Keyboard shortcut for a service stopped working

This is an extended comment containing some suggestions of things to try and help you diagnose your problem, but I don't claim that any of these will definitely solve your issue:

Check defaults to look for clashing keyboard shortcuts

Your service runs with a different shortcut and inside Automator.  So there is possibly a conflicting shortcut that has appeared and is blocking your original.

In Terminal (or other terminal emulator), you can retrieve all the active app-specific keyboard shortcuts:

defaults find NSUserKeyEquivalents

and your service workflow shortcuts:

defaults find NSServicesStatus

The symbols used to represent modifier keys are:

@: ⌘ command
$: ⇧ shift
~: ⌥ alt/option
^: ⌃ ctrl

Thus, ⌘+⌥+⌃+C is symbolised as @~^c (the c is lowercase).

You can do a general defaults search through all the preference files to look for that specific combination of characters:

defaults find '@~^c'

You can also search for matching preferences files:

grep -iE '@~\^c' ~/Library/Preferences/* /Library/Preferences/* 2>/dev/null

which, upon matching, will output something like:

Binary file /Users/CK/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ServicesMenu.Services.plist matches

and then you can target the specific domain to examine its defaults:

defaults read com.apple.ServicesMenu.Services

Third-party Application

There are third-party apps that allow you to see what keyboard shortcuts are being used by which applications on your system.  The one I know of is KeyCue:

I'm not endorsing the product and have never used it myself, but I believe it would be very useful in finding out if there's interference from another application or from within Finder stopping you from using that shortcut combination.

It's a paid app (€19.99), but has a free evaluation period:

  All our products are available for evaluation before purchase. As long as you do not have a license key, KeyCue operates in trial mode and occasionally displays a registration reminder instead of the shortcut table.

ADDENDUM : Your Workflow

Thanks for posting a screenshot of your workflow.  There doesn't appear to be anything obstructive about it that would obviously cause it to stop responding to a shortcut.

However, I'm going to take the opportunity to suggest some edits to it, as I can see what your AppleScript is doing, but it's not doing it in the most optimal way.

Here is your current workflow:

It starts by taking the files/folders passed to the service/quick action and copying them to the clipboard.  There's no need to and it only makes Automator do more work than it has to.  Instead, you can delete that first action, and have the files/folders pass directly into the AppleScript, where they will be stored in the variable input.

The AppleScript itself makes use of application "BBEdit" unnecessarily, so I suggest removing that and I'll show you how to make the changes you need without calling out to it.

If I'm interpreting your goal correctly from what you said and from what I see in your workflow, you wish to select some files or folders, press your shortcut key combination, and have file URL references to those files/folders copied to the clipboard, e.g. file:///Users/CK/Desktop/somefile.txt.

Your method works ok in some situations, but will produce incorrect results in a few other situations:

Any file/folder with a space in its name will not return a correct and clickable file URL link.  For example, the file with path /Users/CK/Shared Items/myfile.ext will be copied to the clipboard as file:///Users/CK/Shared Items/myfile.ext, which is an incorrectly encoded URL string, thus the hyperlink will appear like this: file:///Users/CK/SharedItems/myfile.ext.  (Technically, other character entities need to be percent encoded to form a valid URL, but I think they're less important if you're just looking to use them locally in Finder.)
Your present method replaces occurrences of "/Volumes" and occurrences of "/Users" with "file:///Volumes" and "file:///Users", respectively.  This will cause problems for any file path that might look something like this:

/Users/CK/Backup/Preferences/Volumesettings/Volumes.dat

There are three replacements waiting to happen there, which would yield:

file:///Users/CK/Backup/Preferencesfile:///Volumesettingsfile:///Volumes.dat

Having cleaned up the script, and deleted the superfluous action, here is what I am suggesting would be a smarter way to implement your service/quick action:

The AppleScript:

property text item delimiters : linefeed

on run {FSItems}
    local FSItems

    tell application "System Events" to repeat with FSItem in FSItems
        set FSItem's contents to the URL of FSItem
    end repeat

    set the clipboard to FSItems as text
end run

It utilises System Events (which is a faceless, background application that can perform efficient file system operations) to take each file/folder passed into the workflow and obtain an AppleScript property named URL, which conveniently holds the perfectly-formatted, validated file URL reference for a file.  Once it has a list of file URLs, it combines them into a single piece of text—one file URL per line—and places that on the clipboard.

Thus, selecting the following files/folder in Finder (if you imagine I selected three files and a folder, then pressed the hotkey to trigger the service):

/Users/CK/Desktop/NSImage.png
/Users/CK/Desktop/GIF Images
/Volumes/Lepton 1.5.2-alpha-2
/Users/CK/Desktop/mandelbrot.js

would yield the following clipboard contents (this is a live test):

file:///Users/CK/Desktop/NSImage.png
file:///Users/CK/Desktop/GIF%20Images/
file:///Volumes/Lepton%201.5.2-alpha-2/
file:///Users/CK/Desktop/mandelbrot.js


If reference cell contains "x", return "y", otherwise return "z"

Try changing your LOOKUP function to EXACT, so that your formula would read

IF(EXACT("apple",B4),"$100","$200")

or

IF(B4="apple", 100, 200)

for a case insensitive solution, or

IF(TRIM(B4)="apple",100,200)

for a solution which will work even when there's whitespace around the word in the cell (leading/trailing spaces, etc.).

My Numbers is set to use ; instead of , as delimiters, so my test sample reads IF(EXACT("Apple";B4); 100; 200)


Bug in 'file' command on 10.5.8? (Or am I doin' it wrong?)

On my copy of Mac OS X 10.5.8, I see the same behaviour as you. file somelink and file -L somelink have the same, --dereference behaviour, regardless of the presence or absence of an environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT. file -h somelink has the --no-dereference behaviour.


Is there a way to export chat history in Skype 5.2.x for OS X?

try the SQLite export method @ http://billxinli.com/2011/07/28/export-skype-chat-history-and-other-meta-data/ =)


Reimport the content to your library from the external hard drive. Go to File - Add folder to library and select the folder where your iTunes content is. I would recommend having it copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to Library from Edit->Preferences->Advanced. Your playlists and podcast subscriptions probably won't be restored but at least you'll have your content back.


Remove Caps Delay MBP15 Touchbar Late 2016

I was able to solve the problem. It seemed that the MBP was in some kind of HID configuration state which enabled the delay. To get the MBP out of the state, I reimplemented the 2015 Linux solution under macOS / IOKit. Sending 09 00 00 00 to the Keyboard, and then going through the remapping in Preferences again, removed the delay.


Set Brightness to Full on Boot (MacBook Pro)

Turn you screen fully bright. Open Terminal, type nvram backlight-level. Note the value. Create a logout hook to run nvram backlight-level=<value>. In my case the value was %a0%06.

If you run it interactively, you need to use sudo:

sudo nvram backlight-level='%a0%06'


Export iCloud items from Keychain to CSV

A late reply, as I found this post while searching for something related.

You have to create a new keychain, and copy your iCloud keychain items to the new local keychain.  Then you can use the security tool to dump them.

Since this is 1Password-related question, for others in the future, you can use MrC's conversion utility to directly convert the keychain dump into a 1Password consumable 1PIF file.  It is much better than CSV importing.

https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/30286/mrcs-convert-to-1password-utility/p1


What will happen to iChat in Lion once Messages beta expired?

...
So there really isn’t a Messages.app. It’s still iChat.app but with some magic causing the Finder to show it as Messages. [...] [T]he magic is in the Bundle name entry in the Info.plist file in /Applications/iChat.app/Contents
...
Why did Apple choose to do it this way? My guess is that Apple wanted Messages to inherit all your old iChat settings so you wouldn’t have to redo everything. Also, because Messages is in beta, Apple wanted you to have an easy way to uninstall Messages and go back to iChat as if you never left. I’m not sure this shallow rebranding was the best way to achieve these goals, but it does seem minimally disruptive.
...

For the complete information I will point you to Dr. Drang post that answers this question, and more, about iChat/Messages.


Large difference in reported free disk space

Check the Storage section of About This Mac. You will probably see the missing 15GB listed there as "Backups". These are Time Machine local snapshots, and Finder ignores them when calculating free disk space, because they get deleted automatically when your free disk space drops below 20%. In other words, they give up their space automatically as needed, so the number in Finder is the one you should pay attention to.


It usually depends on your keyboard. It's ⇧ Shift+2 on US keyboards, and I suspect you might have to use that in Crossover as well.

Also keep in mind that Crossover has the ability to configure your modifier keys, so you might want to try some other modifiers with L if that's what you normally do.


OS X 10.9.4 closes application when sleeping

It sounds like your Mac is set to automatically log you out after a period of inactivity.

Open System Preferences from the Apple menu in the top-left corner. Open the "Security & Privacy" preference pane. Click on the "Advanced..." button in the bottom-right corner. You may need to unlock the pane using the padlock icon in the bottom-left corner.

I think you'll find "Log out after XX minutes of inactivity" ticked. Untick it.


Option 1: use TextMate 1:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Avian/Bundles/Themes.tmbundle/Themes/Custom.tmTheme -a TextMate
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Themes/Custom.tmTheme \
~/Library/Application\ Support/Avian/Bundles/Themes.tmbundle/Themes/Custom.tmTheme

Option 2: edit the theme as an old-style plist from the bundle editor:

Option 3: edit the tmTheme file directly by opening it with mate:

mate ~/Library/Application\ Support/Avian/Bundles/Themes.tmbundle/Themes/Custom.tmTheme

The last two options require you to close and reopen files to make them use the edited theme. tell app "TextMate 2" to reload bundles does not work.

You can use pl and plutil to convert between the XML and old style formats:

pl -input file.plist -output file.plist
plutil -convert xml1 file.plist


Preparing my MacBook Pro in case it is ever stolen

You want to set an Open Firmware Password. This makes it so that a thief needs a password to boot to another disk (or do anything other than a normal boot). This means that they can't reset your password from the OS disc and get in anyway. This is an important security measure to take. The only problem is that you can't do things like safe boots and verbose mode. Here is an article about how to set up the OF password (and how to reset a user password).

