Update 1

I do not believe there is a way to keep OS X from updating the MBR table. It would appear that OS X relies on partition entries appearing in ascending order in the GPT. Also, OS X desires the index of each MBR partition entry to be the same as the partition entry in the GPT. Occasionally, when OS X finds a discrepancy, it will make a correction.

Users have found tools, such as gdisk, that allow editing of the MBR table. This will allow GPT entries with indices greater than 4 to appear in the MBR table. Fixes of this type are temporary since OS X may erase them at any time. Furthermore, El Captain (OS X 10.11), with SIP turned on (the default), will not let gdisk change the MBR table. Rod Smith has recently published changes to rEFInd which allow SIP to be turned on/off at boot time.

Since you refer to a Hybrid GPT for use with Windows, I will assume you have a Mac dated before 2012. My Mac is a 2007 iMac. I have run Vista in 32 mode and Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 in 64 bit mode. These installs were not from upgrades, but rather clean installs into freshly formatted partitions. In each case, the Device Manager showed all devices working properly after installing the Boot Camp Support Software. Also, no version of the Boot Camp Assistant was used to install Windows. However, due to the limitations of my Macs firmware, I am required to install Windows in BIOS/MBR mode.

Along with Windows and OS X, I have also installed 64 bit Ubuntu Linux. Since Windows needs to be installed in BIOS/MBR mode, I decided to install Ubuntu in EFI/GPT mode. Also, to aid in choosing an operating system at startup, I install rEFInd in its own partition.

So how many partitions does that make my Computer? Let's count.

1 EFI partition FAT formatted.
2 Windows partitions NTFS formatted. (Sometimes I two different Windows installed)
1 Fat formatted partition for data.
1 OS X partition HFS+ formatted. ( I do not use Core Storage)
1 OS X recovery partition HFS+ formatted
1 HFS+ formatted partition (Sometimes I have an older OS X installed
here)
2 partitions needed for Ubuntu (currently empty, Ubuntu was installed)
1 small HFS+ partition for rEFInd.

Since only Windows is required to use a BIOS/MBR scheme, it made sense to put all FAT and NTFS partitions first on my main drive. To do the same on a different computer depends on what equipment and software is available. In my case, I have 2 TB of external storage, a WinClone license, and a 40 MB/sec internet connection. I can boot OS X from the external storage which gives me the ability to image backup part or all of my internal disk and repartition as needed.

Original Answer

Well, the answer would seem obvious.

Put the Windows and data partitions before the OS X and Linux partitions.

I did this on my 2007 iMac and I have eliminated the problems you are having.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to install OS X on an external drive and boot from this drive. You then can repartition your internal drive. Then install OS X on the internal drive, followed by the other operating systems. This is what I did.

To explain what other installation options are available, I would need to know the model/year of your Mac.


I have a movie that no longer plays on iTunes or my iPad

Can you upload it to iCloud Drive? You might be able to then try playing on the iPad directly without having to go through iTunes. If you have VLC on your iPad it should be able to play almost any file that you throw at it.


Can Safari remember my tabs from last time?

After starting Safari, you can go to History -> Reopen All Windows from Last Session to have Safari reopen the windows and tabs that were open when you last used it.

There's some additional info in this question: Is it possible to restart an application using AppleScript?, including a script (Chealion's answer) that can be modified to start Safari and call that menu automatically.


How to backup efficiently and effectively iMovie 10.0

I was able to achieve the result I wanted using a tool that is available by default in Mac Os X and using the hardware I already have.

I've created a bash script with the following commands:

rsync -avz /Volumes/Snow\ Leopard\ Apps\ \&\ Data/iMovie\ Projects.localized/ /Volumes/Backup\ 1/iMovie\ Projects.localized/
rsync -avz /Volumes/Snow\ Leopard\ Apps\ \&\ Data/iMovie\ Events.localized/ /Volumes/Backup\ 1/iMovie\ Events.localized/
rsync -avz /Volumes/Snow\ Leopard\ Apps\ \&\ Data/iMovie\ Library\ 1.imovielibrary/ /Volumes/Backup\ 1/iMovie\ Library\ 1.imovielibrary/

The rsync command will only copy the different part of the files or the new files changed since the last backup.

For this reason performance is blazing fast.

Then I also made sure that the script is executed automatically at every boot using this tutorial:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6442364/running-script-upon-login-mac


How to remove Volume slider from Control Center

That screen is called the Control Center.
On iOS 14, go to "Settings -> Control Center".
From there, you can add, remove, and rearrange most of the controls that you see on that screen.
Controls such as Volume and Screen Brightness are there by default and can't be removed.  Perhaps if you jailbreak there's something to remove those controls but it's not possible with default iOS.


Problem with Mac HDMI - Thunderbolt display to Sony (not a cable problem)

I solved this one!
make sure your digital tv isn't on


The switch is not responsible for handing out IP-adresses, so the fact that they're connected to the same switch does not matter.

It is the DHCP server that hands out IP-adresses. The DHCP server on home networks is usually inside a cabled or WiFi router, but you can also find DHCP servers in other network devices and as a software feature on PCs.

In your case it sounds like you could have two DHCP servers connected to the same network. That is not a good idea if they're not configured to interact, as this will cause configuration issues such as the ones, you're experiencing.

Hunt down the extraneous DHCP server and turn if off to make sure your devices get the right IP-adresses.


Google chrome extension between Mac and PC

Here's a way:

Log in to your Google Account on Chrome (top right)
Choose the sync everything you want (including extensions)
If everything is synched, go to settings (Cmd + ,) and under synchronisation settings uncheck extensions
Remove the IDM extension

Make sure you have synch set up on your PC as well


Why does OS X show a forgot password prompt when trying to boot or wakeup screen?

Brian's answer was right on. The issue in my case was related to the backlight. Here's how I got around it:

While the password dialog is up, move your mouse cursor to the top of the screen until you get an apple menu.
Select "Restart" from the Apple menu
Use a flashlight to shine a light through the Apple on the back of your MacBook screen and you should see that the computer is on, but the backlight is not.
Use the right and left arrow keys to toggle between accounts and hit enter to login on the one you want, using the flashlight to see what you are doing.
Once logged in, the backlight should function normally.

I have not determined the root cause yet.


All google syncing is done through the wireless connection now.  Go to the Settings app, and choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Choose Add Account... and select Gmail from the list.  Follow the instructions to connect to your google account, and then select whether you want to sync more than your contacts.

Tested on my iPhone 3GS with iOS 6.1.3 (6.1.6 just updates a few security issues, no change to the contact/gmail sync)


Within mail? No. You'd have to create a filing system outside mail and drag your attachments into that.
If you do that I recommend dragging the email into that too, otherwise later you'll lose the context. Also, that makes it easier to search for what you're looking for.

Remember: file with easy retrieval in mind. Assume you won't be sure exactly what you need, when you filed/received it, who sent it and where you filed it. In other words, try to lose all context that gives the file any meaning now and build that meaning and context into the filing system. If you can figure out what would make it easy for you to find that file in those circumstances, you're off to a good start.


AppleScript - GUI Scripting and setting checkbox, radio button and field values

try this little syntax change:

on setfmFileOptions(app_name)

    -- choose the Developer Utilities menu item from the Tools menu of FileMaker Pro Advanced

    do_menu(app_name, "File", "File Options...")

    -- click the "Log in using" checkbox:
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process app_name
            repeat until (exists checkbox "Log in using:" of tab group 1 of window 1)
                delay 1
            end repeat
            click checkbox "Log in using:" of tab group 1 of window 1
        end tell
    end tell
end setfmFileOptions

You can't use window 1 without telling what process window 1 is in. You'll have to specify app_name as a parameter now.

So, like this:

setfmFileOptions("FileMaker Pro Advanced")


View the current clock Speed of a CPU in OS X?

There is a tool that does that called Intel® Power Gadget.

It will show the current load and Frequency

And Version 3.5.3 on macOS (latest is 3.5.5):


Mac OS X - Bash script if statement based on system status

Your example is clear, concise and maintainable but lacks any error checking. This example uses a case statement to parse the status and will exit if neither string is in the variable  ->

status=$(spctl --status)

case $status in
        'assessments enabled') echo "Gatekeeper is enabled."
        #do more stuff
        #and more stuff
        ;;

        'assessments disabled') echo "Gatekeeper is disabled."
        #do more stuff
        #and more stuff
        ;;

        *) echo "An error has occurred- Exiting script"
        exit
        ;;
esac

It could also be written like this ->

if   [[ $status == "assessments enabled" ]]
then
     echo "Gatekeeper is enabled."
     #do more stuff
elif [[  $status == "assessments disabled" ]]
then
     echo "Gatekeeper is disabled"
     #do more stuff
else
     echo "An error has occurred- Exiting script"
     exit
fi


Bash script with lock folder problems for large files

Fixing the Lock Removal

Try using rmdir to remove the lock folder:

rmdir "$LOCK_PATH"

Debugging Paths

To debug the cp paths, try this command in Terminal.app:

open /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/

Does the expected folder open? Play around with the path until open displays the expected folder in the Finder.

To debug the lock folder, try running the script in two Terminal.app windows. Do they both try and copy? Trying adding an else statement to see if mkdir is working as desired:

…
else
    echo "Lock exists."
fi

Debugging Shell Scripts

Take a look at How to Add Error Checking to Your Shell Scripts to help identify any problems.

Hard Links

Mentioned in comments below is a new constraint: other applications may be writing the files as this script is running. This script can not block other applications changing or writing to the affected folders.

If a file is being written to, then the cp will only see and copy a partial file. The next time the script runs, the file will likely be fully available and copy correctly. This may or may not be acceptable.

If the copy occurs on the same physical volume, the copy can likely be avoided. In place of a copy, consider creating a hard link with the ln tool:

ln <source_file> <target_file>
ln [-Ffhinsv] <source_file> ... <target_dir>

The link does not copy any data and is almost instant. Changing either the original file or the newly hard linked file will be reflected in both.

