How can I merge primary APFS partition with other empty/free space APFS partition?

You need to know the partitioning of the drive. In particular, were the free space is. The diskutil list disk0 command shows the partitions in ascending order and the size of each partition. However, this command does not show free space. The Disk Utility application does occasionally show free space but the value is often incorrect and does not show where the free space is with respect to the other partitions

So where is the free space shown? Here are a few ways to determine where the free space is.

The sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0 command will show the logical sector blocks used by each partition. The command will also show the free space between each partition in logical sector block units. In the days of OS X, you could run this command on the boot drives. Starting with macOS, System Integrity Protection (SIP) has to be disabled to do this.
Use the diskutil info -plist disk0s# command to retrieve partition number # start and size byte values. You need to repeat the command for each partition on a drive. Next, you can compile a table similar to the output from the gpt -r show /dev/disk0 command. Basically, free space is any space not allocated to a partition, the Protected Master Boot Record (PMBR) and the GUID Partition Tables (GPT).
Write a BASH script that would automate way number 2.  A free script can be downloaded from this site. Assuming your downloads goto to the default Downloads folder, you can get the free space by entering the command shown below. Note: You do not need to enter sudo or disable SIP.

~/Downloads/driveinfo-1.0.1/driveinfo -r disk0

  In order to add free space to a APFS container partition, the free space must reside directly below the partition.

When you deleted disk0s4, you created free space directly after disk0s3. Since disk0s3 is between disk0s2 and this free space, you can not recover the free space by using the command given in your Step 3. You could recover the free space into disk0s3 by entering the command given below.

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 R


How does one activate a square bracket on a Spanish Magic keyboard?

It depends on which sort of Apple Spanish keyboard you have and the input source setting which matches the printing on the keys
.
You can check this in system preferences -> keyboard -> Input sources.
An Apple Spanish Magic Keyboard normally follows the Spanish ISO input source mapping. With this square brackets are at option plus and option backtick.
On a laptop you could also have a Spanish Latin America hardware keyboard.  With this mapping square brackets are at shift curly brackets.
Here are some screenshots from the Spanish ISO keyboard layout (second one  is the modification by pressing the option key). You can look them up yourself if you activate the "show menu in menu bar" (located in bottom of the keyboard settings in system preferences) and then go in the dropdown menu in your menu bar and select "Show Keyboard Viewer".


Some MBP keys won't work after logging in

Disable mouse keys which is an accessibility function.

Type ⌘⌥fnF5, and suppress the check mark there:


Apple MacBook Air stuck in continuous boot loop

If it boots fine in Safe Mode then it's more likely to be some sort of software issue/conflict.

However, I'd still do a NVRAM and SMC reset (in that order) as there's really no harm in trying that first. Before following the steps below, ensure you have no external hardware connected and that you're using the built-in keyboard.

Reset the NVRAM

Reset the NVRAM on your MBA as follows:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your MBA reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your MBA reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Reset the SMC

To reset the SMC on your MBA, follow these steps:

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

After resetting both the NVRAM and SMC, use your computer to determine if the issue still persists. Let me know how you go.


Monitor processes during startup that changes umask

after further research I realized that it was my Terminal app (iTerm2) setting the umask. This was due to a bug and an update was already available. This issue caused a great deal of stress and setback.


Tile 2 windows side by side by keyboard shortcuts

I use Better Touch Tool to do that.

Here's an example configuration that has a keyboard shortcut for resizing to the right half and one for the left half. I also have a shortcut that quickly maximizes a window.


How can I limit whatever Time Machine wants to do with sparsebundles

As is often the question is how to limit the size of backup Time Machine, and then the subject of this post.

So:

All Time Machine backups keeps "growing image-disc package «https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file(sparsebundle)», which is the physical size at the location takes exactly as much space as occupied by the data stored in it (), while Time Machine creates backups, capturing all the available disk space (it can be seen for example in the disk utility, select your mounted * .sparsebundle and pressing the "info" button).
Even if you change the size of the * .sparsebudle, the next time you create a reserve copy of Time Machine (from version 10.6.3) again to change the size of the maximum possible.

Yet there are ways to limit the "appetite" Time Machine.

The first requires Xcode, and, in principle, interfere in the "life" Titem Machine (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2383738?start=60&tstart=45)

The second is that the limited size does not * .sparsebundle, and section (partition) with backups on it.
For this, I wrote a one-line script mentioned below (copy and paste in Terminal.app):

time { clear; declare -i s; read -p "The name of the mount point of your disk?" dn; read -p "Desired partition size in GB?= " s; ((sb=10**9*s/512)); cn=`scutil --get ComputerName`; echo -e "\nWait..."; hdiutil resize -size ${sb}b -partitiononly "/Volumes/${dn}/${cn}.sparsebundle" && echo -e "\n\n\t\t\e[01;38;05;40;48;05;20m"Section now has a size"${s}GB\e[0m" || echo -e "\n\n\t\t\e[01;38;05;160;48;05;20m"Alas, the partition size is not changed"\e[0m"; }

Means "/ Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility.app" (GUI) to change the size of the partition backups can only be a very limited extent.


Music Player with ability to repeat a specific part of the song

Quick Time Player -

  Trim function

can do that.

Then use the Loop function to play over and over :)

iTunes can do that (but not so handy)

Right click on the song- Get Info.

In there click on Options tab and select the Start and End time.


Is there a relatively straight forward way to make a note of all applications/programs installed on my mac for future reference?

Open /Applications in the Finder
Press Cmd-A followed by Cmd-C
Switch to Pages/Word/TextEdit/etc.
Create a new document and press Cmd-V

Repeat for sub-folders of /Applications and any other place (~/Applications maybe) where you have installed applications.


Can the macports doc folder be safely removed?

Yes, if you can live without documentation and configuration examples.


It is rather possible to activate "always-on" VPN activating the "Connect on demand" option via a VPN profile both in iOS and OSX/MacOS.

For instance, some commercial VPN providers do that.

However that only applies to any kind of VPN done/configured via the native client, and not 3rd party VPNs like OpenVPN.

The behaviour of the Connect on demand VPNs, is that as soon a TCP/IP packets try to leave the iDevice, the VPN goes up.

I have been using it with VPNs with IPsec with IKEv1 in iOS 8 and iOS 9, so the IKEv2 requirement does not seem to apply. I also been using it without supervised mode.

The profile file is a xml file, that can be written by hand, or with the help of Apple tools. The file has to have an extension .mobileconfig, and has to be loaded by the Safari browser in iOS.

As an example, I am using this file, for a full VPN tunnel, "Cisco" IPsec with group password and user XAUTH authentication.

I put "Cisco", because in my case, the VPN servers are respectively, a PfSense firewall, and a Linux Debian server.

<?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>PayloadContent</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>IPSec</key>
            <dict>
                <key>AuthenticationMethod</key>
                <string>SharedSecret</string>
                <key>LocalIdentifier</key>
                <string>*group_name*</string>
                <key>LocalIdentifierType</key>
                <string>KeyID</string>
                <key>RemoteAddress</key>
                <string>*11.11.11.11*</string>
                <key>SharedSecret</key>
                <data>
                *ksjksdjksdf*
                </data>
                <key>XAuthEnabled</key>
                <integer>1</integer>
                <key>XAuthName</key>
                <string>*username*</string>
                <key>XAuthPassword</key>
                <string>*password*</string>
                <key>DisconnectOnIdle</key>
                        <integer>0</integer>
                <key>OnDemandEnabled</key>
                        <integer>1</integer>
                <key>OnDemandRules</key>
                <array>
                    <dict>
                    <key>Action</key>
                    <string>Connect</string>
                    </dict>
                </array>
            </dict>
            <key>IPv4</key>
            <dict>
                <key>OverridePrimary</key>
                <integer>1</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>PayloadDescription</key>
            <string>Configures VPN settings, including authentication.</string>
            <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
            <string>*VPN (MyHOME)*</string>
            <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
            <string>*com.myhome.pt.vpn*</string>
            <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
            <string>*MY-HOME*</string>
            <key>PayloadType</key>
            <string>com.apple.vpn.managed</string>
            <key>PayloadUUID</key>
            <string>D758D99C-7CCE-44DC-8CAE-B2A5FFC86985</string>
            <key>PayloadVersion</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>Proxies</key>
            <dict/>
            <key>UserDefinedName</key>
            <string>*VPN My-HOME*</string>
            <key>VPNType</key>
            <string>IPSec</string>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>PayloadDescription</key>
    <string>*VPN provisioning for My-HOME*</string>
    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string>*MY-HOME*</string>
    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string>*com.myhome.pt*</string>
    <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
    <string>*MY-HOME*</string>
    <key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key>
    <false/>
    <key>PayloadType</key>
    <string>Configuration</string>
    <key>PayloadUUID</key>
    <string>A8E086BE-C9B1-4EA8-9E6A-F25001E0A293</string>
    <key>PayloadVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

As you correctly suspect, there are downsides to this approach. While the connect on demand profile is active, the regular wake ups for fetching data seem not be done (at least until iOS 9, still have to test iOS 10), and as such FaceTime calls are not always received while the device is "sleeping").

The Apple documentation about this directives is here. "IPSec Dictionary Keys" is of particular interest.


LastPass on Safari not autofilling if auto fill is unchecked

This is an ongoing issue.

