iOS8 Health: Steps VS Flights Climbed VS Walking+Running Distance

You need an iPhone 6 to be able to calculate 'flights' without any external device or manual input, as it uses a new sensor, the altimeter/air pressure sensor.

Steps is 'how many paces you took'
Walking/running distance is your total distance travelled - but of course paces are much longer when running.
Flights is 'how many times did your elevation change by more than [I think] 12ft whilst you were walking.'

As far as I'm aware, 'steps' is included in 'flights', as the lateral component.
Walking up a hill will generate data for both lateral [steps] & vertical [flights] components.


What is the best way to discover good iPhone apps?

"app.itize.us is a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone and iPad applications available for download via the App Store."

App Shopper is a wonderfully designed app cataloging/tracking site - check their TOP apps section.


Where can I get macOS Catalina Beta version?

Public beta for macOS Catalina is now released by Apple. The same is available to download from Apple Beta Software Program website.

You can find handy guides for installing public betas here:

Guide for Public Betas

To download the macOS Catalina installer, select macOS tab on top of the page and under Get Started section click on enroll your Mac link.


Okay well if you want a simple way to batch delete duplicates with the naming convention photo.file, photo(1).file you can do it very easily from the terminal.

First open up your terminal. Then navigate to the folder you are trying to delete stuff from. This is done by using the cd command.

For example, if your photos are stored in your_username/Desktop/my_photo_album you would type cd ~/Desktop/my_photo_album.

From there you can type ls to make sure you are in the right folder, and it should list the contents of your folder. After that, all you have to do is type:

rm *"(1)"* and it will delete any photo that has (1) in the name!


What is the default URL for Software Update on OS X 10.5.x?

The link below will take you to a page for multiple 10.5 combo  updates

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#os%2010.5%20combo%20updates

the link below is for 10.5.8 combo update

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL866


I had the same issue where Chrome was preventing sleep, i.e., Activity Monitor Energy tab showed that. And I discovered that when I would close a tab running "https://web.whatsapp.com/", that the "Preventing Sleep" column would go to No. When I would open that web site again, it would go back to "Yes".

I found this blog discussing it:
http://webdiary.com/2015/01/29/whatsappweb/

That correlates with the output of running pmset -g assertions, which shows:

   pid 229(coreaudiod): [0x00066e6300010845] 01:19:47 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "com.apple.audio.e8-07-bf-12-d6-97:output.context.preventuseridlesleep"
    Created for PID: 2748.


Mac Photos: Change Date of selected photos

The Photos app does not have a feature for changing the date of multiple photos to one particular date. You can, however, change multiple photos relative to their original date.

Select the desired photos by either holding Shift and clicking to select multiple adjacent photos, or holding Ctrl and clicking individual photos.

In the menu bar, go to Image -> Adjust Date and Time

You can now change the date relative to the date of each photo you selected. For example, if you selected two photos, the first being taken on Feb 13 and the second being taken on Feb 12, and then adjusted by 5 days, the photos would be changed to Feb 8 and Feb 7.


Remove partition failed - the partition is gone, but now there is missing space. How do I get it back?

Backup your main volume.
Open Terminal.app
Check the file system integrity of your main partition: diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2
If everything is fine, expand your logical volume group (and the inherent logical volume):

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size

In your case that's:

diskutil cs resizeStack 8679E121-03C8-47B0-844E-961A437E5CA5 0g

If you run Sierra the magic size 0g may fail and you have to enter a distinctive size:

diskutil cs resizeStack 8679E121-03C8-47B0-844E-961A437E5CA5 999300m

If you get an error like: Error: -69771: The target disk is too small for this operation choose a slightly smaller size like 999200m until you are successful.
If you get a different type of error, the whole (previous) Disk Utility operation failed and corrupted the internal structure of the LVG. You have to restore the main volume from your Time Machine backup then.


I managed to solve this on my own: I gave my phone a static IP address different from the router assigned one, and everything works fine now.

I discovered that my roommate had set up a particular IP address for VPN while working from home a while back. When I got the phone and joined the network, the router assigned my phone that IP address which had various Application and Port forwarding assigned to it. Simple but took digging around in the router settings and logs.


macOS High Sierra: Where is the Secure Empty Trash option?

This feature was removed in macOS 10.11 El Capitan. Per the Apple support document About the security content of OS X El Capitan v10.11, it was removed for security reasons.

  Finder
  Available for: Mac OS X v10.6.8 and later

  Impact: The "Secure Empty Trash" feature may not securely delete files placed in the Trash

  Description: An issue existed in guaranteeing secure deletion of Trash files on some systems, such as those with flash storage. This issue was addressed by removing the "Secure Empty Trash" option.

  CVE-ID
  CVE-2015-5901 : Apple

The CVE gives a small paragraph on this issue. From NVD - CVE-2015-5901:

  The Secure Empty Trash feature in Finder in Apple OS X before 10.11 improperly deletes Trash files, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information by reading storage media, as demonstrated by reading a flash drive.


Can an iPhone stream to multiple Airplay devices at the same time?

No, you want be able to stream music to two airport express units simultaneously from an iOS device such as an iPad or iPhone.

However, you can stream simultaneously from iTunes running on a Mac or PC.

For example, you can't have speakers playing in the kitchen and speakers playing in the dining room at the same time unless they are connected to the same airport express.  If you have them connected to two airport expresses, you can choose kitchen or dining room but not both.

You can play to both if you stream from a Mac or PC using itunes.  However, there are apps that will let you control the Mac or PC from your iOS device but you can't do it natively.


Updating and running Git through Homebrew instead of XCode

This: ~/.bash_profile is a file, not a directory. It's a file that gets executed when you start a bash login shell:

  A login shell is a bash shell that is started with - or --login.

  When BASH is invoked as a login shell, the following files are executed in the displayed order.

  /etc/profile
  ~/.bash_profile
  ~/.bash_login
  ~/.profile

To ensure your Homebrew-installed tools appear before any other tools you can copy and paste the following in to a terminal window to update your ~/.bash_profile file:

cat << 'EOF' >> ~/.bash_profile

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
EOF

This will append (>>) the necessary lines to ~/.bash_profile for you in a safe manner. The append will create the file if it does not exist. The heredoc syntax used above is explained in this nice StackOverflow answer.

After making changes to your .bash_profile file you need to reload it or start a new Terminal session to see the change. To reload it in your existing session type:

source ~/.bash_profile


How can I log Messages out of a Google Talk account in High Sierra?

This might help https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/107120.

I would do the different steps and then start from scratch. Or... you might try checking what each file in those directories do and see if yo can delete the account manually.

If you try the each file method, it appears that the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.Jabber.plist contains the Google Accounts. If you see your account delete it and relaunch Messages.

Important: Please backup your files before doing something that might harm your OS. ALWAYS. I've learned this the hard way. It's always easier to copy back files than to have to fix something from scratch.


If you have Little Snitch installed, then you need to make sure you update to the latest version, because there was an older version that caused a pause on boot, just as you are describing.


Generally speaking all exchange servers since (I believe) 2007 have an automatic configure function. So if your mail server is at mail.company.com the automatic configure URL will be autodiscover.company.com.

Assuming your mail server was set up correctly along with the correct DNS entries, merely removing and re-adding that account from your iPhone should fix the issue. Assuming your IT department hasn't done something non-standard.


I'm not able to re-size a HD Partition to utilize all its free space, how can I fix this?

The Recovery Partition is created during OS X installation.

Normally that partition is hidden unless you are using the Debug mode in Disk Utility to show all partitions.

In other words, it should not be showing in your system as it is.

Turn off the show all partitions (in Debug menu), and check.

If it is still there back it up (for safety) then delete it.

Just in case you delete the original Recovery partition, you can get it back using the Internet recovery, or from reinstalling the OS X.

The way it should look like (notice the EFI and Recovery are grayed out but still showing on the side, since I have the Debug show all partition ON).


Set F7/F8/F9 to perform iTunes functions like built-in keyboard

CoverSutra, among other things, will let you set your shortcuts the way you want it

  Global Shortcuts

  Instantly control iTunes from anywhere, quickly and easily. Play, pause, rate, show, skip, rewind, fast forward... and much more! CoverSutra gives you complete control over your music with fully customizable keyboard shortcuts.

It's main feature (at least for me) is its Music Search. Its like Spotlight for iTunes. Activate it with a keyboard shortcut and search away!


Macbook pro retina setting resolution to 2880 restored to 1440 after restart system

I found a solution here:

http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-view_blog_post.php?postId=51

  This isn't exactly a Wineskin related post, but... with the new Retina
  Macs not having a way to truly change the resolution, I threw together
  a little app that uses the WSReso command line tool I made for older
  versions of Wineskin for changing resolutions before RandR was added
  to XQuartz... it uses WSReso and its just an Applescript GUI front end
  that lets you change resolutions, including knocking that Retina
  Display Macbook Pro up to a true 2880x1800.  Works on any Macs for
  changing resolutions around... its very simple, but effective.

  http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/Special/Change Resolution.app.zip

  EDIT: update

  if you want to just have an app that automatically goes to your max
  resolution that you can put in your startup items... use this

  http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/Special/SetRes.app.zip


Try this:

Go to System Settings -> Users and Groups
CLick the Login Items tab.
If the program is listed here, you should be able to hide it when logging in by check the box next to the program item or if you don't want it to open automatically (in case you don't need to access NTFS formatted drives) you can highlight the item and click the minus in the bottom og the window right under the list of items.


How can I check the model of my Apple computer?

System Profiler

In the left corner of the top menu, pick the apple menu and select About This Mac.

In the About This Mac panel, click the More Info... button. This starts the System Profiler.

On the first page (Hardware Overview) there is a Model Identifier, which is the name you are interested in.


Scilab installed but application does not start

If you are right about it being OS compatibility then yes installing the latest version which works fine for me on Yosemite should work.

To answer your question about the upgrade: If I remember correctly scilab is a standard Mac install via a .dmg and drag the application to the Applications folder.

