How to make Automator service that enters highlighted text into Chrome address bar?

Update:
On the day this answer was originally posted, this worked with the then current version of Google Chrome.
As is typical with software updates they break code that worked in previous versions.
As of the date of this update and testing with the latest release of Google Chrome Version 90.0.4430.93 (Official Build) (x86_64), you need to add a toolbar 1 of ¬ in between the two group 1 of ¬ to update the code to work with this latest release of Google Chrome.

Original Answer
Not sure why you need this when you can select text, then right-click and select Search Google for “$selected_text” which essentially does the same thing as you're trying to do with a Quick Action service.
The following example AppleScript code does what you're looking to do:
on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        activate
        if (count window) is equal to 0 then make new window
        make new tab at end of tabs of window 1
    end tell
    delay 0.5
    tell application "System Events"
        set value of ¬
            text field 1 of ¬
            group 1 of ¬
            group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            application process "Google Chrome" to ¬
            input as text
        key code 36
    end tell
end run

Note that in order for this Quick Action service to work, Google Chrome and any other application you trigger the service from needs to be added to: System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility
Additionally, Google Chrome needs to allow System Events under: System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Automation

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Siri: Reminder Tied to Multiple Locations

I'm sorry to say that but the reminders only work for one location each. You may be able to achieve the effect of using multiple geofences (the underlying technology) using a third-party program (e.g. Checkmark) but I have not tried that myself. Integration with Siri is not possible at the moment of this reply (no Siri API for third party developers available).


Create clean install of MacOS, yet still have access to old install

My goal is to create a clean install of MacOS, yet still have access
  to the old install while I work on the new install. I am assuming that
  I will miss some items initially and will need to refer back to the
  older install.

This is the very essence of a (full) Time Machine backup and the proper application of Migration Assistant.

Another option is to use an external USB drive and make an image of your existing drive to that external drive.  Once you are certain that you can boot from it and operate properly, you can then do a clean installation on your internal drive.

To make a clone of your drive, you can use a commercial application like Carbon Copy Cloner or use dd in Terminal to make the copy:

dd if=/dev/diskX of=/dev/diskY bs=1M

Where X is your source (internal) disk identifier and Y is your target (USB) disk identifier.

Whether you use a commercial piece of software or the terminal command you need to make sure your target disk is the same size or larger than the source.


Can iOS 11 beta users update to stable iOS 11 when it’s released?

When the Golden Master version of iOS 11 is publicly released, you will not need to downgrade to iOS 10. The Golden Master version will be the same thing as the publicly released iOS version, give no new bugs are found.

Source: https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Golden_Master


Mavericks installation stuck at 18 minutes mark

You can show the install log by pressing cmd-L. Make sure you're showing all messages and look at the bottom of the log. This may give you a hint as to what's happened (or happening).


Is there a way via the command line to cause .icloud files to download?

Scott Garret and Allan’s answer above is very close.

In the terminal, however, each *.icloud file is prefixed with a . when NOT downloaded.

For example, a directory called foo with optimised (i.e., offloaded to icloud) files a.txt and b.txt will look like this

$ cd foo
$ find . -name '.*icloud’
./.a.txt.icloud
./.b.txt.icloud

To resolve (i.e., download) the files from icloud, you need to pass the path to the resulting path to /usr/bin/brctl.

Thus, the following works.

find . -name '.*icloud' | perl -pe 's|(.*)/.(.*).icloud|$1/$2|s' | while read file; do brctl download "$file"; done

You can monitor the download activity as per this answer as follows :

brctl log --wait --shorten


How can I lower the TouchBar brightness level?

There is no way to do this currently. However, I suggest you do as I have and submit feedback to Apple requesting this option.

Hopefully it will be introduced in an upcoming macOS Sierra update.


Is there a difference between the "configurable" and installable memory limit?

Correct. You may even upgrade it to 32GB.


Get serial numbers of connected USB devices

Information about USB Devices is stored differently under Linux then macOS:

In Linux, usb-devices is a bash script that essentially reads a bunch of text files, symlinked to /sys/bus/usb/devices/usb*, that contain information about the USB Devices and formats it in the output you see under Linux.
In macOS, it does not have such a script as it doesn't store the information in the same manner. However, if you want to output information about USB Devices that are enumerated by the OS, in Terminal, then use the following command:

system_profiler SPUSBDataType

If a USB Device has a serial number it will be shown in the output.

As mentioned by Allan in his comment, you can use the following command to minimize the output to include relevant portions of the device information that contain the device name and serial number with a bit of additional info.

system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep "Serial Number" -B5

Note that doing this does obscure some of the device information as compared to the info outputted by usb-devices, although it may be unnecessary info depending on your needs.

As an example, here is the usb-devices output, in Linux, for an 8 GB USB Flash Drive:

T:  Bus=03 Lev=02 Prnt=03 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  6 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0781 ProdID=5530 Rev=01.26
S:  Manufacturer=SanDisk
S:  Product=Cruzer
S:  SerialNumber=20042214412B1A33690E
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=200mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage

Same device under macOS using system_profiler SPUSBDataType:

            Cruzer:

              Product ID: 0x5530
              Vendor ID: 0x0781  (SanDisk Corporation)
              Version: 1.26
              Serial Number: 20042214412B1A33690E
              Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
              Manufacturer: SanDisk
              Location ID: 0x1d110000 / 7
              Current Available (mA): 500
              Current Required (mA): 200
              Capacity: 8 GB (8,004,304,896 bytes)
              Removable Media: Yes
              Detachable Drive: Yes
              BSD Name: disk3
              Partition Map Type: MBR (Master Boot Record)
              S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
              Volumes:
                disk3s1:
                  Capacity: 2.97 GB (2,966,634,496 bytes)
                  BSD Name: disk3s1
                  Content: 0x17
                NO NAME:
                  Capacity: 110.1 MB (110,100,480 bytes)
                  Available: 4.1 MB (4,124,672 bytes)
                  Writable: Yes
                  File System: MS-DOS FAT16
                  BSD Name: disk3s2
                  Mount Point: /Volumes/NO NAME
                  Content: DOS_FAT_12
                disk3s3:
                  Capacity: 3.92 GB (3,923,232,768 bytes)
                  BSD Name: disk3s3
                  Content: Linux

Output under macOS using system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep "Serial Number" -B5:

            Cruzer:

              Product ID: 0x5530
              Vendor ID: 0x0781  (SanDisk Corporation)
              Version: 1.26
              Serial Number: 20042214412B1A33690E


How to add separators (vertical lines) in the dock?

You can put a spacer in the dock that separated documents from the trash. This is not the same as the vertical line, but may help you. From the terminal type or paste:

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

after that run

killall Dock

The Dock will disappear briefly but reappear with new setting. This spacer is like an icon and can be moved along the Dock by clicking and moving the spacer to where you want it. The source I included has methods for customized spacers. It may show you how to add a vertical line.

Removing them is similar to removing any other icon from the dock. Click, hold and drag it out.

Source https://www.lifewire.com/add-custom-and-standard-doc-spacers-to-mac-2260861


Os X El Capitan: will System Integrity Protection patch .AppleSetupDone exploit/hack?

No. .AppleSetupDone isn't an executable, it's just an empty file. SIP does not include /tmp or /var. These are directories that need to remain write able during normal use.


MacPort : Is a given package a dependecy for another one ?

From Macports guide You can list all the ports dependent on a port x say

port echo depends:x

To find ports that have no dependants use

port echo leaves


Retina resolution in macOS guest in Parallels Desktop for Mac

Yes, now in Parallels Desktop for Mac version 12. This new version released 2016-08 is the first to support Retina resolution within a macOS VM.

Per this page, Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac: Updates Summary…

  Retina resolution support for OS X virtual machines

Previous versions of Parallels, as well as the competitors VMware Fusion and Oracle VirtualBox, provided some support for high-resolution resolutions in VMs of other OSes such as Windows & Linux, but none did so for macOS-as-guest VMs.

Here are screen shots of the three new settings. The first was the only behavior in the previous versions without Retina support.

This next shot shows the new Retina support. Zoom into these images to see the difference at the pixel-level. You will see the icons in the next image are much more detailed than seen above, and the edges of fonts and lines are much more fine than seen above.

The last shot is if you want to use every physical pixel as a logical pixel in the display, rather than take advantage of Retina smoothing. So you get the most usable visual space but at the price of making everything tiny and harder-to-see. Notice how the Finder window becomes zoomed-out, showing much more content but shrunken.

Bug

I have encountered a bug where after adjusting for Retina, when using the VM on an external monitor (not Retina) the resulting image is shrunken, not re-scaled for non-Retina. So text and graphics are squished with too few pixels to represent their true detail.

See the following screen shot of part of screen when running Parallels 12.0.1 on an external monitor. The monitor is a plain full-HD Acer brand monitor, non-Retina. Notice how the Apple logo on the menu bar is smaller than the Apple logo on the host Mac, and the menu labels too are shrunken.

While on the non-Retina screen, the scaling options disappear. So I cannot find a way to return to conventional scaling within the VM.

Workaround is to open the laptop, move VM back to Retina screen, access the Configure panel, choose the third Retina option "Scaled", move VM window back to conventional external monitor. You may then close the laptop.


Git stored credentials work locally but don't have effect if logged into the machine via SSH

Add ForwardAgent yes to your ~/.ssh/config under the UseKeyChain line


iPhone having problems connecting to services

There might be some weird network configuration on your iPhone. Try forgetting your network and reconnecting.

Go to Settings > Wi-Fi.
Tap the  next to your home WiFi settings.
Tap Forget This Network, then tap Forget to confirm.
Quit the  settings app from the app switcher, then reopen it to add your Wi-Fi network again.


It may be worth backing up your iPod and performing a factory restore. We recently had an iPad that would discharge to flat in around 8 hours, where the rest of the set would still be going strong a couple of days later. Restarting the unit made no difference. The last thing we decided to try before returning the iPad to our supplier was a factory restore, and it was this that returned the iPad power consumption back to normal.


