Software update on obsolete system: is it real?

This is real, yes. A lot of older software updates (but also newer ones e.g. some 10.14.6 Supplemental Update from September 2019!) are signed with a certificate which becomes/became invalid on Oct, 24 2019.

To keep them in the update game the intermediate certificate authority and its certficates have been replaced – the payload stays the same – and they have been republished/reissued.

Further readings (with pics I don't want to deep-link here ):

Beware Apple security certificates after 24 October: they may have expired
Certificate used to sign older Apple software expiring on October 24, 2019

To check the validity of software installer packages use:

pkgutil --check-signature /path/to/package.pkg

Example (the OSInstall.pkg inside the InstallESD.dmg of Install macOS Sierra.app d/led on Feb, 26 2019):

pkgutil --check-signature /Volumes/OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/Packages/OSInstall.pkg
Package "OSInstall.pkg":
   Status: signed by a certificate that has since expired
   Certificate Chain:
    1. Software Update
       SHA1 fingerprint: 1E 34 E3 91 C6 44 37 DD 24 BE 57 B1 66 7B 2F DA 09 76 E1 FD
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2. Apple Software Update Certification Authority
       SHA1 fingerprint: FA 02 79 0F CE 9D 93 00 89 C8 C2 51 0B BC 50 B4 85 8E 6F BF
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3. Apple Root CA
       SHA1 fingerprint: 61 1E 5B 66 2C 59 3A 08 FF 58 D1 4A E2 24 52 D1 98 DF 6C 60

To check dmgs use:

spctl -a -t open --context context:primary-signature -v /path/to/dmg
spctl -a -v /path/to/dmg

or

codesign -dvvv /path/to/dmg

Not all dmgs are codesigned! The precise command is sometimes macOS-version-dependent, or requires a min macOS/OS X version. Please check man <command> (eg: man spctl).


Carbon Copy Cloner circumvents FileVault authentication?

An encrypted disk image is not a FileVault volume, those are two different things. It sounds like you might have the password for the encrypted disk image in your login keychain. CCC isn't "circumventing" anything... And no, the diskutil bug in Yosemite is not related to this behavior.


Opening Terminal shows a list of ttys - unable to use

You can run Bash with all startup scripts disabled to get around problems with startup scripts: choose Shell > New Command and run bash --noprofile.

See the Bash man page for more information about the Bash command-line options and startup files: x-man-page://1/bash

Also note that you can lookup and view man pages in Terminal even when your shell isn't working, by clicking on the Help menu and entering a topic in the search field. Terminal will display matching man pages. Choose one from the Help menu to view it in a new window. You can also open an x-man-page: scheme URL from any application.


This can be done using sidechain compression in Logic.
Create a new track and insert a sound (eg Kick drum) on every part you want the sound to duck, then set the output to no output.
Go to the track you want to duck and add a compressor and then set the side chain input to the track you created in the step above.
Tweak the threshold, attack and release settings to get your desired effect.


Dr Google says...

Download Titles Again
If you are still having issues with the downloaded titles, be it blank pages or wrong book, delete the downloaded book.

Next, go to your account’s purchased section under Reading Now or for iBooks, visit your account settings in the iBooks Store and re-download the title.

This likely solves your issues even when you have partially downloaded Books.

Also see:  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4421355 for a similar fix.


Well, thank you Solar Mike, looking at Excel documentation gave me the answer to my question about how to define an inline collection with rows and columns.

My mistake was trying to use C++ array initializer syntax. Instead you use a semicolon like so:

=ROWS({FALSE,4;TRUE,5;TRUE,6})
=COLUMNS({FALSE,4;TRUE,5;TRUE,6})
=VLOOKUP(TRUE,{FALSE,4;TRUE,5;TRUE,6},2,0)

The first statement produces 3, because the semicolons signify a new row. The second statement produces 2, because there are two comma-separated elements between each semicolon and commas signify a new column. And finally the VLOOKUP produces 5, the value of the element in the second column of the second row which is returned by VLOOKUP.

Et voilà!


autocd was added in bash 4.0. You can install a newer version of bash with Homebrew and then change the default login shell with chsh:

brew install bash;echo /usr/local/bin/bash|sudo tee -a /etc/shells;chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

After you open a new login shell (or a tab by default in Terminal or iTerm 2), echo $BASH_VERSION should print something like 4.2.45(2)-release.

Terminal and iTerm 2 open new shells as login shells by default, so bash reads ~/.bash_profile but not ~/.bashrc. If you don't source ~/.bashrc from ~/.bash_profile or anything, add shopt -s autocd to ~/.bash_profile instead of ~/.bashrc.


macbook 2016 21w charger replaced with 61watt

From: Find the right power adapter and cable for your Mac notebook

Power adapters for Mac notebooks are available in 29W, 30W, 45W, 60W,
61W, 85W, 87W, and 96W varieties. You should use the appropriate
wattage power adapter for your Mac notebook. You can use a compatible
higher wattage power adapter without issue, but it won't make your
computer charge faster or operate differently.

Also:

Make sure you're using the correct USB-C charge cable
For the best charging experience, you should use the USB-C charge
cable that comes with your Mac notebook. If you use a higher wattage
USB-C cable, your Mac will still charge normally. USB-C cables rated
for 29W or 30W will work with any USB-C power adapter, but won't
provide enough power when connected to a power adapter that is more
than 61W, such as the 96W USB-C Power Adapter.


localhost refused to connect after upgrading to High Sierra

The problem was that the Chrome security certificate required for these applications stopped working after upgrades.  Reinstalling the certificate solved the problem


How do I add youtube support to Safari 11.0?

Go to Safari \ Preferences. Click on Extensions. If you see the extension "ClickToFlash", disable it.


Change login password if already logged in

Click in the password box and see if it pops-up with your email address. if it does select it and see if that works.  Your password is often safed with your user name which is often your email address.


How are network file system mount paths defined in Lion (apart from Directory Services)?

OS X uses the Autofs stack to mount network file systems. Keith Winston has a good introduction to Autofs on OS X stating that:

OS X uses an autofs code stack based on Sun's Solaris version of Unix. Many of the advanced features are not documented very well, and this can be an issue unless you are familiar with Solaris. I was not and had to do quite a bit of digging.
Autofs is often used in enterprise environments to set up network-based home directories and other network mounts for users at login. It can also dynamically mount network shares on access.

By default, Autofs mounts network files systems defined via Directory Services, those defined in /etc/fstab and NFS file systems, all accordingly to its master table, /etc/auto_master.
Your call to dscl returns nothing because no mounts have been defined in Directory Services (no surprise there). If you want to define mount points not covered by Autofs default configuration without resorting to Directory Services or the deprecated /etc/fstab, you will have to add a mapping (via a auto_* file) to auto_master. For the technical background, refer to the post linked above; there is a good “how to” add auto mounts for SMB mounts in this Mac OS X Hints post.


Find multi-line block using grep and/or automator with BBEdit

You can do multiline greps in TextWrangler using various pattern modifiers (i, m, s, and/or x)

e.g.

searching for

<item>(?s).*?<\/item>

will match across lines.

After that, you can modify your regex to be more elaborate.


Fixing Time Machine Backup Broken by Deleting Most Recent Backup with tmutil

The problem eventually worked itself out.  I think that choosing to verify the backup may have helped.


How do I have Safari (v12) auto download PDF files

The Acrobat/Reader plug-in for Apple Safari is based on Netscape Plug-In API (NPAPI), which is supported only till Safari version 11. In Safari 12, support for NPAPI plug-ins is removed, and hence the current Acrobat/Reader plug-in will not work. For detailed information, please refer to help articles Display PDF in browser Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Reader

What’s New in Safari - Apple Developer

Source: Adobe.com


Sharing multiple files on iCloud by using System Events in Applescript: How to intercept an option?

OK so I answer my own question.
It is possible to do what I wanted, although I did not find a satisfactory solution.

The short answer is: I could find no way to use applescript with the direct manipulation of the graphical interface (eg. clicks). I did find a way by using key alternatives. To do the exact bit of work that I needed, the following  sequence will do:

-- after opening the document in Numbers, open the share window:

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        delay 1
        tell menu bar 1
            tell menu bar item "Share"
                tell menu "Share"

                    delay 1
                    click menu item "Share Link via iCloud…"

                end tell

            end tell
        end tell

    end tell

-- once the share dropdown window is open, use the following key combination

tell application "System Events"
--add tabs

    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    -- use arrows to move to the right part of the 'Share' window
    key code 124
    delay 1
    key code 124

    delay 3
    --  click return
    key code 36

    delay 8
    -- save the file and close it
    keystroke "s" using {command down}
    delay 4
    keystroke "w" using {command down}

The long answer is: it is a pain in the neck for a series of reasons.

First, when you create a Numbers file, it is a simple file. However, when it is shared, or when it is being saved in iCloud, it becomes a package. Applescript sees packages as folders, so you have to do some check before doing anything as to whether what you are dealing with is a folder or a package. Then you can go on to the sharing operations.

Now, I found NO principle way to intercept when exactly a file becomes a package. That is, when you open a Numbers file and ask it to be shared, you will see that Numbers gives you a "preparing the document to share" message. This, I found, is when the file is transformed into a package. There is a property that one can use in order to check if a given path corresponds to a package or a single file: one could loop while (package folder of the item_info is false) and then continue, but this property becomes set as true well before Numbers has finished its own "preparing the document to share" work. So I could only guess when I can continue and go to the sharing part of the script. I  put a rough delay of 30 seconds when a file is not yet a package, which should give plenty of time for Numbers to finish its transformations of the file to share:

if (this_package_folder is false) and (this_extension is in the extension_list) then
    delay 30
end if

Second, you must be on a good network, so that all operations related to Numbers in iCloud can be done smoothly -- otherwise,     iCloud will give you error messages that will block the execution of the script

Third, you have to take care of the .DS_Store files and other files that may be inside the folder where you put your Numbers  documents to be shared.

Fourth, if you want to identify where the iCloud folder with the documents to be shared is, from inside AppleScript you won't see it as you see it from the finder (i.e., in the iCloud Drive), but you will have to look for it in /yourUser/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud Drive/yourfolder.

