text:
Auto pairing MacBook with iPhone (networksetup)
I'm trying to automatically tether my MacBook to my iPhone (the laptop is too old to make use of Apple's proprietary features in this regard), but I can't seem to figure out how to make this happen via the terminal.
The obvious way to connect to wireless networks is
networksetup -setairportnetwork NETWORK_NAME NETWORK_PASS

When I call this with my credentials, however, I get

Nick's iPhone is not a Wi-Fi interface.
  ** Error: Error obtaining wireless information.

Are there any alternate ways to connect to networks? From what I can tell I can't do it with /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport. Does anyone have experience with this?


text:
Mavericks: createinstallmedia not found
I'm having trouble with this. It seems the standard way is to have the OS X install file in your Applications folder and then run the following in Terminal
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

But when I do that, all I get is the error

command not found

I can't see how it could be the file path because this is the line of text given in various online tutorials for people to copy and paste?
On a different note, I then tried to create a bootable USB the more 'old school' way purely through Disk Utility, but then found that my USB drive doesn't show up when I hold down the Option key when booting up my Mac... all I see is 'Macintosh HD' or 'Recovery HD' (or whatever they're called).
Might that be related to my problem?

I assume you downloaded Mavericks from the App Store and the downloaded app can be found in the Applications folder? If you have, then use the Finder application to see if the command createinstallmedia exists in the folder /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources.

thanks but I've managed to fix it now, had to run another command in Terminal (see my answer posted)

Managed to fix it by running the following command:
sudo chmod +x /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Clean install of OS X, nothing happening at OS X Utilities
I'm trying to do a clean install OS X Mavericks. Previously I had Lion and thought it was time to get something a little more recent. I don't think my 2010 MacBook Pro could handle Sierra so I had a friend send over the Mavericks install file
I made a bootable USB and then erased my hard drive through Disk Utility, I then created 2 partitions.
Now, after booting up my Mac, I seem to be stuck on the 'OS X Utilities' bit. I click 'continue' after selecting to install OS X, and nothing happens.
Tried restarting but to no avail.
Might my bootable install be corrupted?

How did you create your bootable OS X installer thumb drive? Do you still have the Mavericks installer?

Discovering your other q&a it seems likely that the OS X installer app is hosed, tampered etc. Countercheck the InstallESD.dmg with this sha list: Apple Installer Checksums

thanks for the responses, I'm just in the process of downloading / trying a different Mavericks install file so will see how I get on with that!

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


text:
How to add an icon to a keyboard layout?
I am using ukelele to create some custom keyboard layouts.
I have created a .icns file which contains an image I would like to represent this keyboard layout.
How do I get my macOS Sierra MB Pro to associate this keyboard layout with this icon file? I cannot find an option in ukelele, if there is even one.

Seriously wtf? Is there a bot/person who just goes around and downvotes on every single one of my questions?

I am not sure if ukelele itself implements a way to do this, but the solution turned out to be trivial.
Locate your .bundle file which is being used. Mine was at /Library/Keyboard Layouts/#British.bundle.
With a terminal, cd into the Contents and then Resources subdirectories of the bundle. Now the command open . should open finder at this location.
Have fun replacing the .icns file within.

You just give the .icns file the same name you gave your .keylayout file and locate them in the same direcory.

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


text:
Error: org.macports.fetch for port git returned: fetch failed
I'm having trouble updating Git under MacPorts. The problem has existed for a few days now. I uninstalled Git and now I am trying to reinstall it. There installation error is shown below.
Other ports update fine.
What is the problem with MacPorts Git? How do I fix it?

Installation Error
$ sudo port install git
Password:
--->  Computing dependencies for git
--->  Fetching distfiles for git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from https://distfiles.macports.org/
git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from https://www.kernel.org/pub/soft
ware/scm/git/
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://ykf.ca.distfiles.macport
s.org/MacPorts/mpdistfiles/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://mse.uk.distfiles.macport
s.org/sites/distfiles.macports.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://sea.us.distfiles.macport
s.org/macports/distfiles/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://lil.fr.distfiles.macport
s.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://nue.de.distfiles.macport
s.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://osl.no.distfiles.macport
s.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://fco.it.distfiles.macport
s.org/mirrors/macports-distfiles/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://cjj.kr.distfiles.macport
s.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://aarnet.au.distfiles.macp
orts.org/pub/macports/mpdistfiles/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://nou.nc.distfiles.macport
s.org/pub/macports/distfiles.macports.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://jog.id.distfiles.macport
s.org/macports/distfiles/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://her.gr.distfiles.macport
s.org/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://jnb.za.distfiles.macport
s.org/distfiles/git
--->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://svn.macports.org/reposit
ory/macports/distfiles/git
Error: org.macports.fetch for port git returned: fetch failed
Please see the log file for port git for details:
    /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.
org_release_tarballs_ports_devel_git/git/main.log
To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
    http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
Error: Processing of port git failed
/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_
devel_git/git/main.log
To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
    http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
Error: Processing of port git failed

Tail of Git main.log
$ cat /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macport
s.org_release_tarballs_ports_devel_git/git/main.log
...
:debug:fetch Executing proc-pre-org.macports.fetch-fetch-0
:debug:fetch Executing org.macports.fetch (git)
:info:fetch --->  git-2.10.1.tar.gz doesn't seem to exist in /opt/local/var/macp
orts/distfiles/git
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from https://distfiles
.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from https://www.kerne
l.org/pub/software/scm/git/
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: Unknown SSL protocol error in connection
to www.kernel.org:443
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://ykf.ca.dis
tfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/mpdistfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://mse.uk.dis
tfiles.macports.org/sites/distfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://sea.us.dis
tfiles.macports.org/macports/distfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://lil.fr.dis
tfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://nue.de.dis
tfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://osl.no.dis
tfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://fco.it.dis
tfiles.macports.org/mirrors/macports-distfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://cjj.kr.dis
tfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://aarnet.au.
distfiles.macports.org/pub/macports/mpdistfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://nou.nc.dis
tfiles.macports.org/pub/macports/distfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://jog.id.dis
tfiles.macports.org/macports/distfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://her.gr.dis
tfiles.macports.org/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://jnb.za.dis
tfiles.macports.org/distfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: Failed to connect to 2001:4200:fffc::248:
 No route to host
:notice:fetch --->  Attempting to fetch git-2.10.1.tar.gz from http://svn.macpor
ts.org/repository/macports/distfiles/git
:debug:fetch Fetching distfile failed: The requested URL returned error: 404
:error:fetch org.macports.fetch for port git returned: fetch failed
:debug:fetch Error code: NONE
:debug:fetch Backtrace: fetch failed
    while executing
"portfetch::fetchfiles"
    (procedure "portfetch::fetch_main" line 17)
    invoked from within
"portfetch::fetch_main org.macports.fetch"
    ("eval" body line 1)
    invoked from within
"eval $procedure $targetname"
:info:fetch Warning: targets not executed for git: org.macports.activate org.mac
ports.fetch org.macports.checksum org.macports.extract org.macports.patch org.ma
cports.configure org.macports.build org.macports.destroot org.macports.install
:notice:fetch Please see the log file for port git for details:
    /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.
org_release_tarballs_ports_devel_git/git/main.log

you can install git-2.10.0 (which is available) or wait until 2.10.1 found its way into the repositories...

Thanks @klanomath. I believe the former version was installed, and it produced the error above, too. Its one of the reasons I uninstalled it. Do you know if MacPorts QA's this portion of their deliverables? Its been broken for days, and it seems like its easy to detect and fix. I'm guessing they don't know its a problem, so I'm wondering what the disconnect is.

I checked some of the above addresses and none contains the .1.tar.gz but all the .0.tar.gz


text:
How do I replace the default fonts and their minimum font sizes in Safari?
I'm using Safari 10.0 on macOS Sierra.
I want to replace all the four default fonts in Safari - standard, fixed, serif and sans-serif.
I've tried looking for a .plist file that contains the information of the default fonts but haven't found it yet.
Please help.


text:
Why does applicatication context often not switch between apps using screens?
Since I've been using Mavericks (currently I'm on ElCap) I have am a heavy user of screens insofar I actually use different desktops for different apps to reduce the ammount of clutter on my individual desktops and so I can use both Which, Dock, or follow hyperlinks, to switch between desktops which are used exclusively for an app. I realize for cases where I use an app on more than one desktop, when you switch to that app it will take you to the desktop that was last used for that app. What I am finding however is that doing things like following links within certain apps, it does NOT take me to my default browser (Chrome) on the last desktop I was using. In fact, I often find it does nothing and I have to manually go to the desktop I was just using. The new page loads there, but that's about it. This can bee annoying when I am running around 8 desktops. Any ideas why this would happen? Thought at first the machine was lagging and waited for it to "catch up" but it never did. Any ideas why might be causing this lack of function?

Do you have apps fixed to specific Spaces? I've found that Finder can lose track periodically, making clicking the Desktop not go back to [in my case] Space 1. It usually happens if I ever carry a window over to another Space manually.

Yes most apps are bound to dekstop numbers, and context switching normally seem honored which this is the case. It is when the app is on a desktop but is not there explicitly because of screen options is when it doesn't change context. Again, this is not consistent either- sometimes ti works and sometimes not. It's Definitely more a problem with Chrome.


text:
iMac has weird startup chime and refuses to boot
I have a mid-2011 27" iMac and have a weird startup problem at the moment. When I try to boot I get a startup chime as follows: 3 beeps followed by a 3 second break followed by 3 beeps and it just keeps looping in the same pattern.
I did check this Apple Support page about startup tones, but my situation is not listed. It is very similar to the RAM failure tone, except that it's 3 second pauses for me not 5 as described by Apple.
Should I assume that the 5 seconds is not literal and it is in fact a RAM problem?

Thank you for your advice. Yes, I am sure - it's a very irritating startup chime. I think Monomeeth's answer nailed it!

