How do I rate songs on the 5th gen iPod nano?

The 5th Gen nano still had a click wheel, so you should just have to click the center button twice, and then turn the click wheel left or right to adjust ratings. And yes, these should sync back to iTunes.


How do I grant irrevocable privacy from user with sudo access?

Basically all files stored locally are accessible by an admin user (or any user who can run a root shell). This also includes locally stored/cached files held in Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud etc.

If a user wants to prevent an admin looking at his/her file, he/her should create an encrypted DMG using Disk Utility, should not store its password in the Keychain and should take extra care to always unmount the DMG whenever he/she walks away from the computer.


Lion resolving DNS names when querying server directly, but not when used in a command or app

Killing mDNSResponder fixed this issue.. but why?

Because you flushed the local DNS cache!

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5343

A direct lookup command will query the DNS server directly, however the resolution mechanism for just about anything else is that mDNSResponder process you killed.

dscacheutil -flushcache is deprecated as per the KB.


How to access iTunes library from iOS device via HomeSharing when Mac is sleeping?

Try checking to see if 'wake for network access' is checked in your energy saver preferences:


What data does the Carrier IQ daemon log from iPhones?

It appears that very little, and it can be completely disabled.

  Carrier IQ, the now infamous “rootkit” or “keylogger”, is not just for
  Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, and even webOS. In fact, up through and
  including iOS 5, Apple has included a copy of Carrier IQ on the
  iPhone. However, it does appears to be disabled along with diagnostics
  enabled on iOS 5; older versions may send back information in more
  cases. Because of that, if you want to disable Carrier IQ on your iOS
  5 device, turning off “Diagnostics and Usage” in Settings appears to
  be enough.

  http://blog.chpwn.com/post/13572216737


Mac mini 2014 4k + 2k Monitor Configuration

It seems, from the spec you've listed, that it should support one 4K display via HDMI at 30Hz, and another display via Thunderbolt.
However, everymac.com does not list the HDMI options beyond 1080p at 60 Hz.
For a 2014 MacBook Pro with the same Intel Iris 5100, everymac does say:
This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 2560x1600 on two external displays via Thunderbolt. Alternately, it can support a single display up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt and a single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz via HDMI.
... which tallies with the similar spec from Apple for the Mini.
I'd also draw your attention to the fact that even the 2.6 GHz i5 CPU is only a dual-core, and was considered quite 'light-purpose' at the time.


What have more performance, a virtualized Boot Camp partion or a virtual hard drive?

As I state above and based on my own tests, running Windows in a virtual hard drive is faster than doing it from the Boot Camp partition.


Gmail on iPad not working ..error message

Try a couple things:

Delete the problem gmail account from your iPad, and then set it up again.  See if email works.
If #1 doesn't work, then it could be possible you have too many devices accessing that email account at the same time (ie., iMac/notebooks/etc with the Mail app left open).  Try closing the mail app on your other devices and see if that works.  I believe gmail has a limit of 10 devices that can access the same email account at a given time.  A mail app left open counts as one.
Lastly, make sure you've inputted the correct password.  You might want to change your password in gmail.com and then re-enter it in your iPad.

Hope this helps!


Can't open bootable copy of old Imac with Mountain Lion on New iMac with High Sierra

To be absolutely certain we'd need to know precisely which Mac your newer one is, but the general rule is:-

You cannot boot a Mac to an OS older than itself.

The drivers for the yet-to-be-invented hardware simply did not exist in the older OS, so it will not boot from it.

Solutions may be
1. Spare older hardware in case of failure of the original
2. A Virtual Machine made from the older OS - Parallels or VMWare etc.


How can I get my albums to sort by track numbers in iTunes 11's expanded view?

I can make my iTunes show something similar, if I set some of the tracks in an album to a different Disk Number compared to the rest.

Try selecting one of the out-of-order tracks, then use File > Get Info to open the window I've shown here.  Is there anything different about the information for the out-of-order tracks?


How do I change between open Chrome screens on a macPro 10.13.3 using a windows keyboard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys
Here is the URL I received the information from which I posted. I'm not a keyboard expert.  Do you have a solution to the problem?


My iPhone SE has ceased booting up upon power-on

Get your hardware in the hands of a trained technician is the best plan. Asking on an Internet site to go through triage is so fraught with assumption issues / time lag issues. You’ll get more done in 15 minutes with a pro than weeks here in most cases.

This site isn’t a replacement for Apple support for lots of reasons mentioned here:

Why we're not customer support for [company X or product Y]


Is there a way I can see the payout history in appstore connect?

From Stack Overflow:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4996656/itunes-connect-check-total-sales

  From the Apple User Guide for the Financial Reports (available at bottom of iTunes Connect page):

    We do not store or regenerate the data after the periods have expired
    (14 rolling days and 13 rolling weeks); you will need to download and
    store this data on a regular basis if you intend to use it in the
    future.


Hidden files & folders after executing Killall Finder command

They're hidden files & folders.

Since Sierra you can toggle visibility simply using  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   .  [period]

Prior to Sierra you would need to toggle visibility in Terminal or by script & then kill the Finder to make the changes register.

See How to show hidden files on mac without Terminal for the scripted method.


You basically answered it yourself. Your iPhone is trying to send iMessages and can only deliver them when he has internet access (apparently he turned data roaming off). What you also can do is click on the message in the blue bubble, hold, and then select "sent as text measage". This will convert the iMessage to an SMS and it will appear in a green bubble.


Super slow browsing on rMBP until reboot

That menu bar looks like you're on Mavericks. You should upgrade to Yosemite and see if that helps.

Speaking of which, if you haven't already, you should check how Internet-using apps that aren't web browsers perform, such as seeing how long it takes Dropbox to download a new file.

If all else fails, you should go to a place with a newer router and see if anything improves.


How can I display the SSID I am connected to in the Menu extensions area?

The best solution I use for adding the SSID to the menu bar is turning off Apple's menu item and using WiFi Signal app from Adrian Granados:

https://www.adriangranados.com/?q=apps/wifi-signal
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifi-signal/id525912054?mt=12

It's much fuller featured than just displaying the SSID, but it does that job nicely. I am a very satisfied customer of all his Mac apps as they are powerful, well engineered and updated regularly.


iPad PDF reader app with seamless handwritting annotation experience

I found it! Good notes does exactly (1) and (2)

You can write without accessing menus and browse the document at the same time by using two-finger gestures (to distinguish them from the writing itself). And writing is really snappy.

It also happens to have a great feedback system, so I added a suggestion to add a handwritting calculator.

The only missing features (for my taste) are margin cropping and automatic Dropbox synching.


Does iCloud Two-factor authentication send a code to the same device as a log in request?

This is how it works and isn't a bug.  It's two-factor authentication, not prevention.

Yes, it's being sent to that device but, as you mentioned, it's also being sent to all other devices signed-in with the same Apple ID.  This is meant to notify the user that a sign-in is being attempted.

To use your example, if you're trying to log into a Mac that means you're not currently logged-in.  In that case, the Mac will not get the code because it's only sent to devices that are logged-in with that ID.  Your Mac is not logged-in at that point.

You can prevent this in two ways:

mark the browser/device as always trusted (which makes you less secure - the log in request won’t then broadcast to all your other devices)
remove that device from your trusted list - all sign in requests will require a different device to receive your 6 digit pin (further locking down that one device - at the expense of not being able to use it as an approved for your iCloud)

If you're already logged-in to your Mac and now you want to add a new device to iCloud, your Mac will get the code because it's a device logged-in with your Apple ID and you've previously 'trusted' that Mac.  So now, the code is alerting all your devices that a login attempt is currently being made.

This Apple 2FA page can provide additional info.


Two copies of same app but with unique preferences?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Maybe once, sorta; but now, not really, no.

It doesn’t matter where the apps are stored, the preference files are always stored in the same place

There was an app called "SwitchUp" (originally "rooSwitch") that was designed to let you easily switch between multiple sets of preferences. Its homepage says that it is no longer in active development, which I assume means that it may no longer work, and may not even be for sale anymore.

However, the concept was basically this:

Find "the preferences files and related data" (let's call this a "profile" for short) for an app, and, when asked, hide it away somewhere.
Allow the user to create a new profile or duplicate an existing profile.
Let the user then switch between profiles #1 and #2 (or #3, #4, etc) whenever they want.

The key, of course, was that you could only switch "profiles" (I think that's what they were called) when the app was not running. And if you launched the app and realized you had the wrong set of preferences, etc. you would have to quit the app, then launch SwitchUp, then change the profile, then launch the app again.

It has never been possible (as far as I am aware) to run two copies of the same app at the same time.

I assume that one of the reasons why SwitchUp is no longer being developed is that it became more and more difficult to accomplish that task. Originally it might have just been a preference file and possibly a folder in ~/Library/Application Support/"your app name here"/. But now there might be iCloud data, and "Containers" inside the ~/Library/ folder which are not very amenable to this type of "profile switching".

Is it possible that you might be able to make something like that work with some Mac application? Yes. Assuming you can identify all of the "profile" data, and found some way to move it aside and store it in a retrievable manner later on, you might be able to make it work to have two different sets of app data that you cannot use simultaneously.

But I wouldn't recommend trying it, because I think it's fraught with peril and almost inevitably bound to end in sadness.


How to reset default permissions after the result of running the chown command

There is no standard way to do this. Easiest approach would to to restore the /usr/local hierarchy from your most recent backup (and manually reapply all changes/installs made later).


It does work in iCloud Numbers:

Select the cell you want the result in: i.e  D2 of "Juice and Beverages"

And then in the text field at the top of the page enter:

=SUM('Units Sold' :: B2)

Take note of difference in how I have written it and how you did. Which was you main problem.

When done, click the green tick button on the right. And you will see this as the end result.

You can see some documentation on some of the included Functions by clicking into a cell and then into the:

1, text filed above:

2, you can search for a formula.

3,insert a Function template into the text field.

4, see a description of the Function and scrolling down further in the description you will see examples.


Transferring hard drive from an old to a new MacBook Pro?