Open Preferences in Safari and select the Extensions tab
Select LastPass in the left-hand column.
Click "Uninstall" and confirm it
Go to https://lastpass.com/misc_download2.php?tab=mac#maclpmacosx
Scroll down to "LastPass for Safari" and click on "Download".
Go to your downloads folder and double-click on lastpass.safariextz.
Safari Extensions Preferences should open with a dialog box stating "Would you like to install ..."
Click on "Install from Developer" in the dialog box.
A dialog box will appear stating "Are you sure you want to install the extension LastPass..." and click on "Trust" in that dialog box.
LastPass will now show in the left-hand column of the Extensions Preferences and it will show that the version is 4.9.0.37.
A new Safari tab or window will open and at the bottom will be a "Log In" link. Click on it. This may not leave you logged in, but at this point you should be able to log in as you normally would.
You can then go to LastPass Preferences and set the preferences to your own liking.


If you are interested in running Apache, PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin, you can check out this article.

Or just use MAMP


How can I charge and output audio from iPhone 5 in a car?

My 2013 Ford Ranger (the T6 international version) has an audio system with a USB port on it, and it plays audio through that regardless of whether it is the old 30-pin connector or a Lightning connector on the other end. When I plug in my iPhone, it says "Connecting iPod" on the audio screen. It also supports audio over Bluetooth.

(When saying "in a car", please be a little more specific about the car and/or its audio system. They are all different)


What applications do i need to make a Newsstand app?

Newstand content is simply an iOS Application that makes use of the Newsstandkit, so you might start with Xcode and a one year membership to the iOS Developer Program.

When you enroll in the latter, you will learn what things can be discussed and asked about publicly and which parts of the program are covered by an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

You don't need the paid membership to download Xcode and start learning and crafting your first Newsstand app, but you do get access to many training videos, a discussion area where you can speak to other developers and Apple on NDA topics. The ability to sign and install apps you develop on some test devices to work on development before they are ready for sale on the App Store is also critical for proper QA.

There are also many other paid options to developer Newsstand apps, but I would start with free and training like the dedicated page for developers to learn Newstand:

https://developer.apple.com/newsstand/


Dual-Boot OS X Snow Leopard on MacBook Pro

Unless I'm totally missing something from your question, no mid-2012 MacBook Pro can run a version of OS X earlier than Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4.

More specifically, each of the three mid-2012 MacBook Pros initially shipped with Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 and the firmware does not support any prior version of macOS. On the positive side they do all support macOS Sierra.

If you have need to dual boot into an older OS, then it will have to be any version from Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 and above.


How to get the hand tool back in Preview.app in 10.8?

Use the move tool by pressing ⌥ Option+Space. The cursor changes to the hand that allows you to scroll the content in all directions.


Large File still taking storage after Deleted

If you have enabled Time Machine, the disk space could be taken up by local snapshots. When local snapshots are enabled, Time Machine saves snapshots to /.MobileBackups/ when there is more than 10% free disk space. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878. Local snapshots are not counted as used disk space in Finder, but they are shown under backups in the About This Mac window. The snapshots are deleted automatically if disk space is low enough, but since 10.9 the newest snapshot is kept even if there is less than 10% free disk space.

To see what files take up disk space, you can use OmniDiskSweeper:

To include folders like /.MobileBackups/, open OmniDiskSweeper as root by running sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper.

You can also just use Finder. Run sudo defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true;sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder, open the root folder in list view, and enable calculating all sizes:


Is it possible to make a screen recording of an entire page in a browser window?

Apple buit this functionality into Quicktime player and many people don't know it's there. In fact you can even record the screen of a connected iPad or iPhone.

Open Quicktime player and select New Screen recording... You will be given some brief instructions and then a button to click to start recording. When you are done, right-click on the Quicktime dock icon and end the recording.


"To watch this video, change your restrictions in Settings.", but my restrictions are off

After wasting 30 minutes trying to figure this same
Issue out with my Hulu. Restrictions were all off. I was having the same issue. I determined that I have the option to save storage space on the phone turned on and then my phone will uninstall apps when they are not in use. This, my Hulu app was not downloaded on the phone. Try making sure the video app is installed on the phone and try again in the TV app.


Do I have to explicitly update iTunes Match after adding new tracks to my Library?

Choose "Update iTunes Match" from the "Store" menu.


First, all your emails are still in your web version of MSN.

You need to switch the MSN to IMAP type and it is called Outlook (the web version) of Outlook, not the office version.

In your Mac Mail set up following:

Choose Account Type: IMAP.

Input the following as the Incoming Mail Server: imap-mail.outlook.com.

Choose to Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for incoming mail security.

Input the following as the Outgoing Mail Server: smtp-mail.outlook.com.

Choose to Use Authentication.

Choose to Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for outgoing mail security.

Depending how large your mail is it might take a while to transfer. To monitor the process turn on the Activity, located under the Window Tab in Mail app.


Problems opening links on internet iphone 5S

The bug affects not only links in Safari and Mail but also in Messages. I depend on the latter for employment, and it's a race with others when notifications come through, so copy & paste is waaay too slow. Not happy!! >:-(
I'm using iOS 9.2.1


Show window dimensions in titlebar in iTerm2

Can't find the correct variable for the title. But if you go to iTerm2-> Preferences -> Profiles -> Session -> Configure Session, you can create a custom menu component with title as \(rows) x \(columns) and it will show the width. I know it's not the perfect solution but will do your job.

Make sure your status bar enabled is checked.


Can I view system stats in the Terminal?

Depending on what you want displayed there are several options available using Terminal:

top: real-time sorted display of running processes such as memory and CPU usage
iostat: I/O summary statistics for terminal, device and CPU operations
vm_stat: Mach virtual memory statistics
diskutil list: disk/volume capacity
df: used/free space on mounted partitions
fs_usage: real-time file activity for both disk and network
nettop: updated information about the network (a bit like top for net I/O)
w: who is logged in and what they are doing; plus a brief system load summary
ifconfig and ipconfig: network interface and IP protocol details

Most of these commands have a huge list of options.  It's probably best to consult the man pages for details.
I usually rely on:

top -u -s 10 to identify CPU-hogging processes;
fs_usage -f filesys or fs_usage -f network to identify processes generating a lot of disk/network load.


China blocked the iTunes store and iBook store due to it's political issues with Apple.

[Update] VPN doesn't help, it's account based not location based.


I ran across this today which is one way to do it.

In summary for Mountain Lion:

Edit the file /etc/auto_master
Within add /- auto_smb
Create /etc/auto_smb
Within add /Volumes/mount_point -fstype=smbfs,soft ://user:pass@smbserver/share

The author goes onto mention a second method using the vifs command, but I've never tried that one and it seems to do something of a pre-mount at bootup. You still have to touch the Volume for it to completely mount.

Lastly, the author states that "soft" should be used in step 4 above because failures to mount will cause the bootup to hang.


Enable Function Key Lock when using external keyboard/Disable when using internal keyboard on Mac Book Pro

To make this work you have to use a third party tool: Karabiner.

To enable this you have to create a filter for the external keyboard and invert all function/consumer keys.

Prerequisites:

Download, install and open Karabiner
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences
Open the tab Misc & Uninstall
Hit the button Launch EventViewer
Hit the tab Devices
Make a note of the vendor and product ID of the external keyboard
Close the EventViewer
Hit the button Open private.xml
Open the file private.xml with an appropriate editor
Enter the customized keycode and replace the vendor and product ID by IDs found above

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>Apple</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x05ac</vendorid>
  </devicevendordef>
  <deviceproductdef>
    <productname>ExternalKeyboard</productname>
    <productid>0x0256</productid>
  </deviceproductdef>
  <item>
    <name>Function to Consumer for External Keyboard</name>
    <identifier>private.function2consumerExtK</identifier>
    <device_only>DeviceVendor::Apple, DeviceProduct::ExternalKeyboard</device_only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F1, ConsumerKeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_DOWN</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F2, ConsumerKeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_UP</autogen>
    ...
  </item>
  <item>
    <name>Consumer to Function for External Keyboard</name>
    <identifier>private.consumer2functionExtK</identifier>
    <device_only>DeviceVendor::Apple, DeviceProduct::ExternalKeyboard</device_only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_DOWN, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::F1</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_UP, ModifierFlag::FN, KeyCode::F2</autogen>
    ...
  </item>
</root>

Replace the ellipses by all other necessary consumer and function keys
Save the file
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences the tab Change Key
Hit the ReloadXML button
Enable the remappings. They should be listed at the beginning.

The final behavior should be as following with the function lock activated:

Internal keyboard:

F1: F1
Fn+F1: brightness up

External keyboard:

F1: brightness up
Fn+F1: F1

etc.

If you disable or skip the Consumer to Function for External Keyboard part it should act like this:

F1: brightness up
Fn+F1: brightness up

which means that the "function key layer" is disabled and only the consumer key layer is working.

etc.

Other possible keycodes:

KeyCode::EXPOSE_ALL,                 KeyCode::F3</autogen>
KeyCode::DASHBOARD,                  KeyCode::F4</autogen>
KeyCode::LAUNCHPAD,                  KeyCode::F4</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::KEYBOARDLIGHT_LOW,  KeyCode::F5</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::KEYBOARDLIGHT_HIGH, KeyCode::F6</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PREV,         KeyCode::F7</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PLAY,         KeyCode::F8</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_NEXT,         KeyCode::F9</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_MUTE,        KeyCode::F10</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_DOWN,        KeyCode::F11</autogen>
ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_UP,          KeyCode::F12</autogen>


How do I tell the iOS Music app to regenerate its metadata?

If you have iTunes Match, you would simply disable that on the device, power it down and then sign back in to iTunes Match in the settings app under Music.

If you don't have iTunes Match, connect the iPad to iTunes and then sync the music back over USB or Wifi if you enable wireless syncing of that device.


Change Finder folder view for only one folder?

