text:
iCloud hacked. MacBook Pro locked. Starts uni tomorrow. Help!
So we went on holiday 3 weeks ago and during the holiday my girlfriend received a notification saying that her iPhone was locked from iCloud. We got around it and changed the password to iCloud. Yesterday when we arrived home, and turned on the MacBook it was firmware locked. We can't do nothing.
I called Apple which could not help. Apparently they need to send it in for service which could take more than a week. Since uni starts tomorrow we really need to fix this ASAP!
Anyone in this community that are able to help?
It is a MacBook Pro from 2015 with no access to battery or RAM sticks.
This really really sucks!!

Step 1: don't panic. Is there data on the machine, or does she just need a working computer (ie do you care if the hard drive gets wiped?) If Apple says they can fix it, then that's probably easiest. A week is actually pretty good turnaround time. Since you're more interested in how to fix it than in how it happened in the first place, I'm going to flag this to me moved to the Apple SE because this is really more of a Mac How-To question.

Did the hackers had physical access to the MacBook Pro?

You need to send this in.  The most reliable ways include reflashing or replacing the EFI chip and you can't get to the chip without removing the logic board.

My suggestion is to create a bootable flash drive with the macOS Sierra installer on it.

Boot from the flash drive.
Erase the internal harddisk.
Reinstall macOS Sierra.

Preparation:

You will need another Mac in other to create the bootable flash drive. So hopefully you have another Mac in your household, of family/friends household. Last resort is go to the local Apple store. They are willing to help.
Download macOS Sierra Installer from the Mac App Store. Once the download completes, it will automatically launch. Quit macOS Sierra Installer app without performing the installation.
Take a 16GB or larger USB flash drive to create a bootable Sierra installer. This flash drive is only needed for a clean install on your Mac’s startup drive.

How to create a bootable flash drive:

Create a bootable flash drive with macOS Sierra.

First, make sure your USB flash drive is formatted and named as “Untitled”.

To format a USB drive launch Disk Utility (Finder -> /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).
Select your USB drive under External.
Click the Erase tab at the top of the Disk Utility window. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the format list. Then, click the Erase button. When the process is complete, click Done, and close the Disk Utility window.
If your drive is named something else, you need to rename it (Open Finder -> right click on the USB drive and choose Rename).

Now, your USB flash drive is ready.

Launch Terminal (Finder/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)

Enter the following text into Terminal. It may be best to just copy it from here (try triple-clicking) and paste it in.
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --nointeraction

Hit the Enter key.

Terminal will ask you for an admin password (the one you use to log in). It won’t display characters when you type, so just do it. Hit Return. You’ll see that Terminal erases your drive. Then, Terminal will copy the installer file to your disk. This will take a few minutes. When the process is complete, the Terminal window will report "Done." You can quit Terminal and your bootable macOS Sierra installer USB drive is ready for use.

Plug in the bootable macOS Sierra installer USB drive to your Mac.
Restart your Mac while holding the Option key or Cmd+R. Make sure to keep it pressed!
When Mac restarts, you’ll see the macOS Startup Manager with a list of bootable devices that your Mac can start up from.
Use the arrow keys to choose your USB drive with macOS Sierra installer. Press Enter.
Select Disk Utility.
In the window, at the top of the left bar, select your Mac’s Main Drive (it looks like a MacintoshHD).
Select the Erase tab located next to the First Aid button at the top.
Near the center of the window, select the Format drop-down list and select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) type.
Click Erase (Note: this will erase all your data from your main drive!) and give the drive some time to format.
When it’s done, close Disk Utility and select “Install macOS” from the menu.
Select your main drive and install the new macOS Sierra 10.12.

How to go further..

Make regular backups. At least one onsite and preferably also one offsite.
Change all your girlfriends passwords. Probably your girlfriends iCloud password was the same as from another website. Where the hackers got it from. Either way, change all passwords! Use different once for every account.
Enable Two-factor Authentication for her Apple ID

I wonder if this actually works to bypass the EFI firmware lock that OP is talking about; after all, the EFI lock was designed to prevent from external booting.


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Shrink all images in pages document
I have a huge (filesize) pages document, which I suspect is due to all the images in it.
The images were copied from elsewhere and pasted in.
A lot of the images are original resolutions of 1080 minimum (in most cases higher)
However, in the new document they obviously don't need to be that large.
Is there a way for me to reduce the document's filesize by limiting the images' sizes?
I hope you can understand what I mean.
(I need to be able to convert this to a word document afterwards if that matters)

Preview can reduce the file size though you don't have much control over exactly what it does and how. For that you may need a purpose-built PDF editing tool, or Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro.
Open the file in preview and then go FILE > DUPLICATE. A new identical window will open. Now save the new file and from the Quartz Filter menu select CompressPDF. Give your document a different name or location and click save.
Depending on what is going on in your PDF you should get a smaller file. But again you will have better control over the process with one of Adobe's Acrobat products or one of the third party PDF tools available for the Mac.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Contacts.app won't sync iCloud contacts
Just upgraded to macOS 10.12.16. For some reason my iCloud contacts are empty. Contacts.app does not show anything.
I tried signing out of iCloud, deleting AddressBook caches and files in ~/Library/Application Support and then signing in again. Still, no Contact gets synced.
I can see all of my contacts via www.icloud.com and on my iPhone.
Can anyone help me?

I've been having this issue for a couple of months and fixed it by doing the following:

Quit Contacts.app
Delete all content of ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Remove Contact sync from iCloud preferences in System Settings
Wait couple of minutes, and re-enable Contacts sync
Open Contacts.app and wait. Everything appears, and now Contacts syncs properly both ways.

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


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Can I use Siri with these apps?
Could YouTube, Todoist, myEmail (fill in name app your looking for) be controlled/used with Siri?
Could a third party iOS app be controlled by Siri?

There's a general rule. If apple made it, it's probably integrated with Siri. For others... don't hold your breath.

Apple is opening up Siri for third party app developers. It's rolling out slowly in which areas Siri could be used. This to ensure the quality. Every iOS major release Apple adds categories where Siri could be used by third party apps.
Siri works in these categories
iOS 11:

To-do lists
Notes
Reminders
Banking for account transfers and balances
Apps that display QR codes.

iOS 10:

Audio or video calling
Messaging
Payments
Searching photos
Workouts
Ride booking

Recognising
You can recognise which apps support Siri by looking for the Siri icon in the App Store.

See this to answer your question for some of those apps specifically: https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi0-qew-4rWAhXDEpQKHd-4B74QtwIIKDAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2P4SMiNEG-g&usg=AFQjCNFxhaotIPY98mkivZp2n2KO5qS-wg


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Animate text in final cut pro: knocking previous text further from centre
How can I animate a sentence in final cut pro,
where each word in the sentence slides in from the right (violently), slamming into place in the middle of the screen, knocking the previous word further to the left (but not off the screen, it just stops when the new word stops.)
I hope that can help you understand what I'm going for, I can't find any examples of this effect even though I'm certain I've seen it before and often.

I think Motion might be the app to try for that - though I'm a complete newb on video, so someone else would have to deal with the specifics. Maybe https://video.stackexchange.com would be a better fit?

@Tetsujin I'm surprised Apple would force you to pay for a second app to complete a task like this. Thanks for the video.stackexchange.com suggestion, maybe this should be migrated?

We're in 'Pro App' territory - which means you pay for everything. Consumers won't pay much for stuff, pros will. ...& sure, flag to see if a mod can migrate it.

My guess is this would be closed as not “production grade” question - someone producing movies professionally would have in-depth experience in several tools to make animated text. This is very much on topic here so lets not migrate unless someone from a chat room / moderator of that site says they want this exact question.

The Apple tool for that job is Motion and it can make plug in for iMovie or just do the work you want. Adobe Premiere Pro probably does what you want, but instead of a one time $50 charge - that is $20 a month subscription. You do get a free trial of Premiere so you could make sure it would work for your project.
You could possibly find someone who already knows motion to make you a plug in or find one that works for your needs, but the general solution to making custom text animations is to use Motion or the Adobe CC suite tools for video

https://filmora.wondershare.com/imovie/top-5-imovie-plugins.html


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Disallow some websites from opening new tabs/windows
In Safari how can I stop certain websites from being allowed to open new tabs and windows?
On some ad-heavy sites I click anywhere on the page and it spawns two or more new tabs trying to sell me some scam.
Can I stop this from happening?

The best built-in defence for this is Safari Preferences → Security → Block pop-up windows. Other than this, you can use an adblock such as uBlock Origin.

The preference is already ticked.

I was using Wipr as my adblocker because it's so light and uses the content blocker to stop the ads from even being downloaded.

@theonlygusti I use AdBlock for the content blocker functionality too (network requests are still blocked even without content blocker support so ads aren't downloaded then anyway), but some more complex rules can't be expressed with content blocker rules


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Override wallpaper with VMware AirWatch Agent
I have a corporate MacBook Pro (2015), and it has VMware AirWatch Agent (2.3.3) installed.
I'm fine with that. It is their laptop and I still have Admin rights for my work.
Only thing is... they have locked my Wallpaper with something quite ugly and I can't change it in the normal way. This is literally the only setting I want to get around. Any idea how I could change it without uninstalling the agent?

Possible duplicate of Navigate to a folder called (0)

In general, the success rate of overriding MDM enforced configuration changes is very low. Pragmatically:

You can remove the management profile and then make changes as you see fit.
You can request your device be moved to a different group under air watch that relaxes that restriction.

There could be a bug you could exploit, but Apple and/or air watch would likely patch that since it would also likely be a noticeable failure.


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Is there a difference between a 'mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable' and a 'mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort' cable for a MacBook Pro?
I just bought a 4k monitor (AOC u2777pqu) for my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13 inch, Early 2015). The shop advised a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable, which gives me 4k resolution but when I tried it only provided a refresh rate of 30Hz.
The Apple support guide ( https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT206587 ) suggests that the Thunderbolt cable will allow this model to run 4k at 60Hz.
My question whether getting a 'pure DisplayPort' ( mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable - 4k certified) provide the 60Hz at 4k?

