How many unlocked iPhones (no contract) can you buy from an Apple store?

Selling unlocked phones is a fairly new thing for Apple retail. They've never been part of a product launch - so looking back, the precedent is NIL. There is great precedent for any new phone launch to have lines and quotas for the first 30 to 60 days after a product introduction. There also is precedent for a huge shipment on launch day - then limited stock for a few weeks as things sell faster than they can be made.

I would simply stop by your store and get to know the business team if you have business needs. Until the policy is announced, it should be handled like any other phone in terms of what payment is allowed (cash or not) as well as purchase limits.

The last launch, it was one phone per person while availability was limited and one web order at a time. Once the stores stopped selling out of inventory on a daily basis, it was easier to just walk in and get a phone. Last time I checked, the store has to bring out a different physical box when I purchased an unlocked phone ( I changed my mind about AT&T contract half way through the process). The current stock does ship as an AT&T phone or an unlocked GSM phone - they are not the same SKU.

I suppose the computers could use a common stock and "unlock" the device when selling, but that would be different than what happens today. I do know that the iOS app to reserve product worked very well last launch, so do think about getting that installed if you are keen to get a few phones as soon as iOS 5 launches.


Will reinstall macOS delete the current OS?

Yes and no
The update will install new things and modify existing ones. Your data and all your programs should stay the same though, but depending on your update some programs (for example 32-bit) will stop working.

You can't just downgrade to/simultaneously use the older OS if thats what you'd be trying to do after upgrading.

Yet, with a TimeMachine backup or a clean install you can get the older OS or the OS your computer shipped with.


Recover a deleted contact without iCloud backups

Follow this:

Logon to iCloud.com
Go to Settings
At the bottom left you will see Advanced and "Restore Contacts"

From there you will be able to restore a previous backup that iCloud has done.


Can I use a non "me.com" address to send email with iCloud?

Using iCloud doesn't necessarily means you'll have to use Mail on iCloud. You can still use your current mail provider to send/receive email on your iPad. Providing you can connect to your current provider using IMAP, Exchange or POP.

You can also create your iCloud account without having a @me.com address. I use my @gmail.com address as my Apple ID to connect to iCloud to sync Contacts, Calendars, etc.


Can’t increase partition size of cloned volume in Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)

In general, when you use those hardware-only cloning devices—like that ICY BOX you mention—you end up in situations like this. Perhaps there is a cleaner way to recover from a situation like this, but in my experience what you are attempting to do just won’t work; hardware cloning like that is strictly one-to-one as far as volume size goes. And if the target volume size is larger than the source size, the situation that you are in happens; the volume is cloned but the maximum destination volume size becomes exactly the same as the source volume size.

What I always do for cases like this—cloning smaller drive to larger drive—is to hook up the new drive to the machine in some way (such as an external USB enclosure) and then clone it via rsync or Carbon Copy Cloner. This strictly copies OS level data from one device to another; not partition data/info so this always works right off the bat.


How to find potential issues in damage macbook pro

" It booted, but the fans blew at full speed and it shut itself off while still running firmware."

This may be unrelated to the water damage. It is very common with high spec laptops that the fans get filled up with fluff and then overheat. It is a good idea to open up your laptop once in a while and hoover out the fluff. Or wipe it away with a clean, dry toothbrush. This is a problem I often had with a laptop that I had with coolers, fans and a high end graphics card a few years back.
You can tell if it struggling if you hear the fans running a lot, and the base of the computer gets hot. Cleaning out the fans can give your laptop a new lease of life.


How to use mac as a full router with DHCP, DNS, Port Fowarding etc.?

Simple...yeah right....

Note: Someone please edit this to include only default commands

Covered in this answer

DHCP (Range, reservations, mask, router, lease time)
DNS
Port Forwarding
Setup
Text Book

DHCP

Range

Option 1: com.apple.nat.plist[1]

sudo cp /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist.orig // Backup just incase
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat NAT -dict-add SharingNetworkNumberStart [START IP ADDRESS]
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat NAT -dict-add SharingNetworkNumberStart [END IP ADDRESS]

Option 2:  /etc/bootpd.plist

Turn on Internet Sharing
sudo nano /private/etc/bootpd.plist

3.

<key>net_range</key>
        <array>
             <string>[START IP ADDRESS]</string>
             <string>[END IP ADDRESS]</string>
        </array>

Lease Time

Turn on Internet Sharing
sudo nano /private/etc/bootpd.plist// No need for backup it will recreate incase any issues

3.

 <key>lease_max</key>
      <integer>[MAX TIME]</integer>
 <key>lease_min</key>
      <integer>[MIN TIME]</integer>

Subnet Mask

Option 1: com.apple.nat.plist

sudo cp /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist.orig // Backup just incase
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat NAT -dict-add SharingNetworkMask [SUBNET MASK]

Option 2:  /etc/bootpd.plist

Turn on Internet Sharing
sudo nano /private/etc/bootpd.plist

3.

<key>net_mask</key>
     <string>[SUBNET MASK]</string>

Router IP
1. Turn on Internet Sharing

sudo nano /private/etc/bootpd.plist

3.

<key>dhcp_router</key>
                    <string>[ROUTER IP ADDRESS]</string>

DNS

Change Server

Turn on Internet Sharing
sudo nano /private/etc/bootpd.plist

3.

<key>dhcp_domain_name_server</key>
     <array>
         <string>[DNS SERVER IP]</string>
     </array>

Alter Settings

Option 1: macOS Server

Use macOS Server | DNS Service
Once you turn it on and alter all setting it will say "Set your network DNS settings to [DNS SERVER IP] to use this server"

Change the Server (how to is above) to this IP address

Option 2: /etc/hosts 4

sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
IP [TAB] DOMAIN

Port Forwarding 5

Setup/Turn on Internet Sharing 6

Open System Preferences
Go to Sharing
Select the pull-down next to "Share your connection from:" and choose an interface
Check off the interfaces you would like to "Share your connection from"
Click WiFI Options and alter settings there
Once finished, Click "OK" then Check "Internet Sharing" on the left

TextBook/Glossary (Not alphabetical)

Router

DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

DNS: Domain Name System

Port

Firewall: macOS Sierra: Firewall pane of Security & Privacy System Preferences

IP Range

Subnet

DHCP Reservations

IP Range: Check if Port is open

Modem: Modulator-demodulator (Who named this???)

Feel Free to edit and add Text Book Terms


Folder action acts on files not specified in the workflow

A Folder Action workflow will give you every file when a change is detected in the specified folder, including ones you are not interested in.

Your problem is with Get Specified Finder Items. It just adds items to the list of files to process. It doesn't filter anything!

Use the Filter Finder Items action instead to filter the list returned by Finder. You can do it any number of fields/options including name, extension and type.


How do I update java manual pages with Homebrew?

I have a solution, but if anyone finds a simpler solution, then I will accept it. Here is mine.
Remember, I am using fish.
~/.config/fish/functions/java8.fish
function java8
    if set --local idx (contains --index -- $JAVA_HOME $fish_user_paths)
        # Remove other JAVA_HOME from path
        # Otherwise it will take priority
       set --erase fish_user_paths[$idx]
    end

    set --export JAVA_HOME /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-8.jdk/Contents/Home

    # We do not need JAVA_HOME on the path for the executables
    # We need it for the man pages, so man will search $JAVA_HOME/man
    # If we add $JAVA_HOME/bin to the path, then man erroneously searches $JAVA_HOME/bin/man
    set fish_user_paths $fish_user_paths $JAVA_HOME
end

I copied and adjusted this script for Java 11 (abbreviated):
~/.config/fish/functions/java11.fish
function java11
    if set --local idx (contains --index -- $JAVA_HOME $fish_user_paths)
       set --erase fish_user_paths[$idx]
    end
    set --export JAVA_HOME /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home
    set fish_user_paths $fish_user_paths $JAVA_HOME
end

Now my fish_user_paths (and PATH) have JAVA_HOME:
echo $fish_user_paths
# /usr/local/sbin /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home

echo $PATH
# /usr/local/sbin /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home /usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin

This means manpath also has $JAVA_HOME/man (abbreviated):
manpath
# /usr/local/share/man:/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home/man:/usr/share/man

And it means man reads from the correct directory:
man --path java
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home/man/man1/java.1

And I can switch to Java 8 and back to Java 11:
java8
man --path java
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-8.jdk/Contents/Home/man/man1/java.1

java11
man --path java
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home/man/man1/java.1

There is a separate problem, which is that JDK 11 seems to ship with JDK 8's documentation.
man -M /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-11.jdk/Contents/Home/man javac | tail -n 1
# JDK 8                            03 March 2015                        javac(1)


Strange available and purgeable space on High Sierra

Oddly enough I had just under 60GB of purgable space.

I read around and found a few posts where people mentioned creating large files as once you ran out of space osx would start using purgable space. It works but you don't need to!

You can run bootcamp assistant- it will remove local time machine backups AND icloud cached content. Not only did i get my 60GB purgable space back, but i got an additional 60GB.

Considering I'm on a 250GB SSD and want to dual boot, extremely pleased. Hope this helps!


Your possibilities port-wise for a 24" iMac are Ethernet, USB, and FireWire.

I've seen interesting stuff done with converting DVI video on another computer to send over Ethernet, but not at the quality I imagine you're looking for with HDMI.

USB suffers on video. It wasn't designed to handle consistent, high levels of data that represents video.
Let's skip this.

Now FireWire: FireWire's largest users are those who work with video data, and your 24" iMac has both a FW400 and FW800 port on the back. With this in-mind I went 'google-ing' and found this:

Thomson Grass Valley ADVC-HD50

Hope this ends up being a worthy solution for you, I had difficulty finding any alternatives.

Note: I wouldn't assume this thing will handle HDCP.


The Amazon Kindle app can do this. It's free and you can add your own PDFs to it.

When you highlight some text, an option to write a note is presented (the icon with the pencil):

Then you can go to "My Notebook" to have an overview of all text snippets and your corresponding notes:


If you're looking for privacy, I've heard about an app called Ben the Bodyguard that's going to be released soon. Judging from their intro page, it will probably meet your "well designed UI" requirement.

