How to launch apps that require Java on Mountain Lion with only Java 7 installed?

The dialog is shown because Oracle's Java has only partial 'JVMCapabilities' set and advertises itself as command-line-only capable.

As a superuser (use 'sudo' if editing in Terminal), you should edit /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk.1.7.[version-and-release].jdk/Contents/Info.plist and find the following key:

<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
  <array>
    <string>CommandLine</string>
  </array>

and add it to include the missing values:

<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
  <array>
    <string>CommandLine</string>
    <string>JNI</string>
    <string>BundledApp</string>
  </array>

After that, you have to either reboot, logout or killall Finder, what ever seems to work. (People have reported that restarting Finder was enough, but I had to log out.)

--
Source.


App downloaded from cousin's Apple ID is greyed out and cannot delete it from iTunes

Update your Apple ID and password on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store.
If you're signed out, enter your updated Apple ID and password.
If you're signed in with your previous Apple ID, tap your Apple ID,
    then tap Sign Out.
Then enter your updated Apple ID and password.

Mac with OS X Mountain Lion or later, or Windows PC

Go to the Apple Online Store.
Click  , then click View
Account.
In the Account Settings section, click "Update your Apple ID email
address and password."
Enter your updated Apple ID and password.


How can I better understand iCloud security for 1Password data?

1Password does not use "iCloud" which is a service offering from Apple, by default it uses Dropbox but can also use other cloud solutions. 1Password does not support storing data on Apple's iCloud.

1Password 3 data file sync solutions

About 1Password Encryption

  The slightly longer answer is that your data is encrypted using AES,
  the same state-of-the-art encryption algorithm used as the national
  standard in the United States. 1Password uses 128-bit keys for
  encryption, which means that it would take millions of years for a
  criminal to decrypt your data using a brute force attack.

And more about Agile Keychain Design and encryption

Information about Dropbox and encryption. Keep in mind that Dropbox does not encrypt the files that you store with their service, but they do encrypt the traffic between your computer and their servers at Amazon.

UPDATE 20121217:
I see that the latest version of 1Password does offer the ability to use Apple's iCloud for storing and sharing.

Here is an knowledge base article from Apple on the subject, iCloud: iCloud security and privacy overview. But it does not cover the encryption of non-Apple application data.

Ars has a much better article discussing encryption in iCloud, Apple holds the master decryption key when it comes to iCloud security, privacy

It seems to me that Agilebits has really fallen behind on updating their web site with information about the latest version of 1Password for iOS. It looks like 1Password Pro, which I have been using for awhile now, has been removed from iTunes and the only version available is the new version here. I would guess that a new version for the desktop is also on its way.


Is there a Mac FTP client that will open SSH at current location?


Open the Screenshot app, and in the Screen Recording options, select "None", for the audio input.
I have no idea why, but this will fix the delay before the crosshair appears for Cmd+Shift+4 screenshots.


You can change the Mission Control shortcuts in System Preferences:


Mac App enterprise distribution outside AppStore with MapKit

Ideally, Apple would offer a Mac equivalent to the iOS Developer Enterprise Program. Sadly, this is not currently offered.

Contact Apple

Contact Apple through Developer Technical Support or through the Mac App Store. They should be able to suggest the best approach – which Apple will support. At the very least, it will help prove demand for the capability.

Ad Hoc Distribution

Depending on your situation, you may be able to use ad hoc distribution. It is designed for testing and imposes limits on the number of computers involved.


Apple's unicode keyboard layout versions location

Computers normally use a single encoding system, ISO 10646/Unicode, that covers all languages at once.  It currently gives each of over 100,000 characters a unique idenfier.  All hardware keyboards are essentially the same as regards the codes sent to the computer, only the printing on the keys differs. Software keyboard layouts and input methods in MacOS provide mappings of the standard hardware keyboard output codes to the Unicode codepoints that reflect the requirements of any particular language, while fonts translate those codepoints into glyphs on the screen.
This page provides graphics of some of the different language mappings which you can select in MacOS via system preferences/keyboard/input sources.  These can be applied to any hardware keyboard and all use Unicode encoding.
These software mapping files are found in system/libary/keyboard layouts and system/library/input methods on a Mac.   Users can also create custom mappings with apps like Ukelele and Karabiner and other methods.
But I don’t offhand think such mapping files would play any role in a translation system of the sort you are describing.


How do I unbind a Mac from the AD using the command line?

dsconfigad -remove -u DomainAdminsUserName -p Password

If that doesn't work, you may need to add -force.


OSX system and installation disk won't boot

It could be a hardware problem or a media problem. You might have a defective DVD drive in your MacBook Pro, or your installation DVD could be scratched or corrupted. You might need to take the unit to a qualified technician who could try the installation with a known-good 10.6.x installer DVD to isolate the problem.

Also, is the installer DVD for 10.6.4 the same one that shipped with the computer? If it is a replacement that you got from elsewhere, it may not be the right version number to work with the firmware and version of your particular model of Mac. I have seen that problem arise before. Some Snow Leopard installer DVDs were 10.6.0, and some later ones were 10.6.4, and certain models of Mac would not accept an installer DVD that was 10.6.0 and not 10.6.4.


Can I restore a Lion Time Machine backup from a MacBook Air onto a MacBook Pro (currently) running Snow Leopard?

I think the best way to proceed is like this :

First, see with your IT department to gave you an Mac OS Lion copy (from
Mac App Store or on a usb drive)
Next install Lion and restore with your TM Backup

If you cannot have a Mac OS Lion copy, you can try to navigate to your TM Backup (with a Finder) and copy only what you need on your disk (it depends on what you need to work, if it's just some documents for example it should ok, but I do not recommand to copy an app).


How do I reinstall Apple Software Update in Windows?

Ah, Software Update can be reinstalled by running AppleSoftwareUpdate.msi in the Boot Camp Windows support files under Drivers Apple

(To get the Boot Camp Windows support files, boot into Mac OS and use Boot Camp Assistant to save them to e.g. a USB drive that Windows will be able to read -- see https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/247252/5231)


Probably not. The system requirements for 10.8 say "MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)". You'd also need to install 10.6.8 or 10.7 first in order to install Mountain Lion from App Store.

See these Apple KB articles:

System requirements for OS X Mountain Lion
System requirements for OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6
How to identify MacBook models

EveryMac.com has a list of maximum OS X versions supported by different Macs:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/maximum-macos-supported.html
http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/os-x-lion-faq/macs-compatible-with-os-x-lion-hack-options-for-incompatible-macs.html


iPhone, is it possible to recover only one app from a backup?

You can't recover from an iPhone backup, but there is other way.

You can check your apps directory within you iTunes Media Folder Location (under iTunes → Preferences → Advanced). This will tell you where your iTunes are located (example: /Users/username/Music).

If you go to /Users/username/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications you can find that this is the directory where apps are saved.

Check this folder to see if the app you are looking for is there. Apps have version number in it's name. If not exists what you want, or exists the latest version, you must use a backup to recover (If you have it).


Do i get a Mac OSX DVD when i buy a Mac Mini computer?

The newer Mac minis (and I believe all other Macs as well) ship without restore media.  All of the newer models now have recovery volumes and an option for internet recovery built into their firmware.  The recovery volume (and internet recovery) has an option to download and reinstall the OS without the need for external physical media.

  OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion include a feature called Recovery that includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine backup without the need for optical discs.

You can read more at Apple's "About OS X Recovery" KB article.

Apple also provides a tool that allows you to create a similar recovery partition on a USB thumb drive.  About Recovery Disk Assistant


How can I use my iPhone as a microphone to my Windows laptop?

You'll need a "microphone app" to be able to do that. That could for example be the "Wo Mic" or the "Ez-Mic" apps:

https://wolicheng.com/womic/

https://www.ez-mic.com


iCloud sync keeps deleting my information!

Per Emil's suggestion, I contacted Apple's support team for assistance.  They recommended that I enter all my contacts into iCloud directly (via icloud.com), then delete my iCloud account from all my devices and finally set up iCloud for each device again.

It's been a few days, and so far, the problem seems to have gone away (:


Is it possible to update an iOS device to a version older than the current version?

To give a clear answer to the question that was asked, which is whether a device can be updated to the latest version of iOS it supports, even if that version of iOS is no longer current.

Yes, it is possible. Software Update, either on the device or via iTunes, will offer the latest version that is supported by your device.

I can't readily find an official reference for this but it is supported by numerous other answers to similar questions on this site.


You can try disabling any dictionaries you don't specifically need. three-finger/force-click lookups only show a few results, not all of them. You can open the dictionary and search the word there as an alternative. This seems to be a bug on Apple's side, so there isn't much else you can do. If its any consolation, I have this problem as well, so you aren't alone.


You can setup an account for a company, just use a company e-mail address that isn't strictly your own (ideally, something generic like appleid@company) and fill out the correct fields on the sign-up section.

You can also use this account to join the developer program with Apple - although this might be what you meant anyway.

When signing up, I'd still use your name - this can easily be changed, but fill out the company details (and, I suppose, credit card).


How to keep mute button available during call

In iOS10 you can just tap the number + call duration in the lock screen and it'll bring up the phone controls.


Was this a clean install of Adobe or an "restore" from a Time Machine backup?  I have personally had issues when going from one issue to the next (Mavericks to Yosemite and Yosemite to El Capitan) and migrating my software instead of clean installing it.  Doing a clean install fixed my issue each time.

So, first thing to do, is uninstall and do a clean installation of Illustrator.

At the time of this writing, Adobe wasn't experiencing any issues with Illustrator.  See macOS Sierra (10.12) compatibility FAQ | Creative Cloud

However, they do provide a link for people to report bugs.  If doing a clean install doesn't solve the problem I would report the problem.


