text:
How to improve into vim of MacOS Mojave the speed of vertical scroll with bottom/up keys?
I transfer the original post from StackOverflow (Original post) to here since this is about Apple specificity.
I have a new macbook with Mojave and vim already installed.
Unfortunately, even for small source files, the cursor is very fast when I browse the current part of file where I am located but it becomes very slow when I am over this current page (the same thing occurs if I am over or lower this part) with down/up keys.
I don't talk about "mouse scrolling speed" but scrolling with down/up keys.
I saw and tried to apply different suggested solutions on web but none of these work for me (disable cursorline, using an empty ~/.vimrc , etc ...).
Maybe threre is a conflict with some options in my ~/.vimrc.
Here below my ~/.vimrc:
set encoding=utf-8
scriptencoding utf-8
set ic
command Il :%s/^/\=line('.'). ' '
set hlsearch
set shiftwidth=2        " number of spaces to use for auto indent
set autoindent          " copy indent from current line when starting a new line
set nu
syntax on               " syntax highlighting
set backspace=indent,eol,start " delete with backspace
"TOhtml
let html_use_css=1
let html_number_lines=1
let html_no_pre=0
highlight DiffAdd    cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
highlight DiffDelete cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
highlight DiffChange cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
highlight DiffText   cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=88 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red

I have changed into System Preferences the delay between 2 repeated keys to a small value :
So, into the default Terminal of Mojave macbook, I can move quickly with left/right keys on the command line.
Is there a relation between this small delay I have set and this slow scroll vertically with donw/up keys into vim ?
Another bug which must be known is that some commented code parts (for example when editing Python code with vim) appears as not commented when scrolling with down/up keys and also the contrary occurs : anyone has already got this strange behavior ? this problem doesn't happen when I browse file with CTRL+F or CTRL+B shortcuts.
Any help is welcome, Regards
UPDATE 1 :
Finally, I get to increase speed with the following link :
https://rehmann.co/blog/better-key-rates-osx/
I  decided to  switch  to iterm2.  So, as partial conclusion, the solution was to set fatest options in System Preferences and put into ~/.bashrc :
#disable special characters when holding keys
defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

# normal minimum is 15 (225 ms)
defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -float 10.0
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -float 10.0

# normal minimum is 2 (30 ms)
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -float 1.0
defaults write -g KeyRepeat -float 1.0
############# Enable spees ######################

It might be even too fast. That's why I wonder if there is a way to apply this big speed only for selected keys,  i.e in my case, I would like to have this behavior for only down/up and left/right keys and NOT for the others keys (letters or special characters) ?
Is it possible to get this behavior ?
UPDATE 2 : Ok, I have finally found the trick : in iterm2 terminal, there is a GPU rendering option on below image :

If you have no power on, GPU rendering was by default disable like, so uncheck the first box to be able to benefit from GPU rendering when computer is on battery :

That's all !

This question and bounty were about speeding up the scroll. Are you interested in keeping it up or want to ask about the new issue? If the former, ask a new question about the new issue and post an answer here, with the solution you found. If the latter, I feel it will affect the already posted answer too. Both together make it a very unclear and a bit broad question and a potential misuse of bounty.

@ankii  thanks, I got your feedback,  I can speed up moving of cursor into  terminal (iterm2)   and into vim (horizontally and vertically). But now, I would like to select this  high  speedd  only for down/up  and left/right arrows keys and for delete key. I would like a lower speed for others keys (I mean for letters characters and special characters) : is it possible to do a selection on  keys with different dedicated speeds ? Regards

Yeah I did see the edit. I am unable to answer about vim, but commented to let you know that the question was very unclear then. There are questions lying here and there like this one "Is there a relation between this small delay I have set and this slow scroll vertically with donw/up keys into vim ?" and "anyone has already got this strange behavior ?" And no matter what the outcome of this bounty is, do post even the partial answer below!

How to improve into vim of MacOS Mojave the speed of vertical scroll with bottom/up keys?

You didn't tell which Vim's variant you use, whereas there's no such thing as "standard Vim" in MacOS. In fact lots of things aren't described either, including Terminal's window geometry (the more text is shown at once, the more CPU cycles it'd be needed to scroll it), Terminal's active profile (some of them are slimmer and others have somewhat complex graphics thanks to additional effects — "Silver Aerogel" is one example).
I use homebrew's version of Vim and can tell that its scrolling is quite fast (at least there's no slowness) both in Terminal and in iTerm2.
Hence, a few suggestions that logically follows:

Try changing either Vim or terminal (or both).
Try using GUI version (gvim) and compare its scrolling performance.

You can give a try to Activity Monitor's CPU monitoring (with shortest update interval possible) to see if it shows any major CPU consuming processes during scrolling in Vim.

Thanks, you can see my solution with iterm2 terminal. GPU rendering is disable by default if power of computer is disconnected,  so one has to uncheck this option and speed up for cursor moving into editor or ìterm2 is obtained. Remains the issue about the selection of speed repeating as a function of "classic letters" and only  "arrows keys"   but this will be another topic and post. Regards

ook, so is it Vim from homebrew aka macvim?

I installed for this solution the macport vim  and the terminal iTerm2.


text:
Disadvantages of using sim card from old iPhone?
I upgraded from an iPhone 5 to XS. the 5 had a mobile-carrier company sim card (non-apple). To save phonecalls, I just plugged in the old sim card into new phone and it worked. I think the new phone has a apple sim card. The sim card that came with the new phone looks newer and more shiny. Are there any disadvantages of sticking with the old sim card? Everything seems like it works. I was just wondering because many but one android user sent me an text message and it didn't go through. The 5 underwent submersion but the water damage detector didn't register water damage.

In terms of using the phone day to day, there's no disadvantages with re-using the SIM card from the old phone.
The disadvantage lies primarily with the fact that if you had requested a new SIM card from your provider, you would have received one that could be running newer software (inside the SIM card). This could be relevant if you were the target of a specific hacking attempt, as the SIM card software is rarely, if at all, updated by providers after it is sent out.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Launchctl starting Virtual Machine before USB is intitiated
I have a plist file located in /Library/LaunchDaemons that starts a Virtual Machine headless with Ubuntu on it.
The problem is however that USB probably isn't initiated before the VM is started, and hence an USB stick located in COM port /dev/ttyACM0 (on VM) isn't available.
Output from "VBoxManage showvminfo userver" when running an normal start:
Currently Attached USB Devices:
UUID:                        73eb5973-ce2a-4410-8820-4ec7376e3f1d
VendorId:                    0x0658 (0658)
ProductId:                   0x0200 (0200)
Revision:                    0.0 (0000)

Address:                     p=0x0200;v=0x0658;s=0x0000000c8eba2f72;l=0x14200000

And with an autostart:
Currently Attached USB Devices:
<none>

Is there a way to delay startup of the script?

There probably is; however, you've provided no information in that area within the contents of your post and therefore a definitive answer cannot be provided. What language is the script written in and what is its content? If bash there is the sleep command. You could also incorporate a loop checking for the existence of the necessary process and then break out of the loop to then load the VM.

The script is a #!/bin/sh script. I thought that during start-up the scripts are run sequentially, hence there is no points in adding a sleep command? Or to check the existence of a process?

Well, it was fixed by adding "sleep 5" to the startup script

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


text:
Progress bar for transferring files to iDevice on macOS 10.15
There used to be a progress bar in iTunes, when transferring files to iDevices (Apps with file sharing). However, with the new Finder interface on Catalina, no such progress bar can be found when copying those files.
Is there any way to check the progress? This is particularly annoying as transfer of large folders usually fails in the middle.

I am new to Catalina, but it is crazy to me that there is no way to monitor the progress of a large file transfer, or even tell if it has begun.

I reported this to Apple in August 2019 during Catalina beta; the issue is still present in release and yet to be fixed. FB7102998


text:
iterm2 issue : create new tab with same path of previous current tab BUT 2 tabs are clones and not indepedent
You can see the bounty launched on StackOverflow (Bounty started about ìTerm2 problem) about this issue described below.
I have switched from default terminal on MacOSs Mojave to iterm2. I have an issue about the opening of a new tab from the current tab.
Indeed, I would like to be in the same path than the previous current tab.
For this, I did the classical procedure, i.e to go to iterm2 preferences and Profile and choose Reuse previous session's directory for new tab :

Then, the issue is that once tab opened, all the other tabs are affected and change from their old path to the path of the new tab :  I don't understand what happens and which option to use to  prevent this behavior ?
1) Evevery tab is the same than the others : if I do a cd ~/foo/, then the other tabs will go into foodirectory.
2) Result worse : if I edit with vim a file in one tab, if I do a cd ~/foo/ in another tab, then the tab associated to the edited file disappears is clearing this edition and shows the same windows than the tab where I did cd ~/foo/ : Very strange ...
I want to keep all the current path  for all  others tabs except for the new one which must be the  same than the previous one from which I do a CMD+T.
Has anyone met this kind of issue ? I saw on different forums this issue sometimes occurs.
UPDATE 1:
From what I have seen, it seems that I hvave to find a way to create a new session when I do the shortcut CMD+T to get another tab independent from the current one (from which I do CMD+T).
But unfortunately, I didn't find how to create a new session in iTerm2 (inside the iTerm2 - Preferences - profile, I could execute a script that creates this new session). From the moment, you can see the command (/bin/bash that I launch when I open a new tab :

I tried also to build the binary iTerm2 from the sources but issue remains.
UPDATE 2: I tried to use a little apple script to force a new session to be created from current window :
tell application "iTerm2"
    tell current window
        create tab with profile "Terminology2"
    end tell
end tell

where Terminology2 is a duplicate of profile Terminology (default profile).
But always the same issue, the 2 tabs are not independent : each command in one of 2 is executed on the another one.
UPDATE 2: Solution finally fixed on this link

Could anyone have clues or suggestions to get independent tabs by opening a new tab with CMD+T on Catalina MacOS on a 2019 MacBook pro ? Regards


text:
Add an App and give it permissions to access Downloads in Catalina
How do I give an app permission to access Downloads in Catalina?
The app does not appear in the list of apps. I unlocked the settings which you can see in the screenshot below but the + button is still grayed out so I can't add an app.

