Wifi password is too short on Mac Air in Lion

I assume you are being prompted for a WPA password. My SnowLeopard system (10.6.8) requires at least eight characters before enabling the OK button when I try to join a network using WPA.  The Wikipedia page for Pre-shared key (PSK) indicates that the valid password length is between 8 and 63 characters.

I also tried joining an example wireless network configured with WEP, an older wireless security method.  After entering just one character for the password, the OK button was enabled.

So, assuming you were given the correct password for the wireless network, it sounds like your computer believes that the wireless network uses WPA security when it actually uses WEP.  There's no way that I see to change the security protocol for the wireless network from the password dialog; your computer automatically detects the security protocol and sets the minimum password length accordingly.

Are you sure you are trying to join the correct network?  Does the password dialog specify WEP or WPA?  Do you know another person who is successfully joining the network, and can you have them disconnect and reconnect to the network, entering the same password?


Here's a few things you can try...

Firstly, (as a test) try moving closer to your wireless router until you are along side it. If the dropouts reduce, there may be something interfering with the wifi signal (especially if it is on the 2.4Ghz band - which it probably is). Have a think about what you might have transmitting on this frequency... Cordless phone, baby monitor etc. If you have either, try switching them off.

Load safari and visit www.speedtest.net
As you run the speed test, watch the graph.
This will at least give you a visual interpretation of the problem - but not actually fix it. You should be able to 'see' the data transfer stopping & starting - thereby verifying your problem.

Try also searching for FREE network analysis tools on the App Store. Have a look for NetSpot, Network Strength & more.

The one I use is called Wifi Analyser (in the Mac App Store, and the Android Store, but by different people I believe) - The Android version displays the signal strength of your wifi (and close neighbors) as you walk around your house (or where-ever) in a graphical format. Maybe the problem is a very weak signal ?

Lastly, maybe the problem is not the wifi at all... Perhaps there is some other software running in the background chewing up all of your processing power?

Regards, Greg.


As Vincent points out, the proper command is ln -s, not ls -s. In addition to that, ln will throw an error if the target of the link (in this case, the Mydocs folder in Dropbox) already exists.

The proper way to do this is to delete /Users/Joe/Dropbox/Mydocs, then run ln -s /Users/Joe/Documents/Mydocs /Users/Joe/Dropbox/Mydocs.


Does Mac OS X's bash read scripts for all users (tab-completion scripts) from /opt/local/etc/bash_completion.d path?

Bash only reads scripts by default in your home directory, or if they are missing in /etc. See Bash's documentation. If using OSX's Terminal.app then by default it reads ~/.bash_profile.

This is true of all bash on Linux or other OSes.

To read from another directory e.g. /opt/local/etc/bash_completion.d you have to edit your start up files to source (i.e. include) the files from there

The instructions for the script do not mention /opt/local/... which is a non standard location on any Unix. (by non-standard it is allowed to be used by third party packages but not defined what should be in there) They say

  Copy this file to somewhere (e.g. ~/.git-completion.sh).
  Add the following line to your .bashrc/.zshrc:

source ~/.git-completion.sh

  Consider changing your PS1 to also show the current branch,
   see git-prompt.sh for details.

The progit quote assumes you know bash. All it is saying is put the files from the first quote into a specific place if you want all users on the machine to use them and not in ~ where only the user installing it can see them. i.e. the point is multi user versus single user.

He also picks that path as nothing else uses it and you should not edit /etc files in OS X as Apple's OS upgrades could overwrite them so you need to choose another place. (I would have chosen something under /usr/local as there is where manually maintained scripts are meant to go).

~/.bashrc is the correct place to edit and add the source. See your other question and the bash manual for setting up ~/.bash_profile The bash suggested way is source .bashrc into .bash_profile. Note that on OS X using Terminal.app is not the one way of running shells so there can be sessions starting with .bashrc.


Verbose Mode is dropped on macOS Sierra?

System Integrity Protection (SIP) disables changes to NVRAM. In order to make changes, you need to temporarily disable SIP by doing the following:

Boot into Recovery Mode. (Hold Command-R from the time you start your machine until the Apple logo appears.)
Open the Terminal from the Utilities menu.
Enter the command:

csrutil disable

Reboot and you will be able to run your desired commands from within a normal session.
It's strongly recommended that you re-enable SIP when you're done making adjustments. To do so, run this command:

csrutil enable

Note that if you intend to make a lot of changes to NVRAM, you can leave SIP enabled but disable NVRAM protection by running the following command from the Recovery Mode Terminal:

csrutil enable --without nvram

Again, you will need to reboot for changes to be effective.


My MacBook seems to be an insomniac (won't sleep)

I found my answer here.

To sum up:

Open a terminal
Run "pmset -g assertions"
Check the output if there is any process preventing the system from sleeping.

In my and apparently many people's cases, it was actually an unused printer driver that seems to be in "in use" state. I deleted that printer driver (not all of them!) and my system now goes to sleep peacefully after closing the lid (even on power).

Lion seems to keep the system awake if the power is connected and there are any services or devices shared to others.

Btw, I am still getting that sound assertion failure when the system goes to sleep.


MacBook Pro, Yosemite: change Finder shortcuts

You first have to assign 'All My Files' to something else [choose some complicated junk you'll never need]
You cannot remove a default, only reassign it.

Then you can add your chosen alternative with  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   F  .
I used Documents to demonstrate, as it was just below

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts.
Finder [in fact no app] will not exist as a listed app until after you make the first shortcut for it.
To set up the first one, click + then select Finder from the drop menu; add your menu title, "All My Files" then your 'junk' key command.
After that, selecting the 'Finder' header from the list will auto-populate the app drop menu, making subsequent entries quicker.


Share Time Machine disk to WAN through my Asus router

It would be really nice to properly forward Bonjour or whatever is
allowing it to be visible in the Finder sidebar (have already tried
forwarding 1900,5300,5351,5353 to 192.168.2.2.

This is not how Bonjour/Zeroconf was intended to function.

Bonjour only works within a single broadcast domain, which is usually
a small area, without special DNS configuration. macOS, Bonjour for
Windows and AirPort Base Stations may be configured to use Wide Area
Bonjour which allows for wide area service discovery via an
appropriately configured DNS server.

Emphasis mine.
Bonjour is a broadcast protocol meaning while on the subnet, it will broadcast out a message to see who responds.  The key here is that it doesn't know the IP addresses of any machine (service) until it responds back.  That's how Finder puts it in the sidebar as you describe.
You can't just enable Bonjour on the WAN or the Internet for that matter.  MIT's IT knowledgebase sums it up:

"While ZEROCONF and Bonjour work well on home or small business
networks, they are not compatible with large enterprise networks which
can frequently have thousands of devices in the same wireless address
space. ZEROCONF relies on multicast traffic to discover devices on the
network, which exhibits crippling performance and load issues on large
enterprise network implementations. Even if it were enabled on the
network, results would be slow to return and potentially return lists
of hundreds of devices to choose from, which can be unmanageable on
devices such as iPhones or iPads."

Just for the sake of argument... if you were able to send out your broadcast packets over the Internet (via WAN), your ISP would most certainly block it because of the massive amount of traffic you would be generating.
Bonjour is basically DNS
It not about port forwarding "Bonjour."  It's much more than that. Currently, you don't "port forward" DNS ports.  Bonjour is a "DNS method".
You don't port forward DNS from your ISP to your computers so you can look up a domain.  Your router either assigns the DNS servers during DHCP so you can query hosts/domains directly or acts as a relay to forward them to the actual DNS servers.
What does this mean?
(Remember the emphasized text at the beginning of this answer?) Technically speaking, you can get Bonjour to search another domain by adding that domain record into DNS (you're telling Bonjour to go search somewhere else).    However, it requires the following:

An Authoritative DNS Server you control
Manually adding Bonjour to that Server
Setting up a Bonjour Name Server

If this is something you're willing to do, then start with learning BIND.
Connecting to Time Machine Shares
To connect to an internal AFP share so you can "Time Machine" across the network, you need to open those ports.  See:  What ports need to be open for netatalk to work as a Time Machine server on my LAN?
In my cursory reading of the Asus router manual, (IMO) it's not capable of this level port forwarding.
Personally, I would set up a VPN between to the two networks, routing all traffic through the VPN thus making it my subnet.  Bonjour traffic will traverse the VPN "autodiscovering" everything. AFP will be immediately accessible as all traffic traverses the VPN without impediment of the firewall; meaning no port forwarding.
Bottom Line
This is not an effective nor productive solution.  Time Machine was designed to work on the local network.  Backups to a network connected Time Capsule over Gigabit can take hours.  Significantly longer over WiFi.  Connecting over the Internet at speeds that sometimes don't even reach 1/10 of that speed would take an eternity.
To get Bonjour service discovery setup to connect an AFP share to share a Time Capsule will require a ton of expended effort for hardly any results, if at all.


Show "Open in Background" Menu with a Long Press?

This new menu is "Peek and Pop," which is activated by 3D touch. It works by measuring how much pressure you put on the screen when you touch it.

You can disable it or change the sensitivity in Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205056


Change Volume using External keyboard with Macbook?

You could try using a private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F1, VK_CONTROL, KeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_DOWN</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F2, VK_CONTROL, KeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_UP</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F3, VK_CONTROL, KeyCode::EXPOSE_ALL</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F4, VK_CONTROL, KeyCode::LAUNCHPAD</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F5, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::KEYBOARDLIGHT_LOW</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F6, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::KEYBOARDLIGHT_HIGH</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F7, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PREV</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F8, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PLAY</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F9, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_NEXT</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F10, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_MUTE</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F11, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_DOWN, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__ConsumerToKey__ KeyCode::F12, VK_CONTROL, ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_UP, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

I don't know if it works with all keyboards, but it does work with my Kinesis Advantage.

See http://lri.me/keyremap4macbook.html for more information about using KeyRemap4MacBook.


How can I modify the hosts file on MacOS Catalina?