No, you cannot assume that. This repeating startup chime with the three second pause between the three tones is an indicator that you are trying to boot your iMac from a non-supported operating system.
The 27" mid-2011 iMacs originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.6, and later shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.7. This iMac will not run from Mac OS X 10.6.5 or earlier. However, on the positive side, it will run all version since, including macOS Sierra.
As an aside, it is strange that Apple hasn't documented this on the page you referenced.
Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for your very prompt response. Yes, I was trying to boot from an external rescue disk running Snow Leopard 10.6.1, so your answer fits.


text:
Backing up iOS Health Data takes enormous space?
I got an auto generated e-mail from Apple telling me that my iCould Drive was almost full

Dear Benny Skogberg,
Your iCloud storage is almost full. You have
499.728 MB remaining of 5 GB total storage.
            Upgrade to 50 GB for 9,00 kr per month

Your iCloud storage is used for iCloud Mail and to keep
the most important things on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch safe
and available, even if you lose your device. iCloud Drive and apps
like Keynote, Pages, and Numbers also use iCloud storage to keep your
files up-to-date everywhere. To continue to use iCloud and to back up
your photos, documents, contacts, mail, and more, you need to upgrade
your iCloud storage plan or reduce the amount of storage you are
using.
The iCloud Team

Looking into the Backup, I saw the health data used more than half of the backup for it's data, and I come to think why. Do they store videos/images of health data? Other apps are less than 100 MB.
What makes the Health Data generate Gigabytes of Backup data?

On mine, Health was up to 5 gigabytes back in September. I brought that down to about 2 gigs by deleting a ton of older data. But I'm creeping towards 4 gigs once again. I do exercise daily with an Apple Watch (hence, lots of heart rate and steps data), but gigabytes over a few months still seems excessive. iCloud backups fail every other night as result, due to the sheer amount of data to upload. I don't recall Health data ballooning like this until iOS 9 (which may have caused all the backup issues at the time). It looks like a bug to me.

How long have you kept your iPhone? For many years? The Health App stores data of your steps, walking + Running Distance, fights Climbed, etc.
You can just turn off & delete the Health App data from iCloud backup.
Or go to Health > steps > Show All Data > Edit >　Deleted All data from the app.

This iPhone I've used for 1,5 years, but I've used the Health App on other devices since release, which have collected data through the years. I've restored new iPhones with old backups. But collecting steps for three years doesn't (or shouldn't) render 2,2 GB of data. Either someone is collecting far more data than I can imagine, or there is something terribly wrong. 1 GB is the equivalent of 20'000 pages of text. See: http://www.v-rooms.com/technology/how-much-data-is-in-1GB.php


text:
How do I move a window so that its title bar is above the visible screen area?
How can I drag/move a window so that its top is above the screen?
I want to be able to resize a window taller vertically than the screen itself, and then take a picture of the window, but I don't care about getting the window's title bar in the picture, only the content of the window, which is actually smaller than the screen but cannot all be viewed at once because of the title bar making the window's size too large.

Enter Full Screen does exactly that. Click the green button located in the top left of most windows or type the keyboard shortcut ⌘ Cmd + CTRL + F You will notice the title bar moves right out of the viewport.
But this can still produce a scrolling window if there is too much content.
Suggestion:

Drag the window down to the bottom of the screen.
Grab the edge of the window to stretch it taller until you reach the top of the screen.
Press Cmd + Shift + 4 then press spacebar once. Click whichever window you would like to capture. Before clicking a window you will notice hovering over a window will highlight it in blue and the mouse will change to a camera.

Unfortunately, you cannot repeat 1 and 2 if the window still contains too much content. This is because on the second attempt to move the stretched window down the window is automatically reformed to fit the screen.

Maybe rotating the display will do the trick. Since screens are landscape by default, try this screen rotation hack to grab some screenshots in portrait mode. It's not really a hack so much as invoking hidden features with the keyboard and a mouse click.

Launch System Preferences
Press Cmd + Opt keys and click “Display” Note: this will not work if have an open System Preferences that has at some point had an active Display pane. In this case you will need to close the System Preferences window and start over with step 1.
Select either 90 or 180 degrees from the Rotation drop down menu.

Happy snapping.


text:
Error while changing the default application with which we open a file
Recently I've tried to change the default application with which a file is opened, by doing the following:

Right click on the file
Get info
In "Open with", change to the application you want your file to be opened with.
Click on the "Change All" button which is found under the "Open with" label

in the last step, i.e. when I click on "Change All", I receive the following message:

then if I look at the default application that opens this file, it's really the application I've just chosen, but when I click on the file to open it, I've the following error message:

Yes, I was trying to open a Makefile for a C program.
Any ideas of why this is happening and how to solve it?

My hunch is this is failing because there's no file extension.

I had the same problem, with a set of files that do have an extension (testfile.py). It turned out that there was an (invisible to me) space at the end of the filename "testfile.py ", which was causing the headache. i removed that, and all was fine again.

The error that you see is just a security measure of macOS because you probably downloaded some source code from the internet, to compile, of which 'Makefile' is a part of. It's just asking you to be careful and be sure that it is not a malware.
To remove this warning, execute the following command in Terminal on the folder where the code is:
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/folder/where/code/is
The 'com.apple.quarantine' is a metadata that macOS adds to files downloaded from the internet. This triggers the warning in macOS. Executing the above command removes this metadata from the folder and all files inside it, and thus macOS will henceforth treat all the files as normal (or "safe / trusted").


text:
Can't open app in macOS Sierra
I've recently downloaded an app. I can confirm it worked in OS X El Capitan, but it doesn't open anymore in macOS. When opening the app, I basically get a pop-up saying that the app is not supported with my version of macOS. I can confirm it is not a PowerPC application. I tried opening the app via Terminal. When trying that, I get the following result.
; exit;
objc[674]: Objective-C garbage collection is no longer supported.
Abort trap: 6
logout
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history...truncating history files...
...completed.
Deleting expired sessions...none found.

Is it still possible to open the app using another method? If not, could someone explain me why?

I'm afraid the garbage collection feature of Objective-C was deprecated back in 10.8 in favor of Automatic Reference Counting or ARC. Now with the release of Sierra, this feature appears to be officially obsolete. Most likely this means the feature was completely removed from the Objective-C runtime, so there is no way to continue to run old applications that depend on this feature.
The application will need to be updated to the new ARC system to work on the newest versions of OS X. Alternately I suppose you could run it in a VM with an older OS X version.


text:
Is it possible to create an invisible rule in Mail?
I'd like to apply a mail filtering rule within Mail without it appearing in the rules list. Is there any way to make this happen, either from within, or from outside the app?

No you cannot do that within Mail.app.
However you can add for example a mail filtering proxy that sits between your mail provider and Mail.app. This proxy will be able to filter away mail without Mail.app displaying that it does so. Depending on your mail provider it might also be able to move mail into subfolders, etc. (for example this is possible on IMAP).

Thank you very much for the answer and the workaround. I will look into this.


text:
Prevent iPhone use after hours
Is it possible to prevent myself from using my iPhone (except say for messages or phone calls) between certain hours?
If it is not possible with a existing feature (or app?), is there something in macOS Server (or other "enterprise" tool) that would help?
I would like to get in the habit of not using my iPhone before bed.

Apple has introduced ScreenTime in iOS 12:
https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2018/06/ios-12-introduces-new-features-to-reduce-interruptions-and-manage-screen-time/
You can place limits on each app.

You are in control. It is your responsibility.
Here are some suggestions you could try:

To help you keeping focus try a 'Stay focussed' app like Forest (which tries to convince you not to use your phone while the app is running).
To create a threshold you can enable restrictions. Go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions.
Shutdown your phone. The boot time will keep you from using your phone.
Edit settings in your router, some router can set internet access restrictions for certain devices during specified hours.

What does forest do? Shutting the phone stops phone calls which the OP wants

"Is it possible to prevent myself from using my iPhone between certain hours?" I interpreted the use of messages and phone calls as an example. And indeed, not all answers might be benefitial for this user, but can benefit another user.

OP says except and not example

This link shows a way to restrict Internet access during certain times:

4 Ways to Manage Your Kids’ Internet Use With Your Router

Your router might be different so try looking at your router manual, may be it has a similar feature. But as CousinCocaine said, "You are in control..." that would be best strategy.
Or:
If you live with someone, ask them to take your phone between particular times. The only way you should be allowed to get your phone (except for phone calls) is by paying 5$ per min. That way the other person will have lots of motivation to keep an eye on you.


text:
See What Redo/Undo Will Do on Mac
Hitting ⌘ + Z Undoes the last action, and ⌘ + ⇧ + Z Redoes it.
In order to see what exactly you are about to Undo/Redo, you can click on "Edit" on the top of the screen.
Question:
What is the keyboard shortcut to find out what exactly you are about to Undo/Redo?

I don't think there is a shortcut to see what Undo would do; if there is one I don't know about it.
The workaround I'd suggest would be fn+ctrl+f2 (focuses the menu bar), then e (selects the Edit menu) and then ↓ (opens the menu).

I don't think so. ctrl+f2 is defined as "Move focus to the menu bar", there seem to be no shortcut to jump to specific menus.


text:
Open shell script from Finder interactively
I am running my manual backups with a shell script that asks me for a password. However, when I open the script from the Finder, it terminates immediately.
How can I get a script to run interactively when double clicking on it in Finder?

PS. set -i doesn't help.

