How can I watch iTunes purchased movie on my Mac if it is missing in my library?

This Apple support article deals specifically with downloading past purchased content. You want to check the section labeled Mac or PC since you're trying to download purchased content in iTunes on a computer.

From the article and assuming you're using iTunes 11 or later:

Open iTunes.
If you're not already signed in, choose Store > Sign In and type your Apple ID and password.
If you're in the iTunes Store, click the Library button, in the upper-right corner, to go to your library.
Make sure that you have "Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases" enabled in your iTunes preferences by going to iTunes > Preferences in the Store tab and clicking OK.
In your iTunes library, click the content type you wish to download using the content selector in the upper-left. Choose Music to download music, Movies to download movies, and so on.
Locate the item or title you wish to download.
Click the download icon to download that item.

And as 2DD8847 points out their answer: being able to do this is country dependent. You can only do this where an X appears in the media category for the iTunes in the Cloud availability by country table found in this support article. And note that for some countries, under the Movies category, there's a caveat that "Some previously purchased movies may not be available in iTunes in the Cloud."


Close all programs after 1min without user interaction

Here you go. A simple script you can setup to run automatically in the background using launchd or other means of your liking...

#
# From: http://www.dssw.co.uk/blog/2015-01-21-inactivity-and-idle-time
# Returns seconds system is idle, ie no user input...
#
set cmd to "echo $((`ioreg -w 0 -c IOHIDSystem | sed -e '/HIDIdleTime/ !{ d' -e 't' -e '}' -e 's/.* = //g' -e 'q'` / 1000000000))"

#
# How many seconds user can be idle before we log them out
#
set maxIdleAllowed to 60

#
# How frequently we check the idle time, in seconds...
#
set checkInterval to 30

#
# We loop forever...
#
repeat
    set secsIdle to 0

    try
        set answer to (do shell script cmd)
        set secsIdle to (answer as number)
    on error
        # May want to do something fancy here...
        exit repeat
    end try

    log secsIdle

    if secsIdle > maxIdleAllowed then
        logUserOut()
    end if

    delay checkInterval
end repeat

on logUserOut()

# Exclude Finder at minimum because bad things happen, so I am told...
set excludedApps to {"Finder"}

tell application "System Events"
    #set oAppList to get id of every application process whose background only is false
    set {processList, idList, pidList, bidList} to the {name, id, unix id, bundle identifier} of (every application process whose background only is false)
end tell

set i to 0
repeat with p in processList
    set i to i + 1

    log "ID: " & item i of idList
    log "PID:" & item i of pidList
    log "Name: " & p
    log "Bundle: " & item i of bidList

    if p is not in excludedApps then
        try
            log "Quit with out saving app with id: " & item i of idList

            # timeout to prevent blocking by certain apps...
            with timeout of 1 second

                # Use bundle id for some odd apps... soffice i'm talking to you!?!
                tell application id (item i of bidList) to quit saving no

            end timeout

        on error
            try
                log "Giving up, killing pid: " & (item i of pidList)
                do shell script "kill " & (item i of pidList)
            end try
        end try
    end if

    delay 1

    log "" & return
end repeat

# Finally, with all apps closed, kill our session...
tell application "loginwindow" to «event aevtrlgo»

end logUserOut

EDIT: Your question has already been answered really, it's just that your action, after idle time, is different. Take a look here at,

How can I automatically launch an application whenever the Mac goes idle?

EDIT2: There you go. Added routine to close apps nicely if possible, and if not, kill them and logs out.


I mentioned that Mail was not checked in iCloud, but later, it was checked.  I'm supposing something restored from backup did that.

I turned it off again, and mail worked!

But .... why did it not work before the restore when that was turned off?

And why should having it ON break Mail?


Change Security & Privacy setting from terminal

Using AppleScript :

tell application "System Events"
    tell security preferences
    set properties to {require password to unlock:true}
    end tell
end tell

You can call the Applescript code using the osascript command.


I found this worked perfectly (from the terminal):

diskutil eraseVolume ExFAT MyName diskX

You'll need to change diskX to whatever the number is for your drive. You can find that out in disk utility, select the drive, click info, and look under 'BSD device node'


MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) running Mojave (10.14.3 (18D42)) is does not recognize external boot drive

Your guess is correct. The 2017 model Macs can only EFI boot Windows. Since the first partition on the external drive starts at sector 2, the drive does not have the space to convert from a MBR partition table scheme to a GUID partition table (GPT) scheme. This means you would need to restart the installation process.
When installing Windows 10, I would recommend you do not use VirtualBox. This recommendation is based on the fact that the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft and the Windows Support Software from Apple contains all the software required to install Windows 10 to your external drive. Therefore, there is no need to use a third party product such as VirtualBox.

The use of a virtual machine to install Windows dates to when Mac owners removed the optical drive so another HDD or SSD drive could installed in their Mac. After the optical drive was removed, often an owner would discover the Windows 10 installer could not be booted from a flash drive. This led to the use of a virtual machine as the only way to install Windows other than change the hardware configuration.

Since you model Mac can EFI boot from either an internal or external drive, you do not need to use a virtual machine. However, if you wish, a virtual machine can also be used. Below are some references to previously posted methods for installing Windows 10 on an external drive.
Drivers not working on Windows 10 installed (CLI process) on external SSD running on Macbook
Is it possible to use Boot Camp with Windows 10 from an external HDD?
How can I copy the drivers provided by Apple when installing Bootcamp on an external drive?


Verification required when attempting to purchase free app

You need to select that you don't want a payment option on your account.

Open the Settings app → scroll down to and tap on iTunes & App Stores.
Tap View Apple ID → Payment Information.
Select None as the payment type.


Does the AppleTV had a place where I can see what's been downloaded to the device?

Nope, the latest versions of the AppleTV have 8GB of storage however the device doesn't allow the user to view or modify anything about the status storage (at least in a stock state).

During the introduction of the first all black AppleTV Steve Jobs said,

  People don't want to think about managing storage, they just want to watch movies and TV shows.


Can the Macbook's webcam be ON without LED indication?

This research paper reported by the Washington Post and Ars Technica says yes.

Though it was only tested on "old" Macs (Late PPC, early Intel)


Using "Microsoft Surface Keyboard" on Mac Sierra

Not entirely correct about function key row: with the keyboard's function key lock engaged, the F1, F2, etc functions do work. However, unlocked none of the functions (volume, play, etc) work nor can they be mapped with Karabiner-Element.

This is pretty much par for the course for any Microsoft keyboard used on an Apple


Using FileVault 2 on non-boot disk with moved home directory

You don't need to reformat your disk to enable encryption. To encrypt a drive on Lion, you can use the following command:

diskutil cs convert /Volumes/your_drive_name_here -passphrase

You’ll then be prompted for the passphrase you want to set and get output similar to what’s shown below:

computer name:~ username$ diskutil cs convert /Volumes/your_drive_name_here -passphrase
New passphrase for converted volume:
Confirm new passphrase:
Started CoreStorage operation on disk2s1 your_drive_name_here
Resizing disk to fit Core Storage headers
[ - 0%..10%.............................................. ]
Creating Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Attempting to unmount disk2s1
Switching disk2s1 to Core Storage
Waiting for Logical Volume to appear
Mounting Logical Volume
Core Storage LVG UUID: D1EAB2C3-EC21-41DA-AD60-75E1302E247B
Core Storage PV UUID: 991C89E9-A628-408C-AAFF-39A561FCB95C
Core Storage LV UUID: 36483526-6C2C-43FA-A4B7-6F503473F1C2
Core Storage disk: disk3
Finished CoreStorage operation on disk2s1 your_drive_name_here
Encryption in progress; use diskutil coreStorage list for status

You’ll want to leave the Mac up and running while the drive is encrypting, as the encryption process may fail if interrupted. To check on its progress, run the following command:

diskutil cs list

Check the list displayed for the name of the drive you’re encrypting. When you find it, look for Size (Converted):, as that will tell you how far along the encryption is.

Once the encryption is finished, it should report Conversion Status: Complete

For more information, see here.


Since it varies by keyboard layout - why not open your keyboard viewer and find out?

In the US keyboard layout on lion, it's still shift + 3

You have to select this from the menu bar after enabling it in the menu bar


It's extremely unlikely to be malware as the Hazel program is a reputable utility that automates file actions by extending spotlight and file change detection systems of OS X. It does exist as a System Preference panel, so you could easily miss it's footprint on disk if it were not for the menu bar icon.

You can get updated versions and uninstall info from the vendor:

http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php

If you have Time Machine, you can use spotlight to determine pretty much precisely when it appeared.

Now, with the NSA and hackers and all sorts of people making software modifications and using back doors, your installation of hazel could be malware masquerading as an honest program. Without forensic analysis - it's hard to know. I'd start with reinstalling the latest version and doing a sanity check to make sure you're happy with it. If not, removing it should be easy and secure enough for most people.


Mavericks - Safari 7 - BROKEN Animated GIF

I'm on Safari Version 7.0 (9537.71). GIFs will play through once, then only play for as long as the cursor is moving. Have been trying to find some setting in prefs or under the Develop menu for a way to allow GIFs to loop continuously.


Find the exact Build Number of a specific Mac OS X update from the command line

The relevant file for that specific dmg is SecUpd2020-006Mojave.pkg/PackageInfo.
After mounting the dmg, do this:
% cd /tmp
% xar -x -f /Volumes/Security\ Update\ 2020-006/SecUpd2020-006Mojave.pkg SecUpd2020-006Mojave.pkg/PackageInfo
% grep -o 'com.apple.pkg.update.*" ' SecUpd2020-006Mojave.pkg/PackageInfo | sed 's/.*\.//'

For updates that have been automatically downloaded to /Library/Updates/, the relevant file is named *.dist. For instance, in 001-48382/001-48382.English.dist there is
<key>macOSProductBuildVersion</key>
<string>17G14033</string>

and also
com.apple.pkg.SecUpd2020-005HighSierra.RecoveryHDUpdate.17G14033


How can I check USB drive contents safely?

What I typically do is mount the USB drive in an isolated virtual machine. But this requires you have a hypervisor installed and a guest operation system configured, etc. This works because I can snapshot the VM state as well as isolate at the network level. But it's too complicated to explain here.