So it actually did work.
What I did wrong (it seems) is that I had too many spaces between the ip and the hostname inside /etc/hosts. I fixed the spaces with the nano editor and now it works.
It's worth to point out that using nslookup will not work however to test your dns change (found reason here):

nslookup only does proper DNS resolution, which is significantly
different from the Name Service Switch subsystem that your other
applications use; that is to say nslookup ignores /etc/hosts and mDNS.


iTunes reports "There is no updates available" for applications but there are updates available

Have you checked the normal route on this issue? First and most important is that you're on the same country store as the purchased app. No matter where you move around the world you're bound to the country store which the app  is purchased from.

I have never attempted moving from one country App store to another. But this would require changing your billing information on the account and a verification of credit card billing address which has to be within the territories covered by that App store.


How to make available iOS app to different client's MDM

When it comes to AirWatch, I as MDM admin have the option to upload a file, containing the application. So you would have to deliver your IPA file to your client. Now, it's just me guessing, but I would believe every MDM that allows to publish internal apps has this option.

Another option, and I guess it would be the preferred one, is managing your app as B2B app in the VPP program. Here is a write-up I found of how the process works.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/apple-in-the-enterprise/how-to-purchase-and-deploy-custom-b2b-apps-through-apples-vpp/


Stop Finder/OSX From creating TemporaryItems and .apdisk on Network shares

Open Terminal.
Execute this command: defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
Either restart the computer or log out and back in to the user account.

Reference: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1629


Sound setting for guest user account (Yosemite)

I'm having a similer issue.  I posted about it here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/27369846#27369846

I can copy that post here if its appropriate and doesn't violate terms etc.?


How to monitor file access for an OS X application?

Instruments—a part of the Apple Xcode development suite—can monitor all file access and writes. Open it from /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app, select your application or process, and press Start. You have extensive filter options available in the menus.

Older versions of Xcode are storing the App at /Developer/Applications/Instruments.app


What are the verifiable privacy features macOS provides?

Apple has detailed pages describing their intent and operation. There's also an overview of the security technologies used in MacOS.

On MacOS, the main feature is FileVault (or the default encryption on the newest Macs with "T2" controller chips. Disk encryption means that the data on your Mac can only be accessed by someone with the password.
Safari has been at the fore-front of technologies to stop user tracking and maintain privacy.

On iOS, I'm sure you will have seen new reports of the US government wanting Apple to help them get into iPhones, and Apple indicating that is unable to comply, (and also unwilling). Here's Apple's iOS Security documentation.

There will always be vulnerabilities, exploits, and mistakes, of course.


From your description, they had the PIN for only the time it took to unlock it, check it was working & hand it to you - a matter of seconds.

There's nothing else they can do with it unless they also still have your phone.

The PIN itself doesn't provide access to anything other than the phone, has nothing to do with your iCloud account, App Store, iTunes, email... or anything else.

In you post you mention both the PIN & the password. These are two entirely different things. You ought to edit your question to clarify which you actually mean.


Removing items from Reading List in OS X/Safari

To delete a single item from Safari's Reading List, Control + Click  (or right click) the item and select Remove Item:


How to identify the blocked Google extension and remove it from the OS?

Here is an easy way to identify which kernel extension is causing this MacOS blocking of its install.
When you are on the Security & Privacy System Preferences… telling you:
System software from developer "Google, Inc." was blocked
from loading.

just select Allow once just to be able to get its real name and not to keep it installed.
Then let the complete boot of MacOS terminate, and open a Terminal or xterm.
Enter the following command to extract from all your kernel extensions the one which developer might be Google with:
/usr/bin/sudo kextstat | egrep -i '(^Index|google)'

The 6th field of output of this command is the bundle name under which this extension is registered in the MacOS kernel.
Let's say for this example its name is:
com.google.kext.foo

Next go to:
cd /Library/Extensions

and search for this bundle name within all the Google looking directories:
grep 'com.google.kext.foo' [gG]oogle*/Contents/Info.plist

Then if Google made its job of developer correctly you should be able to find on the web what this extension id doing.
And you will know if you need it or not.
If you want to keep it within your /Library/Extensions but not loaded within MacOS, just reboot.
Investigation closed.


Terminal -> Preferences -> Settings

Select a color scheme and click Default


How do I get my Mac to receive iMessages sent to a phone number?

Right now OS X Messages can only receive iMessages sent to an email address associated with iMessages. So you'll have to ask people to send to your Apple ID email (or another one if you've got it set up with iMessages) if you want to receive them on your Mac.

There was some talk of Apple ID/phone number unification coming with iOS 6, so that an iPad or Mac could receive iMessages sent to a phone number, but that's not available yet, and from the publicly available information, it doesn't look like it's a sure thing either. However it's a possibility, you may want to pay attention when iOS 6 is released (which looks likely to be in September).


Customizing Guest Account under OS X Lion

How to Customize the Guest Account
It would probably take me longer to type out how to do it than it will take you to make your changes so I am going to send you to this YouTube video which details the process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra9ThVi7zZo
The only thing I would add is that may want to make a backup of the original template.


Certificate Assistant swaps extension settings for CA / Users

So I've been looking into this further and from what I read here and there, I am pretty sure that it is not supposed to be doing this. I have reported this bug to apple and if I ever get an answer from them I will update this post.

If anyone with the same problem finds this post, this is the temporary solution I used:

Create the certificate authority and for any extension that gives you two screens enter the same values in both. Those should be the values you want on the certificate itself.
When done, go to ~/Library/Application Support/Certificate Authority/[ca name] and edit the template file there for the values you actually wanted to enter into the second screen of every extension.


How can I save my carefully constructed printer presets before I have to re-install my printer?

Your custom presets are located in

${HOME}/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plists

Now, it is possible that it may have the printer name "embedded" in the filename.  For instance I have an HP LaserJet that I name "HP Color LaserJet" so for me, my plist has the following name:

com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.HP_Color_LaserJet.plist

If you want to see what's in the settings file, just issue the command

defaults read com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.HP_Color_LaserJet.plist


Certain apps occasionally won't unhide once hidden

I'm getting this situation as well. The ways I've found to make them show again after switching to each app is either

Selecting Window > Zoom and then resizing it after it appears, filling the screen.
Selecting View > Enter full screen (or ^-command-F) then exiting full screen.

I haven't found a way to prevent it from happening. It doesn't happen to every app or happen every time I hide apps and close my laptop.


Display weather information in the Mavericks notification center?

OS X Yosemite's Notification Center comes with a Weather widget preinstalled.

Additional locations can be added to the widget:


Security & Privacy issue: cannot edit options

Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General:

Select the option "Require password" and set "immediately" on the box with the options.


Use this link to download macOS Mojave from App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?mt=12


How can I do "su -c 'cmd' user" from Linux in macOS?

su - <username> -c "ls -l /etc | mail -s filelist myname@gmail.com"


Dock shows on only one screen on OS X Mavericks

If you're using a stacked display configuration, as in main monitor with the secondary above, then the dock does not appear on the second display. If it can or does, I'd like to know because this is how I run my setup.

If you have them oriented right to left, then the dock will appear. In my limited experience, only one image of the dock appears at a time on whichever monitor you activate it on. You have to play with it, as the cursor motion seems to need to be elongated or dramatic or whatever. Not a big thing, just different.

It's there by default, trust me. HTH.


Can I store my RGE file (Entourage 2008) to an network drive?

A .rge file is an Entourage archive file, and is used to store old emails.  This file can be stored anywhere: your hard drive, a network drive, a thumb drive, burnt to CD, whatever.  If you need to access that archive again, you can import it into Entourage from wherever you've stored it by using the Import command.


It's not possible for you to use either of your MacBook's as a second (external) display. Apple only allow the use of iMac's as secondary displays using a mode called "Target Display Mode".

No matter the use of ThunderBolt, Mini DisplayPort or any number of adapters you won't be able to achieve the result your looking for.

However there are several applications that do enable you to theoretically achieve this over the network (Air Display, AirParrot, MaxiVista, ScreenRecycler etc...) but none are a true replacement for a physical secondary display.

External link: Target Display Mode FAQ


How to close specific URLs with Applescript

This works:

tell windows of application "Google Chrome"
    close (tabs whose URL does not contain "business.facebook" and URL does not contain "pinterest")
end tell

In an AppleScript whose clause you need to spell out each criteria fully and join them with a logical operator. You tried to use a list to make an implicit and; that makes sense to the human brain, but AppleScript can't parse it.


Wallpaper Identification: Where can I find a better version of this?

That's actually Tiger's (Mac OSX 10.4) default wallpaper.

I found one easily on Google searching Tiger default wallpaper : http://www.journaldulapin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Aqua-Blue-10.4.jpg

It might just need a little rotation :)


If you have access to finder and a system administrator account, you can fix this without a reboot by leveraging these.

Open up your finder and go to /etc. In here, you can view the details of the sudoers file, including permissions - screenshot below.

Change the permissions for "everyone" here to Read & Write.

At this time, you can edit yourself back into the file with any text editor. You will have to return permissions for "everyone" back to No Access before sudo will allow you to perform a sudo.


If you want to just have terminal open and run you can get an idea from below.

It is not very neat but works of sorts..

example:

on open myFiles
        set bigList to {}
        repeat with i from 1 to number of items in myFiles
            set this_item to item i of myFiles
            copy (quoted form of POSIX path of this_item) & space to end of bigList
        end repeat
     tell application "Terminal"

            do script ("for f in  " & items of bigList as string) & "
    do

    echo  \"$f\"

    done"

        end tell
end open


What is the frame rate and shutter speed of the MacBook's iSight camera?

System Information (formerly known as System Profiler) will show you some information about the built-in camera (which Apple calls the iSight), but I don't see frame rate, exposure time, or shutter speed mentioned here. In my specific case, the manufacturer is listed as Apple, and they likely don't want to publish this information. Apple treats the built-in iSight as a simple checkbox feature (a computer has it or it doesn't), not as a detailed specs feature (like memory size, hard drive size, screen size, network speed, etc).