No extra steps are needed when you move a drive from one Mac that's compatible with the new Mac other than opening Disk Utility and partitioning / erasing the drive.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25649

If you have tried that several times and get the same hardware error - it's now time to repair the new system by triaging the issues:

Reconnect all cables and retry
Put another working drive back in the new Mac and test

Either the Mac is now broken or the drive now is broken or the cabling is now broken. A repair will tell you which of the three above happened.

For this reason, I almost always connect the new hard drive externally over USB and make sure the old Mac can boot from the new drive and work out any installation issues. Only when I'm convinced I have the correct OS to boot an external drive do I remove it from the external sled and do the swap.

Much faster to know the repair went well in that case but you do need a USB to SATA (or whatever your SSD / storage connection is if you're not working on a 2012 era MacBook).


Mavericks won't update. Crash on boot software update

Try deleting the software update caches at

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate
/Library/Caches/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate

Delete the entire folder you find.


From a Mac perspective, this is no different than capturing video from an analog or digital source.
Depending on the output of the Android Tablet, you can use an  analog capture device  or a digital (HDMI/DisplayPort) capture device.  That interace will allow you to input the video to your Mac.  You'll also need capture software (these devices come with it).  I have used both and currently use the HD60S for capturing output from all sorts of devices like laptops, iPads/iPhones, an XBox (not much) and a DVD/VHS player for trans-coding old movies.
The critical part comes down to your Android tablet and what video adapters it supports.  Basically you need an adapter like the Lightning to Digital AV Adapter that allows you to connect an iPad/iPhone to a screen or projector but one made for Android - an Android to HDMI adapter.  Unfortunately, that's not something I can recommend as Android isn't very much discussed here (and I personally avoid Android like the plague - my experience is limited here).
However, you connect that adapter into the video capture device described above, and you can record game play to your hearts content.


Game Center, can't sign up IOS 6.1.6 Ipod touch 4th gen

Just had this problem with an iPod running iOS 6.1.6.  Here are the steps I followed to fix it.

Log into Game Center on a friend's device (must be iOS 7 or greater).
Accept the terms and conditions and create Game Center profile.  Once profile is created, log out of Game Center.
On the iOS 6 device, sign out of your Apple account used by your device and then sign back in.
Launch Game Center and sign in.

Basically, iOS 6.1.6 is having issues when new Game Center users need to create their profile for the first time.


Unfortunately, I don't think anyone has discovered a way to move it back other than to downgrade your OS. I do not understand your second question!


Running OverWatch On my Mac, would the over-heating kill this machine?

Of course the wear on your machine is higher when operated at higher temperatures. But the MBPs have a carefully designed cooling system that should keep temperatures within safe limits.

If the CPU or GPU actually do overheat, they will throttle and you will observe performance decrease. It certainly won't hurt to provide some additional airflow, e.g. by putting the MBP onto a stand like one of these so that air can flow underneath or even using a fan.


I hate keychain issues...

In Finder use key-combo Command+Shift+G and paste in: ~/Library/Keychains/

Rename the CAC keychain file with .bkp extension at the end if you don't want to delete it. This should remove the file from your keychain.

If it is not gone in Keychain Access after that right click and delete it and select Delete References and Files.

The 'login' keychain is your default, if you want to reset it then go to the Keychain access preferences and select reset from there.

Then restart your Mac.


The latest supported OS on your computer looks to be 10.4.11
(looks like you have a Quicksilver (PowerMac3,5))

And if I'm not mistaken, Microsoft dropped Skype support for everything before Lion (10.7)

You may be able to get an adapter to plug your monitor in, depending on what that large plug is. Though that is really a separate question.


Permission denied when accessing backup directory

You'll be able to read the directory if you grant Full Disk Access to your terminal program. Apple Menu › System Preferences › Security & Privacy › Privacy › Full Disk Access.


How to disable automatic wifi connection?

The only way to stop from automatically joining a preferred, or known, wi-fi network, is to not store the password for that network and type it in each time without clicking the "save password" button.

As soon as you save the password the network will be added to the preferred list even if the remember networks button isn't selected, and it will connect to it automatically (or rather it will connect to the first one on the list that is finds in the order in which you have them listed).


AppleTV streaming from Airport Shared Disk?

Further to Paul's comment, if you place your iTunes library on the remote disc it will work fine, but obviously you won;t have access to it when you are on the move out of range of your home wifi.

But you can create multiple iTunes libraries, and have one on your macbook, and one on the remote disc.  Hold the alt/option key when starting iTunes to be presented options for creating/choosing an alternative library.

In order to stream from the library on the remote disc, you will need iTunes running, with the correct library selected.  You will also need Homeshare set up both in iTunes and your Apple TV.

Good luck.


Widevine disappeared in Chrome in Yosemite

The latest version of Chrome is 64 bit.  Widevine only runs on 32 bit browsers


Is there a video app which can position subtitles over black bars?

I found this - Subtitler Lite VLC plugin,
which might possibly do what you need.

I haven't tested it myself yet, so feel free to add comments re success or otherwise.


Is it ok to delete iOS Files from my macbook pro?

Yes. You may safely delete these files listed in iOS Installers as they are the last version of iOS you installed on your iDevice(s). They're used to restore your iDevice without needing a download if there has been no new update to iOS. If you delete these files and you later need to restore your iPhone, iTunes will update to the newest iOS version by uploading the appropriate installer file.

I manage my iPhone 8 & an iPad 6th Gen through iTunes and this is what I see. The top section are backups, and the bottom section the installer (.ipsw) files:


Firefox Command+K no longer opens search

This seems to work, in that it allows you to search in the URL bar for things that Firefox interprets as URLs.

Hit Command+K
Enter document.getElementById()
Hit the TAB key (or the down key) once to change selection from http://document.getElementById() - Visit to document.getElementById() - Search with Google
Hit ENTER


Is Magsafe strain relief covered by warranty?

This happened to me as well. Because my computer was more than 1 year off the shelf, it was out of warranty; they charged me $60 rather than the $80 shelf price for a new Magsafe charger. Hurry to Apple Church before your warranty expires!
Their Support page for this: http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS4127


I checked the Apple forums and several people say they fixed it by plugging iPhone into MB, it asked if to trust the device on the MB and the iPhone.  When trust on both is selected, it synced on the cable and now wifi sync is back to normal. May be this workaround will do the thing?

Also do you think Firewall can be an issue?

Or Apple Mobile Device Helper process could be the bump, you can just force quit that process through Activity monitor


Why my Mac is showing only 250 GB out of 500 GB?

Check what Disk Utility shows. Probably for some reason the remaining space is not partitioned.

Also, get a good backup since an erase and reinstall should fix things.

Before you erase, boot to recovery HD and try to repair the Macintosh HD and also repair the drive itself.


In general, you run a ‘runnable JAR’ by opening it or with Terminal java -jar /path/to/game.jar.

However, this JAR does not contain a suitable manifest for launching, i.e. not a runnable JAR.

$ java -jar /path/to/game.jar
no main manifest attribute, in /path/to/game.jar

Therefore you have to specify the main class manually. However, that still doesn't work.

$ java -cp /path/to/game.jar E
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/microedition/lcdui/Graphics
[…]
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.microedition.lcdui.Graphics
[…]

That's because this JAR doesn't support being run on a computer. It's a game for a mobile device and you can't launch it on a computer.


I am trying to clone a 2TB drive that has mac os x 10.6.8 onto a smaller drive but dont know what I am doing

Assuming your info is correct & there is going to be room on the 250, this should be simple in a Pro.

Put both drives in the Mac Pro.
Boot from the one that works.
Format the other [just to be certain] in Disk Utility as a single volume, GUID/HFS+ [Don't name it exactly as the other, to save confusion]
Get Carbon Copy Cloner*. Paid, but demo available - It's worth owning.
Clone one to the other.
Remove the old drive.
Boot to the new drive.
Change its name to that of the old drive
This will just fix anything that is using the actual volume name - it shouldn't, but it might be. You can skip this step & see if anything falls over, if you want to separate the names long-term.
Done.

* Looks like you will need an older version - 3.5.7 from the bottom of this page - https://bombich.com/download


Downloading podcasts to iTunes on your computer and syncing it from there to your iPhone (via cable or WiFi) does not require a 3G/LTE connection, so you should be fine.


Is there a way to use automator/write an apple script to change the font in several powerpoint documents?

Short answer:

Yes, it's possible. You just need to use the Record button in Automator to record your own mouse movements as you change the font in one PowerPoint file. Then save this recording as a Folder Action. Now every time you drop a some files into a folder with this action, it will automatically run at your mouse movements on those files.

I'm including a screenshot of a proof-of-concept Folder Action that I made just now, but in all honesty, this will probably take a lot of tinkering around and may not be a very clean way to do it.

Better answer:

There is a better way to do this but it will only work on the new .pptx format presentations, not on any of the old .ppt files.

Basically, all you have to do is rename your powerpoint as .zip and then unzip it like a folder.

Once you open the folder, navigate to:

ppt > slides > slide#.xml

Where the "#" is slide number you want to edit. In my case, I only have slide1.xml but you will probably have others too.

Once you open the xml it should be pretty straightforward to search the xml text for the word Calibri and replace it with the words Univers LT.

That's it :)

All you have to do now is save the xml, zip the folder again, and rename the zipped file back to .pptx.

This may sound tedious to do, but I'm sure it's possible to write a simple 5-10 line bash script that will do exactly this. Unfortunately, I can't do it tonight so perhaps one of the mods can help out and post a script for me.

If I have some time tomorrow, I'll try to write one for you and test it on my computer. :)

Screenshots:


Unless you have paid for additional OneDrive storage, you will only get 10 GB of storage to begin with. This may be why.

Also, you may want to contact Microsoft if you have paid for additional storage.


Here is what I'd try...  Create a bash script using the code below and save it as a plain text file without an extension.  Place it in a directory that in your $PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin and make it executable using: chmod +x filename where filename is the name you gave the bash script.

