text:
Add different iCloud email to existing AppleID
Lets say an AppleID is created with the iCloud email address somebdy@icloud.com (misspelled).
Is there any way to correct the iCloud email to somebody@icloud.com? Creating a new AppleID would lose old purchases and is not an option.
Is iCloud permanently linked to an AppleID? Is there a way to change the @icloud.com address?
According to this Apple support article, renaming the iCloud/AppleID prefix is possible as long as it is not an @mac.com or @me.com (quoted from link).
However, when I follow the instructions, I only see an option to add a new primary email, I don't see the same screen as in the last illustration in that article.
Apple's screenshot:

My screenshot:

Even though the Apple support article referred to doesn't specificaly say this (I'm assuming it's because @icloud.com was only introduced recently and the article was never updated), what goes for @me.com and @mac.com goes for @icloud.com (they're all aliases for the same address).
ie, read: Some Apple IDs, like those ending in @mac.com, @me.com or @icloud.com, can't be changed.
So no, unfortunately you won't be able to change.
iCloud: About your icloud.com, me.com, and mac.com email addresses
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5441

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2622 you could try making an alias.
You could also change the email associated with the account. I don't actually use my me account for anything.
I don't think you can make a new iCloud account and link that without a new device. I'm not really sure about how to get a new iCloud account really. I do know that you can't change your iCloud email address; it's stuck as whatever you made it as originally.

While your Apple ID is in the form of an email address, that email address does not need to be used for anything associated with the Apple ID. Your primary email address, for contact with Apple, does NOT need to be the same as your Apple ID, it can be anything.
In otherwords, you can have an Apple ID that is somebody@icloud.com but use the primary email address of somebody@gmail.com.
In fact, my Apple ID is actually an old email address I no longer use, but nothing associated with the Apple ID ever gets sent to this old email address (which would not work anyway). Instead, I changed by primary email to my current email address, which has no impact on the Apple ID.

You can create a new iCloud account easily on a mac by creating a new user.


text:
Video player on iPad that doesn't stretch to full screen
I'm looking for a video player that doesn't stretch my 640x480 video files to full screen (1024x768), which degrades the quality IMHO.
Is such an app available?

OPLayerHD allows you to select the stretching mode, so you can select between full screen and actual ration of the video.
There is also a lite version, maybe you can try that one before buying the complete OPlayerHD
Alternativelly there was AVPlayerHD, which seems to be not available now.

I just tried it, but this app also does stretch, although remains the right aspect ratio.

@MikeB Have you tried to double-tap on the video?

Yes, but that doesn't do anything. Tried also pinching without result. I did found the aspect ratio option, but that does only influence the ratio, not stretching. Btw: I did use the lite version.

@MikeB I'm using the complete version, which changes the ration with double-tap. If you have a way to install AVPlayerHD that will work for sure.

How about nPlayer? It allows you to adjust the size of the video you're watching.

nPlayer provides high quality video play performance and easy control-UI supporting almost all kinds of video formats and codecs without file converting efforts.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
iMessage: enable SMS and not MMS
I have an iPhone and obviously I always use iMessage with friends that have an iPhone. I want my SMS to be sent also if iMessage is not available, so I switched on "Send as SMS" option.
Today I sent an image to a friend and iMessage was no available. If spending for a SMS in ok, I want to send images only when iMessage is available. Is there any option that can enable SMS and disable MMS when iMessage is over?

The MMS switch only disables MMS, not iMessages with picture attachments. So you can turn the MMS switch off to get the behaviour you desire.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Using Windows 8 .img file to create a bootable USB thumb drive
Is it possible to create a bootable USB drive for installing Windows 8 without access to a copy of Windows?
I know I could install a VM and install Windows there, then make the bootable drive and use Bootcamp to actually install that way, but honestly I would rather not have to put the extra software on my system if at all possible.
I checked the Bootcamp documentation and it says I may have the option to "create a windows installation disk" but I don't have that option (unsure why?)
Additional information:
USB Key capacity: 1 16gb and 1 30gb
OS ver: OSX Mountain Lion
Machine: Late 2010 MacBook Air

I've been trying to use Disk Utility to perform the usual scan image for restore and then restoring the ISO I downloaded from MSDN and keep running into errors either scanning the image for restoration or just restoring it...

I'm trying this now. Hopefully it will work: http://superuser.com/questions/244838/is-there-a-way-to-make-windows-7-install-iso-onto-usb-drive-from-osx/244839#244839

FWIW - Installing Virtual Box, setting the MS dmg to be in the optical drive and installing Windows 8 onto the virtual appliance took less than the 17 minutes between my comment and your comment above. You might come out far ahead just installing into the VM and rolling your installer using the official MS tools.

Well, I used the info at the link I used and now when I plug in the thumb drive it automatically opens, but it doesn't show up in the boot manager when I reboot with Option.

Covert IMG to ISO 2) Use bootcamp assistant http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/45898/how-to-install-windows-8-on-a-mac

I can confirm that I was able to use an "older" Mac to create a flash drive without having issues, install was fine. Just convert the ISO and edit Info.plist (see my answer). Worked with Windows 8, but make sure you install the Apple support driver software!

One more thing of note: on Release Preview, Boot Camp Control Panel will not open. However, I can select Boot into Mac OS X from the same task bar icon.

This adds on to Django's answer, pointing out how to allow the option for revealing "Create a Windows 7 Installation Disk" in Boot Camp Assistant.

I checked the Bootcamp documentation and it says I may have the option to "create a windows installation disk" but I don't have that option (unsure why?)

Because you cannot see this option, it is most likely because your computer is not supported in Boot Camp Assistant.app's Info.plist. However, that can be quickly changed.

Open a new Terminal window and run sudo nano
/Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\
Assistant.app/Contents/Info.plist
Type in your password.
Move with the arrow keys down to the bottom where it says:

(I meant to start with " (<) key (>) USBBootSupportedModels (<) /key (/>), but I don't know how to ignore HTML markup here. If a moderator or someone who knew how could change this, that would be great.
<array>
<string>IM130</string>
<string>MM50</string>
<string>MP60</string>
<string>MB80</string>
<string>MBP90</string>
<string>MBA40</string>
</array>

Check for your computer model number in  > About this Mac... > More
    info... > System Report...  in Hardware Overview under Model
    Identifier. It should be something like
    Model Identifier: iMac10,1

iMac = IM, Mac mini = MM...and your MacBook Air would be MBA.
Now, simply take MBA and add it to the numbers after (MacBook Air3,2 to MBA32) without the comma.
Go back to your Terminal prompt and remove the current string part with MBA (you may want to make a note of this somewhere, in case you decide to revert later). Replace it with an identical one that says:
... <string>MBA32</string> ...

(Without the ellipses)
Now save the file by typing Control-O and confirming the WriteOut by pressing the return key (make sure Wrote xx lines appears). Quit and re-open Boot Camp Assistant, and the option should be available!
At this point, you can select your .iso image, as usual (given that you've already converted the .img)

From the question: "Using Windows 8 .img file to create a bootable USB thumb drive".

@DjangoReinhardt Hey, no hostility intended! :)  I was adding on to your answer, at the end, I said "given that you've already converted the .img"

Hey, I just did to you what you did to me. shrugs

@DjangoReinhardt OK, but I was only suggesting that your answer made a reference to a feature that wasn't accessible for the asker. I've removed the downvote, however, because I feel that the point you made about the .iso conversion is helpful. Also, my answer has been edited, making it more clear that this is the completion to step 2 in your answer.

This answer provides the most information. Thanks all. One step of note, when you get to the part where you have to pick the partition to install Windows, there is a partition that Bootcamp creates called BOOTCAMP. Intuition says to install to that partition, however installer throws an error because Bootcamp Assistant is unable to actually create an NTFS partition. Use the installer to format the BOOTCAMP partition, and then you can proceed as normal.

@AaronLang Yes, I forgot to mention that. I think the reason for Boot Camp creating a FAT partition is to maintain compatibility when transferring files. Good to hear the install worked for you, though!

Actually, just realized that BOOTCAMP now does show up on my Mac desktop...now how come my other NTFS drives don't?  Maybe fit for a new question :)

It seems Bootcamp Assistant should be able to help you with this (especially as you have a MacBook Air). It odd that it doesn't. Another weird move from Apple. Because of this you may need to do some system editing, as ethanlee16 points out, to convince BA to give you the option of creating a Bootable USB.
Follow his instructions, or if you don't want to go into terminal, follow these instructions.
And then follow these:
First, convert your Windows 8 .img file to an .iso file. You can do this within OSX by following these simple instructions.
Next, just use the new .iso image with Bootcamp Assistant to create a bootable USB drive with Windows 8 on it. These instructions (as posted by Alexandr Mazanov in the comments) do a great job of explaining what to do.
No need for Windows or any VMWare. Good luck!

From the question: "I checked the Bootcamp documentation and it says I may have the option to "create a windows installation disk" but I don't have that option (unsure why?)"


text:
I cannot get past an "unknown problem" error when trying to login to discussions.apple.com
I have noticed that when I try to post to any forum threads on https://discussions.apple.com it fails.

I type my Apple ID details at the login page.
Then I am prompted to reconfirm the details for security.
I am then told there has been an unknown problem.
I am given the option to manage my Apple ID.
When I click the button to do this, I am prompted to type in my login details.
After I do this I have to delete the email address that is in the box and retype it otherwise I will go back to the unknown error.

Once I am at the manage page and have logged in, I load a seperate tab and try to visit the threads I visited earlier but I am prompted again to enter my username and password - which I can not get passed.
I would have assumed that there was a possible malware issue on my Mac but the same happens on both my iPad and iPhone. Is there any known issues with either Apple ID or with there website?

Also i tried searching google and most of the pages pointed to apple support forums of which i can not access once this issue has happened.

There are occasional timeouts when the service that validates an Apple ID and password combination fails to report back to the web server running any of Apple's services (like the discussions, stores, review process, bug reporter, etc...)
If this error persists over a day or more and there isn't a public outage, you will need to contact support for help with your Apple ID.


text:
Microsoft Office 2011 OS X and unicode
I have problems with my Word files when I try to open them on Windows machines. So, I checked the file and got that Word file has Unicode symbols. How to fix it? Thank you.

