Recovering data off of a dead hard drive

You could try following this hint from Macworld. It makes use of the Terminal (0$) to execute the UNIX command dd to copy everything bit-by-bit from your harddrive to another location.

1. Determine UNIX id. of dead drive

If you decide to use this method you would first have to determine what the UNIX identifier of the attached disk is. Open up Terminal (Applications --> Utilities) and type the following:

  diskutil list

This will give you a list of all connected drives and their partitions and it should look like shown here.

Probably your boot drive is under /dev/disk0 and the drive in the external enclosure is under /dev/disk1. This could be different, look this up by finding the name of the dead partition in the list. Let's assume for the rest of this answer that the dead drive is under /dev/disk1

Now if you can not find the name of the dead drive in that list, diskutil can not find your drive and the Macworld hint will not work for you. If you see it in the list, move on to the next step.

2. Define destination

This method copies the whole disk byte-by-byte. If it encounters an error it will skip it and write zeros to the destination (read the hint for full details). So, the destination should have enough hard drive space to accomodate the whole hard drive you're recovering. So if you've got a 320GB hard drive, you'll need 320GB of destination space. If you have 320GB to spare on your bootdrive proceed to step 3. Otherwise get another external drive with at least 320GB of space and then proceed to step 3.

3. Copy

The command given in the hint is:

  dd bs=512 if=/dev/rXX# of=/some_dir/foo.dmg conv=noerror,sync

You should replace /dev/rXX# with /dev/rdisk1 (according to our earlier assumption) and /some_dir/foo.dmg differs depending on your destination. If you choose your bootdrive you could change that line to: /Users/**yourusernamehere**/Desktop/recover.dmg

If you choose an external disk you should write /Volumes/**Volumenamehere** instead of /some_dir/foo.dmg

To summarise, your Terminal command would look as follows if you choose your boot drive as destination:

  dd bs=512 if=/dev/rdisk1 of=/Users/yourusernamehere/Desktop/recover.dmg conv=noerror,sync

Or if you choose an external disk:

  dd bs=512 if=/dev/rdisk1 of=/Volumes/Volumenamehere conv=noerror,sync

Good luck


Recommendations for a good Bandwith Tracker on OS X

I really like BitMeter OS. It's free, runs as a service and has a slick browser-based interface. It also runs on Windows and Linux.


I saved my iOS 5 SHSH with TinyUmbrella, and now I have 4.1 SHSH too?

Here's a helpful guide on using TinyUmbrella, SHSH blobs, and downgrading. Depending on your hardware, downgrading may or may not be possible. I haven't tried downgrading anything since iOS 5 beta on original iPad and iPhone 4. It worked in both cases, but I'm not sure what you have.

The version of iTunes may also play a role in your ability to downgrade. For instance, the latest iTunes may not allow you to restore a version of iOS prior to 5.

Sorry if this wasn't as solid an answer you were searching for. Maybe it'll give you a starting point to experiment, if you have the time though.


Enable right click Magic Mouse in Terminal

Never mind - logging in and out made it work!

Such an obvious fix.


Disable ambient noise reduction in macOS Catalina

My understanding is that the "Ambient Noise Reduction" feature only works with the internal microphone. Thus when you plug-in a Røde USB microphone, ambient noise reduction is not applied to that input. Therefore I suggest looking at other possible causes of bad audio quality or latency.

The lack of the checkbox for the internal microphone on Catalina is, as I understand it, a bug. Hopefully Apple will restore it in a point update.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a Terminal command that enables/disables ambient noise reduction. You might however want to check if the plists in the /Library/Preferences/Audio/ folder contains a setting related to ambient noise reduction on your system.

However Apple's documentation seem to indicate that you can disable ambient noise reduction by setting up a 4-channel built-in microphone format with the Audio MIDI Setup program.


If I log onto someone else’s WiFi on my computer, would they be able to see my personal files?

Normally they can not look inside your computer.

Just to make sure that is the case,

open system preferences > sharing

and make sure all items are disabled.


OS X Yosemite Improperly Ejecting External Devices

It happens occasionally with my external drive which I suspect is a connection problem. I run 10.7.5 so I would judge it unlikely to be a Yosemite issue. If slightly moving the cable around replicated the behaviour, that's probably it.

But no, clearly this is not normal. It would not hurt to try it on other systems which I don't currently have the hardware to do.


What hardware do you need to buy in order to publish apps to the iTunes/iOS App Store?

Technically, the submission of apps and music and books happens over a web page, so you don't need any Mac hardware to publish the end results of your creative work.

For iOS, the Xcode tools run only on Macs, so you simply need to pick a version of Xcode and find a mac that meets the minimum specs. Pretty much any mac made in the last 5 years is good enough. Do make sure the mac will run Lion as you won't want to be stuck on Xcode 3 for long. You do not need to have any iOS devices to submit an app to the App store.

However, having iOS devices is highly encouraged for testing and development, but you don't need one for publication. Testing on actual devices is very important for a quality app as there's no replacement for getting the gestures and the UI tweaked on a real device. Plus, the simulator isn't quite a perfect simulation, especially when it comes to memory, so you may miss bugs you would otherwise find on an iOS device. Apple will surely run your app on several devices and you will lose time and perhaps not be approved if you ship apps that run fine in the simulator, but not so well on real devices.

The simulator runs Intel Processor code, the devices run ARM code - so your one code project gets built into two apps - you only submit the iOS app for approval / distribution and it's better for you to test that exact build and find the bugs yourself rather then when the app is under review.


iTerm unresponsive as xcode attempts (and fails) compiling every startup

It turns out I added a small typo in my .zshrc of as that was attempting to translate assembly code to object code every time I started a new shell and the .zshrc file was evaluated. Oof.


Mac Hard Drive Testing Tools and SMART Analysis

SMART testing is of limited value in many cases, and cannot often predict failure of a hard drive. This is because different hard drive manufacturers implement different parts of the spec and (as you mentioned) different software and OS manufacturers look at different pieces of the spec in interpreting the SMART status.

Beyond that there are certain mechanical issues that can be difficult or impossible to predict. If your hard drive is tapping now, there are many things that could've caused the mechanical failure and it is hard to say if SMART had a way of knowing about it beforehand.

SSDs can and do support SMART. Rather than explaining, this Server Fault thread explains it quite well.


Setting nano as default editor not working for crontab with fish shell

set -U VISUAL nano only sets the variable within Fish. If you want to make it visible also in binaries started by the shell you need to export it, e.g. by using set -Ux VISUAL nano.
For more details

Variable Scope
Exporting Variables


Resizing dual boot partitions in Yosemite

There are at least two approaches to solve your problem:
One is potentially destructive, vastly undocumented and i don't know if it works (1) and the other one is  for sure destructive (2).

So please backup your Mac OS X and your Ubuntu partition if necessary.

Requirements: USB thumb drive with a full working Mac OS X and iPartition installed or a Linux Live USB with gparted.

It's also useful to have a second computer with internet access and the stackexchange credentials to check back if you run into severe problems.

(1) risk of destruction  (this may render your systems unusable):

Your Mac OS X partition (Macintosh HD) visible on the desktop is equivalent to the Logical Volume 4F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4. You may shrink it down to the 82.68 GB which will render your OS X almost unusable because it needs some free space. You may disable the sleepimage and gain the amount of your RAM size as additional free space though.

Restart into Internet Recovery Mode by pressing cmdR
or your bootable Mavericks Thumb Drive with iPartition installed.
start Terminal from the menubar/utilities
enter following command at the Terminal prompt:

  diskutil cs list
  Copy the Logical Volume (LV) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVUUID should be the fourth listed. In the above example the alphanumeric is:
  4F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4.
  Run the following command:

  diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID

According to the number found above it would be:

  diskutil cs resizeStack 4F26F5C3-8D94-419F-AFF1-B652E9DCDEF4 88g

This will hopefully shrink your CoreStorage volume to 88 GB (skip to step 9 if this doesn't work)
If necessary reboot into your thumb drive and start iPartition. Alternatively you may use a Linux Live USB with gparted.
Try to move the volume Recovery HD to the end of the now shrinked Macintosh HD  (skip to step 9 if this doesn't work)
Expand your Ubuntu partition

(2) total destruction (this will delete all partitions on your disk)

Disconnect all external hard drives
Restart into Internet Recovery Mode by pressing Command+R
(alternatively you may use a Mavericks or Mountain Lion Install Thumb Drive)
start Terminal from the menubar/utilities
enter following command at the Terminal prompt:

  diskutil cs list
  Copy the Logical Volume Group (LVG) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVG UUID should be the first listed. In the above example the alphanumeric is:
  08436957-C5CD-4DC6-B9FA-05B51A3EEFC8.
  Run the following command:

  diskutil cs delete LVGUUID

According to the number found above it would be:

  diskutil cs delete 08436957-C5CD-4DC6-B9FA-05B51A3EEFC8

This will delete your CoreStorage volume and probably your Recovery HD and reformat it as a simple HFS+ volume.
Quit Terminal
In the now opening window choose Disk Utility erase all leftover partitions and format/partition/rename the internal drive. Choose 1 Partition, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table (available with the option button). Quit Disk Utility.
Now choose 'Reinstall Mac OS X'
The originally shipped OS X will be downloaded and installed or the one provided with the aforementioned OS X Install Thumb Drive.
Set up your Mac
Download and install Mavericks/Yosemite from the App Store if necessary
Install Ubuntu (in a larger partition now)


Why is Apple using an older version of OpenSSL?

Why is Apple using a vulnerable version of OpenSSL?

It isn't.

If you click on the link you posted in your question, you will see that this update patches a number of vulnerabilities which exist identically in OpenSSL 0.9.8, 1.0.0, 1.0.1, and 1.0.2.

