Why is Illustrator throttled to 2% speed when it's in the background?

This appears to be be an Adobe issue; specifically, the code-base for AI is not multi-threaded.

I was able to find a discussion in the Adobe forums that addresses your exact issue - Make Illustrator multi threaded on CPU

  Illustrator performance is awful, its slow and lumbering at all but the most basic operations. It is bound to only a single cpu thread which is ridiculous now in an age of multi core and multi thread CPU's and it has been this way for many years. It cannot handle background tasks and is completely out of parity in function and performance with other Adobe software such as Photoshop and inDesign.

Emphasis mine

Unfortunately, if the code cannot support background CPU operations, there's nothing you can do from your Mac's perspective to speed things up.  As the users in the forum all (begrudgingly) accept, the only solution is to wait for an update from Adobe.

Why this is so

Generally speaking, applications in the background are "paused" - technically, they are given low priority.  What this means is that execution stops until the CPU has an opportunity to execute some more commands; usually during an IO fetch operation.  Managing this process is called "CPU Scheduling" and is something the hardware handles for you - the application just has to allow it (relinquish control).

A common misconception of multi-threading is that things execute faster.  This is not the case, it's just more things happen simultaneously making better use of the CPU resources.  It's like having a single taxi (people carrier) shuttling people between an airport and a conference center versus four doing the shuttling.  They're all going the same speed, it's just now you're moving more.

The application being "multi-thread capable" allows the hardware to manage and schedule CPU time and being that there's more CPU that can be allocated, the background jobs get more resources to get the job done.


It could be that something in the .app package was damaged or corrupted over time. It will be difficult to tell. If you have a Time Machine backup you can try restoring the earliest copy of that app that you have.

You can open up Console.app and look through the logs and see if there is anything about that specific app in any of the myriad log that macOS keeps. That may at least give you more info why it is not launching.

If it is an app store app, re-download it. If it is unavailable perhaps there is a file inside the app package that indicates who the developer is.

If it wasn't an App Store app I would go looking for it online. Often you can find older copies of an app online line.


Once you've set up Family Sharing, everyone can access each others' apps, music, movies, TV shows and books.

To download content from another family member, sign into your iTunes account and visit the "Purchased" pages in the iTunes store, iBook store or App Store. Simply choose the family member whose content you want, and go ahead and download.


Bash command to calculate average on each row and each column

Based on what you did so far:

awk '{count++; col2 += $2; col3 += $3; print ($2+$3)/2}
     {END print col2/count, col3/count}' marks.log


How can I enlarge the Mac’s preview window?

This is answered over here, but basically you'll need to edit the "QLPreviewHeight" and "QLPreviewWidth" values in the Info.plist file inside the QuickLook plugin that handles images (you'll need select the plugin and choose "Show Package Contents" to get at the plist).

You can see your list of plugins with the command: qlmanage -m plugins

If qlmanage shows that "public.images" are handled by the built-in plugin (/System/Library/QuickLook/Image.qlgenerator), you shouldn't need to adjust dimensions since the window opens to the image's size by default. However if you do need to make changes, just copy the plugin into your directory (~/Library/QuickLook) and then edit it with Apple's XCode (downloadable from the App Store).


How do I find what the Other Storage is being used by?

You can try Daisydisk, Grand Perspective or Disk Inventory X which are graphical Disk space mappers. One of these may have what app the 33 GB is mapped to.
There is also a nice explanation about the "Other" storage and how to free up that space. This is explained in this iMore link here.. Some of this disk space is related to the new Optimize storage feature. Not really new but since Sierra operating system. When Apple added its storage management feature to macOS Sierra and newer, called Optimize Storage, it reorganized what "other" storage is and where it's located on the Mac. Much of it has been divided out through other categories so it's easier to find and remove.


hdiutil will show information about all mounted DMGs:

hwd@hwds-iMac:~$ hdiutil info
framework       : 415
driver          : 10.11v415
================================================
image-path      : /Users/hwd/Downloads/mountedImageOne.dmg
image-alias     : /Users/hwd/Downloads/mountedImageOne.dmg
shadow-path     : <none>
icon-path       : /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework    /Resources/CDiskImage.icns
image-type      : UDIF, nur Lesen, komprimiert (bzip2)
system-image    : false
blockcount      : 22528
blocksize       : 512
writeable       : false
autodiskmount   : TRUE
removable       : TRUE
image-encrypted : false
mounting user   : hwd
mounting mode   : <unknown>
process ID      : 5376
/dev/disk2      Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk2s1    Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk2s2    Apple_HFS   /Volumes/mountedImageOne
================================================
image-path      : /Users/hwd/Downloads/mountedImageTwo.dmg
image-alias     : /Users/hwd/Downloads/mountedImageTwo.dmg
shadow-path     : <none>
icon-path       : /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework/Resources/CDiskImage.icns
image-type      : UDIF, nur Lesen, komprimiert (zlib)
system-image    : false
blockcount      : 20480
blocksize       : 512
writeable       : false
autodiskmount   : TRUE
removable       : TRUE
image-encrypted : false
mounting user   : hwd
mounting mode   : <unknown>
process ID      : 5416
/dev/disk3      GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1    48465300-0000-AAAA-AAAA-000000000000    /Volumes/mountedImageTwo


I like Clear.

It has reminders that can be snoozed. The snooze time is not optional (unlike the default Reminders app). When you snooze, it simply snoozes for 15 minutes.

You can create any number of categories under which to put tasks.

You can very easily prioritize tasks.

It doesn't really have a "today" or "this week" view except as a widget in Notification Center.

The UI is unbelievably easy and efficient to use.


How Do I Remove Remote Disc from Finder (not in the Sidebar)

To remove:

Launch Terminal
Enter the following string:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser EnableODiskBrowsing -bool false

Enter the following string:

killall Finder

The icon should now be gone from both Finder and your sidebar. To reverse and make the icon show again, repeat the steps but run this command in step 2:

defaults delete com.apple.NetworkBrowser EnableODiskBrowsing

The icon is present on Macs which do not have optical drives but may still need access to the physical media from another computer.

Source: Apple Support Forums


Lots of reasons why Apple doesn’t allow mail creation. Best bet is to ask Apple Support about your case specifically:

https://support.apple.com/contact

Sometimes it’s because too many accounts were created from that device or location, sometimes it’s a conflict reserving the alias or address, sometimes it’s just that millions of requests across thousands of computers get stuck on the server side or break.

Support will know is the system is up or down or if you hit a specific roadblock.


Sound output through monitor on Mac too loud and unadjustable

You can use a 3rd party utility called SoundSource which lets you control the volume of the external display connected to your Mac using the Macs built-in volume controls.
SoundSource is a macOS app from Rogue Amoeba, a well known and reputed developer of audio utilities for macOS.
While SoundSource is a paid app, Rogue Amoeba provides a fully functional but time-limited demo of the app which you can try to see if that resolves your issue.

P.S.: No affiliation whatsoever with Rogue Amoeba or any affiliates. I have been using SoundSource on my personal Macs and I am highly satisfied with it.


How do I "Get Info" from the command line?

mdls lists the metadata attributes of a given file. Try this:

mdls -name kMDItemWhereFroms filename


How do i transfer apps from one iPhone to another

There's no direct-transfer of apps that I'm aware of. If the phones are signed into the same iTunes account the app should be downloadable from the app store on the 2nd phone, assuming the phone's iOS version & model is compatible.

Alternatively you can transfer your apps from the 1st iPhone to iTunes and then onto the 2nd iPhone but this only works if they're both signed into the same iTunes account.


How to restore system from network drive?

UPDATE: On recent versions of macOS (tested with High Sierra 10.13.4) you can restore from a networked drive directly from the "Restore from Time Machine Backup" option in the recovery mode. The following steps are not required (but are super awesome!).

Prerequisites:

– admin account & password
– AFP/SMB-share & server IP-address

Boot the Computer to Recovery Mode.
Open Terminal in the Utilities menu
At the prompt enter: cd /Volumes
Create a sub-directory in Volumes as a mount point for your time machine share:
mkdir TimeMachine
Enter cd TimeMachine
Enter pwd. pwd should show /Volumes/TimeMachine
Mount the network share with your admin loginname & password:

mount -t afp afp://adminname:password@ServerIPAddress/ShareName /Volumes/TimeMachine

If your password contains wonky characters like :@\/ use URL encoding to protect them
Enter: ls -la. Note the exact name of your sparsebundle.
Enter: hdid /Volumes/TimeMachine/NameOfYourSparseBundle.
You may enter the first letters of the sparsebundle name and then hit TAB.
Hitting tab should auto-complete the Time Machine sparsebundle name. It may not look the same as above as it escapes spaces and special characters.
After auto-completing the name, hit return.
If you return to the prompt the sparsebundle has been opened.
Enter exit and ⏎ and quit Terminal.
Example steps 3-11:

Select Restore From Time Machine Backup and click Continue.

After a search it should show you the Time Machine Backups directory as a volume that contains your backup. Select that (in my example 'Time Machine Backups') and click Continue.

In the next screen you will see all the backups that you can restore from listed by time and date.

Select the backup you want to restore and continue and finally choose your destination disk:


Install Mountain Lion on different Macs with different Apple accounts

If the machines are on different iTunes accounts then it is possible to do one download and install it on all of the machines. Before you run the first installation be sure to copy the "Install Mountain OS X Lion.app" to another folder or disk.

To install on other machines you can follow the instructions provided at Ars Technica.


Changing Apple ID on iPhone - how is non-iTunes data affected?

Any purchases that she made with the previous account are the biggest problem as they are non-transferable. This would include music and movies, as well as apps. Since you mentioned that she only downloaded free apps, it shouldn't be a monetary problem. Because updates will require you to login to the old account, it would probably be better to re-download the apps with the new account. That way updates are seamless and easy.

iMessage (or SMS and MMS for that matter) shouldn't be a problem at all. All the old threads and messages should stay in tact and be usable like nothing ever changed. Call history isn't something that iCloud, or an Apple ID has anything to do with, so the change will also be without consequence there.

