Red pixels on Mojave and Catalina Dark Mode

Update:
This bug is potentially fixed in macOS 11 Big Sur. The bug report I filed is now marked as:

Potential fix identified - In macOS 11

One commenter, Curtis Hard, has stated the issue no longer happens for them with Big Sur.
It's unclear if the fix will be backported to 10.15 or 10.14.

It's definitely not a dead-pixel issue. I've determined it's probably a software bug introduced in Mojave and still present in Catalina. I'm not able to screenshot the glitch in most cases (the glitch will typically immediately disappear), but I have managed to capture it on a couple of videos and screenshots.
The fact that it can be captured in software and the fact that the cursor can cover over the glitched pixels indicates the issue is not in the screen but happening in software.
Examples:
Firefox
Here's a screenshot from a screen recording of Firefox, where you can see the grey pixels.

Interestingly, if we zoom in a bit, we can see the pixels are actually outside the window itself.

Finder
I've also captured similar glitches happening in Apple's own Finder on regular screenshots.

Notes:
Some interesting things to note about it.

I've only seen it happen against dark areas of a window.
It can happen in both light mode and dark mode (if the window is dark anyway).
It mostly happens at the edge of a window (where the shadow is), though I have seen it on the inside of some.
It often (but not always) disappears when window focus changes, among other things (window focus changing causes window shadows to change).

I've been able to change focus to and from an iTerm window with no shadow (when transparency is enabled), and the glitch outside the bottom edge of the window persisted.

It can be captured with QuickTime Player's Screen Recording feature.
Mysteriously, though it can be capture with QuickTime, it is invisible to Apple's developer tool Pixie, as seen in this screen recording. Likewise, the Digital Color Meter app does not see it either.
I've seen it mostly in grey and red, but also green, yellow, and more colors.
The glitch can happen even when Finder is not running, so it's not a part of Finder.
Running killall Dock while SSH'd into a machine displaying the glitch may cause it to stop, though this may just be a side-effect of shadow changes.
I tried suspending all the Firefox processes (firefox + plugin-container processes) over SSH with kill -SIGSTOP while the glitch was happening and the glitch continued to blink, further indicating the glitch is happening outside the Firefox processes.
Going further, I tried systematically suspending processes over SSH, to see which one might be responsible. The only one suspending causes the flashing to freeze with was WindowServer.
Using the Quartz Debug developer tool (one of the Xcode addition tools, mentioned here), I tested some of the options it had. When the "Disable 2D Acceleration" option was enabled, I was unable to reproduce the glitch like I could when it was disabled. The Autoflush drawing and Vertical Sync options had no effect.
It seems to only happen with the integrated graphics card. I have not been able to reproduce it while the discrete card is active.
So far I've only heard reports of it happening on recent MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. I was unable to reproduce this issue on a previous generation MacBook Air running the same OS version.
I've not yet seen it happen in a Mojave VM using VMware Fusion, further indicating it only happens with certain hardware.
To remove all variables, I tried running a clean install of Mojave 10.14.1 on an external drive. With all default settings, I was quickly able to reproduce it Light Mode with Firefox 63.0.1 with the dark theme and dark developer tools theme enabled and the console open (screen recording).
Browser-like applications appear especially likely to trigger it (ie. Firefox and Electron-based apps).
Applications I've seen it with (I've probably forgotten some):

Firefox (especially versions < 70)

Top edge (requires dark Firefox theme)
Bottom edge (requires dark bottom of window from open search bar with dark theme, dev tools with dark theme, or dark web page content). Also done on a clean 10.14.1 install.

Atom (may require Settings > Core > Title Bar > custom)

Top edge
Bottom edge

Discord

Bottom edge
Inside window

iTerm (with a black, semi-transparent background; it does not seem to happen with an opaque background)

Top edge
Bottom edge
Inside window (at the bottom edge of one pane with split panes)

Finder

Top edge
Inside window (tab bar)

Activity Monitor

Top edge

Disk Utility

Top edge

Console

Inside window (over the transparent column headers)

Mail

Inside window (over the transparent column headers)

Archive Utility

Top edge

Hex Fiend

Top edge

Google Chrome (when using macOS dark mode)

Inside window at chrome://downloads/ under light grey horizontal line of top menu bar)

I've also seen it happen once at the bottom edge of the drop-down menus from the top menu bar.
The selection of apps and places I've seen it with make me suspicious it may in some way be window transparency related.

Things that have no impact on the glitch (tested with Firefox):

Doing a clean install of 10.14.1.
Resetting PRAM.
Resetting SMC.
Open the app in low resolution mode.
System Preferences:

Display resolution scaling.
Display color profile.
Night Shift.
System accent color.
Auto-hiding dock.
Accessibility > Display > Use grayscale
Accessibility > Display > Invert colors

Hardware:
I've only heard claims of it affecting different MacBook Pro models from 2016+ and the 2018+ MacBook Air (the models with USB Type-C). If you are seeing this issue on another Apple computer model, or don't have this issue on one of the affected models, I would be interested to hear about it.
Conclusion:
Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way to prevent this glitch at this point, aside from forcing the use of the discrete card if your computer has one (and you don't mind the reduced battery life), but hopefully it will be resolved in a future update.
Even more unfortunate, it still has not been fixed in any version from 10.14.0 through 10.14.6 or the second supplemental update since, and remains unfixed in the first supplemental update for 10.15.7. A comment from Curtis Hard confirms it was still present in the Big Sur betas at the time (it would be great if someone could confirm or deny it exists in newer builds).
I filed a bug report on bugreport.apple.com (not public, but 46079638), which has been marked as a duplicate of 45841204. I don't have access to that bug report, but thought I would mention it in case anyone wants to reference it.
On a side note, there's a good change Apple's future ARM-based computers won't have this issue since they won't have the Intel integrated GPU's. That won't fix the issue for existing Intel computers though.
Firefox 70+:
Since Firefox 70 it doesn't happen as often as it did before, though it still does happen. I suspect this is related to some improvements that reduce the amount of screen drawing.

Steps to reproduce:
I've had the best luck reproducing the bug with Firefox.

Open Firefox (63.0.1 in my case)
Set Firefox theme to Dark

View > Toolbars > Customize... > Themes > Dark

Navigate to a page like http://example.com/
Open developer tools

Tools > Web Developer > Inspector

Set developer tools theme to dark

In the top right, click ... > Settings > Themes > Dark

Click the Inspector tab
Open the console

In the top right, click ... > Show Split Console

Ensure the developer tools covers the bottom of the window

If it doesn't, in the top right, click ... > Dock to Bottom

Reload the page until the glitch happens

References:

Bugzilla: Colored Artifacts Appear Above Tab Bar with OS X Mojave in Dark Mode
MacRumors: Weird Issue Red pixels on Mojave Dark Mode
Reddit: Red dot blinking between the head bar and the firefox window on Mac.[...]
Reddit: Anyone else dealing with screen glitches on Mojave?
Reddit: MBP15 2018 Intel GPU artifact
Reddit: Flickering pixels above Firefox title bar — macOS
Reddit: Graphic Glitches when watch Netflix, anyone know about this?

Possibly loosely related: Avoid using a transparent surface by using CoreAnimation (if my suspicion that it is transparency related is correct, that change may eventually have an impact on this bug happening with Firefox, if only by avoiding the OS bug).
Note: If you have any info to share but don't have an account here, you can contact me here.


What is the best way to block ocsp.apple.com on mac?

A quick and easy solution is to use your system's hosts file to redirect requests to localhost.
sudo sh -c 'echo "127.0.0.1  ocsp.apple.com" >> /etc/hosts'

Then you'll want to make sure this has been applied by clearing the DNS cache - which on the latest version is done by forcing the DNS responder to restart:
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder


Have you tried logging out & unticking the "Reopen windows when logging back in" option?

Else you may have corrupted user Caches/Saved Application States.. you could try removing the content of these folders & rebooting:

~/Library/Caches

~/Library/Saved Application States


System hangs when creating bootable disk drive

The asr command can be replaced by using the Disk Utility to restore to a sparse image. Since the sparse image is using a MBR partitioning scheme, image can then be cloned to the external drive by using the dd command. The updated procedure has been added to the answer given as a link in your question.


Can I SSH into my Mac from an iPhone over Wi-Fi LAN with no connection to the internet?

Yes. You can. However the Apple Mac OS X operating system has SSH installed by default but the SSH daemon is not enabled. This means you can’t login remotely or do remote copies until you enable it.

To enable it, go to ‘System Preferences’. Under ‘Internet & Networking’ there is a ‘Sharing’ icon. Run that. In the list that appears, check the ‘Remote Login’ option.

This starts the SSH daemon immediately and you can remotely login using your username. The ‘Sharing’ window shows at the bottom the name and IP address to use. You can also find this out using ‘whoami’ and ‘ifconfig’ from the Terminal application.

An app called iTerminal - SSH Telnet Client is available free on the App Store. It allows you to connect via SSH to your Mac iTerminal.

Another app called Reflection for UNIX - SSH Client will also do this for free.

To run the server without Internet will be fine. The DCHP server will still allow access with Bonjour and manually inputting the IP address of the Mac.


Nevermind, I managed to get it working following the advise of another discussion thread on the Apple forums; namely:

  Same thing happend to me on my 3gs, i went to Settings...iCloud...Delete Account
  then signed in again to add it. The iCloud inbox was displayed afterwards.

This also fixed the problem of notes, which now show up properly on the notes application.


How do I turn off "Show Bluetooth in menu bar"?

Try holding down the Command key and using the mouse to drag the Bluetooth symbol off the menu bar. Alternately there is a check mark to uncheck in the bluetooth preferences in System Preferences.


How can I type or input Unicode characters using a code point on the iPhone?

UniK - Unicode & navigation Keyboard extension seems to be the closest to a character map and it also functions as a keyboard extension. You actually have to type hexadecimal code points in this app.


Why can't I share my voice memo on my iPhone via e-mail?

