text:
Backup without Time Machine
I'm trying to downgrade from Catalina to Mojave, and I need to backup all of my files without backing up operating system files. Time Machine takes a backup of everything on the disk meaning that macOS Catalina files are also included. I need a way in which I can install macOS Mojave on my Mac and keep my personal data. What's the best way to backup a hard drive without Time Machine?

You never said which files you are interested in keeping.

@Allan he said that he wants all files except OS files.

@Todd That's pretty vague - what are "OS files?" Application preferences?  Which ones?  System-wide on the OS side of things or in his personal Library?

@Allan He probably meant /System, /etc, /var, /bin, etc. when he said OS files. Application preferences are technically not OS files.

Also, any backup solution should also look at data restore, and some of the file formats in the LIbrary may have changed between Mojave and Catalina (restoring them isn't possible). So let's try to be specific :-)

@Todd I just recently wrote an answer with a preface  on assuming things...  It's never a good idea to assume the OP meant this or that...it's good as a hunch, but always best to get clarification as to what they actually want.

TM's backup, if created on Catalina, would not be compatible with a restore to Mojave in any case.  https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/time-machine-troubleshooting-mh15653/mac

You can try copying all of the home folders located in /Users. After copying all the folders there to the external hard drive, you should check if all the data you want is there. After that, you can boot from macOS Recovery and erase the startup disk. After doing that, use a bootable macOS Mojave installer to reinstall macOS on the Startup Disk.
To do that, first read this on creating bootable macOS Installers: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372.
To boot from that drive, you need to shutdown or restart your computer with the macOS Installer plugged in. Then, hold "Option" while the Mac is starting to boot from the installer. Once you are in, click reinstall macOS and choose your startup disk.
After macOS Mojave is installed, boot from the internal startup disk. Finish setup and create a new user. Once you are in, copy all your home directories from the SSD to the /Users directory. Then go to System Preferences and create new users and set the home directories to the home folders that were copied and remove the user that was created at the setup of macOS Mojave. Reboot the machine and you technically have your data back.
NOTE: Some compatibility issues may occur with personal files when switching from macOS Catalina to macOS Mojave.

"you should check if all the data you want is there."  How is this done?  For example, I remotely connect to a server through SSH that I don't need to put a password in for, where would I "check" to see if that info is still there?  Also, I have a lot of bookmarks saved in Firefox or Chrome.  Where would I go to check that those files are backed up?  Time machine takes care a ton of this for you, provided you use it for restoration.  Now the user wants to do this manually - how does one go about doing this?

@Allan Ummm... you just click on the external drive in Finder and see if the data is there? This doesn't need any SSH. If you want your bookmarks then you also have to copy the /Applications data.

I didn't ask that.  I asked you to explain your step "you should check if all the data you want is there."  How does the user know what to check if they don't know what was backed up?  (And re:  my SSH question - you totally botched the answer). And Bookmarks aren't installed in /Applications

Of course the user knows what was backed up because they are doing it. You need to read the answer and comment completley. I said "you just click on the external drive in Finder and see if the data is there" in the previous comment. Again, read before posting comments that waste people's time.

I did, thus my comment.  You spent more time on booting, something the OP didn't ask and one sentence on backing up which up to now, you can't explain beyond repeating yourself.  This doesn't waste peoples, time - it serves as a warning to avoid this answer.

Let’s focus on fixing the question here - it’s the main issue and not Todd’s answer or what it does or doesn’t say. I think Allan has some interesting points and understand (I think) where it’s coming from - but the main question needs improvement IMO. (I also often recommend erase install - it cures so many ills even when it’s what the OP specifically says they don’t want - it’s sometimes the medicine needed or can sweep aside all manner of corruption and tweaks.)

@bmike Agreed!!

@Allan Do you have another way of reinstalling the OS without rebooting?

Todd, the OP asks about how to make a backup, not about a way to downgrade/reinstall macOS. Best to focus the answer on the backup part.


text:
GPG asks for Passphrase for new key
I want to know what to do after forgetting a passphrase. I've deleted and revoked all keys and made a new one but I was hoping that the passphrase would reset for me. to make a newer one. Do I need to uninstall the application to reset passphrase? If I'm wrong please do correct me and help me figure this out.

The passphrase is unique to each secret key. If you have made a new key pair then you should have been asked for a new passphrase during creation.

That doesn't apply to me. There is a window(Pinentry Mac) that opens which i have to enter the passphrase but everytime a open a new key it keeps opening the same window. I haven't got to chose which passphrase to put for the newer key.

It does apply to you.  You cannot reset a passphrase.  If you have forgotten it then you have lost access to your encrypted data.

How does it apply to me when i just said that GPG doesn't let me create a passphrase after making a new key?

This looks like a Pinentry thing on Mac.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How can I set a consistent font for sent messages in Apple Mail Mojave?
macOS Mojave Mail still ignores a body font for outgoing emails. Rich Text emails show up with Times New Roman font on Windows Outlook clients. Mail does not set a font type, Thus, Windows Outlook uses its default paragraph formatting which falls back to Times New Roman. It's so unprofessional and embarrassing
Using plain text seems to be the only solution. Big downside: No bolding, no highlighting. This has been an ongoing issue since years. There used to be a great plugin called Universal Mailer which is no longer developed.
Any workaround for Apple Mail Mojave and Catalina? I highly appreciate any solution.

People who send plain text mails are heroes to me. There’s no downside there since it respects everyone including screen readers, people who have a font and size preference, etc...
There is a real cost to rtf bloat and html and you are seeing some of that pain here.  My solution is to eschew bu to know some people look down on that as plain text can be rendered horribly as well by some Mail clients.
Sadly, you have to read the room for your intended audience and choose an authoring tool that is copacetic. A third party mail app might be needed if no one has a style tweak that lets you keep the styling features you know you need to communicate effectively. Outlook on Mac does a decent job of hiding that the mail came from Apple if you have the desire to try that.

Thanks. Indeed in 2020 I am still using plain text emails for consistent emails. I am using my personal "markup like" format e.g. * # for highlighting text. In reality you deal with Outlook users, though. In some cases you have to highlight text within a email. Switching to RTF mode to add 1-2 List item in Apple Mail leads to embarrassing Times New Roman emails! I do agree 100% regarding bloating html/span tag mails. Anyway it's not the answer I was looking for. It's kind of disappointed that there's still no solution available.

I agree - let’s hope anyone has a better answer with functionality and grace. Thanks for the good discussion @howdytom

If you want the recipient to see your chosen font and other styling, you can achieve this in Mail by setting it individually for each outgoing message, or perhaps by saving it as "stationery" to use as a template.  If you want to be able to set this for all outgoings by default, the solution is to use another email client like Outlook.

Thanks, switching to Mac Outlook, Thunderbird/Postbox, Airmail, mail client seems to be the only option. I don't like none of them. For now I am sticking with plain text emails.

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


text:
Change default email application - iPadOS
When I type on Notes.app, it is useful to have clickable email links as follows:

Whenever I click this link, it wants to take me to Mail.app, I don’t have it installed so it shows this message:

I want to use Gmail.app to open these email links, is it possible to change the default app to Gmail?

@ankii no it doesn't, the question is 8 years old. There could be a different answer

I should go write Update 2020: still not possbile ;p Seriously though, see this comment: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/57020/is-there-any-way-to-set-gmail-app-as-the-default-mail-client-in-iphone-and-ipad#comment520362_74791

@Daniil we close questions and point them to the same ones. Whether the answer is there or not doesn’t weigh into the close decision. See https://apple.stackexchange.com/help/duplicates for details. I’m voting this up, too since it has great photos that will help people find the no answer and possibly add a new answer if there is a yes or workaround.


text:
Is there a way to make Dictation the default type-in method instead of the Keyboard (iPhone)?
Each time we want to use the dictation option (on an iPhone at least), we need to click on the microphone button on the keyboard

Is there a way to automatically use dictation when we want to type-in something ? In other words, make it the default type-in option. Needing to click on the microphone each time is really annoying, that's why I'm asking.
Thanks for your support !

Seems like something a 3rd party “keyboard” app might be able to do.

@TomGewecke Yeah, I also thought about it but unfortunately Apple doesn't allow 3rd party keyboard to access the microphone https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/CustomKeyboard.html       "Custom keyboards, like all app extensions in iOS 8.0, have no access to the device microphone, so dictation input is not possible." I never understood why they forbid that.

How about having Voice Control turned on by default?  It's dictation is too slow on my older device, but maybe on a newer one....

@TomGewecke I've just googled about voice control, and even tough it could work, it's not much different from the current situation. In the sense that instead of clicking the microphone each time, one would need to say "Dictation mode" each time. But it doesn't allow to set Dictation as the default type-in method.


text:
How to add a hostname for my router's IP address?
How can I access the WiFi router I am currently connected to via an unchanging hostname?
For command-line stuff like ping, or http in the browser to load the router's settings page.
The hostname should always point at whatever the current router's IP address is, as can be found manually by going to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced > TCP/IP

I would like http://myrouter in Safari to do the same thing as visiting http://192.168.0.1 in this case. Maybe sometimes I will be connected to another wifi network where the router's IP is different, in that case I still want to be able to simply visit http://myrouter but this time get redirected to/shown http://192.168.1.2 for example.
Does this kind of hostname already exist? If not, how can I set that up?

If your router allows you to edit the DHCP/DNS info on your router you may be able to add a name there, but I don't believe that is possible as naming things on a network is done with a DNS server. And on an edge device (Mac, PC, iOS, etc) done with the hosts file.

Thats not the way it works.
Your Mac is a client on the network(s) you attatch to  and it gets its settings from from the DHCP server.  In that DHCP response, theres a number of things including a DNS server assignment(s) which is where all the names on the network come from.  Those name to address relationships are ultimately managed by the network admin.
Your client can’t arbitrarily assign names to IP addresses as your Mac is not the DNS server.
The /etc/hosts file is for you and you alone and must be manually updated (if necessary) when you change networks because there is nothing that’s mapping the actual router address to the name you’ve arbitrarily given it.

