Repairing/ Fixing/ Finding parts for very old Macbooks?

The technician used proper terminology per Apple.  Apple defines a vintage product as one that was discontinued more than 5, but less than 7, years ago.  Apple defines an obsolete product as one discontinued more than 7 years ago.

Your Mac is 3 1/2 years old, thats not yet very old.  With Apple notebooks I typically expect about 6 - 7 years of solid use.  Right now a 7 year old MacBook Pro can still run Lion, which is still fully supported by Apple, thus, in real world terms, making it not yet obsolete, even by Apple’s terms.

When it comes to finding parts for a Mac that fits Apple’s definitions though, that becomes tricky if you insist on “new” parts.  I emphasize new because any of Apple’s service parts for Macs over a year or two old carry a high likelihood of being reconditioned, meaning they were returned to Apple through service channels, diagnosed, fixed, strenuously tested then re-certified for use.  Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP), including AppleCare & Genius Bar, are able to still order parts for vintage Macs, but that part supply is no longer replenished.

So, say you need a logic board for a vintage MacBook, an AASP can place an order for a logic board and if one is still in stock then the order will be fulfilled.  If none are in stock then the AASPs (non-Apple only) only other option is going with one from a non-Apple source, whether it be a spare they have or from another reseller.

If you need a logic board for an obsolete MacBook then an AASP (non-Apple only) only has the option of finding one through another reseller or using a used spare they have on hand.  Situations like this are typically the reason a lot of old Macs get retired.

When it comes to sourcing parts on your own there are several reputable vendors that deal in refurbished Apple parts. A few examples:

iFixit - iFixit is also a tremendous resource for walk throughs for the majority of repairs you might encounter with just about any Mac.

PowerBook Medic

MacFixiIt

eBay is also a handy resource although, as always, exercise caution and proper sense when buying from eBay.

As to your specific question, of how difficult would it be to find parts for and repair a 12 year old MacBook... As of right now the oldest MacBook is just shy of 8 years old, so we can't answer your exact question.  However, finding parts for and repairing that 8 year old MacBook is still quite possible in most cases, although many would find it cost prohibitive, meaning they would rather put the $200-400 towards a new or used Mac rather than fixing an 8 year old model.

There ARE 12 year old PowerBook G4s though, and those follow the same idea I laid out in the previous paragraph.  Repair is often possible, although finding logic boards seems to be a bit tougher these days, but it often doesn't make financial sense to repair rather than to replace.

Source - I worked in the Apple break/fix ecosystem for 6 years, for both an AASP and as a Mac Genius.


Built-in or FOSS GUI application for generating a file hash

If you want to find a method of converting general CLI scripts to the GUI, take a look at Platypus. Using this application, you can create GUI wrappers around CLI utilities. It's fairly straightforward to make a shasum or md5 wrapper that can allow drag and drop.

However, there are existing applications available to show file hashes (see Allan's answer).


I have my mac serving an application on port 80 that I can access within the network, how can I prevent it from sleeping?

Lid Open

Your Mac will sleep if you close the lid.

You need to leave your MacBook lid open for the server to keep responding to requests.

You can set the display to sleep after a period of idle time; this will not affect the server. Only the computer needs to remain awake.


Is the iOS Voice Memos built-in app appropriate for recording an hour-long interview?

There are various records (/1, /2) saying that since iOS4 there's no limitation in size any more. My suggestion: put the iPod on the table, run the voice recorder and see how long it goes and if the process of importing to the computer works fine.


How do I bridge a wifi connection from MacOS

I assume your question is how to share the WiFi internet connection you have with other devices on a cabled network.

You do this by opening System Prefences > Sharing and selecting Internet Sharing:

For "Share your connection from" choose "Wi-Fi".

For "To computers using" select the network that you want to share it with - usually this is "Ethernet".

This achieves connection sharing by using NAT.

If you actually want to bridge your WiFi connection with a cabled connection, so that devices on your cabled connection would work like they were connected directly to the WiFi, it can be achieved like this:

Open System Preferences > Network.

Click the cog wheel below the device list and select "Manage Virtual Interfaces".

Click the plus button and select "New Bridge".

Select "Wi-Fi" and the network you want to share it with - usually this is "Ethernet".

Click Create.


Here are some things to try
+ Try double clicking
+ Also you might be right-clicking on the mouse - try left-clicking.
+ If no luck, go to Mac HD -> Applications, then click once on the Xcode icon and choose Command-O or Choose Open from the File menu (top left of screen).
+ Failing this - go to Mac HD -> Applications -> Utilities and open Terminal. Then run

open /Applications/XCode.app

If all these fail - post back the response from Terminal.

Also - please post your OS version, and the version of Xcode (click on XCode once and then type Command-I or choose Get Info from the File menu). The version number will be listed in the General section of the pop-up window.

Do you know how XCode was installed (e.g via AppStore or was it installed a download file)?


Why does my wireless icon change to a rings symbol?

That's clearly a tethering icon, so you have three options:

your Mac OS is interpreting things incorrectly from the WiFi chipset (either due to needing a reboot or some systematic error)
the router is sending mixed signals
the hardware is detecting something that is not being sent (error or failure)


How to propose rescheduling a meeting sent by someone else in Outlook for Mac 2011?

So, it looks like Outlook for Mac 2011 is incapable of proposing updates for meetings sent by other people (or, for meetings sent by Outlook for Windows users), regardless of standard permissions.

Looks like this is another missing feature alongside voting buttons and easy calendar sharing requests. In Outlook for Windows you can propose updates that the organiser can accept or reject; in Outlook for Mac there seems to be nothing like this.

This is based on the fact there are 'Send update' options seemingly only for meetings that you are the organiser of:

It looks like the only possibility is to decline the meeting, then send your own - or, if that's not an option (which will be true any time it's not appropriate to just become the new meeting organiser), you need to email the organiser (e.g. in a 'Decline' comment) and ask them to do it for you.

A bit rubbish because, if they're a Windows user, they'll think you're a fool who can't find the 'Propose new time' button, and they'll think you're wasting their time asking them to do simple tasks for you...


Hm, I'm maybe not fully understand the question, but the VLC player cannot do the job?

You can drag into the playlist window any music files (in fact any multimedia files), can rearrange them manually and so on..

so use the VLC as a music player and not as a video-player.


Just disable the LaunchAgent com.apple.finder at /System/Library/LaunchAgents/

with sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Finder.plist and Finder shouldn't launch at all.

Depending on your system this might not be successful. Then download, install and open LaunchControl. Navigate to System Agents -> com.apple.Finder and highlight it. In the menubar choose Job -> Unload. Then hit the radio button next to com.apple.Finder and disable it.


How to copy and paste styles with Keynote?

Yes its there Copy design
Command + Alt (Option) + C (Copy only Styles)
Command + Alt (Option) + V   (Only paste styles)
Above works absolutely as format painter works in Windows Office.


Airport extreme base station won't turn on

Try disconnecting all power supplies from the outlet/power source and the device. After 3 minutes hold the reset button down on the AEBS and then connect the power. Continue to hold the reset button down until the light on the front starts flashing amber fast or 5 seconds has elapsed (which ever happens first). If after the factory restore [not hard reset] that if the device doesn't turn on in a minute it's AppleCare time. The AEBS should be covered under the AppleCare Protection Plan of an Apple computer or AppleTV purchased within two years of the AEBS. If they won't swap it out for you, ask for an exception :)


What are the dimensions for the apple dock icons?

An app's Dock Tile Icon should be 1024 × 1024.

For more information about customising your Dock Tile, see the documentation:

Mac Developer Library: Dock Tile Programming Guide

Keep in mind that implementation (software development) is off-topic here.


You could use the SIMBL extension, afloat. I use this tool all the time, especially when working with reference images and the like.


How long are Windows Server 2003 Active Directory credentials cached on Snow Leopard?

Active Directory password policies are enforced, so you are in control of this.  See this resource for more information.


Create bootable EFI system partition from macOS Installer's firmware files (.scap, .fd)

macOS will boot fine without an EFI partition. Unlike most operating systems, macOS stores its boot files inside the OS partition. Apple computers ship with firmware that can read HFS+ partitions (2016 and later models can read APFS volumes as well by default), so they can read the boot.efi file from the partition. When you upgrade your computer to High Sierra, the firmware gets upgraded as well, getting the ability to boot from APFS partitions.

Your friend probably did more than just overwriting the EFI partition. You will probably need to backup your data and reinstall macOS.


You might do it like this:

ls /path/to/folder | grep -v "Extensions"

grep -v "Extensions" excludes "Extensions" from the listing.


Automator: Move files into new subfolder based on file's name

I had a similar question and with the help of wch1zpink came up with this solution. In automator:

create a new workflow
add get selected finder items
add run applescript
replace the script with this:

tell application "Finder"
    set selectedFiles to selection as alias list
    set containingFolder to container of item 1 of selectedFiles as alias
    repeat with i from 1 to count of selectedFiles
        set thisItem to item i of selectedFiles
        set fileName to (text items 1 thru -5) of (name of thisItem as text) as string
        move thisItem to (make new folder at containingFolder ¬
            with properties {name:fileName})
    end repeat
end tell


Facing pages are available in Pages 7.0.

  Turn on facing pages to format your document as two-page spreads.

This can be enabled as per the instructions in Set up your document in Pages

  Use facing pages

  You can set your document up as a two-page spread. Documents set up as two-page spreads can have different headers, footers, and master objects on left- and right-facing pages. Use facing pages for layouts for printed books, or for double-sided documents that you intend to print.

  Click , then click Document.
  Select Facing Pages.
  If you want different footers for the left and right facing pages:

  Click , then click Section.
  Select "Left and right pages are different."

  You can view facing pages as a two-page spread, or as a single page. Click Zoom, then choose Two Pages or One Page. If you're viewing your document as a two-page spread, choose Fit Spread to fit the two-page spread vertically on your screen.


Is there a way to easily access the emoticons I use most in iMessage?

