Multiple Enterprise Developer License account for a single DUNS number

I haven’t seen this ever. Most companies end up with too many DUNS numbers and not too many accounts on one.

I would recommend you guide your clients to make their own developer account - one for each business in their name, with their DUNS and their ultimate control. Have them add your single developer AppleID be added to their accounts. That scales well, protects you and your clients and let’s your team work on different accounts. Then you are an authorized agent on all of the clients that subcontract you to developer and provide them with services.

I do think you’re trying to do the right thing separating the accounts, just that each company should have its proper address entered correctly.

Your contract lawyer would be the best person to advise you since I could see you jeopardizing all the accounts if Apple determined you impersonated other entities or didn’t respond legally correct information on the contract you are signing as a developer.

Specifically, and not even considering getting the accounts approved in the first place, you would likely run afoul of 4.2.6 app review guidelines unless all your clients had the same model and you just submitted one app that aggregates in the “picker” model.

  4.2.6 Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content. These services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients and should offer tools that let their clients create customized, innovative apps that provide unique customer experiences. Another acceptable option for template providers is to create a single binary to host all client content in an aggregated or “picker” model, for example as a restaurant finder app with separate customized entries or pages for each client restaurant, or as an event app with separate entries for each client event.

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

There it explicitly warns that the provider of the content should directly submit their apps and that your role is to provide them the tools to submit their own app. If they subcontract that to you, a good contract lawyer can keep you set both as a company, for your clients and to satisfy Apple if asked about the relationship.


MacBook Pro not noticing all files after cancelling and retrying Migration Assistant

I recently experienced this issue as well. I hypothesize that the backup is being staged in a cached folder while it completes at which time it'll write the dirs into the proper file structure. To reclaim the diskspace, simply quit migration assistant. Login as a user and restart your Mac. By doing this it cleared out the cached migration and i could start again.


How to enable the iPad QuickType "Floating Keyboard" mini keyboard?

Tap and hold the "Dismiss Keyboard" button in the bottom-right corner of the default iPad keyboard.
You will see a "Floating" pop-up. Select this action to activate the Floating keyboard.

To return to the standard iPad keyboard, grab the Floating Keyboard's drag handle and drag the keyboard to the bottom of the screen.


Where can I download Xcode 10 from as I am facing some problems with Xcode 11?

You can download it from Apple's developer site here:

https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

Just search for "xcode 10" and you'll be able to download any version of Xcode 10.

Another option would be this third party site that has a nice overview of all the release versions:

https://xcodereleases.com

The download links still go directly to Apple's site.


What's the specific cause of the headphone/built-in speaker switch?

option click on the speaker icon in the menu bar. There you can select the output:

The screenshot doesn't list a headphone, because I don't have a pair on me at the moment..

Alternatively go to System Preferences --> Sound --> Output and select you prefered output:


sudo killall coreaudiod made it so I don't have any sound at all

This command will do it:
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

Details
Martin Strouhal's answer doesn't work for OS X/macOS ≥ 10.12.4 due to removal of com.apple.audio.coreaudiod from system integrity protection's RemovableServices whitelist in /System/Library/Sandbox/com.apple.xpc.launchd.rootless.plist [1].

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod.plist: _
   Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged

So instead of unloading the service, we instead just restart it.
Also, the latter command (sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod) worked to restart the service after I had killed coreaudiod using killall coreaudiod.


Mac Lync Conversation History Storage Location

Found it!

/Users/<username>/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync History


Trying to find out what is draining the battery on my MacBook Pro

If you have "Find My Mac" enabled, macOS will keep persistent TCP connections even when it "sleeps" (not really sleeps then). This draws battery, sometimes a lot. You can check if it is on with terminal:

pmset -g | grep -i tcp

See if you have:

  tcpkeepalive         1

If it is so, you cannot really do much unles you turn off "Find My Mac" (with all risks that it involves).

Also it is possible that something on your mac prevents it from sleeping. Typically you can find it with pmset -g assertions. It will tell you what keeps your mac awake. Mine, for example, is kept awake by bluetooth keyboard and touchpad all the time. Sometimes there are also processes stuck and keeping my mac awake for no reason. Then I just kill them.

In general, you may keep your macbook on power adapter for most of the time despite people telling you that you should not. I had a number of macbooks in my household since 2007 and almost always kept them on power adapter. In the end they were too old or failed for any reason but never due to battery. The worst battery performance I had was about 75%. Most of them were > 80% capacity after several years.


My iPhone suddenly started showing me an activation error

While you are in queue for support, why no step through this?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201407

Especially the get more support section once you have implemented each of the steps above. Usually it’s less than 30 minutes to solve most of the errors in my experience. Worst case without a computer you will need help from someone else or to ship it to service.


How can I prevent turning off the locations services on managed iPhones?

well, the only way that I could find out was to use password protected Restrictions. Looks like I have to manually set the Restrictions password on each device and then turn on the Location services restriction. If anyone comes up with a better solutions, please let me know.


In cases where something appears to work, but it is not following your commands:

Logging as different user and try again, to check if your profile/permissions needs repairs.
Open Disk Utility located in your utility folder, and use the Repair Permissions.


How do I get Mountain Lion Calendar to subscribe to iCloud calendar another user invited me to?

The issue is that the calendar needs to be made public.  This does not mean that anybody can see your calendar, just that anybody can subscribe to it if they have the URL you send to them inviting them to subscribe.  Calendar does not appear to have the ability to subscribe to a non-public calendar, since you don't have to enter your Apple ID to use it, and iCloud uses this to authenticate that you are authorized to view a private calendar.


Prevent app from opening after executed shortcut

This is up to the app developer to implement. Some apps add an option to choose whether to open the app with the result. You should contact the developer to ask if this can be added to that shortcut action.


VMWare Tools do not allow changing resolution in El Capitan

Admittedly, this is a very old thread (that I found from searching for com.vmware.kext.VMwareGfx), but I wanted to update with an answer.

I was able to get a working setup using Mojave 10.14.5, on Workstation 15 Player, using the copy of VMware Tools from Fusion 11. Additionally, I did not have to do any csrutil tweaks.

So perhaps you can try using those versions and see if things will work out of the box. Good luck!

(As for the commenter talking about the Apple licence agreement, I'm not a lawyer but I understand it's not a violation if you're running on Apple hardware. In my case I'm running this on my MacBook Pro, and I'm happy to report that macOS guests worked out of the box for me.)


Your second key has a typo in it (has a > before the closing </key>)
                      *
<key>StandardErrorPath></key>
    <string>/Library/Logs/rnamanagedocker_err.log</string>


Is there an iPhone app that takes continuous photos?

Try Triggertrap, it has time lapse and other options to trigger a photo. It works with the iPhone's camera or, if you purchase the appropriate cable, you can hook it up to a dslr. The free version is limited but I think provides the functionality you're looking for.

Triggertrap Mobile


Right after posting this question I managed to find a bunch of apps which do something like this. I will post what they are and any advantages/disadvantages I see from them (also, please note that my mini reviews are only accurate as of my writing this; features may have been added or annoyances fixed after I wrote all this).

Photo Cleaner, $1.99

The app I was originally looking for. It has multiple features such as the ability to detect duplicate and similar photos, and it allows you to browse your screenshots (while seeing their file sizes). Most importantly, it shows you your photos/videos in a grid format with their sizes on the icons, allowing you to decide which ones to keep/remove.

However, it doesn't seem to go much further than that. Even though you can see screenshots' file sizes which is helpful, it doesn't allow you to sort the screenshots by file size, which would have been greatly helpful. You also can't inspect the photos from the "similar photos" feature and see which one you'd like to keep over the other(s). Surprisingly it doesn't even allow you to see the date/time the photos were taken which would allow you to look them up in the photos app.

The way I worked around this was by deleting a photo, going to the trash where it is kept (third party apps are not allowed to permanently delete photos – they will always be sent to the trash), and looking up the date from there. This is however inefficient and provides a bad user experience.

Something else I noticed is that videos don't seem to play when trying to view them from within this app, most likely a bug because they seem to play file with the other apps I mentioned.

Video Compressor, Free w/ IAP

This is actually a video compressor app, but shows you your biggest photos/videos as well as their file sizes. However, it doesn't allow you to delete or mark the photos/videos in any way, or even allow you to look them up in the photos app (no date is shows). So for this purpose it's not very useful.

iCompress, Free w/ IAP

Although also a compressor app, works much like Photo Cleaner without the extra features. Has the added benefits of being able to play videos properly and being able to see extra information about the videos, like creation/modification date, duration, resolution, frame rate and bitrate. Probably one of the best apps for the job, in my opinion, especially since it's free. However, it doesn't show photos – only videos.

PhoTop, Free w/ IAP

The app I mentioned in the question. It's quite good for seeing your biggest photos. In this way, it can be used in tandem with iCompress which shows only videos (alternatively, you could use Photo Cleaner to deal with photos if you're set on using iCompress).

In any case, one would preferably try all of them out to see which ones work best for them. The reviews I wrote are of course subject to my opinion, and although that might help someone make a decision, these apps are likely made for slightly different people/workflows. Use whatever works for you!


Create hybrid MBR/GPT just like Bootcamp Assistant does

The problem is not that you don't have an MBR.  The problem is that an MBR can only have 4 partition entries.  On an out-of-the-box fresh install of OS X, you'd be using 3 of those partition entries already; one for the EFI partition, one for the Mac HFS partition, and one for the recovery partition.  That leaves only one MBR slot available for the Boot Camp Assistant to work with in order to install Windows.

In your situation, you have an additional Data partition called "Additional Storage" that is taking up the 4th slot.  Since your Windows partition is the 5th partition on the disk, the MBR cannot handle this, nor does the Boot Camp Assistant know what to do in this scenario, so it refuses to work.

