AppleScript is unable to get a date as string

This may not be a direct solution or quite the answer you are looking for, but this following AppleScript code provide examples of how to convert a given short date string into an actual date, how to extract the elements of the date, edit and set date and time values, and to create your own custom date and time as a string.  Hope this helps.

set dateAsText to "9/23/16"

-- converts dateAsText into an actual date
set someDate to date dateAsText -- date "Friday, September 23, 2016 at 12:00 AM"

-- extract the short date from someDate... as a string
set shortDate to short date string of someDate -- "09/23/16"

-- change the time value of someDate from "12:00 AM" to "5:00 PM"
set adjustedDate to date "5:00 PM" of someDate -- date "Friday, September 23, 2016 at 5:00 PM"

-- extract elements from adjustedDate... as strings
set theTime to time string of adjustedDate -- "5:00 PM"

set theWeekday to weekday of adjustedDate -- Friday
set theWeekday to (weekday of adjustedDate) as string -- "Friday"

set theDay to day of adjustedDate -- 23
set theDay to (day of adjustedDate) as string -- "23"

set theMonth to month of adjustedDate -- September
set theMonth to (month of adjustedDate) as string -- "September"

-- edit values of adjustedDate
set day of adjustedDate to 14 -- date "Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 5:00 PM"
set year of adjustedDate to 1978 -- date "Thursday, September 14, 1978 at 5:00 PM"

------------
set customDate to short date string of adjustedDate & space & theTime -- "09/14/78 5:00 PM"


Will Time Machine backup portions of my file system that come from mounted drives?

It's most likely your filesystem is just one that fseventsd is ignoring due to it not being HFS+

Even with a proper Mac filesystem, you could have unintentionally told the system to secure and ignore this volume by having an obscurely documented empty file called no_log in /path/to/your/fs/.fseventsd/no_log.


Normally you can setup header and footer in the page setup or print setup (depend on which program you print from), so that the file name isn't shown.

If your network printer support "secure print" then use this feature, because then it will only be you that'll see the printed.


Unfortunately this depends entirely on the configuration of the router. Perhaps the DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) server is configured with a very short lease time for clients, and a new IP address is assigned whenever a client has no network activity for only a short time.

To fix the problem you will need to ask the administrator of the router to lengthen the lease time, or consider creating a reserved IP address for your MacBook Pro. The means of doing that vary with the make and model of the router.

After you have worked with the administrator to reserve an IP address, you will want to create a custom network profile on your MacBook Pro for use when you are connecting to that particular WiFi router, to disable DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol), and configure a static IP address.

If all of the above is not possible, perhaps someone could propose a means of writing a script on the Mac that would cause the Mac, every few minutes, to renew its IP address lease to the DHCP server that the WiFi router uses, in order that the IP address assigned by DHCP would not expire, and the DHCP server would not automatically assign a new IP address.

TRY THIS TIP: Leave Apple Mail open all the time and configure it to automatically check for new mail every 60 seconds. This might be enough to keep your IP address renewed on the DHCP server of the WiFi router.


Why does voice dictation not always appear on the new iPad?

The following conditions must be met in order for dictation to work:

You must be connected to the Internet for dictation to work.
You shouldn't be using audio on your device (e.g. if you are on a FaceTime call, the button will not appear.)
You must be focused in an text field which is formatted for normal text (more about this below.)

Developers (and even Web Developers) can choose which keyboard layout will be visible to the user, via the UIKeyboardType property. Here's an example of several different keyboard layouts and what they look like on an iPhone (without dictation).

The dictation button is available in the following keyboard types:

Standard (UIKeyboardTypeASCIICapable)

But is not available in the following:

Telephone (UIKeyboardTypePhonePad)
URL (UIKeyboardTypeURL)
Email (UIKeyboardTypeEmailAddress)
Zipcode (UIKeyboardTypeNumberPad)


Clarification:
Apple has always released the kernel of MacOS in an open source form.  The kernel is named Darwin. Darwin has a target of x86.  It can be ported to other processors, but the open source variant of Darwin that Apple controls and releases was only available for x86.
However, iOS, which uses ARM processors, has used Darwin since its inception.  Apple has never released the ARM port of Darwin, even though they obviously have one since they're using it in millions of iOS devices already in consumer hands.
This announcement is that Apple is now releasing the ARM pieces of Darwin that they previously withheld.
Darwin is just a kernel, it doesn't include most of what makes the MacOS or iOS operate as a consumer expects them to.  A kernel is not a complete operating system.
Further, Darwin is not a complete kernel.  Apple doesn't release many portions of it.

What does it mean for consumers that Apple has released MacOS kernel as open source?

Not much, initially.  It will not affect the availability of hardware or software, upgrades, and probably won't even have a substantial impact on jailbreaking or similar alternate uses of apple devices.

Does this mean we'll see other Computers (which are not Apple built) run the MacOS?

It does not affect the availability of non Apple hardware devices running Apple software or operating systems.  What's already available won't become more or less available or more or less legal.

If not, then what would happen?

The most likely explanation, and how consumers will benefit, comes from an earlier release of code Apple usually holds close to its chest, "Apple confirms iOS kernel code left unencrypted intentionally" which suggests:

Apple has begun to shift towards greater transparency, particularly on security issues, in the wake of its battle with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter. When the FBI attempted to compel Apple to unlock the phone, CEO Tim Cook penned a rare open letter to Apple’s customers, explaining his decision to resist. “We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government,” Cook wrote. (The FBI eventually dropped its request after paying a third party to break into the device.)
Opening up the kernel’s code for inspection could weaken the market for security flaws like the one the FBI is presumed to have used to get into the San Bernardino iPhone. If flaws are revealed quickly and widely, it will reduce the prices law enforcement and black markets will pay for them — and it could mean quicker fixes for Apple’s customers.

So the consumer benefit is that more eyes, specifically security researchers, will be on the code and hopefully this will bring to light weaknesses in security, allowing Apple the ability to improve security for customers rather than finding out their security is broken when a government or third party is able to take away someone's rights without due process.
Whether this plays out positively, though, depends on researchers volunteering to comb through the code.

From what I understand, Unix kernel is released too, and Linux was created. Should the same happen to Apple's kernel?

Apple started with the original BSD code, which, using the BSD license, doesn't require that companies or individuals release their changes to the code to the people they distribute compiled software to.  Indeed, they chose this over the Linux kernel specifically so they could keep certain intellectual property secret (among many other reasons, of course).
So they do not have a legal obligation to release all their code. Some of the software they use does have other licenses, such as GPL, which does require they keep it open source. Much of these are available from Apple now.
This does, however, also point to another possibility: many kernel pieces are released so developers can develop MacOS hardware and specialized software.  This is much deeper into the system than app developers are allowed access to for iOS devices.
This release, then, suggests one or both of two strong possibilities (and this is complete conjecture):

Apple is preparing to release MacOS computers using their A series ARM processors.
Apple is preparing to allow developers to make deeper-level software for iOS devices.

I'd say MacOS computers using ARM processors is more likely, as the latest A11 chip, used in the iPhone 8 and X, beats the latest Intel i5 chip, used in the 2017 Macbook 13".  Apple still has a ways to go before they can replace Intel processors along their whole line, however we may see, within a year or two, low end MacOS computers with A12 or A13 chips, replacing the Intel chips previously used.
This would provide significant benefit to Apple (particularly its bottom line).
However, without an official statement there's no way to know what reasons Apple has for releasing the ARM portions of its already largely open source Darwin kernel.
The consumer will be impacted very little, if at all, and if so only indirectly.


How can I get Image Capture autorun turned off when inserting media? OS X Yosemite 10.2.2, 2015

Plug in your device to your Mac. When Image Capture is open it should display the device that's plugged in. Select the device, then you’ll see, below the sidebar, an option allowing you to choose what happens when you connect the device.

Click the menu that says Image Capture; you have several options, such as Image Capture, Preview, or, perhaps, other apps. But you can also choose No Application. Select that, and you’re good to go. In Image Capture, you can adjust this setting individually for each device.

If you don’t see the menu below the sidebar, click the little widget at the bottom-left of the window; that will display the menu.

Note: if you’ve turned on Photos in the Cloud in your iOS device settings, you won’t see this option, since your iOS device no longer lets you add photos to iPhoto when it’s connected. And you can’t delete photos from the device using Image Capture either.


Unfortunately Find My has some limitations regarding finding AirPods instead of an iOS device or Mac.

Find My can only locate AirPods out of the case. The case itself has no connectivity and the AirPods within the case are turned off when the case is closed, so the case must be open for the AirPods to be reporting their location.
Find My does not support finding and sharing the location of AirPods that are not ‘yours’ paired with a device logged into the same primary iCloud account.

This means if there is no last location for the AirPods, for a new location to be reported, AirPods must be with some charge, out of the case or with the case open, and in range of one of your devices.
Apple has a support article on this topic: How to find your lost AirPods.


Is there a way to make some application have different resolution on a Retina Macbook Pro?

The OS doesn't have any sort of procedure to tell app A to use one screen size and app B another.

Unless the apps you use have a preference to change layout, icon size or other aspects of layout and zoom (like a spreadsheet tool can zoom in and out regardless of the overall resolution), you'll have to pick the best resolution and then change it up as needed based on your workflow.


What makes a "Special folder" - a bundle in the finder

The extension of the folder determines if the folder is a special folder. For example, apps have the extension .app, Kernel Extensions have the extensions .kext, etc.

Some folders, like the iPhoto Library, have extended attributes. They can be determined by running ls -@l in the parent directory of your folder. The attribute com.apple.FinderInfo stores the type of the folder.

The easiest way to copy the attributes, in my personal opinion, is to use the ditto Terminal command to copy the files. It works just like cp, except that it also ensures that extended attributes are copied.