If this is the case then just download the latest .dmg from here - http://www.scilab.org/download/5.5.1 (make sure to download the one verified for 10.10), mount it and copy the application to the Applications folder overwriting the previous version. And now it should work. Let  me know if it doesn't.


Why does pidof from homebrew returns always zero?

If you look at the Homebrew formula of pidof, you will see that the Homebrew version is built from : http://www.nightproductions.net/downloads/pidof_source.tar.gz

If you look at the source code pidof.c used by Homebrew, you will see that each occurrence of the return statement in the main function, is in the form:

return 0

except one time, when the usage of the command is printed:

printf("USAGE: %s [-klvh] [PID name]\n",ProgName);
                return 1;
                break;

On the other hand, in Linux distributions, such as Debian, the pidof command is coming  from the System V style init programs. If you download the source code and look at killall5.c (which is then linked to pidof), you have at the last line of the main function:

return retval;

where retvalcan be non-null.

So the main reson why the Homebrew version of pidof and the Linux version of pidof return different values is because they use different codebase.


To run Instruments from Xcode:

Open Xcode.
Choose: Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Instruments


According to several sources this feature was introduced with the launch of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite (now macOS Yosemite).

The AAE file format is proprietary, which usually means that only Apple, and Apple-approved, software can interpret the contents. Some cross platform apps that can take advantage of the AAE format are Lightroom and Photoshop. However the file appears to be a regular XML file.

A sample file for a slow motion video would look like this: https://pastebin.com/raw/1r8416rm

The data tag is encoded with base64 and, when decoded, contains a property list (.plist) formatted file that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/CYPVcTO.jpg

Simply put, an AAE file contains information that specific apps can use to apply effects to photos and videos based on edits that a user makes in the iOS Photos app.


How can I open a Pages file prepared with Yosemite in OS X 10.8.5?

If the originator of the file can share it with you using iCloud, you can open it on any web browser via the link.  You will there be able to edit the file.

If you want to edit the file in older versions of Pages, download the file as a Word (I know, right!) document then open that in your version of Pages.  Some formatting my be lost, but you can at least now work with the file locally.

Conversely, your colleague could send you the file already as a Word document for you to open in Pages for editing.


Is there any program that can add titlebar functionality to the menubar panel?

Most of what you're asking is already there...

The top of every window has Close, Minimise to Dock & Fullscreen buttons.

Alt/click the fullscreen button will maximise instead.
Click & hold the fullscreen button then drag to the left or right of the screen will enable Split Screen.

Additional features can be added to the title bar - right click to Customise

You can resize any window except fullscreen by dragging any edge or any corner.

From edges...
Alt/drag will resize from 2 sides.
Shift/drag will resize from 3 sides.
Alt/Shift/drag will resize from all 4 sides.

From corners...
Alt/drag will resize by mirroring the faces.
Shift/drag will resize from one corner, preserving aspect ratio.
Alt/Shift/drag will resize from all 4 corners, preserving aspect ratio.

Cmd/drag will allow you to resize without bringing the window to the front.
Adding any of the other modifiers will do as above, without bringing it to the front.
Double click to maximise/minimise is an option in System Prefs > Dock


How do I use Automator to add files download via Transmission to iTunes?

A couple of solutions come to mind.

Have your Automator script move the files to the trash (or another folder on dropbox, like "Added to iTunes") after it copies them to the Automatically added folder.
Set your automator script to check your dropbox for files every x minutes (e.g., 15). Tell it to only copy the files that were added in the last x - 1 minutes (e.g., 14, or 14:59). The Spotlight metadata element you want is kMDItemDateAdded.
Far and away the easiest solution is to use Hazel.


You have installed Yosemite before, look in the AppStore whether Yosemite is in your purchased items. This is one Option to install Yosemite and upgrade to El Capitan.

You can download El Capitan with this direct link from App Store. But I'm not sure whether this link work for you, try it.
Cannot offer other download links because many sites where you can download this are not clear trusted sites.

Third Option, went to next appstore or similar Mac shop and get a copy of El Capitan if possible. You have also the option to contact the Apple Support.


How can I disable CPU throttling on Late 2006 MacBook with no battery?

Throttling on MacBooks is set in the firmware and, to my knowledge, is not changeable by the end-user. Unfortunately, in this case, your options are 1) replace the battery 2) get a new machine 3) don't use CPU-intensive tasks.

While not an Apple-acceptable solution, check eBay for new batteries. My 2008 unibody MacBook Pro's battery recently began swelling and reached unusable size. I replaced it for around $30-40 on eBay with a perfectly compatible third party battery. Just double check voltages and other numbers on the batteries to make sure you're getting a matching part.


Updating OS X Mavericks without entering payment information?

I think I solved it.
The reason my partner was asked for an Apple ID in her user account in the first place, was because I was signed in to the App Store with my ID under my user account. After signing out of the App Store on my account and logging back into her account, she was no longer asked to enter my password or an Apple ID altogether anymore.

I would consider this a pretty strange bug, an apparently rare but easily reproduced one at that, but perhaps this will help other people who share a Mac.


You WILL need to reformat the smaller partition from NTFS to HFS+ before booting to the installer but otherwise it's pretty straight forward.  When you boot to the installer / recovery partition you will eventually be prompted to select the installation destination, choosing the smaller partition will tell the installer to install 10.8 on that partition rather than your main partition.

Once the installation is complete you can choose which one to boot into either by specifying it in System Preferences > Startup Disk or by holding option at startup and selecting the proper partition.


Will Mountain Lion make an older computer run faster or slower?

Faster.

I have a Mid 2007 iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM. This is the oldest iMac model that can officially run Mountain Lion (according to Apple's tech specs).

I upgraded the first day and haven't noticed any slowdowns so far. Performance actually seems faster in Finder, Mail, Preview, etc.

Safari stands out the most in terms of noticeable speed improvements.


How to use (home) brew install python 3.6.5_1

You can use --ignore-dependencies:

brew install --ignore-dependencies https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/f2a764ef944b1080be64bd88dca9a1d80130c558/Formula/python.rb


How do I prevent macOS from thinking a folder is a file?

It’s thinking it has an extension because you’re giving it an extension.

Anytime you end something with a .whatever you're giving it an extension.  This is a convention across all operating systems and not limited to macOS.

Instead of using dots as a separator for dates, use a dash or an underscore. You don’t  need to do this for all folders all at once, but with a little bash scripting magic and using a utility like sed or awk the renaming of the files/folders can be done automagically.


Sent email disappeared, heard 'sent' whoosh, but it's not in the Sent file

Login to your email provider and see if the email is visible there
    (ex: gmail.com if a gmail account).


There seems to be a problem with Finder's external sync (described in the thread on MacRumors).

This slowness was linked to 3rd party file sync applications (Google Drive, Syncovery, SugarSync, etc). There is no simple solution so far.

There is also a related Apple Communities' thread.


Apple don't restrict ads in apps to iAd. You're permitted to use other ad platforms. Therefore, there would be no reason for Apple to reject your app.


Partition alert message when using Boot Camp Assistant: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."

You have to delete the Data partition. disk1 (Macintosh SSD) is no real partition/disk but a virtual volume residing in disk0s2 but containing your system.

Backup the content of Data
Open Disk Utility
Choose the superior disk and hit "Partition":

Click on the Data partition and hit the - button:

Click Apply

The Data partition will be removed, the Recovery HD moved to the end of the disk and Macintosh SSD will be expanded:

diskutil list #before
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *68.7 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage System                  51.2 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Data                    16.5 GB    disk0s4
/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS System                 +50.9 GB    disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 4AACDE41-E3A1-444A-A5F6-C1491F46149E
                                 Unencrypted
diskutil list #after
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *68.7 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage System                  67.9 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh SSD          +67.5 GB    disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 4AACDE41-E3A1-444A-A5F6-C1491F46149E
                                 Unencrypted


How can I save a document from Pages in RTF format?

One work around you may find helpful uses the previous version of Pages which should still be in your Applications folder unless you removed it.

Open your document in Pages version 5.
Next, use the Export dialog to export to Pages '09
Then, open the document with Pages '09
Now, export to RTF

Bit of a pain, but not too much effort.


Is there any way to generate an XML file of my Music library in macOS Catalina?

While Apple Music does not automatically generate an library XML file, this can be done manually in the app itself.

While the old XML file is not automatically generated anymore, you can manually export an XML file of your Music library in macOS Catalina which — I will assume — is in the same exact format as the old iTunes XML file by following these steps.

First, open up the Music app, go to the “File” menu and choose the “Library” option.

Then, in that list there are two options: “Export Library” and “Export Playlist.” I’m choosing “Export Playlist” for this example.

After doing that you will be presented with a fairly standard Apple file save/load interface to save the “Library.xml” file and there you go!

While definitely not as convenient as the old way it was constantly generated in iTunes, I believe this should work well for apps that require the XML file.

Slightly snarky note/criticism from a programer: Why isn’t there a JSON formatting option for export? Let users choose XML or JSON based on needs since — honestly — nobody really likes dealing with XML in 2019. But I digress…


Keyboard shortcut to display music library in iTunes

Just use Tab.

If you start with the focus on the playlist and hit Tab, the focus will go to the sidebar. You can start typing Mus and the Music library will display in the main panel. Hit Tab again. The focus will jump to the search bar. Start typing the song you're looking for. Hit tab again and you're back in the main window where you started.

You can use OptionCommand + f to jump to the search box at any time regardless of where the focus is.

It sounds like you'd benefit from an app launcher with built-in iTunes launch/search navigation. Quicksilver and LaunchBar are both good choices.


VNC (screen sharing) stopped worked after enabling filevault2

I can confirm that FileVault 2 does not disable VNC client or service. I use encryption on all Macs and VNC between them frequently (both at home and at my F500 employer).

Can you be more specific about how it is failing? Do you see "Share Screen" option in Finder? Have you tried via Finder > Go > Connect to Server? Does it time out or give an error message?


