text:
How to reinstall OS X when Recovery isn't working?
My wife has a MacBook Pro that she bought new in 2012. In 2013/14 it had an issue with the system files and when she took it into the Genius bar at Apple they reinstalled the OS (wiping all personal data in the process). At this point they also upgraded her to the latest OS X at the time. I'm not sure what version this was but I assume Mavericks or Yosemite for reasons that will become clear.
At the weekend the laptop seemed to grind to a halt and lockup while we were browsing the web. After waiting for several minutes to regain any kind of response, we did a hard reboot using the power button. On restarting the system showed a grey screen and a flashing directory symbol with a '?', then switched to the Prohibitory symbol. Unfortunately the warranty has no expired so any trip to the Apple Store will be quite expensive.
I've been reading various articles and posts for the last few days to try and work out how to fix this, as follows:

Apple Hardware Test comes back OK.
Booting from the local Recovery partition (Command-R) does not work. Every time I try this it boots Internet Recovery instead. This means that I cannot reinstall the version of Mac OS X currently on the disk. Running diskutil list in Internet Recovery I can see that the Recovery partition exists on disk0 but I assume it is corrupt in some way.
I have ran 'First Aid' in Disk Utility a number of times in a Verify/Fix cycle. It says that it has fixed the disk but there still seem to be issues in the fix log (checksum errors, etc.). Another strange note here is that it shows the 500GB disk as having all space used except 37.5MB. This wasn't the case when the laptop was working.
Finally, when I run the Internet Recovery and select Reinstall OS X it tries to install Mountain Lion and gives me an error saying that the laptop cannot be 'upgraded' as it is running a newer OS (presumably Mavericks or Yosemite)

So my question is: What is the best course of action to get out of this bind? My thoughts are:

Is there a way to get the local recovery partition working?
Is there a way to determine the version of OS X installed on the system from the recovery tool?
Is there a way to obtain a disc copy (without paying as we already have it installed) of Mavericks or Yosemite so that I can reinstall from media?
Finally, is my only option now to do an Erase and then Install OS X from the Internet Recovery tool?

Any help much appreciated.

So you mean that you want to reinstall the version of Mac OS X that you are currently using, and not the latest version of El Capitan released?

If I can get my hands on El Capitan, possibly. But every newer version of OS X on any Apple device just leads to slowdown.

IMO, El Capitan was faster for me than Mavericks or Yosemite. I think there is a way to install both of the latter too.

My recommendation would be to completely wipe the existing OS so that the OS X installer does not give you any errors about "upgrades".
As mentioned by Apple, I would boot the Mac while holding Command (⌘)-R. Once you are in OS X Utilities, select the Disk Utility option. In Disk Utility, select the drive containing the existing Macintosh HD partition, and then click the Erase button. Format the drive as OS X Extended (Journaled) with the GUID Partition Map. Once the drive has been erased and reformatted, exit Disk Utility.
Back in OS X Utilities, you should now be able to select Reinstall OS X which will guide you through reinstalling OS X Mountain Lion on the freshly reformatted disk without giving an error about any existing OS.

The only thing I would add to this is that if, after wiping the drive, a Command+R install still fails, your backup option will be to use Command+Option+R to boot into Internet Recovery and download a working OS version.

Try Option-Command-R, this will install the latest version of macOS compatible with that machine.

How does this differ from the answer already given?

Because from what I can see the only advice given was command+r, which installs the latest OS installed, and didn't work for OP. If this issue is resolved by the latest possible OS the hardware can handle, why not give it a go?

AltDelete is correct - I just went through a similar exercise with Apple support and a corrupt on-disk OS restore. Command+R will allow you to reinstall from a restore point on disk, while Command+Option+R will boot into Internet Recovery and allow you to download a fresh OS install from an online source. In my case, I did need to wipe the drive first, but that was after a failed High Sierra install had made a mess of it.

Macs sometimes will ignore recovery boot (accessed through ⌘+R) or Internet boot (⌘+⌥+R) when an external disk is connected through a USB port. Try again after disconnecting all devices except for the keyboard, mouse, and screen.
This issue was experienced on a 2014 Mac mini running High Sierra.

If the MacBook is pre OS X Mavericks (has a cd/dvd drive) then there also have been two grey dvd's with the Mac.
One is the Install Disk and the other Disk has the Hardware Test Utilities on it.
Or if you got your Mac from eBay without the dvd's then you should be able to use a Retail DVD (the ones you can buy without buying a Mac) Boot from the Install Disk also lets you open Disk Recovery Tools or a Terminal Window also you can do a Fresh New Install if needed.
If your MacBook is Mavericks or later then it has no cd/dvd drive and also never had a Local Recovery then you won't be able to make local Recovery working.
At this Point your best Option will be if you have access to a 2nd Mac so you can create a BootUSB Stick there or maybe ask a Fried if he can create one for you.

Yes, I have the disc that came with the Mac but I assume that this will just reinstall Lion? And won't it give me the same issue, essentially preventing me from downgrading without a full erase / install ?


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OSX: hard disk space different in Disk utility
I have 2 differents 'free space' digits.
And after delete something big from disk -> free space in 'About your mac' - still unchanged.

Sorry, I don't read Russian, could you please translate that?

This question is similar to the one I posted some times ago where there were even three different HD space indications in my Mac.
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/215213/different-free-space-indications-in-macintosh-hd-after-upgrading-to-el-capitan
Unfortunately, I didn't get any answer. Any help?

@mgiordi - yeap, problem was solved! I answer on your question.

@brick - different GB for availability  (59,35 GB vs 139,6 GB)

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sort: votes


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Do you need an @icloud.com email to get @icloud.com email aliases?
If you sign up for an Apple ID with a non-apple email account (gmail, etc.) can you still sign up for iCloud email aliases (alias@icloud.com)?

Yes you can. Set up the primary ID as your gmail and secondary as an iCloud account

Are you implying that the sign up process with a Gmail address will prompt the user if they would also like an iCloud email address?