Can I wirelessly download videos from my iPhone camera roll to my Mac?

It seems that an USB cable is still required.

The article in Apple Support that shows how to import videos into iPhoto has not been updated recently. Either Apple is still behind in updating these support articles (not likely) or there is nothing to update--in other words, you still need USB.

The release notes for iPhoto 9.2 list the major updates to the app. It mentions that iCloud support is now included, but nothing specific about importing videos wirelessly. Hope this helps.


How to copy and paste lines in Nano on OSX

The problem is that in Mac Terminal, the alt key doesn't work unless you change the Terminal Preferences to enable Use Option as Meta key. Then alt+6 will work properly to copy.

Another choice is to use the ESC key instead of alt. So do ESC+6.


Security implications of Lock Screen vs. Sleep vs. Log Out vs. Shut Down for physical access

Shut Down

Shutting down your computer is better than all the other methods. A shut down computer has less surface area to attack.

Who is the Attacker?

If the attacker is a nation state, well funded, or highly motivated, then the difference between a computer that is asleep, logged out, or locked is likely insignificant. For all these states, the computer is booted with the storage accessible to at least one process.

If the attacker is one of the above, then physical access will be enough to compromise your computer.


How is my Apache server auto-booting without a LaunchDaemon plist?

The standard Apache is started through /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.apache.httpd</string>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>XPC_SERVICES_UNAVAILABLE</key>
        <string>1</string>
        <key>OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY</key>
        <string>YES</string>
    </dict>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/sbin/httpd-wrapper</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>FOREGROUND</string>
    </array>
    <key>OnDemand</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
</plist>


Cancel an autocorrect suggestion while typing

Hitting ESC to get rid of the autocorrect suggestion works for me.


iMac retrieve old linux partition after dual boot removal

Generally, the commands below should work.

sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s4
sudo diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 R


Any app that will automatically size and lock Finder windows?

FinderMinder resizes Finder windows when they are opened. There is a small delay before windows are resized and you have to keep it running on the background though.

I use this script to reset the properties of windows manually:

tell application "Finder"
    if number of windows is 0 then return
    tell Finder window 1
        set toolbar visible to false
        set sidebar width to 0
        set statusbar visible to false
        set current view to column view
        set bounds to {474, 250, 1318, 750}
        tell its column view options
            set shows icon to false
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

When you move or resize a window, Finder saves its dimensions to a .DS_Store file. You can make all folders use the default dimensions by deleting .DS_Store files:

sudo find / -name .DS_Store -delete && killall Finder

It also removes Spotlight comments, resets the positions of icons in icon view, and removes folder-specific sorting modes and view options.


Need to regularly check windows for changes

PixelPeeper is the only OS X app i've found that comes close to achieving this goal. Unfortunately it only watches a single pixel and has no adjustments for sensitivity.

I too wish to find an app to monitor multiple specific regions of the screen and activate a script when significant changes occur.


Can I reload old iMessage conversations on a new device (iOS and OS X)?

I just transferred all my chat history by copying ~/Library/Messages from an existing (OSX 10.8) machine to a new one (OSX 10.10).

Couple of things to note:

Quit Messages on both machines before you do this
After copying over, delete chat.db-shm and chat.db-wal from ~/Library/Messages on the new machine
Empty the Trash. I found that there was a process called 'IMDPersistenceAgent' that was holding on to the files I deleted. I killed that process ( sudo kill -9 pid in a terminal). To find out which process (and the pid) is holding on to those files I used the excellent What's Keeping Me. It found the culprit process, but I wasn't able to kill it from within it (and hence had to resort to killing from a terminal).
Start Messages. Now it might seem that you did not get the history back, but you did!  Try scrolling up for any existing conversations and you will find that the history has been restored.  If you were to start a new conversation with a contact that is not yet visible, you will find the old conversation history is now visible.

I am happy with the above and am not too worried about the list of open conversations not being restored as long as the history itself is there.†w


Any way to be sure, that Macs don't come with built-in hardware keyloggers?

Any system can contain embedded an hardware keylogger or trapdoor. Most of them do contain the last one. But a keylogger isn't as easy a task to integrate in a completly undetectable way. A keylogger will have to log.
Here is the weak point where you will be able to detect it.
Whichever is the way to log a keylogger will use, you will see something grow inside (hidden disk space, hidden memory space) or escape one way or another (network, light, radio-wave, sound, infrared).

When I look back at the way some bug in serious software aren't fixed, I can be nearly certain that a keylogger won't stay undetected for long.

A keylogger will talk and bug.

Taking into account the risk involved for any company trying to make such an evil minded choice, and a dangerous one (the keylogger once discovered will also be used by the enemies)
I doubt any risk aware company will take this risk.

From my point of view, this is clearly a vital and an unacceptable risk.


Is there a free and downloadable single-file version of the iPhone XR or iOS 12 guide?

You can use the Books app on macOS or Apple Books app on iOS to download single file user iPhone user guide for iOS 12 for free. Use the following link to obtain the guide:

iPhone User Guide for iOS 12.3


Facebook and Twitter sharing have been removed in Mojave.


How can I simultaneously take pictures from multiple USB webcams?

Couldn't you just record videos and synchronize them based on sound or something? You could save frames as images with something like ffmpeg -i input.mov -r 5 %d.png.


'localhost' stoped working as an alias for '127.0.0.1' for SSHing into my VirtualBox VM. Why, and how to fix?

[This is copied & slightly expanded from my answer on Superuser.]

localhost is normally defined in the /etc/hosts file, not in DNS (although your DNS has an emergency backup entry for it). Here's the normal contents of /etc/hosts in OS X (as of Mavericks):

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost
fe80::1%lo0     localhost

Note that if you need to edit/recreate this file, it must be in plain text format (no formatting at all), with unix-style line endings (linefeeds). You can use a command line editor like vi or nano; if you want a GUI editor, I tend to recommend TextWrangler or its big brother BBEdit for editing files like this, since they're good about not adding spurious "helpful" things to the files you edit, and also can use admin rights to edit system files (like /etc/hosts).

(Also, it's not really visible or important, but those are tab characters between the addresses and names.)

For testing lookups like this, use dscacheutil (dscacheutil -q host -a name localhost) instead of something like dig. The reason to use dscacheutil is that dig (and host and nsloogup) bypasses the system lookup policy and just checks DNS directly, while dscacheutil uses the full system lookup policy. As a result, dig won't see entries in /etc/hosts, or do mDNS (Bonjour) lookups, or look for Computer entries in directory services, or see cached entries from previous lookups, or...

When you have the hosts file set up properly, here's what dscacheutil's output should look like:

$ dscacheutil -q host -a name localhost
name: localhost
ipv6_address: ::1
ipv6_address: fe80:1::1

name: localhost
ip_address: 127.0.0.1


How to: Create a playlist with full albums for which one (or more) of its contained tracks has a 5 star rating?

Don't know of a precise solution to what you're asking, but here's a possible workaround.

Create a playlist of all the songs rated 5 stars. Change the viewable columns for the playlist to show the Album Rating. Set the rating of all of the albums to 5 stars (I believe, unfortunately, that this has to be done on Windows on an album-by-album basis). Now create a new playlist for all the albums with 5 stars.


This is not a direct answer, however, when the computer 'chimes' after activation, press and hold the key combination: command V to enter 'verbose mode'.
This should illustrate to the screen exactly what is happening during the boot process. If the process hangs on a particular step, then this is likely the issue, the remedy for which may be varied.

Alternatively, using the key combination command S immediately after the computer chimes, will grant you command-line access to the machine. OS X Lion is vulnerable to what I can only assume is a security error on Apples part, where an additional Administrator account can be created by fooling the computer into launching as it would during its first-ever launch.

The procedure for which is simple:

Boot using command-S to gain basic terminal access.
Mount the primary drive using the command: mount -uw
Remove the 'applesetupdone' file using the command: rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
Exit and proceed using the command: exit

I should state that this is not in any way damaging to the computer, you will maintain all your files, preferences and data, it simply allows you to create an additional admin account.

Using the instructions on-screen, create an additional account, from this position, you at-least have admin access to the device, however im afraid that this may not help you recover your password, only all of your data.

For additional password-recovery options, I would suggest consulting the below link, however it involves a lengthy and inefficient brute force attack.

http://www.hackmac.org/tutorials/crack-lion-password-hashes/

This may not be a direct answer, but I hope that it helps.


Make iMac file structure more like windows

If you are referring to the color of the folders in OSX, unfortunately Apple thinks they should be blue. You can use different views to make them nearly any size you like, especially if you choose the icon view.

However, if you want to change the color of the folders, I recommend an app called Folder Magic, that allows you to change the folders to any color you wish:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/folder-magic/id647731944?mt=12


How do I access the Volumes directory in Macintosh HD?

We need more specifics about what is going wrong. Do you have admin privileges on your computer?
Have you tried ⌘-⇧-G from the Finder and then typed /Volumes in that window?

You can also open a Terminal window, type cd /Volumes and then if that works type open . (a period).
If none of those work, then you need to set up that account with privileges to access root folders, but I think it should at least ask you to authorize when you try Go to Folder...

Edit: Just a guess, but from the Finder, click on the Home icon to get to your user menu. Then go to the View menu > Show View Options (or press Command-J). At the bottom, click to show Library folder. (If you don't see this option, you probably have the wrong folder selected.)


How can I force iPhone to resync contacts from server?

Maybe you've already tried this but I'll suggest it anyway.
Check Groups

Open Contacts
Tap the arrow in the upper-left corner labelled Groups if it exists.
Ensure you have selected the right group of contacts.

Try Re-Sync
If you need to re-sync because the above did not work you could try this:

Open the Settings app
Open Accounts & Passwords (or the Mail section on older iOS).
Select the account causing problems. (Usually called Exchange.)
Turn Contacts off and tap ‘Delete From My iPhone’ when prompted.
Turn Contacts back on and tap ‘Sync’ when prompted.


