Receiving iMessages from a deleted contact

In short, no. If you want someone to stop sending you iMessages, you have to explicitly block them.

To block someone, open the Messages app, Go to Preferences, Accounts, and click on the Blocked tab. Hit the plus sign to add someone to the list.

This only blocks iMessages and won't block normal text messages (if you have an iPhone and it's set up to do handoff to your Mac).


OSX - File Sharing - Permission problems

Buscar, thanks a lot and you were right with the ACL issue.
I would like to "vote up" your answer, but I can't do that if it's just a comment? At least I didn't figure out how.

In any case: I would recommend to look into this explanation and way forward:
https://gist.github.com/nelstrom/4988643

What needs to be done is this:
In OSX High Sierra:

Create a Share, e.g. /Users/admin/share.
Create a Group, e.g. "sharegroup", and share /Users/admin/share to that groupo and give read&write permissions.
Add users to the group, that are supposed to have access to the folder
run the following command from the github link above:

chmod -R +a "group:sharegroup allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /Users/admin/share

And after this small command, I could use the mac Mini as a "normal" file server. Several users could access the shared folder(s).

I did not (have to) run the other command that was stated in the github link:

 chown -R demo:sharegroup /Users/admin/share

I wasn't sure what it does.

If someone else should read this post and should (same as I) have an issue in understanding what ACL's are and what this setting change means, I personally found this forum thread helpful (but take care since the "chmod command" is faulty, when being copied and pasted):

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7566517?page=2


Safari 'forgets' cookies, iTunes requires authentication 3 times?

My bet would be your keychain is corrupt.

Launch Keychain Access in Applications/Utilities.

From the main Keychain Access menu choose Keychain First Aid.

Enter your password & then Verify.

If it finds any errors, then run Repair.

I've found that after that, it can still find errors to fix, so keep running verify/repair until it runs clean.


Creating System-Wide Keyboard Shortcut To Launch Applications

Most system events can be directly handled and manipulated with Automator. Automator is highly resourceful, yet not taken advantage of. I'll walk you through the steps to creating a system wide keyboard shortcut for opening any application, but in your case, Terminal.

Step 1 : Open Automator [located in Applications > Automator]

Step 2 : Create a New Service for your 'Document Type'

Step 3 : Before moving forward with anything else, ensure you change the input methods in the top right sidebar to where it is now capable of running without any input in a specific application. Emulate the following picture:

Step 4 : Click on the Library tab 'Utilities' > Drag and Drop the 'Launch Application' into your workflow. Select your Application, in your case, you will have to manually find it by selecting 'other'. Your screen should now resemble mine:

Step 5 : Save your Service to whatever name you want, for this instance, I went ahead and saved mine as Launch Terminal, you'll see why this is important in a minute.

Step 6 : Navigate to your System Preferences > Keyboard > 'Shortcuts' tab.

Step 7 : Click on the 'Services' tab in the left side bar and all your services will populate. Navigate to the 'General' section, and since it's a newly created service, it will automatically be turned on by default. Here is where you can set your keyboard shortcut. [THERE WILL NOT BE ONE BY DEFAULT]

Step 8 : Close your System Preferences after you set the shortcut and test it out! Voila! Magnifico!

There are some things to consider when selecting your shortcut:

SHIFT+CMD+T is a widely used variable. The shortcut you set shouldn't be a keyboard shortcut used elsewhere. Since we didn't specify an input or specific application, this shortcut can be used system wide. However if an app already is hard coded to use this keyboard shortcut, yours will be overrided. Safari has the same short cut, so the Application will override your service keyboard shortcut. So use a pattern of keys not used elsewhere.  For safety I used : SHIFT+CONTROL+OPTION+CMD+T as no other applications really use that. You can use whatever you want, I just wanted to clear that up before people commented.
Why is saving the name appropriately important? Services populate according to the types of files you select in finder in the right click contextual menu. So for example: you select a finder menu item that is a picture and you have a service set to resize those photos, the contextual menu will populate that service in there :    As you can see the service populates in your contextual menu, that doesn't matter now since you didn't specify input or an application when creating the workflow in Yosemite, but you don't know how this will effect future OS releases.


"AirPlay speakers" are to be used when you have an Apple router that's directly connected to some speakers (no TV), therefore you can only stream audio and not video.

If you were to connect an Apple TV to a monitor, then you can stream both audio and video, as well as mirror your iPhone/MacBook screen onto your TV. Unfortunately, without an Apple TV you cannot stream video.


Use HTML as primary source for an e-book usable in Apple's iBooks?

I have used Calibre on many occasions to convert HTML files to ePub and mobi format ebooks. It's the ePub format you need to use for iBooks.


How to fix Quicktime that is not playing videos from Apple's website?

In the past I had ad blockers that picked up on Apple's website videos (not the keynote that you have mentioned specifically) but worth checking if you have any extensions or addons installed that is currently doing that


Cursor movement to beginning/end of line in iOS - possible?

Sure you can. On iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus in landscape you have  these controls. I have marked with red:

But if you want in portrait mode or you have iPhone earlier than 6, do steps:

Long press on text until it appears that magnifying glass and while pressing drag cursor to the beginning of subject and it will move.

This works on landscape and portrait


Exporting all file locations that could not be found on iTunes

suggest you go a different path.

first remove all the broken links in itunes
Can I easily view all songs that iTunes can't locate in Finder?

then drag&drop your complete lib back in itunes (there wont be duplicates, if you drag files that are already linked/imported.)

done


How to attach spotlight found document to mail message with os x yosemite?

As the other answers suggest, you can simply drag and drop into your mail message.  However, I found that this is not always the behavior that I want.  Sometimes I want to see the file in the context of its own folder, or get additional files around it.

Holding down the Command ⌘ key, while double-clicking on the Spotlight result, will open the containing folder of your image (or any file) in the Finder.  I use this function all the time.

As a bonus, just holding the Command ⌘ key will show you the path of the file underneath its Preview, as illustrated in the following screenshot.


Reset your phone to factory settings will remove it, but will also reset all the other settings (maybe not what you want ??).

Another solution could be to just "Sign out" of the Store "Settings->Store" - BUT if you have bought apps, and they need to be updated, then you still need to enter your Apple ID.

Can you perhaps tell us why you want to forget your Apple ID ??


Completely restore root and home folder after many problems with Macports and Homebrew

All those files look normal to me, including the hidden ones.  Unless you had/have an active backup from a date before your changes, there is no way to "restore" it back to an exact state before "opening Terminal". (That made me chuckle)  That being said...

Should be possible to back up user data (your home folder entirely), erase your hard drive (from the Recovery partition if necessary), reinstall OS X, and move your user data back.  The sacrifice there is any system-level applications/preferences that you've set.  However, it's likely the Homebrew/MacPorts settings on the system-level that are causing your issues.

It really boils down to how much time you want to spend digging through documentation, trying different things, changing different settings to get your system back to the way you want it.  If you have the time and patience, it will be much more rewarding and (possibly) less impactful to your OS X environment.

On the flip side, it's sometimes easier (and more time-effective) to just "nuke and pave" as we call it. :)


Does Apple Care+ provide International Warranty on iPhones?

Be careful but also you might be fine in many / most cases. Also, AppleCare and AppleaCare Plus are not warranties but service programs.

https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/applecare/applecareplus/

Warranty is certainly one very good form of legal consumer protection. This body of law affects and extends and restricts business and you only get this protection from the country of purchase and generally for less often from the country of import to.

Is Apple's warranty international?

Just as with warranty, there is language that allows Apple to restrict service to the country of sale:

  Apple may restrict Hardware Service and ADH Services to the country where the Covered Equipment was originally purchased.


What is this mysterious floating menu bar?

I had similar problems with applications leaving artefacts on the screen with later versions of OS X. Try to quit also apps in menubar. Download something like magican, or some other program that lets you see what all is running on your mac, check activity monitor for what all is running.

And it may be good to try to relaunch finder (cmd+option+esc, and choose finder, relaunch).


Apple said we can use iMovie to make App Previews, but I can't export the correct size using iMovie

Make sure you go to File->New App Preview (available on iMovie 10.0.6 on Yosemite).


Outlook on Mac: Move email messages between different accounts

I haven't been able to try moving with drag & drop but exporting and importing works well.
Exporting : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/export-items-to-an-archive-file-in-outlook-for-mac-281a62bf-cc42-46b1-9ad5-6bda80ca3106
Importing : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/import-email-messages-contacts-and-other-items-into-outlook-for-mac-6cc48404-a65c-4b8c-a12a-95a905249414


I'm guessing you have what's known in Unix as a zombie process. Unlike the less friendly dead people, zombies in your computer won't eat your brains, and they also won't do much of anything else. They don't take up any resources. It's basically just going to sit there until you reboot, or you lop its head off. OS X doesn't seem to tend its fences when it comes to zombies. I can think of a game or two they should play which would help them out with this a bit...

For more info on Zombies, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_vs._Zombies

or, even more helpfully:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_process


How reliable is Find My iPhone "Erase My Mac" feature?

This macobserver.com article details the procedure that is set into action when you click that big red 'Wipe Mac' button, and how that data could be recovered.

In conclusion...

  A remote lock state limits boot options on the Mac, but can still be circumvented by pulling the drive and mounting it on another computer.
  A remote wipe wipes all internal drives and, once complete, leaves access only to the Recovery Partition.

This Apple knowledgebase article also mentions that

  If the device is online, the remote erase begins within seconds (if the device is a Mac, it also restarts before it’s erased), and a confirmation email is sent to your Apple ID email address (the one you use with iCloud).


iPhone 4s iOS 9.3 here; How to adjust the sound balance of the audio in very small db increment?

The slider control is much improved on iOS 10 - I find that once I start to drag left or right, moving my finger below the slider substantially lets me see it move in very small increments and let go precisely where I wish.

I do use newer hardware, so you might be out of luck with iPhone 4s and iOS 9 if you can't get such a small fine adjustment with either a stylus or your fingers.


HP doesn't make any iOS apps with this functionality, no - have you tried opening the printer's webpage in Safari on the iPad however?

