Why can't I sync more photos to my ipod touch?

As you have figured out, you need to select fewer folders/photos in order to keep it from failing. Simply compare the size of the folder(s) you want to sync with the space available on your iPod.

On a Mac, you can select a folder and press command+i (or control+click and select Get Info) to display the size of a folder.

On Windows, you can right click and select Properties to display the size of the folder.


How should I submit bug reports and feature requests?

Apple offers a feedback site where both bug reports and feature requests can be submitted by anyone. Be sure to describe the issue or feature as clearly and concisely as possible.

Developers should use Apple Bug Reporter. If you carefully describe the issue including step by step instructions for reproducing the problem, they tend to get attention and fixed. You'll need an ADC (Apple Developer Connection) login to use the bug reporting system. Be sure to upload the System Profiler report, as well as any crash logs which may be relevant.


Would a Displayport-Thunderbolt cable unlock better performance from my external display than an HDMI 2.0 cable?

For this connection you could have four bottlenecks:

Input connector on your monitor
Output connector on your Mac/PC
faulty cable/lower-spec cable
GPU (graphics processing unit) limitation

As you state, the input connector on your monitor is an HDMI 2.0
port, which is capable of 4k@60fps.
A mid 2014 13" MBP does only support 3840x2160@30fps output over the HDMI port. This may be at least one of the reasons you are not getting the higher refresh rate.
You can simply test the cable with another device. I also would not really suspect it, unless you have a reason to believe it is physically damaged.
The MBP specs also state that the output is too limited for your high refresh rate monitor. There has also been a similar question on AD:

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors

What this means for you
You will not be able to get a higher refresh rate, since you are using an older HDMI port and the MBPs video output is too limited. So even if you would get a Mini-DP → HDMI 2.x cable, you shouldn't  be able to get a higher refresh rate.

Note: On your machine the Thunderbolt 2 connector can act as a Mini-DP connector, which is capable of higher resolution/refresh rates than some older HDMI ports. Yet, this depends on the exact comparison. Have a look at the Wikipedia page about the different HDMI specifications and Display Port connections.
Double check which MacBooks support what monitor resolutions and refresh rates on Everymac.


Find My Mac doesnt work if you use an ethernet cable for?

Find My Mac needs two things to work:

An working internet connection, so that the Mac can contact Apple's servers and register its location.
A means of determining the Mac's location.

For the first condition, either a wired ethernet or Wi-Fi connection will suffice. For the second condition, only Wi-Fi will work, because the Wi-Fi radio is used to triangulate a position, based on Apple's database of Wi-Fi networks around the world. Essentially, you can take the names of Wi-Fi networks around you and their relative signal strengths, and Apple's database (and others like it) can determine where you are, within a relatively small radius.

While you can get a rough geolocation based on an IP address, it's not nearly precise enough to be useful for locating a Mac, hence why an ethernet connection alone is not enough (it could probably determine the city the Mac is in, but nothing more concrete).

A few useful things to keep in mind based on this:

A Mac can be located if the Wi-Fi adapter is turned on, but not connected to any networks and the ethernet connection has an internet connection. You can test this easily enough yourself.
If your Wi-Fi is on, but not connected (nor is the ethernet) to the internet, Find My Mac still won't work.
Turning off Wi-Fi will disable Find My Mac, regardless of whether there's any ethernet connection. However the Find My Mac service does cache recent locations (although I'm not sure for how long).

So, for the best chance at recovering a lost Mac, make sure that the Wi-Fi adapter hasn't been turned off. If you need to do so (i.e. getting on a plane, etc.), be sure to turn it back on when possible.


No sound from mac, how to find the problem?

Your MacBook believes you've plugged in an optical audio cable when you haven't.

Turns out, that headphone jack is actually a combo jack that has both optical audio and analog audio. There's a little lever in there that detects when you've put a cable in there that's probably stuck. Try fiddling with a toothpick or repeatedly plugging and unplugging.


Visit https://iforgot.apple.com to reset your password with Apple ID:

  Reset your password

  You can change or reset the password for your Apple ID account by providing some information.


Why are zip file sizes different in finder compared to Google or Amazon Drive?

This is because Apple uses base-10 instead of base-2 to display file size. Base-2 will consider 1GB to equal 1,073,741,824 bytes, where a base-10 system, like Apple's, will consider 1GB to mean 1,000,000,000 bytes. In fact, the base-2 and base-10 prefixes are different, using the term gibibyte and gigabyte to represent GB, respectively (GiB can be used to unambiguously denote gibibyte).

9.17 Gigabytes is 8.54 Gibibytes, so the zip files are actually the same size.

Further reading:

https://blog.macsales.com/1852-snow-leopard-changes-they-way-we-look-at-gigabytes-and-megabytes-and-kilobytes-as-well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte#Consumer_confusion


New "EFI boot" drive appearing after reverting OS X drive to HFS+

To rename the Recovery Partition, falsely named "EFI Boot", I first mounted the Recovery HD, by showing all partitions in Disk Utility.
To show all partitions:
1.) quit Disk Utility
2.) In Terminal write or paste: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUShowEveryPartition 1 and hit 'enter'.
Launch Disk Utility and mount the hidden, but now showing "Recovery HD" by selecting it in the sidebar and clicking the "mount" menu.  Here it did mount with its proper name "Recovery HD".

Then rename it by using Terminal and this command:
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/Recovery\ HD --label "Recovery HD",
or change the label "Recovery HD" to something that's preferred.

To revert Disk Utility's 'show all partitions' just use the same command with '0' instead of '1':
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUShowEveryPartition 0

Edit: changes in macOS Sierra lead to a different approach:

Find the disk identifier by running the following command in Terminal:

  diskutil list

This will identify the Recovery HD with diskXsX (e.g. disk0s3)

Mount the Recovery HD with the help of its found identifier, e.g.:

  diskutil mount disk0s3

as in the example mentioned above in step 1, replacing "disk0s3" with your own found identifier.

Then use the following command for the disk label to change:

  sudo bless --folder /Volumes/Recovery\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices --label "Recovery HD"

Again, replacing "Recovery HD" for your own preferred disk label.


What's the easiest way to free up disk space on my iMac with a huge photo library?

Assuming your NAS is always available and connected to your iMac, you can move both iPhoto and iTunes libraries to the NAS and use

symbolic links from ~/Pictures and ~/Music to fool the applications
start the application with Option pressed to select the alternative location
iTunes: select alternative storage location in Options
iPhoto: start by double-clicking moved library file


Having separte Apple accounts on same device

When you change countries, you will no longer receive app update notifications on your iOS device or in iTunes for the apps you purchased in your original country.

However, you will still be able to download those applications again for free if they are present on your new country's store (even if they are updated).

You will not be charged and the download will not appear on your Purchased page.

If the app is not available in your new country, you will not be able to download it again.


Safari won’t load, it freezes shortly after I open it and the coloured wheel appears

I just had a Macbook Air with Safari that would immediately crash when trying to launch.  This was on a Mojave system.
To fix, I would up reinstalling OS (reboot and press and hold Command+R).
Safari is now working fine.


Is it possible to delete the "useless" apps pre-installed on my Mac?

I strongly recommend against removing standard applications:

Most of them need hardly any space at all (the three mentioned in the question need 14 MBytes together)
An upcoming OS X version may expect them to be there
There is no easy way to get them back once you removed them


Is there a package management system for shell scripts on Mac OS?

Shell scripts don't need much packaging, so most people use a source control system for this. There are dozens of options, but I'd start with github and come back with a more detailed question once the github / source control system broke under the strain of volume of your scripts or the complexity of the situation.

As it stands, we can only guess what your true requirements are since all three examples you list run natively on OS X and you can roll your own packages according to each recipe if you prefer to use them.

For internet hosting, you could easily use GitHub since they host files for download or you could push the files to Amazon S3 and many other cloud hosting services that serve up files for free or inexpensively. Amazon for example allows 5 GB of free space and 20,000 hits per month before you need to pay them anything. Dropbox also has no practical limit on the number of hits, but offers less space initially if you were to sign up for a new account with them.


How to strip a Hebrew text of vowels and punctuation in AppleScript?

ASCII number is deprecated and doesn't work correctly with unicode text, use id of someCharacter:

set charNum to id of "בְּ" -- this return id of 3 characters because "בְּ" is a composed character
log charNum
set charNum to id of "ב"
log charNum
-->result:
(*1489, 1456, 1468*)
(*1489*)

So, I do not know how to do this in pure AppleScript.

But, you can use a perl command in a do shell script:

-- The text look not good in this code block, but it will be correct after the compilation of the script
set theString to "בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד׃ (פ)"

return do shell script "perl -CSD -pe  'use utf8; s~\\p{NonspacingMark}~~og; s~־|׀~ ~g;  s~ +~ ~g;' <<< " & quoted form of theString

Here is a brief explanation of the perl script

the -CSD option : the output and the error will be in UTF-8, the
input is assumed to be in UTF-8
s~\\p{NonspacingMark}~~og : Remove non spacing marks
s~־|׀~ ~g : Replace all ־ and ׀ by a space
s~ +~ ~g : Replace multiple spaces in a row by one space

If your AppleScript read the text from a file, you can use perl to read the file:

do shell script "perl -CSD -pe  'use utf8; s~\\p{NonspacingMark}~~og; s~־|׀~ ~g;  s~ +~ ~g;' < " & quoted form of posix path of pathOfTheTextFile

The encoding of the file must be utf8.