You almost got it right, but you didn’t wipe the disk first. You’ll want to wipe Macintosh HD in recovery mode first (choose Disk Utility) then repeat the steps you took to install El Capitan.


Restoring/Forwarding offline emails from Mac Mail

Add your Yahoo! email as IMAP and upload your mail manually from the old —presumably POP— storage on your Mail.app.

I haven't tried it myself but in recent OS X versions adding accounts is straightforward. If this is not the case and you have to configure it manually, Yahoo! offers relevant information to that effect here.


Is there a way to force the dark mode of Mac third-party apps that do not have it?

Yes. However, note that apps which do not natively support dark mode will likely contain elements which do not coordinate with the new theme, so doing this will be less effective than if the developer were to update their app.

Quit your app.
Determine the app's bundle identifier: grep -A 1 CFBundleIdentifier /path/to/your/application.app/Contents/Info.plist
defaults write BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool false

where you would replace BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER with the actual value from step 2 (e.g., com.apple.TextEdit).


Music.app on iOS: use a different language other than the system language?

Sadly, no - there’s no published setting to make this edit for Apple’s app. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible, just that it’s unknown.

Applying pressure to Apple for this may or may not be effective, and hopefully someone can document this and make my answer wrong or in need of an edit to explain how.


Unexpected behavior of bash script used to sync dotfiles

If target is an already existing directory, then the command ln -s source target will create a link target/source in that directory, pointing to the original source. That's what's going on here: the directory .emacs.d/snippets/ exists at the start, and you're running the command

ln ~/.dotfiles/.emacs.d/snippets ~/.emacs.d/snippets

which creates a link in the existing snippets to the other snippets.

You could do ln -s ~/.dotfiles/.emacs.d/snippets/* ~/.emacs.d/snippets instead. Or delete everything in .emacs.d and do ln -s ~/.dotfiles/.emacs.d/* ~/.emacs.d. (Obviously make copies first in case something goes wrong.) Or perhaps even delete .emacs.d and create a new version which is just a symlink.


Stop "iPhone is not Activated" message from appearing


VirtualBox Ubuntu shared folder is empty

Found my answer

Assumption: "VirtualShare" is the shared folder name set up via Devices | shared folders ... menu

sudo mkdir /mnt/MyShare
sudo mount -t vboxsf VirtualShare /mnt/MyShare

AH! Now I can see the files in /mnt/MyShare/VirtualShare/

the mounting :( does not survive a restart/reboot

This answer is bewildering because the VirtualBox documentation explicitly states that auto mounting is done in /media directory. And indeed, the shared folder is created - but its empty.

Further, I did/do not understand the significance of /mnt directory. That looked arbitrary to me, but apparently not. ../MyShare piece of it is; use any name you wish.

Now if I could only delete all those folders I created during experimentation. And to think I used to be an absolute wiz on the CP/M command line! (that sure dates me!!)


MacBook pro unresponsive / slow after startup

Try one of these:

If your Mac is always slow, check the Activity Monitor.app for resource hogs. Alternatively you could enter top -o cpu in Terminal.app, and check the %CPU column.
If your Mac is only slow at startup, check your login start items in System Preferences → Users & Groups → Login Items.


Whatsapp-Restore from iCloud is not showing my Backup

You need to change your phone name from Settings > general > About > Name and make sure the new iPhone's name as same as before. After reboot/restart WhatsApp you will able to find the backup.


Macbook Battery Cycle Count (Unibody White 2010)

Any Apple store or Authorized Service Provider can run a diagnostic for you within a few minutes to gauge the health of the battery for the official Apple answer to your question.

However, saving a trip and appointment and just looking at what you posted, it looks like it is in correct working order for the age.

The design capacity is the total charge the battery was produced for. If you ran this check on the day you bought the MacBook the current capacity should have been right around 5200. Just like a rechargeable battery in a phone, toy, etc. it never fully charges to its designed capacity over time. It is just the nature of rechargeable batteries. So now, your battery when fully charged will only charge to the current capacity.

Given that you have used it for 17 months. These results seem in-line.

According to this Apple KB Article, your model does not require any calibration.

They also publish some tips in this KB Article.

Here's a great app for checking the battery and it gives some great definitions and links to Apple as well.

Hope that helps.


Problems with faulty update installer boot

From AppleToolBox.com:

  Fixing macOS Install Problems in Recovery Mode

  To get to recovery mode on your Mac or MacBook, you will need to press and hold Command+R keys together when booting up your computer.

  Once you are in the Recovery mode, click on the Apple logo on the top left corner of the screen and make sure that your startup disk is pointing to the Mac Boot disk.

  Now find the macOS update program and run the update. Sometimes, when you are facing install/upgrade issues, a workaround that works for many users is to create an external bootable installer and try to run the install program using it. Apple provides a detailed white paper on this process. You can create the bootable installer on a USB and then try it to update the macOS.


Require username+password after sleep/lock

After locking your laptop with Command+Control+Q, touch (don't depress) the Touch Id sensor five times with the wrong finger. Now Touch Id is temporarily disabled until you input your password.
Reboot the machine; now you must input your password.


What can one expect from coupling a 16:10 signal to a 16:9 monitor?

You're right in theory that a 1920x1080 resolution will map perfectly onto a UHD (3840x2160) display, and you're also right that it will look worse than 1920x1200.

However, most monitors will perform some sort of an interpolation (smoothing) for all resolutions other than native (source).

While "how ugly will the interpolation be?" is subjective, I can however say that in my experience the interpolation doesn't drastically affect picture quality.  For instance, I have a Retina 5k (5120x2880) iMac, and I've compared UHD with WQHD (2560x1440) on it, and the UHD does indeed look better (though obviously not as good as 5k).

So if you do get a UHD monitor, I would say the 2560x1440 resolution would look the best. The 2560x1600 mode will suffer from an anisotropic scaling problem -- images will look squashed vertically (see this link).


Can I set different Screen Time App Limits on different devices?

Yes, but it's a trade-off. The answer is to turn off "Sync across devices" in Screentime settings. That way, all your App Limits can be different on different devices.
The downside is that it also stops syncing all the other Screentime settings, so you'll have to individually maintain the Always Allowed list, the Downtime hours, etc. Any changes that you make later will need to be made separately on each device.
It can be a bit of a pain, but it's probably worth it to get the flexibility you're asking about.


On iOS 7, in the conversation window, if you hold on a message balloon you get the context menu with two options: Copy and More.

When you tap More, you will get into the edit screen where you can select and delete individual messages.


Before giving up on a standalone FreeNAS machine, try the included speed testing tool iperf to determine the best protocol for your network:

  Iperf is a utility for measuring maximum TCP and UDP bandwidth performance. It can be used to chart network throughput over time. For example, you can use it to test the speed of different types of shares to determine which type best performs on your network.

  FreeNAS® includes the Iperf server. To perform network testing, you will need to install an Iperf client on a desktop system that has network access to the FreeNAS® system.

Do you know which alternative protocol your clients could use to connect to your FreeNAS box? Are you restricted to only File Transfer Protocol (FTP)?

This recent discussion talks about the some factors affecting FreeNAS, FreeNAS Poor Network Performance.


Macbook (unibody plastic) won't reconnect to wifi after setting up new router while other devices do just fine

The most common solution to this problem (I encountered numerous times) is to change the WiFi channel on your router.

If your router is set to auto channel you can switch to channel 6 or 11 for example.

And try different channels.


Does OS X have a setting that will let me apply a Gaussian Blur to the monitor or a specific window?

Warning: this is a workaround.

Terminal.app lets you set the exact settings of its window. If you set them correctly, you can get a transparent window with a gaussian blur. If you simply leave a window open in the background in Terminal while doing your work, then bring up Terminal when you want to, this should work great. You can even make the text transparent if you want.


Tried installing Windows 10 on Macbook Pro; bootcamp seemed to work but I can't access windows

Looks like you still haven't finished the installation of Win 10.

Run Disk Utility and Merge Back the BootCamp Partition to Macintosh HD.
After that finishes, try to use BootCamp to install Win 10 again, then follow the steps for using an NTFS partition.


Remove iTunes and Mac App store results when looking for a word

As you can see here, you can disable some "Search results" from Spotlight or Look up. You can also uncheck the option "Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Spotlight Look up", to prevent Look up to work as Spotlight does.

This link can also be useful (it refers to Yosemite but the same functionalities are available for El Capitan too).


Only root login remains (all other users gone) and even root hangs, so can't access!

According to several sources: Apple discussions or Mac notebooks: Apple Hardware Test may report "HDD" alert the error: error 4HDD/11/40000000:SATA(0,0) may be erroneous or at least unclear/dubious.

It may be related to the vanishing of your users in the Login Screen or not.

Depending on your findings in Single User Mode you have several options:

Removing .AppleSetupDone to re-run Setup Assistant

To remove this file, you have to boot to single user mode by pressing ⌘S while booting. After a few moments, you'll see the Mac boot to the command line.

Check the file system and mount your main volume in read/write mode

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /

With the filesystem mounted and accessible, it's time to remove the file so OS X will re-run Setup Assistant:

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

Reboot your Mac with

reboot

After rebooting the Setup Assistant will create a new user and setup your system. Choose a user name not used previously. Search for any "old" (in /Users) or moved (elsewhere) previous user folders. In a second step you can change the permissions of the individual user folders and recover all data.

This might fail if your system is corrupted (bogus LaunchServices etc.)
If your system seems to be corrupted, reinstall it:

Reboot to Recovery Mode by pressing ⌘R while booting.

Open Disk Utility in the main panel and verify/repair your main volume and permissions. Quit Disk Utility.

