imac mid 2011 - GPU dead, need to replace, can i swap my 2gb for a 1gb?

Short answer

Yes, you can swap the 2GB Radeon HD 6970M for the 1Gb version and will probably not even notice the difference (depending on what you're using your iMac for).

Long answer

Since you're comfortable enough fixing your own iMac, and you'd have to get to the GPU anyway to replace it, I wouldn't replace the GPU at all. Instead I'd try fixing it by reflowing the solder. To do this, you need to:

Disassemble the iMac enough to remove the GPU
Set your home oven to 205℃ (400℉)
Place a sheet of baking paper on an oven tray and place the GPU (only the GPU itself) on the oven tray
Place it in the oven for 8 minutes
Remove the tray and let it cool
Remove any old heatsink compound from the chips and replace with new compound
Reassemble everything

Depending on how familiar you are with disassembly/assembly, I'd allow anywhere between 3hrs to most of the day for doing this. Also, you will require some tools, but if you don't have these you can easily purchase them online.


Is the iPhone always using Wifi (instead of cellular data network) when connected?

I believe you cannot chose programmatically whether to use the WiFi or the cellular data connection.

If the iPhone has a WiFi network available, it will automatically use it, otherwise, it will fallback on the cellular data connection.


You might have better luck building a new keyboard layout with Ukelele.


Turns out it was one of Synergy 2 beta background service that was crashing and restarting over and over again.

Thanks to https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/4007/alistair-mcmillan who pointed that in my question's comments.


How do I connect an internal SATA drive to Mini-SAS?

This is the proper cable:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Adaptec-Serial-Attached-SCSI-SAS-external-cable-1.6-ft/1217280.aspx

Details:

Interface Provided
  Connector Qty:         1
  Connector Type:        36 pin 4i Mini MultiLane SAS (SFF-8087)

Interface Required
  Connector Qty:         4
  Connector Type:        29 pin internal SAS (SFF-8482)


How to get nfsd to serve NFSv4 on High Sierra?

The version of nfsd on the Mac does support v4. For ACL support you definitely need to connect using v4.

Your failure to get a v4 connection is probably on the client side. Most NFS clients default to trying v3 first then falling back to v2 if unsuccessful.

On your client side you should specify v4 using the -o vers=4 option to your mount command. Do a man mount_nfs on the client to check that it supports that syntax rather than the old deprecated -o nfsv4 syntax. You could also use -4 but that is also deprecated and highly discouraged.

To get ACL support in your client you may have to add the -o acl option as most clients default to no ACL support.

A close reading of man NFS and man mount_nfs on the client is highly recommended.


MAC OS X 10.8.4 Login Stuck on password - Restart logind service?

It seems like you could run killall loginwindow to restart the login window process which should stop the authentication attempt.

And yes, sudo shutdown -r now should force the remote Mac to reboot immediately.


How do Icon? files work and how to create your own

The purpose of Icon? is to display the icon when you click "Get Info" or Command + i. You can see it in the top left side of "Get Info" window.

There are many apps and help documents with which you can create icons. Check out few of them listed below.

Apple Support
Image2icon
How to Make Mac Icons
IconJar

There are tons beautiful Mac icons available online. Google is your friend.


Automatically hide latex aux files in finder (files with a certain extension)

Hiding all files isn’t implemented on a system level: make a certain file type hidden

Hiding files one by one is trivial:

 chflags hidden /path/to/*\.aux

I haven't seen a way to implement all the logic required to do what you ask, but I have seen people make up smart folders to show only specific files in a folder that match the good extensions. If your list of places where you want to filter is small, that effort will be less than scripting the hide tool you need.

Have you ruled out configuring latex to put all auxiliary files in a hidden subdirectory/folder that you name with a dot like .tmp? This is shown here for pdflatex -output-directory=\.tmp

Alternatively, you could use a make tool like rubber or latexmk to either run your custom hide script or even discard those files when you compile successfully. You’d only then need to mark in some way what folders get the hidden treatment.


App Store keeps showing wrong badge count

Thanks, bmike, for the theory. It allowed me to find at least one practical solution.

Go into the App Store. Select Purchased → All. Now carefully scroll down the list. You will find one or more apps with a status of Install instead of Open. Go ahead and install them. If you have not upgraded to iOS 7 you may get a message that says that the latest version requires iOS 7, but you may download the latest compatible version. Touch Download and it will install.

These are the updates appearing in the badge count.


Is my password vulnerable to recovery using my Apple ID?

Here is what is going on with missing reset password with Apple ID.

  FileVault 2-enabled Macs will not show a "Allow user to reset password
  using Apple ID"

How to in FileVault is described here.

Since you are NOT using the Apple ID password recovery feature (it is not enabled) your FileVault password is NOT vulnerable to it. It can not be used on your system to recover your password.


Is there a way to disable WiFi auto-connect on iPhone?

At this time, there is no way to do this.  Your only options are to have it always on or always off.

I suggest letting Apple know you want this feature by providing them feedback here.


MacBook Pro Retina 15" (Mid-2015) New battery has weird metering

It seems you have already tried all the things that can be recommended in your case. I would assume your battery is faulty.

For anyone else with this model reading the thread: if you do have a Mid 2015 MacBook Pro your battery might be eligible for free replacement unter a quality program: https://support.apple.com/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall

You could check for the QP as well Vaultnaemsae, but chances are Apple is going to decline coverage as you already performed unauthorized service on the machine (and your Apple battery is no longer a threat as you took it out, which would be the whole point of Apple replacing it free of charge.)


Batch rename file by removing first 6 characters and adding it behind the filename

Yes, one of the ways it can be done in Automator is by using a Run Shell Script action with the example bash script code shown further below.

You can create an Automator Workflow, or Service/Quick Action, workflow.

If you do just a Workflow, then you will need to add a Files & Folders action, e.g. Get Selected Finder Items or Get Specified Finder Items, and then add a Run Shell Script action.

If you do a Service/Quick Action, then you only need a Run Shell Script action.

If you do choose a Service/Quick Action then set it to use files and folders in Finder.

For the Run Shell Script action, have its settings configured as:

Shell: /bin/bash
Pass input: as arguments
Replace the default code of the Run Shell Script action with the example bash script code.

The example bash script code uses shell parameter expansion to slice and dice the fully qualified pathname of the file(s) passed to it into the necessary pieces and then renames the file(s) using the mv command with the -n option, which will not overwrite an existing file, based on the values of the sliced and diced pieces of the fully qualified pathname.

As coded, it uses a regex to only act on files that starts with two digits, followed by a dash, followed by two digits, followed by a dash, followed by two digits, followed by a space, followed by additional characters and a file extension, e.g.: 20-10-03 Testing.zip

Example bash script code:

    # f = fully qualified pathname
    # d = directory pathname
    # fn = filename with extension
    # n = filename without extension
    # e = filename extension
    # p = filename prefix e.g. '20-10-03'
    # s = filename suffix (filename without prefix, space, and extension)

for f in "$@"
do
    [ -f "${f}" ] || continue
    d="${f%/*}"
    fn="${f##*/}"
    [[ ${fn} =~ ^[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}[[:space:]].*\..* ]] || continue
    n="${fn%.*}"
    e="${fn##*.}"
    p="${n%${n#????????}}"
    s="${n:9}"
    [ -n "${s}" ] || continue
    mv -n "${f}" "${d}/${s} ${p}.${e}"
done

The output of which would be, e.g.: Testing 20-10-03.zip

Note: The example bash script code is just that and does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted.


Why is the symlink I created inside an application container to allow for external storage not working?

For some reason, symlinking a part of the folder inside of the Containers folder doesn't work. If you want to symlink, you have to symlink the whole folder, i.e. com.vemedio.osx.Instacast

See https://snipt.net/certainlyakey/os-x-sandboxed-apps-and-symlinks-problem-solution/ for reference.


MacBook Pro 16 2019 + External Monitor. Battery Life

Keeping it plugged in most of the time is fine, just make sure to unplug it about once every month. I'd recommend using the official charger, as Apple has reasons for making the charger 96W.


What is the best dropbox compatible iPad app for MS office documents?

I'm a professional writer, I've tried out a bunch of these apps, and I prefer Dataviz’s Documents to Go Premium, which creates and edits Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The great thing about the Premium version (and justifies the extra $6 over the basic version) is that it connects with the Dropbox online storage service. Documents to Go does a good job of editing Word documents, including maintaining styles, etc.


Any iPhone apps to test the touchscreen?

Sparky works for testing multitouch, so you can try different areas of the screen by holding one finger in a place you know works and move the other elsewhere. If the line breaks, then the second finger is in a location that doesn't work. You can test it full screen (without the Safari UI but the status bar is still present) by adding it to the home screen.


Macbook 5,2 (Mid-2009) optical bay hard drive enclosure

according to this site, it is compatible but there are some limitations:2008/2009 MacBook/MacBook Pro 13", 15", and 17" models. (Model IDs: MacBookPro5,1; 5,2; 5,3; 5,4; 5,5 and MacBook5,1; 6,1; 7,1) While a 6G SSD does function, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s) speed the machine can deliver. Should owners of these machines desire another SSD option, the Mercury Electra™ 3G SSD does run at the full SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) specification.

What this means is that your macbook does not have a connection fast enough for most ssd's and you won't be able to utilize the full potential of such a drive.
You can always contact the guys at owc and ask for a recommendation for your mac.


Record screen iPhone during setup assistant

Looks like it's possible. After launching quicktime, choose File > New Movie Recording (I was thrown off at first because I kept choosing New Screen Recording).

Once I correctly chose new movie recording, I was able to capture right from the initial setup screen (where it's scrolling through 'hello' in different languages).


