VMB (Vodafone Mobile Broadband) without Java

Luckily, there is usually a way to avoid installing Java while still using your mobile internet dongle.

The software they bundle with these devices is based on Java because it is multi-platform. They code one app to handle the functionality and deploy it. However, the drivers (for Windows) and kexts (for Mac) are not based on Java and use native code.

You need to ask yourself a question: do I need the SMS and extra functionality that their software provides? If the answer is no, then you can set up the device in the Network preference pane manually and avoid using their software (and thus avoid installing Java) at all.

If you have run the package installer they provided to you, great. If not, run it now. This should install the kext (and the horrid software) in to /System/Library/Extensions. You may find you get a pop-up notification when you do this telling you a new network interface has been found.

Open "System Preferences" and click on "Network" to open up your network settings and there should be an extra interface listed on the left named something similar to "Vodafone Mobile Broadband" or "Huawei" (depending on the make of the device). If not, click the "+" and add it to your interfaces.

Select the interface and on the right-hand pane you should see a few fields there; one for "Number", one for "Username" and one for "Password". Generally, these are consistent across all networks, but if the settings I provide here don't work then get hold of your service provider and they should give them to you.

Under "Number" type '*#99#' and leave username and password blank. Then, click the "Advanced" button to open the advanced overlay, and under "Modem" select the brand of the device that you have (it should be listed at the bottom). Leave the rest of the settings as they are, usually the defaults are correct, and simply change the APN to "internet". This is the one variable that will probably cause the most hassle as I know that at least here in South Africa each network has deviated from the standard "internet" now with the addition of LTE.

Click all the "OK"s and "Apply"s to save the settings and, with the device plugged in, click "Connect". If all the settings are correct (and hopefully they are) then you should connect to the network and be able to browse. If not, then get hold of your service provider and ask them for the correct APN and dial settings.

Good luck!


ipod touch apps won't start after update

I would recommend following these steps to restore your iPod Touch: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414

In short, when you connect your device, go to the device's Summary tab in iTunes and click the Restore button.  It should prompt you to back up your device first.


Dig resolves a domain, but all other programs fail to find it

Found it, it was a misconfiguration issue.

An old pow config file stayed in /etc/resolver, forcing the nameserver to be 127.0.0.1 for this domain.


How can I designate a default email account in Apple Mail on Mountain Lion?

The default mail is the first one in the list. So just move it up in the preferences.


My Preview on Lion was crashing on Print. The stack in the crash log shows:

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   jp.co.canon.bj.print.v710a.pde.QualityMedia 0x060b52ae CBJ_SetDispValue(BJPDEMainContext*) + 44
1   jp.co.canon.bj.print.v710a.pde.QualityMedia 0x060b4820 CBJ_QualityMediaPDEPluginFactory + 1064
2   com.apple.print.framework.Print.Private 0x0654f709 0x6537000 + 100105

I tried upgrading to the most recent drivers from Canon's MX850 page. No luck.

I opened "Get Info" from the Finder, with Preview selected, and saw I had set it to "Open in 32-bit mode". I unchecked that box. Now Preview prints again.


MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) shuts down when not attached to Thunderbolt Display

Try resetting the SMC (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295) and the NVRAM (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063)


I never want the phone to go to the " lower power mode" even if the phone battery drops to 10 % .

Go to Settings -> Battery -> Disable Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode will also turn off automatically once your device has been charged up to 80%.


Where can I order a replacement screen for a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)?

The best place that I have sourced replacement/upgrade parts for my Apple products has been Amazon. A quick search for your part resulted in a number of good sources.

I have used eBay in the past and more often than not there were severe quality/customer service issues.  Buying through Amazon, has been much more efficient and customer service focused.

Given that Amazon has sites in the US and the EU (including UK after Brexit) you should have no problem sourcing through them.

The repair itself isn't very difficult if you have some basic experience.  ifixit.com has an excellent tutorial.  You won't need to remove the logic board (thankfully) but you will need to disconnect some components, especially the battery.

For this particular model, you will need a pentalobe screwdriver as Apple stopped using the standard Philips screws.


Send audio from my laptop to my iPhone over Bluetooth

According to your comment, you would be happy with a Ubuntu solution where WiFi works. Therefore, follow this thread at askubuntu.com.

What they basically suggest, is:

  Create a webserver with IceCast under Ubuntu und stream your audio from there (Here is a Howto)
  Connect your iPhone via an IceCast compatible app.
  Now you can connect your iPhone to your IceCast server and stream audio

If this doesn't work for you because of complexity, follow the lead of:

  creating your own local streaming server on Ubuntu, or just create a "normal server"
  and then access the files from there on your iPhone with a app which
  can connect to that server.

A Bluetooth solution for a Windows environment is over here.


Select Keyboard you want.
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM or PRAM, you may need to reconfigure your settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.


Looking for command to display network usage on macOS

Absolutely there is.
I was going to suggest the GUI alternative, through the Network Utility's Info Tab or the Option + Click onto the WiFi icon in the menu bar to bring up current statistics. A set of easy to follow steps that are well-documented in this article.

You are however asking for a "native command" and thus interested in the following:

Command: netstat -i : contains Incoming and Outgoing Packets (just another name for RX and TX). By default every interface returns its data but you can easily narrow it down using either netstat -i | grep en0.
Command: netstat -I en1 (note the capital -I flag) will produce an output for only that specified interface (here, en0). This is a more direct approach that does not require further filtering such as the grep operation above.

Let me know if you have success with any combination of the above, or if there is anything you don't understand/want to refine.

Additional Explanation
In a comment, you mention seeing three lines of output when querying the interface using netstat -I, and ask how to handle that data. They are all the same values because they tie back to the same interface, read one line only (usually the first) and don't add them all together as you suggested.

Why?
In the Terminal output, those 3 lines are referring to the same interface because multiple addresses are associated with it. In plain terms, it is much like having multiple phone numbers forwarding their calls to your cell phone instead of ringing at their physical location.

In my case (on an iMac, querying en1), the first line's Address column shows the MAC address of my (ethernet) network card. Which is typically referred to as the most reliable out of the three entries because it is hardcoded and unique to the network card itself (hence won't change unless the physical unit is replaced).
The second line is (at least in my case) associated with an IPv6, while the third is an IPv4 address. These are susceptible to change depending on your network configuration and location. That's why the first line is usually the most reliable out of all. Think of line 1 as your cell phone to which lines 2 and 3 are forwarding the calls - it is also the only entry with error (Ierrs and Oerrs) logging.

Why are the errors only logged there?
Well, think of it as a direct reference/shortcut, if that's all they are (logical connections), they do not exist physically - the only physical interface is where the MAC address resides and thus the only location for packets to be verified and error reporting to take place.

I really hope that made sense, I know you were just after the procedure at the top, but I thought a bit of an explanation won't hurt. Is that helpful in any way?


Removing smell from leather Apple Watch band?

Since it is just a normal leather watch band if you remove it from the apple watch, I suggest following the same cleaning directions as normal analog watch owners use.
a quick google search yielded this result: ebay watch band cleaning guide


I've posted a solution for all three iWork programs at this Ask Different question: New version of Keynote won't open old versions .


iCloud does not backup all of your data. It's more a replacement of iWork.com sharing in previous (or current?) versions of iWork. It only works with applications that specifically support iCloud:

If you have the same iCloud-enabled apps on more than one device, iCloud automatically keeps your documents up to date across all your devices. So you don’t have to.

If you visit http://icloud.com and click the ? link, you'll be sent to the help site, which states:

Documents in the Cloud overview
iCloud keeps your documents up to date across all your iOS devices and on icloud.com. Every time you edit a Keynote, Pages, or Numbers document on your iOS device, your changes are automatically available on your other iOS devices set up with iCloud and on the web at icloud.com.

This also explains why the iCloud site does not show a generic documents section in the overview, only iWork. Of course, developers are free to support iCloud in their own applications.

The supported file types are listed here:

You can also drag and drop a new iWork ‘09 (Keynote, Pages, and Numbers) or Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Word, and Excel) document from your computer to icloud.com, and then access the document from Keynote, Pages, or Numbers on your iOS device set up with iCloud. Supported file types include Keynote ‘09, Pages ‘09, Numbers ‘09, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, .txt, and .csv.


Looking for a 360° object view iPhone app

How about 123D Catch? It is free and allows you to turn your photos into a 3D object.

See a demo here.

I just recently found another one called Relievos.

  Relievos is a fun and creative tool that turns any picture into a 3D image, just like a sculpture.


For future reference, use a newer version of bundler - disabling a core security feature of the operating system is a Bad Idea and will leave your machine vulnerable.


How do I install the GnuPG PHP extension?

See http://measure9.varkel.net/2013/10/building-gnupg-for-php-5-5-on-osx/ (a lengthy text explaining how to patch & build gnupg from source)


Is there a way to retrieve a log with histories on all apps currently or previously installed on an iPad?

You can use https://privacy.apple.com and request a log of Apple ID details. May take some days.
In App Store, in the profile section, one can visit all previous purchases and hide/unhide purchases.
Easy way to see a list of all the apps I have installed on my iPhone This suggests using Apple Configurator and after plugging in, go to Actions -> export -> information.


Moving iTunes library after crashed Windows drive

By your method , backup and restore the library and files, definitely works . It saves all the playlists, playcounts, music, movies, ratings everything.


Disk Utility says: "Error: This disk doesn't contain an EFI system partition."

The default results of diskutil list on a clean Lion installation should be as follows:

mac:~ me$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

My definition of a "clean install of Lion" involves letting Disk Utility from the installer partition the drive as GUID and telling it to use all space as a single partition.

