Does Apple make backups of iCloud?

From an infrastructure management perspective, yes they do. However, it’s not something consumers can access alone and it’s not something Apple support staff and engineers can access alone. Their backups are for service continuity; if something on their servers crash, they can be to and running again. They also have some automation in case people inadvertently make a choice to delete files not realizing that deletion is permanent. Due to how the encryption keys are stored, you would need to create a support pin and then explicitly give Apple consent and a key to unlock your files. Think of a bank offering to store your lock box in their vault. They can look at your box, but may not have the key to open it.
Can you access this back up?  No. It’s not for users. In fact, every Apple account is encrypted meaning Apple can’t make sense of the files without your help.
From the customer perspective (yours) iCloud is a synchronization service. If you delete photos, it’s assumed you wanted them gone. Now, you can use iCloud for your own backups, but that’s something you have to setup and manage (For example, my iPhone is backed up to iCloud including photos on it).
IMO, iCloud is good, but not as mature as OneDrive or Azure. In those services, not only do I get the synchronization services like iCloud, but I can purchase a backup plan and even specify where I want it (I could be in the east coast of the US and my data gets backed up to the west coast or even Europe!)
Personally, when it comes to Photos, I have them in the cloud, on my NAS and then backed up from the NAS to a USB drive, so 3 places. Having your own backup is the ideal case as you would not depend on support for recovering files you could have backed up.


Root login over SSH is not enabled by default for good reason.  Since you are not connecting remotely in your example, I recommend:

sudo su

to switch to root user if you need to run several commands in a row.  This keeps you from needing to do the much safer

sudo commandname

where you need to prefix every command with sudo. If ssh is a requirement, you can simply:

ssh user@host

and then

sudo su

to switch to root user. This is a much safer approach from a security standpoint.

Lastly, if you really think you must enable root login over ssh, see this link for instructions.


I used to work at an Apple certified repair center and would definitely suspect the SSD. Things you could check:

Reseat the sata connector on the logic board side
Try a different sata cable
Try a different ssd
Put the ssd in a diffent machine and see what happens

Unfortunately not everyone has multiple ssd, parts and machines to test with. Can you try and claim warranty on the ssd?


How to search installed application based on functionality?

You can use meta data. Select the app in Finder, press ⌘+i or secondary click -> Get Info.. There You have "Comments" section, where You can describe Your app (for example "great screen capture app"). Then You can search for an app in Spotlight using the keywords You privided. After upgrading the app, extended attributes are not erased.


Is it possible to change text size & formatting of Numbers' formula input field?

When I click in the formula entry bar I get an additional toolbar that has a "Formula Text Size" field. Does this appear on your screen?

Here's a screenshot from the Numbers '09 User's Guide:

I haven't found a way to make it larger than 14.

Edit

I figured out how to make it larger than 14.

Quit Numbers
Run Terminal
Type the following command:

defaults write com.apple.iWork.Numbers LSFormulaBarFontSize 80

When you run Numbers again your formula bar is plenty big:

You can use a number smaller than 80 in the Terminal command for a more reasonably-sized formula bar.


I found the solution, it was easy:

Select all the pictures
Menu Photos -> Batch Change...


How to put songs to my iphone from itunes without deleting songs in my iphone

You will need to manually manage your music now. You can do this by plugging your iPhone into your computer (or wifi connecting to iTunes), and then, after selecting your iPhone, under the "Summary" tab, select "Manually Manage Music and Videos".

If you are running iTunes 11 go to the the "On my iPhone" tab, and you can now manually manage the music that you have on your iPhone. Unfortunately, unless you erase the music he shared with you, you won't be able to automatically manage your music.


How can I cold-boot a mac with FileVault enabled without physical access to the mac?

You can reboot the system without requiring password entry using the fdesetup utility:

sudo fdesetup authrestart

See man fdesetup for details.


How to let Xcode build apps and use playgrounds when parental control is enabled

From my testing, I have found that if the "Limit Applications" check box in Parental Controls is turned off, but Xcode and the other applications that you want enabled are turned on in the "Allowed Apps" list, Xcode will only ask for authentication a few times:

On the first run of Xcode
On the first attempt at running an app created with Xcode
On the first attempt at running a playground

Even though it sounds weird to turn off Limit Applications, it seems like if the parental controls are set this way, Xcode will not repeatedly ask for authentication.


By default TextMate should open the last open project or document - but it can be switched on/off - maybe it is off by you ??

Here is how to switch the feature on/off: http://manual.macromates.com/en/expert_preferences#oakdisablesessionrestore

  22.7 OakDisableSessionRestore

  When you launch TextMate it will open the project / document which was open when you last exited. You can however disable this feature by running:

  defaults write com.macromates.textmate OakDisableSessionRestore 1

This means that you should run the above line in a Terminal - with a 0 instead of 1


Does safari on iOS update automatically? Outside of iOS updates?

Safari is only updated with iOS updates. As far as I know, there is no background updating, and updates only happen along with iOS updates.

Above is a screenshot from the new features of iOS 6 - listed is Safari as one of those updates.


Apple store question about installing new hard drive

The generally accepted procedure for any Genius Bar visit is to use the store locator on the Apple site and then use the 'Concierge' web application to book an appointment. While Apple staff (at least in Japan) tend to be rather accommodating for walk-in client issues, having an appointment can ensure your waiting time is minimized. This is especially important at a busier location.


Is it possible to quickly clear flags in Apple Mail 6 ( probably with AppleScript)?

According to this thread, copy below script into Apple Script Editor and then run

tell application "Mail"
set selectedMessages to (selected messages of front message viewer)
if (count of selectedMessages) is greater than 0 then
    repeat with theMessage in selectedMessages
        set flag index of theMessage to 1
    end repeat
end if
end tell

Your selected message will flag with Orange. You can flag message with other color by replacing 1 in the script


Why does the main OS menu bar disappear when I am in Safari?

Strange I am having same issue when I log in. But changing desktops a few times solves the issue. So I think its a graphic bug


It's a common error and it's happening sometimes after a font modified or new font installed or for other reasons.

You need to clear and rebuild the Font Database and Font Cache. To do this follow the steps below:

Open Terminal
Copy-Paste this sudo atsutil databases -remove and hit Enter
Reboot your mac

Source


mac mini flashing mouse repetitive sound wont let me click on stuff

i eventually just decided to do a factory reset, it worked.


You may want to try migrating the data on the phone to an intermediary iOS. For example, if you're starting with an iPhone 3G (which has a maximum iOS of 4), then upgrade that phone to an iPhone 4S, (which can be updated to a max of iOS 9).
If you're able to upgrade from iPhone 3G to 4S, then you'll have your text messages on iOS 9.3.5, which should definitely be upgradeable to iOS 11.


You could pipe the output of port echo active to a file on one machine, sync the output to the other machine, and run port install for each line.

That would be just the most naive solution, mainly not handling "merge conflicts".


How can I determine the compile-time options of PHP?

php -i from the command line;

  $ php -i
  phpinfo()
  PHP Version => 5.3.3

  System => Darwin jsalaz-mac.local 10.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.6.0: Wed Nov 10 18:13:17 PST 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.26~3/RELEASE_I386 i386
  Build Date => Aug 22 2010 19:27:08
  Configure Command =>  '/var/tmp/apache_mod_php/apache_mod_php-53.3.1~2/php/configure'  '--prefix=/usr' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--disable-dependency-tracking' '--sysconfdir=/private/etc' '--with-apxs2=/usr/sbin/apxs' '--enable-cli' '--with-config-file-path=/etc' '--with-libxml-dir=/usr' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--with-kerberos=/usr' '--with-zlib=/usr' '--enable-bcmath' '--with-bz2=/usr' '--enable-calendar' '--with-curl=/usr' '--enable-exif' '--enable-ftp' '--with-gd' '--with-jpeg-dir=/BinaryCache/apache_mod_php/apache_mod_php-53.3.1~2/Root/usr/local' '--with-png-dir=/BinaryCache/apache_mod_php/apache_mod_php-53.3.1~2/Root/usr/local' '--enable-gd-native-ttf' '--with-ldap=/usr' '--with-ldap-sasl=/usr' '--enable-mbstring' '--enable-mbregex' '--with-mysql=mysqlnd' '--with-mysqli=mysqlnd' '--with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd' '--with-mysql-sock=/var/mysql/mysql.sock' '--with-iodbc=/usr' '--enable-shmop' '--with-snmp=/usr' '--enable-soap' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-sysvmsg' '--enable-sysvsem' '--enable-sysvshm' '--with-xmlrpc' '--with-iconv-dir=/usr' '--with-xsl=/usr' '--enable-zend-multibyte' '--enable-zip' '--with-pcre-regex=/usr'

or;

This information should be in the phpinfo function output you can put into a webpage and visit.

Per PHP's PHPInfo Reference Page, all you have to do is create a file with the contents: <?php phpinfo(); ?>, put it in a web viewable location with PHP, then browse to it in a browser.


Equivalent of Linux "service" command on Mac OS to stop a running process/service

Just need some clarification on your question. How do you know this is a driver?

Process control is typically achieved with some variation of the launchctl command:

https://support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/terminal/script-management-with-launchd-apdc6c1077b-5d5d-4d35-9c19-60f2397b2369/mac

The above link is pretty good at detailing the service list. Let me know if that helps.

Driver control is a bit different. The driver equivalent on macOS is a kernel extension (kext). Are you able to try the following?

# get root access
sudo bash -
# Attempt to unload kext
kextload | grep -i DRIVER_NAME

*if found*
kextunload DRIVER_NAME

This should unload the driver. You can then force replace it in /System/Library/Extensions or whatever directory it resides in. Then do the following:

# fix permissions
sudo chmod -R 755 /path/to/name.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /path/to/name.kext

# Attempt to load driver
kextload -v DRIVER_NAME

Some more information would be key, but this is the general procedure I would follow.

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!


iMac (Late 2015) using swap when there's still plenty of RAM left

This is all anecdotal, tested using a sample size of 2, so barely counts as experiment...

Restart the Mac, it's been up 12 days.

