TP-Link USB Wi-Fi dongle won't detect any wireless networks

As Allan has mentioned in the comments, what you're trying to do (or perhaps how you're trying to approach this) is not possible.

Let's assume you're using Parallels (if not, it doesn't matter - this is just an example). And let's assume you're running Parallels on an iMac and you've installed Windows 10 on a virtual machine (again, an example - I know you're talking about an OS X guest).

Now, for the guest OS (regardless of what it is) to access the internet or a network, it needs to access that network via the host in some way. Typically you'll have options for using a Shared, Bridged or Host-only network. All of these still require the network (or adapter) to be running on the host machine.

Some tips:

If your goal is to connect to the internet from your guest machine, then you wouldn't use the Host-only (or equivalent) option.
If what you're trying to do is have your virtual machine treated as a stand-alone computer on the network and configured in the same way as a real one, then you'd use the Bridged network option. This allows your guest to access the network and internet using the adapter you've connected to the internet (assuming you've set this up properly on the host machine). Just to be clear, the adapter must be installed, recognised and running on the host machine!
If you're wanting your guest to share all the network connections available on the host machine (including the internet), then just choose the Shared Network (or equivalent) option.

In my case I always use the Shared Network option in my virtual machines. This allows the Network Address Translation (NAT) feature to work on the virtual machine and is usually the most reliable option (at least in my experience). The only exception to this is if I need a stand-alone virtual machine totally segregated from the internet, in which case I would use the Host-only option.


Which graphics cards are supported by a Late-2009 iMac 27inch?

According to iFixit.com, you can upgrade the video card to the same one that was in the last 2011 model:

  If you are using the iMac 27" late 2009 or 2010 model for games you
  might want to upgrade your graphics card to the 6 series of the last
  2011 model.

  For any other reason this upgrade is not recommended as the power gain
  is only noticeable in games.

Since you have to replace the card, it's definitely a good time to look at an upgrade:

ATI 4850 Card Approx $150 (used) to $400 (new)
ATI Radeon 6970 Card - Approx. $200 (used) to $800 (new)

The ATI Radeon 5xxx series from the 2010 should works as well, but they are very rare for some reason.  For the price and convenience, I would go with the 6xxx series if upgrading.

If I had the time to search and scour the web for a good deal, I would try to get the 6970 at a good price, but I don't think I would spend the extra money on upgrading a computer that was technically 7 years old with a graphics card that was 5 years old.  Especially so since the graphics upgrade wouldn't be noticeable unless I was gaming.  And if that was the case, I would probably have a console or a PC...but that's just me.

The iFixit link I provided has an excellent step by step on how to replace this card.


Some USB drives (typically the smaller, more portable sizes that use 2.5" hard drives) draw their power over USB (called bus-powered). Others (typically the larger 3.5" ones) have an external power adapter.

If you have one with an external adapter, you should be fine plugging it in to whichever USB port you want. Bus-powered ones plugged into a USB hub (like that in your keyboard) with other devices may not have enough power to start up, or they may start up, but the connection will occasionally drop (you'll see the drive disappear from your desktop). However it's safe to at least try plugging it in to your keyboard and see if it works. If the drive doesn't show up, try directly connecting it to a port on the back of your iMac.

Ideally you'll plug both hard drives in to the USB ports on the back of your iMac (every iMac since 2006 has at least 3, sometimes 4), which ensures maximum power and bandwidth. If you're short on ports, you can also get a standalone USB hub, which you could plug your lower-powered devices into, in order to free up ports for your drives.


How to create bootable installer USB for macOS in Windows?

I doubt you'll be able to do this. Even if you could find a URL to the OS installer app outside of the App Store, you can't run the installer in a Windows environment.

2008 Macs didn't have Internet Recovery. However, it's usualy for them to have a  Recovery Partition on the internal drive, which you can access by restarting while holding Command and R.

Did your friend sell you the Mac without an OS on the drive? I'd go back to him, if he has another Mac, and see if he can help.

You can still buy OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) from Apple on a DVD. It's about US$20.


Mid 2012 Macbook Air - upgrade RAM from 4Gb?

Nope, the RAM on the MacBook Air is soldered in so you won't be able to upgrade it without breaking the computer. You need to make sure the amount of RAM is enough when you buy the machine.

If you don't mind you can downgrade the OS (the lowest you can get on 2012 MBA is 10.7.4), that will probably reduce the amount of RAM needed.


How do I find the IP addresses assigned to devices connected via Internet Sharing on Snow Leopard?

Try pinging the broadcast address. This should work as long as the Pi got an IP from DHCP and responds to ping.

First, open up a terminal and run ifconfig en0. This should give you the info for your ethernet interface, if not, just use ifconfig and find it yourself. Make a note of the broadcast address. In my case, it's 192.168.2.255:

inet 192.168.2.99 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255

So I'll run the command ping 192.168.2.255. Do the same with your broadcast address, and hit CTRL-C to stop the ping once you have some results:

Miramar:~ gabriel$ ping 192.168.2.255
PING 192.168.2.255 (192.168.2.255): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.2.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.113 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=3.567 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.096 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=3.455 ms
^C

The broadcast is intended to go out to everything on the network. Everything that hears it should respond. In my case, I only see my IP and my router's - I guess it didn't bother passing the request on to my other machines, but you're directly connected to the Pi so you should see it there.


Try restarting the daemon process that processes audio by typing in Terminal:

sudo killall coreaudiod

This should reinitialize the audio and perhaps reload drivers.


AppleScript Numbers Retreiving Cell Value

Here is a simplified example, showing minimal code, to replicate what's shown in your OP, and as you can see in the Replies pane of Script Editor in the image further below there are no errors and both display dialog commands returned the expected value.

Numbers Document

Example AppleScript code:

set transferValue to 0

tell application "Numbers" to ¬
    tell table 1 of sheet 1 of document 1
        set transferValue to value of cell "B4"
        display dialog (get value of cell "B4")
        display dialog transferValue
    end tell

Script Editor showing the results of running the code:


Fake/randomize/delete geolocation in Safari for certain Websites

I believe Safari will do something like this by default (Mac OS X 10.7.3, Safari 5.2).
If you look in the Privacy pane of Safari’s preferences, there’s a panel:

Limit website access to location services:

Prompt for each website once each
Prompt for each website one time only
Deny without prompting

I believe the first option is the default, so when you visit a page that wants geolocation data in the default setting, you get a panel like this:

In the default setting, the page will throw up that prompt every time I reload it (so if I click “Allow”, then refresh the page, I get the same prompt).
If I select the second option from above (“prompt for each website one time only”), then Safari will throw up that panel once, then remember your choice forever.
If you want to learn more, Apple has published two support articles on the topic:

“About Location Services in OS X Lion and Safari 5.1 or later”, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5009, accessed 9 May 2012.
“About Location Services in Mac OS X v10.6 and Safari 5.0”, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4239, accessed 9 May 2012.

Hope this is useful.

Addendum: I don’t know of any way to have Safari supply fake location data.


OSX 10.7 Apache can't do file uploads to local server

You are having a directory permissions issue. You should ensure that the folder you are uploading to allows read/write/execute access for the web user (typically _www).

In practice, this means you should change the owner and/or group of the folder, or allow read/write/execute for all:

chmod 777 /path/to/uploads


Restrict a specific app to run only on MDM provisioned devices

Have you considered using Managed App Configuration to 'signal' to your app that it is running on a managed device?

Here's how you might implement:

Add a Managed App Configuration item to MAAS360. In it, configure a specific key with a 'secret' value. The key and value themselves don't matter, as long as they are unique and only you know them.
In your app, implement a check for the Managed App Configuration key in NSUserDefaults. Pull the key and check that it is the secret value that you configured in step #1. If not, the app throws an error / exits / whatever.

The Managed App Configuration will only be sent to the device and made available to the app if it has been installed as a Managed App from the MAAS360 App Store. If the app is installed unmanaged or from the Apple AppStore, it won't receive it. If the MAAS360 MDM profile is removed, the app can be removed with it (although this may be depend on your MDM settings).

Note this should only be considered a somewhat secure solution as it relies on security-by-obscurity and it would be fairly trivial for a determined hacker to reverse-engineer your IPA and extract the expected key/value pair.

More information on Managed App Configuration here:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/samplecode/sc2279/Introduction/Intro.html


Easily review large set of short sound files

In iTunes, if you uncheck the checkbox next to each song, you can play one at a time.


Replacing MacBook's SSD with a new one - how to clone?

If you can't connect the old and new drives to the Mac at the same time, follow this procedure:

Create a clone copy from the old drive onto the intermediary external USB drive, using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!.

Then swap the hardware over.

You will need to boot to the intermediary drive (or a fourth drive!), so that you are free to write all over the new internal. (So make sure you've installed an OS on the disk beforehand...!)

Use one of the apps mentioned above (the same one!) to copy the clone back to the blank new drive.

Generally, I would always advise having a spare drive with a bootable OS on it, 'just in case' - even if it's just a little 64 GB flash drive or something. (Oh, and of course, you'll also have another drive for your backup...!)


How to or Is that possible to stop mDNSResponder without disable System Integrity Protection?

You cannot unload mDNSResponder on a standard setup with SIP enabled. You will have to disable SIP from Recovery mode in order to be able to do so.

I would not recommend running with SIP permanently disabled, which would be necessary if you want to periodically unload/load mDNSResponder with launchctl. So if you really want to do this (relatively obscure) thing, then I suggest permanently unloading the launch daemon, and then manually starting/stopping mDNSResponder as needed. The latter can be done with SIP enabled.

A different way to approach the issue, assuming that network traffic is the cause of the wakes, could be to let mDNSResponder run all the time, and use the built-in firewall pf to block all traffic from mDNSResponder before going to sleep, and removing the block after it wakes.