Go into the folder and choose the view you want the folder to display as. Press cmd+J, then check the "Always open in [type] view" box at the top of the small window and make sure that the "Browse in [type] view" option is unchecked. Close that window. Now the Finder should switch the view to the one you chose whenever you enter that folder.


Why does new Time Machine & Migrate fail with SD

A common Time Machine backup drive (with the root folder /Backups.backupdb/Computername/... only) itself is no bootable system. You always have to boot from Recovery Mode, Internet Recovery Mode or another bootable drive containing a bootable base or full OS X.

Booted to one of the mentioned systems allows you to restore the Time Machine backup to your main volume.

Additionally bootable systems require a GUID partition table and the volume has to be formatted with either HFS+ or HFS+ journaled. The latter is recommended/required for Time Machine backup drives. You may use an ExFAT volume but this needs additional configuration: you have to create a sparsebundle file, mount it and choose this one as backup volume.


Is there a limit on how much hard drive space a computer can handle?

The only limit would be with the format/filesystem the operating system uses.

You should be fine to put in whatever size drive you want, as long as it physically fits and uses the correct interface (e.g. SATA vs PATA).


The keyboard shortcut you’re looking for is ⌘ + ⌥ + ⎋, alternatively known as command + option + escape. This will bring up the Force Quit Applications window (see screenshot below).


Why does spotlight search for "term" result in AquaTerm before Terminal?

For Spotlight there isn't really a difference between AquaTerm, Terminal and iTerm when searching for "term". All three names match the search term, there is no such notion as better
Spotlight "learns" your preferences over time. So if you keep searching for "term" and then always select "Terminal.app" as result it will reorder the result list over time


Installing fonts from terminal instead of Font Book?

You can simply copy them into /Library/Fonts (for system wide use) or ~/Library/Fonts (for use by current user).


Why can't I choose full screen mode in Photoshop CS6?

Make sure there is a file opened first, if photoshop is "empty" the options are indeed grayed out even in the registered version of photoshop cs6.

Let me know if this fixed it


Transporting from home to work (~10 min by car), should I just make my MacBook Pro sleep, or shut it completely down first?

It's perfectly OK to transport it while it's sleeping - I do this all the time.
The disk is stopped and the only power draw is what is required to keep the memory contents (and the fading in/out of the power light).  Any heat it generates during sleep is pretty much undetectable (in human terms).  As long as nothing is connected to it, it shouldn't wake up in the bag.


How to "scroll" a clip so that it stays the same length but shows a different part of original video?

Choose the Trim tool (T) and drag the clip along the timeline. The start and end points remain fixed on the timeline and the clip moves within, up to the start/end point of the clip, denoted by red markers.


Images sent over iMessages are low quality

Found the solutions after trying for several times. Finally.

Following need to take place to send full quality image taken via iMessages.

Low quality image mode should be switched off
Enable 4G without 3G
Turn off low power mode


How can I find which Control-Command keys are mapped to particular programs?

There are a few apps out there which are meant to help show the available keyboard commands. The only ones I can remember right now are:

KeyCue which is €19.99 but does have a trial. I suspect this is probably the best of the bunch, although it’s the most expensive.
CheatSheet is another one, which is free, although it doesn't show nearly as many shortcuts as KeyCue does.

(If I can remember others I will edit this to add them)

Unfortunately, when I tried KeyCue and CheatSheet, neither of them showed anything for ⌃⌘D or ⌃⌘B.

I know that ⌃⌘Dis used for the system dictionary (highlight a word, press ⌃⌘D and you’ll get a dictionary lookup for it). But I don’t see a preference for it in System Preferences to allow you to disable it or re-assign it.

Also ⌃⌘B doesn’t seem to do anything on my Mac, so that may be specific to some app that you have installed.

Be sure to check the ”Services” area of Keyboard preferences:

That’s where I usually find the culprit when something has stolen a keyboard shortcut that I want to use.


How to add Canon printer that works on Windows machines?

Yo have to download and install the Canon Drivers.

You can find the drivers for your printer here.

From the printer manual:

Installing the software:

Bonjour connection:

TCP/IP connection:


They seem to have found a fix, but for Windows. I haven't found a similar one for Mac, I'll update this answer if I find it.

Note: The above only applies to changing the default artwork for viewing by genre, not by artist, which is still the unanswered question.

While it is possible to change this by playing with ratings, there doesn't seem to be a manual workaround, as existed in 10.7.


Finder window on top of full-screen safari?

Rather clunky, but possible...

Go back to Finder, select & grab your files; keep hold of them.
either...

Use your Show Dashboard key command & hover your cursor [still holding the files] over the Safari Space until it pops to the front, or
Use  Ctrl ⌃   num  to go to the last Space before your fullscreen app, then  Ctrl ⌃   →  to get to fullscreen.

Drop the files.

This is always going to be hindered by fullscreen apps being to the right of any & all numbered Spaces.

You may need to enable the Ctrl/key functionality first in System Prefs/Keyboard/Shortcuts/Mission Control

Only alternative I can think of is use the Open dialog, or as suggested elsewhere, don't fullscreen, just maximise.


Screen recording option is missing from Security&Privacy

Control of Screen Recording as a Privacy option was not available under Mojave (10.14) - this Apple KB lists available controls.

The Screen Recording control appears for Catalina (10.15).

Only Microphone permission is required for screen recorders, if they ask. Test it using QuickTime Player.


How to remove an application update file?

You can try these steps:

Open Launchpad, press and hold the Option key. If you see a cross icon towards the top left side of the app (Xcode) icon, click on it.
Make sure that Xcode is really removed by checking for its absence in /Applications directory. Then restart your computer.

Either one of the two steps should remove the icon from the Launchpad. You can install Xcode afresh thereafter.


I'm pretty sure the Dock and App switcher are linked together, you can't get what you want. It's unfortunate because many apps are simply background apps that are irrelevant in people's day to day workflow.

You can however, opt for a 3rd party Window Switcher, which can be configured to not show applications that have no open windows. Some people like Witch, I very much like contextsformac. I have it setup as OptionTab, but you can replace CommandTab entirely if you want.


Can you charge an iPad and connect a USB-C device at the same time?

The answer here is it depends.

The device you have pictured above is designed to be connected into a computer (Mac or PC, it doesn't matter.)

Unless otherwise stated that the port supports Power Delivery (PD), it will only supply a limited amount of power.  In one recent answer I wrote, the iMac will only supply 15W of power.  However, you'll have to get the exact power specs for your particular machine.

All devices have some sort of power draw; even a flash disk has some power draw, usually in the milliamp range (200 mA or .2A).  However, if you exceed the power limitation of what the port can supply, it will end up disconnecting devices.

Assuming that you're using an iMac that can deliver up to 15W, the iPad has a requirement of 10W meaning you have 5W extra to spare.  You should be able to use (not charge) another USB device like a flash drive (5V * .2A = 1W)


You may use some third party tools like Paragon-NTFS. It installs a driver on the Mac side that reads the NTFS partition of your Windows side. Some years ago I used the free "FUSE" drivers, but it seems to me, the development has stopped.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/index.html

Another solution would be to use a USB thumb drive, which is FAT-formatted as a transfer volume. Both sides can read and write on that.


Why won't Migration Assistant recognize my old Time Machine backup?

Seems that many people have difficulty restoring from a backup of a case-sensitive installation to a case-insensitive one.  Please see comments for some discussion and various ideas.

A work-around which seemed to be successful in this case: copy the data you need manually from the backups, using the Finder. (I wouldn't expect to be able to recreate the entire machine with all settings etc this way, but documents should be easy to restore this way, and perhaps even your entire home directory.)


OS X Mavericks: InstallESD.dmg and BaseSystem.dmg

The Mavericks installer comes with a tool to make bootable installer. Just use

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction


Cannot launch Parallels Desktop after upgrading to macOS Catalina?

Your screen capture shows the Security and Privacy > :General" tab. Did you look under the "Privacy" tab?

There will be a list of categories on the left and then the permissions of each app on the right. You will need to select the categories on the left one at a time (I'd start with "Accessibility") and authorize any instance of Parallels that requests permissions for that app..

To do this you will first have to click the padlock icon and authenticate with an admin password.


Automator Applescript inconsistently handling Google Chrome tabs

If an application is what you want, then the following example AppleScript code can be saved as an AppleScript application in Script Editor:
set myURLs to {"https://www.example.com", ¬
    "https://www.apple.com", ¬
    "https://apple.stackexchange.com"}

tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    close windows
    set winID to id of (make new window)
    tell window id winID
        set URL of active tab to first item of myURLs
        repeat with i from 2 to (length of myURLs)
            make new tab at end of tabs ¬
                with properties {URL:item i of myURLs}
        end repeat
        set active tab index to 1
    end tell
end tell


Is there an app that will let me edit track information (title/artist)?

Given the rather strict sandboxing applied in iOS this is most probably impossible to achieve without jailbraking the device.


How does one search in the Messages App on MacOS within one conversation

There isn't a "Search" or "Find" feature in the iMessages app for mac in specific conversations. Only all conversations.

CMD+F is the shortcut to search within the app.

To print/export a conversation, CMD+P will allow for a print view, but in the bottom left you can change from printing to saving as a PDF, etc.


Problem with Automator/AppleScript Question

I suspect you may be getting this error because you are trashing folders and files in the same action. In other words, if automator tossed out a folder containing a '.mov' file, it will toss out the '.mov' file as well; then (later) when automator tries to toss that '.mov' file, it cannot find it, because it's already in the trash.

First solution to try: move the kind is folder option to the bottom of the list, in the hopes it sorts folders last.

