text:
How to configure Apple Mail on iPhone XR (iOS 12.4) to download emails from mailserver but not delete them on it?
I keep my mailfile on my laptop which uses a mail client to download and send email through my mailserver. When I download email it is then deleted from the server. I can also read and send mail using webmail access to the same server, but when I read it using that method it is not then deleted - it is only deleted later when I download it using my mail client. The mailfile is backed up but not synced, and nowhere is the cloud involved.
Obviously I can read and send mail from my iPhone using a web browser such as Safari.
My question is whether I can also configure Apple Mail to download mail from the server such that it is not then deleted on the server. The reason I ask is that I would sometimes like to read emails on my iPhone before I have downloaded them on the laptop. I would then eventually delete them by hand on the iPhone because they would later get downloaded and filed in the usual way on my laptop. But of course they can only get downloaded to the laptop so long as the contact with the server using Apple Mail doesn't cause them to be deleted on the server.
I suspect the answer is "No - if you want to handle your mail that way, then when you read it on your iPhone your should only use webmail access through a web browser". I may be wrong, though.

Sure. Have Apple mail client use IMAP protocol to leave a copy on the server and just don’t delete on iOS.
Next time your machine deletes things off the server, the next IMAP sync will clean up things on the iPhone automagically.

Many thanks for this. So if I do delete on iOS, the IMAP sync will delete on the server? Can I disable the sync? I'd like my laptop to remain the place where the definitive record is maintained, and whatever occurs elsewhere (e.g. deletion on phone by accident) to have no effect.

Yes @ruffle - imap propagates delete from any client to all clients via the server.  Be sure to not delete if you want to archive mails Andy let the archive do the delete.

iOS POP3 mail should leave mail on the server for a week. I don't see any way to adjust that. macOS POP3 you can adjust that to a month. This is what I use to avoid  being stuck with IMAP implementation on top of an Outlook account. Apple KB is outdated, unfortunately - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201855


text:
Mess with multiples Emacs distros (Homebrew)?
I have recently got a new copy of Emacs on a brand new macOS setup as follows, using the Homebrew package manager:
brew cask install emacs

I also wanted to try Emacs Mac Port, so I fired up my terminal and typed
brew tap railwaycat/emacsmacport
brew install emacs-mac

but lot of symlinking error appeared.
I thought it was a bad idea to let Homebrew manage so similar packages, and removed emacs and emacs-mac with brew cask uninstall emacs and brew uninstall emacs-mac.
Have I done a mess? Should I have done something else other than brew cleanup and brew doctor, before installing again the standard Emacs distro with brew cask install emacs?

If you don't want to use Homebrew, you don't have to. This is really a matter of taste. You can use Homebrew or not. You can build the application from source or you can download from GNU here or Emacs For Mac OS X here - both yield the latest versions.
If you want to use Homebrew, I recommend that you use:
brew install emacs

then link the binary if you want to run from terminal, this can be performed via:
ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/26.2/Emacs.app /Applications

If you don't want to use Homebrew, use one of the binaries listed above. Keep in mind you can always link them later if you want to run the latest version from the command line.

Sort of correct but for macOS that is not the best version - that is the pure GNU version it is better to use the railwaycat one as it has some Mac specific features

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Is there a way to get a tab key on an iPhone XR (iOS 12.4)?
Can this be done, and if so how?
I am not seeking merely a solution that allows the input of a tab character, for example using voice; I'm asking for a way to make a tab key appear on the keyboard on the screen.
Example of need: on a chat site I go to, you can type the first few characters of another user's name and then tab to complete...or at least you can if you have got a tab key.
Another example of utility is to jump from box to box when completing an online form.

Have you looked into the vast selection of 3rd party keyboards available on the app store?

I've looked at some, but not yet found one that is described as coming with a tab key.

More out of curiosity – where would you use that? Online forms? VNC remote control?

Have you seen this? https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/83302/how-to-type-a-tab-character-on-an-iphone

@n1000 - My big current irritation with not having it is on a chat site I go to where you can type the first few characters of another user's nick and then tab to complete. But jumping between boxes on online forms too, yes.

@SteveChambers - Yes. I'm asking specifically about a key, not just how to input the character.

I see, thanks. Maybe you add that info to your question for a bit more clarity.

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


text:
disable reading list side panel on mouse move
When I am in fullscreen Safari and I move my mouse pointer to the left of the screen, the reading list (?) slides out, and gets in my way.
How do I do one of

prevent the panel from revealing itself when my mouse is on the left of the screen
completely disable that panel altogether

Unfortunately, as of the last operating system, there was no way to prevent that panel or disable that panel. I don't know for certain about the most current OS, but I never read that they changed that in their Change Log, so I'm guessing it's still not possible to disable or prevent it :(

Not possible as far as I know. Your best bet is exiting full screen mode and resizing safari to fill the whole screen.

Disable is not possible even on latest Catalina. But to easily resize Safari to fill all the screen hold OPTION while grabbing the corner of the Safari window with the mouse, and it will grow to fill the entire screen as you move the mouse, at once.


text:
Offline and account-less notes and calendar apps for iOS
Are there any calendar and notes apps for the iPhone (iOS 12.4) that don't require syncing, cloud use, or an account with a supplier? I have not been able to find any, but I hope some exist.

Why are you deleting stuff ? I had just answered it!

Why won't Notes and Calendar work?

Sorry, @ankiiiiiii - I took it into my head for some reason that it was a stupid question. But it isn't, really. Thanks for your answer.

@ruffle it is were a stupid Q, you'd get downvotes, but it's okay not to be familiar with some OS at first. You can visit your question  and undelete if you wishHow to undelete (reinstall?) the Calendar and Notes apps (not their content) on iPhone (iOS 12.4)

Why is this closed as unclear? Original poster clearly asked for offline calendar and notes apps for iPhone.

Please have a look at https://apple.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2180/how-should-i-ask-about-getting-a-software-recommendation on how to ask for software recommendations. If you edit the question please also explain why using Notes and Calendar with iCloud sync disabled doesn‘t solve your problem.

The 'Notes' app should work fine in a stand-alone mode. Its included with your iPhone. And I think the iPhone Calendar should not have any requirements either but I assume you've tried it.

Thanks for this. Notes does work as you say. Having deleted the icon for Calendar I have now installed the app again, or at least got it showing again. But on the menu for Settings | Calendar there is an item "Sync" which can be set at "All Events", "Events 2 Weeks Ago", etc., but not at "None".

@ruffle  turn off calendar iCloud. Same for notes. Why leave a sync feature at all?


text:
In a WhatsApp videochat on my iPhone (XR, iOS 12.4), how can I switch between front and back cameras?
When videochatting with WhatsApp (v2.19) on an iPhone (XR, iOS 12.4), the front camera is used because when you look at the screen you want the other person to be able to see your face. But using the back camera would allow you to show the other person your surroundings while viewing on the screen exactly what they are seeing, in other words using the screen as a viewfinder.
How can I switch between using the front and back cameras during such a videochat?

There's a camera flip button in the bottom, beside the end call button. See the snapshot in the video in FAQ https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/iphone/26000028/?category=5245237


text:
open link in current tab while tab is pinned

Google anything
Pin that Tab
Click the first result

It opens in a new tab.
How can I force it to open in the current tab?

If it opened in the current tab then it wouldn't be 'pinned', would it?  Pinning keeps the tab open on that site.  By default, pinned tabs stay on the current location and open links in new tabs.


text:
cmd-w to close pinned tabs
Is there a keyboard shortcut to close pinned tabs in Safari?
I tried cmdW like for normal tabs but it didn't work.

As a workaround, I'd set up a keyboard shortcut in Safari for both Pin Tab and Unpin Tab to the same shortcut, e.g., ⌥⌘P and then you can toggle the pinned status of the Tab with the same keyboard shortcut.
This way when a Tab is pinned and you want to close it, using the keyboard, you'd first press, e.g., ⌥⌘P then: ⌘W
System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts

This works for now. It's also convenient to have a shortcut to pin and unpin, thanks for this solution.


text:
Can a minor attend a Genius Bar appointment alone?
Can someone under 18 attend a Genius Bar appointment alone, if the device is in their name and they know the Apple ID details?

No, you need to be over 18. They might accept a minor with ID but it is not guaranteed:

1.7 No Sale to Minors. Purchase under these terms is available only to those who have reached the age of majority.

(Source)
Also confirmed by a recent live chat.


text:
Do terminal TTYs for iOS and macOS exist?
Seeing that multiple TTYs exist on FreeBSD and Darwin, and they provide the core of macOS and iOS, how would I access such TTYs? And would they be multiple instances of GUIs or would they involve terminals? I would very much prefer for there to be an environment similar to FreeBSD for testing purposes.
Please enlighten me as to whether or not such environments exist (or can exist) on Apple's OSes. I am interested in whether or not I can create one as a proof-of-concept, whether it can be on iOS 13 beta, iOS 5, macOS Mojave, or macOS Snow Leopard.

TTYs exist and operate in Mac OS X and macOS just as they do in any other UNIX or UNIX-like operating system. When macOS boots, the TTY that inits to subsequently load the GUI is always console. Subsequent TTYs opened from Terminal.app or other emulators are listed from ttys000 and the digits increment one at a time.
You can open Terminal and check your TTY as in the examples below:
$ tty
/dev/ttys000

Or
$ who
trane    console  Sep  1 05:18
trane    ttys000  Sep  1 05:19
trane    ttys001  Sep  1 05:19

Or
$ w
13:04  up 1 day,  7:46, 3 users, load averages: 1.85 2.02 3.87
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@  IDLE WHAT
trane    console  -                Sun05   31:45 -
trane    s000     -                Sun05       - w
trane    s001     -                Sun05       9 -bash

For more information on those commands, see the relevant man pages. For e.g., type man who and quit using q.
It's worth noting that macOS only runs one instance of the Aqua GUI for a particular display device.

I know that macOS isn't Linux, but I would assume that opening up a Terminal from Spotlight would make the equivalent of a pty (pseudoTTY) rather than a true TTY. Is it at all possible to have multiple TTYs and to switch between them with something like Ctrl-Alt-F# in X11?