For a bash script to work from finder, it has to have the .command extension
For example, I created the following script to use sudo to ask for a password and then to output a welcome message, then "wait" to simulate execution time:
#!/bin/bash
sudo echo "Welcome to Ask Different"
sleep 10
exit 0

I saved it as test.command.  You also have to make it executable:  chmod +x test.command
Here's the result of clicking on the script:

Turns out, the Terminal setting 'Close if shell exited cleanly' does not keep the window open if the script exited non-zero. Entirely different problem. The .command part does not seem to make any difference at all. So, mea culpa, should have worked perfectly fine in the first place, if I hadn't been so stupid


text:
Any way to delete the app once it was opened ？
I just created an app (Let's say Test1) with AppleScript. It's used to activate another app (Let's say Test2). What I want to do is to delete Test1 or move Test1 to Trash, once Test2 was launched. AppleScript, Unix shell, Python, Perl or other language is welcome. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

@Allan Let's put it this way: I would like to install Egnyte Drive, which will require the administrator's name and password the first time it launches. So I create another app with AppleScript to input administrator's name and password automatically, when Egnyte Drive launches. But I would like to delete the app which I created, once Egnyte Drive launches.

So, you are looking to deploy an app which requires admin privileges to install/run?

@Allan Yes, exactly.


text:
iOS 10 broke my decimal separators, any way to change them back?
Since iOS 10, Apple has started using what I assume to be language-based settings for separators.
Until 9 it was using region-based settings for me.
I happen to prefer dots over commas but I don't really care about the appearance.
My problem is Apple doesn't enforce proper localization and my brokers(which are the apps I use the most) all happen to have broken locale functions that turn 1,000 shares into 1.000 shares and then interpret that as if it meant 1 point O shares.
I waited a few months but Apple seems to be applying no pressure on the infringing apps.
Separators appear as if they were something the user could possibly set in the Settings screen.
Is there any way to fix them without switching everything to US English?
edit: As of iOS11, the apps and/or iOS have been fixed. Still not able to choose the separators, though.

I'm surprised this still isn't fixed in iOS 12. Does it work for you?

Yes, please have a look at Settings > General > Language & Region.
After "Preferred Language Order" you see a setting for "Region". Change it to your preferred setting.
If it is already set to your correct region setting, set it to another region and then back to your preferred region.
Let me know if this works for you.
edit:
Make sure to check the "Region Format Example" field. It displays how the decimal separator will look like.

Nah, I tried a few languages and regions and the language "appropriate" separator is always selected. Currencies are working properly.

How is the decimal separator displayed in the "Region Format Example" field? Also, which region to you want to set it to?

It's displayed as 1.235 JP¥ 4.567,89 for Japan whereas I want ¥1,235 4,567.89 . It's possible it was working by chance previously but all weird Euro-format languages are affected.

Change country to Swiss or German and vice versa. Hope this helped.


text:
What Bit Encryption does Apple Use on Mobile Devices?
Apple Encryption Question: I know if you have the iPhone 3GS or later version, an iPod touch 3rd generation or later version, or any iPad, the user can employ encryption to protect the contents. My question is specific, does any one know what bit encryption Apple uses?

Stack Exchange sites prefer that you not put self-promoting text or links in your questions.  If you register your account, you'll have a profile page where you can put such things.

As per page 11 of the iOS Security Guide:

Every time a file on the data partition is created, Data Protection creates a new 256-bit
  key (the “per-file” key) and gives it to the hardware AES engine, which uses the key to
  encrypt the file as it is written to flash memory using AES CBC mode. (On devices with
  an A8 processor, AES-XTS is used.) The initialization vector (IV) is calculated with the
  block offset into the file, encrypted with the SHA-1 hash of the per-file key.

Emphasis mine


text:
is data stored in iphone encrypted by default?
according to the following website:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-thieves-recovering-data-factory-reset/
it is stated that iphones encrypt all data stored in them:
The iOS operating system on Apple iPhones and iPads has to deal with a similar problem. To ensure a user’s data can be quickly and completely wiped when the device is factory reset, it has a trick up its sleeve. All data on the device is encrypted by default using the hardware encryption feature. When you choose to set up encryption, the device is protected with your own encryption key. Even if you never set up encryption, the files are stored on the device in encrypted form so any bits of deleted files appear as random gibberish on the device’s storage after it’s reset. The data can’t be recovered.
im confused.
is all data stored in iphones encrypted by default?
specifically iphone 5s

Yes, the data is encrypted by default. However it is not "secure" in the sense that if you do not set up a sufficiently good pass code, it is easy to read the data if you have access to the phone.

and is it easy to recover the data after system restore?

If you delete the key, it is extremely hard to recover the data (i.e. more or less impossible for ordinary users or companies).


text:
Calendar auto-increment name of event
If I set an event to repeat every day, is it possible to auto-increment a number at the end of its name?
E.g. every day at 21:00 I'd like an alert which says "Day #" where # is the number of days since the event started.

An AppleScript is one approach to doing this.
See MacScripter / Calendar: Incrementing Name property for recurring events which has a script making each year an event that says "John Doe's #th Anniversary". The script is also below, for your convenience.
main()

on main()
   set calendar_name to "Anniversaries"
   set number_of_anniversaries to 75

   -- Get the required info from Contacts in iCalendar or intermediate form.
   set seed_data to get_seed_data()
   if (seed_data is {}) then
       display dialog "None of your contacts have anniversaries!" buttons {"!"} default button 1 with icon stop
   else
       -- Compose an iCalendar spec for a calendar containing the required events and save it to an .ics file on the desktop.
       set iCalendar_text to compose_ics(seed_data, number_of_anniversaries)
       write_ics_file(iCalendar_text, (path to desktop as text) & (calendar_name & ".ics"))

       -- Import the file into Calendar as a new calendar.
       import_calendar(calendar_name)
   end if
end main

-- Identify "anniversary" custom dates in Contacts and return the corresponding names, ids, and dates adapted for use in the construction of an iCalendar spec. Monogamous and once-only marriages assumed!
on get_seed_data()
   tell application "System Events" to set Contacts_open to (application process "Contacts") exists

   -- Get the name, id, and custom-date data for every person in Contacts.
   tell application "Contacts"
       launch
       set {names, ids, {date_labels, date_values}} to {name, id, {label, value} of custom dates} of people
       if (not Contacts_open) then quit
   end tell

   -- Find any "anniversary" date labels and store the associated person/date data converted as follows:
   -- name: as the start of an iCalendar SUMMARY entry, with the name in the genitive and a trailing space.
   -- id: as a complete iCalendar URL entry, the id being part of an "addressbook"-protocol URL.
   -- "anniversary" date value: as event start and end dates in zoneless ISO format, but stored as integers instead of text for ease and speed of manipulation.
   set seed_data to {}
   repeat with person from 1 to (count names)
       set these_labels to item person of date_labels
       if (these_labels contains "anniversary") then
           repeat with custom_date from 1 to (count these_labels)
               if (item custom_date of these_labels is "anniversary") then
                   set start_date to item custom_date of item person of date_values
                   set end of seed_data to {|SUMMARY start|:"SUMMARY:" & (item person of names) & "'s ", |URL entry|:"URL;VALUE=URI:addressbook://" & item person of ids, |start date|:ISOT_integer(start_date), |end date|:ISOT_integer(start_date + days)}
                   exit repeat
               end if
           end repeat
       end if
   end repeat

   return seed_data
end get_seed_data

-- Put together an iCalendar specification for a calendar containing recurring events whose initial summaries indicate weddings and recurrence summaries indicate the inividual anniversaries.
on compose_ics(seed_data, number_of_anniversaries)
   -- The list of iCalendar components could get very long, so it'll be referenced via a script object for speed of access.
   script iCalendar
       property components : {}
   end script

   -- Initialise a VEVENT template. It'll serve for both main events and recurrence instances.
   set VEVENT_template to {"BEGIN:VEVENT", missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value, "END:VEVENT"}
   -- Get process and host data for use in the UIDs.
   set my_Name to name of current application
   tell application "System Events" to set unix_id to unix id of first application process whose displayed name is my_Name
   set host_name to host name of (system info)
   -- Prepare to use CRLF line endings.
   set CRLF to return & linefeed
   set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to CRLF

   -- Create and store the opening VCALENDAR spiel.
   set beginning of iCalendar's components to {"BEGIN:VCALENDAR", "VERSION:2.0", "PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iCal 4.0.4//EN", "CALSCALE:GREGORIAN"} as text

   -- Create and store the VEVENT sections for each main event.
   repeat with event_number from 1 to (count seed_data)
       set {|SUMMARY start|:SUMMARY_start, |URL entry|:URL_entry, |start date|:start_date, |end date|:end_date} to item event_number of seed_data
       -- Load the VEVENT template with the data for the main, recurring event.
       set item 2 of VEVENT_template to "CREATED:" & ISOT_GMT(current date)
       set item 3 of VEVENT_template to "UID:" & new_UID(unix_id, host_name, event_number)
       set item 4 of VEVENT_template to "DTEND;VALUE=" & end_date
       set leap_wedding to (start_date mod 10000 is 229) -- Did these idiots get married on 29th February?
       if (leap_wedding) then
           set using_Mar1 to (button returned of (display dialog (text 9 thru -1 of SUMMARY_start & "wedding is/was on 29th February! Are the non-leap anniversaries celebrated on 28th February or 1st March?") buttons {"28th February", "1st March"} default button 2 with icon note) is "1st March")
           if (using_Mar1) then -- The anniversaries have to recur on the 60th day of every year …
               set item 5 of VEVENT_template to "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYYEARDAY=60;COUNT=" & (number_of_anniversaries + 1)
           else -- … or else on the last day of every February.
               set item 5 of VEVENT_template to "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYMONTH=2;BYMONTHDAY=-1;COUNT=" & (number_of_anniversaries + 1)
           end if
       else -- Normal anniversaries simply recur on the same date every year.
           set item 5 of VEVENT_template to "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;COUNT=" & (number_of_anniversaries + 1)
       end if
       set item 6 of VEVENT_template to SUMMARY_start & "wedding"
       set item 7 of VEVENT_template to "DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:" & start_date
       set item 8 of VEVENT_template to "DTSTAMP:" & ISOT_GMT(current date)
       set item 9 of VEVENT_template to "SEQUENCE:7" -- Cheating with the sequence number!
       set item 10 of VEVENT_template to URL_entry