The app in particular is Screenflow and in trying to drag and drop an .mp4 file from Downloads into it. When I do I get this error which I'm only guessing is related to permissions

The error message was "Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=-1 "Unknown error: -1"
  UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Connection interrupted}"

I have the same issue with Octave 3.8.0's GUI version. No OS level error gets displayed but the app cannot access Downloads and no way to add in the Security and Privacy System Preferences Privacy Tab

>> QKqueueFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: open: Operation not permitted
Warning: QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Users/gregg/Downloads

>> cd Downloads
warning: load_path: .: Operation not permitted
error: cd: unable to find current directory
error: cd: unable to find current directory
>>

Note: There are newer versions of Octave for MacOS but Stanford University machine learning courses require version 3.X

Could you copy-paste the error? makes searching easier. And also that, operation not permitted has code 1, not -1

I have the same error and I find the reason here.
The reason is your Octave 3.8.0 is too old for your OS Catalina, you should download a new version of Octave(4.4.1 or 5.1.0). You can download the new version:
https://wiki.octave.org/Octave_for_macOS.


text:
make FaceTime louder
How do I make the FaceTime.app sound output louder on my MacBook?
It's too quiet for me to hear what the people on the other end are saying. Way quieter relative to every other app I use (YouTube in Safari, Discord calls, Microsoft Teams calls, etc.)
macOS Catalina 10.15, FaceTime 5.0

You can do that with third party apps such as SoundBooster from FroYoSoft or Boom3D from GlobalDelight.
They will allow you to control and optionally amplify the audio volume of each app separately.


text:
iMessage off and on on computer
I keep my iPhone on airplane mode nearly all day. I usually text via iMessage with the Messages app on my mac. I was wondering if there was any way I can turn off iMessage on my computer and then turn it back on later and get all the missed text messages (with my iPhone on Airplane Mode during this whole process). I tried signing out of iMessage but when I sign back in, I don't get the missed text messages. Thanks!

It is not possible to forward text messages to your mac while
  your iPhone is turned off or in airplane mode.
While iMessages are "just being moved" within Apple servers, text
  messages must be first received from your carrier, then synchronized with
  iCloud so that your mac can receive it too.
With your iPhone being turned off, the chain of delivery is broken.

The following steps show the iMessage way.
Make sure you sync your messages with iCloud on iPhone and Mac.
iPhone - Sync Messages with iCloud
1. Go to settings
2. Click on your Account at the top
3. Choose iCloud
4. Activate iMessage

Deactivate iMessage on macOS
1. Open iMessage
2. Go to settings with CMD + ;
3. Unselect «Enable this account»

Reactivate your account by selecting «Enable this account».

When you reactivate iMessage on macOS, you'll be notified on your iPhone:

Your Apple ID and phone number are now being used for iMessage on a new Mac. If you recently signed in to "«MAC_OS_NAME»" you can ignore this notification.

I don't see how this answers my question


text:
Snapshot hell? Unable to free space on macOS Catalina
Like many others I am unable to clear up space after deleting files.
I tried clearing snapshots:
# tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Snapshots for volume group containing disk /:
# tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates /
Snapshot dates for volume group containing disk /:
# diskutil apfs listSnapshots /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD\ —\ Data
No snapshots for disk2s1

Space used according to du:
# pwd; du -schx *
/
151G    total

Disk file system usage
$ df -h /
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5  234Gi   10Gi   15Gi    41%  482081 2448643279    0%   /

I tried recovery mode and repairing the disk -
The volume Macintosh HD — Data was formatted by hfs_convert (748.1.47) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.11.7)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking snapshot 1 of 2 (com.apple.apfs.purgatory.274c46)
error: object (oid 0x19842b0): Bad size for physical extent record key, len: 9
Snapshot is invalid
The volume /dev/rdisk2s1 could not be verified completely
File system check exit code is 0
Restoring the original state found as unmounted
Finished file system verification on disk2s1 Macintosh HD — Data

Why do I have snapshot in 'purgatory'? How can I fix my disk? How can I free up the space?

You write that you've tried clearing local snapshots, but then only show 'list' commands.  Did you actually try clearing them?  E.g. tmutil deletelocalsnapshots /

@Redarm - Yes. Time machine snapshots have never caused me an issue in the past. They did take up space but that reduced after a triggering a backup. This issue hasn’t gone away since upgrading to Catalina.

Ending up restoring from TimeMachine. It initially failed, so I used DiskUtility to reformat and then restore and that seemed to work.


text:
Can't fix sudoers permission on osx mojave
A friend had borrowed my macbook air running osx mojave and somehow managed to change the ownership of the /etc/sudoers file to userid 501 (rather than 0 which it should be). Because of this, I can't become a superuser to get anything done on my machine (upgrades etc.)
Various fora on the net suggested that I boot into single user mode, mount the partitions and manually edit /etc/private/sudoers. However, I can't seem to do this. After getting into "recovery mode", I do a mount -uw / to get the filesystems mounted but can't find a sudoers file in either /etc/ or /private/etc. I did a global search using find / | grep -i sudo but couldn't find anything either.
How do I fix this? If I can mount the right partition while in this shell, I should be able to to fix it but can't seem to do that.

Do you boot into single user or recovery mode? These are different, please clarify. This will also help to figure out whether your question is a duplicate of an existing one (as it currently looks) or whether you need an other solution?

I booted into recovery mode. Several websites suggested holding Cmd-S to boot into single user mode but that didn't work. I then read about using Cmd-R to boot into recovery mode and I have a GUI with macOS utilities mentioned with options like (restore from time machine backup, reinstall macOS etc.)

@NoufalIbrahim It depends on your Mac: With T2-chip you can usually boot to recovery mode only. Since rec mode boots from a different volume, you have to replace /etc with /Volumes/[main boot volume]/etc.

I will check. Though a find should have shown me if it were mounted.

@klanomath You're right. That partition wasn't mounted.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/353478/9058 describes how to fix this via Recovery Mode.


text:
Manually start Time Machine backup without menu bar icon
The only way I know how to manually start a Time Machine backup is by showing the Time Machine menu bar icon (by enabling that option in System Preferences), and then choosing "Start Backup" from the menu bar icon's menu.
How can I manually start a backup without having to use the menu bar icon?

In Terminal, use: tmutil startbackup Also, have a look as its manual page: man tmutil

@user3439894 do you want to make that an answer?

If you'd prefer not to have or use Time Machine from its icon on the menu bar, it can be started/stopped, and more, via Terminal, e.g.:
tmutil startbackup

Or:
tmutil stopbackup

The startbackup verb also can take options, i.e:
tmutil startbackup [-a | --auto] [-b | --block] [-r | --rotation] [-d | --destination dest_id]

Have a look at its manual page: man tmutil


text:
Hide the brightness and volume bezels in Catalina?
In macOS Mojave I followed the instructions here to hide the brightness and volume overlays:
Move the position of or hide the brightness/volume pop ups on high sierra
But this doesn't work anymore in Catalina:
$ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.
$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper Disabled -bool YES
2019-10-09 18:08:46.109 defaults[6792:141312] Could not write domain /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper; exiting
$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI Disabled -bool YES
2019-10-09 18:09:06.500 defaults[6824:141922] Could not write domain /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI; exiting

How can I hide the brightness and volume overlays in macOS Catalina?

I think the answer here is still valid for a single user. The multiple users answer doesn't work on Mojave anymore as far as I can tell.

/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI.plist: No such file or directory


text:
Songs don't download in iTunes
Songs no longer download to my iTunes. I click on the cloud with the down arrow and nothing happens. Why won't the songs download?

What mac are you using and what version of the system software?

iMac   OS X Yosemite 10.10.5   iTunes 12.8.1.3


text:
tmutil and full disk access, run as root or give access?
I tried running tmutil and after waiting about 5 minutes it spit out this message
$ tmutil listbackups
tmutil: listbackups requires Full Disk Access privileges.
To allow this operation, select Full Disk Access in the Privacy
tab of the Security & Privacy preference pane, and add Terminal
to the list of applications which are allowed Full Disk Access.

My question is, can I just run it as root as in
$ sudo tmutil listbackups

Or do I have to give it Full Disk Access permissions? I'd prefer running as root as it's more temporary but I'm worried something might break (some permisisons get set incorrectly etc...) Of course I can give it permission and revoke it later. I'm sure curious, can I run as root instead?

Running the command as root does not give it the necessary permission to bypass the "Full Disk Access" prompt.
You will need to actively give it the "Full Disk Access" privilege as described in the message, you have cited. Afterwards you can take away the privilege to ensure it is a temporary thing.

how do you do this?


text:
Disable "do you want to allow downloads from" prompt in Safari
Since Catalina, Safari has been prompting me

Do you want to allow downloads from example.com?

Every time I try to download something.
How do I completely disable this prompt?

I don't think it's new to Catalina, I think it's new to Safari 13.
Preferences > Websites > Downloads
From the "When visiting other websites" drop down in the bottom-right, select the "Allow" option.
Picture from Catalina:

So now when I see the edit, how can you tolerate the nags that come with the "ask" preference ? I tried it yesterday, got ~20 confirmations in an hour and then turned it to allow.

I doubt I see the nag more than once a month, so I prefer to know a DL is coming to me because I just asked for it specifically. My regular sites I get files from are already set to allow.


text:
Apple ID is signed into iCloud with old ID
How can I sundown old Apple ID that is signed into App Store and new ID is signed into everything else? Old IPhone was stolen along with the old ID by stalker.

Can't you just change the password on the old ID?

I did change the password on old Id but it stays the same with iTunes being signed into old ID and new iCloud signed into everything else. Stalker has hacked all Apple products I have.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/107827/9058 might help. Or contact Apple Support directly.

You have a couple of options here.  You can deauthorize computers with the old ID or you can contact Apple to ask them to cancel the old ID.  Have you tried either of those?