When you add the Emoji-keyboard on iOS (Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard > Emoji), it automatically collects the recently used emoticons on the first tab at the bottom (the clock icon).

The same goes for Messages.app on OS X; when you open the Emoji-selection from the smiley-face in the input box, it shows the recent ones first.

However, on OS X you can select which emoticons are shown in the favourites, a feature currently missing on iOS. You can do this by opening the Characters viewer from the top right corner of the Emoji-popup and selecting Add to Favorites for the emoticons you like.

Also, there is no way to sync these usages and selections between devices, at least currently and using stock OS's.


Cause was my previous renaming of the Excel application in the application folder.

In the application folder I had previously added the suffice 2016 to the name of the Excel program to delineate it from the older version (kept in event of compatibility issues with old files) from the 2011 suite.

The download process added the update application separately with its original name "Microsoft Excel.app"  Deleting the old version, adding the prefix 2016 (as is my preference) to the new Excel file. Open this, and all works with the right version.

So as tidy up, deleting the old icon first from the doc, then copying Excel with its appended name afresh to the Dock, and now all works and opens as version 15.34.0


Emails are automatically marked as read after a few seconds

I've been able to fix the issue: In fact, it was the fault of OS X Server.

In the server app, under the calendar tab, there is a checkbox "activate invitations via e-mail". The problem disappeared when I unchecked it!


Is paid Apple Developer Program subscription required to distribute test IPA file?

So as a new iOS developer i found three way for building and distributing app.

For app store distribution normal developer license can work.
For in House apps you can buy enterprise edition license. With this you
can distribute app via MDM and diawi when you want to
distribute .ipa file of your app.
If you have limited in house
users and have physical access to those devices you can directly
install app via xcode in the device.


When your computer runs out of physical RAM, it swaps some of the data in RAM out to disk.
Later when the need for RAM decreases, you will have a situation where you have free RAM, but still an amount of data swapped out to RAM.
You could argue that the operating system should start swapping that data back into RAM immediately. However there are arguments that this is not a good strategy, namely because:
a) swapping in resources takes away resources from other programs running
b) swapping in resources will occupy RAM that another program might need in a short while, provoking another swap out
These are reasons why the swapped out data isn't immediately swapped in when RAM is freed. Instead it is swapped in when needed.


iOS Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > ...Reached at... / Start from...

OSX Messages > Preferences > Accounts > iMessage Account > ...Reached at... / Start from...


HDMI audio doesn't work through DisplayPort adapter on OS X but works on boot camped Win 7

Hold down the option key and click on the volume icon in the menu bar. What does the menu say for Output Device? If your adapter doesn't appear, here's what you can do: Open /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup. See if your adapter appears in the list to the left. If it does, play with the Configure Device and Configure Speakers options (accessed by the gear button).


Can I publish my profile picture for all users of Mac Mail?

There is no way to do this.

The Mail app on the desktop only retrieves profile pictures from the local machine, that is, from the Contacts app, from your user account, and from ~/Library/Images/People/.


How can I disable rounded window corners in OS X

Tested on 10.7.3 & 10.7.4

To turn rounded corners off for all windows use the following command in Terminal.

defaults write -g AppleUseCoreUI -bool false ; killall Finder

To restore the rounded corners for all windows use the following command in Terminal.

defaults write -g AppleUseCoreUI -bool true ; killall Finder

NOTE: For this to take effect on already open applications those applications must be closed and reopened (this is why the commands above include killall Finder). Some Applications may interact differently once CoreUI is turned off.

ALSO: This does not affect the corners at the bottom of the window. They will still appear rounded. (As noted in comments by Daniel Lawson)

If you are not comfortable with the killall Finder being used in your command the steps can be taken to ensure the same result.

Step 1. (Turn off rounded corners)

Run the following Command

defaults write -g AppleUseCoreUI -bool false

Remember to close and reopen any Applications that were open when prior to this command being run.

Step 2. (Turn off rounded corners)

Refresh Finder

Key combo command + option + esc... Choose Finder and click Relaunch
Remember to close and reopen any Applications that were open when prior to this command being run.

To restore the original rounded corners, simply use the same 2 Steps and replace the  false found at the end of the command with true as shown in the following command.

defaults write -g AppleUseCoreUI -bool true

Remember: It is very likely that as you update your OS the rounded corners will reappear. However, even after your next OS update, the same steps listed above are likely to function the same. :–)


In Pages... It's grayed out because you do not have any text selected to become the link.

To place a link on a image, after you have added it to the page, insert a text box.

In the text box, type what you want to be the link, select it and press ⌘K to add the URL to the link.

Resize and reposition the text box over the image where you want it.

Here is an image with a link on it and clicked:


Unable to login due to broken key on built-in keyboard

An external USB keyboard will allow you to log on. Then you can change your password using the external keyboard, and you will be able to log on with the internal keyboard again. But you won't be able to type the character 0 ever again, unless you get the keyboard fixed.


The correct answer in this case is "Don't do that; you're asking for trouble." Safari is heavily integrated into the OS. Removing/disabling Safari is bound to eventually get you into a situation where an API malfunctions and you'll drive the poor person trying to help you insane.

I dare ask why you would want to remove Safari given that there is no advantage in doing so. You can remove IE from Windows or bash from a Linux distro, but the 26 MB you'll save won't be worth the anguish of having macOS eat its tail at some point down the road.


El Capitan with Network Authentication Change Password not working

Unbind  from AD and then binding to AD fixed my issue

Few Pointers

Bind & Unbind from Directory Utility not from the Users Group > Network Account Server > Edit
It's the same screenshot as shown above in the question
We also updated the Prfer this Domain Server to a new server instead of domain.com it was a specific server name


Can the haptic feedback level be lowered on the ForceTouch trackpad for MacBook Pro?

According to Apple's support docs and as also noted by several reviews, the late 2016 MacBook Pro does not have the "Silent Clicking" option offered on the 12" MacBook and the Magic Trackpad 2.

(As an aside to ward off disappointment, Silent Clicking is not completely silent anyway: the actuators still trigger to generate the haptic effect and thus a small amount of attendant noise.)


Problem sending mail to Yahoo Group from Gmail

You probably need to use a Yahoo! email account as Yahoo! are probably trying to spite Google and make its users select the whole packet thst they offer.


It looks like you try to mount a linux file system raspbian-wheezy.img like ext2/3/4, xfs. OS X does not support these file systems. There's an ext plugin for FUSE which might enable you to add support for the file system you want.


PDF reader for iPad with both bookmarks and continuous scrolling, without long save and load times

I have been a happy GoodReader user for many years. Lately, I have switched to PDF Expert, though, since I like its interface better (especially for adding and editing annotations). It is not quite as featureful as GoodReader, though.

Both use tabs to let you switch quickly between documents. I can't comment on the time to open a document compared to the apps you mention, though. Documents generally open quick enough for me.

Edit: Oh, wait: GoodReader doesn't do continuous scrolling, it seems. My bad. It's been too long since I used it, I guess.


Which part of iPhone is responsible for radiation

By radiation, I'm assuming you mean the creation of electromagnetic waves and not the movement of sub-atomic particles like X-Rays.
In that case, it would be the transmitter (technically the transceiver since it's an all in one device).  It's the transmitter that generates the electromagnetic waves at their respective frequencies with embedded data through the antennas that creates this radiation.
How a Transmitter Works

There's three components to a transmitter

Oscillator creates the "carrier wave" at a specified frequency.  This is the LTE, GSM or PCS frequencies that your carrier (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc.) uses.

Modulator embeds all of the data onto the wave signal generated by the oscillator

Amplifier (with antenna) takes that signal and increases it's power so that it's strong enough to reach the closest receiver.

Particle Radiation
If you're referring to the movement of sub-atomic particles from your iPhone, there isn't any.  There's no component (like the battery you mentioned) with any degree of radioactivity (This is the "dangerous radiation").  It would be illegal to sell that to the general public.


Do I need to enable Journaling on a Mac Pro M2 SSD?

There’s basically zero downside for journaling the filesystem metadata and huge, huge upsides so even though you don’t need to do it, I recommend everyone does it as if they needed to. The only reason not to enable journaling is if you have some desire to test failure modes of a less robust filesystem.

As to the larger question, the boot camp info you read likely is wrong (please link to the exact article or advice if we can help be precise if it is outdated or correct).

What’s true is you can’t have APFS and boot camp. Pick either / or

HFS with journal and the possibility to use boot camp
APFS which journals always and no possibility to use boot camp that shares space with APFS

Now you can partition your drive to be part APFS and part HFS / bootcamp, so here is the boot camp FAQ for Mojave if you want to go ahead with that plan:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201468


How to save/load workspaces on El Capitan?

To assign a space to an application, you:

Activate the space where you want the application to live...
Right click the application icon in the dock

Choose: Options > Assign to: This Desktop

This will make it so that the application always opens to that space.

Applications typically remember their window location, so as far as that goes, it should in most cases be just set it and forget it type of situation.

If you want multiple layouts, you might want to try out Moom. Not the only app that does that, but I'd say it's the best one I know. You can use it to save snapshots of  application locations that can be restored via menu or shortcuts.

Should be noted that Moom doesn't control the application space, just the size and location.


Why are these date-stamped docs sorted by name length, not numerical order?

It is sorting numerically. An eight digit number is always going to come before a nine digit number.

It is a feature of Finder, so that Something10 shows up after Something9 and not before Something2, provided that all of the "Something" is always the same.


How to force the new 10.10.3 Photo app to open in full screen after restart?

System Preferences > General > Uncheck "Close windows when quitting an application".


The most important thing to do before buying any iOS 7 device is check for activation lock.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818

I don't want to copy all the steps in case they change, but in a nutshell focus on the text that appears below in a section you need to expand:

How do I check for Activation Lock before purchasing a used device?

  When purchasing an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from someone other than Apple or an authorized Apple reseller, it is up to you to ensure that the device has been erased and is no longer linked to the previous owner’s account....You will know that a device is ready for you to use when you are asked to “Set up your iPhone", “Set up your iPad", or “Set up your iPod” during the device setup process.