5.12.3 - exactly:

Vigor14:~ clt$ uname -a
Darwin Vigor14 11.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 11.0.0: Sat Jun 18 12:56:35 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.22.73~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
Vigor14:~ clt$

Vigor14:~ clt$ /usr/bin/perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 12 subversion 3) configuration:

  Platform:
    osname=darwin, osvers=11.0, archname=darwin-thread-multi-2level
    uname='darwin fifth.apple.com 11.0 darwin kernel version 11.0.0: sun may 29 13:02:55 pdt 2011; root:xnu-1699.22.44~4release_x86_64 x86_64 '
    config_args='-ds -e -Dprefix=/usr -Dccflags=-g  -pipe  -Dldflags= -Dman3ext=3pm -Duseithreads -Duseshrplib -Dinc_version_list=none -Dcc=llvm-gcc-4.2'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    useithreads=define, usemultiplicity=define
    useperlio=define, d_sfio=undef, uselargefiles=define, usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=define, use64bitall=define, uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='llvm-gcc-4.2', ccflags ='-arch x86_64 -arch i386 -g -pipe -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -fno-strict-aliasing -fstack-protector -I/usr/local/include',
    optimize='-Os',
    cppflags='-g -pipe -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -fno-strict-aliasing -fstack-protector -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=8, ptrsize=8, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=16
    ivtype='long', ivsize=8, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t', lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='llvm-gcc-4.2 -mmacosx-version-min=10.7', ldflags ='-arch x86_64 -arch i386 -fstack-protector -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /usr/lib
    libs=-ldbm -ldl -lm -lutil -lc
    perllibs=-ldl -lm -lutil -lc
    libc=, so=dylib, useshrplib=true, libperl=libperl.dylib
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=bundle, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-arch x86_64 -arch i386 -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/usr/local/lib -fstack-protector'

Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY PERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV
                        PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT PERL_MALLOC_WRAP USE_64_BIT_ALL
                        USE_64_BIT_INT USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES
                        USE_PERLIO USE_PERL_ATOF USE_REENTRANT_API
  Locally applied patches:
    /Library/Perl/Updates/<version> comes before system perl directories
    installprivlib and installarchlib points to the Updates directory
  Built under darwin
  Compiled at Jun 13 2011 14:45:31
  %ENV:
    PERLBREW_HOME="/Users/clt/.perlbrew"
    PERLBREW_PATH="/Users/clt/perl5/perlbrew/bin"
    PERLBREW_ROOT="/Users/clt/perl5/perlbrew"
    PERLBREW_VERSION="0.27"
  @INC:
    /Library/Perl/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /Library/Perl/5.12
    /Network/Library/Perl/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /Network/Library/Perl/5.12
    /Library/Perl/Updates/5.12.3
    /System/Library/Perl/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /System/Library/Perl/5.12
    /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.12
    .
Vigor14:~ clt$

Just compiled perlbrew with the new Xcode (downloaded from the AppStore):

Vigor14:~ clt$ perlbrew install perl-5.14.1
Fetching perl-5.14.1 as /Users/clt/perl5/perlbrew/dists/perl-5.14.1.tar.gz
Installing /Users/clt/perl5/perlbrew/build/perl-5.14.1 into ~/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.14.1

This could take a while. You can run the following command on another shell to track the status:

  tail -f ~/perl5/perlbrew/build.log

Installed /Users/clt/perl5/perlbrew/build/perl-5.14.1 as perl-5.14.1 successfully. Run the following command to switch to it.

  perlbrew switch perl-5.14.1

compiler:

Vigor14:~ clt$ gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: i686-apple-darwin11
Configured with: /private/var/tmp/llvmgcc42/llvmgcc42-2335.15~25/src/configure --disable-checking --enable-werror --prefix=/Developer/usr/llvm-gcc-4.2 --mandir=/share/man --enable-languages=c,objc,c++,obj-c++ --program-prefix=llvm- --program-transform-name=/^[cg][^.-]*$/s/$/-4.2/ --with-slibdir=/usr/lib --build=i686-apple-darwin11 --enable-llvm=/private/var/tmp/llvmgcc42/llvmgcc42-2335.15~25/dst-llvmCore/Developer/usr/local --program-prefix=i686-apple-darwin11- --host=x86_64-apple-darwin11 --target=i686-apple-darwin11 --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)


I have a workaround in mind that would benefit you more then it would hurt you. You can always use a secondary mail client like CloudMagic, which I used for a while. I haven't used the default mailing client for at least 2 years now. CloudMagic is free on the Mac App Store and for iOS.


AppleCare definitely doesn't cover theft. In fact, AppleCare doesn't even cover accidental damage like dropping it, spilling liquid on it, etc.

There are two companies that I hear about from other Mac users where the stories have been positive. Mind you I've never used either company so have no idea how their service is or anything.

For accidental damage plus the normal manufacturer's defect coverage provided by AppleCare I've heard good things about Square Trade. This is the company I've heard the most good about, but they don't provide theft coverage. Square Trade is available only in the United States and Canada.

For accidental damage plus theft (not clear if it covers standard warranty-type damage) I've heard some good about Safeware. I haven't heard as much about them, but a lot of folks have theft coverage through their homeowner's insurance or their renter's insurance, so not at many people need a separate policy. Safeware is available only in the United States.


View detailed data usage/consumpotion on an iPad (running iOS 11 or later)

I'm not sure about iOS 11, but iOS 12 uses MB as the unit if the data consumption is under a GB.

With the cellular data counter in the built-in Settings app, you are limited to the statistics shown and the option to reset counter. There's no way to further breakdown on a day/week/month basis.

You can try searching on the App Store for 3rd-party data monitoring apps. Some service provider provide their own app which tracks data usage over a period of time. If available, it would be best to use it.


App Store disables downloading of macOS Sierra

Try this article and link:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202 -  How to download macOS Sierra
macOS Sierra Installer on the Mac App Store

I would use the help article HT20802 to check for an updated link if the Mac App Store one fails you.


Messages from my phone show up on my macbook air

it is something you put in since you had that machine -- this is keying it to your account (without even the need for the application).

open system preferences/INTERNET ACCOUNTS, look through each you have set up and delete what you can -- or what is related to your messages account

this is the central directory for accounts like messages (could also be controlled or synced through icloud).


iPhone with personal hotspot not appearing as a network interface (USB) in the Network preference pane on OS X

Click the plus in the bottom-left corner. When you're iPhone is connected, you should be able to add it.


Are there any guidelines by Apple on what content apple TV app should have

From this link I found the following about the Human Interface Guidelines. There is more info at the link.
Apple TV apps should feel natural and intuitive. Users should instinctively know what to do and where they are at all times. Use the provided layout grids, keep the text legible at a distance, and avoid cluttering your interface with unnecessary visual adornments.
Apple TV uses a focus model for navigation. People use the remote to move through interface elements such as movie posters, apps, or buttons, highlighting each item as they come to it. An element is considered focused or in focus when the user highlights the item but has not clicked it. Make it clear at a distance when something is in focus. Implement expected button behavior so it’s impossible to get lost during navigation—clicking an item with the remote takes you deeper into an app’s hierarchy, pressing Menu always takes you back.
There is much more info at the link above.


Why is a application called "java" always open on my OS X 10.9.2 even when I force quit it?

Go to Apple< System preferences< Users and groups< there is two tabs here Password & login items< select login items and remove the app from the list>

all the apps & folder added to this section will auto-open when you start up your computer.


iOS Backup: Restore single program's settings?

Theoretically, it is possible to replace parts of the backup package, but in practice, I have no real success with that plan. Often the format iTunes uses to store the data changes with versions of iTunes and editing files under a database's nose can lead to corruption.

It's easier for me to connect both devices and quit the program to make sure it's a clean boot when you resume the app. Then I use PhoneView to read the preferences from the app bundle on the correct device and replace that folder on the bad device. This way if things crash, you still have pristine backups in iTunes to restore things.


SNTP timeout after 15 seconds but default is supposed to be 68 sec

Apple's manual page says the default is 5 seconds, but I'm seeing the same 15 second timeout as you in practice. I'd file a bug against the documentation to make it match (if you want) and then specify the timeout you want on macOS:

sntp --timeout 68 -d time.nist.gov


Targus makes a line of security locks for iPhones and iPods:

Targus Desktop Security Lock for iPod® (ASP06US)
Targus Mobile Security Lock for iPod® (ASP07US)


If "Reset Keyboard Dictionary" does not reset some words, what supplies them?

iOS comes with a built-in dictionary/replacements which can't be modified (without jailbreaking). This is why the workaround is to add a shortcut, because it's up to Apple to release a software update to resolve the issue.


What devices is the iPod to Firewire 400 adapter meant for, and for what purpose?

This is a Firewire 400 to iPod 30-pin adapter.

If you have an older iPod, you may be able to sync and/or charge it via Firewire. This site has an exhaustive list: Which iPods can sync and charge via USB? Which iPods can sync and charge via Firewire?

It looks like some models supported Firewire charging as recently as 2009, but no models since 2006 or so have the ability to sync media over Firewire.


Mimic gestures on iOS and macOS by key codes

Apple has UI recording for automated build testing, but you get that from Xcode and not necessarily on the device.

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/406/
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/testing_with_xcode/chapters/09-ui_testing.html

There is quite a bit of setup, but I would start there and once you’re comfortable with the limitations, you can see about trying to make an app to automate from keyboard triggers.


PDF document with notes has yellow squares, can't remove them

Here is how you can remove the notes from the linked document.

Open the linked document in Preview.
control click on the note icon and select Delete Annotation.

Or:

Open the linked document in Preview.
Click the note icon, which opens the note.
Press the esc key to dismiss the note but leave the note icon highlighted.
Press the delete key.

Or:

Open the linked document in Preview.
Click: Preview > Tools > Show Inspector
Click: Annotations Inspector
Click the Type column, so all the notes are at the top.
Select all the notes, then press the delete key.

I've uploaded a modified copy of the linked document here.


Dock doesn’t appear in my Macbook Pro 2015

Resetting the Preferences list

Dock disappearing?
Follow the following steps, the could be problem with a corrupted file or other non-settings based issue.
The first thing to do is check if there are any system updates available that you can install.
This is easy to do: click on the Apple icon in the top-left corner, select App Store, and when it opens click on the Updates tab.
Should this be empty then it might be worth deleting the preferences file instead. This will reset your Dock back to the way it was when you first got your Mac, so any app shortcuts you've since placed there will need to be added again afterwards.
Open Finder, then hold down the Option key and click on the Go option in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen. This shows a few options that are usually hidden, one of which is Library. Click this and then select the Preferences folder.