So, in other words, the version you are later suggesting as an alternative, 1.0.2, was just as vulnerable as 0.9.8 was, and both were fixed at the same time.

  With the newest OS X Update (10.10.5), Apple is introducing OpenSSL 0.9.8. I browsed through the official OpenSSL page, and there I could get Version 1.0.2.

Apple is updating OpenSSL to 0.9.8zg, which is just 2 months old, and only 4 weeks older than 1.0.2d.

  My question is: Why is Apple using an older Version of OpenSSL? Is it because of deprecated functions in Version 1.0 or what is the reason behind it?

That is something you will have to ask Apple. My best guess is that 0.9.8 is the version they did their compatibility testing with, and upgrading to a newer version would require a completely new round of testing for a component that is deprecated anyway. Since it is deprecated, newer software (which would possibly rely on newer features) shouldn't use it anyway, and older software which still uses it doesn't use the new features (because they didn't exist) and might even be broken by an update, so why bother?

As long as the OpenSSL community still maintains the 0.9.8 branch, Apple doesn't even have to do the work of backporting patches.

Note that this is nothing unusual. Apple shipped an old version of Ruby for a very long time, and they generally don't update during a release cycle, only in between releases. Linux distributions as well BSDs and other Unix distributions also typically don't update versions during a release, they only apply bugfixes and security fixes. Debian, in particular, generally doesn't even fix all bugs, only security vulnerabilities and bugs which might result in loss of user data – any change, even a bugfix is a potential incompatibility and a potential for new bugs; known bugs are better than unknown ones!


Horrible high pitched noise from iSight mic only under OSX

It's quite old question but I had same problem with two USB cameras just few days ago. To fix it go to the MIDI setup (i.e. by Spotlight Search Bar). On the left side choose your USB microphone (USB camera) and on the right try to change frequency to 44 100Hz and format 16-bit. Previously I had 24-bit which causes the problem.


For a Western Digital Duo, what's the difference between creating a RAID using WD Drive Utilities vs. OS X (diskutil)?

There is in fact, a major difference between the two.

The WD Duo has hardware RAID built into the device whereas OS X RAID utility is software based RAID meaning you use CPU cycles to manage the RAID processing overhead.

The WD "offloads" the RAID processing overhead onto itself and presents just a drive to OS X.  OS X doesn't have to do anything more than it already is doing to access it.  The WD Drive Utilities is just a management tool for the RAID array, not the RAID software itself.


WiFi hotspot without internet provider knowing?

Any unencrypted HTTP packets (web sites or even streaming commercial content like music) would by default contain the User Agent corresponding to the device and browser/app, which would make it easy to distinguish between devices. It would be rather involved to change the user agent for non-browser traffic; some of those packets are generated deep within the OS.

Effectively masking a WiFi-connected device would be very difficult, if not practically impossible (depending on the sophistication of IT), if it is iOS or tvOS, or especially if it is a non-Apple device. Different devices and OSes have different characteristics for traffic they create.

You could encrypt the traffic with a VPN on the WiFi-connected device(s), but this could easily be noticed and is likely to be a red flag to IT.

The easiest combination to hide would be a device identical to the wired device, e.g., a macOS laptop over WiFi to a macOS laptop. Even then, source port number patterns and other markers would be a good clue to IT if they are paying attention.

In addition, the mere act of connecting another device is problematic. Operating a WiFi hotspot is likely to be noticed, even (again, depending on IT sophistication) if you hide the SSID. Triangulation could probably isolate the location to within a few machines. You could tether a device using USB, Bluetooth, or another hardware port, but any connected device will also leave forensic clues on the wired device.


QuickTime - Record internal audio and not external audio

There is a shareware/free software designed specifically for this task called BlackHole which I use on a weekly basis.  Here is the developer's website and here is his project on GitHub.


QC 35 paired with MacBook and iPhone simultaneously audio stops

If your Bose QC35 headphones are simultaneously connected to your MacBook and iPhone, then whichever device is sending an audio signal through to them will be heard in the headphones.

Now, pausing iTunes on your MacBook only pauses iTunes, it isn't going to pause any other audio - so if your headphones are connected at the time then any other audio will still be heard on your headphones, not on your internal MacBook speakers.

If what you want is for sound effects to not play through your headphones, then you can configure your Sound preferences (System Preferences > Sound) so that sound effects play through your internal speakers, even when your headphones are connected via Bluetooth.

Hope this helps, but if I've misunderstood your problem, perhaps you could clarify your question.

Reset and pair again

Another option you could try is to full reset your bluetooth device list and start again. To do this:

Slide the power switch to the Bluetooth symbol and hold it there
After about 10 seconds you should hear "Bluetooth device list cleared"
Now delete your headphones from the Bluetooth list on your MacBook and iPhone
Pair your headphones again, but only to your MacBook
Use your headphones with your MacBook for long enough to feel your issue is resolved
When satisfied, pair your headphone to your iPhone
Test to see if the behaviour is now what you expect between both devices

NOTE: I have always found that there are random issues like you're experiencing when multiple devices are simultaneously connected to Bluetooth headphones. For me, I no longer do this - but hopefully you have more success.

Bose Support

It may be worth you checking with Bose Support. I remember reading somewhere that these headphones can have their firmware updated - so perhaps Bose could shed some light on the issue you're having or whether or not there is an update available.


How do I reset the scrollback in the terminal via a shell command?

Terminal supports an extension of the ED (Erase in Display) escape sequence to erase the scroll-back. It is also supported by xterm. The ED command, described in the VT100 manual, accepts these values for the Ps parameter:

ESC [ Ps J

Parameter   Parameter Meaning

0           Erase from the active position to the end of the screen
1           Erase from start of the screen to the active position
2           Erase all of the display

Terminal (and xterm) adds:

3           Erase the scroll-back (aka “Saved Lines”)

Note that this only erases the scroll-back, not the screen. This allows you to erase one or the other, or both by sending two escape sequences.

For example, you can clear the screen and the scroll-back with the following shell command: clear && printf '\e[3J'

(The clear command looks up the appropriate sequence for clearing the screen for the current terminal, but the “erase scroll-back” escape sequence is custom and must be hard-coded. If you put this in a shell script that you don’t know for certain will only ever be run with Terminal, you should check that $TERM_PROGRAM is Apple_Terminal before sending it.)


This question is so subjective because there is nothing specific being asked. Let me break it down for you.

How much does the move from 2.0 GHZ to 2.2 GHZ improve performance?
200 MHz is the obvious answer here. Improve performance, depends, chances are you probably won't notice any difference in that aspect.

How about the different graphics cards?

Obvious difference being the 768MB difference in memory in the cards. Subjective because who knows what your use is going to be, i can tell you for browsing/email/office type products you'll never see the difference.

Are these improvements limited to certain types of applications?

What certain type of applications? Once again how can you answer this if you don't give anybody a specific area/application that you plan on using.

What do I need to keep in mind when comparing these specs?

Keep in mind in terms of what? Obviously you know the cost difference and some of the numerical differences, but what is it that you are actually asking here?

Sorry if this comes off harsh, but it's too vague and subjective right now to give you any type of concrete answer.


Put your finger on the app and hold there. The app will start wobbling and have a cross in a circle at the top left.

Then drag it to where you want. If you hit the cross it will delete the app.


Short: one set of files is backed up.

Long: you can think of the storage system as layered.  At the bottom is a layer of disk partitions representing disks;  see /dev - as in
ls -l /dev/disk
or
file /dev/disk

At the next layer up, these partitions can be used directly (no RAID) or grouped using RAID.  At the next layer up, the (non-)RAIDed partitions can be used for a filesystem;  see /Volumes - as in
ls -l /Volumes

You can see the mapping of disks and filesystems using the mount command (no arguments - repeat - supply no arguments to the command):
mount

Time Machine works at the filesystem level and backs up files and directories; Time Machine does not see the (non-)RAID or partition levels.  Another way to think about it - Time Machine sees file names and attributes (read, write, owner, group, etc.), and those attributes and names do not exist at the RAID level.


Preserve spaces order on monitor unplug on MacBook

Our questions weren't identical (which is why I went ahead and posted my own question) but I think the answer to mine would help you too: Spaces disappear (but not their application windows) when I unplug external monitors

In brief: you can prevent the behavior by unchecking "Displays have separate Spaces" in System Preferences -> Mission Control, but you may or may not like the new behavior any better. Spaces won't disappear anymore but you'll cycle through Spaces on all monitors at the same time, and when you plug your monitors back in, you may find that all application windows stay in the right Spaces but lose their placement (i.e. if you carefully arranged the application windows to fit nicely next to each other on your screen, you may find the windows all stacked on top of each other when you plug the monitor back in).

Whether or not you choose to uncheck "Displays have separate Spaces," you can use a window management app such as Stay or DisplayMaid to save your window configuration and move the windows back to your preferred arrangment after a change.


How do I stop iTunes from automatically backing up the iPad?

Mac Answer:

You can disable device backups with this terminal command:

  defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

More info here.


Run Windows 10 on Mac from custom boot drive?

rEFInd is able to boot Windows from external drives, as it modifies the Mac's EFI. Here are some instructions on installing it.


Wifi losing internet connection (while still connected to router)

I would try again after a Safe Mode (restart holding Shift ⇧) and see if the results are the same. Also, could you try using Ethernet to gauge the difference? Is this a laptop? If so, is there a case which could be removed? Any new equipment nearby (ie an electric fan, metal filing cabinet, etc.) which could be disrupting the signal? If it is a laptop, it is entirely plausible that the internal antenna has come loose or damaged (any repair or upgrade work carried out?).


Deleting a mail account on only ONE iCloud synced Mac

The answer turns out to be the no, you can't delete an account on one iCloud synced Mac, without deleting it on the other(s). Beyond leaving said email account disabled, you must go into ~/Library/Mail/V5 in the Finder and uncover the multi-digit-letter folder associated with that account and trash the contents. That's how to reclaim the space occupied (in my case 15GB).