Furthermore, your disk0s1 / EFI partition shouldn't show as partitioned according to disk utility:

mac:~ me$ diskutil info disk0s1
   Device Identifier:        disk0s1
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s1
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      EFI system partition

   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)

   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

   File System:              None

   Partition Type:           EFI
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 SATA
   SMART Status:             Verified

   Total Size:               209.7 MB (209715200 Bytes) (exactly 409600 512-Byte-Blocks)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                No

   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 Yes
   Solid State:              No

Since your mac will boot, it may be overkill to erase everything and start over, but your EFI partition is hitting a check that Apple built into the Disk Utility, so do know that future updates could have problems and you might be forced to re-do things at a time less convenient if the difference between your system and an expected / Apple generated EFI actually breaks something Apple changes down the road (or when certain expected conditions arise like a firmware password, etc...).

On the flip side - it could be a simple check to alert you of a non-standard EFI and not that your EFI is in some way ever going to break. Can another vendor support your Microsoft EFI? If so, you might be able to leave it as is since it appears you are clearly using tools designed to make proper changes even if Disk Utility isn't able to guarantee the changes are appropriate.


How to recover photos from a stolen iPhone?

If you didn't get the iPhone back and they stole it with no internet, then you cannot recover it.

If you had iCloud setup on your iPhone, then when the robber decides to connect it, the photos should get synced with the cloud, and require an activation lock so he shouldn't be able to use it.

If you manage to find phone with find my iPhone, contact the police and tell them where it is.


Keyboard shortcut for switching from address bar to main pane in Chrome

This question is already answered here, but the easiest solution is to make a custom search engine with the url as javascript:.

If you set the keyword to a letter (l for example), typing l + return will exit the address bar.


Data partly lost or hidden on external disk

I have solved the problem connecting the disk directly via SATA, I didn't have a Macintosh to install a 3.5" disk into, so I connected it to a PC with Windows 7, installing the HFS+ drivers, which allowed PC to see the disk and read (but not write) the data on it. I was able to copy the data to another external disk which I formatted into exFAT, so it could be used with OSX and Windows both. I still don't understand what was the problem with the disk, but I saved the important data, so I consider the problem solved.


Typing 'paral' into Spotlight suggests 'Pages' instead of 'Parallels Desktop' - how to fix?

Rebuilding your index should fix this. You can do it typing this command at the terminal:

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/Macintosh_HD

Replace Macintosh_HD with your hard drive name.


When you set the passcode, you are required to enter it twice to ensure that you don't make a mistake - if they don't match, you are requested to try again.  If you are unable to use it to unlock your phone now then either you made the same typo twice when setting it, or you are not recalling accurately what you set it to.  Either way, you will need to restore the phone via iTunes to rectify it.


I fixed this problem by changing the setting in Parallels under 'Preferences / Devices' to mirror windows-connected devices and then clicking the + button to add all devices that I wanted to access...note, just click the +, and the devices magically appear ;).  Also make sure that the USB drive is formatted as FAT32 or the mac won't see it!


What is the difference between APFS Local Snapshots and Time Machine Snapshots?

Both are backup utilities and both offer you the ability to recover after a "catastrophic" event, but like tools in your tool box, your box wrench and your socket wrench both essentially have the same function, but have their preferred application depending on the scenario.

APFS snapshots are a point-in-time snapshot of your APFS file system.  Your initial TM backup may be a point in time snapshot, but subsequently, it's an ongoing differential backup - only backing up what has changed.

APFS snapshots are only done on drives that have the APFS file system. Time Machine will back up any supported drive, APFS or not.

APFS are not so automatic.  Yes, they are done automatically prior to an update being applied and you can script them using launchd or cron, but they're generally something that gets done only before a major system change.  Time Machine on the other hand, by its very nature not only runs on schedule, but runs continuously to ensure data protection.

APFS snapshots are stored to the local APFS drive.  This means that you need to have ample space to take a snapshot.  TM doesn't care how full your drive is to take a backup as long as you have a target drive big enough to back it up.

Since APFS snapshots are only stored on disks with the APFS filesystem, when you run out of space, earlier snapshots are automatically deleted.  While this is also the behavior for TM, you can easily add to your backup space by swapping out another external back up drive.

TL;DR
APFS snapshots should not be used as a method of backup because they are only point-in-time snapshots of your system.  This is useful if you are about to do an update or make a change and things go sideways and you need the ability to return to a known working state.
Time Machine offers true back up capabilities because it offers more than a point-in-time backup, but an ongoing differential backup where it gives you granular control of what you back up and restore regardless of filesystem.


Maybe this link to the documentation of Pages helps you out?

  Choose Format > Font > Capitalization and choose an option from the submenu.
  Choose Small Caps to change the text to smaller capitals with larger capitals for uppercase letters


Safari doesn't load Kickstarter properly?

The URL https://www.kickstarter.com is not broken for Safari Version 10.0.3 (12602.4.8) out of the box.

You are clearly getting bad web content to render and the suggestions in the comments are all spot on:

This can be caused by web filtering / MITM (man-in-the-middle) type network meddling. You can test for that by taking your Mac to another network (coffee shop, public library, another country (not China or North Korea for instance).
JavaScript blockers could cause this. Disabling JavaScript does change the rendering of Kickstarter for me, but the breakage is far less than what you report. Yours looks like the CSS isn't even loading.
Check for CSS changes/overrides you have made to your browser or system.
Web Privacy plug in (or network level controls) could cause this.
Bad settings on your user account could cause this. To test that, make a brand new user account.

From your testing on Chrome vs Safari - it's highly likely you have a hostile network and/or software on your Mac that's rewriting the web content being served to you and breaking it.


iPhone X stuck in recovery mode after maxing out storage. Getting "Error Code 14"

If the iPhone is currently stuck in a reboot loop, try to enter DFU mode and restore it using iTunes.
DFU mode is entered by:

Connecting to Mac with Lightning cable
Press Volume Up, then Volume Down quickly
Press and hold right (Standby) button until display goes dark (about 10 seconds)
Keep holding Standby and also press Volume Down for 5 seconds
Keep holding Volume Down, but release Standby button

While the display stays black, iTunes or Finder should say that it found an iPhone in recovery mode and you will be given the choice to return it to factory settings which will wipe the storage and apply the latest firmware.
Entering DFU mode from a reboot loop is very tricky, since it is likely to reboot before you are finished. Try to start the procedure as soon as the Apple logo is displayed and don't be discouraged if you need a few tries.
If that doesn't fix it I would contact Apple, maybe the storage is faulty. Flash storage needs free space for wear leveling and running it near full for a long time can cause a lot faster aging of the memory cells. I would recommend keeping at least 20% free space to counter that.


How do you create a bootable drive on an external disk?

You can simply connect an external drive, open the macOS installer, and install on the external instead of the internal.

Or in the case of a MacPro, just put additional internal drives in there and install on one of them. It's very easy to do. You can have as many different disks and OS versions as you want. My own Mac Pro has 10.7 on one drive and 10.13 on another.


Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError (Trying run Alda on OS X)

There is a large highlighted first line of the installation instructions "You must have Java 7+ installed on your system in order to run Alda."

So install the JDK (not JRE) from Oracle as per Oracle's comment

  The Java Runtime (JRE) that you download from java.com or oracle.com contains a plugin to run Java content from your browser. In order to use the command line tools, you will need to download the Java Development Kit (JDK). The JRE and JDK are separate and can coexist on your system. Only one JRE can be installed on Mac OS X. There can be multiple JDKs installed on a system, as many as you wish.


AppleScript to 'Bring All Hidden and Minimized Apps to Front'?

Only one window can be frontmost, at a time, however the following AppleScript code will unhide and un-minimize all windows.

tell application "System Events"
    set the visible of every process to true
    do shell script "killall -HUP Dock"
end tell


Group members from Contact do not appear in Mail address

Try creating a duplicate of the group and trying again to see if it the duplicated group works. Also, check that all the contacts have a valid email address on their contact card as this could be what is causing issues with the Mail App.


Messages on OS X stopped working after iOS 7.1 upgrade

Restart your computer. That solved it for me.


Reset the PRAM as suggested by some other sources on the internet. Working well now.

1) Shutdown

2) ⌘ + option + P + R before grey screen appears

3) Release keys when you hear the "start up sound" for the second time

4) You may need to reconfigure some settings


How to change Finder icon on macOS Catalina?

Based on this answer: Cannot change login wallpaper in 10.15 Catalina?

Reboot Mac, holding ⌘R to boot into Recovery mode
Open terminal
Disable SIP with csrutil disable
Reboot Mac
Open a terminal
sudo mount -uw /
sudo cp ~/your-new-icon.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/finder.png
Repeat for finder@2x.png
Reboot into recovery
Re-enable SIP with csrutil enable


Yes.

Find an external drive (same dimension as your internal drive, preferably) and connect to your computer with USB.
Create a clone, with an app of your choice.
Disconnect and connect the drive to Time Capsule through USB.
Mount the drive over ATP and sync your internal hard drive to the clone with an app of your choice.
When failure occurs on the laptop, connect the external drive to the laptop through USB and boot.
And if you wish, remove the working/external hard drive from its casing, open up the laptop, and place the drive inside. If the failed drive is still usable, put it in the casing and repeat to step 1.

I have a SSD, a secondary SSD in the optical bay, and a HDD connected to Time Capstule in this configuration.


