is quite perfect, but both work.

(I was looking for a solution to:

ping google.com | say

which suffers a similar problem, and someone suggested the above as a solution. I didn't add this as a comment to mankoff's answer because I can't work out how to put spaces and newlines in comments.).


How do I use the iPhone / iPod Touch Backup Extractor?

The application you point out is a Mac only application. That's why it doesn't work on Windows Vista.

However, here's two alternatives :

iPhone backup extractor which is a paid multiplatform app
iphonebackupbrowser which is less polished and windows only, but free.

You may as well be interested by PhoneDisk which allow to browse any connected iOS device without jailbreaking them. It does the job and works on Mac OS & Windows. It's a shareware, but the demo is fully usable.


I had the same problem.  The eraser tool is the last tool in the toolbar on the left.  It's the thin line with a blank spot in the middle.  Once someone tells you it seems pretty obvious, but it wasn't to me.


Hyphen is being replaced by $'\342\200\224...' in bash

You're using —, which is an em-dash, instead of a hyphen (-) in the script. With non-proportional fonts such as Terminal (or code formatting on websites) this is hard to see; in regular text, it's more obvious: — vs. -
According to this page, the UTF-8 encoding of an em-dash is 0xE2 0x80 0x94, and when you convert that to octal you get 342 200 224, which are the numbers you see in your output. (Somebody with more bash knowledge than me can explain why this happens.)
Hyphens often automatically get converted to other kind of dashes (on macOS, iOS as well on Windows) which is helpful for the majority of people using computers, but unfortunately not for programmers or system administrators ...


Heiti TC in FontBook but not showing as available in dropdown menus in XCode or Word for Mac

In Word, you should be able to find and select the font in Format > Font, even if not in main drop down menu.


Pages - new paragraph in the same list item?

I solved it myself. Just duplicate the current list style and make the new style without a bullet in the appropriate section of the Format sidebar. Pages is smart enough to continue the numbering on the next paragraph where it left of in the previous paragraph.


There is a lot of information covering this exact topic in a question that I asked a while back:  https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/65952/how-to-upgrade-iphone-3gs-to-ios-5-now-that-ios-6-is-out

The accepted answer provided me with this link: http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/

Hope this helps!


Is Mission Control an addition to Exposé & Spaces UI or a replacement?

Mission Control replaces them.

All the things that you used to be able to do in expose and spaces should be in Mission Control as well (Well... Not really, you can't have spaces arranged in two dimensional space anymore).

But no, there's no more Spaces or Expose anymore. Yes it's called desktop now.


Thumbnails for Image Files on Desktop won't load

Based on your log, I suggest trashing the Finder property list, then rebooting.

Open Terminal
Enter the following command rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
Restart
If the issue persists, I suggest following these instructions. to completely reset the service.

Further information: The X Lab's Maverick's Post Installation Issues


Is an iPhone 5C suitable for Development in 2017?

"Virtual Machine running on a Windows Laptop"

Good luck with that one. There is basically no 3D acceleration in any VM for Windows running macOS currently available. Linux is able to achieve this in some cases (KVM + spare macOS-supported PCIe GPU), but it has its own set of different limitations that may break the deal for you. And it's also banned by macOS's EULA.

"along with using an iPhone 5C to test and debug"

iOS 11 will make the 5C obsolete, as well as any and all 32-bit apps, so you won't be able to do much with a 5C. (Unless you're developing for less than 3 months ;) )

"I do not know if that would also apply to games."

It would, and even more so. There are many technical limitations with 32-bit apps that 64-bit OSes do not have, notably the restriction to no more than 4GB of RAM. It is relatively safe to assume that Apple ended 32-bit app support because the iPad Pros push right into that 4GB limit, and there can only be more and more RAM installed into iOS devices.

What would I do?

If you're going solo, make your current laptop a Hackintosh (it breaks the EULA but it's your best option for now) and run all your apps in the Simulator or on friends' devices. I say this for two reasons:

If you don't make enough money to buy a Mac (~$1000+), you likely aren't a very big company and Apple will never bother to sue you.
If you are a big enough company that Apple notices that you are using a Hackintosh, you probably have enough money for a few Macs by now, so you can buy one.

Better yet, go develop for a company that has money for you. Then you can earn money to buy your own devices for your own projects and future jobs. Besides, you can probably ask for company funding for a Mac (probably a MacBook Pro 13 Fn, but it's better than nothing) straight-away.


Applescript: How to save text2speech and convert to mp3?

The say command has been able to save in different formats for a while.  The supported formats can vary with the voice, but for Mei-Jia it will save to mp3 or mp4 directly, so you don't need to do any converting or deleting.

