Why do Mac OS X ramdisks appear to be limited to 550mb and how can I change this?

Here is the one-liner I found to create a ramdisk:

diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "ramdisk" `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://1165430`

It is actually two commands; if you run them individually, you get:

$ hdiutil attach -nomount ram://1165430
/dev/disk4

$ diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "ramdisk" /dev/disk4
Started erase on disk4
Unmounting disk
Erasing
Initialized /dev/rdisk4 as a 569 MB HFS Plus volume
Mounting disk
Finished erase on disk4 ramdisk

The first command creates a block storage device in RAM, and the second command formats it with the standard OS X filesystem.

If you run df to see how much free space is on your disks, you'll get:

$ df
Filesystem                        512-blocks      Used Available Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       974509344 435640768 538356576    45%    /
....
/dev/disk4                           1165424     27376   1138048     3%    /Volumes/ramdisk

Note how it shows that the RAM Disk is using 1165424 '512-blocks' (which, if you run df -h, for human readable output, you'll see is '569 Mi').

So, the answer is, change the number you specify in the first command, which specified how large the disk is in 512 byte blocks.  If you want 1.5 GB (or, perhaps I should say 'GiB', go as follows:

           1024 MiB   1024 KiB   1024 bytes    1 block
 1.5 GiB * -------- * -------- * ---------- * ---------   = 3145728 blocks
             GiB        MiB         KiB       512 bytes

To verify, I'll run the following commands:

$ hdiutil eject /Volumes/ramdisk/

$ diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "ramdisk" `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://3145728`
Started erase on disk4
Unmounting disk
Erasing
Initialized /dev/rdisk4 as a 2 GB HFS Plus volume
Mounting disk
Finished erase on disk4 ramdisk

$ df
Filesystem                        512-blocks      Used Available Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       974509344 435460472 538536872    45%    /
...
/dev/disk4                           3145728     24696   3121032     1%    /Volumes/ramdisk

$ df -h
Filesystem                          Size   Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk4                         1.5Gi   12Mi  1.5Gi     1%    /Volumes/ramdisk

It sounds like previously you could only create a RAM disk up to 2.1 GiB, but that is not the case in Snow Leopard and newer.

Also, there are tools to help create RAM disks without calculating blocks yourself.  I haven't used them, but here are three: TmpDisk, Make Ram Disk, and crd.


Can I force finder to open without loading previous files?

Try deleting the savedState directory:

rm -r ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.finder.savedState/

When I tried running killall -kill Finder, that worked, but open -Fa Finder or command-clicking Finder's Dock icon didn't.

You could also try to:

Disable ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Finder.plist by temporarily moving it somewhere else.
Cause a kernel panic with sudo dtrace -w -n 'BEGIN{panic();}'. There is normally an option to disable restoring state after kernel panics.
Temporarily unload the launchd agent with launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.Finder.plist. There is normally a dialog about restoring state after crashes, but maybe it's not shown if the program is opened by launchd.


It's possible your Mac doesn't support audio over Mini Display Port:

These Apple computers supply multichannel audio (up to 8 channels) and video signals over Mini DisplayPort:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012 and later) 1
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)1
Mac mini (Mid 2010 and later)1
Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
MacBook (Mid 2010 and later)
MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 and later)
MacBook Air (Late 2010 and later)
iMac (Late 2009 and later)

Also, have a read of this question:
Does this Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector output audio?


Whenever I kill Chrome via Force Quit under the Apple symbol on the left corner, it does reopen the chrome pages for me. Although you have to ensure to select the option under Chrome preferences:

Now for the unresponsive Chrome, I would suggest

first trying to check under Google Chrome's own Task Manager as to what processes are still running and which one's are taking in more memory. Trying killing any memory hogging processes from there initially

Also checkout the list of Extensions to ensure none of those are causing Chrome to fail. Would be better to run chrome in Incognito mode for a while to troubleshoot this as most extensions should not be running in Incognito mode unless that option is explicitly enabled.
Finally, my personal learning for Chrome browser is that I am better off not keeping them open across days of personal session on laptops. It's better to use fewer tabs and close them as you are done with it, then trying to keep those tabs open for longer. I found the laptop is more responsive and my work happens faster that way rather than trying to fight with an open tab that's been in process for days on end and is starting to hog more RAM.


I don’t have a lot of Windows Expertise, but I assume that uninstalling Safari (and iTunes) and try installing them from scratch (after a nice reboot), might fix it.


how to install inkscape in Mac OS X 10.9.1

You need an X.Org application. It will automatically launch when you start Inkscape. Apple used to ship one called X11.app.  Now your best bet is XQuartz.


Apple Watch contact names missing after watchOS 3 update

This answer's a bit late, but I finally figured out the issue.

Your Apple Watch's contact list is most likely out of sync with your iPhone.

Try checking your Apple Watch's contact list though the phone app. If it looks like some contacts are missing, it's likely that the contact list isn't synced properly.

The easiest way to manually re-sync your contact list is to create a dummy contact "AAAAA" on your iPhone. Once it's been resynced, all your contacts should start displaying properly again.


Apple does not sell the 1st Generation iPad Mini any more, but they generally have stock for this purpose.

You may get a refurbished iPad that matches the specs and color of your iPad Mini or you may get the screen replaced on your iPad.


What software can I use to mirror my MIDI keyboard controller on-screen?

Based on this thread which talks about looking for "a piano keyboard app that would display the keys and also animate (push down) on the keys I play with my MIDI keyboard.", it seems like an app called MidiKeys would do it.

The page in that link says "There is also an option to select a MIDI source and see incoming notes played on the keyboard.", and that sounds like what you're describing.

It also says "requires 10.5 to run", which probably means 10.5 or above, but it's possible that it means its only guaranteed to work on 10.5.


I don't think Mail has changed too much from 10.6.8 to now, but you should take my advice with caution, since I don't have the old system at hand.

Before starting this process, quit Mail. Any time you want to do a new test or reset to the existing state, quit Mail -- don't go copying or restoring things while Mail is running.

Now, copy your ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Mail directory to a safe backup location. Also copy ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. That should enable you to revert to the current status if something you try goes south.

I'm not sure what the ~/Mail directory is (I'm pretty sure I never had that in 10.6.8), but make a backup copy of it too.  It might be worth comparing that to ~/Library/Mail, especially the timestamps; if you're like me, it's likely an old copy.

Kent observed many corruption issues can usually be traced to a single file (~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index in 10.6). After you have the backup safely tucked away, you could try removing that file from the actual directory before starting mail for what follows. I think it will be regenerated, though that could take a while for big mailboxes.

I would then try setting up the user account. Either it will find the existing mailboxes, or destroy them. If it destroys them, you copy them back in from your backup, possibly delete the user, and try something else; or you can import the contents of those mailboxes.

I don't have time to check it now, but this advice could probably be compared to advice for 10.6 by searching on mail issues for that OS. You could find out exactly where the various information is stored, I'm pretty sure.


QuickTime Pro 7 is still around, and can do quite a bit to .mov container files natively. You can select, copy and paste video, extract streams, etc. They removed a TON of features from QuickTime X in the interest of making it prettier and more "user-friendly."


Will iTunes match download all my music to a new hard drive?

If you enable iTunes Match, your entire library (up to 25.000) songs will be synced with your iCloud. So all your songs are in the iCloud. You can add a device to the iCloud and by so, all your music on the new device will be synced onto the new device. That's how iTunes Match works.

If you computer/hard drive gets stolen, you buy a new one and authorize it with you iCloud, it will sync once again on your new device.

So yes, you'll be able to download all your music stored in your iCloud onto new device.

As a matter of fact, even when the original device lost it's files, the songs are still stored in iCloud.

But be aware, the limit on devices is set on 10. So make sure you haven't add 10 devices already!

EDIT:
Proof of this is on the iTunes Match-page


@ symbol conflicts with IntelliJ shortcut

Apparently there is no solution for the moment (they are discussing about it since 2017) see here
With a lot of shame, I propose as a workaround to define a new live template in IntelliJ and use that one to type @. In my case, I type anno + tab and get the symbol without the git menu.
It is possible to disable the mnemonics for the menu and in this way Option + G does not open Git anymore. See here for reference.


OS X - TodoApp with shortcut that can popup on any space/desktop?

Try Wunderlist for Mac. It has a feature called "Mac Quick Add" where you press ctrl+alt+w, and you can quickly add a todo with spotlight-like interface, and it works on any active space as long as the app is open.


One workaround that I see a lot is to ask your workplace for a dedicated work phone - if they expect you to be reachable outside of office hours, then they've likely got some legal obligation to provide this.

When you're not working, turn it off.

On the other hand, if you can't just let go of work when you get home, that is a whole different problem and possible solutions I can think of are to keep yourself busier by getting a new pet, child or lover. This is especially true if you already have at least one of these.


Why does iterm2 close new sessions immediately?

The default shell was a command shell without command, not a login shell.

Solution:

iTerm->Preferences->Profiles->General->Command

Set radio button to Login shell


How to make Kindle Preview run on El Capitain

I found this works
(from Apple's Java support note )

1) Download and install X11
https://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac

2) Download and install Java for OSX
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?locale=en_US

3)
finder>applications>(right click) kindle previewer.app>show package contents>contents>macos>
(Right click) Launcher>open with> other, choose textedit, then enter the following and save

#!/bin/sh

export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home"

dir=`dirname "$0"`
cd "$dir"
classpath=./:./lib/touchLibs/etc/fonts/fonts

for i in `ls ./lib`
do
classpath=$classpath:./lib/$i
done

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

# start the previewer
fileExtT=`echo $1 | awk -F. '{print $NF}'`
fileExt=`echo $fileExtT | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'`

if [ "$fileExt" == mobi -o "$fileExt" == azw3 -o "$fileExt" == epub -o "$fileExt" == opf -o "$fileExt" == html -o "$fileExt" == zip ]
then
# opens only the first book in command line. TODO: handle multiple books in command line
${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java -d32 -XstartOnFirstThread -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -cp "${classpath}" com.amazon.epub.reader.Main "$1"
exit 1
else
${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java -d32 -XstartOnFirstThread -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -cp "${classpath}" com.amazon.epub.reader.Main
exit 1
fi

4)
(Right click) KindlePreviewer>open with> other, choose textedit> then enter the following and save

#!/bin/sh

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6
# start the autoupdate
java -jar autoupdate.jar

./Launcher $@

dir=`dirname "$0"`
cd "$dir"
classpath=./

for i in `ls ./lib`
do
    classpath=$classpath:./lib/$i
done

# start the autoupdate
java  -jar autoupdate.jar

./Launcher $@


Copying Clipboard from IDE and pasting on iPad while keeping color formatting

There isn't a single great option for this because you can't copy directly into the clipboard of the iPad from the background, so in a sense you can't sync your clipboards.