That would be fine for a machine with a lot of RAM, but it's going to hit a low RAM machine harder.
I'd say the simple solution would be to double the RAM.
Two of the machines here are always on, the one with only 10GB RAM used to slow down after only a few days [it now has 26GB & no longer does that], the one with 64GB really never slows down.

I think the used swap figure only gets reset at reboot, btw. I'm not sure it's necessarily an indicator of current activity [but I'm certainly open to correction on that]


How to disable "turn off display after" when using Apple TV?

You can keep your Mac on forever when you need to (including while AirPlaying) without digging into settings if you download the Mac app Amphetamine. With Amphetamine, a button will appear on your Mac's menu bar. Just click it to prevent your Mac from sleeping indefinitely, and click it again to allow it to sleep. This is a very simple method of keeping your Mac on forever, especially useful while downloading a large file or—like you're doing—AirPlaying.

Alternatively, you can use macOS's built-in command line tool caffeinate to keep your Mac awake for longer periods.


There is a neat trick you can do with a book, or other hard surface. (Ideal results are achieved with a concave surface.) Place the iPad speaker facing the book/surface. Some sound will reflect off the book, and join the forwards traveling sound, effectively boosting the volume by a small margin.

Other than that, consider placing the iPad almost touching the microphone of whatever recording device you are using.

(There is probably an app on Cydia to boost volume, but my iPad is not jailbroken, so I am not sure)


How to recover WhatsApp media after getting a new phone?

Backup your Whatsapp data in your old iPhone 6 to iCloud. Once it's successful, restore the backup data on your new iPhone 8.

Hope this helps.

I don't think there is any other way to restore it.


Time difference between Apple Health on iphone XR and Schwinn Trainer app

Apple Health does not have it's own time zone setting. It will respect the time zone provided by the app saving the workout. If you go to Health > Workouts > Show All Data and open the workout, there will be a Time Zone entry. My time zones currently show "Eastern Standard Time" for workouts completed yesterday.
Yours should show whatever timezone you're currently in. If they don't, then they're being saved by Schwinn incorrectly. If the right time zone is shown, then compare the time listed with the time you expect.


Send the photos to a scanning service, especially if you have "tons".


Reset display brightness to factory defaults

Default brightness is just ‘Automatically adjust brightness’ enabled. The brightness is constantly adjusted based on lighting conditions. If you disable this option, whatever the current brightness is that was automatically chosen is saved as the fixed brightness, so there is no default value.


Moving Files From Dropbox App to Music App

The only ways to get music into Music.app is to sync with a computer, purchase from the App Store or use iTunes Match (which requires a computer to get set up). Unfortunately because of the way iOS is architected it is not possible to take music from third-party apps or websites and put them into Music.app.


How to add another integrated dictionary to iOS9

I use Yandex.Translate by Yandex LLC
https://appsto.re/us/Vr50I.i

Get it from App Store
Set in the settings Russian
In Safari, Chrome, iBooks or somewhere else select word or phrase
Press Share, and choose Translate

Sorry, but I can't add more images because I'm beginner


My External hard drive fell and not showing up on Mac

The drive enclosure may be broken, but it could also be the drive itself, being the logic board or head. It's more likely the drive is broken if it was powered on when it fell. Since it's your backup drive, you hopefully haven't lost anything critical. I'd start thinking about getting a second backup drive to reduce your exposure to loss.

Most USB externals are fairly easy to take apart with a screwdriver, and just have a standard SATA drive inside of them. If you have a SATA to USB adapter you can test it, or even better is to connect to an internal SATA to verify S.M.A.R.T. etc. However a 1TB drive is pretty cheap now, so you might just replace instead of trying to repair.


Is there a way to enable emoji on TouchBar for every text field?

Does the Touch Bar support emoji for every field?

Yes.  The touch bar will support practically anything the developer wants to include.  The more appropriate question is, can you enable it?

Not unless the developer of the app allows you to.

The Touch Bar is an extension of the UI and is meant as another interface that the developer can utilize the enhance the experience.  See About The Touch Bar.

So, from the same document, you can see that emogis are available via the character picker but that character picker won't be available in the App unless the App developer enables it.


How can I see which of my Login Items is slowing down my startup time?

If you go to System Preferences » Users & Groups » Login Items, there is a list of items to automatically open.

I have not been able, in Lion, to drag items to arbitrary positions in the list, as I remember being able to do in earlier versions of OS X. One can, however, drag items to the bottom of the list.

So it would appear that you could one by one drag everything that appears in your list before Alfred to the bottom of the list, thus launching Alfred first.


I can't buy gems in Clash of Clans, conflicting Apple IDs

Supercell saves your progress under your Game Center account. So, if you get a new device with a new Game Center account, you will lose your progress. To keep your progress, you will need to link your device to hers in the Clash of Clans settings.


Is there any place to download Apple Configurator 1.3?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ldzpp9ajy7y82k/Apple%20Configurator%201.2.1.zip

I found it on https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com

Hope it will work.


How to get MacBook Air to automatically connect to company guest network?

If the login functions through a Webpage, it's probable that the closest you could come is to write a script to fill in the form for you.

If you're lucky, the login form might use a HTML GET request so you could to bookmark the page that logs you in. Pay attention to what redirects occur once you login. If you see something like this:http://example.com?name=fred&pword=qwerty, you can bookmark that and go to it to log in automatically.
This is unlikely, though, because it isn't a very secure choice for your company. The form probably uses a POST request.


Short battery life on a brand new iPhone

Since you've tagged your question with iOS 5, I'm assuming you've updated. Take a look at this question and see if anything there helps: Why is iOS 5 draining my battery so fast?

I had the same issue after updating, and deactivating syncing of Reminders with my work's Exchange server did the trick.


Using Command + [number] to go between terminals

The Terminal.app Command+[number] shortcut was remapped to switch between tabs instead of windows.  The new shortcut is Command+Option+[number].

If you want the original shortcut back, turn off the "Use Command-1 through Command-9 to switch tabs" preference option under Terminal -> Preferences -> General.


Mavericks: Window across multiple monitors?

Quoting from John Siracusa’s review of Mavericks (emphasis mine):

  If you prefer the old behavior, uncheck the “Displays have separate Spaces” checkbox in the Mission Control preference pane. Doing so will also restore the ability to have windows that span more than one display.

So yes, it’s just a setting. It’s been put in the Mission Control pane, rather than Displays, because the effect of this change is to allow you to have different full screen apps on different displays.

The page of the review that I linked to explains the change in more detail (and specifically discusses the window-across-multiple-displays behaviour that you want).


How do I get these Internet/Wi-Fi details to give to tech support and is it safe?

Yes, those details are safe to provide. They are measurements of the quality of your wireless signal, and they contain no personal information.

You can view these and other details from the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar. The trick is to press and hold the option key while you click on the icon (i.e. make sure you’re pressing the option key first before clicking on the menu bar). If you do you’ll see these values and more.

[UPDATE]

Prompted by Gordon Davisson's comment, this update adds more information about the options available under the Wi-Fi menu.

As mentioned previously, by holding down the option key while you click on the Wi-Fi icon you'll be able to see the values you were after and more. Some additional options include:

Enable Wi-Fi Logging
Create Diagnostics Report...
Open Wireless Diagnostics...

For a broad overview of these options you can refer to Check for Wi-Fi issues using your Mac.

In summary, however, selecting the Open Wireless Diagnostics... option will launch an application that helps users to diagnose common issues with their Wi-Fi connection. Note: This refers to your Wi-Fi connection and not your internet connection per se, although not having internet access on a device could be in fact related to your Wi-Fi connection.

While you can run through the Assistant that opens when you first launch Wireless Diagnostics, you can choose to ignore this and manually access additional utilities available under the Window menu (or by using the relevant optioncommand shortcut). One of the best things about this is you can actually open all of them simultaneously if you want to.

By using the Performance utility you'll get graphs of those values over time (along with "Quality", which is just the difference between RSSI and Noise). You can use these graphs to gauge how they change as a result of certain actions (e.g. moving your computer, checking to see how Noise reacts when using a microwave or cordless phone, etc). This is particularly handy to keep open so you can monitor it if you're having problems.


Does the new Macbook Air (2017) work with Apple Cinema Display?

Yes, your Air will work with any Cinema Display, although if its one of the plastic case  models, you will need both an ADC to DVI & DVI to Mini Display Port adapter to connect it.
If the display is a newer one with the aluminum case, you'll need only the DVI to Mini Display Port adapter to connect to your Air.


Where is the dividing line (mount point) of the two iOS partitions?

/ is the mount point for /dev/disk0s1s1; /private/var is the mount point for /dev/disk0s1s2.

disk0s1s1 is reserved for iOS system files. It is equivalent to OS X's /System and /Library directories. It is the smaller of the two partitions (the size can be set using Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze during the jailbreak process). The default size is set to 1 GB for iOS 5 and around 600-700 MB in previous versions.

disk0s1s2 is reserved (as of iOS 1.1.3) for user data (3rd party applications, music, photos, etc.). It is the larger of the two and varies depending on the flash memory available (which is dependent on the device purchased).

The layout of the disk is stored in /etc/fstab, which is also used by jailbreak tools to make the system partition writable.

Source: iOS Forensic Analysis
Additional reading: The iPhone Wiki


Is it safe to delete the contents of Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup if using iCloud?

Yes, it is safe to delete it, if you are sure you want to lose those backups.

To do so, in a more elegant way, just:

Open iTunes Preferences
Click Devices
Locate the backup for the iOS device you want to delete, select it, and click Delete Backup.
Confirm you wish to remove the selected backup by clicking Delete Backup.
Click OK to close the iTunes Preferences Window.

Extracted from Apple's support document about iOs backups.

Confirmed: Deleting through iTunes will delete all the backUp files of the selected device.


Yes, download TetherStrength (Mac App Store link).


Inserting Equations in Pages - Keyboard Shortcut?

The defined shortcut is shown as Option & Command & E to enter the equation editor.


Where are my fonts after macOS 10.13.4 update?

Seems like a bunch of fonts were removed from the base operating system.

Open FontBook
Find the font you want to get
Click "Download"
Voilà!