If that doesn't work, then you may need to complexify your workflow with a variable, like so:


How to add notes to iCloud via sending an email

Although I, personally, do not use the Notes.app (preferring Simplenote) my Wife uses the Notes.app in conjunction with her gmail account.

So if you have a gmail account it has a notes label that will add emails with that label to your notes.

It should be easy enough to create a rule to route any emails to that address with a specific phrase in the subject line to mark it as read and with the notes label.

This is not exactly what you were looking for. It requires a gmail account which may be a no-starter for some people, and I don't think that Apple has a way to create a note from an email other than copy/paste. But it might be worth looking into.


OS X upgrade on MacBook Pro mid 2010 trilemma

The more advanced version, results in most memory consumption system. So, if you are only care about performance, no doubts, Mountain Lion must be your choice.


How can I regularly move movies in iTunes to an external drive?

If your external drive is permanently connected to your Mac I suggest cutting and pasting your entire iTunes library (called "iTunes Media") over to the external drive, and then point iTunes to it through Preferences > Advanced > iTunes Media folder location. Now all your data would be stored on that external drive, while still easily accessible via iTunes.


How do I remove duplicate albums from my iPhone 5's music app?

For others who have this problem, the error fixed itself after a few days during a sync.


What are the Best Ways to Speed Up a Mac?

The only thing I can see which might help is freeing some space on your hard drive.

With the lack of free space OS X won’t be able to make use of Virtual Memory as efficiently as it should, or possibly at all. I’m not 100% sure about Yosemite, but I’ve experienced a big performance hit on previous OS X releases when the OS can’t allocate as much RAM as it wants to.

With tools like Photoshop, are you using a separate scratch disk? If not then you’ll be relying on the little internal storage available which will result in OS X having to free up RAM (rather than swapping it) to apply effects/filters/etc.


Options for editing mpeg video other than MPEG_Streamclip?

MPEG-2 is subject to license restrictions and royalty payments, so you won't find much in the line of free software to edit MPEG-2 videos.

You can do this sort of editing in QuickTime player with QuickTime Pro, but be aware that MPEG-2 for DVDs uses a complicated compression scheme using key frames and "difference" frames that repeat in a regular pattern (Group of Pictures a.k.a GOP).  You cannot just edit out one frame without re-encoding the rest if you want to play it in a DVD player.


System-wide

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetworkBrowser DisableAirDrop -bool YES

User-specific (via preferences)

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.NetworkBrowser DisableAirDrop -bool YES


How to bypass Touch ID provided access to the iCloud account?

Since you have the iPhone password you can unlock the iPhone.

Without the iPhone password (or the finger...) (even if you have the Apple ID password) you will not be able gain access to the phone. You can however wipe the phone and use the Apple ID to unlock the phone from Activation Lock.

Since you have both you can you can wipe the phone and start from new.


XAMPP on Mavericks install APC and Memcached

If you've installed XAMPP then you'll have two versions of PHP on your system. I think the problem is that you are using the XAMPP version of PHP, but the extensions have been compiled against the OS bundled version.

If you are using XAMPP then you'll need to use the toolchain that comes with XAMPP.
For example, try sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/pecl install memcached, this seems to download, build and install memcached correctly for me so that XAMPP can use it.

After that I just needed to add the extension=memcached.so line to php.ini and now memcached is appearing in phpinfo().


Risks of Opening iWork '09 files in iWork 2013?

Here is the list published by Apple.

Changes that occur when exporting to iWork ’09

All Apps

Curved shadows and contact shadows are converted to drop shadows.
Comments on objects are removed.
Anchored objects are converted to floating or inline objects.
The following formulas are removed: INTERSECT.RANGES, POLYNOMIAL, SERIESSUM, UNION.RANGES, WEIBULL. Note: The last calculated values are exported.
Interactive charts are converted to regular charts.
Bubble charts are converted to scatter charts.
Vertical text—such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean—isn’t fully supported in iWork ’09.

Pages

Tables of contents are converted to plain text. They won’t update automatically in Pages ’09.
Right-to-left text—such as Arabic and Hebrew—isn’t fully supported in Pages ’09.

Numbers

If a document contains "OR" filters within a column and "AND" filters across columns, all filter rules are exported; "AND" filters are converted to "OR".
Duration-based filters and conditional highlights are removed.

Keynote

The following transitions are converted to Dissolve: Clothesline, Object Cube, Object Pop, Object Revolve, and Switch.
The Object Flip transition is renamed Revolve.
The following build-in effects are converted to Dissolve: Blur, Drift and Scale, Fade and Scale, Twist and Scale, Fireworks, Skid.
The following build-out effects are converted to Dissolve: Blur, Crumble, Fade and Scale, Skid, Twist and Scale, Vanish.
Emphasis builds are removed. Emphasis builds are Blink, Bounce, Flip, Jiggle, Pop, and Pulse.
Comments on table cells are removed.

I think I got the previous version so here is the newer one-moving from iWorks 09 to iWorks 2013 as of April 1. 2014

Changes that occur when importing from iWork ’09

All Apps

Rotation is removed from tables and charts.
Table fills are removed.
Grouped wedges in pie charts are ungrouped.
OS X search (Spotlight) metadata is removed.

Pages

Change tracking is only supported for body text. Other tracked changes are accepted as final.
Linked text boxes are unlinked.
Links to other Pages files are removed.
Bookmarks are hidden in Pages for Mac, but if you export your document back to Pages ’09, they'll reappear.

Numbers

Table categories are removed.

Keynote

The “Require password to exit show” setting is removed. To set a new password, choose Keynote > Preferences > Slideshow, and then select “Require password to exit slideshows.” Enter a password when prompted, and then click Set Password. This password will apply to all presentations played on this computer.
Slides indented more than six levels are promoted to level six.
Links to other Keynote files are removed.
Rotation is removed from object placeholders.
The following transitions are converted to Dissolve: Blur, Burn, Falling Tiles, Flash, Motion Dissolve, Radial, Shutter.
The Revolve transition is renamed Object Flip.
Convergence builds are converted to Dissolve.
The following types of builds are removed: Builds on master slides, smart builds, builds on chart legends.


Why doesn't El Capitan Spotlight search in custom dictionary?

Well, I managed to almost get it working by going to /Library/Dictionaries and rename Oxford Dictionary of English into something else. Then Spotlight started showing the results from dicts in Dictionary.app.

However, this is a rather kludgy solution for me because:

You have to Press Cmd+L in order to view translation, and there is no way to move 'Definition' up in Spotlight order
After I restarted my Mac, my Spotlight started to display result from another built-in dict, Oxford Thesaurus.

I guess, you could just remove all dictionaries that you do not use.
Anyhow, maybe it could be of some help for you.


How can I disable pop-unders when using Chrome?

Yes,
but you need to block all scripts on a domain using Chrome's own script blocking feature.

Why?
Pop-unders are usually via JavaScript. In order to disable them, I block javascript on the specific site using the extension ScriptNo  Chrome's build-in script blocking in:
Settings →  Show advanced settings → Content settings → JavaScript → JavaScript Exceptions
At the moment Chrome's API do not allow proper script blocking which is also why Firefox' NoScript developer has not yet ported his extension. Third-party extensions like ScriptNo suffer from the same problem.
The lack of needed API can allow scripts to still load the first time you visit a website.
By design there is no option for extensions to effectively block scripts like in Firefox, therefore the only way to stop this behavior is to block all scripts on a domain using Chrome's settings which I mentioned at the top.


There are two types of passwords, the device passcode and the appleid password.

The device passcode gives you access to unlock the device, and it can be as short as a 4 digit PIN.

The AppleID password must be 9 (I think. It's either says "8" or "more than 8") or more characters long, contain at least one capital, one lowercase, and use at least one number or special character.


That depends on your version of macOS.

Previously the kernel XNU was locate at the root directory and named mach_kernel:

$ ls -la /mach_kernel

Apparently starting with 10.11 El Capitan and in mac OS 10.12 Sierra this file was moved and renamed:

$ ls -la /System/Library/Kernels/kernel


OS X Server DNS, on local network redirect external IP to internal IP

No, it cannot be done by OS X DNS or any DNS, because you aren't interacting with DNS in your situation (according to your comment). Domain Name Service translates domain names into IP addresses and you aren't using any domain names to access the server.

If however, you set up DNS and used one name on external DNS and the same name on internal DNS - the same name could resolve to different addresses.

name.pretendco.com 94.2.3.4
name.pretendco.com 192.168.3.4

It doesn't matter if the numbers are at all similar, but you might find it easier to map things or check that the servers are correct. Setting up an internal DNS is worth the effort if you have several dozen hosts - otherwise it's easier to overload the local hosts file on the machines that need to resolve the name "internally" as opposed to externally.

(If you were using fully qualified domain names, there are ways to do this…I don't how "accepted" they are and I'm not enough of an expert to tell you all the possible side effects, but it can work.)

The issue you're having is a routing issue, from what I understand. Your public IP address is on a router that is not your server. Your server uses port forwarding on the router to receive traffic. You'd like to be able to connect to the public IP but from inside the local network. You need to enable/configure Hairpin NAT on your router, if it's supported. I can't think of any other solutions.


How do I recover a MacBook Pro with a nonfunctioning screen?

You could either get the screen repaired or connect it to an external monitor.
Repairing it could cost a lot, but that would be the best solution as your Mac would be fully functional again.  Take it to an apple store or call apple and they will know what to do.
If you are simply looking to get your data off of it or need a temporary solution, I would highly recommend connecting it to an external monitor.  That would be the easiest way to see if the computer is fried, or if it's just the screen.  Based on what you told me, it seems like your computer is fine just the screen is broken.


