What's the difference between Real, Virtual, Shared, and Private Memory?

Taken from my answer at Server Fault:

Mac OS X Memory Jargon:

Wired : This refers to kernel code and such. Memory that should not ever be moved out of the RAM. Also know as resident memory.

Shared : Memory that is shared between two or more processes. Both processes would show this amount of memory so it can be a bit misleading as to how much memory is actually in use.

Real : This is the "real" memory usage for an application as reported by task_info() - a rough count of the number of physical pages that the current process has. (RSIZE)

Private : This is memory that a process is using solely on its own that is used in Resident memory. (RPRVT)

Virtual : The total amount of address space in the process that's mapped to anything - whether that's an arbitrarily large space for variables or anything - it does not equate to actual VM use. (VSIZE)

Active : Memory currently labelled as active and is used RAM.

Inactive : "Inactive memory is no longer being used and has been cached to disk. It will remain in RAM until another application needs the space. Leaving this information in RAM is to your advantage if you (or a client of your computer) come back to it later." - Mac OS X Help

Free : The amount of RAM actually available without any data.

The best documentation I know of (and have been able to find in followup research) is Apple's own Managing Memory article on their developer website.

Other worthwhile sources: Darwin-dev mailing list: [1], [2] and an old article on MacOSXHints. Additionally Mike Ash has posted a good layman's introduction on his blog


One message that cannot be deleted on iPhone 4

You could try removing the Exchange account completely and setting it up again. Maybe this also deletes the message.


How do I customise the Touch Bar to show the volume up button and the volume down button

You can touch the volume button and start sliding your finger left or right to adjust the volume up or down.
No need to lift your finger.
The same goes for the brightness as well.


New MacBook Pro won't wake from sleep without restart

This is a common problem and is caused by the EFI being out of date. To fix this simple download and install MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.9

Hope this helps. All the best.


Clickthrough Hotel WiFi Access Page, and Sparkle

What about an application level firewall like noobproof(free) or little snitch(paid) to block any requests and then only authorize your web browser?


There are 2 methods to do that.

1- Mechanical

2-Chemical

for mechanical take the screw out and bring it to your hardware store, they will give you tongued washers or claw washers that prevents the screw from loosening.

The pro for this method is you can loosen the screw.

for Chemical method go to your hardware store and get the glue (for the screw).

The negative, it will be extremely hard to remove the screw.


Open Terminal.app with directory from a given URL?

Opening a New Terminal Interactively

As of Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Terminal has a “New Terminal at Folder” Service you can enable in:

System Preferences > Keyboard > Services > Files and Folders

With this Service you can open a new terminal by selecting a folder or file path in any application and choosing this Service in the contextual menu (Control-Click or Right-Click) or the Services submenu in the application menu.

It doesn’t support “file:” URLs, but you can select the path part of the URL “/Library/Fonts” and use the Service with that.

There is also a “New Terminal Tab at Folder” Service.

Opening a New Terminal Programmatically

If you need to open it from a command line or shell script, you can use the open command to tell Terminal to open a directory pathname or “file:” URL:

open -a Terminal file:///Library/Fonts

(This is equivalent to dragging a folder, file path or “file:” URL onto the Terminal application, which opens a new Terminal at that location.)


How to check the location of installed files when using Installer on Mac 10.6.7

Use pkgutil --pkg-info packageid and look for the listed "location" to see where the installation root was; then pkgutil --files packageid will show the installed files relative to that root location.


How to fix: iMessage Unavailable: Turn on cellular data or use Wi-Fi to set up iMessage

Ok, so there's at least one solution:

Establish a Wi-Fi connection using Settings > Wi-Fi (switch on, etc.).
Log-in the iphone using AppleID when prompted.
Disconnect cellular using Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data (switch to OFF).
Switch iMessage on (Facetime, etc.) in Settings > Messages > iMessage.
Switch cellular data on by reversing step 3.
Switch Wi-Fi off if so inclined by reversing step 1.

That did it!

Also? Screw Apple! Talk about cut-rate functionality…


Restarting your phone may resolve the issue.


Does the Microsoft Intellipoint software work with Mountain Lion?

I believe I have discovered the real reason why this happens and the cleanest work around (version 8.2 doesn't fix this for me).

Why this happens:

The issue for me was tracking speed (and mouse acceleration!) reverting to the OS X default and not using Intellipoint settings. After trying to learn AppleScript for 2 hours to hack around the issue and adjust my sensitivity settings through an automated script to adjust the preference pane, I remembered there should be a process called 'MicrosoftMouseHelper' loaded for the Intellipoint to work, and I noticed it wasn't running on a clean reboot. This, I believe, is the issue as it must be run to activate the hardware and software features for the mouse. (Use Activity Monitor to check yourself if this is running on clean boot and it likely won't be running, or if you already opened the preference pane as per @tquang's suggestion, kill MicrosoftMouseHelper process and see the mouse behaviour change). When you open the Microsoft Mouse preference pane, the above process starts and stays in memory after you close the system preferences, hence why you only need to open the preferences then close, and why @tquang's approach works rough-enough.

Heres my cleaner/less-intrusive solution:

Open Finder.
Navigate to: /Library/PreferencePanes/.
Right click on "Microsoft Mouse.prefpane".
Select Show Contents.
Navigate through Contents > Resources.
Leave the above open, and now open System Preferences.
Select Users & Groups.
Click on your user, and click Login Items.
Go back to your Finder window, select the file "MicrosoftMouseHelper", and drag this into the login items area on the right-hand side of the login items page (in the System Preferences window).
Intellipoint settings should now be loaded at login, overriding the default OS X settings for pointer speed, scrolling, and buttons.


Aperture: Library over multiple Hard Drives

This is a very easy operation that basically is one menu item away.

File -> Relocate Originals…

So, just connect whatever drive you want to store some photos on and select those photos (by project, album, smart folder, whatever) and then relocate them.

A standard file dialog will appear and you can move them to whatever folder you want on the other drive(s).

Aperture will then update the database and move the large / original version of each photo to the drive selected. When you are using aperture and the drive is not connected, you still have a preview version to work on / edit / crop / correct / etc… If you perform some operation where the original is needed, Aperture will ask nicely that you connect the drive, but for routine tasks - you may not even need the original version for daily use.


In Terminal, if the actual filename is ~$file.docx then use,  rm '~$file.docx', or whatever the actual file name is. If it's ~file.docx, use: rm '~$file.docx'
The above rm commands assume you are in the directory containing the target file, otherwise use its fully qualified pathname.
As the file is hidden, you can use either chflags nohidden '<file name>' or SetFile -a v '<file name>', where '<file name>' is the actual name or fully qualified pathname of the target file,  to first unhide the file in Terminal and then in Finder right-click and select: Move to Trash


Does the macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) installer install a Recovery Parition?

With macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), the recovery partition is moved to inside an APFS container. This container houses your main OS partition (what used to be HFS+ in macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and older) and the recovery partition, as well as a swap partition called VM (Virtual Memory) and a Preboot partition. You can see these by running the command diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         499.9 GB

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +499.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume macOS                   496.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 21.9 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                517.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

You can see it listed here as disk1s3. None of the partitions in the container are automounted other than disk1s1, though you still can mount them (taking the recovery partition as an example) by running diskutil mount disk1s3.

The recovery partition is still accessed the same way as before at startup (holding ⌘R at the startup chime).


You can delete songs directly in your music application. Just get the title overview and swipe from one side to the other and a delete button appears.

When you have automatic syncronisation activated in your iTunes, it will automatically sync your music next time you're in the same network with your iTunes computer, your iTunes is started on this computer and your iPhone is locked and wired to the power.


To see multiple (>5) "all day" events in a single day, you need to use the View by Day option.

Or alternatively you can use the week view but with scroll function.


How to solve stuttering after upgrade to Mountain Lion?

I've solved my system wide stuttering with Mountain Lion by now (first sound only, mostly, then aggravated system wide).

Here's why: My MacBook Pro became unbootable from stock HDD.

I had a bootcamp partition, no luck when booting into Windows too, got stuck when booting, jusk like when booting into OS X (got stuck at apple sign with spinning wheel).

I've got a Ubuntu DVD and started a live session, SMART disk diagnostics: 258 bad blocks, imminent disk failure.

I half apologize Apple in this point, for blaming solely the OS for being just weird. The stuttering origins, in my case, wasn't solely about the OS.

I should have take notice since when first upgraded to Mountain Lion. With my stock HDD, everytime I tried to install OS X, I needed to reboot a few times and got negative time counter (WEIRD) for the remaining installation time.

So what confused me so much?

I booted into Windows bootcamp: no stuttering, booted into Mountain Lion: stuttering plus very slow OS.
OS X Disk Utility never helped or warned about the amount of bad blocks (doing PRAM/SMC resets, filesystem and permission repair never truly helped).
When using Lion and Snow Leopard, there was no such a slowness/stuttering as there was in Mountain Lion. Before ML, I never experienced "sound stuttering", only when upgrading to ML this started to happen. So I suspect ML may be more sensible to disk with bad blocks.

I think I had few bad blocks initially and it became aggravated over time, I don't know whether ML usage helped in the aggravation process. Truth is, it was like I'd forced the disk to became unbootable when I last used it with Mountain Lion. It was slow as aways but still usable, I'd got a miniDisplayPort/HDMI cable and thought it was time to try it. The machine became very sloooow when I tried to play some video while connected to my TV, after disconnecting, it just hang, so I forced shutdown and it never booted again.

I've just replaced the original Toshiba MK5065GSX 500GB 5400RPM (what a crap and I think it was failing when under warranty) with a new Seagate Momentus XT 750GB (SSD hybrid drive, 7200RPM).