EDIT:
Looks like I was mistaken about the encoding - there isn't an mp3, but you can use the say shell script to set other encodings such as mp4:

on run {input, parameters}
    set saveFolder to (((path to music folder) as text) & "Mandarin-text2speech:")
    repeat with thisText in input
        set fileName to getUniqueName for "audio.mp4" from saveFolder
        set output to quoted form of POSIX path of (saveFolder & fileName)
        do shell script "say -v 'Mei-Jia' -r 130 -o " & output & " --file-format=mp4f " & quoted form of thisText

    end repeat
end run

to getUniqueName for someName from someFolder -- add a numerical suffix as needed to get a unique name
    set {divider, counter} to {"_", 0} -- the dividing text and starting suffix number
    set leadingZeros to 2 -- maximum leading zeros
    set here to -(offset of "." in ((reverse of text items of someName) as text)) - 1 -- split extension at last period
    set theName to text 1 thru here of someName
    if here is -1 then -- no extension
        set theExtension to ""
    else
        set theExtension to text (here + 1) thru -1 of someName
    end if

    if counter < 1 then -- always start with a suffix
        set counter to 1
        if leadingZeros > 0 then set counter to text -(leadingZeros + 1) thru -1 of ("000000" & counter)
        set newName to theName & divider & counter & theExtension
    else -- only add suffix as needed
        set counter to counter - 1 -- adjust for while loop
        set newName to theName & theExtension
    end if
    tell application "System Events" to tell (get name of items of folder (someFolder as text) whose visible is true)
        repeat while it contains newName
            set counter to counter + 1
            if leadingZeros > 0 then set counter to text -(leadingZeros + 1) thru -1 of ("000000" & counter)
            set newName to theName & divider & counter & theExtension
        end repeat
    end tell

    return newName
end getUniqueName


Different Volume Level for Headsets and Headphones over Combo Jack

Your headphones come with two different cables:

one without a microphone
one with a microphone

The sound quality differs when you use one of these cables, the rest of your setup stays the same. So it is high likely that one of your cables is of low quality or just broken.


How to promote an iPhone app (productivity / goal-setting)

Press packages are a start but the press gets tons of those. There's no way of knowing, but you could be one of several developers that sent a press kit for a similar application.

You should definitely have a website for the product to promote it in the way you feel is appropriate.

Also, going to developer, mobile, and computer conferences and meeting with Apple, relevant press folks, and interested users is a good way to get attention, just be sure to have business cards and promo codes handy for when you meet people and want to show them your app.

There are many articles and books that cover this aspect of iPhone development including strategies on working with the App Store as well, most going beyond the scope of the Q&A format of this site.


As time goes by, you make various edits to a given file, and Time Machine will make progressive backups of that file. Backups continue so long as there is available storage space upon the hard drive. When hard drive space runs out, older file backups are discarded.

To perform a restore, one can perform a full system restore, which returns the entirety of your Mac file system contents to the latest files and structure that had been backed up.

Alternatively, you can browse through the progressive backups using a Finder-like interface, and choose specific files or folders to restore.

For more in-depth descriptions, it is worthwhile to read Pondini's repository of Time Machine information.


Can I use Time Capsule to run programs and processes in the background?

You can't run any of your own processes on the Time Capsule itself. The closest you can get is to put the files on the Time Capsule, then run the application from a Mac over the network. The Time Capsule doesn't act as a standalone computer.


Stop macOS from accessing external drive at night

I believe the best solution would be mounting and unmounting the drive to completely ensure no activity from the OS or any other rogue processes.

There is an already built solution that is paid:
Following this guide can help with more advanced settings how to unmount and mount the drive.

A free Solution would be combining

Apple Script disk mounting with Time scheduling to execute script


How to convert a batch of MP3's in Apple Music to AAC, then automatically delete the old MP3s?

There is a free app called Adapter that will do batch convert but I'm not sure about the deletes. Since it's free it's worth a try. If it doesn't do the deletes you can always sort the files by kind so that all mp3s will be listed together in the Finder window.  Adapter also converts images and movies as well as sound files.


Are passwords in my keychain readable by enterprises MDM tools?

You should not be installing work-issued MDM solutions on a personal computer, and you should not keep personal content on a work computer unless you are okay with IT management at the company accessing it. Assume they have the same permissions as an administrator account with screen sharing enabled.
To answer your question, your keychain is protected by your account login password in most cases. In the "assume they have an administrator account" scenario, that does not give them access. However, they probably also have your account password accessible if they use any sort of managed login system (my work requires enterprise passwords to be used for machine accounts) which would allow access.


Auto logout results in severe login screen bug

Problem solved
In System Preferences > Energy Saver the timers for display sleep and computer sleep must be greater than the time of auto logout after inactivity in System Preferences > Security & Privacy.


iOS e-mail app without automatic downloading of large e-mails

I think you can't stop the whole email downloading.

This is because an email is a stream of text the format is defined in this RFC. The programs that transmit and receive the email do not look at what the data is in the body of the email and so have to send all or nothing.

The files downloaded from other servers are represented in the email body as just text containing the name of the external file (a URL).

The mail client (the app on your iPhone) is the only software that looks at the body and it recognises certain plain text that the text after it is an encoded image.

Apple's mail clients including mail on the iPhone allows the sender to decide if large attachments are not put directly in the email body but held in iCloud as a external file so take up the small space as other external linkss.. Apple email attachment document.

There is a reason to use text only email :)


Using iTunes match, my collection seems peppered with songs that cut out before their full length

Maybe the file is corrupt, try another file. If the file is corrupt delete it and download it again.


Upgrade to MacOS Mojave is stuck at calculating

Went to Purchased screen.... Clicked on "Pause" while holding down Shift key. It killed the download process. Then went back and Featured and chose "Free upgrade". The process started where it left.


Duplicate archive subfolders with Mail.app

I've had this problem for quite some time.  I did a completely new install on a brand new machine and still had this problem.  Here was my solution.

Back before Mail had an archiving feature, I had a folder called "Archive" that I used to put mail that matched certain rules.  The presence of this rule caused a folder to be created with that name.  This must have cause some electronic version of confusion.