Macbook Pro mid-2014 (High Sierra) runs very hot

80 Celsius is well within normal CPU temperature for an MBP.

If it is working too hard, then I would look at all those third-party software listed in the EtreCheck report, and make sure they are necessary and up-to-date. If not, uninstall them.

I would definitely get rid of the Western Digital helper software. Some versions caused major problems with some OS versions.
Do you need VideoGuard? Flash? Silverlight? (MS killed that years ago.)
Some versions of Chrome have been known to install Google software update agents that run wild with CPU resources.
You're also running some fan control program: might that be limiting the cooling? Try it without.
You've got Monolingual from 2014. Loads of other stuff that I have no idea what it is. 'Freedom' doesn't seem to have been updated by the developer since 2014.

Your Mac might also be slow because you're running out of disk storage.

I have a 2014 MBP, and just got a new battery from Apple, and it runs like a charm.


where are the tap featues of the Airpods on the Airpod Pros?

Tap on AirPods is replaced with a press on the stem (squeeze) on AirPods Pro.

On either AirPods Pro stem:

Single press for play/pause
Double press to skip media (next song, etc)
Triple press to play from start, or if at start, previous media (last song, etc)
Hold stem for the custom action in Settings, i.e. switch listening mode or start Siri.


Clicking on external links opens Chrome but not the link

I had this happening all afternoon. Then I checked Chrome | About Chrome and it was waiting for me to relaunch to update. That fixed it.


PDF page manipulation, from 2 page per sheet to one page per sheet

Open your pdf in Preview.app. Click the toolbox icon. Click the Rectangular-Select icon. Select one of the pages. Copy it. Click File > New from clipboard. Save that file. Repeat. Now you have Untitled1 through Untitled24. Open Untitled1 in Preview. Click the menu just under the red x and choose "Thumbnails."  Drag all the files Untitled2-24 just under Untitled1 in the sidebar. Save as a pdf.


Why was my volume indicator sound suddenly muted and changed?

Same thing happened after I updated, so I think your "Extra" section is correct.


Resize display resolution of a macOS Mojave guest running in VMware Fusion 11.1

Reinstall VMware Tools

As was often the case with the competitor Parallels you mentioned, when the screen resolution fails to adjust you may need to re-install their software that embeds within the guest OS to enhance integration with the host OS.

From the main VMware Fusion app menu bar, choose Virtual Machine > Reinstall VMware Tools.

This mounts an installer app within the Finder of your guest OS.

Run Install VMware Tools.app. After it completes, your guest macOS restarts. Then you should be able to redefine your virtual display resolution. Simply grab the corner of the VM window on the host Mac, and grow/shrink the VM window. The size within the guest macOS auto-resizes.

You cannot use the System Preferences > Display within the VM to re-size. Instead, use this stretch-the-VM-window maneuver.


applications for converting gif to image sequence, and vice versa

You can use Gifrocket.app or Drop to Gif.app, both work offline. If you want to edit the sequence/pictures that make up the gif, you can just open your Gif in Preview.app


How do I display the speed limit on Google Maps in iOS?

According to Google's Product Forums, they're doing limited speed limit display tests in very specific areas.  I've seen San Francisco and Brazil being listed as the only places it's available right now.

They're also A/B testing in other locations.  No official release date has been given by Google for when this will be available on iOS.

To do a feature request:

Open Google Maps and make sure you’re signed in.
In the top left, click the Menu .
Tap 'Help & Feedback'.
Select 'Send Feedback'
Tap 'Send app feedback'
Click Send.


Arranging an external monitor for Macbook Air

When dragging the window upward towards the top display, it will appear to be blocked by the menu bar.

The solution is to keep dragging upward through the menu bar, and after a slight delay, the window will appear in the top display.


Keep ethernet connection live during screen sleep

Control+Shift+Power …or… Control+Shift+Eject turns off the monitor without putting the computer in sleep mode.


Simple answer: No.

iTunes and a USB cable are needed to synch any iPad Nano. The 7th generation Nano has Bluetooth, but that is for playback only. This Wikipedia page on all the generations of Nanos will be elucidating.


rMBP Late 2013 Facetime HD Camera Not Working

Skype is known to cause this issue. Update or uninstall that (or install a clean OS X on to an external drive to test this out).


Exchange clipboard only with a virtual machine running in Parallels 14

Clipboard sharing should not be affected by the "Isolate..." selection.  Check Options > More Options in the VM configuration to confirm "Share Mac clipboard" is enabled.

That being said if you want to disable the "Isolate..." option, the individual sharing settings are distributed in several locations.  Shut down the VM first as deselecting the "Isolate..." option immediately re-enables the sharing features while VM is running.

Here are various sharing configuration locations that I am aware of, but I suggest looking through all the sections to be sure I haven't omitted some.

  Options > Sharing

  Options > Applications

  Options > More Options

  Hardware > Printers

  Hardware > Sound & Camera

  Hardware > USB & Bluetooth


Backup and restore application preferences

Your preferences will be copied if you allow Migration Assistant to copy your data from a Time Machine backup (one of the options at the beginning of the installation).

Time Machine backs up just about everything except Mac OS X and other system resource files. So, your preferences will be saved.

I've tested this migrating from 10.6 to 10.6, and I've migrated from another Mac directly from 10.6 to 10.7. That process is, in practice, the same.
So, your preferences will be copied from your Time Machine backup to your new system.


Mail.app Conversation/Threading issues like RES: RES: RES:

The threading does happen based on subject.  Re: is ignored; so Re: Re: Re: foo is the same as foo, and the same as Re: Re: foo.  That's why it works.

What is RES:?  Is it Re: in a different language?  That's why it's breaking - because RES is not being ignored and therefore looks like a different subject.

The person you're conversing with needs to use Re:, not RES:.  RES: may be inserted automatically by their email client; in which case you may need to find a different way to group the emails, perhaps by sender.

There are tools that can help, though.  With MailTags (http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html) you can group/organize your email much differently or simply use the subject renaming feature.  With MailActOn (http://www.indev.ca/MailActOn.html) you can match a rule that moves the email to a specific folder ignoring the "RES" part, etc.  There are many options.

No, I am not affiliated with Indev, I just use and love their products.  :-)
Best of luck.


How to force Mountain Lion "NetworkAuthorization" prompt

I just found that if you use IP address instead of name of server 10.8 does prompt you for username / password!
Why? I have no idea.


WhatsApp on iOS plays voice notes on Speaker. How can i force it to play them on my BT Headset?

Slide up from the bottom you'll find "airplay"  tap it and select iphone speaker


Finder search does not find all relevant documents MacOS 10.6.8

On my system, typing successive letters always shrinks the results menu.  Have you tried rebuilding your Spotlight index?  Open terminal in an admin account and type:

sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/YourHardDiskNameHere"

, authenticate with your password, and go get a coffee.

Edit:
Another way to accomplish this is to open Spotlight preferences to the privacy tab and drag your HDD icon from finder onto the "Prevent spotlight..." list.  Close preferences (may not be necessary - ?). Open it again to the same tab and use the +/- buttons to delete the disk.  Re-indexing should start.


I have no administrative account after updating to High Sierra 10.13.5

Wow. You certainly have done several steps to remove the AppleSetupDone file. I would try the most correct one

cd /private/var/db
rm .AppleSetupDone
ls -la
exit

The ls is just to be sure. If that doesn’t workyoull need to reinstall the OS or erase install if you don’t need a backup. Let me know in comments how the last try to remove the setup file works? (all those allocation zone messages have me thinking your storage or data on it are messed up beyond easy repair)


iOS 7 iPhone how can I close my running applications?

Double clic on the home button then slide the apps to the top to quit them.


Suspicious email address in Find My dialog during fresh install

Returned to vendor. Ordered another from a different vendor. This other vendor provided an absolutely factory new machine.

The original vendor is an Authorized Apple Retailer and they had the technology to mask the activation lock everywhere except this initial install screen.

Buyer beware.


Will changing an iCloud profile on iOS harm data on the previous account?

Delete iCloud? You mean sign out I suppose. If you want a separate account without harm of data, Go to Preferences > iCloud and somewhere there are sync options.

Disable synchronization (possibly other features), sign out of iCloud, then create a new profile and use it on your iPhone. You might need the previous password to continue.


Fink has been around since at least 2001. Fink and MacPorts are package managers that want to be "orthogonal" to the system, that is, they install their own version of python, perl, libraries, compilers, etc. in own trees (/sw for Fink, /opt/local for MacPorts). The reason for this is that they have no control what Apple does with its software, and it occasionally broke things when Apple updated their own stuff.

From what I understand, Homebrew wants to be more "integrated" with the system, uses the libraries that Apple provides, and installs its stuff in /usr/local/bin and other standard folders. I guess that means that the software choice is more limited with Homebrew, I can't imagine that one could install KDE with it, but I've not tried that.

One point for Fink vs. MacPorts: a few years back, the Fink project provided binary packages; that is you could download and install the packages without compiling them yourself. Its package manager still has that ability, only there have been no binaries available for a long time. I do not know if that has changed in the meantime.

So in short: without the binary stuff, Fink and MacPorts are very similar. They should have more packages available than Homebrew, while Homebrew should take less disk space for the reasons I stated above. Concerning the quality: I've never installed Homebrew, and between Fink and MacPorts I usually prefer the one that I'm not currently using.

So if you are satisfied with MacPorts, just stay with it.

P.S. The reason I never tried Homebrew is that I use some precompiled packages. These usually also install themselves into /usr/local/bin and the like, which just cries for trouble.


Any ideas why my copy and paste are acting weird?

Given that this is almost certainly not a hardware issue (there is, after all, no copy/paste chip that performs that function) and given the troubleshooting steps you have included, this still sounds like a task for your local Genius Bar. If it's a configuration issue or a software conflict, they can help you sort it out, and if it's a bug in OS X, they'll make Apple aware of it so it can be fixed.