With all these caveats, here is the script that I am using now. In my system, it works. It assumes several things:

there is a folder in your iCloud where your Numbers documents are
you have a file where you want to save the paths of the files that will be shared, so that you know the paths that you have to communicate to those with who you want to  share your files. In my case, I use a Pages document.
the files to be shared ARE NOT already shared. Otherwise, the script will give errors.
you don't care about errors and style. The script has no error checks. I am not a programmer.

The script will ask you to first identify the folder with the documents to be shared, then the Pages file where you want to save the paths of the shared documents, and then will open the documents to be shared one by one, will share them, will save them, will copy their path to the Pages document that you selected, and finally will quit Numbers and Pages. Give plenty of time for the script to execute and don't interfere with it. Notice that when you open each Numbers file, you can modify the script so that you insert specific operations that you want to be done on your files, always with the same technique (for example, in my case I need to find a cell, find a value, copy it somewhere else and save it. This part of the procedure is not in the script below. You can add whatever your fantasy leads you to invent as contorted and complicated operations).

Now, if somebody finds a way to REVERSE the operation, unsharing the shared files, and especially, a way to tell if a file is ALREADY shared or not, so that the script acquires generality....

I paste the script below.

-- Beginning of the script
global f

property extension_list : {"numbers"}
tell application "Finder"
set source_folder to choose folder with prompt "Please select directory."
set posixSource_Folder to POSIX path of source_folder
tell application "System Events"

    set these_items to POSIX path of disk items of folder posixSource_Folder
end tell

my createList(these_items)
end tell

on createList(these_items)
tell application "System Events"
    tell application "Finder"
        set f to (choose file with prompt "Choose a file where to store the paths")
    end tell
end tell
set posixF to POSIX path of f
delay 2
tell application "Finder" to open file f
delay 1
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
    set this_item to item i of these_items

    set the item_info to info for this_item
    set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
    if folder of the item_info is true and (package folder of the item_info is false) and (this_extension is not in the extension_list) then

        process_folder(this_item)

    else
        if (this_extension is in the extension_list) then
            process_item(this_item)

        end if
    end if
end repeat
close_files()
end createList

-- this sub-routine processes folders
on process_folder(this_folder)
-- set these_items to list folder this_folder without invisibles
set posix_this_folder to POSIX path of this_folder
tell application "System Events"

    set these_items to POSIX path of disk items of folder posix_this_folder
end tell
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
    --set this_item to alias ((this_folder as Unicode text) & (item i of these_items))
    set the item_info to info for this_item
    set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
    --if folder of the item_info is true and (this_extension is not in the extension_list) then
    if folder of the item_info is true and (package folder of the item_info is false) and (this_extension is not in the extension_list) then

        process_folder(this_item)
    else
        if (package folder of the item_info is true) and (this_extension is in the extension_list) and (alias of the item_info is false) then
            process_item(this_item)

        end if

    end if
   end repeat
end process_folder

-- this sub-routine processes files

on process_item(this_item)
set the item_info to info for this_item
set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
set this_package_folder to the package folder of item_info
set Posix_Item to POSIX path of this_item

set Posix_File to POSIX file Posix_Item
delay 1
--opening the Numbers file
tell application "Finder" to open Posix_File
delay 3
-- going to Numbers and making the file shared

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        delay 1
        tell menu bar 1
            tell menu bar item "Share"
                tell menu "Share"

                    delay 1
                    click menu item "Share Link via iCloud…"

                end tell

            end tell
        end tell

    end tell

    -- extra time allowed for non packages

    delay 3
end tell
if (this_package_folder is false) and (this_extension is in the extension_list) then

    delay 30
end if

--tabs
tell application "System Events"
    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    -- arrows
    key code 124
    delay 1
    key code 124

    delay 3
    --  returns
    key code 36

    -- leave some time for Numbers to actually share the file. Maybe you need more time for your system.
    delay 8

    -- saving and closing documents
    keystroke "s" using {command down}
    delay 4
    keystroke "w" using {command down}

    -- Now returning to the file where the paths have to be pasted
    tell application "Finder" to open file f
    delay 2
    -- pasting the local Unix path
    keystroke "v" using {command down}
    delay 1
    key code 48

    delay 2
    -- pasting the iCloud remote path of the shared document
    set the clipboard to Posix_Item
    delay 1
    keystroke "v" using {command down}
    delay 1
    key code 48
    key code 36

    delay 1
    keystroke "s" using {command down}
end tell

end process_item

--closing files

on close_files()
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        tell menu bar 1
            tell menu bar item "Numbers"
                tell menu "Numbers"

                    delay 1
                    click menu item "Quit Numbers"
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell

    tell application "Finder" to open file f
    delay 2
    keystroke "q" using {command down}
    delay 1
end tell
end close_files
-- end of the script


My own iPhone 7 is locked with foreign account after simple reset

If you have all the original receipts required to prove ownership please go to the next Apple Store (or contact Apple support if there isn‘t a store close by). They should be able to reassign the phone.

PS: Make sure you make a fresh backup after your old phone is unlocked. Don‘t think there is a way to „unlock“ the existing backup.


Reminders and Contacts disappeared when turning on iCloud

On MacOS, each of the 4 apps you refer to support both local and iCloud-synced accounts or lists.

To avoid any syncing issues and for troubleshooting, I suggest the following:

To start, leaving iCloud off for each app on each device.
Then turn on iCloud sync for the first one, e.g. macOS Contacts.
Pay attention to what happens. You may now see both an 'on my mac' and a new 'icloud' group appear in the left hand list.
If there are no contacts in the 'cloud' section, then perhaps they are only inside the local copy in the 'on my mac' group.
If so, then move them into the 'cloud' group. Does it look like there is a network operations (spinner) doing stuff in the corner? If so, then things are going well.
Wait a while until everything is done.
Now turn it on in the other advice and again wait for things to sync. Also check if there are contacts 'on this iPhone' that you also want in the cloud.
Same concept applies to the other 3 apps, with minor technical differences.

Hope this helps!

Damon, aka Semiconducted


What happens if I don't eject before disconnecting my iPod?

If the connected devices are exchanging data while you interrupt it (unplug) following can happen.

You can have a corrupt files/folders on either site.

Mostly that can be repaired but not always.

If you use Eject, the data transfer process is stopped correctly.


The Newsstand folder is gone but the apps should still be present just not wrapped in a folder. If you can't find them you can still re-download the apps through the App Store. Only apps that are removed to a legal reason can't be re-downloaded.

Edit:

  Individual Newsstand apps will now install directly to the Home
  screen.

https://developer.apple.com/newsstand/


How to open macOS news article in browser?

The option is available on macOS, but is unintuitive. In the News App, open the File menu, and select Open in Safari.

  NOTE: This will in fact open the link in whatever your default browser is (eg. Chrome) although the menu title will continue to say "Open in Safari" regardless.

In order to add a keyboard shortcut for this, open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts

select App Shortcuts in the sidebar
tap the + button to add a shortcut
from the Application dropdown, select News.app
in Menu Title, enter: "Open in Safari" (no quotes)
in Keyboard Shortcut, enter the shortcut you desire (eg. cmd-O)


AppleScript runs in Automator, but fails when launched via a shortcut

I was able to get it to work by saving the AppleScript as a separate application, then creating an Automator Service that simply launches that app. Here are the steps:

Create a new AppleScript in Script Editor and paste in the following code (yours, but with a slight addition):

on run
    set date_ to short date string of (current date)
    tell application "System Events"
        set visible of (first process where it is frontmost) to false -- return focus to initiating app
        delay 0.1 -- make sure the application has had time to regain focus—if the script doesn't work, try upping this value a little
        keystroke date_
    end tell
end run

Save the script as an Application.
Create a new Service in Automator and add a Launch Application action. Set the application to the one you just saved from Script Editor.
Link a keyboard shortcut to that Automator action.

I can't verify that it works on Sierra, but it's working on High Sierra 10.13.6.


How to get Automator to treat text as RTF?

I usually use scripts like this instead of Automator services:

try
    set old to the clipboard as record
end try
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using command down
do shell script "export LC_CTYPE=UTF-8; pbpaste | /usr/local/bin/pygmentize -g -f rtf | pbcopy"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down
delay 0.05
try
    set the clipboard to old
end try

If the clipboard is empty, trying to get it results in an error.
pbpaste and pbcopy use ASCII if the locale variables are unset. I couldn't get pygmentize -f rtf to work with non-ASCII characters though.
Without the delay set the clipboard to old would sometimes be run before the text would get pasted.


Apps will launch to a given Space, if set - right click the app in the Dock > Options , *.
They will only launch to a given physical display if you don't have "Displays have separate Spaces" on in System prefs > Mission Control.
Apps do not like being spread across multiple Spaces.
*Apple use the terms Desktop and Space interchangeably, unfortunately. Display, however, always means 'physical screen'.


Target Display Mode between MacBook Pro and iMac won't work

Well, i found out why... I just needed to turn the cable around. For some reason, the Thunderbolt cable can be plugged in the wrong way.


13" MacBook Air Terminal says " (base) UNKNOWN

The UNKNOWN part is your computer hostname, for some reasons it changed itself.
You can change the hostname from the Terminal using the following commands :
sudo scutil --set ComputerName "newname"
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "newname"
sudo scutil --set HostName "newname"

Then flush your DNS cache with dscacheutil -flushcache and reboot your Mac.
You can also change it without using commands, in System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name.


Can I suppress the Setup Assistant When Creating New Users on macOS?

This solved the problem that i was having:

Created a new user following all the normal steps. After creating the new user copied user's com.apple.SetupAssistant.plist (from ~/Library/Preferences/), and then just re-used that file for each newly created user. This allowed me to immediately login without the need to go through the assistant.

Thank you @bmike for your help!


Searching through a whole lot of PDFs on an external disk

Part of it might be a setting in your energy saver settings that allows hard drives to sleep if not in use, you could check on that setting and see if adjusting it makes the job easier and searches quicker.

A USB 3 drive (assuming it is on a USB 3 port) should be plenty fast enough to handle the necessary bandwidth. What might be slowing you down is the speed of the drive. If you have a 5400RPM drive that would slow things down and moving to a 7200 might make it fast enough for you. But fast enough is hard to quantify.

Thunderbolt on SSD would be as fast as an internal SSD, but these drives are pricey and when I was looking for one recently found none that were suitable. Many being multiple drive RAID chassis. Instead I went with a Firewire 800 drive case (from OWC) and a Samsung 1TB SSD.

