text:
Saving macOS Catalina Screen Recordings Cache to External Drive
Im macOS Catalina, screen recordings are temporarily stored in ~Library/ScreenRecordings before being saved on the target location. However, on systems with minimal available system storage, this can cause the recording to stop when disk space is full. Is there any way to link ~Library/ScreenRecordings to an external drive such as /Volumes/External\ Drive/ScreenRecordings?
I have tried using symbolic links, however the screen recording crashed immediately. Is there any other way to do this?

You can try the following option:
$ cd ~/Library/Containers/
$ mv com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/ com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX.backup/
$ ln -s /Volumes/<NAME_OF_VOLUME>/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/ .

If the above option didn't help, then I would suggest you to:
Check the first comment on this page shared by bmike.

As of macOS Catalina, the screen recordings are stored in ~/Library/ScreenRecordings. This change was due to the fact that Apple introduced a system wide screen recording utility, called Screenshot located in /Applications/Utilities/Screenshot.app. Creating a symbolic link at ~/Library/ScreenRecordings caused the Screenshot app to crash, but using QuickTime to start the screen recording successfully used the symbolic link at ~/Library/ScreenRecordings pointing to the external drive. Is there any reason why the Screenshot app does not work with symbolic links and QuickTime does?


text:
What causes my Macbook to spontaneously shut down?
Out of the blue today, my Macbook Pro 2015 15", running macOS Catalina 10.15.2, shut down while I was using it.
Since then, for the past half hour or so, I haven't been able to keep it on for longer than a minute or so. It either spontaneously shuts down, requiring me to manually turn it back on, or it spontaneously restarts. Now (a day later) it only spontaneously shuts down. It doesn't restart itself.
This happens when it is plugged into the charger and when it is simply running on battery. This also happens while only headphones are connected to the MacBook, or while no peripherals are connected.
Apple Diagnostics shows "No issues found."
I have tried resetting SMC and NVRAM.
Additionally, when starting up I notice weird graphical glitches, for example a white bar sometimes appears on the left side of the screen, or the apple logo repeatedly resizes itself, or a regular pattern of white rectangles appears across the whole screen.
I got a picture of that:

This flashes onto the screen after the first apple logo appears.
The Macbook does not spontaneously shut down or restart when I boot it into Recovery Mode or Safe Mode.
However, there are also graphical glitches in both of these modes; look at the terminal tabs in Recovery Mode:

Moving the mouse cursor over the tabs causes them to scintillate randomly, rectangular monochrome patterns. and glitches.
Exactly the same graphical glitch happens to Finder tabs in Safe Mode.
Why does my Macbook restart like that after I've booted it normally? How do I resolve this problem?

I assume you have run your MBP on Safe Mode too? Do you still get the same issue after rebooting back from Safe Mode?

Great :). I will post the answer relevant to it so other people can get the solution if they faced a similar issue. Now, once you are back in your normal mode, if it doesn't reboot then we are in good shape but if it appears, then let me know.

But you cannot stay in safe mode forever, shouldn't you find out the third party kernel that causes the issue? https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/310758/313842

@ankii, Third party kernel extensions are not loaded when booted to macOS Recovery, so I doubt that has anything to do with the issue. Probably a hardware issue.

@theonlygusti: just trying to followup so I can give you the solution that I know. After you came back from Safe boot mode, does your computer still reboot ? or it stopped. If not, as suggest by Ankii, you have to look for 3rd p kexts which is creating issue.

Are there any crash reports?

@Udhy problem started happening again. Maybe the Safe Mode boot temporarily fixed it? For almost an hour (although the first normal boot after safe mode also crashed)

@user3439894 there are no crash reports, or errors/notifications etc. of any kind

Are the fans working? How hot is the MBP getting. A spontaneous full shutdown can be hardware related, and in light of the fact there are no reports, I'd be looking in that direction.

@user3439894 is it possible for a hardware problem to be the cause? Why doesn't it happen when I boot into recovery or safe mode?

I'd be looking for a heat problem. Get a fan on your machine. Get some space between you mac and the table top. There are some third party heat monitors. Get. fyi: In safe mode, the video chip isn't being used.

RE: " I just noticed though that my click feels extremely different to how it should: feels jarring sharp and makes a really loud harsh clicking noise even though I have silent clicking enabled (used to be really soft)" ... If you are referring to the built-in Trackpad, then it could be a battery swelling issue.

@user3439894 the fans work. Idk how hot the Macbook is when it crashes (how do I find that out?) I noticed just now my trackpad click feels inconsistent

I've seen similar behavior, spontaneous shutdown/reboots and graphic glitches on a MBP with a bad battery. If you take the edge of a ruler to especially the bottom of the case and it doesn't make flat contact from edge to edge and in between, or it can rock back and forth then the battery is most definitely swelling and putting undue pressure where is shouldn't have pressure being applied. This can cause all sorts of issues. Have a look at https://support.apple.com/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall to see if you qualify, if the battery is indeed swelling.

@user3439894 do you know why it doesn't happen in recovery or safe boot mode? i would expect a battery problem to cause issues there too

@user3439894 thanks for all the help. Indeed there are small gaps under a flat edge when I run it along the bottom case, so the bottom case is slightly concave. My bottom case has looked a bit beaten up since quite a long time, has a couple dents and scratches, so I wouldn't know whether a swelling battery causes the uneven surface. When I've saved all my important data I'll just try a fresh OS install.

Your symptoms are either a bad driver / os for the video subsystem or a hardware failure.
In case of hardware, safe mode will often run since it doesn’t ask as much of the video system which runs in a fail safe / basic mode. Also, it can slow down the rendering so you can easily see the failure modes or grab a screen shot.
Before paying for a repair, consider charting how often this happens and back up / erase install to be sure this is the hardware / vram failing.
As to the shutdown, unless there’s a severe failure, you should get. A kernel panic, but if the logs show no events and no panics, then that’s another reason to suspect hardware failure.
Since your mac won’t run more than 5 minutes in normal mode, why not back it up in safe mode and try an erase install. If your Mac can’t reinstall itself, then you know it’s repair time. If it can, you’ll be back in business

There are no relevant files in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. Is there another log location I should have checked?

I look at the whole console - /var/log/system.log will help you pinpoint the boot time as will last reboot @theonlygusti

I find it hard to read the /var/log/system.log file, I don't know what everything means and don't know what to look for. At a glance however, I don't see anything that stands out to me as an error. I read the lines near the timestamps returned by last reboot

How are you reading the file if it shuts down in a minute?

I am just using Safe Boot mode. Everything (that I have tried so far, except audio output) works fine in Safe Boot mode.

Time to back up and erase install, then @theonlygusti - bummer if it’s hardware.
But at least you’ll know

Yeah I hope  won't be. Is the best way to do that using recovery mode "reinstall macOS" or however the option is called?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
how to reduce Normal Boot's graphical performance (so that it copies Safe Boot's)?
I am having an issue recently which causes my MacBook Pro 2015, 15", to spontaneously (and randomly?) shut down.
These shut downs do not happen in Recovery Mode or Safe Boot.
Here is my MacBook information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Processor 2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Temporarily, before I am able to identify and fix the root cause, I would like to continue using my laptop.
I suspect the reason the shut downs don't happen in Safe Boot is because its graphical performance is limited. I am therefore hopeful that similarly reducing Normal Boot's graphical performance will help me use my MacBook again.
I would like to at least try, as it may be further helpful to identify the root of the problem anyway.
How can I limit Normal Boot's graphical performance?

You're going to have to be more specific as to which model - IG or DG most importantly, if you have a GPU fail [which could be likely]

@Tetsujin I have added some information to the question. Let me know if you still need more (I don't actually know what IG and DG are)

There's 'Integrated' & 'Dual' Graphics. tbh, I'm not certain exactly how each reports itself to the user. Maybe try Everymac's identifier page - https://everymac.com/mac-identification/index-how-to-identify-my-mac.html

Have you tried a clean install or booting from an external drive? That would at least rule in or out any software issue on the drive itself.

see some it here https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/366555/macbook-pro-2010-crashes-after-waking-up-and-usually-when-launching-a-google-sea/366559#366559

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


text:
How to play audio in Safe Boot?
I am having an issue recently which causes my MacBook Pro 2015, 15", to spontaneously (and randomly?) shut down.
These shut downs do not happen in Recovery Mode or Safe Boot.
Temporarily, before I am able to identify and fix the root cause, I would like to continue using my laptop.
I am actually very happy using Safe Boot for now, I can do almost everything I want to do.
However, I can't figure out how to enable audio output while in Safe Boot mode.
I know it's not really intended, so possible workarounds may be awkward, but how can I hear the sound output from my MacBook while it is in Safe Boot?
The only external speakers I have access to are my iPhone 7's (iOS 13.3) and lots of pairs of headphones (although idk if those count as "external speakers"). I added this information because I wonder if it's possible to stream the sound output through my iPhone perhaps (network connectivity seems to work fine while in Safe Boot), if it is indeed impossible to play audio on the MacBook while in Safe Boot.

afaik, Mac doesn't have a 'selective boot' option like Windows, so forget it until you can get the machine repaired.

"Some audio input or output devices might not work." See if you can use Audio Midi to channel some audio out https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 ← Safe mode support article

@ankii the audio output devices which won't work are the: Internal Speakers, and Headphones (when connected). They don't even show up in System Preferences > Sound. These are the audio output devices I would like to get to work, and the only way I know of outputting audio from a MacBook (without e.g. a bluetooth speaker).

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6173/can-i-play-audio-from-my-iphone-on-my-mac/192910#192910 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/277085/midi-in-audio-out-on-iphone-7 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/269266/how-can-i-use-airplay-to-watch-on-the-television-but-audio-through-my-headphone

There's probably little or no coreaudio support at all in safe mode. It is, by definition, a minimal OS with just enough to troubleshoot. Listening to the radio is not high on the list of priorities at that point.