I would go back to the Apple store to speak with a technician again. Apple repair service has historically been warranted for 90 days or the remainder of the existing coverage (one year or three from original purchase if you have AppleCare) so if you are outside the first year the numbers don't add up. It should be written on the back of the quote they provided you. They might even give you some options for other local service providers that have passed the hardware repair tests to work on Macs but you can always look them up yourself.

The internal LCD panels for that model are integrated with a frame, and a driver board so you're not just buying a commodity 24" LCD panel. You are also buying expertise in case it's not the LCD panel but a video card or the cable. I don't know of many shops that can beat Apple's current labor rates of $39 so you would hope to get a good feeling about why the shop can beat apple's price so much on parts. I always feel better when a shop can explain to me why the parts they use are cheaper than the manufacturer's parts so I can make a good decision.

It's not as hard a repair as say the graphics card or the logic board in that model, but you'll find lower labor rates and better parts prices from shops that do a high volume of that model repair.

Once you've got some quotes you can make a better call in your situation - it might make sense to buy an external monitor even if it's more costly that the repair - especially if that investment will carry forward to an eventual new mac.


Magic keyboard problems when connected to iMac

I figured it out I had Mousekeys"Turned On" Feature activated.


Right-click on the attachment.
If the attachment displays, the contextual menu will offer "View as Icon."
If the attachment shows as an icon, the contextual menu will offer "View in place."


How to diagnose Finder losing icons for folders?

try this in Terminal

mkdir ${TMPDIR}/com.apple.IconServices

This recreates the com.apple.IconServices directory, which apparently gets itself deleted from time to time.


Force-disconnect all remote users from Applescript or shell?

The following example AppleScript code works for me in macOS Catalina to restart the system and click the Restart button on the "There is a user sharing this computer. If you restart they will be disconnected" dialog that shows if Users accessing File Sharing on the machine are connected.

tell application "Finder" to restart
repeat 5 times
    try
        tell application "System Events" to click UI element "Restart" of window 1 of application process "loginwindow"
    end try
    delay 1
end repeat

Obviously the number of loops is arbitrary as is the value of the delay command. As coded it's allowing for five seconds for the dialog to appear, if it at all does.


Is it normal for MacBook Pro CD/DVD drive to makes noise on wake after long sleep

Yes.

After all, OS X wants to allow you to access what's on the disc currently inside the drive. When you eject a disc, the system reacts by no longer showing the disc on the desktop or in Finder. When you insert a disc, the system reacts by showing the disc on the desktop and in Finder.

When the system is asleep, it's no longer keeping track of whether a disc has been ejected, inserted, or replaced with a different disc. It has to check what's in the drive when it wakes up in order to react properly to what's there.


"No Bag Entry" when trying to reinstall Sierra

Make sure you're connected to internet before you enter the re-install flow. The machine needs to talk to Apple's servers to verify the license, that's why this error comes up.


Weather without location services, using just one fixed location

First of all, open weather.app and tap the bulleted list in the bottom-right.

Then click the plus button and search for your location. This will then appear at the bottom of your list. Hold your finger on it and then slide it to the top of the page (underneath your current location).

Then go to Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> Weather and click Never.

Then when you return to the weather.app the location should appear at the top and be the default.


Getting Around Alpha Bug for Preview in Sierra 10.12.2

It seems to depend on how the image was made in the first place, & what its current background is set to.

Testing with the example given in comments I see the same behaviour as the OP when using Preview.
Even in Photoshop the same thing happens... unless I turn the image into an unlocked layer first. After that, erasing will then erase to transparent.

I've tested with other images made in photoshop with transparency, then saved as jpg. I also checked converting the jpg to png first, before testing.
It seems Preview is not the only app which will knock out to a predetermined colour, Photoshop will do the same, unless first converted to a separate layer. [In Photoshop you get the choice of which colour, but 'transparent' isn't an option.]

I'd say therefore, it's not a bug, it's intended behaviour; a limitation of a single-layered image.

I see no way round this except to use a dedicated graphics package, like Photoshop or Gimp.


Something is messing with my disk permissions, which breaks a lot of file-related stuff. Can I find out what is causing this?

I don't know if the permission issues are related, but revealing files in Finder not working and Archive Utility stopping to respond are both symptoms of the Apple Events bug that was introduced in 10.8.2.

I don't know if it was fixed in 10.8.3, but when that starts happening, you can terminate appleeventsd from Activity Monitor or with sudo killall -9 appleventsd (without -9 other processes stop responding for some reason). The issue will probably return within a few hours or days though.


macOS Sierra "System" files eating up disk space

The Solution

I used a storage scanning application to see where all the space was going. I used DaisyDisk, but Disk Inventory X is another option

Turns out ImageMagick image editing library was rampantly creating large files at /private/var/tmp


Technically this is possible. The trick, however, is finding the adaptor you will need to achieve it. I've seen many USB-C to HDMI adaptors on the market, but I don't recall seeing a USB-C to dual HDMI adaptor.

On the other hand, some people have achieved connecting two displays to a single USB-C port using a couple of different connectors. By this I mean they have purchased a USB-C to multiple port adaptor and then connected one HDMI display to the HDMI port, and a second HDMI display to one of the other ports through a second adaptor cable. I've generally seen this done in one of two ways:

Using a DVI to HDMI adaptor, with the DVI end connected to the DVI port on the USB-C to multiple port adaptor and the HDMI end into the display
Using a USB to Video adaptor, with the USB end connected to the USB port on the USB-C to multiple port adaptor and the DVI end into the display

However, your mileage in doing so may vary. I would ensure that if you go down this path that you're purchasing your adaptors/cables from somewhere you can return them if they don't do the job. Of course, if you can find a USB-C to Dual HDMI port adaptor, that should make things a lot easier.

EDIT

Another option may be using a USB-C hub (or the like) that has additional USB-C ports and then using two USB-C to HDMI adaptors plugged into those.

However, you will need to ensure that any such USB-C ports are not limited to only data transfer, charging, etc and that they will support output to a display. This is also true if you opt for a USB to Video adaptor.


L2TP/VPN data corruption issue on macOS 10.12

Do you happen to have a https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TCDOCK11PSG/ ?
I had the same issue, and it turns out if I moved the ethernet from the port on the OWC replicator, to a USB-C Ethernet, the problem went away.


I have installed Windows 8 on my Mac. Now, when starting up and selecting Mac, it begins to start, then shuts down

I did something similar and ended up incidentally tweaking the partition table from inside of windows. Because of that it wrecked the EFI and GUID and nearly bricked me completely I thought. Start the computer and hit command-r and you should be able to tell where to go from there. I have to warn you though its probably going to involve wiping one or both partitions. If the EFI table has been altered you're going to have to wipe and clean install to get it back to normal working conditions. Hopefully you can just verify and repair your disk though and that'll do the trick.


Mountain Lion: How do I see the description of a software update after I've installed it?

If you go to the Purchases tab in App Store and click on a software title, the description of the app is presented in all its full glory, with screen shots, customer ratings & everything else.


Your phone doesn't actually have the wrong year. It looks like your phone is set to use a Buddhist calendar for some reason. To change it to Gregorian:

Go to Settings > Language & Region > Calendar > Gregorian.


Split an Apple-supplied Fusion Drive back into two separate volumes?

Yes, you can split up a Fusion drive:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html


Simply resizing Files (disk0s3) and then expanding the container (disk0s2) while "shifting" disk0s3 won't work.

You have to take this path:

Resize disk0s3 with diskutil:

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 40g

Create a fourth partition Files2 (HFS+) with Disk Utility at the end of the disk
Copy all files from Files to Files2
Remove disk0s3 (Files) with Disk Utility
Rename Files2 to Files
Expand disk0s2 (if not already done automatically in step 4):

diskutil ap resizeContainer disk0s2 0


My Desktop folder is missing from favorites menu and also from Finder Preferences.

I'm assuming by your Favorites menu you mean in the Finder's Sidebar?

To rectify this:

Go to Finder
Select Finder > Preferences
Click on the Sidebar tab
Make sure the Desktop checkbox is ticked
Exit Preferences

If you mean that the option for your desktop isn't actually available in the above Preferences, try the following as a test:

Open a window in Finder
In the Sidebar, click on your username
In the list of folders, you should see the Desktop folder
Now drag the Desktop folder to your Favorites in the Sidebar

Let me know how you go.


Why can't I sign into the Mac App Store after updating to 10.6.6?

Got an answer from the apple forum.

Sign out of iTunes.  Log off, log back in.  Then sign into App Store, after that, sign into iTunes.

Looks like everything works now.


How to boot linux from an external hard drive?

That looks interesting but I am wondering why they tell you to boot from the 3rd party boot CD.

Once you have a bootable drive wouldn't just pressing OPTION at boot allow you to select the external Ubuntu USB drive? Or am I missing something here?


Borrowing an iPhone 4 - I've swapped the sim but can I access my email and iMessages without loosing the owner's?

You can do this, however you should just back it up to the owners computer first (with iTunes or iCloud). Then wipe the phone and when you are done with it, the owner can restore all of his data.


How can I view movie subtitles on a new AppleTV?

Use Subler.

Open file, click plus sign at top right to add srt file, and then save.

This process is both very fast and easy.


Can I tether with my iPhone 4 without jailbreaking my phone or paying for the additional service?

It's probably not an easy way but since there have been some apps snuck into the app store that had hidden tethering abilities: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/apple-approves-pulls-flashlight-app-with-hidden-tethering-mode/ It's clearly possible to do this in an app but not one that will be in the official store. One way around this would be to spend the $99 for a developer account, find some source code, compile it and install it onto your device. Don't mind the hand waving around finding appropriate source code though.


Any suggestions for an ultra-lightweight spreadsheet-like application?

Not sure if anything will ever beat Excel for Windows XP.

But I think Google Spreadsheets are a close second. Zippy enough without all the graphics and sluggishness of Numbers / Excel for Mac.

Then again, it runs in your browser.