Officially, your model MacBook Pro will support up to 3840 by 2160 pixels at 30Hz or 4096 by 2160 pixels at 24Hz if using a HDMI connection, which explains your experience of 30Hz with your mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable.
Your model MacBook Pro also supports up to 3840 by 2160 pixels at 60Hz using a Thunderbolt connection. Since your display supports both a 60Hz refresh rate and a DisplayPort connection, then using a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable of sufficient quality should achieve what you want.

Yes, I concur that according to the documentation a 'pure DP' cable should achieve this. I was looking for confirmation that using a 'mini-dp to hdmi' would result in a refresh rate of 30hz, and a 'mini-dp to dp' cable would allow a refresh rate of 60hz.

I noticed that this related question, although using different hardware, strongly suggests @Monomeeth 's answer is correct: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/201720/macbook-pro-2015-15-with-asus-pb279q-4k-60hz?rq=1

I purchased a Mini-DP to DP (1.2) cable, and it is really a great picture at 60hz. Do not buy a mini-DP to HDMI adapter for 4k monitors!

That's great! And thanks for reporting back to share your experience! :)


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Navigate to a folder called (0)
VMWare AirWatch (an MDM managemt framework) locks my Desktop background picture (Override wallpaper with VMware AirWatch Agent)
I tried to find the existing picture with the following command in Sierra:
defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE;
killall Dock

and it showed me that the picture was in (0)/Library/Wallpaper.jpg
How can I access this folder with the intent to change this managed setting.

The defaults command either is intentionally lying to you or the security mechanism to obscure the true location of the file. Clearly (0) is an invalid file path and possibly some sort of variable substitution. My guess is some machine generated temporary folder (like echo $TMPDIR) - perhaps restricted by SIP or other protections is in play, but the presumption here might be false that you can simply navigate to a folder to change your desktop file.

The (0) is not part of the path. I'm not sure what it is, to be honest
I tried that terminal command and for me it says:
Screen 1 (space 1):
(14)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7658.jpg
Screen 2 (space 1):
(19)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7658.jpg
Screen 1 (space 2):
(3)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7408.jpg
Screen 2 (space 2):
(9)/Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/uDNature7408.jpg
etc....

When I navigate to the path ignoring the parenthesis and the number, I get to the folder with the wallpaper, which in my case is: /Users/joonaspaakko/Documents/uDesktop NEXT Library/Catalog/
So based on that I would say your wallpaper is in /Library/. You can get there easily with the Go to Folder..., but in case you are not aware, that is the global Library folder you can find, if you go to Machintosh HD

This really isn’t about navigating to a folder since the OP is assuming they can simply change a file to get out of a managed setting. Your answer would work if the OP simply deletes the profile that keeps the Mac under management. However, it’s also overkill. Once MDM is removed, they can set any background they please from system preferences.

@bmike, I was pretty sure that was what this question was about. What is this question about then?

See here - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/298066/override-wallpaper-with-vmware-airwatch-agent

@bmike, not to be incredibly pedantic, but that is a different question though. I get your point now, but this question to me is definitely asking how to navigate to this current wallpaper folder, which he believes to be (0)/Library/ and my answer explains that it's actually /Library/. What he intents to do in that folder is irrelevant to this question.

To be clear - the problem is with the phrasing of the question - not with your attempt to clarify / answer / help. See my comment on the question. Your answer could be summarized as (0) is not a valid path - fix your query to get the correct path or use a tool like spotlight or find or locate and hope that the true location of that file is indexed or searchable.

@joonas : I'm now also believing that '(0)' is not a valid path, and quite possibly it just isn't possible to navigate there at all. Still I'd be interested to know at least what it is (e.g. encrypted folder)

@Andrew actually, I thought I demonstrated in my answer that the number + parenthesis is not part of the path at all. I think it's an index number of some kind, not that it matters. Just ignore it and try the /Library/ path.

@Joonas - as far as I am aware, your position is what I was agreeing with. However the path definitely does not lead to my User's 'Library' folder, so now I am just curious as to where exactly it is pointing (even if I have no hope of accessing that location).

@Andrew, I feel like you missed the key points of what I've said so far. In my answer I said  I found out that if I remove the parenthesis and the number from the front, the path leads to the wallpaper, yet you still commented about how you think it's not possible to navigate to (0). Yes, it isn't possible, because it's not part of the path at all. At the bottom of the answer I say the path is /Library/ and not the user library folder ~/Library/, as those can be easy to mix. Please try to use the Go to folder... command and put in /Library/ and you should find the wallpaper there.

Its not necessary for the file to be in the user account library, in fact if the intent of the software was that all users shall have the same desktop image, /Library would be a usable place to put it. It isn't recommended for apps to put things directly in /Library, and the app probably wouldn't pass review for placement in the app store.

@Joonas - that is now clear. I was confused between ~/Library/ and /Library/ . I was able to navigate right there with the Finder 'Go' command. I was even able to take a new image, rename it it to the old Wallpaper name, replace the old wallpaper file, reset the dock, and now it shows the new Desktop image fine.

@Andrew good. Glad you got that sorted.

~/Library maybe?
Finder -> Go -> Go to folder...

Unfortunately not. ~/Library will take me to my current User Library folder. The (0) folder is a mysterious hidden folder that I haven't been able to find any reference to yet...


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iOS 11 Takes Tons of Storage
Storage shows that System takes about 12 Gb of storage.
Anyone else have System taking up 12 GB after installing, and know how to fix it?
Edit: storage taken up by system keeps rising. Reaching 13 GB.

iPhone SE.
  Restart didn't help.

I have the same issue on my phone. Unfortunately, I cannot update to the latest update, because even after deleting all of my apps, I still don't have enough space. I don't know the solution to this problem, but at least you know it's not only you.

@JosephL ,  Pls Try this , Settings-> Safari-> "Clear history and Website Data" then reboot your device

Since you have pother breakage - news app, I would say you likely just got a bad build / beta issue and a clean wipe will make you much happier.

Pretty simple triage - the “system” either now contains an iOS update cached or a lot of user data, but you can convince yourself:

Backup the device
Erase all content and settings

Measure the space. If you feel it’s still taking a lot of space, put the device in recovery mode and restore it.
Once you’re OK with the space usage of the bare system, erase one more time and restore from your backup of choice or just sign in and set it up new if you want to start fresh.


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Can't open News app after changing region/country
After changing region/country, News can't be opened.
App Store shows installed, with "Open" button next to the App.
Tapping on it does nothing.
Asking Siri to open it, Siri says "can't right now".
I'm using an iPhone SE and the storage is not full.
The widget shows. Tapping on articles (in widget) opens Safari.
Anyone else had this, and solved it?

Sure, go for it! I was mainly editing the post to make the image a little smaller and also wanted to expand the title a little to make it clearer what was going on, and just went off the existing content in the question, but feel free to edit with that instead! It's an interesting question especially given how confusing I can imagine that situation being with a clear open button not working at all

News App has been limited to specific countries.
You can change your country under Settings > General > Language & Region > Region to keep using News, if your country no longer has access to it otherwise.

Note: you can always use the App's widget in other countries.

More:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202329 (Apple's page about News)
https://www.imore.com/how-get-apple-news-uk-australia-canada-and-more (an article explaining how to change your country in Settings)

About the best troubleshooting for an installed app is:

put device in Airplane mode
power off device
power on device
try app
if it fails - open up settings and be sure you have 1 GB of free space and restart again in Airplane mode
if things still fail - consider enabling networking and check for updates.

Barring that - you can either delete the app and reinstall it or consider making a backup and erasing all content and settings. Then try a vanilla device with no iCloud, no personalization.

Not to open the app and tell you there’s no internet connection. I’ll buy your phone if it’s broken so that only news doesn’t work. ; - )

Fingers crossed it’s an easy bug fix and you’re on to loving the new features, bells and whistles.

Erase and restore didn't work? That would mean it's simply a bug and you might have to go back to iOS 10 or wait for a fix, @user770

The News app cant handle a region change, which is what it uses to decide what feeds can be accessed. After changing region in settings even if you can launch the app most feeds will say “this feed is not available in your region”. The solution is to uninstall the News app and then install it again from the App Store. This process clears out its preferences and allows it to work in the new region. Works on iOS 12.

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


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Safari Networking is using all my memory

Safari Networking is using more memory than I even have on my computer (only 16 GB RAM).
This process, Safari Networking, seems to be constantly rising in memory usage. From the time I opened stack exchange to the time I took the screenshot it had raised from 15.48 to 19.03 GB, and as I am writing this it is at 20.41 GB.
Also, it has the highest CPU usage, of about 90% (kernel_task is similar here).
What's going on and how can I "fix" this? (Does it need fixing?)

What happens after a relaunch/reboot? Does it require you to open a specific web page before it takes off? I checked mine... currently 134 MB with over 40 open tabs & 7 days uptime.


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Can I receive calls only from a set of approved phone numbers?
How can I receive calls only from a set of approved phone numbers?

One way you could do this is to use the iPhone's Do Not Disturb feature.
More specifically:

Launch Settings
Tap on Do Not Disturb
Enable the Manual option at the top
Tap on the Allow Calls From field
Select the group1of people you want to receive calls from
Go back to the previous screen
Tap on the Always option near the bottom of the screen
Exit Settings

1 You may need to create a particular group for the people you want to allow calls from. To do this you will need to use your computer or a 3rd party app. Another option would be to ensure you don't have anyone in your contacts who you don't want to receive calls from. In this case you would then select All Contacts as the Group at Step 5.


text:
How can I monitor usage of an iPad that is probably stolen?
Someone may have stolen my iPad mini 2, or I've misplaced it. Checked on find my iPhone, and it shows up, but it stalls on "locating..." So, now I'm thinking how can I show use of the iPad via all the synced apps I have? It has cellular, and I can see data usage via my ISP, and it only shows my last known usage, nothing recent. I'm looking for a meta data solution to prove current use. If I can prove current use, then I know who has it. If it's just lost or misplaced with a dead battery or something, then nothing will show up.