The solution is to manually use fdisk to make your partition table look like this:

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 30401/255/63 [488397168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
 2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  320702320] HFS+
 3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 322381824 -  110616584] HFS+
 4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 433000448 -   55396352] HPFS/QNX/AUX

What I have done here is used the sector numbers from your output of the gpt command to show you what your MBR partition table should look like.  If you look closely, I have omitted the recovery partition from the table (since it's generally useless and you'd likely want to access your Additional Storage partition while running Windows).

To make these changes, use fdisk -e /dev/disk0 to enter fdisk in interactive mode.  You can issue a ? command to get a list of the available commands you'll need to do the modifications.

Also, when fdisk asks you if you want to edit in CHS mode, say no.  Don't worry about the cyl/hd/sec values.  They won't have the same numbers for you as they do in my table above, but it doesn't matter.

A few words of warning here:
This layout is horribly unsupported by both Apple and Windows. Having the GPT and MBR partition tables disagree with each other is an error as far as OS X is concerned, and there is a 650MB gap between partitions 2 and 3 as far as Windows is concerned.

Do not EVER under ANY circumstances use any partitioning tools to adjust/repartition your disk from this point on.  Best case scenario: it'd just give you an error.  Worst case scenario: it'd destroy the entire disk.
Make sure you do not use Disk Utility to "repair" your disk. Always make sure you have a partition selected when doing First Aid, not the disk itself.
Do not use whole-disk encryption software (BitLocker or FileVault). These require additional support partitions and will attempt to repartition the drive.
Do not convert your disks to Dynamic (Windows) or CoreStorage (Mac) volumes.  These will modify the partition tables also.


How to prevent resetting a login password in single user mode or from a recovery partition?

It can be prevented. Boot up your mac with your Mac OS X install DVD, and after it has loaded, go to utilities and select Firmware Password Utility. Select the checkbox "Require Password to start this computer from another source" and type in a password.

This password will prevent people from:

Booting CD/DVDs
Booting into Single User Mode
Booting into another OS stored on another partition or disk

No. 2 is the one where people type commands in it to reset the setup data in which they can go through the setup procedure and set up a completely new administrator account.

However, the best way is to keep your mac with yourself. Anyone with root/administrator access can bypass this feature, by typing a few commands in the terminal. Keep your password secret and complex.

It is also worth mentioning that the EFI password is easily crackable. Some people had success with resetting the PRAM and gaining access, while others used exploits in the OS X system to gain root access and disabling the password using terminal commands. The way Apple encrypts is also very lax and you should make it very much different from your OS password.


Slow Internet on Lion, but only for some sites and some browsers

Try renaming /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration_Backup and restart your computer. I've had some really strange issues where the network .plists that are stored in SystemConfiguration have caused problems.

If it doesn't resolve the issue just delete the folder and set the SystemConfiguration_Backup back to its original name.

The folder houses config files for some system services, but when you restart it will create new copies of these files.


In iOS 6, how can I convince Siri that New York City is not in Texas?

This is a legitimate bug with Siri: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/24/siri-delivering-wrong-weather-forecasts-for-common-city-names/

The bug has to be fixed on Apple's end (or Yahoo's, or wherever exactly the problem is occurring).

But you can work around it temporarily by asking for the weather in "Zip Code 10028" (or whatever).  Note that you seem to have to say "Zip Code" - just using the number doesn't seem to work.

That's a bit surprising that you're seeing it now since it first popped up almost three weeks ago – you'd think they would have fixed it by now. I guess all you can do is wait and it'll resolve itself at some point.


Connecting AirPlay displays with a keystroke

If you first brought finder to the front in the script, would it work:
   on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Finder" to activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "SystemUIServer"
            click (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 whose description contains "Displays Menu")
            key code 125
            key code 125
            keystroke return
            delay 5
        end tell
    end tell
    return input
end run


Escaped path in AppleScript adds leading /

quoted form of also escapes the tilde. quoted form of "~/Pictures" returns '~/Pictures'. open interprets '~/Pictures/' as a relative path, and the default working directory for do shell script is /.

I couldn't get the sqlite commands to work, but try something like this:

path=$(sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db 'select data.value from data'|tail -n1);open -b com.adobe.Photoshop "${path/#~/$HOME}"

Or remove the tilde with AppleScript:

set p to "~/Pictures"
if p starts with "~/" then set p to (system attribute "HOME") & text 2 thru -1 of p

You can also get the desktop picture of the current space with System Events:

tell application "System Events" to picture of current desktop


My 4S wasn't backing up either. There are several things to try that might fix this. These steps worked for me.

hard reboot
upgrade to the latest iOS version
toggle off iCloud Backup, then toggle it back on


You might want to check out LaunchCenter Pro:

  It’s like speed dial for anything you do with your iPhone or iPod Touch. Create one-tap shortcuts straight to the feature you need
  inside of your apps.

  Message a loved one, search Yelp for the nearest coffee shop, jump
  straight to the camera in Instagram, all with just a flick of your
  thumb. Create shortcuts for email, Safari, phone or FaceTime calls,
  Google searches, and more. If you do it on your phone constantly,
  Launch Center Pro will make it easier and faster.

  Sample shortcuts:

  Call a loved one Message a friend Email your boss Fire up Instagram’s
  camera instantly Search Yelp for nearby coffee shops Jump right to
  your favorite website Create a new item in OmniFocus Search Twitter
  using Tweetbot Use the iPhone as a flashlight And so much more...

I haven't tried it, personally but the description above seems to indicate it will work. You might also follow the recent news that some of the features of LaunchCenter pro are being disabled at Apple's request by the developer.


Add equations that flows with the text in the keynote

One way of having equations flow with the text is to use the equation editor inside Keynote to create equations.

You can use Insert > Equation menu at the top of Keynote or press Alt ⌥+Command ⌘+E to activate the equation edtior.

The equation editor in Keynote supports both LaTeX and MathML. See this Apple Support page for more details.

Below is an example Keynote slide that includes an equation created with the equation editor:


I use AppShopper.com to get information like this.  In the right sidebar of every page, it shows the total stats of all the app stores.  For example, as of 18 Sep 2011 at 5:10pm GMT, the sidebar shows:

Total Apps
Total Apps Approved: 595452
Total Available Apps: 462144
Total Available iPhone Apps: 411134
Total Available iPad Apps: 132388
Total Available Mac Apps: 6939


Ugh. I hate when the solution is "it just stopped happening all of a sudden"... but a firmware update came out and I installed it, and now my keys back! Yay =D

If I learn anything about what exactly happened here I'll post my findings.


Is it possible to change the name of a bluetooth mouse?

With the new update, you may not find the cog wheel, so instead you can go into bluetooth settings and right-click (click with two fingers) the device you wish to rename.

It should come up with a context menu.

Select Rename, which will open a window where you can rename your mouse to anything you like.


How to install java.pkg (not unarchiver)

The Java installer is a package which installs using Installer. If the package doesn't open by default with Installer then right-click it and choose Open With → Installer.


This is a two step process. The system make all new accounts from this template:

/System/Library/User Template

Unless you need to only change a specific localization, you'll be putting files into /System/Library/User Template/Non_localized/Library/Preferences

The two step process is knowing where to change a file and what change to make.

I don't have an answer to the second part (no Magic Mouse handy), but you might be able to do that part yourself. If you make a new account and change only that mouse preference and dig through the ~/Library/Preferences to isolate the file(s) that encode that change (sort them by date and the newest files should be the ones you changed to configure the mouse). Second, you need to copy that file into the default user template so that when the system makes a new account (guest account or any new account), that user gets the modified mouse settings you have copied into the template to replace the default values for that setting.

An alternate method is to look inside the file(s) to see if the settings can be written easily by a sudo defaults command:

How can I prevent the iCloud dialog from showing up for new users?


Replace Apple In-App purchase with custom bitcoin based prefill system?

According to the App Store Review Guidelines (under section 11.2), anything that circumvents the in-app purchase API can and likely will be pulled and/or rejected. Going around Apple and using your own system would be a bad idea with the possibility of you being ejected from the developer program.

Hope this helps!


If you go into settings -> mail, Contacts, Calendars all of your accounts should be listed there. (Your question does not mention that specific location, did you go there?) Tap on the one you want to delete and scroll to the bottom of the screen. There should be an option to to remove the account.

Depending on how the iPad was set up at work they may have some sort of MDM installed that prevents you from doing a number of things, including adding or removing accounts and apps, changing certain settings and the like. If that is the case you may have to talk with your IT people to do what you want to do.


iPad Air 2 iOS 9/9.0.1 multitasking split view won't work

after activating the "Slide Over" 1/3 pane, drag the split edge to center of screen


3 referenced files in your library will not upload to iCloud Photo Library error

I solved this problem by looking for all the filenames prefixed with "Copy - " and deleting them.


How do I remove "gamecontrollerd", "AXVisualSupportAgent" and "ViewBridgeAuxiliary" processes from being a passive listener on keyboard tap events?

Regarding gamecontrollerd: This process showed up on my machine after installing Big Sur, no history of it running on my machine prior.
Edit: After future research I found the post linked below. I tested the response from the first user and found it to be correct. Gamecontrollerd runs when certain programs are launched (example: Chrome) and should die after the given program is exited.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252046047
As a side note, if a process respawns after you've absolutely killed it (kill -9 PID), it has a parent process. The parent process can be found with the command ps -o ppid= PID.


How do I force an image to use when a website is shared?

You can specify a specific image to use for URLs sent in iMessage by using a meta tag with og:image set to the property attribute. Apple recommends your image being at least 900px wide or larger.

Example:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.example.com/image.png" />

I got this information from Apple’s Developer Documentation Archive.


Changing the "Media Kind" to "iTunes U" under the Options tab of the "Get Info" dialog will move them from the Music section of your library to the "iTunes U" section.

This tends to happen when you import/rip audio files (audiobooks, podcasts, iTunes U, etc.) to iTunes rather than subscribing to them or buying them through the iTunes interface.