To view the information available about your Mac's built-in iSight, go to the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, then choose System Report… . From there, go into the Hardware section, choose USB, and look in the USB Device Tree for Built-in iSight.

iFixit is a company that often disassembles Apple products to try to determine things like the cost of the bill of materials, specific parts used, and unadvertised specs or capabilities of the hardware. You could visit their site and see if your machine is covered there, or if there's another way to get information about your machine.


What happens if you used "rm -rf *" in /Users or /Users/someUser?

Two cases:

you're logged in as root. Everything goes away.
you're logged in as a normal user.  All of that user's files go away.

In some systems, rm is supposed to prompt you if you do this at the "/" level.  Do not count on that prompt.

With El Capitan, Apple supplies a "prompt" per se, which by default should leave enough of the operating system to boot and recover from your backups.  To see if this has not been disabled, use

csrutil status

Further reading:

How to Disable System Integrity Protection (rootless) in OS X El Capitan
Re: Backing up ACL's


Mac mini clean El Capitan install -- with bluetooth keyboard?

Apple's Bluetooth hardware controllers activate after all of the system's self-tests at boot complete and the EFI firmware loads successfully, which is indicated by the system playing the standard Mac startup sound. It is at this point that the system will accept boot variables, either stored in the PRAM or those being sent via keyboard inputs. These are then passed to the OS X kernel to invoke the desired startup sequence.

If any inputs are being sent via the Bluetooth keyboard before the controllers are active, then they will not be recognized by the system. However, if these inputs are performed after the controllers are activated, then they will be properly read. Therefore, for Bluetooth keyboards, be sure to press the desired key sequences after you hear the boot chimes and not before.

This does all assume the keyboard has previously been paired with your Mac. If this is not the case, boot into the existing OS and pair the keyboard first.


MacBook retina 12 inch 2015: text garbled on URL bar of safari

I have had the same issue  happen to me, once (I also have the same laptop)....I just rebooted and it never happened again.

I'm unsure if it's even a machine/OS X issue or a scripting error.

Hopefully that solves your same problem.


Enter a filename in the File Open dialog

Yes. When the Finder dialog box is active type ⇧⌘G to bring up the Go to the folder direct entry dialog. You can enter the path to the file in the dialog using the Unix-type path expressions you'd expect: ~ for your home directory, / for a directory separator, etc.


Should FaceTime work without a defined Proxy Server on restricted networks?

This depends on the limitations you have in your network. If you're only limiting HTTP traffic and forcing the clients to go through a web proxy, then you're probably not cutting off FaceTime's custom TCP and UDP connections.

The exact protocol for FaceTime hasn't been released to public by Apple, but they do publish a guideline regarding network configuration (open ports) needed for FaceTime and iMessage: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4245


Can AppleScript be used to downloading files from a web page?

You have a couple options here, oh the power of a mac!

Option 1:

Use the curl command, documented here.

I would use AppleScript to run the Curl command and any other command you need to run in order to fetch the file you need to analyze, process it to check for the updated file, and then use the curl command again to download the updated file.

If you don't want to use AppleScript, Automator is another option.

Option 2:

Using Applescript, you could have it trigger another script written in perl, php, or the language of your liking, which could be written to do the same fetching, analysis, and fetching of the updated file.  This will provide you the flexibility to write in whatever language you choose based on your comfort level with that language.

An example of writing an AppleScript to trigger another file could be:

do shell script "php ~/Library/Scripts/MyCustomScript.php"

For either option, if you write an AppleScript you can use a program like FastScripts (Also available in the Mac App Store), which adds an icon to the menu bar through which you can easily access your AppleScripts to execute them, but it also provides the added benefit of being able to assign keyboard shortcuts to your AppleScript to trigger them even faster.


Can't connect as different user while accessing network share with in domain network in Mac

I am having the same issue. I am logged in with userA. I can see all of the shares. I want to access a specific share that userA does not have access to that userB does. I disconnect from server, but 'connect as' does not do anything when I click it

I found a workaround:

Go to Finder
Click Go, then Connect to Server
Create a path of smb://userB@myserver

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7988659?answerId=31890794022#31890794022


Native HEIF support in macOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Per Apple's 10.13 Beta Release Notes:

HEVC and HEIF Images

macOS 10.13 adds HEVC and HEIF decode capability. In order to display HEIF image files or HEVC videos captured on iOS 11, your Mac needs to be updated to macOS 10.13.

The specific hardware and software requirements for HEVC and HEIF are detailed in the WWDC 2017 presentations covering these new technologies. Depending on the capabilities of your Mac and the needs of your content, AVFoundation may use a software-based HEVC encoder which typically has longer encoding times. Further fine-tuning of the encoding quality will occur in subsequent seeds.

Third-party apps that do not rely on the macOS-provided media frameworks may not properly handle these new formats.


Try downloading and installing the Bootcamp Windows Support Software from here. With 10.7, 10.8 it automatically prompts you to save the support software on a disk or USB to be installed with your Bootcamp, if you are still running Snow Leopard you may have to download it manually.


iTunes: How to find backup corresponding to a particular version of iOS?

If you have an old 12.3.1 backup of your iPhone, you can restore your iphone from that backup.

Then you have to delete (or drag outside the folder) your 12.3.2 backup so that iTunes restore your device from the new "latest one".

from Apple support :

Find iOS backups on your Mac

Find a list of your backups:

Click Search icon in the menu bar.
Type or copy and paste this: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Press Return.

OR

Locate a specific backup:

Open iTunes. Click iTunes in the menu bar, then choose Preferences.
Click Devices.
Control-click the backup that you want, then choose Show in Finder.


Is it possible to show verbose info on boot/respring?

There are no ways to boot 9.3.5 iOS in verbose mode I did a lot of research and even pangu can't achieve this you can Google how to verbose boot an iPad but there will be simply no answer because there isn't any release by pangu. You might even see some videos in YouTube in which some people have managed to dual boot and have verbose boot in iOS 10! But the sad part is never reveal it they might have developed the code but some might even get it from unknown sources. So you have to wait until a person or a developer releases an app which can verbose boot  iOS 9.3.5.


How to programatically set Terminal theme/profile

Alright i've figured out a solution:

To set the terminal theme programmatically you need to write to your systems preferences. So the easiest way that i found to do this was to extract the user preferences from an existing mac first. This assumes that you've already imported your .terminal file into the profiles of the Terminal on your existing machine. So first on the existing mac you need to run the following (My theme is called Material-Theme, replace that part with your own):

plutil -extract Window\ Settings.Material-Theme xml1 -o - ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist > theme.xml

This will create a theme.xml file for you to use in your script. The next thing is just to edit the file a little. This could be automated, but if you're like me you only need to do this part once, so i did this manually. Open the file and remove the surrounding xml at the top and bottom so that all you have is the dict, mine looked like this for reference: https://pastebin.com/zfXFRY2e.

Now in your script on the new machine you can just run the following to insert this theme into your user preferences:

theme=$(<theme.xml)
plutil -replace Window\ Settings.Material-Theme -xml "$theme" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist
defaults write com.apple.Terminal "Default Window Settings" -string "Material-Theme"
defaults write com.apple.Terminal "Startup Window Settings" -string "Material-Theme"

Now after running the above when you fully close the Terminal app and restart it, your theme should be the default. This process can probably be improved but this worked for me!

Note you might also want to run defaults read com.apple.Terminal and check if there are any other keys that are relevant to your theme. In my case i found "NSWindow Frame TTWindow Material-Theme" = "0 327 640 450 0 0 1280 777 "; so my script includes this as well defaults write com.apple.Terminal "NSWindow Frame TTWindow Material-Theme" -string "0 327 640 450 0 0 1280 777 "


iPad VNC client: Edovia Screens: Does it support multiple displays?

Screens does let you select a specific display on the fly when you connect to Mac. This is a feature built in Screen Sharing, which is Apple's VNC protocol.

If you're connecting to a PC, you can use ports 5901...590x to specific the display to use before connecting.


Why does Xcode still show up as an available update in App Store after being installed?

Was having the same problem after installing Xcode v4.6 on a system with Mountain Lion, had Xcode v4.5.2 & v4.4.1 (with different names) also installed in the Applications directory. Read on a different thread that Spotlight indices can sometimes cause problems, followed the steps outlined here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

This fixed my problem. (YMMV)


Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird as default browser and mail client

You had 2 questions.

1- Go to your Firefox preferences and uncheck the Always check for default browser.

2- For Thunderbird do this:

  Set Thunderbird as the operating system default

Launch the default Mac OS X email application (called "Mail", located in the /Applications folder.)
Select Mail | Preferences from the menu.
On the General tab, select "Thunderbird" from the Default email reader drop-down list.
Close Mail.


Out of the box there is no themeing capability in Mac OS X, you can however modify some of the colours used by Mac OS X in the Appearance Preference Pane in System Preferences.

If you're serious about themeing however there are 3rd party applications you can get to help with this:

CandyBar - manages and changes icons.
ThemePark - does most everything else. If you're interested in available themes that work with ThemePark check out MacThemes

Otherwise a fairly good resource is the forum at MacThemes.


Can I make iPhone 5 screen shots without an iPhone to test with?

Sure - you can use a Mac for this.

Download Xcode and fire up the iOS Simulator and choose to emulate the iPhone 5. You will have a version of Mobile Safari that runs on OS X and will let you save screen shots of your app. Much of this is documented well by the PhoneGap steps listed for developing an iOS app.

Here I'm using skitch to grab a screen capture and I have reduced the size a bit to upload, but as long as your screen is large enough, you can capture a pixel perfect image easily. In this case, I was using Safari in the simulator and you'll need to follow the steps listed in the phonegap documentation to install Apache Cordoba so that your phonegap code can be seen by Xcode to push it over into the iOS simulator when you press Run in Xcode.