Yet another could be to take a look at the IOPlatformFeatureDefaults and check if TCPKeepAliveDuringSleep is enabled, and try disabling that. It could fix your problem potentially. You can find more information on how to do that here:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/30869802#30869802


What's scroll performance of MacBook Retina on RubyMine, Eclipse and Netbeans IDEs?

I work for about a week with rMBP 15" and RubyMine, and I can't see any stuttering in any application, not just RubyMine, Sublime etc...


This response assumes you got the MacBook Pro 13-Inch "Core i5" 2.4 Late 2013, which was released the day before you asked this question. That device used the 2-Core i5-4258U Intel cpu.
Given Table 28 of the v1 datasheet for 4th Gen Intel Core Processors, it seems the lowest maximum allowed temperature of the i5-4xxx line is 66.4C, well above your highest listed cpu temperature of 50C.
Here is a screen shot of the table for convenience:


How can I disable Mac OS Lion asking if I really want to open a downloaded file?

I haven't tested this under Lion but

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO

and then restarting should totally disable this functionality.


You can change the speed of the Save/Open dialogs with Terminal. Enter this into Terminal to change the speed to the default:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime 0.2

Change the number at the end to speed up or slow down the animation. The following is practically instant:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime 0.001

This is not specific to the open/save dialog however, it reduces the time of all animations on the system that read this value.

How to turn off all animations on OS X


Does Yosemite support the old Mail view?

Yes it does, just open Mail.app, then open the Preferences window from the menu bar. Select the Viewing tab and then choose "Use Classic Layout". I've tested this with OS X Yosemite. Here is a screenshot:


How do I download a URL using Applescript

set the URLs to the text returned of (display dialog "Enter the URLs you would like to download. If you have more than one, separate them with commas please:" default answer "")
set the destination to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the folder you want to download the URLs to:")
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ","
repeat with this_URL in the URLs
    tell application "URL Access Scripting" to download this_URL to the destination with progress and unpacking
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

If you are using Lion, the above code won't work (Apple removed URL Access Scripting for some reason). Use the shell command curl instead, as shown below:

set the URLs to the text returned of (display dialog "Enter the URLs you would like to download. If you have more than one, separate them with commas please:" default answer "")
set the destination to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the folder you want to download the URLs to:")
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ","
repeat with this_URL in the URLs
      do shell script "curl -L " & this_URL & " -o " & POSIX path of the destination
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""


How can I successfully export video from iMovie to a video hosting service?

This is error -49, OpWrErr: file already open with write permission.

Turns out, this is related to Time Machine running at some point while the video is rendering.

It's possible to address this in one of two ways:

Disable MobileBackups.
Disable Time Machine entirely.

I chose the latter of the two and the export succeeded fully.


How to clear ALL items from Safari's reading list?

In more recent Safari versions where the button has gone away, just right-click or Control-click an item in the list. The context menu will show a Clear all… choice there.


What is Tanium spyware, what information does it collect, and how to disable it?

Mr. Google sends you to the Tanium website, where you will find Tanium is a systems management tool for enterprises. If you want to disable it, you'll probably need to contact the IT department that put it on the machine in the first place. The software is put on to enforce company policy and allow the IT department to monitor and control the laptop. An off-switch that is easy to activate tends to defeat the purpose of the software.


iMessage's from Macbook send as my email instead of phone #

You need to sign up to use you appleID for iMessage with same appleID that you use with your MacBook (@aol email) on the phone.

This can be done by going to settings -> messages -> send & receive; and tapping the option, which reads something to the effect of "use appleID for iMessage".

Once it logs in and activated, Apple will associate the phone number with your email address and it should show up on the Mac. If it doesn't, try logging out and back in from iMessage on the Mac.


Stable and free CAD for OS X 10.11, El Capitan?

If you only need to review a file, try using a free demonstration of:

AutoCAD
MacDraft
Vectorworks
SketchUp

For more CAD applications on the Mac, see Pure Mac's CAD section and AppleCAD's extensive list. Most will work with OS X 10.11.


Is deleting the yosemite install partition safe?

There is no uninstall per-se for any OS X installation.

You can just boot into your other OS to test that it boots before deleting your current OS partition. I can't speak to any changes that Yosemite has made to your Mac or the recovery partition, but I'd start with powering it off and then booting while holding the option key. From that boot manager, you can test that your Mavericks partition is working and then decide to delete the other partition(s) or if you need to fix things before getting to a point where you have no bootable volumes. In fact, you can't self delete a running partition so you'll likely have to boot to Mavericks (or Recovery HD) to delete a new install as you have done.


Recovery Mode is taking too long to erase my USB stick

Here's a trick that I've used before.  On the Disk Utility sidebar, if you select the storage device, not the partition, you have the option to completely erase the disk and rebuild the partition table.  It looks like this:

Compare this to what you see if you just try to erase and reformat the partition:

Notice that the "Scheme" option is missing.  If you use this option (which I believe is what you're trying to do), then it's trying to work with the existing partitioning and metadata, which has the potential to cause problems like what you're seeing.


Does service battery warning cause Macbook to slow itself down?

It could, possibly a little but probably doesn't slow the CPU down. You would see high kernel task in cases when the system is self regulating. Check Activity Monitor and perhaps consider backing up and wiping the Mac.

After a clean install, you might find things speedier.


How do I check an iOS device's battery health?

There are apps that you can use to assess battery health, but I recommend a Mac/PC app called iBackupBot. Tether your device (non-jailbroken works) to your computer, navigate to the lower left window pane, select the device, and click the link for ‘More Informations’. The top portion of the resulting window will look something like this:

From Check iPad iPhone battery charge cycle count without jailbreaking - iCopyBot:

  Connect your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to computer, then launch iBackupBot.
  Select your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch in Devices window, then click More Informations in right side window
  iBackupBot will pop up a window to show many informations about your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, include the battery charge cycle
  count, battery campacity and more

The best iOS app I have used to provide this info is BatteryLogger Plus. However, it requires a jailbreak. Non-JB apps seem to provide optimal operating information, but not cycle count information. This may be a function of App Store limitations, which is why BatteryLogger Plus is a Cydia store app instead.


iPhone only forwarding a few, random, notifications to watch.

My first thought would be that it's a connection issue. Have you noticed any other symptoms that could also be explained by that possibility?

Also, you could go through the process of unpairing and then restoring your Apple Watch to see if that resolves the issue. See: How to unpair and restore the Apple Watch.

Another option is to call Apple Support. They can actually run diagnostics on your Apple Watch remotely (you will need to have your iPhone with you as well in order for them to do this). It doesn't take long to do and will help identify if there are any hardware issues.


Run Automator workflow or shell script at application launch/shutdown

To keep tracking if an app is running you need to use a background loop. I don't know if there is another method but this will work, although it will eat a little bit of your memory. The loop will keep waiting until you open the application, and then it will wait for you to quit.

Save your workflow as an application and set it to run on startup. As your first action run an Applescript like this:

repeat until application "TextEdit" is running -- change for the app you want
    delay 1 -- it will check every one second for the app
end repeat
delay 3 -- you can change this value if the app will take some time to get ready
if application "TextEdit" is running then
    -- Your code for starting here
end if

you can set other actions after this or just use applescript.

At the end of the workflow place another action running Applescript:

repeat until application "TextEdit" is not running -- change here too
    delay 1 -- it will check every one second if the app is gone
end repeat
delay 3 -- you can change this value if the app will take some time to vanish
if application "TextEdit" is not running then
    -- Your code for quitting here
end if

Again you can set other actions below.

Let me know if you have specific goals and we can work to improve this workflow.


Can I prevent previews of images in Finder?

Yes you can disable the image previews on Finder.

Right-click on the folder and select "Show View Options."

A long window will appear. On the 5th group from the top, you should see a checkmark called "Show icon preview". Deselect it.

Once you are done, select the "Use as Defaults" bottom, which is located at the bottom of the window.


Restrict AirPlay to single AppleTV out of many AppleTVs on the same network

Yes, on the AppleTV you can set how AirPlay can be used by opening Settings and then AirPlay and then pressing "Allow Access".

On the guest room AppleTV, you would set it to for example "Anyone on the Same Network".

On the other AppleTVs, you would set it to "Only People Sharing this Home" or "Require Password".

This means that the guest cannot send an AirPlay stream to the other AppleTVs, unless ofcourse he gains access to the password, or you share your Home with the guest.


Opening any LaTeX-made PDF file with a hyperlink or internal link freezes entire computer

As of the latest OS X update (4/23/19), this problem has been resolved.


Will turning off and delete photos via icloud preferences on macbook delete my iphones photos?

No, the pictures will still be available on your iPhone if you click Turn off & Delete. The images will then be deleted from iCloud within 30 days.
No matter what, I would definitely make a backup of preferably both your iPhone and the Raw photos/videos e.g. to an external hard drive to ensure even if something goes wrong you don't lose your data.


The keyboard's plists of PressAndHold also can no longer be modified to add the new accents in El Capitan

Files in /System are protected by System Integrity Protection. If you wish to edit such files, you will need to disable this.

  To disable System Integrity Protection, you can do the following:

  Boot into the Recovery HD by restarting whilst holding ⌘R.
  Open Terminal (from the Utilities menu).
  Run the following command in Terminal:

csrutil disable

  Restart.

Source: Disable OS X El Capitan Rootless and permit write actions to System Integrity Protection locations

You can re-enable it once you've edited the file.


I have an iPod touch 6th generation but I can't sign in to Face Time or iMessage

I've had similar experiences with my iPod 6th Gen too. I suggest that you check your network, or WiFi and try again. If it is a network issue, then you might have to wait until it is resolved. I fixed mine, after figuring out that it was a faulty WiFi and not the iPod (the Wifi option was on) or the service. Hope this helps!


Are bluetooth and wifi required for location based reminders?

For location-based reminders, you only need to have the GPS turned on.  Keeping wifi on helps with locations because it allows the device to pin-point where you're located.  Wifi is not required, however.

