The system may have been joined to an Active Directory (or other kind) of network authentication domain that would make changing the local admin password not work for long.

On general principles I would save nothing on a computer that I bought from somewhere else.

That said I would suggest:

Boot into Recovery Mode
Select Disk Utility
Reformat the hard drive (then quit Disk Utility)
Click on Reinstall MacOS

You will likely be asked to authenticate to your WiFi network and presented with the install screen of the macOS version that originally shipped with the Mac.

That should give you a clean slate from which to do as you please, including upgrading to a later version of macOS.


Cannot turn off FileVault process in terminal or DU in macOS High Sierra

If you're on a laptop, make sure it's plugged in as FileVault will pause on battery.  If that's not causing it, you can create a clone of your system using Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/) or SuperDuper - that's what I would do - and then wipe the system, re-install the OS (High Sierra isn't that bad).  Then I would enable FileVault on the clean system, wait for it to finish encrypting what little is there (OS only, a few gigs), then restore your files from the clone manually, then enable Time Machine and have it do its backups.


How to make right click using keyboard only on a Mac?

I don't know any way to show a context menu for items selected with the keyboard like what the menu key does in Windows.

To assign a keyboard shortcut for performing a secondary click at the current coordinates of the pointer, you can either:

Use a private.xml like this with Karabiner:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Right Mousebutton</name>
    <identifier>rightMouseButton</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_R, PointingButton::RIGHT</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Use BetterTouchTool:

Use Keyboard Maestro:

Download MouseTools and assign a shortcut to MouseTools -rightClick.


Technically speaking, any app running with user privileges can access/modify/delete user files.  This of course, is limited to the owner; meaning an app running as one user cannot interact with files of another user unless the app has "elevated" privileges allowing it to do so.


MacOS Apple Maps: Can I show street numbers?

Drop a pin on the street and Apple Maps shows it’s best guess as to the street address. Same for just entering a street address - maps will pin where it thinks that is.

A quick check of one of the suburbs near Melbourne shows this data to be equivalent for you as for us in the US. It’s not perfect, as I would expect this pin to be in Ervin Rd.


You need to change the view properties of the Finder window. Here's how to do it using Menu commands.

View the Finder Window as a List (View > As List).
Set "Arrange By" to None. (View > Arrange By > None).

You should now see the Finder window property headers and then you can click on Name to sort ascending or descending.


Mac terminal cd to folder IN current directory

There is. Type:

cd sample_dir

It checks for you. If for some strange reason that doesn't work, type:

cd ./sample_dir


How does macOS store Unix file permissions in ZIP files

The permissions are stored in the same manner as they are on other Unixoid systems, such as for example Linux.

If you look at the central directory header in the zip-file, you have for each file stored in the Zip-file a field called "external file attributes". The field is at byte 36 in the header and is 4 bytes long.

The two last bytes in that field contains the file permissions on macOS - to be precise it is the last 9 bits (the least significant 9 bits). Their meaning is just like traditional Unix file permissions.


how do you cancel a pending purchase in iTunes

Technically, the purchase is not pending, as soon as the payment gets cleared from your bank account the purchase is deemed complete and final. Nevertheless, you can always contact iTunes support through Report a Problem and get refund for your purchase. Some developers bar refunds if the app has been downloaded at least once, since you haven't done so you need not worry about this caveat.

The portal shows purchases you made in the last 90 days, for older purchases you'll need to contact iTunes Support directly.

Follow these steps.

Go to Apple's Report a Problem portal and sign in using the Apple ID used for purchase.
You should see a list of your recent purchases (last 90 days). Find the app in question and tap on report.
Describe your problem and click submit.

Apple Support will write to you with 3-5 business days. All the best.

Reference: Apple Support


How do I preserve file paths after cloning a failing external drive?

If by cloning you mean you're going to use software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to create an exact image of your external drive, and as long as you ensure the external drive maintains the same volume name, then you should have no problems.

Once you've made the copy, however, I would no longer keep the other external drive connected.

Libraries: iTunes and Photos

In your question you state:

  How do I make sure that, after cloning the drive, my applications will
  read their files from the new drive without me manually having to
  re-specify the file locations? I.E. not having to manually update the
  file locations of every song in my iTunes library.

Well, if you're only concerned about your Photos and iTunes library, then even if you didn't clone your external hard drive, you'd still be fine as you can manually set where the iTunes Library and Photos Library are located. This is a once off step. For example, once iTunes knows where it's Library is, it will find everything. You don't need to manually update the file locations of every song in your iTunes library.


Jailbroken iPhone 3G Wi-Fi is greyed out, no 3G, need to open a mobileconfig file or load pan editing

I have heard many times of wifi greyed out, and generally it was right after updating their iOS with a new version. No amount of DFU seemed to fix it, and I think it is because the issue was with the firmware killing the iPhone's wifi.

I am fairly certain Apple repairs these types of problems, you might even call them and see if they will replace it as their update possibly caused it.

For the second piece, If you are trying to get a network connection without wifi, prepare for some fun. It looks like you will need to run some sort of proxy service on your computer, modify some plists, and then run a few commands.
The first link has some more mac os x specific stuff, but they are both worth a read.

http://alk2blog.blogspot.com/2008/08/ssh-to-get-your-iphone-online-via-usb.html
http://modmyi.com/forums/general-iphone-chat/323281-how-internet-iphone-through-usb-no-wifi-no-edge.html


How can I sort a Finder search by size on OS 10.6.8?

This should do it:
Add columns to Spotlight search results
Quote:

Using Property List Editor
If you are using Property List Editor, start by going to your user folder and then navigate to Library/Preferences. In the Preferences folder find the file named “com.apple.finder.plist.” Double-clicking on this file should open it up in Property List Editor. If not, just right-click on it and choose “Open With - Property List Editor.”
Once the file is open, scroll down the list to “SearchViewSettings.” Click the disclosure triangle next to it, and then do the same for “ListViewSettings” and then “columns.” Now you should see a list of all the available columns. Click the triangle next to the column you want to add, i.e. size, and then check the box next to “visible.”

Once you are done, save the file by pressing Command-S. Finally, you will need to restart the Finder for the changes to take effect. The easiest way to do this is top hold down the Control and Option keys, click on the Finder icon in the Dock and choose “Relaunch.”
Now just press Command-F to bring up a search window and you should have your extra columns enabled.


AppleScript: How to double-click & right-click at cursor location?

Since you already know how to double-click with cliclick, my answer focuses on the right-click and traditionally on a Mac one used to preform a right-click via control-click, and as such you need to do the same thing when using cliclick.

As an example, using cliclick in Terminal, it will attempt to open the manual page for cliclick. I said attempt to open because cliclick doesn't have a manual page but will use the command line to preform some actions that will  control-click (right-click) to bring up the context menu, move the mouse to click Open man page as I've selected cliclick in the command line before pressing enter to execute the command line.

The image below shows the command line twice just so you can plainly see the full command line in the first line as part is obfuscated in the second line that's preforming the actual clicking on the Open man page from the context menu.

The image below is what appeared and was clicked when the cliclick command line was executed.

The image below is cropped but is presented to show it tried to open the manual page for cliclick.

I do not use FastScripts, however the example command should help you to understand what to pass cliclick to do whatever it is you're trying to do.

The cliclick command line explained:

cliclick kd:ctrl c:+0,+0 ku:ctrl m:+5,+5 c:+0,+0 - Full command line.
cliclick - The binary executable.
kd:ctrl - Press the control key down.
c:+0,+0 - Click relative to where the mouse is presently.
ku:ctrl - Let the control key up.
m:+5,+5 - Move the mouse five pixels on the x,y axis relative to where the mouse is presently.
c:+0,+0 - Click relative to where the mouse is presently.
Note: The full command line above can also be expressed as, cliclick kd:ctrl c:. ku:ctrl m:+5,+5 c:. since a . can be used in place of x,y axis coordinates e.g., +0,+0 for the relative position of the mouse. I personally prefer to use the former over the latter, however both forms work.

As you can see in the first image that cliclick was selected and the mouse, show as a text cursor, is right over the selection, then when the cliclick commands were executed, it opened the man page Terminal window for it, although these isn't one. However, it shows that a right-click was made and the mouse moved to the entry on the context-menu and clicked.

In AppleScript the above command line would be wrapped in a do shell script command as shown below:

do shell script "/usr/local/bin/cliclick kd:ctrl c:+0,+0 ku:ctrl m:+5,+5 c:+0,+0"

Note: Use the fully qualified pathname to the cliclick binary executable if it's in a location that is not in the PATH passed to AppleScript.


Several applications trying to connect to IP

All these applications need the DNS (Domain Name System) to translate Internet names into their IP address, and the reverse.

The IP you found are the one of the DNS servers of Verizon.
The following command will show it clearly:

 dig -x 151.205.0.101

Your udp and tcp exiting traffic toward DNS port = 53 should be permitted.

Fix your Little Snitch configuration so that all your DNS traffic could pass.


What causes the pop-up "To view this web content, you need to install the Java Runtime Environment"

For my sister this was caused by Facebook videochat. We debugged quite randomly, and could not find a way to tell what triggered this dialog; like indeed ps did not show what started it. But the following Apple Support Communities post explained how to find it by trial and error:

  Here are the steps I used to correct, as even after removal from Launch control it kept returning on reboot:

  Open a Terminal Prompt
  Show non Apple startup Agents. At $ execute

launchctl list | grep -v apple

  This will look something like the following.