I had made my account using my Outlook ID. I added another ID as my iCloud ID in the secondary ID

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text:
Witch and Youtube Fullscreen Windows
I just installed Witch for one reason only which is that if I make a youtube video fullscreen in Chrome then ⌘tab to another app, when I ⌘tab again to get back to the youtube video OSX instead just switches to the browser in the current space.
Unfortunately when I tried Witch it lets me switch back to the youtube video but the youtube.com is now full screen prompt appears AND NEVER DISAPPEARS.
How can I fix this?

It turns out Chrome is apparently creating some special window called "Window". Witch sees that as the previous window and ⌘tab switched to it, not the actual video window. This takes me to the correct space for the video but it's the wrong window.
The solution is to tell Witch to ignore windows with the name "Window" by adding ,Window the the "Ignore windows with titles:" Behavior settings.


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How do I move my plants vz zombies safegames to android?
I want to try strategies here
https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/162404/is-there-a-way-to-transfer-game-progress-from-an-ios-device-to-android
I am now on android. I want to move app data from iphone to android.
The problem is, alas, I already upgraded to iOS 8.3. Ifunbox no longer can do that without jailbreaking.
What should I do?
I can jailbreak (if so, how)
Or, can I just back up everything to iTunes and then copy the back up data to andorid? I rooted my android already.

What version of iOS are you running? You mention iOS 8.3, but I can't tell if you're saying that you upgraded to 8.3 or if you upgraded past 8.3.

http://adriansieber.com/how-to-extract-data-from-ios-apps-on-mac-os/

I had ios 8.3 a long time ago. Now it says I need to jail break. I can, if I have to. I hope not

I have windows computer but not mac

Try this one maybe? I haven't used it myself, but it looks like it does what you want and looks free. http://www.syncios.com/free-itunes-backup-extractor.html


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MacBook Pro WiFi: No hardware installed
I have recently been getting a "No hardware installed" error when I attempt to enable WiFi. I have tried resetting the SMC, resetting NVRAM, reattaching the cables in the electronics of the computer. Now I am stuck for looking for solutions and I think maybe I need to get a new WiFi cable.
It’s a MacBook Pro 15" early 2011 running OS X  El Capitan. Is there any way to diagnose this?

...reattaching the cables in the electronics of the computer.

I am assuming by this statement, you have opened up your Macbook for whatever reason.  Did you do any sort of service?

Try reseating the Airport adapter - remove it completely and reinstall it.
There are 4 cables that go to this adapter.  Three are the antenna cables (J0, J1, and J2) and the interface to the logic board (right)
In addition to that, you have the interface cable that connects it to the logic board (below).  Notice the two connectors at each end.

You have 4 things to check:

The Airport card connector
The cable connectors
the cable itself
The logic board connector

You will have to look closely.  If you did any service to the MBP where removing these components was necessary, you may have damaged them either during removal or installation.  Keep in mind these are very small and delicate components; the slightest force in the wrong direction can cause major damage.
The other scenario is that your Airport card simply failed; it happens.  Replacement AirPort components are still available (as of February 2024)
If you damaged either the Airport card and/or the cable, you will have to replace them.  The good news is that they are available on the open market for less than $50

Airport Bluetooth Card 661-5867
Airport Bluetooth Flex Cable 821-1311-01

If you damaged the connector on the logic board, you will need to have it fixed, get the logic board replaced, or get a USB Wifi Adapter like the  Netgear USB dongles (I have personally used them with MacBook computers quite successfully).

Your statement "a broken cable would result in poor performance" confuses me. I can imagine a broken cable causing this - in fact I think that would be more likely than reduced performance, no? Edit: relevant to previous revision.

See the updated post.

So this method worked for about a week. I just reconnected all the cables. But now it isnt working, it has the error permanently

The other scenario is that your Airport card simply failed; it happens...

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Are Apple Music radio stations influenced by your likes?
I understand that the more you like certain music tracks, recommendations will be provided.
I'm wondering about the Radio specifically. Are the radio stations also influenced by your likes? Similarly to how Pandora works?

There are different radios: Stations, based on an artist or song, Beats One, or custom radios found under New. Which one are you referring to?

The radios found under "Radio"


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300% of my CPU is being used?
I ran a Java applet, and it used over 200% of my CPU....

It actually rose to over 400% after I took the screenshot.
How is this possible? Can someone explain why Activity Monitor shows a task as using more than 100% of my CPU?

Please refer to this thread. http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/226281/how-does-my-dual-core-i5-in-my-macbook-pro-have-more-than-400-cpu-usage/226702#226702

The CPU percentages shown in Activity Monitor are 100% for each virtual core. If you have a quad core processor with hyperthreading, 'real' 100% is 800% in Activity Monitor.

Is this because of hyper threading that each core gains up to 200% per core?

How can I find out what my maximum activity monitor CPU% could possibly be?

I've never seen higher than 400 in Activity Monitor, but when I open the CPU History Window there are slots for 8 cores and all of them have some activity (although the cores labelled 2, 4, 6, and 8 have almost no usage)


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Can I recover pictures from waterlogged phone?
So, my iPhone 6 fell in a pool and will not turn on. I tried plugging it in but somehow the charger port (like where you plug the charger in) is deformed or something because the charger will only go in about halfway. I'm sure this makes the usual methods of data recovery a bit more complicated. Is it possible to still recover my photos?

Did you really plug it in after pulling it out of the pool? Or did you give it some time to dry?

My guess is you didn't sync pictures to your computer of over iCloud Photos or Google Photos or anything like that, otherwise you wouldn't be asking this. Let your phone dry for a day. Then try holding the power and home buttons for about 10 seconds. Also try a different lightning cable, it's hard to think that water would change the shape of the phone. If you can get it to boot but not connect to a cord, you can sync over WiFi. Other thoughts: Did you have an iCloud backup or use photo stream?

