What is the unit of `Power_On_Hours` in `smartctl`?

SMART Monitoring Tools

The smartctl tool claims hours, so that suggests one or more of the following:

A fault in the tool;
A fault in your drive reporting firmware;
Or that your drive was only active for six hours during that period.

Drives will power up and down whenever they can to save energy. Six hours of storage access may not be unrealistic but it all depends on how the computer is used.

Try using the -v flag to customise the output. You can specify times in minutes or other units. This may give a better insight into the reported values.

If you need help using and understand the results of smartctl, please contact the developers. They are best placed to provide authoritative answers.


Laptop wont connect to internet after sleep but will connect to network

Can I ask why are your DNS settings the way they are? This could definitely be a DNS issue and I don't recognize those addresses as common, just wondering.

In the Network pane of System Preferences I would want you to try and replicate this issue with a new configuration. Click the '+' symbol and select wireless adapter, try to replicate the issue now.

If the issue persists, please make a new user in System Preferences > Users & Groups with administrator access & no iCloud password. Log fully out of your user before logging into this new test account and try to replicate the issue again. Don't mess around with Network preferences -
 just let me know what you find. Also is there a reason you haven't updated beyond 10.10.5?


I was looking for this myself and was a bit disappointed at the dismissive comments under your question. Fortunately, it is quite simple: Choose “Equation > New Equation from Template… > Other > Series”.

Edit: The best resource on Grapher I know is this PDF. It is a bit hard to read at times because it has so much content, but it is an invaluable resource if you want to make full use of Grapher. You can find recursive functions under “Sequences”.


To just look at log files etc. I usually use either

sudo less /path/to/log/file

or (in case I need root access longer) run sudo -s to get a root shell.

To run processes as another user you can use

sudo -H -u _teamserver cmd-to-run

And finally, to simulate a login there is

sudo -H -u _teamserver -i


I've been through similar issues (not the same issue ... but iCloud weirdness that I couldn't pin to any device).  Turns out it is possible to wedge iCloud even though all your local devices are ok.

The fix:

Take backups of everything you can (your computer, phone, iPad, etc.)
Go to each device you own and log out of iCloud

It is critically important you log EVERY device out of iCloud because the fix relies on you having zero devices that are logged in.

When NO devices are logged into iCloud, then (and only then) iCloud will dump it's cache for all data that it was syncing to your devices.  If even a single device remains connected to iCloud ... this will not happen.

Pick your most reliable device and log back into iCloud.  It will start syncing it's state (such as your calendar) to iCloud.

You can start re-reconnecting other devices back into iCloud one by one (I tend to do this very slowly to make sure each device has time to fully sync before I add the next device).

If the problem turns out to be corrupted iCloud cache (and this has happened to me), then this should fix it.  If the problem is with a specific device then you may need further steps.


Can two apps have the same name if spacing is different

You can check the availability of a name of app regardless of its origin, spelling or grammar before even creating the app. Log in to iTunes Connect — Click Manage Your Applications -> Add New App (don't fill in a SKU Number or bundle ID); if the name is already taken, you will get the following errors:

  You must select a Bundle ID.
  The App Name you entered has already been used
  provide a SKU.

Act accordingly based on the errors. But AFAIK, without doing all that, the algorithm segregates the two so you should be safe with a space between it since it considers FatCat as one word, unless someone has already reserved it but has not yet submitted it to the App Store or is not yet live in the App Store.


Appstore not automatically checking for updates since iOS 11

Apple has released the iOS 11.01 update, so I’d try downloading and installing that.

To install the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update.


So turns out, this problem extended to other parts in the system, namely: Xcode.
After some back-and-forth communication with Apple's support case team, the crash problem in Xcode turned out to be ibtoold and pboard processes are malfunctioning. They said it's a clipboard set of processes, and if I have any clipboard-relevant apps - they might be clashing with them.

So the only possible culprit on my system was CopyClip.

To make sure that was indeed the problem, I quit CopyClip, and restarted the processes, then restarted Xcode:

killall ibtoold pboard

And it worked. I made sure that was indeed the problem by starting CopyClip again, then running the same command again - and the problem returned. I then fixed it once more.

I figured the problem might be the same for the Dock, so I killed it:

killall Dock

And voila, it was functioning again!

TL;DR: Applications that provide special handling for the clipboard, such as CopyClip or PushBullet's "Universal Copy and Paste" collide with processes necessary for Xcode and Dock to function correctly. My problem was resolved by disabling or getting rid of that app and restarting.


How do I create a scheduled task that deletes files of a certain name everyday?

Add the following to your crontab (run env EDITOR=nano crontab -e to edit your crontab):

@daily /usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to delete (every file of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:username:Downloads" whose name starts with "message" and modification date is less than (get current date) - 2 * days)'

Untested as I have no such files on my system. Keep backups and make sure you've got the right path.


Disk Utility hangs prior to resizing partition

Yeah I do encounter this problem sometimes also, but I don't know why is it happening. For some verifying and repairing solves the problem, but for those that doesn't get solved, the command line tool diskutil often does the job.

You can just use

diskutil resizeVolume $1 $2

where

$1 is the Mount Point or Disk Identifier or Device Node of the disk you are trying to resize (obtained with diskutil list).
$2 is the size in decimal with suffix of B, S(512 byte blocks), K, M, G, T, P, or percentage of the current size(%).

e.g. diskutil resizeVolume disk0s6 100G will resize the volume disk0s6 to 100 GB.


Is there a way to find the line in which I performed my latest change in Xcode, even in other files?

https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/11.4/#/dev89f34a32d

See source control navigator

Choose the branch, and double click on the latest commit.


After I traveled abroad, my Mac thinks I'm in the wrong timezone

I think you have to move the physical time zone marker to your location, I had to do that to reset my times one from California to New York.


MacBookPro 5,5

Has a maximum RAM capacity of 8 Gig. (2x 4 Gig banks)

You are trying to install 16 Gig!

That will not work regardless of the RAM frequency.


Got it working by adding a second language in the Language & Region pref pane and rebooting.

Now the menu shows up.


Automator - Get name of dropped file without file type

The first line of your script is Applescript whereas it should be shell (bash by default). The tersest version I can think of:

for f in "$@"
do
    /usr/local/bin/python3 /Volumes/Scripts/script.py "$f"
    mkdir ${f%.*}
done


I would leave the simulator in the Xcode package, but drag it to your dock to easily launch it. Or make an alias to it and place that alias in what ever spot you want to launch simulator from.


Boot Camp Assistance is stuck on create a partition?

These are the basic steps needed to install Windows 10 for an EFI boot.

  Note: To get a better view of the images shown below, either click on an image or open an image in a new window.

The command below will create the 70 GB "BOOTCAMP" partition on your internal drive. The space occupied by this partition will be used for installing Windows.

sudo  diskutil  apfs  resizeContainer  disk0s2  180.8G  FAT32  BOOTCAMP  70G

Insert the flash drive containing the Windows 10 installation files and the Boot Camp Support Software. These files were already copied to the flash drive by the Boot Camp Assistant application.
Use the command shown below to rename the AutoUnattend.xml file.

mv  /volumes/WINSTALL/AutoUnattend.xml  /volumes/WINSTALL/NoAutoUnattend.xml

Next, you need to boot from the volume where the Windows installation files reside. Hold down the option key immediately after restarting on your Mac. Release the option when the Startup Manager window appears. Select the icon labeled "EFI boot". Next, select the arrow below the "EFI boot" label.
Open a Windows Command Prompt window, by following the procedure outlined in this step. Below is an image of what is initially displayed by the Windows 10 installer. Select "Next".

In the image shown below, select "Repair your computer".

In the image shown below, select "Troubleshoot".

In the image shown below, select "Command Prompt".

The result should be the image shown below.

Use the command diskpart to finish partitioning disk0. The commands you need to enter are given below.

  Note: Sometimes it can take a while for the diskpart command to produce the first prompt. Be patient.

diskpart
list  volume

From the output of the command list volume, determine the number for the volume with the label "BOOTCAMP". In this example, I will assume the number is 0. Your number could be different. The next command selects this partition.

select  volume  0

The next commands effect the "BOOTCAMP" volume. The format is changed to NTFS. Next, the size is shrunk by 600 MB.

format  fs=ntfs  label=BOOTCAMP  quick
shrink  desired=600

Create a Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) partition. The next commands create and initialize an empty 600 MB WinRE.

create  partition  primary
set  id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt  attributes=0x8000000000000001
format  fs=ntfs  label=Recovery  quick

The next command lists the current volumes. Take note of the drive letter (Ltr) for the volume with label "WINSTALL". In this example, I will assume the letter is D. Your letter could be different.

list  volume

The command below quits the command diskpart.

exit

Enter the command below to start the Windows installation. If the drive letter, for the "WINSTALL" volume, is not D, then make the appropriate substitute when entering the command below.

setup  /unattend:D:\NoAutoUnattend.xml

When a window similar to what is shown below appears, select the "BOOTCAMP" partition, then click on the "Next" button.

Continue with the installation of Windows 10. If the computer boots back to macOS, goto System Preferences and select Windows as your startup disk. Restart the computer to continue initializing Windows 10.
When finished, the Windows Support Software installer should automatically launch. If this does not occur, use the Windows File Explorer to open the Windows Support Software application named "Setup". This application can be found in the "BootCamp" folder on the "WINSTALL" drive. After the installer application completes, allow the computer to restart.

If asked, I can clarify any of the above steps.


Unable to remove item from dock in Yosemite

Even though the items appeared not to be open, they were open.  By holding down the right click on the icon, a drop down menu appeared with the option to "quit." Select that item, and the icon is removed.


What's needed to install a software upgrade

This should be all he needs, the install is only one disk. But there may be some things that hold up the install:

If the disk notes its for a particular machine, it does a check to see if it is the correct type of machine. There are ways to get around this, but you usually you should use the disk that is made for your machine, or a retail copy.
If it can't install, it shouldn't damage his current installation

If you give more information on what the disks actually say (like on the front, or a picture), it would help answer more.