#!/bin/bash
kill $(pgrep LCore)
sleep 1
open -a  "/Applications/Logitech/Logitech Gaming Software.app"

Now in a Terminal type the name you gave to filename and press Enter...

The $(pgrep LCore) portion of kill $(pgrep LCore) should pass the appropriate PID of /Applications/Logitech/Logitech Gaming Software.app/Contents/MacOS/LCore to kill and terminate its process, wait a second and then open the Logitech Gaming Software.app application bundle.


Can’t add clock to world clock widget in El Capitan

The solution is you need to click the (i) ("Info") button in the upper right of the widget before you click on the "Add" button.

If not an explicit bug, this is certainly a major usability issue, but only is an issue when adding the first clock (otherwise the "Add" button doesn't show up until you press Info). I had run into this as well and couldn't figure it out for months. Finally poked around at it more just now and finally figured it out.


How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?

I've had a very similar issue, and so I decided to compile several methods for solving it. So, following, there are those options and some of them I got from the answers already provided here. I understand this is a little bit offtopic from the question, but it's in tune with the answers. This has many parts and those are all softwares I could try myself somehow.

It's generally a good idea to pay close attention for using the sudo options below so the software can have access to every file, which will likely include some big hidden ones.

Here's a brief list of apps for checking the disk usage:

GrandPerspective is only graphical, using the Treemap, it can measure files by logical or physical methods before scanning, show/hide package contents and change color scheme on the fly. It also is able to save the scanned data for archiving or comparing multiple windows.
Disk Inventory X also uses the Treemap graphical scheme but along side a list view of folders and files. The grahpics isn't as good as GrandPerspective neither the list as good as OmniDiskSweeper, but it does a good job mixing both. It has a Finder plugin and the most options between the 3 on preferences. It's the most complex, but not all complete.
OmniDiskSweeper is non-graphical and very similar to Finder's column view. You choose the folder or disk to analyse, it will order them by disk usage after taking its time to calculate. You can then just delete (move to trash) anything listed.

So each one has its advantages and highlights, I'm still not sure if there's one that comes on top. They're all free.

There is also a different approach, of apps for scanning specific expected places and files for space usage in non-optimal ways. They basically gather some known things about the system that can be bloating your disk all in one nice interface so you can see and decide what to delete.

CleanMyMac lists caches, logs, language files, universal binaries, development "junk", extensions and applications. It scans through the files and also uses some knowledge base it has. Great interface, simple to use. CleanMyMac has a free trial which will only clean up to 500 MB.
XSlimmer is very specific. It remove "unnecessary" code from "fat" binaries and Strip out unneeded languages, as it says on the website. Universal Binaries, that is, use a lot of space for storing files to run in several different architectures and languages. So, this strips all of them to shrink to only your computer needs. XSlimmer is currently discontinued.

Another approach is looking for duplicate files. There are many commercial options, some may be better than the listed below, I haven't tried them all. Anyway, I'm listing my choice of apps considering which ones I was able to try.

TidyUp is a very well known app in this subject. You can specify where to scan for what kind of duplicates. It offers basic and advanced modes, several different strategies and criterias.
MrClean is a free tool that just scans for folders for duplicates and trash them. Very simplistic but efficient if you're sure on what you're doing.
Chipmunk scans duplicates and let you choose which ones you want to trash. It offers a node-view of folders and you can select to "delete all files in a folder that have duplicates elsewhere, or vice versa" as well as hand-picking. It may take very long to scan all files, but it does a very decent job after that.
DupeCheck "drop a file on it and it will use your Spotlight index to see if you have a potential duplicate somewhere." That's about this nice open source app. Not a great tool for space cleaning at once, but over time it helps you keep your space clean.
DuplicateFileSearcher from the website: "is a free powerful software utility that will help you to find and delete duplicate files on your computer. It can also be used to calculate MD5 and SHA hashes. The software runs in Windows, Linux, Solaris and MacOS.". Enough said.

Next I'll briefly discuss on a similar approach by quoting relevant parts about two other things that can be done to look for missing disk space, without installing anything new, just using the command line (the Terminal).

This (long but good) one is from MacFixIt forums (go there for more options and details):

  In most cases, there really are files occupying part of the volume, but the files are invisible in normal use of the Finder.

  Using the Finder’s Go to Folder feature (in the Go menu), look at the sizes of the contents of these folders, by pasting in these pathnames:

/private/var/vm
/private/var/log
/Volumes

  The /private/var/vm directory contains the swapfiles used by virtual memory. New ones are made as more data is swapped from RAM to the hard drive. The entire process of creating them begins at each reboot or restart; do not attempt to remove them yourself. Check the total size of all the swapfiles, right after you boot, and as the disk fills up. In Panther, the first two swapfiles are 64 MB, then each new one is twice the size of the preceeding one (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) up to a maximum size of 1 GB. In Tiger, the first two swapfiles are 64 MB, the next one is 128 MB, and any additional swapfiles are 256 MB.

  If you do not run the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts (either by using a utility, or by running the commands sudo periodic daily, sudo periodic weekly, and sudo periodic monthly in Terminal), the logs on the startup volume can become too large. If an error is occurring frequently and is being logged, you can have a very large file at /private/var/log/system.log.

  The files in /Volumes should be aliases to your mounted volumes. Do not remove these aliases, because anything you do to them happens to the contents of the corresponding volumes. If you are not confident that you can explore this folder without mishap, before you begin, properly unmount any volume other than the startup volume, if the missing disk space problem affects only that volume. External FireWire drives can be disconnected after proper unmounting.

  Sometimes, backup programs that cannot find an intended destination (or target) volume for a backup create a folder with the same name as the destination, and put the folder into the /Volumes directory. There are cases in which the entire startup volume has been backed up on itself, in a folder inside /Volumes. If the amount of missing space is about the size of your user folder, such a backup is likely to be the explanation. If you use Carbon Copy Cloner or another backup or cloning utility and have its preferences configured to create a backup on a schedule, and the intended destination volume is not mounted or is sleeping at the scheduled time, the backup is created in the /Volumes directory.

  To check the size of the normally invisible /Volumes directory on the active startup volume, open a new Finder window. Select the startup volume in the list at the left, then choose column view (the one at the right of the three views). From the Finder’s Go menu, choose Go to Folder, and paste in:

/Volumes

  The /Volumes directory becomes visible in the Finder; find its size by selecting it and typing Command I. My /Volumes directory is reported to be 12K.

This other one is from Mac OS X Hints forums (not much more to see there):

  You may want to run a du in terminal to see what is all going on. This could take a few minutes to run.

  An example would be to open up terminal.app then run these commands:

sudo du -h -d 1 -c /

  Input your password when it prompts for it then let it go, it will take a few minutes to run so be paitent.

du stands for Disk Usage. There's also df. I like including the -x to the above command:

sudo du -cxhd 1 /

Adding to the command line option, you could use an automator service for opening any app. With this you will get different (and more complete) results on GUI.

Or, if you're on a Power PC, using Rosetta or anything before Snow Leopard, you can mix any of the before mentioned apps with Pseudo. It's a little app to open things as admin. Picture it like a GUI for sudo.

Finally, there's a complete newbie guide on "The X Lab" that I just won't quote here for it's too long.


Can I use iPhone mic with AirPods as headphones while on a call?

No, I would do an A / B test to see if wired headset is higher quality that the Bluetooth one. You could even do that call with Apple Support so they could hear the difference and set up a repair if your bluetooth microphone is wonky.
Dropping AirPods can happen easily and internal damage can be both hidden to you and cause them to lose massive amounts of quality or just sound buzzy.
Before you call support, check the mesh openings (all of them) with a magnifying glass and look for signs of cracking.
P.S. always having wired headset is my conference superpower. Being able to quickly get perfect sound on a call is well worth the expense and hassle for me when sound quality matters.


Can I plug in an iPhone 5s with no screen?

Yes, you can. As long as the iPhone itself you know is working, you can plug it in.

The iPhone is now listed in Image Capture, even though I now have to find out how to unlock the phone...

Either way, never fear, the iPhone will respond even if it has missing parts :-)


Why does VTEncoderXPCService take up all my cpu?

It seems to be related to pulling movies out of Photos.  I had a large movie I was trying to take out of photos to a folder and move to an external drive.  This process was using over 300% of CPU for several minutes.


How do I transfer my photos from my cloud to my Mac?

You'll have to download them from iCloud using the web interface and then load them onto your Mac. There's no option in iCloud Photo Library to go one way only.


How to upgrade SSD from HDD for my mac book pro

You should look at the ifixit HDD replacement guide for this model. This will show you exactly the steps you need to take, including 'unplugging' the logic board from the battery.

You may want to buy a USB to SATA connector cable. This will let you connect the new SSD to the Mac, so that you can copy the contents from the hard drive to the SSD. You need to use cloning apps: either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to do this.

If you have a Time Machine backup, you may be able to restore this to the new drive by booting to Recovery (command R) and then restoring the backup.

Then swap the drives, and you can still use the HDD as a temporary external drive with the SATA cable.


Some Apps Appear in Mission Control but Not in the Application Switcher

Only applications that are present in the Dock are shown in the Switcher (⌘ cmd+⇥ tab). More specifically the apps that do not have the LSUIElement key in their Info.plist.

Theoretically you can remove that key from the apps, that you want to see in the Switcher, but this can break the Code Signing.

The examples you've shown are not even the apps, but Panels (NSPanel). They are part of the app that is in focus (when you click on them, the current app in the menu does not change).

3rd party app switchers are discussed there on AskDifferent.

If you want to check if a window is a Panel, you can use Accessibility Inspector app like so:


How to delete everything on an iPod Touch?

Fully charge the iPod Touch
Go to the Settings menu. Scroll down until you see the "General" settings, and hit that, then scan to the very bottom, where you'll see a mini-menu titled "Reset." Press this. This will bring up a few different options, but the one you want is "Erase All Content and Settings." (Settings / General / Reset / Erase all )

you can see full detailed here.

Also you can use itunes, and go to the restore feature. This will take your ipod back to factory default.