None of my OfficeJet 6500 or 4500 printers can run the scan functions from their status pages, but perhaps your model is slightly different.


Macbook Air Running version 10.7.5 won't connect to wifi but connects via Ethernet

Try resetting any proxy settings you may have enabled (go to System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Proxy)
Reset your router
Attempt to connect via WPS if your router supports it
Find the IP address of your router and enter it into the URL bar of your browser


How to backup SSD if MacBook doesn't turn on?

How do I backup my SSD when my MacBook doesn't even turn on? I'm
guessing I need to remove the SSD but I don't know what to do after
remove it.

You are correct; you just need to remove it.
What you do afterwards is put it in a safe place (like a desk drawer).
Why?
There's no need to erase, much less even have, an internal SSD to diagnose and repair a power issue.
If the "Apple Center" (you didn't say if they were an actual Apple Store or an authorized 3rd party repair facility) said that "wiping" the drive was necessary, I would look for another facility.
You can boot a MacBook from USB, another SSD, or from another MacBook (via Target Disk Mode) so there's no reason that they should get yours (as a side note, they should have spare ones with clean OSes for diagnostics). An internal drive is absolutely not necessary for diagnosis/repairs (unless of course the issue is the SSD itself). As it's a power issue, the SSD is irrelevant and shouldn't even be touched.
The fix...
The problem that you are experiencing is related to the DC-in board (aka the MagSafe board).

Besides being the interface for your charger to your MacBook, it acts as a safeguard to ensure that you're not dumping 18V DC into your SMC (which handles power) that only takes 3 volts. (It's also very inexpensive).
It's not a complex fix, but it is detailed as you do have to remove the logic board. iFixit.com has an excellent step-by-step walk through on how to do this.  However, if this is not your cup-of-tea, I advise taking it in.
That said...you should be backing up on a regular basis.


What does the 'lock' checkbox on the 'Get Info' - 'General' - screen do?

This checkbox provides a means for the user to lock the item (i.e. a file or folder). Once locked, it can’t be changed or deleted.

Notes:

When I say it can’t be deleted, what I actually mean is that if you try to delete it you’ll get a prompt alerting you to the fact it’s locked. However, this prompt does give you the option of moving it to the Trash anyway.
Locking a file does not prevent someone from opening/viewing the file. In other words, locking does not password protect it.
To unlock an item, just go back into its Get Info screen and deselect the Locked checkbox.


memtest86(+) not working on MacBook Pro 8,3 17" 2011?

I had the same weird behavior on a 17" Macbook Pro (Late 2011). So this is probably not a sign of trouble. I wanted to be sure that the memory was actually OK, and I remembered that there are two versions of memtest86:
memtest86 (by PassMark, memtest86.com) and memtest86+ (GPL from memtest86.org)

The Passmark versions seems to have more active development at the moment. I gave it a try, and it actually works on the MBP 17"! Be sure to boot in in EFI mode, otherwise an older version of it will start which exhibits the same reboot behavior as the memtest86.org version.


In numbers or pages for ios, Is it possible to force a trend line to start at (0,0)?

The trendlines are based on the data and can't be forced thru any points. What you could do is have the app print out the equation for the trendline and plugin 0 to see what new trendline looks like. You can then adjust the coefficients so that you have a new trendline thru 0.0. This may not be a good representation for the trendline.

Another possibility is to add several pairs of 0.0,0.0 to the row and column you are plotting. Start with just 2 or 3 pairs and see how that affects the trendline. Depending on your trendline, you may need more pairs. this will weight that part of trendline more than other parts and will cause a shift in the line.

It should be noted that the trendline you enforce will probably not represent the data very well. If the value at 0.0 is actually 245, while the other values you have are in the range of 200-250, for example, forcing it to zero at zero is a bad idea. Adding data points is also a bad idea because you inputting data that doesn't exist grossly changes your data set.

The trendline is a representation of the data in a relatively simple manner. Changing it makes it no longer representative of the data. If you suspect your data at 0.0 should be 0.0, then this is probably a method to determine that.


I’ve experienced many issues using Text Replacements that start with certain symbols, like - = $ and many more (including punctuations). This even extends to replacements that start with numbers.

Those replacements themselves may work, but having them saved might block others from working. Such failures may be limited to specific apps, as you’ve noticed.

Here are my notes on what interacts with what…

The following prevent :) from triggering:

...
--
-_-
->
$)
401k
8B
8o

The following prevent ;) from triggering:

|(
|)
2d
3g
>)
>(
>=

The following didn’t work at all:

1/2
1/3
etc.

I've found that only using replacements that start with : ; ( ^ and letters makes the feature work very reliably.

This affects only macOS (up to and including Sierra 10.12.4). I haven't experienced issues with Text Replacements on iOS at all. However since they sync over iCloud I've had to remove all those “bad” strings.

I arrived at this conclusion by painstakingly removing text substitutions and checking if non-working substitutions suddenly started working. Sure enough, each time I removed all those that started with a given character, an entire class of previously non-working ones started working.

My guess is that macOS treats different characters as word boundaries, and that different applications may use their own rules as well. That would break how substitution strings are detected across macOS apps. For instance on iOS you often need to add a space to trigger a replacement, even one that ends with a ). On macOS the substitution typically occurs immediately.


It's just a basic area code lookup. It may not be the actual location of the caller.


Does Thunderbolt 1 provide USB (3.0) functionality?

No.  Thunderbolt 1 does not provide any USB functionality.

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 provide only two protocols:  PCIe 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.1a and 2.0 respectively.  Thunderbolt 3 is (currently) the only one that supports PCIe 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2 (two streams), USB 3.1 gen 2, and power delivery.


Trouble browsing Windows network printers from Mac

Apple's knowledgebase article on troubleshooting shared Windows printers specifies that printers on a different subnet won't show up in the Windows dialog of Add Printer. This sounds to be the case for you.

Since you're able to connect to the domain via smb, you should be able to manually add the printer(s). Select the "Advanced" button at the top of the Add Printer dialog from your screenshot.

Select "Windows" from the Type dropdown menu. You can manually enter the printer's smb URL:

smb://Windows_name/printer_share_name

or possibly

smb://user:password@Windows_Computer_Name/Shared_Printer_Name

Select the appropriate driver and click "Add".

You can get the full steps on how to manually add a Windows printer from Apple's knowledgebase here.


How to read and understand kernel reports?

There is a deluge of info in a kernel panic log. I have had some problems lately so I was looking at kernel panics on my macbook and can offer the following hints based on some .panic logs I have.
First the name of the log is important. you need to look for files of the following form in your system diagnostic folder:

kernel-**(some personal data like name of my pc)****.panic

(unfortunately i got some .gpuRestart and .hang ones on mine too..)

Anonymous UUID:       F******************************* <-personal data

Sun Aug  9 22:23:37 2015

*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800c617cc2): Kernel trap at 0xffffff800c5d0395, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x0000000080010033, CR2: 0x0000000000000009, CR3: 0x0000000423b7f051, CR4: 0x00000000000626e0
RAX: 0xffffff800cce0cd0, RBX: 0x000000000000003f, RCX: 0xffffff800cce08e0, RDX: 0x0000000000000001
RSP: 0xffffff81f4cb2f80, RBP: 0xffffff81f4cb2f90, RSI: 0xffffff8019059000, RDI: 0x000000000000003f
R8:  0x00000000000001c0, R9:  0xffffff80190e6fc0, R10: 0x0000000000000100, R11: 0x0000000000000000
R12: 0xffffff80383643c0, R13: 0xffffff803e95c200, R14: 0xffffff801919e040, R15: 0x0000000000000000
RFL: 0x0000000000010296, RIP: 0xffffff800c5d0395, CS:  0x0000000000000008, SS:  0x0000000000000010
Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000009, Error code: 0x0000000000000002, Fault CPU: 0x0

the first part shows the state of the registers . I dont think that this is info that you can personally act upon

However after that the good stuff comes...
some other register info

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
...
0xffffff81f4cb3420 : 0xffffff800c736c01
0xffffff81f4cb35e0 : 0xffffff800c733202
...
0xffffff81f4cb3fb0 : 0xffffff800c635068

and then:

      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.sophos.kext.sav(9.2.50)[D9AF65D9-4A18-3B20-86BB-17DEBC7D5852]@0xffffff7f8cc18000->0xffffff7f8cc1cfff
         com.apple.filesystems.exfat(1.4)[6B0642D6-786C-323D-A762-9FFE6BFABFAF]@0xffffff7f8fa74000->0xffffff7f8fa81fff

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: InterCheck

this is info that maybe is important. It shows the last kexts (kernel extensions) loaded into your system. Most of the times they are the culprit for kernel panics... or at least the usual suspects.A good first move is to disable temporarily one of these kexts and see if the frequent kernel panics stop.

PS. it should be noted that the link offered as a comment by a fellow SE-er is very good if a bit verbose. However sometimes (eg. in a development situation) that amount of detail is just what is needed so you should definitely consult it


Mac Crashed during High Sierra Update - Won't reboot

FTW if anyone is experiencing this I solved it by running the “faulty” computer on target mode and using its disk a boot disk on another MBP did all the update process with no problem at all. Then restarted and it came back to life.


How do I open a file as root in TextEdit on Lion?

You can open up a textedit instance as root by entering the full path to the actual executable :

sudo -b "/Applications/Textedit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit"

Once your root instance is open you could browse to the file you need or do this from the command line :

sudo su - root -c "open -e /etc/apache2/httpd.conf"


Keychain keeps locking since upgrade to Lion. I get prompted every 5 min, turn it off

Are you sure it's a keychain password and not just a standard administrator authentication?

It might be wise to run a permissions repair in Disk Utility or run Keychain First Aid from the application menu of Keychain Access.

In Keychain Access preferences, you can also elect to show the Keychain's status in the menubar to ensure that it's unlocked when it's supposed to be.

It's possible that you have more than one keychain and are being prompted to unlock older unused keychains. The two required keychains should be System and login--login is your personal keychain and should remain unlocked when you log in.

