text:
Strange ACLs on OS X System
I have a folder on a HFS+ volume I can't delete. I already tried to get rid of the ACLs but somehow this doesn't worked out.
The folder is calles CrashPlan.app.
Here is what the terminal says:
    sh-3.2# ls -ahel@
    total 0
    drwxrwxr-x@ 3 root  admin   102B 23 Okt 22:58 .
        com.apple.backupdelta.MoveChecked      3B
        com.apple.s stem.Security     68B
    drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root  wheel   102B 30 Okt 13:21 ..
        com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeFSEventStoreUUID      36B
        com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeLastFSEventID     20B
        com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID      36B
    drwxrwxr-x  2 jan   staff    68B 13 Nov  2012 CrashPlan.app

    sh-3.2# cd CrashPlan.app/
    sh-3.2# ls -ahel@
    total 0
    drwxrwxr-x  2 jan   staff    68B 13 Nov  2012 .
    drwxrwxr-x@ 3 root  admin   102B 23 Okt 22:58 ..
        com.apple.backupdelta.MoveChecked      3B
        com.apple.s stem.Security     68B

Strange thing here is, if you look from the outer folder there are no ACL for the folder. But if you look from the inside there are.
How can that be and how I can get rid of it?

FWIW, I also have com.apple.s stem.Security in four files (actually directories), 44 bytes in size, on my SSD. In a previous dump of names and attributes, I had some files in /.MobileBackups that also had it, but some of those had 68-byte size; the 44-byte ones were mirrors of the above-mentioned, and the 68-byte ones were others. I bought the SSD in February of 2014 and have only formatted once. I'm not sure if those files came from my old drive with that attribute, or if it arose after that.

The CrashPlan.app does not have an ACL. The output of ls is consistent, you must have misread it.

When you run ls -a in the parent directory, it tells you that . (i.e. the parent of CrashPlan.app) has extended attributes, and that CrashPlan.app has no ACL (mode string rwxrwxr-x).
When you run ls -a inside CrashPlan.app, it tells you that . (i.e. the CrashPlan.app directory) has no ACL (mode string rwxrwxr-x), and that .. (i.e. the parent directory) has extended attributes.

The parent directory does not have an ACL, but it has extended attributes com.apple.backupdelta.MoveChecked and com.apple.s stem.Security. This second attribute is odd: it should be com.apple.system.Security. This is a sign that your filesystem may be corrupted.

I had what appeared to be the EXACT same problem. The issue was with the system immutable flag on CrashPlan.app in my .MobileBackups folder.
Actually, it was an old .MobileBackups folder from a Previous System folder that was created during an "Archive and Install" of OS X, so I knew it was nothing I needed. It was completely inactive, but I couldn't delete it no matter what I tried.
This is what finally did it for me:
sudo find TopLevelFolder/ -flags +schg -exec chflags noschg {} \;

Where TopLevelFolder is the folder containing (all of?) the offending CrashPlan.app folders. This removes the system immutable attribute which makes it possible to now delete the files.

As always, be very careful with rm -rf, but running the following command next will then remove the files.

sudo rm -rf TopLevelFolder

Where, again, TopLevelFolder is the same as the one above. I hope that helps someone else.


text:
Command Line Tips and Tricks
==>> What are the most useful Unix shell "one-liners" that you use? <<==
Here are a couple of mine to get the conversation started:
1. Repeat the previous command with a substring replacement:
Syntax:
^before^after^

Example:
You entered:
git clonr https://unbelievablylongurl.org/projectdirectory/evenmoreprojects/project.git

Use this:
^clonr^clone^

And your command will be re-run with the replaced substring:
git clone http://unbelievablylongurl.org/projectdirectory/evenmoreprojects/project.git

2. Repeat the previous command with an additional string/character
Shell Idiom:
!!

Example:
You ran a command that requires superuser privileges on your box.  Re-run the command without retyping it like this:
sudo !!

You're about four years late to this... Welcome to the site. I would encourage you to ask about 10 very specific questions with a problem you are trying to solve before attempting a "survey question". The community is peculiar about which they embrace and which they extinguish with great rapidity even where there isn't a duplicate.

I have unprotected the linked question so you can add your examples here as answers if they aren't already covered.

Excellent, thank much for your responses.  My apologies for the duplication of the previous question.  I read through the responses to the question there and it seemed that there were a combination of shell scripts, functions, variables, bash settings, etc.  I was hoping to have a bit more targeted conversation about useful, elegant single line shell commands.  Will add these to that thread. Best, -C

If there's a different problem, go ahead and edit this to make it clear what problem is being solved here (as opposed to a "greatest hits") and we can look at reopening it. No worries - closing is just a temporary chance to edit and reopen if there is a better way to phrase this.

Thanks Mike.  I appreciate your help.  Will gain some street cred and then may try to broach this topic again.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to keep sound from muting while using dictation?
Whenever I try to use the dictation feature in OSX, it mutes my sound. I want to hear the audio I'm playing in iTunes or somewhere else while I have dictation enabled. How can I do that?

I had completely the opposite reaction to this feature - so useful :)

I have some really bad audio of speech and I want to "transcribe" it using my own voice and dictation. In other words, I want to listen to the audio and repeat the words in it clearly while dictation types it out for me.

Does this also happen when you have headphones connected? Or just when sound playback is through the loudspeakers?

I only know it happens when my headphones are connected.

with iTunes, Dictation only pauses the sound, and continues wherefrom it left, while other players are just muted and are playing in background, which is meaningless. but the way Dictation works with itunes is very meaningful: the idea is to use it to transcribe what you hear, and dictating is for most people possible only when the sound they hear is paused

no solution for this on Sonoma that i found yet. would be really useful.

You need to set some hidden preferences to make this work (OS X 10.9 - Mavericks). Open Terminal and enter the two commands below:
defaults write com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore AllowAudioDucking -bool NO
defaults write com.apple.speech.recognition.AppleSpeechRecognition.prefs DictationIMAllowAudioDucking -bool NO

After doing this turn off dictation in Systems Preferences, wait a few seconds and then re-enable it. You should now be able to dictate while audio is playing. I’ve only tried this while using a headset/headphones, it’s probably not advisable without. :)
To restore your system to it’s virginal state, run these commands in Terminal and then restart dictation:
defaults delete com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore AllowAudioDucking
defaults delete com.apple.speech.recognition.AppleSpeechRecognition.prefs DictationIMAllowAudioDucking

Found via: https://gist.github.com/rmangino/8388849

Works on macOS Mojave 10.14.1!

Doesn't seem to work on Catalina 10.15.7. :-\

I got this to work in OSX Ventura by disabling dictation, running the two terminal commands, then enabling Voice Control instead of Dictation.

This preference was made visible in System Preferences, so you don't need to run Terminal commands any more. Go to the Accessibility preference pane, choose Dictation and disable Mute audio output while dictating.

Unfortunately I can no longer find these Dictation Accessibility settings in MacOS Catalina.

The program Audio Hijack Pro can handle this.
Add system audio on right, then press hijack 1st and mute 2nd.

It's possible to use Voice Control's voice dictation while listening to something on YouTube. At first it wasn't working on Google Chrome but I had to restart the app and now it's working.
The only weird thing is this voice dictation never really stopped so there is never a click sound that says voices dictation is over. Even though I clicked it on so maybe have to restart my whole system but as it stands this is what it does and it looks OK.
I also might mention that it disables it is the dictation button so that's kind of weird and even though I am using AirPods Pro it seems like it's not as tight of a voice dictation accuracy as the original voice dictation.

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

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


text:
Is there a tool/hack that enables dragging windows from one monitor to the other in Mission Control?
Right now I have dual monitor set-up as shown below.

When I activate Mission Control it looks like this:

Now I want to drag the Finder windows to the other monitor as indicated by the arrow.
However, the window just jumps back to the original monitor.
I know ways of moving windows to other monitors outside of Mission Control, but doing this in Mission Control allows for moving groups of windows to different monitors.
Also I would like to keep the task of window arrangement in Mission Control.
I'm on the latest Mountain Lion. Is there some sort of hack, plugin or tool that will allow me to do this move in Mission Control?

Do you really want to know that "no - this isn't possible" or perhaps you could relax the criteria that it has to be within Mission Control and just stipulate you want that functionality to move a group of windows. I could see options like Divvy and other that might do everything you wish except hack Mission Control.

Sometimes there are pref file hacks or additions that make these sort of things possible. Dropping the Mission Control restriction does make it simpler, but I'm already aware of (some of) these solutions. If you feel this question is not constructive or only of use for a very small amount of people feel free to close it.

Just nudging you to see if Mission Control was mandatory. :) it's certainly fine as is, just more likely to languish but in the end sounds like it's phrased perfectly for your intent


text:
AXSelectedRows: Getting selected rows for AXOutline
I feel that AXSelectedRows has finally beaten me into submission :) After extensive research, I am stumped as to how to programmatically list the contents of AXSelectedRows; simply put, to get the selected rows of any given AXOutline.
It sounds trivial, but finding an answer has proven difficult - particularly due to the lack of online documentation (though I should probably buy a book!) Strangely, a lot of people just seem to want to programmatically select rows, instead of getting selected rows.
I am certainly close though. I have reached thus far:
set selectedRows to value of attribute "AXSelectedRows" of outline1

where outline1 is set to an AXOutline. Next:
set selectedRow to item 1 of selectedRows

This is where it becomes a little murky (after already failing to set it to row 1 instead of item 1). I would expect selectedRow to be of type AXRow (or row), but instead Automator output displays:
application "System Events"

That is, the item appears to be an instance of 'application "System Events"' - which leads me to believe that I'm overlooking something important. Having said that, I feel that I've tried every combination of value's, attribute's and row's - including some type-casting.
The frustrating part is that I can actually see the contents of AXSelectedRows in the Accessibility Inspector! And so I know that it exists. As a workaround, I am using:
set selectedRows to selected of rows of outline1

However, this is certainly not preferable as I still have to loop through the entire array in order to find the 'true' values, which could have performance issues for very large lists.
Any help would be hugely appreciated!