Another solution is to use a Cocoa-AppleScript:

        use framework "Foundation"
        use scripting additions
        -- The text look not good in this code block, but it will be correct after the compilation of the script
        set theString to "בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד׃ (פ)"

        return stripString(theString)

        on stripString(t)
            set sourceString to current application's NSMutableString's stringWithString:t
            set myOpt to current application's NSRegularExpressionSearch
            set theSuccess to sourceString's applyTransform:(current application's NSStringTransformStripCombiningMarks) |reverse|:false range:(current application's NSMakeRange(0, (sourceString's |length|))) updatedRange:(missing value)
            if theSuccess then
                -- *** Replace all "־" and "׀" by a space, each character must be separated by a vertical bar character, e.g. "a|d|z"
                sourceString's replaceOccurrencesOfString:"־|׀" withString:" " options:myOpt range:(current application's NSMakeRange(0, (sourceString's |length|)))

                -- **** Replace multiple spaces in a row by one space
                sourceString's replaceOccurrencesOfString:" +" withString:" " options:myOpt range:(current application's NSMakeRange(0, (sourceString's |length|)))
                return sourceString as string -- convert the NSString object to an AppleScript's string
            end if
            return "" -- else, the transform was not applied
        end stripString

According to the commentary:

For a droplet, the script need an on open handler, like this:

on open theseFiles
    repeat with f in theseFiles
        set cleanText to do shell script "perl -CSD -pe  'use utf8; s~\\p{NonspacingMark}~~og; s~־|׀~ ~g;  s~ +~ ~g;' " & quoted form of POSIX path of f
        -- do something with that cleanText
    end repeat
end open

If you want to do an in-place editing (the perl script need  the -i option + '.some name extension'):

This will create backup of each file (it add ".bak" after the
   name)

on open theseFiles
    repeat with f in theseFiles -- ***  create a backup and edit the file in-place ***
        do shell script "perl -i'.bak' -CSD -pe  'use utf8; s~\\p{NonspacingMark}~~og; s~־|׀~ ~g;  s~ +~ ~g;' " & quoted form of POSIX path of f
    end repeat
end open

If you don't want a backup of each file (the perl script need  the -i option + ''), like this:

-- ***  edit the file in-place without backup***
do shell script "perl -i'' -CSD -pe  'use utf8; s~\\p{NonspacingMark}~~og; s~־|׀~ ~g;  s~ +~ ~g;' " & quoted form of POSIX path of f


Positioning desktop icons on the left instead of right

There is no way to force icons to go to the left automatically (and stay arranged by the criterion you choose).

As a workaround, you can change the View Options in Finder to not arrange items by any criterion and place icons manually on the left.

Click on an empty space on the desktop.
Press Cmd+J or use the mouse to go to the Finder's View > Show View Options menu.
In the Sort by: dropdown in the dialog, choose either None or Snap to Grid.
You'll be able to drop files anywhere on your desktop and they'll stay there.

See Mac Basics: Modify your windows for more information.

Also go through the Mac Basics pages to learn more about using a Mac.


Missing emojis from iPhone English keyboard on iOS 9.3.1

Go to Settings, then general, then keyboard, then keyboards, then add keyboards, then find "Emoji" and add it.

Edit: thanks Tom.


There is no security risk. That is only audio and no data access is possible.

But there maybe some health concerns if using previously used earphone that are not sterilized. Whipping them with a germs killer wet-tissue or alcohol should do it.


I work as the Mac admin for a large non profit.  At the moment I oversee roughly 200~ or so Macs, both in our main office and deployed across the world.  The Mac influx has only been a thing for the past 3-4 years, before that they were largely windows based and as such are deeply intrenched in MS Exchange and Active Directory.  Now that Macs make up about 35-40% of the user base, and are growing rapidly, that may change.  However, this is still the environment.  This is how I deal with the questions you posed...

Configuring and deploying of new/existing Macs: This is largely handled by DeployStudio.  I have scripts and a workflow in place that mostly automate the process of installing all the base software (MS Office, Citrix Receiver, etc), custom user settings (user template, dock settings, Finder preferences, etc), base admin account creation, printer drivers, etc.  This is the workflow I apply to all new Macs that come in the door, it is done without first wiping and imaging the Mac, a process referred to as thin imaging.  For existing Macs that need to be redeployed I will reimage them using an image that has been created from comparable new Macs that have new software (just pulled 10.9.2 from a MacBook Pro Retina for example) and then apply the same workflow I mentioned before.  New Macs take about 5 minutes to complete from unboxing to ready to deploy, re-deployed Macs take about 30 minutes due to the larger image.  All of this is done via net boot and can be done anywhere in our 6 story building.  Profile Manager is later used to deploy different settings and whatnot.
Install and manage software of Macs that are in active use: This is mostly handled through Apple Remote Desktop (ARD).  You can use free tools such as PackageMaker, IceBerg, etc to create a custom installation package (if needed) and then remotely install that to either a single Mac or groups of Macs using ARD.  I believe ARD costs about $80 but in my experience it pays for itself rather quickly.  It has lots of management tools built in, allowing you to VNC control Macs, send scripts, install packages, etc.  I have a second install of ARD on our main Mac server, which I use as a Task Server.  I can set up installations on that server and as Macs come online it pushes out the installations to them, which is great since we have lots of staff coming and going at all times.  Another popular tool for this is Munki, which I don't have much experience with but am starting to look at.  Most Mac admins tend to swear by it.
Install software updates from Apple & third-party developers: I use the built in Software Update Serve (SUS) and Caching Server provided by Mac OS X Server.  The SUS allows you to serve out and manage (blocking/allowing updated) software updates from your local Mac server.  The drawback to this is it can only serve out updates for systems matching it's OS version and older, Macs need to be configured to look for it specifically, etc.  Caching Server is proving to be a better fit.  It requires to configuration on the client end, caches and serves out Mac App Store, iOS App Store, iBooks and Apple software updates.  Its only downside is that you can't block certain updates.  This is another area where a lot of people use Munki.  For third party updates (usually Flash, Java, etc) I'll create an installer package then push it out via ARD.
Provide secure login and user experience management on each Mac: As I mentioned we use Active Directory (AD) for the majority of our user account control.  I also bind all of our Macs to the Open Directory (OD) on our main Mac server, which allows for more Mac centric controls.  Beyond that each Mac has a local administrator account, which is what we use for connecting via ARD and whatnot.  New users sign in at the login screen, it checks Active Directory, pulls their info and creates a Mobile Account, which allows them to still login when their outside our network.
Inventory or asset management: Right now we use Spiceworks, free help desk software, that has a lot of this built in.  It scans the network on a user set schedule and adds new Macs/devices as they are found.  It's built more for Windows / AD use but it is ok with Macs.  We're currently exploring other options.

Additional - If I were you I would seek to make use of OS X Server.  It has relatively meager system requirements so you could likely find and use an old iMac or Mac mini for relatively cheap.  The Server app itself is $20, ARD is $80.  All in all it's pretty cost effective to setup a Mac server environment using their tools.  Once setup you can do the majority of things that larger software/management tools, like JAMF Casper and whatnot, offer for much greater costs.  It's likely not as smooth but it will still save you lots of time.

Hope that helps!


Old external HDD drive not recognized properly in new enclosure

Answer from bwDraco on SuperUser
This version posted as Community Wiki

  The enclosure exposes the drive to the computer as an Advanced Format 4Kn device, allowing the use of MBR for compatibility with

  Windows XP systems. When the drive is removed from the enclosure, the
  change in logical sector format results in an invalid partition table.

  External hard drives larger than 2 TiB in capacity often expose 4K sectors directly to the operating system. The 2 TiB limit commonly
  associated with MBR is tied to the traditional 512-byte sector size;
  4K sectors are eight times as large and therefore extend the MBR limit
  to 16 TiB. This allows the use of MBR on disks larger than 2 TiB in
  capacity, enabling use on Windows XP and other systems which do not
  support GPT.
  The underlying hard drive uses 512-byte sector emulation for compatibility with legacy systems. This means that while the disk
  physically has 4K sectors, the immediate host device (in this case,
  the enclosure) sees 512-byte sectors. However, to perform the
  aforementioned MBR expansion and enable Windows XP compatibility, the
  enclosure makes the drive appear to the computer as having 4K native
  sectors.
  When the drive is removed from the enclosure, the 512-byte logical sectors of the underlying 512e disk are exposed. This results in an
  invalid partition table that cannot be correctly interpreted. The
  746.52 GiB value you gave for the last "partition" when the drive is connected directly is precisely the amount of space that lies beyond
  the 2 TiB limit for MBR drives with 512-byte sectors.

  More details about the implications of this conversion are available
  in this blog post.


Is it true that all cameras of all generations of iPhone can have photo + video geotagging?

Your statements are all true.

Though the geotagging on the first iPhone wasn't really precise since there was no built-in GPS : it used the GSM triangulation to localize the phone (source).


Finder drops connection to server / network attached storage

I resolved the issue of keeping the disk mounted by using the caffeinate command. Caffeinate keeps the system from sleeping as described in the man page.


How to prevent a "Bluetooth keyboard setup. There isn't a keyboard connected" message at startup

You have to turn off Bluetooth Assistant.

In Preferences, Bluetooth, click the Advanced button, then uncheck "Open Bluetooth Assistant at Startup if no keyboard is detected."

Once you turn it off, you should have no problems booting in a headless configuration.


Can't load music onto my iPhone 5S with my Mac running 10.6.8

There are 2 options for putting music on your iPhone. Manually or Syncing. If syncing is enabled then there's a Music-Section when your iPhone is selected, where you can check playlists, artists etc. that you'd like to sync. Alternatively there's a checkmark that says "Manage Music manually" (or something alike - my system is german). When you can put music on your iPod/iPhone via drag and drop.


Super bad audio quality from iPhone 6s Plus speaker

Apple generally give 72 hours for a Dead On Arrival (DOA) or Early Life Failure (ELF) swaps.

I would take it to an Apple retail store as soon as possible to have them test it.


Multiple applications quit unexpectedly (Chrome, Evernote, Pages, etc)

The best way to solve a general issue like this is to focus on one problem.

Pick one app (perhaps Pages, since you can get good Apple support on it if needed) and follow the typical troubleshooting steps.