Probably the easiest way to do this is to mount the drive as read-only. You can do this by using diskutil from Terminal.

Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
Insert the drive into a USB port.
Run diskutil list from Terminal and note the disk number for your USB drive. Here's what my output looked like

  $ diskutil list
  /dev/disk0
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
    2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
  /dev/disk1
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
                                  Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                  5F6A08FD-AD5D-4C63-9DF2-8C1DE409F264
                                  Unencrypted
  /dev/disk2
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *32.7 GB    disk2
    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
    2:                  Apple_HFS TomThumb                32.4 GB    disk2s2

So my USB drive is disk2.

Eject the disk by running diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX (which would be "disk2" for me)
Remount disk in read only mode by running diskutil mountDisk readOnly /dev/diskX
Use Finder or Terminal to examine the disk.

Note that if you eject the drive, you'd need to run this sequence again to have it mount as read only. There are other apps that automate mounting disks as read only but the command line is the only real UI for any OS! ;-) #opinion


Notational velocity on the Mac, notes.app in iOS

I use Notational Velocity and Simplenote apps on iPhone and iPad and the Simplenote web site as well and while I see you want to stick with Apple's notes.app I think you'll find Simplenote excellent, maybe better. I've been using it as long as it's been out and it's stable, simple, and has always worked for me.

If Apple mated the Notes app with something on the Mac I might never have tried Simplenote but it's cumbersome as you say to have to use Mail to deal with notes. Notational Velocity's integration with Simplenote is probably what you're looking for.

Simplenote is free, give it a go.


How can I write a tab character in Safari?

You can use control-option-tab.

In other applications you can use option-tab, but in Safari tab and option-tab are used to select elements in web views.


Initially, I tried these solutions. However, they did not work.

The solution that worked: Removing the Google public DNS addresses from the DNS servers list. I had added them earlier for a VPN to work.


As mentioned in one of the comments already, within Messages go to Preferences > Accounts and highlight the iMessage account.  There either untick the box for Enable this account or sign out of iMessage, which will effectively disable the account.


When I attempt to read that value, I get told it doesn't exist:

  $ defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor -dict deferredUpdates
  2011-09-28 11:44:23.535 defaults[4532:707]
  The domain/default pair of (com.apple.windowserver, Compositor) does not exist

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT

You are about to make a serious modification. You should have backed up the relevant plist file before making any changes. But now, you should absolutely do so just in case you make a change that causes serious system instability.

MAKE A BACKUP OF /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver RIGHT THIS MOMENT!!!!!!

Please don't do this until you have taken necessary safe-guards and understand what my command is actually doing. I suspect you may be able to restore the default by issuing:

defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor

I suggest this because I notice that in that plist file (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver), I have no reference to 'Compositor' whatsoever.


Trying to share a contact group on iPhone?

This doesn't work on Chrome for Mac, so it may be the same on Windows & require that you use a different browser to achieve it...

Go to https://www.icloud.com/#contacts
In the left column, select your required group
Gear menu, bottom left -
Select All, then
Export vCard

The exported file contains all the contact details for that group of contacts.
This can be shared.

Whether that data can then be used to send a single text may be dependent on your carrier.


Want to Make Itunes only play when I explicitly unpause or start it

"This afternoon I received an email with an audio attachment, which I played."

Did you double-click it, or Open, which would open it in iTunes?

Once you've set iTunes going it will then follow its pre-set behaviour, which includes playing the following song.

If you don't want to bother iTunes at all with the audio file, you can simply select it & tap Space Bar, which will make Quick Look play it instead. This won't touch iTunes, won't add it to its data storage, nor will it then play anything else once it's finished.
You can start/pause or change playback location. Space Bar again will close it.

The only thing you can't do is select something else in the same app whilst it's playing, or it will Quick Look that instead.


How to use selected text in apple script? I want to add text before and after it

Briefly, have your workflow accept Text from Any Application and check the box that is labelled something like Output Replaces Selection.

Then, all you need is a single Execute AppleScript action, in which you should replace any example code with this:

on run {input as text}
    return ["<sometag>", input, "</sometag>"] as text
end run

which can also be written like this:

on run {input as text}
    return "<sometag>" & input & "</sometag>"
end run

The workflow would need to be saved as a Service or Quick Action, and then be activated in System Preferences where other "Services" are listed.


How do I use my existing KeePass database on my new iPad without iTunes on a computer?

The key file has a file extension: .key

I tested the following with Dropbox and an iPad running iOS 11. I deleted my existing key file for the test:

rename your key file with a .key extension
move the newly renamed key file to a shared folder in a cloud (or anything that the iPad can also access)
on your iPad, open the app for the folder share and find the key file
export the key file ...
one of the options should be "Open In..." tap it
you should get a list of apps you can copy the key file to and one of them should be MiniKeePass, tap it
this opens MiniKeePass with the key file listed under "Key Files"

That should work. Again, I did this from Dropbox, so another folder sharing service might behave differently.


Stop Firefox from asking me about blocking Flash

You need to disable the automatically redownload of blocklist.xml in about:config, as described below - source: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Blocklist.xml

  blocklist.xml is a file in the profile folder.

  blocklist.xml contains a list of add-ons that Mozilla considers to be harmful to the user (contains security vulnerabilities, adversely affects browsing experience, etc.). Any installed add-on on the block list will be disabled and any attempt to install an add-on on the block list will result in an error. A list of the add-ons currently on the block list can be found on the Mozilla Add-ons Blocklist page.

  blocklist.xml is by default automatically downloaded once a day from mozilla.com. The blocklist functionality can be disabled by extensions.blocklist.enabled, be modified to point to a different URL by extensions.blocklist.url, and changed in frequency by extensions.blocklist.interval.

  Editing

  blocklist.xml is by default automatically redownloaded once a day. As such, any changes made will be overwritten. If you wish to edit this file manually, it's recommended you turn off the update functionality by changing extensions.blocklist.url to be null.

  The syntax of the file is described here.

  Moving

  This file can be moved to a different profile without any extra effort, but since it's automatically overwritten once a day, there's no point.

  Deleting

  Deleting blocklist.xml will clear the block list until the file is redownloaded.


Why is there a web process active even if Safari isn't opened?

I noticed that too, and did the following to "solve the problem" (it's not a problem for some people though :P ):

In System Preferences, open Spotlight. In Search Results tab, disable Bookmarks & History. Then restart. After that, Safari Web Content process won't be active when Safari is not open.


Go to your account settings, delete your iCloud account, reboot, add it again.


How can I use an Applescript from within a program?

To use this (or any) script in a program like Apple Mail, you could create a service in Automator.

Launch the Automator program.

When it says Choose a type for your document, select Service and click Choose

In the top dialog, select Service receives no input in Mail.app (or, the name of your program, or any application if that's what you want).

You will insert one action: From the Utilities group, double-click Run AppleScript.

Select the text that says

  (* Your script goes here *)

and paste in the script you want to run. In your case, the script you want to paste is

  tell application "Mail"
    set theSelection to selection
    set theMessage to item 1 of theSelection
    set theSubject to subject of theMessage
    tell application "Address Book"
        set theGroup to make new group with properties {name:theSubject}
    end tell
    set theRecipients to to recipients of item 1 of theMessage
    repeat with a from 1 to count theRecipients
        set theRecipient to item a of theRecipients
        tell application "Address Book"
            set theName to name of theRecipient
            tell application "Mail" to set theAddress to address of theRecipient
            set thePerson to make new person with properties {first name:name of theRecipient}
            make new email at end of emails of thePerson with properties {value:theAddress}
            add thePerson to theGroup
        end tell
    end repeat
    set theRecipients to cc recipients of item 1 of theMessage
    repeat with a from 1 to count theRecipients
        set theRecipient to item a of theRecipients
        tell application "Address Book"
            set theName to name of theRecipient
            tell application "Mail" to set theAddress to address of theRecipient
            set thePerson to make new person with properties {first name:name of theRecipient}
            make new email at end of emails of thePerson with properties {value:theAddress}
            add thePerson to theGroup
        end tell
    end repeat
    tell application "Address Book" to save
  end tell

Once you have done that, go to the File menu and click Save.

Give the service a name you will remember, like "Add Recipients to Group".

Then when you are in Mail, you can select a message or messages and go to the Mail menu in the menu bar, then the Services menu in the Mail menu, and select the service Add Recipients to Group.


What power is going in or out of a USB-C port?

Find at this article for more details regarding USB-C in MacBook.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204360


iCal Google Sync -- how to get rid of folders (delegates)?

Since late 2012, you can add additional calendars to your main CalDAV account by going to https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect. After you have done this, you can uncheck the delegate calendars in the iCal settings.


iPhone crashes Dlink DI-624 router regularly

You should upgrade to iOS 4.1 as it has several bug fixes, maybe you are experiencing a know problem that has been fixed in the latest release.

All reports from the new iOS 4.1 (made publicly available yesterday through iTunes Update), they always say it's much better, even on my iPhone 3G it's fantastic!


Automator: How to replace a particular string with the filename?

You can use a Run Shell Script action, with a script like this:

basename=${1##*/}
tmp=`mktemp -t $$`
sed -e "s/STRING_TO_BE_REPLACED/$basename/g" "$1" > $tmp && mv $tmp "$1"

with Pass input: set to as arguments:


You can use security set-keychain-password:

$ security set-keychain-password
Old Password:
New Password:
Retype New Password:
$

The password and keychain can also be specified as arguments:

security set-keychain-password -o oldpassword -p newpassword file.keychain


Is there a dashboard widget for displaying (and monitoring or reloading) plain text files?

There's a trick you can use to do this without using any other sort of dashboard widget:

This MacTipper article from 2008 shows how if you open a text file in Safari, you can then send that file to be opened in Dashboard.

  ... anything you can open in Safari, you can have on the dashboard. This includes text (TXT) files. If you combine this with other fun things you can do with text files, such as your basic todo list, you can put some pretty good information on the dashboard. As with images, you just need to open the text file in Safari and add it to the Dashboard.