What exactly is the problem you are having with the files?

What version of Windows Word are you talking about exactly?  Running in what language?  What special characters do you have in your files?

If the problem is that some characters do not appear but small rectangles are shown instead, as I suspect, then it’s probably a font problem. Quite possibly the Windows machines lack fonts that contain the characters needed.
In that case, you could download and install some suitable free fonts on the Windows machines. To identify a character (possibly displayed as a small rectangle) in a Windows version of Word, click on the position right after the character and press Alt X. This turns the character to its Unicode number. For example, ∅ turns to 2300. The Unicode number can then be used at http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/search.htm where you can find information on font support to different characters, using e.g. character name or Unicode number as key.


text:
Can I obtain the Source Code for an app from its .ipa file?
Having an .ipa file, is there any way I can get its source code?
It was possible when iOS apps used to be .app

In the question you link, it was not possible to get the actual source code. It was possible to recreate code that did the same thing, and that is still possible.

@ughoavgfhw Can you please give some more details, as to how it's possible, what are the steps involved?

Reverse engineering is kind of complicated. The basic idea is, in order to run a program the processor needs instructions. These instructions are documented, so you can find them in the file and determine what they do. Then you write code that does the same thing.

No - the IPA format does not make source code inclusion mandatory, so there’s no general way to do what you ask. As alluring as the idea is, just because something is possible on Android (What you’re talking about is not in the sense you want it), doesn’t mean it will be possible on iOS.
Now, if the developer decides to embed the source code into the IPA - you will be able to read it depending on the method of packaging it since the IPA contents are well documented by Apple on the developer site and many utilities exist to decode the application bundles.

I have edited the question to make better sense.

I have edited the answer to make it more widely useful to others with a similar question. Feel free to revert / change again my edits if I made an error or went too far on the collaborative editing.

@bmike Can you please give a few examples of the "utilities" to decode application bundles?

I'd rather not confuse this question with that level of added detail in the answer - it's fine as it is - short and simple. You can (should) ask that as well but keep in mind - this site is not for developers - so be sure there is a good use case for normal users of Apple products to need to decode an IPA. That follow on question might be better suited for Stack Overflow. Either way, you can link to that new question here in the answer or the comments so the two are linked and others can follow the  flow of information and answers.

@duci9y - I am confused - where is there any reference to Android in the question or earlier in the answer

Because this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3593420/android-getting-source-code-from-an-apk-file . Android users/hackers/developers often try to relate their Android experiences with iOS and I assumed the OP did the same.


text:
iMessage Conversation Freeze
I was messaging a friend then suddenly it gave me an error saying the message was not sent and I had to re-try sending the message. Since then, my iMessage freezes if I go into that same message. I cannot delete that conversation because if I go back (does not freeze if my screen is not in a conversation) and press edit then delete, it reappears every 5 seconds. This one conversation seems to be the one with the glitch.
iMessage opens at that specific broken conversation by default. So I have to tap back within 1.5 seconds before it freeze to go to my list of conversations.
I have an iPod Touch 4G and my software is updated to iOS 6.1.
I have tried:

Force close
Delete all conversations
Restart iPod
Turn off and back on
Clear messages in that conversation within 1.5s (I cleared it but still freezes)
Send new messages
Power off my iPod for 24 hrs.

Is there a way to delete that conversation on my macbook?

I am still experiencing this problem.

Anybody? Please help me with this problem...


text:
iCloud sync keeps deleting my information!
Ever since I started syncing my Contacts and Calendars on my Mac with iCloud, I've noticed that stuff sporadically disappears.
I've had to re-add an event to my Calendar 3 times now, and many of my Contacts mysteriously vanish after a couple of days.
The only other device that syncs with iCloud is my iPhone, but I still lose events and contacts even if I don't make any changes on my iPhone.
What is going on, and how do I prevent this data loss?

I'm having the same problem. I have a backup file but I can't load that directly into the cloud.... and I have over 3000 contacts so I don't relish manually entering them into the cloud.

Per Emil's suggestion, I contacted Apple's support team for assistance.  They recommended that I enter all my contacts into iCloud directly (via icloud.com), then delete my iCloud account from all my devices and finally set up iCloud for each device again.
It's been a few days, and so far, the problem seems to have gone away (:

Glad to help :)

I have experienced the same for a while now – but only at the slightly unstable network at school. I think the network-connection might be the issue in some cases.
Alteratively, it might be that the syncing process doesn't detect your changes, and therefore owerwrites the original content with the content already stored in the cloud.
Bottom line, I'm not quite sure, I suggest you start a chat with Apple directly and ask them about it.


text:
iOS App Minimum Version Distribution
Does anyone know the distribution of the required iOS for apps on the App Store?  To clarify, I am not looking for the version distribution on devices (like this question).
Basically, I want to know how many apps I would be unable to use if I bought an older iPhone that no longer gets iOS updates.
Thank you!

The latest iOS Development tools (as of mid-September 2012) no longer support iOS devices running a version below iOS 4.3.  So apps compatible with devices that can't run iOS 4.3 drop off a cliff as developers update their apps using the current Xcode, which use is required to fully support the iPhone 5.
Some developers support only down to iOS 5.1, as that's the highest supported OS for the 1st gen iPad.
Warning: If you have apps for such older iOS devices on iTunes on your Mac, don't update the apps unless the required minimum OS is appropriate.  Or make backups of your iTunes library before you update.  iTunes will throw working versions of apps in the trash after downloading a recent update, and may even delete these apps off of your older device (which is very bad).

Do you happen to know if there is official documentation about this?


text:
Unzip .exe files on Mac
Is there a method to unzip .exe file on a Mac OS X without downloading and/or buying applications that do this for you?

This question is poorly framed. Any file is just a sequence of bits and file extensions can be changed trivially. On the other hand, it could be asking an equally trivial question that could be answered either no or yes. (No - a general tool can't cope with all .exe and yes - you could embed VMWare into a jar with the exe embedded or just wrap the .exe to call the Windows OS that normally runs the .exe). As it stands, we can't guess what question is being asked.

The files cannot be "converted," but you can extract them; if the .exe was originally written in Java, this SO question should help. Basically, it explains that some Java to EXE packagers/compilers make them difficult to extract for various reasons.
Note that extracting the .jar files may or may not be legal, depending on the license included with the application.
JAR files are Java ARchives that contain a Java program's resources and class files, and EXE files are compiled executables. Already-compiled EXE files cannot be extracted of their original .jar files, but if they were only wrapped, you should check out JSmooth.
If you merely want to run the EXE file on your Air, WineBottler is an excellent Wine wrapper that allows you to run Windows EXE files, or you can install Windows on a virtual machine or using Boot Camp.


text:
Clear Output Screen from C program
I am using a Macbook Air. I used system("cls"); and system("clear").
That would not work. It displays on the output screen (xcode output screen) that the command cannot be found. I am using the C compiler, not C++.
How do I clear the output screen on Xcode? Please guide me through the steps in doing this.

This is a question more suitable for one of the programmers stack exchanges.

What do you mean by output screen, the console in Xcode or a Terminal ?

The current version of Xcode (4.5.2) has an organizer window and project windows. Which of these do you consider to be the "output screen" - feel free to edit the main question and people will see your change rather than replying in comments...

Output screen = Console screen

I'm not sure I entirely follow you, however; if you are using X-Code to compile and run C programs, output (e.g. any printf statements) should automatically be sent to the console, like so:
int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
   printf("Test program\n");
   getchar();
   return 0;
}

Is this the 'screen' you want to clear? If so, simply building and running any program which has no console output will do so (although I'd be interested to know why you need this.)
In the example above, comment out the line with the printf statement and build and run. You'll get a clear console.

I would just like to clear the output screen on Xcode. And yes, just a simple printf example is okay. Could you also tell me how I can display the output screen on Terminal?

I use system("cls"); at school and it works fine but it does not clear the screen. Instead, it says it is not a function or it cannot be found.

I used printf("Hello World!\n"); then the line after that system("clear"); then in bold letters it displays "TERM environment variable not set." What does that mean?

Redirecting console output to the terminal is not something I've ever had call to do. However, according to an answer on [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1910177/can-you-redirect-log-output-of-xcode-console-to-terminal-when-running-iphone-sim] it is possible.

It seems as though it is not possible to clear the output screen with any function on Xcode. I installed Visual Studio 6 on my Windows XP and the system("cls"); function works. Thank you everyone for helping me with this issue.

You can also try something that is not so system specific. Try using ANSI escape codes to clear your screen:
You can also try something like this, which clears the entire screen:
printf("\033[2J\033[1;1H");

You can include \0333[1;1H to be sure if \0333[2J does not move the cursor in the upper left corner.
More specifically:

033 is the octal of ESC
2J is for clearing the entire console/terminal screen (and moves cursor to upper left on DOS ANSI.SYS)
1;1H moves the cursor to row 1 and column 1


text:
Viewing .VCE files on Mac, possible?
How can I open .VCE files on Mac?
Is there a free software product I can download?

VCE Player Lite is a good app and is free:
VCE Player Lite
For the full version, VCE Player ($14.99) would have more features:
Full version VCE Player


text:
Screen Forced Away from Dashboard
I have this issue on my Macbook Air that happens often if I select a gadget on the dashboard. I get forced away from the dashboard to the Desktop. I noticed if I previously selected one gadget and I select a different gadget it will do this. For example:

I use the dictionary gadget
Move away from dashboard to do something else
Then go to the dashboard again to use a calculator
Forced away from dashboard

Is this a software problem or is it normal? If it is normal, can I stop this from happening in "system preferences"?
Version 10.7.5

And this is not just an accidental swipe back to the Desktop with four fingers on the Trackpad? I cannot reproduce this behavior.

No, I use three fingers to swipe between the desktop and dashboard but click on the gadgets with a mouse. After swiping I do not touch the trackpad at all. Only the mouse. I am not sure about what triggers this to happen because sometimes this issue does not occur and only happens when least expected.