I had the same issue after an update and found that by clicking "edit" on the voice memo then "done" , it would attach all details in that vm so I could send.
It just added another step to what was a straight forward pro ss to begin with.


Is it safe to turn the iPhone 4 off for over a week

This answer is somewhat outdated as Apple has added very robust and intelligent overcharging, over rate charging, temperature controls and adaptive charging to extend the life and avoid many of the situations where 2010 to 2015 era battery and charge system tech could result in less service length than ideal.

Even for 2010 era, what is described is still certainly safe - just turn it off and enjoy your trip. Newer gear makes this even more safe to do. You really have to go out of your way to exhaust batteries - and only random failures result in swaps in my experience now.

iPhone and all other Apple Products shipping in the last 5+ years (excepting the Apple Battery Charger which are NiMH AA cells) have lithium polymer (lipo) batteries. The MacBook Pro and Air batteries are a bit more sophisticated than the iPhone/iPod/iPad batteries but the underlying chemistry is the same.

It is safe to store them for months and it's best to charge them 50% and turn off the device for long term storage. All lipo batteries work best when they get a normal serive charge and discharge cycle once a month, but slowly draining from 50% to 0% over 6 to 12 months and then getting charged back to 50% is quite safe for several years of storage.

I wouldn't worry about leaving it off even 5 months if you starting over 50% but less than 70% charge in a not-hot location.

The worst thing for a battery is to
use or charge it above 95 degrees F.
The next worst is deep, deep
discharge (well past when the device
shuts off) - make sure you charge up
the battery past half before long periods of
storage.
Repeated long storage while full.
(don't make a habit of leaving it
100% full and off for months at a time)

I still have my original iPhone going strong (for occasional testing) by waking it up every 6 months at a minimum. If I leave it around 2/3 full and wake it six months later - it's usually got more than 1/4 battery left. I then use it for a few days charging and discharging fully before shutting it off again.


Help with iPod 5 and desktop Mac regarding iMessage

You have to either sign out of your Apple ID on your Mac or disable just iMessage by signing out of it.

If you use the same Apple ID on both devices, then in general a lot of data will be shared between the devices such a messages, email, contacts, calendar. This is by design to be convenient for people to have access to all their data on all their devices.


Can you what Apple ID is now associated with my MacBook Air using its serial number?

No, it is not possible to lookup that information for ordinary customers.

Apple has access to the information, but you cannot just call them and expect them to be able or willing to tell you. They would probably require an official request from the police with a warrant or similar.


You need an app, like Printopia running continuously on a logged in Mac.


The only way to do this in a supported way without jailbreaking the phone is to have O2 do it. There's simply no other way. They have to send a carrier update to the phone which unlocks it.

If you want it done faster, I would recommend returning the phone if you can and purchase an unlocked one straight from Apple.

I don't know how UK law works, but in the US, carriers are required to unlock your phone if you have no financial obligation to them for the device. Any phone you buy directly from Apple won't have any kind of carrier lock on it.


Yosemite file permissions/ownership issue

I found the solution which was much more localised.

I needed to chown -R my composer directory. For some reason, I wasn't the owner. After running this command, the issue was resolved.


USB Pluggable speakers for Macbook Pro 13" Late 2011?

I can recommend the 'SoundSticks I' from Harman Kardon, a very good 3-way Sound System. The first Generation had an USB-Interface, the later Models had the usual Headphone Jacks. You can get it from E-Bay, usually for less than 80$.

One important thing: You cannot use them on a USB-Hub, you have to connect them directly to you machine.


AppleScript to mark video file as TV show?

Here's a bit to start the copy/pasting process, from the excellent "Doug's Scripts" website:

http://dougscripts.com/410

This is the "Set Video Kind of Selected" script, which lets you choose what kind you want the file to be marked as TV Show, Movie, etc.


Thunderbolt Displays' ethernet adapter breaks MacBook DHCP/MAC Address reservations

This depends a lot on your DHCP server, but I would look into using the client id to assign static IPs. It's not tied to the individual hardware (although you'd have to set it at least once when they first use a TB Display), so it avoids the switching displays problem. It can be set via the networksetup tool.


I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most likely your "T" key has a crumb of food or some dust stuck underneath it.

Canned air sometimes works, but sometimes will jam it in there for good.

If it's still under AppleCare, bring it in to an Apple store and look distressed...sometimes it helps to cry a little bit and/or beg. Personally, I just grab a Genius' pant leg and refuse to let go while sobbing loudly.

Generally they can replace the key and/or keyboard, but you may need to go without your laptop for a week.


I uninstalled an app. How do I get it back?

On iTunes, under iTunes Store > Account > Purchase History, you've got a list of all your iTunes Store purchases.

If you already bought an app, it still appears with the price on the Store. Last time I checked, I had to risk re-buying to see it was free since I already bought it.

Hope that helps!


Is there a way to auto-disconnect from WiFi when connectivity is low?

There isn't a way to specify this in the current OS, but I've found when I am in the margins of coverage - flipping AirPlane mode on and then off will prevent re-joining the Wi-Fi. Basically, the OS is trying to maintain an existing connection for as long as possible to avoid inconveniencing people who have spotty coverage or temporary disruptions and for you it's not so good.

When the signal is this low, the phone won't re-join until you get closer so you'll kick things to cellular data sooner than waiting to get out of range or it to eventually time out.


Try this in a Run Applescript Action:

    on run {input, parameters}
    set filePath to "/Users/UserName/Documents/WhereFroms.txt"

    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in input
        set this_item to item i of input
        tell application "Finder" to set displayedname to displayed name of this_item
        set this_item to this_item as string
        set this_item to POSIX path of this_item as string
        set theFroms to (do shell script "mdls -name kMDItemWhereFroms " & quoted form of this_item)
        set allFroms to (do shell script "echo " & quoted form of theFroms & "| cut -d'(' -f2- |cut -d')' -f1 ")--strip crap

        set WhereFroms to "File: " & displayedname & return & "From:  " & (allFroms & return & return)
        do shell script "echo " & quoted form of WhereFroms & "  >> " & quoted form of filePath
    end repeat

end run


How can I get rid of multiple “purchased on ” playlists?

You can't consolidate them, but you can delete them. Just right click and click "Delete".


How can I install/run apps that use Rosetta on Lion?

At the time of writing Rosetta is not included with Lion, not supported by Lion officially and not available from any other channel (official or unofficial) for use on Lion.

So: no, there is no workaround. Your Rosetta-based applications cease to function if you upgrade to Lion.


Yes, that will work just fine.  Notice that the female DVI connector has more slots than the male connector has pins.  Those slots are for the extra pins needed by a dual link cable.  They're not needed for a single link DVI connection, so they'll just sit unused.


How to determine what keeps causing my mouse cursor to stick or slow down a lot?

After removing the USB receiver, I connected my Logitech MX Master to my MacBook Pro via Bluetooth and am no longer experiencing issues with the mouse cursor sticking or slowing down.


Upgraded to Mojave and now MacOS won't allow me to have the same password locally as my iCloud account

Apple is making it hard for you to reuse the password from the setup assistant only.

Just enter a new password to get past this.

Then if you require them to be the same, go and immediately change the password in System Preferences. Apple doesn’t store or check the passwords other than the initial setup, so you can reuse your passwords as much as you wish.

The only wrinkle I haven't tested lately is if you have enabled FileVault and iCloud escrows your FileVault unlock keys might still be entangled with your account password.

I was going to comment on your question, but it got too long for a comment and it is opinion, so I'll share that here after answering how to get around things as best I know.

As for your comment about moving to windows, you are correct - we all have to pick our poison. No commercial software fails to make design and security decisions like this one that they don't bend on.

If we were to delve into this - the question I have for anyone (and myself) is:

  What's your use case for not having an iCloud password that's distinct from one Mac local admin password?

The security model in 2019 is using secure storage and long unique passwords to contain when a breach happens. Having a different password for cloud unifying - highly confidential and attackable information and a much shorter one you type day in and day out seems like a very reasonable baseline for everyone. Especially if you can take a second step and choose to unify both easily if you don't want to have two to remember.

On the other side - Imagine if Apple let the default setup keep the same password on iCloud and the Mac and your Mac FileVault backup was the same password you forgot. All your eggs are in one basket. I think they have had this happen and made the decision to inconvenience people in the name of having the discussion we are having (or I'm attempting to have) to raise the security of Mac users.

I get you might be momentarily inconvenienced or angry, but perhaps you'll reconsider after thinking through what the long term effects of implementing what used to be are for you and your community. Anyhow - I'll get off my soapbox and hope I didn't anger anyone with some opinion here.


The application "XQuartz" can't be opened

The issue was my .zprofile file. I recently installed Intel oneAPI and I had the initialization script in the .zprofile file. I moved the script to the .zshrc file, and now everything works properly.


How to highlight changes when comparing versions of a document in OS X?

Sadly, I'm quite sure the highlighting doesn't exist. Apple's documentation doesn't mention it either: OS X Lion: About Auto Save and Versions
(I know it's from Lion)

Mountain Lion changes to Auto Save doesn't mention it either. What's New in OS X v10.8 (Auto Save is mentioned under AppKit)


Bypass Proxy Settings "captive.apple.com"?

This relates to how Apple logs into WiFi, particularly the free or public WiFi you find in many places.  Many of these networks want you to agree to terms/conditions, sign-on, pay for service, etc.  They intercept all Web requests and divert you to the agree/login/pay page.  Apple tries very hard to automatically detect this, and turn their login page into a "pop-up" with a "Cancel" button.  When you succeed, it changes the button to "Done".

How does it do this?  By attempting to send traffic to captive.apple.com.   If the traffic makes it through, it knows the WiFi channel has granted you access, and changes the button to "Done".

If you were to proxy that, it wouldn't work.


Dual screen setup Apple Cinema Displays Mac mini

With the two monitors you have listed, it's not feasible (most definately, not economically).

