Bluetooth volume resets to a lower level whenever the iOS Music app advances to the next track

This appears to have been caused by the Volume Limit setting of the Music app.

It seems that adjusting the volume via Bluetooth will bypass the volume limit, and allow higher volumes. However, the app will reapply the limit without warning whenever it switches tracks, resulting in the observed volume reset.

The workaround is to turn off the Volume Limit setting.


Does adjusting the volume in iTunes alter audio quality?

Setting the volume to 100% will not affect the quality of the audio playback.


If your hardware supports it, it will work.  My mid-2010 mini doesn't, but my son's mid-2011 mini does support it.  He plays games on the Apple TV + big-screen TV.  He even brings his Bluetooth keyboard and mouse into the TV room, and they're close enough to the Mac mini to work.

Performance is NOT great on the high-framerate FPS kind of games, but should be good for Minecraft.

Even when your HW does not support the built-in mirroring, there are some third-party SW that enables it.  Try AirParrot, Beamer, and Bruce (no affiliation).


Is it possible to arrange the order of movies in iTunes?

Unfortunately, I don't have enough videos to test this.

Using The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for example:

Open the movie's Get Info:
Go to the Video tab and set, for example:

  Show: The Lord of the Rings
  Episode Number: 1

Go to the Sorting tab and set:

  Name: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  Sort Name: Lord of the Rings


El Capitan sidebar preferences not sticking

I knew something was fishy with my home folder. I used the procedure here https://appletoolbox.com/fix-corrupt-user-accounts-macos/#Reset_Home_Folder_Permissions to reset the permissions on my home folder (note: the El Cap-specific directions didn't work, but the directions provided for Sierra and above did) and the problems I've been having with various things not sticking, including sidebar appearance and trackpad preferences seem to have gone away.


Is there a Mountain Lion dashboard widget that displays notes from iCloud?

With the caveat that this is just one example of a notes widget, I've used Junecloud's Notefile app a bit, and it seems to fit your requirements of a widget that connects to iCloud. I can sync to iCloud or the app provider's JuneCloud sync. However, Notefile is not a free app (currently $4.99), so you'll need to look elsewhere if you want a freeware solution.

Junecloud also provides an iOS application for mobile devices (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch) for $2.99 at the time of this answer.


Did you also go through the subfolders within ~/Library? Safari files are in a number of different places within that folder?

A view examples:

Caches contains com.apple.Safari and com.apple.Safari.SafeBrowsing

Containers has multiple com.apple.Safari folders (may not exist on 10.11.6, I don't have anything with that OS to compare to)

Preferences, etc.


iTunes is syncing photos from 2006 when I've told it to include the last month

You should check the iPhoto/Photos app and see if any of your 2006 photos are in the Last Month tab or the April 2015 tabs. If they are then the problem is with the photos' dates, not iTunes or your iDevice.


Sending multiple audio streams to different places simultaneously

You can send one or more audio inputs to one or more outputs by creating a new aggregate device in the Audio Midi Setup app in your Utilities folder. This Apple Support document explains the steps.

Other options include Soundflower, the open source virtual audio output device which was maintained by Rogue Amoeba for a while, or Loopback, which is Rogue Amoeba's current (non-free) solution.


Xcode 4.4.1 version not recognized in Macports?

Downloading a new version of MacPorts will be required as noted in Migration - MacPorts since you updated to a new version of OS X and additionally too a new version of Xcode.  The old MacPorts install is now longer compatible with the installed OS and development tools.

Migrating a MacPorts install to a new major OS version or CPU architecture
An installation of MacPorts and the ports installed by it are only designed to work on a single OS release and a single CPU architecture. If you upgrade to a new OS version (e.g. from Leopard to Snow Leopard) or migrate to a new machine with a different type of CPU (e.g. PowerPC to Intel), you may get lucky and have your ports keep working, but in general, things will break. If you are only upgrading Xcode (e.g. 4.1 to 4.2 on Lion) but not the major OS version or CPU architecture, you do not need to reinstall ports as described below.
Reinstall Xcode and MacPorts
After performing either of these types of system upgrades, you will first need to  install the base MacPorts system again, either from the appropriate disk image or from source. If you are upgrading from a prior version of Mac OS X, install the latest version of Xcode for your new OS. This will not be done for you automatically; Xcode is not updated by Software Update, so you must update it manually. For Lion, Xcode is available for free on the Mac App Store (after install you may also need to install "Command Line Tools": XCode->Preferences->Downloads; if upgrading from previous version of xcode you may also need to do 'sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app',  see this SO article). For earlier OS versions, you will find the Xcode installer on the Mac OS X installation DVD or on the Apple Developer web site.

See Installing MacPorts for more information on how to get and install the latest version of MacPorts.


You can easily do it with Automator workflow and AppleScript:
Open Automator
When it asks you what to create, choose "Application"
Then from the Utillities folder on the left, drag the "AppleScript" one into the workflow, and instead of the line saying "You script goes here", type:

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal pane id "com.apple.preferences.Bluetooth"
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
        click checkbox "On" of window 1
    end tell
    quit
end tell

quit app "OneDrive"
quit app "Dropbox"

The first part turns off bluetooth, and the last two lines quit applications. If you want to quit more applications, just add quit app "<application name here>" to the AppleScript.

Two re-enable bluetooth, and re-open the applications, just create another workflow with an identical AppleScript, except change the last two lines to:

tell application "OneDrive" to activate
tell application "Dropbox" to activate

and if you want to add more applications, just add tell application "<application name here>" to activate.

Hope this helps!


How does AirTag calculate the relative position from an iPhone?

It is possible to determine the angle because the AirTag has a carefully designed antenna emitting a signal in essentially all directions. When the signal arrives at the iPhone, which is responsible for the angle calculation, the pulse amplitude will vary according to the angle in which the signal arrives at the iPhone antennas. Carefully created software can then use the measured amplitude values to calculate the angle.
Note that this is by no means a simple task, as it concern handling input at high speeds from two or more antennas and correlating information to determine when the same emitted signal is received by the antennas at different times. As far as I know, the AirTag also transmits at two different UWB frequencies at the same time - presumably to alleviate inaccuracies due to multi-pathing.
Note that the software also has to keep track of the phone’s own movement under use. I.e. if you rotate the phone, the angle shown to the user should be compensated for that. This is quite simple, and it is not in any way necessary for the user to move the phone around in circles in order to do the localization.
As for distance measurements, that is actually not calculated based on the signal strength itself as you speculate, but rather it is done by measuring time of arrival (i.e. Time Of Flight based localization).


iTunes store purchased media items: usability in another country?

welcome to AskDifferent. I can't tell you if it works in your specific combination. Normally Apple does not restrict content via Geolocation blocking. I'm able to download and watch all Content (Music, Movies, TV-Shows and also Apps) in Germany and USA. I have an austrian Store Account.

Does this example of mine help you?


In 10.9 the text replacements are also stored in ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/$USER~*/UserDictionary/local/store/UserDictionary.db. UserDictionary.db is used even if iCloud is disabled and it has precedence over .GlobalPreferences.plist.

If you for example run defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems '({on=1;replace=aa;with=bb;})' and quit and reopen TextEdit, aa is replaced with bb in TextEdit, but the changes are reverted if you open the Text tab of the Keyboard preference pane.

You can change both UserDictionary.db and .GlobalPreferences.plist by using a script like this:

date=$(date +%s)
while read -r replace with; do
  plist+="{on=1;replace=\"$replace\";with=\"$with\";},"
  sql+="INSERT INTO 'ZUSERDICTIONARYENTRY' VALUES($((++i)),1,1,0,0,0,0,$date,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,\"$with\",\"$replace\",NULL);"
done < <(sed 's/\\/\\\\/g;s/"/\\"/g' ~/replacements.txt)
sqlite3 ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/$USER~*/UserDictionary/local/store/UserDictionary.db "delete from ZUSERDICTIONARYENTRY;$sql"
defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems "(${plist%?})"

In 10.8 and earlier versions of OS X the text replacements are stored in the NSUserReplacementItems array (not NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems) in ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist.


The full list of available options of Dock

Apple does not publish this and it’s considered the equivalent of a private API for developers. When Apple wants to test a new feature, they first expose it with hidden switches and then after it’s been tested and doesn’t cause issues, then it may become an official setting. Until it’s publicly documented, these change from build to build and sometimes can cause things to not work.

The only listing of these is by people who disassemble the code and then publish their work. You’re not missing any resource here, as this is undocumented and doesn’t always stay stable, so the effort to document these is quite high from a labor perspective.


Screen saver no longer asks for a password

I've tried using backups and it did not solve the issues, after 3 reboots the problem disappeared without changing anything at all.

I don't know the reason or why it fixed itself with just several reboots, but seems a good solution.

I hope someone will discover the cause and a proper solution.


iOS app using polling to retrieve newest data

No Apple won't. At-least not just for this reason.

A simple answer is, your app could execute any code as long as it is active. Your app won't be rejected by Apple simply for the reason that it is making periodic calls to your backend. However, where it's a good approach to take or not is another question altogether and an important one to consider.

A general recommendation from Apple for app developers is to minimize the network activity to prolong the battery life and to guard against any data costs on a metered connection.

From the Networking Overview guide on Apple Developer website:

  Transfer only as much data as required to accomplish a task. Minimizing the amount of data sent and received prolongs battery life, and may reduce the cost for users on metered Internet connections that bill by the megabyte.

APNS is preferred over polling as when using APNS, your app gets notified about the updates on an as needed basis. Another benefit is that polling will only work when your app is active and in foreground.

So, it is recommended to reconsider your app architecture to take the most appropriate approach keeping in mind best practises, Apple Developer guidelines and overall user experience.


Remove services from context menus (but leave them in the app's Services menu)

You may want to try Services Manager.app:

Download the application and put it into your /Applications folder (or any other convenient place). After you started it you can configure each service to appear in the Services menu (by enabling it in the Active column), in the Context Menu (by enabling it in the Context Menu) or in both.