HTH.


iPhoto 9.4.2 crashes on startup and reboots MacBook Pro 10.8.2

This link to Apple's Support page on Safe Boot, or Safe Mode, details what what is loaded and what is not, and may point you to possible problem areas.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

But more details would be helpful. Which MacBook Pro, whether you've repaired disk, what manintenance utilities you run. Often, with crashing apps, removing its Preferences file cures the problem. Sometimes--not often, but sometimes--a fresh install of the app is the solution.

Also check your Crash Reports for clues--and google the problem as well. Of all Mountain Lion Apple apps, iPhoto is certainly the touchiest. If you have Photostream turned on, try temporarily turning that off.


What's wrong with my automounter config?

Ok, i got:

sudo chmod 600 /etc/auto_server


"Click restore to remove the Windows partition and restore the space back to MacOS"

The safest way usually is to use the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10. However, you can use a USB flash drive if you wish. Below outlines the procedure for creating the flash drive. You may have to tweak the procedure depending on your model Mac.
The macOS operating system includes all the applications necessary to create a Windows 10 USB flash drive installer. Below are the applications and their use.

The Disk Utility application can be used to erase a 16 GB or larger USB flash drive. The name, format and scheme should be BOOTCAMP, ExFAT and Master Boot Record, respectively. See the image below.

The Boot Camp Assistant application can be used to download the Window Support Software. This download will include the Windows 10 drivers.

The Safari application can be used to download the latest 64 bit Windows 10 ISO file.

The DiskImageMounter application can be used to mount the Windows 10 iso file. This application can launched automatically by using the Finder application to open the ISO file.

The Finder application can be used to copy the contents of the mounted ISO file and the Windows Support Software to the flash drive.

Since you have already created the partition for Windows, you can EFI boot from the flash drive and install Windows 10.


How to add an application specific service contextual menu for an automator created service

Depending on your service restrict it to your text editor while creating the service in Automator and save it to ~/Library/Services/.

Example:

After selecting some text, the context menu offers the service "fiona-babbles":


computer boots up and fades to blue repeatedly

Had a similar issue recently.  Try zapping the PRAM, it worked for me.  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379


Water damaged mid 2014 Macbook Pro - SSD question

Yes, there is.  OWC makes a USB3 to PCIe Enclosure that will allow you to hook your drive up to a USB port so you can mount the drive and copy over your data.  These are a bit pricey (thanks to Apple's proprietary PCIe interface), but even the cheaper no-name ones are only a few dollars less - go with a trusted brand like OWC.

Another option, is where ever you take your MacBook to get repaired, they should be able to offer this service to you for free or even for a nominal fee.  Rossman Repair Group has the ability to save your data even if it's one of the SSDs that are soldered to the logic board.  (I'm not affiliated; just a very happy customer).


How can I stop Mission Control rearranging windows when I drag a window and press CTRL+number?

Go to System Preferences → Mission Control and make sure that the checkbox for Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use is disabled.

I am able to reproduce your scenario perfectly with this checkbox enabled and disabling this checkbox causes the spaces to be fixed in their position regardless of the switching of window position.


Within the Settings application, go to ‘Mail Contacts and Calendars’ and scroll down to the Contacts section.

In later versions of iOS, there are three separate pages, one of which is ‘Contacts’.
Change the selection within My Info to the correct contact.


Create a bootable flash with Mac OS X, then hold down options and load from that drive. Then just install a clean build as usual.


Java 8 appears to be installed but in fact is not (macOS)

I recommend using jenv and Homebrew together to manage Java installations and environments, especially as you're working from the command line.

Install jenv

brew install jenv

Then install the java version you want, Java 8 is annoying bc it's not in Homebrew itself anymore, but this works

brew cask install adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk8

Then add it to jenv

jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-8.jdk/Contents/Home

Then set it as the global java

jenv global 1.8

Now java -version is

openjdk version "1.8.0_242"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (AdoptOpenJDK)(build 1.8.0_242-b08)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (AdoptOpenJDK)(build 25.242-b08, mixed mode)

jenv has been very useful to me as a Java developer for managing and switching between all my different Java versions. It also conveniently lets you set versions specific to projects/directories with jenv local


This one (Alesis) might do the job. Still most audio devices are still 2 x 4. This one (Apogee) is also new but expensive. There is a great site for iOS Music (IOSmusicians.com) and they are talking about this device (IOSConnectMIDI4Plus)


deleting a large group of photos in photos (like from a game cam)

You can shift select & delete all at one go, if you set the view correctly…

Enable the Sidebar  Cmd ⌘   Alt ⌥   S
Set the view to Albums > All Photos
Click the first in the series
Hold  Shift ⇧  & click the last
Either right click & choose "Delete nnn Photos" or hit  Delete ⌦  [with confirmation] or
 Cmd ⌘   Backspace ⇤  [with no confirmation]

If the pictures are not entirely sequential, you can creat more complex selections using  Shift ⇧  click &  Cmd ⌘  click.


'No such file' when running rm AppleSetupDone from single-user mode

You need to enter the commands precisely, noting all spaces. If no message is shown, the command was successful, much like /sbin/mount -uw /. Enter precisely the following, followed by ⏎ Enter/Return:

/sbin/mount -uw /

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

With the first command, there's no need to keep re-running it, and no need to run it differently, it worked first try when you didn't receive an error.
With the second command, all three tries missed the space between rm and /var. Make sure the space is typed.

You should not receive a message for either command and will be returned to the prompt (#) after each is executed. Finally, run reboot.


Screen sharing turned off, but appears as "enabled"

Your shell script code is simply a check for the presence of the file /etc/com.apple.screensharing.agent.launchd.  If the file is present, it prints enabled, else it prints disabled.

However, this file is always present (in 10.13 and possibly under 10.12 as well) whether the screensharing agent is currently active or not.  Watchfiles in launchd are not necessarily checked for their presence or non-presence (unlike pidfiles in Linux, for example).  Changes and updates to the file can also trigger actions.

It's probably best to rely on launchctl's actual facilities for introspection, via sudo launchctl list or the newer launchctl print system commands, rather than checking for the presence of legacy files.


Prevent Duplicate items in Launchpad from mounted partition

What if you ejected the Snow Leopard partition and then looked to see which apps disappeared from Launchpad? Would that be helpful?


Spell-check doesn't work on words with dashes (Mail.app in Yosemite)

This is not a answer...but to show the result of a test

It confirms a problem with using a dash with spell checker in Mail.app and Notes ect... on my MBA with 10.9.5

The result is sporadic, sometimes if the word before dash is correct it will ignore the word after dash, sometimes not.

Interestingly if I enable check Grammar with Spelling it will work correctly.


Can I stream podcasts from my Apple TV rather than downloading them?

Not really. You can, however, use an app like InstaCast or DownCast to subscribe, stream or download podcasts. I use InstaCast everyday without any complaints.


Make application "active" while on another desktop

In System Preferences select > Mission Control, then un-check "When switching to an application, switch to a space with the open windows for the application".

Use ⌘ + tab to the switch to an application on another desktop.

You'll notice the menu bar will show up for that application on the current desktop.

The default key combination to switch between desktops is Control + ← or →.

You can customize the behavior in which desktops are activated via System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts.


Old MacBook air's trackpad's right click is failing, is there a workaround gesture?

Ctrl ⌃  Left Click is the standard replacement for Right Click.

Alternatively, on a trackpad you could enable 2-finger click from System Prefs


What is AppleMobileDevice - System user - in Task manager?

AppleMobileDevice is a service that gets installed along with iTunes on Windows.  You need this if you're going to use any Apple devices with your iTunes software.  One example is managing your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.  It also allows for the use of tethering internet from your iPhone/iPad to your PC if your device/provider allows it and the personal hotspot feature has been turned on.

As for why it's taking up so much CPU, that sounds like it could be a problem, for which the answer provided by bneely may have a solution.  If you don't have any Apple devices connected, you could just kill that process and it won't affect anything else.  In order to use your Apple devices normally later on, you would need to re-launch that service somehow, or restart the PC.


unlocking laptop moves all windows to primary display

It does it because the external display isn't waking up fast enough to register with the Mac.

Not sure there's any way to fix that unless you can try wake it manually first.


apple music automatically plays song 20 times

Do you have "repeat title" or "repeat all" switched on?
I assume those are all the same titles, not like an album with 20 remixes.


Automatically share new photos with photo stream?

No - I'd suggest dropbox as an alternative. It's still not flawless since you need to open the app to start pushing new pictures after taking them.

Here is some discussion surrounding the dropbox implementation:

Two Photo Streams, one iPhoto library
Can photos taken with my iPhone (and Apple ID) stream to my husband's iPad (and Apple ID)?

Alternatively, you could use a specialized app that includes automatic upload, for those are dime a dozen.


Aperture 3.2.2 imports video and stills by default for me from my iPhone with iOS 5.0.1. Are you perhaps using older software or different hardware?

The only time I've seen Aperture not show items for import is when you take more photos / videos after the import window is open and the new captures will not show until you disconnect and reconnect the USB 30 pin connector.


Macbook Pro function buttons not working following changed battery

I would start with the following:

Go to Apple > System Preferences
Select the Keyboard preferences pane
Ensure you have the Keyboard tab selected
Double-check your settings and change if necessary

Let me know how you go.

[EDIT 1]

Okay, now that we know your settings are fine, let's see whether booting into Safe Mode makes a difference, either during or afterwards.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. what happens when you press the function keys, etc)
Exit Safe Mode by restart your Mac as normal
Again, take a note of what happens (i.e. what happens when you press the function keys, etc)

Let me know how you went and we'll go from there.

[EDIT 2]

Let's test your hardware. We can do this by running Apple Diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.

[EDIT 3]

Ok, here are a couple more tests you can try to isolate things further:

Try connecting an external keyboard (any cheap USB keyboard will do) and testing the Function key behaviour on that.
Try booting up from another drive (if you can) and test things.