@VarunNarravula macOS does not have the equivalent of Linux's getty that enables users to switch between virtual text-console TTYs and X sessions. Older versions of OS X and macOS up to 10.9.x enabled users to login to console text sessions by way of entering ">console" in the username field. That has since been removed. Apple now expects users to operate explicitly from the GUI and run terminal emulators as required from within that environment. (Ex-Linux user here and, yeah, I liked the days of separate TTYs and an X session.)


text:
How to display photo albums in iOS12.4 as a list rather than an array of thumbnails?
I dislike the array of thumbnails or large icons as a user interface. Is there a way to get my iPhone XR running iOS 12.4 to display my photo albums as a list?


text:
Weird Wi-Fi related issues affecting "Now Playing", media keys and the Maps app
This is my first post here because I'm out of ideas. I'm running macOS Mojave 10.14.6 on a MacBook Pro 15-inch, 2018, i9, 32GB RAM, Radeon Pro 560X.
I believe all of the following symptoms are related to some weird Wi-Fi issue my MacBook Pro is having:

My Maps app can't locate me even when I'm on Wi-Fi.
If I turn off Wi-Fi or don't have a Wi-Fi connection, the "Now Playing" Widget on my Touch Bar and in the Notification Center do not work at all, not even for playing local media files.
When my "Now Playing"  widget does not work (as per 2 above), my media keys/headphone controls controlling iTunes also don't work.

So far I have tried:

booting in Safe Mode
resetting the SMC and NVRAM
turned  location services on/off
restarting my router

For the record I don't have Spotify or Google Chrome installed, nor do I have any extensions installed.
How else might I troubleshoot this issue?

Firstly, welcome to Ask Different! :) I've edited your question to change the tags and to try and clarify it and make it easier to read. I'm also conscious that your question does seem to be about different issues (normally this site works best when each question is about a single issue), so my edit does try to tie it all in to what you believe is a "weird Wi-Fi issue" that's causing all of these problems. However, it is possible that these are in fact totally separate issues and may need to be dealt with separately. For now though, we'll see how this goes.

Please check my edit to make sure I haven't got anything wrong, as I've read in between the lines a little. If I do have something wrong, please edit your question to correct these. All the best!


text:
How can I change my iPhone camera's resolution?
I know that Android phones let you change camera resolution.
How can I accomplish the same on iOS?

Right now the question is rather broad. Are you looking for configuration settings impacting picture quality, are you wondering about the capabilities of your specific models, or are you wondering on how to change the hardware. Can you please elaborate?

@nohillside Sorry. No - I don't want to change hardware. I just want to change settings. I know that Android phones let you change camera resolution.

Go to Settings > Camera.
You can select resolution and FPS for video & slo-mo. However, you cannot change the photo resolution.
You you will also be able to choose between high efficiency, using HEIF/HEVC, or most compatible, using JPEG/H.264. This does not directly affect the resolution, but does affect how large the photo and video files are.

Note that unless these settings are not already at their maximum then the only way to increase an iPhone's camera resolution is to buy a new one.

@Steve Chambers, you've got it. And even if there was a software solution to improve resolution with a given hardware (ex: oversampling and interpolating between jittered pixels), Apple would unfortunately withhold this software feature intentionally, forcing you to buy the new phone to get it.

Your phone's camera is limited by its hardware. Without opening the case and switching out several integrated circuits (and probably modifying the phone's firmware and operating system) you're not going to change that.
And you forget another thing that many cellphone camera enthousiasts overlook when talking about their hardware, and that's the optics.
The main limiting factor of most if not all current cellphone cameras isn't the sensor at all, it's the lens that is actually responsible for generating the image.
That tiny piece of plastic (or glass if you're lucky) isn't really capable of providing the data needed for the sensors fitted to most modern cameras with enough resolution.
There's a reason why professional cameras have lenses with front elements that have a diameter of sometimes over 10 centimeter, and can weigh several kilos, and have sensors 24x36mm in size if not much larger in the really high end cameras.
You simply are never going to match that with your phone sensor the size of a nail clipping and ditto lens.

Sorry if I weren't clear.  No - I don't want to change hardware. I just want to change settings. I know that Android phones let you change camera resolution.

Camera+ 2, available in the app store for US$4, is a very powerful app I use instead of Apple's Camera app. It provides Manual Controls, RAW Capture and Editing, Depth Capture & Editing, versatile Shooting Modes, superb Photo Library integration, etc. If you are a seasoned SLR camera user or not, this app will help you get the most out of your iPhone's camera, even if you're shooting at the maximum resolution the iPhone can provide. I wish I was able to replace the default Apple Camera app with Camera + 2!
Disclaimer: I'm a contented user of Camera+ 2; and have no financial ties to LateNiteSoft S.L.

You can’t.
(It’s another of many things you can’t do an iphone.)
(And it only takes two words, BTW, to answer the question.)

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

Though not for pictures, you can change the resolution in taking videos as explained in @drivec's answer above. And I second Community Bot's comment just above.


text:
How to change macOS Mojave’s menu bar transparency
How do you change the menu bar transparency in MacOS Mojave?

would system pref -> accessibility-> display work? https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/337478/how-to-get-dark-menu-bar-and-dock-in-mojave-light-mode?rq=1

Firstly, welcome to Ask Different! :)  I hope you come to find this site has a lot to offer! In case you haven't already, it's worth taking the time to read the tour. As for your question, it's best practice to outline what you've already tried, otherwise you're likely to get suggestions for things you've already done. Plus it gives us more context around your problem.


text:
What is hostname in terminal prompt?
My mac terminal prompt is:
wbk-er-10-132-118-162:~ johnjara$

I did echo $PS1 and got \h:\W \u\$, which would be the hostname: the basename of $PWD, my username, respectively. My  computer name in System Preferences > Sharing is Copper's Macbook Pro.
So what is \h here for my Mac if not computer name? How do I change it?
 Also, why my IP address would be there in hostname?

What is the computer name in System Preferences > Sharing?

You could do an echo $PS1 and match the codes with meanings here: https://ss64.com/bash/syntax-prompt.html and then try to figure out yourself. Numbers are definitely IP. And Steve might be right too about Computer name. See ~/.bash_profile file too. It's hidden, (notify me by @ankiiiiiii)

My cpu name is Copper's Macbook Pro. @ankiiiiiii I did echo $PS1 and got \h:\W \u$ which would be the hostname, the basename of $PWD, and my username, respectively. Do either of you know why my IP address would be showing?

Here's an even closer duplicate (where the IP address is included in the name): MacOS Strange Terminal Prompt, Tried Resetting Terminal.


text:
Type leftwards arrow on macOS
I need to type a leftwards arrow, an example as follows:

Is this possible using the keyboard on macOS Mojave?

What I do is I use aText and I use abbrebiations that start with !a-, like !a-right, !a-down, which then expand to the unicode arrows. At least for me this was the best way to effortlessly throw in arrows because the abbreviations are easy enough to remember: here's a gif of that — I thought that maybe you could use the built-in text expander, but I think it has some limitations that make it unusable in general. That's how I remember it anyways.

Use ctrl+cmd+space to bring up the Character Viewer. It is also accessible in edit menu → Emoji and Symbols. Leave the cursor where you want to type and double click on the arrow you want.

Alternatively, The alt codes for arrows can be viewed here on Wikipedia. Have Hex input enabled and active in input sources in keyboard preferences.

For right arrow, hold alt and type 2190. ← will appear.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrows_(Unicode_block)
More standard codes can be found in this table

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode#Standardized_subsets

There are a few ways you can do this:
Copy and paste the character
You can simply copy and paste the unicode 2190 character
Another method

In System Preferences, click Language & Region
Click Keyboard Preferences
Click Input Sources
Click the + button
Scroll to the bottom of the list and select Other
Select Unicode Hex Input and click Add
Select Show Input menu in menu bar (if not already selected)
Close the System Preferences window

To enter Unicode

Click the flag icon in the menu bar*
Select Unicode Hex Input
Hold down the option key while typing the Unicode Hex code:
2190 = ←
2192 = →
2191 = ↑
2193 = ↓

You can configure MacOS to replace key sequences with other text. For example, to make it convert "<-" to "←":

Open System Settings
Go to Keyboard > Text Replacements
Press the + button and enter:

Replace: "<-"
With: "←" (enter with emoji dialog or copy from somewhere else)

If when typing you want to keep the two characters separate, you can press Cmd+Z after the conversion. Or use a different string in the Replace field, like "<--".


text:
sync iBooks page currently reading between iPhone and MacBook
I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) (macOS Mojave 10.14.6) and an iPhone 7 (iOS 12.4.1).
I downloaded an ebook from the internet, and started reading it on my MacBook.
A few days later I copied it onto my iPhone (using iTunes on my MacBook when my iPhone was connected).
I thought bookmarks would sync between the two devices, so I could continue reading on one device from where I left off on the other.
Unfortunately that isn't happening.
How can I keep my two books in-sync?

While reading position sync to macOS is not supported, literal bookmarks (bookmark icon) do sync between iOS and Mac over iCloud. So if you don't mind modeling the analog world, you can set a bookmark when you stop reading on one device and go to it on the other. It can take a minute or two to sync, as is typical with iCloud.
On the Mac side, turn on Books in System Preferences > Internet Accounts > iCloud > [Options...]. Then in the Books app on the Mac, in General Preferences, check "Sync collections, bookmarks, and highlights across devices".
For the iOS side, see Udhy's answer.
Reference: iPad User Guide (iOS 15.4) (in Books!), tested on macOS 11.6.5 (Big Sur)

To control some settings of Apple Books on your iOS device, you need to have iCloud Drive turned on: Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud and turn on both iCloud Drive and Books. Then go to Settings > Books.
Under Syncing, you can change settings like these:

Turn on Reading Now to sync your reading progress, current book, notes, and bookmarks using your iCloud account. Reading Now only syncs to other iOS devices, not your Mac.
Turn on iCloud Drive to sync PDFs, EPUBs, and books created with iBooks Author that you didn't purchase from the Book Store that you added to your Library across all of your devices.
Under Allow Books To Access, turn on Cellular Data to stream books while your iPhone or iPad is connected to the Internet via a cellular connection and using cellular data.

You can also change settings in the Books app. Tap Reading Now, then tap the Profile icon or your picture in the upper-right corner. From here, you can redownload your purchases, access Family Purchases, and redeem gift cards or content codes.

