Recently bought new iPhone and notes were not transferred. Trying to find old files via Time Machine

As you would know, Time Machine backs up what's on your Mac. Because of this, it's not possible for your Time Machine backups to have copies of your iPhone notes unless you:

also backed up your old iPhone via iTunes on your MacBook, and/or
did have all your iPhone notes backed up to iCloud at some point in time

Scenario 1

This is a more difficult scenario to work with since all you want to recover is your Notes data.  It's not impossible, but to make it practical you would still need access to your old iPhone or use specialised data recovery software. If Scenario 2 applies, try that first. Otherwise, if you do still have access to your old iPhone then you could restore your old iPhone from an older iTunes Backup (located within your TM backups) and then access your old notes that way to either resync back to iCloud or to just copy from and paste into another app (e.g. Pages, Word, Evernote, etc) and then copy from their into new notes in iCloud or your iPhone 7.

Scenario 2

Your Notes data is stored in a Core Data database located in your user Library.  More specifically, it is located in the following path:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes

Therefore, within your Time Machine backups you would be looking for the above location to recover your notes from.

Notes:

The ~ indicates your User directory, not the root level of your drive.
Depending on your situation you may not see this directory by browsing your TM backups. If you don't know how to make this visible there are questions here on Stack Exchange that deal with this.
Within the Notes folder there will be files named as follows:  NotesVx.storedata-yyy where the x could be a 1 or 2 or 3 etc (depending on your version of Notes) and yyy denotes additional file name characters (e.g. shm, etc).

IMPORTANT - This is a database so you can't restore a single note - it's all or nothing! You could restore the whole database, but if you're syncing with iCloud, there is the chance that even if you restore it, that it will sync and then get deleted again.

Another option

You could also just copy the NotesVx.storedata file and edit the file extension by changing it to .html and then open that in Safari. By doing this you should be able to see all your old notes (assuming they were there to begin with). Then it's just a process of copying and pasting into new notes.


Multiple languages and Emoji button on iOS keyboard

No, this is not possible.

You can quickly switch to a specific keyboard by holding down on the keyboard language button and sliding your finger to the specific keyboard.

Also, the keyboard order is always fixed, so you know to double-tap the keyboard language button to go to a specific keyboard from another specific keyboard.


Quicksilver does it for me for years now - as it comes especially handy for multilingual use. Just select Modifier-only activation and you are good to go.

Looking for a native solution though, in fact, this is how I ran into this post.


Itunes says "I do not have enough access privileges for this operation" how do I fix this?

To make changes to Sharing in the Get Info window for iTunes please unlock it first.

There is small lock at bottom right of that window, you will need password to open it.

You might have to do the Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X


Is it possible to use FileMerge as standalone app?

FileMerge 2.8, which ships with Xcode 5.0.1 links to frameworks that are located inside of the Xcode.app bundle. Shared libraries that are used by FileMerge can be displayed by performing the command:

otool -L /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMerge

The output of this command indicates that FileMerge needs to use the DevToolsInterface, DevToolsCore, and DevToolsFoundation frameworks. :

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMerge:
    /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit (compatibility version 45.0.0, current version 1247.0.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1052.0.0)
    @rpath/DevToolsInterface.framework/Versions/A/DevToolsInterface (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 3000.1.0)
    @rpath/DevToolsCore.framework/Versions/A/DevToolsCore (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 2404.0.0)
    @rpath/DevToolsFoundation.framework/Versions/A/DevToolsFoundation (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 3001.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1197.1.1)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation (compatibility version 150.0.0, current version 852.0.0)

The prefix @rpath indicates that dyld will use the run path list to search for frameworks that are being referenced. Specifically, FileMerge contains "../OtherFrameworks" in its run path list. When located inside of the Xcode.app bundle, those frameworks are right where FileMerge expects them to be.

However, if you copy FileMerge out of the Xcode.app bundle, FileMerge will crash upon launch. This occurs because the referenced frameworks (referenced above) are not in the run path list, which causes dyld to exit with an error of "image not found". The reason it cannot find those referenced frameworks is that a folder at the relative path "../OtherFrameworks" does not exist, and the frameworks do not exist in any other folders listed in the run path.

To use FileMerge without the Xcode app installed, you have a couple of options:

Copy FileMerge to the location of your choosing, and copy the contents of /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/OtherFrameworks/ to one of the folders referenced in the run path list (~/Library/Frameworks or /Library/Frameworks are probably a couple of the best choices).
Copy FileMerge to the location of your choosing, and copy the contents of /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/OtherFrameworks/ to be at "../OtherFrameworks" relative to the FileMerge app (e.g., if FileMerge is at ~/Applications, copy the folder "OtherFrameworks" to ~/OtherFrameworks

Edit

The above answer allows FileMerge to launch, but the application will terminate when you actually attempt to compare files. Apparently the application is looking for platform information at the path ../Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Info.plist. This means that it is necessary to copy Info.plist from /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Info.plist to ../Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Info.plist (relative to FileMerge.app). Here are some steps that could be used to copy FileMerge to a folder at ~/Applications:

mkdir ~/Applications
cp -R /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app ~/Applications

cp -R /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/OtherFrameworks/* ~/Library/Frameworks

mkdir -p ~/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform
cp /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Info.plist ~/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform


The health data is automatically added by the watch. If you can see heart rate data, this means your Apple Watch is sending data to the Health app properly.

The message on the screenshot you posted is a bit misleading. In this answer you'll learn how to verify that the heart rate data is being transmitted correctly and how to shut off heart rate data collection.

Seeing Heart Rate data

Open the Health app on the iPhone. Select the Health Data tab. Navigate to Vitals > Heart Rate:

If you see data, that means your watch is properly sending data to the Health app. You can make this visible on the initial screen for the Health app by toggling the Show on Dashboard switch.

Disabling Heart Rate data

You can turn off Apple Watch health data collection. Open the Apple Watch app for iPhone. Select the My Watch tab. Navigate to Privacy > Motion & Fitness. There, you can turn off Heart Rate or Fitness Tracking:


Is there an OS X terminal program that can access serial ports?

You can use the terminal command screen to do this!!!

As seen on ServerFault:

  I love using [screen] for connecting to serial consoles, i.e.

screen /dev/ttyS0 19200

Or, if you prefer Mac OS X hints...

  I often have to do router configuration via a console port, so I use a
  Keyspan Serial Adapter to get access. Two problems then present
  themselves: ZTerm is a horrible Mac OS X app. It hasn't been updated
  in five years or so, and isn't a Universal Binary. The developer
  doesn't seem in any hurry to rectify the situation. It is not worth
  the shareware fee in its current form. Minicom requires installation
  of Fink or MacPorts and is overly complex. Solution: Use screen,
  Terminal, and a little AppleScripting.

  First, launch Script Editor and type/paste in the following code:

tell application "Terminal"
  do script with command "screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1"
  set number of rows of window 1 to 100
  set number of columns of window 1 to 80
  set background color of window 1 to "black"
  set normal text color of window 1 to "green"
  set custom title of window 1 to "SerialOut"
end tell

  Compile and save as an app from within Script Editor, and you have a
  double-clickable application to launch a serial Terminal session. You
  may want to customize this slightly -- you can change the screen
  colors or number of columns or rows. You may also need to customize
  the screen command with a different device name if you are using
  something other than the Keyspan Serial Adapter (do an ls tty* of the
  /dev/ directory to get the right name).

  screen uses Control-A to take commands directed to it. So type
  Control-A followed by Control-\ to exit your screen session. If you
  fail to do this and exit a Terminal session, you'll leave the screen
  session alive and the serial resource unavailable until you kill the
  screen session manually. man screen will show you further commands to
  send to a screen session.

  If anyone can reply with a link to a tutorial on how to wrap an
  interactive Unix App in Cocoa, that would be the next step -- it would
  be nice to do this without involving Terminal. If you prefer to use
  Minicom, you could still use the AppleScript to wrap it into a nice
  launchable app -- use this older hint to find the right command line
  commands.

Many USB-Serial adapters use the chip from FTDI. Install the "Virtual COM Port" driver and look for the proper TTY name in /dev. For example, on a PowerBook G4 it came up as /dev/tty.usbserial-FTALKY8I.


Partition Type: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF Macbook Pro

To add an answer exactly fitting to your case I slightly modified my answer in the linked "duplicate" and posted it here again.

The second partition of your internal disk got the wrong partition type, your data probably won't be lost.

A bootable OS X partition (except the Recovery HD) either has the GUID 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for a standard OS X partition or the GUID 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for a CoreStorage partition. The FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF is an unknown partition type (but not no partition like the 000000-0000-0000.... one).

The first block of a standard OS X partition doesn't contain non-zeros, the first block of a CoreStorage partition contains some non-zeros. To get the first 3 blocks of a partition enter sudo dd if=/dev/diskXsY count=3 | hexdump.

The GUID can be modified with gpt.

Boot to "Fixer OS"
Open Terminal
Get an overview with diskutil list
Get an overview of your internal disk with the disk identifier found in the previous command. Below I assume the disk identifier of your internal disk is disk0 (replace it with the one you have found in your environment)

sudo gpt -r show disk0

Unmount disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk0
hexdump the first 3 blocks of the FFFF... partition:

sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s2 count=3 | hexdump

The following result identfies it as a normal OS X partition:

0000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000400 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 01 ff
0000410 d3 8c 77 d3 d4 33 3c b0 00 00 00 00 d3 8c 5b b3
0000420 00 00 02 a8 00 00 00 25 00 00 10 00 00 fe b7 f6
0000430 00 fe 1e fa 00 ed 80 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00
0000440 00 00 10 f2 00 00 5a 9d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01
0000450 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000460 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7d 9d b0 3a 02 31 62 f0
0000470 00 00 00 00 00 1f e0 00 00 1f e0 00 00 00 01 fe
0000480 00 00 00 01 00 00 01 fe 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000490 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00004c0 00 00 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 00 06 00
00004d0 00 00 0a 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00004e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000510 00 00 00 00 03 10 00 00 03 10 00 00 00 00 31 00
0000520 00 03 ac 00 00 00 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000530 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000560 00 00 00 00 05 40 00 00 05 40 00 00 00 00 54 00
0000570 00 00 10 00 00 00 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000580 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000600

The first number is the byte count in hex: 0000000: 0; 0000600: 1536. The * denotes identical lines. This means: the first two blocks (0x000-0x3ff) are all zeros.