Reinstall the system with Reinstall OS X. This shouldn't affect any user data or already installed apps.
If the previous step also fails I recommend to slightly resize the main volume, create a new 50 GB volume and install a fresh version of OS X to it. Since you have a Fusion Drive (CoreStorage LVG) you may either use the command line or Disk Utility to resize the main volume. Using Disk Utility choose the Fusion Drive and "Partition" and use the handler to slightly resize the main drive. Then choose the new item "Untitled" and the erase button and rename it to something else but stay with the default format (OS X Extended (Journaled)).

After successfully installing OS X to the new small volume attach an external drive and save all precious data to it. You may have to adjust the permissions of some of the user folders to accomplish this.

Finally erase the drive and install a new system. Now either let it check by an Apple authorized technician or at the Apple Genius bar for the errors mentioned at the beginning or continue setting up your system.


Yes, airplane mode shuts down the radios that amplify all antenna circuitry. Compass isn't affected by airplane mode other than not being tuned by GPS location. Your observed relative changes will be mostly unaffected but absolute accuracy could suffer between one and ten degrees on much of the globe.

Of course the GPS signals still hit the iPhone case and antennas, just the hardware doesn't do the work to fix a location from those signals while in airplane mode. (Nor does e software do any processing of the location updates which is a big part of the functionality for many people as opposed to the hardware side of the radios being idle / off / silent)


It is completely viable to use the built-in Apache and PHP on High Sierra.

From a high level point of view, the built-in Apache and PHP offers the same as Apache/PHP from HomeBrew. It is the same programs - and not a special "Apple made" version of Apache/PHP.

However if you want to customize the setup a lot by installing new modules, you will find that this is much easier with homebrew, as some of the files often necessary to build new modules have been removed with the High Sierra release.

Also if you want to be able to choose a specific Apache/PHP version rather than the default, then homebrew will allow you that.


How can you do two-way Dropbox  local folder syncing on iOS?

Unfortunately, I'm almost certain there's no equivalent Dropbox solution for this currently on iOS.

While I cannot give you a technical reason why two-way syncing on iOS is not possible, I can say that at a high level, the iOS platform is more guarded in terms of allowing developers to access certain capabilities of the device.

As you stated in your question, Android devices are capable of two-way synchronization through apps like Dropsync; this is because of the relatively more open-ended nature of the Android platform for both developers and users. To read more on why this is the case, read the 'Android Offers an Open Platform' section of this article.

To confirm, I contacted two customer representatives of two data-sync companies: Loom and SugarSync. I asked both reps the following question:

  Is possible for two-way synchronization of files between an iOS device and a computer? For example, if I sync pix from my iPhone to my iMac, and then edit/delete the pix on my computer, will the changes be reflected automatically on my iPhone?

Both times, the answer was:

  No, this is not possible due to the closed nature of the iOS platform.

If this capability is very important for your work, I would suggest migrating back to an Android device.

If you want/need to use your iPhone for this, and if you need a platform-independent solution (i.e., you don't want to use iCloud), I'm afraid tedium is in your future. I would suggest that you keep a list of the photos as you edit/delete them on you computer, so that you know which photos have been updated and need to be manually re-download from Dropbox (or manually deleted) on your iPhone when you use it next.


How to stop a VPN server launched with vpnd

Two Ways to Kill a Process (sung to the tune of "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover")

First Way:

  Launch Activity Monitor
  Locate the daemon/process you want to halt (vpnd in this case), and select it (white letters on blue field)
  Click the x button in the ULHC, Force a process to quit
  Confirm by clicking Quit, or Force Quit if it's stubborn :)

Second Way:
If you're keen on the command line, why not use kill? see man kill

  Get the PID for your daemon vpnd: ps -ax | grep vpnd,
  kill PID (where PID of course is the actual PID number)


What are some Textmate alternatives that have the completion key feature?

The Cocoa build of Emacs 23 is very good and has a ton of extensions and virtually limitless scope for customisation.

The learning curve can be a bit steep, but it's well worth the investment in time once you get over the initial hump.

If you are comfortable with TextMate, the Terminal and these sorts of things, you will be fine, http://emacswiki.org is a great resource.


Do I really need one of those TAX IDS: SSN, ITIN, EIN?

It's hard to know what Apple would do if you declined to offer those numbers. You could reach out to their support or just go ahead and register with the US government for an EIN if you choose to register as a foreign company or an ITIN if you wish to register as a foreign individual.

Please don't take advice over the internet for tax / legal issues, though. You'll really want to get someone that knows about the law and/or finance to help you choose and fill out these legally binding forms.


A lot of cameras come with software to convert their RAW files to other formats. If your's comes with conversion then see if it supports regular TIFF.

You might want to look into GIMP, which is a graphic program from the *nix world that runs under X11 on the Macintosh. It's very similar to Photoshop but is free. It has some auto conversion capability and/or might be able to read your camera's RAW files. GraphicConverter might be another option. It's got a long list of formats it supports and converts between.

Converting to JPG changes the file format in ways that make it a lot less flexible. I have my own photography company, and only shoot RAW when I'm doing serious work, because I need the flexibility of non-jpeg. I convert to Photoshop format and do all my manipulation in their format, then save a copy of the final image in Adobe's Photoshop format, then make another copy and save it as JPG, ready for sending to the place that does my prints. RAW and TIFF support better color and greater gamut (light range from dark to light) and you can see the difference after converting to jpeg so I want to avoid the conversion until the last step.


How to type in Chinese pinyin tones on Dvorak keyboard on macOS?

You can only type 3 tones on Dvorak (or on US for that matter).  To include the 3rd tone you have to use ABC Extended, which is qwerty.  You can make a custom Dvorak layout which adds the missing tone with Ukelele.


Please try install this driver:
https://www.pololu.com/file/download/48014_SiLabsUSBDriverDisk.zip?file_id=0J547

I have a amateur radio which uses a similar driver (CP210x USB to UART Bridge Controller) and I had to install it too...

EDIT:

Actually the driver is the same for CP210x and CP2102...


You could do this by disabling access to your location for the Maps app.

This is done in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy.

Select Location Services in the left panel and make sure Maps is unchecked in the list of apps allowed to use your location. This should remove the Current Location marker from the app without disrupting your access to the internet or preventing other apps using your location.


Why do I need to press C twice to copy in Mac MS Word 2011 and 2016?

Please loot at this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_mac/often-have-to-cmd-c-twice-to-copy-mac-office/0a3060eb-d185-46df-943d-3ed89f447d25?auth=1

When I disabled the three fingers drag, the problem have solved.


Does the iOS app store accept apps that don't work unless the user pays via a subscription or IAP?

What you ask is exactly what happens in app review. If you are in a place to push a build for test flight review - you can get a preview of how the review team sees your app.

As long as the app is fully functional for the first 20 images, I would imagine you won't get rejected if that's the only issues the reviewer identifies. You could be in thin ice if your app simply monetizes the camera functionality - if an app seeks to make money on what the OS provides, that's grounds for a quick reject.

You can and should have one team member go over the App Review Guidelines. Have them pretend to be picky and seek to reject the app for each of the items.

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/

If you are overwhelmed by the amount of guidance - start with the snapshot of common rejection reasons and run through the comic book version of the review guidelines - those highlight the most common and broad issues with app review. Once you're clear of those hurdles - a more detailed review might be good.

Nothing compares to submitting your app for review, though. Also - think of review as a 3 to 6 month process where you get to know the team and they get to know your app. The App Store is big enough now that coding for a weekend or week and then submitting for sale next week or next month is a rare event. All of those class of apps have well explored by thousands of people by now.

I doubt Apple will ever come out and say precisely what is too little functionality. That binds them and their review team. What works for the first app doesn't work for the 100th app in category. There will be gray areas and you certainly are in it. If you have an app that refuses to work at all once the trial is over, my guess is you will be rejected. I could be wrong, but if that happens you could always let the free portion be free forever (the first 20 snaps or whatever) and only lock down people that need a subscription to run it.

I've seen that work very well with low rejection rates - you are clear you need a subscription in that case, so Apple doesn't have to reject your app knowing it might cause some users heartburn if they don't realize what's paid and what's free. Best of luck with your app!


It looks like you did everything you should.

I have many times made a new photos library, set it as the system library and then rebooted so you're on the proper path there. My hunch is you have iCloud turned on for that library as well and need to resolve that.

I would turn off photo stream and shared photos and restart one time to see if that resolves. If not - you'll need to disable iCloud photo library and walk away from the broken local library or try rebuilding the affected library.

Worst case, contacting Apple support sometimes helps. They often know of edge cases like this where things get stuck and can advise you some hidden tricks to get the libraries unstuck.


How to make items copied into a folder respect its permissions?

There's an option for and access control entry (the thing you created in Get Info) to be inherited, but Get Info doesn't give you the option to enable it.  Also, you'll want to make sure you have full access to items she's added/edited there, and the easiest way to do this is to create a group for the two of you, and allow access to all group members.

Create a group (in System Preferences -> Accounts pane), and check the boxes to make both yourself and your wife members.
Open the Terminal utility, and run the command:

chmod +a "group:admin allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /path/to/the/folder

(replacing /path/to/the/folder with the unix-style path to the folder you want to grant access to.  If you aren't sure what that is, just paste in the rest of the line, including the space before /path/to/the/folder, and then drag-and-drop the folder from the Finder into the Terminal window, and it'll paste in the path for you.)
The access control entry you just created will be applied to new files and subfolders created inside that folder, but won't apply to the files and subfolders that're already there.  So, Get Info on the folder and use the Apply to enclosed items option to apply it to the existing items.


Find files with the same content in one folder (and all its sub-folders)

If you're comfortable using the Terminal, you can try rdfind which purpose is precisely to find duplicate files.