How do I Bounce only part of a project in Logic Pro?

I'm stupid. I seem to have misclicked because the proper procedure is exactly what I thought I did: select the part you want in the bar (highlight in yellow), Bounce (CMD+B) "project or section", and make sure the "end" is the measure I wanted.

Well, now it works ^^


Cannot connect to specific website since OSX Mountain Lion install

Some 'cracked' apps change the /etc/hosts files so apps cannot connect to their servers to verify the credential or serials.

It looks like that could be your case.

Can you check: sudo cat /etc/hosts from Terminal and check if any Adobe hostname is listed there?

If so, you have installed a cracked Adobe app.


How to interact with dialog boxes using keyboard that appear not to allow keyboard interaction?

I did a little bit of searching and found this page on OSX accessibility.

They might be called "Utility Windows".

Control + F6 Moves focus to the first (or next) utility window
Control + Shift + F6 Moves focus to the first (or  previous) utility window

Once inside, Tab and Shift tab can be used to navigate.

Interestingly, these shortcut keys worked with the following dialog boxes

Finder - View Options
TextEdit - Fonts

But did not work with these

TextEdit - Special Characters
OmniFocus - Inspector


In a nutshell, iOS sets up a persistent connection to the Apple Push Notification (APN) servers if you elect to use iMessage, iCloud, Notifications or other push services. From there, the phone checks in with the servers anytime it has a network connection and listens for messages that the servers wish to push to your device. Furthermore, iOS then registers which applications on your phone should get specific messages. All the messages pass through the notification center system in case you have elected for them to be posted to specific places such as the lock screen, the notification tray or just passed off to the end application for each message as appropriate.

That's it.

There's a server. (likely many behind a load balancer)
There's a connection that your device opens to the server.
Things can then arrive through the connection.


Can you recover deleted photos from the recently deleted section in your album?

If you have a backup you had made before deleting those photos, you can restore from it and you would have all your photos. Restoring photos from the 'Recently deleted' section, however, is impossible as of now.

You can find more information about restoring from an iTunes or iCloud backup here.


Prevent external speakers in monitors connected via HDMI being used

In the sound section of system preferences, make sure that "Internal Speakers" is selected.


Prevent spotlight from indexing folders with a certain name

There is no known method to exclude from Spotlight a file or a folder based on a pattern (ex.: its name).
However it's possible to exclude a folder from Spotlight by adding to it an empty file .metadata_never_index.
You can use this method to ignore all node_moduleand bower_modules folders:
find /path/to/projects -type d  -path '*node_modules/*' -prune -o -type d -name 'node_modules' -exec touch '{}/.metadata_never_index' \;

Edit:
It look like the method .metadata_never_index is ignored by Spotlight since Mojave.

Edit 2:
As @JohnLee pointed it out, the extended attribute com.apple.metadata:com_apple_backup_excludeItem is not related / doesn't have any impact on Spotlight.
However *.noindex and symlink aren't indexed by mds (the backend of Spotlight). You can use it as band-aid:
# Rename all node_modules to node_modules.noindex and create a symlink node_modules -> node_modules.noindex
find /path/to/projects -type d \( -path '*node_modules/*' -o -path '*node_module.noindex/*' \) -prune -o -type d -name 'node_modules' -exec mv '{}' '{}.noindex' \; -exec ls -s '{}.noindex' '{}' \;

Note: if you use npm-ci, the node_modules is "automatically removed before npm ci begins its install".


Will time machine wipe out my old time machine backups if I move it to a new mac (or upgrade os x)?

No.
Time Machine will just start backing up your Mac along side your old Backups. Your previous machine will be back on Tuesday (or whenever last backed-up) in your timeline, with the new machine after that.


iTunes stops working every time I launch it

That version of iTunes is for Microsoft Windows.

I suggest that you follow the instructions in this Apple troubleshooting article.


Macbook Pro Touch Bar 15 inch 2018 ssd Upgrade

It is not possible for ordinary users to replace the SSD in the 2018 MacBook Pro. You'll need specialized equipment and training in order to be able to replace the flash storage that is soldered directly on to the main board.

You can upgrade your storage by adding extra storage, such as for example a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connected external drive.


Macbook Pro 2011 Wifi stops working after a few minutes, needs PRAM reset to get working again

I would start with something simple and boot into Safe Mode and test how well your Wi-Fi works while in Safe Mode.

Follow these steps::

Fully shut down your MBP
Restart your MBP
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice. Also note that booting into Safe Mode can take a while!)
Take a note of what happens (i.e. can you now connect to the Wi-Fi network and stay connected?)
Exit Safe Mode by restart your MBP as normal and test again

The act of booting into Safe Mode will actually perform a number of background tasks, and this often resolves issues when you've rebooted normally.

Once you've tried the above let me know how you go.

[Update 1]

Since we've established the issue is still present during Safe Mode and that it still keep recurring after resetting NVRAM, let's next test your hardware for signs of any problems.

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. To use this, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: that the extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

[Update 2]

Another option worth trying is to remove your Wi-Fi service, restart, and add your Wi-Fi service back.

To do this:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Network
Select the Wi-Fi service on the left-hand side
Click on the cog icon at bottom-left and select Make Service Inactive
Now delete the service by clicking on the minus sign (i.e. the - button) at left of the cog
Click on the Apply button
Exit Network preferences
Restart your MBP
Go to Apple > System Preferences > Network
Click on the plus sign (i.e. the + button) at left of the cog
In the pop-up window, ensure that Wi-Fi is selected from the drop-down menu
Click on the Create button
Make sure Wi-Fi is on and connected (it should remember your previous settings, but if not just re-add your Wi-Fi network again)

Let me know how you go.


Where to Install Applications when using Terminal?

As OS X is a UNIX OS at its core you can usually use the installers that come with the open source tools you've mentioned.

Quite often there's some way to install them, usually there's 3 steps to configure, compile, and install the tools.

For stuff like databases and other UNIX tools they might need stuff in a number of places.

In contrast to that a typical Mac application will be just one self-contained application bundle that's supposed to go in to your /Applications folder.

Though it can as well run from your Desktop, Downloads folder, etc. ...


It sounds like the Windows reinstall overwrote your boot sector on your mass storage device.

I'd attempt to reinstall rEFIit, under Windows, and see if you can get the option to choose your boot partition on boot up again.  If that doesn't work, there's a new tool called 'rEFInd' that is actively being developed.  There's a good article here on using the tool with an HP laptop running Windows.

If that doesn't work, a clean start is likely in order.

You'll need an OS X install DVD and an external drive (or an appropriately bootable external drive with an OS X install image) to re-install OS X.

Once your OS is reinstalled, you can re-BootCamp the MB Air.


You've probably enabled Dock hiding. You can toggle this by pressing ⌥⌘D.

Alternatively, you can toggle it through System Preferences or by right-clicking the spacer between the apps and the stacks then turning Hiding off:


How can I disable websites from being able to open App Store on iOS?

I use 1Blocker and Adamant content filters to block most JavaScript and trackers. That and careful decisions about what sites to visit have stopped this entirely from my iOS experience.

The ways that an advertiser can pay for placement means that some sites, you will never be able to get around this annoyance, but when it does happen, you can make note of that site abusing your time and at some point, you can stop visiting those sites where you are forced away from their content that you came to read in the first place.


How To Join AVI Files Without Reencoding Them?

I'm not sure if I get 100% what you want, so correct me if I'm wrong...

You can just use QuickTime (7 Pro or X -> I'm not sure about QT X). Just copy/paste the several files in one new window and export to .avi. It takes some time to export them, but you are not re-encoding them...

EDIT:
Try downloading this plugin for playing Xvid-files with QuickTime.


Do prices of older iPhones decrease after the release of a new model?

During the iPhone 11 announcement, Apple said they were reducing the price of the iPhone 8 to starting at $449 and the iPhone XR to starting at $599. These price changes are currently effective on Apple's website.

Historically, Apple announces new models and pricing and at the same time, refreshes their official pricing the same day as the keynote / press release. Additionally, look online and at Apple stores as they then sell (often at further discount) any now “discontinued” models in the Certified Refurbished / Clearance section:

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished


Checking Certificates Meet Apple Requirements

So it turns out there is an OS level tool, security

For example, I can test if a certificate ca.crt is valid like this:

security verify-cert -c ca.crt

Here's what a valid certificate will look like:

❯ security verify-cert -c ca.crt
...certificate verification successful.

And here's a certificate with a 10 year expiration that violates Apples rules, but is otherwise valid according to OpenSSH:

❯ security verify-cert -c ca.crt
Cert Verify Result: CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED


They have changed your Proxy settings.

Proxy is a way to connect to Internet true a specific gate (server).

Doing that the Track Me is hidden from others since they now do not know who you are.

To fix that Open the Proxy settings in Safari and unchecked anything in the pop up window.

Then Reset the Safari.


Wifi problems Mac OS X 10.8.2 MacBook Pro

If this is in your home, do you have an older microwave oven nearby? Or a 2.4GHz cordless phone? Baby monitor? Anything else "wireless" (that's not a wireless router/access point)?

Have you tried changing the channel of the wireless on the router? Many newer routers will do a "site survey" and indicate an unused wireless channel.

I have had similar problems with wireless in the past and solved it by changing the wireless channel.


The easiest way is using the diskutil command line as follows:

diskutil info /

You will see a report which will include something like this for an APFS formatted storage:

Volume Name:              Macintosh HD
Mounted:                  Yes
Mount Point:              /
Partition Type:           41504752-0000-11AA-AA23-01306543EFEA
File System Personality:  APFS
Type (Bundle):            apfs
Name (User Visible):      APFS
Owners:                   Enabled

See under Type to determine what kind of file system is on your root volume.