I guess getting the value of AXSelectedRows is just something that has not been implemented. When I open a Finder window in list view, select two rows, and run this script:
tell application "System Events" to tell window 1 of process "Finder"
    value of attribute "AXSelectedRows" of outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1
end tell

The result is:
{application "System Events", application "System Events"}

However you can use a whose clause to get the selected rows without using a repeat loop:
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Finder"
    rows of outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1 where selected is true
end tell

Thank you for investigating this, Lri. Your suggestion works a treat!...while also being efficient. I'd be surprised if it has not been implemented though - I believe it is more likely to be a bug in AppleScript. According to Apple's own documentation (https://developer.apple.com/library/Mac/documentation/ApplicationServices/Reference/AXRoleConstants_header_reference/Reference/reference.html), AXSelectedRows should return an array - and therefore the bug would be that they forgot to implement it :) Either way, you've satisfactorily answered the question!


text:
Does Apple's iOS have a backup DNS server configuration?
Yesterday I experienced something interesting while setting up a Wi-Fi access point. The access point was connected to the Internet via a local modem (gateway), which had no DNS server address configured. The clients (Windows notebooks, Android phones, iPhones) successfully connected to the access point, and got their network configuration via DHCP, including the DNS server, which was the IP address of the local internet gateway (the modem). But no DNS servers were configured on the modem, so you couldn't surf the web as usual (only by typing in the IP address of a website so no DNS was necessary).
Only if I manually configured the DNS on a Windows machine in the wireless adapter settings, "normal" surfing was working again. Also Android clients couldn't access the Internet (I didn't try to configure DNS manually on a client).
But the iPhone surprised me (running the latest iOS): It could load any web page without troubles, albeit the DNS server (the local gateway) served via DHCP was not working, as there no DNS server was configured.
So my question is: does the iPhone (or more precisely: iOS) have an additional, internal, backup DNS server address configured, which it uses if it gets no working DNS server address via DHCP?

You would have to ask the phone providers this question as they would be the DNS provider.  Unless you disable the cellular capabiltiies iOS will first use the WiFI then fallback to cellular traffic

Do you mean the iPhone falls back to the cellular network, but still displays the Wi-Fi symbol, ableit not using Wi-Fi?

I stand by my original statement.

Seconded, @Ramhound is correct.

So iOS displays that it is connected to a Wi-Fi network, but doesn't actually transfer data via Wi-Fi but actually uses cellular (in case Wi-Fi does not offer DNS or even Internet access)?

@Christian - Its only fallback behavior.  In other words its only used if the WiFi is unable to perform the request.

@Ramhound: I really doubt that iOS tests results of DNS resolutions and based on them could switch to a different connection but I certainly do not say that this is not possible. Do you have any proof?

@Christian: Can you capture IP packets on the gateway to see what is really going on there? Alternatively iPhone can also theoretically communicate through a proxy defined by an IP address and the DNS resolutions would be performed by the proxy. Did other protocols than HTTP/HTTPS work on the iPhone? --- As an example Opera Mini always communicates through special proxies.

@pabouk - Besides the fact iOS is able to streamless go from cellular network to a WiFi network? My proof is simply using the phone. I am actually shocked that Android does not do it either, I remember something different with my personal hate love relationship with that tricky robot.  Don't mistake what I said for something its not.  If the iOS is able to make the request because of some other WiFi setting it will use the primary connection.  Its only if that request fails will it failback to the cellular network.

You're probably experiencing DNS caching in iOS.

Although this doesn't answer the question, it's a solution for bad DNS servers (or none): You can click on the "info" icon for the access point and override the DHCP settings, including DNS. IOS remembers the changes and will re-apply them the next time you connect to the same SSID.  I'm doing this now because my cell provider frequently "can't find the host www.website.TLD"


text:
Is it possible to use US English keyboard layout with dead keys in Mavericks similar to those from Windows and Linux?
I read here that "The standard U.S. layout has a few dead key stated under ⌥". Does that mean that pressing Alt+that key would make that key act as a dead one?
I am looking for a layout that uses as dead keys the symbols that look like accents before the letters that one wants accented, like the "US-International" in Win7 and "English-US, with dead keys" in Ubuntu-Linux. In these layouts, the keys for ` , ' , ^ , " are dead. After them, Space key brings the character as such, while something like e will bring è, é, ê, ë respectively.
Are there such keyboard layouts for Mac? (I am very new to the system.)
(I am not looking for answers like "use this app and create your own layouts".)

Where do you get your definition of what dead keys "really" are?

@DanielLawson - i have tried to edit the question to make it more suitable. please suggest edits instead of down-voting. i expect that a lot of visitors here are new mac users like me and a question like this may be useful. my confusion came from the fact that in the layouts i use with dead keys outside mac the dead key gives precisely nothing, while in mac, as i see after receiving the TomG's answer below, the dead-key symbol is visible into the document until  replaced by the accented letter. because i was seeing a letter typed with that key i thought that the key wasnt "really" dead :)

Great. I couldn't tell if you had a real question or if you were ranting that Apple wasn't doing dead keys "right" according to your definition of dead keys. Now I see you're actually looking for something in particular, and not just saying "they're doing it wrong." +1

@DanielLawson - on the contrary, they're doing it better !! -- indeed, the way things are in mac is helpful because one sees what "dead key" one has just pressed. but i was not expecting that key to still be called "dead"

The answer to your new question is the US International PC layout provided by Apple.

that is indeed the answer for me! i was not used with the fact that the dead key DOES display a character until the letter to be accented is pressed! so, i was convinced that it was not the "dead" key i was looking for.  for example, i was expecting  the key " to give nothing and then just to get the accented letter ë with the stroke of e, while in fact the dead letter gives the " symbol until e is typed

@cipricus That is why the character produced by pressing the dead key is displayed with a yellow background. Pressing space or moving the cursor will insert exactly that character.

They don't normally produce absolutely nothing.  You will usually see the accent mark in yellow when you press the dead key.  Here is a list of standard accent dead keys
http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codemac.html#accent
That is:
For each accent, a certain different key has to be used along with the Option (Alt) key , before the letter that we want accented:
For example, for the accents with the letter O:
Acute   accent (ó Ó)           Option+E, o
Circumflex  (ô Ô)   Option+I, o
Grave   (ò Ò)   Option+`, o
Tilde   (õ Õ)   Option+N, o     Only works with "n,o,a"
Umlaut  (ö Ö)   Option+U, o
Example 1: To input the letter ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.
Example 2: To input the letter Ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type capital O.

This answer was helpful to me.


text:
Cannot configure OpenDNS on iPad
The instructions on Internet Safety Project seem simple enough, but, according to all the OpenDNS tests, websites are not working.
I am using a Wi-Fi iPad2 with iOS 7.

have you tried with both wifi and cellular?

That site has the wrong IP addresses for the OpenDNS servers listed. Instead of 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123 enter the correct addresses:
208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Source: opendns.com


text:
Rearrange keycaps on '09 MBP?
I'm kinda interested in using the Dvorak layout (if nothing else, people won't want to steal my machine as much), but it drives me insane that tapping a key types a different character than is written on the key. Is there a way to remove & rearrange the keycaps on an 09 MacBook Pro? What do I need to watch out for?

Rather than explaining it myself through text and possibly sounding confusing, I'll just link this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh88cn_rtLo
I've popped off keys before in the same way he did, and it works just fine. Obviously for rearranging your keys in a Dvorak layout, you'll want to pull up a reference image on screen of what a Dvorak keyboard looks like, in case you haven't memorized it. And then just pop all the keys off, put the mechanism parts that go under the keys back on, and then put the actual keys on in the proper arrangement.
And it sounds like you've already switched your system input layout to Dvorak, but in case you haven't, it's really simple. Just go into System Preferences, then to Language & Text, then the Input Sources tab, and check Dvorak. Then check "Show Input menu in menu bar" and in the menubar you should see a new icon, and it should be the flag of your country keyboard layout if you haven't changed it before. Click that and you should be able to select Dvorak.

I did this a few years ago. There's a helpful post with instructions on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2030850?tstart=0
I didn't have any issues getting the keys back on after they popped out, but it can be finicky and definitely requires some patience.
The only thing to watch out for, which particularly annoyed me, was that you can choose to move 'f' and 'j' to their new positions, but then the detents marking the "home row" will be incorrectly placed. On a newer laptop, I left those two keys and their counterparts in the  incorrect positions. On my older MBP, I actually taped small fragments of pencil lead to the new home rows keys 'u' and 'h' to provide some tactile feedback.

I've done a similar procedure for a family member's MBP, and it was surprisingly easy to remove and replace the keys. A few guidance points:

Take the key off from the top/bottom, not the sides.
It's much easier to remove the key by prying it from the top/bottom than the sides. Start at the bottom-left or top-left corner, lifting the key cap slightly, then push the mechanism inwards, freeing the key. Then simply pry the mechanism out of the key cap and clip it back into the keyboard. Repeat until you end up with a bunch of key caps, which you can place anywhere.
Be careful not to damage the silicon membrane.
Don't go too far under the key - doing so could damage the membrane, making the key non-functional!
Use a plastic tool over a metal one if possible.
A metal tool could scratch the key cap, making more backlight shine through the side of the key, which could end up being slightly annoying!

I'd suggest not doing it. I have tried rearranging the keycaps on two different laptops, and I damaged some of the keys both times. The replacement parts cost something like 50-100 USD. If you sell the laptop, you'll have to swap the keys again, and some of them might be damaged again.
The QWERTY labels might be useful if you actually forget the QWERTY layout at some point.
If you decide to swap the keys, see http://www.thebookyard.com/images/manuals/keyreplace.pdf. Most of it applies to newer keyboards as well.


text:
Is there a Mac app that will open all images within a folder, regardless of the folder depth?
I have a folder full of additional folders, each of which then contains images. The directory looks something like this:
folder0
    folder1
        image1.jpg
        image2.jpg
        image3.jpg
    folder2
        image4.png
        image5.png
        image6.png
        image7.png

...and so on. There are about 430 folders within the root one, and I'd estimate ≈20 images (with varying file types) within each subdirectory. Ideally I'd like to be able to browse through all the photos in order, but there doesn't seem to be a high-capacity image browser that can handle that.
The first solution that comes to mind would be to just merge all the folders into one, but the images have to remain in their respective folders.
Is there any app that can do this, or am I just grasping at thin air here?