If I download podcasts on iTunes, should they download on my iOS5 3GS automatically, over the air?

iOS 5 does not do automatic Podcast download or subscription. OTA downloads are available only for Music, Apps and Books under the Settings -> Store screen.

For podcast management, you're still required to sync with iTunes. This might change in future versions, but it is not in the current version, nor can I find any references that it will be.


How do I sync my music and video from iTunes to new iPhone 6?

Its simple.

Open iTunes.
Connect the iOS device to your computer using the
included USB cable.

After clicking on your iOS device, tabs appear on the left side of the iTunes window under Settings.
You can turn on syncing for Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Books, Audiobooks, Tones, Photos, and Info. To turn on syncing, click the content type from the list under settings, then click the box next to Sync [content type]. If there's a check in the box already, syncing is turned on for that tab. To turn off syncing, uncheck the box.

Click the Sync button in the lower-right corner of the screen to sync your content. Only the information in the content list you've enabled syncing for will sync to your computer. If you made any changes to any of the settings, first click the apply button.


Does latest MacBook Air have powered USB ports?

Yes, the USB ports are powered. In fact, they are designed to power the USB SuperDrive, which draws more power than most USB ports support.


get link to iCloud file from finder without having to go to iCloud website?

I don't believe this is possible as of Yosemite 10.10.5. The sharing menu would be a sensible place for this, but it doesn't have an option to send or copy a link to the file, choosing Mail or Messages will attach the full file:

Personally I use Dragshare to quickly get a remote link to a file, or if you save your files to Dropbox you can just alt-click and choose Share Dropbox Link.


Go to your account at https://icloud.com and sign out of all devices. Try signing in your Apple ID after logging out of iCloud on all devices.


Using AppleScript to modify contacts not working

Answering my own question. Looking at errors in the console after running the above script, I saw many errors looking like:

AOSKit ERROR: (-) RAF: Invalid url -- https://[myemail]@webdav.facebook.com/[myfbid]/contacts/

(email and id changed of course). I have a 'Facebook' account set up in OS X preferences. By an educated guess, I deleted this Facebook OS X account, and then re-added it. After that, the above script works correctly.


What are the valid users that need to exist on Mac OS X

There are 87 valid users. 83 from OS X 10.10.1 (Build 14B25) and 4 from Server 4.0.3 (Build 14S350).

You can see them from terminal with the command:

dscl . -list /Users

The list is as follows:

_amavisd
_appleevents
_appowner
_appserver
_ard
_assetcache
_astris
_atsserver
_avbdeviced
_calendar
_ces
_clamav
_coreaudiod
_coremediaiod
_cvmsroot
_cvs
_cyrus
_devdocs
_devicemgr
_displaypolicyd
_distnote
_dovecot
_dovenull
_dpaudio
_eppc
_ftp
_geod
_iconservices
_installassistant
_installer
_jabber
_kadmin_admin
_kadmin_changepw
_krb_anonymous
_krb_changepw
_krb_kadmin
_krb_kerberos
_krb_krbtgt
_krbfast
_krbtgt
_launchservicesd
_lda
_locationd
_lp
_mailman
_mcxalr
_mdnsresponder
_mysql
_netbios
_netstatistics
_networkd
_nsurlsessiond
_nsurlstoraged
_postfix
_postgres
_qtss
_sandbox
_screensaver
_scsd
_securityagent
_serialnumberd
_softwareupdate
_spotlight
_sshd
_svn
_taskgated
_teamsserver
_timezone
_tokend
_trustevaluationagent
_unknown
_update_sharing
_usbmuxd
_uucp
_warmd
_webauthserver
_windowserver
_www
_xcsbuildagent
_xcsbuildd
_xcscouch
_xcscredserver
_xcsd
com.apple.calendarserver
daemon
nobody
root

For completeness, my OS X (non-server app) Mac has 84 users.

It has an additional Guest user (FileVault 2 added that one) and is lacking these server apps.

_xcsbuildd
_xcscouch
_xcsd
com.apple.calendarserver


Create new Apple ID solely linked to new @icloud.com email?

It does not seem possible to create an iCloud-only Apple ID after the fact.

However, you can create such an Apple ID during the initial setup process of an iOS device or macOS user account.

  Create an Apple ID when you set up your device

  Tap Use your current email address, or tap Get a free iCloud email address.

  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204316

I've confirmed that this works from both iOS and macOS. Wipe an iOS device or create a new macOS user account and you will be allowed to create a new @icloud.com address rather than provide a 3rd party email address.

Each Apple device additionally seems to have a strict limit for the total number of iCloud Apple IDs it can create: Why won't my secondhand iPad let me activate an Apple ID?


Automatically lock screen if I leave the MacBook

We have the same culture in one of the environments in which I work. . . it's ruthless, so I know where you're coming from.

It's a good habit to get into to lock your screen whenever you leave it unattended, and soon you won't be on the hook for buying anymore pizza.

I find it helpful to set a "Hot Corner" for this.

Go to Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Hot Corners

chose the corner of your liking, and set it to "Lock Screen"

I use the lower right, for example, and just sweep my mouse to that corner whenever I am about to stand up and walk away from my desk.  Easy peasy!

You can also set the hot corner to "Start Screen Saver", but then you will need to set the following as well:

Also under Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver

choose the screensaver of your liking, and set it to come in withing
a comfortable amount of inactivity.  (Realize, of course, that if
you're reading something of length, and not moving the mouse of
interacting with the keyboard, your screensaver may engage while
you're reading/thinking/daydreaming.)

Go to Preferences > Security & Privacy

under the "General" tab, ensure that the option to require password
"after sleep or screen saver begins" is selected.  Set the timing
option to "immediately".


I think I have what I needed (a combined drive) all of it available for use. It is now listed as a Fusion drive even though both its components are SSDs. Here are the steps I used to combine the 2 drives.

If you're using macOS Mojave or later

- Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold Command-R to start
   up from macOS Recovery. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo
   or spinning globe. When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose
   Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.
 - Type diskutil resetFusion in the Terminal window, then press Return.
 - Type Yes (with a capital Y) when prompted, then press Return.
 - When Terminal indicates that the operation was successful, quit
   Terminal to return to the macOS Utilities window.
 - Choose Reinstall macOS, then follow the onscreen instructions to
   reinstall the Mac operating system. Your Mac restarts from your
   Fusion Drive when done.


How can I see theme variation images in Keynote?

The built-in files for Keynote are stored within the package. Go to:

  /Applications/iWork '09/Keynote.app/Contents/Resources

EDIT: The theme files themselves, at least on my machine running iWork '09, boxed version, are stored here:

/Library/Application Support/iWork '09/Frameworks/SFRendering.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Frames

Each theme contains a file with a suffix of sfrframe. Inside that file are the images for each theme.

Also under /Resources is a folder called /Themes. Within it are several theme files, shared images, etc. Each theme has several .kth files, which contain theme files and metadata.


Gesture to hide rising notification in MacBook?

These steps were tested using macOS Big Sur 11.2.1.
To dismiss an alert-style notification without clicking the little "x", you can utilize the following options:

If you're using a trackpad, hover your cursor over the alert-style notification then swipe right using two fingers.

If you're using a mouse, hover your cursor over the alert-style notification then click and drag the notification to the right.


The shortcuts for each application can be easily changed in the very preference menu you mentioned.

Which shortcuts can be changed is determined by what options are in that application's menu. So for Finder, you can customize "New Finder Window" and etc. etc. whatever is in the menu.

To change the shortcut for "Open" (which happens to be Finder -> File -> Open in the menu) you go to the System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts, go to Application shortcuts, find "Finder", press the "+" button, and add a new option with name "Open" (exactly spelled as the menu option) and enter a keyboard shortcut.

Note that you can't use the enter key or anything: you can only use the modifier keys (shift, command, control, fn) and numbers or letters.

For general shortcuts you can scroll up into "All Applications" and add a shortcut for "Copy" or "Paste" or which will toggle for whichever application has that menu option in its menu.

EDIT: Response to comments:

1) If you can't find the exact name of a menu command or if there isn't a menu command... well, you just can't set a shortcut unless you use some kind of a third party application that intercepts keystrokes (kinda like AutoHotKey but on Mac). Thus for Quick Look, it doesn't work since the menu command (there is a menu option for it in Finder File->Quick Look) adds the name of the file to be "Quick Looked", e.g. "Quick Look 133.png." I believe in Leopard it may have worked if one just set "Quick Look" to whatever shortcut under Finder, but it doesn't work in SL for me.

2) Screen Capture Cmd+Shift+3 is universal: it's a full screen screenshot. Cmd+shift+4 is similar except it lets you select a box to screen shot. I'm not sure what you mean which shortcuts are for which apps... Either it's listed under the app (in the preferences) or it's universal and applies to either every application with the menu option or the system itself.

EDIT 2: I'll add even more when I have time

a) To my knowledge CUSTOM keyboard shortcuts are stored in com.apple.universalaccess.plist and com.company.application.plist (e.g. com.apple.finder.plist) located in the ~/Library/Preferences folder.

com.apple.universalaccess.plist lists the apps with custom shortcuts:

com.apple.finder.plist lists the actual custom shortcuts for finder under NSUserKeyEquivalents:

EDIT 3:

b) I believe that the default shortcuts for Cocoa apps are stored in the nib files, for example ../Finder/Contents/Resources/English.lprog/MenuBar.nib or seomthing like that. I've successfully edited these nib files MANUALLY using interface builder to change the keyboard shortcuts for the menu bar items. (Whether there are shortcuts that are not menu bar items and not defined by the system I don't know) Thus I don't know of any command line way either...

The nib:

I don't know whether this serves your purpose well. As a side note, for completeness, to edit a compiled nib file like those of finder... is an entirely different answer on its own. This article sums it up well. Basically you work with an uncompiled nib to edit a compiled nib: If you undertake this journey and have trouble finding an uncompiled nib I've uploaded one here.