Also check to make sure everything is checked under Keychain Access Preferences->First Aid.


Using various software with a secondary display, you can enter "presenter mode" and this allows you to see the current and next slide, with notes that only the presenter can view.

This is available in Microsoft Powerpoint and Apple Keynotes. With Powerpoint, you can enter 'presenter mode' using Option-Return [⌥↩]:

With Keynote, you can customise presenter notes and enter presenter mode using the menu option: Play > Customise Presenter Notes.

I can't test as its the weekend but if I was at work, I could connect to a display and verify that it enters (as I believe) presenter mode automatically


Why do local network hostnames resolve only in certain cases?

If you're serving .local via unicast DNS (instead of multicast DNS, as specified in this draft internet standard), include an SOA record for .local; as of v10.6, OS X detects this and switches .local resolution to unicast DNS.  Earlier versions of OS X have other methods of forcing unicast resolution - see Apple's KB article #HT3473 for details.


Attaching 3.5" desktop drive to MacBook SATA

Just an update - I've successfully connected my 2TB HD to my MacBook's internal SATA data connector. If anyone's interested in doing this themselves, you'll need:

external enclosure with eSATA to power the drive (I'm using a NexStar CX with eSata):

an eSATA to female SATA cable (I got mine from http://satacables.com, see "eSATA DATA Cable Extension Male to Female" near the bottom of the page):

You'll need to cut those plastic tabs off the SATA portion of the cable, leaving only the section with the pins - otherwise, the cable won't fit in the port.
Follow iFixit's steps for removing the keyboard section of the MacBook
Remove the hard drive, connect cable. Since we had to remove the tabs on the cable in order to make the connection, the cable does not latch in place. I recomment taping the table to the bottom of the case where the hard drive was:

Reverse the disassembly steps to put the computer back together, with the exception of the memory cover and the battery. The cable should now poke out of the hole where the battery used to be.
Install the hard drive in the external enclosure, connect the eSATA and power cables, and enjoy.


How to restore a time machine backup of a USB drive to a new USB drive?

I found a solution that does use the existing backup. The trick is to use sudo tmutil associatedisk (see man tmutil).

My old disk was mounted under /Volumes/USB-old and the new disk is mounted as /Volumes/USB-new. My backup is under /Volumes/backups. (If your old and new disk have both the same name, you have to follow all of the steps, because the name of the disk is not sufficient to associate an old backup with a new disk)

Stop time machine to do backups (in the preferences)
Restore the old data to the new disk:

sudo tmutil restore /Volumes/backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBookPro/Latest/USB-old/* /Volumes/USB-new

(note this does not restore files starting with . at the top level)
Tell time machine to associate the new disk to the old backups:

sudo tmutil associatedisk /Volumes/USB-new /Volumes/backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBookPro/Latest/USB-old

Start time machine to do backups

Now time machine does not try to backup the entire new disk. Instead, it creates incremental backups based on the old snapshot.

However, it seems not possible to go back in history using Time Machine.
I have tried to associate all old backups with the new disk without much success:

for dir in `find /Volumes/backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBookPro -maxdepth 2 -name USB-old`; do
    echo sudo tmutil associatedisk /Volumes/USB-new $dir
done


Yes set System Preferences->Security->General to require password after screen saver begins

And in System Preferences->Desktop & Screen Saver->Screen Saver hit the hot corners button and choose  one or more of the corners to Start Screen Saver

There are also Dashboard Widgets to help here. I have not used any recently.e.g.
a widget to lock and others to send the mac to sleep.


You either have a bad adapter, cable, or TV. The S-Video standard separates the luma (dark to light) signal from the color signal. If only the luma signal is getting through, it will result in the picture being black and white. I suggest trying a different cable, and, if you have one available, a separate S-Video device. If both those work properly, your adapter has gone bad.


How to stop Mail.app filling up with downloaded mail

Why don't you move all your existing e-mails from Mail to Outlook, instead of having to switch between two applications to do it? This article suggests that Outlook might be able to do that directly from your hard drive.

As @Pratika Rana pointed out in the comments, you can also turn off autodownload of e-mails by account: in the Mail preferences (Mail -> Preferences... in the menu bar), select the account you want to modify and select the Advanced tab. The Include when automatically checking for new messages should turn off automatic downloading of new e-mails, while leaving your account active and existing e-mails untouched, while still giving you the option to download new e-mails manually if you go back to using Mail in the future.


I have found that Parallels and VMWare are painfully slow on a 1st gen MBA. You could use Chrome when you need Flash as it runs a browser-specific instance of Flash rather than calling the system Flash instance. Flash is very CPU-intensive so it may very well heat up the machine more than normal — I seem to recall mine always being pretty hot on the bottom.

John Gruber has a great article on removing Flash from OS X and then just using Chrome when you need it here - http://daringfireball.net/2010/11/flash_free_and_cheating_with_google_chrome


Is it possible to remove the battery from MacBook Pro (A1502) and use in a different MacBook Pro?

Typically, no.  Batteries are not interchangeable.

The exception being that they have both the same model (i.e A1502) and the same EMC number (found on the bottom lid).

Model numbers can be reused from one generation to the next, however EMC numbers are unique manufacturing codes.  If those numbers don’t match, your batteries likely won’t match up


App to stream photos from my Network share to SmartTV via iPhone

Try Filpps Tv you can get from apple store


You may want to review what Apple describes here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5404

Also, there is a decent tutorial here: http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/five-ways-to-airplay-from-your-mac-to-your-television--mac-52157

But as you'll notice, it's more about the hardware.  You'll need an intel based Mac that was manufactured mid-2011 (early-2011 for MacBook Pro) or later.


AppleScript app is not recognized as default browser

I do not think that you can build a browser like that, but I do know that there is a very simple browser out that which will take whatever URL it is sent and pass it to the clipboard:

https://github.com/alistairmcmillan/short/tree/master/Copy%20URL%20to%20Clipboard

Perhaps that might help.


Applescript: How to move a file after finishing processing it?

Change the second to last line to:

move alias originalFolder to alias newpath with replacing

There are two things:

All four variables are just strings. In order to tell Finder that they are related to the filesystem, add alias (or file or folder) before the string.
The path where are are moving it to should be the path of the enclosing folder, not the path of the moved folder in its new location.


Notification Center message via AppleScript/osascript -- specify an application name and icon

I don't think it's possible with AppleScript but it is with terminal-notifier:

-sender ID         The bundle identifier of the application that should be
shown as the sender, including its icon.
-appIcon URL       The URL of a image to display instead of the application
icon (Mavericks+ only)

For example:

terminal-notifier -title title -message message -sender com.apple.TextEdit


Should I be concerned about the CPU usage (I am nervous because I only recently purchased the laptop)? I am nervous because I only recently purchased the laptop)

Nervous?  No.
From a hardware (damage) perspective, your Mac and the CPU itself is designed to protect itself from overheating.  It will kick in the fans, then throttle things back and finally, if it must, it will shut itself off.  Your risk of doing damage to your machine is virtually nil.
From a software perspective, I wouldn't worry either.  It sounds like your Mac is doing what it's supposed to do which is turn on the fans during high intensity CPU activity (compiling code) or watching video (GPU).  That said, I would probably look at something else besides Chrome as it's a known resource hog and not very "kind" to memory or CPU utilization.
It's also important to remember that the 13" MacBook Pro doesn't have a discrete GPU so it's the CPU that's going to be doing all of the graphic rendering and it will use up to 1.5GB of RAM as video memory (Intel Integrated Graphics Chipset).  So, if you're compiling code and watching HD or 4K videos simultaneously, you could be maxing out your hardware.
So, it is possible you undersized your Mac for your needs, so from a value perspective, I would defiantly look at that.  If you're still within your return period, it's something you should make a priority to evaluate.


Recovery HD broken, cannot start recovery mode

Reinstalling macOS from the App Store seems to resolve this problem; it re-adding the Recovery HD partition correctly.


Why won't my Mac Mini with boot camp Windows 7 boot if I plug in a thunderbolt disk drive

OWC Brittany C: there is a limitation on using a Thunderbolt device and Windows 7. Having a Thunderbolt device plugged in when trying to boot to Windows 7 will prevent boot. Also the machine will not detect a Thunderbolt device in Windows 7 unless it is plugged in upon start up. So basically thunderbolt devices are not going to work in Windows 7. You would need another operating system on that machine in order to boot with the device plugged-in when using Thunderbolt. Or Windows 8. They fixed the Thunderbolt bug in the Windows 8.


Replace MacBook Pro screen with Screen from old MacBook

No, it will not work.

First, and most importantly, the LVDS connectors are not interchangeable.  The 2011 MacBook Pro uses the 30 pin LVDS connector while the 2014 uses the 40pin connector (left and right respectively).

Images sourced from iFixit.com

Secondly, the display assembly also contains the cables for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas as well as the iSight (webcam) cable.  All of which are in very different locations on each of their respective logic boards, thus very different cable lengths; they physically won't fit.


Yosemite Kernel panics involving com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC

Let me guess: the kernel panics appeared with the 10.10.3 update? Well, then I am 98% certain it is a bug in OS X Yosemite. Welcome aboard. The kernel panics are totally erratic, some users have also graphics glitches. The only common feature is having a Intel HD 4000 GPU.

On MacBook Pros with dual GPU you can avoid the problem by disabling Automatic Graphics Switching (System Preferences > Energy Saver).

After countless phone calls with Apple, I will take my Mac to the Apple Store tomorrow. I am sure they won't find a thing. Then they will keep my Mac for five days, replace the logic board and the issue will persist. Please proof me wrong Apple...

Please contribute to the thread in the apple discussion forum and file a bug report (with link to the thread).


If you had "Find my iPhone" enabled on your stolen phone, you can log into icloud.com with your AppleID and lock/purge the phone from there.

If you haven't enabled that option or if the phone is not connected to the internet there is no way to access the phone and purge its content.