@sekdiy i let it dry in rice for a day but no luck

@kal-al no i didn't use iCloud for my pictures unfortunately

First consider ofcourse if you have any backups on your computer, in iCloud or other cloud services.
If not, and you're not able to fix the defective port by yourself, you can use a data recovery service. They might be able to retrieve the photos.
In the past I have successfully used IBAS / Kroll Ontrack data recovery services to recover data from an iPhone with a similar problem. However, note that it is guaranteed that it will work - and there might be complications if your data is encrypted, etc. However, they are able to provide an analysis for a limited fee, so that you know before paying the full fee, how likely it is for you to get all your data back.
Their homepage is here:
http://www.krollontrack.co.uk
I cannot see from your profile where you are located, but they operate in many different countries.


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Can a non-retina iMac with i7 3.5 Ghz and GTX775M handle three displays?
I am thinking about getting a used non-retina iMac with these specs:
Core i7 3,5 GHz
32GB RAM
1TB SSD
GTX 775M

Since I own two Apple 27" Displays I'd like to hook these up via Thunderbolt/MDP.
My question is: Can the iMac handle all the 3 displays (including the built-in one) or will I have UI lag/stutter? Will the iMac get hot? How would the fan noise be with this setup?

I am assuming that you are referencing a 27" Late 2013 iMac because there is no 21" iMac that has that specific CPU frequency.
You can have up to two external displays connected via Thunderbolt  according to the specs posted on EveryMac.com

I have used 30" and 43" displays with my iMac and there has been zero lag.  I also only have SSDs (no hard drives) so I have had zero issues with heat, even with multiple displays.

Here are the steps:

Go to the Apple Menu (top-left hand corner)
Click About this Mac
Check your graphics card,

What does it tell you it can handle?


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Is this external USB3 drive really this slow for my Macbook TimeMachine backup?
I got myself this WD 2TB USB3 external harddrive for backups: http://amzn.to/1X8b3a8
I connected it to the USB 3.0 port of my mid 2015 Macbook Pro 15".
When I run Time Machine, it really takes veeeery long for the backup (about 10-20 hours for a 350 GB initial encrypted backup).
So I ran disk speed test with this result. Is this speed normal and does Time Machine backup really take that long?

This is measuring sequential write speed. Due to seek time and rotational latency, this is deceptively higher than the performance you'll see out of Time Machine (which is doing a very high number of writes of small files). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive_performance_characteristics

Time Machine and OS X is tuned to throttle the IO and possibly the CPU usage of the backup task. You can do a few things to modify that behavior - but from the speed benchmark and my experience - a 12 to 48 hour initial backup is not abnormal or indicative of slow backups once you have a few intervals backed up.

You could log out and minimize other apps / changes to files to let the initial backup complete unhindered.
You could interrupt the backup, erase the backup destination and tweak the io throttle settings and measure if this helps the initial backup.

To do the second, you'll ned terminal and want to review this excellent answer as well as some speculation on the web.
tmutil stopbackup
tmutil destinationinfo
tmutil removedestination DEB58ECE-531B-4295-85B4-82FC905A01EA
echo 'debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

At that point, you would restart your Mac. When it restarts, then erase the USB 3 drive and establish it as the backup destination and start the initial backup again. There's no need to use the tmutil commands over the Time Machine preference if you like mouse control or visual feedback over terminal commands. The echo 'debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0' command needs to be run in terminal, though.
Lastly, you will need to change the removedestination command to command removal of your destination's unique ID instead of DEB58ECE-531B-4295-85B4-82FC905A01EA. Also, you might also see if your current backups are throttled and how they are doing work with:
sudo fs_usage backup

Unless you're really interested in analyzing the low level performance, I'd say you don't have a problem - just a slow initial experience - and revisit things in a week once the steady state backup timings are known. If you get hourly backups completing in 5 minutes or less - you probably shouldn't disable the debug timings as I listed above.

Also - jksoegaard is absolutely correct. The Black Magic benchmark measures bandwidth of sustained reads and writes. Time Machine workload is almost exclusively high IO / low bandwidth so benchmarking IOPS would be a better measure for checking tuning changes. That fact that IO service time is the limitation is what caused me to say you may not have a problem with your setup or choice of USB 3 drive.

The speed you see there is not unusual. I have seen various USB3 external harddrives vary from about 60 MB/s to about 120 MB/s. These speeds can be expected from ordinary hard drives - you'll to buy an SSD to get much higher speeds.
However please keep in mind that these speeds are the bulk transfer speed. I.e. if you transfer only one large file without any file system overhead, you would obtain these speeds.
A backup will contain lots of small files which are individually stored. The random access read/write speeds of these portable USB drives are usually much lower than the bulk speed.
Compared to my experience, it is not unusual for the first Time Machine back to take 10 hours.

Stop backing up and reboot then try this method.
Go to a Terminal and enter:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0

For me, this sped it up from 72 hours to ~4 hours on a filesystem with 2.5 million files.
It’s also a good idea to re-enable the throttling after the initial backup has finished successfully with the following command:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1

My case was solved.

actually, if you don't save the line debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0 to to the /etc/sysctl.conf file the system will use the default value of debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1 on the next reboot so it is only necessary to set it to =1 manually if you don't reboot your system regularly/right after finishing the initial backup run.

The first backup will always take a long time. Possibly even overnight. Then it gets faster because it backups only modified files. I had the same speed with an Airport Time Capsule.

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How can I switch back the SMB file service to SMB1?
I am using an Canon print workstation to send files to OS X. Unfortunately OS X El Capitan uses SMB3. It's no longer possible to send files scanned PDF files to OS X. How can I switch back to SMB1 for the OS X El Capitan SMB file service?
Update: The command isn't correct.
echo "[default]" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf; echo "smb_neg=smb1_only" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf

It sets the default network protocol to the slower but more reliable SMB 1 protocol. However I don’t want to connect to a SMB Windows file server. It’s the other way around. I am using the built-in OS X SMB file service (SMB3) and the printer connects to OS X.
Anyway, there aren’t many articles on how to force OS X SMB server to use SMB1. There is also a application SMBUp which replaces Apple’s OS X native netbios and SMB services. You can find a detail tutorial here
http://www.tweaking4all.com/os-tips-and-tricks/macosx-tips-and-tricks/smbup-mac-os-x-smb-fix/
Solution: Finally I said goodbye to SMB and switched to FTP file protocol.