It certainly looks like that. However, there seems no way to trigger it yet (maybe it will be added to a iOS 11.x future update).

There's no trace of it on iCloud.com but something appears if look up another device in iOS > Settings > Apple ID (top) > Another Device (Bottom)

In my case it only shows - and inaccurately says Last iCloud Backup: Never so it looks like it's not fully supported yet


iPhone won't connect to wifi but iPad do

This probably happens because some of the wireless settings have gone wrong. It's hard to tell exactly what went wrong without more information, but you can reset your network settings by the following:

Go to Settings > General > Reset Network Settings.

Then try connecting to your wifi again.

(or you could try turning the iPad off and on again :)


You can use the Spotify premium account on the iPhone, and you should.
At least where I live (Chile) you save approx 40% on the monthly subscription by buying it directly with Spotify instead of an in-app purchase.


How do I limit caching in Mail for Mavericks?

With GMail, you can slightly aleivate this problem with:

Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Folder Size Limits > Limit IMAP folders to contain no more than this many messages = 1000

Also, in Mac Mail you can still disable Automatically download attachments.

This will leave you with the text of latest 1000 messages from each GMail label.


The problem was solved by replacing the logic board. I went to a local merchant who complies with Apple, and they told me they will replace it for free. After being pressed by its customers (in US) who were complaining for this issue and even sued the company, Apple filed an issue for free replacements during the last five years.
More info here and here


What happens when importing a PST file in Outlook for Mac?

When you import a .PST Windows file into Office 2016 on the Mac the PST file is imported into a folder under the heading "On My Computer." The folder structure is maintained and nothing is uploaded to your exchange server that I could tell.

Also of note is that the data is actually imported, where on Windows the PST file is used as a read/write data store.

You also seem to have access to the calendar and contacts data if that was exported as well.


Cannot seem to install VMware vCSA 6.7 cert on macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra

Resolved. I followed the instructions here (which was already getting done by the OS), but had to just manually "trust" the CA.


Is there any software like 'Network Magic' for Mac?

Well, there are some network monitoring & management tools for Mac OS X you may want to have a look at (although I haven't found a direct hit I guess). For example,
Casper Suite, InterMapper, IPNetMonitorX, Lithium 5.0, AutoScan-Network,
DeployStudio, ...

To see who is on your network you may use Ntop.

Since Mac OS X is a Unix-based operating system, there are also command line tools that allow you to manage other Macs remotely via SSH. For example, systemsetup, networksetup and screencapture.

And, last but not least (as already pointed out by mrbitch), there is quite some 'Network Magic' functionality that ships with Mac OS X by default (see, for example, the 'Sharing' system preference pane).


Trying to install Ant but getting -bash: brew: command not found

If brew doctor doesn't run, then you have some breakage in the PATH variable on the system or you need to re-run the installer package, perhaps cleaning up things according to the support site for homebrew.

You can check where the brew command is with:

which brew
type brew

Both of those should point to a command located at: /usr/local/bin/brew and the path /usr/local/bin should be in your path variable. To test that, quit terminal and open a new window. The set command below should look like the one I pasted with "mac" and "me" different for you in all likelihood.

mac:~ me$ set | grep -i PATH
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Since this is how the system should be set up out of the box, if you have made modifications you'll want to look over the site for ways to debug a broken path. Your text seems to indicate that the path is set correctly, but that's the cause of command not found or the brew script itself is somehow corrupted - but that script is in /bin/sh not bash so I would expect a different error if it's messed up in some manner.


Change the iOS double tap home button reachabity predefined function

This isn't possible without jailbreaking. Apple does not provide any mechanism for changing the functionality of the double tap.

If the device is jailbroken, you can install Activator 1.9.11 beta 2 which has support for the ‘Double Press’ Touch ID event. This event can be mapped to ‘Home Button’, such that ‘touch fingerprint sensor twice’ will ‘simulate a press of the home button’.


Is there an easy way to switch desktops on the remote computer using "back to my mac"

The key command is control and left arrow or right arrow.

You can customize things further in Mission Control preferences as well.

Depending on which VNC/RDC client you are using - the command keys might act locally if you are browsing from OS X - so you might need to eliminate multiple screens to pass those through.

Alternatively, you can use/set a hot key for mission control and choose which screen you want from the top of the window. Changing the local shortcut will allow it to pass through to the remote OS X if that's blocking you.


How to move a window from one screen to another and maximise in one go?

As OP themselves commented, this popup helped them:

without creating a new virtual screen.

That is an invalid requirement. Fullscreen apps make a space of their own.
I think your requirement is to make an fullscreen next to where it is, instead of going to the far right.

Hold the green button on the top left.

Click somewhere in the same window.


Here you go:

tell application "Mail" to open "Library:Desktop Pictures:Small Ripples graphite.png"

Replace "Mail" and the file with the app and file you want to open your file with, respectively.


Automator to overwrite folder after uncompressing

You probably don't need automator for this. Just configuring the archive utility should be enough. Set the "save expanded files" destination folder on the hidden preferences panel. Follow the steps below to enable it.

Change How macOS Handles ZIP Files With These Hidden Preferences

A hidden System Preferences pane lets you configure how archives work on your Mac. You can stop ZIP files from going to the Trash after you unarchive them, or you can have newly created archives spawn in a particular folder. Enabling this panel just takes a couple minutes.

Find and Install The Hidden Preferences Pane

Open the Finder, then click the icon for your computer in the “Devices” section of the sidebar. From your system drive, browse to System > Library > CoreServices > Applications, a folder that houses a few application your Mac uses regularly.

We’re interested in the Archive Utility, which is the program that opens ZIP files by default on your Mac. Right-click this application, then click “Show Package Contents.”

This allows us to browse the files that make up the application. Head to Contents > Resources and you’ll find a file called “Archives.prefPane.”

Double-click this file and System Preferences will launch, asking you if you’d like to install the pane. Click “Install.”

You’ve now added the Archives pane to your System Preferences.

Change How Archives Work On Your Mac

You’ll find the new Archives pane in the bottom section of the System Preferences.

Click it and you’ll see a few options.

First, you can choose where unarchived files end up. The default is in the same archive as the archive itself, but you can choose a specific folder if you want. Next, you can choose what happens to archive files after you unarchive them. By default, such files are sent to the trash, but you can optionally leave the archive alone or even delete it outright.

The bottom half of this preference pane concerns archives created by this application. If you select a bunch of files in the Finder, right-click them, then click “Compress,” you can create a ZIP file.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/284856/change-how-macos-handles-zip-files-with-these-hidden-preferences/


How to create ISO from Application Bundle

Right-click your "Install OS X Mountain Lion.app" file and select "Show Package Contents".
Open Contents/SharedSupport and then you will find InstallESD.dmg.

Copy this file to your Desktop. This is the file that you need to burn OS X to a DVD. You need a Dual Layer DVD to burn OS X/or just use a USB flash drive.

It isn't an ISO, but you can convert to a 'cdr' from Disk Utility. A 'cdr' file is the same as an 'iso' AFAIK, and you can rename the extension so that it is an ISO.


There is an option within the preferences of Mail.app.

Go to the "Accounts" tab, and select the email account, and under Account Information, you can set the outgoing mail server to None.

You must also enable Use only this server.

When sending a message from that account, you will now get a message asking you to choose a different outgoing mail server, with the option of cancelling the send.


How to install ImageMagick on 10.6 (Snow Leopard) using a precompiled binary (without a package manager)?

Search for an old version of the binary ImageMagick release named "ImageMagick-x86_64-apple-darwin10" that runs on 10.6.8, for example:

http://tools.robodoc.net/tools/imagemagick/ImageMagick-x86_64-apple-darwin10.6.0.tar.gz

Download and extract the files.
Move the ImageMagick-6.6.7 folder to your home folder.
Start terminal and execute this command: $ export MAGICK_HOME="$HOME/ImageMagick-6.6.7";export PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/bin:$PATH";export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/lib/"
Ready


Assuming this is a Google Calendar, the following advice from https://the-parallax.com/2018/05/11/how-to-stop-calendar-spam/ should help:

  Google Calendar: From a Web browser, click on the event in Calendar, but be careful not to reply to it, and not to click on any
  of the links within it. At the top, under the Going section, click
  “Report spam.” The event, along with all others from that organizer,
  will be removed from your Calendar.

  To prevent more spam from showing up on your Google Calendar in the
  future, click the Gear icon in the upper-right corner, and go to
  Settings. Scroll down to Event Settings, and change Automatically Add
  Invitations to, “No, only show invitations to which I have responded.”


The history of your calls and messages will be stored in your device but in an encrypted manner which even apple doesn't share or record them in iCloud. So FaceTime and iMessage are safe. But if you give your Apple ID and password to someone else, than can have a hand over the messages. So you can protect them by enabling Two step Verification for your device and by Creating App-Specific Passwords.

Everything about Two step verification
https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204152

Everything about App-Specific Passwords
https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204152


iPhoto does not recognise the photos on the SD card of my new camera.

According to Apple's RAW format support page, Sony Alpha ILCE-6000 support was added in Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 5.06 released in August 2014.  This update requires a minimum of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 with iPhoto version 9.4.3 or later.

I recommend upgrading to the latest OS X version supported by your Mac.


Why can't I insert a DVD into my Mac Mini?

Sounds like your optical drive is faulty, immediate ejection of a disk is typical of an optical drive failure.

In the current state your Mac mini is trying to boot to a Macintosh volume.  So, after pressing the power button press and hold the Option key until a mouse cursor appears and your Windows XP partition should appear.  Using either arrow keys and the Enter key, or the mouse, you can select the Windows XP partition and boot to that.

In terms of getting your optical drive fixed, I'd recommend buying an external USB optical drive, it'd be much cheaper than repairing your optical drive through the Apple channels.


How to switch dictation language in Yosemite using a voice command?