Why must it be manually updated? Can't I automate new network location detected to updating that file?

You can automate the manual process

To what end?  I do this for a living and have never needed to have a dns entry for an internet gateway

Next question, for which interface?  Multihomed networks often don’t connect to the same network, so there will be multiple routers.  So, how do you want to differentiate the two?

@Allan always wifi, and the purpose is to get into router configuration pages, public network "join" pages, ssh into my homes' routers, or (equivalently I guess) ssh into robot devices (got some robots providing their own wifi networks)


text:
What is this icon on top of the photo on the share sheet?
When on the share sheet trying to share a photo, I noticed this icon:

What does this icon mean?
Device:

iPhone SE (1st Generation) running iOS 13.4.1

Does this show up on other screens?  Maybe your home screen?

was the photo panoramic

@ankii no It wasn’t

@jmh nope it doesn’t


text:
How to prevent Spotlight from playing YouTube videos when I paste a YouTube URL into Spotlight
When I copy and paste a YouTube video URL into Spotlight (CommandSpace), it automatically starts playing that YouTube video in a miniaturised web browser embedded in Spotlight.
How do I turn off this behaviour? In fact I would most prefer to completely get rid of that embedded web browser entirely.

The reason I often paste stuff into Spotlight is that I use it like a second clipboard/storage space for text.
It's really convenient, a single keybind away. I often paste text there if I have to copy/paste something else intermittently, or need to be reminded of something a few moments later.

Why paste a URL into Spotlight at all if you don't want it to handle it, why not paste it directly into whatever you do want to handle it??

@Tetsujin I use Spotlight like a second clipboard. I have edited to include that, original question may have been A/B.

“I use Spotlight like a second clipboard.”  This is like using a crowbar as a second screwdriver - it’s the wrong tool completely.  If you need a scratchpad to hold some values, Stickies is a perfect  solution for this.  If you really need extended clipboard functionality, there’s 3rd party apps like Flycut

@Allan I can't switch to stickies with a single keybind, and I don't really want to install new imperfect software since Spotlight is already super convenient for me. Flycut is imperfect bc it seems to be only for code? Adds a new menu bar icon, and I don't check it frequently (I open Spotlight all the time, so I'm always reminded of anything I might have put into it)

Nothing you said about Stickies and Flycut is accurate.  Stickies is built in and like any app (built in or otherwise) you can assign a shortcut to it.  Flycut is not "only for code" and I don't see what having a menu bar icon has to do with how it actually functions.  Additionally, Flycut was just a single example - there are tons more.  Finally, Spotlight is a search tool - you don't put anything into it.  I think one of the (major) issues you're having is that you're trying to use tools outside of their design capabilities while ignoring the appropriate ones.

This sentence.... "I don't really want to install new imperfect software"  Do you know of any "perfect" software?

@Allan rarely. What I meant by that is, Spotlight already exists and is extremely convenient and close to perfect for me. So for me it would only be worth installing an additional app for this if it truly fit my every need and was as if not more convenient to use.

I'm not sure where I'm not being clear that 1) stickies is built in and included with macOS and 2) you're using spotlight incorrectly - this is why you're not getting your desired results.  Thusly, the question can't be answered because Spotlight isn't failing nor is it capable of doing what you want.

I understand you use Spotlight that way. I do it time and time again, for example, to strip formatting from copied text. Why don't you first type some character and then paste the URL? For example, typing a and then the URL will produce ahttp://. Spotlight won't interpret the string as a URL and won't play the video, problem (kind of) solved. After editing the URL, you just need to pay attention not to copy that first character.

@jaume good workaround thank you for pointing it out! I would still prefer to find out how to turn off that web browser. When I open spotlight again all the text is highlighted, I like cmd-x cmd-space cmd-v so quick, with that workaround I would be forced to delete that character from the start.

As I see it, the "culprit" is not Spotlight, but Quick Look. Spotlight just displays a Quick Look preview of the top hit (or of any selected item, for that matter). You would need to prevent Quick Look from being able to display a preview of a web page, then Spotlight wouldn't (be able to) play the video.

After some research on macOS 10.15.4 "Catalina", the Quick Look bundles/plugins that seem responsible for creating web page previews are /System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.framework/Versions/A/PlugIns/Web.qldisplay and /System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.framework/Versions/A/PlugIns/QLWebBundle.bundle. I guess they are related, but I don't know how they get launched, since they aren't listed in the output of qlmanage -m, and don't know how to deregister them, either.

@jaume please could you turn "first type some character and then paste the URL" into an answer?

Thank you for coming back to me, I've added an answer and explanded it to mention Big Sur.

With macOS 10.15 Catalina, as a workaround, you can first type a character and then paste the URL to fool Spotlight and prevent it from displaying a Quick Look preview. After editing the URL, you just need to pay attention not to copy that first character.
With macOS 11 Big Sur, none of that is necessary, as Spotlight no longer displays a preview:


text:
iTerm2 - zsh - keep history of commands when opening a new pane
with zsh on MacOS Catalina, when I split my current window of iTerm2 by opening a new pane, I would like to be able to keep in this new pane the history of commands of previous pane (which is still opened).
Here my current config into ~/.zshrc :
# History
export HISTFILE="$HOME/.zsh_history"
HISTSIZE=10000000
export SAVEHIST=$HISTSIZE
# Avoid duplicates
#setopt HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
# Remove duplicates in history
function remove_duplicates() {
   echo "$(history 0 | sort -k2 -k1nr | \
   uniq -f1 | sort -n | cut -c8-)" > $HISTFILE
}
remove_duplicates();
setopt inc_append_history

# When the shell exits, append to the history file instead of overwriting it
shopt -s histappend

What is missing or what did I do wrong in this config ?
and Just a question : when I open a new pane, did ~/.zshrc file is executed (I mean sourced like source ~/.zshrc) ?

To share history between sessions, you need to use the SHARE_HISTORY option.  Additionally, you will want to append, rather than overwrite your history file.
setopt SHARE_HISTORY
setopt APPEND_HISTORY

Per the ZSH documentation (Chap. 16 - Options) you should also disable INC_APPEND_HISTORY.

This option both imports new commands from the history file, and also causes your typed commands to be appended to the history file (the latter is like specifying INC_APPEND_HISTORY, which should be turned off if this option is in effect). The history lines are also output with timestamps ala EXTENDED_HISTORY (which makes it easier to find the spot where we left off reading the file after it gets re-written).

There's also a few other commands that you may be interested in to deal with your dupes:

HIST_NO_STORE - removes the history command from history.
HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS - deletes an older version of added commmand
HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS - when saving the history file, older commands that duplicate newer ones aren't saved


text:
macOS Catalina - problems detecting external monitors
I am using MacBook Pro 15-inch, 2018 with Catalina 10.15.4.
I am trying to connect 2 external monitors (Samsung S24C450) via USB-C -> DVI converter. Both monitors are then connected via DVI interface.
From both monitors only one is detected (one of two randomly) or none of them works. Disconnecting usb-c converter from laptop, DVI cable from converter or DVI cable from the screen - doesn't help. Disconnecting screens from power source, does not help either, nor restarting laptop.
This seems to work completely randomly. How do I force Mac to re-detect screens and use both of them, not only one?

How exactly are you connecting your monitors to your MacBook Pro, and what else do you have connected to it?
The MacBookPro's with 4 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C connectors actually have  2 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C buses, each connected to 2 ports, one pair on the left side of the computer and one pair on the right side. The specs that say the Mac can support 2 or 4 monitors do not mention this, but the fact is the Mac can only support half that number on each side. 2 * 0.5 = 1 so the spec is not lying, but sometimes you have to pay attention to which side of the Mac things are plugged into.
Still, the Mac should support 2 DVI-resolution DisplayPort over USB-C monitors per bus, which makes me wonder exactly how you are connecting the monitors.
Try connecting one monitor on the right side of the computer and the other monitor on the left. Alternately, try connecting them both on the same side of the computer, connected directly to the computer and nothing else connected to that side.


text:
Can I use a Shure Beta 58 vocal mic with my PowerBook MacIntosh laptop?
I have an older Shure Beta 58 mic purchased in 1996 that I would like to use as an external microphone in lieu of th built in mic on my PowerBook laptop.  What interface do I need?  I would like to use it for conferencing software like Zoom.  I am also supposed to make an audio recording of some songs to send to a virtual choir project.

An XLR (the connector on the Shure mic) to USB audio device is what you need. There are several varieties on the market, but this is a very handy gadget which has worked well for me.
Shure X2U XLR to USB USB Signal Adapter


text:
Does MacOS 10.15 still have a file for the webcam inside: /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/?
I was searching for a solution for a "broken" camera on a MacBook 12" and found a source that said that this file AppleCamera.plugin should be inside this folder: /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/ is this still the case for newer versions of MacOS?

No - there's only plugins-info.txt in /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL on macOS Catalina ProductVersion: 10.15.4


text:
How to take a screenshot when you are using screen sharing
I am accessing a mac using screen sharing.
If I try to take a screenshot of a window using the built-in screenshot tool, I find that the screenshot consists of white background with shadow border as below.
Can anyone point out how to take screenshot while using screen sharing?
Edit-

The mac that is accessing through screen sharing is running macOS Mojave (10.14.6)
I am using TigerVNC client software running on Linux to access the mac.

Edit 2-
I find that taking a screenshot of a window using the built-in screenshot tool works if it meets the following conditions-

The window of which you are taking the screenshot should be the currently active window.
The screenshot should be on a timer. After you click on capture and select a window, a countdown timer appears. You select the window one more time so that it becomes the active window and then wait for the screenshot
to be taken
The window should be recently redrawn (or refreshed, I do not know the correct word). Try to scroll up/down in the window or do anything so that the window gets redrawn.