As other answers have mentioned, you still have to isolate software as a cause by trying a new user or a new install of the OS (perhaps to an external drive).


can you set an application to come to the desktop you are on osx

If you assign an application to 'All Desktops', then it will follow you around as you switch desktops, and no matter which desktop you're in when you click the dock icon or select it with CMD-TAB, the application will come to the forefront on the desktop you're at.


How do I revoke access to twitter for a single app on iOS 5?

Reply from Rovio, maker of the game:

  This feature has been done in cooperation with Twitter Inc. Thus, players of Angry Birds Star Wars who have also Twitter accounts got the chance to post the info of their favorite characters on Twitter. Unfortunately we do not have any tool to disconnect Twitter from our game at the moment. However, you can use the 'manage account' option in Twitter app and remove your account on Twitter before your children start playing the game, or disable the internet connection on your device.

  To log out of your Twitter account, launch the Twitter app and go to "Manage accounts" (it's the button next to the settings button on your Twitter profile page). Then remove your default account. When you wish to tweet again, just log in to the app and you're good to go!

  We are still working on developing this feature for future updates, so we apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. Hope you enjoy the game!

  Best regards,

  Kalle

  Rovio Support Team


If your friend turned off iMessage or turned off Read Receipts, then you won't get the Read notification.  If they're using a beta of iOS 10, they can turn off Read Receipts for individual contacts.

Also, as you suggested, if the friend decided to block you, you won't see the notifications, either.

EDIT: As indicated in the comments, you will see the Delivered notification even if Read Receipts has been turned off.  Edited answer to reflect that.


Tabbing between application windows while using spaces

Have you got an existing screen sharing connection? It is one of the main reasons why switching between applications does not work. Failing that try restarting the dock by opening a Terminal window and enter the following command:

killall Dock


Perhaps they have selected an OEM version or otherwise made sure that the version being selected somehow addresses the need they perceive their Mac community would prefer.

The upgrade pricing seems odd since OS X isn't an eligible version for consumer upgrades, but perhaps the university has negotiated a special agreement and wants to only offer the upgrade price to Mac users and not PC users?


Apple has rejected the app and suggests two options : Volume purchase program and Enterprise program

If your app is in fact targeting both employees and people external to the company, then the Public App Store is your only choice anyway. All other options like VPP or the Apple Developer Enterprise Program do only allow you to distribute apps to employees. So your argumentation towards Apple would be that it needs to be the public store, because there is no other way to distribute that app to a potentially global audience.

However they might not like your authentication method "unique code", as Apple usually wants apps to have a signup method and a more sophisticated login, such as username and password.

Adding some external (publicly visible) content near the login might help to get the App approved as well.


Arc Touch Mouse SE won't reconnect on 10.10, mods to blame?

I can now confirm that the issue is a bug in OS X's Bluetooth implementation. The mouse connects just fine in 10.10.0, I hear it connects fine in 10.10.1, but has the issues I've been describing in 10.10.2.

I can also confirm that the issue has been fixed in the latest OS X 10.10.3 public beta.


Why does text occasionally render poorly in Safari for Windows?

Read this for background

In short, Apple and Microsoft use very different methods to render fonts on Mac OS X and Windows.  Both systems have their merits, and frankly a lot of the time people prefer the one they are used to, and when the see the other they dislike it not so much because it's bad, but because it's different.

Ordinarily this isn't an issue, Mac users have their way, and Windows users have their way.  However, for Safari on Windows, Apple decided in their wisdom to haul over the Mac OS X font rendering mechanism, which is why pages loaded in Safari look not only different to the same page rendered in other web browsers, but different to every other Windows app you have.

Personally, while (likely for the reasons I stated earlier) I prefer the Mac way of doing things, I think that they should not attempt to enforce this on Windows users who are likely to see it as different first, and dislike it.  Even if they like it, it's inconsistent.  Even though I prefer it, I don't want to see it on Windows, as I prefer consistency more.

So, to answer your question, what's happening is that Safari is attempting to render this font in a completely different way to the other browsers, and occasionally it comes across a font or typeface that it frankly handles badly compared to Windows own technology (the opposite happens too, it's horses for courses), this can happen if a font is specified that has been tweaked to work particularly well with one system or another.


Font Book in your Applications folder. Comes preinstalled with Mac OS X. Choose Custom (under the "View" option on screen top menu bar) and then type the text you want to preview. Then you can cycle through your installed fonts using the up/down arrow keys and the preview will display your custom text in the highlighted font.


Try setting your computers clock a day in advance.

I have seen a time-zone issue where the the movie won't play until the computers clock is set to the following day.

Give that a try.


Setting preferred language order on iPhone

As of at least iOS 8 you can change the order of languages in Settings > General > Language and Region under the heading Preferred Language Order.


Search contents of files within specified directory

From the Finder

An easy way is to open a Finder Window to the folder of interest, and use the search box in the upper right corner. For this to work effectively, Finder Preferences should be adjusted as follows:

Under Finder/Preferences/Advanced tab, change

When performing a search: to

"Search the Current Folder"

From the Command Line

Use mdfind, with the -onlyin option, as below, which will search the current directory for all files with a .jpg suffix:

mdfind -name .jpg -onlyin .


Cannot restore live photo back to camera roll

I've been in touch with the Photosync support, and got it to work.

When you download the images from the phone, keep the original file names - can be configured in the settings.
Don't rename stuff on your machine, either.
Don't use the browser for uploading the photos - use the companion app.

(That's where I went wrong. I used the browser for restoring; there
isn't a hint anywhere that live photos will be messed up that way.)

I restored from a PC running Windows 7. Haven't tried it from a Mac yet.


It is a new feature of OS X 10.11 (El Capitan): SIP.

  System Integrity Protection (SIP,1 sometimes referred to as rootless2) is a security feature of OS X El Capitan, the operating system by Apple Inc.

...

  Among the protected locations are: /System, /bin, /sbin and /usr (but not /usr/local).

System Integrity Protection on Wikipedia

It can be disabled:
Stack Exchange thread

In summary, from the Recovery partition, open Terminal.app and run: csrutil disable

...

Update: SIP has been expanded in High Sierra (macOS 10.13)

KB on Apple's Support Site


Can automator's Filter Finder Items process music based on length?

Lets assume you have some action that's passing off files to a Filter Finder Items action, set as Find files where: All of the following are true and Kind is music.

This ensures what's passed to the next action, a Run Shell Script action, set as Shell: /bin/bash and Pass input as arguments are music files.

Replace the default code in the Run Shell Script action, having the above settings, with the following code:

for f in "$@"; do
    d="$(afinfo -r "$f" | awk '/estimated duration:/{print int($3)}')"
    if [[ $d -lt 2 ]]; then
        echo "$f"
    fi
done

The results of the above code with be the fully qualified pathname of music files with less than a 2 second duration and is passed to the next action as a list.

To address your second comment to my original answer, use the following code in place of the code above:

for f in "$@"; do
    d="$(afinfo -r "$f" | awk '/estimated duration:/{print $3}')"
    if (( $(echo "1.5 > $d" | bc -l) )); then
        echo "$f"
    fi
done


How can I get ALT+C to work via SSH on a remote UNIX machine?

When running the Terminal app, choose Terminal > Preferences...

This will bring up an options menu. Under Settings there's a tab for the keyboard.

The checkbox "Use option as a meta key" makes the Alt/Option key work like you expected (I tried it in Emacs and it worked).

For Page Up and Page Down, hold down shift to send Page Up and Page Down instead of scrolling. You can also adjust this in the keyboard preferences if you prefer.

I'm not sure about Home and End, but I'm in the habit of using Ctrl+A for home and Ctrl+E for end.


What Is The Go To Folder Command Within Finder?

In the Go menu of Finder, there is an option titled Go to Folder… with the keyboard shortcut ⇧ shift+⌘ cmd+G. This will prompt the user to enter a folder path and it allows Unix conventions (like using ~ to refer to one's home directory; for example ~/Documents refers to the Documents folder under your home folder). You can also type part of the file or folder name and hit Tab for autocompletion of the name.

Note that you can go to any folder using this option (including your own folders for documents, music, downloads, movies and so on), not just system files or folders.

Although OS X, starting with OS X Lion 10.7, started hiding important folders like ~/Library (the Library folder under one's home directory), the file/folder permissions system in OS X ensures that unless a user has an administrator account name and password, they cannot damage anything beyond what's within their own home folder (and the contents within it).

Even if you disable this command, a user can still view system folders like /System, /Library, etc. (although the user won't be able to modify or delete anything there without administrator access/credentials). The user can also open up Terminal.app and navigate through directories that Finder does not show and cause damage to ~/Library.

If you still wish to disable it and remove this option in Finder:

Open Terminal.app (from /Applications/Utilities)
Type the command:

defaults write com.apple.finder ProhibitGoToFolder -bool true && killall -HUP Finder

To enable it again, use the command (replacing true with false from the previous command):

defaults write com.apple.finder ProhibitGoToFolder -bool false && killall -HUP Finder

In conclusion, I'd suggest not to worry too much about it.

Instead, the following may help better:

Keep the administrative account separate from normal user accounts
Ensure that user accounts are only shared with trusted people (or preferably, have one user account for each real user)
Share the administrator credentials only with trusted users

Removing the option is more like Security through obscurity, and is not really a fool proof way to protect the system.


iOS 10 how do I make the notification center start on the left card?

As far as I recall that's how iOS 9 (and 8, I think) operated, too.

In any event there is no setting to change this behavior.


Is there a Safari Extension that automatically tracks my daily time usage on Safari?

Its not a Safari specific solutions, but Slife works pretty well to do what you're saying.

http://www.slifeweb.com/

Not only will it monitor how much time you spend on Safari, but also on everything else.  So now you can get an entire picture of what you do during the day.


Recover application after it becomes unresponsive

This also depends on why it's freezing too. I'm purely speaking from a Mac perspective here, but when something like that happens regularly I tend to delve into the logs to see what's up.

(Usually it's XPC up to its usual)..

If you're not a Mac user, without Windows infant of me, I can't give you exact steps, but here it goes for both to see what's up!

Mac:

Press ⌘+Space to get Spotlight up
Type in console (press Enter)

That is the log "viewer" as such for Mac.