If I ever find a command line method or learn more about where applications store keyboard shortcuts I will update this answer accordingly.

EDIT: Final Note
These nibs are in xml format or something and can be opened by text editors... that might allow for... I don't know. :D


Adjust width of spacer between Mac OS dock icons

I just tried typing in different things and discovered that "small-spacer-tile" adds a narrow space.
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="small-spacer-tile";}'
killall Dock

Here, a "small-spacer-tile" vs a "spacer-tile":


You can look here[1]. The members of this thread seem to agree that writing 1s (FF) to unused space by the OS allows the GC on the disk to do its job, effectively the same as TRIM.

Unfortunately they devolve into insulting each others' knowledge of SSDs and Mac chipsets in general before doing anything useful. One of the commenters claimed there was a utility to write FF to unused blocks for PPC macs, but I've been unable to find it.

[1]: [http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1953430]


IP address on network cameras change preventing remote access

You need to do two things:

First, make sure the cameras are not on DHCP (automatic addressing). This will need to be configured at the camera itself. You would need to assign them manual IP addresses as @gosmond already mentioned.
Next, make sure your Internet IP address is static. Very few ISPs provide static IPs for home connections (they do for business users). You can work around this by using a service like dyndns which will give you a domain name that will point to your router even if your ISP changes your Internet IP.


When saving a document or editing a file name, with the focus on the string itself, why does CMD+Delete move the file or folder to the trash?

If the file name is highlighted then just use Delete, not the CMD+Delete.

The CMD+Delete will also delete the file on my MBA with 10.9.5 Finder.


ssh-under-cron stops working in OS X 10.7 Lion

For anyone who ends up on this page, I realized I should post the answer:

Using launchd instead of cron does indeed fix the authorization problem.  Your user launchd jobs (which run only when you are logged in) correctly use the SSH agent information that was unlocked via your keychain as part of login (as part of standard OS X key management, no other software required).

To minimize my interactions with launchd, I created a single launchd job that calls a bash script.  In this way I can simply edit the script without dealing with launchd.

Here's the launchd file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.mycron.hourly</string>

  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Users/john/bin/cron.hourly</string>
  </array>

  <key>Nice</key>
  <integer>1</integer>

  <key>StartInterval</key>
  <integer>3600</integer> <!-- start every X seconds -->

  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

I saved the file to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mycron.hourly.plist, and then loaded it with:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mycron.hourly.plist

Once loaded, it will run right away and then again every 60 minutes.

If you follow the same procedure, you'll want to change the `ProgramArguments' string with the right path to your script.


The prohibitory means the system has found an installed OS but was unable to boot it.

Your possibilities are :

Boot into safe mode (Hold shift at boot and if it boots, fixing your permissions
Backing you drive using another Mac and Target Disk Mode


Can't sync photos from Windows to iPhone since iOS 6

Alright, I got it working again.  Something in the following ritual did the trick:

remove all photos and videos from the sync directory on the Windows system
sync
empty out the directories on the iPhone visible through the windows explorer
remove all photos and videos from the iPhone
sync
recreate the sync directory on the Windows system with all the directories and photos (except the "Thumbnails" folder) as you want them
go back into iTunes while the iPhone is connected, note that the "sync photos" checkboxk is cleaerd, re-check and verify that iTunes is looking at the correct sync directory
sync

...and the photos are there.  I don't know which chicken-wave was the one which actually fixed the problem.


There is still the Join Clips function here:


Need @icloud.com address associated with my Apple ID

Use your Apple ID (Gmail) to log into Manage Your Apple ID website.

Now, once you have successfully logged in, you should be able to see your @icloud.com ID under Contactable At heading within Account section.


I used an App Store utility called Rested. It's not in Safari, but it's good, and tiny, and does not require running another browser.


For the first question, I think its actually stored under C:\Users\username\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\, if everything is standard. If anything, it will be wherever your music is also stored (just in another directory).

As for your second question, I don't think you can tell it not to sync the apps. The only ways to not keep them would be to delete off your iPad before sync, or delete from the file system after sync.


How to manually determine version control metadata for Finder?

Finder does not keep track of versions as it just represents the file system which under HFS+ does not keep versions.

I don;t see how to do exactly what you want but I think a way that would work is to use version control as used by programmers - I use this for control of my shell and other scripts.
Examples of this are git, mercurial, svn(subversion) with various GUIs available e.g. SourceTree (for all three).

Git and mercurial work by s saving a set of changes across all files in a project which when you need more than one file you will find is needed. This snapshot of files can be tagged with a name e.g. 1.0.0 etc. Each change is individually labelled with a version control assigned name. The version data is kept in metadata in the version control system and not in the files as putting the version number in the files was found not to be useful. The GUI can browse over the file system and can show the change history.


Tethering blocked with message about contacting provider

The phone had separate APN settings for "MOBILE DATA" and "PERSONAL HOTSPOT".  Copying from the mobile data ones solved the problems.

(With this provider, the date settings are often not be set automatically when switching SIM, at least on Android.  Also I don't remember the two settings to be separate.)


iTunes Match not downloading high bitrate version of songs

In addition to iTunes Match not working properly, I also noticed that I was unable to add new songs to my iTunes library. After searching online, I came across this thread, in which some of the posts recommend logging out and back in to your iTunes Store account. So, I did that, and both the iTunes Match problem and the add songs problem were fixed.

Although for some reason, unchecked songs still aren't downloading higher bitrate versions, so I haven't completely figured things out yet.


What causes me to be unable to burn Windows 7 ISO due to a medium error?

Looks like it was the oddball brand (Ativa) causing the issues. Bought a spindle of Maxell discs and it's burning like a charm.


Finder stopped opening a new window when I click the Dock icon

What about when creating a new user?  Does that work over there or has it the same behavior?

If it DOES work on the new user, I would try this is in order inside the problem account:

It is (hopefully) unnecessary to mention that you want to create a backup of your machine first before trying the following steps, but I still felt the urge to do so.

flush all cache files (~/Library/Caches/*.*)

in Finder, open menu "Go", press down "Alt" and while holding click on "Library"
navigate INTO the Caches folder and select every object you can find and remove them
reboot the computer (logging in and out possibly does the same trick, but I want to be sure)
empty the Trash at your leisure once logged back in

check ~/Library/Saved Application States to see if there is a folder com.apple.Finder and dump it (if there is not, less work for you)
This is more of a blunt measure, but I think still worth trying: create a folder on the Desktop, move all preference files in there and then test AFTER you logged out and back in.  If it resumed working, try again with more and more preferences put back until either all are back in or the problem re-occurs.  Occasionally, you may want to log out and back in as well to see if, after placing a file back, the behavior starts again.  If removing all preferences does not bring the behavior back to normal, just move all back in overwriting every newly created one.

Until their respective preference files are back in, I would recommend not to open those applications (especially Mail) as this may have side-effects on your applications' settings and sometimes content becoming inaccessible (or more difficult to reach/get back).

The reasoning behind number 3 is that some preferences may not be viewed as the obvious origin, but still may have caused that.  Removing them all and then putting them back one-by-one (or 5 at a time) makes sure that you can identify which file this has actually caused.

In the event that a newly created user has the same behavior (only then), you can try to install the latest combo update or re-install Mac OS X (no erase, just installing over the existing installation) to repair/re-add corrupted/missing files.


Apple TV (headless) + Home Sharing + Remote stops playback after one song

I suspect your problem is the network, not the devices. The queue used when controlling the AppleTV from an iOS device is different from the queue on the native Music app (to see this yourself, note the empty queue in the AppleTV music app when you start music from your iPhone).

So, you have two dependent links (at some frequency, not necessarily constant):

iPhone to AppleTV, to update the queue, provide new information, etc.
AppleTV to iMac, to retrieve requested files

Can you monitor the network links on these devices using your WAPs diagnostics features? Or, perhaps more usefully, using Wireshark or the like to promiscuously capture the conversations? I'm willing to bet there's some severance going on.

Regarding running the AppleTV headless, I'm certain that's not the anticipated use of the device, but I'm not aware of any specific problems this could cause, unless it expects video signal via HDMI to keep alive, which you could test easily enough.

Hopefully, this is somewhat helpful in considering your problem. Good luck!


Start AFP Sharing on server before user login?

I would set up a user to automatically log in and lock the screen immediately with a password (or as close to immediately as you care.) That will mount the external drive and start up sharin for all users.

Alternatively, you could drop the $20 on OS X server and have it mount shares at boot like you rightly expect a server to behave.


How can I hide spam emails in my inbox of OSX Apple Mail app?

I don't know whether the OXS settings will propagate somehow to iPhone. Anyway I could find the following settings in OSX.

Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors

Preferences > Junk Mail


How to have new email notification while Apple Mail.app is closed?

You cannot.

You need the Mail app running. Unlike Calendar events, checking for emails is not something that can run locally. A client application need to connect with your mail server and retrieve your e-mails.

Sure there could be some background process that does that without the need of the Mail app, but it would not make much sense; in the end you would still have a process doing the checking.

Something that may make the Mail app less intrusive to you desktops' organization etc is having it been launched automatically and hidden at startup.


iPhone playing songs not in any of my playlists

Go to Settings>General>Music.
Turn off the "Show All Music" option


Return Mac permissions to factory defaults?

If I understand your question correctly, you're attempting to reset the permissions on a user's home directory. This is easily accomplished by resetting ACLs on the desired home directly by using the Reset Password Utility in the Recovery Partition:

Restart your computer from the recovery partition (if running Lion) or the gray disk (if not running Lion).
Open Disk Utility and run a permissions repair on your startup volume. After this is complete, close Disk Utility. We're doing this just for good measure.
Open Terminal from the Utilities menu. Type in resetpassword and select your user account (NOT System Administrator/root) from the drop down menu.
Click the Reset button at the bottom of the window in the Reset home folder permissions and ACLs section.
Quit the Password Utility and go back to the main recovery screen.
On your keyboard, hit ⌘ + Q and restart your computer. It's very important that you don't hold down the power button to exit the recovery session, or the ACL reset won't occur.