Yes, change Apple IDs, create a new backup and you're good to go.

Side note: iPhone actually handles Apple ID changes very easily and smoothly. Some people have two Apple IDs in general - most by accident - and they will change back and forth for app/music/movies purchases.


chflags hidden /path/to/file

See also:  http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/19/hide-file-mac-os-x-chflags/


Do Macs care which USB socket you plug devices into?

Not really, or at least not to the same level that Windows does.


Airport Express with IPv6 tunnel and dynamic IP address

Right, slightly late, but I had the same problem.  Although my circumstances vary a little.  I am using a FortiGate FW instead.  The solution should be almost the same though.

You can read my "guides" on this here:

http://blog.belodedenko.me/2013/07/dynamic-ipv6-updates-using-ddclient-for.html
http://blog.belodedenko.me/2013/06/a-practical-guide-to-setting-up-ipv6.html

In summary you will need to configure ddclient with a helper script to extract your IPv4 public IP directly from the Apple router (not via default web mechanism) [see n1] and update the HE tunnel end-point (e.g.)

# /etc/ddclient.conf

daemon=300                              # check every 5 minutes
syslog=yes                              # log update msgs to syslog
#mail=root                              # mail all msgs to root
#mail-failure=root                      # mail failed update msgs to root
pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid               # record PID in file.

# update tunnel end-point address
protocol=dyndns2
use=cmd, cmd=/opt/scripts/use-apple-snmp.sh
server=ipv4.tunnelbroker.net
script=/nic/update
login=your_HE_tunnelbroker_login
password=your_HE_tunnelbroker_password
<your-HE-nick>-<#tunnel>.tunnel.tserv<#num server>.lon1.ipv6.he.net

Once your router reboots and/or and gets a new public DHCP lease, you HE tunnel will be temporarily down.  Once ddclient runs and updates the HE tunnel end-point, your tunnel should come up.  I've had this running for a while now, and it usually taken no more than x2 ddclient intervals (10 minutes) to get the tunnel back.

Notes:

[n1] http://ampedup.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/get-the-internet-ip-address-from-your-airport-via-bash-script/


Run brew update first, then you can use brew upgrade to update all packages, or brew upgrade youtube-dl to update only youtube-dl.


Convert Eudora 6.2 on Apple to 2011 Outlook on Apple

According to this post (Whats the last OS X that supported Power PC?) Power PCs can only use up to 10.5, which is 7 versions prior to the current, and likely not worth attempting to upgrade.

Also, since this OS came out in 2007, it likely does not support modern versions of Outlook (such as 2011), though I did not confirm this.

TL;DR - computer is really too old for any upgrades that you are looking for.   Sorry :(


How do I make it so that input method is always set to one I actually choose?

I don't use Squirrel, so this answer may not necessarily apply.

Once you've added Squirrel as an Input Source in your Keyboard System Preferences (as you've already done), you should be able to make this the default in your Language and Region System Preferences.

More specifically:

Go to Apple > System Preferences
Select Language & Region
Click + button at bottom left
Choose the appropriate language
When prompted set this to be your primary language
You may still be prompted to add an input source in your Keyboard preferences, if so just redo that as well (i.e. add Squirrel)
You may also need to restart your Mac


Dell USB-C Monitor (U2520D) connection to an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

The only signal that comes out of your iMac is DisplayPort.  So, going from DisplayPort to DisplayPort is the best and most reliable connection as there’s no signal conversion.

USB-C is just a port type.  Thunderbolt is just a multiplexing of several signals:  PCIe, DisplayPort, USB, and power.  The cable that came with your monitor (USB-C) will support DisplayPort so, its perfect to use with your monitor; plug it into one of the two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Converting to HDMI will undoubtably require an active adapter.  I don’t recommend it as it adds unneeded complexity because the signal must be converted; it’s inherently a point of failure.


How can I stop Keynote from trying to convert movies when opening old presentations?

Gah, I figured out a decent answer myself just after posting a bounty.

Simply create a copy of the presentation. Then right-click on the copy, select "view package contents", and delete all the .mov files. Now the copy will open with just a warning that some files can't be found.

(If someone can come up with a way that actually preserves the QC patches, e.g. by converting them into movies in a way that actually works, I'll award them the bounty.)


High memory usage, macbook pro retina feeling sluggish

Your information is very good for RAM and CPU, but I don't see anything amiss and things look quite balanced. Yes, there is one program that's busy and not responding, so you could kill that to rule it out as something that's slowing down Photoshop.

My hunch is you will need to examine storage to find the slow down.

My reasoning is Photoshop does a good job of pre-allocating disk space for swap of it's own (so it doesn't even swap to the OS swap) as well as pre-allocating all the RAM it thinks it will need. Even without seeing the normal RAM and CPU charts you posted, it's unlikely your Mac is paging virtual memory to disk based on the stats you posted from a snapshot in time.

Open terminal app from /Applications/Utilities and run two commands to list the attached drives (so you know which is disk0, disk1 etc...) and another to monitor the actual input and output for the drive.

df | grep disk
iostat 30

The second command will run continuously until you press control+c or close the terminal app or window.

My guess is you will see that there is continuous load on one or more disks and quitting the programs that are causing the disk to be busy will make Photoshop more snappy. You've already ruled out high CPU load and memory contention (the pressure would be yellow or red if that were to slow down Photoshop) so the next likely candidate is that the system is waiting for the storage.

The other suggestions to try killing other applications are good ones, but you will be more successful if you can measure the exact slow item and then change things and re-measure later.

Here is a sample of what you might see on an idle system:

Mac:~ me$ iostat 30
          disk0           disk1       cpu     load average
    KB/t tps  MB/s     KB/t tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
   36.80  20  0.71    24.99   0  0.00   6  3 91  1.34 1.61 1.65
   32.00   0  0.01     0.00   0  0.00   1  1 97  1.32 1.60 1.65
    0.00   0  0.00     0.00   0  0.00   1  2 97  1.37 1.61 1.65
    4.00   0  0.00     0.00   0  0.00   1  2 97  1.31 1.58 1.64
   28.57   1  0.04     0.00   0  0.00   4  3 93  1.48 1.61 1.65
    9.85   3  0.02     0.00   0  0.00   2  1 97  1.44 1.60 1.65

Here is what first a minute of activity on the internal SSD then idle, then a minute of activity on the Time Machine drive and idle, and finally Time Machine running with both drives having equivalent activity (read from one = write to another):

Mac:~ me$ iostat 30
          disk0           disk1       cpu     load average
    KB/t tps  MB/s     KB/t tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
   36.95  20  0.71    42.93   0  0.00   6  3 91  1.99 1.90 1.75
    8.1 1266 10.09     8.00   0  0.00   8 12 81  1.94 1.89 1.75
   10.18 774  7.69     0.00   0  0.00  22  9 69  1.64 1.82 1.73
   18.42 125  2.25     0.00   0  0.00  11  4 86  1.50 1.77 1.71
   32.27  21  0.67     0.00   0  0.00   6  2 92  1.40 1.73 1.70
   12.29  48  0.57     6.78 223  1.47  23  8 70  1.74 1.78 1.72
   20.30  14  0.28     9.61  53  0.50   2  3 95  1.39 1.69 1.69
   17.73   5  0.08    14.75   0  0.01  11  2 87  1.23 1.62 1.66
   32.30  23  0.73     0.00   0  0.00   4  2 94  1.50 1.67 1.68
   13.14   3  0.04     0.00   0  0.00   6  1 92  1.45 1.64 1.66
   21.07  24  0.50     6.12   0  0.00   9  3 88  2.23 1.80 1.72
   40.77 197  7.86    37.93 202  7.47  13 10 77  2.27 1.83 1.73


Map certain ports to URLs via hosts file or DNS resolver

DNS and hosts are only for domain mapping of IP addresses. Ports aren't part of a domain, and according to this post, it cannot be done in the way you're asking. There is an alternative solution mentioned there, but things can get messy when modifying firewall tables. Essentially what you have to do is redirect 127.0.0.1:8888 to a remote server (you'll have to know the IP address of the server, and it'll have to be unique). That being said, it is possible, but may not be worth the effort or potential consequences.


Getting 3 beeps on restart after RAM install... is the RAM really bad?

Your comment of "supposed to handle" is key here. Apple supports up to a specific amount of RAM in upgradable Macs. Now guessing Apple's motivations is generally discouraged here (and celebrated elsewhere...), it is not a stretch to extrapolate why.

The "supposed to handle" comes from at least one person reporting that more than the supported amount of RAM worked fine on their Mac. In some models perhaps a lot more than one. So putting more RAM in a system that will reportedly work with more than officially supported is not much more than "my cousin Jane put more than the supported amount of RAM in her 2009 iMac and it worked fine."

Apple likely did not set the maximum RAM supported arbitrarily. There are likely technical reasons why certain Macs only support up to a certain amount of RAM. And you are one of the 'lucky' few experiencing an edge case where manufacturing tolerances have conspired to make your iMac one of the unlucky few that don't support more than Apple's Officially Supported specification.

In this particular case there are two possibilities. One, that your particular iMac does not support the amount of RAM you wish to install, PERIOD. Or two, that the RAM Crucial has provided you is defective in some way (doubtful from your testing scenario) or just incompatible with your particular iMac. And perhaps another manufacturers RAM would work fine.

Personally I would go with number one. But if you have more fortitude than I you could try exchanging the RAM or getting a refund and trying another brand.


Git autocompletion is not working with homebrew

For Yosemite, after I upgraded to git 2.1.3 with homebrew, this worked in my .profile file (.bash_profile or similar would work, too):

# git tab completion (homebrew)
if [ -f `brew --prefix`/etc/bash_completion.d/git-completion.bash ]; then
    . `brew --prefix`/etc/bash_completion.d/git-completion.bash
fi

I used to have git-prompt.sh there, but changing it to git-completion.bash worked for me.  ymmv.


You need to backup the disk ASAP before your data is lost.  Then replace the bad hard drive and I would reinstall macOS from scratch on the new drive.  Last copy your data back to the drive.  If you have a time machine backup you can restore that to the new hard drive in one step.