On Windows, off the top of my head and should apply from Windows XP onwards!

Click on the Start button
Click on "Run"
In Run dialog box, type in eventvwr.msc and press Enter.

That's the Windows logging system.

If you're on Linux, then I suggest you watch /var/log/messages.log to see what's happening there.

Anyway, have a look into what's showing up in the log when it decides to crash and let us know!


Is there a terminal command to keep apps from quitting?

You can use the screen terminal window manager and its detach feature. This command is installed by default on OS X.

Example scenario.

Open a terminal
Run screen
Run a program of your choice e.g. htop.
Suspend this program (Ctrl+z) and run it in background bg
Detach your current session (Ctrl+a d)
Exit your session and exit the terminal
Open the terminal again
List running session with screen -ls
Go back to your session with screen -r <session id>
Use your program again with fg


If I switch a SIM card from an iPhone to an Android, then back to the same iPhone, will data be lost?

No data is lost on an iPhone when a SIM card is being removed or inserted.
The only thing to keep in mind: You might need the SIM PIN (if there is any set) to use the card in a new phone.


Mysql Workbench Model table height issue


Buying itunes gift card for friend in NL

Yes. You can buy them directly from Apple and have it either shipped or emailed to them.


The nmap tool is tricky and designed to evade firewalls, so you might need a hardware firewall or assistance from a network administrator based on how skilled the operator of nmap is.
You can’t be on a network and remain totally invisible.
That being said, enabling the firewall and configuring it to drop incoming connections is usually good enough.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201642

Be sure to go into advanced and choose Block all incoming connections
This breaks many functions for sharing out, which is precisely what nmap detects.


How do I move Finder icon location in the dock?

There is this discussion from almost 10 years ago on making a duplicate icon you can move, but the original stays. As far as I can tell there is not way to move the Finder or Trash icons from their position in the dock.


Difficulty connecting at 300Mbps with Channel Bonding

I think I figured it out. It wasn't anything to do with my Macbook.

I had the 5GHz channel on the router set to the highest one (157). That apparently is a weaker signal.

I changed it to the lowest one (36) and I at least intermittently get a faster connection usually up to 270Mbps. Good enough.


Download app update once, install twice/thrice?

The "Caching Server" is one of the features of OS X Server. Whenever one of your computers (iOS or OS X) downloads an update it is cached on the server.  This link has a simple description: Caching Server

This is the official solution that Apple provide.  It does mean another level of complexity to managing your network and only you you will be able to decide whether you want to follow the OS X Server path. From my point of view, I would not unless I intended to use some of the other features of OS X Server (e.g. centralised Time Machine). The server Mac can continue to be used for desktop activity.


How can I tell which application is using the network?

Firewalls
You could use Little Snitch or HandsOff. They are great firewalls and both have a "Network Monitor" feature, that will do the job:

Little Snitch includes a Network Monitor, showing detailed information of all incoming and outgoing network traffic.
A status icon in the menu bar provides a summary of current network activity, and a monitor window with more comprehensive information pops up automatically in case of new traffic events.
Hands Off is an application to monitor and control the access of applications to your network and disks. Being able to monitor the normally unnoticeable activities enables you to make informed decisions regarding the transfer of your private information, hence avoiding confidential information leakage.

The network monitors of: Little Snitch (left), HandsOff (right)
Nettop
A free and built-in cli solution (unfortunately it is not included in Snow Leopard) would be nettop. nettop groups traffic by program and port and measures various network statistics.
Other
There are few other programs, that capture and measure traffic (iftop, wireshark, tcpdump), but they don't know the originated pid. To make the connection you should use netstat.


Bad master directory block error (shutdown cause -60) and random restarts without other symptoms

@Allan suggested that the symptoms I reported were consistent with a failing SATA cable, which is a known issue. He suggested that I check the disk status with some utilities. I could find no disk issues when I did this.

The post I linked to earlier suggested resetting the SMC in addition to checking for disk errors. I reset the SMC. I have not experienced any unexplained shutdowns since. Any further errors, and I'll investigate that SATA cable.


You have to fulfill 3 prerequisites:

1- WiFi has to be on

2- The power plug has to be in (Charger)

3- You must be on same network


Concise, compact list of all 'defaults' currently configured and their values?

So after poking around in bash builtins, I came across the defaults command again and decided to look at it's help file.

defaults read

will output all the defaults, but this is just an output of them all with no formatting and no indication as to what domain or default it belongs to.

defaults domains

will output all the default domains so I decided that I could recreate the defaults read with extra output and formatting, so as a test I ran this:

for i in `defaults domains | tr ',' '\n'`; do echo "********* READING DEFAULT DOMAIN $i **********"; echo; defaults read $i; done

Which will do the following:

run defaults domains, then format it so each domain is on a single line, then run through each line and run defaults read against it while adding the READING DEFAULT DOMAIN text to output before dumping the default to output. Obviously it could use some more formatting, etc, but at least this is a way of separating each domain and adding custom formatting. From there You could go and dig into each section and see how best to format them.

I'll play with it some more and see if I can come up with a decent report that doesn't look like total crud.


How do I backup photos *from* iCloud Photo Library

- If the photos you want are on iCloud:

Download the files as follows:

Launch the Photos app
Go to the Photos > Preferences
Click on the iCloud tab
Click on Download Originals to this Mac

If you hard drive is full, then before doing this change the location of the iPhoto Library to an external drive.  Instructions for that are here: http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/01/25/how-to-safely-move-your-macs-iphoto-library-onto-an-external-drive

See below to get specific photos in the iPhoto library.

- If the photos you want are currently on your hard drive:

Copy or set your backup software to copy the following item:

/Users/your-username-here/Pictures/iPhoto Library

That should do it.

This is not a standard file, it is a package, so if you want to copy specific photos you can control click the file then choose "Show Package Contents".  You will then see a folder with various items including subfolders that contain your photos.  I believe the originals are stored in a folder called Master and are organized by date.  You can copy what you want from there.  Some back-up apps will even allow you to sync these subitems as opposed to the entire package.


When I try to download an app, it says Verification Required?

I would start with Apple support - https://getsupport.apple.com

Choose billing support in the web page or see if there is a phone number to get human support. If you exhaust your banking cards, then you might need to contact your bank to ensure your card details are correct so you enter them correctly on Apple’s site.

This thread explains how to edit AppleID information to match what your bank reports. Verification required


How to automatically share my iPhone's internet connection with my MacBook

iOS 8.1, I believe, releasing next Monday 20 Oct.

Ref : http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/10/17/yosemite-updaters-will-need-to-wait-for-mondays-ios-81-launch-for-sms-relay-instant-hotspot


1 - Create anywhere on your computer a Source folder with the files you want to use:

2 - Open Automator and create a new service:

3 - Set the Service to receive a folder in Finder as input:

4 - Drag a "Set Value of Variable" action to the workflow:

5 - Save a new variable "Storage":

6 - Now that we have the target location lets clear the memory placing an Applescript action using this code:

tell application "System Events"
    set the clipboard to {}
end tell

7 - Get the file you created using a "Get Specific Finder Item" action:

8 - Copy to the new folder using a "Copy Finder Item" action and dragging the Storage variable from the bottom:

9 - Save your workflow:

10 - Usage - select the folder you want, right click and find your service:

11 - Repeat the process for the zip file or other files you want.

Edit: if you know how to Applescript and want to improve further, you can use a dialog box to choose between several filetypes and build a single service, using a "choose from" command like this:

set fileType to (choose from list {"txt", "zip", "etc"} with prompt "Choose File")


Are there any hacks that allow a late 2008 macbook pro unibody to use Airplay Mirroring

I'm not sure why you claim to be "sure there is a way to by pass this".  If you know something we don't, then you tell us!

Airplay Mirroring uses Intel Quick Sync Video, a hardware feature of newer Intel CPUs.  This consists of CPU support, and a separate ASIC on the motherboard, neither of which your 2008 Macbook has.

If you really needed to do it, my first thought would be to replace your motherboard and CPU with those from a newer Macbook, but generally they're designed specifically for their case, so I don't think this would be feasible.

Slightly more realistically, you could reverse-engineer the Airplay Mirroring program, find the code that uses Intel Quick Sync, and write your own version that works without it, perhaps using the GPU (which would be 5-10 times slower but depending on the CPU and GPU could potentially work).

This would be exceptionally difficult, and of course far more expensive than simply buying a new Mac.


Global hotkey that send keystroke to another app

BetterTouchTool can do this. So can Keyboard Maestro but that would really be overkill.


I am trying to make an Applescript that launches a different set of apps depending on user input. However, it won't compile. What is wrong with it?

You are missing a bunch of end ifs and 2 then.

set question to display dialog "What do you want to launch?" buttons {"Spotify", "MiniPlayer", "Remote"} default button 1
set answer to button returned of question

if answer is equal to "Spotify" then
    set myAppName to "Spotify"
    set isRunning to false
    tell application "System Events"
        if exists process myAppName then
            set isRunning to true
        end if
    end tell
    if isRunning is true then
        tell application myAppName to activate
    else
        tell application "Spotify" to activate
        tell application "Spotifree" to activate
        tell application "Spotify Notifications" to activate
    end if
end if

if answer is equal to "MiniPlayer" then
    tell application "MiniPlayer" to activate
end if

if answer is equal to "Remote" then
    set question to display dialog "What remote do you want to launch?" buttons {"IR Remote", "Android", "Both"} default button 2
    set answer to button returned of question
    if answer is equal to "IR Remote" then
        tell application SpotifyIrRemote to activate
    end if
    if answer is equal to "Android" then
        tell application RemotelessHelper to activate
    end if
    if answer is equal to "Both" then
        tell application SpotifyIrRemote to activate
        tell application RemotelessHelper to activate
    end if
end if


How can I remove photos from an iPad Min without having to restore it?

What you ask it trivial on iOS 9. Enable cloud photos in iCloud settings if you haven't already. Once it's synced, turn of the library.

Select Remove and you are done.

If for some reason you can't or won't do that, connect to a Mac and you can use Image Capture app over USB to bulk delete. I suppose a PC version of the tool would exist, but that's not my area of expertise.