I use LaunchBar to start the ScreenCapture app (it used to be called Grab) so you can search for that as well. Spotlight or any other launcher should work.
Take the screen shot locally on the Mac is my advice and then save it to a cloud sync folder or otherwise get it to your remote is my advice. You get the standard keys and best resolution / drop shadow, correct key shortcuts this way.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361

LaunchBar is designed to Keep your hands on the keyboard. Well worth the cost for me - especially when I screen share in from Windows / Linux / iOS / iPadOS and even other Macs.

https://obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html


text:
What is a typical Notability's file size?
I don’t think I can research from the vendor, and I want to plan if I choose to use this app.
What if the notes contains that 20-minutes lecture/audio clips - what is the size for each of these attachments?

This might better be asked on the support website of the App's creator.

Check r/notability there are a similar posts about this there.

I can't say for sure but my whole Notability folder is less than 300Mb and it includes over 300 notes including pictures, pdfs, text books, etc.

@pcbillions53 Please have a look at https://apple.stackexchange.com/help/someone-answers


text:
Boot Camp requiring disk on High Sierra
I'm running High Sierra on my late-2009 iMac.
In the past, I've not had trouble installing Windows 7 with Boot Camp on older versions of Mac OS
But this time, I'm getting the following error before I reach the partition page:

The installer disc could not be found.
Insert your Windows installer disc and wait a few seconds for the disc
  to be recognized.

Things is, I don't have a Windows installer disk... I downloaded an ISO for Windows 8.1 from the Microsoft website.
It might be worth also pointing out that the optical disk drive on my iMac no longer works, I'm not sure if this is related to me using High Sierra or whether the drive itself has just died.
Does the Boot Camp Assistant require me to install Windows from a DVD? I just want to install it from the .ISO file like everyone else.
I could possibly purchase an external DVD drive and then figure out how to create a bootable Windows disk using that... but that seems like a lot of effort for something that might not even work.

Does disk drive means the optical (DVD) drive? Do you have the product key needed to install Windows 8.1? Why not install Windows 7 or 10?

Yes to both — I shouldn't think it would make any difference which Windows I try to install as it won't let me progress past the first screen of Boot Camp?

There are some many answers to your question here at Ask Different that I am having a hard time determining which one to direct you to. I suppose this depends on if you can EFI boot Windows 10 from a flash drive.

@DavidAnderson ah I see, would that involve creating a bootable Windows USB and trying to boot from that by holding option when starting up my Mac?

Basically, if you can EFI boot Windows 8.1 or 10 from a flash drive, then you can install Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 to BIOS boot from the internal drive. This would involve creating a bootable Windows 8.1 or 10 USB flash drive and trying to boot from that by holding option when starting up your Mac. The flash drive should use the Master Boot Record scheme. You could FAT32 format the flash drive for Windows 8.1, but probably would need ExFAT for Windows 10.

Below are answers to the questions in your post.
I did a quick check with the internet and it would appears 64 bit Windows 7 is the last version of Windows that Apple officially supports on your model Mac. Therefore, installing a Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 usually requires more than the Boot Camp Assistant.
I have a 2011 iMac with a working optical and High Sierra, so I doubt High Sierra is the reason the optical drive fails to work.
The Boot Camp Assistant does require installing Windows from a DVD on your model Mac. Although, many users here at Ask Different have modified the Boot Camp Assistant in a attempt to install Windows using a flash drive.
Officially, installing from an ISO file did not start with Macs until the 2015 model year. Apple does not support installing from an ISO with any 2009 model year Macs.
Using an external DVD drive may or may not work. There is no actual way to tell other than trying.
Personally, I would try installing the current version of Windows 10. It has been reported that a Windows 7 or 8.1 product key will work with the current Windows 10 download. I tested this earlier this year and was successful using a 2018 Mac mini.
When I installed High Sierra on my 2011 iMac, firmware upgrades were installed that allowed the Mac to EFI boot the Windows 10 installer from an ExFAT formatted internal or USB drive. Originally, I was required to use an optical drive to install Windows, but now I can also use a flash drive or install directly from the ISO file. I do not know if the same would be true for your 2009 iMac.
The answer that closest matches your question can be found at Any solution to bootcamp windows 8.1 with macbook pro 15" 2010?. This is closely related to the two questions given below.
No bootable device USB 2.0 MacBook Pro mid 2014
Boot camp install of Windows 7 issue, no bootable devices
After High Sierra was released, the use of a virtual optical drive could be eliminated on certain model Macs. This led to the following.
How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?
However, the above answer involved using the graphical user interface (GUI) which was reported to cause problems. The latest answer is below, but has not been tested on an actual Mac.
When trying to install Windows 10 on 2011 iMac keep getting error 0x8007000D windows cannot open the required file D:\sources\install.wim
The problem, with the newer answers, is that you want Windows 8.1 and the instructions are for Windows 10. The solution may simply require substituting 8.1 or 10 in the instructions. Otherwise, the instructions could be modified where you would EFI boot from Window 10, but install Windows 8.1 to BIOS boot. This would be similar to the question Dual Boot Win 7 on MBR with Win 10 on GPT.


text:
Send keys to app in background / send keys to other app without losing focus of current app
How can I make some automated service type something in a non-focussed application without making that other application the frontmost?
I found a StackOverflow answer which suggests using AppleScript:
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Google Chrome"
        set frontmost to true
        key code 4
        key code 14
        key code 37
        key code 35
    end tell
end tell

Unfortunately at the time of that answer in 2018 there were apparently no ways to make this AppleScript and its target application run in the background.
How can I simulate keyboard input to a background application on macOS Catalina 10.15.5?

System Events can only send keystrokes to the frontmost window, it cannot send keystrokes to a window that's in the background.

@user3439894 how about other solutions that are not System Events?

This same type question as been asked many times and I have never seen an answer to send keystrokes to a background window. I'd imaging it would take some sort of  C, C++, or Obj-C type level programing. Possibly JavaScript if it's a browser that supports it.

It looks like you're wanting to write the word "help" into--I'm guessing--a text box in Chrome. keystroke "help" would have been more obvious, but neither will go to a background process.  However, as @user3439894 stated, JavaScript can do this by injecting it directly into a Chrome webpage. You can send the JavaScript command using AppleScript: e.g. tell app "Chrome" to execute in tab 1 of window 1 javascript "document.querySelector(...).value=...". The JS portion will depend very much on your specific situation (i.e. the webpage).

@CJK I also don't know how to simulate keypresses with javascript. I can substitute the value directly as in your example, but it's important to simulate a human in this case.

@theonlygusti Why ?


text:
Change or disable Content Security Policy in Safari?
Trying to make my own userscripts, running them in the browser console and connect to ws://localhost:* servers, but the Content Security Policy always ruins my day.
How do I disable it in Safari?
Or change them to include ws://localhost:* ?

Impossible in Safari, I had to install Firefox Developer Edition and change it there:

by disabling security.csp.enable in the about:config menu

Which you access of course by typing about:config into the URL bar.


text:
syspolicyd producing huge amount of read on disk
syspolicyd is producing about 2-3TB of read on my SSD every 24 hours (since I leave my device on 24*7). This behavior began after the macOS 10.15.4 update, and has produced about 150TB read. Killing the process, restarting the computer does not help with the case. I am wondering what is this process doing to read data repeatedly, if anyone else has the same problem, and what is a potential solution. Thanks.
Device: Macbook Pro 16 (2019), macOS 10.15.4
Update: problem persists with 10.15.5; problem persists after disabling SIP

Did you ever figure this one out? I have the same problem on Big Sur ...

I’ve been having the same issue, Catalina, 2019 MacBook Pro, Intel processor, one thing I did notice is if I disable the Wi-Fi that stops the massive disk reading, and CPU usage, at least temporarily but when I reenable Wi-Fi sometimes it stays normal sometimes it resumes its hyper activity CPU usage and massive disk reads.

Same Macbook Pro 16 macOS 10.15.4 here.
That process verifies 3rd party software. When you open certain apps that process reads (and a lot, if the app is big). It happens to me for example when I open Photoshop 2020, it reads about 1GB.
You say you never turn it off? How much have your laptop been running? If you never power off your computer that read usage stats are not going to be wiped, so they will just keep growing, hence the huge number. If you poweroff so it starts from zero, how much syspolicyd reads in a 24h timespan?

That's an idea that could work, if you launch Activity Monitor as root, sudo /System/Applications/Utilities/Activity\ Monitor.app/Contents/MacOS/Activity\ Monitor you can double click on the syspolicyd process and examine which file descriptors it currently has open. (you could also use lsof but I like GUIs :p) Maybe you'll see something that gives you a hint.

As I've stated in the description, the process accumulates about 3TB read everyday, regardless of my restarts or kill of the process. This behavior has not happened before 10.15.4, since I can verify with my total SSD read/write status.

spctl is the tool to manipulate system policy and/or control syspolicyd.
Try disabling SIP, enabling the root user, and running spctl --master-disable.
It should get rid of the issue, if it doesn't, then something very weird is happening.
But this isn't a fix, it's kind of like replacing a fuse with a jumper wire. So what I think you should do is nuke the security policy database: spctl --reset-default, then reenable it after a reboot: spctl --master-enable.
All these commands need to be done as root, or with sudo
Without knowing what caused the issue in the first place though, I daresay it is likely it is likely to return. It might be some malformed rule was added to your policy db and nuking it fixes the problem, but I sort of doubt that. At least by doing this, hopefully you can diagnose the issue by keeping an eye on when the problem returns (probably after you authorize an application to run - you will need to authorize every single 3rd party non-MAS app to run after the reset)

Thanks, I will wait a day to see if it takes effect

Unfortunately, the process produced ~100G read in an hour even after completely disabling SIP and killed the process. I think there is really "something very weird happening"

What are the risks of deleting the security policy DB? Will it be re-generated and/or will anything need to be re-configured?

