text:
Bluetooth device connected but not showing up in Output Device
In order to remove another audio device from my Mac, I deleted the HAL folder from Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/ (This is the advice I got from a quick google search, I don't understand the mechanics of it at all)
It removed the device I wanted to remove but now my Galaxy buds are not working. They connect to the bluetooth successfully for a few seconds and then disconnect automatically. Even when they are connected, the headphones do not show up in the list of Output devices.
If someone has any solutions, please help me out.

Generally you would remove unwanted drivers from within the HAL folder, not the HAL folder its self. I don't think deleting HAL/ is a good idea as that's where audio drivers go. Probably you should

Recreate it in the terminal with sudo mkdir -p /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL && sudo chown root:wheel /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL && sudo chmod 0775 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL
Reinstall any software/drivers for your hardware

Hi, thank you for responding. Can you please guide me through how I can do these?

I opened the terminal, and pasted this command. Then it asked me for the password to my MacBook which i entered. Anything else I have to do?

How can I reinstall the software/drivers?

Thank you.

This would be specific to your hardware. I suggest to contact the manufacturer support if you cannot figure out their driver re-installation.


text:
Can I recover lost data after formatting Mac HD?
I lost my private keys after formatting my Mac and reinstalling my OS. I only have the public keys and the passphrase. What can I do?

It is not possible to restore a private key from a public key, no matter if passphrase is known or not.

Are you trying to recover files on this disk? Surely "formatting" would have destroyed all files on it anyway? Do you not have a backup?

@benwiggy Formatting doesn't necessarily delete the files in hard disk (depending on the options used) - it just marks the space occupied by any data as 'empty'. But if you write any new data on the formatted disk, old files on it can be overwritten and thus become unrecoverable.

@sfxedit Yes, but either way, your intention is to clear the disk. Why would you format a disk if it was your only copy? Or, if you don't need to recover any data, why does recovering the keys matter?

@benwiggy Mistakes happen. You might have thought you have backed up all the important files before formatting a disk, but then realised that the one file you needed was in some other folder that you didn't backup. Anyway, I was clarifying your doubt whether formatting would have destroyed all the files - as LSerni explained in his answer, the data may be still be there even after formatting the drive. (The type of drive also matters - I think it easier to recover data from HDD than SSD).

Unfortunately, it is currently impossible (rather: computationally unfeasible) to recreate the private keys from the public keys (otherwise they wouldn't be "private", and public keys wouldn't be, as they are, safely discloseable to all and sundry). The passphrase is just an encryption of the private keys, and while required for their recovery, it is not per se sufficient - you still need the encrypted private keys.
There is, perhaps, some small hope of recovering said encrypted private keys from the formatted disk, since formatting is not the same thing as erasing. The private keys are small and their format is distinctive, so if they have not been overwritten by the OS reinstalled files, it is possible they're not only still lying somewhere in the free space of the disk, but they're in a single, recognizable and thus recoverable fragment.
The disk must be set off line as soon as possible to prevent further writes to increase the risk of overwriting the data, and the free area examined with forensic tools by an expert or at least someone familiar with the mechanics of this undertaking. The operation can take several hours depending on the hard disk size.
If the disk has been already filled with data, or worse, a "secure erase", "secure format", "diagnostic rewrite", or similar operation has been performed prior to the reinstallation, then recovery chances are nil - that's literally the point of a "secure erase". Sorry.

Good answer - perhaps you can suggest some data recovery software on macOS that they can try to search and recover the keys?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Can't import FaceTime Live Photos to Windows 10
I have an iPhone XS max (iOS 14.6) and I'm trying to import photos taken during a FaceTime call to my PC running windows 10.
Using the photos app on windows 10, I can import photos and videos fine, and Live Photos taken with the camera will give me a jpeg and mp4. the importing process seems to go through the selected photos fine until it reaches a FaceTime photo, where it will import the still and fail when trying to import the mp4. the import process then terminates, leaving me with whatever photos imported up until that point.
I've tried navigating the phone's storage in file explorer (This PC\Apple iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM) and manually copying the .mp4, but the copied file ends up 0kb in size despite showing a file size on the original copy.
I don't want to use a cloud service as my upload speed is terrible and it would take much too long.
I can't find any results on Google even remotely similar to my issue, and I couldn't get much help asking on the Apple forums unfortunately.

Try the trial version of iExplorer (there is a Windows version)  to access the iPhone directly to see if you can pull the video files that way.

@IconDaemon I was able to copy the photos, however they were in HEIC format which I can't open. I'd rather not pay $1 on the Microsoft Store for support for opening the format, and I was only able to convert them to JPEG using CopyTrans. If this is the best that can I be done, then I'll live with it. Thank you.

Microsoft provides a free HEIC extension for Windows 10.

Unfortunately, to open a .HEIC file you also need the HEVC extension, which is $1. There was previously a free version on the Microsoft Store which is no longer available.

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


text:
How does the hardware know the restart?
A Mac can be switched off via the software. But switching on the hardware cannot be done if the software is not running.
How can a Mac restart when it is switched off? Somebody else has to do that or am I confused? Who turns the Mac back on when it's off?
If this is a stupid question please forgive me.

I’m voting to close this question because it is not about a practical problem related to the use of Apple products.

Is this about how a computer boots, about how electricity is switched off and on, about the difference between booting from scratch, rebooting and wakeing up from sleep, or something altogether? What kind of research have you already done on this (think this is documented in a lot of places)? And, most important: which practical problem do you need solving?

@nohillside My question has already been answered. Thanks.

Macs like PCs have ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface) and don’t actually turn off during a restart.
How does a computer restart itself? - Super User

tl;dr: power states in your computer are controlled by an implementation of ACPI (advanced configuration and power interface). At the end of a shutdown process, your operating system sets an ACPI command indicating that the computer should reboot. In response, the motherboard resets all components using their respective reset commands or lines, and then follows the bootstrap process. The motherboard never actually turns off, it only resets various components and then behaves as if the power button has just been pressed.


text:
Late 2009 iMac won't boot (mb950b/a)
This one has me beat!
I bought a used iMac a late 2009, mb950b/a. the story I got was it was all ok but after a fresh os install it stopped working, he has pics of it running an old os.
it will start and I get the apple logo and it tries to start then the status bar fills and nothing, it just sits there at the apple logo and a full status bar.
I ran AHT from a usb and it showed up no issues.
I created a bootable usb with El Capitan, when I select the usb with bootable usb, again apple logo and status bar.
I start from command + R, same apple logo and status bar.
I start from N, spinning work and same apple logo and status bar.
ive reset everything and same.
Ive installed a new SSD and tried to boot via bootable usb, same
Ive fitted another SSD from another iMac and again the same
I have tried loads of resets, swapping drives anything I can find, but nothing will work.
could it be still hardware and if so what?
so in short all i’m a getting is the apple logo and a status bar,
I can’t access startup recovery, Im lost with this one, any help please

Try single user mode

hi I can't enter single user mode as the hard drive is blank, if I plus in the USB with bootable OS I can, am I right in this?

Can you boot in verbose mode (CMD+V during boot) and share a slow-mo capture of the screen?


text:
Modify and save audio files with afplay
I discovered the command line program afplay and it can turn a audio file up / down very quickly and I want this file to be saved afterwards.
I don't know of any program like this that can change details so quickly.
I've tried this, but it doesn't work. Any ideas?
afplay audio.mp3 -v 2 > new_audio.mp3

And what about music. Unfortunately, it doesn't work there either

I think it is not possible because afplay cannot recreate a file.

afplay options are for playback of the audio file and redirecting as you have in the command afplay audio.mp3 -v 2 > new_audio.mp3 just creates a zero length file because the output afplay goes to the sound system, not stdout for redirection.
The Audio File Play in the help output kind of says it all.
If you want to modify/create audio files, then you'll need to use program designed for that as afplay is designed for playback.
% afplay -h

    Audio File Play
    Version: 2.0
    Copyright 2003-2013, Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    Specify -h (-help) for command options

Usage:
afplay [option...] audio_file

Options: (may appear before or after arguments)
  {-v | --volume} VOLUME
    set the volume for playback of the file
  {-h | --help}
    print help
  { --leaks}
    run leaks analysis
  {-t | --time} TIME
    play for TIME seconds
  {-r | --rate} RATE
    play at playback rate
  {-q | --rQuality} QUALITY
    set the quality used for rate-scaled playback (default is 0 - low quality, 1 - high quality)
  {-d | --debug}
    debug print output
%


text:
Recover data from corrupted APFS external volume
In less than 2 months, Finder has managed to corrupt 2 external hard drives and make the data inaccessible. First time I gave Apple the benefit of the doubt, but when it happened AGAIN on another drive after Finder became unresponsive when trying to unmount... I blame APPLE on my pain. Anyways, the data is still there as I can see from a data recovery program, but I have to pay to recover all the data.
Here's my question: How can I do this on my own? The data recovery software is able to find my files by scanning the raw data on the disk. If I could figure out what tools or commands it uses, then i'd be able to do it on my own.
Some research suggests booting my machine on kali Linux, then using the DD command to access the data. Anyone familiar with this?
Big Sur 11.0.1
External volume: HDD APFS

Here's how to do this:

Create bootable USB Stick for Ubuntu:
If you have a Mac that has a T2 chip, you must first allow the computer to start from other removable media.

Once you get Ubuntu running, go to "software & updates" and select everything or you will not get the required community-maintained packages when doing "sudo apt update"

Now we install something called APFS-fuse, which allows Ubuntu to mount and read drives that have been formatted with Apple's APFS file system

run sudo apt remove zsys or you will get an error later

run (source: https://linuxnewbieguide.org/how-to-mount-macos-apfs-disk-volumes-in-linux/)
sudo apt install libicu-dev bzip2 cmake libz-dev libbz2-dev fuse3 libfuse3-3 libfuse3-dev clang git libattr1-dev
git clone https://github.com/sgan81/apfs-fuse.git
cd apfs-fuse
git submodule init
git submodule update
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo cp apfs-* /usr/local/bin

Run sudo fdisk -l and find the identifier of your disk. Say its "sdb1"

sudo mkdir -p /media/$(stat -f %Su)/macos

Mount the disk:
sudo apfs-fuse -o allow_other /dev/sdb1 /media/ubuntu/macos
it will appear in the file viewer and you can see your files. Because you need Ubuntu to see files stored in a filesystem made by Apple...


text:
How to stop iPhone from offloading ebooks?
Sometimes I download ebooks in the Books app on my iPhone 7 running the latest iOS.
And then when I try to read them later without internet connection... I cannot
How can I force them to stay on my device so that I can read them when I am offline?