Backing up a RAID experiencing I/O issues

The kernel: disk3s2: I/O error is indicative of a disk going bad and you'll need to replace the disk and rebuild the disk array in order to retrieve the data.  Consult the user manual for the product on how to rebuild the array so you don't loose any data.


Vertically arranged multiple monitors: some apps won't let me drag them "above" the menu bar

You are able to choose which monitor will have the menubar in the 'Displays' section of System Preferences.

Go to System Preferences, click 'Displays', and choose the 'Orientation' tab. If you click and hold on the small white rectangle signifying the menu bar, you can move it between screens and move it to the top most display.


In OS X Yosemite, FileVault, "Enable Users" is not available

The Enable Users…-button is only available in the Preferences Pane Security & Privacy > FileVault if one or more users is/are not enabled to use FileVault.

You may test this yourself: open Terminal and enter:

sudo fdesetup list

to list all FileVault enabled users

Remove one user:

sudo fdesetup remove -user user_name

wait a few seconds and open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault.

Quit System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault.

Add the user again:

sudo fdesetup add -usertoadd user_name

and enter some passwords/recovery keys.

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault et voilà: the button is gone.


How do you get the internal drive to show up when you're reinstalling?

The comments about encryption pointed me in the right direction.

Can you reinstall OS X on a FileVault 2-encrypted drive? has the answer; you need to erase the drive first, and you need to do it from a terminal.

Use diskutil cs list to get the UUID of the Logical Volume Group. It's the first listed:

    CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
    |
    +-- Logical Volume Group BE3F9C36-A105-4854-9A5B-79511B0303B5
        =========================================================
        Name:         System
        Status:       Online
        Size:         67859718144 B (67.9 GB)
        Free Space:   12656640 B (12.7 MB)
        |
        +-< Physical Volume 9BB1A946-B429-47D0-970B-99CD78D8E502
        |   ----------------------------------------------------
        |   Index:    0
        |   Disk:     disk1s2
        |   Status:   Online
        |   Size:     67859718144 B (67.9 GB)
        |
        +-> Logical Volume Family F3AB68B3-6831-4BEA-B509-B1BF97DFC65E
            ----------------------------------------------------------
            Encryption Status:       Unlocked
            Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
            Conversion Status:       Complete
            Conversion Direction:    -none-
            Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
            Fully Secure:            Yes
            Passphrase Required:     Yes
            |
            +-> Logical Volume 4B5B7F22-9113-4813-B5B6-FF1C1117F0B9
                ---------------------------------------------------
                Disk:                  disk2
                Status:                Online
                Size (Total):          67494739968 B (67.5 GB)
                Conversion Progress:   -none-
                Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
                LV Name:               System
                Volume Name:           System
                Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

then diskutil cs delete UUID

With the above example: diskutil cs delete BE3F9C36-A105-4854-9A5B-79511B0303B5

(If you're looking at the startup menu that has four options - Restore from Time Machine backup, Reinstall OS X, Get Help Online, Disk Utility - you're in the right place.  Terminal isn't one of the obvious options, it's on the Utilities menu at the top of the screen.)


What does the CLEAN badge mean in iTunes?

It is opposite to the Explicit version of a song, which may contain profanity or other unacceptable language. I do assume these don't have bad words in the text, etc. Unlike Explicit, which are more "clean" from author's point of view — they aren't "beeped" over phrases inappropriate before certain ages.

BTW there are several threads on Apple.com about people losing their Explicit versions after Music Match, just because songs are the same but Apple hasve a Clean version of it.


I had something like this on my iPad. It turned out that when I streamed (rather than download to watch later) movies and TV shows it stored the data on the device but didn't report it.

What I had to do what log out of iTunes/iCloud and log back in again, this cleared all these cached movies and released the data back to me.


Detect USB thumb flash drive insertions?

Well, that was easy.

log show | grep ": mounted "


Mac App Store: Don't show updates for an uninstalled app

Nathan - I made a mistake on a mac where I wasn't the main administrator.   I sure meant to delete the app and even dragged it into the trash, but a day later when the update bubble was still there, I found I didn't really delete the app (In my case it was installed on a different user on a multi user system and rather than move to the trash, it copied itself to the trash). Once I really moved the app to the trash with an admin user and rebooted, the update badge disappeared.


How to display zero value as blank cell in mac numbers 3.1

The easiest way is to use "Conditional Highlighting..." found under the "Format" menu.

Select the cell you want to have blank as zero then select "Conditional Highlighting" you then set a highlight when the cell is equal to zero. Choose  "Custom Highlighting" at the bottom of the style list and then you can set the text colour to white. A "blank" cell on zero.


'Latin (Helvetica)' Format in Word 2016 (High Sierra)

I have solved problem by updating the version of Word. I've updated to 15.39; and the problem has solved.


App Store keeps asking me to type in verification code after password, but I'm receiving no verification code

This happens because you have enabled 2-factor authentication on your Apple-ID (which is a good thing). Mavericks was created before this 2-factor authentication method was available for Apple-IDs and thus do not know about it. In order to still support logging in from Mavericks, you have to enter not only your password in the password field, but your password followed by the 2-factor verification code (6 digits).
The verification code is shown automatically on trusted devices (such as iPhones, iPads and Macs). If you haven't got a trusted device and are logging in through a web site, an iOS device or a recent macOS version, you'll be able to choose to have the verification sent as a text message or voice call. However, if you only have your Mavericks Mac, it is too old to support that feature.
I would suggest upgrading your macOS version to the latest possible version. 2-factor authentication is fully supported with Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11). Your MacBook running Mavericks should be fully capable of running El Capitan as well.


Got it!  Turns out ln is the answer after all, but I had an error in my path.

Here is a functional command line for anyone who might need to edit a symlink "in place" in the future:

ln -f -s /path/to/new/location/of/original /path/to/location/of/broken/symlink/

Notice that you're not actually pointing all the way to the broken symlink itself, but to the directory that contains the broken symlink.  This assumes that the expected name of the symlink, is identical to the original name of the linked item.

This is of course for fixing a single link, but from here I can imagine it wouldn't be overly difficult to script a solution that applied something like this recursively.


Need help verifying my newly created Apple ID

In my experience, it’s usually Apple’s servers causing the delay. Sometimes it can take a few hours to receive, and/or requires multiple resend requests. The quickest way to resolve the issue is by Contacting Apple ID support directly.

That said, they do have a support article for your issue: If you didn't receive  your Apple ID verification or reset email.

To summarize the basics:

  Check all your mail folders, including spam and junk. The sender address is appleid@id.apple.com.
  Confirm that you entered your email address correctly in your Apple ID account
  Check that your email client is working properly.
  Sign into your account at My Apple ID and resend the verification email.


Yes, those apps you mentioned are free for new devices. ie, activated on or after September 1, 2013.

  All five apps will be free if you meet the following criteria:

  You have to activate an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on or after September 1, and
  The device has to be compatible with iOS 7, and you can check our complete list of devices that can run iOS 7, and
  You have to install iOS 7, which will be available September 18. Before then, the apps will still have a price tag on them.

  Source.


Thumbnail floating on screen after deletion from desktop

⌥-right-click on Finder in the Dock and choose Relaunch.

This is an occasional bug in Finder that's been around for years. In my experience it happens fairly randomly when dragging files or folders around. If you have reproducible steps to recreate the problem, you should file a bug report!


Reset your NVram
BTW the recovery partition downloads the OS from online, so you're going to want an Internet connection
From apple: How to reset NVRAM

Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.
On Mac computers that play a startup sound, you can release the keys after the second startup sound.
On Mac computers that have the Apple T2 Security Chip, you can release the keys after the Apple logo appears and disappears for the second time.

Also, the blinking question mark means that the drive needs to blessed, which can be done with this tool.
Unfortunately, this requires you rebooting onto an external macOS drive, or connecting to your computer from another mac with firewire 800 and rebooting into target disk mode.
Frankly, soneone you're working with shouldn't be doing anything that screws with your computer up this much, so when you have a chance make sure SIP is enabled (type into terminal csrutil status). If this is disabled (and you didn't disable it) I'd be concerned.
I hope you have a fairly recent backup in case.


set myCaseNote to "MULTIPLE\\nLINE\\nTEXT\\nHERE"

Splitting the string over several physical lines as you did causes a syntax error in the JavaScript.  Use a newline character instead.

I see you really love sticking on those empty strings at the end of your concatenations.  I now recognise this as your trademark.

I momentarily deleted this answer when it didn't work as expected.  Then I realised the newline character \n needs to be escaped twice, so it's written as \\n.

It's working now.


How can I use software that is not "safe"?

just:
- Right-click (or control-click) the application in question and choose “Open”
- Click the “Open” button at the next dialog warning to launch the app anyway

more on http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/27/app-cant-be-opened-because-it-is-from-an-unidentified-developer/


What is Game Center friend recommendation based on?

It's friends of your friends and people who have some of the same games installed as you.


Personal domain email using Outlook.com on Apple Mail

To set up your Mac Mail to sync your Outlook.com account’s email:

Open Mac Mail.
From the File menu, choose Add Account…
Input your account information.
Choose Account Type: IMAP.
Input the following as the Incoming Mail Server:
imap-mail.outlook.com. (or in your case imap-mail.yourdomain.com
Choose to Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Port: 993 for incoming mail security.
Input the following as the Outgoing Mail Server: smtp-mail.outlook.com. (or replace outlook with your domain name)
Choose to Use Authentication.
Choose to Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Port: 25 for outgoing mail security.


This problem has been there for a while and it is because of the PPI.
I believe Retina displays just don't work well with Full HD resolutions. Try a 4k resolution external monitor and it should work fine.