Give the Terminal app the "Developer Tools" privilege, i.e. via:
System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Developer Tools

This may solve or, in my case with Catalina, significantly reduced the sys*d diskio and cpu time.
A possible cause to the problem is the notarization, therefore, the syspoliced constantly scans binaries. The Developer Tools privilege can bypass this check.

I my tests, that doesn't help, unfortunately

A possible cause to the problem is the notarization, therefore, the syspoliced constantly scans binaries. The Developer Tools privilege can bypass this check.
This makes total sense to me. Enabling DevTools for iTerm did the trick for me. Cheers!


text:
ssh: Identity not Loaded from Keychain at Startup
I have configured a host in my ~/.ssh/config like this
Host pptest
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_test_2048_pp
UseKeychain yes
AddKeysToAgent yes

This key has a passphrase on it. As was my understanding, UseKeychain and AddKeysToAgent should automatically load the keys passphrase on reboot, however I have not found this to be the case. To get for instance a git-fetch (or any remote action involving ssh) working, I still need to run an
ssh-add

beforehand.
Why is this happening?
My system is 10.15.5 (19F96)

The problem disappeared once I manually added the key in the shell using
ssh-add -K <path/to/key>

Now the key is also loaded at startup.

Have you done a ssh-copy-id of your public key to your host? If not the
UseKeychain yes
AddKeysToAgent yes

is meaningless, since the host has no way of verifying who you are, and will ask for the password or passphrase.
Take a look at Taming the terminal part 30/37 for an explanation.
Also man ssh-copy-id should give you more info.

Of course, otherwise a connection would not even be possible, even if I entered my private key passphrase.


text:
MacOS mdfind/mdutil issue and updatedb command : how to index all the files on my /Volume (root /)
A simple question : on Linux, updatedb command which is launched a second time seems not to reindex all the hard disk.
On MacOS Catalina (or maybe for previous), it seems that the command sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb reindexes all.
Is there an option for locate.updatedb to only update what's new ?
I thought about doing : sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb -u but I am not sure.
mdfind is a great tool but has got no transparency about its dameons mds  : I said this since suddenly on my MacOS, mdfind stopped finding recent files, and it was very frustrating. Moreover,  it takes a long time to index all the Volume (several days in my case, 2TB HD).
So I wonder if locate.updatedb command that updates from what is already existing is possible ?
On Linux systems, where updatedb is performed, this command is very quick because the whole database is no reindexed.
I just want not to reindex all the /Volume at each time I launch locate.updatedb on MaOS.
UPDATE 1:
I have killed all mds and processes relaled to mdutil and mdfind. Then, I launched yesteray a :
mdutil -E / :
here what I get when I do a ps aux | grep mds :
$ psu | grep mds
root              9607   0.0  0.9 11835260 285804   ??  Ss    9:20PM   2:14.29 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mds_stores
root              9606   0.0  0.2  6866808  71984   ??  Ss    9:20PM   5:27.05 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Support/mds .
I don't understand why it doesn't return all files which normally should be found : example with mdfind -name README, it only return a partial of the expected result (nothing is displayed into my $HOME).
Moreover, the loop glass on right top indicates that indexing is fully carried out but from my opinion, this is too fast, I have 1.2TB of data of index : is it normal, what do you think about this ?
Any suggestion/explanation is welcome.

The updatedb program on macOS is a very different program than the updatedb program on Linux. In contrast to the Linux program, the macOS program does not attempt to reuse existing database data about directories that haven't changed.
There's no option for the macOS program that will make it behave like the Linux program.

@jksoegarrd So how to control or check the progress of indexing on MacOS with mdfind tool ? I don't know when indexation is finished, it seems to take a lot of time (several days on my 2 TB hard disk), what are exactly the daemons which runs and index ? mdfind is not transparent at all. You will really help me if you can answer to these different questions  or some of them. Recently, I lost the main utility of mdfind when recent files created were no more found, and it was very frustrating.

Click the "looking glass" icon in the top right corner of your desktop. It will show you indexing status when indexing is in progress.

Regarding daemons - the mds daemon is responsible for the functionality - it receives events when files and folders are changed, deleted or added. It spawns mdworker processes which then update the index with those changes.

If you feel the indexing process has gone haywire, you can use the following guide to rebuild the index: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

I would prefer lauching the reindexing from terminal command line. Is it the following command right on MacOS Catalina : cd / ; mdutil -E / ? I saw it might be necessary ,before, to delete DS_store or V100 files but I didn't find these files on my root /.

Well, the first part of the command serves no purpose... but yes "mdutil -E /" would delete the metadata database on the root volume (i.e. note that this is NOT a path, but rather you're specifying a volume - so if you have multiple disks, make a note of this).

If you're interesting in what you can do more specifically, run "man mdutil" to read about it.

I have killed all mds and processes relaled to mdutil and mdfind. Then, I launched yesteray a mdutil -E / : here what I get when I do a ps aux | grep mds : psu | grep mds root              9607   0.0  0.9 11835260 285804   ??  Ss    9:20PM   2:14.29 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mds_stores root              9606   0.0  0.2  6866808  71984   ??  Ss    9:20PM   5:27.05 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Support/mds .

I don't understand why it doesn't return all files which normally should be found : example with mdfind -name README, it only return a partial of the expected result (nothing is displayed into my $HOME).

Why did you kill mds and the processes? - Why are you running the ps command? (I know what it does, but I'm asking why you're running it). I.e. you come with the objective to reindex, and I tell you how to do it - but now you're doing unrelated stuff. Why?

Did you reindex before using mdfind? -- Have you checked in System Preferences => Spotlight that you haven't excluded your home folder from the index?

@jkoegaard. I just wanted to rebuild all the index and that's why I have erased all the existing data index by doing a mdutil -E. Is it correct to do this ?

Yes, it is literally what I told you to do a few comments back?  ... But remember to run it on all your volumes/drives. I.e. on a modern system you'll probably have a seperate system volume from the user data volume.


text:
Is it possible to download full iCloud backup for iOS 13?
I remember it used to be possible to download the full iCloud backup. However, after trying a bunch of tools (Dr Fone, syncios, easeUS, iPhone backup extractor) online that claims to download iCloud backup, none of them actually works. Is there any way to do this currently?

It's probably important to note that using any method that doesn't require you signing in won't work as iCloud backups are encrypted and you’d need to be logged in to access them.
I'd be hesitant even trying third-party tools as they don't use Apple's official login process, making it unclear how they manage your credentials and if they keep them safe.
Regardless, the only offical way to download an iCloud backup is by (restoring it to a device, if required, and then) backing it up to a computer using iTunes where the backup file can then be stored elsewhere.

iCloud backups can be read by apple

Yes what you ask is generally and technically possible and also requires some skill and/or funding to perform.
If you intend to access your account, I’d read over the Apple terms and conditions carefully. The US license has language that prohibits anyone from accessing the service (which has the data) through automated means including scripts.
Then decide if you need a lawyer to make sure you are not in violation of the terms before you access your data with a tool or script like the commercially available tools like Elcomsoft phone breaker suite.

https://www.elcomsoft.com/eppb.html

I would instead use Apple’s iOS and hardware to download your full backup unless you’re sure you need other means and have evaluated the legality and risk to access the data in a way that’s potentially not licensed.
The terms also explain what a “full backup” is and is not - so you might need to use a backup method other than iTunes based on what full means to you.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/icloud/en/terms.html

The following content is not included in your iCloud backup: content purchased from the iTunes Store, App Store, or Apple Books, media synced from your computer, and your photo library if you have enabled iCloud Photo Library

this is not an answer IMO. I get the legality issue mentioned here but that imo could be a comment!?

I’m not sure ios 15 and 16 are relevant for iOS 13 era design. Maybe a new question would be better than fitting this into a comment @Daij-Djan I do appreciate the feedback


text:
Prevent photoanalysisd from spinning up fans
At times I hear my MacBook (Mid-2015, 15" retina) get loud, fans whirring. It becomes pretty hot to touch.
I check Activity Monitor: photoanalysisd is using near 100% CPU.
What is "photoanalysisd" and why is it using 77% of my CPU? says that it's due to changes in Photos.app... I have never used Photos.app. None of the answers on that question help me.
I just Force Quit photoanalysisd now whenever this happens, and haven't noticed any problems.
But it's frustrating when this happens.
How do I stop photoanalysisd from hogging CPU?
I'm running macOS Catalina 10.15.4

Did you try all the answers in the linked question just now?

@nohillside none of them are newer than my question, and I remember reading that question before I asked this one. I don't have this photoanalysisd problem anymore so I can't actually test answers now.

Go to AppleID > iCloud and disable Photos.
Go run Photos app and verify there are no libraries, delete all images or delete the library so when you relaunch Photos is asks to create a library.
Repeat these steps for every user on your Mac in Accounts
Restart the Mac.

At that point you might need look into logs to see what’s triggering the daemon to do work or run a sysdiagnose on the process. Also, Photos can have many libraries, so you might need to switch libraries to locate the system library or other ones. Photo analysis can run on any library - not just the one you expect when you launch the app.

Im not using iCloud, but still got this problem

Check console for photoanalysisd. I suspect it’s restarting over and over. Mine is.


text:
Jenkins Job fails in Mac OS catalina
I have installed Jenkins in Mac OS and trying to run a sample maven project but everytime build fails /bin/sh: /Users/aartiashok/Desktop/apache-maven-3.6.3/bin/mvn: Operation not permitted
I have given full disk access to terminal and bash.
Please assist

Is this related to Emacs in any way? If not, you have a better chance to get an answer if you post the question in another forum.

looks like a OS-level permissions trouble more than an emacs problem as @Lindydancer said.

What are the access rights on that file?

How is your Jenkins been installed ?? As a WAR deployed in an application server - as a docker image - started a WAR with java -jar jenkins.war ??


text:
Trying to find the culprit taking up space on Catalina HD
I am at a loss of how to clear up system files manually on a 2017 MBP. Upon running du -h -d 1 I get;

Now the private folder is way too big and I am cautious to clear that out. I know I could clear the private/var files to an extent but want to try and avoid that. The user caches say they are  only taking up 7.3GB, after running du -sh ~/Library/Caches.
Any guesses of where/what I can purge to get this system's storage down? Any help is greatly appreciated.