Good luck!


Will a Dell U2419HC provide enough power to charge a MBP 15" (Late 2016)?

Your model MBP ships with an Apple 87W USB-C Power Adapter and USB-C Charge Cable. However, you don't need the full 87W in order to be able to charge the MBP. Apple's adapter is designed to provide an ideal amount of power in order to both use the MBP and charge it at a certain rate.

You can use lower rated power adapters, but depending on the quality and actual power output, they may not last long if used continuously for charging the MBP, or they may not be able to charge it while it's operational. Obviously, I can't cover all scenarios here.

However, in terms of the U2419HC Dell UltraSharp 24 USB-C Monitor, one of the USB downstream ports does provide up to 65W of power. By way of comparison, Apple typically provides:

30W adapters for their MacBooks and MacBook Airs
61W adapters for their 13" MacBook Pros
87 W adapters for their 15" MacBook Pros

In a nutshell, what this means is that you will be able to use the U2419HC Dell Monitor and also charge your MBP at the same time, but it won't charge your MBP as fast as your Apple 87W USB-C Power Adapter will.

How fast it will charge your MBP will also depend on its usage - if you're just doing some word processing it'll charge faster than it will if you're rendering videos or playing graphics intensive games, so that may factor into your considerations. However, for most people most of the time, this monitor will work fine as a display and charging source.

Since you're interested in understanding the rate of charge and discharge of your MacBook Pro, I thought I'd recommend you download and try coconutBattery. It provides a whole heap of information that you'll find useful, and from memory includes both Discharging with and Charging with measurements in watts (obviously, only one is displayed at a time since your device can't do both simultaneously).

Also, I should point out that macOS also provides a great deal of information. Follow these steps:

Got to Apple > About This Mac
Click on the System Report... button
In the left pane under the Hardware heading, select Power (it's about 2/3 of the way down)
On the right-hand side, scroll down to view the AC Charger Information
This will show you whether it's connected to a charger, the amount of wattage it's receiving, and if it's currently charging or not

Note: I am not affiliated with coconutBattery in any way.


Can't reinstall the Camera icon on my iPhone

You actually can't remove the Camera app, but you can move it. Perhaps it is hidden in a group.

Go to Settings -> General -> Reset and tap "Reset Home Screen Layout".

"Camera" should reappear in the first page, but if it doesn't its likely a parental control or a profile restricting camera use.

Go to Settings -> General -> profiles and delete all of the ones you don't need. Inspect the ones you wish to keep to see if one restricts the camera.

If that still doesn't work, you'll want to back the device up and restore it to get if a hardware or software problem is causing the problem.


What's the fish shell equivalent to `set -o vi` to get vi/vim key bindings to access command history and edit?

There is a command in fish to enable this one time and that command is:

fish_vi_key_bindings

To set this at every start up for all instances of the shell, create a startup file if it doesn't exist (or touch the date in case it exists) and then add that command to the startup file.

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish
touch ~/.config/fish/config.fish
echo fish_vi_key_bindings >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish

This is well documented on Stack Overflow as well, but I figured a clear answer here would help some people find the setup sooner. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28444740/how-to-use-vi-mode-in-fish-shell


iCloud: Restore file which has been deleted a few days prior. How long possible?

Restore file which has been deleted a few days prior. How long possible?

30 days.

Is it possible to restore this file, when it was inside of the iCloud-folders?

Yes.

How long is a file-restoration possible, starting from a specific day on backwards?

30 days.


How to "Divorce" Macbook's original Apple ID?

Apple covers this expertly.

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

Once you have a backup, you can restore the documents and not the apps or restore the apps and delete only the ones with an embedded AppleID that’s wrong.

With this procedure you don’t need any access to any AppleID or any previous passwords.


What is CalNCService and why does it run hot in macOS Sierra?

I had same problem (fans at full throttle, CalNCService at 122% of CPU) and have made 2 visits to Apple store and 3rd visit I checked in the Mac for a warranty repair (replaced both fans)...  Yet the problem continues.

I went into notifications > edit and disabled all notifications, badges, sounds, etc, except for iMessage, Slack and Outlook.

About 3 minutes later, I noticed.... silence.  Fans are normal.  I'll watch it for a while, but it seems this issue is definitely related to something in notifications.  I won't miss being pinged all day long.


SMB Shares are indexed locally by the client since SMB does not support remote queries by spotlight. You need to wait for each client to finish indexing to be able to search.


What happens to the iTunes Library on external disk after upgrading to macOS Catalina?

This is too late but it might be good to have it here as a reference in the future. The answer is yes, however, Podcasts and Books are stored locally on the system volume as suggested in a comment.


Is there a way of listening to your podcasts at a faster speed in itunes 10.5

This feature is not available in iTunes, but you can choose the playback speed on the iPod or iPhone. By playing it there and synchronizing back to iTunes, it will mark your backlog items as played.


It will remain pending until it connects to the Internet.

It is recommended to change your Apple ID and other affected passwords, although if connected to Internet, the device should enforce the Lost Mode and protect your content.

If the person who has your phone has prevented it to connect prior to you having set up the Lost Mode information present on your iPhone is visible to them until it connects.

It will be forever pending if it is put on recovery mode before being connected to Internet, but it won't be usable because of Activation Lock. In this case your data will be erased.


How to make TextEdit open with a blank file by default?

If you don't want to disable syncing documents and data, run

defaults write -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool false

and quit and reopen TextEdit to apply the changes.

To restore (thanks to comments run)

defaults delete -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile

To set this for TextEdit only (thanks to comment by gklka)

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool false


Old iPad 2 with cracked screen - what trade-up/repair is available and is it worth using?

Apple has only had a recycling service for iPods in the past and pushes all gift cards through their official Recycling Program.

My experience is that these sort of plans don't get you top dollar, but don't require you to take any risk or spend any time to sell your old product. You should be able to determine the repair pricing for most Apple products by contacting Apple Care or visiting a retail store to get a quote.

In this case, iPad glass isn't repaired other than at the manufacturing site - so all broken iPads go back for repair / recycle / refurbishment and you get fully tested / warranted (and potentially fully new) one in exchange.

Once you know this you can compare the repair cost with buy new cost with what you can sell it locally. Either way, this research will help you make a good sale in case the buyer has reservations - they too can always go to Apple and get a new battery, fixed screen, etc... for the repair price should they find your device not acceptable once they use it a while.


Is there a way to make an iPhone 5S read an SD micro card?

I purchased an eye-fi SD card and it works perfectly...once you download the app and connect via wifi to the card, the images transfer right over, where they can be edited just like all the photos taken from the iphone.


I get the grey screen after startup on 2006 macbook pro. no keys work.

Sounds very much like the graphics chip is on the blink again, it's pretty common to see these units fail again and again...

Unfortunately you won't be able to get it serviced any more as it's classified as obsolete by Apple now so no parts are available, although maybe eBay etc...

There is a chance you could do an OS reinstall to verify it's a hardware fault and not software, but the diagonal lines is symptomatic of a hardware graphics chip issue like you would see on this range of machine.

I would be looking to replace the machine at this point sadly. It might be worth going to the manager in an Apple Store and indicating that it's failed for a known fault again and asking if they would give a discount on a new machine as they may well do this as a gesture of good will.


Unable to add account in Google Hangouts

If the account you're trying to login with us managed with Family Link, then you cannot access Hangouts on an iPad or iPhone. See https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/2944865

I also tried Google Duo, but that silent fails to login and just boots you back to the login screen.


iterm3 reverse minimal theme compact style

The settings can be changed in Preferences (Cmd-,).


How to play or pause multiple instances of VLC simultaneously?

This will check for all instances of VLC and pause any of the instances that are currently playing something. Let me know if something unexpected happens! To create the shortcut, follow these steps:

Open Automator and create an Service, with a single Run AppleScript action, containing the following code:

tell application "System Events" to repeat with VLC_instance in (application processes whose name is "VLC")
    tell the menu "Playback" of the first menu bar of VLC_instance
        if the menu item "Pause" exists then
            click menu item "Pause"
        else if the menu item "Play" exists then
            click menu item "Play"
        end if
    end tell
end repeat

Set the service to receive "no input" and to work in "VLC" or "any application", if you want to ensure you can use the shortcut from anywhere. Save it with a name of your choosing.
Now, go into the Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard preferences in System Preferences, and click on Services. The newly created service should be at the bottom, under the name you chose. Click on the service, then click on "add shortcut", and specify a shortcut to your liking.
You may have to allow Automator access in Accessibility in the Privacy tab of the Security and Privacy preferences.

That's it! You should now have a service set up, tied to the shortcut you chose that can be accessed from anywhere.


Use Gatekeeper to control access to Applications

You can use spctl (Gatekeeper) to create lists of approved and unapproved apps.

For example, suppose you want to allow Mail but block Chrome.

sudo spctl --add --label "ApprovedApps" /Applications/Mail.app
sudo spctl --add --label "DeniedApps" /Applications/Chrome.app

The above command will will "label" Mail and Chrome as "Approved" and "Denied" respectively (you can use your own descriptors).

Now, to enable/disable apps, you issue the commands:

sudo spctl --enable --label "ApprovedApps"
sudo spctl --disable --label "DeniedApps"

The advantage this has is that to add another app to either list, you just have to add the appropriate label:

sudo spctl --add --label "ApprovedApps" /Applications/Another.app

Additionally, you can forbid code from the Mac App Store from running (found in the spctl man page - man spctl).

spctl --disable --label "Mac App Store"

This will prevent anyone from downloading an App from the App store and installing/running it.

