Manually setting backup points - alternatives to Time Machine

Because of the way TimeMachine has saved the data, you don't actually have two copies.  It just seems that each backup is a full set of files (which it is; but, in the background there is some nifty unix filesystem "trickery" going on).

If you go to the enclosing folder (π's MacBook Air) or the top-level of the hard drive itself, you should see around 22GB used there, and not 44GB.

(Edit)
As for dragging/dropping, unless you do it as the root user, some files will not be copied into your destination folder, due to permission issues.  And, copying large amounts of data via Finder can strain your CPU and your patience.

Rsync is a better alternative than drag/drop.  And, if your goal is to set a bookmark for your file system to revert to after experimenting with text editors and what-not, it might actually be better than Time Machine.  Time Machine is good for recovering accidentally deleted files; but, if you want to return the computer to a previous state, you would have to "restore" the complete old Applications/ folder, just to "remove" the new files added there that you don't want anymore.  Rsync would make that a little more amenable.


video player that remembers where you left?

Take a look at MPlayerX. I love it. Not only does it remember video location, but also has seamless fast-forward to the next episode of a season.


How to transfer large files from Windows to OS X without SMB?

Honestly, if something fast like USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt are available to you, get yourself a small 64GB SSD and a USB 3.0 enclosure, or this (expensive, but a very good long-term investment if you have Thunderbolt. It's actually just a Thunderbolt to SATA adapter, with a fancy name. There are other options, this is just the only one I'm familiar with. ), and you should be able to make those transfers in no time. With such a small SSD, the price should be sub-$100 even for the fast ones.


iCloud says that backups are using 3 GB of space, but there are no backups

It appears you are looking at the iCloud info in System Preferences on an Apple laptop or desktop. Inside System Preferences, after you click on iCloud, you then click on Manage in the lower right corner. When that window comes up, the top option is highlighted but not necessarily selected. If it's not selected, the backups will not show in the right column. Click on Backups to make sure it is selected.

I also would recommend signing into www.iCloud.com and verifying that you have no backups in the cloud. As many of these devices back up on their own, it seems unlikely that you would have no backups unless you recently deleted them.


How can I migrate Google Fit activity data to Apple Health?


System freezes when performing intense disk/cpu operations, Disk Utility says the disk is ok

It sounds as though your install is corrupted. You may to boot to your recovery parition (Command-R after the chime), followed by the "Reinstall macOS" option. It should only overwrite the core system files and leave your User/User data/Custom apps untouched, but to be safe you should make a Time Machine backup first.


Can't record audio with Macbook + Earbuds

If you have not already, I would do a restart and as part of the restart clear the non-volatile RAM (NVRAM):

Hold down CommandOptionPRall at the same time starting before the first system boot chimes and letting them chime 3 times before releasing.

Worked for me when that happened.


Disable and re-enable animations Terminal commands

Try the following to re-enable them:

defaults delete -g QLPanelAnimationDuration
defaults delete -g NSToolbarFullScreenAnimationDuration

Those commands will delete the settings changes that you made, and OS X will reset them to the default settings.

Source: Wikipedia


This answer addresses the situation when you can't repair or fix your Windows OS. Just login to your Mac OS X and search for your Windows OS drive. Then later on from there you can just copy paste all the files you need onto your OS X preferably your desktop. Try to remove the Windows Partition anf make a fresh installation whenever you have access your disc. Hope I helped you :-)


On iOS how can I add an alphanumeric sender ID to a contact?

I'm not sure that's possible. I'm not a regular iOS user but I can confirm that it cannot done on Android too.


Audio output limiter for Mac? NOT volume control

For a free solution to add a compressor/limiter to the system-wide audio, you can use Soundflower along with Apple's AU Lab:

https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases

https://www.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/

Following these steps:

Install Soundflower and AU Lab.
Open System Preferences > Sound, and set both the Sound Effects and the Output to play through Soundflower (2ch).
Open AU Lab, and in the Document Configuration window, under Factory Configurations, select Stereo In/Stereo Out.
Set the Input to Soundflower (2ch), and the output to Built-in Output.
Click Create Document.
In the Output 1 channel strip under Effects, select Apple > AUDynamicsProcessor.
Adjust the settings in the Dynamics Processor window as desired.

A similar setup using the AUDynamicsProcessor is possible with the commercial Audio Hijack:

https://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/

The Hear app also has a limiter, and seems to use less CPU resources than the above. However, it's no longer in developoment and has limited support:

https://www.prosofteng.com/download/?hearmac

While these are answers to the question of how to add a compressor/limiter to the overall system audio, there are some drawbacks. One is that the above solutions may use significant CPU resources. Another is that you'll most likely need to remember to turn it on and off when watching a movie. Otherwise, having the compressor on all the time may reduce the overall dynamic range and sound quality of your computer, for example when playing music.

Rather than compressing or limiting the overall system audio, another approach is to compress then boost the quiet parts of movies so that you don't have to turn up the volume level on your speakers. I use mpv ( https://mpv.io ) to play video, which has several options for precise dynamics control including the "lavfi compander" or the "acompressor.lua" script, with very little impact on CPU usage. VLC also has a built-in compressor found in Preferences (Show all) Audio > Filters > Compressor.

Audio Hijack can be used to route the audio of an app that has no native compression options through dynamics processing. There are also other options with Audio Hijack, such as routing your movie's audio to external speakers, while routing everything else to internal speakers with a separate volume control.


Why is the % saved only displayed for some refurbished products?

I believe those entries for which percentages are not shown are build-to-order models. Of course there was an original retail price so there's no reason why the percentage saving isn't shown, but Apple has decided not to display it for some reason.


Three-finger trackpad gesture on Mission Control and Expose not working in my Mac Pro

This sometimes happens to me, where the 3-finger macro stops working. Seems like OSX just bugs out. My hotfix right now is to open the command line and run killall Dock. Seems to work fine for resetting it and getting it working again.


OSX Mountain Lion - Remove shadows from Uncover Gesture

The purpose of the shadows is to show that you are temporarily pushing the content to the edges to "clear some space" over your desktop, presumably where you will then copy or rename a file or perform some other short action with one of your Desktop items.  It's existence signifies that you have plenty of windows open and ready to return to their previous on screen location at a gesture.

If you removed it, then it would look no different from a normal desktop with all apps minimised, or say a fresh desktop space within Mission Control, and how then would you be able to distinguish between the 2?

Obviously the above isn't necessarily an answer to your question (my answer would be "There is no supported method of doing this nor am I aware of any defaults write style .plist edit that would hack it), but perhaps understanding the purpose of them more will enable you to put up with them better.


How to open mailto: links in gmail / chrome instead of mail app?

Have a look at your "Mail" app. Then Preferences, General, Default mail app.

Set it to Google Chrome.


Annotation of a PDF file in my Dropbox in iPad and keep it the last version in Dropbox

I am using PDF Expert for exactly this. You can choose to sync folders from Dropbox (and other sharing services). Those folders will keep a local copy and will automatically sync back as well.


MacBook Pro high CPU with external monitors

Folks this is an image of my fans before I had them cleaned.

I faced the very same issue that you guys are facing and based on input from another forum decided to get my 2016 MPB fans cleaned out. This made an immediate impact where when I connected my external display to the MBP.pre-cleaning, it would overheat causing the fans to spin at 6000 rpm or thereabout and the kernel_task would eat up 500%-900% of the CPU rending the system unusable. This simple cleanup of the fans has allowed me to connect the monitor with no kernel panic anymore and even though the fans run around 5000 rpm now the CPU and GPU are running around 10 degrees cooler now.


VNC connection to OS X Yosemite 10.10 not working with Firewall enabled.

Enabling the firewall changed the SSH/VNC connection IP. I changed it to the correct IP in the iOS VNC app, and can now connect even with Stealth Mode enabled on the client Mac.

The Sharing Control Panel clued me in, as the IP shown wasn't the one entered in the VNC app:


If you just want to get rid of the services, removing

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.teamviewer.Helper.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist

is enough.

Otherwise just remove them all.


Is it possible to network two MacBook Pro's together without a router?

On one - click the Wi-Fi symbol in the menu bar and create a network.

On the other - join that network.

This is covered in detail in the Mac help under "Create a computer-to-computer network". You can also just connect them with Ethernet, FireWire but Wi-Fi is faster to set up and tear down.


Is FCP X 10.1.1 hanging because of older hardware?

I think my hardware is just fine. Upgrading to FCP X 10.1.2 solved the issue for me.

In case it helps the next person, here's Apple's troubleshooting steps for Final Cut Pro x 10.1 and beyond: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3893


Can't update or uninstall iTunes for Windows

Try using the following link to download iTunes for Windows (64-bit):

https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win64

For 32-bit version, use this link instead:

https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/win32

Alternatively, iTunes for Windows can also be installed from the Microsoft Store by opening the following link on your computer running Microsoft Windows:

https://www.microsoft.com/p/itunes/9pb2mz1zmb1s


2012 Macbook Air Mt Lion 10.8.2. Can I factory reset and upgrade using only an external monitor?

Yes, it is possible, as long as the machine is run in clamshell mode.

Turn the computer on, plug in the external display, make sure an external keyboard and mouse is connected (wired or Bluetooth), then close the internal display. The Mac will enter clamshell mode and will use the external display as the primary display.

The only caveat with this is that the laptop screen must stay closed and AC power must be connected.

You can read more about clamshell mode in Apple KB article HT3131:

Mac notebooks: How to use your computer in closed clamshell (display closed) mode with an external display


Cannot log into my Google account with Smart Lock, username and password prompt keeps repeating

The solution here was that at some point I had disabled Safari which doesn't really uninstall it as it can't be removed but does remove the app icon from your home pages. It also seems to have other effects as cookies or however the Smart Lock app is saving state fails to work, and thus will continuously ask for you to log in.