Isn't this where you would want to utilize Smart Folders, and search for Images?
This tutorial gives an example, but I've outlined a basic overview below:

Open New Smart Folder.

Select the type of search (in this case, type in images, and choose    Kind:Images from the selections.)

Locate the Save button and save the search.

Choose a meaningful name for the search. Optionally, check the Add to Sidebar box.

Note the presence of the saved Smart Folder search, presuming that you followed the above step.

Answers on Ask Different need to be more than just a link. It's okay to include a link, but please summarize or excerpt it in the answer. The idea is to make the answer stand alone.

You might also just use Spotlight:

mdfind sorts the files by the containing folder:
mdfind 'kMDItemKind=*image' -onlyin /path/to/folder

This opens the first 100 images in Preview:
mdfind 'kMDItemKind=*image' -onlyin .|sed -n 1,100p|tr \\n \\0|xargs -0 open -a Preview

If kMDItemKind=*image is missing some file types, try using kMDItemContentTypeTree=public.image.


text:
OSX Firewall: Forwarding Ports & Ignoring Non-Local Requests
On my production Debian server I use this to forward requests that come in to port 80 to a non-root process running on port 8080:
sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

(The process is a Node.js cluster, but I doubt that it's relevant to this question.)
I develop on my Mac and am trying to build a more elegant environment for myself without adding any unnecessary software to my computer. I added an entry to my /private/etc/hosts file so I can use a pretty local domain:
127.0.0.1 myapp.dev

Now I want to access it without specifying a port. In other words, rather than http://myapp.dev:8080, I would prefer http://myapp.dev. I would also prefer not running my web server directly on port 80 so that it does not have root privileges.
I know my computer comes with a firewall, but I have not been able to find much information about it. So I'm looking for a simple way to forward anything coming to port 80 off to port 8080 like the IP Tables solution on Debian. I would most prefer to use the firewall that came with my computer and to set this up in the simplest way possible.
Can anyone tell me how to do this?
Bonus Points: Is there a simple way to ignore all requests coming to port 80 (and 8080 for that matter) except those from my own computer on which the web server is running?

Mac OS X once utilized a utility called ipfw, but it was deprecated in favor of a port of BSD's pf. The documentation from Apple is available at https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/pfctl.8.html#//apple_ref/doc/man/8/pfctl

There are GUI tools that might help. For IPFW there is http://www.hanynet.com/waterroof and for PF there is http://www.hanynet.com/icefloor . I'm trying to get by without installing these as I'll probably never use them again.

One solution, using IPFW, which co-exists with PF as of OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) is to simply run the command:
sudo ipfw add 100 fwd 127.0.0.1,8080 tcp from any to me 80


text:
Delete emails from server Mac Mail
I have setup and email account on Mac mail. The account accesses email through IMAP. One of the settings for the account is not to keep any messages on the server under the advanced tab in Mac Mail.
However no emails are being deleted on the server once they are received on Mac mail client.
Any clue on where I can check the problem?

The only folders you can keep locally for IMAP are:

Drafts
Sent
Trash
Spam

If you want to empty other IMAP mailboxes, you will want to set up local folders on the Mac - use the built in help and search for "Create Mailbox" to get the steps to make a local folder so you can move all the messages there and then send a delete command to the IMAP server to actually remove them if they don't auto purge.


text:
OS X Migration Assistant can't see Time Machine drive
I've wiped my machine (to start over), and I'd like to restore some key files back (like pictures and stuff like that).
However, when I connect my Time Machine drive and open Migration Assistant, it can't find my Time Machine drive. I've even tried logging in as root and invoking the application; no dice. It can see one of my old machine's backup (pre-2009), but that's not really the one I want.
It might be a problem that the name of my machine somehow was changed to 'iMac 1 (2)' - and thus the folder in Backups.backupdb is named the same - could that be tripping up Migration Assistant?

Are you comfortable in terminal? When you mount the drive in finder, can you navigate to a recent backup time stamp folder?

Yep - everything's there, it's just a problem of getting Migration Assistant to see the drive.

So - what does ls -la show for the machine directories and next level?


text:
Why does iTunes only play one song?
So here's what my iTunes looks like right now:

Nothing on this screen does what I'd expect, which may or may not be a problem with my expectations.

Why does double clicking on a track play only that track and then stop, rather than playing the album from there?
Why does clicking the play button next to "Demon Days" do nothing? What is the button for?
Why does clicking the arrow icon to the right of "Demon Days" and then choosing "Add to Up Next" add nothing to Up Next?

Can't make head nor tail of iTunes these days. Am I just getting old?

I don't have little cloud icons to the right like you do. Perhaps iTunes lost access to the filesystem where your library was, and is offering to download prior purchases, and it is for that reason it doesn't play/download them all in sequence?

The cloud icons indicate the tracks are "in the cloud" with iTunes Match. Well spotted, but it behaves just the same with albums that have been downloaded.

Click the "play" icon next to the album title to play the entire album.

For some reason your songs are greyed out. That's why it doesn't work a you expect it.
Try following : Select all these songs then under right mouse click => Check selection.

Really? They all play fine (but one-by-one) if I double click on them.

Oh! I just selected them all and chose "Check Selection" on the right-click menu and now they're all black! Thanks so much!

That is completely bizarre. There are no check marks anywhere in this UI (and no such thing as a check mark in British English anyway). iTunes is a truly awful piece of software.

They are displayed under the songs menu! (yes they could have done it better !)

Yeah I just went into the songs list to check my whole music collection. Haven't been into the songs list for years.


text:
Which is the best Mac App Cleaner
Which is the best App Cleaner for Mac. I'm using AppCleaner at the moment.
Have you other preferences?

By "app cleaner" do you mean app deleter?  Or something else?

Yes i do. App Deleter.

In that case, see these: http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/15960/  http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/10913/


text:
Finder search differentiates between files of kind CSS and Cascading Style Sheets
when I do a search for files of kind CSS I get 2 results when I should have many but if I search for files of kind Cascading Style Sheet, I get all the results except the other 2...
What's going on here?? I only noticed this after I changed the default app for opening these files...

I noticed the same thing on my Mac, but I don't know what causes it. You might just use name:.css though.

@LauriRanta thanks for the suggestion I'll use that for now!


text:
Cisco IPSec forgets password (Mavericks)
Cisco IPSec seems to have no way to store the password of the connection permanently. I have found on the web some solutions for the Mountain Lion release, but none for OS-X Mavericks.
Is it impossible, or has someone found an answer and didn't post it?

Per this question, it's not so much a problem with the OS as a problem with the configuration of the VPN on the server side.
One of the options your IT admins can do is force passwords to not be remembered for the VPN connection, and the OS X client will honor this setting. If you have the keychain open and are looking at the saved password when you connect, you can actually see the saved password disappear when you connect to the server.
I've searched for a way around this going so far as trying to applescript the login window, but they've blocked that avenue is well.


text:
How to set inbox sync time range in Mail?
When I setup an email account in Mail seems like Mail insists on downloading the tens of thousands of emails I have between now and years way back. How do I tell it to sync only in a specific time range like 3 months for example?
Thanks

Also see http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/112454/how-do-i-limit-caching-in-mail-for-mavericks

However, gmail has a workaround to prevent too many downloads over IMAP. See http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/95071/avoid-download-100-000-mails-to-use-apple-mail

Thank you. Unfortunately my company uses Yahoo business.


text:
iOS Application development Certification
As we all know about the Microsoft Certified Professional Programs. I need to ask is there any institute offering online certification for iOS Professional Developer. I have visited Standford University, as it is offering a course but I could not get it that is it like MCP or not?


text:
OS X Lion not available in U.S. Store
I recently had my computer brought to the the Genius Bar, and they installed a copy of OS X Snow Leopard onto my computer. However, I was previously running Lion. So I went over to the Mac App Store to try and reinstall Lion, and it keeps telling me that the item I've requested is not available in the U.S. Store. Is there any way I can resolve the issue? I've tried switching stores and had no luck.

That is strange - I just initiated a download of OSX Lion from my purchases, and in the US Store, and it started without problems. Have you signed out/in, and then used the download link from your purchases?

I'm going to close this as a duplicate, but if you want to edit in details (like perhaps that your Apple ID already purchased Lion and you are just trying to re-download it), then we should probably undo the duplicate close...

Unfortunately, Apple no longer sells OS X Lion in the Mac App Store. It's not even available in the US Mac App Store and there is no way that you can get OS X Lion from Apple. You can always ask around for a copy, or torrent it (I very well advise against this), but other than that, there's nothing that you can do but to upgrade to OS X Mavericks.

Actually, this is incorrect. Not only can you still purchase it, OS X Lion is still available in "Purchases".

@bassplayer7 I'm aware that you can re-download it in "Purchases", but looking around in the Mac App Store, I can't find it, so it's safe to assume that it is no longer available for purchase.

We already have a thread covering the question whether Lion is or isn't still available for purchase online. (The short answer is you can buy Lion physically only - not anymore online as a download).

Yes, it isn't exactly in the Mac App Store: http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion. After purchase, you will be sent a redemption code for downloading it in the Mac App Store. @bmike - I think this changed as of Mavericks release, but it is available as a download now at that link.

@bassplayer7 Woah! That is so cool. I've heard that Apple is distributing more and more content using gift codes. Here they have the web store sell the SKU and you get emailed redemption codes as if a consumer "gifted" the App. Very elegant. Check this link, too - http://store.apple.com/us/help/downloadable_software#MacOSX


text:
Is 13 inch MacBook Pro enough with Eclipse?
I'm a Java developer and want to buy a new 2013 Retina MacBook Pro.
I'm interested in the 13 inch for portability but I'm worried it has too small display to effectively code using Eclipse.
Has anyone tried using this machine in this way? Do I have to get the 15 inch?