       -- Coerce the template to text and append the resulting VEVENT entry to the component list.
       set end of iCalendar's components to VEVENT_template as text

       -- Now create the required number of linked VEVENTS for the anniversaries, inserting the relevant dates and summaries into the template and coercing it to text each time.
       repeat with anniversary_number from 1 to number_of_anniversaries
           set start_date to start_date + 10000 -- Add 1 to the year.
           set end_date to end_date + 10000 -- Ditto.
           if (leap_wedding) then
               -- Use months and days pertinent to the anniverary-date convention.
               set y to start_date div 10000
               if (isLeapYear(y)) then
                   set start_date to y * 10000 + 229
                   set end_date to y * 10000 + 301
               else if (using_Mar1) then
                   set start_date to y * 10000 + 301
                   set end_date to y * 10000 + 302
               else
                   set start_date to y * 10000 + 228
               end if
           end if
           set item 4 of VEVENT_template to "DTEND;VALUE=DATE:" & end_date
           -- This entry links this VEVENT to an expression date of the original event's recurrence.
           set item 5 of VEVENT_template to "RECURRENCE-ID;VALUE=DATE:" & start_date
           set item 6 of VEVENT_template to SUMMARY_start & anniversary_number & ordinal(anniversary_number) & " anniversary"
           set item 7 of VEVENT_template to "DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:" & start_date
           set item 8 of VEVENT_template to "DTSTAMP:" & ISOT_GMT(current date)
           set item 9 of VEVENT_template to "SEQUENCE:8" -- Cheating with the sequence number!

           -- Append this linked-VEVENT text to the output components.
           set end of iCalendar's components to VEVENT_template as text
       end repeat
   end repeat

   -- Lastly, append the END:VCALENDAR line.
   set end of iCalendar's components to "END:VCALENDAR" & CRLF
   -- When all the components are gathered, coerce the lot into one text.
   set iCalendar_text to iCalendar's components as text

   set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid

   return iCalendar_text
end compose_ics

on write_ics_file(iCalendar_text, hfs_path)
   set fRef to (open for access file hfs_path with write permission)
   try
       set eof fRef to 0
       write iCalendar_text as «class utf8» to fRef
   end try
   close access fRef
end write_ics_file

-- Delete any current calendar with the given name and import an .ics file to a replacement.
on import_calendar(calendar_name)
   tell application "Calendar"
       activate
       if (calendar calendar_name exists) then delete calendar calendar_name
       -- This assumes there'll be at most one calendar with the name, but it's easy to modify.
   end tell

   -- "Double-click" the ics file. Calendar will offer to import the new events.
   tell application "Finder" to open file (calendar_name & ".ics") of desktop

   -- In the Add Events dialog, select the bottom item ("New Calendar") in the pop-up menu and hit return. The calendar should be created automatically with the name of the ics file.
   tell application "System Events"
       tell application process "Calendar" -- GUI Scripting.
           repeat until (window 2 exists)
               delay 0.2
           end repeat
           tell pop up button 1 of window 1
               perform action "AXPress" -- Click the pop-up menu button.
               perform action "AXPress" of menu item -1 of menu 1 -- Click the "New Calendar" item.
           end tell
       end tell
       keystroke return -- "Click" the dialog's "OK" button.
   end tell
end import_calendar

-- Return the "yyyymmdd" representation of a date as an integer.
on ISOT_integer(theDate)
   set {year:y, month:m, day:d} to theDate
   return y * 10000 + m * 100 + d
end ISOT_integer

-- Return the GMT equivalent of a date in ISOT format.
on ISOT_GMT(theDate)
   set {year:y, month:m, day:d, time:t} to theDate - (time to GMT)
   return ((y * 10000 + m * 100 + d) as text) & "T" & text 2 thru -1 of ((1000000 + t div hours * 10000 + t mod hours div minutes * 100 + t mod minutes) as text) & "Z"
end ISOT_GMT

-- Construct an "@"-style UID from the current date and time and the given data.
on new_UID(unix_id, host_name, iteration)
   return ISOT_GMT(current date) & "-" & unix_id & "-" & iteration & "@" & host_name
end new_UID

on isLeapYear(y)
   return ((y mod 4 is 0) and (y mod 400 is not in {100, 200, 300}))
end isLeapYear

on ordinal(n)
   set units to n mod 10
   if ((units > 3) or ((n - units) mod 100 is 10) or (units < 1)) then
       return "th"
   else
       return item units of {"st", "nd", "rd"}
   end if
end ordinal

that script is much longer than necessary for me, and is difficult to parse for just the bits I need. Also, link-only answers are discouraged as they may not work in future. Would you be able to take the key points/parts of that script and explain them in your answer, perhaps modifying to better suit this question?

@theonlygusti - I edited my question to include the script. If you can edit my post to better follow the guidelines, I would appreciate it.


text:
Can data be recovered after iOS system restore
Is it possible to recover data from a restored iPhone. iPhone encrypts data by default so is there any chance of recovery after the key has been deleted during restore like brute force or jailbreaking etc?

No. Once the key is deleted there is no way to recover the data. You could theoretically bruteforce the key, but this would take a very long time.


text:
MacBook pro retina 15" mid 2015 - two monitors 4k@60Hz
I'm considering to buy the above mentioned MacBook with the Intel Iris Pro Graphics and without the additional AMD graphic card.
Now my question is whether this configuration supports connecting two external monitors with 4k resolution @60 HZ or not. Moreover SST or MST support will be helpful, too.
I'm thankful for every source link provided.

It says that but when I go to display there isn't any "arrangement" option to do split screen. anyone have any ideas? I'm lost

From Everymac:

*This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 3840x2160 on two external displays via Thunderbolt 2. Alternately, it can
  support a single display up to 3840x2160 via Thunderbolt 2 and a
  single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160
  at 24 Hz via HDMI.


text:
How to disable background blur effect on macOS Sierra login screen
I've replaced /Library/Desktop Pictures/Sierra.jpg with a custom background image. Now, macOS Sierra applies the blur effect on my custom background image as well. I am looking for a reliable solution to turn it off e.g. overwriting a plist preference file or any non-hacking workaround?
How can I completely disable the login screen background blur and show a crystal clear login image?

Do this:

Go to /Library/Caches/
Rename the original com.apple.desktop.admin.png file to com.apple.desktop.admin1.png
Add a new image in its place with the original com.apple.desktop.admin.png name

This will replace the blurred original image with the new one unblurred.

yeah, this workflow applies to El Capitan and Yosemite. It doesn't work with macOS Sierra. I've replaced /Library/Caches/com.apple.desktop.admin.png. As soon as restart or logout the image is still blurred.

Did you rename the original file and then add a new one? Or did you just replace the original?

a) I have renamed com.apple.desktop.admin.png to com.apple.desktop.admin1.png. b) Than I copied my custom image and replace it with com.apple.desktop.admin.png. c) Logout + System reboot

That's interesting. I know these steps worked in macOS Sierra. I wonder if the actual image itself has an effect somehow? When I get a chance I will try a few different ones and test the results.

I'd confirm that this does in fact work with macOS Sierra, but it seems unnecessary that you suggested in your answer to create a backup of the original blurred image - you wouldn't need it again if you are replacing it anyways.

I've tried these steps with macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and it is not working. I even tried reboot and that didn't make it work as well. Any other ideas?

Turn on "Reduce Transparency" in Accessibility and it will remove the blur effect.

This used to be called "Translucency" before, but for some reason they changed it to "Transparency".
I just tested it and my blurred login screen went to a simple grey screen.

Unfortunately "Reduce Transparency" doesn't remove the blurred background image. The Background image with our company logo is still blurred. With solid plain color backgrounds you might not see any difference.

I don't any have solid color backgrounds... I will look a bit more into it.

i've found this somewhere :
The file in /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg is an alias that points to /Library/Desktop Pictures/Sierra.jpg.
so i changed the picture called "Sierra.jpg" by mine & i get this picture in login window.
but it still blur effect.
i do not know how to remove it !
another page here, but i can not understand anything !
https://onemoreadmin.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/apples-efi-logonui-managing-macos-sierras-wallpaper/

Making modifications to the System folder is not recommended! As I mentioned above, replacing the desktop image is working just fine. however I would like to disable the background blur.

same for me,, i've just mentioned this because it could be a way of investigation...


text:
Edit equations with both MSWord on Windows and Mac
I have a Word document with lots of equations in it. I created it on the Mac. I edited it on Windows. All of the equations got turned into bitmaps. This seems like poor behavior. Is there a way to turn them back? Is there a proper way to embed equations in a Word document to avoid this problem?
I know I should just be using \LaTeX, but my collaborators don't want to.

Have you also tried the word forums?  Very important always to also tell everyone what version of Word you are using.  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_mac

Use this site: http://www.sciweavers.org/free-online-latex-equation-editor to write equations in latex and convert them to pictures (.gif,.png...) and further embed in Word

Pictures that are embedded are not line art.


text:
Is it possible to view two Apple IDs at the same time on the Find iPhone app?
Do you need the same Apple ID to find my iPhone ? I have 3 iPhones 2 with the same Apple ID 1 with a different I'd can it be done?

If you add the second Apple ID as a family member on Family Sharing, you can see all your Family devices on Find my iPhone.
Or you can enter the credentials of the second Apple ID on any phone on the Find my iPhone app -or iCloud- and look for it.
If you’re willing to let some functionality out (no remotely playing sound, or locking and changing passcode), you can use Apple’s Find Friends and invite any Apple ID. You can then see the user on a map, set geofences and get informed on that user movements, but they can remove you at any time.

Can verify.  Without these methods, the answer is “no”.

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


text:
iPhone 5 won't turn on after screen repair
A couple of months ago, my iPhone 5 started to have lines on the screen. A common thing that some people do to diagnose that problem is to open the phone and disconnect the connectors to the screen, clean them a bit, and then put them back.
I tried to do it, but once the screen was back in place and I replugged the battery (because I unpluged it for safety reasons when I removed the screen), the iPhone wouldn't turn on.
I've tried the same procedure a couple of times but it still won't turn on.
It's been 3 months now. Can anyone help me?