Bluetooth is not required for location reminders unless you're using iBeacons.  If you're using iBeacons then bluetooth is required.


How to change the GPT partition type of an EFI partition?

I recreated your problem using a 4 GB flash drive. Below is the output from the command diskutil list /dev/disk1.

/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 GB     disk1
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Tims Boot SSD           3.7 GB     disk1s2

Below is the output from the command sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk1

    start     size  index  contents
        0        1         PMBR
        1        1         Pri GPT header
        2       32         Pri GPT table
       34        6
       40   409600      1  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
   409640  7220264      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  7629904   262150
  7892054       32         Sec GPT table
  7892086        1         Sec GPT header

The problem is the partition type GUID for the EFI partition is EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 and it should be C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B.

To correct this, I entered the following commands. In your case, you would substitute disk0 for disk1. You should enter these commands from the bootable USB backup clone of your boot drive.

diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1
sudo gpt remove -i 1 /dev/disk1
diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1
sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk1

Before entering type above commands, make sure your start and size entries are 40 and 409600, respectively. If not, make the appropriate corrections to the -b and -s options.


iOS MAC address randomization for personal hotspots

Since iOS 8, Apple has implemented MAC address randomization as a security measure against tracking.  It will will generate a random MAC address when

responding to a probe request (another node is scanning)
sending a probe request (the iDevice is scanning)

However, when joined, it will use it’s own real MAC address.

Basically, users can be tracked when the iPhone responds to a management packet that’s broadcast.  The device (not limited to iPhones/iPads) will respond back with a response packet that includes the MAC address of the device.  Companies will log this device when it responds and track your movements.  Apple, randomizes the MAC address so that what that entity logs is mostly useless.  It’s important to note that this isn’t limited to the hotspot function of the iOS device, but to all scanning requests.


How to attach video from Photos app to Gmail message

The Apple Photos app keeps all photos, thumbnails, application settings and other image/video meta-data in it's own package file located at ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary. As such, you won't find the original images or videos in a normal Spotlight search.

Native OSX applications can present themselves to Photos as a compatible extension. You can see these when right-clicking on a photo or video and selecting share.

Exporting the video from Photos

As gmail is not a native application with this capability (and a quick google search suggested no alternatives), you'll need to export the video and attach it manually.

Select the video in Photos and choose File -> Export

You can choose to export the video unmodified. However, as you'll be attaching the video to an email, you may want to choose Export 1 Video and select a smaller Movie Quality so the video will fit within gmail's attachment size limit of 25mb.


Contact Apple Developer
You should contact Apple Developer directly. Only they will be able to provide the definite answers you need.
Legal Requirements to Enroll
Apple publish a guide covering Before You Enroll and an Enrollment Support page. The support page mentions the following criteria:

Organizations enrolling in the Apple Developer Program will need:
Legal Entity Status
To enroll in an Apple Developer Program, your organization must be a legal entity so that it can enter into contracts with Apple. We do not accept DBAs, fictitious businesses, trade names, or branches. The legal entity name will appear as the “seller” for apps you distribute on the App Store and Mac App Store. Example: Seller: ABC Company, Inc.
A D-U-N-S Number
Your organization must have a D-U-N-S Number so that we can verify your organization’s identity and legal entity status. These unique nine-digit numbers are assigned by Dun & Bradstreet and are widely used as standard business identifiers. You can check to see if your organization already has a D-U-N-S Number and request one if necessary. They are free in most jurisdictions. Learn more
Legal Binding Authority
As the person enrolling your organization in the Apple Developer Program, you must have the legal authority to bind your organization to legal agreements. You must be the organization’s owner/founder, executive team member, senior project lead, or have legal authority granted to you by a senior employee.


I'm running iPadsOS 14.01 on my iPad Pro and Catalina on my iMac. Notes appears to work fine. I haven't tested everything but I did add a picture and it immediately showed up in Notes on my ipad.
I also haven't tested all the options in Photo, but pictures i take on my ipad appear on my iMac as well.
Factime appears to work fine as well.
Again I haven't tested all the options but all 3 seem to work on my iPad Pro and my iMac.


What's causing iTunes to randomly display a 4002 error?

I got rid of this pesky error by

turning iTunes Match off
quit iTunes
launch iTunes
turn iTunes Match on

The first time iTunes complained with error 5002 during Match startup, but then it worked.


how to move windows between desktop screens

Open up Mission Control.

It can be found in your Applications folder or you can activate it with a 3-finger swipe up. This gives you an overview of your open windows and desktops. You can the drag and drop windows between desktops.

more info: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4689


Can I make the Podcasts App play my unplayed podcasts in chronological order?

Unfortunately, no.

The combined Unplayed Episodes playlist has no settings and defaults to newest first.

As of version 1.01, you can only sort individual subscriptions by oldest first.

Even if you go through the trouble of changing each individual subscription preference to oldest first, Podcasts app will still keep the Unplayed Episodes playlist sorted to newest first.


The best way to do this is to create a chroot jail for the user. I'll clean up the answer here when I get home but I posted the solution on my blog.

https://thefragens.com/chrootd-sftp-on-mac-os-x-server/

Below are most of the instruction from the above post.

First, you should create the new user in Workgroup Admin and either assign them access privileges for SSH via Server Admin or assign them to a group that has SSH access privileges. Further discussion is below.

From the Terminal, start off right.

sudo cp /etc/sshd_config /etc/sshd_config.bkup

sudo chown root /
sudo chmod 755 /
sudo mkdir -p /chroot/user/scratchpad
sudo chown -R root /chroot
sudo chown user /chroot/user/scratchpad
sudo chmod -R 755 /chroot

Every additional new user added will then be something along the lines of the following.

sudo mkdir -p /chroot/user2/scratchpad
sudo chown root /chroot/user2
sudo chown user2 /chroot/user2/scratchpad
sudo chmod -R 755 /chroot/user2

Every folder it the path to the chroot jail must be owned by root. I don't think it matters what group the folder is in. What I did above was to

backup /etc/sshd_config
change ownership of the root directory to root
change permissions of the root directory to 755
create a chroot folder
create a user folder inside the chroot folder
create a folder inside the user folder that user can modify
set ownership and permissions

Now to edit /etc/sshd_config to the following.

#Subsystem  sftp    /usr/libexec/sftp-server
Subsystem   sftp    internal-sftp

Match User user
    X11Forwarding no
    AllowTcpForwarding no
    ForceCommand internal-sftp
    ChrootDirectory /chroot/user

This creates a chroot jail that when the user logs in will drop them into the folder /chroot/user, in that folder is a folder they can add things to /chroot/user/scratchpad.

If you want to create a Group in Workgroup Admin for 'Chroot Users' then add the new users that you created in Workgroup Admin to the Group you won't have to keep editing the /etc/sshd_config file. Instead of the above, add the following. Make sure you add the 'Chroot Users' group to the SSH access ACL in Server Admin.

Match Group chrootusers
    X11Forwarding no
    AllowTcpForwarding no
    ForceCommand internal-sftp
    ChrootDirectory /chroot/%u

To test whether the above is working, issue the following from the terminal.

$ sftp user@domain.com
Password:
sftp>


Can the Time Capsule serve an Apple TV without a powered on Mac?

Sorry this is not possible without an intermediate device or jailbreaking the AppleTV to run xbmc. Not sure what the policy on this site of advertising jailbreaking links so i'll leave this for you to search.

By default the appletv is looking for a shared itunes library either through the old network advertising method or more recently the HomeSharing method.

The Timecapsule can only present the files via AFP if the disk is formatted as HFS and SMB/CIFS if it's formatted as FAT.

By using xbmc you can mount smb network shares. ie. forum.firecore.com/topic/4116

Of course the other method but still requiring an intermediate ios device would be to download something like VLC and airplay the content. But this doesn't meet your requirements.


Intact iPhone's display broken, how to make backup from locked phone?

It depends on if the both the digitizer and the display (LCD) are broken or just the display. If it's just the display, then you should be able to interact with the iPhone, even though you won't be able to see it. In other words, treat the iPhone as if it were fully functional and swipe where Slide To Unlock should be and then type in your passcode by tapping where the buttons should be.

If it is both, it will need to be repaired. If it is an original iPhone, an iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, 6, or 6 Plus you will need to buy a digitizer assembly , not just the "glass" or the digitizer or LCD separately. If it is an iPhone 3G or 3GS, you can buy the parts separately. As far as parts go, don't buy a $5 digitizer assembly someone made in their garage in China, the best thing is to pay $25 or so and get a good one (not to say that bad parts don't exist at that price).


macOS: Unable to resize/move app window, title bar stuck underneath Menu bar

The easiest way I've found to bring a window back from under the Menu bar is to resize the window by pressing and holding the shift key and grabbing the left or right side edge of the window and dragging the mouse inwards towards the center of the window.

This resizes all four sides of the window at the same time, thus making it smaller and bringing the top of the window out from under the Menu bar.

You can then afterwards move and or resize the window as wanted on the screen.


Neighbor's Airport Extreme extending my wireless network?

After the neighbor and I spent some time going over our networks, we figured out the problem: we were both extending our home networks over the house power lines, and apparently the street power for our row houses doesn't provide much separation.

The HomePlug system, which is what both of our adapters conform to, allows you to set up encryption on the network traffic.  Not only does this keep things secure, it also keeps other networks from getting tangled.  However, both of us had gotten systems that default to no encryption and we'd blithely left them that way.  (Mine is a Netgear Powerline AV 500, my neighbor has some other manufacturer's)

As Thorbjørn suggested, the network graph that the Airport utility was showing was just a source of confusion.  Once we'd separated the HomePlug devices, everything went back to normal.


This problem has previously been reported and apparently hasn't been resolved. Apple's solution is to force quit Mail. If you are not especially loving Mail, and don't mind upgrading, Mozilla Thunderbird is an excellent replacement option. I use it on a daily basis, and it never has issues. Hope this helps!