Give us some model info on your Mac and we can advise you more.


How can I use an ADB Apple Keyboard with a modern Mac?

The iMate was the only converter available on the market.

If you do get an iMate, the only thing it will work with these days are keyboards and mice. It internally converts ADB keyboard and mice commands to USB keyboard and mice commands, so it will just make your ADB mouse and keyboard look like a USB mouse and keyboard to the computer, no drivers required.

In ~2001 there was a driver for the iMate that would actually configure it as an ADB bus the computer could see, that way anything with real ADB drivers could use it just like a builtin port. That driver has not been updated in years, and Apple dropped all ADB support from OS X, so at this point USB emulation is the only thing it does. Not that there were many (any?) interesting ADB devices that were supported under Mac OS X anyway.


Mac Sierra, iCloud > Notes is greyed out

I launched reminders and clicked reminders->add account from the menu.  I logged in with the same iTunes account that is already setup in System Preferences->Internet Accounts.

Reminders and System Preferences crashed, but then I could see reminders and notes selected in System Preferences->iCloud.  I can now see notes and reminders across my Mac and iPhone.

The options in System Preferences->iCloud are still greyed out.


New drive + new OS, but will Time Machine restore old OS?

Using Migration Assistant is the same as restoring from a Time Machine backup. Restore data from your Time Machine backup will not change the version of OS X that you are running (i.e. you will remain at OS X 10.11 regardless of the version of OS X that created the backup).

You lose none of your information or metadata. You will not restore any system files, but all other files from your backup will be restored, including but not limited to files you created and saved, along with their metadata (date modified, etc).


What are minimum specs for a MacBook to develop iOS apps?

Today, I'd go with either a 15" or 17" MacBook Pro. They would allow you to work with the iPad simulator at its native resolution. It's a bit too big to run full-size on the 13" models, so I always end up running it at half size, which is less than ideal. Even if you're not planning to develop for the iPad right now, I'd still plan the hardware purchase around that possibility. The likelihood that you'll do iOS development and never build for the iPad is pretty low.

Beyond the simulator issues, I like to have the largest screen possible when I'm programming. I have a 13" MacBook Pro, but I connect it to a 24" monitor when I'm at my desk. If you're like me, the 17" would be ideal, if you don't want to have a second screen.

However, Apple is holding a Mac-focused special event tomorrow, and it's never a good idea to buy a Mac this close to one of those events. The entire laptop line is due for updates, and there has been (unconfirmed) speculation that any new models may run at higher screen resolutions, especially on the smaller end of the range.


Is there a way to make notifications center always visible on mac?

I don't believe that it is possible, unless you manage to go into the Notification Center code on the computer and edit it to keep it open even when clicking off of it.


How To Resolve Finder Graphical Errors on macOS

This unusual error is very easy to resolve:

To resolve the error, first open the affected folder so that a Finder window is exhibiting the unexpected visual errors.
Select Finder's "View" menu, then "Clean Up"
If "Clean Up" is unavailable or does not resolve the issue, hover over "Arrange By" then select "Name"


Duplicate Volumes folders on each reboot

For some reason simply updating to 3.2.0 from stable didn't do it, neither did installing version 3.0.6 however when I updated from 3.0.6 to 3.2.0 that did it. Weird but it's solved now :)


Nothing much will change in regards to WAN exposure, as long as you're not configuring the server to proxy or route any traffic. Services intended for the LAN only should be configured to only run on the appropriate interface, regardless of whether there's a firewall in place.

There is an increased risk if one of the externally facing services is compromised, potentially allowing access to resources on the LAN. If you want to be really careful you can set up the firewall on the Mac to not allow traffic out the LAN interface unless it originated on the Mac...


How to make the maximize button behave consistently across applications?

If you want it to behave like Windows, the only real answer is to simply use Windows.  I know that sounds flippant, but you cannot use one operating system and expect to be able to pick and choose it's behaviour based on your personal preferences of other systems.

The maximise paradigm simply doesn't work on Macs, where the ideal is that the function is to set the window size to best fit the content rather than the screen.  The point being that the content is what is important, and that stays the same regardless of if you are on a 11" laptop screen or a 27" desktop behemoth.  Now we all know that this isn't always properly implemented, but we also know that it is the developers prerogative to do the implementation, it's not a failing in the OS, and given a choice of "one size fits all full screen" that always does the same thing, or intelligent (when the developer adds it) maximising to meet the needs of the content, then I prefer the existing system.

If maximise as per the Windows system makes sense for a given app (bearing in mind that for many, I would say most, it simply does not), then you really want to be looking into the Full Screen options that are provided from Lion onwards, which are further improved upon in Mountain Lion for external displays etc, as this will provide you with exactly what you need, you just have to use another icon.  If your app does not support this yet, then there are a number of workarounds like this one for the time being.


How can I record synthesizer music to iPad?

As long as the synth you have is core MIDI compatible. You may use a Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit or the Apple USB 3 Camera Connection Kit if it requires a bit of power output.

Other alternatives to just straight up USB for non-core MIDI products (products that require drivers) include iRig accessories, or plugKEY.

You will need this cable to make it work.

Best of Luck!


How To Give Each User Separate Applications Folder

It is easy.

If you download an app from the AppStore, the app will be installed in the /Applications folder by default, if you want to hide it from others, just move it to /Users/someone/Applications/ (which is your own or another users' application folder).

If the app is from a DMG file, just put it into your own (or other user's)
 Applications folder, and do not put it into /Applications folder.

The application would then appear only in someone's Launchpad.


How to create sha-512 password hashes on Mac for CentOS?

I decided to use Docker: run image of system where I need to create pass and then run Python code suggested in one-liners.

I got Docker Desktop already, just in case instructions for install.

Then when Docker Desktop running in shell:

$ docker run -it centos:7

Inside running container I decided to also check if hash is generated correctly, so first adding user, then output of it's hash, then generating hash for the given specific salt then finally generating needed number of hashes (for same password):

# adduser test
# passwd test
Changing password for user test.
New password: 123
BAD PASSWORD: The password is shorter than 8 characters
Retype new password: 123
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
# cat /etc/shadow | grep test
test:$6$msMZIy.A$4TOBPNgnGNE05Ptx0RX8/UY731/n5Vr2ZNUqNTW3OxbPyaOiGrb9kDhSsaZSr91OCKnM6uJs5nynnP3CiMXOk1:18179:0:99999:7:::
# yum install python3

...long output and confirming install with y-s.

# python3
>> import crypt
>> print (crypt.crypt("123","$6$msMZIy.A")) # taking part of grep output
$6$msMZIy.A$4TOBPNgnGNE05Ptx0RX8/UY731/n5Vr2ZNUqNTW3OxbPyaOiGrb9kDhSsaZSr91OCKnM6uJs5nynnP3CiMXOk1
>> exec ('for i in range(30):print (crypt.crypt("neededpass",crypt.mksalt(crypt.METHOD_SHA512)))')
...list of 30 hashes for neededpass with ramdom salt
...
>> exit()
# exit


Can Lion be configured to use the three finger drag gesture anywhere in the window?

Three-finger drag isn't a gesture for "move the window"; it's a gesture for "click and drag." While there might (now or someday) be third-party software that could accomplish your desired behavior, it falls beyond the scope of a simple hidden preference.


Data on file exchange partition is owned by 1000 and locked. How can I unlock this in OS X?

Unlocking the file
You can unlock files from within the terminal using the chflags command with nouchg:
sudo chflags -R nouchg Bilder

According to the man page for chflags:

uchg is the user immutable flag
no in front of a flag removes the flag: nouchg

Preventing this from happening in the future
A general solution would probably be to avoid handling permission altogether and using NTFS or FAT for an exchange partition.
However, I specifically voided such a solution (FAT32) this time, because I encountered serious errors the last time.


How do I confirm that each of two attached Time Capsules is indeed keeping a backup?

I love having two destinations and the best way to check is to force two backups, rotating between them each. You’ll know if the file system are clean, the metadata correct and be able to see the actual timing needed to back up to each.

tmutil startbackup --rotation --block && tmutil startbackup --rotation --block

You will get timing on the backup and can monitor the status in another shell

tmutil status

An alternate method would be to get a tool designed to parse the backup manifest like BackupLoupe

Focusing on the bands which are a binary representation of the file system seems like a lot of work when you can just mount the file system and look at the files stored. Each backup interval has a plist file showing what happened on that backup interval.

Side answers to side questions:

no the format for sparse bundles isn’t changing - when they fail to mount, you are likely going to either lose the data or wait a very long time and find out you can't write data to that destination again. By long time, I mean a week or more in some cases to repair or check a sparse disk on TimeCapsule due to the slow processor and massive IO count to perform filesystem checks of Time Machine hard links.
When you have multiple destinations, the default behavior is to try for round robin, so with two connected destinations, odd hours would go to one destination and even hours to the other. So if you never sleep, instead of 24 intervals going to one destination (default case when you have only one drive) - you would get 12 backups to each of the two. If the machine sleeps, it should track roughly odd/even and the only imbalance happens when one of the two isn’t connected, the system prefers the “correct” destination, but will back up sequential intervals to the remaining destination if it’s the only one that mounts when requested.


The file (executable) in question is /var/run/syslog

If we execute man last we get

SEE ALSO
     lastcomm(1), utmpx(5), ac(8)

We can find utmpx in the /var/run directory  Utmpx is a user accounting database of current login information.  The key here is this statement found in the man page for utmpx

  Traditionally, separate files would be used to store the running log
  of the logins and logouts (wtmpx),
       and the last login of each user (lastlogx).  With the availability of the Apple system log facility
       asl(3), these separate files can be replace with log entries, which are automatically generated when
       utmpx entries are written.