What sort of mouse? Two finger swipes can bring you to the Desktop with Magic Mouse.

It is made by a brand called Tuscani and I think the kind of mouse is supposed to be HD-M324s.
http://imgur.com/DPbpr

I have updated my software on my Mac and this problem has stopped. Thank you all for helping me with this issue.


text:
How do I add icons to my menu bar?
I would like to know how I could add a USB eject button or battery power indicator to my menu bar on Mac OS X. I remember going into my Macintosh hard drive but I can't remember which folder to find it in. I know to drag out an item from the menu bar by pressing the command key and at the same time dragging the icon onto the desktop, but how do you add icons to it?

I'm assuming by "desktop toolbar", you mean the bar at the top of the screen (properly called the menu bar), please correct me if I've made the wrong assumption.
You can add the eject item by opening /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ in Finder, and double-clicking the file named Eject.menu. It should appear in the menu bar right away.
To add the battery indicator, open the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences, and check the Show battery status in menu bar box, near the bottom of the window.


text:
Setting up rEFIt-based tripple boot system on a Mac with a pre-existing Boot Camp installation
What I have right now is an iMac running Mountain Lion with a Boot Camp partition running Windows 7. I have a vanilla Boot Camp setup with no quirky bells and whistles on the side.
What I want is to install rEFIt so I can triple boot Mountain Lion, Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I've done this several time before and am aware of the process I need to go through, including how to handle the presence of 5 partitions on a system that can only handle 4.
What I don't want to have to do is wipe out my Boot Camp partition in order to do this. It's possible, since I only have games which can be reinstalled, but I have a lot of them and that would be a huge pain, so I'd like to avoid that route if possible.
Question: Is it possible to set up a rEFIt-based triple boot system while preserving a pre-existing Boot Camp partition?

I've just decided to go ahead with it and see what happens and rEFIt successfully picks up the Windows 7 partition as desired.
Following the Lifehacker guide to triple booting, there's a section that says

If you've already installed Windows using Boot Camp, though, that's
  fine—just ignore the Windows parts of this step


text:
iPhone 5 screen does not activate after a phone call
One of the permanent features on an iPhone turns off the screen (display and the touch receptors) when during a phone call you press the screen against your ears and cheek. The screen would almost instantaneously turn itself completely "on" when the phone would move away from the cheek and ears.
This at least was the case before iPhone 5. On my iPhone 5, the screen sometimes does not turn off or turn back on. I can confirm that iOS6 has nothing to do with this --my old iPhone 3GS on iOS6 does not face this problem.
Following the recommendations of this post, I went to the Apple Store but they just replaced my iPhone 5 when I demo'd the problem to them. The new iPhone 5 unfortunately has the same problem --even with factory settings.
Does anyone know of a way to solve this problem or am I just unlucky to get two defective iPhone 5s in a row and should try my luck again?
P.S.:- I am not using any cases, covers, screen coats or any other accessories.

I've not experienced this with mine, the proximity sensor works as all my other phones have done.

Just disable Auto Brightness and turn off raise to speak on Siri. and reboot your device. That should get you by until apple can include the fix in an update.
Peace.

Will this fix the problem of the screen not coming on right away after the call has ended or the user has taken the phone away from their ear?

I am marking this as the answer. After 4 replacements from Apple, I finally came back to this post and decided to unmark the previous answer as "Accepted" and found this answer. Have tried this setting for about a month now and can confirm that this solved my problem. Can't believe I made Apple change 4 devices --but may be they should fix that bug before it costs them more. By the way, I should mention that "Turning off raise to speak Siri" was not required in my case.

Sadly - you might need to take it back. The proximity sensor is a small part and if it doesn't sense that your head/ear/face has moved away from the receiver slot - the screen will not light up again.
You can save yourself a trip by backing it up (yet again) and restoring it in iTunes  - but it seems you have already ruled that out.
One thing I have seen in practice is that some people's ears have openings large enough for the proximity sensor to sense the space when the phone is pressed next to their ear as actually being away from an object.
Again, it's often best to lie the phone flat on the table and call some sort of automated help system and use a pencil eraser or your finger to test how and where your particular sensor is sensitive. Once you've spent a handful of minutes discovering how narrow the beam is and exactly how many mm the range is to engage and disengage the sensor, can you take it in for service and know the unit you have is working according to specifications.

Got it replaced again. This one works.

Stopped working after a few weeks.

Big bummer. I've added some details that may help you to narrow down how to test your sensors. It seemed odd that software settings would affect the sensor (@andy's answer), but I've been doing this long enough to know more bizarre things have been true.

It was the proximity sensor and/or light sensor next to the front camera that has the problem we suspect

In my case neither auto brightness nor raise to speak had nothing to do with the issue. I just tried turning them off and the problem was still there.
What I finally did was to turn off the video function of an app that I downloaded from Cydia (vWallpaper2) and which may have had a conflict with the proximity sensor. Result: iPhone 5 is back to normal, sensor is working again!


text:
How can I rollback to iTunes 10?

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

I really miss iTunes DJ. Its all I use, and I'd like to roll back to iTunes 10.  I guess my Library has been upgraded (didn't see a notices) so I'm not hopeful, but does anyone have a suggestion?
I have a timemachine backup, but thats all.
(I've seen the worthy answer: With iTunes DJ gone from iTunes 11, what's a good replacement solution?, but I had a groove, and I want it back!)

Does the duplicate answer and question help or perhaps are you on windows and we should reopen this?

thanks @bmike, I've made peace with v11.. the awesomely detailed instructions at the linked post are too much for me to justify :) thanks for checking!


text:
How to add new keystrokes to the system settings from Terminal
I am currently creating a list of terminal commands to set up a new mac system according to my needs. Now I would like to add new keystrokes to Preview (normally in the system settings => keyboard) from the Terminal. This is probably possible using the defaults write command but so far, I haven't found the concrete plist or path I would have to change.
Has anybody already tried this or knows a good resource for such settings?

Found the answer on StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7219134/programmatically-add-keyboard-shortcut-to-mac-system-preferences

You can add an NSUserKeyEquivalents dictionary to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist.
defaults write -app preview NSUserKeyEquivalents '{
"Single Page" = "@1";
"Two Pages" = "@2";
"Continuous Scroll" = "@3";
"Adjust Size..." = "~@i";
"Adjust Color..." = "@u";
}'

The shortcuts for all applications are in ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist.
defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents '{
"Show in Finder" = "$@r";
"Reveal" = "$@r";
"Delete Row" = "~@\b";
"Delete Rows" = "~@\b";
"Delete Column" = "$@\b";
"Delete Columns" = "$@\b";
"Minimize" = "\0";
"Minimize All" = "\0";
}'

The shortcut format is described in the Cocoa Text System article. The -app option doesn't work with some applications like Finder or Notes. If a menu item was assigned to nil, pressing L would trigger it in Audacity.

Yes that is exactly what they propose in the link from the comment section. I will mark this as answer anyway, thanks.

You're better off using the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard pane in System Preferences.  Click on Application Shortcuts, click the + button, and choose Preview; for example, I use option-command-S to "Adjust Size..." and option-command-0 to "Zoom to Fit."
As with all custom keyboard shortcuts, you must enter the menu item exactly, including ellipsis, for the new shortcut to work.

I know how it works in the system preferences, but that is not how I would like to do it. I prefer a script I can just run on different machines instead of fiddling around on every machine.


text:
Can I rescind the choice to share data about my iTunes library contents with Apple?
I installed the new iTunes 11 on my Mac and I accepted to share my iTunes library with Apple. There were some initial welcome screens and I opeted in when I started the new version of iTunes the first time.
How can I cancel this sharing of data with Apple?

In iTunes, you can opt back out of sharing details by opening the preferences and selecting the store preferences tab.


text:
Disable Command-M to minimize window
On my keyboard layout, the M key is right next to the W key:

This can be problematic at times because occasionally I will accidentally press Command-M instead of Command-W, causing the window to be minimized rather than closed.
Since there's no keyboard shortcut to un-minimize a window (well ok, no easy keyboard shortcut), this is even more annoying because then I have to switch to my trackpad to un-minimize the window and then try again to close it.
Is there a way to disable the Command-M shortcut for minimizing a window?

i truely hate this feature

You can disable it by editing ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist:
defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add 'Minimize' '\0'

To apply the changes you have to reopen applications. If the shortcut was assigned to nil, pressing L would trigger it in Audacity.

This didn't work for me on Yosemite. I could do it with this answer.

Works. FTR, to the original setting (if you want to revert it) is NSUserKeyEquivalents {     Minimize = "@$m"; }

Unfortunately Firefox 60.x does not honour this :(

Thank you! This still works in 2023 on my M1 running macOS 13.2

How do you modify that file? Opening in text editor shows plenty of weird characters.

You can "override" the default Command-M shortcut by mapping it to something else. To remap the key combination, launch System Preferences and choose Keyboard. Then the Keyboard Preferences Panel appears, click on the right tab named "Keyboard Shortcuts". You will notice many default keyboard shortcuts that you can override.
I've tried remapping Command-M using this method and it works.

Remapping Command-M to Zoom in "All Applications" seemed to be a good workaround as Zoom appears in all applications and doesn't have nearly as disruptive an effect as an unintentional Minimize.
I was going to try the terminal command above so I went to remove the command M for Zoom and lo and behold, Minimize was now listed with no key command. So I just left it that way, now command-M does nothing and minimize lives harmlessly in the Menu. No terminal command necessary.

You can remap any key and key combination with the wonderful and free software Karabiner. After installing, just add the following code to your ~/Library/Application Support/Karabiner/private.xml:
  <item>
    <name>Map Cmd-M to Cmd-Alt-M</name>
    <appendix>Changes the minimize shortcut</appendix>
    <not>EMACS</not>
    <identifier>private.kill_m</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::M, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L|ModifierFlag::OPTION_L, KeyCode::M, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::M, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
  </item>

  <item>
    <name>Map Cmd-Q to Cmd-Alt-Q</name>
    <appendix>Changes the quit shortcut</appendix>
    <not>EMACS</not>
    <identifier>private.kill_q</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::Q, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L|ModifierFlag::OPTION_L, KeyCode::Q, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::Q, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::VK_NONE</autogen>
  </item>

Then klick "Reload XML" in the Karabiner preferences and set checkmarks for the new items.
This way the minimizing shortcut is not entirely disabled but still available with the additional option key: Cmd+Option+M or by simply using the right command key: Cmd (right)+M.
Note that the second part also changes the Cmd+Q shortcut to Cmd+Option+Q for your convenience. You can omit the second item, if you don’t need it.