Stop Google Chrome from stealing focus on opening

Open Google Chrome in the background using Terminal

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility
Add Google Chrome to the list

Open Terminal and enter the command:

open -j -a "Google Chrome" 'https://www.google.com/'

Adding accessibility permissions for Chrome disables the "Hold command-Q to quit" feature and allows other apps to control the window (e.g. shell script). Using the -j option launches the app hidden as opposed to -g that is meant to prevent the app launching in the foreground.


Is It possible to move or transfer an encrypted iPhone backup between computers?

Definitely! The iPhone backups are stored in your user account's app data section.

Open Finder, and select the “Go” menu at the top of the screen. Hold the Option key, and select the “Library” menu option from the Go menu. (On OSX Lion and above, Library will only appear with the Option key held.)
From Library, navigate to Application Support -> MobileSync -> Backup.

(In iTunes preferences -> Devices, you can also right-click on the backup and select Show in Finder on Mac.)

In here, your backups are folders named with the device id for the iPhone (and a date after it sometimes). Make sure you grab the whole folder, and put the folder in on the new computer in the Backup folder there. You can make the folders if iTunes hasn't yet.

Here's a blog post I wrote about it on Mac and Windows, and matching up the UDID to your iPhone.
https://deciphertools.com/blog/where-are-iphone-backups/


My WD external drive unmounted itself and now does not work

Either your WD MyBook enclosure has failed or the disk itself has failed.

I am basing this assessment on two factors:

Points 4 & 5 above - that plugging it into different computers didn't work.  If it doesn't work on different computers you have narrowed it down the the WD unit itself.  If the problem was with your Mac, it wouldn't be present on a different computer.
The correct response  provided by diskutil for disk1.  It's highly unlikely (though not impossible), that if the enclosure wasn't functioning you would at least get erroneous information back or no information at all.  The WD enclosure is reporting back that there is a drive but it has no operating system.  Chances are, it's the drive.

However, you can take it a step further and do some additional diagnostics.  The key here is to isolate the major individual components of the WD enclosure - the logic board and the drive itself.

So, to diagnose this you will need either of the following

a known working hard drive
a 3.5" HDD to USB adapter (I recommend this option for reasons that will become clear momentarily).

You will need to disassemble the MyBook.  From my research, the case appears to be held in place with "snaps" which you just pry off so it shouldn't be too difficult to get into.  There's a straightforward set of instructions on Instructables.com

Depending on the option you took above - you either need to change the drive in the MyBook  or plug the old drive into the USB to SATA adapter.

If one component works (i.e the drive), then you know for a fact that the other (i.e. the enclosure) has failed; or vice versa.

If it is your drive, the USB to SATA adapter will allow you to attempt to recover your files.  I have personally used Disk Drill with excellent results (it's free to use the diagnostic portion and to see if you can recover data).  You will be able to make an image of the drive and attempt recovery on the image lessening the chance of total failure of the drive.

If it happens to be the enclosure, the USB to SATA adapter will allow you to continue to use the disk drive while you come up with a more permanent solution (the MyBook is essentially the same thing but with a more elegant enclosure).

If you choose the "drive method" you will still be able to get the same diagnostic results, except you won't be able to transfer or rescue any data if it happens to be the MyBook enclosure that's bad.

Now, as preventing it from happening again - well, this is a spinning hard drive which means it mechanical.  It's going to fail.  The only thing you can do is mitigate data loss by having a backup


Conflicting info about installed macOS version in App store

Go to the Purchased tab and click the Download button next to macOS Sierra in the App Store.


There is an app that can do screenshots in MacOSX Lion, what's the name?

The built-in application is called Grab. You can find it under the Utilities folder in Applications.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to take screen shots. Here's a quick guide from Apple:

In Mac OS X, you can use simple keyboard shortcuts to do all sorts of things, including capturing images of what’s on your Mac screen. For example, you can take a screen shot of your entire screen by holding down the Command and Shift keys and pressing a 3.
If you hold down the Command and Shift keys and press 4, Mac OS X turns the cursor into crosshairs you can use to select whatever portion of your display you’d like to capture in a screen shot.
If you immediately hit the Spacebar after typing Command-Shift-4, Mac OS X replaces those crosshairs with a little camera. Using the camera, you can take a screen shot of the Dock, the entire menu bar, a single open menu, the desktop, or any open window.


There are softwares such as iMazing and iMyPhone D.
I can confirm you that with the first one I managed to get 204 contacts until around 5 month earlier, so I bet that there is still a max number in the OS, I'm sure I'd have more calls, but at least it's something.


How do I delete/remove a home screen web link?

Web clips added by a profile can be set to not be able to be deleted with the X, therefore hiding the X when in edit mode. To remove a web clip added in this way, you need to remove the profile from Settings → General → Profiles.

You can also try disabling restrictions if they are on. Go to Settings → General → Restrictions and switch it off, then try removing the web clips.


What does -HUP do when used with killall?

The -HUP option is the signal that's sent to the processes by the killall command. It can be a little hard to tell, but the relevant entry in the killall manual is:

-SIGNAL     Send a different signal instead of the default TERM.  The signal may be specified
            either as a name (with or without a leading SIG), or numerically.

The difference between the default TERM signal that killall sends and the HUP signal depends largely on the program you're sending the signal to. At the program end, they receive a different interrupt signal value. So the program can catch the interrupts and decide, based on the value, if they should do one thing or the other.

The TERM signal (historically the "terminate signal") is usually sent to a program to request its termination (which is a politer version of forcing its termination with the KILL signal). The program is free to catch and ignore the TERM signal. It doesn't have to terminate if it doesn't want to and it can completely ignore this signal.

The HUP signal (historically the "hangup signal") is usually sent to a program to request that it restarts and re-reads all its configuration in the process. The actual behaviour of the program depends on the program-specific implementation. Not all programs catch HUP and they aren't required to by convention or dogma. For example, the Apache web server will catch a HUP signal and re-read all its configuration files but it won't restart any processes.

If you want to truly terminate the processes and not worry about whether they're going to catch and obey the signal uses the KILL signal. It cannot be caught or ignored and results in process termination.

For a good review of available POSIX signals see this Wikipedia article.


Apple offers financing for a lot of their products. Typically you will see a link above the "Select" button for a given product on its page. See the image below from the Mac Mini catalog page...

The financing may not come from Apple directly, but it is an option.


Using rsync with path names containing spaces

The -s option doesn't protect against arguments with spaces passed on the command line, proper quoting does

rsync -ahv "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health" "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump"

(in your second example you seem to use typographical quotes).


Select whole words using single finger tap gesture

Yep!
You double-tap and lift off to select the word.  Then double-tap the selected word and start dragging immediately keeping your finger down.  It's actually kind of tricky to get to work without dragging the word but once you get it a couple of times it gets easier.
Here's an explanation on how to do it also from macworld.com, same as above:

To select text (and this works in nearly any program that involves
text) on a word-by-word basis, do a double-click-and-hold before you
start dragging, instead of a single click. As you move the mouse along
now, you’ll see that entire words are added to your selection as soon
as the cursor touches their first character. So if you’ve got a fair
bit of text to select, but still need precision, this is a pretty
quick way to get it done.

Here are my trackpad settings


My iPhone 4 is not showing me on my text message when I have a message

thanks for the question.

When you say messages are these SMS (green speech bubbles) or iMessage (blue speech bubbles)? Or both? These are both read inside the message app on the iPhone.

If it is the SMS you may have a carrier glitch - if it is the blue you may have an issue with your Apple ID.

If you haven't already - the first port of call for all iPhone troubles is to do a soft reset - this is different to turing off and then on. Hold both the home and power buttons until the phone switches off - keep holding until the Apple logo appears and the phone begins to restart.

Also a good idea to close the apps you have running in the background - double click home button and swipe up those you want to close.

Let us know how you go.


Try looking in the built-in "Photos" app (with the flower icon).


How do I enter a degree symbol – ° – on an iPhone or iPad?

I've looked around for this several times but today I just found its hiding spot – the 0 key! Just hold 0 until the alternate characters are shown. In the case of 0, the only alternate character is '°'.


How's battery life of the Oct 2013 Macbook Pro 15" Retina?

No, it's not as energy efficient as the MacBook Air. How could it be? Apple lists the expected (high end) battery life for each of their battery powered devices on their site. If battery life and a large screen are your primary interests, it sounds as though you'd be better off getting an iMac or a Mac Pro, assuming you need the dedicated graphics card. If you don't need the dedicated graphics card, there's always the Mac Mini. These all either come with large screens or can be easily attached to large monitors and their power lasts for as long as you pay your electricity bill. And you won't have to worry about becoming a hunchback from using the least ergonomically designed piece of modern tech, the laptop.


Do not show iMessages on iPhone when using Messages on Macbook

The function of iMessage is to push your messages to all devices. To turn this off, go to Settings > Messages and disable iMessage. However, this is certainly not automatic, and may remove your cache of message from your iPhone.

As a commenter mentioned, keeping the app open on the iPhone will minimize your annoyance.


How to create a custom Desktop Background slideshow?

Add Folder to Desktop Background options

(self-answered)

I need create a Folder anywhere on my HDD, say (random example) 'Custom'.
I fill it with photos that I need in my background like a Slideshow.
Now, I go to

System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop

And on the panel on the left with Folders, there is a '+' sign on the bottom.
1. Click it,
2. Browse to folder,
3. Click Choose &
4. Check 'Change desktop background every __'


How does macOS get "pretty" hostnames in Network view?

I think that macOS uses the command line program arp to scan the devices on the local network
Enter arp -a in the terminal


An Applescript can bulk-create OS X address book entries, which you can then import to your iPhone. I made up a basic one for you:

-- Change these to your desired data
set firstName to "Test"
set lastName to "User"
set numberOfEntries to "5" as integer

set counter to "1" as integer
tell application "Address Book"
    repeat numberOfEntries times
        set thePerson to make new person with properties {first name:firstName, last name:lastName & " " & counter}
        make new email at end of emails of thePerson with properties {label:"Work", value:"test" & counter & "@example.com"}
        make new address at end of addresses of thePerson with properties {label:"Home", city:"Fakeville", street:(counter as string) & " Some St."}
        set counter to counter + 1
    end repeat
    save
end tell

Open AppleScript Editor (in your Applications/Utilities/ folder) and paste that in to a new script. As is, it will make you 5 numbered contacts like so:

You can change the number in the set numberOfEntries to "5" as integer line to however many you need, and change the data if you wish. If you need other fields (like phone numbers), ask and I can show you how.