A CoreStorage partition shows some non-zeros in the first block (0x000-0x1ff):

0000000 0c 73 a1 a9 ff ff ff ff 01 00 10 00 07 14 d7 01
0000010 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000030 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000040 00 20 c1 cc 0f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 53 01 00 00 00 04 00
0000060 00 10 00 00 00 00 40 00 11 bc fc 00 00 00 00 00
0000070 11 c0 fc 00 00 00 00 00 11 c4 fc 00 00 00 00 00
0000080 11 c8 fc 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 02 00 00 00
00000b0 62 02 98 59 ee a9 ab 51 9b 49 23 90 2e f8 8b 43
00000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000130 e4 6e f8 f2 63 99 45 c1 b2 13 86 28 a5 18 46 6d
0000140 c4 51 c0 f6 32 f9 43 ab 8e 59 42 d2 1a ef f6 50
0000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000400 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 01 ff
0000410 d1 98 a4 93 d4 33 8b d5 00 00 00 00 d1 98 88 73
0000420 00 06 07 53 00 01 82 39 00 00 10 00 00 fb 6a 00
0000430 00 c5 1c 55 00 25 73 c7 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00
0000440 00 0d e2 65 00 3e a2 fb 00 00 00 00 02 20 00 fb
0000450 00 00 00 31 00 06 b9 ef 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000460 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 31 fb 48 1e a0 6c 47 a2 9f
0000470 00 00 00 00 00 1f e0 00 00 1f e0 00 00 00 01 fe
0000480 00 00 00 01 00 00 01 fe 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000490 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
00004c0 00 00 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 00 06 00
00004d0 00 00 0a 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00004e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000510 00 00 00 00 0e 40 00 00 01 30 00 00 00 00 e4 00
0000520 00 00 10 00 00 00 e4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000530 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000560 00 00 00 00 11 d0 00 00 01 30 00 00 00 01 1d 00
0000570 00 02 80 00 00 00 72 00 00 13 30 97 00 00 13 00
0000580 00 15 c5 aa 00 00 13 00 00 18 2d 23 00 00 13 00
0000590 00 19 d8 fb 00 00 13 00 00 1b 76 cb 00 00 13 00
00005a0 00 1c 34 70 00 00 13 00 00 1d 0e 4d 00 00 13 00
00005b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
0000600

The line starting with byte 0x130 shows the UUID of the Physical Volume, the line starting with byte 0x140 shows the UUID of the Logical Volume Group.

The string 48 46 53 4a (= "HFSJ") in the first 16 bytes of the third blocks identifies a Journaled HFS+ volume on both partition types.
Now remove the second partition:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
sudo gpt remove -i 2 disk0

re-add the partition with the proper type
either a normal OS X partition

sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 879039128 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

or (if you have found a CoreStorage partition)

sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 879039128 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

Finally verify/repair the disk with diskutil verifyDisk disk0 and/or diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2. If a repair is needed use repair (instead of verify) as prefix in the above commands but contact me before repairing it and send me the error message.


Currently there is no jailbreak for devices with A5, A5X A6, or A6X chips; Tethered or Untethered. This means we need to be patient for the Chronic Dev Team to complete the jailbreak for the IPhone 4S, 5, IPad 2, 3, 4 and Mini. Do not be fooled by any site that aims to have it available. Most of them charge and may actually be viruses.

Check http://www.redmondpie.com for any updates. They will have realtime updates as to the status of the progress / release.


Prevent Network Settings From Changing Automatically

Pretty sure the issue was with TunnelBear.


How can I get Siri integration with Remember the Milk to add items for a particular date?

The word 'today' doesn't register with Siri and reminders.  Reading through the documentation on Apple's support site I found this:

  If you enter “breakfast” or “morning,” Reminders sets a 9 a.m. notification.
  If you enter “lunch “ or “noon,” Reminders sets a 12 p.m. notification.
  If you enter “dinner” or “night,” Reminders sets an 8 p.m. notification.
  If you enter a day, but don’t enter a time, Reminders sets a 12 p.m. notification.
  If you enter a time, but don’t enter a day, Reminders sets a notification for today.

It doesn't mention Siri, yet after some testing the rules seem close to the same for Siri input, although the times don't match.

Solutions:

Give Siri a time without a date.

  "Remind me to go to the dry cleaners at 5pm"

Give Siri a duration

  "Remind me to go to the dry cleaners in 2 hours"

Use "evening" and Siri will set the reminder for 6pm

  "Remind me to go to the dry cleaners this evening"

Use "tonight". Siri will set the reminder for 7pm

  "Remind me to go to the dry cleaners tonight"

Use "noon" and Siri will set the reminder for 12pm

  "Remind me to go to the dry cleaners at noon"

Use "morning" and Siri will set the reminder for 7am

  "Remind me to go to the dry cleaners in the morning"

Last note, if you are past the time that the word represents Siri gets confused.    Asking "this evening" after 6pm will cause Siri to ask you when you'd like to be reminded.


How can I get files off of a Mac when the display is broken?

The simplest thing to do is boot the Mac in target mode (hold the T key down) and connect it via Thunderbolt or Firewire to another Mac so you can have visibility without repairing your Mac's screen. Alternatively, you could just remove the drive from the Mac and use a cheap $5 USB to SATA connector to mount the volume on a Mac to enter the Filevault passphrase to decrypt the volume.

Presumably, your system isn't booting since even in the blind, you should remember if you have to type in a user name and then press tab or return and then type the password.

User selection works by arrow keys and the space bar will select the user (and if you only have one user enabled to unlock the FileVault drive, you boot to a password screen so you only need to enter the password and press enter).

You can type the first letter of the user account and then type the password to get logged in. This assumes your user doesn't share a first letter with another account that is sorted before yours. In this case type the letter and then arrow key over to the second, third account and then type the password.


iTunes U: How can I extract audio from video lectures?

I suggest using Max or ffmpegx, which is a GUI for ffmpeg.

You can also use ffmpeg from the shell:

for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c copy "${f%mp4}m4a"; done

-vn (video none) removes video streams and -c copy disables re-encoding the audio. You can install ffmpeg with brew install ffmpeg after installing Homebrew.


Kernel Task High CPU and Strange Activity from Other Apps

The culprit was an app called Serviio, which is a kind of Plex alternative.

It uses Java which the process of was 228. This was also the reason that it was trying to connect to IP addresses on my network. I deleted it and it is all back to normal.


How to disagree to iTunes privacy policy?

When you open iTunes for the first time and agree to the license agreement, it creates the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist file with a dictionary entry called license-agreements. You can just delete the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist file if you have no intension of using iTunes and it will be as if you never agreed to the license agreement.

In Terminal:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist

If you just want to delete the license-agreements use:

defaults delete com.apple.itunes license-agreements

If you want to remove the iTunes app in macOS, you should be able to just move it to the Trash and then empty the Trash. I was able to do that in macOS 10.12.3, however you might have to disable System Integrity Protection and if so, do the following:

Shutdown your Mac.
Start up from macOS Recovery using: Command-R
Select your Language and press Enter.
At macOS Utilities, select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
In Terminal type, csrutil disable then press Enter.
In Terminal type, reboot then press Enter.
Once back in normal mode macOS, in Terminal use the following command:

sudo rm -fr /Applications/iTunes.app

Then press Enter, type your password, then press Enter again.

Don't forget to enable System Integrity Protection afterwards. Repeat the necessary steps, however use csrutil enable.


How can I list the IP addresses of all the AirPrint printers on a network?

I do not have an AirPrint printer on my network. And never played with one either...

I cannot test with a real AirPrint device in my proximity right now.

But here is how I can list all the IPP-enabled printers (in this case they are all connected via CUPS):

First, browse for DNS-SD discoverable services (all types):

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd  -B  _services._dns-sd._udp  local.

  Browsing for _services._dns-sd._udp.local.
  DATE: ---Fri 20 May 2016---
  23:54:37.797  ...STARTING...
  Timestamp     A/R Flags  if Domain  Service Type         Instance Name
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _ssh
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _sftp-ssh
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _airplay
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _raop
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _googlecast
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _nomachine
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 local.  _apple-mobdev2._tcp. _sub
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _apple-mobdev2
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _ipps
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _ipp
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _workstation
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _http
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _amzn-wplay
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _rfb
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _afpovertcp
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _smb
  23:54:37.798  Add     3   4 .       _udp.local.          _net-assistant
  23:54:37.798  Add     2   4 .       _tcp.local.          _eppc
  ^C

So yes, there is indeed an IPP print service (but no AirPrint one, which would be marked by stand out being tagged as Service Type of _airprint._tcp in the list).

Second, browse for all present services of type "IPP":

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd  -B  _ipp._tcp  local.

  Browsing for _ipp._tcp.local.
  DATE: ---Fri 20 May 2016---
  23:54:47.782  ...STARTING...
  Timestamp     A/R  Flags  if Domain  Service Type   Instance Name
  23:54:47.783  Add      3   4 local.  _ipp._tcp.     Officejet6500donna @ mbp
  23:54:47.783  Add      3   4 local.  _ipp._tcp.     raw2dir @ mbp
  23:54:47.783  Add      2   4 local.  _ipp._tcp.     Officejet 6600 @ mbp
  ^C

Ok, one of the instance names is "Officejet 6600 @ mbp".

Third, lookup specific info about the printer named "Officejet 6600 @ mbp":

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd  -L  "Officejet 6600 @ mbp"  _ipp._tcp  local.