Are you downloading the ebooks to your iCloud storage or directly to your iPhone?

@agarza often I just airdrop a .epub to myself and choose Open with Books on the iPhone. I have the same problem with Books Store downloads though.


text:
Thermal throttling after Big Sur update
My 2015 i7 MacBookPro started to thermal throttle after the update to Big Sur:

in previous system, the Mac went up to 90°C degrees before slowing down. And it would not thermal throttle at all. The thermal throttling temperature seemed to be 98°C degrees.
currently it thermal throttles at 70°C degrees: the CPU frequency slows down to 800 MHz and GPU down to 200 MHz (as indicated by Intel Power Gadget)

This is all after I installed "Macs Fan Control" and this is after I set it to "Full Blast" which means 6100 RPM. I have already changed the CPU thermal paste.
How can I change the "thermal throttling" temperature to a higher value?

The "problem" will most likely disappear if you turn off MacsFan Control.
I have experienced very similar problems when settings MacsFan Control to full blast thinking, this would ensure the coolest CPU temps possible. However, in my case kernel_task started to spike to a couple 100% of CPU usage which is very often an indicator for thermal throttling.
My suspicion is that when setting the fan speed with MacsFan Control your MacBook loses control over the fan speed and as it does not know what you will do next it starts throttling to avoid any problems.
When your MacBook controls the FanSpeed it knows it can adjust the fan speed and CPU/GPU power as needed, however, when you manually set the fan speed it loses part of its mechanism to ensure low enough temps for the Computer. It then plays it safe by throttling the CPU so much that it will definitely not be harmful in case you would e.g. suddenly completely turn off the fans.

Thanks I will try. Log ago Macs Fan Control was "necessary" because Mac firmware preferred thermal throttling and staying quiet to blasting the fan. But I re-try that. This is a new system after all.

Turning off Macs Fan Control does not work:  computer still maintains 70C by aggressively trottling the CPU and GPU.

Could you revert to Catalina and check if its actually the update that made things worse?

I am pretty sure this is the case. I did not have Macs Fan Controls, and I remember that CPU did go over 80C several times only then I would run the MFC. I did not have it "always on". As for revert, it requires a Time Machine backup of a Catalina system. The Time machine did delete all old backups after it claimed the data was corrupted (it does it once every few months), and all backups I have are of Big Sur. I will try SMC reset and things like that.

After the computer was restarted I am getting 99C now under load.  I turned on Macs Fan Control, and it is still 99C (the fans were already at max). After the video was encoded, I kept MFC on "full blast", the cpu temperature dropped down to 65C, when another video was transcoded the CPU went up to the 99C back again. So my "problem" disappeared. But it has existed for some time. It seems the trigger is something else than MFC, but it is cleared by a machine restart. I will try to guess what causes it.


text:
Why is my phone not charging, and the lightning cable burning hot?
My phone has been charging on and off. What happens is it charges fine for about 5-10%, then stops charging all together. I think it is a phone issue because i have tried on 2 different sockets with 2 different chargers and cables. One of the chargers is making abnormal, high pitched noises as it is plugged it. I just noticed that one of the cables was burning hot about 30 seconds after it started charging, I'm talking so hot you wouldnt be able to hold a finger to it for 500 milliseconds before you involuntarily move your hand away (not as hot as a stove though). What is the problem here?

Excessive heat would make me believe that there is some short-circuit. Are you sure that only the cable gets hot, not the phone? Because if its only the cable I would also guess that its actually the cable thats broken.

Take a look inside the lightning port on your phone and see if there's any crud in there that might be shorting it out or causing a bad connection. If there is, be very careful cleaning it out -- you don't want to damage the contacts (any more than they already are)!


text:
Stop iOS Books adding Excerpt From on copy
When I copy from Books and paste in another app, the text I had selected is placed in-between left and right quotation marks, and has a short paragraph added afterwards

Excerpt From
Book
Author
This material may be protected by copyright

How can I make Books copy and paste only the text I have actually selected?

Related Q&A about macOS: https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/137047/37797


text:
Prevent iPhone using car audio for calls but allow music
I connected my iPhone to my father's car stereo. I denied it access to my contacts etc.
I can now play music on my iPhone though the car stereo. Unfortunately, even if the car stereo is playing other audio (radio/SiriusXM/etc...) anytime I try to make a call, receive a call, or check voice mail the car stereo switches to playing the call through the car.
How can I make it so only music goes through the car stereo (same as a Bluetooth speaker?) and not calls?
note: in Settings->Bluetooth->NameOfCar->Device Type I tried setting it to "Headphone" but no luck. I also tried setting it to "Speaker" but no luck. No idea what those settings even do. ♂


text:
How to get print to match print preview
I've had this issue across multiple printers but. I took a picture with my iPhone and transfer it to my MacBookPro running 11.4 via AirDrop

I open the image in Preview which looks correct

I pick File->Print and the print preview looks correct

I then print and the print is not correct

How do I get my Mac to print correctly?

what about trying to print it in landscape ?

no luck in landscape. Same issue. good guess though

I wonder if the document has a different page size. Get info on the PDF and see what the page size is under the general tab. I've seen "odd" page sizes do those kind of things to a PDF print out...

Similarly to what @Steve Chambers said, your "Paper Size" setting is set to "US Legal" when it appears your printing on US Letter. You should change your "Paper Size" setting to match what you're printing on and that should fix it!


text:
stop iPhone offloading downloaded music
Music doesn't show up in Settings > Apple ID > iCloud, so I can't uncheck the checkbox there.
I want the music i download to my phone to stay on my phone.
How can I

re-download all the music that has already been clouded
force it and all future music to stay there

Which checkbox are you referring to? And Music has its own top-level entry in Settings (scroll down)

@nohillside in the iCloud section of settings, you can turn off sync. I saw it here https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/353775/150109

This refers to iBooks. You are talking about Music.

@nohillside that's why the checkbox doesn't exist. I only explained I looked where I have looked for similar options before, and the option didn't exist in that location.

It doesn’t exist because it is in the Music section. And it still doesn‘t explain which checkbox you look for.

@nohillside I looked for a "Music" toggle in Settings > Apple ID > iCloud. There isn't one there.

@nohillside i also can't see any relevant toggle in Settings > Music

As I said: Music settings are not within the iCloud part (because Music isn‘t part of iCloud), not finding them there is to be expected and not a problem as such.

@nohillside okay. How do I stop Music from offloading songs I have downloaded onto my phone?


text:
Error: After Effects cannot open files in the “After Effects Project” format
Not sure if this is an Adobe or Apple issue, or both.
When I try to open an After Effects file (.aep) or Premiere Project file (.pproj) from Finder, by double-clicking, or using "Open With", I get this error:

The only way to open the project is File > Open Project... from within Ae/Pr, which requires me to navigate to the containing folder from the Open dialog window. Opening from File > Open Recent > also works.
It's not a file-association issue; I've checked that.
Even dragging the aep on to the Ae icon (in Dock or app switcher) doesn’t work.
Sometimes restarting the computer will temporarily fix the issue.
A while back, I solved the issue without restarting by going to System Preferences > Security > Full Disk Access > Enable After Effects. But that isn't working anymore.
(macos Catalina)


text:
Not able to find Finder app icon in the list of apps?
I am new to Apple computers (I have used Windows) and I do not have much experience.
I know that Finder is app like other apps and is Mac alternative to Windows Explorer. I am unable to find the Finder icon in list of all apps.
Why is that so?

Asking why Apple does something is off topic, so I’ll close this to new answers. No harm in keeping it up and closed. If you have a practical question where given that Apple made this implementation, how you do something else, that’s on topic as an edit or new question.

This is by design
Finder is the default graphical file manager that comes pre-installed with macOS. It gets launched automatically for you as soon as you login, and keeps running throughout your login session.
While Finder is a graphical app, like many others that comes pre-installed, and the ones that can be installed on your Mac, macOS does not provide a user visible app icon (app bundle) for it in the list of apps. (Power users can, thought access the Finder.app bundle here: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app).
That's the reason why you cannot see Finder.app icon either in the Applications folder, or in Launchpad (the grid of icons that's displayed when you press the F4 key on your keybaord or the Launchpad icon on your MacBook's Touch Bar).
Finder icon is always displayed in the macOS Dock, which can be found in the bottom of the screen (the Dock can be set to be placed in Left or Right side of the screen too, and can also be set to auto-hide). So, to access the Finder app, you can click on the Finder icon displayed in the Dock.
If you wish to re-lauch (quit and launch) the Finder app, you can do so by going to  Menu → Force Quit... (or use the keyboard shortcut Option + Command + Escape), select the entry corresponding to Fidner, and click on the Relaunch button.


text:
X11 Forwarding does not work
I installed the latest version of XQuartz and:

changed # X11Forwarding no to X11Forwarding yes in /private/etc/ssh/sshd_config
enabled Allow connections from network clients in XQuartz

When I try to connect to another server via ssh -X /Users/username/.ssh/id_ed25519 username@host
in xterm, I get the following error:
ssh: Could not resolve hostname /users/username/.ssh/id_ed25519: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

I ran ssh -X remote.Unix.system xclock and the clock was shown, yet I still got the error. How can I fix this?
System:

MacBook Pro 2018
macOS Big Sur 11.5.1

When I try to connect to another server via ssh -X /Users/username/.ssh/id_ed25519 username@host in xterm I get the following error

If you wish to specify the private key to use, you need to provide the -i option:
ssh -X -i /Users/username/.ssh/id_ed25519 username@host

Otherwise ssh will interpret the path to your private key as the name of the server you are trying to connect to, and will fail with the error message nodename nor servname provided, or not known.


text:
Few doubts about "Apple USB-C Charge Cable (2 m)"
Apple USB-C Charge Cable (2 m)

Is it a Thunderbolt 3 cable?
Which USB version this cable is using?
Is it the same cable which comes with new MacBooks?