Let me know the results of either or both tests.


If you read the system requirements for Blender, it's pretty wide open. You could run Windows XP or newer, Mac OS X version 10.5 or newer and of course you could run Linux or perhaps even FreeBSD.

So, it's really your call which OS is easiest for you to maintain. For free (or pretty near to free) you could get a used copy of Snow Leopard or Leopard for probably $15 or even call Apple or go to an Apple store with the serial numbers and see what OS was shipped with those Macs. You might have to pay a shipping fee, but they will mail you replacement DVD for the OS.

You certainly don't need server for this software (reading the wiki linked in the question - it's clear the software handles all the clustering needed as long as all the devices are on the same network and can talk).

It depends on how expensive your time and what OS you like best to run and install. Mac is clearly the easiest since all the drivers you need will be vetted and ready to go. Once you have the software installed and running - should you find in discussions with the blender community that another OS handles a specific task better - you could always jump ship to that OS later.

Looking over the Xserve specs, you might not be able to run 10.5 but unless you have a big reason to not upgrade - I'd run the latest client version of Mac OS that will run on that hardware.


As per this discussion on Apple support community, you should be able to overcome the issue by deleting InstallInfo.plist file from within the macOS Mojave installer app.

  Go to your applications folder.
  Find the installer for macOS Mojave.
  Right click on the installer and click "Show Package Contents".
  Click on folder named "Contents".
  Click on the folder named "SharedSupport".
  Delete the file named "InstallInfo.plist".
  Enter your administer password to confirm.
  Now open the installer.


Symlink User Folders - Can I keep original Sidebar Icons?

I've already posted the solution on a previous question with a similar problem.

Restoring finder icon


How can I configure Midnight Commander to execute "open %file_name%" command every time when I press Enter

You could edit the extension file (Menu → Command → Edit extension file). I couldn´t test it on OSX but this should work:

regex/\.(.*)$
    Open=(open %f &)


I accidentally "unflagged" gmail messages with Mail.app, is there a log somewhere so that I can restore them?

GMail keeps no such logs, and neither does Mail.app

Unfortunately, you're kind of stuck searching for the messages yourself.

If you read a lot of text-based mail, and want a "buffer" of sorts to prevent yourself from doing this in the future, a command line mail client like Alpine can be configured to only synchronize changes like message flags/folders on a configured interval, rather than immediately on the remote side.

Homebrew has a package for it: brew install alpine


How to hide or clear unread badges on Gmail folders in Mail.app?

Create a filter in Gmail (web settings) to automatically mark all spam emails as read.


How to launch Twitter app from Tweet URL in Reminders in iOS 11

Universal link from Reminder app is now re-activated on iOS 11.2 and Twitter 7.12.1.


Go to the App Store app, then Purchased tab and select Not in this iPad.

This is a list of apps that you used on that iPad and is not installed nowadays. That list should list your program.


Does Apple save a (hashed) version of my device passwords?

I haven't reverse engineered if it's a hashed / salted version of the password or if it's just key exchange and entangled secrets that are cryptographically difficult to alter. However, my best estimate is no - it's not simply a hashed version of your password.
Apple states that they don't retain the secret or shared key, so I expect if that's the case, it is unintentional or a weakness in their algorithm / implementation and not they are lying to us about their design intent and execution.
There are very high visibility cases where FBI and U.S. Government frequently complain bitterly, publicly and in the courts arguing that Apple should change their design to make it easier for government to get into people's data and devices, so I tend to think Apple is largely doing precisely what they say to protect the integrity of your data / keys and passwords against surveillance, and unlocking.
Apple clearly designs things to have much data encrypted before your device sends: IP addresses and device identifiers. When they don’t retain that data indefinitely, that limits the potential for lost or stolen data, as well as limits what could even be delivered to the government by legal or procedural discovery. What I can tell is Apple works continually to reduce any non-brute-force access avenues by technical design and by making it easy to choose a complicated passphrase. When we choose secure secrets, that makes bypassing encryption more costly in terms of time and effort.
Whether you feel Apple can be honest or just is honest and/or transparent is hard to know ultimately unless you’re there in the room when the government comes knocking for data or concessions.

https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/government-information.html
https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/
https://www.apple.com/privacy/government-information-requests/


iTunes: How do I export a podcast as an mp3 to my phone?

Podcasts can be synced to your iPhone when connected to iTunes. These will then be available in the Podcasts app on your phone.

When you have your iPhone connected to iTunes view your device page in iTunes. Then click on Podcasts and from here you can manage your podcasts on your phone.

I am assuming that you are using iTunes and have an iPhone, you didnt state this in your question (although you have added these tags).


Adding copyright info on each photo using iPhoto

Your best bet would be to use an application such as ExifShopper, which allows you view/edit image Exif information; It's free and also let's you do batch jobs. I wouldn't recommend iPhoto for doing this, people have complained quite often about it corrupting Exif data, etc.

If you're looking to watermark your images try iWatermark.


How to copy files from an unbootable Mac?

Boot up in Recovery Mode (Command + R) add attach an external drive via USB.
Then open the Terminal to copy files using the command line.
All disks are available under /Volumes.


New MacBook Pro 13" (late 2016) with three external 4K monitors

Apple says that the 13 inch MacBook Pro will only support two thunderbolt displays so you should plan to rent or be able to return any hardware purchases you make if you can't get three displays to work.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204154

I'm not saying it won't work even though not "officially supported" - just that it might not work even if you have cables and ports to connect all three devices due to driver or software issues and not cable/connection issues. You'd want a Mac Pro if you need up to 6 displays as they have the graphics horsepower to run those pixels in an officially supported configuration.


My son added an app on my laptop. How can I update it?

You'll not lose any of your documents if you delete the Pages Application from your Mac and, then, buy it again using your own AppleID. This is because documents are stored on as individual files on your computer not within the Pages application.

If you want to update the current installation, you have to use the AppleID that your son used to install it.


On your Mac, open Photos and go to preferences under the Photo menu. Once in preferences select the iCloud tab at the top. In that window, there is an option to upload and store your photos on iCloud.


You can find the option under Settings > Phone > SIM PIN.


My user preferences are gone after restart

I believe somehow my external drive was momentarily disconnected and after I restarted it was like a brand new computer.

I restored from my last time machine backup and everything was back to normal except....my external drive was missing from the last time machine backup.

Time machine then backed up my entire external drive again.

It seems all is well now.

The moral to the story.....don't go without time machine or some other backup scheme.


How do I add drop shadow to text in iMovie?

This YouTube video shows that widening the font panel reveals four controls at the top for drop shadows (opacity, blur, offset, and angle). So they're right there in the font picker window when you're manipulating your text:


The VIP mailbox contains From e-mail only. I haven't found an official link from Apple stating this though.


I had the exact same problem. I went a different route, and decided to sacrifice the nice high-DPI of the Retina for a scaled solution that makes everything look right.

In Parallels VM Config → Hardware → Video → Resolution

Use: Scaled
Not: Best for Retina, More Space
Restart VM
Windows Display Settings → Set Resolution: 1280x800 + Apply
Windows Display Settings → "Make text and other items larger or smaller"

Use: Smaller (100%)

Late-2013 rMBP 13.3″ with Parallels 9.0.23350 and Windows 7


ssh into the remote Mac and kill the screensharingd daemon.

$ ps ax | grep screen
1234   ??  Ss     0:00.02 /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/screensharingd.bundle/Contents/MacOS/screensharingd
$ sudo kill 1234

It works for me. I have Mac OS X Lion on both local and remote computers.


Running Chromium OS from bootable USB on MacBook?

From my experience you are best downloading VirtualBox and launching it as a full-screen virtual appliance. Apple's EFI doesn't like to load USB drives that aren't OS X or Windows 7 installers. I have run into this same issue trying to run Ubuntu and Haiku from USB. If you have an optical drive you are better off burning the ISO to DVD and booting that way. You could also checkout rEFIt at your own risk as an alternate boot loader.

By the way it is normal for OS X to not recognize the format of the USB you created. That is because it is probably not in HFS+, NTFS or FAT. Not that it makes it any easier to boot.


How to fix corrupt or missing os system fonts in high sierra

I’ll assume you have already tried a safe boot to rebuild the font cache and you legitimately have a system level corruption where the font database cannot retrieve even a system font.

Boot to internet recovery if you can and verify that Disk Utility gives the boot volume a clean bill of health. A failing storage device would explain why a good backup on a good system would end up with corrupt fonts.
Boot to internet recovery (or local recovery) and connect to the internet and download a fresh copy of macOS to reinstall over the top of the data.

Once that’s done, you can be sure you have a good install and then go back to isolating how the user account got corrupted.

Boot to single user mode (or recovery) and mount the files stem as read/write and remove /var/db/.AppleSetupDone file so you can make a brand new admin account.

If this new admin account is also corrupt, you’ll need to perform a full erase install and/or seek hardware service since known good OS can’t be installed on an erased drive.

If this new admin account is fine with fonts, now you know the user account you migrated has the issue so you would decide to pick apart the font database / library for that user and re-enable all fonts in FontBook app - remove any third party font management tools. Or you could hand migrate that user’s files to a clean working account and walk away from the user corruption.

Sorry for so many if / then / else, but this isn’t a simple - press this one button to restore the fonts when you’re migrating user data to a system that’s not sure it’s working.


No, you can't.  The Messages app is actually in Xcode, the Apple development environment.  Within Xcode are the iPhone, iPad, and Mac simulators.  Apple prevents the simulators from sending actual messages.  I have created iOS apps that send messages so I've tried doing this many, many times.  Each time you try to send a message you'll receive an error stating Cannot Send Message.


How do I delete voice memos off of itunes?

You are correct. Basically Apple's approach is a case of Better to be safe than sorry.