I am not aware of any keyboard shortcut to do so but as a pis aller you can create a Sikuli script that switches from  English to French, and another one that switches from French to English, then bind those two scripts to a voice command.


On newer OS X, you can access these advanced features from the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar. Hold shift and option (only) when clicking on the icon:

The debug menu has most of the action oriented items you'll need:

I've never seen resetting the module work better than powering it off, but I'm sure theres cases where that saves a trip to the repair shop.

Logging is useful, but the logs are very very large, so keep that in mind and set a reminder to turn it off tomorrow.

On older OS, you needed a developer tool to systematically remove pairing records and HID devices. Bluetooth Explorer ships with Xcode 3. (as of today, early June 2011 - this is something available at no cost if you agree to the terms of the free developer program. It might also be bundled with Xcode 4 - available with paid download or paid mac developer program -  but I can't vouch for that) You can also browse the developer documentation for free to learn more about bluetooth implementation.

The explorer has a detailed window with many settings to automate resetting devices for testing. Here is a portion of the window showing that not only are the local mac settings cleared, it will reach out to Apple Bluetooth devices and reset their internal state as well.

Since bluetooth has to start very soon in the boot process (and is part of the setup assistant since new macs that have no accounts have to know how to set up Bluetooth keyboards and mouse out of the box) it's not just a simple user preference file but instead a system level preference and stored in several locations.

You will be able to make your mac factory fresh to test bluetooth with the Bluetooth Explorer.


How to obtain the external IPv4 address via Terminal

It is not possible without checking an external source.

In a typical networking environment, nothing on your computer knows the external IP address the computer is using to communicate with the public internet.  Instead, the computer has a private IP address and sends all traffic to the private IP address of a router which then forwards the traffic the the public internet using a public IP address.

The only reliable way to determine the public IP address associated with your computer's traffic is to contact an external source and have it tell you what IP address it sees your traffic coming from.


Can I write on iPad using touch typing technique?

The onscreen iPad keyboard offers no way to (re)orient your fingers to the home keys, which makes touch typing nearly impossible in my experience. However, with practice many iPad owners become skilled at using the onscreen keyboard well.

If you absolutely need to touch type longer documents, you can use a bluetooth keyboard with the iPad.

I rarely carry the external keyboard when I'm out and about, but if I plan to settle in to write I toss it in my bag and when traveling I keep one in my hotel room for evening writing marathons.


Configure macOS Notification Center Banner self-dismiss time

Open your terminal and run this command

defaults write com.apple.notificationcenterui bannerTime SECONDS

where SECONDS is a number for how many seconds you want the banner to be displayed.


Macintosh HD is not visible on boot but is can be detected using Recovery on an installation USB

So as it turns out, there was nothing wrong with the SSD or any boot parameters.

The SSD that used to be in the MacBook was running Yosemite, however the one that I was putting into it was running High Sierra.

I solved the issue by putting the original SSD back in, upgrading that to High Sierra then putting the other SSD back in, which was detected immediately and booted instantly.

My best guess is that there may be some form of OS protection built into the system that detects when an older/newer OS is present and acts accordingly. It would be nice to know exactly what's going on there, but for now this has solved my problem.


How to find MAC Adress of second system?

A media access control address (MAC address) of a device is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for communications at the data link layer of a network segment. In other words, the MAC is independent of the operating system.

With certain hardware (such as routers), it is possible to assign your own Mac address. This is often referred to as cloning. I do not believe this is possible with macOS. Although, you can assign a your own MAC address to any virtual machines running in VirtualBox.


Close Mail.app

Open a Terminal and enter chflags nohidden ~/Library.

Now you can navigate with your Finder to the following directories and delete the plugin GrowlMail.mailbundle:

~/Library/Mail/Bundles/GrowlMail.mailbundle
/Library/Mail/Bundles/GrowlMail.mailbundle

When starting Mail.app now, you shouldn't get any error messages related to GrowlMail.


Safari's reading list and iCloud works well to synchronize a list of URL between Macs and iOS devices. The Simplenote app and web app work well to let all your devices keep track of text documents. You only need to pay for the latter if you want enhanced features or avoid the advertisements that are minimal and generally very tasteful.


How to Run Homebrew's Caskroom/cask/pdfinfo?

Homebrew cask installs pdfinfo in

/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/pdfinfo/latest/PDFInfo.app

And then creates a symbolic link to this locations in:

~/Applications

You can run installed pdfinfo with:

open -a pdfinfo

or

open -a /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/pdfinfo/latest/PDFInfo.app

or

open -a ~/Applications/PDFInfo.app

Simply you can open app with double click on ~/Applications/PDFInfo.app icon.


How can I count all words or characters in a Powerpoint pptx file?

No, the way is not at all simple. Specifically, the file format is complicated so analyzing the file won’t get a quick answer.
To answer your question, it's helpful to know that the .pptx format is actually a zip file full of .xml files. I found folders called slide1.xml, slide2.xml, etc... but there are many others and the text within them is surrounded by the usual xml formatting tags.
You can unzip by replacing .pptx in the filename with .zip (you may have to enable visible extensions) and unzipping with something like Keka. I've had trouble unzipping with the native Mac OSX Archive utility, but Keka has always worked for me.
For more detail, see this page: Your slide deck is a zip file in disguise


Nope, the new MacBooks only support Windows 10. You may be able to install Windows 10 and then install Windows 7 over top but it is unsupported and you may not be able to find drivers for it. Not recommended.


Which kind of buttons are you talking about?

If you want to customize your toolbar by adding or removing existing buttons:

Right-click in the Finder toolbar and select Customize Toolbar… from the context menu
Drag the buttons you want in or out, and place them where you want them.
Click Done.

[This also works for most apps, btw.]

If you want to add new buttons that aren't shipped by Apple:

Just drag them into the toolbar.

For example, I've used Refresh Finder for years (Macworld review).


The messages are shown because folders in the WatchPaths array of ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist are modified more often than every ten seconds. I don't know any way to change the throttling policy of launchd. But you could get rid of the log messages by just keeping the program running for ten seconds or longer.

<?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.apple.FolderActions.folders</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>-e</string>
        <string>tell application "Folder Actions Dispatcher" to tick</string>
        <string>-e</string>
        <string>delay 10</string>
    </array>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/username/Desktop</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

The changes can be applied by reloading the property list or by logging out and back in.

launchctl unload -S Aqua ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist
launchctl load -S Aqua ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist

The property list gets overwritten when you add or remove folders with folder actions in Automator or Folder Actions Setup.


Is there a way to force OS X / Finder to use Windows File naming conventions?

I'm not sure such a plugin exists, but A Better Finder Rename is a very powerful app which, in addition to a million and one ways to rename files, has a function to translate OS X filenames for Windows NTFS/SMB compatibility:

I used it a few years ago to process ~35,000 PDF files made on a Mac, but which needed to be stored on a SMB server. Worked like a charm, and it is FAST!


is it possible to run a 4k display using an eGPU on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro (non retina)

Well, i guess you solved your problem by now, but I still wanted to answer, since I recently looked into eGPU options myself.

If your sole aim is to run a 4K monitor (and your GPU doesn't support it), you could probably also get a USB graphics adapter. You find a selection here. This certainly is a much cheaper option, but probably too slow to watch videos, etc.

If you are into some more horsepower and want to place a powerful GPU into your Sonnet case, I suggest you take a look at the TechInferno forum. There is a growing community building their own eGPU solutions. If you look at their table with implemented projects, you will also find a number of solutions that used the Sonnet housing.

However, be warned. It is more complicated than just placing a graphics card into your PCIe case. Usually these cases do not provide enough power to run a GPU, and you will have to provide an additional power supply. Since this is all non-standard solutions, you may even have to solder on rather expensive hardware. So proceed at your own risk...


Applescript click action working, but generating a System Events error

This code works great. Please pay attention to "radio group 1" part. Took me several hours to figure that out. :-/

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane id "com.noodlesoft.Hazel"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        set frontmost to true
        click radio button "Info" of radio group 1 of window "Hazel"
        delay 1
        click button "Stop Hazel" of group 0 of group 0 of window "Hazel"
    end tell
end tell


From the vim man page : https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/vim.1.html

There are two vim options to do what you want :

vim -v          Start Vim in Vi mode, just like the executable was called "vi".   This  only  has  effect
                   when the executable is called "ex".

vim -C          Compatible.  Set the 'compatible' option.  This will make Vim behave mostly like Vi, even
               though a .vimrc file exists.

You can also install ex-vi which is the traditional vi text editor through brew, first install brew http://brew.sh/.
Run brew install ex-vi, but it may cause a conflict with vim.


At this step tinkering your jailbreak won't bring much success, I guess consequences of this error will bother you afterwards in any way. I suggest reinstalling firmware and trying to jailbreaking again as sometimes errors just occur. Though you may reboot your computer, use another cable. Rarely, these things help and it's the easiest you could do.


How do I create a custom keyboard layout like "Dvorak - Qwerty Cmd"

This is actually much easier then I would have guessed open Ukulele and simply press the command key and move the keys around essentially in any order.


Safari on Yosemite stops loading tabs if a new one is created

I've had this happen every time with OS X 10.10.2 and below. It has somewhat lessened with the 10.10.3 update. But it does still happen. The only way I've found around it is to make sure some of the site loads on the tab before creating a new tab (or even switching to an existing tab).

Sorry, I was hoping to just post this as a comment, but not enough reputation yet.


You can edit the layout and other attributes such as font and color in an external editor, such as Pages, then just copy and paste the results back into iMovie.  Not an ideal solution, but you get what you pay for.

See also answer to a related question: iMovie titles line spacing


i forgot my password and it is now blocked how do I erase and restore if my iphone5c is offline?

