What screwdriver to tighten bottom rMBP screws?

I would suggest iFixit's MacBook Pro and Air 5-Point Pentalobe Screwdriver.


Why won't my iPhone Apps appear in iTunes 12.5.5 on El Cap?

WOAH I did not expect to be answering my own question so fast.  But in case anyone else ever runs into this, here is what just fixed it for me.

I had an old iPhone 4s laying around (iOS 8.x) so decided to see if it would sync.  Hooked it up and sure enough, no problem... apps came over, etc.  Plugged my iPhone SE back in (in addition to the 4s still connected), selected the SE, and lo & behold - all my apps show up.  I can't explain it as they were never transferred to the computer... but there are there and I can access the file I needed.  Very strange!


Is there a way to go back a few seconds in a movie on iTunes on a Mac?

Use Cmd+Option+Left Arrow to skip backwards five seconds.

Use Cmd+Option+Right Arrow to skip forward five seconds.

Hold the keys down and you'll keep skipping backwards or forwards with momentary pauses so you can keep up.


General recommendation from Apple is to reset your device before restoring from backup.

iCloud: Restore or set up iOS devices from an iCloud backup

  Go to Settings > General > Reset, then tap “Erase All Content and Settings.”

Restoring from an iTunes or iCloud backup when a later version of iOS is required

  Erase your iOS device: Tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. After your device is erased, it restarts and you'll see the Hello screen in the Setup Assistant.

  Now you should be able to set up your device again, and select a backup to restore from.


If your intention is to globally override this behaviour, this will do the trick:

Create a file called DefaultKeyBinding.dict and write on it the following:

    {
      "@\UF700" = "noop:";
      "@\UF701" = "noop:";
    }

@\UF700 is the Unicode value for Command+Up while
@\UF701 is for Command+Down.

Save it and place it under ~/Library/KeyBindings/. If the folder doesn't exist, just create it.

A different approach would be to override this shortcuts on each of the Applications you're having troubles with, assigning the problematic shortcuts to the Application's function you usually don't use, for instance.


Is there a way to suppress badge counts and the dock icon bounce for Terminal.app in Lion?

Google finds an example of what is, I think, disabling bounces for all Dock icons (not Terminal alone):

Annoying infinite bounces of an icon on alert!!!

defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE

However, that may be not the solution in this case. Puzzling me:

[macbookpro08:~] gjp22% date
Tue  2 Aug 2011 13:40:41 BST
[macbookpro08:~] gjp22% uname -a
Darwin macbookpro08.centrim.freeman-centre.ac.uk 11.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 11.0.0: Sat Jun 18 12:56:35 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.22.73~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
[macbookpro08:~] gjp22% defaults read com.apple.dock no-bouncing
2011-08-02 13:40:57.029 defaults[2501:303]
The domain/default pair of (/Users/gjp22/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist, no-bouncing) does not exist

— nothing relating to no-bouncing my preference file, and I can run for example

tail -f -n 50 /private/var/log/system.log

— then bring something other than Terminal to foreground, watch things added to the log and in my case:

lines added to the background window do not cause any bounce, do not cause any count to appear in the Dock icon.


Messages 7.0 lost ability to auto join chat rooms?

This worked for me: I signed into iMessage with my Apple ID, and suddenly I didn't have to click "Rejoin Chat" anymore.

Here's the kicker - when I signed out of iMessage, it continued to work...  I have no idea why.


Converted from a basic disk to a dynamic drive in Boot Camp

Multiple people have hit the exact same issue that you described. As per Microsoft documentation, other operating systems like macOS and Linux do not understand Dynamic Disks.
Fortunately, what you did can be reverted. It's not straightforward, but it is 100% possible using the open-source utility named TestDisk. Do try it out -- there's some pain involved, but it will be worth the result.


Looking for a voice recording software with visualizer

Did you tried to use Quick Time Player to record your voice? note that the visual could you wnat is up to you and it could be done by VLC player.


If your computer is a new enough Mac, if it has Messages.app installed, that should contain all your iMessages.

If you have a PC, I believe there are some programs that can extract your messages from your iPhone backups.


Should there be an Apple logo on the hard drive of a MacBook?

There should be. Many, if not all, MacBooks have in fact shipped with hard drives with Apple logos on them.


Is the distance between the USB-C ports on the 2019 Macbook Pro 16" exactly the same as on earlier 15" models?

Yes, it fits perfectly! I checked today with a new MacBook Pro 16" and the distance between the two USB-C ports is the same.


If you have a backup and want to learn how to finesse this, try booting in macOS Recovery. Then:

From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.

Run:
  chmod u=rwx,go=rx "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/private"

Reboot.

This will set the permissions to read-write-execute for root and read-execute for anyone else.

Alternatively, try this or see the answer linked by @grgarside (this).
If you don't have a backup or don't want to make things worse — from macOS Recovery, a quick reinstall of the OS will re-write everything that's critical for the system to run without erasing any programs or user data. Don't mess with anything but a clean reinstall unless you are sure exactly how you messed things up and are confident you won't do more damage trying to fix it by hand.


Applescript Command as Specified User to Delete All Files in a Particular Folder

You can reference the files like this:

set myPath to (path to library folder from user domain as text) & "Keychains"
tell application "Finder" to get files of folder myPath


Migrating Local Folders from Thunderbird to Mail.app

All your Thunderbird data, including the local mail data is stored in the Profile folder, located either at ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name>/, or "~/Library/Application Support/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name>/.

Deleting the Thunderbird app won't delete any of the data there, unless you use a 3rd party uninstalled app like AppZapper. You can of course make a manual backup of those folders for added safety.


Plist in /System/Library/LaunchAgents not loading on reboot

Is the property list owned by root? If it is not, it is not loaded on login even if launchctl load (without sudo) would load it.

$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
launchctl: Dubious ownership on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
nothing found to load
$ sudo chown root /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
$

If the program is meant to be run when the property list is loaded, set RunAtLoad to true:

<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>

Also you can normally use /Library/LaunchAgents/ instead of /System/Library/LaunchAgents/. From man launchd:

~/Library/LaunchAgents         Per-user agents provided by the user.
/Library/LaunchAgents          Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
/Library/LaunchDaemons         System-wide daemons provided by the administrator.
/System/Library/LaunchAgents   Per-user agents provided by Mac OS X.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons  System-wide daemons provided by Mac OS X.


Safari download bar rar file icon show as VLC icon,which associate to The Unarchiver should shows its icon

If you want .rar to be opened with The Unarchiver as default, you can:

Get info on this .rar file
Set file to open with in the info window
Click Change All

The Change All button will make all .rar be opened with The Unarchiver and have The Unarchiver icon on it.


Have you looked into the Pebble watch? The company already ships an android/blackberry model and the iPhone version is getting prodigious funding but isn't expected to ship until September 2012.


Ping command works in Network utility but not in terminal

What is the error message you get when you are pinging from the terminal?

try an nslookup www.google.com and make sure that your dns is resolving correctly


I'm assuming by "desktop toolbar", you mean the bar at the top of the screen (properly called the menu bar), please correct me if I've made the wrong assumption.

You can add the eject item by opening /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ in Finder, and double-clicking the file named Eject.menu. It should appear in the menu bar right away.

To add the battery indicator, open the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences, and check the Show battery status in menu bar box, near the bottom of the window.


What you are experiencing appears to be a basic but unlikely problem. It is possible that the Keynote app you are using is corrupted. Pls try deleting and reinstalling it.


If you run Yosemite or El Capitan, enable the native OS X trim support with the Terminal command : sudo trimforce enable, followed by a restart.
For older OS X versions try the TRIM enabler from Cindori Software.


Spotlight and Alfred can't find alias to Emacs.app

Found the answer here.

I needed to add the Homebrew cellar path to the list of paths under Features | Default Results | Search Scope, and then Alfred recursively scanned it and found Emacs.

On my Mac the path was /usr/local/Cellar.

And there was great rejoicing!


Under what conditions is internet required to watch a rented/downloaded movie on iPhone/iPad?

You always need an internet connection to start the rental period in my experience. Only a few packets need to transfer from the device to the server - so you are not streaming the movie.

Think of it like a credit card authorization - without the central server "charging" the rental, the 24 hour playback window can't start properly.

Your experiment that some rentals play is interesting and hopefully someone has a deeper packet analysis to present, but the safe bet is to not rely on a rental if you don't have in-flight WiFi to start the rental period and authorize the movies you intend to have "activated for watching" during the flight.


Can only connect to internet in Safe Mode

In a sense you have two options:

Option 1 - Cut your losses and do a fresh installation of macOS, followed by restoring your data from your Time Machine (or other) backups1
Option 2 -Continue troubleshooting your current installation

The first option will almost certainly resolve the issue, the second option may eventually resolve the issue.

Keep in mind that if you continue troubleshooting, that this is a process of elimination and often requires patience.

I assume you already know how to freshly install macOS and restore your data from a backup, so for now I'll focus on how I would troubleshoot this further.

Since the problem is not present during Safe Mode then it's time to investigate login items, fonts, and kernel extensions.

Investigating login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Let's start with Login Items:

Startup normally
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Select the Login Items tab
Take a note of your Login Items
Now remove all of them by highlighting them and clicking on the - button below
Restart your computer

Now your Mac will boot up without those login items loading. Test to see if you can connect to the Internet:

If you can, you know one (or more) of the Login items were causing the problem. You can then add them back in one by one until you've identified the culprit. Problem solved.
If the problem does persist, it's either a problem with fonts you've installed yourself or with a 3rd party kernel extension. A little more info below:

Fonts:- You can remove any of the fonts you've installed yourself to see if this makes a difference.

Kernel Extensions:- You can open Terminal (found within your Utilites folder) and enter the following command:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

The above command will list 3rd party kernel extensions (you may need to stretch the Terminal window so it's easier to read). Look for anything you don't remember installing, or something that belongs to software you've removed, or just anything that looks out of place. Remember though, this is a list of 3rd party kernel extensions and therefore any of them could be causing the problem.