Light weight, free way to record a video with a blurred background using Mac webcam?

The easiest approach to attain your goal is to use a video calling application in combination with screen recording.
For the video calling application I suggest Jitsi as it works in your browser, but you can also look into any other popular application like Teams, Zoom or Skype.

Go to meet.jitsi.com to start a video call in your browser. For other applications follow the steps they need to start a video call.
Configure the calling application to use your camera and microphone.
Configure background blurring.

In Jitsi you can go to the three dot menu in the lower right and select "Blur my background [BETA]".
Here are instructions for other applications: Teams, Zoom, Skype

Now you should have a screen, showing live what is being recorded by your camera.
Open Quicktime, and follow these steps to record your screen, in particular the window of your video calling application.

This will generate a recording of your screen, and as that screen shows your webcam with a blurred background you will have a video of yourself with a blurred background.
Note that some video calling applications have a built in recording option, allowing you to skip step 5.


Use of “iPhone”, “iPad”, etc. in iOS apps

You should be OK. Apple guideline 3.3 states

  Guideline 3.3: Apps with names, descriptions, screenshots, or previews not relevant to the content and functionality of the App will be rejected.

If your app requires a specific device to function be sure to mention that in the comments when you submit it for review.

The main thing you can't do is mention a different platform:

  Guideline 3.1: Apps or metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected.

You can really help yourself by clearly indicating why you used the device name in the comments. I always add comments during app submissions and I believe it's helped prevent a few rejections for more info.


Is there a way to hide some events from an Outlook calendar?

You can move those items you don't want to view in your phone into a new 'reminders' calendar, then disable that in your phone, however this has the shortcoming that other staff in our org do not see the free/busy information of that 'reminders' calendar. If I could fix that problem this would work for me.

related question: https://superuser.com/questions/636605/how-do-i-share-free-busy-info-from-an-outlook-subcalendar


How do I get technical information on my video card? (Model, RAM, Mhz, etc)

Select Graphics/Displays from the output of system_profiler.

In a mac terminal, type:

system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType

The output will show something like this with your card name and details:

system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType

Graphics/Displays:

AMD FirePro D500:

  Chipset Model: AMD FirePro D500
  Type: GPU
  Bus: PCIe
  Slot: Slot-2
  PCIe Lane Width: x16
  VRAM (Total): 3072 MB
  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID: 0x679e
  Revision ID: 0x0000
  ROM Revision: 113-C3861J-687
  gMux Version: 4.0.11 [3.2.8]
  EFI Driver Version: 01.00.687
  Displays:
    CS230:
      Resolution: 1920 x 1080
      Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
      Display Serial Number: 27673034
      Main Display: Yes
      Mirror: Off
      Online: Yes
      Rotation: Supported
    CS230:
      Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz (1080p)
      Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
      Display Serial Number: 27712034
      Mirror: Off
      Online: Yes
      Rotation: Supported
      Television: Yes

AMD FirePro D500:


Accidentally almost deleted iPhoto library

If you purely want to salvage your photos, then this is the easiest way without any other software.

Right-click on the iPhoto Library file and select Show Package Contents

Find the Masters folder and copy it somewhere, like your Desktop

Hold down Alt/Option key and open iPhoto again. This will bring up this window

Select New Library and import all the photos from the Masters folder that you copied to your Desktop in step #2

This should work, and create a new library with any photos that are still intact.


Can one buy an Ethernet and HDMI Thunderbolt adapter?

Yes - there are quite a few docks to connect one cable to a Mac and have gigabit ethernet as well as HDMI out (and some even support 4K resolution on the HDMI).

Elgato https://www.elgato.com/en/thunderbolt-2-dock
Belkin http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F4U085/
Sonnet http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15thunderboltdock.html
OWC https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/Dock/OWC/Thunderbolt2-Dock/

I've linked to the top of the line thunderbolt 2 versions of the docks. If you don't need the fastest speed look for older models of 10 Gbps thunderbolt as refurb/used or still new stock which are discounted in price from the faster 20 Gbps models.

It's far cheaper to buy two single use adapters, though - the electronics are smaller and less complicated than needed for a full dock that takes one cable and splits into multiple functions.


Why can’t I enable True Tone on my iPhone 11 anymore?

I just came back from the Apple Store and they found the problem: my Ambient Light sensor was faulty and they changed it for free. Thanks anyway for your help !


Question about GPU Panic on Mid 2010 MacBookPro6,2

I am posting this answer to 5 similar questions. I tried everything from the Kext changes to the Github patch. I also tried to use Gfx. However, here's what worked for me. The latest version of Gfx doesn't set the MBP to use the Integrated card permanently. However, GFx version v1.8.1 does. Open it and set it to use Intel.

I have not had a GPU panic for 2 days. I also disabled SIP and installed the Github patch, but I still had Panics after that (however, this might be a solution thats GFx only, or maybe the patch also helped. Try Gfx 1.8.1 first)


Hold the ⌥alt/option key as you drag your selection to make rectangular text selections.

Preview does attempt to detect when there are columns in the document and restrict the selection appropriately, but when this fails, you can manually constrain the selection to the column.


Is it possible to run commands from spotlight?

Just a heads up that Alfred app now has both global hotkeys which allows you to launch apps/commands/applescripts with a key combo, as well as Terminal/Shell integration, which lets you run any Terminal command without launching Terminal.

For example, create a script to auto-shorten a URL using goo.gl then copying it to clipboard (here's how you can do that). Or launch any terminal command (e.g. ping yahoo.com) to pop up a Terminal window.

It's part of the Powerpack and is in pre-release right now, going to general availability next week :)

Vero (community gal for @alfredapp)


Reading creation date from file an change

This will operate on all files in the Current Directory.
You could cd ~/MyDirectory, either in the script or in Terminal before running it.
Another option is to change the * in for f in *; do to ~/MyDirectory/*

This won't actually give you the creation time, because it isn't stored by Unix. Ctime actually records the time of the last status change (which may or may not be creation time).

OS X seems to store other data in extended attributes, but this is not what the script does.


Duplicate FileVault setup using using fdesetup

The first thing I'd like to point out is that institutional has everything to do with your school, company, or other organization which manages your computer.

If that doesn't apply to you (and you'd know if it did) then rest assured that hasinstitutionalrecoverykey doesn't apply to you.

I suspect that your drive is encrypted & backed with your AppleID. To confirm, run sudo fdesetup list -extended and look for an iCloud User listing.


Settings -> Wi-Fi -> Click the info button to the right of the network you want to forget. There's a "Forget this Network" choice at the top.


Internet Sharing failing on Mac OS X Lion Server

The answer is yes.

I'm typing you this answer through an InternetSharing
connexion provided by an iMac running MacOS Lion (10.7.3) where no one is connected:

me -> MBP    ………Wi-Fi………   iMac   ………Ethernet………   Internet
      10.6.8               10.7.3

I'm using such a connection for professionnal use
since MacOS 10.4 with no one connected (on the Mac running InternetSharing). This connection was used by 5 other Mac (10.4, 10.5,
10.6) and might be considered as a nearly professional grade network.

When you login when your InternetSharing is faulty, could you type
in a Terminal or xterm window:

ifconfig -a
ps ax | egrep '(bootp|natp)'

My first blind guess is that your main Ethernet connection was shut down
under the responsability of your Energy Saver tuning.


Microsoft keyboard requiring double capslock press after Sierra update

Installing IntelliType for your Mircosoft Confort Keyboard Ergo 4000 on macOS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or later will not work. Microsoft didn't update their driver in a while (since 10.7) and didn't sign the extension as they should have done for it to work with the latest versions of macOS.

You could eventually deactivate the security features, but I don't think it worth taking this risk for a keyboard driver. The keyboard works fine without driver, only missing the "Favorites" buttons.

If you really want to customize the "Favorites" shortcut buttons, ControllerMate seems to be a great driver with a great mapping that makes them easily customizable. It is up-to-date and compatible with macOS 10.14 Mojave.


Where do my iPod's notes go when they're synchronized with my Gmail account?

When you go to Gmail, you should now see a 'notes' label in gmail.

This will hold your notes, but you can not edit them in gmail.


Can't restore mavericks backups in time machine

Having similar problem.  After several calls regarding a slow iMac, I was told to erase the main disk and restore from my back ups.  Last backup was in Sept which I recall was when I upgraded to Mavericks.  My Time Machine disk does have my very latest backup its just the recovery process can't see it!

The solution I've been given is:

Do latest restore possible (last Mountain Lion backup)
Install OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)
Copy latest user folder from time machine and replace the current user folder to recover the latest documents and files.

Not ideal and takes a long time!


Xls to csv - Numbers creates multiple csv files for some reason

CSV are simple text file where the data are only separated by comas and new lines.

There is no concept of sheets therefore Numbers need to create a csv for each sheet.


Is there any time limit in the List view of the iPhone Calendar app?

There is no limit in the Calendar itself – you can 'zoom out' by repeatedly tapping the Back button until you're in a screen where each year takes up about a single page. Scroll down to e.g. 2027, and you can create an event in the distant future without problems:

The List view does seem to have a built-in limit of two years, which can't be extended by settings.


How to select and move the shapes in Preview

Use the keyboard shortcut Command + I to show the Inspector. It will list all the shapes added in the current editing session.
Click on the desired shape in the Inspector. This will also select the shape.

Now use the arrow  keys to move the selected shape, Up ↑, Down ↓, Left ← or Right →.
Press and hold Shift key along with the arrow key to move the shape with faster speed.
Alternatively, once the shape is selected (either by clicking on it or via Inspector), you can also hover the mouse pointer over it until the cursor turns into a white glove. Thereafter, you can click and drag to move the shape freely.


The old MacBook 2,1 (White 2008) could only boot from the CD/DVD drive.  Since you didn't mention that you could see the recovery partition (where you can access Disk Utility), we have to assume it's not there.