With Mojave (macOS 10.14), why does the Message app close itself?

This is a feature introduced in macOS Lion 10.7 in 2011. If you're only noticing this since Mojave, that's a bug or the following setting you changed previously has been reset to default.

By default, since Lion, apps which support automatic termination with no open windows and not activated will quit after an idle period.

To disable this for all apps, override NSSupportsAutomaticTermination:

defaults write -g NSSupportsAutomaticTermination -bool false

To find apps which support automatic termination in your /Applications folder, you can use

grep -nl NSSupportsAutomaticTermination /Applications/*/Contents/Info.plist

Note that automatic termination is distinct to functionality more commonly used by third-party apps: applicationShouldTerminateAfterLastWindowClosed(_:).


How to add a Google calendar shared with me, to my iCloud calendars

There are two methods:

Method 1:

When you open the link of the calendar shared with you. You could click the plus sign at the right corner to add it into your own google calendar.

Go to https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect and check the calendar shared with you.
Go to the Mac Calendar and you will find it in your calendar list just under your google account. Check it for display.

Method 2:

As step 1 in Method 1.
Go to the Google Calendar and the shared calendar appears in the "Other calendars", go to the setting of the shared calendar.
Scroll down and find the "Integrate calendar->public address in iCal format" and copy the address.
Open the Mac Calendar and go to "Files -> New Calendar Subscription" and paste the address into the "Calendar URL".

Hope this would work.


How do I know if I have the Lion recovery partition set up?

In the Terminal (located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) type:

diskutil list

You know that you have a Recovery Partition installed if you see this entry:

Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB


Setting 8-bit/16-bit color depth on macOS without using commercial apps

Check out displayplacer: https://github.com/jakehilborn/displayplacer

It's a command line utility, but it works great and is quite simple to use. Example:

> displaypacer list
> displaypacer id:<UUID> res:3008x1692 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:on

And as a CLI utility you can easily script it.  For example: When I switch off of AC power, I have a script which automatically calls displayplacer to switch my resolution to the default retina resolution giving me very slightly improved performance/battery life)


How to prompt to give specific folder access or full disk access to /bin/bash when run in an app bundle on Catalina?

An way to get around the problem is simply to not invoke /bin/bash, but rather interpret and run the shell script within your own app. For example you could restrict the script language to be a very simple one, so that you do not have to implement full bash scripting functionality (which would be quite an undertaking).
For example if the scripts only consists of simply running literal commands, or perhaps a few conditions - then that could easily be implemented directly in the app, or as a simple language interpreter.
This would then let the user give your app Full Disk Access, and it would work.


Uninstalling Parallels Desktop 14 - Aren't there drivers or kernel extensions too?

Aren't there drivers or kernel extensions too?

Yes, apparently Parallels does use kernel extensions.

If in the Finder we select Parallels Desktop.app and context-click to choose Show package contents, we can navigate to nested folder Contents > Library > Extensions > 10.9 to find some .kext files such as prl_hypervisor.kext.

Are such kernel extensions copied somewhere else upon installation? Yes. Doing a sudo find / -name prl_hypervisor.kext in the Terminal.app shows two hits, one inside the app and one copied elsewhere into a StagedExtensions folder:

/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Library/Extensions/10.9/prl_hypervisor.kext
/Library/StagedExtensions/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Library/Extensions/10.9/prl_hypervisor.kext

I have not yet tried deleting the app via the Trash yet. So I do not know if doing so removes the copy as well as the original.


Which Apple TV generations support the use of AirPods?

I have both 3rd and 4th gen. AirPods only work with 4th unfortunately


This is a very common question. To reclaim the lost space, enter the command given below.

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

Some of the Windows 10 ISO files released by Microsoft can not be transferred by the Boot Camp Assistant to a flash drive as described by the document you referenced in your question. This is either because the flash drive is too small or needs to be ExFAT formatted.

If you are still failing to install Windows though the use of the Boot Camp Assistant, then consider using the following steps to install Windows.

Use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows support software. In this case, you are prompted where to store the files to be downloaded.
Use the Disk Utility application or the diskutil command to create space for Windows.
ExFat format and 16 GB or larger flash drive and copy the files from the Windows ISO and Windows support software download.
Boot from the flash drive and install Windows. Basically, you are installing Windows the same way as anyone who owns a PC.

An example of one user who recently successfully installed Windows 10 using this method can be found at the question Mojave bootcamp assistant limits partition size.


You don't need to do this. OS X uses /Users/(username) instead. /home is there for compatibility.

This Apple Support Document describes how Mac OS X handles multiple users.

  Your home folder isn’t actually named “Home.” It’s named with your user name. If your Mac has several users set up, each user has a home folder.


Hard Drive is not showing up on my Mac Laptop

This occurs when there is no information on any hard drive that the computer can process. This means that at some point you likely accidentally deleted the recovery partition of your hard drive. There is no regular recovery partition so the computer has no idea what to do.

You need to have a bootable USB drive to do anything with that computer besides use it as a very expensive paperweight. Find a USB drive and someone with a Mac and make yourself an OS X (or MacOS) install disk. Then boot from that drive (by holding down Option during boot). Then wipe your internal drive and install the OS (which will automatically install a recovery partition).


Macbook pro crashes Whenever installing Matlab 2016?

You never mentioned which version of MATLAB you were running.  However, the 9.0 (R2016a) doesn't mention Sierra at all and the R2016b which does list Sierra support has it as "limited."

First thing I would do is verify that your version of MATLAB is compatible with Sierra.

Secondly, a read error is indicative of a drive error.  It could be a corruption of the file or it could be a physical error.  You need to at least run First Aid on your drive to see if there are any problems.


Why won’t iCloud Keychain sync my passwords?

If you have no other Apple devices, then when you chose to delete your passwords, you likely deleted them from your phone (at first).  But when you re-enabled iCloud, you synced your current phone status to iCloud, which is / was password-less and removed the content from iCloud as well.


You can enter the following commands in Terminal.app, they will turn off the relevant animations:

# showing and hiding Launchpad
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-show-duration -float 0
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-hide-duration -float 0

# changing pages in Launchpad
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-page-duration -float 0

# restart Dock
killall Dock

There are quite a few other animations you can turn off as wel. Take a look at this answer or you could use TinkerTool

To turn the animations back on, you enter the same commands, but with 1 instead of 0


The Instruments app (part of Xcode) is a very good way to look for leaks and run stress tests on the memory allocation of a running program.


Unlock MacOs with fingertips doesn't work on Big Sur

This has recently happened to my sister's Macbook Air 2019. The solution for me was resetting the SMC. To do so in a T2 equipped Mac device:

Shutdown your Macbook.
Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds.
Wait a few seconds and power on your macbook again.

Reference: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295


Install Adobe Reader DC without uninstalling Adobe Reader?

Are you talking about Acrobat (Pro) or Adobe/Acrobat Reader?

In the second case, you would not get the "official" download file from Adobe (because that is just a (IMHO extremely crappy) install manager. Instead you would get the actual Reader installer from the enterprise page of the Adobe website

As you are on Mac, multiple versions can be installed in parallel, and even do run concurrently. Under Windows, neither is possible; all which is possible to install one version each of Reader and Acrobat, and preferably the same (Acrobat DC and Reader DC).


My macbook pro troubleshoot reset with grey screen

The first rule of computer troubleshooting: "isolate and identify."

Which basically means undo any changes you made recently. If you plugged a new mouse in, remove it. If you installed a new app, remove it, etc.

In your case I would remove the drive in the optical bay and put the Apple optical drive back in and see if the issue repeats.

User "n1000" hints that it might be related to an OS upgrade or your specific model of Mac. If you can go back to the previous version of the OS that would be good (though time consuming).

You could also take the Mac to an Apple store and have a Genius run some diagnostics and see if it is a warranty or known issue. Note, Apple will blame the SSD in the optical bay so you will have to put the optical drive back in for Apple to diagnose the issue beyond blaming the SSD and sending you on your way.


As far as I know, you need to use third-party tools like SSZipArchive or ZipArchive in order to work with zip files.

Using SSZipArchive, the line below would unzip a zip file:

[SSZipArchive unzipFileAtPath:path toDestination:destination];

Edit:

It turns out that in iOS 7, Apple added support to natively unzip files in iMessage and in the Mail app! Not sure if this is 100% related, but it might help. See this link for more info.


Does constant charging harm my Macbook Pro?

See http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html. This link suggests that you should fully discharge and recharge the battery at least once a month. I did not see this on that page, but I read somewhere that it is ok to leave a mac plugged in for an extended time, so just make sure you exercise the battery and let it completely discharge every once in a while.


Can I make double-sided printing the default?

Yes. In the Print dialog, check the double-sided box.

Now, go to the Presets dropdown and click it. At the bottom of the dropdown list, you'll see "Save current settings as preset." Do that. It'll ask you to name the preset, so pick a name for it.

The OS uses the last preset you used, unless you have checked the box to return to the default settings after printing. So in a sense, the last-used preset IS the default. But there's still a "Default" choice on the presets menu, and you can examine (but not change) its settings.


Unable to install Xcode on a freshly-installed OS X Lion

I have a similar setup, but I've got 10.6 on one partition, 10.7 on another and 10.8 on yet another partition.  When the Mac App Store looks for installs, it will look at all the partitions for installed apps.  I think that is your problem: it is already finding Xcode on your 10.6 partition.

Here is how I solved it and how I recommend you to do it as well:

Unmount your 10.6 partition after you boot into your 10.7 partition

If you want to do this automatically, you have to edit the file:

/etc/fstab

Inside of /etc/fstab, you need to place your partition's UDID like so:

UUID=68613ECB-3492-3B8B-9FFF-55FB1F30A32B       none    hfs     ro,noauto

noauto means don't automount it.

To find the UUID of your drive, launch Disk Utility, select the partition and then press the Info toolbar button.  It will show you the UUID listed as Universal Unique Identifier.

Then reboot and you should find that your 10.6 partition is automatically not mounted.