Yes but stalker/ hacker has been doing this to me for almost four years and when I signed up for this site- I got two iCloud emails so I appreciate the input

If that's the case, I would recommend you contact Apple directly and tell them to cancel that ID.


text:
Logic weirdly speeds up imported audio
I have Logic Pro X 10.2.4.
I never noticed this problem before today:
I started having the same problem as shown in this reddit post:

everytime I try to upload an mp3 file into logic, it speeds up the audio by a whole lot. I've made sure that the sample rate of the audio file and the project is the same but it still doesn't make a difference. All the previously saved projects that had audio imported into them don't have a problem but if I try to upload a new audio file into those projects, I am encountering the same problem

I have noticed that this doesn't affect only mp3 files (downloaded from the internet), but also m4a files recorded in my iPhone (with the factory voice recorder app) and sent to my MacBook.
The sample rate of Logic (in Project Settings > Audio) is 44.1kHz, as is the sample rate of all the files I try to import (except potentially the m4a files, soxi doesn't work on m4a though so I don't know their sample rates).
Here is an example of an audio file which I may attempt to import:
https://voca.ro/16gpmoatLhiC
here it is after dragging and dropping from Finder into Logic:
https://voca.ro/13SivYCm0XW7
It sounds like some parts are just ... skipped. It sounds the same in Logic playback and after exporting (bouncing).

I'm temporarily using the 'fix' that the reddit OP noted:

I managed to bypass the issue by just converting all of my mp3 files to wav files.

I just ran a few quick
ffmpeg -i originalrecording.m4a originalrecording.wav
ffmpeg -i originalrecording2.mp3 originalrecording2.wav

etc.
Drag and drop the WAV files instead of the original files, and logic no longer chops them up weirdly.

How come this happens though?
What's the root of this problem, and how can it be resolved?

Ok so this is a known issue when upgrading to Catalina. I found a solution and I can't explain how/why it works, but it did work.
I put the mp3 I was trying to use into Garageband, then selected Share>Export Song To Disk & saved the file as an mp3. I then went into Logic, File>Import>Audio File, selected the saved file from GarageBand and it somehow imported without issue! Can't explain why it worked but it did.

You don't have to go thru all of that. Just do the file>import>audiofile and you should be good. For some reason the glitch occurs when you drag and drop when having the newest mac OS.
Cheers!

I HAVE FOUND A WORKAROUND! After incredible frustration with issue I have discovered a temporary but effective way around this problem.

Simply convert your audio files to MP4 format using an online converter (I use Zamzar)
Drop the MP4 file into your project and select 'Extract Audio'


text:
iMovie file export swaps '/' and ':' in the filename
When I export my iMovie project to an mp4
File > Share > File (iirc)
And name it "Tacos w/ John" for example, the file created is "Tacos w: John.mp4"
But if I name it "PROJECT: Yi", it saves to "PROJECT/ Yi.mp4"
Why?

File names can’t have the forward slash character because that tells the file system to go to a directory (or folder). For example, https://example.com/stuff/files/file.mov looks for file.mov inside the “files” directory, which looks for the “files” directory inside the “stuff” directory on the example.com server. If you could have a file called “tacos w/ John.mp4”, the computer would think it’s suppose to look for the file “john.mp4” inside the “tacos w” directory. I’m not quite sure why it is changing the colon though.

Is this on an HFS or on an APFS filesystem? Can you add the output of ls -l on these two files?

@klanomath: what do you mean by "both reserved characters are the forward slash"? From the terminal, I can create files with colons in their names, and they are displayed (via "ls") with colons. If I create a file in another app (say TextEdit) and try to put a colon in its name, TextEdit and Finder will display it as a slash, but "ls" displays it as a colon. If I create a file in TextEdit with a slash in its name, "ls" displays it using a colon. So it seems to me that both are colons, not slashes.

The colon thing seems to be a bug specific to Finder. You can, without problems, use colons in file names. The Finder just shows it as a slash, while it is in fact still a colon.

@Bachsau after some testing that indeed seems to be the case. +1. I wonder if that means it isn't a bug however, since exporting "forward/slash" from iMovie saves to a file "forward:slash" which obviously displays as "forward/slash" in finder.

Unix APIs forbid slash in filenames, but allow colon; traditional Mac OS (pre-Mac-OS-X) APIs forbid colon, but allow slash. macOS uses a mix of these APIs, and so it has to swap characters back & forth depending on context to avoid the forbidden one. See this previous question, this SO question, and this USENEX paper.

They are reserved characters. You can’t use them you need to think of a different delimiter. IE. Tacho-John.mp4

Well, the colon at least can be used. The forward slash is still confusing (but I'm pretty sure can't be in a file name)


text:
Stop autocorrect from autocorrecting a word even if I re-type it after it has been autocorrected
If I type 'grg' it gets autocorrected on the next time I press space to 'gtg'.
If I backspace the 'tg' and then type 'rg' to once again form the word 'grg', it still autocorrects (again) to 'gtg'.
It does that infinitely. Additionally, no suggestions are shown above/under the word as I am typing it so I cannot escape/cancel the autocorrection before it happens.
This question was actually frustrating to write, I found that the only way i could type 'grg' was by typing 'gtg'  first (notice the space), then left-arrowing to the 't', replacing it with an 'r', and then right-arrowing to the end (after the space) and typing the next word.
Can I stop autocorrect from repeatedly correcting the same word even after I've re-typed it?
Looks like this doesn't happen with dictionary words, for example I can type "automatoc", gets auto-corrected to "automatic", and then I can backspace "ic" and type "oc" and it will leave it as-is.
Maybe this is a problem that only happens with learned spellings or so (I think I made macOS "Learn spelling" of gtg)
I don't want to learn the spelling of words like 'grg', because ordinarily these kinds of autocorrections are helpful. However, in the rare situation I am trying to purposefully write such a word, I feel like me re-writing the word should be enough of a hint for the OS to realise what I am after.

Can I disable auto-correction of a single word on OS X?

Right click to bring this menu and select Learn Spelling.
Alternatively, you could set up a text replacement in Keyboard Preferences.

I don't want to learn the spelling of words like 'grg' which I may only use in a single situation. Having it automatically correct to 'gtg' is very useful most of the time, but it becomes annoying once the OS doesn't realise that I am trying to undo its correction.

Short of Learn Spelling or Ignore Spelling, neither of which you seem to want in this case, the oS is not smart enough to recognize what you are trying to do

What's ignore spelling?

@ankii what does it do* ("What is ignore spelling" --> an option in a context menu, is not really useful answer)

I looked it up. Ignore spelling doesn't work actually. grg still corrects to gtg repeatedly, even if I ignore the spelling (e.g. when writing in this comment box i wrote grg ,, then I "ignored spelling" on the grg, then wrote it again, but it still corrected.


text:
Archival style backup software or online service
I have some folders that I need constantly backed up.
I need to have the backup in archival mode where nothing is ever deleted. That is, new files are backed up, backed up files are never deleted, and updated files don't replace backed up files.
The folders contain financial records which need to always be kept.
I've tried Google Drive with the backup app, however, this keeps it in sync.
I've tried Time Machine, however, old files are deleted once the drive is full.
I need something like Google Vault. Where once files are added, they are retained forever. I don't use Google Vault as it requires a Google Suite account and i'm just on a personal Google account.
Can you recommend a software that can do this? Or a online service is fine as well.

I believe you can do this with Time Machine. You could set Time Machine to do a backup hourly or daily. Then tell time machine to only backup the specific folders with the data you want to backup. Time machine saves all backups until the drive you are saving to is full. The backups should be very small so a disk will hold a lot of daily backups. You can monitor the remaining free space on your destination drive and get a new disk when the one you are using is almost full.
The real trick could be restoring a backup. I think restoring may replace current data. You could test this out using hourly backups to see how it works. After a couple of hours, try to restore and see what happens.
There is a 3rd party free app called TimeMachineEditor that will enable you to change the backup interval from every hour to different intervals in hours, days or weeks.

Other solutions such as rdiff-backup (http://rdiff-backup.nongnu.org/index.html) exist, so check those out in case it's more suitable for your use case. Time Machine wins hands-down for ease of use, though.


text:
Changing default highlight setting in Mojave
How can I change the default highlight setting in Mojave? I would like to choose my own less intense colours. Highlight annotation is greyed out, so it can't be accessed.

Greyed out ?? Would it be possible to share the screenshot ?

I should have been clearer. I'm trying to change the default highlight setting using Preview on a pdf file. Sorry, but I don't know how to attach\share the screenshot.


text:
My Mac restarts after logging in
1- I identified the problem as a Kernel Panic at first due to warnings
2- Safe Mode Crashes
3- I reinstalled a OS through utilities , problem still persists (crashes after login)
4 - On Single user mode i deleted everything on downloads , removed cache and deleted the sleepimage file.
5- Hardware report (Command D at startup) is OK
6-  I cannot upload image because too big but i used the command (on single user mode)  df to see the space and i got
dev/disk1
(512 blocks) = (234610432)
Used = (57311056)
Capacity = (76%)
iused  = (22162420)
ifree= (7163882)
%iused= (76%)
i tried to follow all the instructions on here
Can't login because of kernel panic
and the Mac still restarts after login , any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your help and time.
Edit- Mac factory os is Maverick
Edit 2- If possible i would like to retain at least most of the data.

Sounds like it could be a hardware issue. Have you tried taking it to Apple service?

If the crash is ONLY after login it could be a damaged profile. Any way to creat another profile? You could then copy your needed files between the two...

@SteveChambers i created a new admin profile using single user mode , still crashes.

@FiddleDeDee i will take it to an apple service as of today now that i cannot find any solutions. Kindly thank you both for the help.


text:
Hotkey for switching between desktops with maximized windows
I use ctrl- to switch between workspaces but if some application is maximized, it creates a new workspace between "Desktop 1" and "Desktop 2" so it's impossible to use a hotkey. Is it possible to switch to maximized window or assign a number?

When did macOS start inserting maximized applications between desktops rather than at the end?

@MarcWilson Yes, green button moves window to the end. But anyway, that workspace doesn't have a number nor a hotkey.

