When I use iMessage the receiver always gets it via email and not phone number

The only tried and true manner I've found to resolve this is to force Apple's activation servers to see the phone as a new device. The push notification servers have clearly "hung on" to what it thinks is the correct iMessage information despite your efforts to correct this.

To accomplish this, you'll need to be really careful about keeping a good backup since you will have to erase your phone and set it up as new. I recommend making an iCloud backup, then making a local backup to iTunes. If you are really paranoid, back up your PC/Mac at this point and have two copies of the iTunes backup. I would turn odd iMessage and power down the phone and then make a backup once it starts with no iMessage on the phone just in case the iMessage settings could get restored after you perform this erase operation.

Now you will need to be sure your phone receives SMS messages. Your carrier should double check that your account has SMS enabled. At this point, you may want to be sure you are not jailbroken or other thing that could get messed up if it's not stored in your normal backup procedure.

From the settings app, go to General, and then Reset and finally Erase All Content and Settings
When the device gets past all the red warning messages, it will trash it's internal APNS tokens (Apple Push Notification Service) and get ready to be set up as a new device or from a backup.
Do not enter your Apple ID when the device restores. You should skip everything and not enter any data into the phone. Don't set up email, iCloud or anything else.
Do test sending a SMS and receiving a SMS.
Then go to iMessage and enable it - not with an Apple ID, but with your phone number.
At this point you can test the iMessage and ensure it works.

Once you have verified things are fine, you can now choose to start setting up the phone and not restore your backup. This might be the best option if you don't have lots of third party apps that have extensive data. If you do want to restore your backup, you can connect it to iTunes ensuring you don't initiate a new backup to cover the old one or use iCloud to restore your cloud backup.

Hopefully this will clear the iMessage settings and restore things to the way you hope it will work.


Pairing 5th generation iPod touch with Bluetooth-HID dongle and windows PC

Actually you can get the BT Stack needed to connect to pc but only if you jailbreak your iPod Touch 5Th gen.
 you can do this simply with pangu and iOS 8.x and you just search for BT Stack in Cydia and install that and you should be good to go.


USB 3.0 (Type A) to USB-C on Early 2015 MacBook Pro for HDMI

USB-C is indeed just a connector, and so a number of different standards can use it. HDMI output needs the Thunderbolt 3 standard to be delivered over the USB-C connectors, but your 2015 MacBook Pro doesn't and can't use that standard on its USB-A ports. A USB-A to USB-C adaptor will simply pass on the USB data.


Automator choose finder folder and run shell script

You can simply pass the selected folder to the shell script by selecting "as argument" from the "pass input:" dropdown-menu and then adding "$@" at the point in your script where you want the folder path to be used.

To use drag&drop, just remove the "ask for finder items" action and let the "run shell script" receive the input from "application can receive files and folders as input".


Re-upload or add back icloud backup apps

According to this Apple Support page, you can add apps to iCloud backup on the iPhone this way:

  Select which iOS apps to back up

  Many apps automatically back up to iCloud after you install them. You can change which apps back up to iCloud and remove existing backups from your storage.

  Use these steps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

  1.Tap Settings > iCloud.
      *  If you're using iOS 8 or later, tap Storage > Manage Storage.
      *  If you're using an earlier version of iOS, tap Storage & Backup > Manage Storage.
    2.Tap the name of your iOS device.
    3. Under Backup Options, turn on any apps that you want to back up.


Do I need to get separate SATA cables to upgrade my SSD to another SSD, and my optical drive to an HDD?

I made a similar modification to my 13" mid-2009 MacBook Pro and used the OWC Data Doubler. You don't need to provide a SATA cable, rather the frame (OptiBay or Data Doubler) used to mount the hard drive in place of the optical drive will use the SATA cable formerly employed by the optical drive.

As for tools, I believe you will only need a Phillips screwdriver (size #00 or #0, I can't recall). Unless they are required for the OptiBay, I don't think you'll need any Torx drivers. The installation instructions for the Data Doubler can be found here and cover the tools required for all MBP models.

One tip for doing this procedure - use a long roll of tape stuck to your desk to keep track of the screws you remove at every step. If you're especially concerned about losing track of where things go, you can put the tape on a piece of paper and write down the location of each screw next to where you've taped it.

All the standard warnings about opening your computer apply here. In particular, be sure you have at least one backup of all your data.


Software was blocked from opening because it is not from an identified developer

System Preferences → Security and Privacy → Allow apps downloaded from… and select either Anywhere or (preferably) Mac App Store and identified developers (more secure option).

If you don't set it to Anywhere, to run the app right-click (⌃ ctrl-click) on the app and select Open, then take it from there (this is only needed the first time you launch the app).

I downloaded LibreOffice 4.1.2 on OS X 10.9 and tested this (I have my security setting at Mac App Store and identified developers) and was able to launch without any problems as above.


Some apps won't run after upgrade to iOS 7.1, how to fix?

Try shutting down all apps by double clicking the home button, then swiping all of the apps up to the top of the screen to quit them then reboot your phone by holding down the Home & Power button at the same time until it prompts you to shut down.

Go ahead and restart it again. If it still won't fully launch, you may have gotten a bum download. To delete the app, tap and hold on the icon until the 'x' appears and tap that 'x'. Go back to the app store and then reinstall the app and give it another try.


trying to get data off of a late 2008 macbook onto a brand new macbook pro

The other option is remove the hard disk and use a cheap USB adapter to read the old disk. I am not sure about a 2008 model, but more recent (2010) models use a SATA drive.

I have done this to recover data from many dead Macs.


The User Manual has no documentation on any security features for that printer.  So, regardless if it's WiFi or connected to Ethernet, it's a wide open printer on the network.  Business class printers will have the ability to lock out users through a variety of methods - I always recommend these printers over the consumer ones for this (and many other reasons)
The "Printer Sharing" section on your Mac, is for printers connected to your Mac. It allows you to manage who/what can print to that printer via your Mac.  Technically, you can share a networked printer, but as stated before, since that printer is "wide open," anyone can get to it regardless of the policies you configure on your Mac.
So, you have two options:

create your own small Wireless network that only you have access to and put your printer on that.
purchase a USB cable and connect your printer directly to your Mac.

(Option 2 is probably the most effective method).


How do I turn off iOS from registering my finger while annotating?

There's a few ways to address this.
In Notes or any similar app you can make app-specific adjustments.  Select the Markup icon at the top of the screen (looks like a pencil tip). That will open the Markup toolbar, usually at the bottom of the screen.

Yes, I know this is not an iPad Pro from 2020 but it's a good picture so I used it anyway.

Tap the 3 dots and turn off 'Draw with finger'.
The other way is to make the change at a global level.  Go to Settings -> Apple Pencil and turn off "Only Draw with Apple Pencil".


Disk Could Not Be Partitioned - First Aid not helping

I had very similar problem. After contacting Apple Support and following their instructions, I've reinstalled macos (instructions here). This is not a wipeout reinstall, but do make a backup.

After the reinstall partitioning worked like a charm.


OS X Mountain Lion - Kernel Panic and Restart after Sleep

If you want to determine whether your panic is caused by hardware or software problems, I recommend you to install Mac OS 10 on a USB stick, it needs to be at least 8 GB. Boot up from it. Now try sleeping. If it's ok, its most likely (99%) a software problem. It may also be your HDD, which is highly unlikely.


Accidentally clicked restore backup instead of backup! Can I still recover my recent photos?

Your photos are probably gone from your phone, but there are a couple other places to check.

Were you backing up to iCloud? If so, you may be able to restore a backup from iCloud to your phone and with it your camera roll. Apple KB article PH12521.

Were you syncing your photostream to iCloud? If so, fire up iPhoto or the windows iCloud tool and download the photos. Apple KB article PH13693.


How to mute the microphone on Key-Down and unmute it on Key-Up?

First, the AppleScript that inspects the key state and handles the mic enabling and muting:

if (modKeyDowntest()) then
  tell application "System Events" to set volume input volume 100
  repeat while modKeyDowntest()
  end repeat
  tell application "System Events" to set volume input volume 0
end if

on modKeyDowntest()
  set modKeyDown to do shell script "~/opt/checkModifierKeys shift"
  set modKeyDown to modKeyDown as integer
  set modKeyDown to modKeyDown as boolean
end modKeyDowntest

Note, that

the script depends on the checkModifierKeys command line app (and it's path).
inspects the state of shift instead of caps lock (other possibilities are cmd, option, control and caps lock - caps lock, however, means the status of caps lock, not the key state!)

In the second step we bind the script to a key shortcut. There are many applications that can do this (some listed in an answer in SuperUser) or as an Automator service. (C&P from Lri's answer...)

  One more option is to save the script as an Automator service:

  Open Automator and choose the Service template.
  Utilities — Run Shell Script / Run AppleScript.
  Service receives [no input] in [any application].
  Add the script to the text area and save.
  Assign a shortcut in System Preferences — Keyboard — Keyboard Shortcuts — Services.

So, I assigned opt+shift+M to the script above and it enables the mic, keeping it unmuted as long as I hold shift. The mic is muted again when I release shift.


Android File Transfer continuously fails to copy files to the SD card over USB in Android Lollipop

Try using SmartFinder for Android. It's on the App Store and it's free. Make sure you have USB debugging enabled before using SmartFinder though.How to enable USB debugging?Go to your smartphone's Settings -> About device -> Tap on the Build number until you get a message "You are now a developer!"Go back to the main page of Settings ->Developer options -> make sure USB debugging is ticked.Once you connect your phone for the first time, it'll install an app called SmartFinder (about 4 MB) on your phone. It won't have an icon, no need to launch it.Then, simply find the .mp3 file under Music in SmartFinder, select it and tap Import.If that doesn't work, then the file might be corrupt.


"I’d like some way to get to them other than screen shot, OCR, and cleanup."
MacOS comes with a Dictionary.app which uses the same resources as the Lookup pop-up. You can copy text from there.

You can choose which dictionaries are included in the app's Preferences.
The Apple .dictionary format is not XML and is not human-readable without some decoding.


