New file/database in OmniFocus 2 for macOS

Apparently, there is no way to create a separate new file/database in Omni Focus 2. The default workflow is to use the pre-created database along-with the built-in backup feature.

You can create a new OmniFocus 2 database by following the steps as mentioned in the Omni Group thread, Create new database / start from scratch?

  Once you're satisfied with the state of your backups, you can remove your current OmniFocus database:

  Hold down the Command key and click on the small icon at the top center of your OmniFocus window.
  In the menu that pops up, select the second item (a folder named "OmniFocus"):
  Hold down the Command key and click on the small icon at the top center of your OmniFocus window.
  In the menu that pops up, select the second item (a folder named "OmniFocus"):

  This will open a new Finder window. Once this window opens, quit OmniFocus.
  In the Finder window, delete the file named OmniFocus.ofocus, as well as any files ending in lock.
  Close this Finder window and relaunch OmniFocus.

  You should be prompted to create a new database, either from a sync server (usually Omni Sync Server, or perhaps your own WebDAV server) or simply by setting up the default database locally. I usually start with the latter.

  If you do have your data synced to a server, and you want to get rid of that as well, set up a local database and tweak it to your heart's content. Once you've done that, you can set up sync with your existing sync server, then choose File / Replace Server Database... to erase any sync data on the server, putting your new empty database online in its place. Be careful - this means your only copies of your old database are the backups on your computer!


How do you set a rule to move sent items in Mail?


Migrating OS X Server from Macbook Pro to Mac Mini

Tony, you might want to have a look at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202848

Migrating your Server
You can migrate from OS X Server on Mavericks or Mountain Lion to another >computer using OS X Yosemite. Use the Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant >included with Yosemite to transfer your data before you open Server app.
You can migrate server data using one of the following methods:
A server connected in Target Disk Mode
A local hard drive or partition with OS X Server installed
A local Time Machine backup of OS X Server
Migrating over a network connection, either from an existing server or a Time >Machine backup, is not an available option for OS X Server.
To migrate your server:
Use Setup Assistant on a new Mac, or open the Migration Assistant from the >Utilities folder.
Follow the onscreen instructions. Select a supported connection method when >prompted.
When migration is complete, download and install Server from the Mac App Store
Open the Server app and follow the onscreen instructions to complete
the server setup.
If you open Server app before migrating your server data, remove Server app >before migrating and then reinstall it after migration is done.


How to know if an iOS app does not access the internet via Wi-Fi or Cellular?

iOS 12.
There's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB-Tethering that you cannot directly toggle if you're using any of those interfaces for any purpose. Only way to stop them is to turn off the connection path itself. For Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, they should be turned off globally in Settings. For USB, detaching the cable is the way to go.


With AppleScript how can you check if spctl is enabled?

I think what you're looking for could be:

try
    do shell script "spctl --status"
on error E
    E
end try

Returns assessments enabled or assessments disabled accordingly.

System info: AppleScript version: 2.7  System version: 10.13.6


The problem is unsupported .kext files and you need to remove them to get OS X to boot.  Just moving them to a different directy will have the same effect but will allow you to copy them back.  This article had the solution for me: OS X El Capitan 10.11.x Hanging on Boot

mount -rw /
cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Extensions/
mkdir Unsupported
mv *.kext Unsupported
reboot

After solving that issue, I ended up with a black screen where I could only see my cursor.  If that happens to you, try the solution found here:  Black Screen But Can See My Cursor


iNet for Mac is available for download at the AppStore. It is a native osx app that shows you what your mac is connected to.


Monitor network connection process / delay

I found the level of detail I needed to find in /var/log/system.log where it outlines what's happening on the port.


It is possible that it got deleted somehow. Yes Apple now lets you "delete" built-in apps.
...Unless it is hidden. Do a search on your phone for "notes" to make sure it is not installed.
You would re-install a coup[le of different ways. 1) by going to the App Store, searching for "Notes," tap on it and look for the familiar yellow on top of white icon. You can tap on it to make sure that the developer is "Apple"
Then just tap the cloud download icon (the cloud with the downward pointing arrow) and wait for the App to install.
...Or in your search results next to Notes is a "View" button. That will bring it up in the app store. Follow the above directions to install it.
your Notes app is restored.


Is it possible to bring up or tear down an iOS OnDemand tunnel based on a site accessed by mobile device?

This however suffers from the fact that resolving the domain name first fails, causing the initial page load to fail in Safari. After a page reload the page is shown, and the tunnel is brought up. This happens even if instead of 127.0.0.1 a real, working behind-the-tunnel DNS server address is provided. Is there a way to not fail the initial lookup?

If you are using a real DNS server, the initial lookup will not fail on iOS 9.2. It is a bug introduced from iOS 9.3 and Apple haven't fixed it on iOS 9.3.2 release version.

iOS 9.3 beta VPN On Demand ignores useDNSServers


Applescript Won't Invoke Shortcut Command

I suspect it wasn't accepting the custom shortcut because the shortcut's solely used in TextEdit, whereas the script was sending it to System Events.

Whether that's true or not, the following script works. It chooses the menu item rather than triggering it via shortcut:

tell application "Finder"
activate
open document file "reference.rtf" of folder "Documents" of folder "MYSTUFF" of folder "Users" of startup disk
end tell
delay 1
activate application "TextEdit"
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
tell process "TextEdit"

click menu item "Check Spelling While Typing" of menu 1 of menu item "Spelling and Grammar" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1

end tell
end tell


How to never logout and never retype password App store

This would be a 2 part question.

Part 1 (Password)

Apple Store has 2 levels.

One is general level

you can stay always signed in to that one by simply not singing out.

It will know it is you since it will show your user name:

It will show you your Updates and your Past Purchases.

The next level will always require you to confirm it is you. (what a strange English that was :)

If you want to make a Purchase or change your account settings then the Password is required.

Now to the "Automatic"?? log out part.

Normally once logged in you will stay logged in. The Apple store does not log you out.

One possible reason would be if you change the Computer user, that would lead to log out of the Apple store.

Also your user account might have a problem, so try if you stay logged in in another user account (if you have one).


Clear recents list in Screen Sharing on OS X El Capitan

Finally stumbled across the answer to clear the docked recents list, ridiculously easy of course:

In the Screen Sharing app, pick menu Connection, Open Recent, Clear menu (as described in the question)
Quit the application
Undock its icon (right click on it within the dock, pick Options, pick item Keep in Dock).
Reopen the app (Finder, menu Go, item Connect to Server, type "vnc://host:5901" in the Server Address field, click Connect).
After it opens, redock the icon (same as #3 above).

After this, the recents shown in the right-click context menu should be gone.

p.s. thanks @grgarside for the clean-up edits


MacBook autocorrects "The Bible" to "the Bible"

This is (sort of) expected behavior because the name of the book is not The Bible but rather Bible or Holy Bible or King James Bible, etc.

When referring to it, you say/write the Holy Bible.

So, this isn't a "spelling" issue where you can add this to a dictionary rather it has to do with grammar.  Unfortunately, it's trying to anticipate what you're typing and erroneously making the correction.  You either have to go back and manually change it back or click the "X" when it pops up so it doesn't make the change.

There's a good reference on capitalization rules and it appears what the grammar check is attempting to follow.


MacBook Pro crashes and panic after Yosemite

There is a thread on the Apple forum, with a possible solution:

  Go to "Activity Monitor" - you should see launchd using lots of CPU resources - and I think this is why it's crashing intermittently.  The Mac is going nuts trying to launch something which it can't and it finally resets itself.
  Go to "Console" and look up System Log Queries - All Messages - it's going to be pretty obvious what launchd is trying to er, launch.  On my computer it was trying to launch this: /Library/eBookLibrary/eBook Library Launcher.app/Contents/MacOS/eBook Library Launcher
  Go to /Library/LaunchAgents - you will see the plist file that the launchd is trying to launch - in my case it was the Sony ebook reader plist.  I deleted it without any problems.
  Restart the system.
  Go back to "Activity Monitor" - you should no longer see launchd hogging the resources.

Source


OS X Mavericks - hybrid hibernate does not work?

To see what the current sleep mode is (in Terminal):

pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

To change the sleep mode to hibernate:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25

To set back to the default:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3

More info: tutsplus - how to hibernate a mac


I can pair my PlayStation DualShock 3 Controller, but why are the buttons mixed up?

Unfortunately there are few Mac games that come with PS3 controller support. Portal 2 isn't one of them—like most Steam games, it only natively supports the Xbox 360 controller.

You can map controller actions to keyboard and mouse events with software like ControllerMate. It has a learning curve, but it's very configurable. To make a Portal 2 configuration for your PS3 controller, the main problems are the analog sticks, which are sometimes difficult to work with in ControllerMate.

Here are two screenshots from my configuration that should help:

You can make a virtual mouse for the right stick with “Create Virtual Device”

There's some good documentation for all the building blocks here.


Do Lightning EarPods sound different compared to 3.5 mm EarPods?

I don't think they are supposed to be the same, the lightning ear pods are supposed to sound better than the 3.5 mm ones.


How to import photos from iPhone to a Mac with OS X El Capitan?

I would recommend Image Capture. It's a bit less advanced than the new Photos, but in my opinion it's simpler.

Open /Applications/Utilities/Image Capture.app to begin.

Next, select which directory you would like to import the photos to from the "Import to" dropdown.

Cmd ⌘A to select all, and hit the "import" button OR hold Cmd ⌘ and click to select a few to import. Either way, the selected images will be imported into the specified directory.

To delete all these imported photos from the exporting device (ie iPhone), Cmd ⌘A and click on the "delete" button (looks like a prohibition sign).

Side note: if you wish to rotate an image, click the "Rotate" button (looks like an arrow) and all selected images will be rotated.