13 inch would be good enough to code on using eclipse. Not much of a clutter on IDE and yet offers much efficiency in performance.

Have you actually tried it?  I'd love to benefit from a developer's experience. I appreciate it's not going to be the same as a 24 inch monitor - just want to understand if the retina makes it possible.

the retina doesn't change anything in comparaison of the "normal" display, this size stay the same, things just look sharper !


text:
Can I install Mavericks if I upgrade my RAM?
I have an early 2008 MacBook with 2GB of RAM and I would like to install OS X Mavericks onto it. However, I am not able to install the OS due to the age of my computer. If I upgrade my computer's RAM (to at least 4GB), will I then be able to upgrade to Mavericks?

Short answer....No
If your system is unsupported then you cannot install Mavericks no matter how much memory you have. The problem is with the EFI not the memory.


text:
How do I sync podcasts added in the iPhone's Podcasts app to iTunes on OS X?
I added some podcasts from the iTunes store to the iPhone Podcasts app version 1.2.3 on iOS 6.1.3.
My iTunes 11.0.5 sync settings for this phone's podcasts is sync podcasts, and automatically include all episodes or all podcasts.

However, iTunes does not copy the podcasts from the Podcasts app into iTunes.
How should I do this?

I think for this to work, you need to enable iCloud syncing for podcasts between your devices. The setting you refer to above only applies when you sync your phone from iTunes, either via USB or Wi-Fi. I could be wrong, but as far as I know it only syncs podcasts from iTunes to your phone, not the other way around.
Also, make sure there is enough space on your phone for all those podcasts.


text:
View SSL/TLS certificate in Safari 5+ when no padlock icon shown
According to Apple,

With Safari 5 through 5.1.7, a lock icon appears near the top right
  corner [only] if all of the webpage's content uses a secure connection.

That's all very well, but normally to view the SSL/TLS certificate for a webpage serving content over HTTPS, one would click the padlock icon.
Because the icon is not present on pages that serve only some of their content over SSL/TLS, there ought to be another way to view the certificate, but what is it?

Recent versions of Safari do not appear to display the lock icon or certificate unless all content loaded by the page is https. For example, if the page URL is https but it loads a JavaScript file via http, no lock icon.
The only workaround I've found so far is to run the openssl command in Terminal, like this:
echo ^d | openssl s_client -connect host.example.com:443

This will show you the certificate chain back to whatever root authority is used to sign, if any. "verify error" will show things like "self signed certificate".

If you request a single asset, such as an image on the site, over HTTPS then Safari will show you the padlock.
For example, choose an image on the page you are looking at, Ctrl-click/Right-click the image, choose to view that image in a new Tab.  In the new tab the content you are viewing isn't mixed because it is a single element and Safari will show you the padlock.

I ended up using a different browser for that purpose.
Firefox or Chrome.
OT: It's a shame that this is still an issue in 2021.

If a website is serving some content over HTTPS and some over HTTP then you shouldn't trust it. It's that simple. It doesn't matter what certificate it is using for the secure parts.
If part of the content is being loaded over an insecure connection then you don't know if it has been interfered with, and you don't know if it is interfering with the securely delivered parts.
There are various security experts who write on this subject. Troy Hunt is one who springs to mind right now. You can find a pertinent article here and others on related topics here.

What you say is true, but my question was about viewing certificates, not about whether to trust a website.

Sorry but Safari doesn't appear to give you an option that will show a certificate on a mixed content website. Firefox does though. Just hit CMD-I and select the Security tab.


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MacOSX Maverick 10.9 - How do I stretch a window across both of my dual screens on my dual screen setup?
I have two monitors on my Mac. I have just installed Maverick and I notice I can no longer stretch a window from the screen on my left to the screen on my right. Mac OSX Maverick 10.9 seems to pick one screen and it does not show the stretched window on the other screen anymore.
This is a problem because I like to use one particular program (VMWareFusion) to do my software development in full screen mode. No longer can I see my guest operating system in both screens anymore when I full screen it because of this problem... at least that is my hypothesis.

While this OS feature/bug affects your development, this is a general feature/bug of the new version of the OS and you might have better luck at the Apple-dedicated StackExchange site.

Not that I think you will get an answer there. The feature/bug you are describing is documented in Mavericks reviews as one of the new feature/bugs of that version. There may be a setting for it, but probably not. http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/11/#multiple-displays

I haven't tested it myself, but according to John Siracusa's review at ars, if you disable the "Displays have separate Spaces" checkbox in the Mission Control preference pane, the old behavior (including ability to split a window between displays) returns.

Works. Note that this requires logout/login to take effect.

You lose the menubars at the top of non-primary windows, which is too bad. Also, one of my apps for window-snapping doesn't work anymore.
If it wasn't re-login required it would be more convenient, because I don't want to stay in that mode just to get cross-edge window display.

Doesn't quite work on MBP OSX 10.13.3: if you stretch the app window too much it will still snap to one or another screen. :(

@Todd works for me in 10.13.4, I just made sure the app wasn't full-screen, then dragged one edge.

I had this same issue and I just couldn't figure out what to do.  After searching and searching, I finally found out what to do and I created a YouTube video showing the simple steps.  Let me know if you this is the same issue you had.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnR98GOGtng

same solution as suggested above, but with a video.

If you would like the best of both worlds you could use the third party application called SecondBar: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33264/secondbar
after changing  the "Displays have separate Spaces" checkbox in the Mission Control preference pane

Gordon is correct (I tested it because I am not happy about the new behavior), but doing so disables some of the new features, such as having the correct menu bar on both screens.  So you don't seem to be able to have the best of both worlds.   Also, minor correction to user1887686, you don't need to reboot, you just have to logout and log back in.

This answer should have been a comment on that answer, not a separate answer.


text:
Bash Terminal keeps showing "No such file or directory" at startup

-bash: /Users/MarksMac/Library/Enthought/Canopy_64bit/User/bin/activate: No
  such file or directory

Basically, how do i remove the above error? I am using a mac 10.9.1
I have tried looking up for answers but i still can't solve this. Although it's very simple. Sorry, I'm new to terminal.

activate is needed to initiate the shell's environment. It seems like some sort of virtual environment wants to be invoked. More details are probably to be found in ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_rc

Check the contents of your ~/.bash_profile, or ~/.bashrc, for anything regarding this.
You can try renaming all three files to something else, then relaunch Terminal. If the problem goes away, put each file back one by one and test each time to find which file contains the 'bad' line.

Delete the .enstaller4rc under your home directory. Then reopen the terminal. That error would be gone.


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Automount'ed Samba Shares accessible via Command Line but hidden in Finder?
I have 4 samba shares on a Synology DiskStation that I successsfully automount on my 10.9 / Mavericks based system under /Shares/ and when I open the command line I can go there just fine and list the files and directories just fine, however when trying to navigate to /Shares via the Mac OS X finder, the directory just seems entirely empty:

My /etc/auto_master looks like this:
#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
/net            -hosts      -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home           auto_home   -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/-          -static
/Shares         auto_smb    -nosuid

... my /etc/auto_smb like this:
home -fstype=smbfs,rw,soft ://joerg:myPassword@nasHostname/home
Downloads -fstype=smbfs,rw,soft ://joerg:myPassword@nasHostname/Downloads
Music -fstype=smbfs,rw,soft ://joerg:myPassword@nasHostname/Music
Videos -fstype=smbfs,rw,soft ://joerg:myPassword@nasHostname/Videos

What am I missing here? Why aren't the shares displayed in Finder?

What happens if you type "Shift-Cmd-G" in Finder and enter /Shares/Music directly?

@patrix: tried that and forgot to mention above - it does open the folder and displays/lists the content perfectly fine.

Perhaps the 'hidefromfinder' option in your auto_master setup file has something to do with it?
/net            -hosts      -nobrowse,**hidefromfinder**,nosuid
/home           auto_home   -nobrowse,**hidefromfinder**

From the auto_master(5) man page:

The
       hidefromfinder option is used on maps that shouldn't show up as folders in the Finder; it causes the UF_HIDDEN
       flag to be set on the root directory of the map.

It is not specified for the /Shares one(s).. so that shouldn't affect them (and these lines are Maverick default ones, so I wouldn't want to touch them).


text:
iOS7 to iOS6 for iPhone 4 happy to lose data
Is it possible to downgrade to iOS6 if the phone was never jailbroken, I'm happy to jailbreak it now to get it to work though.  Also happy to lose all data, apps, etc.

I've looked at that post and people are saying you can do it if you have jailbroken your phone before.  But I don't need a downgrade (not looking to keep my data).

No. Not possible if the phone was never jailbroken before.

Should this not be a duplicate, please edit details in that make it different than the other request. By describing what you tried or what about the previous post you don't get - can't apply to your situation should be enough to reopen this as a new post.

I don't think it's a duplicate.  I've already said why it's different in my comment above (losing the data is fine).


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OSX 10.8.5 file picker dialog doesn't allow sort by column
First post to this site and I'm writing with a user gripe.  I haven't found any reference to this issue after some searching.
I have a MacBook Air with OSX 10.8.5 and I've noticed a new behavior.  When I use the file picker dialog in certain apps (uploading a file in Safari or locating a lost file in iTunes; Command-O in Safari is the easiest way to replicate; some apps are fine -- opening or Save-As in Microsoft OFfice does not have this issue) with the view set to "List", the columns ("Name", "Date Modified", etc.) show as a translucent bar on top, and I can't click on the column labels to sort.  Instead there is a weird behavior where clicking on the column label header will actually "click through" to the underlying, barely visible, file listed on top.
In short, when I upload a file in Safari, I can't sort the list of files by name or any other criteria, and I'm stuck on reverse-alphabetical sort in every folder for some reason.  Seems like a definite bug vice a feature, and it's happening in at least two apps.
Any one else know what I'm talking about?  Sorry if the description is unclear.
Thanks for any assistance. This is really bugging me.
Best,
Jim

not really a programming question, maybe this would fit better on ask different.