Try creating a hard link by hand before attempting to change the script:

ln /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/movie.mov /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/AME_Processing/movie.mov


Connect 27" display to Apple Thunderbolt Display

What you need is a Displayport/DVI/VGA port and a displayport/thunderbolt port and since it seems you don't have a Mac with a second Thunderbolt port you will need to get something that will give you two Thunderbolt ports.

Once the question is framed that way (?) then it seems to me that the choice is one of the Thunderbolt "docks" that are often sold as a way of connecting a MacBook to numerous ports all at once via Thunderbolt.

There are numerous examples of such devices out there but you may end up with a lot of ports you don't need (USB, Ethernet, Audio, SATA, etc.) depending on which one you decide on.

I am not aware of any devices that are the Thunderbolt equivalent of a USB hub but perhaps other folks might know of something.


MacBook unable to visit websites while connected to Wifi

Mine does that too. Sometimes (depending on the brand of device you have) it can block unstable or WiFi networks.


"App of the Day is a feature of Pet Match" on each page of Safari

This is spam, introduced by an extension, through superfish.com. AdBlock is not the cause! AdBlock blocks the injected ad, so the extension inserts the text equivalent.

Disabling AdBlock will remove the text, because it allows the original injection to take place, and will decrease page load time as the secondary text injection is no longer required.

Enable AdBlock so that the text is shown, then disable other extensions that you have enabled, until the text is no longer inserted.

There is a thread over on adblockplus.org regarding this and including a list of extensions (for Chrome) that caused this for people:

https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=24143


Spotlight won't index any of the standard built-in macOS apps. It *does* index all the 3rd-party apps. Any suggestions?

Back in 2019 I had a client whose Spotlight wouldn't index fully. We ran Etre Check on his machine and got back some info from mds, reporting that mdimporter was crashing, and it gave us a file id.
I had him open up a terminal and put in sudo mdutil -t <number>. It came back with a path to an email. I had him open up that email (with open <path>), he reviewed the email, decided he didn't need it and deleted it.
IIRC we had to repeat the process multiple times until mdimporter stopped choking on his files. Not sure what kind of bug we tripped, but after deleting maybe file of his files, his system indexed properly.
Start here and see if this shows anything related to Spotlight, mds, or mdimport.
Etre Check


Any way to adjust Bluetooth radio sensitivity?

I ended up solving it myself. In short:

get signal strength from system_profiler; if bad, turn off bluetooth
check AC power with pmset; turn on Bluetooth if connected

Needs blueutil to toggle Bluetooth.

I couldn't find a way to tell a device to shut off remotely.


Is there any Mac Application used for part-zooming a picture?

This feature is built in ML 10.8 with the accessibility feature zoom. Go to system preferences Accessibility, select zoom the last feature is zoom style select picture-in-picture. This will be a rectangle and follows your mouse any where on screen. You can use option command = (to enlarge) or - (to decrees) the text under the magnifying rectangle, if you have a keyboard with num pad you can use option command + or - for the same effect.


iOS payment apps: does Apple charge 30% of transacted amount?

From what I understand, Apple says

3.1.5 Physical Goods and Services Outside of the App:
If your app enables people to purchase goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry. Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, DogeCoin) provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions.


Mac OS Sierra System Settings won't stay set

It’s possible your Accessibility preference file is corrupted.

Open Finder, then press ⇧ shift ⌘ cmd G. In the popup textbox, type in ~/Library/Preferences.

Locate com.apple.universalaccess.plist and delete it. Now restart your system.

If the issue persists, you can delete the new preference file, then pull the original file back out of the Trash before restarting one more time.


Is it possible to change the font of a document in Apple Pages?

Yes, you can change fonts. Go to 'Select All' under the Edit menu in the top menu bar. After selecting all, change the tab on the right sidebar to text and then set your new font and font size. This should change all the text in the document to your selected font.


There is a great command line code written by Stefenk on Macscripter

Stefen's code allows you to detect for cmd, option, control, shift, and caps lock.

In his post he provides the code and a download zip of it.

You can either download it or build your own in Xcode using foundation project.

I just tested both ways in El Capitan and they both work.

The code if you want to build your own in Xcode.app is:

#import <Carbon/Carbon.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    @autoreleasepool {
        unsigned int modifiers = GetCurrentKeyModifiers();
        if (argc == 1)
            printf("%d\n", modifiers);
        else {
            int i, result = 1;
            for (i = 1; i < argc; ++i) {
                if (0 == strcmp(argv[i], "shift"))
                    result = result && (modifiers & shiftKey);
                else if (0 == strcmp(argv[i], "option"))
                    result = result && (modifiers & optionKey);
                else if (0 == strcmp(argv[i], "cmd"))
                    result = result && (modifiers & cmdKey);
                else if (0 == strcmp(argv[i], "control"))
                    result = result && (modifiers & controlKey);
                else if (0 == strcmp(argv[i], "capslock"))
                    result = result && (modifiers & alphaLock);
            }
            printf("%d\n", result);
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

----------( update ->

If you want to compile it from Terminal.app

Put the code into a plain text file. I just used TextEdit.app and a Plain text document.

cd to the same directory as your file.  Make sure that the extension is .m ( .c will be ok also)

Then Run.

gcc  -framework Carbon CheckModKeys.m -o CheckModKeys

CheckModKeys.m is your file.

CheckModKeys  is the name of the app to be outputted.

<-)

To detect caps lock your command would look something like:

/Users/UserName/MyFolder/CheckModKeys  capslock

a 1 or 0 will be returned.

1 for on

0 for off

All credit goes to Stefen. I just remembered he posted this way back in`2009. And it still works today..


Connecting Airport to switch to extend a network

If you have them set up as a wireless extender and then connect them with a wired connection, you are creating a network loop.

The drawing is a bit rudimentary, but it makes the point.  Whether you are connected over a wire or a radio, you have a connection between one Airport and another. When you make the second (wired) connection, you create a second path back to the Airport.

So, if you imagine a client device connected to any one of the two lower switches in the picture, which path should the switch send data destined for the client?

That's why things go awry.

"Enterprise" grade network switches have something called STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) also known as 802.1d which prevents this from happening.  Looking at the Tech Specs page for the Airport Extreme, it appears that 802.1d is not supported; not surprising since it's rarely on consumer grade devices.

To fix it, you need to leave the wired connection in and turn off the "Extender" mode.  Set it to be a Wireless Access Point instead.


How to disable iTunes from playing Voice memos?

I believe this will help:

Select voice memos,
Right click,
Get Info,
Options tab,
Check "Skip when shuffling"


How do you paste syntax highlighted code into Keynote '13?

The 'short' answer
... is that different apps copy formatted text to the clipboard in different ways, and different apps support pasting from different formats. Typically you'll get some kind of 'plain text' format, as well as maybe HTML or RTF formatted text in the clipboard, and it's up to the pasting app to choose which it likes best.
Keynote 6.1 definitely supports some kind(s) of formatted text pasting, as I can get this to work with Safari. But it doesn't seem to work with Firefox or Chrome (at the time of writing). From a bit of testing, it seems the Apple apps all play nicely together (no surprise there), and a few others will copy/paste to/from the Apple apps too (including Microsoft Office products). Unfortunately when you copy from Chrome, you only get plain text & HTML-formatted text copied to the clipboard, so it would appear Apple's iWork apps don't support pasting HTML formatted text.
So if copy/paste doesn't include formatting, you can either:

Try a different browser to copy from, such as Safari; or
Find an intermediate app to paste into (which 'speaks' both HTML formatting and can re-copy into a format Keynote/etc understand), such as Apple's own TextEdit.app

Surprisingly, Apple's own TextEdit.app will happily paste formatted text from Chrome, and it can be re-copied to the clipboard and pasted with formatting into Keynote/Pages/etc.
Depending on your point of view, this may seem a limitation (or fault) in Chrome/Firefox or in Pages/Keynote/etc, but in the end they simply don't speak the same formatting languages (at present).
I'd encourage anyone experiencing this to send feedback to the developers on both 'sides' in the hope of getting this fixed—either with Chrome/Firefox supporting RTF/RTFD copying (or whatever is most standard/appropriate beyond HTML), or by Apple's iWork apps supporting the pasting of HTML content.

More than you want to know about copying to the clipboard
When you copy some text to the clipboard, depending on the application, it may get copied in a few formats. You can see these using Apple's Clipboard Viewer application (requires building in Xcode).
For example, copying from Google Chrome, the clipboard gets populated with four separate copies of the information I copied—two plain text (public.utf8-plain-text, NSStringPboardType), and two HTML formatted (public.html, Apple HTML pasteboard type).
Copying from other apps gives various combinations of format types, with some other common ones being 'TEXT' (CorePastboardFlavorType), com.apple.traditional-mac-plain-text, Apple PDF pasteboard type, Apple PICT pasteboard type, public.rtf, NeXT Rich Text Format v1.0 pasteboard type, NeXT RTFD pasteboard type, com.apple.flat-rtfd, com.apple.iWork.TSPNativeData, com.adobe.pdf, com.adobe.indesign-import-ustl, and so on...
As you can see there are a variety of plain text formats (with various encodings like UTF8/UTF16), RTF types, PDF and Adobe types, image types. There's also a bunch of metadata types that describe the application that copied the data (e.g. com.apple.iWork.TSPNativeMetadata), or the features of the copied text (e.g. com.apple.iWork.TSPDescription), and what appear to be separated text and style data (ustl and TEXT as CorePasteboardFlavorTypes, and their com.adobe.indesign-import- equivalents).
I don't know any way of seeing which format types are supported by which applications for pasting, but using the Clipboard Viewer you can quickly see which format types are generated on copying.


iPhone 6s running iOS 10 claims watchOS 2.2.1 is up to date when I attempt to update my Apple Watch

I forgot that I had installed the beta profile on my watch as well as my phone.  As soon as I removed the beta profile from within the watch app and rebooted both phone and watch I was able to update to watchOS 3.


The "setup as new" or "restore from backup" choice in iTunes is a bit of a misnomer. Setup this phone as new sounds like it's going to do something like wipe the phone, but it really just means the phone hasn't been plugged in and used with iTunes, so add it as a new phone into iTunes.