Apart from 3rd party apps like that one, iOS is not really designed for multiple users. Use a lockscreen PIN and don't share the phone if you want privacy in the meantime.


Shutdown multiple Windows XP machines with a Mac

Follow this tutorial to configure the windows machines: http://www.howtogeek.com/109655/how-to-remotely-shut-down-or-restart-windows-pcs/

Then install samba: http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=38629

Then use the net command to execute the shutdown command just like from linux:
http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/2330/shutdown-a-windows-machine-from-linux

If that works you can make a sh file with the command repeated for all the ip addresses of all the computers.


Downgrade iPhone 4 baseband from 4.12.01

There is no way to downgrade the baseband on an iPhone (or any Apple device, the iPad being an acception but also rife with disaster).

The only way to downgrade the baseband is to install a previous version that is still being signed by Apple. For example, if they release 5.2 today, they would be signing 5.1 and 5.2. If 5.2 came with a newer baseband, it would be upgraded once you've installed that version. If you decided to revert immediately to 5.1, it would downgrade both, the OS and the baseband.

Apple typically leaves the signing window open for only a few days. Once it's closed, you cannot alter the baseband (even if you successfully downgrade the OS).


Apple Thunderbolt or HDMI for external monitor

Adding another monitor cannot be anything other than more resource-intensive - every pixel takes resources to drive it & draw to it.

The 15" Retina screen resolution is 2880 x 1800
A standard 27" screen is 2560 x 1440 - almost doubling the number of pixels you're asking the machine to draw.
A 27" Retina 5k screen is 5120 x 2880 - almost four times the screen area you already have.

To come closer to actually answering your question…
In order of personal preference, I would choose
Thunderbolt > DisplayPort
HDMI
DVI
I would avoid VGA entirely these days.


In my case, this issue was the file I was attempting to change was a remote server, mounted via sshfs.

If I copy the file I'd like to change the association with to my desktop and try again, it worked successfully and files on the remote server correctly open in the desired application.


Tools to diff two Keynote '09 slideshows

I ended up writing my own script who does that. It's available at:

https://github.com/robertoaloi/keynote-to-text

Contributions are welcome.


dd input/output error. No information in error string

For a bootable flash drive, follow the Ubuntu help:

This will be easier since there is the Etcher app you download to avoid the direct use of the dd command.

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-macos#0

While I recommend using the Ubuntu ISO image with Etcher, my comments on the use of the dd command follow. You seem to be following the instructions from the link below. You got the wrong device name, /dev/rdisk2s2. You need the disk name not the partition name. You should remove all external drives except your flash drive.  This will make it easier to identify the flash drive and reduce the risk from using the dd command. Try the instructions again from the beginning.

https://itsfoss.com/create-bootable-ubuntu-usb-drive-mac-os/


The audible "pop" you heard was the magical bubble Apple keeps all the technological goodness in break.  Once it pops, the magic is let out and your Mac will no longer work.

Seriously though....

I have personally heard the "pop" on many different types of computers - it could be something in your power supply (which you already diagnosed it isn't) to something on the logic board.

It could be a blown or bulging capacitor (left) or a burned out component  (right). (I know the pic on the right is of a PC, but it's an excellent example of both a blown and bulging capacitor in one picture; they go the same way in all electronics, not just Macs)

What you need to do is start removing components and visually inspecting them.  If you blew something, it would be quite visible.  You would see charring or a physically damaged component.  You are going to have to do some detective work to see what the cause will be and this means you will have to take the Mac down to bare metal.

Once you have figured out what it is, you can then figure out what you will need to do to repair it.


2 iPhones with iMessage and getting messages from one phone to the other

SMS does not do group messages (well it might be up to the provider)
In the UK the phone providers will charge extra for MMS which do do group messages but not directly supported by Messages by default.
This is one reason to use WhatsApp, Signal etc.


Pick up your AirPods charging case and open it.
Press and hold the pairing button on the back of the case.
Launch Settings on your Apple TV
Click on Remotes and Devices.
Click on Bluetooth.
Select your AirPods from the list.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207010

https://discussions.apple.com/message/31128330#31128330

https://www.imore.com/how-pair-your-airpods-apple-tv-android-and-other-bluetooth-devices


Late to answer but still for those landing here looking for a Ethernet connectivity status icon in menu bar, check this macOS app Ethernet Status - The Missing LAN Status Bar Icon. It shows ethernet interface, IP Address and if interface is active via changing menu bar icon. More here

It does differentiate between WIFI and Wired Ethernet and shows the status for wired ethernet correctly. It also lists the available interfaces and some useful device information.

PS: I am the developer of the app


Adding photos to Shared Album, using the web

Shared albums are not available to view on iCloud.com.  You can only create albums and add/delete photos in albums on a device and then share a link to them.

You'd have to share your album and send yourself a link in order to see in online.

You can add/delete photos from any shared album while on your Mac.  After you do that, any subscribers to that album, Mac or PC, will be able to see the changes you made.

Add items to a shared album

In the Photos app  on your Mac, click a shared album under Shared in the sidebar.
Click “Add photos and videos.”
Select the photos, video clips, and Live Photos that you want, then click Add.
Subscribers to your shared album can play the video in the Live Photos.

Remove items from a shared album

In the Photos app  on your Mac, click a shared album under Shared in the sidebar.
Select the items you want to remove, press Delete, then click Delete.
Photos removes the items from the shared album, but leaves the original items in your library.

Important: If you delete photos or videos that others added to the shared album, you won’t have copies of them in your library. If you want to keep these items, download them from the shared album before deleting them.

Source


Go to the nearest Apple store and ask to use one of their chargers. From my previous experiences, they are usually very helpful.


Photos library can't be opened because "in use by another program"

I'm experiencing this problem from time to time. For example after I've just added pictures to my Photos.app library and then restarted Photos.app (for whatever reason). The problem seems to be, that spotlight starts doing indexing in the photos library directory and messes up with Photos.app... If you wait for a couple of minutes the problem should go away by itself. In my case restarting Photos.app does not help, restarting my Mac does not help, ejecting and then remounting the external hard drive again does not help either. The only thing that works is waiting.

If your external drive is slow, or if you've added lots and lots of photos it might take longer.


macOS shortcut/bash script to immediately close (UNIX signal 9/SIGKILL) all "Not Responding" programs

Here is a Applescript I used on Maverics...

It basically looks for 'Not Responding' apps in Activity Monitor and Kills them

tell application "Activity Monitor" to run  --We need to run Activity Monitor
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Activity Monitor"
     tell radio button 1 of radio group 1 of group 1 of toolbar 1 of window 1 to click --Using the CPU View
     tell outline 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 -- working with the list
         set notResponding to rows whose value of first static text contains "Not Responding" -- Looking for Not responding process
         repeat with aProcess in notResponding
             set pid to value of text field 5 of aProcess  -- For each non responding process retrieve the PID
             if pid is not "" then do shell script ("kill -9 " & pid) -- KILL the PID.
         end repeat
     end tell
end tell


You can create a new user account. This will keep things separated.
When using your main "superuser" account you will have to remember to choose "install only for this user" rather than "install for all users" if you want some programs to be unavailable from your other accounts. Even if you "install for all users" this would just give your work user the ability to launch the program, like Chrome, but it would not see the history or bookmarks or extensions that you had installed as the home user.
The instructions vary slightly depending on which version of OS X you are using. In the Sierra dialog shown, you open System Preferences then Users and Groups (Accounts on previous versions) then unlock in the bottom left
then the plus sign to add a new user. Make them a regular account, not admin and they won't be able to see documents from other accounts. There - you have the separate desktops you wanted. To switch between desktops use AppleMenu - logout, then log back in as the next user. It's much faster than a shutdown or restart.  Enjoy separating your work desktop from your home desktop from your programming desktop using native OS X tools.

http://www.apple.com/us/search/new-user-account?src=serp


Headphone play/pause button controls iTunes only

You can do this with ControllerMate:

And a little little AppleScript (each line for each function):

tell application "Spotify" to playpause
tell application "Spotify" to next track
tell application "Spotify" to previous track

If you open QuickTime Player it will silently ignore the play/pause button and prevent iTunes from being opened, if you don't iTunes will still try to play something.
Another solution to prevent iTunes from starting is to disable the 'Remote Control Daemon', how to do this is explained in detail on superuser.


Keyboard and trackpad freezes for a while after sleep in macbook pro 2019

I've been running into the same issue, but have been experiencing it since 10.14. I've contacted Apple Support and they had me reset the SMC, I haven't had enough time to see if this is a permanent solution (I doubt it is). There's many troubleshooting steps they'll have you try before they consider servicing the MacBook.

Here's the page with the instructions to reset the SMC Resetting SMC - Apple

My hopes are that this is a simple software patch and will be resolved soon.


Does running both (XCode & Android Studio) at the same time overload my MacBook Air with only 8 GB of Ram

Yes you can and should load up your machine and see how it behaves. I don't think you'll get an overload at all.
The activity monitor will tell you when you run into memory pressure and you can see if swap helps or if you have a workload that would save you time on different hardware.
I’ve still not replaced my 2015 MacBook with 256 NVMe SSD (blazingly fast storage when it was introduced and still in the ballpark on 2019 models for what I need)

I run mongodb, make single page web apps, design and test API and deployment scripts, package Mac software for enterprise distribution, sign apps, notarize apps and generally work / debug / program and develop on this machine. Yes, some newer hardware is faster on benchmarks but in real life, I'm the thing the computer is waiting on always in terms of getting meaningful work done and I know how to measure when I'm waiting for the computer and can then buy a different kit when (and only when) I know I'll save money or time with more horsepower or more RAM.
In fact, developing on this means my solutions run even faster since I know when I make a bad decision and memory isn't free and to make a better database query, better data structure, more elegant code rather than assuming everyone that runs my apps spent $4000 on their portable.


What application is using a particular file?