As my Mac did not have USB 3, Firewire 800 was fast enough for my needs. And if you already have a USB 3 case putting an SSD in it might be your best bet for maximum speed and affordability...

Unless of course you spring for an external Thunderbolt RAID chassis...


Restore system from DMG (original source disk bigger than destination)

I managed to restore the system using Carbon Copy Cloner.

It did as it should: The image fits in the destination disk? If yes, restore.


My new MBP Retina needs to be recharged after 2 1/2 hours

Open a support ticket with AppleCare if you'd like expert help in determining whether they can run diagnostics remotely to measure a few more data points than the overall summary.

It could be a high GPU / CPU / firmware thing that needs updating, but it also could be a battery that soon enough will show less life than designed and you'll be offered an exchange under warranty.

You can also open terminal and issue a few commands to look in more detail at power management.

 pmset -g rawlog

 pmset -g pslog

If you record the settings you have, correlate things with date; io_stat 300 you should get a good indication if the estimates are off and why. Of course, start with the machine 80% charged or more and let them run as your battery drains. AppleCare might not need all the logs, but you can send them / save them and run a check in 3 or 6 months to see if the battery is substantially worse / same / better than now.


What is the preferred method of command line domain name lookup (DNS)?

nslookup, host, and dig are perfectly good DNS query tools in OS X, but they all query DNS directly rather than going through OS X's internal resolution system. As a result, they don't check the /etc/hosts file, or resolve Bonjour/mDNS names (those ending in .local). The standard (quick 'n dirty) way to test resolution is to use ping, since it'll resolve the address you give it through the usual system before attempting to ping it. If you want something intended for the purpose, use dscacheutil instead:

$ dscacheutil -q host -a name www.apple.com
name: e3191.c.akamaiedge.net
alias: www.apple.com www.isg-apple.com.akadns.net www.apple.com.edgekey.net
ip_address: 184.24.141.15

$ ping www.apple.com
PING e3191.c.akamaiedge.net (184.24.141.15): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 184.24.141.15: icmp_seq=0 ttl=57 time=57.258 ms
^C
--- e3191.c.akamaiedge.net ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 57.258/57.258/57.258/0.000 ms


I finally just figured it out!  It turns out that I had a Quicktime process that was stopped  (I had done an open on an avi file on the command line.)  A kill -CONT on the pid allowed it to continue so I could close it and now I have my keys back!


From Apple's Web site:

To delete synced photos and videos
In iTunes, select the device icon in the Devices list on the left. Click the Photos tab in the resulting window.
Choose "Sync photos from."
On a Mac, choose iPhoto or Aperture from the pop-up menu.
On a Windows PC, choose Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements from the pop-up menu.
Choose "Selected albums" and deselect the albums or collections you want to delete.
Click Apply.

So, the albums you want to KEEP should be selected. They will sync with your iTunes account.
However, I prefer to store my photos directly to Dropbox. Dropbox can be set up to automatically sync photos to it using their Camera Upload feature.
Additionally, if you like the file system method, you can use an app like Phoneview to move photos manually into a directory of your choice.


Flashing icons (crashing gui) in OSX Yosemite

Tracking your problem in Crash report it shows

Thread 8 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: ICANotificationPrivateQueue
0   libobjc.A.dylib                 0x00007fff91893acf objc_release + 15
1   libobjc.A.dylib                 0x00007fff9189291f (anonymous namespace)::AutoreleasePoolPage::pop(void*) + 575
2   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x00007fff95cb6272 _CFAutoreleasePoolPop + 50

So one of the existing icons is making problems, my hint is the Volume or the Clock.

One way to find out is to trash them one by one (hold cmd and pull it to the desk top). No worry they can be easily restored from here /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu extras.


Change American keyboard icon in menu bar to black and white

One way to do that would be to create a duplicate layout with a custom .icns file using an app like Ukelele.

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele


You can use iStat Menus to read the sensor values, which include voltage, amperage, and wattage of various components in the system.

Source: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/240561/118960


US International (AltGr dead keys) layout on Mac OS X?

The standard U.S. layout has a few dead key states under ⌥:

` isn't a dead key in U.S. Extended:

If you want to leave the left ⌥ free for other functions, you can create a custom .keylayout with Ukelele.


How to disable iCloud Drive option for standard users

It is possible to disable iCloud Drive in both, macOS and iOS, using a profile.

A profile can be created using the Apple Configurator. Under Restrictions, disable (uncheck) Allow iCloud documents & data to create a profile that disables the iCloud Drive setting in the system preferences.

This is done by setting allowCloudDocumentSync to false as shown in this example mobileconfig here.

After installing the profile, the iCloud Drive option is greyed out in the system preferences.

For the sake of completeness, here is a copy of the example profile:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>PayloadContent</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>PayloadDescription</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
            <string>Restrictions</string>
            <key>PayloadEnabled</key>
            <true/>
            <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
            <string>B315497E-0527-4FD1-926C-7071895B6992</string>
            <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
            <string>Company Name Here</string>
            <key>PayloadType</key>
            <string>com.apple.applicationaccess</string>
            <key>PayloadUUID</key>
            <string>B315497E-0527-4FD1-926C-7071895B6992</string>
            <key>PayloadVersion</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>allowCloudDocumentSync</key>
            <false/>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>PayloadDescription</key>
    <string>Prevents iCloud Drive and iCloud Document Sync from being enabled.</string>
    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string>Disable iCloud Drive</string>
    <key>PayloadEnabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string>8942D1B1-C883-4EA2-8E3E-A3DB5ABD60B2</string>
    <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
    <string>Company Name Here</string>
    <key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key>
    <false/>
    <key>PayloadScope</key>
    <string>System</string>
    <key>PayloadType</key>
    <string>Configuration</string>
    <key>PayloadUUID</key>
    <string>8942D1B1-C883-4EA2-8E3E-A3DB5ABD60B2</string>
    <key>PayloadVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

As mentioned in Apple's Configuration Profile Reference, it seems to be possible to also skip the iCloud storage setup window by including the property SkipiCloudStorageSetup with a value of true, but I haven't tested that.

Note that the same approach can be used to disable other iCloud services that might be unwanted due to security considerations, such as iCloud backup or iCloud keychain.


Until when is my device going to be supported?

Software updates are separate from hardware support. The page you referred to is purely hardware and how long you will be able to get replacement parts.

Software updates (i.e. macOS, iOS, Pages, Numbers, etc…) are subject to the hardware limitations and what hardware is needed in order for Apple to support that configuration. For example, my 2012 Mac Mini will run macOS Sierra, but it won't use the Apple Watch to unlock it because the version of BlueTooth in that Mac won't support that feature.

Every year when the new OS update is announced there is also the supported hardware list. This year's macOS update (10.13, High Sierra) will support all machines that were supported under last year's update (10.12, Sierra), but last year there were some machines that were not able to be updated from 10.11 to 10.12 (my Mac Pro can run 10.11, but not 10.12 or later).


If you have backed up your iPhone with iTunes or iCloud before deleting the said note, you'll be able to get it back easily with a restore. There is no need to use third party software that pretend they can restore lost data because they will probably not work.


"show in finder" open the file instead of opening the directory containing it

I don't know if this will solve your problem but to reset Finder you should relaunch it. To relaunch the Finder, hold down the option key and right-click on the Finder icon in the dock. A list of options will appear. The last option is Relaunch. Click that and the Finder will relaunch.

To relaunch from the terminal: open the terminal and type:

  killall Finder

'


Have a look at Apple Symbols.  Glyph 1009 in that one has similar corners.


Taken from this article on TekReview

Make sure to leave room for expansion, if necessary.

Select the first column to the right of your data. Now we need to select all columns from this starting point to the end of the spreadsheet. Because Excel gives users spreadsheets with tens of thousands of rows and columns, we’ll use keyboard shortcuts to quickly jump to the end.
With the rightmost empty column selected, press and hold the Shift key and then press Command + Right Arrow. This will jump you to the end of the spreadsheet while the Shift key automatically selects every cell in between.
Now we have to tell Excel to hide these cells. With your cells still selected, go to Excel’s Menu Bar and choose Format > Column > Hide. You’ll now see all the cells to the right of your data disappear.
Next, we need to deal with the cells below your data. Similar to the steps above, this time select the first row beneath your data. With the bottommost cell selected, press and hold Shift and then press Command + Down Arrow. This will jump you to the very bottom of the spreadsheet and select all the rows in between.
Finally, head back up to Excel’s Menu Bar and choose Format > Row > Hide. You’re now left with a spreadsheet that features only cells containing your data, resulting in a much cleaner look.

If you need to expand your table, or simply don’t like the new look, you can easily unhide the cells. First, click the top-left heading cell that looks like a white arrow pointing to the bottom-right corner. Clicking this cell will select all cells in your spreadsheet, both hidden and not. Once selected, go to Excel’s Menu Bar and choose both Format > Column > Unhide and Format > Row > Unhide. Your spreadsheet will now be restored to the default look.


Apple Update server names - iOS devices & tvOS devices

I would recommend three steps.

Set up two caching servers per 1,000 devices you have on your network. Any recent Mac can run caching server, just needs a cheap external hard drive to store 250 GB or more of data. We use 2 TB drives as they are super cheap.
Have your network team allow outbound traffic to all of 17.0.0.0 network. - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210060
Profit

The caching servers ensure you only download one copy of each app, each update and no longer can have any sort of overload or denial of service when many devices all arrive and check for App Store or other downloads.

With the latest OS you will literally be breaking how the security works if you can't check for notarized apps and revoked certificates that have malicious software. Also, just not patching your devices is a risk. I would reach out to Apple for help, any workplace with a few devices qualifies for assistance from a local Apple store or direct from a corporate team to help with this.

Content caching needs to reach out to lcdn-registration.apple.com

Today that points at st11p01su-lcdnreg.isu.apple.com.akadns.net which has address 17.164.1.29

There are about 19 other names in the KB above for all updates to run.


You can download OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (6.21 GB) via this link, which will open first in the Browser, then in the App Store.app.