Image above from docs.phonegap.com


MacBook Pro - Mid 2010 - Memory Errors in AHT

Seems it was the memory module(s). Installed two new 2Gb modules and ran AHT extended overnight. No errors.


New (unformatted) internal Seagate HDD not visible in Disk Utility for iMac 27"

If you place a totally uninitialized drive on macOS - it not only shows in Disk Utility and lets you partition it, but it prompts you to format the drive for use.

Something else is up in terms of firmware, cabling or perhaps settings on the drive itself. If Seagate tech support doesn’t have some obvious things to check - you’ll want to test it in another computer or on an external sled to be sure it’s working before returning it to the vendor.

Chances are it’s a cable that needs reseating on the logic board or on the drive itself. I know reseating the non drive end of the cable is a pain and replacing the internal SATA cable is a big pain - so try to test externally first if you can.

You probably know all the above since you mentioned independently verifying so here are some last ditch things:

Reset the NVRAM on the iMac (command option P R at boot)
Reset the SMC on the iMac (power down - disconect all power for 15 seconds)


Why do I see two icons for the same application?

There are two things this could be.

You may be running two different instances of TinyGrab. Spotlight ignores quite a few locations on your Mac. To see where they live, right click each one and choose "Show in Finder" (it may be under options depending on your Mac OS version). If there is a second application, there is your problem! ;)
You are in fact running two instances of TinyGrab. The default is to only run one instance of any GUI application, but there are options to disable that. To see if this is the case, when both are running open Activity Monitor and search for the program. If you see two entries there, that is the issue. If this is the case you can check the preferences to see if there is a multiple instance option (I didn't find one).

Finally you can also try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/co.uk.keyoneproductions.TinyGrab.plist and see if that solves the problem. And if that doesn't, try removing your Dock preferences at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist. Maybe try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist as well, then logging out and back in?


'stdio.h' file not found, but I have this file at /usr/include/stdio.h

The root cause of the error message is from the warning message:

  clang: warning: no such sysroot directory: '/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.14.sdk'

By checking SDKs directory:

$ cd /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/
$ ls
MacOSX.sdk/      MacOSX10.13.sdk

So, to workaround the problem, it's either re-install xcode suggested by @Mark or create a symbolic link like the following:

$ sudo ln -s MacOSX.sdk/ MacOSX10.14.sdk


Macbook pro wont boot, Kernel cache read error 0x6

There's probably some sort of corruption in the kernel or Kernel cache.

Best bet would be to backup your data first, just in case, then restart and boot to your recovery volume by holding Command and R before you see the Apple logo.

Eventually you'll be at a window with a few options including reinstalling Mac OS. If you're using wifi then connect to it in the top right corner of the screen. Choose the Reinstall option and follow the prompts, eventually selecting your boot drive as the Reinstall volume.

It might take up to a few hours but you'll have a fresh operating system while preserving your data and should get rid of the kernel issue.


"Restore Windows Key" Define command as keyboard shortcut

This is how you do with Karabiner and El Captain.  Just put this in your private.xml.  If you change command+space to open Launchpad it works well also.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Make command key activate spotlight.</name>
    <appendix>(Send an escape key event when escape key is pressed alone.)</appendix>
    <identifier>private.escape_to_control_escape</identifier>
    <autogen>
      __KeyOverlaidModifier__
      <!-- from -->
      KeyCode::COMMAND_L,
      <!-- to -->
      KeyCode::COMMAND_L,
      <!-- alone -->
      KeyCode::SPACE, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L
    </autogen>
  </item>
</root>

This is also interesting for Sierra https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements/pull/247


For an unjailbroken iPhone, it is not possible to do it directly on the device.

However, if you jailbreak, you can get Display Recorder from the Cydia Store. It costs $4.99. There are other alternatives, but Display Recorder is so far the best I hae tried.


How can I stop the iPhone from buzzing when it is ringing?

settings - sounds - and vibrate on ring to off!


It depends on the carrier. Generally, iPad SIMs from a carrier are so-called ‘data SIMs’ as they only provide the data service. A normal SIM can act as data SIM if the carrier supports it with an appropriate carrier bundle. You can speak to your carrier or see if anyone else has asked your carrier on a forum, e.g. UK's EE. That chat with Verizon appears like you're talking to a misinformed person — the SIM will easily fit, and the size difference of the iPad itself is obviously not a concern.


What RSS reader software runs on iOS, Andriod and OS X for someone used to Google reader?

Just some options I've found a few people discussing. Hope it helps.

Feed Wrangler

  David Smith announced that he’s been working on an RSS aggregation service to replace Google Reader.

Feedly

  ... just announced that if you’re using their app, they plan to seamlessly integrate the syncing to their own sync server.

Fever

  ...a self-hosted feed catcher that already syncs with Reeder, as well as quite a few other iOS apps.

River2

  River2 is a River of News feed reader with lots of features.

NetVibes

  ...one of the most popular web reader, offering a Google Reader-like interface as well as a snazzy iGoogle-like homepage.

NewsBlur

  ... is also a great option, with an interface that's very similar to Google Reader (and arguably a little more polished). You create an account with them, subscribe to your favorite sites, and can read them on any computer. They even have Android and iOS apps that'll sync your feeds, too

Feedbin.me

  See all your feed, summaries and article content side-by-side.

  Source: 1, 2 & 3


I'm not sure what you meant with "sync via sftp", but if you just need an ftp client, you could use Transmit, that is available for iPhone and iPad and support the following protocols:

FTP
FTP with TLS/SSL
FTP with implicit TLS/SSL
SFTP
WebDAV
WebDAV HTTPS
Amazon S3
DreamObjects


MATLAB runs slowly and CPU exceeds 100% when running simulations

Seeing your CPU load graph (@200%) it appears your machine can handle 4 threads. Each thread can handle 100% of CPU load. 4 (virtual) cores can handle 4 threads, and 4 threads can handle a total of 400% CPU load. So 200% just means 2 cores are working at 100%.

Why they are stuck at 100% I can not tell. It might be something in your code. It might be something in the MATLAB's code. Is there some kind of debugging tool within MATLAB? You might try the MATLAB forums as well.

If your code is behaving differently on the same hardware using the same version of MATLAB tell us, then we can try to fix it from there.


Why isn't iPhone Mail working right with Google Apps Email?

Have you tried removing the account and then adding it again? (This may help if some setting has become corrupted. doing so will force iOS to start a "fresh slate" for the account.)


How can I enable Internet sharing without using the GUI or AppleScript?

The plist that others have mentioned (/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.InternetSharing.plist) never seems to change regardless of the state of Internet Sharing -- at least under Snow Leopard.

I think the answer lies somewhere in /usr/libexec/InternetSharing and /etc/boopd.plist.

First, try running:

sudo /usr/libexec/InternetSharing -d

You will probably see messages like the following:

InternetSharing[40307]: InternetSharing starting

/etc/bootpd.plist is empty/missing

InternetSharing[40307]: no primary service specified, exiting

It turns out that /etc/bootpd.plist is created when Internet Sharing is started from the Sharing pref pane, and it is deleted when Internet Sharing is turned off.

If you are feeling adventurous, you could try manually creating the plist file.  I enabled Internet Sharing with Ethernet shared to AirPort and copied the text of the resulting /etc/bootpd.plist file to a pastebin here: http://pastebin.com/gQVzARfa

This plist doesn't contain all the necessary settings (e.g. SSID for the wireless shared connection), so I'm guessing it won't work on its own.  I'm still looking for the other settings and will update this answer if I find them.  (It's possible some are passed in as parameters to /usr/libexec/InternetSharing, but I can't find any documentation on that.)

Once you have created the plist file, try running sudo /usr/libexec/InternetSharing -d again.  We may be able to work through this one error at a time.  At this point it's really an academic exercise, as it would be far easier to reinstall your OS to fix your pref pane issue.  ;]

If by some miracle it does start, I believe /usr/libexec/InternetSharing -q will stop sharing.

Messing with your system files is always somewhat risky, so make sure you have a recent backup of your important files (I recommend Dropbox).


Updating Keychain entry manually prevents next access from GUI tools afterwards: Always asks for permission

For macOS Sierra:

To add an object and allow access (with user prompt), use the "-T Application" option. (Several applications can be used)

security add-generic-password -a "account" -s "name" -w 'password' -c aapl -T /Applications/Utilities/Keychain\ Access.app/Contents/MacOS/Keychain\ Access

Then to allow access without user prompt you need to modify the ACL for the object:

security -v set-generic-password-partition-list -s "name" -S "apple:"

The partition-list syntax is not very well documented. You might be able to see how Tunnelblick uses the ACL from the output of "security dump-keychain".

Source: man security


How does one find the plug-in setting on Chrome for Mac to aid in stopping Chrome Helpers processes from running?

The Wired article is a bit old and perhaps is no longer current. 'Extensions' are what you're looking for, and they can be found in the menu item Window > Extensions.

You can also use Window > Task Manager to look at all the tab processes and extensions:


The key function of top is to offer a life view of all processes in the system, sorted by whatever option you choose. As Chrome spawns several processes (one per tab), they all will be shown (same happens with Safari/Webkit actually).

As an alternative you can install pstree (see this answer for installation instructions) which displays the process hierarchy (but doesn't offer live updating).


You can use Karabiner with a private.xml such as this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Disable ⌘E</name>
    <identifier>DisableCMDE</identifier>
    <autogen>
      __KeyToKey__
      KeyCode::E, VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE,
      KeyCode::VK_NONE
    </autogen>
  </item>
</root>


Keyboard Shortcut for Notification Center not working

Resetting PRAM worked: https://discussions.apple.com/message/19284693?ac_cid=ms123456#19284693


You can use apple-kbd-dat-icon-extract.py from https://github.com/phible/scripts:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phible/scripts/master/apple-kbd-dat-icon-extract.py -o a.py;mkdir icons;python a.py -o icons


Trying to remove files listed in file with AppleScript with do shell script call

You need to close the for loop:

do shell script ("for i in \`cat /tmp/remove_files\`; do rm -rf $i") with administrator privileges

should be:

do shell script ("for i in \`cat /tmp/remove_files\`; do rm -rf $i; done") with administrator privileges


Factory reset my ipad but app store still logged into another account

In the App Store app, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the main page and sign out.  Then tap Sign in and log in as the correct Apple ID.