PID Status Label
-   0      org.openbsd.ssh-agent
282 0      com.symantec.symsecondarylaunch.application
274 0      com.symantec.quickmenu.application
-   0      com.google.keystone.system.agent
-   0      com.valvesoftware.steamclean
-   0      com.oracle.java.Java-Updater
276 0      com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon
302 0      com.google.Chrome.62228
-   1      com.facebook.videochat.USERNAME.updater
295 0      com.symantec.scannotification.application
-   0      net.tunnelblick.tunnelblick.LaunchAtLogin
275 0      com.symantec.savdiskmountnotify.application
317 0      net.tunnelblick.tunnelblick.119880

  One of the returned items is likely your issue, mine was also com.facebook.videochat.USERNAME.updater
  Change to the Agents directory, cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
  I also had to remove the actual agent files, as it kept re-appearing on reboot. You can view those on your system and remove. List out the items in directory: ls

SharedServices.Agent.plist
com.facebook.videochat.USERNAME.plist
com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist
net.tunnelblick.tunnelblick.LaunchAtLogin.plist
org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist

  From ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ execute

rm com.facebook.videochat.USERNAME.plist

  Also remove from Launch control with

launchctl remove com.facebook.videochat.USERNAME.updater

  Exit and reboot

If I recall correctly then this videochat thing might also have been a plugin in her browser, which we then already removed earlier.


Sound not working when running OS 10 Yosemite

By default, without an external monitor and no headphones plugged into the MacBook Pro, the audio should come out of the built-in speakers and you should be able to control the audio with the built-in keyboard volume controls. If you hold down the ⌥ Option key while clicking on the audio icon in your statusbar, you should see this:

If, however, you have an external monitor plugged in via Mini DisplayPort or HDMI, and your monitor supports audio passthrough, then you may be running into a problem of the MacBook Pro seeing that monitor as the primary audio output device.

If your goal is to play audio through the built-in speakers, simply select Internal Speakers in the drop-down shown above and you will be able to control the volume again. It should look like this screenshot:

If your goal is to play audio through the external speakers, and your volume controls do not work, then that means your external speakers (or monitor's speakers) do not support the volume controls in your MacBook Pro, and you will need to control the audio through your speakers or monitor. There should be an audio control on the speakers, or you may have been provided a remote to use with the monitor/speakers.


Managed to make / writeable by running

mount -uw /

in single-user mode and then I was able to repair the permissions with:

chown -R root:wheel /usr


Based on your other question (which you seem to have posted from a different account) and the circumstances surrounding this one, I feel your hard drive is at very high risk of failure.

I would immediately make a full backup of your hard drive.

Once you've made the backup you should satisfy yourself that all of your most important files have been successfully backed up.

Then, as a minimum, I would do a full reformat of your internal hard drive. However, when you do so, don't pick the easy option. Instead click on Security Options and use the slider to choose how many times you want to write over the hard drive. No need to pick anything too high, just enough so it's not formatted in only seconds but instead writes over the entire hard drive.

I suspect that following this process will fail and you won't be able to securely erase the drive. If that's the case, it's time for you to replace the internal hard drive. This is not too difficult (I'd say about medium difficulty) and you can even choose to upgrade to a SSD if you want.

If, on the other hand, you can successfully securely erase the hard drive, then proceed to re-install your system from scratch. Afterwards you can restore your data from the backup you made (however, do not delete your backup).

Let us know how you go.


Is there a way to force Google Photos to upload in the background?

So I was experiencing the same issue and turning off background app refresh in for Google Photos under the settings app and then turning it back on seemed to do the trick for me.
Also when phone is in power saving mode background upload also disabled.


I personally find using ffmpeg shell program (available through Brew using brew install ffmpeg) the most convenient way to do the conversions.

It includes tons of options for nearly any single thing you could possibly do with a movie.

In your case though, for a conversion, you can simply type:

ffmpeg -i /path/to/input/file /path/to/output.mp4

The .mp4 extension in the output path serves as a cue for the program to do the proper conversion -- no more options are necessary.


Transferring data from old macbook to new macbook

You probably mean the Migration Assistant.


Phantom photos stuck on my iPhone that I can't delete?

Set the date of your phone a few months back. These phantom photos should now show up in "Recently Deleted" section on iOS photos. Delete them from there, and then set the date back to the present.


How to prevent loading some LaunchDaemons?

On boot all plist files in /Library/LaunchDaemons are scanned. The plist files which contain

    <key>Disabled</key>
<false/>

are loaded.

When you want them to not be loaded during next boot, change <false/> into <true/>.

For exemple with terminal command $ sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

The built in command which prevents loading a daemon on next boot and immediately unloads (stops) the requested daemon is called like this:

$ sudo launchtl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

The -w switch makes that  is being written into the plist.
The -w switch makes that the daemon is not loaded on next boot.

To verify that the daemon is unoaded with succes, issue:

$ launchtl list | grep com.google.keystone

Should return something like:

-   0   com.google.keystone.user.agent

When the output line starts with a "-" (minus sign) then the unload succeeded.

12132   0    com.google.keystone.user.agent

In case there is a number (the PID) at the first position than the unload failed.


Spotify Offline Mode: do I need to launch the app within 30 days? (when I'm online)

I think your misinterpreting the intent of that feature. Spotify offline mode basically forces your app to not connect to the Internet, in other words only the songs downloaded to your phone via the 'available offline' switch will play when the feature is enabled. After 30 days the next time you open the app it will disable the feature and connect to the Internet as normal. However, this does nothing to your music, it won't delete your downloaded songs or move it or touch it in any way, it just lets the app start up with internet connectivity allowing you to stream songs. I use this feature too and have no issues with it.

EDIT straight from their website:


Find the file that corresponds to a certain message in Mail.app?

I'm tempted to say the easiest way to do a file contents search in what Finder would consider a System location would be EasyFind - freeware, though it's one app I'd happily pay for. [No affiliation]

You can drag a folder to define the search domain, then search by Phrase in File Contents. You can either QuickLook the result, or right click & open in Mail or Reveal in Finder

I picked a fairly innocuous monthly summary from Backblaze as an example…

One thing to note is that the same mail may appear in more than one location. I really don't know why this is.


Does apps backup on iCloud consume space?

Anything on your iPhone that Apple sells in its stores (that is, any music, apps, movies, books, etc. you've purchased and are still available) will be backed up and won't count towards the 5GB total.

That doesn't include, obviously, app data, your photos and videos, SMS and the like (from iCloud: Backup and restore overview):

  What is backed up

  You get unlimited free storage for:

  Purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books

  (...)

  You get 5 GB of free iCloud storage for:

  Photos and videos in the Camera Roll
  Device settings (for example: Phone Favorites, Wallpaper, and Mail, Contacts, Calendar accounts)
  App data
  Home screen and app organization
  Messages (iMessage, SMS, and MMS)
  Ringtones
  Visual Voicemails

There are some caveats to consider when using iCloud Backup, though:

as already mentioned, purchases no longer available in the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore may not be restored
backup of purchased music is not available in all countries
backups of purchased movies and TV shows are U.S. only
music, movies, and TV shows that you did not purchase from the iTunes Store are not included
any podcasts, audio books or photos that you originally synced from your computer are excluded

I warmly recommend that you read Choosing an iOS backup method (Should I use iTunes or iCloud to back up my iOS device?) for more information on iTunes and iCloud backups and which may the right choice for you.

If the size of your backup exceeds the 5 GB free storage limit, an alternative to purchasing additional storage is to restrict which app data will be backed up. You can do that in Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage.


Slowdown and lost windows when connecting/disconnecting external monitor

In the Display settings, under the "Arrangement" tab, I had previously dragged the menubar to the external monitor. This had some benefits, such as causing the Application Switcher to appear on the external monitor, which is the one I was usually looking at. However, moving the menubar back to the built-in monitor eliminated the problems I was having. There is now no slowdown when connecting, and when disconnecting windows reallocate themselves between monitors as expected.


Are there any 1D laser barcode scanners that work well with iOS?

What do you think of the Socket CX2870-1409 Barcode Scanner?
https://www.barcodesinc.com/socket/part-cx2870-1409.htm#overview

The reviews are very decent across the board.


How do I change the OS X Mouse Pointer's color?

Anything that allows you to change the color is paid software. Here's MightyMouse.
Unfortunately, it looks like MightyMouse has been discontinued :(

I would recommend this free software that displays a circle around your cursor. When you haven't moved your mouse for awhile and you move it, it'll display a circle around the pointer. Here's the software.


Public folders or "All Users" folder in Mac?

With permissions set to "All Users", any local or directory-based user can access the item when authenticated. It refers specifically to all the users in OS X Server. The folder is not public, but accessible to all authenticated local or directory users on your server


Could it be that there is a hidden partition available on that drive?

Disk Utility can show hidden partitions, but be default it doesn't do this. You can enable this feature by first enabling the program's "Debug" menu. Just enter the following command in the Terminal, which will edit the Disk Utility preferences file accordingly:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Now relaunch Disk Utility and you should be able to see the hidden partitions by choosing "Show Every Partition" from the now-present "Debug" menu. Do keep in mind that editing hidden partitions may not be a good idea in most situations.


How can I trouble shoot "Your message could not be sent. #### is not registered with iMessage"?

On your phone, go to Settings -> Messages -> Text Message Forwarding and make sure that "Text Messaging Forwarding" is turned on for your system.


Does this help?

How to change the name you use for your Apple ID

At My Apple ID, click "Manage your account."
Sign in using your current Apple ID and password.
With the Name, ID, and Email Address drawer selected, click Edit next to your Apple ID.
Enter your new Apple ID in the Apple ID field. You should use your primary email address as your Apple ID.

You can change a non-me.com address, but you cannot change a me.com address to something else.

Do you want to change what ID you use for iTunes and AppStore purchases?