As of iOS 12, this setting is found: Settings > Screen Time > Content and Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps

After ensuring that I had enabled Safari, everything worked perfectly.


I looked around and found an applescript (which can be turned into a shortcut) that does just want you want. Unfortunately, it's not super simple like it should be. It's better than nothing though, and you only need to do this once. It will save you time in the long run.

1) Open Automator.

2) Create new 'Service'

3) Set Service receives to 'no input' in 'Finder'

4) add 'Run applescript'

5) put this code inside it:

-- duplicateFinderTab.scpt
-- Uses a hacky workaroud to duplicate the frontmost Finder tab,
-- since Apple hasn't provided great AppleScript support for this.

----------------------------------------------
on run {}
    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of Finder windows) > 0 then set duplicate_me to target of front Finder window
        set _sel to the selection
    end tell

    new_tab()

    tell application "Finder"
        set target of front Finder window to duplicate_me
        select _sel
    end tell

    open_orig()

end run

----------------------------------------------
on new_tab()
    tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
        set frontmost to true
        tell front menu bar to tell menu "File" to tell menu item "New Tab"
            perform action "AXPress"
        end tell
    end tell
end new_tab
----------------------------------------------
on open_orig()
    tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
        set frontmost to true
        tell front menu bar to tell menu "File" to tell menu item "Show Original"
            perform action "AXPress"
        end tell
    end tell
end open_orig

6) save it (if you open a finder window, and have your alias selected, then go back to automator and hit 'run', then it will work at this point) -- Note: it may prompt you to add 'Automator' to the 'System Preferences' -> 'Security & Privacy' -> 'Accessibility' permissions.

7) in system preferences go to 'keyboard' -> 'shortcuts' -> 'services' -> 'whatever you named it' .. pick a shortcut (like "^-CMD-O").

Other things:

It may require you to do this once:

when finder is selected, in the menu,

'Finder' -> 'Services' -> 'whatever you named it'

or if it didn't appear:

'Finder' -> 'Services' -> 'Services Preferences..' -> check the box in system preferences that your application is called

There are other permission errors you might receive depending on how your system is set up, however, you should notice that the script DOES work when you hit 'run' on step 6 or after step 5. Just first select the file in the finder then swap over to the automator app and hit 'run'.

And if everything worked smoothly for you, the cmd-cntl-O shortcut should work for you, so you can do that shortcut, (which opens a new tab of the same selection), then right click and select 'show original'

Edit by OP
If you receive an error "com.automator.runner.xpc is not allowed assistive access" then the workaround is not obvious.
You cannot add com.automator.runner.xpc itself to Assistive Access, nor does adding Automator or Automator Runner help, however after a reboot the clue was that two errors were triggered, not just one.

Adding Finder itself to Assistive Access allowed the script to run.


Where/how are default input methods stored?

The Chinese and Japanese IM's (along with several others) are in System/Library/Input Methods.

For some alternatives that may offer more options, see this page.

https://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2017/05/macos-alternative-input-methods-for.html


Is there a way to limit external hard-drive random spin-up?

This problem has been happening since January 2010, according to users on this Apple Discussion forum. While no fix has been identified, two potential culprits were identified:

Spotlight - one user (loayza) noted:

  I also have the issue (SL 10.6.8). I have an external drive to handle
  TimeMachine and every time I select "Open with" from the contextual
  menu it wakes it up. It's quite annoying! It seems disabling Spotlight
  solves the problem...

iStatPro - one user (jrawl004) noted:

  I found the culprit.  iStatPro.....I have a habit of tracking my
  system status while editing video and this program does a great job at
  keeping things up and reportig.  So everytime I made the slightest
  touch to my iMac or MacMini, it would awake everything so it can
  report.  I disabled the widget and low and behold, things became
  extremely quiet quickly.  That problem is solved for now....for me at
  least.

No solution was identified when checking Apple Support's KB.


Check your current PYTHONPATH setting by opening /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and typing the following command and hit the return key:

  echo $PYTHONPATH

Try this alternate syntax in Terminal.app to see if it sets your PYTHONPATH correctly. Recheck the result with the above command again. If so, put the line in your ~/.bash_profile (although a file in /etc/paths.d/ with just the PATH, no commands, ought to set this system-wide).

  export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH\ : $USER/Documents/CrowdSurfer ; export PYTHONPATH


How to restore bash history function in macOS Sierra

Have a look at /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal. The file contains comments that explain how to disable bash_sessions:

# The save/restore mechanism is disabled if the following file exists:
#
# ~/.bash_sessions_disable

or just disable their shell history mechanism

# You may disable this behavior and share a single history by setting
# SHELL_SESSION_HISTORY to 0. There are some common user customizations
# that arrange to share new commands among running shells by
# manipulating the history at each prompt, and they typically include
# 'shopt -s histappend'; therefore, if the histappend shell option is
# enabled, per-session history is disabled by default. You may
# explicitly enable it by setting SHELL_SESSION_HISTORY to 1.


Why does shasum generate non-standard hashes?

shasum is working fine but echo "" doesn't produce an empty string:

pse@Fourecks:~$ echo "" | od
0000000    000012
0000001

This works better:

pse@Fourecks:~$ echo -n "" | shasum
da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709


Unarchive a file with a set of provided password list

Get unar from http://unarchiver.c3.cx/commandline
Extract the archive and put unar (and lsar) somewhere your shell can find it.
Run

while IFS= read pwd; do
    unar -p "$pwd" ARCHIVE
done < password-list.txt


Simplest solution is ansiweather which you can install with brew. The result looks like .

If you want to write you own command/function it's not that difficult. If the output from the online location is in json, or something similar. You can use jq to parse json, and only print what you need.

curl -s http://ip-api.com/json | jq -Cr .

Read the manual page of jq to learn how to use it.

I tried the API you're using above, that's not gonna help your case. Find some other one that replies in JSON. For example:

curl -s 'api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q={CITY,COUNTRY_CODE}&APPID={GET_YOUR_API_KEY}' | jq -C '.name? .weather?.main?'

I haven't tested it personally, because you have to make an account to make a call, but you get the idea.

Comment if you get lost.


AppleScript find the user's set default browser?

For OS X 10.10 and later, use the following example AppleScript code:

set defaultBrowser to do shell script "defaults read \\
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure \\
    | awk -F'\"' '/http;/{print window[(NR)-1]}{window[NR]=$2}'"

if defaultBrowser is "" or defaultBrowser contains "safari" then
    --  # The default Browser is Safari.
    set defaultBrowser to "Safari"
    --  # Your code goes here.
else if defaultBrowser contains "chrome" then
    --  # The default Browser is Google Chrome.
    set defaultBrowser to "Google Chrome"
    --  # Your code goes here.
else if defaultBrowser contains "firefox" then
    --  # The default Browser is Firefox.
    set defaultBrowser to "Firefox"
    --  # Your code goes here.
else
    set defaultBrowser to "Other"
    --  # Your code goes here.
end if

Note: The start of the if defaultBrowser statement tests for nothing "" as well as "safari", because, if Safari is the only Browser installed or if another Browser is installed and has never had a default Browser set, then by default nothing will be returned by the do shell script "defaults ..." command, and this means Safari is the default Browser.

In the example AppleScript code above, the value of the defaultBrowser variable initially gets set to one of the following values:

Nothing: ""
com.apple.safari
com.google.chrome
org.mozilla.firefox
Some other: output

Then within the if statement, the defaultBrowser gets set to the proper name of the Browser. Although you can certainly modify as needed/wanted.

Also note that the do shell script command used herein is more efficient then the other answer, which needlessly uses the plutil command to first convert the binary plist file to an xml plist file and then back to a binary plist file afterwards. It also needlessly uses both grep and awk when both are not necessary since defaults and awk (or just defaults and grep) can do it without all the extra rigmarole.

For pre OS X 10.10, replace:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure

With:

com.apple.LaunchServices

In the do shell script "defaults ..." command.


uTorrent remote asks to touch screen and move to login without success

As soon as the question was ready I solved the problem.

I was on inPrivate mode and for whatever reason, it does not detect the moving.

As soon as you go to the normal browsing mode, it detects correctly the movement.

If anyone can figure out why that happens, it would be great to know.

Anyway, I hope this can help someone else in the future.


You should be able to do this at icloud.com. After you sign in, click photos, then upload at the top. You should then be able to select the photos you want to upload and click choose. Note all the photos must be individually selected: you may not select a folder.
You may alternatively drag them to the photos interface on icloud.com.

Obviously, it will take awhile for a few thousand to upload.


How to access local webpage from another host in the same network?

I ended up determining that the problem was a firewall on the network, not on either device. Thank you for your help!


Will screen sharing work across different ISPs and over the Internet?

This question is quite broad, and there is no succinct answer. Many ISPs have filters on their networks and do not pass all IP protocols transparently.  I have experimented with Chrome Remote Desktop, however, and it seems to be work very well. I can access to my home iMac (on Verizon FiOS) through my school's firewall without a problem, and with my iOS devices, too! You might want to experiment to make sure it does what you need.


Why is Finder listed as using more RAM (24 gb) than is on my machine? Bug?

You're showing that you do have 16Gb installed - that's the Physical Memory number shown at the bottom.

That 24Gb number is for compressed memory. Because it's compressed, and might not be being physically used, you can go over the physical limit.

This explains it: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/06/12/compressed-memory-in-os-x-109-mavericks-aims-to-free-ram-extend-battery-life

24Gb RAM used for Finder is still a little excessive though.

If you look, you're using 12Gb of swap, which is where your extra memory that's being used is coming from. You're swapping it all out to disk.


Certain iPhone 6S models were known to have this problem.  You can check the serial number at this site to see if it's affected (presuming it's a 6s; you didn't specify the model):

https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

Mine had this problem, and the guys at the Apple Store repaired it (I don't know if it was the battery or a component on the logic board).