@Tetsujin Why not upvote a question - when it’s clear enough to be a possible dupe, it’s clearly one that needs solving and we have a good grasp of one way to solve it. I’d +1 every question I find a dupe TBH. Same comment for jmh - if a question is good enough to answer, it’s always +1 in my book

@bmike - I always upvote if I answer. tbh, it simply never occurred to me in this instance. Rectified.

Welcome to how we do it Floyd - great question and you have some amazing people here helping already (not counting me - I’m a bit of a mixed bag these days)

You should use DaisyDisk or Disk Inventory X.  These apps will make a color map of your disk showing what's taking up space. Daisy Disk is not free but has a free trial. Disk Inventory X is free.  These will break down you system folder to show what is using disk space.

You’ve made a very good first measurement. /private contains files that can get cleaned at restart, so I would track that with uptime or last reboot and then remeasure after you apply all software updates.
softwareupdate -ai --restart

Then you can go in to /private one level deeper and see if it’s in var or tap or another location. I agree with jmh to use professional tools if your scripting needs help to know what’s safe to delete and make your decision visually attractive - DaisyDisk and OmniDiskSweeper are two products I gladly pay for so I can use them to save me time.


text:
How does windowing system work on MacOS?
I'm really interested in computer graphics and I would like to know how windowing and graphics systems work on MacOS.
I've started to learn how to create a window in objective-c but then I told myself that it doesn't explain what does objective-c "ask" to the hardware exactly. So I've read about X11 but I still had to install another program 'XQuartz'.
Do you have any suggestions to learn how to create a window from scratch without using any framework or library on MacOS, if it is even possible? And if it's not possible on MacOS, do you know what makes it impossible (or complicated) on MacOS?

Macos does not use x11.  It has its own system  called cocoa. There are lower level apis as well but yoy must use apple frameworks to interact with graphics. Even x11 as a framework

The best place to start learning "how to create a window from scratch" would be the official AppKit documentation.  Doing so without a framework or library, would be impossible as you would need that framework to interface your application with the OS that interfaces with the hardware.  Asking what objective-c "asks" the hardware is too much of a jump of oversimplification - there are many layers you're skipping over to get from one point to the other.

Understanding in intricate details of how all of this works is highly commendable, however, if you are just starting out in programming, I suggest not bogging yourself down in the weeds so early. Learn to develop your apps using the libraries and frameworks. As your skills develop, you will be able to better understand how those libraries "ask the hardware" to do what they do because you'll have a foundation of what the expected results and behavior is.

Macs have their own windowing system called AppKit which is not based on X11. You can certainly install X11 and use it but it's not how most Mac apps work. Creating a window from the ground up with no frameworks is going to take some work, and is maybe better suited for Stack Overflow. Even there though, this is such a rare need that you might have trouble getting an answer.
If you want to get into the real low-level details of making things work, resources exist, though you can no doubt Google as well as me. One good starting point might be the New OSX Book site.
A simple example with minimal framework code might look like this:
import Foundation
import AppKit

let aWindow = NSWindow(
    contentRect: NSMakeRect(0, 0, 400, 210),
    styleMask: [.titled, .closable],
    backing: .buffered,
    defer: false)
aWindow.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)

RunLoop.current.run()

What does objective-c "ask" to the hardware exactly?
Developers use the MacOS APIs to instruct the OS to perform common tasks, like creating a window, moving a window, resizing a window. This frees developers from having to code at the hardware level, or rewriting code for writing windows all the time. What happens 'underneath' is largely transparent.
Apple has released some parts of the OS as Open Source, but I don't think Core Graphics is one of them.
Programming is a series of abstractions. Ultimately, the computer has to plot colours for each pixel of the display. So imagine an array that describes the colour value for each pixel of the display. Now imagine a way of grouping cells in that array as rectangles, circles, lines, and other shapes. And then stick NSWindow at the very top.
X11 was created as a common 'front-end' to a variety of different hardware running Unix. As with MacOS APIs, it doesn't really tell much about what goes on 'underneath'. If you want to search for video driver frameworks or low-level hardware programming, then there will be resources you can find.


text:
Path to iOS ‘On My iPod folder
I have a iPod touch 6 running the latest version of iOS 12. I want to somehow copy a local folder onto my laptop. The folder have about 3800 images on it and it takes up about a gigabyte of storage. I tried to use iTunes, Google Drive, OneDrive, AirDrop, email and even plugging in the iPod directly and accessing the file system from there but I could not find where it has stored. It was a lot harder because I had 1+ GBs of data when the iPod only had 1 GB of RAM.
Does anybody know what the path is to the ‘On My iPod’ folder?
Any help will be appreciated.

is Files app https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206481 available on ipod ? https://support.apple.com/guide/ipod-touch/transfer-files-with-itunes-iphf2d851b9/12.0/ios/12.0

Your computer a Mac or PC? And what OS? I believe on a PC the iPod is mounted in Windows Explorer and you have direct access to the pictures folder. Also why can't you just sync the iPod? That will copy all images (and songs, and...) to the computer allowing you to then delete what you want.

@SteveChambers It is a Windows 10 computer and also the pictures are stored in Files, not Photos. iTunes just says the iPod is not set up even though it is.


text:
Changing Finder preferences 'Copy 6 items' etc
I am trying to configure a left-handed keyboard layout on my Mac.
The only real issue I'm having at the moment is changing the shortcuts for copy / paste. I easily can change this for (almost) every app using the the App Shortcuts in preferences.
The problem is that Finder, when copying multiple items, will word it like 'Copy 6 items' and so in those situations my new keyboard shortcut won't work.
Is there a way I can set Finder so that it always uses just the word 'Copy' regardless of how many items there are? If I can sort that, then I imagine my shortcut will work as intended.

Which OS version? Have you actually tried changing the Copy shortcut? (What could be more left-handed that Command C?)

No-one seems to have found any way round the 'smart' menu items on Mac - there are a few questions on here about similar efforts - but I'm puzzled… what makes a keyboard left-handed?

I had a feeling that may be the case! As I've never found a forum post where someone has managed it successfully... the problem is that Im using the mouse and have to take my hand off it when copying / pasting with the keyboard, which is a real pain when you work as a graphic designer

I appreciate that, but unless you're actually typing full paragraphs, for me I've always worked one had on keyboard, one on mouse & I taught a lot of others the same tricks [music software, not graphics, but a very heavily keyboard-oriented workflow] so it's one hand to click, the other to key command. Being musos, half my team were lefties & other than swapping mouse buttons over & moving the mouse to the left of the keyboard, I've not seen any of them struggle with the commands themselves. In that environment, pretty much the entire alphabet + all 4 modifiers were needed for some task.

I find it's a lot quicker to move my hand between a Magic Trackpad and the keyboard than the mouse. I can probably hit Command C and back in a fraction of a second. Or you could use your right hand to Copy Paste. It's not an inert stump, after all. (I hope.) As a lefty, I do try to avoid lefty customizations, (other than the mouse/trackpad being on the left.) But that's an extended discussion.

Sure, it's all horses for courses. Personally, you couldn't pay me to use a trackpad, I loathe them to the depth of my being ;-))

I too could not be converted to a trackpad even if someone paid me ha! I sometimes do use my right hand to copy/paste although I'm not a fan of having to awkwardly reach across the keyboard like that for a shortcut that I need so regularly... I'm not actually left-handed but thought I'd make the switch in order to stop putting so much strain on my right arm / shoulder


text:
Trying to Transfer Large Mac OS to System with Less Storage
Trying to transfer data from a 400GB Macbook pro to a smaller sized drive (250GB). System and Private directories are taking up a huge amount of space. Can I safely transfer most things and exclude the private directory ? What directories are critical for functionality? I apologize I am rathe new to the Mac file system. Any help is appreciated

Hit restart, when it starts up again, hold shift. You'll get into safe mode. After a minute of doing nothing, restart again. Don't hold anything this time & boot normally. See if the size of private clears up. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

I've done this a few times. I have also tried clearing the files (without deleting the folders) in /private to no avail.

Use something like Disk inventory X to find out the distribution of storage

And depending on what is going on here a utility like Onyx https://titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html that deletes caches, temp files and does all the system maintenance chores built-in to macOS might help as well, and it is freeware.