My MacBook Pro loses its connection to my WiFi router

Mac Wireless & Airport Connection Problem Troubleshooting: The Basics
* Turn Airport on & off – You can do this via the Airport menu bar or from the Network Preferences. This is the first thing you should try when troubleshooting Mac wireless problems.

Reset your router – This is the second thing you should try doing. You can fix a surprising amount of wireless problems just by resetting the airport/router. All you need to do is turn the thing off for a few seconds and turn it back on.
Reset your Cable/DSL modem – You’ll usually want to reset this in combination with your wireless router. Reset this first so the DHCP information will be pulled to the wireless router properly.
Change Wireless Channels – sometimes your router’s wireless broadcast channel will interfere with a neighbors, be sure you have your router set to a unique channel. Even if it’s a weak signal there can still be interference.
Make sure Wireless/Airport card software & firmware is up to date – This is usually done just by going to the Software Update menu, if there are any updates available for your Mac or Airport, install them.

Mac Wireless Troubleshooting: Intermediate
* Change wireless security protocol – You shouldn’t be using WEP anyway for security reasons, but sometimes changing from WEP to WPA/WPA2 or WPA to WPA2 can resolve wireless connection difficulties.

Make sure router firmware is up to date – Check your router manufacturers website for firmware updates, if there are any available, install them.
Delete and recreate connection – Try deleting and recreating/reestablishing the wireless connection, sometimes a setting can be corrupted and this may fix it.
Create a new Network Location – Similar to the above suggestion, try creating a new and different wireless network location to see if it resolves the connection problems.
Change DHCP auto settings to manual – sometimes there is a problem with the DHCP server, and if you manually set an IP address on the network you can be fine. Remember to set the IP to a high number so it wouldn’t interfere with other DHCP machines. As long as you have the subnet mask, router, and DNS settings configured manually as well, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Disable “Wireless G/N/B only” mode – Sometimes a setting is selected that only broadcasts your wireless signal in Wireless B, G, or N mode (depending on the routers abilities). If this is set, try disabling it.
Flush the DNS cache – Launch the Terminal and enter the following command onto one full line within the Terminal:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Mac Wireless Connection Problem Troubleshooting: Advanced
* Zap the PRAM – Reboot your Mac and hold Command+Option+P+R during restart until you hear another chime, let the Mac boot as usual.

Delete Wireless Config files – Delete com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist files from ~/Library/Preferences and reboot
Trash your home directories SystemConfiguration – Remove all files within ~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and then reboot your Mac.
Reset your Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) – For MacBook and MacBook Pro’s: Shutdown the MacBook/Pro, remove the battery, disconnect the power, hold the Power Key for 15 seconds. Replace the battery, reconnect power, and zap the PRAM and wait for 2 chimes before letting the keys go. Let boot as usual.

source: osxdaily.com
http://osxdaily.com/2009/12/22/mac-wireless-problems-guide-to-troubleshooting-airport-wireless-problems-on-your-mac/


Update of security update hangs for Mojave 10.14.6

I did figure out the culprit was a piece of software that was loaded using LaunchDaemons that somehow prevented a clean shutdown or startup. After backing up and deleting the LaunchDaemon files the update could be installed without any problems.
I could find more infos on the website: https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/75010/


Can I change 10.8.2 Mountain Lion window corners from rounded to squared?

I found a thread that describes how to accomplish the question asked.
To fix this I installed this artfile hack:

This is just a simple artfile hack that removes rounded corners on windows, the fullscreen button, and replaces the standard traffic lights with the stiijo ones (that fade almost completely on background windows)
I made it because I found it incredibly annoying to look at rounded corners when using my tiled window manager xnomad.
Download: http://d.asgeirsson.is/obtv (Remember to back up your old (S)ArtFile !! This has only been tested on 10.8.2)


How can I add missing avatar/profile pictures in Messages?

You can set your own avatar, one that is even different from the one in your address book with the following menu selection:

Messages → Change my Picture...


There's one alias which you created. Opening the alias navigates to the folder, and the folder has the alias in it. Thus, there's just one alias. Delete it.


Displays won't stay off when I put them to sleep

Sometimes this can be due to the System Management Controller.  Try resetting the SMC and see if that helps


MacBook Pro 2016 Left Click lag in games?

I found the solution after a long time searching....

As it turns out, a third party app called "Magnet" was causing the delay. Many other games have had similar issues due to this app running in the background.


Do you have Parental Controls enabled? "Allow user to modify Dock" is a setting that you might possibly have unchecked if you have them enabled.


did the following steps now disk is not recognized!

You could be experiencing a hardware issue.  It could be a problem with your hd enclosure.  But, let's try this. Maybe the format didn't take and you still have the disk formatted for NTFS.  In terminal, run:

 diskutil list

Run this command before and after you attempt to format the drive. Post back the before and after lists.

Do you want to share with Windows?  For now, let's set it up for the mac. I suggest going with the most common setup for an external disk.


Have iOS apps. Can I use them on my Mac Mini?

At the moment, you can't really do this. Although I suspect that Apple is looking to integrate iOS and macOS in the future so that this sort of thing can be done (purely speculation).

GarageBand on the Mac is different from the iPad version (it's more comprehensive) and it has been available on macOS for far longer than on iOS.

It is possible to run iOS apps in the Simulator app that comes with Xcode. However, it's not as simple as downloading an app from the App Store. You'd have to get the source code for the app, compile it in Xcode and run in the Simulator. Most apps being closed source, this won’t be possible!


Installing Xcode 4.2 on top of Xcode 4.1

Answering the first part of your question.

If you do install different versions (or builds) of Xcode on the same Mac boot up hard drive, recommend you give the "newer" Xcode a different name. Else your development environment becomes unstable even if you "sudo /Library/uninstall-devtools".

An example of "unstable" is drag-to-connect UIKit object on the XIB to the IBOutlet code won't "stick".

I'd suggest someone move this question to stackoverflow.com.


If this someone did everything which is documented in the referenced article, you should be able to get your old bash back by

Opening Terminal.app (which will give you an error because it can't start bash)
Running another shell directly via "Shell -- New Command" (Shift-Cmd-N) (e.g. /bin/ksh)
Executing sudo mv /bin/bash-old /bin/bash


iTunes usually just updates the previous backup as part of its incremental backup process. But you can look in the iTunes Preferences ->  Devices tab to see all of the backups iTunes sees to make sure:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204215

To make extra sure that there's not a partial or broken backup that iTunes isn't seeing, you can also go look in the folder for the backups. Here's an article I wrote with instructions for getting to the iTunes backups folder on different OSes:

https://deciphertools.com/blog/where-are-iphone-backups/


Save all images from all emails automatically

If you move your mouse into the header area of the message window (assuming you use Apple Mail), a segmented control appears at the lower end of the header, and one of the buttons shows a paperclip. Click on that, and a menu should appear, with one choice being "save all".

If you want to save all attachments from a number of messages simultaneously, my advice is to go into the Mail attachments folder inside the Library folder in your home directory. But here it will be hard to pick just the files you want, because the file names are not always helpful. Look for

Users/Username/Library/Mail Downloads

Users/Username/Library/Mail/Mail Downloads

If you can't see your Library folder, see:
How to make your Library folder visible in the Finder in OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later


How to type ə (the schwa character) on macOS?

"US Extended" is now called the "ABC Extended" keyboard.  Schwa is made exactly the way that article and you describe.

The results you are getting are what happens when you are actually using a different input source, such as US or US International PC.  Make sure that the "flag" menu at the top right of the screen says ABC Extended.

Note that selecting an item in System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources does not do anything, you need to have the keyboard you want shown in the menu bar, where you can also actually set them.

If you prefer to switch keyboards without using the "flag" menu, you can set a keyboard shortcut for this in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Input Sources.


What is the quickest way to get to the Phone app's favorites list?

The other answer (@Paul) seems confusing, but I somewhat get what he is saying. Basically, closing the Phone app after selecting the Favorites tab at the bottom of the screen, and then re-opening the app will return you to the Favorites tab.


I'm not aware of any FaceTime vulnerabilities that you would need to be worried about.

Sounds like your biggest concern is a sketchy/unreliable realtor/property owner. Unfortunately there is no technology that I'm aware of that can protect you against them either.


Is there any way I can update macOS to Catalina after I used ignore command in terminal

You can undo the command with

sudo softwareupdate --reset-ignored

You should also be able to use

sudo softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer

to get the Catalina installer.

See also https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/10/15/catalina-software-update-can-download-old-installers/


If you have a CD drive, you can update the firmware of Samsung's Sold State Drives (SSD). Samsung provide bootable disk images to update an SSD drive installed within a Mac:

  Samsung SSD Firmware Updates for Mac Users

  Below you will find the latest firmware downloads for recent Samsung-branded SSDs.
  ISO files may be used only via DOS using a bootable CD/DVD.

  … 840 EVO, 840 PRO, 840, 830 Series, and 470 Series …

The process is not friendly but it works. The disk image needs to be burnt to a CD, then you boot your Mac from the disc. The updating process takes seconds and is not complex.

The disc contains a cut down edition of Linux. The result is a text based interface:

I recently applied the 840 EVO update and while my update was not destructive, you must back-up first. The update process explicitly warns that it could wipe the drive.


Mac does Start up sound even though volume was muted before restart

I believe the reason is the hardware. I have had machines that obey the mute setting and some that play the sound through the speaker, even though headphones are plugged in. I used to buy headphone jacks at Radio Shack to prevent the restart sound when at the office, but the hardware would override that and play the sound anyways.


Compiling / installing shotdetect for OS X

How to compile

Easy version (late 2015)

make sure you have homebrew installed
install dependencies
download source code:
git clone https://github.com/johmathe/Shotdetect.git
cd Shotdetect
run install script: ./compile.sh all
find the binary "shotdetect-cmd" in the build directory.
for details, check How to use section below

Old version (up to late 2015)

brew install gd    # ... obviously, http://brew.sh is needed for this!
git clone https://github.com/johmathe/Shotdetect.git
cd Shotdetect

I found XML output was broken as of 2014-02-11, so I applied these two patches. This might be a hack:

curl https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/johmathe/Shotdetect/pull/8.patch | git apply
curl https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/johmathe/Shotdetect/pull/9.patch | git apply

Finally:

mkdir -p build; cd build
cmake -D USE_WXWIDGETS:BOOL=OFF ..    # make sure you include the two dots! :)
make

The resulting binary is shotdetect-cmd.