No one can help you here. You broke something in the phone while trying to fix it.

Were you been able to fix this issue?

I know this is a dead thread, but you may have possibly bricked the device. Try to make sure all screws inside are intact and screwed in properly and all cables are plugged in properly. You could have also damaged the battery. If you have another iPhone of the same model you can try swapping out the battery and see if it works in the other phone. If it does not, try replacing the battery. If it does work, try to turn it on and then call it or use find my iPhone or plug it in (just do something that would make noise and make sure the ringer switch is on so it will make noise). If it does not work you may have a damaged logic board and you will probably be better off buying a new phone.


text:
Is it possible to block specific websites and only those sites on iOS?
I'd like to block just 4 specific websites but AFAICT there is no such option.
There's the option to "Limit Adult Content" but sadly it blocks way too much. For example it blocks stackexchange.com. I searched for restaurants on Google it blocked every single result. There's the option to only allow a whitelist of sites but that's not useful for me either. I'd have to add every result and every link I click on.
Effectively I'm looking for a blacklist option. Is there a way to do it? Maybe install a custom network profile or something?
Update #1
Well so profiles don't solve it. They just do the enable the same features as available from the settings.
Next thing is to look for passthru VPN software or something like that

Yes, this is possible with the use of restrictions. Follow these steps:

Go to Settings
Tap on General
Tap on Restrictions
Tap on Enable Restrictions
Enter a restriction passcode
Swipe up until you see the Allowed Content section
Tap on Websites at bottom of the list
Tap on Limit Adult Content
This provides access to the Never Allow list
Tap on the Add a Website... option located under Never Allow
Add the four websites you want to block
Exit Restrictions / Settings

Now these four websites will be blocked even though they may not be Adult content.

You didn't read the question. Not just those 4 sites will be blocked, 1000s more are blocked as well. *.stackexchange.com is blocked when that option is enabled even though I didnt' add it as one of the sites I want blocked. Please read the actual question before writing an irrelvant answer

I did read the question, but since I tested this and was able to access stackexchange.com I offered my solution. Just for the record, I tested this on an iPhone 6s and 4th generation iPad (iOS 10) and an iPod Touch 5 (iOS 9).  I blocked a govt website and my workplace on all 3 devices. These two sites were then blocked on Safari, Mercury and Dolphin. However, stackexchange.com was still accessible in all browsers and devices. The Stack Exchange app also worked on the iPhone and iPad (it's not installed on the iPod, so couldn't test it on that). So, my solution works fine for me.

I see you've edited your question, so I decided to test this again on my wife's iPad Mini 2. Everything works fine, including stackexchange.com and searching for restaurants via Google. However, the two websites I blocked remained inaccessible via all of her installed browsers. She doesn't have the Stack Exchange app installed, so didn't test for that. In summary, I have now tested this on four separate devices, three on iOS 10 and one on iOS 9 and in all cases my solution has worked. Perhaps there is another issue causing your experience to be different?

Thanks for checking all that. Maybe you need to be living in Japan or switch to Japanese language. It's blocking lots of Japanese websites. So the question still stands. I don't want to block any other sites period. Only the ones I specify. The "Limit Adult Content" option is blocking far more than just the specified sites.

I am wondering whether one or more of the sites you're blocking is causing the problem? If you can share what they are I could test at my end. Otherwise you could test them one by one to see if/when the problem is replicated.

@gman You are correct. Because the adult option is now enabled, many websites that are considered inappropriate by Apple are also blocked even if you don’t specify it. BTW have you found any solution? I’m stuck now as well.


text:
Select text field that is not focused without losing selection
Lets assume I selected text in a text field and focused another (in the same application, e.g. Xcode's assistant editor), so the first one is no longer the first responder. The selection will appear gray.
Is there a way to return focus to the first text field without losing the selection?

Either use Cmd/Tab to cycle round to the app, or simpler, click the window's title bar...

That will not work if you have multiple text fields  as I mentioned and the one that you want to select is currently not in focus.

Then I've no idea what you mean, sorry


text:
Error: org.macports.checksum for port py27-setuptools returned: Unable to verify file checksums
I'm attempting to upgrade to MacPorts 2.3.5 on a PowerMac running OS X 10.5. The upgrade is failing with the error:
Error: org.macports.checksum for port py27-setuptools returned: Unable to verify file checksums.

More of the output:
$ port upgrade outdated
...

--->  Computing dependencies for py27-setuptools
--->  Verifying checksums for py27-setuptools
Error: Checksum (md5) mismatch for setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
Error: Checksum (rmd160) mismatch for setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
Error: Checksum (sha256) mismatch for setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
Error: org.macports.checksum for port py27-setuptools returned: Unable to verify file checksums

I tried to manually install it but got the same error. The manual installation came from MacPorts Issue 43307:
$ cd /opt/local/var/macports/distfiles/py-setuptools
 PowerMac:py-setuptools$ sudo curl -k -O
 https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/setuptools/setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
 Password:
   % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time
 Current
                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left
 Speed
 100   315  100   315    0     0    894      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--
 948

$ sudo port install py27-setuptools
 --->  Computing dependencies for py27-setuptools
 --->  Fetching distfiles for py27-setuptools
 --->  Verifying checksums for py27-setuptools
 Error: Checksum (md5) mismatch for setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
 Error: Checksum (rmd160) mismatch for setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
 Error: Checksum (sha256) mismatch for setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz
 Error: org.macports.checksum for port py27-setuptools returned: Unable to
 verify file checksums
 Please see the log file for port py27-setuptools for details:
 /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports
 .org_release_tarballs_ports_python_py-setuptools/py27-setuptools/main.log
 To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
     http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
 Error: Processing of port py27-setuptools failed

I can't remove Python 2.7 because it removes SSH and some other programs I depend on. Removing SSH means I lose access to the box. I'm not sure where the SSH/Python dependency comes from. I've built OpenSSH from sources, and the dependency does not exit in real life.
How do I finish the 2.3.5 upgrade?

The download size of only 315 bytes looks suspicious and indeed https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/setuptools/setuptools-28.8.0.tar.gz returns an XML document containing The specified key does not exist.

OK, thanks. It sounds like one of their scripts needs some work. I'll keep waiting for the fix.

Did you resolve this? py27-setuptools @28.8.0 installed fine on my  iMac running 10.12.1. I'd say the upstream URL format has changed since the time of that ticket you found as it's now this for 28.8.0 (found towards the bottom here). It looks unpredictable for any given version so I wonder if the portfile fetches it some other way - pip maybe?


text:
Unable to successfully format a secondary HDD?
I installed a secondary HDD in my MacBook Pro in the CD drive tray using a caddy. In my main drive slot I have an SSD which works fine. The 500GB drive I had before, I decided to put in the caddy and replace the CD drive with it.
I can't format my secondary HDD using Disk Utility through the command line tool. I keep getting stuck on "Waiting for partitions to activate" when trying to format using Disk Utility.

Here is some info from the command line I got on the drive:

It seems like it has no partitions. Here's more info from gpt:

I also ran testdisk analysis on the disk:

What should I do? I used to have this disk in an external caddy and used as a backup HD but I wanted it back in my Mac since I needed more space.
UPDATE 1
I've tried the following, as suggested by one of the comments.

Tried sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk2 count=1 bs=512 already? You may also use count=40 to nullify any partition table content. Check the proper disk identifier with diskutil list first! Then destroy and create a new GUID pt with sudo gpt destroy ... and sudo gpt create -f ....

@klanomath I have and got Input/output error in both cases.

Then I would suspect the cable or the connectors to be faulty (or not properly connected)! Which kind of MBP do you exactly have? Some with a 3GBit/s SATA link for the DVD drive don't work properly with 6GBit/s HDDs.

@klanomath I have the MacBookPro9,2. I think you might be right with the speed thing. When I look into System Report and under SATA, and select the port which has the new HDD, I see Link Speed: 6 Gigabit and Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit while for the SSD that is in the main bay that works, I see 6 Gigabit for both.

Hmm I don't know. At least the HTS545050A7E362 provides a SATAII (3 GBit/s) interface only.

@klanomath I'll try ordering a new SATA 3GB/s HDD (probably this one) and if that doesn't work them I'm guessing its either the cable or the connector.


text:
Regular/periodic pauses for unbuffered videos on mbpro / El Capitan
Video is pausing/freezing up for approximately 250ms periodically every 1 to 1.5 seconds.  This behavior is occurring in Flash and youtube across almost all websites. An exception: Netflix is not affected due to its buffering of the fast incoming signal.
As shown in the screenshot I have excellent internet connectivity: >100mbps with 1ms latency.   These numbers were tested on both chrome and firefox.  Note: the speedtest itself was getting the same pausing/freezing behavior - even while reporting up to 110mbps!

The cpu level is low < 20% and there is free RAM available on my core i7 2.3GHz 16GB  retina display machine.
This behavior seems to briefly be mitigated after a fresh reboot: but soon continues again. Stopping/restarting the browsers (tried Chrome, safari, ff) has NO effect.  The behavior has been ongoing for weeks at the least.

What web browsers are you using?

@IronCraftMan  chrome, ff, safari  (updated OP)


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How can I open a port (not application) in the macOS Sierra firewall?
I am trying to follow up on this thread and to update it for macOS Sierra (and probably all versions since Yosemite).
In that thread, a way to open a single port in the OS's firewall was suggested:
sudo ipfw add 40000 allow tcp from any to any dst-port portnum

However, since Yosemite, ipfw was replaced with pf and, unless I am mistaken, pfctl should therefore be used.
What would the above command translate to?