You definitely do not want to restore from backup (overwriting what you have on the phone now), so choose setup as new.

A couple of references, since I know "setup as new" sounds scary:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4094634
https://deciphertools.com/support/knowledge-base/how-do-i-backup-my-iphone-or-ipad-w-itunes/ (from my blog - very bottom of the article)


How to disable account on OS X Mavericks

You can disable a user account by setting their shell to /usr/bin/false.

Either run chsh -s /usr/bin/false <username>, or change it in Users & Groups → Advanced Options. To change it back, run chsh -s /bin/bash <username>.


From Homebrew issue #40735, what would the command "brew man cask" do? (which can be found by simply googling "brew man")

  brew man generates the Homebrew manpage from markdown, using these gems to do the translation.


Apple TV works with my iPhone but not with my PC on the same wireless network

This sounds like a home sharing issue to me. I would check that the Apple ID you have set in iTunes on your PC matches the ID you have configured for home sharing on the Apple TV and that the password is correct for both.


NotesApp in iPhone 6s Plus w/ iOS 10.2.1

It has to do with the storage format "sqlite" that is used by Notes.app. Sqlite is a very common storage format used by very many apps, and also for programs on desktop computers, in embedded systems, etc.

The "sqlite" format makes it possible to structure data to enable fast searching, updating, etc. However, it is organized in such a way that when an application delete data, it is actually not "erased" as such on disk. Instead smaller blocks of data are marked as non-used. When the user adds new data these smaller blocks are reused in order to improve performance and ensure that the on-disk file does not grow unlimited.

This is why you can see parts of deleted notes inside the file, and also why you can see parts of differents notes "cross each other" in the file. The file is simply not read by the app in a linear fashion (i.e. from start to end), but instead in terms of blocks in various patterns accounting for the various writes and deletes that happened to the file over time.


What is the optimal way of using a Mac with an ultrawide screen?

Been there before...

Currently, there is no way in MacOS to achieve true multi-monitor support on one display. I have a wide LG and the way I get around this is to us
 keyboard shortcuts to define sections of the screen with snap tools such as:

BetterSnapTool
Moom


Mail: Select SMTP server automatically on addressee

The automatic domain selection in Mail based on the address is not possible but....

There is a setting in Mail, send from the account of the selected mail box.

Means, if you create or reply to emails while in the Mailbox of the University it will use that account.

However, if you create reply from your other account it will use that one.

So all you have to do with your 2 accounts is to make sure to use the right account when creating or replying.

Additionally you can use the "Mark addresses not ending with ....@ugent.be

Show email addresses that don’t end in a specified domain in red, to help prevent you from sending messages to unintended recipients.


Does the iCloud retain data for a period after the user specifies to delete it?

Only the people that wrote the code that makes up iCloud will know for sure. If you trust the company, then no, they won't retain it, not knowingly at least.


Whilst the last emptied date is not stored, it does update the last modification date. Therefore, providing you have not added anything to a trash since, the last modification date of each .Trashes will be the last time that trash was emptied.


No-one really knows for certain when Apple are going to release new hardware except for Apple. So any answer is likely to be opinion-based which might get your question deleted.

That said, some sites online try to give an informed guess by analysing previous release schedules. For example, MacRumors who currently recommend against buying a Macbook Pro as they believe a new release is imminent.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Retina_MacBook_Pro

But like I said, this is just guesswork.


How can I switch back the SMB file service to SMB1?

I ran into this problem a few years back and I found the cleanest way was to install Samba (which still supports the older protocols) via Homebrew and use that instead of the version built by Apple.

I used these instructions, which are for Mavericks but I think they should still work for newer versions of OS X.


Numbers: hotkeys to choose cells in formula edit mode

Yes. While editing the formula you can use the ⌃ Control ⌥ Option keys with the arrow key's to move around and you can select multiple cells using ⇧ Shift as per normal.


Why can't I see individual email accounts anymore after update to iOS 7.1?

Open your Mail app and click EDIT in the top right corner...

You will see the screen that posted below.

Simply check the circles next to the email addresses for which you want to see separate in-boxes, then click DONE and back out of the screen.

Das is ales, as solte nun arbeiten


Spotlight Euro Exchange rate seems stuck to 2 weeks ago

Rebooting the machine sorted out the issue, but not sure if it's only at bootup that OS X refreshes the exchange rates. So the problem might happen again if I don't reboot the machine for a long time


Can an iPad 3 connect to a Windows 7 adhoc network with internet connection sharing enabled?

Yes this is definitely possible. I have created an ad hoc network on windows 7 and connected to it with my iPad 3.

Go to control panel > Network and Sharing Center
Click setup a new connection or network
Scroll down and choose Click setup a wireless ad hoc network
give a network name and choose WEP encryption from the dropdown list. The password should be 10 characters long and I used all numeric digits for this.
tick save this network. and click next at the bottom to create the network.
On your iPad or other device select your network which will be broadcast with the name you chose and connect to that network with the password yo uused in step 4.
If the device fails to connect, try repeating this process again. It took me a couple times but worked eventually.
After Connecting, you must also setup network sharing in order to connect to the internet. You must have an internet connection on either LAN or a different Wireless card or some other device. Go to the Network and Sharing Center again in COntrol Panel.
Choose on the left sidebar Change adapter settings to get to Network Connections
select the network connection that is connected to the internet (The LAN or alternate wireless / other device) and right click and choose properties.
Go to the Sharing tab and check Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection.
Select the network connection that you were using to broadcast the ad hoc network for the associated network connection.
Click on the Settings button which will bring up a window with a list of services to allow or deny for users using this internet connection via the ad hoc ICS (internet connection sharing)
Check at least HTTP and probably HTTPS protocols, SMTP for email, POP3 for email as well if you need, etc... and Click Ok when you're done.
Click Ok again on the original window. In some cases you may need to restart the network connection connected to the internet for the changes to take effect.

I hope this helps!


How to reset default shell for root from user space

Type the following->

sudo -s

Enter your admin password. The prompt should now end in #.
Enter->

chsh -s /bin/sh root

and exit the "root" shell and test.


Have I been hacked or compromised from an answered face time call from South Africa?

Nope, no one can hack your iPhone or steal your data just by connecting with you over facetime.


How do I make a game controller an active input device on my Mac-mini?

If you have a Playstation 3 controller, your Mac can recognize it as a bluetooth device and if you pair it with your computer you can set it up to be used as a game controller for your Mac.

I have only tried it with SNES9x, and it DOES work with that app. Playing Super Street Fighter with a wireless PS3 remote is pretty bad ass, I must say, haha.

Not sure what else it would work with, but I am sure you could map the buttons and set it up to work with other games and services once you pair it.

Good luck!


How do I enter DFU mode on an iPhone 3G OS 4.2.1?

DFU has always worked as follows:

Turn off the phone
Hold power and Home for 10 seconds (exactly 10 seconds, use a clock with seconds)
Release Power, but keep holding Home
After 5-10 seconds you should get the phone detected on the computer with the screen still black.

I've tested this on 2G, 3G, 3Gs and works on all of them fine.

Here's a video on how to do DFU properly: iPhone DFU Mode

Also I just like to note that this procedure must not be mistaken for recovery mode (iTunes cable screen), which is done by:

Hold Home
Keep holding Home, press power to start the device (1-2 sec is enough)
Release power, keep holding Home until you get to the iTunes cable screen


Though this is in effect a duplicate of How can I bypass Activation Lock? as it's a nice clean question, looking for a legitimate solution - to which only the police or perhaps network provider might be able to assist.

It does, however give an opportunity for a lesson in "be prepared".

In this circumstance, or indeed if you were in an accident - if the authorities can't get in your phone they may not even know who you are..

Solution - 5 minutes in Photoshop or Gimp…

Put your ICE on your lock screen.

The picture needs to be 200px larger than your screen resolution in both directions, because of the parallax/motion effect, & it might need a couple of attempts to get the text out of the way of the Slide to Unlock, but it's well worth it for peace of mind.


First up, what's the error you're getting, and how are you getting it? Are you trying to re-run the installer?

In answer to two, take a look at http://www.jonathandean.com/2011/08/postgresql-8-4-on-mac-os-x-10-7-lion/ who seems to have gotten it sorted.

There absolutely is a GUI for PostgreSQL, it's called pgAdmin 3 (or pgAdmin III). If you successfully installed the OS X version of PostgreSQL from their site, then you should already have it (take a peek in Launchpad). If it's not there, you can get it at http://www.pgadmin.org/ but read the downloads page carefully---it isn't well sorted and the most up-to-date version is in the middle of the list.

As EmmEff said, in future Homebrew or MacPorts might be easier (especially if you like playing around!) since you can wipe the install cleanly.


Display PDF version metadata of a PDF file

Phil Harvey's exiftool could be wrapped in a AppleScript droplet. As an example of the command:

exiftool -S -pdfversion FILE


Dock Folder Stack - I want ascending order

My downloads folder is a stack with latest downloads appearing at the top without me having to move the slider. When I 'right' click the downloads folder icon in the dock, a contextual menu appears.


How can I password protect files in macOS?

You could put it in an encrypted disk image.

You can create an encrypted disk image in Disk Utility:

Open Disk Utility.
Go to File > New Image > Blank Image (Cmd+N).
Enter a filename, and choose a location. You can also choose the size of the disk image. Make sure to set Encryption to either 128 or 256 bit AES encryption (256 bit is more secure than 128 bit, but it's also slower.) You can keep all other settings the same.
Enter a passphrase for your disk image.
Ensure you have read/write disk image selected for Image Format (otherwise you won't be able to write to it)
You can now create the image. Once it's created, the disk image will be mounted. Copy the files you want to keep safe to the new disk.
Once you're done, eject the disk by dragging it to the Trash.

Now, whenever you want to access your encrypted files, just mount the image from wherever you saved it to earlier. Once you're done with your files, eject it as described earlier.


You need to edit your .bash_profile which is located in your home directory.