Adding contextual menu item to zero out files?

Select Run Shell Script
Use the default /bin/bash command
Select Pass input as arguments
Enter the following into the text input box:

for file in "$@"; do
    cat /dev/null > "$file"
done

Possible improvements:

Display admin prompt if the user account doesn't have permissions to modify the selected files.
If a directory is selected, perform the action on all files in the selected directory.


What is causing an error with getpwuid in Console, and how can I fix it?

This question from superuser sounds just like the one that your asking.

https://superuser.com/questions/194094/how-do-i-get-rid-of-com-apple-launchd-peruser-errors-in-my-log

The error that the person gets in that question is just about the same as the one as you are asking except that his UID is 501 where yours is 32752.

The answer i believe that might solve your problem is provided by the user JasKerr:

  I can answer your last question, but it will take more work to solve the problem.

  The peruser indicates a launchd daemon started by a userland process. The numeric suffix is the UID. In this case, an application attempted load a launchd job as user 501. That failed, since there appears to be no user 501 on your system.

  Have you installed software recently? User management utilities changed in Leopard, so an installer intended for an older version (Tiger?) may not work properly in 10.5.6.

  Start by taking a look at ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LauchAgents, and /Library/LaunchDaemons. There may be a job that's UID 501.

  If not, you could do a (brute-force) search for an application/file owned by 501:

    sudo find /Applications -user 501 | less

  If anything turns up, that will point to the culprit.


How to get private key on IOS used for SSL traffic?

The private key in any SSL connection is on the server.

Even if there were a private key on the client, it's only used for authentication not encryption.


What's the fastest way to get data off Time Capsule and onto an external drive?

If you want an exact copy of the TC drive, the fastest way is to connect the USB drive directly to the TC and use the archiving option in Airport Utility:

Other things to consider:

Transfering data over wire (ethernet) is faster than over Wi-Fi
Connecting the USB drive directly to the computer (than to the TC) gives better results if you use the Finder to copy data.


Is there any danger/risk in leaving my iMac G5 turned off and disconnected for long periods of time?

Your machine is now 10 years old, so there's definitely the risk that your PRAM backup battery has "worn out" and is nearly dead now. The life expectancy for these kinds of "coin cells" is normally about 10 years.

So if you disconnect your Mac from the power supply for an "extended time" you risk that it fails to back up the PRAM. A battery loses its charge over time, and that's especially true for worn out batteries. The more you disconnect your Mac from the mains connection the more the backup battery has to supply the PRAM with electrical current, which in turn causes the battery to wear out even more.

Disconnecting your Mac from the mains connection as such is not harmful for your Mac or any of its components.

You could have your battery replaced which should cost you about USD 100-150 (my estimation based on the effort to completely disassemble the iMac). Then leaving the iMac disconnected for a month would not be any problem at all.


When using VSCode on macOS, randomly a `sysdiagnose.tar.gz` will be generated

Most likelely you hit Control-Option-Command-Shift-. now and then which triggers system diagnostics (see How do you get system diagnostic files from macOS?) for details.


Is there a "Focus Editor" shortcut key in Xcode 4?

Aw crud, there are all sorts of "move focus to" commands in the Navigate menu that I somehow missed earlier... The combo for "Move Focus to Editor..." is Cmd-J, for example.


How To Disable JavaScript for a Specific Website in Safari on IOS?

The concept of a Safari content blocker is the perfect way to set this up.

Here is one such app that is programmed to let you use the native iOS browser and selectively block JavaScript - whether it’s a named script or per site.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pro-script/id1275541103

This isn’t something that’s easy to do yourself from iOS without adding programming or a helper. Another avenue would be to install an app that is a browser, just blocks all JS so you would have to open the link first and then send it to this app.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/no-js/id1062685513


What hardware upgrade would be most beneficial for a Mac?

My suggestion is to always take the second fast processor available and invest the rest of your budget in RAM. The fastest processor is usually too expensive. You don't get much more speed for the price difference between the fastest and second fast.

And don't upgrade the RAM in the Apple Store. Find a local reseller, who delivers your System readily build with non-apple brand RAM with warranty. You could get twice the RAM for the same price. But never ever use discount RAM. It's not worth the hassle.

EDIT Oct 12:

bmike's comment is right. The SSD is right now the single most important component for your Mac's speed.

So take the SSD. Even if you can then only afford the slowest processor.

BTW. Are there still Mac models w/o SSD?


Migrate Google Authenticator to new iPhone 7

First, two things.

Keep your backup codes
Keep your old phone

From what I have found, you will need to use the "change" option on each of your 2-step verification enabled apps/sites. This will most likely require you to log into each account using your current 2-step verification process first (hence the use of backup codes or your old phone).

If you have trouble transferring the authenticator application over, try the following tutorial.
https://www.brianckeegan.com/2016/09/how-to-transfer-googles-2-factor-authentication-to-a-new-iphone/


Some contacts not displayed when searching for them

This can happen if you're using iCloud and it gets out of sync.  Go into Settings --> iCloud and turn off Contacts.  It will ask if you want to delete the contacts on your iPhone or keep them.  Choose to delete them from your iPhone.

Exit iCloud then go back into it.  Turn Contacts back on and allow it to sync your contacts back to your iPhone.  If everything worked ok, you should be able to find that person in your contacts again.


How to force coloured display of visited links in Safari 5+?

You could create a text file, name it visited.css, and put this text in there:

a:visited { color: #6611cc !important; }

Then go to Preferences > Advanced, click Style sheet and select the .css file you just created. All links you've visited should be in a nice purple now.
(Note that this colors every link you've ever clicked purple, and will override the actual web design.)


Restore Safari browser on MacBook Air Yosemite OSX 10.10.4

Many who are new to the Mac and OS X mistakenly think they have deleted something if they accidentally or purposely remove a icon from the Dock.

If that is what you have done, restoring it to the Dock is easily done.

Find your Applications folder
Locate Safari
Drag to the dock

Or, double click on it and it will open.  There you can pin it to the Dock. By long pressing the icon or right clicking and select options.  See screenshot below.  The other way to keep it there is simply to drag it to a new location on the Dock closer to the Finder icon.

If you dragged it to the Trash from the Applications folder, the open the trash folder by double clicking on it and restoring from there.

If you truly deleted it, which is very hard to do "accidentally", a restore of your OS may be in order.


What are these weird permissions? ==> d????????? ? ? ??

When you don't have permission to a folder in Ubuntu (and various other Linux OSs), you will get d?????????.

To recursively fix the permissions, use this command:

chmod -R a+rX matthias

From this answer on Ask Ubuntu:

  To read a file, its read permission needs to be set. However, to read a directory and the listing of its files, both the read and the execute permissions need to be set. If they aren't, you get weird errors like the ones you're experiencing.


Well, try the following:
Reboot into single user mode, this is archieved by holding down alt(option) + s while rebooting.
At the prompt /sbin/fsck -fy(careful, QWERTZ-Layout), after that type /sbin/mount -wu. Now /bin/chmod 1775 /. At last /bin/sync,then exit.

This will check your filesystem integrity and correct permissions for your root directory.


I found a link to this adapter on an Apple forum. It could be what you're looking for.


MacBook Pro not responding to power button

Maybe it was an SMC reset:

  Resetting the SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own

  Note: Portable computers that have a battery you should not remove on your own include MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, and MacBook (Late 2009).

  Shut down the computer.
  Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
  On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
  Press the power button to turn on the computer.
  Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.


You could try this:

Go to Settings -> common -> reset (at the bottom). On the next screen you can choose which settings you wish to reset. Choose "Network settings".

I assume the stored settings are deleted now, and after a re-connect the connection should work.


MacBook Pro does not go into sleep mode after upgrading to Yosemite

don't know why but everything went ok and fixed after just two days...thanks a lot anyway!
Mac


How can users identify which of their iPhone/iPad apps are still only 32-bit (and therefore won't work in future)?

In iOS 10.3 and above, users can:

Go to Settings
Swipe up and tap on General
Tap on About
Tap on Applications

A list will appear showing all of the apps you have installed that
won’t run in 64-bit mode. Now you can tap on any of your important apps
to determine if it is still available on the App Store. If…

you get a message indicating it is not available, it’s quite likely
that the app is no longer supported. You should try contacting
the developer to check whether it will be updated.
you’re taken directly to the App Store, then the app is still
available and you’ll need to contact the developer to confirm
their plans for 64-bit support.

This process is the recommended approach for ensuring you
don’t get caught out when iOS 11 is released later in the year.


The "correct" Apple ID is the one used to purchase the apps originally.

It doesn't need to be tied to your current email address & in fact doesn't actually have to be an email address at all. You can change your primary email address associated with an Apple ID...

  Change your Apple ID

  Follow these steps to change the email address that you use as your Apple ID.

  Sign out of every Apple service and device that uses your Apple ID.
  Sign in to your Apple ID account page.
  In the Account section, click Edit. Under your Apple ID, click Change Email Address.
  Enter the email address you want to use as your Apple ID. A verification code will be sent to your new email address.
  Enter the verification code from the email into the fields provided and start using your updated Apple ID. Didn't get the email?
  Sign back in to all Apple services with your new Apple ID.

  You can change your Apple ID to any other email address you control,
  as long as it's not already in use as an Apple ID. If your email
  address ends with @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com, you might not be
  able to change your Apple ID. You also won't see Change Email Address
  on your account page.


Undo use of F5 which added a thick black line around fields and buttons

You appear to have enabled the Accessibility shortcut.

To toggle it back off, option+command+F5


How to repeat SMS message alerts indefinitely until read?

I think that the closest you can get is to change the number of "Repeat Alerts" for the Messages app in Notifications, but keep in mind that the maximum number of repeated alerts is 10 (at two minute intervals).

To change, go to Settings > Notifcations > Messages > Repeat Alerts.

