How to get tmutil compare to show results deeper than root directory

This tool is designed to operate on the entire backup set. Rather than try to bend it to your will, may I suggest a tool that does precisely what you seek, does it fast and in the background and can even help you track changed files when your backup drive is not mounted.

https://www.soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/

The loupe tool works best for me when I track deleted files, so once you get a couple of your recent backups scanned, you can explore what’s changing hour by hour or day by day. There’s no need to let it run over dozens of backups for you to get a feeling if it will work well for the question you pose here. Long term, you’ll want to decide if you let it index in the background and keep the indexes always up to date or launch it only when you want deep scans and then let it run to get your analysis up to date.

Due to the limitations of tmutil compare this tool implements their own scanner since as you point out, the main tool is good to know the entire change load and not focus on specific parts.


cd containing_folder
mv */* .

or, if you want to get rid of the empty folders afterwards

cd containing_folder
mkdir ../foo
mv */* ../foo/
rmdir *
mv ../foo/* .
rmdir ../foo


How can I download the macOS Big Sur installer on a Mac which is already running Big Sur?

You can download the official macOS Big Sur installer from Apple  by using the following steps:

On your Mac, open the Mac App Store app, search for Big Sur and click on the Big Sur app to access the macOS Big Sur app page.
You can also use this link to directly access the macOS Big Sur app on the Mac Appe Store:

https://apps.apple.com/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132

If the App Store app doesn't launch automatically, you can click on the View in Mac App Store button on the above webpage.

Click on the GET button.

Clicking the GET button would automatically open the Software Update preference pane under System Preferences app.

Click on the Download button to download the macOS Big Sur installer.

The Software Update preference pane would start downloading the installer. You can view the download progress here. If you wish to cancel the download, you can do so by clicking on the circular button with a cross shown just ahead of the progress bar.

One the installer is downloaded, the same can be found under the /Applications folder with the name Install macOS Big Sur.app.


It doesn’t do “whole websites” because it would be hard for it to know “how deep” (tho I agree it could be configured in a way of: go down XX levels), but in any case, if your HTML pages contain a full chapter and assuming the books have about 20-30 chapters, is not that “bad”.

With that in mind, I have an inexpensive application that does this job, and it’s called Web Snapper.

  What's so special about Web Snapper?

  Web Snapper is drag and drop simple.
  When you want to grab a page, you drag
  the URL and drop it onto the drop zone
  in Web Snapper (or the app icon in the
  dock) – it really could't be any
  simpler. With the 'Snapper, you can
  save pages as scalable/vector PDFs (we
  even preserve the links!), or in any
  of the image formats that are
  supported by MacOS X. If you want to
  make a multi-page PDF - simply drag
  and drop multiple URLs and then click
  the "Save to Multipage PDF".

It may help you because the price tag is $15.


Can't see install disc for Linux Mint in VirtualBox

From your question it sounds like you are downloading the ISO file and burning it to a CD or DVD. This isn't necessary.

Download the ISO file from the Mint website.

Then within VirtualBox create a new VM entering the various properties like memory size,  hard drive, etc.

Once the VM is created, open up the Settings for the VM, go to the Storage tab and select the Empty CD drive. Click the light CD image on the right hand side and select "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file...". Then locate and select the ISO image you downloaded from the Mint website.

Close the Settings dialog and Start the VM. The installer should load and run to start your install.


Why isn't iPhone syncing Calendar items with Outlook?

The best troubleshooting I have found for this problem is iPhone, iPad, iPod touch: Troubleshooting contact and calendar syncing via USB on Windows(Apple), mainly due to the fact that it explains how to reset sync history in iTunes, a process that reevaluates the contents of both devices and tries to resync them.

Another good little trick is to try a "Replace data on this iPhone" near the bottom of the info tab, that will wipe the specific data set off the iPhone and replace it with the computers, often a good way to get them talking to each other again.


I want to make VLC my default player on Mac OS X 10.10.3

Right click on any movie file you have.

Get Info

At the bottom of that window you will see the current app used to open it.

Change to VLC and use the "Change all"

You need to repeat that for all movie files that have different extension.

Normally you would have .fvl, the .mov, and maybe some other formats.


Exchange Calendar sync loops, drains, and fails

I logged in to the webmail (OWA) and there Options -> See All Options -> Phone
Two devices were listed, my old phone and the current. I removed both. Then I restarted the phone and the sync seems to be back in order. The phone hasn't run hot for several hours and both mail and calendar events works fine.

PS. Before this I had also Reset Network Settings. I have no idea if this was part of the solution. DS.


Yes, you can stream audio to a second or third generation Apple TV (the smaller black ones). The first generation ones (larger silver/white plastic box) doesn't support the necessary AirPlay protocol.

On iOS, the app playing the audio needs to be programmed with AirPlay support (the iOS Music app and Safari both support it), but if it is, you should see an AirPlay icon (). Tap it, and you should see a list of possible outputs, including your Apple TV. If you don't see the AirPlay icon, and your Apple TV is on, make sure they're both on the same local network.

On a Mac, iTunes can output to your Apple TV. You should see the AirPlay icon in the lower right corner. If you want to play audio from other apps, you'll need a third party program like Airfoil, which allows you to send any audio your Mac plays to the Apple TV (or any other AirPlay device).

If you have more questions, read Apple's support article, Using Airplay (HT4437).


The apps are not being moved to different desktops, but the desktops are being rearranged. To see the difference, put two apps on a space, then Cmd-Tab to one of the apps.  You will end up in a space that contains both apps, although the space will have been renamed and shuffled in the order.

To stop this,

Open System Preferences
Go into Mission Control
Uncheck Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use


Process completed after opening terminal

To find what was added to your profiles, I ran these commands.

mac $ curl http://data.biostarhandbook.com/install/bash_profile.txt > ~/seebash_profile
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100    89  100    89    0     0    513      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--   514
mac $ curl http://data.biostarhandbook.com/install/bashrc.txt > ~/seebashrc
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   759  100   759    0     0  17574      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 17651
mac $ cat seebash_profile
#
# Source the settings from .bashrc.
#
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
   source ~/.bashrc
fi
mac $ cat seebash_profile
#
# Source the settings from .bashrc.
#
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
   source ~/.bashrc
fi
mac $

You get two copies of these lines in each file. You should get rid of one copy in each file. nano is a simple editor you can use to edit these files.

https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-use-nano-text-editor/


When you are dragging the file, do you see a small green plus sign? If you don't see this, it means that you are going to cut and paste the file, but if you can see the green plus sign it means you are going to duplicate the file into another location. By holding the option key, you can force duplication, and you can see the green plus sign appears.


Convert iPhone 4 30-pin connector to iPhone 5 Lightning connector

Apple sells a Lightning to 30-pin adapter.

If you're okay with 3rd-party solution, 30-pin female to Lightning adapter  could be closer to what you need, but there could be compatibility issues.

The kit includes this:

to which you can add Lightning 1m-extension cable which should get you from Lightning to 30-pin.

As far as I can see there is no single cable that does what you want.


Have you tried mounting the volumes and then adding them to their LogIn items?
I have my iTunes library on my Synology and use that to get the volume mounted every time I restart (which is only for system updates that need restarting.)


Is it possible to use TotalTerminal with Go2Shell?

Open TotalTerminal settings (Terminal → Preferences → TotalTerminal).
Create the Visor profile if it doesn't exist already:

Go to the settings tab, then the Visor profile.
Select the Shell tab, and enter the following:

cd "$(osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to POSIX path of (insertion location as alias)')"

Quit and re-open Terminal.

Now, when opening Visor, it will cd to the directory in the current Finder window.


Any email you have stored on your Mac from your Mail app is located in your user account's library folder. More specifically, in macOS Sierra you can access your mail data as follows:

Make sure you're in the Finder
Press and hold the option key
Click on the Go menu and select Library
Your user account's Library folder will open (you can now let go of the option key)
Within this folder is located a Mail folder. This contains any Mail data actually stored on your Mac.

Now, assuming you have Time Machine backups, all of this should already be backed up. However, if you don't, then you could copy this Mail folder onto a couple of USB drives for safe keeping until you sort out your Mail app issue.

NOTE: It's not clear from your question how you upgraded to macOS Sierra, nor what type of email account you have. As a result, we cannot advise how much data, if any, you have in your Mail folder.


I have also run into this problem, so far with no solution. There is however a workaround, from the question linked in the comments, which helps.

cmd-ctrl-space (⌘^␣) will bring up a quick emoji picker. There is an icon at the top right (circled in red) that will switch you to the system character viewer.

Once you have switched to the character viewer, you can navigate and insert characters as you normally would, just as if you had opened it from the input sources menu. Happily, once you have switched from the emoji picker to the character viewer the system will remember this choice, so the next time you hit ⌘^␣ you will get the full character viewer instead of the emoji picker.

It doesn't address the missing input sources menu, but for the specific task of adding non-standard characters I find it to actually be faster.

If you happen to know the code points you can also enable the 'Unicode hex input' input source. You can't switch the via the input sources menu, but you can use ctrl-space (^␣) to switch between enabled input sources. With the unicode hex input source enabled, opt-xxxx where xxxx is the code point number will insert a character.


Catalina: Login Screen Freezes After Password Entry

Not really a good answer. In the end I had to nuke the entire disk and reinstall from the recovery partition.

I'll stay with linux going forward.


Gmail tab in Safari Consumes high band width

I have a similar problem. Last month, on one particular day, 80GB was downloaded (and another day, almost 40GB). This was definitely not something I was downloading - I don't even have 40GB of spare disk on any computer at home!

After resetting router passwords (in case someone was hacking my wifi), and monitoring all my home computers, I also narrowed it down to gmail, but only on my wife's and daughters accounts. One particular email from Pintrest caused 1GB to download in a few minutes before I switched tabs and it stopped. I reopened the email, but it didn't happen a second time. Also forwarded the email to my account but the problem didn't reoccur, so I'm not sure it was related to that particular email.