Will installing/ running Bootcamp on my Mac require reinstalling OS X?

Boot Camp creates a separate partition on your hard drive through "non-destructive partitioning", that is, by taking a chunk out of the free space left on your hard drive. You should always make a backup first, just in case, but the expected result is that you will simply end up with two partitions instead of one on your hard drive. One will be for Boot Camp, and the other will be for Mac OS X and all of your existing files/applications/etc.

See this Apple support document. Also when you start Boot Camp Assistant it will present a guide that you can print out to follow along with while setting it up.


How to select mutiple songs from iTunes on Mac with Windows keyboard?

To select a continuous grouping you select the first one and then press and hold the Shift key, then click the last one in the group.  To select a random grouping you select the first one and then press and hold the Command ⌘ key (on a Mac keyboard) or Windows key (on a Windows keyboard on a Mac), then click the next one and so on until all are selected.  You can let up on the Command ⌘ key or Windows key in-between selecting however make sure you press it before selecting the next one or it will break the grouping and you'd have to start over.

You can deselect by pressing the Command ⌘ key or Windows key, then click the one(s) to be removed.


User Control screwed up but unable to click on icons with Mouse on OSX 10.8

I'm not sure about the answer, but my suggestions are too long for a comment. So I will create an answer nontheless.

First: Installing updates with the keyboard should be easy if you are able to launch the app store. When you are in the appstore, use your "tab"-key to go through the main menu. Hit "space" to enter the selected item. Hitting the tab key again will bring you to the other items in the window (like the "update"-button).

If updating does not solve your issue and you are sure that there is no Magic Mouse somewhere in your bag or whatever, which is accidently turned on and can cause issues, you could try to reset NVRAM. This article should be interesting to you: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4061591?start=0&tstart=0


How exactly does Cmd-shift-4+space work?

WindowServer

The unit being captured is a layer or window as determined by macOS's WindowServer process.

As a developer, this is accessed through CoreGraphic's CGWindowListCreateImage method:

CGImageRef CGWindowListCreateImage(CGRect screenBounds, CGWindowListOption listOption, CGWindowID windowID, CGWindowImageOption imageOption);

This call returns a composite image based on a dynamically generated list of windows.

Screen Captures with Layers

Tools like Acorn, ScreenShot PSD, and Ondesoft ScreenCapture can take screenshots capturing all the individual layers or windows. The resulting capture retains the layering, allowing you to select, hide, or edit windows as desired.


You need to boot into Recovery Mode to be able to run a disk repair in Disk Utility.

Press and hold ⌘+R while booting, once you see the Apple logo you can let go.

Because your disk is encrypted, try mounting it first by opening Startup Disk, and choosing your disk as the start up disk. This should mount the drive.
Then quit Startup Disk and open Disk Utility as below.

Then you should see a menu bar with a Utilities option in it, choose Disk Utility from here and run the disk repair.

Unfortunately, disk failure is a possibility, but it could also be corruption from the system going to sleep while in the middle of doing something.
If you do manage to get back into your disk, I would recommend making a backup as soon as possible, as well keeping a regular backup in general.


How to send text messages to non apple devices from an iPad?

Up until I did an update, I could email non Apple users without any problem. After the update, I couldn't. I spent over an hour with an Apple "genius" that finally fixed it. I just updated again and I have the same problem. This is ridiculous! I have customers that text me orders. I am so frustrated!! This is messing with my income!


Disable System Integrity Protection on OS X running on VMware

I know this is an older question but I came across it looking for a solution to this problem so I figured I would submit an answer that contains all of the info I came across in one place.
Background
My environment
Host

Windows 10
VMWare Workstation 12 (patched to run macOS)

Guest

macOS High Sierra 10.13.4

I originally tried adding macosguest.forceRecoveryModeInstall = "TRUE" to my .vmx config. This allowed me to boot into recovery and could disable SIP but then I couldn't get the VM to boot normally, even after removing that line.
The solution to this problem I found was to just delete the .nvram file. Unfortunately, that's where the flag to disable SIP is stored so when my VM came back up SIP was enabled again.
My Solution

From the Terminal, run the following commands (thanks to G5tube for this suggestion)
 sudo nvram "recovery-boot-mode=unused"
 sudo reboot recovery

The second command will reboot your Mac instantly, so better save any unfinished work first.

Once the Mac has rebooted into the Recovery / Installer system (you may have to choose your language first): From the menu bar, click Utilities > Terminal

Run csrutil disable from the terminal, followed by reboot

Once your VM has rebooted normally you can verify that SIP was disabled by opening a terminal and running csrutil status

To turn SIP back on, follow the same steps as above but run csrutil enable at the recovery terminal instead.


MacBook Pro Early 2015: Sleep Wake Failure

The next time you have an issue, run sysdiagnose by pressing the key chord for it or manually from terminal and then open a support ticket with Apple. Much of the diagnostic information in console.app requires one of two things to be useful:

Access to Apple's source code and internal support documents
Access to a large volume of logs from dozens (or ideally hundreds or more) of Macs to use a tool like splunk to collect and analyze various logs to identify patterns of error messages to trace back issues like this to root causes.

In the mean time, use old-fashioned pen and paper to make a note of the wall clock time when the Mac is slow and look at Activity Monitor / top and perhaps collect one sysdiagnose each time you notice the Mac being slow. Once you have 10 incidents, you might have enough data to know what processes are making your experience poor and determine if your slowness is related to:

CPU constraints or overcommitment
Memory pressure
Storage issues
Network dependancies

A good place to start on that monitoring is using top or vm_stat to run when before you notice the slowness and then review for data once you notice that the Mac has actually slowed down.

OS X: Memory usage freaking me out

I would also write down what you wanted to do and what other apps were running when you notice slow downs. This will come in handy to identify if you can simply adjust the workload or need to make other changes to achieve better performance.


Yosemite Messages Screen Sharing Disabled

I just used Yosemite's screen sharing via Messages.

Getting it to work on both sides required me to enable back to my mac in System Settings under iCloud. After restarting the Messages app on both sides those two rectangles became active and screen sharing worked.


Is there any way to use my old Logitech Quickcam Express on Catalina?

Generally speaking as long as the webcam is a standard USB video device, it will work as those drivers are included with macOS.

However, those vintage webcams required Logitech drivers to be installed as it was a DSC WIA device per C|Net so it needed a Mac specific driver.  What you’re seeing is that the webcam is detected and identified, it just doesn’t have the proper drivers to work.


If I were to set/reset the root account password on osx 10.8, will I be increasing or decreasing the security of my system?

Enabling the root user decreases security.

Apple turns it off by default which means that someone trying to perform a remote log in both has to guess an admin user name and the password. It's not a huge decrease in security, since all admin users can become root knowing an admin password, but by enabling root, you have either doubled the exposure (the first account on a Mac has to be an Admin account and the root doubles the exposure) or if you have several Admin accounts, it increases the number by one.

Since it only takes one password to be guessed or "stolen" - having fewer openings is a more secure stance from a numbers and chance standpoint.


Transferring PC files to MacBook Pro with Lion OS via flash drive

Accessing Flash Drive

Plug the flash drive into your Mac.
Open a Finder window. (Double click any folder on your desktop, or click the blue face in the Dock.)
Move your mouse over the sidebar on the left-hand side of the Finder window, then place two fingers on the trackpad, and scroll down until you see your flash drive.
Click on your flash drive.
Open a new Finder window by pressing Command-N.
Find the files you want to copy from your flash drive, and drag them to where you want them copied in the second window.

Using Files

You have a number of options here:

You can get Microsoft Office for Mac, which will enable you to open, edit and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
If you prefer something cheaper, there is free open source project called Libre Office, which will let you open, edit and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Unfortunately there are a few features of Word and PowerPoint that it can't handle, but for most basic documents it should suffice.
If you want a solution that is free, and 100% compatible, you can try Microsoft's new SkyDrive service. It gives you free access to an online version of Office, and you can export Documents to PDF if you want to print them.
If you just want to quickly preview documents, and don't mind the formatting being a bit dodgy, you can use QuickLook, by single-clicking on the file in Finder, then pressing Spacebar You can also double-click them, and open them in Preview.


How make Safari always download CSV files instead of opening them in-page?

I have the same issue and have done some web searching and have not found a good answer.  This does work consistently for me in Chrome so when I need to export a CSV, I just do it in Chrome.  I have been able to cut/paste the Safari text into TextEdit, switch it to "text only" formatting and then save the file as a CSV, but this is so clicky -- if I'm going to do it more than once or twice, I just switch to Chrome for that browser session.


Does Mountain Lion remove headers in /usr/include?

This also happened to me, upgrading to Mountain Lion removed commandline tools. I just needed to go to Xcode and install again. Solved.


How can I complete an iPad update when I can't hit "continue"? (broken digitizer)

No. You'd need to enroll that iPad in a MDM that can push a profile to suppress that setup step. I still believe you'll need to tap something there as well on iOS 11 so you may need to pay to repair the digitizer at this point.

If you had screen zoom accessibility on, you might be able to multi you h your way to zooming and panning that control so it was on part of the digitizer that still works but I don't think that's enabled either during the pre-setup portion of iOS or amenable to set over iTunes and USB/WiFi sync.


How can I export text substitutions from Lion for import into Mountain Lion

Thanks to Sacrilicious identifying the actual file/key where the data is stored, I figured out how to copy the whole thing with a few Terminal commands.

Make sure you don't have System Preferences open while doing this, or it may not work!

On your old install, run /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -x -c "Print NSUserReplacementItems" ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist > backup.plist

This saves the substitutions to the backup.plist file in whatever directory you ran that command from (by default, your home directory).

Copy that backup.plist file to your new install (I recommend your home directory for simplicity).
On the new install, run /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Delete NSUserReplacementItems" ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist, then run /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add NSUserReplacementItems array" ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

This wipes the default substitution list and creates a new blank one.