If you still can't connect once you've gone through the above process, I would suggest that continuing to troubleshoot this will cause more frustration and take more time than just cutting your losses and doing a fresh installation of macOS.

1 I assume you have a backup regime in place. If not, start using Time Machine or some other backup software now!


You can hide all external disks from the desktop by opening Finder → Preferences → General and unchecking External disks. Then you can add aliases on the Desktop to the disks you do want shown.


iCloud syncing seems to have stopped, can't delete folders

The problem is that you can't delete a large number of files at the same time. Try going into the folders and deleting 1-5 files at a time. Appears to be a well-known issue.


How run a .py (python?)-script in Xcode?

You don't need to use Xcode. Just open Terminal and run:
python /path/to/file.py

For making an Xcode project for a python script: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5276967/


How to create a Package, which runs a shell script?

Could you do this with Platypus? I use it to package small executables with a shell script into an install app, which uses the shell script to move executables into the target folder on run. You're still going to have issues with your intended result however as I can't see any way around running a package install without requiring admin access IF the package normally modifies files that require admin permission, but you should be able to put the package, the configuration file, and the install script together into one app using Platypus. End users can then run the app to install the package with your desired configuration.

The setup is really simple, the output is minimal. This is not a program designed to do anything complicated but it is free and has been really useful for distributing self-written script-based apps.


Crashed when creating a partition - now missing drive space!

In fact there isn't any space free on your disk in the sense of unallocated disk space. But you probably resized the Logical Volume Macintosh HD (disk1) residing in the Logical Volume Group Macintosh HD (disk0s2).

To expand the Logical Volume Macintosh HD to the full available size you have to use an undocumented command: diskutil cs resizeVolume UUID size.

Boot to your Recovery HD by pressing cmdR while booting.
Open in the menubar Utilities->Terminal
Enter diskutil cs list to get a list of all CoreStorage items.
Enter diskutil cs unlockVolume LVUUID (LVUUID is the UUID of the Logical Volume, usually it's the last UUID in the list you got earlier) to unlock the encrypted Logical Volume Macintosh HD. You have to enter the FileVault passphrase now.
Enter diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID 0g (0g is a magical number here - it will expand the Logical Volume to the whole available size of the LVG).
Enter exit and quit Terminal
Reboot to your main volume


IOS Upgrade Downloading for every device

If you have identical devices, even if they are synced to different computers using different iTunes, then this is the way to save the download bandwidth...

You can choose to do the download via iTunes for the first device, or directly by picking the correct ipsw file from https://ipsw.me which simply provides direct download links - the downloads themselves come directly from Apple in both cases.

Assuming you are on Mac...

if you are using ipsw.me then skip this step.

Connect the first device then when asked about the update select "Download Only". This gives you chance to sync & backup first, but otherwise doesn't affect the update. Allow the update to finish, then disconnect the device.
You now have the downloaded file.
If you are going to share this update to other computers, or other Mac user accounts on the same machine, then you need to find it & copy over...
From Finder, open a new window then hit  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   G  for 'Go To...' then copy paste ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates & hit  Enter ⌅
Inside there you will see the downloaded ipsw file.

now rejoin if you got the file from ipsw.me... but remember the path from the last step

Copy [don't move] this to your other locations using the same method to find the folder, or if the other users are on the same machine, copy to a 'public' folder that all users can see, then get each user to copy from there to their own folder
[each user has their own folder, accessible from their own account using the same path, as in 3. above].
Connect any of your identical devices to iTunes from the correct user account for that user.
You can now begin the standard update process, the update file is already there & will be recognised.


Display Unread E-Mail Count on Loginwindow

I think @Buscar웃 is right, you need to fetch your mail before you know how much mail is in your inbox.

I think you can use your Terminal for that, and with the combination of 'GeekBench' it might even look pretty.

A common mailclient for OS X terminal is mail, it is already installed, but unfortunately I have no clue on how to configure it correctly.

Another terminal mail client is mutt. You can install mutt using brew

brew install mutt

You can then configure mutt and run it in your other account. Mutt is lightweight and will not use much resources.


High temperature sensors is the only other thing you didn't mention explicitly. Can you correlate this to ambient temperature / inability of the CPU to cool itself (to 80C is cool / even 100C is fine if Kernel Task isn't taking more than one core)?
Barring a clean erase install of the OS fixing this, I would seek repair service.


Can a TrueCrypt volume be ejected (or the app quit) upon entering sleep?

Per the TrueCrypt docs, the dismount option could be added to your shutdown script.

truecrypt /d

or

truecrypt -d


Change background colour of Quick Look / VIew?

Switch to Fullscreen mode, there you have a black background color.

And then your background is black:


Can Address Book still store local groups or contacts with iCloud enabled?

Here's a Mountain Lion solution that I hope works on Lion. (I just worked at this from the other way - wanting to banish forever the On My Mac group.)

Open Contacts
Select On My Mac as the default account.
Import a contact or two from a vCard or import your test data set from the Import… menu
Switch back your default account to iCloud.

Going forward you can always drag a .vcf / vCard file into the On My Mac list to import there directly without changing the default account.


How to record and replay mouse activity on automator in the background?

Update Note:

My original answer, shown further below, was written using a generic example and not the actual target because it had not yet been disclosed. Once it was disclosed, in a comment, I downloaded CopyClip 2 and wrote the AppleScript code using UI Scripting to bring up the Advanced Preferences pane, click the Delete All Clips button, the subsequent Delete All button, close the Preferences window, and close the UI that shows the clips. It works, however it's UI Scripting and you see it as though manually done, but it happens much faster and without seeing visual mouse movements across the screen. (Not really a background solution.)

That said though, I found CopyClip 2 to be very unstable and crashed every other or few times I ran the script, and why I'm not posting the code unless you really want to see it. So I don't recommend the UI Scripting method. Note that the instability expressed was just in conjunction with using AppleScript on the app and not the overall use of it. (I actually have not used it other then to answer the question.)

Looking now for a background solution, I investigated how CopyClip 2 stores the clips, and found where the clip datastore was and in what form. Not surprisingly, it's stored in an SQLite database. So with that information, I see two different options:

The first involves manipulating the data stored in the SQLite database. The problem there is, I don't do SQL programming, so you'd have to pursue that option on your own.

The second option is more of a quasi-brute-force method but it works well and did't crash the app in the process. It involves programmatically quitting CopyClip 2, deleting the clip database, and restarting CopyClip 2.

Either of these option would be considered the background method, especially when compared to using UI Scripting.

The following example BASH script code is what I used for the second option mentioned. It can be run in a number of different ways.

#!/bin/bash

if [ -n "$(pgrep "CopyClip 2")" ]; then
    pkill "CopyClip 2"
    sleep 1.5
    for i in $HOME/Library/Containers/com.fiplab.copyclip2/Data/Library/Application\ Support/CopyClip/*; do
        rm "$i" 2>/dev/null
    done
    open -a "CopyClip 2"
fi

I first tested this a half dozen or so times in Terminal as an executable BASH script before I used the code in a Run Shell Script action in an Automator application, and tested another half dozen or so times. For my 2 cents worth, this is the way I'd go over trying to do the SQL programing option even if I knew SQL.

Saved as an Automator application, e.g., Delete All CopyClip Clips, I used Spotlight to find and execute it, i.e.:

CommandSpacedelEnter

The application could also be placed in the Dock for a quick mouse click to delete all the clips too.

By the way, I also have Hide window as startup set to ON on the General tab in Preferences for CopyClip 2, so as to make this as background as possible in appearance. This way, unless you're looking directly at the Menu bar icon for CopyClip 2, you don't really notice it's been closed and reopened.

Also, note that the clip database is normally created upon first run and only changes as clips are stored or deleted through CopyClip 2. I examined the clip database using SQLiteBrowser when first created and after deleting all the clips and its structure is essentially no different then when first created1, so repeatedly deleting the clip database really isn't a problem to achieve the goal. (1 While technically there are some differences, the deleted data had not be removed from the database by the VACUUM command yet, nonetheless this option is extremely safe and should not be problematic with repeated use.)

Original Answer:

Using the Record button in Automator, you've recorded some mouse clicks on the Menu bar and this produced a Watch Me Do action in the workflow. Subsequently running the Automator workflow containing the Watch Me Do action, to use your words, it plays like a movie.

So you are asking if this can run in the background more like an Excel macro then play like a movie?

Generally speaking, the short answer is both yes and no... yes more like a macro (sort of), but no not in the background.

That said, note however and depending on the target application and what needs to be done, there may be the possibility of coding something to perform in the background but without knowing the explicit specifics it's beyond the scope of  this generally speaking short answer.

The longer answer is, to convert the Watch Me Do action into appropriate AppleScript code. However, because it uses UI Scripting it cannot run in the background, but it can run much more efficiently and faster then a Watch Me Do action played back and you do not see the visual mouse movements across the screen. This means that when the AppleScript code is run, by whichever means one choose, one has to allow the script to process its code uninterrupted, thus being one of the drawbacks of UI Scripting.

However, I believe you'll find this more desirable then playing like a movie and seeing the mouse visually move across the screen.

As an example, recording my actions while using the Clock on the Menu bar in this example, I'm going to click the Clock menu item, then click the Open Date & Time Preferences… menu item, then click the Close button on the Date & Time Preferences pane of System Preferences, which is opened as a result of the two previous clicks.

In Automator, I select the three Events in the Watch Me Do action, then press CommandC to copy the events to the clipboard.

Now I open Script Editor and in a new document, press CommandV to paste the copied events from the clipboard.

This produces the AppleScript code shown at the very end of this answer, which is placed there because not much of it will actually be used, but it will have the key pieces of code, so not having to manually type all of the finished code and is only included herein for completeness of this example case.

Within the pasted code there are three commands that represent the actual click events, and since this is using UI Scripting it's being done by System Events.