The Summary Version

It is random, but the order is only shuffled once, when you turn random play on. If you want to re-shuffle the order, turn random play off and then on again.

The Detailed Version

I don't think this is a bug, it's a feature. Though I can understand how it might seem broken.

iTunes doesn't shuffle the order of the tracks every time you hit play (or any other control button). Another way of saying this is: it uses the same seed for your playlist every time until you tell it to use another seed.

This may seem contrary to the idea of shuffle but it actually serves a purpose: it lets the skip back and skip forward buttons work in a manner that makes sense. I can move back 5 songs while it's on shuffle to hear the song I heard 5 songs ago, and then iTunes plays through all the songs I just heard to get me back to the spot I was at before going back 5 songs.

I do believe the ordering is truly random the first time it's generated. The problem is it's never obvious how to re-generate the ordering after that so your brain, which is really good at recognizing patterns as that's a handy survival skill when you're hunting and gathering, starts to learn the order over time. It starts to find patterns.

You can see this is the case with this little experiment. Set iTunes to shuffle your entire library. Pick a track. Play 5 tracks and write them down. Now pick any other track and let iTunes play one or two songs after that. Now go back to your first track and play from there again. It'll play that track and the same five after it that you wrote down. Changing tracks didn't reseed the random number generator.

The traversal through your tracks is truly random, but that random order isn't refreshed often enough so it starts to feel non-random.

So how do you get iTunes to generate a new shuffle order?

You uncheck and recheck the shuffle button. Doing this causes iTunes to recreate the random traversal path through your playlist (or entire library). It re-seeds the random number generator.

You can convince yourself this is true with a little experiment. Take an album that has track numbers in the meta data and select tracks 1 through 5 then select File -> New Playlist from Selection... from the menu. You'll now have a playlist with 5 songs in it.

Select that playlist and make sure that the shuffle button is unlit and that the track numbers are showing in the window. iTunes will show you the tracks in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Now hit the shuffle button.

iTunes will show you the tracks out of order. I get: 4, 2, 1, 3, 5.

Now hit the shuffle button to turn it off. And turn it on again.

I now get: 5, 2, 3, 4, 1.

Repeat as many times and needed to convince yourself that iTunes is actually regenerating a random traversal sequence through the tracks in your playlist.

It's the same thing for traversing your entire library: if you never uncheck and recheck the shuffle button the order never gets regenerated so things will start to seem non-random. After I unchecked and rechecked shuffle and began playing my entire library from my original starting track from my second paragraph above I got 5 different songs after it this time. So the order was changed, it's just less obvious when you're looking at your entire library instead of a playlist.

There's a caveat to all of this: iTunes DJ (aka Party Shuffle) works differently. With Party Shuffle you can influence the selection so that there's weighting given to more popular songs in your library. This obviously isn't random playback. So if you want truly random playback you want to shuffle your entire library from the Music view in the sidebar, not the iTunes DJ view. And you want to uncheck and re-check that shuffle button before each listening session to keep it truly unpredictable.


As a starting point, my suggestion would be to sign out of your account on the iMac, but not from the iCloud preference pane. Instead, sign out of Messages as follows:

Open the Messages app on your iMac
Go to Messages > Preferences...
Select the Accounts tab
Select your Apple ID/iCloud account
Click on the Sign Out button
At the next prompt, click on the blue Sign Out button
Once you're signed out, Quit Messages
Wait a couple of minutes repeat Steps 1 to 3
Go through the process of re-adding your account

Once you've done this you should get a notification on your iPhone saying that your account is now being used on an iMac. Once this happens, test to see if everything is working okay.


TRIM Support has been enabled for Third Party SSDs in OS X El Capitan. You can google it or watch this Youtube video


Simple Low-Cost Network Backup System - Drobo? Alternatives?

First thing I would like to comment on is "just reliable back-up of specific files." and you asking about Drobo RAID.  RAID is not a BACKUP, RAID protects you against a physical drive failure, it doesn't protect against deletion, corruption, overwrites, etc. Just copying your files to a system with RAID (i.e. Drobo) isn't backing them up, it is just making a copy of them. A true backup solution will let you restore a file to a point in time, reverting changes or restoring it completely if it was deleted.

Now you CAN set this up with an external NAS like the Drobo. For example most of these devices (QNAP, Synology, Buffalo, etc.) have support for TimeMachine (Apple's backup service) on them. I know you said you didn't want OS-system backups but TimeMachine backs up up only a small subset of the OS, it is mainly a user's files and can be configured to ignore directories that you don't care about.

I am currently running a 6 Disk QNAP TS-659 which I have as a TimeMachine target backing up 3 Mac's (1 Mini, 2 MBPs).  My QNAP is then running CrashPlan which backs up the other files from configured network shares on the QNAP to their Internet based service.

If you want to add another device to your network you could just back up directly to CrashPlan, they support individual encryption keys so they can't see your data and their unlimited data, 10 computer family plan is less then $200/year.  I actually purchased it for my family so I have my parents, in-laws and immediate family all backing up to it.

Another option is the CrashPlan free program which can use an external disk to create backups on (not file copies). Though since you are running Mac's this is duplicating TimeMachines functionality.

Now if you want a Drobo or it's like for more then just actual backups and want to use it as a file share between multiple systems then that is a different story. The original Drobo's and OWC's drive bay's (or other's by caldigital, etc.) require a connection to a host computer through USB, FireWire or now Thunderbolt. Then the unit shows up as an external drive to the system. If it's a RAID unit then the primary benefit of it is that you can configure the disk's RAID to provide striping for fast access or RAID5 for lots of storage (not backups).

Newer units from Drobo and ones from QNAP, Synology, Buffalo, etc. are actual NAS's (Network Attached Storage). They are a standalone unit that attaches to your network (wireless or wired depending on model) and then is configured through a web based GUI. You can create separate user accounts on them so multiple people can store their own files on the system and basically run it as a SOHO File/Print server.


Is it bad to call sudo on 'sudo brew services start --all'?

Yes, it is bad, at least according to the Homebrew FAQ:

Why does Homebrew say sudo is bad?
tl;dr Sudo is dangerous, and you installed TextMate.app without sudo anyway.
Homebrew refuses to work using sudo.
You should only ever sudo a tool you trust. Of course, you can trust Homebrew  But do you trust the multi-megabyte Makefile that Homebrew runs? Developers often understand C++ far better than they understand make syntax. It’s too high a risk to sudo such stuff. It could modify (or upload) any files on your system. And indeed, we’ve seen some build scripts try to modify /usr even when the prefix was specified as something else entirely.
We use the macOS sandbox to stop this but this doesn’t work when run as the root user (which also has read and write access to almost everything on the system).
Did you chown root /Applications/TextMate.app? Probably not. So is it that important to chown root wget?
If you need to run Homebrew in a multi-user environment, consider creating a separate user account especially for use of Homebrew.

Moreover, Homebrew services are built and configured to run with user accounts, if you run them under the root account you risk to have configuration problems as you experienced. Also, as you should already known, running internet facing services, under a root account is a major security risk.


This happened to my 5S as well. It had a light spot on the screen and it was separating from the casing as well.

I'd suggest bringing it to the apple store to have them check it out. They should run diagnostics on it and determine if it is a battery issue. When I brought mine in, the diagnostics came back ok, but they still offered to replace my phone in its entirety for $79 (the price of the battery).

Since then, my new phone has worked perfectly, so hopefully that is the case for you.


How would I password protect a USB Thumb Drive?

You may need to change the 'Scheme' drop-down to GUID Partition Map. I just fired up Disk Utility and the encrypted format seems to only be available when that is selected.


Can the new iPad record dictation while recording audio?

No, this does not work.
I started a background recording with DropVox, then switched over to PlainText and tapped the dictation button and dictated a sentence. I then switched back to DropVox and it looked like it was still recording (the counter was still going up). I stopped it, it uploaded the file, but when I listened to it the start and end were there, but the part from when I started dictating to when I opened DropVox back up wasn't. Very strange, but ultimately the answer is it doesn't work.
If you're curious, the resultant audio file can be found here. "And it looks like the timer's still going" was said after DropVox opened back up.


Can't write to my FAT32 USB drive on Mac

I have seen that issue (disk being read-only on Mac and read-write on Windows) before where it was caused by a slight disk corruption.

I solved it by plugging the USB drive into a Windows PC and running scandisk to check for and correct errors on the drive. Afterwards the drive worked just fine on both Mac and Windows for reading and writing.

Note that it is important to "safely eject" the drive whenever you want to disconnect the drive from the Mac or PC. On the Mac, you'll need to press the small up-arrow besides the drive name in Finder (called unmounting). On the PC you'll need to look in the dock for the icon for safe ejecting hardware, select your drive and eject it. Another option is to power down the PC/Mac whenever you want to unplug the drive, but that is cumbersome.

If you do not safely eject the drive, you risk corrupting the drive.


You should be able to convert to APFS from HFS+ non-destructively through macOS Recovery - if your Mac has the required recovery partition. The usual method to boot to recovery is to hold down ⌘-R immediately after a power-up or reboot. Disk Utility will then become available through the Recovery mode GUI.

This site claims that the conversion will be non-destructive when done through Recovery mode. It covers High Sierra as the latest macOS because APFS was introduced with High Sierra and this was germane to users back then. I cannot find anything to contradict this assertion.

Your milage may vary.


You have Handoff turned on under Settings>General>Handoff & Suggested Apps on your iPhone.

Switch off Handoff and you shouldn't see it anymore.

Though I would be more concerned with the message to "ransom"....


How long do Apple retain notifications to be pushed to iOS devices until they expire?