What I mean is that music originates from your iTunes library (or Apple Music), so you can afford to lose it if something happens to your iPhone. You still have your music on your Mac or in the cloud. Voice Memos, on the other hand, originate on your iPhone. If something happens to your iPhone, they are gone forever. So Apple has designed iTunes to treat Voice Memos differently, and automatically sync them back to iTunes for safe keeping. This is all based on the fact we're more likely to lose our iPhones (or have them stolen) than we are our Macs.

Unfortunately, this approach has frustrated many users as there is no way to manually override this. Apple did create a Voice Memos playlist to help users better manage/navigate their memos, but there's no way to stop them syncing from your iPhone to iTunes on your computer. The only built-in option is to stop it syncing back the other way.

Getting around your situation

There are really only four options to try and avoid your brother listening to your voice memos. These are as follows:

Use separate User Accounts on your Mac. That is, use one for you and one for your brother. Each of you will then have your own instance of iTunes. To set up separate user accounts go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and click on the + sign at bottom left. You may need to unlock the padlock before you can make changes. Also, in your login options you may want to turn off Automatic Login. Basically, using this option means you should not share your password with your brother! :)
Manually delete your Voice Memos from your iTunes Library / Store them somewhere else. The easiest way to access voice memos is to go to the Voice Memos playlist. You can just delete them BUT before you do, you may want to make a copy of the ones you want and store them somewhere else. The easiest way to do this is to right-click on them and select Copy. Then go into the Finder and paste them into a folder somewhere. Once you've done this, delete them from your iTunes playlist. However, this approach does mean needing to keep on top of this for whenever new voice memos are synced from your iPhone to computer.
Use a different Voice Recording app instead of the built-in iPhone app. There are many out there and many also offer ways to sync and back them up separately from the usual iTunes process.
No longer share the same computer. A more expensive option, no doubt! :)

You may want to provide feedback to Apple about this also. My personal preference would be that Voice Memos are handled totally outside the Music Library and have it's own designated category and options. Whatever your preference, you may want to send the same feedback for both iTunes and iPhone.


automate saving screenshot (already in clipboard) to a file in bash

screencapture is a CLI tool built into macOS for taking screenshots, in /usr/sbin/screencapture.

To take a screenshot and save it to screenshot.png:

screencapture -x screenshot.png

To screenshot a region, you can use -R, where x,y are the coordinates of the top-left and w,h is width and height of the capture.

screencapture -x -Rx,y,w,h /path/to/capture.png

To interactively choose a region, use -i

screencapture -i screenshot.png


iPhone app that can send emoticons to non-iPhone devices

Emoji, as the iOS emoticons are called, are Unicode characters that need a certain set of glyphs to be able to be displayed—think of it as a missing font not displaying correctly. If the device doesn't have the "font", it can't show it.

What you're asking for is impossible: you can't do that without a custom font installed on both devices, and on most smartphones that's not possible to do.

However, if the person on the intended receiving end is using a Mac running OS 10.7, they will display, as Apple decided to make them available in Lion.


Why is my (automatic) clock running 8 minutes behind?

This might help.

How can I tell if my Mac is keeping the clock updated properly?
And, this
ntpd: consistently incorrect time on mid-2013 MacBook Air

TL;DR:  open a command prompt, aka Shell, aka "Terminal".

What's the output of 'ntpq -p'?
What is in /var/db/ntp.drift ?

A list of servers is available at http://support.ntp.org/servers; you have to try to select the servers that are close to you, especially not just geographically, but network-wise.


Macbook Pro with failed USB ports - cheapest way to get some functionality

The Late 2012 MacBook Pro doesn't have Thunderbolt 2, so your port listing can't be completely right.

It does however have Thunderbolt, and you can get a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter such as this one from Kanex:

https://www.kanex.com/thunderbolt-gigabit-ethernet

Or this one from Delock:

https://www.delock.com/produkte/1095_Thunderbolt/62634/merkmale.html

Whether or not that is "cheap" for you is subjective, but it is an easy way to add a USB port to the computer.


Selective file sharing in a public coffee shop

You can share a folder by selecting it in the Finder, press CommandI (Or select Get Info), and check the box that says "Shared Folder". You will need to enable file sharing in System Preferences if you have not already done that.

Your second and third questions have a single solution that could solve both problems. Unless the users have accounts on your machine, you are correct that you would be making the files available to anyone on the network. However, you could create a peer-to-peer network that only your friends have the password to join. Go to the WiFi menu and select "Create Network." Assign your network a name and password, and give that information to your friends.

Be sure to disable sharing when you are done, or else members of other, more public networks will be able to read your files.


Why I can't upgrade my Mac Pro OS X 10.7 to a more recent version?

As indicated here, the last officially supported system software is Mac OS X 10.7.5.

Any later system (10.8-10.10) is not running on your Mac and you won't be able to upgrade.

Here (english) or here (german) you'll find a hack/workaround to get Yosemite running on your MacPro1,1, if it doesn't contain a 7300GT or X1900XT video card (which is true in your case because your Mac contains a GeForce 8800 GT).


Most probably it was that rebooting your iPad reinitiated  the memory. The thing is some apps have poor memory management schemes. So due to those bad "memory dumps" you device's memory becomes used for nothing. So When you reboot the device, the problem is solved


I have several hundred expired certificates starting with com.apple.idms.appleid.prd. What are they and are they safe to delete?

Expired certificates can be safely deleted.

They were likely generated as a result of a problem authenticating with iCloud.


Apple will only sign the latest version of iOS on any device that can accept the update, so your choices are stay on iOS 6 or update to iOS 8.1

There is usually a brief period of grace during which they will still sign the last iOS, but that is long over for iOS 8.


How to open a specific port in Firewall OS X 10.9.4

I had the same issue under OS X Yosemite (10.10.3).  Found this blog post that provides clear instructions.  We can't use ipfw any more, as it's deprecated.  Instead, use pfctl, which unfortunately lacks a nice command line way to tell it to open a port.  Instead, you need to:

Open /etc/pf.conf in a text editor.
Add a line like this:

  # Open port 8080 for TCP on all interfaces

  pass in proto tcp from any to any port 8080

Save the file.
Load the changes with:

  sudo pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

If you need to open a udp port, change tcp to udp, if you need both, add a second line.  Additional detail can be found in man pf.conf.

Also make sure your server is listening on the actual interface you want it accessible over (or all interfaces, using 0.0.0.0 or ::0), not localhost (127.0.0.1 or ::1).


Your headache lays with how Steam handles its exit status. Steam probably doesn't have applescript integration, so it considers a quit command from applescript an unclean exit. It would still quit, but it will let you know about it. What you need is a way to ignore the error message and execute the rest of the script nevertheless.

try
    tell application "Steam" to quit
    on error error_message number error_number
        if error_number is equal to -128 then
        --Keep Calm and Carry On
        else
            display dialog error_message
        end if
end try
delay 5
tell application "Plex Home Theater" to activate

You can combine the two scripts into one toggle/switch:

set steamRunning to false
set plexRunning to false

try
    do shell script "pgrep -l -f 'Steam.app'"
    set steamRunning to true
end try

try
    do shell script "pgrep -l -f 'Plex Home Theater'"
    set plexRunning to true
end try

if steamRunning is true and plexRunning is false then

    try
        tell application "Steam" to quit
    on error error_message number error_number
        if error_number is equal to 128 then
            --Keep Calm and Carry On
        else
            display dialog error_message
        end if
    end try
    delay 5
    tell application "Plex Home Theater" to activate

end if

if steamRunning is false and plexRunning is true then

    tell application "Plex Home Theater" to quit
    delay 5
    tell application "Steam" to activate

end if

I don't have either app so I cannot debug. There could be multiple processes named "steam", given its game-thing, so I used "Steam.app", assuming that's the app name under /Applications/.


OK, it's kind of embarrasing, in a way, when you figure out the answer to your own question, but, here it is:

You just go to the Security and Privacy pane, click on the Privacy tab, and then add the apps where you want to allow GUI scripting. Just that simple....


iPhone 3GS suddenly shuts down while playing games

Usually when an iOS device suddenly powers off, it's a voltage drop in the battery due to a hardware problem. If the device draws more current than the battery can provide, it will shut off.

Are you able to take it in for service to have the device checked out? You could chase a software restore, but those usually leave a log file or the device reboots on its own. Also, over temp could cause the issue, but the device logs that and shows an over temp error on the display rather than just blacking out most of the times heat is a cause.


Trying to set boot-args with nvram gets "general error" on Sierra

The kext signing restriction was integrated into System Integrity Protection starting in El Capitan, and as a result the old disable flag no longer works. But there's a new way to do it: boot in recovery mode, and run the command csrutil enable --without kext. I haven't tested it, but my understanding is that this will turn off the kext requirements, while leaving the rest of SIP enabled. If that doesn't do it, try csrutil disable to turn SIP off entirely.


Need to find & convert thousands of multi-page TIFFs

There is a way to find them using a command line in the terminal. This requires you to install a tool which is not part of the default command set.

Download and install exiftool.

exiftool is able to print detailed information about image files, including TIFFs. It can tell the difference between multi-page documents and between FAXes and photographic TIFFs. For example testphoto.tif is a regular TIFF file and testfax.tif is a multi-page FAX:

MacBook-Air:Downloads jamie$ exiftool -s -Format -Compression -SubfileType *.tif
======== testfax.tif
Compression                     : T6/Group 4 Fax
SubfileType                     : Single page of multi-page image
======== testphoto.tif
Format                          : image/tiff
Compression                     : LZW
SubfileType                     : Full-resolution Image
    2 image files read

If we can get the filename and the identifying info on one line, then we can use grep to identify the files we want. The -csv option puts the output on one line in comma seperated value format. So, a command like this would do what you want.

MacBook-Air:Downloads jamie$ exiftool -csv  -SubfileType *.tif | grep multi-page
    2 image files read
testfax.tif,Single page of multi-page image

So, we have correctly identified testfax.tif as the only multi-page TIFF in this directory.