Improved version

I went a bit overboard and made a version that comes up with nicer names. I took the 20 most popular male and female names, 40 most popular last names, and added a middle initial, so you get a pretty low chance of duplicates (a bit under 5% in a set of 2000, by my math) without the goofy looking numbered contacts.

It also adds all the contacts to a group ("Test Group") so you can pick out all the dummy ones easily if you're adding to an existing address book and want to clean it up later.

Edit: I also changed it to prompt for how many items to create, so it's not necessary to edit the code.

-- name lists: 20 most popular (US) male and female first names, 40 most popular last names
set firstNameList to {"Mary", "Patricia", "Linda", "Barbara", "Elizabeth", "Jennifer", "Maria", "Susan", "Margaret", "Dorothy", "Lisa", "Nancy", "Karen", "Betty", "Helen", "Sandra", "Donna", "Carol", "Ruth", "Sharon", "James", "John", "Robert", "Michael", "William", "David", "Richard", "Charles", "Joseph", "Thomas", "Christopher", "Daniel", "Paul", "Mark", "Donald", "George", "Kenneth", "Steven", "Edward", "Brian"}
set lastNameList to {"Smith", "Johnson", "Williams", "Jones", "Brown", "Davis", "Miller", "Wilson", "Moore", "Taylor", "Anderson", "Thomas", "Jackson", "White", "Harris", "Martin", "Thompson", "Garcia", "Martinez", "Robinson", "Clark", "Rodriguez", "Lewis", "Lee", "Walker", "Hall", "Allen", "Young", "Hernandez", "King", "Wright", "Lopez", "Hill", "Scott", "Green", "Adams", "Baker", "Gonzalez", "Nelson", "Carter"}
set initialList to "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
set counter to "1" as integer

-- prompt for how many contacts to create
set dialogText to "Number of contacts to create?"
repeat
    display dialog dialogText default answer ""
    set numberOfEntries to text returned of result
    try
        if numberOfEntries = "" then error
        set numberOfEntries to numberOfEntries as number
        exit repeat
    on error

    end try
end repeat

-- populate the address book
tell application "Address Book"
    set theGroup to make new group with properties {name:"Test Group"}
    repeat numberOfEntries times
        set firstName to some item of firstNameList
        set lastName to some item of lastNameList
        set middleInitial to some item of initialList & "."
        set thePerson to make new person with properties {first name:firstName, middle name:middleInitial, last name:lastName}
        make new email at end of emails of thePerson with properties {label:"Work", value:firstName & middleInitial & lastName & "@example.com"}
        make new address at end of addresses of thePerson with properties {label:"Home", city:"Fakeville", street:(counter as string) & " Some St."}
        add thePerson to theGroup
        set counter to counter + 1
    end repeat
    save
end tell

Here's what it generates:


Can a 2018 MacBook Pro run macOS High Sierra 10.13 natively?

2018 MacBook Pro originally shipped with macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

It is possible to downgrade it to run the said release of macOS High Sierra on your MacBook Pro.

You can install macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 by downloading it from the Mac App Store, creating, booting and installing it via a USB installer. Alternatively, you can also use Internet recovery to directly download and install it natively.


In Xcode,

Go to Window -> Devices and Simulators or Shift + Command + 2.
Click on Simulators at the top of the window.
On the left side you'll see the list of all the simulators installed on your system.  When you select one, you'll see the details of that simulator (OS version) on the top right.
Select the one you want to remove and press Delete.  Confirm your request on the confirmation dialog.  You can only delete one at a time so it will take some time if you want to delete many of them.

Xcode will delete the simulator.  After this, I usually restart Xcode but I don't know if that's required to clear out the hard drive space.

Regarding your PS, there's no correlation between deleting an old simulator and your app running on a device.  The only thing you lose is seeing how the app would look on a device you don't personally own.  Only you can judge the value of that.


When you turn on Airplane Mode, Wifi is going to indicate Off. All you have to do is tap on Wi-Fi and turn on Wi-Fi. That should enable Wi-Fi while the phone is on Airplane Mode.


Sparrow's development was halted quite a while ago, and as OS X has developed, Sparrow hasn't kept up.

Most notably is the addition of Containers for app's data and I speculate that this is causing some problem with some code in Sparrow. Obviously, this is speculation as I haven't seen Sparrow's source code, but I don't think it's something that you can fix yourself—it's most probably a bug in Sparrow's code.


Any way to save/manage finder states? Not just the windows, but their location and layout too?

I'm not sure this would do everything, but if you could get something to put in a file the path to every open Finder window, and then put that file and the .DS_Store from each of those paths into a tarball, I think you would have most of it.

To restore, first put each .DS_Store back, then open all the directory names stored.


Regularly used hotel apps have a strange overabundance of acknowledgements that have not been there before on iPad pro MRT

When you install an app, it typically enables all notifications and banners or asks once and then enabled all of them.

I would go to the settings app on iOS (the settings app from Apple) and select notifications. I like to turn everything off - all the apps, none get a notification until I use the app and decide that I actually want to see notifications.

In your case, you can make a list of all the hotel and travel apps and then just tick them off one by one.


As far as I can tell, Force Touch capability hasn't been added to Chrome.

This article from April 2017 details what has been released with version 58 (current at the time of this answer).  It also goes on to say:

  Although beta versions of the browser on the Canary channel included
  support for Touch Bar shortcuts on the new MacBook Pro, Google pulled
  it from subsequent betas as well as from the stable release as it
  wasn’t ready for prime time yet.

It's important to note that there is a huge distinction between Chrome, Chromium, and Canary.

From the Canary page:

  Google Chrome Canary has the newest of the new Chrome features. Be
  forewarned: it's designed for developers and early adopters, and can
  sometimes break down completely.

From the Chromium page:

  Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer,
  faster, and more stable way for all users to experience the web. This
  site contains design documents, architecture overviews, testing
  information, and more to help you learn to build and work with the
  Chromium source code.

Chrome is the "production ready" browser from Google.  Chromium is the open source project behind Google Chrome and Canary is the bleeding edge "beta software". It very similar to the relationship of RedHat Linux, CentOS and Fedora.

If you want this functionality, you need to download the respective project and run that browser; it's not something you can enable in the production version.


How can I find the bottleneck in my media server setup?

It could be

other wireless devices on your network using wireless bandwidth
a wireless device connecting at a speed that is forcing other connections to a lower-speed protocol
wireless devices not on your network but using an interfering channel
another process on the Mac Mini using network bandwidth

Signal strength and signal quality do not always go hand in hand. Think about somebody shouting in a tunnel—the volume is there, but the clarity will be drowned out by an echo.

One test would be to set up a new SSID and password and connect only the Apple TV and your streaming computer to it (temporarily) and see how that goes.


Seeking a USB Flash Drive (nearly) flush with MacBook

I'm not aware of any such products with a USB connection, but there are several options for using an SD card slot in this way, if your model of MacBook has such a slot. Some of these are storage devices, while others are microSD card readers, but both types have the same functionality. Note that different models of MacBook have different depths of SD card slot, so make sure you get a product designed to work with your computer.

Here are a few examples:

Transcend JetDrive Lite (64-256 GB)
PNY StorEdge (128-256 GB)
BaseQi microSD adapter
MiniDrive Nifty microSD adapter


This email address is not available. Choose a different address

This indicates that another AppleID has reserved your chosen email address as a secondary security, rescue, email alias or primary email for AppleID.
You have a couple options to fix this:

Go to each of your Apple ID you control and ensure no use of this email.
Contact Apple Support. They will generally never divulge the other account since they can’t tell you from someone trying to hack into your account so they may be able to help or they may tell you to choose another email or repeat step 1.


Is there a way to rename menu items in Mac?

You will have to edit the .nib files with a text (or xml) editor. First make a backup of the app (especially for Finder), then go into the bundle contents and find the English.lproj or en.lproj. This will probably be in the Resources/ folder.

Most likely, this file will be called MainMenu.nib. However, Finder's is MenuBar.nib and some apps, like Firefox, won't have one at all.

The nib file can be converted to XML with plutil -convert xml1<filename>. Then you can open it in the text editor of your choice. Just command ⌘+F (or control ⌃+S) for the menu name you want to change. It should look something like this:

<string>New Tab</string>
<string>newSession:</string>

Edit the string at the top. This is actually the Interface Builder connection between the menu item of that name and the Objective-C selector/method that it calls. Save the nib and relaunch the application (with Force Quit or killall for Finder) and you should have the different name showing up.


Make iOS devices by default connect to external audio sources (Airplay/Bluetooth)?

Right now you can only set the default audio routing for calls (phone calls, Skype, FaceTime) by changing the setting for it in Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Call Audio Routing.

There is no method to change the default audio routing for media at this point in time.


OS X Mavericks system restore from external drive using Time Machine

Your problem is almost certainly related to partitioning on a Windows machine.
You can verify this by using Disk Utility to look at the Drive, in particular the Partition Map Scheme. This needs to be GUID Partition Table but is probably MBR.

You would need to repartition on OS X, but this will need you to erase all data.


Is it safe to exclude Outlook 16.x data from Time Machine backups?

Don't have a real answer, just data to share.  After losing a decade's worth of archived Outlook emails, to a drive failure, I tried restoring from TM.  These were emails from previous jobs, to which I no longer had access, so my local cache was my record.

I had only mixed success - my user environment must have been corrupted by the drive failure, and even 1 year old backups would not get me my state back.  Outlook kept wanting to "rebuild" my mailboxes, which required two or three times the original mbox size (~500G at the time of loss).

I didn't have terabytes worth of space for this, so I started picking and choosing what to restore.  That's when I found that, indeed, the bulk of archived/cached local mail, lives in the ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9* path.