Apple have removed that ability in later version of Safari, however using a simple HTML file allows you to bypass that restriction as in the example below:

<html>
<head>
  <title>TODO List</title>
</head>
<body>
  <iframe src="todo.txt" width="600" height="400">
</body>
</html>

For other people who come to this thread looking to get TODO lists in the Dashboard, then iSlayer's Organized is a Dashboard widget that provides TODO functionality in the Dashboard.

  To do’s are synced with OS X’s built-in database, so Organized will
  always reflect what’s shown in Mail and other apps.


A new feature of iOS 7 is call blocking and it allows the device to block calls apart from the previous solutions that involved jailbreaking or having the carrier block calls for you.

Go to recent calls within the phone app. Tap on the "i" to the far right of the number you wish to block. On this info page, scroll down. At the bottom of the page, tap "Block this Caller". Confirm on the warning message.

From the settings app, use iMessage and FaceTime preferences to manage the block list.

This list blocks calls, messages and FaceTime calls (audio and video) from that contact. Combined with a blocked contact as Loïc Wolff has proposed, you have a neat solution for dispatching unwanted calls on an ongoing basis.


Detecting other bluetooth devices from my iPhone

You can't connect iPhone and Mac computer by Bluetooth (unless the iPhone is jailbroken). You will need another Bluetooth enabled device (e.g. Bluetooth headset, keyboard etc.) to test Bluetooth on your iPhone.

About your edit:

  EDIT:

  how to turn on Bluetooth on a Mac book pro ?

To turn Bluetooth on Macbook pro: check if there is a bluetooth icon in the menu bar (next to the clock in the top right corner). If so, look at the color of the Bluetooth icon. If black -- Bluetooth is already on. If gray, click on the icon and choose "Turn Bluetooth on"

If there is no Bluetooth icon on the menu bar: Go to System Preferences (on the dock or below the Apple icon at the top left corner of the screen), choose Bluetooth. If it is off, it would say "Bluetooth is off..." and there would be an "On" checkbox below it, click on it to turn on. You may also want to turn "Discoverable" on when pairing with other devices, and turn it off when not pairing (already paired devices can still connect thought even if Discoverable is off). You may want to check (if unchecked) "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar".


A headless Mac Mini server gets stuck (non-SSH-able) after rebooting (macOS Mojave)

The obvious thing to check is if you have FileVault enabled and attach a display simulator dongle. In the FileVault case, the machine does not restart to the OS but to a firmware / limited log in screen, but having a display connected won’t enable/disable FileVault.

You will want to have a remote KVM or someone that can log in for unexpected power failures. See this thread for a lot more options like power, display and management options for headless Macs.

Remote into Mac Mini after a reboot
Rebooting a headless Mac Mini


How do i navigate to httpd_vhosts.conf in xammp from the terminal?

I guess you need 3 directories to configure Xammp on OSX.

/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf
/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
/etc/hosts

you can open file from within the terminal for editing using e.g. nano

nano /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

you can then edit it and save changes using Ctrl+O.


Mac Mail downloads my entire gmail account can i just get the last 30 days?

Apple's mail will get all the messages by design. There isn't a setting to tell it to stop after a certain volume of downloaded content or some message count or attachment count.

You'll find that altering the server settings if you can will be the only way to change the volume or number of messages.

Exchange has a setting to limit the number of messages and calendar items that sync. Gmail also has settings you can configure (under settings) for IMAP to download only the last 1000 mails. You can also exclude entire mailboxes and folders in Gmail to prevent them from ever being seen by an IMAP client such as Apple's OS X Mail or iOS mail apps.

If you can't alter your server settings, you may have to change the volume of messages you store in that email account.


Using Magic Keyboard with 3rd party Displays

Third-party monitor brightness can't be changed by using the Magic Keyboard keys. You'll have to use the settings on the monitor.


Can I use a foreign power cord to power my MacBook?

Yes, the MagSafe power adapters support dual voltage (100-240V).

According to the specs on Amazon for the 85W version:

  Input: AC 100V~240V 50/60Hz

So long as the local input provides power in that range, you'll be able to get a local MagSafe compatible cord and your US MBP will be fine.


NSString doesn’t understand the “stringWithString_” message

Answer from an Apple thread:

As of Yosemite, ASObjC is available everywhere, not just libraries and applications.  Importing the desired terminology via the use statement is now directly supported in the Script Editor - for your example, the NSString class stuff is available by adding a use framework "Foundation" statement.


Some options:

Make a Media Browser with Automator - takes about 30 seconds - and you can invoke it in many ways - including with a contextual menu its,
Install an app like http://www.karelia.com/imedia/ which will do the same with some extra bells and whistles.

That said, if you use an app like Aperture or iPhoto to manage your photos then they are the "go-to" apps for anything to do with your photos - including viewing them. What you have there is an argument for getting more Ram ;)

If you really want to you could run either app in Referenced Mode. This would leave your Masters (and note: Masters only) accessible via the Finder. While I am happy recommending Aperture in Referenced Mode, I would have significant reservations about running iPhoto in that way.


ok, so I think the answer has to do with "curly" quotes or "smart" quotes as opposed to "straight" quotes.
I had been using a text editor to edit the script. However, when I switched to an actual code editor, it noticed several "curly" quotes. I replaced those with straight quotes and all is well.


Which process is using port 4000 (identified as remoteanything by nmap)?

nmap just makes a guess at the service here, as basically any application can bind to any port. To see which specific application it is in your case, run

lsof -i :4000


Change date format for column of existing non-US format datetimes in Numbers

I suspect your date is simply not in a format Numbers natively recognizes. To test this failure-mode and see the same symptom, try typing in something else it may not recognize, like 999999999999, and set it to a date format. Again, it doesn't change, because Numbers doesn't want to assume how to parse it, and risk outputting incorrect values.

A solution is to pre-parse the input by field. Here's a demo using MID to extract the year, month, and date fields by their position in the string, and hand them off to the DATE function.

=DATE(MID($A2,7,4),MID($A2,4,2),MID($A2,1,2))


How can I prevent Homebrew from installing a duplicate of software I installed through other means?

Take the path that you used for --prefix= during your ./configure and sym-link that into the Cellar/ directory that Homebrew is using. Homebrew will see these directories and see the dependencies as satisfied (unless you need to have them compiled with or without certain features to make Homebrew's formulas compile correctly). If your manually-compiled deps aren't compiled correctly, you'll probably get errors out of Homebrew.

ln -s /path/from/prefix/ /usr/local/Cellar/path/from/prefix

(Note the trailing slash on the first path, and lack of trailing slash on the second. OS X can be picky about these slashes when creating sym-links.)

This is the wrong way to do it, you should just be using --ignore-dependencies coq — that's what it's there for.


Best app for texting internationally to non-smartphone mobile?

The app in my mind apparently does work abroad and internationally.
Pinger (free)
Pinger is a cross-platform messenger and a free texting/calling application.  It allows you to grab a US number and use it overseas- without having your family back home paying crazy international fees.
Here is a breakdown of what's absolutely free: texting, messaging other Pinger numbers, obtaining a real US number, inbound calls from anyone, and calls to Pinger numbers.
Outbound calls can be purchased in packs of minutes or by watching short advertisements to gain free minutes.
From Pinger support:

Traveling outside the US
You can still use Pinger! Pinger uses the internet to work. Just
switch your device to airplane mode (don't want to get crazy
international data-roaming fees!). Anytime you have WiFi, be it free
in your hotel or paid in a cafe, you can use Pinger to text or call
your friends at home.
[...]
Will my friends get charged international fees?
Never fear!
Because Pinger gives you a US or Canadian phone number, you can use
Pinger and your friends at home WON'T get international fees when
you're abroad! Only their standard texting and calling rates will
apply. Pretty sweet, isn't it? :)


How to use 802.1X authentication with Edimax EW-7811Un USB Wi-Fii adapter?

You do all the work in the "Network" System Preference if memory serves.

I don't have a 10.6 box handy to check but under 10.8 and 10.9 you first add the correct certificate to your keychain then when you select any of the "Enterprise" security options and EAP-TLS as the mode you can tell it to use the correct certificate and the username.

I remember having to  write the instructions for doing this on 10.6.8 a few years back but can't find them. The process was highly similar though.


Based on an article in 2012, it should be possibile to AirPlay this easily.
The quality will either be 720P or 1080P, buffering based on the quality of your internet connection. If your connection is fast you have no problems as long as your stream can handle it ;)
Yes you can do this too, a cable is a direct connection not using Apple TV. It's cheaper as you don't have to buy an Apple TV. However, with Apple TV you can do much more - and it will show subtitles for example in a pre-chosen style.


Apple did not write a web application to access books via a web browser, so you can't access your iBooks via iCloud.com. Access to that data is only possible on a Mac or an iDevice with the iBooks application.

It might be an interesting feature though. You can submit feature requests to Apple using the feedback form on apple.com.


SSD OEM Exact Model, Part Number and Manufacturer in MacBook Pro (Mid 2012)

It is a Samsung 830 (SM512E) for both the Retina and non-Retina Mid-2012 Macbook Pro.

Ref:

Apple Forums
Anandtech
MacRumors

Edit: Apple has also begun to use the Sandisk X100 in Retina Macbook Pros.


Screenshot taking a very long time to appear on desktop

I have the same problem here. It seems to be a refresh problem. The file is actually there, it just doesn't show up. If I open a Finder window in the desktop folder the same problem happens. But I can verify it's a refresh problem because if I go to other folder and come back the file is already there. I have an iMac with a Fusion Drive. High Sierra doesn't convert it to the new APFS file system. I'm guessing it has something to do with that. My guess is that High Sierra is prepared for APFS and that APFS treats file refreshing differently from the earlier MacOS file system. So whatever signal it's expecting from the file system, it is not receiving.


Add Account in Outlook 2011 is greyed out

Odd. Not really an answer, but all I can say is that it works for me. As far as I'm aware I don't have any other specific Outlook configuration that deviates from a "standard" install. Once you've filled out all the relevant information in the edit fields (which I did in order from top to bottom and with "valid" information), the "Add Account" button becomes un-greyed. Like so:


How to force iMovie to create iPhoto video thumbnails in the background?