No, it's not a Thunderbolt cable. Although they have the same shape connectors, they are different things. You can tell by the icon on the plug whether a cable is TB or USB.
As for the version, that's more complex. Apple don't specify it on their page. This webpage https://9to5mac.com/2018/08/22/how-to-choose-a-usb-c-cable/ suggests that products called "charge cables" may have low data transfer speeds, and you may be better off getting a quality third-party USB-C cable that can handle USB3.1 SuperSpeed, if that's what you need.
Look for the correct "SuperSpeed" icon on the end of the plug.
It probably is the same cable that comes with a new Mac, but really you'll need to compare them.

Is it a Thunderbolt 3 cable?

No.

Which USB version this cable is using?

USB 2.0.

Is it the same cable which comes with new MacBooks?

Yes.
The cable is rated for 20 volt power at 5 amps, suitable to connect any Apple iProduct with USB-C charging to a power brick.  Apple calls it a "charge only" cable but it will support USB 2.0 data transfer which should do well enough for small file transfers and such, or as a means to connect a backup drive or something when nothing else is available.
Passive Thunderbolt 3 cables will be less than a meter long, but then so are some low cost "charge only" cables.  If you are looking for a Thunderbolt cable then expect it to be short: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MQ4H2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb%E2%80%91c-cable-08-m
Or expensive: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/ML8E3AM/A/thunderbolt-3-pro-cable-2-m
Another expensive example: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HMBH2ZM/A/belkin-thunderbolt-3-5a-cable-2-m


text:
Macbook - Select individual files with Keyboard only
Is there a way to navigate through a list of files and select individual files (like you would normally do with command + click) but using only the keyboard ?

I could do it using arrows and holding on SHIFT key; however, you could only select immediately near files. Therefore you are able to select as many (graphically) adjacent files you want.

Thanks for the answer, for some situations this is perfect. It seems like theres no real way to select files in any position w/o using the mouse.

@Sandro if it somehow helped you, please upvote the answer (and possibly mark as accepted) ;)


text:
How to put a shortcut to a folder or subfolder in Documents by Readdle | My Files | Files | Foo | Bar onto my iPhone's home screen?
I'm using an iPhone XR running iOS 14.6. How can I put a shortcut on my home screen to a folder or subfolder that I currently access by clicking on Documents and then going My Files | Files | Foo | Bar ?
I am looking for a solution that does not require using the cloud, a Google account, or Siri.

As far as I know, you can‘t do that. You can only do things in iCloud or Dropbox. As example create a folder or a file with ir without content. But what do you want to do in this folder/subfolder?

In answer to your q: I have a folder for some .doc files and another for .pdf files, that I can get to from the home screen by going Documents (this is an icon for the prog by Readdle) and then Files | Ruffle's Folder | Ruffdocs and then I have one folder for .docs and another for .pdfs. The .docs I read and sometimes work on. The .pdfs are mainly for showing people. So it's just standard computer-user stuff - nothing out of the ordinary - but opening the files currently requires a lot of clicks. I don't understand your third sentence.


text:
How does apple mail deal with 2FA
I recently set up 2fa on some emails and chose google authenticator as the second method. These providers are outlook and gmail.
When I use thunderbird on linux mint, I need to generate an app password to log in. Sometimes these passwords seem to expire but this is not my question, only a ”proof” that 2fa really is turned on, and that google auth isn’t only an optional sign-in method.
Mail on iphone (SE 2020, os 14.6) always works at first setup, never failing, despite only knowing my login password (both two providers). What is going on here? Am I dealing with a feature or a vulnerability?
Here is what I’ve considered but failed to query here or on google.
A) the smart phone connects to the server very often, therefore the app password does not expire
B) the smart phone always looks up one-time passwords on google authenticator, performing repeated logins that I do not see
C) the smart phone is a ”trusted device” that can somehow ignore 2fa
If this is a vulnerability, I would like to know if it is serious. If it is a feature, are there methods to implement it on other devices (e.g. ubuntu pc)
Edit: I’m really asking why does mail (software) even work. Removed a reference to icloud as irrelevant.

Are Gmail and Outlook accounts even supposed to work with 2FA from Apple Mail, or do you need to create application-specific passwords?

I enabled 2fa in gmail and outlook in their respective online settings and have needed to authenticate to login afterwards. I also need to login using an app password on thunderbird but not apple mail, in fact I never typed an app password on my phone (there is only one that exists). If they aren’t supposed to work, shouldn’t apple mail give me errors instead of fully functioning mail boxes?

I'm sure it's supposed to work :-) I'm more wondering why it doesn't work for you, not sure 2FA is really the problem here

Yeah I may be asking the wrong question entirely. Hopefully I’ll get some pointers before the question gets pruned :p

Might be better to focus the question on the actual problem (which seems to be getting logged out on the Mac) than making too many assumptions already about a potential cause.

I edited to question to hopefully clarify what I’m asking.

@theotherfoxmulder In response to your clarification of the question, the answer is (C). The smart phone becomes a trusted device when you sign in the first time due to a special token being stored locally on the device.

@jksoegaard in this case I’m surprised that neither outlook nor gmail list my iphone as such, however, I can list my pc and allow thunderbird to work. But it seems most likely, your reply. I’ll draft another edit to see if I have a well-defined question at all, as many were confused. Unless you feel like answering in detail.

@Dan that is not the question, at all, which shows that my post is poor and confused. Probably my misinterpretation about 2fa,

Thus I removed my useless comment :).

It sounds like you’re expecting google to sign you out when you add 2FA, but that’s something you need to do explicitly either by signing out on your device or visiting https://myaccount.google.com/security - 2FA will be required for signing in. This is a feature, not a bug. The answer is C.

You also seem to be asking why Thunderbird requires an app password - that's just a limitation of that software, not necessarily related to the OS it runs on. They need to implement "Sign in with Google". More info: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833

I asked the wrong question based on a mistaken assumption. That assumption was that Apple was somehow escalating privileged access. instead my problem was provider - 3rd party client problems, for example Microsoft kept disbanding app passwords by some unknown metrics. Google just labeled some of them unreliable, see:Geary.
I had mistakenly assumed 2fa to mean login pass and authentication always. That just isn’t so - in fact I knew about ”trusted devices”, the confusion came from this tiny detail; my iphone wan’t listed as such a device, it could presumably be removed by ”revoke all” but I need mine operational 24/7 and daren’t risk it now. Based on comments, my hypothesis is that, if certain clients aren’t even trusted to handle the very basics, perhaps apple mail - on ios - on an iphone, was given a special token, a token with no set final date, always on, unless revoked. Oh and I did check that authenticator weren’t even required, on this phone. The answer according to my options is C, this is a trusted device. As for the token, I don’t know exactly. Input from apple server modified by some unique process to send the resulting output as proof of identity? But now I’ll know what I’m looking for, it is not authenticator nor a manual prompt. I suggested that the prompt was only needed once, but something similar might just be running under the hood.
I mistakenly identified iphone as single point of failure, to be equal to untrustworthy. And yes, it could establish a vulnerability in some cases, but I made a gross exaggerarion. So let’s compare it to a pc computer: 1) encryption as default vs optional,  2) optional login pass 3) biometrics. The phone has similar or better options and phones often have other architecture security benefits. Both devices use authenticators and password managers too. I can’t recall giving my iphone a special status, but I must have done so. After all it was a matter of 1) device pass login 2) google pass login 3) terms and confirmation 4) google prompt to confirm.
Two passwords and a 2nd factors, pretty good identification to me
Potential issue: ease-of-use can be misread as lax sexurity, disfunctional logins can be misread as strong security. Or wait was that just me? Can’t be just me
Summa summarum: my concept of 2fa was very rigid, I even misattributed flawed auth scenes to stricter security,
p.s I posted a horrible blog entry here that was illegible and incoherent. I’m struggling with record heat. Having regained some composure I’ll stop here and thank you for pointing the righr way.

Both Mac and iOS Mail applications will bring up the Google login page for Gmail connections. Google processes the 2 Factor Auth and the Mail app doesn't need to worry about it. Gmail provides the Mail application with a token that it can use indefinitely.
Other applications that ask for your username and password in their own UI need an app-specific password since they don't get to take advantage of the Google-provided login flow.

At first sight it seems like the real answer. I will check up on it tomorrow, so that I can verify this somehow, or somebody else does / answers. I’m new and I understand it to be good form to wait for some time before accepting answer. I might also wanna re-read some faqs about this, such as, whether the lack of sources matter here. Thanks for your relevant insight.


text:
stop finder replacing colons with slashes in filenames
When I rename a file in Finder, any colons are "rendered" as forward slashes.
If I have a file named "0:30", selecting it in finder, pressing enter then ⌘C to copy the filename copies "0/30" to the clipboard instead of "0:30"
How can I make the finder file rename interface treat colons as colons?

The issue is that for HFS+ the directory separator stored on disk is actually : and not / so there are mapping issues. On APFS I created a file in terminal 0:30 and Finder (and other File Managers) shows it as 0/30 see https://stackoverflow.com/a/13298479/151019

Like others, I would urge you not to use colon or slash in filenames. Consider them reserved for the file system's use. Other OSes\file systems tend to have much larger list of reserved/forbidden characters.