At this point, the Mac App Store should look for Xcode, not be able to find it, and then allow you to install Xcode properly.


How do I install MySQLdb on my MacBook or is there a way I can skip install and use sqlalchemy without it?

To address the MySQLdb error - try reinstalling the package and then test just that.

sudo easy_install pip
pip install MySQL-python
python -c "import MySQLdb"

https://stackoverflow.com/a/22513919/475228

The above link would be if you can’t get this going - using homebrew to install MySQL helps with path and getting you set up with the proper environment / diagnostics and easy updating as the software gets patched over time. But, you don’t need that to reinstall the package that threw the error.

Also - be sure you choose python3 or python2 - it’s a bit of a hassle to mix them if you can even get that to work. If you are going to have both I’ll double down on using homebrew to manage things instead of using XAMPP.


I too, have a "PC" keyboard, and here's what you have to do (see attached image).

Open System Preferences and go to Keyboard:

Once there, click in the "Modifier Keys"
Select your keyboard.
Change your keys to reflect your change. (I have it changed too!)


What are launchd's LaunchAgents directories for?

Depending on the key Disabled the job definitions in ~/Library/LaunchAgents will be loaded automatically by launchd whenever the user logs in.


MacBook shows Power Source as Power Adapter even when unplugged

I had this issue once, SMC reset didn't help neither nor turning the option off and on again...
What I did was:

I turned off my MBP without beeing connected to a power source
I connected it and waited until the charging logo appear
I turned it on still connected

After that, it came back to normal
(I noticed this bug when I was looking at the istat menu battery log while pluggin/unpluggin the power source)


iOS iPhone/iPad Mail - rapid mass delete/delete all

Late edit
Not sure when this appeared but there is now [in 13.7] a simple 'Select All' button, like we always wanted. Follow that with Delete, accept the 'are you sure?' message & at last we have a simple solution. ;)

Scroll to the top or bottom of your list;
Tap edit, then swipe up or down the circular icons [the checkboxes] until you reach the other end.
It will quite rapidly auto-scroll once you reach the limit of the current view.
Tap Delete.
Gone.
100 unwanted emails, 3 seconds. Gone.
Discovered [by accident] on iOS 13.4.1


Why does iTunes create multiple exact copies of my music files and hide them from view in Finder?

This is likely happening because of the playlist and letting iTunes sort your music. Everytime you import the playlist the playlist imports the songs and then iTunes organizes those songs. For some reason it doesn't realize that's importing already organized songs. Find the playlist and delete it and the problem should go away chances are it's an .m3u.


Macbook Pro 15 inch Late 2011 - Internet always slow until I change DNS lookup address

I can think of 4 possible reasons:

Bad hardware config

It's worth re-setting the NVRAM in your machine by holding Command, Shift, P and R while booting. You'll hear a chime - keep holding, then you hear another chime - let go. This is safe to do.

Bad/Broken Network (Filter) Driver

There's also a possibility you have a bad network driver installed, perhaps against your knowledge, or maybe a leftover from some software. Try booting in Safe Mode (hold Shift as your machine boots) and see how the internet performance is (everything will be slow in this mode, but if it's a driver issue you should see a difference in the browsing).

Malware Infection

The last time I saw this behaviour turned out to be a rampant malware infection on the computer which was saturating the internet connection by sending out spam email. Changing the network/IP details temporarily interrupted the malware until it work up again. You may be able to see this in Activity Monitor (all processes, look at network tab, anything using a lot of networking while you don't do any browsing?). It is worth doing an anti-malware and/or virus scan to eliminate this risk.

It's time to do a fresh install

Have you upgraded your OS from Leopard thru Mavericks? Ever done a 'nuke-and-pave' / erase-and-reinstall? Might be worth it in your case - you can restore your data from a TimeMachine backup (make sure you have one!), but do not have to restore the whole system. It depends on how much software you'd have to spend time reinstalling, but this has worked well in the past for people I've worked with.


Where is the preference list for "open with" applications?

See the answer for Why does my Mac's list of “Open with” applications start listing the apps twice and sometimes three times?:

This happens because the LaunchServices database gets corrupted.
To fix on Mountain Lion:

Open Terminal.app in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder.
run /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Restart

This hint on Mac OS X Hints covers the command for other Mac OS versions over the years.


Download icon gone in Safari after update

The Downloads icon disappears when you clear out the downloaded items from the list. To make sure it stays quasi-permanently, go to Safari Preferences > General > Remove History items and set it to Manually.

This way, as long as you keep at least one item in the list of downloads, the icon will stay in the toolbar. Setting it to Manually ensures that the other settings - After one day|one week|two weeks|one month|one year - will not clear out the list without user intervention.


Trackpad cursor moving around on its own and clicking anywhere

To answer your question, the part you linked should work with your MacBook Pro. Before purchasing a new trackpad, I would suggest you try a few troubleshooting steps.

Reset the SMC

Resetting the SMC can resolve some problems on a Mac, particularly hardware issues.

Possibly using an external mouse, shut down your Mac.  Then hold the shift, control and option keys along with the power button. After holding these keys for 10 seconds, let go of them and power on your Mac normally. If this does not help, try using Safe Boot.

You can find out more about resetting the SMC here: How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

Safe Boot

In this case, you wouldn't want to stay booted into Safe Mode, but you can still benefit from what Safe Mode does to narrow down the source of the issue. According to Apple, Safe Boot does the following things:

  Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues,    if needed
  Loads only required kernel extensions
  Prevents startup items and login items from opening automatically
  Disables user-installed fonts
  Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

To boot into Safe Mode, first shut down your Mac. Then press the power button to power on your device while holding the left shift key on the internal keyboard. Once you see either the login window or your desktop, you can reboot the Mac normally

Just verifying the startup disk and clearing caches can be helpful. I had a very similar case, even with a similar model Mac, where this resolved the issue. If the issue only occurs outside of Safe Mode, then that is also helpful to know.

If that doesn't work

If neither of these things resolve the issue, then I would suggest you take your Mac to an Apple store for a repair estimate. If you would rather perform the repair yourself, the linked part should be compatible with your Mac.


Opening a CBR with Archive Utility; avoiding cpgz/zip loop

The Apple's Archive Utility seems incapable to unpack some archives including some legitimate .zip files.

I looked at several GUI alternatives to set as default instead of the Archive Utility and settled on The Unarchiver which seems to be a seamless replacement.

If you have homebrew installed then it is:

homebrew cask install the-unarchiver

Open the app and set the default file types it should handle. You can also check to option to open the extracted archive in a new Finder window.

Also some file managers like Midnight Commander (brew install mc) or Double Commander (brew cask install double-commander) will handle the archive correctly.


I was able to resolve this issue in two steps.

I imported the root certificate from my corporate Lync Server to my MacBook Pro and configured it as Always Trust(ed) for all options
I generated a kerberos ticket on my MacBook Pro using the terminal command kinit

The level of trust on the root cert maybe overkill, but it works. I have to regenerate the kerberos ticket periodically otherwise I am not able to sign-in to Lync, but I resolved this with an Automator app that runs the kinit command when I login to my MBP.

Hope this helps someone down the line. Cheers!


iPhone asks for iCloud password on power charge

Resetting the settings has solved the problem.


According to Apple you should try the Factory reset.

Hold until flashes quickly!


Select Verify Payment Info, and under Credit Card, just choose None. If this doesn't work, close the App Store and go to Settings > App Store > Tap on your Email > View Apple ID > Payment Information > None.

This should fix the issue.


Automating ffmpeg using Automator Service

Automator Service

You can use Automator to create a new service or droplet:

Launch Automator.app
Create a new service with service receives files or folders in any application
Add a Run Shell Script action
Set Pass input: to as arguments
Within the script, replace echo with the script below.
Save your workflow as a service.

Shell Script

for f in "$@"
do
    /Users/Amit/Documents/Scripts/ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v copy -c:a copy "${f%.*}.mp4"
done

To learn more about using Automator, see Apple's Mac Basics: Automator.


Applescript creating Sym link with spaces in the path

Hm, I've run a similar script in AppleScript Editor but it works ok for me:

set contractsPath to "/Users/subhu/Test test test/"
do shell script "ln -s " & quoted form of the POSIX path of contractsPath & " ~/Desktop/test"

Note that, if you escaping a backslash with another backslash you have to use just contractsPath, not quoted form of the POSIX path of contractsPath, e.g.:

set contractsPath to "/Users/subhu/Test\\ test\\ test"
do shell script "ln -s " & contractsPath & " ~/Desktop/test"

Try it.


Here you can find the solution:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4890670?tstart=0


Postfix auto start on Sierra for smtp relay

To get this working on Sierra you have to modify the existing launch daemon slightly:

Disable SIP
Modify /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist:

sudo nano /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist

remove the lines:

<string>-e</string>
<string>60</string>

add the lines:

<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>

save the file and exit nano
Reload the launch daemon:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.postfix.master.plist

Enable SIP


With Homebrew, how to check if a software/package is installed?

you could do something like this:

brew list <formula1> || brew install <formula1>

This will error on list and continue with install if not installed otherwise it will just list package files. (one could modify this further as a function or alias in .bashrc to make it easier to type)


Removing stripped screws from MacBook Pro back case

Whichever method you follow, be very, very careful. The worst case scenario may require drilling the screw out.

Try placing a wide rubber band on the screw and use a slightly bigger screwdriver. Instead of a rubber band, you could also try with a piece of cloth (anything that can provide more grip and change its shape a bit).

For other methods, see The 12 Best Ways to Remove Stripped Screws.

You could also try iFixit's Precision Screw Extractor Set.


Garageband on 10.4.11: which version and where to find it?

Garageband as included with iLife '08 will work fine with Tiger but you'll need to complete the free online upgrades to 10.4 to bring it up to date.


Can older iPhones (with iOS 11) display HEIF images?

There wouldn't be a problem with that. The older iPhone would be able to convert the image back to a readable format.

More info here.