If you want to properly wipe it to ensure that all private data has been removed, do the following:

Remove the HDD from the MacBook and connect to another computer via USB to SATA adapter
Wipe with DBAN or do a Secure Erase with Disk Utility
Reinstall OS X

You could try to "hack" together a solution to get your USB to boot with rEFInd, but the work to put in to get a USB drive bootable is (IMO) a large expenditure of time just to wipe a drive.


What is the shortcut to hide the navigator view in Apple Keynote?

Note that Navigatior View is designed to show the thumbnails for navigation.  Slide Only view shows only the slide without the thumbnails.
There is no built in shortcut to change views.  However, a custom keyboard shortcut can be added in the System Preferences.
To create a shortcut:

Go to System Preferences
Keyboard
Shortcuts Tab
Select App Shortcuts in the left pane
Click the Plus button
Set Application to Keynote from the dropdown
Type the Menu command EXACTLY as it appears in the menu
Choose a key combination

Now you can change view with custom shortcut.

Adding custom shortcut:

Switching views:


I haven't followed them for a while, so I don't know if they reliably catch all the bundles, but I followed http://dealmac.com back in the day.

They track lots of hardware deals and some software.


Confused: Will Find My Mac work if the thief just did the hold ctrl and power button restore?

It wouldn't hurt to report it stolen to your local police and to Apple, especially if you have the serial number.  If you don't have the serial number but you have the purchase details, your dealer may be able to recover the serial number.

From apple.com/au/contact:

  If you have lost or found an Apple product, contact your local
  law-enforcement agency to report it. You can also find a list of
  serial numbers associated with your Apple ID and get information about
  using Find My iPhone for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac.

Software running on the machine (About This Mac, System Information) can look at the serial number.  It is hard (but not impossible) to wipe the serial number from the machine.

I wonder what happens if the thief (or reciever of stolen goods) sets up the machine and Find My Mac.  Does Apple use the serial number, or just the user's Apple ID?


Flashing folder icon with question mark on startup of MacBook Pro

If you have an external drive or flash drive and access to another Mac, you can create your own installer.


Sort files by hidden value in finder (Big Sur)

Unfortunately not. Finder only knows how to sort by Name, Type, Timestamps, Size and Tags.


How can I reconfigure my PF.conf to be more secure

Okay, the config is a total mess without some comments so we can know what you’re thinking instead of what you have written.  No worries, let us get this sorted out.  The syntax employed does not reflect well your intent, and in a few instances is in error or redundant.

It also appears that the ruleset you describe that is the config is not the same as that which you say is the output of the pfctl.

For clarity’s sake, let us make this simple, and more informative.  Please post the output of

sudo pfctl -vvv -s all

Then, please post your complete pf.conf - preferably to a place where we can comment and discuss like github or github gist. I’m seeing some discrepancies between the two files you posted (thanks for those), so I recommend explicitly writing out in NON FIREWALL SYNTAX - JUST PLAIN ENGLISH what exactly you want pf to do.

Firewall on. I blocked IP 93.184.220.29 with PF but it still popsup in netstat -n
How can I block all ports with PF except port 80 and 443?

Since I recognize a series of questions we might be at the point of diminishing returns asking larger and more detailed questions I will watch for your reply, and will make an extra effort to get this right for you but this might be a challenge in the Q&A format here. Thanks for your patience in providing some more work as to what you need to work.


How to replace a folder that's name is a date i.e. YYYYMMDD with folder hierarchy of year, month, date?

You can use the following in Terminal. cd to the containing folder, then run the following:

find . -type f -exec bash -c \
  'F=$(sed -E "s#^\./([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2})#\1/\2/\3#" <<< $1);\
  mkdir -p -- $(dirname "$F");\
  mv -- "$1" "$F"' - {} \;

find . -type f obtains every file in the current directory recursively.
-exec bash -c opens a shell to run the following commands.
F=$(…) opens a subshell and uses sed on the file path to manipulate the path into the folders.
^\./([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2}) is a regex with three capture groups, as follows:

\1/\2/\3 is replacement, where each capture group (\1, etc) are separated by /.
mkdir -p -- $(dirname "$F") creates the directories to move the files into.
mv -- "$1" "$F" moves each file into its corresponding folder.

This takes the hierarchy on the left and converts it to the hierarchy on the right:

├── 20170201               └── 2017
│   └── abcdefghij             ├── 02
└── 20170302                   │   └── 01
    └── abcdefghij 2           │       └── abcdefghij
                               └── 03
                                   └── 02
                                       └── abcdefghij 2

If there are other files in the containing folder with a date as a name, they will be moved as if they are a folder. To prevent this, replace the second line with:

  'F=$(sed -E "s#^\./([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2})(?:/.+)#\1/\2/\3#" <<< $1);\

The (?:/.+) ensures that the path has a subsequent component, therefore ignoring anything without a child in the parent directory which are files.


How to make Siri set an alarm AND name/label the alarm at same time?

Exactly say this:

  Set alarm for [time] labeled [insert name here]

This works for me every time, thus it should work for your appointments or alarms too. Make sure you say labeled right: click here for the pronunciation and
just make sure the names aren't too long.

Names I've tried:

Hello
Triangle
Square


Is there a way to prevent my Mac from sleeping during a file copy?

caffeinate rsync
Consider using the command line tool rsync to safely copy large amounts of data on your Mac. Prefix the command with caffeinate to keep your Mac awake during the copy.
The Terminal.app command will look something like:
 sudo caffeinate rsync -vaE --progress /Volumes/SourceName /Volumes/DestinationName

rsync has the benefit of being able to resume failed or interrupted copies.
If the copy has already begun, run caffeinate with the flag -t <seconds> for a specific duration or -w <pid> for the life time of a specific process.


Two Identical Monitors Plugged in with USB-C

I've experienced this as well, and there are a few fixes that I've found.
Solution One
This fix involves involve running macros on startup. Here's a link to the "Keyboard Maestro" method which includes using a utility called displayplacer on github.
Solution Two
It's possible this is related to spaces/mission control behavior. One easy thing I would suggest is going into System Preferences -> Mission Control and uncheck "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use," assuming that is checked. This may solve your problem, maybe not.

Solution 3
I'm a bit dubious about this one, but it's easy and worth a shot. Basically, you need to remove the Caches folder in your User Library folder. You can try to do this with finder, but I suggest opening terminal and entering
sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/ColorSync
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches

And then restarting your computer. Please note that you may clear your user-specific caches with that second command, which include caches from other Applications and things like iCloud. These are caches, so you shouldn't experience any real data loss, but certainly be a bit cautious with this one.
I wish there was an easy fix. Hopefully the mission control solution works for you, but this seems like it's been a problem for several years.


Deleting photos on the phone - does it affect them on iCloud?

Whilst it does depend on where you delete the photo, it also depends on what you mean when you say 'iCloud'…

Here are three scenarios involving deleting photos on your iPhone, and the result of doing so:

Delete from Camera Roll

Deleting a photo from your camera roll only removes it from your camera roll. The photo is left intact on Photo Stream if it has already been uploaded. A photo not yet uploaded to Photo Stream will not be uploaded to Photo Stream after it has been deleted, even if partially uploaded.

However, deleting a photo from your camera roll, then using iCloud Backup, will delete the photo from your iCloud Backup. This means that the photo will not be restored if you restore a backup from iCloud. (If a photo does not exist on your iCloud Backup, and is deleted before it is uploaded, it will not be part of the next iCloud Backup).
Delete from Photo Stream

Deleting a photo from Photo Stream will only remove it from Photo Stream. It does not affect the photos in the camera roll, or even Shared Photo Streams - they keep a copy of the photo separately.

Since it does not affect the camera roll, it will not affect any iCloud Backups, both previous iCloud backups and future backups.
Delete from Shared Photo Stream

Deleting a photo from a Shared Photo Stream will only remove it from that Shared Photo Stream. It will not affect other Shared Photo Streams, the main Photo Stream, or your camera roll.

Since it does not affect the camera roll, it will not affect any iCloud Backups, both previous iCloud backups and future backups.


Can you run the latest MySQL security update on macOS 10.12 Sierra?

No one bothered to reply (except for the idiot that suggested "why not just try it out?" for an in service, online, production server) but for those of you who may come across my original post I can now confirm, after extensive in-house testing, that MySQL 5.7.24 does NOT work on macOS 10.12 Sierra. It will spawn too many files for its process and eventually die requiring a full restart of the whole computer - you can't just kill and restart MySQL. With no security updates available for older versions of MySQL, this now makes MySQL useless on anything but macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later. Thus, given the awful state of macOS Server, your days of running a decent macOS Server with MySQL are now numbered. Time to start testing alternate operating systems and switch…


How do I configure Screen Recording permission on macOS Catalina?

Starting with macOS Catalina, Apple has added a new Screen Recording permission to macOS that needs to be granted to every application that tries to record the screen, either for screen capture (saving a movie locally) or screen sharing (transmitting your screen to somewhere else).

Security & Privacy in System Preferences

You can manage permissions for Screen Recording in the System Preferences. However, it doesn't work quite how you would expect! By default the list is empty, as shown below. None of your installed applications are shown in the list, and there is no + button that you could use to add an app. You can't even drag an app into this list.

The Prompt

In order to get an app to show up in this list, you first need to launch the app and activate some functionality inside the app that depends on Screen Recording.

If you're using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, the fastest way to do this is by visiting screenapp.io (no affiliation, it just works well).
If you're using Safari, go to Google Hangouts, start a new Video Call, and click the three dots button ⋮ in the top right and then Share Screen.
If you are using the paid version of Slack:

Create a new private channel with only yourself as a member
Click the telephone icon
Press the "Share your screen" button in the call window

The first time you do this, you'll see a prompt to grant permissions like the one shown below. Make sure you choose "Open System Preferences" because you'll only be asked once.