For other devices, you may have to try erasing all content and setting it up as a new device and give that a try for a few days to see if that fixes it.  I want to say that my brother had the same symptom and a reset was the solution for him (it's been a while).

I've had an occasional problem with restoring years of accumulated backups and phone migrations that only a fresh install seems to fix.


Using Brushes (mainly dodge and burn) in Aperture 3 while in Full Screen Mode

In full screen mode move your mouse to the top of the screen, a toolbar will drop down which has the red eye tool. The is also a button for the inspector hud which is the same as the usual adjustment palette. Brushes work just the same.


You can remove the genre-*.jpg files in the application bundle. iTunes will use the cover art of tracks for the genres though.

It also breaks the code signature and could be overridden by updates.


How do I tell OS X it's OK to escalate to HTTPS?

Wondering if this might be related to instances where some http sites were being redirected to non-existent https sites.  Try the following:

Clear your browser cache in Safari
Close Safari
Delete ~/Library/Cookies/HSTS.plist


How do I execute a bash script that requires root privileges?

Take the script that you created:

#!/bin/bash

echo "plugin L2TP.ppp">>/etc/ppp/options
echo "l2tpnoipsec">>/etc/ppp/options

Save it in your home directory, or a 'scripts' directory inside your home directory, as l2tp.sh. Allow it to be executed(write this command in Terminal):

chmod 700 ~/path/to/l2tp.sh

To execute the file using sudo (root privileges):

Method #1. In Terminal type:

$ sudo ~/path/to/l2tp.sh

Method #2. Create a file run_l2tp.command with this contents:

sudo ~/path/to/l2tp.sh

Allow it to be executed:

chmod u+x run_l2tp.command

When you double-click run_l2tp.command and enter the password the l2tp.sh file will be executed with root privileges.

Some notes:

On UNIX like systems, ~ is short for "my home directory".
Chmod 700 will make the file executable only by you. For more information: see this Wikipedia page.
typing 'sudo' before a command will execute the program using root privileges. Be careful when doing this, bad things can happen if you're not sure what you're doing.
Obviously you can omit the /path/to if you saved this script directly in your home directory.


Is there an app or option that allows phone to ring for emergency contacts only when silent or Do not disturb?

In Do Not Disturb there's an option to allow calls from Favorites and/or a specific group - "Allow Calls From".


Scrolling PDF documents in Safari is too sensitive?

Safari can open PDFs using Preview without the need for Adobe Reader to be installed. In my experience, Preview in Safari is faster and smoother than Adobe's Reader plug-in.

See this question for how to disable the Adobe plug-in.


Does upgrading macOS causes one to lose data?

No.

Generally speaking, upgrading to a subsequent major release of macOS doesn't erase/touch user data. Pre-installed apps and configurations too survive the upgrade. Upgrading macOS is a common practise and carried out by lot of users every year when a new major version is released.

However, you should be cautious and be responsible for the sanity of your data. Upgrades doesn't negate the possibility of going wrong, and in the unlikely case, may cause damage to the hard drive, thereby causing you to lose access to data.

It is highly recommended to keep properly working data backup when doing a sensitive activity like OS upgrade.

I'll put extra emphasis on having a backup that works! A backup that doesn't work is as good as no backup.

Ensuring you have proper power backup and uninterrupted Internet connectivity, you should be fine with a high degree of probability. Having a backup ensures complete peace of mind :)


Is there a way to view list of TV shows downloaded to iPhone (iOS 6)?

The quickest way to see what is on the iPhone without seeing the items still in the cloud is to put the iPhone into Airline mode and then look at your TV shows.

As the phone cannot connect to iCloud it can only show what is actually available on the phone.


Problems after deleting Bootcamp Partion/EFI

Quote from OP:

  Now, I think I made the mistake by deleting the Boot folder, but I am not sure.

My response:

You were correct to remove the Boot folder.

Quote from OP:

  I would have to shut the computer down, then power up while holding down the option key until I could select the Mac Drive.

My response:

You should have held down the control key before choosing the Mac drive. This will make macOS the default operating system went starting up.

Quote from OP:

  As previously stated, I have deleted everything regarding Windows, so why is the line below appearing?

3:           Windows Recovery                         901.8 MB   disk0s3

My response:

This is part of Windows. You should remove this partition and add the space back to the APFS container. The commands to do this are given below.

diskutil eraseVolume free none disk0s3
diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


Looking for an iOS app to announce the time

As Joe indicated, the reason why you have not found an app to do this is because apps simply can't.

Backgrounding apps can do very little, and even things that they can do are limited to generating a notification which you must acknowledge in order for the app to actually carry out it's task. For example; Skype can background and detect a call, but you must still acknowledge the notification to open the app, and have anything meaningful actually occur. Additionally, backgrounded radio stations / audio streams can continue to stream, and even change channels or support some feature that responds to the "skip forward" and "skip backward" media controls, but if the network connection is broken the app is suspended and will not do anything further until you re-open it.

Sadly, this is also not part of the accessibility features built into iOS, perhaps you could file a bug and request the feature be added in a future software version?


Is there any way of change current window in OS X?

Mission Control handles window selection and visualization. Open that preference pane and look at the Application Windows keyboard shortcut.

Control down arrow (or in the trackpad preferences enable App Exposé - three finger swipe down) to activate the picker.

Enhancement for switching inside a program on OS X

From there you can select a window or arrow key left right to the window you desire.

command + [ or ] will switch to the next / previous window
command + { or } will switch to the next / previous tab within a window

Some applications - terminal is a notable one - define menu items to select the next window in turn. If they do, you can usually override the keyboard shortcut if you don't like the ones they chose by default.

Apple's window manager isn't a perfect fit for the design idiom of windows, but in this case, it's pretty close once you re-train your expectations to having all the windows one tap away.


Terminal command to get app switcher information?

Looking through the man index pages I was able to find a command that gives this information:

lsappinfo metainfo | grep bringForwardOrder

This lists the apps in the same order as the app switcher when invoked, along with the app ASN, which can be useful.


How can I tell iTunes to always download free updates

As far as I know, although both iTunes and the iPhone/Pad check automatically for updates, you have to manually start the process.

Yes, I know it’s a bad idea, because we almost always click “download all”. Even if you tell iTunes to remember your password, it won’t start the download automatically whenever there are updates. I have been looking for a way to do this since the iPhone 1G and haven’t come across a solution yet.


The Bootcamp app will walk you through creating the install media from your ISO and the proper partitioning. No need to create one manually.

I would delete that partition you made, expand your Mac volume back into the open space and then recreate the USB stick using BootCamp. It should ask for an ISO of the Windows install media and use the drivers in the App to slipstream the driver files into the installation media. You'll need a 4GB USB stick (minimum, bigger is fine). Creating the install USB stick takes a while (30-40 minutes in some cases) then run bootcamp and follow the prompts.

It will give you a GUI for resizing your Mac partition. It will then properly format it and put the necessary Windows boot files on the drive and then boot you into the Windows installer.

If you follow those instructions it should all work for you fine, unless there is already a non-standard partition arrangement on the drive.


Will having too many running programs slow down my Mac?

No matter what platform you are on, if you have multiple programs all running at once, they are using resources and therefore yes, will slow down your computer. There is a big difference between many applications running, versus actively doing something.

For example, if you are watching a movie, playing music, and working in Photoshop, all are actively using resources and the system will have to share them.

If you are not actively using something, the a large amount of its resources are given back to the OS, and therefore while still running (and consuming resources), they are not consuming as much. For example - on a Mac you can close all the windows of an application, and most of its resources are released, but it is still consuming 'something'.

OS X Lion (10.7) takes this a step further with a new feature, called Automatic Termination. According to some of the dev documentation:

  When an application that supports sudden termination goes unused or
  has no open windows, Mac OS X may terminate it behind the scenes. When
  a user wants to use the application again, it usually relaunches
  instantly. Users who want to quit applications manually can still do
  so, but it is no longer necessary.

With Lion, applications that support this Resume/Automatic Termination feature will quit for you behind the scenes to gather resources back for the system if it starts running low. Preview and TextEdit are two apps I have seen this actually happen too. They won't do this if you are working in them, but if you leave TextEdit running and go off to other stuff, eventually it will quit itself for you.

So, the takeaway is this: Yes, too many processes running will slow down your Mac (and any computer for that matter). This is because resources are limited (obviously more RAM helps you run more stuff, but still a limit somewhere).


The trackpad click is unresponsive after screen unlock on MacOS Catalina on MacBook Pro 2018

ajay.

Do you already have the latest version (10.15.4)? If not, try to update, if yes, try the following:

1) Reset your Mac's NVRAM or PRAM.

2) If you continuing experiences issues, try to reset the SMC of your Mac.

I hope that works.


I have tried to erase all data from my MacBook Pro and erase and re install osx disk

Short answer: no. Any Mac that supports Internet recovery could theoretically boot to Internet recovery even with the hard drive removed. Press and hold command-option-R immediately after powering on the mac. If it does not detect a physical network Internet connection, it will prompt you with a drop-down menu displaying a list of available wifi networks. Once joined, it will take a REALLY long time to boot, but eventually it will load a recovery OS. Here you can reformat your hard drive (or find out if one is installed), reset your password, access Safari and, of course, reinstall your OS.


Full screen videos in Chrome suffer a lag

If I've understood the video correctly, it's the long animation you're wondering what is? I don't see any other lag, please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Using the HTML5-version of YouTube, utilizes OS X's built in full screen mode. The animation from single-window to full screen in OS X is this slow, and it annoys me as well. Try disabling the HTML5-mode from here, or to shorten and/or remove the full screen animation it alltogether, see this question and it's answers.


Why does 'df' not show changes after running CleanMyMac?

Taking @at0mic's comment as a starting point, I have a theory about what's happening:

Since the Time Machine snapshots aren't physical copies, they're still hanging on to the same inodes that CleanMyMac deleted.

