Not able to get a partition that fills SSD

Your new 512 GB disk has about 260 GB of unallocated disk space (starting at block 409640 and ending at block 511933959).

The on-board OS X tools don't allow you to move the beginning of a partition (the second partition starting at block 511933960) to smaller block numbers (like 409640).

My advice: create a new partition in the unallocated disk space. Clone the content of your current main volume to the new one. Then remove the current main volume and expand the new main volume. Additionally you should change the wrong type of your Recovery HD (i=3).

Preparation:

Attach a backup drive and backup your drive.
Detach the backup drive
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup. Booting to Recovery Mode is not conducive because the Recovery HD will be removed in one of the steps below. And you can't remove a partition used as a boot volume.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan). If you boot to a full system and login as admin you have to prepend sudo to execute special commands like gpt ...!

Modify the GUID partition table

Not to get confused with the index number and the relative on-disk position of a partition:

AFAIK the default gpt settings allow 128 partition entries in the partition table. The index i of those entries runs from 1 to 128. You may use any free index number to add a new partition. The on-disk position of a partition is independent of the index number. Example: You can add the first partition (block 2-1000) with i=43, the second (block 1001-2000) with i=42 and the last one (block 2001-3000) with i=2. To remove the entry of the second partition you mustn't use i=2 (the on-disk position) but i=42!

Enter diskutil list and gpt -r show /dev/diskX (with diskX: the disk identifier of your internal disk (probably disk0)) to get an overview. In the commands below I assume the disk identifier is disk0.
Now modify the type of the Recovery HD:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 3 /dev/disk0
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 998945640 -i 3 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Modify you main partition:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 511933960 -i 4 -s 487011680 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Add a new partition in the unallocated disk space:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 409640 -i 2 -s 511524320 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Check if everything is fine:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Your partition table should finally look like this:

     start        size  index  contents
         0           1         PMBR
         1           1         Pri GPT header
         2          32         Pri GPT table
        34           6
        40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640   511524320      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
 511933960   487011680      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
 998945640     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1000215176           7
1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
1000215215           1         Sec GPT header

To quit Terminal enter:

exit

and quit Terminal
Format your new partition and clone your old main volume to the new volume:

Open Disk Utility and erase/format the new partition (261.9 GB) to HFS+ Journaled. Give it a different volume name like Cantaloup2. The old main volume Cantaloup has the size 249.3 GB!
Restore your old main volume to the empty new one.
Boot to your new main volume Cantaloup2.
If everything is working, remove your old main volume Cantaloup and expand  Cantaloup2 to the full size.
Rename Cantaloup2 to Cantaloup.


Why does iTunes 12.1 keep deleting podcasts I've downloaded but not listened to?

Go to myPodcasts in iTunes

Choose a podcast series (i.e. in the left hand column)

Choose Settings (in lower right hand corner)

Check the On This computer settings. Limit Episodes needs to be set to off


Can I ensure keyboard commands don't get trapped by browser scripts?

The only surefire way to avoid having JavaScript trap keyboard input is to disable JavaScript in the browser.

I understand you'd like to leave JavaScript on, but it is designed to pass near total control of raw key presses to the browser and not to the app once the OS hands it input data. This means you would need a specific code solution for each implementation of keyboard filtering on potentially each individual page/site to ensure arbitrary key chords like Command H get sent to Safari instead of JavaScript.

See these links for an overview of how key presses are handled:

http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Events/#keys
http://unixpapa.com/js/key.html
http://unixpapa.com/js/testkey.html

The last link is a tester to show you the raw events and you will see that even a brief ⌘Q can be trapped by JavaScript if the website developer wishes to do so.


External HD serve media through iMac or do I need standalone media server?

Can I buy an extra external HD and use it to serve the libraries to the other devices through my main iMac?

In the case of your AppleTV, it see's content that's in your iTunes Library. So as long as your iTunes library is on your external drive, your AppleTV will have access to it. The method for moving your iTunes library to another drive has been well covered on this site. I suggest you check out:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/31393/292

There are some things to consider when moving your iTunes library to an external drive:

External drive access can be slower, especially if it's over an already busy USB buss, so take that in to consideration if you need to stream multiple high definition videos out of the box at the same time. You might want to consider a FireWire or a Thunderbolt equipped drive to ensure you've got sustained throughput rates to deal with your streaming needs.
Time Machine doesn't back up external drives. So your iTunes Library won't be getting the Time Machine treatment. You'll need to back it up yourself with something like Carbon Copy Cloner or a cloud backup service if you want to make sure your library data is safe.


Mac OSX Mail Closes main window after hitting send

When you check the logs in Console, you may find it convenient and more informative if you first select All Messages in the left column, then use the Filter blank/box in the upper right of that window and enter "Mail".

This should produce a list of all log entries relating to Mail only.  It may not pick up everything that is involved in creating the actions you see in Mail, but it will find most of them, and could help in giving a clue to the problem.  It does get rid of all the entries that are unrelated to the problem.

When looking at these filtered messages, try to remember the last changes you made to the system.  Don't limit your thinking to changes in Mail, but think about all apps and add ons you installed. It's the unintended (and unknown) consequences that often cause such problems.  They sometimes don't reveal themselves until days later.

A couple of other things to do that can often correct weird behavior, especially in apps native to the OS:

Safe Boot, then immediately reboot normally without logging in.

Reinstall the OS Combo update.

Neither of these is a sure cure, but used in the above order, will often fix this kind of problem.  About the only thing you learn from the exercise is that it can often cure the problem, and you still don't know what was wrong.

Whatever you do, be methodical in your approach.  Try only one "fix" at a time, and then test for problems.  This is the easiest way to learn and improved your problem-solving skills.


You have been misled. If your iPad is capable of running iOS 10 (you don't specify the model) then you should see the update notification for it.

To check, follow these steps on the iPad:

Open Settings
Tap on General
Tap on Software Update
You will either get a message that it's checking for an update, or you will see a message informing you that you can update to iOS 10.x, or you will see a message stating that your software is up-to-date

Follow the above steps and let me know what you see?

[EDIT]

I've just realised you had referenced iPad 2 in your question title. This generation of iPad does not support any version of iOS above iOS 9.3.5. This is why you're not able to update to iOS 10.


I can't send messages to anyone in my contacts except to myself

Use the Messages app to send and receive messages.

Send a message

Open Messages.
Tap the Compose button  to start a new message. Or go to an existing conversation.
Type your message.
Tap the Send button .

Use Messages on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

Pressing Compose lets you type a phone number or email address to send a message to.
The list of email addresses and phone numbers in your screenshot of Settings are what other people type in their compose box to send you messages. You don't add other people's contact information there.
If you get an error message when trying to send a message, Apple has debugging steps:

If you can't send or receive messages on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch


How can I know where does an app locate its configuration files?

There are a few programs which can give you insight into file system usage while programs are running.

There are a few good terminal ones like lsof, but I really like fseventer for its simple graphical interface and play/pause button.

All you would do is run your program, run fseventer, and if you make a change to your preferences or configuration and it is stored in a file, it will show you the process touching the file.

If it is something like Entourage which stores its rules in files but then keeps them in memory until quit/start, you may want to close other programs and launch your program of choice to see what it loads, then quit it to see the reverse process.


What is the security impact of installing a macOS configuration profile containing certificates?

The file eduroam-OS_X-UdS.mobileconfig  contains five certificates. Three of them can be retrieved by entering openssl pkcs7 -inform DER -print_certs -in ~/Downloads/eduroam-OS_X-UdS.mobileconfig.

At least two of the three belong to the chain of trust to validate code signing of the mobileconfig file.

You can verify this by clicking on verified

The other two ("TERENA SSL CA 3" and "DigiCert Assured ID Root CA") are the chain of trust to validate the identity of your university's RADIUS server. By opening eduroam-OS_X-UdS.mobileconfig with a decent editor you can see and extract them. By saving each of them as a *.cer file you can compare and validate them yourself by opening them with Keychain Access.app: choose one of the two certs and right-click it > evaluate cert > Generic.

If the TERENA cert isn't evaluated successfully it doesn't catch the Digicert root certificate properly. Simply hit the button Go Back and repeat the step.

"DigiCert Assured ID Root CA" is a duplicate of a certificate already existing in your System Roots keychain and "TERENA SSL CA 3" is an intermediate certificate authority. Both are required to ensure the identity of the Radius server. If possible you should choose to "Validate the (RADIUS) Server Certificate" though. I don't know (and haven't been able to find) the DNS-name of your university's RADIUS server.

None of the certificates lower your system security. If everything is properly configured (especially on the server-side) an MITM shouldn't be possible: Security Considerations.

If something is configured improperly and you are a victim of an MITM your l'identifiant E.N.T and le mot de passe E.N.T will be "lost".


Create disk image which can be read on Windows

Yes you can actually create an .iSO image file on your Mac with Disk Utility and a little bit of Terminal magic.

Connect an external drive (or, if you have an older Mac, insert a disc into the CD/DVD drive) to your Mac and launch Disk Utility. This is the device that you will be placing your files on for conversion. A USB Drive is also useful if you can't find an empty Your disk will appear in the left column window.

Now that you’ve selected the source of the disc image, click on File > New > Disk Image from... In the popup window, select Desktop as your destination. Next, make sure to choose DVD/CD Master as the Image Format. Choosing this format ensures the contents of the disk are copied entirely as a .CDR image.

You should keep the image’s name short so that it’s easily reproduced.

If asked, enter your Mac password and hit OK to begin the disk image process. Depending on how large the disc is, the amount of time that’s necessary varies (Which makes USB drives very effecient). You’ll see a progress bar estimating the time until completion.

Once the process finishes, hit “Done,” and check your Desktop for the .CDR image. In its current state, the disk is ready for use on any Mac. To share the file with Windows users, you’ll need to convert it into a recognizable format. To do this, you’ll use your Mac’s Terminal app.