So, in another new document, in Script Editor, I add a tell application "System Events" block, e.g.:

tell application "System Events"

end tell

Within that tell block, I copied the appropriate portion of the three click events from the code pasted in the other document while removing the unnecessary code and backslashes for this use case, e.g.:

tell application "System Events"
    click menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
    click menu item 6 of menu 1 of menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
    click UI element 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
end tell

Now because this is UI Scripting, appropriate delay commands need to be added, e.g.:

tell application "System Events"
    click menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
    delay 0.5
    click menu item 6 of menu 1 of menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
    delay 2.5
    click UI element 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
end tell

Now while I could run the code above (or even the originally pasted code) and it should function properly at this time, the problem is that menu bar item 7, which is currently the Clock on my system, can change. So too in some cases, can the menu item n change as well, although not in this example use case. However, knowing this, lets rewrite the code so it's not hard coded for the menu bar item number or the menu item number:

tell application "System Events"
    -- click menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
    click (every menu bar item of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer" whose description is "clock")
    delay 0.5
    -- click menu item 6 of menu 1 of menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
    click (every menu item of menu 1 of (every menu bar item whose description is "clock") ¬
        of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer" whose title is "Open Date & Time Preferences…")
    delay 2.5
    -- click UI element 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
    -- click button 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
    quit application "System Preferences"
end tell

In the code above, the original three lines of code have been commented out, i.e. -- was added in front of each line. Also, the original third line has an additional line under it commented out, but was added to show how to generalize the original third line. However, since its purpose in this example was to close System Preferences, just tell it to quit instead.

So the final example version of the code to handle the three events that took place in the example Watch Me Do action in Automator is:

try
    tell application "System Events"
        click (every menu bar item of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer" whose description is "clock")
        delay 0.5
        click (every menu item of menu 1 of (every menu bar item whose description is "clock") ¬
            of menu bar 1 of application process "SystemUIServer" whose title is "Open Date & Time Preferences…")
        delay 2.5
        quit application "System Preferences"
    end tell
end try

Now comparing this final example version of the code above to the original code shown below, one can see the difference and what's necessary to cleanup the original code while not hard coding the menu bar item number or the menu item number, thus making it more intelligent then using the Watch Me Do action in Automator.

Note: The example AppleScript code above is just that, and sans wrapping it in a try statement, does not include any other error handling as may be appropriate/needed/wanted, the onus is upon the user to add any appropriate error handling for any example code presented and or code written by the oneself. This includes setting the value of the delay commands as appropriate for the timing on ones own system.

Additionally, not all menu items are as easily scripted as this example case and in some cases may not work well to even use this method, it just depends and is one of the reasons I was trying to get more explicit and specific information from you in my comments. That is, I might have been able to give you explicit and specific code for your immediate need, rather then having to write an answer using an example. Although, hopefully this example with be useful to may others as well.

Original AppleScript code generated when events were copied and pasted from the Watch Me Do action in Automator for this example use case:

-- Click the “clock” menu bar item.
delay 0.249747
set timeoutSeconds to 0.500000
set uiScript to "click menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process \"SystemUIServer\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )

-- Open Date & Time Preferences…
delay 0.186764
set timeoutSeconds to 0.500000
set uiScript to "click menu item 6 of menu 1 of menu bar item 7 of menu bar 1 of application process \"SystemUIServer\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )

-- Click the “<fill in title>” button.
delay 0.509640
set timeoutSeconds to 0.500000
set uiScript to "click UI Element 1 of window \"Date & Time\" of application process \"System Preferences\""
my doWithTimeout( uiScript, timeoutSeconds )

on doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)
    set endDate to (current date) + timeoutSeconds
    repeat
        try
            run script "tell application \"System Events\"
" & uiScript & "
end tell"
            exit repeat
        on error errorMessage
            if ((current date) > endDate) then
                error "Can not " & uiScript
            end if
        end try
    end repeat
end doWithTimeout


Is it possible to use VNC / ScreenShare OS X 10.9 Mavericks OSX Server 3.0.1 Local Network User

Do you use network accounts (no home folder on the Mac) or mobile accounts (one Home folder in /Users) ? You may be able to add authorization for the VNC/ARD service for mobile accounts with the kickstart command :

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -users YOURUSERSHORTNAME -privs -all -restart -agent -menu


Some PDFs do not snap to the window while using Preview

The problem is the document.

Typically, documents are set at 100%, so no matter the size of the window, it will automatically resize to fit the window.

However, the actual page size may be set to a different value when it was created so, when opening, it starts at that value.

From Adjusting PDF Views

  The actual size for a PDF page is typically 100%, but the document may
  have been set to another magnification level when it was created.

Since you have Acrobat Pro, try creating a new PDF document and set the page properties to be at 100%.


How can I use an app I bought for my iPhone also on my iPad?

Apps bought in the iOS App Store can be installed in several iOS devices. Just make sure that you are logged into the App Store with the same Apple ID on both devices, then open the Store app, select the "Purchased" tab and search for the app.


Can't set automatic downloads on iPod Touch 4g (Required for Find my iPod functionality)

I don't think you need to turn on automatic updates to activate Find My iPod. Anywho, I suggest you simply log out from your iTunes account and log back in.

Do this by going to Settings > Store and tapping Sign Out. Then Sign back in again.


Mac OS X 10.8 crashes after Thunderbolt display disconnect and sleep

Did you look in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/  if there are new entries that date from the crash?  Or look at the syslog (Utilities, Log-Viewer) if anything shows there prior to the hang?


Can I delete files and folders in /private/var/tmp folder?

The solution now, seems quite straight forward possible to achieve in 5 or 6 main steps.
Not to repeat myself here again, I'd rather post link to Apple forum where I post similar question: How to safely delete a content of /private/var/tmp


Connection of ESP32/ ESP8266 not recognized using MacBook Pro

I had the same problem. There are a series of questions you need to go through that might change your solution.

1st of all, which board are you using? There are several versions of the ESP chip, which are well documented in the arduino-esp8266 docs

2nd of all, I've read some forums that say that the USB cable has to be good quality, otherwise the board will not successfully connect. I don't know too much about good usb cables, but I do know that the shorter the better as far as signal loss is concerned

Lastly, which driver did you install? I installed the SiliconLabs driver. It's important to note that in their readme (something I neglected to read until after 5 hours of troubleshooting) it explains that Mac blocks the driver from running until you give it permission. So, when you install the driver, the installer will need to get permission to run, but ALSO the driver itself will need to get permission to run. So, once you install the driver, go to System Preferences -> Security and allow the driver to run.

I found out that you can verify that the driver was installed, you can run kextstat in the command line to list out all of the "kernel extensions," including the driver, that are installed on your mac.

These steps should help you get your board to show up in /dev/tty.* and also in the ports menu in your Arduino IDE. Or at the very least, these steps should help you debug at which step of the setup process something went wrong.

Once you see your board in the ports menu, don't forget that in order to upload code, you need to set the board to flash mode (I forget to do that a lot).


How to sync all my Google calendars to iPhone with Exchange

It turns out I missed one step:

After login to Exchange, go to https://m.google.com/sync/settings and
select iPhone (or other iOS devices) and choose calendars you want to
sync on it.

This is really confusing that I can hardly tell the differences between this and the settings in https://calendar.google.com/calendar/syncselect


How do I connect to a wifi network from the login screen on OS X Mavericks?

Reboot and hold down the OPTION button.
That should give you the option to select a wifi network.
Then select your drive and hit the arrow on the screen.


It can be confusing at times.

Set finder to open as icon.

Then in finder while viewing icons you will find a small slider at the bottom right of the finder window.
It looks like this:

EDIT:
To change icon size on Desktop:

Click on:
Show View options

in Finder with desktop background (close all other windows)

You will get this,

allowing you to change the Desktop icons sizes.

Alternative method to use making sure the Desktop is the TOP window (in focus) use this method.

If none of above works for you, check the date of the "com.apple.finder.plist" in Library, and if not very recent than Delete it.


How to restore or rebuy deleted iTunes audiobook purchase?

You can speak to Apple support. Tell them what happened and they will sometimes allow you to redownload your audiobooks.


Is there an adapter to connect a Macbook Pro to a DVI splitter?

There are many types of DVI adapter, I could type a load of stuff or just point you at Wikipedia.

The key point is that there is no such thing as a DVI adapter.  It's just a generic term that covers the overall outline of the cable end, but what you really have is either a DVI-I or DVI-D adapter, in either Single or Dual link capability.  Or it may be a DVI-A.  Or there are others...!

It's possible that your splitter cable must be of the dual link types, characterised by the longer horizontal bar pin, and your Thunderbolt adapter may or may not be.  Shouldn't matter which type, either I (Integrated with analogue signal in the pins above/below the horizontal bar in addition to digital) or D (Digital only) as I imagine you are not subsequently adapting them down to DSUB further down the line, the only thing that matters is if they are both dual link.

So it looks like you need a Thunderbolt/MiniDisplayPort to DVI Dual link - the official apple one is the digital only one without the analogue pins (DVI-D Dual Link), and thus should work, if you are worrying that you do not have the same pinout (i.e. you have DVI-I Dual Link on your splitter, and it looks as though the analogue ones have nothing to connect to) then don't worry, it won't need them.

EDIT - Additional Info

After the comments, I have decided that you have a DMS-59 connector that looks like this:

So what you really need is a MiniDisplay > DMS-59 adapter, and my google-fu suggests that this is not looking like a possibility, I think you would be better served abandoning this cable, and looking for a total replacement, Mini Display Port > 2 x DVI (Single is fine, I or D if you have 2 ports).  This may also be a pain to find, and you may end up needing a MDP/Thunderbolt to Dual Link DVI, followed by a Dual Link DVI > 2 X Single Link DVI splitter cable!