Why would you want to do that?  What is the problem that you are having?

Ahhh...  Give this a try.  It worked for Mavericks (SMB2) and should work here as well.  In Terminal issue:  echo "[default]" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf; echo "smb_neg=smb1_only" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf

Your command sets the default network protocol to the slower but more reliable SMB 1 protocol. However I don’t want to connect to a SMB Windows file server. It’s the other way around. I am using the built-in OS X SMB file service (SMB3) and the printer connects to OS X.
Anyway, there aren’t many articles on how to force OS X SMB server to use SMB1. There is also a application SMBUp which replaces Apple’s OS X native netbios and SMB services. You can find a detail tutorial here
http://www.tweaking4all.com/os-tips-and-tricks/macosx-tips-and-tricks/smbup-mac-os-x-smb-fix/
Solution: Finally I said goodbye to SMB and switched to FTP file protocol.

You should move this clarification to the question part as it's technically not an answer but a clarification

I ran into this problem a few years back and I found the cleanest way was to install Samba (which still supports the older protocols) via Homebrew and use that instead of the version built by Apple.
I used these instructions, which are for Mavericks but I think they should still work for newer versions of OS X.


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Apple Music charges card or available balance?
I am subscribed to Apple Music, and I also have a store credit from gift cards.
Will my monthly subscription subtract from my store credit or charge my credit card?

In my personal experience, store credit will be used until it is gone, and then the credit card on file will be charged.


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Changed version number on Mac Pro Yosemite and can no longer boot
A friend of mine offered to download a program for me onto my Mac, but he asked to see what version I'm running beforehand. When he saw that I was running Yosemite 10.10.1 he said I would have to change some things around in terminal for the crack to work. He sent me a link to a video which told me how to change the version number in terminal to 10.5, I did so despite my lack of knowledge on terminal, stupidity at its finest. Almost immediately after, none of my applications were available, not even terminal. I tried restarting my Mac and I hadn't been able to boot since. I can't reinstall OS X because it says the item is temporarily unavailable. Nothing in Disk Utility makes a difference, at least not from what others online have said. I've tried some of the terminal instructions others have posted online, but the commands "sudo" and "nano" cannot be found and that always seems to hinder the process. I ran out of ideas as soon as reinstalling OS X didn't work out. Please, please help me.

That should be a valuable lesson for you, both in terms of friend selection and in terms of allowing suspect software on to your machine. Take it into an Apple store, let them fix it (they'll probably charge you money for this), and don't be so ... trusting next time. In any case, this is not a suitable question for SO - click on help/help-center at the top of this page.

Now I understand why they introduced System Integrity Protection...

adding a link to that video might help to figure out the issue

I've already considered these things, I know it was a mistake, if it wasn't I wouldn't be asking for help. I'm hoping someone can help me figure this out without me having to go to an Apple Store. Sure last resort I'll take it in, but I'd like to learn something new, I'd like to learn how to fix this.

If you have cracked software on your machine, the best fix is to totally blow it away and start from scratch. Without that, trust in what you have is seriously degraded.

What do you mean by totally blow it away? Im fine with losing everything I've put onto this computer.

Take it to the Apple Store. Consider the cost as payment for the vast knowledge you gained about not doing stupid things based on advice and information you don't understand that you got from an idiot friend and some stranger's web video.

I'm guessing this process is similar to the one you used? And can we assume you don't have a Time Machine backup or similar from before the time you made the change? If yes to both, this comment about fixing it in single user mode may help. Or may not.


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Why does my Magic Mouse 2 not work on OS X login screen?
I own a Macbook Pro 15" mid 2015 model and have OS X El Capitan installed. Also, I use the Macbook in clam shell mode and have two 27" Apple Displays attached to it.
When I restart the computer, the login screen shows up but moving the mouse has no effect. Every time this happens I have to open up the Macbook lid and use the integrated trackpad instead to click on my login pic. Then I can use the (external) Bluetooth Magic Keyboard to enter my password.
When OS X has logged me in, the mouse suddenly starts working normally.
This is very annoying. Why does my bluetooth Magic Mouse not work on the login screen (although the Bluetooth Magic Keyboard works) but after logging in, the mouse suddenly starts working?

Be sure to click the mouse once to wake it up, because it will likely have gone to sleep.

Oooohhhh, that's a tricky one :) Thanks, I'll give it a try next time this problem occurs.


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Dock and Terminal don't work on systems with home directory on different versions of OSX
I have two macs, one running Mavericks and one running El Capitan. Most of the users on both of the machines have their home directory in an external server connected by NFS. When I try to launch Terminal.app from a user with a remote home directory, it doesn't start up. When I try to remove an item from the dock, the dock freezes and I can't do anything until I log out and then log back in again.
What is causing these issues, and how can I fix them?

Did you check /var/log/syslog? It may give you a hint (which you can share with us).

open Console.app and take a look at the Terminal and the Dock Log maybe you can see there what exactly causes the Terminal to fail opening and  Dock to freeze


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Internal name for "Scheduled" List in Reminders App on iOS
I try to connect Do Note with the iOS Reminders app and add a new Button to add Reminders to the "Scheduled" List but everytime I try to create a Note from Do Notes I get a new list in the Reminders app called "Scheduled" and it won't add it to the internal "Scheduled" list (which shows up in the Notification center and sends push notification when a scheduled reminder comes up).
So my question is: What is the internal name for the "Scheduled" list in the Reminders app, so that I can add a Reminder from Do Notes
Btw: I am using iOS in german so the german name for the Scheduled list is "Planmäßig" but even with this name set up in Do Notes it won't add it to the correct list

The "Scheduled" list in Reminders is just all of the reminders that have a due date. There is no way to add a reminder to that list.
If you do use the + and add a reminder, you'll see it shows up on another list (Reminders list for me).