Get a pen and paper and write down what you change:

Reboot the machine and test that one app
Reboot into safe mode and test that app
Make a new user account and see if the problem happens there
etc…

The pen and paper also help to note the time when things fail - so you can look over the logs or get trained help when you have exhausted the things you can address in troubleshooting.

If you don't have a good background on things to try, Apple has a nice article on how to troubleshoot:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1199

The real art here is how to decide it's software and not hardware.


El Capitan folder permissions to make admin accounts read-only

No. Admin accounts can modify any ACL or permission you make to keep them out.

Admin = root on OS X

I would consider placing the files on a file server and control access over file sharing (where your account is the only admin) or remove admin permissions from the accounts that cannot be trusted to not be malicious or careless.


How can I make the Facebook app forget everything?

The reason this happens is that deleting app and data deletes only the actual app and the data files it left in its sandbox. This leaves out the information the app has stored in the iOS Keychain. This information is not deleted when an app is deleted.
There could be many reasons why Apple chose to do it this way. For example a large company could have several different apps in a group relying on the same Keychain data - for example Facebook also makes apps like Creator Studio, Portal and Facebook Gaming. If deleting one app deleted the Keychain data as well, the other apps might stop working contrary to what a user might expect.
In an earlier beta release of iOS, Apple did actually experiment with deleting the Keychain data when deleting an app - trying to preserve Keychain data only when other apps in the same group were installed. This lead to confusion for some users as to when the Keychain data was actually deleted - as well as frustration for some users that were used to deleting apps to "save space temporarily" and relied on reinstalling them also making them automatically login again. The change was reverted and never went into the actual iOS release.
As a user there's unfortunately no general way to delete the Keychain data of a specific app. You can only wipe the whole device to delete everything by opening Settings, tap General, then Reset and then Erase All Content and Settings. Beware that this will delete everything on the devices - not just Facebook or the Keychain.
Remember to take care if you're syncing your Keychain across multiple devices using iCloud.


Is a SSD with the following First Aid report salvageable?

There are several data recovery programs for the Mac. A few are Stellar Recovery, EASEUS, and Disk Drill.  There are several others as well. A google search on "Mac data recovery ssd" will find these and more. Most of these are not cheap. Often in the $50-$60 range. Several may offer free trials though so you can test the app and maybe recover your data in one trial.
I can't really recommend one over the others. I used Stellar once and it recovered some of my data off my HDD.  SSDs are more difficult.


Since OS X Lion was around $30 USD on release you definitely, definitely wouldn't want to torrent the .iso. I would image you could find the torrent fairly easily if you were to look. But you wouldn't do that, would you, because that would be immoral and possibly illegal in your area.


Nothing is safe in security terms, all that you can say is that there is a risk and try to quantify it.

For Java there are often exploits for Java applets and at some time Apple found that they and Oracle could not produce a fix quick enough to stop a well known exploit. Apple then put out a change to Safari to block all Java applets if the Java version was below a given version and this version limit is increased regularly.

The latest Apple-provided Java installer as of 17 Oct 2014 is Java for OS X 2014-001. It fixes the vulnerabilities listed here by providing a version of Java version 1.6.0_65.

Also see this answer

There will be vulnerabilities in that but Apple have so far decided none of those known to them are serious enough to block the use of this version or produce a new version.


How to keep sound from muting while using dictation?

You need to set some hidden preferences to make this work (OS X 10.9 - Mavericks). Open Terminal and enter the two commands below:

defaults write com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore AllowAudioDucking -bool NO
defaults write com.apple.speech.recognition.AppleSpeechRecognition.prefs DictationIMAllowAudioDucking -bool NO

After doing this turn off dictation in Systems Preferences, wait a few seconds and then re-enable it. You should now be able to dictate while audio is playing. I’ve only tried this while using a headset/headphones, it’s probably not advisable without. :)

To restore your system to it’s virginal state, run these commands in Terminal and then restart dictation:

defaults delete com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore AllowAudioDucking
defaults delete com.apple.speech.recognition.AppleSpeechRecognition.prefs DictationIMAllowAudioDucking

Found via: https://gist.github.com/rmangino/8388849


I would check your Login items:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Users & Groups
Make sure your User Account is selected at top left
Click on the Login Items tab
Look for an item called Matlab drive connector (or something similar that could be triggering this) in the list of login items
Now remove this item by clicking on its name (so it's highlighted) and then clicking on the minus - button
Once it's removed, exit System Preferences
Restart your Mac to test to see if the problem still persists


Send an email as an attachment from iPhone

While you still can't attach emails from the Mail app in iOS 11 on iPhones, you can now drag and drop emails onto an email draft that you're editing on iPads that are running iOS 11 (so far I've tested on an iPad Pro 10.5 and an iPad 5th Gen running 11.2.1).

Create a new email (or forward or reply to an existing email)
Swipe down on the email title bar (where it says "New Message" or the subject line) - you should now be able to interact with Mail again
Tap and hold on the email in your inbox list that you want to attach (it will appear to pop up)
Drag that email to the title bar of the draft email at the bottom of the screen until the edit window pops back open
Continue to drag that email to the body section of the email draft and a green circle with a plus sign will appear on the email that you're dragging
Drop/release into the body of the email you're editing - you should now see a .eml file attached

Hopefully this means there's hope this will come to iPhones in the future!


Trying to restart a MacBook Pro that went off by itself with a battery that indicated "Service Battery"?

I woke up yesterday morning to this article in my newsfeed:

http://www.businessinsider.com/man-fixes-laptop-by-putting-it-in-the-oven-2014-12

When we replaced the first logic board, I had found that this is a widespread problem and people are trying to get Apple to address it.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/01/16/owners-of-late-2011-macbook-pros-report-critical-gpu-failures-system-crashes

I will update this answer with what Apple comes back with when the laptop is returned from its second trip to the faraway fix up land.


What results in the price difference for seemingly the same product?

There's no hardware or software difference.
As with all other retailers, everyone is free to set their own price. The price can be based on all sorts of parameters, which makes it impossible to say exactly why retailer A is xx$ cheaper or more expensive than retailer B.
It could be for example that a retailer has lower costs. For example having an online presence versus a physical presence is typical less costly. Similarly could spending different amounts on customer service, warranty repairs/support, etc.
It could also be that a retailer that is also the maker of the product wants to be in the market at a relatively high price in order to ensure that other retailers find it worth while to sell their products.
It could also be that one retailer earns money from other sources than the specific product sale - and that makes it possible for them to lower their price. For example by gathering data about the customer, or simply by having the customer browsing their web site making it more likely that they will buy other products from the same retailer.


Terminal appears to ignore autoproxyurl setting

User error strikes again!

I wasn't using the easy_install flags correctly, needs to be:

easy_install --user <package>

and not  --user.


I like to use "MultiIcon Mover"

You hold your finger down - like usual - but then instead of having to drag each one individually...  you just tap on the ones you want to move... even if they're on separate pages.  they get "highlighted with a checkmark... and then you navigate to the "page" that you want to put them on. Hit the home button and they'll all plop onto that page. (space permitting)

You can sort hundreds of icons in just a few minutes.  No more ridiculous dragging around.

Jailbreak only.  Find it on Cydia.


Early 2008 Macbook Pro won't eject Windows 7 Professional disc when prompted

You can force eject the disc by restating. When you hear the chime Press COMMAND-E or hold down the trackpad/mouse button.


Does OSX have a hidden "Device Manager" list like Windows?

Search for System Information in Lion or later (or System Profiler in Snow Leopard and earlier versions of Mac OS) in Spotlight (press ⌘ and Space).

The program is in /Applications/Utilities and is the tool to see the connected USB devices and other hardware details. It is quite simliar to Device Manager on Windows.

Alternatively you can access it via the Apple Menu

 -> About This Mac -> More Info... -> System Report...

The System Information can save system profiler information to a file, so you could review an older snapshot to see what was connected once, but the Mac OS doesn't record all the devices connected - just the ones actually connected when you run the tool and it scans the current items on the device tree.


Stop Chrome loading videos in background tabs?

Until Chrome comes up with that function like FF, the closest you can get to it is to Disable lots of bandwidth and storage consuming apps.

That can be done here:

Also go to your chrome://plugins/

and disable all Plugins you do not want.

That will not stop the background loading of the page but will limit the what, and you can still use them at your desire (it will ask you).

And it looks like this example of not loading some advertisement at the top of a page.


When I text my friend who has my old iPhone I get the same text sent to my new iPhone as well.

Sounds like your friend's iPhone is still connected to your Apple ID. Tell her to go to Settings > iCloud > scroll to the bottom and tap 'Delete this account'

Better yet, have her restore from iTunes to get a completely fresh install — That's your best bet to remove all your information from the phone


Is the following sufficient?

uname -a
Darwin Macmini-i53.local 13.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Thu Sep 19 22:22:27 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

last | grep -e boot -e shut
reboot    ~                         Mon Dec  2 09:57
shutdown  ~                         Mon Dec  2 09:54
reboot    ~                         Fri Nov 29 12:45
shutdown  ~                         Fri Nov 29 12:40


Setting arrangement of new Finder Window via AppleScript

For reasons of which I cannot explain, this following code was unreliable and only worked about 50% of the time.

tell application "Finder"
        set finderWindowID to (make new Finder window)
        set current view of finderWindowID to icon view
        set arrangement of icon view options of finderWindowID to arranged by name
end tell

After trying several different things, I realized if I ran the code once, then closed that Finder window that was created, and ran the code again...  I got the desired results every time.

I know it's ugly and not very efficient but this produced the proper results.

setIconView()
tell application "Finder" to close finderWindowID
setIconView()

to setIconView()
    global finderWindowID
    tell application "Finder"
        set finderWindowID to (make new Finder window)
        set current view of finderWindowID to icon view
        set arrangement of icon view options of finderWindowID to arranged by name
    end tell
end setIconView


Is there a way to prevent voice dictation from turning off the system audio?

Run these two commands in terminal.

defaults write com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore AllowAudioDucking -bool NO
defaults write com.apple.speech.recognition.AppleSpeechRecognition.prefs DictationIMAllowAudioDucking -bool NO

Then restart Dictation.