And of course I'm an idiot... macOS doesn't insert maximized applications anywhere, because they're just... maximized.  It inserts full-screen apps at the end if it's been told to do so.


text:
Missing folder on iCloud.com
I have a Sketch folder on Finder that I've been saving files to. I can't find/access it on iCloud.com. Does anyone have any insights on why? Only found people who have had the opposite problem.

are they in sync ? You can test by coping some file in another folder and wait for it appear on iCloud. Also, replacing this folder with a new one ( with all the data) with the same name should get things working .. “why” this happens is an interesting question.

I saw your iCloud storage is full. Did you try to free up and re-sync your iCloud again?


text:
Deleted symlink to /etc and now missing sudoers
I messed up bad, real bad.
I accidentally deleted the symbolic link to my /etc directory. Now I can't create another one because I keep getting an error:
$ sudo ln -s /private/etc /etc
sudo: unable to stat /etc/sudoers: No such file or directory
sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting
sudo: unable to initialize policy plugin

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Output of ls -l /etc:
$ ls -l /etc
ls: /etc: No such file or directory

My /etc was symlinked to /private/etc (sudoers is in there).

Boot to Recovery Mode (cmd-R)
Open Terminal from the menubar Utilities > Terminal
Soft-link /private/etc to /etc on your main Volume:
ln -s private/etc /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/etc

Replace Macintosh\ HD with the name of your main volume (if your forgot it, just enter df or ls /Volumes/ and check for its name! Don't forget to escape blanks with a backslash.)

It should use a relative link target: ln -s private/etc /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/etc

You are right...but the other solution works too - your solution creates the original link content (etc -> private/etc) though

Short answer:
Without sudo you can not run commands as root without entering the root user's password.
If you do know the password of the root user then run
/usr/bin/su - root -c "ln -s /private/etc /etc"

and enter the password of the root user.

Using su has the same issue as sudo, it won't authorize because the command can't find sudoers.

The su command does not require /etc/sudoers (and the sudo in this command is unnecessary -- if you can run su, then you're already root and sudo is a no-op). If the you know the root password, this is probably the easiest solution, once you drop the sudo.

I believe that if you create a MacOS bootable installer (e.g., via these instructions) that you will have access to a terminal prompt.  This requires that:

you have access to a second MacOS device (yours, a friend's, etc) on which you can create bootable media,
a spare USB flash drive or other removable media, and
sufficient knowledge to mount your hard drive manually from within the installer environment.

At that point, you should be able to replace the /etc symlink.
I don't have access to a MacOS device on which to test this right now, but I will in a couple of days. If I have the chance, I'll try to validate these instructions and update them if necessary.


text:
How to free up storage space associated with "System" on macbook pro mojave OS?
The laptop apparently is taking up ~87 gigabytes of space for system. I don't know how to dig into the details of why and to look into possibly freeing up some of that space as that seems rather excessive. I asked a friend and they only had ~11gb associated with system.
I did have a hard time upgrading from high sierra to mojave, and had to do a reboot into safe mode then hit some buttons on the app store to install mojave which eventually seemed to work.

I'm not sure we have a true canonical answer to this, but see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/261252/system-storage-on-macos-sierra-is-470gb and https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/5353/how-can-i-figure-out-whats-slowly-eating-my-hd-space It is a common concern.

I can vouch for DaisyDisk and OmniDiskSweeper to see where all this System space went, but the decision on what to delete it will be ultimately yours.


text:
Where does MacOS store old versions of Preview edited images?
If you open an image in Preview and View->Show Markup Toolbar and then add some markup.Then close Preview you'll see the file has been edited

If I then double click the picture, which relaunches Preview there's a File->Revert To option

And if I choose "Browse All Versions" a UX like this appears

Where are these revisions stored? And while I'm thinking about it, is there a user friendly way to delete the revisions or do I just have to manually dig into the file system? I found this which has a section about deleting revisions but doesn't actually specify how to delete revisions.

double click in the finder

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState/window_3.data
and other 2-3 files which come up when opening such edited documents seem relevant. But deleting them doesnt make Preview forget the previous states

Where are these stored?
There is a folder at the root level of the disk marked /.DocumentRevisions-V100, which stores the data for versioning of documents. This is owned by root and not in a user-friendly format, so is best left alone.
File formats that use Apple's CoreData APIs (e.g. Pages) create revisions using their own Undo list, so the data is preserved in the file as a series of undo instructions.
It's possible that some versioning is done on APFS volumes in a similar way to localsnapshots.
How can I delete them?

Select File > Revert To > Browse All Versions.
Once you're in the "Time Machine" interface, move the pointer to the top of the screen to recover the menubar.
Now, under File > Revert To, you will now have the option to Delete the selected version, or with ALT held down, Delete All Versions.


text:
Horizontal scrolling on nedit with trackpad under XQuartz - MacOS Catalina
I use sometimes the nedit editor with XQuartz on my MacBook pro. Everything works fine except the fact that I can't do horizontal scrolling with trackpad of the content of the file opened with nedit.
This is relatively frustrating, mostly when lines are long, I am obliged to scroll using the horizontal scroll bar of nedit (at the bottom of the window).
So I am wondering if there is a way to do horizontal scrolling directly wwith trackpad. I am using MacOS Catalina 10.15.1.
Thanks for your suggestions.

I use nedit and I can't scroll horizontally with my mouse. I have to manually move the scroll by clicking in the scroll bar at bottom of page. I don't have a trackpad to test with. If I place the cursor on a line and then click, hold and move the cursor to the right, then the page will scroll left.


text:
Preview: "The original document can't be saved, so a duplicate with your changes has been created"
When I edit a PNG file in my Minecraft resourcepacks folder (~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/resourcepacks/my_resource_pack/.../.././texture.png) with Preview.app I get the error

The original document can't be saved, so a duplicate with your changes has been created.

How do I force preview to write the file?
I don't think it's protected in special ways, terminal lets me edit, overwrite, manipulate the file however I want without any errors or warnings about ownership/permissions at all.
The containing directory has permissions drwxr-xr-x and is owned by me (my user account), and the file has permissions -rwxr-xr-x before opening in Preview.app, and after attempting editing on the file in Preview.app macOS adds the extended attributes
com.apple.lastuseddate#PS         16
com.apple.quarantine      22

to the file.
I just noticed that the .. parent directory, and all directories in the tree between .. and minecraft/resourcepacks/my_resource_pack (including my_resource_pack) have the extended attribute
drwx------@
    com.apple.quarantine     57

Is this the cause of the weird and annoying Preview.app behaviour?
Get Info GUI on the file and on every folder in the path to the file (starting with ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft):

The above is different for ~/Library, and ~/Library/Application Support, which are

I want to force Preview to write the original file, and not create a duplicate. How can I do so?

What are the perms on the containing folder?

@Tetsujin perms on containing folder are drwxr-xr-x, but the perms on the folder containing that are drwx------@ - I edited question

I recall I had a similar issue editing the Hosts file, which I cured by adding myself as an ACL with full perms to the enclosing structure. idk how you do it in Terminal, I did it with the GUI & Get Info.

@Tetsujin in the Get Info GUI on the drwx------@ folders, in Sharing & Permissions it says my user account has read/write permissions.

You can run xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft to remove the attribute. It's not needed anyway, so you won't loose anything trying.

Also, did you try https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/209695/9058 ?

@nohillside that directory doesn't exist, and removing the quarantine attribute with your command doesn't change the behaviour

Saved Application State moved directly to ~/Library AFAIK, did you check there?

@nohillside ~/Library/com.apple.Preview has no tab completions or ls | grep matches

Please help us a bit here :-) ~/Library/Autosave Information and ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Preview.savedState are only a few autocompletion tabs away

@nohillside ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/ I deleted the Preview savedState, no behavioural difference. ~/Library/Autosave Information  is inaccessible

Quite late but worth a try: I'm in the same situation (different folder but same problem)...did you find a solution?


text:
"Still waiting for root device" on a macbook pro mid 2009 with osx 10.11.6
Recently got myself a macbook and wanted to put linux on it.
So I got myself a copy of ubuntu and refind and then:

Installed refind in osx recovery mode and shut down.
Booted up, selected my ubuntu usb from the menu, waited a bit, made a 60g partition by reducing the main partition and installed ubuntu to the 60g partition.
Booted ubuntu fine, did a few updates and after that was all done, rebooted back into osx.

But now, I'm given a stop sign after a few seconds. So I checked what was happening with verbose mode and it's saying "Still waiting for root device" with that message being repeated every 10 seconds or so.
From what I've read online, this message is a bit vague so I'm asking here so see if anyone would know how to properly find out whats wrong. If you want anymore information, ask. I'll gladly provide it

Partition Information
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3

Partition table scan:
  MBR: hybrid
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): v

No problems found. 13 free sectors (6.5 KiB) available in 2
segments, the largest of which is 7 (3.5 KiB) in size.

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o

Disk size is 537234768 sectors (256.2 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:

Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                     1       409639   primary     0xEE
   2      *         409640    410011647   primary     0xAF
   3             535965192    537234727   primary     0xAF
   4             410011648    535965191   primary     0x83

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 537234768 sectors, 256.2 GiB
Model: Crucial_CT275MX3
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 749BC76B-79A9-4FD1-8D24-6148246ED175
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 537234734
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 13 sectors (6.5 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640       410011647   195.3 GiB   AF00  Macintosh HD
   3       535965192       537234727   619.9 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD
   4       410011648       535965191   60.1 GiB    8300

To clarify you used Ubuntu installer to reduce your HFS+ partition by 60GB?  It would be worth checking partition table.  Please use gdisk package in Ubuntu (install if necessary) and  run sudo gdisk /dev/sda  Then take options v (verify partition table), r (recovery menu), o (print mbr partition table) and p (print gpt partition table) and edit your question with results.  You can then use option q to quit gdisk without making changes.

Also, do you have anything you want on macOS or are you happy to reinstall to the (now smaller) partition?

I would like to do everything without reinstalling osx but if i have to, so be it

Ah screw it, i'll just backup everything up on linux and reinstall. I'll use fuse on osx to copy everything back from linux. Is there a .iso i can download and burn to a disc as i'm not sure a .dmg can be burned to a disc from linux?