Assuming your .CDR file is on your Mac’s Desktop, open Terminal and type the following and hit the enter key:

cd desktop

Then, enter this line of code to transform the .CDR to .ISO and hit enter:

hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o [filename].iso [filename].cdr

Substitute both instances of [filename] with the name of your .cdr image. For example, I named my ISO file TEST-IMAGE, so the line of code I used is:

hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o TEST-IMAGE.iso TEST-IMAGE.cdr

Terminal will create a new hybrid image. This image can be used by both Windows and Mac computers that use ISO 9660 and HFS file systems.


How can I remap these keyboard keystrokes?

You can also make accents from the USA keyboard by just holding down the key for the base letter and selecting the one you want from the popup menu that appears.

One pretty easy way to remap keys the way you want is to make a custom keyboard layout with Ukelele:

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele


What are "nwnode:" URLs, and why did Lion break them?

The error occurs when an application using Python symbol mappings in Mac OS X is not able to connect to a (previously) networked drive, Time Machine, Bonjour, shared or remote drives, etc. (nwnode). It's a depreciated method, which mostly is why Lion displays the error. Even if you don't use Time Machine, this error can occur, either from an os upgrade or app that uses Python (Dropbox in this case).

Usually the issues can be resolved by following these steps (via Apple):

Resolution

In the Finder, double-click on your hard disk.
Open the folder named System.
Open the Library folder.
Open the Filesystems folder.
Drag the folder named "URLMount (from old Mac)" to your desktop as a precautionary backup.
Once the copy is complete, control-click the original "URLMount (from old Mac)" folder (not the one on your desktop) and choose "Move
to Trash" from the contextual menu.
Enter the name and password of an administrator if prompted. The first user account created on your Mac is an administrator account.
Restart.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1736

*note: The question above was posted six months ago, although I decided to answer it today simply because nobody seemed to know the answer. Hopefully someone who reads this will understand what the error means now.

And just for Bryson, here is just one of it's strings in symbol_mappings.py:

'__ZN17SharePointBrowser18setConnectionStateE21NWNodeConnectionState' :
 'SharePointBrowser.o',


SIMPLE -- I'm talking WAAAAY Simple 3D program for Mac without being an engineer

123D is a free super simplified version of a software I used called Autodesk Inventor it is a basic 3d design program that can get sort of complex the farther you dig but the interface is simplistic and you should be able to find tutorials on sites like Youtube. As Jamie said Lego Digital Designer might also be a good match.


No, the Finder does what it does and that is do its best not to leave anything unfinished.  If it can't finish a copy it deletes the partials.

You could probably hack together a scriptlet that would let you drag and drop files onto it that would then rsync the file somewhere. You could even make it a folder action.  But it would be limited in where the files end up.


Applescript : Only run the script if specific input is entered

First, you're trying to check against text returned of y, where y is text returned of x – a string, not a dialog result so text returned of y won't work. Just use y.

Second, you need to be testing your string stored in y against another string, not a number. Wrap 3232 in quotes:

set x to display dialog "What is your password?" default answer "" with hidden answer
set y to (text returned of x)

display dialog (text returned of x)
display dialog y

if y is "3232" then
  display dialog "Hi" buttons ["OK"]
end if


Cannot access localhost after upgrade to Mavericks but can access 127.0.0.1

Everything seems to be working now. I can access localhost again, and my app is running Sinatra on Thin as it was before. Thanks to bmike, I did a bit of searching on why my loopback was unreachable and came across this article. I moved my old hosts file (/etc/hosts) to hosts.old and made a new one in its place that simply contained:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1           localhost
255.255.255.255     broadcasthost
::1                 localhost
fe80::1%lo0         localhost

Then, I ran dscacheutil -flushcache and rebooted my computer*. After that, things appear to be working normally again. I can only guess that something weird happened with my old hosts file. I also took JakeGould's advice and blew away ruby 2.0.0 (I still had ruby 1.8.7--you cannot uninstall ruby entirely on a mac, since it uses ruby for other things) and rvm and reinstalled those; but I'm not sure that had anything to do with my success, as I still had the same issues until I followed the steps outlined above.

Note: the above hosts file contains virtually the same thing that I say my hosts file contained before (see original question); however, there were other things in my original hosts file that I did not share in my question (I just shared what I thought was the relevant part), so perhaps something there got borked when I upgraded--I wish I knew for sure.

*Rebooting is probably not necessary. I actually had this problem after setting up a new user from a backup drive on my machine at work (which is running Mountain Lion) and (just today) followed the same steps above (minus blowing away ruby and rebooting the machine), and it worked. This leads me to believe that the heart of the issue was a borked /etc/hosts file.


Change Application folder presentation w/out disabling SIP

You don't. That's what System Integrity Protection is all about. But keep in mind you can disable it, do your changes and reenable it again. Both steps are described in How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA “rootless” on OS X 10.11, El Capitan?


Scheduling Application to Modify Its Settings

The easiest way to do this is via Applescript. The commands you need are both single line. To make Adium go online the Applescript code is:

tell application "Adium" to go online

To make it go invisible, the Applescript code is:

tell application "Adium" to go invisible

Pretty simple. You can also tell Adium to go away. Open the Applescript Editor App in your /Applications/Utilities directory and create two Applescript files; one has just the command to go online and the other the command to go invisible/away. Save them as .scpt files with appropriate names.

That was the easy part. The next question is how do you trigger the right script at the right time? You essentially need to create the following two scheduled tasks:

"run adium_invisible.scpt at 5pm everyday"

"run adium_online.scpt at 8am everyday"

The default way to do this, built into OS X, is to use the UNIX 'cron' daemon. It's documentation can be found here. If you find the cron interface intimidating, there is a GUI app you can use to set tasks up, called Cronnix.

You'll still need to understand the timing syntax that crontab files use though. Wikipedia can get you up speed on that. Inside your user crontab you want to create two scheduled tasks. They should look like this:

0 8 * * * osascript path/to/adium_online.scpt

and

0 17 * * * osascript path/to/adium_invisible.scpt

osascript is an Apple specific command that lets the shell call and run an Applescript. You give it the path to the .scpt file as a paramater. Once you have the two cron tasks set up you should be good to go.

If editing the crontab file by hand, and not using Cronnix, don't copy and paste these verbatim, as tabs are required between the hours, minutes, days etc., not spaces as I have here.

Also, you could create cron tasks that use osascript and pass the Applescript directly like this:

osascript -e 'tell application "Adium" to go online'

However, storing the Applescript commands in a separate file gives you flexibility in the likely event that you need to change what commands get run later on. You can add to or remove from the .scpt files without needing to interfere with the crontab file.


I know this is not very pro-Apple of me, but I would definitely recommend Google Play.  Unless you happen to have more than 20,000 songs, you can upload all your music to your own Google Play library, and then access it on any device.  I had used iTunes previously because I wanted a service that allowed me to easily access my music on any device, but since Google released an iOS app that problem was solved.

Speaking of which the usability of the UI on the web front end and on the iOS app in my opinion is great and very intuitive.  Searching is done almost instantly, and it also returns results from the google play store, which is super nice for me since I now have their streaming service. ($10 a month, otherwise Google Play is free)

Anyway, Google Play is a great replacement if you don't mind having your music pushed to the Google Cloud.  It also serves as its own backup...

The only issue I had when switching was with some of Apple's old DRM from a very early version of iTunes... I can't remember how far back, but the issue was only with a very few amount of songs.


When you sign an app using a code signing certificate, you are establishing an end date for that app (in terms of it having an unexpired cert).

You will not be affected directly (except hopefully for getting warnings that you are using an expired cert) but your users will notice when the expiration passes and they will not get a warning beforehand. One day it will break, precisely when their clock passes the date of expiration. It will still be signed of course, so you may want to prepare your customers to expect that the trust the OS extends to your your app will expire. They can choose to keep running the app by disabling the checks or stripping the code signing. You might also to supply users with newer versions of the same app that are re-signed should they want he same exact binary but simply extend the signing for a different time range.


Windows 7 only boots to Windows boot manager with Continue Recovery not going anywhere

A normal Boot Camp assisted install of Windows 7 on your model Mac places the System Reserved and Windows Recovery Environment (WRE) files on the same partition as Windows 7. So, if your Windows 7 partition has been compromised, then  you may not be able to correctly access the boot manager or the recovery files. Basically, Boot Camp places all your eggs in one basket.

The correct procedure would be to boot from the original installation media and select "Repair your computer", when the image below appears.


Photos library - importing photos from DSLR camera - missing Masters directory (macOS Catalina)

Is there a reason you want/need to do this via the Finder, exploring the Photos Library.photoslibrary package database?

If you are going to do that, why not just "import" the files from your SD Card using Finder? Skip importing via Photos entirely.

If you are importing into Photos, I'd suggest you also export via Photos.app rather than exploring its folder structure. Select the photos you want, then select File > Export. This will export the photos using their original metadata and filenames.


Some that I've found:

iFlicks.app
Vidalin
iDentify

I've yet to find one that does everything I want.  iFlicks.app comes close, but the feature I want that's missing is the ability to tag chapters.  You can always use more than one app, but I don't like the idea of different programs overwriting my metadata.


How can I fix the tiny type in iOS 10 Mail?

Try force quitting mail (double click the home button on your device to enter the task switcher and swipe the card for mail upwards). Then re-launch mail to see if the text is appropriately sized.


Portable UI Applescript for choosing any menu item through any hierarchy of sub-menus

After wrestling with this for days before posting the above question, it looks like I figured out a solution - I think the act of actually describing the question in detail to post it got my thinking to there.

I'm sharing it for the benefit of anyone else hitting something similar...