However there is Pastebot which was quite good, it's a bit old now, but should work still.

Alternatively iCloud syncing through Notes.app is pretty fast.


Need detailed help on how the Apple Business Program works

The steps you describe are correct, yes. There's however no need to do it manually like you describe - you can just choose Distribute in Xcode to automatically send your archived build to Apple. Just like you would if the app was going on the App Store.

The difference between putting the app on the App Store, and doing what you want, is simply this one step: On App Store Connect in the "Pricing and Availability" tab for your app, you have to select "Available privately as a custom app for business". This marks your app as private and makes so that the public cannot find it on the App Store.

When you have selected that it is a private, custom app for business, you'll be prompted to provide the IDs of the customers you want to be able to get the app. When you publish your finished app, those customers will see it in Apple Business Manager.

The customer will be able to buy the app, and install it on devices using either MDM (centrally install the apps) or using redemption codes (where the enduser enters the redemption code on the App Store).

There's no special "link" that you need to provide to your customer.


How to exclude songs or playlists from iTunes Songs?

In the Settings of the Song/Track u can set the Option to Skip/Don't play on continous Playback (Sry don't know the exact Name of the Setting in English my OS X is in German)


What happens when the battery on my Apple Watch dies while I'm working out?

You lose everything that it had. Just happened to me.


Go to Finder and go to the directory with the file names you want to change, then select the files you want to change the name of. Then go to the gear icon in the top of the Finder window, or just right-click on the files you selected. There is a command to change x-number of file names. See the first image below.

When you click on the rename x items you get the following pane.

From here you can set up the new file names.


To answer my own question:

Most likely the issue was caused by the WD Driver Utility app, as reported by many in the WD forums.

If not that, it was caused by an unpowered 7x USB-A to USB-C hub that the HDD was connected to earlier.

Either way the problem is now gone.


Local Items keychain recovery after system wipe

Seems like the "LocalItems" password database is encrypted with a machine specific key and cannot be opened with any other system. The good news is this key does not change after a complete system wipe (must be some kind of a hardware key). So even if the system is completely wiped, rename the fresh "Keychains" library folder to something like "Keychains_old" and copy your old "Keychains" folder, reboot and voila, everything accessible once again. Might need to input your old keychain unlock code when opening if your current user login code differs from the pre-wipe one.


File or directory called ~ (tilde) in the root of my startup volume

Could this be something malicious?

No, this is simply a file on your computer that happens to be named the same as a shell expansion. It doesn't have the execute bit set, so can't be executed as a binary file by Terminal. A malicious app probably won't be creating a ~ file in the root of your hard disk.

  Can I log what or who wrote the file somehow?
  Can I figure out what's inside it?

You won't be able to find out what wrote the file unless it was a process which wrote to the console (/Applications/Utilities/Console.app). You can look for processes which are currently accessing the file with sudo opensnoop -f "/~".

Seeing which processes (if any) are accessing the file may give you an indication as to what is inside the file, or you can open it with a text editor or hex editor and certain phrases might be recognisable to you, which may give you an indication as to

  How can I make sure it is safe to delete this file/directory or whatever it is?

If opensnoop says that nothing's currently accessing it and nothing accesses it whilst you use your computer, then you're not breaking anything by removing it. It's not a file that should be there, or is required by the system to function.

For more information about this subject, see this related question:

Tilde (~) File in Macintosh Directory


lsof does not show all files opened in Preview app

Here's an applescript solution. This should give you a complete list of open files (including the full path) in the preview app.

Also, if any AppleScript gurus come across this answer, I'd be grateful for any constructive criticism you have to offer. :)

set text item delimiters to "\n"
set myList to {}
tell application "Preview"
    set theDocs to get documents
    repeat with eachDoc in theDocs
        set thePath to path of eachDoc
        copy thePath to end of myList
    end repeat
end tell
set the_list to myList as text
tell application "Finder"
    set myFile to "/Users/YourName/YourFolder/FileName.txt"
    do shell script "date >> " & myFile
    do shell script "echo " & quoted form of the_list & " >> " & myFile
end tell

This will print the current date followed by a list of every document open in Preview. If you'd rather omit the date just remove the line:

do shell script "date >> " & myFile

Be sure to fill in the correct information on the line:

set myFile to "/Users/YourName/YourFolder/FileName.txt"

If you want to add a date stamp to your filenames, just put the following lines under the tell application "Finder" block

set time_stamp to (do shell script "date \"+%m-%d-%y\"")
set myFile to "/Users/YourName/YourFolder/PreviewProfile_" & time_stamp & ".txt"

The terminal date command has many different formats available. To read about the different options available, open your terminal and type man strftime.

After playing around a little more I realize this script can simplified even further. This is a more streamlined version that avoids some unnecessary steps from the original. But the result is the same either way.

set text item delimiters to "\n"
tell application "Preview"
    set theDocs to get path of every document as text
    tell application "Finder"
        set time_stamp to (do shell script "date \"+%m-%d-%y\"")
        set myFile to "/Users/YourName/YourFolder/PreviewProfile_" & time_stamp & ".txt"
        do shell script "echo " & quoted form of theDocs & " >> " & myFile
    end tell
end tell

For ease of use, you can save this script as an Automator service to use while working in any application. To do that just open Automator - then from the File menu select New or ⌘N from the keyboard. Then select Service from the choices shown. When the document opens, select Utilities in the far left column. Then Select Run AppleScript in the column to the right of that. Paste this script into the box that appears. In the drop down choices near the top of the page, select Service receives no input and in any application. Then just pick and name, save the file and you should have a service available to use anytime in the services menu.

Update

Here is a way to read and open the list of files we just created. This will allow you to pick and choose which files you want to open without having to open every file in the list if you don't want to.

tell application "Finder"
    set file_list to {}
    set my_files to paragraphs of (read "/Users/YourName/path/to/YourFile")
    repeat with nextLine in my_files
        if length of nextLine is greater than 0 then
            copy nextLine to the end of file_list
        end if
    end repeat
    choose from list file_list with multiple selections allowed
    set chosen_Files to the result
    repeat with next_file in chosen_Files
        do shell script "open " & next_file
    end repeat
end tell

Hope it helps. Let me know if you have any problems.


Yes - your Mac is perfectly normal and here's how to tell precisely how much extra RAM you can allocate to reach pre-designed limits that Apple has established for macOS.

no swap (which isn't a problem either, just if you wait for swapping then it's a problem)
no memory pressure
all memory should get allocated since unused RAM is a waste the system is designed to allocate it all and if it cannot, you purchased too much RAM.

You’ve provided very excellent details and thinking in this analysis. Overall, everything looks to be functioning perfectly, well allocating memory to all the programs you have, zero memory pressure, the compression routine is starting to kick in - you have a very balanced amount of wired to application-specific memory.

I wouldn’t worry a bit and this looks exactly like a normal system running in balance with excess RAM available for you to add significant more programs or data processing.

All UNIX type operating systems are designed to keep in RAM all the data it can and minimize the amount of free memory since it can release the allocations instantly when a new use is higher priority than the old cached data that can is there just in case:

Isn't Inactive memory a waste of resources?
https://jvns.ca/blog/2016/12/03/how-much-memory-is-my-process-using-/

Basically, the memory system has many layers of physical and logical abstractions that let it commit what looks to be a poor allocation on first glance that in practice is efficient, speedy and very well tested in practice.

When you would start to worry about not enough memory, the system will draw the pressure chart in yellow and red. Even running there can be just fine, it only means you can’t add more memory hungry processes, and not that you’re actually being slowed due to pressure.

What scale or measure does Mavericks' and Yosemite's "memory pressure" adhere to?

From the above link, you can convince yourself how much extra memory you have ready to go by artificially running a command to over-allocate memory until you reach the warning level (or the critical level). Here are screen shots of my MacBook that runs every bit as fast when over-allocated to critical - everything is as snappy in Safari / Photos / whatever as it is with zero memory pressure.

The above image is everything going back to green after running the critical command and pressing control+C (or closing the terminal window running the memory_pressure diagnostic.

sudo memory_pressure -l warn
sudo memory_pressure -l critical

Here are the images after warning and critical - you can see how much allocation was needed to push the system to these thresholds:

So, on my Mac that only has 8 GB of RAM, I needed to allocate another 4.65 GB of memory to reach the "warning" state and another 6.46 GB of memory to reach the "critical" state where there's no longer an abundance of free memory for the next use. Even then, the system was not slowed any perceptible amount. Pretty amazing for an m3 chip running 1.1 GHz or so that was build 5 years ago.


When the phone initially said disabled, you could have just left it untouched for a few hours and it will give you the option to try the passcode again, normally has a count down timer to when you can retry the passcode.

Anyhow, you can restore the phone using the DFU mode, hold down the home and the power button until screen goes off then immediately release the power button whilst still holding down the home button, make sure the phone is connected to the computer and have iTunes open when doing this.

The screen will remain black, but you should see the iPhone appear in iTunes where you can restore it.


Trouble with Memtest86 4.0a on 15" MacBook Pro

An easy way to get memtest running is the Ubuntu install cd which has memtest as a menu entry.

Note that you previously had to run Boot Camp first to make the system capable of booting Linux or Windows.  I do not know if this is still the case with OS X 10.8.