With Apple Books it is not possible to sync reading progress between iPhone and a Mac.
The Apple Books "Reading Now" feature only works on and between iOS devices and not between iOS and MacOS.

it can be done at end of 2022.


text:
stop Mail.app opening in split-fullscreen
When I am within a full-screened app and I get a (new email) notification from Mail, if I click it it opens in half the screen (split vertically) instead of opening in a new window on another desktop.
How do I stop Mail from using this split-screen view for

notifications
composing new emails
etc.

I tried following the steps described in this answer https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/354056/150109
Unchecking the "Prefer opening messages in split view when in full screen" preference.

But that doesn't seem to have changed anything.

That is a bug. There have been discussions about it on the site in at least 5 questions on the site AFAIK. One of them was mine, one has 54 votes, one is about investigations, and two are simply just like your question. So better to participate there. :)


text:
How do I have my MacBook Pro do Auto signature in my reply email
I can see how to have the email add a signature in replies,  but how do I set it up to be there automatically.

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

Firstly, welcome to Ask Different! :)  I hope you come to find this site has a lot to offer! In case you haven't already, it's worth taking the time to read the tour. As for your question, in addition to what fsb has asked, it'd be good to confirm what email client you're using (as we can't assume you're using the default Mail app).


text:
Use iPhone as sound output device for MacBook
I want to connect headphones to my iPhone (7), and then play all audio from my MacBook (Pro with Retina, 15" Mid-2015), through the headphones connected to my iPhone.
macOS Mojave 10.14.6, iOS 12.4.1
How can I do that?

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/348527/can-i-have-my-iphone-play-sound-for-macbook?rq=1

@ankii Why didn't you mark this as a duplicate of the linked question?

staying cautious after 8 days flag ban(relevant discussion in chat).. and didnt see hints about third party apps for the same in the question. Should have clarified beforehand @fsb


text:
Does plugging iPhone into speakers shorten its life span?
I yearn to play music on my external speakers that can be connected to iPhone or $50 USD 256 GB  USB flash drive. I'm assuming that both's life time will shorten.

But which to use? I'm guessing USB, because it's cheaper to replace?
Are there other better ways, without reducing lifespan of an electronic device?

Rule out connecting to a laptop, which I don't always have with me.

You might want to consider a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, or an external Bluetooth adaptor that you can connect to your existing speakers. No physical connection required!

Plugging a set of speakers into an iPhone does not significantly shorten its life span. Not at all.
If you're worried about the connector being damaged (for example a jack connector), you could use a permanently connected extension cable. Then you can connect and disconnect the speakers as you like without wear and tear on the iPhone's connector.


text:
Set tapping instead of clicking for Arch Mouse
I am looking for a way to TAP the arch mouse and NOT click the mouse button for the same clicking action. I am using a MacBook Pro 2017.
I go to System Preferences -> Microsoft Mouse and there is no option to replace clicking for tapping.  My index finger is taking a toll every time I click the left mouse button.

Welcome to Ask Different.  Just asking a clear question is best. You can always thank someone later if needed more than a check mark or up vote.

Perhaps you need to install some 3rd party application that came with the mouse?


text:
Can't login with my user account, works only with admin account
I have iMac late 2015, macOS High Sierra. Till now it worked perfectly, but today I turned on my computer, it allowed to login into my user account, then I opened one app and it went to not responding. I forced to quit the apps, but that doesn't work and then turned off the computer. After that I can't login into my account, I enter the password and shortly the color loader icon appears and that's it. I made reset, tried safe mode, disk utility, nothing works. But everything works fine with admin user. Does anybody know what else I can try?

If you don’t have a current backup then do one. What happens if you create a new account - does that work?

Yes, that works. New user, no matter standard or admin, it works. @SolarMike

So, did you do the backup? Because I think you will need it... I would be making a new account.

When I will create new user, will I be able to get into folders like desktop, downloads, from the old user?

how did you reset ? login with admin user and reset your desired user account. I will also try to type the new password first on Note to see the keyboard combination too. There must be something weird.

Your machine is going off the rails. It could be  a hardware or software problem. Could be the drive is going bad. Check out Disk Utility to verify the drive.


text:
Applescript and SpeechRecognitionServer: reading in a file as "listen for"
In place of the list in
tell app "SpeechRecognitionServer to set theQueryList to listen for {"list item 1", "list item 2"...}

I'd like to read in a text file that contains the list. Something like
set theQueryList to read POSIX file "/Users/username/folder/text.txt"

The file text.txt contains a list, written out as
"list item 1", "list item 2", ... "list item n"

without brackets and in utf8 (I hope) format. (I created the file by cat'ing it in Terminal.)
This works, somewhat. I mean: I can display the list from text.txt  in a dialog, and I can use it in a repeat loop. But it doesn't trigger SpeechRecognitionServer when spoken. (I don't know a better way to say this.) I should mention that when I paste the list from this file into the script, it works fine. So the list items don't seem to be at fault -- nor how I say them.
Apologies if I'm a bit fuzzy in my wording here. Grateful for your ideas. Thanks.

Your file will need to have the data encoded as an actual list, or if it is just plain text, you will need to do something to convert it to a list, such as getting lines/paragraphs or splitting the text using AppleScript's text item delimiters.

Thanks. It's comma separated, no brackets, no quotation marks. When I include brackets and/or quotation marks, the script timesout -- or returns a -1708 error, which I thought at first had to do with having the file read into the SpeechRecognitionServer tell block, so I moved the read statement up (Script editor owns it) and passed the contents of the file down the line in a variable. Interesting to note that when I make the file one item long, it works like a charm. It's been quite a few years since I've had my head in this stuff; I'm grateful for your help.

The items to listen for need to be in a list, so you will need to extract the items from the text.
If the items in the text are separated by end-of-ine characters:
list item 1
list item 2
list item 3
list item n

you can just get the paragraphs:
set theQueryList to paragraphs of (read POSIX file "/Users/username/folder/text.txt")

If the items in the text are separated by commas (or tabs, or whatever):
list item 1,list item 2,list item 3,list item n

you can use AppleScript's text item delimiters:
set separator to "," -- the separating text
set fileText to (read POSIX file "/Users/username/folder/text.txt")
set {tempTID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, separator}
set theQueryList to text items of fileText
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tempTID -- restore original

Brilliant. I'm grateful. Truly.


text:
How to make Siri audible to other person on the phone?
When Siri reads something I can hear it well.
But a person on the other end of a phone call hears nothing of it. That's a good default.
But how can I make the other person on the phone hear what Siri reads for me (not always but only when I want it)?
Hardware: iPhone 6
Background information about my motive:
In Germany we do not have a method to send a GPS position in a standardized way to the national emergency call center. We have no way at all to send a text message to that center. So my idea was, to let Siri read that coordinates. I want to have that for my old father, who walks often alone in the woods. No, he does not want a wearable. I have to deal with an iphone.
iOS: 12.4.1

I don't think this is possible. It is something like you are trying to play Youtube video on your phone and want to listen by the caller who is hearing you. Would you be very much interested to know if it is possible?
You will be using your Microphone to communicate during a call and your phone no longer act as Speaker.

I'm looking for a way that for that time, while Siri speaks, the microphone should be deactivated or the device should act like an audio device with two inputs. One of the mic and another by Siri.


text:
Reveal all favourites in new tab page on macOS Safari
MacOS Safari just updated itself to 13.0
Now when I open a new tab it shows me only two rows from my favourites.
View > Show favourites bar... shows me all of my favourites.
How do I get the new tab page to show me a grid of all of my favourites, as it did before the update?

There was a "Show more" button at the top-right:

But I couldn't see it in full-screen Safari because I have View > Always Show Toolbar in Fullscreen unchecked:

The slide-out toolbar was covering up the title and "show more" button on the page.
There are multiple ways to reveal them:

Open a Safari window that isn't full-screened
In the new tab page, drag one of the favicons and then put it back in the same spot. The toolbar disappears.
Check View > Always Show Toolbar in Fullscreen


text:
Safari quits and then "Apple wants to make changes"
Every so often, at least once a day it seems, Safari closes itself and then I get a pop-up prompt "Apple wants to make changes", asking me for my username and password to ... I guess authorise these changes.
I haven't been entering my username and password, I'm honestly wondering if it's a virus or so.
If I close the prompt it reappears, for a total of three appearances.
Then it won't reappear, at least immediately.
I can restart Safari at that point. Then the prompt reappears again, three more times.
What's going on and how do I stop it?
Currently I have Safari 13, but this happened since at least Safari 12 (it updated recently but was happening before then). I don't recall this happening before I got Mojave (but it might not be a Mojave-only issue).

Found this answer on the site for a different (v similar?) question, but those malicious files don't exist for me:
$ ls '~/Library/Application Support/com.SearchSystem'
ls: ~/Library/Application Support/com.SearchSystem: No such file or directory
$ ls '~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.SearchSystem.plist'
ls: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.SearchSystem.plist: No such file or directory

Related to https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/370618/which-app-asking-for-elevated-permissions

Can you run a malware scan and see if something exists?


text:
iOS Bluetooth Device connect/disconnect from Settings
If i have already connected bluetooth device from Settings screen and my application is running, Suddenly i go to setting screen and disconnect that bluetooth device but still bluetooth switch is on. So is it any way or method, by using that we can identify that device is connected or disconnected from settings?

Looks like you did not include your entire question. Try to be clearer and to the point.

If you go to Settings/Bluetooth it will tell you what devices are connected.  I'm confused about what you are asking?


text:
Is there a way to get a report of all the words that have been autocorrected on iPhone/OSX?
I'd like to be able to keep track of both what I originally typed and what I ended up with.

Welcome to Ask Different.  I'm not aware of any way to do this with the stock keyboard.  I've used several 3rd-party keyboards, too, and none of them offered this feature.  That's not to say it's not available anywhere it's just that this is not a common feature.  If you [edit] your question to include missing info (see [ask] for details), it could help you get a better answer.

Thanks for the tip. I just read the "How to Ask" link. Not sure I have much information I have to add to the question I asked, but that may be because I didn't do enough research to have something really specific to ask beforehand. I will attempt to follow these recommendations.


text:
Is Firefox Private Network available in iOS
From webpage https://private-network.firefox.com/, I know that Firefox Private Network  is available in Firefox windows client, is Firefox Private Network funation available in the Firefox App of iOS?

According to the webpage:

This extension is currently available to US desktop users only.