Open iTunes
Click Store
On the menu, you will see View My Account, followed by the account which is signed in.  If the account is your .me account, you are done.
You are signed in with something other than your .me account.  So, sign out.
Sign in with the .me account you want to use.  You are done.
Repeat as appropriate on the AppStore and on all your other devices.


iCloud problem: "iCloud storage is full" message

Apple now has a web interface to view and manage (some of) your storage.

https://www.icloud.com/#settings

I would go there and verify that the web interface matches the iOS device. If so, then you can go to the photo library and purge the Recently Deleted or work through the options given here:

https://help.apple.com/icloud/#/mm93f1a9aac0

From your screen shot, you might need to download documents from iCloud Drive, but worst case, you will have followed the latest cleanup steps if you need to reach out to iCloud support to have them look at the code that checks free space and validate it against the lower numbers you are being shown on your Mac.

Apple also provides free support for accounts like AppleID and iCloud so you can get personalized help from:

https://support.apple.com/


The ioreg utility uses IOKit to get the values for for example the battery status of the Magic Mouse.

You can access IOKit from Python using ctypes - a foreign function library for Python. It allows you to call C/Objective C functions etc. from Python.

You can see an example of how to that with IOKit here:

https://github.com/pudquick/pypmset/blob/master/pypmset.py

In addition you'll find that someone already creeated a wrapper for IOKit to be accessible from Python here:

https://github.com/mosen/moobjc-framework-IOKit


Automator - Running Node Command in AppleScript Error

The PATH variable for your AppleScript doesn't contain /usr/local/bin! You can check this with do shell script "env >> $HOME/Desktop/env.txt".

So either configure an additional path or use the full path to node:

do shell script "cd /Users/user/Desktop/Projects/node/cli && /usr/local/bin/node app.js DesktopUSA"


Want launchd to run a script weekly, but it is running it daily instead

Your Calendar Interval looks upside down.  Start with the day and then the time.  It should look like this:
<dict>
    <key>Weekday</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>Hour</key>
    <integer>7</integer>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>00</integer>
</dict>

You also don’t  want the “Run At Load” value set because it will execute the script the moment the plist is loaded like at boot time or upon login.
As far as your script goes it looks fine.  There’s nothing in there that will trigger it to run at a particular time as the date function is only being used to populate a variable that’s used in a filename.


Anyway to find out what program is asking for admin credentials?

I would configure syslog to record those details into a file.

Assuming that you are comfortable with editing text files from the command prompt, use your favorite editor and edit /etc/syslog.conf adding this line:

auth.info;authpriv.*;remoteauth.crit   /var/log/authinfo.log

Then send a hangup signal to syslogd via

pkill -HUP -i -l syslogd

F.


I'm not an Applescript expert, but you might consider simplifying the scripts to remove the timing aspects and use the daemon launchd for scheduling. After all, that's why Apple put it into the OS.

Though you're obviously not afraid of the command line and plist editing, Lingon is an application that provides a simple GUI interface to launchd (for the rest of us).


Is it unsafe to put router into "DHCP and NAT" mode?

Yes, by putting it in DHCP mode you did open up your router to the outside world. Assuming you have changed the default password on your router then when someone tried to connect to your IP Address then it would simply send them to your routers webpage. In theory you would be safe from 5 year olds but it is not recommended.
Just for some extra information you would only want to open Port 80, Enable DHCP Mode or enable Virtual server if you were planning to host a server from inside your network that you wanted access to from the outside.
Hope this helped!


How to create custom Mountain Lion Installer

You could do a clean install of OSX on a drive, install your base software, and set up any user accounts you use by standard (or just one "admin" account). Then use a tool like Disk Utility to copy that install over to a USB drive as a DMG file (in disk utility you use the backup/restore tool).

Or you can just install the OS on that thumb drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone it to any systems you need it on.

Naturally you would need to follow all the terms of the EULA and not install this on anyone's machine who asks.


Reset External HDD password without losing data

Highly unlikely.

The purpose of disk encryption is to make it so that someone unauthorized (that is, who doesn't know the password) can't access your data. Being able to reset the password and still get at the data defeats the purpose.

If you used that drive on a different system, and you allowed that system to save the password so it could automatically access the drive, then there is a slim chance that it could be sitting that other machine's Keychain Access secret store. (Whereby you'd open the Keychain Access app, authenticate, scan all the list of entries for the one that looked like your drive, click it, likely re-authenticate again, and it'd [in theory] show you the password to use on the first machine.)

Other than that, set the drive aside and see if the password comes to memory at some point in the future. Reformatting the drive will lose the data. Trying to get at it without the password ought to look like jumbled bits -- and you certainly don't want to alter them for fear of corrupting the underlying information.

For the future, always-always-always squirrel device access and/or recovery passwords somewhere away secure, whether on paper or in a password vault (like 1Password, LastPass, or some other similar secrets manager).

Sorry this wasn't the answer you hoped for.


Why does "Turn Passcode Off" on iOS take so long?

As another answer pointed out, iOS 8 uses FDE with passcode enabled, much the same way FileVault encrypts a hard drive on a Mac. The more data you have, the longer it will take to de-crypt or re-encrypt all this stuff as you toggle it.

The secondary reason for this is by design: Mac OS and iOS have strong UNIX and BSD underpinnings, as most are aware (side note: how cool is it iOS auto-fills 'underpinnings' after I type 'UNIX'?!). UNIX systems implement a computationally expensive hashing algorithm, which is designed to resist brute-force attacks because it takes so damn long. While the effectiveness of this technique has waned as processors become faster and more powerful, it's still noticeable as the little spinny thing on your login screen just before you log in to your Mac, which would make sitting there and typing random passwords very annoying (read up on pam_unix if this interests the developer side of your brain).


"Unable to verify macOS" when I try installing the OS on an external SSD

The 2018 MacBook Air includes the T2 security chip which can make it so you can't install macOS on an external disk. According the Other World Computing's blog:

Unable to Install Catalina on an External Drive
This issue can occur because of the T2 Security Chip found in recent
vintage [sic] Macs. The T2 chip protects your Mac by default from being
booted from an external device. This prevents someone from walking up
to your Mac with a USB flash drive, booting your Mac, and accessing
your files.
The default settings will also prevent you from installing Catalina on
an external drive.

They go on to explain that you need to tweak some of the Startup Security Utility settings, explained on another blog post.

To open the Startup Security Utility, you must boot your Mac in
Recovery Mode. To do this:

Turn on your Mac, and immediately press and hold Command (⌘)+R
after you see the Apple logo.
Booting in Recovery Mode, the next thing you’ll see is the macOS
Utilities window. Select Utilities > Startup Security Utility from
the menu bar.
You’ll be asked to authenticate; click Enter macOS Password, then
enter the name and password for an administrator account.

You would then need to set Secure Boot to No Security and set External Boot to Allow booting from external media.
Reboot your Mac and try to install the macOS on your external drive. According to everything I've read, the install should progress as expected.
Be sure to set your Startup Security Utility settings back to Full Security and Disallow booting from external media when you are done.
See also https://support.apple.com/HT208198


Occasional low contrast on external display when waking MacBook Pro from sleep

Did some more searching through system preferences and the OSD (on-screen display) settings. Looks like high dynamic range may have been the culprit here. After disabling it yesterday, I haven't had any more color issues (usually happens several times a day).


Safari 6 Search Bar Focus On New Tab/Window

In the Safari preferences under General you need to choose for Open new tabs with either:

Top sites or
Empty Page


Yosemite Updates From App Store Not Working

You may have an application which was left over from the previous owner.  The simple way to deal with that is to delete the old version and download the new version (with your own Apple ID) anew.

First, in the Mac App Store, go to the Purchases tab and verify that the app you want to download is listed there for your Apple ID.

Next, move (or, if you are brave, remove) the application from the /Applications/ folder to someplace like your Desktop.

Finally, quit/restart the Mac App Store, go back to the Purchases tab, and re-download the application.


What machines will OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) run on?

Business Insider lists the following Macs as compatible :

iMac (mid-2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (late 2008 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Mini (Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)


Did you try..

Open Safari

Press and hold the back arrow button on the far left hand side of the bottom tool bar.

Your browser history menu will appear on the screen.

From here, you can tap on a link to open it.


Ejecting USB drive via AppleScript does not make drive power down

For starters, the greyed-out appearance in Disk Utility means the disk is unmounted, not ejected. An ejected disk does not appear at all.

The reason it shows up is that when the Cinema Display wakes, the computer sees the drive show up just as if you'd plugged it in. (Honestly, I'm surprised it doesn't mount all the way and show up on the Desktop.)

One thing that can help (particularly in the case of your second script) is to use the internal disk identifier instead of the disk name. You can find the identifier by going into Disk Utility, selecting the disk (or partition) in question, and pressing the Info button (or hit ⌘+I). In that window, look at the label next to "Disk Identifier:". A disk (whole hard drive) would look like "disk0" or "disk2", a partition looks like "disk0s0", "disk0s2", or "disk2s1". Instead of using diskutil eject DriveName, use diskutil eject /dev/disk2s0.


How can I use an audio device's other channel for input to iChat and Skype?

Well, seems like I just had to think about it a little bit more. My workaround is not possible using only system utilities. I used Soundflower and LineIn from Rogue Amoeba software.

Using LineIn, I could select channels 3-4 specifically from the PreSonus device and route those to the two-channel Soundflower device. Then, I simply selected the Soundflower device as my input in iChat.