To open a port you would use the following line(s):
pass in proto tcp from any to any port 40000
pass in proto tcp from any to any port 80
pass in proto {tcp, udp} from any to any port 53
pass in from any to any port 3601

To quick-start pf and open a port with one of the lines above use e.g.:
echo "pass in proto tcp from any to any port 40000" | sudo pfctl -ef -

To test the rule(s) use: sudo pfctl -s rules
After a reboot you would have to enter the command again, because pf is not started automatically.
By default the pf.conf file has no blocking all rule. So even after starting pf with sudo pfctl -e nothing is blocked.
If you don't want to dive deeply into pf/pf.conf/pfctl, I recommend to use a pfctl GUI like the free Murus Lite to configure pf.

Mac OS Sierra keeps complaining about pfctl interfering with internal firewall by flushing rules that have been set on startup. What? Are there different firewalls? How come? ... As a conclusion this sounds pretty ridiculous to me as it renders to be unnecessarily painful to do something as simple as open a port for incoming connections, in my case to expose homebrewn dnsmasq to local network under Sierra. (With this "application" not listed as application to be enabled the common way.)

@cepharum macOS Sierra provides two different firewalls: pf (no Apple GUI) and the Application Firewall (System Prefs > Security > Firewall). Feel free to ask a separate question covering your problem.


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How to import notes to iPhone
I have an iPhone 6S running 10.1.1 and I have some notes to import to my device. I don't know how to do that. Any help would be appreciated.

You can do that using iCloud Drive or your PC or your mac. Below link has decribed simply how you can do that and which files support. If your file type is not listed in that list, then you have to convert it before importing.
https://support.apple.com/en-lk/HT205793
Thanks


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How to stop photos taken in Notes being saved in Photo library?
I mostly work with Notes app in iOS and every time when I capture an image from Note app specific camera, it saves in Photo library. So after making a note I have to delete few images every time to clean my library. So is there any way of stopping that?

Yes. That is possible in iOS 10 or later version ( I think). However to do that simply you have to turn off a specific option provided in Notes settings.
Method
Goto Settings -> Notes
Then turn off Save Media to Photos. That will solve your problem.

I cannot find settings in notes app?

Not in Notes app. Just goto Settings in iOS.


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Source Control for iWork Files
Bottom Line - Source Control for iWork files in organised folder structure.
Background -
Our work has moved to iWork as the primary office suite. And one of my irks is that we have way too many emails with files as attachments flying back and forth.
I tend to download the attachments and put into the respective folders on my local drive for reference. For example, my Documents folder has multiple folders with project names as folder names and holds files inside.
Solution vision -

Every time I download an attachment, rename the attachment with the date as prefix - I can solve this using Hazel, kindof.
If the downloaded item is edited, create a copy of the old document and rename the new document with newly edited date - a little tricky.

OR
A local repository which does source control for the Mac, as I can't use third party cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive or iCloud.
Tools available - Applescript, Hazel, Alfred, Better Touch Tool. Can buy new tools if needed.

Why can't you use third party cloud services? Maybe setting up owncloud on your own server would be an option?

Work policy do not let me put files on the cloud


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Macbook Pro keyboard does not work on startup
I'm having this issue since morning. Certain keys on my keyboard don't work when I try to type in my password. A few work and others don't. So I went on safe mode and changed it to no password.
The problem is that my keyboard works perfectly once I've logged into my MacBook Pro. I can type this entire paragraph properly but only only the login screen my keys don't work.
What is wrong with my MacBook Pro?

What version of macOS are you using?   And have you tried resetting the PRAM and/or SMC?

I would reset both the System Management Controller and PRAM/NVRAM.
Reset the SMC
Instructions for resetting your System Management Controller (SMC) will depend on whether your MacBook Pro runs from a built-in battery or a removable battery.
As your question doesn't provide the exact model, use the relevant instructions below:
SMC 1 - For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own (i.e. it's a built-in battery), here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

SMC 2 - For MacBook Pros, MacBooks etc that you can remove the battery from, here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Disconnect the MagSafe plug (power cable) from the computer
Remove the battery
Press the power button for 5 seconds and release
Put the battery back in
Reconnect the MagSafe cord (or power cable)
Turn your computer back on with the power button

Reset your PRAM/NVRAM
Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). It may be worth you also resetting this. Here’s how to:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).
Give these a go and let us know how you go.

I figured out the issue, which seemed to occur due to a video game I would have running when I shut the laptop. Because it (the video game) was in fullscreen mode, apparently the cursor and keyboard input were still functioning through the game rather than the login screen.
Pressing Cmd-Tab to cycle windows changed my keyboard/mouse over to the login screen. Even though it wasn't actually visibly changing screens, the cursor would disappear and reappear each time I pressed those keys.


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Is it useful to upgrade MacBook Pro to 16GB RAM?
How does an additional 8GB of RAM impact performance for the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro?
It is used for graphic-heavy apps — Sketch, Design, Photo and image editing and to power a LG 21" display.
Does the additional RAM help improve display performance or does more RAM mean apps will not run out of memory?

Keep in mind hardware shopping is off topic here. If you're looking how to measure ram usage - that's fine but keep in mind software for graphics generally stresses the gpu and CPU and not so much ram. Also, with virtual memory, you can run way past the 8 GB in practice with swap to SSD and memory compression.

I suggest asking this question on HardwareReccomendations.SE. That site is perfect for this question.

Excellent edit. I look forward to getting some answers - thanks for addressing the scope.

With the GPU - the extra RAM won't make any graphics faster in my opinion. Running "out" of memory isn't something that virtual memory allows - and when you start to get under memory pressure the apps can release memory to the system and the system starts to slow down as memory swaps. At some point, performance suffers - but I'm having a hard time justifying cases where 16 GB of RAM is the "straw that breaks the performance camel's back".
I'm in the process of evaluating this for our company. Traditionally we have predominantly maxed out memory in our MacBook Pro fleet, but I'm probably going to split our orders 50 / 50 to see if we really need 16 GB RAM for our pro users.
Even our photo department processing 50 to 100 megapixel images in Capture One or Lightroom - we're struggling to justify more than 8 GB of RAM.
Once we have about 10 of each model, we will re-measure the RAM needs. My suspicion is we're being overly cautious and could go 90% smaller RAM and 10% larger RAM.
The reasons for this are:

The apps we need just aren't RAM hungry with the better frameworks and memory management on macOS.
The penalty of swapping to the NVMe based SSD is no longer a deal breaker for people that only occasionally push their Macs into memory pressure makes this a slight slowdown as opposed to a crawl when swapping used to hit HDD storage.
Statistically - our fleet of Macs just doesn't enter memory pressure.

Basically, when our developers and designers are waiting - it's for file transfer, for network and the machines aren't the bottleneck to productive work. Yes - I can benchmark situations where I can exhaust memory, but in practice - people in that situation know they have too many other chrome tabs open, or outlook has hung on them or there is a memory leak and they can log out and clear that issue for days to come.
Unless you 100% know you have to run multiple OS at the same time, are a heavy windows user (we have some that allocate 4 to 6 GB of RAM to a PC and still work fine with 8 GB of RAM! on the Mac) the chance that you need 16 GB of RAM is slim. I would advise most people to spend that extra $$ on AppleCare or on new software or on books and training to make you more efficient rather than being "safe" with the maxed out RAM.

Has anything changed in the ~7 months since you answered this question? Is 16 GB still a good idea for "future proofing" my Mac?


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How to open "BigTIFF" files?
I'm looking for some software that would open BigTIFF files on a mac - ones that are 6GB or bigger. (I'm not opposed to writing some code to do so, but I'd prefer a prewritten solution.)
Does macOS have any built-in software to handle this sort of thing? If not, are there any commonly-used external programs or libraries that I could employ?
I just need to view the images and be able to zoom in - I don't need to edit them.
NOTE:
Just to be clear, I am not wanting to view large TIFF images. I am specifically referring to bigTIFF images. If you are not familiar with these, please refer to http://bigtiff.org/

Yes, macOS includes the Preview app which can open large TIFF images.
By default, the Preview app is located within your Applications folder.
The Preview app actually offers a lot of functionality, including:

opening images and PDFs
editing images and PDFs
signing documents
sharing files
annotation

For more details, see this page.
If I've misunderstood your question, please feel free to clarify it.

Are you sure Preview would handle >6 GB TIFF images? For me, it looks like Preview loads the whole file into memory. And what do PDFs and signing have to do with bigTIFF?

@Monomeeth - Based on your answer, I'm guessing you're not super familiar with bigTIFF images (which is totally normal - I had never heard of them until two days ago.) There's some info about them here: http://bigtiff.org/

@techraf To be honest I haven't opened a TIFF image larger than 6GB, but I do regularly open TIFF images in the order of 3.5GB. Preview often looks like it stops responding (even to the point the spinning beachball disappears) but then after a few minutes the image appears fine. Zooming in/out also works, after the initial zoom which takes a little while. Of course, the amount of RAM and type of storage you have will have a big impact on response and open/save times.

There's a technical difference between 3.5 GB and 4.5 GB TIFF.

@mchen.ja I was starting to suspect that, as I just noticed you rolled back my edit to your question. Also, I did think there was a 4GB file size limit in terms of TIFF image sizes, although that may only be a limit with Adobe Photoshop (which will work with 6GB+ images but won't save any larger than 4GB). I also know many image viewers don't support more than 30,000 pixels in either direction (height v width). Thanks for the link to bigtiff.org (I suggest you edit your question in order to clarify exactly what you're trying to do).

@Monomeeth - I found a link to a zip file of some example files here: http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/bigtiff/BigTIFFSamples.zip (which is linked at the bottom of the page here: http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/bigtiff.html). I can verify that preview wasn't able to open the example images.

@Monomeeth - hmm... I thought my question was clear. I welcome any edits that you'd like to make to clarify the question, as long as it's clear that I'm looking for something to open BigTIFF files (rather than simply large TIFF files.)