The 27" Apple Cinema Display requires miniDisplay Port
The 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display can only support another Thunderbolt display.  From the Thunderbolt Display User Manual:

  Connect Thunderbolt-compatible devices for high-speed data transfer,
  or connect another display that uses Thunderbolt. This Thunderbolt
  port is not compatible with DVI, VGA, or DisplayPort displays or
  adapters

The Thunderbolt Display must be used with the Thunderbolt port and cannot be converted from HDMI.  This is a limitation you can't overcome because these are two completely different signals.

For the Cinema display, you need a mini DisplayPort (DP) which is not available if you plug in the Thunderbolt Display.

Daisy Chaining

You can't.  The Thunderbolt Display will only daisy chain to another Thunderbolt Display.

Using a Dock

You could use a dock like the OWC 12 Port Thunderbolt 2 Dock that has multiple TB ports out that includes support for video.

The problem with using a dock like this is two fold:

It's already obsolete technology.  You're using tech that's already 5 years old and has already been surpassed by Thunderbolt 3.  This product will soon be EOL'd if not already.
It's expensive.  You're looking at spending about as much for a new monitor to get an obsolete device to connect obsolete monitors.

Bottom Line...

You are going to spend more than the Cinema Display is worth in adapters only to end of with EOL'd products.  (IMO) Your best bet is to sell your Cinema Display and use the procedes to get a newer, modern display that has multiple input formats like HDMI and DisplayPort.  This way, you can avoid all of the extra, unnecessary signal conversions and you end up with a monitor that will last you at least several years.


Is Mac Mini's Fusion drive useful if I mostly use windows 8 through Bootcamp?

My understanding is if you want to use Bootcamp, you'll have each drive formatted and available to the software as a two-drive system and not as a one drive - fused hybrid item.

Boot Camp 5: Frequently asked questions - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639

Out of the box, the BootCamp software will see if you have a CoreStorage fusion drive and just put the Windows partition on the spinning HD. There, it won't even get to see the SSD nor likely any of the data that exists on a core storage volume (which is a mix of files stored on the SSD and on the HDD).

I'd still get the fusion drive since you can always experiment with the BootCamp default situation, experiment with virtualization, and decide to partition both drives to be stand-alone and run BootCamp to install Windows on the SSD itself. Worst case, you don't like the experience and take advantage of Apple's 14 day return policy to get a different Mac if you don't like your Mini once you've tried it for a week or so.

Here's what you'll likely see when you get your Mac. The SSD will be disk0 and the DHH will be disk1 and the combination of disk0s2 and disk1s2 will be the raw space that fuses into Macintosh HD to be a logical:

MacMini:~ me$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.4 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk1s3

In system profiler under storage, you'll see something similar to this:

Macintosh HD:

  Available:    1 TB (1,000,499,220,480 bytes)
  Capacity: 1.11 TB (1,111,826,497,536 bytes)
  Mount Point:  /
  File System:  Journaled HFS+
  Writable: Yes
  Ignore Ownership: No
  BSD Name: disk2
  Volume UUID:  32F084C9-A737-34BE-9567-165721D02C07
  Logical Volume:
  Revertible:   No
  Encrypted:    No
  LV UUID:  CDBF5035-78F6-4302-B90E-2B9034324A26
  Logical Volume Group:
  Name: Macintosh HD
  Size: 1.12 TB (1,120,333,979,648 bytes)
  Free Space:   115 KB (114,688 bytes)
  LVG UUID: D0EFA715-18BE-408E-8149-838206F04AFB
  Physical Volumes:
disk0s2:
  Media Name:   APPLE SSD SM128E Media
  Size: 120.99 GB (120,988,852,224 bytes)
  Medium Type:  SSD
  Protocol: SATA
  Internal: Yes
  Partition Map Type:   GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  Status:   Online
  S.M.A.R.T. Status:    Verified
  PV UUID:  94835A4F-7029-4334-A9B9-A4F510A11157
disk1s2:
  Media Name:   APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 Media
  Size: 999.35 GB (999,345,127,424 bytes)
  Medium Type:  Rotational
  Protocol: SATA
  Internal: Yes
  Partition Map Type:   GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  Status:   Online
  S.M.A.R.T. Status:    Verified
  PV UUID:  06A43A8A-0F80-4A9F-9034-BD6486F3AA34


How can i get my apple id by terminal in MacBook?

The information about the currently logged in Apple ID can be retrieved with the following command: defaults read MobileMeAccounts Accounts
Alternatively, you can take a look at the tool mas-cli. With the command mas account you can also query the Apple ID.


Not easily. The concept of processes and threads isn't contained in AppleScript.

You'll want another tool for that job. Swift might be a good one unless you're looking for python or something a bit more established.


You should be able to run the command sudo killall Python.

You need to run as root because Python belongs to root, not the user.


~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist

and

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TextEdit.plist

~/Library/Containers does not seem to be indexed, at least on my system, so mdfind didn't find them. That said, I have a copy of my system on another hard drive, which IS fully indexed, and it listed some files there that started me poking around in that folder on my OS drive.


How can I specify a custom icon for a Dock stack?

You need to change the icon of the folder that contains the items in the stack.  This can be done in several ways, but perhaps the easiest is to start by navigate to the folder of the stack, change that icon, and set the stack to display the folder instead of the contents.

Click the stack, click "Open in Finder" in the stack, and then press the keystroke ⌘ + ▲.  The key press will take you "one level up" in the directory hierarchy so that you are now looking at the folder that houses the items in the stack.

Next, select the folder (If it's not already selected), and "get info" on it, by typing ⌘ + I, or right-clicking and selecting "Get Info".  At the top of this window will be a miniature icon of a folder.  You can click on this and copy it via the keyboard shortcut (⌘ + C), or paste in an image that you copied from somewhere else.

Finally, you need to right-click on the stack and set it to display "folder" and not the stack contents.


I Accidentally Deleted a Stock Terminal Theme

Click the gear icon in the "Profiles" tab and select the option "Restore Default Profiles."


iPod Touch Passcode doesn't work after restore from backup

The solution to my problem was rather simple, though I still don't understand it:

Reboot.

My battery drained completely, and when it came back on after plugging it in it presented the expected numeric keypad and accepted my passcode.  It seems rebooting was all I needed to get back to normal.

It doesn't make sense to my why it happened that way.  If you have an explanation, I'll happily accept your answer.


Sync Number files between 2 different iCloud accounts

I log into https://www.icloud.com/#iwork on my Mac to log into a secondary iCloud account and upload / download documents since the Mac (as well as iOS devices) only allows one iCloud sign in per user account.

On iOS only, you can push the file to a general file bucket app and then sign out of iCloud, sign in to the new account, push the file back. This involves manual clean up, selection of another app, and manual signing in and out olympics so it's clearly not an ideal thing for anything but a very rare event.

On my iOS devices, both Dropbox and AirSharing are apps I use and would be ideal to hold an iWork document outside of iCloud storage while you are switching settings. I suppose you could attach the file to an email draft as well - but I prefer the above apps if you must do this only on iOS.


The "allow apps downloaded from" setting won't stay selected

Since this is a new Mac and nothing was working anyway, I decided I had nothing to lose by wiping it and starting over. So I restarted it and held down Command + R. From the menu I selected to reinstall macOS. After waiting 40 minutes I was disappointed to see that this option did not wipe the drive, and my restored accounts were still there on the login screen. I was about to restart again and this time format the drive, but I thought What the heck, and logged into my account. Surprisingly none of the files I opened were reported as damaged! Everything seems to be working now.


Can't switch from Calendar month view to day

It depends on whether you have the 'overview' icon at the top of the screen on or off.

If it's On, your day view is underneath the Month...

If it's Off, then tapping a day will take you to the Day View

unless the same icon is also On in Day View, in which case it will go to Event List view


The headphone jack on my MacBook Pro just stopped working. How do I fix it?

I've had similar issues and restarting coreaudio work for me. Run this in a terminal (you might be prompted for your password).

sudo pkill coreaudiod

If your curious sudo is something used to run commands as administrator (SU-DO as in super user do) and pkill sends signals to processes based on name, in this case coreaudiod, which is the name of the coreaudio daemon process. When it gets a terminate signal sent by pkill it will terminate and then macOS will restart it again.


The short answer is, no.

You CAN create Aliases of the two folders, then drop them into another folder (which you then drag to the dock) but this only gives you those folders in a dock folder...

BUT... you can have them operate within one folder.. And you might like this option...

create a folder that you'll use to drop into the dock.
make aliases of both the ~/App folder and the /App folder
drop them in that folder
put it in the dock
right-click on it and mark it as a List.

Now it'll allow you to "spring into" each of those sub folders on the fly....

look at this URL: http://www.macworld.com/article/1160337/dock_access.html


Try updating to iOS 12. This should hopefully provide a fix for it. Also when you try to get your location try to wait a bit as accuracy improves over time. Make sure that you've set the date, time, and time zone correctly on the device in Settings > General > Date & Time. If possible, use Set Automatically.

  GPS accuracy depends on the number of visible GPS satellites. Locating
  all visible satellites can take several minutes, with accuracy
  gradually increasing over time. To improve GPS accuracy:

  Make sure that you've set the date, time, and time zone correctly on the device in Settings > General > Date & Time. If possible, use Set
  Automatically.
  Keep a clear view in several directions. Walls, vehicle roofs, tall buildings, mountains, and other obstructions can block line of sight
  to GPS satellites. When this happens, your device uses Wi-Fi or
  cellular networks to determine your position until the GPS satellites
  are visible again.

(Source)


Connecting iPhone to hotel's ethernet network

Yes, this could work. It's an odd solution, but allowing your router to be a bridge, then presenting a wireless SSID to your iPhone is a way to make this work. Perhaps the hotel assumed guests would bring laptop computers, thus the hard-wired ethernet ports...


SMC sensors failure while running on battery

You've already reset the System Management Controller, which was the first thing to try, so I would probably start with testing to see if this behaviour is replicated when booted into Safe Mode and if the issue persists then running Apple Diagnostics.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your MBA
Restart your MBA
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. does your MBA still seem to behave strangely when running on battery, etc)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your MBA as normal
Test again when booted normally

If the problem doesn't occur while booted into Safe Mode, let me know and we'll go from there.