The iPad shows up because you registered it. The Locating... message indicates it is not communicating by either Wifi or cell. Did you turn on Remote Erase and Activation Lock? If the battery is dead, its not going to communicate with the Find My iDevice services at all. Your other ideas, although they may have merit, don't make sense if the iPad is not connected.

@IconDaemon, I'm just looking for like something akin to a dyndns-updater type of solution. You know, like a log of device specific usage from automatically updating apps or something.

If the isp has no data, you aren’t likely to get any better alternate than Apple lost mode / find my iPhone and pings from the cellular network.
If you truly think it’s stolen, consider filing a police report and send that to the carrier and ask for any pings.
Your reasoning is sound about the battery dead situation. In a few days, you’ll likely never hear again until someone powers it up or charges it near WiFi or cellular coverage.

Yeah, I have it on "notify when found," so we'll see.

Not that it matters, but I found it, so word to the wise, carseat.


text:
What more could I have done to secure my iPhone and iPad?
I recently travelled to China for work. To my surprise our IT department confiscated my iPhone and iPad saying they could not secure the data or communications on my devices against prying eyes.
When I complained saying I would leave them in Airplane mode and remove the SIM cards they said that wouldn't be enough to secure my data on these devices. Instead they gave me a mobile phone for the duration of the trip that was not a smartphone. It had no data connection per se, a physical numeric keypad, no touch screen or apps.
I want to know why putting my devices in Airplane mode and removing the SIM cards is not enough to secure my data from prying eyes? The IT department wouldn't answer that question!
I also want to know what else I could have done to secure the data on my iPhone and iPad, or is there no way to properly secure data on these devices?
I go through phases of being rather paranoid, so that's the reason for wanting clarity on this. It's also one of the reasons I use Apple products, but this experience has got me spooked.
Both devices are running iOS 10.3.3.

Airgaps don't protect against people physically taking your iPad/iPhone.

@patrix Thankyou. I have better explained my question.

It really depends on what you're protecting, and what you're protecting it against. If you're worried about some phone thief grabbing your family photos, securing the devices is really easy. If you're worried about protecting classified info from the Chinese government, securing them adequately is really really hard.
Turning on airplane mode and removing the SIMs will do a good job of securing them against network attack and/or snooping, but there's still the issue of someone getting physical and/or visual access to the device(s). There are some things you can do to harden them, mostly having to do with passcode security:

Set a secure (complex) passcode. Without a passcode, your devices are open to anyone with physical access to them. With a basic (4-digit) passcode, you have reasonable protection. A 6-digit passcode is better, and a custom (longer) passcode (numeric or alpha) is even better.

Set the devices up to require that passcode. In Settings > Touch ID & Passcode, set it to require passcode immediately, erase data after 10 failed attempts (you should make a backup, but leave it at home), then switch off Voice Dial and all of the Allow Access When Locked options.
I'd also turn off Touch ID. It avoids the possibility of someone spying on you entering your passcode, but if you're serious about security there's too many ways for someone to get & fake your fingerprint. Troy Hunt discusses some of the tradeoffs here.

Also, in Settings > Display & Brightness, turn on Auto-Lock after 1 minute.

Oh, and don't jailbreak your devices. If you've broken the iOS security model, don't expect it to remain intact against others.

So with the above (and turning off all network connections), your devices are pretty well locked down. But are they secure enough? As I said at the beginning, it really depends on the value of what you're protecting, the capabilities of whoever you're protecting it against, and how much they're willing to do to get your data. Can they compel to you to unlock the devices? Can they spy on you as you enter your passcode? Can they swap your devices for fakes that just capture the passcode you enter, and then use that to unlock the real devices? Can they confiscate the devices and then wait to see if a vulnerability is eventually discovered that'll let them unlock the devices? Is it possible they know of a non-public vulnerability? If the answer to any of those questions was "yes" (or even "maybe"), your devices aren't secure enough.
But there's another aspect to consider: from the point of view of your IT department, it may simply not be worth the trouble to work out the detailed risk & threat assessment, make sure they haven't forgotten any necessary steps to secure the devices (did I forget anything above? Maybe, maybe not), etc. From their point of view it's much easier and much safer to just say "no, don't take them".


text:
Command-line stop MacBook from sleeping when lid is closed?
I've used Caffeine before and it can stop my MacBook from sleeping when the lid is closed (sometimes I want to continue listening to something through headphones while moving around)
Is there a command that can be run from the terminal that will do the same thing?
I've tried caffeinate but it does nothing. InsomniaX does stop the MacBook from sleeping when the lid is closed, is there a way to implement this same functionality from the terminal though?

Disable Sleeping when the lid is closed running on battery
sudo pmset -b sleep 0; sudo pmset -b disablesleep 1
Re-enable sleeping when the lid is closed running on battery
sudo pmset -b sleep 5; sudo pmset -b disablesleep 0
Remember to re-enable or manually sleep your machine before putting it into a bag.
It will get very hot very quickly in an enclosed space.

What is the purpose of sudo pmset -b sleep 0 and sudo pmset -b sleep 5 before the sleep disabling/enabling commands?

I can't find any mention of disablesleep in man pmset on macOS Monterey, why is that?

No. Only setting up closed clamshell conditions will prevent sleep when the proximity sensor indicates the lid is closed.

How to keep MacBook awake with lid closed + extended display?
Is it possible to continue using an to external monitor when closing the lid on a Macbook Air?

Short of finding a way to modify the firmware or unload / set some hidden arguments to disable sleep, the most viable solution might be hoping that power nap “dark wakes@ allow you to get whatever actions done while “sleep” conditions are present.

How does Caffeine/InsomniaX do it?

@theonlygusti -  InsomniaX doesn't seem to be working since El Cap. and newer and as far as I know Caffeine never worked with the lid (it also doesn't work now)

@Allan InsomniaX still works perfectly for me, I just tried after seeing this answer that claimed it worked. However, InsomniaX is not a perfect solution for me, I'd much rather have a way to do this from the command line without needing to install an entire application.

Instead of writing shell commands on terminal every time create a bash script.
#!/bin/bash
sleepvar="$(pmset -g | grep SleepDisabled)"
sleepval="$(grep -c 0 <<< $sleepvar)"
if [ "$sleepval" -eq 1 ];
    then
        sudo pmset -b sleep 0; sudo pmset -b disablesleep 1
        #echo "SleepDisabled set to 0, setting to 1 i.e. Disabling sleep"
    else
        sudo pmset -b sleep 1; sudo pmset -b disablesleep 0
        #echo "SleepDisabled set to 1, setting to 0 i.e. Enabling sleep"
fi

save it as <filename>.command , give it execution permissions using sudo chmod +x <filename>.command
after execution, use cmd+q to close the terminal,
or to close automatically:
open terminal-> open "Terminal" menu -> Settings-> Shell -> open "when the shell exits" dropdown -> choose "close if the shell exited cleanly"
or you can alternatively create AppleScript Application for a more UI friendly experience,
I have posted the steps here.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/462512/501809

That’s just an AppleScript wrapper for shell commands.  You can put a shell script (or link to it) on your desktop and double click that the same way.

@Allan yes it is shell script , i tried what you are suggesting and after failing to run sudo commands, i later moved to Applescript wrapper. Applescript application makes it convenient to input your password.

sudo will stop execution and wait for a password.  To make it seamless , you modify the sudoers to allow that command to run with no password.  It’s accomplished with 1/10th the code.

@Allan Thanks for making me aware about sudoers file.
Surely one can put the efforts in modifying the sudoers file and get rid of 3 extra lines to create Applescript wrapper around the shell script , although 1/10th of the code seems and exaggeration.

pmset -g | grep SleepDisabled doesn't return anything on my MBA?

@nohillside strange! it works for my MBA(M1).


text:
How do I download photos from icloud photo library onto my PC?
My iCloud storage has run out. I want to transfer all photos/videos to my windows laptop, but when I log in to my iCloud account online cannot view any photos or videos in order to download. I also don't know if I can now turn off iCloud photo library without losing files, as I don't have sufficient phone storage (at least until I can download these photos/videos and delete them!)


text:
ipad wont leave the charging icon
Today I wanted to check my social media, but it didn't work. Then I saw the charging icon and it said it was charging, even tho it was unplugged. I tried turning off my ipad, but my ipad didn't allow me to do it. So I decided to restart it from the settings and now it just stuck with the apple logo it's not finishing restarting. What's happening?

hold power+home button simultaneously till the screen turns off (reset).
maybe try restoring your iPad through iTunes to an older backup.iOS Version?it might be a bug with iOS 11.


text:
Mac OS Sierra E-Mail Exchange
I would like to setup Mac OS mail to use exchange mail server. However after adding my e-mail and password the next prompt wants me to enter local and remote proxy server address. Question is how do I get around this and simply get the prompt to enter the server address? For on iOS I could simply add the server address and connect to the exchange server to get access to mails, no proxy settings asked for.

You may want to give us the version of macOS and the version of the Exchange server. Also the steps you take to do this. Using the email account setup in Sierra connecting to an Exchange 2013 server it just asked for name, email and password and nothing else.

Its the latest version of sierra and exchange. I just click on create account-> exchange

Then you may have a network setup that involves proxies and mail and/or Exchange has detected that and wan'ts the info. If this is an Exchange server controlled by your work's IT department you are going to have to get with them, if it is not you will have to talk with whoever supports the Exchange server you are trying to use.


text:
Can I upgrade a previously purchased iPhone under the iPhone Upgrade Program?
I bought an iPhone 6s Plus from Apple a couple of years ago. Can I enroll in the iPhone Upgrade Program and upgrade it to an iPhone 8/X?

Hi Ali, and welcome to Ask Different! Your question isn't really clear about what you're asking. Could you please update it with more details, like what you mean by upgrade? Thanks!