I have the exact same problem with my 15" mid-2010 MacBook Pro.  It does not suddenly reboot when in Safe Boot-- only in the normal boot.  Apple is aware of this problem but will not assign even one engineer to look into this problem as I have been complaining to them for over 6 years about this.
I was told that possibly the battery needs to be changed-  but Apple stopped making batteries for this model years ago.

Apple aren't going to spend time fixing a problem on a 10 year old Mac that they don't sell anymore. You can get third-party batteries. They are a bit of a lottery, but they're your only hope for vintage equipment.


text:
How to test what my audio output latency is on MacBook?
I am trying right now to test my auditory reaction time using a script I wrote at the command line (using the classic echo -ne '\007' beep).
I am getting reaction times always greater than 340 ms. When I try this with a visual prompt (echo go) instead, I am getting about 280 ms.
Apparently human audio reaction time should be faster than visual reaction time (according to lots of published studies).
Of course, it could be that my visual reaction time is faster, but how can I check what my MacBook audio output latency actually is?

You really cannot measure the latency "through" the OS because of the overhead of queuing and managing the processes.  To be "more accurate" you'd need to write a program that could directly access the kernel so that you could evaluate the actual time between events - the beep and the keypress.
However, you can get fairly close in bash by using the time function. I've created a basic bash script that will prompt the user to press Enter after waiting for a beep to occur after a random period.
# generate a random number between 3 and 10 for seconds to wait for beep
t=$(( ( RANDOM % 10 ) + 3 ))

echo "When you hear the beep, press Enter!"
echo
echo

sleep $t

# beep the computer and get the time
time echo -ne '\007'

# wait for keypress and get the time
time read keypress

You'll get three time values twice.  They are defined as:

Real - the time start to finish of the call measured if you had a stopwatch in hand.  This accounts for all processes running at the time.
User - this is the time spent in the user space outside the kernel and is the actual CPU time spent executing the task
Sys - this is the time spent inside the kernel and is also the actual time spent by the CPU.

For more information on this see Real, User and Sys process time statistics.

So, in order of accuracy, Real is in the ballpark, User is pretty darn close, and Sys is dead on balls accurate, as far as the CPU is concerned.
Sample Output:
When you hear the beep, press Enter!

real    0m0.000s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.000s

real    0m0.812s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.000s

In the above example it shows that the latency according to the computers "stopwatch", there was a .812s difference between when I heard the beep and pressed Enter.  The resolution of the time utility is not granular enough to measure the time elapsed to execute each command so we assume it happened "immediately."
Running it again....
When you hear the beep, press Enter!

real    0m0.003s
user    0m0.001s
sys     0m0.002s

real    0m0.924s
user    0m0.001s
sys     0m0.002s

From this one, we can see that there was some overhead that caused the process to account for more time.  If we subtract the top values from the bottom, we can get pretty close to how much time elapsed.
But is it accurate enough?
No.  This is why you need a device called an Audiometer that is a purpose built piece of hardware that measures the time between the two events - sound and keypress.  It's much more accurate because it removes the overhead of the CPU management and gives you a truly accurate elapsed time.

First off - using echo -ne '\007' to play audio is not "low-latency" audio. I.e. this command in itself could take a (relatively) long while to actually play the audio. Therefore using it to measure response times in units of milliseconds is not going to be precise at all.
A way of measuring it would be to use an audio recorder of some sort with known low latency combined with another type of output from the computer with known low-latency. If you have the equipment, you could use for example an oscilloscope with a trigger input. In simpler terms, you could use an iPhone with slo-mo video recording. Then make the program trigger the output (could be a digital I/O or in simple terms showing something on the screen) - and then measure the amount of time before you see the audio in the signal (on the oscilloscope or in the audio track of the video recording).
Various other ways of measuring the latency exist, but the above mentioned is a simple way of getting a measurement that is precise enough to know if your audio delay is really 60 ms larger than your visual delay.


text:
How To Disable JavaScript for a Specific Website in Safari on IOS?
I don't think its possible, but hoping the knowledgeable people here will tell me otherwise. Use-case: I have a website added to my home screen from safari on IOS, and I don't want that specific site to use JavaScript. Other browsers on IOS don't (or more likely aren't allowed to) have the 'add to home screen' functionality, so there ability to selectively disable JavaScript on  a per-site basis is not relevant.

The concept of a Safari content blocker is the perfect way to set this up.
Here is one such app that is programmed to let you use the native iOS browser and selectively block JavaScript - whether it’s a named script or per site.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pro-script/id1275541103

This isn’t something that’s easy to do yourself from iOS without adding programming or a helper. Another avenue would be to install an app that is a browser, just blocks all JS so you would have to open the link first and then send it to this app.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/no-js/id1062685513


text:
One-time purchase iTunes album?
I've been trying to download some WOODKID to my iTunes library.
I don't see how to do this: looks like I need to subscribe to Apple Music?
Is one-time purchase no longer possible?
How am I meant to download a music album to my phone so that I can play it offline nowadays?

Are you choosing to use iOS to complete the purchase? To answer your three questions, no, no, we can only guess.

Looks good here (iTunes Store app on iOS 13):

Great answer. My guess is OP is using the music app instead of the store app, we will have to wait for them to document what they're doing or have someone look over their shoulder and take notes.

Yeah I had no idea iTunes Store was its own app that I had to download (guess I deleted it?) from the App Store. Would be more convenient if the music app bundled this.

@theonlygusti I'm actually glad the Store is a different app, buying and listening isn't the same thing (especially for people who don't buy there music from Apple :-))


text:
Getting warning each time i open browser using Epichrome
I am using Epichrome to have multiple Chrome browsers at the same time. I have three browsers that I made with Epichrome, but each time I open one of them, it gives this warning:

I am using MacOS Catalina (10.15.2) on my MacBook Pro, and the browser I made using Epichrome is called 'Duolingo'.
Does anyone know a fix for this, if not why it is there?

Would this step be useful ?https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/366542/install-spotify-cant-be-opened-because-apple-cannot-check-it-for-malicious-so/366546#366546

I've occasionally seen this myself, but I've never had it happen every time I launch an Epichrome app. The first thing I'd try is this:

Quit all your Epichrome apps.
Run the main Google Chrome and go to the About Google Chrome page. If it shows an update pending, tell it to update and relaunch.
Once you have confirmed Chrome is up to date, try relaunching your Epichrome apps. You might get the warning the first time you run them, but subsequent runs should not show the warning.

If those steps don't help, please open an issue on the Github page, and I'll try to figure out what's going on.

Works fine, thanks. Are you the creator of Epichrome.

Yeah, I'm the creator. Glad that worked for you! By the way, Catalina has screwed up a bunch of other things with Epichrome. I'm working on a new version to fix compatibility.

Cool, thanks. It's the best app ever.

Thank you--I'm glad it's useful to you!


text:
How to get Music to notice changes in mp3s, speficially album covers
I have 2 Macs and I'd like to sync my music collection between them.
I organize my music files myself so the options to "Consolidate files" and "Reorganizes files in the folder Media.localized" are off. "Keep Music Media  folder organized" is off (I'm not actually using the media folder). "Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to Library" is also off. This is because I have machines other than Macs and I try to keep the files synced across all machines.
In one Mac I see an album that is showing no cover. I pick "Get Info" and paste in a new cover image. I see that Music has modified all mp3s in that album and inserted the album cover as meta data directly in the mp3s. I can copy those mp3s to any other machines (Mac/Windows/Linux) and see the album cover is embedded in the mp3s.
I then sync those updated mp3s to another mac. Let's call it MacB. MacB had had the old "no album cover" mp3s but now I've replaced them with the new mp3s with embeded covers. I can see in the finder on MacB the covers are embedded. Example

But Music shows no covers

Clicking an album also shows no cover though if I select a track and choose "Play" there is a cover shown at the top

I tried picking "Music->Add To Library" and selecting my music folder (/Users/me/My Music).
It scanned many things but when it finished no covers.
I tried resetting the Music Media folder.
That seems unrelated although it did scan more things when I clicked it.
I tried deleting my "Music Library.musiclibrary" data.
Restarting Music asked me to setup my music library again. After 10 minutes of scanning all the music showed up but 98% of the albums now had no cover and my playlists were gone (expected but sucks). No idea why a few albums had covers. Music showed some message in the bottom left about something like "Scanning for gapless music" (I don't remmeber the exact message). That went on for about 10 minutes after which the CPU settled down but no album covers appeared.
I restored a backup of my .musiclibrary data so at least I'm back to the state I was in above.

Is there some way I can sync the album covers across machines? Maybe I need to sync the .musiclibrary file? That's scary as I might add new music separately on both machines. Syncing mp3s only that's not an issue but the music db that would be an issue.

I've never found a way since Apple removed the reliance on the xml/itl as a pair & went to itl only. This is how it used to work - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/163594/itunes-moving-itunes-files-self-managed


text:
Using a touchscreen (ipad) without fine motor skills
Before my wife was disabled I did not realise how difficult to use a touch screen actually is - one has to touch an icon (than cannot be enlarged, apparently) for a precise amount of time, without introducing the slightest lateral movement, else instead of triggering a "click" event it does, well, something (moving icons etc).
My wife can just about hit the screen, but she cannot control duration of touch, or keep her finger steady. So even basic interactions with the touch screen are quite impossible.
I tried to fiddle with the accessibility settings to no avail, but then I don't seem to quite understand what they are doing (because they do not seem to do anything useful).
So basically, I am looking for a touchscreen setting that translates a flailing motion into a click. Is there such a thing?
My wife cannot speak, either. I know where I can find the accessibility settings, I just can't find out how to change the settings to do what we need, provided it is even possible.

Can she use Siri?  Here's a list of the built-in accessibility features.

Sorry, forgot to mention. She cannot speak anymore.

ios has several accessibility features that might help you and your wife get the most from the iPad. I would start with touch accommodations, switch control, and assistive touch based on my understanding of where your  challenges and abilities are today.