When I removed the rule and deleted the folder one more time, I was left with a single Archive folder.


How to copy my iPhone contacts to my sim card? (without Jailbreak)

Ok Just tested this. if you have an iCloud account, which you can get one free using your iPhone. You can sync your contacts to it. Then export all your contacts out as a vCard file.

You should then be able to send or export that file from a Mac or Pc to your Nokia phone using either the free Nokia software (Mac/PC) or the Built in Bluetooth of the Mac.

To Start.

Once you have synced your contacts to iCloud, You can login to the web interface for iCloud on a web Browser on a desktop or Laptop.  Got to the Contacts view.

In the All contacts view. Select the very first contact.

Then just like any other list, hold down the shift key, and use the scroll bar within the contacts view to scroll right down to the last contact. And  Select it. Doing this should now highlight all the contacts in the blue selected colour.

Now you can use the Action button to export to vCard.

The file will download to you download folder, And will be named after the first contact. But the file will be a multi-contact vCard which can be sent over bluetooth of via the Nokia software to the Phone.

Slight UPDATE. I forgot to mention..
Of course if you have a Mac you can sync the contacts straight to the AddressBook.app, and either do the same select and export as vCard. Or again use the Nokia software for the Mac to sync to the Nokia phone.


How can I reset iPhone camera roll to IMG_0001.jpg?

At the risk of you having done the steps, here is how it worked in the past using PhoneView:

Power off the phone.
Connect to USB and let it start (this way the camera app and others are not accessing the camera roll).
Launch PhoneView and in the settings turn on Show Entire Disk (Advanced Disk Mode)
Delete all pictures, files, folders from inside DCIM _(such as .MISC and 100APPLE, 101APPLE, etc... leaving just the DCIM folder empty).
Edit the PhotoData > MISC > DCIM_APPLE.plist file to set things to 0000 and 100 as desired in the xml file.
Disconnect the USB and power down the phone, never once tapping on any apps while you shuffled things under the OS and the Camera app.
Power on the phone and take a picture.

    DCIMLastDirectoryNumber
    100
    DCIMLastFileNumber
    251


Is it possible for only a part of the HD of my MacBook to not work properly?

Typically, if you have a spinning hard disk drive (not an SSD or Solid State Drive) and there is a physical problem with the drive, you will get the symptoms you have described. So the first answer to your question is: yes, it is possible for only one part of a hard drive to malfunction. This has been, for me, the more frequent kind of problem, often accompanied by clicks or repetitive noises emanating from the drive itself. This may appear in the OS as one or more unreadable files (if they are in a document or user file), stuttering performance (depending on how unreadable the media is), or strange behavior by the OS (if a system file is located on a damaged portion of the disk).

You should back up all of your data immediately. Your disk is failing and is no longer reliable. Typically, a disk with a physical continues to accumulate physical faults. Drives get more bad sectors over time, not fewer.


How to rotate text in single cell in Pages on Mac?

The only way I have found to do this, (and probably the same as you have done to illustrate the question), is to insert a text box or shape and rotate the shape/textbox by 90 degrees. Probably not the solution you are after but a barely workable workaround


2nd external display renders whites as bright yellow

My current workaround is to calibrate the color to have a target white of 6499k.

This can be done under Display Settings -> Color -> Calibrate


The blinking folder icon indicates that the computer can't find a valid startup disk. Based on the tests you've performed, it may that one or more critical files was removed from the drive, but the screwed up permissions are indicative that something is screwy.  I would reinstall the operating system.

If there are files on the disk you want to save, copy them off of the drive onto an alternative volume before installing the OS.


Repeated requests to update icloud preferances

I faced the same problem on my MacBook Pro (mid 2012) and I fixed it by following the guidelines mentioned here: http://www.rawinfopages.com/mac/content/keep-being-asked-your-icloud-password

  "Go to System Preferences, iCloud and clear all the ticks so that you
  are no longer syncing anything to iCloud. You should also go into
  every Apple app (FaceTime, Calendar, Messages, iTunes, Reminders,
  Notes and any other app you can think of), check the preferences in
  each app and if you are signed in to iCloud then sign out.

  After disabling all the iCloud sync options in System Preferences and
  every single Apple app, return to iCloud in System Preferences and
  tick all the boxes again to start syncing once more. You might also
  need to sign in again with FaceTime and the other apps you signed out
  of."


Using a different SIM card on iPad2 3g while travelling outside the US?

It's not locked and will work on any compatible network.


What carriers can utilize my unlocked AT&T iPhone 5?

On the back of your phone you will find a 5 character model number, Specifically the letter A followed by 4 digits.

You stated you have an iPhone 5, and it was original to the AT&T network you likely have model A1428 which will work in the USA on

    Aio
    Alaska Communications
    AT&T
    Family Mobile
    GCI
    Net 10
    Straight Talk
    T-Mobile
    Union Wireless

If your model number is different or you will be outside the USA, then use this table on the Apple website to look up your specifics.


How to install Mac OS X without OS X Recovery or the DVD that came with the Mac?

You don't indicate which OS X you are starting from, but your MacBook Pro shipped with Snow Leopard.

One course of action is to purchase the retail packaged Snow Leopard generic installation DVD and then the downloadable Lion from the Apple store for US$19.99 each. You will need to install Snow Leopard first from disc, update to 10.6.8, then download and install Lion. There are no Lion or later install DVDs available from Apple.