@Jackson1442 I meant the apple upgrade program

Apple offers trade in for any phone you own outright. You have to pay monthly as part of an upgrade plan to get started, so unless you are paying Apple or the financing arranged through apple, you aren't part of the upgrade program which lets you get a new phone after 12 monthly payments.
You can easily check though - https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "upgrade" and what exact transaction you started a couple of years ago.

Better off selling your old device and using the money you get back for the new phone. Apple's trade in price very low

I paid in cash two years ago and i find website advertised by apple it estimated it for 190£ for good condition,  which i'd rather keep it than sell it for that price, as it's condition still as new and spec is equally to iphone 8 plus. I bought it for 700£ + 109 apple care


text:
Requirements difference between Yosemite and Sierra
I have a late-2009 iMac which seems to have held up pretty well, especially since upgrading the RAM to 12GB.
I only fairly recently updated the OS to Yosemite after running Lion for so many years.
The OS update my have made my Mac a little slower, but if so then not by a great deal. But I could probably do with updating again — to Sierra — as certain programs require a more recent OS than what I have.
I am a bit concerned that running Sierra will put too much of a strain on my machine... or are the requirements not a whole lot different to any other versions of OS X over the last 5 years or so?

You upgraded the RAM, did you upgrade to an SSD?  Relevant answer:  https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/229372/my-mac-is-getting-really-slow-what-should-i-do/229377#229377

Here are the general requirements as specified by Apple:
OS X Yosemite

OS X Yosemite - Technical Specifications
General Requirements OS X
v10.6.8 or later
2GB of memory
8GB of available storage
Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Some features require a compatible
Internet service provider; fees may apply.

macOS Sierra

MacOS Sierra - Technical Specifications
General Requirements
OS X 10.7.5 or later
2GB of memory
8.8GB of available storage
Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.


text:
How do I turn off driving warnings?
Since I updated to iOS 11 it's been warning me about using the phone while driving. I'm not driving. I'm on public transportation. How do I turn off the warning?

No kidding, this warning is driving me crazy!  I'm looking for a way to silence them myself.

This is how it's designed - you need to override it each time the device detects a potential driving situation.
You need to turn the feature off manually one by one or once systematically to disable the checks and warnings.
How to disable automatic Do Not Disturb While Driving
By default in iOS 11, the feature is set to switch on automatically in the background. If you're almost always the driver, and rarely a passenger, you can leave it like this.
When it activates you get a permanent notification show up on your lock screen indicating that it is doing its thing. If you're driving, leave it alone. If you're a passenger, you can long-press on the lock screen notification and choose to deactivate it.
If you're almost always the passenger and rarely the driver, you can stop it coming on automatically by heading to Settings > Do Not Disturb then scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap on the "Activate" option. Here you can choose the "Manually" option so that it never comes on by itself.
Once you have chosen the manual activation, you can add a control to Control Centre by going to Settings > Control Centre > Customise Control Centre and adding the Do Not Disturb While Driving control. Now you just need to swipe up to reveal Control Centre and tap the little car icon to activate it.
From: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/142217-how-to-disable-or-customise-do-not-disturb-while-driving-in-ios-11


text:
Using iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s plus attachments with an iPhone 5/iPhone 5s/iPhone SE
There are some nice lens attachments for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s plus chassis. Are there adapters or cases that will permit the iPhone5/iPhone 5s/iPhone SE chassis to make use of these attachments?
To be very clear:

By "adapter" I mean plastic or foam jiggy-bits that would fit, alongside the iPhone 5/iPhone SE inside an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s plus case.
By "cases" I mean an external covering into which the phone fits.

Even if there were, the optics wouldn't match.

@Tetsujin The optics in question are adjustable.

Adjustable how? Any lens needs to 'know' the actual distance to sensor, i.e., the focal plane, otherwise it will either mis-focus or be unable to reach infinity.

That's right @Tetsujin, the lens actually has a mechanism to adjust that distance. At any rate, your comments are veering away from my question.


text:
How do I sell an unopened Macbook Pro?
My old MBP broke, which Apple replaced for me. By the time they decided to replace it, I had bought another laptop.
I want to sell the unopened MBP that Apple gave me.
Is there anything I need to be aware of when selling the MBP to something?
For example, is it possible the MBP has been registered with my existing Apple ID, and that I have to unregister it? How do I check?
Also, when advertising the MBP, is it safe to tell potential buyers the serial number?

good luck checking it without opening it...

I'd never buy any device from a private seller without the serial number! What does it show at https://checkcoverage.apple.com/ for the serial number of that device. Also just because it's sealed, doesn't mean it's factory sealed, as shrink wrapping can easily be done at home. Additionally the device may not actually be new but refurbished.

Is it still shrink wrapped?  Do you have the original box?  Then the SN# will be on the box label.  You can check to see if that's associated with your AppleID

Personally, I would feel odd buying a laptop from a third-party that is still in the (purportedly) original shrink-wrap. I would take the MBP out of the box, power it up and see that it's fully functional, and then advertise it as "barely used" and "like new." And yes, you need to provide the serial number.

Fair point. I had planned to open the MBP with the buyer upon purchaser to check/demonstrate it working before receiving the money.
Also, good to know that providing the serial number is safe. I will do it. Thanks.


text:
iMac boots up at 9:30AM every day
I don’t know why this is happening? In order to solve this problem, I have to turn of the power strip, which sometimes I can’t.
It keeps waking me up whenever it does.

It thinks you should be up by then :)

No, seriously has the auto start been set ? Or wake on network activity - in the system preferences...

Re ^ System Prefs > Energy Saver > Schedule

@Tetsujin, it was on the schedule, which I assumed it was because what other thing would that be. I did not set this so that is the strange thing. Thanks! Create an answer and I will mark it as correct.

It was @SolarMike who posted the idea first - I just pointed out where the setting was. If he wants to pick it up & post as an answer, that would seem only fair.

Cheers guys - glad you are sorted anyway.

Has the auto start been set ? Or wake on network activity - in the system preferences...
As the comment from Tetsujin , system preferences - energy saver - schedule ..


text:
df -h command in Terminal shows wrong amount of disk space
I recently ran df -h on my Mac using Terminal. I was surprised to find that it shows my internal volume can store 112 GB, but it can actually store 120 GB.
So I can't understand why this happens and should I worry about.
The Size column shows as 112 GB.

I edited my question because I have a feeling that how can my disk space turn from 116gb to 112gb       .PS.I don't know if my disk space was 116GB before but today it shows 112GB disk space.

112 Gi(B) = 120 GB! GiB to GB Conversion

Apple measures gigabytes as 1,000,000,000 bytes (in the decimal system) for advertising purposes whereas dh properly uses binary, converted to decimal, which means it's actually 1,073,741,824 bytes.
If you take 120,000,000,000 (Apple's advertised capacity) and divide it by 1,073,741,824 you get 111.75 GB when properly measured in binary.
If you visit:
https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
and scroll ALL the way to the bottom of the page, you can see footnote #1:
1. 1GB = 1 billion bytes and 1TB = 1 trillion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.

There's no need to worry.
The actual available space on the drive after formatting is always less than the advertised space of the drive itself. This is the case across file systems and operating systems, no matter if you're using macOS, Windows or Linux.
The fact that you're seeing different numbers at different times indicate that you're looking at the Avail column, which tells you how much free space you have. This number will change over time as you add and remove files and data from the drive. The Mac will do this without you knowingly saving/deleting files - for example due to swap space. Therefore no reason for alarm.

Yeah but the size column is 112GI not the avail column

Super, this is to be expected if you have a 120 GB drive.


text:
Getting Mac to ask for disk encryption password
Sometime in the past if I turned off the power to my Macbook Pro, when I started it up it would ask for a disk password. After that it would load the OS and ask me to select a user to login.
Now when I boot from power it no longer asks for a disk password. It goes straight to asking for a user. FileVault is still on.
How do I get it to ask for a disk password again? I don't want any user to be able to unlock it. I only want myself to be able to unlock the disk. All other users should only be able to use the machine if I've unlocked the disk first.

The proper tool to add or remove FileVault users is fdesetup.
Open Terminal and enter sudo fdesetup list -extended to get a synopsis.
To remove a user by UUID or user name use:
sudo fdesetup remove -uuid <UUID>
sudo fdesetup remove -user <username>

All users removed won't be able to log-in with their passwords at the first password prompt because they aren't listed anymore. The user still exists as OS user though. To login as such a user either has to use fast user switching or log out as FileVault enabled user and log in with the non-FileVault-enabled user.
To reenable FileVault disabled users either use sudo fdesetup add -usertoadd <username> or open System Preferences > Security > FileVault > hit the "Enable Users..." button and enable a listed user.


text:
Is it safe to remove APFS containers?
I have upgraded my Mac to High Sierra. So I was just looking at the features when I saw APFS container in Disk Utility. I googled it and found out that it is used for multiple logical drives but I thought I don't require it so is it safe to delete the containers?
PS. I would also like to know the other features of APFS containers.
Output of diskutil apfs list:
APFS Container (1 found)
|
+-< Container disk1 2EE47F12-9699-433D-AECF-167CB27FDDF0
    ====================================================
    APFS Container Reference:     disk1
    Capacity Ceiling (Size):      121123069952 B (121.1 GB)
    Capacity In Use By Volumes:   39590055936 B (39.6 GB) (32.7% used)
    Capacity Available:           81533014016 B (81.5 GB) (67.3% free)
    |
    +-< Physical Store disk0s2 7E9192B8-7976-4CBF-AE7C-C7B9D5E49F65
    |   -----------------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk0s2
    |   Size:                       121123069952 B (121.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s1 578EF44C-A052-3F3F-BBE4-B254D82C57F2
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s1 (No specific role)
    |   Name:                      Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               /
    |   Capacity Consumed:         37848293376 B (37.8 GB)
    |   Encrypted:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s2 2DC1D14B-7E91-4F17-83CE-40E5435303FE
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s2 (Preboot)
    |   Name:                      Preboot (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         21651456 B (21.7 MB)
    |   Encrypted:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s3 3C4A7A25-7E07-48EC-B942-4DA9007D1538
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s3 (Recovery)
    |   Name:                      Recovery (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         519995392 B (520.0 MB)
    |   Encrypted:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s4 57093D4B-CDF1-4286-BC5C-6ED2DB620DD1
        ---------------------------------------------------
        APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s4 (VM)
        Name:                      VM (Case-insensitive)
        Mount Point:               /private/var/vm
        Capacity Consumed:         1073762304 B (1.1 GB)
        Encrypted:                 No

If you accept Jon C's answer, then your question is wrong! Then it's also "safe" to execute sudo rm -rf /.