MAN, NOW IT'S BLAZING FAST! (also now I see the benefit of my early OWC 16GB RAM upgrade)

Anyway, I bought a MacBook Pro in early 2011 and here's what I've learned about MacBooks:

First problem:
     MacBook Pro refuse to charge without any apparent reason, I thought it was some smart emergency battery calibration routine, no it was not. I've dumbly let the warranty end and didn't replaced this failing and VERY expensive MagSafe, needed to buy a new one. At some point the stock MagSafe stopped charging and didn't return to charge after some hours, as it was aways doing.

Second problem:
    Slowness in Lion (I bought Lion)
   Got RAM upgrade, no help (I bought 16GB RAM)
   Got ML upgrade, NO HELP, got stuttering (I bought ML)
   Died HDD (started dying around 1 year of usage)
    Got new better HDD (bought)

Third problem:
   Bad management of headphone jack makes sound speakers muted.
    Blame OS X, any other OS: sound speakers working when expected to work.
    Google for: Headphone jack red macbook
   I think I can't solve this

Fourth problem:
    I've spent a lot of more money

Given my experience, I have some concerns whether ML helps HDDs die.

Now it's blazing fast, no stuttering and I can't put a headphone. If a put one, sound speakers only return to be recognized at random afterwards.

I WILL NEVER BUY APPLE STUFF AGAIN

Maybe, only used and cheaper apple stuff for upgrades with my own choice of good hardware.

TIP: Aways check your disk healthy with serious tools


No bootable device after failed Windows 7 installation via Bootcamp

It looks like you manged to delete a Hidden partitions.

One is Called EFI and it is about 200mb.

The second one is called RecoveryHD and it is about 600mb.

There was a reason for them to be hidden, but if you have the Debug menu show all on, they will show.

The good news is your data is still there, if you did not do further damage.

If you have a bootable USB (always) then use it to start up.

Meanwhile if you must recover your data, use a second Mac and run the Target Disk mode to recover.

Using 3d party disk repairs wont help here, you need to get the EFI back on to your disk, that is only provided by Apple.


MacBook Air is stuck at "Downloading Additional Components"

I was downloading OS X Mountain Lion and was faced with the same issue. I had to look for a faster internet connection and it worked. Try that.


Samsung V-Nand SSD 850 EVO 1TB not working

I found the ususal 8GB USB drive was not large enough and only got El Capitan to boot from USB of 16GB or more!

You can see what is happening when you boot the mac using Verbose mode like so:

Right upon hearing the startup chime, press and hold the Command (⌘) – V key combination for Verbose Mode.

As the Mac boots it will spit out lines of code:

You may be able to see whta the problem is from this, or come back and type in teh last few lines fro us to read. Or take a pic with your phone and post that!


Apple TV Remote option in iPhone Control Center doesn't work

My guess is that you’re using either a 2nd or 3rd generation Apple TV.

The iTunes Remote and Apple TV Remote apps available from the iOS App Store will work with all Apple TV units going back to the Apple TV 2. However, the Apple TV Remote option you can configure as a control in Control Centre will currently only work with the Apple TV 4 and Apple TV 4K units. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t made this obvious in the user interface and as a result no error or info message is shown to let the user know.


How can I mark all emails as 'Read' after IOS Update 5.0 on iPhone?

Press the Edit button in the top-right corner.
Select all of the emails you want to mark as "read".
Press the Mark button in the bottom-right corner.
Choose Mark as Read


Is it possible to setup a clean user account, as if it's a new OSX install?

All users share acces to /Applications.

Move apps you want restricted to your user's home folder ~/Applications and then creat a new user from system preferences.


Yes, Apple's computer warranties are international. Worst case, you have to ship your product back to the purchasing country if Apple asks for that, but the wording and common practice is U.S. purchases generally get covered everywhere Apple has service globally.
See Apple's Warranty Page for more details. The warranty is established in the country of purchase and if warranty service is not available in the country where the device is when service is requested, you may be on the hook for import/export duties as well as paying for the shipping.
No, iPhone and some parts of AppleCare plus are not necessarily international.

https://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/

Pay attention to parts like:

IMPORTANT RESTRICTION FOR iPHONE, iPAD AND APPLE TV SERVICE.
Apple may restrict warranty service for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the device.

That doesn’t mean you won’t get service, but you could be denied or could have to get the device back to the country of purchase on your dime to get service.
Also, no in terms of consumer law varying widely between Europe, Asia, US and other countries:

How does Apple's two year warranty in Europe work?

To recap:

Warranty is what Apple offers and you may have responsibilities or costs to get service
Consumer law covers things outside the warranty, so you need to balance both when choosing where to buy
Look for words like shall and may and must - these contracts are legal and  /or prescriptive so details and words matter. Read all the document, several times before spending money if you don’t know the return policy or have limited time to return goods after purchasing them.


How to view Software Update menu in top toolbar

I assume you're using an operating system greater than 10.7 (10.8 - 10.10)?  With Mountain Lion (10.8), Apple moved the software update process to the Mac App Store application.

Prior to 10.8 Software Updates were handled in the manner the link describes.  As such System Preferences had a Software Update section for managing timing of update checks.

Following 10.8 this is no longer found in System Preferences.  Instead you should open the App Store and click on the Updates tab. Alternately the Apple menu has an option for App Store which, if updates are available, shows the number of updates waiting.  (see picture)


Terminal text size different when connected to external monitor

After some searching, this appears to be a known issue. OS X somehow isn't fully aware my Dell monitor, and is not applying the same font smoothing. The font smoothing can be set using:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

See this superuser and macrumors threads.


Change keyboard shorcut for switching desktop workspaces

As you said, you can go to the Preferences System, then Keyboard, then to the Shortcuts tab.

From here,

You select the line you want to change the shortcut of
You click on the icon showing the current shortcut
You execute the new shortcut to record it

PS: I'm not sure if this is what you intended to do.


Tilde character on Mavericks/Macbook air with Norwegian keyboard turns into >

On the Apple Norwegian layout, tilde should be at option plus ¨, then space.

On the Apple Norwegian Extended layout, tilde should be at option plus k, then space.


If the Photos app is open on your Mac it opens photos.sqlite-shm. You can see what files Photos has open using Activity monitor. For me it is ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/Photos.sqlite-shm
Thus your sync process is correctly saying that  the file is in use
Your process thus has to make sure that Photos.app is not running.


Is there a way to filter MAC addresses on an iPhone hotspot?

My iPhone 7 forces the use of a password, which can be changed at will, to connect to the Personal Hotspot. Does your phone not have this option? My carrier is AT&T.


Drag and drop Chrome downloads like any other OS X file?

Holding the alt or option key while doing the Drag & Drop action works.

I think since Chrome also handles webpages as links (html) to open them in the browser, it does the same for downloaded files. If you simply hold alt while clicking a link it also downloads the file. So I assume Chrome treats the downloaded "link" as a 'file' when holding that key.

You could also use cmd + Click to "Show In Finder"


iTunes 11 - how to "make iphone version"

Click on the video.
In the menubar, go to File > Create New Version > Create iPod or iPhone Version.

Tip: 600 MB to 75 MB would be tremendous loss of quality. Even so, if you want a file 75 MB large, don’t use iTunes as you can’t modify conversion settings. Use a dedicated converter.


Does the search in Finder need spotlight?

Finder's search, as well as many other programs (Alfred, Outlook, etc.) use Spotlight's index files. If you have Spotlight shut off, you won't be able to get Finder search working natively.

There are a few free third party apps that you can use to search for files without using Apple's system:

Find Any File
EasyFind

These two do not use spotlight's index files and should work independently.


Connect and run commands over SSH using script

You can use ‘expect’ to enter the SSH password when prompted. Changes to your script are bolded.

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
spawn ssh root@server
expect "*: "
send "xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
expect "$ "
send "… commands

spawn starts the command as normal, which in this case is SSH
expect waits until the matching text is shown on screen
send enters the text given, which can be a password or command to be run
expect waits for the shell to be shown (this should be changed to match against your shell $PS1)

Save this file, add the executable bit (chmod +x /path/to/file) and open to run the commands.

However, instead of this, you should be using SSH keys to connect to the server without entering a password, and the commands you wish to execute over SSH should be in a script on the server which can be run. Set up SSH keys, then you can run a remote script with ssh -t root@server "/path/to/script".


macOS Sierra: Safari dialog opens with no buttons

Make sure Safari is closed when preforming this operation.

Go to ~/Library/Safari/
Drag the Bookmarks.plist to your Desktop
Move all other files and folders in ~/Library/Safari/ into your trash
Open Safari and then immediately quit out
Replace the Bookmarks.plist in ~/Library/Safari/ with the Bookmarks.plist that you saved on your Desktop in step 2
Open Safari and see if the problem persists


If the phone is capable of running iOS 8, then there would be no chance to upgrade to any other older version. Updates must be validated (signed) by Apple at the time they are applied and Apple has stopped signing iOS 6 and iOS 7 updates for all but a very few devices which cannot run iOS 8.


Unable to use external monitor's full resolution using Macbook Pro

Dude, i can tell you from personal experience; after buying four different usb-c hdmi adapters that the ONLY adapter that enabled me to utilize my external monitor full resolution + high refresh rate without having to hack internal /System/Library code or messing with SwitchResX/other b.s. GUI garbage;
is the belkin usb-c to hdmi adapter (the white version, do not use the old-black version -- its got terrible refresh rates). I also have apple's usb-c dongle (hdmi,usb-c,usb-a)[but it's utter garbage...] (didnt work); neither did the belkin black; nor did some other 'KANEX'-brand crap that i stumbled upon while cruising down a local shopping-mall. MBP 15" latest model i9's and what not (all the bells and whistles...); external monitor is an LG-4K 27" (supports real high res).
hope it helps

https://www.belkin.com/uk/p/P-F2CU038bt/
This one doesn't give you refresh rates higher then 30Hz(despite what it says on the website)

this one does :
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HKQ22ZM/A/belkin-usb-c-to-hdmi-adapter


Keep Maps/Waze on screen when answering call

It's not possible to make the call screen not come up. You'll have to double-click the Home button and go back to Waze. Or, if you have an iPhone 6s/Plus, 3D touching the left side of the screen and dragging right will send you back to the previous app.