I would recommend backing your system up with Time Machine to an external HDD. In Time Machine Preferences, add /System and all these mystery directories as excluded folders. Then, make a new install of macOS to the target disk, and when you're setting it up, it should ask if you want to transfer data from an old Mac. Plug in the external backup disk and select "From a Time Machine Backup." macOS will move your applications, files and preferences back into place, but it will use the new installation for the rest of the things you excluded. That way, you won't end up with an unstable system.


text:
How do i create a OSx bootable USB using windows 10 and where do i find .dmg file?
I have an iMac 2007 20", and its a second hand computer. It was running OSx Lion when I bought it, then I upgraded it to El capitan, After that, I made a big mistake of erasing the data without taking a copy of the dmg file in USB. After reset, I only have the option to boot into the recovery mode.
I tried to reinstall El capitan, but after i enter the Apple ID, I get the error 'This item is temporarily unavailable'. I tried many times to fix it, but didnt work.
I know how to create a bootable usb, but i dont have an another mac. All i have is just a normal Pc, Windows 10 running with 28 GB HDD and 2 GB Ram. I thought of running mac os in a virtual machine but didnt work. I coudnt find the right dmg or iso file.
I tried many ways but none of them worked. Later, I just saw a post on stackexchange - How do I create a Mac OS install thumb drive from InstallESD.dmg file using Windows 7?
This thing could really work, but i need that installesd.dmg file.
This is my situation now, i dont know how am i supposed to fix it.
If anyone who owns a mac has installesd.dmg file, i would be glad if u share it to me. I have tried with many dmg files (once downloaded from https://support.apple.com/en-ae/HT206886), i used transmac also, but the usb is not recognizable by the mac. I tried using poweriso to burn mavericks iso file to usb (downloaded from https://isoriver.com/mac-os-x-mavericks-10-9-iso-dmg-image/), the usb got recognized, but there was a no entry symbol when booting. This same happened when i tried it in vmware on my pc.
If someone is happy to share me their installesd.dmg file (mostly preferred OSx lion - Osx El capitan), that would be great.
But if it is not possible, i would like to hear some alternate solutions to fix it, but pls, i cant spend any more money on this as well i dont have any other macs. This is my situation.
Edited: I asked my dad to help me resolve this (btw i m a 15yo student, and my dad bought it for my study purpose), he took me to one of his frnds house who owns the same iMac which i have. He had El Cap installed on it. I downloaded a El cap dmg file from https://support.apple.com/en-ae/HT201372, and did all the instructions given on that site. Everything went smoothly. I finally created the bootable usb and booted it, and I see the apple logo and it was loading. Just in the middle of loading, i got prohibited symbol (no entry sign). I have no idea about this and idk what to do now. I still have the bootable usb with me. Is there any ways that i could successfully install Osx from that usb, by doing some repairs? and i m sure, i wont get access to my dad's frnd's iMac again. So kindly help me solve this problem.
Also, i just opened that usb file from transmac and browsed through it,, and i found that installesd.dmg file and copied it to my windows pc. kindly tell me if that thing could help me in any way..
I need to join my zoom classes and i dont have a good pc, so i need to repair this thing quickly.
Kindly help me. Thanks!!


text:
Taking multiple pictures on timer on iPhone11
I’m looking for a way to take a number of pictures, say one pic a second over a minute, with my iPhone.
I’m aware of the time-lapse mode on the Camera app, I could record the video then take freeze frames, but beside the hassle, the quality is not high enough.
Also, I’m aware of the self-timer function of the Camera app. That is not good enough as it takes only one picture, and I want to take several without having to go back to the phone each time.
Finally, the photo burst setting is not good enough either, as the pictures are too closely spaced in time.
So is there an app or a function that allows me to take one picture every second over an interval of time?


text:
Erasing Apple products, how secure?
I am in the process of getting rid of some old Apple products:

Late 2009 iMac
iPad 2 (2012)
iPhone 4 (2011)

I've reset my iPad 2 using the feature in the preferences, to erase all content and settings.
I also plan to format my Mac by doing a clean install of High Sierra.
Would the above processes be secure enough for me to then sell / give my products away? or could data still be recovered?

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/65231/what-to-do-before-you-sell-give-away-or-trade-in-your-iphone-ipad-or-ipod-touc https://support.apple.com/HT201065

Against whom do you seek security ?  A national intelligence agency ? (in which case burn the damn things).  The six-year old rather dim son (or daughter) of someone who picks up the items in a second-hand shop ?

The iMac is a different prospect. Unless you have always used FileVault, you will also need to secure erase the drive. See https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac/how-to-prepare-old-mac-sale-3483978/ for a decent guide. [Apple's own guides assume Filevault is always on]


text:
Tricky Mac Virus
I have no idea how this happened but I have some insanely hard to find worm on my mac. I was trying to wipe an old external HHD I had to back up a Time Machine and it must have had some malware, did not realize Mac's could get a virus like this from USB plug-ins (or at least very rare)
The software is called Easy Suite and appears as a CD even though it was a hard drive passing the virus along. I did not realize it was a virus until directly connecting two of my Macbook pros and saw the that instead of displaying my hard drive on the computer, this CD drive is displayed as the only usable disk from the other device.
It becomes even weirder when you inspect the drive it has a .inf and .exe (both windows specific?) I have no idea how it is spreading or where it could be hiding. I have checked ~/Library/Cache as well as /library/cache. Additionally, ran malwarebytes and still seeing the same issues when connecting two devices. My user account has read & write privileges but cannot delete any of the files. Starting to concerned, any idea what directory these files are hiding in, any advice is greatly appreciated

I also completely wiped the computer and reinstalled OS.

That looks more like someone else on your local subnet is sharing their CD player, which will be why you can't find it locally.
Remote CDs are listed under Locations. If nothing else shows in that section, make sure they're switched on in Finder Prefs > Sidebar
Your choices are:-

Find whoever's sharing & ask them to switch it off
System Prefs > Sharing
or on Windows, Control Panel > Hardware and Sound

or…

Ignore it
Finder > Prefs > Sidebar

See Apple KB - Use the CD or DVD drive from another computer with your Mac

This still doesn't explain why connecting two Macbooks together, they show up as CD drives.... literally cannot view the contents of my hard drive when directly connecting, just displays EasySuite CD drive

If you have further information please add it to your original question. Your comment doesn't tell me anything about whether you've even tested any of my suggestions.

My apologies, I can switch my finder preferences to display my hard disks but still super weird why this EasySuite CD drive shows up when my macbook is plugged in to each other. And in disk utility I still cant see my hard drive. When I plug my macbook into my other macbook it just displays a CD drive in disk utility


text:
How to use iPhone to Store and Organize Photos Outside of Photos Camera Roll
The main issue I’m trying to solve is that when photos are transferred to the iPhone’s "Photos" via iTunes syncing, the picture gets transformed.
To verify that, sync a photo using iTunes to get it into the iPhone's "Photos"; and while iTunes is still running and the phone is connected, access the photo on the iPhone from the computer via USB and check the properties of the photo.  It's a transformed lower resolution photo.  Called Apple Support about this and they confirmed, that's what it does, works as designed, "to save space" was the reason.
Need a solution: to be able to use a photo organizer that does not rely on media being kept in iPhone "Photos" so I can use a photo organizer that does not transform any of my media.

Solution for that and as a side benefit, keep the "Camera Roll" as close to empty as possible (made a little compromise to accommodate keeping media original that has effects e.g. live, animated photos).
Need a photo organizer that:
a) stores photos/videos in it's on file space on the iPhone and can make albums from that source (so that it does not rely on "Photos").
b) is able to add photos/videos to that file space from the iPhone's "Photos" and be able to load photos/videos from any source so that everything is in one place (from which albums can be made).
To keep everything in original form, no transformations, here’s a strategy that will even work on an iPhone 5.
One compromise: to preserve the ability to play "live" photos or photos with effects, leave those in "Photos" so unfortunately, that means the Camera Roll would have some media in it.  Yes, one could compromise and let "live" photos get transformed into a .jpg and an accompanying .mov file but, the goal is to not transform anything and retain the exact characteristics of how the media plays so, if that’s important to you, leave it in "Photos".   fyi "Live Photos" and "Animated" photos are identified under "Media Types" in "Photos".
Photo organizers considered: Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor, Utiful.
Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor (free version does everything required).  Lightroom copies media into itself (it's own file space) and once it's there, you make albums that references media in that file space and therefore it will not be referencing media stored in "Photos".
To aid in getting media to the iPhone, install AirMore onto the iPhone (it's free).  AirMore serves two purposes: to transfer media to the phone, to serve as a single spot to copy media onto the iPhone which Lightroom can get at and copy the media to itself.
GETTING YOUR MEDIA ONTO YOUR iPhone.
1) Media that's on a camera.  Transfer it to a computer, use iTunes or AirMore to get it onto the iPhone.  Because AirMore's file space shows up in iTune's "File Sharing", you can copy files to that app without having to use iTune's sync.  Lightroom will be able access the file space in "AirMore" to copy the media into itself.
2) Media that's on a computer.  If you like iTunes and the computer has it installed, that's an option (copy the media to AirMore via "File Sharing).  If it isn't available, then use AirMore.  Regardless, both result in the media going to AirMore's file space where Lightroom can copy it into itself.
3) Media that's on an iPhone.  Use AirMore or Airdrop.  Airdrop is ideal for a specific scenario, for transferring "Live" photos or "Animated" photos from "Photos" because using Airdrop results in a direct transfer from one iPhones "Photos" to the other iPhones "Photos" and the media's effects are preserved.
Lightroom can now copy media into itself because it can access the files in AirMore.  Copy the media and delete it once it's copied. Lightroom can copy media from the "Photos" camera roll into itself.  Delete stuff that's been copied from "Photos".
Everything is original and in one place (except live/animated photos) in Lightroom.  The camera roll is as close to being empty as it can be.  Enjoy, get going on those albums!

Some camera apps have a “Lightbox” feature which collects up all the images you capture. When you use the Lightbox to review images you've taken, you can choose to edit the image, save it to the Photo Library, or share it with the standard iOS share sheet, which may include a way to save the image that doesn't alter it the way that @kelly-smith says that iTunes Sharing does.
An example of a camera app with this Lightbox feature is both versions of Camera+, (with whom I have no affiliation).
This also assumes the images come from the phone’s camera, rather that (say) screenshots or downloaded.


text:
Are there other VNC servers for macOS other than the built in one?
The built in VNC server is not sufficient for my needs as I cannot change settings of the VNC server.
I tried to run Vine Server (OSXvnc) but the application crashes on launch.
Are there any other VNC servers that run on macOS?

Edit-
When I connect to the built-in VNC server, I observe that it is slow. I tried to make the VNC connection faster by reducing the color level of the VNC connection so that less bandwidth is used. However, the built-in VNC server refuses to connect.
I am looking for VNC server which supports connections with reduced color level so that the VNC connection is faster.

It would be useful if you explained what about the built-in version doesn't satisfy your requirements… is it simply that you cannot change settings? What settings do you need to change?

I have edited the question to include why the built in VNC server does not meet my requirements.