Avoiding Spam attribution for video alarm notification in Mail.app

The solution : basically, using Mail app but not iCloud services.

use a regular ISP mail account (and not me.com) to send the message from the camera, incuding SMTP authentication, but change the apparent "from mail:" to a bogus one; e.g myAxis@me.com
use a regular ISP mail account for receiving the mail (and not me.com); e.g Pub@YourIsp.net
configure your ISP account Pub@YourIsp.net to consider myAxis@me.com as "Not spam"
set up Mail to retrieve Pub@YourIsp.net and set a rule to transfer it on your Mac based on sender : myAxis@me.com
You can create a bogus contact in the contact app (Axis : myAxis@me.com) that will make it easy to read in mail App

Advantage of this solution :

it works
you don't really need to create specific email account as you surely have already an account for spam mail (Pub@YourIsp.net)
you won't activate iCloud spam algorithm which identifies that myAxis@me.com is bogus and forces it to spam folder

This little trick might help you analyse other use cases where you get forced spam mails.


Update 3) (I deleted Update 2)

I am glad, klanomath posted his answer. For me post, I would have to plagiarize his work.

Deuce55 you can ignore this update. It is directed at anyone interest in recovery partitions.

There are three types of OS X recovery partitions. They are either internal, external or internet based. Each type has its pros and cons. Internet recovery is the most reliable, but for my old 2007 iMac this is not available. For the 2011 iMac, it takes 33 minutes at my Internet Connection Speed of 2.3 Mbps. If you use internet recovery to do a clean install of OS X, you get the version of OS X that the computer was shipped with. This is not a problem if your computer is new, but later you will have to visit the App Store to get the last purchased version. If you have to do that, then I no longer consider the install to be clean.

An external recovery partion is usallly stored on a thumb (flash) drive. Using a thumb drive, for me, is much faster than the internet. You do have to download the “OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0” application to create the thumb drive, but that is a minor inconvenience.  Like Internet Recovery, it is reliable assuming you refresh the thumb drive after each major OS X upgrade. When used to do a clean install, you get the verion of OS X that was installed when the thumb drive was created. So if your OS X is current, then the clean install will also be current. The disadvantage with thumb drives is the “OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0” is “not compatible with a disk that is using CoreStorage,  including any disk larger than 2.2TB, any disk with FileVault 2 enabled, and all Fusion drives.” See System Requirements.

Finally, there are the hidden recovery partiton(s) on the internal drives. For most users, there is only one internal drive and therefore only one recovery partition. For Fusion drives there appears to be two. Booting by using these partitions is probably the fastest. Clean installs result in the installation of the same OS X version, which is good. But consider the bad. First they can be corrupted. If your drive physically fails and you replace the drive, then you have lost the use of the recovery partition. If you delete the OS X boot partition, often the recovery partition is also deleted. Finally, if you boot using the internal recovery partition(s), you can not unmount /dev/disk0.

@Deuce55: Update 1:
A recovery partition is a small partition that you can boot to. It is used to repair or reinstall software. It can exist on your internal hard drive, on an external thumb drive or on the internet. The internet or thumb (flash) drive are the preferred choices. If you have one on your internal hard drive, it is not normally shown in the Disk Utility application. To use the internet, you have to have the latest Firmware update installed. See Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery

Any chance you would be willing to try posting the output from the commands I asked for?

Also, do you have a thumb (flash) drive that you can reuse? If so what size?

And, do you have another computer available to communicate with while this computer is in recover mode?

Yes, you will probably what to back up your OS X partition to an external disk before proceeding. Have you ever created a .dmg image using the Disk Utility?

It looks like you are using Core Storage. If you are, then what bjb is telling you to do may not work. The resident expert on this subject is klanomath. I would recommend one of his solutions but first could you answer some questions. This would help me determine what link to create.

What version of OS X?

What version of Windows?

Do you have a fusion drive?

What is model identifier or Model/Year of your Apple?

Are you using Time Machine or other method of backup.?

If you still have your recovery partitions, do you care if you lose them?

Could you enter the following commands in a terminal application window and post the output.

diskutil list
disktuil cs list
sudo gpt -r -vvv show -l /dev/disk0

The last one will ask for your login password. This is normal. None of these commands change your computer. They just show your current disk setup.


Is Cmd+F10 that mute the Mac a built-in OS X keyboard shortcut?

If you have 'Use all F1, F2 keys as standard functions' unchecked, that's the behaviour.
With or without the Cmd key, F10 mutes. Incidentally, so does Ctrl/F10 or Shift/F10.


Is there a hook or trigger I can use to run a script when a new network connection is made?

There's a great utility called ControlPlane that allows you to trigger all kinds of events based on the context of system rules you set.

from the about page on the site: http://www.controlplaneapp.com

  ControlPlane determines where you are or what you are doing based on a number of available evidence sources and then automatically reconfigures your Mac based on your preferences. Evidence sources can include your current location, visible WiFi networks, attached USB devices, running applications and more.


Highlighted text is showing up abnormally on "highlights and notes" sidepane

That looks like a problem with Adobe PDF file.

I tried it on a radon PDF downloaded from Web and it works fine, as long the PDF file is formatted correctly.

UPDATE !

In evaluating your Document, it shows a problem in text formatting (missing space between words). When trying to highlight selected text the Preview will obey the format given.

The dotted line appears and shows the problem when trying to select text, it shows it as one block.

There is not fix for that AFIK, but you can try to get fresh copy of the document.

You can use this Tool to look it up when trying to select text

It might show you bad formatted PDF in the dotted line box.


ssh fails with ssh_dispatch_run_fatal invalid format

It may be that your keys are corrupted, as this issue is seen after some hardware failures. Try backing up and removing /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* and generating the missing keys with ssh-keygen -A.


How to disable Command + Control + Arrow Key shortcut in Mavericks

As an alternative solution for Sublime Text (if you want to keep the new OS key mappings) you can add the following lines to your user key bindings file (in menu Subline Text 2 > Preferences > Key Bindings - User):

{ "keys": ["super+shift+up"], "command": "swap_line_up" },
{ "keys": ["super+shift+down"], "command": "swap_line_down" }

This will map ⌘+Shift+↑ or ↓ to the Swap Line Up/Down commands.

A similar issue exists with the batch selection commands usually mapped to Ctrl+Shift+↑ or ↓.

These can be remapped using the following settings:

{ "keys": ["ctrl+alt+shift+up"], "command": "select_lines", "args": {"forward": false} },
{ "keys": ["ctrl+alt+shift+down"], "command": "select_lines", "args": {"forward": true} }

This will map Ctrl+Alt+Shift+↑ or ↓ to the batch selection commands.

Obviously you can change the combinations to whatever you prefer, but these did not seem to be used for anything.


Using VMware Fusion on Yosemite, how can I prevent crashes with sleep wake failure?

After talking to VMware support, there are two possible solutions to this problem:

Open your Mac's system preferences, go to Energy Saver and disable the option "Put hard disks to sleep when possible". With that option deactivated, I had no sleep wake failures.
Pause or suspend your virtual machines prior to sending your Mac to sleep.


Preview, how can I return back to the previous position after clicking a link in the pdf file

You can customize the toolbar and add the Page History buttons.


Office 365 keeps prompting for login credentials on Mac OSX?

Here is what solved it for me. (Copied from: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_outlook-mso_mac/authentication-failedcheck-your-account/063826c1-1e4c-40ba-9bfa-54e745925fc1 )

Quit all Office applications (Word, Teams, Outlook, etc)
Go to KeyChain Access.
Search "Exchange" under Login --> All Items and delete everything.
Search "Office" and delete everything.
Search "ADAL" and delete everything.
Launch Outlook.
You will get the activation prompt and then If account is already added you will see the password prompt for app and ADAL again. Please do 2-Factor Authentication if asked to.
If that doesn't work, do steps 2-4 but restart the Mac before launching Outlook.


Can I use an iPhone to remote desktop to a PC, show the desktop on a TV with airplay, and use the iphone as a touchpad for the remote desktop?

This works out of the box with AirPlay mirroring and any RDC client such as Screens for iOS.

Just establish a remote connection then double tap your home button and swipe the multitasking bar to the right. Enable AirPlay mirroring and you'll have what you described.


macOS Mail won't clear out the outgoing SMTP server list

Thank you to Andreas at Apple support for this excellent answer:

counter-intuitively: the "Automatically manage settings" button for the OUTGOING is (mysteriously) TIED TO THE SAME BUTTON for the INCOMING SETTINGS.

If you are having trouble unchecking the "Automatically manage settings" on the OUTGOING section, you must first uncheck the same setting on the INCOMING section.

All the SMTP servers should have unique settings. If you try to save another outgoing SMTP server with the same domain, it will detect it and complain

If you try to use (-) to delete a SMTP server off the list, be sure it has NO ATTACHED mailboxes to it. Quit & restart Mail to see the item removed, and recheck to confirm it is no longer there. (Sometimes it comes back, even if you follow these steps. However, I was able to remove all of the ones I wanted removed by repeating the steps. Once it is truly removed it appears not to come back anymore.)


iOS jailbroken: native storage on an external drive?

Theoretically? Yes.
Practically? No.

You would first need to build nfs for iOS. Then, you would need to make the YouTube downloader application save its movies onto the network drive. As far as I can tell, nobody has worked on nfs for iOS, so unless you know a lot about programming for iphoneos-arm, you might just be out of luck. You wouldn't be able to extend the user partition onto the network drive, though, so none of this would be transparent to the apps. You could symlink the Documents folder for each app that you'd like to have access to your network drive, which would give you the same effect (assuming you can get your drive mounted).


Idle iPhone and iPad hog upload bandwidth

For iCloud, try Settings/ Accounts & Passwords.  iCloud might be shown there as an Account.  If so, select it, and iCloud Backup should be on the list that comes up, showing whether it is on or off.  Other apps that share with iCloud are also listed.


Issues with installing SSD instead of DVD drive?

I usually place the lighter drive in the optical bay since it's not as securely connected to the body as the intended HDD slot. This also plays into the rubber shock mounts for the HDD which both protect it from accelerations as well as isolating/dampening whatever vibration the drive motors cause.

