How to access the iCloud Drive Archive folder on my MacBook?

If you signed out of iCloud and kept a local copy, you should have an Archive folder created in your Home folder:

  If you turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud, you have the option to keep a local copy of your files that are in iCloud Drive. Whether you decide to keep a local copy or not, a new Desktop and Documents folder is created in your home folder. If you choose to keep a local copy, your files in iCloud Drive are copied to a folder called iCloud Drive (Archive) in your home folder. Then you have the option to move any files that were in your iCloud Desktop and Documents, back to your new local Desktop and Documents.

(Support article)

There is a possibility that:

You didn't keep a local copy
You moved/deleted the folder
You already emptied the contents of the folder


Can't open a file in sublime text using bash_rc

The st function which is working when you type st is an old one which you defined interactively within Terminal.
If you enter:

type st

you will see that this definition is not the one you entered within your
.bash_profile.

To execute the definition entered within your .bash_profile, you have to load it within your actual shell:

. ~/.bash_profile

or

source ~/.bash_profile

And you will be able to check that from now on your definition of your st function is correct with:

type st


Force-restart your iPhone:

  Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201412


AppStore require apps for iPhone and iPad to be build with iOS 13 SDK after June 30, 2020

Yes, that is entirely possible. It is just setting the target version to iOS 12 in the first version, and iOS 13 in the second version. You will have to set the iOS 13 release to be timed for release on 30th of June, but apart from that there's nothing "special" in this.

Note: It seems you might have mixed some things up. The deadline requirement for June 30th 2020 is just that the app is to be built with the iOS 13 SDK - it doesn't mean that you have to set your target deployment version to iOS 13. So you can definitely build with iOS 13 SDK to fulfill the deadline requirement, and still only require iOS 11 or iOS 12 or whatever you need.

Users on iOS 12 (or even earlier) should have no problems running apps built with the iOS 13 SDK as long as the target deployment version is set accordingly.


How do I resize an ex-CoreStorage volume?

I recommend you

backup your data before you running the command below
Repair disk via Disk Utility App in Recovery Mode if needed

and then run this command in terminal

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 0b


Start a video at a specific time using terminal

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC --start-time 30 your_video.mp4

See Documentation:Command line for other options.


User Crash, but old user data is (seemingly) still on HD?

Questionable advice from apple.  I suspect you do not have a backup of your data. You should have a backup of all your data.  Since you do not have a backup, this implies you do not have administrator level knowledge of macOS. You best find a professional to look for your data.

If you really, really need your data, you need professional help. One of the best professional restorers is "drivesavers.com".

This isn't a good time to be running around trying to fix your computer.  The best advice is to buy a new computer and wait until it is safe to go out. Another good advice, is to buy an external drive and run from the external drive. An external SSD from OWC is what I'm running on now. Here is what I am using for my startup drive: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3NH7T00/  plus https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_6G/

You should use the terminal to look around the root of the harddrive, / and the user directory /Users. The thing is the more you use your machine the less likely you will be able to recover your data. https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-11071  Please post back the result of:

ls -l /Users

While requiring administrator knowledge of the mac, you can try:

Immediately backup your wife's data
You should try cloning the drive of your machine
You should try all data recovery on the clone of your drive.
get an external drive
install macos on the external drive
try to find a data recovery app that will get back your data

a bunch of data recovery tools:

Perhaps Disk Warrior will be of some help:
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm

"Data Rescue II is the best data recovery software on the market for recovering files from a problem hard drive. Data Rescue II works when other tools fail. Data Rescue II is also completely safe to use since it does not attempt any risky repairs to the drive while its scanning."
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume.  FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
-- been accidentally deleted.
-- become unreadable due to media faults.
-- been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.

http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1

"TestDisk is a free data recovery utility. It was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing a partition table)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk

Wondershare Data Recovery for Mac

"Recover lost photos, video, documents, email and archive files from any Mac-based hard drive or external hard drive, iPod, USB drive, SD card, digital camera, mobile phone, and MP3/MP4 player, due to accidental deleting, formatting, virus infection, improper operation, unexpected power failure, and other unknown reasons. Also, iPhone recovery allows you to recover lost photos, videos, SMS, contacts, note, calendar and call history from iTunes backup file. With the free trial, you can preview all your recovered images, videos, music, documents and archive files prior purchasing this Mac Data Recovery."
http://software.bigbigsoft.com/data-recovery-mac

"If there is any chance of recovery at all your best bet is Prosoft Data Recovery." by macjack

https://www.prosofteng.com/datarescue-mac-data-recovery/

Eric Root's list:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/30259740#message30259740

Chterando's list:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/31780403#message31780403


For the version of Mail.app included in El Capitan (checked 10.11.5), there is a very nice button dropdown close by:

The setting is maintained across emails and restarts.


I would save a copy and delete those entries or the entire hosts file. You are correct to try and trace the IP address, but there is no good reason to maintain undesired overrides. You can watch for these changes to come back if you think some software is performing the edits.


Disk will not mount, but shows up on System Profiler

By SSD and HDD combo do you mean something like a Seagate Momentus?

I'm really confused by you saying that the disk failed (how did it fail?) but then you have connected it by USB and you expect it to work?

The report you posted doesn't show a

Content:    Apple_HFS

as you might expect to see under Volumes, so it appears to have been corrupted.

If data on this volume is vital and you don't mind spending money to get it back then unplug it right away and take it to a professional recovery service.

If it would be just "nice to have back" then you could try using the First Aid tab of Disk Utility, and see if it can recover the partition(s).


Is it possible to create an icon on home screen to a specific note?

Unfortunately there's no url scheme for the Notes app, so there's no way to jump to a specific one.

There are two good sites for finding iOS app url schemes, handleOpenURL and the iPhone URL Schemes page on Akosma's wiki. The former has many more urls, but the latter occasionally has something the other doesn't.

A quick search in handleOpenURL for "text" and for "note" only shows one app that appears that it can do what you want (which doesn't mean it's the only app that does so, just that it's the only one listed in the site), though even then I'm not certain you'll be able to create the shortcut by hand.

I'm completely unfamiliar with the app and have no idea whether it's worthwhile, but I figure it's worth passing on: Notebooks for iPhone.


Is the Verizon iPhone 4 susceptible to the 'grip of death'?

ArsTechnica notes that there is no  noticeable signal loss when gripping it with the 'death grip'. Though due to the way smart phone antennas are designed, it still may be possible


I have solved this issue only by booting to Recovery Mode (press CMDR during restart) and launching Terminal. This terminal doesn't care abour restricted flag on files. Also found answer here:
How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on OS X 10.11, El Capitan?


I contacted Apple's technical support who said:

  At this point then we won’t be able to get past the passcode unless you manage to remember it at a later point in time

  The only way around this would be use the phone as new, and then sync with iCloud contacts, calendar and Photo library if you use those.

Personally, I have restored from iCloud and I was never prompted for my passcode so I guessed that it was prompting from a verification point-of-view, rather than an encryption point-of-view.

On an iPad, I enabled iCloud and signed in using the same Apple ID.

On the iPhone, restoring from iCloud prompted for a verification code from the iPad and succeeded.

Apple's technical support said:

  Oh perfect, you should be working here, haha


Safari aggressively caches redirects and force refresh will only force refresh the page you are redirected to, not the redirect itself. You can clear the cache without clearing your browsing data (cookies) by choosing Develop → Empty Caches (⌥⌘E).


How can I stop from having my music transfer between my iPhone and my HomePod?

Okay, it turns out this is controlled in settings for the iPhone, not the HomePod.  I think of it as a HomePod feature, but whatever.

It's under Settings → General → AirPlay & Handoff


Is it possible to encrypt the boot disk in El Capitan?

It's possible to encrypt the entire system volume with FileVault 2 -- open System Preferences -> Security & Privacy pane -> FileVault tab, and click Turn On FileVault. I'll walk you through some setup questions (most important: set up an emergency recovery option, either by linking to your iCloud account or by generating a random key you should write down and store someplace safe), then restart the system and begin encrypting the volume in the background.

This isn't quite full disk encryption, because it leaves the (hidden) Recovery HD partition unencrypted. Recovery HD contains emergency repair/reinstall tools, as well as the booter that's used to unlock and start up from the main (encrypted) volume. But no user data gets stored in Recovery HD, so this isn't a significant weakness.


Can I use my girlfriends phone number on my iPad

Not really except for one special case..

One Apple ID can have two phone numbers, but one phone number cannot be linked with two Apple ID.

If she didn't care to have iMessage work at all, you could sign in to her iPhone with your Apple ID and messages to both numbers would then come to your Apple ID until she decided to start using her number with another Apple ID.


Can't chmod or chown a file in TimeMachine backup directory

Reading up a bit on ACLs[1] I found that I could change ownership by first removing the file ACL with the following commands:

sudo chmod -a "everyone deny write,delete,append,writeattr,writeextattr,chown" problem_group_file.png
sudo chown :staff problem_group_file.png

After that the directory could be restored from TimeMachine backup without errors. This doesn't however explain why the problem occurred in the first place.


VoiceOver Rotor on Mac… why is called "Rotor?"

I think its as simple as the two-fingered turning gesture is analogous to turning a rotor/knob/dial. There isn’t a secret meaning.


How do I use pf/IceFloor to block an outgoing connection to an IP address?

My friend, if memory serves me well, you will need to add

net.inet.tcp.icmp_may_rst=0

to /etc/sysctl.conf, and then modify the running kernel-

sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.icmp_may_rst=0

That should do the trick.  If no /etc/sysctl.conf exists, here is a shortcut:

sudo echo “net.inet.tcp.icmp_may_rst=0” >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo chmod 644 /etc/sysctl.conf

Hope that resolves the inconsistency with PF.

F.


External monitors show blank screen until restart

The video signal on the  Thunderbolt connection on your MBP is actually Display Port so you are actually going from Display Port to HDMI.  I am not a fan of converting signals because it's flaky at best.