“Failed to configure php55-mysql” with MacPorts and Percona 5.5

This article How to Update a Percona Installation gave me the clue I needed to fix the problem. I'm not going to delve into it here but the gist is that Percona had to rename libmysqlclient to libperconaserverclient. The fix in that article doesn’t apply to OS X/MacPorts but this fixed the issue.

cd /opt/local/lib/percona/mysql
sudo ln -s libperconaserverclient.a libmysqlclient.a
sudo ln -s libperconaserverclient.dylib libmysqlclient.dylib

Then complete your install/update.


How can I debug a crashing application on OS X?

One possible way would be running:
sudo dtruss -n <app_executable>

where <app_executable> is the name of the executable file in the the app bundle in the Contents\MacOS folder inside the app.
For example, if you wanted to debug iTunes, you would first find out the executable name:
ls -alh /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/

drwxr-xr-x  5 root wheel 170 Mar 30 21:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 11 root wheel 374 Mar 30 21:01 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 root wheel 102 Mar 30 21:02 iTunesHelper.app
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root wheel 29M Mar 29 02:01 iTunes <<<<<<<< this one
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root wheel 18K Mar 29 02:00 iTunesASUHelper

You can also do it by right-clicking an app in Finder and selecting Show Package Contents.
Once you figured out it is iTunes you can use the following command:
sudo dtruss -n iTunes

This will display a lot low-level info, but might contain something useful to identify the cause of a crash.
Other potentially useful built-in utilities are: iosnoop, iotop, opensnoop, execsnoop, opensnoop which are all based on dtrace which is also usable on its own. They all have man pages so you can use e.g. man iosnoop in a terminal for details on usage. All of them require sudo.


From Apple's article on restoring iDevices using iTunes:

  Connect your device to your computer using the cable that came with it.
  Select your iPhone, iPad, or iPod when it appears in iTunes.
  In the Summary panel, click Restore.
  Click Restore again to confirm that you want to restore your device to factory settings and delete all data and content. iTunes will
  download the device software file and restore your device.
  After your device is restored to factory settings, it will restart. When it does, you’ll see the "Slide to set up” welcome screen. Follow
  the steps in the device Setup Assistant. You can set up your device as
  new or use a previous backup. If you restored an iOS device that has
  cellular service, it will activate after you finish setting up your
  device.


How to copy books from iPad iBooks to PC?

Sync the ipad with books selected then you get a message asking you to transfer purchases, that should work shouldn't it?


Application that allows you to customize which keys to use for mousekeys

The predefined settings in KeyRemap4MacBook aren't really usable, but you can add custom settings by creating a private.xml.

See the source for the virtual keycode constants and the predefined settings.


How to show a "temp" slide during bullets animation in keynote

Make two text boxes, the first with bullets 1 and 2 and the second with bullet 3. Then add an entrance and exit effect for the picture in between the entrances of the two text boxes.


Short answer - No.

You can go from Thunderbolt to DisplayPort, but not the other way round.

You can connect DisplayPort devices to a Thunderbolt port, but you can't connect a Thunderbolt device to DisplayPort.


Stop the Outlook 2016 Reminders window from being "always on top"

If you switch to the Outlook app then Hide (⌘H) Outlook, the Reminders window will be hidden along with the rest of the app.

If you switch back to Outlook again the Reminders will return to being always on top, so it will occlude other apps again if you switch back away from Outlook other than by Hiding it.

(I figured this out from one of the far more numerous complaints about Reminders NOT interrupting work, where KiltedTim recommended not hiding Outlook)


Applescript for multiple find/replace using separate masterlist

You must use the text from the first document instead of putting it into a list.

Put the searching text and replacing text from the second document into a list.

Like this script :

tell application "Finder"
    set filePath to (first file of folder "Data1" of desktop) as alias
    set filePath2 to (first file of folder "Data2" of desktop) as alias
end tell
-- get unique text from the first column
set uniqueText to do shell script "awk -F'" & tab & "' 'BEGIN{getline}{print $1}' " & quoted form of POSIX path of filePath

-- get unique text from the first column, but print the first and the second column to get the searching text and the replacing text (pair), this put the awk's result into a list
set uniqueList2 to paragraphs of (do shell script " awk -F'" & tab & "' 'BEGIN{getline}{print $1\"\\t\"$2}' " & quoted form of POSIX path of filePath2)

set uniqueList to my replace_chars(uniqueText, uniqueList2) -- find/replace data, put the paragraphs into a list

to replace_chars(t, L2)
    set tid to text item delimiters
    set tc to count L2
    repeat with i from 1 to tc
        set text item delimiters to tab
        set {toFind, toReplace} to text items of (item i of L2) -- get items separated by tab from a item in uniqueList2)
        set text item delimiters to toFind
        set {L, text item delimiters} to {text items of t, toReplace}
        set t to L as text
    end repeat
    set text item delimiters to tid
    return paragraphs of t
end replace_chars


Cannot pass contents of Chrome address bar to Automator workflow

This works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave and Google Chrome.

Adding this following code to a run AppleScript action in your workflow, should work for you. The command copies the selected text to the clipboard

delay 1
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay .5
set theURL to the clipboard


Using my Time capsule to improve WiFi from my network supplied modem

It is certainly possible to set up your Time Capsule as your sole router even when your modem is a router/modem combo.

Setup

Part 1: setting up the Time Capsule normally

Download Airport Utility on your Mac (if you already have downloaded it, ensure it's version 5.3 or later).
Connect your Telstra modem to the WAN port of your Time Capsule via an Ethernet cable.
Connect the Time Capsule's power cable to an AC outlet.
Open the Airport Utility app on your Mac (search Spotlight for it or go to the Utilities subfolder of your Applications folder).
The Time Capsule will have an initial name (such as "Time Capsule fea88c"). Click continue to proceed.
Select "Create a new wireless network" and click Continue.
Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions (you'll probably want to use the same SSID/Password for your new network as your old one had). When finished, your Time Capsule will restart and apply your settings.

Now your Time Capsule is broadcasting WiFi. Problem is, so is your Telstra router/modem.

Part 2: turning off the router portion of the Telstra.

Find your Telstra router's local IP address (this page might help). NOTE: It is probably 10.0.0.138, but may also be 192.168.0.1 (or something else even!).
Type this IP address into your browser's address bar.
You should see a setup page for your Telstra router/modem (if you don't, you have the wrong IP address from step 8).
Find the WI-FI section:
In the WI-FI section, navigate to both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz tabs, and in each uncheck Enabled.
Test that you successfully disabled your Telstra modem/router's routing capabilities by unplugging the Time Capsule. If your internet connection drops, and your devices go offline, you're all set.
Plug your Time Capsule back in and enjoy.

Your sole router should now be the Time Capsule. If any step goes wrong, feel free to leave a comment below so I can assist you further. Thanks!

Sources and more information

Setting up Time Capsule normally, an Apple Support article.
Accessing Telstra router settings, a Telstra forum.
Turning off WiFi broadcasting of a Telstra router, a Telstra forum.


How can I force OS X to update its time more regularly?

You can define a minpoll and maxpoll time in /etc/ntp.conf. Usually the poll time is auto-adjusted by ntpd depending on some complex algorithms.

The default minpoll and maxpoll time (without specifying minpoll/maxpoll in ntp.conf) should be 6 (64 s) and 10 (1,024 s). By adding minpoll/maxpoll entries and values to ntp.conf you may force different update sequences. The values are seconds as a power of two and the allowed integer values are [3...17]. The minimal poll time is then 8 seconds and the maximal poll time is 36.4 h. You have to reboot the system or force quit ntpd with kill ... in the Terminal or in the Activity Monitor after changing the config file to apply the modifications. The ntp daemon will be relaunched automatically after killing it.

Here is an already modified example ntp.conf with a poll time between 1024 and 4096 seconds:

...
server 160.45.10.8 minpoll 10 maxpoll 12
server 192.53.103.104 minpoll 10 maxpoll 12
server de.pool.ntp.org minpoll 10 maxpoll 12

Screenshot of the ntp traffic after changing the default config file without minpoll/maxpoll to the above example 16 minutes ago and reverting it after another 12 minutes to the original state:

The default poll time of 6 is clearly visible in the above screenshot with an update sequence of ca. 1 minute in the first 14 minutes and the last 4 minutes.

Using lower poll times [3..5] (= 8 seconds to 32 seconds) doesn't necessarily mean that the time is more accurate! Due to the extended calculations made by ntpd the time adjustments may oscillate and more inaccurate results may occur than with higher poll times (≥6).

After a system update/upgrade you may have to readjust/restore the modified config file!


How to execute pre-defined JavaScript function in AppleScript and pass data to JavaScript

Compose the JavaScript string using the concatenation operator in AppleScript.
"loadKeys(" & keys & ")"

This will run the JavaScript loadKeys(key1,key2,key3).


Fake Webcam / Webcam Emulator Mac Os 10.7.4 64Bit running as a Virtual Machine.

OS X's Quartz Extreme video processing framework and services are not available under OS X 10.7.4 when running inside any kind of Virtual Machine.


Here are the default font settings for Mac OS X

as displayed by the Bresink TinkerTool utility. TinkerTool also permits the user to change these defaults, within certain parameters, as explained in the screen shot. I am posting this screen shot here because it provides a nice chart of all the fonts and sizes and how Mac OS X uses them.


Why doesn't my iPhone 6s plus charge while it is on the cable?

I've had the same problem. Sometimes shooting a little compressed air in the port or taking a swipe in there with a clean cloth (not a q-tip or kleenex) can get rid of gunk that might build up from normal use (like the phone being in a bag or pocket that has dust, dirt, lint and such.) My old 3G (with the wide charger) was doing the exact same thing until I cleaned it out - had a TON of dog hair, lint, grime, tobacco and such from like four years of riding in my pocket. Pushing in the charger just pushes down and compacts whatever is in there.