I don't reccommend using TextEdit to modify this file, use vi or nano in Terminal instead

Open Terminal in home directory

You should be at your home directory but to be sure, just type:

$ cd ~

Edit .bash_profile

$ nano .bash_profile

Your's may not even exist so you may just start off with a blank screen.  Not to worry, each is totally customizable.

If you don't have a PATH statement in there already, just add the following to a new line:

export PATH="/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS:$PATH"

(BTW, I am assuming your software wants the path to the actual Google Chrome binary).

If you alredy have a paths statement, append the path to Chrome to the existing statement and separate it with a colon:

Before:

export PATH=/path/to/some/stuff

After:

export PATH=/path/to/some/stuff:/path/to/more/stuff

Hit Ctrl X to exit.  You will be asked if you want to save; say yes.

 Restart Terminal & Test

Quit that shell and start it again so your changes can take effect.

To ensure that your path now reflects your changes, type the following command:

echo $PATH

Your new path should now show the Google Chrome directory.  To further test it, in the Terminal window at in your home directory type "Google Chrome" and Chrome should launch.


What is an iPad app that will allow viewing AND editing/markup of PDF documents in multiple tab views?

Check out XODO.

It seems it will cover all your needs. I’m using it since the first version.


How can I downgrade iTunes 11 to 10.7 in Mountain Lion?

12/8/12: I have updated my How To on my blog with a new method to go from iTunes 11 to 10.7 using Pacifist. It does not require any backup, just a copy of Pacifist, the iTunes 10.7.dmg & a little time. Click on the link below.

http://www.emacconsulting.com/apple/itunes/downgrade-itunes-11-to-itunes-10-7/

I've created a How To on my blog showing how to downgrade from iTunes 11 to iTunes 10.7. It also includes a link to download a copy of iTunes 10.7 if you need it.

http://www.emacconsulting.com/apple/itunes/downgrade-itunes-11-to-itunes-10-7/

I'll post it here too.

1) Open Terminal and run:

 sudo rm -rf /Applications/iTunes.app

This will delete the iTunes 11 application.

2) If your Music Library is in its default place, also in the terminal:

  open ~/Music/iTunes

3) Using Time Machine restore the following files:

Album Artwork   <– Folder
iTunes Library
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.xml
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Music Library.xml
Previous iTunes Libraries  <– Folder

No need to replace your iTunes Music Folder. You may not need to replace all these files but it can’t hurt.

4) Back in the terminal:

open /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks

Use Time Machine again to restore the following files:

AirTrafficHost.framework
CoreFP.framework
DeviceLink.framework
iTunesAccess.framework
MobileDevice.framework

5) Download iTunes 10.7

http://appldnld.apple.com/iTunes10/041-7195.20120912.d3uzQ/iTunes10.7.dmg

6) Install iTunes 10.7.

I rebooted for good measure, but it’s probably not necessary.

You may be prompted the first time you start up iTunes 10.7 for your password. Enter it. You should now be able to do all the things you need, including syncing your iDevices, without the nasty iTunes -42408 error many people have been getting before this method.

Enjoy iTunes 10.7!


How to adjust siri's volume so it will sound louder via earpod?

Siri has an independent volume. When Siri is talking, use the volume buttons on your iPhone to change the volume of Siri. This is preserved for next time Siri is used.


Music on iPhone isn't visible in Google Play Music app

I feel like what was actually happening on Android is that it was uploading files from your library to the cloud and then making them available in Google Play Music (one of its major features). It also could have been reading the music library on the device directly. I'm not completely sure, to be honest, but for purposes of this answer, it's mostly irrelevant.

For iOS, though, you will need to upload the music to Google Play Music using the Google Play Music Manager on your computer. Once that's done it will be available on Google Play Music on your iOS device (and Android, for that matter).

Otherwise, you would need to use the iPhone Music app to listen to the MP3s you synced onto your iPhone, or another app that supports directly using those MP3s.


Slow iOS app and firmware update downloads in iTunes

It sounds like the itunes servers are still cached in your DNS cache after changing from Google's DNS severs to your ISPs.

Once you change the DNS servers, clear your DNS cache using terminal

dscacheutil -flushcache

I would also quit the iTunes Helper process (via Activity Monitor) and restart iTunes.


How do I turn on HomeSharing without original remote?

The Apple TV should be connected with a mini USB cable to your laptop USB.
Go here: http://www.howtogeek.com/214243/how-to-factory-reset-or-reboot-an-apple-tv/ and scroll down to "If Your Apple TV Will Not Boot"

With laptop(and running iTunes) connected to Apple TV plug in the Apple TV to power.

"If your Apple TV will not boot properly, or something has gone wrong and the unit isn’t operating properly, you can almost certainly restore it by connecting it to your PC and using iTunes to factory reset it.

First, unplug your Apple TV. You still need to power it back up, but before you do that, make sure to plug a mini USB cable in the back of your Apple TV (right below the HDMI port) and then to a USB port on your PC."

The link above even has pictures.


Keyboard short cut to skip back 5-10 seconds in iTunes TV show?

I would assume that this is possible using AppleScript, and when it comes to AppleScript and iTunes, DougScripts.com is always the place that I check first, which led me to this:

Skip Back or Ahead: https://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=skipbackorahead

I don't know if his scripts control video as well as audio, but if they don't, I bet he'd know how to adapt it.


Can photos in messages be shared to Apple mail

Yes, there is an easier way to do this. Since it's not clear whether you're on a Mac or iPhone/iPad, I'll provide steps for doing this on both.

From a Mac:

Within your message (i.e. in the Messages app) double-click on the photo
The photo will open in a separate window
Click on the Share icon at top right of the window
Select the Mail option from the menu
This will now open a brand new email window with the photo already attached

From an iPhone/iPad

Within your message (i.e. in the Messages app) tap on the photo
The photo will enlarge
Click on the Share icon at bottom left of screen
Select the Mail option from the menu
This will now open a brand new email window with the photo already attached


“Airplane Mode” in OS X. Alternative command for `rfkill`?

Make an ad hoc location named isolated or airplane where all the network interfaces are present and turned off.

Switch to this deaf location with:

networksetup -switchtolocation isolated

It might be more interesting than rfkill since you can protect you
from an unnoticed Ethernet cable which might be listening to all your
communications (and they are a lot) :[.
To check that everything is really off, run:

ifconfig -a | grep '[<,]UP[,>]' | grep -v '[<,]LOOPBACK[,>]'

If this command doesn't display anything, then all your interfaces are down, everything is OK.

If this command output anything, as here:

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

then it means that the interface name (here en1 which is the wireless
one on this Mac)
is on where it shouldn't. This is the sign that either the configuration made is failing or that some Trojan horse turned it on to reach its control server via the Internet.


You currently need to go either through iCloud or iTunes (PC/Mac) as per this kb article.

There are no other solutions that would allow you to do backups of the iPad.

Sorry.

I would strongly recommend you leave a feature request on the feedback page of the iPad and on the Time Capsule page. Apple read them and when they get enough request for a feature they get more incentive to implement it.


What Twitter apps work with a Retina display?

There are several complicated and time-limited things that are causing apps like Tweetbot to very likely get all shut down by Twitter in the near future.

My impression is the high price of Tweetbot not only reflects the high cost that the developers spent to make such a complicated and design intensive app, but also to discourage too many people from "trying" it out as well as a calculation that they need to make their investment back sooner rather than later due to the uncertainty of being dependent on Twitter's API rule changes.

Twitter is in the process of shutting down all third party apps that replicate what you see at http://twitter.com in terms of showing you the timeline.

Twitter under fire as Tweetro for Windows 8 blocked to new users

In a nutshell - in the last 12 months, Twitter has been telling developers to not make apps like Tweetbot since they replicate the core twitter experience and the 100,000 user token limit is really making it impossible for a team of talented professionals to recoup their costs without charging for an app since you need way more than 100,000 users to make money on data or advertising.

Twitter wants to make money, developers want to make money, so at the moment the development of great, free twitter apps isn't exactly a hotbed of innovation in 2012 like it was in the past.

Many in the development community had assumed that Twitter would bend the rules when their app wasn't ready, but with the Windows 8 release, they shut down the most popular client when it hit 100,000 user-tokens even though Twitter doesn't even have a windows 8 client (perhaps yet). When that happened, I imagine a lot of projects are being dropped or at least halted. Not only is Twitter putting hard limits on third party app growth, it also is getting more and more exacting in telling these devs exactly how a tweet must be shown (with the implied threat that they will shut down those apps if they fail to comply to Twitter's exact design standards which include serving all promotional content)

So, now that a brief back story is complete, here is your answer:

The following OS X twitter clients have been viewed to broadly and/or fully support retina display Macs:

Twitterrific by the iconfactory
Hibari by Victoria Wang
Tweetbot by Tapbots

Both Hibari and Twitterrific have free downloads so you can try them both before buying. Check all of them as one is on sale now for half price and prices can change over time. All of the above render text with great precision and have all or many of the app's graphics in retina. Of course the twitter stream has many non-retina people thumbnails, etc...


If it appears at all when you connect it to a computer you may be able to restore it to factory settings and wipe all the data using iTunes.

If it was on a recent version of iOS once the phone is powered off if you have had a passcode set and it was a reasonably long alphanumeric one it would be unlikely that any one would have the time and resources to crack the passcode and recover any of the data unless you have drawn the attention of a nation state?  This tweet from respected cryptographer Matthew Green gives an idea of the time taken to crack a passcode depending on it's length.

I have heard stories of people putting iPhones in the microwave to render them unusable but can't recommend this from a safety perspective.

If it is still signed into your iCloud account and you have Find My iPhone enabled you could it to erase the phone on the off chance someone finds it and is able to get it working again.

Once you are happy it is wiped or data is unrecoverable take it to an Apple store and they will recycle it for you or even offer you a rebate on a new phone if you are buying one.  See here for more details.

If you are not at all concerned with it being recycled, which would be a shame, or there was anything on that sensitive you cannot risk the slightest chance of anyone finding the phone, take a drill/ hammer to it.


Send "Here I am now" location report in a Messages.app thread on a Mac

Yes location can be seen on Mac, but needs to be enabled on iOS.