This means that it is only available for desktop Firefox.
However, the extension is allegedly based on the same infrastructure as CloudFlare's Warp VPN service, which is currently being rolled out to the "1.1.1.1" app if you have it installed.
The Warp VPN appears to be available on iOS and in all countries.


text:
iPhone locked due to Activation Lock
We are facing an issue with iPhone due to activation lock.
The device was used by an ex-employee of the company.
The email address that was used for this device no longer exists because it looks like 'employeename@company.com'. So we can't use the forgot password or reset password options.
Is there any solution to use this device?

You need to reset the phone before deleting the email identity...

I can't do anything... I don't have email account or any other option.


text:
sync Safari tabs but not history between iPhone and MacBook
On my MacBook in System Preferences I can check Safari within the iCloud page in order to sync tabs, bookmarks, history etc. between my iPhone 7 and my MacBook.
But I don't want to sync history, so I unchecked it.
However now I can't handoff tabs from my MacBook to my iPhone (and vice versa)
How can I enable tab handoff without syncing history?


text:
macOS Catalina official release date
There are many rumoured release dates for macOS Catalina, most sources say October.
Is there an official release date?

Ask Apple... they will know

@SolarMike how am i meant to do that?

Apple has not publicly announced the release date yet.
Their official Catalina page states it will be available in October 2019.

macOS Catalina was eventually released on the 7th October, 2019.


text:
How to change "Favourites" and "Recently Visited" icons in Safari?
My homepage in Safari is the default one, the one that shows Favourite and Recently visited files. However, when I opened Safari today the icons were bigger than they were previously. Is it possible to set a smaller size again?
This is what I get.
It is even clearer in this situation:

Usually, the icons you see in the two images were smaller, and in the second one in particular the six favourite pages could fit all in one line.

Try Cmd - [minus]

Already tried, but that doesn't work

It's usually helpful to include what you already tried in your question. It saves duplicated effort.

Perhaps Safari 13 has been installed and the change is related to that occurrence?


text:
Safari doesn't "save" google results pages
If I

open a new tab
use the omnibar to google for something
click on a google result
press back

I get sent to the new tab page, not the google results page.
Also, the google results page doesn't show up in history.
How do I stop that from happening?
I want google results pages to be treated like all other (normal) pages.

Are you using iOS or MacOS? Are you in private mode?

@Theologin macOS, not private mode

Try changing your homepage to About:Blank and set your browser to open your homepage when you open a new tab. Check to see if this still reproduces the same issue.


text:
How can I change the scrolling direction of the mouse, independently of the trackpad?
In System Preferences > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom, there is a checkbox called Scroll Direction: Normal, which allows us to change the scrolling direction of the trackpad, but it also changes the scrolling direction of the mouse. Is there a way of changing the scrolling direction of the mouse, without changing the scrolling direction of the trackpad?
I have a Razer: Deathadder Elite mouse, but I would like the solution to work for different and less sophisticated mouses.

If you have no trackpad, the scrolling direction is in the Mouse control panel. idk if it's still there as a separate item if you do have one, but worth a look.

Yes, that was already apparent from your question. Did you look in the Mouse control panel yet?

Have a look at Scroll Reverser, as it appears to do as you've asked.


text:
How can I click on Launchpad and make it to behave like secondary click performed?
I dislike the big eye-candy icons that I see after clicking the Launchpad icon on the dock. However I like the menu that I see after a secondary click on Launchpad. How can I make the click/tap on the Launchpad behave like a secondary click?

Press the control key when clicking and it will show the context menu.

Tap with two fingers on the Launchpad icon in the Dock with Trackpad. Or right-click it with the mouse.

@user3439894 Yeah I can do that, but I just want to do with single tap.

If what you want is a clean compact list of applications in your Dock, consider instead adding the /Applications folder to you Dock and setting it to "View as List".


text:
How to copy/paste parts of a text in Messages.app
I am pretty sure I used to be able to select and copy text in Messages.app like in any other app (click + drag, double-click, etc.)
Right now I don't seem to be able to do this.
I am not sure what updated last, I am on macOS 10.14.6, Messages.app 12.0
Use case:

How do I copy the code from the message?

Looks like it was a bug.
I restarted Messages.app and now it works as expected (and as it should have done in the first place)

I'll keep an eye out and edit this answer if I figure out what causes the bug.

Restarting an app and/or the system is the first step in troubleshooting an issue and should've been done before posting the question to begin with!

It does have an odd behaviour, but one that's easy to work round.
If you click-hold, the 'reaction' pop-up will appear, so the trick is just a short click.
If you click once straight onto the message bubble, anywhere, the text goes grey. At this point any interaction is with the entire message. If you directly double click or right click whilst the text is initially black, it doesn't go to grey, you can interact directly.
Basically, don't do that first click. You can do anything else & it works as individual words - so right click, double-click or click-drag works, for instance.
If you click outside the message bubble, the text goes back to black & you can now interact like any ordinary text.
BTW, verification codes like that will be found by Safari & will click right into the web page.
Examples

Grey text - handled as a single item for copy/paste.

Black text, can be individually selected.

Same in dark mode (first message is selected)

Smart fill-in feature in Safari

Ah, indeed, the fact that clicking a bubble selects its whole content isn't all that obvious. The screenshot the OP included in the question shows an un-selected bubble actually, but maybe they click into the bubble first.

I can't do what this answer says to do. https://i.stack.imgur.com/a8OXC.gif

@the  how is right click shown in this GIF?

@ankii I don't right-click, although (see my answer) since restarting messages right-click works exactly as you describe. I don't know why your answer is downvoted.

@theonlygusti Maybe the edit on my answer allows and convinces the voter to change the vote.

This answer assumes that you haven't clicked on the message to make it selected and thus light grey.
I do right click and it selects the word. Two finger single tap.
For a long sentence, click and drag to the destination word also works for me, at least.

If I right click it makes the whole message grey — not anymore (since restarting messages), looks like a bug. Your answer describes correct behaviour.

What is the cursor when you hover over the message.? If it's text, it should work, if it is arrow, you need to click outside the message to deselect the message first


text:
grc inside terminal (with different colors into terminal as a function of files size) not working on 10.14.6 Mojave and working on High Sierra 10.13.6
I can get working the tool grc which allows to have colors for permissions and different colors as a function of the size of files listed for example with ls -l command.
On my previous MacBook with High Sierra 10.13.6, I show you an example of what I get :

As you can see, I have a colors code for the different sizes of files (increasingly white, yellow, green and red).
Now, on my new MacBook with Mojave 10.14.6, with the same ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile files, I can't have the same rendering than for the High Sierra 10.13.6 MacBook pro. Here below what I get :

You can see that no colors appear for size files (unlike the High Sierra case).
I get the same issue when I do a ssh from Mojave to High Sierra.
Here the content of ~/.bashrc on Mojave not working version :
############ dircolors binary #################
export PATH=/opt/local/libexec/gnubin:$PATH
###############################################

export CLICOLOR=1
export LS_COLORS='README*=4;31:*.txt=1;35'
eval `dircolors ~/.dircolors`

########### GRC colourify #################
source ~/.grc/grc_bash

########### alias l #######################
alias l='grc -es --colour=auto ls --color -G -lrt'

########## function ls ####################
function ls { grc -es --colour=auto ls --color -G -C -rt "$@" | gsed -r 's/'$(echo -e "\033")'\[[0-9]{1,2}(;([0-9]{1,2})?)?[mK]//g' ;}

For ~/.grc/grc_bash, I have put :
GRC="$(which grc)"
if [ "$TERM" != dumb ] && [ -n "$GRC" ]; then
    alias colourify="$GRC -es --colour=auto"
    alias blkid='colourify blkid'
    alias nmap='colourify nmap'
    alias configure='colourify ./configure'
    alias df='colourify df'
    alias diff='colourify diff'
    alias docker='colourify docker'
    alias docker-machine='colourify docker-machine'
    alias du='colourify du'
    alias env='colourify env'
    alias free='colourify free'
    alias fdisk='colourify fdisk'
    alias findmnt='colourify findmnt'
    alias make='colourify make'
    alias gcc='colourify gcc'
    alias g++='colourify g++'
    alias id='colourify id'
    alias ip='colourify ip'
    alias iptables='colourify iptables'
    alias as='colourify as'
    alias gas='colourify gas'
    alias ld='colourify ld'
    alias ls='colourify ls'
    alias lsof='colourify lsof'
    alias lsblk='colourify lsblk'
    alias lspci='colourify lspci'
    alias netstat='colourify netstat'
    alias ping='colourify ping'
    alias traceroute='colourify traceroute'
    alias traceroute6='colourify traceroute6'
    alias head='colourify head'
    alias tail='colourify tail'
    alias dig='colourify dig'
    alias mount='colourify mount'
    alias ps='colourify ps'
    alias mtr='colourify mtr'
    alias semanage='colourify semanage'
    alias getsebool='colourify setsebool'
    alias ifconfig='colourify ifconfig'
fi

with ~/.grc/grc.conf :
(^|[/\w\.]+/)semanage fcontext\s?
conf.semanagefcontext
(^|[/\w\.]+/)semanage (user|login|port)\s?
conf.semanageuser

# getsebool
(^|[/\w\.]+/)getsebool\s?
conf.getsebool

# ulimit
(^|[/\w\.]+/)ulimit\s?
conf.ulimit

# vmstat
(^|[/\w\.]+/)vmstat\s?
conf.vmstat

# dnf
(^|[/\w\.]+/)dnf\s?
conf.dnf

# nmap
(^|[/\w\.]+/)nmap\s?
conf.nmap

# uptime | w
(^|[/\w\.]+/)(uptime|w)\s?
conf.uptime

# getfacl
(^|[/\w\.]+/)getfacl\s?
conf.getfacl

# showmount
(^|[/\w\.]+/)showmount\s?
conf.showmount

# apache ant command
(^|[/\w\.]+/)ant\s?
conf.ant

# # apache maven command
(^|[/\w\.]+/)mvn\s?
conf.mvn

At first sight, where could error come from ? Maybe I have forgotten an environment variable or an unsupported option for ls -lrt that would prevent the colors code for size of files ...
Any remark is welcome, Regards
UPDATE 1:
As you can see, I did a :
|fab@astro|14:03:19|~/temp| alias l
alias l='grc -es --colour=auto ls --color -G -lrt'

which shows exactly the alias for command "l"
From the screen cpature below, the I realized that I have no group name following normally following the name of owner (due to -G flag). @klanomath, Relatively to your screen capture and example, do you think my issue comes from this missing field ?
Indee, on your screen capture, you have a name of group, it may produce missing colors with grc and its regexp used by default ?