And here is a general article about physical and virtual options to increase security (ways to help locate a stolen Mac, make thieves think it's broken, or even just lock it to your desk).


After updating to MacOS Catalina MAMP doesn't work anymore with root on a network mount

you need to update mkcert on your system.

brew install mkcert --HEAD
mkcert -install

https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert/issues/174


You can change the Full Name for a given user account. From Apple:

  Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
  If the lock icon in the corner of the window is locked, click the icon to unlock it. Enter the admin name and password, if prompted.
  From the list of users, open a shortcut menu by Control+clicking the user that you want to rename. Choose "Advanced Options" from the
  shortcut menu.
  Change the name in the "Full name" field, then click OK.

Changing the Full Name here will change the name shown on the login screen you described. DO NOT change the short name (or anything else for that matter). Read the warning if you are tempted to change anything other than the Full Name:

Given this warning I would highly recommend making a backup before performing any changes.

I can confirm that updating the Full Name (and nothing else) here will not prevent you from logging in. However, there is always the chance that this will have other unintended consequences. If needed, you could take these steps again to revert back to the accounts original Full Name.


Do any of these Steam software titles run without internet connection?

On the Steam website (through the links you listed) the only one listing "broadband internet connection" as a requirement is TR 2013. The other two have no requirements for internet connection indicated.

That said, I have not played any of those games so I cannot certify that the specifications are correct. But I would think they are pretty careful with those, given all the debate going on regarding internet connection requirements for gaming.

On the other hand, I am quite sure that if you want to host multiplayer games with your friends you DO need some kind of LAN connection (wi-fi or wired).


I assume you mean the key combinations traditionally used to generate extended characters like bullets, umlats, and so on.  There are several places to check.

Check System Preferences : Language & Text : Input Sources to make sure you are using the correct keyboard mapping (for example, "U.S."):

It can be very easy to switch your keyboard layout by accident, so you may want to be sure only one layout is checked.

If that does not help, look in System Preferences : Keyboard : Keyboard Shortcuts and see if there are any shortcuts assigned to the combinations you are trying to use:


OS X does not recognize keyboard and trackpad while Boot Camp Windows still can

You could try the SMC reset. Option-Command (⌘)-P-R

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222

Also try start in safe mode, that does some repairs. (hold Shift)

Try using external keyboard.

Finlay use the OSX restore function to restore your OSX.  (Command(⌘)-R)

Maybe lesson learned and buy a cheep keyboard cover in the future.


El Capitan's Spotlight internet features are not working. e.g. it's not showing weather for my location

As this Apple Support page states, Spotlight suggestions doesn't seem to be available in your region.

It's pretty surprising since you are using it en English, but I already had the same experience (OS X is in French, but those features aren't available since I am not in the French mainland).


My SMS are not displayed in macOS Messages app anymore

For SMS to appear in Messages app in macOS, you need to have Text Message Forwarding turned on in your iPhone. It can be enabled by going to Settings apps → Messages → Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone and turning on the switch which appears against your macOS device in the list.

The iMessage app on iPhone can send both an iMessage message as well as a SMS. iMessage appear in a blue bubble, while regular SMS appear in a green bubble.

Assuming you are signed into both your iPhone 6 and iPad 2nd generation, you can receive and reply to regular SMS (green bubble) from your iPad (as well as other Mac and iOS devices signed in using the same Apple ID), by using a feature called Text Message Forwarding. The option can be found by going to Settings apps → Messages → Text Message Forwarding and turning on the switch which appears against your iPad device in the list.

For step by step instructions, you can go through the Apple knowledge base articles, Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch and How to forward SMS/MMS texts on your iPhone.


Two external monitors + one own on mid-2015 13-inch entry level MacBook Pro?

Yes, you can. You can use your HDMI port for one display and thunderbolt port for the other one (You may want to use an adapter for thunderbolt to HDMI). Then you go to Displays tab in Preferences , Arrangements and arrange your monitors however you want.


After some time, I have been able to solve my issue.

Installed OpenSSH (server) from Application Manager
Connected the N900 to the Mac via USB and selected PC-Suite Mode
On the N900, as root, issued ifup usb0 (activates USB)
On the N900, as root, issued /etc/init.d/ssh start (starts OpenSSH)
On the Mac, in Network Preferences (under System Preferences), selected the N900 and configured it manually to have the IP Address 192.168.2.14 and the Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 (at this point the N900 appears as correctly connected)
On the Mac, in Terminal, issued ssh root@192.168.2.15

At this point a confirmation is requested and I am prompted for the root password. Connection is then established.

I post all this in the hope of being useful to somebody, maybe with a different device. To be honest I do not understand fully all the passages, especially where I set the IP Address for the N900 as ...14 on the Mac, while by issuing ifconfig on the N900 the reported Address is ...15, and this has to be used in the final ssh command.

If anybody has comments which may me help to understand better what I have been doing, I would appreciate that.


From the screenshot, I noticed that you are pasting it into Messages.app. What I'll usually do to work around this annoyance is to paste using Option+Shift+Command+V. This works for most apps that takes more than just plain text input.


How do I update the Mac Pro (2013)'s display drivers under Windows?

use at your own risk but bootcampdrivers.com may have a solution for you...


Time Machine - An error occurred while restoring from the backup

Basically you have to explore what's going wrong and fix it manually.
Hope this helps:

Inspect the installer 'Log' and if you have a 'Critical failure' pertaining to a particular folder(s), proceed with these steps:

Connect your backup to a working Mac (or fresh install MacOS on the Mac you're trying to restore to)

Open Terminal and mount the Time Capsule's sparse bundle (if using a Capsule rather than a USB/network drive).

In Terminal, use TMSafetyNet.kext to remove the troublesome folders one by one.

Return to Recovery Mode on the target machine and restore with the fixed backup.

Source: my blogpost, updated as MacOS updates


Is it possible to restore contacts from a few days back

Disconnect all iCloud devices from the network (in case one is problematic)
Log in to iCloud.com from a computer
Select Settings web app
Scroll to the bottom left
Select Restore Contacts

See what archives exist and then go to the contacts web app to make sure the cloud version of contacts is wrong.
Optionally, export all the current contacts in case a restore makes things worse


Quicktime Playback Speed is not functioning

I couldn't replicate the problem on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) & Big Sur. Both audio and video playback speed changes worked as expected. So it should be some specific issue.


Adding tags to files in OS X: How to use, where are tags stored, and will they work on a network?

In a nutshell, how would one access this feature in Finder – not Spotlight (Command+Space) – but the adding of tags themselves?

From Finder, highlight a file and hit Cmd-I (or right click and select Get Info) to bring up the File Info Dialog for the file. In this dialog, the Spotlight Comments field is where you add tag data. Just add text to this field to "tag" the file.

Here's a good article on how to become a meta-data wizard in OS X:
https://gigaom.com/2007/02/01/using-metadata-effectively-in-os-x/

If was tagging that screen capture, I might use the following in the comments box:

customer-name presentation product-name

So that I could find that screen shot by the customer, or by the fact that it's being used in a presentation, or by the name of the product I'm showing them.

  Where are these tags stored? Do they go in .DS_Store (I tend to delete those!) or elsewhere in the filesystem?

Yes, they're stored in the .DS_Store files you see in each folder. These files are read by Finder. The information is also stored in Extended Attributes (EAs) on the files themselves. Spotlight will prefer to read the data from EAs. EAs are a feature of the HFS+ filesystem, so remote filesystems might not necessarily have EAs available on files. In these cases, .DS_Store files are the fallback. Spotlight would also have a tag <-> file mapping section in its database but that's only accessible to Spotlight.

  Does this tagging mechanism work on removable drives? What are the requirements?

Generally: yes. You can add tags to files and folders on removable drives and remote shares. Unless you've turned off .DS_Store creation on remote shares, OS X will just add these files and keep the meta-data there for you.

  Does this tagging mechanism work over a network share? I have some Windows SMB network shares at home that I frequently store files on. Would it work on those or is another configuration required?

Yes, see above. If you didn't want OS X to do this, run:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

And then restart Finder.

  Aside from Spotlight, are there any command-line tools for searching through or accessing the tag data for files?

Lots!

Here's a list of 7 file-tagging applications for OS X: http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/7-file-tagging-applications-for-os-x/

I personally love and use LaunchBar which is like Spotlight on steroids.


How to install macOS Big Sur update on a Parallels VM?

See https://github.com/rtrouton/create_macos_vm_install_dmg for a way to create a Big Sur installer disk image. For this to work, you need to download the Installer app onto your main Mac, run the script to create the disk image and then run Parallels with that image to create a Big Sur VM.
Performance may be rather unsatisfactory though, you might be better off with installing Big Sur on an external drive or separate partition, and boot from there.


After waking-up, how do you know if your mac was hibernating (fully powered off like Windows PC) and not sleeping?

When you wake a Mac from hibernation, RAM got written to disk and power removed from memory. Then, at wake, it gets read back into RAM.  This takes longer than normal, or standby sleep (depending on the delay set) and is visible at wake time by showing an Apple symbol and progress bar underneath (white time markers filling up).
Also running the following command in Terminal:

pmset -g log | grep -i "wake from"

will show the sleep states, e.g.

  Wake from Hibernate
  Wake from Normal Sleep
  Wake from Standby

The last time I saw the 'Deepsleep' widget in action, it did the same as hibernation, i.e. write to disk and remove power from memory.
PS.
As the man pages (man pmset) hint in the quote below, standby and autopoweroff should be set to the value "0", via the same pmset command you've used to set hibernatemode, to set your MacBook Pro to use hibernation instead of normal, or standby sleep (I would also disable any Energy Saver System Preferences to wake your Mac periodically):

  For example, on desktops that support standby a hibernation image
  will be written after the specified standbydelay time. To disable
  hibernation images completely, ensure hibernatemode standby and
  autopoweroff are all set to 0.