Also, you can select entire moments to delete on iOS 9 so even the manual method isn't a 1 to 1 tap to delete operation.


How do I disable the Russian keyboard layout in software?


Switch your active developer directory to the correct one as opposed to the one that was chosen (the one in the error message) when brew installed command line tools with:

xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer


Not able to delete calendar event in iPhone

I removed the mail account from the device and then added it again. By doing this i was able to remove those events from iPhone calendar.


Time machine - 10.12.5 no backup in x days” from TimeMachine notification

It's still there. I saw it recently. It may be broken however, because it was reporting not having backed up for over 20 days, when in reality my oldest backup was only a few days old. It may not be working when it should be.


Pass parameters upon invocation of Applescript

Your run handler looks lifted from Automator, but your desire to have it as a script invoked from the shell suggests it's designed to be run independently of Automator.

Here's an edited form of the script that you can copy and paste into a terminal (like iTerm):

(:(){ paste - << SCRIPT > "$*" && chmod +x "$*"
#!/usr/bin/env osascript

on run {input} # Don't need the parameters arguments
    # set appName to "iTerm"
    # if application appName is not running then -- Not necessary since
    #    tell application appName to activate    -- activate will open it
    # end if

    tell application "iTerm"
        activate
        tell current session of current tab of current window
            write text "cd " & quoted form of the input
        end tell
    end tell
end run
SCRIPT
} ; : /path/to/my saved script )

This combines several tasks into one, namely creating a script file into which the applescript text is saved, and then made executable.
Then to invoke:

"/path/to/my saved script" "/folder/path/parameter"

Although, if you're going to be running this from within the terminal anyway, I'm curious why you want to involve AppleScript at all.  You can just do this:

cd () { command cd "$( eval echo "${*-$HOME}" )" ; }

This re-defines cd so that doesn't need to quote the path they pass to it.  It's just an example, and you can replace cd () with whatever name for a new function you wish to create, and insert whatever commands you want inside {...}.


Let me understand the Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports of the new iMac

There's actual more than one version of Thunderbolt - this seem to be the thing that confuses you regarding the connectors.
Thunderbolt (1st generation) which you have on your old iMac uses the same connector as mini-DisplayPort.
Thunderbolt 3, which is on the new iMac, uses the USB-C connector.
Then there's the matter of signalling protocols. The same signalling protocol can potentially be used on several different connectors. This seems to be the source of your confusion on the USB connectors.
Thunderbolt 3, USB 4 and USB 3 signals can run through the same type of connector - namely the USB-C connector.
However, it is also possible to run USB 3 over other connectors, such as the most common USB-A connector that you know from your old iMac.
You're right in that you cannot reuse your old display cables. These were actually not Thunderbolt to HDMI dongles, but rather mini-DisplayPort to HDMI. The new iMac uses a different connector, so they cannot be reused.
For the new iMac you need a USB-C to HDMI cable. You can also use an adapter/dongle and reuse an existing HDMI-to-HDMI cable for the long run of the cable.
The reason you do not get to connect two external, independent monitors is simply that the graphics processing unit in the iMac does not support more than 2 displays - the internal display and a single external monitor. It is not a limitation with the Thunderbolt/USB-C connector, nor is it a limitation with Thunderbolt signalling or anything like that. It is simply the GPU that does not support more displays.


Lost Apple ID: How to recover iTunes media and iCloud data?

You could just sync it with iTunes (which would also backup the contacts on the computer) on OS X or Windows. Then setup your new Apple ID, add it to the iCloud settings and continue with iCloud backup (and iTunes backup too, if you wish).


I'm assuming you want it like:
Visitor82   123 E. Text Street ...

To do this in Text Wrangler:

Search > Find

Tick the 'Grep' option

In the Find Box type:
(?(?!\r\d)then)\r

In the Replace Box type (or whatever delimiter you would like):
\x20

~ Enjoy!


I saw somewhere that if I use DisplayPort instead of HDMI, I may have additional options, but I can't find any official documentation.

It depends on the capability of the monitor, the cables and the converters.  If, for instance your monitor supported HDMI spec 1.4  but you used an older cable certified with the 1.2 spec, you'd be limited to the refresh rates you could use at certain resolutions (i.e. 120Hz at 720p).  When connecting display devices (whether HDMI or DP), there's a number of variables you have to account for to ensure you're getting the best (or maximum) performance; it's not so simple to say "HDMI gives you this" or "DispayPort gives you that."
That said, I would say that DisplayPort provides you with better reliability than HDMI due to the fact that the native signal is DisplayPort.  You have to convert that signal to get HDMI.
Now, when you convert, you introduce complexity and that can affect reliability and performance.

What's wrong with HDMI?


You could throttle the specific program using AppPolice:

https://github.com/fuyu/AppPolice

However, this is usually the wrong way to go about it.

If programs using 100% CPU makes your computer shutdown, you have a hardware issue. It would be better to fix the hardware issue.

Usually a problem like the one you described means that the fans in your computer have stopped working to spec. They probably need to be cleaned or replaced.


Why Siri says that X is not on my find my friends list?

I know this is two years ago, but you have to make sure you have added their iCloud email address to their contact. Once you have done this it will work... I have just tested this (August 2019)


what happens if an Apple ID is never authenticated?

In the answer to your previous question on this topic, it's answers the question directly in the verification email sent out by Apple; it's the very last sentence.

  If you did not make this request, you can ignore this email.  No Apple
  ID will be created without verification.

I've included the same picture here, but larger for your reference.


You could tell Finder to minimise all it's windows by:

tell every window
    set collapsed to true
end tell

Then activate desktop and the usual.


How can I rebind the return key so that it works consistently across all applications?

You probably need to step a level further down the tree of software and hardware, to the level of KyRemap4MacBook - which acts as a filter between the physical keyboard and the keyboard events reported to MacOS.

The software keyboard map is an optional thing - software can intercept keyboard events at a level that bypasses it, if they wish, and it sounds like some of what the browser does with key binding is touching on that.

A lower level remapping may bypass that problem.


How to compile with Command Line Tools for Xcode after deleting the Xcode.app application bundle?

If you now only have the Command Line Tools for Xcode installed and having deleted the Xcode.app application bundle, then you need to run the following command in Terminal to use the Command Line Tools for Xcode.

xcode-select -switch /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools


iCloud Drive on Mac is taking up space on HD

You need to enable Optimize Mac Storage in iCloud Drive settings. After enabling this, you may have to speed it up by right clicking on large folders or files and clicking Remove Download.

Open System Preferences > iCloud and check the box labeled Optimize Mac Storage.
To speed the process, find a folder you wish to remove from your local storage and right click it. Choose "Remove Download."


Macbook pro touch bar spoiled with kernel panics

Since you've dropped it the first thing you should do is run some hardware diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

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

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

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

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

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


How do i transfer an app that has been downloaded to the PC iTunes Store to my iPhone 5?

Real Racing, if I recall, is too large to transfer to your phone over the air unless you're connected to Wi-Fi. So, you will need to use iTunes to install it to your phone (unless you find a Wi-Fi Hotspot to use.)


How do I remove an ssh private key from ssh-agent/keychain

After I post the question, I found the answer, the following command will generate the public key using the private key file:
ssh-keygen -y -f ./MyPrivateKey.pem > ./MyPublicKey.pub

then to remove it:
ssh-add -d "MyPublicKey.pub"

Reference


How can I deactivate Find my iPhone's Erase iPhone?

Apple doesn't provide a way for you to withdraw an erase command from iCloud. Theoretically, if it hasn't been withdrawn, an engineer for Apple could go in and remove it from the queue assuming:

They could verify you were really you
You figured out how to convince them to do this

As for whether you can still track the device after an erase is sent, that depends on the version of iOS on the device.

If you have iOS 7 or later - the erase action does not stop tracking or remove the activation lock preventing a thief or someone who finds / buys it from being able to use the device. It will still show your lock message and you can still track the device. Problem solved!

If you are on iOS 6 or earlier, you are correct that you will have lost the chance to track the device once it connects and receives the wipe command. If it ever connects to Apple's servers, the wipe will happen and the device will be erased and you should get an email if/when that happens.


First thing I'd do is do a hard restart of my phone (hold the power and home buttons down for about 10 seconds - wait for the screen to go black then for the apple logo to appear). If that doesn't do it, try signing out of the app store, and then signing back in.


Well I'm afraid that I resorted to the obvious Windows thing -- I uninstalled iTunes, renamed my iTunes library, and then reinstalled.  After reinstalling, everything appears to be OK (my "test song" now plays completely).  I assume there was a problem somewhere in iTunes's metadata repository.


Apple DTK, how long did it take to get an approval?

I’m not going to report anything about specifics here due to NDA but I would recommend everyone assume Apple has multiple queues and waves of hardware to build. Asking Apple directly or discussing the DTK on the private boards Apple has for DTK is the best way to get actual experience and not guess work or people gaslighting you that don’t have first hand experience.
I would apply direct to Apple and then wait or contact Apple via developer support after a couple weeks minimum.

https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/

There’s not much you need the DTK for today so build your app and ship updates. Having apps love in the store is the best way I know to get priority for limited resources. Along the way you can open a developer support if you have specific compatibility concerns as you encounter them.


Can I exchange an iPhone 4 with an iPhone 5 without getting a new SIM?

According to this article, the problem isn't just the size.

  It turns out, as well as a smaller size, the Nano SIM is reportedly
  15% thinner than the Micro SIM cards. So even if users cut the Micro
  SIM to Nano SIm size with a knife or nano SIM cutter tool, the Sim
  card would still be too thick to put in the iPhone 5.


Can't use or change my system password. Lion 10.7.5

Perhaps try enabling the root user from single user mode?

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
passwd root

https://www.personalmacgeniuses.com/2013/10/31/case-of-the-missing-admin-account/#.V8qUxGW_2AU


Look in preferences in iTunes and list all the devices that have a backup stored on the computer. If you didn't get a backup, then it becomes much less likely to catch any information from the system logs.