Try importing a movie from a DVD.
If you do, that will give your video options just enough complexity, apparently, to cause imovie to give you a choice;  the left navigation should show that importation event along side of your iphoto movies. This happened to me at least. As soon as I imported from other sources, it no longer kept my ENTIRE iphoto library as the default. In reading what I just wrote, I'm now confused: I'm pretty sure that I put my DVD video through iPhoto first, so, I'm not sure exactly what I did in imovie to make the importation event unique, but in any case, once I did that, I wound up seeing a directory structure where my iphotos videos were no longer the default selected.

Of course, in order to use any of those videos, I now have to click on iPhoto movies in which case I'm back to waiting for the all to load, which still takes a long time.


Unlocking iPad 2 (iOS 7) with the Apple ID credentials

Sorry, but there is no way to bypass a forgotten password. You must restore it in iTunes. If your device is backed up in iCloud or iTunes, you can restore your data.

iOS: Forgot passcode or device disabled


I was wondering "How Hard Can It Be(c)" to implement it and gave it a go today.

The Terminal.app seems to emulate 'move cursor to left/right' ESC sequences. You'll hear the famous 'beep' if you try to place the cursor in the shell prompt. And you'll hear it as many times as there are invalid moves.

The solution in iTerm2 works the same by invoking the appropriate ESC sequences. Although it beeps only once if you try to place the cursor in an invalid area ;)

Terminal.app seems not to be able to handle multi-line prompts, only moving on the last line seems to work. Multi-line prompts in this implementation should be handled correct.

Results can be found on github. It's a fork of the original with a pending pull request. The branch I work on is named 'option-click-hardcoded'.

And of course it's highly untested. That means tested only by me on my late-2007 MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.7.3.

If you'd like try it out by compiling it yourself or download the precompiled binary for i386/x86_64/ppc iTerm_v1.0.0.git-085ec22c.zip).


New Apple Photos app and iCloud: uploading archived libraries

Merge them into one library (iPhoto Library Manager will do this job), then upload them to iCloud by designating the combined library as System Photo Library in Photos' preferences, after opening and converting it with Photos.
Another way to merge two or more libraries is described on the Apple site:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204414

  If you designate a new library as the System Photo Library and then
  turn on iCloud Photo Library, the photos and videos in the new library
  will merge with those already in your iCloud Photo Library. If you
  want to keep the contents of your photo libraries separate, don’t turn
  on iCloud Photo Library for more than one library in Photos.

Depending on upload speed, prepare for a very long wait.

And if you then/afterwards want it on your MacBook make a new empty Photos library on your internal hard drive and select it as "System Photo Library", enable iCloud Photo library and set it to optimized.  It will then download either originals, or optimised versions, depending on space available.


My iPod touch takes gigantic videos; how come it takes such tiny photos?

No, you can't currently.

Im assuming this is a 4th gen iPod Touch - since its the only one with a camera. It can do 720p videos, but it looks like they also limited the picture size to be about the same. This was a large complaint when the new Touch was announced, since the iPhone now has a 5mp camera.


In Lion the shortcut is exactly that and you can actually take a look at the menu:

Make sure you're using the right one. If you wanted to alter those, you'd have to go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts and add a new one:


mapping external keyboard keys to mac keys

ControllerMate does this. At work I use the Microsoft Natural ergonomic keyboard and a Logitech mouse. ControllerMate has hardware profiles for both, and I have many of the MS-specific keys remapped to other functions.

Like yours, my keyboard also has an otherwise useless Mail button. With Controllermate open, if I press the Mail button while viewing the Microsoft keyboard profile, the list of available key sequences automatically jumps to the one it just received. You can then program that key to do whatever you like, even when ControllerMate isn't open.


Installing Leopard from DVD: Apple logo?

You most probably won't be able to install this OS X version on your iMac:

10.6.4 (which is Snow Leopard, not Leopard) was released June 15th, 2010 (Wikipedia)
iMac 12,2 was released mid 2011 (Apple Support Document)

As a general rule you can't install older OS X discs on newer hardware (missing drivers etc.).


Deleting windows font which were copied from my bootcamp partition

You can turn them off in Font Book without deleting. Open the Font Book app in your applications, scroll down until you find the troublesome font and right click/secondary click on it and select "disable font".

Alternatively, problems can often arise if you have duplicate fonts like where osx has installed both the windows fonts and it's own fonts. In this case you could also try right clicking and selecting "resolve duplicates".


Can I extend my guest network with an Airport Time Capsule?

Yes. If the extending Time Capsule is in "Bridge Mode" (in Airport Utility settings), it should extend both your main and guest wireless networks. This is how I have my network configured.


Can't shift+select in Finder in Lion 10.7.1

Problem solved: Seems to be a feature when you try to shift+select files in icon view


APFS volumes cannot be read in Windows. Boot Camp only provides drivers for HFS+ volumes, so it's not a problem with the version of Windows but rather that the format of the Mac volume has moved on beyond the support drivers made available by Apple for Boot Camp.


Older MacBook Pro doesn't see new modern Bluetooth speaker, why not?

Thankyou for the level of detail you've provided. Saying that, it's unclear from Sony's spec page as to backwards compatibility.
Your MacBook can do up to bluetooth 4.0, the speaker is 5.0, which according to the standard is backwards compatible with 4.0 & 4.1.
When you say you've debugged bluetooth on MacBook, what steps did you use?
The bluetooth module is combined with wifi, so if you reset it I'm imagining you needed to setup wifi again?
If your investigation doesn't go anywhere, an option would be to buy a small usb bluetooth 5 dongle. You may need to tell the Mac to ignore the built in module. Details here. Force OS X to use Bluetooth dongle instead of built in controller
Hope you are able to resolve it. If not usb adaptors are pretty cheap.
Sorry should've added that specifying an address in bluetooth is not really a thing. device and service discovery are really the only path to connecting any bluetooth device.


Try it like this:

This one has a loop built into it, make sure you set 'Timed' to 1 second and the 'Format' of the 'Add Date or Time' step to Hour Minute Second


Looking for an Evernote alternative with password lock

I guess SimpleNote meet your requirements.

It does sync to the cloud.
The iOS app is universal
You can lock the app with a passcode
It's plaintext only
There's no SimpleNote desktop app per se, but there's a public API and a lot of great software use it that you can find here.
And there's also a web app
There's no list, but there are tags.
You can share your notes.


My MacBook Pro 13'' works only with 85w charger

Either:

The two Macbook 13 draw different power due to normal conditions and your adapter won't work at all when a normal but high draw is needed. (i.e. replace your adapter)
The 60 W adapter is failing and it' bad luck that you got a few heads in a row and a few tails in a row - if you do enough tests 50% failure rate will happen with any MacBook. (i.e. replace your adapter)
Your MacBook is drawing / requesting more power than it should and needs a soft reset / SMC reset or repair. (i.e. service your Mac)


Macbook Pro just started overheating and losing frame rate

This sounds to me as a problem with the graphics processor getting overheated. I burned two of them playing WoW.

Replacing the thermal paste, cleaning the fans and using the laptop in the right place (not holding it against the legs, in bed, or using it on a glass table) made a great difference.


How can I tell an Automator action, that the source path of a document should also be the destination path?

Okay, I downloaded the ABBYY_FineReader_Pro_ESD.dmg file from abbyy.com and installed it, then opened it to look at the help file for use with Automator. It didn't have much information so I checked the link in the help file back at abbyy.com and while it had some additional info, it did't have what I was looking for. Namely, documentation on programmatically setting  "Output filename:" to a variable, like can be done with "Save output to:" setting it to a variable.

The following is an example of an Automator workflow, saved as a Service, to take a selected Image file in Finder and convert it to and editable PDF document. You can see in the image below what settings are relevant. Note that the only option in the Variable Options for the current_path variable only has a Name: field, no Script field. And while the image is taken in OS X 10.8.5 nonetheless I tested it in macOS 10.12 and Automator doesn't show Variable Options as in your picture. (So how did you get it like that?)

I set "Save output to:" by drag and drop the current_path variable onto it and then saved the Service. It important that you don't run the Service from within Automator because if done from Automator it changes "Save output to:" the containing folder's path and doesn't reset like it does automatically when it run as a Service from Finder.


How do you remove Safari 7.0.4 on Mac OS X 10.7.5

If you just wanted to get the old version back, browse this official list of available Safari and pick the version you need. The currently installed version can be deleted by dragging it into Trash (requires admin rights).


Using External GPS / GNSS With iOS

This requires :

The external GPS must be a Made for iPod (MFI) certified External Accessory (EA) that support iOS (has the Apple authentication chip) via a Bluetooth connection to the GPS
Requires that iOS Core Location Services be overridden by one of two methods so that all apps on the iPhone/iPad will use the external GPS.

1) Use of an app such as EOS Tools Pro that receives location information and overrides iOS Core Location Services.
2) The External Accessory (EA) itself somehow overrides iOS Core Location Services.
I do not understand how this is done.
Only devices made by SXblue https://sxbluegps.com/products/gps-gnss-receivers/ can do this MFI magic AFAIK.

I have found only a few GPS manufactures that support iOS:

BadElf (lower accuracy but lower cost)
EOS https://eos-gnss.com/product/arrow-series/arrow-gold/
BlueStar (rebranded EOS devices) http://bluestargps.com/index.html
SXblue https://sxbluegps.com/
EOS (BluStar is EOS Arrow 200 I think). All these EOS devices support iOS:
https://eos-gnss.com/comparison-chart

Sharing Android GPS with an IOS Device

I have no idea if this works.

How To Share GPS From An Android Phone To An iPad [Guide]


How to disable emoji I see sometimes while browsing?

Disabling/hiding emojis in content is just like hiding any other type of content you do not wish to see. In this instance, you cannot use a content blocker but rather you will need to use a user script to find and remove/replace all characters in the agreed Emoji ranges.