It is historic. In Classic Mac OS, : was the path separator, not /. (Classic Mac OS itself copied the : as the path separator from SOS for the Apple III.)
OS X is based on Unix (technically XNU, with POSIX compliance), and so the Unix parts, such as the command-line tools, used / as the directory separator. However, the GUI and the actual file-system used on disks (HFS+) had to deal with the Classic Mac OS apps, which were using : as the directory separator, just as they always had.
Thus, for backwards-compatibility, the GUI layer (i.e., the Finder) does not allow : characters to be used in file names and Unix does not allow /. The Finder is responsible for mapping one to the other.
For more information, see ldav1s's answer on Stack Overflow, which cites a USENIX 2000 paper, "The Challenges of Integrating the Unix and MAC OS Environments" that describes some of this history.

So it is not possible to avoid this mapping?

And I would add: NEVER use ":" or "/" in any file names. It is too confusing to have a file show a different name in the Finder and in Terminal. And don't use these on other OSes either, because you may need to access that file on a Mac someday, and the same confusion will pop up.

Side note: on Windows neither the colon nor the forward slash are allowed in file names

Why does 2021 Finder maintain backwards-compatibility with this obsolete 1980s Operating System? The file system doesn't, Finder only "renders" a colon as a slash.

@mivk I noticed this weirdness because I was putting timestamps into filenames. Hard to choose any other sensible delimiter for that, do you have recommendations?

@theonlygusti The file system already has time stamps in metadata that you could use.

@theonlygusti: in such cases, I use letters. For example with the date command and it's formatting, I would use date +%F_%Hh%M to get "2021-08-05_17h53" or date +%F_%Hh%Mm%Ssto get "2021-08-05_17h54m12s" etc. which are all fine in filenames on any platform.

@theonlygusti or just use an ISO format 1753 - you don't need separators and in fact I am more used to seeing 24hr times without the separator

@mvirk as well as ":" or "/" I would avoid ""

@mivk Thanks for the good suggestion, I actually like how that looks too. mmmmmm, in my case it's timestamps in videos, like saying to a friend "skip to 7:04". Using ISO format for this would be very unusual.

@theonlygusti The use of : on disk is not obsolete in 2023 HFS+ disks still use : as separator and changing the disk format would be a massive issue for all disks written before that release.


text:
Stop media from pausing when bluetooth speaker disconnects
How can I stop YouTube from pausing itself when I turn off the Bluetooth speaker to which my MacBook is connected?

@jbis should we assume that YouTube is sending audio to another speaker then the BT one which gets turned off?

The issue, more specifically, is that when a disconnect occurs, a pause command is issued (the equivalent of clicking the pause button on the keyboard). This will pause media that responds to this API including YouTube Spotify and many other things.

@JBis you mean the speaker itself is sending "Pause" to the comptuer?

@theonlygusti No. The speaker is disconnected, the the computer auto issues that command.

Interestingly I couldn't find this behavior documented anywhere, this was the only reference to it I could find on the internet (or maybe I'm not looking hard enough). From my quick experimentation it indeed seems to be sent by the OS (not chrome), possibly for those that implement MPMediaPlayback. And it's only for bluetooth, not wired. Maybe it was done to support airpods?

Interestingly even bluetooth play/pause seems to work whereas it did not before. I'm not sure exactly when this was introduced, at least > 10.12

According to these two following posts:

Launch AppleScript when bluetooth device is disconnected
Mac : Launch command when device connected by bluetooth

It seems possible to create an AppleScript that acts on bluetooth disconnect and resumes your music but I have not seen a way to avoid the "pause" command issued on disconnect.


text:
Connectivity between a modern home router and an iPhone 7?
I am assisting a friend who has lost a phone and is considering getting an older phone (iPhone 7) as replacement, as it is well regarded in the digital photography profession.
The concern is that the router at their place, latest Comcast product, may produce issues with a legacy phone, such as the iPhone 7.
Are there any known issues with a latest model Comcast router and older Apple iPhones? How old of a phone model could they go? iPhone 6 or 5, perhaps?
They are concerned that the router may combine both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals that the phone may have difficult connecting because it can't distinguish between both signal types.

2.4 and 5GHz shouldn't be a problem. The problem would be if the phone only had 2.4 and the router only 5. Why would there a problem otherwise?

Only IPhone 6s and newer is supported by the current version of iOS.  That likely will change with the release of iOS 15.  Questions about iPhone are out of scope.  As your question is primarily about the iPhone itself and doesn’t have anything to do with connecting it to a PC your question is out of scope here at Super User.

I wouldn't yet consider the iPhone 7 to be a 'legacy smart phone', especially seen as Apple is still continuing to push software updates for it.
In terms of capability, the iPhone 7, like most devices released before February of last year, uses Wi-Fi 5. The most recent revision is Wi-Fi 6 which is backwards compatible with Wi-Fi 5, so everything should just work!
The only issue that could occur is that, very rarely, if someone purposefully change the settings of the router, it may be misconfigured to only allow connections over Wi-Fi 6. To fix this you'll have to go into the router's settings and change it back.

I have iPhones 6, SE running on both 2,4 GHz and 5 GHz modern router.
I had problems with the last iOS updates. Apple for privacy protection choosed to switch to dynamically attributed MAC ( Medium Access Control ) address.
They recently added a function to inactivate this function and everything
is again working fine on all our iPhones on a modern Wi-Fi router: an iMac running all 802.11*, a DHCP server, and a high grade firewall, within a crowded Wi-Fi environnement ( more than 40 neighbors networks ).
An iPhone 7 won't have any problem with a router up to the latest 802.11* protocols specification on whichever channel ( 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz ).
( Personnal waranty from my 30 years experience on network and security architecture. )


text:
iMac screen smear
My iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) has this smear that appears after it has been on for a while, that disappears overnight.

What exactly is the problem and what is the solution?

Looks like condensation inside the LCD.

Are you in a cold or humid environment? When the smear is there, carefully use a strong suction cup to lift off the glass. On 2011s and before, it’s held on via strong magnets instead of glue. If a towel can wipe down the smear and the towel is wet, then it’s probably condensation.

That worked, I just pulled it off with my fingernails

Congrats! Please don't forget to post your findings and solution as an "Answer".


text:
Invoice for purchases made on App Store
Does Apple provide invoice for purchases made on the App Store? I want for one of my past purchases.
I am unable to find the invoice email from Apple.

You can get access to invoice for any past purchases made on iOS or Mac App Store from Apple's Report a Problem website.
Open the website and login with the Apple ID that was used to make the purchase.
Report a Problem website also lets you fetch invoice for any services from Apple you are subscribed to.

To see your past App Store purchases, follow these steps:
On a Mac

Open the Music app or iTunes. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose Account, then click View My Account.
On the Account Information page, scroll down to Purchase History. Next to Most Recent Purchase, click See All.

Find the item. It might take a moment for your Purchase History to appear. If you want to see purchases that you made more than 90 days prior, click Last 90 Days, then select a date range.

On an iOS/iPadOS device
See your purchase history on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Open the Settings app.
Tap your name, then tap Media & Purchases. You might be asked to sign in.
Tap Purchase History.

Your purchase history appears. If you want to see purchases that you made more than 90 days prior, tap Last 90 Days, then select a different date range.

These work fine (App Store Account view) except they aren't an actual receipt for tax purposes.  It doesn't break down the sales tax or anything.  I need to see GST and PST separately.

I find Apple sends proper receipts way late, just long enough to think it's never going to show up.  Strange that you can't find a proper receipt on the website or the App store.
EDIT:  I see the "Report A Problem" link actually lets you click "view receipt" and there's a proper receipt with all the info you need for tax purposes.  Great!  Thanks for that link Nimesh!

Please don't add "thank you" as an answer. Instead, vote up the answers that you find helpful. - From Review

I don't understand.  I noted an significant difference in the receipts available from these two sources.  As I need these for tax purposes, and others probably do also, it seems important to point out.  But I did just now upvote the helpful comment, as you suggested.


text:
Microsoft Remote Desktop getting native res on scaled Mac
I have a feeling there is no solution for this but ....

My Mac is connected to a 38" wide monitor, native res 3840x1600

My Mac is running in scaled mode, effective res (3200x1333)

I connect to my PC via remote desktop.
Result: It makes a 3200x1300 display (because that's the res Mac tells apps it is). That resolution is then scaled to 3840x1600. This both (a) looks bad because of the scaling and (b) looks giant, sizes are too large (or display res is too small depending on your POV)

I set Microsoft Remote Desktop -> Display to 3840x1600
Result: It get a 3200x1333 window of a 3840x1600 display that I have to scroll around to see

I tried checking "Optimize for Retina Displays"
Result: It gave me a Windows desktop that is 6400x2666 which still basically has both problems as the first result (a) it looks bad because of scaling and (b) everything is too small

What I want to happen is I want Windows to have a 3840x1600 display and have Remote Desktop display that fullscreen so there is no scaling from windows to Mac even though Mac is running in this scaled 3200x1333 mode.
Is this possible?


text:
how to run shell commands in applescript
I have 100 files in a folder.
I need to get the 5 files that have the word main in the filename.
How do I do this in Applescript?
Here is something I found that does not work:
set search_folder to "Macintosh HD:Users:shawnbrady:Dropbox:Audio:Features:SAL350 Ruiz, Luis NPR:Audio"

set foundItems to (do shell script "find " & my search_folder's POSIX path's quoted form & " -name 'main' ")'s paragraphs

What does "not work" mean: do you get an error message (which one), is foundItems empty afterwards, something else?

You are searching for the name main, not a name containing main.