How do I open a new Terminal window for same directory as the current window

To accomplish this within a new window, go to Preferences within Terminal.app.
Within the General tab, you can adjust the behavior (you likely want to select Same Working Directory) for both new windows and new tabs.


iPhone 6 shows charging icon but not charging

Maybe, the problem is that there is dirt/dust inside the connector (lightning) port.

Try cleaning with a toothpick (plastic is the best) to remove possible dirt from the port.


bmike's work around did not quite do it for me as, as soon as I re-enabled iCloud everything was merged back into one bunch of iCloud contacts again.

What did work for me is very similar though:

Select one or more of your contacts from the iCLouds group and drag them to your desktop creating one vCard.
In Preference > Accounts > iCloud uncheck the "Enable this Account". "On My Mac" appears immediately in the Group pane.
Drag the vCard from your desktop over the empty contact space, your contacts will be imported in "On My Mac".
In Preference > Accounts > iCloud check the "Enable this Account". iCloud will reappear as Group.

You now have two sets of contacts, one "On My Mac" and one "All iCloud". If you started out by dragging all contacts in the iCloud group to your desktop the two sets will be completely identical. Does it make sense to do that? Well, you'll always have your contacts available also in the event that your network is down. Furthermore it is a way of making a back-up of your iCloud contacts alternative to what is proposed on:

Archive or make copies of your iCloud data:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4910?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Edit August 25

In addition to my answer fo August 20 I stumbled over perhaps an even better way of making an exact copy of your contacts from iCloud to your Mac. Once you have re-enabled iCloud you can select all contacts in "All iCloud" and just drag them in your "All on my Mac" group, so without using the back up you made earlier to your desktop. The nice thing is that your contacts birthdays won't show up twice in your Mac Calendar as they do when copied via Desktop first. Any contacts you add or delete via iCloud won't show up on or disappear from your On My Mac version. Editing of the content in iCloud appears to affect the On my Mac content as well when it is done in the Mac Contact app, not if it is done in iCloud on any other device. Anyway, the Contact App on your Mac distinguishes nicely the differences between the two. Just try it out by typing something in the Note field in either Group in Mac Contact or in your web based iCloud.


Accidentally deleted Applications link in Favorites in Finder

Go to Finder → Preferences (⌘,) → Sidebar and check Applications.


Launch the UNIX mail utility by running the following at the command prompt (in e.g. Terminal.app):
$ mail

You'll see a list of all your messages. From the mail prompt, do
? delete *
? q

And that should be it. Make sure do to the q after the delete * command, that saves the changes to disk.


One text file is not being backed up by Time Machine

There are a couple of things you can do to narrow down if the system is being told to ignore that file or if there is a problem with the disk structures or some other bug at play.

If you like programs with icons and controls - go get Backup Loupe and use it to track that file across your backups. The program will pause itself if Time Machine is running, so you might do one backup and then turn Time Machine off for the time it takes the Loupe to scan a few backups.

Similarly, Apple has a diagnostic tool that they use to capture information that could show a bug or a problem with time machine and spotlight indexing - it's called tmdiagnose. If you are comfortable with zip files with lots of diagnostic data and text files, start here.

Lastly, you could run tmutil compare from the terminal to just let the system tell you which files are in need of a backup the next "time the machine" runs.

As written, you have four places to look to narrow things down:

Time Machine is being told to ignore that file and you can learn all the exclusion rules and patterns and check for that.
Spotlight is messing up and Time Machine depends on that to know what has changed.
Time Machine itself is messing up.
The disks / hardware / file system are messing up - general troubleshooting of that might be needed once you've ruled out the above three potential causes.


Making MacPorts Think A Dependency Is Already Installed

No, this is not supported by any standard way. The maintainers of MacPorts care a lot about reproducibility of the builds and thus, MacPorts does not allow any other software to fulfil the requirement.

These entries in the MacPorts FAQ should answer this question in more detail:

Will MacPorts link to system libraries rather than its own?
Why is MacPorts using its own libraries?


iCloud is full but iphone storage is empty

There are two options for iCloud Photo Library: 'Optimize disk usage' and 'Downlaod and keep originals'. Optimize disk will delete original photos from your device and keep only thumbnails to free up space, while 'Download and keep originals' will keep originals in iCloud and on your device.

From what I know there is no easy way to delete photos from iCloud. If possible, the best option will be extending the iCloud storage.

If not, you can try the following:

Go to Settings > Photos on your device and tap on 'Download and keep orogonals'.
Leave your device charging overnight with a strong Wi-Fi connection to make sure that all photos are loaded (there is no progress bar for downloading original photos).
Delete photos from iCloud to free up additional space.

Be aware that in this case you won't be able to use iCloud Photo Library as the storage will get full again. The only real optio is backing up photos to your computer (Image Capture on Mac or drag&drop with Explorer on Win), then delete photos from both device and iCloud.

Hope this helps.


What terminal command shows the type of display that I have on my MacBook Pro?

ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

Depending on the string that comes up it will tell you the manufacturer of the display. It will not display in plain text.

Assuming you have a Retina display, a string with LP in it means it's an LG.


Murus firewall - redirect an ip to localhost web server

IMHO your web server environment is flawed because you may simply replace 35.166.133.11 by 192.168.1.2 in the sources instead of routing packets from 192.168.1.2 to lo0 (35.166.133.11 keep state) and later redirecting them from lo0 to the source en0(192.168.1.2) again.