So, utmpx is generating log entries to the OS X's syslog function.   Execute the following command:

syslog | grep 'login\['

And you will get a list of all login events since the OS was installed (truncated)

May 26 17:03:12 Allans-iMac login[5572] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 5572 ttys003
May 26 17:26:15 Allans-iMac login[5572] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 5572 ttys003
May 27 10:10:57 Allans-iMac login[5196] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 5196 ttys002
May 27 10:10:58 Allans-iMac login[4741] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 4741 ttys001
May 27 10:11:18 Allans-iMac login[6253] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 6253 ttys001
May 27 10:25:45 Allans-iMac login[6281] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 6281 ttys002
May 27 17:17:15 Allans-iMac login[6281] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 6281 ttys002
May 27 17:17:21 Allans-iMac login[6253] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 6253 ttys001
May 28 13:40:06 Allans-iMac login[7123] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 7123 ttys001
May 30 09:11:25 Allans-iMac login[1213] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1213 ttys000
May 30 09:11:25 Allans-iMac login[1220] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1220 ttys001
May 30 09:23:19 Allans-iMac login[1220] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 1220 ttys001
May 30 09:23:19 Allans-iMac login[1213] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 1213 ttys000
May 30 20:57:16 Allans-iMac login[1695] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1695 ttys000
May 30 20:57:39 Allans-iMac login[1695] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 1695 ttys000
May 31 22:33:30 Allans-iMac login[2592] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 2592 ttys000
Jun  3 16:46:28 Allans-iMac login[2592] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 2592 ttys000
Jun  4 20:44:43 Allans-iMac login[1789] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1789 ttys000

For additional user accounting info, we can use the command ac

Executing man ac gives us

    NAME
     ac -- display connect-time accounting

SYNOPSIS
     ac [-d] [-p] [-w file] [users ...]

DESCRIPTION
     A record of individual login and logout times are written to the system log by login(8) and launchd(8),
     respectively.  The program ac examines these records and writes the accumulated connect time (in deci-
     mal hours) for all logins to the standard output.

So, according to man ac login information is written to the system log.  Executing ac gives us "If no arguments are given, ac displays the total amount of login time for all active accounts on the
     system."

$ ac
total     2477.23

To break it out by user:

$ ac -p
testguy      0.04
_mbsetupuser     0.39
allan     2476.74
root         0.07
total     2477.24


How to read the technical specs for the iPhone 3G correctly

4 channels of AM radio

  Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
  (850 900 1,800 1,900 MHz)

3 channels of FM radio

  Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA 3.6
  (850 1,900 2,100 MHz)

Except that GSM+ and UMTS+ are a little more complicated than the old radio standards, but what you really need to explain to customers is what carrier they select means that not all of these channels and flavors of radio encodings will be active at any one time.

The capital letters are at the most basic, just different speeds of transfer on the same frequency channel so you might just gloss that over until the carrier coverage is compared to make sure that high or medium speed data will be provided.


How can I start postgres automatically on startup?

In general for Apple systems you should add a .plist to your Launchd configuration.

Exactly how to do this varies a little from Mac OS X release to Mac OS X release. You haven't specified yours so I can't give a more specific answer.

The main thing to be aware of is that your postgresql plist should make sure to run PostgreSQL as the correct user.

If you use the EnterpriseDB installers for PostgreSQL they should take care of this task for you.


Mac won't boot of an external drive, starts internet recovery instead

Presumably your data on the backup is fine, it just doesn't have the correct boot sectors or they are corrupted. Why not go thru with the internet recovery, get your Macbook to a base state, then you can use Migration Assistant to move files from your backup to the now refreshed Macbook.


If you can still see it on your computer in iTunes, you need to turn off your iTunes Match on your Phone and on your computer.

Disconnect and connect to refresh. Now on your phone, go to your Settings → iTunes & App Store and turn off the iTunes Match and it will give you 2 options: Enable or Cancel. Select Enable!

Then go to your computer on your iTunes, where you see your Phone, then on the menu bar where it says File, Edit, View, Control, Store and Help, go to Store and click the option where it says turn off your iTunes Match. Disconnect your Phone from the computer and connect again.


Redirect traffic using PF along with Internet Sharing

I found the answer.

I loaded my rules as part of the anchor com.apple/100.InternetSharing/natpmp which is the one used for Internet Sharing.

The file mitm.pf.conf contains the rules:

rdr on bridge0 proto tcp from any to any port 80 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8080
rdr on bridge0 proto tcp from any to any port 443 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8080`

Load it using the Internet Sharing anchor:

sudo pfctl -a com.apple/100.InternetSharing/natpmp -f mitm.pf.conf


My 17" Macbook Pro battery, is at 95% after 260 cycles!

So this is not normal for such a new battery.

You should go to an Apple Store and probably they will replace it for you!

From Apple website:

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


Skype way too quiet. How to get louder Skype audio output on my MacBook Pro?

Did you check the settings in the app "Audio MIDI Setup"?
It's in /Applications/Utilities.
Sometimes the settings there can get out of whack.


How to share existing PC docking-station-like setup with Macbook Pro

At a minimum, I want to be able to quickly and easily switch between
  using the monitors, mouse and keyboard, between the PC and MBP

You can't if your peripherals/accessories are plugged into this docking station.

The dock connects to the HP notebook via a proprietary connector.  There's no way to connect anything but the supported notebooks to this dock.

The key here is to understand that the HP dock is not an "independent device."  It's designed for convenience when wanting to use desktop peripherals (mouse,monitor,keyboard, LAN, etc.) with your notebook; consider it part of your HP notebook when docked.

To share devices, you need "something" that interfaces with the peripherals that can be connected to both machines.

Your only options are to:

Ditch the dock and use a generic USB hub/dock and manually move the USB cable between computers
Get a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard (like the Logitech MK850) that supports multiple devices (won't support video switching)
Get a quality KVM switch that supports multiple monitors


Trackpad gesture to open the widget sidebar?

You need to swipe left physically from off the trackpad (i.e. the palmrest) and onto the trackpad. You don't have to have the cursor in the top right to do this. You can have the cursor wherever on the screen.


I know you said you use Safari for Ka-Block but if you could find an alternative blocker for Firefox you could get the side tab you want.  There's an extension call Tree Style Tab which lets you put them on the right or left side of the screen.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/


iTunes attempts to mount SMB share using old SMB server name

iTunes is bloated and willful (my opinion), but here's a counter-point to that. I'm posting this as an "answer" in the fervent hope that someone will downvote it, tell me how stupid I am, and reveal (at long last) the "true" answer to the question, "Why does iTunes persist in looking for my media in the wrong place?". That said, here's all that can be done:

Start iTunes, select iTunes, Preferences..., then the Advanced tab.
Click the Change button, and in the dialog navigate to the location of your media.
Note that there are other options in the Advanced tab that will give iTunes greater autonomy over your file system than it already has. I've found them to be recipes for chaos, disaster and confusion, so I don't check them see this screenshot.

Finally, prepare to repeat this process frequently as long as you use iTunes. Frankly, the only reason I still use it at all is to a) store music on my phone, b) provide my playlists to Sonos. Again - hoping someone will strike me down, and we'll both be illuminated for it :)


How to show all running launchctl daemons/agents?

From launchctl's man page (apple seem to have misplaced  the man pages so an external one is here https://www.unix.com/man-page/osx/1/launchctl/)

launchctl bslist lists "Mach bootstrap services "

To get all jobs loaded into launchctl use sudo launchctl list

Daemons are not necessarily the former and other things but daemons are in the list


Dual VGA monitors (not mirrored) with Mac mini 2012

Well, the Mac mini should include both an HDMI connector, as well as a Thunderbolt connector.

If you are actually using VGA monitors with VGA connectors, you would simply need one HDMI -> VGA adaptor for one monitor, and one Thunderbolt -> VGA adaptor for the other.

If your monitors are newer, you might like out and one will already have an HDMI connector, so no adaptor is needed.

But the simple answer to your question is YES, you just need to buy the appropriate adaptors for the connections you have.


My iPhone 6 has white streaks lines and blue spots, can I fix it myself?

In general, no. iOS devices that come with adhesive seals need some special tools and training to repair.

Most people can work odd jobs, cook meals at home, do other things to get paid for less time and money than taking the device to a repair shop to have someone do the work that is:

already trained
already purchased all the tools
already knows where to get parts (and probably gets them in bulk for cheaper than we can)

That being said, don't let anyone say you shouldn't roll up your sleeves and try to learn / fix / break something. We all start somewhere and it's only money if you break your phone completely. Who is to say the experience you gain now isn't worth using a $45 flip phone for how ever many months it takes for you to save for a new iPhone? (A: not me.)


Is there a spec or standard for .mobileconfig?

Most of my searches land me on this Apple doc titled: Configuration Profile
Reference. I also found this tutorial which covers using the /usr/bin/profiles command to work with profiles on macOS. That tutorial is titled: Use The Profiles Command In High Sierra.

You can use commands like this to import profiles from a file:

/usr/bin/profiles -I -F ~/Desktop/HawkeyesTrickshot.mobileconfig

The CLI tool dscl also received profile switches in Yosemite.

$ dscl <<<"help" |& grep -A6 "MCX Profile"
MCX Profile Extensions:
    -profileimport    <record path> <profile file path>
    -profiledelete    <record path> <profile specifier>
    -profilelist      <record path> [optArgs]
    -profileexport    <record path> <profile specifier> <output folder path>
    -profilehelp


Create categories with iBooks (Mavericks)

Go to: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books and make a backup copy the file Books.plist.

Double-click Books.plist when it should open in Property List Editor, assuming you have Xcode installed.

Expand Root>Books and examine any item from Apple to see the format. Find the item containing your PDF (I'll call it 'itemX') and open it. If there is genre key all you have to do is edit the value field. If not, select 'itemX' and click on 'Add Child' at the top left to insert a new blank key/value pair.

Fill in 'genre' for the Key, String (the default) is correct for the Type, and for the Value insert the category you wish to associate with the PDF (you can invent your own).

Save, restart your computer, open iBooks, and your PDF should now have the category you assigned it.

Next you have to sync your iPad to your Mac with iTunes, but before you do that you need to delete the PDF files from your iPad, so that you have the 'new' versions with the changed categories. You may have to restart your iPad to see the changes.