If the problem persists, proceed with running Apple Diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your MBA
Restart your MBA
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.


Is there any way to know when was my iPad updated to the latest version of iOS?

IOS differs from macOS.
macOS updates the OS via App Store. And App Store keeps tracking what we have updated.
Unfortunately, iOS updates via Software Update in Settings. And it doas not keep history of the updates. I think there is no workaround at the moment. And I think iTunes login can't help in this case.


One thing to do would be to trick the iMac into thinking its a new setup but jumping into single user mode and deleting the .AppleSetupDone file in /var/db.

Restart the mac and it'll act like the machine has just been pulled out of its box. (all your data and accounts are still on there).

Create a new admin account and see if you can login. You should be able to. If not something is seriously broken. If you can, run the standard system checks to see if anything is amiss.


That's the kind of thing software updates typically fix. Since it's an iPhone 5, you could try updating to iOS 8.4.1 today, or wait until iOS 9.0 launches in a couple of weeks. Just go to Settings->General->Software Update. I can't guarantee that updating will solve your problem, but you should update anyway for many reasons: new and better design, new features, bug fixes, security updates, and many other things.


is it possible on a mac to quicky see the desktop along with the last active window?

Simplest is in the Dock -

Hold  Alt ⌥  & Right Click > Hide Others

Alternatively & probably better than my original answer [I don't know if this is system-wide, but it does appear in all the apps I checked, Apple & 3rd party]
 Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   H  is the key command to Hide Others


Photo Stream is gone since iOS 8.
Even though your 4S will be on an older OS, Photo Stream is not the way to securely save your photos, as Apple are starting to limit to the last 30 days only.

I'd suggest Dropbox or similar, or get them onto your computer with iPhoto [Mac] or Photo Gallery - part of Windows Essentials [PC]


Yosemite won't accept administrator password

Once you are in the Recovery Mode, click in the menu on Utilities, then Terminal.
Type resetpassword then enter.
Follow the instructions on screen

Warning: Your keychain can only be unlocked with the old password.


How to get to Tweet in native iOS Twitter app from another app's webview?

At least in the case of Facebook I found an easy way to do this, from the top right menu:


Git: command not found during Git installation (Mac OSX 10.6)

Where did you install git to? Different install methods will put it in different places. Double check your install process. On my machine i have it in /usr/bin/

You need to ensure your PATH contains the directory that the git lives in.

You can either run locate git to search for it, you'll probably have to build your locate database if you haven't already.

Of you can just try a few typical places

/usr/bin/git --version

Once you know where it is installed, can modify your PATH file by editing .profile or .bash_profile to add the appropriate value.


Macbook Pro, completely broken keyboard, can't login!

You can't setup Bluetooth devices without logging in, USB keyboard is the only way to go. Bring you Macbook to school or work and use one of their keyboards for a minute to logon and pair the Bluetooth keyboard.


Google sync with iPhone causing incorrect dates on phone

You can set the timezone in both the iPhone and Google Calendar.

In Google Calendar, it's in the first page of the settings.
In the iPhone, it's in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Time Zone Support (at the bottom).

You should set both in the same timezone, then see if it fixes the issue.


Why does me.com always redirect to Find My iPhone?

It's likely that you migrated your MobileMe email to iCloud and you can only log into http://me.com to access the few things that remain. So, try getting your mail at https://www.icloud.com/

If you didn't migrate things, you may have to open a support ticket with Apple to have them look at your account. You can always try logging into the same URL from a new computer or clear cookies, caches in the browser in case it's something that isn't clean on the client side, but in all likelihood, the problem is on the server end and the application on the web server believes you don't have mail any more for your logged in account.


How to Find My iPhone using my Samsung Admire via MetroPCS?

I think you'd be better off using icloud.com.


How can I modify the list of Applications under 'Open With...'?

Applications don't have to live in /Applications. If you have a clone of your system mounted, that can account for some duplicates, but certainly not what you are observing. The list of programs for Open with… is maintained in the Launch Services database. If the list contains many duplicates as yours does, the database looks like it needs rebuilding.

Macworld Hints offers a suggestion as to how you can fix this:

The lsregister command, found at System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister, can tell the database to reset. Macworld recommends running the command thusly: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Note that utilities like Onyx or Cocktail can also reset this database for you. Do note that Finder won't re-read the new database so you will either have to log out and in again or issue a killall Finder if you don't mind just killing it for any users on your Mac to avoid a log out and in.


This issue is because the iPhone 3GS isn't compatible with the newer iTunes software. I've been trying for ages and the only option I have come across so far is to take the phone to an Apple Store. I have tried everything. I have tried calling apple, chatting with them online and I have even tried to download an old version of iTunes but nothing works. Maybe give apple a call and see if they can give you any advice. Probably will tell you to take the phone into the store


Running OS X Yosemite, but About This Mac shows Version 10.90

Download the latest Yosemite installer from the Mac App Store but do not install it.

Copy following in to your Terminal to verify the downloaded Yosemite file is correct:

shasum /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Wait for a minute for it to calculate. The result for the previous version should be:

eebf02a20ac27665a966957eec6f5e6fe3228a19  /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

And for Yosemite Download as of Nov. 27 the result is:

a673c2c6d967f4da2934b7d6cf3736936970b194  /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Proceed with Install.


Apple Music will launch on iOS, Mac, and Windows on June 30, coming to Apple TV and Android phones this fall. Here is the news you can check. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/06/08Introducing-Apple-Music-All-The-Ways-You-Love-Music-All-in-One-Place-.html


It's a semi-transparent image. Here's two quick grabs.

Noisy background:

Black background:

These images were takes from a third generation iPad running iOS 5.1 (9B176)


If you go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account, then choose iCloud. At the bottom of the next screen you'll see Get a Free Apple ID.


Can’t get my volume button to work at all

I've had a similar problem with other macs. Resetting my PRAM  by pressing command + option + p+ r during reboot fixed the problem for me


Alternative methods for viewing flash content on the iPad?

Unfortunately Apple generally doesnt allow stuff like running some generic program on a virtual machine in their OS, but there are apps which do conversion and make it ready for an iOS device such as iSWiFTER, which even claims it can convert games.

I have never tried these out, but iSWiFTER is a 30 second free trial, so see if it works for you.


How to enable Autoboot for old MacBook Air?

As you stated in your post, this is a feature of various 2016 (and later) MacBook models, it is not supported on your 2013 MacBook Air.

I suppose you could get into the habit of putting your MBA to sleep instead of shutting it down, as this would mean it'd start fairly quickly upon opening the lid, but of course that's not the same as auto boot.


Adding movie-style sound effects to the Terminal

Fun question :)

I'm not sure how you would get sound effects for everything but you could do something like this to get sound effects for a few things:

1) Open open your .profile (or .bashrc or wherever you like to keep your customizations) by opening a terminal window and typing:

open .profile

2) Add the following few lines to the bottom of the file:

function top() { afplay /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/accessibility/Sticky\ Keys\ ON.aif; command top;}
function ls() { command ls; afplay /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/accessibility/Slow\ Keys\,\ Key\ Registered.aif; }

3) Try typing 'ls' for a directory listing or 'top' to see the list of running processes & you'll get to hear the results of these commands.

By adding these two lines we are declaring two new functions with the same names as existing bash commands. We override the command itself so that we can play a bit of audio and then run the command itself (or vice versa as shown the 'top' example).

The audio files I am currently using are default audio files (at least on Lion) that are used for accessibility features. I chose these so that you could cut-paste, and see the trick in action but you could use any audio file in place of these.

Here's a site with a bunch of sci-fi sound effects you could use in place of these ones I'm borrowing from the OS:

http://fxhome.com/sounds/


Download the Lion version 5.6 of Airport Utility , which actually works with setting up / reconfiguring an Airport Express.

Both versions (ML comes with 6.x) can be used on Mountain Lion. Keep both around, for now.

Though once setup, my AE responds well to AU 6.x.

I don't know why .. but then, ours is not to reason why, is it.


AppleScript get filename from URL and apply Decode URL

You can use Cocoa’s NSURL class via some AppleScriptObjC:

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions

set test to "https://dskjflkosdjfksdajf903094.example.com/g/f/OWZehaoqssVuXRuxqEivP_9dsa89dosidlzkxck_wqezxcd33sda-34sdf34r/%5BEBOOKS%5DEbook%20Title%20-%20Ebook%20Author%20Name.pdf"

set theURL to current application's NSURL's URLWithString:test
set testName to theURL's lastPathComponent as text
display notification testName with title "Added Download"


How can I permanently modify OS X's green window button?

The behaviour you want to achieve is not trivially possible on OS X. The behaviour requires modifications to the underlying window management framework.

Individual application developers may be able to achieve this behaviour but this would go counter to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines. Going against these guidelines might risk the application being rejected from the Mac App Store.

Tell Apple

Send Apple your feedback and let them know what you want and, most importantly, why you want this behaviour.


Is it possible to play 1080p MKV files on iPad2 over uPnP?

Personally, I do this with a DLNA intermediary running on a Windows machine. In my case I use ZumoCast. It has a server-side component (I run the Windows-based component on but you could use the Mac one if you have a Mac in your house) and then an iDevice player that connects up to it. The server-side component does transcoding on the fly for you and I've certainly been able to use it with high-resolution files that are in MKV containers without any issues.

At its heart, ZumoCast is a DLNA server and client that just kind of keeps it all within the family. The ZumoCast client will only talk to ZumoCast DLNA servers.

There are app store apps that purport to any DLNA or uPnP server for streaming. I have no experience with them though. Some are free so you can try risk-free at least. For example:

AirPlayer
media:connect for DLNA and UPnP media streaming\
GoodPlayer

Those are just a few that showed up in a quick search.