Since the snapshots didn't take up more room when they were created (see https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-apple-file-systems-killer-feature-clones-and-snapshots/ - they just create one more reference to the same inodes), I also won't get back disk space right away when deleting stuff.

This makes sense to me.  However, when I went into Time Machine and performed "Delete all backups" on one of the large items I'd deleted, the disk usage as reported by df still didn't reduce.  So I kind of believe that Time Machine is the explanation, but there are still pieces I don't understand, so if I figure it out I'll edit this answer.


You can export Notes as a PDF in MacOS Sierra (10.12) or above. All you have to do is Choose File > Export as PDF.

Notes for macOS Sierra: Import or export notes

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22616?locale=en_US

Or you can copy the text and paste it into a Pages or Word document.


What is writing to Disk causing eventual Beach-ball-of-death

Please post the make/model/specs of your machine, and especially the brand, model and firmware revision of your SSD. I have an SSD that started throwing errors after 4,900 hours of operation. Updating the firmware resolved the issue.

You can find the SSD firmware by running the Hardware Profile (or more info in About this Mac) and selecting Serial-ATA and the your SSD in the Device Tree.

Is the problem hardware or software?

I will attempt to list here a couple of possible issues, and what we need to help resolve.

If you have a second hard drive you can boot from (HDD, USB drive, etc.), please do.

Does the problem still occur?
If it does, does it happen on the boot device or still on the non-booted SSD?
While booted from something other than the SSD, run any disk checking software you have, even if its just a Disk Utility/First Aid/Verify Disk

When did this problem start, and can you peg it to any action you did?

Wild process

Open Activity Monitor. First, click the drop list and change from My Processes to All Processes. Then click on the %CPU column header once (or twice) so the list shows the top CPU users at the top

Is there a run-away process at the top? If so, please let us know.

Consistency after reboot

How soon after a reboot does the disk usage start? Do you reboot with the following option checked?

If you do, reboot, but first uncheck the option.

Now that you're opening with a "fresh" login,

how soon after reboot does the problem start?
Is there a consistency with any programs running when this happens?

Your problem can be a lot of things, but from your initial output, I'm less inclined to think malware.


Within iTunes, you can select the file and press command-I to get the file information. You can then delete all the meta-data associated with the mp3.


iPod 4th gen screen does not work after replacement

The technical term you are looking for is "it's busted"

If I read the sequence correctly, you disconnected a major component while the device was operating and now it is unresponsive. Some electronic components can be disconnected without damage, others don't like it and express their displeasure by declining to work again.

Bare minimum, you will need another, known-working screen to see if the screen or the main board is damaged. The cracked screen is fine, IF it was actually working before replacement (cracked glass is fine, cracked glass + no display is not fine). Repair centers keep various components handy for exactly this reason.

if the known-good screen doesn't work, then you have fried the logic board. At $250 for a new iPod we have to seriously consider how much more effort we want to put into more repairs.


Mac wakes up after a few seconds: System Wake Reason not found

I did a clean install of MacOS and it completely solved the issue.
Just to be clear, I deleted EVERYTHING off the hard drive and re-installed MacOS. So basically it was a software issue.
I went through everything on Apple’s website to isolate the problem. Finally called Apple support who worked with me for 1-2hrs. Then finally just recommended a clean install. And bam, fixed.


Website in separate browser instance in IOS

No, it's not possible.  Currently, Home Screen bookmarks open the same instance of Safari.


Applications folder not owned by root, cannot change it

Funnily enough this is a perfect example of one of the few situations where repairing disk permissions is actually called for.

Unfortunately the Repair Disk Permissions option has been removed from Disk Utility in El Capitan.

However you can still do it from the command line.

In Terminal run the following command to find out which permissions are incorrect.

  sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /

And run the following command to repair the permissions.

  sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

More information here: http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/04/verify-repair-permissions-mac-os-x/


Are there leftover files when I uninstall an iPhone app?

No, no files are leftover when deleting an app. iOS apps (and now  OS X  apps too), are Sandboxed. This means that each App has its own space in disk, with its own directories, which act as the home for the app and its data.

Deleting an app from the iPhone deletes this sandbox, deleting all data associated with the app.


Data recovery from Apple MacBook Pro with T1 and T2 & Customer Data Migration Tool (LifeBoat)

If you have the Customer Data Migration Tool, it is actually very simple to use. It does not require any soldering or "DIY" skills. You basically just need a P5 pentalobe screw driver, andto  be able to remove the six screws that secures the the lower case.

Note that you say that you're thinking of using it on a water damaged computer. In that case you would want to use a multi-meter to first check that the power lines used by SSD power management IC (and the "Life boat" connector itself) haven't been shorted by the damage.


Does iPhone have a Wi-Fi & Bluetooth toggle widget in Notification Center?

You can toggle directly by swiping up from the very bottom of the screen…

...from the lock screen, home screen or in most apps [in some apps it's difficult to get the swipe to be recognised if the app uses the same part of the screen for a function.]


What advantages are there to removing a stolen device from your iCloud account?

Once you reach step 6 you are in effect abandoning the device.
Some company phones are considered less valuable than the data they contain. Stripping the last remaining link to the previous user is therefore considered a better option.


Share iPhone internet to MacBook by lightning (without HotSpot)

If you want to avoid using a wireless connection to share your 3G connection, you can still use Personal Hotspot, but with a Lightning cable, according to Apple's support documentation.

Set up Personal Hotspot

Go to Settings > Cellular.
Tap Personal Hotspot, then tap the slider to turn it on.

Connect to Personal Hotspot with USB
Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes on your Mac or PC. Then connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer with the USB cable that came with your device. If you see an alert that says tap "Trust This Computer?" tap Trust.


How can we ensure that contact photos appear as either full-screen or as thumbnails on the iPhone?

In my testing1, pictures set on the iPhone itself consistently appear as full screen, and pictures set in Address Book on OS X and synced via iCloud appear as thumbnails. Any photos set elsewhere, but subsequently edited on the iPhone will also appear full screen.

I haven't tested other syncing methods, but from what I've read elsewhere, including the question you linked, I think the syncing method doesn't matter — just whether the photo was set on the device, or on a Mac.

It's hard to say why exactly without any inside information, but I suspect it's one of two reasons:

Different teams worked on the syncing and iOS Contacts app (or at least the user facing portions thereof). Some flag gets set somewhere in the data structure when you set a photo in the Contacts app that doesn't get set when a photo is synced over. Just something that got overlooked.
Intentionally left out. Since you don't get the opportunity to preview the cropping and alignment on the device screen when setting it, it was decided to make pictures assigned off-device just appear as thumbnails, to avoid any bad cropping or weird aspect ratios.

In any event, if you want consistency, you should set all your contact pictures on the same device — Mac if you want thumbnails, iPhone if you want full-size.

1 I tested on iOS 6.0.1 on an iPhone 4S, and 10.7.5 on my Mac.


iPad USB-C Internet Connection: Tethering to Macbook

Yes, you can use a USB-C cable to share Macbook's Internet connection with the iPad just like the USB to lightning cable does on iPhones and older iPads.

Benefits:

The USB-C cable powers the iPad directly from the Macbook reducing the number of mains sockets you need to just one.
WiFi & Bluetooth can be completely turned off on the iPad.
Traffic is proxied to the iPad via the Macbook (which has a firewall in front of it).

Negatives:

Airdrop and Sidecar will not work with your wireless interfaces down.

Parts Required:

Standard USB-C charging cable that came with your iPad will work
Or this short (and tidy) Anker USB-C cable I've found works well

Internet Connection:

You Macbook should have a non-802.1x Internet connection to share, ie: straight WiFi.  If your WiFi connection is secured using EAP-TLS (with certificates) or other 802.1X security to stop this sort of thing, the USB-C Internet connection sharing won't work.

Configuration:

On Macbook Pro: "System Preferences" > "Sharing" > "Internet Sharing" and tick "iPad USB" as below:

Connect the USB-C cable between them and you're done.

It's a tidy, secure solution.


Does anyone know any good Diagnostic tools?

The likelihood that a single tool or utility will provide all of the diagnostic capabilities that you are looking for is very slim; if you do happen to find such a utility, there's a decent chance that its support for said capabilities will be shallow.  So while it may seem like a good idea to try to find a really generalized and versatile hardware diagnostics app, you'll probably be better off with getting smaller more specialized apps that are designed to only check one to a few of your system's hardware components.

In addition, some hardware components such as your system's PSU (power supply unit) are best checked with specialized electrical equipment designed to check for faults in your PSU, such as your PSU is no longer capable of sustaining the level of Watts your system requires.

Hardware Health Diagnostic Applications

Hard-Disk/Solid-State Drive

SMARTReporter

User Interface is kinda compact (feels a bit overwhelming with everything squished together).
$4.99
Available in the App Store.

smartmontools

primarily command-line only, GUI depends on the X Server,but even if you do have XQuartz installed, GUI doesn't show up. (Check man page for usage details: man smartctl)
Free
Install via brew: brew install smartmontools

DriveDx

Much nicer UI than SMARTReporter, feels much cleaner and less in your face.
Lots of statistics and info presented in a take your time kinda way.
$19.99
Available in the App Store.

Memory (RAM)

NOTE
I couldn't find much in the App Store with a few quick searches, but I do know of a couple different RAM diagnostic utilities, however, all of them require the use of a USB or a floppy or some other media type that can be booted into; while I have experience with at least one of these, I have never used any of these under Mac OS X.  So you're on your own.

memtest86

Free and Premium versions available
Supports both Windows and Mac

Check out passmark.com for other applications of a diagnostic/forensic nature

memtest86+

Free (and open-source)
Based on the previously mentioned memtest86.

memtester

A memory (RAM) stress-tester.
Free
install via brew: brew install memtester
see man page for more details: man memtester

Also, while this may sound super silly, I'd invest some time in checking the contents of your systems' logs, like tail /var/log/system.log, however, if I were you I'd check everything in /var/log just to make sure that you aren't missing anything.