Scroll down until you find a file named com.apple.dock.plist. You'll need to delete this file (either by using the Backspace key or dragging it to the Trash).
Now reboot your machine and macOS will create a new default preferences list which should hopefully clear the problem.

If you're still getting issues then contact Apple customer support.


Apple Watch no longer displays heart rate after watchOS update

1. The first thing to do is make sure that Background App Refresh is still enabled, and if so, enabled for Heart Rate.

To do this:

On your iPhone open the Watch app
Swipe up and tap on General
Tap on Background App Refresh
Make sure Background App Refresh is enabled at top of screen
Swipe up to check that the Heart Rate option is enabled

2. If Background App Refresh was already enabled, or if enabling it still didn’t do the trick, then double-check you haven’t got Power Saving Mode enabled.

To do this:

On your Apple Watch open the Settings app
Swipe up and tap on General
Swipe up and tap on Workout
Swipe up and ensure that Power Saving Mode is disabled

3. Finally, if this doesn’t resolve it, fully reboot your Apple Watch.

To do this:

Press and hold both the crown and side button until you see the Apple logo appear on screen
Wait for your watch to reboot
Check your heart rate complication is displaying your heart rate


How can I download podcasts directly to my jailbroken iPhone?

Get safari download manager from cydia so that you can download it and ifile which lets you play it.


Humidity is not an issue.

Humid air on a warm/hot computer components won't be a problem.  It's when the temperature of the components are lower than the dew point of the ambient air that it will become a concern; water will condense.

Running the computer won't keep humid air out as it's the ambient air that gets circulated.  Unless your computer somehow gets colder than the room that it's located in, it will be fine.

(I live in the tropics with many, many 100% humidity days)


How do I prevent getting several alerts for a calendar event?

You'll need to change the notification behavior (disable) in Google Calendar.

On your computer, open Google Calendar.
In the top right, click Settings Settings  and then Settings.
On the left, under "Settings for my calendars," click the calendar you want to change and then Calendar settings.
Under "Event notifications" or "All-day event notifications":
To edit a notification, choose if you'd like to receive a notification or an email.
To delete a notification, click Remove notification

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37242?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en


Add new number to existing iPhone contact, replace the old number

The blue number (the bottom one in your screen capture) is the one which made the call. The same works for emails in contacts that have more than one.

Here for example, I have a contact with a landline (home) and a mobile phone.
Incoming and outgoing calls to the different numbers of the contact are highlighted in blue.

This is a screenshot of a call made to the mobile number of the contact (not an iPhone, its my grandma):

This is a screenshot of a call made to the landline:

Also, if you missed the call, the number calling will turn red instead of blue.

This is a screenshot of a missed call from the landline:


How to make sure apps remain available after upgrading macOS?

Generally, no separate action is required with respect to apps when upgrading macOS. All the installed apps and user data continue to remain available post upgradation.

However, it's important to ensure that the apps are compatible with the upgraded version of macOS before actually performing the upgrade. This information can generally be obtained from the vendor/developer of the app.

There may be cases when upgrading macOS will also require you to upgrade the version of the app and associated licensing costs (if any). These all questions could be rightly addressed by the app vendor/developer.

On an important note, Apple advises to perform a system backup to guard against rare circumstances, where the upgrade goes wrong.

In your specific case, consider checking what's the latest version of OS X/macOS the machine can run. It might not go all the way to macOS High Sierra if it's too old. Obtain that information and plan your app update strategy accordingly.

Also, you should consider testing restoring your system from the backup to ensure its trustworthiness. People really don't want a backup - they want to know they can restore and the restore works. The backup is just the preparation to do the restore. You can run an erase/install and just reinstall the current OS to test things without the new OS potentially breaking things. That way you know you can restore the current OS first before you even think of upgrading.

How to reinstall macOS

It is worth emphasizing the should test since Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is really a long way back and it's very likely many of the apps will fail on macOS Sierra 10.12 or later and need license keys, upgrades, etc. Having a bootable backup or clone might even be worth the effort. You are about to break lots of things and gambling that they are all minor or not used since tons of functions and features from 10.6 are changed/deprecated/turned-off now. Any one upgrade alone, generally is easier to risk without a test run, but this is decade of neglect in terms of keeping things moving on the routine update/upgrade chain.


App Store keeps asking for admin password

Security updates are for your security. Unpatched systems are first to be attacked when a new exploit is discovered.
Of course, if you were running in an admin account, these could all be done silently. As you're not, someone has to authenticate every time.

Switch off all updates… in all accounts…

Sign out of the App Store… in all accounts…


Possible duplication:  Are there any free alternatives to the finder.  (Note that one non-free alternative is discussed as well.)

I don't know if any of the alternatives mentioned there help you evade the metadata issue.


To use an external GPU you need to have the connections in this order Mac > eGPU > Monitor. You should not use a thunderbolt hub, as support will become very limited (whether or not an eGPU can be run off of a hub), and performance will be greatly decreased (graphics need to go from Mac > hub > eGPU > hub > mac > hub > Monitor).


Why can't I hide my active application (e.g., Chrome)?

This is OS X default behavior in every app if you have hidden all other apps before with "Hide Others" or ⌥+⌘+H. In such a case it's not possible to hide the front most app, that's why both options are greyed out/inactive.


Get Open Sound Control (OSC) Input Names

I found a drop dead simple way of doing this, at least for a person like me. Control iOS was configured to send to my computer on port 60000. So what do I do? I listen to Network Traffic.

From the terminal, run tcpdump -v -i en1 'port 60000'. (Note that en1 is my wireless interface, you may have to consult the output of ifconfig to figure out your interface name.) Among the multitude of other lines while drawing my finger across the application's space, I saw:

17:46:43.789027 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 42497, offset 0, flags [none], proto UDP (17), length 72)
192.168.1.109.53578 > 192.168.1.110.60000: UDP, length 44
E..H....@.Px...m...n.J.`.4j.#bundle............./multi/1....,ff.<6.n....

Considering I had a rough idea what an OSC key name looked like, I plugged /multi/1 into the OSC Receiver block of Quartz Composer, and I had control over the circle used in the example!

Note also that XY type communication occurs as "floats". NOT FLOAT, but plural, "floats". Because it's a float of the x-axis, and of the y-axis.

If your input does not take a structure, you can use the Structure Index Member or Structure Key Member Patches to isolate the X or Y value, and put it into your input patch.

Note that I'm still very interested in a simpler solution to this, especially for readabilities sake. If I wish to test multiple buttons quickly, the tcpdump text will be scrolling too quickly for me to be able to adequately read in some cases. So, I will not accept this answer if it goes over a week without any other answer.


How do you type a true minus sign (not a hyphen) on a Mac?

There's a way of entering Unicode values on the Mac: go to System Preferences, then Language & Text. In the Input Sources tab, scroll to Unicode Hex Input, check it.

Then if you switch to Unicode Hex Input in the Mac menu bar, you can press
⌥+2212 for the minus sign. Here's what the input switcher looks like:

If you want to switch between your input and hex input via keyboard, you have to click "Keyboard Shortcuts..." in the same window, disable "Show Spotlight Window" in the Spotlight section, and maybe activate "Select next source in Input Menu". ⌥+⌘+space will then swap input language. (You can check this in the menu bar.)

(Alternatively, there's the low-mouse-use option via Special Characters:
Go to Edit > Special Characters...;  in there, select the Unicode tab, and Code tables (or however it's called in English) at the top.
Next, scroll down the list until you see 00002200 in the Unicode column. Click it. Down below, look for the row that begins with 2210, and it should be the 3rd char.)


Open Console and search for "login" in the search box.

In a terminal, do

grep -i login /var/log/system.log

For finding failed attempts, use

grep -i authe /var/log/system.log


How do you turn off suggestions when adding a new event in calendar?

Currently you can't disable these suggestions when creating an event.

The only calendar suggestions you can disable are the location suggestions and the event suggestions detected from other apps on your device. You can provide feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


How to fix failing Open Directory (database "cn=authdata" cannot be opened, err 12) after hang

Check if the OD database is the problem

$ sudo /usr/libexec/slapd -Tt

No further action is needed if the output tells something like:

...
bdb_db_open: database "dc=hostname,dc=domainname,dc=tldname": recovery skipped in read-only mode. Run manual recovery if errors are encountered.
...

Try repair

To repair the Open Directory authdata database:

$ sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.openldap.slapd.plist

Now start the database recovery using the command below that matches your OS version.

$ sudo db_recover -h /var/db/openldap/authdata/ # Mac OS X 10.7
$ sudo db_recover -h /var/db/openldap/openldap-data/ # Mac OS X 10.6

Now slapd in tool mode outputs:

$ sudo /usr/libexec/slapd -Tt
bdb_db_open: database "dc=nl2,dc=probackup,dc=nl": unclean shutdown detected; attempting recovery.
bdb_db_open: database "dc=nl2,dc=probackup,dc=nl": recovery skipped in read-only mode. Run manual recovery if errors are encountered.
bdb_monitor_db_open: monitoring disabled; configure monitor database to enable
config file testing succeeded

Now turn back on Open Directory:

$ sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.openldap.slapd.plist

And issue another restart to be better safe than sorry:

$ sudo reboot

Open Directory should now be up and running again. In case it isn't running, try below.

Try Time Machine restore

First have a look at the available back-upped versions:

$ ls /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb/*/

Pick the most recent version when Open Directory was still running correctly, for example 2018-07-22-091106.

Start again with unloading the daemon.

$ sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.openldap.slapd.plist

Then remove (or rename) the database directory (when it is available Time Machine won't restore correctly) and start restore:

$ sudo rm -rf /var/db/openldap/ && sudo tmutil restore -v /Volumes/Time\ Machine/Backups.backupdb/*/2018-07-22-091106/Macintosh\ HD/var/db/openldap/ /var/db/

Force repair the database:

$ sudo db_recover -cv -h /var/db/openldap/openldap-data/

Repair permissions and reboot:

$ sudo diskutil repairPermissions / && sudo reboot


Is there an easier way to compare iOS to Android apps than manually checking each app?

Borrow an old iPhone and run the Apple migration tool by following the setup directions on iOS 9 or you could use the Relo tool to attempt a dry-run on the Android side.