If you accidentally click Deny, you'll have to reset your privacy settings for Screen Recording.

Grant the Permission

After clicking "Open System Preferences" you'll be taken right to the Screen Recording section of the Privacy settings. Just click the checkbox beside the app you're trying to use.

But you're not quite done yet! Once you grant the permission, you must quit the application before you can start screen recording. Even though it's quite annoying when you're trying to start a meeting, there's no way around this.

Do it for your other apps now

Because macOS Catalina forces you to quit every app you want to use before you can really use it, I suggest granting permission to as many apps as you can think of now before you really need them. This will save quite a headache when you're trying to share your screen for in a meeting. At a bare minimum, make sure to add Safari and your other browsers (eg. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome).


This isn't really an answer right now, it's a selection of possibilities which need testing &/or confirmation they've been tried & failed.

While there was still an old OS on the machine,  Cmd ⌘   R   should have run Recovery which would give you the opportunity to re-install the current OS, providing you could supply the Apple ID credentials initially used to 'purchase' the OS on that machine. Otherwise you would get the 'not available right now' issue.

This is where the paradigm differs from MS Windows. With Windows the OS belongs to the machine & you have to ring MS to move it to another, but not to reinstall on the same machine. With Apple the OS [& many apps work this way too] is owned by the person & can be freely moved or re-used, but not transferred to another owner.

Assuming the machine has at some point in the past had the necessary firmware update [that machine was first released  right on the cusp of this technology] then if either the Recovery partition fails [or has been erased] or you hit  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   R  at boot, then it will go into Internet Recovery mode rather than local.
This will allow you, without any Apple ID sign in, to download & install the OS that was first shipped with the machine - in this case 10.6.6.
From there it would be a two-step process to update to Sierra, as you would first need to instal El Capitan.

A third alternative is to boot from the original CD/DVD - hold  C  at the boot chimes which will launch an older version of the setup process.

Your last alternative, as you suspected, is to take it to an Apple Store, who will do it for you.


Finder.app won't open after I edited Info.plist

I would boot to internet recovery or another OS and reinstall finder by reinstalling the OS. That leaves all your apps and files intact and fixes whatever problems finder had.

I have fast network, usually have both the internet recovery image and the OS cached on my Mac mini that runs caching server (or Mojave cache service), so the operation takes 5 minutes instead of 25 that is typical on fast networks.


I solved the problem by resetting the settings.


MacBook App Store not downloading or updating apps

A common solution is retry the operation in Safe mode.


looking for external speaker to amplify my Macbook pro 13" mid 2012

Yes. Apple hardware and macOS support USB audio out of the box. Plug in amplified or non-amplified devices that fit your room and sound preference and enjoy. USB is digital out so may be better than analog audio out connectors or Bluetooth or AirPlay sounds.
Search for USB Computer Speakers online. If you are totally lost, start with a brand like Logitech and buy from them direct if you’re worried about return policies, counterfeit goods or incompatibility.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-S150-Speakers-Digital-Sound/dp/B000ZH98LU


The Casing & Protective Layer for iPhone 4 is Free, or Is It?

The free case program is no longer automatic, and it was never done in-store. You had to download an app to request your free case. (That was their way to make sure only one case was requested per-phone.) I'm also not sure if it was ever valid outside the United States.

To get the free case now, you have to call Apple support and complain about phone signal issues. You also have to ask them directly for a free case.

I have no idea if the same deal applies in Malaysia, but this isn't a case of the store trying to cheat you. They never gave away cases in-store.


ECG availability depends on where you live.
Apple has a list at https://www.apple.com/lae/watchos/feature-availability/#branded-ecg


Mac refuses to sleep: Reset PreventSystemSleep?

From your sleep assertions, it appears you have Internet Sharing enabled. Try disabling it via  → System Preferences → Sharing → Internet Sharing.


iOS: Advantage of fresh install over backup restore?

This is Alex from Reincubate, I work on the iPhone Backup Extractor.

Setting up your iPhone from scratch will mean that you lose your personalized settings, while restoring from previous backup will revert the settings to the moment of the backup. If you have nothing against taking it all over again with your iPhone you should set as new, but if you are in a hurry and want to speed the process up restore from backup.

Hope it helps.


My iPad had the same problem in November.  The only way I was able to fix it was to delete the most resent iCloud backup(s) from/for the troubled device until it I could complete a manual iCloud back.  As a precaution create a local back up on your computer before deleting iCloud backups(s).


Viewing Google Chrome (v69+) Cache on macOS?

Both chrome://cache and chrome://view-http-cache have been removed starting chrome 66.
You can find them in
~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/Default

All you Chrome activity is saved here chrome://chrome-urls/. I just visited Imgur to test and open a image and found this in the chrome://history/.
When you click on it it opens it:

It supposedly keeps the history for 90 Days, but have not tested that.


Mac won't open the website 192.168.1.1 (MacOS Big Sur)

You’ve got quite a catch-22 if you want the network to work before you can connect to your network. Big Sur is well tested with private non-routable networks like 192.168.X.X and since they are non-routable, you really need to get into the specifics of the local network to solve these.

You’ll need access to the router to examine and configure or change or (or access to a person that can do that for you)
You’ll need to learn a bit about routers and netmasks if the DHCP setup doesn’t work or your local and non-reputable network isn’t flat with all the machines in the same small address pool.

What are your options to manage this network or get help? Since none of that detail is on your question, we’re not going to be of any use solving your network remotely. Especially if this network has a captive portal, you may be stuck if you don’t try to open this site in your browsers one by one.

http://captive.apple.com


Can you reinstall OS X on a FileVault 2-encrypted drive?

If you don't care about the data, it's pretty standard (almost doesn't quality as "cli-fu" even); from Recovery HD, you can do it all in Terminal (Utilities > Terminal)

First, do a diskutil cs list to see the CoreStorage information on the volume. Grab the longish UUID of the Logical Volume Group you want to nuke (typically near the top of the output; scroll up). Now, diskutil cs delete UUID (where UUID is the LVG's UUID). Requires no knowledge of the key or an authorized user. Just blows the volume away.

Again, if you don't care about the data. A completely legitimate example of this is a laptop my predecessor used to test FileVault 2. Didn't use an Institutional key or a local one he left where anybody could find it, and his account was the only authorized user.


Update iPhones over the air with private server

You can run the Caching service, part of server.app. The Caching service supports OTA updates for iOS 7 and later. All you need to do is enable the service in Server.app. Devices do not need to be part of MDM supervision.

  macOS and iOS devices automatically access the available caching service on the network they’re currently connected to

You can find Apple's documentation of the Caching service at:

https://help.apple.com/serverapp/mac/#/apd74DDE89F-08D2-4E0A-A5CD-155E345EFB83


Why does my Macbook Air get so hot when playing even a simple game?

Although the games may not be graphically intensive, they may still be intensive on the CPU, and it is likely the CPU temperature you are seeing rise.

A way to check this would be to use Activity Monitor.app while playing a game to check out the CPU usage. Or if you are comfortable and able, SSH into the Mac while playing the game and using the top command to check.


App Store notifications regarding price drops?

You can do it via the web site AppShopper. Sign up for a free account to get started.

While it can't read your Apple wish list, you can create a wish list on that site and it will notify you of price drops of your wish list items via email. It will also email you about updates for your wish list and your "My Apps" list. Personally I don't keep any apps in "My Apps" list, since Apple updates them for me every night on all of my devices.

I have no professional affiliation with this web site. I'm just a satisfied user.

Note: Checking "Notify me of price drops by E-mail" and unchecking "Share My Wishlist" on the Wish List page of AppShopper didn't seem to be "remembered" by the site (perhaps due to my browser settings), but it does work on the My Profile page.


How to compress multiple folders into multiple zip files

In your case you can combine two loops to accomplish this
cd YEAR
for month in */; do
    (cd "$month";  for i in */; do zip -r "${i%/}.zip" "$i"; done)
done

PS: If MONTH folders can be empty you need to check for this in the inner loop.


Sound Output from GarageBand (on iPad) using Bluetooth

As far as i know, theres no bluetooth option in Garageband for iPad.


The Apple installer does not erase the disk unless you tell it to - that involves opening Disk Utility. So your files are fairly likely to still be there in the Users folder, just under your old user name.

However, you said "She used the installation CD" - you have old hardware running OS X.6 (Snow Leopard) or earlier? those versions DID have an "erase and install" option.

Of course, the easiest way is to simply recover the files from yesterday's backup that you of course have on an external drive.


I seem to have been able to figure this one out. In VirtualBox, select Devices/Network Adapters, and change Attached to from NAT to Bridged Adapter:

Click OK. Finally, reboot Windows and cold-restart the iPod.

This has fixed it for me.


The Mac hardware stores the boot volume in NVRAM so you could power off the computer and then reset things by holding the Command Option P R keys down.

Once you've heard two boot chimes you can release things and if the Mac OS X volume is viable it will boot first. If that doesn't work then it's likely that the OS X volume has issues and the system is failing to boot there and falling back to the second viable OS - Windows.

You might be able to see that in the console if you boot verbose or single user mode.

The official fix at that point would be to boot into Recovery and then see about repairing or reinstalling OS X.

OS X: About OS X Recovery - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718


Which apps are shown in launchpad? (how to flag them?) - Mavericks

Move the application out of the applications folder, restart launchpad (either log out/log in or in terminal write killall Dock). Then move back the application to the applications folder.


MS Word 2011 forces wrong keyboard change

Tom in the comments here was getting to it. Too bad John Korchok was quicker in replying over at the forum. He suggested this:

  That means there is one last thing you can try. Please open Applications>Microsoft Office 2011>Additional Tools>Microsoft Language Register and open Microsoft Language Register. Check that the dropdown is set to English, then OK out and test Word once more.