You'll need to install it with Homebrew first: brew install rdfind

Then, let's say you want to run a dry test on your ~/Download folder:

rdfind -n true -outputname result.log ~/Downloads/

-n true is for dry mode: no files will be affected
-outputname result.log will output the scanning into that file
~/Downloads/ is the argument of the root folder you want to scan
(you can pass more than one folder)

Running that command will look something like that:

$ rdfind -n true -outputname result.log ~/Downloads/
(DRYRUN MODE) Now scanning "/Users/ym/Downloads", found 20132 files.
(DRYRUN MODE) Now have 20132 files in total.
(DRYRUN MODE) Removed 0 files due to nonunique device and inode.
(DRYRUN MODE) Now removing files with zero size from list...removed 75 files
(DRYRUN MODE) Total size is 59782752628 bytes or 56 GiB
(DRYRUN MODE) Now sorting on size:removed 3795 files due to unique sizes from list.16262 files left.
(DRYRUN MODE) Now eliminating candidates based on first bytes:removed 579 files from list.15683 files left.
(DRYRUN MODE) Now eliminating candidates based on last bytes:removed 134 files from list.15549 files left.
(DRYRUN MODE) Now eliminating candidates based on md5 checksum:removed 94 files from list.15455 files left.
(DRYRUN MODE) It seems like you have 15455 files that are not unique
(DRYRUN MODE) Totally, 324 MiB can be reduced.
(DRYRUN MODE) Now making results file result.log

Or, you can use an application with a graphical interface like dupeguru:


A ~ file is simply a broken attempt to access and write to your home directory.

This file should be safe to delete as it's not actually your home directory, but make sure you've got a backup in case you or another app needs it for any other purpose.

Also, for what it's worth, ~ is not an alias to your home directory, it's just a shell expansion to the path to the currently logged in user's home directory. It provides no actual path for the file system to follow to the directory.


Boot to single user mode (hold cmdS while booting), delete the setup file and try making a new clean admin account.

/sbin/mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
exit

At that point, assuming the OS is minimally functional, you can make a new admin account (call it test12345 or something to avoid hitting an existing user account) Optionally, you can delete the old user accounts and user home folders before you type exit above.

rm -rf /Users/whatever
rm /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/whatever.plist

Perform the two commands above for each user you want to remove from the system. You can also delete things more cleanly by logging in to your new admin account and deleting the old users from the graphical tool in system preferenes.


com.apple.PhotoIngestService crash crashes on Sierra

Try restarting your Mac. I hope that will work.


Is it possible to find out if a Mac was simply powered on (power button) but not logged into any account yet?

You can view this information using the last command in Terminal.app.

The last command brings up the login history in LIFO order. Each entry contains the name of the user who logged in, the local time the login occurred, and the duration of the login session.

Shutdowns and restarts are logged as pseudo-users named 'shutdown' and 'reboot,' making it a simple matter to see who (if anyone) has logged in since the last startup, or if multiple shutdowns/restarts occurred without anyone logging in between them.


How can I decrease the maximum number of files where Get Info will open multiple windows?

At least for 10.7.5-10.9.5 the assumption that the number of Get Info windows is restricted to 35 is wrong.

Instead the screen resolution and the size of the Get Info window seem to be the restricting factors. Using a 1920x1200 px monitor I get 6 windows in a row and 12 rows (= 72 windows).

Trying to get the info on 73 objects and more a summarizing Get Info window will open.

Apparently there is no simple hidden numerical threshold of simultaneously opening Get Info windows.

To simply have an identical behavior for cmdI and altcmdI map cmdI to altcmdI for the Finder.app with a key remapping app.

If you don't want to use a remapping app use System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts and create custom Finder shortcuts: Get Info -> shiftaltcmdI (to disable cmdI) or Get Info -> altcmdI and Show Inspector -> cmdI to swap the shortcuts of Get Info and Show Inspector. The same applies to Get Summary Info (with a different shortcut of course) if you prefer to change that one.

To quickly close all Get Info windows hit altcmdW or for some system versions alt-click on the close button of one of the windows. All other non-Get Info windows will also be closed though.


Find which Chrome Tab is using Significant Energy

Right click the table headers (App Name, Energy Impact, etc.) and check Process ID. Now you can see the PIDs associated with that Energy Impact values.

Next, click the 'customize/options' button in Chrome (it's the triple horizontal stripes button next to the URL bar) and go to More Tools > Task Manager, which brings up Chrome's internal task manager. In there you'll find the different Chrome threads (including running extensions and open tabs) with their names and PIDs.

You can then cross reference the PIDs between Chrome's task manager and Yosemite's Activity Monitor.


Keyboard shortcuts (spacebar) no longer works in Photos on Mojave

Since MacOS Mojave, Photos have changed shortcuts. I used Space key very extensively, so made work again (link):

Go to preferences > keyboard > shortcuts > app shortcuts > Photos > and add a shortcut.
For Menu Title enter "Open Viewer" and for the keyboard shortcut press the spacebar whilst holding the Fn key.
Add another one for "Close Viewer"
Add another one for "Open/Close Viewer"
Now open Photos, go to Library/Photos, select single photo and click on menu "Image" - check if Open Viewer shows "Space"
Press Spacebar and enjoy :)

Also few useful shortcuts:

cmd+Enter - edit mode
cmd+1 - in edit mode Adjust
cmd+3 - in edit mode Crop
. - make photo favorite

Also check cmd+1-4 and ctrl+1-6 in photos view mode :)

And desert: All Photos keyboard shortcuts for Mojave


Backup app to use with Amazon Cloud Drive?

Don't know whether this is a new option, but Arq actually allows you to restrict operations to a specific time window:


I'd like to introduce you to a different approach. I had a similar problem (not the copy/paste error, but that the notes were not really too cool to work with).

This was a long time ago, but since I switched to the free Notational Velocity, I haven't had issues, with the benefit of a very fast (instant) indexing and search in all the trash I want to save :)

Give it a look, it's open source and very simple to operate. It may give your Stickies approach some fresh air and you might like it :p


What non-essential directories can I exclude from TimeMachine?

Most efficient backups would mean leaving Time Machine alone, not twisting knobs randomly.

The only thing you should be excluding are the VM's.


Should i upgrade my 2009 macbookpro components on general way?

The most important upgrade is making the system drive a Solid State Drive (SSD). This alone may double the effective speed of your computer. Extra RAM is a nice second.

Since SSDs are usually more expensive than traditional hard drives per GB, you could explore a 'hybrid' drive, though I'd recommend the fastest SSD that your Mac's PCI bus throughput can handle.

When I upgraded my old MacBook Pro (I think it was also a 2009 model), large SSDs were still expensive, so I bought a 128MB SSD for the main system drive and moved the existing HDD into the spot where the Optical Drive was (with a special mounting bracket), and put the Optical Drive in a cheap external USB case.

I found all the parts on eBay for under $250USD and was honestly shocked at how much faster that MacBook performed.


How do I really (dig) flush the DNS cache on OS X 10.9?

The effect you're seeing has absolutely nothing to do with the caches on your computer.

Instead what you're seeing is that your recursive DNS server (i.e. typically your ISPs DNS server or Google DNS or similar) has taken the original TTL value and subtracted the amount of time passed since it retrieved these records from the authoritative DNS server.

For example let's say that you own example.com and have an authoritative DNS server set up that when queried gives you that CNAME with a TTL of 86400. Then at some random point in time, your ISPs recursive DNS server is asked by someone else for www.example.com and retrieves those records. It caches that information.

Now you come along issuing the dig command without the @ parameter - this means that the request uses the server listed in /etc/resolv.conf, which is typically your ISPs recursive DNS server. Now you get the response back with TTL 83995, which means that 86400-83995=2405 seconds has passed since it originally retrieved those records.

Nowhere in this process is your standard, local macOS DNS cache involved, so mDNSResponder and dscacheutil is not going to change anything at all.

The reasoning behind this is that the authoritative DNS server has essentially stated that "this information is valid for 86400 seconds". The recursive DNS doesn't know if the authoritative DNS server has since been changed to give out new information, so it can only tell you that the information is now valid for a slightly smaller amount of time.


My iPhone is locked with an "icloud backup" message and it won't go away

If the home button is broken, you'll just wait for the battery to die.


Finder is using over 100% of CPU and makes entire system slow

I figured out what it was a permissions issue.  Running Fix Permissions in Disk Util fixed the issue.  Strange.  But, found one other place online talking about this and how it worked for them.


Can Someone Explain Why These Scripts Work?

The smallest rectangle containing both "real" monitors is your virtual desktop.

The upper left corner of the monitor containing the menubar is the (0|0) coordinate. Moving rightwards and downwards increases the numbers.

If you have one monitor (1920|1200) the upper left corner is the (0|0) and bottom right corner has the coordinate (1920|1200) and the whole desktop is described by {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

If you have two equally sized monitors (1920|1200) arranged side by side and the left one is your main monitor the coordinates of the complete desktop are  {0, 0, 3840, 1200}. If the right monitor is the main one: {-1920, 0, 1920, 1200}.

If you have two differently sized monitors (1920|1200) and (2000|1400) arranged with an off-set (e.g. the bottom right corner of the small monitor (1920|1200) is right next to the upper left corner (0|0) of the other monitor and the left one is the main one) then the desktop is described by {0, 0, 3920, 2600}. If the right one is the main monitor the whole desktop is represented by {-1920, -1200, 2000, 1400}.

So your window {1299, 38, 3182, 1062} in the arrangement marked in bold would look like this:


It will likely work, however many people will advice you to only use matching sticks of RAM.  In other words, if you're going to use 4 sticks, ensure they are all of the speed, capacity, brand, etc.

You wouldn't build a RAID array with mismatched drive manufacturers, speeds, and capacities, why do it with your RAM?


Wanting to Make Linux Partition, Will I Be Able to Delete It Later?

I can make some suggestions regarding creating and removing Linux related partitions on a Mac.