This will be displayed on an HFS formatted storage:

Volume Name:              Macintosh HD
Mounted:                  Yes
Mount Point:              /
Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
File System Personality:  Journaled HFS+
Type (Bundle):            hfs
Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Journal:                  Journal size 155648 KB at offset 0x3a38000
Owners:                   Enabled

If you want to automate this or use the results in a script, you can use following one-liner:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :FilesystemType" /dev/stdin <<< $(diskutil info -plist /)

Which will produce output:

apfs

or

hfs


Xcode 7.2 downloading but not installing

Download it from here: https://developer.apple.com/downloads/

Just log in with your Apple Account and download Xcode 7.2


CrashPlan requests network connection on startup

My previous response confirmed that the status had not changed since June (4 months ago). I also confirmed that the problem still exists in Yosemite. ie this is still an open issue without a known resolution.

I've looked a bit further into this issue.  The current version of CrashPlan is 3.6.4.

To resolve this issue:
 - Download the current version
 - Use the 'uninstall' script on the disk image to remove your current installation.
 - Reboot.
 - Install the new version

This also resolves some issues with display and Wireless network detection under Yosemite.

I've not tested to see if just upgrading over the top of the old installation also fixes the issue.


Open the Outlook app on your iPhone
Tap "Settings"
Tap Add Account
From the new screen tap "iCloud"
Type in your iCloud account credentials

Outlook will now source all email and contacts from your iCloud account.


Best way to check in bash if Command Line Tools are installed?

if type xcode-select >&- && xpath=$( xcode-select --print-path ) &&
   test -d "${xpath}" && test -x "${xpath}" ; then
   #... is correctly installed
else
   #... isn't correctly installed
fi

Strangely, the --print-path isn't documented in old Xcode versions but is working as -print-path. On the other hand, the -p option doesn't
have this compatibility.


Completely removing old version of MS Office

In general, when removing Office (or any application that comes with an uninstaller), it's advisable to use the uninstaller for the application, instead of just dragging things into the Trash. The best way to get a clean system would be to remove the old version completely, then install the new version. However, this is not an option for you any more, due to already having trashed (some of) the old files.

The files installed with every Office version are recorded in /var/db/receipts, in files starting with com.microsoft.office.*. There's a lot of those files, as Office comes in parts (Excel, Word, Proofing Tools, etc.) and also one for each update installed. The versions numbers in there are the "raw" office versions:

14: Office for Mac 2011
12: Office 2008 for Mac
11: Office 2004 for Mac
10: Office v. X

However it's not as simple as removing all files referenced by older packages, as some of them will be shared between them and doing so may leave your current Office install in a damaged state. Therefore the cleanest way to really remove all Office junk would be to:

Uninstall what you can, using the uninstaller supplied (Microsoft Office Setup Assistant)
Remove the package receipts and the files they reference (but carefully, as many of them will reference system directories that should not be deleted unless empty). DesInstaller does this, but it hasn't been updated in a long time and I'm not sure if it still works on Lion.
Remove any leftovers, using either a cleaning tool such as CleanMyMac or the already mentioned AppCleaner, which work by looking for identifiers such as the com.apple.microsoft.office described earlier, or simply using mdfind or locate on the command line.
Reinstall Office for Mac 2011 - and before doing the next upgrade, use the uninstaller.


Is it safe to delete my Time Machine sparse bundle? Can a fresh one be recreated?

As long as you don't care about anything in the backup being gone, yes it is safe to remove the sparsebundle.

Disable Time Machine first. Instead of deleting the whole bundle at once:

Right-click and choose Show Package Contents.
Open the bands folder.
Select a large number of bands (8000 at a time seems to be good from what I read) and move those to the trash.
Repeat until all bands have been deleted, then delete the main sparsebundle file.


Why does OS X keep forgetting my trackpad settings

The symptoms you describe are caused by the preference not getting saved to disk. Sometimes the cause is that there is a problem with the file permissions (as per thaatz's answer).
Another possibility is that the preference file somehow got corrupted; if this is the case, you can move the preference file (I think the relevant one is ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist) from its location: this will cause the preference file to be recreated.
Of course this will work also for other preferences (though identifying the correct file isn't always as easy); remember to keep the file around (instead of deleting it) so you can restore it in case this fix doesn't work.


2x 4gig + 1x8gig Or 4x 4gig/2x 8 Gig sticks

Yes, always avoid mix ‘n match...
4 * 4 or 2 * 8 is much better.


Apple_Boot "Boot OS X" partition and Fusion Drive

If the partition is there, but the files are corrupted, just remove them, boot to a rescue system or installer, open a shell and run touch /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Extensions or kextcache -i /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD, with Macintosh HD being the name of your Fusion Drive/the mount point. After a while (or during shutdown), the booter should be regenerated.


Make locator.updatedb run daily on Snow Leopard w/o hacking /System/Library?

The way I understand it, that System folder launchd job does nothing but execute /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb itself.

So simply create your own launchd job executing /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb that runs once a day.

As a sidenote, here's a Super User answer which recommends using mdfind -name <filename> instead of locate so that you can use the Spotlight database which is continually updated.

And this Ask Different answer has more info on creating launchd jobs if you need more help with that.


I think your problem has something to do with not having the right Codecs (the bit of software that translates one type of video to another type). @Martin is right - if you can convert your video yourself you'll solve your problem, but it would be even better if you can teach iMovie to convert it for you.

Try installing both Perian and DivX (I'm too new to post two hyperlinks, just Google DivX Mac - it's the top link) and then restart your computer - this will install extra codecs to allow you to covert between the different types of video.


iOS Reboot when open .exe file in iDownloader

When you say that it automatically rebooted, are you referring to an actual reboot or simply the app crashing back to the home screen?

The latter shouldn't cause any problem to your device, however if data was being written in the app, that data could be corrupt. If the device performed a full reboot, and data was being written by the OS, that data could become corrupt, however it is extremely unlikely that this will cause any problems.

iOS, like OS X, can stand being terminated mostly, with circumstances to prevent corrupt files from breaking things. If something has been 'broken' by the termination of the OS, simply restore the device using iTunes. If something has been 'broken by the termination of the app, delete and re-download the app, removing any data from iCloud Documents & Data if necessary.


How does the built-in Audio of the Thunderbolt Display compare to the MacBook Pro Retna?

According to the technical specifications, the thunderbolt display has 2.1 stereo speakers with a subwoofer and the system is rated at 49 W.

No one would consider the any MacBook Pro with the small internal speakers to be superior to the wall-powered solution that is part of the display.

You will want something like an external DAC if you are concerned about audio quality or want to connect speakers that are better amplified and suited to a special situation other than casual listening. The Display Port monitor is better than many $150 speaker systems, but you can also get quite amazing external sound starting at that price point in the US.


Home/End keys to simulate Windows behavior in different contexts

If you use Google Chrome, you can add an Extension called Shortkeys (Custom Keyboard Shortcuts) and set all the custom shortcuts you want.

PS: Just FYI you can press Space to go down one screen at a time and Shift+Space to go up from default.


Lion Server LDAP gone after restart - Error -14006

The moment LDAP and Open Directory get themselves into a tizzy I always look towards Kerberos.

Have a prowl with kadmin and ktutil and see if Kerberos is working nicely. Have a good look at getting your certificates A-OK. Check that DNS and reverse DNS are giving valid responses.

Copy the LDAP database then blow it away and start again to see if it's a problem with that. If slapd is up then try doing some searches with ldapsearch.


What is wrong with my iPhone's model number?

An N in place of M simply means it's a replacement unit from Apple. As per this wiki article:

The first letter in the model number represents the source of the device. Currently, there are four known possible choices:

F: refurbished unit.

M: retail unit.

N: replacement unit.

P: personalized (engraved) unit.

You can view the model number for an iOS device by going to Settings → General → About → Model on your iPhone/iPad.
The default string displays the iOS device part number. Tapping on the model cell shows the model identifier string.
To identify an iPhone by its model number, refer to the Apple support article, Identify your iPhone model


Is there a firewall on an iPad on iOS 10, and is it configurable?

There is no firewall on iOS and it does not block any ports that I am aware of.

I'd guess your issue has more to do with the fact that Bookman hasn't been updated in over three years and some change in iOS 10 finally broke it. I'm actually shocked it works at all.

It sounds like you can use iTunes file sharing as an alternative, presuming that a recent iTunes update hasn't caused that to stop working with this particular app.


How to remove photos from a device which have been imported previously in iPhoto?

It would be faster and possibly easier to connect the phone, open up Image Capture (comes with every mac) and view the photos there to delete them.


Hidden Admin Account Appearing After Reboot

Yes. You can disable file vault access for any accounts you don’t want to be capable to u lock FileVault or disable FileVault entirely.

The log in screen controls don’t govern FileVault since that renders from EFI before the os even starts.


I put some mp4 videos into a working iTunes U folder. How do I get iTunes to recognise them?

The meta data for a video file destined for iTunes must have the right internal identifier for the file type.

For example, I might rip a DVD then encode it with handbrake.  If I throw this file in iTunes to move to my iDevice it thinks it is a home movie.  Slight inconvenience.  I use a free program, meta z, to set the internal identifier to "movie" and now it will show up in the right place.  Meta z also can set cover art and other web scraped data to make rips look professional.  A similar kind of processing needs to happen for iTunesU content.

Youtube will not preserve the internal file meta data that iTunes needs for the file to be identified as an iTunesU file.  Meta Z can set whatever bit of meta data needs to be set for the file to be associated as an iTunesU file.  iTunesU is in the video type dropdown in Meta Z so it should work though I have not personally tried it.  Though you will also have to set all the other meta data too, which may be annoying.