Yeah thanks @klanomath I had blindly accepted all the answers. I always do that when the answer is too big and boring.

It's not safe to remove your container - but it shouldn't work anyway.
The container disk1 with the physical base disk0s2 contains your boot partition (disk1s1), the recovery partition (disk1s3), a partition with the virtual memory file(s) (disk1s4) and the preboot partition (disk1s2).

Thanks your your answer @klanomath I also found a sleep image in /private/var/vm

TL;DR: To do a perfect clean wipe and reinstall in APFS now you need the terminal in recovery in addition to Disk Utility. It has to do with the container which is the new base volume scheme in APFS.
For your information, I upgraded my 2017 MBP to High Sierra since beta 9, and decided to clean wipe and reinstall immediately afterwards (makes me feel better reassured with all the APFS conversion). I checked the output
diskutil apfs list

both before and after, and realized how my recovery volume inside the new APFS container has grown in size from ~500 MB to 1.1 GB.
Not letting that go, I did another clean install when the GM candidate arrived and sure enough the recovery has grown by another ~500 MB to 1.6GB. Not that this is likely going to happen to you but disk space is still disk space - Macintosh HD actually shrinks even under the shared volume scheme. With the arithmetic progression I'm pretty sure the recovery volume is not being overwritten but rather added upon every clean install.
After some time figuring how some of the things now work in APFS I found the caveat. When I wipe my disk through Disk Utility within recovery I can only wipe the Macintosh HD volume that sits within the
Container disk1

but not the container or the disk itself like we've been doing pre-APFS. Even when you show all volumes in Disk Utility you'll get an error message if you do that. So the other 3 volumes (Preboot, Recovery, VM) are untouched - I was just doing a somewhat "unclean wipe".
The workaround is, with APFS now we have to open up terminal under utilities in recovery, then do
diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk0s2

assuming your container is linked there. Now it will create a single empty volume named "Untitled" under your physical disk media as shown in Disk Utility.
We're not done yet - you have to go to that disk, e.g. "APPLE SSD...", then click erase in APFS format named Macintosh HD (or any name you wish), in order to set up the correct APFS container structure ready for you to install the OS back in place. The other 3 volumes sharing the container will not be there yet, but fear not, they will be automatically created when you install the OS.

Watch out with this. When I did run this command diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk0s2, I got an flashing question mark on startup (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204323), so know what you are doing. Don't be me.

Wrong! Container disk1. No Container disk0s2. In Terminal: diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk1


text:
How to make force-click in finder show info on item?
How can I change the action of the force click in finder from preview (which I find useless most of the time) to Get Info (which I use very frequently)?

You could try bettertouchtool to change that, but by default the action cannot be changed.

You can use BetterTouchTool to map a 2 1 finger Force Click to open Get Info. It's not possible to remap a single finger Force Click with BetterTouchTool. With BetterTouchTool 2.317c, it is now possible to remap a single finger Force Click.

Add Finder as an application so the gesture only takes effect in Finder.
Under Trackpads, add a new gesture of ‘2 1 Finger Force Click’ and choose the predefined action ‘Left Click’.
Choose ‘Attach Additional Action’ and enter the custom keyboard shortcut ⌘I.

Do you have a source for "It's not possible to remap a single finger Force Click"?

@the I've added a link, in this case the automatic left click wouldn't be a problem as the first action is a left click anyway, but so far that gesture hasn't been made available in the app.

@the Remapping single finger Force Click has now been added to the app today!


text:
OS X 10.6.8 App Store "Get" Button Does Nothing
I am trying update to El Capitan using the App Store. I am logged in and my Mac meets the requirements, but when I click "Get" nothing happens. Just goes dark blue and nothing else after that.
What can I do? I've tried with other user accounts, tried re-installing OS X from the disk, but I still have the issue.

Help please, running low on time.

@rogerdpack answered this in a comment at Mac OS X 10.6.8 App Store not working:
To get around this problem, manually go to "software update", install all available updates, reboot, and then the app store GET button should work again.
If this still fails, try to reboot again, and/or to log in to the App Store before clicking the GET button.

I had this same problem. I installed 10.6.3 on an old iMac late 2006 a1207 which can only go up to 10.7.5 Lion.
After installing Snow Leopard 10.6.3 with the disk I was unable to update the software through the updater in OS X. I would get stuck during restart with only a mouse. Also, once I did manage to update to 10.6.8 (where the App Store comes available), I was unable to click the download button in the App Store since it would not do anything.
These are the steps in order that I followed to update Snow Leopard to a state where I was able to download Lion from the App Store thereby enabling myself to install that and create the recovery partition:

Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1
Download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update v.1.1
Update software through the OS X updater (click the Apple logo left hand upper screen > Software Update...)

And yes, this sounds weird since both those updates have been posted by Apple on the same day and should (I suspect) contain the same updates.
The first update gave me access to the App Store but then I got the problem with not being able to click the download button.
The second update fixed my issue with my updates getting stuck so then as a third step I was able to update the software through the OS X updater.
After the third step I was also able to click the download button in the App Store.
That is how I finally managed to download Lion from the App Store and install that together with the recovery partition (which comes with Lion) on my mac. Old Macs are definitely a hobby considering the amount of time they take ;).
NOTE: While Mountain Lion as higher will be available for download in the App Store, for Lion you must have bought a copy from Apple https://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion.
NOTE: While you are at it, it might be worthwhile to download all previous OS X version you can from the App Store and burn them on a dual layer dvd or create bootable usb sticks since after updating to Mojave 10.14.x you won't have access to those downloads anymore through the App Store (only through the recovery partition of a Mac and also then you may only download the version currently present on the machine and upgrade from there). So no more downgrading without physical installers/cd's.

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


text:
Recovering "Damaged" Files on External USB Drive: GUID, HFS (can not open files)
I had some files on an old thumb-drive, and recently I was going through and discovered that all/most of the files were no longer readable by any of my macs. I seam to remember having similar problems like this while back, and finding an apparent link to my choice of format, so I ran diskutil list in terminal:
/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *134.2 GB   disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS my-old-files            133.9 GB   disk3s2

And I tried ls -l
total 3858320
-rw-r--r--@  1 kipbits  staff     3430100 Nov 21  2016 2015-12-24.pdf
drwxr-xr-x   8 kipbits  staff         272 Sep 26  2016 2016-sep-14-files
-rw-r--r--   1 kipbits  staff    25642888 May 18  2015 myold.mp4
-rw-r--r--@  1 kipbits  staff         884 Jul 31 20:20 someold.txt
-rw-r--r--@  1 kipbits  staff  1320157184 Sep 21  2016 someold.iso
drwxr-xr-x   4 kipbits  staff         136 Sep 27 16:23 anotherdir
-rw-r--r--@  1 kipbits  staff   626214959 Nov  5  2016 someold.mp4
drwxr-xr-x  14 kipbits  staff         476 Nov  2  2016 sept2016files

I think this looks normal?
The problem is, I'm not able to open any of my files. I get the following errors:
pdf:
**The file “some-old.pdf” could not be opened.**
It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize.

txt:
800 byte files are blank
rtf:
**The document “some-old.rtf” could not be opened.**

mp4:
**QuickTime Player can't open "some-old.mp4".**
To see if additional software is available that will enable QuickTime Player to open the movie, click Tell Me More.

dmg, iso:
will mount but did not test further
pkg:
**The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.installer.pagecontroller error -1.)**
Couldn't open "some-old.pkg"

I found a thread on apple saying "The partition map type doesn't really make any difference for non bootable volumes", although  i don't get any of these problems when using Master Boot Record & ExFAT.
None of the files are more than a couple years old, so i don't think there should be any compatibility issues, and none of the files were corrupted when I copied them to the drive. I have had this same problem with other drives, and they were perfectly usable after reformatting, although this involved erasing files.
My question is: Is there a way to recover my files? The file-sizes still display that the files are there. Is there a way to save these files and make them readable?
...Also, if it makes any difference, I am using El Capitan(for dev purposes)

Update------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(04/Oct/2017)

I did a hexdump for some of the files in question. my output was something like this:
 0000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
*
 0000370 00 00 00 00
 0000374

what does this mean? do you think a recovery app could even help me here?
here are some threads that are perhaps related:
...Also could this possibly be related to SIP? I first noticed this problem around when i first upgraded to El Capitan.
Or perhaps there is something else going on? I have recently been experimenting with windows and various forms of linux, and have been moving files around with thumb drives. Perhaps I plugged one in to the wrong computer and corrupted all the files?
Whatever the cause, I'm wondering if the files might still be recoverable? Is hexdump a good way to diagnose recoverability? Would buying a recover app just be a waste of $100?

Partition table type ≠ file system 2. Catalog file entry ≠ file on disk 3. Flash cell data retention? - What do you expect us to answer except: get a recovery app (one example of several q&a here) and  try a disk content based  (not catalog based!) data recovery or search and attach your backup drive.