Ah! You're right! If you set a scheduled Time in another list it will show up in scheduled and in the notification center. I always thought it is a separate list but I just saw that it took the default list for storing the Reminder.


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Itunes smart Playlist with reference to Apple Music favorites won't sync to Iphone
I have created a Playlist (pl1) and favorited some of the tracks in it.
But because I want to filter (the heart symbol in Apple Music) only the tracks which are favorited from pl1 I created a smart playlist with following settings:

contained in pl1 AND
marked as favorite

My Problem now is that the new smart playlist won't sync over to my iPhone...
pl1 and the favorites sync normally and even the favorited tracks from pl1 show up in favorites on the iPhone but as I said the smart playlist won't show up.
I tried the following:

Restart the iPhone
Re-Enable Apple Music
Relogging from icloud
Recreating both pl1 and the smart playlist

I also found these two questions:

ITunes Match: syncing smart playlists that reference other
playlists
iTunes smart playlist not syncing to iPhone

But the first one is about itunes match and the second one said that it worked again after some time

Unfortunately you are not able to sync Smart Playlists that contain a rule referencing another playlist with Apple Music tracks.
In some cases you may be able to get around this by making a normal playlist and putting Smart Playlists in that (for example my top 100 played tracks and my Loved tracks), but as you are trying to get just the intersection that wouldn't work.
Can only suggest giving Apple feedback at:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html
http://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-music.html

OMG. Why I can't reference songs from my simple playlist in my smart playlist with sync feature? This is insane.

Although a Smart Playlist that contains a rule referencing another playlist cannot sync I have found a simple work around:
Create a normal playlist (this wil be the end result playlist that you are going to use) and from iTunes on your computer simply drag the smart playlist into this playlist. This adds the content from the Smart Playlist into the normal playlist - without any syncing issues.
This works for me and although it has the need for some manual implementation, it is minimal and in your case it should not be to big of a problem.

this is not smart playlist in the end, because you just create a normal playlist which doesn't have any rules. omg...


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Apple's typical device refresh optimal for new college students?
Long-story-short: When does apple typically update their hardware?

As a prospective college student, I'd want to get new devices before college begins, but I'd also prefer to have the most up-to-date once I actually begin college.
Colleges that I've looked into typically start in Fall, so I was wondering whether Apple typically updates devices in late-Summer. Or, do they inconveniently update it after most colleges start?

There's a comprehensive Buyers' Guide at MacRumors, which provides the average product cycle lengths (and date of latest product update).

Thanks! I knew about MacRumors, but totally forgot to check their Buyers' Guide.

I too had this question before joining my college. I would suggest you to wait till July and get which ever mac that suits your budget.
My personal advice would be to get something which is ultra portable like Macbook pro 13'inch or Air. I DONT think apple will be launching any updated Air anytime soon.
So you should get the 13'Inch MacbookPro.

I would wait until they update the Pro. It's rumored that they'll do so at WWDC.


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Itunes Thumb Drive Eject
How do I properly "eject" a thumb drive? I just uploaded about 26 hours of shows off of 12 thumb drives onto iTunes. Went to FILE, add to library, then when done loading, go to CONTROLS and hit eject, then remove drive. EVERY time it says failed to eject properly and shows the date of show, etc. What am I doing wrong?
New Macbook running latest version of iTunes.

Why can't you eject using Finder?

I wish I knew! When I hit eject it does nothing like say ready to eject or remove drive, and when I just do, it says I didn't properly eject!

I believe iTunes eject just means that iTunes isn't using it anymore. If you want to eject a flash drive, use finder.

I'll try that. So drive is shown in finder?


text:
Crypt-SSLeay on a macbook
I'm trying to install Crypt-SSLeay on a macbook and it failed.
I manually downloaded Crypt-SSLeay from cpan and issued:
 perl Makefile.pl

The error is
openssl-version.c:2:10: fatal error: 'openssl/opensslv.h' file not found
#include <openssl/opensslv.h>
     ^
1 error generated.
Failed to build and link a simple executable using OpenSSL

The file exists and it's located at:
 /usr/local/opt/openssl/include/openssl

How do I go about fixing this, thanks.

Well, after trying other solutions of this and other threads to no avail, I stumbled upon this one-liner that did the trick for me:
$ sudo OPENSSL_INCLUDE=/usr/local/opt/openssl/include OPENSSL_LIB=/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 perl -MCPAN -e "install Crypt::SSLeay"

You might try the following:
$ perl Makefile.PL --incpath /usr/local/opt/openssl/include --libpath /usr/local/opt/openssl/lib

as per the Crypt-SSLeay install docs.  (Note that the above assumes that the OpenSSL libraries, libcrypt and libssl, are installed in /usr/local/opt/openssl/lib on your Macbook.)
Hope this helps!

I typed this in:
cpanm LWP::Protocol::https

And then installed Crypt-SSLeay using:
cpanm Crypt::SSLeay

And it worked. When I tried to install Crypt::SSLEay before LWP::Protocol::https I got the same error as you originally did.

what macOS version are you using? how did you install 'cpanm' (manually, brew, conda?)


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Ctrl+D toggles the OSX dock but I want it to be passed to the terminal
I'm new to Linux and have been playing around with manipulating files with cat
ie.
cat > randomNames
Albert Einstein
Marie Curie
Isaac Newton

now when I want to quit cat with control + D on my mac it just seems to toggle my dock?!
To no avail I've tried all options; what could be happening here?

@Babyy - thank you. Truth be told I had written in a similar style to your edit  - not sure why it displayed the way it did :/

It's possible that dock captured Ctrl-D combination, or you pressing not a Ctrl key but some other Mac key.

Agreed, @Seo-Jun Koh - Make sure you are using the Ctrl key, not the Cmd key. Mac has almost replaced Ctrl with Cmd, except for in the terminal (and a few other application-specific examples)...

100% holding down control + d (does the lower case matter cause it's a lower case d) otherwise I would have to capslock (or shift + control + D) ...when I do command and D it just splits the terminal window into parts - really weird. I asked my prof and he was befuddled. :/ Sorry I know this question is lame ...