It depends on the service that sent the notification in the first place. The service (i.e. the backend system that supports an app such as Facebook or any other app) sends their notifications to Apple's push notification service over a HTTP/2-based API. In that API it sets a parameter known as "apns-expiration", which determines how long time Apple's push notification service will queue the notification to be delivered when the device is online again.
The "apns-expiration" parameter can be set to 0, which means that it won't be queued at all.
If set to a higher number than 0 that is the date and time (represented as the number of seconds since midnight on the 1st of January 1970 in UTC), the message will be removed from queued.
Finally, the service can choose not to send the parameter at all, or send it as -1 (negative). This means it should be queued for as long as possible.
The maximium queue time is not infinite, but is chosen by Apple - and seemingly not documented anywhere. However, PC World described in 2009 that the maximum at that time was 28 days:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/167652/the_limits_of_apples_push_notification_for_the_iphone.html


If you call the command open with --hide it works (at least in Sierra MacOs). For instance

open -a /Applications/Skype.app --hide

Also, the j flag helps some

open -gj -a /Applications/Skype.app


I accidentally removed all files with "rm -rf *". How can I recover?

If I was in the same or similar situation, this is what I'd try...

Using another Mac I'd download Yosemite from the App Store and then create a USB Installer.  Next I'd boot the Mac with the Yosemite USB Installer and install Yosemite to an External USB Drive, preferably a USB 3.0 HDD/SSD or even a large Thumb Drive.  Once the install to the External USB Drive is complete I'd boot the Mac from it and then download and install Ontrack EasyRecovery (on the external disk) then shutdown and move the External USB Drive to your MacBook Pro and boot from it. Then run Ontrack EasyRecovery and see what can be recovered.  If the trial shows promising results then purchase the product and recover as much of your User Data that you can.


The reason for Previous shutdown cause: -128

I saw a Mac do a similar thing and it turned out to be the logic board. Unfortunately, you might have to take your Mac to the Apple Store or a computer shop for them to replace it.


Based on your screen shot it is reading/writing the same thing over and over = Kindle!

For some reason Spotlight thinks the Kindle has made changes to the drive and it is re-indexing it.

To find out if that is the problem disable Spotlight and check.

Disable Spotlight

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

and

Enable Spotlight

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

To disable the External drive indexing by Spotlight:

Connect the volume or drive you want excluded to your Mac.
Open the System Preferences application.
Click on Spotlight, then click on the Privacy tab.
Drag your volume or drive into the Privacy menu to exclude them from Spotlight's indexing.


Can the 2009 Mac mini work with its optical drive removed?

No it does not. Many have swapped out their internal DVD-ROMs on favor of installing another bay that can handle an HDD/SSD.

Here's an example of an optical to HDD bay: http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/12-7-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-081


Can Teamviewer be run without installing on a Mac for controlling another machine?

The following is based on information gathered from the TeamViewer web site and running the corresponding downloads for each:

Under Windows, TeamViewer Installation options, using TeamViewer_Setup.exe, are:

Basic installation
Installation to access this computer remotely (unattended)
Run only (one time use)

Under macOS, TeamViewer requires installation to use it.

The, TeamViewer.dmg file contains the Install TeamViewer.pkg, which is an installer, not the TeamViewer.app that gets installed by running the installer package.

Under Windows and macOS, TeamViewer Host requires installation to use it.

Under Windows, the TeamViewer_Host_Setup.exe installs TeamViewer Host.
Under macOS, the TeamViewerHost.dmg file contains the Install TeamViewerHost.pkg file, which is an installer, not the TeamViewerHost.app that gets installed by running the installer package.

Under Windows and macOS, TeamViewer QuickSupport does not requires installation to use it.

Under Windows, the TeamViewerQS.exe can be run directly after downloading it and does not install.
Under macOS, the TeamViewerQS.dmg file contains the TeamViewerQS.app which can just be doubled-clicked to run the application, and does not install.

Under Windows, TeamViewer Portable does not requires installation to use it.

TeamViewer Portable is not available for macOS.


prevent launchctl from starting a anonymous process

That isn't actually launchctl creating a new process; it's most likely dnsmasq  itself.  If it fork()s into the background, launchd can't tell; then when it talks to launchd, launchd creates an anonymous entry for it.  Make sure dnsmasq doesn't background itself.

(The - listed for the regular launchctl list output indicates that the original dnsmasq process exited.)


The IPSW file type is primarily associated with 'iPhone/iPod' by Apple Inc.. This is a firmware update file for the iPhone. The file is a renamed .ZIP file. If you unZIP it you will see a file called MANIFEST.PLIST and a file without an extension but with a version number in the name, e.g., Firmware-14.5.3. This file is the firmware image.

Source http://filext.com/file-extension/IPSW


MacbookPro 13 or 15 2010 for software development

It's a little tricky to see what your question is here so I'll give my views but my short answer is that 15 inch will be a better experience but not in the sense that a 13" MBP could not do what you need at all.

Dual-boot will be fine although I find OSX much more efficient in terms of resource needs. You'll have no problems doing web development using either of those two frameworks on either OS.

As for mobility, the weight and size difference seems negligible when carrying it around but once it is sat down in front of you, the extra screen space is useful.


The iOS App Store supports delta updates since iOS 6.

In iOS 6 to 7.0.x, changed files are downloaded when updating an app. Since iOS 7.1, only the changes in each file are downloaded, reducing the update size even further.

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/qa/qa1779/_index.html


Automator: action/service on right click on an url

Seems like "Service receives selected URLs" only works with Internet actions. Fortunately you can use the "Get Specified URLs" Internet action to relay the service input to your "Run Shell Script" action.

For example, I used the following automator service to open a selected link in a non-default browser. In my case Firefox but you can use Chrome or another browser.

Remove any address from the "Get Specified URLs" action so that the list is blank as in the screenshot above. Don't forget to "Pass input: as arguments" In the "Run Shell Script" action if you're using the "$@" notation.


How do I let AppleScript choose any type of file?

Can't be done

The following are different ways to prompt for files. There is no way, in pure Apple Script, to prompt for Files or Folders at the same time.

Select File:

set directory to POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop))

Select Files:

set directory to POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop) with multiple selections allowed)

Select Folder:

set directory to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop))

Select Folders:

set directory to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop) with multiple selections allowed)

Select Specific Types of Files:

  Prompting for a Specific Type of File

  If your script requires specific types of files for processing, you
  can use the choose file command’s optional of type parameter to
  provide a list of acceptable types. Types may be specified as
  extension strings without the leading period (such as "jpg" or "png")
  or as uniform type identifiers (such as "public.image" or
  "com.apple.iwork.pages.sffpages"). Listing 26-3 and Listing 26-4 show
  how to prompt for an image.

For Images:

set directory to POSIX path of (choose file of type {"public.image"} with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop) with multiple selections allowed)

Sources: Mac Automation Scripting Guide

Using AppleScriptObjC you can ask for either Files or Folders. See this answer (if the linked answer helped, please upvote the linked Q&A):

  No, you can't do it with "choose file" or "choose folder" verbs, but
  choosing a file or folder (or multiple files/folders) is supported
  by the underlying NSOpenPanel.  So you can do it with
  AppleScriptObjC. Here's an example using [ASObjCRunner][1] (derived
  from [here][2]):

script chooseFilesOrFolders
  tell current application's NSOpenPanel's openPanel()
      setTitle_("Choose Files or Folders") -- window title, default is "Open"
      setPrompt_("Choose") -- button name, default is "Open"

      setCanChooseFiles_(true)
      setCanChooseDirectories_(true)
      setAllowsMultipleSelection_(true) -- remove if you only want a single file/folder

      get its runModal() as integer -- show the panel
      if result is current application's NSFileHandlingPanelCancelButton then error number -128 -- cancelled
      return URLs() as list
  end tell
end script

tell application "ASObjC Runner"
  activate
  run the script {chooseFilesOrFolders} with response
end tell

  ASObjCRunner converts a NSArray of NSURL objects into an
  AppleScript list of files; the results can look something like:

{file "Macintosh HD:Users:nicholas:Desktop:fontconfig:", file "Macintosh HD:Users:nicholas:Desktop:form.pdf"}

  [1]: http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/apps/runner.html
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8125563/

You could use a dialog box prompting a user to select what they would like to encrypt.

display dialog "Select a type to Encrypt" buttons {"File(s)", "Folder(s)"}
set a to the button returned of the result
if a is "File(s)" then
    set directory to POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop) with multiple selections allowed)
else
    set directory to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "File Location:" default location (path to desktop) with multiple selections allowed)
end if

Lastly, check out my answer here for a way to encrypt files with Apple Script and Automator.


Is there a way to display audio bitrate in Finder?

You could fashion a service in Automator using the Terminal.app and your shell with something like:

mdls -name kMDItemTotalBitRate file


AirPlay on Apple TV works for iOS devices but not for Macs

First thing I'd check is whether the firewall is enabled on your Macbook and blocking incoming packets. If the firewall is on, try turning it off temporarily for a few minutes to see if the AirPlay icon appears in the menubar.

Next thing to check is whether the devices are on the same subnet. You can find the IP address and subnet mask of your Apple TV in Settings -> General -> Network. And the IP address and subnet mask of your Macbook in System Preferences -> Network -> Wi-Fi -> Advanced... -> TCP/IP. Ideally what you should expect to see is the same subnet mask on both devices (likely something like 255.255.255.0) and IP addresses that are similar except for the number after the last dot (something like 192.168.0.125 and 192.168.0.138).

Those are the two things I'd check first. Check those and let us know how you get on.