PPS.  But please also consider the following thread here on AskDifferent:
How to add hibernate mode to MacBook Pro


How to redeem Apple tv+ 1 year subscription when you purchase a new Mac?

Here's an answer from Apple's official promotional document.

  Redeem your 1 year free in the Apple TV app starting November 1, 2019. Make
  sure your eligible device is running the latest iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, or macOS.

    Offer must be claimed in the Apple TV app within 3 months after first setting
    up your new device. To see the offer appear, you will need to sign in with your
    Apple ID on your new device. If you’ve purchased your new device before the
    launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, you will have 3 months starting November
    1 to redeem


Mac app for show all character features in notepad++

BBEdit is a really great Mac text editor, and can show invisible characters.
http://www.barebones.com


I usually just switch to Mail, create a new mail there and drag the pictures I want to send from iPhoto into the new mail.


What is the advantage to buying a carrier-specific iPhone over a sim-free version?

Apple sells carrier-specific iPhone models so that the carrier can do subsidizing or financing. The carrier-specific ones comes with a pre-activated SIM for the carrier that you choose. There is no advantage other than convenience when paying in full (other than the Sprint requirement). One thing, though, is that the SIM-free version doesn't come with a SIM, so you need to get one from you carrier, which might cost money. The SIM-free and T-Mobile versions come factory unlocked, and the others might not.


Try to put your device in DFU mode, then restore it via iTunes. This method should work with you.


Go into your iPhone's Settings. Select General -> Software Update. Here you can initiate an OTA update. (right now you will be placed in a waiting queue which could range from a few minute to a few hours due to demand).


Does Apple Watch automatically stop walk/run workout?

watchOS 6 (set to release in fall 2019) will include enhancements to automatic workout detection.

Apple Watch: All of the health and fitness features, explained

  Automatic workout detection

  When the Apple Watch senses you're beginning a workout, you'll get an alert asking if you want it to start tracking. You can respond to that notification to choose your workout type and beyond a session.

  Best of all, if you missed out on a few minutes before beginning to track the workout, Apple Watch will give you retroactive credit for that, too. And if you forget to stop tracking when your workout is over, the Apple Watch will detect that and automatically end it.


How do I get rid of iCloud connection between iPhone, iMac and iPad?

Since you have signed in all the devices with an account, you can only turn off iCloud for specific services you don’t want to continue syncing.
Logging out is one radical option but it renders several apps like app store unusable.

On iOS, go to Settings -> Apple ID (first thing in the list) -> iCloud. Then disable whatever iCloud service you do not want to use.

On MacOS, go to System Preferences-> iCloud and do the same.

You might want to keep some things in iCloud like iCloud Drive documents for which turning it on iMac would be helpful if you some day might want to access them remotely.


You must have already checked that, but just in case, under Safari > Preferences > Passwords make sure that that the AutoFill user names and passwords checkbox is selected.
If it does not work and you are using iCloud Keychain :
On the official Apple Support Website, there is an article about Troubleshooting iCloud Keychain. Here is what it advise you to do :
First make sure that your device is currently on a Wi-Fi or cellular network. If the connection appears strong, try these steps:

 1. Turn off iCloud Keychain on all devices.
 2. Enable iCloud Keychain on the device that has the most up-to-date
    keychain items.
 3. Enable iCloud Keychain on your other devices. They will be updated
with your new iCloud Keychain.

When you enable back iCloud Keychain, DO NOT FORGET to do it — as explained by Apple — on the device with the most up to date version of you list of passwords (in your case it must be your MacBook Air).
Hope it helps.


Best way of sharing files over network with linux

Simply use the File Sharing option in the System Preferences.

It will give you the option to share using AFP or SMB, both of which are supported in Linux.

You didn't specify which Linux distribution you are using specifically, but most graphical distributions such as Ubuntu have SMB support out of the box (just go to Places->Network and find your share). AFP support can be obtained by installing afpfs-ng.


There are access control restrictions on that directory. You can inspect those from the command line:

ls -lOe /

(That's a capital letter O and not a zero 0) I would suggest mounting your volume to another directory - either /tmp or $TMPDIR rather than messing with the restrictions that are designed to prevent what you have - an actual directory with actual files in /Volumes.

Without knowing your script and workflow, it's hard to guess/advise other than not changing things that Apple will change back next time you patch the system.

Your vendor of the LTO tapes should have software to handle mounting the volume in a manner that uses Apple's disk arbitration framework so you don't have to manage the mounts in a script.

You could add a user to have explicit write access in that directory if you're certain that's what will help:

sudo chmod +a "User 1:allow:add_subdirectory" /Volumes


Can't Import iMovie to Final Cut Pro X on Mavericks

You need to open iMovie and select the iMovie Project that you wish to send to Final Cut Pro 10.1. Simply use FILE/SEND Movie to Final Cut Pro. In your case you just need to update your Final Cut Pro to the latest version.

Note: This will not work if you’re not on the FCP 10.1.


Mail App Won't Start (OSX 10.10 Yosemite)

Try linking/adding a mail account to your Mac through System Preferences -> Internet Accounts. See if that fixes it.

(Which of course, it did. Might as well get the rep for it ;D )


Running actions when I disconnect external monitor

Try ControlPlane. It allows you to trigger various actions, including launching applications, based on a variety of "evidence sources" (which include which monitors are connected). Have a look at the full feature list, but it should accomplish what you're looking for.


Apple Mail.app hides Archive folder - how to get it to show

I just had this problem on OS 10.10 (Yosemite). Here's how I solved it:

Select the inbox.
Right-click "Account Info"
Select "Messages on Server" tab.
Wait until the size of all of your mailboxes is calculated.
Select the Archive mailbox and click "Show Messages" button.

The archive now appears in the mailboxes bar.


Is there any way to schedule software update?

If you goto the Software Update preferences, you can set it to daily, monthly or weekly. Obviously, this a very basic update scheduler. If you want to update weekly at this time just goto preferences and select weekly, now.

You can also do it using an Apple script + softwareupdater as described here.


Could we turn on word wrap Safari Web Inspector?

Word wrap works a little differently, but actually more accurate, in the latest versions of Safari, depending on the mode you're displaying.

For instance, in the "Elements" tab, it will wrap as desired:

But, like in your screenshot, the "Resources" tab for instance, it will display as the rendering engine intended, unwrapped:


Why won't iTunes let me manually sync PDFs to iBooks?

You can get the PDF's on your iPad via some other method (e.g. Email, DropBox, etc.) and then choose to open the PDF inside iBooks.


How do I find the windowid of Google Chrome to pass to screencapture -l

You can do that with GrabFS, a screenshot filesystem for OS X. (Download at the bottom of the page. Works fine for me on 10.8.2 with OSXFUSE) It gives you the textures of any processes windows as files which you can simply copy. To update the screenshot, copy again.

Looks like this (converted from TIFF to PNG to save space.):
You'll likely need to do a little shell scripting to automate this, but that will be easy.


com.apache.httpd.plist missing file need help creating new one

The first measure is to reinstall Apache or at least unzip (untar, ungzip etc) or decompose the installer package to get hold of the file.

If you can't find it: here is a generic com.apache.httpd.plist file from GitHub:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.apache.httpd</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/usr/local/httpd/bin/apachectl</string>
    <string>start</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Depending on your system version and the flavor (server/client) several different Apple "generated" plists exist. Usually the name is org.apache.httpd.plist.

Example:

Mac OS X Server 10.7.5

<?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>Disabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.apache.httpd</string>
    <key>OnDemand</key>
    <false/>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/sbin/httpd</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>FOREGROUND</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>MACOSXSERVER</string>
    </array>
    <key>SHAuthorizationRight</key>
    <string>system.preferences</string>
</dict>
</plist>

The original (unmodified) org.apache.httpd.plist of OS X 10.10.5 Client

<?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>Disabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>XPC_SERVICES_UNAVAILABLE</key>
        <string>1</string>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.apache.httpd</string>
    <key>OnDemand</key>
    <false/>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/sbin/httpd-wrapper</string>
        <string>-D</string>
        <string>FOREGROUND</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Please copy & paste it into text file a and safe it with admin rights to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ with the name org.apache.httpd.plist.
Afterwards you may have to change the permissions/ownership to 644/root:wheel.


Here are a few options:

MediaRage: http://www.chaoticsoftware.com/ProductPages/MediaRage.html
TuneUp: http://www.tuneupmedia.com/index.php
Pollux: http://polluxapp.com/

You may also want to take a look at http://osx.iusethis.com/search?order=users&q=id3


How to add Automator Folder Action from command line

See Attaching a Folder Action using Applescript for an AppleScript, an Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) language, solution. You can use osascript on the command line to run OSA scripts:

  Your syntax was OK in old versions (at least up to macOS 10.6.8). Since it has been depreciated and it must be replaced by "make" :

tell application "System Events"
    make new folder action at end of folder actions with properties {enabled:true, name:"FolderName", path:"path:to:my:folder}
    tell folder action "FolderName" to make new script at end of scripts with properties {name:"myScriptName.scpt"}
end tell


How can I rip audio CDs and normalize them at the same time?

Normalising, as such, is not really helpful when importing from commercial recordings, as the Mastering engineer will have already made sure the tracks are correctly normalised, whilst maintaining the relative levels between each component track.

The only way to truly level-match would be using compression & limiting algorithms, which really ought to be left to a professional, & is beyond the scope of Ask Different.

The way to do this at consumer-level is to use iTunes for playback [& also would be by far the simplest for the initial ripping, as it is capable of all your bullet points] & switch on Sound Check in Prefs > Playback.

This allows iTunes to measure the apparent loudness of each track or album & automatically adjust the playback levels on the fly, enabling more comfortable listening without levels jumping around track to track.

This is done by a system known as ReplayGain
See 'Alternatives' at the end of that wiki page for a brief explanation of why normalisation & recompression are not ideal solutions.