  Lookup Officejet 6600 @ mbp._ipp._tcp.local.
  DATE: ---Fri 20 May 2016---
  23:54:55.252  ...STARTING...
  23:54:55.253  Officejet\0326600\032@\032mbp._ipp._tcp.local. can be reached at mbp2-2.local.:631 (interface 4)
   txtvers=1 qtotal=1 rp=printers/Officejet_6600 ty=Unknown \
    adminurl=https://mbp2-2.local.:631/printers/Officejet_6600 \
     note=Büro\ im\ Keller priority=0 product=\(Officejet\ 6600\ e-All-in-One\) \
      pdl=application/octet-stream,application/pdf,application/postscript,image/jpeg,image/png,image/pwg-raster \
       UUID=e7d11337-a440-3f2d-7168-b53de4325791 TLS=1.2 Color=T Scan=T \
        printer-state=3 printer-type=0x480900E
  ^C

Half of the info you are looking for (hostname of the printer) is covered by the sentence "Officejet\0326600\032@\032mbp._ipp._tcp.local. can be reached at mbp2-2.local.:631"

This gives the current (Bonjour-)hostname of node offering the looked-up print service.

Fourth, look up the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for a given hostname:

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd -Gv4v6 mbp2-2.local

  DATE: ---Sat 21 May 2016---
  0:12:41.025  ...STARTING...
  Timestamp     A/R Flags if Hostname    Address                                      TTL
  0:12:41.025  Add  3  4 mbp2-2.local.   FE80:0000:0000:0000:AEBC:32FF:FEAE:CAEB%en0  120
  0:12:41.025  Add  3  4 mbp2-2.local.   FD00:0000:0000:0000:AEBC:32FF:FEAE:CAEB%  120
  0:12:41.025  Add  2  4 mbp2-2.local.   192.168.177.20                               120
  ^C

Summary

Assuming my first command had returned some _airprint service available in my network, then my guess is that one of the returned lines would read:

00:00:00.000  Add     3   4 .       _tcp.local.          _airprint

Thus, my second command would have to be:

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd  -B  _airprint._tcp  local.

I assume this could return something like

200:00:00.000  Add    3   4 local.  _airprint._tcp.  Some AirPrinter @ somehost

Then my third command should read:

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd  -L  "Some AirPrinter @ somehost"  local.

Which would return a line telling you "... can be reached at somewhere.local.:1234". From which to derive the fourth command:

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:> dns-sd  -Gv4v6  somewhere.local.

Caveats: The last part, about AirPrint service discovery may be wrong. It could be the case that AirPrint services announce themselves just as standard IPP services do. You have to find out yourself. If you do, please report back.

Update

I've googled a bit for "_airprint._tcp".

I didn't find a single instance of anybody who reported in some forum their output from dns-sd -B listing this particular string.

However, there were lots + lots of _airplay._tcp and _ipp._tcp results. This means that "_airprint._tcp" does not seem to exist, and AirPrint printers must be using a different signature to make themselves known to potential clients. However, we already know that all AirPrint services use IPP for communication with their clients, so they also MUST be making the _ipp._tcp service type announcements.

Hence it is safe to conclude that...

...all AirPrint devices will announce themselves as _ipp._tcp (not _airprint._tcp). Also, it looks like...
...you can identify AirPrint devices by looking for the TXT record of urf="$anything" and pdl="$anything,image/urf".

To verify this, I checked with what the (fake) announcement from dns-sd.org tells about its AirPrint (warning, it is not permanently on the Internet, sometimes it goes away for hours...). It does return this:

kp@zdv-wireless-43-219:>  dns-sd -Z _ipp._tcp,_universal dns-sd.org.

  Browsing for _ipp._tcp,_universal.dns-sd.org.
  DATE: ---Sat 21 May 2016---
   1:40:45.688  ...STARTING...

  ; To direct clients to browse a different domain, substitute that domain in place of '@'
  lb._dns-sd._udp                                 PTR     @

  ; In the list of services below, the SRV records will typically reference dot-local Multicast DNS names.
  ; When transferring this zone file data to your unicast DNS server, you'll need to replace those dot-local
  ; names with the correct fully-qualified (unicast) domain name of the target host offering the service.

  _ipp._tcp                                       PTR     Stuart's\032Home\032AirPrint\032Printer._ipp._tcp
  Stuart's\032Home\032AirPrint\032Printer._ipp._tcp SRV     0 0 631 airprint.dns-sd.org. ; Replace with unicast FQDN of target host
  Stuart's\032Home\032AirPrint\032Printer._ipp._tcp TXT     "txtvers=1" "qtotal=1" "rp=ipp/printer" \
    "pdl=application/postscript,application/vnd.hp-PCL,application/vnd.hp-PCLXL,application/pdf,image/urf" \
    "URF=CP99,W8,OB10,PQ3-4-5,ADOBERGB24,DEVRGB24,DEVW8,SRGB24,IS1-2-4,MT1-2-3-5-12,MT1-2-3-5-12,RS600" \
    "ty=HP LaserJet 400 color M451nw" "product=(HP LaserJet 400 color M451nw)" \
    "priority=10" "adminurl=http://www.dns-sd.org/ServerStaticSetup.html" \
    "note=At Stuart's house" "Color=T" "Duplex=F" "Scan=F"
^C

Indeed, "Stuart's Home AirPrint Printer" mentions "URF" in its TXT records.

So, to summarize the answer to your question "How can I get the IP addresses of all AirPrint printers?"

First, list all IPP printers.
Second, exclude these IPP printers which do NOT enumerate the two above mentioned urf-entries in their TXT records.

Verify my statements

The following (minimal) command will announce a fake AirPrint device in your LAN (until you cancel the command with ^C):

dns-sd                                                                   \
    -R "Minimal AirPrint Demo (dummy+fake printer fooling iPad clients)" \
    _ipp._tcp.,_universal                                                \
    .                                                                    \
    631                                                                  \
    pdl="image/urf"                                                      \
    URF=""

Your iOS devices will now enumerate this printer amongst its auto-discovered AirPrint devices.

(BTW, you can announce the port as something different from 631 too -- the iOS clients will still identify it as an AirPrint device...)

Now repeat this little experiment, just leave one of the two image/urf or URF="" statements off your command:

The fake device will still appear as an IPP printer in the DNS-SD/Bonjour browse lists.
But iOS clients will only list as AirPrint-capable these (fake or real) devices with the "URF"-related entries.


How to batch rename files to random characters?

The following script assumes that the photos to be renamed are in your Pictures folder. This will rename every file in your Pictures folder to a 10 character random string of letters and numbers while keeping the file extensions intact.

#!/bin/bash

chars=( {a..z} {A..Z} {0..9} )

function rand_string {
    local c=$1 ret=
    while((c--)); do
        ret+=${chars[$((RANDOM%${#chars[@]}))]}
    done
    printf '%s\n' "$ret"
}

for file in ~/Pictures/*
do
    ext=$(echo ${file} | sed 's,^.*\(\.[^\.]*$\),\1,')
    mv "$file" ~/Pictures/"$(rand_string 10)"${ext}
done

If the files to be renamed are not in your Pictures folder then edit ~/Pictures accordingly. The ~ is simply a shortcut for the users home directory. So ~/Pictures = /Users/YourUsername/Pictures. Note that the * tells the script to match any file found in ~/Pictures. Also note that you can change the number of characters generated by changing the number 10 of (rand_string 10)to any number you like.

Copy and paste this into a plain text file and name it something like: rename_pics.sh
Open your Terminal (use spotlight to find it if you don't know it's location)
In your Terminal type chmod 755 rename_pics.sh and press Enter
Then type ./rename_pics.sh in your terminal and press Enter to run the script.


How to get rid of remnants of a user profile in /var/folders?

"I'm not sure what to do about this"
My overwhelming instinct is to leave it alone. There's no personal data there, and it's not taking up significant space. The OS will probably tidy it up at some point.
There's a very very tiny possibility that the OS may actually need these files for something and get confused if they're not there.
Yes, you probably could find a way to delete the files manually; -- or you could do something useful with your time instead! IMO, the less maintenance I have to do, the better.


You seem to have upgraded your system with older versions of Xcode present on it and missed uninstalling Xcode 4.2 while installing Xcode 4.3.

Xcode from version 4.3 onwards installs under /Applications. Only versions older than this (like your Xcode 4.2) install under /Developer. If you do not plan to boot OS X Lion from another disk/partition and use Xcode 4.2, you can safely uninstall it (do not just delete the folder from Finder).

To uninstall Xcode 4.2:

Open Terminal (Applications->Utilities->Terminal.app)
Type the command sudo /Developer/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all

To uninstall your Xcode 3.2.4 under /Developer-3.2.4:

Open Terminal (Applications->Utilities->Terminal.app)
Type the command sudo /Developer-3.2.4/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all

Reference:
How to remove Xcode from your Mac


Is there any way to let apple know shellshock patch download is broken?

That DL article works for me on 10.10 - Do you have another browser or computer to do the download? If not, you might have to go to a friend's or Apple Store and get help directly from the genius bar.

There is no charge for in-store help and you probably can resolve this with a USB stick and a different browser/OS combination.

Also, I've put a link to the dmg on dropbox, but you really, really shouldn't trust internet downloads unless you can checksum the file and are confident it's as safe as what you'd get from Apple directly.


Macbook Air + Lion + Windows 7 Boot Camp + shared partition

Ok, this is written for a 500GB HDD.
4 partitions max, just like every other (bootable) hard-drive.

I tried this on 2 MacBook Pros and it works perfectly on both.

This tutorial also assumes you have OS X Lion installed.

What I want to achieve is to have OS X Lion & Windows 7 installed, with a shared space too.

120 (OSX)
260 (SHARED)
120 (Windows)

------------Part 1/2------------

Start off by resizing Mac OS X Partition so it's at least 1GB smaller than the full disk.

To do this; go into Utilities and then into Disk Utility. Select your HDD and go to the Partition tab.

1GB is not actually needed, but it's just to be on the safe side, it'll get resized later.
There needs to be 'Blank' unallocated space available.

What you originally have (factory settings):

 diskutil list

500GB:

disk0s1 EFI (Boot) ~200MB
disk0s2 Mac OS X 10.7
disk0s4 Mac OS X Recovery

disk0s4 needs to be deleted. Go into Utilities, and load up Terminal.
Type the following:

diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank /dev/disk0s4

Then go into Disk Utility and delete the 'Blank' Partition.
You should only have your OS X Partition and blank space.

Then check your partitions with the command 'diskutil list', you should now have:

500GB:

disk0s1      EFI (Boot) ~200MB
disk0s2      Mac OS X 10.7

GOOD!