You basically, power off the device and start it and slide to unlock. The Apple document explains in more details what you will see and how to ask the seller to properly unlock things before you take possession of the device. You might also escrow the funds if you can't meet face to face to ensure both parties deliver what they agreed upon.


How do I clear out "Recent Rooms" in Outlook 2011 when I am creating a Meeting or Appointment?

Just remove the item from the "Location" field cache:

Create a new Meeting
Start typing the meeting room on the Location field
Once the List options pop up, click on the "X" on the items you want to clear.


What is the difference between downloading and installing software from AppStore and Terminal

They command line tool only installs security patches and applications that ship and update only from the core macOS software update servers.

The App Store apps use a different system process to download apps from the App Store from different servers than the system update servers.

Both of the above can be cached locally from caching servers. The graphical Mac App Store app calls both of the processes in an attempt to let people see one interface when there are really several underlying and different processes at work.

storedownloadd (lives in /System/Library/ProvateFrameworks/CommerceKit)
storeinstalld (lives in /System/Library/ProvateFrameworks/CommerceKit)
softwareupdated (lives in /System/Library/CoreServices)
software update (lives in /usr/sbin)
installer (lives in /usr/sbin)
App Store.app (lives in /Applications)

For a quick overview the above programs / tools and daemons (programs that run in the background and are asked to do work from a queue periodically or on demand) are the main players that handle software updates and Mac App Store apps and updates.

A full treatment of how, caching, design, logs would take a nice chapter or two in a book, but hopefully this goes a few layers deeper so you understand why some updates can be scripted (system ones) and which need you to click a button or add a third party app (App Store ones) to be scripted or automated.


Battery indicator is showing "Service Battery" notification

Your Mac's battery hasn't reached its maximum cycle count, which for your model is 1000 cycles (see Mac notebooks: Determining battery cycle count):

Other factors may decrease battery life, so double-check the battery condition in System Information.app:

Open Apple menu>About This Mac>More Info…

Press System Report…

On the left hand side select Hardware>Power and look for Condition:

Article OS X Mountain Lion: Battery conditions lists the possible conditions:

Normal: The battery is functioning normally.
Replace Soon: The battery is functioning normally but holds less charge than it did when it was new.
Replace Now: The battery is functioning normally but holds significantly less charge than it did when it was new. You can
continue to use the battery until you replace it without harming your
computer.
Service Battery: The battery isn’t functioning normally, and you may or may not notice a change in its behavior or the amount of charge
it holds. Take your computer in for service. You can continue to use
your battery before it’s checked without harming your computer.


How to have multiple names in Apple Mail?

In ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist :

In Root > MailAccounts > Item # where # is the account to which you want to link the new aliases.
Create a new Array called EmailAliases
In this Array add a dictionary call Item # for each name you want
In each dictionary you created add 2 string fields : name and alias.
In name you put the name and in aliases you put the mail address.
Restart Mail.app
Enjoy.

Here is a preview of this in the Xcode plist editor.


How to unfreeze terminal when SSH connection dies?

You can suspend and then kill the ssh process that's hung up. To do this you have to issue the escape sequence, suspend the ssh process, and then use kill -9 to kill that process.

The default escape key for the ssh that ships with OS X the ~ character. You have to enter it immediately after a new line for ssh to respect it. And then the key sequence Control-z is used to suspend and background a task in bash.

So try this key sequence:

Return

~

Control-z

If it works you'll see something like:

myhost.local:~ |ruby-2.2.0|
> ssh someremotehost
Last login: Fri Mar  6 14:15:28 2015 from myhost

someremotehost:~ |ruby-2.2.0|
> ~^Z [suspend ssh]

[1]  + 48895 suspended  ssh myremotehost

This line of output:

[1]  + 48895 suspended  ssh myremotehost

tell you the process ID of the ssh process on your machine. It's 48895 in this example. That process is still running, it's just been suspended and backgrounded. You need to kill it.

You can do that with the kill command. You want to kill it with prejudice so use the -9 option when you call kill like so:

myhost.local:~ |ruby-2.2.0|
> kill -9 48895
[1]  + 48895 killed     ssh someremotehost

Just use the PID of your ssh process when you call that command in place of the 48895 PID I used above.

And you'll have your prompt back.

Alternatively, you can open a second Terminal window and use ps to find the ssh process in the process list and issue the kill -9 call against the PID. Though, that kind of defeats the process of getting your prompt back in the original Terminal window, doesn't it?


Does Time Machine fix ownership of files when restoring from another Mac?

As far as I can tell, if you use Migration Assistant (either the standalone application or during the installation of OSX) to move files from Time Machine to any computer there is no problem. I've moved users before from one computer to the other. If you copy directly from the hard drive you might run into issues, but Migration Assistant does the trick.


What I got with Recovery Disk Assistant?

Yes, it is a Yosemite recovery USB flash drive. The application copies the hidden (internal disk) recovery partition to the flash drive. I believe Apple no longer recommends using a recovery flash drive, so I suppose they have not updated the Recovery Disk Assistant application. I believe Apple now wants you to keep a bootable copy of OS X on an external drive. Still, the recovery flash drive is good to have if you need to download and install a fresh copy of OS X (and your internal recovery partition is damaged). Some will argue you can just boot using internet recovery to reinstall OS X, but you will get the version of OS X that was shipped with the machine. If you keep your flash drive up to date, then you can download the current version of OS X (that you have installed).


How to delete partially downloaded updates in High Sierra?

Sorry, but I only have a partial answer to your question:

First off I would try a different approach and download from here: https://support.apple.com/downloads

Also a safe boot (pressing and holding the shift button at boot until the Apple symbol appears) with an installation attempt there often succeeds.

As far as I know High Sierra downloads tmp system updates to a file, or files similar to this: /private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/C/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/CFNetworkDownload_XxxXxX.tmp
...then assembles them into a subdirectory, within...
/private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/C/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/...before moving them to... /Library/Updates/.

You can always boot into "Recovery", which should let you browse all directories in Terminal (to be found under the "Utilities" menu).


Why my messaging services consume a lot of data recently?

First, you can check iMessage apps that appear in App tray in Messages (or look for a button with App Store logo beside the text field).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206906
Are there any? If yes, you must check them.
Second, if you say that you "never use iMessage", you can turn it off in Settings.


If I sell my iPad, is erase/reset enough or do I need to sign-out first?

If you did a factory reset (Settings > General > Reset < Erase All Content and Settings) it asked you for your AppleID password at that point, right?
That should, while factory resetting, dis-associate your AppleID.  If you're seeing the "Hello" welcome initial start-up screen, you should be good.


Mass conversion of .numbers files to .csv

Automator is the tool for the job.

You can do a "watch me do" and have it export an already open file to a new folder as csv. Then stop recording the script.

At that point, you can add an acton to process files and folders so the script will one by one open each file, save it to the new location. As long as the names aren't conflicting, you would have an easy tool.

Better would be to script the actual export options, but start simple and then add the batch processing.


How do I change the default boot option on rEFIt?

You will need to edit the rEFIt configuration file. Since version 0.14, the configuration file has supported adding a default boot selection, as documented in the news section of the website.

However, there isn't very clear documentation on how exactly to do this on rEFIt's website. You could just open the conf file, or view the default on their SVN repo here. This blog does have an example and some documentation that I've used before in a similar situation. You'll want to use the digit option instead of the OS type option (1-N, vs L,W,M).


Does Apple have a policy restricting generic UUID with iBeacon apps in the app store?

The answer is yes, Apple is rejecting the apps that let the user input iBeacon UUID. If you fetch an uuid from a server, that would probably result in the same problem.

Just a quote from an article about this issue :

      We’ve been receiving reports that Apple has recently taken its “lock down” of UUID scanning a step further. Before, you needed to specify the UUID numbers you were scanning for in your app, but you could also manually input those numbers.

      But now, Apple is rejecting apps that have this functionality. Awwapps is one of the documented cases of this rejection:

      "With the upcoming updates of our iBeacon apps Launch Here and Travel Radar we will remove the option to manually add and edit iBeacon credentials (UUIDs, Major ID, Minor ID). This is not our choice. We do this to keep the apps in the App Store. We’ll do our best to come up with other options to add your iBeacons – better options…We will improve on this and extend support to more iBeacon vendors…Please note that a general scanning of all iBeacons around is not possible on iOS. We rely on your input to cover all commonly used iBeacons."

Source : http://beekn.net/2014/05/apple-closed-system-apple-slowly-locking-ibeacon/

Why :

Apple decided this for security reason. That allows developers to prevent their ibeacons of being used by others companies.

Why it's not a big deal :

Most beacons constructors set up their beacons with the same UUID. So the most commons beacons may still be found, unless the UUID was changed for security reasons. For example, by default, the UUID for all the iBeacons built by Estimote is "B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D". You then rely on the "major" and "minor" id sent by the beacon to develop your application.

iBeacons aren't invisible :

It's possible on Android devices to develop an application able to see all the iBeacons in range, and to get it published on the Play Store without any trouble.
On iOS, it's still technically possible that an application may let the user input the UUID value, it just won't be approved by the App Store.

And of course, the iBeacons still emits Bluetooth data that still physically exists in the air.


Disable Mail's "Image Size" from remembering last used setting

You can select image size below the subject line. There you can find a selection bar for small, middle, large and original size which sends the image without compression.


How do I disable mouse acceleration AND adjust tracking speed in High Sierra?

The built-in options are limited. To achieve your goal a combination of different software could be needed.
Sensitivity and mouse acceleration
Terminal
Like you have already mentioned, the following setting needs to be applied to disable mouse acceleration.
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

It can be a good idea to establish a script to automatically perform this action during login to ensure it is properly applied.
SteerMouse
SteerMouse can then be used to adjust your sensitivity. It does require a license, but it also resolves the issue.
Simply download and install the software, either from their homepage or by using e.g. Homebrew:
brew install --cask steermouse

The Cursor settings can then be adjusted to your liking. Acceleration should be left at 0, while sensitivity can be tuned to your preference.