That way, you can actually use the new OS for a bit and if it's unlocked, you could swap SIM cards between the two devices. If you don't mind the cash outlay, you could also buy a new phone outright and educate yourself on the return policy if you're mostly sure the change will be for good.


Are you using a USB midi keyboard and the lightning camera adapter for MIDI? If so, this probably won't work for you...  However, if you're just using standard MIDI ports, you might be able to use this, although no guarantees, as I haven't tested it.  It has headphone outputs and MIDI inputs, so in theory you should be able to do what you need.

EDIT: Just thought of this: You might be able to do this with a lightning to USB adapter, a powered USB hub, a class compliant USB MIDI interface, and a class compliant USB to 3.5mm audio interface.  Theoretically this should work since all these devices are supported, however this hasn't been tested by me.


What is the standard location for the "recent files" information that each app seems to store?

The short answer is it depends... most apps will store it in ~/Library/Preferences/.  For example, on Mavericks the Preview recently used list is in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist

You can use the terminal/commandline plutil to see what's in there: plutil -p ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist

If you want to get into the nitty gritty of modifying the file (outside the scope of this question, but what the heck), man plutil.

For syncing this file, you may find that there is other config info in there, I'm really not sure.  You'll want to make sure it's sane to do before pulling the sync trigger.  I'd suggest manually copying this a few times to make sure you understand what happens to the app if its files change while it's still running, etc.

I think you'll definitely want to stay away from syncing the whole directory since it would be possible to get into a loop where each application is trying to write to the file and dropbox is non-stop trying to propagate the changes across as each app competes for what's "correct."


Save my Clash of Clans village to Game Center

I'm sorry, you can't.. Clash of Clans allows you to have 1 village per Game Center account. And they don't allow you to reset your village. The only thing you can do is creating a new Game Center account with another Apple ID..

Source Supercell Game Support


Shortcut to move one screen to the right/left in Excel

Although it seems counter intuitive not to use the left/right arrows, (that is a subject for giving Microsoft some feedback) using the following key combinations work for Excel 15.xx for Mac:

Using Built-in MacBook Keyboard:
Page Right: fn+⌥ option+↓ down arrow
Page Left: fn+⌥ option+↑ up arrow
Using External Apple Wired Keyboard:
Page Right: ⌥ option+page down
Page Left: ⌥ option+page up

As noted in the OP's screenshot.


Are there any iOS SSH terminal apps that support truecolor (i.e., 24 bit color)?

It turns out Termius supports 24-bit color, as does Secure ShellFish


Can Timemachine restore the backup of an external drive to another external drive?

Yes. Enter Time Machine, select the item to be restored, then press control and select "Restore" from the on-screen button. You'll be presented a finder window in which to select the restore destination. More at Pondini.


If you want to disable iMessage to be synced with your iPhone:

On iPhone --> Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding > Remove your MBP device that should appear.
On MBP --> No account setups is ok (double check if your iCloud account has already been disabled).

Finally, you can definitively get rid of Handoff by unchecking "Handoff" in iPhone > Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.


Touch your .bash_profile to create it if you have none:

touch ~/.bash_profile

Now, add this line to the above file at the end of the file:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/git/bin

Then, run this in the terminal

source ~/.bash_profile


Restoring a Time Machine backup to a machine with a password on the drive

Go back to the screen that lets you see the initial screen if there isn't a Utilities menu where you can access Disk Utility.

At that point, you want to fire up Disk Utility and eject the backup disk (or start over without the backup drive connected) and erase the target drive.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22241

This will wipe all data and the OS off that drive but it won't ask for the password since you aren't reading the data - just making a new blank filesystem on top of the old one.

Then you can proceed to boot and choose the blank drive to restore.

A full guide is available from Apple on how to erase and install an OS.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25649

Just remember to not erase your only copy of bootable macOS or have a plan to make a bootable drive if you need one.


How to get to the help input field on OS X in German?

By pure chance I found my answer through this post, which is about remapping shortcuts via the settings menu

How do I remove the 'Quit' action from an application on OSX

You have to use Cmd + Shift + / to get to the input field! (probably similar for the non German speakers out there)

Sandro


Does iOS simulator in Xcode allow AppleID sign in?

Yes, it is possible to sign-in to iCloud via iOS Simulator. Simply launch the Settings app and click on Sign in to your iPhone to log into iCloud.


Stuck on reinstallation of OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan

The processing steps sketched below fixed the issue.

Hardware-Software-Environment

MacBook Pro Early 2015 running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.
The internal HD is actually a 250 GB SSD comprising partitions EFI, Macintosh HD and Recovery HD. There is no encryption enabled on any of these partitions.
 At the time we started the reinstallation attempt described here, the Macintosh HD partition is unusable as startup volume due to a previously stuck installation attempt, see question above.

Processing Steps

We boot the machine from a startup volume residing on an external HD connected via USB 3.0 Bus. Then we log in to a session in Normal Mode under OS X 10.11.6 .
We download a new El Capitan installation package from
http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg
We unpack the package to install the macOS installer.
Now we just run the installer; Internet connection off. The machine rebooted and, after approximately 30 minutes, reappeared with a login screen.
We could verify that OS X 10.11.6 BuildVersion 15G31 had been properly reinstalled to the Macintosh HD partition with no user data or previously installed third party software lost.

Reference
How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan

Acknowledgement
Thanks a lot to @Udhy for the decisive hint to fix the issue.


Unmap key combinations in KeyRemap4Macbook

The documentation suggests that these shouldn't conflict:

<autogen>
   __KeyToKey__
   KeyCode::Q, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L | ModifierFlag::NONE,
   KeyCode::Q, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L | ModifierFlag::NONE,
</autogen>
<autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L</autogen>

However, the second <autogen> will override the COMMAND_L of the first. The solution is counterintuitive:

<root>
    <appdef>
        <appname>Microsoft Remote Desktop</appname>
        <equal>com.microsoft.rdc.mac</equal>
    </appdef>
    <item>
        <name>Swap command and option in Remote Desktop</name>
        <identifier>private.remotedesktopswapcommandandcontrol</identifier>
        <only>Microsoft Remote Desktop</only>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::TAB, MODIFIERFLAG_EITHER_LEFT_OR_RIGHT_OPTION, KeyCode::TAB, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L</autogen>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_R, KeyCode::COMMAND_R</autogen>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_R, KeyCode::OPTION_R</autogen>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::Q, VK_OPTION | ModifierFlag::NONE,
            KeyCode::Q, VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE,
        </autogen>
    </item>
</root>

In this case Cmd+Q is remapped to Opt+Q but then Opt+Q is remapped back to `Cmd+Q'.


Why does loginwindow keep freezing in Mojave?

I've noticed the exact same hanging loginwindow issue since upgrading to Mojave 10.14.5. As @Dev and some of the other responses pointed out, there are some common applications which seem to contribute to this. Little Snitch is the culprit in my case and have found the following solutions work best as a workaround. My system is also configured for automatic login.

The immediate solution to fix the  hanging loginwindow is to ssh into the host which hangs and run this simple script (or one-liner) to stop loginwindow and then start it again using launchctl.

#!/bin/sh
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.loginwindow
sleep 2
sudo launchctl start com.apple.loginwindow

OR

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.loginwindow && sleep 2 && sudo launchctl start com.apple.loginwindow

The long-term workaround solution until Objective Development and/or Apple addresses this problematic behavior in their code is to instrument a launch daemon which executes a modified version of the above script at startup.

Create script in /usr/local/bin named fixHang.sh

sudo touch /usr/local/bin/fixHang.sh

Edit the script and paste in the content below.

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/fixHang.sh

#!/bin/sh
logFile="/Users/Michael/loginwindowdaemonscript.txt"
echo "------------BOOT BEGIN $(date)----------"
ustart=$(date -j -f "%a %b %d %T %Z %Y" "date" "+%s")
timestamp=$(date)
loginPIDChar=$(ps -ef | grep -v "grep" | grep "/usr/libexec/UserEventAgent (Aqua)" | awk $'{print $2}' | wc | awk $'{print $1}')
loginPID=$(ps -ef | grep -v "grep" | grep "/usr/libexec/UserEventAgent (Aqua)" | awk $'{print $2}')
echo "$(date) - START" >> "$logFile"
echo "$(date) - loginwindow PID: $loginPIDWindow" >> "$logFile"
echo "$(date) - UserEventAgentAqua PID: $loginPID" >> "$logFile"
while [ "$loginPIDChar" == "0" ];
do
        echo "$(date) - BEGIN LOOP" >> "$logFile"
        sleep 2
        echo "BEGIN CHECK" >> "$logFile"
        loginPIDChar=$(ps -ef | grep -v "grep" | grep "/usr/libexec/UserEventAgent (Aqua)" | awk $'{print $2}' | wc | awk $'{print $1}')
        loginWindowPID=$(pgrep loginwindow)
        echo "$loginWindowPID" >> "$logFile"
        echo "loginPIDChar = $loginPIDChar" >> "$logFile"
        if [ "$loginPIDChar" != 0 ];
        then
                timestamp=$(date)
                loginWindowPID=$(pgrep loginwindow)
                echo "$timestamp - KILL PROCESS # $loginWindowPID" >> "$logFile"
                sudo kill -9 "$loginWindowPID"
                sleep 5
                echo "$timestamp - BREAK LOOP" >> "$logFile"
                break
        else
                timestamp=$(date)
                loginWindowPID=$(pgrep loginwindow)
                echo "$timestamp - PROCESS NUMBER: $loginWindowPID" >> "$logFile"
        fi
        sleep 2
        echo "$(date) - END LOOP" >> "$logFile"
done
sleep 5
newloginWindowPID=$(pgrep loginwindow)
uend=$(date -j -f "%a %b %d %T %Z %Y" "date" "+%s")
echo "$(date) - fixDuration: $((uend - ustart)) seconds" >> "$logFile"
echo "$(date) - oldLoginWindowPID #: $loginWindowPID" >> "$logFile"
echo "$(date) - newLoginWindowPID #: $newloginWindowPID" >> "$logFile"
echo "------------BOOT COMPLETE $(date)----------" >> "$logFile"

Save out the file (Ctrl+O + [ENTER]) and exit nano (Ctrl+X + [ENTER])

Make script executable and change ownership to root:wheel

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fixHang.sh
sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/fixHang.sh

Create a launch daemon in /Library/LaunchDaemons which when loaded will execute the fixHang.sh script on startup

sudo touch /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.startup.fixhang.plist
sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.startup.fixhang.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.startup.fixhang</string>
    <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
    <true/>
    <key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
    <array>
        <string>Aqua</string>
    </array>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/fixHang.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Save out the file (Ctrl+O + ENTER) and exit nano (Ctrl+X + ENTER)

Change ownership of /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.startup.fixhang.plist to root:wheel

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.startup.fixhang.plist

Load the launch daemon for execution at startup

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.startup.fixhang.plist


Do iPhone battery extenders reduce regular battery life?