Not with rsync alone. rsync doesn't know how to read or act on OS X file meta data, which labels happen to be. But, you can pass rsync an explicit list of files to sync. Combine this with the fact that you can use mdls to read label information on files from the command line and you could build a list of files and send that list to rsync.

> mdls -name kMDItemFSLabel Amanda\ Palmer\ \&\ The\ Grand\ Theft\ Orchestra\ --\ Do\ It\ With\ a\ Rockstar.mp3
kMDItemFSLabel = 4


Is there a keyboard shortcut to navigate full screen windows of the same application?

Witch also includes full screen windows, and ⌥⇥ selects the next window from the current application by default.

Or if you use an application that has its own implementation for full screen windows (like WriteRoom), ⌘` usually includes custom full screen windows.


Is there a way to set iCloud to keep enough SSD space on Macbook Air?

All you need to do is right click on a folder in icloud using finder, takes a second. Right click on the folder and select "remove download".
This is a simple control to manage  iCloud storage locally.


An image editor with an API (preferably python-oriented)

Preview supports AppleScript which allows you to open and save files from CLI. There are commands for open and save.

For example, to open a file with Preview:

tell application "Preview"
    open "/path/to/file.png"
end tell

You can run AppleScript as a script file, or from the command line using osascript -e "…".

osascript -e "tell application \"Preview\"" -e "open \"/path/to/file.png\"" -e "end tell"

You can find the full Preview AppleScript dictionary by opening Script Editor.app (from the Utilities folder), choosing File → Open Dictionary and selecting Preview. This will show you many of the commands that Preview supports with the syntax for how to use them.


How to usb tether a wifi network using iphone

The personal hotspot feature uses the cellular data connection. It's currently not possible to share the Wi-Fi connection from your iPhone without jailbreaking.

If your iPhone is jailbroken you can use Bridge Mode with MyWi.


The problem has been solved by switching the input source from "Unicode Hex Input" (my major input source) to "U.S.". I think some option based shortcuts can't function as usual with "Unicode Hex Input". You can update the input sources by searching "unicode" to be directed to system preferences -> Keyboard. Click "Input Sources" and remove other input methods that might be causing the error. Then open a new window for the program you want to test.


Set Push to ON (under settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendar->Fetch New Data). You can even select push or pull for each single mail account under Advanced.


How to resolve Bootcamp failed installation error

The Boot Camp Assistant attempts to create a temporary internal FAT32 formatted volume containing the files from the Windows 10 ISO and the Windows Support Software downloaded from the internet. However, since the ISO contains a file named install.wim in the sources directory which is over the 4 GB size limit for FAT32 volumes, the Boot Camp Assistant fail to complete this task.

You reference a solution where this file would be broken down into smaller files. However, there is a possibility that this solution alone would not be sufficient. If the internal FAT32 formatted value was to small in size to contain all the files in the latest Windows 10 ISO, then the Boot Camp Assistant would again fail.

The obvious solution would be to upgrade to a newer version of macOS, where the volume would be exFAT formatted and sufficient in size. Beyond the obvious, here are the steps I would suggest following.

Use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows Support Software.
Shrink the macOS partition and create a new ExFAT formatted partition labeled BOOTCAMP.
Erase a 16 GB or larger flash drive. Use ExFAT format and a Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning scheme.
Mount the ISO. Copy all the files to the 16 GB flash drive.
Copy all the Window Support Software files to the 16 GB flash drive.
Boot the mac from the flash drive. Look for EFI Boot in the Mac Startup Manager. My suspicion is that this will fail because your Mac has not had the firmware upgrade provided by installing High Sierra. If this happens, proceed as follows.
Erase a 8 GB or larger flash drive. Use MS-DOS (FAT) format and a Master Boot Record (MBR).
Copy all the files, except for the sources\install.wim file, from the 16 GB flash drive to the 8 GB flash drive.
Boot from the 8 GB flash drive and install Windows 10 to the BOOTCAMP volume. (You will have to format this volume before proceeding)
A some point during installation, the Mac may boot back to macOS. If this occurs, select Windows as the startup disk in System Preferences, then restart the Mac. Installation of Windows will continue.

The method relies on booting from the FAT32 formatted flash drive and having the Windows installer automatically find the install.wim file on the ExFAT formatted flash drive. It seems improbably that this would work, but it did when testing in VirtualBox.


IMAgent is a process that listens for FaceTime invitations. It will be active even if FaceTime isn't running. You don't have to block it, but if you don't use FaceTime you can open the application, open preferences, and turn off FaceTime. That should quit the IMAgent process.


It is called iCloud and is released next Month.


Push notifications only work every now and then

Is your iDevice jailbroken?
If it is you could potentially use Push Doctor to fix the push problems you're having.


No, the Big Sur support for older hardware is the same now as it was in June when it was publicly released. The only temporary change is two models are temporarily blocked from starting an update - https://mrmacintosh.com/big-sur-11-0-1-20b50-released-to-block-install-for-2013-14-13-mbpros/ but your model should be good to go for restores and installations.
What does and now it's not working! mean precisely?
Now, older hardware goes out of support all the time based on the age of purchase and has nothing to do with whether the gear runs the new OS. Either way, if you want to ask a follow on question for your specific symptom, we may have help for that whether it’s out of “official support or not, but hopefully this answers how Apple will support you.


Any reason to turn off wifi when connected by cable to network on A/C power for MBPr

Turning Wi-Fi off ensures traffic isn't accidentally sent over Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet. You can set the network priority in System Preferences, but I've had OS X send traffic over Wi-Fi even though it should have been sent over Ethernet. That being said, if you don't particularly care which network your traffic goes over, there's no harm in leaving Wi-Fi on.


Can "Buy with ApplePay" sync between a website and an app?

I do not believe it is possible. Apple makes it very clear that, in order to protect your privacy, they cannot see what you buy with ApplePay. So there is no way ApplePay could be used to look up past purchases.


Cycling doesn't trigger the 'step' recognition the way actual steps do.

The subsystem responsible for the step sensor in fact does a great deal of work to filter out anything that isn't an actual step.

So the fact that some cycle moves make it through could actually be considered a flaw.

What actual cycling apps do instead is:

use the location service (e.g. GPS) of the phone,
merge this with optional data from other sensors (like wheel speed or cadence),
optionally feed the resulting cycle metrics into the Health app.

This is why you can possibly find cycling data in someone's Health database – apps can use it to store their own sensor data or metrics. But so far (early 2016) iPhones don't directly feature built-in cycling sensors.


How to Drag and Drop between full screen apps on a Mac using a standard mouse?

Grab (mouse click) the item you want to drag from say the desktop or email.
Hit Command+Tab on the keyboard to switch through the open apps you have running (holding Command down continuously, and hitting Tab repeatedly) until you get to the app you want to drop the file on. KEEP HOLDING DOWN ON THE MOUSE BUTTON WHILE YOU DO THIS.
When the app you want to drag the item to is the foreground app. You should simply be able to drop (let go of the mouse button) the item you’ve been dragging, and it should be copied or attached to that app.


How can I use a different navigation app from within Maps?

You cannot change the underlying routing service with the default maps app for driving instructions, but what you can do is choose 3rd party applications for certain routing routing options, namely cycle routes, public transport options etc that are not provided by default within the app directly (since the switch to Apple's own mapping service).

Following the steps from this knowledge base article, the workflow seems to be

  Transit

  Maps in iOS allows you to choose your own third-party app from the App
  Store to provide transit information. To choose a transit option, tap
  . You can choose from the list of installed third-party transit apps,
  or you will be directed to download one from the App Store.

This is a little misleading, as you actually need to select the Public Transport icon first, then try to route it first before it offers you a choice of what to use to route with.  At this point it will offer you a list that shows currently installed options as well as choices from the App Store:

You could also click on a dropped pin and choose Public Transport Directions underneath the directions to/from here text to get to the same screen.

Once you select from one of your installed apps (or go to the App Store, download one, then repeat the process when you have one installed), it should then switch to that app for routing.  Note that it will switch to the 3rd party app and route using either Public Transport or whatever option the app provides (for example Co-Rider does;t offer Public Transport, only Cycle Routes, but it's still accessed in the same way).

By default driving and walking directions will always be provided in app using Apples own systems. If you want 3rd party driving directions then you will need to do a crafty workaround; choose Public Transport then your 3rd party app that also supports driving instructions (for example Google Maps and Waze in my screenshot - the types of routing options available are listed against each app), then switch back to driving options once you have the 3rd party app open with the start & destination set.  To use Google Maps as your example, it will open happily showing your transit options, and a single tap in the top left icon to switch to driving gets your end result via the back door.


@Niklas I solved the problem, but not using stty. Instead, I've been using Karabiner-Elements to do custom configuration on the Terminal keys (without affecting the rest of my bindings).

Basically you install the Karabiner-Elements app and then write a "complex modifications" rule in the karabiner.json file to swap whatever you want. Here is a guide on how to configure the json config.

My karabiner.json looks something like this:

{
  "name" : "com.apple.Terminal",
  "simple_modifications" : {
    "left_option" : "left_control",
    "left_command" : "left_option",
    "right_control" : "right_command",
    "right_option" : "right_control",
    "right_command" : "right_option",
    "left_control" : "left_command"
  },
  "complex_modifications" : {
    "rules" : [
      {
        "manipulators" : [
          {
            "to" : [
              {
                "key_code" : "c",
                "modifiers" : [
                  "left_command"
                ]
              }
            ],
            "type" : "basic",
            "from" : {
              "key_code" : "c",
              "modifiers" : {
                "mandatory" : [
                  "left_control"
                ],
                "optional" : [
                  "any"
                ]
              }
           }
        ]
      },
      ... more rules for all the stty characters, etc
    ]
  }
}


Open Terminal and Run command as different User to show status messages

You don't say which MDM software you are using. I am in a JAMF Pro shop and we use SplashBuddy for displaying status as software installs.