How to use

Here is a sample command that worked for me:

./shotdetect-cmd -i test.mp4 -o outputDir  -s 60 -w -v -f -l -m -r -a FOO

Flags explained:

-i file      : input file path
-o path      : output path (MUST exist already)
-a id        : (required!) movie ID (alphanumeric, creates subfolder in output path)
-s threshold : threshold (optional, default=75, 60 is recommended in the docs(??))

-w           : generate xml of audio
-v           : generate xml of video infos

-m           : generate the thumbnail images
-r           : generate the images in native resolution

-f           : generate 1st image for each shot  ( -m or/and -r flags must be set)
-l           : generate last image for each shot ( -m or/and -r flags must be set)

Troubleshooting

On a second install in spring of 2015, shotdetect complained:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/libtiff.5.dylib
  Referenced from: /usr/local/lib/libgd.3.dylib
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

I could fix this with brew reinstall libtiff.


How do I recover "discarded" files using Pages?

Sometimes the System and or User permissions need cleaning/Repair

To fix the System level permissions:

Open Disk Utility and repair the permissions.

To fix the user level permissions

Restart while holding the cmd-r.

The select reset password (you will NOT be resenting the password)

Instead use the restore ACL's on that screen,


How can I change the default Documents and Pictures directories to symlinks?

You can do the opposite way round: add a symlink of the defaults Documents and Pictures to your Dropbox folder.

Full instructions can be found here, but basically, in the Terminal, just change directory to your Dropbox folder, and then create the links there.

cd ~/Dropbox
ln -s ~/Documents
ln -s ~/Pictures

Obviously, this will overwrite the existing Dropbox subfolders. You can either rename those folders, or you can create a new name for the symlink in the ln command:

ln -s ~/Documents symDocuments


I resolved this issue by changing the USB port the external drive was connected to. I then rebooted my computer and all of a sudden I could access my external drive again. I do not really have an explanation why this worked however.


Is there a way to restore contacts from data.syncdb?

Does your friend have another iPhone? This would be astronomically easier if she did. I also think that you're looking in the wrong place - here's what I would suggest (assuming that she's got an iPhone, and thank you to some Googling for help with the following instructions):

Close iTunes.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\[your name]\Application Data\Apple
Computer\SyncServices\Local\clientdata.
In that directory, you will find a set of directories with ridiculously long gibberishy names.
List those directories using 'Details', so you can see the modification dates on them, and make note of which of those is the most recent.
Copy the data.syncdb file that contains the contact info you want from whatever directory it's in to the most recent of the gibberish-named directories.
Open iTunes.
Click on Restore.
iTunes will restore your phone's data from that most-recent directory, and will pull the contacts data from whatever data.syncdb file is in that directory.

That said, if she doesn't have an iPhone, it'll be a lot harder to do this unless they migrated over to the Address Book or Mail or something. Do you have any iDevice lying around that you could plug in, and restore using the iPhone's original backup? That would fix that problem.


Possible to automate entering star ratings and play counts for identical/duplicate song in iTunes?

Here is my little script to do what you are asking for. Tested on a couple of tracks on my iTunes 11 under Snow Leopard and it run just fine.

tell application "iTunes"

    set myMusicLib to some playlist whose special kind is Music
    log "Debug: Count of library items: " & (count of tracks of myMusicLib)

    set myNewTracks to (get tracks in myMusicLib whose bit rate is greater than 256)
    log "Debug: Count hi bit rate tracks: " & (count of myNewTracks)

    repeat with newTrack in myNewTracks

        -- Try to match it with a low bit rate track
        set trackName to name of newTrack
        set albumName to album of newTrack

        --log "Debug: Hi Rate Track Name: " & (get name of newTrack)
        --log "Debug: Rate: " & (get bit rate of newTrack)

        set oldTracks to {}
        try
            set oldTracks to (get tracks in myMusicLib ¬
                whose bit rate is less than 256 ¬
                and name is trackName ¬
                and album is albumName)
        end try

        if (count of oldTracks) is 1 then
            log "Debug: Dup Name: " & trackName
            log "Debug: BitRate: " & (get bit rate of item 1 of oldTracks)

            set oldPlayCount to (get played count of item 1 of oldTracks)
            set played count of newTrack to oldPlayCount
            log "Debug: Reset Play Count to: " & oldPlayCount

            set oldRating to (get rating of item 1 of oldTracks)
            set rating of newTrack to oldRating
            log "Debug: Reset rating to: " & oldRating
        end if
        if (count of oldTracks) is greater than 1 then
            log "ERROR: Found more than 1 duplicate. Not doing anything."
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

EDIT:

You can get a glimpse of what is going on by looking at the output it sents to the Events pane. Just run it inside the Applescript Editor and click on the Events & Replies buttons to unhighlight them.

EDIT2:

To limit the script you can change the line

set myNewTracks to (get tracks in myMusicLib whose bit rate is greater than 256)

to

set myNewTracks to (get tracks in myMusicLib whose bit rate is greater than 256 and Album is "My Album Name")


Combining CharacterViewer with FontBook in Yosemite

The problem you mention has existed since OS X 10.7 was released nearly 4 years ago, so it has been discussed a lot in various places.  I think the best fix is probably to use the 3rd party alternative palette, Ultra Character Map.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ultra-character-map/id520265986?mt=12

However if I remember right it cannot handle glyphs with no unicode codepoint assigned (i.e glyph variants).


This information is available in the Console application. The logging for Cisco IPSec VPN type is associated with the "racoon" service heading (note: only one c in racoon); the logging for IKEv2 is associated with the nesessionmanager service. It is unclear to me whether these messages are captured in a persistent log, but they do at least show up when Console is open and a VPN connection is created/initiated.


Here is one thing to try, from MacRumors:

...you need to have your email address turned on for iMessage on your iPhone in order to enable Text Message Forwarding. If you don't, the numeric access code will not appear on your iPad or Mac during the setup process.
As soon as you enable your email address for iMessage (you only need to do this on your iPhone) the numeric access codes appear as expected. Once you have text message forwarding setup you can disable your email address again in iMessage as it seems to only be necessary for the numeric access code setup step, not the actual text message forwarding itself.


How to select images from my Desktop in Keynote?

I had the same problem, but couldn't get it to work over this dialogue. It's kind of weird that you can only use images from Library Files over that button.

The solution is to go to "image in the "Format" band on the right of Keynote. There is another button to "replace" the image. You can choose any file from there...

Hope that helps, since I'm from Germany I don't know the exact denotations in the English version. If you cannot find the right button, just let me know ;)


How can I disable password for system preferences lock? How can I permanently unlock all system preferences?

The settings stay unlocked, just do not click the "lock". This will keep the stuff unlocked until you want to lock it again.


It means the virtual memory for the virtual machine may be swapped to disk, massively slowing down both the guest and the host computers.

If you need to know about "swapping" in general, well, I was going to point you to the Wikipedia page on it, but that redirects to a page on "paging" which is caught up in some geek war about the difference between swapping, paging, segments, and even overlays, so it may be more work than it is worth to understand it from there.  The article on Virtual Memory is easier to read, but in a different kind of Wiki-unhappiness.

The short story is that if you only have 4GB of memory but want to run 4 programs, each of which wants to use 2GB of memory, the OS can let you do that by suspending the programs you are not using and saving the state of their memory to disk in a section of the disk called the "swap space".  When computers such as laptops do that with the whole OS, we now call it "hibernating".  When it was first done to entire individual applications while the system is running, lots of people called it "swapping" because you were swapping one active process for another. Now it's done differently, with small blocks of memory called "pages" rather than whole applications, and lots of other optimizations (and consequent complications), but it's the same general idea.

If anyone has better reference material to point to, please add them to this answer, but please read them first and make sure they are appropriate for those not-so-few ordinary Mac users who do not much care about the details of how computers work.


Connect MacBook Pro Retina to VGA data projector


Paid up developers can not see any old betas for redownload. You typically need a support case and a very compelling reason to get anything beta from Apple once they update to a new beta. Save your downloads if you ever think you need them later.
That being said, all the release versions of 9 that are available:

https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

Assuming you don’t want the last version of 8, here is the oldest 9.0

https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_9/Xcode_9.xip


How can I get Mail.app notifications without keeping it running?

If you're just using Gmail (like OP), then you can use the program Gmail Notifr. It lives in your menubar, and checks Gmail at a specified interval, it also supports Growl notifications.


Mouseposé

When turned on, it dims the screen and puts a spotlight on the area
around the mouse pointer, easily guiding the audience‘s attention to
an area of interest.

Additionally, it has the mouse click visualization and typing visualization - both allowing your audience to see what you click and type.
They have a video on their site  that shows the software in action.

Ink2Go

Ink2Go is an extremely simple and powerful screen annotation and
recording software. Using Ink2Go you can easily write on top of any
other application currently active on the desktop, even on a running
video.

There is a 15 day free trail available at their website. They have both Windows and Mac versions.  In addition, there is a number of YouTube videos showing the product in action

This one may be a bit of overkill given all the features, but I have seen this at work in an education setting and it's excellent software.


Are there any options for IOS development on Windows 8? (Apps, Emulators, Cloud Computing OK)

According to the license for OS X, you are not allowed to run it on non-Apple hardware.

If any emulators do exist, or methods to hack existing virtualization software to run it on non-Apple hardware, that would not be legal.

Legally, you could technically buy some Apple hardware like an iMac or Mac Pro, install Windows on it, and then run virtualized OS X within Windows, but I'm not certain virtualization software that will do this exists.

The only virtualization system I know of that supports OS X is VMWare ESXi, but I believe that's a bare-metal hypervisor that won't run on Windows.

You will probably be best served by buying a Mac Mini and either KVMing it or connecting to it with VNC.

EDIT:

You mentioned http://www.macincloud.com -- I can't speak to the reputability of that particular business, but the premise is sound. They could be running multiple instances of OS X on ESXi hypervisor running on Mac Pro or Mac mini server hardware, or they could be renting out individual Mac mini servers -- making each instance accessible over VNC.