It's happened about 3 times in the last month, every time in Safari (I think, but I'm not 100% sure).

Has anyone else seen this, or does anyone have any ideas as to its cause?

(All my home computers are Macs, with the latest updates applied.)


You should be able to find the appropriate drivers on http://support.apple.com/downloads/#bootcamp.


Can't add custom keyboard layout in System preferences

I have no problem installing and using your .bundle once the .icns file is removed.  I think there is something wrong with it.

Here is a new .icns file which I think will fix the problem.  Let us know.


Slow-mo video is not slow motion after uploading to Google Drive

Slow-mo videos are videos recorded in a higher framerate. To make them slower, Photos plays them back at a lower framerate. This is nothing to do with the file and everything to do with the playback of the file. When you upload the file elsewhere, it's still in a higher framerate, but you're playing it back at this higher framerate. If you want to watch it slower, use Photos to adjust the playback speed.


How to block certain IP/MAC Address that access your WiFi Network ?

On your airport extreme you can block certain mac address for good with "No Access".

In your airports configuration go to the "Network" tab and check "Enable Access Control", then click on "Timed Access Control".

Then on the top add the mac address you want to prohibit and give it a description.  Towards the bottom, On the "Wireless Access Time" drop down select "No Access" and save.

Confirmed this works on a 5th generation airport running version 7.6.4


getting `pip` to use `python3` instead of macOS-supplied python2?

There is no way to overwrite the existing System python(s) with newer versions. (Catalina comes with a version of python3.)

The command pip3 will specify that you want to install modules to python3.

python2 will of course continue to work after 1st Jan, and many people still have lots of scripts that they will continue to run.


Some older Macs only support two finger scrolling on the trackpad, not three. Since you're not seeing a setting for three finger drag, I'd guess your hardware just doesn't support it.

Are you able to do other gestures that require more than two fingers? If not, it's probably a hardware limitation, and you could just get a Magic Trackpad.


Is there an iPad/iPhone app that can handle editing large (~10000 line) text files?

If adding to the front of a file is OK then I use Drafts for this.

It allows you to type some text and have it added to the front ("prepended") of a file in Dropbox. It can even automatically add the date.

I'm not sure if it has a limit to the length of the file, mine are only a hundred or so lines.

Drafts allows you to type some test and quickly perform any number of actions with it. One of my highly recommended iOS applications.


You are unable to log in to the user account “user_name” at this time

It was Little Snitch :-(
I found the solution here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4676595?start=0&tstart=0
First I put LS into silent mode, allowing all connections, but did not help. Then I disabled it completely and login worked.
Then at the new user login it reported that there were connections attempts during logon, I examined these, set them to permanent enabled LS and it works fine.
Here are the rules appearing on the net logon account:
NethAuthSysAgent allow outgoing connection to domain domainname (where the domain name is the domain you are logging into)
NethAuthSysAgent allow outgoing connection to ipaddress (where the ipaddress is the address of your OS X server, hosting the OD I guess)
opendirectoryd allow outgoing connection to ipaddress (where the ipaddress is the address of your OS X server, hosting the OD I guess)
I hope this helps some one out there


How can I remove the "downloaded from the internet" security from all files in a directory?

You can get around this a few ways.

1. Easiest and Most Recommended: Select the file in Finder, right/control-click on the file and choose “Open”. You will be asked if you want to open the file, even if it is from an unknown developer.

2. Slightly More Complicated, but Sometimes Preferable: If you are not afraid of Terminal.app (found in the /Applications/Utilities folder of Finder), you can remove the “Quarantine” attribute using this command:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/folder

For example, if all of the files are in ~/Downloads/ then you would use:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/

or

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine "$HOME/Downloads/"

Type man xattr into Terminal.app for more information about the xattr command, but the short version is that -r means “recursive” and -d means “delete the following attribute”.


Creating mountable snapshot view in macOS

Yes, it is definitely possible to view an APFS snapshot as a "set of files" - i.e. a file system. This is done simply by mounting the snapshot - exactly like you would do with LVM on Linux.

The syntax is:

  mount_apfs -s <snapshot name> <mounted base volume> <mount folder>

So for example create a snapshot with:

  tmutil snapshot /

It will say that the new snapshot is named for example: 2019-01-01-180510.

Then later you can create a folder "MyBackup" and mount the snapshot like this:

  mount_apfs -s com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-01-01-180510 / MyBackup

If you then browse MyBackup you'll see the files like they were at the time the snapshot was taken.

Note: You don't have to use snapshots created by TimeMachine. Any APFS snapshots will be mountable with the same command.


iPhone on my account, but activation locked to another account

It seems that the official Apple line on this is that they only provide support if you have the device's original receipt, end of story. They don't want to admit fault for this issue. Worst part is, they should be able to tell when their database has two duplicate Find My iPhone records for the same device.


See this support article for how to encrypt your startup disk.


Getting Bluetooth on Windows 10 Virtual Machine (Guest) - VirtualBox / Disabling Bluetooth Daemon

The problem with this, is that the host (your Mac) needs to completely release the Bluetooth adapter so that VBox can take “ownership” of it.

To see what’s loaded issue the command.

kextstatus | grep -i bluet

All of those kexts need to be unloaded.  The problem is, macOS will respawn the processes automatically.

There’s a couple options you can try:

use a seperate USB Bluetooth adapter
Use a different host OS (FreeBSD can do this) that will allow you to manually load/unload support dor different divices.

macOS, especially with all of the new protections implemented in Catalina won’t allow you to do this.


how to revert default Mac Apache install to original

Has another Apache been installed? From a terminal (Applications-> Utilities-> Terminal.app) try:

ps ax | grep httpd

You should see something like the following if your local web sharing is enabled:

25829   ??  Ss     0:00.04 /usr/sbin/httpd -D FOREGROUND -D WEBSHARING_ON
25831   ??  S      0:00.00 /usr/sbin/httpd -D FOREGROUND -D WEBSHARING_ON

Then try

ps ax | grep apache

This should return nothing if you are using the default install, but might if another server was installed.
If apache is running from anything other than /usr/sbin, then you may want to investigate your PATH environment variable in case it has been altered.
You could also try using the default httpd.conf file supplied by Apple (in case yours has been edited).

Make a backup of the current one

sudo cp /etc/apache2/httpd.conf /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.bak

Copy the 'original' httpd.conf file

sudo cp /etc/apache2/original/httpd.conf /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Restart the web server

sudo apachectl restart

On a side note.. If you are or will be doing any long term web development, I would advise installing apache2, php, mysql, etc from MacPorts or Homebrew. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but it's easy when you get the hang of it and you will benefit over the long haul. Example port commands:
Search for applications to install

port search apache2

Install apache2

sudo port install apache2 (currently version 2.2.22)

Uninstall apache2

sudo port uninstall apache2

Upgrade..

sudo port upgrade apache2

Also, MacPorts installs everything into the /opt/ directory (I think Homebrew does as well), so you can always just delete the entire directory if you do not want them anymore. Again, if you do not mind digging in the trenches a bit and can be patient while your computer compiles these apps from source code (this can be lengthy), it will be worth your while.


The NTFS drivers provided by Seagate are OEM versions of Paragon's NTFS for Mac 14/15.

They share the same code base but work with Seagate's external (and probably internal, if you replaced the original Apple HDD - not tested) drives only.

By buying an external Seagate drive you already paid for it in the price category of dimes.


Step 1: Download the most recent Cirrus Logic drivers from the Cirrus Logic page. The CS4207 driver is actually more appropriately named "CS42**" driver.

--> go to this page: Here

--> click the "Resources" tab

--> in the "Resources" tab, under the "Tools & Software" heading, select the appropriate driver ZIP file for your particular configuration. Since I am operating in Windows 7 64 bit, I chose the "CS4207 Windows Vista (32/64-bit) and Windows 7 (32/64-bit) Driver, 8/2010, v6.6001.1.26 : 100 KB"

--> download the file to your desktop

--> create a folder on your desktop called CS4207 Drivers (the name doesn't actually matter)

--> move the downloaded ZIP file to this new folder

--> expand the ZIP file within this new folder

Step 2. Go to Control Panel, Device Manager.

Step 3. In Device Manager, open up the "Sound, vide and game controllers" sub menu.

Step 4. If you're like me, you had 4 NVIDIA High Definition Audio entries, and one Cirrus or Intel entry. Click on the Cirrus or Intel entry for the Sound controller. Uninstall the driver and, if it gives you the option to delete the driver files used, do so.

Step 5: Go back to Device Manager, and select "Scan for hardware changes" from the right click dropdown menu.

Step 6. Let your system automatically install whatever driver it wants.

Step 7. Select that new driver entry in Device Manager; right click the entry to update the driver; choose the Browse option, then the Let Me Pick option; and then select the new folder on your desktop as the driver location.


nano .bash_profile

Then add:

export PS1=" "

Between those quotation marks, add any of the following between the quotation marks of export PS1=" ":

\d – Current date
\t – Current time
\h – Host name
\# – Command number
\u – User name
\W – Current working directory (ie: Desktop/)
\w – Current working directory with full path (ie: /Users/Admin/Desktop/)

Also you can customize the look and feel of terminal, or restore the defaults in Terminal > Preferences > Profiles

http://osxdaily.com/2006/12/11/how-to-customize-your-terminal-prompt/


Menu bar app for plain text/markdown notes?

I recommend NValt, a fork of Notational Velocity:

http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/

It doesn't work in the menubar, but you can configure a shortcut to show/hide the NV window if you want. It's also got a built in search, kind of like spotlight, which you can use to open notes quickly. Here's a screenshot:

By default it saves the files in a database, but you can also save the notes in a specified directory as plaintext, RTF or HTML files. Or you can synchronize it with Simplenote (but Dropbox will work just as well if you use files/db). Markdown support is not first class, but it works when you save as RTF or HTML.