Vibrate is the same no matter what the volume level is. You can turn vibrate off for certain contacts if you want which is helpful for "noisy" contacts. Notifications will still show up on the locked screen.


Have Mountain Lion remember different monitor (not window) arrangement

Have you tried setting up your screens with SwitchResX?
It has settings for each unique display connected to your computer. The app cost a couple of dollars, but theres a 30day demo to try if it helps you.


How to reactivate a iPhone 5s which was originally activated from another account (Device already removed from previous iCloud)?

A full set of instructions are listed here: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13695?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

In short:

you will need your friend to activate your phone at the Activation Screen during set up. The place you are stuck on.
After that, reset the device by going to Settings > General > Reset.
It will ask for your friends Apple ID details. Enter them.
Once the phone has been reset, tell your friend to remove it from
their Find my iPhone account.
Restart the device and now finally register it under your own Apple
ID.

Activation is a separate process. The device is still registered under your friend's Apple ID. And you are simply registered to use your Apple ID on the device. This is what you're getting hung up on. Resetting the device will allow you to activate it (register the device) under your own Apple ID. Signing out of your friends Apple ID in Settings does no affect device registration.

And of note: If anyone may be attempting to bypass Activation Lock fraudulently or under false pretences, this cannot be done. Apple binds registration of the device to their servers. What that means is Apple will chase that device whenever it is connected to the Internet till the ends of time. Unless you can hack into Apple's servers, there is absolutely no way to bypass Activation Lock.


New MacBook Pro 13” screen goes black when opened past vertical

This is a common issue with MacBook Pro 13" devices that are older, the issue is that the LVDS cable or backlight power cable have begun to fail.

This isn't a software issue and will require a hardware repair. You've not specified how old the machine is, you can do the following to find out:

Click the Apple logo in the menu bar.
Click About this Mac.

Look here:

You could additionally verify this is a hardware fault by connecting an external screen, or projector via the Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt or HDMI ports and verify this issue doesn't happen on the external monitor at the same time as the internal one.


How to view certificate info without installing

I'm not sure if this was available in the OS you had at the time you wrote your question, but at least with OS X 10.11.6, if you select the .crt file in the Finder and press the spacebar, a Quick Look window will open and you can see all of that info in a nice display.  Works for .pfx files too.


Upload a new build to a "Ready for sale" version?

Submit a new build with 3.4.1 as the short version value in the Info.plist file.
The value for CFBundleShortVersionString must change between releases. The three digit semantic versioning format is described in Apple's developer documentation and is widely understood beyond Apple's platforms:

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,
MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards compatible manner, and
PATCH version when you make backwards compatible bug fixes.

Additional labels for pre-release and build metadata are available as extensions to the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format.


Can I prevent "Photos" app from loading?

When you say loading you mean Photos will open once you connect a device to your mac?

Use the Image Capture app to configure what app is loaded for that device. You can turn off loading of Photos, too. This setting is on the bottom left, you might hat to click the arrow-up sign to see the app selection box.


Are there any steps I can take to make macOS use more of my RAM?

macOS will by default aggressively cache files, etc. in memory. In your case, it seems your programs simply aren't loading in that much data - and then there's really nothing more to cache.

If you keep the system running longer and look at the values again, you'll most probably see that the numbers have changed so that less memory is left idle.

You can selectively use more memory by adding a RAM disk to the system. I.e. a virtual "disk" that is really in RAM. You could then copy files to that disk to ensure that they stay in RAM. It is hugely impractical for ordinary desktop usage.


Automatically expose underlying files in iPhoto

Go to File > Reveal in Finder > Original File.

It will open a new Finder window with some obscure path, but don't worry, you don't really have to deal with that.

Just grab the file, drop it on the file dialog sheet...

and vuala! Your file has been selected. This little trick applies to any file and any native file dialog in OSX.

Quick and easy.

Note: As an extra tip, you can also drag the file directly to any "Choose File" button in Safari.

So there you go! First show the file, then drag it to the file picker. No temporary folders, moving or even remembering a path involved. Hope it helps!


Files gone after disk utility repair tool. however, space on disk remains

Set the Finder to show invisible files. The following Applescript will toggle that on/off.

The report says files were moved to a folder called "." which will be invisible. If you're lucky they may be in there... otherwise it's time for Disk Drill or Data Recovery Data Recovery [neither of which are free]

The next things to do will be, in order...

Invest in a backup strategy; Time Machine, Backblaze etc & use it.
Throw that drive out & use an HFS+ formatted drive, with Journalling - because Mac's support for NTFS is not great.. & by default can't write or repair NTFS, so you either have Paragon or similar or you enabled it via Terminal.

Toggle Invisibles Applescript [copy/paste to Applescript Editor, save as Application]

        --Toggle Invisibles
    tell application "Finder"
        try
            -- on launch check invis files state, if invis, switch to vis
            set onOff to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
            if onOff = "NO" or onOff = "OFF" then
                my showAllFiles()
            else
                my hideAllFiles()
            end if
            my testFinderRunning()
        end try
    end tell

    --Finder Visible & relaunch sub-routine
    on showAllFiles()
        do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ON"
        tell application "Finder" to quit
        delay 3
        try
            tell application "Finder" to activate
        end try
    end showAllFiles

    on hideAllFiles()
        --try
        set onOff to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
        do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles OFF" --OnOffCommand
        tell application "Finder" to quit
        delay 3
        try
            tell application "Finder" to activate
        end try
    end hideAllFiles

    on testFinderRunning()
        set test to 0
        --try
        repeat while test = 0
            log test
            tell application "System Events" to set test to count (every process whose name is "Finder")
            delay 2
            --we do this even if active because it doesn't naturally come to front
            try
                tell application "Finder" to activate
            end try
            if (test > 0) then exit repeat
        end repeat
    end testFinderRunning


third party content app document for app store

Copyright Contract

  You must warrant that your application does not infringe the rights of a third party by providing documentary evidence that you have the rights to use this content.

Apple is asking for proof that you have the right to use the Third Party Content in your app.

You can do this by providing the requested contract with the copyright holder. A contract can come in many forms depending on the laws and countries involved. Apple does not provide examples because of this diversity.

Ultimately, Apple needs to know you accept responsibility and have the legal right to distribute other's work through your app.

What content do you include or make accessible in your app?
Do you really have the right to republish it?

Apple needs you to prove this.


USB-C Dongles killing Wifi on 2016/2017 MacBooks – Who’s to blame?

One customer got a good USB-C Hub and after plugged it to their MacBook Pro then appears the same wifi interference problem.

He solved the interference by covering the Hub with aluminum paper

(Thanks Faraday!)


MacBook Pro 13 doesn't fall asleep when the lid closed

Lets start with a test to find out your settings.

copy paste following in your Terminal

pmset -g

now copy paste results here

If you think it is the sensor (unlikely)

To test the sensor, take a small (SMALL) magnet like the one on your Fridge, and slowly slide it where the screen and keyboard connect. The sensor is usually at the outer most edge of the keyboard part, while the build in magnet (yes there is one already inside your Mac) is usually in the screen portion (outer edges)


Why does my mac take 60-90 seconds to wake up?

As soon as it wakes up next time, examine the file /var/log/system.log (open a terminal and type less /var/log/system.log; Or open the Console app and find Files/system.log).
Scroll to the bottom (the most recent entries) and find the time at which you just woke the machine, scrolling up if necessary. The entries from there to the bottom should give a clue as to what was going on during the wake-up period.

You can also look through previous wake-ups the same way, to look at what was happening during the long delay.


How can I sync original photos from iCloud to a non-Apple computer?

There are multiple ways of doing this I suggest the simplest one .
First you need to download iMazing app on your windows .
Download iMazing for PC
Download iMazing for MacOS
Launch iMazing and connect your device to your Mac or PC.
Select your device in the sidebar, then select "Photos".
Click "Import from Folder", and select the music you want to import.
Transfer your Photos.


fstab syntax for afp share with space and special characters?

I've searched the whole Internet on this issue, and seems like you cannot automount points with spaces. I've tried all kinds of tricks on Yosemite to make myself sure.

However, you can use manual command to mount to such points, for SMB it will be:

mount_smbfs //user:password@server/share%20with%20spaces /Volumes/Network/Share\ With\ Spaces/

Probably this could exist in some Automator script and get executed at a startup time, but this is not automount, of course. So I ended up with underscore characters in mount point names.


This is due to the behaviour of your shell that is running in there Terminal.app. It is probably the bash shell

When you ask the shell to run a command if you provide an absolute path (that is beginning with / as your second one does) it will try to execute that program at that path. If you provide a relative path (i.e. one not starting with /) it will try to create an absolute path by prepending the directories that are in your PATH environment variable to what you typed. As your current directory or . is not on your PATH it cannot find  a file to execute. If the path begins with a . the it will repave that by the absolute path of your current directory and thus get a path that can be executed.


Why are email replies sent from iPhone not threaded in Gmail?

Apparently, there's something wrong with the iPhone 6, its configuration is not fully compatible with Exchange settings.


Mac Minis: 2012 Quad Core vs 2014 Dual Core for a virtualization host?

As a test server with multiple VM running, definitely quad core is much better than dual-core. None of the new features introduced in late-2014 mac mini benefits you.


"Destination folder access denied" on a partition on MacBook Pro from Windows 8

Windows cannot write to Apple Journaled partitions.  OS X cannot write to NTFS. So you'll need to choose something FAT-based.

There are third-party solutions to allow writing of course but I've never found the performance hit to be worth versus just going with FAT.

Note that doing three partitions with Bootcamp can be tricky. I recommend so research on that subject.


Preferred sources/methods for VirtualBox images on macOS 10.12?

I would say that in-general, the preferred method of getting a virtual machine image would be to create it yourself by installing the operating system fresh from the distribution's installer. I would recommend doing this anyway, it ensures the image you get has not been tampered with by a malicious actor.