Getting the glass and LCD panel off without snapping cables is tougher than you may think, my recommendation would be to have it repaired by a professional. I'm not sure how much prices vary around the world but we would charge around £90 for the part and £40 for labour (if it's an optical drive) plus taxes. As things go, it's not an expensive repair.

If you're hell-bent on DIY then I'm sure there are places out there you can get parts and manuals/take apart guides. It may end up more expensive if you damage anything yourself, and of course there's no warranty on the repair!

The other option would be to use an external drive. There are loads of options out there at varying price points.


How can I download streamed content in Safari?

Do you have the Develop menu item enabled?

If so, go to "Show Page Resources." Its very similar to the Activity Monitor and will show you the URL of contents. It's not exactly like it, but as close as you are going to get.

If you don't have the Develop menu enabled, go to:

Preferences-> Advanced -> Show Develop menu in menu bar


How to copy file content automatically to another file when saved?

I found the error: I used chmod -x instead of chmod +x. Now it works fine :-)


Hotkey access to a browser URL based on a URL part on the clipboard

Since you are already using Quicksilver, this should be pretty easy:

Install the web search plugin
Add a custom web search list to your catalog
Add the URL to that
list, in the form http://example.com/defects/*** (that is
with 3 * instead of your "nnnn")
Add a trigger for "Clipboard
Contents" -> "Find with..." -> "your new websearch URL" and assign
your preferred hotkey.
When you use the trigger, it opens the request page in a new tab of your default browser (with the stars replaced by the text on the clipboard.

That way you can use your custom URL just like any other web search with Quicksilver.


Saving a picture to a file in Skitch with one click?

If you press ⌘ Command+E, it brings up an Export window where you can select the destination to export:

(I would suggest pressing ⌘ Command+⇧ Shift+O to switch to the Documents folder, but it seems this doesn't work in Skitch's Export window!)


How to restore iTunes DVD backup to v10.5

Open iTunes then select File > Add to Library. Select your files and click open.

You also should be able to put your Library in /Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. Or, just put the library somewhere in your /Music folder and select File > Preferences > Advanced (tab), then under iTunes Media folder location click Change, and find the folder that you have your library in.


Why is iTunes displaying random junk characters when I try to verify my billing information?

Found the answer: delete any font on your system based on "Helvetica"!
Definitely confirmed this caused the issue - moved HelveticaNeue_0.ttf from the Fonts directory, everything displayed fine, moved it back, display messed up again.


How to toggle between "Portrait" and "Landscape Right" orientation in iOS simulators via AppleScript?

On my system, using Script Editor, the following example AppleScript code works for me to toggle between Portrait and Landscape Right of the Simulator window:
tell application "Simulator" to activate

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell application process "Simulator" to ¬
        tell menu 1 of ¬
            menu item "Orientation" of ¬
            menu 1 of ¬
            menu bar item "Device" of ¬
            menu bar 1
            if value of ¬
                attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" of ¬
                menu item "Portrait" is "✓" then
                click menu item "Landscape Right"
            else if value of ¬
                attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" of ¬
                menu item "Landscape Right" is "✓" then
                click menu item "Portrait"
            end if
        end tell

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


How to type with Hebrew Nikkud on an iPad

If you have iOS 8, there is Davka Nikud

https://itunes.apple.com/app/davka-nikud/id917653147


Add attached filenames to subject in my applescript?

Simply change this line:
    set MailSubject to fileAliases

to this:
    set mailSubject to fileAliases as string

    tell application "Finder" to get insertion location
    set text item delimiters of AppleScript to result

    set mailSubject to rest of text items of mailSubject

ADDENDUM:
I hope you don't my observation that the script you present in your question contains a lot of redundant and/or badly formed code.  It works just fine, so it's not of great consequence beyond one of aesthetics.  However, a neater, well-formed script makes it easier to identify errors and—in the case of longer scripts that perform more tasks—will run more efficiently/faster.
So, with this in mind, I took the liberty to re-write your script, which I hope might be useful as a learning tool, or simply just be easier to get along with if you want to make further changes to it yourself.
    property mailSubjectPrefix : "Datei(en) für dich: "
    property subjAttNameSeparator : ", "
    property attachSeparator : "*******"
    property attachPrefix : "Anhänge:"

    set theSubject to "Datei(en): "
    set theContent to "Datei(en) für dich:\n\n"
    set recipientAddress to "mail@mail.com"

    -- Get the selection of the frontmost Finder window
    -- as a list of aliases
    tell application "Finder"
        set fileAliases to the selection as alias list
        set text item delimiters of AppleScript to insertion location
        set fileNames to rest of text items of (fileAliases as text)
    end tell

    -- Check if the selection is not empty
    if the number of fileAliases is 0 then return beep

    -- Now talk to mail to create the message
    tell application "Mail"
        set text item delimiters of AppleScript to subjAttNameSeparator
        tell (make new outgoing message at beginning ¬
            with properties {content:theContent, visible:true, subject:mailSubjectPrefix & (fileNames as string)})

            -- Add the recipient
            make new to recipient at end with properties {address:recipientAddress}

            -- Attach all the selected files
            repeat with fileAlias in fileAliases
                make new attachment with properties {file name:fileAlias} at after the last paragraph
            end repeat

        end tell

        -- Put Mail in the foreground
        activate
    end tell

If you have any queries to need clarification on any points, feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.


This is known as Phishing or Social Engineering.

You were tricked into giving away your login details, by being directed to a site that looked familiar, but which wasn't actually the legitimate site you thought it was.

You were correct to immediately change your password. In most situations this is sufficient to prevent further access by the phishers.  They don't really want to go to any effort to spread their spam, fooling you once would be enough; trying to hack you after you changed the password would be too much like hard work.

It is very unlikely that any malware is on your iPad - but it may 'remember' the fake site in your history, so be careful when going to the legitimate site that you do indeed have the right one.

If you normally use password auto-fill on your iPad, then one very good sign of a fake site is that the iPad will not offer to auto-fill. As far as it's concerned it's not the same site. It is far more likely to notice the difference between yahoo.com & yalhoo.com etc than a human.

See Jaime Santa Cruz's answer for further practical advice.


Codebox, or another code library manager?

You might also consider http://www.mcubedsw.com/software/codecollectorpro.


How to get Cascading Folder Browser in Dock or Menu?

You can use the Stacks feature on the Dock to accomplish what you're asking.

You can drag and drop the Macintosh HD (or any other folder) onto the right side of the Dock, to the right of the separator line, to create a Dock item. Then right-click it, to bring up its context menu, and select List under View content as. This will give you a cascading menu of the drive.

For more information on Stacks, have a look at: Mac Basics: Stacks are your shortcut in the Dock


Any fixes for Dock not following the mouse to move to different monitors in Mavericks?

Are you using a trackpad by any chance? I too thought the way the Dock popped up on different monitors was completely arbitrary or broken, until I found out how it actually works:

If you move the cursor to the bottom edge of either screen and keep your finger on the trackpad, the dock will pop up right away
If you flick the cursor to the bottom edge of either screen (removing your finger from the trackpad as you finish the movement), the dock will not pop up

This is designed like this intentionally so that as you're mousing around in full-screen apps, you don't inadvertently trigger the dock when you use controls at the bottom of the full-screen window.

It actually works really well, once you know how it works ;-)


snow leopard(10.6.5)freezes on startup with bootcamp and windows7

Can you start it in Safe Mode?

Method is explained here:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455


How to add application built-in services (menu bar commands) in Automator?

You can always use AppleScript for that. In Automator, drag Run AppleScript to the right pane, and for the script, enter the following:

tell application "Google Chrome"
    make new window
    activate
end tell

The activate is optional, but it'll bring Chrome to the front.


How do I relocate a existing VM with a OS already installed

As you're moving the VM's location but not the hardware that the VM is running on (i.e. you're not changing the host computer), moving the files is fine. This is only fine because of this clause. Moving the VM to a different host computer should be done with import/export.

You need to make sure that you've moved all the files, otherwise errors will occur, as well as making sure that you move rather than copy the files, otherwise you may get duplicate UUID errors. Deleting the VM from VirtualBox without the external drive attached reduces the likelihood of duplicate UUID errors, as follows:

Quit VirtualBox.
Move the VM files to the external drive.
Disconnect the external drive.
Open VirtualBox and remove the VM.
Attach the external drive and add the VM to VirtualBox.


This is a known problem in WireGuard / OSX:

matchDomains=[“”] doesn’t do what the documentation says.
Specifically, DNS servers are not used if allowed IPs isn’t 0.0.0.0/0.

For now, I am just manually setting DNS from a script:
sudo /usr/sbin/networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 1.1.1.1

Looks like Tunnelblick is doing scutil manipulations for openvpn (https://github.com/Tunnelblick/Tunnelblick/blob/master/tunnelblick/client.2.up.tunnelblick.sh) -- which is working on my mac


I found that rebooting either the router and or the computer solves the problem. Why it happens I don't know.


Deleted icons reappear on dock after reboot

Maybe try both resetting and restarting the Dock.

(I know you've already reset it, but I'll provide full steps below for the benefit of others):

Go to Finder
Press and hold the option key down
Now go to the Go menu
Select the Library option to open the User's Library folder. You can let go of the option key now.
Go to the Preferences folder (i.e. within the Library folder)
Find and move the com.apple.dock.plist file to the Trash
Now open Terminal (usually located in Applications > Utilities)
Enter this command killall -KILL Dock
Press enter
Re-add any non-default icons (i.e. apps) that you've added to the Dock, and remove any you don't want.