This part was referenced from: http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/30/deleting-the-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-recovery-hd-partition/

------------Part 2/2------------

Stretch OSX to the full available space using Disk Utility.

Load up Bootcamp Wizard, make Windows Partition 120GB whilst OSX has the remaining 380GB.

Bootcamp should be happy to start the install, but load up Disk Utility first

NOTE: On Lion 10.7.2, Bootcamp has changed a little. You need to insert the Windows 7 disk and then proceed with the installation before the Bootcamp partition will be created. When your computer restarts you need to hold down the option (alt) key and boot back into Lion, then follow the steps below:

Select the OSX Partition, and '+' another partition.

Reduce OSX to 120GB and make the new (middle) partition MS-DOS FAT, call it SHARED. That's what I'm using for now.
Whilst FAT doesn't allow for any single files over 4096MB; it's also writable natively with both OS's.

It should be 260GB. Now you have:

120 (OSX)
260 (SHARED)
120 (Windows)

According to Disk Utility, but...
In reality what we have is:

500GB:

disk0s1      EFI (Boot) ~200MB
disk0s2      Mac OS X 10.7
disk0s3      SHARED
disk0s4      Windows 7

Insert Windows 7 disk (if you haven't already) and then start the install sequence.

You'll notice that there's a 128MB unallocated space. Tragically you'll have to leave that unallocated.

Format the BOOTCAMP partition (only) and proceed to install Windows.

Don't mess about with deleting and merging partitions, otherwise the partition tables will be damaged.

------------DONE------------


Two laptops authorized to play my iTunes library; what can each laptop see?

You've actually posed two questions.

For the iTunes library, I'm assuming you've gone to the menu and Authorized This Machine to access your content. This authorizes the computer to access your paid content, meaning movies, tv shows, and songs downloaded through iTuens or via iTunes Match (if you enabled that on this machine too).

For contacts from your phone, did you enable iCloud on your old computer? If so you could have possibly enabled cloud syncing of contacts, mail, and calendar events. If you did this, then your friend will be getting whatever information you enabled. Thus to answer your other question, in this case she will automatically get your information.

Keep in mind that the Home Sharing feature, iTunes Match, and iTunes authorization End User Agreement License covers your household; thus, by allowing your friend to access your content you're technically violating the terms of service agreement.

If you want to to maintain your privacy, on your old machine go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign out. This will take care of your privacy concerns of contacts. In iTunes, go to Store > De Authorize This Computer, then Store > Sign Out


Why would a large transfer to a USB drive take longer than expected?

I would run a terminal command like iostat 5 and also run Activity Monitor to see if other processes are taking precedence to the copy and also inspect the volume of IO operations as well as the aggregate read/write bandwidth.

You could have a bottleneck on the drive that is sending the data, the CPU that is doing the copy or the drive that is receiving the data in addition to the raw bandwidth of the external drive's connection.

Also, check in system profiler under the USB tree to inspect that the device is actually negotiated a USB 2.0 connection.

Spinning HDD typically have a few hundred iops limit due to seek time even if there is perfect alignment of the data on the spindle so that the next block to be read is always directly under the read head when the drive schedules the next read. Other drive access, file fragmentation and other effects can often slow down a write to 50 iops or less which would clearly limit the transfer speed to 10 Mbps or less given typical block sizes for HFS+ filesystems.

In short, it might be a slow transfer due to the Mac or the drive sending the data and not a full or fragmented drive on the receiving end.


There’s nothing to recover.

Notes is autosaved the moment you make a change, so it saved your deletion
You didn’t delete the file, you changed it’s contents so recovery software can’t help.  No software can distinguish the difference between “Oops” and “I meant to do that”
Cloud storage isn’t back up, it’s file synchronization for availability everywhere.  That saved file was synced to all of your devices when it changed.
Time machine would be the best way to protect your data. This needs to be configured and used.

Now, if you do use iCloud, but it just wasn't “on” during this period, it may be your saving grace.  Using a different computer, log into your iCloud account (iCloud drive) via a web browser and download a copy of your notes.  Make a backup of this file!

Now, if you log back into your computer, you can copy the notes back and have it sync.  Then turn on a Time Machine.


Airport Extreme does not support NTFS disks.

You can format your disk as FAT32 or (preferably) HFS+, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and it should then be accessible to both Mac and PC clients.


One solution, as detailed here, would be to use a hardlink for the directory. It's very important that you understand the implications listed in Bob's answer as well as only use the hunlink utility (also in Bob's answer) to remove any directories created via the hlink utility.

I certainly would not recommend this solution for anyone who isn't comfortable understanding the details laid out in Bob's answer and/or for a shared system where not every user is aware of which directories are hard links and how to properly handle them.


What are the recommended steps to take before selling an iPhone?

In terms of privacy - unlink your AppleID account and just go to Settings > General > Reset. Clean everything (Reset All Settings & Erease All Content and Settings) and you're ready to sell / give your phone.


Weird lines and black boxes of all sizes on iMac display

Focusing on one area of the graphics corruption, you can see that the layering effects are being calculated improperly.

While that could be a software glitch or a failure of the GPU, my first check would be to replace the RAM.

That era of hardware started using system RAM to back the GPU and calculate the visible pixels between all the layers (each app draws as if it's the only user of the screen and then the OS composts, animates and renders all visible layers). Normally, when things work, you wouldn't know how the screen gets drawn, but here you can see a problem in one of the steps.

If you are comfortable swapping RAM - you might try removing half the ram and test, then swap the second half, but this is likely something you'll take in for a technician to look at once you have a good backup.

You could also try reinstalling the OS, but my guess is you would see graphics errors when booted to install DVD or even the built in tests which would confirm it's hardware.


Windows keyboard on mac, change combinations?

You can change Modifier Key Assignment from
System Prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard > Modifier Keys...


You could use Evernote for this (Free). Just import all of your PDF's as notes and after some time (you can speed this up by upgrading to a paid account), it will automatically process them and recognize the handwriting. You won't be able to extract the OCR text from the notes, but you can search for it.


Airport Express as a wifi access point connected by Ethernet cable to a modem?

The unit should do what you want. No guarantee on the bandwidth as the range increases, but if your Internet connection is less than 30Mbps, and you're only using it for Internet access, then having the wireless component shouldn't slow you down.


Best guess would be …

System Prefs > Accessibility > Audio
You have "Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs" checked.

F13 has no default task - & any invalid key pressed whilst in Finder will generate an alert [doesn't really do it in other apps, but does in Finder]


What is a 0-size file "Icon?" in a directory?

It's just an empty file. Nothing more.

Since the ~/Copy is not a standard directory, it is hard to say why is it there or why it was created.


Is it possible to have IOS simulator in my Linux Mint?

The iOS simulator is a large chunk of iOS compiled for OS X (minus the app store, among other things). You won't be able to port it without the source code, which Apple isn't going to share. iOS development can be done on other platforms, but you're not going to get the simulator.


How to move Photos Library and associated iPhotos Library to another drive without breaking links?

So, no definitive answer.

I had copied my iPhotos, Aperture and Photos libraries to the new drive using Finder, but I was worried I was using unnecessary space. I did a new copy using rsync as follows:

rsync -azH --progress Aperture\ Library.migratedaplibrary iPhoto\ Library.migratedphotolibrary Photos\ Library\ \(Aperture\).photoslibrary Photos\ Library\ \(iPhoto\).photoslibrary /Volumes/Secondary\ SSHD/Users/me/Pictures

Now I'm sure I'm using too much space. :-)

This command should preserve hard links from the source in the destination, but as @Tetsujin commented on the question APFS doesn't support hard links and I don't think it would use copy on write with files in different media (what would happen if I ejected the media?).


How to convert a Numbers file to .pdf and still have its formula work

The Numbers to PDF (whether using Print->Save As or Export to… menu commands) will produce PDFs that do not allow running of formula. So unfortunately, no.


It'd be a lot easier to just sniff packets from his iPhone on your wifi and get the password. (With this?)

Change the DNS servers on your wifi to point to your DNS server and tell the iPhone that mail.yahoo.com (or whatever) is your PC's IP address. Also, you might want to uncheck "Use SSL".


Transfer RAM from MacBook Mid 2010 to MacBook Pro 2008

There were several MacBook Pro models released in 2008. Only the Unibody models support DDR3 RAM, so keep an eye out for those. Fortunately, they're easy to spot compared to the non-Unibody models released the same year.


Issue when syncing iPhone to iTunes when adding movies

OK so after talking to Apple support last night:
The messages only apply to the "tab" that they show in. So in this case clicking erase and sync wasn't an issue.

Ben


Can I clean-install iOS 11 on my iPhone 7?

Yes. Download the latest .ipsw file for your device. I get my stuff from Redmond Pie. I prefer clean installs as well. The .ipsw file is around 2-2.6 GB.


macOS Calendar pushes, doesn't pull? iCloud & iPhone push & pull

Sometimes it takes a couple of minutes to sync.

Can you try what you see here:
Open the Calendar app, choose Calendar > Preferences, On the General tab, make sure that one of your iCloud calendars is the default.


Update: The final build of Messages isn't available for Lion. It is only available on Mountain Lion.

MacRumors had an article on this:

  Apple has not removed the download entirely, however, as it is still
  accessible via direct download (63.8 MB)

You can also download it via Mac Update.


How should I manage different version of Java (JRE and JDK) on Mavericks?

Eclipse has its own list of JREs that it knows about in Preferences > Java > Installed JREs. When running programs in Eclipse you can choose from this list of JREs.


How to remove flashlight from iPhone X lock screen?

On iOS 11 - the flashlight is tied to the 3D Touch feature. If you turn that off in General> Accessibility>3D Touch, then the flashlight disappears.

On iOS 12 - there's no known way to remove this with a setting on the phone or action short of jailbreaking (which would be a different question entirely on how to jailbreak)


How can I use SMB shares under Mavericks?

If you can't get SMB working, try AFP. You can run both side-by-side, and use SMB on your Windows and AFP on OS X.

To set up AFP on your Raspberry Pi, you can use the following command:

sudo apt-get install netatalk

This will install Netatalk on your RPi, and following successful installation, the RPi should automatically show in the Shared section in Finder and the Network neighbourhood (⌘⇧K):

If not, you can connect manually by pressing ⌘K and typing afp:// followed by the IP address of your RPi.