In case if you got the documents that proves the legitimacy of your purchase, you can go to the closest Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Find them here:
https://locate.apple.com
(Service / iPhone)

It will take time to unlock your iPhone, but it's possible.


What you are referring to is called A-GPS (a for assisted)

I would try to Reset Network Settings.


Trackpad on MacBook Pro 8,2 (15'' early 2011) goes crazy on power

After much research, trial and error and thanks to others in this amazing community I've found out the reason behind my trackpad and keyboard failures.

The reason is that my MacBook Pro was missing a Cable Bracket inside. Why was that bracket missing is because my MBP was candidate for the motherboard replacement program that Apple did for Early 2011 MacBook Pro related to the Video Card issue (more on this thread so I took it in Mexico City to an "authorised" distributor called iShop and I remember that was the last time I saw the part (as I reckon I changed the keyboard myself after a coffee indigestion).

So I hope my answer help any soul with the same problem!


How to configure and use multiple ssh RSA keys with Keychain help

ssh-agent can do this: use ssh-add -K path/to/key to store the passphrase for the key in your Keychain. Whenever you do something requiring that key you won't be prompted for your password, provided the Keychain is unlocked.

This article gives more information, as does this related ServerFault question.


How to submit a bug report to Apple's bug tracker?

Turns out that it's possible to log in without logging in.

Apple, if you send me to a page that makes me log in, LOG ME IN. Don't accept my login then send me right back to the landing page as if nothing happend.

Terrible UI design, Apple.


An unexplained downvote brought to my attention this old post, so I decided to update it.

I don't have an iPhone any longer, but my iPad screen simply stays on, whenever plugged in or not, if my setting to Auto Lock is set to Never. On iOS 7+ it is that simple.

Now, if you want to automatically change it back (which is a completely different question), once you plug it out, you'll need to jailbreak. But since it's complicated and I haven't tried, I'll just give one pointer that seems to do it: get Tasker (found on lifehacker).

I personally rather just manually switch it on and off, until apple decides to have some kind of NFC. It should be just around the corner, if not with NFC, then with iBeacon.

Old answer (jailbreak only, iOS 4 or less)

First, I just tried on my iphone and even calculator stays active after 1 minute, even if the screen dims out. So maybe your question is really just about keeping the screen on.

Anyway, I can think of two solutions: kirikae with backgrounder might do the trick as a side effect. If not, you can use SBSettings with Autolock toggle to do it manually and temporarily set the auto-lock to never. All of them you should find in Cydia.

edit: as none of the above actually worked, here's some update.

Some custom toggles on SBSettings seem to just not work indeed. It's probably due to getting outdated or conflicting with something else, two common problems we find on cydia apps. BigBoss is kind of similar to SBSettings and also have an Autolock toggle. You could use it along with some multitasking, leave it on the background and use it as needed. It hardly have any conflicting issue.

Unfortunately I can't find many more ideas to this.

Only thing I can assure you is that I just tried SBSettings's Autolock toggle on my iOS 3.1.3 and it works. It also says it's updated to 4, so most likely it's either problem with 4.1 or conflicting with something else you've got installed. And believe me, there are conflicts from the least expected things (look at the comments).


Slow transfer between two external drives

Assuming there is no fault with any hardware or software, the following are some of the major factors that can contribute to a copy speed proceeding slower than the maximum transfer speed that a hard drive is capable of:

Copying large numbers of small files with a single-threaded copying process...
The overhead of simply opening each file for reading and creating each file for writing plus updating the HFS+ file system metadata takes extra time, which can slow single-threaded copy processes like drag-and-drop in the Finder considerably from this extra file system overhead. Some utilities such as the command-line tool rsync can speed up this process by pre-fetching files into its own memory buffer then writing the files to the destination drive from this buffer, thereby reducing the effect somewhat.  Some third-party tools such as SuperDuper!, Beyond Compare, and others also perform some of this buffering to try and speed the file copy process but regardless of the utility used, copying large numbers of small files will naturally result in a lower overall throughput than if large files were being copied, due to this extra file system overhead.
Copying large files from a hard drive with a severely fragmented file system...
Copying at the file-level will open the file on the source drive then copy that file from beginning-to-end to the destination drive, but the file may not be stored contiguously on the source hard drive. In that case, the hard drive read-write head may have to seek to many different areas of the disk in order to read the file in-order, slowing file transfer considerably.  This is more common for files that have changed a lot on disk over the years, and not so much for archival files that were created on the drive once then left (like photos) so this is probably not the case here.
Copying files from a newer shingled-magnetic-recording (SMR) hard drive...
The newest SMR hard drives cannot directly read the area on the drive that the HFS+ file system says contains the file.  It must first read an entire track all the way around the disk, then pull out the portion of the data from that track that contains the file data that was requested. This is especially detrimental to copy speed as it mimics the above "fragmented hard drive" example, except it ensures that nearly every file behaves as if it is "fragmented" so unless you are copying the files off of the drive in the exact same order that they were all created, you will encounter severe slow down in copy speed.  This is especially common among the largest low-cost external USB drives available today.


iTunes/Mp3-Player and actual multi-tagging of MP3s

For a thorough analyse of the topic, read Ways to store multiple genres in your digital music, where Dan says:

  MP3. MP3s (or rather, the ID3 tagging format used by MP3s) don't support multiple tags for genre. Instead you must useone existing tag and use a delimiter character to separate the genres within that tag.

If you use iTunes player, I'd recommend to use the Grouping tag for that purpose.

Now, can you do that automatically ?
As you pointed out, Last.fm offers an interface to retrieve tags for songs.
And bdefore used that API to develop an iTunes Multi-Genre Tagger (description blog post here, last version of the script here). I think that's the tool you're after.


Where does macOS Get Icons for W1 Audio Devices?

I was able to find where icons are stored for W1 devices. It appears that this folder already contains assets for every W1 device that exists. You can find icons for W1 devices here:

/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetoothUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources

If you're using Swift on macOS, you can use the following code to programmatically get a device image:

IOBluetoothDevice.init(addressString: "bluetoothDeviceAddress").value(forKey: "image")

or

   for device in IOBluetoothDevice.pairedDevices() {
    let deviceName = ((device as! IOBluetoothDevice).name)
    let deviceImage = (device as! IOBluetoothDevice).value(forKey: "image")
}


They may delete it someday, but they will never deactivate it — meaning, nobody will ever be able to use that Apple ID again. Use the "Contact us for help" link at https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht204106 to get help re-claiming it.


Why is my Siri getting activated in between conversation

Siri on Apple products is programmed into the local code and hardware. If that code thinks it hears the key phrase, it will activate. If the vibrations local to the microphone are close enough to what you trained when you said hey Siri, it triggers.

I would set up Hey Siri again one time and then consider deactivating it if you can’t eliminate the false positives.

The Hey Siri function is optional and easily disabled if you don’t like and/or trust and/or understand how it’s implemented on the device.

Tap into the Settings app for Siri & Search and toggle the Listen for “Hey Siri” function off.

Good call on not automating something you don’t want and thinking about privacy. Even if the initial “Hey Siri” happens at some point and is processed on the device, the next verbal commands the microphone (mis)interprets might not necessarily be so safe or stay on the device.


I believe that you’re not asking in the wrong place, you’re really not asking a question. What you define like “The Good Docs” is completely subjective. The guide you linked clearly says:

  Important: This document is intended for use by security
  professionals in sensitive
  environments. Implementing the
  techniques and settings found in this
  document impacts system functionality
  and may not be appropriate for every
  user or environment.

  If you’re using this guide, you
  should be an experienced Mac OS X
  user, be familiar with the Mac OS X
  user interface, and have experience
  using the Terminal application’s
  command-line interface. You should
  also be familiar with basic networking
  concepts. Some instructions in this
  guide are complex, and use could cause
  serious effects on the computer and
  its security. These instructions
  should only be used by experienced Mac
  OS X users, and should be followed by
  thorough testing.

So clearly these “good” documents are not that good for everybody. In any case,
Spotlight doesn’t index /System because that could be a security problem on its own (it would need permissions to do that, a set of permissions that you don’t want to give to a userland daemon running all the time, with access to a UI). Why would a regular user want to keep an index of /System remains a mystery to me, it only has things that are for the System and not for the user to find and manipulate.

You can, however, use the terminal to touch that if that’s what you want, but no user should ever attempt to land in /System, it can only break so many things…

Where did you get the idea that

/System is the most important place to keep an eye on files ?
Spotlight is a tool to keep an eye on files?

The place to keep an eye on files is in your very own /Users/YourFolder, because that’s all the access you should have (to write that is).

Spotlight is an indexing/searching tool, not a tool to monitor files that may seem suspicious in reserved system places.

All in all, if you still want those docs, I’m sure that most of them will be available in the developer’s area of Apple’s website.  (developer.apple.com). You can create a free account and start from there.

On the other hand, if you are a “security professional” then you are using the wrong tools for your job. Spotlight is ok as it is, if anything, you might want to restrict it. I’m sure that if you make spotlight run as root it will eventually index that, but of all the possible ideas that come to my mind, that is probably one of the worst security ideas ever conceived. There’s a reason why root user is disabled by default, there’s a reason for sudo and there’s a reason for normal accounts. Use them wisely, use them in peace.


Actually, this is what happens for hotspot.

If there is no active WiFi connection, and you're not in the screen that says "Personal Hotspot", it turns off WiFi hotspot feature completely.

To connect your FIRST device, you MUST be in that Personal Hotspot settings page.

After that, it won't turn off until the last device is disconnected.


Unfortunately regardless of Apple's efforts to curb websites redirecting users to the iTunes App Store, it still regularly occurs.

There is no 'setting' which enables / disables this 'feature', my only recommendation would be to ensure the "Fraudulent Website Warning" is switched on, having the "Block Cookies" setting on anything but 'always allow' and also testing weather turing off JavaScript support (under Advanced) helps in any way.