As phrased, you may get a null answer since there may not be any issues with either placement. Macs can boot from external drives and have no problems writing the sleep image to an external USB or Thunderbolt drive since the OS wants to keep the system on one drive.

The only issues I've seen are people using links to place some of the core OS and support files on a secondary drive rather than just placing user files (home folders) and safer documents on a manual/fixed tiered storage system.

With core storage and Apple's broad support of any SSD to comprise a FusionDrive the need to micromanage what files live on which tier of storage might hopefully become a thing of the past.


You can either quote or escape the space when you define the variable, but then you must also double-quote it when you use it:

#!/bin/bash -x
PGHOME="/Applications/pgAdmin 4.app/Contents/SharedSupport"
"$PGHOME/psql" --username postgres -c "drop database $1"
^            ^
|            |


How can I transfer a Large (450Mb) file between two Mountain Lion Macbook Pros?

After enabling File Sharing on one machine, it will give you the name of the machine as used to connect to it. Next, go to the other computer, and open Finder.  You should see the name of the other computer in the sidebar.  If you don't, then press Go -> Connect to Server, and connect to the other machine by the name that was given in the Sharing window.

When you connect, you should see the public folder of your user account, and the Drop Box folder in there.  Copy the file to the Drop Box folder by dragging it onto the Drop Box folder.  On the target computer, open Finder, your user folder, the "Public" folder, and the "Drop Box" folder, and you will see the file that you copied.


16GB of RAM makes MacBook Pro's fans go wild before sleep?

That is normal function.
It is called air vent (power air purge), to remove the residual heat before shutting down (or sleep mode).

It is meant to prolong the life of your devices.

The designers have figured out that by shutting a hot computer down, since there is no ventilation the heat actually rises inside.
That is not so good for the computer so someone had the bright idea to do the air purge before shutting down. :)

However! one should say that you are running your computer at the "Borderline" (hehe) of capacity for cooling since you stuffed it up with more heating sources.


Is the Verizon iPhone 5 (unlocked) compatible with Rogers?

Yes, that's correct, Verizon's iPhone 5 won't work on the Rogers LTE network.

According to Rogers' iPhone 5 page, the specs include:

  LTE Bands:700/1700

In the Apple iPhone 5 page you've quoted, you need to get model A1428 which supports LTE Band 17 (700 MHz). Rogers is explicitly listed there as one of the supported LTE networks. If you want to get an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5 (model A1429 CDMA), you won't be able to use LTE on the Rogers network. You'd be better off getting the unlocked AT&T version.


You can use down arrow ↓ or right arrow → (on navigation keys ⬌⬍) to leave superscript mode.


How do I set podcast release date in iTunes using Applescript?

Unfortunately, it is not possible to change the "release date" tag within iTunes using Applescript because the property is read-only.


How I can install a Homebrew recipe maintained in a separate git repository outside of /usr/local/Library/Formula?

ln -s /Users/myusername/mygitrepository/my-formula.rb /usr/local/Library/Formula/
brew install my-formula

Both brew doctor and brew update shouldn't mind, at least not until a my-formula formula is added into the official brew repository!


How to delete directory content with launchd

Shell globbing (<string>/tmp/test/*</string>) is not supported by launchd!

You can either remove the whole folder test <string>/tmp/test</string> or launch a shell script rmtestcontent (in the example /usr/local/bin/rmtestcontent) with the content:

#!/bin/bash

/bin/rm -fr /tmp/test/*

with the plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.my.script.removetemp</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/rmtestcontent</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>45</integer>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>23</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

to empty the directory /tmp/test.


MacBook Yosemite WiFI drops when other devices possibly interfere

Analyse your wireless environment

A wireless interference problem is a lighting problem. It highly depends on the position of the different sources of radiofrequencies.
The core problem with this lighting problem is that we don't see within the multi-GHz bandwidth (hopefully).

Here is still today the best tool to analyze any wireless interference problem:

iStumbler

You should install it on a portable computer without any trouble to start with. From your environmnent description, I would install it on your MacBook Air.

Use it for many hours to get used to it and to your real wireless environment. Move with it within your work space. Use it at different hours: when all your equipments are running (don't forget the remote controls and the Blutooth equipments).

Control your wireless environment

Next, you show that your router is selecting the wireless channel on an
automatic way. This feature conceived to help beginners is one of the most harmfull function I ever saw in wireless environment.
This would have been a magic function within a fixed wireless environment. But this environmnet doesn't exist in real world.

Let me give you a practical example. Your neighbours are at work.
You start your WLAN router and finding the interfering neigbouring empty, this one choose (as most of this routers) the famous channel one.
Your neighbour come back from work, and their router was already automatically tuned on channel one. When they connect to their router this channel start to interfere with yours. Unfortunatelly, your router
isn't in the phase where it will change its preferred channel.

You stay on an everyday interfering wireless network.

Your neighbour(s) too :(.

Hence choose an empty channel and fix it. I advise you to avoid the channels 802.11b: 1-14 which are much slower and not necessary within your environment.


Where is the mic located in apple earphones?

It's located in remote box. You can see the inside and actual mic on iFixIt website.

Microphone is marked red 2F17 045.


Why can't new cloned hard drives be used in 2009 MBP 13"

Turns out it was the sata cable on this MBP, swapped out and put new sata cable in and boots the new 1TB drive totally fine.


How can I format the output of ping in bash?

Use

ping -q -n -s $SIZE -c $COUNT $myHost |
    awk -v host=$myhost '/packet loss/ {print host, $7}'

inside the loop.

In case you only want to print the hosts with packet loss use

ping -q -n -s $SIZE -c $COUNT $myHost |
    awk -v host=$myhost '/packet loss/ {if ($7 != "0.0%") print host, $7}'

Side note: grep pattern | awk '{action}' can usually be replaced with the much neater  (and slightly faster) awk '/pattern/ {action}'


It appears that this is no longer a function (even hidden) in the new iTunes. To me, this looks like another useful feature got dropped. The closest thing I've found so far is clicking the cover in the top display pops out a resizable window (a-la coversutra). Sorry mate.


Are you running iOS 5?  If so, the new albums you can create in iOS 5 are only for temporarily classifying photos from your Camera Roll.  But once you remove them from Camera Roll, they will also disappear from your Albums.

Thus, there is no circumstance where a photo would ONLY be in your Album and not in your Camera Roll, unless by Album you mean the Sync'ed Photos that have always been available through iTunes.


How to prepend to text file in AppleScript?

You could copy the current content of the file to a variable, then copy TextToWrite to TargetFilePath and then append the previous content back to TargetFilePath.

set x to (do shell script "cat " & quoted form of TargetFilePath)

do shell script "echo " & quoted form of TextToWrite & " > " & quoted form of TargetFilePath

do shell script "echo " & quoted form of x & " >> " & quoted form of TargetFilePath


Pastebot Mac software says Disabled in menu

Well, the answer was right in front of me, but I didn't see it.

To fix this problem, choose the first item in the menu: "Enable Pastebot Sync".

Duh!


Can .mp4 files infect my Mac with malware/adware/spyware?

Exploits through any other type of file than a .dmg disk file are rare on macOS. To harm a Mac with any other file type than an application, said file (be it .mp4, .mp3, .pdf, .png, .jpg, etc.) would have to exploit a vulnerability in the operating system or media player. If you are using a standard video player (like the latest version of QuickTime) you'll be almost immune to any malware-laced .mp4 files that probably don't exist anyway.

No hacker in their right mind would lace a video file with malware: it's just too hard to get it to work across multiple video players and operating systems, and it's so much easier to get malware on a user's machine using .dmg files. So I highly doubt a .mp4 file would contain malware that would affect your Mac, which would almost certainly be immune to it anyway with the latest operating system and media player.

So without even answering your follow-up questions yet, you are safe. If you want to feel even safer (and truly ensure that your Mac is unaffected), you can download an antivirus app like Avast or BitDefender as I explain in this answer.

To answer your follow-up questions: if this "video" file was really an application file, your Mac would notify you that it's an application from an unknown developer, force you to go to System Preferences to allow installations of unknown applications, and insist that you type in an administrator's password before allowing this application to run any code.

So even if this was an application file (.dmg) masquerading as an audio or video file, you'd still be safe. Read more about how you're still safe even if you downloaded a malicious application file (so long as you don't manually install it) in this answer.

tl;dr: you're not going to get  malware from downloading a video or audio file.

Edit 1: A notable exception to this "a file can't harm your Mac unless it's an application" rule is the Word .docx macro. Word documents (and documents for Excel and the rest of Open Office, thanks WGroleau) can try to convince you to run them as a macro, essentially turning them into mini-applications. These can be malware, so never run a downloaded Word document as a macro.  Read more about Word macro malware.

Edit 2: Email attachments can look like .mp3 files or .jpg files, but actually be .dmg files disguised as such. Whereas when you download a file from the web you'll get a prompt that lets you know what file type you're about to download, you may have no such warning when opening an email attachment. Thus, don't open a suspicious email attachment even if it claims to be a .mp4/.mp3/.jpg/.png/.pdf format thinking it's necessarily safe.

Edit 3: If you don't want to install an antivirus app, you can use the website virustotal.com to upload a file and have multiple antivirus engines scan it at once, in the cloud.

Woah, so many edits here.


How can I patch Mac is OS X 10.4.11 with Bash version 2.05b.0(1) for Shellshock bug?

http://tenfourfox.blogspot.com/2014/09/bashing-bash-one-more-time-updated.html

If you go to this site, there's a precompiled binary that works for 10.4 (PowerPC).  I'm using it and it works well.


To upload a file to the specific path using ftp command you have to:

ftp -u ftp://<user>:<pass>@<server>/<path> /path/to/file

From man ftp:

 -u URL file [...]
             Upload files on the command line to URL where URL is one of
             the ftp URL types as supported by auto-fetch (with an
             optional target filename for single file uploads), and file
             is one or more local files to be uploaded.

For auto-fetch URLs also look into man ftp under AUTO-FETCHING FILES section.


Is there a specific way to capture a part of your screen with QuickTime Player?

Recording a selected part of your screen is very easy.