  Friends can share their location through the Messages or Find My Friends app on an iOS device. You can see the location they shared on a map in Messages.

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/messages/icht18df1a6a/12.0/mac/10.14
 landed here from macOS help menu.

Otherwise, pin drop can be done in Maps app and that can shared using messages. To do this:

Go to Maps on the Mac, click on the Show your current location arrow, click on the Share icon and then select Messages. A popup then appears for you to select your recipient(s) and they're sent a message starting with My location followed by a URL followed by a static image of your location. The recipient can look at the image of your location, or they can tap on the link and that'll open Maps on their device with your location and directions to get there.


HBO GO (the app which allows you to watch HBO content with an AppleTV) is only available inside the US.


I guess you are using the original Apple keyboard? In this case, you shouldn't have any problems with the bluetooth connections when the keyboard is in front of the iMac (and your Mac is located in a "normal" office, without lots of over the air devices that can cause a lot of noise).

To me, this sounds like a hardware defect. I would take the keyboard back to Apple/reseller to get a new one.


Enumerating messages in Outlook's Drafts folder generates an error

The correct syntax:

display dialog of the (subject of theMessage as text)


Alternative ways to switch between applications if cmd+tab doesn't work

Command+Tab doesn't work because the game is running  in Full Screen.

In most games you can enable Window Mode within the game's Preferences and / or switch between Window Mode and Full Screen with a shortcut.

As for my experience, doing Command+M tends to do the trick.


Moving Files and Photos iPhone5s to/from older non-apple devices

You can get photos from the phone using Windows Photo Gallery - assuming you can still find a version that will run on XP.
To the phone will require you to find an equally ageing  iTunes.

Your problem really isn't the iPhone, it's still being on a version of Windows that hasn't been supported in years.


Spotlight not showing applications owned by root

It sounds like your volume permissions are incorrect.  You don't say what version of OS X you're running, but the usual fix is to open Disk Utility, select the volume and Repair Permissions on it.

After that, reboot so that processes launch under the correct permissions and it should be working as expected.


How to tell the mode (Transparency, noise cancellation or none) of airpod pro when it connects to the Apple TV?

Since the AirPods don’t have a mode until they are in your ears there’s no mode before you have them live.

Once they are live that data isn’t exposed on AppleTV. I would recommend using the switch control on your AirPods to cycle the mode until you know what mode they are in by listening.


Save multiple photos from Mail on iPhone

Okay, so I found the way to do it.  It's actually really simple.
Just tap the Forward/Reply icon:

Then press the save button:

Hope this helps someone in the future!


Is it possible to sync my iPad 2 with my iTunes library stored on my pc wirelessly?

Yes it is,

you have to connect your iPad to your PC once.
Select your device in iTunes and check the flag "sync with this iPad over Wi-Fi" under the tab "Summary".
Click "apply".

Now you can sync your device without connect it to iTunes trough the cable. You can do it both from iTunes and from the iPad.

If you want to launch the sync from your iPad go to "Settings -> General -> iTunes Wi-Fi Sync"


How to check which parts of a dead MacBook Pro 17" Mid 2010 work

That will depend on what kind of analytical/measurement tools do you have? Oscilloscope, Volt meter ect...

Since it does not start at all and Battery is shut it could be simply the power input module. Open it and check if power is coming in and the fuse is not blown.

Is the display working: try the Target Display Mode.

Here is some how to:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1122338

Check your DCIN board.


Apparently I'm blind.

 -c      Change the ``command'' column output to just contain the executable name, rather than the full
         command line.

ps auxc works just fine.

USER               PID  %CPU %MEM      VSZ    RSS   TT  STAT STARTED      TIME COMMAND
lrogalsk         18670  15.6  1.4  3913100 241624   ??  Ss   12:12PM   0:09.93 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent


External Display not displaying full OSD function tech said solution is HDMI Adapter?

Your cable has nothing to do with the features of the monitor.   What the store employee told you was utter nonsense.

It simply can’t influence the OSD functionality of the monitor as there’s no logic in a cable that will enable it.  What does influence the OSD is the “mode” that the display is in and that’s dependent on how you have things configured.

In fact, speaking of configurations, the (cable) configuration you had previously, going from mini DisplayPort to Display port (mDP to DP) was better than going from mDP to HDMI as there’s no conversion of the signal.  You’ll get a more stable and reliable connection.

That aside, the monitor’s features are dependent on what “mode” you have it in.

For instance on page 3-2 it states the following:

  In the Racing Mode, the Saturation, SkinTone, Sharpness, and ASCR functions are not user-configurable.
  In the sRGB, the Saturation, Color Temp., SkinTone, Sharpness, Brightness, Contrast and ASCR functions are not user-configurable.

Then on page 3-3 specifically about the Blue Light Filter it states

  When Blue Light Filter is activated,the default settings of Racing Mode will be automatically imported.

Based on what you’re describing, that “blue light filter” may be one of the options that get disabled when selecting a certain mode.


Are there Mac tools for checking PDF and image files for problems?

If you’re looking to check on a system-wide level, then the Server tools that bmike mentioned above might be of more use to you. I don’t have experience with them; I’m recommending two tools that are useful for an individual user.

ClamXav (free, http://www.clamxav.com/) is based on the ClamAV engine that bmike mentioned. It can be told to scan everything on your hard drive, or just files you tell it to (e.g. only files downloaded from the web). Specific to your needs, from their home page: “Clearly lists infected files”. I presume, but am not certain, that such files include PDF and image files.
Virusbarrier ($49.95, www.intego.com/virusbarrier/) and VirusBarrier Plus (99¢, Mac App Store) are both made by Intego. The MAS page claims that this “Finds and repairs Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents” and “Finds and eradicates PDF malware”, which seems what you’re looking for. I tried VirusBarrier a couple of years ago, and it seemed pretty decent, but I stopped using it because it was overkill for my purposes.

One of those two might be able to sort you out. Note that they both go after Windows and Mac malware, so you needn’t worry about sending on malware to a Windows PC if you use one of the above (in theory, at least).

If you’re interested, you might also like to look up XProtect. It’s an anti-malware system built into OS X, that looks out for nasty things. It’s not as mature as the two products above (it debuted in mid-2009, IIRC), but it’s a nice tool to have, nonetheless.

As for some of the online services you mentioned, I’ve found various pages from the companies about their policy on scanning email. I’ve never run into any of these antivirus scanners, so I can’t comment on their quality.

Google has an antivirus scanner in Gmail, as explained on this Gmail support page:

  Gmail automatically scans every attachment when it's delivered to you, and again each time you open a message. Attachments you send are also scanned. Checking attachments for viruses protects our users and their information, and prevents the spread of viruses.

Similarly, Yahoo! scan and clean all of your attachments:

  Yahoo! Mail automatically scans all incoming and outgoing email attachments for known viruses. We use industry-leading Norton AntiVirus software, so you don't have to do a thing. Download the attachment and wait for that reassuring message "No Virus Threat Detected." If a virus is detected, it will be cleaned if possible, and you'll be given further instructions.

I can’t find anything about scanners built into Windows Live Mail, MobileMe or iCloud. That doesn’t mean that they don’t exist; simply that they don’t show up in a Google search.

Hope some of this is useful to you :)


IOS device kid changed screen time passcode and claims he did not , help me catch him

First thing. Offer your son a non-threatening chance to help fix the passcode. Why fight someone when you can convince them you will win and gain their acceptance and cooperation after they break the rules?

That being said, just wipe the device if you’re out of patience. Connect to iTunes on windows, Mac. Erase the device and start over.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204306

As long as you are clear where the boundaries lie and if the device is for your conveneNiece or their convenience you can plan to lock it down again or get more skill at countering your son that may have more time to learn how to foil your boundaries.


What physical storage does Internet Recovery use if my internal drive is broken?

The installer creates a RAM drive (a disk container in the systems memory) that can mount like a normal file system.


Perhaps you can modify the .bash_profile with textedit or textmate? You can download textmate from http://www.macromates.com/download. I like it a lot better than TextWrangler.


How to set up photo sync from iPhone to Mac without syncing Mac to iCloud Photo Library

In general settings of your iPhone you can set Optimize iPhone storage and if your iPhone is low on space, full resolution photos and videos are automatically replaced with optimized versions. But all full resolution versions are stored in iCloud.


Install iOS 5.1.1 on iPod touch 4th gen not jailbroken with current iOS 4.1

Whenever an iOS device is restored, it checks with Apple's servers to see if the version requested is still being "signed". If it is, the restore goes as planned. Right now, the only iOS version being signed by Apple is 6.1.3.

There is currently no way to restore to iOS 5.1.1 without being jailbroken in the past.


After uninstalling Boot Camp disk space did not restore

You need to first remove all those unneeded EFI partitions.

sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s6
sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s5
sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s4
sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s3
sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


Help identifying " "MessageExtension-Madrid" in ios logs

Wow, that was an interesting little Google detour...

According to this page, 'Madrid' was the codename for the iMessages app when it was still in development, and apparently elements of the internal structure — database names, components, etc — were developed using the code name and have not been changed since.

Now, even if you don't use the Messages app ('Madrid' became 'iMessages' became 'Messages'), Messages is so thoroughly integrated into the OS that some of its components are bound to be invoked. From what you posted it looks like some background daemon is loading a notification extension into the system. That's a bit of code that lurks in the background and posts notifications on the screen if you get text messages. That extension, in turn, is checking in with the Messages app, which is why 'Madrid' is popping up in your logs. This entry seems completely normal to me, so I wouldn't worry.


Delete Key on Apple KeyBoard Deleting only 1 char at a time

This might be a setting in your keyboard system preferences panel.  Try adjusting your Key Repeat setting as shown:


Is there a limit on the number of Macs that can use a single 2TB Time Capsule?

According to this post on Apple's product page for the Time Capsule, up to 100 machines can use a single Time Capsule. The source of the "100" is not accredited, so it may not be accurate.


If somebody has logged onto my iCloud account can they see what I buy or download on the App Store?

Yes and no - not directly. That person would have to set up iTunes with your Apple ID and then browse through the list of purchased apps.