My struggle was with the idea that the hierarchical nature meant increasing the level of tell for each item in theSubMenusNamesList.  I couldn't figure out how to put that in a loop without each iteration of the loop going in at that level but then having to come back out at the same level, thus not going deeper.

This was where Option 3 was a fail from the start, which had me going down the rabbit hole of trying to construct the script in text, to then run with run script.

However, Option 3 is actually the answer - code it direct without trying to construct it in text - but I had to wrestle with that some more to get there.

I eventually realized that I can put each iteration's subMenu into a variable - set to menu item ... of the previous iteration of itself. That successfully goes deeper into each level of the hierarchy without pulling out too early.

Of course if that doesn't make sense, then here's the code, which you're welcome to steal and adapt of course, and which may or may not make more sense... ;)

on chooseMenuItem(theApp, theMenu, theSubMenusNamesList, theMenuItemName)
    set theAppName to the name of theApp
    activate theApp
    tell application "System Events" to tell process theAppName
        tell theMenu to click

        repeat with theMenuName in theSubMenusNamesList
            set theMenu to menu item theMenuName of menu 1 of theMenu
            tell theMenu to click
        end repeat

        set theMenuItem to menu item theMenuItemName of menu 1 of theMenu
        tell theMenuItem to click
    end tell
end chooseMenuItem

This works for me - tried with a number of different options. For example: As in the original question, call it with something like:

ChooseMenuItem("TextEdit", "Format", {"Font", "Ligatures"}, "Use Default")

Or an example with no sub menus at all, just leave the third parameter as an empty list:

ChooseMenuItem("TextEdit", "File", {}, "New")

Hope this helps someone.


How can I control my mac using only my keyboard? (e.g. macOS Catalina Voice Control with only the keyboard)

On controlling mac with only keyboard, I have a couple of really lame/impractical solutions that you probably already know about.

There is System Preferences->Keyboard->Shortcuts. There, you can use an unfriendly ui to configure a quite few undocumented options, mapping them to keyboards strokes that only sometimes work.  If you spend enough time memorizing shortcuts, you may get somewhere with mouseless use of your Mac.

Then there is System Prefs->accessibility->switch control.  Click enable switch control check box.  A black window will pop up.  Click on Pointer.  That gives you a bunch of options to simulate mouse use by pressing just space bar.  If you map turning this option to a keyboard shortcut -- BAM!  You can do anything without a mouse.  The downside is it takes like 30 seconds for every click.


Actually it can only discern between one narrow touch moving and one wider touch. It's not tracking multiple points - just calculating the area of touch and the single general motion.

Some other questions here might help explain this better:

Are non-unibody MacBook Pros capable of Lion's 3 and 4 finger multi-touch gestures?
MacBook multi-touch trackpad support
Make Solid-state scrolling trackpad behave like Multi-Touch trackpad

No amount of software will make up for your solid state based trackpad. You might be able to get a Magic Trackpad or use an iOS device to inexpensively upgrade your hardware set and take advantage of multitouch.


The following page has a lot of explanation on it but I've provided the quick steps below. Side note, try verify and repair and fix permissions in the app first to see if that does it.

Erase disk via terminal

Start in terminal with this command:
diskutil list

Next verify and repair the usb drive with this command putting the disk name I where it says {volume name} (no brackets):
diskutil verifyVolume /Volumes/{volume name} diskutil repairVolume /Volumes/{volume name}

If good so far, try erasing with this command, replacing disk identifier with the name from the list in the first step (eg disk2):
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Test /dev/{disk identifier}


Help getting Nautilus running under MacPorts

This sounds like a problem in X11 itself. To find the real issue with X11, you would have to take a look at the generated crash reports. You will find these within the application Console at "Diagnostic Reports".

As a workaround, you could try to use XQuartz instead, which is a package providing an usually more up-to-date version of the X server for Mac OS X.


Syncing contacts between Outlook for Mac (2015) and Google Contacts

Can’t sync Outlook for Mac with calendars and contacts in Outlook.com, iCloud, Gmail accounts

Outlook for Mac does not currently support CalDAV or CardDAV. This means that it is not possible to synchronize your Outlook on the web, iCloud, Gmail calendar or contacts with Outlook 2016 for Mac. However, Outlook 2016 for Mac does support iCloud Mail. For more information, see Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Mac compatibility with Apple iCloud.

For more known issues in Outlook 2016, pls check here:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Known-issues-in-Outlook-2016--for-Mac-af547e5c-4310-4d41-9944-08b1e842ebe4?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US


How extract apps from a iTunes backup file?

iTunes hasn't saved or restored ipa files in a long time. Apple expect you to recover everything OTA [over the air] these days & assume you have a current online backup over iCloud.

This function change arrived with version 12.7 - http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/13/itunes-12-7-update-removes-app-store/

If you do already have an ipa of an app no longer available from the App Store, you can use Apple Configurator 2 to restore it to the phone. There are other MDM solutions that allow tethered app installation as well if you really need that capability.

https://www.groundctl.com/docs/425


How to disable Gatekeeper alerts on opening text files synced with Dropbox?

man spctl

That is good to know, although you can just do:

xattr -d YourFile.txt

This removes the quarantine attribute on files.

With spctl you can add WriteRoom to list of apps that can run. From

man spctl

EXAMPLES
 To check whether Mail.app is allowed to run on the local system:
       spctl -a /Applications/Mail.app

 To allow Frobozz.app to run on the local system:
       spctl --add --label "My Stuff" /Applications/Mail.app

 To forbid all code obtained from the Mac App Store from running:
       spctl --disable --label "Mac App Store"


Can I see Apple health data from over a year ago?

The health data is not deleted beyond one year, but Health.app doesn't show graphs beyond one year. You can view the raw data by selecting the metric and choosing Show All Data.


Can I re-download the Songs of Innocence download I once had without an Apple Music subscription?

You can download it without an Apple Music subscription, provided you had an iPhone at the release time in 2014 and still have the same Apple account.

For this this was:

Music App -> Library -> Artists -> U2 -> Songs of Innocence -> Download.


Can I put more than 8GB of Ram in a MacBook Pro 5.1

Your Macbook Pro supports only 8GB (15'') or 6GB (17'') of RAM.

Apple states that it's 4GB, but OWC continuously check the max. supported RAM.

See this list here.


How can I redirect the output of screen to a file?

Found possible answer at Stack Overflow:

Have you tried:

screen -L /dev/tty.Airconsole-1 > file.txt


27" iMac with mini display port and Windows 10 - use in target display mode?

So for anyone with the same issues. Indeed you need a working copy of MacOS in order to enable Target Display Mode. So using the internet recovery option (Command+R while booting up) I installed MacOS on an external 32GB usb stick attached to my iMac. Then after about an hour of installation the iMac booted into High Sierra and using Command+F2 it switched into Target Display Mode and I was able to use it as a second monitor for my Windows 10 PC.


MacBook Pro won't read one particular CD (but CD player will)

it is possible that the CD has a scratch on it or is dirty. When this happens to me I wash it in the sink.

Warm water, and put a little dish soap on your hand (remove any rings!) and gently rub the CD back and forth (never round and round) until all the soap is gone. Dry with a soft towel (not paper towels) and try the CD again.

You could also examine the surface for scratches. If you find any, you could try the toothpaste method for buffing out the scratch (google it for details).

Failing that you may have to find a friend who can rip it for you. Some optical drives just have a problem with some CDs and DVDs. Sometimes I have to use another Mac or even an old PC to rip recalcitrant optical media.


Can the SSD from a 2013 Macbook Air work with an adapter in a PC?

Try to call or write OWC, I know thier SSD for macbook airs works good so I think thier adaptor work fine aswell. But you have a 2013 and they only sell SSD for pre-2012 Airs, so maybe there is a change in the newest SSD that they does not support yet.

My advice, contact OWC before ordering any.


How to use the camera of an iPad connected to a Mac as a video camera?

I'm not aware of any software the directly captures the video from the camera, but like others have suggested you can capture the screen, which also works when the camera app is open, thus getting the camera video. After doing some research, it seems that you can record the screen right through Screenflow. Check out more about Screenflow screen recording here.

The next option, which is free, is to use the built in QuickTime application to record the screen of the iPhone. This can be done by

Open QuickTime
File -> New Movie Recording
Next to the record button, click the down arrow to the right
Select iPad Mini
Open the camera app and press record in QuickTime

The downside to these two options are that you won't get the native resolution from the camera, instead it is being downscaled to fit the screen size. For both Screenflow and QuickTime, you must plug in your phone, but this will provide better quality screen recording than doing it over WiFi. Best of luck!


In Mail, Cmd-Opt-Ctrl-F does something unexpected

In Mavericks Mail:

The shortcut for Flag is shift- cmd - L to assign the Urgent Flag.

There is no Cmd-Opt-Ctrl-F in my Mail app.

However, if you try to add that shortcut in keyboard shortcut it will alert you if that short cut is used by someone else and show you by whom.


MacPorts on mountain lion - cannot install apache2 due to gettext package

You need to run macport port command as root best using port as shown in all the examples in the Macports guide This is so that all the processes are set up as the correct user and the files are saved no changeable by other users.

e.g.
sudo /opt/local/bin/port -v install apache2


How do you remove SSL certificate exceptions on iOS?

I found a nice blog post that gives some good information and tips regarding ssl certificates.

Once the SSL exception is added there doesn’t seem to be a way to remove it in iOS 7. In previous versions going to Settings->Safari and selecting ‘Clear Cookies and Data’ would delete it. This no longer seems to work in iOS 7....

--

To remove the SSL exception on Safari on iOS 7.0.4 you can reset all settings (General > Reset > Reset Settings). Unfortunately it deletes all your settings (go figure); but it's one huge step better than a full restore that makes you lose your text messages.