A bit of a faffle, but it works for me on Mavericks with my iPhone.


How can I rip DVD subtitles to SRT format (or something else that iPads can understand)?

This is by no means a complete answer but if the DVD you are ripping contains Closed Captioning subtitles then HandBrake gets you this for free.

Simply add the subtitles as a track. You'll be able to clearly see what must be burned in and what doesn't have to be by the options that have been greyed out.

I actually really like this option and use it whenever I can because different software can display these subtitles in different formats and all of the Apple playback software that I've used does a really nice job of displaying it readably and beautifully. I should also note that unchecking the Burned In check box won't make any difference on an iPad.

The problem is with bitmap subtitles. Essentially, I have found no software that can preserve alpha transparency when they rip bitmap subtitles and thus they require burn in to the resultant file if you want to use them directly in any Apple playback software. If you want to go this route, I have enough space to simply rip it twice, once with subtitles and once without.

What you're left with is a variety of OCR techniques that are shoddy at best as far as what I've seen on the Mac. I have heard good things about SubRip if you have any access to Windows.

Another option is to download an open SRT file and add it manually to the container. You could search for these via traditional means or give opensubtitles.org a try. YMMV. As long as the container format you're ripping to is mp4 (it should be if you're ripping for Apple devices), you can use Subler to add the external SRT track in post.


Although you can get whatever you can on your iPad via iCloud also on your new Mac via iCloud, you can not completely migrate Mac to Mac via iCloud. But, note that, this is actually (via iCloud) how I migrated to my new MBP last year as I preferred to have it set up fresh and I don't have too much data (just a few GB) outside pictures and music.

Even if you enable every iCloud category in System Preferences > iCloud, iCloud only synchs your user data files such as office documents, pdf files as well as pictures, contacts, calendars, etc.

Unless you are subscribed to Apple Music or iTunes Match or they reside as regular files under the Documents folder, you won't have access to your music via only iCloud. iCloud will neither install the applications you have on your previous Mac onto the new one nor customize them or your system settings the way they are on your previous Mac. However, you can download the applications you have obtained from App Store with your previous Mac by signing in with the same Apple ID in your new Mac from App Store again.

Apple recommends that you migrate from one Mac to another using Migration Assistant if you wish to do it as completely as possible.


iMac WiFi speeds doesn't compare to other computers at home

I stumbled on this question because I'm having problems with poor wifi speeds after installing Yosemite on a July 2014 rMBP.  I don't get drops, but I get 5 Mbps speeds literally 5 feet from the router when I used to get in the 70s.  My iphone 5S, sitting next to the rMBP, is able to get 70Mbps. Even more confounding is that if I change the router to support only 802.11g, the speeds are at 54Mbps.

What I learned is that "MCS Index" value is significant--it communicates from the Access Point to the clients what coding schemes are in use.  There is a standard table defined by 802.11n, and you can view it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009

In your case--and in mine--an MCS Index value of zero shows up.  According to the table at the link above, that means the maximum rate available should be 6.5-7.5 Mbps. However, in your output, it claims you're getting 54Mbps, which seems wrong.

So, why am I answering?  Because in both cases, the evidence suggests that Apple's driver or the chipset is doing the wrong thing with the MCS Index value.  In my case, I sniffed wireless lan traffic and confirmed using wireshark that the AP is announcing itself with an MCS Index value of "7" (conforming to what I actually set in the configuration for the AP). Yet, my rMBP insists that it's a zero and sets the speed accordingly.  In your case, it appears to be recognizing the MCS Index value as zero but setting the speed incorrectly.

In short, I'm not sure that reinstalling your will actually change anything for you.


Alternative to "luit" which is available via homebrew

You can install XQuartz as a binary from http://xquartz.macosforge.org. It's the de facto standard X11 for OS X. It comes with luit and all the normal X11 stuff.

Homebrew does not have an X11 installer; it expects you tu use XQuartz, and will compile against it when it is present.

You could also use AppleScript to programmatically change your Terminal settings instead of doing it manually.


It doesn't seem you're resetting the SMC correctly. Here’s what you do for a MacBook Air:

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

Let us know how you go. Many of your symptoms are listed in Apple's article on when you might want to try a SMC reset after performing a somewhat long set of other checks first to be sure it's not software or basic settings:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


I recommend going into full recovery mode.  Instructions are here: iPhone and iPod touch: Unable to update or restore.  A summary:

Disconnect the USB cable from the iPhone or iPod touch, but leave the other end of the cable connected to your computer's USB port.
Turn off the device: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red slider appears, then slide the slider. Wait for the the iPhone or iPod touch to turn off.

If you cannot turn off the device using the slider, press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. When the device turns off, release the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons.

While pressing and holding the Home button, reconnect the USB cable to iPhone. When you reconnect the USB cable to iPhone, the device should power on.
Note: If you see the screen pictured below, let the device charge for at least ten minutes to ensure the battery has some charge and then start with step 2 again.

Continue holding the Home button until you see the "Connect to iTunes" screen. When this screen appears you can release the Home button:

If necessary, open iTunes. You should see the following "recovery mode" alert:

Use iTunes to restore the device.


Trouble moving tons of files from OS X server attached RAID to NAS

Assuming these are read permission issues you should be able to overcome them by running

sudo rsync …

If you don't need the various read permissions on the original files, you can also use

sudo chown -R $USER source/dir

first to change file ownership to yourself.


How to restore hidden Library folder in Time Machine

If you use the Finder's menu "goto" while holding down the Alt, the library folder is visible in the menu:

Select it. The finder shows the content of /Users/<your name>/Library. Now start Time Machine by clicking on its icon in the dock – violà, you have what you want:

When you want to access another invisible folder that is not listed in the 'Go' list in Finder you can go to the same folder and choose for 'Go to Folder' or CommandShiftG. Here you can type in any location you want to goto.


It sounds like your $PATH is not set correctly. All you probably need to do is set your $PATH in your shell config (.profile, .bashrc, .zshrc, etc… for whatever shell you are using).

For bash derived shells you can use:

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

Are you sure the git binary is in /usr/local? One of my machines shows the git binary is in /usr/local/git/bin and on the other it is in /usr/bin.

I've got different paths for git on different machines, so maybe the new install of git put it in a different place than the old machine.


Missing Space on Drive using Core Storage after Boot Camp Assistant Failure

The use of Core Storage seems to be a common denominator in problems similar to mine. I used the

sudo diskutil cs revert [Logical Volume guid]

command in the Terminal application to get rid of Core Storage, and then restarted. Presto! My missing GBs were returned.

  The above command can only be used if the command diskutil cs list shows the Logical Volume to be revertible. See the image included in the posted question for an example.


Is there any way to see what OS X is doing when it's booting up when no chime is played?

See Apple support document Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode


How can I prevent Safari from removing first words of tabs' titles?

According to this macworld article I don't believe that there is a fix yet (if you really want this fixed, you could try searching for terminal commands to fix or disable this feature). Otherwise you could try switching browsers...

  When you use tabs, Safari sets the tab's title to include the domain name as well as the page title. For instance, macosxhints.com - Submit a Hint. However, when you have more than one or two tabs opened on the same site, Safari drops the domain name from all the tabs, and just includes the page title: Submit a Hint


Unable to open numbers document stored on iPhone

I found that if I connected the iPhone to my Mac, then iTunes could see the document on my iPhone.

I was then able to copy the file from iTunes and to iCloud Numbers folder.

On the Mac I opened and saved the document again (just to upgrade the file if that was the issue.)

Now I can open the document on the iPhone again.


Why does music keep playing during videos?

So, music always plays when you have web browser open, regardless of any videos?

Maybe.. check if there are tabs open, try to close them one after other if you would find if one of those has background music. Chrome and some other browsers might show an icon indicating if a tab is playing music.


ExFAT is not the same as NTFS, it is however cross-compatible with Mac (10.6.5+), Linux and Windows (may require additional drivers/software).
It seems as you have unintentionally formatted your NTFS-partition to an ExFAT partition, and depending on which version of OS X you're running your Mac can only read from that file system and not write. (Unless you have additional software installed to handle that file system)
You can try and reformat the partition in Terminal in case the Disk Utility is being silly, you will lose all files from that partition (they're technically not gone, but you'll need third-party software to restore them).
To format the partition open up the Terminal App and run:
sudo diskutil list

Find the partition that matches your USB-partition you wish to format. It should looks something likes this (This is from my own harddrive). Find the correct identifier for the ExFAT partition.

Now run the following in the Terminal:
sudo diskutil eraseVolume {FileSystem} {Name} /dev/diskN

Replace {FileSystem} with HFS+ or similar (only natively supported on Mac, not Windows/Linux) and {Name} with a name for the partition. Replace /dev/diskN with the identifier for your ExFAT-partition. Make sure you type the right identifier, if you type in the wrong one you could easily wipe your Mac's internal harddrive.
Now the partition should be reformatted, unless any errors occured. Now you can open up Disk Utility and choose to format the partition as NTFS if you don't want to stick with HFS+.
This might not be the most effective way to do it, I'm no expert so anyone with better knowledge feel free to come up with a more effective solution


How to drag file to the running, but minimized (or in second desktop) app on OS X's dock?

Specifically for full-screen windows, grab the file with the mouse, and without letting go of it, use Command+Tab to switch to the application you want to drop it onto. Once the application window appears, you can drop the file where you want. The reason it has to be done this way is full-screen applications are given their own desktop ("Space") that doesn't interact the same way as windows in all other Spaces do.

If the window isn't full-screen, it's easier as detailed below.

For a minimized application window, drag it onto that window's icon (which will be on the right side of the Dock near the trash) and continue holding for a couple of seconds while the window un-minimizes itself. For Chrome specifically, you can then drag it into the address bar or some target on the page.

For an icon on the left side of the Dock, do the same thing except when you hold the file over the application's icon, it will display all windows from that application (including those on other Spaces). Drag the file over the appropriate window, again holding for a couple seconds, and that window will come to the front.