Some people suggest a toothpick or using a little rubbing alcohol (like 90% so minimal watercontent) but whatever you use I'd recommend being gentle. Here's a video where they gently use a pin. Whatever you choose to try, I'd first shine a bright light in there and take a good look (even better if you have a magnifying glass). Here are some more suggestions if mine don't help.

My folks have big cover cases for their mobiles which have flaps that close over the charging port, I just looked in their charging ports and there didn't look to be any gunk, so maybe a good idea for moving forward with a lint free mobile lifestyle?


Using @me.com email when @icloud.com is also available

Go to Mail, Preferences and click on the account tab. You should iCloud in the column on the left. Click on that and a panel appears with your email adress. See image below.

Now if you click on the blue arrow at the end of your email address you should be able to choose the one you want.


Switching apps: how to show just one window?

There's dreadfully few tweaks that can be applied to Dock, and none of the ones I know can modify the behavior of a single click on an app icon. What I would do in this situation is to assign a special gesture, say a four-finger click, to an applescript. The applescript will perform the task you want, which, in this case, is to bring up only the current window of the app under cursor.

To do this, you don't know need to know how to write a script - the script is here. You however need to know how to create custom gestures, enable Accessibility, etc. The best way to do this is the app BetterTouchTool.

tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Dock" to tell list 1
    set targetDockIcon to first UI element whose value of attribute "AXSubrole" ¬
    is not "AXSeparatorDockItem" and its value of attribute "AXSelected" is true
    tell targetDockIcon to perform action "AXShowMenu"
    tell (first menu item whose value of attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" is "✓") of ¬
    menu 1 of targetDockIcon to perform action "AXPress"
end tell

This script essentially find the app icon under cursor, right-click it for you, and click the window item with a check mark to its left. You will see the contextual menu flash for a brief second.

This script is tested on Yosemite.


Google Drive for OS sometimes unable to connect (not a problem in latest versions)

If you are using a MacBook, you are most likely experiencing this error because Google Drive has a tendency to have connection problems when the computer is woken from sleep. I noticed this happening to me on several occasions when I open my computer up in class, particularly when the wifi takes a while to connect.

Although there is not much you can do about the bug itself, I have found that it is much less likely to happen if other internet-connected apps open.


How to recover Mountain Lion's dmg file after installation?

After Mountain Lion is installed, your Mac auto-deletes "Installer Mountain Lion.app". So before installs or upgrades like that, you must make a backup (compress it and move file compressed to anywhere, where you put storage data).

And now, you need to download "Installer Mountain Lion.app" again from the App Store.


Click a button on floating window using AppleScript

I just tested this on version 1.6. This code is for clicking the button "Begin Rating"

tell application "AutoRate"
    activate
end tell
delay 2
tell application "System Events"
    click button "Begin Rating" of window "AutoRate" of application process "AutoRate"
end tell

And this code is for clicking the button "Revert Ratings"

tell application "AutoRate"
    activate
end tell
delay 2
tell application "System Events"
    click button "Revert Ratings" of window "AutoRate" of application process "AutoRate"
end tell


Games on windows 8 in bootcamp lag even on lowest graphics

I had something similar happen to me recently. Suddenly, game performance went down pretty badly, not only on Windows, but on OSX as well.

Reseting the SMC seems to have corrected the issue.

Here are instructions on how to do it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Hope it fixes your problem, if you haven't yet found a solution.


Allow Shell Script to Access Protected Library Folders (launchd)

I overcame the issue by creating an application wrapper for the script using Platypus - https://sveinbjorn.org/platypus.

I gave the resultant app Full Disk Access in the Privacy pref pane and this allowed it to run.

(Any subsequent change to the core script means regenerating the app and removing and re-adding it in Privacy as the new file is not recognised as having Full Disk Access.)


How can I launch a daemon process as a specified user at boot without an interactive login?

You can easily run as another user with sudo -u like so:

#!/bin/sh

UZER=jsmith

sudo -u "$UZER" /path/to/program/you/want/to/run

exit 0

Just change 'jsmith' to the appropriate short user name, and then save that as a script somewhere, and call from /Library/LaunchDaemons

Remember that all files in /Library/LaunchDaemons must be owned by root to be run.

(I think this is what bmike was suggesting)

Another option

However, I wrote up a HOWTO for making auto-login more secure:

Terminally Geeky: use automatic login more securely

The executive summary is this:

Turn on Automatic login
Put this launchd plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Reboot

What it does:

As soon as you login, launchd will throw you back to the login screen using:

"/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession" -suspend

Note that is all one long line.

Considering that someone with physical access to your computer has a lot of potential exploits, I consider this relatively safe, but of course everyone has to make their own determination. I run this in my small office, but my iMac is in my private office which I can lock when I'm not there.

Also note that automatic login doesn't work with FileVault 2.


How can I make all folders in Finder "snap to grid"?

The following steps applied "Snap to Grid" even for previously created folders.
Tested on:

10.6.x
10.7.3
10.8.x
10.9.x
10.12.5
10.15.7

Go to any folder control
Control click on the empty space
Click on Show View Options
In the "Sort by" drop down bar select "Snap to Grid"
At the bottom of the window click on the "Use as Defaults"
button

NOTE: Because this will become the default setup for ALL Finder windows you may consider manipulating the Icon size, Grid spacing, Text size, Label position, Background, etc... accordingly.
ALSO: If folders do not appear to have snapped to grid on a previously created folder, Relaunch Finder or you could try to toggle the "Icon size" down and back up too refresh the current window.
This is where it is on 10.15 Catalina:


Which iOS IPSW file is the right one for my iPhone 5S?

As you can see from the ipsw.me website Apple have released two slightly different versions of iOS 9.3.2 for the iPhone 5S. By looking at Apple's developer website I can see that one version is for iPhone models A1453, and A1533 and that the other is for models A1457, A1518, A1528, and A1530.

Unfortunately the ipsw.me website does not directly identify which IPSW is which, but by selecting each of them in turn we can see their file names. These file names contain the hardware string for the kind of iPhone they should be installed on.

iPhone 5S (GSM): iPhone6,1_9.3.2_13F69_Restore.ipsw
iPhone 5S (global): iPhone6,2_9.3.2_13F69_Restore.ipsw

According to this website:

Models A1453, A1533 = iPhone6,1
Models A1457, A1518, A1528, A1530 = iPhone6,2

You'll find your iPhone's model number on the back of the case (it will start with "A1").

A1453, A1533 and you need the (GSM) IPSW from www.ipsw.me
A1457, A1518, A1528, A1530 and you need the (global) IPSW from www.ipsw.me


Prevent OS X from seeing a disk previously used for Time Machine as a TM disk

There is a command named bypass that should allow you do remove Time Machine related files. This command should precede the rm command.

The path to the bypass command is given below.

/System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/Helpers/bypass

An example is given below.

/System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/Helpers/bypass rm -f /path/to/file/name

There also a service written by a third party that allows you do execute the bypass/rm commands from the Finder application. If interested, I could provide a link.


VIPs in Mail haven't worked since the first El Capitan public beta

I just got this to work after an annoying 2 months!

Select a single VIP Mailbox
Go to View then Sort By then select All Mailboxes
Go to the main VIP Mailbox and all should appear.

If that works you can then try changing the sort to go back to Inbox only.


Why does my computer itself show up on Shared in Finder?

I've seen this happen after a restart - I believe it is to do with Bonjour and has something to do with Bonjour not releasing the name during the shutdown process. When the computer restarts and tries to register with the same name - it appends the (2) / (3) in order to preserve unique names.

There might be a few things that do not work for you after this - for example, other users on your network who have bookmarked or otherwise stored links to your Bonjour services via your original name won't be able to connect properly. I've also seen issues with Mail and a few other Apple apps after the name change.


Will iOS ever play nice with Amazon purchased content?

No, there aren't any signs that this will happen anytime soon.  Especially with Apple's In-App Purchase rules.


28 pin SSD adapter or enclosure needed for Late 2014 MBP

Seems like OWC Envoy Pro is what you are looking for.
Though it is kinda pricey avout 140$ now.

Compatibility table is like this so yours is included.


Organizing Favourites in Finder with Symlinks and colons

The filesystem internal separator is : on HFS which is why other Unix don’t existing that generally. There’s no harm I can see to what you propose as its portable across Unix in my experience and harmless on macOS

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


Academic reference manager that supports freehand annotation

I can recommend Zoterro. I used it when I was at university. I'd highly recommend the website refme, it was my best friend in university.


Can I customize ANSI colors in Terminal without extra tools like SIMBL?

Terminal.app has these colors hard-coded into it. Internal methods like +[NSColor(Terminal) vtRedColor] use hard-coded floating-point constants to set the colors.

As you noted, there are SIMBL plugins that can patch this but you've already noted their current limitations. SIMBL has been updated to support 64-bit applications, so you should contact the authors of the plugins to request that they rebuild them to support 64-bit. There's also another SIMBL plugin to consider.

The only other option for Terminal.app is to write a feature request at http://bugreport.apple.com and hope that somebody at Apple is enticed to add color customization to Terminal.app for Lion.


Using Chrome on macOS without address bar & menu like kiosk mode

It's basically the same thing in macOS. Provide the path to the Chrome binary and use the flags as normal, such as:

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --app=https://gmail.com


Stop Safari asking for my password when autofilling my password

I just ran into this problem as well, I found that it was only happening on my MacBook with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner.

If this is true for you as well then you can turn the password prompt off by going to System Preferences > Touch ID and unchecking the box next to Password Autofill.