This is an old question - but I was facing the same problem today, until I figured out that an app by the name of "Windowmizer" I had recently installed had remapped Ctrl-D to minimize the current window to the dock. Disabling that mapping through the application's preferences fixed it.


text:
Which built-in tools do Little Snitch-like applications rely on?
Little Snitch is a well-known piece of software that allows Mac users to block outgoing connexions from a specific app.
Now, whenever I ask how to do the same with built-in OS X tools, I get an answer like: "you can’t do this without Little Snitch. The built-in PF firewall is not an application firewall, and the built-in AF can only block incoming traffic. No OS X tool allows this."
This cannot be true. I mean, in this case, how would Little Snitch, or Hands Off!, or small apps such as RadioSilence achieve this to begin with? These apps themselves must certainly use built-in tools of some sort to block traffic on a per-application basis. I searched for open source alternatives with the idea to have a look at their sources and find out "how they do this". But... I found no open source alternative. Any idea?

Little Snitch uses a network kernel extension to intercept network traffic.

NKEs allow you to create modules that can be loaded and unloaded dynamically at specific positions in the network hierarchy. These modules can monitor and modify network traffic, and can receive notification of asynchronous events from the driver layer, such as interface status changes.

Each of the networking KPI mechanisms performs a specific task. The basic networking KPI mechanisms are:

Socket filter KPI, which permits a KEXT to filter inbound or outbound traffic on a given socket, depending on how they are attached. Socket filters can also filter out-of-band communication such as calls to setsockopt or bind. The resulting filters lie between the socket layer and the protocol.
…
Interface filter KPI, which allows a KEXT to add a filter to a specific network interface. These interface filters (previously known as data link NKEs) can passively observe traffic (regardless of packet type) as it flows into and out of the system. They can also modify the traffic (for example, encrypting or performing address translation). They essentially act as filters between a protocol stack and a device.
…

Alternatives to network kernel extensions exist as you mentioned, but only for certain use cases.

Because even minor bugs in kernel-level code can cause serious consequences, including application instability, data corruption, and even kernel panics, the techniques described in this document should be used only if no other mechanism already exists. For example, where possible, IP filtering should generally be done using ipfw. Similarly, packet logging should generally be done using bpf.

Network kernel extensions are far more powerful and allow for more detailed control.

Network Kernel Extensions Overview
Introduction to Network Kernel Extensions Programming Guide

Emphasis in quoted content mine. I am unfamiliar with the other software but I assume it follows the same principal.


text:
esc button OS X needs to be released on every command
In terminal I use escB  or escF  to jump through the words.
If I want 2x back I've to do escB twice. Otherwise I just start typing F or B in Terminal.
The modifier keys ctrl / alt /cmd work differently e.g. I can hit control and than hit AAA EEEE multiple times without a need to release control button. So go to end of line twice would be ctrlEE and this would work (don't mind the fact that this is pointless end of line is end of line)
Is there a way to achieve same with esc modifier?

esc is not a modifier but an actual key so you are doing esc then b not esc and b at the same time. alt + b is alt and b at the same time

@Mark so how do I make it work like a modifier? :)

You can't it is a key sending a character just like the key X

@Mark never mind I found solution, terminal esc can be remapped to alt

@SandroDzneladze In my opinion you can modify every key to behave like a modifier key (with Karabiner). Which editor do you use? E.g. in nano esc-b/f don't allow you to jump to the previous or the next word.

@klanomath question was about terminal, as for editor I use vim.

selecting Use option as meta key allows alt/option to be used instead of esc.


text:
Automatically use USB sound card when plugged in?
I have an external sound card that I plug into my computer through USB.
Is there any way I can tell OS X to always default to it as output when it's available? Even if I plug it in while the computer is already on?
I use OS X 10.10.1.

I doubt it. I've never had an external audio interface that would even be recognised unless it was present at boot.

@Tetsujin Mine is recognized even if I plug it in later. But I have to manually select it as output device.

I wonder if the script I did for this might help - http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/218223/85275

@Tetsujin This looks cool. How is it to be used? What should trigger the script?

I'm not good enough with the underlying mechanism to be able to fully automate it, sorry. Key command would be my solution, unless someone else is able to point you in the right direction.

@Tetsujin Key command sounds pretty handy :) So I just add it as a Service and assign it to a keyboard shortcut?

Yup, better than digging in the prefs... not as good as full auto, but best I can do.


text:
OSX 10.6 admin account missing
After a power shortage a Mac with El Capitan installed, downgraded to 10.6 and the admin account is missing.
The main session password is also in an older state, and we cannot connect anymore.
We have tried to suppress the /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and go through the account creation process but without success.
Does anyone have any way to retrieve an admin account?

Are you saying that before the power-cut it was running El Capitan & afterwards it was mysteriously running Snow Leopard, with no human intervention??

The proper method to initiate a new OS X setup is to delete/rename /var/db/.AppleSetupDone! Does the Mac boot to a netboot/netinstall image? Please add the Mac model and your system/network environment! With the given details it's almost impossible to reproduce the incident or present a solution.

@Tetsujin Yes, as crazy as it sounds... Actually the first boot after the powershortage took many hours, so someone hard rebooted the computer. At the next start it was on 10.6.

@klanomath I am not near the machine right now, I will do so when possible, sorry. Also we already did the delete /var/db/.applesetupdone

Please check if the Mac booted from another partition or external drive (with 10.6 installed). It sounds more likely to me that a macOS downgrading itself. Also, i don't understand what you mean by "main session password is also in an older state". Can you explain further on that?

The session password dont work anymore. I know most of the problems looks like nonsense, and there must be other causes, but i cant find them. Also there is no HDD or partition

Try restarting and then press Command+S. This will boot the computer in single user mode. After everything loaded, type in ( /sbin/ mount -uw /)first, then (rm /var/db/ .applesetupdone), and finally (shutdown -h now )or (reboot). This erases the previous setup and makes the mac think its brand new. All you would need is to create a new admin account.