If you want to reinstall you can use dmg2iso to convert dmg on Linux - see this Ask Ubuntu question.
Your partition table looks almost OK.  The only thing is that it doesn't have 128MB free space between partitions.  See Booting from GPT by the author of rEFInd.

The biggest caveat seems to be following Apple's recommendations for partition sizing and placement. The need for 128 MiB of unpartitioned space after each OS X partition is particularly important; without that space, the OS X installer will refuse to install or upgrade on the partition.

It might let you install to your existing partition but if not you can keep your Linux system by manually resizing partition tables using gdisk ensuring you keep the 128MiB unallocated space as described in the gdisk walkthrough.
For example to shrink partition 2 using gdisk (you will likely lose data in partition 2 as partition will be smaller than current filesystem)

delete it (d2)
create a new one stopping 129MiB before your Linux partition  (n)

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (2-128, default 2): 2
First sector (34-490234718, default = 409640) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 409640
Last sector (409640-410011647, default = 410011647) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: -129M
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): AF00
Changed type of partition to 'Apple HFS/HFS+'

Sort partitions (s)
Recreate hybrid member - go to Recovery menu (r) and make hybrid MBR (h)

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h

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

Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 2 3 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): Y

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

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 83): 83
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N

Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #4)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): AF
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): N

Write changes and exit w

A similar procedure would be required for recovery partition (or you could just delete it).
Alternatively you can delete all partitions, install macOS then make space for Linux using Disk Utility from within macOS.


text:
applications sometimes keeps bouncing, won't open and won't respond to force quit
Most of the time my macbook air works fine. Only problem is that when I just turned on my pc and want to open some applications , often these applications won't open and force quit does not work. Currently, I just wait a couple of minutes and then everything works just fine, but actually I don't want to wait, so I was wondering how to solve this problem. Any suggestions?

Welcome to Ask Different. It would help us if you provided additional info, such as the types of devices, OS, etc.  Also let us know what you've already done to solve the problem yourself.  Please see [ask] for how to ask good questions that have a better chance at being answered. - From Review

Try nvram reset
If didnt help
Reinstall those apps
Worked for me


text:
Why does my mac now greedily delete?
When deleting one character it often deletes two.
It is not the key repeat as I have set that really slow, which is painful when tabbing between apps and moving the curser now.
Any ideas?

Does it do that in every program - or just one? - Have you tried with a different keyboard - does it still do it?

@jksoegaard several including terminal, which is native osx. Not tried a separate keyboard - am using a macbook pro (2019)


text:
Is there a way to force AAC on bluetooth headphones?
Macos will connect to my headphones for the first time and use AAC.
 On further connections, it will switch to SBC and the quality is beyond terrible.
The only solution I have found is to 'forget' the headphones in question and then reconnect them, as a brand new connection pairing brings the quality back to AAC.
I have double-checked with Bluetooth Explorer that my options are correct and also checked with other headphones.  It happens on both pair.
I suspect that it has to do with the headphone microphone, but have had no real permanent luck trying apple's vague advice to quit offending applications and switch sources etc, advice I found here.
Does anyone know a permanent fix to stop the continual audio codec downgrade?
I'm not sure what version of OS X this began on, but it has been several months now at a minimum.  I am currently running 10.15.1 on a 2017 touchbar macbook pro.

Microphone on perhaps? https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/375995/why-does-my-blutooth-output-sound-bad-when-input-is-on

Maybe?  I have chrome on with microphone disabled (from chrome preferences) and no other apps running.

Update: I've returned that pair of headphones. My current headphones simply have to be disconnected (and not forgotten) in order to regain aac.  Luckily this is much less time consuming to do, but still frustrating.


text:
Changing system font in macOS Catalina
I am using macOS Catalina, and I would like to change the system font to something other than San Francisco.
I tried TinkerTool, but it doesn’t really work.

MacOS does not really lend itself to customizations of this kind. The system is now completely 'sealed off' from modification. While it is possible to boot to Recovery or another volume, disable SIP, and perform the necessary alteration, you will have to do this every time there's a system update (so, every 2 months on average).

Our only hope is that the gentleman who makes this tool figures out a way to make it work. I have been using this tool for years and has made my experience much nicer as I am not a fan of the San Francisco font. There was a few promising details in the issue tracker but as of yet no workaround.
https://github.com/jenskutilek/FiraSystemFontReplacement


text:
Create/switch between workspaces
I am currently working on multiple projects where I use multiple desktops (created by the "+" button in mission control) and full screens (when entering full screen mode in an application (cmd + ctrl + f)).
Now, when I work on multiple projects the amount of windows used simultaneously is rather confusing which is why I often close all tasks/windows associated with one project to get a clear workspace for the other project.
I was wondering if there is a possibility where I can save the currently open windows and workspace settings, such that by a simple click I can switch between multiple workspaces. Let's say you work on a coding project where you use multiple files as references, an IDE, a browser with multiple tabs/windows open, etc. Now, you'd like to switch (temporarily close all open applications) to another coding project which requires a completely different setting, but in no way less extensive. Instead of opening the IDE and all associated windows and files manually, one could open all of them automatically (a setting saved from the last time you worked on that project).
I never heard of something like this which is why I hoped someone of the community might have an idea.

I don't think it's possible - but see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/179376/what-is-an-efficient-way-for-developers-power-users-to-use-osx-window-manageme for some working practices [one of which is to avoid using fullscreen, as it's uncontrollable]

Or create several user accounts (one per project) and set file/Access permissions as required. It still will be a hassle to switch though


text:
macOS Catalina USB keyboard doesn't work after being taken out and in again
After I upgraded to macOS Catalina on my MacBook Pro from 2013, my USB keyboard stops working every time I unplug it and plug it in again. Every time, I have to reboot with the keyboard plugged in to make it work again.
Is anybody else experiencing this issue and has a way to fix it because it is super annoying.
Info about my mac: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac
Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.
Test after this.
If this doesn't help then at last try to:
Reset the SMC on Mac
First, shut down your Mac and Press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. Release all keys. And, Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.
Start up in safe mode
Start or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key. The Apple logo appears on your display.
Release the Shift key when you see the login window. If your startup disk is encrypted with FileVault, you might be asked to log in twice: once to unlock the startup disk, and again to log in to the Finder.
To leave safe mode, restart your Mac without pressing any keys during startup.
This will release some kernel panic that might help to fix your issue too.

The second of your solutions worked for me, but the first on didn't. Thanks!

Wait...it only works the first time i unplug it and replug it, but if I do it more than once, it's the same bug. :-(

@BossElijah: Try to boot the machine in Safe boot mode and see if you still get this issue or not.

What is safe boot exactly?

@BossElijah: check and go through it https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Thanks, if you add this link to your answer, I'll accept it.

@BossElijah: I updated my answer. So it would appreciate if you could accept it.

Sure! Upvoted and accepted.

Apple keeps annoying its users with its ridiculous inventions. Got a brand new 3000eur Macbook Pro from work with Catalina. Mouse not working! They sell 75eur for a brittle intermediary piece for HDMI / 1 USB port that makes your screen flicker after some usage. It needs to stop!

Resetting PRAM worked for me. Doing it sent me afterward to Recovery Assistant, which I didn't expect. So from there I did Apple menu > restart. My (brand new) MBP running Big Sur now detects my Apple wired keyboard again.

I just fixe my same issue. My issue would occur when my USB keyboard would stop working on my laptop after unplugging it and replugging it in while my computer was on. I would then have to reboot my computer all over again for it to work.
Restart or Start your computer in safe mode and then once you logged in try doing all the things with you keyboard that caused it not to work for yourself and if the issue goes away simply restart the computer without holding any keys and then the problem "should" go away. It worked for me and I am now able to unplug my keyboard and plug it back in and it works without having to restart everything.
Hope that helps. :)

It is already fixed so I can't check if it works, but it looks fine.


text:
Data security while MacBook is on lock screen
I've recently sent my MacBook (running on Catalina) to repair by a licensed Apple service provider. The whole thing was simple (replacing one key cap) and took about 5 minutes or so. But I forgot to shut down the MacBook and only put it on lock screen. I have FileVault enabled.
Is it possible for my data to be breached in that scenario? My understanding is that FileVault only protects your data by requiring you to enter your login password when you start up the drive. It sounds like once you have logged into the computer (even if it is now on lock screen), the data is decrypted and vulnerable to unauthorized access?

Do you have File Sharing enabled in System Preferences > Sharing?

If they were NSA, they might be able to do some fancy stuff like 'cold boot attack' or '(Thunderbolt) DMA attack'.


text:
Mac Pro early 2008 doesn't boot anymore
I got a Mac Pro early 2008 2x 2.8 quad-core for 12 years now. A few weeks ago, it stopped booting after 5 seconds. I restarted it and it was ok. But the problem came more and more often the next days, and today it just doesn't boot anymore. It stops after only 2 seconds. I've noticed that the CPU LEDS 5 & 6 flash in sync one time at the very end, when the fans stop with a last 'clic'.
I tried everything I could do before posting this question, I mean unplug all hardwares, cleaning, and I followed the very complete answer from @monomeeth Boot fail diagnosis
When I press the DIAG_LED, I got only the LED 2 on. So I don't know if the problem comes from the Logic Board or from the PSU... hope it's not both :(
I'm about to order a used PSU for trying, but I'd like to be sure.
The noob question is : if it's a PSU trouble, why the computer was able to start correctly sometimes ?
Thanks in advance for your precious help !

Did you change the PRAM battery yet? That's first. You'd be amazed at how much random sh** happens if that's dead. Mine [from your linked question] turned out to be a dead RAM riser board. Removed it worked fine [I had some odd results as I also had one dodgy RAM stick which confused things] Unfortunately since then the mobo died too, so I got a 'new' machine entirely, same model, fewer hours. Mine had been 24/7/365 for over 10 years.