This may help : http://encase-forensic-blog.guidancesoftware.com/2014/05/examination-of-mac-os-x-quick-look.html or https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1289781?tstart=0

You should be able to rebuild the so called ThumbnailCache on your mac.
This should work. hope this helps :)


Does the 2018 MacBook Air come with a NVMe SSD?

Yes, the SSD is NVMe.

However note that this does not mean that it can be replaced with any NVMe. The MBA Retina does not have a user-replaceable SSD.

Also note that you cannot directly compare two NVMe SSDs. Their performance and price points may vary wildly.


See my question as my answer. I wanted to post as answer in the linked thread but I was unable but I wanted to give back to a site that has helped me in the past


How to make Facebook for iPhone open links in Safari?

There's no such possibility. App developer would need to implement this in the app.

P.S. You can open links from Facebook in Safari -> click "Share" when viewing the link and choose "Open in Safari".

Image from: howtogeek.com


How did my Mac end up with iPhone 4S as my host name in the user prompt in OS X terminal?

It turns out it was just as our Unix guy had said.  The iPhone4s Host name is only present when I am at work and my mac book is accessing the companies wireless network. When I am away, the terminal shows the proper hostname. We are a mac centric company but we use all windows servers. Apparently, that makes a situation ripe for these strange DHCP anomalies.

Thanks for the help.


Is it possible to enable Code Folding in Xcode for Bash scripts?

I haven't found a way to enable code folding for bash script in Xcode.

But here is an alternative: UltraEdit.
UE allows code folding for bash scripts after tweaking a file.

In the example below i have added

/Open Fold Strings = "{" "if" "elif" "do"
/Close Fold Strings = "}" "elif" "fi" "done"
/Ignore Fold Strings = "echo"

to the file ~/Library/Application Support/UltraEdit/wordfiles/bash.uew

Depending on your needs you may add other strings of course.


When does my one-to-one subscription expire?

I just got a reply from rep at Apple Store, who agrees with CajunLuke above.

About the One to One, do not activate your new One to One until you receive your computer.
So that You do not lose those  one month.
One to one starts when you activate that code online.

I'm in Japan which explains why the English ain't right.


The solution to this issue is to uncheck the "Automatically switch to a document's input source" checkbox in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input Sources.

If the keyboard layout is wrong then select the correct layout.


I've got a new iPod Touch, do I need a new Apple ID for FaceTime and iMessage

In iOS 6, you can set different IDs for Communications (FaceTime, iMessage, etc) and Stores (iTunes, App Store, iBooks Store). Let’s say one@me.com is your wife’s ID, and your son has already created two@me.com for his own use. The steps would be:

Go to Settings > iTunes and App Stores. Sign in with one@me.com.
Go to Settings > FaceTime and sign in with two@me.com.
Go to Settings > Messages and sign in with two@me.com.

Source: http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/ios.html


Run a script at start-up or login. Within the script, run a check to see if sunrise has recently occurred. If so, perform the iTunes script.

Your script needs to determine how long ago sunrise occurred. If the time since sunrise is short enough, run the script. Short enough might be five minutes ago; it is unlikely a Mac is restarted within five minutes of powering on.

Powering on a Mac can take seconds to minutes. Checking the time since sunrise also helps compensate for this unknown delay.

How Power Manager solves this problem

In Power Manager, which can both power on your Mac at sunrise and run the script, we divide this type of problem into two sections: the trigger and the action.

The trigger schedules the Mac to power on at sunrise. For that, we calculate sunrise time locally and enqueue an IOPMQueue event. This is similar to your web site query and pmset call.

The action performs the script. In this case, Power Manager would check at each power on event to see if the expected sunrise had recently occurred. If so, the script would be run. Within Power Manager, this sensitivity is called drift.


How can I selectively share app purchases among iOS devices using iCloud?

Use one apple id.

Under Settings -> "Store" on your wifes iPad and iPhone.
Set Automatic Downloads for Apps to On.

On your iPhone, under the Store settings, turn your Automatic downloads of Apps to Off.

This method will work the easiest, and will work for all situations besides your vice versa ... you purchase an app on your iPhone and it downloads to her devices.  There is no computer in the loop... her process isn't manual, it is automatic, but she can easily click and hold the icon and then delete it.


Update: Transparent 2.4 works for external displays.

I have this question and tried the other answers.

The JohnnyNash and Transparent screen savers both work .. almost.  They show the main screen, but external displays go black.  The difference between these savers is that JohnnyNash is configured to update in seconds, and Transparent is configured to update in frames-per-second.

The Black Light screensaver boasts many features, but I did not see transparency on the list.

I found a screen saver called LookThrough, which boasts multi-monitor support.  It sort of works in that it displays on all of my displays, but the graphics are glitched up in weird ways.


Notes app not showing collaborative edit option

Issue was not with the Notes app but the way I was using it. Collaborative edit is only possible in notes on iCloud and not "On My iPhone" ones. I had all my notes on the latter, so was not seeing the latest and greatest features.


Linux on Macbook, dual-boot, without rEFind

Note: The introduction of Ubuntu 18 has made these instructions obsolete. In other words, the Ubuntu 18 installer will automatically create files in the proper locations for Ubuntu to appear in the Startup Manager.

You can still employ step 7, if you want an Ubuntu icon to appear in the Startup Manager.

  Note: These instructions are for Mac models with 64 bit EFI firmware. In other words, if your Mac has Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) or a newer version OS X (macOS) installed, then you can use these instructions.

Instead of using rEFInd, you can use the Startup Manager to boot most Linux distributions. The Startup Manager is contained in the the firmware that is already installed in your Mac. After installing a Linux distribution, you will need to move a few files around in order for the Startup Manager to recognize and boot the Linux distribution.

Most Linux distributions install grub and other files in the first EFI System partition on a Mac computer. Normally, this is the first partition on a Mac computer. The process of making a Linux distribution appear on the Startup Manager is a fairly trivial. The steps are given below for the Ubuntu Linux distribution. If you wish to install a different Linux distribution, post a command and I will verify if these instructions will work.

Install Ubuntu.
When finished, restart and hold down the option key to
invoke the Startup Manager. Select to boot from the OS X (or MacOS)
volume.
Open a Terminal application window.
Mount the EFI System partition by entering the command given
below.

diskutil mount disk0s1

Create a folder named Boot in the folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI. You
can use the Finder application or enter the command given below.

mkdir /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot

Copy the file grubx64.efi from the folder
/Volumes/EFI/EFI/ubuntu to the folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot.
Next, rename this file bootx64.efi. This step can be accomplished
by using the the Finder application or by entering the command given
below.

cp /Volumes/EFI/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi

(Optional) Download a collection of icons from the sourceforge web
site Mac icns. Use the Finder application to open the
downloaded file mac-icns.dmg, then enter the command below to copy
the Ubuntu icon file os_ubuntu.icns to the EFI System partition.

cp /Volumes/mac-icns/os_ubuntu.icns /Volumes/EFI/.VolumeIcon.icns

This will add the following Ubuntu icon to the Startup Menu.

  Note: When finished, you can use the Finder application to eject the mac-icns volume.

Use the Finder application or enter the command below to unmount
the EFI System partition labeled EFI.

diskutil unmount disk0s1


Using ffmpeg on MOV files created by iMovie

You may try MPEG StreamClip also. There is Batch mode — cmd+b

But it's hard to tell based on your information why Handbrake was not able to help you.


Macbook internet speeds are slow; fine on other devices

I booted in Safe Mode and internet speed was normal. I also found another thread that solved the upload speed problem (apple.stackexchange.com/questions/359723/…). Apparently, my PulseSecure VPN client installed a kernel extension that was an issue. Not 100% sure if that was the issue but after following the instructions on that thread and rebooting my computer, my speeds are up to 50/70! after weeks.


iOS 8 update fails with network connection time out

One known condition for the install is that the device must have ~5GB free space for the temporary download of the installer file. You should delete unused apps, music and photos/movies from your iPod before you run the installation. The iPod should give you an error message saying the device doesn't have enough room.


How do I disable Safari's Show All Tabs gesture?

You can easily disable this by installing BetterTouchTool, and then for Safari adding a new Touchpad gesture for Pinch Out with no action.

Here's a screenshot:


Series 2 Apple Watch Battery Drain in Absence of iPhone

Yes, my Series 2 drains faster if it's not connected to iPhone. I put the watch in Airplane mode to save battery when it's not near the iPhone. It lasts much longer. You should try that.


Mac Mail has very slow to send/receive mail (plus other bugs too)

I also had extremely slow mail using Yosemite until I did this:

From the Mail menu, click Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors

Drafts:

Store draft messages on the server > leave unchecked

Sent:

Store sent messages on the server > leave unchecked

Junk:

Store junk messages on the server > checked
Delete junk messages when > Never

Trash:

Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox > leave unchecked
Store deleted messages on the server > leave unchecked


Running for over the results of a find is not recommended, it will break on filenames with spaces, newlines etc.
You can use the following instead once you are logged into your NAS:
find /share/Public/ -depth -name '*:*' -exec sh -c 'mv -- "$1" "${1//:/_}"' _ {} \;

To be on the save side, run
find /share/Public/ -depth -name '*:*' -exec sh -c 'echo mv -- "$1" "${1//:/_}"' _ {} \;

and check the output for anything unexpected.
PS: The duplicated // in ${1//:/_} is intentional to ensure that all occurrences of : are replaced.


VirtualBox 5.2 Won't Install on Mac OS 10.13

This worked for me on High Sierra 10.13.4:

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Select 'All Controls'

Then:

System Preferences > Privacy & Security > Press 'Tab' until 'Allow' is selected > Press 'Spacebar'

Note: the Privacy & Security page may need to be unlocked before 'Tab' will work.

Hope this helps!