However, iTunes has traditionally done this on a per-track basis, not a per-album basis, which can make quiet tracks in the middle of an otherwise loud album jump out at you far too much.
This trait is reported to be fixed in recent versions, but once a track has been analysed, iTunes will not go back & fix it later.

To get around this, you may need to employ something like iVolume which is capable of resetting the iTunes data, then recalibrating. It will also allow you to specify whether any album or compilation should get individual or global adjustment.
You can also manually tweak any individual track/album manually.


Control when Reminders show in Notification Center

You can set a specific time for a reminder: mouse over the entry in Reminders and a circled "i" for "Information" will appear, upon which you should click.  Then select the checkmark box, "Remind me: On a Day," and fill in the date and time for the reminder.

The Reminders functionality in OSX and iOS is minimal; Apple seems to have wanted to include a product to be able to say they did, but not one that actually competes with any of the third-party vendors, to avoid strangling the software ecosystem like Microsoft did with Outlook.  You might look at a third-party software package to meet your needs better.


Using Gmail with Mail, Google Calendar with iCal

Keyboard shortcuts: Mail has it's own keyboard shortcuts, which you may have to learn.

Alternate email addresses/multiple accounts: works fine. Don't know about plus-addresses.

Priority inbox: this is not supported.
Labels work, as does flagging.
Public calendars work in iCal.

Syncing is very easy to set up - via IMAP in Mail, and in Preferences in iCal. In Lion it's even simpler.

Yes, you add each account separately in mail. You can still visit them in any browser or device.


Can we partially jaibreak our iOS devices for enterprise management?

Old question, and I'm sure you have answered yourself already, but I'll mention the Apple iOS management tool "Apple Configurator" (didn't find a good link for a tutorial).

It looks like you can lock down a few things.

One interest for "home use": it's the only way to lock down device pairing. Lets say someone wants the info on your iOS device. If it's unlocked for any reason, you just plug it into some device with iTunes, say "Trust" and now you have iTunes-level file system access (which is a lot).

LATE EDIT: Apple has mostly filled the “iTunes hole” in recent iterations of iOS. You need a password to pair the phone now, and iOS 11.4 seems to want a password every 7 days (much like TouchID requires a password after a bit of time).


I NEVER use the drivers from the supplied media. I ALWAYS download the latest from the manufacturers website by googling (in your case) "Canon MG3600 Mac Driver."

Choose the top result that has "canon.com" as the domain (eg not an ad or a site specializing in driver downloads as they often bundle adware with the drivers) and you will (almost always) go right to the page where you can download the latest and greatest driver for your make and model of printer, scanner or any other 3rd party device that requires a driver.

It is possible that you got a Windows only CD or merely a defective disc. Regardless of that download the driver from the manufacturers site to ensure you have the latest and greatest version.


I've seen errors like this after an Apply to enclosed items was done to the Macintosh HD.

/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxfn_n00000s0000068 shouldn't be owned by your user account, but by _softwareupdate (UID=200). I see errors about …n00000sb400002s (_spotlight=89) and …n00000sm00006d (_locationd=205) as well, which isn't a good sign.

You could just reset /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxfn_n00000s0000068 permissions to 200:200 with a chown -R (sudo chown -R 200:200 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068). /var/folders itself should be owned by root.

Since you've removed it, you could recreate (might have to recreate the 0,T and C subfolders too…) it and set its ownership as above. You could do that now, and it might let software updates download, maybe even install. It also might not.

You could remove /var/folders, but I've seen a system that didn't like that. If the permissions on it are mangled and you'd like to try without it, I recommend renaming it in single user mode first.


Changing airport connection preference algorithm

You can set another location (also called configuration) in the Network preference panel. In the Location1 configuration, you only keep the Wifi1, and do the same with a Location2. (I know this isn't what you're searching for, but it's a workaround).


Facing problem to test Energy Consumption by a factorial function with Python module "pyRAPL"

Looks like one of the imported packages (probably pyRAPL) only works on Linux, there is no /sys pseudo filesystem on macOS.


Adding metadata for films/TV shows in iTunes

Any program that can tag MP4s should work fine. MetaX seems to be a popular one for Windows that can pull data from various online databases.


You can use a 3rd party online storage and synchronization solution such as Dropbox.

Dropbox also offers support for shared folders, so you can have two separate Dropbox accounts one for your customers partner and one yourself, while having folder(s) shared among the two accounts.

Dropbox has native macOS, Windows and Linux clients available along with mobile apps for iOS and Android.

If you plan on creating new Dropbox accounts, consider leveraging Dropbox referral benefit which will offer additional bonus to both referrer and referee.


Internal and External microphone isn't working

I use a MacBook Pro, but I've noticed this behaviour with some software, where the audio gain in System Preferences gets reduced to zero (i.e., no mic input). I suggest the following procedure:

Launch the software that you're having difficuty with.
Go System Preferences >> Sound >> Input
Increase the Input volume slider as desired
Switch back to your software application, without closing the System Preferences dialog.

For some reason, if you close System Preferences, then this can cause the software to reassert zero gain.

You might also want to consider resetting the system, just to ensure that you're resetting anything that might be inadvertently causing your issue.


After iOS 5 install, only some purchased ringtone transfer to iPhone

Similar thing was reported on Apple's forum (don't have the reference handy).  One guy said he fixed it by: deselect all ringtones, sync, select again, sync.  Another guy said he fixed it by downloading a single new ringtone.


What could be causing several apps to have excessive wakeups?

The concept of excessive wakeups is just a checkpoint to start data collection for programs that cause a large energy usage.

It's not necessarily a bad thing if the program is expected to do significant work, but without this monitoring, system admins and Apple don't have actionable data to find misbehaving or misconfigured programs.

The wakeups may or may not be related to the crashing - so I would focus on identifying candidate programs and then see if the crashing itself is related to the code or the data.

Make a new user account and then when you log out of the affected user and  in to the new user without any saved settings - you can launch the same program that was crashing.

If the program still crashes - you can conclude that the OS and/or specific build of that program have issues to investigate. If not, then you can conclude that the history of opened documents or the specific document is causing the program to abort or otherwise behave poorly.

So, I would gather a little more data in the following categories if I were to tackle a problem like yours:

What is the list of all programs on the watch list for a 24 hour period?
What count of errors for each?
For each program, is the error reproducible on a new user account?
For each program, is the error reproducible on the main account (launch three times, all three abort)?

You might find that there are different causes for different apps and need to be methodical to isolate and then use different approaches to remedy each instance. Or they might all trace back to a bad system that needs to be backed up and installed cleanly. Hard to tell in general without some effort to pin down the details.


Scripted SFTP command line file transfer Mac OS X

I guess i need to generate a key from the server itself and provide it to the user then they can connect just using the username and the key will authenticate them right?

No. Generate the key on client (ssh-keygen) and upload the public key to server. For example using ssh-copy-id, if the ssh is allowed on the server. There are many how-to's around the internet, so I believe you will be able to figure out.

Then connecting would work like sftp username@host (without password). If you have some batch, you can provide it to sftp using -b option. For more info, consult manual pages for sftp or the other above mentioned tools.


No. This is not something that is built into iOS.

There may be an option if you were to jailbreak your phone.


Why aren't nasdaq.com and yahoo.com removed when I clear Safari website data?

Those are likely "perma cookies" which are cookies that use javascript and other methods to make the cookies persistent even when you have explicitly removed all cookies. Which is annoying as hell and a known issue.
I found an Apple discussions post that purports to show you how to delete these.
Which boils down to

So the path is:
~/Library/Safari/Databases/__IndexedDB/

Just delete the folder of the cookie you no longer want


Menu option "Select startup disk on desktop" greyed out when Finder window is active

I created a workaround using KeyboardMaestro: only in Finder, on hotkey (⌘⇧↑), execute AppleScript:

tell application "Finder"
    select window of desktop
    set selection to item 1 of desktop
end tell

Weirdly enough it doesn't show that it is selected, but Cmd-down opens its window.


How can I opt out of updates for one app when using the App Store?

While I'm not abosultely sure, how achieved my result, but after a reboot the update for one app-store app is gone now. What I did:

the following is tested on old Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app (free from appstore), before my tests the app-store showing an available update for it.
Right click on app, select Show package contents
go to "Contents"
Move the following files and folders to some backup place

_MASReceipt (folder)

reboot

If that doesn't work, remove these additional items from the package contents:
  - _CodeSignature (folder)
  - CodeResources (alias)

Maybe it is not enough, (in my tests i did the following too), try:

Go to Library (alt-click on Finder's Go menu, select Library)
Caches
move com.apple.appstore folder somewhere else(backup location)
reboot

After the above steps, the AppStore don't showing the available update for the "Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app".

Warning: all the above is tested only in one app, needs more testing, it is absolutely without any warranty and don't blame me when your computer will burns, gets grabbed by aliens or anything other...


How to get and set metadata of a m4a file?