You mean the CR2032 ? Yes brand new. I've also tried to remove the 2 risers and exchanged them. It would be crazy if they are both dead at the same time, but not impossible in fact...

reduce to one RAM stick in each & test individually. It still could be PSU or mobo… but I'd eliminate the 'easy bits' first. If you can't self-diagnose easily, I'd compare prices of individual PSU & mobo against that of a full 'new' machine.

Did it without success... you're right about a new machine, but the PSU I found is 50€ only, so I could give it a chance :)

OK, that's a reasonable price - but I'd still weigh it against being able to get a whole replacement machine for €250 - especially if it turns out not to be that, so next would be the mobo… ad infinitum. I fought mine on & off for a year but eventually gave in. Now I have one for 'spares'… though I still don't know which bit finally failed ;)

What are the symptoms of a dead mobo ?

I honestly don't know - as I have no real way to measure these things I'd call it "when you've changed everything else & it still doesn't work properly" ;-)

I mean your computer was starting a little moment or nothing at all ?

I can't remember now. I went through so many tests & changes I've lost track. I eventually got it going, removing the bad RAM riser, only for it to fail again 6 months later & it was then cheaper [assuming I'm charging myself for my own time] to just replace it than keep fighting it.

In waiting my new PSU, I tried to replace the video card with an other reference just for trying : same thing first, then I tried again and it booted normally but the screen has remained black. So I've replug the original card and it worked. Strange behavior... No when I press the DIAG_LED, the last one doesn't light up.

Was your replacement CPU a Mac card [or at least properly Mac-flashed] & of an appropriate age? Otherwise it will stay black until login, or may fail totally if the card is really too 'new.

No, it's still a Radeon 2600 XT but it's not exactly the same... it has one more round plug next to the 2 DVI.

The new PSU did the job ! The EFI led is still off but everything works fine now :)


text:
I need information specific to CPU core. Is there any api exposed for mac
Suppose we have one CPU with 2 core , then I need information about no.of.Processes , IO time,IDLE Time, System Time, Name of core for specific core Level and not to CPU Level etc.
So I would you like to know is there any api expose for mac.

Haven't you already asked this question? https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/376703/how-do-i-get-information-specific-to-cpu-core-via-command
I'd still be interested to know why you want this information: what do you plan to use it for? If you're hoping to manage the core usage, then that's impossible or unnecessary.

There is no need to repost a question, just add additional information to your original question if required/helpful.


text:
Tried to fix filesystem type: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF and failed
Initially, I had dual-booted Ubuntu on my Mac.
Several months later, I decided I no longer needed Ubuntu on my Mac so I decided to get rid of it. I attempted to this by using Disk Utility on macOS and erased the partition. It didn't work, only the swap partition was erased.
Afterwards, I've then accessed the Ubuntu version on my Mac, afterward, I found myself no longer able to access the Mac OS.
I found out that my mac partition had the same FFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFF problem as this post (Partition type suddenly FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF, drive unmountable)
I followed the instructions of the selected answer but now I can boot into neither of the OS (Before at least Linux was still bootable)
The current state of the machine is as the picture below:

My mac is a 2013 MacBook with 252 GB of SSD drive. It was running OS Catilina (the latest).
I'd really like to obtain my macOS back along with the data/files there.

You applied the wrong GUID at item2 and it probably has the wrong size. It has to be 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC instead of 4846.... The main macOS system volume of Catalina is always formatted to APFS. Create a full bootable system (thumb drive/external drive) or attach it in Target Mode to another Mac and I will fix it from remote...with TeamViewer

@klanomath I've seen many of your answers from the previous posts but I didn't think you would see my question as well! I will get back to you once I've created a full bootable system, Thank you for your offer to help by the way!

Please send the TeamViewer credentials to klanomath(at)googlemail.com. Don't post them here!

@klanomath hey, I just recently you an email with the teamviewer credentials for my mac! Thanks again!


text:
Incorrect validation loop
I made a loop that inserts a number into a string, and by the color of the number (blue - registered, red - missing), using the standard utility Digital Colors Meter determines the color of the number. Then, depending on the color, it either adds a variable with a number from the initial txt file to the new one, or starts the script from the beginning. At least it should be.
But something is going wrong in loop. It checks the color, inserts numbers, everything is fine, but apparently the wrong condition, apparently the wrong data types. It inserts different numbers into the scatter. Some will insert, some will not, regardless of the initial condition. What could be the reason? Where is the error?
   tell application "Digital Color Meter" to activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Digital Color Meter"
            click menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu bar item 4 of menu bar 1
        end tell
        do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c \"import objc;bndl = objc.loadBundle('CoreGraphics', globals(), '/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework');objc.loadBundleFunctions(bndl, globals(), [('CGWarpMouseCursorPosition', 'v{CGPoint=dd}')]);CGWarpMouseCursorPosition((" & 1002 & "," & 222 & "));\""
        set rgbColors to words of (the clipboard)
    end tell
    if rgbColors is equal to {"77", "39", "38"} then
        exit repeat
    else
        do shell script "echo " & quoted form of n & " >> /Users/oneone/Desktop/base2.txt"
    end if

Only the color check condition for Digital Color Meter is presented here. Through the do shell, the color is read at the mouse position and the variable is added to the new file.

Welcome to Ask Different.  Let’s edit the original question. Reposting is strongly discouraged here. Fixing a closed or older question with edits to refine and clarify works best and gets lots of support / best chance for an answer in my experience

Since you've taken the resource-intensive step of calling out to a shell to call out to python to bridge to objective-c in order to move the mouse cursor, it might make more sense and be a lot more robust if you wrote the whole thing in PyObjC, which would then allow you to make use of NSAttributedString class methods which include being able to detect the colour of text, fonts, etc. Alternatively, python also has access to the Core Graphics framework, which you can use to detect the colour of a pixel under the mouse cursor. Both these methods eliminate a need for Digital Colour Meter.


text:
Path into PS1 prompt is broken (\n) on different lines when it is too long
I am using iTerm2 on MacOS Catalina . Here is my PS1 into ~/.bashrc , using a function ps1 :
function ps1 {
        # PROMPT SECTION
        BLUE='\[\033[0;34m\]'
        LIGHT_CYAN='\[\033[1;36m\]'
        DEFAULT='\[\033[0m\]'
        PURPLE='\[\033[0;35m\]'
        LIGHT_PURPLE='\[\033[1;35m\]'
        LIGHT_GREEN='\[\033[0;32m\]'
        PINK='\[\033\[0;31m\]'

        # \! - History number of last command
        # $? - Exit value of last command
        # \t - Exit time of last command
        # \w - Current directory (relative)

PS1="$PURPLE|$DEFAULT$LIGHT_GREEN\u@$DEFAULT$LIGHT_CYAN\h$DEFAULT$PURPLE|$DEFAULT\t$PURPLE|$DEFAULT$LIGHT_PURPLE\w$DEFAULT$PURPLE|$DEFAULT "
}

ps1

The issue happens when I have long path, it seeems to  be broken on second or third line like this :

I tried to increase the number of columns (to 1000) into iTerm2 -> Preferences but it doesn't seem to fix this issue.
I can't see where the error comes from.
Anyone could see what's wrong ? Regards
  fab@astro|13:12:32|~/Phd_2019_2020/Travail_2_faire_varier_Omega_DE_sur_CAMB_et_regarder_si_les_P_k_changent_21_Octobre_2019/Main_Directory_Work/TSAF_lvl_up_Derivatives_15_points_on_Cl_stabilite_Code_is_surel
y_VALIDATED_for_15_points_derivatives_AND_After_trying_to_solve_the_pathologic_zone_1e-5_TO_1e-2_13_Novembre_2019/Test_FAIRE_VARIER_TOUS_LES_PARAMETRES_AVEC_les_2_pas_2e-2_et_1e-1_AVEC_Takabird_SECONDE_TENTATIVE_AVEC_LA_VAR        IATION_de_wde_EN_FLAT_DANS_Camb_launcher_6_DECEMBRE_2019/CAMB_der_3_pts/fortran|

Does the same thing happen in Terminal?

@nohillside yes, same issue with Terminal but I don't want to use Terminal, iTerm2 is great.

If the problem occurs both in Terminal and in iTerm it's probably something the shell does, not the terminal application. I didn't count the characters but does the line break occur after 256 characters (probably including any escape sequences)?

Did some more tests: It's related to the coloring, without colors it works as expected. Also, it doesn't seem to depend on the width of the terminal window, the break always occurs in the third line.

It's a bug related to the old version of bash included in macOS.
To overcome you can

Switch to zsh (see What are the practical differences between Bash and Zsh?)
Install a more recent version of bash via Homebrew and use this as your standard shell (see How to use bash as default shell)

Thanks ! updating bash version fixed it . Regards


text:
Time Machine "there isn't enough space" despite the backup disk being larger than mine
My MacBook Pro is the 250 GB model.
I have a 320 GB external hard drive I am using as a time machine backup disk.
Right now the 320 GB hard drive has 16.14 GB of free space remaining.
The last two backups I tried today both failed because "the disk is full".
I don't see how this can be possible since Time Machine says

The oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.

How do I force it to backup?
Preferably without wiping the whole disk and making a brand new backup (I don't want to lose all incremental history).

@klanomath I am scared of the answers on that question bc I assumed time machine kept incremental backups, so deleting the older ones would lose a lot of information

If the automated TM clean-up doesn't work, you have to do it manually. TM removes the oldest backup(s) first. Deleting the oldest backups manually does exactly the same.

@klanomath how did I run out of space... tmutil listbackups shows only two backups....

@klanomath wow ffs... tmutil listbackups shows 2 backups, so I run delete on the volume/computer_name and now it's showing me so many tens of backups being deleted... how come listbackup doesn't show these. I would have wanted to delete only the older backups.

From the linked older q&a: You can use the tmutil tool to delete backups one by one. sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/mac_name/YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss

@klanomath to do that I of course need to see what the names of the older backups are, which I tried to lookup using tmutil listbackups but see my above comments for the problems I had

If you check the folder /Volumes/backup_drive_name/Backups.backupdb/mac_name/ with the Finder, you will see all snapshot folders (YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss). If tmutil listbackups shows less snapshots something's fundamentally wrong with your TM config/history.


text:
How can I make iTerm2 hotkey window fill out the whole screen?
I am using MacOS Catalina, and I use iTerm as my terminal. My problem is, that every time iTerm has been closed, and opened again, it only opens in half screen. I know I can drag it down to full screen with my cursor, but it's super annoying if I have to do that every time I open it.
Is there a way to make it full screen by default?