Again on the new install, run /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Merge /PATH-TO-BACKUP/backup.plist NSUserReplacementItems" ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist, first replacing the /PATH-TO-BACKUP/backup.plist part with the actual path to wherever you saved the backup file.

That should do it. Open System Preferences to double check, but you should have an identical copy of your text substitutions on your new install.


I've had this problem as well an posted this question which is very similar yours.

Here's my solution:

On the whole logic board you'll find tiny elastic sticks. They can be pushed a little. These sticks hold the aluminum bottom off the logic board and cause the disturbing mechanic noises that your are talking about.

Do not take any chances and apply insulating tape on every place of the aluminum bottom that the sticks can contact. Apply the tape again as it easily wears out.

Now, the Macbook Pro does not make any of the previous noises anymore.  It feels like a solid aluminum brick on my lap.

And a close up...

This is what the back cover looked like when I was done. Uh, it's ugly! I'm glad it's on the inside.


What is the purpose of the BSD pty/tty device files in /dev?

Backwards compatibility is the reason that these files are on the newest version of macOS. It is there to ensure that programs that expect this way of handling pseudo terminals still work.
You can open the /dev/ptyX# files the same way you would open /dev/ttys### files. You seem to have reversed the slashes in your command - please ensure that you are using forward slashes like this:
screen /dev/ttyw0

Note that this in itself doesn't cause anything to happen. You have only connected to one end of the terminal pair. You would need to connect to other end as well to transfer some data.
As an example you could open one Terminal window and run the command above, and then open another Terminal window and run the command below:
screen /dev/ptyw0

Now if you type something in one window, it appears in the other (and vice versa).
The main factor in adopting the ptmx system was that the old system is very complex for programmers to use correct. It looks deceptively simple, but when you get into it, you'll find that it is actually not.
One of the main problems is in determining which of the /dev/ttyXX files to actually use. I.e. you want to use one that is not in use by others. If you're not very careful, two programs that want to open a new pseudo terminal at the same time could both mistakenly think that the same terminal is not in use by others, and then both start using it - causing all sorts of problems. The ptmx system solves this problem.


Does using multiple monitors cause the iMac to run hotter?

It could...  I would suggest getting a can of compressed air and blowing out the fans.  If you haven't done this recently, it could be the cause of the extra heat.  When blowing out the fans DO NOT LET THE FANS SPIN!!!  I have killed a laptop while doing that so be very careful when blowing out the fans.


I'm sure new installations of Homebrew are installed under /usr/local/Homebrew/, so I see no harm in deleting the old installation. I also noticed I have no /usr/local/Library/ in my Sierra file structure.

To keep things tidy you might still be able to delete the old installation using the script which has more uninstall options.


I have a 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM.

In my experience, it's just too slow to use productively. Screen size is also a concern once you start really using it. I haven't tried it in clamshell mode when hooked up to a Cinema Display, though.

It seems like you'd want a faster CPU as most of the rendering happens in the background, which can really slow the whole machine down when you're trying to edit.

It would be interesting to hear from someone with a new i5 or i7 MacBook Air, but either way, you'd want a larger screen if you were planning on using it without an external display.


Does Microsoft Office 2011 work in High Sierra?

I have Microsoft Office 2011 installed on 2011 and 2013 iMacs. Both Macs have been upgraded to High Sierra (macOS 10.13.3). I have not noticed any problems. The update shown in the image below is available from Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.7.7 Update. The publish date for this update was 9/7/2017, making this is a fairly current update.


How can I remove dependencies recursively in Homebrew?

A simple way to solve the problem of accumulating dependencies of deinstalled things is to periodically run brew leaves and compare it against a list of wanted leaves, and recursively remove everything else.

The following works, but of course is not very readable:

1) Show all the leaves minus the ones in your wanted list:

$ brew leaves | egrep -v 'bcwipe|brew-cask|lftp|mmv|mobile-shell|mplayer|node|octave|python|zsh'

2) Once you have adjusted the list (i.e. added new keepers), get rid of the rest:

$ brew uninstall `brew leaves|egrep -v 'bcwipe|brew-cask|git|lftp|mmv|mobile-shell|mplayer|node|octave|python|zsh'`

This usually has to be called a few times in a row to get them all, and the final call should be followed by a

$ brew cleanup

To beautify a bit, the list of keepers can of course be kept in a file somewhere.


How do I get magnet links to work with Deluge?

On OS X, Deluge is unable to associate itself with magnet links due to GTK-OSX not supporting the feature (See ticket #2420).

A workaround is to use Deluge Magnet Handler. To use it, download the ZIP, extract it, move Magnet Handler.app to the Applications folder and run it once.

The application works by associating itself with magnet links and adding them to Deluge using a AppleScript when magnet links are pressed.


Change FileVault recovery key from institutional to personal recovery key

I found the answer by opening up Terminal and using the FDESetup tool,  I run  sudo fdesetup changerecovery -personal -keychain and it worked.
Terminal prompted for password to unlock the disk but worked


Is there any way to take a picture remotely on an ipod?

No, that is not possible unless you had jailbroken the device and installed that capability beforehand.

Unfortunately, there are some limitations on what type of tracking can be done through iCloud services. If you see the general location, I could try to narrow it down as much as possible, or see if there's a movement pattern...possibly someone going to work.


Was not able to find if a specific file could be opened in a specific space but you can make applications open there.

From https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18757?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

Assign apps to spaces

If you assign an app to a particular space, it opens in that space by default.

Press and hold an app’s icon in the Dock. You may have to first open the app from Launchpad to see its icon in the Dock.

From the shortcut menu that appears, do one of the following:

Have the app open in the current space: Choose Options > This Desktop.

The app appears only in that space. However, if you open the app in full screen, it appears in its own space.

Have the app open in the current space on a specific display: Choose Options > Desktop on Display [number].

Have the app open in every space: Choose Options > All Desktops.

The app appears in every space.

Have the app open in whichever space you’re using at the time: Choose Options > None.

In Mission Control preferences, you can also specify that, when you switch to an app, your desktop should switch to a space with open windows for that app. To open Mission Control preferences, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Mission Control.


Font smoothing for pdf files in OSX Yosemite Safari vs Skim

This bug appears to be fixed in 10.10.3.

I can confirm (with Pixie) the rendering is the same in Preview, Skim, and QuickLook, at least with subpixel rendering forced to 2.


I installed rEFIND Boot Manager, got mysterious Legacy OS thing that doesn't work

You can follow this tutorial even if you don't know how to use a terminal.

If you don't want to scan legacy operating systems, do the following:

The reason this is happening is because rEFInd scans for legacy operating systems as well by default. These steps will help you disable legacy OS scan.

Open Terminal. Search for it in spotlight.
Type diskutil list, press enter and identify your EFI partition. By default it is disk0s1, but if it is different for you, then you should use the right identifier.
Type diskutil mount disk0s1 and press enter. The EFI partition should be mounted now.
Type cd /Volumes; ls and press enter. A list of mounted partitions will appear. If you see "EFI", then continue the tutorial normally. If not, look for "ESP", "Untitled" or "Untitled X" where X is the highest number possible. Use that for the next step instead of "EFI".
Type cd ./EFI; ls and press enter. From the list, find the folder that has the word "refind" in it, and use it for the next step. It can just be "refind" too.
Type cd refind; ls where you replace "refind" with the right folder name if it is different. You will now see the files inside the rEFInd folder. Search for refind.conf. If you can find it, type nano refind.conf. If you can't find it, then there is a problem and you should reinstall rEFInd.
You will be presented with a minimal text editor. Press Control+W, type scanfor and press Enter. It will find the nearest scanfor. If the cursor is at the first or the second character of a line now, continue to the next step. If not, repeat this until the cursor is at the beginning of a line.
If the first character is #, press Backspace once.
Using the Right Arrow Key, move the cursor to the end of the line, and delete everything with Backspace key except scanfor and the space after it.
Type the following: internal,external,optical,manual.
Press the following key combinations one at a time: Control+o, Enter, Control+X.

Try rebooting now. Legacy should be gone!

(Edits are appreciated, I might not be clear enough)


MacBook charging extremely slowly, after using 3rd party USB-C charger

I doubt it's just a coincidence.  There's more to the Apple chargers than just "give juice to the battery", but I couldn't tell you what another charger may have done to your system.
It could be as simple as an SMC reset (The SMC manages low-level settings such as battery management).
From howtogeek.com:

Unplug the power, then shut down your Mac.
Hold the left Shift+Control+Option keys down, then press and hold the power button down. Keep all four buttons pressed down for ten seconds, then let go.
Plug the power cable back in, then turn on your Mac.

Here's the official SMC reset page from apple:  T2,  Intel chip


How to add keyboard shortcut for 'move focus to next window'

It can be done!
Option 1: Create a new shortcut using Keyboard Maestro
NOTE:

You can do what I've outlined here within the free trial of the app I believe, but I can't guarantee that'll always be the case.
I am not affiliated with Keyboard Maestro or advertising for them, I just happen to know that you can create system shortcuts using their app.

Steps:

Download and install the Keyboard Maestro Trial
Once you open the app an editor window will appear. On the left you'll see folders, in the central column you'll see a bunch of actions, and if you click on one you'll see the configuration options for each action
Click + on the bottom of the middle column to create a new action

Give your action a name
The important bit Click on New Trigger and select Hot Key Trigger, then type ⌘ + esc to set it as the trigger.
The other important bit Click on the box the says 'No Action', this brings up an action picker on the left

Type 'Keystroke' into the search box
Drag the action called 'Type a keystroke' into the actions box
Click where it says 'Simulate Keystroke' and tap ⌘ + `

You'll need to allow Keyboard Maestro to start on startup for it to monitor things in the background (right click on app icon -> Options -> Open at Login)
You now have an uncle called Robert

Option 2: Change the System Shortcut (This doesn't add a secondary sadly)

Open System Preferences -> Keyboard

Then select the Shortcuts tab at the top
Select Keyboard in the panel on the left
Click on the ⌘' symbol next to Move focus to next window
Type what you want it to be on your HHKB keyboard


What did the 10.8.2 update do to break an AMP stack's vhosts?