Open Quicktime (if you get a Finder window, select Done)
Select File -> New Screen Recording
Click the Record button on the small popup window
You'll see a screen overlay message like this:

Drag the cursor around the part of the screen to record
Click Stop to end the recording.


Having windows virtual machine (Windows 7, run in Parallels) run from installed SSD

The setup proposed in the setup guide provides a dual-drive environment with a "swapped" system. The faster SSD finally contains the system, some user folders and all apps and the slower but larger HDD contains your user data.

If your Windows Parallels VM is stored in your user folder (the default path is /User/[username]/Documents/Parallels.../) it will run from the HDD. But you can add a folder with your user name in /Users and move the VM image to it or move it to /Users/Shared/.

After deleting the VM from your HDD user folder open Parallels and relink the Windows VM to the VM list. AFAIR you will be asked if the VM was moved or copied. Then choose "moved". After moving the VM image to the SSD all Windows apps as well as the Windows system will run from the SSD.

Finally the root looks like this (I left out a lot of mostly invisible files and folder):

/                                                       \
|-Applications                                           |
|-bin                                                    |
|-...                                                    |
|-Library                                                |
|-System                                                 |
|-Users                                                  |
|     |-Shared                                           |=SSD
|     |-test                                             |
|     |-YourUser                                         |
|              |-Documents                               |
|                        |-Parallels/WindowsVM.pvm       |
|                                                        |
|-Volumes                                               _/
        |-HDD-Name                                      _
                 |-Users                                 \
                       |-YourUser                         |
                                |-Documents               |
                                |-Library                 |=HDD
                                |-Music                   |
                                |-Pictures                |
                                |-....                    |
                                                         /

The linked guide misses one important step though:

After successfully booting to the SSD and configuring your user, you have to delete the previously copied files and folders on the source disk (the HDD)- except the folder /Users/YourUserName of course.


CPU broken on my late 2013 Macook Pro. Is it worth replacing?

It's worth paying $500 to fix a 2013 MacBook Pro, because you should be able to sell it for more than $500 if it's in working order. So get it fixed, and you can then decide whether to keep it or sell it and put the proceeds towards a new machine.


Just downgraded from iOS 11 beta to iOS 10 and now I can't pair my Apple Watch

You can’t downgrade watchOS, no matter which version of iOS you're running on the paired iPhone. If you want to keep using your iPhone with your WATCH you have the following options:

Reinstall the corresponding beta version of iOS (11 for watchOS 4, or 10.3.3 for watchOS 3.2.3).
Wait for the public release of the required version of iOS (10.3.3 should land the week of July 17th).
Take your WATCH to an Apple Store so they can downgrade it for you. This requires them sending your Watch in for service, which will take a few days.


The one guest account with a proper picture is an OS account - you can remove it from the FileVault startup screen with this command.

Enter the following command in the Terminal:

sudo fdesetup remove -user Guest

That guest account is still around, but it’s not the one that comes from Find My Mac and FileVault - that’s the one with the shady silhouette - you can disable that by turning off Find My Mac or going to the user accounts preference pane in system preferences and electing the guest account configuration you prefer.


Instead of an alias use a function. Also,I wouldn't use find's placeholder- {} as a parameter in the inline script.

csfiles () {
find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -exec sh -c 'for dir
do
        echo "$(find "$dir" -type f | wc -l)" "$dir"
done' sh {} + | sort -nr
}


I am assuming that you clicked on the option to "Erase your Mac" when you activated FMM.  If you got a message that the machine was erased, then the drive was erased.

As for the HDD, filevault does offer good protection against the most common of thieves, but nothing is perfect.  Chances are they can't crack the encryption.  However, if you wiped the drive, this is moot.

Is the machine "bricked?"  I don't know.  Did you lock it with a PIN code?  If you didn't, it can still work.  However, if you locked it down with a PIN, you have effectively bricked it.

Now...did you file a police report?


Remote control of iPad (from a PC ideally)?

The best solution we've found so far, is 'teamviewer quick support'.

It doesn't allow for remote control, but it does permit screen sharing. An app on the iPad generates a 'connection ID' and a remote client on a desktop system can then connect to it, and view the screen.

It's not exactly what we wanted, but it's sufficient to get started.


locate command with regex equivalent in OSX

The macOS version of locate doesn’t have a regex option. You can use * and ? in the search pattern but that’s it.

Before you can use locate you will have to enable it (i. e. have the locate database built) using the following command—by default it is disabled:

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


Should I use my primary Apple ID for that or create another one to use with Apple Developer account?

From the Apple Developer Program page:

  Enrolling as an Individual

  If you are an individual or sole proprietor/single person business, get started by signing in with your Apple ID with two-factor authentication turned on. You’ll need to provide basic personal information, including your legal name and address.

If you use a different Apple ID, you need at least one device with this Apple ID signed-in to authenticate your login, because of mandatory two-factor authentication. Switching your Apple ID on a device is not something you want to do regularily.


Using Terminal, how can I find which directory is my USB drive mounted in?

All drives (internal, external and networked) get mounted in /Volumes. You should see a folder there with the name of your USB drive as it appears on your desktop or in the Finder.


How to turn on the volume of ipod touch with a broken volume button?

You can change the alerts volume in the Settings App.

Open the Settings App.
Go to the Sounds section (typically the top of the second group of settings).
Change the slider under Ringer and Alerts to your desired volume.


Hi and welcome to Ask Different!

A few things to try:

Make sure the mute switch is off and working - on the top left side of the phone there's a switch that has a red backing if it's turned on. If it's showing red, toggle it back, and your sound will come back on. Simple :)
If that does nothing, make sure the switch works. Toggle it back and forth a few times, there should be a popup indicating that sound is now muted. If nothing appears on the screen when the switch is toggled, the switch is probably broken, and you'll need to talk to Apple or your carrier's insurance about getting it fixed.
I'm guessing you already tried this, but there are two volume settings on iOS, one for the ringer and one for apps and music. If you just use the volume rocker in most places, your ringer volume changes. If you use it while music or sound is playing, app volume changes. Make sure that your music/sound volume is up.


Snow Leopard cannot find my LaCie Network Space 2 when it's connected through USB.

Same thing happened to me couple of times. I powered the HDD on/off couple of times and then restarted the Mac before it reappeared again on Finder.


Should I make my primary user an Administrator or not?

Let's differentiate a user being one individual from a user being a single UNIX user account.

As for the purpose of limiting privileges to the computer account and not for the individual operating it, creating two separate user accounts in Mac OS X is overkill and if you ask me rather impractical. Even an administrator account lacks the privileges to modify anything system critical without authenticating as the root user, which requires manually re-entering your password.

The only significant extra privilege an administrator account has is the ability to switch to the root (privileged) account. If you are familiar with the sudo command in the shell, this is very much the same thing.

You would create a regular user account as opposed to an administrator account if you want to limit privileges of the individual operating the computer, for example with kids or employees.


Freeing up space and it said I was using up more

First, try signing out/disabling all Mail accounts. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

iOS apps created by Apple create and store logs, especially Mail. By deleting all the stores emails, you probably created 100's of log data about the deletion. You need to delete all of these.

The only way to do that is to restore your iPad. First, plug in you iPad to your computer and open iTunes. If "Other" takes over a gigabyte, you will need to restore. If not, disregard everything after this.

To restore, first click "Backup". After the backup is done, hit restore. It will download the latest iOS, then restore. After it is down restoring, set it up like it was new until it asks you to restore from backup. Select the backup you made earlier and let it work its magic.


I changed my Apple ID but during update or download app it ask previous id password

This is because each App on your phone is linked to an Apple ID. You can change your AppleID on your phone, but the app will still remembering the AppleID from was installed initially. I found similar behavior if you use a phone backup from other phone different than your own.

The only solution you have in this case is to unninstall each installed with the old AppleID and reinstall it again with your new AppleID. This will solve the problem.

I hope it helps.


How to create an identity who can be used for signing code from custom certificate?

Your certificate is missing specific codesign requirements. These go beyond keyUsage = digitalSignature.

Conforming Certificate

You need to create a certificate that conforms to macOS's codesigning requirements. You can find the requirements in Certification Authority Certification Practice Statement Developer ID:

  4.12.2. Code Signing Certificates

  A Code Signing Certificate issued by the Developer ID Sub-CA shall conform to the X.509 Certificate format and shall contain, at a minimum, the following data elements:

  Serial Number
  Subject Distinguished Name
  Issuer Distinguished Name
  Algorithm used (RSA)
  Modulus (Size in bits)
  Validity period
  Certificate Policies extension listing the CP
  Certificate qualifiers listing this CPS (URL)
  User notice qualifier
  Extended Key Usage extension, critical, with a purpose containing Code Signing (1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.3)
  Developer ID Code Signing (1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13)
  Certificate Authority Information Access extension, non-critical, with a method of obtaining certificate authority information via Online Certificate Status Protocol method.

For more details, see the Security StackExchange question How to create an Apple Installer Package Signing Certificate.

Trusted Certificate Authority

With a conforming certificate, you will be able to codesign your binary. For the code signature to recognised, you will need to install and trust the Certificate Authority (CA) certificate on your Mac. This needs to be done in a way that Gatekeeper trusts.

You can learn more about this step by searching for install root certificate mac.


Can I use an Apple Watch Series 2 in seawater?

It depends on what you do with it:

  Apple Watch Series 2 may be used for shallow water activities like swimming in a
     pool or ocean. However, Apple Watch Series 2 shouldn't be used for scuba diving,   water skiing, or other activities involving high velocity water.

From Apple Support.


How to deactivate Adobe CS6 install on a damaged/corrupt mountain lion OS hard disk?

from http://www.adobe.com/go/activation

So you might be best contacting them.


Many unknown "Frame xxxxx-xxxxx" files. Do you know what these are and can I delete them?

If your 'friend' uses FinalCut or Motion, they may be created by these apps.
See this Apple Discussions thread.


Macbook Pro 15 inch 2019: will charging from LG 38WK95C-W via USB-C damage/fry the macbook's battery?

I'm assuming the main concern you have is that charging from the LG 38WK95C-W display is going to damage your MacBook Pro in some way.