@mchen.ja Thanks for the link. Do you happen to know where I can get a sample BigTIFF file that's over 6GB in size? The other samples are very small and I've found a solution that can open them, but I have my doubts how well it would work with files of the size you're talking about.

@Monomeeth I don't, unfortunately. Thanks for the help though.

Update for Sonoma: Preview does open the bigTIFF sample files.

Answer from 2023: the command line utility convert from ImageMagick was able to convert a BigTIFF file to other formats (such as png)
You can install convert / ImageMagick using Homebrew.

Try Graphic Converter, my go-to photo and graphic app for many years, handles some tough tasks.

Graphic Converter is an excellent package, and will no doubt support BigTIFF in time, but as I've discovered as a result of researching the OP's question, BigTIFF is a new file format that isn't readily supported yet. Specifically, BigTIFF is a variation of the TIFF file format which uses 64-bit offsets and supports file sizes larger than the 4GB limit of the standard TIFF format (which only uses 32-bit offsets.


text:
Keynote delay is longer than 0 seconds
In keynote I want to seamlessly animate a couple slides together with magic move.
However, this seems impossible because even setting the delay to '0' keynote still noticeably delays almost a whole second inbetween animations.
How do I make keynote not delay?


text:
How to present a keynote and start playing itunes music
When I am in that full-screen mode presenting a keynote, using the iTunes media keys seems to just exit the keynote instead of playing a song from iTunes.
How can I play a song from iTunes whilst staying inside the keynote presenter?

You can add the music you want to play to the slide

@Peter it needs to go across slides

Using Automator, AppleScript and a Keyboard Shortcut it is possible.

Open Automator
Create a new Service action
Make sure it receives 'no input' at all programs.
Drop a 'Run AppleScript' action in
Add this code:

tell application "iTunes"
   play track "name-of-song-you-want-to-play"
end tell

Save Automator Service Action
Open System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Services
At the bottom under 'General' you will find the action you just created
Select that item
Push the 'Add Shortcut' button
Press the shortcut you want to use, for example Alt + CMD X

When you are in fullscreen mode and arrive at slide 3. Just press the shortcut you chose. And voila the music will start.

"add this code" - inside the template of do I make the whole file that code?

Inside the Run AppleScript part inside Automator. No separate file needed.

Keynote can play audio across all slides, but it needs to be inserted differently. Rather than using the Media button to insert audio you need to insert your audio via the Document icon and then click the Audio tab, and drop your audio tracking this way.
This audio then becomes a "Soundtrack" and will play across all slides in the presentation.

I don't want audio across all slides, just from the third slide onwards.

Okay could you update your question with this new information?

could you please answer the question I asked? I never even asked about putting music into Keynote.

I think you can do it with AppleScript...


text:
OSX Terminal "last" does not show more logins before todays
In Mac OSX 10.12.1, using Terminal
last

does not show logins before today? I did read the earlier article and tried
sudo last

which did not reveal anything earlier.

From a former responder that deleted their comment, it would seem this is because of logs prior to today being .gz compressed. Really? Is there not a single online capability to see all the logins in an OS X instance's history?

What are the results of- syslog -k Sender login ?

I deleted an answer that was not correct. According to man wtmp on macOS 10.12.1, "These files no longer exist in 10.5 or later. /var/run/utmp, /var/log/wtmp, /var/log/lastlog".

The result of the syslog confirms what Christopher is saying: NOTE:  Most system logs have moved to a new logging system.  See log(1) for more information.

last works in Sierra like in all older OS X systems equipped with ASL.
Here is an example of a Sierra VM (first light: installed: Sep 20, 2016):
user  ttys001                       Fri Dec  9 02:31   still logged in
user  ttys000                       Fri Dec  9 02:30   still logged in
user  console                       Fri Dec  9 02:30   still logged in
...
reboot    ~                         Wed Sep 21 00:01
user  console                       Tue Sep 20 22:18 - crash  (01:42)
reboot    ~                         Tue Sep 20 22:18
user  ttys000                       Tue Sep 20 22:08 - crash  (00:09)
_mbsetupuser  console               Tue Sep 20 22:01 - crash  (00:17)
user  console                       Tue Sep 20 22:00 - crash  (00:17)
reboot    ~                         Tue Sep 20 21:59

You can check any misbehavior of last/ASL with Terminal.app:
Open a new shell and enter sudo opensnoop -n last, then open a tab with ⌘T and enter last.
In the first tab you should get something like:
  UID    PID COMM          FD PATH
  501   7281 last           3 /dev/dtracehelper
  501   7281 last           3 /var/log/asl
  501   7281 last           4 /var/log/asl/2016.12.04.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          -1 /var/log/asl/2016.12.04.U0.asl
  501   7281 last           5 /var/log/asl/2016.12.04.U501.asl
  501   7281 last           6 /var/log/asl/2016.12.05.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          -1 /var/log/asl/2016.12.05.U0.asl
  501   7281 last           7 /var/log/asl/2016.12.05.U501.asl
  501   7281 last           8 /var/log/asl/2016.12.06.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          -1 /var/log/asl/2016.12.06.U0.asl
  501   7281 last           9 /var/log/asl/2016.12.06.U501.asl
  501   7281 last          10 /var/log/asl/2016.12.08.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          -1 /var/log/asl/2016.12.08.U0.asl
  501   7281 last          11 /var/log/asl/2016.12.08.U501.asl
  501   7281 last          12 /var/log/asl/2016.12.09.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          -1 /var/log/asl/2016.12.09.U0.asl
  501   7281 last          13 /var/log/asl/2016.12.09.U501.asl
  501   7281 last          14 /var/log/asl/BB.2017.09.30.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          15 /var/log/asl/BB.2017.10.30.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          16 /var/log/asl/BB.2017.11.30.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          17 /var/log/asl/BB.2017.12.31.G80.asl
  501   7281 last          18 /var/log/asl/Logs
  501   7281 last          18 /var/log/asl/StoreData
  501   7281 last           3 /etc/localtime
  501   7281 last           3 /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC

which shows all files opened/read by last. Quit opensnoop by entering: ^C.
If you don't get a similar output check your ASL subsystem (e.g. asl.conf or the launch daemons com.apple.syslogd/com.apple.aslmanager)/the folder /var/log/asl and repair everything if necessary.

Results from opensnoop on 10.12.1: dtrace: system integrity protection is on, some features will not be available and 33 of these: dtrace: error on enabled probe ID 5 (ID 188: syscall::open:return): invalid user access in action #11 at DIF offset 24. 33 corresponds to the files shown in the answer. Why that message? Results from last: good logins since Sep, 2016. Why not since Sep 2015 when I first logged in (upgrades)? How do we find bad logins?

@Christopher I disabled SIP to get the opensnoop result. In my physical Mavericks install I get only the logins etc of the last ~one year (Dec 02, 2015-Dec 09, 2016) though I never reinstalled/deleted anything since Jan '14. You should convert your comment questions in one or several real ASE question here... ;-)

Regarding _mbsetupuser see this question.


text:
Will there be consequences or issues if I install XQuartz?
I need to install XQuartz to install Inkscape, a vector graphics application.
May I know if issues would come when I install XQuartz? I'm new to OS X and I find the need to install an application to install another application unusual.

It's absolutely fine, it's essentially a standalone application that you can uninstall again anytime. Except when you're running Inkscape, you'll never know it's there.
In fact, XQuartz used to come on the OS X install DVD (though it wasn't installed by default), but like Java and Flash, Apple just prefer not to package and ship those things with the OS any more, and require you to install it separately direct from the developer.
If you're still not sure, there is a native port of Inkscape in progress that doesn't require XQuartz, but it was a little buggy last time I tried.

Thanks. Can I know what bugs you encountered with the native port of Inkscape?

Only specific thing I can immediately remember is that it took a very long time to start up. I haven't tried it in 6 months though, so I expect they've fixed up a lot since then. You can see the current official list of known issues on the download page.

Great. I'll probably use the version that needs XQuartz. I frequently use Inkscape. Thanks again.

On second thought, could these problems happen when I install XQuartz? http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/260430/xquartz-crashing-in-infinite-loop-el-capitan-edition?rq=1
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/238126/terrible-fonts-on-external-display-after-installing-xquartz?rq=1

All I can say is that I've never seen that error. Judging by the responses and an internet search for similar issues, it seems it's most likely to happen if you've previously installed some other version of XQuartz, or have installed it from a different source such as Fink, both of which might have made changes to configuration files in your home directory that cause the latest version to fail.


text:
Corrupt Mac filesystem partition
I'm having exactly the same issue in this question:
How can I mount partition disk0s4 that became inaccessible after a clean installation of Mountain Lion?
Has anyone found a solution please?

This is the same link in the question.
The partition that I have has 'none' filesystem, and I need to change it to HFS. I tried fsck, fdisk, testdisk and others, none worked.

I'm aware it's the same link as in your question. You have added no further information at all, not even which of the myriad solutions there you tried & what precisely happened when you did; hence my close-vote.

Nothing in the discussion in this link worked for me. It does not seem it worked for the owner of the question either. What I'm asking now is: has anyone found anything other than what's on this webpage? Or: has anyone found a solution!

Then the way to raise attention would be to set a bounty, or post a new question [as stated in the delete reason on your answer on that question [high rep users can see deleted answers, btw]] - at least containing some detail that differentiates it from what is currently an exact duplicate.

Thank you for the explanation. My account here is new. This happened just when I decided to move to ubuntu. I'll just forsake my data and format the drive. Thank you for your time.


text:
Use iphone to connect to Wi-Fi and share connection to USB
How to share Wifi connection from iphone to mac?
I would like to know if an Iphone can share its Wi-Fi internet connection over its USB connection.(IE Use the phone as a wifi card for a mac)

This is the wrong place for this question. But yes, it is possible. Activate "Settings -> Personal Hotspot" on the device. Than find "iPhone USB" in your macs System Preferences -> Network

No, that is not possible, at least not without jailbreaking or a dedicated app. I do not really know, if apps are allowed to create an network interface over USB.