Have you tried using the terminal command

  $ lsof 'Filename'

For a more detailed look at the file use

$ lsof | grep -f 'Filename'

Should give you the command that is using it and also the PID of that file


How do I put a password to stop the download of an app

You can prevent them from accessing the App Store by restricting access to it:

Settings -- General -- Restrictions

A passcode needs to be set, keep it at a safe place as any other password.


I found the answer: log out of MobileMe in the System Prefs panel, and then the iCloud panel will prompt you to log in (instead of offering the "Move to iCloud" button). Log in with your iCloud account and you should be all set. Worked perfectly for me.


How to find ip address of Iphone connected to Mac

If you are on a WiFi network, go to the Settings app, then Wi-Fi.  On the Wi-Fi screen, touch the circled-i to the right of your connected network, and the IP of your phone will be displayed along with some other network information.


iPhone and Mac "Mail" app emails sync not working...?

iPhone uses the 'modern' Exchange ActiveSync (which is a mobile-only protocol) to sync with Hotmail, which explains why read emails are synced to Hotmail.com.

The only other protocol Hotmail/Outlook.com supports is POP. Unfortunately they do not support IMAP, so POP is as good as you're going to get.


Where did the list of flagged message go in Mavericks Mail?

I had this problem -- the "Flagged" folder disappeared from the Mail app and no longer contained any flagged messages, even though I could see that my messages still had flags if I logged into the iCloud website and looked at them there.

For me, the solution was to rebuild my Inbox in the Mail app.  Select the mailbox you want to rebuild ("Inbox" in this case), go to the Mailbox menu, and select "Rebuild" at the bottom of the menu.  It could take a minute or two, depending on how many messages you have.  Suddenly Mail recognized all the flags again, and my Flagged folder re-appeared with my flagged messages in it.


Safari is using too much RAM. How can I reduce its memory footprint?

So it appears that Flash is still the main culprit - if you enable any flash in ClickToFlash it stays resident in memory.

Following Gruber's advice on Daring Fireball, I've disabled Flash entirely on all browsers except Chrome and this seems to have helped immensely


Iphone 4S jailbroken stucked in respring logo

Put your iPhone in DFU Mode :
1. Plug your device into your computer with a USB cable.
2. Turn off the device (if it does not turn off the traditional way, hold both power button and home button until it turns off).
3. Hold the Power button for 3 seconds.
4. Hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds.
5. Release the Power button but keep holding the Home button.
6. After about 15 seconds you will be alerted by iTunes saying that it has detected a device in Recovery Mode.
Normally you should be able to install iOS again but there are a lot of chances that you will not be able to back up your data. Moreover, your iPhone will not be jailbroken anymore.


DST adjustment error in iOS 7 Weather app?

Well, this morning everything was sorted and correct!
I did not do anything special, but my problem is solved...
Bjorn


It depends on how the batteries are maintained since Lithium-ion polymer batteries need to be used and recharged regularly. There will definitely be some reduction in capacity as time passes, regardless of whether the batteries are regularly used/charged or not.
From Battery University - Is Lithium-ion the Ideal Battery? (emphasis mine):

Aging is a concern with most lithium-ion batteries and many manufacturers remain silent about this issue. Some capacity deterioration is noticeable after one year, whether the battery is in use or not. The battery frequently fails after two or three years. It should be noted that other chemistries also have age-related degenerative effects. This is especially true for nickel-metal-hydride if exposed to high ambient temperatures. At the same time, lithium-ion packs are known to have served for five years in some applications.
Manufacturers are constantly improving lithium-ion. New and enhanced chemical combinations are introduced every six months or so. With such rapid progress, it is difficult to assess how well the revised battery will age.

References:
Apple - Lithium-ion Batteries
Battery University


There are some options about integration in Grapher Preferences.

You can also try deleting its preferences file ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.grapher/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.grapher.plist


Best practices for 2011 Mac mini connected to monitor + HDTV?

Your "best practices" will depend a lot on your usage and expected behaviour. It sounds like your preferred option would be to keep both plugged in, but have an option to disable one display at a time. Unfortunately I've not found a way to do this, but there are a few tips and tricks you can use to make things more manageable.

The first is Gather Windows. It's an option in the display preferences that will move all open windows to whichever display you click it on (you get one window on each display). Useful for switching between displays.

If you use VLC, you can set a default screen to use for fullscreen video, under Video > Fullscreen Video Device and choose a screen. Then no matter what display the video opens on, when you full screen it, it will jump to the screen of your choice (presumably you'd set it to your HDTV).

Finally, you may find Moom useful. It's a great $5 app that gives you a bunch of window management options. You can get a demo to check it out. You can set hot keys for actions or use a nice pop-over that appears from the Zoom Titlebar button. Very configurable and useful, I suspect it would be handy in your case.


If you mean sleep. Which effectively is turning it off.

On 3rd Gen.

Hold down the Play/Pause button for 5 seconds.
The Apple TV will go to sleep.

On the 4th Gen.

Hold down the the Home button for a couple of seconds, Looks like a TV.

You will then get a option dialogue to Sleep or cancel.


Hidden character Shift-Arrow Up-Backspace

I can't reproduce this either. However, I suggest that you hold down Command and then press Delete, as an alternative to your method. This will delete everything on the line that's left of the cursor, and will hopefully solve your problem. (You can hold down Option to delete single words. Experiment with holding down the Option or Command key, and pressing either Delete or the arrow keys. If you hold down Shift with either Option or Command and then press the arrow keys, you will be able to select text word by word, or line by line.)


OS X El Capitan keychain login cannot be found to store

not sure if this means anything but i deleted all system keychains and restarted.  I had to re-enter passwords for wireless and re-get certs for company wireless but it worked.  Keychains are the bain of my existance some times.


How do i get the quotation mark on ipad pro with logitech keyboard?

Go to Settings/General/Keyboard and turn Smart Punctuation OFF.


See date/time of most recent WLAN sync in iTunes

On iTunes select your iDevice from left menu and Summary tab on the right pane, under Backup section you'll see a sentence like last backed up to this computer: Today 06:30 this date shows you the most recent sync, whether it was over WiFi or USB.

Here is mine:


Communicate between two local Mac machines when one is on VPN?

Click on wireless icon, then Create network, edit name and confirm.
From 2nd machine connect to this wireless network.


How to fix EFI boot "Software Update is Required for this disk" when trying to boot linux?

I am having this exact same issue following the exact same Ubuntu Tutorial. Have tried a multitude of variations with the security settings...but nothing helps and after it's downloaded something (approx 70%-ish?) the screen goes black, comes back on with Apple logo and boots into my regular Mac HD.
My supposition is the process breaks the OS and we have to follow a different path to run this software.
EDIT: To add, and an FYI, following the same Ubuntu tutorial from above, but now for a bootable DVD instead, gives the same 'error' loop.
It appears (to me at least) that any kind of external media, whether that be USB flash drives or DVDs/CDs, currently aren't supported by the Boot manager under MacOS (Catalina: version 10.15.6) despite lowering/altering the T2 chip's security settings.
EDIT 2: as Topic starter mentioned below, 2019 Macs do not support alternative OS other than Windows for now. Thanks for all your insights and let's hope someday Ubuntu will also be supported.


How to change a search direction in terminal

press Cmd-F
to search backward press Shift-Enter


Can I contact my friends to post reviews for my app in the App Store?

I think if all you're doing is telling your friends about your app and encouraging them to post honest reviews in the App Store, that's probably fine.

If, however, you were trying to get your friends who'd never even used the app to positively review it in the App Store, that would probably be considered a breach of that rule.


What does setting LSUIPresentationMode to 1 or 2 do?

I believe those keys are intended for cases where you're writing an app that will use its own full screen mode (such as a video player or game). To see any effect from changing them the app likely needs to be coded appropriately, not just have the key set in its Info.plist.


Script/Workflow: Select item, print, save as PDF, name sequentially, down arrow to next item

I downloaded Keyboard Maestro and was able to get what I needed by writing a macro. I have a new favorite program. I kind of wish I had tried it sooner.


Dropdown menu navigation by the keyboard

Space or Enter both open a highlighted submenu where the current option does not have an action by itself. Right Arrow works when the current option does have an action, but you wish to open the submenu (I'm not aware of a single instance of such a case where it's not a bug).

This works regardless of whether you use ⌃F2 or clicking to open a menu. I am using macOS Sierra, but am not aware of this functionality missing from prior versions of macOS.

JetBrains apps such as PyCharm have an unfortunate bug where their submenus aren't just submenus since you can select the top level menu item too (try clicking on the highlighted item in your screenshot). Space prefers to select where possible, which won't expand the submenu. This is a specific bug with such apps.


Use early 2009 20" iMac as external display for 2015 rMBP

This cannot be done with your particular iMac (2009 20")

Per the Target Display Mode System Requirements Page it specifically says:

  A supported iMac with OS X v10.6.1 or later.

The supported iMacs are:

  iMac (27-inch Late 2009)
  iMac (27-inch Mid 2010)
  iMac (Mid 2011)
  iMac (Mid 2012-Mid 2014)

However, there is an App that allows you to turn a spare Mac into an extended monitor.  It's called Air Display.  This is not my ideal solution as video intensive applications don't perform well with software solutions.

If you need a secondary monitor, you may have to get a dedicated monitor to meet your needs


Completely delete an app and the app's cache from iPad

App settings aren't cached between installations. Either there's a bug in your app's settings, which it pulls from their API's through their website, or perhaps they have iCloud settings stored.

In the first case you should contact Trello about it or try removing and then re-adding the buggy content through the web version. If the latter is the case, go to Settings, iCloud, Storage, Manage Storage and find Trello. Then press Edit and Delete All.


i guess you are looking for something like this: https://maclovin.org/blog-native/2017/restoring-from-a-snapshot-with-apfs. It can alternatively be done from command line as tmutil restore. See man tmutil for more information.


Is it possible to reverse the position of the number and emoji keyboards?