If you must connect to HDMI, try an active1 adapter like the TRENDnet USB-C to HDMI 4K.  They have two versions - one that does 30Hz and another that does 60Hz (it's the Power Delivery version).

What is preferable, is to go from USB-C to Display Port which is actually Display Port to Display Port, so no there's conversion involved.  No conversion means less points of failure.

jksoegaard's comments provides more evidence of this:

  Just to add a real-life experience: I'm using 2 USB-C to DisplayPort adapters (which are basically similar to the HDMI adapters) - and this works without any problems in that regard. Several times a week I plugin in both monitors after the MacBook Pro is booted (basically I never turn it off) - removing the cables again also never give problems

1 I wrote an answer on this very topic:  Passive vs. Active Adapter


Does Outlook 2016 have a Quick Look plug-in?

From what I have seen online and from my own uses Microsoft has not written a quicklook plugin for Outlook 2016.

It is odd though that you get some garbled text in the spotlight/quicklook window. On my Mac quicklook only shows an outlook document icon, the (presumably) UUID of the message and date created/modified/last opened info on the mail message.

So your garbled text might indeed be something going wrong with Outlook or even Quicklook trying to read a file it should not.


Bootcamp says Disk Could Not Be Partitioned on Catalina Version 10.15.2

The same issue with the latest Cataline 10.15.3 and two SSD Fusion Drive (internal 24Gb + 512Gb WD placed instead of HDD), made with command "diskutil resetFusion" which is related to Catalina or later OS.

Hello Apple.


There is a utility (in Applications/Utilities) called Digital Color Meter, which shows the color code of whatever you're hovering at the moment. It's a bit more lightweight than Preview. There are also shortcuts for copying the color value as a string (⇧+⌘+C) or image (⌥+⌘+C).


Why an AVI video file cannot be imported to iMovie?

I can't tell you why some AVIs can be imported but this one can't, but if you know that the file itself isn't corrupt or anything, I can give you a remedy: Handbrake is an app that can convert almost any video format to MP4, which iMovie should definitely be able to handle. Open Handbrake, select your video file, enter the destination path you want if you don't like the default, and press Start to run the conversion. When it's done, see how iMovie reacts to the MP4. Good luck!


Most users do not use a proxy server when browsing the web from home.

On macOS the computer wide proxy settings are found in Network settings of System Preferences.app. See Remove Proxy Settings:

Select Apple (menu) > System Preferences…
Select Network
Select Advanced… for the active Wi-Fi network
Select the Proxies tab
Disable all protocols checkboxes, before selecting OK, then Apply


Does Bootcamp modify contents of the USB used?

When using a USB device, whether a stick or a external HDD, Bootcamp will format the device before using it for the Windows installer image.

Thus, you'll need to use a device that you don't mind getting erased.

Simply copying the .iso file to a USB device won't work. Also, keep in mind that the Bootcamp app also adds a bunch of Apple-provided drivers to the device, as well as help you prepare a partition for Windows, among other things.


What is Spotlight on iPad – where are Spotlight icons displayed?

Spotlight is the search function in iOS.

It can be accessed from the Home screen by swiping down.

From Apple Support:

  Use Search on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
  With iOS 9, Search lets you look for content from the web, your contacts, apps, nearby places, and more. Powered by Siri, Search offers suggestions and updates results as you type.

  There are two ways to use Search on your iOS device.

  Quick Search

  Drag down from the middle of the Home screen and type what you're looking for.

  Siri Suggestions

  Drag right from the Home screen to show search and get Siri Suggestions.


FileVault optimizing... 43 days remaining

My wife bought a 11-inch MBA about a year ago. I turned on filevault as part of the setup, and had the same issue. We took it back to the apple store, and asked for a replacement citing the one she as being defective. In the stores, Apple isn't shady - we got a simple swap with smiles. The new one did FileVault2 just fine.

Everyone should do it exactly this way. As soon as you buy it, turn it on. Before you attempt to transfer any media/stuff to it or install apps. If it doesn't work, take it back to the Apple Store and ask for a replacement or a refund.


Execute Terminal Command fails in BetterTouchTool. Why?

I feel silly for not figuring this out myself, but I'll post it here in case anyone else is having a similar issue.

In Terminal, I can simply type this command and it works:

wemo switch Myswitchname toggle

But with the Execute Terminal Command in BetterTouchTool, it needed to be entered this way in order to work:

/usr/local/bin/wemo switch Myswitchname toggle


How Finder tracks location of items in the sidebar

I'm not sure if there's an API for it, per se, it's simply the way it operates. Items in the Finder sidebar are actually aliases to the original item.
From What Are Aliases, Symbolic Links, and Hard Links in Mac OS X:

When you create an alias for an object, the system creates a small data file that includes the current path to the object, as well as the object's inode name. Each object's inode name is a long string of numbers, independent of the name you give the object, and guaranteed to be unique to any volume or drive your Mac uses.
...
When you access an alias, the system checks to see if the original item is at the pathname stored in the alias file. If it is, then the system accesses it, and that's that. If the object has been moved, the system searches for a file that has the same inode name as the one stored in the alias file.

(Or do you mean an API that allows you to create aliases from your own application?)


Replacing corrupt system font in macOS Sierra

Open Font Book.app and choose File → Restore Standard Fonts….


Is it possible to upgrade a MacBook processor?

Since the CPU and GPU are welded onto the logic board (Apple's term for motherboard) such a task would require you to replace the whole logic board!

I cannot name specific prices, but this is really expensive. After all, this is the most expensive part of a Macbook. Usually, it is recommended to buy a newer (second hand) computer instead.
An upgrade to the logicboard of a non-unibody Macbook with a Core 2 Duo might be possible with e.g. the generation of the Macbook 4,1 since both are build quite similar. You should verify this with the Apple support.
An upgrade to the logicboard of a unibody Macbook with i3/i7 is ruled out since the internal structure is totally different. The size and location of logic board, and battery have changed 'vastly' amongst other things.


How to separate iMessages with shared Apple ID?

Set up new AppleIDs for your wife and son. This has several advantages: If they use a different computer than you, they can manage different iTunes playlists, different sets of address book contacts, etc without affecting your personal settings or preferences. They will each also be able to sync their own photos and documents and set up their own mail account through iCloud.

In Settings, sign in to your AppleID on each device for iTunes Store and to their personal AppleIDs for iCloud. This will mean that app and music purchases you make on the account will still be available on all devices, but that your son and wife will each have their own iMessage account. They will no longer receive your texts, but they will be able to send and receive iMessage texts for free over WiFi.

You can also share photos this way; photo streams can be shared between AppleIDs. If they are using your ID, any photos they take will end up on your device too. With their own IDs, this will not happen unless you specifically set it up to do so.

If you all sync to different computers iTunes Home Sharing can be used to keep purchased content in sync. Just authorize each computer using your AppleID.

One caveat: Make sure that neither your wife or son use their own AppleID for purchases, or only they will be able to see the app. There is a way to set up an AppleID without entering a credit card number; especially for a younger son, this is a really good idea.


Could I use my iMac 2010 (mini-DisplayPort) and Windows 10 as a second monitor for my Mac laptops?

No, it cannot be done while the iMac is running Windows 10 natively.

The feature you're looking for is called "Target Display Mode". It only works when the iMac is booted into macOS.

You can read all about how the feature works and its requirements here:

https://support.apple.com/el-gr/HT204592#requirements


Preview problem on "iPhoto imported" clips in iMovie

Hold cmd+opt while launching iPhoto.  Good luck! :-)


How to remove the sleep button from the login window?

Use the Terminal command:

$ sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SleepDisabled -bool True

To re-enable the Sleep button later on, use:

$ sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SleepDisabled -bool False


Check to see if Low Power Mode has accidently been turned on as it decrases the processor speed and CPU speed of your phone, also this article should help you out - http://www.techbout.com/how-to-make-ios-9-faster-4510/


How can I edit a m4v movie file and retain subtitles?

Just a shot in the dark, but have a look at VLMC. It is a non-linear video editing suite based on the VLC library, maintained by the VLC community. Otherwise, another editing software program that I know works with subtitles is AviDemux.

Just as a note. I am pretty sure that if you cut scenes out of the movie, you need to edit the subtitle files as well (otherwise the timing goes off). Not quite sure if any of these programs take that into consideration and modifies the subtitle files for you.

Best of luck. Hope one of these programs helps.


Edit Icons for MacOs Startup Manager (Windows, Linux & Macos)

For MacOS

The .VolumeIcon.icns file should be placed in the root folder of the APFS Volume named Preboot. Follow the steps given below.

Enter the command below to mount the Preboot volume.

diskutil mount disk2s2

Use the Finder to navigate to the root folder of the Preboot volume. In the sidebar of a Finder window, highlight the MacOsX volume. If this volume is not shown, then make sure Hard disks is checked off under Sidebar in Finder Preferences. Next, if the Volumes folder does not appear, then press the key combination ⌘+shift+. to show hidden files. Navigate to MacOsX > Volumes > Preboot. This is the root folder of Preboot volume.
Use the Finder to copy the .icns file to the root of the PreBoot volume.
Rename the .icns file to .VolumeIcon.icns.
Press the key combination ⌘+shift+., so hidden files will not appear in the Finder window.
Enter the command below to unmount the Preboot volume.

diskutil unmount disk2s2

For Windows

You have a BIOS booting Windows. This is the correct installation of Windows for your model/year Mac. I suppose the Windows logo icon should go in the Windows partition. However, doing so should not work, because the firmware cannot read NTFS formatted volumes. So there probably is no way to change the icon displayed in the Startup Manager, when you have a BIOS booting Windows.


This issue appears to have been solved with the iOS 5.1 update.