Meta Z is free so give it a shot I guess.
Griff.github.io/metaz/


Turn off Live Photo mode permanently in iPhone XS

From this blog

Step 1. Open Settings App on your iPhone home screen.
Step 2. Tap on Camera.
Step 3. Tap Preserve Settings for Live Photos.


external monitor won't go full screen with MBP 13" 2020

UPDATE: I fixed the issue! I had to reboot the computer in safe mode and it fixed the image issues.


Can I charge my mid-2012 MBA using its USB 3.0 ports?

You cannot charge it using its USB ports. In newer macs my understanding is that you can charge them with their USB C port. The only solution would be to order a new charger from Apple or pick one up from Best Buy. They’re about $100 USD or $125 CAD.


Repeating Reminders on desktop won't stay in sync with iOS

I fixed this.

On iOS I went to SETTINGS > ICLOUD > Turned Reminders OFF, then ON. It warned me that it would delete my reminders.. No big deal as they are still stored on iCloud.

On OSX I went to System Preferences... > iCloud > unchecked Calendars & Reminders ( it again warned me that it would delete them from computer which is okay because they are stored on iCloud) > Checked Calendars & Reminders (to turn them back on.)

It is now working as expected. Weird...


There was an error in the Mac App Store. Please try again later. (13)

I was experiencing the same problem: unable to purchase or update any items from the App Store, with an error code (13).

I came across another thread here - Cannot Install or Update Apps in App Store - Error 13 app-store-error-13 - which basically suggests deleting a cookie-preferences file for the App Store. I tried it, and it indeed worked for me.

The steps are:

1) quit the App Store app, if it's open.

2) delete the file, which will be in: ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.appstore.plist

3) restart the App Store app, and try purchasing or downloading/updating something.

Let us know if this fixes the problem for you! :-)


Apple TV does most of this especially if u pay $25 a year for iTunes Match. Anything downloaded is available on all devices including the Apple TV...


iPad Not connecting to MacBook Air via USB

Open up Diagnostic tests, by clicking About MY Mac, and run the test. This will also test which USB ports on the Mac are working. If your iPad charges then the power is working on the USB port, but the data transfer is probably not.
The iPad itself could also has a fault, and to test this, use a different device and see if that shows up on the device. Also try reseting the iPad to factory default (backup first) or just rebooting could work as well. If not of those work, try using a different USB port, or try using a different computer.


How do I get Siri to pronounce my name correctly?

When this happens, it's usually because the nickname field is also filled in. The nickname field trumps the phonetic first name field. So if you ever used the Siri command "Call me ..." she would automatically fill in the nickname field, making the phonetic field useless.

To fix the problem, either write the phonetic spelling inside the nickname field, or delete the nickname field and write the phonetic spelling in the phonetic first name field.

Tip: To hear her pronounce your name, you can ask her, "What is my name?"

The advantage of using the phonetic spelling field is that it expresses the property more accurately. However, I noticed that it has a flaw in that it messes with the sorting in the Contacts app (especially if you sort by first name and include an accented character to help with the pronunciation). Therefore, you might want to use the nickname field instead of phonetic spelling.


Is it possible to use the laptop's audio via headphone jack and Bluetooth speakers at the same time?

Yes.

You can do this by aggregating your audio devices.

This is a function that is built into macOS; you don't need to purchase or install any additional software.

Under MIDI Audio Setup (under Applications -> Utilities), you create a new "virtual" device that aggregates audio devices:

While the pictures posted are for an input device, you can do this with output devices as well; Bluetooth, USB, and physical.

Once you create your aggregated output device of both the speakers and BT speakers, you set your application to use that device and sound will play from both devices.


Can anyone access Time Machine backups from a stolen HDD?

Short answer - assume YES, and immediately change all your account details, Apple and email ID, cloud access etc. I would also inform your bank, online stores and everyone in your contact book (that they might receive a false comm purporting to be you).

Even with an encrypted drive, forensic level software and hacks (as used by the Police / Military and available to download), can circumvent most protection. For example, I would start by putting the HDD in any Mac, interrupt boot and attempt to change the encryption / Apple ID at root level. This will circumvent an Admin account password / provide access to the keychain on a Mac and it might work for the physical drive if I got lucky. Or I would try replacing the HDD's circuit board with one from an identical model - if the encryption is managed through memory on the board, its now gone.

Having said this, criminals generally fall into too categories, dumb / impatient in which case they wont bother with an encrypted device or capable in which case they will probably be into the data within 24 hours.

When we remove a drive (at work) with any sensitive client data, we physically destroy the internals and spread the pieces or incinerate them. You should bear this in mind if selling your Mac also. Wiped does not mean unrecoverable. Always remove the drive.


Apple pulled Mojave 10.14.0 -- Where can i get it? -- 10.14.4,,,10.14.6 etc., are still available from Apple

If you can't install macOS Mojave, your Mac may not be compatible.

First check the requirements on Apple Technical Specifications. Then, you can manually download the installer through Apple Official Support or the Mac App Store.

If you still can't update to macOS Mojave, you may download the installer from an external source, like I did when I needed to update from Snow Leopard (10.8) to El Capitan (10.11).


How to hide desktop icons on a single desktop

This free app may be useful to you. It does not exactly do what you ask, but it comes close, and there may be ways to further automate it to get even closer.
http://www.shirt-ediss.me/clarity/
When this is installed as directed, a couple of simple terminal commands, e.g.:
$ sw 0
$ sw 1

let you empty the desktop of icons (except for mounted drives, if you have your desktop configured to show them) and then switch back to your standard desktop.
In my initial testing (I just installed it tonight) it takes about 2 seconds to clear the desktop and about 4 seconds to restore it.
Clarity has the added advantage of letting you save various desktop configurations to switch back and forth among, identified by either number or a text name. In the above commands, you could also type
$ sw home

which may be more mnemonic if you have saved dozens of desktop configurations.
If you want to have the Clarity commands automatically invoked to change the icons when you move between desktop workspaces, as in the OP, I believe you can achieve that using the free Mac program CurrentKey Stats (https://currentkey.com/). The latest version (12/2020) adds the feature of "Bi-directional AppleScript support". As described on the CurrentKey web page:

CurrentKey can also notify your own custom AppleScript every time you switch between Rooms. This enables you to trigger Room-specific functionality outside of the app.

While I have not tested that feature of CurrentKey, I've corresponeded with the developer and I use it for switching between workspace desktops constantly.
It seems like it would be a straighforward task to have CurrentKey trigger an AppleScript function that runs sw 0 when you enter a specific workspace and then run sw 1 when you leave it. If I were more facile with AppleScript, I would knock one up right now to try it and complete this answer.
Another technique for clearing and restoring the desktop icons is described at Hide files/icons on the desktop but not in finder. While Clarity (above) empties the Desktop folder and then restores it from saved snapshots, the technique on that thread addresses the need to have the contents of the Desktop folder stay intact. It turns off or on a Finder default setting and then kills the Finder app so that it restarts.
When I tried it, the icons went away instantly, but so did my Finder windows, which then took about 12 seconds to be automatically restarted. When restoring the desktop, the Finder windows were again restored in about 12 seconds with the desktop icons following a few seconds later. Personally, I would find it disturbing to have that automatically happen whenever I changed desktop workspaces. If you absolutely need to access the contents of your Desktop directory while the icons are hidden, that delay may be worth it to you.
I hope this helps.


Applescript - Get information from terminal command

I've whipped up this nice code snippet, try it out, it should work well for your specific application.

set device to "Ethernet"

set getInfo to paragraphs of (do shell script "networksetup -getinfo " & device)
set ipAddress to ((item 2 of getInfo) as string)
set subnetMask to ((item 3 of getInfo) as string)
set router to ((item 4 of getInfo) as string)
-- You could use the output here, and remove the rest of the script, or continue to remove the excess wordage.

set ipAddress to ((characters 13 through -1 of ipAddress) as string)
set subnetMask to ((characters 14 through -1 of subnetMask) as string)
set router to ((characters 9 through -1 of router) as string)


Spotlight doesn't work after Yosemite Upgrade

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
Learn how to re-index a folder or an entire volume for Spotlight.

From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
Click Spotlight.
Click the Privacy tab.
Drag a folder or an entire volume (your hard drive) to the list.
If prompted for confirmation, click OK.
Remove the item or volume you just added to the list by clicking it and then clicking the minus ("-") button.
Close Spotlight preferences.
Spotlight will re-index the contents of the folder or volume.


Slow Macbook Pro - Very low %Idle number

Your system processes are 81.46%. In the overview, in the top bar of the window, you selected "My Processes". If you change that to "All" you'll see which process is taking up all your CPU power.


Can I use an iMac as an external monitor if not booting up the OS?

Based on the Apple Support Doc http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3924 it doesn't look like it. But if it is the hard disk, it might be cheaper to replace the hard disk, then to buy a monitor.


Compiling with clang in the terminal is extremely slow after seeing a message that my disk is almost full. How to restore performance?

If you are on a spinning hard disk and you remove a large amount of files, you might have sub-optimal allocation of some files. If you have an SSD, you’ll need to profile the build process to determine the actual bottleneck.

Just to confirm, the df -g command lists 18.7 GB free for the OS volume? Assuming yes, you’ve missed no settings like cleaning up local snapshots in time machine or emptying the trash.

For the HDD situation, you can test that by shutting down the Mac after removing the source files or copying them to another drive.

After the restart, you might run for a day (set the Mac to never sleep) and the hot file optimization will start to move files that aren't accessed often off of the fastest portion of the hard drive.

Then - move your source code back and try a compile. At that point if you are still slow, you'll need to get into specifics - use the time command to time the compiles and then profile the system with vm_stat 5 or similar like Activity Monitor to see if you are constrained by RAM or by CPU or by IO. iostat also will be very helpful for measuring the iops and read/write aggregate transfer rates so you know how your storage is being accessed moment by moment while clang does it’s work.