The disk tools provide by Apple are 100% unreliable with respect to Linux related partitions. I am not saying that occasionally a tool provided by Apple will not work as documented, but if it does, soon a update will occur causing a change in the behavior of the tool. Two of the most used Apple disk tools are the Disk Utility application and the diskutil command.
To install Linux, you usually have to shrink your Mac partitions to create free space. For this you can use the disk tools provided by Apple. However, if you need to create new partitions, then make sure the these partitions are of a type frequently encountered by Apple. Microsoft FAT32 partitions are a good choice. So for example, if you need a ext4 and swap partitions for Ubuntu, then use Apple's disk tools to shrink your macOS partitions and create two new FAT32 partitions. Later, when installing Ubuntu, you can use the Ubuntu partitioning tools to delete the FAT32 partitions and recreate the necessary ext4 and swap partitions.
Apple disk tools should not be used to remove Linux related partitions. Once the Linux partitions have be removed, Apple's disk tools should be used to reclaim the free space. Many of the tools, you can choose from to the remove Linux related partitions, will need to be run with System Integrity Protection (SIP) disabled or from Recovery mode. Another option would  be to boot from an external drive and then remove the partitions from the internal drive. Some popular command line tools are gpt and gdisk.
Apple started eliminating the BIOS boot option in Mac models starting with the 2015 model year. Therefore, you probably should only choose Linux versions that can 64 bit EFI boot. This means the boot code, for which ever Linux you choose, will be installed in the EFI partition. So, to boot an installed Linux may require modifying the EFI partition or installing the rEFInd Startup Manager into this EFI partition.
If you do not have a lot of experience installing Linux, you may what to first install in a virtual machine. A free virtual machine software called VirtualBox is provide by Oracle. I often try different installation configurationss, using the same Linux iso file, before installing in a actual Mac computer.


Automator: Save images from a list of URLs in a text file

Let's assume for a second that your image URL's are in a text file located on your desktop... "Image list.txt"

Let's assume each image URL in that file is on a separate line

Let's assume that the "Art" folder is located on your desktop (folder for the downloaded images)

This AppleScript code is all you need

set theList to (path to desktop as text) & "Image list.txt"
set artFolder to (path to desktop as text) & "Art"
set artFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of artFolder

set theImages to read alias theList as list using delimiter linefeed -- get the lines of a file as a list

repeat with i from 1 to count of theImages
    set thisItem to item i of theImages
    do shell script "cd " & artFolder & "; " & "curl -O " & quoted form of thisItem
end repeat

Actually, here is an even better solution.  Save this following AppleScript code in Script Editor.app as an application.  Now you will have two options.

Double clicking on the app in Finder will open a dialog asking you to choose the text file containing the image URLs, then will proceed to download the images.

OR

You can drag the text file containing the image URLs directly onto the app’s icon, in Finder, which will then go ahead and process and download the images in that text file.   (AKA Droplet)

on open theFiles
    --  Handle the case where the script is launched by dropping
    -- a .txt file, containing image URLs,  directly onto this app's icon
    set artFolder to (path to desktop as text) & "Art"
    set artFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of artFolder

    set theImages to read alias theFiles as list using delimiter linefeed

    repeat with i from 1 to count of theImages
        set thisItem to item i of theImages
        do shell script "cd " & artFolder & "; " & "curl -O " & quoted form of thisItem
    end repeat
end open

on run
    --  Handle the case where the script is launched without any dropped files
    set theList to (choose file with prompt ¬
        "Choose Your Text File Containing Image URLs" of type {"txt"} ¬
        default location (path to desktop) ¬
        invisibles false ¬
        without multiple selections allowed) as text

    set artFolder to (path to desktop as text) & "Art"
    set artFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of artFolder

    set theImages to read alias theList as list using delimiter linefeed

    repeat with i from 1 to count of theImages
        set thisItem to item i of theImages
        do shell script "cd " & artFolder & "; " & "curl -O " & quoted form of thisItem
    end repeat
end run

Here is a visual of the droplet in action...


Is Geotag Location Sent for iMessage Photos?

The location data is definitely sent with images sent over iMessage; I've saved an image sent by another person and itappeared on the "Places" tab in Photos. A trick you could use to remove the location data is to open the picture, take a screenshot (press home and sleep together) and then send the screenshot. The downside though is that it might be lower quality.


You don't need to boot into OSX to change the default boot system ...

Hold down the Option key when booting, and when you see the system choices
Select your desired default boot device, then hover mouse over the up-arrow ↑
Hold down the Ctrl key and you should see the ↑ icon change to a "power on" icon
Left click on that "power icon" and that system will boot and that system will also be your default boot system.

Older versions of Boot Camp are similar, but I don't remember if the icon changes.

Official documentation here:

  If you press and hold the Control key during this step, your selection is saved in Startup Disk preferences, so it persists until you change it.


How can I disable the random/auto keeping of apps in the Dock?

go to "system preferences", then choose "Dock" and uncheck the "show recent applications in dock" radio button.


How to find the iOS version of a reset iPhone

If on a background is linen texture: iOS 4, 5, 6, but it on the white background: iOS 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
You need to activate it to see the version.


Where does OS X store the profile photo it takes when you first create an account?

The photo can be found in the /Library/Caches folder, if you haven't cleared this folder yet.
Otherwise, I recommend typing:

dscl . -read /Users/short_username JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p >
/PATH/TO/accountImage.jpg

on one line in a Terminal window, from Chealion's brilliant answer here. In the above example, a JPEG copy will be saved to /PATH/TO/accountImage.jpg.


Image editor which can handle layer groups

There are two "great" image programs for the Mac at this time, so if Gimp doesn't do it your only valid alternatives are Pixelmator and Acorn.

I have an old version of Pixelmator that doesn't do Layer Groups (1.x), from what I can see, 2.x doesn't do it either. I have Acorn and although it mentions PSD compatibility (and Layers) I don't have a .PSD file (because I don't have Adobe Photoshop).

So you can download a trial version (of Acorn at least) and give it a try.


Open Directory network user last logon time

Will this do the job for you?

ldapsearch -LLL -x -h <hostaddr> -Z -D cn=admin,o=local -W  "(&(objectclass=Person))" logintime


iPhone 5 alarm—is there an option to have an “increasing melody” for the alarm?

The alarm will not activate when the iPhone is turned off. This was tested with an iPhone4 running iOS6.


Can I add "16 pt" option to font pulldown menus?

It's a flaky problem, or at least the solutions are flaky. As such, some apps, e.g. Mail, go through the motions but don't actually add the new size. Additionally, it may vanish at some undetermined time in the future. But for the present….

From within the app (e.g. TextEdit) that you want to see 16 pts, pull up the font dialogue (Cmd-T). In the upper-left corner, you should see a dropdown button with a gear icon on it. Click that and near the bottom select 'Edit Sizes…'.

In the 'New Size' field, type '16' and then click the '+' button below it. Click done. Quit and re-launch the app.


El Capitan Mail: How to cancel processes in Activity window?

To cancel the activity without the (X) button that is gone since El Capitan, on Mail versions with the V4 format, it seems to be enough to stop the app, go to cd ~/Library/Mail/ and remove the three ExternalUpdates.* files.

These seem to be the files that keep the queue of remote operations.


Is there any way to add an ePub book to iBooks without iTunes?

If you email the epub file to yourself, opening the attachment in iBooks will be an option in iOS Mail.


Photos: decrease in quality when exporting a live photo as a gif

The GIF format was never designed to be for photos and by definition only allows 256 colours.
From Wikipedia, GIFs are used as follows:

  GIFs are suitable for sharp-edged line art (such as logos) with a limited number of colors. This takes advantage of the format's
  lossless compression, which favors flat areas of uniform color with
  well defined edges.[23]
  GIFs may be used to store low-color sprite data for games.[24]
  GIFs can be used for small animations and low-resolution video clips.[24]


Safari 6: Open and close tabs with middle click?

I've set up the same 3 finger middle click gesture in BTT and it works great with Glims for Safari's middle click to close setting.


Best approach to offsite backups with Time Machine and USB Disks

I have thought about that same problem for quite some time now. With online backups, large amounts of files are slow to upload and inconvenient to download; so I really like the two physical USB drives approach. Having both disks onsite while you clone the most recent disk is not as bad as long as you limit the time you use for this. Don't do it over a week, for instance. Get it cloned and offsite ASAP.

Having said all of that, my answer to your question is to use something like a Drobo. I haven't done it yet, but Drobo seems like it fits the bill: The Mac will see it as one big Time Machine volume, but in reality you are mirroring multiple disks at the same time. If price is not an issue, and you don't mind handling SATA drives around (You can get an enclosure for the one that will be traveling offsite) it may be something to look into.

Hope this helps.


The technology you may looking for is 'QI wireless charging'.

There are covers like LingsFire® 2 in 1 Qi Wireless Cover (German link) using that technology and there are other approaches like LEAPCOVER Universal-QI Wireless Receiver Patch (German link as well) where you can actually fit it into your iPhone.

I found a link for you addressing that: www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/12/11/qi-wireless-charger-iphone-6/#2d1685987fb2

You may also do a Google search with the keywords 'qi' and 'iphone'.


What's the earliest model of the MacBook to support Wi-Fi networks over 5GHz?

All MacBook models have shipped with support for 5GHz Wi-Fi networks since their first generation.

802.11a

MacBook (2006)
MacBook Pro (2006)

802.11n (including draft-n)

MacBook (Late 2006 thru Mid 2010)
MacBook Air (2008 thru Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (Late 2006 thru Early 2013)

802.11ac

MacBook (Early 2015 thru Mid 2017)
MacBook Air (Mid 2013 thru Current)
MacBook Pro (Late 2013 thru Current)

802.11ax

(None yet)

Reference: https://everymac.com/systems/by_capability/macs-with-airport-airport-extreme.html


iPhone locked for ransom: how to recover if it's offline?

Contact Apple. Immediately.

This is probably a security breach of your friend's iCloud account. In order to lock your friend's iPhone, his/her iCloud password is required.
This could either mean that there is a security flaw within iCloud that is not known by Apple and has been exploited or that your friend might have leaked their credentials to a phishing scam.

You can contact Apple support right here:
https://getsupport.apple.com

Alternatively, because your friend's phone is being held for ransom, you might want to contact the local police and report a case.