In theory, no. Battery extenders work just like a charger. The main problem with these extenders, assuming you are not buying some top notch apple certified extender, is the different random voltage they output and that can seriously damage your battery and device.

If you are getting a battery extender I would recommend getting something that is apple certified or at least branded from a known company. Stay away from all the knockoffs AliExpress garbage.


Although I never got the answer, but I have found an alternative solution.
I've used Transmission for the Torrents.

Pros

torent works, almost every torrent
doesn't crash

Cons

UI sucks


Does the 'unibody' design of the MB/MBP actually help increase the strength of the MBP/MB?

There are some basic approaches to making a laptop as strong as it needs to be. One is the internal chassis, IBM Thinkpads (pre-Lenovo) were famous for having a cast magnesium chassis along with a metal skin - they defined "business class" and were much imitated. Another is the Toughbook approach. Another is unibody. If size and weight did not matter we'd probably all carry Toughbook-style machines because they're, ah, tough. Big rubber bumpers everywhere are pretty good protection, but unibody is the nicest compromise between toughness and size/weight. You get more toughness for a given size and weight by combining the skin with the chassis.

Before its introduction in laptops the idea of a monocoque design was well known in aircraft, automobiles, even armoured vehicles and rockets. Ignoring the structural strength of the skin material and relying on the strength of an internal chassis wastes weight. By using the skin for structure as well, there is no wasted space or weight. By making the skin a single rigid piece, structural integrity (not to mention appearance) is not harmed by joins or fasteners. By machining out what is unnecessary only, the case can be left stronger (thicker) where it matters, at the stress points. Cheaper laptops of a few years ago would flex and creak if not picked up with two hands, just the weight of the parts inside would cause the skin to deform. I can't flex my MBP 15" at all, not even if I grab the sides and try to twist.

All materials being equal this design is responsible for the strength of the machine. As a material, aluminium (you may know it as aluminum) is desirable because:

it is easy to source and relatively cheap
it is easy to treat for surface toughness (anodizing)
it is relatively light and strong
it is easy to machine
what is machined away is easy to recycle simply by sweeping the floor and re-casting

Additionally, unibody design can actually reduce cost by reducing the amount of parts in the laptop, by reducing the number of assembly steps and opportunities for failure during and after the manufacturing process.

The video here, at Apple's MacBook Pro page is the usual stuff with a lot of sexy shots of perfectly arranged MacBook Pros, you've seen it before. But the segments with huge billets of aluminium being extruded and then machined into unibody components are just incredible so watch it all!

"In many ways I think it's more beautiful internally than externally" - Sir Jony Ive.

(How do you know the Dell is even stronger? Destructive test results with photos, please :-)


This is a new feature in Mac OS X Lion. See here (Resume).

You can disable this in System Preferences > General and untick the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps, but will be system wide.

Another solution is to hold ⌥ Option+⌘ Command+Q when quitting,  the app will then not save the state.


Finder displays "Create PDF" option for SVG file, but when I select it nothing happens

macOS (at least as of Catalina) does not natively convert SVG to PDF. The simplest workaround is to open the SVG in Safari and then "Export to PDF..." from there.


Apple Music adds music to playlist which isn't really added to the list

Well I just tested the other way round. Sorry I don't came on this on my own as I posted the question.

I edited the playlist instead, search the currently playing song, added it and saved the playlist. This worked for me. But during the save process the iPhone really stutters heavy. It nearly freeze for a few seconds. This can be caused by the temperature currently in Germany (38 degree) but it's still strange.

Anyway, it should still work the other way around. But if someone else encounters a behavior which is quite the same, he can try to solve it like I did.


Inaccurate click to open an app from Launchpad: closes Launchpad

The behaviour is intentional, and works much the same within Expose and Mission Control etc.

It's the way out of Launchpad, and if clicking elsewhere other than on an icon doesn't exit you from it, then the only way would be to start a new program or use a keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture.

If you know the gesture or keyboard shortcut that starts it without having to use the dock, then you will likely know how to reverse the action.  But for the (possibly majority) users who happily enter it from the Dock icon this could be very confusing and frustrating as the Dock is removed while Launchpad is displayed, depriving the user of the chance to use it.  The fact that there is a new icon for it suggests that Apple expect people to learn about the feature, and at least start using it, via the dock.

If you find yourself regularly missing the icons, perhaps you could look into scaling them up, that may be a possibility, they are huge on my 24", but I'm not sure if this is user customisable.


I have no idea why this happens, but you can go to Finder > Preferences and select the Sidebar tab. At the very bottom of the window will be a "Recent Tags" option with a checkbox next to it. Uncheck the box and it's fixed.


Is alarm vibration suddenly broken in iOS 7?

(Sorry making this an answer, I don't have enough points to comment yet)

This probably isn't your issue as you've recreated your alarms, but I can cause my phone (iPhone 4S, 7.0.3) to do only "one" vibration by creating conflicting alarms for the same time, one having the sound as "none" and the other to any random sound.

It took a bit of juggling, but I managed to have the sound alarm start first and then immediately the none alarm started and the sound and vibrations stopped.


How to sort remixes under remix artist name in iTunes

How about creating a Smart Playlist (File->New->Smart Playlist...)?

You might set it up to Match Any, with a couple of rules: 1) Artist/contains/"Adventure Club" and 2) Album Artist/contains/"Adventure Club".  (Without the quotes.)


It's important to make the distinction between Java and JavaScript.

Java is a general purpose programming language and associated runtime originally developed by Sun. Java programs can run inside a browser plug-in. There have been some recent vulnerabilities uncovered, and Apple has taken the step of disabling Java by default.

Javascript is a scripting language used widely on the web to provide all sorts of dynamic behaviour for websites. Like anything, it's never going to be 100% secure, but because it's limited in what it can do (it can modify the behaviour of a webpage, but it can't run arbitrary code on your Mac or modify your files), it's safer than Java.

Javascript is fairly safe to leave on (and it will cripple a lot of sites if you turn it off). If you definitely need Java, then leave it on, but be vigilant about running Software Update so that you get the latest security patches, and consider disabling it if you don't need to access those sites for a while. Disabling it in browsers you don't use for those sites is also a good idea.


Free U2 album doesn't show up in music library, just iPod

They are referring to the "Purchased" under the "Quick Links" section on the right of the iTunes Store Home Page. Once you do this "Songs of Innocence" will be added to your "Purchased" playlist on the left.


Why is corestoraged preventing sleep in macOS 10.12.3?

1) If FileVault is encrypting your disk you will see corestoraged as a blocking process.

2) If Time Machine is encrypting an external drive with backup corestoraged will be also blocking sleep (even if the backup disk is unmounted and not connected to the Mac!!!).

➜  ~ pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
standbydelay         10800
standby              1
womp                 1
halfdim              1
hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap             1
gpuswitch            2
networkoversleep     0
disksleep            10
sleep                10 (sleep prevented by corestoraged)
autopoweroffdelay    28800
hibernatemode        3
autopoweroff         1
ttyskeepawake        1
displaysleep         10
acwake               0
lidwake              1

In my case, it was the Time Machine. After it finished encryption of the backup disk (took a week or so) corestoraged is not longer causing a sleep issues.


How to disable finder folder metadata persistence?

Have a look at Death to DS_Store.

The source code is available on GitHub and the binary is available as well.


Cannot unlock password protected SSH key in OS X Mavericks

Apparently, the private key I was using on my machine was an old one. My key did not contain the encryption information added to the private key file if I generate a new one:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: AES-...

To solve the problem, I decrypted the key with openssl:

$ cd ~/.ssh
$ cp id_rsa id_rsa.bck
$ openssl rsa -in id_rsa -out id_rsa

...and then re-encrypted it:

$ openssl rsa -in id_rsa -aes256 -out id_rsa
$ chmod 0600 id_rsa

And just in case, regenerate the public key as well:

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


Why is my Advanced Add Printer mode disabled?

Hey I ran into the same problem. If you turn off System Preferences -> Sharing -> Printer Sharing the advanced tab becomes enabled again.


Find all hidden files that were hidden using the command "chflags hidden filename"?

This should work for you

find . ! -name '.' \( -name '.*' -o -flags hidden \)

which means find in the current directory, all file system objects, except do not list the current working directory- (! -name '.'), whose name begins with a dot or file flag is set to hidden.


Which distance sensor to lock screen if I leave my seat?

Which sensor could be used to detect that I left my seat?

There is no sensor in any Mac that can be used to detect if you left your seat.

Rhetorically speaking, how would this hypothetical sensor work?  How would it differentiate between not being in your seat because you left and not being in your seat because you have a standing desk?

The answer is it can’t.

The closest you can get to automating the locking/unlocking of your based on your physical position is through proximity.  There’s an app called Near Lock that purports to achieve this, however, it requires an iPhone; it’s implied that you use an Android as you mention a Huawai smartwatch in your linked question.

Further, you’re looking to automate something that by design should be a user interactive process.  As someone responsible for security and IT governance in my organizations, I can clearly see why they have the policy they do.  They are trying to develop security minded habits.


How can I map `Ctrl+Alt+Char` and `Ctrl+Number` in vim on Mac OSX?

If you use MacVim, the easiest way is:

set macmeta

So that MacVim will treat alt/option as Meta key, you can then bind:

nmap <C-M-S> :call foo_func()

The keys pressed for above is: Ctrl+alt+s.

Hope this helps and solves your issue, happy Vimming!