I did file this as a bug during the beta testing of iOS 12, but I'm fairly sure it still remained a problem in the final release. However, my iPad is running iOS 12.1 beta and the keyboard now matches my iPhone:


Numbers: Countif with condition the content of a cell

I managed to find the syntax that works, but I was not allowed to post the answer. It should look like this:

=COUNTIF(Table 1 :: B2:B337;"="&T(A3))


Any way to configure fsck_hfs to use more memory to speed up verification of Time Capsule images?

As far as I know, there's no configuration file or GUI part of the setup that you can use to force Time Machine to let fsck_hfs use more than the default amount of RAM for caching.
There's however a kind of "workaround" for making this work anyway. You replace /sbin/fsck_hfs with a new program (script or binary) that checks if it is run by Time Machine, and if so adds "-c 8G" (or whatever you want) to the command line parameters given to fsck_hfs. If it not run by Time Machine, just run fsck_hfs with the given parameters.
If you're on a recent macOS, you'll need to disable SIP in order to replace fsck_hfs.


Bridge Wifi to Ethernet port on Mac, same IPs as rest of network

In the end, after trying a dozen different things, this command in terminal fixed my problem.
networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi


Try updating through iTunes. This is useful for those times when there isn't enough free memory available for the update to install on the device itself.

The sequence is to back up the phone and then apply the update.

If there is an error, you will see it in the iTunes update error logs. You can also restore the device to factory settings (via iTunes or via the reset options in the settings app - erase all content and settings) and then update if the cause of the error is some corruption of the apps and data on the phone.


This looks to me like a shortcoming of the Word PDF export function.

You may try it with the PDFMaker macro (coming with Acrobat). If the PDFMaker macro does not get it through, there is little chance that it is recognized by any PDF exporter. In this case, the simplest way to get the link back in is to open the PDF in Acrobat, use the Link tool and add the link again.

FWIW, in Acrobat, you may also check whether the Word PDF export does really create a link over text links, or whether it is the PDF viewer recognizing some text looking like a link and make it an active link on the fly.


iPhone 3g (iOS 3.1) screen rotation problem

The process in charge of reading the accelerometer may be having troubles. I suggest you hold on your power/suspend button for 5 secs and then completely turn off your iPhone. After the phone has been turned off, press the power button again to start it (this will perform a "cold boot" of the phone). That's the equivalent of completely powering off a computer.

If the problem persists after the reboot, then you might have to restore your phone from a backup using iTunes.

Please provide more information or use the search tool in the upper right corner of the website to find similar answers on how to restore an iPhone from a Backup.


AirPort Express orange yellow light problem and not discoverable at all

Is it older than a year? AE power supplies eventually fail due to internal heat.  At least one failure mode - the one I recently observed - is just as you described it.  If I kept trying, I'd occasionally get a green light and Airport Utility would discover it long enough for me to set a configuration, but it would soon fail again and go back to a slow-blinking yellow light.  It would happen just often enough to keep me trying to revive it, but I finally let it go after sinking a couple of hours into it. At least in the US, if it is being used with a system that has AppleCare coverage, I believe the AE will be covered too. I hope that option is open to you.


displays - drive displays from USB-C hub

This is can work, however, it depends on your personal equipment.  Both my motherboard's onboard video and my Geforce RTX 2080 Ti have the ability to do what you are asking.

For example, the "Anker USB C Hub" has the HDMI port built in, as well as USB and an Ethernet port.


Does macOS keep iSight Camera usage logs?

On recent hardware with the T2 chip and new macOS - the camera is controlled in firmware and Apple makes it clear when it's engaged.

Look for a product like MicroSnitch to let you know when recording is happening - whether it's a legitimate program or a covert one.

https://obdev.at/products/microsnitch/index.html

As long as you are on El Capitan or newer, I have seen zero cases where this isn't a solid detection mechanism.


How to auto-accept cookies notifications as mandated by EU law?

Use an AdBlock Filter

Filter the cookie requests using your preferred advert blocker for Safari and the block-the-eu-cookie-s***-list:

  Adblock / Adblock plus filter list for blocking cookie notifications

  Add https://raw.github.com/r4vi/block-the-eu-cookie-shit-list/master/filterlist.txt to your filter subscriptions if you want to block "EU cookie law" notifications and popups.

Please note the swear word in the link is required. Regrettable, as the name will limit widespread adoption.


Adjust background color for pdf in Preview

I suggest to turn on the night shift function and to push it to a warmer color map: System Preferences > Displays > Night Shift.

This will protect your retina and your brain.

It might be worth trying the Invert colors mode:
System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Invert colors.


iTunes Sever on Synology NAS and Apple Music

The current release version of the iTunes server for Synology is not compatible with Catalina. If you register a ticket with Synology outlining your problem, they will send you an updated server spk to install.

Having said that, there is still a problem which I'm having and I've not been able to find out so far if it's just me or not. The problem I'm seeing is that albums with multiple artists are being listed in the albums list multiple times. once per artist. A real pain for collections.


How do I delete something only on my device and still preserve it in cloud?

To strictly answer your question, it is not possible to delete something from your device and have it remain and accessible from iCloud Photo Library.

Here's more details:

The idea behind iCloud Photos Library is to have all your photos on all your devices. Picture a parent of a small family in California who takes, on average, several photos a week and has a Mac, iPad, and iPhone. When they take a photo on their iPhone, it syncs to their other two devices automatically so that when they arrive home, they can open their computer and view the photos or videos they took. Pretty cool? Yes, for some situations it's ideal.

But there's a problem, if you don't have enough storage on your phone to hold all of the photos, iCloud Library is stuck until you open settings and allow it to optimize your device storage. It then saves low resolution photos to your device and will download the high resolution version when you view the photo. This too is convenient in some situations.

The problem comes in when you want to control what photos go where. I've taken thousands of photos and videos on my iPhone and I don't want all of those on my phone even if I could have that. But with iCloud Library enabled, all of your photos will be on your device as there is no way to control what images are in the cloud versus on your device. So, it seems that Apple's solution to your problem of having too many photos and videos on your phone would be to enable the option to optimize device storage.

However, here is, by far, the biggest problem with iCloud Photo Library and the "optimize device storage" option. If you enable that setting, and then go to disable it at some point, it will attempt to download the full resolution version of all your images (not just the device-optimized high-resolution one). This makes sense, but causes a problem as your device likely wouldn't have near enough storage by then to handle that. Consequently, that's probably not the approach you would want to take.

To summarize: use iCloud Photo Library if you don't take (or keep) a lot of photos and if you have more than one Apple device. Otherwise, it's probably better to avoid it.


Read PDF (book) partly on mac partly on iphone and ipad, tracking most recently read page

I believe iBooks will load up and view PDFs and if you are signed into iCloud on all devices the last read page should sync between devices.

I stand corrected this does not seem to work, grrrr... I thought I remembered it working, sorry. I have no other suggestions other than to try other PDF readers on the app store. You might also want to ask the hive mind at macintouch.com. It often has solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems.


How to disable Swapfile in OS X El Capitan

El Capitan has its System Integrity Protection system, which you must disable before you can touch some OS inner workings, such as swap.

You'll need to reboot your Mac in Recovery Mode (holding Command+R at boot time). Open Terminal as root, then disable System Integrity with:

csrutil disable

Now you can disable swap.

After all done, you should enable System Integrity again using:

csrutil enable


Fullscreen apps stealing the window/focus on startup

Yes, this is annoying! Many forum posts mention the fix done by

defaults write com.apple.Dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool NO

with restarting the Dock afterwards:

killall Dock

This, however, didn't work for my Yosemite 10.10.2 installation. Just thought I mention it here until some real answer comes.

One of many sources.


How to automatically paste today's date with keyboard shortcut?

You could do it with Automator like this:

Create new: Services
Services receives no input in any application
Use the search to find and add action: Run Applescript

Copy and paste the following to the field on the right:

tell application "System Events"
    set _Date to (current date)
    keystroke ¬
        (year of _Date as text) & "_" & ¬
        text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & ((month of _Date) as integer)) & "_" & ¬
        (day of _Date as text)
end tell

Note that the day will not have a leading zero like the month does. If you want that, you could replace the line with: (day of _Date as text) with: text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & ((day of _Date) as integer))

Save with: Cmd + S. Give it a name you can remember in the next step.

If you simply use the Save command ( Cmd + S ) instead of Save as... the Service file is automatically put in the right place.

The Last step would be to define a shortcut for the service you just made.

Go to mac System preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services and then find the service you saved before. You should find it at the bottom area of the list. Double click the none text on the right side of the service name and give it a shortcut.


Buying apps with different AppleID than one used to buy OS X Lion

It will work, although it will not be legal.

It will work, because OS X doesn't care what AppleID it was bought with and you can easily buy new apps using any other AppleID. I.e. if you have more than one AppleID you can use any to buy apps and they don't have to match the one you bought Lion with. It will slightly complicate the apps update process, but it will work without any problems.

It will not be legal, because you will be using OS X Lion bought with someone else's AppleID - not yours. So you are not legally allowed to use it.

In your initial question you ask whether you can transfer Lion purchase from one ID to another. No. Apple's policy does not allow transferring purchases between IDs.


No SQL or database connections plug into a Numbers file, so you would need to export it and get the data into a SQLite database on the filesystem or otherwise get it into something that has SQL query.


Tracking down hard shutdown cause—software? hardware? overheat?

As it turned out, my battery had reached and surpassed the end of its life.  It was rated good for 1000 full charge cycles; it had gone through nearly 1200 (in roughly a five-year time span.)

I got the battery replaced and all was well.


Can't take Apple Watch out of power saving mode

Seek repair if your device doesn’t charge or operate normally.

How do you get the Apple Watch out of Power Reserve mode?
Why does my Apple Watch keep entering Power Reserve mode?


How do I enable syntax highlighting in vim on Mac?