The user already stated they've tried this method, otherwise this question would be a duplicate of http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/164331/i-dont-have-administrator-account-on-my-mac.


text:
How to have Chrome cover everything except the dock when double clicked?
So I have recently switched to Mac from Windows and I like to have the dock always visible when I'm using programs (probably because I'm used to the Start button toolbar in Windows). I don't use the green full screen button, I just double click the title bar to make the window cover everything.
Unfortunately, this does not work in Chrome. Seems like the default shape of the Chrome window is set to be a square and when I double click on the title bar, it expands into a square, leaving space on the sides. I have to manually drag the left and right side to cover the screen.
Is there any way to change this?
EDIT: Option + Maximise does not work. It still leaves space on the sides.

I use "Moom" from the Mac App Store. See if that does what you want it to.

@TMHahn seems like that would do it but it costs £7.99. Don't want to spend that much just for this simple feature. Thanks anyway though.

I haven't tried it, but it looks like "Magnet" by CrowdCafé does the same thing for even cheaper.

Hold the Option key at the same time you click on the Maximize button on Chrome.  This will maximize the window while leaving visible the menu bar and dock.  This will also work on any other window on a Mac.
If this doesn't maximize the window on the first try, drag the window to where you want it (like you're doing now with the left and right sides) and then close the browser.  Next time you open it, it should fully maximize.

It doesn't, it just expands into a square. I think the default shape of the Chrome window will have to be changed.

See my recent edit.  I left out an important part.  This works perfectly on my Mac.

I know that works but somehow I always end up double-clicking the title bar by mistake while working, so it becomes small again. I have to keep doing it over and over again. I'm looking for a way so that it covers the screen by default.

This does cover the screen by default, each and every time I open Chrome.  I'm not doing anything special so I don't know why it's not working for you.  You can also look at an app name Magnet on the App Store.  It allows you to dynamically resize windows by moving them to the top/right/left.

It does work. I meant I am looking for a way for it cover the screen when I double click the title bar. I'll check out that app, thanks.


text:
How to see colors in Xcode?
I'm interested in replacing written-out colors with their actual representation. The example is shown below is on Apple's website, and I can't seem to find a way to do it within Xcode. I'm afraid that something so useful might just be a marketing gimmick.
If not, how do I do what's to the right of
c.circleColor    =
c.lineColor      =

This is an Xcode Playground.  That's important because it's the only place (with the default settings) that you can display these colors.
EDIT (June 23, 2016): After reviewing the WWDC material on new features in Xcode, images are also supported.  This is done via image literals.
This is taken from Apple's Playground Help:

Open the source editor for the playground page that will contain the literal.
Place the insertion point at the location in the code for the UIColor or NSColor.
Choose Editor > Insert Color Literal.
  A color literal is added at the insertion point, and the color picker opens.  The screenshot shows the color literal just inserted for the tintColor property of imageView.

  Use the color picker to choose a different color for the inserted literal. In the figure below, imageView.tintColor has been changed to Aqua, which updates the color of the resulting image.

A little bummed out it's just the playground, but thank you regardless!

It's not just for playgrounds. In XCode, start typing "color" and use autocomplete to select Color Literal. Make sure you've imported UIKit and make sure you're in a context where a UIColor makes sense. XCode will insert the literal. Double click it to edit.


text:
Extract audio from a folder of mp4 videos
Any good apps/tools for OSX that will convert an entire folder of mp4 videos into audio files?

If the answers in the linked question (and in similar ones displayed in the "Related" column at the right hand side) don't work for you, please edit your question to explain what you have tried and where it doesn't work as required.

I am looking for an app that works on an entire folder

There probably isn't a ready-to-use solution, but it should be possible to do some shell scripting e.g. based on the accepted answer to the question linked to on top. If this is what you need, please edit your question text accordingly.


text:
Wrong number of items displayed when moving or copying files
When copying or moving files in Yosemite, Finder says it is preparing (for example) 400 items, when there is actually only 200 items in the folder.
This has been happening a lot recently, on both my computer and external hard drives.
Once the files have been copied over or moved, it has the same original amount of items in the new folder (200).
I am just perplexed as to what these other secret files may be?

Are you just moving files or are you moving apps too? Or is it sometimes one or both?

if any of the items are packages [photo library files etc], Finder will calculate the contents too


text:
Safari 9 Key Command. Go back to previous page
I would like to program my Wacom tablet, thus what is the correct Safari key command to go back to the previous page?
I am using Safari 9.1.1 on Yosemite.

The menu command to go back a page is "History" > "Back".
The command key equivalent is ⌘[

option key + left arrow also works for El Capitan.


text:
MacBook Pro turned off and won't turn on!
I was just using my laptop normally when suddenly the whole computer just shut down. I turned it back on straight away and it was fine. Another hour passed and it did the same thing. I could also turn it on again. And then it happened again, this time I couldn't turn it back on!! I have never spilt any liquid over my laptop so it isn't liquid damage. I have tried resetting SMC, replugging the battery cable inside the computer, leaving the charger disconnected from the mac for a few hours, nothing works! The strange thing is when I have my charger disconnected and I press the little button on the side to show power, nothing happens. But when I do the same with the charger connected it shows full battery.

I have a MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 running OSX El Capitan.

Your Mac should still be able to turn on with a dead battery.  As long as charger is functioning properly, it's more than enough to both power up and charge your Mac.
You have three possibilities for the cause of this:
MagSafe Board (highest probability).  This board is known to go bad and when it fails, it presents symptoms similar to what you are describing.  The good news is that this component is very inexpensive ($10-$15).

You said in your post you had opened it up and disconnected/reconnected your battery so it sounds like you have the tech skills to do this repair.
Your Charger (medium probability).  This is the easiest test to do.  I once  took in a MacBook Air into Best Buy and hooked it up to a charger they had connected to one of their display models to verify that the charger wasn't the problem. It may or may not be the charger, but there's no need to spend $60 - $100 just to test it out.  if your computer comes to life after plugging in another charger, you have your answer.
Your Logic Board.  (least probability).  This is obviously the most expensive, but most of the time, it's not the issue.  The only way to diagnose this is at the component level.  If you have exhausted the first two possibilities, it's time to send it in for a professional diagnosis.