Anyway to save contents of iPhone app to a PC?

You could try i-FunBox it allows you to save apps to your computer without using iTunes.


Fastest means to copy many drives to one drive

Doing the math, you want an interruptible tool so use rsync over Finder unless you really don't mind losing a day of transfer if finder chokes or a cable gets disconnected.

Safest way to copy files to AirPort Disk from the command-line?

Barring the ability or inclination to command line - get a tool like Transmit or Kaleidoscope to sync the two folders. You'll lose far more time mounting drives than just connecting them and going. He limiting factor is probably not iops and instead drive throughput and not CPU or adapter speed.


Is there software that implements John Siracusa's Spatial Finder concept?

This isn't a direct implementation of Siracusa's vision. It is, however, a Finder alternative that looks distinctly spatial in orientation, an the opposite of the file browser direction most other Finder alternatives (and the Finder itself) seem to be going:

Raskin for Mac seems to be the very spirit of the spatial Finder that Siracusa has been calling for. I just downloaded the free trial and am exploring it, but this might be exactly what I've been looking for.


How does Apple perform a lossless in-place conversion from HFS+ to APFS?

It’s a four step process according to this article from The Ecletic Light Company

Read and convert the existing HFS+ metadata (files, directories, etc) to APFS format; writes it to free space on the drive
Verifies that the APFS data is correct
If no errors, it writes the volume super block in APFS format
It deletes the HFS+ meta data leaving just the APFS volume

It converts it a single piece at a time, updating the volume as it goes.  This is why you need sufficient free space prior to the conversion process begins.


Changing display resolution on Retina machines while in Command Line Mode

I found this for you

scrutil

  Slightly more advanced due to the nature of the command line, the free utility called screenutil gets the job done immediately with a quick entry into the Terminal.

  Launch Terminal and drag and drop scrutil into the command line to use it once, but if plan on using it often it’s a good idea to toss scrutil into /usr/local/bin for easy future access. Once installed, changing the retina display to native 2880×1800 with screenutil is achieved with the following command example:

scrutil s 2880 1800 16

  The command will report back the resolution change, the 16 at the end is color depth so you can set that to something else if you’d like. You can set it back to the default resolution either through System Preferences or with scrutil s 1440 900.

There is also this:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090413120929454

/*
 * COMPILE:
 *    c++ setgetscreenres.m -framework ApplicationServices -o setgetscreenres
 * USE:
 *    setgetscreenres 1440 900
 */

#include <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

bool MyDisplaySwitchToMode (CGDirectDisplayID display, CFDictionaryRef mode);

int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    int h;                          // horizontal resolution
    int v;                          // vertical resolution
    CFDictionaryRef switchMode;     // mode to switch to
    CGDirectDisplayID mainDisplay;  // ID of main display

    CFDictionaryRef CGDisplayCurrentMode(CGDirectDisplayID display);

    if (argc == 1) {
        CGRect screenFrame = CGDisplayBounds(kCGDirectMainDisplay);
        CGSize screenSize  = screenFrame.size;
        printf("%d %d\n", screenSize.width, screenSize.height);
        return 0;
    }
    if (argc != 3 || !(h = atoi(argv[1])) || !(v = atoi(argv[2])) ) {
        fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: Use %s horres vertres\n", argv[0]);
        return -1;
    }

    mainDisplay = CGMainDisplayID();

    switchMode = CGDisplayBestModeForParameters(mainDisplay, 32, h, v, NULL);

    if (! MyDisplaySwitchToMode(mainDisplay, switchMode)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error changing resolution to %d %d\n", h, v);
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

bool MyDisplaySwitchToMode (CGDirectDisplayID display, CFDictionaryRef mode)
{
    CGDisplayConfigRef config;
    if (CGBeginDisplayConfiguration(&config) == kCGErrorSuccess) {
        CGConfigureDisplayMode(config, display, mode);
        CGCompleteDisplayConfiguration(config, kCGConfigureForSession );
        return true;
    }
    return false;
}

  Save that as a pure text file named setgetscreenres.m, then compile it
  in Terminal using the command shown in the code (assuming you're in
  the directory where the file is saved):

c++ setgetscreenres.m -framework ApplicationServices -o setgetscreenres

  Move this file somewhere on your user's $PATH, and then use it by
  typing ./setgetscreenres hor_res vert_res, where hor_res and vert_res
  are the desire horizontal and vertical resolution.

Disclaimer: I have not tested it!


Changing email addresses on my @me.com and @icloud.com

Unfortunately, as was stated, you cannot change your @me.com or @icloud.com email addresses independently of your Apple ID. What I would recommend doing is setting up a Gmail (or other) address and using that as your primary Apple ID email (as well as all your normal email for that matter).

If you have a Mac you can even move all the email from your @icloud.com/@me.com account to your new Gmail account simply by setting up both and dragging the folders from one mail account to the other.

After you set up a Gmail email address you can edit your Apple ID preferences at this site. That way, all you ever basically see is the new Gmail account.


Change the function of caps lock to insert underscores when the spacebar is hit

You should be able to achieve this with Ukelele.  I tried to do this myself but got distracted and then gave up.  The documentation isn't exactly stellar.

Note:  Ukelele is just a GUI to simplify the process of editing the layouts manually as they are large XML files with slightly ambiguous element names.


What do I do if appleid can't send me email?

I eventually reached Apple by phone. There was a subtle typo in my 'recovery' email address.


This'll do it. You can input a phone number in most normal formats. Can't say I've tried them all:

set phone_num to text returned of (display dialog "Input a phone number to call:" default answer "")
do shell script "open facetime://" & quoted form of phone_num
tell application "System Events"
    repeat until (button "Call" of window 1 of application process "FaceTime" exists)
        delay 1
    end repeat
    click button "Call" of window 1 of application process "FaceTime"
end tell


How to move/hover mouse (not click) over a button on Safari by using Applescript

I do not know of a way using basic vanilla AppleScript, by itself, to move the mouse cursor; however there are third-party utilities that can do it, one being cliclick; however, you also need to be able to tell it where to move it and that has its own issues.

On a different track, looking at the web page of the URL in your OP, I see that looking at the HTML to the target element, e.g. "document.getElementsByClassName('_3ZDC1p')[2].innerHTML;" there is a URL for the image.

Why not get the HTML, parse it to get the URL, and download it directly to your system?

The following example AppleScript code does just that:

--  # Get the HTML for the target element.

tell application "Safari" to ¬
    tell front document to ¬
        set innerHTML to do JavaScript ¬
            "document.getElementsByClassName('_3ZDC1p')[2].innerHTML;"

--  # Parse 'innerHTML' to get the URL.

set text item delimiters to {"(", ")"}
set theURL to second text item of innerHTML
set text item delimiters to {}

--  # Set the pathfilename for the saved image,
--  # e.g,: /Users/me/Pictures/1591893975.jpeg
--  # Name is based on seconds since Epoch.

set saveToFileName to POSIX path of ¬
    (path to pictures folder) & ¬
    (do shell script "date +%s")

--  # Define the commands necessary to accomplish
--  # the download base on the OP's URL example.

set shellCMD to "curl -ks " & theURL's quoted form & " -o " & saveToFileName's quoted form & ¬
    "; mv -n " & saveToFileName's quoted form & space & saveToFileName's quoted form & ¬
    ".$(file " & saveToFileName's quoted form & " | awk -F ': | ' '{print tolower($2)}')"

--  # Download the file.

do shell script shellCMD

Note: This example AppleScript code is based solely on the HTML of the target element and what's necessary to automate the process once the target web page is available and is the frontmost Safari window.

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


Is it possible to know what changes have been included in an OS X Update?

Apple provides support articles with a high-level overview of the changes in an operating system update. For example, here's the one for Mac OS X 10.6.5:

What's included?
General fixes and improvements

Improves reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers.
Addresses performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture.
Addresses stability and performance of graphics applications and games.
Resolves a delay between print jobs.
Addresses a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme.
Resolves an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal.
Addresses an issue in which dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide.
Resolves an issue in which Wikipedia information may not display correctly in Dictionary.
Improves performance of MainStage on certain Macs.
Resolves spacing issues with OpenType fonts.
Improves reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays.
Resolves a VoiceOver issue when browsing some websites with Safari 5.
Improves Bluetooth pairing with Magic Trackpad.
Resolves performance issues with third-party displays that use InstaPort technology.
Add SSL support for transferring files with iDisk.
Resolves an issue when opening 4-up Photo Booth pictures in Preview.
Addresses keyboard responsiveness issues in the Dock when Spaces is turned on.
Resolves an issue syncing Address Book with Google.
Fixes an issue when replying to a Mail message sent by a person whose name contains certain characters such as é or ü.
Improves performance for users bound to an Active Directory domain.
Improves reliability of Ethernet connections.
Systems with a Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) installed can now be put to sleep. For more information, see Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009): Enabling system sleep.
Improves reliability of fibre channel connections, resolving a potential Xsan volume availability issue.
Adds RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
Security improvements; for information about the security content of this update, please visit this article.


Where to find ARM GCC compiler in XCODE5?

Apple stopped shipping gcc with Xcode.

The clang compiler presents itself as gcc (technically I believe it's an llvm front end that respects many gcc flags) when you install Xcode from the Mac App Store:

Mac:~ me$ xcrun --find gcc
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/gcc
Mac:~ me$ `xcrun --find gcc` --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 5.0 (clang-500.2.76) (based on LLVM 3.3svn)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin12.5.0
Thread model: posix

If you need a different compiler, you'll likely need to download it elsewhere or build it from source.


Restoring MBP with macOS that is installed on an external hard drive

Carbon cloner did the trick perfectly.