Dealing with Admins/sudoers

As stated in the comments, anything an Admin can do, another Admin can undo.  Using spctl requires root, but editing the sudoers file to restict access to a particular command can prevent other users/admins from undoing your changes.

See How to prevent sudo users from running specific commands? for details on how to configure a "whitelist with exception" in your sudoers file.

For example, to allow user Sam access to all commands except spctl, you would put in the sudoers file:

sam ALL = ALL, !/usr/sbin/spctl

Now, this a "quick and dirty" way of preventing access to spctl but ultimately, it's not effective because if the other admin gets wise to your strategy, all he/she has to do is rename the command and they have access.

From the sudoers man page:

  In general, if a user has sudo ALL there is nothing to prevent them from creating their own program that gives
         them a root shell (or making their own copy of a shell) regardless of any `!' elements in the user
         specification.

To really lock it down, you would need to either force the other user to su as a different user (i.e. operator) or create a whitelist of allowed commands defaulting to blocking everything else.  However, that is time consuming and quite dangerous as you can lock people out of critical functions.


The basic philosophy in the GNU world is that they want you to be able to change their software, and anything which requires their software.  (This is their definition of "Free Software")

This essentially implies you need access to the source of all GPL software in a form so you can change things and install a new binary.

For programs which use GPL libraries directly ("linked with") they want you to have that ability too for those programs.   For programs not linking with but invoking through a command line (like "gcc -o foo foo.c") this does not apply, as you can just use another c compiler instead.  This is intentional and the GCC license address the fact that you can use it to create non-GPL'ed software.

Many commercial Unix server distributions have included GNU software over the years, but they have faded away.  To my knowledge there is only Solaris and AIX left with any serious market impact (due to their ecosystem).

So, yes, Apple can include and ship GPL'ed software as long as they provide the sources you need to change that software yourself.


Absolutely eliminate "Automatic new Desktop when dragging"

Not seeing this behavior. I have several desktops enabled, yes macOS will happily slide to the next available if I drag a file/window to the extreme right of the screen, but it won't create NEW desktops. Once I hit #4 (the last desktop I have enabled) holding a file against the right side of the screen doesn't trigger any action. Perhaps you have more than 1 screen enabled in Mission Control? Remove them, it should not auto-create more. (added as answer per request!)


How to convert from evernote rich text to markdown on IPad?

Answer in http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/33759-markdown-wysiwyg-support-plz/?p=191298
pointed me to
http://markable.in/.

When logged-in (essential!) to the  http://markable.in/editor/ there is an option to import from EverNote, that will be translated to Markdown.
Note that translation needs review, because it could have some minor bugs.


Here's the .app file off my machine: http://cl.ly/0f293H081S2e1Y2B3f1r


Process called "ItYoingm" using over 90% CPU and over 106GB memory - root user

Select the process and select the gear icon in Activity Monitor and sample it. You will need to enter your password to allow Activity Monitor to look as root.

The first few lines will establish what this really is...

Analysis of sampling whatever (pid 133) every 1 millisecond
Process:         whatever [133]
Path:            /Library/Application Support/ThisThing/whatever.app/Contents/MacOS/TheDaemon.app/Contents/MacOS/whatever
Load Address:    0x104743000
Identifier:      whatever
Version:         ???
Code Type:       X86-64
Parent Process:  launchd [1]

Date/Time:       2020-03-07 10:44:35.131 -0600
Launch Time:     2020-02-24 10:14:17.221 -0600
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.15.3 (19D76)
Report Version:  7
Analysis Tool:   /usr/bin/sample

Now to fix it, if you don’t recognize the program you may need help uninstalling it or use a tool like MalwareBytes to scan for known malware.

You can kill just about any root process - worst case it shuts down the system and you need to reinstall macos which doesn’t erase your programs or data, just makes a new operating system.

I would shut down the mac and disconnect from network and power on while you look, it’s likely something you installed, but without details on what you’ve installed we have to make some assumptions.

While you’re disconnected, making a Time Machine backup or just copying the most important files off your mac to an external drive would be very prudent if you lost control of the system and what’s running as root. Then disconnect that backup until you’re sure you don’t have malware running. (or don't connect your good backup if you know you have one and are already covered - some malware will encrypt files and damage trivial backups that don't make the files read only once backed up in a strong manner)

This last part is pure speculation - since the PID is 176 it started very soon after boot, so it's a persistent program that will likely start each time your Mac is restarted - so you will need to diagnose and fix the launcher or get help if this is all too technical or you want to be sure you've got someone experienced helping.

Good tools:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/
https://objective-see.com/products/knockknock.html
https://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/


Does MacPorts keep a log for actions like install and upgrade?

I will be semi helpful here. I can show you where the data is and an SQL query but you might need more for a clean solution.
Macports keeps a registry in an SQLite database in /opt/local/var/macports/registry/registry.db This includes a date which looks like to me the time the package was last installed on your machine
An SQL query returns the data
SELECT
  ports.name,
  datetime(ports.date, 'unixepoch')
FROM
  ports
ORDER BY
  ports.date

You will need to modify the query for your exact use case to only show a subset (e.g. add a where clause) and something to run it in
A crude way to do this is use sqlite3.
sqlite3 /opt/local/var/macports/registry/registry.db

Then you get a prompt - at that paste in the SQL above - then type in ; and hit return
At the bottom I get
iTerm2|2021-05-10 09:48:10
openjdk16-zulu|2021-05-10 09:49:00
rust|2021-05-16 09:47:44

I have only upgraded rust today


3 (2 monitors + Ethernet adapter) devices to 2 Thunderbolt ports on a Retina MacBook Pro?

How Daisy Chaining Works

Daisy chaining is connecting multiple devices in series, as in this diagram:

Note that this shows some disk drives, but they could be any Thunderbolt devices.

Each device in the chain (except for the last) needs two Thunderbolt ports — one to connect to the downstream devices (those closer in the chain to the Mac) and one for the upstream (to pass the data on to the devices further along the chain).

Additionally, each chain supports a maximum of six devices, and there can only be one non-Thunderbolt display, and it must be at the end of the chain.

Making Your Situation Feasible

Because of these limitations, you won't be able to connect the devices you have using Thunderbolt alone. Unfortunately Apple's ethernet adapter doesn't have multiple ports for passthrough, so you can only use it at the end of a chain. If your displays were Thunderbolt based, it would be do-able, but it sounds like they're not.

The best suggestion I can give you is to use the HDMI port on your Retina MBP to connect one of your monitors (this will work if it has either a DVI or HDMI input), however this limits the resolution to 1920x1200, so for hi-res panels (like those found on some 27" and 30" displays), you won't be getting the full benefit of the display.

If you're still stuck, there are USB 3 ethernet adapters available now that will do full gigabit. There might be a bit more overhead than the Thunderbolt adapter, but it's better than nothing.


Is there any way to list all .pkg packages that I have installed?

The package management system used by OS X is rudimentary when compared to Linux counterparts like RPM or DEB. Fortunately, basic operations like listing packages and its contents are possible:

Everytime a .pkg file is installed a BOM file is stored in /private/var/db/receipts/. You can either do ls in that directory or use pkgutil to list installed packages:

$ pkgutil --packages
(...)
com.apple.pkg.HP_Scan
com.apple.pkg.HP_Scan3
com.apple.pkg.HP_SmartX
com.apple.pkg.InstallMacOSX
com.apple.pkg.JavaEssentials
com.apple.pkg.JavaForMacOSX107
com.apple.pkg.JavaMDNS
com.apple.pkg.JavaSecurity
com.apple.pkg.JavaTools
com.apple.pkg.MBP91
com.apple.pkg.MediaFiles
com.apple.pkg.MobileDevice
com.apple.pkg.MobileDeviceDevelopment
com.apple.pkg.OxfordDictionaries
(...)

To query the .pkg file's contents use pkgutil:

$ pkgutil --files com.apple.pkg.Pages4 | less
Applications
Applications/Pages.app
Applications/Pages.app/Contents
Applications/Pages.app/Contents/CodeResources
Applications/Pages.app/Contents/Frameworks
Applications/Pages.app/Contents/Frameworks/Inventor.framework
Applications/Pages.app/Contents/Frameworks/Inventor.framework/Inventor

or lsbom:

$ lsbom /private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.Pages4.bom | less
.   40775   0/0
./Applications  40775   0/80
./Applications/Pages.app    40755   0/0
./Applications/Pages.app/Contents   40755   0/0
./Applications/Pages.app/Contents/CodeResources 120755  0/0 28  2941952436  _CodeSignature/CodeResources
./Applications/Pages.app/Contents/Frameworks    40755   0/0
./Applications/Pages.app/Contents/Frameworks/Inventor.framework 40755   0/0
(...)

See man pkgutil and man lsbom for other options.


Using OS X Lion on a main SL mac - use USB key instead of partition?

There are multiple scenarios in your question. Your final objective is to run Xcode 4.2. Since Xcode is free, you can always try an Apple Store, they may be able to give you a hand with that and install the SL version for you if you charm them enough. That's the simple route, never underestimate an Apple store.

If you want to go ahead and install a Lion, you can connect any external drive (8GB Penn Drive won't cut, too small, too slow), you should rather get a cheap USB2/FW800 (if your hardware supports it) 500GB drive (or even less) and you could use that as the installation drive (make sure it's connected when you boot your Lion's bootable media).

Another alternative (more time consuming but more "secure") is to use an external drive the same (or bigger) size as your current drive, clone your current bootable Snow Leopard into it, make sure it boots (more on this later) and then install Lion in your current drive, as an Upgrade. You can always boot back your old backup drive with SL (and clone it back to Lion if you prefer, including the "hidden" Lion Recovery Partition).

This way you know your original drive stays untouched in the Backup and you can always bring it back. I wouldn't, being so close to ML, I'd just stick with Lion for a month or so, but that's just me.