What is "Paused (On Battery)" mean in Mail.app?

It may have paused while you were operating your MacBook on battery power. As per Apple support document, If Mail on your Mac downloads messages only when you open them:

  When your Mac notebook is running on battery power, Mail in OS X El Capitan conserves energy by pausing the full download of messages that are that are older than 30 days, or older than the 10,000th message downloaded. Mail downloads messages from newest to oldest.


I managed to find appropriate app for this purpose. Its name is VLC for iOS -> https://itunes.apple.com/pl/app/vlc-for-ios/id650377962?mt=8

I can connect my DropBox account and play music.


Restore WhatsApp History from old Number

Afaik there is no other possibility restoring WhatsApp messages than doing it via an iPhone backup. WhatsApp officially does not store messages except those, which can't be directly delivered. WhatsApp will always refuse giving you access to this kind of data.

So your only chance will be to find an old backup of your device and try to back your device up with that old state.

Please also provide some information, if your issue is solved or what other step you took to figure it out.

Edit to be clear: WhatsApp history backups are only stored in your device's backup :)


How to make audio+video channel syncing (when doing splitting ) more user friendly?

is this the only way?

No, nor the friendly way.

Using the Control button to maintain the current position.

Place the line marker where you want to split the clips.
While holding the control button > click on the movie clip > select
Split Clip.
While still holding the control button down > click on the audio track > select Split Clip.

That's it.


Is there a way to change the organizer for Family Sharing?

I ended up using the disband method and had no trouble recreating the family sharing group.

It's not ideal, but now it appears to be the only method.


Reinstall OSX without having firmware password (but having root access to osx)

There is nothing nicer than a fresh install, and the FW password was also an obstacle for me on my Mid-2012 Mac. After tinkering, I was able to erase my Mac to factory default and fresh install, but, this method does not reset the FW password.

You will need:
- An internet connection
- A second apple device connected to an Apple ID
- Your Mac, connected to the same Apple ID with Find My Mac enabled.

Connect iCloud "Find My Mac"
Using another device, locate your Mac and find the "erase" option.
Once your Mac has been erased, you should be taken to the recovery menu by default where you are able to install a fresh version of MacOS without the FW password.

This method will erase and restore your Mac to factory defaults, as if it were just out the box!

This was also my ultimate goal (security paranoia) and was relieved I did not have to go to apple and wait 10+ days for repair.

Unfortunately, after days of googling, tinkering and having faith I would be the first to break the code.... I do not think there is anyway to reset the FirmWare PW unless you visit Apple.


How to use iostat with AppleRAID volume?

BSD iostat - yeeeecchhhhh. There are some things that Gnu/Linux just does better.

What happens when you try iostat -d -n 9 - that should give you an iostat on the first 9 drives hooked up (if you have 9 drives).


The Contacts database is stored in a single SQLite3 database per source. You can find a list of databases by running the following command:

find ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/ -name "AddressBook-v22.abcddb"


I'm not sure with it's like this, but if I compile with gcc-4.9 (as the gcc version I have instaled is version 4.9.2) instead of gcc it works as it should. So the compilation sentence that seems to work is gcc-4.9 -o exec_name program.c. If someone knows why it is like this I would be interested to know.


What is the correct ownership for subdirectories in /usr/local

Out of the box - root:wheel has ownership of /usr/local and 0755 permissions. It's really up to you what you want. Since you clearly have homebrew or remnants of that, I'd do whatever brew doctor says you need to do for the user account you want to run things. I'd say keeping user:admin permissions is just fine for almost all cases in that part of the directory.

I have user:admin and 0775 permissions on everything but /usr/local itself and /usr/local/remotedesktop which match and are root:wheel with 0755.


Unless you bought a very old iMac, its external display port is most likely mini-DVI. If you have something as old as a G4 (the "desk lamp"-looking iMacs), it may be a mini-VGA port. A helpful resource for identifying your model and seeing details of its capabilities is everymac.com - those are the only options I see for any of the 17-inch iMac models.


How to keep track of external hard drives?

This is an interesting (as in unique, but not something I would personally do) way to store files.

My first thought would be to use colored tags.

Put a colored label on each of your external drives
Tag the aliased file/folder with the color associated with the drive's colored label.

Below, I created a folder alias (Music) from a USB drive to my desktop then  I tagged the folder with the red tag to correspond with the color coded USB drive.

The colored tag on the folder alias will tell you which drive the alias resolves to.

You can even use multiple colors on the tag if your drives go above 7.  Here I have blue, orange, and red tagged.

You can find more information on how to fully use Tags from the Apple Support Document:  OS X: Tags help you organize your files


Still uncertain about cause, but here's one thing that fixed it:
In Terminal, as Admin, I did
sudo kill -9 $(ps -ef | egrep -i "(terminal|safari)" | awk '{print $2}' | sort -nr)

Then shut down.  After power on again, things seem to be working properly.


What can be done more with an old ipod touch(First generation)

Maybe not the best iOS device nowadays but it still makes a nifty remote!
I have an Ipod Touch (2nd gen though) that I use to control my mac-mini media center.
It's very intuitive to manage your playlist (iTunes DJ mode) with the Remote app.
And I use Mobile Mouse Pro to use my Ipod as a mouse. User experience  is not as sweet as Remote but still a great app which eliminates the need for keyboard.


Can I snooze notifications from the browser on High Sierra?

Safari doesn't give you the option to exactly "snooze" website notifications (because the snooze feature is Siri suggested with that notification), but you can manage them:

Stop receiving notifications from a website: Choose Safari > Preferences, click Websites, then click Notifications. Find the website in the list, then select Deny.
Change how website notifications appear: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Notifications, select the website on the left, then change the notification alert style and other settings on the right.
Stop seeing notification permission requests in Safari: Choose Safari > Preferences, click Websites, then click Notifications. Deselect “Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications.” From now on, when you visit a website that can send you notifications, you aren’t asked.

Perhaps when MacOS Mojave goes public we will see that as an option. If not, feel free to join the beta/development team and petition your request for that feature.

In the mean time these options work best.


MacBook Pro Mid 2012 (MD101) makes weird sound on wake up/start up

There is no problem as that is the sound the SuperDrive makes when power is applied to it. I found it quite annoying on my first MacBook Pro however my current MacBook Pro doesn't have an internal SuperDrive although the external one make the same sound.

There is nothing you can do to solve it as it's that way by design.


Time Machine Backup: separate configurations for different drives?

"A few times a year I back up pretty much everything to that."
I suggest you use a cloning software package for making your once in awhile copies.
I use Time Machine to get a historic copies of my files and a cloning software package to get a bootable clone of my Startup Disk.
Carbon Copy Cloner will copy your Startup Disk to an external  FireWire drive.  You can boot from the external drive to verify that you have a good clone. When you upgrade your existing Startup Disk, you can at any time boot from your external drive and go back to your existing system.
Slightly modified excerpts from SuperDuper's webpage...

SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery
painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless.
It's incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to
use, and SuperDuper's built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up
automatically. And it runs beautifully on both Intel and PowerPC Macs!
Give SuperDuper a workout on your own system. Clone to your heart's
content, for free. See what else is possible. When you're convinced
that SuperDuper is a terrific solution — and a great value at $27.95 —
you can register right from the application and start using its
advanced features immediately!

Disk Utility
Apple has included an option in Disk Utility – ‘Restore’. This option in Disk Utility allows you to copy the entire data of your hard disk to another hard drive or any external media.
dd command
-- the dd command is not for amateurs. -- you have been warned. --
You can use the dd command to backup a drive or partition. You need to be familiar with /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.  I added this section for completeness.
# save
dd if=/dev/disk0s10 bs=4096m | gzip | dd of=~/disk0-s10 bs=4096m
# restore
dd if=~/disk0-s10 bs=4096m | gunzip | dd of=/dev/disk0s10 bs=4096m

This is riskie if you have never done it before. It may be hard to figure out the correct drive name.

How do use dd:
get a second disk the same size or larger.

What the unix name of the disk will be depends on how you attach the disk.

without the old drive attached to
diskutil list
df

attach the new drive before booting.
repeat the above so you can figure out the name.

Now, that you name the names, you can copy the old disk, /dev/disk0,  to the new disk, /dev/disk1.

sudo dd if=/dev/disk0 bs=4096m |  sudo dd of=/dev/disk1 bs=4096m

# this command should do a block by block copy
# this way you will get the whole disk.
# if= is input
# of= is output

mac $ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *999.0 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 B5476F09-70EA-41C6-8655-72485151AD19
                                 Unencrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Backup - Mac Mini       999.3 GB   disk2s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             784.2 MB   disk2s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Backup - Time Machine   2.0 TB     disk2s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Boot - for Fun          49.5 GB    disk2s5
   6:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk2s6
   7:                  Apple_HFS 1T Backup               985.1 GB   disk2s7
mac $
mac $ df
Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity   iused    ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1     930Gi  864Gi   66Gi    93% 226596185 17296037   93%   /
devfs          193Ki  193Ki    0Bi   100%       669        0  100%   /dev
map -hosts       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%         0        0  100%   /net
map auto_home    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%         0        0  100%   /home
/dev/disk2s2   931Gi  765Gi  166Gi    83% 200428475 43553456   82%   /Volumes/Backup - Mac Mini
/dev/disk2s4   1.8Ti  1.6Ti  147Gi    92% 441119165 38598628   92%   /Volumes/Backup - Time Machine
/dev/disk2s5    46Gi   29Gi   17Gi    63%   7590207  4490899   63%   /Volumes/Boot - for Fun
/dev/disk2s7   917Gi  771Gi  147Gi    84% 202019436 38487474   84%   /Volumes/1T Backup
mac $

http://www.stellarclonedrive.com/disk-utility-to-clone-mac-drive.php


How can I easily add a batch of files to the HandBrake queue?