But Outlook also has SQLite data files elsewhere, and perhaps other metadata too, and no combination of restores would yield a working Outlook state - i.e. no rebuilds, just my mailboxes/folders as they were.

So my conclusion is that although it's probably safe to exclude this path from TM backups, if things ever do go south, and you also lose access to the mail server, then you risk losing everything, with no way to restore.

Sounds like in your use case, that's probably not a concern.

Anyways, just one guy's Outlook & Time Machine story.


How to delete a file using the delete key

You can use Karabiner-Elements  with a modification rule imported from here:

The following custom rule that maps Delete to Cmd+Backspace:

~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/_finder_custom.json

{
  "title": "Finder Custom",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Use Delete as Move to Trash",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "key_code": "delete_forward",
            "modifiers": {
              "optional": ["any"]
            }
          },
          "to": [
            {
              "key_code": "delete_or_backspace",
              "modifiers": ["left_command"]
            }
          ],
          "conditions": [
            {
              "type": "frontmost_application_if",
              "bundle_identifiers": [
                "^com.apple.finder"
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Then open KE and on the Complex Modifications tab, push +Add Rule and then select your rule from the list.

The downside is that if you rename a file using finder and press the delete (forward-delete) it deletes the text from the cursor to the beginning.

Another downside is that if you click a file on your desktop and try to rename and use the delete key to delete some of the filename text, it deletes the file.  While I still have this modification in place I do find I am having to remap my brain to use the backspace key when renaming a file and deleting a portion of the text.

https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements/issues/1081


Skype hangs since upgrading to Mavericks

It would be worth upgrading as significant changes have been made for anyone in this situation.


How can I export all my Iphone's data from the backup data into a useable format?

A lot of phone apps store their data in a way that no other software can read. Your best option is often to use the app on your phone to somehow export the data - instead of working with backups.
A lot of the Files app can be accessed via iCloud Drive or copied into dropbox/etc. Photos can be exported by connecting your phone to a computer and importing it like you would a DSLR camera. Contacts can be synced with various PC contact apps, and from there exported as vcard files.
Some apps won't have good export options and it might be easier to just give up on that data.
Some apps, especially music and video players, have DRM specifically designed to enforce contract license terms that do not allow exporting. In the case of Apple music, the contract terms and DRM differ depending wether you downloaded the song as a "subscriber" or "purchased" the song.
Please try searching for existing questions/answers for each individual app with data you'd like to archive, and if you can't find anything, ask a separate question for each one.


Negate your 'fail' structure to make it an 'if not pass' instead.

display dialog "Continue" with icon caution buttons {"Exit", "Continue"} default button 1 giving up after 5
if the button returned of the result is not "Continue" then
    return "exit"
else
    return "continue"
end if


What's the BSD equivalent of the linux date command for adding subtracting days/weeks/months from a given date?

You must specify + in your date adjustment or BSD assumes that you are giving it an actual day of the month to use.

date1="2013-10-31"
day_after=`date -v+1d -ujf"%Y-%m-%d" $date1 +%Y-%m-%d`

echo "$day_after" => 2013-11-01


In El Capitan the US Extended keyboard was renamed to ABC Extended.


Mojave spell check keeps flagging correct words and tries to change them to grammatically incorrect words

According to this apple support discussion many are experiencing the same issue.

One way to get rid of is to install Grammarly for Mac and turn off apple spell check.


Can I restore one partition of OS X El Capitan?

Did you try removing the disk partition with Disk Utility?  Bootcamp can be difficult with these things once you've had a first attempt.

Did you know you don't need Bootcamp necessarily to install Windows?  You can create the partitions yourself and activate the install by booting from your USB stick image.  Just need to be sure that you have got the drivers for Windows 10 to hand from Bootcamp once Windows is installed.

All the best!


Using Apple Pencil as a stylus with older unsupported iPads

What devices are compatible with Apple Pencil?

The original Apple Pencil, manufactured from 2015 on with the round body design and Lightning connector is compatible with the following devices:

iPad Air (3rd generation)
iPad mini (5th generation)
iPad (7th generation)
iPad (6th generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation)
iPad Pro 10.5-inch
iPad Pro 9.7-inch

Looks like you just missed it. This table is from this Mac Rumor site.

The new pencil is compatible with only the new iPad Pros. The linked site is dated March 4th 2020 so it is very recent.


OSX provides ipfw to define custom firewall rules. Using this tool you can create a pipe with limited bandwidth.

When you assign the throttled pipe to a specific port, this port's bandwidth is limited.

Quick How-To

Create a pipe "1" limited to 500KBytes/s via

sudo ipfw pipe 1 config bw 500KByte/s

Guide all network traffic of port 80 through pipe "1" using

sudo ipfw add 1 pipe 1 src-port 80

When you don't need the pipe anymore, remove it from the port using

sudo ipfw delete 1

Other

If you want to set higher traffic barriers, you can use MByte/s
Port 80: standard port for unencrypted http traffic. This port is used for most browsing and downloading. You should be fine with this in most cases.
Port 443: standard port for SSL encrypted https traffic.


Apple Keyboard with numeric keypad problems

Sounds like you got water inside.

It might be cleanable, professionally; or some of the tracks may be corroded.
Your call - get a quote for a fix, or just get a new one & don't get it wet again :/

See this answer to a not really related question for a 'cruel but fair' analysis of how bad water is for electronics.


Check to see if they are in the recently deleted album.


How do I create an apple script that changes the destination folder of airdropped files?

If you are sure of the provenance of the AirDropped files and are happy to remove the quarantine extended attribute you can remove it as you say with xattr.  In AppleScript you can do this using do shell script and passing the quoted path in alias form.

removeQuarantine(quoted form of (POSIX path of (current_item as alias)))

on removeQuarantine(file_path_alias)
    do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.quarantine " & file_path_alias
end removeQuarantine

In your script you want to call this before the file is moved so your script would look as below (remember to update the AIRDROP_FOLDER to your required path).

The script will now check files for com.apple.quarantine equal to 59 and if so remove the attribute before moving the file.

Therefore if you then move the file back to ~/Downloads it will not be moved again as the com.apple.quarantine attribute is no longer there.

property AIRDROP_FOLDER : "macOS:Users:hali:Desktop:Test"
property QUARANTINE_KEY : "59"

property GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_START : "ls -l -@ '"
property GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_END : "' | tr '\\n' ' ' | sed 's/.*com\\.apple\\.quarantine\\s*\\(\\d*\\)/ \\1/' | awk '{$1=$1};1'"

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    repeat with i from 1 to length of added_items
        set current_item to item i of added_items
        set quarantine_type to getQuarantineType(POSIX path of current_item)
        if quarantine_type is equal to QUARANTINE_KEY then
            removeQuarantine(quoted form of (POSIX path of (current_item as alias)))
            moveFile(current_item, alias AIRDROP_FOLDER)
        end if
    end repeat
end adding folder items to

on moveFile(move_file, destination_dir)
    tell application "Finder"
        move move_file to destination_dir with replacing
    end tell
end moveFile

on getQuarantineType(file_path)
    return do shell script GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_START & file_path & GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_END
end getQuarantineType

on removeQuarantine(file_path_alias)
    do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.quarantine " & file_path_alias
end removeQuarantine

Note : This script will overwrite files of the same name in the destination without prompting.  If this is a concern there is a forked version by user SuraAzure on github that appends a sequence number to the filename before moving if a file with the same name already exists in the destination directory.


My MacBook Pro won't connect to my Wi-Fi

I think you need to scrap the existing Keychain.

Try this:

Go to Spotlight and type in "Keychain Access"
Search for your wireless network in the Keychain Access window
Delete any keys that appear here

Next, while you're at it, I'd recommend trashing your SysConfig folder. To do that:

Go to Finder
In the menu bar, click on Go > Go To Folder
Type in the following location:

/Library/Preferences/

Then scroll to the bottom and drag the SystemConfiguration folder to the trash

Then restart your computer. When it is finished restarting, try reconnecting to your WiFi and enter the password. Let me know if it still does not work!


Regardless of what software you use, the GIF format is limited to a palette of 256 colors.  Therefore it is unsuitable for photographs.  In other words, the only solution is to use a different format, such as JPEG.  (Or H.264 if you need motion).

Reference: http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/standards/image/gif/index_en.htm


Which versions of Adobe Creative Suite will work with Mavericks?

From this Adobe help page:

  Adobe and Apple have worked closely together to test Adobe® Creative Cloud applications and Adobe Creative Suite 6 applications for reliability, performance and user experience when installed on Intel® based systems running Mac OS X Mavericks. (v10.9). All Adobe CC and CS6 products are compatible, but a few products require updates to the latest builds to work properly. Adobe Photoshop® CS5, CS4 and CS3 were also tested with Mac OS X Mavericks and there are currently no major issues known.


How do I wirelessly stream my movies to my projector?

The streaming of music and video to Apple TV is quite remarkable in my book. Having Safari on the iPad, iPhone seeing the AppleTV as a target for many video types is still like magic to me.

Not everything streams, but if it's HTML5 video or something you don't mind placing under iTunes's purview - it's a great solution. As AirPlay gets more prevalent, the web sites that will allow this should grow over time. With media you control, it's ready to go with perhaps a re-encode if it's not something the Apple TV expects to play out of the gate.


Can I use my iPhone4 without a sim card if i just updated to the lastest software?

No - if the device is waiting at the activate screen it won't run normally. Yes - once the activation is done, you can pull the SIM card.

Activate means that the OS becomes usable. Unless (and until) your phone gets jail broken or authorized unlocked (contact your carrier), by design you need a carrier SIM to activate the phone after each restore.

Major OS upgrades usually include a restore / activation step so you can check here before the next upgrade if you wish to avoid this in the future.

I've had good luck using an old SIM card that no longer is on an account to keep a proper SIM in the phone. Again, your carrier can help if reusing any old SIM you have doesn't work.