So how do you boot an external drive or a different bootable partition?

When the computer is starting (and you hear the chime), press and hold ⌥ and wait for things to happen, you should see a list of bootable media (and partitions).

How do you clone your drive(s)?

Using the very reliable and free of charge Carbon Copy Cloner. Rather simple to use.

Remember, after you make a bootable clone, always restart your computer and test the clone making sure it boots and that your data is there. You don't want to find out in a couple of weeks that what you thought was your backup, doesn't work at all.

Last but not least, if you need help installing OS X on an external drive, here's a simple tutorial.

Good luck in your Xcode endeavors!

[thisAnswer release];


You could try to login in without starting login items and opening finder windows. You can do this by holding down the SHIFT key after you type your username and password at the login screen.

This will probably only solve simple problems with your login. More details are available here: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14215


Why is System Preferences not recognising Pictures folder? [macOS 10.13.4]

Yes, this is normal.

This folder corresponds to the immediate (not including sub folders  folder located at ~/Pictures.

You can access this folder by clicking Pictures in the Finder sidebar or by going to Finder>Go>Go to Folder> ~/Pictures>Go

See pictures below

Example 1

Example 2


Split Keynote Builds Into Separate Slides

This may be a little late, but I know how to do this.
Under the File Menu in Keynote, select "Export to", then choose "Images".
In the following window, check the box that says "create an image for each stage of builds". Go to the folder where you saved those images, then drag them all back into a new keynote doc.


iReal Pro removed the IAA compatibility with Garageband so you need to export the audio file from the app, import it to Garageband and then record.
You can simply record with iReal Pro as well using your interface.


Only FireWire and Thunderbolt support Target Disk Mode.
You have to remove the internal disk and put it in an external case with UltraATA interface.
Alternatively you may create a bootable thumb drive (MacOS 9.1 or better), boot from it and create an image of your HDD with Disk Copy and save it to a network share. Building a bootable thumb drive and booting from it may take a while though because of the low bandwidth of USB1.1 (12 MBit/sec ≈ max. 1MByte/s).
According to this article Mac OS X 10.3.9 - the latest Mac OS X which supports the G3 - unfortunately doesn't provide USB-booting:

Further refinement I just came across in my notes, on the system requirements to boot from Macintosh USB ports: OS 8.6 through 9.2.2, and OS 10.4.3 and later. OS 8.6 - 9.2.2 might need the last of whichever versions of the USB extensions that each of these System versions supports (for OS 9.1 through 9.2.2, USB 1.5.6 is the preferred version; OS 9.1 and later don't need the extension "USB Mass Storage Support", especially since it sometimes freezes Macs running OS 9.1 - 9.2.2 that are trying to boot from USB), though other details as to the proper combination and versions of USB extensions under OS 8.6 - 9.2.2 is screwy, and too lengthy to post here, especially since we're dealing with OS X anyway.
The first Macs to support USB booting, are the first slot-loading iMacs (including the 350 MHz model with no Firewire ports), and the Firewire Powerbook G3. I've even booted OS 10.4.11, from a USB 2.0 flash drive, on a Mirrored Drive Doors G4, from a USB 2.0 PCI slot card, with no special tricks, Open Firmware modifications, etc.


Is my SSD drive faulty when Blackmagic disk speed test shows decreasing write speed as low as 10 Mb/s?

mapasov pointed this link out for me to enable TRIM if you're using Lion http://digitaldj.net/2011/07/21/trim-enabler-for-lion/

It means that your system will handle TRIM as if it were a native Apple SSD, and that you shouldn't get the problem you're facing after the system has had time to manage it


How can I get some basic GNU utilities on my iPhone?

Using dpkg -S du I discovered that there is a copy of du in the Cydia libexec folder. It's not quite as nice as finding it in /bin, but it'll serve my purposes nicely. The general question is still open, though; where can I find awk, sed, and so on?


How to find out which Safari tab is using massive memory?

Open the Activity monitor in Utility folder.

  Sort by name

  View by memory usage

You should see individual Safari pages memory consumption.

By hovering pointer over one will show the web site name.

The memory consumption will depend on the web site it self, its design, the complexity, and multimedia usage.


How easy is it to buy upgrade/replacement parts for a Mac Pro?

Apple uses custom logic boards, but I've heard of people upgrading the CPU if it uses the same socket type. The power supply on my 2008 Mac Pro would be hard to get to for a replacement. The key upgrade options are new hard drives, more memory, and better video cards. I've used those three to keep my '08 Mac Pro running fast enough to more than meet all of my current needs.


Outlook 2011 - clicking email addresses inside the application opening in Apple Mail

Setting Default mail Client tells your system to use that one when requesting email from other applications. (outside of Email).

While in Email (Outlook or Mail) they will do as told.

In your case using MS Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint with email link in one of the documents, will by default use the chosen default mail client.

There is a simple work around.
Since you are probably not using heavy duty MS Office applications to handle your Mail.app but do so with Outlook, I would make the Outlook the default mail application.
Now you can use Mail as email and Outlook will be the default mail client for your work.


Tracing the source of "There was a problem connecting to the server" alerts

I am getting this as well. The only way to remove it is to re-install OSX, and then it re-appears if I try to install software. Odd ...


How do I remove or delete an @me.com email?

You cannot move, merge, or delete an Apple ID once it is created. Once it is created, it is a permanent account.

More info available here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HE37?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


Debugging "The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail."?

Aha! It turns out the log for the installer can be found in the application menu.

Window -> Installer Log (⌘ + L)

You may need to set the log window to Show All Logs to see all the relevant information:


How to get url of selected image in google images?

Okay, my way is to ask Safari do javascript which will get all what I need (I mean urls of full-images) for current page, when user presses hotkey.

The trick is that when you select (hower) image, you see a black box at bottom of mini-image. Certanly, it means that HTML has been changed, so I just figured out that changes (display property changes from none to block) and ask JS to get any blocks with that property, when user presses key.

See code below for details.

tell application "Safari"
set result to (do JavaScript "
               function f()
               {
                   var imageHolderElements =  document.getElementsByClassName('_aOd rg_ilm');
                   for (var i = 0; i < imageHolderElements.length; i++)
                   {
                       var style = getComputedStyle(imageHolderElements[i], null);
                       var display = style.getPropertyValue('display');
                       if (display == 'block')
                       {
                           var src = imageHolderElements[i].parentNode.getAttribute('href');
                           var parameter = 'imgurl=';
                           var index = src.indexOf(parameter) + parameter.length;
                           console.log(index);
                           var result = src.substring(index, src.length);
                           console.log(result);
                           var paramDelim = result.indexOf('&');
                           if (paramDelim > 0){
                                var result_result = '';
                               result_result = result.substring(0, paramDelim);
                           }
                           console.log(result_result);
                           return result_result;
                       }
                   }
               }
                var x = 1;
               var x = '' + f(); x" in current tab of first window) as string
return result
end tell


How can I create custom right-click context menu items in macOS?

This is a bit old, but nothing is drastically different in 10.8:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100509134904820

  This a simple Service for creating new files the currently-open folder in Finder, using AppleScript and Automator.

  Start by launching Automator, and in the chooser that appears, select Service. This will open a new Automator window, set up to create a Service. In that window, do the following:
  Set the Service to receive selected folders in Finder (the two drop-down menus at the top of the work area on the right). This makes it easier to assign a keyboard shortcut to our service, which we'll do at the end.

  Drag and drop the 'Run AppleScript' action (in the Utilities Library) into the work area on the right.

  Paste in the following AppleScript, then click the Hammer icon (to compile the code):

on run {input, parameters}
  tell application "Finder"
    set currentPath to insertion location as text
    set x to POSIX path of currentPath
  end tell
  return x
end run

  Drag and drop the 'Set value of a variable' action from the Utilities Library, and create a new variable called, for example, CurrentFolder. (Do this by clicking on the drop-down menu.)

  Drag and drop the New Text File action from the Text library into the work area. Then drag CurrentFolder from the Variable panel at the bottom of the Automator window to the Where entry of the New Text File action. Click the Options button in the action, and click the 'Show this action when the workflow runs' box. This makes it possible to change the name and extension of the new file.

  Save the service as 'Create New File,' or whatever you like. Test your new action using the Services menu in Finder, to make sure it works (select a folder, Control-click, and you should see your new Service at the bottom of the contextual menu).

  On the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard System Preferences panel, select Services in the left-hand column, and your new service (it should be in the Files and Folders section) in the right-hand panel. Assign a keyboard shortcut to the new Service by double-clicking to the right of the Service's name.

  Switch back to Automator and change the leftmost drop-down menu (at the top of the work area) to No Input, then save the Service again.


You can set up a hot corner to turn the display off without going to sleep. Go to System Preferences → Mission Control → Hot Corners and set one of the corners to Put Display To Sleep. Wake the display by pressing any key.


Does OS X support a mechanism for security updates similar to apt-get?

softwareupdate can perform updates to macOS.
List updates with softwareupdate -l and install recommended updates with

sudo softwareupdate -ir

where -i installs specified updates and -r selects all recommended updates.


Mac OSX microphone input volume level auto-adjusts - can it be disabled?

Turns out that the auto-adjusting mic level was not MacOS, but rather Skype (Version 6.6.0.467).  There is a check box in Skype Preferences to enable/disable it, and once I turned it off the level stays where I set it.

The problem is that, apparently, Skype's notion of auto adjusting the mic volume is simply to crank it up to max, no matter what -- even when no call is active.  At around 90% the mic starts picking up background noise, probably the Mac disk or fan, and by 100% that background noise is overwhelming.

I found that on my MacBook Pro (c. 2008) the mic level at about 75% was good, and I also found it helpful to check the "Use ambient noise reduction" check box (just below the mic level slider in the System Preferences/Audio).


Why does iTunes always lose my iPod's sync settings?