You can "reset" the shortcut assigned to Minimize by adding a new shortcut in System Preferences>Keyboard>Shortcuts>App Shortcuts. Just press the plus button, specify the name of the menu title (in this case "Minimize"), press a new shortcut and confirm with "Add".
Note that the name of the menu title must be an exact match. If other users on your Mac use a different language, or some of your apps are in another language, you will need to create shortcuts for all of those languages.
For example, if both Korean and English are used on your Mac, you will need to create two entries, one for each language:

There's a handy keyboard layout called "Dvorak - Qwerty⌘". It's basically Dvorak, but it flips the layout to QWERTY while the ⌘ key is held down. It was designed so that people who want to learn Dvorak don't have to retrain their hotkey muscle memory, but it could help you too.

Too late; I've completely forgotten QWERTY by this point ;)

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Any shortkey for new tweet?

Possible Duplicate:
Is there a way to tweet from a keyboard command?

I want to know, is there any shortcut for creating new tweet in OS X Mountain Lion? If not, how can I define that?

Add a comment if you really want to tweet from Lion. You'll want to edit this to explain exactly how that will work since Lion does not have notification center or a tweeting UI.

Sorry, edited. I'm in Mountain Lion.

I don't think this is duplicate because I'm in Mountain Lion and I mean native twitter client!

OK - let's link to the native client and this might not be a total duplicate with those changes. You see that there's an answer how to do that already if you use this twitter client - http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/58205/5472 You will want to explain how your question differs from the linked question for it to get reopen votes.


text:
Using SSH-LPR with Mac?
I'm looking for a way to add a printer to my MacBook that prints using the lpr command on a remote server. I have passwordless logins set up, and I found a script that appears to do what I need it to: SSH-LPR Backend for CUPS. The only problem is setting it up.
I figured out that on Mac, /usr/lib/cups/backend is actually /usr/libexec/cups/backend, and I added, and chmod'd the sshlpr script to that folder.
Then I went to http://localhost:631/ after cupsctl WebInterface=yes, but I don't see an option to add an SSH-LPR printer.
What do I do next?

I figured it out eventually. Turns out all I needed to do was restart the CUPS daemon.
A simple killall cupsd followed by refreshing the web interface did the trick.
I got the option to add an "LPR through SSH" printer, and it shows up Print & Scan as well as my applications.


text:
Want to wipe and donate very old mac - but no original disc

Possible Duplicate:
Two older Macs (G3 / Intel) need their drives erased. No install discs

I have a mac from 2002 or so, and want to wipe it and give it away.  No idea where the original disk is.  Any idea how to wipe it?

Could you bring it to a local repair shop and ask if they might have discs to wipe it clean with?

There's still torrents for old versions of OS X.

If it has a firmware password - look here. If it's a different Mac than this one, please edit the question to make it different than this case and flag for reopening.


text:
Does Coda 2 support Markdown?
Is there a plugin for Coda 2 that interprets the Markdown langage please ?

It's probably worth checking the website for the software (http://panic.com/coda/plugins.php) before posting a question here.

true :) I've missed it it was in front of me

From the Coda plugins page:

Markdown.codaplugin - A Markdown plugin for Coda
Usage

Use CTRL+ALT+CMD+C to convert to HTML
Use CTRL+ALT+CMD+P to preview


text:
Will restoring from Time Machine carry over hard disk error?
The Disk Utility detects some hard disk errors(inode problem, size mismatch). I am going to upgrade to a new hard drive and use Time Machine to restore the system, but I am worried that these existing hard disk errors may get copied over to the new hard drive. Does anyone know whether Time Machine restore will inherit these errors?Or will it be smart enough to restore the files cleanly to the new hard drive?

The only way filesystem errors like those you describe could be copied onto a different disk (e.g. your Time Machine volume) is if the whole disk partition or whole drive were copied at the block level using dd or something like Carbon Copy Cloner.  Time Machine doesn't work that way, so its stored backups should be free from the filesystem errors and the files it restores should be free from them as well.


text:
Does the iPad 3/4 charger use a standard C7/C8 interface?
The new iPad chargers are sort of a brick containing the transformer, with a detachable corner piece containing the appropriate mains plug for wherever you bought it.

The corner piece looks like it connects to the brick with a standard unpolarized C7 socket / C8 plug:

I'm going from Europe to America and don't have an official bit to swap in on the charger, but I have a dozen C8 mains cables from other electronics. Can I just use one of them?

I happen to have a C8 plug from my PS Vita charger, and my iPad (3rd gen) charger here.  I plugged them into each other, and plugged in my iPhone.  Sure enough, it started charging my phone.

So yes, this does work fine.  C8 plugs will plug into the iPad 3 chargers.


text:
How many different VGA adapters for Macbooks exist?
Many projectors still only accept a VGA connection, especially in fixed installations. And while older Windows notebooks usually have a VGA port directly available, Macbooks always need an adapter, as far as I understand it.
How many different adapters are there for reasonably recent versions of Macbooks (that are likely to be still in use today)? Sometimes the owners of the Macbooks forget those adapters, and then a hectic search for other Apple users starts in the hope of finding the adapter.
If I wanted to have a set of adapters in case any Macbook owner forgot theirs, how many and which ones exactly would I need?

Are you looking to catalog that recent MacBooks have Mini DisplayPort (and these work in thunderbolt ports) and mini DVI video out so two Apple adapters will cover anything back to iBook days (which had a compact VGA out)?

With the help of Mactracker, I've compiled a list of all the connectors used on Mac portables in the last decade or so.
If you stick with machines since 2009 (actually late 2008 discounting one iteration of the 17" MBP), you can get away with just a mini-Displayport adapter.
Adding to that a DVI and mini-DVI adapter will cover you every Intel (2006 and on) portable (as well as most G4 PowerBooks), except for the first MacBook Air (of which there aren't many, but it requires a micro-DVI adapter).
Mini-Displayport/Thunderbolt

MacBook Pro 13" and 15": Late 2008 and on

17": Early 2009 and on

MacBook: Late 2009 and Mid 2010
MacBook (Aluminum): Late 2008
MacBook Air: Late 2008 and on

DVI (full-size)

MacBook Pro: 2006 to early 2008; late 2008 (17" only)
PowerBook G4 (15" and 17"): April 2002 and on

Mini-DVI

MacBook: early 2006 to Mid 2009
PowerBook G4 (12"): September 2003 and on

Micro-DVI

MacBook Air (original, early 2008)

Mini-VGA

iBook: May 2002 and on
PowerBook G4 (12"): January 2003 model (PowerBook6,1)

Very thorough! And nice photos.

Looking at this list, I'd say that the most important adapters for you to keep around are the mini-DVI, mini-DisplayPort and the Thunderbolt ones. The other two (micro-DVI and mini-VGA) are either old and outdated or simply quite rare. So for the most part you should be safe with those initial three. If you want to be completely on the safe side though, you should look into getting those other two, older ones, as well.

My iBook uses the mini-VGA adaptor.

Would you say my answer still aplies though? Or is it still common, in your experience, with computers as old as the iBooks?

I'll admit I don't see a lot of iBooks in circulation anymore.

The different connections on a MacBook or MacBook Pro have almost changed with every new versions of the laptops.
If we go back only a couple of years MacBook Pro had built in DVI connector and there were adapters for DVI to VGA. Later on came the Mini DisplayPort and Mini-DVI.
Today we have Apples new Thunderbolt in the laptops. Some also have HDMI.
I suggest going to Apple Store - Cables and check out what there is still on the market.


text:
What can I do with an iPad Bluetooth-paired to a Mac?
I have successfully paired my iPad Gen 3 to my Mid-2012 MacBook Air. What can I do with this connection?

I recently gave a presentation using Keynote on my MacBook and keynote remote on my ipad. This is a really cool solution that allows you to control slide movement on the MacBook while seeing both slides and presenter notes on the ipad.

Not a whole heck of a lot, as it turns out, but which stems from the difference between iOS and OS X ... which it seems ought to talk to each other directly, but no. Not in the cards.
See this post: What is the use of the bluetooth on iPad?

If you have an iPad with a cellular data connection, you can use Bluetooth for tethering. It's likely more battery-friendly than using Wi-Fi.


text:
Is the color problem with my Facetime camera on a new Macbook Air a hardware or software problem?
I've brought a Macbook Air few months ago. I didn't get to test its camera when I brought it. I'd gotten too busy with works and today was my first time running the application Facetime to test my camera.
I was really taken aback.
Here is a photo I captured with Photo Booth.

The layer facing top is supposed to be red, but it looks green (and green stuff looks red). The camera also seems to have a hard time capturing photons.
(my room is pretty bright yet it looks so dim in the picture)
Is this a driver problem or a hardware problem?
P.S. I've recently re-installed my Mac OSX system using the built-in function that downloads everything from Apple.

I would say send it back to Apple for warranty claim.

I'd agree.  Switching colors makes me wonder if a cable is installed backwards.


text:
2560x1440 resolution in linux vm with virtualbox or vmware
I've got a macbook air (10.8.2) and want to use an external monitor with 2560x1440 resolution with a Linux (Debian) virtual machine. I want to use the vm in fullscreen mode, with 2560x1440 resolution. Will that work in virtualbox or vmware?

Yes; I confirm Debian runs Full Screen under VMWare on Lion at 2560x1440.