Here are two articles that may give some credit to MacinCloud's reliability:

http://coronalabs.com/blog/2012/03/15/corona-developers-rent-a-mac-in-the-cloud/
http://gizmodo.com/5853926/join-a-mac-timeshare-in-the-clouds


Bootcamp partition not showing up after OS partition resize

Usually, in order to enlarge your Windows partition, you have to relocate the entire partition. Or, in other words, there usually is not way using OS X to enlarge the Windows partition after shrinking the OS X partition. You can, for example, remove Windows completely and then reinstall Windows to a larger partition. There are also third party tools, such as Winclone, that can be used to backup a Windows partition, shrink the OS X partition, create a larger empty Windows partition, then restore Windows to this larger partition.

I am not sure how just shrinking the OS X partition alone would cause Windows not to boot. One idea is that the type of partitioning was changed. In other words, you either had a pure or hybrid GPT partitioned drive and, after shrinking the OS X partition, the partitioning changed from pure to hybrid or hybrid to pure.

A pure GPT partitioned drive requires Windows to use the EFI to boot, where as a hybrid GPT partitioned drive requires Windows to use the BIOS to boot. So the questions are what is your current partitioning scheme and how does Windows intend to boot?

The following Terminal application commands can be use to determine you current partitioning scheme. None these commands will change your computer.

diskutil list
sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

If fdisk shows more than one partition, then Windows will assume to use a BIOS boot method, otherwise the EFI method will be used.

You can determine if Windows was using a EFI boot method by viewing the contents of the hidden EFI partition. To view the contents in the Finder, enter the following command.

diskutil mountvolume /dev/disk0s1

After viewing the contents, you can hide the partition by entering the following command.

diskutil unmountvolume /dev/disk0s1

What you are looking for is a folder labeled Windows. If found, then Windows probably was using the EFI boot method, otherwise the boot method was probably BIOS based.

If the wrong boot method is being used, then the partition tables need to be repaired. The proper steps to repair the tables depends on the contents of the tables. In other words, you will need to first post the output from the first set of commands given in this answer.


PC3-10600 RAM runs at a clock speed of 1333Mhz. The older PC3-8500 runs at a speed of 1066Mhz. As long as there aren't any other physical or voltage requirement differences between the two types of memory (and there shouldn't be in your case, since both are DDR3 SO-DIMMS), your system should accept it.

Keep in mind that the system's memory bus will automatically adjust to suit the rated speed of the slowest memory module installed into it. So rather than running the memory at 1333Mhz, it will drop down to 1066Mhz and you'll lose some memory bandwidth.

If you want, you can look at this Wikipedia entry to start figuring out exactly how much. As for real world performance, it really depends on what you're doing. Increasing the amount of memory available while losing some bandwidth might be a good idea if you leave everything open all the time.

But if you have specific applications that require a high amount of memory I/O, like a big database for example, speed might be more important. For the average Mac user though, I'd say sheer volume would be preferential.


how to find files with .j or .jp extension

Assuming you are running Yosemite...

Open a Finder window and navigate to the parent folder that contains all of these files.
Hit CMD and F to convert it to a Spotlight search window.
Select your folder as the search target in the bar just under the toolbar (in the screenshot below I've selected "Downloads"). Unless you changed the setting in the Advanced pane of Finder Preferences it'll default to "This Mac" but it should offer whichever folder you selected in step 1 as an option.
Open the search attribute dropdown by clicking on Kind, search for "File extension", tick it and click OK.
Enter the extension you want to search for. The window should update quickly with your results.

Select all the files it finds, right-click and select "Rename..."
Enter ".j" in the "Find:" box and ".jpeg" in the "Replace with:" box. I'd include the dot at the start of the extension just to make sure it doesn't replace any letters anywhere else in the filename.
Click "Rename". Then "Use .jpeg" at the prompts (unfortunately it'll ask you once for each file). It should rename all the selected files.

Then repeat for ".jp".


USB vs FW400 for iMac G4 external backup drive?

Firewire 400 will be considerably faster than USB in this case, as FW has its own dedicated chipset, whereas USB requires CPU time and shares its bus with all other USB devices.


10.9.2 What fonts can be deactivated? How?

Yes, automatic font activation should be perfect for this scenario. Disable all the fonts you can then open all your apps. Apps that require certain fonts will activate the fonts that you need.

Note that you should also try some documents including PDFs as they may use additional fonts that the app itself will not ask to be activated.


Start/Stop Internet Sharing via Terminal in Yosemite without AppleScript

I stumbled across a seemingly stupidly easy way to enable/disable Internet Sharing the other day. There's just a bit of prep work to be done first.

Open System Preferences > Network
Highlight the interface you want to share your connection FROM and click the gear below the interface list
Select 'Duplicate Service...'
Give the duplicated service a name and save it
Set the service to 'DHCP with manual address' (because some DHCP servers will not assign an additional address to a MAC) and input a valid IP

That's the prep work done. Now you just need to change your IS settings to share from the new service instead of the existing one. Then, you can use
networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled <networkservice> <on off> to toggle the network service you just created on or off. Doing so disables IS as there is no service to receive internet access from, and you still retain access on your machine because there is still an active interface connected to your network!


What is the easiest (fastest) way to get direct link to MP4 video on YouTube?

I don't think it's much faster. I use youtube-dl from MacPorts or Homebrew.

> youtube-dl -g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkmyLTPh3UY
http://r7---sn-nfpnnjvh-1gil.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=34&expire=1357448601&source=youtube&factor=1.25&sver=3&ip=178.193.24.93&algorithm=throttle-factor&ms=au&key=yt1&mv=m&upn=tGspI9WJELc&burst=40&id=3249b22d33e1dd46&mt=1357423931&cp=U0hUTFRPVl9FS0NONF9MSVpHOlp2Yi1jNlUyeUdG&fexp=914501%2C919358%2C910207%2C929206%2C916611%2C920704%2C912806%2C928001%2C922403%2C922405%2C929901%2C913605%2C929104%2C929109%2C929110%2C913546%2C913556%2C908496%2C920201%2C913302%2C919009%2C911116%2C901451%2C902556&ipbits=8&gcr=ch&sparams=algorithm%2Cburst%2Ccp%2Cfactor%2Cgcr%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&signature=910FFEBF23CC5F88185DB98028C346DF76EF83C3.2B57D82069876F73C1E8F886AEFFDF2F2039F7F5

You can copy this URL automatically to the clipboard with | pbcopy. See osxdaily.com for details.


How can I mass delete photos off my camera roll (iOS7)

You can use an alternate way.

1)connect device to MAC.

2)import the photos that you don't want and after import it will ask to "Keep original or remove".

3)select remove from device.(this is what you want)

4)then you can remove from MAC also.


Currently this is possible on macOS Sierra with the new "prefer tabs" feature.

To enable it, go to System Preferences > Dock > Prefer tabs when opening documents and select Always.

What are the downsides to this? Opening a folder will force open it in a new tab. That means that if you have a Finder window open in another space, the folder will be opened in the background with hardly any visual feedback. This may prevent you from knowing if a folder actually has opened and forces you to manually go to the Finder window to see the contents of what you opened. Additionally, this option enables the feature is all apps, not just in the Finder.


Help! Lost admin password for Mac OS X server 10.9

In conclusion, TimeMachine recovery of the entire system to the status before changing admin password worked well. I recovered the old admin password and it worked for Keychain Access as well.

In details;
Just in case the recovery doesn't work and I lose the TimeMachine backups somehow, I copied the TimeMachine backup to another external drive. To do that, however, I needed admin password. So, first I had to reset the admin password.

Note: In my case, the destination for TimeMachine backup was a local partition (probably), so I didn't need network password to access it. If it were in network, for example, you would need password that has been lost at step 8. Then this procedure may not work for you. Before actually try the following steps, it may be good to see if you need password for system recovery, following http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14185 (step 5 in this page is the key), but just cancel when you are asked to choose date and time.

Open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences. Choose Time Machine > Open Time Machine Preferences…
Slide the Time Machine switch to Off.
Restart the Mac with Command + R keys held down to enter Recovery Mode.
In Recovery Mode, launch Terminal.app.
In Terminal.app, type resetpassword.
Choose the admin account and set new password. Verify it.
Warning about Keychain will appear.
Restart. Now you get admin password at the cost of loosing Keychain password. The server won't work properly any longer.
The OS will ask if you want to update Keychain password. Because you don't know the old password. You can't do that. So just choose Continue in the middle.
The system will ask Keychain passwords, but you have to ignore them.
Connect an external drive that is large enough.
If necessary, reformat the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5096
Click the icon of the new backup drive and choose Get Info from the File menu or press Command-I (⌘-I)
Make sure Ignore ownership on this volume at the bottom of the Sharing & Permissions: section is not checked.
Open a new Finder window. In the Finder sidebar, click the icon of the current backup drive.
Open a new Finder window. In the Finder sidebar, click the icon of the new backup drive.
Drag the folder Backups.backupdb on the current backup drive to the root level of the new backup drive.
Enter an administrator name and password (you needed to reset the admin password for this step), then click OK to start the copying process.  This may take some time to complete because all the backups will be copied.
After the copy has completed, you can eject the eternal drive.
Restart the machine with Command and R keys held down to enter Recovery Mode.
In Recovery Mode, Select Restore from a Time Machine Backup, then click Continue.
Select the TimeMachine storage.
Select the date and time of the backup you want to restore, then follow the onscreen instructions.
In my case, I successfully recovered admin password as well as default Keychain password.


Restore an iPhone from iCloud backup of newer iOS version

You cannot downgrade unless one of the following is true:

Apple is still signing installations of the previous version of the OS to which you wish to downgrade, or
Your phone is jailbroken, you have saved your SHSH blob from the prior version, and you have a way to run a replay attack with that SHSH blob to trick the device into believing Apple is still signing that version.

You can determine whether a particular version of iOS is currently being signed for a given device on ipsw.me. Simply change 8.2 in the URL to the version you want to check, such as 8.0 or 8.3.

This list of updates, from the same website, shows when Apple starts and stops signing a given version.