I use Safari Extension QuickScript with this script to remove all Emoji from the page after the page has finished loading:

document.body.innerHTML = document.body.innerHTML.replace(/(?:[\u2700-\u27bf]|(?:\ud83c[\udde6-\uddff]){2}|[\ud800-\udbff][\udc00-\udfff]|[\u0023-\u0039]\ufe0f?\u20e3|\u3299|\u3297|\u303d|\u3030|\u24c2|\ud83c[\udd70-\udd71]|\ud83c[\udd7e-\udd7f]|\ud83c\udd8e|\ud83c[\udd91-\udd9a]|\ud83c[\udde6-\uddff]|\ud83c[\ude01-\ude02]|\ud83c\ude1a|\ud83c\ude2f|\ud83c[\ude32-\ude3a]|\ud83c[\ude50-\ude51]|\u203c|\u2049|[\u25aa-\u25ab]|\u25b6|\u25c0|[\u25fb-\u25fe]|\u00a9|\u00ae|\u2122|\u2139|\ud83c\udc04|[\u2600-\u26FF]|\u2b05|\u2b06|\u2b07|\u2b1b|\u2b1c|\u2b50|\u2b55|\u231a|\u231b|\u2328|\u23cf|[\u23e9-\u23f3]|[\u23f8-\u23fa]|\ud83c\udccf|\u2934|\u2935|[\u2190-\u21ff])/g, '')

Testing on the following page results in no emoji being visible: http://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/11.0/emoji-test.txt


How to prevent iOS 10 apps from "resetting" when activated after being backgrounded?

This is due to the restrictions iOS places on app developers.

Apps are only allowed to stay open in the background for a few minutes (this saves RAM), so if the developer doesn't have the app save where you were last, the app will reset to its start page. So no, you can't do anything about this.

This is why you don't really need to close your apps in the app switcher.


It cannot be done.

It looks like you can, but in fact it doesn't affect the menu bar clock.

System Prefs > Language & Region > Advanced... > Times

Changing the format in here, you'd expect it to affect the menu bar clock... but in fact it affects timestamps shown in Finder windows only.

There is no equivalent Advanced mode in Date & Time


Mail shows 2 unread but there are no emails

Go to your Inbox, drag messages down slightly, Search field will appear. Start typing 'Unread' and filter will appear.
Use it. Probably it will help you locate those two unread messages.


Booting ubuntu on macbookpro with osx and windows installed

Yes. You are right.

rEFTit will let you choose what to boot, including the ubuntu.

Also, not many people know this, but fsck tends to break journaled file systems after alot of usage (not sure how this applies to SSD's).

So, you did a good thing not installing the *nix based operating system on the same drive as the mac.

Here is one worry I have. Im not sure if a reEFIit knows how to read (boot) a thunderbolt drive.

Here is my setup:

2013 Air 512 GB SSD split into 3 partitions
rEFIT has replace Apples original EFI.

sda1 -> Mac OSX (Never boot into unless for firmware update)
sda2 -> Windows (Almost never boot into it unless doing something for work)
sda3 -> sda3a sda3b sda3c
sda3a -> Linux Mint
sda3b -> Arch Linux
sda3c -> gentoo.

rEFIt gives me the first 3 options. Then I use grub to choose my flavor.

Hoe this helped.


So far as I can tell, the answer is no. I can't find any mention of public APIs for developers to leverage Power Nap.

What did you have in mind? You could also put in an enhancement request at Apple.


What is the point of syncing with iTunes if I have Google Apps, iCloud and no media?

OS updates will now happen over the air. The only reasons would be to sync a new iPhoto event/album or to sync content that you added manually (ripped CD).

But outside of that, iOS doesn't require syncing.


Mac calendar app (iCal) displays error message "server responded with an error"

Try following sequence.
In System Preferences, Internet Accounts, deselect all Calendars to stop the sync.
Wait for a while for the process to stop.
Than click on the "Revert to Server"

Re enable Calendars.


MacBook Pro (Mid 2014) 4k external displays performance

Assuming you went from 1080p to 2160p your total screen area has gone from 4 megapixels to 16 megapixels.
If you actually mean 'full 4k' 4096 × 2560, then your screen area is now in the order of 20 megapixels.
That's aside from the internal screen.

You're just expecting too much of it, to be able to push that kind of resolution at full speed.

Spec for the 2014 vs 2015 - source Everymac

2014 - 2 external displays over Thunderbolt 2 @ 2560x1600
or a single display up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt and a single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz via HDMI.
2015 - 2 external displays over Thunderbolt 2 @ 3840x2160
or a single display up to 3840x2160 via Thunderbolt 2 and a single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz via HDMI.

So yes, it would appear the 2015 has significantly more grunt for video, even though it geekbenches about the same as the 2014 overall.


Switch tabs in Safari - Shortcut (⌘ + ⌥ + Arrow)

You can use ctrl + tab to switch to the next tab (equivalent to ⌘ + ⌥ + >) and ctrl + shift + tab to switch to the previous tab (equivalent to ⌘ + ⌥ + <).

You can use this on Safari, Chrome and Firefox, basically with any app that has tabs.


MBA 13 2017 High Sierra. External LaCie 1TB SSD Time machine added, partition grayed out

The Disk Utility application can partition the external drive, if you use GUID Partition Map scheme. Also, you need to create a one or more temporary Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions in order keep the partition button from being grayed out.

Below is an example of how to create two MS-DOS (FAT) partitions using a 16 GB flash drive.

Erase the drive.

Partition the drive.

Erase the first partition.

The results are shown below.


Pages: "Spelling and grammar" option disappeared

Start up Pages on its own and create a new blank document and then go to the Edit menu and see if it is correct, with Spelling and Grammar.  If so, try going to Pages > File > Open and see if your French doc also can be opened and works right.


Getting IP address of hotspot connection

Look at your 'router' or 'gateway' address.  Open up the network control panel, select the iPhone connection, and the address should be displayed there, no?

Alternately it can be found by issuing an 'ifconfig' command in the terminal.

Failing all that you could get the external IP by browsing to www.whatsmyip.com and use that instead.


Opening text files from finder: Unable to find application

Try setting the default app to open .txt files using Get Info

Left click a text file
Choose "Get Info"
Under "Open with:" choose the app you want to use as the default
Click "Change All..."
Click "Continue"


Use a Run AppleScript action with the following to get the path:

POSIX path of (path to me)

When run in the workflow, this provides the path to Automator.app, but when run by launching the saved application, this provides the path to the application.


Thanks to the folks from bitprotect I got this solved by following their description. (in German here: http://www.bitprotect.de/loesung-abstuerze-von-office11-nach-upgrade-auf-macos-10-09-maverick/)

for all others, the short summary is:

disable MERP

Go to /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MERP2.0
open Microsoft Error Reporting.app
go to Preferences and uncheck "Enable Microsoft Error Reporting"

open Terminal
execute "defaults write com.Apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;killall Finder"
in Terminal go to /Library/Contextual Menu Items
delete all files and directories in this folder "rm filename" or "rm -r directoryname"
execute "defaults write com.Apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE;killall Finder"

open office program and rightclick to check if it works. --> yes it does!

optionally you can now re-enable MERP.


How can I copy data from an external HDD that is about to fail?

I would try using rsync from the command line.

rsync -av --ignore-errors /Volumes/failingDrive/ /Volumes/brandNewDrive

should do the trick. Mind the trailing / at the end of the source. Rsync will not copy files it finds on the destination, so if you call it a second time it will continue where it left off.


iPhone is not finding Outlook calendars from other profiles

Figured this out in the end. I simply set the other profile as the default and synced the calendar.

I have left it as the default for now, but a comment buried in a forum thread somewhere said that even if you set the original profile back to default, iTunes will continue synchronizing with the original (non-default) calendar.


Authorization plugin for package installation

What you ask is possible in several ways. We use management frameworks like JAMF Pro or Munki to script and manage arbitrary changes and installations so that no user needs to download / package / install or prompt. These are powerful distributed automation options, but they cost time and salary and experience and licensing.
You can roll your own more minimal installer, Most require a bit of skill if you can’t change your installer to just run as non-admin, but they are lighter cost and weight than an MDM suite solution. See homebrew for a great example of an installer that needs admin only at setup and not when installing new code.
If you need admin installer and can’t use brew cask to package your apps, a dependable way is to write a daemon that runs as admin. Microsoft Office, Adobe and many other software does this, the installer system runs at launch or as a daemon and gets admin privileges and then uses the OS to run periodically.
This avoids the design intent for the installer to ask for admin at the last moment when installations trigger. Following the design intent is generally more secure and far less work for you and your customers.


Kensington Trackball Works, how to scroll horizontally with Trackball or Auto Scroll

The old driver used to have an option to set a button (or button combination) to 'change scroll direction'.  I used to use that all the time and they have since gotten rid of it.

The workaround I've been able to come up with is to program a button to simply type the shift key (I use the two bottom button combination).  It's not as nice, but then you can hold the button(s) and scroll in the opposite direction without using your second hand.


iTunes Producer unable to get password from my keychain

Looks like your Keychain has corrupted.

Do you get this error "Preferences Error: Could not load Accounts preference pane."

I have a solution here

Search for "Keychain Access" and a window as shown in the picture above would appear. Select the account which is troubling you.
Delete it/them and restart.
Moreover you can review any used accounts and remove them from here too.

Details here


Ran export TMPDIR=~/tmp/ and it broke my node app, can I revert the tmp folder to the default folder?

TMPDIR needs to point to an existing, user-writable directory. So setting it to ~/tmp is fine as long as ~/tmp actually exists.

By default it points to /var/folders/_d/_SOMERANDOMLOOKINGSTRING/T/ to ensure that every user has their private temp folder. If for whatever reason you loose the definition you can run find /var/folders/_d -user $(whoami) -type d -maxdepth 1 to check that it still exists, and then do

export TMPDIR="$(find /var/folders/_d -user $(whoami) -type d -maxdepth 1)"

to set it back.

In case it doesn't exist any more (which is unlikely as it is protected by SIP), either reboot to have it recreated or run (all three lines)

export TMPDIR=/tmp
export TMPDIR="$(mktemp -d)"
chmod 700 "${TMPDIR}"

to create and assign a new temp folder.