Do you mean macOS fullscreen mode? What do you mean by „drag it down“?

macOS fullscreen mode, yes. I drag it down instead of clicking the green circle/button in the top left corner because there is no circle/button.

Yes, go to preferences under the iTerm menu item. When the panel opens, select the Profiles option at the top of the panel. Once that opens, click on the Hotkey Window option, and then click the window tab near the top right. In that window you can define the window size or on the right select instead of Normal, Full Screen. See the image below.

Thanks @jmh, don't forget to say that I need to click on the Hotkey Window tab before clicking on the Windows tab. Upvoted + accepted!

Thank you. I didn't have to press anything.  I changed from Normal to Full Screen and restarted iTerm.  The window opened in full screen without doing anything else. I'll look into this but don't want to add it until I'm sure it's needed,  Thanks again.

oh i miss understood your comment.  i don't know how to make this doable using hotkey.  I was just answering when you asked to make full screen the default.  I'm sorry.

It's ok, I figured it out. It's the same, but I just have to press that hotkey window before doing the rest.

well, thanks. I'm glad you got things set!

I had to restart iterm2 to have any changes on window style to take effect.

You can configure the profile for the hotkey window to always fill the whole screen with the drop-down menu iTerm2 > Preferences > Profiles > NAME OF HOTKEY PROFILE > Window > Style.

Alternatively, if you want to toggle between a half-screen and full-screen hotkey window, the menu item Window > Zoom achieves something to this effect, as long as the Style is set to something like Full-Width Top of Screen.

When you open the hotkey window, the menu bar does not automatically switch to iTerm2, but you can still use the shortcut (which is ⇧⌘0 on my system; it might be different on yours).


text:
Back up MacBook without display
How can I back up my MacBook when it's display is broken and I don't know if the computer is currently on or off or whether it is booting up correctly?
I've been keeping backups on an external HDD with Time Machine and asked a recent question about a problem I had with that - "not enough space on disk" - so please can answers to this question also explain how to back up if that is an issue?

The simplest method (assuming you have or can borrow/rent one) is plug in an external monitor. That may not be possible or practical but it has to be said...
The problem here is knowing if the Mac is on or off. You can check in a darkened room to see if you see ANY light change (keyboard, display) when hitting the power button. Also in a quiet room listen for fans or drives spinning up (assuming you have spinning drives and not an SSD) And often turning on a Mac will make some noise when it is powered on.
If you can get to the battery and take it our or disconnect it readily that would confirm it is indeed off.
You can usually shut down any computer (Mac or PC) by holding down the power button for 15 seconds or so. Once you do that hitting the power button will power it up.
Forgoing all of that you could just plug your Time Machine drive into the Mac and watch for the drive activity light. More than a 30 seconds or so of drive activity might be a good indicator that macOS was accessing the drive. Let it run overnight and then plug it onto another computer and check the date stamps on the sparsebundle and/or its contents to see if it was modified overnight.
There are likely other ways that I haven't thought of but those should get you started, unless you've already tried all of that...

I will have to use an external monitor (and it's working).


text:
battery is not charging after liquid contact
After spilling a tea into the macbook 11 i have disassembled it. Cleaned everyhing with IPA and brush. Put together. Macbook is working but charger does not charge. LED does not light. System says it does not charge, source of power adapter. There is small icon of battery with flash saying 2%. I have changed I/O Board, battery, performed NVRAM/SMC reset. Still behave the same. No change.
Any other suggestions?

Take it to a professional. See https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/219097/85275 At least you didn't just put it in rice & hope for the best, you took positive, useful  action, but the chances are something shorted out & was damaged long before you could take it apart.

Different symptoms than the duplicate question but the answer is applicable here, too.

Cleaned everyhing with IPA - I guess that IPA doesn't mean India Pale Ale here ?

@HighPerformanceMark - That was my first thought too… which made me chuckle quite a bit. But no, it also stands for Isopropyl Alcohol, which is more alcoholic, but less tasty ;-))


text:
Is it safe to cancel tmutil delete halfway through?
I wanted to delete my oldest backups to free up space on my backup drive.
Due to some confusion, I "accidentally" deleted all backups.
The image shows the current progress of the command:

Is it safe to just ctrl-c/ctrl-d this?
I don't care about deleting the rest, I bet there is enough space by now and if not I'll find out and obviously delete again.

You have two choices: let it run and delete everything; or stop it and see what's left. The residual backup may be incomplete, in terms of files and times, but it will be something.
My advice for TM has always been: don't mess with it. let it do its thing. When the drive gets full, either let it start deleting the oldest backups (which it will do itself), or get a bigger drive and start again or transfer the archive.

it doesn't delete the oldest backups itself see my last question https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/377040/150109


text:
Wireless & Automatic photo sync from iPhone to Macos
I've got a puzzle you can hopefully help me solve. I would like to:

automatically back up my iPhone photos to my NAS
without using the internet (so no cloud services etc.)

iOS 13.1.2
WD EX2 Ultra
Both devices are connected to the same network
I've so far done this using the WD MyCloud app, but frankly, I don't trust its security. Too many security failures to often. Now I can backup my Macbook using TimeMachine without connecting the NAS to the www but there is no similar solution for iPhones as far as I know.
Any help would be much appreciated. Don't want to be forced to use iCloud or, god forbid, manually back-up my photos.

I can recommend Qnap NAS solutions. They have iOS app "QFile" which makes automatic backups of photos (also with LivePhoto) to NAS. You can use it in your internal network or over internet directly to your NAS without any cloud services. Next step to sync photos from NAS to MacOS - you can use QSync app for that.

@Daniel, great recommendation! Looking into it now. However this means I would have to trade in my EX2 Ultra for a QNAP right? If anyone knows a way without having to do that, it'd be much appreciated!


text:
Problem syncing Calendar across 2 different Appleid's
My wife and I have seperate AppleId's. I am having a problem is syncing our calendar from my device(s) [iMac using OS 10.15.2, iPhone 11 using latest iOS] to her iphone 6S (version 13.2.3).  Tried sharing calendar, but have not succeeded. Can anyone help with this?
Thanks

Can you add some details on how exactly you've set up sharing?

On my iMac I used my primary account.  Went to the calendar clicked share and added my wife's account.  Now that I'm telling you this it seems too simple.  It seems that this is not correct.  Appreciate any help you can offer.

That's actually how it should work. Can you create a new (empty) calendar and try to share by adding your wife? She should get an email from "iCloud" afterwards, with a link she needs to click.

Can can also resend an invite from the same menu, in case the first one got lost.


text:
Are third party chargers for iPhone bad despite having government agencies' certification stamps?
My usage history with Apple: iPhone 3 (2011~2013) and iPhone 8 (2018~present)
I sometimes used chargers purchased from convenience stores. Although all the chargers I got had government certification marks on them, so I thought they were 'originals' sanctioned from the manufacturers themselves, they were actually manufactured by third (usually Chinese) parties.
I did ask the government agency about this and the person in charge said that they were indeed safe(although I think there was a miscommunication such that he took the charger to be something else).
I also asked the Apple service desk for advice and they said the iPhone battery was designed to ward off overheating from unsuitable third party chargers.
Can an expert verify any of these answers here? Was there any danger in using these(in particular the danger of being electrocuted or damaging the smartphone).

Please see the Help Centre for more information about how to write effective questions.

You've asked two persons who should know, and now expect a few anonymous persons on an internet site to confirm this? Not sure this will improve anything.


text:
Exit the "Do you want to save your changes?" dialogue as fast as possible (discard changes)
When I press cmd-q or cmd-w on an app, sometimes I get a popup like:

I just want to quit the app as fast as possible, I want to select the "Revert Changes" or "Don't Save" etc. equivalents without having to move my hand to my mouse/trackpad, move the mouse cursor to the button on the screen, and click.
I don't want to have to take my hands off of the keyboard.
cmd-backspace used to work for me
But it doesn't anymore, at least not in Preview.app.
What's the new solution in Catalina?

Have you checked this option: Command + Shift + Option + Esc (hold for three seconds)

@Udhy three seconds is a long time to me, for this kind of process. I'd prefer another answer for now.

Press the Spacebar.
⌘ + Backspace works if you are trying to choose “Don’t Save” but the Spacebar is what you want to select ‘Revert’.

You could use Keyboard Maestro to check which buttons exist and then press the appropriate one. For example, I've bound cmd+shift+w to check for "don't save" and a few other options. It will then use the press button action to press "don't save" or whatever
This will work as long as you add any new dialogues to your if/else statements. I have like 3 and it deals with 90% of cases.
If you need a super generalized solution, you could just hit the appropriate number of tabs and then hit space. The problem with this is that sometimes there are a lot of extra fields in between the start and the "don't save" button

I always like a Keyboard Maestro solution, especially because then you can use the same keystroke and know it will have the same result.

KM is one of the best things that ever happened to me. Everyone should use it unless they are really, really good at coding.

Most Apple dialog buttons have key shortcuts. In the old days, if you held down Command, you would see what the shortcuts were in the button text.
Enter will activate the default button, which is filled in with a colour (usually Blue).
Escape activates Cancel.
Space will activate the current highlighted button, if you've got tabbing through menu items turned on. It may also select the 'non-default, non-cancel' action by default.
Command S activates "Save".
In Applications that don't use Apple's Auto-save and Versioning, Command D activates "Don't Save". Otherwise, it selects the Desktop as the file location.
Command Backspace works when you try to close an Untitled document that's been auto-saved: then the choice will be to Delete it, or Save it with a name.

Command+D has not been “Don’t Save” for a long time now. Command+R does not select the “Revert” option either.