Your answer is here:
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/61641/how-to-i-list-applications-sorted-by-modified-time-in-finder-on-os-x-10-8


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How can you do two-way Dropbox <--> local folder syncing on iOS?
On my iPhone, I sync my camera photos with Dropbox, so that after I do a photo shoot all the photos are automatically uploaded to my laptop in the Dropbox 'Camera Uploads' folder - ready to sort, edit and delete as necessary.
I now need to be able to do two-way syncing with the iPhone, so that when I delete (or even modify) a photo on the computer, it's also deleted (or modified) from the iPhone's camera photos folder accordingly; this way I'm not left with dozens of 'dud' photos that I no longer want on my iPhone, despite having already deleting them on the laptop.
The official Dropbox mobile client doesn't allow two-way syncing, so until they introduce such a feature, this can only be possible via a third-party dropbox API-using client.
On Android, I could do this with Dropsync, with many features and full sync customization. Is there an equivalent Dropbox solution for this on iOS?
(I am aware of the idea that iCloud may do two-way syncing built-in, (though am not sure), but I'd like to be able to share the Camera Uploads folder with family members on Windows computers (and even linux), and so find Dropbox a much more multi-platform-friendly service to use for the syncing and collaborating, instead of the iCloud ecosystem.)

Have you tried using both iCloud and dropbox together? Maybe hard linking the folders... If you want 2 way sync for editing photos on your computer, iCloud will do it. Then you want the same pictures to be automatically shared, dropbox magic.

@Cawas I have tried to do this but iCloud is not syncing photo deletions BACK to the iPhone from the PC. I have asked about it as a follow-up question, here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/115767/can-icloud-do-two-way-photo-syncing-deletion-between-the-iphone-and-a-pc

Thanks for the follow up. Damn, some times apple suck hard and beyond comprehension! So, the final answer right now is: it can't be done. Get an android. One of many reasons I dropped iPhone.

Unfortunately, I'm almost certain there's no equivalent Dropbox solution for this currently on iOS.
While I cannot give you a technical reason why two-way syncing on iOS is not possible, I can say that at a high level, the iOS platform is more guarded in terms of allowing developers to access certain capabilities of the device.
As you stated in your question, Android devices are capable of two-way synchronization through apps like Dropsync; this is because of the relatively more open-ended nature of the Android platform for both developers and users. To read more on why this is the case, read the 'Android Offers an Open Platform' section of this article.
To confirm, I contacted two customer representatives of two data-sync companies: Loom and SugarSync. I asked both reps the following question:

Is possible for two-way synchronization of files between an iOS device and a computer? For example, if I sync pix from my iPhone to my iMac, and then edit/delete the pix on my computer, will the changes be reflected automatically on my iPhone?

Both times, the answer was:

No, this is not possible due to the closed nature of the iOS platform.

If this capability is very important for your work, I would suggest migrating back to an Android device.
If you want/need to use your iPhone for this, and if you need a platform-independent solution (i.e., you don't want to use iCloud), I'm afraid tedium is in your future. I would suggest that you keep a list of the photos as you edit/delete them on you computer, so that you know which photos have been updated and need to be manually re-download from Dropbox (or manually deleted) on your iPhone when you use it next.

I am impressed at that answer, thank you VERY much. I think what I'll do now is, investigate whether iCloud itself can do it (I'm sure it can, though I'm hoping to do the main syncing to a Windows computer), then chain together THAT (folder) with Dropbox. Dropbox can do two-way syncing (on e.g. Windows), and if iCloud can between the iPhone and a (windows) computer (maybe I can find some third-party Windows client to sync with the iCloud account if need be), then boom I can connect the two together and still achieve what I want to achieve. Heh. Boom.

If you're willing to jailbreak, you can use iFile to two-way sync a folder in /var/mobile with a folder in Dropbox. It can't do background two-way sync, but you can do it manually.

If OP is willing to jailbreak, I think this is the best approach given his needs. I noticed you edited your answer to remove Backgrounder; does Backgrounder not work with iFile?

@bunting Backgrounder's development was stopped and it doesn't work in iOS 6+ so it's pretty useless now :( Still works on my trusty iPod touch 2nd-gen (stuck on iOS 4.2.1) but not with any recent hardware.

I know Documents by Readle supports two-way sync with Dropbox and other cloud services on iOS. I use it all the time sync books from my computer and iOS devices.


text:
Connecting a Dell U2412M to a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro using DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort
I recently got a Dell U2412M monitor. I'm attempting to connect it to my 2013 Retina MacBook Pro using a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable. I repeatedly get a "Entering Power Saving Mode" dialog on the monitor. The only time I've been able to successfully connect to the monitor is if I unplug the monitor completely, turn off the computer and turn them on in sync (even this only works 30% of the time). However, connecting it using a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter works as expected.
Is there a way to force the computer to detect the display using the terminal? I've tried using apps from the App Store that bring back the old Detect Displays option, but those don't work either.
There are posts regarding this on other sites, but none provide a solution. Since the DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable are the most convenient to use, so I wanted to see if anyone here has solved a similar issue, before giving up and using DVI.

I had the exact same problem with a Dell monitor.  After months of support calls and monitor replacements, it ended up being the cable.
The problem was using a Mini-DP to DP cable.  For some reason, the DP chips in the cable is not sending a signal that Dell monitors are expecting or the length of the cable causes the signal to degrade.
The fix? Buy a Mini-DP to DP adapter then use a 1.2 DP to DP cable to connect to the monitor.  I know it sounds lame and the MiniDP to DP cable should work but after I switched out the cable for this setup, I didn't experience the issue again.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for this tip. Had the same problem and ended up using a VGA connector with a mini-DP to VGA adapter to get it to work. :) Cheers.


text:
For Mac OS X, what is required for HDCP (video copy-protection) on an external monitor with HDMI?
I have a (non-Retina) MacBook Pro (mid-2012) and I have just purchased an Asus VN248H-P external monitor with HDMI input, connected to the MacBook Pro with a Monoprice Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable. This is not a television set; it is a peripheral computer monitor.
For the first time, I tried to play a movie purchased and downloaded from iTunes on the external monitor, and I got an error message in iTunes saying that this is not supported because the Mac cannot verify HDCP support for my configuration. (This refers to the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection encryption scheme).

The selected movie won't play on one of your connected displays.
This movie can be played only on displays that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).
Try moving the iTunes window to a different display. Make sure the entire window is on the supported display.

iTunes will only let me play the movie on the built-in screen on my (non-Retina) MacBook Pro, which is smaller and lower-resolution.
Is my Monoprice cable incompatible, and do I need to replace it with a different cable or adapter? Is there such a thing as a cable or adapter that works with HDCP and will enable this? Or is playing HDCP-encrypted content simply not possible on my configuration?
Please don't give me an answer that involves using software to break the HDCP encryption or to transcode to a different video format; I'd like to know if there is a hardware solution for full compatibility so that I don't lose any video resolution by transcoding.

The answer is that I seem to have encountered a bug in the implementation of dual displays in Mac OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks.
If I am using both the internal display and the external display at the same time, without using "Mirror" mode, then iTunes will not permit playback of the iTunes HDCP-encrypted movie on the external HDMI screen.
However, there is a workaround: if I close the MacBook Pro's lid, disconnecting the internal display, so that the MacBook Pro is only driving the external display, then iTunes will play the HDCP-encrypted movie on the external display over HDMI, in full-screen mode -- although iTunes still displays the same error message saying that it can't play back!
This is quite inconvenient, because I want to use both displays at once, without Mirror mode, at all times, so, for example, I can have Apple Mail and Microsoft Word up and running on the internal display while I'm watching the iTunes HDCP movie on the external display.
It looks as if I can further work around this bug, by first starting iTunes, then closing the lid, then starting the movie in iTunes on the external monitor, then raising the lid on the laptop again to activate the internal screen, then continuing to use other applications on the internal screen while the movie continues to play in iTunes on the external screen.

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


text:
Is there a proper way to clean the iPhone screen?
Is there a particular proper way to clean the iPhone's glass, oleographic coated, screen in order to maintain its luster?

Screen protector? It seems like it would be either/or for any particular setup.

Is my question doesn't fit here or needs revision?

Take a look at my edit (and adjust accordingly if I missed your point). I improved the question to be Apple-specific. Also, take a look at this question: it may be helpful for you, and provide the info you are looking for. Or this one has some good info.


text:
Can iCloud do two-way photo syncing (deletion) between the iPhone and a PC?
This is a follow-on question from this earlier one.
I want to be able to have iPhone <--> PC photo syncing such that when I delete a photo from the synced folder in Windows Explorer on the PC, it is automatically deleted from the iPhone 'in sync'. The premise for this is that after taking dozens of shots in a photo shoot and then editing on the Windows PC, and then deleting the ones I don't like etc. (or all of them in moving them outside the folder to be edited elsewhere on the PC), I'm not left with unwanted photos on the iPhone device which I no longer want.
I've downloaded and set up iCloud Control Panel 3.1 for Windows; when I delete a photo from my iPhone camera photos, it correctly syncs the 'deletion' of that photo to the Windows PC - but not the other way around. Is this limitation deliberate, or a bug of some kind, and if the former, short of jailbreaking the iPhone for an unofficial third-party solution for this, is there any way to do what I want to do?
N.B. I do not plan on using Mac OS for my aforementioned Desktop image editing needs.

As per the requirements and criteria of my question's description:

The premise ... is that after taking dozens of shots ... and then deleting the ones I don't
  like ... I'm not left with ... photos on the iPhone device
  which I no longer want.