I think grc requires python3. Do you have python3 installed on the new computer?

@fd0 If I do a : $ which python , I get :
/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin//python , Have I got to set python3 (Ihave python3.7) for current binary python ?

Yes, you need to select python3.7. Are you using MacPorts?

yes, how to switch from python3.7 for binary python ?

@youpilat13 Small comment to your Update1: gcr (and its regexp) is (are) dumb. The most important components of grc are the conf.* files and the regexps inside. The regexps are primarily made for Linux & the US-locale. With an alien locale (like the french or german one) they may fail to color things as expected. The regexps won't be adjusted if you use an alien locale. So go the other way round and adjust the conf.* and its regexps. The missing group name is completely unrelated to the failing size coloring in the ls output.

@youpilat13 I've tested everything in a virtual machine with Mojave, a brew installed grc (+python3+gnu-tools (coreutils & gnu-sed)) and the french locale. I've used a slightly different l-alias though: alias l='grc -es --colour=auto ls -lae0'. To get it working properly I replaced the default conf.ls with the conf.ls in my answer. BTW: this modified conf.ls won't work properly with my german or the US locale.

The size coloring function of the gcr ls command is still working with Mojave. You've changed the date format in the shell from month/day/(year)/time (US) to day/month/(year)/time (mostly Europe) though.
Now the day (1-31) will be colored with the default "size" color (black in my example and white in your example) as all sizes below 1M.
So either return to the US date format, or modify the respective regex expression(s) in conf.ls.
Proof:
US:

Europe:

To get different colors for smaller sizes (i.e. sizes below 1M) I added the following lines to grc's conf.ls file (the regular expressions below aren't really worked out properly - the alternative way to detect the size pattern (|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K]) isn't correct, so don't just copy & paste them - but they work for the example screenshots:
# size: 10 <= size < 100
regexp=\s+(\d{2}|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s)
colours=bold yellow
=======
# size: 100 <= size < 1k
regexp=\s+(\d{3}|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s)
colours=red
=======
# size: 1k <= size < 10k
regexp=\s+(\d{4}|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s)
colours=bold red
=======
# size: 10k <= size < 100k
regexp=\s+(\d{5}|\d+(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s)
colours=green
=======
# size: 100k <= size < 1M
regexp=\s+(\d{6}|\d+(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s)
colours=bold green
=======
# size: 1M <= size < 10M
regexp=\s+(\d{7}|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[KM])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s)
colours=yellow
=======

The exemplary regular expression regexp=\s+(\d{5}|\d+(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s) means the following:

\s+(\d{5}|\d+(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K]): search for a pattern with 1 or more non-printing characters, 5 digits (eg 34249) or 1 or more digits followed by an optional , or ., more optional digits and a K (e.g. 10K or 13.1K)

which must be followed by (?=...):

\s[A-Z][a-z]{2}\s which is the pattern for an abbreviated month surrounded by one non-printing character on each side(e.g. Oct )

With the european date format active the condition won't be fulfilled because the day (one or two digits) follows after the file size. Instead the day and month would meet the requirements, if a day had five digits.

Here is a conf.ls which should work with the all french locale in Mojave's terminal. I added some working date coloring because the (french) month apparently changed to all lowercase in Mojave. You can simply remove size coloring for smaller file sizes by deleting the respective lines or change colors if you don't like them.
# The following matches file sizes as produced by ls -l or ls -lh
# The output produced by ls -s is probably not specific
# enough to be reliably matched, especially considering ls -s(k|m|g|G).
#
# Example lines:
# -rw-r--r--   1 user staff 344M Mar 22 22:51 MVI_8735.m4v
# -rw-r--r--   1 user staff 360050327 Mar 22 22:51 MVI_8735.m4v
# -rw-r--r--.  1 user staff 1.0G Nov 23 16:13 testg
# -rw-r--r--.  1 user staff 1.0K Nov 23 16:13 testk
# -rw-r--r--.  1 user staff 1.0M Nov 23 16:13 testm
# -rw-r--r--.  1 user staff 1073741824 Nov 23 16:13 testg
# -rw-r--r--.  1 user staff       1024 Nov 23 16:13 testk
# -rw-r--r--.  1 user staff    1048576 Nov 23 16:13 testm
#
# The regexp uses lookahead to match a date following the size

# size: 10 <= size < 100
regexp=\s+(\d{2})(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=bright_yellow
=======
# size: 100 <= size < 1k
regexp=\s+(\d{3})(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=yellow
=======
# size: 1k <= size < 10k
regexp=\s+(\d{4}|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=bold yellow
=======
# size: 10k <= size < 100k
regexp=\s+(\d{5}|\d\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=red
=======
# size: 100k <= size < 1M
regexp=\s+(\d{6}|\d\d\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[K])(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=bold red
=======
# size: 1M <= size < 10M
regexp=\s+(\d{7}|\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?[KM])(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=green
=======
# size: 10M <= size < 100M
regexp=\s+(\d{8}|\d\d(?:[,.]?\d+)?M)(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=bold green
=======
# size: 100M <= size < 1G
regexp=\s+(\d{9}|\d{3}M)(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=blue
=======
# size: 1G <= size
regexp=\s+(\d{10,}|[\d.,]+G)(?=\s([ 1-3]\d)\s)
colours=bold blue
=======
# device major minor numbers
regexp=\s(\d+),\s+(\d+)\s
colours=default,bright_yellow ,yellow
=======
# Date-Time => G1=Day G2=Month G3=Hour G4=Minutes G5=Year
regexp=([ 1-3]\d)\s([a-z\u00FB]{3})\s(?:([0-2]?\d):([0-5]\d)(?=[\s,]|$)|\s*(\d{4}))
colours=unchanged,cyan,cyan,cyan,cyan,bold cyan
=======
# root
regexp=\s(root|wheel)(?=\s|$)
colours=unchanged,bold white on_red
=======
# SELinux
regexp=(\w+_u):(\w+_r):(\w+_t):(\w\d)
colours=default,green,yellow,cyan,magenta
-
# -rwxrwxrwx ============================
# File Type
regexp=(-|([bcCdDlMnpPs?]))(?=[-r][-w][-xsStT][-r][-w][-xsStT][-r][-w][-xsStT])
colours=unchanged,unchanged,bold white
-
# owner rwx
regexp=(?<=[-bcCdDlMnpPs?])(-|(r))(-|(w))(-|([xsStT]))(?=[-r][-w][-xsStT][-r][-w][-xsStT])
colours=unchanged,unchanged,bright_green,unchanged,bright_green,unchanged,bright_green
-
# group rwx
regexp=(?<=[-bcCdDlMnpPs?][-r][-w][-xsStT])(-|(r))(-|(w))(-|([xsStT]))(?=[-r][-w][-xsStT])
colours=unchanged,unchanged,yellow,unchanged,yellow,unchanged,yellow
-
# other rwx
regexp=(?<=[-bcCdDlMnpPs?][-r][-w][-xsStT][-r][-w][-xsStT])(-|(r))(-|(w))(-|([xsStT]))
colours=unchanged,unchanged,bright_red,unchanged,bright_red,unchanged,bright_red
-
# sStT all
regexp=(?<=[-bcCdDlMnpPs?])[-r][-w]([sStT])[-r][-w]([sStT])[-r][-w]([sStT])
colours=unchanged,bold green,bold yellow, bold red
-
# ACL
regexp=^\S{10}(\+)
colours=unchanged,on_cyan bold white

Example screenshot:

ok thanks but I have only a unique file conf.ls located in /opt/local/share/grc/conf.ls. Have I got to create another conf.ls file into my $HOME/.grc/directiry ??  Or elsewhise, How to change to US date format ? my locale shows : LANG="fr_FR.UTF-8" LC_COLLATE="fr_FR.UTF-8" LC_CTYPE="fr_FR.UTF-8" LC_MESSAGES="fr_FR.UTF-8" LC_MONETARY="fr_FR.UTF-8" LC_NUMERIC="en_US" LC_TIME="fr_FR.UTF-8" LC_ALL= , i.e the same than my High Sierra version of MacOS where colors of different size appears correctly. Regards

I don't understand that the original method I describe in my first post is working on High Sierra, i.e having yello/orange/red colors with different sizes (> 1 Mbyte/ >10 MB / > 100 MB) and that's not working on my new Mojave. I would like to keep my locale since I use the same on the old High Sierra macbook. I have surely  forgotten something. My regexp are not correct ? If you had another tracks or clues ... Regards

Thanks, my issue is not solved but I realize that something is wrong : in my "ls -l" output, there is no "group" name (normally it should appear just after the owner name of the file. Maybe the trouble comes from this missing field ? You can see it on my screen capture in my original post : I have a number instead of a group name. What di you think about ? I am going to add screen captures on my new Mojave macbook to illustrate, keeping on trying to solve it ...

ok, things are better... just a last point, month "august" in french is "août", so I did : # Date-Time => G1= Day G2=Month G3=Hour G4=Minutes G5=Year regexp=([ 1-3]\d)\s([a-zû]{3})\s(?:([0-2]?\d):([0-5]\d)(?=[\s,]|$)|\s*(\d{4})) colours=unchanged,cyan,cyan,cyan,cyan,bold cyan but [a-zût]is not detected, what do you think about ? Except this, your solution is working, thanks

@youpilat13 [a-z\u00FB] is the correct expression. It means all lowercase characters and the unicode character (U+00FB) which is û. If you want to add a second character simply append it e.g. ç (U+00E7): [a-z\u00FB\u00E7]. I modified the conf.ls in my answer respectively.

Thanks a lotn finally, I decided to use en_US for LC_TIME, it is simpler. I give you the award for bounty, this  is largely deserveted. Regards

I believe that grc requires python3. To change the version of python on a system with MacPorts installed, first list the available versions-
port select --list python
Available versions for python:
        none
        python26-apple
        python27 (active)
        python27-apple
        python37

To change to python37 -
port select python python37

the python3 with grc 1.11 doesn't seem to produce colors code for size of files when I do : "l" which corresponds to a "ls -lrt". Are you sure that my procedure is correct from my original post ?