You should not be worried.  There is no bug.
You should show all the output from df -h | grep disk1s. The line with disk1s1s1 refers to the currently used snapshot of the read-only boot volume.  In which case the 14Gi is the expected used.


If Apple's dialog for X11 does not appear, you can grab the package directly from the XQuartz website.

Version 2.7.1 was the first to support Mountain Lion, but 2.7.2 is the current release as of this writing.


VirtualBox does not work after upgrading to Big Sur

Big Sur user here (11.1), running VirtualBox 6.1.16 and Vagrant 2.2.14. Currently have a VM running, no issues. The major hassles for me came a few OS versions earlier (Catalina), presumably due to tightened macOS security, so may be why it was smooth for me to update to 11.1.
Per the mentioned thread, did you try this?

go to system preferences > security and privacy
unlock to make a change
unblock Oracle (might need a restart)
Install Virtualbox again
Linux VM started properly


Assign and recall windows with keyboard shortcuts

You'll need a Mac-based macro program such as Keyboard Maestro by Stairways Software. Although its interface is very different, it's similarly powerful, if not more powerful than AutoHotkey. The program includes a tutorial and comprehensive documentation.


How can I search and listen to the search result in iTunes 11?

In the search box, write your search term, "strauss". Then use the dropdown menu to the left in the search field (the magnifying glass) to select Filter by: Song to only get matches on song name.

Make sure you have Songs selected in the main toolbar as well to get the songs in a plain list.


Should I turn the iPhone 12 out of the box?

A new iPhone comes with around 50% charge on its battery. You can start using it out of the box and there's no need to charge it fully before starting to use it.
While it may not currently be applicable on an iPhone 12, if there's a newer version of iOS available for your model of iPhone, you may need to plug it into power outlet if you wish to install and update to the latest version of iOS. And that too would be required only after you have finished setting up the device.
But generally speaking, an iPhone battery is charged at factory to enabled it to be used out of the box while also ensuring that the battery chemistry remains intact while in shipment.


Show custom image in Mac OS Mojave Dashboard

You can open an image in Safari (even from your disk, by drag'n'drop) and click on File->Open in Dashboard....

Check the result and if it's not satisfying, resize the image and redo the operation.


In Apple Pages, how can I disable italic swashes?

You cannot disable these swashes using the Smart Swashes section in the Format » Font » Show Fonts » Typography… window, because they're not Word Final Swashes. Those are disabled by default anyway.

What you're seeing are Line Final Swashes, applied only to the end of a line or a text run with consistent formatting.

I found no option to disable them from the Typography window or any menu option.

What seems to work is to end a line by pressing Shift-Return instead of Return.

Note that this will not end the paragraph and allow you to apply a different paragraph style to the second line, so depending on your circumstances (e.g. use in Headings), this will not be an optimal solution.

You can, for example, make the next line font size 1 and only insert a single space character. In the following example, I entered a single A character of font size 1 to the next line so it's visible as a black dot:

It's an ugly hack, but it might work for you.


What format and encoding does iPhone save video clips in?

h.264 encoded video, AAC audio. Both standards of MPEG 4.


How to insert a section break in a Pages '09 Page Layout document?

You can't!
You can't insert a section break in a layout document because layout documents don't have sections; each page it its own section. See Creating Sections:

In a page layout document, each page is one section. You can use the predefined sections as they are, or you can modify or remove them one page at a time.


For me, Hazel works best when I'm using it in conjunction with other tools. On its own, in can seem a little lackluster or underwhelming, but when combined with other applications or used as the 'glue' between them it really shines.

One of my uses is to automatically organize PDFs of schedules from work. I've got a Dropbox account, and make use of Send to Dropbox to allow me to email attachments straight into my Dropbox. The issue is that they're not always consistently named, and I don't feel like manually renaming them. I have Hazel watch the destination folder, and when a PDF arrives, whether its named 7.30, 7/30, 07-30, etc, it automatically renames it, moves it to folder with other already acted on files, and archives away old versions. The result is that I have a nice archive of schedules, all consistently named/sorted.
I use Hazel to help out with video encoding/tagging tasks. After encoding a file, Hazel picks up on it in the destination directory, and automatically renames it based on a consistent naming scheme. Once it does this, it applies a label to the file, and moves it to a new folder where files awaiting metadata live. Any file here gets passed through an automator script that adds some basic metadata (show type, year, etc) before passing it into iFlicks for the final touches before throwing it into iTunes.
It also handles more mundane tasks. Some trackers list .torrent files with a .txt extension. Hazel will monitor the downloads folder, and if a file with a .txt extension shows up, it checks the file's "Where from" attribute, and if it matches a trackers website, it changes the extension to .torrent and moves the file into my Torrents directory so that Transmission can add it.
There are times when I don't need to see my Bootcamp volumes mounted on the desktop. Hazel can check for this volume, and it if sees it mounted, it'll run a shell script to unmount it.


Is it possible to select Terminal output by using keyboard keys?

The terminal multiplexing program tmux has configurable keyboard commands for selecting text for the purpose of copying and pasting.  tmux is a very powerful addition to any terminal.  It has a high learning curve, but if all you want to do is copy and paste you can learn how in a matter of moments and it will stay completely out of your way until you are ready to take the next step.  tmux can be installed directly, or using a package manager such as Macports or Homebrew.


Is there a good replacement for the Dock?

HyperDock gives you window previews for each running app in the dock, which helps tremendously.


Home wi-fi network will periodically crash when MBP is connected to wi-fi; everything is fine on ethernet

I've never used the AmpliFi system personally, however it does seem to be unreliable especially when compared to the UniFi product range. There seem to be a lot of people who've tried AmpliFi, had problems, then switched to UniFi and been very happy.

Also personally having used UniFi at four separate installations over several years I have never encountered any problems of any kind at all. UniFi just works perfectly and forever.

It does take a bit more effort to setup, but not that much. Certainly easier than troubleshooting the issue you're experiencing now, and it should then operate for the next decade without being touched.

UniFi uses a wired backhaul instead of a wireless one which frees up radio spectrum and reduces latency. It's also cheaper. Yay.

Without knowing the size or layout of your house, it's difficult to recommend which UniFi products you should go for. Generally though the short range ones are better if you're going with a "mesh" setup. In fact it's often recommended to configure them to operate at the lowest possible power level to prevent devices connecting to the wrong hotspot.

For about half of the installations I've done though, a single access point has been more than enough, so I'd start with just one.

UniFi lacks advanced features such as firewalls/etc. If you need that, get an EdgeRouter X. If you don't need it, you should be able to just plug the UniFi AP's into your cable modem.


Keyboard must be press hard on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)

Check that Slow Keys isn't enabled in System Preferences > Accessibility > Keyboard.


Why am I seeing captive portal requests on my home network?

The page has now been corrected, which should mean that the popup no longer occurs.


Can I share my Google Photos to Instagram using my iPhone?

From Google's support document for sharing photos and videos from Google Photos:

Open the Google Photos app.
Tap the photo, album, or movie to share.
Tap the Share button (bottom-left).

From there, to save to your device, tap Save Image on the middle row.
To upload to Instagram, tap More (bottom-right button) and Instagram should appear as an option in the second row of icons up from the bottom. (If it doesn't, scroll that row all the way to the right, then tap More, and tap the button across from Instagram to turn it on. Tap Done at the top, then tap Instagram.)


How to avoid external displays limit in iMac 4K?

Yes, you can enable a 3 display config in roughly three ways:

1) Using an eGPU. This is a real, full powered external GPU connected to the iMac over the relatively fast Thunderbolt 3 bus. You can buy different eGPUs at various speeds, but will generally enable you to do everything on your third monitor that you can do on the first two.

This is how an eGPU is used: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208544

An example of an eGPU where you bring your own GPU (299$): https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-core-x

Another example with pre-installed GPU (399$): https://www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx-breakaway-puck.html

2) Using a DisplayLink adapter. This is essentially a kind of "light weight" external GPU that is connected to the iMac over a relatively slow USB device - enabling an extra display suitable for "light weight" jobs. I.e. it is going to be just fine when working with Excel, but if you're going to be playing 3D games, it's probably going to be overworked. Note that there seem to be some complaints about driver instability or upgrade problems, so it might not be a perfect solution.

You can find a list of DisplayLink products here: https://www.displaylink.com/products

An example of a product: https://www.startech.com/uk/Cards-Adapters/Laptop-docking-stations/usb-3-docking-station~DK30A2DH

Another example product: https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-usb-c-a-universal-dock-g2

Note that not all of these are necessarily compatible with your Mac.

3) Using an external computer to control a third display communicating with it over either WiFi or wired ethernet. This can be everything from an iPad connected with Sidecar to a complete computer running various remoting software.

The three options are listed in order according to performance. However, note also that the eGPU is usually the most expensive option (if you consider option 3 as using spare hardware that you have lying around anyways).


Does using a hotspot while connected to wifi use cellular data?

You cannot use your Wi-Fi connection for Internet connectivity while other devices are using Wi-Fi for Personal Hotspot. You can share only a cellular data connection; you cannot share a Wi-Fi connection.

As seen here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4517


Does MAMP installation create conflicts with standalone MySql?

I wouldn't anticipate any problems.  I've seen those configurations work just fine.  The only concern I see is that the built in versions of the software get updated automatically by Apple, and the versions you installed will not.  However, Apples updates include the latest fixes more slowly, so if you are diligent in installing them, yours will be up to date a little sooner.  If you are not, the Apple versions are easier to keep updated as the updates are almost completely automatic.


I've upgraded to Yosemite. Now my Screensaver is goofy!