It wiped the internal drive (I have a time-machine backup of the internal drive so I can get data if necessary), cloned the external drive to the internal drive. I then shut down the MBP, disconnected the external drive, and powered the MBP backup. It was identical to the external drive, so much so that I thought I double checked to make sure I hadn't unplugged the drive USB device.

Carbon Cloner has a trial version (5 free uses)! Nice!


If your iPhone status is green (online), it's still connected to your home WIFI. If the status is gray, it's showing you the last visible location. You can even see the time and date of that last location.

If your data plan renews today, it should setup automatically. That said, if the phone was lost whilst cycling and is still up and running, you could see the actual location (based on cellular data).

Based on this, I presume you can find it at home: Open Find My iPhone again, there is a button to make it ring.


Activity Monitor - How to view multiple panels at the same time

You can choose your own set of columns to be displayed on any particular tab by right-clicking on the column headers (or View → Columns) and checking columns to be displayed. For example, this lets you show the Memory column while on the GPU tab.

If you really want to display two different tabs using two windows, you can launch a second instance of Activity Monitor with open -na "Activity Monitor".


Location of Speakers on MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch

The speakers on the MacBook Pro 2012 are on the left and right sides between the aluminium case and the battery.  The photos below are of the Macbook Pro bottom case assembly.  The speakers are highlighted in red.

Left Speaker:

Right Speaker:

The best place I have found on the web for information like this has been ifixit.com:  MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Late 2012 Repair


In order to start wifi syncing with a new computer, you must first attach your iPad, over your charging cable, to the computer with iTunes running. Then select 'Sync this iPad over Wifi' in the Options in the iPad Summary screen in iTunes.

To get rid of a sync 'host', you need to connect your iPad to iTunes on the host, then deselect 'Sync this ipad over wifi' in the Options of the iPad Summary of iTunes.

Having one 'host' does not impact the ability to sync over wifi to another one. The iPad will sync with whatever machine is online and available over wifi. If the older host no longer exists, this won't impact syncing your iPad to the new computer at all, and other than connecting it to that computer, there is no way to remove that item on your Ipad.


Why is my 'Harddrive' and 'User' folder shared when I turn on file sharing? Mac to Windows

I’ve never needed any command like that, so I’m not sure what they do. Why not just enable sharing with the GUI and then remove all the shares you don’t want?

That takes about 2-3 minutes tops.

I do love to teach if your goal is to learn those commands in general (and not just to get a result), so what’s happening in the first two commands is you are writing structured values (think environment variables) on windows / unix.

VirtualAdminShares is FALSE or NO
VirtualHomeShares is FALSE or NO

Then the load/unload cycles the program so that it will start up and have a chance to read the values you changed.

Just like environment variables, if the code doesn’t look for that variable or you don’t get the syntax correct - either case it does nothing.

I don’t get what your second code block indicates, so you might need to copy / paste everything in the command line so we can help debug that. I’m guessing you are not entering the password. If so, try this:

sudo date

That should ask for your password. As you type your password (the same one you would use to unlock the system preferences or log out / log in with) that gets you root permissions and should report back the date for the system time. Once you have sudo, then try the other commands within a few minutes and it shouldn’t ask for a password a second time.


Install Java JRE 6 (next to JRE 7) on OS X 10.10 Yosemite?

JavaForOSX2014-001.dmg contains Java for Mac OS X (1.6.0_65-b14-462). It will be installed to /System/Library/Java and /System/Library/Frameworks while Oracle Java is located at /Library/Java. No file will be overwritten.
To avoid any trouble (especially with your $JAVA_HOME/$PATH) consider setting up a Mac OS X VM in VMWare, Parallels or VirtualBox with JRE6 only.


Apple password verification showing weird characters

That looks like font corruption. I'd run the "standard toolkit"

Fix permissions, Verify & if necessary Repair disk, using Disk Utility.
Reset Home folder permissions & ACLs using OnyX  - Maintenance tab/permissions, tick the box at the top then Execute.
Update to [or re-apply if already up to date] 10.10.5 using the 10.10.5 combo update, not the delta from App Store.


The short answer is "yes and yes". SMS/MMS work the same way on iPhones as on any other phone (including any buffering your carrier does).


Mac Pro suffering from kernel panics almost daily

In my mind there are a couple of likely issues.  If the machine is crashing with a kernel panic I would suspect the hard drive is on it's way out.  If the machine is simply restarting without warning then I would suspect the memory.

To see if it is the memory it might be as simple as removing each stick of ram and blowing any dust off with compressed air and putting it back in.  If this doesn't resolve it, I would get a new drive and clone the system using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!  Boot from the new drive and see if the issues go away.

If neither work then you could try reinstalling OS X, I doubt that's the issue.  You more than likely have a failing video card or logic board if the above suggestions don't work.


AppleScript tell application "Finder" can't use special characters

I fixed it by decoding the umlauts like this:
considering case
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "Ä", "%C3%84")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "ä", "%C3%A4")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "Ö", "%C3%96")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "ö", "%C3%B6")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "Ü", "%C3%9C")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "ü", "%C3%BC")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "ß", "%C3%9F")
    set mylocation to searchReplace(mylocation, "ẞ", "%E1%BA%9E")
end considering


How does Time Machine deal with moved files

Time Machine works at the file level.  Change a single byte in a file, and it backs up again.  Move it into a new directory, technically it's a new file, so new backup.  There is no way to avoid this in the current implementation.  Ideally future enhancements to Time Machine will enable block level backups and some form of de-duplication, which will fix both the above scenarios, but for now you just have to be aware of it.  What you can choose to do, if you like, is confirm that the new location is successfully backed u p in the new place, and then manually remove the old location from your Time Machine.  This clearly doesn't prevent the need from repeating the backup, but it does at least stop you doubling the storage requirements.  Having said that, the old stuff will naturally get recycled off as it's no longer required should the backup drive fill.


Steam.app would like to receive keystrokes from any application

Under Catalina's security model, Apps are supposed to operate isolated
  from everything else, including your data. If they want to use your
  data or a service from another App, they must ask you for permission
  to do so.

Source.

This seems reasonable given the message in the dialog box, however I can find no direct information directly from Apple so please take it under advisement until it can be confirmed.


Generally speaking Calendar supports CalDAV and Exchange calendars. I am not certain what an "rss-calendar" is but if it can be converted to or supports CalDAV or Exchange calendar formats you are golden.

I have not had to import a or subscribe to a calendar in quite a while so Calendar in the last couple of versions of Mac O/S may have some new supported formats. You may want to try just pointing Calendar to the URL of your "rss-calendar" and see what happens.

The other possibility is if you can export an ICAL compatible file that can then be imported into Calendar. It's not automatic syncing but it may be better than nothing.


How can I back up my iPhone without Wi-Fi?

You can back up to iTunes on your Mac or PC desktop or laptop directly over USB.

Connect the device over USB to iTunes, select your device in the toolbar and click Back Up Now.


Cannot login directly into user account - first have to login as administrator

We've seen this behavior before when we migrate a user account onto a computer that already has FileVault disk encryption enabled, because the new user's login password isn't eligible to decrypt the disk at boot time.

We resolve it in that case by bringing up the Security preference pane, which contains a warning that not all users are eligible to decrypt the disk, and steps you through fixing it (by providing the additional user's login password).

I'm not sure if this also applies to symlinked home directories, but it's the first thing I'd check.


Is it possible to mirror my MacBookPro's screen to my iMac?

Unfortunately target display mode was removed starting with your iMac model.

You could use the built in screen sharing function if your computers are on the same network.

On MacBook
System preferences -> sharing -> check of “screen sharing”

On iMac
- Open finder
- Under network in your left sidebar, you should see your MacBook
- Click on this
- Just under the top menu bar you should see “share screen”
- Click this, and a prompt will ask you for a username and password
- Enter credentials for your MacBook use account
Viola! Latency should be pretty minimal for this, and you can even control your MacBook this way!


Maximum screen resolution with AirPlay Extend Display on the Apple TV 4k?

I had some luck with my lg 65 inch 4k display.  By turning off underscanning in the Apple TVs Airplay menu I have gone from having bars around my 'external' display and this seems to have increased the clarity of text.

However, I am still faced with only scaled options for 1080p and 720 on my macs display options for Apple TV.

I guess there could be two reasons for this...

Requires a High Sierra Software update to enable 4K mirroring

The network bandwidth required for 4K streaming may be a challenge to ensure a smooth experience and hence why it is still not possible.

it would be nice to have the option either way....if it came with a disclaimer that performance may be delayed at least id have a choice to put up with it or not....


How to disable top bar of the iOS keyboard?

Try changing your keyboard to an alternative keyboard (like Google Keyboard) and change it back to the original keyboard.


Is it possible to use iPhone 6 with FaceTime without a cellular SIM card?

I attempted to fix this problem with these troubleshooting steps:

Open Settings -> FaceTime. Enter an Apple ID and login. In the same dialog toggle FaceTime off and then on.
Open Settings -> Messages. Enter an Apple ID and login. In the same dialog toggle Messages off and then on.

I have resolved my problem activating Messages but FaceTime continues to wait for activation. I believe that FaceTime may be waiting for an SMS in order to verify the mobile number. My mobile number shows a busy icon in its Settings dialog.


OS X doesn't cache things on /proc so there's no equivalent exposure of kernel data through the filesystem idiom.

You can call arp -a to dump the current table to the location of your choosing if that sort of DIY caching has benefits for your code or use case.


Activity Monitor showing ~3,000% percent CPU under normal use

On OS X, 3,000% CPU would mean thirty processors are being fully used. I'm fairly certain that no Mac has ever shipped with thirty cores (even with hyperthreading), so this is not correct, particularly on a Core 2 Duo MacBook.


Windows virtual machines with transparent mouse capture?

Install the Guest Additions.
The Guest Additions from VirtualBox provide the seamless mouse pointer integration in which it auto captures/releases the mouse pointer.