How can I solve false duplicate in Mail.app?

Sadly enough, I can't help you on why Apple's Mail think your mails are duplicates.

I have two ideas to fix the problem though.

Rebuild your Mailboxes (Select all your mailboxes, then in the Mailbox menu, choose rebuild). Wait the process to end completely (check nothing is being done in the Activity Window), then restart Mail;
If this does not work, you can always disable the option that groups mails that are related (In the preferences, in Viewing, de-select "Include related messages"). This is not ideal as it disable one of the main features of Lion's Mail, but if it's buggy…


Does size of Time Machine backups increase after changing from HDD to SSD on a Macbook Pro?

I suspect this has something to do with the way SSDs work, specifically something about SSDs having to rewrite huge sections of memory even if only a part of the section needs to be changed.

This happens at the storage and controller level - it is completely transparent to the operating system.

You have already found the main cause, but one thing you didn't notice was that the day after you changed your drive, Time Machine did a complete backup from the beginning. TM noticed a new device ID on the drive and made a new backup. It is possible to join backups IF you do it before the first run after the drive change, but it involves some tinkering in the Terminal.


Read old/previous/past console log entries from an iPhone

I found that a way to do this is to generate a sysdiagnose and AirDrop it to your computer. The sysdiagnose tarball contains a file called system_logs.logarchive which can be opened with Console.


Is it safe to eject a hard drive during encryption?

This is fine — if the disk has been ejected, it is no longer in use. I have done this myself during encryption of my Time Machine disk. Reconnecting the drive continues the encryption process from where it left off. Of course, make sure the disk is ejected before disconnecting it.


How to backup Mac to external hard drive in recovery mode? "No mountable file systems"?

I am assuming you are looking to back up data rather than the entire drive, as your OS image is probably faulty.

That being the case, you may be able to start up in Target Disk Mode, and then you can browse the files and copy them to another disk as if the HDD in the Mac was just an external drive. There are a couple caveats to this though:

Make sure your Mac is compatible - Given that you are updating to Sierra it is likely that it is.
You will need another Mac to connect the dead one to.
You need a USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, Firewire or Thunderbolt 2 Cable

Connect the computers up, and when starting the broken machine, immediately press and hold 'T'.

All being well it will appear as a disk on the other Mac. You should be able to offload your data from here.

Here is some more info, including compatibility lists: Apple Support


How can I prevent line numbers from appearing in .bash_history?

Update: The recent edit you've made to you question shows the following line being in your .bash_profile file:

export HISTTIMEFORMAT='%y-%m-%d-%T   '

Remove this line to stop the timestamp from being added to the ~/.bash_history file.

Original Answer:

As HISTTIMEFORMAT is not set by default, up to an including macOS Mojave, you'll need to check one of the following files to see where it was added:

/etc/bashrc
/etc/profile
~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login
~/.profile
~/.bashrc

Removing the line that has HISTTIMEFORMAT from the file that has it will stop the timestamp from being added to the ~/.bash_history file.

Note: The dot files mentioned in the $HOME directory are hidden and some may not exist.


`LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -1712 for the file ` when I attempt `open .`

That error means an Apple Event timed out.

error -1712 errAETimeout: the AppleEvent timed out

You can either open Activity Monitor and look to see if you notice an Application or process that states Not responding or hit option command esc then force quit any non-responding application.

It's possible the application or process was already open and by using open . it tried to launch it for whatever reason. Often it's an Automator or AppleScript that is waiting for user interaction and "times out" waiting.


1 old (Snow Leopard) iMac & 2 newer (Mountain Lion) MacBooks -- iCloud or DropBox?

I think in your case Dropbox is the solution to keep synchronized your files.

You can continue to use iCloud on your other Mac with Moutain Lion (to synchronize your reminders or other contents that use iCloud).

Moreover, my understanding is that iCloud don't sync your Documents folder, so anyway for your need, you should use Dropbox.

However, be careful when you put your personal data online !


IpadOS connect lightning to hdmi and usb together

So, if I understand right you have basically two set of questions:

1. can an iPad Mini (5th generation) be connected to a 4k monitor? if so, how? and what can I expect in terms of image quality/resolution?

Yes, it is possible to connect a lightning-iDevice to a HDMI-Display using a Lightning Digital AV Adapter. It will mirror your display. The iPad Mini 5Gen has "1536 x 2048 pixels, 4:3 ratio" and that is what you will see in your 4k-Monitor. (for reference check this video)

2. given that the connction iPadMini-Display is working, can I have more USB devices attached?

Unfortunately, no. And here is a video that shows it ^^
I really doubt there is a way to map the Lightning-pins to HDMI-pins AND to the USB2.0-pins simultnaeously
... if you had in mind to use a mouse or a keyboard, may be you could achieve that over a Bluetooth connection.

Side questions:
Why is my lightning to type-C-USB connection not showing any picture?
This is because of the diversitiy in protocols/standards. Lightning on that iDevice, in terms of USB is essentially USB2.0 and this USB standard does not support video/image transmission. The standard that supports that is a USB-C alternate mode which, at least, requires USB-C on both sides. (you only have one, on your display...)


Can I run Yosemite after I install the Mojave firmware updates?

Yes, such a downgrade is possible.

Once shipped the firmware updates really change very little in terms of hardware capabilities.

Those firmware updates in Mojave seem to be really mostly about adding support for APFS. Whether Appel included more substantial changes to existing hardware, like security fixes, are mostly unknown, due to the standard lack of transparency regarding update from Apple.

That means in personal testing I have never seen a device not booting the system it came with originally, despite numerous upgrades. The most extreme example being 10.13 on a MacBook Pro that shipped with 10.6.

The lack of problem reports for official Apple solutions (Apple: Use the Mac operating system that came with your Mac, or a compatible newer version) and other solutions (How to downgrade macOS from Mojave to an older version) indicate that the Mac itself should be able to run al those supported versions.

Caveat:

That means it should be fine for an Apple computer and an Apple system software to mix and match as you desire. (Boot 10.9 one day, try out Mojave the other and then go back to Yosemite.)

That doesn't mean that a possible security fix in one of the firmware updates (eg for how Thunderbolt operates) might not break interoperability for one of your other third party hardware peripherals. But even for these possibilities a problem report seems hard to find.


IPhone 4s Not connecting to wifi at home

Ok, seems your router works fine - this is good. Now can you, pls, check your iPhone settings for your home wi-fi network?

On your iPhone go to Settings -> Wi-Fi -> Click circled (i) against your home network name and make sure that you have 'DHCP' selected (not BootP or Static). Then scroll down to reveal “Renew Lease” and tap on it, confirm to renew the lease when asked.

Also check that 'HTTP Proxy' below is set to Off.


Ran into the same issue, but when I bought the mac at the apple seems it was hardcoded to stay with Catalina and not downgrade to Mojave.


What is the iPhone SMS database called in iOS 6?

Inside MobileSync/Backup/<your_long_hex_string>/ you should find this file "3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28"

Then open it with SQLite (e.g. SQLite Firefox plugin or "sqlite database browser"), and execute this SQL query:

select message.rowid,
    case when message.date=0 then null else datetime(message.date,  'unixepoch', 'localtime', '+31 years') end as sent,
    case when message.date_delivered=0 then null else datetime(message.date_delivered,  'unixepoch', 'localtime', '+31 years') end as delivered,
case when message.date_read=0 then null else datetime(message.date_read,  'unixepoch', 'localtime', '+31 years') end as read,
    case when h1.id is not null then h1.id else h2.id end as interlocutor,
    case when message.is_from_me then null else message.text end as to_me,
    case when message.is_from_me then message.text else null end as from_me,
attachment.filename as attach,
    case when message.error=0 then null else message.error end as error_code
    from message
    left join handle h1 on message.handle_id=h1.rowid
    left join message_attachment_join on message_attachment_join.message_id=message.rowid
    left join attachment on message_attachment_join.attachment_id=attachment.rowid
    left join  chat_message_join on chat_message_join.message_id=message.rowid
    left join  chat_handle_join  on chat_handle_join.chat_id=chat_message_join.chat_id
    left join  handle h2 on chat_handle_join.handle_id=h2.rowid
order by message.roWID


Why am I getting command not found even though path to command exists in PATH variable?

The fix I ended up was removing all home brew Python and fixing up the system Python.

brew remove python
brew remove python3
brew cleanup

Check for the system pip and python (or absence of pip is OK too).

which python
which pip
which pip3
which python3

At this point, you need to easy_install a system based pip:

sudo easy_install --upgrade pip
pip --version

You should now have a pip that's based on /Library/Python (and pip 7.1.2 against python 2.7 for El Capitan in October 2015)

mac:~ me$ pip --version
pip 7.1.2 from /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-7.1.2-py2.7.egg (python 2.7)
mac:~ me$ which pip
/usr/local/bin/pip
mac:~ me$ which python
/usr/bin/python


autossh not forwarding, regular ssh tunnel does

A bit late to answer, but maybe it still helps someone.

I had the same problem, turns out you need to use -L instead of -R:

autossh -M 5122 -L 5432:localhost:5432 <user>@<myhost>


Time Machine backup fails after copying some files

The issue may be a corrupted file. Open Console.app and filter errors for "backupd".

You may notice an error related to a particular file which is causing the failure, for example

Error: (-48) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/mycomputer/2020-04-23-231950/Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/bad_file to /Volumes/MyBackupDrive/Backups.backupdb/mycomputer/2020-04-23-231950.inProgress/A93DB1E9-8D23-482D-953E-0D808B6380AD/Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/bad_file

If so, you can try deleting this file (completely).