Not a solution if your gone for an hour, but will get you up to 20 minutes.


sync iBooks page currently reading between iPhone and MacBook

To control some settings of Apple Books on your iOS device, you need to have iCloud Drive turned on: Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud and turn on both iCloud Drive and Books. Then go to Settings > Books.

Under Syncing, you can change settings like these:

Turn on Reading Now to sync your reading progress, current book, notes, and bookmarks using your iCloud account. Reading Now only syncs to other iOS devices, not your Mac.
Turn on iCloud Drive to sync PDFs, EPUBs, and books created with iBooks Author that you didn't purchase from the Book Store that you added to your Library across all of your devices.
Under Allow Books To Access, turn on Cellular Data to stream books while your iPhone or iPad is connected to the Internet via a cellular connection and using cellular data.

You can also change settings in the Books app. Tap Reading Now, then tap the Profile icon or your picture in the upper-right corner. From here, you can redownload your purchases, access Family Purchases, and redeem gift cards or content codes.


MacBook Pro icons damaged after Sierra Update

I fixed this and any other errors with a simple (yeah, riggghhhttt....) reinstall!


How do i know if install isn't malicious

You can't be 100% sure unless you do it yourself (with an Apple provided DVD or DMG).


This was bugged me too, so changed some values in the preferences.plist, but not absolutely sure what one. So make a backup first.

open with Property List Editor.app the next file:

$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.Parallels Desktop.plist

search for the key:

Register.Show Welcome Dialog.{some-hex-numbers}

and uncheck the checkbox. Or, here is the

Register.Welcome next show time.{some-hex-numbers}

what is the date, when you will get the next regitration window. Try change this to the far-future, e.g. 2015 or so.. ;)

Ps: don't forget: make a backup from the plist file.

And if you haven't installed the Developer Tools (for the Property List Editor.app) you're probably out of luck, because the plist is binary. While it is possible convert it into ascii, edit and convert back - this is not safe...

Maybe someone know the easier solution. ;)


Lots of inactive memory after watching HD/DVD movies

What you're seeing is normal, and desired behavior.

OS X, like Linux and BSD, has a disk cache. This means anything read from or written to disk is kept in memory. The "Inactive" memory includes this disk cache.

This answer on AskDifferent explains it, as does this post on macosxhints.com:

  However, X's underpinnings (ie the UN*X kernel) provide both these
  features without any inputs being needed by the user. It's called the
  file system buffer cache. The one most significant difference is that
  the size of this buffer cache is dynamic. It starts of with some small
  size and can grow and shrink as the i/o demands and Apps memory
  requirements vary over time.

  It's called a 'buffer cache' because it buffers the i/o data on its
  way to/from the disk. When an App writes data it first will be
  deposited into the Apps file buffer memory region and will
  subsequently be requested via library routines to have the kernel (the
  OS) copy it from the App's buffer to disk. The kernel will oblige and
  will copy it first to its buffer -- the file system buffer cache. If
  the kernel requires more room in its buffer cache it will obtain it
  from the free memory. When this happens the free memory value, in say
  the Terminal's top command, will immediately show a reduction of free
  memory. At some later point the kernel will copy this data (referred
  to has dirty buffers) to the appropriate disk location. I believe the
  frequency of this being done is 30 secs -- called sync-ing to disk.

Note that having memory paged out to disk is not always a bad thing. If memory pages are completely inactive, paging them out to disk can improve performance, because they are wasting RAM which could otherwise be used for disk cache. Once they are paged out and you stop watching movies, when needed they will be paged back in, automatically replacing the buffers and disk cache. You don't need to run purge each time. Just let OS X manage the disk cache as it was designed to do.

For more information on this, consult the wikipedia article on paging, and the article on the Page cache.

TL;DR information:

Here's an article describing how swap works under Linux. WHile not 100% applicable to OS X, the concept is the same. I'll quote the relevant part:

  When an application needs memory and all the RAM is fully occupied,
  the kernel has two ways to free some memory at its disposal: it can
  either reduce the disk cache in the RAM by eliminating the oldest data
  or it may swap some less used portions (pages) of programs out to the
  swap partition on disk. It is not easy to predict which method would
  be more efficient. The kernel makes a choice by roughly guessing the
  effectiveness of the two methods at a given instant, based on the
  recent history of activity

Since you're watching a DVD or a movie, the most recently active pages of memory are the disk cache, so OS X decides to keep that in RAM and swap out pages of memory which have been inactive from before you started accessing the video files. Once you stop accessing video files and access the programs using the memory pages which were swapped out, the reverse is true: OS X will discard the disk cache containing the video data and replace it with the memory pages which it swapped out. Then your swap usage will decrease.

Here's a bit more information, specific to FreeBSD (which is similar to Mac OS X):

  FreeBSD will use 'all of memory' for the disk cache. What this means
  is that the 'free' bucket typically contains only a few pages in it.
  If the system runs out, it can free up more pages from the cache
  bucket.

  System activity works like this: When a program actively references  a
  page in a file on the disk (etc...) the page is brought into the
  buffer cache via a physical I/O operation. It typically goes into  the
  'active' bucket. If a program stops referencing the page, the  page
  slowly migrates down into the inactive or cache buckets (depending  on
  whether it is dirty or not). Dirty pages are slowly 'cleaned' by
  writing them to their backing store and moved from inactive to cache,
  and cache pages are freed as necessary to maintain a minimum number of
  truely free pages in the free bucket. These pages can still be
  'cleaned' by allocating swap as their backing store, allowing them  to
  migrate through the buckets and eventually be reused.

  [...]

  The VM buffer cache caches everything the underlying storage so, for
  example, it will not only cache the data blocks associated with a file
  but it will cache the inode blocks and bitmap blocks as well. Most
  filesystem operations thus go very fast even for tripple-indirect
  block  lookups and such

  [...]

  FreeBSD has arguably some of the best swap code in existance. I
  personally  like it better then Linux's. Linux is lighter on swap, but
  doesn't  balance system memory resource utilization well under varying
  load  conditions. FreeBSD does.

  FreeBSD notes the uselessness of existing pages in memory, and decides
  that it might be advantageous to free memory (enabled by pushing pages
  to swap), so that it can be used for more active purposes (such as
  file  buffering, or more program space.) It is a terrible waste to
  keep unused  pages around, for the notion of saving (cheap) disk
  space. Since low  level SWAP I/O can be faster, with less CPU overhead
  than file I/O, it  is likely desireable to push such unused pages out
  so that they can be  freed for use by higher overhead mechanisms.
  (note 1)

(Emphasis mine, check that bolded part for specifically what you're asking about, that is, "Why is swap being used when I have inactive memory?)


MacBook Pro Bluetooth Audio balance keeps changing by itself

This is not the solution to the bug, however, there is an open source MacOS app that is a workaround. It watches for balance changes and centres immediately.

Disclaimer: I made the application. I had similar problems with both Bluetooth headphones and normal headphones.


Is it possible to buy an iOS Developer Program for an IBC that was formed in Belize?

If you have never enrolled in the developer program, I would budget $99 to start with a personal account to get use to enrolling and how things work.

Since Apple doesn't even operate a web store for Belize, you may run into some roadblocks and have to incorporate there as well as in a country that has an online store. (See - http://store.apple.com/us/browse/open/country_selector)

I can't imagine this making financial sense to set up multiple shell corporations unless you were both funded to the point where $5,000 of startup costs in legal, registration, etc... was already budgeted as well as expecting tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue.

Basically, start selling your product and if/when you have a huge tax burden, spend some of your gains on professional advice on whether you want to form one or more international corporations.


Problem solved. I believe the 1.5mm thermal pads were too thick on the GPU rams and the cooler didn't make enough contacts on the GPU chip. I went to an Apple service provider and asked them nicely if they could sell me the thermal paste they use and they were very kind and gave me a bunch of 2CL syringes with paste manufactured by Shin Etsu Microsi - microsi.com, that is what they use on apple products and it did the job.

I put a small pea shape bit of paste in the middle of the GPU memory chips, they are 8 and I used 1CL for every chip and when you put the cooler ontop it spreads it evenly. You could use less and it won't leak when you push the cooler in but i wanted to be safe and fill the gap between the cooler and the GPU chips.

Be careful, this paste is thick, its a pain to spread it evenly. You have to get a credit card and put paste on the top edge and swipe it with a bit of force so you can apply it in one take because its a mess to spread it with your finger, its like it won't stick to the chip.

I now have 56 Degrees on the CPU and 55 degrees C on the GPU die, lightly used and never went over 75 degrees C no matter the stress of the system. Measured with iStat Pro.

I hope it will help someone even though nobody cared to give me a hand.

Peace!


Keyboard failure, possibly software fault

I would try a Genius Bar at a local mac store if you are located near one. I have seen them fix some weird s/w issues right there.


So i contacted the apple developer
It seems that even after you purchase the program
It is normal to see to complete your enrollment,complete the purchase when you sign in Developer,
If you receive a confirmation that you bought it,just wait,dont buy it again it might take several days,also they might send email about missing documents


What are some alternatives to Shazam for iOS?

Whenever I hear a song and I want to know the name of it, I use SoundHound on my iphone. So far it has identified all of the songs I've searched. Even if for some reason I don't have network access, it will store the search and you can send it to their servers once connectivity is restored.

By the way, SoundHound and Midomi are the same thing. Midomi changed its name to SoundHound.


How to delete or track the sign-in information on an iPad?

Third party apps can securely store and retrieve the login session information in the iPad's keychain (which unlike macOS keychain is not user accessible). The apps often does that so that it makes it seamless for users to log into other app(s) from the same developer (Both Google and Adobe publish multiple apps on the App Store).
You can take either one of the approaches (as made available by the developer of the app) to disassociate iPad from your account or log out from iPad:

Login to manage your account using a desktop web browser (such as for Google or Adobe), access the logged in devices and disassociate the device.

Get access to user account management within one of the apps on iPad and exercise the option to remove your account from log out from it.