Try to delete the preference files:

/Users/[home folder]/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.screensaver*.plist

Open a Finder window, and then open the Go menu. When displayed press the ⌥ key and appears an option called Library. Go to this option and your finder must be on Library folder. Then open Preferences, then ByHost and delete files starting with com.apple.screensaver and extension plist.

Then restart.


Check out Pulseway.  Very versatile and supports basically everything.


How do I get VMware Fusion to use the native screen resolution within a scaled OSX desktop?

From here:

Install the VMware Tools by selecting Virtual Machine → Install VMware Tools in the menubar. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Set Use full resolution for Retina display in VMware Fusion’s Settings → Display preferences panel.
Run this command in Terminal on your OS X guest VM and enter your password when requested: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true
Log out of your OS X guest VM and then re-login.
Resize your OS X guest VM window to your preferred dimensions.
In System Preferences → Displays, set the resolution to Scaled and then select the HiDPI setting.

Note: If you resize your guest VM, it will revert to the non-HiDPI resolution. Simply re-select the HiDPI resolution in the System Preferences → Displays preferences panel.


Can I boot OS X or Windows Boot Camp from an external USB Type-C drive?

Considering the just announced new MacBook isn't yet generally available there are very few people, if any, that can say they've actually connected a LaCie USB-C (USB 3.0) external drive to the just announced new MacBook and booted either OS X or Windows from the external drive.  That said, I'd be very shocked if one was not able to boot any OS that supports booting from an external USB device while connected to the just announced new MacBook that isn't yet generally available.  Especially considering the just announced new MacBook only has only the USB-C port (and an audio jack) for any type of physical expansion capacity it would be insane that past normal functionality was not capable.


Can the Dock bar reserve it's horizontal space even if window is maximized?

If you try to make a window bigger than the size left by the Dock, by dragging the bottom of a window yourself, you will notice that you can't do it. This is because the Dock already behaves like a Windows Taskbar: you can move windows behind it but not resize windows beyond it.

The problem lies with the tool that you are using to resize the window-it is extending the window more than it should do. Try using a different tool to do the resizing or resize the windows yourself.


Safari not loading pages, other browsers doing fine

By verifying the issue in the Guest user you have identified the issue resides in a system shared resource.
Attempt to reproduce the issue in Safe Mode. If the issue is not reproducible, reboot normally and check if the issues persist. If it does I would encourage you to backup your system and navigate over to the local Library located at /Library. From here you can start troubleshooting by removing files from locations such as:

./StartupItems
./LaunchAgents
./LaunchDaemons
./Internet Plug-ins

Reboot your system and attempt to reproduce after each change. If all else fails you may be looking at an erase and install of your OS and selective migrating your data back on to the drive to avoid migrating the issue over.

Hope this helps!


Apple Watch Screenshot not saving on iPhone

Oddly enough, just waiting has resolved this issue for me.

It seems to have fixed itself.


Why does shift+clicking the icon of a minimized program cause it to open epic slowly?

Just like Cover Flow, it seems to be a “Steve Jobs wanted to use it in a Keynote”-Feature.


There's not really an easy method for this. There's no AppleScript implementation for interactions on iOS, unlike OS X, so if you really want this you're probably going to have to make it happen yourself with your own custom app.

Even with your own app, there's no easy way of doing interaction.

  On Cocoa Senior (also known as "the Mac") we have methods like the gargantuan:

mouseEventWithType:location:modifierFlags:timestamp:
  windowNumber:context:eventNumber:clickCount:pressure:

  to generate events.

  Cocoa Junior on the iPhone doesn't have any methods like this, so we must work out how to achieve it ourselves.

This is outside the scope of this site, but see the following site for more information:

http://www.cocoawithlove.com/2008/10/synthesizing-touch-event-on-iphone.html


How do I control the Play/Stop button for a website (e.g., YouTube) in my external monitor while not having to move my mouse out of my main screen?

In the Mission Control Preferences, select the option "Displays have separate Spaces".

If you have a YouTube video playing in either Google Chrome or Safari, these code snippets will play or pause a YouTube video in either your main or secondary monitor, whether or not Google Chrome or Safari is active and visible, and whether or not the tabs are active tabs or not

Google Chrome:

to clickClassName(theClassName, elementnum)
    tell application "Google Chrome" to (tabs of window 1 whose URL contains "youtube")
    set youtubeTabs to item 1 of the result
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        execute youtubeTabs javascript "document.getElementsByClassName('" & theClassName & "')[" & elementnum & "].click();"
    end tell
end clickClassName

clickClassName("ytp-play-button ytp-button", 0)

--clickClassName("ytp-prev-button ytp-button", 0)
--clickClassName("ytp-next-button ytp-button", 0)

Safari

to clickClassName2(theClassName, elementnum)
    if application "Safari" is running then
        try
            tell application "Safari"
                tell window 1 to set current tab to tab 1 whose URL contains "youtube"
                do JavaScript "document.getElementsByClassName('" & theClassName & "')[" & elementnum & "].click();" in document 1
            end tell
        end try
    end if
end clickClassName2

clickClassName2("ytp-play-button ytp-button", 0)

--clickClassName("ytp-prev-button ytp-button", 0)
--clickClassName("ytp-next-button ytp-button", 0)

In Automator app, create a new document and choose "Service" as the type. Add a "Run AppleScript" action to the workflow.  and insert the AppleScript code

Save your new Automator service and name it something like... "Pause YouTube Chrome"

After this, simply go to your keyboard shortcut preferences and assign your new service a keyboard shortcut.

Follow that entire procedure two times.  One for Google Chrome and one for Safari.

Now you should be able to play or pause YouTube videos in Chrome or Safari, available through a keyboard shortcut or the "Services" menu.


Can a child post an app to the app store?

The Apple discussions thread can i be an apple developer under 18? is exactly what your are looking for :

  No. An adult would have to do that for you. To have a developer
  account you must be 18 or older.

…

  You can always start a corporation and the individual age restriction
  is not relevant anymore.


Regain access to Apple ID protected by 2-step verification after losing access to trusted device

You can take the following approach one-by-one:

If you have lost access to the phone number associated with your Apple ID for 2-step verification, you can regain access to your account as long as you remember the password and you happen to have access to your account Recovery key.

You'll need to visit Apple ID account page, enter your Apple ID and password, and on Verify Your Identity screen, you'll need to select Can’t access your trusted devices? You'll be asked to enter your Recovery Key.

For detailed instructions, you can refer Apple Support article, If you can‘t sign in with two-step verification using your Apple ID.
If you do not have the your account Recovery Key, your second resort will be to contact Apple Support. You can find the contact information for your region, by referring to this Apple Support document, Contact Apple for help with Apple ID account security.


Display Entire Album Art Lock Screen iOS 11

No definitely not with out a jailbreak.  There are several reddit threads about this.


What is the best solution for a free partition recovery?

Data Rescue from ProSoft* works, it has a trial and no-cost limited-recovery options. You won't get the whole volume recovered by freeware.

It is unlikely you will get everything back, and if you are still using that drive your recovery percent goes down every hour as files get overwritten. Also unlikely you will get filenames back, just a great big folder of "Recovered File 000238.txt"

Of course you need a different drive to recover things to - no sane recovery program touches the original volume.

Just for comparison, if you want to let the pros at DriveSavers handle the recovery the bill will start at $1000.

prosofteng.com, NOT datarescue.com


Mirroring iPhone 6s to MacBook Pro without Airplay

After doing a bit of searching, I came up with Mirroring Assist. Seems like a good app to use in your case.

It depends on Mirroring360 software installed on the Mac/PC (7 days trial, full-featured) or an Apple TV.


Can Find My iPhone still locate a device if it is restored with DFU mode?

You can't locate the device with an active Activation Lock.

Any restored device can't be located with Find My iPhone:

If I remote wipe my iPhone, can I still locate it remotely?


iOS 7 iPad Gmail prevent photo downsizing

The Gmail.app does not support this feature and resizes the image automatically.
There is currently no way you can prevent this from happening.

You might be able to send feedback to Google about this, but as workaround you can use the native Mail.app provided on a clean install of any iOS version - since you pointed out that's giving you the right options.


Will the Airport Extreme card from the 2006 Mac Pro work in the 2008 Mac Pro?

Yes it will! Just tried it with success!

My largest indicator that it would work was by reviewing high reputation eBay sellers who where selling similar cards and claiming a wide range of Mac Pros.

Successfully transfered the Airport Extreme Card from the Mac Pro 2006 in to a Mac Pro 2008

I have the following Airport Extreme Card that identifies itself in System Information as :

Card Type:         AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x8C)
Firmware Version:  Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.11)

The card as pictured is:

Installation Note:  There were 3 wires to choose from inside the Mac Pro (Both models), labeled 1,2,3.  The longest one I thought was for the Bluetooth module, clearly not the case in the Mac Pro 2008. Anyways, I connected the shortest wire to the top antenna port and the middle length to the lower antenna port on the Airport Extreme Card. Test working great, with this configuration and logic. This is the same logic I used when I initially installed the card in the 2006 Mac Pro as well. Not really sure what the long length cable is for as pictured below.

I would assume this would be for a true 802.11n card since those had 3 antennas in their spec?


Change date in menu bar from "DAY MONTH" to "MONTH DAY"?

Have a look at this page on macyourself.com - it does exactly what you're looking for, it seems.


You should be cautious and skeptical of most services that offer a "factory unlock" in my opinion.

The cellular carriers all maintain a database of phones that when iTunes asks - gets told to factory unlock the devices. Since that database is under their control and they have a business relationship with Apple, any entries that are placed in that database in a fraudulent manner could easily be found and reversed.