What does Shift-Command-Space keyboard shortcut do?

On my iMac, running macOS High Sierra, it does nothing. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts tab. This will list all the system defined and custom keyboard shortcuts. If there is something that you want Shift-Command-Space to do, you can define it here.

I just set Shift-Command-Space to Show Launchpad, and it works fine. So it appears that the key combination is currently unassigned.-

The image below shows where I defined Shift-Command-Space:


Why is chrome rendering web pages so bad?

Try disabling all extensions, then quit and restart. If the problem does not occur, reenable extensions one at a time until you discover which one causes the issue. At that point you can report the report the issue to the developer of the extension.


Recovering the ability to install an iOS app from macOS

You must have iTunes 12.7 or later installed on your Mac.

With the release of iTunes 12.7, Apple removed the ability to browse, download or install iOS apps via iTunes for macOS/Windows.

In case you wish to browse App Store on your Mac/Windows PC, you can still download the last version of iTunes with App Store built-in (iTunes 12.6.3) via the Apple Support article, Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes.


Failed Migration Assistant and now missing capacity on drive

The available capacity came back when I rebooted the machine. I should have tried that first. Sorry!


How to connect a detached earbud back to Apple Earphones?

Yes, you can do this but the wires are very fine. I rely on a twisted joint without soldering.

One method to improve this is to use the “pre”glued heatshrink.

Some more info can be found at:

How do you stop headphone wires from breaking?
Possible to cut Heat Shrink tubing lengthwise and reattach?


Customize external HDD spindown timeout?

The Terminal command diskutil eject <disk_identifier> is what you are looking for.
<disk_identifier> can take the UUID of the drive as an argument.
To get the disk identifier of all mounted disks, execute the mount command.
On my Mac, the mount command gives this:
/dev/disk3 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
/dev/disk4s2 on /Volumes/iTunes (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
/dev/disk5s2 on /Volumes/TM_Backup (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled)

To spin down /Volumes/iTunes, I'd execute either one of the commands
diskutil eject /dev/disk4
or
diskutil eject /Volumes/iTunes.
To spin up /Volumes/iTunes, I need to execute the command:
diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk4. mountDisk only works with /dev/disk* disk identifiers.
See man diskutil for more information.


How can I add some SSD goodness to my MBP?

Warranty coverage gets denied if you present your mac for service and it's obvious that damage has been caused that wasn't made in the factory. Adding anything that isn't user replaceable (according to the user manual from Apple) means special tools, special training, and/or limited availability of proper replacement parts. Not being static safe can cause damage to other components, so it's not so much "can you install the hard drive" and more "will you not damage anything else while you're in there".

You'll want to ask the seller if the replacement drive has equivalent temperature sensors and firmware to work with your mac and what their return policy is if you find your mac won't sleep or overheats with a replacement drive added. The risks are very low for DIY repairs if you take your time and can work on things small as eyeglasses screws. But the cost of failure could be a major repair - logic boards are often in the $600 to $800 range. Once you have a unibody back off, that part is exposed. Use care to not disturb the battery - a loose screw between the battery and case is a serious fire hazard.

I find the manuals at ifixit.com to be a great place to see how involved a repair is so I know if it's worth investing in the tools and time to attempt a repair.

Armed with more information, you can decide how much your time is worth and whether you want to pay a professional.

The pros will let you know to bring the mac back so they can put in the original HD for warranty service and they will ensure their work is up to Apple's standards so you don't lose warranty protection.

DIY is an awesome feeling and less expensive when things go well.

As to specifics, there are some great mid price level SSD around and the kits for mounting a SATA drive in place of the optical drive from MCE and OWC look to be equally fabulous items. The new SSD that run at 6Gbps are starting to ship so the "old" models are starting to drop in price. I plan to take advantage of this price drop and grab an SSD myself in the June time frame. Adding about any SSD will add significant snap and more useful life to any 4 year old or less MacBook Pro.


How to change default Memories photo in Apple Photo app

To change, click on the person who you want to modify,  then press "Select" and click on the photo you want to change it to.

Then press the "Share" button and scroll across to where it says "Set Key Face." Press this and that photo will be the main photo for that person.

On iOS 12 - the thumbnail for memories is gone, so perhaps that will happen in Photos on macOS or the web interface to photos so you don't have to mess with curating the hidden attribute of a photo you want out of the "featured" image rotation. Hopefully adding new memories lets those photos you want to see rotate in as the main placeholder, but there's no direct way to choose that today.


How do I prevent my mac's wifi from ever (not just once) seeing a particular wifi network?

What about something even easier? There's a great app for OS X called Concentrate that will block distractions for you for periods of time. In particular it'll block your access to apps when you want to focus so you can stop surfing Ask Different when you should be studying. Have it block Chrome, Safari and Firefox and any other apps you find distracting and you might find that's easier than trying to have WiFi but not have your computer connect to it.


How to access the IR sensor of MacBook Pro Mid 2010 to be able to use non apple remotes

You may want to investigate candlair, or its big brother, Remote Buddy (google them). Candlair I believe only supports apple remotes, but remote buddy should let you configure other types of remotes with relative ease (they have a supported hardware list which is significantly larger than the stock IR port's driver). I've never used it though since my apple remote does everything i need. Good luck!


The only macOS version that can boot from a APFS container is High Sierra. In your case, the Apple_HFS volume does not contain not High Sierra. There is no way to convert to APFS and remain bootable.


On my Macbook Pro, iTunes keeps giving me a "sign in to the iTunes Store" popup (over 50 times).

This is not a complete answer, but it does help.

In Preferences, disable any options that require access to the internet. That includes: General > Grid view download badges and untick General > Automatically retrieve CD track names from the internet; all options in Downloads and Store; and untick Advanced > Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.

After disabling all of these, the number of times the popup appears may fall from dozens and dozens to just 3.


Cocoa-AppleScript as a script or AppleScript application created in Script Editor supports Menu Bar app. This script runs on macOS 10.12 (maybe runs on 10.10.x, 10.11.x). This script can be saved as application.

--AppleScript: menu bar script -- Created 2017-03-03 by Takaaki Naganoya
--2017 Piyomaru Software
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"
--http://piyocast.com/as/archives/4502

property aStatusItem : missing value

on run
    init() of me
end run

on init()
    set aList to {"Piyomaru", "Software", "", "Takaaki", "Naganoya", "", "Quit"}
    set aStatusItem to current application's NSStatusBar's systemStatusBar()'s statusItemWithLength:(current application's NSVariableStatusItemLength)

    aStatusItem's setTitle:""
    aStatusItem's setHighlightMode:true
    aStatusItem's setMenu:(createMenu(aList) of me)
end init

on createMenu(aList)
    set aMenu to current application's NSMenu's alloc()'s init()
    set aCount to 1
    repeat with i in aList
        set j to contents of i
        if j is not equal to "" then
            set aMenuItem to (current application's NSMenuItem's alloc()'s initWithTitle:j action:"actionHandler:" keyEquivalent:"")
        else
            set aMenuItem to (current application's NSMenuItem's separatorItem())
        end if
        (aMenuItem's setTarget:me)
        (aMenuItem's setTag:aCount)
        (aMenu's addItem:aMenuItem)
        if j is not equal to "" then
            set aCount to aCount + 1
        end if
    end repeat

    return aMenu
end createMenu

on actionHandler:sender
    set aTag to tag of sender as integer
    set aTitle to title of sender as string

    if aTitle is not equal to "Quit" then
        display dialog aTag as string
    else
        current application's NSStatusBar's systemStatusBar()'s removeStatusItem:aStatusItem
    end if
end actionHandler:

I previously edited the original code, posted by Piyomaru, just to the point it would compile and wanted to add some additional information to make the example code more useful for anyone relatively new to AppleScript.

Presently in the example code, if saved as an application it has no code to quit the application, it only removes the menu bar object. So, in the actionHandler handler of the script, add the following to the else branch of the if statement, after the existing code:

        if (name of current application) is not "Script Editor" then
            tell current application to quit
        end if

It's coded so if/when run from within Script Editor it will not attempt to close Script Editor. You can use it without the if statement block and use just tell current application to quit if you're not going to run it from within Script Editor.

Because this script is using Cocoa-AppleScript, once run from within Script Editor, it must be compiled again just before saving it in order to flush the C and Objective-C pointers created by the Cocoa-Applescript code, since pointers cannot be saved in the script. Just click the hammer icon on the Toolbar, or: Script Editor > Script > Compile   ⌘K

Additionally, when saved as an application you must check the Stay open after run handler check-box when saving it, and by default the app's Dock Tile will show in the Dock when running. As this might be unwanted behavior for a menu bar app, use the following command in Terminal to add the necessary key to the app's Info.plist file so it will not show in the Dock.

defaults write /Applications/name_of_app.app/Contents/Info.plist LSUIElement -bool yes

Replace name_of_app with the actual name you saved it as, and if necessary change the path if not in /Applications.
Note that if you drag the app to the Dock, its Dock Tile will still show on the Dock, just won't have a open indicator under it when open. This added key to the Info.plist file is to keep the Dock Tile from showing on the Dock when running, when the app has not been dragged to the Dock in the first place.

In the actionHandler handler of the original example code, it just displays a dialog box with the menu item number that was clicked, which certainly fine for example code, however, I'd like to show a different example how to have separate code execute based on which menu item was clicked. The following example code could replace the entire actionHandler handler in the original script:

on actionHandler:sender
    set aTitle to title of sender as string
    if aTitle is equal to "Quit" then
        current application's NSStatusBar's systemStatusBar()'s removeStatusItem:aStatusItem
        if (name of current application) is not "Script Editor" then
            tell current application to quit
        end if
    else if aTitle is equal to "Piyomaru" then

        --  # Your code to run for this menu choice goes here:

    else if aTitle is equal to "Software" then

        --  # Your code to run for this menu choice goes here:

    else if aTitle is equal to "Takaaki" then

        --  # Your code to run for this menu choice goes here:

    else if aTitle is equal to "Naganoya" then

        --  # Your code to run for this menu choice goes here:

    end if
end actionHandler:

Now this could be written differently, i.e. "Quit" as an else or else if at the bottom, but I did it this way because I want all other menu commands to be an else if choice, even though logically any other given menu command is more likely to be clicked then "Quit". For me, I think it's easier to add/edit/remove the menu command's code when written this way. It's just a personal preference, so do it as you feel what's right for you.