Credit to @dansanduleac's answer on GitHub


Unable to boot into 10.4 installation disc

Most PowerMacs can't boot off of USB drives natively. They can boot off of a FireWire drive, however. If you have an external FireWire hard disk handy, you could try using Disk Utility to clone the 10.4 boot disk onto the drive and booting off of that. There is also (supposedly) a way to make the system boot off of an external USB disk, but it involves editing an nvram variable. This article explains how to do that.


Can I get an app for free if I already purchased it on the same account, but on a different computer?

Yes, if you download the same app off of the same account it will be redownloaded for free without charging your account again. The same goes for apps on the iOS App Store.


Cycling backups with multiple Time Capsules?

Time Machine supports multiple drives since Mountain Lion: that should be sufficient to support the desired backup scenario (1 Time Capsule + 2 cycled USB drives).

(Re answering own question: What can I say ... writing down a question often helps in finding the answer, and I've only recently upgraded from OS X 10.7.)


Grey bar appearing over full screen apps on external monitor

If you don't care about it, you could remove the second menu bar in the settings. It should fix the problem.

http://www.mactrast.com/2013/10/disable-second-menu-bar-os-x-mavericks/


Copying data in recovery mode - is this a security flaw?

That is what Filevault is for.

If a bad actor has your computer in their hands you need encryption to keep them out. No encryption, no security.

Even if you have the computer firmware password protected, that wouldn't prevent them removing the drive to access from another machine.


Why are sent emails not deleted when I delete a conversaion in Apple Mail?

These are two totally different entities.
The confusion comes in from a misunderstanding of how messaging works.  It' helps to understand the concepts:

Your Inbox are what you received via your incoming server
"Conversations" is a collation of related messages you've received by your email client.  There's no conversation the server is aware of.
Sent Messages are messages that were transmitted via your outgoing server

What's important to know is that as far as your server is concerned, there's no such thing as a "conversation."  There are just messages in folder (Inbox, Outbox, Sent, Junk, etc.).
"Deleting the conversation" is nothing more than a feature that was implemented to help organize your Inbox.


iOS stores backups in two places:

iCloud - sign in to your account and see if a backup of the device is stored there. With the files app on iOS 11 and browsable iCloud storage on macOS this might be the easiest bet.
iTunes device backup or sync - check iTunes on each computer you may have connected it to recently, when you sync to a computer, it will make backups of your songs and other data
iCloud device backup - restoring an iCloud entire backup of the phone data might also get you the files back or so you can export them elsewhere.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946


File created during maven build can't be copied

Although this is an unsatisfying answer, updating to the latest version of the maven-shade-plugin "fixed" the problem.


Permanently disable "Check Spelling While Typing"

Open Notes and go to an existing note or create a new one. Right-click in the body of the note. A menu opens and one selection is 'Spelling and Grammar'. Clicking on this selection gives you a sub-menu with selections for spell checking. Select the one you want.


How to stop Chrome from auto-opening App Store?

I have found the solution in this comment. The protocol handler in question is macappstores and it needs to be removed from Chrome's list of allowed protocols.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to solve it through UI, so manually editing of Chrome settings file is needed:

Ensure Chrome is closed.
Open a Finder window and use the menu option Go → Go to Folder…
In the dialog that pops up paste in the path ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/ and click the Go button.
Now assuming you don't use profiles in Chrome you want to look for a folder called Default.

If you use profiles you will be looking for one probably titled Profile X where X is a number (if there are several of them, you must manually identify yours or perform steps below in each).
If you are logged in to Chrome with your Google account, your folder will be probably called Default, too (this was at least my experience).

In that folder you're looking for a file titled Preferences.
Open it in your preferred text editor (TextEdit is enough).
Search for the following text: "macappstores":false. The surrounding text should look similar to this (without newlines and indentation; I have added them just to prettify the text):

"protocol_handler": {
  "excluded_schemes": {
    …
    "javascript":true,
    "macappstores":false,
    "view-source":true,
    …
  }
}

Delete text "macappstores":false, (note to also delete one comma!) and save file.
Done. Next time you visit itunes.apple.com page with Chrome, you will be asked for permission to open App Store once again.


Actually, there’s an AirDrop app you can add to the Dock.

Follow these steps:

Within Finder, press the shiftcommandG keys
A Go to Folder window appears
Now copy and paste the file path below into the field

/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications/
Click on the Go button
Now you’ll see a list of apps, including AirDrop
Drag the AirDrop app to your Dock

Now you can access AirDrop from your Dock whenever you want like any other app.


Configuring SSD over-provisioning on Mac OSX

As a followup, I updated my 2011 MacBook Pro (not my Mac Pro) using an aftermarket SSD in December of 2014.

Drive Selection

Balancing budget vs performance vs reputation, I chose a Crucial M500 480GB — not a known high-performer, but with a decent reputation for reliability.  I’m not sure the power loss protection capacitors are needed in a laptop, but I liked having them.  It has on-drive garbage collection and TRIM support.  The drive internally has 32GB of over-provisioning.

Drive Installation

I installed the drive as a direct replacement to the internal spinning disk.

I did NOT allocate any additional over-provisioning using partitions.

I did NOT install any TRIM-enabling hacks.

Drive Usage

The machine is used primarily for OS X/iOS development so there’s a large amount of churn on the disk of varying sized files as compiled object files, podcasts, training videos, etc are downloaded or created, used and deleted.  Disk space usage ranges between 25-50%.

The difference in performance against the stock 7200RPM 750GB was pretty striking.  I have misplaced my measurements so I can’t be precise in the comparison.  “Striking” will have to do.

Performance

After 6 months of churning, performance still looks very good.

Tests using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test show a nearly identical read performance (-0.8%) and a very small decrease in write performance (-2.4%).  Some of this could be partially attributed to variability that comes with real-world testing, but I'm pleased that I've experienced only negligible performance impact due to the inability to turn TRIM on for the drive.

Currently, I'm seeing 470MB/s read and 393MB/s write performance and using 26% of the drive.
We’ll see how it holds up over the coming months.

Addendum:

As of OS X 10.10.4, Apple seems to have rendered this point moot.  Yay!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/06/latest-os-x-update-allows-you-to-enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds/

Addendum 2:

Some drives are known to have TRIM bugs which may have serious implications.  This includes:

"Micron_M500*"
"Crucial_CTM500"
"Micron_M5[15]0*"
"Crucial_CTM550"
"Crucial_CTMX100"
"Samsung SSD 8*"
Sandforce drives such as OWC Electra

I personally am holding off on enabling until I can confirm firmware updates will address the vulnerability.

Addendum 3:

I found this little jewel for folks that still haven't enabled TRIM and are seeing performance issues on the Crucial drives.

  If TRIM is present it will handle this background cleanup, but if for any reason TRIM can't reach the SSD, Active Garbage Collection is there to take care of the drive.

  [...], you may simply need to force Active Garbage Collection to run on the drive by powering the SSD on and leaving it idle for 6 to 8 hours. After that, your drive’s functionality and performance should be restored.

  Follow these steps to trigger Active Garbage Collection on your Crucial SSD:

  [PC instructions]

  On a Mac, press the Options key while powering on to enter the Startup Manager screen. Leaving the Mac on that screen provides the SSD with power but keeps it in an idle state so Garbage Collection can function, just like the BIOS screen on a Windows laptop.

Crucial Forums: My SSD used to be so much faster...

Furthermore, if you disable "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible", the drives will have an opportunity to do Active Garbage Collection during idle periods.

Addendum 4:

A wonderfully educational article on arstechnica answers the original question of how to over-provision an SSD on OSX.

  It's also possible to emulate the beneficial effects of over-provisioning by simply using less than the stated capacity of an SSD—for example, by purchasing a 90GB SSD, creating a 30GB partition, and leaving the rest unallocated. The controller itself doesn't care about the logical constructs built by the operating system—it will happily continue to write to new fresh pages as long as they're available.

Solid State Revolution


Printing to Windows (not-domain) Server - Hold for Authentication

I'm not sure how helpful this will be but I offer it in the hopes it will generate an idea that might work.

On a Macbook Air with Mojave I usually map directly to the printer via IP Address which is the second icon from the left in the "Add" (printer) dialog box. I find this to be more reliable than printing via our print server which is one of our Active Directory domain controllers.

However, once you select the print server (in my case it is [DOMAIN NAME] > [Print Server]) it pops up an authentication dialog box "You are attempting to connect to the server "[SERVERNAME]" Click connect to continue"

Once you click connect you get a standard login dialog box with your username already filled in.

Don't use that username or your local password there

Instead you need to enter the name of the print server, sometimes referred to as the NETBIOS name, followed by a backslash " \ " and then a username of an account on that particular server. In my case it would be something like this:

domain\stevec
[password]

In your case as you are not in an AD domain:

servername\username
[password]

Windows expects authorization from outside the domain to be fully qualified. EG where the credentials are, a backslash and then the account/user name.

It could be that when you try and print there are cached credentials somewhere (possibly on the server?) that are messing you up.

I would delete the printer queue from the Mac and re-add it via the Printers & Scanners preference and choose the Windows printer option and logging in as a user on that PC.

Either that or select the "Default" or "IP" methods and completely bypass printing via your Windows server, if that is possible.


This copy of the Install OS X Yosemite application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading

Your installation file for Yosemite has had its digital certificate expire. Which means after a certain date it will no longer work. To work around this issue you open the Date & Time preferences pane, uncheck the box for "Set date & time automatically" & set the date back to just after the time Yosemite was initially released (October 16, 2014) then run the installer.


Do I have the latest firmware update for my Time Capsule? How can I force an upgrade of the firmware?

If AirPort Utility doesn't prompt you that an update is available, then you have the latest version installed on the Time Capsule.

  How do I know when an update is available?