The above steps on my machine show that io and storage has a very low impact on the compiler and instead CPU and threading the build would be how to speed it up but my code base is probably far different than yours.


Successfully launching a shell script from Finder when the path has a space in it

It turns out I was doing something wrong.
I erroneously believed the error message was caused by Mac OS X executing the script.
The reason this error was appearing was because inside my script I was executing something without escaping the space. Woopsie!


Did you update to iOS 8.4 yet?
If not, now would be the time.

In iTunes - sync; backup; update.

If you're already on 8.4, then sync; backup; restore.


How can I send my computer's audio to multiple outputs?

Open Audio MIDI Setup from Applications > Utilities.
Click the + button in the bottom left corner and select "Create Multi-Output Device".
Check “Built-In Output” (this may already be checked) and the Soundflower output of your choice.
Right-click (or control-click) the device you just created and select “Use this device for sound output”.


launchd, how to run a command every 3 minutes, during working hours on a weekday?

TL;DR Summary: launchd is "better" than cron in many ways, but these sorts of repetitions are an example of one way where cron is easier than launchd. To do this in launchd is excessively verbose. (That link will take you to a gist because it is literally too long to post to StackExchange.)
Keyboard Maestro supports cron-style execution times. If I wanted to run something using cron's time formats, I would definitely use Keyboard Maestro.
There is an extremely helpful and friendly forum available at https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com where users (and the developer of Keyboard Maestro) are available to help.
nohillside made an excellent point that the easiest way to do this in launchd is to run a script every 3 minutes, but check at the beginning of that script whether or not it is within the desired times.
Save the script below as /usr/local/bin/mycommand.sh
#!/usr/bin/env zsh -f
# Purpose: Run a command, but only between certain hours, on certain days
#
# From: Timothy J. Luoma
# Mail: luomat at gmail dot com
# Date: 2021-02-23

    # this assumes your work-day starts at 9am
    # adjust as needed
START_HOUR='9'

    # this assumes that your work day stops at 5pm (1700 hours)
    # adjust as needed
STOP_HOUR='17'

    # adjust if needed
PATH='/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin'

NAME="$0:t:r"

    # needed for 'strftime'
zmodload zsh/datetime

    # this will check the current day of the week
DAY_OF_WEEK=`strftime "%a" "$EPOCHSECONDS"`

    # change the days listed if you
    # take off different days than Saturday or Sunday
case "$DAY_OF_WEEK" in
    Sat|Sun)
            # note that we do not want to use 'exit 1'
            # because `launchd` will interpret that
            # as a reason not to continue to run
            # this script in the future
            # which we do not want

        echo "$NAME: '$DAY_OF_WEEK' is not a work day." >>/dev/stderr
        exit 0
    ;;

esac

    # check what hour it is: 0-23
CURRENT_HOUR=`strftime "%H" "$EPOCHSECONDS"`

    # compare current hour with starting hour
if [[ "$CURRENT_HOUR" -lt "$START_HOUR" ]]
then
        echo "$NAME: '$CURRENT_HOUR' is before the start of the work day ($START_HOUR)." >>/dev/stderr
        exit 0

    # compare current hour with stopping hour
elif [[ "$CURRENT_HOUR" -gt "$STOP_HOUR" ]]
then
        echo "$NAME: '$CURRENT_HOUR' is after the end of the work day ($START_HOUR)." >>/dev/stderr
        exit 0
fi

##################################################################
###
### If we get here, it is between the appropriate hours on the appropriate day,
### and the commands below here should be executed.
###

echo "Hello World"

exit 0

Make sure the script is executable:
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/mycommand.sh
Then save this (below) as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.mycommand.plist (you can call it whatever you want, just make sure that it ends with .plist. Also, you may have to create that folder if it does not exist).
<?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>Label</key>
    <string>local.mycommand</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/local/bin/mycommand.sh</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/local.mycommand.stderr.txt</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/local.mycommand.stdout.txt</string>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>180</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Give it sane permissions:
chmod 644 ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.mycommand.plist
Then either log out/log in, or just run this command:
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.mycommand.plist
Errors that the script generate will be saved to /tmp/local.mycommand.stderr.txt
Other output will be saved to /tmp/local.mycommand.stdout.txt
You can change that by editing the paths in the .plist.
Conclusion
Keyboard Maestro is one of the best apps ever made for the Mac, and I think anyone who wants to do any kind of automation on the Mac should own it. This is a perfect example of just one way that it makes things easier than using cron (because it's easier to debug) or launchd because it's easier to use and invoke it when you want, even for power users who know things like launchd and cron.
The only regret I've ever had about Keyboard Maestro was not starting to use it sooner in my life. (I'm just a user of the app, not connected to it in any other way, and I {GLADLY!} pay for the app out of my own pocket, so I'm not getting paid anything by anyone to say anything.)


There are also a bunch of 3rd party tools with more advance options that can be used to mirror iPad's screen on a Mac.

AirServer
Reflector 3
ApowerMirror


How to mass-delete text messages by partially matching phone number on iPhone?

I haven't heard of an App that can delete text messages at all, but I can see it's usefulness in a situation like this.

Furthermore, I don't think there exists a solution to group senders with (partially) unknown numbers, if you new the numbers an ugly and time consuming solution would be to add all possible numbers to one contact, then all messages should hopefully be kept in the same conversation. Your only solution right now seems to be to manually delete the messages :(


Can we simply rename an app if they are different versions and keep them both?

There are several things to look at here:

Application (folder)

It's usually perfectly save to rename the application (aka the application folder) so you can easily rename the existing Xcode to /Applications/Xcode 4.4.1 and install the new version in parallel

Preferences

Typically the application saves it's preferences in a fixed location in ~/Library. So if you have two versions installed in parallel they will both read and write from the same preferences files. This may be desirable from a user point of view but will lead to problems if the format or content changed in incompatible ways.

Addons

As far as Xcode is concerned, there is additonal software installed (automatically and/or on user request) in /Applications/Xcode Utilities. If you need this, it might not be enough to simply rename this folder because you will end up with two versions of these utilities (with Xcode/OS X picking up the "wrong" version)


Most viruses (like 99.999% of them) are unable to transfer between operating systems for many different reasons, but theoretically a virus could spread between the two operating systems. What is more likely is that the virus would corrupt the partition table itself.

Take a look at the following links for more info:

Quora: https://www.quora.com/Can-a-Windows-virus-infect-Mac-OS-X
MacRumors: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/can-windows-viruses-acquired-in-os-x-infect-the-boot-camp-partition.1075192/

Please note my percent is not based off of any legitimate statistics, it is exaggerated.


Downgrade a new Mac from OSX 10.14 to 10.11?

Short of running it a VM, no.

The general rule is no Mac will run an OS older than itself - there can be no drivers for hardware that wasn't yet invented, so Apple make sure that doesn't happen.


What is the last version of Skype that will run on OS X 10.5 for a PPC Mac?

You're probably looking for Skype 2.8.0.866 (PPC), which you can find searching the OldApps website. It was released on 29 November, 2010.

  Supported Systems: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (PowerPC)


6th and 7th gen iPod nanos aren't capable of playing videos to the screen, so I highly doubt they'll output any video to the dock.

(They're probably entirely missing the video decoding hardware needed to do either.)


How can I sort Safari bookmarks in Lion?

Bookmarks bar:

Bookmarks in the bookmarks bar can be sorted using drag-and-drop.

Bookmarks menu:

When you toggle Show All Bookmarks ⌘+⌥+B and click on collections → bookmarks menu, you may manually sort bookmarks which are located in the bookmarks menu.

You can sort bookmarks alphabetically using SafariSort (free). This applications works with the latest version of Safari in Lion (5.1.4, march 2012) and sorts folders and 'simple' bookmarks seperately. Unfortunately, such an option is not provided with Safari out of the box.


Adding suffixes to file names according to previous suffixes

This should do it for the file names you have given. It assumes that the name part consists of uppercase letters, spaces, and dashes. And in the case of two years present, that they are separated by a dash. Also, it assumes that the first file does contain a year (otherwise it has nothing to deduct it from), and it will process every file present in the directory.

Copy&paste to the Terminal, and if you want to check first that it will do it correctly, add an echo before the mv.

for FILENAME in *
do
  # remove name part
  TRIM=`echo $FILENAME | sed -E 's/[A-Z -]*//'`
  # remove possible start year
  TRIM=`echo $TRIM | sed -E 's/[0-9]*-//'`
  if [ -z "$TRIM" ]
  then
    # file name didn't include year
    mv "$FILENAME" "$FILENAME - $YEAR"
  else
    # file name did include year
    YEAR=$TRIM
  fi
done


IPhone 6 Camera Stopped Working after 8.4 Update

I found this in the Apple forum. Try this

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203040


Is it worth to bother with iPhone 4 when developing a new application?

You're going to run into trouble if you try to make your application code device-specific. The correct way to approach a software release is to target OS-compatibility. That means that if you're going to go for a minimum of iOS 7, you need to ensure that your software is compatible with all the devices that are able to run that iOS version. Anything else opens you up to a whole world of hurt. App Store does NOT define system requirements by device model.


As part of Dive Into HTML5, Mark Pilgrim gives two options:

Encoding Ogg Video With Firefogg
Batch Encoding Ogg Video With ffmpeg2theora

One or both of those should work for you.


Only because you asked... The code below is an example of using a repeat statement and delay commands with your code.

That said, I do not believe it is going to give you the desired results because while the events will trigger in code nonetheless they'll probably not be processed at the hardware level. (It doesn't on my system.)

You can change the numeric value in the repeat statement to suite your needs. The value is an integer, as in repeat integer [times].