Garageband - Unable to complete In-App Purchase

You won't be able to purchase IAPs for GarageBand unless the Mac App Store is logged in to the same account that 'accepted' the iLife apps.

Make sure you're logged in to the desired account, then open App Store → Purchases. If the iLife apps show as unaccepted, click Accept.


You can import the raw video through whatever means you like, and utilize Handbrake ([enter link description here][1]) to transcode it to mp4 format, which iMovie can use. This way, you can make use of the H.264 codec to encode your 1080i videos, retaining full quality, and compressing them better than Apple's compression schemes. Personally, however, as one video guy to another, if you're going to deal with a lot of HD, just shell out the cash for a bigger drive, like an external or something. It'll save you headaches in the long run, trust me.

Good luck and happy transcoding!


I answered a very similar, though not a duplicate, question just the other day where the proposed solution would work for your as well.

Basically, the product you are looking for is Stay.


Mac OSX installer is disabled or not accessable

I re-installed Yosemite and now it is fine. The date of the installer went back to Sept.


Triggering a video at startup like the "Welcome Video" on Mac OS X Snow Leopard

I don't know how Apple did it, but a common solution to 'one-time only' actions is to check for the presence of a special hidden file in the user's home directory before doing them.

So in this case, you'd have a login script that checks if the file is there. If it is, do nothing. If it's not, play the video, then create the file.


El Capitan: Strange folder names on Synology NAS

Are you sure that all workstations are connected via AFP?

I bet you get the strange folder names because of mangled names = yes (the default) in the samba server configuration. Check Synology bad filenames or Samba name mangling for more information. One solution is to disable SMB on the NAS another is to force OS X to connect via AFP e.g. afp://user@servername/folder via "Finder->Go->Connect to Server".

Of course you can set mangled names = no in the Samba configuration but this creates problems when you connect via SMB to the server.

Samba (SMB) creates the strange names when the file or pathname contains the characters / ? < > \ : * | ", with AFP it's not a problem to read or write file or pathnames with these characters but not with SMB (Samba).

Since Mavericks (10.9) Apple prefers the SMB protocol over the AFP protocol, check Mavericks Core Technology Overview PDF for more information. For Mavericks (10.9) it is SMB2, for Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11) it is SMB3.

From the PDF-Dokument:

  SMB2 is the new default protocol for sharing files in OS X Mavericks.
  SMB2 is superfast, increases security, and improves Windows
  compatibility.

So the future is SMB3 not AFP but the problem is that you have already files with the characters / ? < > \ : * | " somewhere on the NAS because with AFP it was not a problem to create such files but when you read these files via SMB you get the mangled names, so first you have to fix the filenames via AFP or go directly on the NAS (via ssh) and fix the filenames there.

Better is a newer version of the Samba-Server >= 4.2 (maybe with DSM 6.0 from Synology?) with the module vfs_fruit which adds Apples SMB2+ extension to Samba. SMB on the Synology NAS is slow for Macs because of the missing module vfs_fruit (and because the Samba-Server has the version 4.1). So if you use only Macs, turn off SMB on the Synology NAS and use AFP only (for the moment) but if you need SMB on the Synology NAS, well... fix the filenames, turn off AFP and try SMB but... test if the speed of the SMB share is good enough for you.


What is the best free hard drive diagnostics app for Mac OS X?

About the only "free" tool that's worth anything is smartmontools, IMHO.

smartmontools is a free SMART monitoring application that comes from the Unix, BSD, and Linux world (OS X is based on BSD). This tool can provide extensive SMART monitoring but it's command line which a lot of people don't like. Everything else costs money - I suppose some people have actual costs, like food, water, heat, mortgage, etc. etc.

ZVH, over on MacRumors, has written a list of drive testing tools but beware most of these cost money:

  Mac hard drive test software - creating the definitive list

  Disk Utility, diskutil (FREE, comes with OS)
  Smartmon Tools (FREE, Open Source)
  SMARTReporter ($4.95 for commercial version, but an older version is FREE)
  Scannerz Lite ($21.95)
  Scannerz with Phoenix and FSE-Lite ($39.95)
  Disk Tools Pro ($79.99)
  Disk Warrior ($99.00)
  Drive Genius ($99.00)
  TechTool Pro ($99.99)

That's actually a really good report. Interesting that nearly no one commented on it. In any case, I think you get what you pay for. Tools like Disk Warrior and Scannerz are known to do very limited things but do an extraordinarily good job of doing it, while other "Swiss Army Knife" tools apparently do a decent job, but not really all that thorough. The author only identifies a few applications as "free."

Although I find SMART status useful, I wouldn't base my life around SMART reports and would recommend that people do web searches about the reliability of SMART testing before using it as a defacto standard.


Application displaying "The last time you opened_____, it unexpectedly closed..." error

You might try deleting any Saved Application State for the app.

You might need to scroll through to find the correct one, as they tend to be named with the convention com.companyname.productname

From the Finder, hit  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   G  for Go to Folder... & copy/paste ~/Library/Saved Application State/

You can safely delete the entire com.companyname.productname folder, it will be recreated at next launch/quit cycle.


Restoring OS X Server Data from Time Machine

The KB article HT5139 "Restoring OS X Server from a Time Machine backup" describes how to restore OS X Server (Mountain Lion) or Lion Server from a local Time Machine backup:

  The steps to restore from a Time Machine backup depend on whether your
  data was stored on the startup (boot) volume or a non-startup volume.

  Important: When restoring, restore from a local Time Machine backup. If you try to restore from a network-based Time Machine
  backup, not all settings will be restored correctly.

  (...)

  Time Machine is the native backup service for OS X Server. OS X Server
  also includes a process called ServerBackup which works with Time
  Machine. ServerBackup performs daily backups of Open Directory (if it
  is enabled) and the Postgres databases used by the Calendar (or iCal),
  Contacts (or Address Book), Profile Manager, and Wiki services. These
  daily backups are included in the Time Machine backup of Lion Server.
  ServerBackup also takes part in the restoration of server services,
  running during the first startup after a server has been restored, and
  restoring server services and databases into place after the server
  has started up.

From KB article HT5139:

If server data was on the startup disk proceed as follows:

Make sure your local Time Machine backup drive is connected.
Start up your server using OS X Recovery by holding down CommandR.
Select Restore from Time Machine Backup and follow the onscreen instructions for restoring the volume.

Otherwise:

Make sure your local Time Machine backup drive is connected.
Start up your server using OS X Recovery by holding down CommandR.
If your Time Machine drive is encrypted:

Open Disk Utility, then click Continue.
Control-click or right-click the Time Machine volume, then select "Decrypt".
Enter the volume password and click OK.
Create or make sure that you have a new service data volume that is large enough to store your previous data and has the same name as your previous service data volume.

For example, if your service data was stored on a 500 GB volume named "DataHD", make sure you have a new volume of at least 500 GB named "DataHD".
Quit Disk Utility.

From the Utilities menu, choose Terminal.
Enter the following command on one line.

Replace Time Machine Backup Disk with the name of your Time Machine backup disk, servername with the name of your server, and Startup Volume Name with the name of your previous startup volume.

cd /Volumes/Time Machine Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/servername/Latest/Startup Volume Name/
Enter the following command on one line. Replace Service Data Volume with the name of your original (and future) service data volume.

./usr/bin/tmutil restore -v ../Service Data Volume/* /Volumes/Service Data Volume
Quit Terminal.
If you also need to restore the startup volume, select "Restore from Time Machine Backup" and follow the onscreen instructions.

I realize that you tried the first option and it failed with a model mismatch error. You may want to try the second option.


How can I solve "Cannot Start Family Sharing" error, when trying to set up family sharing?

Oh.

Okay, I found a hint in an email from 2012 (!) when MobileMe transitioned into iCloud (remember that!?), and I guess I had another account back then which for reasons unknown I apparently family shared to my new account ♂

My strange past behaviour aside this looks to resolve my issue (waiting for account deletion to go through before I can know for sure).

If anyone else comes across this: https://appleid.apple.com guided me towards my long-lost account, and https://privacy.apple.com is where I put it up for deletion.


How Can I Use AirPlay Globally for System Sound?

What you want is AirFoil by Rogue Amoeba. Plays any audio from your system via AirPlay.


My MacBook's external monitor is magnified

Maybe you accidentally magnified your screen using Universal Access's screen Zoom, it can survive display detects with out zooming back out. And it can be accidentially triggered via holding down the ⌘ key or some customizable key and then scrolling up or down with your mouse or track pad.

Look in System Preferences under the "Univeral Access" section.
Once there click on the "Seeing" tab. Is "Zoom:" on? If yes then continue.
Press ⌘ + ⌥ + - to zoom out.


How to disable Cmd-Option-number shortcuts to navigate to websites?

By default (on my Mojave installation, at least), Cmd+Option+# triggers Safari to load the #th Favorite Bookmark. E.g. if you View > Show Favorites Bar, you will see that Twitter and LinkedIn are the 8th and 9th bookmarks. I would show the favorites bar and remove what you do not use.


Manual completly uninstall Chrome & Chrome Canary OSX Yosemite

The programs themselves are probably in /Applications

The files you are deleting are most of the data files they use


Yes, it takes time. Your in-app purchase should be approved before submitting your app to review. See Average App Store Review Times for waiting times.


Charge from USB on computer or wall socket?

Charging more slowly won't make any difference, other than reducing the slight side effect of heat buildup on the iPad.

But it's perfectly OK to use lower powered ports such as those on your computer instead of the main powered chargers.