Bash: Return the most recently edited file in a specified directory

As @fedorqui suggested You can do:

ls -1t | awk '{ print $9; exit}'

Old post:

You can get it using awk and tail

ls -lrt /path/to/folder/ | tail -1 | awk '{ print $9 }'


Requesting Reliable Clipboard Application w/ History?

I can confirm, Alfred does the job.

To be sure, I double checked by testing its clipboard functionality for your requirements: partial (lasso) screenshots, fullscreen screenshots and image files. Everything works fine and shows up just as expected in Alfreds clipboard manager. Pasting inside a document works, whereas saving the screenshot from clipboard into a file using finder, doesn't work. But this is normal behavior. That said, I'm running MacOS 10.15.4 and Alfred 4.0.9 with Powerpack.

If you want to try further alternatives, you could try Copy'em Paste, Clipy and Keyboard Maestro.


Time machine backup to a .sparsebundle on USB drive?

Time Machine should automatically mount the .sparsebundle if you set the drive that contains it as the backup location.
Failing that, you can double click the .sparsebundle to mount it, then tell Time Machine to backup to the mounted volume (something like /Volumes/Time Machine Backup). This might be an acceptable workaround if you only infrequently use it over USB3.
If you don't see the mounted .sparsebundle as an option in time machine you can set it manually via the terminal like so:
sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backup

Just change the Time\ Machine\ Backup part to whatever your drive is called. Include -a after setdestination to add another backup disk, keep it left out to replace your current backup disks with the new one.


The Mac OS X Server disk watcher is pretty sensitive, and it seems to get triggered by apfs volume snapshot notifications (they will have "@-snap" in their names). It may also trigger on mobile time machine volume unmounts which as I recall looks like a uuid. If it is not a volume name that you recognize, I would not worry.


Should I upgrade my iPad 2 to iOS 9.3 from iOS 5.1.1? ( Late March 2016)

This Wikipedia Page states that "Although the A5-based iPad 2 is relatively archaic, showing signs of its age in iOS 8, iOS 9 is said to feature performance improvements that may help the aging device function more smoothly, and initial tests suggest that it did not significantly impact available space."

I upgraded three iPad2s last week, and did not notice any degradation in the short time I had for testing. I was making sure that they could be managed by our MDM and that a small set of common apps we use worked.


Mail App timing out and having trouble getting and sending mail

Debugging mail has become a bit cumbersome since the program is now designed to do all of the network requests on background threads and the main UI never blocks. Worse, I don't think there's any way to see important statistics like: What percentage of network requests time out or error? What is the response time for my mail server over time.

With that being said, here are the things I do to isolate and debug mail.

Ensure my Mac has accurate time by enabling Set date and time automatically and manually making the time wrong in the past by 1 minute or more and then enabling the check to ensure my clock will be close to the clocks on the Mail servers.
Make a new user account and only enter one Mail account in that user. This lets me log out of my main user and really focus on one mail server (actually two - one for receiving and another for sending) and makes the debug logs much easier to parse.
In the new account, I don't sign in to iCloud, and when I'm setting up the Mail account, I disable the check mark for Mail and only select Notes - I just want to test the log in and log out first without downloading all the mail initially.
Open up Connection Doctor (under the Window menu or use help to find it)
Enable Log Connection Activity
Press Show Logs

You will now have more data than you might like, but watch for the green light status of the Internet Connection and the status / errors of IMAP/SMTP and other items in the doctor window.

If I don't have a problem and all the lights are green, I quit make and use Finder to navigate up one folder from the logs and compress the entire Mail folder. That gives me a baseline of when things worked.

At that point, if there is an error, you can dig into the logs or post here. You could engage AppleCare or your mail provider for help - and now you have logs. Asking a follow on question with some error message from the logs might also be worth while here. (Or even ask what the various logs mean).

If there isn't an error on the new account, log out of the test Account on your Mac and log back in to your main account and repeat the connection doctor steps. Enable logs there if you find a problem.

TL; DR - your mail issues are the same as my Mail issues and I'm not using exchange, but I do use an IMAP mail server in France which is across the atlantic from where I typically work. My suspicion is that the network errors and time outs are happening and I don't get good feedback when these errors happen and instead Mail hides all the evidence, diligently re-trying a slow connection and in the end making me unhappy. I'm looking to see if I can gather mail statistics so that I can monitor health of my mail connections in aggregate and then choose a faster mail server based on evidence, but so far, I'm only able to find out when the servers are down as opposed to being too slow to effectively work, but up enough to answer Mail's patient requests within 2 minutes so I don't actually get a "failure to connect".


running macOS UI based Application as root

Security Risk

macOS is not designed to have general applications run as the root user. This would be viewed as a security risk by Apple's engineers.

XPC Services

Running a graphical application, and all the frameworks that requires, as root is not advisable. The surface area for security problems and mistakes is huge.

AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges is now deprecated. Instead, Apple promote XPC Services as a way dividing up sections of applications that require higher privileges.


Font properties of text layer in PSD file -- possible to inspect without Photoshop?

For rather raw data, try saving this as, e.g. psdtext.py

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys, re

input = sys.argv[1]

# This write_title function is just for vanity and easier manual searching
def write_title(num):
  filler = 97
  if num < 10:
    filler2 = filler - 25
  elif num < 100:
    filler2 = filler - 26
  else:
    filler2 = filler - 27
  print("\n" * 2)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("#" * 11 + " Text layer " + str(num) + " " + "#" * filler2)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("\n" * 2)

def psd_texts(input):
  t = x = 0
  for line in open(input, 'r'):
    if re.search("^\s+/Text\s+.*", line):
      x = 1
      t += 1
      write_title(t)
      print(line.rstrip('\n'))
    elif x == 1:
      if "warp" in line:
        x = 0
      elif ">>" not in line and "<<" not in line:
        print(line.rstrip('\n'))

if __name__ == "__main__":
  psd_texts(input)

Then make it runnable: $ chmod a+x psdtext.py

Save the output as a file*: $ ./psdtext.py my_file_with_text_layers.psd > textinfo.txt

Open in an editor: $ open textinfo.txt

For example: you can search for /Text in your editor to loop through the text content of different layers, or search for /FontSet to loop through the fonts (the first font listed is the one the layer uses, others are fallbacks)

I know the output is ugly, but hey, it contains all the info.

*) I wouldn't do just $ ./psdtext.py file.psd as it visually messes up the Terminal — try e.g. $ ./psdtext.py file.psd | less instead.


How to get rid of re-appearing Dropbox Finder Toolbar button?

The following procedure works on OS X Yosemite (10.10) and may also work on earlier versions of OS X:

Right click on the toolbar and select the 'Customize Toolbar' menu item
After the toolbar customisation sheet appears you should see that the Dropbox icon immediately follows two 'Flexible Space' items in the toolbar:
Remove the Dropbox icon by dragging it from the toolbar, and then repeat this action for one of the two flexible space items:
Close and reopen the finder window

Note: Disabling the Enable Finder integration option in Dropbox's preferences may remove the Dropbox icon from the Finder toolbar, however it also disables sync status icons and Dropbox contextual menu items from appearing.


I think I accidentally erased Macintosh HD?

I think all you need to do is rename the drive using Disk Utility to
MacIntosh HD. Then reinstall to it.


Jailbroken iPad stuck at boot screen and looping

The obvious answer is to re-install the OS and then ssh in to run fsck.

Have you looked into a program like PhoneView that will let you mount iOS device as an external drive and use Disk Utility (if you have a Mac) or fsck? The FAQ for PhoneView has a windows software recommendation that does about the same things if you prefer that OS on the desktop.

(edit: I don't know of any free alternatives that mount the file system)


Does any macOS email client besides Outlook allow use of public shared folders in Exchange?

A quick web search throws up eM Client and its web page includes "Work with your emails (including Shared folders, Public folders, etc.)"
I expect there are others.


MacBook Pro kernel panic after speaker change

To solve this problem, I needed to find out a way to install drivers one by one to see what causes the display to flicker and OS to crash. I did not a find an easy way to do this in Mac OS. So I installed Windows 10 on MacBook Pro without using Bootcamp. I downloaded Bootcamp support software from Apple website. I did not install all drivers from this support software at once. Instead, I installed drivers one by one and verified if it is causing any problem. After hours of investigation, I found out that as soon as Intel Iris Device Driver is installed operating system crashes. To get MacBook working again, I had to find a way in which I could force operating system from loading these device drivers. Even if I do not install these drivers manually, windows would download drivers and install it for me. To make sure windows do not download these drivers, I did three things.

First, I made sure windows will not install drivers for the faulty hardware.
Second, I disabled automatic driver download and install.
Third, I changed my wifi connection to metered.

Now everything is working. But I am using Windows 10 instead of MacOS. Windows 10 saved me from replacing logic board on my MacBook Pro. Windows 10 supports bash, so I feel at home.


http://lanyrd.com/help/timezones/

iPhone calendar settings live in Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -  select "Time Zone Override".

I turned it off and it resolved the issue with the time zones


On my macOS BigSur system, the Apple Loops are located at:
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple


Stuck on FileVault login screen with never ending spinner

TLDR: I contacted Apple about this problem, and they recommended to reinstall OS X, which seems like a temp fix.

Reinstalling OS X should at least allow you to login again. This is great if you have any data that isn't backed up. However, after a subsequent restart, I have experienced this problem again, so it seems like this only a temporary solution.

Restart the computer.
Hold command-c while it is starting up.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the grayed out encrypted partition.
Choose unlock.
Type in your FileVault master password. (You saved it somewhere safe, right?)
Close Disk Utility.
Choose reinstall OS X.
Go through the setup process.
Once it is done, you should be able to login and access all of your data.

Note: according to the Apple representative, reinstalling OS X this way does not get rid of any of the data on your hard drive.


How can I replace a hard drive running BootCamp?

It turns out I was going down the right path...or at least it "works".