  OS X El Capitan

  This version of OS X El Capitan is for users running OS X Snow Leopard
  who would like to upgrade to macOS Sierra. If you are running Snow
  Leopard and would like to upgrade to Sierra, you need to install El
  Capitan first. This version of El Capitan can also be installed on Mac
  computers that are not comparable with Sierra.


How to load images from PC to iOS 8 iPhone camera roll?

I recommend trying Dropbox or Cubby. I know Dropbox allows roughly 3GB (I think) for free and depending on the size of your photographs that may be enough.

All you do is login online and upload the photos to Dropbox (note that Cubby is comparable in nearly all aspects) and then install the app on your phone. You can then save the images to your camera roll.

Note that if you use Backblaze (if you don't now perhaps you should anyway), you can simply download the images from your app on your phone.


Word 2011 for Mac: How to delete a Quick Style Set?

I'm not a Mac expert, but I think I figured it out. I'm running Office 2011 on Mac OS X 10.9.5. I searched for the name of one of the other quick set styles to figure it out.

The quick set folder is located at: /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Media/QuickStyles/.


Two Email Accounts in Mail.app / Can I disable notifications for one of them?

You can try the following:

Create a smart mailbox.
Choose "Message is in Mailbox" as a condition.
Select the inbox of the account where you like to get notifications.
After creating the smart mailbox, visit Mail's preferences.
At the General tab, set "New message notifications" to your newly created smart mailbox.


Clear all messages from current Terminal session

To completely clear the screen in Terminal, so there is no scroll back, you can either use the menu and click Edit > Clear to start or use the keyboard and press: command-K


Bluetooth Audio with Bootcamp on Macbook Pro

On my MacBook Pro 17” with Windows 7 32bit – I had only to download the:
Updated Bluetooth® for Windows® software at
http://www.broadcom.com/support/bluetooth/update.php
this small software will do all to you, find, download and install like a miracle.

On my MacBook Pro 13” with Windows 7 64bit wasn’t that easy.
Just download the above driver from the apple forum:

http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/Bluetooth/Bluetooth_Atheros_7.4.0.96_W7x64_A.zip?acerid=634556349384706773&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE%204830TG&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=AAP_10#_ga=1.168624617.97054721.1418479225Bluetooth_Atheros_7.4.0.96_W7x64_A.zip

After unzipping I only had to run the Bluetooth_Suite_win7.EXE file, reboot the computer and my SoundLink Mini was installed correctly!


How to reinstall Mac OS X built in Perl on Mountain Lion?

I found on another website the following command

$ sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->notest(install => CPAN::Shell->r)'

This updated all my perl modules and all is back to normal.  Not sure why or what, but don't care that it is working now.


Can I control my Mac with my iPhone -- over Bluetooth?

I don't know of a general purpose Bluetooth only control that exists on the App store (but that store is really hard to search these days for a needle in the haystack of apps), but one of the more common remote control software packages does say it will work without WiFi on the Mac.

http://www.airkeyboardapp.com/faq#no-wifi

Once you've installed the free Mac software and tested that you are OK tethering the Mac to the phone (which can use prodigious amounts of cellular data) you can download the free and ad supported iOS app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-keyboard-free-wireless/id541873446?mt=8

There is IAP to remove the ads if you really like it over time. I prefer to use the computer's create network and tether over USB if needed for control in situations where I don't have a pre-existing WiFi network. The apps I prefer for that are:

Touchpad by Martian Craft - about $7 on the app store
Rowmote Pro by Evan Schoenberg - about $5 on the app store

Touchpad is truly standalone, just turn on screen sharing on your Mac and run the app. Rowmote Pro is more integrated with various apps such as spottily, hulu, etc... Both function fabulously as a keyboard and mouse/trackpad for OS X from iOS and I find I use both for different tasks at different times.


I have the same issue with MacBook Pro A1502 EMC 2875 on macOS 10.12.6 fresh installed and previous 10.10.

I also see graphics glitch on PWD logon switching to the desktop, and it's sluggish.

I re-seated ribbon cable and reset SMC. It worked for a while, then it returned.

I believe the keyboard got light liquid damage, so I'm changing it as a test.


How "safe" is my laptop running on Service Battery

I replaced mine (MBP 2009) as soon as possible in the knowledge that Apple only stock replacement batteries for 5 years (source: Apple Genius told me). Mine was 4 years, 11 Months...

Aside from the 'service battery' warning I was seeing wildly fluctuating capacity and a tendency to power down hard at ~20% - so aside from the physical risk you may also risk data loss & file system corruption.


How can I stop the shell command `mate` from opening Textmate 1.x instead of Textmate2?

You need to replace the symlink path in /usr/local/bin/mate to Textmate2

//go to the bin directory
cd /usr/local/bin

//delete the existing symlink
rm -rf mate

//create the symlink to the Textmate 2 mate executable
ln -s /Applications/TextMate2.app/Contents/Resources/mate mate


Efficient MKV H.264 player with GPU decoding for Mac OS X

I regularly watch MKV files with H.264 1080p video on my retina MBP 15" (late 2013, Intel GPU only), and up until now, I did so using the latest version of VLC. Unfortunately the battery drains pretty quickly with this setup and I decided to investigate alternatives. In trying to be a little scientific, I created a spreadsheet listing the CPU time used (checked in Activity Monitor) for each alternative that I tested. For all testing, I played the first 1 minute of a video clip of my choosing, with H.264 1080p video and DTS audio, as well as remuxing it to M4V format using MP4Tools, and in the process transcoding the audio to AAC 2-channel (the video was untouched). I measured the CPU time used after playing this first minute of the clip in Activity Monitor. Tests were performed with the computer plugged in to AC, and the resolution set to 1920 x 1200 (recall this is a retina MBP 15"). The video was playing in the foreground, in windowed mode, maximized to use all the horizontal resolution available.

The baseline is QuickTime Player, playing the M4V version of the file, with hardware accelerated decoding supposedly enabled. This used up 4.51 CPU seconds.

Using VLC version 2.12, I got the following results:

MKV file, software decoding: 28.89 CPU seconds;
MKV file, hardware accelerated decoding: 22.82 CPU seconds;
M4V file, software decoding: 29.76 CPU seconds;
M4V file, hardware accelerated decoding: 22.44 CPU seconds.

In MPlayerX version 1.0.21 (1718), I got the following results (no mention is made to hardware acceleration since I couldn't find a way to enable or disable it, and have no idea what is the default behavior):

MKV file: 15.92 CPU seconds;
M4V file: 15.74 CPU seconds.

Finally I tried Movist version 1.3.3, which supports using QuickTime or FFmpeg as the decoder, and also has a checkbox for hardware acceleration. However, I was unable to decode the MKV version of the file using the QuickTime decoder. The results are:

MKV file, software decoding, FFmpeg decoder: 31.96 CPU seconds;
MKV file, hardware accelerated decoding, FFmpeg decoder: 8.31 CPU seconds;
M4V file, software decoding, FFmpeg decoder: 30.73 CPU seconds;
M4V file, hardware accelerated decoding, FFmpeg decoder: 9.04 CPU seconds;
M4V file, software decoding, QuickTime decoder: 37.03 CPU seconds;
M4V file, hardware accelerated decoding, QuickTime decoder: 8.12 CPU seconds.

As can be seen, Movist using the FFmpeg decoder and hardware accelerated decoding is the most efficient alternative compared to VLC or MPlayerX, but still noticeably less efficient than QuickTime at decoding M4V files. The ideal solution would be playing MKV under QuickTime Player, but it appears Perian no longer works in Mavericks.


Remote connection to iMac with resolution and session problem

The complete VNC viewer have option on the screen scale. I used the google VNC which haven't the option.
If you have same pb, you can dl it at https://www.realvnc.com/download/viewe


Keyboard shortcut to move tabs around in Firefox on a Mac

There is no PgUp and PgDn on Mac keyboard but you can get them with fn+↑ and fn+↓ respectively.
So proper combo for moving is ⌃+⇧+fn+↑ (or in another direction last key should be ↓)
It's actually easier than it looks because first three keys are in left corner next to each other.


This may not be the main reason for your question, but if you wanted to resize an image for use elsewhere (e.g. for use on a web page), you can choose to resize it upon export.

More specifically:

Within Photos, select your image(s)
Press the shiftcommandE keys (or navigate to File > Export > Export Photos...)
In the pop-up window that appears, click on the down arrow to the right of the Photo Kind option (see below)

This reveals the Quality, Color Profile and Size options
Click on the Size drop-down menu and select one of the preset options or choose the Custom option
OPTIONAL: - If you selected the Custom option at Step 5 you can now specify dimensions for width or height to resize the image
Click on the blue Export button
Select the location you want the photos exported to
Click on the Export button

Now your photo(s) have been exported with the size you chose to the location you chose and these are available to other applications (and within the Finder).

Using 3rd party apps as helpers within Photos

Depending on the version of macOS (and Photos) you have installed, you can also use 3rd party apps as helper apps to edit photos. You can launch these from within Photos, make your edits, and then upon saving the changes appear automatically within the Photos app. This includes scaling changes.

To do this:

Right-click (or control-click) on the photo you want to edit
Select the Edit With option
Select the 3rd party app (e.g. Photoshop etc)
The photo you clicked on at Step 1 opens in the 3rd party
Make any editing changes you require (including resizing/scaling the photo)
Save the changes within the app.

Now your edited photos appear with all changes intact within the Photos app.

NOTE: The app you select at Step 3 must already be installed on your Mac for it to be available.


Is there any way to have an iPad auto update its date and time?

It should update automatically by default (Settings → General → Date & Time).

Are you running the latest iPad OS (3.2.2)? I have a vague recollection of a bug in the iPad that caused the time to go out of sync that might have been fixed in a software update. I can't seem to find any info about it, but you might want to update the software just in case.


How to block an email thread from notifications in Yosemite

You could use a Mail Rule to redirect them to a specific folder, that will stop the notification, if your prefs are set accordingly.
This is an example from my gateway notifications, which I don't need dinging & notifying every hour...

Stop evaluating as the last step if you want no further action, otherwise the next rules will be applied, down the list.

To stop them also making the new mail sound, I switch that off in prefs, then add this last Rule, right at the end, for any mail that wasn't redirected by a Rule on the way through...

To complete the setup, set these 2 prefs...