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/
https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/mobility/


text:
Is there an attention-free way to reboot from MacOS into Bootcamp/Windows?
The standard way to reboot from MacOS into a Bootcamp Windows partition is to restart, hold Option, then manually select the Windows partition. Is there a single Terminal command or menubar application that can do this as well? I'm looking for some kind of single action I can fire off to handle the entire booting-into-Windows scheme.

You are aware you can boot to Windows from System Preferences.

If you are not a serious Windows user, consider to use a VM in macOS.

With System Integrity Protection enabled, this is difficult to accomplish. However, this is not impossible. For example, you can install a third party Boot Manager such as rEFInd. You can then install scripts which can configure rEFInd to instruct the firmware to boot Windows after restarting the Mac.

Note: I do not know how the new T2 Security Chip will restrict the capabilities of rEFInd.

The idea is simple. The process takes place in the following steps.

rEFInd is installed on the Mac in either an EFI, FAT32 or ExFAT partition.
The rEFInd is set to be the default for the firmware to boot.
The rEFInd plain text configuration files are setup to instruct the firmware to boot macOS.
The BASH script command or AppleScript application is installed in macOS.
When this script or application executes, the rEFInd configuration files are modified so Windows will be booted instead of macOS.
You can either restart the Mac or have the script or application do so.


text:
Extra space being deleted after selecting a word?
Frequently I double-click to select a word, then press "delete". Recently it seems the behaviour somehow changed to also delete the space before the word. Is there a way to revert this?
For example (cursor is |, selection is #):

this is some text|

I double-click on "text":

this is some #text#|

Press delete:

this is some|

What I expected:

this is some |

This is by design. If you don’t want the space trimmed, use alt+delete to delete the word.

this is some text|

goes to

this is some |

Is there a way to set this as default behavior?

I'm asking if there's a way to make it not delete spaces without having to press alt.

not that I know of. I didnt even know that space is deleted in selection.


text:
How to get correct bookmark (webloc) icon to show?
Safari Bookmark icons of (.webloc) are only showing generic document icon. How to get correct '@' icon to show?
It's the webloc document created when pulling (drag & drop) URL from Safari address to desktop.

I've seen this article recommended: https://macreports.com/mac-displaying-wrong-generic-document-icons-for-files-folders-fix/ , but it didn't work for me.

Download the correct icon.
Convert it to .icns with CloudConvert.  (Note: If you convert an image to .icns, the image must be 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 48 × 48, 128 × 128, 256 × 256 or 512 × 512)
Right click on the .webloc file and click get info
Drag the .icns file you just made into the icon on the top left corner of get info.

If that doesn't work, let me know.  I'd be happy to help you! :)

I mean, sure, you can give each individual file an icon with the Finder, but that doesn’t answer the question of how to fix this problem with .webloc icons in Catalina, especially if you have dozens or hundreds of .webloc files.

I guess I misread the question.  I thought they just wanted to know how to add an icon in general.


text:
How to show file/window names in Mission Control?
I need to switch between windows often across apps. I have 4 terminals open, 5 projects in Visual Studio Code, 4 github repos open in Sublime Merge, 3 Finder windows, 6 Chrome windows, and on top of that 1 each of Music, Preview, Octave, SlickEdit, TextEdit
I need to switch between VSCode, Sublime Merge, and Terminal most often and to specific windows but as you can see from the screenshot below it's difficult to figre out which window is which

I can hover over each window one at time and it will show a title but it's really tedious to hover over several windows.
Is there a way to get Mission Control to always draw the titles over every window?

I suggest using app exposè, which is the opposite gesture of mission control, generally. Also you can turn on group windows by application in sys pref  > mission control.

How does app exposé help here? I’m switching from say vscode to the terminal or from the terminal to sublime merge. are you suggesting first mission control to select the app followed by app exposé ? That sounds almost as tedious as hovering over all the windows .  Or is there some other flow you’re suggesting?

no I am suggesting what you just said.

Thanks! I will try it. Maybe I'll get used to it.

I have the same problem and found a method that could be helpful:
Check the "Group windows by application" option in Mission control in the system preference. It will group windows of the same application but show the name of the application even if there is only one window. It might be a problem if you need to switch windows within the same application but helps for switching between applications, which is what I need.

Yeah this can do it in some cases.

I keep one app on one desktop, so I switch to the relevant desktop, and use App Exposè which is generally three finger swipe down. It shows the window name below each window and hovering isn't required.

Application name not appearing below thumbnail in mission control unless cursor is on it
What is an efficient way for developers / power users to use OSX window management and Spaces on a single screen?

Multiple desktops are not useful for me. More often than not I need to reference 2 or more things at once. An answer in stackoverflow in Chome will looking at my editor, an image in Photoshop while referencing a youtube video. Watching for error messages in the terminal while editing text in my editor. In the screen above I have a Coursera course where I need to see 1 Octave window, 1 or 2 preview windows and 1 or 2 chrome windows at the same time.


text:
How to access the "Deleted Photos" Album on an XR running iOS 13.3?
I would like to delete the photos in my "Deleted Photos" album right now. I have found several websites advising how to do this, but they all say to open Photos and then to click on the Albums tab, and my problem is that when I click on Photos I don't get an Albums tab! When I open up Photos, I can see thumbnails and then at the bottom of the screen there is an icon that enables things to be done to a selected photo (greyed out because no photo is selected), the words "Select Items", and on the right there is the bin icon. There is no "Albums" tab.
I am able to see the names of some albums by selecting a photo and then clicking on "Add to Album", because that gives me a list of albums in which I can save the photo, but the list doesn't include the "Deleted Photos" album.
How do I get to this Album tab that people talk about? And if it no longer exists in iOS 13.3, how else can I delete the "Deleted Photos" album?
Note: I do not use the iCloud.

Flip the phone so that it's in the vertical orientation. The tabs will appear at the bottom.

I had it in that orientation. The strange thing is, the tabs have appeared now. I wonder why they weren't there before. I'll leave this question up because it was a real issue even if it has gone away, and it might recur.

@ruffle Maybe you've met a bug in the Photos application. Anyway, hiding the tabs is a bad UX practice IMHO.


text:
File transfer between iPhone XR & USB flash drive using lightning cable & female-to-female USB connector?
I know I could get a flash drive with a lightning jack or with both a lightning jack and a USB jack, but is it feasible to transfer files between an iPhone XR running iOS 13.3 and a USB flash drive using a lightning cable and a female-to-female USB connector as follows?
iPhone  lightning to male USB cable  female-to-female USB adaptor USB flash drive

Go with the flow.  Get the combo drive.

This is not likely to work.  The Lightning port on Apple devices work in many ways like the mini-USB On-The-Go ports from older phones and USB-C ports on newer phones.  This means it can act as a USB host or device, just the means by which an iPhone determines which mode it should be in is different than how devices with USB-OTG ports do.
In USB device mode, which happens with a Lightning to USB-A male cable, the iPhone provides no power to the cable.  This means that a female to female adapter which connects the data and power lines will not power the flash drive, and the flash drive will not have power to do anything.  Connecting both to a powered hub so that both the phone and flash drive have power will still leave this USB bus with no host to initiate any communications.
It's unlikely any software on the iPhone will resolve this because the hardware on the phone is simply not made to act as a host when the hardware tells it to go into device mode.
USB from 1.1 on up was made to allow for host-to-device communications and what you describe is a device-to-device connection.  USB 2.0 allows for ports to be switched into either host or device mode, but this is done in hardware.  If there is a means to override this in software then it is violating the spec and could result in damaged hardware, if someone could find the software for this then you run the risk of damaging your iPhone the next time you try to charge it.  USB 3.0 allows for host-to-host communications with the right kind of cable and software but the flash drive is simply not going to act as a USB host.
To make this work will mean violating the USB spec, and running the risk of permanent damage to your phone.  There's going to be at a minimum software checks in the iOS to stop this from working, and quite likely the hardware in the iPhone simply will not enter host mode if it sees a USB-A male cable connected.

I was always under the impression you needed the USB camera adapters for this to work.

Lightning to USB Camera Adapter - https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MD821AM/A
Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter - https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MK0W2AM/A

I can’t seem to find a reference explaining why you need additional chipset to act as a hub or if this is designed into the iOS lightning controller but my hunch is physically connecting as you describe isn’t enough and there isn’t a female to female USB-A part that will work to pass the data correctly.

I've now tried this and the light doesn't come on on the flash drive, so for some reason it isn't getting powered by the iPhone. (But I haven't given up. I'll search for an app that might solve the problem.)

From what I understand, the camera adapter is just an OTG adapter.  A regular USB adapter doesn't have the "logic" to say which device supplies the power.  This device solves that.


text:
How to sync iPhone Voice Memos to the Mac via USB without using iCloud?
I have no interest in iCloud for syncing sizeable data like Voice Memos. It is quickest for me to just connect my iPhone to my Mac via the USB cable and do my syncing that way.
Many changes have occurred in recent times, with iTunes now completely replaced on the Mac.
On Catalina 10.15.2 and iOS 13.3, this is what it currently looks like:
There are many Voice memos on my iPhone:

But on my macOS Finder I do not see a mention anywhere of Voice Memos being present on my iPhone:

Similarly, in my Mac's Music.app there is simply nothing showing up as detected on my iPhone:

As for Voice Memos.app, there appears to be no connection to the iOS counterpart whatsoever, it is empty:

Has Apple abandoned USB transfer functionality between the iPhone and the Mac?
How can I do this? Do we now have to use third party tools like AnyTrans despite these both being Apple devices?

If you do have any voice memos stored on your computer whether from backing it up the old way in iTunes or via iCloud, you can go and hunt for the files inside your computer. However, Apple does not recommend messing with them directly. However, if you do want to find them and be able to, for example, drag and drop them onto a hard drive, you need to search for: "com.apple.voicememos" in Finder. These files are kept hidden in a Libary under your user name. To see them you need to clip Command+Shift+.
Good luck...!