How to create an accurate byte-level copy of an SSD to another drive?

My favorite tool for that is the "dd" command that comes with macOS. It needs to be used from the Terminal, so if that puts you off - there are also GUI alternatives.

"dd" is quite simple and will copy all data - including "free" areas. You take a clone by first rebooting your computer into Recovery mode.

Then mount an external drive where you want to store the backup - make sure it has enough free space to contain the full size of the original drive.

Open Disk Utility to find the device name of your original drive. This is probably something like /dev/disk1s1 or similar. Also, if your original drive has been mounted for some reason while in Recovery mode - unmount it from Disk Utility.

Then open Terminal and run a command like this:

dd if=/dev/rdisk1s1 of=/Volumes/ExternalDrive/clone.img bs=1m

Note that I put an "r" in front of disk1s1 - this bypasses buffers to make the transfer faster.

Also note that the output file name is specified as /Volumes/ExternalDrive/clone.img. You'll want to replace "ExternalDrive" with the name of your own externally connected drive.

The last part of the command bs=1m means to copy in block sizes of 1 megabyte. This just speeds up the operation.


How can I boot an Intel Core i7 iMac in 64-bit mode?

To start up with a special kernel check this from Apple: Starting up with the 32-bit or 64-bit kernel in 10.6 and later:

  Startup key combination (for current startup only)

  If your Mac uses the 32-bit kernel by default, but supports the 64-bit
  kernel, you can start up using the 64-bit kernel by holding the
  6 and 4 keys during startup.

  If your Mac uses the 64-bit kernel by default, you can start up with
  the 32-bit kernel by holding the 3 and 2 keys
  during startup.

  Your Mac will revert to the default kernel the next time you reboot
  it.

  On-disk setting (persistent)

  To select the 64-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the
  following command in Terminal:

  sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

  To select the 32-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the
  following command in Terminal:

  sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

  Note: This setting is stored in the
  /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist file
  and will take effect every time you start up from this disk. If you
  start up from a different disk, the setting on that disk, or the
  hardware default, will take effect.

To determine your currently running kernel open Terminal.app and enter:
uname -a
Running with the 64-bit kernel, the output will end with RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64. Running with the 32-bit kernel, the output will end with RELEASE_I386 i386.

In your case you just have to update to Mavericks (Mac OS X 10.9). Mavericks doesn't contain a 32-bit kernel anymore and since your i7-processor is 64-bit, everything just works right out of the box without key strokes or modifying com.apple.Boot.plist.


sync calendar and contacts without iCloud in Mavericks

I wrote a small open source app for iOS and OS X to do basic calendar synchronization over USB on Mavericks. The iOS app has been submitted to the AppStore and is currently waiting for review.

Update:

I had to rename the app to get accepted, but it is in the iOS AppStore now:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/devicesync-for-ios/id737867459?mt=8

Please read the AppStore app description before using it!

You have to get the corresponding OS X app from here
(Hold ctrl key while double click to open and to get past the "unregistered developer" error).

See DeviceSync-for-OS-X and DeviceSync-for-iOS at github.

This app is open source and hence a collaborative effort. If you are a developer or know some iOS developers, feel free to add missing functionality (send a pull request at github).


To view the file in Finder (GUI)

NOTE:  You're not viewing as the other user - but you're still viewing.  Admin rights are required, and the other user's password is not.
This was tested on Mac OS X 10.10 and 10.11 (see below)

Right-click on the folder you want to see (In Finder)
Click Get Info in the drop-down list that occurs
Click the lock in the bottom-right corner
Authenticate
Under Sharing and Permissions click +
Add your own username (or a group, like Administrators) with Read (or Read/Write) permissions
Click the lock to prevent further changes
You're done!  You should be able to view the folder in Finder.

Edit for OSX El Capitan and later (10.11)

Although this method still works, the change to El Capitan introduces a default of "rootless" mode. (actually, the real name is System Integrity Protection; SIP)  There are certain files that cannot be accessed modified by any user, anyway in this mode.  SIP can be disabled if you need to modify these files, (not just view them) and how to do that is outlined here. (If you only need to see them, you shouldn't have to disable SIP)

To view as another user in Terminal

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3568/how-to-switch-between-users-on-one-terminal
Note: This requires you to either have admin rights or the other user password.  It only works from the terminal, while the session is active.

Type su - otherusername into the terminal.  Replace otherusername with the other user's name.  If you have admin rights, you can type sudo su - otherusername to use your password instead of the other user's.  You are now logged into the terminal as them.  If you just want to log in as root with full access, type sudo su, and enter your (admin) password.
Change directory to the directory that you'd like to view (/edit). cd /Users/UserDirectory/subdirectory
You can now view the files


Current Apple keyboards (this answer is from 2012, but I've re-tested in 2020) are not N-Key rollover and as far as I know no recent keyboard they have ever made is. I think some of the really old ones were N-key rollover, but can't confirm it.
You can use this website to test your keyboard.
Beware that every keyboard has a different electronic layout and will fail in different key combinations. On my Apple Aluminium keyboard if I hold down the W and E keys, then press the D key, the third key press does not register. But there are other key combinations where as many as six keys will register at once.
It is commonly said that true N-Key rollover can only be achieved using a PS/2 keyboard, and that USB keyboards can only achieve 6-key rollover. As far as I know, this limitation only applies to Microsoft Windows.
My mechanical keyboard's spec sheet claims "6-key rollover with USB, N-key rollover with USB to PS/2 adapter". When using it with USB on my Mac, I've confirmed that is in fact 20-key rollover.


Upgraded to Big Sur, and now screen sharing doesn't work even though I granted app permissions

This screenshot indicates that you have not given any permissions.
In order to grant persmission(s) you have to click on padlock (bottom left, followed by text: "Click the lock to make changes"), unlock (by providing password or fingerprint) and tick apps you want to give permission to. Then you should click on padlock again to lock.
With permissions granted and locked it should look something like that:


How can I delete some of the built–in text–to–speech voices?

Removing voices

All voices are in /System/Library/Speech/Voices. Just like most other Library items in OS X, they are inherited, which means you could install them in /Library/Speech/Voices and ~/Library/Speech/Voices.

Removing items from /System/Library is indeed usually not a good thing to do, but here, it does not have any practical consequences beyond making the deleted voices unavailable. Indeed, the list in the System Preferences is dynamically generated from the items found in the said folder, just like the Sound alerts, or the wallpapers. You can confirm this by adding / removing / renaming elements in the /System/Library/Sounds folder, for example.

There's no other way to manage the speech items, but since this one is without consequences as long as you leave at least one voice, it is actually pretty nice to simply manipulate the filesystem. I have personally long removed Alex, along with other /System/Library and /Library items.

Installing voices / what to back up

As you underlined, Lion provides a “Customize” item in the list of voices that allows you to download voices in many languages. Therefore, if you ever delete the original “Alex” voice (the heavy one, 400+MB), you can download it again through this menu.

The “funny” voices, however, are not downloadable. You'll need to back them up if you want to remove them but keep a way to get them back (or you could use a package manager like Pacifist to extract only them from the Lion installer package, but that's a lot of hassle for not much). Nevertheless, considering they weigh, all together, less than 35MB, I'd let them in place.

Please note that you must leave at least one voice for the “Customize” item to be accessible. So, even if you want to remove all voices, leave at least one there, or you won't be able to install any again. “Fred” is the lightest “serious” voice, so I'd advise leaving it in any case.

Size note / a bit of history

As for the relative sizes, Alex is very heavy because it is of much higher quality, and is actually from a totally different generation than the others: it shipped with Leopard, while others have been around since Mac OS 7 (had a lot of fun with them, actually ;) ). Of course, Alex would have filled a full hard drive at the time. There's no "logic" that's shared between voices in those packages, hence the heavy weight of installing new “modern” voices in other languages.


How can I determine if a certain .app file is signed

You can check a file by issuing the following command in Terminal:

 codesign -dv /Applications/Whatever.app

There is a free tool that implements the functions of the codesign command and extends it with a nice GUI. It's called RB App Checker (on the App Store) as well as a site describing the program http://brockerhoff.net/RB/AppCheckerLite/

I've not needed anything but these two tools for checking code signing on OS X so hopefully they fit your needs. Do check out the AppChecker if your Mac doesn't have codesign (some older ones needed Xcode to get that tool before gatekeeper shipped).

As to how you would know, the OS will show untrusted apps as dim and with a generic icon until the gatekeeper process approves a bundle to run - but that code could still be signed so you can't rely on a visual clue to necessarily tell if some code has or has not been signed - especially considering that gatekeeper could be disabled on a given Mac.


Deleting an update downloaded from App Store that is not installed

You do not have to Install Yosemite.

In your case just open the Applications folder navigate to the "Install OS X Yosemite.app" and Delete it.


You could also use something like a 3M privacy filter to give it a bit more of a matte appearance and reduce the glare.


Prevent dictionary from coming up in Lion

This applescript will turn the option off. Make sure that access for assistive devices is turned on, which is found in Universal access.

tell application "System Preferences"
    set current pane to pane "Trackpad"
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "System Preferences"
            if window 1's tab group 1's checkbox 3's value is 1 then
                tell window 1's tab group 1's checkbox 3 to click
            end if
        end tell
    end tell
    quit
end tell


Is there any way to upload a screenshot from an iPad to this site (or other StackExchange sites)?

Use Dropbox to upload it, then copy the link to the clipboard and paste it in your answer using the Markdown syntax: ![alt text](url)


if you are trying to set the volume in AppleScript a correct syntax would be as the following, no need to force button presses :

tell application "System Events"
set volume 4
end tell

Now as you can see its a forced process. If you want more flexibility like determining where the users volume is currently at or set it to increment increase/decrease by 1, yes it's possible, but a little more code heavy than i can manage right now (i'm typing from my iPhone)

However,

If at possible, and your end goal wouldn't be affected by using Automator. I would use Automator if I was you, it has built in functions like this with easy drag and drop motives. 'Set Computer Volume is one of them'. But thats an alternative, I just emulated that with the code above.