Apple have a guide to trouble-shooting AirPlay problems for Macs. There are a few other things that might help too: About AirPlay Mirroring in OS X


Automatically move all files from within a folder to external SSD, When external SSD is connected

You can do this using a launch Agent or Daemon.  If you just want this to work for a certain user you would put the below plist in the users launchAgent folder located at

~/Library/LaunchAgents/

Otherwise set it system wide by using a launchDaemon and putting the below plist in the folder located at

/Library/LaunchDaemons/

The below launch plist uses the key "StartOnMount" (any drive being mounted) and watches the file path /Volumes/.  Anytime you put in a external drive and it gets mounted to the /Volumes/ folder it will trigger your script or automator file.  Just change the path in the below to the location of your script.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>Backup To External</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Path/To/Your/backupScript.sh</string>
    <key>StartOnMount</key>
    <true/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Volumes/</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

More information from MacTech  Pay attention to recipe 7


iOS 7 Messages app reverts from iMessage to SMS at random

iMessage is essentially an Apple operated Instant Messenger service deployed to compete with, or augment, SMS and MMS.

iOS will use iMessage to deliver a message if there is a data connection available to Apple's servers and both the sender and recipient are known by Apple to have iMessage configured for their respective addresses.

Most likely if a person you regularly iMessage with is now sometimes receiving as SMS it is due to intermittent data connection (ie you are mobile and data service is failing). Otherwise it could be an Apple iMessage server issue - seems to crop up regularly.

Furthermore in the last three weeks several of my friends and family have reported issues with iMessage so possibly there is something deeper and worse going on with iMessage servers.

cheers


Stop Macbook from making sound when plugged in to charge

I was not able to check it myself, but I found that link here: https://www.iphonetopics.com/enable-power-charging-indicator-sound-mac/
It seems a app called PowerChime can do your need.


Mac OS X Mavericks keeps jumping to the first desktop

It is Google Drive, it's causing Finder to crash and restart, which is why it keeps jumping back to the first desktop.

It's related to the "Show file sync status icons and right click menu" setting. If you turn this setting off in the Google Drive preferences, the problem should go away.


Does Mac OS X have something like SELinux?

To answer your question as stated: Yes, MAC OS X has something similar to SELinux providing mandatory access control security polices and roles. As you have discovered it's called MAC and I believe it's based on the TrustedBSD implementation of the same name.

To answer your implicit question: No. MAC should not interfere with the ability to serve documents out of your home directory. Most likely either your permissions or your virtual host configuration is incorrect.

If I remember correctly the logs should be in /var/log/apache2 or /var/log/httpd. Please edit your question to contain the relevant parts of your virtual host configuration and logs.


How can I upload a directory structure from a PC to iCloud without first copying it to my iCloud drive?

As of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 (and the equivalent iCloud for Windows), iCloud Drive does not offer a facility for selective-sync of files between your local storage and the cloud.

Therefore, anything you upload to iCloud Drive using the web interface would then make its way back down to your local storage on any machine logged in to iCloud.

iCloud Drive doesn’t appear to be the archival storage solution you’re looking for. It’s a full-syncing service.


The clerk at the Verizon store was an idiot.

Getting your stuff from the old iPhone to the new is simple but not automatic.

Back up your old iPhone to your computer (encrypt the backup so it saves passwords)
Plug your new unused iPhone into your computer and when prompted by iTunes restore from backup. Use the backup you just made from your old iPhone.

That will do it. It is important to NOT set up the new iPhone before you plug it into your computer. iTunes will recognize a "virgin" iPhone and ask you what you want to do.

You should be able to set up Photos and iTunes to sync what you want from your Mac to your new phone. Just leave the phone plugged into your Mac and open each and set your preferences.


How can I keep my MacBook Air's battery cool?

Apple only provides a few recommendations.

Use the computer on a hard surface:

  Using the computer on a soft surface like a couch, pillow, bed, or your lap can trap heat requiring higher fan activity. Using the computer on a hard flat surface like a table or desk allows for optimal radiation of heat.

Don't block the fans:

  Make sure the vents remain unblocked to allow your computer to perform at its best.

On the MacBook Air, the fans are located in back.


Using POSIX path to attach a file to email in AppleScript

Open Script Editor, create a new document, and add the AppleScript Code, shown below, to it.
In the make new to recipient ... line of code, change the values of {name:"John Doe", address:"johndoe@domain.com"} to your name and email address for testing purposes.
Now run the script.

Note that after selecting the attachment, the script will compose the email, attach the file, and send it.
Then check your Inbox for the message, to see that the file was attached.
It worked for me!

AppleScript Code:

set theAttachment to (choose file with prompt "Select file for attachment...")
tell application "Mail"
    set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:"File Attachment Test", content:"Was a file attached when you received this email?" & linefeed & linefeed}
    tell theMessage
        make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:"John Doe", address:"johndoe@domain.com"}
    end tell
    tell content of theMessage
        make new attachment with properties {file name:theAttachment} at after last paragraph
    end tell
    send theMessage
end tell


I would like to make sync.com app appear early on sharing

Well, after using sync.com the third time it was automatically prioritized. So I answered the question myself, but I want to keep this as maybe others have the same question.


How can I block email signup overlays or javascript popups in Safari?

...are there extensions that will simply block sites that utilize
  these modal popups?

The problem here is that they are not pop-ups as what you are traditionally used to.  They are basically HTML elements that are overlayed over the parent HTML document.

Block the modal popup

What makes this extremely difficult to block is that site functionality may depend on it.  Some modals may contain nonsense while others might have important information (i.e. shopping cart, contact form, etc.)

Chrome/Firefox has a plugin called Behind the Overlay but results are spotty at best.  I don't know of any for Safari.

Closing the tab

This really wouldn't be workable since this isn't a popup of a new window/tab - it's an HTML element in the same document.  Closing the tab would close out the whole session on that webpage.

Block site from search results

This is a function of the search engine and not of Safari.  Most HTML 5 compliant sites now use these modals so blocking the sites would be counter productive.  However, if there is a site you wish to ignore because of their use of modals, you can exclude it in your search query (Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo)

Macbook Pro -apple.com


Different speeds on the same Airport Extreme

What is the exact model of that slower iPad?
Is the speed, when measured, always slower on that other iPad?

The same questions go for MacBooks.

As if one some of them are older models with Wi-Fi chips that do not support that bandwidth. Are you in a position to test this with on MacBooks using the ethernet cable?


Shift + Command + G (Go To Folder) can help you. This article has other handy keyboard shortcuts in the Finder. Hope this helps.


TextEdit wants to save as RTFD because of graphics, but I have used no graphics

Try showing package contents in Finder and deleting all the image files.

You can then either move the rtf file outside the rtfd folder, or open the rtfd file in TextEdit, duplicate it, and save it as rtf.


How to add a network printer on mac that requires authentication

Right-click on the toolbar in the gap between Windows and the Search bar, then choose Customise Toolbar….
Add the Advanced button to the toolbar and Done.
Choose the Advanced tab you just added.
Choose Type: Windows printer via spoolss.
For URL, enter smb:// followed by the address you were already entering.
You will need to manually set the driver. Choose a Driver… → Select Software….


Yes, there is a way out of this conundrum, assuming you have a bluetooth keyboard? It doesn't have to be an Apple bluetooth keyboard, any bluetooth keyboard should work.

Follow these steps:

Disconnect the keyboard from the device it's currently being used with and switch it off
Switch on the Apple TV
Switch on the keyboard
Your Apple TV should recognise the keyboard and prompt you with a code
Enter the code using the keyboard
Once the keyboard is paired, you can use it to navigate through the Settings and add your Apple Remote app
Once connected and everything is okay, switch off your keyboard and reconnect it to its original device

Let me know if you run into any problems.


Internet Recovery doesn't see disk, but able to boot normally

Before I get to erasing your Mac, I have some recommendations for non-obvious steps to take before erasing it. Some of these are covered in Apple Support Document HT201065 ("What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac"), but I have a couple of additions:

Do you have Two-Factor Authentication set up for your Apple ID? Is the Mac the only second factor for it? If so, you'll save time and pain later if you set up some other second factor options before erasing it. Either sign into your Apple ID on an iPhone/iPad/other Mac and set that up as trusted, or log into your Apple ID at appleid.apple.com, go to the Security section and add a trusted phone number.
You may need to deauthorize the Mac in iTunes, and possibly any other subscription services that the Mac is authorized in.
Turn off Find My/Find My Mac, so the next owner isn't faced with an authorization-locked Mac.
Sign out of iCloud (in System Preferences) and iMessage (in Messages).
Unpair any Bluetooth devices that aren't going with the Mac (unless you don't have a wired keyboard and/or mouse for the rest of this process).

Ok, now for how to erase the Mac. It sounds like the problem is that your SSD is formatted with the new APFS volume format, but it's starting in an older version of Recovery that doesn't know how to deal with that format. There are a couple of ways to deal with this:

My recommendation would be to download the installer app, and use it to create a bootable installer flash drive. Apple's instructions are in HT201372, but there's one preliminary step missing: format the flash drive with a GPT partition scheme (most come with MBR instead):

Run Disk utility, and plug in the flash drive you want to use.

Choose View menu > Show All Devices.

Select the flash drive (not the volume(s) listed under it).

Click the Erase button. You should see an Erase dialog with Name, Format, and Scheme options. If Scheme isn't there, you may've selected a volume instead of the entire drive; back out and try again.

Leave the name "Untitled", set the Format to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and the Scheme to "GUID Partition Map".

Click Erase and wait for it to finish. If it fails (it does sometimes), try erasing it again.

Once it's successfully erased, quit Disk Utility and run Terminal instead.

Run the createinstallmedia utility in the OS installer. The command will be something like:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

(See the Apple Support Document if it's something other than Big Sur.)

Enter your admin password (it won't echo), follow the prompts, and wait for it to set up the drive.

Once that's done, you should be able to select the drive in System Preferences > Startup Disk pane, then restart your Mac. If that doesn't work, restart and hold Option (note: it'd be the power button on an Apple Silicon Mac) to get the startup manager, and select it there.