Mouse pointer integration
To overcome the limitations for mouse support that were described in Section 1.8.2, “Capturing and releasing keyboard and mouse”, this
provides you with seamless mouse support. You will only have one mouse
pointer and pressing the Host key is no longer required to "free" the
mouse from being captured by the guest OS. To make this work, a
special mouse driver is installed in the guest that communicates with
the "real" mouse driver on your host and moves the guest mouse pointer
accordingly.

You can "insert" the Guest Additions CD from the Devices Menu in Virtual Box.  On the "CD" it will have installers for various operating systems.


Removed by Apple

Apple removed the included File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server from recent versions of macOS. FTP is not secure by default and better avoided.

FTP is not secure because the connection is not encrypted. Modern network protocols are encrypted by default – even on local networks.

Replacements and Alternatives

If you need to regularly transfer files, consider Syncthing. Otherwise, installing and running your own ftp server is still possible through projects like brew.

See quick to install and set up FTP server on homebrew for macOS
 for various ftp server choices.


How can I downgrade Safari 6 to 5 in Mountain Lion?

No, you can't go back with Safari on Mountain Lion.


Does it matter if I take a photo from within Instagram or import into Instagram?

Often, 3rd party apps that can be used as a camera offer different levels of resolution in which they capture the image. Since Instagram is a widely used, and up-to-date app, I would expect they support the highest resolution offered on your device (disclaimer: I don't use Instagram so I can't check with that app).

As long as you have the resolution setting (if available) set as high as possible then you should notice no difference between the built-in camera app and Instagram - you should not lose image quality during import either.

Otherwise it comes back to personal preference. If you take the images with the built-in camera app, then your photos are automatically in Camera Roll and can be easily saved onto a computer. Camera app is also easy to open from the lock screen.


iCloud breach and what to do following it

You would only have to go into an Apple store and prove ownership if your device is "bricked" after iOS/macOS is erased (meaning you cannot login to it due to forgotten password and/or Apple ID email address). When iCloud.com says the device is "locked" it does not mean "bricked," it simply means the screen is locked, like with your pin.

It sounds like all you need to do is enable 2-Factor authentication in your Apple ID/iCloud account, plus change your password. This will prevent whomever "breached" the account from logging in again. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915


Last month I experienced something similar. I launched the Disk Utilities to test the hard drive, and the "S.M.A.R.T. state" warned me about critical failures. My guess: the system hanged up when it tried to reach files written on bad parts of the hard drive. I changed the hard drive.


This answer by jmlumpkin is canonically correct, all existing memos sync over to a special "Voice Memos" playlist in iTunes. However, if you like to record voice memos that you will retrieve later on your computer, my suggestion would be to check out DropVox. Instead of having to go through iTunes, DropVox uploads your recordings to your DropBox folder as soon as you finish recording, which for me is far more convenient than syncing and dealing with iTunes. Personally, I have completely dropped Voice Memos and now completely use DropVox for everything.

Another avenue to avoid iTunes but still use the Voice Memo app is to use a software package like PhoneView to grab your existing memos directly from the device.


Hierarchical Smart playlists vs Smart playlists

The "..." allows to nest criteria for smart playlists.

Say you would like a smart playlist that contains all tracks from Bob Dylan or the Beatles with a score of 3 stars or better.

Without hierarchical rules you only have the options of getting the tracks that match all or any of your rules.

With hiearchical rules you can have the condition all on one level and any on another level.

It seems that nested rules exist since iTunes 9; see also a screenshot.

Here is my example:

Match all rules

Rating is greater than 3 stars
any of the following

Artist contains Bob Dylan
Artist contains Beatles


Is a screen protector worthwhile for an iPad?

I had a screen protector on my iPad for exactly 2 days.  I bought an anti-glare one because I found that the matte finish made fingerprints much less of a problem on my iPhone.  Unfortunately, I managed to get a few tiny creases when I applied it, causing annoying bubbles.  I found the feel of the touch screen was not as good, and felt the film reduced the beauty and clarity of the display.

Ultimately I removed it and, so far, I have not gotten any scratches. I do keep my iPad in Belkin Grip Swell case, and put that in a Case Logic netbook sleeve when not in use.  I also clean it frequently with a 3M microfiber cloth.

Pros

Protects your screen (yes, really)
Anti-Glare screen protectors minimize glare and.. fingerprints!

Cons

Difficult to apply perfectly (and less-than-perfect is not good - buy two in case!)
Expensive
Makes display look and feel cheap
Might not really be necessary if you are careful


Will upgrading to a 32 GB RAM Macbook Pro significantly speed up Adobe Illustrator?

Judging from the stats you provide, it seems like it may be a CPU-related issue. Try to investigate this further to understand better if the issue is RAM or CPU related.

To determine CPU use, go to Activity Monitor and press cmd+2 to get the CPU usage graph. See if one CPU is peaking during these operations or if it is multiple CPUs.

According to Geekbench, your MacBook Pro actually has pretty decent performance, however the newer model that you have in mind, would be 15% faster for single-core operations and 46% for multi-core operations, respectively. Moving to an iMac could offer a performance boost of up to 34% and more than 100% for multi-core, respectively.
Since you are considering to move to a stationary iMac, you may also want to consider the Mac mini. It currently offers the most "bang for the buck" as it is cheaper than most iMacs. You can even save more money by installing additional RAM yourself (which requires some tinkering) and use external drives via USB-C.

To diagnose RAM usage, have a look at Memory Pressure, which is indicated at the bottom of the Activity Monitor app, when Memory is selected. If it is yellow or red, adding more RAM may actually help.

In addition to that you may want to have a look at Adobe's guidelines on Illustrator performance. Finally, there seems to be / have been (?) an issue with performance on your model and users reported that disabling the dictation feature in System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation helped.


What is the content of the $CLASSPATH variable in El Capitan?

First, I found out that my Yosemite Installation has also no CLASSPATH set.
Second, when issueing

$ java -help

it directed me to the URL:

Java SE documentation

Klicking there led me to How Java Runtime finds classes and within there it is written:

  "[…] User classes are classes that are defined by developers and third parties and that do not take advantage of the extension mechanism. You identify the location of these classes with the -classpath option on the command line (preferred) or with the CLASSPATH environment variable. See Setting the Class Path.[…]"

Effectively it says "put your classes wherever you want and just run java -classpath <userclassdirectory>.

Just take time to read the complete document.


Troubleshooting is a process of elimination, so you will need to try a number of things one by one and take note of the results.

Start in Safe Mode

First of all, try starting your MacBook pro in Safe Mode and testing to see whether you still suffer the same sluggishness in performing typical tasks. To do this, follow these steps:

Shutdown your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Immediately press and hold the Shift key.
Let go of the shift key when you see the login window.

Use the computer as per usual and determine if it's working faster now? Report back.

Run hardware diagnostics

You should also run some hardware diagnostics. To do this, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note that the extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

For good measure, it may be worth resetting both your NVRAM and the SMC.

Reset your PRAM/NVRAM

Reset your Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) by following these steps:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).

Reset the SMC

For your model MacBook Pro, resetting the System Management Controller requires these steps:

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

Once you've done all these steps let us know how you went.


What is the difference between HFS path and alias path?

I believe that there's been some confusion, both in the current understanding of the OP, and reinforced by the answer given by oa-, which has offered an opinion, but not one that is supported by any of the links provided (the answer has since been deleted).

It's clear we all understand what an HFS path is in the broad sense, that is a path that separates its folders using a colon delimiter,  e.g.Macintosh HD:Users:CK:Desktop:.  Similarly, we all understand that there is another format, called a posix path, that uses a slash as directory delimiters, e.g. /Users/CK/Desktop/.

However, the confusion I'm seeing is in the use of the term alias (in an AppleScript context), and how this does or does not relate to HFS paths.

Object Specifiers in AppleScript

AppleScript uses object specifiers to distinguish different object types from one another.  For example, the folder object specifier tells Finder that "Macintosh HD:Users:CK:Desktop:" denotes a folder object on the filesystem, and not simply a string that has no context by itself:

tell application "Finder" to reveal the folder "Macintosh HD:Users:CK:Desktop:"

versus

tell application "Finder" to reveal "Macintosh HD:Users:CK:Desktop:"

the former illustrating the use of the folder object specifier to correctly form a reference to an AppleScript object, while the latter asking Finder to take a string object and reveal it (which, of course, throws an error, because the command makes no sense).

An alias is a type of object specifier just like folder, and it is used to construct an AppleScript object that references a file or folder on the filesystem by supplying it with a name specifier, which evaluates to the path of the item on the filesystem:

  "You can create alias objects and file objects by supplying a name specifier, where the name is the path to an item in the file system."
  AppleScript Language Guide - Specifying Paths

"Alias path"

Note that the term "alias path" does not officially exist in an AppleScript context, and it is one that has arisen out of convenience, but actually refers to an alias object rather than a path.

What is true is that the path supplied as a name specifier for an alias object must be an HFS path, and for this reason, AppleScripters often refer an "alias path" as shorthand for the alias object's name specifier.  It is a colloquial term that works in one direction only, which is when referring to an HFS path whilst wrapped inside an alias construct.  It does not, however, infer that any HFS path must also be a so-called "alias path", which makes no sense without the accompanying alias specifier, in exactly the same way it makes no sense to Finder without a folder specifier.

Paths

In a general computing context, a path is defined by Wikipedia as:

  "A path, the general form of the name of a file or directory, specifies a unique location in a file system. A path points to a file system location by following the directory tree hierarchy expressed in a string of characters in which path components, separated by a delimiting character, represent each directory."
  Wikipedia - Path (computing)

A computer-science definition for path usually generalises this slightly to specify a path as any sequence or list of symbols and names that tell an operating system how to locate a file, to which the path leads.ref: 1 2 3

In either case, the nature of a path is, as Wikipedia states, expressed almost always as a string of characters.