Oracle does offer Pre-Built Developer VMs. Any other sources are unofficial.


Mac OS X, 10.12.2, Command Line how to add Search Domains

First list all network services to get an overview:

networksetup -listallnetworkservices

Output example:

An asterisk (*) denotes that a network service is disabled.
en0
en1

I renamed my two network services from "Ethernet" to en0 and "Ethernet Adapter (1)" to en1. You have to use your actual network service names of course! If the network service name contains spaces you have to use quotes (e.g. "Apple USB Ethernet Adapter") in the commands below.

To set search domains for a network service use:

sudo networksetup -setsearchdomains networkservice domain1 [domain2] [...]

Example:

sudo networksetup -setsearchdomains en0 example.home example.net example

Check with networksetup -getsearchdomains en0:

example.home
example.net
example

If you want to add search domains to already existing domains use:

SEARCHDOMAIN=$(networksetup -getsearchdomains en0)
sudo networksetup -setsearchdomains en0 $SEARCHDOMAIN domain1 domain2 ...


Way to keep track of successful commands on command line?

Do you know of a way to automatically log commands that return successfully ... in order to keep a record of how you managed to finally successfully set up your environment to compile that one stubborn piece of code?

You first need to answer the question What constitutes a successful command?
You're probably thinking "that's easy!  One that works and exits with a 0 code!"  To get a better perspective of that, you need to define what a failed command is.  The broadest of definitions will be any command that has an exit code of not zero.  Does that mean the command has failed?
No.  It doesn't.  Commands fail for any number of reasons and that doesn't mean what you typed was in error.  Let's use a very simple example:  ssh.  If you connect to a remote server and exit cleanly (type exit when your done), you will get an exit status of zero (0).  However, if you poweroff the machine, you will get an exit status of one (1) when the connections is broken.
Did your command fail?
Try it.  Connect via SSH to any remote.  Exit cleanly then issue the command echo $?.  Do it again and then issue poweroff or kill your session on the remote and issue the echo command again.
I also use Zsh and I created a custom prompt that prefaces my prompt with  a green check  or a "red X"  depending on whether the last command failed or not.
Here's a sample with the SSH example used above.

Did the command actually fail?  No, it didn't but the result generated an error code because something in the process failed.  This holds true for the commands you issue compiling software as well.  Your command can be syntactically perfect, but the compile will still fail because you have an error in your code. Did you want that command ignored?
BASH_COMMAND Environment Variable
Out of curiosity, I investigated this and it’s not a trivial thing to do.  You cannot use history because it’s designed to be interactive and not scripted.
In Bash, there is an environment varialbe called $BASH_COMMAND.  It’s the command that is about to be or is being executed unless the command was called from a Trap, then its the command executing at the time of the trap.
In order to make use of this, you would have to execute all of your commands within a DEBUG trap:
trap ‘prev_command=$thiscmd; thiscmd=$BASH_CMD’ DEBUG
mycommand
if $? -eq 0; echo $prev_command >> somefile.txt; else echo “Command failed”; fi

This would be the logic, but in all practicality, it doesn’t work because you have to execute your command within a trap.
I haven’t found an equivalent in Zsh (yet... but I doubt I’ll continue my research).
Zsh Addons

I'm on a MacBook Pro, MacOS Catalina, using iTerm2 with zsh and oh-my-zsh extension, as well as powerlevel10k.

I'm not a fan of these things especially for the novice user.  You're bringing in lots of extra complexity and add-ons to prettify your command prompt and shell environment.  I encourage folks actually learn how to do this manually so you understand the underpinnings of your system.
The code for my above example is actually very simple:
PROMPT="%(?.%F{green}✓.%F{red})%fallan@%m %F{blue}%1~ %f%# "

In fact, I create a simple function (in ~/.zshrc or `~/.bash_profile) for when I have to cut/paste terminal output to public forums like this:
# (Re)sets the prompt on the fly
setprompt() {

  case "$1" in
    se) # Obfuscates username to "allan" for StackExchange posts
        PROMPT="%(?.%F{green}✓.%F{red})%fallan@%m %F{blue}%1~ %f%# "
        ;;
    *)  # Default is to set the prompt back to the original
        PROMPT=' %(?.%F{green}✓.%F{red})%f%n@%m %F{blue}%1~ %f%# '
    ;;
  esac
}

Bottom line, this really isn’t feasible.
Avoid all those add-ons.  It's just wrapping.  Learn to use the core shell first, then add things as you go.  This will help you in actually learning the system.  You're looking for shortcuts to things and this will actually hinder your effectiveness.
TL;DR
Don't do this.  A command that failed isn't necessarily a bad command.  You can very easily "ignore" a perfectly good command because it failed due to an issue not related to the command itself.

Usually I just copy/paste successful actions I do on the command line into a text file. That's a bit of an error prone and cumbersome process and I sometimes forget to do it.

If you're finding copy/pasting to be error prone, you're doing it wrong.  If it's cumbersome and you forget, then rethink your workflow.  I have OneNote open on my second monitor at all times so I can refer to and take notes as soon as I need to. Find a flow that works for you.  The built in shell history isn't a substitute for good note taking.
Not only is this not a good practice overall, it’s not feasible at due to how you would go about capturing the last successful command.


Project folder not visible in Sublime Text 2 after relaunching app

Adding folders to projects or otherwise changing projects will be retained for as long as the instance of the app is open. Your changes will be lost when the app is quit unless you save the project.


Turn off power to Thunderbolt device while leaving data connection

Per the thunderbolt specification, it includes power so if you could turn it off, it wouldn't be thunderbolt. I suppose a device on the receiving end could have a switch or power control to disable draw, but I have not seen any hardware that assumes anything but you get power at the same time / before any data connection comes alive on thunderbolt.
It's an interesting thought experiment to think if we had this to help troubleshoot, but not something I see as practical. You'd need an oscilloscope and trace to determine what's happening in your setup if you can't measure voltage lines with a multimeter.
Some USB devices have external power and won't draw as do some rack mountable thunderbolt audio devices but they never draw power from TB so you might need to look in that direction if you can't isolate it by swapping in and out parts entirely.


Updating OSX Lion 10.7.5 to 10.8.4 so I can install xcode

You need to buy Mountain Lion or Mavericks in the AppStore. That will take care of the installation.  Mavericks is free, is supposed to be better, but there are some problems associated with it.

Before doing that, in any case, check your most frequently used applications to see if they are compatible with the OS X version you intent to install.  Then do a full backup and do disk permission checks in DiskUtilities before you upgrade.


Run applescript after specific application launch

Keyboard Maestro also supports running a macro when an application is activated:


Why doesn't my calendar alert me when events are upcoming?

Something that seems to work for Google calendars: on your phone, go to Settings => Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Scroll down to the Calendars block. Select Default alert times. You can then chose phone alerts by type of event.


Linux' `ps f` (tree view) equivalent on OSX?

You can install the pstree command using either Homebrew (my personal favourite), MacPorts or Fink and you'll get a command-line, tree view of processes on your Mac.

With Homebrew installed, just run:

brew install pstree

then use it like pstree from the command line.


Delete songs manually on ipod Touch (without the help of iTunes)


Really switch among all the applications by shortcuts

If you use ⌘+tab to go through your open applications, you should see even minimized ones, but if you select them, they don't automatically maximize/unminize. If you however press the option key after you've selected the desired minimized application but before releasing the ⌘ key with ⌘+tab, the app window that was minimized to the dock will return to its previous view.

I know this probably isn't exactly what you're looking for, but perhaps it'll help nonetheless.

Following this tip should also create a window for apps with no active window (works for Mail, iTunes and Keynote).

You can also switch from an app to "itself" (by hitting shift+tab once) then holding option before letting go of command will unminimize or create the window.


Copying one video from Mac to Iphone without syncing

You can use iTunes to move files directly without a sync over USB.

Attach your iPhone, iPod or iPad with the datacable to your the Mac.
In iTunes, in the top right corner, click on your device. In my case it's an iPad.

Now go the the 'Apps' tab and scroll down to 'File Sharing'

Choose the program you want to sent your file to

Click on the 'Add' bottom in the bottom right

The newer versions of Dropbox app supports syncing from their servers and local WiFi syncing over a LAN so you can experiment with this if you don't want to try iTunes. Apple's documentation can be found here. There are also third party tools that sync files, but for one file it's hard to justify downloading anything and just use iTunes for the task.


Are photos still saved on Mac with PhotoStream after deleted on iPhone?

if you want them to be safe for sure, just drag them into a new folder. but i dont thing it will erase them, because they are stored in icloud, and when you stop them on the iphone, it asks if you want to delete them, and i would imagine it would also ask on your MBP if you decided to stop syncing them. so to be clear, dont delete them by hand on your phone. go to icloud, where it lets you pick what to sync, and turn off photostream. it will ask if you want to keep photos on your device or delete them. it will delete on your phone but not in icloud. case in point, i just reset and deleted everything on my phone to get ready to sell, and all of my photostream pics are still in tact on my MBP. so that would make sense.


macOS Mojave, Dictionary.app: How to install dictionaries to offline computer?

They are located in (HighSierra)

Aside from this, you will find packaged dictionaries here:

~/Library/Dictionaries/

there is also the words file here /usr/share/dict/words

User specific Dictionaries are stored here /System/Library/Assets/com_apple_MobileAsset_DictionaryServices (based on your Language and Keyboard selection), here is mine, so if you have chosen Polish it will be there.

copy and paste in to Finder GoTo

Do not copy the Folder, just the dictionary it self.


What you could do, is give them the same name, but dial down the transmit power for each.

The current AirPort Utility (the 6.x version) doesn't support this, but the old 5.6.x version can still be downloaded here:
http://coreyjmahler.com/2013/10/24/airport-utility-5-6-1-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks/


While you're unable to see what's on the screen at present, you'd still be able to use the keyboard to reset the NVRAM and SMC, so I'd try doing that to see if it has any impact.