Is it possible to hide or move default macOS apps?

Which applications are you having trouble moving? I tried a few: Photo Booth, Calendar and System Preferences.  They all moved to the new location without any issues, and also functioned after the move.

You can hide files fairly easily in the Terminal.app:

sudo chflags hidden "/Applications/Chess.app"

to unhide:

sudo chflags nohidden "/Applications/Chess.app"

You'll need to enter admin password after entering either one of these commands
You can drag a file to the Terminal window to get the file path. It doesn't add the double quotes around the file path, but that should not be necessary in this case. If it doesn't appear to be working, you may wanna try adding the double quotes.

You don't need to see the file to unhide it, but it does help so you can easily copy the path and you don't need to remember which files are hidden. Seeing hidden files in Finder is a little less intuitive though...

If you want to see all hidden files in the system, there are applications where this is a built in feature: TotalFinder, XtraFinder, Path Finder, Commander One...but you can show them in Finder as well, using the Terminal.app:

Should be noted that both of these commands here will close all finder windows

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES; killall -KILL Finder

And to hide all hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO; killall -KILL Finder


"AKauthorization remote view" ? Did someone hack my macbook?

It is unlikely you have been hacked. A process on your Mac is likely trying to verify your Apple ID with Apple's Sign On services.

AK = AuthKit
AS = Authentication Services

Private AuthKitUI Framework
AKAuthorization appears to be part of Apple's private AuthKitUI framework. This framework is stored at /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AuthKitUI.framework on macOS.
The public Authentication Services likely uses AuthKitUI to provide the user interface:

Use the Authentication Services framework to improve the experience of users when they enter credentials to establish their identity.

Give users the ability to sign into your services with their Apple ID.
...

It is likely AKAuthorizationRemoteViewService is a user interface element that shows content provided by a remote service.
See jujigo
/
DragonBuild source that mentions this framework's contents.
Given AuthKit (AK) is a System Programming Interface (SPI) – and thus private to Apple's engineers – only Apple can authoritatively answer this question. You should provide feedback to Apple about this behaviour.


Connecting a MacBook Air with Thunderbolt 2 to a Monitor with HDMI and USB-C

I wouldn't recommend any of those. Instead get an ordinary mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable and connect the monitor with a plain cable instead of adapters.
The 2015 MacBook Air cannot be charged over the USB-C port in any case, so you cannot benefit from that feature of the monitor right now. However in the future you might have a newer computer, and then the USB-C port with Power Delivery might come in handy.


Is it normal to have a Macbook heat up when using a dual boot linux?

No, I don't think it's "normal". But as always, it depends. For me, this usually happens when I look at full screen flash video or am doing other computing intensive stuff. When I dualboot into my dev environment, I'm just surfing the web for informations which wouldn't lead to the heat up.

TL;DR: It's very likely that it's your behaviour that changes with the platform you boot into and that it's this causing the heatup.


Prevent app re-adding itself to "open on login" list

Its kind of annoying but you can try locking the plist that controls login items.

Navigate to `~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
Select the file and press Command + I
Check "Locked"

Note: This will prevent all applications (and you) from adding or removing login items, so remove the application from login items and then lock the file.


How do I have access to my Google Music contents offline?

Google do not provide offline access for google music on the iPhone.

However just searching "Google music" on the App Store, shows 2 (paid) applications, that seem to offer offline access.


Scheduling Appointments for iPhone Repair at the Apple Store?

You have a few options within Apple's eco system.

The first is Joint Venture, a program that gives priority service to business customers both over the phone and in store.  With Mac repairs this also allows for a loaner if needed for the duration of the repair.  You can read more about Joint Venture at Apple's business page.  It IS a paid, subscription, service but depending on your needs it could be helpful.

The second would be to look into their iOS Direct Service Program.  Essentially entering into the program allows you to train your IT staff to properly diagnose iOS devices in accordance with Apple's guidelines and setup service on them directly, without dealing with AppleCare/Genius Bar.  It's a free service but your organization will need to set up normal credit/billing info with Apple and jump through an application process to enroll.

The third option is creating a mail in repair with AppleCare.  They can provide a quote over the phone and send you a prepaid box to ship the phone in to them.  Shipping is overnight each way (one night to get the box to you, one night for the phone to reach them, another night to come back to you) and included at no additional charge.  This is true for warranty and non warranty repairs.

With all of that said... I typically take our damaged devices into the Genius Bar by scheduling online ahead of time.  An appointment IS required, however if you show up without an appointment they can often squeeze you in within an hour. They'll provide a free quote and if the part is in stock offer to repair it at that time if you agree to the cost.  If nothing else it gets you out of the office for an hour!  If I were in your shoes I would do this.  By checking the "business related" box in the reservation system you should end up with a member of the business team coming out to tell you about Joint Venture.  If they don't you can always ask the Genius or Concierge about meeting with a member of the Business team to discuss exactly how Joint Venture could help in situations like this.


How can I map the Windows key to option in Microsoft Remote Desktop version 8?

Indeed, this appears to no longer be possible without 3rd-party software.

Adding the same preference key to the new app seemed to not make any difference - it appears that this ability has been removed from the app.

As you mentioned, KeyRemap4Macbook would work with the private.xml that you linked to.


Can I configure and start TIme Machine from the commandLine

As of OS 10.7, you can control Time Machine from the command line. The command line tool is called (and is called with) tmutil. Open up the Terminal, which is located in your /Applications/Utilities folder. It will be easy to get there if, From the Finder, you type Shift+Command+G, which brings up a sheet where you can type the destination path to the Terminal (copy and paste this): /Applications/Utilities.

After the Terminal opens, and at the prompt, type man tmutil, which will get you the manual page for tmutil outlining all the commands and options available. It's quite extensive, and more than can be covered in a single answer, but examples might be:

  Turn on Time Machine backups:
  tmutil enable

  Set the destination to be used as backup:
  tmutil setdestination... (this has options that can be added to specify destination information and type)

  Start a full backup to a drive:
  tmutil startbackup -d /Volumes/Name_Of_Your_Backup_Disk

You must carefully read this manual all the way through and understand the terminology before beginning. The manual is also available online at Apple's manpages reference area. You can read it here, and there is a good primer on Simon Heimlicher's site with much better examples than what I've given above.

As with all command line tools, USE CAUTION. You will have to run most of these as root as well, which means that you're granting yourself power to do lots of potentially nasty things to your computer. In the case of tmutil, though you're unlikely to do much damage as you have to correctly specify a destination before it'll actually do anything. Probably the greatest hazard would be if you'd already set a destination you could accidentally erase it; since you have no destination, though, that's not going to happen.

Good luck getting your backup going and with getting your machine fixed!


Day-O clock not starting by itself on restarting Mac

Go to system preferences and click on Users and Groups. Then click on box login items. This brings up a list of apps to start up when you login. You can add your app to this list but be sure to unlock the page. Click the padlock icon in lower left of window. You can add an app without unlocking but it won't take effect unless you unlock that option.


Terminal problem: "-bash: $: command not found"

$  represents the standard shell prompt and is usually used to show that the commands need to be entered in Terminal. So you only need to enter the part starting with export.


How do I associate the right Contact Card under Users & Groups to my own profile?

You don't need iCloud.com to do this.  Open the Contacts application, select your card entry, click on the Card menu, choose "Make this My Card"


12V - 0,67 A USB Wall Charger for iPod Classic

There is no USB charger other than USB-C that will supply more than 5V DC.

USB-C (3.1 spec) provides for power delivery and will negotiate up to 20 V. However, the iPod Classic is not USB 3.1 compliant, so it will not negotiate with those chargers.

You need the original Apple charger designed for that device.


External Monitor not detected after upgrade to Mojave 10.14.5

I've hit the same wall with both my old and new Mac Minis when I upgraded to 10.14.5 this week. They're both ok with the HDMI cable to the monitor (so at least one is useable), but don't play nice with the HDMI/VGA adaptor/cable that I've also used to enable a second feed to the screen.

Screen sharing between them is the only workaround, and I note this an issue with Mojave that pre-dates 10.14.5 (such as here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8625812 and here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/no-signal-on-external-displays-after-mojave-update-2018.2128056/).


Tap your entry at the top of the list, it's really a full contact and can be edited as such.


Can't create new notebook in Microsoft OneNote for Mac

Simple solution just found it:

Go to onenote.com and log in.
Make a new notebook from the webpage.
Then wait a minute or two.
Then quit OneNote.
Then re-open it and try it again. Should work.

Seems to be a problem with university-sponsored 365 accounts.


Set Bash Variable as Icon in osascript -e Display Dialog with icon

What always will work is encoding the icon file with base64 -b 64 (to keep the lines short enough), include it into your shell script as a here document and decode it on the fly.

To create a base64 encoded version of your icon file, run

base64 -b 64 -i path/to/icon/Myicon.icns > myicon.base64

(This you only need to do once).