It's also perfectly OK to do it the other way around; you can charge your iPhone using the more powerful 20W iPad main adapter. It won't actually charge any faster than using the equivalent iPhone adapter, though. People will warn you that you'll damage your iPhone using this method, but that's simply a misunderstanding. 20W is the amount that the charger is capable of delivering, but if the phone doesn't ask for it, it doesn't get it. It's not all or nothing.


Macbook Pro with Bootcamp and shared partition?

Here, I assume you will be using the Boot Camp Assistant to install an UEFI booting Windows 10. The computer I am using to test this answer is an iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) with macOS 11.13.6 (High Sierra) and macOS 10.15.3 (Catalina) installed. The output from diskutil list, after installing Windows 10 Pro Version 1909, is shown below. Here the Mac is running Catalina.

Last login: Sat Mar 21 18:14:10 on console
davidanderson@Snapper ~ % diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         898.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                102.0 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +898.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Muskie                  32.2 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 116.3 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      9.7 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Snapper - Data          339.7 GB   disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume Snapper                 11.1 GB    disk1s6

Adding an ExFAT Formatted Partition after the APFS Container Partition

The command diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 800G ExFAT Fish1 0 was entered to create a ~100 GB ExFAT volume. The output is shown below. The value of 800G was chosen, because this is approximately 100 GB smaller that current partition size of 898 GB.

davidanderson@Snapper ~ % diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 800G ExFAT Fish1 0
Started APFS operation
Aligning shrink delta to 98,000,027,648 bytes and targeting a new physical store size of 800,000,000,000 bytes
Determined the minimum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS Container to be 408,089,001,984 bytes
Resizing APFS Container designated by APFS Container Reference disk1
The specific APFS Physical Store being resized is disk0s2
Verifying storage system
Using live mode
Performing fsck_apfs -n -x -l -S /dev/disk0s2
Checking the container superblock
Checking the EFI jumpstart record
Checking the space manager
Checking the space manager free queue trees
Checking the object map
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Muskie was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.81.1)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Preboot was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.81.1)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Recovery was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.81.1)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume VM was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.81.1)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Snapper - Data was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.81.1)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Snapper was formatted by diskmanagementd (1412.61.1) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.81.1)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Verifying allocated space
The volume /dev/disk0s2 appears to be OK
Storage system check exit code is 0
Shrinking APFS Physical Store disk0s2 from 898,000,027,648 to 800,000,000,000 bytes
Shrinking APFS data structures
Shrinking partition
Modifying partition map
Volume name      : Fish1
Partition offset : 1562910720 sectors (800210288640 bytes)
Volume size      : 191406080 sectors (97999912960 bytes)
Bytes per sector : 512
Bytes per cluster: 131072
FAT offset       : 2048 sectors (1048576 bytes)
# FAT sectors    : 6144
Number of FATs   : 1
Cluster offset   : 8192 sectors (4194304 bytes)
# Clusters       : 747648
Volume Serial #  : 5e7b02c4
Bitmap start     : 2
Bitmap file size : 93456
Upcase start     : 3
Upcase file size : 5836
Root start       : 4
Mounting disk
1 new disk created or changed due to APFS operation
Disk from APFS operation: disk0s5
Finished APFS operation

The output from diskutil list is shown below. The new ExFAT formatted partition has the identifier of disk0s5.

davidanderson@Snapper ~ % diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         800.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Fish1                   98.0 GB    disk0s5
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                102.0 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +800.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Muskie                  32.2 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 116.3 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      9.7 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Snapper - Data          339.7 GB   disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume Snapper                 11.1 GB    disk1s6

  Note: This change did not cause any problems booting Windows 10.

Adding an ExFAT Formatted Partition after the NTFS Formatted Partition

  Note: There exists a Golden Rule which can be loosely stated as “Never use Windows software to change the partitioning on Mac computers.” An exception to this rule is when Windows UEFI boots from the Windows installation files or the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE). Seeing a drive letter of X: is an indicator that this has occurred.

There are other exceptions to the Golden Rule. In this case, the Golden Rule rule does not apply due to the following reasons.

There are no Mac OS Extended volumes on the disk0.
Except for the Boot Camp software which appears on the system tray and control panel, the installation of the Window Support Software did not allow Windows read/write access to APFS volumes.
There are no third party software installed which would allow access to APFS volumes from Windows.

The steps to create an ExFAT volume are given below. The images are from the 2013 iMac.

Open Disk Management, as shown below.

Shrink the main Windows partition. Select Shrink Volume..., as shown below.

When the window below appears, enter the desired size for the new partition. When finished, click on the Shrink button.

The result is shown below.

Create new partition. Select New Simple Volume, as shown below.

Click on the Next button, when the window below appears.

Click on the Next button, when the window below appears.

Choose a drive letter, when the window below appears. Here, the default letter of E was used. When finished, click on the Next button.

When the window below appears, enter a volume label. Here, the name Fish2 was used. Since the ExFAT format is not available, let the format default to NTFS for now. This will be corrected later. When finished, click on the Next button.

Click on the Next button, when the window below appears.

The result is a new NTFS volume, as shown below.

Format as ExFAT. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator and enter the command format e: /fs:exfat /v:Fish2 /q, as shown below. You may need to substitute a different drive letter and volume label.

The result is a new ExFAT volume, as shown below.

After booting back to Catalina, the output from diskutil list is shown below.

  Note: Rebooting macOS causes the identifiers to be assigned in ascending order.

Last login: Wed Mar 25 03:56:39 on console
davidanderson@Snapper ~ % diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         800.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Fish1                   98.0 GB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                91.5 GB    disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data Fish2                   10.5 GB    disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +800.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Muskie                  32.2 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 116.3 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      8.6 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Snapper - Data          339.7 GB   disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume Snapper                 11.1 GB    disk1s6


Does a "windows keyboard" on bootcamp installed windows work as if on a normal PC (hotkeys etc.)?

You can choose the keyboard from within Windows 10. You should be able to choose a standard Windows keyboard when installing Windows. The rest of this answer assumes Windows 10 is already installed.

This answer was tested using Windows 10 Pro version 1909.

To add a new keyboard layout on Windows 10, use these steps:

Open Settings.
Click on Time & Language.
Click on Language.
Under the "Preferred languages" section, select the current default language. In my case, this is English (United States) - US.
Click the Options button.
Under the "Keyboards" section, click the Add a keyboard button. ...
Select the new keyboard layout. In my case this is US QWERTY.

The result should appear as shown below.

Note: You may encounter the opposite, where the Windows keyboard is installed and the Apple keyboard is not.

How to choose the Windows keyboard as default.

Open Settings.
Click on Time & Language.
Click on Language.
Under the "Preferred languages" section, select the Choose an input method to always use as default.
In the pulldown under "Override the default input method" section, choose English (United States) - US.

The result should appear as shown below.

References

How to the change keyboard layout on Windows 10
Switch between languages using the Language bar
Use your Apple Keyboard in Windows with Boot Camp
Use function keys on a Mac keyboard in Windows with Boot Camp


Is there a way to install/hack iMessage onto Lion/10.7?

Since the Messages beta has ended, it is no longer offered for download on the website however the download link direct to the .dmg still works:

Messages beta direct download.

I don't expect this to continue indefinitely.

A more permanent option would be to try and copy the Messages.app from a Mountain Lion install on another computer to your OS X Lion applications folder. Let us know if that works for you.


Using menu item "Calendar" -> "Preferences" -> "General" you can use the pulldown menu for "Default Calendar" to select Work, which should stop new events from showing up in Home.

I don't know how to get it to select the appropriate calendar based on any conditions.


What triggers the message "your screen is being observed" on the login screen

I was able to confirm that OBS Studio does trigger the message even when it is not recording anything. I assume that this is occurs when there is at least one Display Capture Device configured in OBS so that OBS is indeed constantly "observing" the screen.
I did not check whether yet other conditions must be met (e.g. that the source must somehow be active in the current scene). Neither did I check whether the same is true for a Window Capture Device or perhaps even a Browser source, but I guess in many cases pointing to OBS will be enough of an explanation.
I would assume that other apps might trigger the message in similar ways as OBS but I'll leave it to others to identify those apps in separate answers.


How to repair and/or reinstall Homebrew safely?

This happened to me because I had two tabs open in my console. In Console A I removed the current working directory of Console B. Then, without thinking about it, I ran brew upgrade in Console B. Of course it threw the above error.

Simple solution: just cd to a different directory in Console B and brew upgrade again.

Me and my infinite wisdom.


How do I escape a bad VPN sign on request

You could try with the native option in your mac to use a different way to connect to your VPN, try this:

Go to System reference > Network > add a new connection (the plus sign on the down left corner) on interface select "VPN" on vpn type select "Cisco VPN" change the name (if you like), Add your company's values and try it to connect, I used this option and my VPN works like a charm.


What is a PPP server, and why do I keep getting disconnected from it?

PPP is the Point to Point Protocol is a data link layer (see the OSI 7-layer model). It's an older protocol that's generally used to connect two points together over a physical link like a phone line. It's been in use as a connection protocol (mostly in the PPPoE -- PPP over Ethernet -- form) for ISPs for quite some time now. Your modem uses this protocol to identify you as a customer to your ISP and create a tunnel to them over some larger network, through which your data will flow. Your modem establishes a PPP connection and then over this connection your Ethernet packets flow.

It sounds like you're disconnecting from your ISP at regular intervals. It could be any number of things causing you to lose your connection. You may have poor signal to the ISP end point and the connection is timing out. You may be overloading the connection and your ISP is dropping the link. Your ISP may be having issues. You may have failing or buggy hardware. Or you may have buggy drivers for your hardware.

It's impossible to tell exactly from what you've written.

If you can check your Console logs, see if there are related console messages about the PPP tunnel, you might be able to find something additionally useful to add to your question.