An app developer would generally provide either one or both the options for users.


Package command line tools into an automator script or app?

All macs have several shells available (GNU bash 3.2.48 ships with the latest Snow Leopard) including zsh, sh, bash, csh and ksh. You can safely embed one or more shell scripts without fear that other macs won't have the tools to run your program.

The simplest thing to do would be to just embed a functioning shell script in an AppleScript or Automator workflow. Both handle piping arguments or file paths to stdin/stdout so you can interact with the script if desired.

The site Mac OS X Automation has some great tutorials to get you started if this makes sense to solve your issue.

Also, if you are looking for a tool to package your bash script and an automator/applescript document in one nice unit - the package maker application is available for free as part of the iPhone Configuration utility. It's more work, but will make any mac user more comfortable installing your tool.

For an open source option that is amazing - try Platypus - http://sveinbjorn.org/platypus/


Can I run an eGPU on a Linux Partition of a Macbook Pro?

If you install Ubuntu as a dual boot arrangement, both operating systems run independent of each other. In other words, when booted to Ubuntu, the Mac preforms the same as any other PC. The only involvement with the macOS would be the need to create enough free space to allow Ubuntu to be installed.


In addition to the comments I've made to your OP, use this example to fix the issues you are having.

Note: This was done under macOS High Sierra and if using macOS Catalina there are some changes to the example, which are detailed is a note further below.

As a test, in Terminal, I executed the following commands:

cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
touch com.example.exampled.plist
open -e com.example.exampled.plist

Copy and paste the following example PLIST XML code into the opened com.example.exampled.plist file, setting the StartCalendarInterval for a few minutes from now, and then save and close it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.example.exampled</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/open</string>
        <string>-a</string>
        <string>/Applications/Calculator.app</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Back in Terminal, execute:

launchctl load com.example.exampled.plist

Now Calculator will open at the set time, which is set using 24 Hour time, e.g 0 through 23 for the Hour key.

macOS Catalina Notes:

In a clean install of macOS Catalina, ~/Library/LaunchAgents doesn't exist by default. Use the following command before cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents:

mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Due to changes made by Apple in macOS Catalina the fully qualified pathname for the Calculator is: /System/Applications/Calculator.app

Change:

<string>/Applications/Calculator.app</string>

To:

<string>/System/Applications/Calculator.app</string>

Or as an alternative, just use:

<string>Calculator</string>

Both methods work.

Additional testing was done with an application bundle (myApp.app) created by me, saved in /Applications on macOS Catalina, and the following values worked for me:

<string>/Applications/myApp.app</string>

Or:

<string>myApp</string>

Note: The use of sudo is required when dealing with agents and daemons that are in the designated locations other then ~/Library/LaunchAgents in order to create, modify, change permissions to make read-only, delete, etc. the XML Plist file itself. Also note that when using the launchctl command for daemons, sudo may be required in some cases, however do not use sudo to load agents with launchctl, as it will load them as a daemon.

To review the manual pages, in Terminal, use man command where command is the commands name, e.g. man launchctl, or to more easily read the manual pages, just type the commands name and right-click on it selecting: Open man Page

If you are going to use Launch Agents and Launch Daemons, I highly recommend you read the manual pages for launchctl, launchd.plist and launchd.

Per the manual pages for launchctl and launchd.plist the PLIST files for Launch Agents and Launch Daemons belong in specific directories:

FILES
    ~/Library/LaunchAgents          Per-user agents provided by the user.
    /Library/LaunchAgents           Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
    /Library/LaunchDaemons          System-wide daemons provided by the administrator.
    /System/Library/LaunchAgents    Per-user agents provided by OS X.
    /System/Library/LaunchDaemons   System-wide daemons provided by OS X.

There is also an example xml property lists file at the end of the manual page forlaunchd.plist.


Is there any use for the Apple Wallet app in India?

Yes, you can safely and securely use the Wallet app to store your credit card information, even if you never use it for Apple Pay.


Removing XCode while keeping the command line tools (on El Capitan)

Personally, I think that instead of trying to "bodge" a method of uninstalling Xcode while leaving CLT intact is too cumbersome.  My suggestion is to:

Uninstall Xcode completely
Install Xcode CLT

Doing this should take you less than 5 minutes total and is quite simple.

Uninstall Xcode

There are a number of different ways to uninstall Xcode.  An excellent tutorial can be found at OSXDaily.

However, the most reliable way I have found to uninstall software is with the free app recommended by Macworld.com called AppCleaner.  You can "drag and drop" or "Search" for your apps that you want to remove and it will find all related files/directories for you - even the ones that get installed as launch daemons.

Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated with the app or the developers of the app in any way.

Install Xcode CLT (Yosemite through Sierra)

Installing Xcode CLT is actually quite simple.  In Terminal, execute the following command:

xcode-select --install

You will get a dialog box that will prompt you to "Get Xcode," "Cancel," or "Install."  Select "Install" to install the CLT only.

The installer will do its thing and will notify you once it's complete.  Once finished, you will have access to tools such as git and svn.  You can execute those commands by testing them out in Terminal.

CLT will be installed to /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/

That's it!  Xcode CLT are installed and ready for use.


How to upload photos from iPhone to iCloud Storage without being "managed" by sync?

Solution 1: Manual Uploading/Tracking to Files.app
If you want to stick to iCloud Drive and achieve the this, you'll need to manually upload your photos to iCloud using Photos -> Select -> (Select Photos) -> Share -> Save to Files
In this method you'll have to manually keep track of the photos you've uploaded and the new ones that haven't been uploaded yet.
Solution 2: Google Photos for iOS
Google photos app for iOS brings the same

Free Photo and Video Storage

feature for iOS, which were initially advertised with the Google Pixel.
Note: Google Photos will automatically reduce your photo quality if you use the free plan.
In this method, the app handles the sync history and keeps track of the backup metadata for you, so you won't have to worry about uploading new photos manually.
App Store: Google Photos


The data returned from Backblaze ought to be correctly recognised by the Mac. Folders like iPhoto have a special structure that the Mac shows you as a single file, but in reality it is just a folder.
In the same way, Applications are, in fact, folders too - but the Mac hides the structure from you by default.
This is what your iPhoto Library looks like on Backblaze…

When you get your drive, you may have to point iPhoto & similar apps [Aperture, iMovie, Final Cut Pro all have similar structures for their Libraries] to that 'folder' initially, but it should then be treated as your regular Library.
Edit:
I just tested this empirically by downloading my entire iPhoto Library from Backblaze.
When it arrived, it was in its original disk/folder hierarchy; so had that been an emergency situation I could have copied the entire structure right back to where it came from.
Initially, it looked like a regular folder, but [a step you may not need to take if everything is restored to its original locations] launching iPhoto with the  Opt ⌥  key down to choose a new Library & selecting that folder - as soon as it had finished loading to iPhoto, the 'proper' iPhoto Library icon & 'hidden' structure was restored to it.


The iPad is a high power draw device, and Belkin N150 USB Wireless adapter probably is no power slouch either, so it is technically possible for them to be overdrawing an internal USB Bus or Hub in the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro has 5 independent USB Buses as noted in the picture below.

Now depending where things are plugged in they show up in different USB Buses, you may want to Open your System Information Application, and try to avoid placing the iPad and the Belkin N150 on the same bus.

For Example, on my computer the ZyXel... and the DataTraveler are plugged into front USB ports and they appear to be sharing the same usb tree. While my external Hub labeled "Generic USB Hub" and my VF0680, CIRCA102 are all plugged in rear usb ports on the Mac Pro, note how the CRCA102 is on its own Bus.


AppleScript: Is it possible to check if Speech is currently running?

It's possible with the say command in a shell, not with the AppleScript say command.

Info for the AppleScript say command:

you can stop the speech of say command from the same script until the
script run, not after that the script exit.
Example:

say "I want to recreate macOS's built-in Text To Speech" waiting until completion no
delay 0.5
say "" with stopping current speech -- this stop the first say command of this script
delay 1
say "Hello"

This script use the say command in a shell to speak the contents of the pbpaste command (the clipboard), and it put the PID of the say command to a persistent property:

use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"
property this_say_Pid : missing value -- the persistent property

if this_say_Pid is not missing value then -- check the pid of all 'say' commands, if exists then quit the unix process
    set allSayPid to {}
    try
        set allSayPid to words of (do shell script "pgrep -x 'say'")
    end try
    if this_say_Pid is in allSayPid then -- the PID = an item in the list
        do shell script "/bin/kill " & this_say_Pid -- quit this process to stop the speech
        error number -128 -- quits the AppleScript
    end if
end if

-- Back up original clipboard contents:
set savedClipboard to my fetchStorableClipboard()

-- Copy selected text to clipboard:
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay 1 -- Without this, the clipboard may have stale data.

-- Speak the clipboard:
--  pbpaste = the contents of the clipboard , this run the commands without waiting, and get the PID of the 'say' command
set this_say_Pid to do shell script "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 pbpaste -Prefer txt | say > /dev/null 2>&1 & echo $!"