Speed = ON

Acceleration = 0
Sensitivity = 0-2000

If using e.g. BetterTouchTool, then remember to turn Buttons, Wheel and Chords off in SteerMouse. These are known to conflict and generate erratic mouse behavior, as they both utilize similar macOS API endpoints.

Scrolling
Semi-related are also modifications to scrolling which can improve the Mac mouse usage experience.
SmoothScroll
Scrolling with a mouse on macOS can feel unnatural. To improve this one can utilize applications such as SmoothScroll for a better flowing scroll. Further adjustments can be made to customize the speed and related settings to ones need.

It can be downloaded and installed directly from the homepage, or by using e.g. Homebrew:
brew install --cask smoothscroll

Scroll direction
It can be preferential to have different scroll directions between the trackpad and mouse. This can be adjusted in System Preferences -> Mouse. Checking/unchecking Scroll direction: Natural modifies this behavior.

Notes

The recommended options have been tested to work on macOS Mojave 10.14.4.
Licenses might be required for the suggested software.
I am in no way affiliated with the software developers, just a satisfied user. These are workarounds I have found when attempting to resolve the issue(s).


Iphone, was not hacked. wasn't crossed. Husband was arrested and admitted to charges.

Thanks for help, it confirmed that the device was probably not compromised.


Drag open Excel or Word file into Mail as an attachment

There are alternvative way(s). One of them being open Spotlight (⌘ + Space), enter first letters of file name and drag it from the results list to email.
If you haven't started to write e-mail then 'Share' inside Excel can be used. There are two possible approaches (1) click on icon in right-upper labeled 'Share' > click 'Send a Copy' > change 'Send as' if needed (default Excel Workbook, alternative is PDF) and click 'Email as Attachment' (or on icon next to it which allows to send copy to other apps), or, (2) from menubar select File > Share > Send Workbook (or Send PDF). In both cases it creates new e-mail with current file attached.


This can't be done at the moment. UIDatePicker has no standard option for typed dates/times and therefore it is down to the developer to implement such a thing. In the case of Apple's apps, they rarely go beyond the implementation available to others.

You can provide feedback to Apple regarding this at the following page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


Go to system preferences > keyboard > input sources
Remove the item called us international pc, leaving only us or abc on the list


Does Apple change iPhone serial numbers when they refurbish them?

Typically no. Serial numbers cannot be 'edited' as such - they can be written to new products (such as a new logic board), but an existing serial on a logic board cannot be rewritten.

However, if a logic board is replaced, then that will result in a new serial number.

As an aside, Apple really does have an excellent refurbishment program. Refurbished Apple products come with a new outer shell, a new battery, and the same full one-year warranty they give to their new products. It is more expensive than buying secondhand, but you're paying for the peace of mind.


Will a MacBook work if bought from a different country?

Yes it will. Just be sure you want the keyboard layout in the country where you buy. Changing the physical keys is practically a non-stater. Everything software will reconfigure properly.


Recovering files from an iMac G3 hard drive (Mac OS 8.6)

From what I can tell the drive from an iMac G3 is an IDE type. HDDs running Mac OS System 8.6 ought to be running on the HFS+ disk format.

If you get a USB HDD enclosure with internal IDE connectors you should be able to plug the drive into it, connect the enclosure to a modern Mac and see the disk contents.

If you don't have access to a modern Macintosh you should be able to read HFS+ formatted drives under windows with the software hfsexplorer.


How can I move files or directories marked as a backup?

If you list a file inside the TM backup with the Terminal command ls -l@, you'll see that it has extended attributes:

$ ls -l@ "iTunes Library Genius.itdb"
-rw-r--r--@ 22 admin  501  94208 Sep 17  2013 iTunes Library Genius.itdb
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot     50
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot     50

I guess you'll have to remove those from the files that you moved outside the TM backup folder. I haven't tried that myself, though, as I do not want to mess with my backups :)

To remove these attributes, use the attr command with the "c" option, like this:

xattr -c /path/to/file

You may have to use the bypass command for that again.

Let us know whether that works.


How to restore PHP to the original configuration?

There should be a /etc/php.ini.default file that you can copy to php.ini.


A standard macOS startup APFS container does contain additional volumes to the volume with macOS installed on it. You can list these with diskutil apfs list. The standard configuration of such a container is as follows:

disk1s1, the volume you boot from, mounted at /, shown in Disk Utility as Macintosh HD
disk1s2, ‘Preboot’, not mounted, hidden
disk1s3, ‘Recovery’, not mounted, hidden
disk1s4, ‘VM’, mounted at /private/var/vm, hidden

The last 3 are grouped as Other Volumes in Disk Utility. They're required by macOS and shouldn't be removed.


It looks like the proper two programs to give full access to are:

cron
terminal.app

See rsync in cron on Catalina no longer working


Computer is generally slow, Applications take 10 seconds - 3 minutes to launch, websites take 5-15 seconds to load, etc

It was curl together with mds and mdworker that caused this. I have tried it restart the computer 10 times, 5 times with the script on and it lagged like this all the time, but when I didn't run curl it was as fast as ever. I have researched but I can't at all figure out why curl would do this.


Is there any way to access display settings from the menu bar in Mavericks?

You can download the Display Menu app from the App Store

I use it all the time. Best of all - it is free!


Transfer PDF in iBooks from iPhone to iPad

There are a couple of options.

If you're using iCloud Drive, opening iBooks, scrolling to the item (a PDF, ePub or book) and tapping on the Download icon will download the item to your library. If you're not currently using iCloud Drive you can always turn it on under Settings / iCloud / iCloud Drive.

Syncing through a Computer. If both devices are synced with the same computer, you could go into iTune's device's Settings and enable Sync Books. Then syncing both devices would share the item. Bear in mind that if iTunes is set to sync only selected books, you'll need to manually check the checkbox next to the PDF you want to sync.

Send the file attached to an Email. Attaching the PDF to an email, opening it from the other device and saving the PDF file into iBooks would do the trick, too.


Can I bridge the iPhone wireless signal with a router to use it with ethernet cable?

Simply put, no, you cannot do this. However, I would like to believe there are different options for what you are trying to accomplish.

I am not too familiar with NVR's, however you should be able to bridge your connection from your iPhone to a laptop, via Wifi, and after that be able to bridge your laptop's connection to your NVR.

I wouldn't imagine it would be the most reliable thing in the world, but should work.

Steps to attempt this:

Create a hotspot with your iPhone. Settings > Personal Hotspot (Enable)
Connect to it with your laptop
Bridge your connection! Helpful links to bridge your connection below
http://www.countrymilewifi.com/how-to-share-computers-wifi-with-ethernet-devices.aspx
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-and-manage-network-bridge-connection-windows-10


Mouse middle click in Mac OS — Misson Control and Close Tab at the same time: How To?

There is one program that I have found that does this really well:  ControllerMate

Technically, it's very much overkill in comparison to what you need and what is provided by the commonly known apps like Karabiner, BetterTouchTool and Keyboard Maestro.

With ControllerMate, you can create a a sequence of events depending on what button is pressed with whatever modifier in whatever application you specify.

For example, I created a sample workflow that checks to see if the middle button of the mouse is pressed and if the mouse is on a Chrome Tab (this will have to be written outside this example), it will issue the Command W (Close) keyboard shortcut.

If you notice, I have this setup specifically for the "Chrome Group."  With this setting, you can create a "programming page" that is only active when you specify:

Bottom line:  this can be done, with a little Apple Script programming (so that you can detect when your Chrome Tab is in Focus) or when you are on a URL.


Multiple app versions from different developer accounts

You may be able to do this but without a clear and compelling reasons Apple might reject later editions.
Acceptable reasons might include differing legal ownership for different geographic regions.
From Apple's App Store Review Guidelines:

App Store Review Guidelines
2. Functionality
2.11 Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps


External disk - Unrecognized file system (-69846)

Try this in the exact order:

#FOR THE WHOLE DISK
diskutil eject /dev/disk2               #Eject the disk
diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk2           #Re-mount the disk

#FOR THE VOLUME(S) OF THE DISK
diskutil list                           #list volume identifiers.
diskutil mount /dev/disk2sXXX           #Mount the Volume. Dont enter a disk ID
diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk2sXXX    #Repair the Volume. Dont enter a disk ID

Basically you are trying to correct previous mounting/ejection related errors by making sure the disk is safely ejected before you do anything else.

Once that is out of the way, have the disk re-mounted. Next, have the volume re-mounted. Finally, repair the newly mounted volume.

Additionally, double check for any human error. Did you want to repair the volume or the disk because you specified a disk identifier to repair a volume. You typed:

diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk2

it should be

diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk2sXXX

Or use repairDisk if you wanted to repair a disk.


Can I share my Wifi connection on my iPad?

Just had the same issue in my hotel in the Dominican Republic, where I enjoy a great snow-free christmas. The hotel locks the DCHP to the MAC address of the first device that connects, thereby limiting usage to one device per paying customer--they think.

Just note the MAC address belonging to the wi-fi adapter of your first device and then you can soft-set that for each of your other MacBooks, Windows laptops or what have you. In OS X you can use…

sudo ifconfig en1 ether <your first device's MAC address>

…and then you are good to go. Turn wi-fi off on your first device. It's not perfect, but at least you do not have to pay multiple fees.


The Fing network scanner is the tool I'd use. You'll have to pay their upgrade to get syncing of the data and some advanced tools, but the free capabilities allow you to tap on the SSID and then geo-locate the device for the scanning and save the results for later review when you are elsewhere.

As for making colorful maps, that isn't something I've seen on an iOS map. You can collect that data for free using Airport Utility - but it's not geo-located and certainly not accurate over the ranges WiFi degrades.

You'd want to get a tool like AeroHive software and hardware to do enough measurements to map signal levels in a building or network area. Pretty much any enterprise managed WiFi solution has this.