After adding the folder as the source, File>Add All Titles To Queue


Will iTunes Match organize my local files?

I think if you organize in iCloud this will organize in iCloud in your PC. This is normal to do, but for you want that this organize the local files in the pc you need to go to the preferences and enable the option to keep your directory organized! :)


DiskInventor & OmniDiskSweeper shows different size as Disk Utility

The biggest issue here is that you need to run your analysis tools as root. If you don't do this, you'll only see the files that your account has access to, and so you won't see everything that is taking up space.

I like GrandPerspective personally. If it's in your Applications folder, the command to run it as root looks like this:

sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective


Partition type for boot drive FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF and more

Note: This answer assumes the missing partition on disk1 was not part of a fusion container.

The answer you posted shows the string NXSB\0\^P\0\0+\M-L\M-;\^B\0\0\0\0. This can be converted to hexadecimal and ASCII values by entering the commands given below.
export LC_CTYPE="ASCII"
echo -nE "NXSB\0\^P\0\0+\M-L\M-;\^B\0\0\0\0" | unvis | hexdump -Cv

The output from this command is given below.
00000000  4e 58 53 42 00 10 00 00  2b cc bb 02 00 00 00 00  |NXSB....+.......|
00000010

The string 2b cc bb 02 00 00 00 00 when byte reversed is the hexadecimal value of 2bbcc2b, which is 45,861,931 in decimal. This means the APFS file system contains 45,861,931 blocks, where a block is 4096 bytes in size. In your case, this can be converted to 512 byte sectors by multiplying by 8. The result is 366,895,448 sectors. In this case, the commands to add the APFS container partition are given below.
diskutil unmountdisk disk1
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 366895448 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk1

Note: If missing partition is part of a fusion container, then the value of 366895448 needs to be reduced by the byte size of the other partition after dividing by 512.


Can I assign a language for each iMessage contact?

I don't think automatic switching is available at the moment but a quick way to switch manually without leaving the app is to enable multiple keyboards. You can do this is Settings -> General -> Keyboards.
Your keyboards will now have a globe button next to the 123 button to enable fast switching by tapping the globe and you can hold it down and select the desired language :)
Having the keyboard in a different should change the dictionary and autocorrect features automatically.

Hope this helps


How does access control work on Mac OS X

This set up option will Share your music with others on your local network.

Settings for iTunes sharing

If we are talking about standard Folers (not iTunes) but just any folder in Finder.

Right click on the folder

Select

  Get info

In that window look all the way at the bottom, there is

  small lock

Open it (with your password)

Now you can modify "others" as they show up in your list the access to this folder to

  read only

.


Sharing a iPhoto Library between users on the same computer

Did you have a look at what Apple proposes in the corresponding support document?

It covers using an external hard drive to house one iPhoto Library as well as moving those files to the /Users/Shared folder on the Mac.


Applescript (PDF to iTunes): How to extract and/or write metadata with special characters? Help please :-)

You can use perl to convert escaped unicode character from ASCII text :

tell application "iTunes"
    set sel to the selection
    if sel is {} then display dialog "Please select something" buttons {"Cancel"}
    set tc to count sel
    repeat with i from 1 to tc
        tell (get item i of sel)
            set loc to location
            set authorfield to my getAuthors(loc)
            if authorfield is not "" then set artist to authorfield & "-"
        end tell
    end repeat
end tell

on getAuthors(f)
    do shell script "mdls -name kMDItemAuthors  " & (quoted form of POSIX path of f) & " | /usr/bin/perl -ne 'if (m/^ /) {s/^ +[\"]?|\"$//g;s/\\\\u([[:xdigit:]]{1,4})/chr(eval(\"0x$1\"))/egi;print}' "
end getAuthors

Or python :

do shell script "export PYTHONIOENCODING=UTF-8; /usr/bin/python -c 'import sys; print (sys.argv[1].replace(\"\\U\",\"\\u\").decode(\"unicode-escape\"))' \"$(mdls -name kMDItemAuthors  " & (quoted form of POSIX path of f) & " |  sed -nE 's/\"$//;s/^ +[\"]?//p')\""


How can I avoid data mangling in filenames when copying files between Linux and macOS?

Use the --iconv option for rsync to specify how filenames are encoded on the local and remote hosts - this might help you in keeping the filenames intact.

When you copy from the Linux server to the Mac add the following to the rsync command:

--iconv=utf-8,utf-8-mac

When copying from the Mac to the Linux server use the following:

--iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8

Note that you need a relatively new version of rsync (>3.0) to have the --iconv option. Apple supplies only an old version so you need to go to another site e.g. a package manager like Macports or Homebrew


Change the default Dock stack content display style

This would change the style of all stacks to list, but you have to relaunch Dock to apply the changes:

for n in {0..19}; do /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set persistent-others:$n:tile-data:showas 3" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Dock.plist; done 2> /dev/null

You could run it every 8 hours by running EDITOR=nano crontab -e and adding a line like 0 */8 * * * for n in ....


Same iTunes Library between networked Mac and PC

Basically using iTunes on a shared storage is really bad. Even if you get it running as you want now, you need to reconnect to the network storage before launching iTunes EACH time (and never open iTunes if not connected to the network) otherwise iTunes standard behaviour is to recreate a new iTunes library locally and then you're stuck there again.
However:
Your current problem is most probably that you are using the same iTunes library file/database on both machines (residing on the network volume). There are two parts to your iTunes Library: The iTunes Library Database (.itl and .xml files) and the Media itself. You want the library database to stay in it's default location on your local drive and You Only want the Media folder to be on the NAS.
To achieve this you start up iTunes with a empty library (in the local Music folder) on EACH machine then import the music from the network folder. But before importing make sure you change the setting "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library" to OFF! Otherwise your data is copied back to the local machine...
Then never start iTunes with your network storage disconnected and you will be fine.


Why does Find My iPhone need to be disabled before restoring an iPhone?

Disabling Find My iPhone is required because otherwise someone could steal a phone and wipe it, and the owner wouldn't be able to do anything about it. When you disable Find My iPhone, it requires your Apple ID and password.


OS X 10.9.4 - How can I limit the number of failed login attempts?

If you use OS X Server (which is pretty cheap these days) you can change the global password policy.   http://www.wikihow.com/Image:ServerAppUsrsGrps8.png


How can I find alert-type dialogs that prevent other windows of the same application to be focussed?

In Expose, look for the alert window separate from the other applications, separate from finder.

If that doesn't work, hold command and tap tab until Finder is highlighted, release command. In Finder, swipe up with 4 fingers for Mission Control, or 4 finger swipe down for App Expose (if this isn't enabled, select trackpad in system preferences and under the more options tab, select App Expose and Mission Control. Then repeat these steps. Select alert window.

I've had that problem, Mission Control and Expose should solve. If the alert doesn't show, it may be in another screen. control arrow or use mission control to get to other screen and repeat above steps. Good luck!


What's the best way to install command line utilities such as GIT?

Git's bundled with the free version of Xcode 4 on the app store. That's about as easy and official as it gets in my book. You won't do wrong by choosing homebrew as it's solid and got great momentum plus mindshare presently.


Mac OS: Bluetooth headphones lose sound but not connection

This is not necessarily a macOS or Apple problem.  My thought is that you have an issue with the Bluetooth device itself.

The BT device being connected isn’t a big factor here (well, you obviously need to be connected to transmit data, but that’s not what I’m referring to, here).  The radio signals BT uses isn’t that much different than two way radios used way back when (think of CB radios back in the day)...

Theres a frequency the two devices negotiate to communicate on (breaker one-nine, breaker one-nine)
There’s a broadcast, a handshake and an acknowledgement to communicate (got your ears on, good buddy?  I’m broadcasting in the clear, come on back!)
Then there’s is an exchange of data (there’s a Smokey on your six, be careful.  I’m looking for some go-go juice and to put some groceries down my neck)

In a BT audio device, there’s a DAC, or digital audio converter that translates the digital data to audio.  Think of it as a translator sitting next to converting CB lingo to normal speech (Smokey = police; go-go juice = fuel; groceries down neck = food)

What I believe is happening is this DAC portion of your BT device is crashing.  The connection is still there, but there’s nothing to translate digital to analog and then amplify it so you can hear.

We can confirm this because nothing you do to the Mac has any effect, however, if you restart the BT device, it works again.  You need to replace the BT device with a new one.


Have hearts replaced star ratings in iOS 8.4 with Apple Music/iTunes Match?

No - the controls are moved, though.

Click the song title in the now playing screen, it will change to a set of stars where you can see and change star ratings.


What happens after you grant accessibility permissions to an app downloaded from the Mac App Store (Accessibility Permission = Control Over Your Mac)

Controlling your computer means that software can type for you and make changes to your settings, copy data off the clipboard (think passwords and social security numbers if you ever copy / type them) and generally get at things without you having to type or move the mouse.

Apple put that question there for you to say no always unless and until you really understand how that access is to be used and hopefully you have appropriate trust with the app developer in question.

The same NO should go with typing your password as an administrator when you install software or it asks to do things as root. The percentage of apps that truly need a kernel extension, admin permissions, control over your keyboard and mouse is far less than ask for it.

Once you give control of the both the UI and admin credentials, that Commander One software could then do whatever it pleases with your files and data and system until you remove or revoke the grants of elevated permission.

I’m certainly not saying Commander One does any of that - just that is asks for all the capabilities and nothing would stop that program if it were programmed to do such things.


Projects between iMovie iPhone and iMovie OS X synchronised?