A discussion note from the AppleScript Language Guide:

  An if statement can contain any number of else if clauses; AppleScript looks for the first Boolean expression contained in an if or else if clause that is true, executes the statements contained in its block (the statements between one else if and the following else if or else clause), and then exits the if statement.

  An if statement can also include a final else clause. The statements in its block are executed if no other test in the if statement passes.

For the most part of the original example code, you should only have to modify two line of code in the init handler:

set aList to {"Piyomaru", "Software", "", "Takaaki", "Naganoya", "", "Quit"}

This sets the name of the menu commands in their order, and "" is for a separator.

For a different icon:

aStatusItem's setTitle:""

Change the "" to something else you prefer, from: Script Editor > Edit > Emoji & Symbols

Hopefully it's obvious that the if statement block in the actionHandler handler will correspond to the aList in the init handler, so match the names in the aTitle is equal to  in the actionHandler handler to the names in the aList in the init handler.

The rest of the code should not need to be modified, although it certainly can if need be or wanted.


How does iCloud Photo Library's "Optimize iPhone Storage" setting work in relation to other photo apps on iOS?

It depends on where the app is pulling images from. If you have selected "Optimize iPhone storage" then these apps will only have access to the lower-resolution thumbnails, as bmike pointed out (they use Camera Roll).

Unless the app is specifically coded to pull photos from iCloud Photo Libary (which Apple currently supports), they will just have access to the low-resolution photos stored locally on the device.

All the apps you have mentioned access your Camera Roll, therefore the low-resolution images.


If you have a hard disk drive (HDD), the use of a third party tool is unnecessary. You can boot to macOS Recovery over the internet and use the Disk Utility application to accomplish this task.

The possible security options available are as follows:

US Department of Defense (DOD) 5220-22 M standard for securely erasing magnetic media. It erases the information used to access your files and writes over the data 7 times.
DOE-compliant 3-pass secure erase. It writes two passes fo random data followed by a single pass of known data over the entire disk. It erases the information used to access your files and writes over the data 3 times.
Write a pass of random data and then a single pass of zeros over the entire disk. It erases the information used to access your files and writes over the data 2 times.

Note: The security options available can very from type of download chosen and the model/year of your Mac.

USB Flash Drive Method.

See the website How to create a bootable installer for macOS for instructions.

You will need to download OS X El Capitan from the Apple website: How to download OS X El Capitan. The upgrade can be used with your Snow Leopard OS X 10.6. Although, you might need to make sure you have first upgraded to OS X 10.6.8. If this case, try downloading the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Boot from the USB Flash drive and use the Disk Utility application.


You can turn your ipad to superb engineering/coding device with buffer editor. It's great code editor with vim support and it also supports autocomplete and syntax highlighting for many languages. You can find it from appstore https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buffer-editor-code-editor/id502633252?mt=8 or from http://www.buffereditor.com


Automatically Through Software Update

It is likely that OS X will automatically prompt you to download and install any recommended firmware update. This happens as part of OS X's software update process.

See About firmware updates for Intel-based Macs for the specific update steps on older Macs:

  Learn how to locate, download, and apply a firmware update to an Intel-based Mac computer.

All about the Mac Pro,1.1.

Manually via the Apple Support Site

Alternatively, you can find firmware updates on the Apple Support site. For example, this update appeared soon after the Mac Pro1.1 was released in 2006: Mac Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.1:

  The SMC Firmware Update adjusts fan behavior in the Mac Pro.

Download and run the updater. The updater will check and prompt you if it is required.

These firmware updates are effectively the same as a PC BIOS. As a Mac user, there is nothing to manage or update at the BIOS level; it is controlled by Apple.


How do you delete apps from Lion's Launchpad?

Launchpad-Control is what you are looking for my friend. It's a free preference pane app that lets you uncheck what you want to hide. It even backs up for safety :)

Alternatively, you could enter the following into Terminal:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps WHERE title='APP_NAME';" && killall Dock

Replace the "APP_NAME" with the name of the app as it's displayed in Launchpad.

To display it in Launchpad again, simply move it from Applications folder and then put it back.


Is there any wired headphones solution to make calls while charging iPhone 7?

To answer your first scenario, this article covers some options. The first one is this charge and listen device:

Belkin Lightning Audio + Charge RockStar


Quick way to "link" to location on a shared SMB server?

Right-click the file or folder in Finder > Services > Copy full path
Paste the path into the email (I used Apple Mail)
The recipient just has to choose the whole path in the email and right-click it > Reveal in Finder

You don't have to escape spaces in the path with backslashes! The share has to be mounted already.

If you don't find a service like "Copy Path" or "Copy full Path" you can simply create it yourself:

Launch Automator
Create a new service
Search for “Copy to Clipboard” and drag that into the rightside panel of the Service
Set ‘Service receives selected’ to “files or folders” and ‘in’ to “Finder” at the top of the service.
Save the service as "Copy Path"
Depending on your system you can copy the path either by right-clicking an item > Copy Path or Services > Copy Path.


Smart Battery Case: Can't find notification center in ios11

The charging status a widget in the the Today View.

  If you already attached your iPhone to your case, look for the charging status in Today View on your iPhone.

Charge your iPhone with your Smart Battery Case

If the widget doesn't appear, tap the Edit button shown at the bottom of the screenshot and add it to the widgets you see.

To access Today View,

  swipe right over the Home screen, Lock screen, or while you're looking at your notifications.

Use widgets on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

In addition, the charging status is shown on the lock screen briefly when you connect/disconnect the case or power.

  As you attach your iPhone to your case, a charging status appears on the Lock screen. The status also appears when you connect the case to power or disconnect from power.

Charge your iPhone with your Smart Battery Case


How do I find out word count in pages 5.2.2

You can show the word count, character count, and number of paragraphs in a document.
Show word, character, and paragraph count

Click  View in the toolbar, then choose Show Word Count.
The word count appears at the bottom of the page.

Move the pointer over the right side of the word count, then click the arrows to see character and paragraph count.

You can choose one of these counts to display it (instead of word count) at the bottom of the page.

once word count in turned on, you can select a portion of text and it will automatically display the count for that selection.


Problem with Terminal after changed permission to /usr/bin

Given that you changed the read permissions on /usr/bin recursively, trying to restore the proper permissions through Terminal will not work - too many items in there have unique permissions. The best plan of action to remedy this I have is as follows.

Open Disk Utility and run Repair Permissions on your disk. This may restore the proper permissions on the files in /usr/bin.
Reboot into Recovery mode (hold the R key down during boot) and run Disk Utility there  attempting the same Repair Permissions.
If you have a Time Machine backup, restore your system from a time prior to making the permissions change. This would be accessed through Recovery mode.

Takeaway from this is never change permissions recursively on a directory unless you specifically know what you're doing.


Message: This Apple ID has not yet been used with the app store

I also have face this issues but in my case I have created the Apple ID through web on linux and when I got the Mac and try to use this to download the Xcode for installation after entering the correct credential it pop up the this message.
After googling I come to know that billing or shipping is not configure in account I have enter the all detail but still I was facing this issues.

So I have solve this by clicking in the iTunes(icon of music tune) in Mac/mobile and enter the same(your created Apple ID and password) credential and follow the next steps on the go.

Here You go to payment and billing section and select the option None as payment mode and then add the your address and save it,
This you can do from web if you don't want buy any app if want buy then you need to select payment mode and enter the payment detail.

and then I click on the App Store to try to install by clicking the free software and click on get and install app then pop will come to ask for the Apple ID and password now enter the same credential one more popup will come "ask password every time" so click on the alway ask password and you done


How save e-mail on Mac, while deleting on iPhone?

You can configure iPhone email account using POP3, and Mac email account using IMAP.

In this way you're able to delete email on the phone and preserve them on Mac.


MacBook Pro froze and rebooted into Recovery HD

In my experience a locked (read-only) disk in OS X means one of two things: An incompatible filesystem (Like Windows NTFS) or a dying drive. Yours is certainly not the former and likely the latter.

First, see if it can be repaired because it's worth a shot. Open Disk Utility from within the Recovery partition that it boots you into. Highlight your drive on the left-side column (You should see two hard drive icons. The top one represents the physical device and the lower one, indented, represents the volume that the computer sees) and then click the "Repair Disk" button on the right-side panel. See what it spits out at you in the log. Basically red text bad, green text good.

If it tells you the disk was repaired (green text): Restart the Mac and see if it boots up correctly. If it doesn't try holding option on boot and selecting your hard drive as the boot device. If you get back into the system successfully, BACK UP YOUR FILES with Time Machine or your preferred method to another disk.

If it tells you the disk couldn't be repaired (red text): Your drive might be failing. If you plug an external drive into the computer, you can use Disk Utility's Restore tab to clone your hard drive to the external drive. Source = your drive and Destination = the external drive (You can drag and drop them from the left column. Note: Make sure the external drive is blank because restoring wipes the destination drive before copying.

Once you've restored you could try booting off the external drive (Option on startup, select external drive) and doing the restore process in reverse.


Short answer: No.

No, at this moment it is not possible to hide calendars from Siri. I highly recommend you send this feedback to Apple.

A workaround would be to use a second calendar app to show the calendars of your family and use the normal calendar app only for your own calendars.


Is there any software for mac to create this particular 3d histogram?


External SSD for MacbookPro - get the right speed?