But in other setups it may be useful. E.g. if you run a second web server mimicking the Amazon Linux AMI Test Page at localhost or 192.168.1.3/4/5.

rdr only accepts incoming packets. Thus, you have to first route those packets to lo0, then add an rdr rule there (which will catch them as they will be routed in from "somewhere") to send them to your local web server at 192.168.1.2.

The order in the config file is necessarily rdr incomming packets, then filter packets (like pass), but chronologically the 2nd rule will hit first (on en0), which will then activate the first rule (on lo0).

# Step "2". redirect those same packets that were routed to lo0 below
rdr pass log on lo0 proto tcp from en0 to 35.166.133.11 port 80 -> 192.168.1.2 port 80
# Step "1". Route new IPv4 TCP connections leaving en0 to lo0
pass out on en0 route-to lo0 proto tcp from en0 to 35.166.133.11 port 80 keep state

in pf.conf this would look like this:

...
scrub-anchor "com.apple/*"
nat-anchor "com.apple/*"
rdr-anchor "com.apple/*"
rdr pass log on lo0 proto tcp from en0 to 35.166.133.11 port 80 -> 192.168.1.2 port 80
dummynet-anchor "com.apple/*"
anchor "com.apple/*"
load anchor "com.apple" from "/etc/pf.anchors/com.apple"
pass out on en0 route-to lo0 proto tcp from en0 to 35.166.133.11 port 80 keep state

In the above example you would have to change the interface en0 to e.g. en1 if en0 doesn't have the IP 192.168.1.2 but en1 does.

Unload your current pf.conf and stop pf: sudo pfctl -d. Then add the two additional lines above. After modifying pf.conf check the syntax of the file with sudo pfctl -vnf /etc/pf.conf which should result in the following output:

pfctl: Use of -f option, could result in flushing of rules
present in the main ruleset added by the system at startup.
See /etc/pf.conf for further details.

scrub-anchor "/*" all fragment reassemble
nat-anchor "/*" all
rdr-anchor "/*" all
rdr pass log on lo0 inet proto tcp from 192.168.1.2 to 35.166.133.11 port = 80 -> 192.168.1.2 port 80
anchor "/*" all
pass out on en0 route-to lo0 inet proto tcp from 192.168.1.2 to 35.166.133.11 port = 80 flags S/SA keep state
dummynet-anchor "/*" all

and if successful load it with sudo pfctl -e -f /etc/pf.conf.

After shutting down the web server on port 80 you can test this with netcat:

In a terminal window enter sudo nc -l 80. In a second terminal window enter sudo nc 35.166.133.11 80. Now enter some text in the second nc session and hit the enter key. The text should appear in the first, "listening" nc session. You can also enter text in the listening session which should appear in the second window. To end the session enter ctrlD in either of the two nc sessions.


How to use Finder to find all files that do not match a certain criteria?

Just typing the operand NOT before the criteria will do the trick.

So, in this case, typing NOT .txt will show all the files but the ones with the .txt extension.


Messages open automatically at random times on Macbook Air

Even though you don’t want to sign out, it’s the fastest way to diagnose this. Make a log of how often you catch it launching - and once you know how long it takes for 10 launches - sign out for that time.

Then if it launches in that time interval, you know it’s launching locally. If you never get a launch, you know it’s messages coming in that launch the app.

Until you know if it’s a push notification or a local event launching it, you’ll have a hard time diagnosing either cause.


Currently (March 2017) you have to login to iTunes to rate and leave a review. I hope they add this feature to Apple TV soon.


Turns out I had a hard drive failure which is why my Mac couldn't see the drive and why Disk Utility couldn't see the files on the drive.

After trying many things, I found a utility called Data Rescue 4 for Mac and it scanned the drive, found all the files and I was able to recover everything.


How to do I keep music on an iPod when I have no access to the iTunes account that it was added with?

You could try, the windows only application, MediaMonkey (mediamonkey.com). This may help you as it used to be able to get around the itunes media controls... I have not used it for a while, so it may have changed (or Apple may have changed something to stop MediaMonkey from working as it used to).

With MediaMonkey you may be able to save the music already on your ipod. Once you have saved the music (safely - check it first) to a PC, then sync to itunes and then after you have sync'd it with itunes (which is pretty much guaranteed to wipe the original music), you could then re-add it...


Whats the best way to automatically start an app if its not running?

What you are looking for is launchd.

It will allow you to run an app continuously (auto-start at boot, relaunch when it quits/crash)

To use it add a plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

<?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>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>SomeApp.restart</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/path/to/SomeApp.app/Contents/MacOS/SomeApp</string>
        </array>
        <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>5</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>10</integer>
       </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Then load it once with  launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/SomeApp.restart.plist

The RunAtLoad option will launch the application the first time launchctl runs this.
The KeepAlive option will re-launch the application if it crashes.
The StartCalendarInterval will run it at a certain time. Presumably this is mutually exclusive with the previous two, but is included to show what can be done with launchd
Launchctl will run this after reboots.


If your Mac enters its full sleep state, then your network connections will be disconnected. Your Mac can not be connected to a WiFi network and be asleep at the same time.

You can avoid full sleep by setting your Computer Sleep to Never. Your MacBook will then sleep all the sub-systems possible when idle, but will remain awake enough to maintain a WiFi network connection.