Connecting dual 27" Apple thunderbolt displays to PC

The Thunderbolt Display does not support daisy-chaining Mini-DisplayPort.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204154

I did see a report somewhere that computers that can drive two monitors over were able to get around this be inserting another Thunderbolt peripheral in the middle. I.e., Mac > Thunderbolt Display > Thunderbolt RAID > Mini DisplayPort monitor.


Is there a way to start a specific application with a keyboard short cut?

As of Snow Leopard, this actually is built into the OS.

Launch Automator and create a service that receives no input from any application. From the Actions Library, add the 'Launch Application' action to the workflow. Select the 'Terminal' application in the drop-down list of Applications. Save your new service and then assign a keyboard shortcut to it in:
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Services


How can I remove a "shared" drive from my Mac?

After much investigation, ultimately this worked for me:

Go to OSX/Preferences/Sharing/
Toggle 'File Sharing' on-and-off in the sidebar
Go back to Finder and see what happens

This seems to force a refresh in Finder, removing old stuck Shared computers. How they get stuck, I don't know. In my case it happened after buying a refurbished Mac and transferring admin rights to my new local user account. The stores' old network computer got stuck in my Shared list.

Some solutions out there involving Finder/Preferences, only serve to hide the unwanted shared computer from the sidebar, not actually removing it.


The code should have been:

display dialog my joinList(addressList, ";")


Two things to overcome. First is you need to navigate to the app and to the right of where it says open - choose the box with the up arrow and underneath the pop up, the gift option arises. Second, only paid apps can be gifted.

You will have to enter an email address as an AppleID for the gift to be sent and I have never entered an AppleID that didn’t exist. If you can get the student to make their AppleID first, that might be required and I would recommend it if you know the sale duration allows this time.
I wouldn’t make an account for someone else and strongly recommend against it in general - that seems to end up badly for most people for many reasons. Here are other sale opportunities you might also consider while waiting for your student to get their account ready to receive your gift:

Apple offers discounts when you pre-pay a balance - sometimes 10%
Apple gift cards often are sold at a discount and can be gifted physically and via code


Finder window file view header looks odd - fix?

Click on the "arrange" button on your Finder toolbar, then choose "none".  I agree that this is quite unintuitive.


How do I change Spotlight search engine?

Fire up Safari and check the settings for the default search engine. For me that is google and searching the way you described it for me opens safari (currently my default browser) with a google search.

The option is right there on the first settings tab. I included an image detailing where to find it (sorry for the german):


This is thankfully quite easy. You can achieve what you want using the OR function in Numbers (this function is also found on Microsoft Excel):

IF(OR(A1 = "Apple", A1 = "Orange"), "Fruit", "Not a fruit")

The argument for the IF function here is OR(A1 = "Apple", A1 = "Orange"). This OR function tests whether any of the arguments are correct; if they are, it returns TRUE. If none of them are correct, it returns FALSE.


What happens with your apps if you restore from iTunes backup?

Indeed: restoring from an iCloud backup works the same way as restoring from an iTunes backup and all of your apps will automatically redownload.


I called Apple tech support today and got the following answer. It seems to be working so far.

Navigate to the Library folder (The easiest way is to go to the Finder top menu bar, hold down Option on the Go submenu and you should see it come up)
Delete the Keychains folder
Go to iCloud in Preferences and sign back in

Hope this helps!


2 Methods…

Sign out of the App Store then back in using the correct credentials for the iPhotos download, or
Delete iPhoto & use Photos instead, which is iPhoto's replacement.


ios10 calendar event times when changing time zones

If you set up the events using Hawaii times (ie you set your Hawaii noon meeting as an 8pm meeting while editing the calendar in New York), then there is no problem since when you set your device to Hawaii time all those events will be correctly displayed.
If you set up the events using NY times (you set your Hawaii noon meeting as a noon meeting while editing the calendar in New York), then you need to either edit all the Hawaii meetings or tell the calendar to ignore the time zone info and just display the events as entered by using "Time Zone Override" on the iPhone and setting the iPhone calendar to display events using the New York time zone.
To turn on Time Zone Override:
Go to Settings > Calendar
Move the switch to show green in order to turn on Time Zone Override.

The Time Zone Override always shows event dates and times in the selected time zone.
When off, events will display according to the time zone of your current location.

After turning on the Time Zone Override, you need to select the New York time zone.


iPhone will not connect to iTunes after being disabled

Check the cable and the connector. Perhaps even try with a different computer.

Your iPhone might be damaged, so that it can't work. You didn't say exactly how it got "disabled"?


Mac gets very hot when locked and on battery power

Have you tried an SMC reset? System Management Controller "can resolve certain issues related to power, battery and other features." according to Apple's website.

There are different methods for resetting SMC, depending on your model. Here is a link to Apple's site with instructions for resetting SMC.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


Replace dead keys of default US keyboard layout on Lion?

New version of Ukelele supports "New from Current Input Source" on Lion. Managed to create a keylayout that solves my problem. Downoad it here: US AltGr.keylayout


If your just searching for + then put that in quotes like this "+" and finder should return results.


How to get ripped CD music onto my iPhone?

If you use the menu "File" -> "Get Info" when viewing one of the tracks, you can see if it is "part of a compilation" or not in the "Info" tab. "Compilation" albums are usually albums that have songs from more than a single artist or group, and they get handled differently by iTunes in a way that I have never really figured out.

I work around this by typically not using the "sync this album" feature in iTunes, but rather I create a playlist (or multiple playlists I suppose) that I populate with the tracks I want synced:

In iTunes on your computer you will need to select what music you want to sync. When the phone it plugged into iTunes, and the phone is selected in the sidebar (you may need to select the menu item "View" -> "Show Sidebar") one of the tabs beside the "Summary" of the phone is for "Music" where you can set exactly which playlists, artists, albums, and genres get synced. I find it convenient to have at least one playlist called something like "for-my-iphone" that I can conveniently add any individual tracks that I want synced to the phone, in addition to any of the other possible selection methods.

Incidentally, on the "Summary" page, it is probably worthwhile selecting the "convert higher bitrate songs to 128 kbps" in order to save a lot of room on your iDevice. With most headphones and listening environments it is almost impossible to notice the different sound quality. Checking this box might make the first sync a lot longer if the system needs to do a bunch of music conversion, but subsequent syncs will not be noticeably slower in my experience.


Macbook Pro Xcode Uninstall sedo .h files still there

May I propose two other options

Remove the "Developer" category from Spotlight search results (in Spotlight Preferences)

Add /usr/include to the exclusion list (click '+' and then Shift-Cmd-G to enter the path)


code signing

The friendly manual on code signing says to sign the sub-component first, then try again with your app itself:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2206/_index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40007919-CH1-TNTAG305

codesign says my code is unsigned when I try to sign it.

Make sure all nested code is already signed and its signature is valid. Xcode will take care of this for you if you let it handle your code signing tasks.

It goes on to say let Xcode handle all the signing, which may or may not be helpful since you are already choosing to sign things from the command line.

--deep

To sign all nested code in one go, add the --deep argument to codesign:

codesign --deep -s "Developer ID Application: My Company" /Development/MyApp.app

shell script

Another way of doing the same is to create a shell script that checks the signature state of the nested code, and signs if it is missing. This way you may get more control on what you are signing within the bundle.

Example:

A bash-script called sign-unsigned.sh that checks one entry in the bundle and signs it if it is not already signed could be done like this:

#!/bin/bash
if codesign --verify $1 ; then
   exit;
else
   codesign --sign "$2" $1;
fi

Put the sign-unsigned.sh in /Development and do this on the command line:

cd /Development/MyApp.app/
find . -exec ../sign-unsigned.sh {} "Developer ID Application: My Company" \;
codesign --sign "Developer ID Application: My Company" ../MyApp.app


AppleScript to check if fn key is depressed?

Straight from the post by Oscar...

property vers : "1.0"
my isModifierKeyPressed("function") // the only addition to his raw script

on isModifierKeyPressed(checkKey)
    set modiferKeysDOWN to {command_down:false, option_down:false, control_down:false, shift_down:false, caps_down:false, numlock_down:false, function_down:false}

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "option" or checkKey = "alt" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSAlternateKeyMask '") > 1 then
            set option_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "command" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSCommandKeyMask '") > 1 then
            set command_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "shift" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSShiftKeyMask '") > 1 then
            set shift_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "control" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSControlKeyMask '") > 1 then
            set control_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "caps" or checkKey = "capslock" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSAlphaShiftKeyMask '") > 1 then
            set caps_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "numlock" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSNumericPadKeyMask'") > 1 then
            set numlock_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if
    --Set if any key in the numeric keypad is pressed. The numeric keypad is generally on the right side of the keyboard. This is also set if any of the arrow keys are pressed

    if checkKey = "" or checkKey = "function" or checkKey = "func" or checkKey = "fn" then
        if (do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c 'import Cocoa; print Cocoa.NSEvent.modifierFlags() & Cocoa.NSFunctionKeyMask'") > 1 then
            set function_down of modiferKeysDOWN to true
        end if
    end if
    --Set if any function key is pressed. The function keys include the F keys at the top of most keyboards (F1, F2, and so on) and the navigation keys in the center of most keyboards (Help, Forward Delete, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, and the arrow keys)

    return modiferKeysDOWN
end isModifierKeyPressed

if Fn is down

Result:
{command_down:false, option_down:false, control_down:false, shift_down:false, caps_down:false, numlock_down:false, function_down:true}

else

Result:
{command_down:false, option_down:false, control_down:false, shift_down:false, caps_down:false, numlock_down:false, function_down:false}


How do I get llvm-gcc to point to gcc instead of clang?

Apple and xcode do not provide gcc. Any file called gcc us a link to clang

You need to install gcc from a third party and also check the version has mp enabled.

The easiest way is to install gcc using a package manager like macports, homebrew or fink.


How do i get the low battery warning back on my MacBook?

I had reset SMC several times and changed my battery once. Unfortunately, my MacBook did not show low battery warning anymore. Then I found
SlimBatteryMonitor, it works for me. You can customize the percentage of battery (if drops below x%) to show the warning panel too.