How do I install QuickTime 10.1 on Snow Leopard?

Snow Leopard already comes with QuickTime X. And as for trying to port Lion's version to Snow Leopard, that can't be done. QuickTime is a core component and like any integral piece of software, requires many libraries and APIs only available on Lion. It's not as simple as trying to copy over the contents of an .app bundle.


Does anyone know an AppleScript to save Stickies note state?

Since I could not find one, I have created one myself:

https://github.com/lucasribeiroufrj/sortStickies


MacBook Pro 13 inch late 2011 flickering screen

You're graphic card is going to die. It's a known issue - More about that here:  https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Luckily there's a free  MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program until February. You can lookup your MacBook serial number if it's covered by warranty.


Assuming you use iCal (not specified in your question), then the Subscribed calender should appear under subscriptions.

UN-checking them will stop showing them.

If you trying to completely remove them then Right Click on the calender and Delete in the Pop up.

If above fails lets do the "brutal" method:

First make an iCal backup:  Click on each calendar on the left hand side of iCal one at a time highlighting it's name and then going to File Export > Export and saving the resulting calendar file to a logical location for safekeeping.
Go to iCal > Quit iCal
Remove the following to the trash and restart your computer:

  Home > Library > Caches > com.apple.ical

  Home > Library > Calendars > Calendar Cache, Cache, Cache 1, 2, 3,
  etc. (Do not remove Sync Cache or Theme Cache if present)

Launch iCal and test.

If the issue still persists at this point:

Remove the following to the trash and restart your computer:

  Home > Library > Caches > com.apple.ical

  Home > Library > Calendars > Calendar Cache, Cache, Cache 1, 2, 3,
  etc. (Do not remove Sync Cache or Theme Cache if present)

  Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.ical (There may be more than
  one of these. Remove them all.)

---NOTE: Removing these files may remove any shared (CalDAV) calendars you may have access to. You will have to re-add those calendars to iCal > Preferences > Accounts.


WhatsApp web option not displayed in WhatsApp iPhone

It seems that you have an old iOS version on your iPhone. In order to use WhatsApp Web, you should have at least iOS 8.1 installed on your iPhone. (https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/web/28080003)

In order to update your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Software Update > Install Update.


Try the following command:

chown $(id -u -n) ~/.bash_profile

Using the chown command in that way, you can be sure that is using your username (id -u -n).

Additionally, as @user3439894 says, if you get permission errors with previous command, your should add sudo before the command to execute the command as root:

sudo chown $(id -u -n) ~/.bash_profile

From id man page:

  id - print real and effective user and group IDs

  -n, --name: print a name instead of a number
  -u, --user: print only the effective user ID

From chown man page (suggested by @fd0):

  For obvious security reasons, the ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user.


Multithreaded compression in xz on macos

looks like it was just my filesize was too small (~160mb), when using the flag -9 anyway. It was explained to me like this:

"If you use -9, it means it uses 64 MiB LZMA2 dictionary and the default block size is 3 * dict_size = 192 MiB, a new thread is started for every 192 MiB of input."

So at -9 I would need a filesize of 1344+ MB to get all 8 cores active, each working on a >192MB block of data


'Macintosh HD' not bootable anymore after installing Yosemite on a second disk

Open up Terminal.app, in /Applications/Utilities, and enter the following:

diskutil list

It should show both of your drives and give you information about partitions. You may also want to try:

diskutil cs list

On Yosemite, some of the volumes are defaulting to Core Storage, which can span multiple drives. I'm not saying you did this, in fact I rather doubt, or at least hope you didn't, was inadvertently convert both drives to a single, huge volume that's really two drives.

I use Scannerz and it comes with another drive management tool called Phoenix. In their release notes for the Yosemite version they said that some systems earlier than Mavericks may not fully be able to see or manipulate files on a Yosemite volume, but a Yosemite volume is supposed to see and be able to manipulate. In other words, if you boot from, say Mountain Lion, you may not be able to do what you want to on a Yosemite volume. I know this is true for stuff in the low level system directories, but I'm not sure it effects user volumes. Maybe they'll put something about this on their web site, but then again, maybe not. I'm not convinced this isn't a Yosemite bug of some sort.

If it looks like your volume is intact using diskutil, you might want to restart the system, and immediately hold down the alt key and keep holding it down. A list of bootable volumes should show up and with luck you should then be able to select it and boot from it. Be careful though trying to copy some stuff to the Yosemite volume because like I said the preceding paragraph, it may not work.


Is it safe to use frayed MagSafe with outer insulation part is broken

Will it damage the logic board?

No.  The shielding is also the ground conductor.  So, you need it for two reasons.  If you cut it, you’ll be breaking the MacBook’s connection to ground which of course will affect it’s ability to function.  It’s like disconnecting the negative battery terminal from your car or any other battery power source - it will fail to function.

Will the "cracked" wire of a MacBook charger eletrocute me

It’s not “dangerous” to you, but if you were to somehow send voltage down this line you could damage your charger and/or Mac.  However, those vintage Mac laptops had a separate (replaceable) DC-in board that would take the brunt of any surge.  If there was damage, it would be contained there.


How do I keep Numbers from mangling numbers when importing a CSV?

If a field in a CSV file begins with an apostrophe ('), both Excel and Numbers will treat the field as text, and not render it with any numerical formatting.

Your CSV files appear to try to force text rendering through enclosing number fields in double quotes, but Numbers and Excel don't seem to take the hint that double quote numbers should be treated as strings. The trick seems to be to modify the CSV files so they use the "starts with a single apostrophe" trick rather than the "contained in double quotes" trick for numeric fields, but keep the double quotes for text fields involving punctuation (including commas, quotation marks, line breaks, etc).

To process your CSV files so they do this, you can create an Automator application.

In Automator, create a new Application.

It will have a single action: Run Shell Script (passing input as arguments). Here is the script:

for f in "$@"
do
    perl -pi -e "s/\"\"([0-9A-Za-z: \.\-+]+)\"/'\1/g" "$f"
done

Save the resulting application on your Desktop. Drop any CSV files you want to use in Numbers on the application icon, and they will be converted so Numbers should keep the numbers in the fields as literal numbers, and not format them or throw away information.

Back up your data before trying this; it is possible that a particularly oddly constructed string in a record field could throw off the results here.


When transitioning from a beta to a release version of the OS, you won’t be able to do it via Software Update.  Instead, open App Store and install the release version from there.


So long as it's an unlocked iPhone, you can use any SIM card to activate the unit. It doesn't actually have to have a plan attached to it. I'm not aware of any carrier on the world that only supplies contracts and foregoes monthly plans, so there should be no issue with your carrier of choice. Contacting Verizon is a wise idea with respect to their policies, as without further details your question is pretty broad.


MacPorts 2.0.3 uninstalling package gives error "this entry does not own the given file"

Re install the required package then restart the computer and then run the uninstall.

Get into an elevated shell by using sudo -su firstly each time.


After locking a Mac with iCloud, a normal reboot (no Option or other modifier keys) should take you to an unlock screen. Enter the PIN there, and it should fully unlock the Mac (unlike entering the PIN after holding Option, which just temporarily bypasses the lock). Is this now working on your Mac?


Clean install macOS keeps restarting and returning to macOS Utilities

For the benefit of anyone having this issue in the future. The problem was the hard drive cable.  I've replaced it and now everything is working properly.


Applications assume Home folder to be /home/{user}

Log in to a different user account, then open System Preferences → Users & Groups.
Unlock the pane and right-click your user account in the list, then click Advanced Options.
Make sure the Home Directory listed is correct and change it if necessary, then reboot.


On a MacBook with macOS Catalina, how do I unlock the Keyboard-en.plist file?

By default the system drive is mounted read-only in Catalina. You'll need to remount it as writable in order to edit the file.

You can do that by opening the Terminal in Recovery Mode (after disabling SIP) and then running the following command:

sudo mount -uw /

Note that after a reboot, the system drive will be back to its previous read-only mode.


Applescript to click menu item in Lightroom 5

Found this which did the trick.

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5"
set frontmost to true
tell menu bar 1
    tell menu bar item "Photo"
        tell menu "Photo"
            tell menu item "Set Flag"
                tell menu "Set Flag"
                    click menu item "Rejected"
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell
end tell


Try running this command in Terminal:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server.plist SigningRequired -bool false


iTunes 12: How Do I Fix a Problem with a Podcast That iTunes Quit Downloading Episodes For?

Based on our troubleshooting in the Comments, the problem appears to be from the podcast provider's side.

Using two different podcast players in iOS, the last available episode for download was several weeks ago.  The latest version is not yet available.

By going directly to the podcast owner's site, the episode is playable directly from there.  It will not download to the podcast player, however. The OP will contact the podcast creator for further assistance.


Could a 'damaged' TimeMachine backup still be of any use?

The nature of Time Machine is such that it isn't an archival backup, as files deleted from the source drive will eventually disappear from the Time Machine backup set.1 If you have no other backup however, it might come in handy.

If the sparsebundle can be repaired, you'd be able to extract files from it. Following the instructions in the first green box of http://pondini.org/TM/A5b.html might let you access the backup set.

If you do gain access to it, you can use the Time Machine interface2 to remove all backups of folders you don't care about, but it might be tricky to cause the sparsebundle to take up less disk space.3

1 See the text starting with "Time Machine keeps" in https://support.apple.com/HT201250
2 "Remove a backed-up item from your backup disk" - https://support.apple.com/kb/PH11241
3 "Changing the size {…} of a sparse bundle" - http://pondini.org/TM/A8.html


I use an app called Sound Control, which allows you to configure sound settings in all sorts of ways, including individually for each app.
I use it to provide software volume for my Aggregate Output device, which is a Dell Soundbar and my Thunderbolt Display together as one.
It may work for your setup.


Is there any program to delete cache files automatically?

For so many questions like this, I feel folks are answering without asking what the poster's intention is.