Says here in the title you want to do it using shell commands, but have you tried something like this, which is AppleScript?
tell application "Finder"
    set h to home as alias
    set mn to the name of every file of folder (h & "Dropbox:Audio:Features:SAL350 Ruiz, Luis NPR:Audio:" as string) whose name contains "main"
    return mn
end tell

If you are looking for your search results as UNIX pathnames, try this form.
tell application "Finder"
    set h to home as alias
end tell

do shell script ("find " & POSIX path of (alias (h & "Dropbox:Audio:Features:SAL350 Ruiz, Luis NPR:Audio:" as string)) & " -name \"*main*\"" as string)

Does that help?


text:
How to check system integrity after uninstalling VirtualBox kernel extensions
I recently installed VirtualBox on my Mac. Then it didn't work as I expected so I decided to uninstall it. But apparently VirtualBox installed kernel extensions. I uninstalled VirtualBox with the uninstall tool in the disk image, but when I did that, my Mac warned me that I was bypassing system security features.
I have removed VirtualBox from my computer, but now I am worried that there may be leftover changes to the kernel or to system security settings. I want to put my computer back into its original state from before I installed VirtualBox. How do I check that my kernel is in its original, out of the box state?
Thank you.


text:
How do I switch the app store region on Apple TV?
I recently moved from Japan to the USA. Now I'm trying to use my Apple TV in the USA. When I go to the store and try to install an app it says "You can't use this account on the Japanese store. Before purchasing, switch to the USA store"
The region on my Apple TV is set to USA in Settings->General. Checking my Apple account on my iPhone by going to Settings->Name->Media and Purchases->Show Account->Country/Region shows my Apple account is set to USA
How do I get Apple TV to use the USA store?

Okay, I solved it by removing my account on Apple TV and adding it back after I changed my account on another device.
It's the same account. Sounds like a bug


text:
Every time I turn on my VPN I am prompted for username and password
Every time I turn on a VPN I added manually to Network preferences a password prompt appears

macOS wants to make changes. Enter an administrator's name and password to allow this.
macOS wants to use the "System" keychain.

My account is the administrator (and only) account on my Macbook. I have to enter my username and password to continue and finally the VPN turns on.
This is a pain to have to repeat every single time I want to turn the VPN on.
How can I allow the VPN to just turn on without requiring password input?

Please don't cross-post to multiple SE sites. Pick one & stick to it, or flag for migration.
Is cross-posting a question on multiple Stack Exchange sites permitted if the question is on-topic for each site?


text:
How to change the end of a URL in iOS Safari?
When I am on a page in Safari, e.g. https://example.com/somewhat-long-url/page-1 what's the fastest way to go to a different page: https://example.com/somewhat-long-url/page-22
Clicking the URL selects all of it, but doesn't scroll to the end it just shows the start of the URL.
If I tap again, it shows the selection handles. I can drag the start handle to the end of the URL, which moves infuriatingly slowly. When I bring the start handle on top of the end handle and let go it finally turns into a cursor at the end of the URL and I can start typing.
I have found only one other "solution": use force click on my keyboard to summon a cursor and then move the cursor to the end of the URL. This is similarly slow to do.
Both of these methods are too slow and frustrating for me.
How can I just jump to the end of the URL to edit text there?
Rather, what's the easiest/fastest way to edit text at the end of the URL of the page I am currently on and then visit that new URL?

Try doing 3 quick taps on the selected text and it will take you to the end, then double click on the last character/word and edit.

3 quick clicks highlights the whole url, then press cursor left/right to position the cursor at the beginning/end of the url string.

This is the same as the accepted answer https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/426417/237

Also: if you already have a keyboard connected to your iOS device (to press cursor left/right), why not just use Cmd-L to jump to the address bar in the first place?


text:
Size on disk smaller than actual size
I have Bitwarden on my machine and looked at the reported file size, wich is 423,6MB. The downloaded file is much smaller, also the reported size on disk is much smaller too with 176,5MB

I expected if anything that the size on disk would always be larger due to block size, but not smaller. How can this be?

HFS+ (from 10.6 on) and APFS have support for transparent compression. This is applied automatically to the OS, App Store apps, and anything installed via pkg files.

You can get a list of the compressed files by using the command find /Applications/Bitwarden.app -type f -flags +compressed -exec ls -ldO {} +. You can get a list of the files which are not compressed by using the command find /Applications/Bitwarden.app -type f -flags +nocompressed -exec ls -ldO {} +.


text:
How can I use the rear facing camera on video conferencing apps like Skype and Zoom?
I use an iPhone 8. By default, Skype and Zoom use the front camera. But my rear camera has higher resolution and quality, correct? How can I order video conferencing apps like Skype and Zoom to use the rear camera?

One issue here is that even if you do get the app to use the rear camera, the rear camera needs to face you to be useful. This means the screen will be facing away from you, in which case you won't be able to see the other participants.

@abligh that assumes that you want to show your face.  It could be useful in a conference call to also be able to show your surroundings at times.

Unless both your + their internet connections are very good, it’s unlikely you’re going get any significant improvement from using the better camera. Plus any compression the app your using applies.

Zoom has the ability to switch cameras in the iOS app.  The switch is available in the top left of the screen once you have started a meeting.  It does not appear that you can select the rear camera before you start the meeting;  so you will always have a moment where the front camera is "on" before you switch to the rear camera.

If the app itself doesn't support it, you can't do it. It's the code of the app that determines which camera is to be used. There is no system-wide setting to override this.
I don't have Zoom, but Skype does have the option to switch cameras; there's an icon in the top right corner which does this:


text:
Does moving an app to Trash trigger its uninstaller?
Does cmd-backspacing an App (.app bundle somewhere in Applications folder) also tidy up system-wide configuration/data files etc. via some mechanism?

Can you define what makes an apps uninstaller? I don’t think there’s any technical implementation that forces that

Does moving an app to Trash trigger its uninstaller?

No!
Use an app like AppCleaner to remove an unwanted application you've installed, and its associated files/folders its created.
Here is an example using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC:

Had I just placed the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.app in the Trash and emptied it, the other items listed would still remain.
Note: I'm not affiliated with the developer of the aforementioned application, just a satisfied user.

How are you so sure that it doesn't?

@theonlygusti, RE: "How are you so sure that it doesn't?" --  Because I've used a Mac for over 15 years and never has placing an application into and emptying the Trash ever removed other than that was in the Trash!

@theonlygusti Because there's no mechanism in macOS that'd do that. (BTW, iOS is different -- there deleting an app does delete its data.)

Some management utilities will attempt to clean up for you, but there are no system-level processes that will.
One such is Hazel (https://www.noodlesoft.com/).


text:
Manually allow VPN access to the Keychain
Every time I turn on my work VPN this password prompt appears

The answer at macOS prompts for password every time I turn on my VPN recommends

You can manually edit which processes have access to the keychain. I don't have a Mac at hand to show you some screenshots, but if you can find out the name of the process demanding the access to the keychain, you can manually always allow it ...

Using a Python 2 script from How to identify which process is running which window in Mac OS X? I've learnt that SecurityAgent seems to be the process that prompts for the password every time I try to turn on my VPN.
Is it dangerous to manually grant SecurityAgent permanent passwordless keychain access?
How can I manually grant it access?


text:
How to edit an email address on iOS
I mistyped someone's email, now I choose "Send again"
But i can't edit their email address: backspacing selects the entire email and deletes all of it, tapping in the middle of the email selects all of it, and I can't even drag the cursor (force touch or hold space) into the middle of it
How can I change an email address that is already entered in the "to" field

The code turns text into an un-editable address object here.
I do not believe any shortcut or manipulation allows this. Instead, save the contact to your address book and edit it there if you may need this more than once. Or delete and dictate or type again the correct address.


text:
How to turn off sounds for everything except alarm
To make sure my alarm will wake me up, I turn the ringer volume up to max and turn my iPhone off of silent.
This results in keyboard clicks, notifications, screenshots etc. being unbearably loud. I would prefer them to always be silent.
How can I make everything on my iPhone silent except for:

music/video I choose to play, play this at my specified volume
alarm, play this at max volume

at least for the alarm (i. e.: while you are sleeping), one entirely half-assed solution might be to turn on flight mode. No network means (almost) no notifications. Starting with whatever the current iOS beta version is, there is also "focus" mode that blocks most notifications, with some heuristics and options to choose what to let through,

Alarms work even on silent mode.

This is answered by @Tetsujin

Alarms work even on silent mode.

My iPhone has been on silent mode ever-since I had it. You can manage the alarm sound level for the alarm you create while selecting the alarm sound. Tap Edit on the alarm entry --> tap Sound --> Choose the sound and immediately increase the volume using volume buttons.
Just keep the Silent Mode on by sliding down the physical Silent Mode switch. Your music will play at the volume level you want. No screenshot/camera/notification sounds will ever come out. Don't Disturb would be a different outcome.

Camera sounds are territory-dependent, btw. In some jurisdictions it's illegal to disable the camera click.

@Tetsujin yup I only recently realized that and for example: Japan.


text:
custom routine mac os
I want to create a routine that automatically sets the keyboard to full brightness whenever the device is plugged in and charging. When unplugged, I want that routine to set keyboard brightness to the lowest setting or turn it off completely, depending on the time of day.
What are my options? Are you aware of any 3rd party software/extension that would allow me to implement this? If these options don't exist and I need to make my own software, what keywords can I use to figure out how to access internal mac settings such as keyboard brightness?
(I am aware of the built-in auto brightness feature but that is not what I am looking for)

I think this answer is really going to depend on what version of MacOS you are running. There are several software solutions that monitor ports and trigger scripts when a disk is plugged, but they don't seem to work past 10.12 ... please tell me which version of MacOS you are using.

There used to be https://github.com/pirate/mac-keyboard-brightness but Apple removed the Keyboard Brightness API on >=2015 hardware (TouchBar, M1, and beyond...).

There is an app named EventScripts which can watch for e.g.,:

Power switched to mains
Power switched to battery

Then when the change it detected, it can run a AppleScript script or a shell script which could be coded to make the changes you've expressed.
It's $5.99 USD on the App Store and is also available from the developers website where you can download a demo version and test it out.
There is also Hammerspoon which has an hs.battery.watcher function where you could do basically the same thing for free, although it's more complicated to setup.
Note: I am not affiliated with the developers of the aforementioned, just a satisfied user of the products.


text:
How to move the cursor to the end of the URL
When I am on a webpage in iOS Safari, what's the fastest/easiest way to add text to the end of the URL?
Tapping the URL selects the whole thing, shows only the start. I can force touch and move the cursor manually from the start to the end, it takes aeons. I can similarly drag the selection-start handle to the end, takes a long time too. Both these methods are finnicky as well the cursor may not end up where I want on the first try.


text:
Macbook went over 95C
My MacBook just went over 95 °C/100 °C. I am scared that it might break my MacBook. I cleaned the MacBook screen and stuff but every time I do something on it, it instantly heats up very high. Should I be concerned or is this normal(that I doubt)?
MacBook:

Apple - MacBook Pro - 13" Display with Touch Bar
Intel Core i5
16GB Memory
512GB SSD
Space Gray

You can look up the CPU specs here on Intel's website, but the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die (Tjunction) for the i5-1038NG7 (which may be your CPU) is 100 °C.
Here is a description (from Intel) of what the Tjunction max temperature means:
What is Tjunction max temperature?