As far as I know there are no other freely available, generic VNC servers for macOS besides the built-in one and the OSXvnc program.
There exist a commercial VNC server from TightVNC, but it is not generic in the sense that it allows VNC access to your macOS desktop - rather it is to be built in to a specific application to allow remote access to that only.
One thing you could try is a newer "fork" of OSXvnc (or rather just seem to be some guys providing updates on the seemingly otherwise abandoned OSXvnc project) here:
https://github.com/stweil/OSXvnc
There are even some pull-requests with bugfixes for a few bugs, so you might be lucky that one of those fixes your crash.


text:
Is it possible to test iMessage functionality without another person?
I'm trying to switch cell carriers and I want to make sure that both iMessage and SMS text work on the new one. I can trigger an SMS anytime I want through any number of websites with 2FA. Is there a way to get a test iMessage sent to you other than asking a friend through a different channel to text you?

Skype has a “test account” that you can call to verify functionality and call quality.  This sounds like it would be a good idea here as well.

Similar solution to a different problem [ultimately not what the OP wanted] - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/158740/imessage-from-imac-to-iphone/158743#158743

Try texting yourself it works a treat. Delete it afterwards cause youll be confused why it came from you weeks later.

You can send a message to yourself. I've used this when having trouble with messages. You'll have received messages on the left and the sent ones on the right just as it is with other people.

I honestly never thought of chatting with myself...then again, I’d probably lose the argument.  +1 for a simple solution that’ll get funny looks from a therapist.  :-)

This solution actually works in many situations. Want to test sending/receiving emails? Send to yourself! Want to check if the network is working because you didn't receive an SMS? Send one to yourself! Want to check that your network is working (within reason)? Ping yourself!

@IsmaelMiguel Sending an email to yourself is not sufficient to test an email system as most MTAs will route mail internally (e.g. if you use Gmail and sending an email to another Gmail user - the message won't enter the Internet at all) - some e-mail systems may detect emails-to-self and just copy the message directly from your Outbox to your Inbox without putting it through routing at all - let alone test that your DNS MX records are working or that your sending (or receiving) SMTP server is functional.

@Dai You missed the point ... It isn't to test the email system, it's to test the client-side email configuration, to make sure that the email application is sending and receiving emails properly. Server-side doesn't matter at all, as I assume a fully working system. I've had troubles configuring emails on iPhones and many more with the Mac's mail app. Just sending a simple email to yourself helps to make sure you have configured everything correctly.


text:
Can I find the source code for Grapher?
Grapher is an application that is installed on macOS by default. Can I find its source code, or is it proprietary?

Grapher is not an open-source app and you can not find its source code publicly.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/388101/open-dev-in-finder "hopper" can be used though

Is there any way to get it, even if not from the internet?

Is it at least possible to know how it was written


text:
How to delete or change the words "My card" under my own name at the top of "Contacts"? (iOS 13.5.1)
When I open "Contacts" on my iPhone XR running iOS 13.5.1, the person listed at the top is me. The index entry consists of three parts: my name in bold; an image I've chosen; and, under my name in smaller type, the words "My Card".
How can I delete or change the words "My Card"? (Note: this is all I want to change. I do not want to delete myself as a contact, or my name, or the image.)

You can’t change those words. They are hard coded into the application and it shows them to identify which contact in the app identifies you.
If you don’t want that contact to be identified as you, go into the preferences for the contacts app and choose a different card under “My Info”. If that doesn’t work, you can delete the card and re-add it, but without choosing the card as your contact details.

Many thanks. The contact is already identified as special by being at the top, using big type, and having an image to its left. So is there no way to keep these features but lose (or change) the words "My Card"? I did the first thing you suggest, but all it does is put a contact at the top who isn't me, keeping the line saying "My Card", which isn't what I'm after. Isn't there a way to hack this?


text:
Corsair Virtuoso Sidetone on MacOS
I am setting up a new Corsair Virtuoso headset on my Mac computer. The audio and the microphone from the headphones works on both wired and wireless mode. However, I can't get the SideTone feature to work on either mode.
I am seeing an alert on the iCUE software which is telling me "to fully enable all audio features of your CORSAIR headset, please allow CORSAIR system extension in Security & Privacy settings. System restart may be required for the changes to take effect."
The only place I can find anything related to Corsair in the security & privacy settings is the iCUE request in "accessibility" (picture attached). I have restarted the computer and reinstalled all drivers.
I couldn't upload screenshots to this message, so I've included two via this google drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bMSd3G2AGeiGyu4113Zn1Hdm6n0ygCbG?usp=sharing
Anyone have any suggestions for possible solutions to enable Sidetone on my Corsair Virtuoso headphones on my Mac?
Thanks,
Brian

The image is unreadable so thje question makes no sense

To include pictures click on the little image icon next to the {} on top of the editor box.

on Security and Privacy, on the General tab there should be a message saying something like Corsair was blocked.... enable developer access to Corsair or so, enable that and restart it should work afterwards, this worked for my void elite


text:
Will this Mac mini setup work as I intend?
I'm thinking of switching to a Mac mini setup, this one in particular:
New Apple Mac mini (3.6GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB) — https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08636S4KV
For my display, I'm thinking this 24 inch Dell P2415Q 4K IPS Monitor — https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00QAJ2MOM
Would a Mac mini be able to output at Ultra HD 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution so that I can make the most of the display? or would I be better off buying a lower resolution display?
Also I've noticed the Mac mini only has two USB ports, I could do with 4 in total, for the following:

Phone charger
External hard drive (for Time Machine backups)
Keyboard
Mouse

So I was thinking of buying this 4-port USB hub — https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y25XFGK
But I think I've had problems with these in the past, where they don't generate enough power for certain devices. Am I likely to have this problem using this with a Mac mini?

The 2018 Mac mini can output two displays at 4096 x 2304 from its Thunderbolt connectors, and one 4096 x 2160 display via its HDMI port.
So a single 3840 x 2160 display is well within its capabilities.
The mini has 2 USB A ports, but 4 Thunderbolt ports, which also provide USB C. You could use a USB C to A adaptor or cable to connect a USB device.
I have a mini with an Anker 7-port USB hub, and that powers both my iPhone and external USB drives. My iPad, however, does not charge through the hub. Keyboard and mouse take minimal power. You might want to connect the drive to the mini directly, and the hub to the 2nd USB A port.
Most hubs do come with an optional power supply, but I would expect that would only be needed for multiple high-power devices.


text:
USB became write-protected after trying to install Windows on BOOTCAMP
I tried to install windows using BootCamp, and it formatted my usb and loaded windows files and gave me an error that not enough space available, so I changed my mind and wanted to use my pen drive for other works, but bootcamp made it write-protected not able to format it or edit it, Tried using disk Utility and many more...

Partition or Erase the disk rather than the partition: in the Disk Utility sidebar, choose ‘Kingston DataTr…’ rather than ‘WinInstall’ and try your operation again.

No not working Already tried that as well

I’m getting the error. Unmounting disc, creating the partition map, couldn’t open device, operation failed if I do it as you said

Maybe take out the hard drive then put it in and then repeat his suggestion.

Open Terminal

diskutil list to find the device /dev/diskXX (/dev/disk3, etc)
diskutil eject /dev/disk3
sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/rdisk3 bs=10m

Be patient it may take a while.  This should write random data to the Flash drive, effectively wiping it.  You should then be able to remove it and re-insert and re-format it however you wish.
Some Flash drives have a write protect hardware switch, make sure that is not engaged.
Reboot try this again if it fails.  It should not fail. Unless the disk is bad or it's one of those fake USB drives that claim to have more storage than it really does.  Scammers selling fake USB drives, etc.


text:
Is there a way to send a music file from Finder to an iPhone's music library?
I have files in, for example, ~/Downloads/music that I'd like to have on my iPhone's local music library. Is it possible to do this via Finder or some Terminal command, rather than having to connect a USB cable and use iTunes? Maybe something with Airdrop? Finder also has a "Quick Actions" command if you right-click a file, is there an extension that would do this?

I’m going to assume you don’t want to just scrip moving the file into Music on the mac so the file adds to the library and then syncs. That’s the clear easiest way to do this, but I get the feeling you’ve discarded using Apple to sync the library from mac to iOS. Can you confirm. Also - not at all critical of your question - I kind of went off to a “general observation” about this - lemme know if you’d rather my answer have less about Apple in general.

There isn’t a filesystem based local library on iOS. You will want to put it into Files app and use a different player if you really need to play files from an arbitrary box of files.

Files.app can play most songs without needing an app.

It multitasks and I have some FM radio recordings that are 2-3 hours long and they play amazingly well from Files app. I don‘t want these in my iTunes library so even though I’m all in with Apple Music and a cloud library - I have some esoteric stuff and audio books, lecture notes, radio performances I choose to store in the filesystem. Files on demand from iCloud works so well for my case I encourage anyone to try that.
Is there a reason why you’re using Music app and not syncing the libraries via Apple Music? Same question for using iCloud to sync files same as box.com / Dropbox / google and other file sync options between macOS and iOS.
It’s easy to automate moving files on macOS with services, folder actions and more, the problem here is Basically to chose a different player that works with files dumped in a directory as opposed to adding them to a music library that then syncs.
You are among some very smart and sophisticated People that have this understandable misconception about Photos / movies / books / music. Without an insight into how the ecosystem is designed, people revert to dumping files in a folder and hoping the apps read from a filesystem. No judgement, but this is a common request for something Apple design rejected about a decades ago as a sub-optimal experience on the platform. Since then Apple has doubled down time and time again on managed libraries and incremental sync. You don’t have to buy in to that, just find apps that buy in to how you like to store your data.

I often wish I could just add a song here and there directly on the phone, but so far Apple has said no. Oddly enough you can play audio files directly in Dropbox. I tried that. I found that not having music in the iOS music.app resulted in me ignoring the music in Dropbox.