Where are my old (previous) iCloud files after upgrading to OS X 10.10 Yosemite?

The files are still there, just no longer accessible via Finder.

You can use ls ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ to verify. To note, the folder has always been treated specially, and instead of just the App names, you'll see some unique strings followed by the app name.

For a paid solution, Path Finder by Cocoatech still displays all the files, helpfully removing the extra strings as Finder used to, while also directly jumping to the Documents section. It works pretty well, but Path Finder is expensive for its relatively unimpressive set of features, and the developers try to milk it each year.

For a free solution, Plain Cloud works, although its UI is pretty rough and bare bones, and the app itself is quasi-abandoned. (Currently there is a rendering error that causes the first app to be partially obscured, but using the reload button fixes this.)

Hope this helps.

PS. More directly to your question, if the files were truly stored in TextEdit's iCloud you should be able to access the files under TextEdit > Open > under iCloud Library choose TextEdit - iCloud.


iPhone 7 has magnetic area next to flashlight

All Apple cameras that have motors in them are magnetic.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208747

The permanent magnets are how battery power runs the image stabilization and focus mechanisms. Look for OIS and AF in the documentation to learn more.


Bash Autocomplete Script with El Capitan

After some more digging, I found that I can do "man -W" to get a list of folders that man checks when looking for the pages themselves, including the one where pthread_create is.

P.S. It looks like it's in the Xcode app folder now.


How to remove a very thin screen protector from an iPad?

Take and post a macro photo of the corner of the screen with very good light (and possibly use a prop to keep the camera still) and you might not need a magnifying glass to show if the cover was removed by someone when you didn’t realize it.

If you’re sure it’s on and cant make a purchase, I suppose you would want to use a copper wire or nail that you know is less hard than the glass and try to scratch the screen in a corner area to deform the protector material. There’s no way the cover and adhesive are going to be harder than glass. And if you’re wrong, you’re not super likely to damage the glass trying to locate a cover someone else might have removed for you already.

https://geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml

If you don’t mind a minor scratch, you could use a knife or razor blade to score enough of the corner to get the cover off or make a lip you could then slip the blade under. I don’t recommend that and let the cover wear or just pay for a replacement screen when yours no longer makes you happy. I worry if your screen has adhesive, and is that bonded, you might not like the glass or be able to clean the residue unless you know from the manufacturer what chemical will remove the adhesive and not damage the glass or the coating on the iPad.


VMware Fusion 6: cannot start Windows 2000 VM that worked in VMware Fusion 4

Open the virtual machine's configuration file .vmx using a text editor.
Remove the lines which starts with policy.vm.*:

policy.vm.mvmtid = "52 d6 6f f9 f3 36 0f 9f-31 da 9f f5 90 7b ce 76"
policy.vm.managedVMTemplate = "TRUE"
policy.vm.managedVM = "FALSE"

Save the file and close the text editor.
Restart the VM.

If you still encounter the error…

Rename/delete the file with the extension .vmpl
Restart the VM.

For further reading, check out this thread: VM's policies are too old to be run by this version


iPhone how to disable sound notifications at work

This can be done by scheduling Do Not Disturb.

Go into Settings → Do Not Disturb and enable Scheduled from 9 a.m. To 5 p.m.

Under Allow Calls From you may allow certain people to call you even while Do Not Disturb is active. Calls silenced by Do Not Disturb will go directly to voicemail.

At your discretion, you may also choose to Always silence notifications, or Only while iPhone is locked.

Emergency and Amber Alerts will still blare through Do Not Disturb. Those may only be silenced by toggling the hardware Mute switch, or by disabling them at the bottom of the Notifications menu.


Which purchasing option is best - Free+IAP or paid?

I followed up with a couple of developers of such apps that provide these two purchasing options.

It turns out that the sole reason that a second standalone purchasing option is offered (rather than just sticking with a single app with an IAP) is for those people who use Family Sharing.

As I alluded to in my question, IAPs don't work across Family Sharing so purchases that way wouldn't be reflected across all the devices you share.

If Apple didn't have this restriction, then a single free app with IAP would work for everybody - however because they do, then it doesn't.


Why are CPU fans running on my MacBook Pro 15" full blast while my laptop has just booted up and waiting at the login screen?

Check your login items and launch agents.
Update to the latest OS.
Open Activity Monitor when you log in. See what is gobbling up your CPU.


It was a stupid mistake on my part; I put the .dmg file in the plugin folder instead of the actual CoverVersion.bundle file. Now it works perfectly


Change send mail shortcut to tab + enter in Apple Mail

Because tab isn't a modifier key (like command, shift, option and control), you can't use it in combination with other non-modifier keys to make a shortcut. It's simply not possible the way the OS X input systems work AFAIK.

You might be able to jury-rig something together using KeyboardMaestro or similar apps that listens for tab-return and then executes the send mail command, but I don't know how well it would work, or how closely it would match your expected behaviour.


How to write AppleScript for clicking an OK button on a custom dialog?

You might simulate pressing command-Q and return instead:

delay 0.5 -- time to release modifier keys if for example the script is run with command-R
tell application "System Events"
    set frontmost of process "Live" to true
    keystroke "q" using command down
    keystroke return
end tell

Or use ignoring application responses so the quit command doesn't block the script:

delay 0.5
ignoring application responses
    quit application "Live"
end ignoring
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to keystroke return


How to make Google Calendars sync *all* data with iOS

What I encountered was a simple bug, not a GCal limitation.

What I did was removed Google Calendar completely from my iPad, then re-enabled it, waited until all was downloaded, and voila.

Phew!


In OS X Yosemite, how to keep the app switcher (or dock) on my main display?

App Switcher is controlled by Dock. Whichever display the dock bar is on, so is App Switcher. This applescript is how I reset Dock bar to main display:

tell application "System Events"
    set screen edge of dock preferences to right
    set screen edge of dock preferences to bottom
end tell

If you run Dock unhidden/visible, most likely the Dock will make a flash appearance on the rightmost edge. To get rid of the flash:

tell application "System Events"

    set autohide of dock preferences to true
    delay 0.2
    set screen edge of dock preferences to right
    set screen edge of dock preferences to bottom
    set autohide of dock preferences to false

end tell

You can bind the script to a keyboard shortcut so it can be invoked quickly when necessary.

If you always have Dock hidden, you can put the script in a loop with a preferred amount of delay, and run it as a daemon. This way the daemon will periodically make sure the dock is in main display.


Overcast app: Do Smart Playlists have a limit on the number of episodes they can contain?

All playlists and shows in Overcast currently have a limit of 500 episodes.

Source: https://marco.org/2018/03/13/overcast41


clone (Carbon Copy Cloner) my current working OS - I'm booting into it on a peripheral drive

I understand you are running off of an external drive now.

The iMacs are rather tedious to disassemble and re-assemble. They're like laptops.  Your friend should have experience working with pc laptops. Have him look over the instructions and see if it is within his skill set.

You may want to continue this way.  I'd recommend a second drive as a backup.  I would get an external ssd drive and use the current drive as backup. Give OWC a call 1.800.275.4576.  They will be able to advise you on which external drive for you machine will give you the best performance. I'm running an SSD off of an external drive. Performance is much improved over my rotating internal drive.  At first, I tried my usb 2.0 external drive.  It was too slow.  So I switch to a USB 3.0 external drive which gives me great performance.

One thing you missed is that you do not need an operating system on you new drive before using ccc to clone to a new drive.

I'm an elderly woman who is partially blind. I did find a step by step guide on iFixit and have a friend with tools and nimbler fingers than mine. He's not familiar with Mac's.

Your question is well written.  Hardware is hardware.

This is model iMac14,1 late 2013.

My problem is: How to get a functioning OS on the new drive so I can clone my old drive onto it.

You cannot be booted from the internal drive while cloning. So, there is no need for a starter macOS on it.

the plan

replace your internal drive.  I recommend a SSD drive. Costs a little more, but makes a noticeable speed improvement on your mac.
boot from your external drive.
Use CCC to clone your external drive to your internal drive.


Homebrew doctor warnings requesting library deletions

I got the same warnings, and worked it around with the following:

So first back up these files:

mv /usr/local/lib/libtcl8.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/libtcl8.6.dylib.bak
...

Then install tcl/tk with Homebrew:

brew tap homebrew/dupes
brew install tcl-tk --with-tk

Then link the files, so that R can find the tcl/tk installed by Homebrew:

ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/tcl-tk/8.6.1/lib/libtcl8.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/libtcl8.6.dylib
ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/tcl-tk/8.6.1/lib/libtk8.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/libtk8.6.dylib

Please double check that the linked location is where tcl-tk is installed.

Now both Homebrew and R are happy.

More details can be found on my blog. Hope this helps.


Weird message when I hit Send/recieve on Outlook on Mac

You likely have an email stuck in the Outbox.

Outlook is nowhere near the horror show it used to be but it is a complicated beast that wouldn't know an understandable error message if it bit it.

So look down the left hand side of your Outlook window in the folders. There is likely one there called Outbox and it is in bold possibly with a "(1)" next to it.

Open the outbox and the email in it and verify that the email address is correct and any attachments are not too big for your mail service and click on the send button.

Failing that you could copy the email into a NEW message and try sending it again.

If you are otherwise sending and receiving email then you are not in offline mode and it is most likely it is an email stuck in the Outbox.


Troubleshooting the USB ports and peripherals on a Thunderbolt display

I never figured out what the problem was, but it went away when I reset the SMC.


In terminal, scrolling prints weird characters

To fix this, just run the reset command. It will reinitialize the current terminal.


iPhone won’t update nor install new apps

I seem to recall having a similar situation a couple years ago. I don't recall the exact steps I took to correct, but I would start by logging out of the App Store on the device and then logging back in.

If that does not work, log out again, and then reset (not just restart) aspects of the device, then log back into the App Store. You didn't say what version of iOS you're running so you may have to poke around the settings a bit as Apple has changed how you do resets and what is affected. Make sure you have a back up of the phone first. With some of the new iOS versions, you can reset network settings before resetting all settings. I don't recall having to erase all data, so I believe you can skip that one. Again, please make sure you have a current backup!