How Can I view My local/offline Html file on Ipad

There is a way but you need to know how to make shortcuts. Here is how to make this one (sorry about icloud but i’m logged out :’D ) important are only 3 last actions cuz i made printscreen from existing shortcut:


That would be under System Prefs>Trackpad (or mouse, if you use that instead)>Screen Zoom options:


Boot Camp keeps booting to Ubuntu instead of Windows

Why are you even using Bootcamp it’s not necessary.. just install a boot loader and pick whatever you need at the start. If you want to run particular windows apps just use Wine Wine Is Not an Emulator


Is there a way to show each CPU's load separately?

I don't know of anything with that kind of detail, but Apple's own Activity Monitor [Applications/Utilities] can show a basic history graph per core.  Cmd ⌘    3  to initiate.

System shows in red, user in green, btw.


How did you specify the middle name?

Edit contact
menubar -> card -> add field -> middle name

 add the initial/name to

It works for me:


How to set MacBook Pro to use integrated video card during initial start up?

Yes, you can achieve that modifying certain EFI variable. I answered this other question with the full procedure to permanently disable discrete graphics card on startup.


On Macbook Pro with 2 HDMI monitors, is it possible to associate the USB-C/HDMI with a desktop/monitor?

Unfortunately it is not possible. It is a bit of "hit and miss" when you have these situations. You can sometimes replug the cables and get the desired order, but it is not foolproof.


I found the solution here: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/remap-macs-function-keys-anything-want/
/10char


OpenGL 2.0 on Windows 10 on VirtualBox on El Capitan

VirtualBox Guest Additions for Windows 8 or later no longer add the necessary registry entries to enable OpenGL support.

Based on comments in No OpenGL Support for Windows 8 and related links I was able to craft the following Registry file to add the missing OpenGL keys...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"OpenGLDriverName"="VBoxOGL.dll"
"OpenGLDriverNameWow"="VBoxOGL-x86.dll"
"OpenGLFlags"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLFlagsWow"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLVersion"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLVersionWow"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers\MSOGL]
"DriverVersion"=dword:00000001
"Flags"=dword:00000001
"Version"=dword:00000001
"DLL"="VBoxOGL.dll"

Due to hardware detection that happens at various points there is proper order of doing this as well:

Enable 3D acceleration on your guest before powering it up to install Windows.
Install Windows 10.
Install VirtualBox guest additions and reboot.
Import the above Registry file and reboot.

Note that this is limited OpenGL support - it only enables things up to API Level OpenGL 2.1. Some things work fine, others not so much. e.g.: Blender 2.78 refused to start before this change, citing lack of OpenGL support, but afterwards it starts... and just displays a white window.

Update 2017-03-04:

Blender's all-white window issues were fixed by downloading their software-based OpenGL driver, ftp://ftp.blender.org/sergey/softwaregl/win64/opengl32.dll, and copying it into the folder C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender

It obviously won't be performant like this but at least it's usable... which is important because a lot of Blender add-ons only work on Windows (e.g.: Bos FBX Importer/Exporter only works on win64 systems).


File access problem with SMB and AFP on Mac OS X 10.4 SERVER

I have updated the server to 10.6 and mac to 10.6, the problem never came back !


How do I get Safari Mac's bookmarks to overwrite Safari iOS bookmarks?

There's an option in the 'Info'-Tab. At the bottom, you'll find an 'Advanced'-section: 'Replace information on this iPad'. Check 'Bookmarks' there. Instead of merged, the data on the iOS device will be replaced.

In MobileMe this was synchronized across all devices, so I hope with iCloud this will be also.


Recover SSH private key passphrase from keychain

Open Keychain Access and enable the option View > Show Invisible Items.

Than you must search for id_rsa or ‘ssh’.


iMac consistently losing all bluetooth connectivity

I have two Macs that have recently started doing the same thing since an OS X update. Apple exchanged my keyboard on one machine but it still kept happening. I note that in the latest OS X update (today 11 April 2015) that Apple have addressed this issue. Perhaps now it will go away.


Install Sierra as guest OS in VM with Parallels 12

I'm use VMware Fusion and just downloaded "Install macOS Sierra.app" from the App Store and then made an ISO Image to install from. The ISO Image should also work in Parallels Desktop.

To create an ISO Image from the "Install macOS Sierra.app" application bundle, I used the following bash script. Note: This requires 12 GB of free space to create but only uses 6 GB when finished.

In Terminal:

touch makeSierraISO
open makeSierraISO

Copy and paste the code below into the document, modifying the path to the InstallESD.dmg if necessary, then save and close.

Back in Terminal:

chmod u+x makeSierraISO

To run the script in Terminal: ./makeSierraISO

#!/bin/bash

hdiutil attach "/Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg" -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/esd
hdiutil create -o macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.cdr -size 6144m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J
hdiutil attach macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.cdr.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/iso
asr restore -source /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/iso -noprompt -noverify -erase
rm /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Installation/Packages
cp -rp /Volumes/esd/Packages /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Installation
cp -rp /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/
cp -rp /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/
hdiutil detach /Volumes/esd
hdiutil detach /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System
hdiutil convert macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.cdr.dmg -format UDTO -o macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.iso
rm macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.cdr.dmg
mv macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.iso.cdr macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.iso

Assuming you ran the script from your Home Folder in Terminal, then look for the file macOS_Sierra_10.12.0.iso in your Home Folder. Use Parallels to create new VM. Point the new VM wizard to that .iso file. Parallels may complain, saying it is unable to recognize the OS being installed. Proceed and choose macOS from the offered menu.


As of April 2014, there are no third-party OS X applications or plug-ins that support Exchange ActiveSync.  There aren't any solutions to view your Hotmail calendar and contacts in an OS X desktop application.


How to remove a container disk and reclaim space with main partition?

Here, I assume the macOS volume that you boot to is Macintosh HD.

The commands below should remove the extra partitions and return the free space back to macOS.

 diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s4
 diskutil apfs deletecontainer disk0s3
 diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s3
 diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0


Battery Menu Bar doesn't show Time Remaining

I can think of several failures to cause that, but let's rule out the obvious.

Open terminal.app and type:

pmset -g pslog

The log will show what the power management subsystem is seeing from the SMC. After trying to connect power, disconnect power and seeing charge for 10 minutes and then off charge for 10 minutes, you should have a good understanding of what is or what isn't working.

At that point, try resetting your SMC one time. Make a note of the information as if that doesn't fix things it's likely a hardware service situation.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295 - How to reset the SMC


First of all, I assume we're referring to the executable downloaded at http://www.zeroflux.org/proj/knock/files/knock-macos.tar.gz.

Most command-line executables like knock aren't designed to be double-clicked on in the Finder. Doing so simply executes the executable with no options, so this isn't what you want.

Instead, open a new Terminal window (using Spotlight or in the Finder from /Applications/Utilities/) and type in something like the following and press return:

/Users/me/Desktop/knock --version

Doing that should print out:

knock 0.5
Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Judd Vinet <jvinet@zeroflux.org>

Basically, when you type that stuff into the Terminal prompt, the Terminal executes /Users/me/Desktop/knock and passes it the --version option.

If you were to type in only the following and press return, you'd get the same "unwanted" output as before:

/Users/me/Desktop/knock


How to upload the 4k videos taken to YouTube?

This is a limitation of Apple's Photos.app as of iOS 10.3.1.
Photos.app limits video uploads to 720p/1080p.
To upload 4K videos from your iPhone to YouTube you can use Apple's iMovie for iOS. iMovie for iOS is free for all users since April 18 2017.
Unfortunately you have to use a second app to accomplish a 4K upload.


Under Preferences, Accounts, click on the account and then the "Advanced" tab. There will be a check box next to "Enable this account."


How can I disable missed call notifications on iOS 12?

Turning off badge notifications for the Phone app will stop the number of missed calls from showing on the app icon while preserving voicemail notifications.

Settings -> Notifications -> Phone -> Turn off Badges


How can I remove "Where from" information from downloaded .mkv file?

The link listed in "Where from" is stored as an extended attribute named "com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms" on the file in the file system - it is not actually saved within the .mkv file itself.

You can remove it by opening Terminal.app and running the following command:

xattr -d com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms filename.mkv

where filename.mkv is to be replaced with the actual path and name of the file. The easiest way to do that is simply to write the first part of the command, and then drag the .mkv file into the Terminal.app window.


Cannot login to OS X 10.9 because password field disappears after clicking username

That is odd and I have not seen it before, the only thing I can think of is to boot in Safe Mode in the hopes that there is something running on your Mac that is causing that or interfering with login.

Boot your Mac holding Shift untill the apple logo pops up then release the key and let it boot. It will likely take longer to boot and eventually you will see "Safe Mode" on the boot/login screen. Try it then.


Buying an iPad through an iTunes account?

This assumption is wrong. You can only buy Apps from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Mac App Store.

All cards work on the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Mac App Store.
Select the gift card that's perfect for your lucky recipient.
You can include a personal message, and you always get free shipping.

Source


Is it possible to install an old version of Mac OS on a new Mac?

It's not directly that Apple doesn't want you to do so, it's more that older OS versions are lacking the drivers etc. required for hardware which wasn't even known at the time the older OS was released. The most obvious example for this in your case is the Retina display (and the graphics driver required for it), there are probably a lot more parts including the CPU which require special handling by the OS.


Will a Microsoft Office Add-In developed in Visual Studio work for both a Windows and Mac ( osx ) versions of Ms Office?

Office:Mac 2011 only supports add-ins that were developed in VBA.  Office:Mac 2008 does not support add-ins at all.  A new version of Office:Mac is slated for release in 2015, there have been no announcements as of this writing (December 2014) whether Microsoft will support additional methods of developing add-ins in the new version of Office:Mac.

For further information, check out Getting Started with VBA in Office for Mac 2011 from the Office:Mac 2011 help files.  You might find more assistance in developing Office:Mac add-ins in the Office:Mac help forums hosted by Microsoft.


Changed User ID Whilst Logged In (Still Logged in Now)

Reboot your Mac to Single User Mode (cmdS while booting) and enter at the prompt:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /

Launch opendirectoryd:

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

You will get some error messages - repeatedly.

Then enter (replacing username with your real user name):

dscl . -read /Users/username UniqueID

You should get something like 272 (if you changed it to 272 accidentally)

Now change it back to 501 again and check the result:

dscl . -change /Users/username UniqueID 272 501
dscl . -read /Users/username UniqueID

which should yield the original 501.