I can answer that NO, Apple does NOT provide a way to two-way sync iPhone device photos. iCloud's two-way syncing between a PC and an iPhone only works for the 'My Photo Stream' folder. What I was looking at on the iPhone, where I was not seeing photos being deleted by PC two-way sync, was the Photos tab in the iOS Photos app - the default view of the Photos app when the user first starts using iOS. This is actually the Camera Roll folder, and there is no way to do two-way sync with these original iPhone images on the device using iCloud (or any other service).
However, to answer the question's (more open) title itself: YES, Apple DOES provide two-way sync between the iPhone and a PC, BUT only for sharing/syncing selected photos from the device (and only for 30 days at that) - NOT for editing, or managing the original set of Photos on your iPhone device. To see the (near simultaneous) two-way sync in action on the iPhone, go to the Albums tab in the Photo app where in the My Photo Stream folder you see as it currently designed. To manage or delete original photos themselves, you will have to manually delete and edit them via non-cloud-syncing methods.

Perhaps I missed it above, but could you state exactly what didn't work about the My Photo Stream solution? Was it the huge inconvenience of having to back up your My Photo Stream folder? Or was it that you are forced to deal with a folder other than the Camera Roll? In principle, if you elected to manage your photos directly from the My Photo Stream folder, you could "forget" about the Camera Roll once you have uploaded all your photos from the Camera Roll to the My Photo Stream folder. In this case, the only "manual" (one-way) deletions would be wiping your Camera Roll from time to time.

It's that I want to be able to manage the iPhone's photos AS THEY ARE on the device, not some seondary copy of them, which, I remind (and from what I've read), ONLY last for 30 days on iCloud(?). How that can be seen as an adequate solution I do not know....certainly for my needs, it fails.

Understood. I didn't mean to imply My Photo Stream was an adequate solution for your exact needs; I was merely looking for a solution that hopefully wasn't too far off from what you requested. Sorry to hear it fails your needs, and I don't blame you for not wanting to use My Photo Stream since it falls short in so many ways. If you ever find something on iOS that comes remotely close to your requested functionality, please remember to post it here as an (unaccepted) answer, or create a new question and answer it there yourself.

I have good news for you this time: this functionality is possible by setting up a Photo Stream on iCloud. The only downside to this method is that you will need to back up your Photo Stream every once in a while.
Follow these set up instructions, and then use this troubleshooting guide and FAQ page if you have any follow-up questions. The set-up instructions are comprehensive, but I've summarized the steps below:

On your iPhone, in your settings, tap iCloud > Photo Stream, then switch My Photo Stream on.
On your PC, open your iCloud Control Panel, then check the Photo Stream checkbox, then click the Apply button.

Note: Photo Stream was reworded to Photos between iOS 6 and iOS 7; same for Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Now, to directly answer your concern about deletions, this deletions guide explains how to delete photos from the Photo Stream depending on what device you want to delete them from. Below I've summarized the relevant pieces of information:
Note: The following assumes you have iCloud Control Panel 3.1 for Windows, iOS 7, and Windows 7; if you have other specs, refer to the entire deletions guide link above.
Delete photos from iPhone

Open the Photos app, then tap Albums > My Photo Stream > Select, then tap one or more photos, and then tap the Trash icon. Then confirm the number of deleted photos by tapping the Delete N Photos dialog box, where N is the number of photos your checked to delete. The changes should then be reflected once you view your Photo Stream on your PC.

Delete photos from PC

Open a Windows Explorer window, and select Photos under Favorites in the side panel. Then double-click My Photo Stream to open it, and then select the photo or photos you want to delete. Right-click and select Delete. The changes should then be reflected once you view your Photo Stream on your iPhone.

Once again, to confirm, I asked an Apple Support rep the following question:

I want to use iCloud to do two-way photo synchronization between iPhone to PC so that when I sync photos from my iPhone to my PC, I can edit/delete them on my PC, and then have those edits/deletions be reflected automatically on my iPhone.

The response I got was the following:

Two-way photo syncing is possible using Photo Stream between iPhone and PC.

In case you ever do switch to a Mac, I believe two-way syncing is also possible between an iPhone and a Mac computer.
Lastly, you must occasionally archive and back up your Photo Stream
As specified in the FAQ page (linked above):

The photos on iCloud via My Photo Stream are only available for download for 30 days.

This is because your Photo Stream storage is separate from your iCloud storage. Therefore, you must archive your data to back it up permanently. The instructions for archiving and backing up are a bit long to get through, but hopefully it will be worthwhile in the long run.

Superb answer, I will check your instructions and edit this comment with success/failure results :).....thx and will answer back soon!

Yes, please do follow up with your results; I temporarily don't have access to an iPhone and I'm curious if this works as the support rep claimed. If not, I will continue looking as I too could use this functionality.

FYI I have followed up with my full findings as an official answer. Hope that helps.


text:
Ordered list with capital letters in PowerPoint?
I'd like to create an ordered list in Powerpoint with capital letters as enumeration:

Diagnostic Criteria
A. Excessive anxiety and worry
B. The individual finds it difficult to control the worry

I use PowerPoint for Mac 2011 (German version), the options that PP provides look like this:

This answer was originally posted as an edit by @what to @nadynes answer.  I include it for completeness sake.

@what writes:
nadyne's answer gave me an idea how to solve this problem, so I'm attaching my solution to her answer. What I did was temporarily install the English version of Microsoft Office.

Move the Microsoft Office folder from the Applications folder of OS
X to the trash and from there to some other place (like the
Desktop). (You cannot directly move the Office folder elsewhere.
Dragging it will only create an alias.)
Go to
http://www.microsoft.com/germany/mac/office-2011-digital-download
and download the English version of Microsoft Office. You need your
product key for this.
Install MS Office.
Open the new English version of PowerPoint and create a new document
with the ordered list, or open your existing document and create a
new or re-format an existing list. Save the document.
Close PowerPoint, move the (English) MS Office folder from the
Applications folder to the trash and from there to a save place to
store it.
Drag and drop the old (German) MS Office folder back to the
Applications folder.
Open your PP file in the German version of PowerPoint. Voila, you
have a list with capital letter numberging :-) You can even copy
this list to other places in your document and edit the text. It
will retain the capital letters.

Here is an image of the result. Note how the Numbering format menu does not offer the option for capital letters followed by a dot ("A."), but the list in the open document is nevertheless numbered in that way:

Notes: Office apps don't open when they're outside the Applications folder under OS 10.9, so you cannot have two parallel working installations but have to drag the MS Office folders around. You have to do a complete Office installation. Installing only the English version of PowerPoint into the German version of the MS Office folder will cause PP to crash upon startup. Also, the Office installer does not allow to choose a different place for installation, you have to install to the Applications folder. So move the German version before you install the English one.
The whole procedure including writing this edit took me 59 minutes (that's the time from my last comment to this edit). Next time will be much quicker, because I don't have to search, download and install MS Office or write an edit on Stackexchange :-)

You can do this in the English version of PowerPoint 2011.

In PowerPoint, go to the Format menu.
Select "Bullets and Numbering".
Select "Numbering" in the right navigation panel.
Choose the appropriate method.

Since there appears to be a difference between the English version and the German version, an imperfect workaround is to use a custom bullet.

This is imperfect for two reasons:

You would have to specify the bullet for every item on the slide that you want to be enumerated as such.
You can only specify a single character, so you only get "A" instead of "A." for your bullet.

Using this method, this is what your slide would look like:

You could expand on this idea further, which gets increasingly hacky.  For example, you could create a graphic that consists of "A. ", "B. ", "C. ", ... and then use those as your custom bullets.  Using graphics like this for custom bullets can cause difficulty if you want to update your slides in the future but don't have the original graphic file available.

PowerPoint does not provide an option to number a list with uppercase letters. I wouldn't have asked a question here, if it did.

Apologies - I didn't see your graphic.  PowerPoint does provide the option to number a list with uppercase letters in the English version, which I presumed would be consistent in other languages.

No, I have to apologize. I uploaded the graphic after your answer. And, like you, I just didn't think that the options would differ between languages.


text:
Corsair Vengeance 2100 on OS X
I just purchased the Crosair Vengeance 2100 headset to use with Steam on OS X (Mountain Lion) and to use with Skype.
I can get the headset to be detected by OS X and set it up as a sound device but after a few minutes the audio and mic cut out with the only way to reset it is to pull the USB adapter out and put it back in (and then go reset the output devices in OS X).
Has anyone been able to get it to properly work on OS X?
Thanks.

Does the sound only cut out in game, or does it happen no matter what you're doing on the computer?

This happens in game (Steam) and just listening to music (iTunes).

Are you using it wireless or plugged in?
If you are wireless, I'll bet they're low on charge. If you look where the cord connects, it's likely blinking or solid red (which means you need to charge them).
As for the adapter, you don't need to keep un-plugging to reset them. On the left ear, you press the button for a few seconds. This will re-sync the headset to your USB adapter. If it correctly sync'ed, the blinking blue light on the adapter will stop blinking on stay solid.


text:
Mysterious sounds of mail activities when using external loudspeakers
When I connect over USB to my MacBook AIR my external loudspeakers ("Philips multimedia 2.0 speakers SPA2201") I sometimes here immediately afterwards sounds of mail activity.
Mail.app is opened (as it is always) but there is no trace of activity to be found afterwards in it. I just hear the sounds: incoming mail (twice), outgoing mail (once).
My question is: why does this happen, could the loudspeakers connect over the internet to some distant server?
I have experienced it while using iTunes, and also VLC.
It is not systematic. It happens apparently when I have been without using the loudspeakers for some extended period of time.
[earlier formulation of my question erased, now that I understand it has nothing to do with iTunes]

Is Mail actually open when you open iTunes?

@IconDaemon sorry for delay. Yes, it is. It is very hard for me to diagnose accurately, as the phenomenon seems to pop up only after somewhat long periods (two weeks perhaps) of complete iTunes inactivity. So whenever I get interested again, I can't reproduce it. Another component of the problem is that I use external speakers connected to USB port plus audio connector. It seems I only notice the problem when connecting these speakers. Sorry about the confused information.

If it happens again, can you try recording it?

Just take out your iPhone and swipe to camera.  If it happens, use it, if not, don't and delete it.

@AwesomeUser I don't own an iPhone !