PowerNap is not the same as full sleep. This is a special state controlled by Apple and, for now, available only to Apple's chosen processes.


How can i turn mobile data on without going into the settings?

There is no specific way to turn off only Cellular Data without going into settings.  A (possibly) quicker work around for you would be swiping up from the bottom to get the control center, then turning on Airplane Mode (far left button) and then turning back on WiFi and/or bluetooth.

That would disable cellular data,WiFi, Bluetooth by going into Airplane Mode, and you would get data over WiFi back when you turn that back on.


As per this question I ran the following command:

sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local

And then re-ran the homebrew command:

$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"
==> This script will install:
/usr/local/bin/brew
/usr/local/Library/Formula/...
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/...

Press enter to continue
==> /usr/bin/sudo /bin/chmod o+w /usr/local
==> Downloading and Installing Homebrew...
==> /usr/bin/sudo /bin/chmod o-w /usr/local
==> Installation successful!
Now type: brew help

I hope this helps someone in future!


How can I use launchctl getenv over ssh?

What you're describing is how things are supposed to work. The reason that commands leaves no output is not that some bug or error happened that prevents it from displaying the value of SSH_AUTH_SOCK - it is simply because that variable is not supposed to be set by launchd in your environment.

When you're using key based authentication with SSH, and you want an agent to make it easier to handle the private keys - you'll want to run that agent locally. I.e. when you're ssh'ing into a remote computer, the agent is supposed to run on your local computer that you're ssh'ing from.

Imagine that you're ssh'ing in to a remote computer, and then want to use ssh from there and you need to enter a passphrase - the prompt pops up in the GUI shown on the monitor connected to that remote computer. You can't see it, you can't act with it. This is not how it's supposed to work.

Instead run ssh agent on your local computer, load in the keys, and then ssh into your remote computers using the -A parameter for ssh to enable agent forwarding (or set it permanently for that remote computer in the configuration).

If you really want to run ssh-agent on the remote computer, you can ofcourse do so. When you have ssh'ed to the remote computer, simply run ssh-agent and add your keys. If you want to automatize running ssh-agent, you can do that.


iPhone Videos app only offer a single subtitle track

It seems like, as far as I can tell, that the Videos app on iOS only support one subtitle per language.

I had two English subtitles that both showed up on my Apple TV (as "English") but only one of them in the Videos app. My workaround was to change the language of one of these subtitles to something other than English using Subler (I chose "Unknown"). Then they both showed up i the Videos app as different subtitles.


Connecting external display to Early 2015 MacBook Pro

Display Support:

Supports an HDMI-compatible device, including 4K, while using one Thunderbolt display or support for two Thunderbolt displays

External Resolution:

HDMI

3840 by 2160 pixels at 30Hz
4096 by 2160 pixels at 24Hz

Thunderbolt

3840 by 2160 pixels at 60Hz
5120 by 2880 pixels at 60Hz (with Radeon R9 M370X)


How can I undo/redo in iOS Notes.app w/o shaking my iPhone?

2019 Update

iOS 13 now supports gestures to easily undo/redo!

Three finger swipe:

right to left - undo
left to right - redo

Double-tap with three fingers - undo
Three finger tap - open shortcut menu containing buttons to undo, cut, copy, paste, and redo (screenshot below)

More info about the new gestures (including copy, cut, and paste) can be found in this article.

NOTE: These gestures should work across all apps that support undo/redo functionality!

Hat tip to @Jaime Santa Cruz's answer, which prompted this update.

You can now press undo/redo buttons in iOS 11 on the iPhone!

Open notes, view a note in landscape, and you'll see arrows on the bottom left!

NOTE: Seems to only work with notes under an iCloud account


Why are photos and videos always cropped on phone orientation?

The sensor in an iPhone camera is not square, it is rectangular physically.

Therefore, ‘uncropped’ is rectangular and square is a crop of this. If you would like a square photo, you can use the square function in the camera app, but this will be a lower resolution as it is just a crop of the original rectangular image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format


“Failed to install SGD client” when accessing the secure global desktop from OS X

I had the same issue with "Failed to istall SGD client" and found the following reference to XQuartz issues - it seems to fix this issue as well.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6616720


Is it possible to bounce or redirect an email using Outlook 2016 for Mac or OWA?

You should be able to create a rule in the Outlook 2016 for the Mac.  In Outlook's menu select

Tools --> Rules

Use the + button near the bottom of the pop-up to add a new rule.  Give the rule a name (Shunt-Foo-List-To-Bar-List).  For the condition, select something that will uniquely identify the message that needs to be bounced.  This could be the To: address if messages to the list are consistently addressed to the list's address, or if the list uses a [tag] in the subject line you could match on that instead.  Then under Do the following:, select  Redirect To and set the address where you want it to go.

There are times I would like to be able to interactively redirect an individual message to a different address, but I've yet to find a way to do this in Mac/Outlook.  But at least this works for cases you can easily identify ahead of time.


How to use Reason 7 (Reason.app) on macOS Sierra

To add to the answer, the solution would appear to be found in the following link:

https://www.propellerheads.se/support/user/reason/mac-troubleshooting/where-are-the-sound-banks-in-reason-9/

The folder in question in application support should be deleted in order for Reason 9 to launch. This should fix the issue.