You may want to try SvenS's answer and see if that disables the SIM lock, though I doubt it is the cause of the phone being locked.


is it possible to add two developers to the development of an app?

To work together on any development project, you preferably need a version control system like GIT or SVN. Apple supports this with Xcode Server. If you're not working on the app at the same time, I imagine that DropBox or any other file sharing system would work as well.

Being on the same Apple Developer team would hardly mean anything in this matter at all. Note that you need to apply as a company to the Apple Developer Program in order to have more team members. The only direct benefit during development is that you can use the same certificates for distributing your app. The package you upload to iTunes Connect for distribution via the App Store is a binary, a compiled version of the app from which it is not possible to extract the source code.


Using Wi-Fi and Ethernet at the same time

Set your DNS server manually to the corporate one, prioritise wi-fi in network settings so it's the default gateway and route 10.x.x.x out through ethernet?


OSX Sierra - WindowServer process hangs, high CPU, whole OS freezes

Wow I accidentally debugged this myself.

It seems after all that my problem was actually a side effect caused by the real issue which was: macOS Sierra changed how it handled defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 0, it no longer supported a zero value, and I had it changed to zero in Yosemite or El Capitan to make the cursor advance faster. To reset it back to normal parameters I changed the keyboard typing delays in the System Preferences > Keyboard back to fastest (both sliders were dragged to the left sidecheck using $ defaults read  NSGlobalDomain in terminal
, most likely cause I upgraded from El Capitan and something changed in Sierra, and the keyboard was queueing input events as fast as possible, so the WindowServer process hogged the CPU like crazy) and now my initial problem is gone.

Maybe I should change the title of the question so that others can find this solution..


How to delete all conversations all at once in iMessage?

In Mojave the keyboard sequence is to first delete the message with Command + Delete And then keep Command pressed and press d
You can't delete multiple message at once unfortunately, but keeping the button Command pressed and alternately press Delete and d makes the delete process a lot less cumbersome.


How do I lock my mac without the screen going dark or going to the screensaver?

You can create an Automator workflow with a Run Shell Script action containing:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend


What is the default effective resolution of the Macbook Air 2020

By default, Mac Retina displays are always at scaled to 2x the 'actual' resolution. So a 2560 x 1600 display will be a "Hi-res" version of 1280 x 800.

I suspect that Apple's list of "supported scaled resolutions" does not include the default 2x Retina setting.
This is backed up by the wording used on my 15" MBP:

  2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680
  by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels

The Scaling options in System Preferences offer 5 options: four of them being the scaled sizes and the middle button being the default. (I'm hovering the mouse over the 2nd from left in the the image.)

The 16" MBP's default resolution is 1536 x 960 "Hi-res".

You are right that "most software doesn't factor in hardware pixels when choosing what size to display" - that's the job of the OS. MacOS's use of 2x scaling is designed to be the clearest.

If the non-default scaled resolutions don't look right to your eyes (understandably so), then just use the default.


Nope, it won't work. Apple disabled the functionality a while ago with an iOS update. It only worked for few months on the first iPad with the Camera connection kit.

I tested it on my iPad 2. If I remember well, when connecting an Apple USB keyboard it poped a message that said the connector can't provide enough power ... Probably a fake reason because it worked before.


Any way to change recommended resolution for all users on a Mac (preferably via Terminal)?

I've used this little app before and it works quite well.

http://www.mowlem-enterprises.co.uk/screenutil/ScreenUtil_v1.0.zip

You'd just throw that into your image in your terminal path somewhere (/usr/sbin) then you can ARD shell command the terminal command you need or script it into the image.


Write a script that installs a package file automatically with limited interaction from user

It is not possible to run any command using sudo without user interaction because the user will have to supply an administrative password.


How to select message in Mail with ID using AppleScript?

Probably not the only way to do it... And these are not my favourite type of scripts.

But here is an example of each of the syntax you describe.

Look up:

message viewer
selected mailboxes
selected messages

In the  Applescript library for Mail.

tell application "Mail"
    set theMailID to 543521
    set theM to mailbox "INBOX" of account "iCloud"

    set selected mailboxes of message viewer 1 to theM
    set sort column of message viewer 1 to from column
    delay 0.5 -- important delay or message selection may not happen
    set selected messages of message viewer 1 to (first message of (theM) whose id = theMailID)

end tell


Which iOS devices support microphone input via the headphone jack?

Here is a summary of what iOS devices support microphone in via the headphone jack. This information was acquired by looking at Compatibility of Apple wired headset models with iPhone, iPad, and iPod models

iOS Devices that support Microphone via the headphone jack

iPod touch (2nd generation and later)
iPhone (Original and later)
iPad (Original and later)

Note: iPod touch (2nd generation) software version 2.2 or later required to use remote and mic features.


Can I run the game Civilization on mid-2011 MacBook Air?

I have the same generation MBA.  You don't specify 11 or 13 inch, and that makes a potential considerable CPU difference, but on my 11" 1.6Ghz 4Gb RAM Air I have played Civilization V just fine.  Slows down a little as the game progresses, but looks good and plays perfectly acceptably to me.


Firmware passwords are a security measure intended to stop a stolen Mac from being used. Quite correctly, in my view, Apple won't help you unless you have a receipt or some other way of establishing ownership.
Have a read of this from Topher Kessler which talks about how the firmware protection is implemented and the steps needed to erase the firmware password.
If you do find a way to bypass the firmware password, you probably should not publish it here.


How can I 'reset' the inertial scrolling in Chrome?

Are you referring to top and bottom bouncy or left and right bouncy?

If left and right, it's because Chrome uses two-finger scrolling for back and forward before allowing bouncy. (I.e., if you can go back to a previous page but not forward, you can bounce on the right side but not the left. If you can't go back or forward, you can bounce on both sides. If you can go back and forward, you can't bounce on either side.) If you have two-finger back and forward gestures off (as I do), you still can't bounce laterally (which is very annoying, as I like to idly bounce the webpages as I read them).


Late 2012 iMac - Thunderbolt : no hardware was found

Hardware not found
When it comes to hardware, there are two “conditions”

Detected
Functional

Hardware can be detected and non-functional, but it is impossible for it to be functional without  being detected.
When something is detected, the system says “I found this piece of hardware.  It’s identified by these numbers at such-and-such and address.”  That’s a very simplistic description of what happens but it encapsulates the concept.
Hardware is functional when a driver(kext) is loaded and the device can be used by the system to do whatever it’s designed to do (i.e. webcam displays pictures and captures sound)
Your Thunderbolt subsystem has failed
Now, if a previously functional device suddenly is no longer detected, the device has failed.  It could be the Thunderbolt controller or the associated circuitry, but in the end, it has failed to the point where the system doesn’t see it.

I’m almost positive that it's a firmware issue as per the system does not see any thunderbolt firmware.

Unlikely. Even if the firmware was corrupted, your system would  report an “unknown device” because something would be there, it just can’t identify what it is.  Upgrading/downgrading firmware is not going to work if it can’t find the device which to apply the update.
Diagnostics
The very first thing that should be invoked long before you reinstall the or do any sort of firmware patching is to run Apple Hardware Test (Hold D while booting).  An OS reinstall should be done last.  In fact, you should install macOS onto an external drive and boot off of that instead of wiping the drive.  Why? If there is any sort of forensic evidence of the failure, it gets erased with the new install.
Resetting the NVRAM and SMC are usually fruitless because they’re unrelated, but it can’t harm anything.  Before wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the OS, try Safe Mode or Recovery Mode.  These are clean, versions of macOS (Recovery, especially) that have only the native drivers.  If the hardware device can’t be seen here, it’s definitely a hardware failure.
Bottom line
It’s got to go in for service or you need to replace the unit.


Has anyone tried 2x8GB (16GB) 2133 MHZ DDR3 204-pin RAM in their 2011 MBP 17-inch?

Just in case you weren't aware, while Apple only officially supports 8GB RAM in your model MacBook Pro, it is in fact capable of running 16GB RAM and many users have done just that. So, if you currently have 8GB or less, you can certainly see some real benefits by upgrading to 16GB RAM (depending on your usage).

As for using 2133 MHz DDR3 modules, it seems they're working okay for rburkat based on his Geekbench results. In reality, the original 1333MHz spec used by Apple is a minimum speed. However, how much your MBP can take advantage of faster memory will depend on the logic board and processor.

In terms of purchasing compatible memory at various speeds for your MBP, you can refer to:

MacSales.com - US and others
Flexx - UK
RAM City - Australia
Mac Fixit - Australia
Simply Mac - South East Asia


Can't connect bluetooth headset to mac mini

There’s not much you can do but restart and remove any 2.4 ghz interference sources.

iOS has some tips like making sure the device is reset. If it’s paired with your android, it might not broadcast it’s looking to pair with your Mac.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201205


Raise/lower brightness is extremely slow

I suggest you reset your SMC (System Management Controller).

The process can be tricky, but you will know if you succeeded if the MagSafe Plug light changes color momentarily as you do the reset.

The reset of SMC depends on your Mac model, so follow the instructions here.


From the terminal, how can I disable iTunes from running when a device is connected?

You should be able to run this command in terminal, then restart iTunes:

defaults write com.apple.iTunesHelper ignore-devices 1


Yes, some things are different in the cron environment from your gtarsa environment. You can check the cron user environment for yourself using this "recipe".

Since you can run your script manually, it seems likely you've set up your Samba passwords and permissions appropriately.

You've chosen not to share your crontab entry, but I've mounted and umounted my Samba shares from a cron script with lines in my crontab like this:

25 * * * * /sbin/mount -t smbfs //user:password@SambaServer/sharename /Users/seamus/SmbSrv01

35 * * * * /sbin/umount /Users/seamus/SmbSrv01

This assumes a mountpoint declared (mkdir) at /Users/seamus/SmbSrv01

Since the cron user's path is not the same as gtarsa, you should check that you're using full path specifications to everything that's not in the cron user's PATH... or just everything if you're not sure.