Recovery partition in the middle of the file system

To fix:

Boot into the OS as normal.
Open a terminal and type: diskutil list
Repair the disk: diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk0s3 (where disk0s3 is your recovery disk)
Verify the disk: diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk0s3
Resize the partition: sudo diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s3 650M (and enter your Mac passcode)

If successful, restart your Mac and after open disk utility and resize your core partition. Done.


Go to the Document inspector and enable Automatically play upon open.


Before creating a playlist, you have to separate the items into very small pieces, otherwise, you risk contradicting yourself.

  Playlist A contains songs that are
  "singles" (meaning I don't have the
  full album) and are not in playlist B

Why are you using “not in playlist B”? I assume you want to have a list of ’singles’ that are 1-4 stars rated. Why not add that to the conditions?

Now your “A" list should be the same as before, but doesn’t mention B at all.

Now you happen to have a list “B” that has 5 rated songs (the good ones!).

And now you want your less than 5 rated singles (A) of “XX Genre”, and your 5 star ones…

As easy as it sounds, in practice it’s more difficult… because what sounds like “this and that” is not really like that.

Let me try to replicate.

My “A” playlist is (I’ve used Track = 1 but I’m sure your condition to determine singles is different and I’m taking 0,1,2 and 3 stars)

My B playlist is easier:

Now I have a C one… that contains tracks from A that have a “Rock” genre:

We’re getting close!

Now we need to group B and C into a single D playlist to enjoy the Joy of single Rocks and 5 start songs!

Here’s our D list:

And that’s it. Now two things are important:

This song must always be in any playlist or you’re doing it wrong.
If you also want to include the “genre” in the B playlist (is not clear), then modify B playlist to also have a “rock” genre.

Ahhh the joy of playlists. :)

EDIT: You specified two pseudo-contradictory things, but here’s the idea:

  Playlist B contains songs in my Library that are rated 5-stars

cannot be intersected with:

  all songs for a specific genre in playlist A and B.

In order to achieve that, you’ll have to modify (or create a B2) list that is:

Match All of the following rules:
“Rating is *****”
Genre is “Rock”

You can’t modify a previous list from a new. This is not a relational database. Smart lists only work as far as simple pascal logic goes. True/False/Intersection/Union…

If you don’t want to change your B playlist (because you use it for something else), go ahead and create B2 and make it include “all from B” and “Genre is rock” and use that B2 in your final “D” creation, much like we created the “C” list, which is pretty much “A” with Rock Genre.


Installed 32-bit Windows instead of 64-bit on my MacBook Air


can .webloc file icon show a useful web page preview?

I did finally locate an application that provides the solution you are looking for.  The application isn't hands-free initially as it is a command line program.

setWeblocThumb generates custom icon consisting of a preview of the web page that the webloc file points to.  It does not do this universally.  You'll need to

point it at folders that you'd like it to watch
Assign a folder action to the folder that you'd like setWeblocThumb to watch and have it run setWeblocThumb.

It's fairly straightforward, but is a bit more than simply downloading and installing an application.  The good news is that it's free.


This PDF displays with question marks instead of letters

It looks like all the previous answers to this question are completely uninformed. I suggest that you completely disregard all of them. It is unlikely, for instance, that telling the document creator that what they did was faulty will really get you anywhere.

First, it's likely that they did not embed fonts, yes, but there are many fonts that carry flags telling apps NOT to embed them. This is an especially favorite trick of Microsoft products. Presumably they do not want people to be successful using non-Microsoft products (at least, that's what the documents in their antitrust case indicated), so they make it as painful as possible to transfer documents from Windows to Mac. Other companies know about this, and they may try to compensate. For instance, Adobe may license fonts to make the process more transparent to the end user but Apple may not have the same license for Preview. There is a lot going on behind the scenes. "Correctly" embedding the font won't get to the root of the problem either.

Second, you say that this document was created by someone "already not very good with computers." It would be ridiculous to tell such a person to correctly embed fonts. It's not even fair to consider the lack of font embedding as an error since you could quite possibly install the fonts, depending on the license, in a place where Preview can see them.

Third, it is naive to claim that Preview is at fault because it can't find a font when you have not told it where to find the font.

You can compensate for this. I can think of at least three ways.

First, if the creator wants to embed fonts, they may be able to and they may be able to choose similar fonts with different licenses if that is the source of the problem. In the displayed example, there is a correctly rendered font in the lower left hand corner. The creator could possibly use that font throughout.

Second, if you don't want to go to the document creator, you can apply one of several software solutions. I prefer open source software so, when I receive a file like this, I use the free, open source ps / pdf tools you can get with Xpdf. The problem with this solution is that many people don't want to use open source or feel uncomfortable with it. There are projects to make it easier on Mac. I use a package installer called macports to make it easier for me. Having done that, I would solve this problem by typing the following two lines in the terminal:

pdftops badfile.pdf intermediatefile.ps
pstopdf -o goodfile.pdf intermediatefile.ps

This will effectively replace the non-embedded fonts in badfile.pdf with their nearest Postscript core font equivalents. For me this is usually adequate. If the image in the above picture is going to be part of a book, you may need the fonts to match. In this case, you must either learn more about fonts or purchase non-free software. Depending on the circumstances, the options to the commands mentioned above may be modified to match fonts precisely.

Third, if this is a book project and you are uncomfortable with free software, you should try using a combination of Adobe Acrobat (not the free Adobe Reader) and Adobe Distiller to convert the document from pdf to ps, put the desired fonts in place, and convert the document back to pdf. I just googled and saw that there are a number of hits for tutorials for doing this process.

By the way, as a former professor, I feel that students who don't "try and get them to change their ways" are not doing me or the other students a favor.

Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why professors resist change. I don't know about your cases. If the professor is "already not very good with computers" you might want to use psychology. Since you are in a college or university, there are probably some experts around who could help you. Maybe the prof feels threatened or confused in an area outside his expertise. Maybe he's afraid students will think he's generally stupid. Who knows? ... But you might be able to figure it out and help everyone in the class. Good luck!


You could purchase (for want of a better word) Mavericks from the app store, and just pause the download, or let it download and then bin the installer (you can get it back later).


What causes mail to go offline is authentication errors.  You must contact whomever is in charge of your mail authentication servers and ask them to resolve the issue. At my work mail going offline is almost considered normal due to the fact that our internet access must pass through our network proxies which often cause mail connections to fail authentication.


What is the rating presented in the App Store?

Per this thread from the Apple Developer Forums, it seems to be a source of much confusion for developers, however the default behaviour is described here, which states that the summary rating is specific to each territory and can be reset if the developer so wishes upon releasing a new version of the app


How do I find password-protected PDFs on my hard disc?

The security attribute of an item is stored as the object kMDItemSecurityMethod in the spotlight database.

This is usually a string. Until now I have found "none" and "Password encrypted" as possible strings. This doesn't mean necessarily that the file needs a password to be opened. It requires at least a password to be entered to allow a modification of the pdf.

So enter "Password encrypted" (without quotes) in the search box of your smart folder.


You can use the built in airport utility to measure SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio).  It's found in

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport

What I do is make a symlink to a directory in my path so I can call it without having to remember that long path:

ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

Assuming that you are connected to a WiFi network, issue the command:

airport -I

to print out information of your current connection.

$ airport -I
     agrCtlRSSI: -65
     agrExtRSSI: 0
    agrCtlNoise: -90
    agrExtNoise: 0
          state: running
        op mode: station
     lastTxRate: 243
        maxRate: 300
lastAssocStatus: 0
    802.11 auth: open
      link auth: wpa2-psk
          BSSID: 82:2a:a9:45:f3:25
           SSID: StackExchange WiFi Demo
            MCS: 14
        channel: 157,1

To calculate SNR, you take the RSSI value and subtract the Noise value.  In this case, I have an RSSI of -65dB and a Noise value of -90dB.  Calculated, that gives me 25dB.   Which is a very good signal (just barely but I am behind a reinforced concrete wall away from my AP; not bad actually considering.

SNR Guidelines

40dB+ SNR = Excellent signal
25dB to 40dB SNR = Very good signal
15dB to 25dB SNR = Low signal
10dB to 15dB SNR = Very low signal
5dB to 10dB SNR = No signal

That said..it's not all down to what your SNR is in a given location, you should also consider things like:

WiFi Saturation - excessive number of WiFi signals in the same area
Client Load - number of clients attached to a given AP
Bandwidth utilization - how much bandwidth is consumed by the clients.

If you have too many WiFi networks competing for the same bandwidth or a combination of too many users or too many bandwidth hogs (everyone watching Netflix 4K on their tablets), this will greatly affect performance beyond what your SNR can tell you.

What I prefer to do is to deploy multiple APs around the house and turn down the transmit power so they don't go very far outside the room I am trying to cover.  I personally use these PoE Access Points from Ubiquiti to cover several areas of my home with great success.


How to prevent dictation from accessing/sending your contacts?

This is just a work around and I don't own Mountain Lion yet, so I can't test it myself, but I bet it will work. In all likelihood, each user on a given computer can turn Dictation on or off independent of the other users and Dictation only sends information from whichever user account is currently active.

When I get Mountain Lion, I will set up a second "dummy" user, that will only be used for dictation/transcription. I won't use any user info-based applications (iCal, Address Book, etc.) in this secondary account. When I want to dictate something, I'll use the handy fast user switching command to jump over to my dummy account (also copying over any needed information or documents pertinent to the dictation), dictate the content, and when it comes back from Apple I'll copy the transcription back to my main account. Hypothetically, then, the only info Apple will get from me will be fairly standard hardware/OS stats, my Apple ID (which they, of course, already have), and the contents of the dictation/transcription.


Help!!! I upgraded to Mavericks and a whole bunch of mail disappeared from my gmail inbox!

I had zero messages in my mac mail inbox but 33 in my gmail inbox. I marked the messages as unread in gmail and they all appeared in my mac mail. I then marked them unread.


Can iTunes now play HD music files in high definition?

iTunes uses the same technologies as QuickTime for playback.

According to this document circa 2005, QuickTime is capable of playing 24-bit , 192kHz audio files. I think it's safe to say that iTunes is fully capable of playing these files.