The Voice Memos files the OP is looking for are on an iPhone presently, and need to be transferred to a Macintosh. My answer here at Ask Different shows how to find the files on a Mac.


text:
How to lock a browser with a password/passcode on iPhone?
Is there a way to make a Web browser on iPhone 11 Pro other than Safari to be lockable with a password or a passcode, even by any extension? That is, when you launch the browser, a password is required. The password isn’t asked again while the browser remains open, even in the background. If you close the browser app, then it will ask for the password at the next launch.
Screen Time blocks all browsers but I need to lock only one web browser, not every browser.
Firefox has passcode feature, but only for saved passwords, not opening the app itself.
Additionally, I look for a solution that doesn’t require me to set up a passcode, Touch ID or something similar on the whole iPhone. I want my iPhone to remain unlocked, except for the browser.

See if Firefox focus can fulfil some of the privacy needs? @hydro Or parental controls ?

@ankii the parental controls provide only a workaround with Screen Time that is awkward for my case; and in Firefox Focus I didn’t find anything related to my question.

What is "But I need to lock only a Web browser, and not even any browser." supposed to mean? As currently written it makes no sense at all!

Sorry, @user3439894 English isn’t my first language. I meant that I don’t need to lock every browser, but rather I am looking for some single browser that can be locked this way.

iCab Mobile has had this feature since at least 2012.
iCab » Settings » Account
(iCab is, by far, the most feature-rich browser on iOS. I’ve referred to it as “Safari Pro” for many years.)

Yes, iCab does almost what I need. The only exception is that I have to log out manually every time before closing the app. If I forget to log out, then next time iCab opens the last used account without prompting a password. But it is not a big deal for me.

There is no built-in means to secure only web browsers on iOS with a passcode that wouldn't also affect the entire device.
Consider erasing the iPhone and enrolling it in an MDM, or mobile device manager, such as Jamf Now.
To proceed, you'll need to use Apple's free Configuration Manager 2.
While you can enroll an iOS device into an MDM (not just Jamf) without 'supervising' it, to have the greatest amount of control over the device you should set it as supervised. Note that you cannot restore an unsupervised iOS backup from iTunes, Configurator or iCloud to a supervised device.
Once supervised, enroll the device into Jamf Now and choose a 'blueprint' of security options, including remotely managing ScreenTime and disabling the installation of other apps.

This might work, but it's way overkill when iCab has this feature built-in.


text:
ssh into my local ubuntu virtual machine
I would like to ssh into an Ubuntu virtual machine running on Virtual Box on my machine; use Terminal to ssh into a virtual machine running in the same computer
To avoid "why are you doing that? do so and so" answers, here is why I need this: I need to write desktop automation testing that will run on Amazon EC2 but it is very hard to test due to the network delay caused by using VNC.

https://2buntu.com/articles/1513/accessing-your-virtualbox-guest-from-your-host-os/

Make sure you are using Bridged Adaptor in the VirtualBox settings. User Pinhead reported that Promiscuous Mode should be set to Allow All.

In an Ubuntu Terminal window, enter the command below to see if the proper software is installed
sudo systemctl status ssh

If not, then use the commands below to install.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssh-server

If you do not know the ip address assigned to the Ubuntu virtual machine, then execute the following steps.

Open the Activities overview and start typing Network.
Click on Network to open the panel.
Click on the  symbol. You should see a image similar to the image shown below.

You can use either the IPv4 or IPv6 address.

In a macOS Terminal window, enter the command
ssh <username>@<ip address>

For example, if using the username dma and either of the ip addresses from the above image, then both commands below would work.
ssh dma@192.168.0.115
ssh dma@2001:470:1f11:4a6:281d:ecf9:cd9e:76a8

It worked with promiscuous mode "allow all"

You have three networking options that can solve this.  These are documented in Chapter 6 of the VirtualBox documentation

NAT with port forwarding
Host Only
Bridged

NAT with port forwarding is most similar to what we use every day behind our routers.  In VBox, you can create this NAT network at setup port forwarding from the Preferences Pane.  You can configure port forwarding the same way you would configure it on a router.  In your case, you could forward port 2222 (or whatever free port you like) to 22 on the guest

Host Only Networks is a network in which the Host and the Guests "live" on their own little subnet with their own IP addresses.  VBox creates a software interface on your Mac that allows your machine to see it, but that internal network cannot see anything beyond your host.  Use this when you need to isolate your testing area from your production area.
A Bridged Network is functionally easier to setup, but not ideal if you're working in a secured network environment (like a corporate network).  It uses your host physical network adapter to filter traffic for itself.  It appears on your network as a separate host as if it's not even running as a VM.  While easy to implement, the downside is that if your network admin has policies and procedures against new hardware appearing on the network, there's going to be a lot of hurdles you'll have to jump through to make it work.
Each one has their pluses and minuses.  Since your ultimate goal is to automate processes on an Amazon EC2 instance, which will have a software defined firewall and port forwarding configured, you may want to emulate this setup with NAT and port forwarding.  This way, you can flush out any issues as they arise.


text:
How to replace icon view with list view on an iPhone's home page?
I dislike selecting programs or other files from a grid of icons ("icon view"), even if their titles are shown beneath the icons. I prefer to select from a scrollable list of titles ("list view"), either with no icons present or if unavoidable then only with a very small icon at the start of each line.
Is there a way to make my iPhone XR (running iOS 13.3) use list view rather than icon view on its home page?

No, not without any type of jailbreak.
Apple doesn't allow any changes to the default grid view of their iOS/iPadOS devices.
If you have a jailbroken device, you can use tweak like HomeList.  This adds watchOS-type scrolling to the home page.


text:
Safari doesn't save google search results in history
macOS Catalina 10.15.2, maybe other versions:

Open a new tab in Safari
Use the omnibar to search for something
Open one of the google results
Press the browser back button (or cmd-[)

Observe: get taken to the new tab page, instead of to the google results page.
Additionally open history (cmd-y) the google results pages are never saved here.
How can I make it so that after visiting a Google result, I can still get back to the Google results page?

Only Google does it. other search engines don't.

Is this caused by opening youtube directly from Google search results?


text:
How to disable mouse acceleration in Catalina?
The command I've seen from How do I disable mouse acceleration AND adjust tracking speed in High Sierra?
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

Doesn't change the mouse behaviour at all.
I don't know where to download SteelSeries exact mouse anymore (nor if it works). Ideally a solution should exist that doesn't use third party software.
I have a logitech G203, Macbook Pro 15", macOS Catalina 10.15.2.

Related answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/358540/90404

I used that SteerMouse app mentioned in the answer @TamásSengel linked to. It works, even though it seems to have reset all the configuration I had in the memory of my Logitech G502.


text:
Automator: remove last 9 characters in filename
I'm hoping to find a solution that will be a simple fix. Here's what I want to do: Every week I have a new batch of files that I process through Apple's Automator to complete various functions such as copying/moving, etc. An example file name is:
example_20200128.mov
I would like to remove the last 9 characters, preserving the extension:
example.mov
Since I'm already working in Automator, I'd like to also rename in Automator, as opposed to using a separate renaming software. It seems like there should be a simple solution, however, I do not "speak code", so I'm a bit lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

RE: "Since I'm already working in Automator, I'd like to also rename in Automator, as opposed to using a separate renaming software." -- If you what this incorporated into an existing Automator workflow, then you should provide the workflow and state where in the workflow you want to perform the renaming task.

Absolutely. I have several that I'm using for various tasks, which is why I didn't include that information in my initial post. I'm hoping that I can find a solution that will work with various workflows. But maybe that's just evidence of my lack of understanding in this area :)
Here's an example workflow:
Get specified Finder Items,
Get Folder Contents,
Copy finder Items,
Rename <-- this is the step I need help with.

Rebekah, I've updated the AppleScript code so it only acts on a file with an extension and ends with an underscore followed by eight digits. Please use the updated code.

The following AppleScript should do the job. It removes only an underscore followed by eight digits, e.g. _2020012, at the end of a filename without changing the extension. I don't know how familiar you are with using AppleScripts but you should be okay if you carefully follow the directions below. Sorry that I can't make its creation simpler but, once created, it is simple to use.
on run {input, parameters}

    repeat with thisFile in input
        tell application "Finder"
            set {theName, theExtension} to {name, name extension} of thisFile
            if theExtension is not in {missing value, ""} then
                set theExtension to "." & theExtension
                set theName to text 1 thru -((count theExtension) + 1) of theName -- the name part
                set theName to do shell script "/usr/bin/sed -E 's/_[0-9]{8}$//' <<< " & theName's quoted form -- strip consecutive trailing numbers
                set name of thisFile to theName & theExtension
            end if
        end tell
    end repeat

end run

To place this code on your Mac, select File->New->Service inside Automator and then double click on "Run AppleScript" among the "Library" options. Select the "files or folders" option in the "Service receives selected" menu at the top of the newly opened window. Paste the code inside the window and save it through File->Save inside Automator. Make sure you select all of the code above before copying it from here as a few lines of the code run quite a bit to the right outside the highlighted window here.
You can give this AppleScript a name such as "Remove_Number" while saving it inside Automator. The first attached picture shows how things should look like in Automator after the code is pasted and saved. You can quit Automator after the code is saved (but it does not actually matter).
When completed, you should be able to change the names of any number of files you might select through Finder. After selecting the files to be changed in Finder, right click on the selected files and you should see an option with the name you have given the AppleScript towards the bottom of the right-click menu. (The 2nd attached picture shows how things look like in Finder at this stage.) Any selected file with an underscore followed by eight digits at the end of its name should have that underscore and the digits removed immediately after you select the AppleScript from the right-click menu.

I've changed the sed expression to conform to example name given in the OP.

That worked perfectly, thank you so much! You've made my life much easier :)


text:
Mission Control erratic behavior
Whenever I minimize a maximized application window (e.g., MS Word) in a Desktop Space, the computer:

Moves the application window to a different Desktop Space, and
Either:

closes the Desktop Space, or
Doesn't close the Desktop Space, leaving it empty.

I've deselected automatic rearrangement and the option about switching to a Space with that application when opening an application.
I would like to be able to minimize an application window and have it stay in the same Desktop Space. It would be nice to be able to close it and have the focus stay in the same (now empty) Desktop Space.