I found instructions on how to do this in iOS 6 here and also here with pictures. This probably also works in iOS 5 but I cannot confirm (the Profiles page mentioned below likely doesn't appear until there are installed certificates to view or delete). See information about how this changed iOS 7 below if this doesn't also work there.
Remove Security Certificates
from the first link above:

Turn on your iPhone and click on the "Settings" icon in the main menu screen. Select "General" from the list of options that appear in the drop-down menu.

Select "Profiles" from the list of options that appear and a list of all the certificate on your iPhone will appear on screen.

Scroll through the list of certificates until you come to the one you would like to remove from your iPhone and click the "Remove" button on the screen. The certificate will then be removed. Repeat the process for any other certificates you would like to remove.

You can also manage certificates with the Apple Configurator in Mavericks, the iPhone Configuration Utility in Mountain Lion, Lion and Snow Leopard, and there is a Windows version. There are instructions available.

Information on how this changed in iOS 7.

SSL Detective
From my comment above, check out SSL Detective for iOS. As far as I've seen, it's the only iOS app of it's kind, and may help you determine which certificates you'd like to delete.


Serious system issue - kernel extensions installed improperly

Try booting to "Safe Mode".  To do this:

Turn off your Mac.
Turn it back on and before you see the Apple logo on your screen, press and hold the Shift key until the Apple logo appears.
A progress bar should appear below the Apple logo - during this time your Mac is performing a directory check and loads only necessary Apple kernel extensions (among other small things).

After about 3 minutes or so you should load to either your login window or the Desktop, depending on whether you have automatic login enabled.

If you no longer see the error messages, it's safe to assume the corrupt kernel extensions are third-party kexts.  Otherwise, if you continue to have error messages even when booting to Safe Mode, I would re-install OS X.

Good Luck!


How to convert internal boot SSD from HFS+ to APFS?

Well, I have the beginning of an answer:

MBP-WWG:~ Admin$ apropos apfs
APFSUserAgent(8)         - APFS new container observer
apfs.util(8)             - APFS file system utility
apfs_hfs_convert(8) !!!! - convert an existing HFS file system to APFS file system
fsck_apfs(8)             - APFS consistency check
mount_apfs(8)            - mount an APFS volume
newfs_apfs(8)            - construct a new APFS volume
MBP-WWG:~ Admin$ man 8 apfs_hfs_convert

But the challenge is when the Terminal is open in recovery mode, how many environment variables do I have to set to make it actually work?  I know it comes up with PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin but none of those directories exist in recovery mode (they're all on the main volume).  I don't know whether redefining PATH is sufficient.  Some commands may need other environment variables to function.  (shared libraries, manpath,

Tempted to try it on the old machine that has a spinner instead of an SSD.


Late 2006 MacBook doesn't turn on (fan spinning but no chime)

Hi, v64isgood_vitali64 (or just Vitali64) here

I've found an answer !
I taked apart my Mac and disconnected the NV/PRAM battery, waited a few minutes, reconnected it back and reassembled my macbook.
Conclusion : IT WORKS !
So I booted into the MacOSX Install USB and setted the date by  using the terminal bc it was set to 31 December 2000 which prevented El Capitan to work.
For those who want to know how to do that, HERE is an article from iFixIt that will explain how to achieve that on the particular model that I have.
I think that the Firmware had tried to apply the settings I had in OS X, into Linux, which corrupted the PRAM/NVRAM, and then just stayed in the black screen when turning on since...
I hope you're doing well and that this may fix your issue.


Xcode does not detect new Apple Distribution Certificate in my keychain

You need to obtain the private key for the certificate before you can use it for signing with Xcode.
When using Keychain, the private key is generated on the computer that was initially used for creating the certificate signing request (CSR) that is sent to Apple in order to obtain the certificate.
You need to copy the private key from that computer to your current computer in order to be able to use the certificate with Xcode.


Your iCloud backups should be stored in:
/Users/[user name]/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

You can use a backup extraction tool like this one (note that the free version is limited) to see what you can get from the backup, then transfer it to your phone via iTunes.


Password dialog appears when SSH private key permissions are set to 0600

First, run ssh-add -K and check whether this fixes your problem.

If not:

Removed the rsa_id.pub file and regenerated a new one (must be in ~/.ssh/):

ssh-keygen -y -f id_rsa > id_rsa.pub

Ensured permissions were set to 600 for both id_rsa and id_rsa.pub (must be in ~/.ssh/):

chmod 600 id_rsa*

Ran the following command:

ssh-add -K

After doing this, I was no longer prompted to give my private key password. This appears to actually put the private key password in the correct keychain location for OS X to use.


I had this problem following upgrades to Google Drive on 29 July 2016.

To fix it I had to

Change Google Drive settings to 'Show sync file status items and right click menu' (in Advanced tab)
Restart the Finder.

Of course the setting no longer worked, but you can see if you are synced from the Google Drive menu in the top bar.


Latest Windows 10 update (March 2021) broke Bluetooth on mid-2014 MacBook Pro Retina

Windows has the ability to create restore points. You can return Windows to a pre-update state by using System Restore. Restore points are often created automatically by Windows before the install of a major update. Restore points can also be created manually by the user. Below is a image of the System Restore tab of System Properties.

Selecting the System Restore button opens the window shown below.

By selecting the Choose a different restore point radio button followed by the Next button, a list of restore points can be displayed, as shown below.

You may want to create a restore point before making a major update to Windows. A restore point can be deleted later to save space.


Is it possible to develop an iOS application for my own use without having to pay 99$/year?

Quite simply, if you jailbreak your iOS device you can likely skip the code expiration checks. We have lots of questions on doing this tethered, so this might not even be a complete duplicate. I’ll leave how to jailbreak for another post since that is a moving target based on your hardware and time of year, release details.
For those that can’t spend the time to reverse engineer this, the $100 is a fair trade off, but for science and for some, I can understand why paying Apple to provide all the tools and code seems attractive if you can keep your test devices secured as designed.
The best way to develop without paying Apple is to use your own tools, and not Xcode. Python, shell, web apps, all sorts of interpreted code and widget apps exist now, as do cloud based solutions that compile down to native code and avoid paying Apple directly.
Your “I need a signed profile” request is the technical term for jailbreaking unless you intend to obtain Apple’s signing keys or rent / borrow someone else’s credentials who has payed to develop.


Patrix got it right. I have made a mistake in my bash script, which caused error... Sorry for the post.


The ruler pasteboard, or NSRulerPboard at the programming level, is:

  The pasteboard that holds information about paragraph formats in support of the Copy Ruler and Paste Ruler commands that may be implemented in a text editor.

You can read much more about the Pasteboard here.


How to reset file icons associated with default program on El Capitan

Run this command in Terminal: sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store
And G'bye atom icon.


How can I make soundtracks with one artist sort as soundtracks in iTunes (and iPhone)?

You've pretty much figured it out. Just pick a consistent description to use for the Album Artist or Sort Artist and your albums will group together, while being able to preserve the artist for a specific track. The de facto standard for this seems to be calling it "Various Artists", but there's no reason you can't do whatever suits you, whether that's "Soundtracks" or a specific title for each individual soundtrack album.


How to have iTerm2 hotkey window slide up and down instead of fading

Sorry, I had to take that out because it didn't work well on Mac OS 10.10. It is generally unhappy about windows being outside the bounds of the screen and it led to some ugly problems.


How to restore Quick Look for plain text .txt files?

To see what application can handle a Quick Look view try in the terminal: qlmanage -m plugins.

This will show a list in the form filetype -> provider, where filetype is in the form com.company-name.filetype like com.apple.mail.email.
The filetype-part shows the full path to the Quick Look plugin.

So in total it shows a line like

com.apple.mail.email -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Mail.qlgenerator (3445.5.20)

This shows that email is handled by the Mail.qlgenerator.

You can filter the long list down with grep:

text files: qlmanage -m plugins | grep -i "text"
plain text files: qlmanage -m plugins | grep -i "plain-text"

It is possible that more than one generator is available for a particular filetype.

According to qlmanage -h there is the -g option:

-g generator    Force the generator to use

The general usage of qlmanage is qlmanage [OPTIONS] path...

However I've never used this -g option.


What 4K modes does MacBook Pro (Late 2011, Radeon HD6750M) support?

I have a Dell P2815Q monitor (nearly 4K) connected to my MacBookPro Early 2011 running 10.9.4 (13E28)


Which partition do I need to format or fix in order to install Sierra or lion?

When restarting your Mac, you may hold Command (⌘)-R to enter your local recovery partition. From there, you should be able to erase and format your internal storage drive (e.g. Macintosh HD) using Disk Utility.
Please note that erasing your drive will result in data loss.
For macOS Sierra or OS X Mountain Lion, you should erase your drive using a GUID Partition Map and Mac OS Extended (Journaled). For complete steps to erase and format your drive, please refer to How to erase your Intel-based Mac. After erasing your drive, you should proceed with reinstalling macOS.
If you've completed the above steps but the same issue occurs, then there may be something wrong with your local recovery partition. You'll want to try the following next steps to access internet recovery (this requires an internet connection):

On an Intel-based Mac, you can use Option-Command-R at startup to upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac, with some exceptions.

On an Intel-based Mac that previously used macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later, you can use Shift-Option-Command-R at startup to install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.

If the above still fails to resolve the issue, you may try creating a bootable installer for macOS using another Mac if necessary.
If any issues persist after completing all of the above steps, you may be experiencing a hardware issue. I'd recommend contacting Apple support for further assistance.


Does apple actually name classes as WTF?

The WTF stands for Web Template Framework, which is a part of WebKit.


I was trying to do something similar - add a bunch of game .roms to my Games folder - and was told that Launchpad won't allow any item not ending in the application suffix of .app to appear, regardless of where you keep the file in question. So as far as I know there's no built-in or obvious way to accomplish adding any non-applications to the Launchpad.


How to investigate high kernel task memory usage?