There are two common methods:
Method 1: One of the easiest and most commonly recommended methods is by creating a file called .vimrc in your home directory. The one and only command you need to run is echo syntax on >> ~/.vimrc. The next time you access a non-txt file with vim, you will notice highlighted text.
echo "syntax on" >> ~/.vimrc

Method 2: Another method, one that I personally use/used, is by installing "vim --override-system-vim". First run vim --version in the terminal. Notice the +(s) and -(s) and keep it in mind, maybe even take a picture. Next we will install a package manager, if one is not already installed on your computer. We will use Homebrew for this tutorial. Run xcode-select --install in the terminal. It will take about 10-15 min to install the Xcode Command Line Tools. Once the installation is complete, run ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)". After brew has installed, run brew doctor to make sure that everything is in working order. If it recommends you run any commands to resolve an issue, run them first before continuing. After the previous step is complete, run brew install vim --override-system-vim. After vim is installed, run vim --version and notice the difference of the +(s) and -(s) in comparison to when you first ran the command. Not only has syntax highlighting been enabled, but there are other features that have been enabled as well.
Commands: (Note: The $ signs represent the start of a new line/command. Lines that starts with ## are comments)
$ cd
$ vim --version
$ xcode-select --install
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
$ brew doctor
#resolve any issues that are provided by brew doctor
$ brew install vim --override-system-vim
$ vim --version


How do I Get Info for multiple items in one window?

There are two modifier keys that allow you to view grouped info for multiple files (note that the names are derived from what the Finder's File > Get Info menu item changes into when the relevant modifier key is pressed):

⌥+⌘+I (alt/option + cmd + I): This opens the Inspector, an independent window that tracks info for whatever the selected files in the focused Finder window are. The Inspector updates as you change selection (or change which Finder window is focused), and remains until it is closed.
^+⌘+I (control + cmd + I): This opens a Summary Info window, which aggregates info on multiple selected items. Unlike the Inspector, however, it is static and always displays info on whatever items were selected when it was opened, regardless of changes to which items are selected in the Finder, or which Finder window has focus.


He could format THEN REINSTALL the OS and power off before the initial setup.

Also there is a way to force setup assistant to run without reinstalling the system (some unix knowledge required and yes, this works in Lion):

Boot to single user mode

mount -uw
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/
rm -rf /Users/username
rm /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/username.plist
rm -rf /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
exit

(Note: replace username with whatever account short name you’ve created)


Why is Spotlight listing some people from address book twice?

Do you have a Time Machine drive connected at the time of the search? It might be searching in your Mac and in your /TimeMachine at the same time.

UPDATE: Since you mention that you don’t have a TimeMachine (or that it doesn’t affect results), I recommend that you rebuild your spotlight index completely from scratch. You mention that you’ve done that, but not how, so, please try to follow the steps in this question, and after you leave your spotlight reindexing all night undisturbed (best way to guarantee that the index ends up being “ok”), let us know if you’re still getting double results.

Might you be having a copy of your address book somewhere else?

Let us know how it goes with a plain new index.


The mediaserverd daemon/process handles almost all (audio and video) media in iOS, so to answer your question, there is a long list of supported media formats/types for iOS 5.0.1 on Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html. There haven't been any significant changes to this list since iPhoneOS 3. Mediaserverd mostly encodes/decodes media, so the player may differ, but the core process does not.


How to open files from Finder into existing instance of Sublime Text 2?

As shown in this answer on SuperUser, you can set this behaviour by changing the open_files_in_new_window setting in Sublime Text to false. (Note that it's recommended that you override the setting in the Settings - User file rather than changing it in Settings - Default.)


I would recommend using TextEdit since it is free and the default text editor on OS X.

You only need to learn a key shortcut (Shift-Command-T) to convert the current file to plain text.

Of course other GUI text editors exist on Mac platform but they need to be installed from the App Store or from Internet (see other answers for a selection of the most popular ones).

There is even a setting in TextEdit to let all new documents start as plain text going forward:

Again, this setting is for new documents, so if a document is already open, ⇧⌘T (Format > Make Plain Text) instantly converts a rich text document to plain text.


How can I specify a drive in Applescript without the drive name?

Instead of using HFS file paths, use posix paths.
Use System Events for file operations, which handles posix paths as well as HFS paths.  It even knows how to expand the ~, so your home directory can be expressed simply as folder "~/", and your main disk is mounted at folder "/".
As for your attached USB drives, you essentially have to reference them by name.  They'll be listed under folder "/Volumes", or you can use this command (via System Events):
get the name of every disk where it is ejectable -- i.e. attached drives

I'm not entirely able to tell if I've answered all your questions.  Leave a comment and I'll fill in whatever seems missing.


There are two utilities with source code here:

FID - "File Developer" for .DSK images of DOS 3.3 disks
FID is a file manipulation utility for DOS 3.3 disk images in .DSK format.

a2tools
a2tools is a utility similar to FID: it can do a "CATALOG", "DELETE", "SAVE" and "LOAD" on Apple II .DSK images.

a2tools seems at least compilable, but I don't have any .dsk files to test it with.


How to restore Macbook Air to factory settings?

Your answer is right there in your last line, "format the MacBook Air..." Or more correctly format the hard drive.

When you boot into Recovery Mode you should be given the option to launch Disk Utility. Do that, go into Disk Utility, select the Macintosh HD volume/partition and format it.

Once there is nothing on the internal drive it should allow you to install macOS and there should be no conflict with the credentials previously used.

If you have not established an AppleID and logged into the App Store before you may need to do this once. It will likely want a payment method (credit card) but downloading and installing macOS is free. You should be able to do this in iTunes on your MacBook Air before you do the whole reformat then reinstall routine.


Why does Google Chrome replace "fl" with blocks on all PDFs it shows, but Adobe Reader works fine?

Looks like this is a bug with Chrome's PDF Viewer, which is fixed in Chrome Milestone 25: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=80996


If it was working before without a tunnel, the issue is almost certainly the ISP. The AirPort extreme has fairly well-developed IPv6 support, and should work fine.


Will iMac boot chime play if there is no CPU?

No, there will be no boot-up chime (an EFI ROM tone) if the CPU is missing. The chime only plays if the power-on self test completes successfully, which is impossible without a CPU.


Open the web inspector and look in the resource list for the active network connection (indicated by the spinning pinwheel next to the resource) as this is usually the stream file.

Clicking the resource will show the Full URL under the Location section of the resource inspector. This URL can be added in VLC.

Note that some URLs won't be able to be played in VLC due to licensing restrictions.


MacBook Pro not recognizing USB ethernet adapter in macOS, but does in Bootcamp

If it's the standard Apple ethernet adapter, I've run into this problem on a couple of different MacBooks. There are a few different things you can try in this thread on Apple's message boards, but the one that usually works for me is this one:

in System Preferences > Network, create a new network location
delete all the network devices from the list on the left
re-add the ethernet adapter device
configure the rest of the new location as required, and use it instead of the one you were previously using

(Even with that working, I still have another annoying issue with the adapter: if I plug it in while the laptop is asleep, it's not detected when it wakes. Have never found a solution for that.)


How do I build a PC Into a Mac PPC G5 case?

Yes it is possible, and instructions are probably outside the scope of this forum due to the extreme variations and nature of the hardware available.

But heres a video of one guy's journey to turning a G5 case into a hackintosh so you can see what is involved before you make the decision.

And another more detailed tale here again not for the faint of heart.


Installing Windows 7 without DVD/Flash Drive - step 6: no permission?

One of the commands, given in step 5 that prevents this error message from occurring, is repeated  below.

sudo  chown  $USER  bootcamp*.vmdk

This command changes ownership from the root user to the current user. In your case, I assume the current user is named Nick. To verify you entered this command correctly, you can enter the command below. Here I assume your current directory still is ~/Documents/VirtualBox.

ls -l bootcamp*

In your case, the output should appear as shown below.

cd ~/Documents/VirtualBox
ls -l bootcamp*
-rw-------  1 Nick  staff  37376 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp-pt.vmdk
-rw-------  1 Nick  staff    682 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp.vmdk

From your comments, I assume this is what you currently would get.

cd ~/Documents/VirtualBox
ls -l bootcamp*
-rw-------  1 root  staff  37376 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp-pt.vmdk
-rw-------+ 1 root  staff    682 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp.vmdk

This output shows you are not the current owner of these files. Additionally, the + character indicates you have added extended security information such as an access control list.

Another one of the commands, given in step 5 that prevents this error message from occurring, is repeated  below.

sudo  chmod  go+rw  $PARTID

In step 5, a warning is given, which is repeated below.

  Note: This access granted by the chmod command will only last until OS X is rebooted.

BTW, the command without the variable is given below.

sudo  chmod  go+rw  /dev/disk0s4

One way, to verify you enter the chmod command correctly, would be to enter the following command.

ls -l /dev/disk0s4

In your case, the expected output is shown below.

brw-rw-rw-  1 root  operator 1, 4 14 sep 15:38 /dev/disk0s4

The most likely causes of your problem are given below.

You are not using the default bash shell.
You did not enter the chown command.
You did not enter the chown command correctly.
You were the root user when you entered the chown command.
You added extended security information to the file entries.
You did not enter the chmod command.
You did not enter the chmod command correctly.
You rebooted the operating system.


I had this issue when upgrading from OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 to Sierra 10.13.6
After checking for non Apple kernel extensions as follows
kextstat | grep -v com.apple

I found a number of Acronis True Image 2020 kernel extensions
Despite moving it from Applications to the bin I had to use their cleanup_tool to fully remove the kernel extensions that were blocking ps
Once I did that, and rebooted ps -ef and other commands then worked as normal.


Is there a keyboard shortcut to lock my Mac mini?

Launch System Preferences and go to the Keyboard pane.

Next, select the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab. From the list on the left, select “Application Shortcuts”. Click on the plus (+) button below to add your new shortcut.

In the dialog box, we’ll want to leave “All Applications” selected in the first menu. Enter “Lock Screen” as the Menu Title. Finally, enter your keyboard shortcut. Let’s go with Command+Shift+L.

Click Add and you’re all done!

You also can explore https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 for the official Apple shortcut.


Can't boot to Mac OS volume after Bootcamp Windows install

Some strange thing happened.