If you don't want to do that (or don't have an erasable flash drive available), try restarting with Command-Option-R held down. That should get you Internet Recovery using the latest version of macOS that's compatible with your Mac (Big Sur at this point), and its Disk Utility should know how to deal with the APFS volume.

The installer drive is a bit more work, but it gives you a lot more options if anything (else) goes weird during the process, so (again) I'd recommend doing that instead of the Internet Recovery method.
[EDIT: and as I was writing this, you apparently tried the second method and something else went wrong. According to this question, that might be due to a network problem. Try the installer disk method.]


How to install yosemite on a new harddrive?

Theoretically, you could but it may or may not work. In my best opinion, I would go to an Apple Store and tell them to boot your computer on their network. They will do it for free, and it is a lot faster than sitting at home waiting for 2 hours while it downloads the OS again.


Really confused about how to reset SMC and PRAM and NVRAM on my Macs and iPad and iPhone?

Sorry to hear you’re having problems. I hope the following clarifies things for you, but if these instructions do not help, you can always post specific questions about any problems you’re having.

SMC

The reason for your confusion is that the instructions for resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) will differ depending on whether your device:

runs from a built-in battery?
runs from a removable battery?
can only run from power off a wall socket?

Below I will provide the instructions for all three possibilities.

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

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

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

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

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

Shut down your computer
Unplug it from power
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
Plug it back in and turn it on.

PRAM/NVRAM

Now, the reason for your confusion about PRAM and NVRAM is that older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM).

Until recently, the instructions for resetting this were the same regardless of your Mac model. However, the Late-2016 MacBook Pro models use a different process. Below are the steps for both scenarios.

Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM on all models EXCEPT for Late-2016 MacBook Pro models

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

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Resetting the NVRAM on Late-2016 MacBook Pro models

For all Late-2016 MacBook Pro models (with and without Touch Bar) follow these steps:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then immediately press the commandoptionpr keys.
Keep these keys pressed down for at least 20 seconds!
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

iPods, iPhones, iPads

Devices running iOS do not have an SMC or PRAM/NVRAM that you can reset like you do on Apple Macs.

However, most random issues can be resolved by rebooting your device. To do this, hold down the Power button and Home button simultaneously for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo appear. After your device reboots you may need to enter your passcode.

In more serious cases, you can also access a range of reset options from Settings > General > Reset. Be careful though when deciding if/which option to select.


Use a Run Shell Script action and call screencapture. Use -i for interactive capture. Provide a file path to save the picture to or use -c to copy the resulting picture to the clipboard instead.


Cannot delete old Exchange account from Internet Accounts in El Capitan

If it was installed using a Profile sometimes you cant remove it using Internet Accounts. Instead you need to go to System Preferences -> Profiles and remove the email profile.


Items in desktop folder to appear on desktop

If you don't want to reinstall PathFinder, you can type this command in Terminal.app

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true

This will get them back. You might have to log in and out.


Keyboard shortcut (hotkey) for switching keyboard layout on iOS

Ctrl + Space.

Did you know that answers on SE must be at least 30 characters?


RSS reader with tagging of individual posts

Not just an RSS reader but a much greater app that meets your requirements too: DEVONthink.


How do iphone backup extraction programs work?

The apps usually just initiate a backup themselves first, having their own implementation of the iOS backup protocol (or using libimobiledevice libraries). So, they're not really directly accessing the iOS filesystem via USB, they're making a backup in their own app data folder, and then accessing that. (I work on iOS backup tools - not the ones you mentioned - and this slight of hand from other tools bugs me ;))

  How can any user extract a backup file from a usb-connected iphone?

Are you asking about how to get to one of the files in your backup, or how to download the files from the iPhone (aka acting like a backup client)? If you want to take your own backups without iTunes, libimobiledevice is your best bet. https://github.com/libimobiledevice/libimobiledevice


How allow only text in iMessage but not pictures or videos? IOS 9.0.2

I am sure that this is not possible with an iPod Touch. It's not even possible on iOS so unless your carrier allows blocking of MMS and you forgot iMessage entirely, you're not able to control the feed into messages app.

If an iPhone were in play, you could disable iMessage and MMS so allow only SMS text messages, but again, that would require a cellular connection.


Are there any AirPrint compatible print servers?

Lantronix xPrintServer is a hardware device which can be plugged into your network to offer AirPrint services to iOS devices. I haven't used it myself, see ArsTechnica for a brief description:

  Simply plug it in to your home or office network, and every printer accessible on your local subnet—be it wired or wireless—will now show as an option when using AirPrint. There's no configuration necessary; any printer that supports JetDirect, LPD, or IPP printing will work, and that includes pretty much every printer with network support.


I was able to get this working by adding the volume to Privacy section of Spotlight System Preferences, then removing said share from the same location.

I think this is how I got it working in previous versions as well.


Alpine CDE-102 keeps iPod awake until battery drains

I've found that with my 5thGen iPod (30GB Video, same as yours) that if I hold down the "pause/play" button, it goes into a deep-sleep mode (display off). Then I quickly push the "lock" switch so that I don't turn it back on.

This seems to work well for keeping my iPod charged up.


How to jump between Spaces on OS X when some are Fullscreen?

I'm afraid it cannot be done natively.
The closest you can achieve is to jump the last regular desktop with  Ctrl ⌃   [num]   then
 Ctrl ⌃   →  from there.

The difficulty is that fullscreen apps don't have a Space number, so you cannot add a shortcut key.

My personal solution is to simply never use fullscreen apps, I find them more trouble than they're worth.


Are favorites in the Photos app suppose to sync between devices?

They will (or should) sync between devices if you are using iCloud Photo Library, otherwise, e.g. when syncing just the PhotoStream, favourites do not sync.

I just tested this on a device running iOS 12.1.3 and macOS Mojave 10.14.3 by favoriting a photo in the iOS photos app, and not only did the photo appear in the Favorites album in Photos.app on Mac, the Favorites album was automatically created in both places. (I don't use Favorites, but they do seem to work for me.)

According to Apple's Support article for iCloud Photo Library, edits do indeed sync between devices. I also confirmed this just now by cropping a photo on my Mac, and watching the cropped photo appear on my iOS device.

NB: if you are trying to sync favorites between devices using a hardline sync such as iTunes, I am unable to describe what the correct behavior for that is, as I don't have a setup to test it with currently, nor could I find any information on Apple's support website.


How can I transfer my application to IPad

On a non jailbroken iPad you NEED to enroll iOS Dev Program, which cost 99$/Year and then use Xcode.

Cf : https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/

There may be other frameworks that work without jailbreaking and/or Xcode.


is there a way to delete all the photos shared to my iPad from my iPhone (done through iCloud), but keep all my original iPad photos?

This is trivial to do from the Mac version of Photos. I don’t know of a way to set it up on the iPad or iPhone, but once you have your smart Album, it’s easy to delete all the photos that match the criteria selected for that album. Note, this smart album syncs to your iPad and iPhone so you can take action there in addition to Mac photos.

On the mac, once you have your Photos library established (you don’t need the originals - you can optimize storage on the Mac if you prefer) - use the new smart album control and specify all photos taken from iPhone (or you can even select which lens, which model of iPhone, front or back camera, etc..)

Unless you have an import in the albums that contains all the photos you wish to eliminate, go for the computer to do the large curation / collections and deletions.

Smart albums are my secret photos power, list files not uploaded to iCloud to find errors, list pictures in date ranges or other specifics. Metadata is the key to unlock all sorts of awesome on MacOS and soon iOS with the new scripting being introduced there.


Can a MacBook Pro 13 (Mid-2010) battery be used in a 2009 unibody polycarbonate MacBook?

No, the batteries used in these respective models are not compatible with each other.

If it helps, the battery for the Mid-2010 13" MacBook Pro is compatible with a number of 13" MacBook Pro models from Mid-2009 until Mid-2012.

As for the battery in the Late-2009 13" polycarbonate MacBook, this is compatible with the Mid-2010 13" MacBook.


Spaces in Mavericks: apps do not remember their space

Since Lion you assign app to a Desktop/space from the dock.

Doing this, app will open in the designated space regardless of the space you actually are.


Where does Xcode install if macOS is installed on an external drive?

Apps from the Mac App Store like Xcode install to /Applications which maps to the Applications folder on the data volume in the same container as the macOS installation. This can be moved wherever you desire after installation, but it sounds like this is the location you want anyway.
Xcode from developer.apple.com is the .app bundle inside a compressed archive. You can download, extract and move the app wherever you desire.


iTunes folder contains duplicated music files

Unchecking Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library in iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced


How can I get notifications to pop up in my active display?

Try this: System Preferences -> Displays and drag menubar (small white stripe at the top of the blue box in the "Arrangement" tab) to your external (attached) display. Built-in notifications will be displayed on the monitor with main menubar.

In addition to this you may wish to explore Growl app (http://growl.info/), which allows you to setup notifications in more sophisticated way and configure them for several displays.


If you had a larger monitor, the problem would go away. I also have a 2018 Mac Mini. I am using a 49" 4K TV as a monitor. There's no scaling going on, and it looks great. The TV is a TCL brand. Maybe the 49" size is a bit extreme -- I guess the 43" model might be better for most people. But, text is large enough without any scaling, and typing is responsive. The display is 3840x2160, and the Mac thinks it is driving a 36-inch display.

I'm driving the TV using HDMI. The MacMini only has one HDMI port, so if you want three of them, you'll need some adapters.

Figuring out where to put three 40-something inch monitors where you can see them all is another problem, I guess.


In the comments for the accepted answer in the post to which you linked, WEBjuju states it also requires "fiddling with the date in preferences" to it to truly "take." Have you tried that? Also, another response stated that, as of Sep 2016, Sierra could not do this change that was allowed in El Capitan. Which version do you have?