And I commented on it with this:

  Yep, that was it. Changed Japanese to English, and the keyboard change vanished. But the Phonetic Guide option also vanished… is there any way to have both no keyboard change and the Phonetic Guide? Because if I ever find myself typing Japanese, I might need that phonetic guide… Of course, if that ever happens, I can just reopen the register, but if there was a way of keeping the option even with the register saying English it would be great.

That was 2 secs ago so he hasn't had time to reply to the "would be great" part just yet :).


Can a family member use my iPhone, or does Touch ID lock them out on the iPhone SE?

You can use your device without enabling TouchID/FaceID.

iPhones (and iPads) are designed for a single user. iOS is unfortunately not multiuser.

With TouchID, you could train one finger for each person allowed to use the phone, but since there's no concept of separate people, all you'll do is make TouchID less reliable for everyone.

If the phone will only be used at home, just don't enable TouchID and be careful not to store any financial or private information on the phone.


Can my retina MacBook Pro SSD drive go to sleep?

As to what I'm aware, an SSD does not classify as a hard disk, therefore it will not go to sleep as part of this option. (I'm not even sure you can make them go to sleep to begin with.)

Using a laptop with an internal SSD as its only form or storage will make this setting of no use. However if there is say an external HDD plugged in, it will abide to this setting.

But back on topic, an SSD will not obey this setting.


Mine took about 3 days. The entire thing has been a bit of a shambles to be honest. I'd give them another couple of days then just get in touch with them.


Is there a tabbed PDF reader for Mac OS X?

Two years later, I may have found something. There is now an app on the Mac App Store called PDF Reader X. It's free, has tabs and supports annotation!


How to forward local DNS queries to a VM when macOS is in offline mode?

In disconnected mode there is no DNS query going at all... We solved this by adding a TUN/TAP device to the macOS node and 'pretend' with this that it is connected.


MacBook locked or with virus? (Apple.pass@post.com)

It appears that someone did get ahold of your iCloud account and locked your Mac using Find My iPhone. Usually, you will receive an email if an unknown device logs into your iCloud account, so I would check there to see if any suspicious login attempts were made.

Unfortunately, the only way to unlock your Mac is to know the password that was used to lock it on Find My iPhone. For now, I suggest that you change your iCloud password. You can take your Mac to a local Apple store or Apple Authorized Service Provider, who may be able to unlock your Mac.

My guess is that Apple.pass@post.com is run by some sort of scam service. Looking online, it seems that other people have encountered this attack, and have been asked to pay a ransom to get access to their Mac. I still suggest you take your device to an Apple store and explain your situation before paying the owners of this account.


Where can I find unsaved Preview images?

Look at /Users/(your user)/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Autosave Information/
That's where mine are right now.


Here is a possible solution. It is not as convenient as the “Settings > General > About > Applications” list (which does not exist anymore), but allows to determine all 32-bit (or otherwise incompatible) apps without launching all installed apps and check if they crash:

Open the “App Store” app and tap on the user profile icon:

Select “Purchased”:

Scroll through the app list. The incompatible ones have a grayed-out “Open” button:


If you are in the US or Canada, you can call 1-800-MY-APPLE to order Snow Leopard directly from Apple telesales. It should only be $20, a discount from the original $30 price.

This will only work if you have an Intel Mac, of course.


In cases where there is not a visible shortcut, it is based on the title of next item. If you type the first few letters of the title of the menu, it will be selected. So if I wanted to select "Introduce Parameter" in your example above, I could quickly type I N T or I N T R to select it. My guess is that the case of "Extract" above, it is taking you to the next unique case alphabetically - you have three "Extract " listings and the next unique letter, alphabetically is "Extract *C*lass." If you wanted to select the previous entry, I think you'd be stuck with typing E X T T R A C T  I

You can select Finder items on the Desktop, or in folders, in a similar manner. If I want to select a file called "my stuff", I can start typing M or M Y instead of single-clicking the file itself.


After reboot system time changed and menu bar items changed position

Menu bar icons can be repositioned by dragging them left and right with the Cmd pressed.


What does "main screen" actually refer to, in battery usage?

From https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/#ios:

  Home & Lock Screen. This indicates that the Home screen or Lock screen
  was displayed on your device. For example, the display was awakened by
  pressing the Home button or by a notification.

  If an app frequently wakes your display with notifications, you can turn off push notifications for the app in Settings > Notifications.
  Tap App and set Allow Notifications to Off.


How can I share a single page of the pdf or other documents in iOS?

The trick with "Print" on iOS

On opened document click Share -> Print
In Printer Options select Range and choose pages you need to share
Now you need to scroll pages carousel to the chosen pages (this part is most annoying when you have 10+ pages, and the hell for 100+)
Pinch out one of the chosen pages (you can't pinch unchosen pages, this is why you should scroll to the first chosen one)
You will see another preview screen with only chosen pages with the Share button
Now you can share these pages wherever you want

pros: shares one or multiple pages in original quality
cons: pretty tricky for big documents


Why does a jailbroken iPhone always ask to restart Springboard after installing a new app?

It doesn't always - only when the new app directly affects the interface. So when you install command-line only functionality there is no need to respring - at the other end of the scale you would also need to respring every time you change a theme in, say, winterboard, even though you are not installing a new app.

The reason for this behaviour at both ends of this spectrum is that none of the jailbreak 'tweaks' can affect the springboard while it's running - they have to change the filed copy and then restart with a new version of springboard...


Solved myself,
here are the steps :-

locate vim | grep php
turn up is this file /usr/share/vim/vim73/syntax/php.vim
sudo mv /usr/share/vim/vim73/syntax/php.vim /usr/share/vim/vim73/autoload/phpcomplete.vim.orig as backup
download latest php vim file from http://www.vim.org
untar the tarball
copy the php.vim to /usr/share/vim/vim73/syntax/php.vim


Adding custom buttons to the Touch Bar without external apps

You can use Automator Quick Action to open Finder or iTerm2 and add them into the Touch Bar. Unfortunately you can't add some widget without third app...

Exemple of quick action use :

open Automator and chose Quick Action

Choose Run AppleScript

Write the script code and add it to the action, something like tell application "Finder" to open folder "Documents" of home (you can also choose a color and an image)

Save the Automator document. When prompted, enter a name for the service.
The Quick Action button should appear in the Touch Bar after adding the Quick Action button (see below)

From Apple support :

Use Quick Action workflows on Mac

If you have a workflow you use frequently—for example, adding a watermark to large sets of images—and you want to make it easy to get to, you can create a Quick Action workflow. It is then available from Finder windows, the Services menu, or the Touch Bar (on a Mac with a Touch Bar).

Create a Quick Action workflow

In the Automator app on your Mac, choose File > New.
Select Quick Action.
Specify any of the following:

Workflow receives current: The type of data used as input to the workflow. If you choose Automatic, Automator guesses the type of input you want to use in your workflow.
Note: Only Quick Actions that receive files as input are available in Finder windows.
Application: The app or apps you want to use to process your workflow. Each app must be open for the workflow to be available.
Input is: If the workflow receives input from URLs, addresses, phone numbers, dates, or email addresses, you can specify different input options.
Output replaces selected text: When the workflow receives input from Text or Rich Text, you can specify that the output replaces the selected text.
Image: An image for your Quick Action. You can select an image on your Mac or choose an image from the menu.
Color: A color for your Quick Action (visible in the Touch Bar only).

Click Choose.
Add actions to your workflow.
To save your workflow, choose File > Save.

After you create a Quick Action, it automatically appears in the Action pop-up menu at the top of a Finder window, at the bottom of the Finder window preview pane in Column or Gallery view, and in the Services menu. You can also access Quick Actions in the Touch Bar by adding a Quick Actions button.

Add the Quick Actions button to the Touch Bar

To access Quick Actions from the Touch Bar, you must add the Quick Actions button. You only have to do this once.

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Extensions.
On the left, click Touch Bar.
Click Customize Control Strip.
Drag the Quick Actions button to the bottom of the screen until it appears in the Touch Bar.

Click Done.


How to train iOS 8 spellcheck for acronyms?

You can manually add them by using the keyboard shortcuts feature.

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts then add as many as you want.

It may be a little tedious at the beginning but the settings will stay there forever.


How can I convert obsolete word processor files and preserve formatting?

for WordPerfect documents, you can also try to use OpenOffice, LibreOffice, NeoOffice (...), libwpd filter (see http://libwpd.sourceforge.net/features.html ) will then be used to convert the document in odt format.

For WriteNow files, the best solution is probably using an emulator. If you have access to a 64 bit Intel Mac with OsX 10.6 ( or 10.7), you can also find on http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmwaw/files/ a precompilated version of a WriteNow filter to odt : mwawOSX.zip ; ie I tried to write a small filter to convert WriteNow files, it works "well enough" on the few WriteNow files that I had found, so maybe it can work also for your files ( or maybe not :-~ ).


How do I disable text antialias (font smoothing) in Terminal and globally for all apps?

defaults write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0 should just disable subpixel rendering, like unchecking  "Use LCD font smoothing when available" from the General preference pane. It only has effect after you quit and reopen applications.

Terminal does allow disabling antialiasing for some fonts like Monaco, but not for others like Menlo:

iTerm 2 allows disabling anti-aliasing for all fonts.

The "Turn off text smoothing for font sizes ... and smaller" setting has always affected only a small part of all UI elements. On my 10.8 VM, it affects text views in TextEdit, web views in Safari, and the names of files in Finder. The setting was removed from System Preferences in 10.9. defaults write -g AppleSmoothFixedFontsSizeThreshold -int still works in 10.9, but it affects an even smaller subset of all UI elements.

If you think text looks too blurry or bold by default, you can change to a lighter text rendering style by running defaults write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 1 and quitting and reopening applications. It doesn't disable antialiasing or subpixel rendering though.


Will Home Sharing work without a running iTunes instance?

No. Home Sharing uses mDNS (Bonjour) to advertise. Without a running iTunes instance for the share, it won't be available. Your NAS may have a DNLA server built-in which could make the iTunes library on it available though.


icloud said it will not let me in for security purposes

Only Apple can help. If https://iforgot.apple.com is no help, you'll have to ring them


vsftpd needs to be in your PATH

If it's not in your PATH, it will not run nor will you be able to find it with the which command.