I switched iMac off (like I did before for several times to restart) and let it be off for a time while I compiled fresh Mojave installation usb drive.

And after turning on iMac started to react on Option key, so I could choose MacOs volume to boot and it's booted successfully. Usb installation flash was plugged in.

Now this Option key boot menu is available without usb-flash plugged in...


Is there a Terminal command to know the macOS installed but from an external hard drive or from macOS recovery?

The ProductVersion is stored within the SystemVersion.plist file in CoreServices. This can be read using defaults:

defaults read /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion ProductVersion

When you're accessing the startup disk from another volume, you'll need to provide the full path to both defaults and /System:

/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/defaults read /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion ProductVersion


Less brightness after plugging once my macbook pro to a thunderbolt display

You could try a NVRAM reset by starting your mac and holding the following keys:

CMD + ALT + R + P.

(More info)

When your Mac restarts, you could release the keys.

  Some say that you have to do this 3 times for the best result, but I can't explain why

More information about a PRAM/NVRAM reset can be found on the Apple Support Website

When you use your Mac and connect it to displays or change the screen's brightness, it could be that your settings become a bit corrupted. You could erase those settings by preforming a PRAM reset as explained above.

I can't find any known bugs on the Apple Diagnostics website, you could report it by sending a mail to feedback@apple.com


Keynote document can't be opened although its size shows normally and how to repair it?

Try this:

Rename a copy of one of the broken presentation to have an .zip extension:
Bad_Presentation copy.key > Bad_Presentation copy.zip.

Then right-click on Bad_Presentation copy.zip and choose Archive Utility from the Open With> command. This will unpack the presentation into a folder named Bad_Presentation. Take this folder, give it a new name, (Bad_Presentation_Fix) then right-click and Compress the folder back to a .zip formatted file. Lastly, rename the resultant .zip file Bad_Presentation_Fix.key. See if you can open this in Keynote.

iWork documents are not what they seem. They are actually a set of bundled resources in a folder that looks like a single document in the Finder. Sometimes the bundle format can be messed up when transferring iWork documents into and out of file systems which cannot handle this format.

Good luck!


Is it possible to upgrade my jailbroken iPod Touch 2G to 4.0 (not 4.0.2) without losing data?

As far as I'm aware, if you make a full backup through iTunes, do the upgrade, and restore your data, you will retain the valid apps' data only.


Internet is connected but connection alert keeps popping up

You said you had once installed MacKeeper on your mac so this resulted in installing a ton of Malware's on your Mac but don't worry you can easily get rid of all those Malware's

Download this Malware Cleaning Software https://www.malwarebytes.com it is a very popular malware cleaning software for effectively cleaning malware and it is even recommend by Apple (an Apple senior advisor over Apple chat support suggested this software to me! )

Until and unless you clean the malware from your mac those messages will keep popping no matter which website you visit cause it is installed on your mac not on the web in your case


Keyboard and touchpad are not working when booting from live USB

Ubuntu does not natively support MacBook Pro Mid-2017 yet, so you have to manually install some drivers and patches to get it fully working. During the process, you will need a usb mouse. Also if you don’t have a usb keyboard, you can use on-screen keyboard (which is what I did). Then you have to follow this tutorial: Linux on MacBook Pro Late 2016 and later


How to force a captive portal page to pop up (Like a Starbucks or McDonald's WiFi landing page)?

Go to http://captive.apple.com it’s the only way to ensure it pops up.


Macbook Pro 2015 Lid seemingly overnight stopped from closing properly

The most obvious diagnosis at this time would be a swollen battery.
A swollen battery can cause different symptoms from a misaligned track pad to a malformed keyboard.  In your case, it appears it's mis-aligning the case causing the lid to not close properly.

Why is my Early 2014 MacBook Air's Trackpad Uneven?
Stiff trackpad on Macbook air
Macbook Pro mid-2015 15" swollen battery

A battery swells because the off gasses that are normally vented are trapped (see the first link for more info); the battery swells like a balloon.  Suffice to say, this is more than an inconvenience, this can cause something called "thermal runaway" where it could cause a fire.
I strongly suggest that you get this addressed as quickly as possible.  It's impossible to predict if/when this could occur, but it is very dangerous.  You cannot put out a thermal runaway fire as the chemical reaction will continue.  This is why firefighters simply allow hybrid and electric cars to burn out; they will try to contain the fire, but they cannot extinguish it.
At a minimum, from a non-safety point of view, the battery is warping the aluminum structure - it could be permanently be bent, or unlike it's counterpart steel, will tear once it reaches a certain point.


QuickTime has had this feature for a while now, well before Sierra.

Open a video with QuickTime Player.
View > Float on Top.
Right-click or Control-click on the QuickTime Player icon in the Dock.
Options > Assign To: All Desktops. (This is available for any app.)


If a device seems like it's not responding to any input, often a hard reset, which is Sleep + Volume Down (for iPhone 7 and above; for iPhone 6s and below, use Sleep + Home) held until the Apple logo appears, is needed.

Powering off an iOS device isn't like powering off a computer. It doesn't reset everything, flush RAM, etc as a computer does when powered down. It's more akin to hibernation mode on a computer, as it's designed to come back on quickly. The hard reset is more like turning the computer off and back on - it dumps RAM and does any housekeeping that might be preventing the device from responding. It does NOT reset any data, preferences, apps, content, or so on.


iPhone 5C behaving like headphones are plugged in

Try plugging in a headset and unplugging.


How do i add someone else's iPhone contact number to messaging on an iPad?

According Apple Suport

Send a message

Open the Messages app and tap  Compose button.
Enter a phone number or email address, or tap  Plus button and choose a contact.
Type your message, then tap Send.

Forward a message

Open Messages and follow these steps:
Touch and hold the message bubble you’d like to forward. Then tap More.
Enter a contact.


How can I resize a partition with Disk Utility?

You can't change where each partition starts (i.e. where the top of it is in the partition diagram), only where it ends.  But in your case, since you have a free block as large as the partition you want to change, you can work around it (warning, this is untested under Lion, so make sure you have a good backup first):

Create a new volume in the blank space between your two existing partitions. Give it a distinctive name (you won't want to mix it up with either of your current partitions).
Boot from the Lion restore partition (boot with the option key held down, and select Recovery HD from the icon list and then click on the arrow under it).
Run Disk Utility.
Select one of the volumes in the sidebar, then the Restore tab on the right.
Drag Lion Partition into the Source field, and the new blank partition into the Destination field. Do not get them backwards!
Click Restore, and wait for it to clone the partition's contents.
Quit Disk Utility, then choose Startup Disk from the Apple menu.
Select the new partition (it may be difficult to tell it from the original, as they're now both named "Lion Partition").
Reboot, and verify that everything is working right before proceeding.
Run Disk Utility, delete the original Lion Partition and expand the new one into the newly freed space.


Replacing a macbook air 2016 I/O Board and Flex Cable

According to this iFixit product page the part number for this part doesn't seem to include the C-XXXX portion as they only have 821-1722-A listed in the part number. I also find it useful to use their Identify your Mac feature when I'm looking for parts. Good luck!


Remote dual boot, how to select OS to boot

You can use BootChamp to quickly restart in Windows from OS X. To restart in OS X from Windows see OS X Lion - Start up using Mac OS X or Windows:

  Restart directly in Mac OS X from Windows:

  Click the Boot Camp icon in the system tray and choose “Restart in Mac OS X.”

A more tedious way is to set the startup disk to the other OS every time and then restart. From the OS X Lion - Start up using Mac OS X or Windows page linked above:

  Set the default operating system:

  Do one of the following:

  In Mac OS X, choose Apple > System Preferences and click Startup Disk.
  In Windows, choose Boot Camp Control Panel from the Boot Camp system tray item.

  Select the startup disk with the operating system you want to use by default.
  If you want to start up that operating system now, click Restart.

The Apple support page for OS X Mountain Lion - Start up using Mac OS X or Windows contains the same instructions for OS X Mountain Lion.


Macbook lists all WLAN-networks of another machine. How and why was they shared?

All stored wifi are stored in the user and system keychains. You can open up Keychain Access and search for all known / saved networks in the system and your user account.

Repeat for other user accounts and you'll know how or when they arrived.

iCloud Keychain syncing seems the most logical source along with not changing the default "remember networks I have joined" but rather than speculate, you can go to the source keychains.


Which power cable should I use for a Macintosh 128K (upgraded to a Plus)

If it needs 110v then you need a power transformer, not just a kettle plug.
The plug known as a kettle plug often isn't one…
See the list of power couplers on WIkipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60320#Appliance_couplers - a 'kettle plug' is actually a high-temperature [C15] version of the more common IEC C13 plug.
You can buy IEC 13s just about anywhere - & many people have spares from old computers etc still kicking around in drawers.
The C15 has a notch to prevent plugging a 'low temperature' C13 into it. Plugging the other way, a high temp C15 into a low temp C14 appliance is no issue.
Your issue isn't the plug, it's the voltage.
If you plug a 110v Mac into a 240v supply, you will kill it, stone dead.
If you can get a photo of the appliance rating sticker on the back, then we can be more certain.
Modern computing/electronics has universal voltage, anything from 100v to 250v would be fine. Older devices may need specific voltages, with only perhaps 10% tolerance.


iOS 9.3 iBooks for iPhone starts with a blank shelf screen

i had the same problem and changed the setting on the top of the screen from "All books" to just "Audiobooks" (because I just use it for audiobooks)
Should also work if you switch to just "pdf" or just "Books".
Give it a try. it solved my problem and no blank screen anymore when you open Ibooks


In a highly unscientific test, I just took 24 varied photos (textures, objects, macro, landscape, etc.) with my iPhone SE, with Live Photos off, and found the average size to be about 2 MB.

NOTE: my iPhone SE is running iOS 10, so is not using HEIC (High-Efficiency Image Codec) encoding, which can save approximately 50% of the file size without sacrificing quality. If you install iOS 11, you may find the images are significantly smaller.


iCloud storage fail when trying to reset games

If you reset the iCloud data and the game data persists, you have likely discovered the game vendor is storing your game data and just linking it to the app install or to your AppleID / account.