Editing a color profile after calibration

I'd suggest tweaking the color balance on the monitor a bit. There should be a menu item to adjust color on the monitor itself. I suggest setting a custom color profile on the monitor rather then relying on the standard "warm"/"cool" type settings. (I have a Dell Ultra Sharp, and had to tweak this a few time before I got it right).

It's worth pointing out the calibration on most LCD/LED monitors can be very difficult since the color and contrast can change with the angle of view. While newer higher quality monitors minimize this, it's still evident.

Also if you really want everything well calibrated you can pick up a calibration system for ~$100. I have used a Huey Pro with great results for years, sadly it seems to no longer be sold, however this: http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=1339&ca=2 seems to be similar (perhaps it's replacement).


How to get the window id with title of every process?

Yes, you can get the window id and window title at the same time:

tell application "System Events" to get the {title, id} of every window of every process

However, many/most processes are invisible ones, so you'll want to reduce your list:

tell application "System Events" to get the {title, id} of every window of (every process whose visible is true)

And further, id is not something set in most windows. Perhaps you can say more about what you're trying to accomplish. You can examine the potential window properties with:

tell application "System Events" to get the properties of every window of (every process whose visible is true)


How can I re-map Mail's "Sent Messages" folder to an IMAP server's "Sent Mail" folder?

Have you tried selecting the folder in the folder list and then using the menu entry "Use This Mailbox For -> Sent" in the Mailbox menu?

!

That should do exactly what you want.


A little late , but I did get this working.

In ipsec.conf, I had to update the ciphers and the rightauth. I'd prefer to use something better, but at the time it connects.

rightauth=eap-tls
ike=3des-sha1-modp1024
esp=3des-sha1-modp1024

BTW: even with connecting, I still get the above errors/warnings.

Update: I found that the mobileconfig profile needed for iOS can be used for OS X also, which will allow you to define and  update the encryption algorithm, integrity algorithm and diffiehellman group. You can read about all the config settings on Apple's Developer site. It looks like you can max everything out at at AES-256/SHA2-512/18 (modp_8192)


Is it possible to upgrade 2012 low res glossy to high res glossy screen?

Technically, it would be possible.
But apple doesn't offer an upgrade price, so you're only option is buying the screen for the rather high "stock" price.
Selling yours on ebay and getting a model you want is probably cheaper


My girlfriend uses iDraw for vector picture drawing. It’s not free, but it’s the best iPad drawing app I’ve seen. It also has an OS X version.


"Open File in BBEdit" missing from right click menu

As @jaume has explained in their comment, the options can be enabled under System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Files and Folders.

Here is a screenshot (as it looks like in German):


In a MacOS Mojave bash script "-w /etc/passwd" is false even for root

Checking to see if a file is "writable" as a way to determine if a user is root is a bad way to check permissions.  For instance....

you can add a user to a group (i.e. wheel) that has write permissions to a file that's normally owned by root

a file can be flagged to not have write permissions even by root even though you have root access.

a file may have had its permissions changed to "non-writable" by root (intentionally or not)

SIP, or System Integrity Protection (as you've already discovered) will prevent even the root user from writing to system files.

Check for the User ID
Instead, you should look at the UID of a particular user with the function id
$ id -u

A root user, will have an ID of 0.
To see how you can use this in a script to check for root privileges, see the answer in the post Running a Script with Administrator Privileges.
Checking SIP
This is actually pretty easy....
$ csrutil status

However, if it is enabled, you will have to boot to Recovery Mode to disable SIP.  This isn't something you can do on the command line (or from a script) in a normal session.  It is much easier to simply test for the UID as described above.


macOS switches to Bluetooth headphones automatically

You can consider setting your Mac not to auto-connect to Bluetooth headphones, using this command in Terminal:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist DontPageAudioDevices 1

This will not interfere with Apple Magic Mouse, Keyboard or Trackpad. Only audio devices will not be auto-connected.


Can you break an iPad by keeping it in a warm place?

You didn't say if you had let the iPad cool down, but the inside of a sealed car on a hot sunny day can go over 125°F.

If it has cooled down and still does not work, perhaps it has been baked to death. You might want to take it to an Apple Store, if convenient.

From Apple Support:

Environmental Requirements:

Operating ambient temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)


Can 2010 MacBook Pro power 2 daisy chained FW800 external HDs?

Yes - I have routinely used up to 4 self powered devices one one FireWire port.

Tom's hardware report that at idle most laptop sized spinning hard drives use less than 1.5W idle and less than 4W at peak - so firewire should start to run out of power between 8 to 10 drives chained together assuming your mac is putting out at least 80% of the design power and they don't all spin up at exactly the same time.


Does the country where a credit card is issued affect the content offered in iTunes (with all the restrictions for that country)?

Yes it does.

Think of iTunes Store (and Apple App Store) as having separate instances (stores) for each country that Apple Inc. offers the service for. In every country/region iTunes Store has its own offering, language, regulations, pricing, availability, age restrictions, etc.

Apple recognises users by either method of payment or their billing address and allows usage only of the iTunes Store of the region to which an account belongs.

A given method of payment (credit card or prepaid card) is valid only for the country it is issued for (at least at the moment of registration, it can be changed later).


Shell script to boot OSX in recovery mode and execute another shellscript

To set the flag to boot in safe mode is the easiest:
sudo nvram boot-args="-x"

The I guess we have to do something with;

rc.boot figures out the type of boot (Multi-User, Safe, CD-ROM, Network etc.). In case of a network boot (the sysctl variable kern.netboot will be set to 1 in which case), it runs /etc/rc.netboot with a start argument.

and this;

/etc/rc finally launches /sbin/SystemStarter to handle startup items from locations such as /System/Library/StartupItems and /Library/StartupItems. A StartupItem is a program, usually a shell script, whose name matches the folder name. The folder contains a property list file containing key-value pairs such as Description, Provides, Requires, OrderPreference, start/stop messages etc. You can run SystemStarter -n -D as root to have the program print debugging and dependency information (without actually running anything).

ref: http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancient/whatismacosx/arch_startup.html


How can I hide google search field in safari?

You can use Safari Omnibar.

From the website:

  Features

  Unified location bar with search bar
  Search directly using location bar
  Quickly switch engines using search engine keywords
  Define new search engines

It works on Snow Leopard and Lion.

NB : it requires you to install SIMBL. See the FAQ on the website.


Cannot boot into macbook pro - Cannot access recovery mode

If you have access to a working Mac, the next thing I would try (after what you have already done) is to start the troubled MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode by powering on the computer and holding down the T key until the Thunderbolt (or USB) symbol appears on the screen. Then connect it to the working Mac, mount the drive, and use Disk Utility to to verify and, if needed, repair the drive. Also take this opportunity to make a copy of the drive in case (a) the drive is failing or (b) you end up with a repair that includes a new drive. Obviously if Disk Utility cannot repair the drive, take it to Apple for service.
If the drive appears good but the computer still will not boot, the next thing I would try is running Apple Diagnostics by turning off the computer, turning it back on and holding down the D key while the computer starts up. If any issues are found, Apple Diagnostics suggests solutions and provides reference codes. Take note of those reference codes and give them to Apple when asking for service on the computer. Note that you need to be connected to the internet to run diagnostics. If D does not work (possibly because there is something wrong with your disk drive) you can use Option+D to load the diagnostics over the internet.
If the diagnostics show nothing wrong and the Target Disk Mode show nothing wrong with your drive, I would be pretty surprised. In any case, having made a backup of the drive from Target Disk Mode, if Disk Utility did not get the drive back into bootable shape, I would take the computer to Apple for repair.


Is it possible to switch Spotlight in OS X to using Google?

In OS X 10.10 someone has made a spotlight plugin which has unofficially reversed engineered the API necessary to add new search engines.
i.e. google. The project is called flashlight.
It comes out of the box with a lot of plugins, including google.
To use it, you start spotlight and enter g yosemite, for example, which does a google search for "yosemite"

This open-source app is hosted on git hub and has releases which mean you just install the .app file, as usual. However, it's not signed so you may need to go to system preferences -> security & privacy and choose to allow the app to open (which you do after starting it and getting the error message that the app is not from the app store). Assuming you trust the app and/or my recommendation. You may like to visit the github site and see how many people have starred this application, to give you some sense of confidence.
download here:
http://flashlight.nateparrott.com/

github:
https://github.com/nate-parrott/Flashlight#flashlight


Only account is a locked "Guest" after upgrading to OS Lion

An easier way is to:

Get a terminal/console somehow (e.g. start up in recovery mode by holding down option).
Delete the file /Volumes/<your root volume>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist.
Reboot.

That's it.


Can I turn on the hotspot in objective-c in IOS 7?

You cannot enable such System settings via any app (at least without a jailbreak).
Objective-c results in an app for an iOS-device, thus you cannot achieve this.
Apple does not allow any app which tries to enter the App Store to activate:

WiFi
Location services
Personal hotspot
Many more features not named above


Name for iPhone 5C home button ribbon with spring contacts, on the loud speaker?

Update:
iFixit calls it a home button spring contact cable.

Original answer: Sounds like you're talking about a Home Button Ribbon Cable.


Where is the index.html on OSX 10.9 (Mavericks) Apache setup?

There should be 3 files in /Library/WebServer/Documents:

index.html.en
PoweredByMacOSX.gif
PoweredByMacOSXLarge.gif

If these files are missing, it really shouldn't matter.

As soon as you create your own HTML file and place it in that folder, the "It works!" message should be replaced with your new index.html file.

Hope this helps.


How to open files from Safari without having to save them to Mac

That option is located in the Safari Preferences dialog.

in Safari go to the Safari menu and select Preferences.

If it is not already selected click on the General icon in the top left of the Preferences dialog.

At the very bottom there should be a checkbox (likely unchecked) that says "Open "safe" files after downloading." Check that box and you should be good to go.


How to change language of an existing Pages for iCloud document?