... and since Virtual Box is free to try - you can start there or just dive in. Be sure you install the virtual box guest extensions before giving up on resolution settings.


text:
Is there any way to get rid of the gray area in iCal?
The gray area I'm referring to is the area that's not used, say from 12am to 6am.
I want to get rid of this area entirely (It's not the color that's the issue). I don't use that space at all, so it means I have to scroll down to schedule something every single time -- seems very counter-intuitive imho.
Edit: Simplified to one question.
Edit: Still no solution, but some workarounds are provided below. An actual solution would be best though. (Not to take anything away from those who contributed).

Generally you get better results if you don't combine several questions into one. Feel free to create a new question for #2 (as #1 got an answer below) and edit this question here accordingly.

I can answer 1. Go to preferences in iCal, and set "day starts at" to midnight, and "day ends at" to midnight. Or... whenever you want the grey area not to go. So 8-6 (default I think) will make 8-6 not grey. Here's a screen scrape of how that looks:

what I wanted was say 7am to midnight, and that other time (from 12am to 7am) to be cut out, i.e. not be displayed at all because that time is useless to me. Does that make sense?

OK, that was unclear from the question. You may want to edit the question so it's clear that you want to get rid of those hours, and not the grey coloring.

Follow @lemontwist's directions to set the day start and end times to just the hours that you want to see. Then change the "Show [X] hours at a time" to that number of hours. You'll have to scroll the view into place once, but then it seems like it sticks there.
For example, if you set the day to start at 8:00 and end at 6:00, then set it to show 10 hours at a time and scroll the view down to 8:00. The visible area will then cover 8:00 to 6:00 and you shouldn't have to adjust it again.

Yeah, I can still scroll to it though. Especially since I use my mouse wheel tilt to move through the calendar (in week view), it makes it more likely I'll scroll back to the gray area. Thanks though

I still haven't found a solution, but so far yours is a decent work around.


text:
Restore deleted Mac App Store on 10.8.2
I accidentally deleted system apps like the App Store.app and the Calendar.app.
How can I restore these? I've tried the combo update like suggested for 10.6.6 systems, but that unfortunately doesn't seem to work on 10.8.

How did you do that?

Boot to recovery HD and reinstall Mountain Lion if you don't have those backed up to your Time Machine (or equivalent) backup.

I hoped not having to reinstall

Backups help not having to reinstall when you delete things - you could see about copying those apps from another similar OS install or hope the 10.8.3 combo update has those apps in their entirety.

Yes I just thought of that. I actually have a mini server running 10.8.2 as well, so I'll try just copying it over from there.

Consider backing things up just in case calendar barfs. I can't see it being risky, but you never know....

I usually have a TM backup but this time I just wiped the Time Capsule moments before that to run a completely fresh backup... so bad timing.


text:
iMessage freeze and crash
I am having this problem where I open up iMessage on my iPod Touch 4th Gen iOS 6.0.1 and it freezes after 3 seconds. There is a specific message that is causing this. This app opens up at this conversation by default. Before the three seconds passes, I can press back to the list of conversations and do stuff on that screen normally. But when I try to delete that specific conversation it reppears! I have tried to sign out and sign back in but the problem still remains. I have tried every possible method I could think of. If anybody knows how I can delete this conversation or fix this problem I would be grateful.

Can anybody please help me with my question?

After many attempts trying to fix this glitch I have finally found the answer.
I will explain step by step.

Open up iMessage
Quickly go back to the list of conversations before iMessage freezes
Go into the conversation that causes the crash
Click edit
Clear all messages
Go back before iMessage freezes
Delete the conversation
Completely close iMessage by opening up the Multitask bar and hold onto the icon until the icon jiggles.
Tap on the delete button on the top left of the icon
Wait 10 seconds then open iMessage again

After these 10 steps iMessage should be working find now.


text:
How can I completely remove Apple's Java 6 and make Oracle's Java 7 default for everything?
I would like to completely remove Apple's Java 6 and make Oracle's Java 7 default for every program.
For example, with Eclipse I had to fiddle with eclipse.ini to specify JAVA_HOME for Java 7, and the same for TunnelBear. No luck for Aptana, though (it still wants Apple's Java)
Is there a way to make Oracle's Java default in terms of PATH?

I think Java 7 is the default for PATH as /usr/bin/java should be Java 7 . However the issue is with .apps having something else in their .plist files

Download and install the latest Java Development Kit (JDK) from Oracle, which will place it in /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_11.jdk (or whatever the latest version is). Now, start Terminal.app, and enter the following commands:

cd /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines (change to the proper directory)
sudo mv 1.6.0.jdk backup.1.6.0.jdk (keep the old JDK around, just in case - you will need to have an administrator password to do this)
sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_11.jdk 1.6.0.jdk (link your new JDK installation to where applications expect the old one to be)

Keep in mind that with any further jdk updates, you'll need to update the symlink to the new directory:
sudo rm /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk && sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/new_jdk_version /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk

You shouldn't create the 1.6.x symlink, application won't be expecting the jdk to be in /System. If anything you should set JAVA_HOME in your profile.

These instructions worked well for me on OS X Mavericks.

Remove Apple's JVMs
$ sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/

Remove installer records
$ sudo rm /private/var/db/receipts/com.apple.pkg.JavaForMacOSX*

Remove installer receipts (delete the <dict>...</dict> entries that reference com.apple and java)
$ sudo emacs /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist

Set the symlinks for Java 7
$ sudo rm /usr/bin/java
$ sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java /usr/bin/java

Optionally symlink JAVA_HOME
sudo rm /Library/Java/Home
sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home /Library/Java/Home

Well, if you install the latest Java update from Apple, that should actually uninstall Java 6. You can go to Oracle's website directly to download Java 7. That's what I did. With only Java 7 on your system, that should make it default.

On Lion the Java update did not uninstall Apple's java - /usr/bin/java is now Java 7 but Java 6 is still useable as /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java

I'm using Java 7 only and getting Apple updates on Java is somewhat tedious. I want it out - anyone managed to have it that way, yet? (i.e. so much out that Apple wouldn't push Java-specific updates; I'm fine taking all through Oracle directly).

I know this is an old thread, but if one has Adobe CS5 on their machine, it MUST HAVE the Apple 1.6 version of java for the suite to run. I was running Eclipse which needed 1.7 or higher. I thought it would replace the Apple version, but it didn't. The Apple version is in the System/Library folder and the Oracle version is in the Library folder.
Thought I would add a bit more info for those who may need this information.
OS X Lion

That info is in the other answers

Didn't check. Sorry.


text:
All my music has been deleted off my phone, and I don't know how to get it back!
I put all my music on a playlist seperate from the rest of the music on the iTunes library, so I could easily get to what music I wanted to listen to, instead of my brother or sister's music. My brother recently got an iPod nano, and didn't know how to use iTunes, after explaining it to him, he deleted my whole entire playlist. I didn't know, so when I hooked my phone up to the computer to sync some songs I was going to buy, all the music on my phone disappeared. I've tried re-doing the playlist and syncing all of it to my phone again, but it won't work. I've also tried turning off my phone for certain periods of time, still nothing.
I lost about 200 songs (thankfully not more), and I don't know how to get it back.

Did you tried re-selecting that playlist in iTunes's iPhone settings?

Here are some things you could add so we could help you out: Where are the songs you first synced to the phone? Why not copy them to this computer?

If your brother deleted the songs themselves they are gone unless your computer is backed up.
If your brother just deleted the playlist you need to recreate the playlist and then re-sync it.  Here is a how to article on how to do that. - http://www.ehow.com/how_2214496_sync-playlists-iphone.html


text:
How to change keyboard shortcut for "log out"?
I use a third party app for alt-tab, so when I hit alt+shift+tab+Q, the operating system doesn't recognize it as quitting the app. Instead it recognizes it as the log out keyboard command. (The native OSX alt+shift+tab+q will quit the app, however.)
I figure this could easily be resolved if I could change the keyboard shortcut.
OSX 10.7.5, Macbook Pro mid-2011.

You could try changing ⌥⇧⌘Q to ⌥⌘Q with KeyRemap4MacBook.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<item>
<name>test</name>
<identifier>private.test</identifier>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::Q, VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::Q, VK_COMMAND | VK_OPTION</autogen>
</item>
</root>

Is this going to mess with the kernel? I was hoping for a safer way to do it.


text:
How to fix screwed font display in password entry dialog?
I don't have a single clue how my Mac OS comes to be like this..
Whenever I'm prompted to enter my password for admin rights to make changes to the system, my Mac OS seems to have a hard time finding the correct characters to represent the Roman alphabets it wants to display. Here are some screenshots regarding what it shows:

I suppose there is some bug (it is a Mac OS X version 10.7.5) or maybe I've accidentally deleted some system files required for the encoding..
This isn't really a big problem (since everything else works well), but as time goes by I feel the need to fix it.
I would appreciate if someone can provide me a solution.

Does it also affect the force quit window? Have your tried resetting the font cache (sudo atsutil databases -remove; atsutil server -shutdown)?

@LauriRanta Yes, the force quit window is affected too. Thanks for teaching me the atsutil command-lines! After resetting the font cache, the system is able to figure out that there is a conflict between some font files and after moving them to trash the encoding works properly.

@LauriRanta The problem is now solved :D Why don't you type your solution down as an answer and let me accept it?

Just in case anyone else had the same: the issue arose for me when I tried installing Apple's San Francisco font in Yosemite. If you open Fontbook and disable the font (select and hit the checkmark button at the top), it fixes it.

So apparently it was solved by removing the fontd databases and deleting the files of conflicting fonts. (I guess the conflicting fonts were shown in Font Book?)
sudo atsutil databases -remove; atsutil server -shutdown

The password dialogs and force quit window are shown by processes owned by the root, so -removeUser might not work. launchd starts a new fontd process automatically, so atsutil server -ping is not needed.

using about your own name and scramble with it

Perhaps someone can edit this into a more clear solution?


text:
App to control background sound output
I have an iPad 3 which I would like to use to play music to Bluetooth speakers in the background while I play various games and the like. The problem is that the foreground apps interrupt the sound of the background radio app. In Windows you can control which programs are allowed to output sound with the volume mixer; similarly, is there any way to lock sound output on an iPad to one background app?