It depends on whether the app you maximised moves to a new desktop or not. See for two contrasting apps. @marc

I'm not sure what you mean? Is "move to a new desktop when minimized" expected behavior from an app?

No, moving to a new desktop when maximised is expected to almost all apps. And coming back to original after coming to normal mode too.

Do you mean minimise a maximised window, or do you mean minimise a fullscreen window? Mission Control will never automatically remove a Space created manually, but it will always add & remove fullscreen Spaces whenever it needs. There is nothing "behind" a fullscreen window, so if you do manage to minimise it [you shouldn't be able to but Word may have its own behaviour] then idk what would happen.

This is what I mean:
I create a new space.
I open an application window in it.
I maximize it (press the green button).
I work in it. I finish.
I press the green button again to "un-maximize" it.
The application window moves to a different space. The original space is now empty.

What you are seeing is expected behaviour. The green button doesn't maximise, it fullscreens. Fullscreen apps get their own new Space, when you return from fullscreen that new Space disappears again, leaving you with the one you created but never used. If you started with multiple app windows in different Spaces, they will always try to return to the 'main' Space for that app. Apps don't like to be spread over different Spaces.

@Tetsujin Thanks. That explains it. I guess I'll just have to go with yabai.


text:
Screenshots take forever to appear in Finder
Fresh install of macOS Catalina 10.15.2
In screenshot's options I turned off that "show floating thumbnail" thing and set the screenshot folder to ~/Downloads.
Sometimes I take a screenshot and it takes upwards of 10 seconds to appear in Finder.
This is with command+shift+4 screenshots (draw a rectangle ones), I haven't tested others.
Behaviour seems random.
How do I make the screenshots consistently appear within at most half a second?

Screenshots can be slow depending on the resolution and number of displays involved, snipping sections of the display is usually quicker but still more than half a second in my experience.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/374985/screenshots-take-so-long-to-appear-in-folder You could put a bounty on the older one too :)


text:
How can I find which chipset the Airport wireless card on my MBP uses?
I'm trying to figure out whether my wireless chipset is capable of entering monitoring mode for passive network scanning or packet injection. How can I view the specific chipset information about the wireless card in my macbook pro?

You can find out which chipset you currently have installed in your Mac with the following command:
$ system_profiler SPAirPortDataType | grep Firmware

You should get a response similar to the following:
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.21.95.178.1a2)

This tells us we've got the Broadcom BCM43xx series.

How do I know which Broadcom chipset exactly? Beyond just xx?

You might have to look that up if you don’t get the specific chip,  this is what the firmware reports

Install AirTool and you can capture packets on one channel or all channels.
Apple’s OEM chipsets are quite capable of packet capture and scanning.

It's great to know that this tool exists!


text:
Auto Reply to incoming calls by message using Shortcuts app
Is it possible to reply incoming calls by A fixed message (say: Call you later ) automatically using Shortcuts app ?
Like Do not disturb  for incoming messages in iOS 13.


text:
Can I connect my Mid 2011 Mac to a second monitor?
How can I connect my mid 2011 iMac to a second monitor to extend my screen? The monitor is an HP L1950. The ports my mac has can be seen here:

Your iMac has a Thunderbolt 2 connector which also acts as a Mini DisplayPort.
Since your Monitor supports (15-Pin D-Sub) VGA or DVI-D you either need a Mini-DisplayPort to VGA or to DVI-D cable. I would recommend getting a DVI-D (e.g from Amazon, your local store might have one of the mentioned options as well), since it is the newer and slightly better standard, though VGA is (for old) equipment more common.
In general though, this is old Hardware and HDMI is more or less standard now.


text:
Find out what is playing audio
Lately I've been getting lots of bugs: songs from Safari playing without me starting them, or pausing youtube but it doesn't support but Safari says there is no sound from the tab, closing the tab doesn't stop it, or accidentally pasting a URL into Spotlight then being unable to stop the audio that starts playing.
I would like to know how to

Find out what is playing audio
Stop it

Or, just 2 actually.
I want to stop unwanted audio from playing.
This happens on brand new Catalina 10.15.2

Have you paired any Bluetooth devices recently with the Mac in question? Also, if closing a tab doesn't stop the audio, then the audio wasn't coming from that tab, so you may want to consider other possibilities. Seems to me that an embedded video on a page you've loaded somewhere is being triggered to play by something, such as bluetooth headphones, a keypress, etc.

@Monomeeth never paired bluetooth since reinstalling Catalina. There is no speaker symbol on any Safari tab, the audio was identical to the youtube video that was playing. I was playing a youtube video, paused it.... it kept playing. Then I tried to stop it in all the ways I described. It even started playing the next video in the playlist but stopped for some reason halfway through.

If this happens in Safari, the tab for a site that is playing audio
will have a small speaker icon on it. See the image below which shows 3 tabs in the top of my Safari window. Clicking on the
speaker icon stops it from playing. See the middle tab in the image.

It doesn't, and that's why I am confused.

oh, I don't know why it isn't showing. I checked Safari preferences but couldn't find anything. No wonder you are confused..

Bring out notification Centre by clicking the 3 bar icon in the menubar or swiping from the right side of the trackpad. It has a section "Now Playing".
Unless there are multiple sources of audio, it shows which app is playing the sound. And this controls which app gets the inputs of media  control keys.

I could not find anything in the Notification Center (as another answer suggested), but I did find it in the options menu thingee—I don't recall the official name, but you can see it in the photo.  (If you're using a screen reader I apologize.  I'll try to find the correct name and update this when I can.)  I'm still using Monterrey—12.6.6 (21G646)—so your mileage may vary.

This lets you turn it off quite easily, without knowing which app it is coming from.
Once I had neutralized the irritant, I checked different apps.  I didn't find anything in Safari (looking for audio icons on the tabs) but turned to Brave (Chrome, basically, but better) and found the culprit there thanks to  an icon in the toolbar next to the extensions:

I verified that that is not an extension, but it built into Brave (and possibly to Chrome therefore).
If you want to find the actual tab, rather than just stop it from playing, Brave has (and Chrome has) a Task Manager in the Window menu that will list every single tab separately.  Open that and you can find the tab and close it or do whatever else you want to it.


text:
Use hostnames from second network interface
MacBook Pro Mid-2015, macOS Catalina 10.15.2.
Summary
My Mac is connected to Wi-Fi and a wired LAN. Wi-Fi is the first in the Service Order in Network Preferences. There are some hostnames in the wired LAN that don't exist on the Wi-Fi.
How can I make it so that hostnames which don't exist on the Wi-Fi network, are "looked up" in the wired LAN network?

I am connected to a Wi-Fi network (which has an internet connection), and I am using a USB Ethernet adapter to connect to a second LAN (from which I can't figure out how to access the internet).
I changed my System Preferences > Network ordering so that the Wi-Fi takes precedence over the wired LAN. If I don't do this, then it seems I can't access the internet.
Trying to access the internet with the Service Order the other way round looks like this:
$ ping google.com
PING google.com (172.217.169.78): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
36 bytes from vlan...(lots of stuff, not sure how sensitive).myuni.co.uk (129.??.??.?): Communication prohibited by filter
Vr HL TOS  Len   ID Flg  off TTL Pro  cks      Src      Dst
 4  5  00 5400 58db   0 0000  3d  01 a4f5 192.168.??.??  172.217.169.78

16 bytes from ....myuni.co.uk (192.168.???.???): Router Advertisement

Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
36 bytes from vlan.....myuni.co.uk (129.???.??.??): Communication prohibited by filter
Vr HL TOS  Len   ID Flg  off TTL Pro  cks      Src      Dst
 4  5  00 5400 6cc8   0 0000  3d  01 9108 192.168.??.???  172.217.169.78

I've never seen this kind of ping response before and don't know what it means. It was easy enough for me to infer however that it's going to be more difficult for me to access the internet through the wired LAN.
So I rearranged the Service Order and put wifi first. Now my internet access works as usual.
However, that means that the custom hostnames from the wired LAN aren't available:
$ ping customhostname
ping: cannot resolve customhostname: Unknown host

If I turn Wi-Fi off then it works:
$ ping customhostname
PING customhostname.myuni.co.uk (192.168.100.200): 56 data bytes

Additionally, I can leave Wi-Fi turned on and still access that computer via the IP:
$ ping customhostname
ping: cannot resolve customhostname: Unknown host
$ ping 192.168.100.200
PING 192.168.100.200 (192.168.100.200): 56 data bytes

But how can I make it so that hostnames which aren't recognised (in this case, customhostname) by the Wi-Fi interface, are "looked up" in the wired LAN interface?
I don't want to have to memorise the IP address, and manually update my own records whenever it changes.

To answer your question more details are required: ifconfig -a and netstat -nr!

Are you a freelancer working at mycompany.co.uk or are you an employee there?