Edit: This will be an issue if trying to view the videos on a mid-2014 MacBook Pro or older. There is ways around it, but only the 2015+ editions can automatically convert them.
I have recently found this out while trying to view videos from my iPhone 8 on my mid-2014 MBP.


Built in FTP client (cmd + k) - can't upload files (Mavericks)

The built-in ftp is read only since forever unfortunately. From Mavericks help:

  Servers and shared computers that you can connect to

  You can connect your Mac to the types of servers and other computers
  listed here.

  ...

  FTP servers

  With read-only access, you can copy files from the server, but to copy
  files to the server you may need another FTP app. Choose Apple menu >
  App Store to find FTP apps available for OS X.

Maybe try the free Cyberduck or (not free) Transmit.


Web-based wireless login: remember password

The special window is an instance of Safari, just without all the navigation bits.

Why don't you try copy-pasting the URL of the login screen to your browser, typing in your password, and telling safari you want to save it when it asks?


Transfer songs from ipod nano without password

You cannot put them onto your iTunes account, but you can put them into your iTunes Library with iExplorer or iFunbox.


Can the boot drive select screen be used with a PC video card?

The card works fine in Lion but, indeed, without a boot screen or boot drive selection. I've left an old supported video card in another slot, and hooking a monitor to that card shows the boot screen/boot drive selection screen.

I haven't had a chance to try out Mountain Lion on it.


Bandwidth shaper or bandwidth controller application for Mac OS X

For those on 10.7 or newer, the easiest solution to the bandwidth limiting part of the question is Apple's Network Link Conditioner (NLC), a free utility that was originally included with Xcode. Then Apple got all sandbox-happy, so now it's a separate download from Apple's developer web site, called the Hardware IO Tools for Xcode.
The important points going for NLC are that it's from Apple, it's got a very straightforward UI, and it works. Some of the other suggestions given in other answers fail some or all of these criteria, particularly in failing to work on newer OSes.
As for monitoring per-application bandwidth usage, I recommend iStat Menus.


I've managed to fix this by disabling the Hack font and some LaunchDaemons. Not sure which one of the two.


Update from OS X 10.11 beta release to retail version

I managed to update it now. The new OS X version wouldn't show up in the Updates tab of the App Store, but it was still listed on the front page. Just had to download that (which also includes the whole installer, so it's a little bigger) and updated the OS. Now it reads "OS X 10.11.1".


What format/bitrate are iTunes sample files on the iTunes store?

AAC format at 256 kbit/s, m4a

Originally, songs were encoded using FairPlay-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC streams in an mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension.

From May 29, 2007, tracks on the EMI label were made available in a DRM-less format called iTunes Plus. These files are unprotected and are encoded in the AAC format at 256 kbit/s, twice the bitrate of standard tracks bought through the service. They are labelled as "purchased AAC audio file" (.m4a) rather than "protected AAC audio file" (.m4p) in iTunes.

in January 2009, Apple announced that all music would be available in the iTunes Plus format, bringing an end to the sale of music with DRM on iTunes. In April 2009, the sale of protected music ended in western versions of the store, making all music in the iTunes Store "iTunes Plus." iTunes Store users may choose to "upgrade" any of their downloaded iTunes music to iTunes Plus if they wish, but most songs require payment to do so. FairPlay DRM-protected music was still available in the Japanese iTunes store, up until February 22, 2012, when they upgraded to the iTunes Plus model.[105]

In September 2009, Apple introduced the iTunes LP format (known pre-launch by the code name "Cocktail")[106] which features visual, interactive content alongside album tracks and lyrics.


How to kill the popup in OS X when a disk can't be ejected

The process is UnmountAssistantAgent, therefore can be killed using Activity Monitor, or by running:

killall UnmountAssistantAgent


You need to make a backup in iTunes of your old iPad and then restore the new iPad with that backup. When you turn on an iPad that is totally new, it askes if you want to restore from backup or start from "new". You want to restore from iTunes backup.
Guide for backup and restore in Itunes

Once you have all your apps on the new iPad, you can manually delete or wipe the whole old iPad clean.
Here are some useful informations about deleting/cleaning Apple i-devices

Good luck and ask if you have any further problems.

Ps. You need to do a iTunes backup, because if you have alot of data (apps) there will not be space enough on your iCloud free 5GB standard subscription.


How do I restore the behavior of the fn key after Mojave update?

Soooo . . . I've done this to myself.  I'm not sure how I've done it, and I don't like answering my own questions, but in case anybody else finds themselves in this situation . . . here goes.

I never use caps lock so I typically remap caps lock to control.  While I was doing this, evidently, I also remapped fn to escape by accident.

Apple > System Preference > Keyboard
Click 'Modifier Keys'
Sometimes there's a dropdown allowing you to remap the fn key (it seems like it's only there when you have an external keyboard too which may be why I couldn't find it when I looked here before to reset the behavior)


It's not /Library/Spelling/ it's ~/Library/Spelling/ & yes, it is hidden by default, as is the entire ~/Library.

~/ is the standard abbreviation for Macintosh HD/Users/your name/[your Home folder] the equivalent of Windows' environmental variables like %appdata% etc.

To see it temporarily hold down the Option key and select Library from the Go menu in Finder.

To make it permanently visible, Show View Options for your Home folder. Check the box to show the Library.


MacBook Pro - not booting - going around in loops?

Have you had a luck with it yet?

Sound like it may be similar to mine. Logic board for Mac Book Pro's sold between late 2011, whole 2012 and start 2013 are under Apple's Extended Warranty Program. Your symptoms are the same as what I had before mine completely died. Going in tomorrow to have my logic board replaced for free. Thanks Apple.

Please see the link below.

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Hope this helps.


Why do App Store applications transferred into ~/Applications on another machine not launch?

You have hit on an interesting (read: highly annoying) bug in the App Store validation process, it seems:
For starters, the location to which you copy your apps does not, in fact, come into it, and neither does your status as admin / non-admin user. Despite the fact Apple states this should be possible, on my two machines, I cannot get an app manually copied to run either as a standard user, an admin user, in /Applications or in ~/Applications. Neither does chowning and chmoding the bundle to conform with regular installs help. The App Store login sheet pop ups (once), but the app keeps quitting with exit code 173 after that.
According to Apple’s developer documentation for the validation of App Store receipts, part of the receipt validating the use of an app is a machine specific GUID. When you copy an app to another machine, the GUID does not match anymore, thus invalidating the receipt (conversely, on your own machine, it always matches, whatever the user you install the app for – hence you not having any problem with that). Apps are meant to signal an invalid receipt by exiting with exit code 173, and the App Store’s storeagent process is meant to take over after that, asking for credentials and generating a new receipt, then re-launching the app on success:

If the system successfully obtains a valid receipt, it relaunches the application. Otherwise, it displays an error message to the user, explaining the problem.
Do not display any error message to the user if validation fails. The system is responsible for trying to obtain a valid receipt or informing the user that the receipt is not valid.

What happen in your (and my test) case is that validation fails quietly – as indicated by the fact the receipt is never updated, but no error message is shown either. The logs show storeagent returns:
promptResponse: <CKSignInPromptResponse:0x1080c4fb0 returnCode:1>

This code is undocumented by Apple, and all I have found are discussions by developers about this issue in a testing context, where it seems to relate to iTunes Connect data being incomplete (Geoff Pado has a concise summary here).
However that may be, the picture as a whole clearly shows validation is failing en route, which leaves apps copied manually with an invalid receipt even after entering the correct credentials to the App Store. Only those apps that do not check their own validity will still run, as you noted.
Not very helpfully in your case, Apple only recommends deleting and re-downloading from the App Store to remedy the issue.
TL;DR: You cannot manually copy apps bought in the App Store from one computer to another until Apple fixes the receipt validation process needed for it. Install location and user privilege do not come into it.


The best idea is to pay for (or set up) server side junk mail filtering. That allows all the clients to only spend time downloading non-junk.

Have a look at Mail Route (10 percent off link from the podcast where I heard about it sponsoring most recently) - http://mailroute.net/thetalkshow.html

You probably will spend more on the service than the cost to run your Mac all the time, but the filters will likely be much better on the hosted site than OS X mail client.


Xcode storyboard vibration with the new Trackpad

You can switch off Force Click & haptic feedback.

System Prefs > Trackpad > Point & Click

See Apple KB - Using a Force Touch trackpad


Limit automatic updates to software and applications only, but not OSX

It will not automatically update to Sierra.  It will alert you, and will download in the background (one of the "features" they copied from Windows 10) but you have to click on the "Install" button to install it.

I am running El Capitan with everything set to Auto Update and not once has it tried to install Sierra.  However, the way I got around it was that I downloaded it to make a USB Installer and left it in place.

That said, you can turn off the background downloading of automatic updates.  In System Preferences --> App Store:

You also have the option to install app updates and OS X updates, but it will download items in the background.


Is there a publicly-accessible changelog for Mojave beta?

Short answer, no.

Apple doesn't provide release notes for public beta software. However, a comprehensive release notes report is available to registered developers enrolled in paid developer program (I am a paid registered developer).

As you mentioned, you are not looking for release notes from a developers perspective, but just need the broad strokes on what has changed. May I suggest looking through the one of the various blogs covering Apple news to get an idea.

One such popular site is MacRumors. They are generally quite prompt with any updates in the Apple ecosystem. MacRumors also share a birds eye view on the changelog with more user centric release notes.

See their blog post announcing macOS Mojave 10th public beta which outlines the user facing changes introduced in the macOS Mojave and notes the changes introduced since the last beta. Each post generally also link to the post for previous release and can be traced back to the first beta.


Can an iPhone be force started before the 15 minute recharge period?

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way. As far as I know it charges to around 4-5% of battery capacity so that it's sure to be able to perform the whole boot process, even if it's unplugged, so not to screw something up when losing power while starting up the OS.
15-18 minutes seems long to me, though. It's usually 5-7 minutes using the iPhone charger.
Are you charging off a PC USB port?