Determined there was a very odd user permissions change on the ~/Sites folder that was causing these errors. Fixed.


Airplay on Bluetooth speaker paired to Mac

Unfortunately, this is not possible.  The reason you can Airplay with your phone and not your Mac, is due to the fact that the Jawbone Mini app appears to convert the Bluetooth speaker to an Airplay device as shown here.

https://jawbone.com/kb/articles/JawboneappiOS.html and here http://appadvice.com/appnn/2013/12/review-jawbones-big-jambox-could-be-the-best-portable-speaker-out-there (the second link is for the Jawbone Big Jambox, but the app is the same).

However, you should be able to pair the speaker with Bluetooth and still use it. If you want it to show up in the Airplay speaker menu, you need to build a DIY solution with a Raspberry Pi or purchase an Airplay Compatible Speaker as zero said above.

Hope this helps.


How do I disable requirement to enter password after I close and reopen the lid?

As I recall, "lid closed" is an entirely different event than "sleep or screen saver" and you cannot disable asking for a password when the laptop is opened. There is a brief timeout where you can reopen the lid, in some cases, but it's only a few seconds.


Selling a MacBook Pro with preinstalled OSX and transferring the license

With the system I've updated, will the buyer be asked for his apple ID and will that replace mine?

When they first use the system and create a User ID etc, they will be asked for an Apple ID (which is not entirely mandatory) and it will have no knowledge of you as the previous owner, nor will it care what ID is used.

If that's not the case, will he be able to do updates without having the password to my account?

Updates will be possible without having any knowledge of the ID that originally purchased it

Can I change the Apple ID that owns mavericks to him, even if I have to gift him Mavericks?

No, purchases via the Mac App Store are tied to your ID, and cannot be transferred.  Also, you cannot gift a free app.

Is there a better way to do all this?

Not really, you should just advise the purchaser to "buy" (It's free, so no cost) a copy of Mavericks against his own ID, such that it can be used for restores etc in future and to ensure that he owns a copy legitimately.  He should be able to purchase it on a machine that is already running it, simply by logging into the App store with an ID that has not already purchased it.  It may kick off a pointless download which can be cancelled, but it will get him square from a licensing terms perspective, and from a safety/recoverability perspective.


How can I record a video of my screen, without any noticeable compression?

Check out Screenium if it suits your needs, I have used it for a few projects and it worked great.


Upgrade to High Sierra stalls/fails at “Calculating installation time“

I finally managed to resolve this problem by attempting to see if I could use MacOS Recovery to reinstall the existing OS, if this was still possible.

Recovering the existing OS seemed not to be possible, but I was able to unlock and mount the laptop's drive (which seemed to be the point where the previous OS upgrade attempt had failed) using the recovery system's Disk Utility, and then use the internet recovery option to install MacOS High Sierra via the internet.

The installation was successful this time, the drive was converted from HFS Plus to APFS successfully, and my data was preserved.


Terminal command to change Privilege of "everyone" to "No Access"

chmod 700 /path/to/folder should do the trick for you. This allows execute (1), write (2), and read (4) for the owner, and no access for everyone else.


Select Songs from the list you want to shuffle.

Select any song in that list to start playback.

Enable shuffle mode, disable repeat. (click the mini player at the bottom of the screen and you will see the option to shuffle)


For anyone looking for the solution, it is described here.

brew install dpo/openblas/octave --with-qt --devel

--with-java gives a warning that legacy JDK6 is required, but there is apparently a fix for that here if you want to install it.


There is no need to decrypt the FileVault password with a 3rd-party tool like Passware Kit Forensic. You just have to unlock it with the hopefully known password/passphrase.

You may either:

Plug the external case containing the hard drive into another Mac and try to boot from it. Then revert the encryption in System Preferences > Security.
Plug the external case containing the hard drive into another Mac and try to revert the encryption by entering the following Terminal commands:

diskutil corestorage list
diskutil cs unlockVolume lvUUID #UUID of the encrypted logical volume
diskutil cs revert lvUUID #UUID of the encrypted logical volume

Consider that the Mac may also have a CoreStorage Volume Group.

Requirements:

The Mac has to be bootable with the "FileVaulted" system (i.e you can't use a PowerBook or an old iMac).

If you want to further process the data of the now decrypted drive with a PC, you have to install a software/driver in Windows capable of at least reading HFS+ volumes.


Big sur 11.2.2 very lagging on 2019 Macbook Pro

Here is how I would back date a newer Big Sur system to 11.2.1
If you have a Time Machine Backup from before you ran the upgrade. That means you can erase the Mac - get the installer for 11.2.1 and then erase / install in a fairly straight-forward manner.
Once 11.2.1 is running, migrate data from the Time Machine snapshot or backup interval before the upgrade (or whatever your custom backup procedure entails). If you don't have a backup - make one now so you can hand migrate some of the easy apps and files that are compatible with a downgrade - some apps like Photos databases don't necessarily work backwards so you'd need to handle those errors and issues one by one.
Also - Catalina may have made a snapshot of your system that’s usable as a backup, so you would just boot to recovery and restore the system to that shapshot and not even need to worry about an installer.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204015

And in macOS High Sierra or later, another snapshot is saved before installing any macOS update.

If you need to make a bootable 11.2.1 installer, here's how:

Delete any Install macOS Big Sur apps you have in /Applications (or copy them to an external drive)
Open terminal.app or another tool to get to the command line and issue this command

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 11.2.1

Once the installer is there, follow this guide to make an installable USB for 11.2.1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Then follow this guide to erase install.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496


how can you draw inside a shape in preview app?

Remove the fill of the object (i.e. select the diagonal line to the left of the black and white colour line - see image below) but leaving an outline, draw inside, or on top of it, then add the fill again.

If it's a complex fill, save it first, by clicking "Show Colours..." and adding it there.
Note: this will not group the two layers drawn and they will have to be moved individually, or by selecting them both (with the shift key).  If grouping is expected, I refer to @benwiggy's comment to use a dedicated drawing application.
PS. If flattening the image is of no consequence, consider theonlygusti's comment, or the linked to previous answer to this question.


How to get rid of black stripes in the bottom and top of screen in full screen mode

I found this post that seems to address that problem.

Full screen MacVim on OS X Yosemite

$ defaults write org.vim.MacVim MMNativeFullScreen 0

Great, it worked !! thanks for confirming for others to find and use.


Fixing a failed full disk Core Storage encryption

If this happens to you... your disk is probably hosed. Find your backups.

(I'm still interested if someone does have a solution, but given the lack of answers I don't think it's likely.)


What makes a unibody Mac better than what came before?

The unibody design makes the case lighter and stronger. Since it is machined, there is minimal error in the creation of the case. For more information, watch the video on http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/design.html. The first unibody MacBook Pro was the 15" model released in 2008 and had a removable battery. I believe that all other unibody models (and only unibody models) have integrated, non-removable batteries.


This will do the trick:

Go to System Preferences / Keyboard / Keyboard Shortcuts / Applications.
Click the + button.
Choose All Applications, from the drop-down list.
On the menu title field add the exact name of the menu bar item.
Pick your keyboard shortcut and click Add.

In case you overwrite the default Command+V shortcut, if the application lacks the Paste and Match Style option, paste will work as usual.


Apple has an "official" list of graphics cards that are compatible with the Mac Pros  (Mid 2010).
The ones specific to the 5,1 are:

Mac Pro (Mid 2010) and Mac Pro (Mid 2012)

ATI Radeon HD 5770
ATI Radeon HD 5870

Now, according to EveryMac.com, there are several more adapters that are compatible:

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800

NVIDIA Quadro 4000

AMD Sapphire Radeon HD 7950*

EVGA GeForce GTX 680

PNY NVIDIA Quadro K5000

Please note that the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 only is compatible with
the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models. The other four video
cards above are compatible with the "Early 2008" and "Early 2009" as
well as the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models.

Personally, I have used the  AMD Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 because it wasn't just compatible with OS X (10.7+), but Windows Vista (which meant it worked in 7 and should work in Windows 10)  and FreeBSD as well.
I am currently refurbing a Mid-2012 Mac Pro (side project) and I fully intend to put this exact card in the mix.


An operation may be needed to separate the 'siamese' twins ;-)
It is not going to be totally painless.

Start by investigating Family Sharing - which will enable you to keep the apps/music/books etc you have purchased.

Family sharing also necessitates designating one of the accounts as 'payer', so you may still have to negotiate who pays who for what, going forwards.

However, any data within each app, including anything like game progress, web & other history, contacts etc is going to end up belonging solely to one brother. The other is going to have to start from scratch.

Contacts can be downloaded as .vcf files from the iCloud web page.
Calendars can be shared between family members.
...but I think just about everything else is going to be starting over from scratch.


MacBook Air - random start/wake up times

Turns out it was my hard drive being very close to full.


apple.local Dock[255]: ECFileOperationRevealURL failed with -43

I suspect that PathFinder isn't actually the culprit here.  I downloaded and extracted (although didn't install) PathFinder, and searched for ECFile, and found no matches:

Mitsu:Contents ashley$ pwd
/Users/ashley/Downloads/Path Finder.app/Contents
Mitsu:Contents ashley$ find . -type f -exec grep ECFile {} \;
Mitsu:Contents ashley$

I suspect ECFileOperationRevealURL is actually the name for some code within the Dock application itself.  I say that because I found the text ECFileOperation in a 2007 webpage where people are discussing features added to the Dock in a beta release of OS X 10.5.  I can't verify this easily on 10.8, though, as /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock is now an apple-protected (encrypted) binary, which can't be meaningfully searched with grep as above.