I also searched quite in vain...
You can change the Language & Region settings (the three dot button) using iPad or iPhone, then the document will appear in iCloud with the desired language.
Details here. Of course, you can also do that from a mac.


No security for data that is in one of the system clipboards is possible by design. This appears to be changing with 2020 features in publicly announced betas where Apple potentially will notify us each time an app copies content out of the clipboard. Some very common apps appear to be abusing the privilege and even if your password manager clears the contents quickly, this could easily be abused to steal keystrokes and passwords or other sensitive data.
The macOS clipboard is a public billboard open to all processes. Clipboard is the mechanism to let all apps read / modify shared data.
Practically you can Either restrict your set of apps installed to those you trust with the data you put in the clipboard or don't restrict sensitive content by never placing it into the clipboard so that the least trusted app only gets data you can permit it to see / log / capture / exfiltrate.
From here, the rabbit hole for developers and security minded people using macOS begins with an overview of secure text input options within programs to prevent key loggers in addition to pasteboard snoopers from grabbing secure input:

Technical Note TN2150: Using Secure Event Input Fairly
insecure keyboard entry - a blog post by Daniel Jalkut
How secure is “Secure Keyboard Entry” in Mac OS X's Terminal?
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/06/tiktok-and-53-other-ios-apps-still-snoop-your-sensitive-clipboard-data/

There are some things you can do, however, to mitigate this. Freely available and trustworthy software can show you event taps, key loggers, exfiltration and just communication attempts so you can catch a program that might do things you don’t expect.

https://objective-see.com/products/reikey.html
https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html

ReiKey and LuLu are two I would start with to secure yourself and thereby your clipboard contents.


Family Sharing - 2 or more users, shared apps, music, books etc - but not shared email accounts.


How to lock the iPad's screen with a keyboard shortcut?

I was able to figure out Control + Command + Q seems to work on the new iPad Pro keyboard to lock it.


Lightning to 3.5 mm adapters only for “iOS 10.2 and below”

Apple has had a Made for iSomething (MFi) program since 2005, though initially it wasn't strictly enforced.

Anecdotally, because I can't find any announcement, only user complaints - ref Reddit: [Request] Tweak to enable non Mfi chargers on ios 10.2 & others - with the introduction of iOS 10.2 the requirements became more stringent.

MFi cables & devices require a certification chip in them, licensed from Apple, otherwise they will be rejected by the iDevice.

The implication for cables being sold as 'works up to iOS 10.2' is that these are inferior cables - they are certainly chipless.
It's probably impossible to determine at such remove whether they were of sufficient quality to become certified, but made before the chip became compulsory & are now simply old stock, or whether they are just cheap knock-offs that would never gain certification.

Certification doesn't seem to be that difficult or expensive [It's been described as a 'tax', being a percentage of sale price] & I doubt anyone would even bother to make non-certified cables these days, as they would just be returned by any customer using a recent iOS.

I found a good blog about it on HowToGeek: What Does Apple MFi-Certified Mean?


How can associate particular contacts with appropriate 'from' addresses in Mac Mail?

You can't do it by addressee.
By default it will reply from the email address you were sent the email to.
Otherwise, you could try
Prefs > Composing > Send new messages from...  Account of selected mailbox,
for an on-the-fly solution.


Can I change the resolution of a png from 120x120 to 180x180?

Open the file in Preview

Now Click on Edit

In Edit menu bar click on the last icon looks like a square with line from corner to corner.

In the new window you can adjust the size and the resolution.


How do I transfer text messages from my old Blackberry to my new iPhone?

I little bit of research found this program called MyBB - Berry Backup Reader (iTunes Link) for the princely sum of $2

See the data from your blackberry backup file on your iPhone or iPad!
I wrote this app because after I moved from a blackberry to an iPhone I found that I was still carrying my old phone around with me to gain access to all the data that I had stored, memos, contacts, calendar info etc. Using MyBB I have quick & easy access to this info if I need to look something up and I can copy and paste anything important that needs transferring into an iPhone document or message.


How can you forward long headers in Apple Mail 8.1 using Yosemite (needed when reporting suspected fraud)

To forward with all headers intact, for phishing/fraud reporting etc, use
Message > Forward as Attachment.


Does iPhone need to be Unlocked GSM to work in Cuba?

As far as I can tell, any iPhone should be compatible with GSM. But the sticker on the back of the box is supposed to explicitly say what it's compatible with, so you can see that.

Note that phones provided by some carriers might support slightly different bands than phones from other carriers. I believe Cuba uses 900 MHz, and I would imagine all iPhones support that, but I did not check all models. But if there is a specific one you are going to get, you can check a website like WhistleOut to double-check that the phone supports this. You can google something like 'WhistleOut will my iPhone 8 work on another carrier', and the article will go over the variants of the phone coming from the different carriers and show what frequencies they support, so you can double-check.

If it's open box though, you do want to ensure that it will actually work, that it's not activated and associated with someone else's Apple ID, that kind of thing. If it's a fresh installation and it would work when you pop in your own SIM card (it does have to be the right size SIM card, probably a nano-SIM), then it should be fine for your sister too.


Partition Size Limit for BootCamp for new Mac Pro Machine?

Mac Pro models introduced in 2013 or later do not have a 2.2 TB size limit for 64 bit Windows 10. If there is a limitation with respect to using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10, then Windows 10 could be installed without the use of the Boot Camp Assistant. Although, you would still want to use the Boot Camp Assistant to download Windows Support Software (i.e. the Windows drivers).

Windows runs on a Mac the same as any PC. Boot Camp refers to several entities, such as:

There is a Boot Camp Assistant application which can download the Windows Support Software and simplify the installation of Windows.
There is the Boot Camp installer, which installs the Windows Support Software.
There is Boot Camp software installed in Windows that can configure hardware and set the default operating system to boot.
The volume (partition) where Windows is installed is given the label BOOTCAMP and thus is referred to as Boot Camp in the Apple documentation.


You turned on Restrictions.  Turn it off again.


Can I take a screenshot on one Mac and instantly paste it into a document on another Mac or iPad?

Yes! There is a way for you to do this. In fact, it’s probably the main thing I use Universal Clipboard for!

In a nutshell, when you’re taking screenshots on your Mac they’re instantly saved onto your drive (typically on the Desktop). The problem with this is that they’re not captured onto your clipboard, and therefore they’re not available for pasting on your other devices.

To get around this all you need to do is add the control key to whatever keyboard shortcut you’re using to take your screenshots.

Example

For example, if you’re using the commandshift4 keyboard shortcut to take a screenshot of an area you’re selecting with the mouse cursor, then you’d use the controlcommandshift4 keyboard shortcut instead.

By adding the control key you’re capturing the screenshot directly onto your clipboard and can then instantly paste it into documents on your other devices, including your iPhone.

NOTE: For this to work, both devices must meet the Continuity requirements. For details, refer to Copy and paste across devices.


NVRAM: Error clearing firmware variables: (iokit/common) not permitted

Despite the error message, the NVRAM has been cleared. Found this on another forum that proves it out:
$ sudo nvram TestVar=HelloWorld
$ sudo nvram -p | grep 'TestVar'
TestVar HelloWorld
$ sudo nvram -c
nvram: Error clearing firmware variables: (iokit/common) not permitted
$ sudo nvram -p | grep 'TestVar'
$


Uninstalling OS Lion, and transferring photos to MacBook if full restore needed

Use Time Machine to backup your entire system to your WD drive.

Once finished, clean restore your machine back to Snow Leopard, re-install your applications and then perform a manual drag-and-drop restore from your Time Machine drive back to your clean machine.

This will avoid restoring any upgraded system files, preferences or other content Lion would have upgraded at point of upgrade.

I've recently had to perform the steps above for a family member after a misbehaving Lion upgrade (bad kernel extensions or preferences causing random shutdowns).


How to open terminal from within a folder using contextual menu?

It's not exact answer for your question, but there is small app in Mac App Store called Go2Shell which adds button to Finder which opens Terminal with path of current folder opened.


I have the same issue. After being moved to another folder the message is marked as Unread for some reasons. And I don't have any server rules that might do that (I don't have any server rules as a matter of fact).

I'm 99% sure, that you experience such issue with an Exchange account, because mine are Exchange-related as well. I tested the same rule with non-Exchange account and everything works as it should, all the actions apply correctly.

You can hardly call this an answer. But at least that's an explanation of such behavior. I wanted to write it as a comment, but I don't have enough reputation.


Can softwareupdate be used to automatically download (but not install) on the terminal?

From man softwaredownload:

-d | --download
    Each update specified by args is downloaded but not installed. The values of args are
    the same as for the --install command. Updates downloaded with --download can be sub-
    sequently installed with --install, or through the App Store (as long as they remain
    applicable to your system).  Updates are downloaded to /Library/Updates, but are not
    designed to be installed by double-clicking the packages in that directory: always
    use --install or the App Store to actually perform the install.

So yes, that is possible. AFAIK iCal has lost the ability to run AppleScript commands a few releases back, so you might be better of with a launchd job.


Which Apple ID is used for Apple Music—iCloud or iTunes?

Your iTunes Apple ID is used. I also use two Apple IDs and the one logged in to iTunes & App Store in Settings is the one which was used.


Connect in target mode to back up any critical files that are not backed up
Boot to recovery and run Disk Utility there to repair the drive.
If that fails, Boot to internet recovery and see about reinstalling the OS.
Boot to internet recovery and wipe the drive and install
Get hardware repair


Mac exectuable only starts with ./name even when $path set

I just typed everything again, exactly the same as before, but no copy-paste, and now the issue was gone. Some strange characters, invisible, might have shifted in .. Weird.. but happy to continue now..


How do you change the behavior of the power button in Lion?

You can control whether pressing the power button should put your mac to sleep or present a dialog with options (sleep/restart/shut-down) using the pmset command. The following:

sudo pmset powerbutton 1

will put it to sleep right away (presumably your current setting) and changing 1 to 0 will present you with the dialog.