You can add it two ways:

Append your PATH to include the directory /usr/local/Cellar/vsftpd/3.0.3/sbin
Make a symlink to vstpd in your /usr/local/bin directory

I would choose the second option as you have less items to modify (.bash_profile for example):

sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/vsftpd/3.0.3/sbin/vsftpd /usr/local/bin/vsftpd

That said...I wouldn't be using an insecure protocol like FTP to transfer files - scp is a much better option.  See this blog for details


No :(

The list of Apple wallpapers in Settings → Wallpapers & Brightness → Choose Wallpaper → Apple Wallpaper → Dynamic or Stills is not customisable by the user, without jailbreaking.

If you want a separate list of wallpapers, you can create an album in the Photos app, add your wallpapers to that album, then open that wallpaper in the Choose Wallpaper → Photos list.


Audio shifting balance to right headphone (MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014 - El Capitan)

In your question you state:  I've reset the SMC (actually I have no way to know if it worked as the green light in the power plug did not flash?)

So, just to be sure you've used the correct procedure for your particular MacBook Pro (i.e. one with a built-in battery you can't remove), the steps for resetting the SMC are:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Hope this helps.


How to get the Reset Password mac OS notification to disappear

I would try to disconnect and reconnect the Mac from your iCloud account and such services, to see if that stops the notification from showing up.


What is the technical term for the file-open capability of macOS programs?

In all instances, it's called "opening a file."  macOS (like other operating systems including Windows and Linux) support multiple methods of opening a file.

Drag and Drop is supported throughout the OS.  If you drag and drop a file onto another graphical element, it will (attempt to) open that file within the context of that element.  If it's a folder, Finder will open that folder to accept the file.  If it's an application, it will open that application with that file (as input).

Open With is just an alternative to the default action of "Open" in Finder which uses the file's default associated application.  This allows you to select from alternates registered with macOS or manually select an app.

A 3rd party app does the same thing by opening a file with it's associated default or alternate application.  There's no different method of opening files as already provided for by the OS.

The applications associated with different file types are registered in LaunchServices.  So a PDF might be associated with Preview or Adobe Acrobat Reader.  LaunchServices will have those relationships established within it's database.  This is how "Open With..." is populated with alternate apps.
From a command line perspective, this is how you can have a .doc or .docx file automatically be opened by Word, for example when typing
% open foobar.doc

But then, if you want to open it with Pages, you can issue the command
% open -a Pages foobar.doc

You can also launch the application and specify the file as a "command line argument" even for a file that's not even associated with an app (you wouldn't use a browser to view text files even though it is supported).
% /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox ~/Desktop/foobar.txt


How to make non-editable non-savable PDF into editable and savable?

Preview in Mountain Lion allows you to inform all the fields available in that form. If you need to actually remove fields, you can use Infix to convert it to a standard PDF.

I just tried on the link you gave and it worked perfectly.


Macbook is waking up from sleep while on wifi with iMac

Power Management is the culprit.

You should use the pmset command to see what power management has been doing.  In Terminal, the basic command is

pmset -g log

But that gives you all the power management events since last boot time.  You can reduce this with judicious use of grep.  I have used both of these (with similar results):

pmset -g log | grep -e "Wake from" -e "DarkWake" -e "due"
pmset -g log | egrep "\b(Sleep|Wake*|DarkWake|Start)\s{2,}"

Power Management has about 20 settings that can be changed by an admin user.  To view the settings (they will be different when on battery and power):

pmset -g

For my issue, which looks similar to yours, I changed the tcpkeepalive setting.  With this enabled (value = 1), the MacBook will frequently wake up due to network events.

To change turn off tcpkeepalive use the Terminal command:

sudo pmset -b tcpkeepalive 0

The -b is to set for when running on battery.

I have also tweaked a few other settings like standbydelayhigh, but this is purely tweaking.

This is based on my experience with a MacBook which would lose too much (I thought) battery whilst closed overnight.

You may find these two links helpful:
How to Fix macOS Mojave Battery Draining Issue and
man pmset.

Note that I have not changed hibernatemode from the default value of 3.  Many (including the linked article) discuss changing it to 25 which I do not recommend with recent (last 4 years) hardware and macOS version.


Any way to have Safari/Keychain autofill password on a single site with prompting on all sites?

I'm not sure if this workaround will suit you, but does the site in question offer a "Remember me" type option? If so, you could just manually log into that site and tick the 'remember me' option so that you don't need to log in again.

Assuming the above works for you, then you can keep using your password manager as you do now and also avoid enabling Safari's password autofill function. You can then keep this workaround in place until your password manager supports the site in question.


Stop Mavericks from opening apps on the second screen?

I'm used to connecting to conference room projectors or big-screens that vary in resolution, so as I move from room to room over the course of the day, my windows constantly have to be resized too. So I feel your pain. :-)

In order to avoid confusion, I want to define a couple terms for this answer:

The primary display is the one with the menubar in the Arrangement tab in System Preferences.
The main display is the one you want stuff on, whether or not it is the primary display.
The secondary display is the one without the menubar in the Arrangement tab in System Preferences.

Basically, the problem is that you see an important difference between the main and primary displays; Mac OS X does not, and it's going to fight you when you try to maintain this distinction by treating the secondary display as the main display.

Unless they specifically try to do otherwise, apps will always open on whatever the primary display is. That's definitionally one of the characteristics of the primary display. (It's a pretty low level part of the Quartz API, specifically the CGConfigureDisplayOrigin call, so this behavior is unconfigurable if the app itself doesn't let you configure it.)

I'd suggest maybe asking about the things that are making it annoying for you ("messes with other things" as you put it in your comment) to not keep your main display as the primary display when you connect, because those may be configurable; this behavior is not.

I do have a couple tricks for you that might help, though:

Mirroring and then un-mirroring displays causes all windows too large to fit on the smaller screen to be resized to fit and gets all the windows onto the primary display. It isn't the perfect solution, I know, since you want things on the secondary display, but it can be a useful workaround when combined with the next trick, especially if you know the keyboard shortcut: ⌘-F1. Press it, let the system switch to mirroring, and press it again. All your windows will be resized to the smallest display and will be on the primary display.

Another very useful tool for working around the issue is the BetterTouchTool, which lets you set "Center Window on Next Monitor" and "Maximize Window to Next Monitor" gestures. I assign these to four- and five-finger clicks, respectively, and then I can quickly pop a window from one monitor to the other just by mashing on the trackpad. (If you don't use a trackpad when you're connected to the big display, BTT can do gestures with other pointing devices, too.)

These two tricks together have made working with constantly-changing resolutions not perfect, but at least tolerable. If I want to get all my windows onto the secondary display (I'm giving a training session, say, and want the menubar to be visible to students but I want all my windows not related to the training to be on the other display), I do the mirror/unmirror trick and then four-finger-smack the trackpad a bunch of times until the windows are all popped over.

Finally, if you like to fiddle, you could take a look at this Applescript which moves all windows to primary via a different method. Unlike the mirroring method, which moves windows to primary as a side-effect, this one does it explicitly, so you could modify it to move windows to your preferred main, secondary, display. But it isn't easy, which may give you an idea of why everything's fighting you against this usage. Here's the crucial line of this Applescript:

set position of window x to {0, 22}

Since the menubar is 22 display coordinates (what used to be "pixels" before Retina displays) high, and screens and windows have their origin points at the top-left, this line moves window x right below and flush-left with the menubar. In order to adapt this script so it would instead move all windows to the upper-left of the secondary display, you'd need to figure out its coordinates, and use that as the x value. In the arrangement you show in your screenshot, the "0" there will be replaced by a negative number, since you're to the left of the menubar. It would take some fiddling to get right, especially if you wanted the script to work regardless of the arrangement.

This is all kludgey, I know; but you're going to have to accept kludges if you want your main display and primary displays to be different. That's why I'd really strongly recommend you try to address what's keeping you from letting the other display be primary rather than fighting this particular battle.


What permissions do I need to give for my server setup?

Apache is the process that needs to have appropriate permissions to access /var/www.  Apache is typically user _www of group _www on MacOS.  Verify this with:

 grep -e '^Group\|^User' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Two lines should be printed.  My output looks like:

User _www
Group _www

This means that on my system, Apache processes run as user _www with group _www. If you're using another configuration, check the appropriate config file for the same parameters and replace _www in the following solution if yours differs.

Change the group of /var/www with: chgrp -R _www /var/www
Change the permissions to add group write with: chmod -R 775 /var/www

That should fix the error.

As an extra step, you can change the ownership of /var/www to _www and then add yourself to that group to maintain your read and write privileges.


Your MYSQL instance that is running is here /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqld (the MAMP one) and here /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.20/bin/mysqld (the one installed using Brew).

Try:

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqladmin shutdown
/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.20/bin/mysqladmin shutdown

Then start the one you want to start. You also would want to check Library/LaunchDaemons/ for any launch scripts and use something like

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.mysql.plist

Update: Please list the output of following commands:
    ls /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ | grep mysql
    ls /Library/LaunchDaemons/ | grep mysql
    ls ~/Library/LaunchDaemons/ | grep mysql


Gmail App on iPhone 4S doesn't complete entire "Push" of email

No, it was designed that way.

The only notification are the badge and the sound.

But only Mail can push notify you and download the message in the background. For App Store app, you'll have to open them for the mail to be downloaded.


(SheepSaver error) Sorry, the desktop folder on the startup disk could not be created. Try unlocking the disk

I had a look at the SheepSaver Wrapper page you're using and think they've essentially been too clever by half. I followed it a few times and ran into various problems I then had to resolve myself.

If I was you, I would stick to the setup at emaculation instead.

However, if you're going through all this effort to try and play Swoop (as per your other question) I suggest it's just not worth the effort. Just my two cents worth.