In addition, be sure to run and check the output of sudo dmesg | less: in my experience, if your system is experiencing problems, there's a high likelihood that dmesg's output will shed light on the situation.

Mac OS X boot-time keyboard shortcuts (in no particular order):

Hold down D during startup

Takes you to Apple's Hardware Test utility (or Apple Diagnostics, depending on Mac model)
Option+D can be used instead to try starting up Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics over the internet

Hold down Alt+Cmd+P+R during startup

Clears the PRAM (parameter RAM) and NVRAM (non-volatile RAM): if either the PRAM or the NVRAM become corrupt, problems will ensue.  Hold the keys down until your computer restarts: release the keys after you hear the second startup sound.

Hold Alt down during startup

This will load the boot menu allowing you to boot to a different operating system partition you may have installed on your hard drive.  May also allow you to boot to a USB, but that's just a conjecture.

Hold down N during startup

if your setup includes a compatible network server (NetBoot), you can hold down the said key during boot to attempt a network boot.  You can alternatively use the Alt+N keys during startup to start from a NetBoot server using the default boot image provided.

Hold down T during startup

puts your Mac into Target Disk Mode, effectively turning your computer into a large removable flash drive.  (Allows you to transfer files to and from your machine with... ease?)

Hold down Shift during startup

Boot into safe mode.  Very similar to Windows Safe Mode; a great way to troubleshoot OSX applications and extensions that aren't working properly.

Hold down Cmd+V during startup

Boot into verbose mode.  A terminal-like interface will appear while booting.  It will contain information important to startup, allowing you to diagnose startup problems by seeing any errors that may be occurring during startup.  Verbose mode exits automatically when your mac finishes booting.

Hold down Cmd+S during startup

Boot into single user mode.
NOTE A knowledge of bash and the command-line (in general) is recommended.  Handy for advanced startup sequence troubleshooting.

Also, I'd check out Parted Magic and GParted, as well as any other distribution of Linux that offers a Live-disc version.  These can be used to ease the diagnostics process since they're (at least Parted Magic and GParted) are designed with system maintenance in mind--not to mention the fact that you'll have access to a far larger software repository with any given Linux (that has a package manager) than you would with brew, for example.


As Buscar noted above, I got an answer to my problem from a very helpful person on the Apple discussion board. You can see the discussion here.

Somehow, this problem is related to permissions, and ACLs. The answer involved checking permissions from the command-line to see if there was a problem, and then resetting the permissions using either the command line, or using the Recovery partition on your Mac.

Use the following command to see if permissions/ACLs are incorrect:

find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \) 2>&- | wc -l

If you get a number other than 0 back, then there might be a problem. Use the following to repair permissions/ACLs (make a backup first!):

sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags -h nouchg,nouappnd,noschg,nosappnd {} + -exec chown -h $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -h -N {} + -type d -exec chmod -h +x {} + 2>&-

Alternatively, you can 'Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs' outlined in this Stackexchange post.

I hope this helps someone else out there!


For #1, one thing to remember is your iCloud account is different from your iTunes/App Store account. You should not lose any of your iCloud documents because that is stored in the iCloud account.

Apple's support page describes the procedure here and you should be able to change it back if you like at a later point. But basically, when you change stores, you don't lose your previous purchases but you cannot update them any longer (because you are no longer hooked up to the store you bought it from in the first place). For these reasons, I have two iTunes/App Store accounts so I can switch back and forth to update my software.


Viewing dollar sign shares over Samba on OS X?

I'm not aware of a way to make them show in the list, but you could just type smb://servername/sharename$ in that box, if you know the name of the share.

In that initial Connect to Server window, you can also click the + icon to bookmark it in the list below the text field. That way, you don't have to type it every time.

Alternately, if you have a bunch of them that you mount together, you can create an Automator script that will mount them for you, provided you know the share name for each. I wrote about that option in an answer to another question back in October.


How to get rid of iOS 7.x (downloaded but not installed) from 6.x

You cannot. iFunbox (or equivalent) will not have access to the root filesystem. You will need to jailbreak the device for this, and none exist for iOS 8 at this time.

However, note that even if you do remove the update, iOS will still periodically check for it and redownload the firmware at a later date. You would need to prevent this and there does exist a tweak (read: hack) to accomplish this, but again, you would need to jailbreak the device.


iPhone SE - Icons at the top-right corner seldom work in many apps

I realize this is an old question but in case someone else has this issue; the answer about the screen protection is definitely wrong. Yes cheap ones can sometimes do that but the author should have read the original post more clearly. If that were the case it would happen in any app, the fact that some apps do it and others (which are all native apps) don’t is a dead giveaway. Moreover I KNOW that isn’t it because I have the same problem and have never had screen protection on my SE.

The most likely culprit here is the apps in question were coded incorrectly in some way. Probably in relation to the size of the region that registers the touch input for that button. I’m just guessing on specifics here as I’ve never coded for an iOS device but the SE runs a much smaller resolution screen than newer devices. If the area were set at a given size which was adequate for a new phone then just scaled down for the SE it might become so small as to have difficulty sensing input. (You see this when people use an automated method to make their program compatible with multiple devices)

My advice is simply to send a bug report to the developer of any affected apps.


After deleting an app, can you (much) later reinstall it and restore its data from iCloud?

The answer is yes and no.

What happens quite easily after a restore (for example after an update) is that iTunes restores the save data for all applications, but not the applications themselves. Therefore as soon as you install them, the old save games will be available (this applies to all apps, not just games). Just by itself nothing will be saved without backup.

BUT: If the application supports iCloud sync and stores it's data in iCloud (which has to be explicitly supported), your data will be still available after deleting and reinstalling the app.

In short: You should be really careful and unless you're absolutely sure the application in question does support iCloud for your saved data, don't delete it without backup.


No, iMessage is not open source.

Proprietary Software

iMessage is proprietary software owned and operated by Apple. iMessage operates exclusively on Apple devices.


quick resize app to half of window on Lion

Spectacle (github, homepage) is free, and works fine for me.


Keyboard Viewer via keyboard shortcut wont actually quit after closing it

open -a and launch seem to keep it open as well. But if you show the keyboard viewer from the input menu and close the window, the process is quit immediately. So one workaround might be to emulate clicking the menu item:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
    tell (menu bar item 1 where description is "text input") of menu bar 1
        click
        click menu item "Show Keyboard Viewer" of menu 1
    end tell
end tell

  Also, I can re-open the application after closing it via a keyboard shortcut ONLY WHEN I open the viewer via the menu button or settings.

If all windows have been closed, activate doesn't usually open a new default window. reopen would do that, but it doesn't seem to work with KeyboardViewer.


How can I combine multiple groups of PDFs using the command line?

The functionality to combine PDFs is built into Preview.app, and this can be a handy approach for dealing with small numbers of documents.

Recent versions of macOS also have a Python script that automates this process for multiple PDF files. This script is located at:

/System/Library/Automator/Combine\ PDF\ Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py

You can run the script directly in Terminal, but it might be handy to add an alias in your ~/.bash_profile:

alias combinepdfs='/System/Library/Automator/Combine\ PDF\ Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py'

Instead of typing the long location to the script every time, now you can run this script using a single command! (Don't forget to reload after making changes: source ~/.bash_profile.)

Say I have a directory of lecture notes ~/Documents/Lectures that contains the following files:

lec2.pdf  lec3.pdf  lec4.pdf  lec5.pdf  lec6.pdf  lec7.pdf  lec8.pdf  lec9.pdf lec10.pdf lec11.pdf lec12.pdf lec13.pdf lec14.pdf lec15.pdf lec16.pdf lec17.pdf

I can combine these PDF files using the following command:

$ combinepdfs -o lec-combined.pdf lec{2..17}.pdf

The general usage pattern is listed in the help command:

$ combinepdfs --help

Usage: join [--output <file>] [--shuffle] [--verbose]

There is also an extra feature to shuffle pages:

--shuffle
#       Take a page from each PDF input file in turn before taking another from each file.
#       If this option is not specified then all of the pages from a PDF file are appended
#       to the output PDF file before the next input PDF file is processed.


Macbook Pro 2016 touch bar freeze in bootcamp after installing Visual Studio with Hyper-V

I've got Hyper-V working reliably under Windows 10 installed via Bootcamp on a 2016 MBP without TouchBar. The steps are relatively advanced, but were easy to follow and most people on this thread should be comfortable. You install and EFI boot manager called rEFInd (it's the "modern" successor to a tool I used to use on my old MacBook Air called rEFIt). By tinkering with rEFInd's configuration you can get it to EFI-boot Windows with the hypervisor enabled.

Follow the instructions here, CAREFULLY: http://nuts4.net/post/hack-force-vt-x-to-be-always-on-when-booting-to-windows-on-your-macbook

I also followed the steps in this article about enabling "legacy safe mode" for Windows 10 (allowing me to press the F8 key during boot if anything goes wrong): https://medium.com/@naokisatoname/newer-mac-windows-10-on-boot-camp-hyper-v-enabled-infinite-spinning-circle-5631b36f6d1…

The net result is a clean install of W10 via Bootcamp, with working Hyper-V. I need to use rEFInd as my boot manager to EFI-boot Windows, but that's totally fine in my book.

I hope this helps people. I intend to cross post this solution on the other linked threads to get the word out there.

Regards,
Mark


Very high MacBook Battery consumption on Sleep

Your option to get free support that is best would be to take it to the Genius Bar where they have some fairly fancy battery diagnostics. Any Apple Authorized Service center has access to similar tools from Apple.