The external USB3 ports on the MacBook Pro Mid 2014 are definitely capable of 5 Gbps, and so it it is indeed meaningful to connect a SSD that way.
Note that the actual speed of the USB links changes depending on what you connect to it. So if you connect some older, slower device - such as a for example an old USB mouse - you would see the speed listed as being significantly slower. The same can happen if you connect an older USB hub, or you connect several devices to the same port of differing speeds.
Also note that the MacBook Pro has internal USBs for things like the keyboard, trackpad and camera. The speed of these is irrelevant in terms of the performance you'll see with externally connected devices.


My best suggestion is that you try. Worst case it will downscale to SATA1/2 speed if it's all it can handle.

The easiest way to determine if your board will support the speed of SATA3 is to have a look at your Serial ATA settings in system information and check your link speed. It will show the supported speed and negotiated speed.

I have a MBP 6,2 which does support SATA3 on the board. I know my MB 3,1 only support SATA1, however it was always a low spec model compared to the MBP range and it may have been limited to save cost.


Movies sometime lag on my 15" MacBook Pro (2011)

I had this same problem and had already installed perian as suggested above. This seems to be a frequent problem, I've had read the explanation but it's a long time ago so don't ask me anymore what the cause is.
I fixed it with 'Niceplayer' this player can preform a pre buffer. So if you load in a large mkv file for example with nice player you'll see a small white line going across let the loading complete (goes fairly quick) and press play. No more lag :) at least for me.. Hope it'll help you too...


Is there a way to keep a copy of our highlighting in iBooks? (email it or print it)

Can I print my books and PDFs from iBooks?

  Yes, you can print PDFs and notes you've entered from iBooks, but the
  option to print ePub books is not available.2 You can also email PDFs
  and notes you have written from iBooks.

  Can I highlight text and make notes?

  iBooks includes built-in Highlight and Note features. Highlight any
  word or passage of text within a book. You can also create a Note from
  your highlighted selection. Review your Highlights and Notes by
  tapping the Table of Contents button and then tapping Bookmarks.
  Highlights and Notes appear in their own section under Bookmarks.

source: apple support page
Doesn't seem to be a straight yes/no answer for printing of the highlighted area, but you can turn a highlighted area into a note, which will print/email.


I think this might not be exactly what you want, but it is possible to create a perspective with only the items in your home context, which you could have the url link to. That's the best solution I could find.


iPod 5th gen not showing in iTunes after error-check

I found the following answer and it has worked!

  http://forums.ilounge.com/windows-ipod-discussion-problems/160623-ipod-not-being-detected-itunes-updater.html#post920916

In brief, the solution is to:

Disconnect the iPod.
Uninstall iTunes and iPod Updater and reboot.
Hold down the Center and Menu buttons until the Apple logo appears on the screen (i.e., force a reboot).
Connect the iPod.
When the iPod appears in Disk Management (My Computer > Manage > Disk Management in Windows XP), format it as FAT32. Do not use Quick Format.
Install iPod Updater (not iTunes) and restore the iPod.
Reinstall iTunes and refresh iPod contents as desired.


How can I clean install of Sierra after trying Mojave upgrade?

OK - if you have a good backup of the machine from before the upgrade, this is very much not a straightforward process and at worst, you'll need a second backup drive (or space on Time Machine if you use that as your backup.) or lose your backup when it's the only copy of your data. This is one case where I would probably make a backup copy of the one backup interval until I'm sure going back to Sierra worked as well as a perfect bootable clone of Mojave if your Sierra is broken when you go back to it. Mojave may have brought to light the broken user account / data and not have been the cause of your problems with Preview, etc... Consider if this makes things even worse before you start.

Now, this isn't automatic as Tetsujin points out - data formats change permanently and irreversibly in some cases when you upgrade so you can't roll back the upgrade and have all your data roll back as well.

You lose all the work you made since upgrading unless you manually export and import that.

If you don't have a backup, the erase and reinstall is easy - but you'll have to hand migrate apps and data back and possible re-install things that broke and might even lose an app or two if you can't find a working installer to run now.

I'll assume you use Time Machine and have space for all the Sierra backups and one good Mojave backup and you don't mind losing everything if you make a mistake:

Perform one last Time Machine backup of the Mojave so you can get any files you modified in the time between before the upgrade and now. You are about to erase everything so you need this backup if the
Organize yourself - think about which data really lives on the Mac. If contacts and photos are in iCloud - consider turning that off so your backup / restore is smaller. Get the exact date of the backup you choose to restore to - verify that the things you need are there. Also - make a list of the key apps.
Make sure you have the Sierra installer - see this to get that installer. How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS?
Follow the ease install procedure - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 - noting you have to bring the Sierra installer if Internet recovery doesn't let you select that version easily.
When Sierra boots, connect your backup you identified above as the "pre Mojave" and get all your apps and data back.
Validate that the iCloud / off computer data is syncing again (google mail and calendars, iCloud, whatever else)
Then go get any documents you added from the Mojave backup
Remember why backups are so important and why computers where you can revert things are awesome. This wouldn't be possible on iOS and other "always forward" platforms.


As a merchant can I set up Apple Pay to link to multiple bank accounts?

Apple Pay is a very different technology from something like Square, which would operate similarly to how you describe. You sign up as a merchant with Square and link it to your bank account.

In this situation, Square is the point-of-sale, acquirer, and merchant account all in one. And as a matter of fact, they support using Apple Pay at the payment terminal.

In a more traditional merchant situation, you have a merchant bank, which will put you on a specific processor platform, as dictated by the needs of your payment gateway and point of sale. As a merchant, you don't have any interaction with Apple at all; if you want to accept Apple Pay, you just need to make sure that your point of sale is capable of accepting NFC payments, and that this is all supported by your gateway and platform. Typically, though, you will only be interacting with your merchant bank, and they will be able to facilitate the set up of an Apple Pay-compatible POS.

So, this means that typically the funds will all be deposited into the merchant account that is linked to that point of sale. You could probably have your merchant bank set up deposits to your business checking accounts in percentages as you suggest, but there is typically a 1:1 relationship between Point-of-Sale or Payment Gateway and your merchant account.


how to create environment variables recognized by OSX gui

It's technically possible, but messy in recent versions of macOS -- see this stackoverflow question for details. But it won't do what you want, because the environment variable substitutions you're used to are done by the shell; most GUI inputs (like the Finder's Go To Folder command) are not parsed by a shell, so no environment variable substitution is performed. The Go To Folder operation in your screenshot isn't looking for a variable named "dev", it's looking for a folder literally named "$dev".


What is the difference between the "Local Network" and "Local Network and VPN" options in Server

.local vs .private doesn't really matter, they're just different names.. the implications of .local vs .private just have to do with how DNS zones are created.  You'll be more interested in the security implications, because my belief is that LAN-only restricts services access to the local, private network; LAN + VPN opens it up to not just the local LAN but also the VPN connection/network (they're considered separate networks, remember,) and 'Internet' opens services up to the WAN.  If I were you I'd actually stick with LAN because as far as your server is concerned, once you're connected in to the LAN through OpenVPN, it doesn't care whether you're in the same room or not, nor can it tell.

LAN + VPN wouldn't screw you up but would set up Server.app with firewall and service rules allowing for the VPN service and its related networks to also access the services running on the server.

Hope that answers your question.


How to Pair an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 3GS using Bluetooth

You can’t tether an iPhone to another iPhone. For that, you would need to jailbreak.


Force any printer to convert all colors to Grayscale automatically?

A "one-size-fits-all" approach may not be possible, as different printers have different capabilities and driver controls for specifying Black ink only.

You could try the Color Matching pane of the print dialog: select ColorSync, and select a Greyscale or Black & White color profile. However, even if you do this, some printers may still try to print this as a '4-color Black', to spread the ink usage across all the cartridges.

Your best option is to determine what controls your printer has (if any) for printing to Black ink only: then select them in the print dialog and save as a Print Preset.


Assuming the Firewall is turned off, then in order to ping $HOSTNAME, there has to be some form of sharing or service enabled in System Preferences > Sharing, or add an entry to the /etc/hosts file, depending on how/what you're trying to access by $HOSTNAME. Example, 127.0.0.1 computer_name where computer_name is what's reported by echo $HOSTNAME or in lieu of 127.0.0.1 the actual IP Address of the Network Adapter on your system.


Accessing files from Mac OS X in VMWare Fusion?

I recommend using the Shared Folders feature in VMware Fusion.

I have a Boot Camp partition as well running Windows 7. When I need to access files that are on the Mac OS X side from within Windows, I go the VM preferences and enable each folder I want to share (you can share multiple folders form different locations). All shared folders will then be shown on the Z:\ drive in Windows.

Hope this helps.


How to disable the physical sim and only use the eSIM on iPhone XS/iPhone XS Max?

I found the option buried under Mobile Data Settings. There is an option which states "Turn On this line". Toggle this ON/OFF to turn off the network.
This works for both Physical SIM and eSim.

At any given time, You could -

Have Physical Sim ON and eSim OFF.
Have eSim ON and Physical Sim OFF.
Have both the Sim turned OFF.


Is there a way to use the CMD button in the right side as a different button?

You can use KeyRemap4MacBook (Karabiner) to remap your keyboard.

Karabiner

A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for OS X.

 - You can easily customize from prepared settings.
 - You can also add your own settings by XML.

https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/


Open Keychain Access safety notes on iPhone?

No, Secure Notes are not available on iOS.

If you wish to use password-protected notes cross-platform, you can use Notes.app.


How to search for files based on ACL or group permissions

As said in the comments, the command to find and remove ACL permissions in the Documents directory is:
find ~/Documents -acl -execdir chmod -N {} \;


Is it safer to upgrade Yosemite to Big Sur by upgrading to Catalina first?