You can show all open windows on the currently visible Space(s) by pressing F3 (if you have the System Preferences > Keyboard > "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" setting enabled, you'll have to press Fn+F3) and do the same thing as you would above with the individual windows.

If the file is on the desktop itself, it's actually even easier: press F11 (or Fn+F11 as noted above), then grab the icon, and while still holding it, press F11 again. Whatever window(s) was/were previously present will again appear, and you can drop the file where you want it.


Music won't play on my iPhone 5s why not?

Have you tried also restarting the phone? I have the same phone model and do have to reboot it every once in a while.


"Email already in use" Apple ID error message. How can I set it up?

I am thinking someone possibly used my email by mistake. I did not
  click the authentication link. The message stated that if it wasn't me
  who registered, I shouldn't worry.

I highly doubt someone else could register with your email, since you stated right afterward you yourself had registered with it.

Try clicking this link then fill out the information required:

https://iforgot.apple.com/iForgot/iForgot.html


If you've blocked them on your iPhone then there's no way to send them any type of auto-response.


It would be very strange to have TM back itself up... That said, we can check! Go to System Preferences > Time Machine > [Options...]. The drop down pane that appears has "Exclude these items from backups:" If your external drive is not listed there, it might actually be backing itself up. Click the plus under the list box and try to select your external drive. If it now appears in the list box, click [Save] and try to backup.


How to set missing serial number on MacBook Pro 2014

If your MacBook is not properly serialized it should be done by an Apple Authorised Service Provider. It is to be assumed that perhaps it was forgotten (or not properly done) after a repair.


Is it safe to charge a MacBook Air after the green LED shows?

Is it safe to leave in?  Yes.  To understand this better we need to know what is happening when you have your charger plugged in.
What do the LED's on the MagSafe Charger Mean?
Amber:  Battery is charging.
Green:  Battery is fully fully charged and no power is being sent to the battery.
Your battery will naturally dissipate it's charge without use and the charger will detect this drop and automatically begin its recharge cycle.
Is it safe?
I am assuming you are referring to the longevity of the battery and not whether you will incur some sort of injury.
What affects the life of a battery are two things:

Number of Cycles - how many times the battery has been discharged and recharged.  1 cycle is a 100% discharge and recharge, or 5 20% discharges and recharges or 100 1% discharges and recharges.
Age -  this is actually the number one reason for batteries to fail.  Basically, a 3 year old battery that has never been used is going to perform about as well as a 3 year old battery that is used every day.

I answered a similar question recently about What's the best way to prolong the lifespan of a MacBook Pro battery?
Catalina Battery Health Management Feature
As of Catalina (10.15.5), there is a new feature; it's called Battery Health Management.  It will actually stop charging your battery and lower the maximum charge amount further making the micromanagement of your battery unnecessary. See the linked post for further details.
Leaving it plugged in will surely have pretty much zero effect on your battery.


Xcode installed but not recognized on App Store

You can't make the App Store recognize an Xcode installed from a dmg. Besides that, the dmg distribution method is not used by Apple any longer so you most probably got an old Xcode version anyway.

New versions of Xcode are only distributed via the App Store. Just download/install the most current version of Xcode from the App Store again (it's free anyway)


We can separate the possible solutions into intrinsic and extrinsic solutions, as well as sitting/standing solutions.

Intrinsic solutions (ones that will not look like an afterthought):

You can "[b]uy [an] iMac with Built-in VESA Mount Adapter". You will not see this option on the usual checkout lane, but Google locates it.

The 27" iMac weighs 21 pounds (9.54 kg). This could make it challenging to couple it with some random monitor arm on the market.

Extrinsic solutions (an additional base with a potentially jarring look):

Rain Design mBase Stand for 27" iMac, $69.95
Bretford MobilePro Desk Mount, $179.95
A custom solution that matches the desk rather than the iMac.
Satechi produces a plastic and an aluminum stand. They're not adjustable, but breakage is less of an issue than with glass.
Fitueyes clear Computer Monitor Riser 4.7" (thanks, Allan)
Halter Acrylic Monitor Stand / Monitor Riser 3.675"H

The trouble here may be that you're designing a desk for just one person. If you are pursuing a more fluid ambiance at an office and wish to accommodate someone ranging from, say, 5ft to 6ft 2", the presence of a base may not be too convenient.

Sit/stand solutions

Ikea sells a manual and an electric adjustable desk. They are sitting/standing desks, and so they are a much more general solution for problems in ergonomics. To use while sitting, you will need to look for a really deep keyboard tray (or possibly get a second lower table to position underneath, if you won't find that setup particularly jarring).
Ergotron WorkFit-A, Sit-Stand Workstation, $595
Varidesk standing desk Pro Plus, $395 to $595.

Note that neither the Ergotron nor the Varidesk solve the problem since the height difference between the keyboard and the monitor platform is constant. A monitor pedestal will still be needed.

To conclude, your best bet may be to look for a sit/stand desk (google/bing) and hook an adjustable keyboard tray (google/bing) underneath. Unfortunately that's not a cheap option.


In iOS 10 in the Health app

Hit the profile (head icon) in the top right corner.

At the bottom of your profile is Export Health Data. Touching that brings up a dialog and eventually the normal sharing choice e.g. Message, Mail etc


Upgrade personal iPhone to iOS beta 5.0?

Apple actively states that you should in no way install development releases on any hardware you rely on. More specifically they state that "you should install this on dedicated development hardware" meaning a second phone.

If you are even the slightest bit concerned about stability, don't install it.
If you are not going to use it to develop/test against, don't install it.

And, my personal favorite:

If you have to ask this question, don't install it!


"Missing Operating System" on Windows 10 Bootcamp after partition

You have a couple of problems.

Your EFI System Partition (ESP) is missing in your GPT partition table (so it has 2 partitions not 3).  This will prevent Windows booting if installed in EFI mode.
Your hybrid MBR partition table is corrupt.  Your APFS partition is marked active and has partition id type 07 (Microsoft) when it should have AF (Apple). Your BOOTCAMP partition is also missing.  This will prevent Windows booting if installed in BIOS mode.

MacOS will boot directly from firmware, doesn't require ESP to boot (most of the time) and ignores hybrid MBR.

First recreate ESP

It is likely that the contents are still there - you just need to add it's definition to your GPT partition table.  You have unallocated space from positions 34 to 409606.  You need to add the partition back to the table in this space which you can do using gdisk which you can download from here https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/

Install it, then open using sudo gdisk /dev/disk0 and you should see something like this :

$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
Password:
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: hybrid
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help):

Take option p to show GPT partition table and you should see your first partition starting at position 409640 (same as mine below).  Note I deleted my EFI partition table entry here so as to look the same as yours but my second partition started at the same number as you as it is the standard position after a 200MiB ESP.

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk0: 250069680 sectors, 119.2 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 569B72DC-B014-4DD3-B28A-A95CA047CBEE
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 250069646
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 525694 sectors (256.7 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   2          409640       172376718   82.0 GiB    0700  MacWindows
   3       172378112       180766719   4.0 GiB     2700  Recovery
   4       180766720       201738239   10.0 GiB    8300  Arch
   5       201738240       222447615   9.9 GiB     AF00  Lion
   6       222709760       249807495   12.9 GiB    AF00  El Capitan

Now you want to backup your partition table using option b.  This will save it to your home folder and can be used to restore if you make a mistake.

Command (? for help): b
Enter backup filename to save: GPTBackup.bin
The operation has completed successfully.

Now add the missing partition table entry with option n.  You can take defaults but make sure you set partition type to EF00 which is EFI.  The start position is important - try 40 as it is the default and also what your fdisk screen print shows.  The end position doesn't matter so just take one less than the next partition.

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1): 1
First sector (34-250069646, default = 40) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 40
Last sector (40-409639, default = 409639) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 409639
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): EF00
Changed type of partition to 'EFI System'

You can then take option p to show GPT partiton table.  Note nothing is saved yet.

Create Hybrid MBR

Take options followed by r, h to create new hybrid MBR partition table.  All you want to put there is the Windows partition which will be your 3rd GPT partition now you've added the ESP.  Take the option to add 0xEE protective MBR, set the type code for BOOTCAMP partition to 0700 and make it bootable.

Command (? for help): r
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h

WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.

Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 3
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): 07
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y

You can then use option o to check it.

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o

Disk size is 250069680 sectors (119.2 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0xEBD711AE
MBR partitions:

Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                     1       409639   primary     0xEE
   2      *         409640    172376718   primary     0x07
   3             172378112    180766719   primary     0x27
   4             180766720    201738239   primary     0x83

It doesn't much matter what is in your hybrid MBR partition table as long as Windows (and Linux if you are booting it in BIOS mode) start and end at the same sectors as in the GPT table.  As you can see I don't have any macOS listed at all as it EFI boots even on my 2007 MBP so what is here is irrelevant for it.  Note that if you were booting Windows in EFI mode it also would not care what is in hybrid member or even be able to see it.

If you are happy you can take option w and write the new partition table to disk.

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk0.

It should now boot whether you installed Windows in BIOS or EFI mode.  If it doesn't then you will need to fix bootloader with Windows standard bcdboot command but repairing partition tables is required first.


Is it possible to make screenshot of a panel window

Use shortcut cmd+T to show the Font window

To take a screenshot using a manual rectangular selection, use cmd+Shift+4.

To take a screenshot using an automatic selection, press space as well.


What is a keyboard shortcut in Keynote to edit a text object without clicking it?

If you press control-q and then control-e it lets me edit the text field.


Is there a way to make "find my iPhone" not work?

Remove an iOS device or Mac by turning off Find My iPhone

Remove a device from Find My iPhone by turning off Find My iPhone on the device.

On an iOS device: Go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to turn off Find My [device].

Note:   You can also remove your device by turning off iCloud completely on that device. Turning off iCloud turns off all iCloud features on the device.

You can read Apple's full article for more details, iCloud: Remove your device from Find My iPhone


Have you tried clicking the edit button that's right next to the hostname that you want to edit?


How do I rename app icons on my iPad home screen?

iOS doesn't have that functionality.  Names of application icons are provided by the application.  You can only name folders.