Pay attention to the fact that it's not a per-user setting, and changes the behaviour for all users. Something to keep in mind if you share the device with others. From the man page (explore it for other options):

  All changes made through pmset are saved in a persistent preferences file (per-system, not per-user) at
       /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist


Can Automator's 'find finder items' ignore subfolders when searching?

yes use the action "Ask for Folder Contents" (i hope its called like that on an English OS - I'm currently on a German one there it is called "Ordnerinhalt abfragen"), there you can say if you also wanna use subfolders or not.

I added a demo workflow for you.

Demo Workflow


Convert between FileVault 2 and Disk Utility encryption?

As it turns out, I found the answers to most of this not long after I asked the question.  The command-line fdesetup program offers some additional options.

Removing Disk Password

Run sudo fdesetup list -extended and look for the UUID labeled "Disk Passphrase".  Then run sudo fdesetup remove -uuid <UUID> to remove it.

This can be used to remove the disk password that was created via Disk Utility, leaving only user login passwords for unlocking the disk.

Removing User from FileVault

Run sudo fdesetup list (-extended isn't needed) to see what users are authorized to unlock the disk, then use sudo fdesetup remove -user <USER> or sudo fdesetup remove -uuid <UUID>.

This can be used to de-authorize users so that only the disk password can be used.

Adding Recovery Key

Run sudo fdesetup changerecovery -personal.  This will prompt for a password (anything that's currently enabled to unlock the disk), then display the new recovery key.  (Write it down!)

Removing Recovery Key

Run sudo fdesetup removerecovery -personal.  As above, this will prompt for a password.

Adding Disk Password

I couldn't find a way to do this in-place — sudo diskutil cs passwd seems like it ought to work, but it requires there to be an "old" disk password already.

However, you can turn off FileVault using the preferences window (which decrypts the disk), then use sudo diskutil cs encryptLV <UUID> to re-encrypt it with a disk password.  This is slow, since it has to decrypt and re-encrypt all the data, but it works.


What stopwatch timer app uses keyboard shortcuts on macOS?

A low-tech solution is to open a terminal window, run time cat, and then stop by pressing control-c:

$ time cat
^C
4.487
$

Two ways to show the number of seconds since the last run:

f=${TMPDIR}stopwatch;date +%s>>$f;tail -n2 $f|awk '{l=$0;getline;print $0-l}'
now=$(date +%s);echo $((now-prev));prev=$now


Twitter client for OSX that posts via proxy?

You can use Spotflux. It runs on system level which means you can use Twitter for OS X and other apps without having to install additional plugins in browsers.

There are also other paid alternatives like TunnelBear or NetShade. I personally use NetShade because it doesn’t require Java like Spotflux.


What are the afconvert settings for the iTunes Plus AAC encoding setting?

I had the exact same obsession, and ended up creating a FLAC-to-iTunes importer that decodes FLAC files to WAV and imports them into iTunes using iTunes' own encoder: https://github.com/cbguder/FLAC2iTunes

It should be easy enough to modify FLAC2iTunes to support direct WAV input.

As for the soundcheck values, I compared iTunes, XLD and afconvert by encoding WAV files to AAC and decoding them back to WAV and comparing the decoded audio data. I also compared afinfo outputs for the encoded files. While the souncheck values are different for each file, the decoded WAVs are exactly the same, so even if you use XLD or afconvert, the chances are the resulting files will sound exactly the same.

For afconvert, I used the parameters suggested by Apple in the "Mastered for iTunes" guide, with an intermediate CAF file:

afconvert source.wav intermediate.caf -d 0 -f caff --soundcheck-generate
afconvert intermediate.caf -d aac -f m4af -u pgcm 2 --soundcheck-read -b 256000 -q 127 -s 2 final.m4a

For XLD, I used these settings:

Format: MPEG-4 AAC
Mode: VBR (Constrained)
Encoder Quality: Max
Sample Rate: Auto
Target bitrate: 256 kbps
Add gapless information for iTunes: checked
Write accurate bitrate information: checked


What is the 1k that shows up where LTE would be?

It's "1x" not "1k".

This is the core fallback 2G cellular connection of a CMDA (Verizon in the US) network. It's not showing up to replace your 4G LTE connection, it's your LTE that is failing and 1x is the only signal that can reach your phone.

The same thing happens with any carrier and it is by design. If you are in an area that is at the edge of their premium 4G service, you fallback to 3G then 2G.

See Wikipedia page on CDMA for more details.


Can I change the color of the folders in iOS7?

The folder colors change based upon the background image. So, in that sense, yes, you can. However, they do not have their own UI element to allow you to edit their colors independently.


Why is my host name wrong at the Terminal prompt when connected to a public WiFi network?

Type in Terminal:

scutil --get HostName

If there's no HostName available, what you see is probably coming from the DNS or DHCP server.

Set your HostName with:

sudo scutil --set HostName 'yourHostName'

That should do it.


How to Remove a Word from Dictionary of Google Chrome?

On macOS Chrome 60, settings do not let you access the dictionary. Words are actually added in two places where you can manually edit them:

~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Custom\ Dictionary.txt

~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary

Then restart your mac for changes to take effect.


Disable volume adjustment sound effect while audio is playing

Hold down the Shift key when clicking the Volume Up/Down keys to disable the volume adjustment notification sound.


This happened to me, too. I do not know the reason exactly, but I think it has something to do with the upgrade to the 10.10.3 beta.

My Installer.app (located in: /System/Library/CoreServices/ file had a circle on it at the file size was just 52 KB.

Luckily I had another Mac (running plain 10.10.2) around and could just copy the file over with a USB stick.


Maximum external monitors supported by A1418?

Two external displays with a resolution of 2560x1600

Resolution comes from the specifications.
Number of displays comes from this KB Article


Uninstalling an incompatible color theme

You should be able to manually delete it. I would say that you need to open the installer again and go up to the point where it installs it, but don't install it. It should tell you where it is going to install it. From there, you can manually delete it.


Two full screen apps in OSX Lion when using multiple monitors

[update]

This has worked for me and others; it may take a couple attempts to get down.

Open an app (Safari, for example) and enter full-screen mode.
Next, you will need to start another app without using the mouse (i.e. via Spotlight w/keyboard shortcut) Command + Space
When the Spotlight search box pops up start typing the name of the other app you would like to launch full-screen.
After you have it highlighted press Enter to launch the app and immediately start a gesture (using your mouse or trackpad) to switch spaces.
As you see your current space start sliding pause/stop your swipe halfway.
If you succeeded you should have a space that not really there (but is).
Moving to where the animation has jumped or stopped you should be able to see both spaces.
Your second app should have opened in the original full-screen
app's space and can be moved into the remaining unused space on
the second display.

  Since solution/work-around is possible through an apparent glitch in the gui, one of the apps doesn't show in
  mission control or in the app switcher when you press command-tab.

  Also, if you weren't able to achieve this via my instructions try these also.

It's currently not possible. The OS X Lion full screen API supports two monitors, and applications using the API can use additional monitors. However, it's not possible to run a full screen app on the main monitor and another app on the second monitor.


Looking for car (cigarette lighter receptacle to lightning) charger for iPhone 5

Due to the new Lightning connector introduced with the iPhone 5, you'll need a car charger specifically built for this connection. A quick Google search gave several hits e.g. Amazon iPhone 5 Car Charger - Lightning Connector or Belkin Car Charger with Lightning connector for iPhone 5 (10 Watt/2.1 Amp).

Nothing changed on the cigarette lighter side of things, so these chargers should work with older cars as well.


Can I create a share on a Windows Server Domain Controller for anonymous Mac OS access?

Folks, be CAREFUL with domain level guest access. It opens your entire Windows network up to anyone who can access the network (Microsoft leaves this off for a reason).

If you have to share the folder on your DC then your best bet is to make an account, (call it MacGuest or whatever you want). Assign it a password that doesn't expire and can't  be changed and give it to anyone who needs access to that share.

They can click on the "remember this password in my keychain" option and never have to enter it again.

Just my 2-cents...


Can I recapture space on Macbook Air by deleting iOS apps?

Yes - delete any iOS apps from iTunes and as long as you are not syncing apps to that computer, they won't transfer back.

Your data will still be backed up, but not the apps themselves.


How to Undo More than Once in Excel for Mac?

Have you actually tried?

As I have used CommandZ multiple times on formulae I have edited several times and it steps back through the changes sequentially. Even changes sheets as necessary.

On version 16.29 & 365, the help file says 100 actions can be undone but there are exceptions...

Just tested by entering 0 to 9 in separate cells - CommandZ goes back through deleting them in the order they were entered.


Ok solved...I deleted everything with terminale used this command line:

diskutil cs delete "LVG"

After, I recreated the Fusion Drive


Renamed an icloud drive folder with the .tmp extension and files have disappeared

You try to restore previous files on iCloud.com:

First, in iCloud.com > iCloud Drive, check if the files are present in the iCloud.com web view. If they are present here, download a copy first and foremost - and then you can decide how to proceed once you've secured a copy.
If that doesn't work, then again in iCloud.com > iCloud Drive, click "recently deleted" in the bottom right hand corner.
If neither of these work, you can try reaching out to Apple - they may be able to restore an account-level backup if the files are especially important.


Though Adobe Acrobat (and Adobe Reader) is the official standard tool for displaying PDFs, there are a variety of third-party tools that could have been used to create a given PDF. Though the output from such third-party tools can be passable, the underlying construction of the page layout can vary wildly.

Using Adobe Acrobat, it is possible to use [Cmd + d] to view the document properties, including what tool was used to generate the PDF. I'm not certain if Adobe Reader has the same functionality.


Missing storage after deleting boot camp partition

Your APFS container is not the maximum size it can be.
You can expand the container to all the available free space using

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


No, switching to another mapping program would be the only option.


MacBook Pro's Trackpad stops working when connecting an external keyboard

It's possible that plugging in the keyboard is causing macOS to detect a cursor control device (mouse).