There are many things that go wrong with high kernel task usage. Usually this is related to faulty or heavy process which overusing system resources (such as indexing storage, running VMs, too many tabs in the web browser or some other background processes).

Here are some methods which help to investigate OS X kernel usage issues:

Basic methods

Run Console.app and check on 'All Messages' to see if anything unusual currently is happening.
Use Activity Monitor to read system memory and determine how much CPU, RAM and Disk is being used.

Alternatively run top in Terminal and hold Space to refresh - easier to find the cause problem (swapins/swapouts/disks?).
Run sudo fs_usage in Terminal to report system calls and page faults related to filesystem activity in real-time (I think this is the best option from all other). Then hit Control-C to stop it.

Action: Consider killing apps which appears frequently on the list, but you're not using them.

Learn more at: How do I debug an out-of-control “kernel_task” process?
Run sudo syscallbypid.d (or syscallbyproc.d), wait a bit, hit Control-C. Now check which process generated the most system calls in that given time (last column) and if you recognise it, consider kill it. If not, Google it and learn more about it.

Advanced methods

Use sysdiagnose command (can be triggered by hitting Shift-Control-⌥-⌘-. (period) to quickly gather system-wide diagnostic information helpful in investigating system memory/performance issues (will appear in /var/tmp) either by you or Apple guys. During analysis, try to not do anything, when done - consider uncompressing the generated file and analyse the logs.

See: How do you get system diagnostic files from OS X?
Run footprint to gather detailed memory information on a per-VM-region type level and swapped bytes:

sudo footprint -a

Older version:

sudo footprint -all -categories -swapped -collapseSharing

Use spindump to profile entire system, it'll generate /tmp/spindump.txt file (including kernel and its extensions).
Use vm_stat to show virtual memory statistics. E.g.

vm_stat 1 # to display every second.

Use zprint to check information about kernel usage, it's possible by:

sudo zprint -t -s | head -n20

It'll show the most wasting kernel zones.
Use newproc.d to snoop new processes as they are executed, creatbyproc.d for files:

sudo newproc.d
sudo creatbyproc.d

Note: On newer OS X (10.11 or above) this may not work when integrity protection is enabled (check by csrutil status).
Try sar - system activity reporter which can sample and report various cumulative statistic counters maintained by the operating system.

For more useful debugging tools, check for dtrace scripts (grep dtrace /usr/bin/*). If you know the faulty process which causing the problem, you may use dtruss to debug it.

Actions

Here are some suggestions which can help you with the operating system issues.

Free up some inactive memory. In order to do this, you've to flush cache first and force disk cache to be purged:

sync && sudo purge

  sync - force completion of pending disk writes (flush cache)

  purge - force disk cache to be purged (flushed and emptied)

Its function is basically to terminate all the I/O pending operations which are using disk cache and then to free all the occupied disk cache, so it should free disk space to ease paging out and swapping out of main memory. It is safe to use, as it does not affect anonymous memory that has been allocated through malloc, vm_allocate, etc.
Use some 3rd party apps to clear up some overused memory such as iBoostUp, SystemPal, etc.
You may also disable temporary Spotlight:

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

And consider other services by:

sudo launchctl list | grep ^[0-9]
sudo launchctl bslist | grep ^A

Quit your web browser and check if that helps. For example using Chrome is very resourceful, especially when there is some front-end processing going on in the background (e.g. Javascript) or advert-like animations are constantly rendering the content.


Right-click on any podcast and select Settings. Or if you are in list view, select the settings button in the lower-left corner:

In the Settings for: drop-down list, select Podcast Defaults, then select Download all and All episodes:

Make sure that all of your desired podcasts are using the new default settings by selecting each one from the drop-down list and checking that the  Use Default Settings checkbox is checked:

Update:
iTunes 11.1.2 adds a new dialog for changing podcast settings. Select Settings and select Defaults... to change the default podcast settings.

Update:
In iTunes 12.4.3.1 go to Podcasts, and click Defaults at the bottom of the list of your podcasts. Then you can set the default settings for all your podcasts (changed settings will also apply to existing ones if they're still set to default settings).


If I were in your shoes, I would just install a 64 bit version of OS X.  That way your OS could actually use all the RAM you put in, if it really is 64 bit capable. The first 64 bit machines Apple sold, according to my knowledge, were in mid 2007.  If this machine is really 64 bit, then you should just install a 64 bit OS.  But it's more likely that it's 32 bit, so I would just let that extra 0.7GB sit there.

If you really want to create a RAMDISK in Mac, do this:

CREDIT: www.tekrevue.com

By Jim Tanous on May 21, 2013 at 9:00 AM • @mggjimRAM Disks, as the name indicates, are logical storage volumes created using a computer’s memory (RAM) instead of a traditional hard drive or solid state drive. The benefits are easy to understand: RAM operates at speeds far beyond current hard drive technology. But there’s also a major negative: data stored in RAM is not persistent, meaning that it is erased when the RAM loses power due to a reboot, shutdown, or power loss.

Despite this drawback, there are still several situations that can greatly benefit from the speed of a RAM Disk, including using it as a Photoshop scratch area, manipulating large video files, or testing complicated databases. If you’ve got good backups of your data and you’re willing to risk losing the contents of a RAM Disk in the event of a power failure, setting one up is easy and fun. Here’s how.

How Big Should a RAM Disk Be?

The methods for creating RAM Disks, outlined below, will allow you to create a volume of any size. You’ll want to be careful to leave enough RAM available to run your Mac, however; if you use most or all of your RAM for a RAM Disk, the system will begin paging aggressively to the hard drive and overall system performance will plummet.

Therefore, make sure to choose a good ratio between your needs and your overall system memory. In general, it’s wise to keep your RAM Disk at or below 50 percent of your total physical memory. On a Mac with 16 GB of RAM, for example, don’t make your RAM Disk bigger than 8 GB.

Your choice will also depend on what applications you need to run while the RAM Disk is mounted. If you’re doing heavy Photoshop work, for example, you’ll want to leave more memory available for the app. On the other hand, if you’re just muxing video and audio files you can choose a RAM Disk a bit higher than 50 percent of your total memory.

Play around with the tools and techniques below to determine the best choice for your Mac and your needs. Now, it’s time to create the Disk itself. In OS X, there are two primary methods of creating a RAM Disk: the Terminal or an app.

Creating a RAM Disk via Terminal

Open the Terminal app from Applications > Utilities and enter the following command:

diskutil erasevolume HFS+ 'RAM Disk' `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://XXXXX`

Replace the X characters with a number that represents the block size for the total capacity of your RAM Disk. Calculate this number by multiplying your desired size of disk in megabytes by 2048. In our example, we’ll create a 4 GB RAM Disk, which requires a number of 8388608 (4096 * 2048). Input this number in place of the X characters in the command above:

diskutil erasevolume HFS+ 'RAM Disk' `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://8388608`

You can also change the “Ram Disk” name inside the double quotes to another name you prefer. Once you’ve configured the command, press Return to launch it. After a brief moment, the system will create and mount your RAM Disk. You can now read and write to it as you would with any other drive, as long as you remember that any data stored on the disk will be lost after a reboot or power loss.

Creating a RAM Disk with a Third Party App

For an even easier method, you can use a third party app to create a RAM Disk. There are several apps that perform this function, but we’ll use RAM Disk Creator from programmer Florian Bogner.

Download the app and launch it on your Mac. It will ask you two questions: the desired size of your RAM Disk (in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes) and the name you’d like to assign the disk. We’ll use an 8 GB disk with the unimaginative name “RAM Disk.”

Once you’ve made your choices, simply press “Create RAM Disk” and the disk will mount to your desktop.

With both methods, you can get rid of the RAM Disk by ejecting it or rebooting. Again, make sure that all data on the disk is backed up before doing this; the data will be irrevocably lost once you reboot or lose power.

Benchmarks

The speed of RAM Disks will vary based on the performance level of your Mac’s RAM, but will still outperform traditional HDDs and SSDs by a wide margin. Here’s a performance comparison using a 16 GB RAM Disk on a 2011 27-inch 3.4GHz i7 iMac with a 240GB OWC Mercury Pro 6G SSD.

The OWC SSD can achieve 490MB/s writes and 540MB/s reads, numbers that by normal standards are exceptional. When compared to the performance of a RAM Disk, however, the SSD’s performance isn’t worth a second look. The RAM Disk peaks at about 4.2 gigabytes per second in both reads and writes, and averages about 3.5GB/s throughout the transfer sizes. For disk-intensive tasks, this performance can be a game changer.

Conclusion

As you can see, RAM Disks can offer power users an amazing level of performance, but it cannot be stressed enough the dangers of using volatile memory for data storage. As long as you keep good backups and save your work to a standard hard drive frequently, however, many users may find that the benefits of RAM Disks far outweigh the risks.


The adapter that you should get is the 60W Magsafe with "T" Connector.  From Apple's Support site:

That said, I would get an Apple 85W adapter instead of the 60W.  You will have more versatility if you decide to upgrade your MacBook to a different model down the road.  You won't do any damage, 85W just means that's the maximum power draw the adapter will support, not that it will push that amount to your computer.


For those encountering the same problem:

hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage -nomount filename

then mount it as you like.

Source:
https://serverfault.com/questions/174909/mount-block-file-on-osx


How to Disable Touch Bar Zoom on MacBook Pro 2016

I got it to work.

Selecting the "System Preferences" from the top left "Apple" icon or just clicking the "System Preferences" icon directly both result in the "Enable Touch Bar Zoom" checkbox NOT showing up.

The only way to consistently get it was to right click or click and hold on the "System Preferences" icon found in the dock, then select "Accessibility", then select the "Zoom" tab.

No idea why it's any different, but it is.


Can an iPhone 7 be made to function as a NFC Tag?

The iPhone is perfectly capable of this, but this is a privilege Apple keeps to themselves.