It sounds like something in the network is blocking nonstandard DHCP traffic, including the requests a NetBoot client uses to find the server(s). When you start a Mac with the Option or N keys held down, it'll first do a normal DHCP transaction to get an IP address, then send a special "BSDP" (Boot Service Discovery Protocol) request, which is really a DHCP Inform request with some special options set. Here's what it looks like with sudo tcpdump -nv -s0 port bootps:

16:19:35.656369 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 10411, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 328)
    10.0.0.215.68 > 255.255.255.255.67: BOOTP/DHCP, Request from 68:5b:35:xx:xx:xx, length 300, Flags [none]
      Client-IP 10.0.0.215
      Client-Ethernet-Address 68:5b:35:xx:xx:xx
      Vendor-rfc1048 Extensions
        Magic Cookie 0x63825363
        Vendor-Option Option 43, length 7: 1.1.1.2.2.1.1
        DHCP-Message Option 53, length 1: Inform
        Parameter-Request Option 55, length 2:
          Vendor-Option, Vendor-Class
        MSZ Option 57, length 2: 1500
        Vendor-Class Option 60, length 28: "AAPLBSDPC/i386/MacBookPro9,2"
        Client-ID Option 61, length 7: ether 68:5b:35:xx:xx:xx

Note that the source address is a unicast address, not 0.0.0.0 like a normal DHCP request would have; your firewall may think that's hinky and block it. Or it might be blocking it for some other reason. Anyway, if the NetBoot server receives this, it should reply with something like this:

16:19:35.656756 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 59742, offset 0, flags [none], proto UDP (17), length 369, bad cksum 0 (->7b45)!)
    10.0.0.2.67 > 10.0.0.215.68: BOOTP/DHCP, Reply, length 341, Flags [none]
      Client-IP 10.0.0.215
      Client-Ethernet-Address 68:5b:35:xx:xx:xx
      Vendor-rfc1048 Extensions
        Magic Cookie 0x63825363
        DHCP-Message Option 53, length 1: ACK
        Server-ID Option 54, length 4: 10.0.0.2
        Vendor-Class Option 60, length 9: "AAPLBSDPC"
        Vendor-Option Option 43, length 78: 1.1.1.4.2.127.255. [trimmed...]
16:19:35.657252 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 33486, offset 0, flags [none], proto UDP (17), length 328, bad cksum 0 (->e1fe)!)
    10.0.0.2.67 > 10.0.0.215.68: BOOTP/DHCP, Reply, length 300, Flags [none]
      Client-IP 10.0.0.215
      Server-IP 10.0.0.2
      Client-Ethernet-Address 68:5b:35:xx:xx:xx
      sname "mainserver.pretendco.com"
      Vendor-rfc1048 Extensions
        Magic Cookie 0x63825363
        DHCP-Message Option 53, length 1: ACK
        Server-ID Option 54, length 4: 10.0.0.2

...and if the client receives that, it'd use the information in it to fetch the booter and kernel over TFTP, and then mount the image over either HTTP or NFS and actually boot from it.

BTW, this tends to be a pain to troubleshoot because you have to boot the client over & over to get it to send the requests. But there's a trick: boot a client normally, then open System Preferences -> Startup Disk, and it'll scan for NetBoot images using the same BSDP/DHCP queries. Much easier, plus you can run packet captures on the client as you do it. Only tricky thing is that to make it rescan, you have to fully quit System Preferences, not just leave & reenter the Startup Disk pane.


Is it possible to use the phone speakers for Siri even when Bluetooth is connected?

No, you can't direct Siri to a different output than the default output.
If your iPhone is connected via bluetooth to your car stereo then that's where sounds will be directed.
Your options are to disconnect bluetooth from your car stereo or upgrade to a CarPlay-enabled head unit.


Numbers: Count number of payments, SumIf, CountIf, Concatenate Date, change data types

I found the solution:

=SUMIF(2:2,CLEAN("<="&DATEVALUE(B5)),Pmt)

The solution was the proper use of the Clean() function.

I'll Leave this up if anyone has a similar issue.


How do I search for recipients in Apple Mail?

I would start with making a smart mailbox to see if this is seen as a recipient.

Here's what my attempt looked like:

From there you can widen the search to Entire message if needed. Since it's not really "To:" you, the normal search keys in the Mail search like from:xyz or to:xyz won't be of use.


Keyboard Backspace key not working but repeats when reconnecting USB

Dude... your number pad is under something and the backspace key there is being pressed.

Just clear the number pad and it will start working.


Manually create Apple hidden e-Mail addresses @privaterelay.appleid.com

To use your privaterelay.appleid.com as disposable adresses is not possible at the moment, because it accepts only the developer id who created it as a sender.

  It's important to understand that the email address given to the
  developer (you), in this case:  xxxxxprm23@privaterelay.appleid.com

  may only be used from the email domains (with SPF records) or full
  email addresses registered in the Developer Portal.  It is not
  currently possible for you as a developer to hand that email address
  to a third-party and expect to be able to route through the
  privaterelay.appleid.com MTAs.  Unfortunately, it's also not possible
  to register any third-party domain such as mandrillapp.com as one of
  your email source domains.

  At this time, mail API services that send email from their own MTAs on
  behalf of their developer customers do not work through
  privaterelay.appleid.com.  The only available workaround currently is
  to setup your own MTA and emit mail from one of your registered
  domains.

  We are aware of this issue and are working on a solution that would
  allow developers to use these mail API services.

  Stay tuned...

Reference https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/121256


Network stops working, with "Can't Assign Requested Address"

In my case there was only one host giving me this issue. sudo route delete example.com fixed it instantly, no reboot.


iTunes sync stuck on step 5: Importing Photos

Deleting ~/Pictures/iPod Photo Cache and emptying the trash did the trick for me.

Just to be clear,

Quit itunes.
Go to your home folder in the Finder
Go to the pictures folder
Right mouse click on "iPhoto Library.photolibrary" and choose Show Package Contents
Move "iPod Photo Cache" to the trash.
Empty the trash.
Open itunes and run a sync


How do I get an new email notification icon on the status bar of an iPod Touch?

This is not built-in to iOS, but there are jailbreak tweaks like Notifier, OpenNotifier, et al. If you've jailbroken your device, try searching Cydia.

Once iOS 5 launches, it'll include notification center which consolidates notifications in an overlay that can be accessed by swiping down from the status bar, similar to Android, but still different from what you're asking about.


What are the sharingd and sharedfilelistd processes?

In a nutshell, sharedfileslistd is an XPC helper agent that provides SharedFilesLists private API in CoreServices that gets called by, for instance, by LaunchServices APIs and works with so-called SharedFilesLists - special property lists that contain NSURL BookmarkData entries. These are used for recent documents/servers/hosts that you see in Apple->Recent Items menu, Favourites/iCloud items/Bonjour hosts that appear in the Finder sidebar, Recent Documents in applications' Save/Open dialogs) and such.

sharingd is sharing daemon that enables AirDrop, Handoff, Instant Hotspot, Shared Computers, and Remote Disc in the Finder.


This happen to me too after I started and then canceled the installation of Mojave.

I fixed it easily by following these steps.

Boot in recovery by Powering up and immediately holding CMD+R
Clicked on Apple logo and choose Startup Disk
Select the Mac OS disk and click restart.

If these steps didn't work then you can try reset.
WARNING this will delete all your Files

Select Disk util from the recovery menu
Erase Disk
Go back and Reinstall OS


Restoring from Time Machine on Mac without video card

You are almost there. You could treat either the whole machine or just the system drive as an external HDD and attach it to your MacBook.

Attach your Mac Pro in TDM (target disk mode) to your MacBook. Boot into the Mac Pro’s system from your MacBook. Repair what you need to do.

Connect both computers.
Shut them down.
Power on the target Mac in TDM by holding the T key.
Power on host Mac with Alt/Option key pressed until you see MacOS boot manager.
Choose the target’s system disk
Boot
Repair graphic drivers, etc.


Is there a way to set/unset the execute bit on a file in osx 10.6.8 without using terminal (or bypassing it)?

Keyboard Maestro can do this using the following macro, which runs chmod +x on each item in the current Finder selection:

Download Macro


broke my python easy_install how to fix?

easy_install is part of setuptools. There's a handy script to bootstrap it:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py -o - | python

You may need to put sudo before python if it throws a permissions error. There's a few more details here: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools#installation-instructions but that one-liner should do the trick in most cases.


How to use iPad as presenter for MacBook?

It might be easier just to get a presentation remote device and forego the iPad. Exactly what utility does the iPad provide in this situation that an inexpensive device can't?


Are all four SO-DIMM slots user-accessible in the 27 inch iMac (Late 2012)?

The Tech Specs page on the Apple site states:

8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory; four user-accessible SO-DIMM
slots
Configurable to 16GB or 32GB.

so yes, all four slots are user accessible.


Transferring WinSCP configuration to macOS

use ~/.ssh/config file.
In there you can set all your settings for a host etc.
For ssh you should not be using passwords, but keys instead.
by default ssh client on MacOS uses ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Some more info on that config file can be found here

Some more info on ssh keys can be found here

Or a little google search with those names will get you on route as well.

P.s. on the command line you can simply use scp (the thing that is ported to windows as WinSCP) to copy files from one place to another through ssh. Depends how much you depend on the GUI I guess.


Is there an app that will make my (jailbroken) iPhone vibrate when a call is answered?

As someone who is involved in some iPhone developing, I can tell you that you can’t do that with the official SDK, so unless you find another Jailbroken app, there’s no “official” way to do it.


Disconnect from Bluetooth accessories (Apple):

  Open Control Center and tap [the Bluetooth icon]￼. The icon dims and your device disconnects from any accessory it's connected to, except for Apple Watch, Instant Hotspot, Apple Pencil, and Continuity features, like Handoff. If Bluetooth is turned off, you won’t be able to connect your iOS device to your Bluetooth accessories until:

  You turn on Bluetooth in Control Center.
  You connect to a Bluetooth accessory in Settings > Bluetooth.
  It's 5 AM local time.
  You restart your device.

It’s expected behavior that Bluetooth devices won’t connect (when Bluetooth is dimmed in control center) without one of the above exceptions.