Go to System Preferences app → Accessibility → Mouse & Trackpad and check if Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present is checked?

If it is, simply uncheck and try again. You should now be able to use the built-in Trackpad normally while your keyboard is plugged in.


Turn Virtual Memory Swapping back on in Yosemite

Figured it out! I had to force the OS to create a swap file using this command in terminal:

memory_pressure -l critical

It will run a test to force your RAM usage to climb. Open Activity Monitor to watch its progress and it will show the swap file being created. Ctrl+C will stop the process in terminal. Now the virtual memory swapping works again.


Is there a way to put the iPhone into a child-only mode?

Yes, start with Guided Access which easily locks one app in full screen mode and then move on to restrictions once you have a feeling for what you want to open up past one app at a time as your two year old gets more able to use more than just one game at a time..


macOS: What is this mysterious white window?

It's the IMK Candidate Window.

Here's what Accessibility Inspector has revealed about it:

Why it has Ctrl 1 and Ctrl 2 assigned to it, and how to disable those shortcuts, I don't know.

But the solution that worked for me was to disable the native macOS input method for Japanese, and install the Google IME instead.

Here are my settings now:


Any way to auto download or sync all Google+ photos to my Mac?

You can automatically download your photos from Google Photos (I believe Google+ photos end up there, correct me if I'm wrong) fairly easily. It requires a few different steps to get it set up though. Once it's setup, the sync is done for you.

First you have to install the Google Photos Uploader for OS X.
Next you have to install the Google Drive sync app to sync your Google Drive on your Mac.
Next open Google Photos via your browser and go to settings. From within settings, enable the Google Drive option.

Open Google Drive from your browser and select the Google Photos option. Ensure the settings pane for Google Photos on Google Drive has the Create Google Photos folder enabled.

Lastly, ensure the newly created Google Photos folder in your Google Drive is selected on your Mac's Google Drive settings for sync.

At this point, your photos will sync from your mobile device and desktop to Google Photos, be linked to Google Drive, and sync back down to your desktop for you to pull in to what ever app you want.

Note, as pointed out by @Jer, this will count against your Google Drive storage whereas if you just stored them in Google Photos, you can make use of the unlimited storage. I pay $10 a mo/ for 1TB of Google Drive storage and this works great. I organize all my photos into subdirectories, tag them and manage them via Adobe Lightroom, with Google Drive automatically syncing them to Google Photos on my phone. It also lets me easily select a folder I've organized via Lightroom and share it with other people via Google Drive, instead of having to build out albums and share via Photos.


Inner/Outer (Inside/Outside) margin in Pages

I think it was fixed in newer version of Pages. When I asked this question more than 2 years ago I switched to Word because I couldn't make this work.

Solution in Pages 10.0 (6748):

Go to Document Settings and under Document Margins select Facing Pages. Now Left/Right margin will change to Inside/Outside. Result of setting inside to 2cm and outside to 5cm:


Why does Image Capture import fewer pictures than it counted?

Duplicated photos seem to be the culprit. That is, photos added to the Camera Roll by means of the iOS Photos app's "Duplicate" command.

Photos are stored in the Camera Roll ordered by the time they are created. So if, on August 23, you Duplicate a photo from August 11, it will show up as the last picture on your Camera Roll... but you might notice scrolling through Camera Roll photos in order, that this Duplicate shows up with the August 11 date, same date as the original.

I have 3 photos (visible as separate items both on the device and in Image Capture) with name IMG_9234.JPG and the exact same date/time. Only one copy was imported.

Apparently when Image Capture sees these a photo with the same exact filename and same timestamp (which is probably a last-modified time, rather than a created time), it either ignores the picture (thinking it was already imported) or else it overwrites the last one it imported.

I'm not sure if this is a bug, an oversight, or was intentional.

But the discrepancy in the count is very annoying, since the number can't be used as a quick confirmation that all the photos were correctly imported.


How do I download an app to an iPad that asks for another user's password?

The app was downloaded / bought using your ex-girlfriend Apple ID; delete and re download the app in question.


The latter half of my question turned out to be a red herring.  I ran the same grep on another system which has never had this driver installed and it also appears in the prelinked kernel there.

Anyway, the list of Disabled Software is stored in a SQLite database located at /private/var/db/SystemPolicyConfiguration/KextPolicy.  This file is protected by SIP, so modifying it requires either disabling SIP or booting Recovery mode.  In this case I deleted the entries with this command, and it takes effect immediately.

# sqlite3 /private/var/db/SystemPolicyConfiguration/KextPolicy

To see all the entries of approved and unapproved kexts:

SELECT * FROM kext_policy;

To delete:

DELETE FROM kext_policy WHERE team_id = 'JS776ETM39';


How to make display PDF images with mouse hover in iTerm2 after " ls -l '?

You can activate this behavior in iTerm2 by activating the "Look up & data detectors multitouch shortcut. On Force Touch trackpads, by default, that means a force press by default while the cursor is placed over the filename.

You can confirm your settings in System Preferences, by viewing the Trackpad pane.

You may also wish to hold CMD and click on the filename to open it directly.


What is the recommended way to flag a contact as being deceased in the Contacts app on Lion or Mountain Lion?

I've had the same "need." I guess we all do sooner or later. Here's what I did.

Card menu > Add Field > Dates. Then select the Date field drop down in the contact and select custom.

You can also change the general new contact template in the same Cart menu.

I hope this helps.


How to reduce ambient noise when screen recording on MacBook?

Before you begin to record, go to System Preferences > Sound > Input. Make sure the input source selected is "Internal Microphone." Then move the slider ("Input Volume") to the left to reduce the input volume.


Is it possible to update from 6.0.1 to 6.1.3 instead of 7.0.4?

In iTunes, on the Summary tab for your device, hold Shift, then click the Update button. This will allow you to manually specify an IPSW file to update your device with.

As for obtaining said IPSW file, there are various links around the web to get the version you want. This article has some links to various IPSW files for various iDevices, as well as additional information on this process.

Note: You cannot downgrade to a prior iOS version using this process.


How to import text to columns and import numbers to text in macOS Numbers?

Not sure which version of Numbers you are using but one can adjust import settings from a text file in both Numbers v6.1 and v10.2 and it works resonably well in my experience.
Just open the text file using Numbers and a popup menu will emerge saying "Table data was imported. Adjust Settings" as soon as the file is opened. This menu disappears after a few seconds but you can adjust the same settings using an option in the sidebar menu as well as described in this Apple support page.
As for your second question, sorry that I don't know in general how.


Controlling the sound during a Keynote presentation

Las teclas de acceso rápido aún deben trabajar en Keynote. Puede utilizar F10 - F11 - F12 ( tal vez añadiendo la tecla Fn si es necesario ) para ajustar el volumen.

Translated:

The hotkeys should still work in Keynote. You can use F10 - F11 - F12 (perhaps adding the Fn key if necessary) to adjust the volume.


"Install Xcode" in Applications, necessary after I've installed Xcode?

You may want to keep it in order to be able to download delta updates instead of the full version when updating via the Mac App Store.

If you don't care about that or care more about disk space, you can delete it (you'll be asked for the administrator password) and continue to use Xcode.


Batch convert Apple Pages files to Microsoft Word doc files

iWork Converter can batch convert Pages files to doc without script.
Also can convert Numbers files to xls.

http://tyorex.com/iWorkConverter


Terminal: Adding logic to 'find' directories containing either [criteria A] or [criteria B]

You can do this using ls and grep with regular expressions

ls | grep -E "(guess1|guess2)(\.extension1|\.extension2)"

Or if you need to recursively look into folders:

ls -R | grep -E "(guess1|guess2)(\.extension1|\.extension2)"


Disable Left/Right Scrolling on Magic Mouse with Google Calendar

There are tons of very old threads on the Google Forums around this but I finally turned up one which linked to this Chrome plugin which kills the scrolling in Google Calendar. Phew!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-calendar-scroll-di/nghndfiaocgpmcbeafglhknklfgddebe

As a side note, here's an interesting bit of debugging by Peter Torelli which clearly shows it's just lazy coding in GCal: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/docs/HeZb8Wv8X5k


How to log in using external keyboard on MacBook Pro

You need to replace the MacBook keyboard.

(Or at least disconnect it from the logic board)

The problem is you have two keyboards "battling" it out for what keys get pressed.  The top case assembly which consists of the track pad and the keyboard are both USB devices.  You can have several of these devices plugged in simultaneously - in fact, I have 3 keyboards and one mouse (2 keyboards are for macros) and the iMac happily accepts input from all three simultaneously.

What's happening is you're keyboard is still plugged in and the ⇧ Shift key is acting like it's being pressed because the contacts are shorting out.  I wrote a lengthy answer on this very topic:  Keyboard key stuck or not being recognized; how to fix.  So, even though it's a different keyboard, you're Mac doesn't know; actually it doesn't even care.  It's going to process each key press as if you wanted it that way.

You're only (temp) solution is to disconnect it from the logic board.  There's no amount of resetting the NVRAM and/or the SMC, re-installation of the OS, etc. is going to bypass a physical problem.

You have a liquid damaged MacBook which means there's probably much more damage - like corrosion of the electrical contacts - that you're going to have to contend with.  Take it in for service!

Below is an image from iFixit.com showing the location of the keyboard connector.  Disconnect this to get your external keyboard working again.  You will need a mouse or another track pad.


Was it added to a calendar? Or as a calendar?

Go into the Settings under Mail, Contacts, Calendars and see if it was added as a full calendar.


What is the Mac 256-color system palette?

The Mac system color palettes are typically stored as "clut" resources in the ROM. There are palettes for 8-, 4-, 2- and 1-bit depths.

Belkadan Software has helpfully provided the 8-bit palette here: http://belkadan.com/blog/2018/01/Color-Palette-8/


Suddenly can only manually mount disk images from Disk Utility


I suppose you've got two devices to play with in terms of the settings, your HomePod and the iPhone.