Then open your shell script in your editor and insert myicon.base64 (which might be rather big) in the correct spot

...
ICNSPATH=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/icon.$$.icns
base64 -D -o $ICNSPATH <<"END_OF_ICON"
** replace with content of myicon.base64 **
END_OF_ICON

osascript -e '... with icon '$ICNSPATH' as alias' # write full command here
rm -f $ICNSPATH

The final script will then look like the following

...
ICNSPATH=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/icon.$$.icns
base64 -D -o $ICNSPATH <<"END_OF_ICON"
aG93IHRvIGNvZGUgaXQgc28gaXQncyBjb21wbGV0ZWx5IHBvcnRhYmxlIHNvIGFz
...
eSBwdXQgaXQgaW4gaGlzIGZpbGUgc3lzdGVtLgoK
END_OF_ICON

osascript -e '... with icon '$ICNSPATH' as alias'
rm -f $ICNSPATH


How do i turn off email notifications on my laptop?

sign in to google calendar at http://google.com/calendar
Click on the 'gear' icon at the top right and choose 'Calendar Settings'
Click on 'Calendars'
Click on 'Notifications' for the appropriate calendar
look for 'Event reminders' and remove the 'By default, remind me via [Email]' entry


Printing from iOS devices to existing printer connected to windows pc?

The way suggested by @Clayton Jones above, links to a good tutorial.  However, on the same site, I found an installer that will do all of this for you.  Here are the written instructions, for after you have downloaded the installer, via jaXov. You can also find a link with full color step-by-step screenshots in the previous sentence.

If you are facing any difficulties in following the manual procedure to enable AirPrint service on Windows, now you can install AirPrint service through AirPrint installer (by TadGhostal) which is compatible with Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista. For those who don't know, iOS 4.2.1 comes with a unique feature called AirPrint which allows you to print your documents, emails, web-pages and photos over a Wifi connection with your Apple iOS device.

Prerequisites:
Download and install iTunes 10.1 from here
Make sure the printer is setup as a shared printer on your local PC
Printer and iOS device should share the same Wifi connection
Make sure you have full administrator privileges to enable / disable services on your PC
Procedure:
Download AirPrint installer for Windows from here. Once downloaded, right-click on setup.exe and choose Run as administrator from the pop-up menu.

Just follow the on-screen instructions to install AirPrint service on Windows:

Once installation completes, Windows Firewall will prompt you allow or deny AirPrint features to be shared over networks. Click on Allow access button.

Please note that only HP ePrint enabled Photosmart, Officejet and Laserjet printers currently supports Apple's AirPrint service. You don't need any additional network setup if you are using one of these printers and can print any media directly from your iOS 4.2.1 AirPrint enabled iDevice.


In iPhoto, convert MJPEG videos to H.264?

Probably need to use QuickTime for this (or maybe iMovie if you prefer) -- as far as built-in solutions go. There's a built-in setting in qt to export for iPod touch (as well as settings for other devices) using h.264.


can you take out the iPhone's sim card and use wifi outside of america?

gentmatt's answer is correct, however if you don't need to make phone calls at all you can also just turn on airplane mode. I have done this many times abroad. Turn on airplane mode in settings, then turn wifi back on. Your cellular signal stays off.


My iPhone cannot "see" all the books on my Mac via Mojave iTunes

I thought I had found a fix for my situation in this post:
"iBooks does not seem to be recognizing that books have been previously purchased when the purchase price has changed."
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8613752 (Not the most meaningful questions because it presupposes the problem, which turns out no to be the case.)
After doing as suggested, "Books -> File -> Move Books From iTunes", then resyncing my Books, everything was in my Library, as expected.  I had previously not been able to find any explanation of what "Move Books From iTunes" was about or what it did.
So I reported that here as an "Answer". Except that it didn't last.
Now, of 18 books in Books on my Mac, iTunes Devices > My iPhone > Books shows 8 of them. A few minutes ago it showed 5 and then I did the "Move Books From iTunes" routine again. It reported that it was moving 15 books. I don't know which ones are missing from the 15 because I now only show 6 of them after updating. 5 books, a different 5, then 8, now 6. And the current 6 does not include any of the ones I'm actually reading. I would quit trying if and when I finally got all 3 of those on the iPhone at the same time.
I keep restarting iTunes, rebooting my iPhone, restarting Books on the Mac, running the "Move Books From iTunes" routine, in hopes that some combination will be the magic sequence of what is being updated in what order so that I can read those three books on my iPhone. Right now, it can't even "see" them to allow me to select them.
Update: It appears that every time I run the Books "utility" File > Move books from iTunes, I toggle between two sets of books. One set has 6 books and the other 16, with a total of 18 different books. I have no clue what put which books in which list.
Unfortunately, there are two books that I am in the middle of, one happens to be in each list, so I cannot switch between those books without connecting my iPhone to my Mac, using "Move books from iTunes" to get the other list active, and then syncing that list. My previous set of books disappears off my phone, replaced by the new set. Then I can read in the other book. I repeat that when I want to go back to the first book. This will probably force me to just finish one or the other book by brute force, rather than following my whims. Oh well ...


If it’s a genuine Apple charger, you should be fine, those are universal. If it’s not (and it’s not unheard of for counterfeit items to be sold on eBay), all bets are off.

See for instance Ken Shiriff’s teardowns of iPhone chargers to see what enormous differences there can be among charger designs and their safety: http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html


MacBook Air - No internal speaker sound after boot (icon not greyed out + no red light)

The problem fixed itself, by having the MacBook sleep overnight.


Simple method, as already stated, System Prefs > Sound > Output. Set balance slider to the right.

More comprehensive method, in case you are listening to stereo & need the information otherwise missing from the other speaker - you also need…

System Prefs > Accessibility > Audio

check 'Play stereo audio as mono'

This will sum the left & right channels so you will hear both from the one speaker after you balance across to it.


Notification Center "Tweet sent" bird whistle plays through iMac internal speakers instead of selected output device

Open System Preferences
Go to Sound -> Sound Effects Tab
Select "Play sound effects through selected sound output device"


iPhone will not automatically connect to one particular wifi network

Let me start this somewhat lengthy soft answer with a suggestion:

See if your landlord will allow you to extend his network by allowing you to add an Airport Express in your apartment. This may be the miracle solution you need to what is otherwise likely to be complex and quite possibly unsolvable problem otherwise.

I strongly suspect you're looking for a technical explanation to your problem. That answer is likely to be lengthy and beyond my expertise. It will also be largely theoretical because without some specific tests performed in your environment, the truth is unlikely to be known, only speculated upon.

The practical answer is that sometimes certain access points don't like certain wifi transceivers. Several years ago I had massive wifi problems with my the just-purchased MacBook Pro and a LinkSys wifi router that had been serving the house successfully for years—and still worked fine for all the other computers in the house, including my iMac G5 running the same version of the OS.

I applied numerous patches and tried various*tricks* on the Mac. I installed  alternative firmwares onto the Linksys. All with no success.

We installed an Airport Extreme and all of my wifi woes went away. Instantly.

If you're looking for explanation, you'll have to look further. If you want a solution to the problem, see if you can install an AEX, enjoy full use of your device, and don't sweat the details.


How do I restore an iPhone from a backup located on an external drive?

I was unable to restore from this backup because I had symlinked the iPhone backup's individual folder,

Volumes/External Drive/iPhone Backups/UF34...

into my Backups folder located at

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backups/.

This causes some issues. What you need to do is to symlink the backup folder into the MobileSync directory in your user folder. In other words, you need to create a symlink for the folder which contains all your iPhone backups (the folders with the weird numbers),

Volumes/External Drive/iPhone Backups/Backups

inside this folder on your disk

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/

I believe you need to rename (or delete) the Backup directory which is already on your hard disk if you want to do this.

I realize that this process might be slightly confusing if one has not used symlinks very often, so feel free to leave a comment here and I will try to make this answer clearer if I can.


How can I add a new search engine to Safari without any 3rd party add-ons?

No, the only options are Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

If it is of any help, DuckDuckGo have their own extension on the Apple website for Safari extensions.


How to permanently deny accessibility permission? App keeps asking!

There doesn't appear to be any way to do this currently. This would have to be something supported by the app. An app can request accessibility permissions whenever it wants.


macOS Sierra: Why do I have to enter the password for my private key?

You need add your private key to ssh agent again. I faced same problem after Sierra update.

Here is a guide to add your key.


When does Safari on iPhone change the text size when the orientation changes?

Here's an estimation:

The site you're likely viewing has what is called a liquid-layout, which means that the content will spread to fill it's container.  So when you're rotating the phone, the viewport width is changing from the narrower portrait width to the much longer landscape width.  So the text itself might not be changing size, the webpage is just adapting to fit it's new window size.

Luckily the above link also has a liquid-layout, so you can see this in action.  Take the window on your computer and shrink it's width.  You'll notice that the text will shift around to fit it's new container size.  So it's the web page (more specifically the CSS) which determins how the text wraps.

tl:dr

CSS did it.


Where can I find the log of all mounted volumes?

You can find the information in /var/log/system.log (or using the Console application). But the information is not kept forever.

For example:

Aug  4 07:34:34 ******** kernel[0]: hfs: mounted External on device disk3
Aug  4 07:34:44 ******** kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Time Machine on device disk5

and and a DMG

Aug  5 07:53:25 ******** kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Xcode on device disk6s2

After a while system.log is compressed and archived. To search in all the stored logs

cd /var/log/
(sudo cat system.log; sudo gzcat system.log.*) | grep mounted


Why does my iMac go to sleep while I am using it?

Well, that did not work.  Now I'm going to try this in Terminal.app for 5 hours of "don't go to sleep on me":

caffeinate -t 18000

Info on that command is:

man caffeinate


How to highlight cells based on another cell's value in Excel 2011

You need to use a rule with a formula to determine the format. Select the column of data, and assuming the top cell in the selection is A1, create a new conditional format with a formula and enter

=iserror(match(A1,$Z$1:$Z$1000,0))

Note that there are no $ signs around the A1 reference! Then select a format and apply this conditional format to A1:A1000.