Camera not working again on mid 2013 Macbook Air after the second 10.8.5 upgrade

So, if I understand correctly, you did these steps:

Upgraded to 10.8.5
Found the camera didn't work in Skype
Backed up /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/AppleCamera.plugin
Put AppleCamera.plugin from 10.8.4 in its place
Camera worked
Upgraded to 10.8.5 Supplemental Update
Camera broken again

The Supplemental Update does include a copy of AppleCamera.plugin (see below), so one quick thing to try:

Put your copy of AppleCamera.plugin from step (3) back into place
Download the 10.8.5 Supplemental Update again.  You can get it as a DMG file from Apple DL1686
Re-run that update (double click the .pkg file in the DMG)

By the way, you can see what files are contained within the update: double click the .pkg file, then choose File > Show Files from the installer.


I experienced this exact problem yesterday. I fixed it by putting the ntfs drive onto a PC and searching for the files. They had all just been moved, not deleted--very strange. Also, running a disk error check in windows after to clean up any straggling issues.


Why is my 'launchd' task not responding to changes in watched files?

FWIW I tried it here and it seems to be working for me. Any time I manually appended something to /Library/Logs/CrashPlan/history.log.0 the script did get triggered.

As such, this isn't really an answer, but it’s more a series of tips for debugging launchd:

A few tips for diagnosing launchd:

1) Use the stdout and stderr paths and see if anything gets logged to them. You can do that by adding these lines to your com.crashplan.status.plist file.

<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/com.crashplan.status.stderr.log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/tmp/com.crashplan.status.stdout.log</string>

(If multiple people use the same Mac, you might want to use a different path than /tmp/ but if it’s only you then it is as good of a place as any.)

2) With #1 you might also want to adjust your script (/Users/Rax/Library/Automation/Shell/crashplan_status) to include debugging info such as when it started and when it finished. That can be as simple as something like this added near the top of the script:

echo "$0: started at `date`"

and something like this near the end

echo "$0: finished at `date`"

3) With #2 you might also want to use something like terminal-notifier to show you when your script is being called, at least until you get past the debugging stage.

4) If none of that helps, you should check the exit status of whatever commands that you are calling in crashplan_status and see if those are exiting properly. For example, let's say that you were running echo in your crashplan_status

5) Is your environment in launchd different from your shell in some way? This is best verified by adding this line near the top of your launchd script:

/usr/bin/printenv | /usr/bin/open -ef

which will cause the printenv to be sent to the stdout and the results opened in TextEdit.

The most common 'environment' problem that I run into is not having the $PATH set properly for launchd. It’s usually set in your shell init files such as .bashrc and inherited by any shell scripts you run from Terminal, but won't be for launchd.

You can see the path that launchd is using by:

launchctl getenv PATH

If you want to set it, you can set it by

launchctl setenv PATH

for example, for my system it would be:

launchctl setenv /Users/luomat/Dropbox/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin

If you don't want to have to remember to set that every time you start your computer, you can add it to /etc/launchd.conf by adding a line this:

setenv PATH /Users/luomat/Dropbox/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin

obviously change that to match your system. Also, don't be surprised if /etc/launchd.conf doesn't exist on your system. You may have to create it. To do that, I recommend a simple:

sudo pico -w /etc/launchd.conf

and when you are done editing, press control + X and follow the prompts to save the changes.


How do I launch Terminal while in macOS Sierra Recovery Mode?

This is a bug in the recovery Mode, also the same issue if you create a USB Device for install. Try to load Recovery Mode again and choose one the the four available options that should get the menu back.

I've tried boot from USB Device three times until the menu was visible.


Is it possible to view passwords through Terminal?

Check out the security command.  You can get detailed information about its use by reading its man entry man security

An in-depth article on the securitycommand is here.


How to do I tell Quicktime player to start a New Movie Recording with a apple script?

Having duplicated your QuickTime Player application and named it Reaction, I understand you've created an AppleScript applet, and placed this copy of Reaction.app within the Resources folder of the AppleScript applet.

Because it's a duplicate of QuickTime Player (which is scriptable), Reaction is also scriptable, and can also be scripted from within the applet's AppleScript (located at Resources/scripts/main.scpt).

Your main.scpt should look something like this:

set A to path to resource "Reaction.app"

set home to POSIX path of (path to home folder)
set fp to home & "/Movies/Reaction Recording.mov"
set f to a reference to POSIX file fp

using terms from application "QuickTime Player"
    tell the application named A
        activate
        tell the (new movie recording)
            start
            delay 10
            pause
            save in f
            stop
            close
        end tell
    end tell
end using terms from

application "QuickTime Player" may change of its own accord to application "Reaction", which is completely fine.

This script creates a ~10 second recording, minus a couple of seconds to account for the initialisation of the script and such.  Change delay 10 to whatever value represents a sensible recording time in seconds.

To send it as an attachment using Mail:

set msgSubject to "My Reaction Recording"
set msgBody to "Hi. Please see the attached recording. \n"
set msgFrom to "your@email.com"
set msgTo to "friend@email.com"

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    tell (make new outgoing message ¬
        with properties {visible:true ¬
        , subject:msgSubject ¬
        , content:msgBody ¬
        , sender:msgFrom})

        make new to recipient ¬
            at end of to recipients ¬
            with properties {address:msgTo}

        tell its content to make new attachment ¬
            at after the last paragraph ¬
            with properties {file name:f as alias}

        delay 2

        -- send
    end tell
end tell

The top script and the bottom script can simply join to form one continuous script.  You might need a delay in between the two portions, but I didn't require one on my system.

However, the delay within the Mail block is important if you wish to send the email (you must also uncomment the send command by removing the --; keeping it in, which I did during testing, will allow you to preview the email and send it manually).


Are all bluetooth keyboards slow to respond?

No! What you have been told is simply not true!

I have been using Apple Wireless keyboards for 8 or 9 years and have not experienced these problems. Neither have I experienced similar problems with a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.

That said, without further troubleshooting it's impossible to say why you're having these problems. It could well be that the issue has nothing to do with your keyboard and something else is at play here, but the simplest way to rule that out is to try another wireless keyboard and see what happens.


Mojave requires OS reinstall on restart or power on. MACH Reboot type 14 = page fault. Screenshot

Ok here is how I fixed my problem. As noted in a comment the issue looks to be caused by a system extension. Here's what I did to fix it.

I ran this command in my terminal: system_profiler SPExtensionsDataType > ~/Desktop/kextList.txt
I opened ~/Desktop/kextList.txt in a text editor and looked for Obtained from: Not Signed
I removed all extensions (kexts) that wasn't signed from /library/extensions and /system/library/extensions and placed them in ~/Documents/Disabled Extensions/
I then rebooted my computer but I still had the same problem.
I rebooted again in verbose mode by holding Command V on reboot
I noticed that this extension was loading com.iospirit.driver.rbiokithelper
I then went through ~/Desktop/kextList.txt and looked for Obtained from: Identified Developer that also had Loaded: Yes set.
I found com.iospirit.driver.rbiokithelper was loaded. I googled it and found it was for Remote Buddy which I no longer used.
I moved /Library/Extensions/RBIOKitHelper.kext to ~/Documents/Disabled Extensions/ and rebooted.
Problem solved! 8-)

I hope this helps anyone else that has a similar problem.


Getting all files from a web page using curl

Use wget instead.

Install it with Homebrew: brew install wget or  MacPorts: sudo port install wget

For downloading files from a directory listing, use -r (recursive), -np (don't follow links to parent directories), and -k to make links in downloaded HTML or CSS point to local files (credit @xaccrocheur).

wget -r -np -k http://www.ime.usp.br/~coelho/mac0122-2013/ep2/esqueleto/

Other useful options:

-nd (no directories): download all files to the current directory
-e robots.off: ignore robots.txt files, don't download robots.txt files
-A png,jpg: accept only files with the extensions png or jpg
-m (mirror): -r --timestamping --level inf --no-remove-listing
-nc, --no-clobber: Skip download if files exist


OS 10.11 Can't access photo library from Finder file upload box

I'm wondering if an application/bug/corrupted setting is causing this. We can test that by trying it on a completely blank slate by creating a new OS X account real quick.

You can do this over in Users, Systems & Groups in System Preferences. Create a new admin user account (no iCloud necessary) restart into the new account & test there, ideally with the same exact photos library. I would share the one you have, here's a how to about it on the Apple support site.


What I would do is:

Have only 1 library
Make sure that iTunes is configured to keep all your media organized (and point your single iTunes Library to your preferred disk)
When adding files to your iTunes library hold down Option/Alt to let iTunes know that it shouldn't copy the file to where your library is

This way all your data will be organized by iTunes except for the large files that should belong on your largest external disk in the first place.

Cheers...


iPadOS is corrupting files when copying from/to an external drive

So, I have same issue. Turns out it’s fault of files app. I have corrupted files only when I try to copy from iPad.
But there is a way, you can try FileBrowserGO app. Just drag folder from files and land it on disk in FileBrowserGO app. It works without any issues for me, and it’s way faster to!


Try logging out and logging in again. There was an issue with some helper not restarting the right way after the required upgrades, relogging helped me. If that doesn't work, try rebooting.


What is normal for startup chime till Apple logo shows?

It could be that the system is looking for the most appropriate boot device.

You can set this by following these instructions:

Open System Preferences
Ensure that the boot drive you would like is the one selected.
Choose "Restart"

Hopefully this will help.


Final Cut X- Not Enough Media Error - for transitions

The error generally appears when the clips you are transitioning between do not have enough media to overlap. To avoid the message, trim the end of your clip(s) such that there is enough media to cover the transition.

The bug associated with this error message was fixed in Final Cut Pro X 10.3.


How does one lock down OS X Server using the PF firewall?