I would first try Disk Utility. You will find it in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. In the left pane, select your disk, and at the top, click on the SOS button.
Otherwise I have had some luck with DiskWarrior and with Data Rescue, but these software are not free.


text:
How can I delete a certificate that got restored from a backup under iOS 10/11?
With iOS, certificates are installed as part of profiles. Deleting a certificate means removing the profile.
When an iPhone with profiles is backed up, and then the backup is restored to a new device, the profiles are no longer visible under Settings > General > Profiles. So, they can't be deleted via the usual way.
The certificates however get restored to the device. One can see them e.g. under Settings > General > About > Certificate Trust Settings.
Hence my question: How can these certificates be deleted from the device?

Idea: maybe it's possible to create a new profile overwriting the previous one, then delete that and see if the certificate disappears with it. Maybe it's the payloadIdentifier as noted here https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configuration-Profile-Reference.pdf#page5

I found a certificate in my iOS device's Certificate Trust Settings. And it was not be found in Profiles. Finally I remove it by add the cert file again, and then I can found and remove it in Profiles.
At first, I can't found the cert file, because this CA was installed years ago. So I did these things:

Backup iPhone to Mac, View backup file by some software (I used iMazing)
Find TrustStore.sqlite3 in Backup/KeychainDomain/ and export it to HOME DIR.
Use this project https://github.com/ADVTOOLS/ADVTrustStore to export certfile
./iosCertTrustManager.py -t ~/TrustStore.sqlite3 -e ~/foo.crt

Airdrop or Email this crt file to iOS device, and install it.
Find it in Settings > General > Profiles and Remove it.
It disappear in "Certificate Trust Settings"

Done.

Great! I used iPhone Backup Explorer for extracting the TrustStore.sqlite3 from an old backup - the free version was enough for extracting this single file (see: https://www.iphonebackupextractor.com/guides/itunes-backup-recovery/#view-itunes-backup). Then was able to remove the Onavo certificate entry using the suggested steps above.

This solution worked as a charm! I manually found the TrustStore.sqlite3 in my backup (I don't trust those apps that do that), then followed your instructions.

OMG @mgbaozi - THANK YOU! i was real nervous to do it cause i'm not a programmer nor Terminal user, but i followed your instructions and it worked perfectly! i too use iMazing but i switched to iCloud backups last year, but it found an old backup which had what i needed. my stuck cert w/no profile was an adblocker app that doesn't work anymore called Luna. glad to finally eradicate that from my system. so much appreciation!

man you saved my life!!!! As of today, this trick still works!!

Can also confirm that these instructions still work for iOS 14.6, macOS 11.4. The free (demo) version of iMazing is sufficient for doing this.

This may have been solved with iOS 15 and a transition to a new device (or maybe just a backup and restore to the same device). I used my Mac to backup my iPhone running iOS 15 which still had certificates with no profile associated. When I restored it to my new phone those certificates were no longer present. I had done the backup, intending to follow the steps above, but was happy to see the certs are gone.

worked for me with ios 14.8

worked for me with ios 15.1.1

@Ian: How did you manually view the contents of the backup without a 3rd party app?

This worked on iOS 16.1.1. [Don't forget to install] If it doesn't work, make sure that after downloading the certificate, you actually go into Settings and "Install" it. If it is listed under "Downloaded profile" and you hit the "Remove Downloaded Profile" it won't actually remove the profile. You must install it (it will ask for a passcode) and then hit the "Remove Profile". [Python 2 required] Also note that the script requires python2. It will fail on the latest python (3).

@Senseful sorry I honestly can't recall. I might've found some CLI utility on github that did the trick.


text:
Force Safari to open in fullscreen
I'd love Safari to open in fullscreen mode.
It doesn't look like Safari natively supports this.
After some research I thought the best alternative may be to run an AppleScript when Safari opens forcing Safari into fullscreen mode.
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Safari"
    set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of window 1 to true
end tell

How can I run this script every time Safari starts?

I realized this after I posted a script solution. If I open Safari then set it to full screen mode...  If I quit Safari in full-screen mode and reopen, it will automatically reopen in full screen mode.

This doesn't happen for me. I am jealous

You could save this script in ScriptEditor as an .app and name it something like "Safari Maximized.app".  Then every time you want to launch Safari in full screen mode, just launch your new app.  You may need to adjust the delay setting in the code.
This works for me in the latest version of Sierra
tell application "Safari" to activate
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
    perform action "AXPress" of button 2 of window 1 of application process "Safari"
end tell

Don't forget to allow access for your new app through gatekeeper

delay 1 is frustrating, is there no way around that?

You can try removing that.  I only added it to give safari time to open before the command gets executed

Actually, I noticed, if I open Safari then set it to full screen mode...  If I quit Safari in full-screen mode and reopen, it will automatically reopen in full screen mode. It seems there may be no need to script it.

This doesn't happen for me.


text:
How do I bulk delete incompatible apps in iOS 11
I finally upgraded to iOS 11 and when I go to Settings > General > About > Applications I have 105 incompatible apps listed.
Is there a way for me to delete all these in bulk?
I really don't want to have to go and find these apps one by one to delete them!

I highly suspect the answer will be "you can't". That's how things go on iOS—if Apple doesn't specifically add a feature to support a use case, that use case is impossible. Maybe there's some hidden functionality deep in the settings, but I doubt it.

I would love a follow on question explaining what the issue is. These apps don’t take up space on the device and you had them all before. Deleting them now means when the developer releases an update you will be able to resume automatically. Perhaps I’m missing the need to remove these, though.

Both iTunes 12.6.x and Apple Configurator allow management remotely from a computer. As suggested in timothymh's answer, but this is the perfect use case for the Offload Unused Apps feature.
This feature is designed to automatically remove apps you're not using. It's a low risk approach because even though the apps are removed, any documents and data are still kept in case you want to re-install the apps later (assuming they're still available/compatible).
To enable this feature, go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores and then swipe up to reveal the Offload Unused Apps option at the bottom. Tap the switch to enable it.
NOTES:

I'm not exactly sure how this feature works when first enabled. More specifically, I don't know if once you've enabled it, it will wait a period of time to determine what apps you don't use, or whether it will check your past app usage to determine what you haven't been using.
If it was me, and just to be on the safe side, I would use your iPhone for a while before enabling this. Or, depending on the number of apps you have installed, spend a day or so making sure you've opened all of them up (at least the ones you want to keep) and then enable this option.

I've never seen that option before. I guess if the apps are no longer compatible that I can't use them and so they become 'unused apps'. But then I may lose track of which other apps are uninstalled because I haven't used them in a while, and it's not like I can just go into iTunes to check.

Two things: (1) Yes, that's my thinking. Your 105 incompatible apps can't be used anymore and will therefore be deleted by enabling this option. It's not so much a bulk delete as much as an automated delete you don't have to think about! (2) As for worrying about losing track of other apps that may get offloaded, well, two things come to mind: (a) if they've been removed then you weren't really using them anyway, but (b) assuming they're still available, all you need to do is launch the App Store app and tap on your account icon (top-right) and then tap on Purchased > My Purchases.

Actually, the icon is still kept where it was, it's just greyed out with a little cloud icon next to its name. So if you need the app again, you  tap it and it will download. In the context of this question, that means there will still be over 100 app icons that are still present around the home screen, which you can't use and are taking up space. Personally, that would be unappealing to me, but YMMV.

Many of these apps have been deleted from the App Store as well. So do those apps get removed from the phone as well?

@Calion Just to clarify, are you asking that if you choose to enable the Offload Unused Apps feature, will iOS remove the app if it's no longer available in the App Store? Or are you asking something else?

Yes, that's what I'm asking. Am I risking losing apps forever if I enable this option?

Hmm, well, if the app is no longer available on the app store for whatever version of iOS you have running, then it's most likely no longer compatible anyway. However, one way to protect yourself in the event an app is no longer available but would still work, is to in fact use iTunes 12.6.x or Apple Configurator to download the apps onto your desktop and ensure you have a backup regime in place (such as Time Machine) so that these apps are also backed up for future installation. Obviously, if you're using a PC then you'd have to go with the iTunes 12.6.x option instead.

Obviously the iTunes option may not be available forever, but then you've also got 3rd party software that can do this for you. One example: iMazing. Regardless of the option you use, the key aspect is having backups so that if/when the time comes, you have a copy of that old app (or .ipa file) that you can access to reinstall on your iOS device.

It is not at all true in my experience that apps are only pulled from the App Store when they become incompatible with the latest version of iOS. Several times I have discovered that an app I rely on is no longer on the App Store.

@Calion Yes, it certainly does happen. I guess I was just playing the odds, so to speak, that it's most likely. :) Another thing that does happen is that an app is no longer available for one version of iOS, but it is for other versions. Those other versions can be either older or newer versions, depending on the situation.

So do you in fact permanently lose access to an app that becomes no longer available on the App Store that has been offloaded unless you have backed it up with an older version of iTunes? This would seem to be a serious flaw in the feature, if true.

That's a worse case scenario and depends on the Developer. By default Apple's preference is to allow older versions to still be available. Developers have to configure settings for Last-Compatible versions. To quote Apple: Some of your customers may not have a device that's compatible with your latest app version. To allow them to continue using your app, we make the last-compatible version of your app available to them.

Apple then continues with: If one or more of your app versions have significant usability or legal issues, such as infringement, deselect it below. This isn't recommended for any other reason. Any version you deselect won't be available for redownload from iTunes in the Cloud. So, as you can see, the app should still be available unless the developer has actively removed it.  But yes, I do take your point that there is in a sense a bit of a gap here that requires filling, be it with iTunes, Apple Configurator or 3rd party software - although of course one should always have backups anyway!

You say "one should always have backups anyway," but to my knowledge there is no longer any way to back up the apps on your iDevices unless you use old versions of iTunes (or third-party software, I suppose).

As far as I know, there's no button to simply "Delete all 32-bit apps", but you can delete large numbers of apps quite quickly using iTunes.
This won't work with the latest versions of iTunes (12.7+), so if you've updated you will need to download an older version.

Select your device next to the media type selection menu near the top of the screen.
Go to the Apps section.
For each app you would like to remove, click the X on its icon or find it in the list and click Remove. (iTunes won't show you which are incompatible there, but you can cross-reference with the list on your device and knock them out in a relatively speedy way.)
When you've finished, click the Apply button at the bottom right.