Explanation:

The Match() function tries to find the value of cell A1 in the range Z1:Z1000.
If there is a match, the function will return a number. If there is no match, the function will return an error.
The outer ISError() function will return TRUE if the Match returns an error and the conditional format will be applied.

By not using $ signs, the conditional format can be applied to a whole range in column A and will always evaluate the current row.

Say your values are in column B and start in B3, you would need to select cell B3 and enterB3 instead of A1 into the formula.

Here is a screenshot of a data sample where the conditional format is applied to column A, checking column C for matching values anywhere in C2 to C11, not just on the same row.


How to install the 2014 NTP security fix on 10.6.8 Snow Leopard

For 10.6.8 would it work to open the 10.8 NTP update.dmg with pacifist and put in the new versions of the following 6 files?

No it would not work. You will probably get a segmentation fault due to major changes that happened between 10.6 and 10.8 (I don't think you could even make 10.8 binaries work on 10.7). You can easily try it, however, to convince yourself. Extract them with Pacifist to some temp directory and just run them (eg. extract ntpd and do a ./ntpd --version ). If you don't get a segmentation fault and you get a printout of the version, you might be fine. However, there's a better option.

Instead of using Apple's binaries, you should compile NTP yourself. It's not difficult at all and it requires Xcode (which is free anyway).

See my answer to a similar question that was posted the other day on how to compile NTP: Disabling NTP on OS X Lion or older


Disable Stand By Mode on Retina MacBook Pro?

To disable deep sleep, run the following command in Terminal:

sudo pmset -a standby 0

This is a description of "standby" (deep sleep) from the pmset man page:

 standby causes kernel power management to automatically hibernate a
 machine after it has slept for a specified time period. This saves power
 while asleep. This setting defaults to ON for supported hardware. The
 setting standby will be visible in pmset -g if the feature is supported
 on this machine.

 standby only works if hibernation is turned on to hibernatemode 3 or 25.

 standbydelay specifies the delay, in seconds, before writing the hiberna-
 tion image to disk and powering off memory for Standby.

Battery savings depend on how much time your Mac spends in standby. While in standby mode, your Mac consumes 0 power, it's as if it is shut down (note: not taking Power Nap into consideration).

My personal recommendation would be to set the "standbydelay" value to something bigger. 2 hours, for example. This means that if you open the lid back in less than 2 hours, your Mac would be in regular sleep and wake up instantly. If longer than 2 hours, your Mac would enter standby mode and consume no power, and waking up will take a bit longer.

Example for 2 hours:

sudo pmset -a standbydelay 7200


Is there a Safari plugin to remove mackeeper ads?

Do you understand how to use the customization features in AdBlock to detect a specific ad and configure AdBlock to block it?

Here are the AdBlock instructions.


According to everymac.com, the answer is a maximum of 4x8GB=32GB.

Crucial will sell you 2x8GB for $103.99.

OWC will sell you 1x8GB for $39.99 or 4x8GB for $159.99.


Why does only Safari have (nearly) perfect inertial scrolling in OS X?

The difference is likely to do with the architecture and interprocess communication choices of each browser.

Modern web browsers render pages in separate processes. Apple has a framework called IOSurface that provides a streamlined way for one process to pass an image to another process. This framework was introduced in Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, for the latest iteration of QuickTime.

QuickTime uses IOSurface to offload movie decoding to separate processes. With no decoding to do, the QuickTime Player application is left dealing solely with the user interface and showing images provided by the decoding processes.

I suspect Safari has learned from QuickTime and is using the same techniques. Web pages are offloaded to other processes, rendered, and passed back.

Could Chrome and Firefox do the same thing, absolutely. The challenge is ensuring the thread dealing with the user responds quickly and is not delayed waiting for the rendering to update.

Chrome does use separate processes and appears to use IOSurface on the Mac; this bug talks about improving Chrome's use of IOSurface.

IOSurface is a public framework available to any Mac OS X 10.6+ application. However there is little documentation and it is Mac specific.

This is all conjecture.


How to add Outlook to "Share" popup menu in finder

I found a temporary work around.

In Automator services, I added a new service!

And it works for me just fine, till someone comes up with a better solution.

See my screen capture for specific details how to (should be easy to follow since it is my  first time I used Automator) and I am a Dummy.

Important is to select your email service of your choice (gmail in my case) to send messages and attachments.

That will tell the OS X Mail client to use that service to send emails.

Save your Automator service file (give it a easy name you want to appear in the Finders right click popup window). Something like "Send file by email".

Now when I right click on a file in Finder it shows that service at the bottom of the popup window. Now just follow the instruction and see it work.


Is it possible to exclude an app from the Screen time activity?

Always Allowed doesn’t exclude an app from Screen Time, all it means is the app isn’t subject to any restrictions.

At the moment there is no way to disable a specific app from Screen Time, you can turn it off if it really annoys you or when Screen Time is displayed deduct the time from the app from the total time if you want to exclude the app manually.


Chances are, you are importing these pictures into iPhoto. After that, under the photos tab, when you have your iPhone plugged in, is a checkbox to sync photos from iPhoto. This likely is checked. If these two things are correct, it will then transfer back onto your device, all the pictures that were/are on your phone. This is the only time I have seen pictures that I can't delete (that don't have the "trash can").

If this is the problem, it could be easily remedied by simply disabling the sync checkbox under the Photos tab for your device.


There are many ways to achieve your goal. Apple has its own product: Apple Remote Desktop.

But in your case I would suggest another tool called Teamviewer. It is free for non-commercial use and easy to handle. Both sides (you and your friend) have to install the teamviewer application. When startet, you don't have to bother with IP adresses or whatsoever. Teamviewer will give you an ID and a password which is enough to connect to your friends mac.
It is platform indipendend and will work also on lots of Linux distributions.

Another nice, maybe even easier to use but non-free service is Gotoassist. This service does not need to install software on the remote machine. The remote machine just has to open a specific link in browser and you're done.

As I mentioned before, there are many other possibilities depending on the type of support one wants to offer, for example: SSH or VNC.


Inside: /Applications/MAMP/bin/phpMyAdmin, there is a file named config.inc.php.

Inside of that file in your favorite text editor, you should be able to search for $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] and then modify the text in single quotes. (Which is 'root' by default.) Change that to whatever you changed your password to, ensure it's quoted as necessary, and refresh. You should instantly be connected!


How can I reformat a drive that contains an encrypted volume?

It turns out that Disk Utility didn’t want to touch a disk that contained an encrypted partition, but it had no issue with changing the encrypted partition itself. I clicked on the encrypted partition (not the drive) in the sidebar, and the “Erase” tab appeared on the right. From there I reformatted the disk to Mac OS Extended without encryption, and afterward Disk Utility had no hangups about reformatting or repartitioning the drive.


How do I swap Ctrl and Alt in just the Terminal?

iTerm2 will let you remap your modifier keys. This has the effect of just remapping them for terminals. Bonus: it's also a better terminal program for OS X than the built-in Terminal.app that ships with OS X.

You can alter the modifier keys on a per-profile basis as well. That lets you switch profiles for terminals depending on what you're doing with the terminal so you get the correct behaviour for local and remote sessions.


MacBook Pro stuck on Apple logo - tried everything.. help

Not sure if it helps, but it happens to me sometimes too, or stuck in black screen when it attempts to start in BootCamp. I realized if I take out or unplug some usb cable from the laptop, it would start up normally. I also noticed it happened much less after I disabled a usb flash drive in Device Manager that I don't plug in and use all the time.


How do I fix the email counter on the tag below the task bar?

restating my comment as an answer for completeness's sake:

"Inbox" in the "mailboxes" bar does not refer to the folder called "Inbox" but to the whole folder structure you might have created inside the "Inbox" or several "Inbox" folders, if you have multiple mailboxes configured.
All those unread items which are not in the actual "Inbox" folder will be in one of those subfolders, instead.


Try:

sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb

And look config:

/etc/locate.rc           the configuration file

Edited:

Post here output:

echo $LOCATE_CONFIG

And:

cat /etc/locate.rc

And:

echo $0

Update:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man1/locate.1.html#//apple_ref/doc/man/1/locate

The locate program searches a database for all pathnames which match the specified pattern.  The data-base database
     base is recomputed periodically (usually weekly or daily), and contains the pathnames of all files
     which are publicly accessible.

Try mdfind instead locate

Updated2:

mdfind -name text which is more accurate. Just mdfind text gives you files that contain text as well. –  David Krmpotic

mdfind -name text


Can I add a "space" to my Dock to separate apps into groups?

Yes you can! Follow these steps:

Within Finder launch the Terminal app (by default it’s in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder)
Copy and paste the following command into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

Press enter
Rstart the Dock by entering the killall Dock command into Terminal and pressing enter

Now you’ll see a space in your Dock. You can click and drag this around as you would any icon!

Keep in mind that any time you launch an app (be it within macOS or your Windows VM), you’ll get a new icon at the right end of your Dock (unless it’s been permanently added to your Dock previously). So if you’re wanting to group your Windows app icons together you’re going to need to create a second space so that one is to the left and the other to the right of your Windows apps. In this way it’ll be a distinct group, separated also from icons at the rightmost end of your Dock.

Of course, even with this approach, the next time you open a new Windows app you’ll have to drag it within that group and also choose to keep it in your Dock (assuming that’s what you’re wanting to do).

Additional configuration options

Since originally posting this answer I've discovered that the spacer tile can be configured in terms of size and location. So, at Step 2 of my instructions above, you actually have the following options:

Large space

The original command at Step 2 of my answer (see below) creates a large space in your Dock.