/System/Library/LaunchAgents is locked in El Capitan

El Capitan adds a new security feature named System Integrity Protection (SIP). Among other things, SIP prevents parties other than Apple from adding, deleting or modifying directories and files stored in certain directories:

/bin
/sbin
/usr
/System

Apple has indicated that the following directories are available for developers to access:

/usr/local
/Applications
/Library
~/Library

All directories in /usr except for /usr/local are protected by SIP.


What is the best way to migrate a .bash_profile to Mavericks

Go right ahead and put your old .bash_profile file in your home directory and it will get read.

For your purposes .bash_profile, .bash_login and .profile are identical with the exception that one and only one will be read - the first one found of the three with bash searching in that order.

.bashrc is only read when you run an interactive shell that is not a login shell.


Apple hosts a dedicated webpage on its website to share product feedback:

Product Feedback - Apple

Use the above link to share general product feedback with Apple regarding various hardware and software products.

If that doesn't suffice your need, and you'd like to either report bug(s) or request new feature(s), you can do so via dedicated bug reporter here:

Apple Bug Reporter

You'll need to log in with an Apple ID to do so.

Bug Reporter is preferred, as the concern will be directed to the relevant  product team, and you'll most likely get a feedback regarding the status from them.

Also, a new feature request or a bug fix is most likely to happen, contingent to the number of unique bug reports filed. So, Bug Reporter is preferred over Product feedback page.

Filing a bug report is termed as filing a Radar in Apple.

P.S.: There's an official webpage outlining recommended best practises when sharing product feedback and bug reports with Apple. The same can be accessed here:

Bug Reporting - Apple Developer


iphone messaging: how do I show the senders number

Click on the circular image on the top in iMessage. It takes you to the contact details. The contact detail in blue is the one which the sender has used to send you the message.


Update: I just found out from this answer Where can I get a copy of Mavericks after Yosimite has been released? that it is possible to download if you are a member of the Apple Developer Mac program.

I tried the link from the US Store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id675248567?mt=12 but it appears it is not available anymore.

I found this from reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/1oey0b/download_os_x_109_mavericks_gm_final_dmg/

This is the link http://www.techglobex.net/2013/10/download-os-x-109-mavericks-gm-final.html

  Download OS X 10.9 Mavericks GM Final .DMG Setup File (Build: 13A603,
  Latest, V2) - Direct Link | Link 2 | Link 3 | Link 4 | Torrent Link |Link 2

  Download OS X 10.9 Mavericks Server GM Final .DMG Setup File

  Download Xcode 5.0.1 GM (Build: 5A2034a) Download iPhoto 9.4.7 Seed

  Download Remote Desktop (Build: 370A61) Download .DMG Extractor for
  .IPSW Files - Direct Link

Make sure you check if it is legitimate https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202369

  For OS X Lion or later, locate the lock icon () in the upper-right
  corner of the Installer window’s title bar.

  For Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a certificate icon is shown instead.


Where can I find original MacBook Pro batteries?

Apple don't sell batteries as spare parts to customers, and the Unibody MBP's battery is not 'user-serviceable'. Hence the funny tri-cornered screw heads. Anything you find on a third-party retailer's site is likely to be 'grey', even if claimed to be Apple-branded.

(Having said that, I have bought several of such batteries for Unibody MBPs and they have worked well with no problems.)

If you take your MBP to an Apple Store, you should be able to get it replaced, but obviously Apple will charge you 'some money' for this.


Trackpad on MBA keeps automatically clicking

This sounds like either a faulty trackpad or possibly a swollen battery.  I know the battery suggestion sounds strange but the reasoning is that as a battery swells it puts pressure on the components behind it, which for most of Apple's portables includes the trackpad.  Basically it could be slightly pushing on the back of the trackpad at all times, causing even minor touches to register as a click.

The only way to check for this is to remove the bottom case, which you may or may not be comfortable doing.  iFixit has a guide for replacing the battery that shows the steps to remove the bottom case and provides a reference for what a healthy battery should look like.  If the battery is not swollen then the other likely hardware fault is the trackpad, which isn't common but isn't all that uncommon either.

Before you tear into your Mac though you can at least rule out software as the culprit.  You can boot to your recovery partition by performing the following:

Power down your Mac normally ( > Shutdown)
Hold option while you power on your Mac
You should see a list of hard drives, one of which is likely 10.9 Recovery, select that and press return.  If you're instead presented with a password request you will first need to enter your firmware password before seeing the list of drives.

Once you're booted to the recovery partition you can test your trackpad but clicking/not clicking on items.  If the issue persists then it's likely one of the hardware faults I outlined above.

Hope that helps!


How can I change my desktop background? I've tried everything with no luck

Unless you're trying from a user account with restricted permissions, you should be able to change the background image by going to:
System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop
There, you will have default choices, including those supplied by the system, or Photos, and some folders. You should be able to drop your image into one of the listed folders, or add your own.


Why do I need Wi-Fi to backup to iCloud?

Without going into speculation, there appears to be no official word on why this has been done. There are a number of iCloud Backup KB articles, mentioning that Wi-Fi is the only way to backup your device:

http://www.apple.com/support/icloud/backup/

…however, per almost all Apple documentation of this sort, there is no reasoning to their decisions.

If you need to connect over 3G/4G - you can tether to another iOS device and then backups see WiFi and progress smoothly in my experience. There doesn't appear to be any opt-in choice to self-backup. http://feedback.apple.com would be the only avenue to ask for this feature going forward.