So the iphone can only use the personal to share an internet connection from 3G/4G?

yes, only the mobile network connections can be shared. I don't know if this is just a software restriction (jalibreak could break that then) or the wifi adapter actually isn't capable of doing these two things at the same time.


text:
iPhone 3.5mm Audio jack specification (buttons)
I have done some research in regards to this but I seem to get conflicting requirements.
So Android defines and have published a specification for this.
https://source.android.com/devices/accessories/headset/plug-headset-spec.html
Apple on the other hand, I am unable to find out if they publish this information.
I have also found out that some Android headset (3 button) does not seem to be compatible with iPhones.
Does anybody know what methods Apple iPhone devices use for 3 button detection?
Is there somewhere a publish specification released?

It should be very similar, but you could always measure the resistance of the pins.

Apple will give you the information to work with/duplicate the "Headset Remote and Mic" (aka the little box on each pair of EarPods that have the three buttons and microphone) if you join their MFi program, as noted in the MFi FAQ and on BoingBong when the three-button setup first came out. I haven't seen anyone online reverse-engineer it and publish information about how it works.


text:
What does "unauthorized attacks" mean in the iOS Security Guide?
First of all, are there authorized attacks?
I'm a beginner iOS developer and I just started reading the Apple's security guide and almost chocked on my sandwich.
Does this not imply that my app's data (or my personal data for that matter) can be accessed with these "authorized attacks"?

Yes, if you authorize someone to "attack" your iOS device - that would be an authorized "attack".
This is not so far-fetched or unrealistic as it sounds. Many companies do purchase services from security vendors to do authorized "attacks" on their servers and devices in order to ensure that they have sufficient security.
However, you're reading too much into the text if you think that it states that an authorized attack will succeed just because it is authorized. That doesn't make any sense.
So all in all, nothing new, nothing to be alarmed about, and nothing that is specific for iOS devices which is not true of any other device.


text:
What happens if I plug a 2016 MacBook Pro into itself?
The charging cable on the 2016 MacBook Pro is USB-C both ways, allowing me to plug the MacBook into itself. What happens if I do this?

Please refrain from speculations when adding an answer.

Since nothing special happens when you connect it to another macbook pro I expect nothing happens when you connect it to itself, I just don't dare to try it with mine :#

I love this question. At best, nothing good will happen, at worst, something bad will happen. But curiosity is such a powerful human driver.

The new MacBook Pros have circuitry in all USB-C ports so that the charger can be plugged into any port.
Plugging a two-way USB-C cable will just make the device think that it's charging as technically there is a power source coming from one of the ports into the other.
It doesn't actually charge anything but the reporting is what's making the battery icon show 'charging'.

??? So it's charging itself or what?

I tried it to plug the macbook pro 2019 or 2020 (not M1) into it self, showed charging and seemed fine so I undid the connection left it running on my desk came back 2 hours later and now it wont start, so I tried charging it for 2 hours, then I tried all the key combinations with no affect.  About to call apple care will post when I learn more. So more detailed information of circumstances and what I have already tried. My charging cable was getting worn out on near the ports so I put on swapped it with a new C to C just incase it was just a bad charging cable, did not help and I have a firmware password so probably explains why none of the keyboard tricks work and finally I scanned the SSD from my other macbook using a thunderbolt 2 dongle to usb c with no errors in diskutility.

White this is very interesting, I can’t recommend you to charge any device using USB-C in any other way than the original follow chargers unless specific mention in the instructions. I do wonder what happens when the port gets more adopted. Think many people are going to ruin their stuff by accident do to quick ideas how they can charge

A little update, it ended up being a completely unrelated issue.  The motherboard more or less died.  It wasn't related to being plugged into itself.  Just coincidence that it died two hours later.

We just tried it with my friends laptop
It charges itself (well... it thinks it does)

It probably will detect it as a short circuit and shut down. I would not do it, if I were you.

It absolutely wouldn't cause a short circuit.

I tried it, my macbook became sentient and now thinks it a unicorn!!!! I am so sad senny I didn't take your advice ... hep!


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Do computer mice really feel different when used on a MacBook? Will using a mouse specialized for Macs feel any different?
I own a new MacBook Pro and I've been using it without a mouse since I brought it out of the box.
I tried to use the wireless mouse (not Bluetooth, connected to the laptop using a receiver plugged in a USB port) I used on my old laptop. However, it felt different. It was somehow slower. The cursor didn't move as fast as  the cursor moves in Windows.
Is it really like this?
I found out that Apple sells a Bluetooth mouse called "Magic Mouse" for their devices. Will using that feel any different?

Did you adjust the mouse pointer acceleration settings in System Preferences? In general, I've found no significant difference between OS X and Windows when using a generic, third-party mouse. However, a mouse that uses a proprietary wireless dongle (e.g. many Logitech models) will of course only be as good as its OS X drivers.

No wonder. It feels the same as Windows now. Thanks! It's a Logitech mouse. What do you mean with it only being as good as its OS X drivers? Oh, and is there any way to disable natural scrolling only when there is a mouse?

Apparently it's just a difference in the mouse pointer acceleration.
It can be adjusted in System Preferences > Mouse > Then adjust the tracking speed.
Thanks calum_b.


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Is it possible and safe to uninstall pre-installed apps and to reinstall them when needed?
Is it okay to uninstall apps that came with my Mac like iMovie and GarageBand? I don't think I'll be using GarageBand so I'm planning to uninstall it.
Additionally, if there would be a time I may need it, is it possible to reinstall the app?
Thanks.

iMovie and GarageBand are not necessary to the system and you may delete them at will. However, note that many other apps that come preinstalled on macOS are important to the system (even if it doesn't seem like it) and should not be deleted. As Steve Chambers commented below, though, macOS won't let you delete anything that falls into this category, assuming you aren't doing anything to get around that.
If your Mac was purchased after October 1, 2013, you can re-download the iLife and iWork apps (pictured below) for free at any time from the Mac App Store. Also, regardless of that, if you see them in the Purchased tab of the Mac App Store, that means you do have a “license” for them and can download them at any time.

Also note that if an app is considered necessary to the system you can't delete it. And if you try you will get an error message to that effect. For some reason Mac OS thinks "Chess.app" is necessary... sigh.

@SteveChambers It does seem silly! As I understand it, it's not that any app necessarily relies on it, but rather that when you next update, the updater could get confused when it doesn't find the app there.


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Already downloaded app re-downloading on iTunes

I just downloaded a game on iTunes name Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch. Now this app is downloading again on iTunes! What should I do to cancel this re-downloading? It's a big size app and I don't want to download again. How can I cancel this download?

Where do you download the game, on your iPhone/iPad or on your computer? Are you sure it isn't just an update which gets loaded?

It's not an update. First time downloaded on iTunes and then next day the app started re-downloading again. Can't find any way to cancel that download.


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Show all reminders in notification center
The Reminders widget for Notifications Center on macOS Sierra only seems to show today's reminders.
I create a lot of reminders that don't always have a deadline or alarm set on them.
How can I show all of these all the time in the notifications center?

You could make your own app with a today widget that accesses the Reminders from the Reminders app and displays all of them; this actually wouldn't be too hard to do.

@owlswipe Hey, that's a good idea!  Maybe a Watch extension, too.  I think I might give that a try....

@fsb Thanks :D. You could get fancy and add a way to check-off reminders as well as a shortcut button to create new ones.

@owlswipe Um...I'm not that good :-)

@owlswipe does apple really provide no way to do this themselves?

@theonlygusti I highly doubt they do. Their widgets aren't the most customizable.


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iPhone Dies with 80% Battery Remaining
My iPhone 5 runs out of power very quickly. First it was 50%. Then it was 60%, then 70%, and now 80%. At 80%, the phone will shut down like it would when the power gets to 0%. When it powers back on, it says 80%. It's almost like the limit of when to shut the phone off was, and still is getting to a higher percentage.
However, the phone is unusable. Not only does it run out of power quickly, it also drains power at a ridiculous rate. In half an hour, with wifi enabled and the screen off, it takes about half an hour to turn off. When I'm using it, it takes 10-15 minutes after a full charge to die. What's the cause of this issue, and how can I fix it?

The way you phrased the question, it is unclear what you are asking. It sounds like a bad battery. Take it into an Apple Store or Apple authorized service provider and see if they can fix the problem or replace the battery.

If it's a 5, it's at least 3.5 to 4 years old, your battery is likely at End of life and needs to be replaced.  They will not recharge forever.

It's the battery's fault! See my answer below.

While the iPhone 6s has a service plan - reduced cost replacement1 for having an issue where the battery reaches an end-of-life state after around a year of use (causing the battery to die at ~30%), older iPhones normally reach this state when their batteries grow old and tired (lithium-ion batteries can only be recharged so many times before they become unable to hold most of the original charge). Your iPhone 5 has a 3-3.5-year-old battery2, and thus it's the battery's fault that the phone is dying so quickly.
The only fix is to replace your iPhone's battery, something you can safely attempt yourself following this video or bring your phone to the Apple Store to have them do it (cost is usually 80-100 dollars without AppleCare).
1 The battery malfunctions are blamed on a manufacturer leaving the batteries exposed to ambient air too long; note that it is not a safety issue, merely a convenience issue. Recall information here.
2 Based on a release date of September 2014.
tl;dr: It's the old battery's fault, bring it to an Apple Store and get them to replace the battery to fix the issue.


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Is there a way to flip the functionality of the green full screen / maximize button?
As we all know, clicking the green traffic light button on the windows in mac osx enter the app into fullscreen mode.
Doing an Option + Click makes the window usually resizes to the to the maximum possible size.
I rarely use fullscreen, only for iTunes I think, and sometimes mail.
I use Option + Click all of the time.
My question is - is there a way to flip the functionality of the green button, so Click does the Option+Click function, and vice versa.
I'm on the latest Sierra.
Thanks.