When on a call, the screen turns off; when I turn it back on to unmute I am not on the call screen and have to go back to it

Putting your phone in your pocket triggers the proximity monitor. When the front of your phone gets close to an object during a phone call, the screen automatically shuts off to prevent accidental touch inputs from the phone being against your face. However, the phone is not actually off! When you take it out of your pocket and thus away from the nearby object (your leg) which it assumes is your face, the screen will turn back on automatically, without you having to press the power button. When the phone re-awakens after moving away from the nearby object, it will show you the last screen you were on: generally, and in your case, it will automatically open up the phone control screen where you can quickly unmute your microphone.

Here's what you're doing wrong

You're pressing the power button. This closes the phone screen and takes you back to your home screen. How you can fix your issue: Just don't press the power button before you put the phone into your pocket, and it still will automatically shut off the screen, and don't press the power button when you take the phone out of your pocket; it will automatically come right back on to your phone call control screen, where you can unmute the call very quickly.

Don't push the power button when you put your phone into your pocket, and don't push it when you take your phone back out.


How to understand macOS wireless diagnostics?

I advise you to use this diagnostic tool twice:

in the exact position where you intend to place your Wi-Fi router,
in the exact position where you want to get the best access for your Wi-Fi client.

The number inside brackets are channels to avoid, the others the ones to use.

From your diagnostic results it would be a bad idea to use the “automatic” channel selection on your router because this is conceptually a total error as soon as you have neighbours networks. The router cannot diagnose the wireless environment where you will seat with your iPhone.

From the partial results you got, I advise you to configure your router to work on channel 36 (5 GHz) which won’t be subject to interferences (as it will be the case with channels 1, 4 and 11 even if they are actually free.

If you want to further improve your skill in the wireless world, I suggest you to try iStumbler. It is now a commercial product but it worths much more. I use it since many years in private and professionnal environments


Take the device into an Apple Store and explain the situation to them. Under certain circumstances they may be able to fix such an issue (for example, they are able to remove an iCloud lock from a MacBook, but it takes several days and several checks are done to ensure you own the device)


Remove all partitions and reinstall MacOS

You have shown no evidence the internal drive is 3 TB in size. Assuming you are correct, then proceed as follows.

Boot to the USB Sierra installer.
From the menu bar select to open a Terminal Window.
Enter the command given below.

diskutil partitiondisk disk0 1 gpt jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" R

Quit the Terminal application.
Install Sierra.

  Note: The drives shown as disk images are just temporary drives created when you booted from the USB installer. This also occurs when you boot to a recovery volume or from internet recovery. The disk images are not stored on your internal drive.


What version(s) of Python are pre-installed on OS X 10.9 Mavericks?

It's on 2.7.5.

Python 2.7.5 (default, Aug 25 2013, 00:04:04)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.0 (clang-500.0.68)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>


How to create an Automator service to convert images from one file type into another file type using the right-click contextual menu?

Here is an example Automator workflow to convert image files to a specific type:

When creating your workflow, don't forget to set it to a Service so that it can be accessed in the context menu.

The Copy Finder Items makes sure that the original files don't get replaces. You can change the save location to a variable if you wish, or just delete that action and let it replace the original file.

If you would like the option of which file type you would like, you can create multiple service workflows with different names (and different file formats for the Change Type of Images action).


Mac OS X 10.8.4 cacerts default password

Also ensure that it is not the SUDO password being asked for.


@Tetsujin's comment was correct - this mouse was actually defective. It took a while to find one, but I compared to another identical model and didn't have the same problems.


SSD with PCIe 3.0 compatible with MBA which uses PCIe 2.0?

Yes, it is likely to be compatible - however there are (ofcourse) no guarantees.

According to the manufacturer of the adapter, they have tested that specific SSD with the adapter - so that sounds reasonable.

I would consider using this specific adapter from the same company:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07FYY3H5F/ref=dp_cerb_3

It is listed as supporting your SSD. In addition ifixit.com (well known and respected site) lists this particular adapter as tested with your model of MacBook Air - though with a Samsung Evo 960 SSD.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Early+2017+SSD+-NVMe+Replacement/121102


Where to find missing USB Driver for Windows 7 on MacBook Air 2012?

The Apple-supplied driver have been overwritten probably by a Windows update. After I reinstalled the Apple Bootcamp Drivers, the problem was solved for me.


Open PDF from terminal using command completion

open is a generic file-opener-thing so a generic completion for open must match anything open can open. One workaround is to invent a new command name, alias it to open, and then specify that the new command should complete PDF files.

bash-4.4$ alias viewpdf=open
bash-4.4$ complete -f -X '!*.@(pdf|PDF)' viewpdf

You could then use viewpdf to tab-complete-open PDF files. However this is rather incomplete as it only matches filenames unqualified with any directory path. With more complexity:

alias viewpdf=open
function _viewpdf()
{
   local word=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
   COMPREPLY=($(compgen -f -X "!*.@(pdf|PDF)" -- "${word}"))
}
complete -d -X '.[^./]*' -F _viewpdf viewpdf

Which should be saved into a bash rc file.

If you instead use the Z-Shell zsh the completion might look like

REVERT=$options[COMPLETE_ALIASES]
setopt COMPLETE_ALIASES
alias viewpdf=open
compdef '_files -g "*.(pdf|PDF)"' viewpdf
options[COMPLETE_ALIASES]=$REVERT
unset REVERT


Is it possible to reduce memory usage by iTunes 11 on Mac?

If your iTunes is using this much memory, something is wrong.

Just how large your library is? My 700 GB audio + video library takes far less than 500 MB of physical RAM and I actually have my virtual memory disabled.

I will suggest you do the following,

a) Quit iTunes more often.

b) For testing, create a new clean library and monitor the memory usage

c) For testing, reinstall iTunes

Good luck. If you have any more question, comment below!


Macbook Pro 2014 shuts down at random intervals

Please make sure you also check your Macbook for excessive dust inside!

I have a Macbook pro which shutdown randomly (and gave the shutdown cause -128 error, and also the reference code PPT004 - the battery requires service). When I cleaned the build up dust it started functioning normally again!

I just removed the backplate and used a can of compressed air to clean it. Check https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Laptop to see how you can remove the backplate of your model.

PS: Try not to touch any parts inside, because of static discharge


Options for playing music wirelessly from iPod touch and iPhone?

Today Apple announced that the upcoming iOS 4.2 update coming in November will contain a feature called AirPlay where you can stream music, video, and photos directly from your iOS device to a new Apple TV (and presumably the Airport Express).


I went straight to 3dnator extension, and disabled it... It just worked! :)


Open "Screen Sharing" tab in System Preferences > Privacy using terminal

Found it! it's Privacy_ScreenCapture

I found it by going to /System/Library/PreferencePanes showing contents on security and then looking at the PrivacyServicesOrder.plist


I cant get any apps to open anymore, how do I fix it?

That previous Q&A should be flagged, I guess, to indicate that it's no longer a good idea. Apps are now digitally signed and notarized, and I'm guessing that editing the .plist invalidated the signature, so Gatekeeper (a macOS feature) won't let them launch anymore.
Have you rebooted the Mac? That might help. I would delete all of the apps that you modified, reboot the Mac, and try reinstalling one of them.
Then I would download and install "ArchiChect" from The Eclectic Light Company. Howard Oakley, who runs the site, is both knowledgeable and trustworthy.
Drag the app that won't launch to the ArchiChect app window, and see what it reports.
It's possible that you may be able to get the apps to launch by reinstalling them and then manually removing the quarantine flag. However, you should know that doing so will bypass the security features of macOS, which obviously puts you at some risk if these apps have been tampered with.
Assuming that you are downloading trustworthy apps from trustworthy developers (and not, say, "pirated" or "cracked" versions from somewhere) there probably is not too much risk, but you should be aware of it nevertheless.
To remove the quarantine flag, enter this command in a Terminal.app window:
xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine

Make sure there is a space after the word 'quarantine'.
Then drag the app that won't launch to the Terminal window, so you end up with something that looks like this:
xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Carbon\ Copy\ Cloner.app

(I just randomly picked an app with a space in a filename to use as an example.)
If you get a message about 'Permission Denied' try the same command prefacted with sudo and then be ready to enter your login password (i.e. the password you use to log in to your Mac):
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Carbon\ Copy\ Cloner.app


How can I share Internet with my devices?

System Preferences -> Sharing -> Internet Sharing

Share your connection from ethernet -> to computers using: Wi-Fi

In Wi-Fi options you can select a WEP password encryption for your network.


"Installing" MySQL JDBC .jar file for MATLAB

MATLAB requires the directory and filename be added to the javaclasspath.  Litmus test:

>> javaclasspath('-static')
        STATIC JAVA PATH
/Library/Java/Extensions/mysql-connector-java-5.1.46-bin.jar
/Library/Java/Extensions/mysql-connector-java-5.1.46.jar

Instructions for adding the .jar files to the class path:

Run the prefdir command in the Command Window. The output of this command is a file path to the MATLAB® preferences folder on your computer.
Close MATLAB.
Navigate to the folder from step 1, and create a file named javaclasspath.txt in the folder.
Open javaclasspath.txt. Add the full path to the database driver JAR file in javaclasspath.txt. The full path includes the path to the folder where you downloaded the JAR file from the database provider followed by the JAR file name. The following is an example of the path:

/home/user/DB_Drivers/mysql-connector-java-5.1.17-bin.jar.

Save and close javaclasspath.txt.
Restart MATLAB.


Notify the system that preferences were changed

Your question needs some editing and clarification.

What I think you're asking is, how to force OS X to re-load data after editing a plist file.  There are two methods of doing this.

OS X uses a caching daemon for preferences, cfprefsd.  You can simply save your plist file, then do  sudo killall cfprefds.  It will restart automatically, and should load your changes.

The recommended way of forcing changes is with the defaults command, which informs the daemon of the changes. For example

# Reveal IP address, hostname, OS version, etc. when clicking the clock
# in the login window
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo HostName


It's hard to figure out what's the actual problem without more information or being at the scene. Some simple fixes you may try:

Restart your iPad.
Make sure you are not in airplane mode.
Make sure you have interact connection. You can test by browsing a webpage.
Go to 'Contact's and double check if their phone numbers (including country code) and/or apple id emails are correct.
Test whether you can message others. If so, it might be your family's side's issue.