The answer used to be to first upgrade to High Sierra. The reason was High Sierra included the firmware upgrade to allow a Mac to boot from APFS volumes. Also, if your Mac boots from a SSD, then the upgrade would convert the boot volume to APFS.
I can refer to this previous question: Updating to macOS Catalina gets stuck, when trying to update from OS X Mavericks. The jump to Catalina was to far, yet the current macOS Catalina - Technical Specifications state upgrading is possible from "OS X 10.9 or later".
You have Yosemite and want Big Sur. The jump is the same distance. Other than that, I do not know for sure. IMO, upgrading to High Sierra first, would be safer.
You ask what changed. Well Big Sur had not be released when the question I linked to was posted.


Bent my iPhone 6 Plus, what can i do about this? It was purchased second hand

Apple don't require proof of purchase for warranty service if the product went on sale less than one year ago.
Your best bet is to make an appointment at the Genius Bar and claim that the product is defective as it shouldn't bend.
The massive press attention on this issue is likely to make them more sympathetic.

(I used to work as a Genius in an Apple Store)


Scan lot of documents and output them in PDF

Two answers:

1) By far the easiest/best document scanner for Macs is the Fujitsu ScanSnap series. You just insert a stack of papers, press a button, and out pops a PDF. It scans both sides of each page in a single pass.

2) To convert a scanned PDF to something searchable, by far the most reliable OCR program available (for any platform, Mac included) is the AABYY FineReader package. It is miles ahead of any other package- especially Adobe Acrobat's built-in OCR which is barely usable. This comes bundled, at no additional cost, with the ScanSnap, or you can buy it separately.

I've used one of these for several years... have scanned all of my old bills, receipts, documents, etc. so whenever I need to find something I just use spotlight and can find it in seconds.


I use KeyboardCleanTool, which ignores all keyboard input. It was created so you can clean the keys without accidental key presses, but obviously would work for your situation too.

It's free!

To unlock, just use the mouse to click the unlock button.


How do I force Keynote to sync with iCloud?

Ok so I got ahold of Apple support and they helped me resolve the issue by deleting the Keynote preferences file located at

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iWork.Keynote.plist

They instructed me to move it to the Desktop for backup purposes and then reboot the system, after rebooting and opening Keynote again the file was regenerated and the issue was resolved. They then had me trash the old property list file.


MacBook Air keeps crashing due to memory problem

Perhaps you should upgrade to a later version of Eclipse. It may be a legitimate issue that they haven't fixed yet.


How can I extract contacts from an iTunes backup of an iPhone?

Well, you can use this simple script I made half a year ago, but decided to publish when saw your question.

It renames all files to their normal names.
After that you can find AddressBook in HomeDomain/Library/AddressBook/AddressBook.sqlitedb

It's not CSV, but quick look through it show that you should take a "person" from ABPerson table (ROWID, First and Last are the most interesting).
After that you look up persons in ABMultiValue table: ROWID acquired in previous step links to record_id, value has the actual value, and label seems to be really weird for me. I'd recommend you to take all values looking as numbers.

Hope you have some programming skills or know someone who can help you.
If not, I could look into making some kind of helper script for it, but can't promise anything.
Those shitty paid apps always made me angry, and I can't understand why is there no FOSS apps for recovering data from iTunes backups. Meh.


characters stick at the beginning of CLI

Your Bash prompt is not properly escaped for non-printing characters, so it thinks the prompt is longer than it truly is (and doesn't delete some of the characters). To fix it, add \[ and \] around the invisible parts.

You need to change it to:

export PS1='\[\e[31m\]\W\[\e[0m\] '


Recommendation for simple project/task time tracking app

In the end, I found Timecop that does almost everything I wanted: simple project tracking with a variety of configurable reports spanning days, weeks, or months.

Honourable mentions go to Tictoc which does a very similar job to Timecop, and Timing (which also has a free, Lite version). Timing is different in that its a "traditional" application tracker, however, you can create custom projects and drag applications into them, right down to the document level. So you can attribute different documents in a single app to different projects, which is great if you're working on two different projects in Xcode, for example.


Can't run on Mac after performing Wipe Free Space Only

Try to hold command-R on startup, open Disk Utility, and repair both the OS X volume (indented below the whole disk) and the whole disk. The Repair Disk button performs different actions depending on whether a whole disk or a volume is selected.

If you still cannot start up in OS X, you can try to reinstall OS X by starting up from the recovery partition and selecting Reinstall OS X. It installs a new copy of OS X over the current installation but keeps your files and settings in place.

If you don't already have backups, you can save a disk image of the OS X volume from Disk Utility. See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553.


FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) detected on USB hub, but no picture? `sudo Killall VDCAssistant`, restarting, etc does nothing

You most likely have a hardware failure of the Facetime camera.

It doesn't have to show up in AHT for there to be a problem.  Like any test, AHT isn't immune to false positives/negatives.

To truly verify if it's your hardware or software, install a generic USB camera (FaceTime camera is technically a USB camera) which uses the same underlying software as the FaceTime cam.  If it works, it's a hardware issue.

Regarding your AHT error code indicating a bad drive; just because it uses the code "HDD" doesn't mean it's not applicable to SSDs.  An SSD or HDD uses the exact same ATA command set to interface with so if you are getting an error code it is valid and applicable.

Again, AHT is not the definitive answer, but a tool to help you diagnose problems.  If it's giving you an error code, it's something you should start looking into.


Move window to other space by pushing; multiple monitors

The workarounds are fairly well described on the page you linked...

Disable 'Displays have separate Spaces' in System Preferences > Mission Control.
This will re-enable the drag action, if you hit the extreme left or right of the screen pair.
Grab the title bar & use the appropriate shortcut key  Ctrl ⌃    [Number]  - though this needs setting up in System Preferences > Keyboard > Mission Control. Commands are added with each Space, but not activated by default.
You can also use  Ctrl ⌃   ←  or  Ctrl ⌃   →


Won't let me download apps on the app store help

It may be confusing but even when the app is free you are asked (should be asked) for your Apple ID and password to proceed. Provide your credentials (no matter if the app you're going to download is free) and it really should work...


How to exit a page without reinstalling Chrome?

Tapping OK won't trigger malicious JavaScript code that steals your information. It is safe to tap OK.

Just tap OK and then close the tab.


Finally found out what the issue is. Half the accounts on the Account dropdown under SMTP are from the Internet Accounts under System Settings > Accounts, not just your SMTP server settings list. Its really confusing.


Migrating Active Directory accounts from one Mac to another using Migration Assistant

If you add mobile capability they show up.  But so far from what I've seen the account migrates over but not all of the files. The home directory is empty on the target Mac.


You can create different environments for your network (System preferences --> Network) and apply different settings to these environments.

If you now switch your WiFi you can also easily change the environment (unfortunately it is not possible to do this automatically - at least not with standard tools), by clicking onto the Apple logo in the menu bar.

(Sorry my OS X installation is in german language)


Corrupted iOS backup - notes.sqlite is encrypted!

Notes Recovery

The Easy Method

Check on iCloud.com - Sign in and Navigate to the Notes App
Check on other emails used - iPhone saves none local (and non iCloud) Notes as emails on the users email server. Navigate to the email login for the email they use and check for a Notes folder. In Gmail its on the left sides bar.

Notes: If The Easy Method works then the client can set up the phone from scratch and sign in with there email. The notes should sync.

The Technical Method

Restore the iPhone and login with the same Apple ID, create a single note.  Backup this phone (non-encrypted).  Navigate to the Notes folder on the new backup and replace the contents in the new backup with the contents of the notes from the old backup. Restore the phone using the new backup.  If it says its corrupted then the Notes are probably indeed corrupted.

The Hacking Method

I suggest heading over to https://security.stackexchange.com for cracking hashes and other things.

Next Time

Make a backup in iTunes normally. Archive it. Make another backup
Make sure all notes are on iCloud or a Email Server
Use a Mac --> This ones just a preference :)


Shortcut keys to delete all text to end of line (or all text after cursor)?

Keyboard shortcut to delete after the cursor till end of line is ⌃ + K.


Is there any virtual machine which works on a PPC Mac running 10.4?

The primary solution for PowerPC Macs was Microsoft's now-defunct Virtual PC.  It was discontinued several years ago, so you'll really have to do some digging to find a copy.  (Be warned -- it runs slow as molasses.  You'd probably be better off buying a cheap PC.)

There's also Q emulator, which supposedly runs on PowerPC, but I have never tried it.


The solution is likely to get the battery replaced.  By Apple or a qualified repair service.

Li-Ion batteries behave like this when the chemistry fails due to normal use or a premature fault.  The voltage can suddenly drops off a cliff, too fast for the battery charge indicator to show the decrease in percentage.


How do I disable mobile Youtube redirection on iPad?

In short: no, you can't stop it. It's Google re-directing you.

You can work around it though. You can scroll down to the very bottom of the page and tap the "desktop" link, which will take you to the full desktop version of the site. If what you want is the YouTube app to open, then all you can do is copy the name of the video from safari into the YouTube app.

I know what you mean about it not loading the videos. It's annoying!


Compress multiple files in different folders

To do this, you can open up Terminal from inside your computer's /Applications/Utilities folder. Then change to the root directory containing all the other directories you want to zip the files in by typing this command:

cd /path/to/folder01

(replace /path/to/folder01 with wherever the folder is on your hard drive - it will give you the right path if you simply drag the folder icon from your Finder, right into the Terminal window.)

then type this command:

find . -type f -execdir zip '{}.zip' '{}' \; -delete

This will compress all files (not directories) within the directory tree starting with the folder /folder01, leaving the .zip in the same directory as the original, and delete the originals.

If for some reason you don't want to delete the originals but rather leave them in place next to the .zip archives, you can omit the -delete at the end.

I would recommend backing up the entire directory tree you're running this on first before trying it, just in case you make a typo or anything goes wrong. This worked as described for me, but you mess around in Terminal on your computer at your own risk.


Reverting to El Capitan fixed the problem for me with a mid 2014 rMBP, so it sounds like a Sierra bug. Hoping that the 10.12.4 release fixes it.


How to play all songs except classical and movie soundtrack music using the Music app on an iPhone?