Here is a quick something to get you started. If you also want the filename changed too, then it is easy to add in the copy section...

set dpath to "/some/path/some/where/"
set qdpath to quoted form of dpath

# Choices of apps to use depending what files you have
# mp3
set tapp3 to "/usr/local/bin/id3v2 -t "
# m4a
set tapp4 to "/usr/local/bin/mp4tags -s "

tell application "iTunes"
    set iSel to selection

    repeat with trk in iSel
        set aloc to location of trk
        set loc to quoted form of (POSIX path of aloc)
        set tname to name of trk
        set tartist to artist of trk
        tell application "Finder"
            set fname to name of file (aloc as alias)
            set fext to name extension of file (aloc as alias)
        end tell

        # Copy
        try
            do shell script "cp " & loc & " " & qdpath
        on error eStr
            display dialog eStr
            return
        end try

        # New path
        set qnewfile to quoted form of (dpath & fname)

        # Choose right tool...
        if fext is "mp3" then
            set tapp to tapp3
        else if fext is "m4a" then
            set tapp to tapp4
        else
            display dialog "Unknown file type. Don't know what to use..."
            return
        end if

        # Tag
        try
            do shell script tapp & "'" & tartist & " - " & tname & "' " & qnewfile
        on error eStr
            display dialog eStr
            return
        end try
    end repeat
end tell

Since you don't like using command line tools and Applescript doesn't have built in support for audio tags, you are left with iTunes. So here is a version of the above with just using iTunes,

set dpath to "/some/path/"
set qdpath to quoted form of dpath
set listname to "MyList"
set adpath to (POSIX file dpath as alias)

# Copy selected itunes files
tell application "iTunes"
    set iSel to selection

    repeat with trk in iSel
        set tloc to location of trk
        set atloc to quoted form of (POSIX path of tloc)
        set tname to name of trk
        set tartist to artist of trk

        tell application "Finder"
            set fname to name of file (tloc as alias)
            set fext to name extension of file (tloc as alias)

            try
                duplicate file tloc to folder adpath with replacing
            on error eStr
                display dialog "Copy failed for track: " & tname & return & return & eStr
                return
            end try
        end tell
    end repeat
end tell

# Get audio files in selected folder
#   -- alas no recursive search results without a lot more code... :(
set afiles to {}
tell application "Finder"
    repeat with ext in {".mp3", ".m4a"}
        set l to (every file in adpath whose name contains ext)
        repeat with f in l
            set end of afiles to (f as text)
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

# Add to iTunes and change Tags...
#
tell application "iTunes"
    if not (user playlist listname exists) then
        make new user playlist with properties {name:listname}
    end if

    set view of window 1 to playlist listname

    # Add and change tracks' names
    repeat with afile in afiles
        try
            set tid to (add afile to playlist listname)
        end try

        set tname to name of tid
        set aname to artist of tid

        set name of tid to ((aname & " - " & tname) as text)
    end repeat

    # Clean up now?
    set r to display dialog "Done. " & return & return & ¬
        "Remove tracks and list now?" as text buttons {"No", "Yes"} with icon note

    if button returned of r is not "Yes" then
        return
    end if

    # Remove playlist tracks from library; will remove from playlist(s) too
    #   -- WARNING: If track added multiple times all entries will be removed!!
    repeat with t in (every track in playlist listname)
        try
            set pid to persistent ID of t

            # Thanks Doug Adams, it was driving me nuts....
            delete (some file track of library playlist 1 whose persistent ID is pid)
        end try
        delay 1
    end repeat

    delay 30

    # Remove all tracks from playlist v2
    try
        # Fast mass deletion - Thx to http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/56463
        # but only removes from playlist.. they remain in the library!
        #delete tracks of playlist listname
    end try

    try
        delete playlist listname
    end try
end tell


How do I recover the administrator or root password on OS X?

Boot to OS recovery, internet recovery or on older systems, with a Mac OS X DVD, then there's an option to change passwords.

You can follow an how-to here.


Mavericks install: "there was a problem... try reinstalling", third time in a row

I took my Mac to an Apple Store. On the next reinstall, everything worked: booting, rebooting, and no data lost.

Shrug.


Am I supposed to format when upgrading my mac?

An upgrade in place should be absolutely fine.  I'm sure you can find anecdotal evidence of it crashing for some people, but it's not something that crops on on here more than occasionally.

Note that you cannot jump direct to 10.8 though, sadly (unless you can borrow the install media from someone with a copy) because 10.7 and 10.8 are both sold via the Mac App store, and I think (someone will correct me on this) that this is only available on 10.6.8 systems and later...

If you know someone else with a Mac that has access to the Mac App Store, you can use their to log in and purchase it so that you are properly licensed, but there is no official way to actually download and upgrade from a 10.5 system (although it is relatively trivial if you can get the media).

If you wanted to stage via 10.6 first, that would ease your upgrade to 10.8 (or 10.9 which is due very soon), but you may conversely struggle to find original media for 10.6 (grabbing an original CD from eBay would work so long as the disc is undamaged, but technically it's almost certain that you would not be officially licensed to install it if it was used by the original purchaser to upgrade from 10.5 already, or if it was subsequently used to upgrade to 10.7 or 10.8 - however this is very much a problem for your morals and honesty, because there are no license keys or other media checks in place for Apple to spot this)


iPhone 5 won’t restart on holding both buttons

If Siri starts but then stops "as if [you] pressed the Home button again", I'd say there might be a problem with your Home Button. Try using the Apple earphones with volume/play control and use that to press Home button for Siri. Does Siri still behave the same way?


With iTerm open, go to the iterm2 menu item and select preferences. From preferences, you'll get a panel that looks like the image below.

From this image select the Profiles icon in the top row. This shows the following panel.

From this panel click on colors that brings up this final panel.

you can see in this panel there is a checkbox labeled tab color. This allows you to set your tab color. All tabs opened now will use this new color.


Conkeror as default browser on Mac OS 10.6

Select Conkerer as your default through Safari's preferences.

Update per the comment: From their website: "Unfortunately, at this time, there doesn't seem to be a way on OSX to configure conkeror as your default browser. " I just happened to stumble across that. I had never heard of Conkerer until now.


How to use movie files in both Photos and iMovie without having duplicates?

Found this answer at Apple Discussion forums:

This works for me with Final Cut Pro (I think it'll work on iMovie too):

Add the video to your Photos Library.
Head to your Pictures folder.
Perform a right click on 'Photos Library'.
Hit 'Show Package Contents'.
Go to 'Masters'.
Select the year, the month and the day the video was taken (you can easily check this in the Photos app by performing a right click on the video and then click 'Get Info').
Drag the specific video into the iMovie application to use it with iMovie.


"About this Mac" not showing correct local backup size

TimeMachine uses hard links to do his magic for incremental backups. so if you do a du check on a TimeMachine backup volume, you won't see good results, because hardlinked files would count twice or more but in fact they use just one. if you check for disk usage, please exclude any form of hard links (backup directories). there is no option to "exclude hardlinks" similar to not follow symlinks, because the backup helper cannot distinguish between a hardlink and a real file.


There are solutions to automating editing and generation of App Store screenshots. Whether you find them 'simpler' depends a bit on what tools you're comfortable using:

Editing existing screenshots?
If you're adding frames and title texts, you can automate this with FrameIt (if you are comfortable working in the command line).
Other generic image editing problems: Use Adobe Photoshop and make friends with the Actions palette.

Generating new screenshots?
Automate generating new screenshots across devices and languages with Snapshot, this relies on learning a bit of the Instruments app and specifically UI Automation, and some command line fiddling.

If I were to recommend, I would work through automating generating new screenshots rather than fiddle with editing existing screenshots. This might have a harder learning curve, but once done you should save a lot of time when preparing screenshots for future versions of the app.

Snapshot and FrameIt are both part of Fastlane toolset for automating the App Store submission process.


How to auto mount NFS shares on Mavericks?

Using autofs, as suggested by others is probably the way to go. Most of what follows works in El Capitan, which made auto mounting more difficult, but it should apply to Mavericks too. I do not have a Mavericks system to test.

In order to make this work edit /etc/auto_master and add the following line:

/-          auto_nfs    -nobrowse,nosuid

Then create a new file /etc/auto_nfs (with permissions 644) with the following content:

/../Volumes/logs -fstype=nfs,nrw,bg,hard,resvport,intr,noac,nfc,tcp mymachine:/var/logs

You have to add the /.. in front of the /Volumes, because Mac OS X (at least El Capitan will try to prevent you from mounting thing in /Volumes and /../Volumes is still /Volumes, it just tricks the filter. This might not be necessary for Mavericks)

Then start the auto mount daemon

sudo automount -cv

and you should see that the volume has been mounted (ls /Volumes/logs)


How to Install OS X on new hard drive on a Late 2012 Mac mini

To avoid having to install OS X twice, do the following.

Before removing your existing hard disk, follow the steps given below:

Download El Capitan (OS X 10.11) from the Mac App Store.
Create a bootable installer for OS X. For this you will need a USB
flash drive.

Both of the above steps are outlined at the Apple web site: "Create a bootable installer for OS".

If you are not able to do follow the instructions on the link above, or are wary or using command lines, download a free tool called Unibeast onto your Mac. It will create the bootable USB device for you. I don't own the tool or promote it so I won't link it but I do recommend it since it helped me. A simple search should bring it up.

If not, the rest of this guide continues:

Once your new disk is installed, do the following.

Insert the flash drive in a USB port on your Mac.
Start the Mac and hold down the option key.
Select to boot from the flash drive.
Use the Disk Utility application to create a single partition to
install El Capitan (OS X 10.11).
Quit the Disk Utility application.
Select "Reinstall OS X".


Mac App store download failures and fake complete notification

I spent a long time with customer support on this; several weeks actually.

One of the things you can try is to remove the folder that is listed in the console log when the issue happens. To do this, open console and leave it running. Next attempt the download and when you get the failure message, go back to console and you will see entries which say that system was unable to access a folder. Using finder, open the folder just above the folder that is named with a random sequence of strings.

For eg:
file:///var/folders/nc/qmbww7hd0cl24ylyqnldqxv80000gn/C/com.apple.appstore/409183694/mzps155989934935175015.pkg#Keynote6.pkg

In the above case, delete the folder nc. Make sure the appstore is closed when you do it. Restart the computer after this.

But what really fixed the problem for me was a very simple change.

Click on the wifi symbol on the menu bar and click open network preferences. Click on the location drop down and click edit locations. Remove all the locations in the resulting window and create a new one with a completely new name.

Restart the PC and connect to your network and attempt the download again. This fix is what worked for me. In case you have the same issue, try it out and let me know if it worked.


Does App Store Review Board allow marking an app free and charging prices some days later?

Yes. You can change your app from "free" to "paid" as you desire. Keep in mind users who downloaded the app for free will continue to get free updates even after you change the price (unless those come in the form of in-app purchases).


Why do some apps require a password when I move them to the trash?

This is a permissions effect.  Most Application installed on Lion by default, via the App Store, and some installers are installed as system a.k.a Root and root only by default has Read and Write access to the Applications installed as root, while everyone else including your user is read only or custom for each Application. Applications that you drag and drop are owned by you, and you can delete them at will usually with out a password.