In my case, to be safe, I also restarted my machine, reformatted the backup drive (OS X extended, case-sensitive, journaled, encrypted) and re-added it to Time Machine, but I am not sure if any or all of those steps were essential.


External GPU allow a late 2014 mac mini run 4k at 60Hz?

In theory, yes - an eGPU could allow you to run a 4k display at 60 Hz. It depends on the specific eGPU (i.e. which graphics card is actually plugged into the breakout box).

The CPU in your Mac Mini is not going to be the limiting factor for running 4k at 60 Hz in itself. However, it might be that some games/applications that you would like to run do not run with optimal performance on that Mac Mini. You'll have to test and judge yourself.

The reason I say "in theory" is because Apple has made it so that eGPU support on the latest macOS requires Thunderbolt 3. Your Late 2014 Mac Mini only has Thunderbolt 2, so it is not officially supported.

Some community scripts exists to allow eGPU on Thunderbolt 2, but obviously the performance is not going to be the same.


How can I change spell check to Turkish in Pages?

Normally, for a language not included in OS X, you can try adding a dictionary from the OpenOffice app, as explained at

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2011/06/extra-spell-checking-dictionaries-for.html

Unfortunately, Turkish is not there.  Here is a a site with some .dic and .aff files which I have not tested myself.

http://code.google.com/p/tr-spell/downloads/list


The proximity sensor was fixed in iOS 4.2.1, and people in Apple Support forums confirm it works.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12630060


Bootcamp Error: The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition

Here is the commands you need to enter in a Terminal application window.

sudo diskutil eraseVolume free none disk0s4
sudo diskutil eraseVolume free none disk0s3
sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

These commands will have removed the Windows partitions and expanded the macOS partition to recover the free space. However, there may still be Windows boot files stored in the hidden EFI partition (disk0s1). If these files exist, then they can be removed by entering the commands given below.

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1
cd /Volumes/EFI/EFI
rm -r Boot
rm -r Microsoft
cd ~
diskutil unmount disk0s1


How to downgrade the OS to the original one on a MBA 2010?

The MacBook Air came pre-installed with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which was available with a physical installation media only.

Here is what I would do in your situation:

Parts Replacement (USB Key Installation Media):
Contact Apple and ask if they still replace the missing parts (costs will apply, but I do not know how much).

Order a Replacement Disc:
Ask, if they still sell replacement discs.  The costs were reasonable the last time I heard (~$15-20).
NOTE: The MBA being a Late 2010 may require an installation media unique to its build.  So a general-purpose replacement disc of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard may not work with it.  Ask Apple specifically if it works with your daughter's model before you decide to buy it.

Create a USB Thumb Drive from a Replacement Disc:
Should the general-purpose disc work, knowing that the MBA does not have an optical drive, if you have a different Mac with an optical drive, you can create a USB drive from it by just cloning it over using Disk Utility.

Buying an Optical Drive to Use Disc:
If creating the USB thumb drive is not an option for you, you may want to look into buying an optical drive and use that with the disc (obviously only if the general-purpose disc is an option in the first place).  The optical drive can be used for other things as well and even used with a potential new Mac computer lacking an optical drive.  So, the costs of $79 for the drive would not be wasted for a single purpose.


The button in the top right of each window is not for minimizing and maximizing the window, but for putting it in and out of fullscreen mode (which is why it covers the menu bar, as you said).

The keyboard shortcut to toggle fullscreen depends on the application.

Most applications that I use on a daily basis (such as Google Chrome, Terminal, Mail, and Safari) use ^+⌘+F (Control+Cmd+F) to toggle fullscreen mode.

Unfortunately, not all developers use this shortcut in their applications. iTerm, for example, uses ⌘+Enter to toggle fullscreen mode. If the application you refer to does not use either of these shortcuts, you should look for the fullscreen option in the View menu or by searching for "fullscreen" in the Help menu.


Macbook Pro 2019 is unable to detect more than 1 monitor

actually your Macbook Pro does not support more than 1 5k display. just check the resolution and get back to me.


So you've done everything correctly but the notifications are still coming through, there are a couple things to try...

But first please quit Safari, and then do a full reboot, and test again, as even when you close Safari the Safari notification service continues to run in the background.

If you are still having an issue:

Quit Safari.
Go to Finder.
Press CommandShiftG.
Type ~/Library/Preferences into the field.
Press Go.
Find com.apple.Safari.
Move it somewhere safe.
Reopen Safari and reconfigure the Allow websites to ask permission to send push notifications.
Try with one of the problem websites.

This will remove your Safari preferences and will need to be setup again but it may resolve the issue.


iCloud Keychain sync: How to determine current sync status or force a sync (without removing and adding)?

There are no built-in OS X tools designed explicitly for showing you iCloud synchronize information. In easy to read way.

However, you can track connections to Apple's iCloud servers, measure traffic flow, and disk access.

These metrics will provide some insight but they will not provide expected duration's or percentage complete measures.

To explore the data flow, explore the OS X's built-in tools like lsof and netstat.


Yes, those services are not connected.

However, once you delete items from iCloud, they'll be deleted from every device you have that uses that same Apple ID.  iCloud is a sync services whereas Dropbox and Google Drive are cloud storage that can also be used for backup.


Has Apple locked this file [/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist] down definitively?

Yes, they have, you need to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection), but note that editing ssh.plist is not the only option to change the SSH server port, there are other ways to achieve the same result.

There are (at least) 4 ways to change the port sshd listens on:

Modifying /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist:

Pros: cleanest way to configure sshd, sshd started with System Preferences>Sharing>Remote Login listens on new port.
Cons: convoluted setup (requires two restarts and disabling/re-enabling SIP).
Use case: definitive change of sshd port.

Creating a new plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist:

Pros: dual operation of sshd listening on standard and new port.
Cons: CLI-only method to start sshd on the new port.
Use case: sshd must listen on both the standard port and the additional port.

Modifying "ssh" entries in /etc/services:

Pros: simplest method, no need to deal with SIP, sshd started with System Preferences>Sharing>Remote Login listens on new port.
Cons: side effect: ssh defaults to new port when connecting to remote server (there's a workaround for that).
Use case: temporary port change or testing sshd running on a different port.

Redirecting port 22 to new port with packet filter:

Pros: no need to deal with SIP, sshd started with System Preferences>Sharing>Remote Login seems to listen on new port.
Cons: somewhat non-transparent (sshd configuration is untouched but sshd listens on another/additional port) and confusing (firewall status in System Preferences not reliable), tiny side effect (remote client thinks it is connecting to port 22 (through env variables SSH_CLIENT and SSH_CONNECTION)).
Use case: definitive or temporary change of the sshd port, sshd must listen on both the standard port and the additional port.

Let's take a closer look at them. (When choosing the new port, make sure it is not used by another service by running sudo lsof -i -n -P | grep <your port>.)

1. Modifying /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist

This is the method you tried, let me describe it here for completion:

Restart your Mac and hold down ⌘R immediately after your Mac begins to restart to enter macOS Recovery.
Select Utilities>Terminal from the menu bar.
Type csrutil disable to disable SIP.
Select Apple menu>Restart.
Log in, edit /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist and modify the Listeners section. For example, to change the port to 2222:

Restart your Mac and hold down ⌘R immediately after your Mac begins to restart to enter macOS Recovery.
Select Utilities>Terminal from the menu bar.
Type csrutil enable to enable SIP and restart.

SSH server will now listen on the new port and you can start sshd as usual through System Preferences>Sharing>Remote Login.

2. Creating a new plist /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

This method is nicely described in this answer, which basically says:

Copy /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist to /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist to create a new sshd startup script.
Modify the label in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist to differenciate the new startup script from the built-in one, for example by appending a number "2":

<key>Label</key>
<string>com.openssh.sshd2</string>

Modify the port in the Listeners section as in the previous method. For example, to change the port to 2222:

<key>Sockets</key>
<dict>
   <key>Listeners</key>
   <dict>
      <key>SockServiceName</key>
      <string>2222</string>
      <key>Bonjour</key>
      <array>
          <string>ssh</string>
          <string>sftp-ssh</string>
      </array>
   </dict>
</dict>

Start sshd on the new port:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

(To stop it, run sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist)

The SSH server will now listen on the new port. You can still use System Preferences>Sharing>Remote Login to start another instance of the SSH server that listens on the standard port (22/tcp). launchd will listen on both ports:

$ sudo lsof -i -P -n
launchd     1           root   42u  IPv6 0x9df385961b132cdf      0t0    TCP *:2222 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   44u  IPv4 0x9df385961c81db1f      0t0    TCP *:2222 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   45u  IPv6 0x9df385961b132cdf      0t0    TCP *:2222 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   47u  IPv4 0x9df385961c81db1f      0t0    TCP *:2222 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   48u  IPv6 0x9df385961b133e1f      0t0    TCP *:22 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   49u  IPv4 0x9df385961b22d51f      0t0    TCP *:22 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   50u  IPv6 0x9df385961b133e1f      0t0    TCP *:22 (LISTEN)
launchd     1           root   51u  IPv4 0x9df385961b22d51f      0t0    TCP *:22 (LISTEN)

3. Modifying "ssh" entries in /etc/services

To change the sshd port with this method, proceed as follows:

Edit /etc/services, look for these entries:

ssh  22/udp  # SSH Remote Login Protocol
ssh  22/tcp  # SSH Remote Login Protocol

and replace port 22 with a port of your choosing.

You can enable SSH with System Preferences>Sharing>Remote Login and sshd will listen on the new port.

Why does this work? If you take a look at the Listeners section of the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist file, you will see that sshd is configured to listen on the port assigned to the service named ssh in /etc/services:

<key>Sockets</key>
<dict>
    <key>Listeners</key>
    <dict>
        <key>SockServiceName</key>
        <string>ssh</string>
(...)
</dict>

This is undoubtedly the simplest method, but it has a drawback: the SSH client will expect remote SSH servers to listen on the new port (instead of port 22) (thanks to jcaron for the hint). That is, ssh reads /etc/services to find out which the default SSH port is.