In your case, 8.2 stopped being signed on 5/4/15. Therefore it is no longer possible to downgrade. Generally the window is about a month or so after a new version is released.


Remove all items from Safari 10.10.1 reading list

Right-click on an item in the list and choose Clear All Items.

Reading List is not a list of sites you previously listed, but rather a list of sites you specifically added to the list using the + button to the left of the address bar.


This is just a guess, but when you use the IP address it may try to do a reverse DNS lookup to get the associated name, and take a while to time out.


Where can I learn about programming my Jail broken iOS device?

There is a Stack Exchange proposal but it's lacking support:

  [...]for iOS developers who require
  help and advice when using
  undocumented iOS APIs. Developers who
  discover private iOS APIs and need a
  place to document them.

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/18154/ios-private-apis


Can I make my iPhone vibrate louder or stronger?

No, you can’t make your iPhone vibrate louder. But since your real issue is that you’re not noticing the vibration while it’s in your pocket, you could try creating a custom vibration that is more noticeable to you.

Creating a custom vibration

Follow these steps:

Open Settings
Tap on Sounds
Tap on the Ringtone option
Tap on Vibration
Tap on Create New Vibration
Now tap the centre of your screen to record a pattern you think will be more noticeable (I’m thinking two or three long presses will be more obvious when it’s in your pocket, but at least you can try different things until you find one that suits you)
When finished, tap on Save in the top right-hand corner
Give your new custom vibration a name
Make sure it’s now selected as your vibration type for your ringtone
Exit Settings

Note: - All vibrations you create appear in a list of custom vibrations and are available for all events, not just your ringtone (e.g. you can select it for reminders, texts, etc).

[EDIT - Select or create custom vibrations for individual Contacts]

Another option that may interest you is to select or create a custom vibration for people in your contacts. To do this:

Open Contacts
Select a contact
Tap on Edit in the top right corner
Tap on either Ringtone or Text Tone
Tap on Vibration
Select one of the standard or custom vibrations
Go back and tap on Done


Can I turn off macOS Catalina's internal display without close the lid while using an external monitor?

Yes, it's possible.
Well, I can do it.  MacBook Pro, MacOS 10.11, if that matters.

Just find the spot where the lid sensor is,
(about 1/3 from the bottom on the left edge of this laptop) and
park a magnet on it.   The internal display goes dark, but
the external still displays, and the keyboard types, and both
the trackpad and external pointing devices still work.

It moves the dock onto one of the external screens, of course, and other items shift accordingly, taking a few seconds.


on your iPhone go to settings and tap the top button with your name. On the screen that comes up tap icloud. On next screen tap Photos. On that screen make sure 'iCloud Photo library' is on and make sure 'Optimize iPhone Storage' is checked. Then wait awhile as photos are moved to icloud.


I tried all available fixes, but in the end I had to reinstall. I couldn't either do a repair installation. I had to do a clean install. Despite, it moved all my old files to windows.old and my own folders in c:\ was still there.

This is the second or third time this happens. I'm going to put all important stuff in onedrive and use reinstall as first option.


MacBook Pro (late 2013) w/ Yosemite & FileVault won't boot: LCD light only, no other activity

The Apple Store Genius quickly resolved the issue by doing an SMC reset  and NVRAM reset in rapid succession.

(He may have done more than one of each; I'm not sure. I don't think he waited for an audible startup chime before adding the NVRAM step. It was a 5-minute visit and the store was loud.)

So if this state recurs, I'll try each of those in order, in more combinations/timings to be sure.

The Genius indicated that he'd seen the same issue with another person earlier that same day, and that the FileVault full-disk-encryption was an involved factor: the black-but-backlight-on screen may have been showing in lieu of, or perhaps 'in front of', the usual pre-boot/decrypt-volume prompt screen.


How can I force an application to be launched to the 2nd monitor?

When the app is on the dock do left click on it and it will appear a menu. Select Options → Assign To Desktop on Display 2.

Alternatively, I used Moom, that let me move a window from one monitor to another with a defined shortcut. In my case ⌥+⇥. But this is a paid software.


Getting a list of currently running processes

ps -axc -o comm

-a displays processes from all users (or root)
-x includes processes that don't have a controlling terminal
-o comm outputs command paths or names
-c makes -o comm output names only

tell app "System Events" to name of application processes would list only processes launched from an application bundle.


Should I charge the Magic Keyboard 2 only when needed?

In general, keeping it connected all the time will not damage the battery.  Apple has designed these peripherals to only accept a charge when it's needed.  When it doesn't need the power, it simply will not use it.

However, it's a good practice to periodically, every month or so, unplug the keyboard and let it run on its battery until it gets very low (below 10%) or stops working.  Then you can plug it back in and leave it alone while it charges.  Apple has a nice section on batteries and their maintenance here.


Will an external 4K monitor cause performance issues on my MacBook Pro?

I am using a Macbook pro 13 2015 with a 4K 27 inch display, and definitely having performance issues when I use it in one of the scaled resolutions (e.g., 2560x1440, 2304x1296, 3008x1692..). When used in "Default for display" mode, which is an equivalent of 1920x1080 UI resolution, performance is great.
According to specs of 2015 Macbook pro 13, the limit is to drive a 4K display at 3840x2160 resolution. When Macbook pro is used in any of the scaled resolutions, internally, GPU renders a canvas which is much bigger than the actual 4K resolution, and then downscales it to 4K. This puts real burden on performance.
The performance hit shows itself as stuttering animations on mission control window animations, with addition of fans spinning on higher RPMs.
However, when I look at specs of 2017 Macbook Pro 15.4 which is listed here, I can see that it can properly drive two 5K resolutions simultaneously. Therefore, if you use 2560x1440 scaling on 27 inch 4K monitor, we could expect that its GPU would easily render the 5K canvas, then downscale it to 4K native resolution without any problems.
This was the elaboration about performance. From sharpness point of view, 2560x1440 scaled resolution would be just a bit softer than the exact pixel doubled 1920x1080 mode, however, if you look at a proper distance (greater than 53 cm according to this site), you won't notice too much difference. 2304x1296 scaled resolution works even greater, because text is a bit bigger.
If you accept to spend more money and if you can find one, the LG Ultrafine 4K or 5K displays from Apple would be the best, because you would be able to use them in exact pixel doubled mode, which gives sharpest image and best performance. However, with much less price, and some acceptable performance penalty, you could as well live with a 27 inch 4K display from other manufacturers. Just be sure to get a model which has less compatibility problems with Mac.
You can also have a look at my answer to a similar question here.


This means your battery is at the end of its life. This happens to all batteries, sooner or later, depending on your type of usage and most importantly on the amount of cycles (i.e. full recharges).

Your battery will probably not last longer than one hour at this stage. You can of course try to train it by letting it drain the battery until the MacBook sleeps and then recharge it up to 100%, leave it recharged for at least a few hours, and then repeat this process a few times. By doing this, you sort of "reset" the battery and can get a few minutes more out of it. It helped me get at least 20 minutes more.

If OS X tells you to service battery, it means that you will need to buy a new battery if you want full capacity back. There is no warranty that would cover worn out batteries. I had had the same problem, but unless your battery has less than 200 cycles, this is absolutely normal and you should buy a new battery. Again, Apple will not replace your battery unless it's almost unused.


Does FileVault 2 encrypt keys in sleep mode?

I don't believe any extra encryption is specified for the keys and also want to disagree with the statement "only parts of it are decrypted" as the entire volume is either unlocked or locked. For the filesystem to be mounted - all of it is unlocked.

So, you could enable destroyfvkeyonstandby being sure to also disable power nap since that causes restarts if the machine wakes up too many times to find that the filesystem is encrypted while it tries to run.

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/power-nap-power-management-settings-and-filevault-2

For me, the risk that somehow the RAM will be captured from a sleeping Mac isn't worth the delay every wake of having to unlock the volume. My suspicions are that Apple has implemented the unlock in a way to make it highly secure whether the Mac is sleeping or not so that even if the contents of the drive are captured, you still need the proper password to unlock the volume the next time it is locked.


Icons of m4v files missing after El Capitan update

There is a utility out there that does about all of the cleaning operations on a Mac O/S system, it's called Onyx and can be found on MacUpdate or thru your favorite search engine.

Go to the automate tab, check everything and let it run. Reboot when done. That should clean things up (caches, permissions, etc.) and is likely to fix this issue. It has for me.

Failing that my only other suggestion is to apply the latest combo update for El Capitan. Combo updates often fix a multitude of strange issues.


How can I display my ipad screen on my PC?

if you had an iPad 2 or above, you could use Airplay Mirroring, and then setup an airplay server on your Mac which will allow you to receive a live video feed of the current display.

See this answer, which is actually from a question about recording iPad screen output, which has most of the technical details.

It's not quite the same as "logging in" to your iPad, but the end result is the same.  The difficulty you will probably hit is in being on the same LAN which is a requirement of Airplay, but you could perhaps fix this with VPNs.


Cannot reinstall OS X on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

You'll want to load the computer into what's known as Network Recovery (or Internet Recovery) by holding down the following buttons while turning the computer on: Command, Option, and R. You will need to know the password for your Wifi network.

When you're loaded into the right menu, you'll look for Disk Utility. Once Disk Utility, look for the name of the disc on the left hand side. You should see the name of the hard drive (i.e. Apple HDD 512GB etc).

Select the Partition button if you're using the native 10.11 Disk Utility or the Partition tab in the middle if you're using the lower systems.

If you're using the newer system, it should by default auto-adjust the partition to the right size and format. If you're using the old one, follow these steps:

Go to Partition type and change the drop down from "Current" to "1 Partition."
Change the format to "Mac OS X Extended Journaled."
Give the disk a name in the field on the right. Macintosh HD is the default name for Macs out of the box.
Click on "Options" and choose GUID Partition Table. Click Ok.
Click Apply, then Partition.

Once this partition is created, you sh[ould be able to install OS X on your new hard drive.]

This will allow the disk to be formatted into the proper format and should allow it to install on the new HDD.


Dell U2713HM LCD Monitor Killing Wifi (and ethernet) on my Mid-2012 MBP and iPhone 4S

I want to post a quick update as I have been able to isolate the problem.