-- Restore original clipboard:
my putOnClipboard:savedClipboard

on fetchStorableClipboard()
    set aMutableArray to current application's NSMutableArray's array() -- used to store contents
    -- get the pasteboard and then its pasteboard items
    set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
    -- loop through pasteboard items
    repeat with anItem in thePasteboard's pasteboardItems()
        -- make a new pasteboard item to store existing item's stuff
        set newPBItem to current application's NSPasteboardItem's alloc()'s init()
        -- get the types of data stored on the pasteboard item
        set theTypes to anItem's types()
        -- for each type, get the corresponding data and store it all in the new pasteboard item
        repeat with aType in theTypes
            set theData to (anItem's dataForType:aType)'s mutableCopy()
            if theData is not missing value then
                (newPBItem's setData:theData forType:aType)
            end if
        end repeat
        -- add new pasteboard item to array
        (aMutableArray's addObject:newPBItem)
    end repeat
    return aMutableArray
end fetchStorableClipboard

on putOnClipboard:theArray
    -- get pasteboard
    set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
    -- clear it, then write new contents
    thePasteboard's clearContents()
    thePasteboard's writeObjects:theArray
end putOnClipboard:

It's possible that the first script will not work, if the value of this_say_Pid variable doesn't persist across runs, it depends how the script will be launched.
In that case, you must write the PID to a file, so use this script:

use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"

set tFile to POSIX path of (path to temporary items as text) & "_the_Pid_of_say_command_of_this_script.txt" -- the temp file
set this_say_Pid to missing value
try
    set this_say_Pid to paragraph 1 of (read tFile) -- get the pid of the last speech
end try

if this_say_Pid is not in {"", missing value} then -- check the pid of all 'say' commands, if exists then quit the unix process
    set allSayPid to {}
    try
        set allSayPid to words of (do shell script "pgrep -x 'say'")
    end try
    if this_say_Pid is in allSayPid then -- the PID = an item in the list
        do shell script "/bin/kill " & this_say_Pid -- quit this process to stop the speech
        error number -128 -- quits the AppleScript
    end if
end if

-- Back up original clipboard contents:
set savedClipboard to my fetchStorableClipboard()

-- Copy selected text to clipboard:
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay 1 -- Without this, the clipboard may have stale data.

-- Speak the clipboard:

--  pbpaste = the contents of the clipboard , this run the commands without waiting, and it write the PID of the 'say' command to the temp file
do shell script "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 pbpaste -Prefer txt | say > /dev/null 2>&1 & echo $! > " & quoted form of tFile

-- Restore original clipboard:
my putOnClipboard:savedClipboard

-- *** Important *** : This script is not complete,  you must add the 'putOnClipboard:' handler and the 'fetchStorableClipboard()' handler to this script.


Why my desktop displays location path of the chosen image?

I don't know how you got this turned on accidentally, but you can remove it by entering these two lines in Terminal.app:

defaults delete com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text

killall Dock


Will my experience be compromised using AirPods Pro with Bluetooth 4 only hardware?

Yes, AirPods Pro will work with a MacBook Air 2014 and provide stereo sound. You will not, however, enjoy Spatial Audio, that is reserved for iOS devices only. See this support document for specific requirements regarding spatial audio.


Yes, reviews submitted apps must be approved by Apple, in order to make sure that there it's not spam or contains swear words or such.

The reason that you are unable to see your comments, is likely that you have to wait awhile. Devs don't get to pick which reviews are down and which aren't. Also, if your review was for an earlier version, it, obviously, won't appear in "Current Version Only".


Where in iOS 8 do I customize the notification centre?

Make certain your phone is unlocked and pull down the notification center.  When on the 'today' tab and unlocked, there is an 'edit' button at the bottom of the notification center that allows you to adjust what content is displayed and what order it is displayed.


My Macbook Pro often hangs up at shutdown - what should I do?

Often, hard drives that won't unmount, or network shares that can't unmount will prevent your system from shutting down completely.

Right before you shutdown, check the contents of /Volumes and see if there is anything unexpected in there.


Bootcamp Assist Disappeared after Windows Update

Separate to the Boot Camp Control Panel, you can always choose your startup disk by holding alt/option on boot.

Shutdown, then hold alt/option while tapping the power button until the Startup Manager appears.
Choose your macOS startup disk to start from macOS this time.
Download the support software from Boot Camp Assistant and copy it to an external disk or other shared location between Windows and macOS.
Restart your Mac, which will boot into Windows again.
Reinstall the Boot Camp support software you downloaded and copied in step 3.

If you want to use Startup Manager in the future, something perhaps useful to know is you can change the default disk from the Startup Manager by holding control while choosing your startup disk.


iMac won't boot to internal drive, usb sticks - Apple hardware test extended fine

You should try to boot your OS in verbose mode or safe mode to see whether you can fix it or not.

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

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573

If you really need to reinstall Mac OS X Yosemite, I'd suggest you run this script from any Mac, you need to have Yosemite downloaded in /Applications.

#!/bin/sh
# Mount the installer image
hdiutil attach /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_app

# Convert the boot image to a 8GB sparse bundle
hdiutil convert /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg -format UDSP -o /tmp/Yosemite
hdiutil resize -size 8g /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage

# Mount the sparse bundle for package addition
hdiutil attach /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build

# Copy Packages and Base System files to the sparse bundle
rm /Volumes/install_build/System/Installation/Packages
cp -rp /Volumes/install_app/Packages /Volumes/install_build/System/Installation/
cp -p /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem* /Volumes/install_build/

# Unmount the installer image and sparse bundle
hdiutil detach /Volumes/install_app
hdiutil detach /Volumes/install_build

# Resize the partition in the sparse bundle to remove any free space
hdiutil resize -size `hdiutil resize -limits /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage | tail -n 1 | awk '{ print $1 }'`b /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage

# Convert the sparse bundle to ISO/CD master
hdiutil convert /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage -format UDTO -o /tmp/Yosemite
rm /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage
mv /tmp/Yosemite.cdr ~/Desktop/Yosemite.iso

Credit goes to the person who wrote that script for Maverick

You can then restore the ISO using Disk Utility on a 8Gb USB Stick and it will be bootable.


Shortcuts-app automation to prevent iPhone screen from going to sleep

As a workaround, I'd use combination of Low-power mode and Auto-Lock after t time.

In Display and Brightness Settings, you can set auto-lock to 1-5 minutes or never. Now since this might drain battery, use low power mode when your "condition is not met". This locks the auto-lock timer to 30 seconds.

Low power mode has its own cons, like some syncs disabled, reduced brightness etc.


Online Open Directory services? Can we install profiles before setting up Macs?

At long last, yes you can set up management for zero touch deployment through a couple avenues.

Use an Apple Service called Device Enrollment Program which is now part of the Apple Business Manager service / web app. https://business.apple.com
Use a product to leverage the login process and install a tool like Jamf Connect which lets you run scripts and check in with a directory before any user logs in. https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-connect/

You can even combine both so that when you purchase a Mac and ship it, it will be enrolled in the management framework, have certificates and helper scripts loaded so that you can leverage cloud identity providers like Okta or Azure AD or roll your own LDAP/OD as the Jamf Connect is based on an open source NoMad project which was acquired and now is enhanced and has become Jamf Connect.

https://gitlab.com/Mactroll/NoMAD

The implementation of this is quite broad, but there are professional resources and communities to help. I would start with JAMF pre-sales support and consider joining the Mac Administrators Slack if you want guidance and mentoring more than a Q&A site like this (and I would recommend both, tbh)

https://macadmins.herokuapp.com/
https://scriptingosx.com/2018/06/macadmins-slack-a-highly-opinionated-guide/


Bizarre problem with Safari: I can't click links in youtube

DOWNLOAD THAT
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204036
It worked for me


On closer examination of the rule in the picture, it looks like it is set to Hostnames apple.com, not Domains apple.com, which may make all the difference.

If not, try adding a duplicate Domains rule also for System processes, as well as 'My' processes.

If that spits out any duplicates, you can then clear the others.
You may find some are locked - so disable or just leave as a dupe, it won't actually hurt anything.


Why is Contacts.app's "General" tab different on two Macs with the same software?

One Mac only has one account set up, so there is no "Default Account" option. The other Mac has multiple accounts set up, or one account and local data, thus it gives you the option of choosing a default account. What else is listed in the "Default Account" menu?


Gray globe (earth) appears after restart for no apparent reason - might something be wrong?

This means your mac is trying start up using files on your network instead of the copy of mac os on the hard drive which there is none so your mac is stuck in a temporary loop. when its done it gives up and boots from local files on the hard drive. Try turning on airplane mode before the restart to prevent the globe from showing up.


Macos login from terminal (Terminal/iTerm) takes long time with high CPU

After more digging, it turned out that the slowness of login was caused by lsof.
login calls lsof at some point which takes very long time to finish.
After some trials and errors, I had to reset max file descriptors limit to default to solve the issue.
I don't know the exact relationship between lsof and max file descriptors limit but it turned out that large max file limits slow down lsof dramatically.


Can I use Siri on Mac to trigger stuff on IFTTT?

I was wondering if anyone knows a way I could use Siri on my Mac along
  with IFTTT

Assuming you are referencing "Mac" to mean a Mac computer and not a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, then no, you cannot use IFTT via Siri on your Mac.

From the App Store link of the IFTT website:

  This app is only available on the App Store for iOS devices.

However, if you're using it on iOS there is support for Siri.  See this Knowledge Base article:  Using Siri with the Note widget service


21.5" iMac Mid 2010 Won't Boot from USB to Install High Sierra

Is this related to bad motherboard?

Basically, yes.

You’ve got some good diagnostic information from attempting to boot from a USB installer.  If both your internal drive and the new USB installer have the exact same symptoms, the problem is with your computer itself.

Now, this particular vintage iMac had a removable GPU “card” and chances are (based on my professional experience), this is likely the case; these would often fail.  To get further confirmation, having a look at the boot messages (Verbose Mode - hold Command V while booting) will help determine this.  Also, booting to the diagnostic disk that came with your Mac would allow you to run the graphics tests.

Can you replace it?

Absolutely.  Unlike 2012 and newer iMac computers that have the display assembly glued in place, the 2009-2011 models used magnets and Torx screws to hold it in place.  User servicing is definitely doable here.  IFixit.com has excellent repair instructions.

However, these are quite “expensive” and very rare as the 27” iMac was much more popular.  A cursory search on eBay found only one at over $100USD at the time of this writing. Is it worth fixing?  IMO, no.  It’s obsolete and no matter how much effort you put into it, it will only become more difficult to maintain.  However, if you’re into “retro computing,” this may be something you don’t want to give up on just yet.

Now, it could still be your logic board, but I think it’s unlikely (the probability isn’t zero).  The nice thing with eBay now, is that you get 30 days to return even on used products.  So, your risk is very low if it turns out not to be the GPU.