Then enter exit and boot to your GUI or better: reboot your Mac immediately with shutdown -r now to avoid errors based on the premature launch of opendirectoryd. I got some kextunload errors trying to shut down/reboot after booting directly to the GUI.


Approve a device without having another Apple device

This is an iCloud keychain prompt. In order to allow you to sign in to the Mac, you'll need to approve it. If you only have one device on the account then you must have had another apple device in the past that you used to set up keychain. Often times some users will turn keychain on and then realize they don't know what it is or what it does so they turn it off. The moment its turned on, you activate it and it identifies itself with your Apple ID.

If you don't care about iCloud Keychain, the screen should get you an option to reset iCloud Keychain. It should say "Can't approve from another device". Once you click on that, next it will say "If you can’t approve this Mac from another device, you can reset your end-to-end encrypted data to finish setting up iCloud". That data is your keychain passwords, wifi passwords, Messages saved in iCloud and credit card numbers (more info below). If you don't care that it will erase that information from your account, then have it reset the keychain and it will allow you to continue to the phone setup.

iCloud keychain is a secure management feature that keeps your account names, passwords, Messages in iCloud and even credit card numbers stored behind 256-bit AES encryption on Apple's iCloud servers. Then that data is synced between authorized iOS/iPadOS devices and macOS devices.


The best way to find out is look at the Crossover web site listing if each app is supported by Crossover which is the purchaseable version of Wine.

For SQL Server the answer is no - I think it won't even install.

So try running Windows in a Virtual Machine to run it or use another RDMS like Postgres or SQLite. An easy way to use a VM is to run Docker for macOS it includes (and hides a VM running Linux, Microsoft provide a Docker image for SQL Server with instructions for macOs


How do I get syntax highlighting of source code files within Quick Look back in Lion?

I don't think Snow Leopard did that by default, you most likely had a QuickLook plugin installed, such as qlcolorcode or colorqc2. You can simply install this again in Lion.


Purchasing OS X Mavericks for a fresh install

To install OS X Mavericks, the Apple ID that you enter must have Mavericks in the purchase history. If Mavericks is missing, the installer will not let you proceed.

If you had another machine, you could download Mavericks using your Apple ID so that it's registered with your Apple ID. If you even have access to a friend's Mac, you could use that to register the installer.

If that's not an option, you could go to the Apple Store, as was discussed over on ASC:

  I solved the problem by going to the apple store and they reset things for me by installing Snow Leopard on it again. It wasn't until my second visit though so yes they might take a while.


Macbook with thunderbolt 3 and disk drive?

Could it have been a Kensington Lock Slot? I believe the pre-retina MacBook Pros and MacBooks with optical drives all had them.

(Image: Wikipedia User "Yetzt", CC-BY-SA-2.0-Germany)


Where does Ulysses store its local content?

It’s really up to each program to decide if it stores in the home folder / documents and lets users manage things or if it makes a database in plain view (like Photos or iTunes) with aspects of the database elsewhere or entirely hide the filesystem and manage all files / syncing.

In the case of Ulysses - the developer has decided to manage things in a bundle/database and either sync it to iCloud via a local cache or store the content locally in your user library folder - out of view of normal expectations in ~/Documents or ~/Desktop

Content stored On My Mac

If you do not sync your local content using iCloud (i.e. it's in the On My Mac section in your Ulysses sidebar), you can access each group in your Ulysses library at the following file path:

~/Library/Group Containers/X5AZV975AG.com.soulmen.shared/Ulysses/Documents/Library/Groups-ulgroup/

Each group belongs it its own -ulgroup directory and will have an (unhelpful) hash for a name—for example, cba24c5b16a949c388b0204c9aa28867-ulgroup.

Within each -ulgroup directory, your documents will each have their own .ulysses file. And you guessed it, they also have a hash for a filename. Note that .ulysses files actually contain both a Content.xml and a Text.txt with your content in them.

Content synced via iCloud

You will have a hard time accessing your Ulysses iCloud-stored library from Finder, but I seem to be able to access mine fine using the Terminal if you're comfortable doing that. It's stored similarly as I described above, but here is the file path you'll be looking for instead:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/X5AZV975AG~com~soulmen~ulysses3/Documents/Library/Groups-ulgroup

A note on iCloud. The com~soulmen~ulysses3 is the application bundle/group name provided to Apple by the developer when they created the iCloud entitlements for this application. The X5AZV975AG is Apple’s provided identifier that combined with the reverse dns type name space, makes each iCloud bucket unique but common across everyone that uses that app.


How do I Launch an Applescript with a Hotkey Without Automator?

I found Automator's "Launch Application" action to be as quick as anything else, and the only way to do this without third party software.

BetterTouchTool is a free application that can be used to launch applications using hotkeys.

iTerm 2 is a Terminal.app replacement that can be shown/hidden using a hotkey (if it's running).


Plex: Thumbnails are loaded but videos do not play; spinner stays on screen indefinitely

I may have found a solution.

Preferences / Settings → Server → Network → Secure Connections → Disabled


Camera not listed under Privacy settings since upgrade to macOS Sierra

Do you have already tried a restart?

Very special. Normally there should also be "camera" to control the release of the camera.

Like this:

I would reload macOS Sierra 10.12.6 on your Mac, I have never seen anything like it...

Hopefully it will work soon ...


I had this problem and was able to resolve it by following the clues here:
http://robservatory.com/a-nasty-little-itunesios-bug-may-be-causing-media-sync-issues/

Apparently it's a bug triggered by duplicates in the iTunes Library.  In my case, I had a couple of duplicates that I wasn't aware of from several years ago.

I used the "Dupin" utility to find the duplicates.  I eliminated the extra copies.  I then turned off "Sync Music" in iTunes and did a sync.  There was still some remnant music, so I went into Settings on the iPhone, then General > Usage > Manage Storage > Music.  Click Edit and delete All Songs.  The Settings app will probably crash but the music will be gone finally.  Verify this in the Music app.  Then turn on "Sync Music" in iTunes and resync.


Automatically move messages to a mailbox in Mail.app

If you have a Gmail account, try going to gmail.com and making the specific senders go to a new folder. This should sync and do it on the Mail app to. I am not aware of any method to make it go to a new inbox.


Reformat a Partitioned Mac OS Extended External Disk?

This is an example of a procedure to erase an external disk containing a single encrypted partition.

Open the Disk Utility application and highlight the "Logical Volume
Group" representing your external disk. An example is shown below.
(Hint: click on image for a better view.)

Next, click the Info icon to get the pop up window. Note, in the
example shown below, the "Physical Backing" is disk1s2. This means
the physical disk number is 1. The "s2" suffix can be ignored. Your
numbers may be different.

Next, highlight the "Encrypted Logical Partition" as shown in the
example below.

Again, click the Info icon to get a pop up window. Note the "Disk
Identifier". In the example shown below, the value is disk2. Your
value may be different.

Close the Disk Utility and open the Terminal application. Enter the
following commands. If your numbers differed from mine, make the
appropriate substitutions. If prompted, enter your login password.

diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk2
sudo  gpt  destroy  /dev/disk1
sudo  gpt  create  -f  /dev/disk1

When I entered these commands, I saw the following in the Terminal
window.

Steelhead:~ davidanderson$ diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk2
Unmount of all volumes on disk2 was successful
Steelhead:~ davidanderson$ sudo  gpt  destroy  /dev/disk1
Password:
Steelhead:~ davidanderson$ sudo  gpt  create  -f  /dev/disk1
Steelhead:~ davidanderson$

The distutil command  must successfully unmount the disk in order
for the gpt commands to work. If the disk will not unmount, then
some window needs to be closed. Do not proceed with the gpt
commands, if you can not unmount the disk.
If successful, you should see a result similar to what is shown
below. The result shown is a 4GB flash drive with no partitions. You
can either add a partition or repartition the entire drive.


Time Machine not starting when I connect the HDD

(Edit: Lion makes this less of an issue with local snapshots possible as well as the ability to script the starting with tmutil startbackup - the rest of this answer is in regards to Snow Leopard implementation of TimeMachine)

Time Machine sets a timer based on when the mac is booted, so it's very unlikely the system looks to start a backup when the device is attached.

Instead, it is designed to commence a backup periodically and will log messages and skip a backup if there is a problem or the drive isn't attached. Once one or more backups gets skipped, perhaps it might start one sooner when the volume it expects is attached. I just checked on one mac that backs up to a local disk. When I log out all users, it doesn't see the disk at attached, so it skips each back up. When I log back in, that user log in mounts the disk and Time Machine started a backup immediately rather than waiting the "rest of the hour" for the backup.

This is how it is supposed to work.

I would initiate a backup using the control panel or the menu item to be sure there isn't an error condition - but once you rule that out, it's just a matter of time until the hour passes and your backup will start.

Have you made sure there isn't some other issue by checking in the console app? Also, do you let this mac sleep, or will it stay running for several hours and still skip a backup when the drive is connected?


Is it possible and relatively easy to boot a 2013 MacBook Air from an external drive?

It should work, depending on the model of MacBook Air an external USB drive will be able to boot the system but it will likely be slower than an internal drive on the PCI/SATA bus. You should also have a Thunderbolt or mini display port for connecting a monitor.

So it should work. Whether or not it will perform acceptably is difficult to say.


rdr is part of the packet filter/firewall in OS X and used to configure redirections. You can't run this command directly in the shell but need to edit it into /etc/pf.conf and friends. More details are available via man pf.conf and in the PF FAQ.


Running a script with administrator privileges from a standard client terminal

Generally speaking, you write the script as if an admin will be executing it and you check to see if the user has root privileges to run it. In all of my bash scripts where the script needs root privileges, I have the following code snipit that validates if the user has the correct privileges:

# Validates that user is root; exits if not
echo "Checking Root Privileges"
if [ $(id -u) -ne 0 ]
  then exit 1;
  else echo "User is root";
fi

Basically, all it's doing is checking the UID is 0 for the currently logged in user.  You can try it on the command line:

$ id -u                # My login
503

$ sudo id -u           # Root privileges
0

Running the script....