It seems like resetting AirPods is a special case that mimics connecting to a Bluetooth accessory directly in settings, and is therefore an exception.


Sometimes with everything running on your Mac it can get clustered and not be as responsive, Try and go to Applications->Utilities->Activity Monitor and Find Dock PID 167. Then click it and Quit process, This will close the dock and reopen it. And that should fix it.


If it appears to format but doesn't, the card is probably dead.

If an SD card suffers a write error the firmware will drop to read-only mode, which is essentially a non-reversible process.
If the official SDCard.org formatter can't deal with it, the likelihood is nothing can.


Key combination not propagating to Fusion VM

The key combination ctrlcmdD is a system wide shortcut to show or hide the definition of a selected word/words. This even works in VMware. As a last resort the definition of the name of your virtual machine will be shown.

To disable the shortcut, open Terminal and enter:

defaults write com.apple.symbolichotkeys AppleSymbolicHotKeys -dict-add 70 '<dict><key>enabled</key><false/></dict>'

This will add the key 70 to the file com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist and disable the shortcut. After a reboot you will be able to use the above shortcut in fullscreen mode in Windows 10.

You may get a similar result by installing Karabiner and adding a special keycode.


OS X adds "incorrect" DNS servers "on top" of correct ones

Firstly, I'm going to assume that your wireless IP address is provided by DHCP (Domain Host Configuration Protocol), in addition to DNS settings from the same DHCP server.

It’s not clear how  10.0.0.255 is not a valid and correct DNS as opposed to the DNS handling many requests and responding slowly.

If the DNS of 10.0.0.255 really does not work, you may want to check with the campus wireless providers. For all you know; you could be connecting to someone pretending to be the campus wireless; and also failed to setup their fake AP correctly.

You could also just manually enter the one correct DNS in your settings which will remove the second response and wait until the network gets fixed.


Exit full screen for both windows upon leaving split view

Yes. Open Mission Control and hover over the space with the two windows until you see this
.
Clicking the white circle will minimize both windows and drop them to whichever desktop they started out on.


Can not update Skype and Telegram in my iPhone

Apple's stores are actually complicated layers of caching and edge servers, so the power off is a good way to get the phone to re-connect to a different "store server".

I would continue to do that or find a somewhat different network to try. For example, if you have another phone with a data plan - tether to that hotspot instead of using WiFi or find a different WiFi.

I don't think it's local to your device - but if you did suspect that still after exhausting the things you can control and waiting it out, you could back up the device and wipe all contents and settings. Then sign in and download only the two apps.

If you still have issues on a newly wiped device, then the store support team is really your next move. If that works, then you know it was a store caching setting - wipe the device again and then restore from the backup and things should be good to go.

Excellent notes and troubleshooting, I think you're close to a solution to these two apps not behaving in the store app for you.


Is Time machine able to restore my Windows Partition?

Winclone 3 is the best way to backup/restore a Windows Boot Camp partition. I have used it numerous times to restore such a partition.

http://twocanoes.com/software.php?software=1


you could do something like this:

find . -iname '*.rar' | xargs unrar x

find . -iname '*.r*' | xargs rm -f

the script works as follows: it searches recursively for rar files in the directory you are in (the dot)
it pipes all results to an argument list (xargs) that is passed through to the command 'unrar'

Same in the second line, but now it is passed to remove (rm). The -f flag makes sure that the files are deleted instantly, you won't be asked for your permission.
The rm -f  is a powerful command that you should use carefully, so think about what it would remove if you would execute it before you delete it, or just test this by doing:

find . -iname '*.r*'

One thing about the unrar command: unrar is not a standard command in Mac OSX (not sure if this is the case in other Linux/Unix distributions), so make sure you have it installed on your machine.

Note: There is a fine but important difference between find . -iname *.r* and find . -iname '*.r*' relating to the way Unix shells handle wildcards:

In the first form, wildcards are expanded by the shell (so the shell will look for all files/folders matching *.r* in the current directory and pass these as parameters to find. This will work ok if there is one file to match anyway but will fail if there are several (because then the call is find . -iname foo.rar bar.rar but -iname only takes one argument).
In the second form the pattern (without the '') is passed to find and the wildcard expansion is done by find (which then tries to match every file it finds).

So in general patterns passed to find should be enclosed in '' to produce the desired result.


Issues with Google + Auto Backup, how do I troubleshoot?

I Have the same problem (MAC Yosemite 10.10.1). It seems to occur when the computer goes into sleep mode. The auto bu process doesn't pick up again automatically. The application will not shut down either. Only way is to log out and back in again and start auto backup. Leave the computer on and avoid sleep for the process to finish.
Waiting for the application to be fixed.


Will updating contacts with Facebook or Twitter overwrite pictures?

Facebook contact sync will add photos to contacts that don't have any pictures assigned and leave those that have them already unchanged.

Sources: on Facebook contact sync and review of the feature on iLounge with the answer to the question.


Mouse cursor jittery when hover state on browsers in OS X Lion

Since this seems to persist, you might need to perform some more troubleshooting to narrow it down:

Test by creating an entirely new user account on the Mac with the problem and see if the issue is repeatable.
Log when and where the issue happens (assuming it's not a 100% guaranteed item that you can make happen any time you want in 5 seconds of setup).
Install a clean OS onto an external USB drive and see if that setup has the issue.
File a bug or work with Apple to isolate the issue further.

The clue that the screen recording is clear, but the artifact is visual seems like a great thing to capture with a video recording of the screen and a simultaneous camera recording of the image from the screen. The frequency and placement of the issue might be enough for someone else to diagnose a likely culprit.


Sending mouse to different monitors for all sides

I think it is a system limitation when arranging monitors of different resolutions. You can change the arrangement to be top aligned instead of bottom aligned, but when moving from the larger monitor to the smaller one you can only cross at the portion of the edge aligned in System Preferences: Displays: Arrangement.


What are the hardware requirements for Hypervisor.framework?

Apple's documentation for the Hypervisor framework (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/DriversKernelHardware/Reference/Hypervisor/index.html) mentions that the processor needs to support Unrestricted Mode, which is a feature available only on a Westmere or newer generation Intel processor. Seeing as the Westmere generation was released on January of 2010, your Mac Pro most likely doesn't support this.


MacBook Pro only boots to grey Apple screen with spinning loader

If you have your original discs load up the Applications Install disc and run the Apple Hardware Test from there. Look for memory faults. I doubt very much you have a firmware "bug", memory failure is much more likely and would explain the unusual hardware behaviour you're experiencing.

I had the same model which I initially bought around 5 years ago, this had the original OS installed (10.5.6). Immediately after purchase I used the install discs to wipe the machine totally clear of the previous owner's setup, no problems encountered during installation.

Everything seemed to generally work ok (one or two occasional random crashes) until I decided to wipe it clean following the retail release of 10.6. After trying (and failing) several times to install 10.6 I decided to substitute the factory 1GB RAM stick with a 512MB stick from another laptop. This time 10.6 installed perfectly, first go. Faulty memory explained the random crashes as well as the installation issues with 10.6. Incidentally, I tried running the machine after installing 10.6 with its original 1GB RAM. It would sometimes boot but was completely unpredictable - single user mode was always accessible though, like your setup.


What's the best way to prolong the lifespan of a Macbook Pro battery?

What's the best way?

Don't worry about it and just use your MacBook Pros for what you bought them for.

Why?

Physics.  No matter what you do, you can't change the laws of physics and lithium batteries are governed by the number of cycles.  A complete discharge and recharge is one cycle.  A 20% discharge 5 times is one cycle, a 5% discharge 20 types is one cycle.

Whether that cycle takes a half day, a full day or a week all depends on how you use it; but I am guessing you didn't buy a MBP to sit on a shelf all day long doing nothing.

Even when you keep your MBP plugged in, you are reducing the per day cycle count; however you are not eliminating it.  But the bigger question is, did you buy a MBP to sit at a desk all day?  If so, you should have bought an iMac instead - there's no battery so you eliminate this problem altogether.

That said, there are things you can avoid that will shorten the life of your battery and those things include:

Extreme temperatures - high heat and freezing temps can kill a battery prematurely.
Drops and physical stress can damage the battery shortening its life
Not using the right charger can harm your battery.  Always use a GENUINE power adapter, not some discount charger you find on eBay.

When they do die, it's always best to get a good quality replacement battery from a reputable manufacturer.  The 2006 MBP uses an external battery so it's fairly easy to find replacements - and some even come with generous warranties.

The 2013 MBP Retina batteries require the back cover to be removed, but are actually pretty easy to replace.  You can find many good replacements now on the aftermarket, with generous warranties as well.

When you get down to it, the battery prices are not that all off putting.

The bottom line is that you batteries have a life span that's governed by use and there is nothing you can do short of not using your MacBook to change that.  But...that kind of defeats the purpose of having the MacBook in the first place.


Can I delete the Watch app without unpairing Apple Watch?

The apple watch app on your iPhone will not let you remove itself unless you unpair the watch first.

So technically, no. As it is essential for the operation of the watch. What I did was just make a folder named 'Apple' and dump all Apple apps that I don't use often but somewhat essential for some things into that folder, like Weather, etc.


Detect the TV Show, Season and Episode from a mp4 file in applescript

Exiftool is a great tool to extract metadata.
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
This script should point you in the right direction.

set thePath to POSIX path of (path to documents folder) & "exifdata"
do shell script "mkdir -p " & quoted form of POSIX path of thePath

tell application "Finder" to set theSelection to selection
repeat with anItem in theSelection
    set theLocation to POSIX path of (anItem as text)
    set {name:fileName, name extension:nameExtension} to anItem
    set baseName to text 1 thru ((get offset of "." & nameExtension in fileName) - 1) of fileName
    set destLocation to quoted form of (thePath & "/" & baseName & ".txt")
    do shell script "exiftool -a " & quoted form of theLocation & " >" & destLocation
    do shell script "open " & destLocation
end repeat

Or another approach is :

set myFile to quoted form of (POSIX path of (path to desktop as text) & "movie.mp4")

set xxx to every paragraph of (do shell script "mdls " & myFile)


Why is launchd saying "service already loaded" but "launchctl list" doesn't show the service?