Simply put, a path is a string, and in the AppleScript context, this is always the case.

More Than Semantics

This can all be dismissed as mere semantics to a casual reader, until situations arise, such as the one that originally spurred the OP to post this question.  Quoting from an answer to another question here:

path to desktop folder

  would return an HFS path

which, of course, it doesn't, because it returns an alias object, not a path.

This, however:

(path to desktop folder) as text

does return a path, because the alias object has been coerced to text, and the type of path it returns is an HFS path.

Therefore, whilst the alias object returned by the first example is sometimes referred to as an "alias path", taking into account its nature as an alias object; to infer that the second example must also be an "alias path" is incorrect, as it now lacks the alias object specifier.

alias Objects

Simply, an AppleScript alias object is:

  "An alias object dynamically points to an existing item in the file system."
  Mac Automation Scripting Guide - Referencing Files and Folders - Alias Objects

And, notably:

  "An alias object is displayed as a colon-delimited path preceded by an alias specifier."
  Mac Automation Scripting Guide - Referencing Files and Folders - Alias Objects

which explicitly defines the two components that make up an alias object's definition, being the colon-delimited (HFS) path (i.e. the name specifier, which is a string), paired with the alias object specifier.

What this does is construct an AppleScript object that is much more than just a simple path, and serves as a construct to house lots of different properties of the filesystem item it references, one of which, of course, includes the path to the item.

These properties can be enumerated by both Finder and System Events like so:

tell application "System Events" to get the properties of (path to desktop folder)

and, in System Events, we can see the alias object has two properties of note, one being the path property, which returns the HFS path in text format; and the other being POSIX path property, which returns the posix path in text format.

Conclusion (or TL;DR)

"Alias path" is a vernacular that, in an AppleScript  context, can refer to the path of a filesystem item to which an alias object references, but can also refer to the alias object itself.  Therefore, despite what the name implies, an "alias path" is not necessarily, itself, a path;
A path is a string that contains directions through a directory structure to a file item on the filesystem;
An alias object is, itself, not a path, but does contain path information, and it stores and displays this in HFS format;
An "alias path" will, indeed, be an HFS path (or contain path information as such); an HFS path, however, is not an "alias path".
It's best to avoid using confusing/conflicting terminology, especially in answers on Stack Overflow that are to be read by newcomers to AppleScript or scripting in general.  "Alias path" is one of these, as it is not an officially recognised AppleScript term, and clearly has proven to cause confusion.  Therefore, refer instead to "alias objects" and "paths" as distinct entities, the latter of which can be an "HFS path" or a "posix path" in string format that pairs with an object specifier to create an AppleScript file reference object.


Applying finder tags to applications - What are the consequences?

Since I've asked this a long time ago, now I have some thoughts about my very own question, maybe anyone else is wondering the same so here it goes.

Will I get an error? Will the app be updated successfully? Will the tag(s) remain?

Basically its a NO to both questions.

Why?

When you update an app it overwrites itself. So no tags, at least not as far as I know and/or tested. And tags will not break any update, again, as far as I know and/or tested.

IF someone posts a better answer I will choose the other answer over this.


Can I upload an iOS app from OS X running on a VM to the App Store?

Yes, you can. In Xcode, you can set archive for iOS Device even if you haven't got an iOS Device (this is instead of "Simulator") and upload this binary to iTunes Connect perfectly fine.


You can install it using brew

  brew install aircrack-ng

Or using port

  sudo port install aircrack-ng


"An error occurred installing macOS" in VMware?

After some more tinkering, I realized that packer was supplying a sloppy configuration to VMware Fusion, compared to how VMware Fusion prefers to configure macOS VM's. When I create the VM by using the VMware Fusion wizard rather than with packer, then the VM installs and boots successfully. Here is my working VMX configuration for posterity:

https://gist.github.com/mcandre/48f90963d9a24315024319cd62142f6a


Photos smart album for photos with no people at all

The smart albums use SQL at the core so you may use % as a wildcard.

Person is not %

If you create a smart album with the above, it will populate full of photos where the facial recognition did not match a photo.  However, people with a detected face that has not yet been named will also show up in the album.


Hard to say what your country is but we had a similar issue in mine. The cause was that number format inside the country is different from the international format that most operators use when sending messages or doing calls. For example, in the country we have 8-926-1234567 and international number is +7-926-1234567. In some old iOS versions iPhone could not recognize these numbers as the same.

The solution was simple: always use international number for all contacts. Try and see if it helps.


how to stop background app refreshing in iOS9

There is a difference between background app refresh and push notifications. Push notifications have been with the iPhone almost since inception. If you want to disable those, go to the Settings app and then Notifications. Choose the app in question and disable all notifications.

If you have disabled Background App Refresh, then that is set and it is disabled. There shouldn't be any need to do anything else and battery life will be maintained. Push notifications cause minimal battery loss and apply to all apps the same. As described above, you can disable those, still.


Why DND automatically turns itself on and off in macOS High Sierra?

DND acts buggy in High Sierra when you set the time to midnight. I'm not sure if this applies to you but DND does not like 12:00 AM. Use any time except 12:00 AM such as 12:01 AM or 11:59 PM if you are setting DND time values.

If you set DND to turn on at 12:00 AM and off at any other time, it will show as disabled the next time you look at it and the start/end times will have been changed to 10:00 PM/7:00 AM.

I spoke with Apple and they confirmed this behavior in High Sierra.


How do I prevent accidental double clicks?

At present, there is no way to do so.

However, one option to consider:

Do you tap, or do you click? I don't know if the Magic Mouse has these settings, but worth a shot:

If you tap, you might want to go over to clicking — for example, the trackpad has these options:

Alternatively, if you click, and would like to tap — simply enable that. If there's no such option, this free app might help.


How to repair Homebrew permissions after installing as root?

Reset the permissions of /usr/local and Homebrew's caches to the current user:

sudo chown -R $USER:admin /usr/local /Library/Caches/Homebrew


App to turn iPhone to an old style feature phone?

There will not be an app for this as apps are not allowed to change the system in this way.

The closest you can get to this is iOS Restrictions, which require a passcode to re-enable access to certain features on the device. You can configure which features are restricted on the device in Settings → General → Restrictions. There is no automated schedule for Restrictions — you will be required to enable it and disable it yourself.


streaming a full screen app or a screen space on apple TV

Unless a hack will be  possible or Apple will have an AirPlay API for someone to make an application that makes the Apple TV a 2nd display it does not look possible with the advertised OS X Mountain Lion feature AirPlay Mirroring, since it will only allow mirroring of what is on your screen, probably only your primary screen too.

Wireless mirroring
Send what’s on your Mac screen to an HDTV wirelessly with Apple TV. Mirroring is great for classrooms, conference rooms, and your living room.


Which iPhone 5 model sold in the US should I buy for use in Spain?

Verizon ships its iPhone 5 unlocked, and it operates on the LTE bands that are typically used in Europe. The "GSM" model sold in North America is restricted to LTE bands that are currently only used in Canada and the US. Both models can operate fine on 3G GSM networks.

As far as I can tell, while there was an LTE spectrum auction in Spain last year, the precise bands to be used haven't been published yet, but the Verizon (CDMA) seems to be more useful currently, and may be more likely to work on future LTE networks in Spain (but this is far from guaranteed, unless someone can find the exact bands to be used).


How do I switch off/shutdown an iPhone with a broken power button?

Assuming you're on iOS 11: the easiest way is to go to Settings > General. Swipe up until you see the Shut Down option at bottom.Tapping on Shut Down will mimic using the power button.

If you're not on iOS 11: then you can use Assistive Touch: go to Settings > General > Accessibility and switch on Assistive Touch. Now you'll see a bubble appear on the screen. You can move this around, but most importantly you can tap on it and select Device and then select Lock Screen. Doing this will give you the option to switch off your iPhone. (Note: You can do this with iOS 11 as well).

Switching it back on

To switch it back on you will have to connect your iPhone to your Mac/PC or to a charger with the Lightning cable. After a while it will power up and you'll be able to unlock it.


What is the purpose of ⌘+Fn+← (Command-Function-Left) in Safari?

Apparently it is a shortcut to go to your homepage and not an easter egg and does not necessarily open https://www.apple.com but I haven't changed my homepage so in my case it does.


Continuity: Can you make iPhone cellular calls from a Mac while connected to the phone via Instant Hotspot?

Answer

No, unfortunately it is not possible to make or receive cellular calls from Mac that is connected to an iPhone using Personal Hotspot.

You can avoid this limitation using a dedicated mobile hotspot.

What happens if you try it

Trying to do so will result in a message like this ("iPhone Not Available", "Your iPhone and Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network.").

Explanation

As you already pointed out, it is only possible to handoff a cellular call to another Mac/iOS device, if Each device is connected to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

If you connect your Mac to your iPhone's Personal Hotspot, your devices do not use the same Wi-Fi network. In fact, only your Mac is connected to a Wi-Fi network created by your iPhone. Your iPhone isn't connected to a Wi-Fi network at all. It connects using GPRS/Edge/3G/LTE using its cellular modem.

In order for some handoff (including cellular phone calls) features to work on a Mac, your iPhone and your Mac need a Wi-Fi network to stream the phone call's voice data reliably. While this may result in some negligible lag, it's much more reliable than Bluetooth. You don't need to be in your phone's proximity for this to work as long as both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.

Futher details

This is technical limitation.

The iPhone has two built-in network adapters; en0 (Wi-Fi) and pdp_ip0 (cellular data). When you turn on the Personal Hotspot and a device connects to it, your iPhone transfers the cellular data connection (pdp_ip0) to another network adapter. It's very similar to the macOS's built-in Internet Sharing (System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing). Now the name of this network adapter is not en0 (Wi-Fi), but instead ap1 (Wi-Fi Access Point). This is the Wi-Fi module running in a different mode.


iCloud prompts me to create a free @me.com email address to turn on Notes sync

The way that Apple handles notes on the iOS devices is that really they are just specially formatted email messages being sent to yourself from yourself. This was a bit more obvious in earlier versions of OS X as the notes you would write would appear in the apple email client Mail.app.