    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

Small space

Instead of the original command, you can add small within the command to create a smaller space in your Dock (see below):

    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="small-spacer-tile";}'

Documents space (as opposed to an Applications space)

Both of the commands above create a space in your Dock where your Application icons appear. However, you can change the command so that the space appears where the Document icons are. To do this, use the key persistent-others instead of persistent-apps in the command you're going to use.

For example, to create a small space on your Dock within your Document icons you would use the following command:

    defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="small-spacer-tile";}'

NOTE: Regardless of the command you use, it still needs to be followed with the killall Dock command to take effect.


Application to save copies of reduced resolution photos on iPhone?

Try this: Reduce - Batch Resize Images and Photos for iPhone & iPad.

However, if you just want to reduce the photo uploading traffic, the iOS built-in Photo.app allows you to share the photos with size-reduced version.


Is there an Adobe Flash Player type of software for an iPad 2?

There is no app in iOS or the App Store that will allow you to see Flash-only or Flash-heavy websites. Having said that, websites all around are slowly switching to using alternatives to Flash that are iPad-compatible, so you should run into this problem less and less as times goes by. Hope this helps.


Is it hard to transfer contacts from one iPhone to another iPhone?

Yes either iCloud or iTunes can do this.

The overview is that you take a backup from the old iPhone and restore during setup on the new iPhone.

Apple has a support page for this: Transfer content from your previous iOS device to your new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


Unclear OSX notification banners: where is the cropped text?

Take a look in the Notification Center by clicking this icon in the top right corner of your menu bar:

You'll probably see the full text in the "Facetime" section.


How do I rotate a movie on the iPad/iPhone?

I don't have any experience with this app but it seems like it will do what you are after: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/video-rotate-free/id626614962?mt=8


<?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>MachServices</key>
    <dict>
        <key>com.apple.backupd-helper.status</key>
        <dict>
            <key>HideUntilCheckIn</key>
            <true/>
        </dict>
        <key>com.apple.backupd-auto</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.apple.backup.launcher</string>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.apple.backupd-auto</string>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/backupd-helper</string>
        <string>-launchd</string>
    </array>
    <key>LaunchEvents</key>
    <dict>
        <key>com.apple.xpc.activity</key>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.backupd-auto</key>
            <dict>
                <key>Interval</key>
                <integer>3600</integer>
                <key>Delay</key>
                <integer>3600</integer>
                <key>GracePeriod</key>
                <integer>1800</integer>
                <key>Repeating</key>
                <true/>
                <key>AllowBattery</key>
                <true/>
                <key>PowerNap</key>
                <true/>
                <key>Priority</key>
                <string>Utility</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>EnableTransactions</key>
    <true/>
    <key>POSIXSpawnType</key>
    <string>Background</string>
    <key>EnablePressuredExit</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>


resolv.conf search domain not working on OS X

There was a similar issue in 2002 with OS X. I found a few articles about it and I've been able to address this issue by simply adding "local" to the Search Domains in the advanced network properties of my network interface. This has allowed those of connecting via VPN to resolve .local hosts.


How to synchronize password with macbook safari and iphone3gs safari?

Unfortunately, there's no way to sync Safari passwords with an iPhone 3GS. iCloud Keychain syncing requires iOS7, which in turn requires an iPhone 4 or later.


I found this for you (follow the red arrow)

and this information

or this video


Why is MT65xx Preloader a network interface on my Mac

MT65xx preloaded is related to MediaTek/Android devices Drivers,,seems like you where tethering an Android device of which is likely to be of MediaTek chipset of which won't work on Mac, but you can still use the HoRNDIS driver as an alternative.

You can just Delete it and it will bring no problem


Does "Never Play This Song" apply to one station, or all stations?

I believe the "Never Play This Song" applies to just the one station.

Apple clarifies this in their page for Apple Music Radio - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204944

"While listening to your custom station in Apple Music Radio, tap or click the star icon star icon to fine-tune your station. Tap or click the star again to tell us to Play More Like This. Tap or click the x icon x icon to tell us to Play Less Like This or Never Play This Song."


Problem with malicious Traffic in my MacBook

The malware may be transmissible by macs, it's uncertain.  Regardless, you might, in addition to checking DHCP:

Ensure that your search domains in Directory Utility are not set to "Automatic", which will leave you open to rogue DHCP servers on your network.
Consider arpsniff or ArpSpyX or some modern equivalent. Those rogues would gain access possibly via ARP poisoning ( google that)
Little Snitch or some other application firewall would be useful here as well.
Turn off Xgrid, in fact, turn off sharing unless you are using it.


How to create a hotkey for opening a new iTerm2 window?

This is already built into iTerm2.  See the Hotkeys section in their documentation.

Show/hide all windows with a dedicated, system-wide hotkey
Create a dedicated hotkey window.

In its simplest form, it's a system-wide terminal window that you can open with a hotkey.

You can find these options in Preferences -> Keys
OSXDaily has an excellent write up on this (with pictures)


iMessage deleted by the other iphone removes it from my thread on my iPhone?

The short answer is No.

As long as you are on two separate phones (not using the same Messages app on one phone - practically impossible, theoretically possible), it will stay entirely separate from your Messages thread.


Remove folders in ~/Library/Mobile Documents

Those should be the same apps listed under System Settings/iCloud/Manage... (button down right next to the bar), so you can delete them there.


Alright, I did some more digging and it looks like pointing the finger at /home was a red herring. The problem arose when I was trying to run a Docker image and received an error message along the lines of there not being enough disk space available in /home to mount image data.

From this response it's apparent that while /home serves no direct use to the MacOS file system (it's not referenced in the official MacOS filesystem guide), it's used to mount files when MacOS is connected to an NFS filesystem, like the one in the running Docker container. Some order of doing a clean re-install of Docker, re-mounting /home, re-pulling the Docker image, and restarting my laptop seems to have fixed the issue and my container is now running without issues.

For what it's worth, it is possible to permanently unmount /home, and I found a guide for doing so on this StackOverflow post, albeit for a much older MacOS version than mine.

Thanks to those who responded!


Can repeatedly touching the screen of a Macbook Air damage it?

Touching your screen shouldn't do any permanent damage (unless you scratch the screen with a nail) any smudges can be wiped off with a microfibre cloth.

Using a shirt or tie to clean your screen however can damage it, so always use a glasses cloth or microfibre cloth to clean it.


Looking for reference for Apples A5 cache size

Detailed specs on Apple's processors for iOS devices are usually not mentioned. Mosty likely as Apple's focus is on a product's performance as a whole. Mere numbers for memory, cache and clocks don't reflect that.
Therefore, even a professional blog such as AnandTech draws such information from running a GeekBench test:
L2 Cache is 1MB and shared among both cores.
But note that these are not official numbers confirmed by Apple.

[picture from AnandTech]


After adding a font with Font Book, is it safe to delete the original file?

The fonts you import to Font Book are imported into the system and Font Book no longer uses the original.

Yes, you are safe to delete the original fonts you have downloaded and the absence of the original files will not pose a problem.


App Store Updates does not renders correctly in High Sierra

I was getting the incompatible upgrade message for GarageBand until I upgraded to MacOS Big Sur.  After I upgraded to the new  OS that error went away for me.


Go to System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures. Make sure that the first one is ticked and begins with "Scroll", rather than "Swipe". This should do it.


Start app/command-line tool without internet/network access

It seems that what you're looking for would be Little Snitch. You can find out more about it and download it here.


Difference between two quite-similar Terminal commands

The . command is an alias for source so the two commands are really

./venv/bin/activate

and

source venv/bin/activate

Also note that for the system to actually process a file it needs the absolute path ie one beginning with /

Both files names here are relative ones ie ones that can only be understood  with the knowledge of the current directory which is the variable $(CWD)

The two file names expand to $(CWD)/./venv/bin/activate and $(CWD)/venv/bin/activate  . is the current directory and so both are $(CWD)/venv/bin/activate

The difference between running a command directly or via source is that if run directly as in the first command bash creates a new sub shell and runs the command in that and the commands in the script only affect that sub shell and when the script rends that sub shell is closed and all the changes to environment are lost. source, however, runs the command in the current shell and any changes to the environment remain after the script finishes as if the commands in the script were typed into the current shell.

The activate script (I assume is from Python virtual environment management) works by changing the $PATH so that the correct python environment is found when you use python script.py To do this you need to alter your current $PATH and so the activate script needs to be run using source.

Also see https://askubuntu.com/questions/182012/is-there-a-difference-between-and-source-in-bash-after-all and https://superuser.com/questions/176783/what-is-the-difference-between-executing-a-bash-script-vs-sourcing-it

Not that running a command requires the command to be executable. The command to be run is always a file and that file has to be marked as executable by the system. That is the executable flag has to be set on the file permissions which you can see by ls -l  venv/bin/activate

source however is in the current shell and just reads the file as text and then executes the commands it sees, So this file only needs to be readable. For more on that see https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/291404/why-does-bashs-source-not-need-the-execution-bit I like this answer

  It's more of a convenience thing: Let the system run it for me directly if the the bit is set, otherwise I need to do it indirectly


How to solve Mac Apple Store repeatedly prompting for Apple ID and password?

The version of Xcode - & everything else that was already on the Mac when you got it, including the OS itself - doesn't strictly belong to you. It belongs to the Apple ID that originally 'purchased' it, even if that purchase was free.
App & OS ownership is not transferrable.
Unless your company runs an MDM solution allowing it to properly manage company-purchased apps, then the simplest solution is to wipe the entire machine & start afresh. That way everything then 'belongs' to you.
The Mac also needs to be released from the Find My & entire iCloud structure too.
See Apple KB - What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac for a comprehensive guide.
As it's a corporate Mac, you'd be best to speak to your IT department before going at this single-handed, as it will likely require the compliance of the previous user.