How can I perform the swipe gesture for quickly accessing Notification Center?

You might wonder why a two finger gesture on the trackpad from the right edge to the left edge doesn't always allow you to quickly access the brand new Notification Center in Mountain Lion.

Apple's instructions state:

  Swipe to the left from the right edge of the trackpad to visit Notification Center anywhere in OS X. Even from a full-screen app.

What they actually meant was a swipe gesture starting from the very edge if not outside from the right side of your trackpad and then finishing on the left side within you trackpad. This is easier on a notebook trackpad, you can start on the wrist area and swipe in, it's harder on an external one tho.

If you start too far within your trackpad you won't be able to perform the gesture for quickly accessing Notification Center, or you will trigger the page forwards/backwards gesture instead.


AirDroid? It transfers data over WiFi instead USB: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid


It’s often a result of corrupted keychain files which can be fixed in three steps using Keychain Access first aid.

Open "Keychain Access” (Applications > Utilities)
Open the “Keychain Access” menu and choose “Keychain First Aid”
Enter the users password and check the “Repair” box, then click “Start”

After keychain repairs are completed, exit out of Keychain Access and reboot. You may be asked one more time for the login, but from this point on it should remember it.


How can I quickly type special characters on an iPhone/iPad using a bluetooth keyboard?

You can use the same keyboard combinations as on OS X to create accented characters. Here are the commands for each:

⌥+` then a=à
⌥+e then a=á
⌥+u then a=ä
⌥+i then a=â
⌥+n then a=ã

After you press the ⌥ (option/alt key) combination, the accent character will show up. Then, typing the next character will replace the accent with the accented character, if possible. If the character you type cannot have that accent, the accent will stay, followed by the character.


My preferred method of doing this is to use a DD-WRT router and block specific sites on a time basis. (See here.)

Also, Netgear offers similar functionality in conjunction with OpenDNS. (See here.)


Moving server Share Points to a new drive in Mac OS X Server 10.8

Its still possible, see OS X Server: Changing the service data storage location
:

In OS X Server (Mountain Lion) and Lion Server v10.7.2 or later, you can store service data in a location other than your startup volume.
To change the service data storage volume:

Open Server app, and connect to the desired server.
Select the name of the server in the column on the left under the heading Server (on OS X Mountain Lion) or Hardware (on OS X Lion).
Click the Settings tab.
Click the Edit… button on the "Service Data" line.
Select a volume.


my Mac Pro was stolen and had Adobe Master suite on it. is there a way to delete that program on the stolen lap top and install it on a new one?

You can't actually delete it on the computer that is gone.

The problem you may have is that Adobe CS requires product activation which ties the software to that particular computer.

Adobe allow you to activate CS on two computers so you should be fine to install on your new computer if it's not the third you've done, which from your question it seems it would be.

If you have already done it on two computers you will have to get Adobe to deactivate CS on the old computer. To do this phone Adobe Customer Support. There's no software way around this with the version of CS you have (people with a volume license don't have this problem.)

Check out the Activation FAQ :-

http://www.adobe.com/eeurope/activation/faq.html


MacBook Pro won't connect to Wi-Fi, with correct password. Error: "The Wi-Fi network requires a WPA2 password"

I just had the same issue.  The answer I found online said to go to system preferences, then network, then click advanced and then click TCP/IP and click the Renew DHCP Lease; but I don't think that did anything.

However, instead of clicking TCP/IP, stay on the Wi-Fi page (or go back to it by clicking the tab) and click the + button to add the network.  You need the network name and password, and for security I chose WPA2 personal.  Apply or Click OK and that should do it.  It worked for me and now I get connected automatically.


Untick the 'Open Safe Files' preference in Safari with Terminal

You can use the defaults application to change the preference for this using the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads 0


There is no documented workaround to short circuit this security control on macOS Catalina.

My recommendation is to use Screen Sharing and Remote Desktop since you can kickstart that on and off by command. Based on whether your macs are MDM managed, you may not be able to remotely grant access to the physical machines and have to physically go in or trace the ethernet MAC address to switch ports on the switch.

Possibly if you have only one version of macOS there’s something that might be possible, but the question as stands it would be best to use AppleRemote Desktop as the most trusted / privileged tool to remotely compromise the security of these Macs. You’re up against protections to prevent stealthy snooping, so the more you are acting like a proper remote administration, the less friction you will have and once Remote Desktop is set, cleanup is scriptable and very easy (and logged).

These controls must be user initiated, even with a fully functioning MDM like JAMF. You can report if a user has allowed or denied this, but Apple is blocking this pretty effectively in Summer 2020.

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/35287/zoom-app-asks-for-admin-credentials-when-use-microphone-and-camera#responseChild200127


If you have access to a second computer, connect it to the same ethernet cable and port.  If that computer gets internet access (be sure to disable wireless, so you know it's connecting via ethernet), the first computer's ethernet device is faulty.  If the second computer does not get internet access, try swapping the ethernet cable for another (the first could be badly crimped or faulty in other ways), and try another ethernet port.


VirtualBox 5.1.8 installation didn't install kernel extensions. How do I fix this? [macOS 10.13]

High Sierra comes with a new security feature: Secure Kernel Extension Loading, which blocks kernel extension loading. The implementation appears to be questionable.

To allow the loading of some non-Apple kernel extension you have to either allow execution in Preferences > Security & Privacy > General:

or disable the security feature with a Terminal command (not recommended):

sudo spctl --master-disable


Can I mix DDR3 1333 MHz memory with 1666MHz memory on my iMac?

You can mix memory speeds so long as the memory is faster than the memory specified for your computer.

The 2012 iMac calls for PC3-12800 DDR3 and the minimum RAM speed is 1600Mhz (all models iMac in 2012; 21" and 27").  So, the 1666MHz RAM will work, but the slower 1333MHz RAM will not. Many, many years of experience has told me not to mix RAM speeds.  While it is "supposed" to work just fine, some memory modules aren't very tolerant and can cause issues.  Stick with what's recommenced for best reliability.


I'm guessing that this application is used to retrieve Facebook and Twitter contact details for display in the address book.

This assumption is based on release notes for a recent update of Mac OS X, as well as the content of that application's executable (as viewed with strings):

strings /System/Library/CoreServices/AddressBookUrlForwarder.app/Contents/MacOS/AddressBookUrlForwarder`).

The output of strings makes me think that the application is a URL handler for these expressions:

...
_urlPatterns
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=$1
fb://profile/(.*)
http://twitter.com/$1
twitter:///user[?]screen_name=(.+)
http://twitter.com/share?text=$1
twitter:///post[?]message=(.+)
...

Do you have a Facebook account setup in System Preferences -> Mail, Contacts & Calendars?


Does setting sharing & permissions on "Ignore ownership on this volume" disk do anything?

When you set a volume to ignore ownership the kernel sets the files on that volume to the user unknown. Files owned by the unknown user appear to be owned by any user that can access those files. Still the privileges grant what you can do with any file.


change default editor for command line tasks?

The editor that is launched when you enter crontab -e at the command line is set in an environment variable. Specifically, the default editor that is launched in your terminal window is controlled by the environment variable labeled VISUAL, or $VISUAL. You can see all of the environment variables for the shell you're using by typing env at the command prompt; e.g.:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ env
TERM_PROGRAM=Apple_Terminal
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm-256color
TMPDIR=/var/folders/8_/s3jxzj5150s9f3d3y5k4wzdr0000gp/T/
Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.f9meUexEfE/Render
TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION=421.1
TERM_SESSION_ID=CECBC621-33BB-45FD-96E3-B414DBE99F65
USER=seamus
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.LVyDWNJZbD/Listeners
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Public:/opt/X11/bin
PWD=/Users/seamus
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
XPC_FLAGS=0x0
XPC_SERVICE_NAME=0
SHLVL=1
HOME=/Users/seamus
LOGNAME=seamus
DISPLAY=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.tzdryqvBdL/org.macosforge.xquartz:0
SECURITYSESSIONID=186a7
_=/usr/bin/env

You may note, as in the above example, that the VISUAL environment variable is not included in this list. This only means that for your current username, the VISUAL environment variable has not been changed from the system's default. You can confirm this (or check the value of the the VISUAL environment variable) in a compact manner as follows:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ echo $VISUAL

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$

The blank line indicates that no value for $VISUAL has been set for this user, and the system default will be used.

CHANGING THE DEFAULT EDITOR FOR THE CURRENT SESSION:

To set the VISUAL environment variable so that nano is launched as the default editor for all editing tasks initiated from a terminal window for this user, simply set the environment variable as follows:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ VISUAL=nano
My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ export VISUAL

Or, if you prefer:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ export VISUAL=nano

You can verify this setting as follows:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ echo $VISUAL
nano
My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$

And that will do it! From this point forward (until your shell or your system is re-started), any time an editing task is launched from a command in a terminal window for this user, nano will be used instead of the system default. And of course the system's default editor will be restored when the system (or the shell) is re-started. If you don't wish to perform a re-start to restore the default editor, simply specify vi as the editor:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ export VISUAL=vi

CHANGING THE DEFAULT EDITOR TO PERSIST ACROSS ALL SESSIONS:

To change the default editor permanently (that is, to persist across re-starts) is also easily accomplished. Simply create a hidden file in the user's home directory (~/), and set the VISUAL environment variable in it, all accomplished conveniently in a single line:

My-MacBook-15:~ seamus$ echo export VISUAL=nano >> ~/.bash_profile


Which wireless controller is more compatible with Macs: Xbox 360 or PS3?

Having tried both the Xbox controller and the PS3 controller on my Mac I can say: the PS3 controller is somewhat easier to get working with the Mac. It communicates via BlueTooth and pairing it is mostly painless. It's also wireless without requiring any other devices to be purchased. You can get the PS3 controller drivers from here.

The Xbox controller requires an additional USB dongle from Microsoft to get working if you want to use a wireless controller. Otherwise, you'll have to stick to using it as a wired controller. You can get the Xbox 360 controller drivers from here or here is an alternative driver.