It's possibly because you grep'ed for a different file than you tried to load (hosts_unBlocksites_AM.plist vs. hosts_Blocksites_AM.plist), but also note that root has its own list of launch agents and when you run sudo launchctl list you will see root's list, which is different from launchctl list which will show yours.

So this should work (depending on what you're trying to do in your launch agent):

launchctl list | grep Blocksites
launchctl load ~/LaunchAgents/hosts_unBlocksites_AM.plist

If needed, run both as sudo (not just one of them).


Import date of a certificate into keychain?

Keychain Dump

There is no automatic history of the Keychain kept on Mac OS X. You can see everything stored within a keychain file using the following command:

security dump-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

authd.log

A rotating log of authentication related actions is kept. This may have logged the granting of rights needed to import the certificate. It is unlikely but the only place Mac OS X, by default, logs authorization and authentication related activity.

You can see the log using Console.app within the /var/log/authd.log range of files.


What does it mean to be signed in to the devices below?

It just helps you monitor things. You’d want to know if someone had your password and signed in. You also can run into device count limits for playing purchased music, so you need somewhere to see those counts as well.

There’s not much to do other than know it signed in and clear items when you think they are retired or erased or donated/sold.


I had the same issue with an account folder, which I restored from a backup via rsync. The problem seemed to be the corrupt or missing creation date. After setting it manually the folder was acting normal again. I used the SetFile command from XCode's command line tools. So this should solve the issue:

SetFile -d '12/31/1999 23:59:59' will-not-open


Apple say in all beta documentation that you can not downgrade from a beta to an earlier version. What they mean is that behavior is undefined, and that if you run into problems when you try this, then you are on your own as it is not an action that they support.


Introduction
The iOS Reminder application does not allow for free moving of the locator pin. The best you can get is entering the address of where to place it (logically), as most people want to be reminded when arriving at or leaving a pre-known location.

Potential Alternatives

While it is not possible to move the pin around on the map, you may
find that you can physically get to the location ahead of time and
use the Remind at Current Location option to set future reminders.
Obviously, this depends on the distance between you and that
location, but if you use it frequently, you set up correctly once
don't worry about it again. This should be made easier with the next idea.
I would recommend that you use an app like Maps to get the exact
location that you require and extract the address from it. If it is
a public space or company, this is often enough of a locational
marker to import straight into the Reminders app. This would be my
go to method.

Conclusion
The native Reminders app does not allow you to move the locator pin but perhaps 3rd party apps do, however this is beyond the scope of your question. If you are looking for more ways to use the Reminders app for location-based reminders, take a look at this article from Apple.
I would be interested to know how you made out. Let me know.


Apple does not provide the ability to change settings in the Settings app by a URL.
You can only navigate to a page within the app for you to switch the setting yourself as you've found. A URL that could toggle a setting could be a security issue in that the URL could be navigated to by a bad third-party and toggle a setting without your permission.
Actions in the Shortcuts app like the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggles use private APIs only available to apps with specific Apple private entitlements.


Is it possible: Automator workflow for date based file import?

This will be difficult with Automator but it is possible. You will need to augment your Automator workflow with Run Script steps involving some other scripting language. That language can be shell script, AppleScript, or another command line capable tool such as perl.

Alternatively, you may find a third party tool like Hazel is able to help:

  Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing your files according to the rules you create. It features a rule interface similar to that of Apple Mail so you should feel right at home.


Xcode 5.1.1 crashes on 10.9.5 Mavericks when run in User Account but runs in Guest Account

This would seem to be an answer, but as my situation was resolved when I updated to 10.10 I cannot test to prove it, but share just in case it proves to be useful

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22480382/xcode-5-1-doesnt-load-on-os-x-10-9-2-and-10-9-3/26704775#26704775


Can I uninstall Xcode but keep Simulator?

No, but you can use the storage management tool in System Information app to delete portions of Xcode like simulators, SDK versions, cached data and more.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, then click Storage
Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window


Turning the iOS device off will require a passcode to be entered no matter the timeout value if you have one other than requiring the passcode immediately upon locking.

You can also utility any of the "Find my iPhone" or MDM tools that allow remote locking of the device, but these are often not feasible and much more time and work than simply powering off the device or rebooting it.


You quote your search string (put the quotes in the query)

" s "

to force Preview to match the exact query


Will my calendar and contacts in iCloud be lost if I delete backups?

You can safely delete your backup from iCloud. To do this, go into Settings →  Your Profile →  iCloud →  iCloud Backup and turn the switch to Off to disable iCloud Backups.

This will only delete your iPhone backup from iCloud. It will NOT delete your iCloud contacts and calendars.


When will podcasts be automatically deleted in iTunes?

You can set this for each podcast subscription. Click on the Gear icon at the top of a podcast list to bring up the Podcast Settings dialog.

The 'Limit Episodes' choice gives you a number of ways to set how many podcasts are retained, including no limit.


I am not sure how you are restoring from backup but you can't replace active system files, nor would you want to.

The preferred way to restore a Mac would be to install/reinstall the operating system from whatever source you have. Once that is done use your Time Machine backup to then restore your files, applications and system settings.

The latter would be those files that the system would change to reflect preferences, settings and other changes you have made to macOS. Some of which may be located inside the System folder(s).


Can I tell if a found Macbook Air is lost or stolen?

No, it is impossible to tell if a found Macbook Air is lost or stolen via physical examination of the device or its operating system.

Computers of the Apple MacBook Air line are not equipped with Kensington security slot which might indicate theft if damaged.
Mac OS X or any other contemporary operating system that can be installed on MacBook Air device does not have any property that changes at the moment of theft.

Apple Inc. published the article "Report a lost or stolen Apple product" on their official support pages with clear instructions for users of Apple products which got lost or stolen:

  If you have lost or found an Apple product, please contact your local law enforcement agency to report it.

Quoted from the version last modified on Mar 18, 2016

Hence the only official way to make sure if a particular unit was stolen is to contact appropriate local law enforcement agency.


Check the System Preferences > Security & Privacy, under General tab you may need to Allow the Tuxera system component (forgot its name/details).

The Tuxera 2016.1 seems to be working for me on High Sierra/10.13.0 after allowing its system component to run under Security & Privacy, it gave error something similar, and Allowing it made it to work.

This is explained as opt in for running the kernel extension:

https://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/#Tuxera_NTFS_for_Mac_features_block

  (*) Our 2016.1 version is compatible with High Sierra. Note that High Sierra prevents extensions from loading automatically, which means that if you use version 2016.1 you’ll need to allow the extension to run from Security preferences pane. The upcoming version of Tuxera NTFS for Mac will help you breeze through this setup. Want to be part of our beta? Email us at macsupport@tuxera.com for more info.

Since you're on a beta OS - you might want to join Tuxera's beta as well in case they'll work with you on debugging any issues before their tool and the macOS version you run are released.


How to recover deleted data from erased hard drive?

Okay, so I think I've solved the problem and thought I'd post this up just in case anyone runs into similar issues...

I've downloaded a program Data Rescue 3, and I'm scanning the drive for deleted files. The program seems easy to use although I found that if you want to scan your internal drive (as in my case), you'll need to have another external drive plugged in as the software won't let you restore to the same drive you're recovering from.

When you run the software, select your internal drive to scan off then select the deleted files scan. When prompted, select your external drive to work off.

I'll post my results, success or failure, in the comments soon.

Screenshot of results:


show dock permanently on the primary display only or simultaneously on both displays

You can achieve the first, lock it to a single display - though it will entail a change in working practice.

System Prefs > Mission Control
Uncheck "Displays have separate Spaces"

Your Spaces/Desktops will then always move as a pair, locked together.

Then use System prefs > Displays > Arrangement
You can drag the menu bar representation to define your primary display. The Dock will remain always on this display.

As the Dock is always shown either on the active Space/Desktop in single-screen, or only on the primary display of a multi-screen setup, there's no way to make it appear on two displays simultaneously.


Running OS X Lion 10.7.2, VLC 1.1.12 -- this desired "proper" functionality suddenly appeared, perhaps as a result of the update from 10.7.1->10.7.2 the other day. Or perhaps as the result of a VLC update.

Control of VLC and iTunes via Apple Keyboard hotkeys is now decoupled. The active player responds to hotkey keypress.


Is there any way to change MAC-address of built-in Bluetooth adapter?

Look into SpoofMAC on GitHub which allows you to change ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth addresses and interfaces. There's all the instructions to get you started, on that page.


My iphone 6 plus is bent and not powering on, need to retrieve data not backup to cloud

There are companies out there, although I can't recommend any that claim to be able to recover data off broken iPhones, I've not tried them, the iPhone doesn't have a hard drive, the whole device is on a single computer circuit board, it's going to destroy the phone trying to get it repaired.

Data recovery is expensive, and once your phone has been modified by a third party the price for getting Apple to repair/replace your phone will escalate as they won't do an out of warranty service on a phone that has been modified by a 3rd party unauthorised centre.

In other words you'll have to buy a new phone, and fork out a load of money on data recovery.


Finder opens Terminal when clicking on homedir icon

A directory can become a "Package", if the bundle bit has been set for some reason by either another program, or the user.
"Kind: Package" will then be visible in the "Get Info" window and it can be opened by the application set in the same window.

Some applications prefer (or create) a package instead of a directory, which can be double clicked to open a whole library folder in an application (iPhoto for example).
It may also make the user think twice to directly access and edit its contents.

To remove the bit from the home directory run the following command in Terminal (to be found in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app, or search in Spotlight):

SetFile -a b ~

SetFile is part of the command line tools. Without the command line tools installed, a popup should ask you if you want to download them. Allow this and try again.


Does Power Nap sync Safari bookmarks and browsing history?