You will need to use an app from the App Store in order to both take photos in RAW as well as edit them. The two apps I am familiar with that do this are Adobe Lightroom and Obscura Camera.


Macbook Air will not connect to Wifi even though other Macs work fine with same Wifi

Have you tried going to the Network preference pane in System Preferences, clicking on Advanced, then Wi-Fi, and deleting all the Preferred Networks? I seem to recall having the same problem a few years ago, and deleting the networks fixed it.


Voice memos not being deleted from iTunes

A workaround that I found, is to go to iTunes Music library, find the voice memo, and then manually delete it from there. After you sync, the Voice Memo playlist will be deleted from underneath your iPhone (in iTunes), so you won't see that file that had an exclamation mark anymore.


iPhone X has a green line on the screen. What is damaged?

It looks like a hardware issue, display or cable hard to tell, but I'd guess display itself.

A quick test to make sure it's not earlier in the structure is take a screenshot & look at it on another machine, phone, pad, computer. The line won't be there in the screenshot if it's a hardware fail after the GPU.


How to list all files with Finder Comment using unix?

This will do the trick:

 find . -xattrname com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment \
        -exec printf %s\\t {} \; \
        -exec mdls -name kMDItemFinderComment -raw {} \; \
        -exec echo \;

Breaking this down a little:

find looks through the current directory (.) (and everything "below") for files with an extended attribute (-xattrname) called com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment.
As it finds each file:

the first -exec argument uses printf to print out the file path and a tab (\t) character.
The second -exec runs mdls to read the actual comment.
The third -exec just prints out a newline (\n) character.

Note that the find command is recursive, so this solution will look through subdirectories as well.

If you require absolute paths then use find `pwd` instead of find .


You probably need to enable iCloud Drive in order to showcase the iCloud Drive files and folders.

  On your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

  Go to Settings > [your name].
  Tap iCloud.
  Swipe to turn on iCloud Drive.

  You can find your iCloud Drive files in the Files app.

  After you set up iCloud Drive, any documents that you've already
  stored in iCloud are automatically moved to iCloud Drive. Your iPhone,
  iPad, iPod touch, and iCloud.com keep your files in the Files app in
  addition to the Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps. If you don't see
  your files in these apps, they might be on a device that doesn't have
  iCloud Drive turned on (or under a different Apple ID).

Set up iCloud Drive - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204025


OSX Yosemite upgrade error: "a mismatch between the MBR and GPT partition maps..."

To interrupt the endless installation attempts you have to remove the temporary Yosemite installer folder and some invisible files in the root of your main volume.

Boot to Recovery HD by pressing cmdR right after the start-up chime.

Open Terminal from the menubar Utilities -> Terminal. cd to your main volume in the /Volumes folder with:

cd /Volumes/name_of_main_volume

Get an overview with ls:

ls -la

Then remove all Yosemite installer related files and folders:

rm -R OS\ X\ Install\ Data/
rm .IAProductInfo
rm .OSInstallMessages
rm .OSInstallerMessages

Enter exit to quit Terminal.

Now open "Choose startup disk", choose your main volume to "re-bless" it again and reboot your Mac.

Download and install gdisk and continue repairing the MBR/GPT partition table like described in the answer here.


Changing keyboard input language on Mac OSX

Go to  > System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources.

Make sure an entry for each of 'English', 'Hebrew' and 'Russian' are checked. (I don't know which encoding you'll choose, e.g. 'Hebrew' or 'Hebrew - QWERTY'). Also ensure the uppermost box, 'Keyboard & Character Viewer' is checked.

Now you'll have something that looks like this:

You can select your language with the mouse or you can activate keyboard shortcuts, as seen below:

Both these keyboard shortcuts are already taken by other functions. These are functions that I use far more frequently than when I want to, in my case, shift between 'Australian' and 'Thai'. So in my case it's not worth making a keyboard shortcut to switch languages. This may be different for you however.

If you wish to activate, say, ⌘Space, you'll first need to disown that from whatever is currently using it. In my case ⌘Space opens a Spotlight search box and I use this all the time.


Firefox - Shortcut for activating bookmarks in Bookmarks Toolbar?

Not built-in, but it is available through a no-restart extension called Bookmark Shortcut Keys:

Access Bookmark Toolbar items with a keyboard shortcut.
The default is Control+1-9. Change it in the preferences.

Note that you have to organize your bookmarks toolbar with up to nine of your favorite links at the beginning of the list to use it. There is no way to map a specific number to a specific link (except by the order in which they appear).
Note:
In my use, I could not get Cmd+1-9 to work because it's used to navigate to open tabs. But it did work with Alt+Shift+1-9.
I didn't use the default Control+1-9 because that's mapped to switching spaces in OS X and I didn't want to re-map it.


I've found that "New Screen Recording" functionality in QuickTime Player combined with iMovie editing capabilities is enough for my needs. Maybe you can give it a try? Best of all, it's already installed on your Mac. Unfortunately, I can't compare it with Camtasia, as I haven't used it.


What can be done about the calendar app closing itself on an iPad?

This is how applications crash on iOS - so you may want to check your settings to see if your iPad is sending crash reports to Apple.

Settings App -> General -> Diagnostics & Usage

You can also look in the Data submenu from the above screen and scroll down to look for LatestCrash.plist and see if the date matches when your iCal quit.

In general, it's not possible (even as a developer) to read these reports without access to the iCal source code and you have some short term things you can do to isolate the issue further.

First is to remove any notifications (turn of WiFi and cellular data) and reboot the iPad. If iCal crashes, then it's due to the calendar data on the device and not some external cause. You can then remove your calendar information, account by account to clear up which account has the data corruption that is causing iCal to have a problem. Worst case, you will have to connect your iPad to a computer (iTunes) and force a sync to erase the calendar data on the iPad and replace it with data from the computer to clear the data that is causing the crash.

Apple will likely fix the crash (even with bad data - the program should handle it and let you know an event is broken or ignored and why) in the upcoming updates - but you can report the crash to add weight to this particular bug getting fixed.

You can also take an overkill (but faster) approach to erase all content and settings on the iPad and set it up again.

It's unlikely the data will come back corrupt from your calendar sources (or the backup) but if it does, at least you'll know a bit more about how to isolate which calendar is causing iCal to have problems.


Does it make sense to still use firewire?

I have firewire in production still and you can usually get excellent performance / $ by buying older technology.

The latency of FireWire is excellent - on par with Thunderbolt
The bandwidth of firewire is nearly that of gigabit ethernet and way faster than any source or destination of data that you will send on that era hardware.
The reliability of FireWire is excellent

Why spend more for a connection that won't limit your speeds and is very easy on the wallet and reliable? I say go for it unless you really want to spend more on the card and cables or could use gigabit ethernet instead.


Mac won't finish logging in after restart, must shut down to login completely

Since I posted this question, I ran Disk Utility. I repaired some permissions. When I restarted again, it logged in properly. At this point I can't find any other issues.

I guess the moral of the story is run Disk Utility first before posting in the future.


How to add/remove applications from "File and Folders" inside "Security and Privacy" -> Privacy Tab

Run
tccutil reset SystemPolicyDocumentsFolder
tccutil reset SystemPolicyDownloadsFolder
tccutil reset SystemPolicyDesktopFolder

They are case sensitive.
Sources:

https://www.felix-schwarz.org/blog/2018/08/new-apple-event-apis-in-macos-mojave "Configuration Profiles" section.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/resources/intune-deviceconfig-macosprivacyaccesscontrolitem?view=graph-rest-beta
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/blob/873f31b9db563369039909d4d841e004fd77c443/src/docs/mac_os_catalina_users_permissions.txt
https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configuration-Profile-Reference.pdf

If the above is too cumbersome,
tccutil rest

which resets all permissions across all profiles.
tccutil.py is outdated and even after disabling SIP, it will not give meaningful info about the database:
/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db

https://github.com/jacobsalmela/tccutil/issues/18#issuecomment-655420138


How to enable iTerm2's system-wide hotkey when iTem2 is not running

Follow these three steps:

Launch Automator from /Applications/Utilities. Create a service for launching iTerm in Automator in these steps:

1.1. In the first window select Service and press Choose.

1.2. From left sidebar select Utilities. From middle section drag Launch Application to the right section and select iTerm from the its dropdown list. Select no input from upper dropdown list. Save the document by command+S and provide a meaningful name like Launch iTerm.

Open System Preferences and open Keyboard section. Navigate to Shortcuts tab. From left sidebar select Services and from right list scroll to General section. In this section should be an item named Launch iTerm. Select it and then click on add shortcut button appeared in the right. Assign a shortcut like control+command+Z.

Open iTerm and navigate to the preferences. Assign the same keyboard shortcut in previous section.

This keyboard shortcut launches iTerm when it is not running and shows/hides iTerm when it is running.


Which cable should I choose to do data transfer between a 12" MacBook and a 2017 MacBook Pro via target disk mode by Migration Assistant?

After different kinds of attempts, I finally got it work by some sort of magic.

Short answer: USBC 3.1 cable does work, but you have to first leave two MacBooks unconnected, and turn on each other separately. Leave the 12” MacBook stay there for several minutes, with or without power supply, then use the cable to connect. Wait about 5 minutes, the disk will show on desktop or in disk-utility app.

Here’s how I found it working if you are interested:

Although initially I could hear the charging sound from my old 12” MacBook when connecting it to my new MacBook Pro when 12” is on target disk mode, the disk never showed up on migration assistant, desktop or disk utility, for however long time I wait. Then I was thinking if the cable was the right cable, and that brought me to my original question. To troubleshoot the cable, I came up with another idea: I put the new MacBook Pro in target disk mode this time, and connected it my 12” MacBook, see if 12 inch can recognize the new cable. The reason I did this is because in my opinion, the new MacBook definitely can use this 3.1 cable, since it’s thunderbolt 3 port so it shoudn’t have downwards capability issue, but I am not sure if the USBC port on 12” could since it is still a USBC gen1 port and this cable is gen2.