To solve your problem you need to install a local DNS server.
The DNS server should then simply be setup to use your current DNS server for all lookups, except those that belong to the "custom hostnames" (*.myuni.co.uk for example) that you want to force to be looked up via the alternative DNS server.
For example here's the way to set it up with the the very popular "bind" DNS-server software:
You install "bind" by using HomeBrew. If you have HomeBrew installed already, you can open the Terminal and use this command to install it:
brew install bind

To configure bind, you need to edit the named.conf configuration file. First you need to define your local IPs (your own computers). This ensures that only you can do DNS lookups using your computer:
  acl mycomputers {
    localhost;
    localnets;
  }

This is a simple configuration that just allows your own computer to do lookups. If you have other devices that you want to use this computer for DNS as well, you can add their IPs or a whole subnet to the list as well.
Then in the existing "options" block, you make it look like this:
options {
  [...]
  recursion yes;
  allow-query { mycomputers };
  zone "myuni.co.uk" in { type forward; forward only; forwarders { 1.1.1.1; 2.2.2.2; }; };
  forwarders {
      8.8.8.8;
      8.8.4.4;
  }

}

Recursion means that you allow clients to lookup "other people's domains" - i.e. not just host names and IP addresses defined on your computer, but by looking other domain names up on the internet.
Allow-query restricts access to only your own computers.
The zone line means that the specific domain myuni.co.uk is going to be handled by a specific set of DNS-servers. I.e. all queries for *.myuni.co.uk is forwarded to these servers. You need to replace 1.1.1.1/2.2.2.2 with the IP addresses of your Uni's DNS servers.
The next line "forwarders" means that all other queries are forwarded to other DNS servers. In this case I just put in the IP addresses for Google's DNS service, but you can your existing DNS server IPs here.
Note that "bind" does come with lots of options and configuration possibilities - it might be a bit hard to grasp at first.
Another option would be install the more limited, but easier to setup "dnsmasq" software. It is also available from HomeBrew with brew install dnsmasq.
With dnsmasq you can essentially keep defaults to use your ordinary DNS servers, and then use the following option:
--server=/myuni.co.uk/1.1.1.1

to forward queries for *.myuni.co.uk to your Uni's DNS server (replace that IP for 1.1.1.1).
Note that dnsmasq also does other things than just DNS - like for example being a DHCP server. This functionality you do not want, so keep it disabled.

This is a solution I want to try. How do I do this? Allan said it was not possible, and a major security hole though.

@theonlygusti I'll add a suggestion for a configuration shortly! I don't think Allan meant this - but in case it is incorrect that it is not possible, and it is incorrect that it is a security hole.

Can't remember if brew install automatically enables the DNS server for starting after boot. Otherwise you need to enable that using something like: "launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.isc.named.plist
"

How would the dnsmasq work? The hostnames aren't customname.myuni.co.uk they are just customname

Do you know each name? Then you can just list them in the config - then it will know to ask the other dns server for those names. Otherwise you’re looking at forwarding only if the primary recursive dns server returns NXDOMAIN.

What you have is something called a multihomed network where you have more than one network attached to your computer.  For this particular question, we're assuming that it's two different networks with different IP addressing schemes.
Your service order doesn't really matter in this case.  Your computer knows that it can get to the 192.168.100.0 network via your Ethernet.  It knows it can get to the other network (you didn't say) and the Internet via WiFi.
The reason you can't find the hostname you're looking for when WiFi is active is because DNS for WiFi takes priority and it knows nothing about the Ethernet side of things.
How do you solve this?

Your DNS server(s) must also be multihomed and "see" the other network
You have to manually add these hosts to your /etc/hosts file so your computer can manually look up the address.

There were flags that some comments weren’t needed, so moved everything to chat. In case the deletions were premature or someone needs to get details from them.

Is jksoegaard's answer insecure?

It’s way overkill.  You said you didn’t want to edit a hosts file, but entering  the IPs, is the same thing..  I don’t see where he’s created an authoritative DNS entry to automatically update your local DNS.


text:
In ~/.ssh/config make a host that just ... errors
I would like to start using multiple github accounts. I think the best way is to have a different ssh key per account (correct me if that's a wrong assumption).
I will have user1.git and user2.git custom hosts defined in ~/.ssh/config to use in ssh remote urls for git.
And I would like to make it so that copy/pasting the default git@github.com URLs and trying to use that doesn't do anything and errors instead, to remind me to specify which account and which user I would like to be using.
So, how can I make such an erroring ssh host?
Ideally I will rename github.com host to something else, default.git or something, so that I can still ssh-access it if it's ever necessary.

Would editing your config file using different users work?

@DanRan what do you mean?

Using the command:sudo nano ~/.ssh/config and then editing the config file in the ~/.ssh directory to have different users. One user for each account.
Host gh
User git
Hostname github.com
Port 22
etc. etc. etc.

You are correct, i don't fully understand your question. But Are you not trying to essentially use two different github accounts through ssh?

@DanRan I see what you mean. One ssh user for user1, one ssh user for user2. I think I have seen somewhere "always use the git user" when connecting to github.com. And it still doesn't stop me from forgetting to specify the user on remote addition.

@DanRan yes I am trying to use two different github accounts through ssh. I thought it would be best practice to have two different keys for this.

Basically you have to follow this approach: How to manage multiple GitHub accounts on a single machine with SSH keys. Then you have to set an alias sshgit in your *profile to a shell script which unloads all keys first and then lets you choose to load one of your user keys (user1_key|user2_key) and connects you with the respective account with the right key...

I'm not sure how github treats using the same key for two different accounts. If github has no problem with it, I would say it more than not doesn't matter if you recycle a key.

In terms of best practices, by using two keys, yes, you are insulating each account incase one key gets hacked or stolen. However, at the same time, by using two keys, you also have an extra key floating around making things more complicated then they have to be for yourself. The likelihood of your keys getting hacked is low unless you are in and out of coffee shops and using intermittent internet connections or vpn's.

So for the sake of simplicity, I would try to stick with one key if possible. Now, in terms of github, I am still kind of a newb myself, and don't really know their policy. i also believe github doesn't allow interactive ssh logins. I would have to do some more research in order to give you a proper answer. But I would recommend looking at your ~/.ssh/config file and just entering two different users for each github configuration. Sorry I can't be of more help on this.


text:
Terminal.app reverse text color under cursor
macOS Catalina 10.15.2, Terminal.app 2.10
In VIM:

and in for example VI-mode at the command line:

There is an o under the first cursor, and an s under the second cursor. In-person, I can just about   make out the tiniest difference, and distinguish the characters.
But it's not easy at all.
How can I make my Terminal.app invert the colors of light text when the cursor is over it?

You can go into Preferences and change the color of your cursor so the text is visible behind it. The cursor color is changed by going to Preferences/Profiles where you get a panel like the one shown in the figure below.

I changed my cursor color to red and I could see letters behind it fine. Another option is to change your cursor to underline or a verticle bar. Those optional are selectable on the same pane to the left of my red box.

What if I cover a red letter then?

If you click on the cursor box to change the color, the color wheel comes up and you can set the opacity of whatever color you choose.  Select a color and then set the opacity to 100% and you should be able to see through the cursor.


text:
Use different interfaces for DNS and Network
I would like all DNS to use my en6 USB ethernet interface.
And all other network traffic to use en0 wifi.
How can I do so?
I have been exploring dnsmasq and bind, but don't see how to use them for this. Hopefully it's possible without any third party apps.
(macOS Catalina 10.15.2)

It's no problem to (mis-)configure dnsmasq/bind (or pf) like this. But the Gustinet you have in mind won't work at all considering your network setup in this question. Yesterday your USB ethernet interface didn't have any Internet access (=probably no global DNS). This clearly is a tripleXtripleY-problem.

What are you trying to achieve with your various network/dns questions? What's the major problem with your university's network?

@klanomath there's no internet access from one network, and no access to computers I need from the other (that has internet)

@klanomath the USB ethernet does have global DNS, I think it just has firewall rules to prevent my macbook (and most devices connected to it) from accessing the internet through it.

As yesterday: To answer your question more details are required: ifconfig -a and netstat -nr! ;-)

I wish I could multi up vote @klanomath on this being a Triple X, Triple Y problem.  Your Uni obviously has two networks they wish to keep separate but you're trying to bodge some solution together to make them talk to each other.  What exactly do you want to accomplish?

@Allan I want to ssh into hosts on the internet-less network, but have internet connection so that I can keep using the internet (for example, to google errors that come up during the ssh session)

You already can do that.  Traffic meant for the WiFi network  (plus Internet) will go through WiFi.  Traffic meant to go to the private network will go through Ethernet as answered in your existing question.  Your problem is DNS.  As in the first question, were you able to ping hosts on both networks?

You might want to read this:  https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/413646/107777  I know the answer to this because I had the exact same question for my own lab setup.  My recommendation to you is to edit the hosts file because it's one computer.  Set up another split horizion DNS if you will have many computers that need to "see" both networks.

@Allan I was able to DNS resolve all hosts on the wired network, but only ping local computers and not ping the internet

I didn't ask about DNS resolve.  I asked about pining the hosts.  Use their individual IPs

@Allan I can only ping local computers, but not the internet (using the wired connection)

@Allan your recommendation to edit hosts on my own computer indeed works, but is inconvenient for me because I would have to add x-hundred hostnames and then whenever their IPs change I must manually update them. That's why I want to use the provided DNS for them

You would have to do that with the answer that has you create a DNS service.  How is it going to auto-update?  Where are the hostnames → IPs going to come from?  It doesn't show up magically.  But on a side note, are these servers you're connecting to?  If so, why would their address change?  That's not best practice

Given that the wired network has no internet, I wouldn't expect you to ping anything from the Internet.  What about WiFi, can you ping there?  Make sure both network connections are up.  You also need to provide the info asked by klanomath.  What IP address spaces are you using?


text:
Send from Gmail "plus" (person+something@gmail.com) address in Mail.app?
I have a gmail account in Mail.app, example@gmail.com.
How can I send mail from Mail.app using the example+two@gmail.com From address, instead of the example@gmail.com From address?
Looking through all Mail preferences and System Preferences > Internet Accounts I don't see how. Probably there's some workaround though.

You have to use an alias.  See this help document:  https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/use-email-aliases-mlhlp1205/13.0/mac/10.15

It's called an email alias.
https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/use-email-aliases-mlhlp1205/13.0/mac/10.15

Create or change an alias

In the Mail app on your Mac, choose Mail > Preferences, then click Accounts.
Select an account, then click Account Information.
Click the Email Address pop-up menu, choose Edit Email Addresses, then do one of the following:

Add an alias: Click the Add button +, then enter a name and email address.

Send an email from an alias

In the Mail app on your Mac, move the pointer over the From field in a message you’re writing.
Click the pop-up menu that appears, then choose an email alias.


text:
Turn off location suggestions in Calendar
On my iMac (10.13.6) and MacBook (10.15.3), whenever I add a new event to the Calendar app and attempt to enter a location, a dropdown list of suggested locations appears:

How can I turn these suggestions off?
I have tried to disable the Calendar app in System Preferences > Security > Privacy > Location Services as well as turning off "Location Based Suggestions" for System Services under the same path, as suggested here, but these settings had no effect.