Sorry, I do not have grc installed nor have I used the product. What is the output of the following command- head -n1 /path/to/grc . Note: replace /path/to with the real path to the application.

$ head -n1 /opt/local/bin/grc gives :
#!/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7

Ok, your version of grc uses python2.7. Change python3 back to python2- port select python python27 at least until you sort out your issue.


text:
Why does iOS 13 not trust my own Root CA?
No matter what I do, I can't get Safari on the iPhone or iPad to trust a certificate from an internal website. I can look at the certificate and it is shown as "not trusted".
I have imported the Root CA, and I enabled trust for the Root CA. This worked before with iOS 12, but no longer seems to be enough.
The tool "SSL Detective" shows a trusted certificate chain. Safari on the Mac has no issues with the website / certificate (of course, the Root CA had to be imported to the keychain first).
Is this a bug in iOS 13.1.1? Or are there even more hurdles that I don't know of to enable an internal CA?

iOS 13 have increased the security regarding these root certificates. It is thus not a bug, but rather that you have to meet higher requirements in order to get this working.
First of all the process for manually trusted the root certificate has been made slightly more complicated to ensure that users do not unwittingly do this. Before you could import a profile and be done with it, but now you have to also open up Settings > General > About > Certificate Trust Settings, and then toggle "Enable Full Trust for Root Certificates" on for the certificate.
In addition to the above mentioned process change, the requirements for the actual certificate have changed as well:

If you're using RSA, the key size must be at least 2048 bites.
The hash algorithm must be SHA-2, and not SHA-1.

You can read Apple's explanation of these new requirements here. Note that most of the requirements are only for "server certificates" - you only need to comply with the new requirements for "issuing CAs".
As per your comments, it seemed that your question title was really incorrect and it wasn't the "root CA" trust you had problems with - it was the server certificate that wasn't trusted. In this case, remember that the server certificate should follow all the new requirements listed in the above mentioned link.
These new requirements are, for all server certificates:

When used for TLS (as you do in Safari), the DNS name of the server must be in the Subject Alternative Name field

Note that this requirement also means that if you're requesting your web page using an IP-address instead of a name, then the IP address (without port number) should be listed in the SAN field.
And for server certificates issued after the 1st of July 2019, also the following two requirements:

When used for TLS, the certificate must contain an ExtendedKeyUsage field with the id-kp-serverAuth OID (i.e. don't use a certificate listed as a client certificate, code signing certificate, email or VPN certificate, etc)
When used for TLS, the certificate must be valid for 825 days or fewer

As it turned out your problem was with the validity period of the certificate being more than 825 days. You'll have to reissue the certificate with a shorter validity period.
The reason for the new validity period requirement is that the global CA/B forum (regulates the industry for digital certificates) set new guidelines where CAs must not issue server certificates with a validity period of more than 825 days after the 1st of March 2018. For more information on who was behind the new rule, you can find the voting information here.

Thank you for the link. The only requirement that I am not sure about is „TLS server certificates must contain an ExtendedKeyUsage (EKU) extension containing the id-kp-serverAuth OID“. I don‘t understand what this means, so it‘s likely that I did not do this correctly. Everything else I did according to the guideline. I did enable the trust: This was also necessary with iOS 12.

Ah, read the link again: The certificate (server cert, not root or intermediate) is simply valid for too long! I made it for 10 years, but it can only be valid for two years or less. This must be it.

The id-kp-serverAuth OID means that when you make the certificate, it is written in ExtendedKeyUsage what the certificate is "for". I.e. it can be marked as being a client certificate, code signing certificate, email certificate, VPN certificate, etc. You need it to be marked as a server certificate to be accepted by for example Safari for TLS.

And yes, the validity period of 10 years is definitely a problem. The CA certificate is usually long lived, but the trend the last few years have been to limit the validity period of server certificates quite a lot. For iOS 13 it needs to be max 825 days (i.e. 2.25 years). You'll see that often you want even shorter validity periods - for example the very popular Let's Encrypt certificate have a validity period of just 90 days.

To confirm: It was the duration that caused the error. After upgrading the Mac to Catalina I got the same error as on iOS 13. I then replaced the certificate with one that was valid 825 days, and both the Mac (Safari and Chrome) and the iOS 13 devices are happy now.

I realize that the title can be misleading. It should have been „... trust a certificate issued by my own root CA“. I don‘t think that I can change the title though.

@jksoegaard, thanks for this answer. I've updated my cert instructions at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57565665/one-self-signed-cert-to-rule-them-all-chrome-android-and-ios but the new cert is still not listed in "Certificate Trust Settings" under "Enable Full Trust for Root Certificates"! Can you please take a look? Thanks!

@Martin I got Trust evaluate failure: [leaf ValidityPeriodMaximums] [root AnchorTrusted] error with kSecTrustResultRecoverableTrustFailure error code. My leaf certificate is valid for 2 years only. Do you have any clue?

I haven't seen this error, so I have no idea what is causing this. Feel free to check my scripts here: https://github.com/tinue/home-ca . Perhaps you can spot a difference to what you have done.

It's extra weird for email servers, the self-signed certificate on my IMAP server also has too short a period, and after downloading and installing and trusting the cert I still get the periodic modal popup about being unable to verify the host - but when I open the Mail app it will download messages

I myself am working on this for days now. 2 whole weekends without any luck.
So right now I try to get faith again. (to get iOS 13 and iPadOS to accept a certificates descendent from a self-signed root-ca)
My conclusion after wasting 2 full weekends was right. The pki-tree and certificates were right.
The main reason that the certificateson iOS were not accepted was because Apple decided to add an additional security option for that in a completely different area!  ( I'm pissed off by Apple in my 10+ years using Apple-Devices ). That's somthing I would expect from Win10 not iOS13 and iPadOS.
For others that are stuck with this.

Step1) Upload your root-ca to you iOS/iPadOS-device (by Airdrop, email, ...)
Step2) Airdrop asks for Installation else open in Files-App
Step3) Goto Settings > General > Profiles and install the proposed cert & enter you passcode (not finished yet)
Step4) Goto Settings > Info > "Certificate-Settings"
Step5) activate the open certificate

The new splitted menus are a bit of a pain and not really intuitive.
That's that.

Thanks so much, I was missing step 5. Note that, at least in iOS 16, the path is Settings > General > Info > Certificate Settings.

Apple changed it again, in the latest version its now: Settings > General > About > Certificate Trust Settings

In iOS 13, which had been released on September 19, 2019, Apple has chosen to retroactively invalidate certain certificates that have been issued after July 1, 2019.
In particular, a certificate is affected if it has a validity period of more than 825 days.
If you have such a certificate, it will no longer work after the update to iOS 13.
In this case I would call it a bug in iOS 13.

Your answer is just a copy of some of the information from my previous answer? - Your opinion about this being a bug and highlighting of it being "retroactively" is really odd. It's not a bug - it is completely intentional, and it's not just some arbitrary decision that Apple made. It's an industry-wide change.

Can you give a pointer for the claim that it is an industry-wide change? I did not find one. Also, Android, and Desktop OSs seem not to show the same behavior. Probably because it has severe implications in private networks.

I have supplemented my answer with the explanation of why it's an industry wide change. Basically, ordinary CAs are no longer allowed to issue certificates with a validity period of more than 825 days. Private CAs used on internal networks are ofcourse not bound by these new rules - but the rules have been changed for a reason, so it makes sense for Apple (and eventually others) to implement the same restriction. Regarding desktop OSes - the same requirement is in macOS Catalina.

I have just linked to more information about the change, you'll see that multiple browser vendors voted to implement this change - Apple, Microsoft, Google, Opera and Qihoo. Mozilla (behind Firefox) choose not to vote. Also note that the guy behind the actual proposal is a lead engineer on Google Chrome. His original proposal was to limit the validity period to 540 days - so 825 is a compromise.

Thank you for the link! In my point of view this change should only apply to "Publicly-Trusted Certificates", and "Extended Validation Certificates", but neither to certificates that are signed by a private CA nor to self-signed certificates.

Yes, I understand your point of view. However I think it's quite reasonable of Apple to apply the thought process that (a) almost all certificates that ordinary user's come across are public, (b) private CAs want the same or better security as public CAs and (c) it's quite easy for private CAs to limit their validity period to 825 days -- and therefore chose to implement the restriction in general. This will catch the cases where public CAs issue certificate that does not follow the rules (this does happen). Therefore I don't think you could reasonably consider it a bug.

@aventurin Technically, there is no such difference between a "public" and a "private" root certificate. Root certificates are always self-signed.

The worst part of this (and I feel like something changed again in iOS 16.4) is that they don't tell you - it just doesn't work. I have a self signed cert and I just realized the cert itself is valid longer than the root authority (which I'm hoping is the reason it no longer works) BUT the message in Safari is just 'Nah it's not valid'. If they were to say 'This certificate is not valid since it expires after XXX' then I'd immediately be able to understand and fix it.


text:
how to start iPhone charging from sleeping MacBook
When I connect my iPhone 7 (iOS 12.4.1) to my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) (macOS Mojave 10.14.6),
it seems like the iPhone doesn't start charging until after

the MacBook is unlocked (by waking it and inputting the password)
the iPhone is unlocked (passcode/touchID entered).

Imagine my MacBook is lying, lid-closed, on the desk.
If I connect my iPhone to it via the USB cable, I want it to start charging.
I don't want to have to do anything else.
How can I configure my devices so that this is possible?

Is your MacBook connected to a power source when you do this?

@NimeshNeema yes and no


text:
Is there any way to connect to/control Mac OS without display output?
I have a 2009 Mac Pro with a Nvidia 1060 and bootcamped to run Windows.
Nvidia drivers are installed on Windows and no issues with display output, all works fine. In the past when I've then tried to boot up into Mac OS I don't get any display output and I've had to connect via Chrome Remote Desktop to boot back into Windows. Recently there have been some changes to Chrome Remote Desktop and my Mac OS install is marked as an invalid configuration - prompting concerns that I won't be able to remote in to reboot the machine back into windows.
Looking for suggestions on either a) how I can remote in and manually boot into windows if required or b) how to resolve a Chrome Remote Desktop "invalid configuration"

When you boot into the Mac side, does it boot successfully, but you just cannot see anything? Do you happen to have Remote Login (aka "ssh") enabled on the Mac side of things? Have you tried "Safe Boot" for the Mac?