It seems like the problem was when I enabled disk use in my iPod's settings:

Unchecking this box seems to have fixed this issue. I haven't had a problem since.


How to change the GNU Make's (default) default location of gcc

Add the following line to your .bash_profile:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

To be sure that will work, restart the terminal and then:

echo $PATH

This will output your PATH variable. The order of directories in PATH variable matters. So, in order to work as you mention, the result should start with /usr/local/bin:


Is it possible to browse my iTunes backup files?

Yes! It is possible to view the contents of backups. There are several programs you can use, the one I use is iExplorer v3.

You can view and extract:

Messages
Contacts
Voicemail (though I have not tried this)
Call history
Notes
Safari (bookmarks and history)
Calendar
More if you are willing to dig into folders

The free version allows you to view the contents, but has restrictions on extracting them.

There is also iPhone Backup Extractor which does:

Photos
Recordings
Again, perhaps more

This is also a free / paid app, so have a look at what you need.

Hope this helps.


The files randomly disappeared and I think it's because I updated to Big Sur so I think that's what fixed it.


Ensuring consistency and minimal interference during benchmarking?

Items you've considered are already good! Disabling internet stops lot of stray processes.
You can try Safe mode to do the tests if they don't need the services disabled in that mode. Also consider making a new user account for doing the testing.
https://support.apple.com/HT201262

Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.

That's the closest you can get to a brand new Mac.
Also, if the tests' results use huge storage, its best to delete them after every run since remaining storage also affects VM usage and increases memory pressure.


Does anyone know when Swift apps can be submitted to the app store?

From Apple website:

  You can begin using Swift code immediately to implement new features in your app, or enhance existing ones. New Swift code co-exists along side your existing Objective-C files in the same project, making it easy to adopt. And when iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are released this fall, you can submit your apps to the App Store and Mac App Store.

ref: https://developer.apple.com/swift/


Probably easier to do this with AppleScript, which you can then use in an Automator action if you like.

tell application "Mail"
    set myAccount to "Gmail"
    set mailboxList to {"INBOX", "[Gmail]/Sent Mail"}
    set messageCount to 0
    repeat with _mailbox in mailboxList
        set messageCount to messageCount + (count of messages in mailbox _mailbox of account myAccount)
    end repeat
    get messageCount
end tell

That will return the number of messages in each mailbox you specify in the list on line two. If use it in an Automator action, it will pass that value along to whatever the next action is.

You'll need to change the myAccount line to whatever your account is named in preferences.

To get the specific mailbox names, run tell application "Mail" to get mailboxes of account "Gmail" in AppleScript editor. You can then add them to the mailboxList in line 3, make sure they're quoted, and each entry is separated by a comma.


Why doesn't window management software like Divvy work with Adobe Photoshop?

turns out that slate works just fine with photoshop.. it's a bit more technical/harder to set up than the other two.. but based on the people i've spoken with.. it's well worth the trouble


Share iPhone Personal Hotspot with Mac, then share Internet via ethernet

Not a networking expert, but I tried using a switch in between the Mac and the VoIP phone, and it worked! No idea why the VoIP phone wouldn't work when plugging directly in to the Mac, but oh well - very happy!


All stills added to iMovie are blurry during playback

Have you tried exporting your video? Sometimes iMovie downscales things while playing it back in the application.

If that doesn't work try copy and pasting your project timeline into a new project and re-insert the images you have.


iWorks no longer free after fresh install of El Capitan

The Apple business model is the opposite to that of Microsoft.

Purchases are tied to you & your Apple ID, not to the machine they run on.

This makes migrating to a new machine very simple, but juggling purchases across multiple IDs difficult. Apple doesn't want you setting up multiple IDs just on a whim, it wants one user tied to one ID.

Once you start juggling IDs, you will find that each time you need to update anything, you will need to logout of your current ID & log back in with the one used for that particular purchase.

Either that or set up Family Sharing with all your IDs as the members of the 'family'.


App on iPhone shows installed but can't find it to open or uninstall

It's an iMessage app.

How to delete an iMessage app:

Tap the App Store icon in the iMessage conversation view
Tap the apps icon on the bottom left (4 rounded grey rectangles)
Long-tap the app you want to delete (they’ll start wiggling)
Delete just like you’d delete any app on your phone
Done


Why max inode count became 2^32-1 on my hdd after update to OS X 10.12 Sierra

You do not detail which file system you're using, so I'm assuming you're using the default HFS+ file system on Sierra.

The HFS+ file system does not have an "inodes" concept similar to other file systems. Therefore the inodes free/used counts really do not make sense for HFS+, and never have.

In order to comply with standards the df command on macOS do report inode information. However it is just made up figures more or less.

On older version of macOS the df command consistently reported that you were using approx. the same ratio of inodes as the ratio between free and used space. So if you were using 500 GB out of a 1 TB drive, it would report that you've used about 50% of your inodes.

On Sierra Apple must have decided that it was better to just report 0% usage. Either number is okay as it is entirely bogus anyhow.

In the underlying file system on disk, nothing have changes in regards to the maximum number of files you can save. It was (2^32)-1 before, and it is still (2^32)-1 now.


Does a "Hello" screen mean my iPhone was erased?

The "Hello" screen does not necessarily mean you have erased the phone. It could just mean that iOS was updated. I would complete the setup steps (you can skip many of them) then go into Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings to be sure. You will also need to remove the device from your iCloud account or it will be bricked to the new owner.


Usually NTFS volumes don't contain UUIDs. The visible UUID in diskutil is derived from the NTFS Volume Serial Number.

Get the disk identifier of your backup disk and the volume:

diskutil list

Unmount the external disk:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1

Copy the NTFS superblock:

sudo dd if=/dev/disk1s4 of=~/Desktop/superblock bs=512 count=1

Change the mod bits:

sudo chmod 777 ~/Desktop/superblock

Create a backup of the superblock (just in case!):

cp ~/Desktop/superblock ~/Desktop/superblock.backup

Modify the file superblock with HexFiend:

The NTFS volume serial number is highlighted in violet (eight bytes beginning at offset 72 or 0x48). Modify at least one byte. After saving the file check the size which should still be 512 Bytes.

Write back the superblock:

sudo dd if=~/Desktop/superblock of=/dev/disk1s4 bs=512 count=1

Reboot your Mac and verify the new UUID of disk1s4.


I think there's more question than answers there but it's Spotify's cache of files consisting of:

streamed music saved locally
imported songs (your local music)
adverts
metadata

The obtuse naming convention is purely a method to obfuscate the contents of the cache.

The cache is used in multiple cases, the main ones are:

to play already downloaded files instead of re-streaming (saves their bandwidth therfore saves $$$)
to allow Offline mode for Premium accounts


How do I avoid "message could not be moved to the mailbox Trash" on iOS 10?

Here's what I did to fix things...

(EDITED, BECAUSE PREVIOUS WAY DIDN'T WORK... EVERYTHING REAPPEARED)

Go in to settings > Mail > Accounts > (Account Name) > shut off "mail"

Force quit the mail app; force quit settings app.

Re-open mail app. It should not show any mail from that account. Force quit mail app again.

Then reopen settings, re-enable mail. Everything is re-synced. Re-open mail app.


Yosemite Mission Control does not show desktop bar or add button

I was just being an idiot. As it turns out, I had the keyboard shortcut from my MBP for "Mission Control" assigned to "Application windows" on the Mini, and because Application windows looks a lot like Mission Control, I was confusing them. After putting in the correct keyboard shortcut for Mission Control, now I am able to get my desktop spaces created correctly.


Mail.app in Lion - is there a way to create tasks from email?

It's possible to do that with AppleScript.

If you're familiar with this technology, you should just browse iCal and Mail respective dictionary. If not, that's the occasion to become familiar ! This is a great place to start.

Here's a very basic script you could use (tested on Snow Leopard only, but should work fine on Lion as well) :

tell application "Mail"

    set theSelection to selection
    set theMessage to first item of theSelection
    set theSumm to subject of theMessage
    set theDescription to "From : " & sender of theMessage
    set theUrl to "message:%3C" & message id of theMessage & "%3E"

end tell

tell application "iCal"

    make todo at end of events of (first item of every calendar) with properties {summary:theSumm, description:theDescription, url:theUrl}

end tell

In order to use it easily in Mail, you should save it in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail/ (create folders if they don't exist) and activates the Scripts menubar item in preferences of AppleScript Editor. Here's the result when you're in Mail :

You can also use a productivity tool to launch your script. There are plenty of them out there but I personally use Keyboard Maestro & Alfred.

There's a lot of room for improvement. By example, you could set a default alarm, insert it in a given calendar… In order to improve it yourself, use the AppleScript dictionary : it's the best reference you could find. However, those links may be useful as well, as they provide many examples (some are maybe too old) : Scripting Mail & Scripting iCal.


Another thing to check is make sure IPV6 is configured as Link Local Only. To check go to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced > TCP/IP. Also check for the Ethernet connection also. Also check the configuration of any Apple Routers and Apple Express units you may have for IPV6 configurations and change them to Link Local. I did this and my wifi is back to normal.


What is the best/fastest way to rip and convert a Blu-ray Disc on an iMac?

So I found a solution, just not a short or elegant one:

Install bootcamp on the iMac
Install Windows 10
Install dvdfab.

At first dvdfab did not want to work with the GPU (AMD Radeon). Turns out that the graphic drivers bundled with bootcamp were too old, but there is no update from Apple. http://bootcampdrivers.com has newer driver packages for the mac / AMD GPU.

I had to follow a long set of instructions to install it, including booting the Windows machine into Safe mode. In the end, everything works as it should, and Blu-ray conversion time is now around 40 minutes!

As converting Blu-ray movies is not something I do everyday, I can live with this solution.


Is there an iPhone timer app that works with EarPods remote controls?

No, applications are not allowed to catch presses on the headphones remote control and use it for something different than the designed feature - play/pause the playing song.