I thought the drivers for the PS3 controller were a little more stable and that the stick response was snappier than the 360 controller. But I much prefer the 360 controllers layout, weight and overall tactile feel. Personal preference there really.


Cannot browse App documents after upgrading to iOS 8.3

According to Macrumors:

"Apple has changed security settings in iOS 8.3 that prevent file managers and transfer utilities such as iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer, iBackupBot and PhoneView from gaining access to app directories on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

The change breaks current versions of transfer utilities for OS X and Windows, forcing many developers to release new versions of their software with workarounds that restore at least partial sandbox access."


Revoke the permission to run an application from an unidentified developer

The permission is actually persisted by removing a specific attribute from the file's metadata.

You mentioned in comments that you were having this problem with jtool from Homebrew Cask. When you install that program, you'll see the attributes listed by running:

xattr -l /usr/local/bin/jtool

It will display something like this:

com.apple.quarantine: 0291;5df6a9fa;Homebrew\x20Cask;1E71AF5A-2719-340C-9A49-DDB4D10769BE

You can remove that attribute with the following command:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/jtool

Now you won't get the prompt.

Add the attribute again to restore the prompt:

xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "0291;5df6a9fa;Homebrew\x20Cask;1E71AF5A-2719-340C-9A49-DDB4D10769BE" /usr/local/bin/jtool


Can Mac system updates recover accidentally deleted kernel files?

System updates (on any system) only modify targeted files which need improvment or removal.

They might accidentally repair a file you have damaged.
They might also accidentally damage a file you have fixed. But this isn't their target.

A full install will of course reinstall any file you removed.


In OS X, how does manually sandboxing an application from the internet compare to blocking it with Little Snitch?

For most purposes, the following is good enough for most situations:

sandbox-exec -n no-network command

However, it's not more effective—there's numerous ways of apps escaping the sandbox. Little Snitch also lets you be more specific with what you are blocking—specific ports/etc.


Is there a difference regarding battery between Apple Watch 38 mm and 42 mm?

Apple used to say that the larger Apple Watch ‘typically experiences longer battery life’ on their Apple Watch battery information page, however they removed this line from the page when the Apple Watch Series 2 was released.

The mAh specifications are as follows:

Apple Watch (original) & Apple Watch Series 1, 38mm: 205 mAh (source)
Apple Watch (original) & Apple Watch Series 1, 42mm: 246 mAh (source)
Apple Watch Series 2, 38mm: 273 mAh (source)
Apple Watch Series 2, 42mm: 334 mAh (source)


Question marks folder when I turn on my mac

After several trials, it finally worked. If you are having the same issue make sure you have a good internet connection.


How do I set up the Programmer Dvorak key layout on Mac OSX El Capitan?

// , The following worked, in my case, for setting up the Programmer Dvorak key layout on Mac OSX "El Capitan":

Adding Programmer Dvorak to the list of available layouts

These steps must be performed from a user account with administrator access. By default, the main user of the computer has this capability.
Open Safari and download the layout driver package. Safari will put this file into the ~/Downloads folder, unpack it and then start the installer.
If you are on Mavericks (or later), you must hold down the Control key while you click the package icon, and then confirm to Gatekeeper that you want to open the package.
Choose Continue to skip the introduction screen of the package installer.
Make sure that your main harddisk is selected as the target of the installation, and then click the Continue button.
Click on the Install button to start installation.
Enter your password to make a system modification, and then click on the OK button.
Click on the Close button to acknowledge a successful installation.
Alternatively you can do an automated, non-interactive installation of the layout using this command:

sudo installer -pkg "~/Downloads/Programmer Dvorak v1.2.pkg" -target /

10. In El Capitan, you must now clear the layout cache before new layouts are recognized:

sudo rm -f /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.le*

THEN restart your computer, check your list of available keyboard layouts, and clear the cache again. After another restart, your new keyboard layout should be available.

Setting up your account to use the Programmer Dvorak layout in El Capitan

Click on the Apple menu in the upper, left corner of the screen.
Choose System Preferences... from the menu that appears.
Click on the Keyboard icon in the second row in the window that
opens.
Select the Input Sources header.
Click the + button in the lower, left corner.
Select the English language at the top of the list on the left side.
Select the Programmer Dvorak layout at the top of the list on the
right side.
Click the Add button in the lower, right corner.
Tick the Show Input menu in menubar checkbox at the bottom of the
window.
Close the Keyboard window.
Click on the Input Menu icon (the little keyboard or flag) in the
upper-right corner of the screen.
Select Programmer Dvorak from the list that is displayed.


iMac 8,1: where to put thermal sensor after SSD installation

I ended up placing the thermal sensor in the small space directly below the plug where it connects.  There are three sensors in a line which connect here and below them an empty space large enough to hold the sensor and sensor bracket.

After reassembling everything the sensor is functioning and fan speeds are normal.


Can WhatsApp be independent of Apple ID?

The messages won’t be interfered with as that is stored by phone number. Backups will clash though as 2 different backups will be created of separate chats. One could be deleted at any time and the other device could be backed up.

If you want backup enabled I recommend using another Apple ID as it is backed up using iCloud.

From this WhatsApp article:

  To make a manual backup of your chats at any time, go to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup > Back Up Now. You can also enable automatic, scheduled backups by tapping Auto Backup and then choosing your backup frequency. This will back up your chats and media to your iCloud account and you can choose to include or exclude videos from the backup. The iCloud backup process can take a while to complete, depending on your Internet connection and backup size.

The WhatsApp messages will be different but FaceTime conversations will be linked as it is Apple ID linked. Bear in mind without backup chat history can be lost.

You won’t be able to FaceTime to the same Apple ID devices but you can call each other on WhatsApp.

In FaceTime settings though you can select what you can be reached by and use different emails:

Go to Settings -> FaceTime and choose how you can be reached:


Keyboard Shortcut For Entering Screen Saver

If you open Keychain Access (I use Spotlight, but you can go to /Applications/Utilities), go to the main menu and hit Preferences... (or Command-,) you'll find a checkbox labeled "Show keychain status in menu bar..." If you check it, you'll get a little lock in your menubar.

If you click "Lock Screen", your screensaver will activate. I use this at work as an OSX Control-Alt-Delete alternative.

(Note: it will require your user password to unlock the screen. This may/may not be desirable.)


Retrieving apps and Music from 2 iCloud accounts to one iPhone

The apps are not « backed up » on account, they are at most link to an account.

Your only solution :

If you still have your first password : Change your iTunes login in the iPhone and download the apps linked to that account. You'll get the cloud icon on the App Store if the app is linked, a price/free else.
You do the same thing with the second account.

NB:  If you really forgot your password, you're going to need to rebuy the apps with your new account.


How to change the creation (st_birthtime) date/time of a file in Lion?

touch -t also changes the creation time if the target modification time is before the original creation time.

SetFile can set the creation time to be before the modification time or in the future.

-d date    Sets the creation date, where date is a string of the
           form: "mm/dd/[yy]yy [hh:mm:[:ss] [AM | PM]]" Notes:
           Enclose the string in quotation marks if it contains spa-
           ces. The date must be in the Unix epoch, that is, between
           1/1/1970 and 1/18/2038. If the year is provided as a two-
           digit year, it is assumed to be in the 21st century and
           must be from 00 (2000) through 38 (2038).

This would set the creation time to the modification time:

SetFile -d "$(GetFileInfo -m test.txt)" test.txt

SetFile and GetFileInfo are part of the command line tools package, which can be downloaded from Xcode's preferences or developer.apple.com/downloads.


Unable to partition internal Toshiba drive for OS X re-installation,

Don't let that poor dinosaur extinct yet.
Now I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you are referring to with 'base system' that's taking up 350GB. Assuming that it's the recovery partition, was that already in the drive? It sounds like partition map is broken.
If you are willing to wipe that hard drive clean, there are few things you can try.
Erase the disk using terminal in recovery mode and run verifyDisk and repairDisk. If this works then you could probably just create new osx extended partition to install osx.
If partition map is broken, you could use external computer to repair them using third party software.
And since you mentioned that it's a MBP from around 2012, does it have an optical bay? if your model is the ones before retina screens, there is a high chance of broken SATA cable. It is a known issue with MBP from those times, and it breaks quite often, leading to very confusing hard drive problems. If possible check if hard drive works fine on other computers and if they do, it is likely that it's your SATA cable.


unzipping split zip files named filea, fileb, filec, file1, file2,

I managed to do it with StuffIt expander

I did have to click "merge" and "skip" 32 times but it eventually did the trick..


How can I remove the Mojave download without installing it?

It should be in Applications, as "Install macOS Mojave" - just in case you were looking for it under "M".
The installer is simply an app, so like any app, just put it in the trash and empty the trash.


Unable to type Tibetan Monlam font in Pages and Microsoft Word 2019

་I don't have any problem typing Tibetan characters in Pages with  Apple's Tibetan Qwerty Input Source and the font Monlam Uni Sans Serif, as shown below.  If you provide more info about your problem as requested in the comments, someone can probably help.


How to show hidden files on mac using mouse (without Terminal or Keyboard shortcuts)

If you use the 'old-style' Terminal command, the view ought to stick through reboots.

The simple Terminal command is

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

However, as you want to do this by mouse only, you will need to wrap this into an Applescript, saved as an application.

From my own answer at How to set ⌘ + H to enable show hidden files if you use the following script, saved as an application, you can invert the hidden flag by simply double-clicking the app.

set newHiddenVisiblesState to "YES"
try
    set oldHiddenVisiblesState to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
    if oldHiddenVisiblesState is in {"1", "YES"} then
        set newHiddenVisiblesState to "NO"
    end if
end try
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles " & newHiddenVisiblesState & "; killall Finder"


That seems to be a legitimate process. It's a schema that belongs to QuickLook, but Apple doesn't have much information freely available about it. I don't think is a reason to be alarmed, just kill the process (but save your work before, just in case).


I have encountered this issue since the betas of 9.0 and can confirm it up to 9.0.2.

The reason for the appearance of this issue is that the iPhone thinks you are trying to record a message. This occurs whenever the proximity sensor thinks that you have put your phone to your ear or otherwise been fooled into thinking so.