Why do you want to delete the cache files automatically? It's generally a bad idea to do so.

I've seen so many questions posted where folks want to delete some system application or cache or configuration file or whatever. This just leads to the point where the OS must be reinstalled or the user complains that the machine is unstable/unreliable and someone must spend hours, days or months trying to diagnose something that never should have been tampered with.

macOS, in particular, is NOT Windows. You do NOT need to purge caches, defragment or whatever. If you're doing that, especially if you're doing that on a regular basis, there's a deeper problem.

I'm writing this response on a MacBook Pro that has not had any explicit maintenance performed since El Capitan; I'm now running the latest Mojave having upgraded dozens of times. I do software development, generally have a ton of Docker containers and Parallels VM's going and do a lot of video editing with FCP X/Motion. I have had extremely few problems and zero crashes across several years of use. Performance is wonderful.

Part of this is because I don't wake up in the morning and, on a whim, decide to delete my cache files, manually edit my partition table or delete key services like Safari.

As I write this response, I see posts about things like "Firefox freezes when I delete cache files and cookies" and "How do I restore an accidentally deleted key chain". Call me stupid AF, but why on Earth are you tempting fate?

All software makes many assumptions about its underpinnings. Nobody can write code that accounts for every possibility. I know I'm deep in rant territory, but you shouldn't be deleting cache files unless you're intimately familiar every line of code that uses those cache files, directly or indirectly. I assure you that neither Apple nor Microsoft have tested that their software functions correctly if some or all of the system cache files disappear...in fact, having an inconsistent set of cache files because you deleted some of them but didn't even know about all of them is precisely how you get into trouble.

And if you still feel the need to muck around under the hood, PLEASE back up religiously. One day you're going to goof and do a "sudo rm -rf /" or create some inconsistency that can't easily be fixed.

Just consider...Humpty Dumpty was pushed...


Can I use a Early 2011 MacBook Pro 13" charger with my Late 2013 MacBook Pro 13" with the MagSafe Adapter?

Simple answer-- yes you can! there should be no any problems.


On the US keyboard it is in the top left corner to the left of the 1.

You'll see it just under the tilde sign (~) in the top left of the keyboard.


Downgrading (user homes) to macOS Sierra

It will be very difficult to isolate the issue to individual preference files, since there could be several subtle issues.

Better to take the opposite approach - start with no preferences and only copy the old preferences over one by one as you come across them. That is, as you discover that you have a preference that needs updating, find the single preference file that will give you that preference, and restore it. Re-test and only proceed if things are still stable. Will be a drawn out process, but necessarily so I think. When you can no longer add individual preferences, consider the restoration finished and many set the remaining preferences.

This complex relationship between the OS, Applications and user files is why Apple created Migration Assistant. It might not be help here but it is useful to know just how intricate the process is of "migrating" from one OS version to another.


How to keep Night Shift™ enabled indefinitely on macOS 10.12.5+? Settings only have "turn on until tomorrow"

In the preferences (System Preferences > Display > Night Shift) do the following:

set 'Schedule' to Custom
set 'From:' to 00:00
set 'to:' to 23:59
adjust the Color Temperature as desired

Now night shift will be enabled all the time. Disable it using the Notification Center or using the 'Manual' toggle in the preferences pane.


It sounds like you probably activated the "Application Windows" feature of Mission Control (previously Exposé) in an app that didn't have any windows open.

It looks like this if you have no windows in that app open:

The list of files are recently opened files in that application (in this case, TextEdit).

How you opened it depends on your particular setup. You can set a keyboard shortcut for it in System Preferences under Mission Control, but I think there are also gestures. I don't have a Magic Mouse or Trackpad with gesture support handy, so I can't confirm exactly what may have activated it for you. Look through the Mouse panel in System Preferences for any reference to Exposé or "Show Application Windows" or similar for an idea of what exactly activated it.


How to make a table editable in a keynote template?

No.

The only thing you can do is to add an object placeholder to the master so that the table gets inserted with the desired position/dimensions.

Plus a table style with the desired color scheme. If you then delete all the default table styles, your custom table style gets applied when inserting the table into the slide.


How can I restart the text to speech feature?

have you tried entering these two commands in terminal?

killall com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd
killall SpeechSynthesisServer

You can do that in activity monitor, I just like terminal better.
Then wait a bit and try the shortcut again.
If that doesn't work, try to change your shortcut to something else and then change it back.
Also, maybe corrupted plist file?


Can I safely delete the Classic System folder when running Lion?

Considering the Classic environment was phased out versions ago, I think it would be completely safe to delete a folder belonging to the classic environment.


What's a good Picasa upload app for iPhone?

I use Web Albums and it works well. It's currently $2.99 on the US store.


Installing ffmpeg through homebrew: dyld library not loaded

I can't offer anything to help you w/ Homebrew. I gave it up some time ago due to various issues like this. I can recommend MacPorts as a package manager for macOS.
Once you have MacPorts installed, you should be able to install a functional copy of ffmpeg. I installed ffmpeg on my macOS Catalina system some time ago, and use it regularly without a hitch. Following is the port command I used:
% sudo port install ffmpeg +nonfree

nonfree was one of the "variants" available for ffmpeg; variants are explained here on the MacPorts site


Can I use MacBook Pro's 61W power adapter to charge my iPhone 12

Yes you can. Your iPhone will draw the appropriate amount of power from the MacBook USB-C charger.
For more information, such as which iPhone models and which Apple chargers can be used, refer to Fast charge your iPhone on Apple's website.


iTerm2 error notification ‘Couldn't log to 2020…’

You've got an invalid or inaccessible log path.

From iTerm Preferences → Profiles → your profile → Session, disable ‘Automatically log session input to files in’ or set the path correctly using the Change button.

https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/issues/8672#note_284043217


Clearly a SCAM.

Safari has nothing to do with that, that is a website with the info and it was opened by the adult website.

Viruses usually do not announce themselves to you.

Try opening new tab and search for Google. No virus there!

Just delete the website in question, you do not have a virus.


Looking for a video player with capability to maintain a long list of Recent Items

It Appears that Quicktime and VLC will have a default of ten (10) items in their 'Open recent' menu.

This can be over ridden by going to the 'General' system preferences and changing the 'Recent items'  to either:

none
5
10
15
20
30
50

You could also just add your videos Media Library in VLC and remove an item once you have watched it.


Does the new Airpod Max support lossless audio on wireless?

It does not. Apple's current implementation of the bluetooth 5.0 specification does not allow for support of any lossless codec. And in any case the real world  performance of the bluetooth chipset can not sustain 2 Mbps beyond very short ranges so you may as well use a long cable to connect it.


Why does my iPhone create contacts with a random photo?

Have you tried wiping the device and starting with this - it's usually corruption in the address book database - even on devices that haven't been jailbroken. You might have luck just starting new with that before a total restore.


How can I re-enable the (display) sleep shortcut on macOS Sierra?

Things definitely have changed:

⌥⌘⏏ (Cmd-Option-Eject) to put your machine to sleep no longer works in Sierra.

Supposedly, ⌃⏏ (Ctrl-Eject) has taken its place, but it doesn't work on my late-2012 iMac.

At least according to the documentation, that is the only change - compare below.

Sadly, you cannot bring the old shortcut back (at all?), because defining keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts doesn't allow you define shortcuts involving ⏏ (Eject), and, in fact, even shortcuts that are permissible do not seem to put the machine to sleep (flickers briefly, but stays awake).

Sleep-related shortcuts as of macOS Sierra:

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236

Sleep-related shortcuts as of OS X El Capitan:

Source (link effectively dead, redirects to the Sierra page): http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343


How can I get Automator to mount a network volume?

I build automator workflows like this all the time. You only need two actions, and they're both Files & Folders actions.

1) Get Specified Servers. This will let you build a list of shares to connect to. If you can map it from Finder -> Go -> Connect to server, you can use this.

2) Connect to Servers. This will connect to any servers passed to it (either from get specified servers or from ask for servers).


Move Time Machine backup from local disk to Airport Extreme disk and share with others

I have run TM backups both locally and across the network.

Moving backups:

Just moving the disk won't work.  If you don't need to use the old backups, it's probably worth just biting the bullet and waiting for it to complete a new backup (if you connect an ethernet cable on a gigabit network it's faster (~90MB/s) than connecting the drive via USB (~30MB/s)).

If you need to keep the old backups, you could try creating a sparsebundle with disk utility, mounting it, and then copying the backup files directly onto it.  This method would be slower than creating a new backup from scratch over gigabit though, so if you don't need the old backups, it doesn't buy you anything.

Multiple machines:

Yes, you can backup multiple machines to the same Time Machine disk


Extract iCloud Password from iTunes backup

Your iCloud password is not preserved within an iTunes backup, unless you stashed it somewhere intentionally.

If you've forgotten your iCloud password, your only real option is to go through the password recovery procedure on iforgot.apple.com


Where to the workflow files are copied?

I don't understand this question.

  Is this folder action stored in a system so that it's working even after my reboot?

By default, folder actions are stored in the /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts folder.


How to disable animation on opening Notification Centre in macOS?

Absolutely, if you are after a snappier mac by saving those precious seconds here and there, I believe the best option is to go into the System Preferences and turning on Reduce Motion in the Accessibility tab.

Turning on Reduced Motion

This makes the Notification Centre slide-in animation instant. I hope that helps you out, it really makes a difference. Definitely, let me know how you get on.


Notes in macOS High Sierra includes a Monospaced format.

In addition to the existing format types such as Title, Heading and Body, there is a new format named ‘Monospaced’. This format is a variation of the Body format but with a monospaced font family.

macOS High Sierra Hidden Features, Notes.app


Is there a way to rename "Remaining" to "Apple Juice Remaining"?