Sorry but that isn't possible on an iPad.  Each application/game has the option/ability to allow the background music to continue or to stop it and use its own audio.
You would have to ask the developer of each application to add an option to allow the background music to continue instead of interrupting.  Good luck with that. ;)


text:
Is it possible to run iOS on a non-iOS device?
Theoretically, is it possible to run iOS on a device that doesn't ship with it? I know that Apple signed iOS so it only runs on Apple devices, but is there any hack that could potentially change that?

Theoretically? Sure, but it'd be a challenge, and I don't think anyone's done it.
However, you can sort of get it running on a Mac if you have Xcode: Xcode menu > Open Developer Tool > iOS Simulator. This will load a simulator for the iPhone with Photos, Contacts, Settings, Game Center, Maps, Newsstand, Passbook, and Safari. No way to install apps (other than making them yourself in Xcode).

Okay thanks. BTW is xcode pricy? free how much? developer account?

XCode is free.  A developer account is $99/year.

@DumbProducts A L said something you might have missed that is very important: there is no way to install apps that you haven't made yourself.

@Jason (BTW I have an iPod touch running iOS 6 but this is just for fun. :)) You don't need a developer account to run the simulator, right?

right, the developer account is only need to deploy to an actual device


text:
Mac applications refuse to launch
Every time I click on a application, both Apple and third party applications refuse to open. The little blue dot appears below the app on the dock, and then it disappears. I've restarted the computer multiple times and no luck. It's a late 2008 MacBook. Any ideas?

Have you tried starting up in safe mode? You can see system.log in single user mode with cat /var/log/system.log.

You can fire up the /Applications/Utilities/Console.app and look over the logs as you are launching programs.
If the messages are not clear, you could either edit some details in the question or post a new question for each app / message that has you stumped as to a cause or solution.
Of course, you also might try some generic troubleshooting steps like rebooting, checking the apps with a new user, etc...

I can't even open Finder to access the folder. Any other ideas?

Ouch - put your backup in a safe place. If you are covered on backup, you can boot in single user mode or recovery mode and see about checking the drive or reinstalling the OS. If you lack a backup, you'll want to get an assist from someone capable of imaging the Mac before you proceed to try to fix things.


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Gyroscope in iPhone 4S doesn't work

Possible Duplicate:
iPad doesn’t rotate anymore

I have a problem with my iPhone 4S. Its gyroscope doesn't work. But not at all. Sometimes it sets in vertical position and sometimes in horizontal. I read about it on the Apple's website and they suggest to make a back up and restore the initial settings. I've done this. At first everything was OK, gyroscope used to work. But then I started to restore all programs and at some moment I noticed that the gyroscope doesn't work again.
Maybe some app is the reason but I don't know which one. I hope the problem is in the software not in the hardware but...What I need to do? Maybe you faced the same problem?

Do you actually mean the gyroscope or the accelerometer? Because if it's just screen rotation that's stuck, that's controlled by the accelerometer not the gyroscope. How do gyroscope-controlled games (if you've got any) work?

The rotation software on iOS devices functions the same, so ill point this to another question that has better answers. Feel free to edit this more for Ask Different and we can reopen it if you need more specific help.

Problems with the acceleration input can be faulty software (and usually it's some process going out of control and taking time away from the other tasks - not that it calculates up incorrectly), so that was a good first step to avoid telling you to seek hardware service.
At this point, unless you think the restore process was bad, it's almost entirely probable that the hardware is at fault and you'll need to take it in for repair.


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OS X shows "Sign in to use this application on this computer" dialogs when opening App Store applications
After a reboot of OS X, I often need to re-enter my Apple ID password in order to use the apps I bought in the App Store. Sometimes I have to re-enter my password only once and all the apps work (until the next reboot), but often I have to repeat this for every single App Store app I open.
For example, I might get this dialog the first time I launch Reeder after rebooting OS X:

Sign in to use this application on this computer
“Reeder.app” was purchased using App Store on another computer. To install “Reeder.app” on this computer, sign in using the Apple ID and password used to purchase it.

I have tried to delete the following files:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.storeagent
~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.appstore.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.appstore.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.storeagent.plist

But this didn't solve the problem. I have reinstalled all the apps, but that didn't help either. Moreover, I have done a clean install of OS X (for another reason) but I still have this issue with Mac App Store apps. Could this be related to my hardware or Apple ID?
Is there anyone who has had a similar problem or someone who might help me?

Did you copy the applications from another computer?

No, I installed them on this computer.

This same problem plagued me for months.  Any non-free mac store app would ask for a user name and password to access with the dialog box shown above.  When I lacked internet access, the app simply wouldn't load at all.
After trying all sorts of solutions - deleting the apps and reinstalling, re-entering passwords and credit  card numbers in the app store itself, etc., I finally found something that solved the problem:
I reinstalled Mountain Lion from the rescue partition installed on my hard drive.  While this takes some time (about three hours), it isn't as drastic as it sounds.  All my apps and files and passwords were intact after the reinstallation, and for the past two weeks I haven't had to re-enter any mac app store passwords for the apps I've purchased.
here's a link to a Macworld article that explains the process of reinstalling the OS:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1167870/hands_on_with_mountain_lions_os_x_recovery_and_internet_recovery.html


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Text Expander on Mac OS X
OS X Mountain Lion comes with Text Expander as an option, but it only seems to work in Safari and not in iMessage and other applications.
Is there any way to enable Text Expander throughout the entire OS?

I'm assuming you're talking about the Language & Text > Use symbol and text substitution option found in the System Preferences.

Per comment on Tuaw: Set up Mountain Lion's text expansion options

It does work - at least in most native applications - but you need to turn it on in each application.  Per Apple Support: Turn on text substitution features in an applications. Control-click and choose Substitutions > Show Substitutions. (In some applications, you can also choose Edit > Substitutions > Show Substitutions.) In the Substitutions window, select the text substitution features you want to turn on.


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localhost HTTP Audio Webstreaming Software for Mac?
I would like a make some sort of Apple Protocol HTTP Audio Stream that would be available to my local network.
So if I typed in "192.168.0.2" or "192.168.0.2:8080" on Mobile Safari it would recognize it as a webcast.
What software would do this on a Mac?

VideoLAN can be used for streaming and it supports HTTP. Here is the list of supported streaming features. You may follow some guide.


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Duplicate entries in "Open With" menu in Finder even after rebuilding Launch Services
In Mac OS X 10.8.2, I have this curious problem. Every time I install a new updated version of one of several applications that I use, my system adds a new duplicate entry in the "Open With" contextual menu:

I have tried clearing caches and rebuilding disk permissions and rebooting, but the problem persists.
I have completely rebuilt the Launch Services database and completely rebuilt Pre-Binding, more than once, by using the standard command line tools and using two different commercial cleaning utilities to do the same thing.
I have also deleted and rebuilt Spotlight and then rebuilt Launch Services and cleared caches again.
Nothing has any effect.
It seems there have been similar questions posted here before, and all of them are incorrectly answered by "Rebuild the Launch Services database" but that does not help the problem.
Update 18 January 2013
After filing a bug report with Apple, I have received a notification that this is a known bug that they are already tracking and working on. It is Bug ID# 11582257, for anybody who follows these things.
Update April 2013
This bug has not been fixed in Mac OS X 10.8.3.
Update June 2013
This bug has still not been fixed in Mac OS X 10.8.4.

I don't recommend onyx - but I do like this answer and http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/66870/5472

Please reopen. The "exact duplicate" is a different situation with distinctly different symptoms, applying to OS X 10.6, and the solution proposed there does not help me in OS X 10.8.2. I have completely rebuilt the Launch Services database and it has no effect on this problem.

Other related questions: 9929, 10523, 64124, 64580, 68530. If you've done a rebuild of the database, and made sure spotlight isn't finding legitimate dupes, you could edit that into the question so that it's less like the other questions I have linked.

There are a plethora of explanations on the other questions. In the end, you have a spotlight problem, a duplicate app problem or a launch service database problem. Working through all the answers should alert you to which situation you are experiencing.

It's a bug in OS X actually. Remains unfixed at the time of writing this.

@WheatWilliams Can you add the bug ID# 11582257 to http://openradar.appspot.com?

@WheatWilliams Thanks for the update. Please add to open radar, so we can file duplicates.

I have found a Terminal command that works in Mountain Lion. It gives the correct sequence of commands for lsregister to correct this problem:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
This was provided by one Dr. Drang on the blog at LeanCrew.com in a post called Getting rid of Open With duplicates. It was posted on February 16, 2013.
You can read the blog post at the link above for all the details.
Presumably, until Apple fixes this known bug, it may be necessary to re-run this command every time a new version of an app gets installed on my system, causing new duplicate items in the Open With menu.
I must admit that this string was suggested by bmike on January 12, 2013. But for some reason I overlooked it earlier. So thanks, bmike.

Thanks, it worked. I needed to restart Finder to get the Open With menu to update. I'm running 10.9.2.

yes - this is a good answer but you should add killall Finder; making the complete command /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user; killall Finder;

Do check Wheat's answer where he discovered the circumstances where OS X has a bug and the duplicates are caused by updating an App from the App Store.
For others where this isn't caused by a specific bug in Mountain Lion, the rebuilding has ruled out a stale launch services database, you should now rebuild your entire spotlight database.
This assumes you don't really have several copies of PDFPenPro - so you might run mdfind app_name before and after rebuilding spotlight since that is the likely cause of duplicate entries.
This might also be a good time to be sure your backups are current - random filesystem errors, incompatible utilities, or impending disk failure also could explain the database continuing to get rebuilt with duplicate entries.

As I stated in my question, I have completely rebuilt Spotlight. That did not help.

I have also checked to make sure that I only have one copy of each app in question. But a new duplicate entry gets added to the menu of certain applications each time I install a new update of a newer revision of the application. I'm concluding it's just an unresolved bug in OS X. It's annoying because I use the "Open With" contextual menu constantly in my workflow.

Thanks for editing that in / clarifying it. My brain was still remembering the first version of your post apparently. If you want to file a bug with apple, run mddiagnose and send it in - if you have a repeatable case, it should be easy for the engineer to get you to demonstrate the bug and then reproduce it. Better, you know exactly what triggers the addition of the new item.