This suggestion dropdown is rather simple-minded and annoying. I added an event to meet with one of our IT people. Location: I typed IT, and very helpfully Calendar suggested "Italy" as the first of many, completely irrelevant others. Desperately looking for a solution to get rid of this behaviour :-)


text:
Lap time data uploaded from my Apple Watch doesn't match the lap times listed on my iPhone
I uploaded my health data from my Apple Watch to keep track of my lap times.       But the lap times recorded in the XML file that I uploaded are consistently shorter than the ones listed on my watch.
For example, here's what I uploaded for one lap.
        date: '2020-02-04 18:54:54 -0800'
    duration: '0.5025173644224803'
durationUnit: 'min'
        type: 'HKWorkoutEventTypeLap'

but the actual lap time was more like 40 seconds.
Worse, the error ratio isn't constant, so that my uploaded lap time data really has no correlation with my actual data. This is very strange because the duration, kilocals, etc for the entire workout are exactly correct.    Could anybody advise please?


text:
is thre a way to find recent files with locate OR automatically update the database each time a file is created
I am on MacOS Catalina. locate is a great command but unfortunately, I have difficulties to find files which have been created for example one hour ago or ten minutes ago.
It seems that I could circumvent this issue by updating the database with a higher frequency than every 24 hours.
But the other problem is that, when I launch the command /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb in root, it lasts much time before this command ends.
So I conclude that update rebuilds completly the database and doesn't update only the new files created from last locate.updateb execution : indeed, this would be a big gain of time if the command was not rebuilding all the database with all the files of the system.
Finally, I think about a simple strategy : modidy
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plistto force it to update for example the database every 5 minutes. But if the command /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb rebuilds all the database every 5 minutes, this doesn't make sense.
So, I would like to get feedback from people who have this kind of problem and how they solved it. I prefer to avoid using the command mdfind but if there is not available solution with locate and not the possibility not to have to rebuild all content each time (in my case, this would be each five minutes), I would be obliged to switch to mdfind.
By the way, a simple crontab launching every 5 minutes the command /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb is also allowed, isn't it ?
You could also advise me to use find with -mtime flag but find is very slow (associated with parallel, it might be an alternative, I don't know, actually, I am a locate fan since I have used it a lot on Linux).
Any clue/remark/feedback are welcome,
Regards

To perhaps provide an alternative solution to your problem, what is your actual use case here? Why do you want to know which files were created most recently?

It sounds like you're trying to reinvent Apple's Spotlight file-indexing system; why not just use Spotlight via the mdfind command?

Seeding locate for a small directory might be doable, but spotlight is the way forward even if you need to adjust it or learn how to search by name...

I prefer to avoid using the command mdfind

Why is that? It solves your problem with no additional work. Getting locate to do update constantly is going to keep your Mac busy scanning the entire hard drive almost all the time. In the meantime,
mdfind -name filename.txt

Will produce the same result with no extra work by you or by your Mac. Since macOS keeps Spotlight up to date automatically, this will find files immediately after they're created. You could even use a really short shell script like this:
#!/bin/sh

if [ "$1" ==  "" ]; then
    echo What files do you want to find?
else
    mdfind -name $1
fi

Then alias locate or some other command to call the script.

mdfind is great, except that it does not search in some places, notably ~/Library/ which is where documents in iCloud are stored.  2) Another good use of mdfind is mdfind -onlyin "$PWD" -name FOO for when you want to find a file named "FOO" in a folder or sub-folder of the current directory.

It does search those places, by filename at least. That's what locate would do, so it works for this question. If you use mdfind -name with the name of a file on iCloud Drive, it will find matches in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/.

You seem to prefer a CLI solution. I'm a frequent user of the CLI in MacOS, but we must all live with the fact that Apple does not update many of their command line tools. For example, on my Macbook Pro running Mojave, the locate tool doesn't support the --version argument, but man locate has a date at the bottom that was about 14 years ago. So - the locate tool in Catalina is not the same locate you've used on Linux.
That said, my "answer" is more along the lines of a suggestion that you consider using the "smart folder" feature in Finder. It allows you to filter a variety of file and folder types, and show them in Finder's sidebar. This may suit your needs, or it may not. In either case, you now know that Catalina's locate tool is fairly old now.
Since my answer is off-topic I won't elaborate further, but there are some decent "How-To" guides for using smart folders available online if you're interested.

Built in utilities are not all things to all people.  Rather than trying to force locate(1) into something it wasn't designed for, why not investigate something like fd or fzf?

Right now this reads more like a comment than an answer. Can you eloborate on how these tools would answer the question asked by the OP?


text:
Preview missing lots of fonts that are shown in font book
Clean almost untouched install of macOS Catalina 10.15.2.
I haven't installed any fonts yet.
Font book shows me fonts for example PSL Ornanong Pro. This font doesn't show up in Preview.
I would like to use this font in Preview.
How can I use all fonts from Preview?

Ornamong is for Thai script.  Is that what you want to write?

In my experience Preview can only use a subset of the fonts provided with macos.

PSL Ornanong Pro is 'available to download' in Catalina: it is not initially installed. Have you actually downloaded it?
Font Book will display the name dimmed slightly. You can download it by clicking on Edit > Download, or Download on a right-click context menu.

I see some greyed-out fonts in the list. PSL Ornanong Pro is not one of them.... Additionally, there is no "Download" option in the context menu or in the Edit menu


text:
Access iCloud on my Mac without my phone?
I left my phone at home, I'm on my Mac. I go to icloud.com. It tells me to enter the code sent to my devices. Normally a code pops up on my Mac but it's not this time.
How do I access icloud on my mac without my phone?

System preferences → iCloud → account details → security → get a verification code:  for Mojave
System Preferences → Apple ID → Password & Security → Get a verification code: for Catalina

You must be on a different version of MacOS than me. There is no "iCloud" in system preferences MacOS 10.15.3

Found it. System Preferences -> Apple ID -> Password & Security -> Get a verification code


text:
Leave iPhone unlocked for a few seconds after closing
With Face Id, the moment the screen blanks out or the moment I press the side button the screen is locked. This ends up being extremely annoying. I unlock the phone, set it on the table, hands are mostly full, screen fades out, I spring to touch the screen but am 0.00001 seconds late. Phone is now locked and I have to put the stuff I'm holding down and physically pick up the phone so that it can see my face just to continue what I was doing.
Similar annoyances happen when wearing a face mask either beacuse it's cold or to avoid spreading/catching a cold (I live in Japan where face masks are common). Mask needs to be off to unlock with Face Id, if the phone locks there's no buffer off a few moments before I have to either take off the mask or else type in the code. Have this happen a few times in a row and I'm ready to smash the phone into a million pieces.
Is there a way to set a 1-5 second delay until the phone actually locks after the screen fads out or even accidentally tapping the side button? Touch Id had (has?) an option to keep the phone unlocked for a brief amount of time which was so much more user friendly in this area. Does the same option exist for Face Id?

In the Face ID & Passcode settings, you could set it to lock after 1, 5, 15 minutes or 1, 4 hours after the screen goes black.
Additionally, you should be able to create an alternative appearance for Face ID to include your Face when you have your mask on? I've set 2 appearances, one with glasses and one without. You may have to reset the Face ID to set up additional appearances though.
Hope this helps.
Edit
Here's the screenshots in the Face ID & Passcode settings where you can set the time it locks after the screen goes black.

I am unable to find the setting to not lock for the phone fro 1,5,15 minutes etc... Can you post a screenshot?

@gman I've added screenshots in my original post. Hope they help.

I don't get those options. https://imgur.com/uBgeiNu  Any idea how I enable them? iOS 13.3.1

I just checked, this option only works if you unlock with a passcode. So if you unlock with Face ID, it will lock immediately. If you disable Face ID's iPhone Unlock at the top of the the Face ID & Passcode settings, then you should get additional options in that setting to lock it after 1, 5, 15mins, etc.

Well then, this isn't actually an answer to the question. But thanks

@gman my apologies, I thought it works with Face ID (I don't use it personally myself). However as I said previously, you can still set up multiple appearances in Face ID for when you're wearing a mask, so that may help with that issue at least.


text:
Start Quicktime Player recording while in Split View mode
I have two apps side by side in Split View mode and would like to record that. Is there a way to start a QuickTime Player recording while being in Split View mode with two apps ?

Make it a on a new desktop, and later trim it.
https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/quicktime-player/qtpf2115f6fd/mac
If it is only screen, not audio, you can even use command+shift+5 to record the screen in most circumstances.

I'm afraid I don't really understand. What do you mean exactly by "trim it" ? Do you mean I should start the recording on a new desktop, and then switch to Split View mode ?

yes, see updated answer


text:
Cannot reset Chrome (Mac)
I've been getting a problem with Chrome where it keeps crashing when I try to refresh a web page. Bear in mind this only appears to happen on a local .html file that I'm building.
So I tried to reset Chrome through it's settings menu, but it doesn't appear to work. I just get the spinning circle which never ends, and then I have to force quit.
On restarting Chrome, it looks like 'some' of it has been reset (e.g. I have to log back in to websites) but I still have things such as my history and bookmarks.
Does anyone know another way I can reset it? Perhaps by just removing a folder from my computer?

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

thanks, have just given that a go so hopefully it fixes it!


text:
Apple maps view route duration without traffic
I am going to the airport tomorrow morning for a flight, the current time on maps shows as:

The average time to drive 25 miles considering this is a motorway route is around 30 minutes.
I want to view this route without traffic, as at 3/4 am I doubt there’ll be even any traffic.
How can I view this route without traffic?
I have tried:
1) Searching for traffic settings in the settings app (no results found)
2) Going to maps -> info and turning traffic off:

The route still shows as red and the same duration. After turning traffic off I have tried to restart the maps app etc.
I am on iOS 13.3.1. How can I fix this?