Fortunately there is an easy solution for this: uncomment Port 22 in /etc/ssh/ssh_config (see man ssh_config for more information).

4. Redirecting port 22 to new port with packet filter

The method uses the macOS packet filter (PF) to redirect all requests received at port 22 to the new sshd port (thanks to Andrew Morton for the idea):

Create a new anchor file /etc/pf.anchors/sshd with contents (replace 2222 with a port of your choosing):

rdr pass inet proto tcp from any to any port = 2222 -> 127.0.0.1 port 22
# If you want `sshd` to listen on port 22 too, comment out the line below
block drop in quick proto tcp from any to any port = 22

Add the "sshd" anchor rules by editing /etc/pf.conf (the order is relevant!):

scrub-anchor "com.apple/*"
nat-anchor "com.apple/*"
rdr-anchor "com.apple/*"
# Load sshd redirect rule
rdr-anchor "sshd"
dummynet-anchor "com.apple/*"
anchor "com.apple/*"
# Load other sshd rules
anchor "sshd"
load anchor "com.apple" from "/etc/pf.anchors/com.apple"
# Tell PF where to find the sshd anchor
load anchor "sshd" from "/etc/pf.anchors/sshd"

Enable and reload the packet filter:

sudo pfctl -F all -ef /etc/pf.conf

(To disable it, run sudo pfctl -d.)

Note that:

the macOS firewall (System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Firewall) is under the hood the packet filter, so that when you disable the packet filter on the command line, you are also disabling the firewall, even if the Preferences Panel doesn't reflect the change.
SSH clients will think they are connecting to port 22 through the SSH_CLIENT and SSH_CONNECTION env variables.

Editing sshd_config doesn't work

Users running sshd on other operating systems may be tempted to edit the SSH daemon configuration file, /etc/ssh/sshd_config. In macOS, however, editing the Port directive in /etc/ssh/sshd_config won't achieve the desired result.


Apple source code on the application loading

Private and Proprietary to Apple

Unfortunately no-one here will be able to show you this code, the macOS Finder is not open source. Only a portion of underlying operating system is available as open source.

Launch Services

The Launch Services framework is responsible for launching graphical applications. See the Launch Services Programming Guide for an overview.

Fundamentals

macOS's core, Darwin, is derived from FreeBSD. If you want to learn about the fundamentals of launching a new process, study today's FreeBSD code.

Fork

You will also want to fully understand fork and how processes are created in UNIX like environments.

Fork (system call), Wikipedia:

  In computing, particularly in the context of the Unix operating system and its workalikes, fork is an operation whereby a process creates a copy of itself. It is an interface which is required for compliance with the POSIX and Single UNIX Specification standards. It is usually implemented as a C Standard Library (libC) wrapper to the fork, clone, or other system calls of the kernel. Fork is the primary method of process creation on Unix-like operating systems.


Is it possible to add hosting to some image hosting in share menu?

You can use ImageShareUr which adds a share extension for uploading to Imgur.

Choose More to enable the extension for the first use, then you can select an image and choose Share → Upload to Imgur and follow the instructions.

Despite the author's message on the page that it doesn't work in Sierra, I've just tried it on 10.12.4 and it works great.


Only move one page in double-page view | iBooks

It doesn't look like there's a setting where you can make it go by one page, but what you can do is that you can use your Trackpad (the Magic Mouse works too) and move your fingers (to the left or right, depending on where the page are) so that you can see the pages that you want.

This may not be the most glamorous solution, but it gets the job done. Hope this helps.


Keyboard shortcut for service only works after I manually run the service

Found the answer in this Apple Support Community thread:

Bug: Keyboard shortcut keys do not always activate a service (a workflow)

Keyboard shortcuts for services will only work properly if they have a ⌘ command key in them.  That is, cmd-ctrl-k works, but ctrl-k needs help.  The "help" is to go to the app's menu bar and hover over the services so it sees them. That works until you quit the app.

But, if the shortcut contains the ⌘ command key, it works as expected.


Windows 7 installation permanently operate as the only OS?

Firstly, be sure to have a license for Windows 7, Windows operating systems are not "free to be used" as many Apple OSs.

Regarding your question, you can install Windows 7 in a new partition of your disk driver in order to have the possibility to choose each time you boot the machine with OS to use. There are a lot of guides online and also in this community that can help you to proceed with the installation of a dual boot.

You can also install Windows 7 on the top of the OS X you are currently using. This will remove the Apple system and you'll be able to use only the Windows one. As a personal opinion, I don't think this is a good option (and I also think you don't want to use this option) because the MacBook Pro hardware is design to work with Apple operative system, therefore, you may have some bugs/problems when you'll use Windows. Anyway, for sure the performance of the machine will become worse.

Another possibility, is to use a virtual machine that work under OS X and simulate the Windows machine where you can install the software you are interesting to use.
Again as before, I don't think this is a good option knowing that the software you want to install required high performance.


Should I format and upgrade to mavericks or upgrade to mavericks and format?

You could pick this route:

Back-up everything you need
Format your disk (this will format/clean Mountain Lion and all files)
Install a clean version of Mavericks
Put back the files you still need

Why this way?
Easy, you won't have the old Mountain Lion files on your file system. This results in a clean new environment to start with.
The other methods you described will result in Mavericks on top of Mountain Lion.


How to track down a mystery autocompletion

Argh.  Found the culprit.  Dash was doing it.

Looks like it was me after all.  sigh.


If you boot into the recovery partition (hold down option on boot) - and select the disk utility from the utility menu (do not reinstall OS X) you should then be able to resize the partition.


How do I unlock someone's iPhone 6 without providing the owner's Apple ID and password?

You can not unlock the owner's iPhone 6 without providing the owner's Apple ID and password, or, if the owner created one, the passcode or password.  Apple does not keep that information, either.

The only thing you can do is to restore the owner's iPhone 6 from a previous backup, or set it up as a "new" iPhone.


How to hide Dock icons from another Mac?

It's called "Handoff."
And Apple says:

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click
General. Select "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud
devices." On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff, then turn on Handoff.


Try the RCDefaultApp preference pane at http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/. It lets you choose the application to be launched for all sorts of situations.

Install it, open it (it becomes the "Default Apps" preference pane), and then choose the "URLs" tab:

Scroll down to the "vnc" prefix, and then choose what you like from the "Default Application" popup.


One monitor has an orange tint while the other does not


In Firefox you can do that.

I have not found a way in Safari, so one needs a external app (3d party).

Here is one you might like:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31018/safari-cookies


It's likely your EFI partition is broken because the driver tried to make inappropriate changes to EFI.

On boot, Touch Bar attempts to boot its own OS from the EFI. If it can't boot correctly, EmbeddedOSInstallService will attempt to fix it so your Touch Bar can function again, by copying a ‘known good’ OS from:

/usr/standalone/firmware/iBridge1_1Customer.bundle
/Library/Updates/PreflightContainers

If there isn't a good OS here, Setup Assistant will ask you to connect to the internet so one can be downloaded and EFI repaired.

Make sure your internet connection is suitable per https://support.apple.com/kb/HT207567.


13'' 2011 MacBook Air: Stuck at blank gray screen, no boot option working

I have found the problem, the BIOS firmware was badly corrupt from a failed macOS update, i had to fix it hardware removing the BIOS chip and flashing it again, now it's working perfectly!


You could sell them on eBay. Some people have 5 to 10 year old computers that take smaller RAM upgrades.


How do I fix the tab “Access Control” not opening in Keychain Access?

Try setting category to "My Certificates" at the left bottom of "KeyChain Access" window. Then find the certificate, expend it to get the key and try changing "Access Control" on that one.


In Safari 5.1, how do I disable Top Sites and the caching of thumbnail images of Web pages?

While not a clean solution and not properly preventing Safari from creating the thumbnails in the first place, this apparently works to keep them from taking up disk space:

rm ~/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db && ln -s /dev/null ~/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db

Incidentally, even going to Safari → Reset Safari… and ticking Remove all webpage preview images will apparently leave this hack intact.

As for Top Sites, there are a few places you can remove it from:

Safari → Preferences → General → New windows open with
Safari → Preferences → General → New tabs open with
Safari → Preferences → Bookmarks → Bookmarks bar

I don't believe the menu item can be removed this easily.


Can I stop iPhone apps from changing my Gmail status?

I'm going to assume that you mean this app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phone-for-google-voice-talk/id541829441?mt=8 Since the app is free, it's reasonable to have ads. You could email the developer and ask for it to be removed in the next release.

Or, if you don't mind losing the Google Voice integration, you could go with Verbs ($1), which is an IM app.

Less reliable way to fix it: After signing in with Mo+ GV, sign into Gtalk from somewhere else (like your computer). I think only the most recent status will be displayed.

Insane way to fix it: Jailbreak your iPhone to disable code signing. Then, find the "I'm using Mo+…" string in the application's binary and change it to an empty string.


With Latest MacBook Pro and Radeon 460 Graphics, How To Tell How Much Memory in Use?

I would recommend using iStat Menus.

Here's a direct quote from their website:

  CPU & GPU

  Realtime CPU graphs and a list of the top 5 CPU resource hogs. CPU
  usage can be tracked by individual cores or with all cores combined,
  to save menubar space.

  Plus, GPU memory and processor usage on supported Macs, and the active
  GPU can be shown in the menubar.

In addition to the above, iStat Menus monitors a whole range of things that you may find useful.

You can download it for a 14 day trial to test it out prior to purchase.

NOTE: I have no affiliation whatsoever with iStat Menus.


Using dictation feature to paste text into Terminal

This problem continued for me when I updated to 10.13.3 but I found a solution.  Rather than using the Paste Text option when creating the new Dictation Command, use the Paste Data command.  Then go to TextEdit and type the text you want, select, and copy it.  Then go back to the window creating your Dictation Command and click on the Import from Clipboard button.  You will notice that the button moves down (I assume meaning that there is data there now).  Now my Dictation Command works!  I am not sure if this works in earlier versions of Sierra.