The best place for help would be the vendor or a second question listing precisely what app you are using, what version of that app and what steps you take to clear iCloud - if other devices are syncing data, removing data on one device might not remove it from the cloud / other devices.


This is really terrifying that the only answer suggest to overwrite your gpt table.

The correct and safest solution, with explanation, is from this comment.

download GParted-Live CD from http://www.gparted.org/download.php
boot from this CD
accept the suggestion to enable the full disk
reboot from mac OSX
try again – now you can resize it!

Explanation:

The only problem is the disk header which exists twice: at the beginning and at the end of of the disk. Somehow Mac OSX shows the real disk size, but is not capable to change the GPT size header and to relocate the second “header” to the real disk end.


iMovie 09, setting all clips to 'fit' mode

I use iMovie version 10 but it this feature should be compatible. Drag them all to the Timeline. Press CTL+A to select them all or shift+select to select the ones you want. Then click on the crop button Press fit that's it


Install country specific app from other country app store

Unfortunately no.

Apps can be limited by developers and/or by Apple to specific countries. This may be because of copyright, licensing, targeted markets, missing translation among other reasons.

As of this limitation you need to change your App Store country settings / your country specific Apple ID.


So once I FaceTimed one of my friends, but this random dude answered

The only reason some random person would get your call is if you called the wrong number.

Try verifying your friend's number. Make sure that's the only entry in her contact info. Also try getting the email she has for FaceTime.

I've had it happen to me and the reason was I had a different number listed in my friend's contact info.

Also, is there a chance your friend is just messing with you?


iTunes library pointing to completely wrong files

I would suggest a combination of your first and last ideas. You could re-add your Music folder to your library, and then use a script to change the location of the old entries (correct metadata) to the new entries (correct locations).

Pseudocode rough draft:

for every song in the XML file (seek)
  search the rest of the XML file for other songs of the same name
  if only one is found (found)
    log seek's name to file1
    if found is newer than seek
      copy found's Location value to seek
      remove found
    else
      copy seek's Location value to found
      remove seek
  else if more than one is found
    log seek's name to file2 (for manual editing)
  else (no others are found)
    log seek's name to file3

This script design would assuredly be quite inefficient, but it would fix most problems itself, and you would (er, should) only have to review the songs with more than 2 duplicate versions.

See this answer for details on how to make these XML changes take effect on your library.


Use middle mouse button (scroll wheel) as Force Touch?

I managed to work it out: if you use BTT to map clicking the scroll wheel to the shortcut  ⌘  +  ctrl  +  D , it will show the dictionary lookup box for words, but also allows you to preview files in Finder (like pressing space) or Force Clicking a web link. I had this already configured in USB Overdrive, which explains why it worked before.

Hope this helps someone :)


Microsoft Outlook on the Mac App Store - no option for in app purchase

For any future readers, the Mac app store version of Outlook simply does not work the way I expected. You will not be given the option to subscribe using an in-app purchase until after you have created or logged in with a Microsoft account.
Once you have logged in with a Microsoft account, then will you have the option to subscribe using an in-app purchase.


Can I install a full copy of Snow Leopard on an Apple TV?

Maybe if this is possible, an AppleTV do not have all the hardware requirement for Snow Leopard, as it needs 1G of RAM. The processor is also only 1 GHz (maybe a bit more, depends on your version) and the lowest Intel processor built on an iMac was a 1.83 GHz Core Duo.

So, even if you achieve to install Snow Leopard on your AppleTV (let say you remove the disk, install Mac OS X on it, then plug it in back), it will be really slow.


Unable to connect a remote disk using afp

So you should know that AFP is deprecated as of 10.11 and SMB should always be used where possible.
The next OS X (10.12) will drop AFP support entirely.

Besides that, Given that the log is suggesting the kernel extension for AFPFS is unable to load due to missing dependencies you may want to look at either reinstalling the 10.11.5 Combo Update or reinstalling the whole OS over the top.

Combo Update can be grabbed here:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1876?viewlocale=en_AU&locale=en_AU

For the reinstall, make sure you have a known good backup with time machine or similar.
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201250

Re-Install El Capitan by going to the App Store, search for it, download it and install once completed. It will install 10.11.5.


Truecrypt install fails - 3 out of 6 hunks FAILED

Bad News

The Truecrypt Formula on Homebrew has been removed due to bugs, and probably uncertainty in the community regarding truecrypt's safety.

There also used to be a homebrew cask which was removed due to installation bugs.  However, it was also moved to homebrew-unofficial and scheduled for removal.

For more information about the 3rd party audit, and why Truecrypt is still safe to use, please see the links mentioned here.

Good News

I have created a Homebrew Tap for Truecrypt 7.1a which fixes the installation problem, and works on OS X 10.10 Yosemite!

Installation

First, make sure you have installed homebrew-cask if you haven't yet:

brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask

Then, run the following in your command-line:

brew tap trinitronx/homebrew-truecrypt

Usage

Note: For info run:

brew cask info truecrypt

Once the tap is installed, you can install truecrypt!

brew cask install truecrypt


iTunes on OS X: How to rename files using in-line editing in main window, using keyboard only?

There sure is.

When you have a song selected, you can press ⌘ + return and it will allow you to quickly edit the song title.


Activity green ring not filling while non-workout outside walk or cycle [Apple Watch 2]

The watch uses your heart rate to decide whether you're exercising. Maybe your heart rate increases over the threshold and hers isn't?

More info: http://www.imore.com/apple-watch-activity-tracking-5-tips-you-need-know


How to enable fast user switching when Login Options are disabled?

This isn't a real fix, but I finally found a workaround. Even when fast user switching is disabled, you can still invoke this feature from the command line by running:

"/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession" -suspend

This leaves your session running and goes back to the login screen.

I created an alias for this in my .bashrc, good enough for now.


Reminders: repeat reminder based on date last completed

I’ve been waiting for this feature for years, and Apple never adds it. Useful for so many things: If I want to get a haircut every 6 weeks, but I’m late getting it by a week or two when I’m busy, I still want to wait 6 weeks before I get another haircut after that.

The point of Reminders is that I can record them and stop thinking about them. If I have to say to myself, “oh, it’s not time yet for a haircut because I just got one 4 weeks ago”, that’s having to remember it.  Or if have to adjust the Reminder, that’s more effort than I should have to put into it.

So I’ve been using GoodTask for about 2 years now, simply because it offers “Repeat after completion”.


If we run out of battery and then charge iPhone, will it turn back on?

When an iPhone is plugged in, it will boot up (that is actually a common techniques used for restarting an iPhone if the power button doesn't work for some reason).

If the iPhone is powered off while charging, it will remain powered off and will not automatically come back on.

I understand that you have an iPhone 4 and there is the chance that it was having trouble receiving calls unrelated to the power. However, if the phone was powered off when you checked, that is the simple answer as the cause of the missed calls.


The less I remove, the less chance of making mistake; I've heard that tons of people mess up the IR connector.

While this sentiment is technically true, it's also important to note that if you don't remove what's necessary and you leave things "hanging" you could also damage components because they weren't designed to "just hang;" they are designed to make a connection.

People "mess up" the IR connector because they don't remove it properly. Ifixit.com warns specifically of this:

The bottom line is if you proceed carefully and methodically, you significantly lessen the chance of damaging things.  Most importantly, don't take shortcuts.


Use Macbook Touch ID button to sleep/lock

This is not possible.

From this Apple Support page:

  Pressing Touch ID won't put your Mac to sleep. Instead, choose Apple
  menu > Sleep. You can also add a Sleep button to the Control Strip in
  the Touch Bar: Select View > Customize Touch Bar.


You cannot transmit the output of your Windows screen through an iMac display, but there is one way to work that you may find quite appealing: Microsoft Remote Desktop.

MS has a remote desktop client application that is a free download from the App Store. On your Windows machine, you change System preferences in Control Panel to enable remote access. In the Remote Desktop app on your iMac, you create a machine profile that specifies the Windows computer name or IP address, your account username and your password. It supports fullscreen mode, so your Windows login will be plenty big on your 27" display.

I use the application daily to remotely administer Windows desktops and servers all over the country. From the comfort of my MacBook.


What is the best way to save iPhone battery?

To keep it simple:

Limit the time spent connected to the Internet
Kill open apps when you don't need them
Disable push notifications for apps that don't need immediate response.


Here's an AppleScript code example:

set newReminderName to ""
repeat until newReminderName is not ""
    set newReminderName to text returned of (display dialog "Enter a name for the reminder:" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2 default answer "" with icon 1)
    if newReminderName is not "" then
        tell application "Reminders"
            set newReminder to make new reminder
            set name of newReminder to newReminderName
            set due date of newReminder to current date
        end tell
    end if
end repeat

This is coded so that you either have to enter a name for the reminder or cancel the prompt. In other words, if you don't type a name and click OK, you're prompted again and again until you do, or click Cancel.

Updated to address a point mentioned in comment:

The code below is used in an Automator service where the selected text passed to the Automator service becomes the name of the new reminder. It is coded not to create the reminder if an empty sting is passed. Although I don't think it can be triggered unless some text is selected, nonetheless it's always best to include some form of error checking.

on run {input}
    set newReminderName to input
    if newReminderName is not "" then
        tell application "Reminders"
            set newReminder to make new reminder
            set name of newReminder to newReminderName
            set due date of newReminder to current date
        end tell
    end if
end run


Can't Log In, Removed applesetupdone to try as new admin but need it back

From single-user mode (boot with cmd-s on T1 or earlier), run the following to mount the disk read-write, create the AppleSetupDone file with the correct permissions, then reboot.

/sbin/mount -uw /
touch /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
chmod 400 /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot

With T2, single-user mode is accessed with cmd-R + Terminal, so you'll need to mount the internal disk at /Volumes/diskname and prefix the touch/chmod commands with the path to your disk.