If you're jailbroken, you can install NFCWriter X and do pretty much everything you've asked for. I haven't personally checked, but I would strongly assume this is the exact same way Apple Pay works as well. So the iPhone is certainly capable of this.

The problem is that apps are not capable of this, because Apple denies them the availability of such an API. The CoreNFC framework only allows reading, and the story has gone so far as that organizations have sought fully third-party access to the iPhone's NFC chip on a legal basis. They were dismissed however, with Apple Pay keeping its uniquely privileged status.


Copy with Finder from external HDD to MacHDD(data) fails with zero byte entry and no warnings or copy dialogue

I've just been experiencing the same issue you're describing here and have a couple of workarounds that might be useful.
Option 1
Use the command line, the cp command seems to copy the files over just fine.
Option 2
Mount the drive in read-only mode. This is an option within the paragon NTFS for Mac application. After you've connected the drive and it shows up in the application you can opt to mount it in read-only mode.
You will have to re-mount the drive after for the change to take effect, this can be easily done using the unmount and mount buttons in the app. You won't, of course, be able to make any changes to any of the files in this mode.


Are there any up-to-date rsync frontends or similar for OSX?

I think Carbon Copy Cloner 4 would do the trick here.
Its major selling point is that it creates bootable backups, but it can copy folders with data also.
If I understand right, the equivalent of that Arrsync merge function would be CCC's "SafetyNet" feature, with "Prune archives in the SafetyNet when:" set to Never.
(Edited:) I think the closest equivalent of that Arrsync "unidirectional merge" function would be:

use Advanced Settings
set "SafetyNet" to "Don't delete anything"
set "SafetyNet pruning" to Never.

From http://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/release-notes

Carbon Copy Cloner 4.0.2
... When the "Don't delete anything" Advanced SafetyNet option is specified, older versions of modified items are not deleted, they are moved to the SafetyNet. SafetyNet pruning is now available for tasks configured with this option.

So if I understand right (this will need testing!), this will add new files to the backup, put new versions of changed files into place, and move the out-dated versions to the SafetyNet folder, where you can delete them.  I think this achieves an "ever-growing collection of all my past projects".
CCC calls rsync to do the actual work, so it is fast.  You might consider it "standalone", though, as it doesn't give access to all rsync options.
I think the UI in the new version 4 is great.
There is a 30-day trial.


Sync keyboard shortcuts for ipad with iCloud

I made it work by Going to Settings > iCloud and selecting to sync Documents & data


Retina MacBook Pro takes a long time to wake from sleep

I actually experienced this on my '12 MacBook air as well and it was driving me crazy so I think I've figured it out without having to buy any apps like smartsleep, etc.

So first off you need to look at how the Mac operates with its settings.  The pmset command from Terminal shows and controls the settings. Don't change anything until you read the man page.  Enter pmset -g in Terminal to see your current settings.

pmset -g | grep hibernate mode
hibernatemode     3
pmset -g | grep standby
standbydelay      4200
standby             1

Those are the defaults and you should read the full details on Apple's Man Page.

But basically what that means is after 4200s (70min) of regular sleep ("standby" on Windows), it goes into deep sleep ("hibernate" on Windows).  From testing, wake from deep sleep takes about 3-4 seconds or up to 10 seconds depending on what you had open (all SSD times of course).

Now you can increase this time which means it remains in standby (aka memory is still powered).  I have mine set to 42000s (700min) so that it covers most of my inactive scenarios (sleep, travel etc) and only hibernates on an errant weekend or two where I don't turn my computer on.  Mac OS still creates the hibernate file anyways so you don't risk losing data.  I have yet to test its affect on battery drain but maybe someone here can do that.

To set the standbydelay to 42000 seconds (11.66 hours), in your Terminal, type:

sudo pmset -a standbydelay 42000

and enter your password.

Now if you'd rather have it based on battery percentage there's a neat loophole.  You see Power Nap basically also means that you have to keep standby active as obviously waking from Hibernate is inefficient.  So when you check Power Nap on battery you are essentially keeping the computer on Standby until you hit 30% and then it will hibernate.  This is because Apple set up Power Nap to do this so you can use this mechanism as well.

I've tried both and now my computer wakes quickly all the time.


Removing ACLs from files... can I do damage?

It depends on the purpose of the file you are removing them from.  Remove them from system files, and you may find a world of pain if you do it wrong or remove from the wrong file.  Your own files, less of a problem.

ACLs are a way of extending the normal permissions system that is used to control access to a file/folder.  Ordinarily the permissions system works by explicitly allowing either read, write or execute permissions against the owner, members of the same group, and other people.  An ACL allows you to extend that by providing exceptions and additions to these normal operations, so a file might be writable by the owner, readable by members of the same group (say Users), but not accessible to anyone else.  However you could drop an ACL in that allowed user Bob write access, even though the standard permissions should only allow him read access through his User grown membership.


Forcefully disconnect GPS unit from kernel

Your laptop does not have a GPS receiver so there is nothing to disconnect (phones do have a GPS chip).

Your location is determined by a couple of methods:

a database of wifi access points. Those locations are in turn determined when a device with GPS accesses the same wifi. This can be accurate down to the building.
geolocating your IP address. Usually accurate to the neighbourhood level, occasionally down to the building.

You can block the first one by turning off location services and/or changing your wifi access point (meaning you buy a brand new one, and then never use it with a phone).

You cannot block the second one. The website needs your IP address in order to reply to you, and if it has your IP address it can get your location.

Try a VPN service. Your IP will then be Somewhere Else. This will break searches like "Find  near here".


Time Machine cannot find external toshiba hard drive after OS X 10.9.2 update

Go to /Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences, move to the trash the file com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and restart the Mac.

Open Time Machine Preferences and "Choose" or "Add" the disk as a Backup Disk. The following backup will be added to the existing ones.


Does Time Machine take 2 backups or 1 (on 2 external drives)?

They are two separate backups.  Time Machine will back up to whichever drive is currently connected.

I make use of this to alternate two Macs in my household between two Time Machine disks.  Each drive contains a complete copy of each Mac as of the last time it was connected, as well as all past snapshots made to that drive that haven't been deleted to make space.  Either one is thus useful on its own for restore purposes, even if the other is destroyed or corrupt.

If you connect two drives simultaneously, the same result occurs (each drive is a complete backup); Time Machine will alternate backing up to each.


Can't connect Mac to Mac via Finder over LAN

Lots of possible problems, from configuration issues on Blue to security filters in the router to other more obscure things.  Some more information will help pinpoint the problem.

Does Blue have File Sharing turned on?  If not, then that's the problem.
What happens when, on Red, using Finder->Go->Connect to Server... you try to connect to afp://Blue.local
What happens when, on Red, using Finder->Go->Connect to Server... you try to connect to smb://Blue.local
What version of OS X is Orange running?
Is Orange using a wired Ethernet connection to connect to the router or is it using WiFi as well?


Which file types are "ineligible" for iCloud drive?

This is not an answer but here is a partial list of kind of file names that are considered ineligible for iCloud drive.

Warning: this list is purely based on trial and error on macOS 10.12.16. As of now, there does not appear to be an official documentation on this. So this behaviour may change in future.

Filenames with an extension and ending with tilde. (regex: .*\..*~)
Filenames ending with .tmp
Filenames starting with ~$
Filenames starting with .~
Directories named tmp

It seems that iCloud drive tries to identify temporary files by their names and does not upload them into the clouds.


Airport Express constantly can not stream music from any device

I've seen that on a couple of them, and the problem seems to be tied to IPv6 support. Mine would drop connections randomly, sometimes requiring a reboot of the AirPort Express before it would return to the network.

Turning off IPv6 entirely in the Network Control panel of our Macs seems to have fixed it. I can stream music to it for hours now without problems, so give that a try.


Can I connect to a specific access point by BSSID?

What OS X version do you have?

In older versions this is possible:

  /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -A'NETWORKNAME' BSSID='00:11:22:33:44:55' password='PASSWORD'

But on OS X 10.6 it doesn't work anymore.

I've searched high and low for a solution for this, but haven't found anything yet. The only solution is going closer to your base station. So that the n -signal is stronger.


iMac with bootcamp windows 10 reboots 3 seconds after shutdown (no fastboot, no wol)

You should be able to use both OSs with the external monitor plugged in at all times, is try restarting from the bootcamp app in the bottom/windows menu bar (the same place that discord, steam, and wifi icons are). If that doesn't work, try rebooting into target mode, and then shutting down and rebooting while pushing the option key


How can I mirror my Mac display on my iPad?

The Xscope mirror, a free tool works without needing VNC but you need a paid companion app on the Mac to send the data.

I prefer to use screens on the iPad. VNC is the way that OS X sends it's video remotely to another display. If you don't use it, someone else needs to re-write that entire stack and it works very well for local networks.

As for why the app I recommend, it has an observe mode and seems to scale the screen much better than the Xscope app since it is designed primarily for designing, not mirroring. The same program works on iPad, iPod, iPhone of all sizes and retina or not displays. It is very fast and has an observe only mode so that you don't accidentally send touch events.

If you do decide to use it on the go for remote access, there is a free location app (similar to how Back to My Mac works) and works over ssh tunnels if you prefer more security than speed. It has great soft keyboard support and of course works with Linux and Windows as well. There is nothing I can say bad about it in terms of missing features os bugs or design.

It's a quality piece of software all around.

If you really must avoid VNC, there is another option. The Xscope app for software designers has a free companion app that runs on the iPad and will mirror your screen. It's more designed for counting pixels and looking at mockups you design on the Mac for eventual use on the iPad, but you can use it as a mirroring solution. It lacks any input from the iPad and simply sends the screen from the Mac to iOS.

It also is very high quality software - and is well designed, all around and fast.