Blue screen when attempting to reinstall Mavericks using USB

The first step is to make sure your MacBook is supported by Mavericks. Check this page here to make sure.

UPDATE

OK, having checked that it is supported by Mavericks but that it does not install from the USB, you have a few options. None of them is particularly straightforward, but here goes:

Burn a DVD and boot from that. This is probably going to have the same results as the USB drive, but it takes any USB-related issues out of the equation.
Boot into Internet Recovery mode (hold CMD+R, power on and keep CMD+R pressed until it starts to boot in recovery mode). Select the option to install the OS from there.
If both Macs have Firewire, put the MacBook into Target mode, connect the two machines, and run the installer on the MacBook Pro, specifying the MacBook's hard disk as the target for the installer. This will install OK, as long as the MacBook Pro is also supported by Mavericks.
Take the hard disk out of the MacBook and put it into the MacBook Pro. Install Mavericks on the MacBook Pro, then swap the hard disk back again. Once more - the MacBook Pro must be supported by Mavericks for this to work.

Good luck!


FTP not working on any FTP client not even with Mozilla or Chrome

The occurred due to my local wifi network. It was some how blocking ftp. Replacing the router solved my problem


On Macbook Pro, how to tell if my hard drive access speed is a bottleneck to my current computer performance?

With Yosemite, we're noticing an somewhat, but not totally, subjective slowdown to all aspects of the OS, despite the minimum 4 GB RAM.

At our school we are actively replacing any faculty member's MBP's internal HDD with a SSD if they complain of 'slowness' and they can demonstrate it concretely. This can be in the form of a slow startup; slow-loading apps; frequent SPODs; anything which gets in the way of teaching. Stock MBPs use slower 5400 RPM drives, which is where some of the problems originate. Even updating to a 7200 RPM drive can help alleviate the perceived slowness.

Granted, some of the slowness can be attributed to never restarting the MBP, ever; having the ENTIRE Office '11 suite of apps open at startup; few free GB on the HDD; and similar user issues, but we've found the complaints go away when the HDD is replaced with something faster.

The only complaint we get after the swap is that the SSD we offer is usually 1/2 the size (or less) of the stock HDD, forcing users to move their iTunes libraries onto external disks or actually cleaning out the cruft from the HDDs. To alleviate this, we put the removed HDD in an inexpensive USB external enclosure as part of the deal.

Go for the SSD upgrade. You won't look back.


Is it possible for an AppleScript .scpt file to retain a custom icon, even after edits have been made to the code?

Generally speaking, when a User assigns a custom icon to a file by copying and pasting an image file into the icon, in the top left corner, on the file's Get Info sheet, the image file is stored as a com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute of the file it's applied to, and can be seen in Terminal using ls -l@ filename.ext to show the file has extended attributes. To manipulate the extended attributes, use the xattr utility in Terminal. Note that the use of the term image file in this contact is any valid source copied on the Clipboard to then be pasted in the Get Info sheet.

Having to reapply the icon file after having saved the .scpt file in Script Debugger causes the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute to continue to grow in size, while possibly loosing access to the accumulated icon files, can't say for sure as I've not done enough testing. Unfortunately, while Script Editor keeps the custom icon file, nonetheless it appears to grow the size of the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute as well.

To reduce the size of file by removing specifically the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attributes,  use the following command syntax in Terminal:

xattr -d com.apple.ResourceFork filename.ext

Then reapply the custom icon to the file.

Have a look at the man page for xattr in Terminal by typing, xattr and then right-click on it selecting Open man Page from the context-menu.

The issue with Script Debugger resetting to the default icon will probably have to be taken up with the Developer, or use the workaround suggested in wch1zpink's answer.

Since the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute grows regardless of which of the apps you use, Script Editor or Script Debugger, this is an issue that Apple need to address.

I know you're using OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, however I tested this under macOS Sierra 10.12.5 and the behavior apparently being the same, it probably doesn't matter that I tested this in a later OS release. I was using Script Debugger 6.0.4.

Because of the repetitiveness of what you're doing, a scripted solution is in order here to reduce the effort necessary to maintain both a small file size, inclusive of it extended attributes, and the custom icon.

Update:

Having gone down a similar road, under OS X 10.8.5, with programmatically setting a file's icon, and having tested almost every solution presented under How can I change a file or folder icon using the Terminal, I chose to use setfileicon from this answer, as it worded the best for my needs at the time.

The following AppleScript code is example code that can programmatically delete the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute of the target file to reduce it accumulative size and reset the target file's icon. It is written around the use of the workaround suggested in wch1zpink's answer, referencing locking the file to keep the icon intact during a save under Script Debugger.

The main purpose of this example code is to show how to delete the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute of the target file and reset its custom icon programmatically. I've thrown in the code to unlock/lock the target file if you choose to use that method of keeping the icon intact between saves, if not it can be removed. I guess it just depends on how often to want to reset the size of the target file's com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute.

tell current application

    set theTargetFilename to "filename.scpt" as string
    set theHomeFolderPath to (path to home folder) as string
    set theScriptsFolder to (path to scripts folder) as string
    set theTargetFilePathname to theScriptsFolder & theTargetFilename as alias
    set theTargetIcon to quoted form of (POSIX path of (theHomeFolderPath & "bin:icon.icns") as string)
    set theTargetExecutable to quoted form of (POSIX path of (theHomeFolderPath & "bin:setfileicon") as string)

    tell application "Finder" to set locked of theTargetFilePathname to false
    do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.ResourceFork " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theTargetFilePathname) & "; exit 0"
    do shell script theTargetExecutable & " " & theTargetIcon & " " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theTargetFilePathname)
    tell application "Finder" to set locked of theTargetFilePathname to true

end tell

Notes:

For the purpose of this example code, I've placed the setfileicon command line utility and target icon.icns files in the bin folder within the root of my Home folder. The icon.icns file is the .icns file of the one linked in your question. You could use the PNG file, however I believe the .icns file produces a better image.

The script could be more hard coded and not as verbose, however I coded it this way for a few reasons of which I'm not going to get into the details of unless you need it explained. Feel free to utilize the example code to implement a working solution as needed/wanted in your environment.

This was tested this under macOS Sierra 10.12.5, however it should also work under OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.


Try this command. It should display what you want.

/usr/bin/dscl . -read /Users/username |
    egrep 'NFSHomeDirectory|RecordType' | tr '\n' ':' | cut -d':' -f2,5
/Users/username:Users


How to see progress of download started in the terminal

Another option is to install wget (e.g. with Homebrew), which has more user-friendly defaults than curl, including displaying an ASCII-art progress bar.

For example:

> brew install wget
> wget google.com
Saving to: 'index.html'
...
index.html                      [ <=>              ]  10.32K  --.-KB/s in 0.001s

2016-05-17 12:55:06 (8.08 MB/s) - 'index.html' saved [10563]


Can't read filenames in save dialog box. Names are too faint

The save dialog box will gray out files with extensions that differ from the file you're saving. The folders are not grayed out because you are allowed to change folders if you were to choose saving in them.
For example, if you had a folder full of .docx and .xlsx files while trying to save a .docx file all of the .xlsx files will be grayed out, but the .docx files will be their normal contrast.
Depending on the application, there may be a "File Extension" or a "Format" option at the bottom of the save dialog box where you can save as a different extension. In some cases (although becoming less common) this dialog box may have the option *.* that will allow you to select any extension. You've cropped out that part of your screenshots so I can't say exactly if this option exists in your case.


Moving individual Mailbox to external drive

Q: Do you want this archive to show up in mail, or just be available should you need it?

If you just want to store the messages "offline" but have them around if needed at a later date you can select the mailbox in Mail, then select Mailbox -> Export Mailbox... (make sure you select "Export all subfolders") and save the Archive. Then you can delete the mailbox from mail and pulpit back in when needed.


i had the same issue with the exact same name, its amusing by feels somewhat intrusive

I think i have fixed it by clicking the drop down menu by "Holidays in New Zealand" and clicking 'remove from previous recipients list'

hope this helps


Need to re-enroll 200-250 iPads worldwide, help?

You can only have 1 MDM profile installed at a time, so it will not allow you to re-enroll the devices if they are already enrolled (even if the original server is now defunct)

I cannot recall if you can remove the MDM profile from a supervised device, but I believe that you can.

The easiest way would be to probably send a link that can be opened in safari to re-enroll the devices as you mentioned above. You can always take the profile and host it at a different URI so no user account is needed, therefore you wouldn't need to worry about access at all.

Hope this helps a little.

Mike


Fine to keep macbook on power for unlimited time?

Technically no, there is no damage done to it. But it is still smart to let it unplug and fully drain the power to keep it in tip-top shape.


Can't access local Documents folder, only iCloud one

In Big Sur the real location of an iCloud Documents folder is within ~/Library/Mobile Documents. There you will also find folders for various apps that maintain their own iCloud folders. No matter where you view them from, various icons should appear by files (to the right in list & columns views) to indicate their iCloud status. The full explanation of those icons can be found on this Apple Support page. Here's a screenshot from it...


How do I add words to the OS X user dictionary?

Right click on the word and choose Spelling and Grammar from the list. Then select Show Spelling and Grammar.

You'll see the option to "learn" the word (see picture).

The learned words are stored in ~/Library/Spelling/. ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary applies to all languages and for example ~/Library/Spelling/en only applies to U.S. English. When you press the learn button, the word is added to ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary if the spelling language is set to automatic or to ~/Library/Spelling/en if the spelling language is set to U.S. English.

If you edit the files in ~/Library/Spelling/ directly, you can apply the changes by terminating the AppleSpell process. Just quitting and reopening applications does not apply the changes.


How does HealthKit calculate activeEnergyBurned and other variables?

Apple doesn't disclose the algorithms is uses to calculate these so you're going to need to reverse engineer it or hopefully find someone else who has reverse engineered it.