I think you should consider your possibilities.
The iOS iMovie version is greatly limited in capacity, not to mention disk space, compared to its sister application.
You can share 'projects' via iMovie theater, however I use that term loosely. Going back to practicality, if you share a complete project and sync it to your mobile device and lets say this mobile device only has 16GB HDD and you only have a 5GB iCloud storage locker than you will quickly run out of room in easily half of 1 project. With that being said, going back to the mobile devices capabilities, it doesn't have all the features your desktop version has so some things get lost in translation, you may lose a transition you set prior, etc. However, it is a resource to share projects nonetheless. Additionally, the main draw back of iMovie Theater is that it doesn't share the PROJECT thats why I was using that term 'loosely', it shares the entire project movie with it's components (i.e., background music etc) that you have created thus far or the selection of the project you dictate. Theoretically, you can download the iMovie project from the theatre to your device and create a new project on your iPhone where you can add clips and edit there. But you won't be able to edit the properties in the previous project.
What I recommend you doing if your going full scale with this, two of the better options I would recommend is :

Get a Time Capsule, you can set it up to wake over WLAN and essentially use it as both a router and external HDD which files you can access from anywhere. Although, this isn't an iOS friendly option, it's a logical option, because why waste your time creating on an iOS when the features are limited and the projects are decapitated from your devices hardware.
Dropbox, Box, Google Drive etc etc etc. Use a file sharing cloud service to where you can simply save the project there from the get go and edit through that file instead of any of your devices HDD (unless your planning on doing some high processing features in FCPX with rendering etc) then that is a viable option.
Don't use iMovie. It's great and all, but look at its target audience, it's meant for the people that don't have much expertise or the attention span to sit and edit videos, it's one-click and done type editing.
Just get a laptop and save yourself a lot of heartache.

But to answer your question specifically and without bias, then NO, in regards to iMovie Mac and iMovie iOS you can not sync projects where full functionality is retained.


Can't find Excel 2011 Auto-recovered spreadsheet

Finally we found the file in the folder:

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Office/Office 2011 AutoRecovery

As the /Users/username/Library folder is a hidden folder since OSX 10.7 and not by default searched by Spotlight it's incredibly stupid that this folder is auto-suggested when saving a recovered file.


Convert Apple iCloud Notes to Google Docs

You should try using Google Keep, since Google Keep is also a Notes app, the text should not get unformatted.


Compressed hidden files are not hidden anymore when uncompressing on Windows

The filesystem running on macOS and Windows handles hidden files differently. The two approaches, i.e. prepending a dot . character to filename or using chflags hidden won't work as it will set the file as hidden on Mac and not on Windows.

The filenames prepended with . will remain hidden on any UNIX/Linux system.

You can hide files on Windows by getting properties on a file and checking the "hidden" box on the general tab. This will only hide a file if you don't change the default behavior of Windows Explorer to keep hidden files hidden.


How to change the color of Exchange's shared calendar in iCal in 10.10?

I too had the same problem with our Office 365 Shared Calendars, but because these aren't user accounts there was no way for the owner to change the colour as there is no owner on these kinds of calendar. I eventually figured out a way of changing the colours which I've created a tutorial for here on my blog: http://matt-stone.co.uk/change-colours-microsoft-office-365-shared-calendars-apple-calendar-os-x/


How do I take a video version of screenshot on iPod Touch 4th Gen?

You could try Reflector (reflector.com) which is an app that runs on your Mac and grabs sound & video from your ios device over airplay. There's also AirServer but I found that wasn't nearly as responsive and it didn't have video recording ability. Reflector was called Reflection until recently.


The main reason it's always open is that it displays the icons on the desktop. You can check what the finder does by enabling the "Quit" menu feature. To do this, launch the Terminal application and enter the following commands:

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES

Hit return. Then restart the Finder by running

killall Finder

Close the Terminal. Click on the Desktop, choose "Finder" in the top bar, and "Quit Finder". Now you're running without Finder. First thing you'll notice is that all Desktop icons will be gone.

To get your desktop icons back, just click on Finder in the Dock.

If you want to remove the "Quit Finder" menu item, you can do that with:

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool NO


Open directory rebound, profiles not working

Okay I've managed a solution. Note this only works if the open directory hasn't been corrupted like ours was, you'll need to chown the home directory again after a rebind. Here's the steps:

Login to the machine as the network user
Go to https://your.server.com/mydevices and un-enroll
Log out
Log in as local admin user, not network user
Delete all keychain entries for old Open Directory server and MDM
Open Users & Groups
Delete network user, keep home directory
Delete /library/configuration profiles/username (network user)
Reboot
Log in as network user
Create mobile account
Go to profile manager/my devices and enroll the machine
Reboot
Log back in as network user

Transfer old documents/etc from /users/old user (deleted)/ to new user.


Is there a way to hide all file extensions in OS X?

In the Finder, selected the Preferences menu item from the Finder menu. Click the Advanced Tab. Make sure to un-check Show all filename extensions. Close the window.

I had thought this was unset by default, but perhaps not.


Will changing my harddrive to a SSD void my MBP 2011 warranty?

No, it will not void your warranty. If you refer to the top of these instructions, they clearly state only a deviation of the steps outlined may void your warranty:

  Follow the instructions in this document carefully. Failure to follow
  these instructions could damage your equipment and void its warranty.
  Online instructions are available at
  http://www.apple.com/support/diy/

Typically, anything that is printed in the owner's manual is covered under warranty. RAM and changing the hard drive are both topics that are carefully covered, so legally speaking, that means they are user serviceable. Anything user serviceable is covered under warranty (following the above proviso of course).

Unless it explicitly states in the manual that such modifications must be performed by a qualified technician, you will not be in breach of your warranty.


Can I have Apple replace my wireless card with a newer model

OK, never mind. I just discovered all the old info regarding "handoff" is no longer pertinent. All I do is drop a file on the air drop id I see and they get a question pop up asking to save & open, deny or save. Puts it in the download folder.

However, the iPad 3rd gen still does NOT support air drop. Boo hoo. At least, if I get an iPad air 2, it should work with air drop.


File management 'Favorites' list customization

To add any directory to your favorites, first, go to your root dir:

Use: ⌘+⇧+G then type in / in the popup.

Navigate to the directory you want and drag it onto Favorites.


Slow indexing and/or hashing in nearly low memory in OSX

This is a history note for a bug report to Apple, made here.
As discussed earlier with admins, this is ok, since this is one attempt for solution.
Apple does not keep public those reports and does not send any documentation to users so we must keep them public, since they do not do it.


iPad App that can store longer history than Safari

I have been using iCabMobile for quite a while. It's a good and very configurable browser.

Strangely enough it's history setting is not in number of days but a numerical "size" from 0 thru 10,000. It comes by default at 100. Not sure what it means so you may need to ask the developer.


Reliable shortcut for non-ASCII text insertion

Use one of the several text shortcut apps that are out there in the world.
aText (https://www.trankynam.com/atext)
Typinator (https://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/)
Just as a couple of examples.


How to install pgAdmin 4 in server/Desktop mode on Mac?

I have installed anaconda3 already in system.So pgAdmin 4 takes anaconda3 has default path to install.

python /Users/Thirumal/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py

output:

Starting pgAdmin 4. Please navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5050 in your browser.

But it's asking for login


The Windows 10 ISO file you download from Microsoft is not the same as the Windows 10 ISO file created using the Microsoft media creation tool.
The following steps can be used to create the Windows 10 installation media for a PC.

Install VirtualBox.

Note: This is free product.

Go to the link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and download the Windows 10 ISO.

Create a Windows 10 virtual machine.

Note: You do not need a license (product key) to create and temporarily use this Windows 10 virtual machine.

From the virtual machine, Go to the link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and download the Windows 10 media creation tool.

Note: This web page, given in the above link, can not be viewed from Safari unless you select an User Agent such as Microsoft Edge.

Run the media creation tool to either download the Windows 10 ISO or write the installation files to a flash drive.

Note: Access to a flash drive will require the installation of the VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.

If you used the media creation tool to download the Windows 10 ISO, then transfer the ISO back to macOS and burn a DVD.

I should point out that if the laptop has Windows 7 or a newer version of Windows, then there is a good chance you could upgrade to Windows 10 for free.


What's the best way to sync Chrome bookmarks to iPhone?

You could give Xmarks a try. Works fine for me.

You install it as a plugin for Chrome, and as a pref pane for your Mac. Your Mac will be synchronized to your iPhone.

I didn't try the mobile app yet.


Can I get OS X Dictation to work in Lotus Notes?

Sadly it doesn't work at this time. I tried looking for a matching SPR but I couldn't find one.

So I have created SPR SODY9GMBDH so that development can investigate further. Do not treat this as a final answer though (as someone may have worked around it).


Setting up new Mac with old Macbook data

You could do it through WiFi, but a faster option is targeted mode.

You will need a FireWire cable to do this.

Migration assistant copies your home folder (documents, email, pictures, music, etc.) and preferences to the new computer.

However, it does not copy third party applications by default to the new computer. For that, you will have to make a list of your desired applications and copy each of them from the old computer to the new one. You can use Homebrew and Cask to do this but it is probably more involved than just copying in targeted mode or just re-installing. Homebrew can be used to easily re-install command line apps on the new computer. Migration Assistant does not copy command line apps.

Even if you did copy the GUI apps to the new computer there will probably be a few that no longer work on Yosemite and you will need a newer version.

Good luck!


Although this is an old question, it's still relevant, and here is the answer:

pbpaste -Prefer rtf | textutil -stdin -convert html -output outputfile.html

This uses the built-in OS X pbpaste utility to pipe the contents of the clipboard to stdout (-Prefer rtf is probably unnecessary but doesn't hurt), then runs it through the built-in textutil program. The -stdin argument makes textutil take its input from pbpaste; -convert html tells it to turn the input into HTML; and -output outputfile.html tells it to write the output to a file called outputfile.html.

If you find that the output has some unnecessary elements, you can exclude them with -excludedelements; for example, -excludedelements '(span, font, head, xml)'. Note that you need to have the single quotes because your shell will try to interpret the parentheses as a special shell expression.


How do I pin a website to the dock in OS X?

Okay I just found a way.

You have to drag the website from Firefox left-hand side of the URL bar to your desktop. It will make a new file.