Can I create fonts drawn as outlined in Word 16 for Mac?

Latest version of Word and works fine using Format and Font, with no fill and outline :


Which of the Apple provided free iPhone 4 cases has a large free area for dock connectors?

I got the Incase Snap Case through the free program, and it doesn't cover the bottom of the unit at all (except for the sides) so it should work for you, unless your dock connector is massive:


How do I use AppleScript or Automator to turn Time Announce on or off at specified times?

UPDATE: This works for me using the latest version of High Sierra.

This version will "turn on" "Announce the time:" if not already enabled

property thePassword : "yourpassword"

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "ClockPref" of pane id "com.apple.preference.datetime"
    tell application "System Events"
        delay 0.5
        my enterPassword()
        set theValue to get value of checkbox "Announce the time:" of tab group 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
        if theValue is 0 then
            click checkbox "Announce the time:" of tab group 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
        end if
    end tell
    delay 1
    quit
end tell

on enterPassword()
    tell application "System Events"
        try
            click button "Click the lock to make changes." of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
        end try
        delay 1
        --activate
        set value of text field "Enter password" of sheet 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences" to thePassword
        delay 1
        click UI element "Unlock" of sheet 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
    end tell
end enterPassword

This version will "turn off" "Announce the time:" if already enabled

property thePassword : "yourpassword"

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "ClockPref" of pane id "com.apple.preference.datetime"
    tell application "System Events"
        delay 0.5
        my enterPassword()
        set theValue to get value of checkbox "Announce the time:" of tab group 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
        if theValue is 1 then
            click checkbox "Announce the time:" of tab group 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
        end if
    end tell
    delay 1
    quit
end tell

on enterPassword()
    tell application "System Events"
        try
            click button "Click the lock to make changes." of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
        end try
        delay 1
        --activate
        set value of text field "Enter password" of sheet 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences" to thePassword
        delay 1
        click UI element "Unlock" of sheet 1 of window "Date & Time" of application process "System Preferences"
    end tell
end enterPassword

I could have set the script to perform the action of clicking checkbox "Announce the time:" if it was not enabled already… with conditional statements of setting enabled or disabled of that checkbox during certain times.  I figured, for now, it would just be easier to save two different versions of the script.  One version for turning on checkbox "Announce the time:"  and one version for turning off checkbox "Announce the time:”.  In ScriptEditor, just saved each version of the script as applications.  From there just simply open Calendar.app and create two new calender events. one event for enabling checkbox "Announce the time:" at whatever time you choose.  And another for disabling..  Once you create the event, just create a custom alert and select the option of open file then choose your script which you saved as an app.


Which Applications are accessing the microphone in OS X?

Oversight is an app that can notify when apps begin using microphone or webcam privileges. I don't know how it's implemented under the hood, though.


The SUM function in Numbers 3.6.1 on my Mac OS X10.10.5 isn't calculating correctly. Why?

If the cells are in text format, they won't be counted. Check they are a number format cell first.

EDIT
I have tried it myself, when you find and replace, the cell is not automatically updated to a number cell. If you manually type in the number 1, it automatically gets changed to a number format.


Could I trust such a FlashPlayer update?

Unfortunately, if you're going to trust Adobe and their distribution of the Flash plugins, this is what you're going to get.  Many users are now removing Flash and trusting Google to keep the plugins current in Chrome, but this has the same level of security through obscurity.

If you're serious about these updates, you could close the window and go directly to Adobe to check your version and manually download updates: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/find-version-flash-player.html.

Best of luck!


Thunderbolt Display Daisy Chain Mini Displayport Monitor

I have connected the Mini Displayport into the back of the Thunderbolt
  Display and connected the Thunderbolt display into my Mac and the
  Samsung screen will not work.

Unfortunately, this will not work.  You cannot attach (daisy chain) another monitor off of the Thunderbolt port on a Thunderbolt display. It's a limitation of the monitor, not the MBA

From AppleInsider:  Apple clarifies Thunderbolt Display will not daisy chain Cinema Display

  However, users with an existing Mini DisplayPort external monitor will
  not be able to daisy chain the screen from the back of the new
  Thunderbolt Display, despite it being physically compatible with the
  port. Apple notes that "Mini DisplayPort displays will not light up if
  connected to the Thunderbolt port on an Apple Thunderbolt Display."


Are "generic" Optical Bay Hard Drive Enclosures for Macbook Pros just as good as Optibay/OWC

Yes, you need something in order to install a drive in the area where your optical drive is.  You won't really be able to do it without one.

You can obviously buy a knock off optibay at a lower price, I did when I bought my first one, and for the most part it does the job it says that it will do.  It was a cheap plastic little skeleton of a mount and did the job it said it would do.

Later on I purchased a newer computer not too long ago, I decided to buy the actual official optibay.

Now, I am someone who likes build quality, and the official optibay was superior to the knockoff one that I purchased before that.  It is light and wasn't just a plastic skeleton that held the drive like the knock off.  It was a full thin metal chassis that seems like it would hold it more solidly and not jitter around.  It was made of thin sturdy metal and felt more rigid, like it was going to last.  Also, when I purchased mine, it came with a free DVD drive enclosure, which works great and it didn't require me to go and acquire one somewhere else. I was able to keep the DVD drive and it even works on my other macs.  Pretty convenient but not entirely necessary. The enclosure was very bare bones and was plastic but it was a nice gesture and it works.  The Optibay is now only 50 dollars, when I bought it, it was about 100 with shipping and handling but came with the enclosure for free.  The enclosure is now a 30 dollar add on.

The bottom line is that though there is a difference between knockoffs and the official one, whether or not you will really care about those difference is entirely up to you.  The experience that I received with the official was great and it is backed by a company that actually cares about their customers and they test all the new laptops to make sure that everything will continue to work. If you end up buying a knock, just make sure that it will work with your exact make and model and year of your macbook pro.  Don't usually expect support, when I bought my first one, it was off of ebay and really cheap and I can't even remember the company it came from. Also, be sure to check the size limitations, the official optibay supports drives that are 9.5 mm thick, others may give you slightly more space or be slightly different since their are multiple knock offs out there.

Just read reviews and research, you'll find the one that you like. Also, make sure that you also research about SSD in your computer and things that you can do to optimize things, it never hurts to learn as much as you possibly can.

Good luck.


It's usually left up to the writer of the application to make a password work the best. If you forget to close the app or if you put your mac to sleep, any wrapper you construct will likely not secure the diary. Building the password into the app makes it far superior to a gateway app that asks for the password and then launches another app.

That being said, have you investigated these nice journaling software that include the ability to password protect your files?

Mac Journal by Mariner Software
Memories by Coding Robots
Diary by Michael Gobel

There are easily another 10 viable softwares on the App Store alone that serve this exact niche. Also - this review seems to cover some other options, but is about 12 months old now.


Delete time zone entry in Calendar's list

Terminal:

defaults delete com.apple.iCal 'RecentlyUsedTimeZones'

removes all recently used time zones.
(Close Calendar app beforehand.)

I'm pretty sure (but please, someone prove me wrong) the defaults command can not delete single values within keys.

If you have Xcode installed, you can open the Calendar/iCal preferences file located under ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist

You then search for the RecentlyUsedTimeZones key and manually delete the unwanted items within the key by clicking the (-) icon next to the item number.


Do i need to worry about a battery that appears to charge correctly but has a "Service Battery" warning?

"Do I really need to worry about this" is hard to answer.

If you need to be able to use the MacBook for long periods of time when not plugged in, then yes, you probably do, because the battery that you have is probably not reliable.
If you mostly only use the MacBook when plugged into A/C power, then no, you probably don't need to worry about it at all. It will most likely work just fine for that purpose.

Do keep an eye out to make sure that the battery doesn't start to bulge or anything like that. If it does, immediately remove it from the MacBook.

As an aside: MacBook batteries generally cost somewhere between $80-130, so I would be highly skeptical of the quality of whatever battery you bought for $20 off Amazon. Where by "highly skeptical" I mean "I would not leave it plugged in and unattended when I was not at home." Which is probably me being overly protective, but as the saying goes, "Better safe than accidentally burning down the apartment complex and/or neighborhood."


chatty "switching to keychain-db" console messages in Sierra

I wouldn't worry about chatty messages in general as the logging subsystem is now database driven and can handle thousands of messages a minute with little or no load on the system.

You can get a nice overview of your log statistics and see if this is truly one of the larger users of logging. This command does take a while to chew throat the 30 million events I have on my MacBook (3 to 5 minutes) - but even that is a trivial load on my system in practice given how optimized and power efficient Apple macOS logging is now.

log stats --overview
== archive =============================================================
size:               571,895,056 bytes
                    2,118,164,524 bytes (uncompressed)
start:              Tue Aug  1 06:33:03 2017
end:                Wed Sep 20 04:54:41 2017
statedump:          7,343

events:             [       total        log      trace   signpost ]
                    [  30,724,811 27,173,212        996    409,431 ]

activity:           [      create transition     action ]
                    [   3,132,338          0        201 ]

log messages:       [     default       info      debug      error      fault ]
                    [  26,698,888    667,559     38,352    143,035     35,805 ]

ttl:                [        1day      3days      7days     14days     30days ]
                    [     409,447 26,551,227    259,646    204,137    166,525 ]

processes:
          [        events (%total),  decomp. bytes (%total),                           image UUID, image ]
          [    14,796,212 ( 48.2%),    983,897,959 ( 46.5%), EA3CE30B-81E9-3DEA-95F3-CDACA642C5BD, kernel ]
          [       396,296 (  1.3%),    133,190,047 (  6.3%), 5AA6AB96-6A89-3E62-9BB4-6CA2913647C9, secd ]
          [       664,086 (  2.2%),     75,896,057 (  3.6%), 99B2EC04-B281-3EBF-8541-6F6FC3273D9C, identityservicesd ]
          [       299,166 (  1.0%),     60,314,374 (  2.8%), 83FF3BD0-0A23-3232-A28A-C1A5297DA516, dasd ]
          [       727,099 (  2.4%),     53,298,516 (  2.5%), 15049F04-4C48-3D01-ABC2-8DC751F0B9E3, cloudd ]

senders:
          [        events (%total),  decomp. bytes (%total),                           image UUID, image ]
          [    13,883,766 ( 45.2%),    943,025,476 ( 44.5%), 0086A982-E384-3ABF-AD20-BF1300E02E42, Sandbox ]
          [       394,150 (  1.3%),    133,130,846 (  6.3%), 5AA6AB96-6A89-3E62-9BB4-6CA2913647C9, secd ]
          [     1,653,215 (  5.4%),     67,618,576 (  3.2%), D7DDB735-A244-3A06-A432-135E9E368B51, CFNetwork ]
          [       294,803 (  1.0%),     60,187,838 (  2.8%), 7DC1094C-EF1A-3621-9A6B-DEDF467D64DF, DuetActivitySchedulerDaemon ]
          [       393,191 (  1.3%),     58,538,606 (  2.8%), 99B2EC04-B281-3EBF-8541-6F6FC3273D9C, identityservicesd ]

For context - this machine runs beta software often - gets beat up in all manner of ways, Xcode, buggy apps, beta versions of Microsoft Office, beta OS with enhanced logging profiles.