What is publicly known is that Apple has hired and contracted experts to make an entire team of research physiologists, cardiologists, dietitians, nurses as well as likely hundreds to thousands of people to workout with the Apple Watch and other sensors where they calibrate all sorts of measurements and correlate that data collection with metabolic carts (reportedly 50 in this gym alone). Also, this data collection has been going on since 2015 so I would expect Apple has revised the formula over time to make it better and better as they learn which types of activities and which body types and ages don't fit the last version of the algorithm.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608250/how-apples-ai-secretive-gym-is-shaping-its-activity-tracking-algorithms/
https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/09/01/apples-watch-oriented-fitness-lab-tops-66000-hours-of-data-10000-subjects
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/09/05/apple-fitness-lab
https://www.menshealth.com/technology-gear/a18923364/inside-apples-secret-performance-lab/

I would expect that Apple has severely restricted the code it uses as trade secrets as that high cost to invest in the team is clearly a competitive advantage for it to market and sell and satisfy people with good estimates of health activity. Perhaps they will disclose what you need, but I would guess you should just use the values Apple provides and build your app around the data stream Apple generates as opposed to compete with them unless your aim is to compete with Apple on generating better health data.

As a developer, you also should look into ResearchKit - https://www.apple.com/researchkit/ to get much more technical detail and API than the mainstream press (or even MIT's technology review) will cover in articles about Apple's efforts to make their health data accurate.


Trouble with Snow leopard VPN. Doesn't start at machine startup

Try

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.racoon.plist

This should start racoon and keep it running.


How could I mute all notifications in Microsoft Teams on macOS 10.15.6?

Open Teams preferences (⌘ + ,) and toggle notifications preview and sound:


How to get Facebook Messenger on my iPhone 3GS

iOS 7 isnt compatible with iPhone 3Gs.

You need to upgrade your phone.


Disk space not freed up after deleting files and emptying Trash

The answer relates to changes to Time Machine backups in Lion.

My understanding is that when a TM back up is attempted when the back up disk is not connected, a back up is made in /Volumes/MobileBackups.

These back ups do not go away the next time TM runs with the back up disk connected. I am not sure if the OS will eventually reclaim this space.

You can disable the local back ups by running one of the following commands (depending on your version of Mac OS):

sudo tmutil disable localsnapshot

# for older versions:
sudo tmutil disablelocal

After you run this command /Volumes/MobileBackups is deleted.

I'm sure there is a good reason for the local backups and I don't necessarily recommend disabling them, but they were - in combination with some large deleted folders - the cause of disk space appearing to be still in use.

You can re-enable mobile backups by running:

sudo tmutil enablelocal

More info here - http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars/18


How to make macOS open RAR archive in Terminal using unrar on double-click?

Launch Automator.app and create a new Application.

Add the "Run Shell Script" action. As unrar seems to be a command installed in /usr/local/bin/, set the Shell type to /bin/bash, and Pass input to as arguments.

You'll be given a free bit of shell code, which you can easily modify:

for f in "$@"
do
    /usr/local/bin/unrar x "$f"
done

Save the app. Then select a .rar file, choose File > Get Info, and change the default handler for that type to your new app.

Alternatively, there are plenty of third-party apps that unwrap rar and other archive types, such as TheUnarchiver.


Is there an iOS Camera App that shoots a photo every minute?

Look at stop motion apps, like Stop Motion Recorder, StopAnimator, Frameographer - Stop Motion & Time-Lapse, iMotion HD and so on.

You can get a variety of apps if you search for "stop motion" in the app store.


How can I change the private relay email used in Sign In With Apple?

You can’t change their email addresses short of issuing a new app with a new developer ID. This is documented by Apple.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sign_in_with_apple/sign_in_with_apple_js/communicating_using_the_private_email_relay_service

Private relay email addresses have the following characteristics:

They end in @privaterelay.appleid.com.
They route emails to one of the Apple ID’s verified email addresses.
They’re the same for a user across all apps written by a single development team, and different for the same user across apps written
by different development teams.
They’re active whether or not the user is signed into a device, and whether or not your app is installed on the device. You may send and
receive email to the private email address at any time.

After the user has shared a private relay email address with your app,
they can find, view, and manage it in their account settings at
Settings > Apple ID > Password & Security > Apps Using Your Apple ID.


OmniDiskSweeper may not be running with administrator privileges and it cannot access all folders, therefore it is not counting everything.

The command du -x -sk /* in Terminal may give you a better/correct result.


warranty repair with activation lock activated

If they replace the motherboard then you will need to add new apple account (activation lock will be turned off). But if they repair your phone you will need to enter your id & password.


Trackpad malfunction after last macOS update (Sierra 10.12.3)

My unrecognized trackpad and keyboard issue fixed after cleaning up desktop. A file was corrupting the start up process.


How do I choose a default 802.1x profile for ethernet? (eduroam)

Found a solution by removing the WiFi profile from the Wired config file.

Location: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

For me the file was: com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration

Basically it's an XML file that has, for me, the two profiles for the wired connection (this would also work if you're trying to edit the wifi, as that's in the com.apple.airport.preferences.plist). The name of the profile is at the bottom of the data set, so Wifi was the 2nd one for me. I used <!-- Put your code inside these --> to comment the lower part out and the list now only contains the Wired profile.

The section looks like this when you're done:

<!-- <key>NUMBERS-LETTERS-ETC-ETC</key>
    <dict>
        <key>AuthenticationProperties</key>
        <dict> ... lots of stuff ...
              <string>Wi-Fi (eduroam)</string>
               ... more stuff ...
              <key>SecurityType</key>
              <string>WPA</string>
        </dict>
    </dict> -->

Save the file and close any System Preferences windows you have open.

Now this is what is in your new System Preferences > Network, no choices but the one that you want. Viola! Make sure you automatically connect and you're done.


Python with Catalina : No module named 'OpenGL'

You need a python library, not the system framework.
The standard OpenGL python library is PyOpenGL. However, that seems to be different from the library requested by the code.
If you installed PyQtGraph correctly, that should install everything you need.


File selector list not starting at the top

Do you have any third party software installed that messes with the finder dialogs? Default Folder, Boomarang, etc.

When in doubt:

Quit all applications.
Cycle power on the computer.
Repair permissions and repair the disk.
Delete preferences for that application.


How are edited photos stored in new Apple photos app?

For Photos.app, don't consider the edits necessarily edits. While looking through the file architecture one day, I found that what they're doing is storing the original and simply adding layers of "edits" which are much more like layers of removable filters.

The original stays 100% in tact until you export it to a separate file where Photos will process those layers into an image.

The only way you would lose originals and be stuck with the edited versions is if you specifically, in this order:

exported your edited version
deleted the photo from Photos.app
deleted your Photos.app Trash
put the exported version back (technically for the first time) into Photos.app.


How can I activate a 2nd hand iPhone 3gs without a computer?

If it's just for activation, using any computer with iTunes installed will do.


Internal IMAP server - Lion behind firewall

This is a very common setup. In general, never use .private and .local since you end up (eventually) in a world of hurt and doing it "right" isn't that hard.

Basically, you will tell the world that your mail server resides on the public IP address (or set up it's own real routable internet IP address and have the Proxy/Firewall forward traffic to the internal fixed IP 10.1.1.20)

Then, you will add two zones to your internal DNS so that all queries for mail.whatever.com resolve to 10.1.1.20 and a reverse zone resolves the IP to the name.

This way your clients will get the right address when on the local LAN or VPN in, but can still access the server from the public internet when DNS gives the public address.

Also look out for your server certificates. Most people issue certificates for the public IP address and have a profile to allow internal clients to trust a self-signed cert for when they hit the server locally.

There are no silver bullets here - the choice you make to have a more complicated routing will complicate your SSL and other server setup steps, but this is a common situation for people deploying lion server so I've seen it work well in most cases.


It sounds like you have a couple of options to try.

Approach one: First, backup your wife's iPhone 3 in iTunes. Then plug your iPhone 4 into iTunes and on the initial screen for your device select Restore. Select her most recent backup. This should put all her settings as well as apps on your phone. After this you can change settings to suit you best

Approach two: Turn on iCloud on your wife's phone, and plug it in and lock it. After it is backed up. Wipe your phone (Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings Warning this will completely delete everything off of your phone!!). Then, when you boot it up, click restore from iCloud and sign in to your Apple ID there.

It is important to note that all her settings (including email, etc.) will be synced in either of these methods. You can obviously change that after the restore, but both methods should provide all the apps and such. I'm not familiar with how it would work having two iPhones with the same Apple ID in the long run so there may be other bumps down the road with this process.

Depending on where songs were bought, you may, with her phone plugged in, have to select File > Transfer Purchases from "her name's" iPhone. It will prompt you to login with your Apple ID, and should transfer the music to the computer. From there, you should be able to just copy the music onto your phone. Otherwise select the Music tab with your iPhone 4 plugged in and select the music you would like to sync to your phone.


You should create a 'Multi-Output Device' instead of 'Aggregate'.

You cannot control the volume with system control anyway. You could adjust volume in 'Audio MIDI Setup'.


2/3 of iPod 6 display is transparent gray

Take a screenshot [home & power buttons] & view it on another device.

If it's hardware, the issue won't be on the screenshot.


How can I send smtp mail via gmail and osx Lion mailx?

One way to fix this is to install the official server app in order to re-enable this feature.  You don't have to setup a mail server through the app.  Just installing it will allow use of mailx through the command line.

In the past, you had to buy and install OS X server as a separate product and now it's available from the App Store and gets installed on top of the normal OS.


Empirically, it seems that the 3 items in
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/
are updated as a Note is changed, whereas those in
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/
are only updated periodically [I cannot find how to trigger those to update, I thought making a new Note may do it, but it appears not.]

My research was actually aided by my old faithful - EasyFind (freeware, no affiliation) - which I set hunting for a keyword in one of my existing Notes. It took quite some time, but found it in the end.