If you want to use you iCloud account to sync your notes then yes apple forces you to create a free iCloud.com (used to be me.com) email address which is really not a bad idea, but for someone who already has a gmail account it certainly is not necessary.

if you would rather have your notes sync by way of your gmail account you will need to open the settings app on you iOS device(s) then tap on "mail, contacts, calendars" and add your gmail account there. You will then have the option to turn on or off several services like email, contacts, calendars, and notes. in fact you can turn on nothing but notes should you desire.

it wil also be a good idea to visit Settings > Notes on your iOS devices and choose the account you wish to be your default note creation account to avoid any future confusion.

If you are setting up notes on an OS X computer and need help try using this online guide that apple provides. it covers how to set up mail and other services on a number of different systems.

http://www.apple.com/support/macosx/mailassistant/


Can I use a 2019 27" iMac as a display for a Mid 2014 Retina 13" MacBook Pro?

NO

The Apple documentation clearly states that this is not possible with iMacs newer than mid 2014 (iMacs with a Retina Display).

  Note: Target Display Mode isn’t supported on iMac models with Retina display. Only iMac (27-inch, Late 2009), iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010), and iMac (Mid 2011 to Mid 2014) support Target Display Mode.

Apple Community states it as well.


PostgreSQL not in path after installation

In contrary to other PostgreSQL installers (e.g. Homebrew), the EnterpriseDB installer doesn't install the PostgreSQL executables in a path covered by your default $PATH.

So either add it to your .bash_profile file

...
export PATH="/Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/bin:$PATH"
...

or

...
export PATH="$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/bin"
...

or symlink the executables to /usr/local/bin:

ln -s /Library/PostgreSQL/9.6/bin/* /usr/local/bin

You can't link them to /usr/bin/ because this path is protected by SIP and - after disabling SIP - a sudoer would have to prepend sudo  to link the files. /usr/local/bin is the default path for user installed executables anyway, so stay with this one.


Battery not charging? (Even after SMC reset)

Do you have another charger? If yes and if that works, maybe your first charger was damaged. Maybe there's a wire inside of it has broken or something, or the charger became loose (in wires or plug). But if you tried another charger and nothing happened, maybe the problem is in you laptop.


Is there a way to switch Mac OS boot partitions without going through System Preferences?

You can hold down the ⌥ Option key (also known as Alt) at startup, and that will show you all the available boot volumes.


How to create a USB installer for multiple OS on an OS X system?

The way to do this is to create multiple partitions on the USB drive.
There is a Tech Republic article that gives the full details on how to do this:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-create-an-os-x-multiboot-usb-install-drive/

In summary, TechRepublic gives the steps:

Using Disk Utility, create separate partitions for each version of MacOS that will be booted. (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format; In "Options" choose "GUID Partition Table.")  It's a good idea to name the partitions for the Mac OS version you'll be booting.
Copy the relevant contents to the particular partitions.  This is different for different versions of MacOS:

Apple OS X 10.7 (Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion):
a. Right-click the installer and select Show Package Contents from the context menu;
b. Drill-down through the Contents | Shared Support directories and drag-drop the InstallESD.dmg to the desktop;
c. Using Disk Utility's "Restore" tab, Perform a Restore into the appropriate partition, using InstallESD.dmg as the source.  This takes about 30 minutes.
Apple OS X 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard), 10.6 (Snow Leopard):
Since these were distributed as DVDs, you restore from the DVD or ISO image. (DVD restore will be much slower than the file restore method.) Use Disk Utility's "Restore" tab with the DVD or ISO image as the source.
Apple OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and 10.10 (Yosemite):
Ise the new "createinstallmedia" command. If your installer.app is not in /Applications, modify the "-applicationpath" argument appropriately.)
For example:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/DRIVE_LABEL —applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app —nointeraction

I expect that the method for 10.7 and 10.8 will work for later versions of MacOS as well.


How can I enter a app, that has to be updated, purchased in a different apple ID without having to delete it?

If I understand your question correctly, you could sign out of the App Store on your iPhone and then sign back in using the other Apple ID and password. Once signed in, you should be able to update the app in question.

Note that other apps not installed under this Apple ID will now not be updatable until you sign out again and log back in with the original Apple ID and password.

The only way around this is to delete your apps and re-download them using the other Apple ID. However, it's likely that if you have multiple apps installed using each of these Apple IDs that you may face similar issues to the one you're now facing with the music app, so you may be better off just signing in and out of your various Apple IDs if and when you need to.


First, access the notes in iCloud and copy their contents, just in case. Second, one solution that should work is to edit each of the notes slightly, giving them something that happened to them more recently than when you deleted the from your phone. Third, on to your iPhone, disable Notes from the iClouds portion of Settings which should make them local. Go online, turn the Notes syncing back on, and it should get them.


Tried to update to El Capitan, now I can't boot at all

You'll want to use the erase and install steps from:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Hopefully it's not a hardware error and you can just fix this with a clean erase.


Delete picture from the photo library using the command line?

You can either search using the Finder:

kind:heic

Or, from the command-line - mdfind uses Spotlight:

mdfind -name 'heic'

Or, normal unix find:

 find /path/to/search/in -iname "*.heic"

You can then use that output to do as you please. Rather than deleting, I agree with Seamus that you could move them first, and confirm no issues with the Photo's library.

eg. to move them:

find /path/to/search/in -iname "*.heic" -exec mv {} /path/to/move/to/ \;


How do I merge the 8 GB of "free space" on Macintosh HD under Logical volume group into Macintosh HD?

Resizing a Logical Volume in a larger Logical Volume Group with some free space is done with the undocumented coreStorage-verb resizeVolume:

diskutil cs resizeVolume lvUUID size

with lvUUID: UUID of the Logical Volume (the UUIDs are retrievable by entering diskutil cs list) and size (size in b/k/m/g/t | 0 | R)

0 and R are magical sizes and try to maximize the size of the Logical Volume (depends on the system version - doesn't work in all macOS systems).

In your case I recommend:

diskutil cs resizeVolume FD192884-33A4-43CB-86A6-9CE4E58B3B92 120128m

If you get an error disk to small (or similar) choose slightly smaller sizes like 120064m or 120000m until you are successful. The final size of the expanded Logical Volume is slightly smaller than the underlying Physical Volume: some space on the PV is required to store CoreStorage meta data.

Example:

Fusion Drive 3.12 TB:

combined PV size:  3120722 MB
LV size:           3106192 MB
∆ (PV-LV) size:      14530 MB (= 14.5 GB or 0.47%!)


This gray bar blocking my text box is driving me insane. It still comes up even after I turn off predictive text

To disable the bar completely, not just the predictive text suggestions, toggle "Shortcuts" in Settings > General > Keyboard. When it is disabled, the grey bar will not appear (whether or not your physical keyboard is connected).


App for hi-res frame capture from a webcam

How about imagesnap. If it's simple you want, then that's a free (with source) command line tool with the following options:

USAGE: ./imagesnap [options] [filename]
Version: 0.2.4
Captures an image from a video device and saves it in a file.
If no device is specified, the system default will be used.
If no filename is specfied, snapshot.jpg will be used.
Supported image types: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, BMP
  -h          This help message
  -v          Verbose mode
  -l          List available video devices
  -d device   Use named video device

I've just tried it on my 10.7.3 Macbook Pro (early 2011) and it captures images at 1280 x 720 from the built-in camera (which I beleive is its full resolution).


How to evaluate the state of the OS X Server.app from a shell script?

It can be determined by running the following command:

serverinfo --configured

To evaluate the result of the command within a shell script use the -q option and encapsulate it in an if-statement:

 if serverinfo -q --configured;
 then
    echo configured;
 else
    echo not_configured;
 fi

The serverinfo gives two options to determine if the Server.app is just installed or configured:

--software [PATH]
    Returns status 0 if the root volume has a server OS installed
    Use optional argument PATH to specify mountpoint of alternate volume
--configured [PATH]
    Returns status 0 if the server is configured
    Use optional argument PATH to specify mountpoint of alternate volume

So if the serveradmin --configured command "fails", you could check if is installed:

 if serverinfo -q --configured;
 then
    echo configured;
 else
    if serverinfo -q --software;
    then
       echo installed;
    else
       echo not_installed;
    fi
 fi


Hiding/Unhiding a slide in Keynote for iPadOS

I guess you mean skipping a slide during a presentation, i.e., the slide will be present, but will not be shown during the presentation. Here is how to do it in Keynote for iPadOS/iOS:

In the slide navigator: Tap the slide to select it, tap it again, then tap Skip Slide (or Unskip Slide to include it back again). You might need to tap ▶, or rotate your device to see the Skip Slide/Unskip Slide command.
In the light table view: Tap to select a slide or select multiple slides, then tap the  (the Skip button) or  (the Unskip button) at the bottom of the screen.

The directions have been taken from the Apple Support pages for iOS and iPadOS


How can I change the keyboard layout through the terminal?

I found the solution using the xkbswitch utility.


Why am I not able to expand my hard drive partition after deleting Windows?

Try this:

Reboot the Mac into Single User Mode by holding ⌘ (Command) + S when pressing the power button.
When the command prompt finally appears, type:
 /sbin/fsck - fy
After this is completed, type reboot or exit.
Wait for Mac to start up normally.
Back in Disk Utility, hit Verify Disk, then try and partition as normal.


Have you repaired disk permissions and reset your PRAM?

Follow these instructions to repair disk permissions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1452

Follow these instructions to reset PRAM:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379