How well they work? Hard to say. It's going to be very dependent on your device and your network. A 1080p video+audio stream over your WiFi network might push it to the limit. Add transcoding and resolution downsampling (your iPad 2 only has 1024 x 728 pixels so it has to resample 1080p content to fit it on the screen) on the iDevice and you may not get the greatest viewing experience.


Can I change my Podcast name without loosing my subscribers in iTunes?

Making a change to the title tag within your podcast's RSS feed will update the podcast title within iTunes, without losing subscribers. It may take a day or two for such a change take effect within iTunes.

Note: The main concern is that making a title change to a podcast where the feed is created for you automatically could potentially change the url for the feed which will stop the podcast from updating [...and an 'easy fix' for that could be resubmitting your podcast, which would lose your subscribers!].

So http://example.com/oldTitle.rss might become http://example.com/newTitle.rss.

If needed, it's possible to update the feed URL within iTunes, without resubmitting your podcast or losing subscribers, as described by Apple in the 'Changing Your RSS Podcast Feed URL' section of their podcast specs:

  You can move your podcast feed from one location to another. To avoid
  losing subscribers, you must announce the change directly to all users
  who are subscribed to your feed. To do so, you should:

  – Use the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag described in the iTunes RSS Tags
  section below.

  – Set your web server to return an HTTP 301 redirect
  response when receiving a request for the old feed.

  This will update
  the iTunes Store with the new feed URL and your subscribers will
  continue to receive new episodes automatically. Be sure to maintain
  the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag and the HTTP 301 redirect response for
  at least 4 weeks to ensure that most subscribers have attempted to
  download your most recent episode and have thereby received the new
  URL.


Unable to format sandisk ultra 16gb usb3.0 pendrive in mac

Your USB stick may be defective.

  How do I fix a Write Protect error?

  Write protection errors occur when a flash drive detects a potential
  fault within itself. The drive will go into write-protected mode to
  prevent data loss. There is no method to fix this. To verify the issue
  is related to the flash drive and not your computer we recommend that
  you try plugging the USB drive into another port on your computer. You
  should also try the drive on another computer if possible.

Source: https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8656/~/write-protect-error-on-usb-flash-drives


(homebrew.mxcl.mysql[2274]): Service could not initialize: Unable to set current working directory. error = 2: No such file or directory

You probably enabled the MySQL launch agent with brew services start mysql in the past and forgot to disable the brew service (before uninstalling mysql) which would remove the plist.

So unload and remove the agent from the launchd database manually with:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
launchctl remove ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist

Then remove the file:

rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist

If you did a custom install of the plist, the file homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist may reside in /Library/LaunchAgents. Use the same commands then but adjust the paths above and prepend sudo.


Endless loop of iCloud prompt rendering iPad unusable

I found a (much less than satisfactory) solution to the problem.  There is a slight delay between when pressing "cancel" on the iCloud password prompt and when the next popup opens.  I was able to navigate to the WiFi settings, and after a lot of frustration, was able to connect to my new wireless network.  After doing so, the prompt accepted my updated password.  Quite annoying.


Is it possible to use MacPorts without Xcode or Apple ID?

Only install Xcode CLI tool, since most of the ports work without Xcode although there's a warning during use.

Quote from Google Summer of Code 2019 for MacPorts

  Phase out dependency on Xcode (done in the main repo)

  MacPorts currently requires a full Xcode installation, even though a lot of ports will install just fine with the Command Line Tools package only. Since we also have a number of ports that need Xcode to build, we cannot completely remove the Xcode dependency. Your task would be to provide a way for maintainers to easily identify ports that depend on Xcode and mark them as such, so MacPorts can warn users without Xcode installed that a port they want to install needs the full Xcode package.

references

Summer of Code for MacPorts


Used MPB 16 bricked after seller remotely erased it

Apple covers exactly what to do to protect both sellers and buyers when exchanging hardware.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065

Often, only the original purchaser, with proof of purchase can get Apple to bypass an activation lock or firmware password.

https://support.apple.com/guide/findmy-mac/activation-lock-and-find-my-on-mac-fmm2dd428a48/mac
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455


Make mDNSResponder use local DNS server?

I think mDNSResponder - with a running PCF Dev VirtualBox VM but no LAN/WLAN - is missing a default gateway or gets the wrong one. If your interfaces aren't connected or all interfaces are inactive then no default gateway exists.

You can check this with:

netstat -r -f inet
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
127                localhost          UCS             1        0     lo0
localhost          localhost          UH              5     1380     lo0
192.168.11         link#7             UC              4        0 vboxnet
224.0.0            link#1             UmCS            2        0     lo0
224.0.0.251        link#1             UHmWI           1        0     lo0

To circumvent this you can do the following:

Requirement: a proper configuration of dnsmasq as published in your q & my a. You may have to deactivate all interfaces.

Duplicate a Location profile in System Preferences > Network and rename it to e.g. pcdev with VLAN.

Choose an interface (e.g. Wi-Fi) in the left pane and hit the gear at the bottom of the left pane > Manage Virtual Interfaces.
Hit the ⊞-button and add a "New VLAN...". Rename it to VLAN, choose 1 as tag and an interface.

Configure the interface: Manually with an arbitrary but unused IP e.g. 10.228.8.226/Mask 255.255.0.0/Router 10.228.0.1 and DNS-server 127.0.0.1. Apply the settings with the button Apply. IP (+ Mask) and Router have to be in the same network.

Check the routing table again. First it will look like this:

netstat -r -f inet
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
10.228/16          link#8             UC              2        0   vlan0
127                localhost          UCS             1        0     lo0
localhost          localhost          UH              4     1380     lo0
192.168.11         link#7             UC              2        0 vboxnet
224.0.0            link#1             UmCS            2        0     lo0
224.0.0.251        link#1             UHmWI           1        0     lo0

but after a few seconds (up to 40 seconds in my environment) it should be populated:

netstat -r -f inet
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
default            10.228.0.1         UGSc            3        0   vlan0
10.228/16          link#8             UCS             2        0   vlan0
10.228.0.1/32      link#8             UCS             2        0   vlan0
10.228.0.1         link#8             UHRLWIir        4        0   vlan0     18
10.228.8.226/32    link#8             UCS             2        0   vlan0
10.228.255.255     ff.ff.ff.ff.ff.ff  UHLWbI          1        3   vlan0
127                localhost          UCS             1        0     lo0
localhost          localhost          UH             26     1494     lo0
192.168.11         link#7             UC              3        0 vboxnet
192.168.11.11      8:0:27:35:78:e2    UHLWIi          2        3 vboxnet   1192
192.168.11.255     ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  UHLWbI          1        3 vboxnet
224.0.0/4          link#8             UmCS            3        0   vlan0
224.0.0.251        1:0:5e:0:0:fb      UHmLWI          1        0   vlan0
239.255.255.250    1:0:5e:7f:ff:fa    UHmLWI          1        3   vlan0
255.255.255.255/32 link#8             UCS             1        0   vlan0

Now try again to ping api.local.pcfdev.io/tcp.local.pcfdev.io/local.pcfdev.io.

While testing I got the impression that some arbitrary IP pinging (ping 192.168.11.11, ping 127.0.0.1 accelerated the reconfiguration).

If you are within reach of a known WLAN switch back to your common Location profile.

This is tested (and working) in a VMwareFusion Sierra VM and the nested pcfdev-ubuntu VirtualBox VM. In this environment I can't really simulate a missing Wi-Fi connection, because there is no Wi-Fi interface available. Instead I deactivated all interfaces (2 x Ethernet) in the Sierra VM.


How to manage Apps without wiping out your iPhone App data?

It sounds as though your iPhone and/or iTunes aren’t synced to each other. Unfortunately, for you to manage the apps on the iPhone from iTunes, the iPhone needs to be synced to iTunes. So you’ll have to go through this procedure at least once, and replace what’s on the iPhone w/ what’s in iTunes.

No way around that, but thankfully, any apps you’ve purchased are free to you to download again, so if there are any that are missing in iTunes, just download them again.

But yes, if any of the apps aren’t in iTunes, and you’ve got data stored in those apps, that data will be lost.


Is it possible to sort iTunes U other than "Released Date"?

Sorting by "Release Date" is currently the only option for sorting iTunes U in iTunes.

The sorting of content is meant to be left up to the creator of the iTunes U collection/course.

The collections are automatically sorted alphabetically by collection name. If you click on the disclosure triangle for each collection, the lectures can then be sorted by release date in ascending or descending order.


How do I search footnotes in a Pages Document?

I have an older version of Pages, which I normally do not use as I use LibreOffice, however I just created a document in Pages, added a Footnote and then clicked Edit > Find > Search and typed in a number.  It found all occurrences of that number which included both numbers in the document body and in the Footnotes.  I could easily tell which was the Footnote vs a number in the body of the text as the number was the first character in a given line after the ellipsis.  Not as nice as having a Go to Footnote [n] command but I still found the Footnote.


How do I determine which revenue from the App Store belongs to which app?

There are (free) services that do that for you. You can also generate nice looking reports for the people who helped you with the games:

AppFigures (we've been using them for 4+ years): http://appfigures.com
AppAnnie (not so much a fan personally): http://appannie.com
LaunchKit (goes directly to Slack, but not real "overview"): http://launchkit.io/sales


How can I post photos to my iPhone Instagram app from Google Drive?

To share a photo from your Google Drive to Instagram on your iPhone, you open the photo you want to share (by tapping on it), on the top right you'll see 3 little dots, tap the dots, and you'll get a list of options.  Choose the 'Open in' option and that will give you the option to share with Facebook etc.  if Instagram isn't there, go to the More option and enable it.  Hope that helps - took me ages to work it out!


Replacing "apple hardware test" with "apple diagnostics"

So you didn't write this much in your original post but I am going out on a limb and gonna say that the AHT that boots doesn't work on your Retina MBP.

The only way to get the file back is reinstall the OS via internet recovery but if the /System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics folder is there then I would wager a small bet that internet recovery won't put Apple Diagnostics on the drive.