With the iPhone5, if I recall correctly, you can press and hold both the power and home screen buttons for a few seconds which will also cause a reset.

After you try each step, I suggest just trying to download one or two updates at a time to make sure that will work. And I suggest being on a wireless network you have tested.

HTH,


Ok. Found it. You just have to select "By highlighted bullet" instead of "By bullet" for build order.

Has nothing to do with build-out!


Yes, it is possible. Press you finger hard against the screen over the reminder in the home screen and let go. If you have haptic feedback on, you will feel it. This will open the menu for snooze or mark as complete the reminder.


I would check Activity Monitor while you are clicking the Safari icon. See if there are any processes like "Safari" or "Safari Web Content" that is showing up, and see if there is a red "not responding". This probably will not happen if the app does not even bounce, but it's worth a try. You can also try basic things like right clicking, clicking "Show all windows" or going to Options and clicking asking to this desktop. Also, have you been working with multiple displays recently? The safari window may be "stuck" on the other display, so you should check it out by plugging any back in.


FTP Issues on MacOS, can't write on the disk

FTP is less used than it was due to security concerns. Do you have/ can you get access to the logs from the host? those will give more information about why the transfers are failing.

If you want a GUI you can connect as a specific user and use Screen Sharing to copy things off and on from that account as long as the host is configured to allow another computer to connect and use apple events. It can be something as simple as a guest account as long as it has a public drop box your client can drop whatever you need in there
press ⌘K to open the network connection.

If you don't care about the gui and are comfortable with the terminal:

try using ftp from the terminal -ftp will run in verbose mode giving you more information
try using ssh to connect to the host and use ftp on the host to send you the files


The master password cannot be used in place of any user's password, it can be used to reset any user's password from the login screen. Just try to log in with the wrong password, and it should show an option to reset it with the master password.

If you're not seeing that, and you have FileVault turned on, you may be looking at the pre-boot authentication screen instead of the login screen (they look very similar). The master password cannot be used a the FileVault pre-boot authentication screen, but a FileVault recovery key can (if you selected that option when enabling FileVault), or linked iCloud account can (if you selected the "Allow my iCloud account to unlock the disk" option instead). Alternately, if you have another (non-admin) account, you could log in with that at the pre-boot authentication screen, then log out to the regular login screen.


Power Macbook Air with Early 2008 Macbook Pro

Much like the commercial versions you mentioned, what you want to do is possible (that there are commercial versions essentially proved this).

You'll need to chop apart a MagSafe cable or figure out how to interact with Apple's airplane adapter. You'll also need to figure out how to interact with the batteries to get the correct voltage (and maybe do cell wear levelling).

Also, I doubt the MacBook Pro batteries will last anywhere near as long or be as reliable as the commercial versions.

(There was an original answer, but it made incorrect assumptions that were addressed in the comments. See the edit stack for the originals.)


iPhone fails to activate after a restore

To be clear, when you're saying the phone doesn't activate, do you mean to say that the cellular service is unavailable on the phone?

If so, I would try two steps first, and if those don't work, there are some other options floating around.

1) Try ejecting and reinserting the SIM card. This forces a reconnection attempt to the cell service provider's network. Make sure you're in a location where you normally get service to ensure your location isn't causing the problem.

2) If, after this, your connections still don't work, try restoring network settings. I know this is a cliche suggestion, and you did just restore your phone, but I've seen it work a lot. This too forces a reconnection attempt to your cell service provider's network.

If these don't fix your problem, go to an Apple store and have them check the hardware on your device to ensure it isn't failing/dead. It's a free and quick diagnostic.


How to save sent messages in same folder as message being replied to?

Mail can be extended to mimic pretty closely the feature you mention from Outlook.

OS X provides a feature called services that can be used to extend the functionality of an application (see http://www.macosxautomation.com/services/learn/index.html for more information).

I will use Automator and AppleScript to create a service that moves sent messages to the folder of the message being replied to, and then assign the standard reply keyboard shortcut (⌘R) to the service:

Close Mail.
Open Automator in folder Applications and choose Service:

Select Utilities under Library and drag Run AppleScript to the empty pane on the right:

Configure the service to receive no input in Mail:

Replace the contents of the Run AppleScript action with:

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Mail"
    try
        (* Get selected messages or exit *)
        set messageSelection to selection
        set selectedMessage to item 1 of messageSelection
        set replyMessage to reply selectedMessage opening window yes
        set messageID to message id of selectedMessage
        set currentMailbox to mailbox of selectedMessage
    on error
        return
    end try
    repeat
        (* Wait until reply message is sent *)
        delay 2
        try
            if replyMessage is not visible then exit repeat
        on error
            exit repeat
        end try
    end repeat
    synchronize with (account of currentMailbox)
    (* Wait while reply message is being sent *)
    delay 10
    (* Loop over all sent messages *)
    set sentMailbox to sent mailbox of application "Mail"
    set allSentMessages to messages of sentMailbox
    repeat with sentMessage in allSentMessages
        if source of sentMessage contains messageID then
            set mailbox of sentMessage to currentMailbox
            return
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

return input
end run

Save with a descriptive name like Reply and Move Sent Message to Current Folder. The service will be saved to ~/Library/Services/. This is what the service looks like:

Open System Preferences, select the Keyboard preference pane and then the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
Select Application Shortcuts, press the + button and change for application Mail the shortcut assigned to menu item Reply to ⌥⌘R. We change it to avoid conflicts when assigning ⌘R to the service below:

Select Services, scroll down to the service you previously added and set the keyboard shortcut to ⌘R:

Open Mail. Notice that Reply's shortcut is no longer ⌘R, but ⌥⌘R:

Also notice that there is a new service, accessible with ⌘R:

Now select a message in a folder, press ⌘R, type your reply and send it, in a few seconds you should see the sent message appear in the folder.

The script has some limitations and side effects:

The service can't tell canceled and sent messages apart. So, if you press ⌘R and then change your mind and close the window, the service will continue executing and check your Sent folder for matching IDs.
AppleScript doesn't offer any means of getting a list of replies to a message. My workaround is to get the message id of the message being replied to and search it in the sent messages.
The sent message can't be moved while being downloaded. AppleScript doesn't return any error message if that's the case, so I added a 10-second delay. A 5-second delay was not reliable in my tests, adapt it to your needs if necessary.
While the service searches the Sent folder, Mail slows down.


How to disable Wi-Fi temporarily with timeout on iOS?

This is not possible as iOS apps are not able to control system hardware such as Wi-Fi.


Slow WiFi speed on MacBook Pro late 2008 (A1286)

Be sure you are running the latest version of Mac OS X ( get 10.7.2+)
Apply all available system and software updates available to your Mac from Apple menu > Software Update
Reset the WiFi Router
After you’re positive you’re on the newest version of OS X and have all software updates applied to the Mac in question, proceed with the solution:

Add a New Network Location & Renew DHCP Lease

Launch “System Preferences” from the  Apple menu
Select the “Network” panel
Click on the “Location” pull down menu and choose “Edit Locations…”
Click on the + plus icon to add a new network location, give it a unique name, and click “Done”
Back at the Network panel with the newly created location selected, click on “Advanced” in the bottom right corner
Click on the “TCP/IP” tab
Click on “Renew DHCP Lease” and wait for the numbers on the left to repopulate, then click “OK”
Renew DHCP in Mac OS X Lion

You should now have a stable wireless connection under Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2.

For most users the wifi stability issue was resolved with installing the latest OS X Lion updates, but in some cases is seems that old network connection profiles brought the problem forward for to the newest OS update.


How to run Linux gui apps on macOS (e.g. via XQuartz)

You can't launch the Linux version of Firefox on macOS, because it is a binary for Linux calling libraries from Linux and calling system calls of Linux.

You have to build a macOS version of Firefox on macOS from the source tree you download from here:

https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

through the traditionnal steps:

./configure
make
/usr/bin/sudo make install

And during the configure step, you will have to take care to use the standard sets of X11 libraries (disclaimer: I didn't test this).


Set volume control for each app individually

I think SoundBunny is an app which works for this.
Link:
https://www.prosofteng.com/sound-bunny/
However it is paid $10 but there is a free month trial which you might be able to capture your video in time in that month. I haven't tried the app myself but it seems ok from the screenshots.


Does Apple make a keyboard with a wide "return" key, and modifier keys with their symbols printed on them?

As far as I can tell the answer is "no".  This page shows graphics of the various keyboards made by Apple.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2841

Whether a 3rd party makes an ANSI version with symbols on the keys I don't know.


Unable to run 'display notification' using osascript in a tmux session

As @kopischke said, install or upgrade reattach-to-user-namespace may solve this problem.

If your reattach-to-user-namespace is old, notification works well after brew upgrade reattach-to-user-namespace.


You could follow the instructions on this page at Adobe and uninstall the CS5 packages you don't need.

If you want to get rid of even more useless space, you could try Monolingual, which removes unneeded language resources.


Can I get back Snow-Leopard-like application hiding (Cmd-H) in Lion?

This is a great question. This might be intended behavior rather than a bug. Mission Control seems to have blended both the old Expose and the old Spaces. With that in mind, launching a new app Full Screen places it on its own desktop. When you get to Mission Control you see it placed to the right of the original, empty Desktop. Open a second app Full Screen and that will place it again on its own desktop, next to the first Full Screen app you opened.

Just like the Home Screens in iOS and the old Spaces, it would seem that Apple intends these desktops to stay, space-wise, in the same place. Mail is "to the left" of Safari if I opened Safari after opening Mail. I agree that this spatial notion collides with our pre-conceived understanding of the switcher. That is same reason why hiding is disabled for Full Screen apps (pressing ⌘+H will not hide a Full Screen app).