As a consumer, you could check the System Information (System Profiler on older OS) and review Power details under Hardware:

  Charge Information:
    Charge Remaining (mAh): 6638
    Fully Charged:  Yes
    Charging:   No
    Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 6693
  Health Information:
    Cycle Count:    54
    Condition:  Normal

The above details are from a new MacBook Pro with an internal battery. It's in great shape. The below details are from a 14 month old MacBook Air where the battery is not going to make it to it's design life. I'll have to pay for the replacement since at the 1 year point when the warranty was in force, it was still "within spec"

  Charge Information:
    Charge Remaining (mAh): 1957
    Fully Charged:  No
    Charging:   No
    Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 4357
  Health Information:
    Cycle Count:    119
    Condition:  Normal

You might be able to tell if it's just a battery by inspecting your condition, cycle count and FCC - but these data are much more valuable when you have it logged every month of the Mac's life or can compare your values to thousands of other data points (which is presumably part of what Apple does in its diagnostics).


Is it possible to Bootcamp Windows 8.1 using USB on Late 2011 MBP?

Here are the steps I use to install Windows without needing to burn to a DVD or flash drive. Keep in mind that the final product will NOT be a virtual machine:

Install VirtualBox from http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.28/VirtualBox-4.3.28-100309-OSX.dmg. Make sure it installs the command line tools.
Once installed, open it and create a new VM by clicking "New" on the top left.
Select the type to be "Microsoft Windows", and select the version as "Windows 8.1 (64 bit)", then give it a name of your choosing. Click "Continue"
Click continue again (it won't matter how much RAM you give it for this process).
Select "Do not add a virtual hard drive". We will be creating one on our own for our purposes. Click "Create", then "Continue".
Now we have to open the Terminal. Type the following command: diskutil list. From the list of disks, make a note of the disk identifier in the last column that belongs to the 30GB partition you created for Windows. We will need this in the next step
Run the command sudo chown $USER /dev/disk#s#. Replace disk#s# with the identifier from earlier. Enter your password and push return. Also run sudo chown $USER /dev/disk#s1. Use the same identifier, but replace the last number with a 1. Also run sudo chown $USER /dev/disk# using the first half of your identifier (minus the s# part).
Unmount the disk by typing diskutil unmount /dev/disk#s# again, using your identifier.
Now we have to create the disk for the VM to use for installation. Run the command VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/RawWinDisk.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk# -partitions 1,#. Replace "disk#" with the appropriate first half of the identifier from earlier, and replace the second # sign with the last number in your identifier.
Unmount the disk again diskutil unmount /dev/disk#s#, using your identifier.
Now you should have a ".vmdk" file in your home folder. Go back into VirtualBox, select the VM you created, and click "Settings". Select the "Storage" tab, click on the "SATA" controller and click the second "+" sign directly to right of the controller (the hover text is "Add Hard Disk).
(Note: Due to a fairly old bug, you can't command+tab away from the selection window we're about to create without VirtualBox bugging out and requiring a restart of the app. Try to complete this in one step) Click "Choose existing disk", and navigate to the VMDK we just created, which should be in your home folder. Click it and select "Open". Now you should see the newly added disk just below the "SATA" controller.
Click on "Empty" just below the "IDE" controller, check "Live CD/DVD", and click the little CD icon next to "IDE Secondary".
(Note: The same bug applies here. Try to do this in one step.) Click "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file...", navigate to your ISO, and open it.
Start the VM and install windows on the 30G partition.
When the installation is done and you're logged in, shut down Windows and you should see the disk created by Windows appear on the desktop. You can get the Boot Camp drivers for your laptop from https://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1720/en_US/BootCamp5.1.5621.zip. Put this on a flash drive formatted as ExFAT or FAT so Windows can read it.
You should now be able to reboot into Windows by holding alt down, or selecting the disk in Startup Disk preferences.

This is a long process, but I believe I've covered all the steps involved... Let me know if anything goes wrong!


Does macOS High Sierra 10.13's EFI firmware check cause problems for MacPro3,1 2008 installations?

Short answer: No, there's nothing you need to worry about eficheck.

First of: eficheck is not a blocker, at least in its current state. Also I wouldn't call it an annoyance as it's supposed to be a security feature on supported system and the prompt it generates only appears once and remembers your decision whether or not you want to send data about your EFI to Apple.

Coming back to your question, eficheck shouldn't affect your system in anyway. I'm currently running High Sierra on my MacBook5,1 patched with the High Sierra Patcher Tool and it runs fine. Executing eficheck manually from the Terminal just throws the following error:

ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found. Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext
IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext

Meaning the tool cannot read the EFI anyway.

I guess the same would apply to your MacPro3,1, I'm not entirely sure though. But even assuming it does, it wouldn't block anything and I doubt it would prompt you the message because your EFI firmware likely isn't modified anyway. And even if eficheck gets triggered for some reason: you could just click the prompt away once and it never comes back again.


Verifying Xcode is installed on High-Sierra

The screenshot you provided tests only the installation of Command Line Tools which sit in /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools. However some software can require full Xcode app to work/install properly.

xcode-select -p Shows where the complier looks for packages. If this shows /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools and the software installs properly, you don't need full app. But if the software needs it, you need to install Xcode App from the App Store or the website and update the path using

sudo xcode-select -r

which resets it, or

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

with appropriate path to Xcode.app.

Your test: /usr/bin/xcodebuild -version highlights this issue. On my Mac, with Xcode app, it shows

Xcode 10.3
Build version 10G8

So follow the instructions here

Download older version of Xcode?

to get the Xcode app, move it to appropriate place, run the path switching command with correct path to Xcode. And proceed with the installation.

@jmh: "X-code V 10.1 is the latest version of X-Code for High Sierra."

OP: "Link to Xcode 10.1"


If you just deleted the app from the applications folder there may be some remnants hanging out in other places like pref files and other places in the ~/Library/Application Support folder.  Try downloading an app like AppCleaner
http://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/
Drag the app onto its window and it will find the associated files for Chrome.  Then hit the delete button, and then re-download Chrome and try it again.  Hope that helps.


AirPort Extreme won't turn on after power outage

As there is no power switch or external fuse on the airport line of hardware, the absence of any lights when you plug it in means that the hardware is failed.

If you have AppleCare on the computer it might cover that airport so definitely check that if you have a covered computer. If not, the repair cost for an airport is generally not much less than a refurbished or new router. Since there's not much that even a technician can repair inside an airport once they die, you're probably looking at having to spend some money to replace the unit.


How to upload video from iPhone to Dropbox?

This worked for me just now (after downloading Dropbox):

Open Photos
Selected a video
Clicked the Share icon (square with arrow going up, left side)
Clicked on "More..." (scroll to the right, if necessary)
Turned on Dropbox and clicked Done (top right)
Selected Dropbox, filled in the info, and pressed "Post"

That should do it.


El Capitan auto-corrects even though I turned it off in settings

There is only place to disable spell check in System Preferences and on doing that it works fine for me on El Capitan. Can you try enabling and disabling again and probably a reboot to see if it helps.


The superuser question, Markdown Live Preview Editor?, provides a wealth of options:

BBEdit
TextMate
Mou
Marked
MarkdownLive
Atom
Marked 2
MacDown

In additional to those, you can install a markdown QuickLook plugin for Finder based previews.

MarkdownLive

Mou

Marked 2


Why do I have to keep inputting my email password on my macbook air?

I'm not understanding why this is happening with you. Well basically, you can say your mac is "forgetting" your Apple ID / email or whatever. If this situation is related to an Apple ID, using The Mac App Store, logout and login and tick the "Don't Forget"

You can use Keychain Access! You can modify which applications will automatically log you into your email while starting the application.


How to review macOS 10.12 Server documentation without installing?

Apple does not bundle any PDFs with macOS 10.12 Sierra Server.

A standalone macOS 10.12 Sierra Server installer does not exist. Server.app is just an app which is downloaded from the Mac App Store.

The 'Help' Menu in Server.app has an entry called 'Server Help' which forwards to https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/5.3/index.html .

The macOS server requirements are available in the Server Help as well. The checklist Install macOS Server may be helpful as well.


This is something we had issues with today at work.

It goes like this:

Have a folder (Folder 1) and create another folder in this folder (Folder 2). Copy a file (such as an image) into Folder 2. Now you won't be able to rename Folder 1 without Finder asking for admin password, and entering that gives the same dialog as the second posted above by Ash. Moving (or deleting) the file that was added to Folder 2 out  from that folder makes it possible to rename Folder 1 again. Seems like a bug to me. It has been reported to Apple.


Game asks for in-app upgrade money again after re-installing - IPAD 2 / IOS 5

Until iOS 5 if you downloaded an app, and then removed it, then went back into the App store, then tried to download it again, it would still look like you were going to pay again until after you enter your iTunes password, at which point it would cross check against your purchase history and confirm that it would actually be free.

In iOS5 this behaviour has changed to show informative information such as "install" or "installed" rather than just show the price like it did previously.

I suspect that the in-app purchase mechanism is just a little behind the curve, especially if the app has not yet been updated fully for iOS5 (it hasn't - last update March 18, 2011).  I would confirm that the in app purchase history appears in your purchase history (use iTunes on your PC/Mac and check your account section for the easiest way to see this), and so long as it appears, I would proceeed and enter my password anyway, chances are that the old behavious will still apply, and it will happily just redownload it.  If it does by any chance charge you again, you can easily take it up with apple, and either you remember incorrectly or it's come down in price but I just took a look (to check the in-app purchase wasn't one of the "buy 100 coins" type that you can legitimately buy again and again) and it's currently only £0.69


Can two Macs be kept in sync using a single external hard drive?

To keep all settings and files of two Mac's in sync through an off-line method you could place your Home folder on an external HDD.
There are plenty of tutorials on-line on how to do this, I will use this one to explain the process.

I assume you have a user account Allan on the current MacBook Pro (MBP-1) which you would like to share with the new laptop (MBP-2) through an external HDD named ExtDisk. Keep in mind that you should substitute the actual hard disk and user account names.