If you have a Mac, you can download an app called ‘Apple Configurator 2’ where you can manage far more than you can/could in iTunes. Including bulk deleting apps.


text:
What is silhouette?
I have a process called silhouette running on 10.13 (apparently the executable file is located in /usr/libexec/). It is extremely mysterious, I found no information whatsoever on the Internet regarding this process. Even databases of macOS processes would not mention it.
The CPU load of silhouette is extremely low, it would go totally unnoticed if not for one line in the Activity Monitor. It does not seem to establish network connections but I haven’t monitored it enough to be sure.
What is this process and what is it doing?

Do you mean silhouette?

Oops, yes of course it’s silhouette (noun) (and not sLihouette -- I corrected the typo). It’s not related to a software called Silhouette though... I’ve never installed anything named like this

man silhouette reports (rather unhelpfully):

silhouette -- generate local topics on the device.

The daemon is launched by /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.coreparsec.silhouette.plist which is part of CoreParsec, the private framework that is part of Siri's backend.
strings /usr/libexec/silhouette yields a lot of method names related to machine learning: scoring bins, bloom filters, normalization routines, false positives, etc.
Absent further documentation from Apple, it's reasonable to conclude that this daemon is part of Siri's infrastructure.  "Local topics" has a specific meaning in machine learning (usually in context of clustering algorithms), though I'm not sure if it's being used in that context or not.
It is for sure not malware, if that's what you're concerned about.

Very helpful! Well I was not super concerned but I thought it could be either a) malware (but given the location, the fact it is signed by Apple, has a man page etc.: rather unlikely), or b) some kind of broken legacy software, or c) legit macOS process but the kind of strange stuff nobody really knows what it does and what it sends. Apparently it belongs to c)


text:
Using dictation to transcribe audio files in batch?
I have lots of audio files that I want transcribed. Dictation is the best transcriber I have found that will run on my MacBook (there exist others like PocketSphinx but this is no where near as accurate).
How can I use Dictation to transcribe audio files in batch?

Don't know whether or not you've see the following article, but thought I'd mention it may be worth looking at. Have a look at: How to Transcribe .MP3 Audio from Podcasts or .MP4 Movies to Text on Mac OS

@user3439894 not helpful to me, I specifically need it in batch. Of course I've already realised I could use output>input redirection to transcribe just a couple minutes of audio, but I'm talking days of audio, and I do not want to be unable to use my MacBook for days.

I fully understand you want to do it in batch, you did after all say "How can I use Dictation to transcribe audio files in batch?"! Also, if you have days worth of transcribing to do and you also have to use the Mac at the same time, then I do not believe you can do it with Dictation. That said, I'd set up a scripted solution that runs while I'm not using the computer, e.g. while I'm sleeping, then it doesn't interfere with my usage.

On my Mac, even with eight GB RAM and an SSD, I've found that Dictation needs a bigger buffer.  It fails to type until I pause my speech, and if I say too much before a pause, it loses whole phrases.  This began after one of the recent updates—a few months ago, it was much better.  This problem makes it impossible for me to use on an unedited audio file; I must first load the file into Audacity or Amadeus and insert lots of pauses.  Putting them in good locations (so as not to mess up context, which Dictation uses) means pretty much listening to the whole file.

I just tried using eqMac with VLC. In VLC you can select which audio device to use for output in the audio menu.
Then in the dictation settings you can select eqMac as the input and continue from there - as per the blog post mentioned in comments.
For batch processing, just have a VLC playlist of all your files and let it go. It will all go to one text file though.
I tried out with some previous recordings and the recognition was poor. Hopefully that will improve with more articulate and clear speaking.

And this will take 10 hours to complete assuming there's no hiccups. Not really ideal

Also this was discussed on the comments of the quetsion

No it was not. If you go to the blog post, the author stated that soundflower can no longer be used. The only alternative was a $99 commercial application to replace it. eqMac + VLC was never mentioned. It still uses Macs native recognizer, true, but at least this can be tried without paying $99

You can use SFSpeechRecognizer (mirror) (requires macOS 10.15+): this is made for speech recognition and it's an SDK so you can write some code for batch processing.

Perform speech recognition on live or prerecorded audio, receive transcriptions, alternative interpretations, and confidence levels of the results.

Note that
from https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/256/ (mirror):


text:
Duplicate "iCloud Drive (Archive)" folders
I have two iCloud Drive folders.
Is this normal behaviour?
Can I delete one (how about both)?

Running macOS Mojave 10.14

When turning iCloud Drive off, files that were contained in iCloud Drive are saved to a newly created folder called "iCloud Drive (Archive)" (if the option to save files is selected when turning iCloud Drive off).
Turning iCloud Drive on and off again will create additional folders, such as "iCloud Drive (Archive) - 1", and so on.

Neither of these are your actual iCloud Drive folders where your iCloud Drive data is stored.
If you don't need their contents, you can delete both of them.
iCloud Drive data is stored in ~/Library/Mobile Documents
If you don’t have that folder, then it means your machine isn’t hosting a cached copy of iCloud data locally.

You can't because Library is an hidden folder. You can view hidden folders by pressing SHIFT + CMD + . in the Finder App.


text:
Unable to open sleep image due to permission issues
I upgraded my Mac to High Sierra and I wanted to open the sleep image which is situated in /private/var/vm But when I opened it it showed 'you have no acces to open this file please contact your administrator or network administrator' message like that.I am not sure whether this is a problem with me or has Apple restricted access to sleep image on high sierra

Why do you want to do this?

Find these keys on your keyboard command+I this will open the get info window
After the windows opens scroll down and click on the sharing & permission
Now if you don't see your username in the filed which appears after clicking on sharing & permissions then add your username (Admin) by clicking on the plus sign
Now if this doesn't works then again click on the plus sign and add Administrator (First check is Administrator is visible in the filed or not after clicking sharing and permission)
After pressing command+i you will get to see a window like this after which you will have to click on the lock icon!

Then enter your password

Now a second overlaying window will appear on your mac screen
Now, You will have to select either your username or administrators and add it to the sharing and permissions field
After that there wouldn't be any permission issues!

doesn't work. I don't have necessary permissions to add my name or my group. Sorry. Furthermore this sleepimage is corrupted and the answer seems to delete this file but impossible. Very irritating because my mac book pro restart in the middle of the night every night even though it's closed

Try deleting it by entering sudo rm -r /private/var/vm this will erase it no matter what


text:
Disable trackpad feedback? Don't want any tactile/haptic feedback when clicking
Can I completely disable the haptic feedback from my 2015 MacBook Pro with Retina's trackpad?
I want to click without any kind of vibration/feedback.
Ideally it should feel like (as I imagine it would were this disabled) pressing onto a solid bit of metal. I.e. the case surrounding the trackpad.

I have a 12" Macbook (2015) and a Macbook Pro (2017), both running MacOS 10.13.6. The 12" gives me the option for "Silent Clicking" in Trackpad Preferences. The MBP, however, does not give me this option (and I wish it did). So, while it does seem to be capable of being switched off, there does seem to be some hardware-specific aspect to it. Silent mode is nice... wish they all did it.

I currently have silent clicking enabled, but I still get haptic feedback.

Strange. There is a substantial difference on my 12" when I enable silent clicking. Basically, it did exactly what I expected - the hepatic engine seems to be off, but I still get the physical "click" of the trackpad mechanism itself, which is much more quiet than with hepatic feedback.

I want to get rid of the physical click. The "trackpad mechanism" of which you speak is haptic feedback. The actual "trackpad mechanism" is a capacitive touch screen, that doesn't need to vibrate at all.

I see what you mean now. I guess rather than "Silent Clicking", it would have been more accurate to call it "Muted Clicking". With that said, I did a (unscientific) test using an SPL meter app I had on my phone, and consistently measured a ~7 dB difference in the sound of a force click depending on whether the "Silent Clicking" mode was on or off. So, while it doesn't truly silence the click, it does make it noticeably quieter. I just wish it was an option on all models. The "Tap to click" option is truly silent, but you lose force click. But a silent force click would be pretty useless, IMHO.

I don't care at all  about the way it sounds.

I think it's not possible to do using a "normal" way, it's restricted to the Service team only. Though it's possible ultimately, the motor probably needs software to tell it whenever to vibrate, it's just that the software is not accessible normally, I believe.
By the way, I current have the problerm, the Taptic motor stopped working but the 4 sensors still are working so I kind of using a "TRUE solid-state" trackpad, everything works except the Taptic, it's cool, I think it's the best "issue" you can ever get on your Mac, it feels great.

I'm extremely jealous

Haha, it is very comfortable once you get use to the issue, it's just that you have to get acquainted with the "brain-driven" gesture, knowing how hard to press enough to activate a click without "trying the press the touchpad" off the machine.

Do you know if I can replicate? How did you end up breaking the taptic motor?

Just kidding but if you are serious with getting the "pristine" solid state trackpad, I think it's because there is something that damage the cable from the Taptic motor, as I have done a little bit research, an it turns out that the cable is located right beneath the touchpad surface (images from iFixit). If you are really serious about "breaking" your Mac, I think a piece of paper would have the thing done, but it's pricey to replace your part in case you regret, so be serious.

If you want to try the "feeling" first, it is much like you turn off the Vibration Accessibility on your iPhone that HAS 3D Touch, Haptic Touch would not be as effective and "real".

I didn't break it, it suddenly stopped working, I'm fine within the coverage of Apple Care but I am not sure if I will bring it to Apple, cause the feeling is so much comforting and, you know, "pristine" somehow, it's like Magic. Normal people would say I am clicking on a completely dead still surface and fly through my work.

Yeah that's exactly why I want to set my laptop up like that. I want that same feeling.

If you're Mac out of warranty and you are fully intentional, I think you could have someone open your Mac and disconnect the Taptic motor from something like the motherboard (I don't know exactly). Apple Genius would be able to do that but I think they'll not ever.