Also just to make sure, you're on High Sierra or lower, correct?

@TJLuoma I don't have SSH enabled and not tried safe boot.

@JMY1000 Yeah, that's correct.


text:
Alternative to F3 for moving a window to a different workspace
Instead of pressing F3 and then dragging a window to a different workspace,
how else can I move a window to diffeerent workspace?

Is this a „I wonder which other ways there are“ type of question or are you trying to solve a specific problem (if yes, please describe)?

@nohillside how does that matter? My question: how to move a window to a different workspace without having to use "F3 + dragging it by mouse"

Possible duplicate of Moving a window to another workspace by a key combination also see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/179376/what-is-an-efficient-way-for-developers-power-users-to-use-osx-window-manageme

Please have a look at https://apple.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask to understand why additional details usually help to get better answers.


text:
Finder opens only when USB stick inserted
I'm experiencing some issues with Finder after an update on my Mac (Mojave). When I click the Finder icon in the Dock, nothing happens. It does not open.
However, when I insert a USB stick, wait for it to mount and THEN click the Finder icon again (so not the USB icon but Finder itself), it suddenly appears.
Anyone seen this behavior before?
Ralph

You mean it doesn't come to the front, or that there are no visible windows? [check the menu bar for the frontmost name] Do you use Spaces? Do you have the Finder fixed to a single Space? There's a bug since about Sierra where clicking a bit of visible Desktop will not switch to the Finder's correct Space if it's different to the one you're on.

I have no spaces except the primary desktop one. If I click on Finder in the task bar, I do see the top bar (with the apple icon) flash slowly once... like it's trying to switch to another space that isn't there or something. Really weird...


text:
Adjust background color for pdf in Preview
I'm reading a lot of pdf's in Preview's full screen mode. Usually this means I'm looking at a fully white screen with black characters. I'm getting mad after an hour of reading..
Is there a way of adjusting the colours/contrast in Preview temporarily? For example in TexShop the white background is automatically changed to a grey-value. For me it's probably fine if I'd able to change the white background to grey, but maybe its possible to even change it to another color like the nightmode on iOs?
Is this possible with Preview out-of-the-box? Can it be changed temporarily/only on viewing? Thank you.

Possible duplicate of Is there the dark mode (inverted colors) in the 'Preview' Application for PDF reading?

I suggest to turn on the night shift function and to push it to a warmer color map: System Preferences > Displays > Night Shift.

This will protect your retina and your brain.
It might be worth trying the Invert colors mode:
System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Invert colors.

Using light theme in General settings can improve the inverted experience further

Thank you. I don't have this function in my production environnment (High Sierra).

Foxit Reader is an alternative PDF reader, which provides many advantages over Preview, including a Preference setting for the background colour.
(Not affiliated: just a happy user.)

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/84999/change-background-colour-for-pdf-when-viewing?noredirect=1&lq=1

Preview doesn't have that option but you can use F.Lux to make screen itself warm (yellowish) and thus softer on eyes.
Change background colour for PDF when Viewing


text:
Windows automatically sets start disk to Bootcamp
I have a kind of annoying problem with my Macbook Pro 15 2018. I have installed Windows 10 with Bootcamp, and it works very well. The only issue is that every time I boot into Windows the system somehow sets the default start disk to the Bootcamp partition, meaning I have to manually reset the start disk to Macintosh HD. Furthermore, I suspect that this affects the PRAM as I experience many kernel panics after the default start disk is changed. I can fix this by resetting the PRAM, but it gets tedious and annoying to do everytime i want to use Windows.
I'm running MacOS Mojave, and Windows 10. My system specs are:
Macbook Pro 15-inch, 2018
2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 ram
512 GB storage
Has anyone experienced similar problems, or have any idea what could fix this? Thank you in advance

so, you mean when you boot from Windows and restart, it always boot using Windows but you want to have the option to chose from which OS you want boot? Did I understand correctly?

Yes, when i restart after booting to windows using the Option key, it always boots into windows, and i want the default to remain booting into OSX

Then, here is a solution for you: https://support.apple.com/guide/bootcamp-assistant/start-mac-windows-macos-boot-camp-bcmp29b8ac66/mac

Yup, tried that. But everytime i boot into windows it reverts back to the bootcamp volume being the startup disk. Thats the issue im having

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208123, I assume you have tried this too then.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/38572/how-do-i-set-os-x-to-boot-by-default , check this too.


text:
Get dictionary definition of words in spotlight in Catalina?
I just updated to macOS Catalina.
Looks like I can't type a word I don't know the meaning of into spotlight and get its dictionary definition anymore, even though in System Preferences > Spotlight "Definition" is checked.
How re-enable the functionality so that spotlight can be used like a dictionary?

It seems like the default dictionary changed during the upgrade to Catalina. I had to go into the Dictionary app settings and select New Oxford American Dictionary (for American English).

My previous dictionary was at the bottom of the list. I dragged the already-checked Oxford Dictionary of English up to the top, now it seems to work.

Open System preferences
Click/ Open Spotlight
In the Search Results listing tab, scroll down and deselect the "Spotlight Suggestions" checkbox.
Deselect the “Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Look Up” checkbox
Now the default Dictionary will be used, make sure you have the Dictionary app in the Applications folder. Also, in the Dictionary preferences, select your language, if not already.
You may have to restart your application (e.g. Pages) for the Lookup to default to Dictionary.

Happy Lookup!

I don't think this answers the question. I think you may have misunderstood the question? Anyway, carrying out these steps didn't help.

You must check the box "Allow spotlight suggestions in lookup". It's on the same panel as where you checked "Definitions"
If that doesn't get it, check the box for applications and be sure you have a dictionary in your applications folder.
When I do a spotlight search on my iMac of the word obtuse, for example, it gives me the definition from my dictionary app. So some way it actually looks inside or uses my dictionary app.

"Allow spotlight suggestions in lookup" is checked. Dictionary.app is in /Applications.


text:
Why does my Macbook Pro think my headphones have a microphone?
I have a 2016 Macbook Pro running Mojave. Whenever I plug in my headphones (just headphones with no mic), my mac disables its internal mic. This means that my end doesn't capture audio during calls. If I unplug the headphones just a tiny bit, sometimes I can get my mac to capture audio while still getting audio to play through my headphones. How can I solve this problem and use my headphones while using the Mac's internal mic?
This is the plug from my headphones, standard 3-pole connector. Nothing about it suggests that there is a polarity dedicated to a microphone signal.


text:
How to stop Catalina from continually telling me I need to sign in again?
Ugraded to Catalina 10.15. The doc shows a little notification icon above the System Preferences App

Opening the System Preferences shows this

So I click continue which gives me this

So I click continue which brings me here

I enter my password. About 7 seconds later the notification disppears

But 5 seconds after that this appears

Everything seems fine but then 15 seconds later the notification at the top appears again. Have repeated 4 times now. This happens on both my Macs
How do I fix this so it stops asking?

Did you sign out entirely? There was a question recently that covered this - could be a quick fix if you’re willing to try that.

That seemed to work though it was really annoying as it tried to start syncing a bunch of stuff I'd had off before signing out. Cross my fingers it stays.

Yup. Annoying for sure. Glad it sorted things

If signing in several times doesn’t resolve this and you can’t or won’t wait it out, signing out completely appears to get this prompt to go away.

iCloud Keychain refuses to setup on Catalina

You do of course have to deal with the side effects of signing out like choosing to delete or keep local copies of iCloud data and then setting up your iCloud preferences and settings.
If you have a good backup, you could also try force quitting the system preferences app before you log out of the account.


text:
Setting up a Wi-Fi hotspot on iOS13
I am trying to set up a wifi hotspot using my iPhone XR running iOS 13, which I wish to connect to using my Windows 7 Pro laptop. On the iPhone I go to Settings | Personal Hotspot and switch on, and I have set the name and password of the network. Then on the laptop I can see the name of the network, and I can connect to it.
The problem is that it's showing on the laptop as unconnected to the internet even when the iPhone is definitely connected to the internet because I can browse the web with it. What settings do I need to change?

There may be a couple of reasons for it.
First option, try applying these tweaks:

Disable or turn off Personal Hotspot.
Sign out from iCloud.
Restart your other device.
Sign in to iCloud again.
Then re-enable Personal Hotspot.

After refreshing and enabling Personal Hotspot on both your iPhone  and other device, retry connecting through Wi-Fi.
Second option, toggle Airplane Mode on and off.
This is another simple old trick you can try to get rid of minor errors affecting the phone’s wireless radios including Cellular Data and Personal Hotspot. It works by giving a quick restart to the Wi-Fi features on the phone. Here’s how it’s done:

Tap Settings from the Home screen.
Select Airplane Mode.
Toggle the Airplane Mode switch to turn the feature ON. This will disable wireless radios on the phone.
While Airplane mode is enabled, turn your iPhone off and then back on again.
After it boots up, go back to Settings-> Airplane Mode menu.
Then toggle the switch to disable Airplane Mode again. Wireless radios on the phone are then re-enabled.

After performing the Airplane mode, go to your iPhone Settings->Mobile Data menu, then make sure that Mobile Data is enabled. If necessary, toggle the switch to enable the feature.
Third option, Reset network settings on your iPhone
This will erase your Wi-Fi networks and other network-related settings and server settings on the phone. Network errors and Internet problems that are tied to incorrect network configurations are likewise cleared out in the process. Here’s how it’s done:

From the Home screen, tap on Settings.
Tap General.
Scroll down to and tap Reset.
Select the option to Reset network settings.
If prompted, enter your device passcode.
Then tap the option to confirm network settings reset.

Your iPhone will reboot automatically when the reset is finished. As soon as it boots up, set up and reconnect to your Wi-Fi network or enable Mobile Data and Personal Hotspot to retry using and sharing your Internet connection with your other devices

Please see the linked question too.. :)

@Udhy - Many thanks for this. The first method I'm trying is your Option 2. I followed steps 1-6, but I have no Settings | Cellular menu. I'm using iOS 13.

@ruffle, Cellular menu means Mobile Data :) and check the last option too.