Grab yourself a copy of the iPhone configuration utility from the enterprise support site and it will log each serial number and details every time it's running and you connect a device.

The Apple Configurator does similar but is intended more for management than just remembering all the devices. It also only runs on Macs running 10.7.2 or later.


When restoring iPhone backup, asked for *previous* iCloud accounts?

  1. See which apps are still linked to my no longer used Apple IDs

Whilst there's no 'list' of these apps, you should be able to notice apps which haven't been restored to the device, as these will be apps purchased with those Apple IDs. If you're watching the device being restored, you may notice such apps move straight from Waiting… to being deleted—this is a sign of an app which is not permitted to be installed.

    2. Move those app purchases over to my me Apple ID

There is no automatic process for this. You'll need to find apps which aren't installed and you remember being installed (or you see not being installed per the previous paragraph) and reinstall them, whilst being signed in to your newer Apple ID.

    3. Remove those older Apple IDs from future backups

As these apps have not been installed, future backups won't be aware of these apps ever existing and consequently you won't be prompted for the Apple IDs again.


How to use different contacts on different iPhones with the same Apple ID

The only reason I can see for sharing an Apple ID is to share purchases.  Otherwise as you have found out, you are sharing contacts, calendars, emails and maybe even video calls and imessages etc.

Luckily, whilst all the above are iCloud functions, they are not mapped to your App Store account, and you can sign into separate accounts for each of these functions on your device.

So, on the assumption that the above is your scenario, then just sign into the App Store with the existing Apple ID which then is only responsible for purchases and download authentication etc., and then one of you can sign up for a separate free iCloud account to handle all the other functions.


How to tell if iPhone's SIM port is working even though it's locked?

This is what I did to solve the problem.

Powered the phone down.
I removed the SIM card.
Use a small paper clip and insert in the sim card hole and push firmly. Don't use a large paper clip. While they fit the hole, are too large to push on the mechansim that pops the card up.
I lightly cleaned the SIM card contacts with an alcohol prep swab (the kind they use when you get a shot). Just so you know, I did try dry cleaning the card with a soft cloth at first, but it didn't work for me. Try it, if you don't have the prep swab, it might work for you.
I then made sure the card was dry of the alcohol before I reinserted the card in the phone.

Restarted the phone.

This solved my problem. The phone booted up normally.
I hope it solves your problem too.


Can't switch to full screen apps or evoke Mission Control after sleep

I get the same symptoms/failure.  The following Terminal command fixes it for me:

killall Dock

But before you do that, run killall -s Dock to make sure it's only going to directly kill the one "Dock" process. Dock will restart and then mission control is working again - for me anyway. You can verify that the restart happened by looking at the process ID of "Dock" after the restart. Hope this helps!


Max length a USB-C charge cable can be for a Mac Mini 2018?

No USB-C cable powers a Mac mini properly. USB is direct current, low voltage.

Mini operates from mains power of 110 or 220 VAC.


Using the GUI

This is the easier way to do it:

Go to System Preferences.app then go to "Sharing" and then enable "Remote Login"

Using the Command Line:

If you insist on using the command line, I think the command you're looking for is:

sudo launchctl start com.openssh.sshd

I think the syntax may vary somewhat if you are using an older version of macOS you are running, but I don't remember when that might have changed, so I can't say for sure.


How can I use a single monitor when connecting to a multi monitor machine using Screen Sharing, VNC or RDP?

A simple solution that works for me is to

turn on "Display Mirroring" as soon as I connect
view my remote connection on a single monitor.

You can do this:

manually by going to "System Preferences | Displays", and toggling it
or you can use this free opensource command line app to toggle it super easy from the command line.


Removing thousands of group folders from Contacts

I suppose that depends on how many you want to keep...

Let me esplain... It might be easiest to select the entries you want to keep. Hold Command and click, in turn, on each entry needed to be kept. then drag them to the desktop. You have now saved a backup.

Select everything in the address book and delete everything. Once that is done and it has synced across devices, drag the backed up contacts back into address book.

No it is not automated and depending on how many entries you want to keep it may still be a bit on the labor intensive side but it has the benefit of being simple...


Can I delete images from Pictures folder? Are they redundant?

Normally the photos have to be imported to one or the other via drag and drop or the import button. To be on the safe side import some of the photos into the photo application. If they are duplicates you will receive a popup stating that the files are the same


On the iPhone, can I let YouTube run in the background and play the audio while I use other apps?

You'll need to signup for YouTube Premium to have this feature. You can signup here:

https://www.youtube.com/premium

The price is currently 11.99$ per month.

A free method of achieving something similar is to use a non-Safari browser such as Opera Mini, and open youtube.com in that browser. Start the video, exit the browser and the audio stops. Then swipe up from the bottom to access the Control Center, you'll see playback controls in there for the YouTube contents. Press play to keep the audio playing.


Why isn't my iPad Retina iCloud Drive login verification code not showing up on my iPhone or Mac?

It turns out you can trigger a 2FA verification code by going to:

iOS10: Settings > iCloud > Password and Security > Get Verification Code

iOS9: Settings > iCloud > [Your name at the top] > Password and Security > Get Verification Code

Now the challenge here is that the original iPad Retina was limited to iOS9.

The other challenge is that the iPad retina running iOS 9 appears to have a 4-character 2FA - whereas my other devices are generating 6-character verification codes. I'll try and solve that somewhere else.

There appears to be a trick to get the verification code sent by SMS.

Edit - it turns out it was asking me for the login passcode, not the iCloud verification passcode. Going to give the tick to the other answer to thank them for helping out.


iOS 11 autocorrect bug typing the letter capital I

This is described by Apple:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208240

I think this must be a bug in the system for suggesting emoji in Predictive Text.  The mystery character is FE0F, Unicode Variation Selector-16, which is used to signal that the preceding character should have emoji instead of text presentation format.

Solutions / Workarounds:

turn off predictive text
use a 3rd party keyboard
Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement

Set up a text replacement small i to capital I.

Apple has now issued similar advice.

Many people are waiting for an iOS update, but you could try backing up your device and erasing all content and settings and then restoring your backup. That should fix the issue for you at the cost of making sure your backup is encrypted and has health data and all apps are still available for redownload.


Why does this cause Mac OSX to print over SSH?

Terminal.app probably implements the "media copy" (printer) escape sequence from VT100s.  You can read about those control sequences at vt100.net, or in the XTerm Control Sequences, e.g.,

CSI Pm i  Media Copy (MC).
        Ps = 0  -> Print screen (default).
        Ps = 4  -> Turn off printer controller mode.
        Ps = 5  -> Turn on printer controller mode.
CSI ? Pm i
      Media Copy (MC, DEC-specific).
        Ps = 1  -> Print line containing cursor.
        Ps = 4  -> Turn off autoprint mode.
        Ps = 5  -> Turn on autoprint mode.
        Ps = 1  0  -> Print composed display, ignores DECPEX.
        Ps = 1  1  -> Print all pages.


Does the “Put hard disks to sleep when possible.” option in macOS have any affect on SSD drives?

According to Apple:

  Put hard disks to sleep when possible

  This setting powers down the hard drive motor when you aren't reading
  or writing files from the drive. Solid-state drives (SSDs) don’t have
  moving parts, so this setting doesn’t affect Mac computers that use
  only SSDs to store data.

  Consider deselecting this option if you have
  an internal or external non-SSD drive and you use apps—for example,
  pro audio or video editing software—that work better with continued
  read and write access to the hard disk.

Source: Apple: Use the Energy Saver settings on your Mac [Bold emphasis mine]


applications sometimes keeps bouncing, won't open and won't respond to force quit

Try nvram reset
If didnt help
Reinstall those apps
Worked for me


Is macbook pro 15 inch over-heating fixed?

I think that overheating problem w i9 addressed by Apple through a software update:  https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-software-update-macbook-pro-core-i9-overheating-2018-7
Cheers


How to generate a (valid) PDF with "a2ps foo.txt"?

The a2ps utility is for formatting files for printing on a PostScript printer, hence its name is not a2pdf.

The file you created under Linux (or OS X), which is a miss-named .pdf file, is in fact a PostScript file and many Linux Distros will open it anyway.  Thus leading you to believe is was a PDF Document when in reality it's not.

Looking at the file created under Linux in a Hex Editor its header starts off with, e.g., %!PS-Adobe-3.0 and a PDF Document starts with, e.g., %PDF-1.6%.

This is why you get the "The file “filename.pdf” could not be opened. It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize." error message under OS X when trying to open a PostScript Document with a miss-named PDF Document extension.

Update: Installing a2pdf

After doing a little research I found a2pdf.  Further research required having Font::TTF::Font and PDF::API2 also installed.  So I downloaded all three packages master.zip (for a2pdf), Font-TTF-1.04.tar.gz and PDF-API2-2.023.tar.gz.

Next I extracted all three and installed them in the same manner in the following order, Font::TTF::Font, PDF::API2 then the master.zip (for a2pdf).  I did this in a Terminal using the following commands.

$ cd $target_directory
$ perl Makefile.PL
$ make
$ sudo make install

I then tested, from my Home Directory, with: a2pdf filename.txt > filename.pdf

It create filename.pdf and I then opened it in Preview just fine as a PDF Document.

That said, there are other modules that can be installed to do things like syntax highlighting, e.g. Perl::Tidy.  So you'll need to do a bit more research to utilize the full capabilities of a2pdf.

Note: I have Xcode and Command Line Tools for Xcode installed and as long as you have Command Line Tools for Xcode installed, which is a Homebrew prerequisite, you can install all of this from the Terminal the old fashioned way if not available from Homebrew, which I do not believe it is.


sudo is not discouraged on MacOS it is much to be preferred to the alternative which is to su to another user especially root. It is discouraged to set up root so you can login or su to it.

Normally you can only write to files in directories you have write acces to.

If you need to write to a file that is not ina directory owned by you your will not usually have permission. e.g. /usr/local/bin can only be written to by root.

If you need to copy a file to a protected directory - as the npm install does you have to ask for more privileges. Adding sudo before a command means that the command is run as if root was running it anmd so the command can write to /usr/local/bin

sudo can be used to run as any user by using the -u parameter.