You can test this by deleting the current folder on your MacBook Pro and then trying internet recovery. OR (I'd first recommend this) you could start your computer into Internet Recovery and reinstall the OS on an external drive. Once the install is done just copy over the aforementioned .diagnostics folder and then move it onto your MacBook Pro's internal drive.

All the best and much fun ahead! (Please give internet recovery 1-2 hours depending on your internet connection and ethernet is highly encouraged)


List the extensions installed in Safari for Mac OS X, and state whether each one is enabled

It's primarily a matter of parsing the output of defaults read ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/extensions and formatting it in a user-friendly way. The result actually answers both of your questions:

defaults read ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/extensions | awk '
/Bundle Directory/ {
    split($0, t, /\"/);
    sub(".safariextension", "", t[4]);
    sub("-1", "", t[4]);
    bundle=t[4]
    e="disabled"
}
/Enabled/ {
    e="enabled";
}
/Hidden Bars/ {
    print bundle, "...", e
}' | sort --ignore-case

Creating a shell script out of it is left as an exercise to the reader.

Please note that this will most probably stop to work if Apple decides to change the format of ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/extensions


Can I increase the minimum font size of text when reading html messages in Mail.app (in Mavericks and later)?

This is not exactly the same as the minimum font size setting that was previously available, but it can rectify the issue in most irritating cases. (Namely, email from outlook users)

Mail.app has a CSS resource file that it loads in the Webkit view used to render  messages. You can find it in the Mail.app bundle here:

/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Resources/Message.css

You can add a simple CSS rule to improve your reading experience. (You could go crazy affecting styles in here too if you were so inclined...)

The biggest offender for tiny message text I've seen comes from using the size attribute on font tags. Adding this rule resolves that issue without being too opinionated about font sizes otherwise:

font[size="1"],
font[size="2"],
font[size="3"],
[style*="font-size:5px"],
[style*="font-size: 5px"],
[style*="font-size:6px"],
[style*="font-size: 6px"],
[style*="font-size:7px"],
[style*="font-size: 7px"],
[style*="font-size:8px"],
[style*="font-size: 8px"],
[style*="font-size:9px"],
[style*="font-size: 9px"],
[style*="font-size:10px"],
[style*="font-size: 10px"],
[style*="font-size:11px"],
[style*="font-size: 11px"],
[style*="font-size:small"],
[style*="font-size: small"],
[style*="font-size:x-small"],
[style*="font-size: x-small"],
[style*="font-size:xx-small"],
[style*="font-size: xx-small"] {
    font-size: inherit !important;
}

You need root privileges to edit this file. Open it in TextWrangler/BBEdit or another text editor that allows you to save with an admin password, or edit in the shell with sudo:

sudo echo -e "\nfont[size="1"],\nfont[size="2"],\nfont[size="3"] {\n    font-size: inherit !important;\n}" >> /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Resources/Message.css

If I come across further patterns to target, I'll update this answer to include them.

EDIT: I added attribute selectors to target font-size declarations, per @danw's suggestion. I expended his selectors to cover spaces in the style attribute's string, and to cover explicit pixel sizes below 12px.


It looks like there is a Mail plugin which does what you're looking for called Send Companion (free, with other paid features). As of the time I'm writing this, it purports to work with the latest versions of Mail.


How to change the language of the App Store to be able to see accurate star ratings?

It seems to be possible for some countries, but most countries only have one (or few) native languages.
The table at the bottom of the above link lists which countries support which languages in iTunes.
Some oddities:

Belgium supports both English and French (but not Dutch, which is one of their native languages).
The Netherlands supports only Dutch (but not English).
Switzerland supports English, German and French (but not their native languages Italian, and Romansh).
Germany only supports German (but not English).

Go figure!

Note there have been many complaints about this on the apple forums already.

--jeroen


How to disable the SpeedStep when using MacBook Pro without a battery?

It does seem like you have a problem with your battery, although it's likely that it's only adding to the underlying issue which you've touched upon.

The concept behind Speedstep seems good, however, the way in which it works is quite bad — especially when it comes to kernel_task. I believe it's the reason you're seeing such a dramatic slowdown — because this "feature" is consuming the majority of your MacBook Pro CPU so it can apparently cool your system down and save energy.

  Intel SpeedStep Technology allows the system to dynamically adjust processor voltage and core frequency, which can result in decreased average power consumption and decreased average heat production. (from Intel)

What this equates to is you end up losing a significant portion of the CPU while SpeedStep hijacks kernel_task and continually carries out low-overhead tasks until the CPU temperature drops. Your system essentially becomes bogged down so you can save energy regardless if you want to or not. I would imagine that most people expect to be able to use all of their CPU power when they want to — not when their system allows them.

Luckily this “feature” is built into a kext, in which each model identifier specifies how to control the temperature of the CPU. It's a simple fix, and most people that have similar issues to what you describe are quite happy once they realize this. I take no credit for this fix, for it's all thanks to Rhys Oxenhams who researched this and came up with a solution.


How can I transfer backed up iphone 6 files from Itunes to new iphone XR

You may be experiencing compatibility issues between an older version of macOS and your iPhone XR. (Syncing files using iTunes was deprecated in macOS 10.15, so iOS 13 on your iPhone may reflect this change.)

Make sure your Mac and iPhone have the latest software release installed, then follow this Apple Support article to sync your iPhone 6 backup with your iPhone XR.


Yosemite repeatedly tells me to open system preferences to give control to RightZoom but it is checked in system preferences. Whats the matter?

Visit the Privacy tab in the Security prepane. Click the lock icon and enter your password to unlock it. Select RightZoom in the window (don't bother with the check mark at this point) and click the minus (-) underneath the list. Locate the RightZoom application icon wherever you keep it on the computer, and drag it into the list you just deleted it from. You couldn't do that in Mavericks, but it makes the process work better in Yosemite. That way, if the permissions associated with an older version of the package or one that's gotten misplaced on your hard drive, you can set it right. Just be sure that the one you dragged is the one you're using.


Print HTML to PDF while retaining hyperlinks

Found an answer over on SuperUser.com: wkpdf

Free, works perfectly. All hyperlinks retained.


What to do if I sold my MacBook Air and didn't disable iCloud

Not at all - when you wiped the drive, the iCloud registration token for that device was wiped as well.

The only remnants of your account on that Mac might be your FindMyMac token that gets stored on the Recovery HD.

You might contact the seller and lest them choose whether you will send a remote wipe at their convenience to clear that. If they enable Find My Mac - they will see your email and be able to remove your hold on tracking at device.

If you can't or don't want to contact the buyer, you could also just forget that device using the web interface to iCloud or the Find My Phone app on iOS.

Again, the person can't get at your information or log in as you - just that computer might still check in depending on how exactly you wiped the storage drive.


Option-click the Time Machine icon in your menu bar with your Time Machine disk connected, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks and select your TM disk from the list.
This lets you browse the backed up data on the TM disk from your new machine using Time Machine.app and choose individual files or folders to restore to the new Mac.

If you choose to add the Time Machine disk as a backup disk to your Mac, this will create a separate backup history for your new Mac alongside the old backups, not merge the two. You can manually associate the old backups with your new Mac to use a single history (How to reassociate Time Machine backup with the computer), but I wouldn't recommend this unless you restore the entire backup to your new Mac first.


Other than enabling Trim, is there anything else I should do with an SSD?

Yes and No. There's not a final answer on this. There are some basic things you don't want to do:

Never fill your drive, always try to have a minimum of a 20% of the drive free, SSD performance goes down fast when the drive is full or close to it.
Even with trim and whatever the OS does, at some point in 1, 2, 3, n years you might have to completely reformat/repartition the drive to gain some speed. This has been true on Windows Machines (I've seen it). My MacBook Air (1 year old) hasn't yet shown any signs of slowness.
SSDs have a limited number of writes before they wear out. At some point blocks just stop working, so if you are constantly writing/deleting files, you're essentially wearing out your SSD faster than the average (however this number is huge, say it can last 10++ years under normal usage). One is expected to change the drive by then :)

I recommend you google around, there are multiple guides and advice pages. You will find this life hacker article relatively accurate and up-to-date. Bear in mind that technology in the future may change and the article (and this answer) may be rendered obsolete if, for example, SuperSSDs are created and they don't wear out or have a 1.000.000 years life-span :D


how to open password protected 7zip archive on OSX

You can use the command line. One way would be to:

Install Homebrew
Install 7zip: brew install p7zip
Extract the archive in question: 7za x archive.7z

You will be asked to enter the password.
7-Zip (a) [64] 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=utf8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs x64)

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 520 bytes (1 KiB)

Extracting archive: archive.7z

Enter password (will not be echoed):
--
Path = archive.7z
Type = 7z
Physical Size = 520
Headers Size = 200
Method = LZMA2:12 7zAES
Solid = -
Blocks = 1

Everything is Ok

Size:       417
Compressed: 520


How to save as into a customized destination on macOS?

By default the Save As sheet is in, for the lack of the proper term, compact view. To expand the sheet click the down arrow to the right of the Save As: text box (Export As: in Safari)

Clicking the down arrow, the one the red arrow is pointing to, opens up the sheet showing additional controls, as in the image below


Sierra - 'There is a problem...' when connecting to Windows Vista PC

I am guessing here but it just MIGHT be something to do with the shared printer on your Vista machine. I would be sorely tempted to remove the printer, uninstall the driver, use the printer utility to REALLY remove the driver, reboot and re-add the printer and the printer share.

Windows printer sharing can be flakey, ESPECIALLY if you are sharing it to a Mac. Not sure whether to blame it on the Mac or the PC, but I am leaning towards blaming the PC...


macOS Calendar.app Duration-of-Day Preference Nonresponsive

'Day starts at' / 'Day ends at' is for working day. It has effect on Calendar > Window > Availability Panel (⇧ + ⌘ + A). This panel is 'available' for usage only if calendar is connected to supported service (and iCloud is not being one) and for meeting planning.
I believe that this is for work related appointments so that your colleagues can't make appointments outside of the working day and they can see your appointments or free/busy time only during working hours while planning meeting.
'Show ... hours at a time' has effect on Calendar Day view. It determines how many hours are shown as default in Day view.
"Show 24 hours at a time" setting displayed in Day view:

"Show 8 hours at a time" setting displayed in Day view:


macOS partition disappered after installing windows 10 using bootcamp

If you use APFS, then your macOS boot volume may not appear as a choice in the Windows Boot Camp Control Panel pane. The following procedure can be used to fix this problem.