No input field for Apple ID Verification Code

According to this Apple Support page, the issue is two-factor authentication with older devices/iOS.

  What if I use two-factor authentication on a device running older software?

  If you use two-factor authentication with devices running older OS versions, you might be asked to add your six-digit verification code to the end of your password when signing in.

  Get your verification code from a trusted device running iOS 9 and later or OS X El Capitan and later, or have it sent to your trusted phone number. Then type your password followed by the six-digit verification code directly into the password field without any spaces between the password and the verification code.


iphone 5c could not be synced an unknown error occured (-4)

Launch iTunes, connect the device and uncheck Sync Music, Sync Movies, Sync TV Shows, and Sync Podcasts” in iTunes.
Click Sync. This will remove all media from the device but keep it in iTunes.
Disconnect the device from the computer.
Switch off the iOS device by holding down the Sleep/Wake button and using the  Slide to Power Off button.
Hold down the Sleep/Wake button to turn the device back on.
Connect the device to the computer.
Click on the device in iTunes and tick the media that you want to sync.
Click Sync.


Proper shebang line for running perl script with an AppleScript on a perlbrew install?

See first comment here for answer: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=1191380


An alternate method for download is:

Visit https://icloud.com
Log in using your Apple ID
Select the Photos app
Select the photos you wish to download
Click the Download icon at the top right of the window


Hide "disk password" login option at EFI (Filevault) login screen

I have the same problem when booting from an external drive, but not my internal drive!

When I boot normally, I only see a one FileVault option: me. However, when booting from my USB drive, I see two: me, and "Disk Password".

Investigating with fdesetep (sudo fdesetup list —extended) shows that the internal drive has:

ESCROW  UUID                                                                     TYPE USER
        BCF2ABC6-40F8-4F31-A508-7284BC85E65A                   Personal Recovery User
        2EE7445C-13C0-497D-AD54-DA1B8D22A0F7                                  OS User ben

However, the external drive has:

ESCROW  UUID                                                                     TYPE USER
        EB313C9F-E27C-41D5-9EE3-192490C792BE                     Disk Passphrase User
        92ACE5CE-7187-44DB-92CE-56344C18568D                                  OS User ben

Note that the external drive doesn't have a recovery key set (confirmed with fdesetup haspersonalrecoverykey returning false).

It looks like it should be possible to remove the Disk Passphrase using fdesetup, by doing fdesetup remove --uuid <the UUID of Disk Passphrase>. I would strongly recommend adding a recovery key, if you do this.


Senior Apple Customer Service Contact Required

Apple makes it easy to request legal access to things you can’t get when you can’t reset the password via normal channels.

https://www.apple.com/legal/more-resources/

If you’re not a lawyer or part of the government, you probably won’t get much help there. Same trying to get Apple support to disclose information or rescue an account if you can’t just follow the instructions for forgotten passwords / lock out.

Apple surely has their people trained and they know full well what you want and they are saying no. If you’ve been through 3 people, you’re not going to get a better audience by stalking / brow beating someone in my experience. Apple said no to the US FBI for unlocking phones and accounts, so they’re likely not going to cave with someone that’s not able to unlock purchases on their account.


How to preview location of image on Albums on iPad?

I use the View Exif app to extend the Photos app to have geo mapping visuals. It shows all the exif information I've ever needed so I'm quite happy with the value.

I'm interested if there's another way, but this works great for me.


About this Mac - Storage information on terminal

Yeah try using something like this:

du /Application
du /apps

etc

Just use the path to where the files/folders of interest are. To find them you can use the grep/find and cat the results into a txt file or simply pipe the results into your du. Depends on where all your files/folders of interest are.


Is it possible to continue using an to external monitor when closing the lid on a Macbook Air?

Yes, its called "closed clamshell" mode. In short, you'll need to attach your MBA to a mouse, a keyboard and power:

https://support.apple.com/HT201834


Deleting files from mac but not from iCloud

How to delete files from my mac and keep it in iCloud Drive?

You cannot do this, because...

iCloud is a syncing platform and not primarily a backup platform.

  iCloud connects you and your Apple devices in amazing ways. It makes sure you always have the latest versions of your important information—like documents, photos, notes, and contacts—on whatever device you’re using. It lets you easily share photos, calendars, locations, and more with friends and family. It even helps you find your device if you lose it.

It's designed to give you access to your files from all your devices.  It's not designed to allow you to put a file there and then delete it from your device.

If you need an actual backup solution, you should look to Google, Dropbox, or OneDrive.  They'll allow you to do the file backups you need.


Strong inteference from mini DisplayPort

Turn off the Wi-Fi Direct function on your LG 4K monitor if it does have one (check the LG documentation) and you will be able to recover a Wi-Fi network working.

If your cable isn't a shielded one (this should be written explicitly on its packaging) or doesn't have a ferrite core , just replace it. Sooner than later you will have interferences on your image displayed and on all use of radio frequency within a few meters.

Another way to workaround this huge noise level could be to switch your MacBook Pro on a 5 GHz network = channel above or equal 40. This configuration has to be done on your equipment building your Wi-Fi network. This is your Belkin wireless router. But this won't fix the origin of the problem.


Is it possible to change the Bluetooth UUID on my iPod?

No it is not possible. No known private API or jailbreak methods to do so AFAIK.


Apple Music - Some sounds from Album are not available to download or listen

I'm not sure what the reason is behind this, or if it's a bug. But generally I've had this occur when I either previously owned that song or uploaded it, or if I downloaded that song as a single (I.e. Free single of the week, etc.).

Either way, removing the entire album and any duplicate versions of that song, and then re-adding the album usually fix it for me. Best of luck!


How to read my old deleted iPhone WhatsApp messages from PC/Mac?

Did you try logging into WhatsApp for Mac?


Weird problems with Safari: search bar and tabs

I had exactly the same (but on Yosemite), and found this (https://discussions.apple.com/message/29693684#29693684) resolved it.

Uncheck Use Safari Suggestions in the Search tab in Safari Preferences.

Certainly not a solution to the problem, but gets around it until more concrete information comes out..


I believe that you can create a smart playlist, limit it to 160 GB (chosen randomly), and then choose to sync only that playlist. At least you can do something like this with an iPhone.


Copy macOS installation to second partition

Well, I managed to achieve what I needed using the following procedure:

  1.) sudo -i
  Enter root shell

  2.) mkdir /Volumes/Storage\ 2/Data/ && mv /Volumes/Storage\ 2/* /Volumes/Storage\ 2/Data/ && mv /Volumes/Storage\ 2/.* /Volumes/Storage\ 2/Data/
  This relocated all my data on the target volume to a separate folder

  3.) ditto -X -V --nocache / /Volumes/Storage\ 2/
  This copied all files and symlinks from my boot volume to the volume "Storage 2", and made "Storage 2" bootable in the process.

  4.) reboot > Storage 2
  Booted into Storage 2

  5.) diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" Macintosh\ HD disk0s4
  Deleting the old boot volume, and leaving free space in its place

  6.) diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 296G
  Expand the new boot volume to include the free space I just made

  7.) diskutil rename disk0s3 Macintosh\ HD
  Renamed new boot volume to match old one

  8.) diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" Recovery\ HD disk0s5
  Delete faulty recovery partition

  9.) diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 296.6G
  Expand new boot volume to include rest of free space

Since performing this half of my two-part project the partition scheme now looks like this:

  Partition 1, 210 MB: EFI
  Partition 2, 22 GB: Storage 1
  Partition 3, 297 GB: Macintosh HD

Hopefully this will be helpful for anyone else who needs to move their macOS installation to another partition without losing any data, or anyone who needs to make a bootable backup of their system before performing a potentially dangerous operation.

Now that this part is done, I just need to figure out how to turn "Storage 1" into a bootable installer partition.


After beta testing your app in TestFlight, do you have to re-upload for public release?

No you dont need to re-upload binary go into test flight section & switch off testflight testing. After this you can release that version.


Deleting a suspicious malware (imklaunchagent) in Mac

You can't (see † below) remove that file because MacOS doesn't let you (or anyone) alter the contents of /System. Only Apple can write to that location.

MacOS does that to ensure the integrity of the OS. In other words, if it's in /System, it's part of the OS.

† By 'can't', I mean in the normal running of your computer, unless you yourself follow a particular procedure which no active software can perform by itself as a means of corrupting your system.


Can Roambi or any iPad app make authorized http-requests to pull data to visualize?

I don't know about Roambi (but it does seem like they care about the security of their clients' business data, so the requests from the app are very likely authenticated and encrypted), but of course an iPad app can make HTTP requests that include authentication information, if that was your question. Even Mobile Safari supports Basic Auth, for example.