I did a little test: bookmarks where synced, Safari history was not.
The test: I slept my Mac mini.  visited a couple websites in my iPhone + added two bookmarks on two other websites.  In the morning, I disconnected the Mac from the network, awoke it and saw that:  Bookmarks had been synced.  Safari history wasn't.


Is there a single place I can see all the app reviews I've written in the iOS App Store?

Yes, in the App Store tap on your face in the top right corner, then tap on your account (has your name and email on it), then tap "Ratings and Reviews"


Macbook Pro (Lion) is requring a password to undelete files. Is there a way around this?

Applescript has a parameter administrator privileges which adding it to your script will execute the command as Administrator.

Extracted from Apple's Apple Script Language Guide:

  Execute the command as the administrator? Once a script is correctly authenticated, it will not ask for authentication again for five minutes. The elevated privileges and the grace period do not extend to any other scripts or to the rest of the system. For security reasons, you may not tell another application to do shell script with administrator privileges. Put the command outside of any tell block, or put it inside a tell me block.
  Default Value:
  false

So it should be something like do shell script "whatEver" with administrator privileges.


What geographic location is shown in the macOS High Sierra default desktop image?

According to this person, it's in North Lake in Bishop, CA.


Quick Look: How to return to unindexed view using mouse

Testing it on 10.13 it seems you have to double click on the image you want to return to the full size preview of.


My Mac mini's computer name keeps changing when it resumes from sleep

I've seen this happen when the local DNS server has DNS caching enabled, but doesn't flush the cache often enough (or at all).

You can set your Host Name/Computer Name to a static value using scutil in Terminal. This means that your Mac will no longer change it's name automatically, so it's important that there are no other machines on your network that actually have that hostname. When you run this, replace "new_hostname" with your desired hostname:

sudo scutil --set HostName new_hostname

sudo scutil --set LocalHostName new_hostname

sudo scutil --set ComputerName new_hostname

You can check to make sure the values are set by running:

scutil --get HostName

scutil --get LocalHostName

scutil --get ComputerName

Sources: man scutil

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man8/scutil.8.html

http://osxdaily.com/2010/09/06/change-your-mac-hostname-via-terminal/


Weight of a refurbished Macbook Air package

So we have :

MacBook Air 13" : 1.35 Kg
45W MagSafe II : 558g
MacBook Air Box :
Outside delivery cardboard box.

Amazon says their delivery weight (same config) is about 6.4pounds (2.9 kg).


Downgrading an iOS application - how to download a previous version?

If you are updating from devices directly, you can only pull the most recent version of the app.  In a slight change from the past, if the most recent version is not compatible with your device, it will now offer to let you download the most recent compatible version instead.

If you use iTunes on a Mac to download copies of your apps into your library, or you sync your iPad with iTunes to do this, then you should have the old version in your library, although if iTunes has also downloaded the new version you may have to hunt in  your time machine backups to find the relevant .IPA file for the older version you need.


iOS got a very long repeating Settings list

Think app list may repeat due to multiple syncing. A restart may sort this.


Time Capsule / AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Signal

Radio waves (your WiFi signal) are blocked/reflected by metal surfaces.

If you surround the antenna with metal surfaces on 3 sites you will get very limited reception.

Using that factor one can build a directional antenna that works in one direction and magnifies the signal.

If you have a TV dish that is how it works, it is a directional antenna that reflects the signal to a receiver mounted in the focal point.

So if you want to boost your Airport signal you would use a directional antenna. As it is right now it has a signal that is 360 degree.


Can two people play the Hay Day game on one iPad?

Game Center only allows one sign in at a time, so you could sign out and then sign in another account. Most games also keep a local save file, so this might mix the results, but you would need to ask the developer of each app how it handles a log out of one Game Center account and into another.


With what should I clean the screen of my Macbook mid-2010 White unibody?

If you need to clean your Apple hardware use a clean dry microfiber cloth. It's what I see Apple employes using on all the equipment in the Apple stores. I've been using microfiber for years on all my Apple devices and has worked great without any damage.

Note: If necessary you can slightly dampen it with distilled water and wring it out well so it is really just ever so slightly dampened and the follow up with a clean dry microfiber cloth.


macOS Catalina - problems detecting external monitors

How exactly are you connecting your monitors to your MacBook Pro, and what else do you have connected to it?

The MacBookPro's with 4 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C connectors actually have  2 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C buses, each connected to 2 ports, one pair on the left side of the computer and one pair on the right side. The specs that say the Mac can support 2 or 4 monitors do not mention this, but the fact is the Mac can only support half that number on each side. 2 * 0.5 = 1 so the spec is not lying, but sometimes you have to pay attention to which side of the Mac things are plugged into.

Still, the Mac should support 2 DVI-resolution DisplayPort over USB-C monitors per bus, which makes me wonder exactly how you are connecting the monitors.

Try connecting one monitor on the right side of the computer and the other monitor on the left. Alternately, try connecting them both on the same side of the computer, connected directly to the computer and nothing else connected to that side.


Where are all those audio files on the iPhone?

In the process the phone was backed up and restored a few times.

“A few times”? That doesn’t sound very good…

Try resetting your iPhone to factory conditions and restore your backup once. Make sure the backup doesn’t get interrupted — it should be able to finish in one sitting!


Given the following note text:

List of things
The first thing
Another thing
One final thing

You can get the list by splitting the content of the note by new lines, then omitting the first item from the list (to avoid the heading).

You can get this shortcut at https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3822bfae808d4abca332d643250d160e


Why the command line does not respect the PATH order on OS X?

Do not use which, use type. The which command in the default shell (bash) is an external utility which doesn't know about aliases and functions. On the other hand, type is an internal utility which will tell you whether its argument is an alias, a function, a built-in utility or an external command.

The which command is mentioned in tutorials and manuals only for historical reasons — 30 years ago the type command didn't exist everywhere, and some people have been slow to adapt.

For more details, including a discussion of historical and current shells, see Why not use “which”? What to use then?

$ type cp
cp is aliased to `cp -i'
$ type mkcd
mkcd is a function
mkcd ()
{
…
}
$ type type
type is a shell builtin
$ type cat
cat is /bin/cat

In zsh, it's ok to use which: zsh has both type and which as built-in commands.

Also note that if you just installed or removed a program, the shell may have memorized its old location. For example, if you just installed your own version of a program in a directory that is ahead of the system directories in $PATH, the shell may keep invoking the program that came with the system. This is only an issue in shells that were already running at the time of the installation or removal. To refresh the shell's memory with current data, run the command hash -r or hash COMMANDNAME.


Mac OS Mojave Terminal Resetting to Default Theme

Setting the default profile does not mean that it will launch with the new window on startup. You need to set that in the General preference on startup, open: New window with profile: [YourProfile]

  is there a config file where I can change the theme manually?

Yes, you can edit the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist in XCode (it's a binary plist file so while you can view the file in a text editor you don't want to save it as ASCII text).

You may actually want to delete this file though. After deleting it, when you launch Terminal it should be recreated with all the system defaults. That way they are there. You may have gone overboard with deleting everything.


what happens if I click "delete backup" will I still have all my messages?

You will delete that backup, which has messages on that backup. The messages currently on phone, not in backup will remain in there peaceful state.


How does Apple achieve the visual "wrap" to form its App store icons on itunes.apple.com?

The trick is to overlay a masking icon which contains a border and some shadow. With CSS this is positioned exactly above the underlying icon.

This is the image: http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/F96C/images/mask175.png

If all you need is rounded corners, there is some CSS (3) only tricks for that, though it will look a bit different then.


How do I setup a guest network with Time Capsule

The in app help will guide you if you search for guest or "set up a guest network"

The settings are under wireless with a simple check mark to enable a guest network.

Here is the most relevant steps from the help included with Airport Utility:

To set up a guest network, the Apple wireless device must be set up to share its public IP address using DHCP and NAT.

1. Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
2. Select the wireless device on which you want to set up a guest network, and then click Edit.
3. Click Wireless, and then select Enable Guest Network.
4. Give the guest network a name.
5. Choose None, WPA/WPA2 Personal, or WPA 2 Personal from the Guest Network Security pop-up menu, and then type a password for the guest network.


There is nothing to worry about. If you just click the space and then delete button. The highlight disappears as soon as you do this and whatever has been pasted will run.
Let me know if it is ok.
Thank You!


It is possible to use iPhone as BT headset for the computer?

Natively no, the iPhone is limited to what is parable to it, and the functions once it is paired.. With a jailbroken iPhone there may be some third party software out there.


You can use a private.xml such as this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>TildeToShift</name>
    <identifier>TildeToShift</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::BACKQUOTE, KeyCode::SHIFT_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>


Set default skin tone for all Emojis in Emoji keyboard in iOS 11?

No. Due to the way it is implemented, it is not possible to set a default skin tone to be used across all the supported Emojis in iOS Emoji keyboard.

Each Emoji remembers its last used skin tone. Also, the recently used section shows all the skin tones variations used for a single Emoji.


What is the "previous system" folder I have in my root directory after ML installation and is it safe to delete?

It's safe to delete that folder. I did it and to date I haven't faced any issues.


How do you manually reposition faces in Mac OS X Yosemite's Photos App?

This answer in the Apple Discussions/Communities suggests that this behavior (inability to move the naming circle) is a bug in Photos; to remedy it requires restarting the Photos app (which may not be as easy as just quitting and then double-clicking the app icon, perhaps requiring a system reboot).

After just experiencing this problem with Photos version 1.5 running on El Capitan (MacOS 10.11.6), rebooting worked to clear it for me.


Comparing GPU capabilities of Mac models?

You could give OpenMark a try.

  OpenMark is an OpenGL benchmark for
  Mac OS X. OpenMark tests the raw speed
  of the video card drawing a variable
  (automatic or user-defined) number of
  triangles and generates a screenshot
  and a text report of the results.


Is it possible to access the app data of third party apps that aren't listed under File Sharing in iCloud?