Install old version of Homebrew on Snow Leopard

Apparently the way for Snow Leopard is to "install as normal" however that gives me this

...
curl: (35) error:1407742E:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:tlsv1 alert protocol version
Failed during: /bin/bash -o pipefail -c '/usr/bin/curl -fsSL https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/tarball/master | /usr/bin/tar xz -m --strip 1'
rogers-macbook:temp rdp$ curl https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/tarball/master
curl: (35) error:1407742E:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:tlsv1 alert protocol version

Work around:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install > install

now download https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/tarball/master in a browser, ex: to this filename ~/Downloads/Homebrew-brew-1.5.8-16-g1ca2ee6.tar.gz

now edit file named install, replace /usr/bin/curl -#{curl_flags} #{BREW_REPO}/tarball/master with cat ~/Downloads/Homebrew-brew-1.5.8-16-g1ca2ee6.tar.gz

next download https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/tarball/master in a browser, ex: to ~/Downloads/Homebrew-homebrew-core-bd37905.tar.gz

now edit install file, replace /usr/bin/curl -#{curl_flags} #{CORE_TAP_REPO}/tarball/master with cat ~/Downloads/Homebrew-homebrew-core-bd37905.tar.gz

now run it ruby install

You'll probably still need xcode installed, and use the steps in Brad Bell's answer to use it to install curl.

Another option (untested) might be to install xcode, then build curl locally from source (ex: download https://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.59.0.tar.bz2 with a browser, unzip it, build as normal to some temp location), put that location's bin folder first in your PATH, then run the normal homebrew installation instructions.

Tigerbrew might be an option as well.


Developer program expires in 2 months, what happens if I publish a free app now?

Once your Apple Developer membership expires, all apps published under that developer's name will be removed from the App Store, regardless of whether they're free or not.

If you publish an app today, assuming it's approved, it will go into the App Store.  Soon after your membership expires it will be removed.  This might not happen on the exact day but it shouldn't take more than a few days after expiration.

From the Apple Developer page:

  Expired Memberships

  If your Apple Developer Program membership expires, your apps will no longer be available for download and you will not be able to
  submit new apps or updates. You will lose access to pre-release
  software, Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, and Technical Support
  Incidents. However, your apps will still function for users who have
  already installed or downloaded them, and you will still have access
  to iTunes Connect and free development resources.

  If your Apple Developer Enterprise Program membership expires, your
  apps will no longer be available for download and will no longer
  function for those who have already installed or downloaded them. You
  will still have access to free development resources.

  iOS Developer University Program memberships do not expire.


Mail prompts me for SMTP password the first email I send

Aside from the fact Mail should remember you SMTP password once you enter it for the first time, you can set it by:

Open Mail
Open Mail preferences
Go to accounts
select the mail account whose SMPT password you want to set
In the 'Account information' tab click on the 'Outgoing Mail Server (SMPT) list
From the drop down menu at (5) select 'Edit SMPT server list'
Select the SMPT server in question from the list
Click on the 'Advanced' menu
Set Username and Password (and possibly tick the "use Secure Socket Layer (SSL)' box).

You are now set.


You should be able to set a default application for a certain extension specific to a user. Right click on a file, click "Get Info" and open the section "Open With". Select your preferred application and click "Change all".

Alternatively you should be able to delete Excel from your Applications folder (drag to Trash).


Unable to convert certain keywords in record to JSON

data and id are both keywords within the AppleScript language.

It may be possible to quote these words to avoid their being interpreted as special cases. Try using the pipe character or double angle brackets/chevrons to wrap these keys.


Yosemite upgrade frozen, what should I do?

As recommended by 0942v8653, Command+L will show you the log and give you a better idea what is going on. In my case, the delay was due to copying of TexLive that had an enormous number of files.


How to find file system of external hard drive?

The easiest way to format any disk is to use Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). Just start the application, select the drive to be formatted in the left column, make double sure you've selected the right one and select the file system type, partition sizes etc. on the right hand side.


macOS Mail app displaying postal address next to email address

That is a Junk mail.

What they put in the TO field you can not change.

Somehow they have your Dads address in they records and put it in the TO field for some obscure reason.

However if you wish not to see emails like that then

Select that email

Click on Mail (top left)

then Preferences

and select rules

Now set it up as shown, and emails from CheapOAir will be Automatically deleted. You can undo this if you want to see them again.


Strange font behavior with external monitors on MacBook

The problem has to do with LCD font smoothing.
This Mac OS X Hints tip describes how to fix the problem:

In Snow Leopard, you can only choose between Automatic and Standard CRT. Since few people use CRTs these days, most users now have only one option: Automatic. The problem with the Automatic option is that OS X incorrectly detects many third party LCD monitors as CRTs, and consequently, disables LCD font smoothing.
You can force OS X to use LCD font smoothing on all displays with this Terminal command:
defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2
The number 2 here corresponds to Medium - Best for Flat Panel. You may also use 1 for light smoothing, and 3 for strong smoothing, as per the original OS X font smoothing options.

You might have to re-login (maybe even restart) for this to take effect.


Moved my time machine backup drive to another computer, can see it but won't recognise old backups

Just Just go into System Preferences … Time Machine and hit Select Disk…

(If that's not working, let us know what error you're getting/what does happen.)


External SSD won't unmount due to socketfilterfw

The easiest and safest thing is to log out of the account on the Mac. (Apple Menu - log out)

This does two things:

All applications are told to quit and you can identify any apps that are stuck / hung.
All drives are safely unmounted as part of the normal log out process (unless you have an odd setup where you installed software that mounts the drive before the user logs in).

Once you have done that, you can either power off the Mac (to ensure all possibility that the drive is safely shut down and open files are not corrupted) or disconnect the drive.

Pulling a drive that's journaled and HFS+ (or the new APFS) is safe in that you won't corrupt the filesystem. What is at risk is each data file that's still open - so you would lose your word file, your iTunes library that lists playlists / ratings, etc.. (but not the songs themselves).

As to the socket filter - you might need to dig a bit in activity monitor or terminal to know why that was identified as using the device. It's probably relating to the apps you run off that device - Google Chrome will run updaters, perhaps Mathematica runs some licensing software that connects to the network (a school license server or back to the vendor). If you can make this error happen on a newly rebooted Mac several times - then it should be easy to look over each running app and trace why the filesystem is blocked and active.


Xcode 3.2.6 and iOS 4.3 SDK installation problem on Mac OS X Lion

For Lion you need Xcode 4 (not 3.2) This is available from the App Store or from a paid Developer account).

This will install the installer in /Applications, run this to install Xcode to /Developer


Restoring iPhone's state from a dd hard drive image

You'll need to JailBreak the device before restoring. Then you'll need to go through the same process you took to create the image, except the values of the if and of arguments will need to be swapped.

Additional Reading


Can I trust Apple support and share my password?

In a word, NO.  No-one reputable will EVER ask for your password, EVER.  Proper support have the tools and such in place to allow them the access they need to do what they need.  If they have to actually login as you (Which clearly they can only do from a different device anyway, limiting any usefulness it may even have) then surely there is nothing they need to do that for which they can't simply ask you to replicate for them without handing over credentials.  I smell a rat.


How can I copy videos and photos to my iPad without syncing?

In iTunes, go to the iPad’s (or iPod’s) summary screen. Check the “Manually manage videos” box, and click the “Apply” button. You can then drag videos from your desktop to the iPad without having to sync.


Control volume of individual apps on iOS

Unfortunately no, the only volumes that could be changed separately are media volume and ringer volume, which is also alarm volume.
There are, though, possibly tweaks with jailbreak, but the one you mentioned is pretty outdated and will either just not work or cause bigger problems. Search among tweaks released or updated starting at least from March 2018.


Does TechTool Deluxe still come with AppleCare?

Here's all the details:

http://www.macgasm.net/2011/03/03/tech-tool-deluxe-longer-included-applecare/

I totally agree with their recommendation of Drive Genius and Disk Warrior. I use them daily and could not do my job without them.


Can I display notifications on my non-primary monitor? Or on both displays?

In Growl perferences, under Displays you have a screen dropdown to choose with screen you want the notifications to appear on. The screenshot is from Growl 2.0.1.


Your error is pointing you correctly to look at firewall and networking.

This should be fairly easy to narrow down with some facts:

If you don't have DNS - use IP addresses for all testing - fix the Mac and PC to specific IP
Ping works from Mac very reliably - you can use the network utility to ping by IP or host name.
Network Utility will also be useful to port scan the PC. You should be able to tell if the windows firewall is blocking your access

My hunch since I run mongodb all the time on Mac and PC is your firewall would be likely blocking access. The only issues I never have is wrong IP, wrong port, firewall blocking, mongo configuration.

If you are comfortable on the command line - get mongodb on the Mac from https://brew.sh and then run brew install mongodb so you can connect from the command line and see explicit details on what errors happen.

$ mongo
MongoDB shell version v3.4.10
connecting to: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017
2017-11-22T07:10:38.494-0600 W NETWORK  [thread1] Failed to connect to 127.0.0.1:27017, in(checking socket for error after poll), reason: Connection refused
2017-11-22T07:10:38.501-0600 E QUERY    [thread1] Error: couldn't connect to server 127.0.0.1:27017, connection attempt failed :
connect@src/mongo/shell/mongo.js:237:13
@(connect):1:6
exception: connect failed

So in your case, use the command line mongo to attempt a connection to your server at 10.0.1.9:27100


iPhoto is not as wrong as one might think.

Examining the first picture carefully i indeed found some faces:

Dramatically increasing contrast and saturation of some channels and lowering brightness of the residual channel the villains come to light:

While the two inside the oven are just interested in the food, the other two create the impression that they are up to no good outside the oven.

So get a new stove because your current one seems to be irretrievably lost to the creatures. And don't always mistrust iPhoto presenting dubious results.

;-)


The common trick stops working when you open a new Finder window starting at a folder you've never viewed before—a location that doesn't have any Finder window info saved. You could replicate this by making a new folder on your desktop and then double clicking it to open in a Finder window. You'll see the size has been reset.
I'm pretty sure the "real", permanent Finder default is hard-coded into the Finder binary. I've seen stuff hinting towards that within Hopper.
Here's the next best thing—you can set up an Automator service that quickly resets the front Finder window to your preferred size:

Open Automator, and create a new Quick Action / Service.
Set "Service receives no input in Finder"
Add a "Run Applescript" block.
Paste in: tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder" to set size of front window to {770, 460}

Edit {770, 460} to your preferred width and height, respectively. Note that you can find a Finder window's current size by running the following in Script Editor: tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder" to get the size of front window.
When you're done, save your Service with a name like "Reset Finder Window Size". You can also go into System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services and assign your Service to a keyboard shortcut.
The first time you run the service, it will likely fail. To fix, open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Automation and grant Finder the ability to control System Events.