@SteveChambers I should add - just playing the song from the Files app or from another app is super pleasant if you can’t stomach Apple Music. Hey Siri, play whatever still blows my mind. I do that twice a month and I’m listening to a concert I would have paid $65 to see and I get it all for pennies a day. I don’t blame anyone for rejecting Apple’s design, but recognizing that design unlocks the need to do some work to find other apps that can work from files app sync.


text:
Can't delete NortonForMac.kext
I downloaded Norton for my MacBook Pro 2018 13 inch a few months ago, and after uninstalling it, according to the instructions given by the official Norton FAQ, some files remained in my computer that couldn't be deleted by dragging them to the bin. I ran another program designed by Norton to exclusively eliminate any leftover files from the antivirus program itself, and I still can't get rid of one final file: NortonForMac.kext. My MacOS is in Spanish, so the directory in which it appears to be stored in is /Macintosh HD/Biblioteca/StagedExtensions/Library/Extensions. Can someone help me delete it?

Are you on macOS Mojave or Catalina? I'm not sure for Catalina as system files are now on a seperate partition I believe? But with macOS Mojave and earlier, you may be able to delete it by disabling System Integrity Protection. I personally wouldn't tinker too much with kernel extensions, so be very careful with it. Hope this helps

I'm on MacOS Catalina.


text:
Catalina cannot resolve servers in the .local domain without the domain being specified

tl;dr In the Catalina terminal ping lan-services.local works but ping lan-services does not

I have a 2012 Mac mini that I just installed Catalina on from scratch (i.e. blank SSD and USB install) connected to a home network via Ethernet that cannot find servers / devices on the LAN without appending '.local' to the name.  This was not needed before Catalina on the same LAN set-up (i.e. the only thing I can think of that's changed is the OS on the Mac).
e.g.
~% ping lan-services
ping: cannot resolve lan-services: Unknown host
~ % ping lan-services.local
PING lan-services.local (192.168.1.10): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=5.480 ms
...
^C

Network Config for Ethernet

IPv4 configured Using DHCP
IPv6 configured Link-local only
DNS set to 1.1.1.1 and 208.67.220.220 (set by router)
Advanced / DNS / Search Domains is local (no dot as per help examples)
Mac Firewall is OFF
Everything else has not been changed (i.e. default to Catalina)

/etc/hosts file
No entries have been added (where not needed on Mojave)
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1   localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost

VPN and Anti-Virus

VPN software installed BUT NOT active - this is the same as the previous Mojave install
Two VPNs Windscribe and Bitdefender (I could not load Bitdefender without its VPN software)
Disabling Bitdefender 'Shield' does not help

Target servers / devices

Internet router is DNS server with a default domain as local
Some set up as static IPv4 in their config files - some dynamic
Internet router has static IPv4 assignments for the servers / devices
ISP does not support IPv6 so the router is set to RADVD (link-local) but NOT bound to an external interface
Finder correctly shows the server I am trying to PING
Finder opens the server shares fine (it is a Pi using Netatalk / AFP for file sharing NOT SMB)
Some devices have IPv4 only, some have IPv4 and IPv6 stacks loaded
No devices has any firewall settings that would stop PING or SSH

scutil --dns output
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : local
  nameserver[0] : 1.1.1.1
  nameserver[1] : 208.67.220.220
  if_index : 5 (en1)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000002 (Reachable)

resolver #2
  domain   : local
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300000

resolver #3
  domain   : 254.169.in-addr.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300200

resolver #4
  domain   : 8.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300400

resolver #5
  domain   : 9.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300600

resolver #6
  domain   : a.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300800

resolver #7
  domain   : b.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 301000

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : local
  nameserver[0] : 1.1.1.1
  nameserver[1] : 208.67.220.220
  if_index : 5 (en1)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000002 (Reachable)

Things checked

A search turned up this question (though it seems to be a
reverse issue) and the solution of adding mdnsactivedirectory via
discoveryutil but that program seems to have been deprecated in Catalina - this was not required in Mojave.

I may not be the only one having this issue (going by this Apple Forum question) but no domain is shown and the 'hint' is either
talk to Apple or look at Active Directory (not installed here).

Turning on file sharing does not help.

Checked sons Windows 10 PC - he can reach devices without the .local as well as devices with the .local (pin lan-services checked
before pin lan-services.local) and is running iTunes for his music.

A note from above test today I'm not running iTunes as Apple changed to iTune to the Music App

Just installed Discovery - DNS-SD Browser from eh App Store (thanks to Lily Ballard for this FOC package). This shows its picking up services from AFP over TCP and picking up all the devices on my home LAN (easier to play with):

Workarounds I'm trying to avoid

Adding entries into /etc/hosts
Adding .local to the end of each server name by hand - me being lazy (though this is what I am currently doing)
Installing ANOTHER DHCP / DNS server (e.g. pi-hole / pfSense etc)
Downgrading to Mojave
Moving to SMB shares - one server does not seem to support SMB without a whole series of faff for security and performance is pathetic. TBH also I do not have a great deal of practice with SAMBA security (basic shares fine) and no spare cash in project to upgrade old servers if Samba does not run on them.

Can you include the output of the Terminal command "scutil --dns" ?

Edited main question to show scutil --dns (not a command I know so Google here I come).

Very Quick Google infers this is to set local DNS server for mdns / bonjour I take it record two shows no server from reach but do not know how to correct.  Please see notes on iTune / Bonjour in question. Appologies for delay - think I am suffering from Viral Labyrinthitis and may not be able to get back for a day or so - Screen making it worse despite anti-nausea drugs / trying to sleep it off.  Going to ring NHS help line.

As you seem to have discovered, local is a special TLD route on Apple machines. This may not be the solution you are looking for, but I had similar problem earlier this year and ended up sidestepping it entirely by using the internal TLD instead of local with my DNS. If you have any control whatsoever over your internal router’s default DNS, changing that is what is recommended. If you search online, there is a list of TLDs recommended for intranet use (though internal TLD is overall discouraged). You will note that local is not in this list for this very reason

Note that another workaround is for you to set a static IP for your intranet services and use the IPV4 to resolve (eg set 192.168.1.10 as static on the router for the service machine and then on the client resolve using that instead of lan-services.local). I am not sure what the ramifications are of trying to get around the built in .local DNS behavior on the Apple machine which seems to be what you are asking how to do but doing so could risk breaking some ITunes/Bonjour functionality on the machine if you do so.

I'm back with a pile of tablets, blurry eyes and a splitting headache! Not sure I'm breaking mDNS as I'm telling the Mac to search local by default in search domains in Sys Pref / Network / Advanced / DNS... One target is static in router and device but ssh -4 still fails to resolve with config above - time to play with https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38867905/how-to-view-dns-cache-in-osx I think

Think I'm going to have to merge my DNS and DHCP to one box to give me more control over the local / internal.  I know .local is a total mess (See Microsoft build notes et. al) but I have no AD to worry about only history :-). I wish ICANN would get of the fence over this (mega-money been offered for .local I assume) gggrrrr...  For any folk baffled what @Conor and I are talking about see https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6762#appendix-G and https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/name-collision-it-pros-faqs-2014-08-01-en

In fact ICAAN get worse. Their IT Guide states 'ICANN has stated that it will indefinitely defer delegating three TLDs: .corp, .home, and .mail. These gTLDs are still in common use in private namespaces' but qualifies it with 'The deferral is not guaranteed to be forever'...  They even published a note in 2013 stating they have an option to BLOCK a gTLD but IANA have had to put local in their special use list due to rfc6762 as ICANN(ot) does not seem to want to do this (rant over)

I had the same problem.
I tried to SSH to my RaspberryPi from raspberrypi.local, but it wouldn't connect.
ping command did not connect too.
I was able to SSH connect and ping using the terminal app on my iPad.
In my case, the cause was the DNS settings.
On my Mac, DNS was set to 8.8.8.8.
So I removed the DNS record from Network System Preferences.
Then I was able to connect to SSH.
I still can't reach the ping, but it's good that I can connect to SSH.

That is a different problem the questions says ping lan-services.local works but ping lan-services doesn't So for the OP raspberrypi.local would work

Well it might work - the issue for you is if the raspberry is configure to use mDNS and that is a subject for another forum, - I think there is a Raspberry on if not then SuperUser

This is expected behaviour
.local is a special extension It is documented in rfc6762
As the abstract says

In particular, the ability
to look up DNS resource record data types (including, but not limited
to, host names) in the absence of a conventional managed DNS server
is useful.

So looking for x.local does not use any DNS server and x will not appear in any DNS so there is no network it can be addresses simply as x on.
Apple's implementation of this protocol is called Bonjour and is on Apple devices.
According to Wikipedia
It might be implemented in Windows 10

Although Windows operating systems often do not have built-in mDNS function, it can be added by installing zeroconf software available from Apple and other third parties, and it is beginning to be added in Windows 10.

For Linux it says

Most Linux distributions also incorporate and are configured to use zero configuration networking. By default, each computer’s Avahi daemon will respond to mDNS hostname.local queries, and most shell commands and application program calls that attempt to resolve such names are routed to that daemon by the default hosts: line in the Name Service Switch configuration file. It is also possible to configure the nss-mdns modules and Avahi to resolve hostnames with other pseudo-TLDs.

So you might have to do extra work on non Apple machines

Not a great solution but it seems that you need to have a DNS server that lives on the .local domain for Macs to be able to search correctly now.
The standard UK ee Router / Modem box does not have any options for adding a domain into its config but as soon as the router was swapped for a 2nd hand TP-Link one everything was OK.
Going back to the ee Router caused the same issues till a pi-hole system was built and put on the LAN as the first DNS server then everything was OK.

Pi-Hole did not need configuring as DHCP
Pi-Hole did not need to act as an ad-block

I've since moved over to using pi-hole v5 as the DNS/DHCP server and its now handling devices across a WiFi bridge (yet another Pi) and Airport Extreme fine.
Thanks to Conor for the initial thought of setting the router up - lead me to check the router domain options.
Note: I think the ee router defaults to a domain of .home going from the odd entry or two in its log but as that's now in storage I'm not fussed and the Tp-Link box gives a more stable connection as well.