Here's the steps I took (following the link I posted in the OP):

Format external hard drive as extended (journaled) inside OSX
Export Boot Camp image using Winclone 2.2 (free online still) to an external HDD in a folder on the external HDD.
Turn on Time Machine and use external HDD as backup volume. Wait for Time Machine to copy all the files from the internal HDD to external HDD.
Eject Time Machine volume and unplug external hard drive.
Swap internal HDD with new HDD. (this part will be based on which drive you bought.  I got mine from OWC/MacSales and they have videos to help with the install.
Boot from Snow Leopard install disc (hold down options key and choose the DVD). (I originally didn't have one so I ordered one from Amazon with Prime overnight.
Select "Disk Utility" in Utilities after boot and format the new hard drive as Mac Extended (journaled).
Select "Restore System from Backup" in Utilities to copy the system and user files from external HDD to new internal HDD.
Reboot with OS installed on HDD rather than install disc.
Launch Boot Camp Assistant to create a new Boot Camp partition on new hard drive.  Here I chose a very large one (bigger than the original backup) since I needed more space...the whole point of the HDD upgrade.
Import Boot Camp image from external HDD to new Boot Camp partition on new internal HDD using Winclone.


external disk still spinning after ejecting during encryption

Check the offending process using Console.app. Inside of your logs, search for something like “mount”...


How to set up second screen in iMac 2017 with macOS 10.12.6 Sierra?

I solved the problem finally, today I bought cheap Lenovo adapter and it works well. Previously unfair ad drove me to make the wrong decision to buy incompatible adapter. My brand new EZQuest cable working well with old MacBook 12" 2015 refuses to work with iMac 21.5" 4K 2017.


How to setup FTP server in Mac OS X Lion Server?

Please refer to the answer at Create a Remote Only User in OS X.

The last part of that post will use bindfs to mount a user privileged only folder. See below. The whole instruction set is on the blog post referenced or just look at both posts. If someone wants me to duplicate that other post here let me know.

Getting in is one thing. Now you have to mount the folder you want to use. Unfortunately you can't use a symlink inside of a chroot jail. This is where MacPorts is your best friend. I don't know why I've never seen fit to install this before. After installation just issue the following commands.

sudo port install fuse4x
sudo port install fuse4x bindfs

You might have to restart. Now with an empty folder created in /chroot/user you can mount --bind to a folder outside of the chroot jail. For example

sudo /opt/local/bin/bindfs -u user /Library/WebServer/Documents/mysite/yourfolder /chroot/user/scratchpad

So far this seems to work here.


How to combine multiple pdf files based on location and name with command line?

Although you specifically asked for bash script but as a supplemental answer you could consider using the python script below. Interestingly, a part of python project (Ipython) was specifically designed to replace bash.

from PyPDF2 import PdfFileMerger
import os

def merge_it(files,path):
    merger = PdfFileMerger()
    for file in files:
        merger.append(file)

    merger.write(os.path.join(path,"combined_file.pdf"))
    merger.close()

for path, dirs, files in os.walk(os.getcwd()):
    for dir in dirs:
        if dir == 'tmp':

            pdf_files = []
            for file in os.listdir(os.path.join(path,dir)):
                if file.endswith(".pdf"):
                    pdf_files.append(os.path.join(path,dir, file))
            merge_it(pdf_files,os.path.join(path,dir))

The thing this program demands is to hard-code the paths containing /tmp sub-folders. That can also be automated depending on how much automation you want. I won't recommend removing original pdfs unless they are occupying too much space.

UPDATE: Searches for all sub-folders having name 'tmp' in the current working directory and combines all pdf files inside each of the tmp folder.


How to mount a disk image with automator or Applescript and without hdiutil?

I would use hdiutil ... instead of other methods but with an image protected by a certificate instead of a password. This is similar as to building an encrypted image with a password and a recovery key (based on a cert) - without password though:

Create a temporary cert folder and cd into it:

mkdir ~/certsecdmg
cd ~/certsecdmg

Create a root CA if you don't have one already:

openssl genrsa -des3 -out casecdmg.key 4096
openssl req -new -x509 -days 7300 -key casecdmg.key -out casecdmg.crt

Fill in all proposed fields.
Create a password protected certificate signing request:

openssl genrsa -des3 -out secdmgbuild.key 4096
openssl req -new -key secdmgbuild.key -out secdmgbuild.csr

Fill in all proposed fields.
Create the signed certificate in PEM format

openssl x509 -req -days 7300 -in secdmgbuild.csr -CA casecdmg.crt -CAkey casecdmg.key -set_serial 01 -out secdmgbuild.crt

Convert the signed certificate to DER format

openssl x509 -in secdmgbuild.crt -inform pem -out secdmgbuild.der -outform der

Bundle the PEM certificate and private key into a PKCS#12 package

openssl pkcs12 -export -in secdmgbuild.crt -inkey secdmgbuild.key -out secdmgbuild.p12

Use hdiutil with the -certificate options to create an encrypted volume (example only):

hdiutil create -type SPARSE -encryption aes-256 -certificate ~/certsecdmg/secdmgbuild.der -fs HFS+J -volname "SecureImage" -size 100m ~/Desktop/SecureImage

Import secdmgbuild.p12 in your keychain
Double-click SecureImage.sparseimage, enter: password of step 3/always allow to always allow access for diskimages-helper.
Create a new Automator workflow, adding a Run Shell Script action with the following command:

hdiutil mount ~/Desktop/SecureImage.sparseimage

 (please apply paths as needed)

This simple Automator workflow works as "workflow" and "app".
Add further actions as required.
Save the content of the folder certsecdmg at a secure place and remove it afterwards.


Connection L2TP via IPSec to VPN as PPTP VPN no longer supported on macOS Sierra

The FlowVPN client is free (and works with any provider).

It supports PPTP and OpenVPN on macOS Sierra:

https://www.flowvpn.com/download-mac/

Just overwrite the FlowVPN server address with any server and it connects.


Remove personal data without doing a full reinstallation

Create a new user with admin privileges named Victor (or any name of your choice)
Login with Victor, and remove fully (Delete the home folder option) all other accounts.
Start Disk Utility and select the Erase function (what you did in step 4).

Just do an Erase Free Space and place the cursor in the middle position which will do a 3-pass erase. This is sufficient to protect you against any normal user and normal recovery software.


Cannot send the message using the server cox.net

I have been having an issue with Gmail, as of late. It forgets the SMTP (send mail) password, then a week later the incoming password. I use two factor authentication and application passwords so resetting the passwords, while annoying only takes a minute or two.

All that by way of saying that you may be having a similar issue: Mail.app forgetting the password.

Change your email password then go into mail.app -> Preferences -> Accounts and change the Incoming Mail Server password. Then click on the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) drop down menu and select Edit SMTP server list. Click on the server for Cox and type in the new password there too. Click OK.

Now, BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE PREFERENCES WINDOW...

It seems that mail.app in Mavericks does not always save changes, when you change just the password. I have found that making a change to the Description (add a dash to the end of what you have there) will then prompt you to save when you close the preferences window.

If it DOESN'T ask you to save go back in and repeat the above and try changing another field (Description always works for me) and closing. You NEED to get the save dialog.

Now try to send some mail.

Failing that you may need to remove the mail preferences files from your ~/Library folder, there are at least a couple in different places. I will leave it to you to find them, delete them and re-add ALL your mail settings... sigh...


How to mark an item as Unread in Safari Reading List?

As you've suggested, the Reading List has fairly limited functionality. While you can't mark a page unread directly from the All list, a simple solution is to open the page and add it to the Reading List again.


Scripting the sniffer built into Wireless Diagnostics

Following this answer, I'd suggest starting by symlinking the airport tool, which is the backend behind the Wireless Diagnostic tool:

sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

and using it to sniff e.g. on channel 1 on your connection en1 (see ifconfig to figure out which network interface is the wireless one) via:

sudo airport en1 sniff 1

which will create a uniquely named .cap file in /tmp/. Use ctrl+c to end the sniffing. (Note that /tmp/ will be cleaned on reboot!)

Note that you can also use tcpdump directly for sniffing, without disassociating from wireless networks by:

sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -nei en1 -s 0 -w /tmp/scan.pcap


How do I submit sticker apps in itunesconnect?

They're just considered a New App according to this Apple page: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/imessage-app-submissions/

It looks like they're just considered Apps for the purpose of submission on iTC.  It states, in part:

  Sticker pack app. This is a basic sticker pack made up of images or animated images, which you don’t need to use code to build. You can list it in the Stickers category and in relevant Stickers subcategories on the App Store for iMessage.
  iMessage app. Your app can include stickers, text, video and audio. You can also use code to add functionality such as Apple Pay and in-app purchase. Choose to list your app in the Stickers category or another relevant category on the App Store for iMessage.

I also found this info on their FAQ page:

  How do I create an iMessage app or sticker pack in iTunes Connect?
  From My Apps, click on the plus sign and choose New App. Then, select iOS app and complete the required metadata. You can find more detailed instructions in the Creating an iTunes Connect Record for an App section of the iTunes Connect Developer Guide. If you are unfamiliar with the Messages framework, but want to learn how to get started, you can read about it here.


Wiped my Macbook keyboard and trackpad with an antibacterial wipe. It's affected the cursor when there is load on the cpu. How can I fix this?

Drying out is “hopefully” a good solution if it’s not coming into contact with electrical connections. However, this is rarely the case.

How to log in using external keyboard on MacBook Pro
I got Lysol in my headphone jack. How should I get it out?

The problem with whatever cleaner you used is not the water; it’s what’s in the water and gets left behind after it dries and what those chemicals do to electrical components (distilled water doesn’t conduct electricity).  Below is an image of the residue from liquid spill on a PCB. Many of the ingredients are not only corrosive but also conductive (i.e. potassium hydroxide found in Lysol).

This means not only can the liquid short out circuits as it comes into contact with them, it can eat away at the metal solder connections as well.

You may be able to get away with it and not have much or any real damage to your Mac.  However, if you’ve left it for quite some time and the problems still persist, you’ve got damage that can only be addressed by a pro.


You'll have to create your own keyboard shortcut that toggles the menu bar commands under Window (otherwise you'll see that there are no keyboard shortcuts listed there).

Keyboard Settings - Shortcuts - App Shortcuts - "+" - Safari, Mute This Tab, (insert desired shortcut)

Repeat for "Mute Other Tab" and "Mute Other Tabs" (multiple "other" tabs open).