2013 iMac + Bootcamp + Windows 8.1 = BSOD

I found the culprit. It seems the Apple HFS driver isn't compatible with Windows 8.1. I booted a rescue disk and removed the AppleHFS.sys and AppleMNT.sys files from C:\Windows\System32\drivers and rebooted, and Windows 8 booted fine.

I obviously lose the ability to have read-only access to my Apple filesystems, but this is not a big deal to me because since I work on a lot of Windows boxes anyway I use external ExFAT-formatted SSDs and flash drives to transport data around.

For others, if having some sort of HFS access was a deal-breaker, there are other solutions out there that can mount HFS partitions. Can't think of any, especially that are free, but in any case, at least Windows now boots on this machine and works as expected.


Why does OS X prevent access to a folder if it ends with the word ".service"?

If Finder thinks it is a bundle, maybe you can right-click on it and "Show Package Contents"...


Create a terminal command to open another user profile in chrome

Testing with Google Chrome (85.0.4183.102), the following command in Terminal works for me:
open -na 'Google Chrome' --args --profile-directory="$PROFILE"

Where $PROFILE is the name of the profile you want to open, e.g. "Default", "Profile 1", "Profile 2", etc.
Note: The $PROFILE is the name of each folder for each user in: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/
In Google Chrome if you open a tab to chrome://version/ and look at Profile Path:, you'll see which profile folder belongs to the user who's profile you are current logged in as.

If you want to get details of each profile, you can use the third-party utility jq to parse the ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Local State file in Terminal, e.g.:
jq .profile ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Local\ State

You can then look at the output for e.g. "Default", "Profile 1", "Profile 2", etc. and under each profile you'll see info for e.g. "gaia_given_name":, "gaia_name":, "name": or "user_name": to ascertain which profile belongs to whom.
I downloaded jq from https://stedolan.github.io/jq/ and it was saved a jq-osx-amd64 in my Downloads folder. I renamed it to jq, made it executable with chmod +x jq and moved it to /usr/local/bin/ so it would be available in my PATH.


I have had problems with third party video adaptors, so I'd be hesitant to try that. Since your monitors have DVI ports, I'd go with two Apple Mini Display Port to DVI adaptors and use an HDMI cable for the third monitor.


Late 2010 macbook air, can't install os again

That's a weird issue, your best bet is probably to download the "OS X Recovery Disk Assistant" to reinstall OS Lion.
From Apple's website:

"To create an external OS X Recovery, download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant application. Insert an external drive, launch the OS X  Recovery Disk Assistant,  select the drive where you would like to install, and follow the on screen instructions.
When the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. To access OS X Recovery, reboot the computer while holding the Option key. Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager. "

Note: In order to create an external OS X  Recovery using the OS X Recovery Assistant, your Mac must have an existing Recovery HD, which in your case it most likely already does.


If you have OS X Yosemite (10.10), you can use iCloud Drive to store your photos, as you're only limited to the amount of storage space you have available under your iCloud account. Apple details how you can store documents onto your iCloud Drive here


How do I share a post in the Facebook app for iPad?

You cannot re-share posts from the iOS Facebook app.

You can re-share posts if you:

Browser to https://www.facebook.com/ in mobile Safari
Log in
Click the three bar icon in the upper left hand corner to bring up the side bar
Scroll to the very bottom of the side bar
Click the "Desktop Version" link at the very bottom of the side

This will give you the full Facebook desktop web view and from here you can re-share posts in your timeline.


How to wipe certain files from Time Machine Backups history but keep recent copies of them in case of a full restore

Time Machine doesn't create bootable backups in the first place, and apart from the initial one they're not "full" either.

Individual folders/files as not valid targets for tmutil delete anyways, so selectively deleting parts of snapshots like you want is not possible. But that doesn't matter much since system and app updates are infrequent enough and small enough I can guarantee they're absolutely dwarfed by your general day-to-day ~ throughput.

If you're tight on space and want to optimize what you need to do is get BackupLoupe and look for anything that frequently takes up a lot of space in your snapshots. Cache files are already excluded automatically but some apps do put stuff in ~/Library/Application Support that effectively is cache, without being marked as such. Usually gets flagged correctly eventually but I've kept some Spotify and Chrome databases excluded, for example.


Upgrading and restoring hard drives in mid-2011 Mac Mini Server

To answer your questions as numbered:

Yes the computer should have seen both drives. Have you checked to make sure the drives are properly seated and the SATA cable plugged in properly?
I would always suggest doing a clean install of the OS and using Migration Assistant instead of Time Machine (you can do a Migration from a Time Machine backup) because anything that's currently associated with the UUID or anything else specific to the old HDDs may be weird when it recognizes the new drives as being different. Migration assistant fixes these problems and makes sure any app licenses transfer properly.
As I stated in my answer number 2, I would argue yes, with some changes.

If I were you, I would take the following steps:

I would try to figure out why my second HDD wasn't showing up. If necessary, I'd take the computer apart and replug its SATA cable.
Once I had both HDDs working, I'd format both of them to their final formats (likely HFS+).
I'd do a clean install of MacOS Sierra.
After setting up the computer, I would use spotlight to open the Migration Assistant app and migrate from that time machine backup.
Once the migration was complete, I would make time machine back up all of the data. This way, all of the new, migrated information has a backup.


How can I buy apps in the App Store without a credit card?

I don't know if this is applicable to your country, but in Germany, Apple sells iTunes apps cards especially for buying apps in the app store.


Do splitters for mac combined mic/headphones exist?

How about the "Wiretap" from Extrasensory devices?

(source: shopify.com)


Option Shift word selection doesn't work in Visual Studio Code on Mac OS Big Sur

The fact that opt+shift+up/down work seems to suggest that this is an keybinding issue.
Under your VSCode keybindings, check to see if the keybinding cursorWordLeftSelect and the corresponding right select ones are active. If they are active, check to see if any other extensions override these shortcuts (by searching for the keybind: opt+shift+left).

Hopefully this fixes the issue.


Why can't some of my machines boot to my Lion install USB drive?

It sounds like the USB drive doesn't have the drivers to boot the other macs. :-(

The fastest path forward is to simply erase install a basic Snow Leopard OS onto the failed macs. While this is happening, do download the 10.6.8 Combo update to your USB drive just in case it's needed.

Don't bother running the updates unless the Lion installer forces you to get to a higher version than your 10.6 installer delivered.

Once you boot into Snow Leopard - you can try again to mount the USB and execute the Lion upgrade package. I don't know if it runs well from the USB or needs to be copied to the internal boot drive.

There's a little uncertainty in my brain - so I don't want to write too much without making sure this makes sense to you.

As an alternative - you could try instead to transfer the recovery partition, but this may not be universal (include the drivers the older macs) either.

There is a step-by-step recipe here for copying any bootable volume to one file on a USB drive.

If you are curious or feel it's worth a shot, image the recovery partition from your Lion mac.

You should be able to boot from DVD and use disk utility to make an equivalent partition on the "non bootable" mac and drop the recovery data to get a minimal bootable system and avoid a full Snow Leopard install.

Unless you are familiar with Disk Utility and the steps to capture, the reinstall option might be more likely to succeed on first attempt. I certainly don't know if this partition is customized by Lion and not universal so I've made it an aside for the curious.


Opening a file with command-line bin through Finder

You should be able to get info on your .mp3 file and change the associated app.

Go to cmd-i of your app, click the drop-down of "Open with:" .. Select other and navigate to your directory. You will have to select Enable : All Applications to be able to click on the mp3blaster app.


Am I being hacked? Why can't I change the firewall settings?

This is not any kind of sign that you've been "hacked".
If you enable anything in the Sharing prefs pane, then it will automatically enable the relevant service in the Firewall settings.
Disabling the service will remove the firewall setting.
It would be potentially highly confusing if you could switch on a service, then block it in the firewall.


"First Aid found corruption that needs to be repaired"

Fixed my own problem:

I went into internet recovery mode (Cmd+Option+R) on startup and was able to repair the disk from disk utility inside of internet recovery. I guess it was cause recovery was on the disk I was trying to fix.


How to mount a .sparsebundle after External Hard drive mounts

So, I found out a way to do what I wanted via, automator and shell scripts.

I made an Automator Folder Action. set the folder to /Volumes by pressing CMD+SHIFT+G and typing "/Volumes" and adding a Run AppleScript action.

    on run {input, parameters}

set mountedVolumes to do shell script "ls /Volumes/"
if (mountedVolumes contains "External") is true then
    do shell script "hdiutil attach /Volumes/External/TimeMachine/TimeMachineTest.sparsebundle"
end if

return input

That way, when there is an update to the volumes folder, it runs the AppleScript, which mounts the .sparsebundle.

edit:

Found a more simple way.

Create the Folder Action for /Volumes, then add Run Shell Script action.

  hdiutil mount /Volumes/External/TimeMachine/TimeMachineTest.sparsebundle


Is OpenOffice for Mac OS X ready for use?

I used Open Office, it does the job ok. No crashes, quite feature complete. However if you really don't want to pay anything for an office suite, I'd go for Google Docs.

If you do want to pay, then definitely go for iWork. It's the only one that's fully integrated with OS X (especially if you have Lion).


The iPhone could not be restored because the firmware file was corrupt

Throw the file out & try again.
It's stored in ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/


Can I use my 1st generation iPad ans a second screen for my Mac Laptop

I think you will run into problems trying to do this with a 1st generation iPad, as most software I've come across to achieve this sort of thing requires iOS 7 and a 1st generation iPad can't officially run this version of iOS.

In general though, if you want to use an iPad or iPhone as an extra display for your computer you will need to use 3rd party software to do this, such as Duet Display.

I have used this app to set an iPad up as an external monitor for an iMac and it works well for some workflows. How well it works for you will depend on what you're trying to do and the hardware you're using.

Duet Display does work with both iPads and iPhones and works with both Mac and Windows. However, I can not share any personal experience in using it with a 1st generation iPad as I think all versions of Duet Display require at least iOS 7.

There are also other options you can investigate, but I have no personal experience with them and don't know if they will run on a 1st generation iPad:

Air Display
iDisplay
Mirroring360

Hopefully this answers your question one way or another.