Open your Contacts and check all of the phone numbers and email addresses listed for the person that gets called (check your mother's contact as well).  This person's contact likely incorrectly contains your mother's phone number or email address.  Remove or correct the incorrect information from that person's contact information and the problem will go away.


There’s no way to change the default font output of the standard LaTeX editor in Keynote.
There might be a way through changing the editor itself, though of course strictly speaking it wouldn’t be Keynote anymore, more of a customized variant.
So practically, no.
Old Answer (for temporary changes):
Yes
\mathfrak{x=2y} clearly changes the font in Keynote, and Pages as mentioned in the question you linked.


How to control playback speed of iTunes U lectures in Mac OS?

It is currently not possible in iTunes. I highly recommend you to give feedback about this feature to Apple.

However there is a workaround:

Download VLC

  VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and
  framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD,
  VCD, and various streaming protocols.

Right click on the file in iTunes and choose "Show in Finder"
Open the file shown in Finder with VLC
In the menu "Playback" you can find the "Playback Speed" settings.


Managing pictures and videos between my iPhone and iPad

Apple wants you to use their PhotoStream or do manual syncing all the time. From my personal experience it's impossible to manage some parts in PhotoStream and some others outside. I'm sure it's possible to do some crazy scripting, symlinking and syncing. But hey... that's not the reason why we use Apple products in favor to the more open Android ones, right?

I ended up re-creating my Aperture and iPhoto libraries and a big upload session to PhotoStream. Works fine so far.


There are three problems with the script you posted, and one of them may be just a problem that was caused when you pasted the code into your question.

Starting from the beginning: You need to tell Chrome where to do the JavaScript, like this:

tell application "Google Chrome" to tell active tab of front window to execute javascript "your script"

That will run the script in the current tab of the first window you opened (AFAIK, you can't yet get the active tab of the active window).

Next, you don't want that javascript: prefix; Chrome knows it's JavaScript.

Finally, you're missing a paren at the very end of your line. Again, I'm not sure if this is just a copy problem, but it's something to be aware of.

Making the above changes, I have this code:

tell application "Google Chrome" to tell active tab of front window to execute javascript "Qr=prompt('Search%20Site%20for','');if(Qr)location.href='http://www.google.com/search?&q=site:'+encodeURIComponent(window.location.hostname)+'+'+escape(Qr)"

...which works.


Apple Computers Not Connecting to the Internet

From my understanding, if you have both IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity, the Mac operating system will try both and determine which is fastest. The problem is if the IPv6 DNS returns an IPv6 address that can not be reached, then the computer waits until it times out. This happens even it the IPv4 network reaches the web site. The only reasonable solution is to configure IPv6 as Link-local only.

Under System Preferences select Network.
Select the type of connection. (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc.)
Select Advanced...
Select the TCP/IP tab.
Select Link-local only as shown below.
Click on OK.
Click on Apply.

Link-local only means the IPv6 addressing will work for your Local Area Network (LAN), but is disabled on the Wide Area Network (WAN).

BTW, Microsoft has a fix for this, but only for Windows users. Download "Perfer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies" from this site. There is way to make a similar change to the prefix policies used by the underlying Unix on a Mac. Unfortunately, from my understanding, OS X will ignore the change.


Can I get a SSL certificate for my domain name from Apple

No, Apple does not issue SSL/TLS certificates for web hosting purposes. Apple's developer certificates are for code signing only.

LetsEncrypt and Caddy Server

LetsEncrypt provide free SSL/TLS certificates for use with your web site.

To ease the management your web site, consider Caddy for your web server. Caddy handles the certificate provisioning and renewal for you.

For non-commercial use, StartSSL, also offer free certificates.


How can I download songs for offline play on my Mac but not my iPhone?

Apple doesn't make you download on both systems, you can store them in the cloud.

Select all the songs in iTunes on your mac, right click and select download.  Those will only download on your Mac.  If you want to download some or all on your iPhone then you will have to click the cloud icon for each song or an entire playlist to start the download there.


Sharing Mac hard drive over the Internet to a PC

You may get better help on the Windows side of this problem from Super User.

As for the Mac side, mounting the drive in a folder in your user directory should work and is a good idea. However, you used the wrong command. ln -s makes a symbolic link, like a Shortcut on Windows or an Alias on the Mac. You can mount the drive temporarily using the diskutil mount command. There is a way to do it permanently, but I don't know how to do it offhand; you should ask a new question about that.


I have this alias in my ~/.bash_profile:

alias tarc='COPYFILE_DISABLE= tar --exclude .DS_Store -c'

It can be used like tarc -zf directory.tgz directory or tarc -f directory.tar directory.

Setting COPYFILE_DISABLE tells tar to remove extended attributes, ACLs, resource forks, and Finder information. tar uses AppleDouble files (the files that start with ._) to store metadata by default, and it also knows how to convert metadata stored in AppleDouble files back to the native formats, but unarchiving applications on other platforms usually keep the ._ files.

$ touch a;xattr -w key value a;tar -cf a.tar a;tar -tf a.tar
./._a
a
$ COPYFILE_DISABLE= tar -cf a2.tar a;tar -tf a2.tar
a


Getting the FaceTime.app file from your backup or another machine with the same OS version should work.


Installing Windows 7 in Boot Camp is Unavailable on Mojave

What I would suggest is getting old bootcamp files and going the manual route, that is, without using Bootcamp assistant. You would create an exFat partition, get a bootable Win7 installer disk and boot into the disk to install Win7 on the exFat partition. Booting into Windows 7, you can then manually install the Bootcamp drivers.
The latest Bootcamp drivers, that is Bootcamp 6 don't support windows 7/8 installation as far as I know, so you'll have to get older drivers. Here's the link for Bootcamp 5.1.5722: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1836?locale=en_US
According to them:

  • The download file is a .zip file. Double click it to uncompress it,  if it is not automatically uncompressed.
  • Double-click the Boot Camp5 folder.
  • Copy the entire contents of the .zip file to the root level of a USB flash drive or hard drive that is formatted with the FAT file system
  • When running Windows, locate the Boot Camp folder on the USB media you created in Step 3 and double click to open it.
  • Double click on setup to start installing the Boot Camp Support Software.
  • When prompted to allow changes, click on Yes and follow the onscreen instructions.
  • Installation can take a few minutes. Don't interrupt the installation process. When installation is complete, click Finish in the dialog that appears.
  • A system restart dialog box appears.  Click Yes to complete the installation.


Quickest way to launch Wallet when phone is unlocked?

Go to Settings -> Control Center and add Wallet to the active list. Then you can swipe from Control Center and select Wallet any time the phone is unlocked.


Is it possible to recover an erased Mac SSD partition?

If you have a standard formatting (I assume it is hard to believe) then the chances are that you can restore it.
There are several forms of erasing a data carrier, including deleting the table of contents of a data carrier and erasing individual sectors of a volume.
Since mostly only the table of contents is deleted with a quick format, the data is still on the SSD, only the SSD or the operating system can no longer find any files.
It is therefore possible to restore the files, if you have restored the files, it is advisable to reinstall the macOS operating system, as sensitive files may have been damaged and the system does not work properly.
I use the Disk Drill program to create data. Please correct me if it's not good software


Easy way to see a list of all the apps I have installed on my iPhone

if you're using a Mac install "Apple Configurator 2" from the Mac App Store. Choose your device while connected via USB and go to "Actions->export->informations" in the top menu bar. Then you can choose which details like installed Apps, serial number, etc. you want to export as csv list (you can open in Numbers e.g.)


Copying text in vim to the global clipboard

macOS version of vim is compiled with -clipboard (you can check with vim --version). So there's no shared clipboard available. In this case you can download/recompile new vim or you can use system command pbcopy (man page). Here's how to use it as CTRL ⌃+C shortcut:

map <C-c> y:e ~/clipsongzboard<CR>P:w !pbcopy<CR><CR>:bdelete!<CR>

Add this to your ~/.vimrc file.

Explanation of this command can be found here: vimtips @ quora


How to disable visual display of modifier keys?

It sounds like you have the “Sticky Keys” feature enabled.

To control the setting, open the System Preferences application ( > System Preferences…), load the Universal Access preference pane, goto the Keyboard tab. You can turn “Sticky Keys” Off (or On) there. You may also want to disable the “Press the Shift key five times to turn Sticky Keys on or off” feature. Or, if you want the sticky feature without the display, just disable “Display pressed keys on screen” and leave it enabled.


I don't get any errors when I make a temporary file:

openssl version > /$TMPDIR/foo
openssl dgst -sha256 /$TMPDIR/foo

My version is OpenSSL 0.9.8zg 14 July 2015 and the sha256 of the resulting foo file is

SHA256(/tmp/foo)= 34ff579703733495dc5b883f288b71653653c8b449da860a1b6fb382fde1a5f1

Maybe you just need to remove the -in to calculate your digest?


iPhone 5: How to upgrade from 7.0.4 to iOS 9 and above?

iPhone 5 can run iOS 10.x

You may need to do iOS upgrades in sequence, but I can't find definitive info on this.

You might want to use iTunes on Mac or PC to update your phone to keep settings intact.


Does deleting an iMessage on a device deletes it in all of the other iCloud synced devices?

My experience is you cannot actually delete an iMessage once and have it delete elsewhere.

You can only delete the local cached copy of a message to suppress it being showed/stored on that one device. If you turn off iMessage and turn it back on, you will see the messages from iCloud come back whether you deleted a message or not.


Switching from a non-admin user to an admin user to run an app

About the only thing you can do in 15 minutes is let the admin account be open to all the non-admin users and have unlocked your library macs to more admins.

Have a look at BootRunner which solves this problem for the entire lab. There is discount pricing and a free trial. Based on what you’re using to manage the lab - your MDM choice may dictate or handle this for you as well.

https://twocanoes.com/products/mac/boot-runner/