Tjunction max is the maximum thermal junction temperature that a
processor will allow prior to using internal thermal control
mechanisms to reduce power and limit temperature. Activation of the
processor's thermal control system may cause performance loss as the
processor typically reduces frequency and power to prevent
overheating. The goal for a system builder or a do-it-yourself (DIY)
end user is to design a platform configuration that keeps the
processor under the Tjunction max threshold during heavy workloads to
maximize performance of the system.

I suspect that your machine is fine, as thermal throttling should occur at the CPU level as needed. Also from the Intel Support site:
Could my processor get damaged from overheating?

It's unlikely that a
processor would get damaged from overheating, due to the operational
safeguards in place. Processors have two modes of thermal protection,
throttling and automatic shutdown. When a core exceeds the set
throttle temperature, it will reduce power to maintain a safe
temperature level. The throttle temperature can vary by processor and
BIOS settings. If the processor is unable to maintain a safe operating
temperature through throttling actions, it will automatically shut
down to prevent permanent damage.

You can download the Intel Power Gadget and monitor the temperature your CPU is attaining under load to have a better idea of what is happening. While running under load, you can visually see the thermal throttling occurring - the Power utilization, Frequency, and Temperature will fluctuate when running a consistent high load.
FWIW, I can get my machine up to 96-97 °C by running a load test (code is below). I increased the number of parallel processes to 16 (on an 8-Core Intel i9), though it is 4 in the below bash shell code fragment.
for i in {1..4}
do
        yes > /dev/null &
done

Honestly, I think this is normal. My MacBook Air often goes over 95 °C when using Blender, building on Roblox Studio, or any other CPU-intensive things.

Well, what would be the maximum temperature then? 115C?

I think 105 C is the safe limit.

well no. apple programmed MacBooks to shut down when cpu temp goes above 215 F

Though this is normal, it can be scary and/or lead to thermal throttling.
To prematurely spin up the fan (for example, at 70 °C), you can use Macs Fan Control, found here. You can create custom rules that auto-launch on bootup. It's a set-it-and-forget-it thing.

I always spin up my fans to at least 5000 RPM, it still goes hot.


text:
How to block ads in Safari without installing anything?
How can I block ads in macOS Safari 14 on Big Sur without installing any ad blocker extensions?

Consider using a DNS based Ad Blocker if you don't want to install anything on the machine itself.  For example, AdGuard provides free DNS servers that block ads.  You can configure MacOS to connect to that DNS server, and benefit from ad blocking without installing anything.
AdGuard DNS:  https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html

If you are a bit more techy, though AdGuard has some more features, Pi-Hole has a large community and is very customizable. I’d recommend pi hole if you’d like to tinker.

You can use the /etc/hosts file to block ad servers.
Pre-configured lists are available at https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts and other sources.

You can't. Safari does not have any built-in ad blocking technology, apart from blocking pop-ups.
As far as I know, no browser comes with ad blockers preinstalled. Since no ad blocker is ever going to be perfect, requires a lot of maintenance, and may even have legal implications, I doubt it's something a browser vendor wants to invest into.

"no browser comes with ad blockers preinstalled."  https://brave.com

Safari comes with tracker and data collector blocking by default, as well as a malware blocker.

@anonymous: Yes, it does, but that's very different things. You still get to see ads and cannot block them with built-in settings.

@DarkDust yes, I agree with this. That is why separate extensions, such as uBlock and AdBlock, exist.


text:
How to inspect the 'Other' category of storage without installing anything
In Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage > Manage... the "Other" category is greyed out and I cannot see what is occupying it.
How can I inspect the parts of the system and files that are filling up the Other category without using a third-party GUI storage explorer app?

In the duplicate the end of this answer https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/5360/237 includes a way using du. Basically that answer covers all the known options


text:
What adblock extension works on macOS Safari?
How can I block ads in Safari 14 on macOS Big Sur?
Most mainstream adblockers don't support Safari or don't block ads or cause websites like YouTube to stop working.
I've tried

wipr
Adblock Plus
Adblock
uBlock

Are there any Safari-compatible adblockers that actually work?

I have a Apple Silicon mac mini and App Store says wipr works on this machine and AppStore lists several other extensions  So please explain how these do not work

Does this answer your question? How to block ads in Safari without installing anything?

Did you check out the blockers listed in the Safari Extensions section of the App Store?

@nohillside adblock, adblock plus, and wipr came from there and break sites

Doesn't this depend on the individual configurations you make? I'm using 1blocker and need to tweak the rules now and then to make some sites work.

Does this answer your question? Are there ad blocker that filters YouTube advertisements on Mojave Safari Version 12.0?

@anki no it's out of date

I have tried them and Adguard and none of them work me neither. MacBook Apple silicone (M1) and BigSur 11.6.2 at the moment.

AdGuard from Appstore works fine for me.

I've been using it without any problems for 12 days now

As an alternate answer, I use the hosts file from https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts on my system to block all sorts of known garbage.
I also use Little Snitch to add rules as necessary to catch what the hosts file does not catch.
While nothing is 100%, nonetheless, these have stopped most of the garbage.
Note however I'm doing this on macOS Catalina and have not implemented this under macOS Big Sur, but thought it worth mentioning.
Note: I am not affiliated with either of the aforementioned products, just a happy user.


text:
What are all the storage categories that can exist?
In Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage I can see a category-by-category breakdown of storage usage on my Mac.
The categories I can see are

Documents
Apps
Music Creation
iOS Files
Music and Others
System
Other

What are all the categories that exist?

Which practical problem are you trying to solve here?

The System Information User Guide (also available on your Mac as a macOS Help article) gives an overview of the categories available in the Storage section of the About My Mac window:

Apps: Contains all the apps installed on your Mac (excluding system applications).
Documents: Contains files in your home folder that aren’t included in other categories, such as Pages documents and PDFs. It also includes videos and photos that are not managed by your photo library (for example, an image that a friend shares with you using AirDrop).
iCloud Drive: Contains all files stored in iCloud Drive. It may also contain files in your Desktop and Documents folders if you store them in iCloud Drive.
iOS Files: Contains iOS backups and firmware.
TV, Music, Books, and Podcasts: Each app category contains purchases from that specific app, which can be removed from your Mac and downloaded again.
Mail: Contains emails and attachments.
Messages: Contains content from Messages conversations, including attachments.
Music Creation: Contains content from GarageBand, Logic, and MainStage.
Photos: Contains your System Photo Library.
Trash: Contains items you deleted (items deleted from iCloud Drive are not included in the amount of storage space).
Other Users: Contains files created and modified by other user accounts on your Mac.
Other: Contains files that don’t fall into the categories listed here. This category primarily includes files and data used by the system, such as log files, caches, VM files, and other runtime system resources. Also included are temporary files, fonts, app support files, and plug-ins. You can't manage the contents of this category. The contents are managed by macOS, and the category varies in size depending on the current state of your Mac.
System: Contains macOS system applications and files. Examples include Mail, Terminal, Calculator, and Time Machine Local Snapshots.

There's still an additional category that you can come across:

Developer: Contains Xcode caches, project build data and indexes and SDKs.


text:
How to set a multiple alert/reminder for the same calendar event?
Using Calendar.app I can add an event and then add an alert to it, and set when the alert should be. But I only seem to be able to add one alert per event.
How can I give myself a repeating reminder of an upcoming event?

Have a look at: Set event alerts and receive notifications in Calendar on Mac
Particularly step 3.

Set an alert for an event

In the Calendar app  on your Mac, double-click or force click an event to view event details, then click the event’s time.
Click the Alert pop-up menu, then do one of the following:

Choose a time or day.
Choose Time to Leave. This option only applies if you added a location. For information about how time to leave is calculated, see
Add a location.
Choose Custom, then choose an option:

Message with sound: Displays a notification on the screen and makes a sound.
Email: Sends you an email.
Open file: Opens the file you choose.

To add another alert, place the pointer over the Alert pop-up menu, then click the Add button.

        You can set only one alert for Exchange events.
To remove an alert, click the Alert menu, then choose None.

this seems to be only some calenders ;(
The Outlook /Exchange calendars does not have that circled plus sign next to alerts ;(
Got bitten by that today (12.5) as the Google Clandars seems to have that plus, not my hosted Exchange work email/calendar ;(


text:
How to make Safari 15 toolbar always black
The Safari 15 toolbar changes color based on... something. I think maybe the favicon of the current webpage?
I would prefer it to always be black. How can I do this?

Safari > Preferences… > Tabs > uncheck "Show colour in tab bar"

Thanks. Now if only there were a "Tab Layout: None." option


text:
Management Action - macOS 10.15.7 Catalina showing Important Update alert
Today I got this alert window as the posted pic below.
By clicking Submit, there's no response or restart automatically. I tried to restart manually the machine but a few moments later, it pops up again. Is there anyone who can help on it?

Looks suspicious (Maleware)! Try to identify the app who shows this dialog.