You could try backing up the iPhone in iTunes and dig into the backup locally to see if the photo files are in the app's backed up data. I work on a tool that can help you dig into the backup files, Decipher Backup Browser: https://deciphertools.com/decipher-backup-browser.html

You could either look through the app's data in all files view, or try the all photos gallery view in DBB. Or if you want to contact me directly about searching around the backup, there's a contact link at the top of all of our pages.


What is Containers/com.apple.mail suppose to look like?

The short answer is yes, I believe your ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail is what it is supposed to be.
Just like you, I do have ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail which Finder presents as one of 6 subfolders called Mail.  Mine has permissions like yours and same content including all the symlinks.
So don't worry, everything is (most likely) just as it is supposed to be.
The more worrying answer is that Apple Support staff mostly do not have the faintest idea about the changes in Big Sur.  I have come across other reports where Apple Support seems to be reading from their Catalina support notes.


Is there a way to see all iPhone App Store purchases?

I don't think there is a way to view just iPhone App purchases.
You can view your whole iTunes purchase history. You can see your iPhone app purchases there.

Open iTunes -> Store menu -> View My Account -> Sign in -> Go to Purchase History

Update: This seem to include all your purchases using your Apple ID (iOS App Store, Mac App Store, and iTunes Store)


How to restore Mac OS after installing Linux

To answer the questions asked, yes.

However, have a look at How to reinstall macOS and About macOS Recovery.

That said, personally I'd create a USB macOS Installer and set it aside for when you want to reinstall. Have a look at: How to create a bootable installer for macOS

Also, dont forget to make proper backups of your data before formatting the HDD/SSD. You might even want to have a Time Machine backup. Have a look at: How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac


OS X El-Capitan - /cores directory taking up a lot of space?

Long story short, it's safe to delete them.

The /cores folder is where OS X stores Core Dumps. These are files that are intended for developers to trouble-shoot and diagnose faults in their software. They are generated as software crashes. If you're not a developer, or aren't testing software for a developer, then these files serve no purpose for you.

The files contain the state of the memory (or RAM) in your Mac at the time the crash happened. So lots of useful information for developers or testers to debug crashes. Not much use to anyone else.

By default, OS X is set up not to generate core dump files. If you type sudo launchctl limit core in a Terminal window it will respond with the soft and hard size limits of dump files it is allowed to create. Soft limit means the default for each process, however processes can change this if they require but only up to the value of the hard limit. By default the values in OS X seem to be "0 unlimited" means that the operating system won't create core dumps by default, but processes can elect to have unlimited core dump files created if they wish.

You can change the setting on your machine by simply entering sudo launchctl limit core 0 0 to disable the feature entirely. sudo launchctl limit core 0 unlimited will restore the default behaviour if it has been changed.


Is there an alternative iOS to macOS music and photo sync tool?

It is hard to answer your question, as it has multiple elements to it. You're both asking about syncing between an iOS device and a Mac (over USB or WiFi), and you're asking about syncing between a Mac and iCloud Photos. In addition, the conditions for the answer is really subjective - even though I might think that somebody got sync tools  "just right", you might think that they're not "right" for you.

For syncing between the iOS device and the Mac, I can recommend this third party project:

http://www.libimobiledevice.org

It works perfectly well for syncing. I think it's "just right" for my purposes, where the built-in syncing in macOS isn't enough.

For syncing between the Mac and iCloud Photos, there doesn't exist any 3rd party program that allows you to decide exactly what is uploaded to the Photo Library, and what stays on the Mac (outside of the ordinary controls provided to you by Apple Photos).


You can hash using the NTLM method like this:

perl -MAuthen::Passphrase::NTHash -nle 'print Authen::Passphrase::NTHash->new(passphrase => $_)->hash_hex, ":", $_' < infile >> outfile

However, according to your comments your question is a XY problem. You're actually really trying to build a web site that allows everyone to hash any string efficiently using any hashing algorithm. For that that purpose, the above mentioned command line is not suitable.


Do you by any chance have Low Power Mode on?

  Dynamic wallpaper and Perspective Zoom are disabled when Low Power Mode is on.

Go to Settings > Battery and disable Low Power  Mode to be able to select a Live Wallpaper and use the Live Photo or Perspective settings.


Not that I am aware of.  Contact searching on iOS is particularly limited, it will only match whole words in names too when used via Spotlight, although you do get on the fly as you type results when searching directly in the app.

No real reason why it works this way, other than every extra piece of data that you want to search requires indexing, which requires time and space.  The search function in the iPhone doesn't scan your data for matches, this would be far too slow. Instead as you create or update data (including contacts, calendar events, receive email etc) iOS indexes certain components of the data.  With contacts, it clearly decides not to index all fields, and just does names and numbers, skipping addresses, email addresses etc.  Just one of those decisions I suppose, there is limited storage available, and we already complain when a 16Gb iPhone only has 14Gb available out of the box etc.


Why is a Time Machine backup so slow over a fast network?

Time Machine is really poor at working over a network, and I’ve stopped doing this. The best way to run Time Machine now (macOS 11) is to give it a dedicated encrypted disk (which TM will reformat to APFS). The backups will be very fast and you will be hard pressed to notice them, but even backing up to an HFS+ local drive will be orders of magnitude faster than over your LAN.
(The reasons for this are somewhat opaque, but the backup process is very different when backing up over a network as your target is not a disk or even a network folder, but a sparse image file on the network and this makes, as you’ve seen, a huge difference. The behavior seems to have gotten worse in recent versions to the point where it’s just not worth it.)
Another option you might consider is to use a syncing tool to sync your data to a location on the target machine that is part of its regular backup. I’d do both, but then I’m a "three backups are the minimal starter set” sort of guy.


If I make a bootable pendrive running macOS, will downloaded apps and data persist on each boot?

The createinstallmedia command creates a startup disk whose purpose is installing MacOS onto another drive.
If you just want to install MacOS onto a USB thumb drive, then just run the OS installer app and select the drive as the target. (It will present you with the current system volume by default, but there's an "Other Volumes" button.)
Once you've installed the OS onto your USB drive, yes, it will be a read-write volume, so things will get saved there and stay there. (Though remember to keep a backup as thumb drives can fail suddenly.)
An alternative strategy might be to host Mojave inside a Virtual Machine (VM), which is "an OS as an app". So you launch the VM and Mojave runs in a window, inside your Catalina (or later) OS! Parallels or VirtualBox are the two main VMs.


OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite, has the default PATH changed?

My /etc/paths has the same content on 10.10.4 and has a timestamp of "Sep  9  2014" so it has been like that for quite some time now.

Basically it makes sense to place /usr/local/bin on top because that way binaries installed locally take precedence over the standard versions.


'Add to Contacts' hyperlink in Pages (iOS/iCloud)

I suppose you could only upload the vCard somewhere and link to it from your document (note: only iOS 7 supports opening vCards that way afaik)


Changing text applied when duplicating file in Finder

Open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/

Use Show Package Contents to browse the package in Finder, or open using Terminal, etc.
Open Localizable.strings in BBEdit or other editor capable of editing .strings files.
N4 contains the string that is used to name the duplicate file.

^0 copy

^0 is the previous file's name. Make sure to keep this to retain the name of the previous file.
Edit the string how you wish. For example, to duplicate test as test_copy instead of test copy, use…

^0_copy

Save and relaunch Finder.

killall -HUP Finder


Problem enabling journaling in order to resize partitions on an external drive (Mac)

Note that if you do:

diskutil disableJournal disk1s2

and you get:

An error occurred journaling the file system: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-69860)

the journaling is in fact disabled. The error is bogus. Eject and remount, and you'll see journaling is now off. Does knowing this help you?


How do I get a keystroke systemwide to trigger an action on  text in a selected item, whether file, mail message, selected text, etc.?

My solution to mapping keyboard shortcuts to arbitrary services (as well as general workflows, application launches and scripts) is FastScripts.

Try it for free and pay if you feel you can or need more than 10 shortcuts to be active at the same time.


How do I make a box transparent in Markup?

Choose the fill colour button on the toolbar (red filled square in your screenshot), then open the colour palette with the button at the bottom of the popover, and set the opacity on the colour using the slider or entering a percentage (100% is fully opaque, 0% is fully transparent).


Contacts.app - list all groups a contact is in

My solution doesn't list the groups on the contact card itself, but it may still solve your situation:

By holding down the "Option" key when you have a contact selected and the "Groups" pane showing, the groups which contain the selected contact are highlighted.

Related:

Highlight the groups a contact is in?


How to identify the iOS version from the Hello screen?

Over the years since iOS was released, the opening Hello wallpaper which greets a user ready to set up the device has changed in several ways, most of them cosmetic. If each released major version had a subtle change to the Hello wallpaper, it would be easy to figure out which version of iOS was installed, but alas, the changes were few and far between.

Using Apple Configurator 2 you can see the installed iOS without going through any of the the setup steps:


Combine photos from multiple people's iPhones into a single location?

Use Google Photos. This being a fairly new app, it did not exist at the time this question was asked.

Google photos is a new (free!) service that allows you to upload all your photos to Google Drive, automatically. You can also share all your photos with anybody you want, using the new Share Your Library feature.

You can download the app from the App Store, or access them on your computer. There's also a desktop uploader in case you want to upload photos on your computer automatically.

The best part about this app is that it allows you to delete all the photos you uploaded from your phone, freeing up storage space on your phone. Your photos will still be available through the Google Photos app.


Finder Window flash and disappears on unminimize

After Finder window disappear on unminimize, press Cmd-Ctrl-F. The Finder window (and Safari window too where there is the same problem) reappear and go to full screen. Press Cmd-Ctrl-F one more time and it returns to normal size.


Crontab -l command working. No other crontab command is working

You need to edit your crontab to make changes. Run
EDITOR=nano crontab -e

to use the nano editor for this. Your (initially empty) crontab will be shown and can be edited (e.g. by adding the line you had in your question). Then press Ctrl-O, Return, Ctrl-X to save the changes and quit the editor.