However, you're probably limited by the hardware in your Mac. If you open the "Audio MIDI Setup" app, you'll probably find that your Mac is limited to audio output at 96kHz.

So, if you want to listen to these files in full 192kHz, you'll need to use a dedicated external USB DAC, and bypass your Mac's internal audio hardware. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Further reading: http://www.head-fi.org/t/671361/how-to-get-24-bit-192khz-files-from-my-macbook-pro-to-play-through-the-dac-of-the-fiio-e17


Macports and Fink are well behaved and put all their stuff in /opt and /sw respectively. Delete those folders and you're done.

Other packages like to use /usr/local, the unix standard for, well, local only installations.

If something is being messy and putting files in */bin, /System, /Library etc. your options are to manually remove things or reinstall the system


Choice of Scheme when formatting USB flash drive in macOS

In virtually all cases, you want GUID Partition Map. Only choose a different scheme if you have specific needs that require that scheme. GUID Partition Map provides the best compatibility and is the most current scheme.

Without knowing what the error is, I can't say why you're unable to erase the disk. The top level item is the disk itself, whereas the lower level items are partitions. When erasing a specific partition, you're only changing that partition, not the whole disk. Since the scheme is for the entire disk and not one partition, it doesn't make sense to have the scheme show for a partition.


macOS 10.13: FaceTime preferences greyed out

Found the issue by accident. As I got an external monitor attached Facetime couldn't connect with the integrated Webcam of my Macbook. Therefore it didn't show up the login screen.

As I opened the Macbook the Webcam started working and I got the required Loginscreen to get back to Facetime again.


You can set up multiple different iCloud accounts in the "Mail, Contacts, and Calendars" preference panel, and also on your iPhone and iPads.

I have accomplished a shared address book with my partner by each of us having a primary iCloud account (me@us.com, her@us.com) - and then a shared iCould account us@us.com.

One annoying downside is that the Lion Address Book app labels both address books as "iCloud" making it a bit hard to distinguish what contacts are where.  We solve this by having different contact lists in each address book, so they are distinct.

It seems with just a little bit of work Apple could make this MUCH better, but this is the best solution I have seen so far.


Why aren't my songs from iTunes actually syncing to my iPod?

You can also uncheck the songs in iTunes, sync with whatever device you are using, then recheck the songs in iTunes and sync again.  Worked for me.


Keyboard Layout suddenly grayed out/disabled

OK here's a hack that has worked: I simply re-added the same keyboard layout. It now shows up twice .. but at least one of them is enabled.  I will go and delete the other (corrupted??) one now..

And deleting the previous (same file) one did clean it up.  That was .. weird ..


AppleScript to add files to an iOS app under iTunes

As far as I can see in iTunes' AppleScript dictionary, there's no support for scripting anything relating to iOS applications. Sorry.

A possible workaround:

If the app, and your Mac, support iCloud, set it up on both and look inside "~/Library/Mobile Documents/" on your Mac.

In there should be a folder corresponding to each app you have iCloud enabled for. You might have to look around the sub-folder structure to see exactly where the files you want to add need to go, but once you figure that out, you can write your script to target that location.

When your script adds a file to that location, it will sync via iCloud. I use this trick all the time to get files into my GoodReader app.

Beware that iOS apps don't always sync to iCloud in the background. In the case of GoodReader I need to open it for the changes to update.


One iPhoto face is unavailable for syncing to my iPhone in iTunes

The solution was simple enough. As written on faces missing in itunes when syncing with iphone:

Close iTunes if it's open.
Take one photo of John Doe and name it something else (whatever, as long as it's a new, unused name), say Johnny.
Drag and drop all photos from John Doe to Johnny and answer Yes to merge them.
Rename the face Johnny back to John Doe and quit iPhoto (properly, with ⌘Q) to save the changes to disk.
Open iTunes and check to synchronize John Doe.


I just discovered QR Journal, which works fine for me. The latest version requires OS X 10.8/10.9 but there is a legacy version available which works with 10.6.

  Now desktop users with an iSight (or iSight compatible) camera can read QR codes. Found a QR code in a magazine or catalog? Simply hold up to the iSight camera to scan, store and browse to. Received a QR code in an email? Just drag it into QR Journal to read it.


Is there anyway to expand my MacBook Air's hard disk?

It is possible, although not from Apple themselves.

A company called OWC seem to specialise in SSD upgrades for macbook's and have upgrades for your model available here

These particular upgrades offer greater speed and capacity to some of the stock apple SSD's from 2011.


Following assumes that:

you want to listen to one song in your library
you know the name of the song (or part of it)
Spotlight is indexing your music (by default it's enabled)

Invoke Spotlight, enter song name, select it from suggestions (it may already be selected by default), press enter and listen this one song (in Big Sur it's Music, but it should work in similar fashion with earlier versions with iTunes as well).
Scenario using keyboard:

⌘+Space (to open Spotlight search)
enter song name (like 'Wasted Words')
music file should be displayed in results (maybe even selected as default)
file selected press Enter (starts playing song)

If there are too many files found one can narrow search by adding kind:music right after song name. It is also useful then one remembers only one or more words from song name. Just enter word(s) and narrow results down with kind (like Words kind:music)


What are "Write Only (Drop Box)" permissions?

These users may only save files to your dropbox, but cannot read the content (maybee even not see the file itself) of already existing files.

As opposed as to "Read only" where they can only read existing stuff but not save new files.

It has nothing to to with dropbox.com.

This is a OSX/macOS own sharing system


Is it possible or likely for malware or a virus to be transferred by plugging a USB hard drive into my Mac?

Possible: Yes.
Everything is possible. You may have an infection as yet undiscovered which can make the leap, or one buried in some seemingly innocuous file you're about to copy over.

Likely: No.
With no autorun, it is highly unlikely anything can make the leap of its own accord.

Mitigation...
Get an antivirus, there are plenty about; well-known from the Windows world.
Malwarebytes is still free, & there are free versions of some of the others.

AV-TEST.org is one of the closest things to an actual authority on the subject. They ran some tests on Mac antivirus apps recently & their findings are in that link. Be aware that some of the slower performers really do give a noticeable speed impact even on my 12-core Mac Pro.
Malwarebytes isn't on the list, but tends to be regarded as "something to have as well as an antivirus".

No protection is ever going to be absolutely 100% guaranteed perfect, but just because "everybody" says Macs can't catch viruses doesn't mean they're actually right, & you're always better safe than sorry.


Use "options ndots:2" in global DNS resolver

I have this same issue. I was able to easily fix this on my linux desktop by adding the line to /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head

OSX is a different beast though, hoping someone smarter than I am can find a way. I miss being able to "ssh server1.prod" :(

The alternative is to set up "ssh" as an alias to a script, and the servername is your $1. The script can see if the last 5 chars of $1 are ".prod" and if so ssh to the fqdn.


Updating Native Mac OSX Mavericks Apache 2.2 to 2.4 - disabling old version?

Since there is no answer I found out something:

Best way to get past the problems from my question:

stop the apache server: sudo apachectl stop
Backup/rename these files in the default apache folder: ab, httpd & apachectl

sudo mv /path/to/file/ab /path/to/file/ab.old
Create links in the default apache folder:

sudo ln -s /path/to/originalfile/ab /path/to/where_the_link_should_be_saved/ab
Start apache:

sudo apachectl start
Check if the changes were taken:

httpd -v

apachectl -v

It should be version 2.4.10 now:)


Get audio files from onedrive onto iphone

Download Microsoft Groove from the iTunes Store.

  Groove brings you all the music you love, every way you want it.

  OneDrive
  • Add your MP3s to OneDrive and play them wherever you go
  • Download playlists, albums and songs from OneDrive to enjoy your favourites even when you're off the grid
  • See at a glance what's available where (online, offline, both)

  Music Pass
  • Discover new songs, albums and artists right from your iPhone
  • Play ad-free music from one of the biggest music catalogues on the planet
  • Add songs, albums and playlists to your Groove music collection and access them from your phone, Xbox, PC, tablet and the web
  • Listen to radio stations based on your favourite artists


My iPhone show delivered for hours for a message, then shows read but read from hours before

A common cause for this is simply that the contact received the message, but didn't have enough signal (cell or WiFi connectivity, or phone in flight mode, or similar) to be able to send the read-receipt back.

The read-receipt then comes through much later when the phone regains its connection with Apple's servers.


Does Deepsleep (Standby mode) resets uptime?

Your Mac is effectively shut down during the deeper sleep modes. The system state is stored as a file and then the Mac is shut down. On powering back on, the system state is restored from the file.

It is this behaviour that is most likely resetting your uptime results. At the lower UNIX level, most tools will treat the interval as time where your Mac was powered off.

You can learn more about the various sleep states in Apple's OS X: Saving energy with Sleep. Deep sleep is mentioned in the Standby Mode section:

  Standby Mode

  For Mac computers that are started from an solid-state drive, OS X includes a deep sleep mode known as Standby Mode. Mac computers manufactured in 2013 or later enter standby after one to three hours of regular sleep. A computer with a fully charged battery can remain in standby for up to thirty days without being plugged in to an AC power source.


I waited a couple of days and randomly I tried playing a video and the sound worked perfectly fine. I would just try waiting a couple of days like I did.


Is it necessary to open each app at least once after restoring from an iCloud Backup before Push Notifications will be generated?

So - to answer my own question. It appears that after restoring from an iCloud Backup (I haven't been able to test with iTunes), that you have to open each app that you were previously receiving notifications for before restoring at least once - not performing this step means that they simply arn't generated, even though they're listed as being allowed to send notifications when checking from within Settings.app. I'm not sure why technically this happens - maybe somebody else has further insight which would be useful.


I am successful in reinstalling Keynote by following these steps,

Move Keynote app from Applications to Trash.
Empty trash.

its still shows UPDATE option, not GET option for Keynote in Appstore.

Power OFF and ON the MAC.
Appstore shows GET option for Keynote now.

It works fine even for Numbers, Pages. Please edit this post, if any feasible solution available.