The first thing to check is your call routing settings on your iPhone:

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
Tap on the Call Audio Routing option
Try changing these to see if you can achieve what you want

You can also try restricting it with a password, but this may not be an ideal solution in your case and may end up being worse. However, it's worth a try to see how it'll work in terms of the speakerphone function in case having a password changes the default behaviour:

Launch the Home app
Tap on the small arrow at the top right corner
Tap on Home Settings
Tap on Home
Now enable the Allow Speaker Access option (under the Speakers heading)
Finally, enable the Require Password option.

Now test this to see if it's a practical solution in your case.


Applescript that responds to key presses?

The easiest way of accomplishing this is probably to use Automator to create a Service. The service should just execute your a bash script similar to this:

#!/bin/bash
ddcctl -d 1 -b 10

Then in System Preference under Keyboard, add a keyboard shortcut to activate your Service.

This way your shortcut will work across all programs.

You'll probably need to do this for each of the 10 keyboard shortcuts you need.


Complete a movie download on different Wi-Fi

Yes, if you switch to another network, the download resumes from where it was interrupted (the download will pause as long as you not connected to a wifi, in your case).


How can I set an external display (monitor) as the primary one?

Under your System Preferences > Display, you've got this

Just drag the white bar to the other screen to set it as the main screen.

You might have to do that every time you reboot / reconnect the external screen.


How to mount a shared folder as disk with `rwxr-xr-x` permissions?

You need to specify the permissions when executing mount - the local file permissions or the permissions you set with chmod on the directory to which you mount your share will not be taken into consideration.

You should do mount -t <fs_type> -o m=755 /path/to/source /destination

I'm not sure which filesystem type is what you're trying to mount (is it nfs? or hfs?) - you only refer to a host system and a guest system without any more details. You'll need to specify the correct file system type to the mount command (but I'm presuming you have already done that and it did work). Also, it would be a good idea for you to read the man for the relevant mount command (so, if the fstype is hfs, you'll need to read man mount_hfs; similarly, if it's nfs, you need to man mount_nfs; have a look at the bottom of man mount for more fs specific mount commands).

Hope that helps!


The settings menu issue happens to my iPad when it is critically short on disk space. In those cases, I have to delete something (an app, or a video) and reboot the iPad to get it to work.


Parsing through data from an old mac text editor. (Recovering data from a Mac floppy.)

Best guess with no additional information would be that it is a ClarisWorks file.

LibreOffice should be able to open it - the translation is apparently not perfect, but might be good enough to work with.

Idea garnered from How to open your ClarisWorks files for a stroll down memory lane

There's also the possibility of extracting the files directly from the floppy to Windows using MacDrive or even MacDisk (though that looks pretty old) rather than trying to pick bits out of a WinImage file.


Image problem : Can't Open with... Preview

There are two possible issues at play here.

The first is a file association issue. If you right-click the file, and choose Open With, does it show Preview (default) at the top? If not, then it's a file association issue.

The second is either a) file permissions issue; or b) corrupt file. For instance, you may be able to view the file listing on the remote share, but not actually access the file itself. To verify that either of these issues are not a concern, copy the remote file to your Desktop and try to open it locally. If you get an error copying the file, then you know it is a file permissions/accessibility issue. If you can copy it, but it fails to open properly in Preview, then you just have a corrupt file.


The format menu has a toggle to switch things for you.

Pressing shift + command + T will toggle the document to plain text mode.

You can also set the default format in the preference pane for the app.


Encrypt Time Machine backup data sent over the network

The easiest way to be sure that all your clients' backups are encrypted is to create an encrypted sparse (bundle) image using Leopard (10.5) on the server using hdutil. The newer versions of OSX should be able to read/write to the older encrypted volume without a problem.

Here is an example using a Linux AFP server...
http://www.cognizo.com/2012/04/encrypted-network-backups-with-os-x-time-machine/

And another
http://bubba.org/wiki/Encrypted_Remote_Backups_with_Sparse_Bundles

This way all data encryption/decryption is done at the client end. Problem sovled.


The application "Terminal" can't be opened

Try reinstalling the OS from Recovery.

Hold  Cmd ⌘   R   at the chimes.
This will not affect your user account or files, but re-lay a new OS over the existing one.


How does Mac OS X decide which volumes to mount? One of my disks doesn't mount at boot

OS X uses diskarbitrationd which discovers new storage devices and probes them for mountable filesystems.  The Disk Arbitration framework handles notifying applications of disk mount/unmount events, and allows them to influence whether a volume is mounted or not.

Consult the man page for diskarbitrationd for very limited further information; for example, diskarbitrationd consults /etc/fstab to determine if the discovered filesystem should be mounted other than at the default location(/Volumes/) or with special options (or not mounted at all.)

Reasons for diskarbitrationd not mounting a filesystem or "volume" on a device may include:

Errors (corruption) in the partition table.
A mismatch between the partition type and the filesystem.
A damaged filesystem which fsck cannot repair.
Hardware failure.
Filesystem is listed in /etc/fstab with noauto.
An application has used the Disk Arbitration framework to prevent auto-mounting

According to your comments, all your journaled filesystems are mounting, and the filesystem which isn't mounting doesn't have journaling turned on.  Journaling was introduced in 10.2 Server and 10.3 Client and by now is considered a vital, critical feature.  It should be enabled unless you really know what you're doing; hence why you must hold down the option-key in Disk Utility to disable it in modern versions of OS X.   Make sure the volume has journaling enabled:

Select the volume in Disk Utility
Choose File->Enable journaling (if it is greyed out, journaling is enabled.
Verify by choosing File->Get info; you should see "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as the filesystem type.


If you have an developer account (I think an arbitrary Apple ID is sufficient) you can download Xcode in various varieties including other developer tools at Downloads for Apple Developers.


I'd first start up in Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key at the startup chime; Safe Mode does some internal housecleaning.

If that doesn't fix it, I'd reinstall macOS.


Youtube doesnt play on a specific connection on Macbook Air

Forced the DNS on my macbook.

Primary: 208.67.222.222
Secondary: 208.67.220.220

It started working.


How to create a video recording of a background window

No applications yet exist for recording movies from the content of obscured windows.

Screen recorders like QuickTime, ScreenFlow, and Snapz Pro X grab from the graphics hardware after composition. The process is focused on speed and low impact on the operating system.

On OS X, processes only get limited access to window content from other processes.

Hidden or obscured windows can be captured but doing so is relatively slow, computationally expensive, and not suitable for recording moving content. This is why tools that do offer individual window capture limit themselves to grabbing still images.


Can you update to macOS 10.14 (Mojave) without converting to APFS?

No

(at least it’s not possible in beta 1)

--converttoapfs isn’t a recognized option in startosinstall.


Looks like there is a way after all (even if it's most probably a bug because it renders Newsstand useless):

From The Coding Massacre:

Take two apps and go to create a folder
The second the apps are in the folder and it’s doing the folder creation animation, drag Newsstand into the folder
As long as you’re quick enough Newsstand will go into the folder

If you open Newsstand while it’s in a folder your springboard will crash.


Are notifications lost forever during scheduled DnD in iOS12?

Source:

If you set a scheduled Do Not Disturb time (as many of us do during our normal sleeping hours), you’ll have the option to toggle Bedtime Mode for those hours.

Regular Do Not Disturb mode silences calls and notifications. When it’s active, sounds and vibrations won’t wake you up (or disturb your dinner companion, or make noise in the movie theater), but they’ll still appear on the lock screen.

Bedtime Mode adds two new behaviors to Do Not Disturb.

It dims the display considerably, so if you pick up your phone in a dark room—to check the time, for example—it won’t blind you with bright light.
It sends incoming notifications straight to the notification history, skipping the lock screen entirely.

To enable Bedtime Mode, tap on Settings -> Do Not Disturb and be sure you have scheduled Do Not Disturb turned on.  Then switch on Bedtime Mode.


How to disable preview for some types (EPS) of files thumbnails in Mac finder?

You need to disable /System/Library/QuickLook/EPS.qlgenerator.  You can rename it to append .backup to that & then rename it back to original to restore it.

OR you can simply make a copy somewhere else and delete this quicklook generator.

You may need to run

qlmanage -r

after that.

The way I reached there is:

mdls /path/to/some/epsFile/pwrdLogo.eps   -name kMDItemContentTypeTree

& then searching the output of

qlmanage -m

for  one of these

kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
    "com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript",
    "public.item",
    "public.data",
    "com.adobe.postscript",
    "com.adobe.encapsulated-postscript",
    "public.composite-content",
    "public.content"
)


Copying and pasting text between applications without style

O/S X does have a "universal" key combination to paste without any style, it's SHIFT-COMMAND-OPTION-V

Unfortunately Microsoft uses their own text engine rather than the Mac's built-in one so that does not work there. The only options I have found for word is to create a Macro to paste plain text. You could download one of this but the one's I found were for the PC version and I never got them to work in the Mac version.

But I just find it easier to paste it into a plain text editor (I use Bbedit or TextWrangler, the free version.) Then copy and paste that into my word document. Annoying but it works for me.

I believe there are a number of clipboard utilities that will do what you ask. A quick visit to macupdate.com should help with that.


CloudMagic is about to stop working on September 30th. Can I prolong its life?

There are two ways Cloudmagic could make their app stop working on a certain date:

The destruction date could be built in to late versions of the Mac client itself, checking on startup if it's September 30th yet or not.
The Cloudmagic server (yes, your email is on their servers, that's why they starting needing money to support it) could start checking to make sure every client it's giving data to is Newton and not Cloudmagic (on Sep 30): most likely Newton has a special verification key that Cloudmagic doesn't, which was added in the name-changing update.

Regardless of which of these routes the developers took, there's nothing you can do to prevent the built-in destruction date.

Edit: You should note that updating to Newton will get you a 12-month free trial with no strings attached; I'm taking advantage of that right now.