NOTE: Play/Pause button works for YouTube (pauses last video interacted played/paused), possibly other sites as well.

Right clicking the sound icon in the address bar will give you this functionality too, but requires the mouse.


Can I restart iTunes remotely from my iPhone/iPad?

One option would be to run sudo visudo to edit the sudoers file and add the following line:

apacheuser ALL=(youruser) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/osascript

Be sure to change apacheuser to the account that apache runs under and youruser to the account that iTunes runs under. This allows apache to run AppleScript commands as the chosen user without prompting for a password. You can find more information about this in the sudoers man page.

However, this could introduce a security hole, since the apache user would then be able to perform any action as the user that AppleScript allows. A better option would be to create an intermediary shell script that takes start and stop as an argument.

#!/bin/sh

case $1 in
    stop)  /usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to quit';;
    start) /usr/bin/open /Applications/iTunes.app;;
    *)     echo 'Please use "start" or "stop" as an argument.';;
esac

Save this in a file somewhere, and make it executable with chmod +x. In this case, your line in the sudoers file would now be:

apacheuser ALL=(youruser) NOPASSWD: /Some/Directory/iTunesControl.sh

Then, from your PHP script, call the shell script with:

sudo -u youruser /Some/Directory/iTunesControl.sh stop|start


SEO'd iTunes Preview of App from Wrong Region

The name of the store is embedded in the store link and I highly doubt whether Apple would apply a redirect especially for your application. So the best course of action is to redestribute the correct link.

Users from Canada will need to buy the app from the Canadian store anyway so they will get redirected to the store with the ratings. But of course this isn't the case if you follow the link in the browser.


com.apple.launchctl.aqua is launchctl. If you run strings over launchctl in /bin/launchctl it returns Aqua in amongst other strings.

I would say another script is trying to load and launchctl is failing to do so which is why you've got that error message.

I would list what processes are loaded and see if anything that is in your agent/daemon dirs isn't loading as expected.


iPod doesn't appear in iTunes after being used as Windows hard disk

Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility), click on your iPod in the sidebar. Select "Erase" from the tabs in the center. Enter a name for the disk, then from the dropdown, select any of the 'Mac OS X' options.
Click the "Erase" button in the right hand bottom corner. This will delete all your data on the iPod
Wait for it to finish formatting, and you should be good to go!


How to keep the same contact list on different accounts

Pick 1 and stick with it.

I have had similar issues, and wanted to synchronise multiple accounts, AND multiple devices. This is technically hard.

For example. What would happen if you have no internet on your phone, but you change the information of 4 contacts from your me.com account. In just a minute later someone changes the information of these contacts on gmail.com. 10 minutes later your phone has internet and wants to sync the 4 contacts with me.com.

Now gmail and me.com are in conflict. Who is right? This will results in unwanted duplicates and deletions. You do not want that.

Therefor my suggestion would be to pick 1 and stick with it. I have chosen for Apple's me.com, but that is just my personal preference.

How to merge them?

Make backups!
At first, you need to set up all accounts in Contacts
Select the contacts group on the left, select all contacts.
Now drag these contacts onto the contacts group you want to import them to. Contacts.app will ask you if you want to import the cards and it tells you that duplicates will be merged. You want this.
Now you only need to disable the account in the Contacts.app preferences (Command-comma). Preferences -> Accounts -> select the account you want to disable -> Remove tick mark from 'enable this account'


Considerations for granting read and write privileges to MacHD for "everyone"?

"Everyone" means all users, so yes, there is a risk, but only if someone already got into your system, and at that point they might already be brute-forcing your root password(when they've got it they're almost unstoppable). So as long as nothing bad gets into your system everything's fine and opening up your hard drive for everyone to edit doesn't rise the risk of that happening.


How can install an app I purchased on the App Store which is no longer on the app store?

Apps on the App Store (iOS, tvOS) and on the Mac App Store cannot be re-downloaded if

the developer removes the app
Apple removes the app for various reasons (e.g. violation of App Store policies, copyright infringements)

Since 2015 Apple removes apps from your purchase history as well. A well-known example is "Monkey Island 2" by Disney. It was removed with no option to re-download a copy of the game.

Try to contact the developer of the app. Maybe he/she can send you a copy of the app.


Time Capsule will not allow allow a guest network in Bridge mode. Why?

When placing the Time Capsule in Bridge mode, you are turning off NAT, and IP operations.

The ability for guests to be able to get to the Internet but not be able to access the home network was a result of access rules that stated the IP range that supports the guest network are not allowed to talk to the other internal network.  It is possible to do such a thing using a technology known as private-VLANs, but I don't think the Time Capsule has that sophisticated of code.  So, when we put our router into bridge mode, we become one layer 2 ethernet bridged network - that is bridged to the Access Point - within one IP network.

There does not appear to be the code necessary to do layer 2 (ethernet/wireless ethernet) separation and security.  It is doable, but apparently not in the Time Capsule.


Getting the file path of a currently playing iTunes track with Applescript

You don't need System Events, iTunes can tell if it's running or not.

Also, set the properties of current track to a variable and then get the info from the variable. The reason for this is you make only one lower level call (properties of current track) and then the assigning of the other variables gets the info from a variable containing all the info, and not making 15 separate lower level calls to get the info,  This should be faster and more efficient code.

tell application "iTunes"
    if running then
        set state to player state
        if state = playing then
            set trackProperties to (properties of current track)
            set theArtist to artist in trackProperties
            set theTitle to name in trackProperties
            set theAlbum to album in trackProperties
            set theTime to time of trackProperties
            set theGrouping to grouping in trackProperties
            set theGenre to genre in trackProperties
            set theKind to kind in trackProperties
            set theYear to year of trackProperties
            set theComments to comment in trackProperties
            set playCount to played count in trackProperties
            set theTrack to track number in trackProperties
            set numTracks to track count in trackProperties
            set theDisc to disc number in trackProperties
            set numDiscs to disc count in trackProperties
            set bitRate to bit rate in trackProperties
            try
                set thePath to POSIX path of (get location of current track)
            on error
                set thePath to "Not playing from local library."
            end try
        else
            set state to "none"
        end if
    else
        set state to "none"
    end if
end tell


Should the pgrep command be available in OS X 10.7.5

No, it's not shipped until 10.8 so you'll need to get it elsewhere for 10.7 and earlier.

Starting with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the pgrep command should be in /usr/bin/.

In a Terminal type the following and press enter.

whereis pgrep

Looking at the contents of the InstallESD.dmg from "Install Mac OS X Lion.app", pgrep is not present.


Where is the clipboard stored in an iOS backup?

And there are backup viewers, like iphonebackupviewer
(haven't used) ...google for same, download trials and see what you like. But I don't see clipboard mentioned, and haven't seen it when I've viewed backups in the past.


Is the MacBook Pro Retina (Old Version) meant to come with an extension cable?

Correct - you are a missing that component. Assuming you purchased directly from Apple, You’re supposed to get the magsafe, as well as the extension AC adaptor. Contact Apple support or visit your local Apple store if applicable.


How can I log in into iCloud.com from an iPhone?

You can use Google Chrome for iOS to go to https://www.icloud.com/ and force it to show you the desktop version, by clicking on the "Request Desktop Site" menu option. Then you get the login form, and you can login as usual.

Image source


Have you looked into creating a local user template? Here for example: http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-create-a-custom-user-template-in-snow-leopard/

The template folder is copied to the new user folder at first login. The problem now is how to deploy that user template to every new mac, but that's easily solved by other means (you can create a package and distribute it via ARD/munki/Casper, you can use puppet - which you should do anyway).

Mind you that every change to the User template will only affect new users; existing users have to be managed by other ways too (MCX via augmented AD schema, for example, is what we use).


How do I click trust on my computer after accidentally click do not?

You should be prompted again if you unplug the phone and plug it back in.
You can also reset your trust settings in the Settings app under General then Reset.
Here's an explanation from Apple's support site:

If you tap Trust, the computer will be trusted until you untrust all computers or you erase the device. If you tap Don't Trust, you'll see this alert each time you connect your device to that computer.
If you're using iOS 8 or later: To untrust all computers, tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Location & Privacy. This will also reset your location and privacy settings. You can also untrust all computers by tapping Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. This will also reset your network settings.


Command + Delete (Move to Trash) command doesn't work

Check System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts to see if command-Delete was remapped to something, or to use Restore Defaults.


hdiutil convert not working and not telling me why

Use ETCG drivemaker file, much easier.

Heres the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQIaDO9nR6Y&t=421s


When someone sends email message to both me and husband, the message goes to his mailbox and not mine

When using POP usually the client deletes the email on the server after retrieving it. So the first client (yours or your husband's) will fetch it and delete it from the remote inbox.

You can tell the email client to keep the message in the inbox (Using a POP account with more than one device):

In Mail select Mail > Preferences.
Click the Accounts tab.
Select the account for which you wish to change the settings.
Click the Advanced tab.
Select the "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message" option.
Select a time frame from the pop-up menu.


MacBook Air Hard drive crashed (2013 Model)

You can replace the SSD (Solid State Drive, it is not a hard drive with spinning disk)!

.... with a model from OWC yourself if you know your way around embedded hardware.

Apple does not sell parts to individuals, but an AASP or APSP (Apple Service Providers) can replace it for you with an Apple part.

The SSDs are not compatible with m.2 or mSATA, you have to use the specific MacBook Air SSD for your model. Major MacBook Air releases also have different SSDs due to incompatible upgrades (protocol upgrades and electrical upgrades).

Sites like iFixit have guides that can assist you with this.

See some instructions here https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook-air/macbook-air-faq/macbook-air-mid-2013-how-to-replace-upgrade-ssd-storage.html


Erased both partitions of my hard drive and want to merge them. They show up as two different disks so I cant choose the partition option

In Disk Utility go to the View menu and select

"Show all devices."

That should then show those two partitions under the "parent" physical drive mand allow you to repartition.


Point Homebrew to a local package instead of the default, remote one

After some digging, I stumbled upon the fact that you can find the exact filename that Homebrew is looking for, download the file, and place it file into /Library/Caches/Homebrew, and try the install again. brew will then notice that the file has already been downloaded and continue following the recipe.