Verify in the Finder or Terminal what the permissions are on Apps that require a password to move to the trash, its likely that those Apps that are set to read only access for your current user are the ones asking for a password and a temporary privilege to delete something owned by the system.

In terminal try:

ls -la /Applications


How to move iMovie library to external hard drive folder?

Since iMovie doesn't have a setting to set a folder inside the drive and stores things at the root of an external drive, you can use folders to segregate projects quite nicely.

When you open iMovie, just right click on the name of the external drive and make a new folder. Make a second folder and name them for each of you. When you open iMovie, you can collapse her folder and vice versa to avoid having to see all of the projects for the non-active user.

You could also make disk images on the drive and store them anywhere, but that is a bit more tedious for little additional payoff. You would avoid having two folders made at the root of the drive, but at the expense of a more complicated storage layer. The down side is you still have folders at the root of the external drive as well as all the project footage is in subfolders rather than in their own folder.

The remedy for this is to create sparse disk images for each set of projects and mount them before moving content to each "disk". The iMovie visual will be as if you have two drives additional drives even though they are just files/folders on the same drive.

The only warning I have is when you have multiple clips referencing the same footage - avoid moving one and not the other. Moving all the projects to the external would be extremely robust and workable, but iMovie can be a little too aggressive in moving footage to a new drive without checking to see if other projects left behind reference that footage. Luckily, things re-link nicely once you discover the missing footage error and reunite the "left behind" project with it's partner and footage.


Mid 2013 MacBook Pro displaying multi color

This could be one of two things:

a bad LCD
a failure of a logic board component, possibly the video mux chip.

A bad LCD is quite easy to diagnose; simply plug that LCD into a known working MacBook. If it continues to fail, it's the LCD.

Alternatively, you can plug in a known working LCD into your Mac and if it continues to fail, you've narrowed it down to your logic board.

If it so happens that your LCD tests good, the likely cause is the circuitry that sends display signals to the LCD itself.

Cable
Video Mux chip
related circuitry (capacitors, resistors, traces, connectors, etc.)

What's a video mux?  It's a fancy switch.  It takes multiple inputs, in this case video,  and sends them to the appropriate output; the internal LCD and/or external TV/monitor.

That chip could be faulty given that it's only sending video to one display while sending garbage to another.

Bottom line:  Take it in for service.

Swapping out LCD's is not too difficult, but you have to have either a spare LCD or a spare Mac with the same display connector.  I don't imagine you have spare Mac parts just casually laying around.

Doing a board level diagnostic isn't something you'll be able to do without the proper tools.

It can be fixed, but it needs to be done by a pro.


You can disable the auto start of Android File Transfer, and only open it in case you need it.

Here are the steps you need to do:

Open up User & Groups and remove Android File Transfer from the Login Items
remove the agent from Google's app's library: rm -r ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Android\ File\ Transfer/Android\ File\ Transfer\ Agent.app
remove the backup agent from Google's app: rm -r /Applications/Android\ File\ Transfer.app/Contents/Resources/Android\ File\ Transfer\ Agent.app

The removing steps are needed, as otherwise the app will unfortunately reinstall itself to the login items the next time you start it. Also instead of removing, you can just move them away for backup in case you might need them.

After doing these steps the app will not start when you connect a phone, and you need to open it manually (CMD+Space plus start typing "Android File Transfer") when required.


This solution works on a single file in Trash or multiple files deleted from within the same directory:

If it's not essential for you to use Terminal, you can forget all those bash, zsh, and all other typealot ways to do this. Just navigate to Trash and CMD + Backspace the files you want to put back.

If the deleted files come from different folders, then you can't use this shortcut to put them all back at the same time.


The vertical black bars appear when the MacBook screen resolution and the external display screen resolution is not in the same ratio.

To fix that, when you connect to the screen, there is a prompt to choose which screen resolution you want to use. It’s either MacBook or the external display. This is how vanilla MacOS works.

Or, go Apple Menu --> System Preferences -->  "Displays" pane  set your preferred monitor resolutions there.


How to authorize iTunes in Mavericks (OS X 10.9)?

Open iTunes
Find the Store menu
Select "Authorize This Computer" and enter your Apple ID and password.


Anytime iOS is seeming sluggish to me, I like to place it in Airplane mode to see if it's a network issue slowing things down.  For a delay that long, I would then power down the device and restart it while still in Airplane mode.

At that point you will know if your OS or device has issues to its just doing a lot of work.

From there, I would start at http://support.apple.com/iPad and start the troubleshooting assistant to narrow done the cause.


Yes, but I've heard Apple uses proprietary firmware on their SSDs (I could be wrong), however OWC does make SSDs specifically for the 2015 Retina MacBook Pro, so it appears they've figured out how to make replacements. Here's the link. I'm not affiliated with them, but have bought RAM and a replacement Mac battery from them, both of which work great.


Best way is probably to use AirServer. You just mirror to your PC/Mac and record the iOS device's screen to disk. You can also go live on youtube with AirServer.


How to make preview jump to a specific line on startup

If you are working with LaTeX, you should use Skim.app not Preview.app

Skim has support for moving bi-directionally between LaTeX source and the PDF, to a specific line in either the source or PDF file.


iOS 5 for iPhone secretly contains iPad calendar features?

iOS 5 comes in different "flavors" for each device.  iOS is stored on the computer you sync to as an .ipsw file.  These files are located here:

~/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates/

~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates/

~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/

Each device's "flavor" of iOS is optimized and only contains the code needed for the device it pertains to.


Click the gear button, scroll down to the ones you want, select them.


How can I download a specific playlist from iTunes Match to an iOS 5 device?

Scroll to the bottom of the playlist. There is a "Download All" button with the cloud download icon. Tap and wait.

Unfortunately, I don't believe there is a way to scroll to the bottom in one gesture, so if the playlist is long, you'll have to repeatedly swipe until you reach the bottom.


Downgrade after failed Catalina install?

I couldn't find an answer to the issue. At the last stage of the installation process the installer informed that it couldn't remove the previous version of macOS and rebooted.

After that, macOS enter in an infinite loop of kernel panic upon every boot. Gave up, erased the disk and installed from USB.

Perhaps the solution under Un-Assigned Kernel Misfiring on this link could have solved my issue, but I only found it after reinstalling macOS from scratch.


Where is the Spotlight .app file located?

The bundle is located here, but opening it does not cause Spotlight to appear:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app


How are the apps on iPhone organized when deleted?

The list is organised on first download date. The earliest downloaded apps are on the bottom of the list. The most recently downloaded apps are on the top of the list.


It isn't possible. When you specify an account picture, macOS will automatically convert the image file to .tiff file format and save it in the cache. Unlike .gif, .tiff is a single-image file format, so once your .gif file is converted, the animation will be lost.


Can I format new MacBook hard drive from OSX DVD?

Yes, you have full access to the Disk Utility program from within the installer process, so you can partition and format to your hearts content.


Connect second monitor to MBP and new Cinema display

Updated with more detail below...
In order to power your LG LCD your best bet may be to use an external device to power the monitor. Matrox's Dual Head 2 Go would fit your needs. It has been updated for Thunderbolt equipped Macs.
You may run into some strange side effects of using a system like this though. Up to now Matrox's DH2GO causes a Mac to recognize the two monitors connected as a single display. This means your main menu is split across the monitors and dialogs that pop up may show up somewhere between the two.
Conjecture Lies Below
I don't know how Thunderbolt may change this (either at a hardware or software level) but it's likely that it could as Apple will need to pay attention to this type of setup now that they are advertising a MacBook powering two displays via Thunderbolt.
They may also use it as a way to push people toward two Apple Displays instead of a hybrid setup like you suggest.

Update
Apple has added a knowledge base article on this topic which may answer many of your questions. You can find it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4885
How the displays work will depend on the exact computer you have (including the screen size of a MBP) check the details included in that article.
Also, there's an article in Macworld with some details on what happens if you connect an older monitor to Thunderbolt chain. In short for some strange reason you may need another Thunderbolt peripheral to get both your monitors working correctly.


After Lion can't access NTFS shared folders any more

Upgrading to Lion breaks SMB.  Something to do with UUIDs or GUIDs I think.

Create a new user on the system, give that new user access privileges through the SMB share, and connect to the share using the new user name/password.  Accounts that existed pre-Lion upgrade won't work due to this UUID problem.


You have to use an url in your receipt, that's mandatory.

You don't have to use the http(s) url scheme, you can also use file:. If you don't need any content, you can use the /dev/null file. It can even have a checksum to silence the related warning.

url "file:///dev/null"
sha256 "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855"


Which are the OS X Dashboard Widgets you can't live without?

Tea Timer

It's simply a timer. Notifies with:

Sounds
Speech
Growl

Text completely customizable (food pictured). ready in can be changed to just in.


How do I remove or alter timestamps from Word 2011 (Mac Office) tracked changes?

In addition to above:

In the word document click on Review, than Turn off track changes.

That solution only applies to curent document.

While I do not support faking documents (not showing that they have been revised), I leave that to your personal decision.

Here are some instructions batch processin for multiple files = Pick a date!

Creation Date – Multiple files
How to change the creation date attribute of multiple files:

Note: changing the creation date attribute will also change the modified date attribute and set it the same as the creation date.

Make sure all the files you want changing are in the top directory of the same folder.  Do not place files in this folder if you don’t want them to be modified.
Start the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) or if you prefer use iTerm.

Type the following in the command line, but do not hit enter/return.

Replace YYYYMMDDhhmm with the desired date information:
touch –t YYYYMMDDhhmm

Open a Finder window and locate the folder containing the files you wish to modify.  Drag and drop the folder into the Terminal window, the folder and path will be added to the end of the line you just typed.

Add /* to the end of the command.  If you’re only targeting a specific file type include its extension (e.g. /*.jpg).  Y

If all is in order press the enter/return key.  The creation date should now be changed to the date specified above, as well as the last modified date, for all the files within that folder.