There are a couple of ways you can run the script from a login account that doesn't have admin privileges:

add them to the sudoers file or add them to the wheel group
add them to a group (besides wheel) that has sudo privileges
run the script remotely via ssh with admin credentials
run the script as a launchd plist as a Launch Daemon (runs as root)


Adding my iPhone number to the list of allowed accounts in Messages.app

This is one of those things that should happen automatically - but doesn't always.

First step is to make sure your iPhone is on iOS 6. If it isn't, you won't get your phone number to show up (period).

After that, often the best and simplest way to get the phone number to show up is to disable iMessage and then re-enable it. In this case, you would open Settings in Messages.app on your Mountain Lion Mac, Select your iMessage account, and then tap the "Sign Out" button.  When you sign back in your iPhone number should appear at the top of the list for "addresses" that you can text from.

This question/answer may also help in getting all your Messages apps in sync with each other.


Mac Pro 1,1 (2007) Not Updating To El Capitan

Firstly: putting your serial number up for all to see may not be the best idea.

Your Mac Pro is an original Mac Pro. This means that it is not compatible with El Cap by default (I'll explain more later.) So yes, there's an error on your part.

Your MacBook Air is also (sadly) likely about as powerful as that Mac Pro. If you upgrade it, it's possible that you may find a different story, but regardless, that Mac is reaching end-of-life. Depending on your use case, it may be fine to upgrade it, but there's not a lot you can do. Instead, I'd recommend that you save up for either a more powerful PC or Mac.

With that said, you can make your Mac Pro work on El Cap if you really want to. It's a little tricky, but possible.

Your Mac is incompatible because it has a 32-bit EFI firmware and an outdated GPU. Both of these are fixable issues. I would recommend reading this article, but I'll summarize here. By using a different bootloader, you can circumvent issues. Follow the instructions on said page. Your GPU is also unsupported. This means you'll need a new GPU. This is more complicated then you think however. Some cards will require being "flashed" as though they're Mac GPUs, while others can do most (but not all) things without it (and can be flashed for more compatibility.) Again, follow the guide in the article.

I hope this was helpful. Again, this machine–unless it's a fun project–probably isn't worth your time or money. But hey, if you want, go ahead.


DragThing made the trick! (And does a lot more.)


Do new Macbook Pros come with SATA 3.0Gbps or 6.0Gbps

They come with 6.0 Gbps, which were recently enabled through a firmware update.

Source


Apps take forever to start on OS X Mavericks

When I see things like this I often suspect disk problems. (This is a HDD, correct?) The first symptoms of soft disk errors are often bad performance.

Open the Console and see if you see any disk errors. Also try booting into a Super Duper clone. Since a clone will have the same files, any problem would continue if it were a configuration problem. But if the problem goes away, it was likely a problem with the physical drive. As a bonus, a clone is exactly what you will need if you have a physical drive problem.


Are there any applications which integrate with OmniFocus?

There's a list at http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=18931. Not a lot, I'm afraid. There's an API available but I guess there's not enough consumer demand for that feature.

For other apps, you might be able to make use of the "Send-To-Omnifocus" feature. From your RSS or Twitter app, forward the item by email to send-to-omnifocus@omnigroup.com.

You will get an automated reply containing a link: click the link and an Omnifocus item will be created.


I was having a very similar issue, all video or jpg image files were replaced by the "Missing Plug-in" in any email received or sent. After upgrading to the latest Java, deleting the java plist file, repairing permissions, and numerous other suggested solutions from various websites, I downloaded from Apple and installed the latest OSX 10.7.5 "combo" update. Problem solved!


HDMI Audio doesn't work on AMD RX580 Mac Pro 5,1

HDMI Audio doesn't work in Mojave even with supported Hardware.  My box is a MacPro 5,1 with an Nvidia GTX680.  HDMI audio worked flawlessly under High Sierra. Not at all under Mojave.

I am part of the Beta test group and complained of this loss 6 months PRIOR to the Mojave release.  Still nothing as of today 11/30/18.


Transferring file creation dates to an Asustor NAS

The Problem lies not in your Asustor per se but in the file system (and subsequently the drive configuration) you use and the copy routine you use. In a nutshell: There are different methods to copy files (f.e. rsync) and different ways the file systems store data (f.e. creation date).

Without further Information regarding your NAS-Setup, File system (necessary) and RAID Level (not necessary, just to be complete), the possible solution at this point would be very general: One possibility would be to use rsync to transfer files from you Mac to the NAS - it should copy all data including creation date. It is a command line tool but there is Software with a GUI which should be more to your likeing. I suggest 'Carbon Copy Cloner', a commercial software but with a 30 day trial.

You should start with that and test it with a few files. If it does not work you should provide more information about the file systems used in the NAS and your external drives.


Time Capsule Connection Failed after update to Mavericks

In my case a serie of rabid and chaotic experiments with restarts and erasing a plist fixed the issue. Steps I did were:

Disabled TM Backup
Removed TimeCapsule from TM Backup Disk (this might not be necessary, you will not be able to add it again until it will start to work)
Saving a screenshot of Exluded paths in TM Options (just for the case)
Renamed /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to *.bac
Restarted Mac
Restarted TimeMachine
Removed /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and renamed the old plist back
Restarted Mac again
Added a TimeCapsule back to TimeMachine Backup Disks

Hopefully it started to work. I don't know which of the steps were necessary and which just desperate.


How to install apps to Snow Leopard after a fresh reinstall and still keep the MacBook in a pre-first-boot state?

You could definitely install iLife, boot into single user mode, delete the user account via this superuser link(also below, and do it in single user mode), and then in single user mode just type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone which is like a toggle switch, it tells the mac to start from the initial boot.

#!/bin/bash

# cf. http://www.macos.utah.edu/documentation/authentication/dscl.html

if [[ "$(/usr/bin/whoami)" != "root" ]]; then printf '\nMust be run as root!\n\n'; exit 1; fi

OPATH=$PATH
export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

OIFS=$IFS
export IFS=$' \t\n'

declare sudo=/usr/bin/sudo

printf "\e[1mDelete user account\e[m: "
read user

if [[ -z "$user" ]]; then printf '\nNo user specified! Please, try again!\n\n'; exit 1; fi

# make sure the user exists
usertest="$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Users name "$user" 2>/dev/null)"

if [[ -z "$usertest" ]]; then printf "\nUser does not exist: $user\n\n"; exit 1; fi

# get user's group memberships
groups_of_user="$(/usr/bin/id -Gn $user)"

if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] && [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups GroupMembership "$user")" ]]; then
   # delete the user's group memberships
   for group in $groups_of_user; do
      $sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Groups/$group"  GroupMembership "$user"
      #$sudo /usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o edit -d "$user" -t user "$group"
   done
fi

# delete the user's primary group
if [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups name "$user")" ]]; then
   $sudo /usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o delete "$user"
fi

# if the user's primary group has not been deleted ...
if [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups name "$user")" ]]; then
printf "
   \e[1mWarning\e[m:
   The group memberships of the user \e[1m$user\e[m have been deleted\x21
   groups_of_user: $groups_of_user
   The user's primary group \e[1m$user\e[m, however, has not been deleted\x21
   Please, try again\x21
   Exiting ...\n
"
  exit 1
fi

# find the GeneratedUID of the user and remove the password hash file
# from /private/var/db/shadow/hash/<GeneratedUID>
# sudo ls -a /private/var/db/shadow/hash
# sudo ls -l /private/var/db/shadow/hash/<GeneratedUID>

guid="$(/usr/bin/dscl . -read "/Users/$user" GeneratedUID | /usr/bin/awk '{print $NF;}')"

if [[ -f "/private/var/db/shadow/hash/$guid" ]]; then
   $sudo /bin/rm -f /private/var/db/shadow/hash/$guid
fi

# delete the user
$sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Users/$user"

# make a backup
if [[ -d "/Users/$user" ]]; then
   $sudo /usr/bin/ditto -rsrc -c -k "/Users/$user" "/Users/${user}-archive-$(/bin/date).zip"
fi

# remove the user's home directory
if [[ -d "/Users/$user" ]]; then
   $sudo /bin/rm -rf "/Users/$user"
fi

export IFS=$OIFS
export PATH=$OPATH

exit 0


Can I install 10.8 over 10.7 and maintain windows xp boot camp functionality?

According to Apple's documentation:

  If your Mac has a Boot Camp partition with Windows XP or Windows
  Vista, you can continue to use your Boot Camp partition, but you can’t
  upgrade to Boot Camp 4.0.

So it sounds like if you upgrade to Mountain Lion, it won't touch your Boot Camp 3.x installation; you won't get Boot Camp 4.0, but you'll be able to continue using XP.

However, I think if you do a clean install of Mountain Lion, that will install Boot Camp 4.0 by default, which requires Windows 7. So you can only keep XP if you do an upgrade, not a clean install.


Go to Settings - General - Storage & iCloud Usage - Storage: Manage Storage. You can also delete apps from here.


You need to visit an Apple Store (Genius Bar appointment) to get it unlocked.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204756

How do I unlock my Mac?
Once you locate your Mac, you can unlock it by
entering your passcode on the lock screen. If you forget your
passcode, you'll need to take your Mac to an Apple Authorized Service
Provider along with your proof of purchase.


I had the same problem with sharedfilelistd consistently taking over 100% of my CPU. I don't have file sharing enabled.

I opened up Terminal and found the processes with pgrep -lf sharedfilelistd, noticing two of them running; that might have indicated a problem. I killed both with sudo pkill sharedfilelistd and they terminated and one restarted, presumably via launchd.

After the single process returned, it took between 30-75% of my CPU, perhaps averaging 50%, and my machine is back to normal. There might be some impact to some service I'm not aware of or do not use, but this worked for me.


Send short message to another Mac on the LAN

Messages app on Lion or Mountain Lion supports Bonjour discovery which lets computers discover other devices using Messages app on your local network without needing a central server setup.

Bonjour is not on by default, but you can find the option under Preferences, or simply ⌘+, to open up the panel. Select the account page, and you will find Bonjour in the sidebar.

Turn it on and you're good to go.

Now to retrieve the list of people on your local network, simply ⌘+1 to bring up the buddy list, it is also available under the Windows menu item.


Why Photos and Photo Library differ in size?