This feature works fine with iMessages, but SMS obviously does not support sending voice messages. Whatever the reason, it gets triggered but the software does not know how to handle it, leaving it in the inconsistent state.

A temporary solution is to quit the Messages app with the Multitasking switcher, or trigger a voice message in an iMessage conversation and cancel (which interestingly prevents the issue from reoccurring while the Messages app remains in memory).

The ultimate solution will have to come from Apple in a bug fix.


How do I find my hostname for my google account?

If you are using some FTP client you need to connect to their IP Address AFAIK, so with this you can try accessing GMAIL's IP (74.*.235.) and enter your username and password as other FTP Client is doing.

HTH


Is there any way to disable auto-shutdown from login screen when no user is logged in?

I have not found a way to disable filevault auto-shutdown, but I have found a way to restart while bypassing the filevault pre-boot login screen (where the auto-shutdown happens). Entering this command in terminal will allow a remote restart without the risk of a shutdown:

sudo fdesetup authrestart

After entering the command and a password for sudo, you will need to enter either the filevault recovery key or a user password for a filevault-enabled user. This password will then be stored in memory and used automatically upon boot to satisfy the filevault authentication requirement. After the disk is decrypted, you will then be taken to the standard post-filevault login screen which doesn't trigger shutdown after 5 minutes.

Additionally, the authrestart command could be set to load a plist file automatically each time the computer is booted to authenticate filevault automatically, but this partially negates the purpose of filevault, and I don't think it's a great idea to store a password in a plist file.

I found this information here.

I'd still like to find a way to disable auto-shutdown permanently, but at least this is a workaround for the remote restart issues.


Move pictures to albums and shared albums in iOS 13

I now see the ”Edit actions” link. Don’t know if that came with the 13.1.2 update or if I just missed it before. But from there I can add the missing actions. I don’t know why they went away after the update but I now added them back and everything works as expected.


How to set Inbox by Gmail as the default email client in Safari (macOS)

It's not straightforward, but doable:

Open Safari, install the mailto: extension, then go to Safari > Preferences > Extensions > mailto: > Options > Custom URL and add the following template:

https://inbox.google.com/?to={to}&cc={cc}&bcc={bcc}&subject={subject}&body={body}

Restart Safari
Open Mail, then go to Mail > Preferences > General > Default email reader > Select > Safari

And you are done! Any mailto: link will now open the Inbox composer.


How delete an ipad app totally (rather than it continuing to exist when viewed over in iTunes)?

In iTunes in the left hand sidebar go to Apps into the Library selection. If you delete the app there it will not show up in the sync section. In case you need it again you can always download it from the Store again (as long as it is available there).


The German magazine c't (or rather the new "Mac & i") tested the new iPad (3rd gen.) and found that it finally uses retina graphics in the iPhone apps that provide them:

  Übrigens stellt das iPad 3 auch Apps, die für das Retina-Display des iPhone 4(S) optimiert wurden, schärfer und ansprechender dar als sein Vorgänger – iOS zieht nun also endlich die optimierten Grafiken heran. Das wirkt sich positiv auf beide Darstellungsvarianten aus, auf die Originalgröße und den "2x"-Modus.

Translation:

By the way, apps that are optimized for the retina display of the iPhone 4 (S) are displayed by the new iPad sharper and more appealing than by its predecessor - iOS now finally uses the optimized graphics. This has a positive effect on both display variants the original size and the "2x" mode.


Do all Macbooks have a Thunderbolt port?

Even MacBook Pro have different adapter ports and needs. The new MacBook only has USB-C. All MacBook Pro have some form of thunderbolt but not the same connectors.

AirPlay might be the most common way to get video out, so consider that an an AppleTV if you can't be sure which adapters are needed.

These articles explain and have great photos:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207443
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201736

Newer Models have Thunderbolt 3 which is also called USB-C

This website has good cables/adapters for very good price.

https://www.monoprice.com/search/index?keyword=Apple%20&v_Product_Type_uFilter=Apple%20Cables


So I figured this out after a lot of digging. In looking for the Automator action, I somehow skimmed over the application package in /Applications.

Transmit's actions live in /Applications/Transmit.app/Contents/Library/Automator.

Once I found them, I just had to clear the Apple quarantine info on that folder with
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Transmit.app/Contents/Library/Automator source.

I Hope this helps anyone with the same problem in the future!


iPhone 7 Plus stuck in recovery mode and can't restore/update even in DFU after downgrading from iOS 11

I would avoid DFU for figuring out what is wrong - it's kind of a last ditch effort to revive a device without a lot of diagnostics or error reporting. Since Apple restricts who can receive betas and asks them to communicate with users on the various seed and beta discussion groups - many people here will decline to engage on beta discussions so you might get better answers on Apple's forums devoted to the beta programs.

Also - since you know the firmware is on iOS 11 at this point, why not try reinstalling iOS 11 again to see if the device is still working?

Foregoing that, what happens when you plug the device into iTunes and attempt a restore?

That operation is designed to log error conditions, statistics, reasons and many items to log files. From there you would benefit from being able to reach out to Apple support and also have a large audience with experience in restore errors. It could be an unlikely hardware failure or a likely firmware issue where you are now committed to running the beta pending some changes to the software either on the iTunes side or on the iOS side to allow you to go backwards in code version.

If other people have this issue, I would suggest asking a new question with specific details like - what version of iTunes and what OS (Mac or windows) and what specific error message you get before you try DFU. As you have acknowledged in the post - recovering from DFU failure is usually with Apple Certified technicians and/ or hardware replacement assuming your PC/Mac and iTunes isn't the cause of the restore issue.


How to set the default flag color in OS X Lion Mail.app

This can be accomplished by customizing macOS keyboard shortcuts.

Open System Preferences, Keyboard, Shortcuts, App Shortcuts.
Click the plus-sign (+) button below the central pane.
In the next dialog, select Mail.app from the Application dropdown.
Type Yellow (or whatever color) as the Menu Title.
In Keyboard Shortcut, press something you wouldn't accidentally press as the keyboard shortcut (I chose CommandControlOptionShiftR).
Click Add.
Repeat the process with Yellow (or whatever other color you want that is available) as the Menu Title and CommandShiftL as the keyboard shortcut.

Now when you use Mail, the new color will respond to CommandShiftL.


Disconnect/connect USB device from command line

It turns out that there is a way of doing this not only in macOS, but in all *NIX systems thanks to the mvp/uhubctl repository over on GitHub. The program is called uhubctl, and allows you to toggle and cycle power on individual ports for supported USB hubs.
As the description would imply, you'll need to know which USB port the device in question is connected to (or cycle the entire hub if you're confident it won't cause and issues with other peripherals), and I still recommend using diskutil eject diskX (or sudo umount /dev/sdX for Linux and umount diskX for BSD) before power cycling the port to ensure that the device unmounts cleanly.
uhubctl home page is here (you can get source code using git clone https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl).
You'll need to compile it from source one way or another, either with make or via brew. By far easiest way to install it in one swoop with brew:
brew tap mvp/uhubctl https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl
brew install uhubctl

Tested and can confirm working with both Apple and 3rd party USB hubs on macOS 10.13-10.15, and on macOS 11 Big Sur too (including M1 Macs).


Where is the EFI stored on the macbook and is it possible to restore a previous EFI firmware version?

If you can successfully start your Mac from a Mac OS X DVD take a look at this: http://pubmem.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/flash-efi-firmware-update-manually-on-a-macbook-51/, especially comment 54 and follow-ups.

It explains how to manually flash the EFI firmware:

Download the EFI Firmware update from Apple. This link lists EFI and SMC firmware updates. You will need the exact model identifier of your Mac.
Unpack the firmware pkg using unpkg. You will need access to a Mac for this, as unpkg only runs on OS X. You need the file with extension scap.
Start your Mac from a DVD and select Utilities>Terminal.

Now comes the difficult part. You need to run this:

sudo bless -mount / -firmware /path/to/your/firmware.scap

It is unclear to me whether / is the right path (as asked in comment 59) or if you can even access the internal harddisk when booting from a DVD. You may have to plug in an external drive and copy the scap file there... You will have to figure it out for yourself.

Alternatively, you can try:

sudo bless -device /dev/disk1 -firmware /path/to/your/firmware.scap

Restart. The Mac should flash the EFI firmware.

Disclaimer: Be aware that I couldn't test any of this so I'm giving the following information as a hint in the hope that it is useful.


Can't ping a linux server with MacOSX. Software related

I recently solved a very similar problem by removing my ARP cache.

I have a MacBook Pro 2014 and Ubuntu 18.04 desktop which runs the SSH daemon, and every client works fine except my MacBook.

I ran Wireshark and observed that pinging my desktop is only resulting in ARP requests to be broadcasted — I couldn't see response packets. At first I thought it's a problem with my router interface, but since other computers worked fine that made little sense.

At last I decided I found out that I can remove my laptop's ARP cache by running this:

sudo arp -d <desktop's_ip>

and it solved my problem!
This solved my problem!


How to send Data block to secure Enclave Processesor

Users and third party software should not directly interact with the T2 chip. Apple provide developers indirect access with CryptoKit and related frameworks:

Apple CryptoKit
Perform cryptographic operations securely and efficiently.
Use Apple CryptoKit to perform common cryptographic operations:

Compute and compare cryptographically secure digests.
Use public-key cryptography to create and evaluate digital signatures, and to perform key exchange. In addition to working with keys stored in memory, you can also use private keys stored in and managed by the Secure Enclave.
Generate symmetric keys, and use them in operations like message authentication and encryption.

Prefer CryptoKit over lower-level interfaces. CryptoKit frees your app from managing raw pointers, and automatically handles tasks that make your app more secure, like overwriting sensitive data during memory deallocation.


Does Photos make its own copy of the photos that are imported to it?

There is a way to tell Photos to make a copy when importing or not.  In Photos --> Preferences check Copy items to the photo library.

Photos' default behavior is not to include original images in imports. It keeps links to them, so you can use Photos to edit or catalog them but still keep them where they are.

It reduce the size of Photos' library but if your goal is to clean up folders and disks with lots of photos on them, it can get confusing. To put everything actually in your Photos library, make sure to modify Photos' preferences to copy imported files to your Photos library. There's another important reason to do this if you plan to share those imported images on other devices: Only items copied to Photos' library will be uploaded to iCloud Photo Library. link


Where do the Notes associated with Gmail accounts get synced to on iPod touch?