Keynote doesn't have a "Customize Touch Bar" option in the menu bar under "View", so it looks there is no way to customize it (macOS Mojave).


The same information, displayed every second by in klanomath's answer, can displayed using your command. You just need to enter a controlT character from the keyboard while the dd command is executing.

By pressing the controlT character, you are sending the same SIGINFO signal to the dd command that the command pkill -INFO -x dd sends.


transfer apps from iPhone 4S to iPad 3 using iTunes 10 on a PC

If you want to simply reinstall the apps, look for the Apps tab in the iPad sync settings on iTunes, tick the boxes of the apps you want to transfer. If you want to copy your save files, etc. then try the following.

Note I haven't tried this

When you reset your iPad or plug it in for the first time, it will ask you if you wish to restore from backup. Try choosing your iPhone 4S's backup if it's in the list.

Also, you can simply re-download from the app store on your iPad at no charge. Instead of a price tag, you will see an Install button.


What the weird files '!' and 'export' are and where do they come from?

I've checked the .bash_profile file and found this lines:

> export GOPATH=$HOME/go
> export PATH=$GOPATH:$GOPATH/bin:$PATH
> !

It looks like I made a mistake when I ran console command during GO installation. I've removed this '>' symbols and now everything is ok.


MacBook Pro Suddenly Goes to Sleep and Will Not Wake Up

I had the same issue.. I updated to 10.9.3 and this solved my issue


Deleting Custom ringtones from iPhone / iTunes 12.7

You can delete custom ringtones right on your iPhone using GarageBand.

Launch GarageBand on your iPhone
If you’ve never created a song on GarageBand, then you need to create one. It doesn’t matter what you create, you just need to have a song on the “Recents” screen.
Navigate to the “Recents” screen and long-tap on one of the songs.
Some floating options will appear
Select “Share” and then select “Ringtone”.
If a message appears about ringtones being 30 sec long etc’, just press “Continue”.
You should now be on the export screen. Press on “My Ringtones”.
A list of your custom ringtones will appear.
Press on “Edit”.
Delete the ringtones you don’t need.
That’s it. You can now cancel back to the main screen


How can I have multiple languages in my iPhone dictionary?

Yes, add another keyboard to you iPhone.  I did it with Russian, follow this website, pretty easy.

Activating the keyboards is straight forward. Tap the “Settings” icon and then select “General”. Then scroll down and select “Keyboard” and then “International Keyboards”. There you will see the long list of languages available — simply flicking the toggle to “ON” will activate the keyboard. You can activate as many as you like.
Now that more than one language keyboard has been activated you will see a small globe key on all keyboards. Simply tap the globe key to toggle between all the installed keyboards. Simple, elegant and clever.


Lost the Option to Boot into macOS After Windows 10 Bootcamp Installation

If you have access to Windows only I'd suggest you to try these steps:

Access the run command via Win + R (I don't know how Bootcamp actually remaps Win key, alternatively just open start menu and type run).

Insert msconfig once inside the Run GUI.

Once accessed the System Configuration Utility click on the Boot tab.

Check the option No GUI boot and click OK.

Now you have to Restart and hold down Option key.

You should now see Mac OS and Recovery as boot options.
Enter Recovery --> Startup Disk, now you may be able to select you default boot drive.
If you have Filevault enabled, one way of making the default boot drive selection option appear is to change the Boot Security from High to Medium or None back to High. It will then prompt you to enter your password so it can check to confirm that the encrypted drive is bootable. Then you can select the partition and choose to boot from it.
Now Reboot as you would normally(without pressing any key while you're doing it) and you should boot automatically inside Mac OS, from there I'd create a new Bootcamp instance.


iPhone 4S turning off and discharging randomly

Having a trained repair person put a working battery in the device would let you know if the failure is simply due to battery / voltage or another hardware fault. Hard to tell without testing and doing the work, though.

Voltage drops is what causes the unexpected power off so corrosion or a faulty device that over draws the current that can be supplied can cause this. Also, perfectly working electronics won’t work if the battery is failing / failed.

Apple service diagnostic can usually tell if the battery is healthy, but I don’t know if they offer that service on this old of equipment anymore.


What is the fastest, smallest, easiest way to use bitTorrent on an iPad 2?

If you have a Mac, the simplest solution might be to install Transmission on your Mac, use its web interface (which looks great on iOS), and let the torrents download on your Mac.

From iOS, you can control almost everything, and add torrents by pasting in URLs, since Mobile Safari doesn't let you do file uploads. It's not exactly what you asked for, but if you don't absolutely need the download to be happening on your iPad, this is much simpler.

If you really need the files to end up on your iPad though, you could try something like this.


iMessage on Mountain Lion disconnecting AIM and GTalk

I have been having this pesky problem as well.  Mine was solved by reseting the password with the provider.

I found a post that stated that someone solved this by logging into AIM.com website and reseting their password. I tried this and found that since my AIM account was set up through another provider (Apple) that I needed to go to Apple and change my password.  I did this and it resolved my issue.  (I needed to change the Apple password anyway for good security in that I had not changed it in YEARS).


iMac not showing Airdrop discoverable options

I have same issue, Charlie. My iMac is a late 2015 27" version.
If you have the same version and problems, it's probably a OS issue. Hopefully users report enough and force Apple aware of the issue in coming OS update.

My solution (somehow worked):

Make sure you have a connected Internet Cable or Wifi
Erase the Mac OS disk: press and hold CMD + R whilst the iMac start. Release since you see the Apple icon. Wait (it takes couple minutes)
Log-in screen will show several options then, including Disk Utility. Select it -> click on the Macintosh Disk in next windows (be careful: NOT CHOOSE THE HIDDEN IMAGE DISK) -> click Erase
Exit the Disk Utility windows
Now, you are in the initial screen. Choose ReInstall Mac. This takes you 3-4 hours with a good internet connection.
Your iMac after installation will be totally new. Keep in mind: Test AirDrop before installing ANY PROGRAM.

Unfortunately, as my observation, the AirDrop issue will happen again as soon as you begin to install certain softwares.

Hope Apple fix it soon.


Bootcamp - Stuck on "Partitioning Disk..."

Apple released a patch for my issue here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2007


Use my old MacBook Pro as a Rack Console

Just a guess here but it sounds like he wants to use an old MacBook as a glorified KVM. Now Server rack KVMs have a connector that goes to the Keyboard, Mouse and Video port of every server.

To do something like this you would need a software controllable KVM switch as you cant plug all of those servers into your MacBook and switch between them without some sort of hardware. Even then I'm not sure you can view incoming video, I am inclined to think not but am not completely sure.

One thing you MIGHT be able to do is use RDP and/or VNC on the MacBook and then plug the MacBook into a small dedicated hub/switch that then goes to a "spare" ethernet port on your servers.

Most servers have multiple ethernet ports and dedicating one to a "soft KVM" might work if they are not otherwise occupied.

The problem with that is that it is not strictly a KVM as it depends on the server's O/S being up and running, where a true KVM is nothing but a switch that connects directly to the server's keyboard, mouse and video ports. Allowing you to see and control the system from power on to power off, BIOS and other non O/S status messages included.

So for the TL;DR summary, probably not


Spotlight menu item on OS X 10.9 sometimes does not function (beeps instead)

Same thing was happening to me. Tried the keyboard shortcut (cmd+space, or option+cmd+space) and it worked and now seems to work fine even when I click.


Why is my external HDD failing to mount on my MacBook?

Why exactly did this happen on a disk that was working perfectly fine, driving down the same road the day before?

For the exact same reason your car breaks down on the road when it was working perfectly the day before.  In other words C'est la vie.
Is it your drive or the enclosure?
Now, as to your situation, you've presumed that the drive went bad without ruling out the other factor - the enclosure itself. The USB port would be the third factor, but you automatically ruled that out by going to a different computer.
There's a very similar question to yours already posted:  External Hard Drive no longer working.  That one involves an enclosure and an SSD, not an HDD like yours, but the principles are the same.
Recovering your data
It's a bit confusing as to what's exactly on the external drive - data or backups.  If it's backups, there's really no need to expend the time and money to recover something.  Get that external SSD and just continue making backups like you normally have.
If it's data - you need to determine what that data is worth to do.  For data recovery, I've used DiskDrill; it's absolutely free to scan and see if your files are recoverable and if they are the software is (IMO) reasonably priced at $90USD.  If your data needs to be recovered, it's a cheap price to pay to get it back - it's also a good reminder to back up your data wherever it exists; - on your boot drive and your external drives!


⌃+O is, for some reason (probably having to do with it being used for flow control on some kinds of serial connections) set to be discarded by the terminal driver (i.e. not Terminal.app, but the part of the OS between it and the shell).  You can get rid of this with the command stty discard undef.  To make this change permanent, add this command to your .bash_profile and .bashrc files.


Can I share a wifi-connected internet connection over wifi on stock MBP?

If you have single WiFi card then you can not use it for receiving and sending WiFi.

If your internet comes from cable (Ethernet) or from a USB -WiFi, then those can be shared using your WiFi card.


Can I copy an app from an iPad to an iPad2?

This is what the official Apple documentation says:

Your Apple ID can have up to 10 devices and computers (combined)
associated with it. Each computer must also be authorized using the
same Apple ID. Once a device or computer is associated with your Apple
ID, you cannot associate that device or computer with another Apple ID
for 90 days. You can view which devices or computers are currently
associated, remove unused devices or computers, and see how long
before they can be associated with a different Apple ID from the
Account Information page in iTunes on your computer.
Last Modified: November 14, 2011


You have theEnd Date = Never.  The Starts and Ends are the appointment times, not the dates.  If you want it to be from 7pm to 8pm then 10-May-2016 8:00pm would be the Ends.

When you want to stop the repeating event, put that date in the End Date row.  So you would have End Date as 25-July-2016 8:00pm.


Big Sur 11.2 upgrade stuck in boot screen

Make sure you have at least 35GB of storage free.


You should be able to do this by holding the option key down while doing it. This changes the cursor to a '+' sign and allows you to select any rectangular area of text.

See screenshot below:

If you look at the above image closely, you'll see in the left window I've highlighted a block of text in Terminal and in the right window I've been able to paste this text into a new TextEdit document.