To my surprise, about 2 minutes later the disk from my new MacBook showed up on my 12”, and I did a little file transfer successfully. So the cable is good, and there’s no reason it can’t be used reversely. I begin to make different attempts, by reversing the cable(although I know this shouldn’t be an issue for usb-c), and by booting each MacBook in different orders with cable connected or without.

Finally, it led me to the result I described in my short answer. And I tried 3 more time, all work. Booting with the cable already attached will not give you any result, at least in my case. I waited the whole night long and I still didn’t see it was mounted when I woke up this morning. So if are you experiencing this issue, definitely try booting the computers separately without cable connected, and then connect it. And most importantly, you may have to wait(plus, I actually found this method by accident as well. After so many failures I was calling an apple care representative for help, and she put me on hold to find the infomrmstion on whether this cable would work or not. While waiting for her reply about 5 minutes later, the disk showed up! So I recalled what I did, and that is in my short answer) for several minutes. I don’t know the reason, and this could be very tricky as you may think this would fail again. But be patient and follow the steps and you will be good!

Edit: I’m still keeping the thunderbolt 3 cable however, and I will try that with some updates later. I’m doing the migration now. Finger crossed!


What does the "cancel" icon in the volume prompt mean?

It means that you cannot change the volume for the selected output device. For example, if you connect your mac to a TV using a HDMI cord, you will not be able to control the TV's volume with your mac. You'll have to use the TV's remote instead.

This shouldn't ever happen when you connect something into the headphone jack though. Perhaps you have a faulty set of headphones?


Mapping signatures to aliases in Mail.app

In a word, no . . .

Unless you can create each alias as a separate account (as suggested in a comment to the OP,) Mail.app won't be able to apply a unique signature to them respectively.

That being said, and if you don't want to create distinct accounts in Mail, you might consider using the text expansion feature of OS X.

First, open the Mail app and copy your desired signature into the clipboard.  Then remove it from the account
Open System Preferences / Keyboard
Select the Text panel

Click on the '+' at the bottom of the list of shortcuts
Type a short, uncommon string for use as your signature shortcut in the Replace column.  For example:

&sig1

Tab into the With column and paste your signature text there
Tab out and your shortcut will be active
Repeat for any additional signatures you'd like to use.

Then, at the bottom of your emails, just type the shortcut text ('&sig1' in this example) followed by a space, and your signature will appear in place of the shortcut text.

While it is not ideal, it IS far simpler than changing your default signature in Mail every time you use a different account alias AND you may find the text expansion feature useful in many other situations as well.


I haven't tried it, but the app TotalSpaces2 seems to provide this feature:

https://totalspaces.binaryage.com/navigation2

Caveat:

In newer versions of macOS they require you to disable SIP when installing.


Use AppleScript to play an iTunes Radio station vs. an iTunes Internet Radio station?

Using Apple Script Editor located in your Utility folder you can do that with this command.

Change the station URL to the one you want.

  tell application "iTunes" to open location
  "radio2.digitalgunfire.com:8000"


What Are The Correct/Default Volume/Folder/File Permissions For A Time Machine Image?

Time Machine sparsebundles use a very customized set of ACLs on the image file itself and the enclosing folders. Here's an example from a image created by a TM server for a Mac laptop  (Qwe's laptop).

>ls -lae
total 16
drwxrwx---+  5 Ben  staff   170 14 Jul  2018 .
 0: group:com.apple.access_backup allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child
 1: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 2: user:qwe allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit
drwxrwxr-x@ 32 Ben  staff  1156 29 Nov 11:59 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 qwe  staff  6148  2 Sep  2015 .DS_Store
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow read,execute
 1: user:qwe inherited allow read,write,execute,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rw-r--r--+  1 Ben  staff     0 21 Jul  2016 .com.apple.timemachine.supported
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow read,execute
 1: user:qwe inherited allow read,write,execute,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwx------+ 11 qwe  staff   374 10 Dec 19:05 Qwe's MacBook Air.sparsebundle
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 1: user:qwe inherited allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit

.
It's generally better to backup directly to an HFS+ format drive directly connected to your Mac, without using an image, if you can. Using disk images is reserved for network volumes and disk formatted to other file system types.


According to http://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/15/apple-to-fix-january-1-1970-date-bug-ios/:

  Apple has not provided a reason for the bug, but YouTube video maker
  and programmer Tom Scott speculates that setting the date close to
  January 1, 1970, which is 00:00:00 in Unix time, may be resulting in
  an integer underflow -- in this case, a date prior to January 1, 1970.

  iOS then handles the underflow by returning the negative integrer to
  the maximum value, which Scott says results in a date that is some 20
  times longer than the universe is expected to last. Scott believes iOS
  may have difficulties handling this large number, resulting in
  affected devices crashing.


How to use HP Laserjet printer firmware update utility on El Capitan 10.11?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-laserjet-p2055-printer-series/3662052/document/c02008627

This article from HP describes how you can update your printer firmware with LPR, a Mac/Unix terminal utility. You should not need the firmware update tool to update your printer’s firmware with this method. Best of luck!


What does 'sync' exactly mean when using iTunes?

Synchronization is the process of ensuring that your iTunes and iPad/iPhone contain the same up-to-date files. If you add, change, or delete a file from one location, the synchronization process will add, change, or delete the same file at the other location.

For example, if you had a few songs on your computer, and a few on your phone, and the ones on your phone were not on the computer, and the ones on your computer were not on the phone, then after a "sync" operation, the contents of your computer AND the phone is the combination of contents of both devices.

In short,  the content on device 1 now exists on device 2 alongside device 2's original content, and the content of device 2 now exists on device 1 alongside device 1's original content.


iPhone stolen, selected to erase data over iCloud

As soon as the device connects to the internet, Apple's servers will send the erase message to the phone. I have seen this happen three weeks after the message was sent and the effect was nearly immediate.

I don't know of any way to recall the erase message once you've sent it, and you should receive an email if the device ever registers and the erase message is sent.

All the things you did after the erase request are moot since if the phone never checks in, you can't really stop the erase and if it does ever check in, it will get erased and self remove from your list of devices.

You might open a support ticket with Apple to be sure the email will send if you erase the device (I haven't actually tested that sequence), but common sense says you might expect the email if the erase ever gets issued.


Changing color of folders, files, execs on iTerm2

You can use the G option of ls, which takes its colours from LSCOLORS. To always use the G option with ls, add an alias to a sourced file.

alias ls="ls -G"


Is there any way to apply open-ended keyword tags to songs in iTunes?

It currently is not possible to add tags in iTunes like you can in other iLife applications. The only reason I can think of why its not available is that most people would just group their music by genre, and that be enough.

Other than using the comments field or the like, there are really not many other options. In some searches I did come across an app called Qloud, but it seems to no longer exist.


If I remove my internal optical drive from my 2012 MacBook pro, will an external superdrive work?

You can install multiple external USB optical disks if you want, the tricky part is being able to have macOS / OSX identify it distinctly from the internal one when it comes to operations such as ejecting.

I've had two DVD-ROMs installed on a Mac Pro tower in the past and the only difficulty was in regards to the keyboard's eject button. If there is only one optical drive in the machine, there is no confusion. However, with a second drive you have to press Option-Eject or click on the "Eject Icon" on the menu bar and select which one you want to work with. Of course, you can disconnect the original drive and then the confusion by the OS will go away.

FWIW, I've found that the Apple branded external SuperDrive is overpriced and doesn't offer any advantage over other USB-driven optical drives. From my personal experience, the "Amazon Basics" drive performs just as well for about half the cost. Despite that one no longer being available, I can't imagine that it would be any more/less compatible than the others you can find online for even cheaper.


“Show Help Menu” keyboard shortcut & full screen apps in OS X 10.7

Great catch! It's certainly a bug from where I sit.

I filed a bug at http://bugreport.apple.com on this - feel free to do the same if you want it to have more attention!

I can't think of a way to work around it even using something like FastScripts to try and intercept the key press before it gets ignored.


Selling my mac mini which has Lion installed.. Can I transfer the Lion purchase to the buyer of mac?

There are two types of Lion licenses.

licenses tied to one mac (hardware linked license)
licenses tied to one Apple ID (person linked license)

The former transfers, the latter does not.

You can of course hold option when clicking Purchased in the App Store to download another copy of your Lion installer (or download Lion again onto your mac using recovery). The installer would not have asked for your Apple ID if it determined that mac deserved lion due to a hardware linked lion. You could of course install lion the first time on your soon to be sold mac, but the person buying the mac would be "without a paddle" if you hadn't prepared them that they might need to pay to reinstall their OS if their mac ever crashes or gets a new hard drive.


Can you search Filenames in Spotlight as opposed to all metadata and contents by default?

Apple has search keys, so it's not changing a default, but it does let you specify file names (here they would contain the string "test"):

name:test

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204014
Can I use Spotlight to search for files by name?
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/12056/5472 has a picture of entering this quite a few versions back - so here's a newer screen image of this in practice.


Can you add blank space to a photo in Mac Preview?

A simplified method that works just as well:

Open your picture in Preview.
⌘ command + A and then ⌘ command + C to copy it to the clipboard.
Go to Tools > Adjust Size... and enlarge the image to the overall size you want for the canvas. (I would make it bigger than you need as it is easy to crop at the end.)
⌘ command + A and then delete to remove the enlarged image
⌘ command + V to paste back the original, smaller image onto the enlarged canvas.
Choose Convert when asked to "Convert this document to PNG" (as you can always convert back to JPG later).


I'm afraid this is not possible, at least with a non-jailbroken device.
iOS Apps are built as SandBoxes at install time, which means that each App has access only to its own files, and very limited privileges with other of the device's services, such as the phone, sending emails, etc.
Apple states it like this:

For security reasons, iOS places each app (including its preferences and data) in a sandbox at install time. A sandbox is a set of fine-grained controls that limit the app’s access to files, preferences, network resources, hardware, and so on. As part of the sandboxing process, the system installs each app in its own sandbox directory, which acts as the home for the app and its data.
Important: The purpose of a sandbox is to limit the damage that a compromised app can cause to the system. […]