Does Apple scan iCloud e-mail like Google does with Gmail?

With MobileMe, Apple did filter (and block) email:
http://www.cultofmac.com/103703/apple-may-be-invisibly-filtering-your-outgoing-mobileme-email-exclusive/
However, I tried the test mentioned in the article using iCloud email, and the email went through just fine.

EDIT:
Turns out they do, just not in the same way.
http://www.cultofmac.com/217557/apples-deleting-icloud-emails-that-contain-the-phrase-barely-legal-teens/


Windows draggable under menu bar after second display

Possible fix: edit the icon shortcuts in menu bar top right. For example Sys Prefs > Date & Time > Show date in menu bar (toggle it on/off). This seems to force the menu bar to refresh and fix the problem.


Unfortunately that type of data is not stored on the Mac by default.


MacBook Bound to Active Directory Domain

My Macbook is also bound to a AD domain, but I do not have any such DNS issues. DNS settings are configurable per network connection type in System Preferences. System Preferences>Network>Advanced>DNS.

Simply edit (if allowed?) the DNS entry for the connection type. You can have more than two DNS entries, so for example, you might simply ADD Google DNS to the work DNS. In this case, if the work DNS are not available, it will fail-over to Google DNS.

You could do this for all network types, or perhaps just for wifi, if you use a hardline at work.


What was the current time and timezone when you set the clock ?

In any case, use date -u to figure out what exactly the system clock is set to.

EST time doesn't start at 01:00 but at 02:00 which turns to 01:00 EST.


10.6.8. Can't connect to server via cmd+k or Finder menu or command line. How to connected?

This question has some suggestions for enabling the missing menu option (that question is about 10.7, but worth a try).

I think the command line version isn't working because you need to provide a final argument, specifying where to mount the shared directory locally.  On my 10.6.8 machine, man mount_smbfs gives this example:

mount -t smbfs //username:userpass@myserver/PUBLIC /smb/public


Stop Mail from downloading attachments automatically

Go to system preferences, select accounts. In accounts select Advanced and uncheck the option: "Automatically download all attachments"


Mojave install froze on "analytics", successful force reboot- but did it miss anything?

For me the same issue occured it stoped at setting analytics step for 30 min . Finally had to force reboot.
Reboot took longer time( 50 min ) so I had to force reboot again. Tried command +option P+R while rebooting it worked everything seems to be ok


Copy files from a hard drive onto an iMac?

You have different options:

Use Migration Assistant and select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. This method is probably most convenient, however, as noted in a comment by user Tetsujin: "[...] unless you migrate as the very first step in setting up a new machine, you will end up with two accounts - the one you just set up & the migrated one. It is possible (if irritating) to merge them, but if the new machine is still pretty much a blank canvas, it could be simpler overall to nuke it & start over."
Boot the old SSD from the USB enclosure by pressing alt during boot and selecting it. Then use a software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to copy the entire partition.
Alternatively, you could also use Disk Utility instead of Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! as described e.g. here (edited from the source):

  Launch Disk Utility
  In the sidebar, select the volume to which you want to copy/clone data. The volume you select will be the destination drive for the Restore operation.
  Select Restore from Disk Utility’s Edit menu.
  A sheet will drop down, asking you to select from a drop-down menu the source device to use for the Restore process. The sheet will also warn you that the volume you selected as the destination will be erased, and its data will be replaced with data from the source volume.
  Use the drop-down menu next to the "Restore from" text to select a source volume, and then click the Restore button.
  The Restore process will begin. A new drop-down sheet will display a status bar indicating how far along in the Restore process you are.


Does Mac OSX Mountain Lion autosave/versions interact badly with git?

Short answer: don't worry about it.

The versions data is kept separate from the file itself, which is why you can just email a file to someone on a different OS and not worry about the version info mucking things up.

Unless you are checking in the hidden folders where OS X stores temporary files and versions, git will never know if a file is being versioned or saved by the OS.


How to disable SSH passphrase keychain saves in OS X Sierra

There is a new option UseKeychain in Sierra, which defaults to yes and which is a reason for this behavior. If you do not like that, edit the configuration in ~/.ssh/config (or create this file):

UseKeychain no
AddKeysToAgent yes

The second option will tell the SSH agent to store the keys, which has the same result as if you had used ssh-add to enter your passphrase beforehand.


How can I have ClickToFlash except for YouTube?

bmike's comment prodded me into actually, y'know, reading the manual, which led me to find that the whitelists are in fact substring matches. Therefore these settings work:

I had to find the /v/ URL by looking at the source of a page with a YouTube embedding.


USB3 HDs fail to mount on wake from sleep with new iMac Pro

I had this problem with a WD 6TB external HDD on wake(encrypted HDD) starting with Sierra and continuing into High Sierra. It would show in Finder (but not libraries or files) and DiskUtility, but would not mount. Running FirstAid failed on the physical disk. All was normal on restart.

Unfortunately It was not seen by TimeMachine and so I ended up with backups without the drive contents. Subsequent backups after restarts ended up erasing all old backups and backing up the entire drive for the next 14 hours.

Uninstalling the WD Utilities, especially WD Utility Helper which runs in background solved the issue. Installing or even just running the WD Utilities executes the helper as well as puts it into the user's startup jobs.


Yes, you can join multiple videos into one file using default terminal commands. Using a simple cat will do want you want.
cat video1.avi video2.avi videon.avi > output.avi

There is a big but here - this method will output the video1.avi header onto output.avi. Therefore, the header of output.avi is the same as video1.avi, so on most video players, it will look like video2.avi and videon.avi are lost - source 1, source 2.
To fix this, you need additional tools. There are many other terminal tools for joining movies that update the header as well. The most known video editing tools are mencoder (which is a part of MPlayer) and ffmpeg. Both have an enormous amount of options and settings and it is beyond this forum to go into much detail, but I will give the short commands below.
The use and installation of mencoder or ffmpeg can be intimidating, but the video editing capabilities are the most powerful I have encountered so far. As the installation from source can be a hassle for native OS X users, I advise you to use Homebrew.
To install these tools using Homebrew, run this one-liner in your terminal:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

Homebrew is now installed, it is wise to follow the installer's suggestions after installation. Now we install ffmpeg and mencoder using brew.
brew install ffmpeg mplayer

Now we can use mencoder to merge the two videos:
mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -idx -o output.mp4 video1.mp4 video2.mp4 video3.mp4

Or we can use ffmpeg to merge the two videos:
ffmpeg -i concat:"video1.mp4|video2.mp4" -codec copy output.mp4

Note that you may need to escape the character "|" which is special for many shells, so
ffmpeg -i concat:video1.mp4\|video2.mp4

You specifically ask for .mp4 files. mp4 is a container format, it is possible that the default installation of ffmpeg or mencoder does not have the correct coding/decoding ('codecs') packages by default and that you need to install these separately. But that is beyond the scope of this topic.


How do I make NFS automounted volumes visible in Finder?

Have you tried Finder:Preferences:General:Show these items on the desktop and check Connected servers?

That normally works for me.


Is there any risk to using Crossover instead of natively running Windows (e.g. via Bootcamp)?

Using Crossover Office to run a couple of Windows programs on your Mac usually works quite well, IF the program is specifically supported by Crossover. If it is not specifically supported it may work but some features may not, it might crash, etc.

Not sure what you mean by "risks." Though I don't use Crossover Office (or the open source that it is based on: Wine) it emulates part of the Win32 API allowing Windows programs to run outside of Windows.

This may be safer than running Windows in a virtual machine (Parallels or the free Virtualbox) as you don't have the whole Windows environment that may need continuous updating/patching or even it's own virus checker.

But generally speaking I have heard that Crossover Office is a reasonably well working app that does what it advertises with minimal issues.


I'have same problem and I found this solution. I hope useful...

http://twocanoes.com/winclone/support/migrate-windows-8-to-an-external-drive-using-winclone-4.3-and-later


How to install the final release of iOS 9 on an iPad running iOS 9 Beta

I found this from the Apple support site:

"Download the final version of iOS

If you have an iOS beta version and want to download the final version, follow these steps:

Connect your device to iTunes.

While your device is connected, force it to restart. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. Don't release when you see the Apple logo. Keep holding until you see the Recovery Mode screen.

When asked, choose Update to download and install the latest nonbeta version of iOS.

An update install won't affect your content or settings."

I would recommend backing your iOS device up to iTunes before attempting this.


AppleScript to display the VPN status bar area icon

The answer to your question can be split in two parts:

connecting to a VPN is not a task that needs GUI scripting (i.e. open the network preferences pane and simulate a click on an item), as that functionality is part of the Network Preferences Suite of System Events since Leopard (I think). All you need is

tell application "System Events"
    tell current location of network preferences
        connect service "<name of your VPN>"
    end tell
end tell

displaying the VPN status bar item however, is not part of the Network Preferences Suite. If you cannot live with the icon being present permanently in your status bar area, you will have to use GUI scripting to enable it on demand:

property vpnToUse : "<name of your VPN>"
tell application "System Events"
    -- first activate the network pane, wait for it to load
    -- also might want to make sure this does not interrupt user interaction
    <your code here>
    -- get the index of the VPN in the service list
    tell current location of network preferences
        repeat with i from 1 to (count of every service)
            if name of (service i) is vpnToUse then
                set listIndex to i
                exit repeat
            end if
        end repeat
    end tell
    -- select the VPN item in the service list and activate status bar item
    tell process (name of application id "com.apple.systempreferences")
        tell window 1
            select row listIndex of table 1 of scroll area 1
            tell checkbox 1 of group 1
                -- only click if not already activated
                if value is 0 then click it
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

note this part, as always in GUI scripting, is potentially highly disruptive: it steals focus from the user, in the worst case even canceling whatever she was doing if she happened to be using System Preferences (there is an excellent discussion on the pros and cons of GUI scripting to manipulate System Settings predating the Preferences Suites at MacScripter). It’s also brittle (as it is subject to the specific UI layout of the preferences pane), although if you follow the model I show above, using indexes and process name retrieval via the application ID, it will at least not be affected by localization issues.