This is not something you need to worry about. Having a charging source that provides 60W is really akin to using one of the chargers that ship with the 13" versions of the MacBook Pro on a 15" MacBook Pro. The net result is that your MBP will charge slower than it would with the higher watt charger, but this will not cause any damage to the MacBook Pro.

If you're concerned about this (and you really shouldn't be) you can change the cabling you're using to connect to the display so that you're using one of the display's other ports (e.g. it has HDMI) and totally bypass the USB-C port so that power pass-through doesn't occur. Of course, to do this you'll need a USB-C > HDMI adapter.


Seemingly random apps have a slash through their icons

If it is a cache problem then I would suggest running AppleJack to clear caches and fix permissions.

It's a wonder of a tool. It would be my first step.


Macbook Air Fan running frequently and loudly

The easiest explanation is that the MacBook Air is by no means a performance Mac. Their processors range from 1.1 GHz to around 1.8GHz. Some have 8 GB of RAM, while others have just 4 GB, and some (like one of my family member's MacBook Air) have only 2 GB. Graphics processing units and other parts follow suit. In short, the MacBook Air sacrifices performance for portability, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that if you try to do a lot on it or preform hardware-intensive tasks on it, it will get pretty warm and the fans will go pretty high.


AppleTV 4 - how to disable Bluetooth needed to pair AirPlay device

The difficulty was manifold, and combined a misconfigured wifi network, ATV4s not at the latest version of tvOS, and a management profile with an out-of-date certificate. Once these obstacles were overcome, the need to connect with Bluetooth was made moot.


Should I install firmware for Samsung SSD 850 EVO?

As far as I can see there currently exists no firmware upgrade for the 850 PRO.

As for TRIM, it is generally recommended to enable it (OS X does on its stock SSDs). There is now a new tool in OS X that will allow you to easily enable TRIM on non-Apple SSDs:

sudo trimforce enable


What "Doesn't work" about your superdrive? Is it possible to get another USB Disk Drive?

I'm assuming that since you don't have "full" access to the other Macs that the Disk Utility app on them is inaccessible to you as well. Check on that, if you can. IF you can get into Disk Utility on one of the other Macs, you might be able to connect the two using a Firewire or Thunderbolt cable and go into Target Disk Mode to restore your Mac.

Another option would be to use the Terminal to create your own bootable USB drive. Even if its your buddy's MacBook, you should still be able to log into the App Store, download the installer for whatever version you bought, and use the built-in createinstallmedia to make a bootable drive.

If both of these options don't work, I think your next best bet is to buy an install disk off eBay or something. Hardly ideal, but then at least you'd have them if this happens again.


I can't delete or reset password on accounts in Snow Leopard

This is generally really easy to clean up.

The Snow Leopard user database for all accounts on the mac is stored as flat files in the directory /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users

Just delete the offending userA.plist and userB.plist and the accounts will be "gone" after a reboot.

boot the mac in target mode and use another mac to delete the files
boot to single user mode (or get a root shell with sudo -s) if you are comfortable in a unix shell

There will of course be remnants of the user folders and their group membership potentially left lying around.

If you are concerned about that level of cleanliness - just boot back into a normal admin user and recreate a shell account using the same short name.

You can then correctly reset the password (retaining the home folder) or delete them cleanly and totally at that point.

Let me know if you still have a failure - it's super unlikely, but there could be a deeper problem if this doesn't work.


Photos deleted on iPhone got deleted in Google Photos - Recovery?

From Google Photos Supportt:

  Open the Google Photos app .
  At the top left, tap Menu , then Trash .
  Touch and hold the photo or video you want to recover.
  At the top right, tap Restore . That photo or video will be restored to your Google Photos library and added back into any albums it was in.


My iMac won't boot ( internal and external )

Repair or restore a Mac in Apple Configurator 2
If there is no way to get the Mac working again, you will need a second Mac.
The firmware must be restored and the internal flash memory must be deleted if the following situation occurs:

The Mac cannot start from Startup Disk or RecoveryOS.
The firmware repair failed.

Repair or recovery process
The repair or recovery process consists of the following steps:

Start Apple Configurator 2 on the second Mac and connect the Mac computers.
Restart the Mac using a specific key combination.
Use Apple Configurator 2 to do one of the following:
Repair firmware and reinstall the latest version of RecoveryOS
Restore firmware, erase all data, and reinstall the latest version of RecoveryOS and macOS

Step 1: Configure Mac with Apple Configurator 2 and connect the USB-C cable

Make sure of the following:

You have installed the latest version of Apple Configurator 2.
Your Mac is connected to the electrical outlet.
You can connect to the internet.

Connect the USB-C cable (along with any necessary adapters).

Step two: prepare your Mac

Connect a monitor so you can see when the process is complete.
Unplug your Mac  from its electrical outlet for at least 10 seconds.
Press and hold the power button.
Reconnect to the power supply while continuing to hold the on / off button.
Release the power button.

Note: You will not see any Mac activity on the screen during this time
Step 2: prepare your Apple notebook computer

Press the power button.
Hold down your power button while simultaneously pressing the following three buttons for about 10 seconds:

the right shift key
the left option key
the left Control key

Immediately release the three buttons after 10 seconds, but keep holding the power button until it appears in Apple Configurator 2.

Note: There is no activity on the Apple notebook computer on the screen during this time.
Step 3: Repair the firmware and install the latest version of the RecoveryOS
In the Apple Configurator 2 device window, select the Mac whose chip firmware is to be repaired and whose RecoveryOS is to be updated to the latest version, then select
Actions > Advanced > Repair device and click on Repair.
Note: Hold down the "Control" key and click on the selected device, choose "Advanced" > "Repair Device" and click "Repair"


What does an icon that looks like a pair of connected chain links next to a wireless network name mean?

It's a personal hotspot created by an iOS device to share the cellular data connection that the phone has over Wi-Fi.


Can I safely backup my system by simply tarring things?

Time Machine would probably be easier and or better then using tar as there is no mention in the man page that it will preserve resource forks and HFS meta-data information.  *See Edit below.

ditto does and more... From it's man page:

  ditto will preserve resource forks and HFS meta-data information when copying unless instructed other- wise using −−norsrc .
  Similarly, ditto will preserve extended attributes and Access
  Control Lists (ACLs) unless −−noextattr or −−noacl is passed.
  DITTONORSRC can be set in the environment as an alias to −−norsrc
  −−noextattr −−noacl on the command line.

Edit:  While the tar man page did not specifically mention "preserve resource forks and HFS meta-data information" like ditto did nonetheless I'd suggest testing tar and see if it will meet your needs.  I just did a preliminary test on a modified folder that contains a customized image for the folder and it did archive the associated meta-data, at least some of it anyway.  That is to say I didn't test against ditto for comparison nor does that folder have ACL's, etc.

Edit 2: Considering the comment you made as to why you wanted to use tar and after tests between ditto and tar I'd say tar is probably going to meet your needs.  In either case I like redundancy and I do a Time Machine Backup as well as some other form of archival.  I do a separate image of my Home folder every once in a while to a compressed .dmg file.


Cannot restore or recover ipod Classic 80gb

You can try to diagnose the problem with the diagnostic mode.

To enter the diagnostic mode, press the folowing key when the apple logo appears after a reset :

iPod 1G, 2G et 3G, press the keys for 5 seconds :

"back"
"next"
"select"

iPod 4G, 5G, mini et nano,  press the keys for 5 seconds :

"back"
"select"

In the diagnotic mode, you can navigate in the menus with the back/next keys and launch a bunch of test.


How can I view iTunes metadata lyrics without using Get Info in iTunes?

Have you tried Lyritop? It's an app that displays the current iTunes song lyrics on the desktop. It does display a dock icon. You can also adjust font, size, position, color, shadow, etc.

There are no individual lyric files that are stored on your computer. The lyric information is embedded in the id3 tag of each song file. There is an app called MP3LyricsExtractor that will batch extract song lyrics into individual text files.


Network Proxy *.local, 169.254/16 bypass

What is being done there is that you are bypassing any configured proxies for local computers or computers with a self-assigned IP address.  This is configured by default in OS X and has nothing to do with giving your WiFi password to your neighbor.

Local Computers (Hosts)  If you are not given a local DNS name by your DHCP server (your WiFi router, for example), your Mac will default to a .local domain.  So, if you have to go to another computer on your own local network, it will bypass the proxy (if one is configured) and just connect directly.  OS X is assuming all local computers are on the .local domain.

169.254/16  This is a non routable (private) self assigned IP address.  You would get this IP if you don't have a DHCP server providing you one.  Again, this is there to bypass any proxies you might have configured when connecting to a computer on your local network.

What is a Proxy (Server)  In short, a proxy is a server that makes requests as an intermediary for other computes on the network.  For example, you can have a content filter (at work) that prevents you from going to the naughty bits on the Internet.  It will look at your request, analyze it, then either reject it or make the request for one.  When the remote server responds, it takes the data and sends it to you.


Using NFS between OSX and Ubuntu with mis-matched uids

Ultimately, the proper solution is to use a directory service (like NIS or LDAP) to provide consistent UID/GID mapping for all users.  Of course, this is a very heavy solution for a smaller and/or home network.

The easiest thing to do is to simply make the UIDs/GIDs consistent on all the hosts involved.


You bumped into what’s known as Activation Lock.This iPhone is still locked to your friend’s Apple ID, and order to change ownership, your friend will need to provide his Apple ID password for you.

Since your friend is far away, they may be able to disable Activation Lock remotely, by logging in to iCloud.com.

Have them go into Find my iPhone and select the iPhone. Since you’ve already wiped it, it will show as offline and grayed out. Just click Remove from Account.


You will not be able to install OS X Tiger on a modern Mac due to lack of hardware driver support.

Apple's license agreement for OS X did not allow virtualization at all until Snow Leopard Server and Lion, so virtualization software such as VirtualBox, VMWare Fusion, and Parallels Desktop do not support running Tiger in a Virtual Machine.

If you need to run Tiger, your best bet is purchasing an older Intel Mac that shipped with Tiger or a PowerPC Mac that supports Tiger.