Also NOTE: Putting userid and password in a script or a crontab as I've done here is something you should not do. Less insecure is putting the userid and password in ~/.bash_profile; e.g.:

export MOUNTUSERID="some_user" # where "some_user" is you, or a userid with Samba privileges
export MOUNTUSERPWD="some_passwd" # "some_passwd" is "some_user" Samba password

Add these lines to the bottom of ~/.bash_profile, and use these environment vars with the mount command in your script. Before you run the script, reload ~/.bash_profile to pick up the environment variables you've just declared:

source ~/.bash_profile

<redundant>You've chosen not to share your crontab entry</redundant>, but if you've not already done so you could help yourself by directing stderr from your script to a file for post-mortem analysis. In your crontab:

* * * * * /full/path/to/script >> copy.log 2>&1

will capture anything output to stderr in the file copy.log

Finally, if you're running your script under the @reboot spec, you should probably put a sleep command before you try to mount.

If none of this helps, please edit your Q to add your crontab entries, and as much of your script as possible and relevant.


Can I change my 2011 iMac's graphic card from AMD's to nvidia Quadro?

I don't even think the hardware would be compatible. Quite frankly, while you can open up the system and tinker with it, you have to worry about two things:

Form factor - The card is probably a different shape. Apple partners with other companies when designing a system and the fact that they put an ATI in there says something about the engineering of the machine.
Power & bus interface - These are likely less of an issue, but something to be aware of.

The iMac is a turnkey system, not an upgradable machine, like the Mac Pro (or, gasp, a PC). I'm sorry that this is not the answer you want to hear, but I don't think that Apple will do it. That said, it can't hurt to ask.


Can Xcode installed from a dmg file to updated automatically

if you instal Xcode from the dmg file it will not update automatically. you have to download the updates and install manualy.
or download the new version from app store once


I know how to Create a shortcut (.txt) File in Finder, but I want to take it far a little bit [coding help]

Here you go that should work for you

try
    tell application "Finder" to set the this_folder ¬
        to (container of the front Finder window) as alias
on error -- no open folder windows
    set the this_folder to path to desktop folder as alias
end try

set thefilename to text returned of (display dialog ¬
    "Create file named:" default answer "filename.txt")

set thefullpath to POSIX path of this_folder & thefilename

do shell script "touch \"" & thefullpath & "\""

set theFile to thefullpath as POSIX file as alias

tell application "TextEdit" to open theFile


A Photos library is not a single file, it's a package. However, the problem with differential backups of packages is that the contents relies on other parts of the contents. You can't restore part of a package—it'll break the entire package. The solution to this is just to replace the previous package backup on backup.


How much free space should there be on the start volume?

I've run for 3 years with no more than 10GB ever free on my 160GB disk, and quite frequently as low as 500MB free. Things seem to work just fine.

Aperture complains loudly if there's less than about 1GB free: I think that would be a sensible minimum to stick to.

Your system swap file does get recovered without a reboot -- if memory usage drops enough.

I find that Caches, particularly those of Safari.app and Spotify.app are a big cause of unnecessary disk use. You can rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches whilst the system is running without any bad effects if you're about to run out of space!


Check out this discussion: Screensaver "start time" option grayed out

The system administrator has probably set the screensaver timeout in a user profile. You can't change it without removing the profile, which will probably cause you to lose network access.

Check if you have a profile (overriding your personal settings) by Apple > System Preferences > Profiles

("Profiles" is in the bottom right)

if you have a profile, one of these files has its settings: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ look for a file with a long name that begins "com.apple.screensaver". There may be two such files. Move the one without the word "slideshow" in the name to the Trash.

It most probably applies to your problem too...


Missing Faces When Creating iPhoto '11 Smart Album

Have you tried rebuilding the photo library?  Launch iPhoto while holding opt+cmd - I will generally select all options except to restore from a backup.


Show same stuff on external screen as my screen

You did not specify the OS you are using but in general in the display preferences (System Preferences → Display) you should look for a mirroring option.

Screenshot for Mountain Lion:


How to group certain apps and add as a stack to the Dock?

Create a folder in your user directory.  Make an alias for each app and move the alias to the folder.  Then drag the folder down to the dock, to the right of the divider line but left of the trash.

Once the folder is in the dock, click on it and the available apps will pop out and you can select whichever one you like.

P.S. this works for any kind of file or document, not just apps.  I.e., if there are favorite docs frequently used, you can put aliases in a folder and add the folder to the dock.


Preliminarily, these guides may help:

http://alexgarlock.com/macbook-pro-2011-raid-0-with-bootcamp/

http://huguesval.com/blog/2012/02/installing-windows-7-on-a-mac-without-superdrive-with-virtualbox/

Read the top one first - and yes I know it's a bit confusing the way he writes it (it doesn't make complete sense to me either, but at least points in some direction).  And yes, they don't completely answer your specific question, but they do provide helpful guidance in the form of pointing you towards the right direction...and perhaps a bit more.

Actually, I'm just about to try all this in a few minutes - I'll try to relay the outcome.

Then, if I get bootcamp to work in RAID-0 mode...the final challenge is hacking the EFI boot that your Bootcamped windows is stuck with - so I can emulate a bios setting in the EFI that allows me to switch to AHCI mode in bootcamp.  I've successfully done this before, and it turned bootcamp into a POWERHOUSE.  The difference was sickening.

If any users are interested in also doing the above I suggest you start here and read as much of the thread as you can.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/126089-howto-boot-macs-with-intel-chipset-in-ahci-win7-vista-xp-linux/page-7#entry1498839

Assuming I get there...the tricky part will genuinely be stacking both of these ridiculous things simultaneously.

I havn't yet found anything anywhere that addresses or even mentions my above proposed "bootcamp-super-stack" about stacking a RAID-0 running in AHCI mode in Bootcamp.

Let's see how this adventure turns out.


From Apple's support note on battery cycles:

  A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could use your notebook for an hour or more one day, using half its charge, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so it may take several days to complete a cycle.

So essentially, as long as you ever run the laptop unplugged at all, your cycle count will slowly increase.


How can I correct the screen going blank whenever I run nettop?

Try to make your terminal screen bigger. It fixed mine!


By default Opt-Cmd-Space opens a new Finder window in search mode. Not exactly what you want, but navigating to any other part is then just a mouse click away.


According to https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#privacy you only need a privacy policy if your app has account sign in capabilities.

  17.5 Apps that include account registration or access a user’s existing account must include a privacy policy or they will be rejected

If your app just links to other apps and they handle the sign in, you should be clear without needing a privacy policy. You could also rely on iOS to handle the account log in - same release from the requirement is met in that case.


Updated to OS X Lion 10.7.1 solved the issue. In http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1437 it specifies "Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections" that may be this problem.

Anyway, working really fine now.


Not a lot to go on, but here are the steps I follow:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204075

Is there a guide from your organization that explains how to configure Apple Mail or even a configuration profile so you can enter the settings perfectly without having to enter them manually?


Your description is a bit confused, so I'm not sure exactly what's going on. The current version of FileVault (technically FileVault 2) encrypts the entire disk, not individual accounts. It's normally set up so that any of the users' passwords can be used to unlock the volume at startup time. If you've just lost your user password on a FileVault-protected volume, but remember the password for an admin account on the same volume, just start the computer, log in to the admin account, then use the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences to reset the other user's password.

Note that after you do this, the user account's keychain (an encrypted password database stored within the account) will still be encrypted by the account's old password. When you log in to the user account after resetting its password, you'll get an error stating that the system was unable to unlock your keychain. If you don't know the old password, there's no way to regain access to the old keychain, so the only real choice is to select "Create New Keychain", which discards the old database and starts over with a new (blank) password database.

If that's not what the problem is, then please clarify what's going on.


This has happened to me in the past and just happened again on a Mac running High Sierra (10.13.5) that is bound to an Active Directory domain.

Turns out it was caused by an active Cisco IPSec VPN connection. The VPN connection likely hijacked my DNS settings and broke local name resolution that relied on using the AD server's DNS.

It also broke access to the Users & Groups System Preference panel.

Try disconnecting your VPN and reopening Terminal.


Can FileVault show the login window as 'name and password', not 'list of users'?

I'm quoting this directly from a post in this thread at Apple Discussions:

This isn't a bug. This is the way FileVault-2's EFI boot authentication UI is built. When your Mac first starts up, EFI-boot takes over to decide what to do. It either continues to bring up the system to the typical OSX login screen, which is managed by OSX's system preferences, or it starts a special EFI pre-boot where it displays the FV2 unlock screen with the icons of designated OSX accounts approved to unlock the disk. Once you log on, the EFI unlock sequence carries forth your credentials, performing a single signon.
I have submitted a UI request (not as a bug) to be able to either edit the EFI boot screen (look at /usr/standalone/i386/EfiLoginUI directory, none are editable using normal applications) or ask that a feature is included, probably in the FV system preference pane, to add a custom banner.

For now, there doesn't appear to be a way to change it.


Getting prohibited sign with apple logo on start up of Macbook pro 2012 non-retina

It's possible, though unlikely, that the SSD itself may be failing. The SATA connector is a much more likely source of failure, and commonly occurs in those Unibody models. Replacements can be found on eBay cheaply, though make sure you get the right part for your model, as they vary in length.

You can also get a USB to SATA cable cheaply, so you can test the drive as an external, to see if it works there.


Today I've updated a Mac mini and it won't boot even to recovery mode

After I disconnected power for a longer time (to get the serial number), ~25 minutes, the system started to recovery console, and then started normally. I did SMC reset via 15 second unplug, but apparently this was not enough.


How to select Target mode with only one monitor

You don't need to plug a monitor into your old Mac Mini.  Just power it on while holding down the T key and it will go into target disk mode.


Incomplete FTP transfers with Yosemite (Transmit & FileZilla)

Same problem but with cyberduck, tested on multiple computers and to various ftp servers. For now I've resorted to the upload options in cpanel which works fine, but that is not a good solution.