Is signing a pdf file electronically with Preview safe?

With photo editors being what they are, it would be trivially easy to cut a signature out of a scanned signed document and put it on any other scanned document in a way that would be nigh-impossible to detect as fraudulent.

Yes, PDF editors would probably be able to snip out your signature. This, of all things, should not concern you.


Is it possible to use an iPhone 5 with tracfone service byop?

I recently purchased this kit I learned about on a deals forum.

It comes with SIM cards in standard, micro and nano sizes. I have not activated it yet but you can buy different levels of time to add. I have installed the card in my 4S but I still have time left on my non-smartphone tracfone.


Zooming in or Out in Sketch App for Mac using command + space bar (Keyboard Combination) triggers spotlight!

I have actually came across a completely different solution. You must be knowing about hot corners in which if you point the cursor to any corner of the screen a particular process takes place so now I have turned it on for the launchpad and now I can happily zoom in or zoom out in Sketch!

Hot corners can be accessed either from the mission control screen under system preferences or from the screensaver screen also under the system preferences!


Does OS X Notification Center receive messages from APNS, LAN or just locally?

It can work in a couple of ways. One, as you say, is through APNS.

Apps can also use the local notification centre to trigger a notification (you can see this in XCode when a build completes for example).

What are you trying to do? Maybe I can point you at the right document.


My concern would be if the MXL USB mic expects to draw electrical power through the USB port. In that case the iPad 2 and the iPad Camera Connector Kit certainly would not provide enough power for the microphone. You should go to the MXL web site and check their support information.

The Alesis IO Dock Pro, US$200.00, provides professional-quality audio and MIDI interfaces to the iPad 2, but only interfaces MIDI over USB, not audio over USB like with the MXL microphone you describe. The Alesis is designed to work with conventional condenser microphones with an XLR audio cable, and it provides phantom power.


Can I get warranty on unlocked iphone 11 in India bought in US?

Usually its global warranty for one year. I had an issue with Mac bought in Europe and in India it was fixed for free.


"Directory not empty" sudo rm -r -i "file name" not working

First, I would be sure no files are locked

sudo chflags -R nouchg Local\ Storage

Then, assuming you are sure about using sudo and rm -rf on your backup drive, you could tell rm to force things.

sudo rm -rf -i Local\ Storage


macOS Big Sur Terminal hangs and no prompt appear

Typically this is a dot file causing the shell to hang.

Make a new account and log out of the old one - log in to the new and open the shell. If it hangs, too - you have system level configuration files to blame in most cases. Reinstall the OS if you can’t Seuss that out.
If that works fine, then su - hanguser to confirm it’s that one account.
You can run the shell without the rc dot files as well.

Also, before you try anything shut down the OS and validate it happens after a restart, basically try to avoid needing to go through this laundry list of potential issues:

Terminal login hangs


Customizing the shell prompt causes some quirks

You didn't close the brackets for the first escape, and add the escape for the second

export PS1="\u:\[\e[32;1;32m\]\W\[\e[m\] \$ "
#---------------------------^^--^^


You could go on your iPod to a website like http://pizzaseo.com/tool-lynx.php to emulate the behavior.


Failing OS X Lion installation (in loop, no control)

You should be able to boot to your external Lion disk by holding option/alt at startup to bring up the boot selector, and then selecting your external disk. Once booted, I would then proceed to erase the internal disk with Disk Utility and create a single partition, selecting GPT as the partition type and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format type. If you want to be really thorough select the zero-fill option when erasing the drive, it may help if you still have issues with creating the recovery partition as it will check every sector on the drive and reallocate any it finds to be unreliable.

While you're at it, make sure the SMART status of your drive is okay - it's not a guarantee your drive doesn't have any physical issues but it's a useful warning of impending failure.


Can I install iOS 11 beta ipsw using iTunes without paying $99?

The free public beta program seems much safer and more reliable than trusting a download and/or needing to jailbreak.

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/


Ghost/phantom notifications and other sketchy things

This sounds like a failure of the digitizer. All sorts of phantom scrolls and clicks can happen when the hardware thinks it's detecting fingers making tap and scroll motions at random or repetitively.

If you open the calculator app, sometimes you can map out what parts of the screen are failing, but depending on the severity it may come and go in relation to percent of charge and temperature.

Long term, this is likely to get worse and need a repair - especially if the phone has been dropped and suffered either internal damage (which can be 100% invisible - especially if you have a case protecting) or can be totally unrelated to any damage - just that the fine wires in the display have stopped working as designed.


The iPhone is most likely carrier locked and unless you speak Japanese you might be out of luck. As for pricing this will depend on the carrier but have you tried different SIM cards and what country are you in?


I would try to disable some keyboard-related applications, if you have any. Such as:

Karabiner
Text Expander (I had one as extension for Google Chrome =)
Punto Swither
etc.

I have just got rid of the keyboard lags on my system by uninstalling all of these (it could be only one of them that caused the issue, but I've shot all three).


Does Power Nap allow an Apple TV to access media on a sleeping Mac?

This seems to work on my AppleTV 2 and MacBook Air.

Last night I turned on the AppleTV to browse my main library on a Mac Mini and the MacBook Air library showed up as well, even though the lid was closed and the computer was asleep.

I have not experimented enough to know if this works with the power adapter unplugged.

This was a very pleasant, but apparently undocumented, feature to discover. Perhaps it arrived in the most recent AppleTV update.