My MBP's magsafe power adapter was hooked-up to the same power strip into which my Dell display was plugged into.

Plugging the magsafe into a "discrete" power outlet solved the wifi blackout issue.

I hope this helps others dealing with similar issues...


I will hazard the guess that you need to install libtool.  You can do that with

brew install libtool
brew link libtool

From what I understand, libltdl is provided with that.
http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/html_node/Using-libltdl.html

I don't actually use homebrew so I hope that my stab in the dark helps you find your solution!


iTunes cannot connect to Apple ID Server

After some time, I came back to this and tried some other things and got my iTunes connecting again.

On my Windows side, I use GData for my security and it has firewall settings, min-max.  I always keep it on max for tight security, but I tried lowering it to one below max and that worked.  Oddly, when I disabled firewall altogether, that did not work for me.  Also, sometimes I have to lower setting to two below max to get iTunes to connect.  Very strange, but it works.

What is really strange, is that I could not connect on my MAC side either, which is not running GData.

I got a work around and I'm fine with that.

I hope this helps someone else.


Simply drag the event out of iPhoto to the destination folder  ;)

If you really want to zip them, use the Export to archive iPhoto plugin.


How do I remove files from iTunes which have been deleted on disk?

I've found the easiest most reliable solution yet! No scripts, no loss of playcounts/ratings etc.

Create a new playlist, say temp.
Select all your the tracks you want to deal with and drag and drop them to the playlist. The new playlist will only contain valid tracks. All invalid tracks will be marked with the exclamation mark.
Switch to the playlist and select all the tracks, then right-click and Uncheck Selection
Switch back to Music and sort by the checkmark - now all the invalid tracks are grouped together!
Select them all and delete!

You can then go and Check the songs again to make sure they get synced to devices.


How to mark as READ all the e-mails received in iPhone?

This article on Lifehacker a few days ago shows a trick to mark all emails as read.

Quoting the article:

  Open up the Mail app and tap the Edit button.
  Select one message.
  Press and hold the Mark button at the bottom of the screen.
  While still pressing and holding the Mark button, tap the email you previously selected to unmark it.
  Release the Mark button.
  Tap the Mark as Read button.


Sharing Mac mini with monitor in another room. (also bluetooth keyboard/mouse with second monitor)

A couple of options for you...

You could use an Apple TV connected to your monitor and connect to your Mini using AirPlay - since 10.9 you're no longer restricted to using AirPlay to just mirror your main display, you can use an AirPlay-connected display as a secondary display.

Otherwise you're looking at a hard-wired display setup. Hard-wiring may be cheaper, it all depends on the length of cable-runs as you may need to look at active video signal boosters/extenders for longer runs. If your existing Ethernet cabling is point-to-point and you've a cable that runs from your main room to your secondary, you could use DVI-Ethernet extenders. These use the cabling to transmit video directly rather than actually being connected to the home network.


Mac Partition won't boot after Bootcamp Partition Resize

The partition GUID of disk0s2 (DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC) is probably wrong. It designates the partition as a Windows Recovery Environment, which is the ugly stepsibling of macOS' recovery partition. Changing the GUID of a partition doesn't modify the volume format! A wrong GUID usually renders a partition unbootable though.

It's rather unclear how and why the GUID has been modified.

Depending on your (former) macOS system version it should be either the GUID of an APFS, a CoreStorage or an HFS+ partition instead. To detect the proper GUID for disk0s2, use the method described here. If you remember the system version the steps to detect the partition type outlined there are usually not required.

Here, the system of the broken boot volume is known (macOS 10.5 Catalina). Catalina's boot partition type exclusively is APFS.

Then the standard procedure would be:

Boot to another boot device (either Internet Recovery/macOS Recovery (alt-cmd-R), another Mac (with the broken Mac attached in Target Disk Mode) or a thumb drive. Preferred system version: the same as the "broken" one. Below I assume you booted to Internet Recovery/macOS Recovery Catalina!
Open Terminal and enter:

diskutil list

to determine the disk number of the internal disk of the "broken" Mac (below I assume it's disk0 - apply accordingly)
Get the partition table with gpt:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Depending on the boot drive you have to prepend sudo and/or disable SIP here, if you want to execute gpt ...

sudo is required if you boot to another Mac/thumb drive (sw_vers < 10.15) and using an admin account. sudo & disable SIP is required booted to another Mac/thumb drive (sw_vers >= 10.15) and using an admin account. Booting to Internet Recovery 10.15 doesn't require additonal steps.
Unmount the broken Mac's internal drive/volumes

diskutil umount disk0s3
diskutil umountDisk disk0

Remove the second partition

gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0

Unmount the broken Mac's internal drive/volumes

diskutil umount disk0s3
diskutil umountDisk disk0

add the second partition with the proper GUID

gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 400390624 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

Verify the disk and the volume

diskutil list
diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume diskXsY #use the proper diskXsY of the APFS volume in the diskutil list output


Is it possible to remove or at least hide the “Family Sharing” Preference Pane from Catalina?

I've discovered that if you log out of your iCloud account, the Family Sharing pref.pane goes away. It's a very flawed solution, but it does work for me.


Mac unable to set rotations of multiple monitors

I've solved this problem by making a safe mode reboot.
You need to shut down your MacbookPro, hold command + R. After you get into the safe mode successfully, restart it again.
This time you get into your Mac with a normal mode, and the dual rotation of monitors is working.
A rough assumption is that a safe mode reboot may cleared some cache of the system?
Hope my solution can be helpful to you.


There is plenty fish in that ocean. So it all depends on your patience, budget and admin skills.

If you want good quality for free and easy to setup, I would recommend PS3 media server http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/. It worked well for me.

I sold my Sony gear last year when I moved so I can not attest that it works now but I don't see why it would suddenly break compatibility. It works with all my DLNA clients (with a few limitations over WiFi and perfectly over the wired Gbps network).

There are others and most notably serviio http://www.serviio.org/ that work well but aren't necessarily the simplest to setup.

Have a look at http://alternativeto.net/software/medialink/ to see if you find anything else that you would like.


Restore that iPhone. If the problem persists: take it to a repair shop. It is probably a hardware problem. I had the same problem myself.


Reseting the NVRAM seems to have fixed the problem.


What Bluetooth profiles are available for headphone connections on iPhone and iPad?

Isn't AAC a codec, not a BT profile?
Seems AAC is nested in A2DP - ref. Wikipedia
From the Apple documentation
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204387
"Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP 1.3)
This profile works with iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch (6th generation) and later."
The technical specs for A2DP are available at bluetooth.org - https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/archived-specifications/ --
A2DP v. 1.3 here
There's an interesting section in this article about Apple's M1 proprietary BT chip... https://www.howtogeek.com/338750/whats-the-difference-between-bluetooth-a2dp-and-aptx/
Also, maybe take a look at Apple Accessory Device Guideline Specs document here

specifically "33. Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)"

Apple's proprietary-environment business model means they're probably keeping some info close to their chest so they can BEAT(s) out the competition (pun intended).


Location services incorrectly reporting location to app

Firstly, geolocation is not related to the WiFi you are using.

Then, check in your iPhone settings if the Location Services (inside Privacy) are On (therefore enabled) for your particular App.


How to stop an app from launching on Login?

You can stop the item from launching with launchctl disable gui/$UID/bundle-id.

If you don't know the bundle ID, you can find it by typing launchctl list. That will list all processes running under your user, with their PIDs in the first column. So, if you saw this:

$ launchctl list
-   0   com.apple.SafariHistoryServiceAgent
277 0   com.apple.Finder
-   0   com.apple.quicklook
-   0   com.apple.parentalcontrols.check
[…]
189 0   com.example.ExampleDaemon
-   0   com.apple.java.InstallOnDemand

…you could use Activity Monitor to confirm that the unwanted app's PID is 189, which makes its bundle ID com.example.ExampleDaemon. Then:

launchctl disable gui/$UID/com.example.ExampleDaemon

That's it. There is still a record of the login item on disk, just disabled. If you want to purge it, or just want to learn more, read on.

Counterintuitively (but amusingly?), the list is saved here:

/var/db/com.apple.xpc.launchd/disabled.$UID.plist

That file will look something like this:

<?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>com.example.ExampleDaemon</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
</plist>

Yes, the false means that an app with that bundle id should be launched at startup. After running launchctl disable, the false will change to a true. (As far as I can tell, launchd doesn't write these files right away, so you may not see this until you reboot.) You can see the disabled items with this command:

launchctl print-disabled gui/$UID

There's also some extra info about each login item stored here, but removing it won't stop the item from launching:

/var/db/com.apple.xpc.launchd/loginitems.$UID.plist

Any changes you make while the system is running will be overwritten when you shut down/restart. So, as far as I can tell, the only way to completely remove an item from disabled.$UID.plist is to reboot in single user mode and make the edits there. Even without having run launchctl disable, removing a key/false pair from this file stops the app from launching at login. I'm not going to include instructions for editing these files in single user mode in this answer.


How to select 2G as data network on iOS 8?

It can be found in Settings > Cellular > Voice & Data where in the option is available to select between 2G,3G and LTE.

If the voice option is not available for your iPhone. Please call and check with your respective service/carrier provider.

It's been noted that some of the carrier update for the iOS 8 has removed the "Voice & Data" option because Apple let the carriers to update the cellular settings. It's only a matter of reverting back the update from the service/carrier providers.


Upgrading to Catalina from Mojave stuck at "Estimating time remaining" for days!

One thing you can try is to start up to your previous system and try the upgrade again. Press the option key on start and choose macOS Mojave or whatever your root volume is called. This will get you out of the recurring upgrade process.
Regarding the login window, do you have FileVault enabled?


You have two options:

You can use the wget command-line utility like so:

wget -rl 10

Replace the 10 with the number of levels you would like to recurse down into.

Or, you can use SiteSucker. A GUI application that recursively downloads websites. You can also specify how far down to recurse with SiteSucker.


Getting your application to respond specifically to a user clicking on its dock icon is difficult.  A simpler task is to get your application to respond to acquiring focus where it previously belonged to another application, i.e. whenever your application is brought into the foreground, which clicking on the dock icon will do.