The delay command shown in decimal seconds as in delay number being the number of seconds to delay. The number may be fractional, such as 0.5 to delay half a second.

repeat 3 times
    repeat 10 times
        tell application "System Events"
            key code 107
        end tell
        delay (0.1)
    end repeat
    repeat 10 times
        tell application "System Events"
            key code 113
        end tell
        delay (0.1)
    end repeat
end repeat


Mac OS X Mavericks fails with disk corruption error

Sounds like you are good to go.

During the install it run in to a problem of incompatible software, but once that was out of the way the installer finished the job.

If you want to verify your install, run cmd-r and the restore (online) function. That might take a while so it is your choice to do or not.

The second question:

Enable the Debug in Disk Utility, that will allow you to see the hidden partitions. It is very well hidden, because Apple does not trust us been able to handle our property.

Enter the following command at the Terminal prompt:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1


macOS Sierra on external drive – Mac do not go to sleep anymore

Maybe you have "Prevent computer from sleeping..." activated in Energy Saver preferences.


Is there a way to completely disable Spaces in Yosemite?

I did this recently to get an iMac to better support an X-Arcade Tankstick and MAME. I do not know that it totally disabled Spaces, but is has effectively eliminated them for me.

System Preferences > Mission Control: Uncheck everything.
Set shortcut for Mission Control to "-"

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission control: Uncheck everything

In a Terminal window enter:
 defaults write com.apple.dock mcx-expose-disabled -bool true"

For more info you can check out:

Managed Client: How to disable Exposé and Spaces

Mac OS X: Disable Mission Control and Spaces


How to get a fall-through behavior in case statements in bash v3?

Either upgrade your bash (homebrew) or you'll have to recode it using a series of if statements:

case "$OSTYPE" in linux-gnu*) ;;& linux*) echo $OSTYPE; ;; esac
case "$OSTYPE" in linux-gnu*) ;& linux*) echo $OSTYPE; ;; esac

would be

# first case
if [[ $OSTYPE == linux-gnu* ]]; then
    : # nothing in this branch
fi
if [[ $OSTYPE == linux* ]]; then
    echo $OSTYPE
fi

# second case
function print_ostype { echo $OSTYPE; }
if [[ $OSTYPE == linux-gnu* ]]; then
    # nothing in this branch
    # include the next branch
    print_ostype
elif [[ $OSTYPE == linux* ]]; then
    print_ostype
fi

I used a function in the 2nd case to reduce code duplication, in case there's multiple statements.


Related CLI and GUI applications with same name?

Not sure how to understand how there could be a conflict in such cases:

foo.app is a directory (usually within /Applications) which contains all the files relevant for the application to run (including any resources, translated texts etc)
foo is a binary installed within foo.app which can be called from a shell by specificing the path, symlinking it from /usr/local/bin, or using any other way available in shells

So this are differently named things of different types, there shouldn’t be a conflict as far as macOS is concerned. We can‘t know what the App Store Review will make of it.


Notifications for completed Time Machine backups?

With TMNotifier you can send yourself an email when a backup is completed. It also notifies you when a Time Machine error occurs.
The only disadvantage: TMNotifier is not free.
However, there is a free version, but you can only do limited things there... But the small price that has to be paid, it's worth it!


I don't have an Apple TV in front of me to direct you to the exact place for this, but I'd trouble-shoot this like any networking discovery issue. Make sure your computer's subnet and the subnet of your Apple TV are the same. The hotel may have it configured strangely.

To get your computer's subnet go to System Preferences > Network > Wifi and click the Advanced button then go to the TCP/IP tab. Your Subtnet Mask is shown there and it should match the one the Apple TV is using.

Also (if possible) try and ensure your Apple TV and your Mac are both updated to the latest software available. Apple's support pages also recommend resetting the Apple TV, but I understand that may not be possible in a hotel.

Honestly your best bet is to contact the hotel front desk, since they will be able to do more advanced resets if needed and change the subnet as well.


Is there a way to restart the Touch Bar on MacBook Pro

On 10.13 High Sierra.

sudo pkill "TouchBarServer"


How to connect 24" Apple Display to HDMI output of Mac Mini 2011?

Unfortunately, adapters like that don't exist, AFAIK.

That is, you can't just convert from HDMI to DisplayPort via a simple cable. The [Mini] DisplayPort to HDMI adapters aren't just cables, they contain IC's that provide an HDMI interface. I don't know of any such adapter that works in the other direction.


Identify which apps are draining the battery on an iPhone or other iOS device for iOS 10?

Be patient

That list of apps with percentages may not appear immediately.

You may need to actively use your device for as much as an hour before that list will appear. During that time you will see a message explaining that it may take “a few minutes” of usage. In my experience, that is an underestimate.


How do I change my macOS user account UUID to stop Apple tracking me?

Firstly, the premise behind your question is false on two grounds:

The UUID isn’t actually a UUID in the real sense. - What I mean is that it isn’t a universally unique identifier that, for anything more than practical purposes, is unique. See universally unique identifier for more info. So, while your user account UUID looks the same as a real UUID because of its 32 hexadecimal digits in the 8-4-4-4-12 pattern, it’s not actually a UUID in the true sense of unique. That is, it's not like there's a central authority ensuring that the possibility of two UUIDs being the same is zero!
Apple does not use the UUID to track you - Despite occasional rumours that Apple uses this to track the activity linked to the Admin account of a Mac, there is actually no evidence of this. (This is also confirmed by 1 above - i.e. since it's not a real UUID it can't really be used for tracking purposes). Instead, this UUID is used by Apple’s Open Directory to manage information about your Mac user accounts and provides them with access to network resources. See Apple Open Directory for more info.

Secondly, since you’ve got an iMac Pro, you actually can’t change the UUID. More specifically, iMac Pros all shipped with macOS High Sierra as their original OS, and as of this version of macOS the option to Refresh or Change the UUID is no longer available like it was in earlier generations of macOS (albeit hidden away). Why? Because too many users were doing this to resolve issues and ended up causing themselves major grief instead.

Finally, you may want to familiarise yourself with Apple’s stance on privacy:

Our approach to privacy
Manage your privacy
Transparency report
Privacy Policy

If you’re still concerned, you can also contact Apple directly about privacy issues.

WARNING for users of macOS up to and including Sierra - Do not refresh/change your UUID. Doing so will almost certainly damage your account and, in worst case scenarios, prevent you from logging in.


May I have a list of "System" group names, and their respective gid(s)?

The command dscacheutil -q group will output all groups with their name, ID numbers, and list of members. Be warned, when I say it will output all the groups, I mean all the groups, including built-in system ones mortals were never meant to see. I'm just saying, don't freak out there are so many groups for a single-user system.

root as the superuser is in a group by itself and also implicitly a member of every other group. Any user account can be a member of multiple groups. On my system the only member of staff is root; admins are all in the admin group. wheel is another group name you'll frequently see for some system files; it's a popular group name on Linux systems to assign to files so that admins can edit them without using their password in sudo.

It should also be noted that Mac OS X supports access control lists that provide more granular control over file permissions than traditional Unix permissions; IIRC the + in the file permissions list indicates there are such extended permissions associated with the file.


How to update the EFI firmware of a replacement logic board of a MBP mid-2015 to make it compatible with Mojave?

Let me outline the solution here in case any one else encounters the same problem.

The installer wouldn’t allow me to select the internal flash drive of my MacBook Pro, and the precise installer error message was “This Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to this volume. Please select a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume instead.”

So there were 2 solutions:

Backup the internal flash drive, erase, reformat as HFS+, and run the installer again.
Install Mojave on an external HFS+-formatted drive.

Explanation: with the “stock” firmware of a replacement logic board, the installer expects an HFS+-formatted drive, and won’t update the firmware until it can install the OS on an HFS+-formatted drive.


No guarantee this will solve it, but it might help:

Reset PRAM
Reset SMC


How do I change the location of screenshot in OS X Lion?

Perhaps it's because your path isn't really a path to a folder:
Notice to terminating /:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/kamus/Pictures/snap/


How do I listen to sample/preview in the iOS Music app?

That would be part of the iTunes app that comes bundled (pre-installed) on your iPhone.


How to auto run a simple python program when the terminal opens

You can put command to run the script in .bashrc file inside your home directory, this file is read every time you open non-login shell (Terminal, Iterm and their tabs).

python /path/to/foo.py

Don't forget to set the permissions for all to execute:

chmod a+x foo.py


What python editors have syntax coloring and don't need much training to learn?

My favorite editor for writing any scripting language, not just Python but Ruby, perl, etc… is Textmate. Since I do this for a living I am still using TextMate version 1 that I paid for ages ago.  Textmate version 2 is now open source software and as such is free to download and even change. Both versions can be downloaded from the Macromates Download page.

I prefer Textmate to BBEdit for writing in scripting languages because BBEdit doesn't allow editing while it is running a script. For all of my other text editing needs I prefer BBEdit and it is set as my system default for most types of text files. Every Mac I have owned has had a copy of BBEdit, since about 1989.

If you want to get a taste of what BBEdit is like, your friend can try BBEdit's little brother, TextWrangler. This works the same way, and for scripting languages, has the same shortcomings as BBEdit. TextWrangler is available on the Mac App Store for free.


Home button broken and Notification Center stuck

Press and hold the sleep-wake button to shut down the iPhone.

When you restart it, the notification center should be freed, but you will clearly have issues using the device if you lose control over the assistive touch, so be sure to set up backups the first chance you can.


What is the purpose of "paste newlines as carriage returns" in the Terminal app?

What is it good for?

Sometimes you want to paste exactly what you've copied into something...say a document you're editing in nano or vi and want to preserve it exactly as it is.

Or, you could want to past the CR so it executes the command.