Move it into a permanent location, like Documents. Then drag that to the RIGHT-side of the dock. It will pin. Oddly it won't let you arrange it in the order you want to. It must stay on the right.

But the only catch is you cannot delete the file in Documents. If you do, it'll just show a question mark when you click the pinned icon.


iCloud photo library causing duplicate photos

iCloud doesn't duplicate the photos, it just stores them in iCloud.

The purpose of iCloud Photo Library is to allow you to access your photos on all your devices. If you don't want your photos on your iPhone, don't use iCloud Photo Library.


how to move and merge folders in OSX Mavericks?

1 Quick answer

Enter this command in Terminal:

cp -r -n ./srcFolder/ ./targetFolder/
Remove the -n if you want to overwrite duplicates.

Update:
ditto source target will also do the trick.

Files in source folder overwrite any duplicates in target folder.

Add -v for details (ditto -v source target)

via How to Merge Folders on Mac OS X Without Losing All Your Files (Seriously)

2 Use Finder (surprisingly more complex)

Possibly a duplicate of Where did folder "merge" or "keep both" go in OS X 10.9 Mavericks?, but I'll sum up:

The weird thing is, the folders can't have any duplicate files if you want to merge.

If you're merging two folders that don't have any duplicate files between them, you will see the merge option if you hold the option key.

However, if the folders you're merging contain any files with the same name, the merge option won't show up.

In that case, you basically have two options:

use the command line or
manually remove duplicates, then click & drag + hold option to merge.


After update (to 4.2) iOS says I have 723 songs, but iPod.app says "No Content"

I am speculating, that this is what happened: I did the update on another computer (not the one my music is synced to), which invalidated the copy protection of my music library, so when I plugged my phone back into the machine where my music library is stored it did the deed for me. That is what seems to have happened anyway.


How to completely remove Fuse for Mac OS X, MacFUSE, NTFS-3G

If you have followed those instructions then you've installed three packages.

fuse_wait just replaces a single file of the NTFS-3G install with an updated version. So you don't really need to do anything to uninstall this package; when you remove NTFS-3G it should automatically remove that updated version.

To remove NTFS-3G either open the NTFS-3G preference pane and click on the Uninstall button, or run the script at /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs-3g.fs/Support/uninstall-ntfs-3g.sh.

To uninstall FUSE for OS X open the FUSE for OS X system preference pane and click the Uninstall button.

If the two preference panes are still there after running both uninstalls, then just right-click on them and select the "Remove ... Preference Pane" option.

And reboot your Mac.

To confirm that the file are gone you could run the following commands in Terminal. Hopefully you shouldn't get any results.

 pkgutil --pkgs | grep fuse
 kextstat | grep fuse


Pop-ups in Chrome Cause Mountain Lion to Switch Spaces

This is also an issue that I have, whether a pop-up occurs or I open a new window in Chrome it switches to a non Chrome space on my machine. I am using 10.8.3 Mountain Lion OSx and can repro on another machine on the same build.

This leads me to think it's simply a bug and we'll need to wait for a better workaround or a fix from Apple and/or Chrome.


How to click the mouse buttons with a keyboard shortcut?

You can use a private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToPointingButton__ KeyCode::F1, PointingButton::LEFT</autogen>
  </item>
</root>


Where does Mail keep its configuration files?

Mail.app stores server credentials in your login keychain. You will find your login keychain in: ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Copy, rename, and open this keychain file with Keychain Access. Keychain Access is included with Mac OS X in the Applications > Utilities folder.

Within the Keychain Access application, search for your mail server using the search field at the top-right.

To retrieve a password, double-click on the item and enable Show password:.


How to format the OS X installer USB stick that comes with MacBook Air?

From Apple's MacBook Air: Frequently Asked Questions about Software Reinstall Drive:

  Note: The MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive is read only.  You cannot erase it, reformat it, or reuse it as a general purpose USB storage device.

Honestly, thumb drives are dirt cheap these days—why would you want to lose your only way to reinstall your OS?


How much faster is an external SSD than external HDD if internal drive is SSD?

In your case probably a upgrade to SATA 3 SSD (internal) would do the most.

AFIK your model supports it, and you will get up to 6 Gb/s R/W speeds and combined with RAM upgrade would get you what you want.

Adding a external drive to expand the storage if needed, the one would use the Thunderbolt SSD.

Find out if your Model supports the SATA 3 SSD before spending the money:

Open About this mac- more info- system report - SATA..

then you will see something like I have

My little MacBook Air rocks, it can run up to 6 Gb/s


How to create shortcut to insert specific special character

Two possibilities are through creating a modified keyboard layout (which can be done manually, but is made much simpler using a program like Ukulele) or through a shortcut program like TextExpander

I use TextExpander, myself, so that c== is a shortcut on my system for ⌘, o== for ⌥, and several others, in part because I do not want to lose the symbols already mapped to the option (⌥) key combinations on my keyboard.

On the other hand, remapping the ⌥ keys to symbols different than the ones they are original configured for can be helpful and convenient for some people also, which is where Ukulele shines.


What does the mute switch on the iPad do?

The iPad mute switch is identical to the iPhone's mute switch except it can't control a ringer/vibration choice. Other than that, it's effect in-app will be identical.

Not all apps respect the 'mute' switch. Apps that have no purpose EXCEPT to be listened to (music apps, youtube, etc.) will not be any different in either switched mode.
Frequently, games or other apps with "ambient music" will silence the music and often the sound effects as well when the switch is set to mute.

It is due to this inconsistency that I choose to set the switch to control orientation lock, and just use the volume controls as needed.


Which 13" MacBook Pro 2011 is right for me?

I've ordered the cheapest 13" as my first mac.
I already have a 80 GB SSD which I will put in it immediately when it arrives. An SSD is beneficial to about everything you can do on your mac because the hard disk is usually the performance bottleneck.

Don't worry about the screen size and resolution if you'll hook it up to an external monitor anyway. I've played around with a 13" a lot this week and the screen size and resolution are fine for normal pc usage.

I would not pay extra for the upgraded CPU.
Remember that the cheapest 13" has about the same cpu speed as the previous generation's 17" flagship! (see benchmarks posted below)

So either way I would go with the cheapest version.
If you are unable/unwilling to open up your mac yourself I would take the SSD option. You can always get a nice little external HD with 1TB disk space for not much money, if you run out of SSD space.

Here are CPU benchmarks:


How do I create a desktop shortcut for VNC?

Open a VNC session to your Raspberry Pi (e.g. Safari or run open vnc://<host>:<port>).
Grab the small icon to the left of the host name with your pointer
Drag and drop the icon to the desktop

It will create a .vncloc shortcut, which then you can double-click to open the connection.


How to troubleshoot multiple apps on Mountain Lion all missing toolbar icons?

Reboot in safe mode (hold Shift on start), login to your account and restart. I don't know what's the reason for icons disappearing but the above fixes it.


I'm using underclocking app volta, seems to be working so far.


Split view with green button does not work in macOS Sierra

Go to System Settings -> Mission Control activate the checkbox displays have separate spaces.

Log out and In and check if it works.


When i try to install my certificate in keychain, the error says: Unable to import - Error Code 25294

Try adding the certificate to the "login" keychain.


I suspect that 6 SSDs can provide more bandwidth than the SouthBridge Controller on the MacPro can support (maybe 8Gbit/s or 1GB/s)? This may also depend on the model of MacPro that you're using.

The throughput supported by the drives themselves may also come into play...Some SSDs achieve reads of about 250MB/s, while others support rates around 480-500MB/s. Your 3Gb/s SATA ports will probably top out at 375MB/s

My money's on a benchmark of about 1GB/sec for your 6xSSD RAID-0 volume's read rates...Probably a little less for writes...You can probably attain the same speed by striping 3 or 4 drives together.

You can definitely install OS X on this striped volume, but you may not be able to put the recovery partition onto that drive.

Regardless, the AJA Kona System Test is a good utility to use for this benchmarking. I'd be interested to hear what you find.


I don't think there is a way to restart the TCP stack, but the question should be why TCP becomes unresponsive, it must be hitting some limits in the stack.
If the service creates new connections to answer incoming requests, it is possible you're hitting the default 16K limit on ephemeral ports and the even more problematic 30s (MSL*2) timeout on TIME_WAIT connections until they can be reused.
You can use sysctl to tweak those:
sudo sysctl net.inet.tcp.msl=1000 # default 15000
sudo sysctl net.inet.ip.portrange.first=16384 # default 49152

The default TCP queues are also rather small (128 waiting sockets):
sudo sysctl kern.ipc.somaxconn=2048 # default 128

If you are also getting port scans or DoS to unused ports you can reduce backscatter by enabling blackhole mode and limiting ICMP/RST responses:
sudo sysctl net.inet.tcp.blackhole=2 # default 0
sudo sysctl net.inet.udp.blackhole=1 # default 0
sudo sysctl net.inet.icmp.icmplim=50 # default 250

Once you are happy with the sysctls you can persist them in /etc/sysctl.conf.
Use something like sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf to create it.
I would also suggest to install HAProxy on your server in front of your services and use it to apply rate limiting and filtering for backend connections. You can even do packet inspection like dropping connections with invalid SNI headers. The easiest way to install haproxy on the Mac is through Homebrew.


Where is Rsync's default temp directory?

Ok, figured it out.

I was running a simple rsync command: rsync -av /Users/kenneth /foo
where /foo is the former location of an external drive. Instead of directing rsync to the current location, I was creating a new location and writing to it, simply duplicating files on my boot drive.

Lesson: read your command twice and double-check before running it.


Google has changed appearance using Safari 5.1.1

I suspect it's an example of a new policy from Google, where they're deliberately showing old versions of their search pages if you use an out of date browser. You can find information about this from, for example, this BBC news report.

It's probably a good idea to update Safari, for security reasons. This is what Google are trying to get you to do. But if you have a good reason to keep using 5.1.1, you can see an up-to-date Google homepage by changing the user agent string. There are instructions for doing this available online, e.g. here.