I've heavily commented the script below to walk you through what's relevant.  Anything I've left uncommented or haven't specifically made reference to in the comments should be left alone and where it is, unless you're confident you know what you're doing.

Obviously, this won't do a lot if it's simply run from within Script Editor, so incorporate this into your application's AppleScript code (or, rather, incorporate your application's AppleScript code into this), save it, and run the applet.  If you don't make any edits to it whatsoever, then when saved as an applet, you'll see a notification appear every 10 seconds telling you the application is "idling..."; and a dialog box will pop-up whenever the application is brought into focus informing you that it "Acquired focus.".

-----------------------------------------------------------|
on run
    _init()

    # Your startup code goes here, which will
    # execute once when your application runs
    # e.g.
    #   do shell script "/path/to/start-script.sh"
end run

on idle
    # Any code you need to run repeatedly can
    # go here.  Otherwise, you can delete this
    # entire handler

    # The following line is test code:
    display notification "idling..."

    # The return value is how often (in seconds)
    # this handler will be called
    return 10
end idle

on activate
    # Insert code you want to execute whenever
    # your application receives focus, e.g.
    #
    #   tell application "System Events" to ¬
    #       open folder "~/Path/To/Folder/"

    # The following line is test code:
    display dialog "Focus acquired."
end activate

on quit
    global |@|
    |@|'s removeObserver:me

    # Any other clean-up code that needs to
    # execute just before your application
    # exits should go here, e.g.
    #   do shell script "/path/to/quit-script.sh"

    continue quit
end quit
-----------------------------------------------------------|
# PRIVATE HANDLERS:
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"
use scripting additions

property |@| : a reference to my NSWorkspace's ¬
    sharedWorkspace's notificationCenter

on _init()
    "NSWorkspaceDidActivateApplicationNotification"
    |@|'s addObserver:me selector:("_notify:") ¬
        |name|:result object:(missing value)

    idle
end _init

to _notify:notification
    local notification
    if my id = the notification's userInfo()'s ¬
        NSWorkspaceApplicationKey's ¬
        bundleIdentifier() as text ¬
        then activate me
end _notify:
-----------------------------------------------------------|


Regarding @jwalker's answer above, the GitHub project has 0 commits since 2018, and Kernsafe's product has not seen an update since 11/2019. So both can effectively be considered abandonware at this point. Neither are working on Big Sur.
Is there any way in 2021 and with macOS 11 to use network based block storage? I have some specific apps that require a "real" block device to store data. SMB/NFS won't work. I own a license for SNS globalSAN but it causes kernel panics in 11.x and it seems like it's an "Apple isn't giving us a way to fix it" type of problem since other vendors (ATTO etc) have similar warnings posted.
Hope this changes soon - it's a real shame that macOS doesn't have a native iSCSI driver (Windows has had one for almost 20 years now).
edit: I found one that works: Daemon Tools Lite for macOS. Performance seems to cap out around ~65MB/s (globalSAN was >100) but it seems stable and reliable so far.


Macbook Pro mid-2015 15" swollen battery

No, it is not “generally expected” that batteries will swell after a certain amount of time.

What you have is a defective battery - it happens.  It needs to be replaced.

The swelling is caused by trapped off gasses from the chemical reaction not venting properly.  It could swell and not cause any issues or it could go into a condition known as thermal runaway where it will burst and catch fire igniting the off gasses in an uncontrolled manner.

This is not typical, but it does happen. Batteries, like everything else produced by humans, aren’t “faultless.”  Trying to pin down how common it is, is like trying to determine your odds of getting a “lemon” Toyota.  It’s rare, but it happens.

MacBooks from 2013 on started using batteries that were glued into place requiring you to replace the entire top case.


ensure new mail message defaults to use correct outbound (sender) account

This is governed by the Mail Preferences->Composing->Send new messages From setting. The default is 'Account of selected mailbox', which does what you want.


Downgrading from iOS 8.1 beta 2 to iOS 8.0.2

The only method is this:

Be prepared to LOSE ALL DATA, so do the proper backup.
Turn off the iPhone.
Push the Home button until the iTunes icon on the iPhone appears red.
Connect it to your computer and do the restore.

iTunes will, at this point, download the last official release of iOS. And, keep in mind, you will LOSE ALL DATA.


With OS X , is there a way to create a 640 x 640 image out of a 500 x 640 image?

You can use the sips command to pad any JPEG or BMP image to a specified size, with a specified colour. In your case, the command would look something like:

sips photo-500x640.jpg --padToHeightWidth 640 640 --padColor 000000 --out photo-640x640.jpg

obviously with the input and output filenames of your choice. For white instead of black borders, change 000000 to FFFFFF.


How to keep all my passwords, browsing data, e-mails, content etc. only for myself, and away from Apple?

Apple is generally good about privacy and security, and risks their reputation if they were to violate user expectations by secretly looking at private data they say they don't look at. However, for the more cautious (including me), some default settings do need to be changed. Keep in mind also that iOS devices access a number of non-Apple "cloud" services in their default state, not just Apple services. A few general points, and a few specific default settings changes:

You do not need an AppleID to use an iOS device, unless you want to take advantage of web-based services such as iTunes Store, App Store, and iCloud.
You can supply fake data to create an AppleID, and use a gift card to fund any purchases. Just remember to keep track of exactly what info you provided.
You can actually use multiple AppleIDs for many of the the different services, e.g., iTunes, iCloud, Home Sharing (the older system, not to be confused with Family Sharing), etc.
There are clearly trade-offs between the usability and convenience of a smartphone, and the degree to which you prioritize privacy and security.
Assuming you are using a non-Apple secure email provider, there is little concern about Apple being able to access your email. Secure POP/IMAP/SMTP is encrypted directly between your device and your email provider. Similar for web browsing to secure (https) sites.
Take a long look at all available Settings, in the context of the threats you are most concerned about. There are privacy-related settings in areas other than Settings>Privacy.
I'd suggest considering keeping all three radios off unless explicitly needed (cellular, wi-fi, bluetooth) to protect against carrier and local physical tracking. I'd also suggest keeping Location Services turned off at all times. But before you do, especially if you will use it from time to time, tweak the detailed Location Services settings to restrict what kinds of accesses apps and Apple can have. If you have Location Services on at the same time as Wi-Fi, Apple will, like Google and others do, catalog the GPS Location of wi-fi access points the device can "see" - this includes yours and those belonging to others. Bonus to keeping radios and/or Location Services off: improved battery life.
Make sure your passcode is strong (more than just four digits), and make sure your AppleID account(s) are strongly secured. If you are concerned about people seeing activity happening on your phone, set the Settings>Passcode>RequirePasscode appropriately and restrict what notifications and info appear in your lock screen.
Never associate your device with an "integrated" Facebook or Twitter account. There is some evidence that "integrated" apps have privileged access to private APIs.
In Settings>Privacy>Advertising, turn on Limit Ad Tracking and frequently Reset Advertising Identifier. VendorID is another unique ID apps can access. To reset VendorID, you must delete every app from that vendor. Then you may re-install them.
Don't use HealthKit apps. The legal protections are very unclear at this point, but are likely nowhere near as good as traditional channels such as doctors.
Don't use Siri if you don't want your Contacts sent to Apple. There are reasonable privacy protections built around Siri's access to your Contacts, but they will be sent to Apple when you turn Siri on. Apple says they are deleted every time you turn Siri off.
Restrict Spotlight Search and Safari from pinging external servers for outside data. See: Settings>General>Spotlight Search & Settings>Safari.
Turn off Background App Refresh Settings>General>Background App Refresh, or at least only allow apps that support it to use Background App Refresh only when they are the active app. This is especially important if you use Location Services or allow apps access to other unique patterns such as Motion, Microphone, Camera, etc. Bonus: improved battery life.
Set Settings>Privacy>Diagnostics & Usage to "Don't Send".
If you do use Location Services and have weather in your Notification Center, your location will be periodically sent to weather.com.
Name your phone something common/generic, in Settings>General>About>Name. Apps have access to your device name.

More here:
https://www.apple.com/br/ipad/business/docs/iOS_Security_Oct12.pdf
and here:
https://www.apple.com/privacy/manage-your-privacy/


I can't download YouTube app from icloud

It's because the app is 17+. Go to your restrictions settings and enable apps above this age limit. Then try it again


Is there an easy way to look through a directory, preview file by file, and choose to keep or delete it?

Open the directory then instead of opening the image, you can press space to open a preview of that image. Now you can navigate through the images using your arrow ( ←→ ) keys.
If you want to delete any one of them then just go back to finder and the same image will be selected that you were previewing.


Go into System Preferences - Display - adjust the Underscan scale.


How do restore an iOS 12 beta backup to a new iPhone running iOS 11?

I restored an iPhone X from a iOS 12 beta iCloud backup.

Hardware: iPhone X factory reset to iOS 11.

Steps:

Enrolled device into the beta program, installed beta profile and allowed iOS upgrade. After restart pass through all intros to home screen.

Note: Restore from iCloud showed the iOS 12 backups but they are inaccessible.
Go to Settings -> General -> Reset, then tap Erase all content and settings., confirm and restart. This reset the phone again but at the iOS12 level.
Proceed through intros and restore via the now accessible iOS 12 backup.


My password is not working in System Preferences unlock prompt

You're not an administrator. In the list of accounts, your account shows as Managed, not Administrator. The credentials asked for in that prompt are that of an administrator, as asked for by ‘Enter an administrator's name and password’, which means you should enter the other user account's credentials. The username field is only autofilled when you are currently logged in as an administrator.


Why can't I connect my Iphone 4 to our home Wifi?

A few years back I had a particular wireless access point that would often exhibit this behaviour. One or two devices wouldn't connect after some time (a few days, maybe a week). Rebooting it let everyone back on.

Try rebooting the access point.
Check for driver/firmware updates (access point and devices).
If you can, borrow or swap access points temporarily to see if its any better.

It seemed, in our case, to be a bug in the router, but never really figured out if it was randomly 'breaking' for certain clients/chipsets/etc or if it was something more consistent like a bug in the 802.11n compliance... in the end we replaced it and all was fine.