None of the methods suggested here or on the other page are working for me. I don't use syncing or the cloud. I tried to downgrade back to iOS 12, but this requires an Apple "signature" on the earlier OS version, a signature the company has now removed. It seems they know iOS 13 messed up tethering and they're working on a fix as a high priority. I hope they find one soon, because one of the main reasons I bought my iPhone was to run a hotspot that my laptop can connect to the internet through.


text:
Look Me Up By Email problem
Does anybody have anything in the "Look Me Up By Email" tab? I'm trying to understand how to remove an item from "Look Me Up By Email". This app was uninstalled a long time ago and it's still showing on my Mac.
I also did a clean install of macOS Catalina. I don't know what more I can do. It's a bug or maybe I have a virus on my Mac (MacBook Air early 2015, macOS Catalina 10.15.1)?

I received a letter from MarginNote, but there's nothing useful here!

This is just a residue in the look-me-up list.The app does not have
access to refreshing the list when it is uninstalled on your devices.
We do have forwarded this issue to Apple’s dev team about this issue
and hopefully, it could be fixed eventually. A couple of words about
this if what you are actually concerned about is your privacy
protection. The feature is added in MarginNote 2 given that app
supports sharing an exported notebook to a fellow MarginNote user so
that some sort of teamwork can be achieved. It serves only this
purpose and no more than that. Plus, ticking it off in the list is
already an effective measure to turn it off for good. To sum up, it is
a left-over option that can be turned off and will not affect your
(un)using of your macOS device.
Regards, MarginNote Support Team

Welcome to Ask Different.  If you had the application and then uninstalled it, you should be able to remove it.  Why do you think this is either a bug or virus on your Mac?

Well, I just don't know how to remove it. I have no idea what can I do about it now.

macOS Catalina 10.15.1.

@ReplicaFoxtrot I am on Mojave so as of now I don't know where to find that setting, but could you use any app like "easyfind" to search for strings like "remoteservice" or "com.apple.preferences.icloud" etc ? I found two files for the former and need to see what do they do.

All right, I'll try it.

As the letter says, see if you can refresh the list after installing the app too.

So what should I do? Should I install the app again and then fix this issue somehow?

Worth a try I'd say

The GUI is located in the Apple ID > iCloud >  Options -> Look Me Up By Email window.
Mine is blank:

So why is mine blank and your filled? Because Apps that use iCloud can offer this service to other iCloud users so that they can find you.
As discussed here and here and here and here, one way to remove the app is to delete it.  It may be that some apps give you the ability to turn it on or off, but it's really an app thing.
EDIT:
If the MarginNote application is not installed and you are still seeing this GUI, try this:

Open Terminal.
Type: find $HOME -name '*MarginNote*' -ls
Post the output.

If that doesn't work, then try this:

Install on a new machine (or in a VM), just so we know everything is clean.
Log in but do not add your Apple ID.  You should not see anything in the "look me up by email" GUI.
Log into iCloud but disable every service. If you see things in the GUI, then it's somewhere in your iCloud count that you can't reach.
Sync just the iCloud drive. If it appears, then there is a file in your iCloud drive that has this information. Go into Terminal and list all of the files with the "find $HOME -name 'MarginNote'

If I delete my Apple ID and create a new one, then the window "Look Me Up By Email" will be blank as yours? What do you think?

I think that you need to delete the application on your MacBook. You could try bringing up a new Mac in a VM with no applications installed and see what happens.

The thing is, I don't have any apps on my mac now, and I reinstalled macOS several times, but the issue was always there.

You don't have MarginNoteXE installed anymore on your Mac?

That's the point! Exactly.

Okay @ReplicaFoxtrot, I gave you more things to try.

Delete the files from the command line! Or even using the find command. Try find $HOME -name '*MarginNote*' -exec rm {} \;

Oh, be sure that you give Terminal complete file access

Try sudo rm -rf /Users/[your username]/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~QReader~MarginNote to kill the entire directory. Remember to include the backslash before the space between "Mobile" and "Documents" to escape the space in the file name.

Have you tried Apple Support?

No, but one person who has the same problem already did it and they couldn’t help him. So thanks for the idea, but it’s pointless.

Well, the data is somewhere in your iCloud account. I do not know if there is data in the iCloud account that is not accessible from the iCloudDrive. There was at some point, but this may not be the case anymore. That's really all I can say.

Here's just an idea (I don't have this problem so I can't exactly test it out for myself). Open terminal, and simply type defaults read | grep -aiC32 MarginNote. The defaults read part lists out all of the preferences stored across any applications/plist files on your computer. If you find something in there, you'll need to figure out how to use defaults in order to edit it (that depends on what exactly it is that you find - though if you find something and have no clue how to proceed then just reply with your results and I can help you out). This may very well be inaccessible in iCloud, but if there's anywhere you can find it which maybe just might be editable, it would be in the plist files defaults helps you access.


text:
Microsoft Excel not working on macOS Catalina
I have Microsoft Excel 2011 installed on my MacBook Air. It worked on Mojave’s but no longer works on Catalina.
When attempting to open an Excel file on my desktop it usually opens but now archives it instead.
Why is this?

If you're depending on MS Office, I suggest creating a Office 365 subscription. This way, you're always getting updated software. Since you're using 7+ years old software, you should either not update the underlying OS without knowing what this will do (and live with the consequences of potentially insecure software), be prepared to pay for up-to-date software or simply use Apple's offering of Pages/Numbers/Keynote.

The issue is macOS Catalina no longer supports 32-bit apps, and Microsoft Office 2011 is 32-bit. Support for it was stopped a few years ago and it won’t be updated.
You will either have to buy a newer version of office or use an alternative software like G Suite by Google.

One could also try to perhaps add the program to the list of apps allowed to access the disk.
This can be found under: Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > ....
I just did this for the MS Office Programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint Outlook etc..).
While in contact with MS Support they advised me to delete everything and reinstall. Adding the programs was a lot easier and retained all my data.

The icons don't look like Office 2011 though, and adding applications to FDA won't solve the 32bit issue anyway. So I'm not sure how this applies to the problem stated in the question.

In addition, Full Disk Access is NOT required for Office to function.


text:
Using AppleScript to sync iPhone in Catalina
Prior to Catalina I used a script to trigger a sync to my iPhone and iPad - similar to:
tell application "iTunes"
    tell every source whose kind is iPod to update
end tell

Catalina removed iTunes and iOS devices are now synced using Finder.
What do I need to call in order to trigger a sync in Finder?

Did you try just changing iTunes to Music in your code? Also, devices were a part of Finder  long before macOS Catalina.

@user3439894 - Yes - I did try using "Music". iPhones and iPads etc didn't appear in Finder prior to Catalina.

I meant the Devices category in Finder, i.e. Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Devices not which devices show or not, sorry for any confusion. So when you used Music in the code, what happened, what was logged?

@user3439894 - Right - I thought you meant as a managed device (as in iTunes) . Sorry.

@user3439894 - I've added the output to the question

@user3439894 - iPod was a kind. That code worked in Mojave. As you can see in the second example, there is no devices listed.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Looking in the AppleScript dictionary for iTunes before macOS Catalina, source does show iPod for kind but for Music it was removed.

@user3439894 ... and that's my question - How do i do it now that it has been removed? (i better update my question to make that clearer)

I expanded on dyindude's answer to make a single script that opens Finder, navigates to your device in the sidebar, waits for the sync button to appear, and clicks it. This assume's your device is named iPhone:
tell application "Finder" to open ("/" as POSIX file)

tell application "System Events" to tell outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1 of application process "Finder"
    set theElements to first UI element of every row whose name is "iPhone"
    repeat with e in theElements
        try
            if name of e is "iPhone" then
                tell e to perform action "AXOpen"
                exit repeat
            end if
        end try
    end repeat
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
    repeat until button "Sync" of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window "iPhone" exists
    end repeat

    click button "Sync" of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window "iPhone"
end tell

This is great But .... it only works if the Finder has already got the Toolbar open, otherwise the :outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1" gets a bad index.
and I can't figure out how to tell the finder to view the toolbar - using Applescript always seems like guesswork rather than programming, and I just guessed wrong.

This Applescript will click the "Sync" button in Finder on a window that already has the device open:
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
   click button "Sync" of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window "device name"
end tell

The following Applescript will navigate "window 1" of Finder to the device named "device name", where the "Sync" button is located.
tell application "System Events" to tell outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1 of application process "Finder"
set theElements to first UI element of every row whose name is "device name"
        repeat with e in theElements
            try
                if name of e is "device name" then
                tell e to perform action "AXOpen"
                exit repeat
                end if
            end try
        end repeat
end tell

I have found that I had to customise the above scripts quite a bit to make it compatible with macOS Big Sur because the finder does not reliably show my iPhone, even when they are in the same wifi network. What has helped is to restart the AMPLibraryAgent and the AMPDeviceDiscoveryDaemon.
Thus the AppleScript that now finally works reliably for me is this:
set iPhoneName to "My iPhone Name"

-- Open Finder window
tell application "Finder" to open ("/" as POSIX file)

on isPhoneVisible(iPhoneName)
    tell application "System Events" to tell outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1 of application process "Finder"
        set theElements to first UI element of every row whose name is iPhoneName
        repeat with e in theElements
            try
                if name of e is iPhoneName then
                    return true
                end if
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
    return false
end isPhoneVisible

if not isPhoneVisible(iPhoneName) then
    -- Restart daemon that shows the iPhone in the sidebar so it is actually visible
    do shell script "pkill -9 AMPDevicesAgent AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent"
end if

-- Select iPhone
-- needs retry until the iPhone becomes visible
tell application "System Events" to tell outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of window 1 of application process "Finder"
    set hasFoundPhone to false
    repeat while not hasFoundPhone
        set theElements to first UI element of every row whose name is iPhoneName
        repeat with e in theElements
            try
                if name of e is iPhoneName then
                    tell e to perform action "AXOpen"
                    set hasFoundPhone to true
                    exit repeat
                end if
            end try
        end repeat
        delay 1
    end repeat
end tell

-- Start sync
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
    repeat until button "Sync" of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window iPhoneName exists
        delay 1
    end repeat

    click button "Sync" of splitter group 1 of splitter group 1 of window iPhoneName
end tell


text:
Strange df (disk space) output since macOS Catalina
Why is this:
$ df -h /
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5  234Gi   10Gi   15Gi    41%  482117 2448643243    0%   /

Very different from this:
$ df -h .
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s1  234Gi  205Gi   15Gi    94% 1911870 2447213490    0%   /System/Volumes/Data

Is there an explanation with this new "data" filesystem? How is it different?