Since the Windows Boot Camp software can detect bootable "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" volumes, the follow instructions create such a volume. Instead of placing macOS in the volume, a third party boot manager, called rEFInd, will be substituted. This boot manager will then be configured to silently boot the macOS stored in the APFS container. Finally, macOS will be instructed to not automatically mount this new volume at startup.

Below are the steps. The commands need to be entered into a Terminal application window.

Create the new volume.  The diskutil command, shown below, shrinks the APFS container (170000M, i.e. 170 GB) by 300 MB (169700M) and creates the new 300 MB "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" volume labeled "Macintosh HD via rEFInd".

sudo diskutil ap resizeContainer disk1 169700M JHFS+ "Macintosh HD via rEFInd" 0

After the command completes, restart the Mac.

  Note: If you get an error message which includes the phrase "perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot usage by Time Machine", then see the question: 200GB unused, but can't change APFS container size due to minimum requirement.

Download the rEFInd Boot Manager software from this SourceForge web site. Enter the following commands to install the software to the "Macintosh HD via rEFInd" volume.

cd ~/Downloads/refind-bin-0.11.2
./refind-install --ownhfs /dev/disk0s3

  Note: The error message Could not set boot device property: 0xe00002bc was expected and can be ignored.

Configure the TextEdit application. Open TextEdit, then navigate to the "Preferences..." window. Uncheck all the "Options", as shown below. When finished, quit TextEdit.

Use the command below to navigate to the folder containing the refind.conf file.

cd "/Volumes/Macintosh HD via rEFInd/System/Library/CoreServices"

Make a backup copy of this file.

sudo cp refind.conf refind.conf.orignal

Add write permissions to the CoreServices folder and the refind.conf file.

sudo  chmod  a+w  .  refind.conf

Open the file in the TextEdit application.

open -e refind.conf

Add the following lines to the end of the refind.conf file. You should be able to just cut and paste these lines. When finished, save the changes, then quit TextEdit.

#
# Added to make rEFInd silent.
#
menuentry "Macintosh HD via rEFInd" {
    icon \System\Library\CoreServices\icons\os_mac.png
    volume "Macintosh HD"
    loader \System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
    ostype MacOS
    graphics on
}
timeout -1
hideui all
scanfor manual

  Note: If you are using encryption, then see the update to this step shown below.

(Optional) Enter the following commands to modify the /etc/fstab file. This entry will instruct macOS not to mount the volume labeled "Macintosh HD via rEFInd" at startup.

sudo bash
echo >>/etc/fstab
echo "LABEL=Macintosh\040HD\040via\040rEFInd none hfs rw,noauto" >>/etc/fstab
exit

  Note: The character sequence \040 is just the octal representation of the space character.

When finished, restart the Mac.

Now when choosing Boot Camp from the Control Panel, you should get something similar to what is shown below.

Update to Step 5 for an Encrypted macOS

Enter the command given below to get identifier of the booter disk.

diskutil info "Macintosh HD" | grep "Booter Disk:"

Your output should be similar to what is shown below.

   Booter Disk:              disk1s2

Use the identifier to get the boot disk volume name, as shown below.

diskutil info disk1s2 | grep "Volume Name:"

Your output should be similar to what is shown below.

   Volume Name:              Preboot

Use the macOS volume name to get the volume UUID, as shown below.

diskutil info "Macintosh HD" | grep "Volume UUID:"

Your output should be similar to what is shown below.

   Volume UUID:              2E0E6320-5D0A-4181-B465-ABFF2CBBFC27

Replace the volume with the boot disk volume name and add the volume UUID to the path of the loader, as shown below.

    #
    # Added to make rEFInd silent.
    #
    menuentry "Macintosh HD via rEFInd" {
        icon \System\Library\CoreServices\icons\os_mac.png
        volume "Preboot"
        loader \2E0E6320-5D0A-4181-B465-ABFF2CBBFC27\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
        ostype MacOS
        graphics on
    }
    timeout -1
    hideui all
    scanfor manual

Here the assumption has been made that there are no other APFS containers with a bootable macOS installed. If you do have another container, then by boot disk volume names may be the same. In this case, you will need to rename one of of the volumes. To change the volume name in this example from Preboot to Internal Preboot, enter the following commands.

First, enter the command shown below to mount the volume.

diskutil mount disk1s2

Your output should be similar to what is shown below.

Volume My Preboot on disk1s2 mounted

Second, enter the command shown below to rename the volume.

diskutil rename disk1s2 "Internal Preboot"

Your output should be similar to what is shown below.

Volume on disk1s2 renamed to Internal Preboot

Finally, enter the command shown below to unmount the volume.

diskutil unmount disk1s2

Your output should be similar to what is shown below.

Volume Internal Preboot on disk1s2 unmounted

The lines added to the end of the refind.conf file would then need to appear as shown below.

    #
    # Added to make rEFInd silent.
    #
    menuentry "Macintosh HD via rEFInd" {
        icon \System\Library\CoreServices\icons\os_mac.png
        volume "Internal Preboot"
        loader \2E0E6320-5D0A-4181-B465-ABFF2CBBFC27\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
        ostype MacOS
        graphics on
    }
    timeout -1
    hideui all
    scanfor manual


How can I type the “@” symbol via VNC with a PC keyboard?

From the menu bar select System Preferences

Select the Keyboard Icon

Select the Keyboard tab

Select the "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar" check box.

From the menu bar select either the Character or Keyboard viewer.


Is there a way in Xcode to create a file not associated with a project?

There is no a way to do this in Xcode. It must be related to the project or workspace. It even does this if you deselect the target.

It sounds like what you need is a text editor and not an IDE like XCode since XCode is built for OS X and iOS development primarily. You may want to try TextWrangle for free, or it's purchasable counter part BBEdit.

If your doing C/C++, Python or PHP work, you may want to try some of the other JetBrains products like AppCode, PyCharm or PHPStorm. There is also Eclipse, with it's many plugins, the heavy favorite amongst many developers.


From where do the encodings supported by Terminal come?

At the bottom of the encodings menu you should see "Customize List".  Select that and it will give you the full list of 100 or so available.  Is what you need not on that?

A reference for Apple's Text Encoding Converter, which probably provides this function, is at

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Carbon/reference/Text_Encodin_sion_Manager/Text_Encodin_sion_Manager.pdf

iconv includes ucs-2 in case that is of any use:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man3/iconv_open.3.html


Tool to perform MULTIPLE regex replacements on text

BBEdit, LibreOffice, and similar tools allow regular expressions in their search/replace dialogues

Typically, there is a check box to allow regex or plain text.  Then you can replace one at a time or click "replace all."


Checking for folder/file changes using Automator?

You can add a "Run Shell Script" action with the command:

find <directory> -newermm <reference_file>

This will give you all files and directories inside <directory> that have changed since the last change of <reference_file>. Just make sure you modify the <reference_file> each time you run the Automator script.

Also give a look to the find manual page (enter man find in the terminal) for more options. Find is very powerful and further refining your search is usually a matter of a couple of additional options. E.g. to search only for directories modified after <reference_file>:

find <directory> -type d -newermm <reference_file>

If the version that ships with OSX is not enough, you can also try the version that comes with findutils (brew, macports etc) which should have slightly more features.


Dock folder shortcut: Is it possible to change the sort order of files in subfolders?

Yes it is. The subfolder will open in anew window or tab and just select how to list the new folder. You can select the column name and click on it and it will sort contents in a decreasing or increasing order. A column header is shown below.


Why do Location Services turn off on its own sometime?

Apple works very hard to conserve battery life, and determining location, no matter if it is through GPS, cellular, or wifi connections takes extra battery. The arrow displays any time a 3rd party app requests your location. For instance, when you open Maps, the arrow will likely turn on because Maps needs to pinpoint where you are. The arrow may also turn on for system level locations services (settings can be adjusted in Settings > Location Services > System Services), and depending on your settings, the arrow may or may not appear for that.

As for Location Services being on or off, you can set that in the settings (Settings > Location Services), but if you see the arrow, it is likely on already.

The arrow only appears when location services are active, and may or may not show when it is just on.


Connecting an iPod Touch 4th generation to a projector?

From the "Video Mirroring" section:

  You can use the Apple Digital AV Adapter or VGA Adapter to display the contents of your iPad 2 screen to a compatible TV, projector, or other external display.

Note that it explicitly says iPad 2. That is the only device which currently supports mirroring. While the 4th generation iPod touch supports the AV adapter, only applications with a video out mode will display anything through it. Most applications don't support video out, and won't display anything on the connected screen. If an application does support video out, it will usually mention it in the features list in the app store, so you can tell before you buy an app whether it will support it or not.


2015 MacBook Air fan constantly turns on after upgrading to OS X El Capitan

Check whether any applications are constantly running and burning CPU by using Activity Monitor (Located in /Applications/Utilities).

If there are no applications burning CPU, try resetting the SMC:

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your computer.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

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


How I can unminimize windows from an application using a key combination?

I'm from the same boat;

the best native keyboard-only  I've found is

CTRL-DOWN-Arrow; (you enter app expose)
DOWN-arrow; (if there are any minimized windows, this'll put a cursor on one)
LEFT-arrow/RIGHT-arrow (to select from multiple minimized windows) or hold OPT if you want all of them restored.
RETURN

alternative step1: getting into app expose before you've alt-cmd'ed to an app:

with CMD still held down, (the task switcher is visible)
tap DOWN, or UP, or 1 (now in app expose)

The above shows only one app's minimized windows at a time; for selecting from any minimized window regardless of app, CTRL-F3 moves focus to the dock, and you can arrow left to get to the minimized list.

if your CTRL-F3 instead shows you the app-expose, try FN-CTRL-F3. (In my settings/keyboard, I've flagged "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys")

Some apps have specific alternatives; I use Terminal's CMD-window_number, which unminimizes and focuses that window.