That looks a lot like the Management Action dialog that Jamf's device management systems use (see here for an example). Is your Mac being managed by some company/school/etc you're associated with? If it is, it's probably the remote management admin "encouraging" you to install Security Update 2021-006 for Catalina, which  just came out last week and does indeed fix a critical vulnerability.
Since it doesn't seem to be working properly, I'd recommend just going into the Software Update pane in System Preferences, and running it from there.


text:
How to keep focus on the URL bar when page is loaded
When I start loading a new webpage, if I focus the URL bar (e.g. CMD-L, select all the text in it), when the page loads it loses focus.
Slightly annoying when I'm typing in a new address to go to, then a slow-loading web page underneath kicks me out and I have to select it again.
Is there a way to stop that from happening?

The workaround here is to close the tab (command+w) and open a new tab (command+t) when you decide to open a new page, rather than focusing the address bar (command+L)


text:
Why isn't Messages.app text sending?
I'm trying to text a number from my MacBook Messages.app.
I have my iPhone 7 right next to me. Running macOS Big Sur. Bluetooth and and Wi-Fi are on on both devices, both connected to home and Wi-Fi, I have and Wi-Fi calling turned on but also have two bars of signal. I am signed in with the same Apple ID on both.
In Messages.app, the loading/sending bar goes to almost complete, then freezes for a while, then there is a red circle ! sign next to the message and it says "Not delivered".
Why?
How can I use my MacBook to send texts?

Actually looking at it, Messages on my Mac and on my iPhone don't seem synced at all.

In Settings -> Messages on the iPhone, is Text Message Forwarding enabled for your Mac?

@KevinGrabher it wasn't


text:
How to hide tab bar in Safari?
I just updated to Safari 15 and the new tab bar design actually makes me feel sick.
How can I hide the tabs? I'd rather use tab overview and keyboard tab navigation, and never have to see the tabs at all.
I already have "Always Show Toolbar in Fullscreen" unchecked, but sometimes I need to show the toolbar like when using my password manager, typing in a URL/search, using the menu bar.  I would like the tabs to not be shown even when the toolbar is.


text:
How to prefer displaying all chinese in kaiti instead of heiti
By default, system-wide, macOS seems to be using its Heiti SC/Heiti TC font for chinese characters. This includes the popup in pinyin keyboard.
How can I switch it to use another font? Songti or Kaiti?

I don't think it's possible to change the default system font any more.  Of course you can change it in apps where you compose text. Also in a browser like Firefox where they give you font choices in the preferences.   This old message about the issue may be useful.    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5124109?answerId=23004659022#23004659022


text:
How to change spotlight's font?
How can I choose the font that Spotlight's search box uses?
The font family/typeface

You can't (easily**). Apple is not a big fan of allowing the user to customize the OS.
** I dare say that it's possible, but it would likely require very invasive modifications to the system, which would compromise a range of security features, and need re-applying every time there's an update.

Unless things have changed, it's also my understanding that once the seal on the cryptographically signed read-only volume is broken by the user that FileVault can no longer be used on the drive.


text:
How can I have Finder find a file for real? ( search all files )
I open up finder and use command shift g to go to the root directory /.
I type in the search bar in the upper right hand corner mongod.conf but Finder does not find it.
I verified the file is at:
/user/local/etc
using the shell.
Why can't it find it?  I need to be a able to search all files on the machine.
I am running Big Sur 11.6

For "Search:" choose "This Mac"
Click the "+" button
In the drop-down choose "System files" and "are included"
(optionally, also include hidden files with: "File visibility" and "Visible or Invisible")

If the the options for System files and File visibility are missing, you can check them by selecting "Other..." in the drop-down menu.

Thanks ... never noticed that + button and would not have known what to search for ... I had to select other and then type in system files and visibility ...

Is there a way to save these settings so I don't have to set them every time?

Yes, with the "Save" button :-)


text:
Macbook Notes app can't access data
I was using the notes app just fine when I closed and reopened it to a pop-up message saying that it couldn't access my data. I tried reopening the app several times and restarting my computer. The message no longer shows up and just shows a blank version of the app. I can't make new notes or view my old ones. Is there a way to get my old notes back?

I give this as answer, because the command can't be given in comment mode :
You can begin by repair your user autorisations with terminal command  :
diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

RE: "I give this as answer, because the command can't be given in comment mode :" --  You can give this shell commands in a comment, just like this: diskutil resetUserPermissions /  $(id -u)


text:
External Hard Disk used for Time Machine not detected on any other devices
I have been using a 1TB Seagate hard drive since 2017 as a Time Machine disk. I've noticed this problem since then, but the hard disk literally doesn't get detected on any other computer. I've tried it on multiple Windows computers and laptops and it just doesn't pop up.
The drive is connected, the light is on but its not detected. Its only become a problem now that I need to store things from other computers and not just my primary laptop. I attempted a partition but that took hours and didn't move forward at all, I tried first aid but that keeps failing due to an unmounting error. Please tell me someone has answers.

What macOS are you running? Also, please clarify "I attempted a partition" - where did you attempt that? On Windows or Mac? Windows cannot natively read Mac disks, so we need to know precisely what you did...

partitioning a running Backup drive is a bad idea. Also storing data on a backup drive doesn't make sense, what if the backup drive dies? Then you don't have that data saved...

Can you add to your question the results of the terminal command diskutil list external  from the Mac where this external drive is functional and from the other Mac?

It's probably just that Windows doesn't have a driver for that file-system format.
Also, please note that Time Machine doesn't present a backups.backupdb file on certain drives such as SSD's which use the APFS format.  Instead, the backup occupies its own "volume."  But a "volume" is a logical subdivision of the available disk space, not a physical one.  If you want to put other files on your backup drive, you do so by creating a new "volume."  You do not set a size for that volume – disk-space is simply allocated as needed for both the Time Machine volume and any other ones.  Use "Disk Utility" to manage the volume list.


text:
Is it possible to administrate screen time on an iPad remotely?
I want to be able to change the screen time settings on my son's iPad when he or I are travelling. Is that possible? How?

What have you tried doing so far?

@fsb Since I don't know whether what I want is even possible, I don't know what I could possibly have tried. I have tried searching for an answer to my question using Google, and I have tried going through all the settings both on the iPad and in my Apple account. Is that what you mean? Or could it be that your comment doesn't really fit my question?


text:
In Calendar weekly view how to see more hours of the day
I would like to see more hours at a time in Calendar's Week view. I thought making the window taller would do this, but it just makes all the events bigger. Enlarging the window vertically just stretches the hours to be taller too.

when I pinch to zoom-out at maximum I can see hours from 0:00 to 7:00pm

@tama I can see 0 to 12 but I would like to see at least 1.5x as much

In macOS Big Sur in Calendar, one can show from 6 hours to 24 hours in Week view, the default is 12 hours, by changing the Show: [12] hours at a time preference in: Calendar > Preferences… > General


text:
How to zoom in on Calendar?
How can I show fewer or more hours at a time in Week view in Calendar.app without opening preferences every time?
Pinching does nothing for me, heightening or shortening the window just proportionally grows/shrinks the vertical size of each hour too so the same number of hours are shown no matter the window size.

Did my Alternate Solution work for you?

My guess would be that by default with having the, e.g. Show: [12] hours at a time preference in Calendar > Preferences… > General, that will be the only way to change the number of hours shown from within Calendar, regardless of the size of the window. I tested with various combinations of modifier keys and it didn't help to change the number of hours displayed.
That said, I did test doing it programmatically thru scripting and assigning a keyboard shortcut to an Automator Quick Action/Service and it does work.

Alternate Solution
Create two Automator Quick Action/Service, with settings:

Workflow receives [no input] in [Calendar]

Add a Run Shell Script action to each, with settings:

Shell: [/bin/zsh]
Pass input: [to stdin]

Add the following example shell script code to the first one and save it as, e.g.:

Zoom out Hours in Calendar

Example shell script code:
deltaHours=2
currentHours=$(defaults read com.apple.iCal 'number of hours displayed')
[ $((currentHours + deltaHours)) -gt 24 ] && exit 0
defaults write com.apple.iCal 'number of hours displayed' -int $((currentHours + deltaHours))

Add the following example shell script code to the second one and save it as, e.g.:

Zoom in Hours in Calendar

Example shell script code:
deltaHours=2
currentHours=$(defaults read com.apple.iCal 'number of hours displayed')
[ $((currentHours - deltaHours)) -lt 6 ] && exit 0
defaults write com.apple.iCal 'number of hours displayed' -int $((currentHours - deltaHours))

Notes:
In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services I assigned each a keyboard shortcut of ⌘K and ⌥⌘K respectively.
In testing, I could press the assigned keyboard shortcut multiple time in a row quickly and have the number of hours displayed increase/decrease.
The example shell script code as currently coded  will increase/decrease by two hours with each pressing of the assigned keyboard shortcut.
The example shell script code, shown above, was tested in a Run Shell Script action as an Automator Quick Action/Service with keyboard shortcuts assigned under macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur with Language & Region settings in System Preferences set to English (US) — Primary and worked for me without issue1.

1  Assumes necessary and appropriate settings in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy have been set/addressed as needed.

Note: The example shell script code is just that, an example, and sans any included error handling does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate, needed, or wanted. The onus in upon the user to ensure the script is fit for use for ones purpose.

This didn’t work anymore in macOS Sonoma 14.0. Took me about an hour to find that simply by replacing com.apple.iCal by /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist did the trick. Thanks!


text:
Make keyboard universal instead of per-app?
When I switch input source it sometimes doesn't switch across all apps, using its previous setting on some apps and its new setting on the one I switched while using.
How do I make the input language just a global setting that doesn't care about what app is focussed?

Have you looked at system preferences > keyboard > input sources and made sure the box related to automatic switching of input sources is not checked?

@TomGewecke it is not checked


text:
How to find out what app owns a menu bar item?
One of the items in my menu bar is just blank. Totally transparent. How do I find out which app/program owns it?

You can use Accessibility Inspector:

Apple provides the Accessibility Inspector testing tool that can be launched by choosing Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Accessibility Inspector in the menu bar or Dock. You can download Xcode from the Mac App Store for free.