You should:

understand pf basics - here is many guides on the Internet, you can safely read any Open/Free BSD guide. You must understand a few basic things:

with PF, last rule wins (opposite of IPFW's "first rule wins")
logging is in the pflog device if the 'tcpdump' format
check the pfctl command using man pfctl
also check man pf.conf
you can create many simple text files that contains IP addresses (called tables) and using them in the filtering rules - see the example below.

AFTER this you can use two GUI frontends

IceFloor (instead of the WaterRoof)
Firewall builder (cross platform)

PF is not too hard if you have some knowledge about how firewalling works in general.

Fragment of pf.conf for table based filtering:

interface = "en0"
allowed_ports = "{ 80, 443 }"
table <badips> persist
table <noroute> const { 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12, 10.0.0.0/8 }
block in on $interface from { <noroute>, <badips> } to any
pass in on $interface inet proto tcp from <badips> to $interface port $allowed_ports

The above example contains:

some basic definitions, like your interface name and some ports
definition for two tables, noroute for nonroutable addresses (RFC 1918) and the second badips that can contain your Geo IP based IP addresses
filtering rule - blocking anything from these tables
allowing ports 80 and 443 from badips (last rule wins)


Is there a program that allows you to create keyboard shortcuts that consist of regular keys?

This can be done in Karabiner, but is counter-intuitive and turns common keyboard usage upside down (check the first sentences of Monomeeth's answer).

An example for [M+N] to F13 is already provided in the presets of Karabiner:

Mapping 1+0 to F16 would require to add the following snippet to private.xml:

<item>
  <name>Simultaneous Key Presses [0+1] to F16</name>
  <identifier>remap.simultaneouskeypresses_012f16</identifier>
  <autogen>__SimultaneousKeyPresses__ KeyCode::KEY_0, KeyCode::KEY_1, KeyCode::F16</autogen>
</item>

By defining an additional vk_lazy key (i.e. 0) it should also be possible to first press 0 and then 1 and depending on the first key up either send an F16 or write 01, which is a more comfortable behavior typing "shortcuts" on a keyboard.


How can I run a application in Automator?

You can use the Launch Application action:


You should be able to recover your notes data from a Time Machine backup as follows:

Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu
Use the timeline (it's on the edge of the screen) to locate a version of the Notes storage folder from before your clean installation of macOS Sierra. (The location should be ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/ where the '~' indicates your user account home folder)
Select the folder and click on Restore to restore it

If you haven't got a TM backup or want to try recovering the data from your HDD, see below.

Extracting notes data from your HDD

If you haven't got a TM backup or can't get it to restore from one, you can manually extract the data using a web browser (e.g. Safari, Etc).

To do this:

Go to the location on your HDD that is equivalent to the following path: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/

Inside this folder you'll see files with names such as NotesV6.storedata
Copy these files to another location on your SSD
Add a .html extension to each of them. (Note: You will be prompted as to whether you're sure you want to use the .html extension - click on the Use .html button).
Use Safari or another web browser to open the NotesV6.storedata.html file first (it may not be 'V6' in your case, but it will be 'V' followed by a number)
You should now see your missing notes
Now go through the process of copying and pasting the data into new notes and saving them

If any of your notes are missing after going through the above steps, repeat Step 5 and open the other files you copied across at step 3 to see if your missing notes are there.

Let me know if you run into problems.


Is it possible to save MacOS application user guides for offline reading?

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/automator/welcome/2.9/mac/10.14.5

This is the homepage of the web version of the guide (for my Mac). For your Mac, use open in Safari in Share menu that sits beside table of contents in menu bar of help guide.  You can either

print it page by page in browser or in the Help guide.
or use some tools like wget (recursive 1) or curl (single shot1) to download all pages.
or save the page in web archive or page source whichever suitable, using File -> Save as (command + s )

1: https://daniel.haxx.se/docs/curl-vs-wget.html


How to properly set SSD Fan Control on iMac late 2009 after SSD upgrade

The fan is running at 1499RPM at 38C, despite the settings of 1100RPM at 45C, because of a harmless bug in the SSD Fan Control app.

The bug is easy to reproduce:

Select Manual, and set the speed to 1500RPM
Select SMART, and the fan stays at 1499-1500 RPM

To "kick" the app back in to correct SMART operation:

Set the lower bound to a value below the ambient temperature (30C, for example), such that the fan speed increases
Set the lower bound back to 45C

Problem solved.

As for installing a temperature sensor, forget it. Francesco has a late 2009 model iMac 27" - these were not shipped with temperature sensors taped to the drive, rather with a proprietary cable connection direct to a special extra port on the drive.

The SSD Fan Control app works brilliantly on these old machines, once you understand the strange behaviour of this bug (and the workaround, described above).


IPod touch connect to new PC: no file deletion

Unfortunately not. This is a "Feature" of how iTunes works.

I had to do something like this recently with my wife's old iPod.

The work-around was to use a 3rd-party tool to back up the contents of the iPod before connecting it to the new iTunes. The iPod was wiped and then I copied back in the content.

A pain!


Equivalent key to alt+backspace on Linux

this functionality is provide by "readline", http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?readline+3. Most of keys are same as Emacs,

so, you can type control+w to delete the word just before the cursor
or for example,you can change the preferences of the terminal.app, use option as Meta key. Meta+Delete do the same thing


First, will the FireWire port work with another external hard drive with FireWire? This will rule out if the port has failed or not. IF you have another Mac nearby but not another external drive, another way to test this would be to see if the drive will mount on another Mac.

Second, can you dismantle the external enclosure and move the bare hard drive to another external enclosure, and see if that works? This will rule out whether the interface hardware in the external enclosure has failed.

If you don't have the equipment to test this, take the system to a repair facility that does have the equipment and can test it for you.

If you are fortunate, the bare hard drive is OK and only the enclosure will need to be replaced.


How do I opt out the Apple iOS beta program?

First, you can try deleting the Beta Profile:

Go to Settings > General > Profiles
Click Remove Profile
Restart your device

If you still receive update notification, you should restore your iPhone with the latest iOS release.
In that case you will be sure that the beta profile is completely disabled and won't send you any beta update popup anymore.
Some articles suggest to change the device's calendar date to avoid popup alerts and beta updates, I don't recommend this solution.


How do I play an album starting from nth song in iTunes

Sometimes it's just a case of persuading iTunes to actually Stop rather than Pause

When you first launch iTunes it is Stopped - the top menu doesn't contain any current song info. If at that point you hit Play, it will actually start from just the first song in the list & continue on down the page [assuming you don't have shuffle enabled, of course].
If you double-click any track instead, then it will do the same, from that track - which is what you want...so...

To make it actually Stop, whilst it's playing, hold  Alt ⌥  & click the Pause button II
You might also notice the rewind button changes to a kind of 'orbiting' icon - that's to start Genius based on the current track - but not relevant to this issue.

Once stopped, it ought to return to 'normal' behaviour.

If it doesn't, an alternative is to enable, then disable shuffle. That should also revert to linear play mode.


It sounds like there may be a defect with either the charger or the iPad. I suggest taking it to an authorized Apple store so that they can run diagnostics on it, and potentially repair it.


Settings > Notifications > Messages > Show in Notification Centre > … you can set up to 10 recent items

then all you need to do is swipe your screen from the top down & there they are [though if you've never used that before you'll probably need to clear a whole lot of other stuff first time & trim which apps actually need to be in there.]

You can't have all - only the last 10.


Any way to turn on the reduced power mode a macbook uses under battery power, but while plugged into a power adapter?

Unfortunately, there is no direct way to force OS X to use battery-power mode (here, here and here). OS X uses Intel Speedstep which changes the P-state of the processor depending on the computer's power status (AC/battery).

AFAIK, the only thing you can do is set your AC mode power management settings to the same as battery mode. Using pmset, you can see and set the power settings that your Mac uses for AC and battery scenarios. Below is an example:

$ pmset -g custom
Battery Power:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         1
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 displaysleep         40
 sleep                40
 acwake               0
 halfdim              1
 lessbright           0
 disksleep            10
AC Power:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         1
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 womp                 1
 displaysleep         180
 networkoversleep     0
 sleep                0
 acwake               0
 halfdim              1
 disksleep            10

A brief run-through of the command:

pmset: pmset
-g: get settings
custom: displays custom settings for all power sources

To equalise your AC power settings with your battery consumption settings, you can use the following command:

pmset -g custom | xargs | cut -f1 -d'A' | cut -f2 -d':' | xargs sudo pmset -c

A brief run-through of the command:

pmset -g custom: see above
xargs: converts entire output to one line
cut -f1 -d'A': removes output following "A" of "AC Power:"
cut -f2 -d':': removes output preceding ":" of "Battery Power"
(example output as of this stage)

 lidwake 1 autopoweroff 1 autopoweroffdelay 14400 standbydelay 10800 standby 1 ttyskeepawake 1 hibernatemode 3 powernap 1 hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage displaysleep 40 sleep 40 acwake 0 halfdim 1 lessbright 0 disksleep 10

xargs pmset -c: passes the above argument line one by one to pmset

Now, the output of pmset -g custom looks like this:

$ pmset -g custom
Battery Power:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         1
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 displaysleep         40
 sleep                40
 acwake               0
 halfdim              1
 lessbright           0
 disksleep            10
AC Power:
 lidwake              1
 autopoweroff         1
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatemode        3
 powernap             1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 womp                 1
 displaysleep         40
 networkoversleep     0
 sleep                40
 acwake               0
 halfdim              1
 disksleep            10

Note that for similar properties that had different properties (i.e. displaysleep, which had 40 on battery and 180 on AC), they are now the same.