Modified Date – Multiple files
How to change the last modified date attribute of multiple files:

Make sure all the files you want changing are in the top directory of the same folder.  Do not place files in this folder if you don’t want them to be modified.
Start the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) or if you prefer use iTerm.
Type the following in the command line, but do not hit enter/return.  Replace YYYYMMDDhhmm with the desired date information:
touch –mt YYYYMMDDhhmm
Open a Finder window and locate the folder containing the files you wish to modify.  Drag and drop the folder into the Terminal window, the folder and path will be added to the end of the line you just typed.

Add /* to the end of the command.  If you’re only targeting a specific file type include its extension (e.g. /*.jpg).
If all is in order press the enter/return key.  The last modified date should now be changed to the date specified above, for all the files within that folder.


My brand new MacBook Book Pro dies at 30% with no warning

Firstly, how long your MacBook Pro will last on a charge will depend on a number of factors, including what you're using it for at the time. Most people most of the time will not achieve 10hrs in between charges. Sometimes you will, and sometimes you'll even exceed 10hrs, but usually you'll fall short of that.

However, it also shouldn't just die at 30%, so I would reset the System Management Controller (SMC).

Resetting the SMC on a MacBook Pro (2018 or 2019 models)

NOTE: If your MBP is not a 2018 or 2019 model with the T2 chip, please let me know so these steps can be amended.

Fully shut down your MBP.
Press and hold the power button for at least 10 seconds
Let go of the power button and wait 5 seconds
Power up your MBP again

Once you've reset the SMC fully charge your MBP and see how you go. If it's still misbehaving, reset the SMC again but with the following steps instead:

Fully shut down your MBP.
Press and hold the right shift key and the left option and control keys for 7 seconds before then also pressing and holding the power button (or Touch ID button) down for another 7 seconds (i.e. the keys will end up being held down for 14 seconds, the power button for 7 seconds)
Let go of all three keys and the power button
Wait 5 seconds
Power up your MBP again

Now test your MBP again.


I'd recommend using TunnelBlick. Whenever I run into issues with the default VPN client TunnelBlick works much better. It even has options (like forcing full tunneling) that the built-in one doesn't.


Which VPN Server Hardware is Best for Accessing from Mac Clients

Where I work, we use the Junos line of products for VPN connections.  I'm a little light on the details as far as the hardware requirements and the setup costs etc. but we've had very little issues with them.  Some advantages:

Platform independent

The vpn runs in Java (I believe, I never took the time to look really) and can be run on pretty much any platform.  I've tried on Mac and PC, though if you might need Linux you should check into that first.
Works on iPad

This might be a bit more enterprise-y (read: Expensive) than your company is willing to fork over.  In that case, you might look into the built-in Mac OS X VPN.  Mac OS X Server has advertised VPN hosting capabilities which you can apparently use something like iVPN (though if you're technical with the CLI, you can probably get by without it.)  I don't have any on-the-job experience with this as we're a strictly SOHO environment, but it's for sure worth looking into.

There are enterprise options out there if your company is looking for a managed solution.  If not, there are options for enterprising individuals willing to put forth the necessary time and effort to make sure it all works.  I've experimented in the past with VPN and, though it was years ago and I'm sure the software has matured, I'd definitely prefer a managed solution.


Did your iPhone was jailbroken before the color swap?

If so, I'm afraid you broke something inside the phone. Something the OS is trying to access and since it's broken, respring the springboard (maybe that's a bug, but since you're not supposed to fiddle with the inside of the phone, it's not something you could use to replace it).

As a last resort, you could try to reopen it and see if there's anything that looks broken.


Unfortunately it seems Keynote for iOS does not support generic bluetooth remotes.

See this question and the answers: Which iOS presentation/slideshow app can be controlled by a Trust Wireless bluetooth remote


Disconnect external monitor without unplugging Mini DisplayPort Adapter

Do you mean you want to leave the secondary monitor plugged into the computer, but not use it?

You can go to System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement and check the Mirror Displays checkbox. Make sure your primary display is set to the laptop's built-in display. Then just shut the secondary monitor off (so you don't see the mirrored display).

Now all your windows will be on the primary monitor and you won't be able to drag any to (or open any on) the secondary monitor, but it will still be plugged into the computer.


Can I still access my me.com e mail account when changing to a Samsung galaxy s4?

Certainly, you will.

  iCloud Mail uses IMAP and SMTP standards supported by most modern email applications.

After switching the device, your account will remain. You will be able to access your mail via iCloud website on supported Android browser (e.g., Google Chrome) or set up mail client following these instructions.


How can I tell when Finder is done searching?

Yes you can. Turn on the status bar: View > Show Status Bar.

There you can see whether the Mac is searching.


iTerm2: Option + Number (0..9) key not working

I found my solution here https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/issues/7098
I'm using French - PC input, for that once I checked Emulate US  Keyboard, it works fine :D


Video (.mp4) playing in QuickTime but not in Finder Quick Look or iTunes

Conversion by QuickTime Player

QuickTime Player may be swiftly converting the file on opening using OS X's new AVFoundation. This would explain why it can play the file but not QuickLook or iTunes.

It is likely the movie is not in an ideal format for QuickTime Player on OS X 10.9, thus the conversion. With OS X 10.9, Apple dropped native support for many video formats and containers. Where possible legacy formats are converted on opening.

Supported MPEG-4

You may have a valid MPEG-4 container but the contents are not natively supported without conversion.

Have you confirmed the movie's encoding using the Finder's Get Info panel?

Re-Encoding

It is highly likely you will need to re-encode the movie, as suggested in MP4 movie does play in QuickTime but not in iTunes, if you want iTunes for playback.

This questions suggests a slightly different set of flags for ffmpeg to gain iTunes support, Convert a bunch of MKV files to MP4 to read them in iTunes:

./ffmpeg -i <filename>.mkv -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 384k -strict -2 <filename>.mp4

Alternatives to iTunes

If you wish to avoid re-encoding to gain iTunes support, consider looking for alternatives to iTunes. VLC and XMBC are both worthy alternatives; they both handle a wide range of video formats.


Attach unique attachment to email using apple script to send email to different users

set theWorkbookFile to choose file with prompt "Please select an Excel workbook file:"
set theWorkbookName to name of (info for theWorkbookFile)
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
open theWorkbookFile
set theWorkbook to workbook theWorkbookName
set peremail to value of used range of active sheet
end tell
--This is the part that I am stuck on???--
tell application "Finder"
activate
set theAttachmentFile to every file of "Macintosh HD:Users:j:Box:Email test:"whose name contains (peremail as Unicode text) -- the attachment path
end tell
repeat with aRow in peremail
set {theEmail, theName} to aRow
tell application "Mail"
set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {sender:thesender, subject:"Order"}
tell newMessage
set content to "XXXX"
make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:theName, address:theEmail}
tell content of newMessage
            make new attachment with properties {file name:theAttachmentFile as alias} at after the last word of the last paragraph

        end tell
        delay 3

    end tell

end tell

end repeat


Can't access particular website (Macbook OSX Lion)

I got it figured out (with the help of someone).

It was Mamp Pro on my computer. I had a server set up as the same domain as the live website. Entered sudo nano state and deleted out the conflicting IP address/domain.


normally the SMC (system management controller) should not have to be reset at all. However it is sometimes necessary when troubleshooting so when people say "last resort" that, they are simply saying is an uncommon problem. The SMC controls things like the fan in your mac and power flow (the reason macs are so much quieter than most computers). If this is not working properly and needs to be reset is is probably because of a hardware issue. Reseting it also does not hurt your computer. It simply turns the controller off and then turns it back on without affecting your hard drive, memory, etc. Finally if the problem does continuously reoccur you should go into customer service because it is probably a hardware problem and it is best to let them look at it.


This is the resume feature of OS X Lion.

You can use TinkerTool do disable resume on a per-app basis.

Besides this, TinkerTool gives you access to additional preference settings and allows to activate hidden features in the operating system.

I've also explained how to disable resume using the Terminal here.


There are two parts to remote sharing your Mac computer: software on the computer and configuration of your network.

Software on your Mac

You can use the built-in VNC server on your Mac; there is no need for third party software.

Launch System Preferences and open Sharing.
Select Screen Sharing then click Computer Settings.
Finally, enable VNC viewers and provide a secure password.

Next, test you can access and control your Mac using a VNC client within your home network. This can be done from a Mac, Windows, or mobile device using a VNC client.

Configure your network

To access your Mac from outside of your home network, you need to open a port for VNC:

port: 5900
protocol: TCP
direct the incoming traffic to your Mac

If this port is not open and passing traffic to your Mac, then you will not be able to connect from outside your network.

How you configure your modem/router differs between the make and model of each device. Some routers will have built-in assistants to help set this up.


Need to Switch from Mac Thunderbird to Apple Mail. But First I want to backup Mac Thunderbird. How Can I Do It?

Have you tried Time Machine to Backup your emails?

A more elaborate procedure is explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2YaBCXpaM

You can also opt for third party applications: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Mail-Backup-X.shtml

I hope this helps. Thanks


How do I turn on 3-finger drag on trackpad (Sierra)?

I think this is what your after…

Navigate to System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options.
Check the Enable dragging checkbox.
Select 'Three finger drag' from the dropdown.


Apparently this has been a bug in High Sierra since it's release. A few days ago, the issue was closed and it is believed to have been fixed in OS 10.13.4 (beta).

High Sierra Contacts Not Working


Mirroring iPod Touch 4th Gen Completely (homescreen and games) !!

If you are jailbroken, then you can go into iFile and go to the directory:
(/var/mobile/Library/Preferences)
Then go to the plist named: (com.apple.springboard.plist) Open the plist up with the Property List Viewer and scroll down until you find the line labelled TVOutDiabled and turn that switch to "off". The Line underneath that will have "TVOutOrientation", tap on this line and change it's value to "1" instead of "0" Now quit out of iFile on your iOS device and you should be good to go.