You want to change line 92 of the xml version of  /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings:

Make a copy of the strings file:

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/\
English.lproj/Localizable.strings ~/Desktop

Convert the binary strings file to xml:

plutil -convert xml1 ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings

Edit line 92 (Yosemite) of the file now on the desktop with your favourite text editor:

Convert the xml strings file back to binary:

plutil -convert binary1 ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings

Back up your existing file! If you mess up, this will let you reverse your changes by removing -bak from the file name.

sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/\
English.lproj/Localizable.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/\
Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings-bak

Overwrite the old file with the new:

sudo mv ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/\
Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/

Result:


iTunes home sharing videos with iOS 10.2 TV app

The TV app will show all iTunes libraries that are shared under the same Home Sharing account right on the "front page"

When you start the app, you should be on the "Library" tab (check tab at bottom, you have "Library", "Watch Now", "Store" and "Search").

Your home sharing libraries will be listed on the Library page, you have  "TV Shows", "Movies" and then the name of your library, with the name you picked in iTunes' General Preferences, Library Name. If you have more than one iTunes instance running on your network, and they're all shared on the same account, they will all show up there.


Is there an equivalent to Microsoft LAPS for MacOS?

Not tested, but macOSLAPS looks mature and closely matches the feature set.


Can a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air run Windows 7 perfectly -- fully 100% with all software and drivers?

Since it's an intel chipset on the logic boards and Apple is on the hook officially to provide driver support for Windows 7 - the only possible drawback might be the keyboard layout and Thunderbolt. It's quite new, so I don't have any real great feeling for how well that works under Windows 7.

Even in Mac OS X - thunderbolt doesn't have any direct networking support - just video, storage and target mode at present. Intel and Apple are working together on Thunderbolt and the active cables mean that even if PC decide to implement an optical interface rather than copper - you might not be left out if you need a PC Thunderbolt accessory 6 or 9 months down the road. My crystal ball works so poorly for Apple - I'd hate to try to guess what PC vendors are going to do even if they aren't as notoriously secretive as Apple.

I would have no hesitation to run Windows 7 in emulation - the virtualization is so robust now - you can choose to have unfiltered net access, share an IP, virtualize a router. You can always fall back to BootCamp if needed, but I wouldn't worry about that unless you have specific credible advice from someone that knows your exact workload and style of how much control you need. With minimal learning, you should have VMware or Parallels doing exactly what you desire.


How can I have TV shows I'm not currently watching not appear on the iPad?

In the Settings application on your iPad go to the iTunes & App Store settings and turn the SHOW ALL Videos setting to Off. This show you only downloaded content, not all your purchased and iTunes Match content, in the Video app.


Recovery HD present but can't boot from it

Recovery HD still has to download OS X from the Internet. Your only hope of not downloading at all is if you have access to some device, either yours or a friend, that already has the OS X installer app. If you do, you should make an 8GB partition on your HD named Untitled and follow this procedure to make it a version of Recovery HD that has the OS saved locally.

If you don't have any way to get the OS X installer, the only other thing you could do is wipe your hard drive and restore from a Time Machine backup, using Internet Recovery to facilitate the process.


How to remove unsupported format podcasts from iTunes download queue on iPad/iPhone

In the iTunes 'Downloads' section, select and delete any downloads. Quit iTunes.

Look in your iTunes folder, where the audio files get stored. For example ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Media/. Here, you should find a 'Downloads' folder. Inside it, 'Podcasts' (assuming that the file you're downloading has the media type of podcast).

Inside here should be a folder with the name of the podcast subscription with '.tmp' appended. Inside here should be the partial file that you've downloaded. Trash the folder and its contents.

Restart iTunes. Note that iTunes can be a bit sticky when it comes to automatic downloads (e.g. I am asked to log in twice when launching iTunes). The actions above should result in there not being a 'Downloads' on the sidebar. If for some reason, there still is, select and delete the items there again.


Do monitors and other peripherals - with their own power source - drain power from MacBook when plugged in via USB-C?

This is from both experience and speculation.

My MacBook Pro needs to be connected to power while the lid is shut in order to project the screen onto an external monitor. I imagine this is due to power limitations from the battery, as well as the need for greater power draw from the monitors.

If the lid is open, however, you can keep the power unplugged while still using monitors. This would certainly drain the battery faster, as the device now needs to project the display to one or more external monitors.


If you are using Chrome, the Rearrange Tabs extension works perfectly.

For Safari, you can setup an Automator service to run this Applescript and bind it to a key combination:

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    tell front window
        move current tab to before first tab
        -- for some reason it just creates a new tab with the same URL,
        -- so we need to do this:
        close current tab
        set current tab to tab 1
    end tell
end tell

To set up an Automator service and assign a keyboard shortcut to it:

Edit: On macOS Mojave in Automator, services might be named "Quick Action" or "Contextual Workflow".

Open Automator and choose "New Document"
Select service as the type of document
At the top, set it to "Sevice receives no input in Safari" like this:

Search for and drag in a "Run Applescript" action
Replace the (* Your script goes here *) text with the code from earlier
Test the script to make sure it works with the Run button
Save the service with whatever name you want
Close Automator and now go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services
Find the service that you just created(it should be in the "General" section) and use the "Add Shortcut" button to add a keyboard shortcut for it.

Now you should be able to use the keyboard shortcut.

Here's a GIF of it in action:

Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent the reloading of the tab when moving it. It is impossible to get the same effect as actually dragging the tab to move it.


Find which editor is being used by Terminal when `info` is run

What you started not an editor but the program info. You can press ? to learn about the key shortcuts available. As info is the GNU documentation tool of choice it's probably no surprise that these key shortcuts closely resemble the ones used by emacs proper.


connect speaker and guitar to macbook with only one 3.5 mm jack

Try this from Griffin Technology.  I've never used it myself.


Replacing shortcuts that use the eject key on MacBook Air lacking such a physical key?

The most comprehensive package for remapping the keyboard is KeyRemap4MacBook.

It's a bit complex, but will allow you to do almost anything.


How can I delete offensive emojis on my iPhone keyboard

Unfortunately, there is no way to edit the Apple Emoji keyboard.  You can, however, turn it off, by following the instructions posted at the following question:
How can I remove Emoji keyboard from iOS8?

Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards. You'll see English and Emoji.
On the top right corner is the word Edit. Press Edit, and then tap the red button followed by Delete to remove the Emoji keyboard.

Additionally, you may be able to find a 3rd-party Emoji keyboard on the app store that is customizable.


Stop Safari from appending ".download" to not fully downloaded files

I don't know of a way to do it, and if I did, I would not recommend this at all. First, because trying to work with partially-downloaded files is a good way to get yourself into trouble. Depending on how the programs you want to use on the file work, they may or may not cope with having the file modified as they're trying to use it. A media player, for example, might check the file's integrity before playing it, and refuse to play a damaged file. Or it might note the file's length (when it opens it) and assume that's the length it'll always have. Or it might read the entire file into memory (as it exists when opened) and then play that without going back to see if it's gotten longer. Or... lots of things might go wrong.

The other problem is that that .download file is not actually the partially-downloaded file. It's a Finder package: a folder with hidden contents that the Finder treats as a regular file. You can see its contents by Control-clicking (or right-clicking) on the .download file, and choosing Show Package Contents from the shortcut menu. Inside it, you'll see an Info.plist file with information about the download (you can select it and press Command-Y to see the info in XML format). You'll also see the partially-downloaded file, under its regular name.

If you really want to do something with the partially-downloaded file, that file inside the .download package is what you want, and it's already going to have the correct name. But again, I don't recommend this for the reasons in the first paragraph.


Update screwing with encrypted disk or keep using windows boot?

UPDATED ANSWER:

I noticed safe boot (hold shift) WAS working fine with CPU available but limited by the fact it doesnt load everything.

I then did Justin Silvers method of removing older kexts.
Particularly previous to that i was only managing kexts under /Library and ~/Library but now i was also removing older ones from /System/Library.

One of the kexts i removed was PACEsupport and i also moved other Mbox2 related old kexts. These were from pre 2015.

But this didnt fix things immediately and not even after restart, but it did force the cache to rebuild itself from scratch as i watch it do so in verbose boot mode (cmd+v).

So i went out to buy a replacement cord as i had given up on fixing the O.S and was going to try to get my old external HD to restore an old snapshot if possible, then suddenly out of the blue it released CPU resources again & now kernel is processing fine again & now i just need to find the correct way to recognise my old external HD.

At the time it released resources it seemed to be processing a lot of QuickLookSatellite processes & i took a snapshot here.
As you can see the kernel was using all the CPU (at times up to 1300% or more) and here it falls off the cliff back to 18% seemingly randomly but i think it just finally processed all the kext cache again and maybe some of the removed kexts were no longer preventing it. But i think there were several kexts that were problematic here particularly originally the Commander uninstall kext process was DDoSing the kernel CPU.

UPDATE:

indeed the problem returned.
however i was able to fix it by doing the below.

After the disk decryption process finished, i still couldn't reinstall the O.S through recovery boot, because of connection to apple server problems, even after fixing datetime synchronisation problems.

I was however able to get my system functioning again by removing some startup items and daemons that i think were flooding my system CPU usage. I found these via inspecting the console (in utility folder) and by using EtreCheck tool.

Effectively a couple of older kexts were continually polling my O.S kernel (particularly one called Commander, associated with an old WIFI dongle uninstall process and another one associate with an old program called NoSleep that would prevent the O.S from sleeping but was designed for an older O.S).

These mustve been in conflict with kernel changes in high sierra + update. So they were effectively DDOSing my O.S and consequently kernel CPU was flooded. Stopping these and removing a bunch of unneeded kexts seems to have fixed the problem into a functional O.S again. Im unsure if it was only those two kexts or other removed kexts that ultimately fixed the problem, but at least this gives you an idea of what to do if you have the same problem.

Resources:

osxdaily.com/2011/-3/08/remove-an-agent-from-launchd

etrecheck.com

Result:
My bootup time became faster but seemingly not yet back to pre-problem speed.
However, the O.S is now completely functional again, with idle CPU kernal usage down to minimal and user CPU usage available again.