So, some suggestions:

Just to check I have the right end of the stick: you are saying that if you cmd-click an icon in the Dock, nothing happens, except that you get an entry in console.log?
Is this true for both applications (to the left of the Dock separator line) and folders (to the right)?  (Assuming you have the Dock on the bottom of the screen.)
If you create a new user account (for testing only), does the problem persist there?
If the problem goes away in the new user account, try moving ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist to another location temporarily (say your Desktop), then restart.  This should reset your Dock setup.  If this fix doesn't work, you can always put the file back.  If it does work, I'd suggest setting up the Dock again from this fresh start.


Apple Script Calendar permissions with a locked screen

This link might help. Scroll down to the section to codesign your app.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5914


How to ping a network host at regular intervals?

The Macbook was locked with Amphetamine running, the lid was closed but an external display was connected through a USB-C hub with HDMI output. I do not believe the Macbook can go to sleep under these circumstances.

I wouldn't be so sure. Just check the output of pmset -g log | grep "Display is turned off" - if it happened when the ping got interrupted, you Mac went to sleep. I find Macbooks particularly stubborn when the charger is disconnected.
Also note that if the external display was turned off, or switched to another input, this can also be sometimes detected (depends on model/connection, I assume), so this could also trigger the sleep.
There's no magic switch to ping to issue  echo requests regularly - it does that by default.


Camera app gone (not deactivated in restrictions)

It can't be deleted it's one of the built-in apps. If you can't find it on any of your homescreens or app folders, and you can't find it via the spotlight search screen (swipe your first home screen to the right), then is it hidden by Settings > General > Restrictions > Camera being set 'off' ?

If not then have you tried a reset to see if you can find it after the iPad has restarted ? Press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider), after which the Apple logo should appear - you won't lose any content, it's the iPad equivalent of a reboot.

If that doesn't find it then have you got an Exchange email account set up on the iPad ? If so then the account administrator might be hiding the Camera app - you could try removing the account and see if it re-appears.


What iOS 6 features does the iPhone 4 lack?

Apple has a nice iOS page up at http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/

In case it changes at a later date, here is the relevant text from the end of that page.

1. Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation are available only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 or later, and iPod touch (5th generation). Cellular data charges may apply.
2. Siri is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad (3rd generation), and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires Internet access. Cellular data charges may apply.
3. FaceTime video calling requires a FaceTime-enabled device for the caller and recipient and a Wi-Fi connection. FaceTime over a cellular network requires iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, or iPad (3rd generation) with cellular data capability. Availability over a cellular network depends on carrier policies; data charges may apply.
4. Offline Reading List is available on iPhone 4 or later and iPad 2 or later.
5. Made for iPhone hearing aids require iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.
6. Panorama is available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation).
7. Find My iPhone and Find My Friends enable you to locate iOS devices only when they are on and connected to a registered Wi-Fi network or have an active data plan.
iCloud requires iOS 5 or later on iPhone 3GS or later, iPod touch (3rd generation or later), or iPad; a Mac computer with OS X Lion or later; or a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Outlook 2007 or 2010 or an up-to-date browser is required for accessing email, contacts, and calendars).

Some features require iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Some features require a Wi-Fi connection. Some features are not available in all countries. Access to some services is limited to 10 devices.

This text above is straight from the footnote portion / small text at the bottom of the web page.


Can I upgrade the Radeon Pro graphics card in my iMac early-2008?

Yes, yes you can (although it may involve a firmware upgrade):

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2133+and+2210+Video+Card+Replacement/1014

(Taken from: http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/90234/Can+I+change+my+graphics+card)


How to fix choppy scrolling on 10.9 Mavericks?

Try System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> Automatic graphics switching -> Off


Using a MacBook Pro as an external monitor

It is not possible. You can only use an iMac as a target display.


Can't shuffle playlists and then sync that shuffled playlist to my iPod

I'm having the same problem and I've looked at other websites and it seems that no one can a figure out a way to do it. I think the only option we have is to write to Apple and ask that they bring the feature back.

http://apple.com/feedback/

I already did that and I hope you will too.


How to get Apple Command Line Developer Tools without App Store?

Just get an Apple ID enter payment information for an Apple ID so that it can be used with App Store. You might eventually need it for upgrading the OS or for installing applications.

If others find this question after developer.apple.com comes back up, you can download the Command Line Tools package from https://developer.apple.com/downloads. It can also be installed from Xcode's preferences, but most of the binaries are already in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/{usr/bin,Tools}.


MacBook Air can't connect to cafe wireless, but iPhone can

Two things you could check:

Do you have a Proxy set?
Do you use some VPN?

Maybe an adblocker could also be in your way.


Why have pictures on Instagram got blurry since my iPad has been updated to iOS9?

My suspicion is that the Instagram app was programmed for the older OS and needs an update. You could check their support forums, but it also might be something you just wait out for the next few app updates to post from the vendor.

It also could just be server side changes - if your iPad isn't served the complete resolution images, you won't have them. (i.e. the problem might not exist on your device at all).


Creating symlinks in "~/Library/Application Support/minecraft" that point to Dropbox, but "the original item for "[file]" can’t be found."

Correction: 'sudo' was not the problem. I was using a bash script to link all the files automatically, which for some reason ends up creating symlinks that point to where they are created ('source file' is ignored and substituted with 'target file').

Basically what you end up with is a file that points to itself.

This problem doesn't happen when you type the command into the Terminal manually for each file. You also have to specify the full path to the file you are linking, which I didn't think I needed to. Not sure why, might be a bug with bash or OS X or whatever.

So, instead of:

ln -s saves ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/saves

type (manually in Terminal):

ln -s ~/Dropbox/path/to/saves ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/saves

Hope this helps anyone who is having the same problem.


Can I delete the logs in the /private/tmp folder?

In the standard configuration, launchd will run the "periodic-daily" script once a day with a low priority. The periodic-daily script will run the /etc/periodic/daily/110.clean-tmps script, which in turn removes the files in /tmp (which is the same as /private/tmp) that haven't been accessed for 3 days.

So normally these log files will be deleted every 3 days, unless ofcourse something is still writing to them - or you yourself are opening them all the time to check them.

You do not specify the file name of the files you're worrying about. Normally it should be safe to just delete log files in /private/tmp/.


iPad getting annoyed by upgrade requests

As mentioned in the comments, your iPad (MC764LL/A) is an iPad 2, and not the original iPad as mentioned.
The latest version of iOS on your iPad is iOS 9.3.2. Since you are using iOS 9.1, you will get an update notification. You could, however, choose to ignore it.
I would suggest you install the new OS.
To answer your question: No, you cannot turn off the notification for an iOS software update.


Fast user switching: how to prevent volumes from being unmounted?

You can stop Mac OS X unmounting user disks on log-out. This behaviour is controlled with a default (preference).

In this discussion on the Apple Support Community, Király shares the appropriate command to issue:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool YES

This command needs to be entered into Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app. Aftwards you must restart your Mac for the change to take effect.

Note that the autodiskmount tool has been replaced by automountd; it is possible Mac OS X 10.8 has migrated this default to another file.

You may also find this Super User question useful, Automount external hard drive on Mac.


How can I force new browser windows to open on my main display?

Have you tried running your browser in fullscreen mode? (Using the 2 diagonal arrows button in the upper right corner of the window)

I have a very similar setup and it works exactly as you are asking.

MacBook Pro connected to a Thunderbolt Display
Thunderbolt Display is the primary (with the Dock), MBP is secondary
Chrome running on the MBP screen in fullscreen mode
⌘+Tab to Chrome, which activates the app on the MBP screen
⌘+N to create new Chrome window, which appears on the primary Thunderbolt display


I agree with Ryokuchasan: the only simulator I've heard of is the one bundled with the iOS development tools. This only works with apps you have the source code to because it compiles the iOS app for Intel to run in OS X (using the Simulator window as a screen).

It also has limited multi-touch capability, generally limited to pinch-to-zoom, so you likely won't be able to demo the majority of many apps. (Also, using the mouse to drive an iOS app can be awkward.)

If you want to do consumer testing with iOS apps, you need a physical device in the same room as the test user.


Removing Citrix Reciver icon from Menu Bar

See https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/install-uninstall.html:

  You can uninstall Citrix Workspace app for Mac manually by opening the .dmg file, select Uninstall Citrix Workspace App, and follow the on-screen instructions. The .dmg file is the file that is downloaded from Citrix when installing Citrix Workspace app for Mac for the first time. If the file is no longer on your computer, redownload the file from Citrix Downloads to uninstall the application.

You can probably also just run

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/libexec/{AuthManager_Mac,ReceiverHelper,ServiceRecords}.app
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.citrix.*
sudo killall ReceiverHelper

but this will leave traces in other places like /Library, ~/Library etc.


Why does my iPod display "Artist Unknown" after I entered in the artists in iTunes?

I faced the same issue after upgrading my iPod touch to iOS 5.1.1. I ended up restoring it to factory settings, and setting to auto-sync with iTunes (I ordinarily prefer to sync it manually!). I also had to change not only all "artist" names but also "album artist" names, as the new software appears to list the music according to album artists.


How do I get icloud to stop emailing me about my google calendar events?

Go into your settings and turn off email alerts for your calendars. That should stop the emails, or if that doesn't , go to preferences in your email alerts and turn off calendar alerts.


At work, we refer to such devices as "switch boxes," though it appears that "video switch mini displayport" pulls up what you're looking for. The following appears to be what you're looking for:

4-port DualView Mini DisplayPort KVMP Switch with Peripheral Sharing

Of course, you're just interested in sharing the display, but it does have a built-in USB hub, in case that's needed. It has a good desktop footprint, as well.


How accurate is the GPS chip in the iPhone 4?

No WASS or any differential signaling is built into the iPhone. Apple doesn't publish performance data for GPS or the chipsets/algorithms in use.