You can use an app like SmartPlaylist to create smart playlists on your device.

You can also create a smart playlist on a computer in iTunes then sync it to your phone. Even though you can't create smart playlists on the device, they do still update automatically as new music is added to the device. No manual maintenance is needed.


Time Machine for MacOS High Sierra - Delete middle backups only

You can do this with the Time Machine CLI: tmutil delete /path/to/backup

$ tmutil listbackups
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-04-142408
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-05-003504
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-06-005409
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-07-014517
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-08-023925
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-09-040035
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-11-055340
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-12-063921
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-13-075323
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-14-085121

$ sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
Deleting: /Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
Deleted (149.0M): /Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
Total deleted: 149.0M


Can Quick Look be made into an application to preview URLs in apps like Twitter?

I've written an AppleScript wrapper for qlmanage called "Have A Quick Look":

http://dougscripts.com/471

However, in Lion, the qlmanage app opens and causes some conflicts with iTunes. Oh well.


While formulating the question, I tried various combinations of keywords and eventually found Difference between “Mac Developer” and “3rd Party Mac Developer Application” on Stack Overflow, which led to developer documentation on Maintaining Certificates which in turn writes this:

  Type: Mac App Distribution:
  Name: 3rd Party Mac Developer Application: Team Name
  Description: Used to sign a Mac app before submitting it to the Mac App Store.
  Type: Developer ID Application:
  Name: Developer ID Application: Team Name
  Description: Used to sign a Mac app before distributing it outside the Mac App Store.

So apparently this form of code signing is suitable only for submission for the App Store, but not for stand-alone distribution. That took quite a while to work out, so I hope this Q&A will help others avoid that time.


OSX “Microsoft Remote Desktop (MSRD)” redefine shortcut not works

I think it's a bug too.

As it has 2 versions of Close, both Close Connection & just Close [when there's no window open] I thought adding both those as key commands would do it - but no,  Cmd ⌘   W   still closes the connection.


What do numbers in red circles mean on launcher icons?

The number on App Store icon indicates the number of available app updates. The number on the System Preferences icon depends on what option in System Preferences also shows the number. Often it is that there is a software update to macOS available.

In some apps, it's the number of notifications: like email, or messages.


This Mac Book Retina was originally delivered with Mountain Lion. The upgrade history contains Mavericks, several Yosemite DPs and finally the Yosemite GM Candidate.

One of the Yosemite Developer Previews transformed the previous Apple_HFS partition into a Logical Volume Group.

The (only) Logical Volume is not revertible:

The Boot Camp assistant can't modify the partition map and shrink such a LVG to free up some unallocated space for a Windows installation on a hard disk.

The only possibility (we found) to solve the problem is a complete reinstall:

Backup all your data
Disconnect all external hard drives
Restart into Internet Recovery Mode by pressing altcmdR
(alternatively you may use a Mavericks or Mountain Lion Install Thumb Drive)
start Terminal from the menubar/utilities
enter following command at the Terminal prompt:

  diskutil cs list

Copy the Logical Volume Group (LVG) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVG UUID should be the first listed. In the above example the alphanumeric is:
312C0A5B-AC3E-4008-895F-6EDFDD386825.
Run the following command:

  diskutil cs delete UUID

According to the number found above it would be:

  diskutil cs delete 312C0A5B-AC3E-4008-895F-6EDFDD386825

This will delete your CoreStorage volume and your Recovery HD and reformat it as a simple HFS+ volume.
Quit Terminal
In the now opening window choose Disk Utility and format/partition/rename the internal drive. Choose 1 Partition, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table (available with the option button). Quit Disk Utility.
Now choose 'Reinstall Mac OS X'
The originally shipped OS X will be downloaded and installed
Set up your Mac
Download and install Mavericks from the App Store
Start Boot Camp Assistant, repartiton your Mac and install Windows
Download and install Yosemite from the App Store

At step 10 one may boot alternatively to a Mavericks or Mountain Lion Install Thumb Drive if available and install the respective OS X.

Starting into Recovery Mode at step 3 doesn't help because it's impossible to delete the LGV then.


What is the meaning of 'no acceptable variant' ERROR message?

Inside the httpd.conf file there are the following lines of code:

AddLanguage de .de
AddLanguage en .en

# LanguagePriority allows you to give precedence to some languages
# in case of a tie during content negotiation.
#
# Just list the languages in decreasing order of preference. We have
# more or less alphabetized them here. You probably want to change this.
#
LanguagePriority en de

# ForceLanguagePriority allows you to serve a result page rather than
# MULTIPLE CHOICES (Prefer) [in case of a tie] or NOT ACCEPTABLE (Fallback)
# [in case no accepted languages matched the available variants]
#
ForceLanguagePriority Prefer Fallback

You should understand what it means and how you can alter its functions. Maybe you ask an Apache Server Guru ;)


Search results in Notes on macOS always empty

@MacManager pointed me in the right direction. The problem was that I had excluded ~/Library/Containers from Spotlight. This is where Notes' data is stored.

I did this years ago way before the "modern" Notes existed and had totally forgotten about it. I wanted to stop Alfred from giving me results from that folder.

Apparently, the Notes app uses the Spotlight index for searching inside the app.

Ouch.


Any and all accidental damage (including that dent you're worried about) will be fixed when sent out to depot at tier 4 pricing. The glass, LCD, and housing will all be replaced- basically the whole top of the computer.

The only way it wouldn't get fixed is if the repair facility tech determines your computer "beyond economical repair" and that only happens if either a)every part in it is damaged or b) it contains some kind of biohazard (like insects, or bodily fluids) If that happens they just send the computer back not repaired at no cost. Basically on a 13" computer 755+tax is the most you can pay so they should fix anything/everything that is wrong/damaged and if they don't you should complain/send it back.

Honestly if you're close at all to an Apple store, display repairs are often significantly cheaper than flat rate tier 4 repair. When I left Apple in 2016 MacBook Air displays were around 425$ or so after labor, and 13" MacBook Pro screens only a little more than that. Way cheaper than 755 if nothing else is wrong w/ your computer. An in-store repair would also include repairing the glass and dented housing because in-store technicians don't replace just the LCD, they replace the whole display assembly.

Source: worked at the Genius Bar for 4+ years


How to tether a 2014 MacBook Pro 15" Retina to two Dell Ultra HD 4k 27-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitors (P2715Q)?

It doesn't appear that your MBP is capable of driving 2 4k displays with the Macbook's primary display working (see Graphics and Video support):

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP704?locale=en_US

Also the OWC Dock isn't capable of driving 2 4k displays so even if your MBP is capable of driving the displays you'll need to use the HDMI port or one of the other Thunderbolt 2 ports to drive the second display:

http://www.owcdigital.com/products/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-2-dock-overview

One thing you may be able to try is to close the Macbook to turn off it's primary display, thus freeing up resources to try to handle both 4k displays.


From Mavericks to Snow Lion: how to get back?

There is no "Snow Lion"—Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion strike me as possibilities—but regardless, the answer is the same: you can roll back with your Time Machine to an earlier version of OS X:

Enter Recovery by rebooting and holding command+R.
Select "Restore from a Time Machine backup".
Select a backup from before your Mavericks upgrade.

Unfortunately, you may not be able to use all of today's data from a pre-Mavericks installation.  Some Mavericks applications (such as Mail.app) will upgrade their databases.  That data will not be able to be understood by pre-Mavericks versions of those applications.  If you haven't had any significant data changes since your upgrade, I would recommend a wholesale reversion back to your preferred OS.  If you have, perhaps you could roll back anyway and copy newer files from your Time Machine individually, provided they are not in a format your old OS can understand.

Apple TS article: OS X Mavericks: Revert to a previous OS X version


Future of iTunes and audio files in its library

It is not a rumor - it has been officially announced by Apple that iTunes is going away. It is going to be replaced by Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts in the next release of macOS named Catalina.

In practice you'll just start using the Apple Music program for listening to your old ripped CDs instead of using iTunes - so this is definitely not a dead-end. Your iTunes Library will be carried over automatically.

Catalina Features


Google Drive – online backup iOS apps supports viewing PostScript files. It is a universal app available for both iPad and iPhone.

Download Google Drive app from the App Store using the following link:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/google-drive-online-backup/id507874739


In disk utility you will want to choose "View" in the upper left and then select "Show All Devices".
From there you should be able to select the Internal drive at the very top of the list and select erase as you're used to.

Once you've erased the drive you can now quit Disk Utility, and go back to the Mac OS installer as you had been doing. The drive should now not be locked.


Text shortcuts reset to older settings in System Preferences

Yes, they cross-pollinate from other devices. Mine come from my phone.

I'm really not certain why they don't correctly sync both ways. If I add one to the Mac it appears on the phone, but ones deleted from the Mac don't necessarily delete from the phone & may later re-appear on the Mac.

I've found the best solution is to just make sure you've also deleted them from any other device.
Settings > General > Keyboards > Text Replacement


Can I Recover an Erased Time Machine Disk?

The chances of recovering the directory structure & therefore the data intact in its original form are minimal.

Time Machine uses a complex structure of links to files in order to reduce disk usage & preserve the actual timeline.

You may be able to recover specific individual files if you absolutely need something recovered from the history - though I'd be inclined to think that any recovery software will get confused by the linked structure & think it can recover 10TB from a 1TB backup.

If you feel you are safe enough with only a backup from today onwards, with no history, then I would say that would be the best plan.
Start over, let Time Machine make a full fresh backup.


Save Excel file as pipe-delimited values file

While I don't know how to use the pipe character | can I suggest you use "Tab-Delimited Text" which is one of the "Specialty Formats" listed under "Save As...".

Then if you wish you can use tr to change the tabs to pipes. tr '\t' '\|' < file.txt > file_converted.txt at the command line.