Your money spent for the "factory unlock" might work if the sellers have a legitimate business relationship with the carriers and it's more trouble for the carrier to allow some people to bypass their paywall and policies, but my guess is most of these unlocks are shady to illegal and I'm surprised that the carriers don't periodically sweep the database for all active phones that should be carrier locked and are not and send a nasty letter to the owners and re-instate the factory locks.

I'm not one to defend the carriers in general, but I can't see how they would continue to charge $500 or more for an unlocked phone only to allow people to spend $10 to accomplish the same feat. If they're going to roll over for $10 then you'd expect all unlocked phones to sell for that in a short period of time.

So - I'd say - pay the money if you are willing to risk it failing, but going into that transaction with your eyes open might be prudent.


Yosemite: Quick Look previews are transparent

Instead of rebooting, you can simply enter "killall quicklookd" in Terminal.
That fixed it.


Have a Mac mini hooked up to two screens, but can't rotate one, only both of them

Connect only one display(the one to rotate) rotate it as desired then connect the other ! takes me time to figure that as well !!!


How to trigger lid close action programmatically?

There is no Apple supported programming interface to simulate the lid being closed.

You can put your Mac to sleep using this command line:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'


Look in System Preferences -> Energy Saver. You may need an admin password to change settings.


Time Machine - move backup from local disk to network volume. Wrong case sensitivity?

I ran into the same issues when following advice similar to the OP, specifically, to use Time Machine to start the backup to create a new sparse bundle on the network share, stop the back and copy Backups.backupdb to the newly created sparse bundle.

My solution is to mimic what Time Machine does to create the new sparse bundle with only one difference:  format with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", which is not case sensitive.  The major benefit to this solution, in addition to preserving old backups, is that this maintains all of Time Machine's expectations of a network share backup disk, and thus, hourly auto backups, etc. will work seamlessly without other scripts or workarounds.

I've kept details and notes for myself in the "Migration from External HDD to Samba" section at:  https://gist.github.com/martian111/e0d9885004eb56fd6abf3d1ba7671737, but the TL;DR steps relevant to solving this question are (starting at where the OP left off when he/she encountered the error):

If necessary, stop Time Machine backup and disable until migration is complete.
Create a new sparse bundle using "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as the format and the same naming conventions as the unusable, case-sensitive sparse bundle created by Time Machine.
Use distutil to enableOwnership on the "Time Machine Backups" volume (after mounting the created sparse bundle).  (Ref: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/53243/174505)
In the Finder, move/copy the Backups.backupdb directory to the new volume after confirming ownership is enabled.  The Finder should prompt for admin privileges.
Unmount "Time Machine Backups" volume
Copy com.apple.TimeMachine.* metadata files from the sparsebundle directory created by Time Machine into the sparsebundle created above.
Delete the unusable, Time Machine created sparsebundle, and replace it with the one created here (changing the sparsebundle directory name).
Re-enable Time Machine's "Back Up Automatically".

Once the above is done, the next Time Machine backup should recognize the sparse bundle created and continue where the last backup left off.  Also, all historical backups are browsable when entering Time Machine.

Note: My Mac's root volume is also not case-sensitive, so I assume this is safe for my setup.

Note 2: My Time Machine network share is a Samba/SMB share running in Linux.  The disks hosting the SMB share are encrypted with LUKS, and thus, I do not use Time Machine's encrypted backup feature.


how to stop this bogon host running from my macbook?

A bogon is an illegitimate IP address that falls into a set of IP addresses that have not been officially assigned to an entity by an internet registration institute, such as the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). Bogons arise as a result of a misconfiguration or intentional misuse that fools recipients about its source IP address. The term bogon is used as slang and is derived from the word bogus.
Prevention of bogons.
Many internet service providers (ISP), firewalls and intrusion prevention systems block bogons. This can be accomplished through bogon filtering, or the practice of assigning access control lists (ACL) or Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) blacklists to a device. A list of bogons can be obtained from a variety of sources including HTTP, BGP peering, routing registries and the DNS.
This is not an unusual problem and much has been written about it here, here and here. These are commonly found as the source addresses of DDoS attacks. I don't know enough about them to do more than refer you to these sites. There are ways to prevent these from showing up on your machine.
a Google search on Bogon returns many other sites with helpful information.


Can't log in to Apple Developer to enroll

To join the individual developer program you first buy the entry from the Apple online store at store.apple.com (perhaps in your local country's store if you don't work out of or live in the USA.)

From there, you pay with whatever Apple ID you want since you can choose later to join with that or another Apple ID in the developer portal called iTunes Connect.

You have two sources of support while buying any paid developer account - the first is web and phone sales from http://store.apple.com - you can and should call them and explain your difficulties and they will help you with your purchase. If they can't resolve the issue they may refer you to AppleCare for AppleID issues and/or Apple Developer Support for specific issues on the developer program:

iOS Developer Program: I misspelled my address, and now I cannot cancel my enrolment and try again
https://developer.apple.com/contact/
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622

As to what's happening, it's hard to guess - but if you don't have an AppleID that works to log into the online store - work that out first and make the purchase. Once you've spent money on the purchase, you will have a very narrow list of things to check/correct with the help of support if needed. If you can't get an Apple ID to work for the initial purchase, that too is pretty easy to sort with Apple's phone or online support. Worst case, ask a second question here with exact URL you are using and details on which URL you can't get logged in to.


Generally, none of them should use it, since it is a bash-related file, and it won't be sourced/loaded if another shell is used.

Be sure to add the following line to a new ~/.bash_profile:

[[ -s "$HOME/.profile" ]] && source "$HOME/.profile" # Loads the default .profile


What are the technical and license restrictions around virtualization for Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion?

Legally, you can only run OS X Server in a virtual machine for 10.5 and 10.6. With Lion, they allowed regular OS X installations to run in up to two virtual machines. VMWare Fusion does support Leopard and Snow Leopard Server virtual machines (but not yet Lion), but I don't know if it will let you use the same installation both booted from disk and in a virtual machine.


How can I safely create a partition to an already bootable drive

Ok, after spending the afternoon looking how to solve this, I found that the easy way was to create a new partition from Windows' side in exFat format. And since the format exFat is modifiable on Mac, unlike NTFS, I can then erase it and then change the format to whichever I want.


How do I disallow screen sharing for Messages?

Not exactly an answer, but reading documentation: Share screens using Messages on Mac I noticed:

You can’t send a message to someone who’s restricted by communication
limits in Screen Time.

And:

Tip: Don’t want someone to send you screen-sharing invitations? When
you receive an invitation from them, hold the pointer over the Decline
button, click the down arrow, then click Block User.

It should be possible to restrict your child (or yourself) with communication limits (Set up communication limits in Screen Time on Mac) and this way disallow screen sharing. Whether cost of doing it is too high is another story.


Permissions for file transfer over target disk mode

I did an almost identical recovery a couple days ago. Heres my answer:

DON'T USE MACOS BUILT IN TRANSFER METHODS

I have found them extremely unreliable, difficult to debug, and unable to resume on failure.

Instead, use rsync!

Connect via Target Disk Mode. Make sure to ignore permissions on the drive.

The following command will recovery everything and preserve metadata including dates, etc.  It works extremely well, is able to resume on failure, and shows progress.

/**
  *
  *  /path/to/source - Path to the disk you want to recovery (or a folder on it if you only want specific things)
  *  /path/to/destination - Path to disk you want the items to be copied to
  *
  */

 rsync -avP /path/to/source /path/to/destination

It will take a while to count files but you will see it counting.

To continue - https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/67539/how-to-rsync-only-new-files


If this is new behavior, blame it on Yosemite, file a report, and update whenever available. I'm on Beta 3 or 4, and am just now occasionally logged out at random. Earlier glitches have been fixed, as will this one.


Is there a way to reorder the Mac Menu Bar?

As explained in the referred question, hold down Command key, press the icon in your menu bar, move it. This works at least in Mountain Lion up to Yosemite. But still this only works for movable items. You can move the Wifi symbol, the Bluetooth symbol, etc. But you cannot move the Twitter or Dropbox symbol.


Does using Sleep with FileVault negate some benefits of FileVault?

If you don't require the password when you wake from sleep, then you are leaving yourself open to someone taking control of your data. That is regardless of FileVault.

If you have password set, then the data is still protected from being viewed in a similar method to it being on a locked file vault volume. You can also set a MDM profile to have the FileVault keys destroyed in RAM when the machine enters sleep, so that's pretty much as good as powering off in my book:

https://help.apple.com/deployment/osx/#/iore5b074158

For anything but a highly motivated and skilled adversary (think NSA or FBI) - the extra security you get by powering down the Mac is hard to estimate or differentiate from a locked screen.

That being said, you should turn on FileVault if you have an SSD since there is no other way to ensure destruction of sensitive data other than destroying the key that decrypts data on the drive. You can then decide to sleep or to power off based on how secure you judge your physical environment and the data you have on your Mac from moment to moment.


Although I can't say for sure, my "gut feeling" is that this is a firewall issue - your router could be blocking ports 3689 and/or 5353.

See also: If the Remote app won't connect


How to close application completely when clicking red button on any app?

You can't close the application by clicking on the red button, as you said it is meant to close the window...

Using cmd-q is not a bypass but the shortcut to close the application. And the windows are not instances of the application, they are in the same instance...

What bothers you is the "resume" functionality that restores the state of an application -- e.g. all open windows -- when you restart it.

Look here or here to see how you can tune or disable this "resume" feature.


When erasing media in Disk Utility, how can I change the default format?

There isn't a setting to change, so you might instead script the diskutil command to do the erase using AppleScript or another scripting language.

diskutil eraseVolume disk12345

The eraseVolume command just wipes the volume and recreates an empty filesystem to match what was there. You could build a little window to ask for the volume or perhaps even list all the disks and then tell you to insert the drive to be wiped.