  AirPort Utility automatically checks for updates once a week (even if it's not open), then notifies you if an update is available.
  When you open AirPort Utility, it will check for updates and display a badge by the name of any AirPort device in your network that has an available firmware update.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1218


How to Turn OFF Find My iPhone if I don't Know the ID & Password?

There's a good chance you bought a stolen iPhone. I'd bring it to an Apple Store or contact Apple support:

How to Contact Us - Apple

If it hasn't been reported as stolen, maybe they'll be able to help you.

I would not expect that anyone here knows the answer to this. Even if there was such an exploit, knowledge of it could make a person quite wealthy. You aren't going to find out about it on a web forum or Google search.


Is it safe to upgrade to Yosemite when using VMWare Fusion 6?

The latest version of VMWare 6 is now OK with Yosemite.

Previous versions would not even run if the system was upgraded to Yosemite.

I would recommend upgrading VMWare to the latest version of v6 (currently 6.0.5) first, then upgrading the system to Yosemite. That way, when you boot into the new system, you should not have any problems with VMWare not running.


In VM configuration, did you check the Options>Sharing settings are OK ?

SmartMount should be checked.

And verify that all the volumes are mounted by MacOS.


iPhone disabled. Connect to iTunes. No backup

I would connect this to any iTunes you have that has ever had a chance to save an unlock key for that device. Unless you already have a trust relationship between iTunes in a computer and this phone, it’s going to wait for you to decide to erase it or you find a way to jailbreak it or crack the protection.
If you have full trust, it will reverse the disable when it’s connected to the internet and your phone is connected and everything is working. Update should prompt to make a backup, allow it. Restore likely will not do a backup, but I don’t have a disabled device to test this for you.


What is the purpose of the Events section of Photos on iOS?

A new event is created each time you transfer photos from your camera to your iPad, or from your computer to your iPad. Each event is the date when a group of photos was uploaded. As far as I know, unless you have iPhoto, there is no way to change these events names, or configure them at all.

Events differ from Albums in that they are created when you upload photos to your iPad. Albums must be created manually.

Events work best with iPhoto on OSX as iPhoto is remarkably "events-centric". When you import photos into iPhoto on Mac, it will automatically categorize them into "Events" (this is where Events can be named and settings can be adjusted). Then, when you sync the iPad with your Mac, these events are loaded onto your iPad.


How can I log the IP addresses of SMB login attempts?

You could fire up and configure the BSD packetfilter - create a rule that will match incoming 'rogue' SMB requests, and in that rule use the log keyword which will cause all packets matching that rule to be, er, logged.

Walkthough here: https://blog.neilsabol.site/post/quickly-easily-adding-pf-packet-filter-firewall-rules-macos-osx/

In-depth explanation here: http://marckerr.com/a-simple-guild-to-the-mac-pf-firewall/

Explanation of the pf logging function here:https://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/logging.html

Setting up pfctl anchors for a protocol:
https://ikawnoclast.com/systems/firewall/mac-os-x-pf-firewall/


There have been no reported issues with sluggishness on the iPhone 3GS.
The issues with sluggishness relate to the iPhone 3G. The update to iOS 4.1 resolves these issues.


i can't access itunes, appstore, even the website www.apple.com using my wifi

It doesn't look like Apple specific question. It looks more like network setup question. You need to check your router settings. Looks like you have either wrong or missing DNS addresses. If you don't know what it is, call tech support of your internet provider.


How to switch or close the new split Terminal pane?

The idea behind splitting is that it allows you to keep a certain part of the shell buffer displayed while continuing to enter new commands. So only the lowest split does allow keyboard input. To position the view on the shell buffer use the scroll bar.

You can un-split by pressing Shift-Cmd-D.


Office 2016 - how can I see which Microsoft Account I use/change Microsoft Account?

Using any Microsoft Office App (Word, in this case), click on the Avatar and it will bring up the Account you have signed in with and any other accounts it's connected to.


Does an Apple TV stream 4K movies if the Internet connection is somewhat less than the recommended 25Mbps?

Yes, you can stream 4k movies on the Apple TV 4k with a somewhat less than the recommended 25 Mbps internet connection.

In practice the available bandwidth for streaming the movie should not drop 15 Mbps to ensure 4k streaming. So real life experience depends a lot on what else you're using your 22 Mbps internet connection for at the same time.

How exactly the streaming quality is determined depends on the app you're using to view the movie. For example Netflix allows you to lock the quality setting to High, but you might experience lots of waits for rebuffering during the movie, if your internet connection is too slow.

If the movie is streamed from the iTunes Movies and TV Shows app, you can adjust the quality in the general AppleTV settings in the menu Settings > Apps > iTunes Movies and TV Shows.

From this menu you can disable "QuickStart". This means that you'll have a wait before the movie starts playing, but it will display in the best available quality even on a slow internet connection.


Finder not working and desktop completely blank in macOS High Sierra

Ok...
For anyone searching for an similar answer reinstalling macOS (press Cmd+R on boot) [CALM DOWN BECAUSE IT WONT ERASE ANY OF YOUR FILES] did the trick.

In my case Xcode was failing too and after removing it and reinstalling all return back to normality.

Thanks.


To remove the useless second EFI (104.9 MB) and the deleteme partition (104.3 GB) and expand the CoreStorage volume to the full size you have to boot to Internet Recovery Mode.

Preparation:

Backup your Mac
Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup. Booting to Recovery Mode is not conducive because the Recovery HD will be moved in one of the steps below. And you can't move a partition used as a boot volume.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan). If you boot to a full system and login as admin you have to prepend sudo to execute special commands like gpt ...!

Remove the partitions 2nd EFI/deleteme and shrink the CoreStorage Volume Group

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:  diskutil list to get the disk identifiers and diskutil cs list to get a CoreStorage listing. Below I assume that your main disks have the disk identifiers disk0 (here the HDD)/disk1 (here the SSD) and the CoreStorage Logical Volume disk3. Please modify the commands below according to your environment/findings.
First you have to remove the 2nd EFI/deleteme partitions:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0 #to get an overview

To remove a partition with gpt the disks (and all related disks like the inherent CoreStorage volume) have to be unmounted - first the CoreStorage Logical Volume and then the physical disks (SSD and HDD):

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 5 /dev/disk0 #remove the *deleteme* partition
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 4 /dev/disk0 #remove the *2nd EFI* partition

Then you have to first mount and then resize the Logical Volume Group:

diskutil mount lvUUID #lvUUID: the logical volume UUID

in your case:

diskutil mount E6FCA8F6-D6FF-4C0E-976C-1AD2ED107824

Sometimes you have to mount the PVs first:

diskutil mount /dev/disk0s2 #mount the physical volume of the CoreStorage Logical Volume Group
diskutil mount /dev/disk1s2 #mount the physical volume of the CoreStorage Logical Volume Group

Then resize the whole CoreStorage stack with:

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size

in your case (assuming you want to "resize" Macintosh HD to 1024 GB):

diskutil cs resizeStack E6FCA8F6-D6FF-4C0E-976C-1AD2ED107824 1024g

If you get Error: -69720: There is not enough free space... use a slightly smaller size like 1023g or 1023500m.

Now the CoreStorage stack should be expanded to the full size of your Fusion Drive.

After failing to remove a Windows partition with the Boot Camp Assistant parts of the CoreStorage logical structures may be corrupted and the resizeStack command fails with an error. The only possible solution then is to rebuild the Fusion Drive from scratch and restore your system with your current Time Machine backup.


Search for it with Spotlight — does it show up or not?

Reboot and check again. If it is still not showing up you can check if Safari is allowed in Settings → General → Restrictions → Safari.

In Spotlight, on the right of the icon and app name the Folder Name is displayed so you can find the location of the Safari icon.


Can I upgrade a previously purchased iPhone under the iPhone Upgrade Program?

Apple offers trade in for any phone you own outright. You have to pay monthly as part of an upgrade plan to get started, so unless you are paying Apple or the financing arranged through apple, you aren't part of the upgrade program which lets you get a new phone after 12 monthly payments.

You can easily check though - https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "upgrade" and what exact transaction you started a couple of years ago.


Again. many things mixed up together. What are you trying to achieve? There are few things wrong, in your post:

Tunnel option in ssh_config does not do anything related to the SOCKS5 Proxy, which is the command you are describing. It is related to VPN and "ethernet" (layer 2) tunnelling, which is initiated by -w option
Port forwarding and SOCKS5 proxy (-D) is allowed by option AllowTcpForwarding in sshd_config on the server!
If you would really want to user layer 2, forwarding, you need root login on the remote server.


It can take a while for a Mac to reindex all your files after an OS upgrade. Leave it powered on and mostly idle for a day or two, especially if your disk is nearly full. That will give it time to complete its background tasks.


Go to System Preferences → Sound → Output and choose your speakers. Lagging will probably make it unbearable, but maybe you can adjust video/audio sync in VLC.


Two Macs signed into Google with same IP address

If you recently updated Google Chrome using the built-in updater (available from chrome://help/), that could cause Google to recognize two different browsers.  If you haven't updated Chrome, or just want to go through the process:

Click on the Google Account icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Gmail window and click on the My Account link.

From there, choose Sign-In & Security, scroll down to Recently Used Devices and click on Review devices (aka the Devices & Activity page as described in Google's Security support article).

Click on Secure Your Account and follow the various prompts; you'll be signed out of your Google account and required to re-enter your password or possibly authenticate via 2FA, if you already had that enabled.

After you have logged back in, return to the Recently Used Devices to verify only one browser.


Can I simulate multi-touch input on a Mac?

BetterTouchTool lets you create custom gestures, with custom actions. There are a variety of single-finger gestures:

Have a look at it, and see if it suits your need.


How to access the internal hard disk with full permissions?

One way to recover files from a "broken disk" without buying software, is to use the Target Disk mode.