The options presented in the crop dialog in the Photos app are ratios, and can be scaled to any size.

Since digital photographs are simply made of pixels, it is impossible to assign physical measurements to the somewhat abstract representation of an image. The physical size would depend entirely on what scale it is displayed or printed at. An image can have a pixel density of any number of pixels per square inch. For instance, even if you restrict the parameters to iPads with Retina displays, one square inch can hold 264 or 326 pixels.

If you're cropping an image so it will fit on a certain type of photo paper, you can use the ratio of width to height to determine what ratio to crop your image with.


Under Settings -> General -> Spotlight Search

are the areas you want to search selected (tick on the left hand side), if not just tap the group (Contacts, Applications, etc) to add them to Spotlight Search.


IPhone contacts are not sorted after import

It worked awesome!

Having all your contacts under something as arbitrary as # is not a very good solution and I can relate that you would like a little more structure on your device.

Have you tried logging into your device with iCloud, and then going into www.iCloud.com and importing the vCard following this article there?
If you have the vCard a safe place and a backup of your contacts, I would recommend you to delete all your contacts first and use this method.

Here are the steps to import a vCard with iCloud:

Data should be on
Go to Settings > iCloud
Turn On Contacts
Login into icloud.com with your username
on iCloud you can see all your applications which you share on iCloud, click on Contacts and see if all the contacts are synced. Here all names will be sorted correctly and no # would be there
on iPhone turn off Contacts in Setting > iCloud and choose Delete from iPhone
come out and turn on Contacts again in Settings > iCloud
give it some time and now go to Contacts: all contacts will be synced from iCloud and the # sign should vanish.


Why does AirDrop only sometimes require me to open the AirDrop window on my desktop?

According to your devices, it should work reliably. But Apple documentation makes two relevant observations:

Find out if the Mac has “Block all incoming connections” turned on in Security & Privacy preferences. A Mac won't receive items using AirDrop if this setting is turned on.

If AirDrop on the receiving device is set up to receive items from contacts only, make sure that both devices are signed in to iCloud. Also make sure that the email address or phone number associated with your Apple ID is in the Contacts app of the receiving device.

If your Mac Pro is located on a safe environment, I would go to Finder > AirDrop and set it to accept files from anyone. It made my devices find each other much faster in my experience. It might do the trick for you.


iChat can't authenticate to Lion Server 10.7.2

This question was answered on Apple Discussions. In short, the server was misconfigured to have the Jabber Domain set to the local DNS name - rather than a FQDN.

The problem was fixed by issuing the following terminal command:

  sudo serveradmin settings jabber jabber:hosts:_array_index:0 = "servername.domain.co.nz"

You can check this discussion for full details. Thankyou sfatula on Apple Discussions for the solution!


YouTube video quality list not showing 720p or higher resolution on iPhone XS Max

I'm guessing you are using Youtube App from India.

Keeping in mind the increased load during the lockdown, they have capped the maximum quality of streaming at 480p.

You can check out this link for further confirmation.

The workaround to resolve this issue is by using VPN.


No compatible version of java 1.5 is available

Java 1.5 is very old and is not available for current macOS - I think it predates 10.6. Java 6 came out in 2006

You can get Java 6 from Apple and Java 7.8 or 9 from Oracle.

As for where java is installed. It's complex. /Library/Internet Plug-Ins is for web app Java not from Apple this would not set a Java in the terminal.

The java -version result implies that you do not have any Java installed.

First step is to ask the program's author where you can get a modern version of their app from which does not use an insecure unsupported version of Java. Then install that Java


How to disable Command-Control-Power shortcut?

Not easily. The keys trigger the SMC directly as far as I can discern, so you'd need to rewrite the firmware to make this change.

You can test this by powering off your Mac (or waiting until you next mistakenly command this) and hold the option key. While it's in the boot manager, only firmware is running and that key combination is effective.

I'm also not aware of any OS X modification that would allow this, but asking people that make and use Karabiner might yield either another opinion or confirmation that my estimate of the difficulty is correct.


How can I write a launchd service that will actually stop the service?

Get rid of the -d 60 arguments and use the launchd key StartInterval instead. Also make sure the process does not daemonize itself. According to the monit man page this is accomplished by using the -I option.


App Store asks me Apple ID password with an incorrect email

First make sure that ALL the apps are downloaded/purchased from your account. If not, only your apps will update.

If you want to change account go to settings->iTunes & App Store->Apple ID->Sign out->and enter your other account.


How to change the default login account on a NAS Share

Login mounts are stored as startup items, so you need to do the following:

Open System Preferences
Select Users & Groups
click on the "Login Items" tab
find your NAS login in the list, select it and
delete it with the '-' button
If your NAS admin SW has a method for setting an automount, use that, and ignore the following
Mount your NAS volume
In the Finder select the mounted volume (or a folder on that volume)
Drag the volume icon into the Login Items list (in system preferences)
Log out & log back in to test


in iOS 7, how can I easily specify an email address to be used for FaceTime?

Unfortunately, there seems to be no easy solution to replace the iOS 6 functionality.

The simplest workaround seems to be to create multiple contacts for each point of contact you wish to differentiate.

Another possible workaround would be to add the different identifiers to 'favorites'. However, these will appear identical in favorites---same name & pic---so it would be difficult to differentiate.

(Based on personal experience and this related apple support thread)


Unfortunately, it sounds like your iPhone 4 has had it. If iTunes can't recognize it, then something is seriously wrong. The only thing I can think of is that the battery got disconnected, but that's not likely. The best thing to do is to sell "For Parts or Repair" on easy to pay for part of a used iPhone, but older models can be pretty inexpensive. A used iPhone 4 should cost only about  $75-$100, while a 4S should run $110-$130, a 5 for about $200, and an iPhone 5S for about $350.


I cannot share contacts through text messages with my iphone 5

The easiest way for sending contact to another person is through the Contacts App.
Just tap on the contact you want to share and you'll see the details for that person.
At the bottom of the page is a button "Share Contact". There you can either choose to send this through a Message or email.


Is it possible to airdrop a video/photo to another ios device while playing it using airplay?

It depends on the app and how many copies of the document in question you have on the device. I can't think of an app that does both at the same time, but the plumbing is there as long as the app doing the AirDrop doesn't try to play the media before you send it.

I can easily enable airplay and use the music player app to play music. While the music is playing, I can airdrop pictures from the Photos app with both happening simultaneously. So nothing on iOS prevents both from being active in general.

In fact, I can run any other app I want while AirPlay is going on with one catch. Only one source of media can play at one time. Specifically, things that the control center can play or pause or change volume is "media"

If the foreground app attempts to play sounds or video, that playing will automatically pause the music app from playing in the background but not affect the AirPlay settings. Since iOS handles muting the background sounds or video when another app requests play permission in the foreground it will pause the any multitask operation that was previously playing media.


What un(der)-documented features have you stumbled upon in Mountain Lion?

You can now silence bouncing application icons in the Dock by just hovering over them, instead of needing to click and activate them.


How to remove extended attributes from all files in a folder on mac

To Remove All Extended Attributes On Many Files
To recursively remove extended attributes on all files in a directory,
combine the -c "clear" flag with the -r recursive flag:
xattr -rc /path/to/directory

Open Terminal.app and start typing xattr -rc  , include a trailing
space, and then then drag the file or folder to the Terminal.app
window and it will automatically add the full path with proper
escaping.

Source: Taken form cwd's answer to: How do I remove the “extended attributes” on a file in Mac OS X?


Installing RAM in a 27 inch late 2013 iMac

No, you do not have to use all 4 slots in your iMac.

However, I haven't personally seen a 16GB RAM chip used in your model iMac and I've seen a lot of iMacs in my time, so others here may have to comment on whether they've actually tried it. Typically, to get to the maximum 32GB RAM, users have 4 x 8GB RAM chips installed (one in each slot).

The configuration I've personally seen the most is 24GB RAM installed, made up of the two 4GB chips originally installed by Apple and an additional two 8GB chips installed by the end user in the two remaining slots. 24GB RAM is nothing to sneeze at.

Please note:

The RAM your iMac needs must meet the following specs: 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
Apple provides  full instructions on how to install RAM in an iMac


There's no way to have more than a single iCloud Keychain I'm afraid. Other Keychains you create locally on your Mac are only for use on that Mac.

Until Apple allows Keychain Management on iOS from Settings you're out of luck. If you're interested to know how iCloud Keychain works, see here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204085


In Terminal type

mdfind evernote

Now triple (3x) click on any line that contains evernote (that will select the line)..

Next right click and use Reveal in Finder,that will open new window in Finder and show you that file.

Verify and Delete.


The /etc/paths file is used as an initial value for the PATH variable. It should contain:

/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

Its protection, owner and group should be:

-rw-r--r-- root wheel


You can do this either way, you can use your account or your child's, but the steps to take to set up Screen Time will vary depending on which one you use.

It sounds like the iPad is for your child to use primarily, in which case I would recommend using his/her account, since it makes it more streamlined and intuitive to use the parental management features. (usually, that is) It is also the only way to take advantage of features like ask to purchase, etc.

The Apple ID that is used device-wide, i.e. for the iCloud features, iTunes/App Stores, etc. should be the child's account – the top of the Settings app should display your child's name and account for the Apple ID settings menu.

When you set up screen time, or other parental management feature, a login prompt will come up, probably somewhere around when you set up the management passcode. Here, you need to log into the guardian or family organizer Apple ID.

But you can avoid this confusion by configuring Screen Time for your child's device from your own Mac, iOS device, or iPad, if you have one. Turn on Screen Time in family sharing and it will allow you to manage your child's device from the Settings app or System Preferences on your own device remotely, kind of like a cute mini version of an MDM deployment :)