Perhaps the default action to pastes exactly what was copied makes more sense than altering a paste buffer before the application processes the clipboard.


How can I fix Lion Mail's search functionality?

I had the same problem and it turned out the index was broken.

A rebuild didn't work for me so I had to quit Mail and type (in the terminal):

cd ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/
rm -rf Envelope\ Index Envelope\ Index-shm  Envelope\ Index-wal

After that, reopening the Mail app took some time for the index to rebuild but it fixed the search index.

Thanks to MacRumors for the answer


Photos are being swapped between both iphones

When you sent your iPhone 4 to your friend, the device was not properly wiped first. As a result, all of your accounts are most likely still signed in on his device.

The best recommendation is to completely erase the device. To do this instruct your friend to go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. This will wipe the phone and restore it to factory settings. Your friend can then proceed through setup and plug in his own accounts.

If your friend is not willing to wipe the entire device, I recommend he signs out of all of your accounts. He will want to go to all of the following places to do so:

Settings > iCloud
Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Settings > Messages
Settings > FaceTime
Settings > iTunes & App Stores
Settings > Music

You may also have apps that were left installed on your iPhone with your account signed in as well (Facebook and Twitter, for example), that you may want to also check.


Passing osascript via .Net CORE gets syntax error: A unknown token can't go here

WORK AROUND:
I solved the issue by putting the above in an Applescript and calling the script from C#. Meant having to add a non .Net file to the project which can only be edited on a Mac (so far as I know). Script is:

on run argv
    tell application "terminal"
        activate
        do script ("idevicesyslog -u " & item of argv & " | tee '" & item 2 of argv & "'")
    end tell
end run

The script was called by using System.Diagnostics.Process and passing in osascript.exe and the two arguments into the ProcessStartInfo constructor.


How to disable iCloud registration pop-ups?

Assuming you mean the initial setup screen to sign in, then this script may help
Source: Disabling the iCloud sign-in pop-up message on Lion and later

Untested - but if it complains that Yosemite is 'not greater than 7' then I'd just remove the version-check & run it again

#!/bin/sh

# Determine OS version
osvers=$(sw_vers -productVersion | awk -F. '{print $2}')
sw_vers=$(sw_vers -productVersion)

# Checks first to see if the Mac is running 10.7.0 or higher.
# If so, the script checks the system default user template
# for the presence of the Library/Preferences directory.
#
# If the directory is not found, it is created and then the
# iCloud pop-up settings are set to be disabled.

if [[ ${osvers} -ge 7 ]]; then

 for USER_TEMPLATE in "/System/Library/User Template"/*
  do
    defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant DidSeeCloudSetup -bool TRUE
    defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant GestureMovieSeen none
    defaults write "${USER_TEMPLATE}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant LastSeenCloudProductVersion "${sw_vers}"
  done

 # Checks first to see if the Mac is running 10.7.0 or higher.
 # If so, the script checks the existing user folders in /Users
 # for the presence of the Library/Preferences directory.
 #
 # If the directory is not found, it is created and then the
 # iCloud pop-up settings are set to be disabled.

 for USER_HOME in /Users/*
  do
    USER_UID=`basename "${USER_HOME}"`
    if [ ! "${USER_UID}" = "Shared" ]
    then
      if [ ! -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences ]
      then
        mkdir -p "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
      fi
      if [ -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences ]
      then
        defaults write "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant DidSeeCloudSetup -bool TRUE
        defaults write "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant GestureMovieSeen none
        defaults write "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant LastSeenCloudProductVersion "${sw_vers}"
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant.plist
      fi
    fi
  done
fi


If mds is continually using that much CPU then something else is wrong, that's not usual behaviour. Once the index is created, it's incrementally updated and shouldn't be using that much CPU at all.

However, you could try telling Spotlight only to display Mail Messages in searches. You'll find that option in System Preferences in the Spotlight section. (edit) This doesn't actually stop Spotlight indexing those items, but it wont display them in results.

I think you have a more fundamental problem here with Spotlight that should be resolved. Try deleting and recreating the index with the following command:

sudo mdutil -i on -Evsa


Unable to convert dmg to encrypted dmg on Yosemite

I've figured it out! Though still appears that converting a dmg file to an encrypted one using Disk Utility is still broken as of OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), I've figured out a way to do it via terminal using this:

hdiutil convert /PATH/TO/FILE -format UDZO -encryption AES-256 -o /OUTPUT/FILE

This converts a dmg using AES-256 encryption and uses zlib compression. I hope that Apple fixes this in Yosemite soon though. I got some inspiration/help from this Super User question: Further compressions of disk image files


Turn off iMac main screen while working on external

I succeeded by using switchresx.
Terminal command

brew cask install switchresx

then, open System Preferences, SwitchResX

Click icon, setup a display set with a disabled primary display, setup hotkey (ctrl-opt-f1 for me), save&close SwitchResX

Then, if you want to use single external display mode, press the hotkey et voilà


Using osacript to access Finder from crontab (or from non-interactive session)

The following page describes the process of creating a template, including background, views, etc, and then using a Makefile to update the DMG package with new files anytime you need to. It doesn't use Finder so it should work for batch updates.

https://el-tramo.be/guides/fancy-dmg/


Where in System Preferences do I find how to enable system extensions?

Open System Preferences
Open the Security & Privacy preference pane
Choose the General tab
Click the lock to make changes.  (In versions of macOS as applicable.)
Click Allow in the bottom-right.
This Allow button will only show if there is a system extension that is pending approval.


Can't see HD in disk utility in recovery mode, but can in OS

This sounds like a hardware failure; based on my own experience it will turn catastrophic, and probably sooner rather than later. Hopefully you have AppleCare, but:

get yourself an external hard drive, and make a Time Machine backup immediately.
reset your SMC and reset your NVRAM - if you're lucky, this is just some intermittent / bad state in one of these components and zapping it will restore your mac to full functionality.
take your mac to the Genius Bar and describe the symptoms; hopefully they can replace any defective components, but do this after you have a full Time Machine backup!


Time machine creating files and directories at random places

This seems harmless to me. If you want to clean things up, I would sudo tmutil disablelocal to clean up any local snapshots and then make a new test user and turn off automatic user log in.

Reboot and log in as test and make a clean backup interval without your user being logged in or any files open from the main ~ directory.

At that point, you can check for any odd files or delete them entirely (sudo -s from the test user to become root and able to delete things in your normal user folder).

Again, I don't think any of this will cause issues, but it might be nice to clean things up as described and have a known good backup interval where all files are properly closed and backed up once. Handling files that are always open or always changing is hard for backup tools - so excluding them by rule is also an option.

tmutil isexcluded

tmutil addexclusion file1 file2


I'm guessing you are viewing on an iOS device because the default setting is to only sync events one month back.

If my guess is right you can set it to sync all events in:

Settings >  Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Sync (down under the Calendars heading)


Unmute specific app when iPhone is in silent mode

Short answer:

No, that's not possible with third party apps.

Long answer:

Third party apps can not override the mute switch. It only works for Apple's own "Find my iPhone" app. The only possibility I know of is to jailbreak your phone and to use a tweak that lets you put some apps on a white list. Jailbreaking, however, is not recommended.

You may try to use "Do not disturb". It lets you add specific contacts to a favorites list. Only these contacts will ring with DND enabled.


How can I tell the time with an Apple TV?

Sorry for the shameless plug, but I made the app just because Apple TV lacks the time: Screen Clock.


AppleWatch 3 Series shows 4 lines of stripes across the display

According to this article on MacRumors, there's been some defective Series 3 displays.  Apple is replacing them under warranty.

If it looks similar to this image, you should have no problem getting Apple to fix it.


Map Navigation Application that Builds on Top of Google Maps

Navigation implies turn-by-turn directions. When iOS 4 was announced, Apple stated that background navigation was one of the "poles in the tent" (one of the big 6 new features that made up the iOS 4 upgrade). However, per their licensing agreement, developers are NOT allowed to leverage Google Maps when building driving direction applications. They must build off their own data. That is why all the other apps you see (TomTom, Navigon, OpenStreetMap, etc.) all look unique, and have their own data.


Why is "Devices" under bluetooth greyed out?

The label "Devices" is always grayed out, if that's what you're asking. Just like "Bluetooth: on" is grayed out. But here's what you can do to connect.

1.) Click the bluetooth icon in the menu bar while pressing the option key: ⌥ + click.

2.) Hover the mouse over the device that you want to connect, and click remove. This should refresh any old bluetooth logs.

3.) Then connect again.


Problem with applications not resuming where left off after low-battery sleep/hibernate on Lion

As you noted from the system profiler, your battery is close to getting ready to fail.

  Battery is in the "Replace Soon condition"

Your best guess is accurate in that the "battery runs out before OS X has a chance to finish saving the full memory image to disk" This memory image is used to enable Safe Sleep. Without it, applications start from scratch.

A thing to try before replacing the battery is to attempt to calibrate the battery.

Calibrating MacBook Battery

  PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD), MacBook (all models), and MacBook Pro (all models)

  The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) and any model of MacBook or MacBook Pro has been updated because of a new battery released with this computer. With these computers, follow these steps to calibrate your battery:

  Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook's battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
  Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
  Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
  At this point, save your work.  Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
  Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
  Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

  Tip: When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer's memory contents have been saved to the hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.

If your computer continues powering off completely in-between steps 4 and 5 after a couple of trys, replacing your battery may be the only way to reliably get the safe sleep functionality back, other wise you may need to manually configure your MacBook to go into Safe Sleep when you put it to sleep manually well before the hard power-off occurs. A Utility such as SmartSleep might help greatly.


How to use an Apple ID when using hdesetup?

fdesetup doesn't support that feature. You can use other options such as creating or rotating a personal and/or institutional recovery keys but you can't store your recovery key with Apple using the command line.