This is subjective but my opinion is:

If you are programming in C#, you should use Windows as Mono does not give all that is in Microsoft's version, especially if your users are on Windows.

There are several VMs: Fusion, Parallels and Virtual Box that can run Windows.

OS X is Unix so is like Linux, so the learning curve will be similar to Linux although most Apple users think the GUI is better and easier to use.

Mono will run as well as on Linux.

For games, OS X has more than Linux but much less than Windows and running games in a VM will be slow.

Thus why do you want to leave Windows?


Google Chrome on OSX will not open .desktop files created in Ubuntu

My primary OS is OS X, however I do have a Linux Mint system I use and run into similar situations in which I want to do the same thing on both systems, and when it's not directly supported I have to find another way. In a case such as this, if there wasn't a Browser Extension for .desktop files, like in your other question about .url files, here is what I'd do.

I'd convert the .desktop files to .webloc files and or .url files and use the Default Apps Preference Pane, RCDefaultApp by Rubicode, to change which application opens any given file extension.

Here's a bash script, that I modified from a similar script I wrote years ago, which will create .webloc files and or .url files from .desktop files that have URLs in them.

In a Terminal cd to the directory containing the .desktop files.
Issues the following commands:

touch d2wu
open d2wu
Copy and paste the code below into the opened d2wu file.

#!/bin/bash

clear
echo
echo " Create .webloc/.url files from .desktop files."
echo " ----------------------------------------------"
echo "              Choose File Type(s):"
echo
echo " [1] Create .webloc & .url files."
echo " [2] Create only .webloc files."
echo " [3] Create only .url files."
echo " [Q] Quit."
echo
echo " Press 1 to 3 or Q then press Enter..."

Create_WEBLOC () {
    for f in *.desktop; do
        if [[ ! -f  ${f%.*}.webloc ]]; then
            url="$(awk -F '=' '/^URL=/{print $2}' "$f")"
            if [[ ! -z $url ]]; then
cat <<EOF >"${f%.*}.webloc"
<?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>URL</key>
    <string>$url</string>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF
            else
                echo "  No URL found in $f file."
            fi
        fi
    done
 }

Create_URL () {
    for f in *.desktop; do
        if [[ ! -f  ${f%.*}.url ]]; then
            url="$(grep -e '^URL=' "$f")"
            if [[ ! -z $url ]]; then
                printf "[InternetShortcut]\n${url}\n" > "${f%.*}.url"
            else
                echo "  No URL found in $f file."
            fi
        fi
    done
 }

read  keypress
echo

case "$keypress" in
    "1")
        echo "  Creating .webloc & .url files."
        Create_WEBLOC
        Create_URL
    ;;
    "2")
        echo "  Creating .webloc files."
        Create_WEBLOC
    ;;
    "3")
        echo "  Creating .url files."
        Create_URL
    ;;
    "q" | "Q")
        echo "  No files were created."
    ;;
    *)
        echo "  Pressing \"$keypress\" is not a valid choice... Try again!"
        echo
        read -p " Press Enter to continue..."
        "$0"        # Run the Script again.
    ;;
esac
echo

Save and close the d2wu file.
Make d2wu executable:

chmod u+x d2wu
Execute d2wu:

./d2wu

Example script output:

Create .webloc/.url files from .desktop files.
----------------------------------------------
             Choose File Type(s):

[1] Create .webloc & .url files.
[2] Create only .webloc files.
[3] Create only .url files.
[Q] Quit.

Press 1 to 3 or Q then press Enter...
[]

Note: You can use the Default Apps Preference Pane, RCDefaultApp by Rubicode, to change which application opens a given file extension.

Also, if you need modify other default methods of file types, Apps, URLs, UTIs, etc. the the Default Apps Preference Pane is a great utility for it.

Note: As coded it will not overwrite existing .webloc files and or .url files even thought when selecting 1, 2 or 3, it reports "Creating ... files.".  This was done to both not step on existing files and minimize output to the screen while only outputting which .desktop files do not contain a URL=... line, as can be the case depending on what type of .desktop file it is.


As per Patrick's answer (above).

However, for all those people that would like to carry across all of their data and apps AFTER doing a clean Lion install, you could do the following :

take a snapshot of your existing drive using either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.
make sure your external drive that contains your "snapshot" is plugged in and then reboot your mac
during the boot process, hold the alt/option key down when you hear the "bong" noise ..
select the external drive and confirm that you can boot using the external drive's "snapshot", in case you need to get back to a working boot situation.
at this point (while you are still booted from your external drive), you can now fire up "Disk Utility" and delete and then re-create a blank partition on your internal drive.
now re-boot and use the bootable USB Lion drive (as per Patrick's link in Patrick's answer, above).
Run through the install of a clean Lion OSX installation.
Once rebooted into a clean Lion install, now plug in your external drive that contains your "snapshot" of your Snow Leopard (or Leopard, or Tiger) that you made at step 1.
run the Lion "Migration Assistant", and tick what user accounts, and data and applications you want to carry across to your clean Lion install.
Enjoy a clean Lion OSX installation with all of your mouse preferences, desktop backgrounds, applications, and user data carried across.

(note, this does not make your clean Lion install "dirty", since all of your old APE hacks etc are NOT carried across via "migration assistant").


I need to get my pictures from the iPad to my PC

Create an account in Dropbox (this is a referral link, it will give both of us 250 Mb of free storage).

Install the free Dropbox app on your iPad.

Use the Dropbox bulk uploader to add the pictures on your iPad to your Dropbox account.

Install the Dropbox app (found on http://www.dropbox.com) on your computer.

It will download the pictures you added to your dropbox account on your computer.

The free Dropbox account is 2Gb (2.25 if you used my link). So you might need to repeat this operation multiple times (copy the file from the Dropbox folder to another folder and delete the files on your Dropbox folder)


How long does it take for an initial charge with MBP?

Power it off. The first 80% should charge in 2 hours. The last 20% should charge in the second 2 hours.

If the battery was deeply discharged I would repeat that test once you get the battery full and then drained.

Contact support either way to have them check the full charge capacity and review your powered down charge timings.

That protects you and gives Apple the data it needs if you feel it wasn’t a great battery. In the past, Apple would ship closer to full. Now with changed airline regulations and changed chemistry in the batteries, they ship mostly empty. I wouldn’t worry once you get your two tests in and contact support.

Everything you say seems perfectly normal, but for sure shut it down and do a controlled test - now is when you want to be sure it’s fully operational.


I am a big fan of PDF Pen on the Mac and would encourage you to shoot them an email linking back to here. Adding that as a feature to their new iOS PDF editor might be something they can do quickly and really make it quicker to make these sorts of changes.


Get rid of "The Wi-Fi network ... could not be joined." message

Go to Spotlight (magnifying glass in top corner) / Finder > Activity Monitor
Search for SystemUIServer in CPU tab using the search bar located at top right corner
Force quit it


PHP incredibly slow since upgrading macOS to 10.14 Mojave?

I faced a similar issue on Mojave update, I was able to fix it by updating /etc/hosts file with

::1             localhost YouMacName.local
127.0.0.1       localhost YouMacName.local

You can get YourMacName.local by running in terminal:

$ hostname

I hope it helps you


Can I use MacBook UDID registration for testing of iPhone application?

You cannot use a MacBook as the hardware device for getting an iPhone UDID, no. As there's no need for you to actual own the device you're adding the UDID for, you can get an UDID from a friend's phone or similar.

Note that you can create a distribution provisioning profile in the developer portal without having any physical devices registered. So there's not need for an iPhone UDID in order to for example archiving an app for TestFlight.

You can register up to 100 devices of each type in the developer account. You have the chance to reset the list once per year to remove irrelevant devices. You can find the specification from Apple at this page:

https://developer.apple.com/support/account/

Look under the heading "Resetting Your Device List Annually".


PPTP VPN won't connect after updating to El Capitan


How do I find a list of available printers on a specific print server?

go to System Preferences > print& fax.
create new printer. Depending on yor version of Mac OS X,either ("+") below list of existing printers,
or "Set up Printer button" at top of window then click "Add".
Choose printer connection type. Either "IP Printer" in the toolbar of "Printer Browser" or "IP Printing" from dropdown menu.
In the "Protocol" dropdown menu select "Internet Printing Protocol -IPP".If this does not give you expected results try "Line Printer Daemon-LDP".
Enter hostname of printserver in "Address" field,or browse for network printers.

If you are using Mac OS X Leopard

as above
as above
Right click on the toolbar at the top of the window and select "Customize Toolbar"
drag the "Advanced" icon to the toolbar and select "Done"
click on "Advanced" icon and wait.in a bit you can select "Widows" from the "Type" dropdown-menu.
enter in the URL textfield
 smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@WINDOWSDOMAINNAME/PRINTSERVER/PRINTERSHARENAME
 or
 smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@IPADDRESS/PRINTERSHARENAME
 or
 smb://USERNAME@IPADDRESS/PRINTSHARENAME
fill out the other "Name" and "Location" as you prefer
You might be asked for a "USERNAME" and "PASSWORD" firts time round.fill these and enable the  "Add this to your keychain" checkbox.

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NEW SOLUTION

Open Boot Camp Assistant, and click on "Action" in the menu bar.

Click on Download Windows Support Software.

OLD SOLUTION

You can download the drivers from Boot Camp Assistant.

First, uncheck "Create a Windows 7 or later install disk" and "Install Windows 7 or later version", leaving only "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple" option checked. It should look something like this:

Make sure you have a USB drive connected, and click continue. You should see a screen like this:

.

Select your drive and click on continue. It should download it to the connected USB drive.

Reboot into Windows, and install the support software from the USB.

Edit: I found Brigadier, a software that fetches and installs the drivers for you on Windows. I'll take a look at it, when I have more time.