If everything is full screen, the concept of hiding becomes less relevant. I think back to the older versions of Mac OS, where you had stacks upon stacks of windows. Hiding an app like Adobe Photoshop (and all of its many opened child windows for each one of my many opened images) made sense. If such window "stacking" is spatially not there (because those Full Screen apps are now side-by-side, they're not really stacked) then it almost makes sense that it doesn't work.

Having said all of that, I could not agree more that Lion has completely messed around with the workflow of many old-time Mac users. I do not necessarily agree with Apple's decisions here, I am just trying to play advocate and see if this one in particular has some explanation that makes sense. Hope this helps.

Update:
This article at TidBITS mentions a new feature in Lion called Automatic Termination. I was not aware of this feature. I wonder if the behavior that is being experienced by this question's author is related to this.


Definitely make the SSD your boot/app disk and set your computer to put hard disks to sleep. But even then there are many factors that can cause the drive to spin up even. Sometimes just getting an open dial box will cause it to spin up.

I'd first make sure your HDD is not shown in the sidebar - if it is there it will definitely spin up every time you get a save or open dialog box or a finder window.

Even after doing that I still had it spinning up more than I wanted so I followed this blog post on Dae’s blog to make an apple script that will unmount or mount it so I can explicitly control when it sleeps or doesn't sleep. Incase the link dies, here is the script. It even does Growl notification:

set myVolumeLabel to "Storage HD"

tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
    set the allNotificationsList to {"Disk mounted", "Disk unmounted"}

    register as application "Disk Mounter" all notifications allNotificationsList default notifications allNotificationsList icon of application "Disk Utility.app"
end tell

tell application "Finder"
    set diskDev to do shell script "diskutil list | grep \"" & myVolumeLabel & "\" | grep -o 'disk[0-9]*' "
    if not (disk myVolumeLabel exists) then
        do shell script "diskutil mountDisk " & diskDev
        tell application "GrowlHelperApp" to notify with name "Disk mounted" title "Volume mounted" description "Disk “" & diskDev & "” with volume “" & myVolumeLabel & "” has been successfully mounted." application name "Disk Mounter" icon of application "Disk Utility.app"
    else
        do shell script "diskutil unmountDisk " & diskDev
        tell application "GrowlHelperApp" to notify with name "Disk unmounted" title "Disk unmounted" description "Disk “" & diskDev & "” with volume “" & myVolumeLabel & "” has been successfully unmounted." application name "Disk Mounter" icon of application "Disk Utility.app"
    end if
end tell

One thing to note - this unmounts ("ejects") an entire drive - not just a single partition.


Fairly new computer I would 100% talk with Apple support online to see what they recommend. Might be fine, but why not take advantage of the paid support for new hardware.


Stolen iPhone 4 not synced with my PC: are my videos backed up?

If you did have iCloud backup enabled it should have backed up the camera roll by default. The camera roll includes both photos and videos taken on your device.

See support.apple.com/kb/HT4859 for more info about what is included in iCloud backups.

If there was no iCloud backup made, then it's unlikely that your data is recoverable since it was never synced with iTunes.


Airdrop between newer and older macs without clicking the "Search for an older Mac" button

AirDrop was originally implemented using Bonjour/Bluetooth PAN (personal area network). Newer versions (starting with OS X Yosemite and iOS 7) support an improved version that's built on Bluetooth LE (iOS) and Wi-Fi (iOS, OS X), but also support the older implementation – you just have to tell it to look for those.

So, when you click "Search for an Older Mac", AirDrop actually switches from the newer Bluetooth LE/Wi-Fi implementation to the older Bonjour/Bluetooth PAN combo. Since they are two different protocols, they don't (can't?) show at the same time.

This iMore article, as well as WikiPedia, have additional info.

Edit: It may be possible to show old Macs alongside newer ones if you set the BrowseAllInterfaces system default to true. I haven't done this yet to confirm, but it may be the ticket.

Run this in Terminal:

# Enable AirDrop over Ethernet and on unsupported Macs running Lion
defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces -bool true

From mathiasbynens/dotfiles.

My understanding is that this will allow AirDrop to run over Ethernet, but, more importantly, over Wi-Fi on technically unsupported (i.e. older) devices.


The feature is not supported on macOS.

Depending on how many IP addresses you want to listen to, you could use a simple script to bind each IP-address to the interface individually using the ifconfig alias command.


How to disable ._ AppleDouble files for SMB?

Don't know of a way within Finder, but Blue Harvest (paid application) offers this functionality: http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest4/


Python continuously crashing after Catalina update

This was happening to me.  I had a cron entry that was running a python3 script in virtual env.

check your crontab for anything running python.   crontab -l

Install openssl with brew.  brew install openssl.

Then for any script you find in your crontab, make sure it has the openssl lib paths first in the LD_LIBRARY path.  Add this to either the shell script that starts your python script or to your ~/.bashrc file

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH


Launchd script's output not being logged to system.log

You can use the command loggerinstead.
For example logger "test" will result in
Nov  7 17:37:20 bounty.local napcae[82311]: test
in the file /var/log/system.log.

Altough you can use it, I'd recommend to write to your own log file.


How to open a HTML file of my PC in iphone's browser?

If you're willing to install ruby (already installed by default on OS X), you might want to check out Annyong. You can basically point it at any folder and tell it to serve it on an odd port.

If python is more your style (also installed by default on OS X), you can simply type python -m SimpleHTTPServer to serve the current directory on port 8080.

Otherwise, I sometimes use Dropbox for quick transfer to my iOS stuff.


How do I use a Wacom Intuos 2 on OS X Sierra?

From here, Is it possible to use old Wacom tablet on 10.11?

Drivers (look down page): https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support/product-support/drivers

How worked for me. Sierra 10.12.6 Intuos GD-0608-U. Clean installation driver 6.2.0w4 Go /Library/PreferencePanes, move to desktop WacomTablet.prefpane, open package (I use Pacifist on demo) and extract Info.plist, trash this WacomTablet.prefpane From driver 6.3.15-3, open installer package (Pacifist again) DO NOT INSTALL, open package, copy to desktop WacomTablet.prefpane, open package, change the Info.plist (with the one from 6.2.0w4). Close all. Put this prefpane in /Library/PreferencePanes. I set System Preferences.app to 32bit with info, before open Preferences, is working, close and set off 32bit. Summary: Is a 6.2.0w4 installation with a preferences panel from 6.3.15-3 which has inside an Info.plist from 6.2.0w4. This works so did not try any other version of the driver.
NOTE: whats different for me, is that all information is about a newest driver with and oldest PrefPane, that did not worked for me. The last driver for Intuos (GD series) is 6.2.0w4 and did not work on osX 10.12.6, so use that oldest driver installation, but with a newest PrefPane from 6.3.15-3 with inside the info.plist from 6.2.0w4. And you get a full functional System Preferences Panel, don't need old preferences file.


Why is "my passport air" suddenly not coming up as recognized by my macbook air? The light is on and it is vibrating as it usually does

Open System Information and check the USB bus to see if the drive is recognized on the connection level. If not, you need a new cable or a new drive or a USB port repaired. Try different ports to get a good USB connection.

Then, you need to use Disk Utility to see if the drive has problems. Once you've verified the USB connection is working, then open Disk Utility and click to unmount any drives using that USB connection (eject removes them - unmount allows diagnostics to finish or run).

At that point, you should be able to let the system finish checking the drive and optionally run the verify command.

Once you have a more specific failure, post a new question with details on what your situation is.


Restored boot drive from Time Machine, data drive permissions are hosed

You can change just the owner and leave the permissions alone. In fact, on the command line those are separate operations. If the problem is just ownership you can use something like:

sudo chown -R username /Volumes/blah/


Handoff webpages in Safari from iPhone to MacBook without the Dock

You can use a feature called iCloud Tabs.

Set up and use iCloud Tabs

  iCloud keeps the tabs you have open in Safari up to date on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. That means you can go from one device to the next and pick up browsing wherever you left off.

Once you have iCloud Tabs setup, simply launch Safari on your MacBook and go to Safari Menu bar → View → Show Tab Overview, or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + /.

The web pages open in Safari on all your linked devices are listed just below the tabs open in the current window.

The iCloud Tabs are listed just below all the open tabs in the current Safari window, so you may have to a bit of scrolling if you have a lot of tabs open in Safari on your Mac.

The beauty of iCloud Tabs is that it also works the other way round. You can easily open pages from your Mac on your iPhone. This comes in handy especially since iPhone (unlike iPad) doesn't show a Handoff icon in the Dock.


Which command controls the open file limits?

The simple answer used to be that there were multiple limits and the lowest limit that you reach in a specific instance will generate your error. Now on 10.12 launchctl limit maxfiles is also in the mix. For details on implementation, this great answer is getting bounty and deserves more votes than the one I can give it.

other relevant threads are:

`ulimit -n` for non-root
Why won't kern.maxfiles setting in /etc/sysctl.conf stick?

The ulimit level is set low to prevent one poor shell script from flooding the kernel with open files.

The kern.maxfilesperproc is there to leave a little room in the max files count so that one process can use most but not all of the open file handler space from the kernel.

For normal situations, the kern.maxfiles is the final limiting factor.

On Sierra - the limits are 256 open files and unlimited max, so I'm finding that having 3 to 4 thousand files set for the soft limit works for just about all our hardware and still keeps the system responsive when a runaway process opens too many files. We do like to keep our development servers at the 256 limit so that we catch leaky and problematic software in development / staging and test rather than finding out about it in production.

http://krypted.com/mac-os-x/maximum-files-in-mac-os-x/

I'm not a fan of 10k files - maybe with APFS and NVMe storage we will see the day when that's not unthinkable, but try to stick with hundreds or low thousands for your file limits. Especially if your mac has a low process limit, having so many files opened by so few processes can be problematic.


Only keep the escape key on touch bar keyboard

System Preferences -> Keyboard ->
  Touch Bar shows: Quick Actions
  Press Fn key to: Show Control Strip

After that you only have Esc and Configure in: Extension Preferences buttons on the Touch Bar, while quick actions are accessible through pressing the hardware Fn key.