It's just standard GPS precision (which tries to be precise to 1m on the earth's surface but never is for a variety of reasons) In practice, iOS is usually accurate within 5 meters when the dot shows no circle on the map app (called good or low Dilution of Precision). If Selective Availability (SA) is ever turned on again, all bets are off as the government can intentionally introduce errors of 70 or more meters if desired.

The assisted part of the iPhone GPS makes it faster to get a fix based on assumptions that can be made by trilateration based on cached cell tower and wifi hotspot locations. This doesn't make GPS any more precise or accurate since it's the best signal for iOS location data when it's present.


Files seem to be copying to iCloud Drive even though I've not tried to copy anything

Apple has gotten ever-more-aggressive about activating iCloud-on-by-default as the years pass.

The most likely cause is that Desktop & Documents iCloud syncing is enabled in System Preferences --> iCloud.

Here are some screen shots, note that in my example I do not have Desktop & Documents syncing turned on.


Is there a remote desktop or vnc app for the IPad that properly handles Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts?

I'm one of the developers on Jump Desktop.

The current version of Jump on the App Store (4.0.6) lets you use many shortcut combinations (including Ctrl+C) using macros: http://support.jumpdesktop.com/entries/188429 .
We're beta testing the next version of Jump that has 100% bluetooth keyboard support (i.e. you won't need to use macros and all keys work like on a regular keyboard). If you'd like to help us by beta testing it send mail to our support team and they'll add you into the beta group.


How do I disable the face2face plugin for Mail.app?

OK I found a way to do it. The plugin isn't that bad just not to my tastes. If you have this same issue the best way to solve the problem is to disable all the options in the View menu option and then delete the plugin file found in the directory above.


How to retrieve a deleted voice note from iPhone 5s?

Unless you have a backup, no. Once it's deleted, it's gone from your device. Check the time on the last iCloud backup — if it's after you recording the audio but before you deleted it, you can restore from your iCloud backup to get the voice memo back.


Extract e-mail addresses from large text file

#!/bin/bash

Report=/Users/me/Desktop/mail/cur.txt

for f in /Users/me/Desktop/mail/test/*; do
  if [ -f "$f" ] ; then
    EMAIL=$(/usr/bin/grep -E -o '([a-zA-Z0-9_\.-]+)@([a-zA-Z0-9_\.-]+)\.([a-zA-Z]{2,5})' "$f" )

    if [ "$EMAIL" != "" ] ; then
      echo "$EMAIL" >> "$Report"
    fi
  fi
done


How to clean keyboard with a liquid with sugar spilled on it

I don’t know what’s inside an Apple Aluminium Keyboard as I don’t have one. But washing it with water and letting it dry in the shade for a few days should not cause a problem. If any, you should be worried about rusting any metal and not about the membrane, which is made up of rubber or plastic.

EDIT: Don’t forget to remove the batteries!!!


Trackpad working poorly on Macbook, why?

Here is what I would do to troubleshoot it (with the help of an external mouse):

Go to System Preferences, then select Trackpad, and make some change on that screen.  Try your trackpad again.

If that doesn't work, reboot.

If that doesn't work, and if you're using BootCamp (or VMware Fusion, or Parallels), try booting into the other operating system that you have installed on your Mac and see if your trackpad is recognized there.

If that doesn't work, try cleaning off your trackpad.  Give it a good vacuuming, get any dust out from around the edges.

If that doesn't work, then (if you're comfortable) it's time to dig into the innards of your Macbook.  One option is that your battery could be impacting this.  If your battery life on your Macbook has also gone down, the battery itself could be physically bulging out, and it could move your trackpad enough out of alignment that it won't work any longer.  If that's the case, then you need a new battery.

If your battery is fine, then it could be that you need a new trackpad.  I bought a replacement trackpad from eBay for my old Macbook, and that got me an extra year's worth of life out of that Macbook.  It was a bit fiddly to replace, but it worked.


How to fix missing Dock icon when Safari is active and minimized?

Minimising into the right hand side of the tray is pretty much the norm for so called "document based applications", whereby an open application may well have 1 or more windows (or "documents") open.  This allows each individual window to have it's own minimised icon, with a preview based icon to allow you to distinguish between them.

Applications which are not multiple window based, things like say Disk Utility etc, usually minimise to the application icon instead, and even if (like Safari) they do have multiple windows, then clicking the dock app icon should take you to the most recent window if it's not merely the only one.

Either way, your running applications icon for Safari should remain in the dock, although I have to admit that mine also went missing recently, although I can't recall if this was pre or post ML.

A reboot should fix it, as it seem to me to be a transient fault, but if you are familiar with Terminal.app you can type the following in to restart the Dock process, which should clear out any such gremlins:

  killall Dock

You can also force document based applications to only minimise to the dock icon and not produce per-window icons on the right hand side of the dock in System Preferences:


Text Editor Graphical Glitch on Xcode 6.4

Go to Preferences->General tab and uncheck "Show live issues" under Issues. Notice that this is a work around to be able to continue working with Xcode, at least until they issue an official fix. This glitch seems to be noticeable when you have lots of lines of code (1000+).

After this, the glitch will still be happening but not while coding but during building phase. Not perfect but at least you will be able to continue working.


Can one iPhone be registered to multiple Developer accounts?

Yes

A single device can be added to as many developer accounts as necessary.


Too many open files error when trying to ssh into mac

The following line in one of my bash scripts was the problem:

declare -fx $(bash -c "source ~/.local/bash.d/functions/10-git.bash; compgen -A function").

I'm not sure why it results in the error, however.


You could use a script to check the RSSI value of the currently connected SSID.  If it is above a certain threshold, than change to other SSID with lower RSSI.  This could be run manually or paired with a Launch Daemon that is triggered by network change.

In the below script you would just have to change en1 to your wifi interface.  Also set your desired threshold for the RSSI value.  In the below script I set it for 65.  The first time it runs it will prompt for a password to allow netowrksetup to access the system.  Otherwise run it as root.

If you create a Launch Daemon I would monitor these three files:

/etc/resolv.conf

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

Script to change SSID if RSSI value is to high.

#!/bin/bash

##Check signal strength of wifi and change if over a certain RSSI threshold.

##Get RSSI strength of WIFI and strip off the - charecter
signalStrength=`/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -I | grep CtlRSSI | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/^[-]*//'`

##Grab current connected WIFI SSID
wifiID=`networksetup -getairportnetwork en1 | cut -d ":" -f2 | sed 's/^[ t]*//'`

if [[ "$signalStrength" > 65 && "$wifiID" = "Upstairs" ]]; then
    networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 "Downstairs" [password]
    echo "Changing to Downstairs wireless, RSSI signal out of threshold"
elif [[ "$signalStrength" > 65 && "$wifiID" = "Downstairs" ]]; then
    networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 "Upstairs" [password]
    echo "Changing to Upstairs wireless, RSSI signal out of threshold"
fi


Lock Mac mini but keep secondary display running

I would use status board and an old iOS device to run the status board, but perhaps that's not the suggestion you are hoping to get. OS X doesn't allow one screen to opt out of locking - the current user is all or none in terms of keyboard input.

You could also develop custom kiosk software. But I've only seen that lock all the screens - not one.


Try going into (Calendar) Preferences... -> Advanced and turn on "Time Zone Support"

You will se a new menu item where you can change Calendar's time zone:


Script to toggle internet sharing using Alfred

You could try this (tested on OSX 10.9.5 but it may depends on the version of you OS) :

tell application "System Preferences"
-- display system preferences window
activate
-- wait to see the window
delay 1.5
-- try again
activate
-- Open sharing tab (or pane)
set current pane to pane "com.apple.preferences.sharing"
-- we want to see it
delay 1.5

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"

        -- click the checkbox to enable internet sharing
        tell window 1 to click checkbox 1 of row 8 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1
    end tell
end tell
-- wait to see the result
delay 1.5
--quit -- we can quit system preferences
end tell


If you create the NativeMessagingHosts registry entry it syncs fine without Chrome being detected.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.apple.bookmarks]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\Apple\\Internet Services\\AppleChromeDAV_host_manifest.json"

In the UWP version of iCloud both Firefox and Chrome keys are already exposed by the AppX though you can't see them in the registry. So any browser should just work if you install the iCloud extension.


Is cellular for Apple Watch ever available for a pre-paid phone plan?

There is no technical constraint preventing an Apple Watch cellular from being used with a pre-paid plan.
I have used an Apple Watch Cellular with pre-paid plan in India.


Do MacBook Pro compatible Thunderbolt external GPUs work with Boot Camp?

Yes, in general, external GPUs work with Boot Camp just fine.

In the specific case, you need to ensure that you have Windows drivers for your eGPU and that your enclosure is supported by Boot Camp. Mostly this is not a problem in practice.

Note that it might require a bit of fiddling to get this working in some cases. For example note that it might not work if you plug in the eGPU on the left-hand-side Thunderbolt ports on the MBP, but work perfectly fine on when plugged in to the right-hand-side Thunderbolt ports (or vice versa).

You can find a list of user guides for setting this up with various GPUs and enclosures: eGPU.io - User Implementation Guides

Here's a nice guide that details some of the "fiddling" that may be necessary: eGPU.io - Boot Camp eGPU Setup Guide for Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro


How to click button with applescript using UI Element Inspector

This is the easiest way...

tell application "Safari"
    if not (exists document 1) then reopen
    activate
    set URL of document 1 to "https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193"
    delay 3
    do JavaScript "document.getElementsByClassName('lockup product application')[0].childNodes[3].onclick()" in document 1
end tell


The wrong name appears attached to my email. Somehow Mail thinks my email belongs to a different name

I think I found the problem -- I've seen this problem happen across 3 different macs in my extended family.  Today, in utter frustration, I started searching for a solution...

Previous Recipient list was not the problem.  It was Contacts.

Do a Spotlight search on your email address (the actually address) and see if you have extra contacts show up with that same email address.  In my case, I did.  Somehow Contacts was making all sorts of weird connections.