It is advisable to keep a backup of the original AC power settings in case you would like to revert. As follows, you can generate a string that you can use to reset your AC power settings with the following command:

pmset -g custom | xargs | cut -f2 -d'A' | cut -f2 -d':'

The difference between this command and the one above is that with this command, we are taking the value after AC power (aka original AC power settings). To reset your settings to your original settings, take the string generated by the above command and pipe it through xargs to pmset -a:

echo "[string generated by above command]" | xargs pmset -a

I would also advise following @gentmatt's tips in this answer to decrease power consumption.


no sound coming from external speakers, that are plugged into jack on my macbook pro

You can try setting the sound output manually from system preferences. Does you external speaker get listed here upon plugging in?


Mountain Lion Messages: Gmail user is not registered with iMessage

Add the Google account to the Messages app. After that, you can use Messages with GTalk.


Downloading additional voices from command-line

You can predownload the voice files to your App/Python package (or however you are distributing your app), and then write a script to move or copy the voice files to this folder:

/System/Library/Speech/Voices/

So:

  Download the voice files on your development machine
  Wrap them inside an assets folder or something like this
  Part of your Travis script can be to move the files first in the Voices folder on the mac
  And after that, you run your tests/other scripts


How to clear description of more than 100 songs in a step

Select all tracks at once
Open information window
Tick mark on (empty) description field (or any other field you want to clear on all tracks)
Click OK


MacBook Pro keyboard replacement: Refurbished or new components?

Batteries are never refurbished and installed brand new. The usage status of a battery can be determined by looking at the consumed charge cycles (1 full charge and discharge constitute 1 charge cycle).

You can easily determine the battery charge cycles consumed by going to  → About This Mac → System Report... → Hardware → Power → Battery Information → Health Information → Cycle Count. It should look something like this:

There's also an excellent 3rd party tool called coconutBattery which is very easy to use.


Non-secure Jabber/Google Talk connection in Messages

econ-mit posted the answer here:  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3745358?start=0&tstart=0

Messages > Preferences... > Accounts (select Gmail Google Talk) > Server Settings > uncheck "Automatically find server and port" > click SSL

When I did that, the Server field changed from gmail.com to talk.google.com and it immediately worked.


No macOS update after 10.14.3 on early 2015 MacBook Pro?

Have you tried this

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2010?locale=en_US

It allows you to download the dmg and you can try to push manually. I think, your MBP 2015 should support the latest Mojave as you have installed its older version already.


I't main purpose is to keep you using ArcSoft products.

Stop ArcSoft Connect Service:
Launch "Activity Monitor" from /Applications/Utilities, select "ConnectService" and then click Quit Process.
Delete following folders or files:

/Applications/ArcSoft Connect Suite

/Applications/[Product Name]

/Library/Application Support/ArcSoft

/Library/Receipts/*.pkg

~/Library/Preferences/com.arcsoft.*

~/Library/Preferences/Application Support/ArcSoft

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.arcsoft.*

Notes:
[Product Name]: represents the ArcSoft product you want to uninstall (there may be some more than listed there).

You may also need to read this.


How to get photos/videos from my iphone into the cloud easily

Don't worry, Apple says it's coming in iCloud


Mountain Lion: how to change webcam resolution

Apple (or a 3rd party) should write a utility to allow you to dial down the native resolution of the internal camera, but to my knowledge they have not, so far.

You can work around this by piping the video output from your web camera into another program that processes the camera's video stream and "re-publishes" it to your Mac as a virtual camera (aka pseudo-camera) which will be available for use in other applications on your Mac.

Here's how I did it. I've tested this solution under OS X 10.8. It also works under OS X 10.6. (I'd bet it probably works in 10.7, also.)

Download the free (donation-ware) webcam effects utility CamTwist Studio.
Set your web browser to run in 32-bit mode.  (Why? Because the Adobe Flash  browser plugin must run in 32-bit mode in order to access the CamTwist virtual camera device.)  To do this, go to the Finder, locate your web browser app, do "Get Info", and check the "Open in 32-bit mode" checkbox. Don't launch your web browser yet.

Open CamTwist Studio, go to the Preferences, click the Video Devices tab, choose your video device, then use the "Force camera resolution" setting to force whatever resolution you prefer. (Suggest 320 x 240 for low-bandwidth internet connections.)

You'll then need to define a "Setup" in CamTwist studio. Follow the Steps in the CamTwist main window: double-click "WebCam" from the Video Sources column.

Skip to Step 5 in the Cam Twist main window - select your camera device in the Settings column:

Open the Preview from the Tools menu. A window should pop up showing you a live video stream from your camera device.
(optional) If you wish, play around with the many interesting effects available within CamTwist, such as "Comic Book," shown here:

Now you're ready to launch your web browser (in 32-bit mode). Most web-based video chat/meeeting services (such as GoToMeeting) use Adobe Flash for handling video. When you go to configure your camera settings for video chat, you should see a new "camera" device available, called "CamTwist Studio."  If you select this device, your video stream should be the modified, low-resolution 320x240 (or whatever size you chose) stream, plus any effects you added in CamTwist.

The CamTwist "virtual" video device should also be available in most other programs that use Mac OS X Core Video services, i.e. Skype and many other apps. (But not all. For example, it doesn't work with FaceTime.)

Here's an example of the CamTwist video stream being used on http://www.chatroulette.com:


How to use automator to create a service which converts an ebook (using calibre commands)

Open Automator, choose the service template, change "Service receives selected" to "files or folders", add a Run Shell Script action, change "Pass input" to "as arguments", and change the command to:

for f;do /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert "$f" "${f%.*}.mobi";done

Or if you add

2mobi() {
  for f; do
    /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert "$f" "${f%.*}.mobi"
  done
}

to a shell configuration file like ~/.bash_profile, you can run 2mobi /path/to/file.epub in a shell.


Dual FireWire External HDD and second port performance

It shouldn't. FireWire is a peer to peer technology


Where are the Safari bookmarks stored on a computer

Transfer the entire account with Migration Assistant, which should include all settings including bookmarks.


If app is rejected from App Store, is it possible to have a refund for Developer Program?

In general, there are no refunds of the Apple Developer program yearly fee.  I've been in the program for several years and I've never heard or seen a refund given because an app was rejected.

The reason being is that all app policies are public and available for you to review prior to determining you want to pay the fee and submit the app.  I would recommend that you do that first and see if your app idea is viable.

Just because you think the app will be accepted doesn't mean Apple can't reject it later for whatever policy they think you violated.  In that case, you can always contact Apple and appeal the rejection.

I don't know if the 7-day cancellation you mentioned would be applicable in this case because you're not making a product purchase; you're paying a membership fee.


How can I temporarily run a resource intensive process without overheating my CPU?

make sure you have smc installed so you can adjust your fans...also, make sure your fans are clear of dust/debris...dust can create a real problem. you can also do new thermal paste but it may void your warranty...and thats only really necessary if youve got a constant, major overheating issue


Can I change which day I get the Activity.app weekly summary?

Looks like it probably isn't possible. In Apple Watch.app -> My Watch -> Activity there is a toggle that says:

  When this is on, every Monday you'll get a brief recap of your Move
  performance from the previous week, and you can adjust your Move goal
  for the upcoming week

Which to me suggests there isn't a setting for changing the day you receive the recap.


What Macs do when verifying applications

Apple provides digital 'certificates' to registered developers, who pay $99 per year to register. Any applications signed with those certificates will be 'verified'.

It's nothing to do with the App Store as such. Registered developers can make certified apps available on their own websites.

Apple can remove the certificate from developers who are found to be shipping malware or being naughty in some other way.

When you first open an application, MacOS checks that the certificate is valid. If the app was made by a developer who is not registered with Apple, then you will get the message that the app is unknown to Apple, and therefore potentially risky. Of course, lots of very good software is written by developers who don't register with Apple.


How can I change the Apple ID associated with an iPod Touch?

You might find this answer to be helpful for changing the Apple ID on your phone.

To summarize, go to Settings » Store » click on the old Apple ID » Sign out » Sign in and enter your own Apple ID.


MacBook crashes with so much of heat while the lid is closed

The system is designed to let the CPU idle when heat becomes an issue. Crashes indicate a bad software install or faulty hardware. Either of those can be worked out with Apple Support.

If you want to troubleshoot the software yourself, make a backup and then perform an erase install.

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

If you can crash the Mac with a clean install and no restore of your data or installation of third party apps - that's a perfect test to isolate hardware as the faulty item.


High Sierra root vulnerability: how to check if someone logged in remotely?

As @Melvin points out, a patch was just released. But to the question at hand, the easy is answer is no, they were root on your machine. It is compromised, period, by definition you cannot trust anything on it if you suspect it was compromised.

To further elaborate, if someone got root access remotely to your machine, you would never ever be able to se the traces of that if they know what they are doing and clean their tracks.

This was not "somebody got the key to the boss's office and messed around a bit in there", this is "somebody got the master key, unlimited funds and an unlimited contruction crew with unlimited time at hand". If you suspect you where compromised, format and reinstall.

To answer the question in layman terms (i.e. how would someone without the prereq skills of cleaning tracks probably leave tracks).

Lets start with ssh, for a full discussion see this question. In short search for ssh or sshd (the "server" part of ssh) in "Console.app" or by terminal:

cat /var/log/system.log | grep sshd

The problem with sshd is that normally nothing is really logged (security concerns AFAIK).

The same problem exists with VNC / Screen Sharing and Apple Remote Desktop / Remote Management, see for example this, this and this, that normal accepted connections are not logged. Only refused ones. Refused ones would probably come from "screensharingd", so search for that in the "Console.app" or terminal

cat /var/log/system.log | grep screensharingd

Except this what other tracks could easily be found? I would look through users and make sure they are only valid users and that no permission levels have changed etc.

I would also check if any remote services are enabled. See picture below. Of interest are "Screen Sharing", "Remote Login" and "Remote Management". cmd + space -> "sharing" is the easiest way to get there.