You are looking for the fs_usage command, which will show any file-related activity either on the whole system or by file.

For starters, do

sudo fs_usage

From man fs_usage

  NAME

  fs_usage -- report system calls and page faults related to filesystem activity in real-time

  SYNOPSIS

fs_usage [-e] [-w] [-f mode] [-b] [-t seconds] [-R rawfile [-S start_time] [-E
         end_time]] [pid | cmd [pid | cmd] ...]

  DESCRIPTION

  The fs_usage utility presents an ongoing display of system call usage information per-
       taining to filesystem activity.  It requires root privileges due to the kernel tracing
       facility it uses to operate.  By default, the activity monitored includes all system
       processes except the running fs_usage process, Terminal, telnetd, sshd, rlogind, tcsh,
       csh and sh.  These defaults can be overridden such that output is limited to include or
       exclude a list of processes specified by the user.


How can I reduce the volume of music on my iPhone?

Without resorting to using an audio program to normalize the tracks  (which you might eventually have to do if you want to make it “the right way™”), you can select the track(s) you want to lower in iTunes and CMD + i to “get info”, go to the Options tab and manually reduce the track’s volume.

You can have multiple track selections and the adjustment will apply to all the selected tracks.

I am not 101% sure if this is carried over the iPhone/iPad (although it should). If that’s not the case, you will need an Audio Editor like Amadeus Pro (there might be others, I happen to have that one and it’s very good, but might be overkill for what you need).

In your favorite editor, open the mp3 (or whatever format you have) and find the Audio Effect usually called Normalize and lower the dBs:

If you have to modify a lot of tracks, Amadeus Pro has a nice Batch Processor which is some sort of “automator” home made.

  The powerful batch processor allows you not only to convert large numbers of files between any of the supported formats, but you can also instruct Amadeus Pro to apply any sequence of sound effects.

See how I have added a Normalize −15dB to the “actions”.:

note: I don’t work for HairerSoft or Amadeus. There might be other editors (some freeware) that do the same thing, but the idea is the same. I know this one does it and excellently because I have it. :)


Do you have an iPhone or iPad? If yes, then one of these can be used to receive the code. A PC won't work as I know.

If you still don't receive the code on your iDevices, try the following on your iPhone or iPad:

Go to Settings > Your Name (Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store) > Password & Security.
Enter your Apple ID password when asked.
Tap Get Verification Code

This might only work with Keychain enabled on your iDevice.

If you don't have any other Apple devices, it could be your last option to reset the iCloud Keychain. But in this case I'd prefer to call the official Apple Support.


Clean reinstall of Mountain Lion deleted my iLife applications. How do I get them back?

This depends on whether your copy of iLife was purchased through the App Store, installed from DVD, or was just the version that came with the MacBook originally. If you had purchased from the App Store, it should be just as easy as going to the app store and redownloading your apps. If not, then you'll either need to reinstall from DVD or purchase the new versions of iLife. Your MacBook should have come with an install DVD for both OS X, and for iLife.

Another solution is to use the Migration Assistant and Time Machine to restore your apps. That's by far the easiest way to get all of your old stuff on your new system. Of course, it'll pull in more than just iLife.

Finally, if you have a Time Machine backup, you can still restore from it. Option-Click on the Time Machine icon at the top right, and choose "Browse Other Backup Disks". That will let you get into the backup from your previous setup.

Good luck!


Is there a way to interact with Siri Answers?

I'm afraid so, since they are just a result of your command. The outcome isn't like a webpage where you can click on and on to obtain more information.

But you can still Google or Wikipedia as library in combination with Siri. Whenever you start your command with 'Wikipedia', Siri will search your local Wikipedia for the command you've just said.

For example, if you give Siri the command Wikipedia Stack Exchange Siri will search Wikipedia with the Stack Exchange search term:

Same goes for Google. Just add Google in front of your command, and you're good to go!


Cannot Install or Update Apps in App Store - Error 13

I seem to have fixed the problem.

I used opensnoop to follow all file accesses while the app store was running.
I spotted that
~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.appstore.plist
was being accessed - this file had not been deleted by Safari when I cleared all cookies!
The file had incorrect permissions - I deleted it.
Now the App Store seems to be working again.

Opensnoop is a great tool!


Basically, the answer to your question can be found at this link: "Installing Windows 7 or 10 Pro 64 bit without DVD or Flash Drive".

The Boot Camp Support Software (BCSS) for your model Mac is for a 32 bit install of Windows 7. However, I used the same BCSS to successfully install 64 bit Windows 7 and Windows 10 on a 2007 iMac. Since you have 64 bit processors and 4 GB of RAM, you may want to try a 64 bit version of Windows. If you do, then you will want to read this question/answer: "Using Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 to install 64 bit Windows 7 or 8".

  Note: Your MacBook2,1 uses the same BCSS regardless of whether you are installing 32 Windows 7, 64 bit Windows 7, 32 bit Windows 10 or 64 bit Windows 10. For a MacBook2,1 the BCSS can be found at "Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033".


Theme Font & Size Changer sometimes disappear from Thunderbird. You simply cannot see the button to the options for this add-on. In order to make Theme Font & Size Changer add-on working for Thunderbird, you need to change the xpi-file (which is basically a zip file) before you import the add-on to Thunderbird.

You need to change the Bootstrap.js file inside the .xpi file. Bootstrap.js is a large file, and you have to comment out a line, rezip the files, and rename the extension from zip to xpi and reinstall the module.

Source


Is it safe to disconnect external Time Machine backup drive, if the encrypting is not finished?

After encrypting the drive for a few days (while the drive was disconnected a few times, and then connected again), Time Machine has finally finished with it and now only runs backups. Nothing indicates a problem, so I think it was all right--the encryption would pick up at the same percentage it was when disconnected, and continue, until done.


New messages getting delievered to two phones after restoring a backup

You probably used the same Apple-ID for the new phone, and then all the iMessages get forewarded.

If you want to have a closer look, here is a good explanation of how it works:
selfsolve.apple.com

in short, you can do the following steps, to separate the messages on the two devices:

Transfer your SIM card to your old iPhone.
Go to Settings
Tap Messages
Turn iMessage off
Go back to Settings
Tap FaceTime
Turn FaceTime off


PDF added to iBooks on Mac does not sync to iCloud Drive or my iPhone

Well, it turns out the answer was rather simple. I had iCloud enabled on my Mac, but it was not specifically enabled for iBooks. (Perhaps it was initially disabled because it is a new feature in recent versions of Mac OS).

I went to System Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive (click on Options...) -> click the check box next to iBooks to enable it.

After doing this, I immediately saw my PDF in iBooks on my iPhone (the one that I had added to iBooks on my Mac). I did not see the PDF within the iCloud Drive folder on iCloud.com, but I guess I can treat that as a separate issue since at least I've confirmed the sync worked.


How do I change the microphone input sensitivity on iPad 2?

What you can do with the built-in microphone is limited. You should investigate purchasing a third-party microphone, or better yet an audio interface with a microphone preamplifier, into which you plug a microphone. This will cost money but give you much more control.

Look for products from Tascam, Apogee, Line 6, IK Multimedia, and Griffin.


Apple has its own charm. Instead of working like on a Windows screen, you may create additional Desktops, as many as you want.

Personally I work on multiple "full"/maximized screens.
Press the F3 Button.
Now from the right top side, move your cursor to the top and press + .

Finally you can swipe between multiple screens simply by swiping 4 fingers right or left.


Tweetdeck is the app you're looking for! It comes with his own growl-like notifications and I use it over a year now. It's just great!


Avoid having to select "Include Network Devices" every time when scanning in Preview

That answer is very well done, but an even better option is to use "image capture".


Without jailbreaking, this currently isn't possible. You can provide feedback to Apple regarding this on the following page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

If you're jailbroken, I refer you to a fantastic answer that I received to one of my prior questions, which whilst isn't quite a duplicate per the comments above, can answer the question.

Where are cellular data preferences stored in iOS?


Boot into Safari-only mode in Mountain Lion?

In Mountain Lion, Safari-only mode was replaced by a full guest account, however you can get it back by enabling FileVault 2.


Why am I getting a "session could not be started with the iPad" error when syncing?

OK, I cabled my iPhone and synced. After doing that, I unchecked the sync using Wi-Fi. I then applied the change. Then, I checked sync using Wi-Fi and unplugged my phone. I then synced using Wi-Fi. It worked for me. Hope it does for someone else.


Is there a way to force the youtube app to load videos in non-HD resolutions?

There is no way to set this without jailbreaking.
If you do have your iPhone jailbroken you can buy 3G Unrestrictor whose purpose actually is to enable the use of apps that demand to be on WiFi. But one of its features is to force the Youtube quality to your preferred setting.


Can she change the volume with the buttons on the side?

If so, it should have to do with the other side button (which is set to either rotation lock or mute/unmute ringtone in the settings app) being set to mute/unmute ringtone and being switched to mute. Try flipping that button, it should fix it :).

If not, I have no idea or advice.


What is the minimum "delay" in AppleScript?

In the AppleScript documentation for the delay command it says "the number may be fractional, such as 0.5 to delay half a second" yet doesn't specify a stated minimum time interval, however there is an interesting discussion statement at the end of the documentation for the delay command which accounts for the timing not being accurate.

From the AppleScript documentation for the delay command:

  delay does not make any guarantees about the actual length of the delay, and it cannot be more precise than 1/60th of a second. delay is not suitable for real-time tasks such as audio-video synchronization.


Can I connect mini DisplayPort to DVI-D to VGA?

No. DVI-D only carries digital signals. Most (if not all) DVI -> VGA converters use the analog signal DVI-I carries. A mini DisplayPort to DVI connector will only pass on digital signals (as you correctly identified by referring to it as a DVI-D signal), so your DVI to VGA adapter is left out in the cold. You need to get a mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter.

The reason the computer sees the display is that one of your adapters is identifying itself as a display.


Safari can't verify the identity of the website error

I had this issue as well. When you get the error, expand it and change the dropdowns to "Always Trust." That should fix it.