Originally accepted answer:

  strangely enough, i used my windows boot for a few days, and even did
  a windows update, then i tried to boot Mac again and its working
  mostly fine now, it still took a bit slower to boot (but not 20
  minutes like it was doing before), and the decrypting is not even
  finished now. So apart from not using the volume for a few days, i
  have no idea why it is now working seemingly well again. Id suggest if
  you have a similar problem to look at the links i've posted in the
  question details. Perhaps just accessing the boot sector with Windows
  helped fix up some files or perhaps it was the last First Aid i was
  manage to do which didnt immediately fix it but mayve fixed it but
  took a few boots for me to realise. its also possible the problem is
  not fully fixed and will return but im offering this as the answer for
  now.


This sounds like an SMC issue to me. SMC is the System Management Controller chip that controls power-centric pieces of the Mac's hardware, such as power, sleep functions, fans, etc. The exact process varies by model of Intel Mac, so I've included the link below.

Resetting the System Management Controller


What is the function of "Last import" in Address Book?

Last Import is a group that is expected to contain contacts acquired when you use the File > Import menu item. Since you modified existing contacts on your iPhone, your MBP does not see these contacts as imported, just modified.

Your smart group creation sounds correct. It will locate any contact that has been modified by you or by another program, since the smart group rule is acting on the last modification date property of the person records. For example, if you use your iPhone to add a phone number to an existing contact, that contact has been modified indirectly (outside of the Contacts apps on OS X or iOS). Or if you send an email to a person, Mail might modify the record to change how the name or email address is displayed. Or when your contacts are synced through iCloud, there may be other non-visible changes to your contacts that force an update to the last modification date. So, unfortunately, a card was updated after (date) smart group does not strictly show you contacts that you edited directly, but instead it shows all modified contacts.

Having said all that, I don't have a better solution for you. I think you will need to use the card was updated after (date) smart group rule, and scan through that list of contacts to find the contacts of interest.


This answer by Matthieu Riegler suggests the following when dealing with a Trash that won't empty (this does not, however, address WHAT the files are or whether they are malicious):

When you have problems to empty the trash, rm -rf ~/.Trash/* in the terminal does the job for you.

You have to keep in mind that there might be multiple .Trash directories.
For example on a USB stick or a external Drive, OSX will create another .Trash at the root of the drive. So you might need to use  rm -rf /Volumes/DriveName/.Trash.*


How do I change askForPasswordDelay from the command line? dwrite alone doesn't work

I'm using a little app, called Lock me Now! which is completely free.
You can set your own lock-command, and it will lock instantly asking for a password.


This is possible.

Move the sms.db and Attachments from your phone. They are located at /var/mobile/Library/SMS/ or you can extract them from a backup made by iTunes.

On your Mac, move the contents of ~/Library/Messages to a backup location.

Copy the sms.db and Attachments folder to ~/Library/Messages

Using an SQLite browser such as DB Browser open the sms.db file and execute the following to change location of attachments:

UPDATE attachment
SET filename = replace(filename, '/Library/SMS/Attachments/', '/Library/Messages/Attachments/')
WHERE filename LIKE '%/Library/SMS/Attachments/%';

Rename sms.db to chat.db

Then you should delete the folder ~/Library/containers/com.apple.iChat and restart. You are now done.

Source: https://denbeke.be/blog/mac/exporting-messages-and-attachments-from-iphone-to-mac/


How do I hide Quicktime Player's controls when the video is paused?

In case no solution for Quicktime is found, here is a solution for movie snapshots using the VLC Media Player.

In the preferences disable Add controls to the video window and click Save. Now you can take a snapshot as explained in my other answer.


Control music playing on iPhone from Computer

I haven't tried out this application, but I guess for $0.99 it's worth a shot?

Bowtie


MacBook Air 13 (mid 2012) shuts down at 50% battery without warning, SMC chip broken?

Verify your Battery information in Applications > Utility > System Information > Power and report the result in your post.

Example:

Charge Information:
  Charge Remaining (mAh):   6206
  Fully Charged:    No
  Charging: Yes
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   6451
  Health Information:
  Cycle Count:  208
  Condition:    Normal
  Battery Installed:    Yes
  Amperage (mA):    879
  Voltage (mV): 8548

The Charge Remaining (mAh) is the actual % you see.
The Full Charge Capacity (mAh) is the health and age indicator, that number goes down over the life.
The cycle count is specified up to 1000 cycles.
The Amperage (mA) reports the current consumption.

Run pmset -g in Terminal to get System-wide power settings and report the result in your post.

These additional steps may help identify or resolve the issue:

Reset the SMC

Reset NVRAM

Start up in Safe Mode to see if the issue is related to non-Apple startup items, login items, or kernel extensions.

Try to isolate the issue by using another user account.


How to get the geolocation of an IP address in Terminal?

You can do this without having to install any additional apps or software.  Just use the command curl and the free geo ip website http://freegeoip.app.

Execute the following command in Terminal (I am using Apple's IP for this example):

curl https://freegeoip.app/xml/17.178.96.59

You will get your results in an XML format:

<Response>
    <IP>17.178.96.59</IP>
    <CountryCode>US</CountryCode>
    <CountryName>United States</CountryName>
    <RegionCode>CA</RegionCode>
    <RegionName>California</RegionName>
    <City>Cupertino</City>
    <ZipCode>95014</ZipCode>
    <TimeZone>America/Los_Angeles</TimeZone>
    <Latitude>37.3042</Latitude>
    <Longitude>-122.0946</Longitude>
    <MetroCode>807</MetroCode>
</Response>

You can even issue the same command using the domain name instead of the IP:

curl https://freegeoip.app/xml/apple.com

Other Formats...

freegeoip.app also supports CSV, JSON and JSONP

CSV:
curl https://freegeoip.app/csv/apple.com

17.178.96.59,US,United States,CA,California,Cupertino,95014,America/Los_Angeles,37.30,-122.09,807

JSON:  curl https://freegeoip.app/json/apple.com

{"ip":"17.178.96.59","country_code":"US","country_name":"United States","region_code":"CA","region_name":"California","city":"Cupertino","zip_code":"95014","time_zone":"America/Los_Angeles","latitude":37.3042,"longitude":-122.0946,"metro_code":807}

To check your own ip...

Just omit the ip or domain:

curl https://freegeoip.app/xml/


Preload and preconfigure an iPad for someone else

You can do several things:

Convince them to permit you to use their Apple ID and password (they can change the password to something you prefer - then change it back). They can also remove the credit card and let you gift the apps or redeem a gift certificate.
Just gift them the apps and assist them as they learn.

In the long run, you'll either be acting as a custodian or want to be hands off - look at things six months from now and you can decide if you'll just be on the hook to support them perpetually or if you just want to be with them and let them do the setup so they are self sufficient.


Stop iOS opening last session in browser

You misunderstand what swiping up on an app does. Swiping up on an app from the app switcher causes its temporary data to be unloaded from your device's RAM (RAM, short for random-access memory, is your device's short-term memory). However, data from tabs in any browser is stored as permanent data (just like game data and text messages are permanently stored, tabs are too), and this permanent data is unaffected by a RAM unload. Unloading an app from the RAM (swiping up on it) is designed to fix issues caused by app data in the device's short-term memory, not to unload data from an app's place in your device's long-term memory, which is where browser data is stored.

Unlike the common myth goes, apps like Facebook and Google Maps can still run in the background even after being closed (swiped-up upon); it is up to them to stop using background data. Force-closing an app by swiping up on it unloads short-term data (like how UI elements moved or changed after app-launch) but does not affect any stored data or background app usage. Swiping up doesn't shut an app down.

In iOS 10, Apple's upcoming version of iOS set to be released in the fall, there will be a button accessed by long-pressing on the tab-button to close all tabs. Why this doesn't exist in iOS 7-9 is a mystery.

So for now, you'll just have to close your tabs one-by-one or just leave them all open*.

*or switch to Android, where the default browser (Chrome) lets you close all tabs at once. And sadly, Chrome for iPad does not have this feature.

Edit: My advice is to try other iPad browsers (I personally like Brave Browser and Dolphin Browser) and check if they have a similar option to close all tabs at once; try long-pressing on the X of one tab, or going into the tab switcher.


Monitoring tool for several Macs on a network?

Apple's Remote Desktop does this (and more).


Vertical lines on the left side of iPhone 4s after it fell down. Can it be fixed without replacing its screen?

The video you're referencing appears to be a hoax of some sort. The steps shown in the video make no sense.

If your screen stopped working after your phone was dropped, the screen or some other part of the phone has probably been damaged, and will need to be replaced.


iOS 7 upgrade - how much space will I get back?

You'll get back all but about 60 MB of space. (Which is about the same space as all four movements of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 take up when copied to my iPhone.)

On my 32 GB iPhone 5, I now have 27.94 GB free space under iOS 7.0.6 instead of 28.00 GB that I had on iOS 6.


Remove email integration from calendar in mountain lion?

To Remove the Calendar completely.

Go to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars Preference in System Preferences select the google mail account and uncheck the Calendars & Reminders

To Set the default Calendar for new events.

In Calendar the default calendar for new events is controlled in the Preferences.

You can set it to Selected Calender to make new events appear for the calendar you have selected

or choose a  particular calendar


No colour dots to tag folders. Macbook Pro, OSX 10.10.3

Probably the color tags have been disabled previously or some non-color tags are enabled instead. Just open Finder -> Preferences -> Tags and enable all color tags and all non-color tags you need.


Backing up Time Machine sparsebundles to another server

I would say, rsync away once you are sure the sparsebundles are not being actively mounted or written to by other Mac OS clients.

The beauty of an Apple disk image is that all the Mac unique things are stored internally since they are a filesystem unto themselves and don't rely on your actual storage filesystem in any way. As long as you get the file names over and the OS has permissions to re-share the files - you can't break things as you move the actual files that make up the sparse bundle directory scheme to another Linux or OS X or Windows OS.