Note that most software that exports CSV files (including Excel) wraps a field with a comma in it in quotes (as you mention above). Also note that most software that imports CSV files can usually also perform the unwrap. Finally, you may well find that whatever you are doing with the exported file is perfectly happy with tab-delimited text.


Usually the main macOS partition (disk0s2) is followed by a Recovery HD which is required as second boot stage for particular macOS partitions.

The recovery partition has a standard size of 1269536 512-blocks (or 158692 4096-blocks on 4k disks) and the partition type 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC. If your attempt to resize/delete macOS partitions from inside Windows (BTW that's a big

)

didn't screw the partition map somehow or erase/overwrite former blocks of the Recovery HD it should be recoverable by simply adding its probable partition map entry.

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode
Open in the menubar > Utilities > Terminal
get some details:

diskutil list #below I assume the disk identifier of the internal disk is disk0
gpt -r show disk0

Unmount disk0:

diskutil umountDisk disk0

add the recovery partition:

gpt add -i 4 -b 54478096 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

verify disk and recovery partition:

diskutil list #get the disk identifier of the "new" 650.0 MB partition
diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0sX #use the disk identifier of the "new" 650.0 MB partition (probably disk0s3 or disk0s4)

If you get:

  The volume Recovery HD appears to be OK
  Finished file system verification on disk0sX Recovery HD

from the last command everything is OK and your Mac should boot properly.

Otherwise you have to restore the Recovery HD from scratch or copy it from a Mac with the same system version.


Is there a keyboard shortcut or menu option to edit a selected text box in Keynote?

If you open Keynote and click on the Help menu item there is a line that reads Keyboard Shortcuts. Click on this and the following panel will appear.

in this panel click on the link in the middle of the panel and get this new pane shown below.

Now if you click on Select Text you get the following selection of shortcuts.

Maybe the shortcuts you want are under something besides "Select Text" in which case you can try another selection.


I believe this is a problem with WEBrick v1.3.  WEBrick isn't returning the correct content length & notifies users of this:

  WARN Could not determine content-length of response body. Set content-length of the response or set Response#chunked = true

Trying to wget the same resource will also flag an error in the network connection as per: https://github.com/imathis/octopress/issues/1395

Chrome & Firefox just display whatever content was received & don't worry about the mismatch in content length.  Safari, starting with Safari 7.0 on Mavericks' 10.9 is stricter about the response & treats the mismatch as a "Failure to load resource" error.  (If I had to guess they're probably trying to improve the speed so don't retry the resource and so don't get the file fully retrieved response that wget does).

If you replace WEBrick with thin, this problem should go away.  To do this on a Rack-based application try:

echo gem \"thin\" >> Gemfile
bundle install
rbenv rehash # if you're using rbenv
bundle exec rackup -s thin


iCloud Drive not working after El Capitan upgrade, files not in com~apple~CloudDocs

The first step is using brctl log from terminal to see what activity is happening and if you have errors.

How Do I Know If A File Has Been Successfully Synced To iCloud Drive?

From there, you can be patient or call AppleCare or post a follow on question with some specifics on what's happening to your cloud sync.


Can't boot off of USB on Early 2006 iMac and can't get to Startup Manager

Yosemite is not supported on the Early 2006 iMac - it can only go up to Snow Leopard v10.6. You will either need to order a set of restore discs for this particular system (as discs do not necessarily work between models, make sure to get the right ones) or find a retail copy of either Tiger (Make sure it is newer than 10.4.6), Leopard or Snow Leopard.

You can find retail copies of the discs on eBay or other various sites. There is a remote chance that you may be able to order the recovery media through Apple's phone support - we used to do it when I worked for Applecare - but due to the age it is less likely that they would have it and/or would have shipping times under 2wks.

It is highly recommended that you opt right for the Snow Leopard retail DVD as there is no upgrade path from Tiger -> Snow Leopard for free.

EDIT: To answer your questions in order:

The operating system you made the drive from is not supported on your computer by a few generations, likely causing the issue. Booting from USB is supported on your machine
There is no operating system, recovery system, really anything to support booting into from your disk selector
No, not directly. The closest you would get would be Single user mode, which is just an extension of the operating system itself. Through there, you could use diskutil to see if the drive was recognized. Again, this would require the OS already be installed.
Yes, and it won't be known until you have it in your hands. Be careful about the disks you get, and if in doubt, buy the retail edition.


How can I generate specific text from collection of fonts?

You can do it with this script:

 (*
 Create Font Sample.scpt

Modified by b.leopard on macosxhints.com to include a dialog

This script creates a font sample of the selected fonts in FontBook.app

Copyright Â© Apple Computer, Inc.

 You may incorporate this Apple sample code into your program(s) without
 restriction.  This Apple sample code has been provided "AS IS" and the
 responsibility for its operation is yours.  You are not permitted to
 redistribute this Apple sample code as "Apple sample code" after having
 made changes.  If you're going to redistribute the code, we require
 that you make it clear that the code was descended from Apple sample
 code, but that you've made changes.

 Modifications made at 2007-04-26     Please contact me in case of further enhancements: b.schreyer@erco.com

*)

set fontSize to 16

repeat

        set sampleString to "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy cat."
    display dialog "Create font sample of all selected fonts in FontBook.app?"      & ¬
         return & return & "Enter sample text:" default answer sampleString ¬
         buttons {"Cancel", "open FontBook", "OK"} default button 3
     set {buttonReturned, sampleString} to ¬
            {button returned of the result, text returned of the result}
     if buttonReturned is "Cancel" then
         error number -128 -- quit
     else if buttonReturned is "open FontBook" then -- open FontBook.app and quit
         tell application "Font Book" to activate
         error number -128 -- quit
     else -- sample text
         if the sampleString is not "" then
             set sampleString to sampleString & " â€“ "

             set fontSize to text returned of (display dialog "What font size " & ¬
                 "should be used in the sample?" default answer fontSize) as number
            exit repeat
         end if
    end if

end repeat

 tell application "Font Book"

     tell application "System Events"
         set wasTextEditRunning to (name of processes) contains "TextEdit"
     end tell

     --    tell application TextEditApp to activate

      set selectedFamilies to selected font families
      set selectedTypefaces to selection

     set numFamilies to count selectedFamilies
     set numFaces to count selectedTypefaces

          tell application "TextEdit"
        if wasTextEditRunning then
             make new document at the end of documents of it
         end if
         tell the front document
             set paragraph 1 to "Font Samples - " & ¬
                  numFamilies & " families   " & ¬
                  numFaces & " typefaces" & return & return & return
             set size to 18
        end tell
     end tell

     --    asuuming that items in selection are sorted in font family.

     set paraIndex to 3

     repeat while selectedTypefaces is not {}
          set thisFace to first item of selectedTypefaces
          set familyName to family name of thisFace
          set selectedTypefaces to the rest of selectedTypefaces
          set postScriptNames to {PostScript name of thisFace}

          repeat while selectedTypefaces is not {}
              set anotherFace to first item of selectedTypefaces
            if family name of anotherFace is familyName then
                set the end of postScriptNames to PostScript name of anotherFace
                set selectedTypefaces to the rest of selectedTypefaces
             else
                exit repeat
             end if
        end repeat

        tell the front document of application "TextEdit"
            tell paragraph paraIndex
                set font to "LucidaGrande"
                set size to 12
                set characters to familyName & return & return
                set the color of every word to ¬
                {32867, 32867, 32867} -- 50% gray
             end tell
             set paraIndex to paraIndex + 1

             repeat with psName in postScriptNames
                 set success to true
                 try
                tell paragraph paraIndex
                    set font to psName
                    set size to fontSize
                    set characters to tab & sampleString & ¬
                        psName & return & return
                end tell
            on error
                set success to false
            end try
            if success then
                set paraIndex to paraIndex + 1
            end if
        end repeat
        set paragraph paraIndex to return & return
        set paraIndex to paraIndex + 1
    end tell

end repeat
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
end tell

This will return something like this:

And the final result:


How to properly downgrade from Catalina to Mojave with no internal free space left?

Assuming your backup is good, use Disk Utility to wipe the disk from within Recovery mode, install Catalina clean (again from within Recovery) then use the Migration Assistant to restore everything. This should warn you if you're going to end up with a space problem and allow you to exclude certain items from the restore.


Downloaded InstallMacOSX.pkg gives an error of "This version of OSX 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer." Why?

Can't you just do a reinstall of macOS on the other Mac by reinstalling OS X El Capitan that came with a Mac. This link will explain: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904.

Also, make sure that the disk is formatted HFS or HFS+ not APFS.

Good luck!


How do I change my language to spanish on Pages 8?


What is the partition size needed for The Mavericks install disk?

The Mavericks install app is about 5.3GB and it is compressed. That should be how much space it will take up on a USB stick. Just drop the installer on the stick and double click on the installer to install.


How to get rid of the "Flash Player Auto Update Daemon” popup?

Following what I found and @fsb comment, I deleted the folder /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player Install Manager with all contents and /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.fpsaud.plist, no more Flash update popups!


Can't run 60hz on external display with MacBook Pro 15 2019

Just bought USB type-c to DP adapter and it works fine. Thanks!


Moving time machine backup sparsebundle from Time Capsule to USB exFAT disk

As the comments say you migrating time machine backup to exFAT is a relatively long thing to do. However, if you want to just access the files from a exFAT formatted drive you can simply copy those files to that drive. Though this is not a great solution.
If it's possible try other options. Do not limit yourself to use exFAT.


What is a locked hard drive, and how does it relate to encryption?

A locked hard drive is a hard drive that is encrypted.

When you unlock the drive you are telling the system how to interpret the encrypted data. Unlike permanent decrypting, the data on the drive stays encrypted, you are just telling it how to read the encrypted data on the fly.

On its normal computer information will have been saved into the system's keychain allowing it to access the drive without prompting you for a code. If you open Keychain Access on that Mac and search for the name of the drive, or sort the list by "Kind", you should find an "encrypted volume password" entry. That is what the Mac is using to unlock the drive without prompting you.