I checked the file sizes on my computer as well:

As you can see, my Photos application is 56.4 MB, while my Photos Library is 13.38 GB.
What's Going On
The reason that the Photos application is so small compared to the library is because the application only contains the files necessary to run the application - you can right-click and select "Show Package Contents" to confirm this. The library, though, is stored externally, by default in ~/Pictures/Photos Library/, and all of your photos are stored there instead of in the app.
I believe the reason the application works this way is so that you can store your files externally, saving space, while keeping the core application internally, where it doesn't take up much space but still runs more quickly than accessing an external drive. Note that you can move your Photos Library and/or use option+click on opening to select a different library to flip through.
Other native applications that work in the same or a similar way include iTunes (files stored in ~/Music/iTunes), Photo Booth (~/Photos/Photo Booth Library), iPhoto (RIP; ~/Photos/iPhoto Library), and iMovie (~/Movies/iMovie Library and ~/Movies/iMovie Theater).
Why the Size Changes
In a comment, you had mentioned that

It was one of my suspicions, but initially I am sure I saw, that it was bigger than 294mb (approx. 1GB), so it looks like it also changes in time.

This is entirely possible. You don't say how long ago you saw it being that large, but Photos does contain some files that can be accessed by other applications as well, such as those contained in .../Photos.app/Contents/Library/Automator, which, on my copy, contains 13 Automator actions which can be inserted into workflows, such as "Add to Album," "Display Reference Photo," or "Instant Slideshow Controller." Furthermore, at .../Photos.app/Contents/Plugins there is, on my mac, two plugins. It's possible for this list to be modified by adding in other .appex files.
The simplest explanation for what you're seeing, though, is that the software was updated in a MacOS software update at some point. Remember that the filing system was completely overhauled in High Sierra; perhaps a corollary to different files being stored differently is that they are now smaller.


I can't find otool on my jailbroken iPod

When you change your settings to Developer in Cydia, what you are actually doing is changing the package list filter. This means that certain packages will only be shown as available to download and install in the package list according to which filter you select.

Having set your filter settings to 'Developer' you'll then need to find and install the package you want.

otool is included in the package called: BigBoss Recommended Tools


Unread message in Messages not being set as "read"

This problem is fixed in a new release of 10.10.2

I'm currently running 10.10.3 and am having this issue again, so not fixed in 10.10.2 unfortunately. Have experienced in the past, major pain.

The following works for me every time

  In the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Folder type (Copy and Paste) ~/Library/Preferences into the Dialogue box.In the Preferences find the com.apple.imessages.bag.plist and drag it to the Trash.

(found on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4486753?start=0&tstart=0)

Then reboot the machine.  The post says to reboot messages but I always have to reboot the entire computer for this to work properly.


How can Charles Proxy change settings without admin rights after first time?

Privileged Helper

If Charles Proxy is following Apple's recommendations, the permissions gained during the initial set-up will be encoded as a Privileged Helper.

On macOS the folder /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools contains tools that have previously authenticated and authorised with the user.

The folder /Library/LaunchDaemons contains the launchd files that launch and determine access to the tools.

There are other approaches, such as:

  Running with Elevated Privileges

  If you do need to run code with elevated privileges, there are several approaches you can take:

  You can run a daemon with elevated privileges that you call on when you need to perform a privileged task. The preferred method of launching a daemon is to use the launchd daemon (see launchd). It is easier to use launchd to launch a daemon and easier to communicate with a daemon than it is to fork your own privileged process.
  You can use the authopen command to read, create, or update a file (see authopen).
  You can use a BSD system call to change privilege level (see Calls to Change Privilege Level). These commands have confusing semantics. You must be careful to use them correctly, and it’s very important to check the return values of these calls to make sure they succeeded.


Why are tracks of the same title failed to uploaded to iCloud/iTunes Match?

iTunes match analyzes every song before uploading or matching it.

Even if a song appears to be different (different length, different title) it may in fact be the same song with a bit more silence at the end.

You can only upload songs that are different from the songs that you have uploaded before.

Is this second disc some kind of special edition of the first one?


Anyway to reinstall a clean Mountain Lion without erasing my personal data?

A clean install is just that - it wipes out everything.

You can't do an "in place" clean install (as far as I'm aware). Even if developers wanted to provide it it would be a nightmare. I'm not just blowing it out of proportion (I'm a developer) - it would be a nightmare.

PRIOR TO ANY OF THIS MAKE A FULL SYSTEM BACKUP. Hard drives are cheap. If you can't afford a hard drive for backup, then DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS - NO SERIOUSLY. AND WHEN I SAY SERIOUSLY I MEAN SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY.

That said, you CAN do a reasonable clean install and still maintain MOST of your information. Here's how:

Create a bootable DVD, flash drive or hard drive with the ML installer.

1a. Make sure it really is bootable!
Back up your personal data. (and any other users)
Back up your applications.
DO NOT BACK UP system info (this is the downside). Note that some applications put info in weird or unusual places - you may have to reinstall that software.
Reboot the system using the DVD, flash drive or hard drive.
Run the ML installer.
Copy all the user data and applications back.
Determine what no longer works correctly and reinstall those applications (yes - seriously NOT fun).

I did this with Lion (but not ML) but AFAIK it should work.

Clean installs "break" applications (many install libraries to work correctly or create 'hidden' directories).

Good luck (and remember: FULL SYSTEM BACKUP FIRST)


how can I protect the private data on my Iphone?

Take the following steps as there is no one sure shot way to get the protection that will actually protect you (at-least to some extent):

Enable data Encryption on your device, even if someone is able to gain access to your data on the phone memory, there will be a layer of protection.
Apple/Google provide web management device utilities which gives ability for remote locking, remotely wiping data, changing passwords etc, check out those settings. Some third-party app provide for this as well.
don't install apps from outside the app store.
setup secure passwords and locks (use numbers lower-case, upper-case, symbols etc, you may even use special characters that are not directly available on the keyboard)
change your passwords often, maybe every 6 months atleast.
Enable 2-step authentication. PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST THING YOU COULD DO RIGHT NOW. Most leading service providers, DropBox, Gmail (and other google services), Evernote provide this
option. then you need two bits of information to access your
account:

one, the information you know, your password.
second, the information you get (through an SMS/Email).

Provide an option for recovery, such as secondary mail/ contact number in case you forget your password.
keep a track of security holes such as the recent Heartbleed bug.
when some one uses your phone to make a call/text, be close and it might be a good idea to take his/her picture (you don't know whome he/she might be calling to, maybe some terrorist?)
you may even want to subscribe for sms updates for your
 facebook, twitter and google+  etc notifications for any suspicious
 activities in real time.


Can't email Numbers 3.0 or Pages 5.0 documents via Google Mail (Gmail)

It appears that with the new version of Numbers, Apple changed from using files to using folders that appear as files. Gmail will not allow folders to be emailed.

Google Groups Forum: Can't send an email with Apple .PAGES attachment document.


How to restore select files from Time Machine and fix permissions issues

Full Disk Access

You're stuck at the following:

sudo ls /Volumes/BrainDump-Chris/Backups.backupdb/MyMac/Latest/Macintosh\ HD/Users/me
Operation not permitted

You need to give iTerm2 (or whatever terminal emulator you use) Full Disk Access permission.

Fixing File Permissions

Ok, now you've copied over some files, but you can't modify them. This is because extended permissions with explicit denies were also copied over.

You'll need to remove those extended permissions as described at backdrift.
You might also want to remove extended attributes as described in this answer

sudo chmod -NR <your restored files and folders>
sudo xattr -rc <your restored files and folders>


Show progress indicators in Mail 6 (Mountain Lion)

I also found this problem pretty disturbing.

I didn't find a solution to bring the indicator back yet, but for having some kind of feedback I am using the activity window:

You can find it in the menubar: Windows --> Activity
or you can press cmd + alt + 0


Wi-Fi on MacBook Air only works within 10 feet of router

You published the hardware information which is useful, but hardly to change with upgrade to YOSEMITE.

First lets check the current condition:

Hold the Alt key and click on WiFi icon.

You get something like this:

RSSI is (Signal strength including the noise (disturbance)) this is confusing but the lower the number the better.

Transmit Rate- the higher the better (minimum 10)

MCS Index- the higher the better (minimum 5)

There are some Apple provided analytical tools to take look at your WiFi.

If you hold the alt key and click on the WiFi symbol, at the bottom of that list there is a "Open Wireless Diagnostics". Enter your log in password and continue. Let it run till it ask you what to do next. Use the "Monitor my WiFi connection". Let it run and move the MacBook around closer and further from the router. Stop it if nothing happened.

I get the "Crowded WiFi channel" on mine, to many of my devices and neighbors on same channel.

On Yosemite hold the "alt" and click on WiFi, then select the "Open Wireless Diagnostics". In menubar Window tab and select the scan.

Once you have the result sort it by Channel to see how crowded it is.

Here is what I get:

As you can see aside of my self been on channel 11, there are to many others on it as well. Go to your router setup and change the channel to less crowded one.If you have 5g WiFi then switch to it.


Why are Wifi Calling and iPhone Cellular Calls Mutually Exclusive?

In the past, the modem software for a specific carrier was responsible for that prompt as their networks weren't able to re-reount the calls on the fly. (i.e. your carrier or carrier settings needing an update was the original issue)

I believe that window of limitation is resolved for all devices and all carriers. If you get this error in 2017, I would work with Apple support to make sure your iOS is updated and then work with carrier support to make sure your phone account is set up for seamless switch between carrier and wifi calling.


Disk utility detecting error in single user mode, but not when disk utility is opened via recovery mode

Here's a beginner's guide to the command line. The single user mode is also like looking in as root - the first user that owns all of the computer historically from a unix perspective.

the $ indicates a prompt where you, the human user can type commands. The system is telling you how to prepare the drive for running the repair command.

Type the following text - the same as the first line you are told to from the screen:

/usr/sbin/fsck -fy

Note, that every space, every punctuation is exact and changing any one item may run an entirely different command. If the fsck command has any errors, you can and should run it again with the same command up to three times in a row or more in some rare cases.

To get out of that screen, you could halt the Mac or type exit to resume the normal start up process.

Apple documents the root user and fsck in these two articles if you are curious or wish to learn more:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204012 - About the root user
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201639 - Using Disk Utility and fsck
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21893 - Single user mode in El Capitan