First create a back-up of the user account in case something goes wrong. Time Machine is an option for that, but you can also clone the drive with for example Carbon Copy Cloner.
Create a new administrator account on each MacBook Pro. This is for the case that you lose the external HDD for some reason or just don't have it with you. This way you'll still have an account from which you can use the laptop.
Migrate the Allan user account from MBP-1 to the new MBP-2. Here's an Apple Knowledge Base article on how to do that.
On MBP-1 login to the newly created admin account. Copy the Allan home folder of MBP-1 to ExtDisk. You can do this by using the following Terminal command (the Terminal application is found in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app):
sudo ditto -v /Users/Allan/ /Volumes/ExtDisk/Users/Allan
This command will ask your admin account password to get permission to copy all your files to the external disk ExtDisk.
When you're done copying, open ExtDisk in the Finder and check if the user folder is there and has (roughly) the same size as the Allan user folder on MBP-1.
Go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups. Right click on the Allan account and click Advanced Options....
The Home directory line says now /Users/Allan. Click Choose... and navigate to the home folder on ExtDisk.
Connect the external HDD to MBP-2 and repeat steps 6 and 7 on MBP-2.
Do the following on each Mac with the external HDD connected: login on the Allan account and check if everything went right. To verify that it actually uses the home folder on the external HDD, select a file on the Desktop, hit cmd+I to show the Get Info window and check if the Where field says /Volumes/ExtDisk/Users/Allan/Desktop.
If all went well you can delete the /Users/Allan folder on the internal hard drives of MBP-1 and MBP-2.
Now you can use the setup as follows:

plugin the external HDD and turn on the laptop
login on the Allan account at home
shutdown the laptop at home  (maybe a logout is sufficient).
disconnect the external HDD. Go to work.
plugin the external HDD in at work and turn on the laptop.
use the Allan account at work.

Pro-tip: as you will be carrying around your HDD with you the chance that the drive has an unpleasant physical encounter is somewhat higher. Make sure to have a daily backup running, either at home or at work, or if you really want to be sure at both places.

Disclaimer: I have not carried out this process myself. I don't accept any responsibility in the case you lose files.


Several Google Chrome Helper orphan processes

Assuming these aren't zombie processes (ones that can't be killed), you can try pasting the following command into Terminal:

killall Google\ Chrome\ Helper


Remove faint imprint of stickers from space grey macbook

The space grey coating is anodized and possibly dyed.
What your photo illustrates is differential weathering effects upon the aluminum surface. Where the stickers were is the original color - you actually are asking how to reverse the weathering or basically re-anodize or dye the layer of chemically modified aluminum alloy so that the exposed portions match the unchanged. An equivalent process would be to  somehow catch up the protected portions to match perfectly to the rest of the Mac.
Basically, you’re not likely to “fix” this just like tattoo removal in some cases isn’t able to restore the unpigmented condition of some skin types and ink combinations.
Back to the Mac - once you’ve used a solvent to remove the residue of any adhesive or remnants of vinyl or whatever other material you introduced, the actual oxidized layer may be permanently changed.


Renew apple developer membership after it expires

You need to just wait and try again in an hour or two. The Apple Store is down right now  pending the new products that can be pre-ordered later today (in about an hour).


EasyFind doesn't search inside .def files

Open the Settings window by clicking on the cogwheel button.

Tick the 'Scan all files' checkbox.

Alternatively, add def to one of the lists (make sure to separate it with a comma from the rest of the list) and make sure the checkbox next to it is ticked.


Is there a way to play YouTube videos in the background?

Yes! You only need to enter from safari and not from the app. You choose the song you want to listen to, press the home button, swipe up to multitask and press play!


IOS 7 & MSFT Exchange: Deleted email keeps re-appearing

Ended up having to delete the account and start from scratch


Is there a way to set multiple artists for one song?

There is no easy way to do this, you only have one artist field per track.

What you could do is listing the name of all artists in the artist field and then create smart playlists with rules for "Artist contains".


Is it normal for my MacBook Pro (unibody) to creak in some spots?

That's not "ticking," that's a creak from the flex in the aluminum chassis. The MBP is not a brick of aluminum but a computer inside a hollow shell. While built solid, there is still play in the materials.

The sound you're hearing is likely the case pressing against the RAM, the battery connector, or the metal protector right beside the battery connector (or perhaps another component inside the machine).

If you are worried, take it into Apple. But they'll tell you the same thing.


While you can sometimes geolocate an IP address (which you can find out from Dropbox on the website by clicking the account name, settings, security, and the "i" by the relevant device) and typing this into an IP geolocation service, it will not usually show you a location anywhere near where that IP address is in use. In fact different services can report completely different locations.

The IP could be used by the police to request that information from the ISP themselves with a warrant though as they will hold records on where it's currently in use, and would be by a single location.

There are some caveats though, the IP could be a public hotspot, or a company which allows VPN access which means it could be anywhere.

All Dropbox can give you is the IP and hostname of the device though, so unless you're able to take it through the route of legal proceedings, it's unlikely.


The problem was solved.

I run ps aux | grep httpd and got a lot of process.
I've killed each process and restarted ZS. Now it's ok)


Can't access recovery mode because I deleted everything from HD

As mentioned by NoahL - use internet recovery mode.

  First, check this: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X
  Internet Recovery. If you can use Network Recovery, then do the
  following:

  Install OS X Using Internet Recovery   Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the
  following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

  Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:   Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe
  appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the
  Recovery main menu appears.

  Partition and Format the hard drive:   Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button. After DU loads select
  your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID
  and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the
  DU main window.

  Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the
  drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition
  scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac
  OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until
  the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

  Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button. Be sure to select the SSD.   Note: You will need an active
  Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it
  is three times faster than wireless.

  This should restore the version
  of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.


Can't get wrong sender name from appearing -- only when sending from iphone

Maybe I'm missing something or misunderstand the question, but it seems to me the reason for this has nothing to do with your iPhone. Instead, it's most likely related to where the email address is recorded in the contacts on your laptop and on devices belonging to other people.

I'll try and clarify my answer with an example scenario:

Let's say an email address is used by Fred Flintsone. You and others add Fred Flintstone to your various Contact lists on your various devices and add the email address to that contact.
Fred Flintstone retires and then Pebbles Flintstone takes over and assumes the same email address. She uses an iPhone and adds the email account to her settings and uses her name. So now the email address, on her iPhone, appears with her name.
However, Pebbles also uses the laptop that Fred used previously. In this laptop the email address is still listed under Fred's details in the contacts. So, if an email comes into the inbox on this laptop, it appears as though it's come from Fred Flintstone because that's who the email is associated with.
Likewise, if anyone else still has that email address associated with Fred Flintstone in their contact lists, the same thing will happen.

Assuming that your scenario is something like the above, then the answer is to ensure that the email address is associated only with you, not with your former assistant and not with both you and the former assistant on their contact lists.

NOTE: This scenario does not apply in all scenarios (e.g. with a MS Exchange account, etc) but does apply in most situations.


Fullscreen on multiple displays and swiping moves all screens

System Preferences → Mission Control and enable Displays have separate Spaces.


Calculating a custom total for a column on iPad mini and Numbers

Summing a column with conditions can be done with the SUMIF() or SUMIFS functions.

  The SUMIF function is a worksheet function that adds all numbers in a range of cells based on one criteria (for example, is equal to 2000). To add numbers in a range based on multiple criteria, try the SUMIFS function.

For example:

=SUMIFS(A2:A10, A2:A10, “>0”)

Looks at all values greater than 0 and totals them up.

To use formulas and functions in Numbers for iOS:

Select the cell in which you wish to have the calculation.  (In the attached example, for instance, cell A11)
Type the equals sign character = or select circled equals sign icon.
Start typing the name of the function you wish to use, or tap the fx at the top left of the virtual keyboard to see a list of functions to choose from.

For more detailed information on how to use formulas and functions in Numbers for iOS, please see the official documentation here from Apple.


How can I remotely delete sensitive data and log out from a stolen Mac?

Find my Mac
Find my Mac is free and part of iCloud. Included features are:

localize your Mac (internet connection required, Email notification)
remotely lock your Mac to protect privacy
remotely wipe your hard drive
play a loud sound
display personal messages on the Mac

You need a Mac computer with Lion to use this feature.


Mac mini not autobooting after "dirty" shutdown

The first thing I would try is resetting the System Management Controller (SMC), as it's responsible for power management, sleep/wake/hibernation, restarts/shutdowns, and so on.

Resetting the SMC on a 2018 model Mac mini

For your particular Mac mini you'll need to follow these steps:

Fully shut down your Mac mini
Press and hold the power button for at least 10 seconds
Let go of the power button and wait five seconds
Switch your Mac mini on again

Now test to see if this has resolved the issue. If not, then try resetting the SMC with the following steps instead:

Fully shut down your Mac mini
Unplug the Mac mini from its AC power source
Wait at least 15 seconds
Plug the Mac mini back into its AC power source
Wait at least another five seconds
Switch your Mac mini on again

Now test again to see if this has resolved the issue.


Add casual material such as screenshot fast to Final Cut Pro video? How? From Desktop?

Just drag the image in from Finder (including Desktop and Dock) to the timeline:


Chances of getting my harddrive recovered

You are likely doomed.  The store gurus will go over data recovery options and explain they don't fix damaged drives, they are simply going to ask about the status of your backup and whether you want them to test the operation and see if it needs to be exchanged under warranty / AppleCare.

Some things to try on dead and near dead drives include putting them on their end or sides rather than having them oriented flat - this is because the read/write heads that sit between the actual disc platters may respond better then they are held vertically by gravity rather than horizontally by their precision engineering which sounds like it;s been compromised.  Give it a go, see if it sounds any better (assuming you are not using an iMac where they are are already mounted this way).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.


iPhone: How to prevent maximum screen brightness when charging?