First, make sure you have a stereo project (timeline), unless you are dealing with 5.1 (surround) files:

Select the clip, and at the property inspector set it to dual mono:

Now both tracks will play at both channels.
By doing that you will also enable breaking apart clip itens (command+shift+G):

Tracks are now independent from the video.

You can manually map each one for whatever speaker you want.

Just remember you can't break apart all the channels before setting them to mono. If they are grouped you will just detach it from the video.
Also, expanding the audio tracks (option+control+s) won't do pretty much anything regarding channels, it is just a tool for visual aid and some editing purposes.


Is it possible to retrieve SMS messages that have been deleted from my iPhone?

You could try to recover information from the sqlite file using for example a hex editor. Here is a quote from SQLite FAQ:

I accidentally deleted some important information from my SQLite database. How can I recover it?
If you have a backup copy of your database file, recover the information from your backup.
If you do not have a backup, recovery is very difficult. You might be able to find partial string data in a binary dump of the raw database file. Recovering numeric data might also be possible given special tools, though to our knowledge no such tools exist. SQLite is sometimes compiled with the SQLITE_SECURE_DELETE option which overwrites all deleted content with zeros. If that is the case then recovery is clearly impossible. Recovery is also impossible if you have run VACUUM since the data was deleted. If SQLITE_SECURE_DELETE is not used and VACUUM has not been run, then some of the deleted content might still be in the database file, in areas marked for reuse. But, again, there exist no procedures or tools that we know of to help you recover that data.

Hope this helps.


Why doesn't Windows 7 boot with BootCamp?

I had weird issues trying to get boot camp to load/run windows.  Tried everything and it turned out to be the RAM.  I put back in the factory RAM, installed boot camp, then put back my newer RAM after it worked.

It may not be your issue, but thought I would try.


how to do a batch change (shift) of file creation date

Here is a condensed and modified version of the script info in the link I gave you in the comments. You can save it as a plain text file, without an extension, and make it executable per info in the link, e.g. chmod +x filename.  Place the script in a folder that's in your $PATH e.g.: /usr/local/bin/

This script sets both the created and modified date/time stamp on each DSC_*.* file +5 hours on the DSC_*.* files in the working directory.

In a Terminal then cd to the directory containing the DSC_*.* files and then type the name you gave to the script and press enter.

#!/bin/bash
for f in DSC_*.*; do
    ts="$(GetFileInfo -d "$f")"
    e="$(date -j -f "%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S" "$ts" +%s)"
    ((o=60*60*5))
    ((e+=o))
    nd="$(date -r $e "+%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S")"
    SetFile -m "$nd" "$f"
    SetFile -d "$nd" "$f"
done

In case the comment to the OP gets deleted the code above is based on the answer to Updating File Created Date by x number of days Mac OSX and modified to the +5 hours requested.  If you only want to change the created time then comment out, placing a # in front of, or removing the SetFile -m "$nd" "$f" line.


I can no longer play my songs consecutively on my iphone

Apple has updated the music app. The icon changed with the update in iOS 7, I believe, and the music app saw some big changes with iOS 8.4. Some of the UI is harder for me to figure out and use but all of the old functionality should still be there.

To play an entire playlist, tap the Play icon in the upper right of the playlist. It should be overlaid onto album artwork (likely of 4 albums).

To have continuous repeat, after starting the playlist, tap the bar just above the navigation bar to see "Now Playing". Then, at the bottom (you may need to scroll down) there are standard icons for repeat and shuffle. If the repeat icon in the lower right had a "1" next to it, it is set to Repeat 1. Tap the icon to change it.

You can find more information about the new Music app here:
http://m.imore.com/how-use-new-music-app-iphone-and-ipad-ultimate-guide


How can I copy and paste the complete contents of a PEM file?

I found out that I can view the contents of a PEM file by pressing the Spacebar, it's not possible to select the text.

This feature is called Quick Look in macOS. Quick Look is a handy tool to quickly view a file's content without launching any app.

To quickly copy the contents of the PEM file to clipboard, launch Terminal.app, change to the directory containing the PEM file and run the following command (Here assume the name of the PEM file is pemfile.pem and it is located in ~/Downloads directory):

pbcopy < ~/Downloads/pemfile.pem

The command won't output anything in Terminal. The PEM file contents are now copied into clipboard.

Now you can go to the desired text field and paste the copied contents by using the macOS paste keyboard shortcut Command + V.

  The contents of my PEM file look weird after opening it in the terminal. Is this normal? Because when I open the file with Spacebar the contents look completely different and much more normal than these lines.

The contents are completely normal. That's how the contents of a PEM file looks. The actual textual contents of the PEM file are not shown when using Quick Look. To view full contents of the PEM file, open it using a text editor.


Have you tried resetting the PRAM?
Also run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it comes up with any GPU errors.


How can I know exactly which songs I have purchased from iTunes?

The trick is to navigate to iTunes new interface for albums (not search results) (e.g. by clicking the album's name). Instead of seeing the song price, you will see the word "Purchased".

To get to the song's album, you can either search for the artist and try the 1-3 likely albums the song might be located in until you find the "purchased" text, or you could click the "Write a Review" link for the song in your email receipt. Note that when you click the "Write a Review" link, you will be taken to iTunes old interface for albums. You must click the album name at the top to get to the new interface, which shows the "Purchased" text.

Another thing to note is that I noticed that if a song you purchased belongs to an album with only one song (i.e. it's the only song in the album), the "Purchased" text won't appear.


Contact Apple Care on the web at http://www.apple.com/support/contact/ or by phone and they will ship you replacement DVD for 10.5 if you have lost yours. You can also find them used on Ebay and such. Lastly, local vendors, a friend or Mac User group are all viable sources of a loaner DVD.

If you use Apple, don't pay for support and ask for an exemption in case the product is vintage or obsolete. Let them know you want to order replacement media. You will likely have to pay a fee for the disc, but not for talking to the support people to find out the price and availability of the replacement OS. Also, have the serial number of the Mac handy to ensure you get the correct original media.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159


Setting the Working Directory for a Script

You should use a launchd agent job placed in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder.

The advice you mention, quoted below, is aimed at the executable or script being launched. You should let launchd manage the working directory for you.

  A daemon or agent launched by launchd SHOULD NOT do the following as a part of their startup initialization:

  Setup the user ID or group ID.
  Setup the working directory.
  chroot(2)
  setsid(2)
  Close "stray" file descriptors.
  Change stdio(3) to /dev/null.
  Setup resource limits with setrusage(2).
  Setup priority with setpriority(2).
  Ignore the SIGTERM signal.

The launchd job ticket is responsible for requesting the desired working directory; use the WorkingDirectory key to set the directory. The directory will be automatically set before your executable or script is launched.

A full description of the available keys in a launchd job ticket are available in the  launchd.plist(5) manual page.

Setting the Working Directory for the User

Consider providing a modified ~/.bashrc or other shell login script to provide a known current working directly.


This iPhone is synced with another iTunes library........do you want to erase this iPhone

You have to connect the iPhone to the machine you originally synced it with and check the manually manage music and videos option on the summary screen, in iTunes.

After that you'll be able to connect your iPhone to any iTunes library and drag and drop media straight on to the device, in the column on the left of iTunes.

You can also try to back up your iPhone on the new machine, by right clicking on the device in the left pane of iTunes and selecting backup.
Note: If you sync with the new machine, music will not transfer from your phone to the computer, and you will have the same problem if you try to perform a sync with the original machine!


iTunes stores the most recent backup of your iPhone in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/[ID]   iTunes does not keep any history of your iPhone backups.  It is a copy of the current state of your photos and other data on the iPhone.

To recover an earlier version of your iPhone backup relies on however you backup your Mac.

Time Machine backups include the MobileSync folders.  So you could retrieve an old iPhone backup from Time Machine, replacing the current backup in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/[ID], and then restore your iPhone.  This would, of course, replace all your current photos (and other data) with that from the old backup.  Probably, not quite what you want.

I suggest using iBackupBot which is able to open any folder on your Mac containing iPhone backups.  So find an old iPhone backup in Time Machine, retrieve the whole folder to your Desktop (or somewhere convenient) and open it with iBackupBot.  Your photos will be in the Media/DCIM/100Apple/ folder.  You can then extract these to your Mac.

If you don't want to use additional software (like iBackupBot) then you can find your photos in the ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/[ID] folder of an old backup.  The files have cryptic names and no file type, but your photos are all there - just hard to find.  Sorting by size might help you get to the right files.

If you use some other backup method for your Mac, then use that to find and retrieve the old backup folder.

If you don't backup your Mac, or don't backup the MobileSync folder, then I am sorry to say you have lost them.

In future, I suggest you transfer all photos from the iPhone to your Mac using, for example, iCloud and Photo Stream.

Additional: No backup of Mac hard disk.  Not all is lost - perhaps.  In January your pictures were on your hard disk.  Though they have since been deleted (by a more recent iTunes backup) at least some of the data which was you photo files is probably still there in the free space.  This now getting well beyond the original question.  Now we are talking about:

How to recover files which have been deleted from the hard disk.  There are utilities which can help - for example Disk Drill.  But, I think that should be new topic and that may get answers from those with recent experience of file recovery.


There are many options – and at least three different approaches to this:

Use a third party application to find (and remove) duplicate files. Probably the most convenient option – there is a variety of different apps like Duplicate Detective available – but you'll have to buy a license. There used to be a free demo version of Gemini, if you just want to find duplicates and delete them yourself. Haven't tried it for years though.
Use the search function of your finder. This is a bit clumsy, but good method to find duplicates occasionally. You can search for "*" (asterix/wildcard) and then narrow your results down by using the filters and the sort options – e.g. "only images, modified after 1st of January 2014" or the like.
Use Terminal Commands or Apple Script. You should probably only go this direction if you know what you're doing.

There is a blog post "How to Find and Delete Duplicate Files in Mac OS X" that goes deeper into these three approaches.