There's a difference between syncing with iTunes and over the air sync.

If you set up your Gmail account to use over the air sync then when you open up the Notes app (on the iPod), you should notice a back button on the top left that allows you to change which account you use for notes. If you choose your Gmail account and start creating notes, you will start seeing them appear in your Gmail account, under the "Notes" label. This sync happens automatically once you press the "done" button on each note (as long as you have an internet connection).

This has nothing to do with iTunes sync.

You will only see notes that you create under this account in Gmail. You will not see all of your old notes. For that, see this question.


TotalTerminal doesn't work with full-screen apps

This is a known issue and the author doesn't plan to fix it.

  I encourage someone to go further and implement it because personally I don't use fullscreen apps right now and I don't plan to fix this anytime soon.

Luckily, there is a workaround described by vvlad.

  As an workaround you can set LSUIElement in Terminal's Info.plist

It has several drawbacks but otherwise works like a charm:

  Terminal no longer shows on Dock;
  There is a space the size of the top bar on top of every TotalTerminal visor opened on fullscreen apps windows;
  You can no longer ⌘⇥ to regular Terminal windows;
  You cannot Force Kill Terminal process.

This is how it will look like:

How It Works

  LSUIElement (String - Mac OS X) specifies whether the application runs as an agent application. If this key is set to “1”, Launch Services runs the application as an agent application. Agent applications do not appear in the Dock or in the Force Quit window. Although they typically run as background applications, they can come to the foreground to present a user interface if desired. A click on a window belonging to an agent application brings that application forward to handle events.

  The Dock and loginwindow are two applications that run as agent applications.

How to Do It

Open Terminal (assuming you already have TotalTerminal installed)
Run sudo nano /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/Info.plist
Add these two lines right after opening <dict> tag:

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<true />

Save and close the file by pressing ^O Enter ^X
Quit Terminal and launch it again


How to instal Window 10 on an External drive for a MacBook Pro 2019

This is based on my own experience of installing Windows 10 on an external drive:

Step 1: Download a virtual machine to run Windows on. I used VMWare Fusion and used a 30-day trial. You do not need to do this if you already have a computer with Windows 10

Step 2: Search "windows 10 iso image" and click the first link from Microsoft. Download it.

Step 3: Open the VMWare application and upload the Windows 10 iso image onto it, and run Windows. You do not need to do this if you already have a computer with Windows 10

Step 4: Go on your virtual Windows and download WinToUSB from this: https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/.

Step 5: Open the WinToUSB tool and upload the same Windows 10 .iso image onto it, and choose which version to install. Connect your external drive to your Mac, make sure it connects to VMWare, and select it once it shows up on WinToUSB.

Step 6: Wait until the tool installs Windows 10 onto the external drive. While this is running, go to the Bootcamp app and ONLY download the Windows Support Software.

Step 7: Once the WinToUSB tool finishes installing, you can close out of VMWare by shutting down from the virtual Windows. The connected external drive should show up on your mac again, and drag the Windows Support Software folder into the drive.

You should now have an external drive with Windows 10 on it, and the Windows Support Software on it as well. You can boot from it by restarting and holding option and choosing the external drive. Use the Windows Support Software to install the correct Apple Drivers in the external drive when inside the Windows 10 boot.

This was the method that worked for me on an Early 2014 MacBook Air on High Sierra and should work on yours unless something in Bootcamp Assistant changed.


Restore Messages using Time Machine (not iCloud synced)

OK I've tried a few different things, and I've got something that works. There are two key points:

You need to restore the whole Library/Messages folder (not just chat.db, as is said in most how-to's)
Before you do this, you need to close Message. But also, after you restore, you need to reboot the Mac.

Doing all of these things (close, restore whole folder, reboot) means that when you restart and open Messages, your backed-up version is present and functional.
Phew!


How to disable One-Finger swipe for Magic Mouse on windows

The Magic Mouse is Apple's proprietary mouse, meaning that there won't be an Apple certified way to change it within Windows.

Utilities to change Magic Mouse settings in Windows probably won't exist either for the same reason – the Magic Mouse is specifically made for Macs and OS X.


How do you enable “bootable” on MacBook?

You cant make a drive bootable through terminal. You have made a mistake using the install so the drive is not bootable. Try again but use the installer directly from the app-store and it should work.


How to configure Mail v8.2 to supply a different default reply-to address in emails being sent?

In Mail, under the View menu, you can choose which fields to show or hide, including Reply To.


How to repair permissions on /usr/local after accidentally changed?

Assuming you only changed the owner (as your command states), you can return everything back to root ownership by

chown -R root /usr/local

If you think you may need to fix the group ownership too, then this is better

chown -R root:wheel /usr/local


That $600 rate is less than Apple charges for a liquid damage overhaul at the repair depots. That repair is around $900 for the Air and 13 inch models and $1200 for 15 inch models.

Since the keyboard is integrated within the housing, it's like taking the engine, chassis and all parts out of a car and building it up new in a new frame.

The labor time and consumables (ribbon cables that are too fragile to reuse, etc...) seems about right for a $600 repair. Apple techs see this sort of things all the time, and won't push the expensive repair unless there is internal damage. A light cleaning would be $39 of labor or possibly free if they could do it while you waited. If they didn't open and inspect the Mac, you could ask what that charge would be to be sure it really needs an overhaul and rebuild.

I would say, you could do a surface cleaning yourself as long as the machine is functional and then shop around for a used Mac between now and February. Then at worst, you could then do the $600 service or if the corrosion damages internal components you might be on the hook for the $900 repair. During that time look out for any Black Friday sales and/or new models since repairing it makes more sense if you have AppleCare for several years or really love this particular model Mac. You could also sell it for $700 to $800 to someone that needs a cheap Mac and then pay for the repair once you have an agreement for them to buy it.

You'd only be out of pocked a few hundred $$ and could buy your choice of new Mac. Lots of options, but the quote is legitimate and you would have a warranted Mac for 90 days post repair should you send it in.


What do I need to update a late 2012, 27" iMac to SSD?

Not "any" SSD: SSDs come in a wide range of shapes and connectors. But any SATA 2.5" drive (in the same old form factor as Hard Drives) should work.

The tear-down instructions are found in iFixit. It is marked as "difficult". If it looks risky, you may want to just use an external SSD, connected by Thunderbolt, which should be sufficiently fast.


How can I preview an image in its original size?

"Resolution" is not the number of pixels, but the number of pixels per inch, or centimeter, or other unit.

Most image formats contain data about the resolution: i.e. how many image pixels should appear in a given screen area. If the smaller image has a resolution of 72 pixels per inch, and the larger image a resolution of c. 200 ppi, then they will appear the same size on screen in Preview.

You can see the DPI setting for an image in Preview by showing the Inspector window -- Command I. If the image file has a resolution set, it will be listed there as DPI Height and DPI Width.

Preview does have a Preference to define 100% scale as either 1 image pixel = 1 screen pixel, or to use the resolution data in the image ("size on printout").


Buy an App on the Mac App Store without having enough HD space

You can't easily interrupt the download or the check for enough space with a toggle or a setting. Much easier would be to use a second drive to add capacity. If you don't like moving files off the SSD, just install OS X onto the external drive and keep space there for overflow files and new app downloads. A 32 GB SD card or fast thumb drive would let you install a minimal OS and have 20+ GB free for app installs and other storage needs you can't accommodate on your main storage.

The downside to installing a second OS is you have to shut down the primary and select the secondary and now you have two OS to patch. This only works if you really can't free up space on the main SSD.

If Apple implements app gifting like it does on the iOS and iTunes stores, then you could gift a paid purchase to yourself without needing the download to commence when the sale is made.

Similarly, setting up a volume purchase account would also let you "purchase" apps from the web interface and not from the App Store interface. It's unlikely any of this is easier than freeing up space on the OS you run or bringing a new OS with enough space to your Mac.


How about: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drag-drop-photo-prints/id784329763?mt=12

You can use the app to print to your local Walgreens and pick up there.


Uploading items to iCloud never ending (for weeks)

Happened to me as well, here is what I did:

Back up all items in the Documents and Desktop folders (or wherever you are backing up your files)
Open up System Preferences
Click on iCloud
Click on Options next to iCloud Drive
If Desktop and Document Folders is disabled, enable it
If enabled, disable it.
Uncheck the Optimize Mac Storage and click Done
Redo the opposite of steps 5-7 to re-enable iCloud
Move all Documents and Desktop items back to their respective area.

It is helpful to note if you are experiencing sync issues in any of the other categories in iCloud Drive, try disabling them and then re-enabling them.


Failed to make bootable USB drive and now I can't even format it

It happened to me also you simply need to paste this commands in your Terminal, these commands ignores these errors and formats the Disks successfully no need to go to Disk Utility these commands will also create the bootable drive

Note: These commands are for macOS Sierra/High Sierra do the changes as per your needs! (This also works for any Previous version of macOS)

First you would need to download macOS Sierra Installer(Whichever OS you want),

Then you would have to make a bootable disk containing the Install macOS Sierra.app (Whichever OS you want)

I am also providing you a link to a YouTube video which will help you in creating the bootable USB stick link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4H5hKuI7yg&t=130s

I am also adding the command required to create the bootable disk:

sudo (path to the create install media file under installer.app>Contents>Resources) --volume {path to the USB stick (You are trying to make bootable)} —applicationpath (path to your Install macOS sierra.app)

e.g:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

Please make the necessary changes as per your files and volumes


Can I convert an IPA file to support a higher version of iOS?

Is there any way I can change this IPA file to support a higher version of iOS?

No, it is not possible to modify an IPA to run on a higher version of iOS. Also, it is not possible to reverse engineer an IPA using Xcode as it contains compiled code.


MacBook pro stuck in a loop after booting

It sounds like the OS might corrupt hence failing to boot, you can verify this by booting up using verbose mode to see where it gets stuck at.

To fix the actual issue I think you should boot into recovery mode and do a re-install of the OS (formally called Archive install)
This shouldn't delete any data but if you had a backup then good. Here are instructions

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904