This tutorial is only for mirroring your device with a cable (such as 30Pin to VGA, or other cables like 30Pin to HDMI)

You can also try editing the .plist file with a program such as iFunbox or Anytrans but I can't garantee that it would work.


Startup sound is gone - how do I get it back?

Try the following command on the Terminal
sudo nvram StartupMute=%00


If I buy an Iphone in Dubai, will I be able to install and use Skype/Whatsapp in other country?

In general, no. Apple performs geographic restrictions (and allots warranty service contact) via the country in which the device is sold and not based on where you take it or reside. In most cases, you don’t have warranty issues, but check the iOS page when you are shopping for iPhone online if you care about getting all the possible encryption, freedom to use any apps:

https://www.apple.com/iphone-7/ios/

At the bottom is usually something like:

  Some features, applications, and services are not available in all areas. Click here to see complete list.

Also, you’ll want to watch where Apple doesn’t even support the device and instead the carrier is used to implement whatever restrictions the government requires:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204042

The note about FaceTime being permanently blocked in addition to encrypted FaceTime and such could easily apply to more services either now or going forward.


Do ZIP files preserve all HFS+ features, when created using Finder's Compress command?

No credit for me. I have literally taken this from user NSGod: https://superuser.com/a/222590

My own addition, a bit obvious:

the target filesystem should support symlinks, hardlinks, etc, else it will not work
you can use the zip command in the command line and preserve these filetypes manually with zip --symlinks -r foo.zip foo/

How are you creating the .zip archive in OS X? (Using a command-line tool, and if so, which one, or by using Archive Utility, etc.)

What operating system is the target computer (where the archive will be unzipped) running, and what method are you using to unzip the file there?

First of all, in OS X, symbolic links are basically plain text files with some extra "Mac" information that lets OS X know that it should treat the file as a symbolic link. This extra Mac information is a special file type, creator code, and Finder flag information, which is stored not in the file itself, but in the HFS+ disk directory.

In OS X, when you create a .zip file, there is no room in the zip stream for this extra Mac information, so, in a sense, the symbolic link is stored within the zip file as a plain file. Whether someone on another Mac can unzip the archive and have it properly represent the original structure appears to depend on who or what you use to unzip it.

For example, a month or so ago a company released a game over Steam, Valve's game distribution software. The game application bundle included NVIDIA's Cg library in the form of a framework, which internally use symbolic links. There was originally a problem with Steam not properly restoring the necessary Mac information on Trine.app as mentioned in this thread:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1556083

The image below shows 2 different copies of the Cg.framework, one I had installed separately from NVIDIA's website (upper image), and the lower image shows what was received with the game:

Notice that all the items match up, but what should be symbolic links are plain data files.

After taking a closer look at the FSCatalogInfo record for both the items, it was clear to me what the issue was:

You'll notice in the upper image that the beginning of the finderInfo struct has the following values:

0x736C6E6B = 'slnk'
0x72686170 = 'rhap'

These values are defined in /usr/include/hfs/hfs_format.h:

/*
 *  File type and creator for symbolic links
*/
enum {
    kSymLinkFileType  = 0x736C6E6B, /* 'slnk' */
    kSymLinkCreator   = 0x72686170  /* 'rhap' */
};

The 9th byte value, 0x80, corresponds to the kIsAlias flag of the finderInfo.finderFlags. That value is defined in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/.../CarbonCore.framework/.../Headers/Finder.h:

enum {
    kIsAlias                      = 0x8000 /* Files only */
};

It appears that unzip feature built-in to OS X (Archive Utility) is hard-coded to look for possible files in the archive that's being unzipped that represent symbolic links, and to set the information appropriately. I believe that /usr/bin/ditto (when used for its ability to archive files) also takes care of this for you. I'm not sure whether zip or unzip do.


Officially you cannot use third party clients for connecting to AIM with iCloud account. It seems that the protocol is the same, but authentication is different.

  AOL/Apple changed the authentication method for new iCloud accounts. This will have to be fixed in libpurple before it'll work again in Adium.

This quote is from this board.

Try using a nightly build of Adium, if it's fixed — it's there.


Running windows on iMac updates system settings

Time issue

It is a known issue that is due to the fact that OS X and Windows both store the time in the hardware, but OS X does in GMT while Windows stores local time.

There are at least two distinct ways to fix it:

Set Windows time zone to GMT and remove the daylight savings time offset and also turn off network time sync. (Source)
Use a startup batch script.


Change Finder window text size via AppleScript or shell?

Ze'ev, amigo:

This sounds like a job for the shell, and we might get you the functionality you desire in possibly two ways.

First, let's try the elegant method: Without closing any windows, send a SIGHUP to the Finder process, shell-side, after you change that parameter in the AppleScript.   Specifically, add the line:

do shell script "pkill -1 -l Finder"

The second argument to pkill -- the '-l' -- is for debugging purposes.  If this works, remove the '-l'.

On a side-note, the font size change is also something that can be changed from the shell-side, via the 'defaults' command.

Please let me know if that works out for you.

Best of luck,

F.


Background processes periodically eat up my CPU time on OS X 10.10.4, Yosemite

Today, I checked Chrome and it states that

Version 43.0.2357.65(64-bit)
Update failed (error: 12)

It appears that my version is out of date by about 3 weeks.  So I believe that Chrome was periodically trying to frantically update and would subsequently fail.  I followed the recommendations of Google and attempted removing the appropriate files, but my version of Chrome would still not update.

I ended up uninstalling Chrome by dragging the icon from Applications to the trash and removing ~/Library/Google and /Library/Google (not sure why it is here also...).  I reinstalled Chrome and it appears that I now have the most up to date version of Chrome (44.0.2403.103) and I have yet to experience any of those errors or cooking of my cpu.  I have been at my desktop now for 4 hours, so hopefully this issue has been resolved.  I'll also see if I experience anymore kernel panics, hopefully these issues were related and both are resolved.


Predictive input doesn’t work on Russian language

DFU restore to iOS 12, than to iOS 11.4 solves problem.

How to do DFU restore: https://help.ifixit.com/article/108-dfu-restore

If you want to install custom downloaded version of iOS (that must be signed by Apple) click "Restore" in iTunes with pressed Alt/Option key (Shift on a PC). Then window with selection of .ipsw file will be appear.


Since the file extensions are all different, you will need to batch edit all the file extensions in order to have TextEdit be used as default. Clicking "change all" on one would not work:

Assuming all the files are in the same folder and are text files, you can use a terminal command to batch edit the extensions so TextEdit opens them by default.
To do so, open Terminal and do the following, replacing the /path/to/folder with the folder containing these files:

cd /path/to/folder
for file in *; do mv "$file" "${file}.txt"; done

e.g. "APW.01" becomes "APW.01.txt"

Alternative, cleaner solution: a sequential rename adding .txt to each file.

cd /path/to/folder; i=1;for f in *; do mv "$f" "APW_0$i.txt";let i++; done

Before:

After:


Retrieve lost iPhoto after replaced hard drive

If you backed up all your files, then your library has been backed up and all you are missing is the iPhoto app. The iPhoto app has been replaced by Photos.app in Yosemite, so you can re-download iPhoto or Photos from the Mac App Store and your library will be automatically detected.

If you didn't back up all your files, then you need to rely on the last one thousand photos accessible in Photo Stream or Shared Photo Streams.


iMac-Pro(Win 10) NO Ethernet controller Driver (NO BOOTCAMP)

One of the first things I noticed about the article you link to is that there is no mention of a particular model or year Mac. It is impossible for there to be a one size fits all instructions for installing Windows on Mac computers. Second, the article is more than 2 years old. A lot has changed in two years. Any Macs capable of running High Sierra have had a firmware upgrade making many of the articles steps either obsolete or unnecessary.

Here a few comments with regard to the linked article.

I assume you used your iMac Pro to download the Windows Support Software. Using a different Mac can lead to the wrong download.
You do not need to use unetbootin. If fact, you do not even need a USB flash drive.
Starting with with High Sierra, macOS no longer creates Hybrid partitioned drives. So, you should not have to use gdisk.
The article does not mention System Integrity Protection (SIP). You should not have to disable SIP to install Windows.
I assume your installation did not include a Window Recovery Environment partition. I assume this because the article did not provide the necessary steps to create one.
The article included a step where the Windows Support Software (the legacy name is Boot Camp Support Software) is installed. Below is image taken from the article.

Note, there is a folder named WindowsSupport. This is a monumental error. If you have this folder on your flash drive, then I will assume this folder contains the folder named $WinPEDriver$. If so, then none of the Windows Support Software drivers needed properly install Windows were provided to the Windows installation software. If the WindowsSupport folder contains an AutoUnattend.xml file, then the Windows installation software did not receive any addition instructions provided by Apple to correctly install the Windows operating system.

An example of how the files should appear in the root folder of the Windows installation media is shown below. This image was taken from this Apple website.

You may want to refer the the question: How to install Windows 10 into a 2013 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, USB flash drive or third party tools? The accepted answer provides a few extra steps your article may have omitted.


TCPBlock and OS X 10.9

Comments associated with the last TCPBlock blog update suggest there may be problems with OS X 10.9, Mavericks, and tools like Clean My Mac.

Console

Use the Console.app utility included in Mac OS X to look for error messages. Console.app is located in: /Applications/Utilities

With Console.app running, try opening TCPBlock preference pane again. You will likely see a little flurry of messages.

Possible problems include the preference pane being built for 32-bit Macs only, and missing frameworks or dependencies.


Click on Safari from the top menu and then click on Preferences from the drop-down.

Next click on the AutoFill tab and then click on the Edit button beside the Other forms option.

Now from the pop-up, select the website you do not want to autofill data for and then click on the Remove button.


How to enable notifications on Calendar macOS for recurrent events?

Make sure event notifications are enabled for whichever calendar you're adding the events to.


Can I remove the Install OS X Yosemite app?

You are safe to delete the Yosemite installer. It should not harm your computer if you delete it.