Have you called your ISP? That's where I'd start.


The command Line would not let me repair my disk permission on Mac (Mojave)

That command no longer exists since Sierra.

Apple recommend this as the current way to repair user permissions...

From Apple KB - Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder

  Reset permissions

  If the issue started after changing the permissions of items in your
  home folder, reset permissions:

  From the Finder menu bar, choose Go > Home. Your home folder opens.
  Choose File > Get Info. An Info window for your home folder opens.
  If the Sharing & Permissions section at the bottom of the window isn't open, click the triangle  in that section to open it.
  If the Lock button at the bottom of the window shows a closed lock lock , click the lock and enter an administrator name and password.
  Click the Action menu   in the bottom
  corner of the window, then choose “Apply to enclosed items.” Click OK
  to confirm the action. A progress bar appears at the top of the
  window.

  When the progress bar completes, open the Terminal app, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  Paste or type this command in Terminal, then press Return:

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u\`

  On U.S. keyboards, the ` character is just above the Tab key.
  After entering the diskutil command, if Terminal says that permissions
  reset on user home directory failed (error -69841), enter chflags -R
  nouchg ~ then enter the diskutil command again.

  When the process completes, quit Terminal.
  Restart the computer, then test to see if the issue is fixed.
  If the issue persists, reinstall macOS.


Is there a (working) iTunes 11 "search" shortcut?

Same problem here, but I have the answer: CtrlShiftF


How to get the full path to a file on iOS 8?

Getting the 'full path' to a file on a non-jailbroken device is not useful as you can't access the file directly anyway. Generally, this is not possible, although you may be able to infer the location of a specific file.

For what it's worth, the full path to an image in your camera roll is:

/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/###APPLE/IMG_####.png


How to open/upload hidden files in apps or webapps?

Looking at your question, I can tell you that it is possible for you to create a file name "._." and then share it however, discord will automatically change the filename when you upload. This is how you do it tough. First, open the terminal then type the command touch ._. then type open ._. this will open the file in the text editor. Once you have the file opened type whatever you want in there, once you are done, open discord, and then drag the blank file icon from your text editor into discord. However, as I said, there is no point because discord will change the file name.


MacOS, export email folder with each message to its own file

Procmail is a possibility, but a) it's no longer maintained, and b) it may or may not run under macos. There are some other programs listed on procmail's Wikipedia page that may be useful.

But, just as a guess, I think you might have to "roll your own". If you know Python, you can use the mailbox library.


Can I move pictures from my iCloud library to another

No. You'd have to set up your iCloud account on their devices as the main account to use for pics, find my iPhone, backups, etc, and then set up their iCloud account as a secondary for email, notes, mail, and iMessage and FaceTime.  Unfortunately that's the only way.


Remove system default / third-party app 'service' items from OS X context menus?

My own experience (on 10.9) is that the service uses the default search engine selected for the default browser, so right now my own "Search with…" says "Search DuckDuckGo for…" and will open in Firefox.

This doesn't answer your other questions, but it may mean you don't need to bother. I hope it helps. I've an old system running 10.6 so I'll give that a look when I get a chance and see if the same can be done there.


Mavericks frequently doesn't resolve any hosts after router switch; pings fine

Turned out the root cause was problematic new router (Sercomm RV6688BCM in my case). After Internet provider replaced it with another instance of the same product, the problem resolved itself.


How to fix iPhone that displays artists out of order in the music App?

Decided to try restoring my iPhone. That seems to have fixed it.


I believe this worked in Snow Leopard, and is broken in Lion (perhaps on purpose). You won't be able to set your own icons for just any folder — file a bug if you'd like to see this fixed. But as you noted, they can be changed for the standard icons, using CandyBar
You can also just edit the image files themselves, at /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources. The icons are named Sidebar___.icns.


Is it possible to turn on "read receipts" in iMessage for just certain contacts?

I don't believe this is possible at this time. Read receipts in iMessage appears to be an all-on or all-off option only.


Dropped frames during playback of 4k/2160p video on Mac mini 2014

The issue is that the the HEVC/H.265 standard is very new, and while there is software support, there hasn't been an update to the Mac mini in a very long time, so there is absolutely no possibility that this has a hardware codec. However H.264 has been around for a long time and there will almost certainly be a hardware codec for this on every device since at least 2010 I would imagine.

Effectively the only way to decode H.265 videos would be for a software codec to use the CPU, and possibly the very limited GPU power in this machine to process this and that is why your computer will be struggling to playback H.265 and not H.264.

There some more details about supported hardware on Apple's website here.

Also worth remembering is that 4K support on most older Mac hardware is limited, and while your 2014 machine supports it, there will be no HDR, and only 30Hz / fps screen resolution on this, further details on Apple's website here.


Airparrot 2.6.2 not running in macOS Sierra

I had an older version installed (1.5.3), just tried it under Sierra, connected to an ATV4, got this message on the ATV:

  This AirPlay connection requires iOS 7.1 or later, OS X 10.10 or > later, or iTunes 11.2 or later.

Then I tried AP 2.6.2, and it worked fine.


You can use BetterTouchTool to rebind TAB ⇥ key to ⌘ CMD+] only for Xcode.app. BetterTouchTool can be downloaded here. This is how this should look like:

 I've tested this and it works for me.


Localization on OS X and the App Store you are using are two different things.

Localization is done on User Account level, meaning you can define the language, the date format etc. individually for each user on your Mac
The App Store is tied to the Apple ID used, so the Store you use is the one the Apple ID is connected with. You can't switch stores within one ID but it's possible (even if it's a bit cumbersome in practice) to have several IDs for different stores.


Permission denied error when copying to /usr/local/bin

You will need to use sudo cp instead of just cp to copy a file to /usr/local/bin because /usr/* is only writable for root.


Bypass unresolvable error when cleaning packages with package manager?

The error has been reported at https://trac.macports.org/ticket/54861. A workaround patch has been provided.

diff --git a/multimedia/mlt/Portfile b/multimedia/mlt/Portfile
--- a/multimedia/mlt/Portfile
+++ b/multimedia/mlt/Portfile
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ if {${subport} eq "${name}"} {
     if {[info procs qt5.active_version] eq ""} {
         proc qt5.active_version {} {
             global prefix
-            if {[file exists ${prefix}/bin/pkg-config]} {
+            if {[file exists ${prefix}/bin/pkg-config/Qt5Core.pc]} {
                 set av [exec ${prefix}/bin/pkg-config --modversion Qt5Core]
                 return ${av}
             } else {
@@ -53,10 +53,15 @@ if {${subport} eq "${name}"} {

     qt5.depends_component \
                     qtsvg
-    if {[vercmp [qt5.active_version] 5.7.0] >= 0} {
-        configure.cxxflags-append \
-                    -stdlib=libc++ \
-                    -std=c++11
+    pre-configure {
+        # qt5.active_version only works if Qt is installed; we can
+        # be certain that is the case in the pre-configure phase.
+        if {[vercmp [qt5.active_version] 5.7.0] >= 0} {
+            ui_debug "Qt 5.7.0 and up require at least C++11"
+            configure.cxxflags-append \
+                        -stdlib=libc++ \
+                        -std=c++11
+        }
     }
 }


Scheduled Ringer Volume Change for Work Hours

Yes, you can use "Do not disturb":

Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb
Enable "Scheduled"
Set your desired schedule

Your phone will be muted as long as you are within the DND schedule.

To see how exactly this feature works you may have a look at Apple's explanation for Do Not Disturb.


Open the Console app from the Application -> Utilities, you will see the log files.


You can use XCode - it's in the App Store, and free. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12

Download that whole directory, open up the XCode project: configd.xcodeproj

Then, you can build it using XCode.

You'll probably need to turn off the code-signing protections - Security and Privacy panel in System Prefs. Allow Apps downloaded from anywhere. Not sure if Apple has additional protection for system binaries.

Try it on a different drive, or in a VM and see what happens.


Hard drive constraints and operating system for 2009 13" macbook

Your MacBook can support anything up to and including High Sierra (the next OS release), but will not have Handoff due to the computer not supporting Bluetooth 4.0.
source

As for the install space, lifewire’s article says that you should have 16GB of space minimum for the install, though 32GB is recommended.


How can I recover a Mac-formatted external hard drive?

Windows prompted me to specify which type of file system it was...

Windows disk management console doesn't ask you to tell it what type of file system it, it asks you what file system you want to write to it.

  Is there any way I can get this drive working on a Mac again?

Don't attempt to write anything to the disk
Duplicate the drive to an image on her Mac (it doesn't matter if it's readable or not) using the following command where X is the drive identifier of your source (corrupted) drive.

  $sudo dd if=/dev/rdiskX of=~/Desktop/USB_Drive.img bs=1m

Using a tool like Disk Drill or Disk Warrior, see if data can be recovered.  It's free to diagnose, but you'll have to purchase a license to actually recover the data.

You don't have to make an image - that step is optional.  However, if you attempt to make changes and it fails, you still have the original from which to make another image and try again.


How to stop Finder from jumping to folder when dragging and dropping?

Either disable spring-loading delay or extend the reaction/response time. In older systems the settings are available in the Finder Preferences > General or in newer systems in System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad:


Can I connect my Time Capsule wirelessly to my mobile router?

I'm afraid you can't.
Extending networks only works between Apple products and the Time Capsule does not have a "client mode", as the Airport Express. You could buy a router that can connect wirelessly to your ISP Modem - Router, and connect the TC by an ethernet cable to it, in order to keep using it as a Time Machine destination. You would have to put the TC in bridge mode. An Airport Express will be able to fulfill this role.