Now, the question is how to also remove that Configure in: Extension Preferences button as it still results in accidental key presses, but at least it only shows a preferences window, which is easy to quickly close with Cmd+W.


iMAC Late 2009 - Only boots in Safe Mode

I had to take it to a Mac Repair Shop.  Bad Video Card. $180 to fix


How Do I Transfer A Project File Created Using iMovie 7 To A Hard Drive?

I’m not sure I understand you… you created a Movie Project in iMovie 7 (which if I’m not mistaken is the iLife ’08 version) and now you want to move it to an external drive?

You don’t mention your Mac OS X’s version but that shouldn’t really make much of a difference.

Ok should the above be correct, you have to locate your project in your hard drive. It will be probably located in your Movies folder. Assuming you have connected your external drive and the drive is ready to use (i.e. Partitioned and Formatted) for OS X, you simply have to open two Finder Windows (use CMD + N to open a new finder window).

After you have the two Finder windows, navigate one to where you see the project in your /Movies folder. and in the other Finder, go to your external drive.

Click in the iMovie project and Drag it to the other finder window (don’t release the mouse/trackpad button). When you reach your external drive, release it.

It will be copied, not moved. When the copy is over, simply drag the old one to the Trash. :)

I’m sorry if this sounds too simple (or too complicated), the thing is that the nature of your question could be as simple as “how do I copy a file in OS X” or as complicated as “I got a new hard drive and I want to use it”. Both things are not complex, but the instructions for each are completely different. :)


Keyboard shortcuts for new window in Chrome or iTerm2

To make a single hotkey always create a new Chrome window, launch Automator. Tell it to create a new Service Have the service take no input. Assign a single action to the service: Run AppleScript (in the Utilities list of actions).

Here is the AppleScript:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        activate
        delay 0.1
        make new window
    end tell
    return input
end run

Save the service with a name like "New Chrome Window". Then, in System Preferences assign an unused keyboard shortcut to the service. You can then create a new Chrome window no matter what application you are in.

To improve the service substantially, replace "Google Chrome" with "Safari". :-)

To create a new window in a different scriptable app, replace "Google Chrome" with the name of the app you want to create a new window.


Can Microsoft RDC client use retina scale resolution on the MacBook Pro?

Go to RDP settings, add the full screen resolution of your Mac (eg. 2880x1800 or a scaled version thereof, eg. 1920x1200, 2160x1350, ...).

Go to connection and choose that resolution and enable scaling.  Looks exactly like Jump


I did it. (Apple Developer).

I have a second computer that I use for all beta testing, running OS X 10.6.  I used the app store on that computer to download the Lion Beta Installer.  It downloads and installs just like any other app.  You then run the Lion Beta Installer app and it reboots and installs Lion as if it came off a CD.  After another reboot, you are running Lion, with all your apps and settings working just fine.

Hope this does not defy the NDA.


To fix this try the following:

boot to internet recovery mode by pressing cmdaltR immediately after the start-up chime. Depending on your internet connection the boot process may take several dozen minutes.
open Disk Utility, choose your main volume, verify and repair it if necessary

if you had to repair errors just repeat the step to recheck that all errors are gone
reboot to your main drive
if the problem persists boot to single user mode by pressing cmdS after the start-up chime to circumvent the lockout.
after booting is done just enter 'exit' at the prompt to start to the common Aqua interface.
download Onyx or Yosemite Cache Cleaner
start Onyx
clean system/user caches

or start Yosemite Cache Cleaner
clean system/user caches

** "System" is the name of the start volume in my VM. Your volume name may be different.
restart your Mac


Sounds like you may be blocked on her phone.

If you turn your "Show caller ID" to off and try ringing that will tell you.
If the call goes through, your number must be blocked(and can be unblocked from her iPhone) or if the call still fails, you may have a bigger issue.


Mac Mini (summer 2011) and Dell U2711 - How to get the maximum resolution 2560x1440?

Thunderbolt contains a DisplayPort channel.  You can get a Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.  I found a cheap one on Monoprice a while back. Here is a 6 footer.


The entire idea of encrypting something is you can't access it without the password. Passwords are never stored anywhere in plain text.

Modern password structures mean that only a hash of the correct input is stored.
If you input the correct password, the hashes match; without the password ever actually been stored anywhere at all, only the 'maths' necessary to test for when it is entered correctly.

So, in short, if you don't have the password, you don't have access to the data.
Not even Apple can unlock it for you.


Why is the wrong button showing up in my contacts app?

Please follow the latest instructions to refresh your contacts on your device:

To refresh your contacts:

Open the Contacts app and tap Groups in the upper-left corner.

Swipe down on the list to refresh your groups.

Additionally, since you use iCloud, you may want to check your contacts by using the iCloud website.


What are the pros and cons of using iTunes to manage my iPod?

Pros: All works. Easy to use. Easy to Configure. Does Backups of your data. Allows iTS purchases. Handles everything for you. And every other iTunes feature that you might consider important (AirTunes for example).

Cons: iTunes might be a “heavy” application for some machines with limited RAM. Even if all you want is a music player, iTunes is all or nothing.


The locate database is updated by the following cronjob:

/private/etc/periodic/weekly/310.locate

On Most Mac systems, Cron has been replaced by launchd, and you'll find that /etc/crontab doesn't exist. The schedule for this scheduled job is determined by launchd, and can be seen with one of the following commands:

% cat /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist
    #### SNIP
<dict>
    <key>Hour</key>
    <integer>3</integer>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>15</integer>
    <key>Weekday</key>
    <integer>6</integer>
</dict>

Or, something a little more user friendly:

% open /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist

launchd will then run the jobs specified in /etc/periodic/{daily,weekly,monthly}/*, using this schedule.


Can a 3.7 Watt LiPo battery trigger the charging symbol on an iPhone?

It will not work. iPhones use USB and require 5 volts. They do have a margin of error and I have measured as low as 4.6 Volts being recognized, but 3.7 is too low.


What happens in your proposed case is that if you delete messages from the iPhone, and then power on your Mac, the Mac will not receive those deleted messages.

EDIT: Well, folks, I stand corrected. I certainly believed the above to be the case, but my tests proved otherwise. I sent several messages from multiple devices to other devices that were powered down. Each message was deleted before the recipients were powered back on. Although there was a significant lag in reception (one took nearly ten minutes), all messages that were sent were received, even those that were deleted.

Several of the messages were out of sync, which doesn't surprise me given the flakiness of the iMessage system during its infancy. However, to the original question, the answer is that messages, deleted or otherwise, eventually find their destination, even to devices that were powered down when those messages were transmitted.

(Hat tip to tubedogg for the correction.)


Notification Center on iOS 6 is not removing deleted emails

This is a bug that should be fixed, but possibly also a feature request.

The problem is simple. iOS won't remove notification from notification center when the app that post the notification launches. The developer has to tell the app to do it in order to clear all notification at app launch.

While this behavior is expected by user, developer might want finer control over when to clear the notification.

So, Mail doesn't clear the notification, and posted notification cannot be removed by app. And that ultimately result in this weird notification that links to a deleted email.

You should file a bug at Apple Bug Reporter.


Search within opened file in Xcode without Apple keyboard

One way to do this is to access the search function through the Edit menu. Select Edit > Find > Find...

The search box will appear for the currently selected file:


Is there a way to modify keychain item ACL descriptions?

After quite a tedious research it seems that there is no easy way to edit the description of the private key, so basically unless Apple enhances their Keychain Access application there is no way to distinguish between multiple digital IDs imported into the same key chain.

It also looks like Google Chrome (and Chromium) have implemented some key management routines and are managing the descriptions of imported private keys.  However, I didn't figure out exactly how to leverage this functionality yet.

Anyway, the short answer to my question: there is no way to modify item's ACL and/or their descriptions in OS X keychain at the moment and it seems that nobody really cares.


How do I flush the DNS cache on a OS X 10.6 machine?

Use

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

or

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

In 10.6 the handling of Unicast DNS is now managed by mDNSResponder - dscacheutil -flushcache now just tells mDNSResponder to restart (the second command above).


Eclipse: switch between editors keyboard shortcut

If I get right you want cmd+option + (→ or ←)

And also you can change any shortcuts by going to Eclipse Preferences (cmd ,) and chose general in left side window and select key then scroll to find your desired shortcuts.


How can I remove Finder and Trash from my dock (for Mojave)

The Finder in MacOS is 'always on'. There is no need to Launch it in normal operation, so having it in Launchpad is fruitless. Any app currently running will normally appear in the Dock: so the Finder, being always on, will always be in the Dock.

The Dock provides functionality as follows: by right clicking on the Finder's icon, you can bring to the foreground any open Finder window, and perform other tasks like creating a new window or connecting to a server. You can also control whether the Finder is linked to a particular display or Desktop space.

Right-clicking will also show if the Application is Not Responding, in the event of a problem, and is a useful troubleshooting technique. (Admittedly, there are other methods of performing all these functions, but the Dock is arguably the easiest.)

Similarly, the Trash icon is only to be found in the Dock. You can of course send files and folder to the Trash with a key command, but the only way of dragging a file to the Trash is onto the Dock. Clicking on the Trash icon is the easiest way of opening the Trash to recover trashed files. You could not drag a file from a Finder window into the Trash within LaunchPad.

There is always a compromise to be struck between "ways I'd like to do things" and "ways that the OS is designed to do things". Sometimes it's possible and desirable to modify the defaults; and sometimes it's not possible (without making significant alterations that may cause unforeseen difficulties, limitations or even 'damage' to the OS).

Customisations to Apple's System files are possible, but require regular maintenance to ensure that new system updates have not restored Apple's original data, or changed things so that the customisation no longer works or even causes problems.


Turns out that it was the hard drive that was the problem. Changing to another drive solved my problem.

Perhaps Error (-50) is an indication that the drive is failing? I am not sure, but I will leave this here in case someone else runs into the same problem.

Edit: I ran some diagnostics and the SMART test fails so it was definitely the disk.