Head Mode/iPod Mode Not Working for iPhone 4S in iOS 6


How can I diagnose really poor performance of my 13" MBP 2011 on 10.6?

When the wired and active RAM pass 50% - most tasks are measurably slower. You will see increased paging activity (vm_stat 15 in the terminal - watch for page outs - they indicate some memory had to be written to slow hard drive and constant page out and page in above 10-20 per minute indicates you have a RAM starved system.)

When starved for RAM, you can buy more or do less. You might want to get a monitoring software like Activity Monitor and keep the memory indicator in your dock. The system is likely thrashing based on the time delays you report. Each of the active programs needs some memory that just got paged to disk to free up extra space for memory needed by another program. It is a bad cycle and the computer just spends time running circles rather than getting done the work you wanted.

Here is a mac with every indication of RAM pressure:

But, quitting a large app like Aperture and starting it again still has no paging and the system is very responsive. Ignore the first line after the headings in vm_stat as it's the total since boot, but do watch for pageout as you have apps that are not responsive:

mac:~ me$ vm_stat 15
Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes, cache hits 0%)
  free active   spec inactive   wire   faults     copy    0fill reactive  pageins  pageout
260482  1186K  74303   275275 234520  323478K  2276158  188709K   120292   640158      482
260689  1187K  74303   275275 234038     4117        0     3256        0        0        0
261310  1185K  74001   275250 235835    10668       77     7115        0        4        0
292087  1153K  74711   274313 236770    32927      972    21684        0       18        0
521469 928347  75754   269861 235897    77208      130    63300        8       41        0
517897 936518  75766   269215 231981    27678     2504    13059        0       22        0
463894 987202  72076   274852 233371   126855     2712    89422        2       50        0
223701  1180K  77834   283568 265396   589512      255   562957        1     7278        0
205013  1186K  82765   291561 265293   389442      255   369664        0     7334        0
201401  1173K  89671   301672 265595   495426       82   472316        1     9286        0

However, starting about 4 of the Adobe CS4 apps can push this machine into thrashing and the slowness you describe with the apps taking 30 seconds to launch and lots of bouncing of square icons in the dock.

Here is the associated vm_stat 15 showing the problem. Look specifically at the free memory plummeting to the minimum and pagein / pageout climbing.

mac:~ me$ vm_stat 15
Mach Virtual Memory Statistics: (page size of 4096 bytes, cache hits 0%)
  free active   spec inactive   wire   faults     copy    0fill reactive  pageins  pageout
 21822  1190K   4746   585056 228411  332621K  2315577  196418K   121439   781551     1806
 86862  1152K   5123   570803 215710   124555      932   102117        0     2086       15
 73080  1161K   8631   571301 216607    24404      337    14931        0     1994        0
 29655  1196K  13500   572024 219284   188966      535   112913        0     3606        0
  1668  1208K   9616   594723 216954   174145      215   144996       16    15268      121
  4142  1206K   5795   595393 219564   322750        0   320426        0        1        0
  3043  1204K   3485   596990 223264   138981      136   136653        0       28        0
  2338  1205K   2782   598556 222416   332263      321   321321        0      164       30
  3251  1204K   2919   598770 222027    90135       82    85050        0        5        0
  2606  1203K    212   600436 224678   114502        1   112450        0       35        0
  1188  1200K    174   600230 228582   162660      117   157230    33127      860     9914
 22069  1200K  27612   550547 230304    89953       38    82383     8274      159     2071
  1910  1200K    349   600071 227976    24382        0    23465     7332        1     2985
  1164  1201K    174   600281 228423     4940        1     4046     7087        8     2500
 30404  1203K    186   567418 229475    16087        1    16045     8566        4     2235


Matching a column of cells to another column in Excel

Vlookup will be the answer here.

Eg, given a table:

   A,B
   1,5
   2,6
   3,7
   4,8
   5,9

In C1 put in, and drag it down:

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B1,$A$1:$A$6,1,FALSE)),"NOT IN A","IN A")

Col A has to be sorted.

Output:

A,B,C
1,5,In A
2,6,In A
3,7,Not in A
4,8,Not in A
5,9,Not in A
6, 10,Not in A

To deconstruct this:

   (VLOOKUP(B1,$A$1:$A$6,1,FALSE)

VLOOKUP takes your input (B1), and finds that value in the search table (A1:A6). The $ stops this changing as you drag down. It pulls back column 1 of the search table, in this case that's Column A. False tells it not to fuzzy match

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B1,$A$1:$A$6,1,FALSE)),"NOT IN A","IN A")

Wrapping this in an ISNA tells the IF to print out "NOT IN A" for successful ISNA - ie. where you get NA as a value from the vlookup, meaning it can't find a value. Otherwise, it prints IN A, which is where it can find a value.

Might be more than you care to learn about VLOOKUP (HLOOKUP is the horizontal equivilent), but with a larger search table, you can then pick different values that match your input. This approximates a SQL join.

So, given a table of client data:

Name, ID, Phone
Alex, 1, 123-456-7890
Bob, 2, 111-111-1111
Alice, 3, 222-222-2222
Teresa, 4, 333-333-3333

You can then create another table with a second set of data, and use a column in that to pull in data from this table.

eg.

OrderNum, ClientID, Client Name
1, 3, VLOOKUP - Alice
2, 4, VLOOKUP - Teresa
3, 2, VLOOKUP - Bob

This generally useful when given a report to be enriched.


Which Macbook Pro USB port should I use to charge an iPad?

You can use either port, the limitation is that only one USB port can provide this higher power level. If you try and charge two iPads at the same time, only one will get provided with the higher power level, and the decision as to which is made on a first-come-first-served basis.

Edit to Add: I forgot to mention that the article says Macs with more than two USB ports may be capable of powering multiple ports (but not necessarily all) at this higher power level. Unfortunately they don't give any further details.

Source


Command+Z stopped working in all applications

Whew! Found it!
It was an errant hotkey in Synergy.

Had to go through every running app one by one and look for hot key settings.


Set text for macOS floating text screensaver from command line

this thread is no.1 in Google for "macOS screensaver text" query, so I decided to put my answer here.

Currently (macOS High Sierra 10.13.5) if you want to change the text of your "basic" screensaver you have to type:

defaults write ${HOME}/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.ScreenSaver.Basic.plist MESSAGE "your message"

after that it's necessary to reload:

killall cfprefsd

after that you can test your changes with running a Screen Saver from a command line:

/System/Library/CoreServices/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine

For my needs I wrote a small script that inserts a ten-minute time interval in the screen saver (to show how long the break takes). It's here macOS ScreenSaver Text.

Hope this helps someone. Cheers.


MacBook Pro won’t connect to the Internet

There can be many reasons for this and I am not aware of any single silver-bullet.  You'll need to try several things to chip away at the issue until you resolve it.

You can boot a mac into safe-mode to test (how you get there depends on the version of macOS).

See:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

You can also create a new (temporary) user account, then log into that account to see if it has the same issues as your primary account.  If it does not have the same issues, then it usually indicates that something in your account may be causing the problem.  This could be a corrupt .plist file.  It could be something that starts up at login (System Preferences -> User & Groups -> (select your user) -> Login Items.  It could also be something that launches via launchctl (check the contents of ~/Library/LaunchDaemons).

You may need to do a bit of network sleuthing ... do you get an IP address (and what is it).  Home routers will generally issue an IP address in one of the RFC-1918 blocks (see: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918).  These typically begin with 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x but could include 172.16.x.x through 172.31.x.x (although I have never seen a home router use that 172 range).

If the address begins with 169.254.x.x then this is a self-assigned IP (meaning the DHCP server did not issue an address.)

From here (assuming you have a valid IP address) you would want to check the value of /etc/resolv.conf (which lists the DNS servers your mac will try to use to resolve servers) and also check your default router using the command (in Terminal) netstat -rf inet (look for the row that begins "default").  (netstat -rf inet will only look for IPv4 addresses.  IPv6 is excluded.)

Make sure you can ping the IP address of the default router.


Mac drive not showing up on resetpassword screen

The drive is locked using FileVault encryption and cannot be accessed until you unlock the drive. This may be set to a master password of yours, and often is set a while back. You may want to try older passwords (or versions of them) to see if any of those work.

To unlock the drive:

Boot into the recovery mode
Launch Disk Utility
Select the drive in disk utility
Click unlock near the top of the disk utility window

Unfortunately, the drive will not allow you to boot into those options and/or work on it until you pass the encryption lock. It will require a password or for you to completely erase the drive.


drive file stream has encountered a problem and has stopped

had the same problem for weeks now and was just able to solve it by uninstalling VirtualBox


Need to solve “Can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" by any other way than changes the Security and Privacy settings

The issue is that using a self-signed certificate does makes you a « identified developer » (at least to the eyes of macOS)

The system only accounts for certificates which have an Apple CA as their root.

If you want to get rid of the pop-up, ask for a Certificate on Apple’s Developer Console and sign your app with it.

Another way is to use csrutil to completly bypass macOS’ security mechanisms, but I highly discourage you from doing this, nor telling your end-users to do so...

Bypassing the security of an OS with a self-signed certificate would make the system... well, unsecure !

By using their CA in the certificates they issue through their Developer Program, they can revoke any app (or developer) at any time, allowing them to ensure the system security when someone tries to do bad stuff.


How to digitally sign a PDF with a X.509 certificate

PortableSigner is a tool to digitally sign PDFs with X.509 certificates.

It's a Java app so the installation of a compatible JRE is required (according to the website: 1.6 and 1.7).


Facetime audio calls not working using iPhone

Update
This is working for me now for the last 2 days.
When the new WiFi router was set up, I took advantage of the option to use the exact same network name and password for my network that was used with the previous router (different manufacturer and network type). Basically, I’m lazy and didn’t want to relog into 20+ devices on the existing network. That may have contributed to the problem.
As I said previously, I logged out of Facetime on my Macbook Pro {MBP) and logged right back in again. There was no difference in operation. However, I shut the Macs down at the end of every day and restart them the following morning. The day after I did the Facetime logout/login, tried it again and it worked. Also got a notification on my other Apple devices about the log in on the MBP after using phone with facetime.
So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s fixed.