It works in apps that have a "Don't Save" button, as opposed to "Delete". I can't replicate your "Revert" button: presumably you've changed the handling of auto-save?


text:
Desktop icon spacing - bigger gap on the left of desktop
Why do the desktop icons on the left of the screen have a bigger gap than the icons on the right? I have set my desktop icons "snap to grid".
Is there any way I can make it even?
Resetting Finder and changing grid spacing doesn't help.
I'm using Mojave on MacBook Pro.

The zero point (0|0) of the grid coordinate system is the upper right corner of the desktop (either with or without menubar - depends on your settings in System Preferences > General > Automatically hide and show menubar).
With a fixed grid size progressing to the left and the bottom of the desktop you usually will get gaps (=incomplete grid boxes) at the left and at the bottom.
Example with your screenshot:

Each box has a fixed size (pixel x pixel) depending on the grid spacing setting. The leftmost column is incomplete and the bottom row is overlapped by the dock. Both usually won't be used to place items in there.
AFAIR Windows uses a relative grid size and a natural number (=positive integer) of tiles (in the x- and y-direction).

Assuming the grid spacing is in pixel (or better some natural multiple), you can set it to a whole integer divisor of your monitor size. I think 60 will fit a lot of common sizes:
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :DesktopViewSettings:IconViewSettings:gridSpacing 60" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Check the settings with:
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :DesktopViewSettings:IconViewSettings:gridSpacing" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Thank you for explaining although I'm not sure if I still understand how it works. I'm coming from windows and never had this kind of issue. I set the grid spacing to 60 and the gap on the left is even bigger now. Will it always be uneven no matter what the grid spacing is set to?

@viskaara I will take your screenshot, apply some grid (I hope I get the settings right) and add it to my answer

Thank you for taking the time and explaining how this works! I think I get it now. It seems like 43 is the magic number for my 13 inch display.


text:
Should I put Android/iOS project folder and Dropbox/Google Drive folders in SD card?
I would like to ask if I should move my Android/iOS project folders to SD card. Assume that I work with them every working day.
Same question for Dropbox and Google Drive folders, but I'm much less likely to use anything there compare to the Android/iOS project folders above.
Thank you

Why wouldn’t you check your projects into source control and back them up off the mac? I presume we’re missing a few items that turn this yes/no question into something we might be able to help with...

@bmike I just want to know if there is any impact when I do that, things like slow performance or harming the SD card. About your suggestion, we still need to put the project folders somewhere to work with them, right?

Aah. That would be a great thing to edit into the question. Your specific concerns or requirements. Like http://mattgemmell.com/using-os-x-with-an-ssd-plus-hdd-setup/ but SSD vs USB SD card


text:
Payment method on my Apple ID
Every time I put in my mobile phone as my payment method, it keeps telling me either it has been inserted before (but it doesn't work, like I can't download any apps or make any purchases although I have payed my mobile bill) or it would say that my request to "buy" has been declined although I am not trying to buy anything, I'm just trying to download a FREE app. what should I do?

Payment methods are no longer required to use the App Store for free 'purchases' (in Canada and US at least). Try just removing all payment methods. Beyond that, I'd recommend engaging Apple support.

why you need to add a phone as payment method if you are downloading the free app. Put the payment method None on your Apple ID and try it.

It’s a very common misconception that downloads are not purchases. You can sign out and then try to download, but if Apple asks for a payment method, you have to enter one and it has to be valid and funded. - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/140496/app-store-constantly-tries-to-charge-me-for-nothing


text:
Taking screenshots with the command line, but of specific regions
I want to capture a screenshot of a specific region, say 10x, 10y, 200width, 200height using the command line
I am aware of the command "screencapture," so I do

screencapture -h

and I see this:

-R < x,y,w,h > capture screen rect

So I try

screencapture  -R 0 0 34 20 test1.png

and does not work. It returns a file named 0 that is a capture of the entire screen. I do

screencapture Test.png  -R 0 0 34 20

and returns a file named Test.png that is also a capture of the entire screen.
Honorable mention to doing "man screencapture" and see that "-r" does something totally different
Thanks

If you do this:

screencapture -R0,0,34,20 test1.png

you will get test1.png which has 34 pixels width and 20 pixels height.

Accepted. Works like a charm.


text:
How to disable dial sounds on an iPhone XR running iOS 13.2.3?
On an iPhone XR running iOS 13.2.3, how do I disable dial sounds? By that I mean how do I turn off the beep I get when I tap each digit of a phone number that I am calling. There does not seem to be a way to do this from Settings | Sounds & Haptics, which gives an option to disable "Keyboard Clicks" (which I have disabled) but not these dial sounds.

Have you set the ring/silent switch to silent?

No - I want the phone to continue to ring when someone calls it.


text:
How to kill the voicemail facility on an iPhone XR?
On an iPhone XR running iOS 13.2.3 and connecting to the mobile phone
network using a number supplied by Three, how do I disable voicemail?
I have never actually configured voicemail, but whenever someone calls my
number and the phone is switched off (which is most of the time), they hear
a message giving them the option to leave a voicemail. I want the number to
keep on ringing without being answered, or if they must hear a message then
for the message to tell them the phone is switched off and that's it.
Recently I got a text message from Three itself saying they'd left me a
voicemail, and I would like to delete that voicemail without setting up
voicemail in the first place.
In short, I would like to kill the voicemail facility, deleting whatever
may be in the box, without even listening to it and without setting up
voicemail in the first place. How can I do this? If to kill it properly I need to set it up first and then kill it, how do I achieve that?

Voicemail is a supplier facility. Talk to your supplier.

@Tetsujin - Thanks. My number supplier doesn't like talking to its customers but I could try. Since posting I've learnt about an app called "No More Voicemail" which might also do the trick.

Step 1: Go to your home screen and tap on the keypad icon at the bottom.
Step 2: Once the keypad is launched, type ##002# and then click on the Call button. There is no cause for worry since the iPhone will not actually make the call, but will display the settings of your voicemail.

Step 3: You will be presented with three different messages

Voice Call Forwarding
Data Call Forwarding
Fax Call forwarding.

Do not do anything, but simply tap on the “Dismiss” tab at the bottom of the screen. You will have successfully disabled your voicemail for all types of calls.


text:
Is it possible to show function keys on pressing the Command key?
Currently the Touch Bar on my MacBook Pro shows app controls by default and function key when pressing the Fn key. I'd like it to show function keys when pressing the ⌘ key as well, because I have Alfred mapped onto ⌘ + F2 for years. I don't want to remap ⌘ to Fn in any way for obvious reasons.
The general reasoning is also simple: you don't press ⌘ unless you want to enter a shortcut.

I think that cmd -  is still hard to press than a combination of real keys. Would you consider to remap?

@amdyes I've tried to use ⌘2, not only I still press old shortcut, but it conflicts with tab shortcuts in iTerm. I had to resort to showing function keys by default, and it's easy for me to press ⌘F2. One shouldn't underestimate muscular memory.


text:
Taking screenshots with the command line of a specific window
I wanna take a screenshot of a specific application using the command line. Doing

screencapture -h

Shows option "-o"

-o  in window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window

Which sounds like it might do what I need, but I am lost on how to actually use this option. Google did not turn up any answers
Thanks!

I think you’d need window ID

How do I get that? Seems kinda tough to get: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/56561/how-do-i-find-the-windowid-to-pass-to-screencapture-l

Duplicate of https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/378122/237687

@Solar Mike, IMO This question is not a duplicate of the linked question in your comment as that one is dealing with "specific regions" and specifically the use of the -R<x,y,w,h> capture screen rect option not a "specific window" as in the title of this question, which will require the use of either the -i or -l<windowid> options depending on specifically how it is to be captured. I guess one could say it's somewhat related, but it's not a duplicate.

To capture a window using screencapture in Terminal, you have two options:
Interactively
-i         capture screen interactively, by selection or window
               control key - causes screen shot to go to clipboard
               space key   - toggle between mouse selection and
                             window selection modes
               escape key  - cancels interactive screen shot

You can use the -o option in conjunction with the -i option to not capture the shadow of the window, e.g.: -oi
Programmatically
-l<windowid> capture this windowsid

The -i option appears to be self-explanatory while the -l<windowid> option gives no additional info as with the -i option.

The <windowid>, for some windows can be ascertained by using AppleScript in the following example:
screencapture -l$(osascript -e 'tell app "Safari" to id of window 1') test.png

You can use the -o option in conjunction with the -l option to not capture the shadow of the window, e.g.: -ol
Some applications will not work with this method, however here are some alternatives:

screenshot: Better macOS screenshots via the Terminal
GetWindowID

Reference: How do I find the windowid to pass to screencapture -l?

Note: I am not affiliated with these projects.


text:
How to connect a detached earbud back to Apple Earphones?
I have ~3 year old Apple Earphones that come with iPhones. One of the earbuds, the one with volume controls, broke off with ~1 inch wire attached to it.
Can I get this physical damaged earbud be repaired to a working state by connecting the wires and then using heat shrink wrap over it to protect the wires?

Yes, you can do this but the wires are very fine. I rely on a twisted joint without soldering.
One method to improve this is to use the “pre”glued heatshrink.
Some more info can be found at:

How do you stop headphone wires from breaking?
Possible to cut Heat Shrink tubing lengthwise and reattach?


text:
How to make display PDF images with mouse hover in iTerm2 after " ls -l '?
On Catalina 10.15.2, Sometimes, in iTerm2 terminal, after a ls -l command, I can visualize some pdf files (a popup window appears suddenly) when my mouse is over the list of PDF filenames.
But this is not systematically and I would like to know how to make appear this popup window into which the image of filename pointed appears (that would be very useful because this popup window is relatively large and we can distinguish details).
If someone could know what to do to activate systematically this behavior with mouse (maybe it is a shortcut with mouse or other things, I don't know), this would be nice to explain it.

You can activate this behavior in iTerm2 by activating the "Look up & data detectors multitouch shortcut. On Force Touch trackpads, by default, that means a force press by default while the cursor is placed over the filename.
You can confirm your settings in System Preferences, by viewing the Trackpad pane.
You may also wish to hold CMD and click on the filename to open it directly.