In a nutshell, the files stored as bands in the sparse bundle format are very portable which makes the HFS internals immune to corruption when the raw data is copied faithfully to a new location or a new server with a different filesystem structure.

In fact, having a Mac mount the filesystem encapsulated within the sparsebundle container would be a less optimal solution since it could take far longer to traverse the hard linked directory structure rather than let linux copy the file data efficiently. You would lose all the benefits of a sparse storage scheme to have OS X mount the files and copy them directly.


Is there a way to access my mac remotely by using browser only?

Yes you can use logmein https://secure.logmein.com/

After installing and setting things up you will just need your browser wherever you are.


"Critical software update required for your Mac" loop after erasing EFI partition

Why not boot to internet recovery and reinstall the current OS to let the installer write a good system and migrate your existing apps and data back in place.
I would probably get a good backup, since at some point you’ll need to wipe your disk, but the steps above do not intentionally break things or delete data. The worst that will happen is you have your data intact and render the Mac unbootable. Unless there is hardware failure or the filesystem is also damaged, no real risk is added by reinstalling the OS.


Those are the operating system calendars, and you can only use one at the time.

The Calendar.app allows you to have multiple calendars at once.


Apple Cash Family - "Family member already has Apple Cash enabled"

This can happen if the minor has previously created an Apple Cash account but was unable to verify it due to not meeting the age requirements. The account does not show up because it is not active, it cannot be enabled because they do not meet the age requirement, and yet it prevents them from having an Apple Cash Family card created on their behalf.
To resolve this issue, you can call Apple Pay support at (877) 233-8552. Once they verify the minor's identity, they will be able to close the empty account so that you can create a new one.


Pause and continue Wi-Fi sniffing in Terminal using airport command

You can suspend a command in the bash shell using control-Z. To resume the command, run fg.


Have the Retina MacBook Pro GPU Hangs been fixed?

Bring it into your nearest Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider and they can run a VST (AST Video System Test). That specific MBPr model is eligible for a repair program right now, so you'll get a free Logic Board replacement if it fails the VST test. Here is the Apple Support page with the information.


iMac HDD fan running full speed. What is wrong?

Looks like the drive experiences overheating issue. Unfortunately it's a common issue for Seagate drives which happens with time (had exactly the same problem with iMac 2010 21.5`` and stock 500 GB hdd). I used free Macs Fan Control tool to cool down the HDD (specially in Boot Camp, where the drive was even hotter). The article is about HDD replacement but it also explains how to use the app.

But the best solution I think is to replace the drive with some 2.5`` drive. They are known to be much cooler and quiter (though slower)


A ton of RAM being used with nothing open

I see dozens (if not hundreds) of programs open. You may only have three that you are actively using, but there are dozens running in the background doing all sorts of things from indexing for Spotlight to watching for new software updates.

RAM being used is not a bad thing, especially when you have so much free (per your screenshot). You paid for it as part of your computer; why wouldn't you want to use it?

Apple's support article states that unless the graph to the left is showing red (or, to a lesser degree, yellow) that you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Given that your RAM usage is not particularly high, the sluggishness is likely coming from elsewhere. Even if you just look at pure numbers (which is absolutely not the way to read RAM information), you still have over a gigabyte of free RAM and zero swap-file usage.


(Custom Build) Super Time Capsule - am I missing something

I don't think you need to have one folder per workstation - each backup will be created in a .sparsebundle file, that is mounted by the remote workstation that belongs to it, and used as the backup disk.

At home I have a Mac Mini running OS X Server, and I also back up my MacBook Pro and my wife's MacBook Pro to it over WiFi. It works well, and apart from the size of the disk I imagine it would scale just fine.


Is it possible to restart Mac into OS X once switched over to Windows but logged out?

To boot back to OS X, press the option key and hold it down. You should get the choice to boot OS X, Windows or recovery.

Screw the disk out and put it on an usb-reader.
You don't need any password if the disk is not encrypted to obtain its data from it.


MacOS Big Sur cannot use wifi adapter device

Some types of kernel extensions – including USB Networking – are deprecated in macOS 11.
These kernel extensions have to be rewritten by the vendor using DriverKit to be compatible with Big Sur. See https://developer.apple.com/support/kernel-extensions (USB networking).
While macOS 11 is in development, you can enable the loading of deprecated KEXTs by disabling SIP. See https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-big-sur-11-beta-release-notes (Deprecations).


MacBook Air microphone volume extremely low

After closely looking on microphone input on the left side of my MacBook Air, I have found that the little holes are blocked with dust or something like that.

So I took the needle and removed the dust from microphone holes, and it's now working well!

Note: I know this would seem like obvious solution, but the holes are so little you cannot see anything in them unless you look really closely (or, more probably, use magnifier).


How to show "time until next scheduled calender" event (in menu bar)

Here's a way to show the time remaining until the next calendar event in the menu bar.

Install icalBuddy in /usr/local/bin (the easiest way is with Homebrew: brew install ical-buddy)
Download and launch BitBar
Put the following script in the plugin folder you selected (as event.sh, for example):

#!/bin/bash

osascript <<'END'
set theEventInfo to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/icalBuddy -n -li 1 -uid -ec 'Birthdays' -ps '/|/' eventsToday+10 | sed 's/^.*(\\(.*\\)).*uid: \\(.*\\)$/\\1|\\2/'"

set prevDelimiter to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"|"}
set theEventInfos to every text item of theEventInfo
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevDelimiter

set theEventCalendar to first item of theEventInfos
set theEventUID to second item of theEventInfos

tell application "Calendar"
    tell calendar theEventCalendar
        set theEvent to first event whose uid is theEventUID
        set duration to (start date of theEvent) - (current date)
        return "next event in " & duration div hours & ":" & text -2 thru -1 of ("0" & (duration div minutes - (duration div hours * 60))) & return & "---" & return & summary of theEvent & return & start date of theEvent
    end tell
end tell
END

A few notes:

There's room for improvements, but the basics are there.
It excludes the Birthdays calendar. It also can easily exclude all-day events by adding -ea in icalBuddy's parameters list


Spotlight menu shows results, but Finder window doesn't

It turns out that the problem was that I had the Finder window list set to sort by the Kind column. Spotlight apparently does not like that arrangement, and refuses to display results. I had to sort by Name, close the window, and reopen it. Now Spotlight works perfectly.

This problem was originally with Snow Leopard, and persisted on Lion 10.7.0, but seems to have been fixed at some point before Mountain Lion 10.8.4.


MacBook Pro not charging under heavy load

This behaviour is perfectly normal.

On all of Apple's Intel-based laptops, the battery-pack is the power source 100% of the time, even when connected to a charging supply. The battery-pack is comprised of two circuits of cells, each circuit is capable of providing the maximum current demand of the laptop whilst the other circuit gets a recharge, with the two circuits changing roles every few minutes.

Whilst your MacBook Pro shipped with an 87W charger, the actual maximum draw of the computer itself is 121W - display on, WiFi/BT enabled and communicating, CPU & GPU both at full workload. Under that level of power use, the battery is having more power go out than what is coming in, so you will lose charge under maximum load even when connected to a charge source, albeit at a slower rate than if it were running on battery alone.


Sharing & Permissions has two “everyone” entries, only for applications by Apple

This is a normal behavior of the Sharing & Permissions Info window in macOS systems protected by SIP.

The three latter are the POSIX permissions:

rwxr-xr-x@  3 root      wheel  restricted   102 Jul 22  2017 Activity Monitor.app
    com.apple.rootless

rwx read/write(/traverse(execute)) for the user root/system
   r-x read(/traverse(execute)) for the group wheel
      r-x read(/traverse(execute)) for everyone

The first entry (everyone > Custom) is a result of the restricted flag/com.apple.rootless attribute and can be interpreted as an ACL: group:everyone deny delete and the ACL can't be modified!

An (older) list of all restricted/SIP protected files and folder can be found here: System Integrity Protection – Adding another layer to Apple’s security model


Firewall setup for Python.app incoming connection

Create a self-signed certificate.

Open Keychain Access. Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.
Keychain Access menu > Certificate Assistant > Create a Certificate...
Enter a name like "My Certificate".
Select Identity Type: Self Signed Root
Select Certificate Type: Code Signing
Check the Let me override defaults box
Click Continue
Enter a unique Serial Number
Enter 7300 for the Validity Period.
Click Continue
Click Continue for the rest of the dialogs

Now sign your application

codesign -s "My Certificate" -f $(which python)

In the dialog that appears, click "Allow".

With the OS X firewall enabled, you can remove the "Do you want the application "python" to accept incoming network connections?" message.


MacOS shutting down after password and loading screen, safe mode not working

Looks like something critical to booting is toast. You'll likely need to reinstall macOS. Start by simply reinstalling, but not formatting your disk (all your settings and documents will remain intact):

Shut down your Mac
Press and hold CMD-R while powering on your Mac, hold until you see the Apple logo or a globe
Select Reinstall macOS and follow the instructions given.

If this does not work, try using Internet Recovery, which downloads the recovery launcher instead of running the partition. Follow the same process as above, but use the CMD-Option-R keyboard combination when starting up, and hold until you see a globe.

I doubt the issue is with your user account, since your recovery mode isn't launching-- I'd make that your first priority and consider taking your laptop into the shop.


How to add still image to audio file to convert it into video?

There are many open source video editing softwares that you can use to make a video from a still and a song.

These are some of the best open source video editing tools that you can use.

Blender
Kdenlive
Avidemux

Also here is a full tutorial to create video from still image and from audio file.


How to access data in iPhone backup file directly

I recommend iPhone / iPod Touch Backup Extractor (for Mac) and iPhone Backup Extractor (for Windows).

  Recover lost iPhone calendar events, contacts, photos, videos, SMS messages, notes, location data and app data from iTunes backup files.