Long wait to get Hotspot feature going on Verizon iPhone 4S

Just did this the other day and it took less than 30 mins, its probably ready instantly after you add it to you account, but in practice it takes longer because it did not just start working automatically on  the phone, the phone needed to call Verizon to get updates to what it could do first. I only needed to call them so that they could tell me to do steps 1 and 2 below. Knowing that you don't even really need to call them.

The next thing you do after adding the Mobile broadband features to your account is:

Reboot the iPhone
Dial *228 and then select option 2 (the one for updating phone's mobile or roaming features)
Then you are good to go and set up the hotspot via USB, Wifi or Bluetooth.

Note: if that fails then they say:

  ... please call us from a different device at (800) 922-0204


Is there anything we can do on iOS to stay safe while waiting for Apple to issue an update for the latest FREAK SSL vulnerability?

Use Chrome for the moment. IIRC, Mac Firefox (and Chrome) uses a vulnerable crypto library, but Google has promised a fix for Mac Chrome is imminent.
See this site for a table of vulnerable and safe browsers.


Iphone 6s, question about recovering photos from iCloud on to the new phone. Please help.

If you did a restore from iCloud backup, your photos should appear.

If not, go to settings -> Your name -> iCloud -> Photos and turn on the following:

iCloud Photo Library & Keep and Download Originals

If the photos dont show, check your iCloud storage for photo backup size and iCloud backups. If you have an iCloud backup that has a favorable date, then restoring that could be in your favor.


iOS app for marking businesses on a personalized map

Sounds like an opportunity to create an app!

Google Maps allows you to save your own maps (My Maps) where you can add locations and place short notes about them. You can not categorize or sort.

With Yelp, you can save locations and make notes, but its limited beyond those features.

The closest I have seen to what you are seeking is an app and website called Findery. It is a mapping app that allows you to save and create notes on specific locations. you can include links, videos etc if you like. While these notes are meant to be 'found' by others, you can make them private. In addition, it has a feature called 'Notemaps' that allows you to categorize your notes in separate maps, like 'Been here', or 'favorites' etc.

I am not affiliated with any of these, just a user.


I was hoping that the Accessibility preference combined with Notifications sounds would induce a screen flash but it does not...

However, have you looked at using Growl (for notifications) and OmniGrowl (specifically to enable iCal notifications)? This is good if you mainly want iCal notifications (doesn't work with a lot of other apps) and especially if you'd like to have a more notification-based desktop including other apps and want a more granular level of control over how your notifications appear to you. Growl has a lot of nifty other things it can do that can help with and it's super customizable.


Dropbox + Mac Mini Server = Syncing Issues

When it stops syncing run the utility "Activity Monitor" and check that both 'Dropbox' and 'dbfseventsd' are running.

Note that Dropbox runs on a per user basis so someone with Dropbox installed has to be logged in to the computer or Dropbox will not do its thing.


Performance of Numbers 3.0 for large calculation sheet

I just purchased and tried out Numbers 3.0, and Apple definitely improved the calculation process, as my sheets using large formulas already perform much faster. Performance is better.


How could I output audio to the microphone port on Macbook Pro 15" Late 2011?

Recent Macs (from 2012) have a headphone jack which also has a contact for a microphone, using the same contacts as the iPhone headset. That's how you can record from the headphone jack.

Unfortunately, the microphone jack is not wired to support audio output, so there is no way to do it.

If you want to listen to headphones with your MacBook without a hardware repair, USB Audio devices are cheap and widely available. That would be the best way to go.


How can I keep a Java-based pop-up open even when its parent page is closed?

I tried looking a the source, but the website developer has embedded the applet information inside a bunch of JavaScript.  Also, even if you had the jar(s), if the applet requires communication back to the server, it would be a real pain to get it running.

  For future reference, if they hadn't gotten all creative with the applet code, you could have simply run this command line:

$ appletviewer http://world87.runescape.com/

What I recommend is to create a dedicated Fluid App for the website.  It's super easy, just point Fluid at the base URL, and it creates a dedicated application wrapped around the website.  The coolest thing is that you can then simply launch your game directly from Applications.

Fluid is 100% free, and I am not affiliated with them in any way.


Syncing iOS devices to multiple Macs with same Apple ID

There was a time when it "worked" to plug an iPod into separate computers with the same Apple ID. Have you tried just plugging them in? I think the key was that you need to manually manage music and videos on the iOS device. You probably don't want the computer syncing automatically either. There is a setting for that in iTunes preferences.

Syncing iPhones with multiple computers is a big bag of hurt. I don't think that this works at all.

Hopefully iCloud works perfectly and solves all these problems for us sometime this fall.


How to change or delete Personal Hotspot password on Mac side?

I took the pair of the Mac and the iPhone 7+ to the Apple store. I demonstrated the problem, we rebooted both machines, and demonstrated the problem persisting.

The troubleshooter gave the phone a "Vulcan death pinch" squeezing the lower volume key on the left simultaneously with the usual power key on the right, holding them until the phone fully rebooted to the Apple icon on the screen, releasing only then. He said it's a hard reset, and different on different iPhone model numbers. After that, we toggled the Personal Hotspot button in the Settings app on the iPhone, making sure it's on, and chose the Personal Hotspot from the wifi gadget on the upper right of the top menu bar of the Mac and the Mac asked for the Personal Hotspot password, which I copied off the phone.

To repeat and emphasize, we hard-reset the iPhone without changing the Mac. We didn't have to do anything extraordinary on the Mac, not even open the System Preferences Network dialog.


Would a lost phone still show as offline if someone found it and erased it?

Yes, if a device has been restored, Find My iPhone will be deactivated and the device will show as offline. If you have iOS 7 or above, you will receive an email if this occurs next time the device communicates with Apple's servers.

However, with iOS 7 and above, attempting to erase an iPhone with an active Find My iPhone will enable Activation Lock. This means the device will contact Apple's servers and be available to you. Activation Lock can't be bypassed without your Apple ID.


Dictionary App constantly downloading dictionaries

This kept happening to me too, again with the recent update to 10.13.4. In dictionary preferences, I had selected multiple dictionaries. Turning them off, restarting the app, and turning them back on resolved the issue.


Magic Mouse arrow briefly gets stuck at random places on screen

I have found that sometimes the surface you're mousing on can have surface qualities that alter the reflectance of the mouse's IR beam and this can affect the cursor behavior. Study the mousing surface to see if any part of the area that maps to the screen has a change in color or texture as this can contribute the the behavior you're observing.

Otherwise, you can try to reset your mouse by unpairing it, removing its batteries (if its an older Magic Mouse) then reseating the batteries & re-pairing again with your computer.


How to access macOS localhost (port 3000) from Parallels IE?

One of the way I could use it, I found my local IP4 address provided by the router.

From Mac system preferences > Network > IP Address: 192.168.x.xx

And let say if you access it in Mac with http://localhost:3000 you can do it also with http://192.168.x.xx:3000 from Mac itself and from Parallel Windows OS with shared network configuration.

This IP address could be changed each time you restart the router or choose another router etc.

Currently, I'm using Parallels Desktop 12


Why can't Safari display this emoji when I am logged in?

The problem is that auto activation of fonts had been disabled. FontExplorer X Pro was the culprit.

Safari seems to need auto activation to be able to display emoji correctly.

The solution is to manually re-enable auto activation. In Terminal:

atsutil autoactivation -e

Credit: https://discussions.apple.com/message/32553150#message32553150


MacBook Pro 2010 won't boot after EFI upgrade

Removed vertex2 SSD - Mac booted.

Looks like the SSD has failed, because if I install the SSD to other SATA slot, the MacBook does not boot, either. Also, this drive is invisible with external SATA to USB adapter.

It's Good to have a backup solution.


2019 MBP 16" 2.3Ghz i9 severe thermal throttling (Catalina 10.15.5)

Thermal throttling is normal behavior for laptops.  However, I did not expect the extent to throttling in everyday applications.
While Cinebench R20 shows robustness against thermal throttling, Adobe Premiere Pro thermal throttles right away.  The only explanation I can think of is that Cinebench R20 does not engage GPU while Adobe Premiere Pro does.  When CPU + GPU are both used in conjunction, thermal throttling happens immediately.
I suppose this is a limitation of laptops.


Finder Services - Cannot get specific service to appear/run

macOS Sierra has two built-in Terminal Services, New Terminal at Folder and New Terminal Tab at Folder.

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Files and Folders, and check one or both and add a keyboard shortcut if you’d like.

Then in Finder you can select a Folder, right-click and select the service from the Services context menu, or from the Finder > Services menu or use the keyboard shortcut if assigned.

There’s no need to use AppleScript unless you really want to.

Here's some example AppleScript code that works of me:

try
    tell application "Finder"
        set theTargetPath to quoted form of (POSIX path of (target of front window as string) as string)
    end tell
    tell application "Terminal"
        do script "pushd " & theTargetPath & "; clear"
        activate
    end tell
end try

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and aside from the use of a try statement, does not employ any additional error handling and is meant only to show one of many ways accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


What is "photoanalysisd" and why is it using 77% of my CPU?

Update for 2019, 16" MacBook Pro running Catalina 10.15.2:

start Photos, let it continue past the first dialogue box;
now Preferences in the app menu is clickable (it wasn't before);
Preferences > General , and untick both check boxes in Memories;
close Photos.

This stops photoanalysisd cold, no reboot or kill required.


In Numbers you can use any separator when importing csv tables.

On the format sidebar, in the table tab, look for adjust Import settings. Inside it you have delimited options where you can even use custom delimiters


iTunes Connect payment made on a closed account

If the charge was declined by your old bank, you'll get a message stating that there was a billing issue and it will ask you to update your billing info to correct the issue.

Theres more info and and an explanation on how to resolve the billing issue at
this page.

If you didn't receive a message like that, I would suggest checking your current account to see if that charge appeared on it. If not I would recommend contacting Apple or your old bank.


Just put your displays to sleep in the energy saver settings (like in the picture below) and it should work.

Please check the answer at serverfault for the reason why the VPN-connections breaks.