Google maps can do this, but it gives a range of values, from something less to something more than the rush hour time. I just tested to Gatwick, Apple & Google. Apple, 1:30 [now 7pm] Google [to arrive 4am] 1:05 to 1:30 I'm in N London, so that's 60 miles not 25, but there's no win, you just have to guess.

There's no way to schedule a drive or to view routes without traffic at the moment in Apple Maps.
The Traffic button just displays the traffic on the map, it doesn't affect the routes.
The only thing you can do is use another app (like GMaps or Waze) and send feedback to Apple (Report an issue > Other Issue).


text:
Disable "natural" scrolling on MacBook with High Sierra
I've just updated my 2010 MBP to High Sierra, and I'm struggling to turn off the natural scroll feature for the touchpad (I prefer the old fashioned way).
Whenever I look in system preferences, there appears to be nothing relevant when I search for it:

If I try the Mouse or Trackpad sections, it just tells me that neither are connected:

I've also looked under the 'Mouse & Trackpad' section under 'Accessibility' and tried 'Mouse Options', but still no option for it.

Am I doing something wrong?

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/181186/natural-scroll-direction-on-with-trackpad-off-with-mouse?rq=1 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/22220/macbook-pro-with-lion-scrolling-via-trackpad-vs-mouse?rq=1

System Preferences >  Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom

If I try that, it tells me to connect a trackpad... it seems to be only capable of configuring an external trackpad rather than the one that is built in to the MBP

Please attach a screenshot of full system preferences app. I'm on mojave.


text:
'post' table usability - error when installing .ttf font on mac
So, when i try to install a .ttf font on my mac it stops installing and gives me this message
1 serious error was found. Do not use this font file.
and in the list there is, 'post' table usability , flagged as red
I'm really curious.. - what does the error actually wanna tell me? - what could happen if i use, or perhaps just install it? - and what does 'post' mean in that list of all things?
Is it a bug, is it serious, or just nonsense!?
Thank you!
And no, i'm not working for Apple!!

In 20 years I don’t think I ever seen a font book warning that resulted in anything more serious than the font just not working as expected.

i once had to re-install the whole font stuff so i'm still a bit burnt from that

Some info on the post table  https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=IWS-Chapter08#05931f9d

Thanks! so it's an adobe thing, did i get that right..
or if it's not provided adobe will might not accept it or the program might crash if you try italic or some crap??

More info:   https://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6post.html


text:
How to unmute headphones by default when plugged into MacBook Pro?
Each time the mac is turned on, and the headphones are plugged in, they are muted by default on my MacBook Pro. I need to unmute them every time in System Preference-> Sound -> Output. I have thus two questions:
1) Do you know any way to automatically unmute the headphones when plugged into the mac ? A terminal command or any other manipulation ?
2) Is the behavior of my Mac normal ?
Thanks for your help !

1)
You can use a third-party app like Keyboard Maestro or EventScripts to trigger a volume setting script whenever you plug your headphone.
For exemple, with EventScript:

Click on Open Folder from EventScripts menu in order to open the scripts folder.
Add the script you want to be triggered, in your case something like do shell script "osascript -e 'set volume 1'" (note that set volume function works from 0 to 7, 0 being mute and 7 maximum volume).
Click on Choose Script from EventScripts menu and select the script to be used.
Add the event Headphone connected.

See my own setup as exemple to quit or launch Boom whenever my headphone or my bluetooth device is found:

2) I don't think this behavior is normal, your Mac should remenber the last volume setup you had with headphone... You should try to reset the PRAM setting, it may work :
shutdown your Mac and restart it while pressing and holding option +  command ⌘  + P + R


text:
Persisting Fullscreen Split View Bar
This often happens when I quit apps in fullscren split view mode? Has anyone encountered this too? Any known fix for this?

If it started happening without any new app installation, and only after a update, better file a bug at https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/welcome

Yes. I've had this happen in 10.15.7. I'm surprised that no one has answered. Perhaps a rare bug indeed.


text:
Does Little Little Snitch 4 block connections during login?
I have been using Little Snitch for some time now.
I think the version I've started to use the program with, was 3.5.
Anyway, I remember seeing notifications from Little Snitch about connection attempts during login, and then these appeared as 'Suggested rules' in the configuration.
Recently I had to reinstall OS and all the programs on my Mac mini.
I have installed the latest Little Snitch (4.4.3 that is), but after reboot I have not seen notification about connection attempts during login, nor was there a 'Suggested rules' section in the configuration.
In release notes for Little Snitch 3.*, it is mentioned (bold is mine):

Little Snitch offers rule suggestions based on Silent Mode
  connections, former, already expired temporary rules, login
  connections and more.

Though, no mention of login connections in release notes for Little Snitch 4.*. I have found an old thread on official forum, but again - it is about Little Snitch 3.*
The question is:

Does Little Snitch 4.* 'inherit' the functionality of blocking connections during login from it's predecessor (i.e. Little Snitch 3.*)?

If yes, does it have to be enabled in any special way?

P.S.: I do realize that this question would be more appropriate at the official forum of the Little Snitch developers, but registration there is closed (for like a year now).

You could also just use the contact form on their website :-)

@nohillside, striving for a public answer here (so that anybody like me could then just land here from the search engine)

Instead of putting the question on hold, let me just explain the problems we tend to have with basic customer support questions: The functionality you are looking for may still be there and work for most people just out of the box. Answers which say "it works for me" won't help you though, and figuring out in detail why it doesn't work for you may require some back and forth with somebody who has experience in solving these kind of issues.

But maybe I'm overthinking things, let's see whether somebody has an answer. Or you could reach out to support nevertheless and then post the answer you get from them :-)

See also https://apple.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2509/9058 for some more details on this.

Please also contact Objective Development and let them know about this question. It gives the developer a chance to respond publicly and to understand where their documentation or support can be improved.

From Little Snitch itself…

Login Connections
While no user is logged in or a login is in progress, Little Snitch
cannot display Connection Alerts. It therefore creates suggestions for
all connection attempts that occur during that time.
See the Little Snitch Help, chapter Rule suggestions for more
information.

& detail from just the first entry in that table…

On 27 10 2019, ARDAgent tried to establish a connection to
100.102.5.131. The request was denied automatically during login.

So, yes, it will block attempts by default until you edit the suggestions into actual approved rules.


text:
How to make macOS open RAR archive in Terminal using unrar on double-click?
I want to make macOS open RAR files: On double-click macOS should open Terminal with command unrar x /path/filename.rar
Is there any way to do this?

Launch Automator.app and create a new Application.
Add the "Run Shell Script" action. As unrar seems to be a command installed in /usr/local/bin/, set the Shell type to /bin/bash, and Pass input to as arguments.
You'll be given a free bit of shell code, which you can easily modify:
for f in "$@"
do
    /usr/local/bin/unrar x "$f"
done

Save the app. Then select a .rar file, choose File > Get Info, and change the default handler for that type to your new app.
Alternatively, there are plenty of third-party apps that unwrap rar and other archive types, such as TheUnarchiver.


text:
Prevent the slide-out from appearing in fullscreen safari
In full-screen Safari 13.0.5, when I move my mouse cursor to the left of the window, a sidebar slides out showing my reading list and bookmarks.
Often I was intending to click something at the left of the window, or just accidentally moved my cursor there. Then the slideout ends up interrupting my action or blocking my view of the web page.
How do I stop this sidebar from appearing when my mouse is at the left of the display?
This upvoted answer for macOS El Capitan (apparently) doesn't work for me.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/245167/341892 - did you try this already ?

There isn't a way to stop this from happening with conventional methods (i.e. through settings or modifying a .plist file.) It has also been around since Safari 9 from what I can glean from my researches. Search on this site, and in Google in general, to find ways to 'trick' Safari by moving the Dock to the left side of the screen, changing some parameters through a defaults write command to a .plist file and setting up some trackpad swipes and whatnot. Complicated and ultimately a kludge.


text:
Prevent dictation from muting audio on Catalina
When I start dictation (keybound to two right commands) all audio I am listening gets muted.
How do I stop that? I would like all audio to keep playing.
This answer doesn't work for me on macOS 10.15.2, and this answer points to an option in Accessibility preferences that I guess doesn't exist anymore.


text:
What is the MacBook trackpad input latency?
What is the expected input latency for MacBook trackpads?
I would like to know for the 15" 2015 MacBook Pro model, and the newest MacBook models.
I have tried searching but am really struggling to find official or measured figures. I just keep coming across "help me with my trackpad lag" posts.
Have the trackpads' latencies ever been revealed officially by Apple, or been measured and released by users?

What do you want the number for? - I.e. what are you going to use it for? - If I know that, I might be able to help you. Right now, I expect that you won't be able to get any answers I'm afraid.

@jksoegaard compare it with mouse input latencies

For the purpose of?

@jksoegaard having a quotable figure as to how much faster/how similar its input latency is to a mouse's.

We’re going in cirkles I feel. I can’t really give good suggestions on how you measure that without knowing what it is going to be used for. However an easy start would be to use a slow motion video capturing iPhone to capture footage of the pad and the display at the same time. However it has a pretty measuring error, and you can’t really measure anything below approx 5 ms

pretty large* ...

@jksoegaard: "What do you want the number for?" Why are you asking this question? Isn't it obvious why they want it? They're experiencing an observable difference in latency between their trackpad and their mouse. I, like them, am experiencing the same—in my case, my trackpad feels slower.  I would like to know whether this is real, imagined, or something in between. Why would I want to know this? Because, if it's real, then a conversation can begin: why is there a difference, and how can it be addressed? If it's imagined, then I can convince myself psychologically not to be annoyed by it.

No, it’s not obvious. Depending on what you need the number for, there’s different ways of measuring that have pros/cons - and there’s different ways of minimizing latency that again have pros/cons. If your purpose is only to figure out if you’re imagining a difference so that you can convince yourself it is not there, then just do that from the get go and you have an easy fix. Alternatively you could just make slow down the device you perceive as the slowest until you feel you have the same latency.

I'm not observing any lag. I just want to know what it is.