Keep us posted! And thanks for sticking with this to clarify why it wasn't like the other questions.

@WheatWilliams If you post your Radar, I'll link to it in my bug report. This still isn't fixed on 10.8.4 (12E55) so I want to get them a perfect reproducible test case so this can be addressed in the next build if possible. My bug is rdar://14100691

This has happened to me occasionally, but when it did, it was because there actually were two versions of the app installed.  And so (in this case) the fix is to find and delete one of them.
How did I get two copies?  I consider this a bug, but some might disagree.  I have a directory called /Application/Non-Apple where I put any apps that aren't built/maintained by Apple (even though they come from the App Store).  Most apps update to /Applications instead of to the actual location of the app.  Result: the newest version is in /Applications, both versions are in the open with menu, and the Dock still points to the old version.
It doesn't have to be this way (and it shouldn't).  I know better behavior is possible because I have two apps that update to the same path as the existing (previous) version.


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Terminal Actived Push Notification Utility for OS X and iOS?
I am basically wondering if there is any tool(s) that can generate a push notifications on OS X and/or iOS from terminal entries. Idea here is you could connect via SSH and make a custom push notification like "WiFi is turning off in 5 Minutes" or "Go to bed!" (lol) appear. Anyone have ideas? My iOS device is jailbroken, hence OpenSSH is installed.

OS X Server integrates nicely for push notifications using APNS, but it's more focused on mail and chat notifications as opposed to sending generic notifications like a turn based game server.
It would get your Apple ID approved and be a very nice first step towards getting APNS to be ready to listen to commands from a Mac.
Here is a nice step by step article on setting up push notifications:

http://krypted.com/mac-os-x/enable-push-notifications-in-os-x-mountain-lion-server/

From there, you could use a chat hosted from your Mac as opposed to using iMessage (messages app on iOS to get messages sent with push notifications).

If you do not mind a small one-time entry fee ($5) then there are two apps for iOS that provide you with push notifications.
Push4
Pushover
Both provide a simple http API so you can send yourself push notifications from the terminal. Pushover also has IFTTT channel.

https://github.com/nomad/houston
It supports simple command line interface too. Very useful and free.


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Airdrop Alternative for Windows/Mac/Linux?
I am looking for something that does the same thing as Airdrop that would work on Windows/Mac/Linux. Because of hardware it would most likely have to be LAN-based, but I am perfectly fine with that. Anyone know of such a program? Thanks :)

Have a look at Transfer on Lan - it's not as full of hardware encrypted, peer to peer mesh network goodness as AirDrop, but it's the closest stand in for AirDrop that I've seen in a cross-platform client.
http://code.google.com/p/transfer-on-lan/
It uses a normal network as opposed to building up a secure temporary network, but other than needing java, it's pretty easy to implement.

Perfect, shall work well. :)

Though it's a bit different of an approach, Dropbox is an excellent solution to this problem.

If the computers you're moving data between are next to each other, you might like Share Mouse. Share Mouse actually let's you drag and drop files and folders between computers as if the other computer were just a secondary display.
http://www.keyboard-and-mouse-sharing.com/
I'm using it personally because I have my MacBook next to a Windows computer and the drag and drop functionality comes in handy multiple times a day. There's also clipboard sharing support.

You can also use FileDropMe which is an app that works similar to AirDrop across several platforms (including smartphones).


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Application similar to MS Paint to do graphical work on Mac
This is going to sound silly to someone who does this everyday.. but I am confused about something.
What do people use to do similar things like with MS Paint (not Paint.net), e.g. stuff like making rage comics and meme's or other such silly things. The only graphics application I found for my Mac is GIMP

Software recommendation are difficult to give, especially without knowing your detailed requirements. Did you browse through the Mac App Store already, there are a lot of "graphics" apps there.

Probably the most similar to MS Paint that I've seen is Paintbrush.

You're awesome :) Works great!


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Pressing CMD + Folder from dock opens finder at bottom page
When I press Command and click on a folder in the Dock, Finder should come up and show me it's location there. However, Finder shows up and the page is scrolled all the way to the buttom. So I have to scroll up to find the folder. The files are supposed to be arranged by Date Added. So new files are on top, and finder always starts from the bottom when a Folder is opened from Dock.
Why does this happen and how can I ensure that the folder accessed through the Dock is always shown in the first page of Finder ?
Please let me know if I should clarify further.

Did you try deleting the hidden .DS_store file for the default finder window? That should clear up what you are seeing.

@bmike How do I do that ?

Take your pick :) http://apple.stackexchange.com/search?q=Delete+.ds_store

@bmike thanks :) I tried replicating the bug but failed. Seems like the issue has been fixed with Mavericks !


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Boot Late 2010 MacBook Air from SD Card
I have a late 2010 MacBook Air (13 inch) and would absolutely love to be able to boot it from my SD Card on which I have Puppy Linux installed. I use Puppy Linux on an old HP Mini 2133 netbook and I'd like to have the option to use it occasionally on my Air as well. However, I've attempted in the past to install ReFIt and had no luck going that route. So, my question is: is it possible to simply boot from the SD card without installing additional software? I very much prefer to keep my Air as stock as possible - I currently only have about 8 or 9 3rd party apps installed so if it's possible to do it without ReFIt that would be awesome. Still, if ReFIt is necessary I'm more than happy to give it a try but, as I said, I've attempted it in the past and, upon rebooting, seen no evidence that it was installed (other than the files on my system).
*note - I'm not trying to install Puppy Linux to the drive, I'd just like to be able to boot from it.

Have you tried this tutorial or Puppy Linux official tutorial (page 21)?
You don't have to burn Puppy Linux to real CD, just repeat all installation process inside VirtualBox. Don't forget to connect your flash drive inside a virtual machine.

As a second option you can try installing rEFInd Boot Manager by Roderick W. Smith instead of rEFIt. rEFIt which seems to be abandoned.
Here is installation guide for rEFInd: http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#osx

UNetbootin did it. I didn't want to use it, but there seemed to be no other choice.

How did you get that to work? UNetbootin doesn't make bootable drives for Mac.

@Tony - I used UNetBootin to make a USB drive of Linux Mint (the newest version with Cinnamon) and it showed up when I booted holding Option because Mint has EFI boot built in.

awesome I did not know that. I've only briefly used Linux Mint; I'll have to give it another look. Thanks.


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Change AppleID to @me.com email address
When I first got an iPod (several years ago) my primary email address was *@gmail.com and, thus, I used that as my AppleID. However, since then Apple has given customers new *@me.com email addresses to use with, say, iPhones and iPads. So, I was wondering what the reprecussions of using *@me.com as my AppleID would be? In other words, would I lose access to movies and TV shows that I've purchased, and would I lose access to my apps?

The key is to change the main Apple ID email address or add an alternate email address instead of creating a new Apple ID altogether.
If you logon to appleid.apple.com, you can change your primary email address. There really aren't many big repercussions, and as long as you don't create a new Apple ID you will have access to all of your previously purchased content.
If you have friends that iMessage your @gmail.com email address you will need to add that email as an alternate email address - something you can do from  appleid.apple.com.
What is interesting is that you can use your @me.com email address right now to sign into your devices. It is added as an alternate email address automatically. When you log in to appleid.apple.com you will notice that under your primary email address is an "Alternate Apple ID". This is probably your @me.com or @icloud.com email address. So, you can use that email address and your current Apple ID password to sign in to your Apple ID - either will work.
Note that you can't login to your Apple ID with your "Alternate Email Addresses", but you can iMessage from your "Alternate Email addresses".


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Extract Camera Roll from iTunes backup
I had to restore a friend's iPod because they forget their passcode and they lost their camera roll. I can't restore FROM a backup, as the backup has the forgotten passcode on it.
Anyways, on my Mac I looked under ~/library/application support/MobileSync/Backup to find some hashed folder with a  boatload of hashed files and a couple .plist's saying it was indeed a backup.
My question is- I am sure these photos are in this folder hashed somewhere.. how can I get them out?
Thanks :)

What version of iPod? Some store photo thumbnails in a database instead of a hashed file folder structure. Knowing the version of iTunes and the OS you have to work with and the version and type of iOS device will make this both easier to answer and more useful to the site.

iPhone Backup Viewer shows everything in the backup and will save the photos (and anything else) to the folder you specify.
Donation-ware at http://www.imactools.com/iphonebackupviewer/

There are third-party applications such as iBackupViewer and iPhone Backup Extractor that will read those backup files.
Also, if by any chance Photostream was turned on, those photos are on somebody's Mac, hiding in
~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub

Ah, noted. No.. Photo Stream wasn't on :(

Do you think renaming a random number of those files or .jpg or .png until one opens would work on no?

iPhone Backup Viewer shows you everything in the backup - apps, photos, etc. - and all can be saved to computer.

Here I recommend you MyJad iTunes Photo Extractor* to help you extract camera roll you want back.
[*]: Commercial software, trial available.

[][]: trial you mean extract 5 files


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Set Keystroke for Service from Terminal
I created some services to be used in Finder. Now I wanted to create some keystrokes to call these services. That would be easy in the System Settings, however, I would like to add them from the command line in order to automate this setup.
I tried the following which did allow me not trigger the services by a keystroke:
defaults write com.apple.Finder NSUserKeyEquivalents '{ "label-red" = "$@1"; "label-green" = "$@2"; "label-none" = "$@0"; }'

Any ideas to make this work? Instead of com.apple.Finder I might have to use another identifier, but which?

You can use PlistBuddy and defaults:
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete NSServicesStatus:"(null) - test2 - runWorkflowAsService"' ~/Library/Preferences/pbs.plist 2>/dev/null;defaults write pbs NSServicesStatus -dict-add '"(null) - test2 - runWorkflowAsService"' '{key_equivalent = "^~@2";}'
The PlistBuddy command is not needed if there is not an existing entry for the service. Replace test2 with the name of the service. Quit and reopen applications to apply the changes.
^~@2 is control-option-command-2. See https://web.archive.org/web/20161220060333/http://osxnotes.net/keybindings.html.