It's pretty difficult, if not impossible.  You see, all the communications with Apple are obviously done with secured SSL APIs.   As difficult as it is to impersonate another user to Apple, it's even more difficult to impersonate Apple to the receiving user, Apple controls the whole software stack.
Obviously a nation state attack could conceivable achieve this but this would surely go via hacking the mobile device of the receiving user.


Key Needs to be Pressed Repeatedly to Start Working

If there is a software issue - you could replicate it with an external keyboard.

It's likely a failure in the wiring or mechanics of the keyboard. Depending on how close the Apple Store is, you might have them check for lint or debris under the key cap.

You could DIY - but the pieces are very, very fragile and you might be out some $$ to order a replacement if you break things checking it out.

At the store, they usually have spares on hand and can order the right parts on their dime if they break it during cleaning / servicing.


Left Shift and Left Command combination yields only Left Command; other shift command combos work fine

I'm posting the non-answer of "I reinstalled OSX and upgraded to Maverick from Lion, and it now works" because, well, it now works. Unfortunately I don't know what were the actual reasons it broken and then un-broken. I am sorry to anyone whom this question didn't help at all.

If anyone else comes up with a reasonable explanation I'll mark them as the answer instead.


Image dimensions infos on Lion Finder Columns view

It looks like this has to do with Spotlight. Finder's knowledge of additional file information is integrated with Spotlight, disabling it, or adding locations to the privacy  list will prevent Finder from reporting file information. This includes image dimensions.

If Finder is not reporting "More Info," make sure that directory is not blacklisted by Spotlight. In the screenshot above, anything found in the "Private" folder will show a "--" under the More Info section. This is by design.


Is there a way to "reposition" the sound source when using headphones?

Have you try the Boom 3D app ? Boom 3D allow you to reorganize your speaker, but I never tested it with headphone... You should try the free trial !

https://www.globaldelight.com/boom/index.php


How to create two-week recurring alarms and reminders?

The app you are looking for is Due which can set up repeating reminders as you have described, AND (most importantly) it can repeat its reminder alarm every X minutes until it is marked "done" (at which point it will reset for the next occurrence). I use this for reminding me to take out the trash, which needs to be done every other Wednesday, for example.


How to add MySQL to $PATH variable to resolve "mysql: command not found"?

Here is why your current code is not working:
export PATH=${PATH}/usr/local/mysql/bin/

You forgot the colon and the trailing "/" is unnecessary.
export PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/mysql/bin

is the correct code.


Is it possible to resize video in iMovie?

It's not possible to produce that exact resolution in iMovie 10, because it doesn't support custom resolutions. The only resolutions you can export a video project to are:

480p: 854x480
540p: 960x540
720p: 1280x720
1080p: 1920x1080

Note that all of these are 16:9 (1.778) whereas the target you're after is about 3:2 (1.66).

You can certainly add black borders or otherwise crop/frame videos in iMovie, so it could be a stepping stone to another tool. But It's probably not the tool you want if that precise output format is required.

Also remember that many video players will automatically resize and add black borders on playback to best fit the screen's aspect ratio.


App/solution for having alerts for emails

Apple does not allow 3rd party applications in the iOS App Store to interact in such a way with the default Mail application to make such a feature possible. 3rd party applications run in a sandboxed environment and are strictly prohibited any access to your mails.

On the other hand, Apple also does not allow 3rd party mail clients in the App Store, which theoretically could implement such a feature, but will never be accepted after the App review process (unless Apple would choose to change that policy in the future).

You could circumvent these limitations by jailbreaking your iPhone. However, even then it is very unlikely you'll find a ready-made solution which works exactly as you described it. You'd probably have to develop such an app yourself, and then install it on your jail-broken iPhone.

If you don't want to jailbreak, nor go through the trouble of actually developing such an app yourself, I suggest you go for a different approach. You could for example keep resending the notification by the server until you confirm reception at the server-side.

I also suggest sending an SMS through an SMS gateway instead of an e-mail. This has the added benefit you can configure a custom tone (and a more attention grabbing one if you will), just for that specific contact number. Also SMS notifications can be configured to repeat every 2 minutes for up to 10 times, so you would only need to resend the SMS every 20 minutes. Finally, this would also work when you don't have a data connection available (for example when roaming), and in case you don't have a push mail account it should reach you faster than an e-mail too.

You could also do both SMS and email for yet another fail-safe. I'll leave it up to you on how critical these notifications actually are!


How to force quit and restart a service every hour?

In Terminal, ps -ef to identify a search string for the process you want to kill.
Then the script can find it by
ICPID=$(ps -ef | grep "searchstring" | awk '{print $2}') # find the PID

kill -9 $ICPID                                           # kill it

<full path to executable>                                # restart it

The 9 is the signal to send to the process.  From the man page:
Some of the more commonly used signals:
 1       HUP (hang up)
 2       INT (interrupt)
 3       QUIT (quit)
 6       ABRT (abort)
 9       KILL (non-catchable, non-ignorable kill)
 14      ALRM (alarm clock)
 15      TERM (software termination signal)


Call Apple

When all the 'normal' (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5787) verifications do not work, how can the iCloud be certain it is you?

You can call/contact Apple (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5699). They will try to validate your account by multiple other ways. (billing information, creditcard info, etc). And one of the things they will probably ask for is some email conversations with other persons. So you might need to contact some friends/family/colleagues to dig in there archive for email conversations with your iCloud account.

You might expect your Apple contact to be suspicious, as they have recently had troubles with 'hacked' (wiki link) iCloud accounts.

Might this be a good lesson to always have a valid backup email address and a working 2-step verification☝.


I tried to login to icloud, it made me change my password

According to Apple, the Apple ID password (which should be the same as your iCloud account and password) must:

  Contain at least eight characters, a number, an uppercase letter, and a lowercase letter.
  You can't use spaces, the same character three times in a row, your Apple ID, or a password you've used in the last year.

If you have uppercase and lowercase letters and a number in your old password, and if there are no repeating characters and not any other restrictions mentioned above, that should be fine. Is that the case? However, if you change the password, it cannot be to a password you have already been using within the last year.

The question is, why is it making you change your password? It's not because the password is too weak. Did you initiate the change? Do they think your account is compromised? Did you try logging in too many times or accidentally press "forgot my password"? Was this totally out of the blue? Do you have any more information about that? If you do have to make a new password, you do have to Make it different from the old one. It's not a bad thing to change your password once in a while, though I understand it can be annoying to get used to a new password and to update your login on all your Apple devices and apps. I remember a few months ago I had to change my iCloud/Apple ID password. I don't recall why or if I initiated the change or Apple thought my account was compromised or if it was out of the blue, but I did have to change it, and it was a mild inconvenience updating my logins.


'iCloud Drive' missing from Finder (link broken?) in OS X El Cap

Looks like I found my answer here: http://usabilityetc.com/2015/07/access-icloud-drive-folder-in-terminal/

The location is:
~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs

Now I just need a way to add it back to the sidebar as a favorite...


Remove non-existent devices from "Calls on Other Devices" on iOS?

I had an iMac showing twice within "Calls on other Devices" on an iPhone
The following got it fixed for me.

Removed my iMac from the iCloud account
Logged into iCloud again on the iMac
Logged in FaceTime on the iMac
Switched off/on "Calls on other Devices" on the iPhone

Hope this helps


Have you tried to reset your network settings to default?

Turn off your WiFi and unplug all network connections
Go to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
Take a backup of the preferences.plist by renaming the file to preferences.plist.bak (just in case)
Reboot and a new preferences-file will be automatically recreated

... and by so your network settings will be restored to the default.
Don't worry, it's all about settings, not stored data (like names of networks) will be erased.


MacBook Pro freezes with beachball on login (OS 10.7 Lion)

Disable Automatic Graphics Switching

EDIT:  In diagnosing the issue, you should update to the latest 10.7.2 update

After browsing the Apple Discussions Forums more thoroughly, it seems that disabling automatic graphics switching in the energy/power settings of system preferences seems to prevent the freeze.

This forces the MacBook Pro to use the discrete graphics chip which will consume more battery life, but you can manually switch to the other chip using the utility, GFXCardStatus (http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus) This should make the computer usable until Apple issues a fix in 10.7.1 or whatever is next.

Unfortunately, users may have trouble just logging into their system to change this setting.  Typing in the password quickly (before the freeze starts) worked for me, but you may have to boot into safe mode instead (hold down shift on boot).


My husbands account is also showing my Bookmarks, how can I disable?

You shouldn't be using the same Apple ID for two different people, so ideally yes you should sign out of the Apple ID entirely and create a separate one.

If you still wish to use the same Apple ID, you can just disable Safari sync by opening System Preferences → iCloud and disabling Safari.


Thumbnails not displaying in new Photos app included in 10.10.3

In this case, the issue turned out to be caused by missing photos.  I discovered this when rebuilding the thumbnails on the unmigrated library using iPhoto.

This does not appear to be caused by any issue with iPhoto or Photos.  It may have been caused by other software or file system corruption.


Can You Make the Podcasts App Show Only Downloaded Episodes?

I have found a solution, albeit an unsatisfactory one.  The way to get the behavior I want is to uninstall the podcasts app from the mobile device, and then reinstall it during the next sync.  This resets everything to how it should be in the first place.