Then use something similar.  BTW Get an iPhone 6!


text:
Can you override a Mac app's OS X version compatibility checking?
I am wanting to use this app in Mavericks, but the following message pops up when trying to run it, '...[App] is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.9.1':

I am thinking that the app will work just fine, and that the developer has just put a restriction to not allow anything above 10.7.x in some sort of compatibility settings inside its Package Contents - or however OS version checking within an App works on Mac OS.
Is there a way I can force it to run in Mavericks myself, via something like tweaking with numbers in a file in the .app Package Contents, changing some setting in System Preferences or doing a Terminal tweak of some kind?

This will be in the application code itself, and most likely cannot be circumvented. You have to wait for a new version.

The above error is not the error provided by OS X. For comparison, this is the OS X error:

The error you have shown above will have been coded into the app specifically, and therefore not easily bypassed.
The best thing to do is contact the developer to see if they have a beta version of the app that you can test. Alternatively, wait for an update.
Also, code preventing the running of an app on a certain OS X version would usually have a good reason to exist, especially with utility software such as that. Bypassing it could have downsides…

Often times I have seen people delve into the .APP's package contents. In some cases the version checking is done in one of the .plist files inside the app's package.
Someone with a little bit of technical knowledge, and a text editor, might be able to modify the correct plist file in the app's package.
Remember that apps downloaded from the Apple Store are signed cryptographically and changing things inside the package will cause the O/S to not run the app.


text:
How to reduce the RAM usage by run_kernel in MACBook pro
run_kernel is using upto 1gb of ram in macbook pro.Please help

Is this causing problems for your Mac? What behaviour are you seeing that suggests the RAM use needs to be reduced?

yes this is causing slow loading of various applications.

run_kernel appears to be associated with OpenCL and thus linked to work being performed by the graphics card in your MacBook Pro.
Consider switching between graphics cards and seeing if that helps.
Without more information, it is difficult to assist. A process using 1GB RAM is not in itself likely to be the cause of problems. Your MacBook Pro is likely 64-bit and is designed to work with much larger volumes of memory.
If you are running OS X 10.9 or later, try watching the Activity Monitor's Memory information. Do you see large, gigabyte or more, values for Swap or Compressed memory? What value do you see for Wired Memory?

Switching graphics is not an option in OS X 10.9.My laptop configuration is 13" mid level macbook configuration 4GB 2.5GHZ i5 processor. Other stats are 1.15GB for Wired memory in activity monitor.Swap used in 3.86GB.


text:
How do I set up Firefox to keep only cookies from select sites, when I use Firefox-Sync?
I use Firefox on a desktop iMac, a MacBook and my Android Samsung Galaxy S III mobile phone. All installations of Firefox are set to sync over Firfox's inbuilt Firefox-Snyc feature.
On my desktop computer I have set Firefox to delete all cookies when I close Firefox and defined exceptions, telling Firefox to keep cookies from those sites. I followed this instruction.
This worked fine at first: I visited some sites, closed Firefox, opened Firefox, looked at the cookies, and all cookies had been deleted except those from the excepted sites.
But after I began using Firefox on my other computers, I noticed that:
(a) all cookies were being deleted sometimes; sometimes all remained
(b) the exceptions disappeared sometimes; sometimes they remained
So the question is:
How do I set up Firefox to keep only cookies from select sites, when I use Firefox-Sync?

Firefox Sync doesn't support site permissions, unfortunately.
It's been requested with bug 470699: add yourself to the CC list to be notified of future development.


text:
Can Spotlight be configured to search ALL files on the hard drive (or is there a powerful alternative) - like Windows' Start Menu search can be?
On Windows - since Vista onwards - I'm used to an extremely powerfully configurable instant file/folder/setting search feature: namely its instant indexed Start Menu search. Having a powerful computer, I add every single file and folder to the index so that any little file or folder I'm after (including both file name and extension), is immediately, instantly searchable right from the Start Menu.
It looks like Spotlight is OS X's equivalent of this.
Is there a way I can achieve the same thing, to index every single file on the hard drive, in OS X? So far I see no in-built way to add custom/system folders (or indeed all folders) on the Mac outside the ones it offers, like on this screenshot:

If there's no in-built solution such as a set of Terminal instructions, is there a good third party solution for this? (As always, free options are more desirable than paid.)

I can recommend EasyFind and Find Any File (of which I'm the author, incidentally). Both search for file names on entire disks.
They search even in places where Spotlight never looks (e.g. in the System and Library folders).
In case of Find Any File, you can even easily search as root user, so that it even finds files usually not accessible to you. FAF also lets you save a set of preferred paths, either as a default or as a "search" document that you can open as a pre-configured search configuration.

Unfortunately, no, you can't add custom paths to Spotlight.
I use and recommend Alfred, which lets you set a custom Search Scope:

You can search normally just by typing, or press space (which inserts a ' — the operator for a File Search) then type to search all paths:

Thank you for this, my concern with Alfred is that I'm reading on their own website, 'Alfred uses the same metadata index as Spotlight', any comment on this?

@foregon Spotlight has indexed everything — it just decides what to hide from searches, and you can't change that. It's a bit different to Windows, where your user account is indexed and nothing more unless you tell it so. Spotlight will index everything, then hide many things from search results in the Spotlight menu bar item, so as to not clutter it with stuff that it thinks is useless to the average user. You can search everything using Finder or mdfind, or apps like Alfred.

Interesting, so you're saying Alfred will or can actually reveal more (in fact all) files on the mac HDD, as opposed to Spotlight's default results? edit: ah you expanded your answer, thanks!

@foregon Almost all, yes — obviously you're still limited by lack of permissions, etc. Even external drives are indexed by Spotlight and then searchable through Alfred if you add the drive to the search scope, as you can see I've done in the screenshot above.


text:
Trash log in Mac OS X?
My friend accidentally deleted (moved to Trash) all the files listed in "All my files" in Finder. Instead of using the "put back" option, he moved these files from Trash to Desktop using Finder. Now he has lost the directory structure! Is there a way to put these files where they were deleted from originally? The problem is that "All my files" lists the files in one Finder window and when they were moved to the trash, the files appeared as if they were stored in one directory. So I was wondering if there is a way to figure out where these files once were. Any ideas?
PS Time machine is disabled and no other backups; Mac OS X 10.9.1

If you haven't already restarted or done much on your system you could try going to "All My Files" and hitting Command-Z (Undo); sometimes that puts the files back.

Oh my gosh - This is a great reason to dislike All My Files.

Do you think "All My Files" is there because Windows refugees wanted it?

No - there is no general way to recover the original location of arbitrary files when you move them out of trash and place them on the desktop.
Gladly, they didn't get erased, but this is exactly the job for which Time Machine was created. Now, you can leverage some knowledge about what goes into All My Files to get things back in a reasonable shape:

Put obvious files in the correct location - Pictures, Documents, Movies, Music all have folders in the user home folder.
Create a new smart folder to search the files for "Where from" to contain http to locate any files downloaded from the internet (and perhaps placing them back in Downloads folder)

Also, since OS X doesn't really care where most user folders or applications are stored, you don't even need to do anything but file these away in a "clean later" folder and apps that need a file will automatically locate the files in their new spot.

Finder does not log event like deletion. The only logs you can get are the ones displayed in Console.app.


text:
What are the implications of linking your Apple ID to your Mac User Account in OS X System Preferences?
What are the various effects, in terms of usability, privacy and security, of storing your Apple ID in 'Users & Groups’ in your Mac System Preferences, like so?

E.g., could one effect be not having to input your Apple ID password in the Mac App Store every time you download a new app?
What's the total list of implications of doing this?

After associating and Apple ID with you user account you'll be able to use it to:

Reset your login password (unless FileVault is enabled)
Establish file and screen sharing access to the computer from another computer
Share files and screens with another computer after you log in

And for the particular case you mention regarding the Mac App Store, no, associating an Apple ID with a user account won't change the Store's password prompting.

Connecting the two allows you to use your AppleID to reset your login password and log in to the computer for file and screen sharing using your AppleID. Nothing else.
It makes no difference to the App Store, iCloud, or iTunes as they don't use this AppleID.


text:
Accent menu gone in Mavericks?
I'm unable to get the accent menu to show up when I hold down a key. Do I have to enable the long-press accent menu in Mavericks somehow manually?

What apps are you trying it with? Do you have any apps that might customise the keyboard (KeyRemap4MacBook, etc)?

Got it working by adding a second language in the Language & Region pref pane and rebooting.
Now the menu shows up.

So you only had one language in that list to start with?  Had you removed some earlier or was it that way from the beginning?

Had only one language in the list to start with


text:
How to label text files as such in zip archive
I am told, about a zip archive I created under Mavericks from the Finder File menu, with a directory containing both pdf and text files: "No file is labelled as text by zipinfo". People ask me to use a zipper able to do that. I went through the entire option list as described on the apple developer site and do not seem to find the correct invocation, if any.
I have zipinfo installed from fink, and indeed when I run it in verbose mode on the archive it says for each file "apparent file type: binary".
Is there anyway using the /usr/bin/zip shipped with Mac OS X to create archives with some text files identified as such, from the point of view of zipinfo?

UPDATE: well, perhaps I should have tried first, but in a test I just made, if I actually run the zip command in Terminal, then the produced archive does correctly label text files as such, as reported by zipinfo. If however I select the files in a Finder window and select the command in the Finder File menu to create an archive, then the said text files are labelled as binary file, as reported by zipinfo. It thus appears my only sin was to have used the GUI rather than the command line.


text:
When does macbook second HD work?
I changed my optical drive with my old HDD and it works great. Now i have a SSD samsung 840 evo 250 GB. The battery doesn't last as long as before, but still works quite well.
The only thing it pisses me off is that sometimes the second hd starts working even if i'm not using it, does anyone know why? can i stop it?
I've try to google it but i couldn't find any solution.

Every time an application access a files on the HD, it will start itself. Sometimes it can be a background process who does this, that's why it may happen although you don't access a file directly.
You can watch this with this command : lsof | grep "/Volumes/HDName"
lsof lists the files accessed by the all process. The grep selects only the files located on the HD.
If you want to stop the hard-drive, just unmount-it.