Upgrade to iOS 4.2. It fixes both the charging brightness and the locked screen brightness bugs. I just tried it and it works.


How can I diagnose a Mac running hot and having high fan usage?

As IconDaemon mentioned in their comment, Activity Monitor is by default located in Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities.

However, since your question seems to really be about your Mac running hot with the fan cutting in often, and since you say you're not proficient with Mac OS - any pointers welcomed, I thought I'd suggest you try starting in Safe Mode and potentially also resetting the System Management Controller (SMC).

Boot into Safe Mode

As a troubleshooting step you can boot your Mac into Safe Mode to see if your issue persists, both during Safe Mode and afterwards when booted normally again.
Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. is your Mac still running hot, etc)
Now exit Safe Mode to restart your Mac as normal
Again, take a note of what happens (i.e. is your Mac still running hot, etc)

Once you've booted into Safe Mode, let me know how you went. However, if the issue persists (especially if it persisted during Safe Mode) you can reset the SMC to see if that resolves the issue.

Reset the SMC

Your computer's System Management Controller (SMC) is responsible for a wide range of functions, including your Mac's cooling fans, power management, battery performance, and the list goes on. The instructions for resetting your SMC depend on whether your device runs

from a built-in battery?
a removable battery?
off AC power (i.e. plugged into a power point)?

Since you don't actually specify your model of Mac, I will provide the steps for all three scenarios. Ensure you select the one that applies to you!

For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own (i.e. it's a built-in battery), here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
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.

For MacBook Pros, MacBooks etc that you can remove the battery from, here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Disconnect the MagSafe plug (power cable) from the computer
Remove the battery
Press the power button for 5 seconds and release
Put the battery back in
Reconnect the MagSafe cord (or power cable)
Turn your computer back on with the power button

For iMacs, Mac Pros, Mac Minis, etc that only run from a power point in the wall

Shut down your computer
Unplug it from power
Wait 15 seconds
Plug the power cord back in
Wait for an additional 5 seconds
Press the power button to turn it back on

Once you've used the appropriate steps to reset the SMC for your model, report back on how you went.

Intel Mac temperature database

As an aside, you may be interested in the Intel Mac Temperature Database. This will give you an indication of the typical temperature ranges experienced by users of various intel Macs. The list can be filtered to suit your needs.


applescript : add clipboard content to list

Let's say my clipboard is "name email phone" and any random text and numbers.
Can the words be separated and added in a list?

You don't realise it, but you've answered your own question.
TL;DR
Say your clipboard contains the string "Kevin stackexchange.com 124098".  Separate this into a list of words like so:
words of (the clipboard) --> {"Kevin", "stackexchange.com", "124098"}

You can read more about this builtin AppleScript feature below, where I've given a detailed explanation, including why, sadly, this won't be quite as effective if an email address is involved:
words of "Kevin@example.com" --> {"Kevin", "example.com"}

So you'll either need to remember to restore the obliterated "@" symbol later; or, as you suggested, use text item delimiters set to a space character.
Detailed Information: text item delimiters vs words
AppleScript text objects are comprised of word and character elements that subdivide one another into the component building blocks of any string: text subdivides into words and/or characters; a word subdivides into characters.
Moreover, the words subdivide text at intervals marked by whitespace of any length, which is much more convenient than text item delimiters, which will split a string at each individual occurrence of a specified delimiter.
For example, setting text item delimiters to the space character, and applying it to a two-word phrase with three spaces between them, you'll end up with this:
text items of "foo   bar" --> {"foo", "", "", "bar"}

However, obtaining instead the words that make up the string avoids having to deal with empty-string list items:
words of "foo   bar" --> {"foo", "bar"}

Moreover, like text items, words of a text object will subdivide the string naturally into a list of individual items.
For completeness, I'll quickly demonstrate how characters will decompose a string:
characters of "foo"       --> {"f", "o", "o"}
characters of "foo   bar" --> {"f", "o", "o", " ", " ", " ", "b", "a", "r"}

A bit of caution is warranted when decomposing a string into words, believing it operates identically (or near enough) to a space delimiter.  It doesn't.  There are a defined set of characters that are considered "word characters", and a set of characters that are not.  "Word characters" are any character that, when grouped together, are considered word-forming.  If any non-word character appears, the word is considered split into two distinct words at that character.
Word characters basically include the letters A-Z and a-z (and any accented variants), numbers 0-9, the period (.) and the underscore (_).  So "tH1s" is a word, and "this_is_a_single_word.123".  However, "this#is%four words", and, counterintuitively to me, "over-achieving" is considered two words (the hyphen is a non-word character).
Other non-word characters obviously include the space; or any whitespace for that matter.  Plus any symbol you can type with your keyboard that wasn't included in the list of word characters, except the dollar sign ($), which I annoyingly left to now to mention just to reflect how annoying it is that it's randomly considered a word character:
words of "hello#$&world" --> {"hello", "$", "world"}


OS X: Suddenly only one window/application visible at the same time

This answer lifted in its entirety from Super User : Snow Leopard desktop - I want two files from two different applications open at the same time. Won't let me

  Have you per chance turned on "Single App
  Mode"?
  This hidden preference causes Mac OS X to hide all applications but
  the current active one.

  You can tell by running the following command in Terminal.app:

defaults read com.apple.dock single-app

  If it prints a 0then it is not turned on. If it prints a 1 then
  yes, it is turned on.

  You can disable this trick by running:

defaults write com.apple.dock single-app 0


Upgrading from OS X 10.8.5 to Yosemite: Potential challenges

I can't directly answer your specific questions but I advise you to wait before upgrading. Right now version 10.0.1 is out and I still have a couple problems I never had on Mavericks (now imagine all issues you'll have coming from 10.8).
But as far as I remember from upgrading to Mavericks a year ago, I didn't lose any software or packages nor did I have any problems.


Your question seems to jump around quite a bit and because of that is a little confusing. Below are some answers that may help.

If you want to confirm whether your Mac Mini is 64 bit, the answer is yes.
Your question title says I need to get the Messages app on OS X Lion (10.7) but your question details say you already have the Messages beta app installed. That is the only official version (albeit in beta) that was released for Mac OS X Lion. In other words you already have Messages installed, so I'm not sure what you're question title is about?
Your question also states I need this Mac to run iMovie 11. iMovie '11 was bundled with all new Macs sold on or after October 20, 2010 or for separate purchase in iLife '11. So, if you want it installed on your Mac Mini, you would have had to have purchased and installed it (as part of iLife '11). It was also available for purchase on the Mac App Store. The good news is that in terms of compatibility, iMovie '11 works perfectly in Mac OS X Lion (10.7).

If what you want to know is something different, then please clarify your question.


Delay in screenshots and cursor issue on MacOS after update?

The first thing to check is if a process is taking much CPU. Are you familiar with the Activity Monitor?

https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/welcome/mac

I like to give it a try and make sure you have a backup if you are quitting processes you don’t usually start yourself (like Chrome or Safari or FireFox) in case stopping the process interrupts some work it needed to do. It also prepares you if you decide to reinstall the OS. Sometimes an update doesn’t complete its steps to be ready to run properly and just reinstalling it sorts out a newly slow machine.


How to enable indexing for this internal HDD?

Based on nohillside's idea, I went ahead and renamed the volume. After that, I could immediately enable indexing. ¯_(ツ)_/¯


If iCloud is logged out in iTunes and my iPhone is reset, can I still track it?

If I understand your question, the answer is no.

To track your phone, you need to have turned on Find My iPhone by logging into iCloud and flicking the Find My iPhone switch. If you logged out of iCloud, you turn off Find My iPhone, and your phone cannot be tracked. Only you can turn off iCloud unless somebody knows, or guessed, your password and turned it off themselves.


How can I disable SSH KeychainIntegration in OS X Mavericks?

Based on the source code for the current version of SSH that's shipping with Mavericks (located here), it appears that the functionality of the config option KeychainIntegration has not yet been implemented. I'm making this assumption based on the contents of openssh/readconf.h, which does not reference the KeychainIntegration option. It does, however, reference the askpassgui option. Checking the "keywords" struct in that file does indeed show that the keychainintegration option is not present (which in turn implies that the oBadOption (NULL) op code would be returned).

Another clue implying that the functionality you desire is not implemented in the way the man page specifies is the file: openssh/keychain.c. The source code actually shows that the defaults system (i.e., Property List files) is being used to store settings related to KeychainIntegration. Specifically, lines from the store_in_keychain function reference KeychainIntegration:

/* Bail out if KeychainIntegration preference is -bool NO */
if (get_boolean_preference("KeychainIntegration", 1, 1) == 0) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Keychain integration is disabled.\n");
    goto err;
}

Here is the corresponding get_boolean_preference function. Note that it's using CFPreferencesCopyAppValue to obtain a boolean from the "org.openbsd.openssh" application identifier:

#if defined(__APPLE_KEYCHAIN__)

static int get_boolean_preference(const char *key, int default_value,
int foreground)
{
int value = default_value;
CFStringRef keyRef = NULL;
CFPropertyListRef valueRef = NULL;

keyRef = CFStringCreateWithCString(NULL, key, kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
if (keyRef != NULL)
    valueRef = CFPreferencesCopyAppValue(keyRef,
        CFSTR("org.openbsd.openssh"));
if (valueRef != NULL)
    if (CFGetTypeID(valueRef) == CFBooleanGetTypeID())
        value = CFBooleanGetValue(valueRef);
    else if (foreground)
        fprintf(stderr, "Ignoring nonboolean %s preference.\n", key);

if (keyRef)
    CFRelease(keyRef);
if (valueRef)
    CFRelease(valueRef);

return value;
}

#endif

This might imply that you can disable the KeychainIntegration functionality for yourself by performing this defaults command:

defaults write org.openbsd.openssh KeychainIntegration -bool NO

or to set it for all users:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/org.openbsd.openssh KeychainIntegration -bool NO