Reset the NVRAM

Your Mac mini uses Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) to store various settings. You can reset this as follows:

Shut down your Mac mini.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work. (In your case, since you may not get to see the grey screen, all you need to do is press the keys immediately after powering up)
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again (i.e. a 2nd time) and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

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

Resetting the SMC on a Mac mini

Your Mac mini's System Management Controller (SMC) can be reset by following these steps:

Shut down your Mac mini
Unplug it from power
Wait 15 seconds
Plug the power cord back in
Wait for an additional 5 seconds
Press the power button to turn it back on

Once you've reset the NVRAM and/or SMC, let me know how you go.


How do I get the calculator button on a Microsoft Sculpt keyboard working?

If macOS isn't "seeing" the scan code then there's not much that can be done in mapping it - it's got to see it to map it.

There is a utility you can use that can verify if the keyboard is sending the code or not - xev.  You'll need to run it in XQuartz which is an X11 environment.

Using the following command, you can get the output of each keypress

xev | grep -A2 --line-buffered '^KeyRelease' \
| sed -n '/keycode /s/^.*keycode \([0-9]*\).* (.*, \(.*\)).*$/\1 \2/p'

Below is some random keypresses on my wired Unix keyboard attached to my Mac.

I've used this to test and map Sun Microsystems Type 5, 6, and 7 keyboards on my Mac and can verify that it detected the extra keys.  If xev can see it, it means that the scancode is being sent, it's just the HID kexts macOS uses are insufficient.

Can it be fixed?

That would be a software development question outside my and this site's scope.

Bottom Line

If it's not being detectable at all, it's unusable.  If it is being detected, there's a chance of using it, but you'll need an application to see the keypress to utilize it.

(You might want to try ControllerMate)


As the message says, it can't validate the source, meaning that either you are poiting to a wrong file (such as an alias, por instance) or the image you are trying to restore is corrupted.


How do I check the active audio codec for a bluetooth connection in Big Sur?

Download Bluetooth Explorer, open it, then navigate to Tools > Audio Graphs. You can see at the bottom the active codec - in this example I'm using AAC.

Note that Bluetooth Explorer is no longer included in the latest Xcode Additional Tools bundle. The last version I could find was for Xcode 11, and it now crashes sometimes on Big Sur, but still does the trick. Download it here: https://developer.apple.com/download/more/?=additional%20tools


How can I determine the maximum supported resolution on a given Macbook?

While I don't normally like to post 'link only' answers, this needs to be an exception.  The answer to your question will largely be 'it depends on the MacBook'.

To help you figure it out, I recommend going to EveryMac.com's MacBook Pro section.  This site will list the technical specs of every MacBook, including the maximum external resolution.

For example, here's a partial tech spec for a 2010 13" MBP:


Check if an OS X user is an administrator?

See the man page for id.

id -G user

will output a space delimited list of groups for a particular user. You'd have to detect 80 in the output list.


Logitech C920 - Follow my face support for OSX 10.14

I'm surprised their own suite even recognises it - it didn't when the C920 was new…

From Logitech's C920 page

  Compatible with:
  Windows® 10 or later, Windows 8, Windows 7

  Works in USB Video Device Class (UVC) mode with supported video-calling clients:
  macOS 10.10 or later
  Chrome OS™
  Android™ v 5.0 or above
  USB port
  Internet connection

So for anything other than Windows, there's no specific support, only as a generic 'UVC' device.
Many Mac users have complained about this over many years… as I got mine in 2012, I doubt it's anything they're going to be adding any time soon.

You can get a lot better than Logitech's basic support with a 3rd party app called Webcam Setting [$7.99] & though it can't do 'follow my face' it does make the camera considerably more useful. It also hasn't been updated in 5 years, but then neither has the camera.
It works well up to Mojave. I can't test on Catalina, but at least it doesn't get the "May not work in future OSes" warning at launch.


How to convert macOS Extended Journaled to APFS?

This site has instructions on how to convert your drive to APFS.

Restart the Mac into Recovery Mode.
Launch Disk utility.
Click-select your named boot volume. (Not the physical drive above it.)
In the Disk Utility Edit menu, select “Convert to APFS

More detailed instructions are given in the link above.


Mac App Store updated an app, app doesn't know?

Reinstalling is a very easy process on OS X Apps. Delete the .app from the Applications folder and download it again. Preferences and data are usually stored in the Library-Folder of your System or User and are therefor left untouched when deleting the .app file.


airpods flashing orange and sound is gone in left

Press the reset button on the white case(you can miss this as it is flush with the case) hold the button until the light goes white. Then pair it with Bluetooth again... hey presto


Installing OS X 10.7 on new HDD from DVD

Hard drives or DVDs that do not have a filesystem on them will not show up on startup with the option key held down. So, the HDD won't show up on startup because you don't have Mac OS X installed on it yet.

1) Restart with the the option key held down. If there is a system disk connected to the Mac it will show up on the screen. In this case, the install DVD should show up.

2) Select the install DVD and push the return key.

3) Try to install Mac OS X from the DVD to the HDD by following the installer instructions.

4) If the install fails, your install disk may be damaged. Post your error message back here.


Use sc_auth unpair …

This worked for me:

/usr/sbin/sc_auth unpair -u [username]

The sc_auth command…

  sc_auth configures a local user account to permit authentication using a supported smart card.  Authentication is via asymmetric key (also known as public-key) encryption.  sc_auth works with signing keys, but not encryption keys.

…with the option unpair:

  unpair   Remove association with a user and keychain. If no specific hash is provided, all associations with a user are removed.


Safari requires that a literal percent sign in a URL (%) be URL-encoded in a bookmarklet (%25...while it looks like that's just 25 added, the percent sign followed by two numbers is decoded to a literal percent sign). Also, the property is .style.width, not just .width.

Change your bookmarklet to this:

javascript:document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].style.width='50%25';

I've confirmed this works in Safari v8.0.6 (OS X 10.10.3).


Limit the number of versions time machine stores of particular files

Since you don't want no as an answer, and since Time Machine is proprietary software that you cannot modify you only have two options (don't complain, you asked for it)

convince Apple to implement the missing feature
implement your own version of Time Machine

You could modify backups from the terminal or with the Finder: backups are just directories with hard links but beware that you will most likely make them unusable by Time Machine (as Time Machine relays on the fact that the backups are as they were created).

There is a function in Time Machine "Delete all backups of" which removes backed up copies of a file. You could research if this is scriptable (Apple Script or terminal). I had no luck but seems the only way to periodically clean up a backup (with cron or similar)

You didn't specify which virtualization software you are using. If it's VirtualBox there is a workaround to reduce the size of the backed up data using snapshots: http://blog.matteocorti.ch/?p=331


What is the name of the 'corner swipe' to change motion animations on the Apple Watch?

From what I can tell, what makes the watch face advance to the next jellyfish is a tap. Your "corner swipe" must be just along the sensor in a way that it looks to the device like a tap.


Restoring Contacts groups from Time Machine

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been dealing with trying to selectively restore certain data types from TM. Upon disabling the iCloud on a few devices, I lost contacts, calendar, reminders and notes.

I worked with a senior Apple advisor to restore contacts and calendars from TM. (We were unable to get reminders and notes - argh.) I experienced what you have, some restore attempts did not bring back groups. I use groups heavily and so was very determined to find a solution that brought back both contacts and groups.

When I saw your post yesterday, I contacted the Apple advisor to confirm the steps we took to restore contacts, that included groups. He says that it was going to ~Library/Application Support/Address Book, and restoring that entire folder was the solution. I can’t remember for sure (we were trying lots of different things), but he says that was the one that worked. I have to assume he is correct.

In your message, you indicate that this is the route you tried without success. Keep trying...I want to let you know there is a solution, I was able to do so.

C.


Shortcut to eject all external hard drives but not MobileBackups

You can do the following instead:

tell application "Finder"
  eject (every disk whose ejectable is true)
end tell

If you have partitioned disks mounted, hold down the
"Option" key, run your script, then release the key when done.


Has anyone tricked the Apple Configurator to work with non VPP redemption codes?

This was only necessary with version 1.0 of the configurator.

Version 1.0.1 (110) allows more codes to be used than just VPP generated ones.


For me it shows only artwork for .m4a files. All the artist I have in mp3 format doesn't show artwork image.


I can't resize my macintosh HD drive on os X 10.9.5

What partition were you running from when you took that screenshot? If Macintosh HD is your boot partition, you may have to boot into the recovery partition in order to modify it.


When will Endnote X4 for Mac be compatible with Word for Mac 2011?

According to their website:

  EndNote X4 is not compatible with Word 2011. The compatibility of Word 2011 with EndNote X4 will be addressed in a free update. Please register your software to be informed when EndNote X4 is compatible with Word 2011.

On their message board, this message says:

  The schedule has changed since then so I cannot provide a firm ETA, other than we're now targeting the first quarter of 2011.

From the later comments in that thread (and other threads in their forum), there appear to be a lot of unhappy customers.

Your other options appear to be:

Use X4 with MS Word 2008 (and thankfully, you can run 2008 and 2011 apps at the same time)
Use X4 with Pages '09
Use X3 with MS Word 2011
Apply to beta test the Word 2011 version of X4
Don't use Endnote; instead just use Word 2011's built-in tools


How to auto mount encrypted USB sticks after hibernate?

You can use a program called ControlPlane to automatically eject your USB drives when the system going to sleep.


Keynote Animations - Can they be random?

You may be able to achieve this behaviour using AppleScript. The questions below touch upon shuffling and randomising slides in Keynote:

How to randomize Keynote slides
Randomizing slides and duration for repeating Keynote

While Keynote is not intended for this kind of behaviour, you may have more success with other more flash card like applications.