Can I virtualize Lion on Apple hardware running Linux without violating the EULA?

Unfortunately you cannot virtualize OS X Lion under any other OS except OS X Lion. It's not enough that it's running on Apple hardware.

The OS X Lion EULA says:

  Section 2, Sub-Section B:

  (iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or
  instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system
  environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already
  running the Apple Software.

Bolding is mine and it highlights the relevant passage that prevents you from virtualizing OS X on Apple hardware where the host OS is not also OS X.


At least in older Numbers versions (in my example it's Numbers 3.2.2/Mavericks 10.9.5) you can define a custom data format.

Hit the "Cell" tab and the "Data Format" drop down menu > Create custom Format….

Use the default Number format and apply an additional rule like in the screenshot below:

and hit the OK button. Then apply the custom format Number+ to all appropriate fields.

The custom format is document based. You have to configure it anew for every new document.


Upgrading to 32GB RAM for Mac mini Server (MD389LL/A)

No. That Mac mini is limited to 16 GB max ram.

You can be pretty sure that if it's not mentioned in Everymac or sold by OWC[MacSales] or ramjet.com, it can't be done. These reputable sellers will always provide good research and advice if more memory can be used past Apple official specifications.

Whether you would choose them as your vendor or not, they tend to cover all possibilities & often support things that Apple never intended.


The best browser for this is Mercury Browser (app store link). It supports full Firefox browser syncing. There is a .99 upgrade to remove ads.


Apple USB 3.0 ports will output up to 1100mA if requested, USB 2.0 is limited to 500mA
You can check the current requirements for any attached device in Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info (later macOS versions now labelled 'System Report…')... USB
I only have USB 2.0 ports on this machine, but see pic...


Force the resolution on a headless mac mini server

I'd like to offer an improved answer, that the author may consider for the question. The previous answer's AirDisplay drivers actually messed up my remote client, and left me with 16 virtual displays, all with the same information, where I couldn't click anything. Luckily I know how to navigate Activity Monitor with the Keyboard :-) .

I found the following to work perfectly, assuming that you are using Apple Remote Desktop:

Download Display Menu (Free on Mac App Store)
Install the app, and for my use cases, 1680x1050 was the proper resolution.
Your screen will go black and you will be 'locked out', despite the resolution properly switching.
Your screen will black out. Many recommend something similar to the following Terminal commands. I DO NOT recommend the following:

  sudo ps auxwww | grep loginwindow | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' |
  xargs sudo kill -9

The reason the last line does not work is because it actually terminates your login session. That forces the screen resolution to revert (in my case, back to 1280x1020), and you'll be back where you started.
Instead, use the following command over Apple Remote Desktop or via SSH:

  killall ScreensharingAgent

NOTE - if using Apple Remote Desktop's Send Unix Command, instead of using sudo, click the radio button to 'Run as User', and just enter root.

This command terminates the Screen Sharing session, which at its core is what Apple Remote Desktop uses. It retains the logged in session, which retains the screen resolution you set with Display Menu in earlier steps.

2nd Note - if your dock is screwed up, simply send killall dock

I have yet to log out of my current session on my client machine, so this may only be a temporary fix. However, its the only way I have found that satisfies my OCD with proper screen real estate consumption.

Some things that helped me find this answer:

Alternative to this answer on SuperUser, doesn't accomplish what I wanted, but good to have for reference material
MacWorld Hints, which held the elusive answer!

Some alternatives that others have presented below, in case this answer does not work for your system:

QuickRes App
SwitchRexX
Resolutionator


How does a generic bluetooth mouse / keyboard work with macos without installing any driver?

Yes. It's the generic  USB HID (Human Interface Device) driver/kext or Bluetooth HID profile
All operating systems have a generic HID driver  so that USB and Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and track pads will work out of the box without the need for a manufacturer supplied driver. That said, specialized keyboards and mice like those used for gaming, for example, will operate as  a generic device but, to use the  specialized functions or extra buttons, you'll need the manufacturer driver.


How to trigger sysdiagnose if my Volume Down button is broken?

You can access this functionality through AssistiveTouch on your iPhone, which creates an on screen icon that replaces all the hardware functions of your device for device accessibility, however this is particularly useful when physical buttons on your device are broken.

This can be enabled by opening Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch, and turning on AssistiveTouch.

Then for your specific issue you can enable the Analytics option as a single or double tap option, a long press or 3D touch of the button that is brought up.


Cannot not install application from App Store on macos mojave

I installed Catalina using the "Dosdude1 Catalina patcher". The Mac Pro 5,1 (ex 4,1) boots, is stable and I have successfully downloaded 3 software applications from App store. What an amazing achievement that patcher is.


The file might not be marked executable. Try this:

Open Terminal.app
Enter: "chmod u+x " (without the quotes but with the space) but don't press enter yet

3.Drop the "Install_MySQL_5.6.25.command" file on the Terminal.app window.
The full path to "Install_MySQL_5.6.25.command" should appear.

Press enter

The file is now marked as executable and you should be able to run it.


Force bluetooth usb adapter Mac Catalina

I think that the macOS system integrity protection is stopping your external Bluetooth adapter from getting reconnected after a restart.

You could disable the system integrity protection (https://www.imore.com/how-turn-system-integrity-protection-macos) and try again, but this is not a permanent solution since you shouldn't disable the system integrity protection.


How to change keyboard layout of macbook pro during first run registration?

Assuming you use the czech keyboard:

normal

with shift key pressed

with option key pressed


It took about 3 weeks until driving instructions where shown on my iPhone's today screen. I guess it simply takes a while until it decides to have gathered enough information about your behaviour to show up specific driving information in your today screen.

For example in my case it shows me the time to work every monday to friday, but not on the weekends. So it had to record my behaviour for a few weeks until it knows that I don't drive to the office on the weekends.

So just wait a while and it will "fix" itself.


Booting into Windows partition prompts for firmware password

This is normal, and is likely because you enabled a Firmware Password while under Recovery Mode. Having a firmware password prevents your computer from booting from other boot partitions besides your main MacOS partition without your permission.

For more reference, view the relevant Apple Support page here.


Mac OS X: How to merge pdf files in a directory according to their file names

There’s a Python script hidden in Automator.app that joins .PDF-files

/System/Library/Automator/Combine\ PDF\ Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py --help
Usage: join [--output <file>] [--shuffle] [--verbose]

Example usage:

/System/Library/Automator/Combine\ PDF\ Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py --output all.pdf *.pdf


Why do I see my OS X account picture in GMail on my Android phone?

1) As you clarified in the comments, you have used your GMail account for instant messaging using Adium. My guess would be that Adium took your OS X account picture (or you assigned it manually) and synchronized it with Google. It should be easy to verify this by changing your contact picture in Adium.

I can`t test it right now, but will try later and also try to come up with a solution to turn of the synchronization.

2) https://ssl.apple.com/support/feedback/

But I don't think that OS X has anything to do with it, since I believe that the updating of your GMail avatar was done by Adium.


For iOS 8 and later, the only way to unlock the code is restoring from iTunes. Hope you already backed up your phone.

One more trick, ask your family member to see whether they knew the code. I once luckily got it back from my wife.


One possible solution:

Using Collaboration, the author can create the presentations on a different device, the share the presentations as a view only type.

Using a private Apple ID to create the presentations, different from the one set up on the iPad, would allow for more control of the presentations themselves without limiting the use of the iPad.


Yosemite volume up and down doesn't make a feedback sound

This is an intentional change of the preferences.

You can turn the audio feedback back on in System Preferences -> Sound and checking Play feedback when volume is changed


got rid of "others" but now I have more syncing problems

The -54 error is defined as follows : Software lock on file; Not a subscriber

Is your computer Authorized ? iTunes -> Store -> Authorize this computer ?

Otherwise you don't have the correct permissions to a file you are trying to use for the sync. Try running the following script to see if it helps. It will unlock all files in your ~/Music folder.

tell application "Finder"
set locked of every item of entire contents of folder "Music:iTunes" of home to false
end tell

Reference here


iOS shortcuts: Is there any way to input key presses into a call after it is connected?

FYI, I ran this and discovered that unless you turn on the speaker phone, the spoken audio will come through the phone headset.
You could try doing this as a shortcut.
Step 1, you would have to have the phone dial the sequence that you have listed with the pauses.  That would have to be a pre-set contact.
Step 2, you have to set a Wait. You'd have to set the seconds that you need to wait for the call to go through, step through the dial in prompts, before this next step.
Step 3, turn up your volume to 100%
Step 4 would be to speak your name. You enter in your name and you can choose the voice you want to speak it. (see top.)
Good luck!


Local storage appears to be the holding area for HTML 5 Client Side storage which can be used by modern web apps to store data locally for various purposes.


how to view how many times a person downloaded an app

You can actually see your purchase history inside iTunes. There is a link called 'See All', which will let you see all purchases.

Refer this from Apple


PhotoStream only syns photos. This is because videos (such as those filmed by the iPhone in 1080p) could easily have file sizes in the gigabytes and it would use up too much bandwidth and online storage for those. Photos on the other hand are just a couple megabytes.

The best thing to do is to download videos directly to your desktop (and you can do this with Image Capture, iPhoto, Picasa, whatever you like).

One alternative is to use Google+ and turn on Instant Upload. That will store photos and videos in a private online album with Google.


How to solve the issue that a Mac (Macbook Air) keeps on trying to use WEP to connect to Wifi?

I set the Linksys (Cisco) router so that all the 2.4GHz and 5GHz support essentially the same thing: WPA Personal and it seems to work fine now.

I think the issue was 2.4GHz and 5GHz was set to WEP and WPA, respectively, due to some 2.4GHz device using different security standard.  So I think the Mac might have some issue of not able to remember the connection, being confused by difference in settings of 2.4GHz and 5GHz.