Disabling QuickType into my html form fields

It's answered on SO:

i put autocapitalize="off" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off"
and it works.

The asker said autocapitalize="off" was not needed.


Safari 12: how to sync tabs *only* across devices?

You can assign another folder for Favorites (e.g iPhoneFav).

I haven't tested whether this option will be synced across devices, though.


iWork and iLife are not free after reinstall

You can download the iWork '09 and iLife '11 trials and install them. The AppStore will then offer to upgrade these old apps to the current version. See these or these instructions.


Backup mailbox of mail.app with applescript

GUI scripting is not that great. And can easily fail due to timing or GUI changes.

But try this:

set mboxSavePath to "/Users/simonepiersigilli/Desktop/e-mail/"

tell application "Mail" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Mail"

        click menu item 20 of menu 6 of menu bar 1
        delay 2
        keystroke "G" using {command down, shift down}
        delay 2
        keystroke mboxSavePath
        click button 1 of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of window 1

        click button 1 of sheet of front window

    end tell
end tell


You can open System Report and check under USB to see if your USB device was found and initialized.

In terms of device files, you'll want to search for tty* and cu* - do not include the dot.

An easy way to spot the correct device is to run first:

find /dev > list1

then plug in the serial-USB adapter, and run:

find /dev > list2

and then finally:

diff list1 list

then the name of the new device for the serial-USB adapter should be shown.


I see that with IOS 5 it is possible to sync contacts with Yahoo


How can I use Activity Monitor or "netstat -n" of terminal to check if my Mac OS X is being remotely viewed

I would actually use the "last" command.

  $ last > ~/Desktop/last_users.txt

will output the results to a document on the desktop you can open up and have a look at. Really, you should see your own user, reboot (a pseudo-user that gets activated when rebooting the computer), and just about nothing else.  I. personally have a "_mbsetupuser" that has to do with updating my OS, so you may have that as well.

If you see any usernames you don't recognize, that's a red flag.  If you see your own user on a tty other than "console" that might be an issue.  I'm not really great with netstat nor lsof, but here's an lsof primer.  The reason to learn lsof (whether in conjunction with netstat or not) is that linux treats most things as files.  lsof (short for "list open files") is a utility that helps you find out which files are open.  If someone's watching your system, they're opening "files" to do it, and that utility will show you that, unless there's a rootkit in place and/or the lsof utility itself has been hacked/modified to not show their presence, which is unlikely.

See a primer I quite like here: https://danielmiessler.com/study/lsof/


How can I keep an app open in the background?

Apps are paused when backgrounded and resume when opened. If an app does not correctly resume to the state it was left in, this is something only the developer can fix.

It's not possible to run an app in the background as if it was in the foreground. Apps can only run a limited set of tasks in the background for a short period of time per Apple guidelines, or use structured backgrounding such as Background App Refresh.

Also see iOS 7 seems to be killing apps too often.


Spam SMS on iPhone - any chance of stopping it?

I've never had to block a number but this might work:
Open up the Settings app and go to Messages -> Blocked -> Add new, this should block all calls and text messages from that number (you have to add it in your Contacts before you can block it, unfortunately)


iMessage sync with computer after deleting

When the iMessage is send, then its sent.

So when you activate iMessage again on this other "Computer" (Mac, iPad, iPhone), then it appears. It could be that after a certain amount of days, the message is deleted from Apples Server.


Set macvim as default application after homebrew installation

I had the same issue. I moved MacVim.app to /Applications and then symlinked it into the Homebrew cellar directory.

mv /usr/local/Cellar/macvim/7.3-65/MacVim.app /Applications/
ln -s /Applications/MacVim.app /usr/local/Cellar/macvim/7.3-65/


Can I make Firefox the default browser in iOS

You cannot change the default browser (Safari) unless you jailbreak, which you do not want to do. You can however use supported apps. For example, just like how ads in browsers may open app store "sponsored" apps, YouTube will open Chrome if enabled to. If the app does not specify which browser to launch in when a browser-required link is clicked, Safari will be launched.

If programmed to do so, apps are well able to launch (and transmit data) to other apps. You cannot change Apple's iOS default settings but you can decide which apps you use such that the apps you like will be supported.

Update (2019) : The "Share" option in iOS may be able to launch specific browsers, eg: Firefox has this option.


Mix two audio tracks - stretch one to sync with other

I suggest you try Audacity, which has very powerful audio editing tools, including the duration stretch/compress and pitch change functions. I've used it many times for a variety of audio tasks over the past 10 years or so. I cannot recommend it more highly. Catalina is not currently supported, however.

If you need to save to .mp3 and other formats, you will need the FFmpeg library (links on download page) for these functions.


After years dead, MacBook display suddenly worked, until PRAM zapped

Well speaking of "arcane",and "those kind of guys" are still around, for clarity see the answer below :)

So what you need to do is open it, remove battery, and clean the mother board and plugs ect.... using NON metallic cleaning objects like toothbrush and q-tip.

Use alcohol (for grease) and Vinegar(or pure lemon juice without sugar) for calk deposits from your spill.

The density of interconnects is very high and even a small amount of semi-conductive dirt can do what you are experiencing, so give it a good scrub.

Good luck :)


If the external wifi device shows up in system preferences network pane, ensure that the internal adapter is above it in the "set service order" dialog (get to this by clicking the gear icon near the bottom left corner and selecting "set service order")

Do note that some external wifi devices do not show up in system preferences or don't obey this setting, so YMMV. If it doesn't show up or doesn't obey the service order, your only option would probably be to change it manually in Terminal.

Note that if you don't have a valid IP address on one of them it will automatically be lower than one that does.

Also, if the two networks also share the same IP scheme (ex 192.168.1.xxx), the computer might be getting confused by this. The way you describe this makes me think this is the problem, but service order is also a distinct possibility.


You'll have to at least buy Snow Leopard to upgrade. You can buy it from the Apple Store for $20, and then the upgrade from that to Mavericks is free.


Automatic mounting of encrypted partitions on OS X

I'm using Unlock by Justin Ridgewell to mount my FileVault2 (CoreStorage) encrypted HDD that I have replaced my SuperDrive with.

Unlock will loop through your CoreStorage encrypted volumes (sans boot) and ask if you want them unlocked upon booting.  The passphrase for unlocking them will then be stored in the System Keychain so that another user could login and have them automatically mounted even if they don't know the passphrase for the volume.

So it's a boot time unlocking vs a user login unlocking.


Is the SSD "stick" in the MacBook Pro the same as the Mac Pro?

The model of MacBook Pro will make a large difference as to whether or not it's compatible with the Mac Pro, assuming you're talking about the "new" 2013 model.

Specifically, the Mid-2015 MacBook Pro will work, but earlier generations use various different interfaces which will not be compatible.

As you can see comparing this photo of a 2012 MacBook Pro's SSD and this photo from the 2013 Mac Pro, the interfaces are completely different. Alternatively, you can see the same pinout in the 2015 MacBook Pro on this page.

I recommend sticking with 3rd-party upgrades provided by OWC (since they will tell you exactly what they've been tested with), or only getting parts that could have shipped with the original machine. (For example, ordering a broken Mac Pro off of eBay that came with a larger SSD that you can extract.)


Switching apps based on where user looks

My answer falls in the "other suggestions" opening provided.

There's a tool called Isolator that may help you stop mistaking which app is in the foreground (and keep your focus in the right place).  Here's the description from the tool's home page:

  Isolator is a small menu bar application that helps you concentrate.
  When you're working on a document, and don't want to be distracted,
  turn on Isolator. It will cover up your desktop and all the icons on
  it, as well as the windows of all your other applications, so you can
  concentrate on the task in hand.

There's an option to make background windows blurry or semi-transparent, in lieu of simply hiding them.  Witness the blur:

(source)

Reviews elsewhere:

OS X Daily: Focus on Apps Easier & Apply Background Filters with Isolator for Mac OS X
Lifehacker: Download of the Day: Isolator (Mac) – mentions two similar tools.
MacApper: Anti-Distraction Apps: Keep Yourself On Task – (ditto)


What does Mail do when you try to quit it?

Turn on the Activity window to see what's going on. You probably have it set to purge deleted emails or some other shutdown maintenance. Press command-option-0 (command-0 if you're not on Lion 10.7) to see it or select from the Window menu.

I keep the Activity window up all the time just to see what's going on. But then, I have to monitor about 30 different email accounts for various work-related reasons.


How to buy a gift card from a German store for a Russian store?

Gift cards can only be redeemed in the same country/region that it was purchased. You can't redeem gift cards outside the country or region.

According to this Apple Support page:

  If you're trying to redeem an App Store & iTunes Gift Card or Apple
  Music Gift Card that was purchased in a different country or region,
  make sure that you're redeeming it in the iTunes Store for the same
  country or region. You can't redeem cards outside of the country or
  region of purchase.


Launchctl says plist is invalid, plutil says it's OK

The first few lines should be

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>

Your file (as well as the one in the linked answer) is missing the <plist version="1.0"> part.


OS X Lion - arrange by application category breaks alpha sort?

In Icon view, try sorting alphabetically (without categories) and then sort by categories. The apps in each category should stay alphabetically ordered.

In List view, hit ⌘-J to see the view options. You can choose to "Arrange By" Application Category and to "Sort By" Name.


iTunes crashes quickly after opening, every time

I realize this is quite an old question but I encountered this issue myself and managed to solve it, so I'm answering in case it helps someone (maybe even the OP). I am on Windows machine but perhaps it's the same solution on Mac as well(in some cases).

First I narrowed down the problem to be related to the internet connection. I disconnected from the internet and the crash no longer occurred when having internet connection.

I updated the network and chipset drivers (as this article explained) but the crash still occurred.

Ultimately, I connected to a wireless hotspot only to see the crash no longer happens, so I understood that the problem was the way I connected to the internet.

Since I was behind a corporate proxy, changing the proxy server fixed the issue