Will Catalina stream movies (etc) to a 3rd Generation Apple TV box?

If I'm correct, programs like quicktime player, Apple TV and more, offer airplay in the app itself. I know your movies(if bought on itunes), moved to the Apple tv app on your macbook. If you start playing, see the airplay button on the bottom left corner!


How do I set an animated desktop background without OnyX?

Yes, this can be done without OnyX.

  First head to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen
  Saver and select one of the screen savers included in OS X, or a
  third party screen saver that you’ve previously installed. Whichever
  one you choose, just make sure it’s selected as the active screen
  saver, even if you have it set to never start in the “Start After”
  duration drop-down menu.

  Next, launch Terminal (located in the Applications > Utilities
  folder), copy and paste the following command, and press the Return
  key on your keyboard to execute it:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

Source: How to Set a Screen Saver as the Desktop Background in Mac OS X


Old iPad completely fails to fetch any e-mail

Since:

other boxes and
other iCloud account's aspects

are working without any problems, my suspicions came to Inbox directly.

After reading this answer and this blog post it turned out that I have mail forwarding + delete source message option enabled. All my e-mails are being forwarded to the account that I stopped checking years ago.

Turning delete source message option off resolved this particular case and e-mails started to appear / remain in my Inbox as previously.


Symlinked Movies and Downloads. Restore icons?

I did the same for the applications folder, and the way to get the icon was to copy/paste the original icon to the (new) original folder, the symlink regained the icon automatically and instantly.

The name of the symLink can be edited without problem, if it needs to be in the translated version, just translate the symLinked folder.


Can I buy a used iPhone 5 from eBay and use it as an iPod Touch?

The phone will need to be activated using a valid SIM card. If the device is carrier-locked it will need to be a SIM of that carrier. However you can just take out the SIM after activation and the phone will work fine until you reset it (then it would need to be activated again).


iTerm - going one word backwards and forwards

Killing a fly with a cannon:

Go to Preferences... > Profiles > Keys (not Preferences... > Keys)
Press Presets...
Select Natural Text Editing

Then, you can move a word backwards using Option ⌥ + ← and a word forwards using Option ⌥ + →, move to the start of the line using fn + ← and to the end of the line with fn + →. Also you can delete a word backwards using Option ⌥ + ⌫, delete the whole line using Command ⌘ + ⌫.

If the preset doesn't appear, reinstall iTerm2. If you installed it using Homebrew+Cask:

brew cask reinstall iterm2


Sparkle

These keys are used by the open source Sparkle framework.

  Sparkle is an easy-to-use software update framework for macOS applications. It delivers updates using appcasting, a term used to refer to the practice of using RSS to distribute update information and release notes.

SU stands for Software Update. The project publishes documentation for currently supported property list (plist) keys.


Can you remove PDF's after you add them to iBooks?

All the books that you move to iBooks stored in

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/

iBooks make a copy of every books that you move on it.

With iCloud Sync the Documents are stored in the following location - Thanks to @Rogier

~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/

Personally I recommend that you make a backup or move your original ebooks on an external drive.


Although you said free, there is a paid app that seems to offer a similar feature.

Deskovery claims to "Minimize your windows to their titlebars".

I haven't used it.


Mac often wouldn't sleep nor show screensaver

Launch Terminal

pmset -g assertions

that will give you a clue as to what is stopping sleep


How can I get Unix (brew/xcode/vim) acting like Unix under Lion?

You may already know this, but downloading/installing Xcode from the app store doesn't actually install it. It just leaves an installer in your Applications folder, which you have to run to actually install Xcode.

Don't know if this is contributing to your problem, but it tripped me up.


BlackMagic UlraStudio Mini Recorder - Black Screen on all Inputs - HDMI input to Mac Pro

We had to go buy a new mini HDMI to HDMI adapter. After the software worked as expected. Good Job BlackMagic on a nice piece of SW.


How to install a specific version of OCaml on MacOS?

You can use the git history to obtain the formula for OCaml 4.02.3

Go to the local directory where formulas are stored:

cd /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula

Look at the history of the OCaml formula:

git log ocaml.rb

It appears that the last commit of version 4.02.3 is commit 3cdad82334496ca9fe8d8fb37.

Check out this commit:

git checkout 3cdad82334496ca9fe8d8fb37

By default, Homebrew make an update before an install, so you have to specify to not update before the install:

HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew install ocaml

Check that you have the right version with:

ocaml -version

When finished, don't forget to go back to the master branch, in the /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula directory:

git checkout master


Outlook sporadically stops checking mail

I have experienced the same issue with Apple Mail since updating to Mavericks.  I was hoping Outlook would be better, but it sounds like it has the same problem.

My understanding is that this occurs occasionally when checking mail hosted via Kerio or Exchange.  My workaround is to use Thunderbird, which has not had the problem.  I actually have Thunderbird running simultaneously just for the alerts, and if there is an alert but Mail hasn't received new mail, I know to quit and restart.


Does someone know my (old) Apple ID password?

Q1: Yes, it looks like someone entered your Apple ID and password.  I don't think there's any other situation where this type of dialog would be triggered.

Q2: You did the right thing in immediately changing your password.  There's nothing you can do to get more info on who is using your ID, you did everything I would've suggested.  My only remaining advice would be to contact Apple, chat would probably be easiest, and let them know what happened.  It's also good to see that there was no malicious activity on your account, however, you probably want to watch it for purchases every few days.

You mentioned the potential for malware or a key logger, that's quite possible.  Make sure you're checking your machines regularly for malware (I use Malwarebytes), especially if anyone is logging into your Apple account on a Windows machine.


Don't know why it is happening but I use the app #nocrop (it's free) to make the pictures smaller before using them as wall paper.
You might also want to try switching reduce motion on/off in Settings > General > Assessibility > Reduce Motion.
Hope this helps


What do quotes mean in iOS8 predictive text?

The quotes signify "learn" or "use this word" whether or not it's a recognisable word to the predictive system.

Without quotes it is part of the next word prediction; as soon as you start typing a new word the system then focusses on that current word, offering 2 suggestions & an "accept what I just wrote" option.


64 bit support with a 32 bit kernel in OS X Snow Leopard

Note, some of the info in this answer was cribbed from here:

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was the last OS to support 32 bit CPU architectures, like the Core Solo, and Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo) processors.  Note that it's entirely possible to have a 64bit processors like the Core 2 Duo, and still have a 32bit EFI firmware, so the CPU alone isn't the sole indicator of your systems capabilities in this respect.

This is how you end up the situation of having a 32 bit kernel, that is held back by the EFI, running on a 64 bit CPU, which is capable of running a 64bit application stack so long as it is not dynamically loading any kernel modules etc.  The application isn't wholly tied to the kernel, and is capable is independent running in a different state to the kernel if required.  Same way an app can run 32bit on a 64bit kernel...

To be honest, the number of people with a Core 2 Duo or above but with a 32bit EFI are relatively limited, and you are unlucky if you are one of those people that has, say a Macbook from 2007/8 when this was common.  The 64bit EFI was introduced in a staggered way across the range so it's not simple to pinpoint what date it was common across all formats.

You can check your machine’s EFI  by entering the following command in Terminal:

ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

It will return either “EFI32″ or “EFI64.”

In addition, some perfectly capable machines still only boot into 32bit mode kernels, even when they are capable, although you can force a 64bit kernel by holding down the 6 and 4 keys on boot.

OS News notes that only Macs with a 64-bit EFI are able to boot the 64-bit Snow Leopard kernel and kexts; an artificial limitation imposed by Apple, even though a 32-bit EFI can boot a 64-bit kernel “just fine.”

What’s worse is that even if your MacBook (non-Pro) has a 64-bit EFI, it will only be able to boot the 32-bit version of Snow Leopard because of a limitation that Apple imposes on MacBooks. The biggest roadkill on Route 64 is the original Mac Pro (which was discontinued January 8, 2008) it won’t be able to boot the 64-bit kernel and drivers either.enter link description here


How do I "flush" my DNS/web services so that it sees the updated website like everyone else?

if you go into a terminal window and type:

ping [DNS name of site]

What does it give you? Now do the same on your roommate's PCs from a command prompt.

if you do it with a hostname rather than IP address ping gives you the IP address and the FQDN of the site. They should be the same on both/all computers. If they are then Safari/Chrome has cached some data and is stubbornly holding onto it. So empty the caches on both and try again.

If it is different on your Mac then there is a cache somewhere that will not reset. You could try the command again, followed by a reboot and possibly even one of the cleaning utilities (like Onyx) followed by a reboot and see what that does.


iPhone shows Connect to iTunes screen after turning off and back on

You can use TinyUmbrella to force your iPhone out of recovery mode:

Open TinyUmbrella, connect your device and click Exit Recovery.

For more information, see this forum post:

http://www.whited00r.com/forum/index?topic=2835.0


Signed pkg using productbuild --distribute but codesign says "code object is not signed at all"

Use spctl, not codesign

The codesign tool does not work with package files, .pkg.

Use the spctl tool instead:

/usr/sbin/spctl --assess --ignore-cache --verbose --type install <pkg-path>

Alternatively, Installer.app

You can also check the package certificate using Installer.app:

Open the package in macOS's Installer.app;
Click the padlock in the top-right of the installer window.


Synchronization: iMessages on Mac not iPad

No, there will be no sync.
Only the devices, that are registered on iMessage at the point of time, when the message is sent by the sender, can receive the message (technically). The messages are end-to-end encrypted for each receiving device.
In other words: Your new device can't decrypt the old messages, as the original sender didn't know about this new device.

See this article:

  You’ve actually got one set of keys for each device you add to iCloud,
  and each iMessage is encrypted independently for each device. So if
  you have two devices — say, an iPad and an iPhone — each message sent
  to you is actually encrypted (AES-128) and stored on Apple’s servers
  twice. Once for each device. When you pull down a message, it’s
  specifically encrypted for the device you’re on.

Apple's Security Paper


Delete the current line in Android Studio?

The CommandDelete can solve my final problem: I want to delete the line the cursor is on. And the cursor doesn't have to be at the end of the line you want to delete, it can be anywhere in the line.