You will need a second mac to do that, to which you would transfer the files.


Do Apple stores refuse to repair your iPhone if not purchased directly from Apple?

You can research Apple's warranty at http://apple.com/legal

You will have consumer law protections if you can prove you purchased product in a certain place. Those trump any warranty.

Apple's warranty is attached to the phone (or any serialized product), so all that matters is what country that serial number was first sold as Apple's records show. They then warrant that one device under that one legal framework.

The warranty doesn't need proof of purchase, but most of the agreements I've read say "Apple or its agents may require that you furnish proof of purchase details" which protects them against stolen or counterfeit serial numbers if there is doubt.

I would recommend you get a written invoice with the business name and the serial number of the iPhone so you are covered in case Apple exercises the "may require" clause, but I've never heard of anyone actually reporting that they needed to provide proof of purchase as Apple typically honors their warranty to the letter and often treats consumers better than the warranty allows.


The -128 cause is fairly well known. It's not a precise indicator as there's a number of possible causes for this. However, the most common relate to:

problems with RAM
that your battery is past its life cycle
the SMC initiating a shutdown due to a sensor reading (e.g. excessive temperature)

Now, as for the -102 cause, I don't ever recall seeing that as a shutdown cause before. In fact, the only times I've seen a -102 error of any sort is either relating to Scrap Manager errors (which would be unrelated to your situation as it's related to carbon programming), or relating to a memory parity error.

I would run Apple Hardware Test (AHT) to see if it finds any obvious hardware problems.

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. It would have originally shipped with AHT on a DVD, so you'd need to insert this into your optical drive and follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: that the extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, or you can't find the DVD, then at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.


A couple years ago there was rumours about malware being able to run the camera without having the light on.  Both LED and Camera are driven by the Apple SMC (System Management Controller) and are linked together far below OSX user level.

Since then Apple most probably have put extra efforts to avoid usage of one without the other.


What's the optimal Handbrake setting to convert AVI for editing in iMovie/Final Cut?

Don't forget the built-in Automator actions for encoding. The video plugin is very nice and has pre-sets starting with 480p (VGA size) and up.

The Encode for: Greater compatibility toggle keeps the audio and video at a lower bit rate. Depending on what your tolerance for "less degradation" is, you might experiment with Higher quality if you see too many H.264 artifacts on the default setting. It's unlikely as the encoder has a lot of room with 1.5 Mbps as the ceiling for the video data rate.

You could set up a few services to test the various settings and then make a folder action to apply your favorite encode setting to anything you drop in that folder.

Automation is fun—you might even be able to set up a folder action to do your uploading as part of this process.


Can you update an iPhone 4 on iOS 6.1.2 to 7.0.6 using an IPSW file?

iOS 7.0.6 is no longer being code signed by Apple. Only the most recent version of iOS is code signed by Apple, and the iPhone will not accept a version of iOS that has not been code signed. So essentially, this is impossible.


For anyone having the same problem, it turns out that Gmail blocks out-of-date mail clients from connecting and isn't too keen on informing users when it decides to do this. The solution was to update my mail client by upgrading to macOS High Sierra.


Straight double quotes on Bluetooth keyboard

Which key does what depends on the Input Source you are using (not your hardware). These are activated  in System Preferences/Keyboard/Input Sources.  To see the current mappıng, use Keyboard Viewer.

Your keyboard is Turkish Qwerty PC.  If you make that your Input Source in System Preferences, then double quote ıs on Control i as you mentıoned.  (Using Control for special characters is very unusual on a Mac, normally it would only be Option and Option plus Shift).

If you want to change that, it is quite easy to make a custom layout using Ukelele.  I can help if you are having problems with it.


How to tell Apple if there are spelling mistakes in its application document?

Apple Bug Reporter is the essential site to report these issues.

You'll need to have a developer account though which you could always setup for free and that should gain you access to the Bug Reporting tool.


Showing Macbook screen on a larger monitor

Go to System Preferences > Displays and turn on Mirroring. This will duplicate the main window onto the TV monitor.

You can alternatively decide to put the Menu Bar at the top of the TV monitor instead of the MacBook, or choose to put the menu bar at the top of both screens. These preferences are found in the Displays Preference Pane.

By default, the split screen puts the secondary display (the TV monitor) to the right or left of the main (MacBook) screen. Move the mouse pointer off the right or left edge of the MacBook screen and see if the pointer appears.


MacBook Pro crashes when plugging in 3 4k screens

When you say you know your MBP can drive 4k screens and can also drive 3 externals plus the internal, on what basis do you say this? In fact, this is well beyond what this model is officially capable of doing.

Your MBP officially supports an HDMI-compatible device, including 4K, while using one Thunderbolt Display. Or, it can  support up to two Thunderbolt displays.

In terms of actual resolution outputted to an external display, it supports up to 3840x2160 pixels at 30Hz or 4096x2160 pixels at 24Hz (HDMI), or up to 3840x2160 pixels at 30Hz on two external displays via Thunderbolt.

Of course the above is the official position. Your testing has shown you that you can exceed this, but what you’re wanting to do is beyond what I’d recommend.

You may find my answer on another question of interest, especially in terms of real life scenarios. The MBP in that question is not the same model as yours, but the overall findings still apply.


How do I restore the computer backup from an older iPad to a new iPad

There's no general reason why you shouldn't be able to restore a backup of an iPad Air running iOS 12.5.1 on an 8th Gen iPad running iPadOS 14.4. In general, this should work without problems.
It could sound like the backup you have on the MacBook Pro is somehow corrupted.
I would advise taking a new full backup of the device, and trying the process over again.
Another way to go would be to use the "Quick Start" feature. Turn on your new (blank) iPad and hold it near the old iPad (ensure that Bluetooth is enabled). On the old iPad, you should see a popup asking if you want to setup your new iPad. When asked how to transfer data, select to transfer directly from the old iPad.
The Quick Start feature with direct data transfer is available in 12.4, so as you're running 12.5.1 you should be good to go.


Conditionally map keys depending on the application being used

Use a private.xml like this with Karabiner:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <appdef>
    <appname>TERMINAL</appname>
    <equal>com.apple.Terminal</equal>
  </appdef>
  <item>
    <name>onlyterminal</name>
    <identifier>onlyterminal</identifier>
    <only>TERMINAL</only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_R, KeyCode::OPTION_R</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_R, KeyCode::COMMAND_R</autogen>
  </item>
</root>


Assuming there is nothing wrong with your setup and that there isn't anything causing additional delays to your sync, you might want to consider two things that impact the iTunes sync speed:

Encoding of audio files as they get loaded on to your iDevice.
Speed of USB 2.0 interface @ 480Mbit/sec.

The first one would only apply if you are syncing new audio files to your device and you have the option enabled for downsampling AAC/MP3 files. It is convenient if you want to minimize space, but you can tick a box that says any audio file you put on your iDevice will be adjusted down to a (say) 128Kbps bitrate to save space on the iDevice. If you have this, it does the encode single-threaded while you're syncing and thus adds time to the sync but for the obvious benefit of taking up far less space on the iDevice.

The second point is the far more likely culprit since you're probably moving megabytes or gigabytes of data around. Pictures on a recent iPhone take a few MB each, videos you captured can run into the hundreds of MB and naturally DVDs/iTunes movies probably take closer to a gigabyte. If iTunes is deciding to take a backup as it does periodically, that could be the size of your phone (16GB/64GB/128GB/etc.) Now pumping this through a 480Mbit/sec USB 2.0 interface would theoretically get a maximum of 48MB/sec, though USB overhead probably chops 20% off of that so maybe you're getting 40MB/sec so for a backup of 16GB of iDevice data it would take nearly 6 minutes.

Presumably the lightning interface can handle USB 3.0 speeds, but only the iPad Pro as of 2015 apparently has that capability, though I don't think Apple has officially enabled that yet (as of May 2016) so we don't know how fast it could go and I don't think Apple has published the specs. For all your other devices, you're at the speeds mentioned above.

iTunes is a bit of a dog and capping at USB 2.0 speeds isn't going to help things. The best I can suggest is to enable WiFi sync (if available) so that you can at least have your iDevice sync with your computer while not tethered with a Lightning cable.


Battery issue with MacBook Pro 13 inch (Early 2011)

The built-in battery of your MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air is designed to deliver up to 1000 full charge and discharge cycles before it reaches 80 percent of its original capacity.
  Link.

Little differences in capacity are normal and are no indicator for a defect battery. Only contact Apple when your battery performes worse than the design capacity.


How to access LAN devices and files from iPad, iPhone?

iFileExplorer may be what you need. It is free on App store. I am using it.


Just use Quicktime Player. File->New Screen Recording. You can select a portion of the screen, but spacebar doesn't work to select the whole window, you have to drag a frame around the window manually. You can trim the video afterwards, if you selected an area too big though. If you want to google, use "quicktime record window".


Can I plug my 15" 2017 MacBook Pro into a USB-C display while using the charger cable?

It shouldn't be a problem.  I did the same thing with an LG 5K display, and the power plugged in separately, and had no issues.

Having written that, I almost never bothered to do it that way, because my laptop spent most of it's time on my desk, and I never needed to charge it faster.


Does Do-Not-Disturb mode silence your phone's alarms?

Simply put: No, it does not.

I suppose this prevents an alarm not going off when you really need it to (i.e. waking you up).


Keyboard Maestro might be your thing. Make a new command group which only applies to the application in question, then for each key you want to remap, make a new command with a hotkey trigger set to the real key and an "Insert Text" action set to what you want the key to be.

The only shortcoming I've found so far is that it can't handle the in-built volume control keys on an Apple keyboard. It can detect them & act upon the event, but it can't suppress the volume change. In fairness, nothing else can either. Most programs I tried can't even detect it. Keyboard Maestro is the king of the pile.