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Why do hidden windows restore slightly to the right after I close the lid and go to sleep?
Workflow: During the day I have a 27" external monitor attached. I get to the office, plug it in to the monitor, load my Windows development VM, and it immediately attaches to the external monitor (as I like, that part is fine). However, any windows I had been working on the night before, such as my Chrome windows, or Sublime Text, always start just slightly to the right of where they were last night. I adjust them back to where I want them, keep working. At the end of the day I close my VM, unplug that monitor, close the laptop, go home, get it back out do some more work, then hide the windows before going to bed so my workspace is free and clear in the morning, and not remnants of the previous night.
This is what I normally have things look like:

And this is how they look when they "shift on unhide":

Drawing attention to the newly unhidden Sublime Text 2 window, that is now on top of Chrome. Last night it was fairly aligned with Chrome, and I hid both apps. This morning I unhid Chrome, fixed it's position for a screenshot, and then unhid ST2. I did not "move" ST2 from where it unhid-to, but it's assuredly not where I left it. See how it's still at the top of the window, it's just shifted to the right a bit? I move it back and I'm just where I was.

Feel free to add tags or retitle the question. I'm very much a noob to OSX and can't even quite describe what the hell the issue here is.

I also feel fairly confident the issue is because I use my dock on the side, which feels natural to me on this system, mostly because I need more vertical real-estate most days. So if the price I pay for vertical real-estate is having to move my windows every single day (until Apple decides this needs to be "fixed") then so be it.


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Sharing a Printer from a Mac to AirPrint
While I am aware that you can use handyPrint for this.. you have to pay for it to keep using it.. and I have no Paypal or Credit Cards.
Does anyone know a method so when a Printer is shared on your Mac, it broadcasts it as AirPrint so I can print from iOS with it like you could handyPrint. Possibly using a modded CUPS server or change a couple Bonjour plists or something?
Thanks :)

http://www.howtogeek.com/102671/how-to-enable-airprint-for-ios-printing-from-any-mac-or-windows-pc/
Thanks to AirPrint Hacktivator you can turn any printer connected to your Mac or Windows PC into an AirPrint compatible printer.  from:
http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/01/make-any-printer-airprint-compatible/

AirPrint Hacktivator is now handyPrint, and it isn't free anymore...

Well.. I can always see if Brother's app will work, as mine is a Brother machine.. any ideas to actually make it AirPrint without paying?


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Stop Finder/OSX From creating TemporaryItems and .apdisk on Network shares
I'm looking for some way to configure OSX to prevent it creating .apdisk files and .TemporaryItems folders on network shares.
These are created any time OSX accesses a shared folder on the network.
In searching, some possible solutions I've found include:

Stop using the Application (Finder)
Mark the share(s) as read-only
Ignore them
Use 3rd party software (such as BlueHarvest) to remove the files.
Schedule a cron script to delete these files.

Unfortunately the first three options are not workable for me, and I'd rather not have to buy licences or schedule clean-ups on the file servers.
Is there a way to configure OSX not to create these in the first place?
(Finder is connecting via AFP to the network shares, for what it's worth)
Edit, approx 1 year later: Please note that I'm not looking for a cleanup solution.
BlueHarvest (if you have a mac to run it on), and scheduled cleanup scripts are fine - but less than ideal. I really need a solution which prevents OSX from creating these files in the first place.
At this point in time, it appears Apple don't provide such a configuration option which is disappointing.

What kind of server(s) are you connecting to? OS X or something else? Also, why don't you want the files - I'm guessing non mac clients on those shares?

All kinds of servers - it doesn't matter. And yes, I don't want them because of non-mac clients, and general pollution of the shares.

OK. I have the same problem but my solution is not within your parameters; I run dot_clean(1) from cron on the client(s) / suppress creation on the server.

Open Terminal.
Execute this command: defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
Either restart the computer or log out and back in to the user account.

Reference: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1629

Ah, unfortunately this only stops the .DS_Store files from being created, it doesn't stop .TemporaryItems folders and .APDisk files from being created.

#blameapple Nothing I can do. :(

If you are running Windows file shares on Windows Server 2003 R2 and above, you can create file screens that prevent any user from creating any set of pre-specificied files.
I have effectively used this approach to eliminate all mac created files on our file shares.
Please see the MS Technet document, Screening Files, for more information.

Oh, wow - that's an interesting solution. Had no idea File Screens existed.

While this might not help everyone, if you are running samba on the file server,  you can add the following in your smb.conf:
Veto files = /.TemporaryItems/._.TemporaryItems/.DS_Store/

The "Veto files" is a / separated string of filenames (wildcards also allowed) that is forbidden to be created. This resolved the issue for me.
I found this trick on the Arch Linux samba wiki

I used something similar some years ago, I had to disable it because some versions of MacOS X refused to connect to the share or had random problems with it (don't remember exactly, it was around 2010...). Not sure what happens with current versions.

BlueHarvest is probably the best and easiest way to maintain the network shares clean, at least that's what I went for after taking up most of your options myself.
After that is a cron job for deleting all of those files, using something like:
find "$@" \( -name ".DS_Store" -or -name ".TemporaryItems" -or -name ".Trashes" -or -name "._*" \) -exec rm -rf "{}" \; -prune

BlueHarvest and a cronjob were both already mentioned as non-preferred ways of dealing with this.

Hi! I reckon you did mention that, but my answer served precisely the point of giving a recommendation from my previous (and current) experience. I still have BlueHarvest installed for achieving exactly what you need, having tried some other solutions similar to the ones you mentioned though none with the same success rate. I.e. it's still my best recommendation and in my pov worth the cost.

Thanks - I'm glad you find BlueHarvest valuable, and I'm sure others will find the script you've provided useful in scheduling cleanups. Neither meet the requirement of configuring OSX not to create them in the first place. BlueHarvest in particular, regardless of the price, is not useful for my situation - it would require the purchase of a mac, which isn't cost effective.  Until Apple provide a configuration option to suppress this, the question will remain open.

sshfs has a noappledouble option that stops at least .Spotlight-V100 from being created in my (very limited) testing...
mkdir -p /Volumes/user && /usr/local/bin/sshfs \
    -o volname=user,local,cache=no,allow_root,noappledouble,defer_permissions,reconnect,ServerAliveInterval=15,ServerAliveCountMax=3 \
    user@nas.local:/mnt/tank/homes/user \
    /Volumes/user

If using sshfs is an option you might consider this solution.


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Import certificates into the System Keychain via the command line
Is it possible to copy a certificate to a machine running OS X Snow Leopard, add it to the System Keychain, then set it to "Always Trust via SSH?"
And if so... how?

How to delete the cert once it is added: How to delete Self-Signed certificate from System Keychain (Big Sur)

To import a trusted certificate use the terminal command
sudo security add-trusted-cert \
  -d \
  -r trustRoot \
  -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain \
  <certificate>

This will add a trusted certificate to the System.keychain. You should modify the options and paths to suit your situation. See the man page for security for more information.
↬ Rich Trouton, Adding new trusted root certificates to System.keychain

The quotes messed me up for some reason, removed them and all was well.

@jaberg, and how to add certificate via ssh to local keychain, not system?

Thanks muchly! Just a note: One can also add to "$HOME/Library/Keychains/login.keychain"

What is the difference between security add-trusted-cert and security import?

link is broken, : https://www.unix.com/man-page/mojave/1/security/

fyi to add a trusted CA to only the current user's Login keychain you don't need to sudo but you will be asked for your password:
security add-trusted-cert -d -r trustRoot -k  ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db /tmp/my-root-ca.cer

Does this really work from a pure terminal? security want's to do some interactions despite the sudo.

@Martin, it was the same for me, I still got a GUI prompt for entering administrator password. Command from this answer does execute without such prompt (and also certificate is trusted right away): https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/223869/92892

it says error reading file

The selected answer does not really work on newer versions of MacOS.
The correct command now is:
sudo security add-trusted-cert -d -r trustAsRoot -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain <certificate>

Note: tested with MacOS 12(Monterey) and MacOS 13(Ventura)

Welcome to Ask Different. Your answer could be improved by referencing which versions of macOS onward this change applies to. As it stands 'newer versions' doesn't provide a reference point, especially as the OP was asking about Snow Leopard. That was a long time ago (2009).

updated with a note as requested

What format did you have to use? For pem format, your command yielded SecTrustSettingsSetTrustSettings: One or more parameters passed to a function were not valid.


text:
Can a MacBookPro6,1 drive a Dell U2713HM via DisplayPort?
I have a 17" MacBook Pro with mini-DisplayPort output - the model before Thunderbolt. On that basis buying a Thunderbolt display is out. It has switched Intel HD/Nvidia GT 330M graphics.
Dell have a new 27" model, the U2713HM - like the U2711 it has a multitude of inputs and it looks like it should be usable with my Mac if I just get a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable. I think this is the one because it is affordable and the anti-glare coating is reported to be excellent compared to the heavy, sparkly U2711's coating. All the reviewers who aren't concerned with gaming love it, those that do note that the 22ms input lag is better than the 2711 has but is still pretty bad.
But has anyone actually done it? VGA, DVI and Thunderbolt I know about, but I want to be sure about this monitor before buying it. If I need to upgrade the Mac to drive a large external monitor that changes everything and the Thunderbolt 27" is back in the picture.

The answer is yes - using the Monoprice 3ft DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable it works perfectly.
Before the cable arrived I used DVI, through the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter - adapters with firmware version 1.03 work reliably though 1.02 did not. Apple replaced mine because of this, see support bulletin here. It's nice to put the bulky adapter and bulky DVI cable away.


text:
Updating macbook from 10.6.0 to 10.6.8
I am trying to update my macbook to 10.6.8. I tried to update to 10.6.8 directly but it does not update it directly so I am going in a sequential manner now. Firstly, I updated it to 10.6.1 by downloading the update to my macbook. Next, I updated it to 10.6.2 and doing so again and again I have updated my laptop to 10.6.4. Is there any better(faster) way I can get my macbook updated to 10.6.8? Thanks

I would assume you would use the latest combo update for 10.6, which should update you completely to the current version in one shot.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US