For instance, in my address book, "Prescott Police" had 7 (!) completely unrelated (and often obscure/hardly used) email addresses associated with it.

I edited the contact and deleted the extra email addresses associated with it.

I then stopped and restarted Mail, and the email address in question showed up with the correct name.

I have no idea how Contacts ended up making such strange associations, but so far I've been able to "fix" 2 errant names that I came across in the past 30 minutes.

I'm still on 10.10.5 (I never upgrade OS in the midst of a major project), and my mail services (IMAP) include Pair, iCloud, Gmail, and icdSoft.


What do the different colors of the tab title in iTerm2 mean?

The iTerm color change of Tab labels indicates activity.

It can be turned of in:
Preferences > Appearance > Color tab labels on activity

The help file explains this "Color tab labels on activity" appearance preference as follows:

  If selected, tab labels become purple when a non-selected tab has new
  output, and red when a non-selected tab has output you haven't seen
  but that is not very recent.


Where is the hard drive in a Mac Book Pro 15" (early 2011)?

As you can see in iFixit's teardown, the hard drive is located in the lower right corner. The lower left is pretty much just the battery, which doesn't really have any mechanical parts that could make a clicking sort of noise.

Perhaps listen a little closer and see if you can isolate the noise better. I would also strongly recommend making regular backups if you don't already, as a clicking hard drive is not a good sound, if that is where it's coming from.


You can try the free and open source Audacity sound recorder.

It is a powerful recorder, editor, and converter.

You can find a version that is backwards compatible with macs running much older versions of OS X.

It has a steeper learning curve than QuickTime’s or iTunes audio recording feature, but it is far more powerful and better suited for longer recordings where editing is needed.

Here is a Sample:


How can I change the theme (red) color of PowerPoint for Mac?

There is no option in MS Office to do this, but how about Mac system?

There is no built-in option in macOS to theme/visually style apps. The most you can do is to turn on Dark Mode by going to System Preferences → General and select Dark for Appearance (1st item at the top). This way, you can get dark grey appearance in PowerPoint for macOS.

Office for Mac version 16.20, Office 365 and Office 2019 support Dark Mode on macOS Mojave. From this linked article on MacRumors:

Microsoft Office Apps Now Support Dark Mode on macOS Mojave

  Microsoft today updated its suite of Office for Mac apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, with support for Dark Mode on macOS Mojave and several other new features. The updates are available to both Office 365 subscribers and to users who purchased Office 2019 for Mac as a one-time purchase.

and

November 2018 release

  Microsoft Auto Update 4.5

  Support for Dark Mode

and

https://twitter.com/derek_snook/status/1072614131730169858

  And with v16.20 some customers will see our Ribbon Visual Refresh with new icons and styling in Office 365 for Mac, as we begin rolling out and getting your feedback! On macOS Mojave, the new icons adapt to Light and Dark Mode as well!  #Office365

To learn more about Dark Mode, refer to the Apple Support article:

How to use Dark Mode on your Mac


How to play music from my computer on iPhone (without iTunes)?

You want a DNLA streaming app for your iPhone, which can play a music library via a DLNA server running on your PC.

For the PC side, google "windows DLNA server" will get you current choices, but at this time there are Plex, Tversity, and Twonky

On the iPhone side, look at apps like Media:connect. There are summaries of current choices online, like this one: http://blog.dreamcss.com/iphone/dlna-streaming-apps-for-iphone/


How can I prevent text messages going to my Mac?

Open Messages.app from the Applications folder, or Spotlight (⌘-space).
Open the Preferences window from Messages → Preferences or press ⌘,

Select the Accounts tab.

Select your iCloud account and uncheck the Enable this account option.


To create a new apple ID on another iPhone

You can create a new Apple Id on My Apple Id website. Just click on Create a New Apple Id and follow the instructions.

In that website you can also Reset your password, that maybe it's a better option.


Developer Program for Viewing Passbook-Related Pages

Yes - those links are pre-release and protected to iOS registered developers. You might get by with an educational account - but most developers use the $99/year plan to gain access to the Provisioning Portal.

Provisioning devices for testing your application on real iPhones rather than the simulator does require a membership, as does any pre-release software or documentation. However, Passbook is not pre-release documentation any more; with the release of iOS 6, they have published public documentation, so you can view this. If you need more information as to what the $99/year membership gives you access to, view their iOS Developer Program page.


How to tell Timemachine that the Machine Dir has moved?

I think I have found the answer. The following site was very helpful:

http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

There are important differences between how Time Machine backups to local disks, and tonetworked disks. In the first case the backup goes to a "Backups.backupdb directory, in the second case to a "sparsebundle".

So my solution will be:

First have Timemachine start a new back up to my now networked
Drobo.
Interrupt the backup after the sparsebundle has been made.
now move the Drobo temporarily back to my Mac, mount the sparse bundle, and use diskutil to erase it.
Copy the existing back up in to the monted sparsebundle.
Attach the Drobo again to the Time Capsule once this is finished.

However I can't try this out yet. First have to expand the disk space on my Drobo. So the first step for me really is: Get two 4TB disks on Monday...


I use TeamViewer since years.

From Mac - to PC or Mac.

From USA to Europe.


How can I use Family Sharing for Store purchases if I use a different Apple ID for purchases?

This works exactly as one would expect it to: When you share from an iOS 8 device, purchases made with the Apple ID used on that device for purchases (iTunes, iBooks, AppStore) — even if that ID is different from the one used for iCloud (Photos, Mail, Contacts, Calendars) on that device — will be shared.


It turns out that although you can't do it with CMD-C and CMD-V, you can drag and drop the thumbnail of a photo from iPhoto into Facebook. So I did it this way:

Find a photo I want to post
Press the space bar to go back to the thumbnail view. The thumbnail of the photo I was looking at is highlighted in yellow.
Click-and-drag the highlighted thumbnail and, while holding the mouse button down, press CMD-tab to switch to the browser
Drop the photo into Facebook
Repeat for other photos until the post is finished

It's not exactly ideal but it did work. I won't accept my own answer in case someone has a better way.


If I send my mum an iMessage it goes through to her boyfriends phone?

It's possible that at some point she has signed in to her iCloud account on his iPhone and activated iMessage thus when she receives an iMessage it is also being sent to his iPhone.


How can I move a photo from iPad Camera Roll to another Album?

No, not straight from the iPad. The Camera Roll is like a smart folder: it contains all items that were stored as pictures on the iPad from apps. You can't move pictures from there to another album, just like you can't move songs from the iTunes library to playlist.

However, if you import the pictures on your computer, then delete it from the iPad (you didn't specify your OS there, but assuming Mac OS X: with iPhoto, it simply asks you whether you'd like to do so after the import is over), syncing the pictures that were in the Camera Roll back onto the iPad will make them appear only in the albums you've configured on your computer, not in the Roll anymore (since they were not added from the iPad).


How to quickly turn on/off active corners?

I would suggest enabling Guest access or creating a new user account. If you create a new account, make sure it has non- administrator status! Do this by going to System Preferences -> Accounts, and clicking the + button at the bottom left corner. Alternatively, you can just have them log in as a Guest, which you enable from the same pane, and after which anything they've worked on will be deleted from your machine. In both cases, you don't have to mess with your account or any of its settings, and things are just as you left them once your friend is finished with whatever they need to use your machine for.


What would be the cleanest method of converting my APFS macOS partition back to HFS+?

Once you formatted an HDD as an APFS volume it is not easy to get back to HFS+. I made the experience when I formatted an external 10 TB backup disk as APFS just to decide that maybe HFS+ would be better for my usage scenario. When I tried to reformat the HDD, the HFS+ version was gone from diskutil. I had to erase the complete volume structure and as soon as I did this, I was able to format as HFS+.

So I guess you will have to go through this too.

Full backup (time machine, carbon copy, ...)
Following my experience I would say to completely erase the volume structure of your internal HDD, through target disk mode or while booted into the recovery partition of an external USB drive.
Reinstall
Restore

Good luck!

With other words: I would say there is no way of avoiding a complete erase and reconfiguration of the whole volume structure + reinstall.

The “too many corpses” hinds at a corruption of your account/machine setting. If it is the user account you could try to create a new user:

Start with ⌘-S
Check the startup disk:/sbin/fsck -fy
Mount the startup disk using: /sbin/mount -uw /
Remove the setup complete flag using: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Install macOS and create a new user.
Copy your data to the new user.

If it is a machine setting related problem: erase, etc..


How to bring back Mac Notes from external drive?

You probably need to enable the "on my computer" account first. In retrospect you should probably have used iCloud for storing your notes instead.


What is the maximum capacity for a Time Capsule's hard drive?

Nobody seems to know what the official drive size limits are, but I just connected an 18TB hardware RAID to a 1st generation Time Capsule, and it works. To duplicate my setup:

Configure a 4-drive hardware RAID using this enclosure:

https://www.newegg.com/sans-digital-tr4utbpn/p/N82E16816111149

(I used four 6TB drives and set it up as a RAID 5)

Connect the RAID enclosure to the SATA connector on the Time Capsule's logic board using this cable:

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16812119251?Item=N82E16812119251

This Time Capsule has pretty much been gutted over the years, so the only thing left is the logic board itself. It's powered by a 2A 5VDC external brick, WiFi and routing are disabled. It's just a hack NAS at this point...but it handles an 18TB drive.


Does gigabit ethernet to thunderbolt adapter work with old ethernet?

From Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

  The Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter lets you easily connect to a high-performance Gigabit Ethernet network. Small and compact, it connects to the Thunderbolt port on your Mac computer and provides an RJ-45 port that supports 10/100/1000BASE-T networks.

So the answer is, yes it will work. It will provide the bandwidth up to the supported bandwidths 10/100/1000BASE-T as applicable.


Looks like I found the problem.  I created a new blank user and logged in there and it didn't happen, so I figured the problem had to be software related.  Turns out it was an application that recently updated called "display maid" which was causing the problem.  After i disabled that app, everything was fine.