Dual Boot screen is not coming after installing win 7 via boot camp!

The Mac will not show the Startup Manager screen to you every time you boot. You can set a "default" partition to boot from, or hold "option" while it boots to get the Startup Manager.

To change the default, you use "Startup Disk" under System Preferences for Mac, if you are on Windows you can use the Bootcamp Utility in the system tray.

AFAIK, I don't think there is a way to get it to show the Startup Manager every time you boot without holding the option key.


What is Notes.app's iCloud notes database location(s) for recovery (El Capitan)?

This is not a direct answer to the question "What is Notes.app's iCloud notes database location(s)" but it might be useful information for others who need to recover an iCloud-synchronized note.

Given my lack of success with everything I tried I called Apple support. They were very helpful and after a few unsuccessful attempts replacing folders they looked into my iCloud account and found that on their end there was "one recoverable item" that showed up. After verifying my identity they could then "recover" that item and, voila, the missing note popped up in the notes app under Recently deleted items. It had been deleted beginning of September. Had I only known it was that easy ...

So it seems that deleted iCloud notes are not permanently deleted after 30 days and still recoverable by Apple. I forgot to ask if forever, or for how long ...

In any case, while I've resolved my problem I'd still be interested in the actual location of the iCloud-notes database. So if anyone comes across this at some point and finds the answer it'd be highly appreciated.


Is there a hot key to refresh a browser that is in the background?

You can put either of these in an Automator service using a applescript Action.

Then set a keyboard shortcut with the Services in keyboard system preferences's Keyboard Shortcuts.

Note the  'Service receives' settings in the screen shots. This will make sure the Menu appears in all app's services.
(The other apps may need to quit and re open before they pick up the short cut)

Chrome.

tell application "Google Chrome"
    reload active tab of (get window 1)
end tell

Safari.

tell application "Safari"
    tell document 1 to do JavaScript "javascript:location.reload(true)"
end tell

Services.

Service Menu -In iTunes


Apple ID's -- I have apple id's on two devices

Yes, you can absolutely have multiple devices using the same Apple ID and have different apps and the same apps installed on them. What apps are installed on each device is managed by the individual device and/or by iTunes when you sync.

There are not many games or apps that allow for sync'ng across multiple devices though, so for most apps the content will be unique to each device. Hopefully the developers will catch on that many of us are using their apps on iPhones and iPads and get them to sync.


My phone numbers in my favorite list now shows no names?

Your account is probably inactive, either because you've turned it off or changed your password. Go to Settings → Mail, Contacts & Calendars and tap the account that you use to store your contacts. Make sure the Contacts service is on.


You must type an Organization Identifier; you can even invent it!


Why does Apple name the new product iPhone 'se', what is 'se'

For being that the phone Is going to look like the 5s, but have hardware similar to the 6s, it would be safe to say that it means "special edition" since Apple is going out of the naming convention(s).


How do I select which city appears in Glances for the Apple Watch World Clock app?

The city that shows is the one at the top of the list in the World Clock watch app and the World Clock section in the Clock app on my iPhone (which can be set the iPhone app: click Edit and then drag).


Why are Pages/Numbers/Keynote not free in the App Store on new iPhone 6s?

After taking it up with Apple Support, here is the answer:
The first user (AppleID) which activates a new iPhone gets those apps free. If the iPhone is reset to defaults and another user (AppleID) is used, which is what I did, then that user does not get them for free.

So the free option is a one time thing.


LG Display via USBC-HDMI indicating as active even after turning it off

The USB-C ports on most MacBook Pro laptops all natively output a DisplayPort signal.  Most are Thunderbolt 3 though there are a few that are only USB with Alternate Mode display.    So, when you go from that USB-C port to HDMI, you're converting the signals.  That signal may stay high because the conversion isn't "clean."  This is why I always recommend using an active adapter that will recreate the signal versus a passive one that just "rearranges the signals."   I believe that will sort your issue as well.
However, on a DisplayPort input on a monitor, there's no conversion - the signal is clean.  So, when you turn it off, it's off.  If you can use DisplayPort, then I recommend that over HDMI There's no conversion and it's a better signal.
What you're seeing is just one of the many idiosyncrasies of HDMI.  If you're going from a HDMI source to an HDMI end device (monitor/TV), it works fairly well.  However, the moment you have to convert, that's where things start to go sideways.

What's wrong with HDMI?
Macbook Pro detects the screen, but external screen stays black (mini dp to hdmi)
Logical HDMI display reconnection
External Monitors Flicker when plugged into my Mac


iCloud delete and remove device and photos

Yes, the iPhone will still be erased - when you start your iPhone you'll be asked to set it up again as a new one.
EDIT:
It also described on Apple's Support page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204306

Erase using Find my iPhone
If you enabled Find My iPhone through iCloud, you can use it to erase your device.

Go to icloud.com/find.
If prompted, sign in with your Apple ID.
Click All Devices at the top of your browser window.
Select the device you want to erase.
Click Erase [device] to erase your device and its passcode.
Now you can either restore from a backup or set up as new.


using "old" non-retina screen resolution chooser

I found the screen resolution options in OS X very poor.  I use a third party tool called SwitchResX.  This is a pay app, however I believe that there are free third party apps which allow similar kinds of control... but I haven't used them.

How are you connecting to the display?  Only DisplayPort can drive a 4k screen, so you would probably need a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.  Amazon have several.  The current HDMI standard does not have the bandwidth to transfer enough data fast enough to support 60Hz, which would be a smoother experience.  It only allows for 30Hz.

The display has a native resolution (3840x2160).  Every resolution that is not the native is scaled (due to the display having fixed pixels).  Only resolutions that divide exactly into the native resolution would be sharp.

TL;DR you can't change the resolution of a monitor, only how the display is drawn on it.  Get a miniDP to DP cable.


Frozen touchpad on iphone 6 having a passcode

Doing a force restart might take care of frozen screen.

Link to apple help page: https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT201559

  You should force restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as a last resort, and only if it's not responding. To force restart your device, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for at least ten seconds, until you see the Apple logo.


'Customize Package Selection' is only valid for NetInstall images and not for NetRestore images - at least for Mavericks.

Source

Probably it's the same for Yosemite. I haven't a source for that though.

On the other hand 'NetRestore' just uses an already prepared image of a working OS X installation - so absolutely nothing to customize afterwards...


Apple Music checked as disabled and grayed out in iTunes

Looks like I had a Device Profile created by my administrator which disabled Apple Music, among other things.


How can I lock and start screensaver on my MacBook Pro simultaneously without hot corners?

I have not done this, but you can set up an automator service to trigger your screensaver with a shortcut from the keyboard.

Here is a link:

http://osxdaily.com/2014/07/10/set-screen-saver-keyboard-shortcut-mac/


Mac doesn't respond after sleep mode: how to Prevent this?

I had the same issue on my mini.  The first thing you might try is resetting your PRAM and then your PMU.  These control sleep on your mac.  If they fix it, and it goes bad again, you may need to take it in for warranty repair (if under warranty.)


XLR Microphone not working with phantom power supply

You still need a microphone preamp.

As always seems to happen with these mics, they are bought by people for whom it is their first venture into the audio field, beyond a headset mic.

Unfortunately, nothing in any of these ads tells you precisely what you are going to need - nor do they even supply the right cables in the box to be able to do it.
Theoretically, you can get a signal out of them by using a PC's built-in low voltage supply that can power headsets.
In practise, that really doesn't work well at all - so then people buy a phantom supply, without realising they still really need something to get the signal into the computer at good levels.

If you can return that phantom power supply, do so, you don't need it.

Even on the picture for the supply it shows you need to connect it to a preamp.

Preamps are readily-available with built-in phantom power & USB connection.
They become the instant bridge between your mic & your computer. They supply the correct phantom power to the mic & become a useable input for the computer.

Instead, get anything like the following list obtained by Googling "USB Phantom" -
Random selection on Amazon
Example -

They run from approx £30 to many hundreds, depending on number of inputs/features etc. All you need as a basic starter kit is 1 mic input with phantom power.

You also need a male-female XLR cable which will connect to the pre-amp's mic input, which those mics are not supplied with.


Changing Input Language in iOS 9 with External Keyboard

Found it: it's now ^ctrl+space. I think that's the same as on OS X now.


Installing an app to run from an external HD

If the app doesn't let you configure where to store files, you can symlink the folder to your desired location.

Move the folder where the data is stored to the new location.
Run the following to symlink the folder:

ln -s /Volumes/externalname/folder ~/Library/path/to/folder

You can move the application by itself, but that won't change where the app stores data files.


How do you restore files from an iCloud backup

Apple provides no interface to pull individual items from the backup. Whether through iTunes or iCloud, backups are intended to be restored as a whole, replacing the content on the device at the time of the restore.

Is it possible that the image is also in your Photo Stream? That's probably the best possible solution if you do not wish to go through the steps to restore the backup to a device (your device or another one) to retrieve the photos you are missing (and then restore things again from a more current backup if desired).

If you do need to restore the whole backup, erase the phone (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings) then you can restore from iCloud.  When restoring from iCloud, you can choose from multiple recent backups.


You purchased them from the Mac App Store, and they don't show up in your Purchased list? That's odd. I'd contact Apple's support team and get them to fix it. However, if you bought them outside the Mac App Store - back when the suite was sold on a DVD - then I think you can get updates anyway. In either case, contact Apple.


Move Photos App and data to external drive to make room on main drive

All you have to do is move it.

Plug in your external drive
Copy (click and drag) your Photos library from your internal drive to your external drive
When complete, hold down the Option key and launch Photos.
In Photos, select Photos > Preferences, and in the General tab, click Use as System Photo Library.
Once you have confirmed that the library is there and is working, delete your old library off your internal drive