Or you can manually take a piece of paper and try to slip it back and forth in the gap between the trackpad and palm-rest (horizontally). But I'd say be careful about this, you are not going to know what you end up with, getting the privilege or destroyed your whole trackpad, and then have to replace WHOLE trackpad, that's pricey hey. Because there are other parts below the surface, not just the motor.

I am telling you that my motor has worked back, so just open it if you want to have the feeling, don't use the paper cause you do not know what the paper will break, maybe it'll not be your motor haha

You can't.  It's not a software controlled click, it's hardware.  You can use the "tap to click" gesture rather than a physical click.  Enable it in System Preferences > Trackpad > Point & Click tab.
Credit: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3655934?start=0&tstart=0  @captfred

You have proof it's hardware? I don't think it is.

You're thinking of old MacBooks.  Starting in 2015, MBP's have haptic clicking.


text:
Prevent webpages from binding to certain keyboard shortcuts?
I'd like to stop webpages from binding to ⌥ (Option) only shortcuts.
E.g. these can be bound to:

⌘+V
⌘+⌥+K
⌘+⇧+E
⌘+⌥+⇧+X
etc.

But these I want to prevent being bound to (so that their default comes into effect, I have set them up as dead keys/special character keys on my keyboard to type symbols I find important):

⌥+/
⌥+⇧+E
etc.

What web pages are you going to that modifies system settings like key bindings?

@Allan idk what you mean by "System" settings, but one site that keeps frustrating me is Google docs because it binds to ⌥/

Your first one - Cmd-V -  is paste which is a system setting.  How is that being bound?

@Allan I don't know, I was making up examples

@Allan also, it seems entirely possible to do so: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2903991/how-to-detect-ctrlv-ctrlc-using-javascript https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5510129/how-to-disable-paste-ctrlv-with-jquery https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18373424/how-to-detect-command-key-is-pressed-in-javascript-at-mac-os

It's not a biding...it's an intercept and an override.  In this case, there's nothing you can do because no matter what, the key press is what the site detects and reacts based on that, not what is normally sent by the system (macOS).

@Allan it's possible to stop the client's javascript from detecting keypresses (maybe not in safari as it currently is, but it's possible)

@theonlygusti Do you mind if you block all keybindings? Or do you want to only block option-only bindings?

@timothymh only option bindings

I lightly edited some code from this answer on Super User to make it prevent the capture of certain shortcuts which do use the Option key and do not use the Command key. You'll want to add the keycodes for any shortcuts you want to prevent binding to the keycodes list. I started it with the codes for the two examples in your question, / and E (it doesn't care if other modifiers are pressed or not).
You can install this to your browser using an extension such as Tampermonkey.
// ==UserScript==
// @name           Disable option shortcuts
// @description    Stop websites from highjacking keyboard shortcuts
//
// @run-at         document-start
// @include        *
// @grant          none
// ==/UserScript==

// These are the keycodes for E and /. Find others to add by uncommenting the first alert line below and pressing that key.
keycodes = [69, 191];

(window.opera ? document.body : document).addEventListener('keydown', function(e) {
    // alert(e.keyCode ); //uncomment to find more keyCodes
    if (keycodes.indexOf(e.keyCode) != -1 && e.altKey && !(e.metaKey)) {
        e.cancelBubble = true;
        e.stopImmediatePropagation();
    // alert("Gotcha!"); //uncomment to check if it's seeing the combo
    }
    return false;
}, !window.opera);

I would like ⌘-⌥-/ to be bindable. If another modifier is pressed, it should do what the page says.

@theonlygusti It is! If the command key is pressed, this script will not do anything. It only prevents binding of combinations which (1) have Option pressed and (2) do not have Command pressed. If you also want to add Control to that list, you can add && !(e.ctrlKey) to the if statement.

@theonlygusti Have you tried this yet? Is it lacking in any way?

I don't really want to have to install a userscript manager if it can be avoided so I was just waiting longer. I think though if nothing happens in another week I'll make my own Safari plugin with the capability to prevent any user-specified shortcut from being bound to.

Where does one input this code?

@2540625 “You can install this to your browser using an extension such as Tampermonkey.” It’s called a userscript, and there are various extensions that let you install them.

Where in TamperMonkey?

@2540625 Click the new script button (scroll icon with green plus) and paste it into the editor. You can also customize what websites it runs on via the Settings section, iirc.

There's no generic way to do this on macOS.
You could probably write a plugin for the specific browser(s) you want this functionality for - but no such specific plugin exists right now.

How would one do that?


text:
Customise iTerm sudo password prompt
Recently iTerm started showing an emoji key instead of the sexy key symbol at password prompts.
It now shows this:

But I don't like the ugly emoji there.
I want to see (this is what it looks like on Terminal.app):

How can I get it to look like the symbol above?
It almost seems like Terminal.app makes the key symbol part of the cursor (it blinks with the cursor).

I'm assuming you don't want the answer - use Apple's terminal? Also - have you verified which shell you are using is bash and it's not some customization you loaded there?

@bmike I'm using zsh, iTerm has Inconsolata for powerline typeface.

@theonlygusti as an FYI: you can install Incosolata in Font Book on your Mac and it'll be available in Terminal.app.

@IanC. I didn't know there was another way to install fonts.

I found the setting that turns this off, it's in advanced preferences. Not sure you can make it look like the normal terminal one, but this might help folks that want to get rid of the key entirely.
iTerm2 > Preferences > Advanced > Experimental Features > "Show key at cursor at password prompt" => No

Nice! Upvoted because it does get rid of that ugly emoji.
Do you know how to make it look like Terminal.app's?

No, sadly I couldn't figure that out, so I just removed it.

Looking at the source code for iTerm2 it appears that this is a unicode character hard coded into the password prompt display code. At the time of writing, the relevant line the source code that displays this character is here.
To change the display character you would need to clone the github repository, modify the character on the aforementioned line and then compile iTerm2 from source. Not an impossible task if you're competent with Xcode. The project is well-organized and well-maintained so it's straight-forward to build it from source.

I don't think Terminal.app uses a character though, pretty sure it's just a graphic that's overlayed on the cursor.

@theonlygusti well, you asked about iTerm2 so I answered for iTerm2.

What? I asked to make it look like Terminal's, you suggest changing the character that's displayed, and I said that that probably wouldn't work. I think there's been a misunderstanding somewhere here.

It's not a static image. It changes with the Profile theme being used in Terminal.app. Could be Terminal.app is drawing a custom cursor icon when displays it.

That's exactly what I've already suggested a couple times already Ian.

Then the answer is: you cannot unless you'd like to unpack how iTerm2 draws its cursor.


text:
Automator's Finder Actions: "Unable to search with Spotlight"
I created a workflow like this after asking another question:

It should delete downloads older than 30 days, and has been working fine until today; today I updated to macOS High Sierra.
Now whenever the Application tries to run I'm getting the error

The action "Filter Finder Items" encountered an error: "Unable to search with Spotlight"

How can I fix my workflow so that it works with this latest version of macOS?

When I tried to setup something similar, I caved in pretty fast with folder actions not working half the time and what ever... So I took the easy route and bought Hazel. I also use Path Finder, which has the ability to easily show hidden files. So I made a folder in downloads called _old, hid it with chflags command. Then I set a rule in Hazel: if Date added is not today → Move to folder _old.

This basically makes it so that my download folder only contains files from today and if I need to dig deeper, I can show hidden files and view the contents of _old. I guess you could also put the _old folder in the sidebar or favorites, to avoid having to show it every time. This obviously doesn't save any disk space, it just makes it easier to manage downloads. You could tell hazel to trash the files too.

@Joonas Hazel costs money for something that Automator should be able to do just fine anyway

That is true. I didn't say it was a necessity, I said it was the easy route.

As a temporary workaround, I'd use the find command in a new Automator workflow... add a Run Shell Script action (settings Shell: /bin/bash and Pass input: to stdin), replace the default cat with find "$HOME/Downloads" -maxdepth 1 -type f -mtime +30d -iname '*.*', add a Move Finder Items to Trash action, save as an application. This does not traverse subdirectories, so as to avoid something Safari is downloading at the time it's run, as it uses a .download bundle which is a directory. Continued in next comment...

You could devise a more complex find command and or workflow, however this is it's better then a nonfunctioning workflow.

@user3439894 do you want to add that as an answer? It looks like it may currently be the only way. I'll add it as an answer in a couple days if you don't want to do it yourself

As a (temporary) workaround, I'd use the find command.
In a new Automator workflow, add the following actions:

Run Shell Script

Settings - Shell: /bin/bash and Pass input: to stdin
Replace the default cat with:
find "$HOME/Downloads" -maxdepth 1 -type f -mtime +30d -iname '*.*'

Move Finder Items to Trash
Save the workflow as an application.

Note: As coded, this only deletes files at the directory level of ~/Downloads. It does not traverse subdirectories, so as to avoid deleting something Safari is downloading at the time it's run, as it uses a .download bundle which is a directory. You could devise a more complex find command and or workflow, however this, as is, is better then your current nonfunctioning workflow.

I think I just figured out the problem and it is laughably stupid.
When filtering by extension, you mustn't include the "." in the filter criteria.
So, in your case, filter by IS NOT: "download" instead of ".download"
I love Automator, but sometimes it is hard to follow its logic.

are you on macOS High Sierra 10.13.3?

and you've tested this?

because the error doesn't sound like an error in file extension, e.g. when searching in Finder for the extension .download it doesn't error it just returns no results or w/e. The error in the question is more like something is just wrong with spotlight

Yes, I'm on 10.13.3 and I've tested this.
Not sure why it calls the error "Unable to search with Spotlight," as that really makes no sense, but I've repeatedly tested this and every time I filter by extension in Automator, it is the same. Include the "." and you get this same error, omit the "." and it processes the files absolutely fine.
Finder without an error, as you say, this seems to be an Automator issue only.

Did you have a chance to try it? Did it solve your issue as well?