Are there any other iOS apps other than Mail which can send email?

The iOS version of Sparrow has just been released, and it contains this functionality. In the settings for email accounts you can set up aliases. You can also set up a custom signature and SMTP server for each alias:

When composing a message, by default it will be sent from your default alias. If you want to change this, tap the "From" in the top center and you will be able to select which alias you want this message to come from:

Sparrow is available in the App Store.


Where should i look to improve slow I/O performance measured with dd?

My experience with dd is that as well as the file size, the block size makes a huge difference. Try playing with the bs parameter (try 128 - 10240) and see what sort of a difference it makes.

Also - a sustained 28MB/sec write speed is not all that bad for a 5-7 year-old computer. (Although if you multiply by 8 to get the speed in bits per second, you will see that it's 224mbps - around 15% of a SATA-I bus.)

Things to consider include:

Is the HDD a 5400rpm or 7200rpm model? For sustained larger file writes (as opposed to many small files), it makes a difference.
Not all HDDs are created equal, with some models being faster than others. Find out what model yours is and search a bit to find out how they usually fare.
Have you considered upgrading to an SSD? This will make a huge difference, even if the interface on the computer is only SATA-I (quite likely), as a decent SSD should be able to saturate the SATA bus.


Console.app's logs are stored in the following locations:

/var/log
/Library/Logs
~/Library/Logs

To back up all the logs, simply copy the contents of these three folders to another location.

To back up a single log, look in Console.app for the log that you want to back up, select it in the sidebar, then press ⌘R (or right-click and select Reveal in Finder). This file can then be copied to another location.


MacBook Air 2015 MagSafe charger is too hot to touch

Those are definitely the “high voltage” pins, if you consider 18V DC “high voltage.”
I would recommend getting a new charger to minimize damage and/or down time.
There’s a small IC in that adapter that communicates with the Mac to identify it as having whatever wattage your charger is rated at. When components get hot, it’s because something failed and now too much current is flowing through something.
As bad as this sounds, your potential damage is limited.

charger may fail meaning you can no longer charge and you have to buy a new one. This is moot because you should be getting a new one anyway
may blow the DC-In board. The good news is these vintage Macs has a separate board that interfaced with the MagSafe before sending power to the logic board. If the charger happens to burn this board up, it’s a cheap and easy fix to replace it

Both of these are more inconvenient than expensive. To be completely thorough, I must say it could damage your logic board, but that’s highly, highly unlikely. But, either way, you need to get a new adapter
And as adapters go, get the one with the highest wattage as you can always use a charger with wattage greater than or equal to what the device requires but not the other way around. So, since that’s a MagSafe 2 adapter, get the 85W charger.  If you happen to add another MagSafe Mac to your “stable” this charger will work regardless of the power requirements.


How do I stop my iMessages appearing on my MacBook Air?

The best practice would be to have other users set up with their own logins on your Mac or to use the Guest account.  They would never see your messages in that case.

But, if you really wish to disable iMessages from appearing on your Mac:

Go to Messages
Open the Preferences Messages > Preferences or ⌘+,
Go to the Accounts tab
In the iMessage account uncheck "Enable this account"


T2 Mac with empty internal storage won't boot from install USB

I did eventually get Internet Recovery working. I was getting various errors (-1008F, -2106F and perhaps others) after long periods of time spent waiting for the boot to complete. While some of these may have been down to a shoddy internet connection, it seemed as if it would just error immediately after the bar had reached 100%.
After doing a bit of digging I removed the Mac from my iCloud account via appleid.apple.com as well as perform all steps on this guide to restore a Mac with Apple Configurator 2 (I found about that on this thread). You will need an additional Mac on hand to do the latter.
After doing that, then booting with Internet Recovery and then reinstalling from the recovery menu I still needed to log in using my iCloud credentials as well as my old local account. Fortunately for me that wasn't a problem at all, but bare that in mind if anyone reading is in a similar situation!


Unfortunately there is no way to access a password protected backup without having the correct password (passwords are there for a reason). You can check if you have an iCloud backup available from your iPhone 5, but as far as the iTunes backup you won't be able to access it until you enter the correct password.

Apple specifically mentions that "There is no way to recover your information or turn off Encrypt Backup if you lose or forget the password", so you just might be out of luck on this one.

This page might help, good luck.


Can mouse middle button/scroll wheel button action like trackpad three fingers tap to look up dictionary easier?

You can definitely do it using bettertouchtool, which allows you to reprogram every imput button.


How do I get Spotlight to find apps in non-standard folders?

Based on a bug report filed with legacy-homebrew, it appears that even using the command line to tell Spotlight to index the /usr/local hierarchy doesn't work. Apple considers this a system directory and so it won't be indexed.


Line In Headset's Microphone Not Receiving Input

I've solved it! The only thing I needed to do was find a good line-in to USB adapter and then use it.

The one I got was this one.


When you say they "don't work" where exactly is this happening? Have you tried logging in directly via the apple website? Eg, (I forget the precise url, but) if you try http://cloud.me are you able to login with your old credentials there?

Have you tried via alternative mediums: iTunes directly (ie not via the phone)

And are you sure it's not an authorisation issue in that you have too many authorised computers/devices

Finally what happens if you try "forgotten password" on the website, does it say the old accounts are invalid?


Sierra showing incorrect monitor in Display Preferences

To answer your questions about running a 4K display with a Mid 2012 MacBook Air 11"/13":

Unfortunately the 2012 MBA isn't technically able to do so.

The 2012 MBA has an Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU which supports only up to 2560x1600 px via its Thunderbolt port directly. Attaching another video adapter (like HDMI) may reduce the maximum possible resolution.

Depending on the external display it may choose a lower resolution if if the source (your MBA) is not capable of driving the display's native resolution. It appears that your MBA reduces the resolution to 1920x1080 px when you connect it to the display's HDMI port.

If possible use a miniDisplayport to Displayport cable to connect your computer to the display. You may be able to use a resolution of 2560x1600 px.


Free FORTRAN compiler - or one that does not have to be updated all the time

re free Fortran compilers

gfortran is part of gcc (gcc stands for GNU Compiler Collection not just the name of GNU's c++ compiler)

Xcode now does not install gcc (even via command line tools) gcc is a link or wrapper to clang

As to installation my first attempt would be via a package manager like Macports or Homebrew or fink.

For macports (others will be similar) install will be

Install macports as per the guide
install gcc with the fortran option sudo port install gcc5
install a select program to allow selection of different gcc versions (in this case there will only be one) sudo port install gcc_select
select the version sudo port select --set gcc mp-gcc5

gfortran is now in /opt/local/bin

Macports should download readymade binaries for this so no wait for a long compile of gcc

If you upgrade the OS Macports will need a complete reinstallation (OK it might work but support and test is only done on a complete reinstallation, previous OS upgrades have definitely needed one the last 1-2 might have worked)

Homebrew instructions are included in this article which also includes other free Fortran compilers and other useful Fortran info.


Can I transfer game progress for Clash of Clans between GameCenter accounts

Unfortunately no you can't transfer data between Game Center Accounts.  Apple doesn't allow moving data between Apple ID's.


Using Ram pulled from new iMac in an old iMac?

No.

Those new iMacs are using DDR3, and it won't even fit.

DDR2 are pretty cheap right now, you can get some off the Internet.


Definitely a strange situation, however there's a relatively easy solution.

Boot to single user mode as you did before by holding ⌘S while power it on.

Once you reach the command prompt you can enter the following commands, pressing return after each one:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot

This will remove the file that OS X checks for when booting to determine if the Mac has already been setup.  When it fails to detect the file it will start the setup assistant, which includes the step that allows you to create your user account.


Need script to automatically export Skim PDFs with embedded notes

I had the same problem and wanted to batch embed a lot of skim pdfs. The apple script by Jess Riedel wasn't working for me, so I coded a python script to do the job.
I used the script to embed 568 pdfs scattered in a folder with various subfolders. It took 300 seconds. Be aware, that the script won't process files with a " in its filepath.
It is possible to create an osx folder action that runs the script on changed files in a folder automatically, every time a file changes. I haven't developed one yet because I havent found any need for it.
You can download the script as an osx service and as an alfred workflow at https://github.com/alexandergogl/SkimPDF.
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from os import system, walk, path

class SkimPDF(object):
    """docstring for SkimPDF."""
    def __init__(self):
        self.skimpdf_path = '/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/skimpdf'
        self.embed_suffix = '_embeded'
        self.replace = False
        pass

    def embed_notes(self, in_pdf):
        """Embed skim notes to PDF."""
        if self.replace is False:
            out_pdf = "%s%s.pdf" % (in_pdf[:-4], self.embed_suffix)
        else:
            out_pdf = in_pdf

        # Embed notes
        cmd = '%s embed "%s" "%s"' % (self.skimpdf_path, in_pdf, out_pdf)
        result = system(cmd)

        # Compose message
        if result == 0:
            message = "Embeded notes to '%s'" % in_pdf
        else:
            message = result

        return message

    def embed_notes_batch(self, folder):
        """Loop through directories in given folder and embed notes."""
        messages = []
        i = 0
        for path, subdirs, files in walk(folder):
            for name in files:
                if name.endswith(".pdf"):
                    i += 1
                    # embed notes to pdf
                    pdf_file = "%s/%s" % (path, name)
                    result = skim.embed_notes(pdf_file)
                    # add result message to report
                    messages.append(result)
                    # report current state
                    print(i)

        self.report(messages)
        pass

    def report(self, messages):
        """Print list of processed pdfs."""
        print("\n\nProcessing PDFs done:")

        for i in range(len(messages)):
            message = "%s: %s" % (i + 1, messages[i])
            print(message)
        pass

skim = SkimPDF()
skim.replace = True  # set to false if you want a copy in place instead
# skim.embed_suffix = '_embeded'  # uncomment and enter your own suffix if necessary

# embed notes of a single pdf
skim.embed_notes('../path/to/pdf file.pdf')

# batch embeding process with path to folder with literature
skim.embed_notes_batch('../path/to/Literature folder')