You also might use system_profiler SPCardReaderDataType or the similar SPStorageDataType or SPUSBDataType depending on how the cards you wish to erase are connected to the Mac.


How can I fix things when Catalina will not connect to smb shares?

SOLVED:   Kept working on this and deleted the existing servers from the list on the "Connect to Server" (FINDER, GO, CONNECT TO SERVER) list.  Then browsed for servers and VOILA, CONNECTED!!!!


How to detect if Mac if rebooting after a power failure using terminal?

You can check for the "Shutdown Cause" in the log.

5 is a normal shutdown
3 is pressing the power button
0 is loss of power

In El Capitan and earlier:

cat /var/log/system.log | grep -i "shutdown cause"

In Sierra and newer:

log show --predicate "process == kernel" | grep -i "shutdown cause"

Or....just using awk to get the code:

log show --predicate "process == kernel" | awk '/shutdown cause/ {print $12}'

In Mojave and Catalina, you can issue the command to get a more fine grained approach to the log:

log show --predicate '(process = "kernel") && (eventMessage CONTAINS "shutdown cause")' --last 48h --style compact

This will process only the last 48 hours and output in a nice "compact" layout.


Can I disable the iPad's "helpful" password/number shadowing?

There is no way to stop the 'last key ghosting' that you mention, it's baked into the OS and not controlled by a setting anywhere.  A jailbroken phone may have possibilities if you are happy with hacks etc, but I don't think you are interested in that route (correct me if wrong).

What you can do is tweak the passcode requirements in ways that may reduce the number of times you need to enter your passcode.  By default, when you lock your screen (or when it times out and does it itself) you need to re-enter your pin when unlocking.  There is an option in Settings > General > Passcode Lock called Require Passcode with options of Immediately, After 1/5/15 minutes.

This is very useful if you want to quickly unlock after it timed out on you without needing to retype your passcode, and does not require you to turn auto-lock off.

Realise this is only a workaround for half of your problem, but may prove useful regardless.

As for other passwords, you could keep them in a password manager program which allows you to copy the passwords whilst keeping them obscured and paste them into password fields.  I don't have any specific recommendations, but leave it to other answers who may be able to take inspiration from experience with these apps.


Upgrade path for iTunes Connect TestFlight external testers after release to App Store?

The pragmatic way to ensure all testers are off the app is to wait the 30 days for the build to expire and have them manually grab the store version.

You could also upload a new beta build instructing them to do the same. That way they get an email from Apple with the news you want to convey to them and a limited duration to get them all off that build.


Automator shell Script works, except inside dropbox

If any of your files or folders in Dropbox happen to have spaces, your script will not behave as you expect.  You can fix that by adding quotes to the appropriate places like so:

for f in "$@"
do
    /opt/local/bin/pdf2svg "$f" "${f%.*}.svg"
done

If that isn't the source of the problem, please update your question with more specifics as to what the behavior is that you see when you run this script manually from the command line.


Share external FAT formatted drive over SMB in Mountain Lion

You don't have to manually edit a configuration file; it's possible to share drives via SMB using the Sharing control panel. Under the File Sharing service, hit the "Options..." button to enable SMB:

This will make your shared folders accessible via SMB to the specified users. It shouldn't matter what the source filesystem is (FAT, HFS, or other) as long as your Mac can access it.

If you don't see any contents from the client, make sure you've added your drive as a shared folder, and that you've given users the appropriate permissions.


Finder won't remember window size in Yosemite

I don't know any way to change the default window size, but you can use a script like this to reset the properties of windows manually:

tell application "Finder"
    if number of Finder windows is 0 then return
    tell Finder window 1
        set toolbar visible to false
        set sidebar width to 0
        set statusbar visible to false
        set current view to column view
        set bounds to {960, 22, 1920, 1076}
        tell its column view options
            set shows icon to false
        end tell
    end tell
end tell


Remove it from the iCould via Web Browswer

You'll have to log into icloud.com with the AppleID that the phone is locked to.

Click on Find iPhone.  It will bring up a Map and try to locate all of the devices linked to that AppleID.

Click on All Devices drop down at the top.

Click on the iPhone 4s in question.  It will have the name of the phone (for example - Users iPhone)

Click Remove from Account

Next time you reset the device it will no longer be linked to that Apple ID.

Remove it from iCloud on the Phone

If you can still get into the phone. Follow these Steps:

Open the Settings App
Touch iCloud
Touch Find My iPhone
Turn Find My iPhone to Off Position
Enter the password of the iCloud account
***Note - these steps might be slightly different depending on iOS version

Next time you reset the device it will no longer be linked to that AppleID.

Just FYI iCloud account and AppleID are synonymous these days.


Trackpad interaction without touching it since spilling water

The basic working of a trackpad is when a charged object such as a the human finger interacts with it. In case of a water spill, I assume you have wiped and cleaned it but still some amount of moisture has managed to slip into the trackpad and when it gets charged it starts interacting with it. I would suggest to take it to a repair shop, or if you still want to test it you can connect the external trackpad and check as that should work fine.


How to unblock extensions in Safari so I can install adblock?

Make sure Safari has Extensions turned on by going to Safari > Preferences > Extensions and slide the On/Off switch to On.


OS X 10.11 CardDAV with self-signed certificate

According to the Security Enhancements section of the OS X 10.11 pre-release notes on Apple's Developer web site

App Transport Security (ATS)
App Transport Security (ATS) enforces best practices in the secure connections between an app and its back end. ATS prevents accidental disclosure, provides secure default behavior, and is easy to adopt; it is also on by default in OS X v10.11 and iOS 9. You should adopt ATS as soon as possible, regardless of whether you’re creating a new app or updating an existing one.
If you’re developing a new app, you should use HTTPS exclusively. If you have an existing app, you should use HTTPS as much as you can right now, and create a plan for migrating the rest of your app as soon as possible. In addition, your communication through higher-level APIs needs to be encrypted using TLS version 1.2 with forward secrecy. If you try to make a connection that doesn't follow this requirement, an error is thrown. If your app needs to make a request to an insecure domain, you have to specify this domain in your app's Info.plist file.


I utilize Dragon Dictate exclusively on my MacBook pro and holding out to upgrade to Mojave for this reason (using HighSierra). However, regarding a different program to utilize please take a look at Talon. It actually uses features of Dragon to execute its voice commands. It is my understanding that it will work with Mojave.
https://talonvoice.com/
5/21/21 - update, for those following this thread; I did update to Mojave and fortunately Dragon continues to work with my OS.


How do I completely disable AirDrop on iOS?

While you can turn off incoming AirDrop, you can't disable sharing items over AirDrop to others on device. Most of the time, AirDrop recipients will be limited to the single AirDrop button (which can't be un-favourited from the ‘Apps’ share list), but if someone in your contacts is nearby with AirDrop turned on, they will likely show in the contacts section of the share sheet. This can't be configured on your device.
Configuration profiles can configure AirDrop access only on supervised devices.
If your device is supervised with Apple Configurator, you can install disable-airdrop.mobileconfig.
…
            <key>PayloadType</key>
            <string>com.apple.applicationaccess</string>
            <key>allowAirDrop</key>
            <false/>
…


Is it possible to generate or update a recovery parition

In my experience, there is never an "option" to create a Recovery Partition. I've done a number of clean installs from DiskMaker USBs and each of them automagically resulted in recovery partitions being created during the installation process. For me, the typical upgrade process is to either wipe the existing drive or install a new one, use a DiskMaker X-created USB to install the version of OS X desired and then import the required apps, data and user profiles from Time Machine.

This has worked flawlessly with Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks on a variety of systems.

Internet Recovery always installs the version of OS X that was originally shipped with the product. Local Recovery will reinstall the OS X version that was used to create the recovery partition. A typical scenario would be to take a virgin disk installed in a system, boot to a Mavericks USB installer, use Disk Utility to create the install partition and then start the installation process. The OS X installer will resize the partition you created automagically and create the recovery partition. A reinstall from Local Recovery would feature Mavericks in this case.

I understand that you're seeing something different, but I have yet to see an install with Lion or newer that was missing its Recovery Partition when the install was done on a wiped or new HDD. A system with a series of in-place upgrades will miss out on the Recovery Partition, e.g., Snow Leopard to Lion to Mountain Lion, but that does not appear to be the scenario you're discussing.


How long does Apple provide support for Mac OS X?

Apple don't provide any end of life information unfortunately, and you're correct that they only support the current and previous versions, although they do still release security patches for the one before that from time to time for another release cycle after this.

So you'll get up to 3 years out of an OS release, and that usually an Apple computer will be supported by new OS releases for around the same time.


Using disk utility to expand an already existing partition MAC OS 10.15

The answer is no. This answer assumes the partitions are in chronological order. This is one of the problems which was solved by APFS. With APFS, more than one APFS volume can reside in a partition and the volumes can share the space.
In your case, you would need to shrink the a partition by 100 GB. There a tools provided by Apple or third parties that can shrink the volume(s) stored in a partition. The partition can then be set to a smaller size, thus creating free space below the partition. However, adding the free space to the next partition usually requires first moving the partition up by 100 GB. This can not be done by using the Disk Utility. Once the partition is relocated, then depending on the volume format either the Disk Utility or a third party tool may be able to enlarge the partition and containing volumes(s) to contain the free space.
Before attempting to move a partition, a backup of the partition should be made. However, once a backup is made, generally moving the partition becomes unnecessary. An alternative would be to delete the partition and created a new partition of the required size, then reloading the partition from the backup.