You can also use opensnoop for a 'live feed' of accessed files:
sudo opensnoop | grep "/Volumes/diskname"

Run the command, then use your computer. When the drive starts up, look at the Terminal window to see the log.


text:
Make Dropbox app upload in background without having to open every 10 minutes
Is there any kind of workaround to get Dropbox on iPhone iOS to work as well as it does on Android?
Installing Dropbox on the iPhone requires manually triggering the upload process instead of it running itself in the background. Dropbox only runs for about 10 minutes every time you open the app or change location. If you rarely change location then it might as well be manual upload only. In my situation I rarely change location for days and even a week or two at a time. I might take as many as thirty photos, but they will only start uploading when I open the app, and they will only continue uploading for 10 minutes.
In addition to that, it seems to hang for no reason at every tenth photo or so (which might be a different issue, but please address it if you have ideas). The final result is a lot more annoyance than it's worth.
On Android, I installed Dropbox, set it up, then I never opened it again for nearly a year and it worked flawlessly.
How can I get the iOS version of Dropbox to work like it does on Android?

You can't. There are restrictions with iOS multitasking that prevent apps like this from running all the time. You might be able to bypass this by jailbreaking though.
Also, apps can't bypass this on the App Store due to guidelines such as:

2.5 Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected

Source: https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html

As I feared ... Someone on a forum I was reading mentioned something about running as a service. I think it was hypothetical, though.

Is this only true if the phone is using cellular? If it is on WiFi, does it upload after each picture taken? I ask as I use my phone for both personal and business. Might take a personal picture and have a client show up that I need to show a graph to. Ideally, if on Wifi (which I always am) I would be able to snap the personal picture, wait 10 seconds, and delete if from my phone knowing it will be in the DropBox cloud later.

No, the behavior on wifi is the same as described here.

Recently, my wife needed to sync 5000+ photos from her iPhone top Dropbox. What helped her was to disable Auto-Lock (set it to "Never"), fire up Dropbox, keep it in the foreground and plug the iPhone into external power supply. Then leave it alone. After two nights, all photos were synced. Not an ideal solution but at least no need to re-open Dropbox every ten minutes or so.

Obviously, Android and iOS are two very different operating systems, with different ways of doing things.  Apple chooses not to let apps run in the background forever.  This helps reduce the drain on the device's battery.  That being said, "Background App Refresh" has been around for a while.  App devs have to add this capability to their apps.  It isn't done automatically.

Jailbreak your phone and then download 'Background Manager' and it'll bypass Apple always killing DropBox in the background every 10 minutes.  It's great because now DropBox will upload in the background or at night when I'm sleeping, while the iphone is plugged in!

True this might help. Too bad I have to take such extreme measures for something so simple.

Unfortunately it's no longer under development and won't install on iOS 8

The "Background uploading", even though it has been here for a while, as the OP said, is only temporary; that is, one must open the app once in a while, and the app is still closed after that 10 min period. The only real background upload happens when the phone detects a location change. Anyway, now at least I know why I have to manually open the app to upload the photos.

My photos suddenly began refusing to upload in the middle of a hike. They stubbornly stayed stuck even after letting Dropbox have focus overnight, as @UweKeim suggested. I kept this screen lit for more than 12 hours, to no avail:

What got the logjam moving for me was manually moving a few files from Photos to the Dropbox Camera Uploads folder.

in the iPhone Photos app, Library tab, select one photo (one at a time, smh)
upload icon
"Save to Dropbox" action (not the Dropbox logo)
Choose a Different Folder... (Camera Uploads in my case)
Save
delete the photo from the Photos app

I can't be sure which file Dropbox was choked on. There was one 25MB panorama, a couple 18MB videos. (I've uploaded much larger photos without incident.) After I moved about a half dozen of the oldest files that were due to be uploaded next, and deleted them from the Photos app, then gave Dropbox focus, the rest uploaded automatically.
Feeling the need for some iCloud antitrust busting. Just sayin'.

There is a new feature in the settings named ‘Camera Upload’. This is basically an automatic sync of your created photos to dropbox.
If you enable this you'll also have an extra option popup: ‘Background Uploading’, however as far as I can tell, this works only for the uploads done by the ‘Camera Upload’ feature.
Dropbox doc links:
What is background uploading?
How do I enable or disable Camera Upload?

That feature is neither new nor resolves the issue. In the question, I mention that it uploads only if you change location. That's how the "background uploading" feature works. It is a faux background process. It is triggered by changing location, not by taking a picture, and will only upload for about 10 minutes. So if you've been sitting at home for five days and have taken 50 pictures and 5 videos, 10 minutes is very unlikely enough time to get them all uploaded.

On android, however, the background upload process is a true background process and uploads immediately after a picture is taken, assuming you are connected to the internet.

Dropbox for iPhone has a new feature called "Background uploading" and it does just that. Check the settings icon and enable it.

They have had "Background uploading" for a while. The issue is that it is a faux background process. It only actually uploads if you open the app or change location. If this is still true, then this doesn't answer my question. On Android, Dropbox will upload within seconds of saving the picture, without having to do anything.


text:
How can I hide the TotalTerminal Visor from the command line?
I am using TotalTerminal. I know that I can set hotkeys to show or hide TotalTerminal's visor, but is there a command I can put at the end of a command line to hide it?
For example:
latex ; hide-total-terminal-window

Is there a command that can implement the same function as this hotkey setting? For example, the hotkey to hide TotalTerminal is ⌃T, so I want to find the corresponding command line option that will hide TotalTerminal instead of having to press the hotkey.

It is not entirely clear what you are you asking. Do you need a hot-key that hides only (i.e. a no-op if already hidden) instead of toggling between hide and show?

I know I can use hotkey to hide visor. What I want to do is: I want to compile latex from terminal(there is a reason I want to do this rather than use texshop), so I type "latex ...." command in terminal, but I have to press the hotkey to hide visor every time. So I want to know is there a command to hide visor so I just need to add this command after the "latex" command with ";". Thanks.

I edited your question, as you should have done, few people will read through all the comments to see if there is a clarification. If total-terminal was an X application you could use a script that called wmctrl but I don't think it is.

thanks. I have posted new questions after the original question.


text:
Software to track income and spending on OS X and Android
There is this other question that asks about What OS X and iOS software combination tracks finances?
But most of the software listed there is much to powerful (and complicated) for me. I just tried out the demo for YNAB, but I can't get my head around that software. What the hell is a budget, anyway?
All I want is a very simple tool that allows me to:

begin with a starting balance
enter monthly income (salary)
enter monthly expenses (rent, health insurance, telephone)
optional: with date
optional: quarterly / yearly payments
optional: enter an end date for these monthly monetary flows (e.g. a loan that will be paid at a certain date)
enter spendings on my mobile phone as they happen
calculate a live balance and display it

I don't want to:

track stocks
create a savings plan
connect to my bank account
any other stuff

Plus:

looks nice
exports / saves to file in a format that other software can read (e.g. csv, MySQL database)

I would use an Excel sheet, if I didn't want to use it on my mobile phone.
Any suggestions?

It's not mac specific, but I'd recommend checking out Mint.com.  I was originally skeptical of letting a service connect to my bank accounts, but after using for a little while I am now a believer.   If you categorize your transactions for a month or two it learns, and you'll find that you need to spend less and less time manually entering data.

I'm not in the US (nor Canada) and cannot use Mint. I need software that does not require a US bank account.


text:
How can I download WWDC 2013 videos straight to my iPad?
I want to download some WWDC session videos to my iPad. I don't want to download them to iTunes, then transfer them to my iPad. Is there a way to download them directly?

The official Apple Developer app is available for iPadOS and supports downloading videos.

• Watch videos from current and past events and download them to watch offline.

WWDC13 videos cannot be downloaded or watched on official Apple websites such as Apple Developers where the latest available WWDC video playlist is WWDC14.

Nevertheless, below is how to download WWDC videos (from WWDC14 until now).
Here are the links to every WWDC video playlist from WWDC14 (oldest available on on Apple Developers) until now:

WWDC23 (lasting from June 5th to June 9th 2023)
WWDC22
WWDC21
WWDC20
WWDC19
WWDC18
WWDC17
WWDC16
WWDC15
WWDC14

The videos available on Apple Developers (including WWDC14 and later videos) are of course available for download on iPad.

The below example is with a WWDC23 video: Platforms State of the Union.
Below the video description, in Resources, you can download the full video in HD or SD. (It applies for every video available on Apple Developers)

(Download HD or SD (download links) videos of the above-linked WWDC23 video)

Not really a way to how to download them directly. In order to get in touch with your iPod, iPhone and iPad using a computer is actually iTunes since iTunes will sync the iOS Software.
This might help : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4030410?start=30&tstart=0
And some more here : http://www.copytrans.net/support/install-apps-to-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-without-itunes/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-sync-music-to-your-iphone-without-itunes/


text:
How can I cut down on the size of iMovie Library.imovielibrary?
I recently noticed that the file at ~/Movies/iMovie Library.imovielibrary is taking up an awful lot of space:

Is there a way to make it smaller? I don't have anything important in iMovie - what happens if I simply delete it?

Is there a way to make it smaller?

Sure — in iMovie, delete what you don't need and the size of the library will reduce.
If you're looking for more detail regarding what is taking up space in your library, you can browse the library with something such as DaisyDisk1 which will show what is using the most space.

I don't have anything important in iMovie - what happens if I simply delete it?

You'll lose all your media from your iMovie library, including footage, projects and associated files such as render files (although if you don't have the media any more the render files are pretty useless).
Your iMovie settings aren't stored in the library, unless the settings are specific to the library or something in the library, such as project settings.
1 DaisyDisk needs a bit of prodding to look in packages — right-click the package and choose Show Package Contents.

I followed these instructions to delete out of iMovie, deleting a lot of stuff I would have preferred to keep the project data for, and the size of my library did not reduce.

I had to close iMovie for the changes to take (to move items out of the internal "__trash" folder. Now it's showing more disk space.