Then you can select the element on screen to get its properties. Here's more info.
Once you click on a Menu Item you have to check it's parent element. Here's how it works:

After you click that arrow you can see the app name under Advanced -> Parent.
The item I've selected is BetterTouchTool:

I don't have xcode

But you can get it for free: "You can download Xcode from the Mac App Store for free"


text:
What app owns a menu bar item without installing XCode?
How to identify a strange item on my menubar? says that XCode > Open Developer Tool > Accessibility Inspector can be used to find out what app/program has created a menu bar item.
How can I find out without installing XCode?

Have you checked app running using activity monitor ?

My first thought is that the list of menulets will be in a user plist somewhere. There is com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, but that doesn't contain third-party menulets. However, plists for individual menulets always have a key for "NSStatusItem Preferred Position", so try searching the preference folder for that.

In Script Editor, try the following command to see if it help gives any information to figure it out. BTW you can replace {name, title} with properties to get even more information:
tell application "System Events" to return {name, title} of menu bar items of menu bar 1 of process "ControlCenter"

If it does not belong to process "ControlCenter", or it was not determined what it was, then try the following:

Open Automator and create a new workflow.
Click the Record button (red dot).
Click the target menu item on the menu bar.
Stop the recording.
In the Watch Me Do action created by the recording, drag and drop the event to the open area just below the Watch Me Do action.

It should create a Run AppleScript action in which it should show the name of the application process to which it belongs.
As an example I clicked the icon for Hammerspoon and in the Run AppleScript action there was a line e.g.:
set uiScript to "click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2 of application process \"Hammerspoon\"


text:
The IPA in Oxford Dictionary of English is wrong
Rope should be ɹəʊp but the built-in Oxford Dictionary of English displays it as rəʊp
How can I fix this?

The Oxford dictionary is delivered as part of macOS so I don't see why this should be off-topic.

If you don't like something in one of the Oxford dictionaries, you have to contact the publisher and ask for a change.  Apple has nothing to do with the content of these dictionaries, they just buy them from Oxford.
The very same ipa is used in the large number of Oxford bilingual dictionaries provided in every install of MacOS and iOS.  Plus you can see it online at a site like this one.  When you contact Oxford, be sure to provide as much evidence as possible regarding the error you think they have made.

Users may also need the usual feedback channels listed on apple.com (even if contacting the Oxford publishers probably yields better results)


text:
Image in PDF becomes black box when printed
I opened a PDF in Preview.app.
When I print it, one image on one page is printed as a solid black box.
How can I stop that from happening? I would like it to print exactly as it previews.

If you print the same PDF from another application that can handle PDF documents, does it print properly? Can you upload a copy of the PDF?

Try opening the PDF in Firefox


text:
How to transfer video from not-my-iPhone to MacBook
My friend plugged his phone into my macbook with a USB cable.
I opened Photos.app.
It is stuck on

Preparing to import from "Phone name"

How can I get a video from the phone to the macbook painlessly and quickly? Airdrop was taking aeons and kept failing.

Was the phone asking whether to trust the Mac? did you accept that?

@JBRWilkinson yes


text:
What causes AirDrop receiving to be so slow?
macOS Big Sur 11.6 MacBook Pro 2015 receives AirDrop soooo slowly.
My iPhone 7 received the video files from a friend in a few seconds. My MacBook Pro took upwards of minutes to see progress in the loading bar, and then just fails not receiving anything.
Now I am trying to send the video files from my iPhone 7 to my macbook. Normally this is very fast, normally AirDrop is very fast between my iPhone and my MacBook I've never had problems before, but today it's taking hours.
What could be causing this? How can I make my MacBook receive AirDrop faster?


text:
Text shortcuts are constantly erased with macOS Monterey
I noticed that with macOS Monterey, my text shortcuts (System Preferences → Keyboard → Text) can never stay put and are erased every time I add them (not quite sure when, but surely soon after).
Is this known? Are there any workarounds?

Do not know whether to not it's a bug or what, however keep it backed up and you will not have to manually reenter each one of them.

Good idea of course, and I do that. But it's certainly new behavior, and I was wondering if it's been encountered by others who've figured out how to fix it...

Are all of them being wiped out at the same time, or just the last one/few you've entered?

All of them, except for the default one (omw = On my way!).

I can confirm that at least on a reboot they are wiped out and replaced with the default one. There may be other triggers, however I've just started to investigate. So this is definitely a bug!

What's interesting is they are still in the ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist file under the NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems key but not in the GUI and of course do not work.  In other words, starting with them all there and then rebooting only the default one shows, but in Terminal the output of defaults read -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems shows them all. This needs to be reported to Apple!

In case you want to report it yourself, go ahead (no need to attribute me etc.)

Sorry, but I just do not have the time to report this as I'm now testing how to programmatically and automatically implement a workaround fix, if possible, until Apple fixes it. You should report this as it's your question.

Ah, I don't really want to do that either right now. Definitely write up your workaround in answer once you've got it!

I get the exact same problem. It's irritating.

I created an account just to share that I found out how to fix this!
It was driving me crazy.
Fix: Make sure you're signed in to your Apple ID. The Monterey update automatically signed me out, and since the System Preferences > Keyboard > Text shortcuts are synced up with your Apple ID/iCloud, it wipes them every time you restart the computer because it syncs back to nothing.
Good luck!

Experienced the same bug in Monterey 12.2.1, i.e., losing text replacements on every boot. Not using iCloud. Worked around by recreating entries, backing them up, and restoring after reboot:
Backup

System Preferences → Keyboard → Text
Edit → Select All → drag selected replacements to Desktop ("Text Substitutions.plist" will be created)

Restore

System Preferences → Keyboard → Text
Drag "Text Substitutions.plist" from Desktop into the Text pane

Link courtesy of Kevin. Lri shares a Terminal/script approach and additional details in his answer.


text:
An unknown process related to Preview
I launch Preview and search for all processes associated with it in Activity Monitor. In addition to a few regular processes, I see QLPreviewGenerationExtension (Finder).
Is this normal? I have only seen it on an M1 MacBook Pro running Monterey. Not seeing it on Intel Macs. Has anyone else seen this process? It's not consuming much CPU time or RAM, but I have never seen it before. It does not matter if Preview keeps an open file or not...

MacOS launches and quits hundreds of different processes as part of normal operation. Unless you are experiencing a particular problem, I wouldn't waste my time trying to track them all.

I am just wondering if anyone else has seen this particular process and if it's common to only M1 Macs.

It is currently running on my Intel Mac Mini. It's a standard MacOS process.

QL stands for QuickLook, so this is a process relating to QuickLook previews in the Finder, not to Preview.app.
This is an entirely 'normal' MacOS process.


text:
Prevent iOS from NOT using my custom keyboard
iOS sometimes chooses to use the OS's keyboard even though I've disabled all keyboards but my 3rd party keyboard. For example when trying to log into a financial app.
My custom keyboard has accessibility features not available in the iOS keyboards so when it forces the OS keyboard it makes it harder for me to use my phone.
I understand why it does this (Apple believes it's more secure) but I trust my keyboard. I wouldn't be using it otherwise. I use that keyboard all over the OS including logging into financial websites. In other words, this feature is a nanny feature and I want it off.
Is it possible for get iOS to not force its keyboard on me?

No, this isn't possible. Apple does this for a reason. You may trust YOUR keyboard. But does that you trust any keyboard that now has this ability to force itself to be your keyboard for sensitive data fields?


text:
Stop airdrop automatically opening photos and videos
How can I stop my Mac from automatically opening videos I airdrop to it?
I just want them to silently land in my downloads folder.


text:
How long is AppleCare+ "Paid in Full" for a 16" MacBook Pro in November 2021
I'm about to buy AppleCare+. Apple lists 2 options

Annual ($149 per year)
Paid in Full ($399)

I can't find anywhere where it list how long "Paid in Full" coverage lasts. It's not under "learn more.

It's not here: https://www.apple.com/support/products/mac/
It's not here: https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/applecare/applecareplus/1021/111221_applecareplusmacus.pdf (arrived at from here: https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/applecare/applecareplus/us/mac/)

That last one says at most

For Fixed-Term Plans, your Plan Term is fixed as set forth on your Plan Confirmation.

I went through the purchase process, adding credit card, etc, and even up to the last confirmation page I was never told what I was purchasing (what the plan term is)
What is the plan term for the "Paid in Full" option? It certainly can't just be 2 incidents indefinitely. I doubt I could get support in 2050 for this 2021 Mac.

I contacted Apple Support. The first support agent on chat told me

Ok. Apple Care+ extends your coverage to 2 years from your AppleCare+ purchase date and adds up to two incidents of accidental damage protection every 12 months. However it will not cover the theft or lost product.

You can also check that in the below link.

https://www.apple.com/support/products/mac/

When I pointed out nothing on that page said 2 years and that that would make the "Paid in Full" option more expensive than the annual option the service representative transferred me to a different division in charge of AppleCare+
The first person on the AppleCare+ line just read the Terms of Service linked above. When I pointed out what they just read to me didn't list a time they escalated to an "Expert"
The "Expert" claimed it was 3 years of coverage and that I'd be able to renew annually after. When I asked where was this written they spent ~10 minutes looking and then escalated to another expert.
That expert verified that it is listed no where online making it impossible to compare plans. They claimed "Paid in Full" coverage is 3 years.
So, after 45 minutes of my time, that means effectively you save $48 for paying up front ($399 vs $447)

I suspect there is some variation by country.  The AU page https://www.apple.com/au/legal/statutory-warranty/au/ clearly says 3 years for any Mac (purchased in AU).

Or take the bet that any repairs within the three years (outside of statutory warranty) are going to be less than $400.


text:
Turn off wallpaper-tinting from the command line
Anyone know of a command to disable wallpaper tinting? That is, instead of clicking the checkbox in System Preferences.

This is controlled via the AppleReduceDesktopTinting global setting:
defaults write -g AppleReduceDesktopTinting -bool yes

A helpful tip for finding these is to dump everything and use diff to see what changed:

defaults read > before
[Change the setting]
defaults read > after
diff before after

There will likely be a lot of noise, but you should be able to sift through and find the one you're looking for!