I've mentioned this on someone else's answer, but a faulty battery can stop a machine from powering on. Especially if the battery is physically damaged, such as expanding

The OP disconnected the battery as part of his diagnostic and a battery is not required to power up.

If the SMC is corrupt then it won't. From personal experience I can assure you that if the battery is faulty it can stop the machine from starting its power on sequence. This was a particularly common issue in pre unibody MacBooks. Source: I'm an Apple Authorised Tech

@Trent - so a 2011 MBP; is that pre or post Unibody?

its a Unibody MacBook Pro. Unibody refers to the keyboard enclosure being embedded in the top case, so if there is only 3 external enclosure parts (display lid, topcase/keyboard assembly, and bottom case) then its a unibody. While it was common with pre unibody MacBooks, I've replicated the same symptoms on nearly every modern apple laptop - inclusive on the 2011 models (both early and late)

I do want to say that all your other information is pretty perfect though. I'd recommend reading this answer to someone having this issue

The battery appears to be dead or damaged. I would go to an Apple Store to have it replaced. But It is still strange that even with the power cable connected it does not turn on.
Another test you could do is resetting the PRAM by holding Command + Option + P + R and turning on the MacBook

Lol he just said it doesnt turn on again so dont think he can reset PRAM :P

How do you reset NVRAM when you can't power on?  How do you know that the battery is dead without doing diagnosis?

@emotality sometimes the machine appears like its not powering on but still is. I recommend holding the power to ensure it's off. Then power on attempt PRAM reset.

Even if your battery is dead, your computer should still switch on, see this article for more details.
Might be power cables inside your laptop. You can test with voltage meters, if you don't know how it works, you can always go to an electrician or just take it into a computer shop or even Apple.

Not technically correct, a faulty battery can stop your machine from powering up correctly. To ensure its not the battery you'd have to disconnect the battery and ideally connect a known good working battery

Here are the troubleshooting steps recommended by Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204267
These are the steps I personally would take to diagnose this issue and resolve it:
1: attempt to reset the SMC: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201295
2: try a different charger, also attempt the first step again
3: this step and all that follow require tools and technical knowledge and understanding. If you don't have both, don't try it. The damage you can cause your machine or yourself isn't worth the trip to an Apple Autherised Service Provider or store.
Disassemble the machine and inspect it for liquid damage, or burn components
Disconnect the battery - the method to do so will vary from model to model.
Ideally you'd want to try also replacing the battery with a known good working battery but it's unlike you have a spare.
4: Reseat the AC MagSafe / I/O board connect/s to the logic board. Also reseat the screws for the board to ensure its not shorting out. Again it would be worth swapping this part for a known good working part but again probably not something everyone has on hand
5: remove the logic board, I/O or MagSafe board and the fan/s. Find the power on pads and bridge them to "hot wire" start them (with the charger connected). This removes all the other possible components that could be causing an issue. If the fan spins up it means the machine is shorting out with one of the other components - enjoy finding out which one it is.
6: if you've made it to here you probably have a faulty logic board. With Apple gear its generally cheaper to just buy a new machine at this point


text:
Numbers: checking if cell with specific text exists
Prerequisites
I have some tables with cells like so:

Also, I have some more tables like so:

Objective
Note the YES and NO. in the Included column in the Example Requirements table.

You will note that for JAE 101 in the Example Requirements, a YES is to the right, because I have included it in the Example Semester table.
Conversely, there is a NO to the right of OME 321 because there is no such ID in the Example Semester.
Also, there is YAE 555 which has nothing to do with the Example Requirements table.

Problem
Unfortunately, the described scenario was a mockup; the YES and NO were placed manually by myself.
What formula do I put in the Included column of the Example Requirements table to reproduce such scenario?

This formula works where A3 is the cell which contains the search string and "Example Semester::A3:A4" is the range to search.
IF(IFERROR(MATCH(A3,Example Semester::A3:A4,0),FALSE),"YES","NO")

OK, thanks! Before I give you a green check-mark, I have one more requirement: How do I have multiple cells from different tables to check? i.e. How do I make "Example Semester:: $A$2:$A$3" into something like "Semester 1:: $A$2:$A$3" AND "Semester 2:: $A$2:$A$3"?

@SirJony Non-contiguous cell ranges are not possible in Numbers.

Seriously!? Do you happen to know if Excel on Mac supports it?

@SirJony You can use a comma-delimited list of ranges enclosed in {} with Excel's indirect function.

OK, thanks for the additional information. Apple really need to up the ante on their software. :)


text:
What point is there in using an everyday non-admin account on OS X?
This piece of advice is old but is coming back into fashion. I have seen it a lot recently, on a number of Mac websites or forums. "Your ‘everyday’ user account should not be an admin account. It should be a standard account created for this purpose, and you should log to the admin account only to perform actual admin tasks. »
This seems to be common advice in the Windows world, but for an up-to-date OS X system, I just cannot understand what kind of benefits it brings. Let’s dig into it:

OS X admin accounts are not root accounts. Any app wanting to go root will ask for your password anyway, so I see no additional security layer here. Try to put /var into the Trash.
Deep OS modification or code injection into most critical files has been prevented by SIP from El Capitan, whether your are admin, root or nobody. What’s more, in sensitive places where they are still allowed, such modifications would require a root password at the very least, even from an admin account, bringing us back to the first argument.
For spyware, privacy concerns and this kind of stuff, using standard accounts provides little additional protection, if any. As far as I know, even when used from a standard account, apps have full access to the user’s personal files and have full network access (minus any firewall, etc.). If a bad app wants to send home your docs, it can perfectly do so from a standard account.
Basic lines of defense (firewall, running trusted apps, and so on) are system wide.
On the other hand, it is a pain to switch to your admin account, then switch back to your standard account, back and forth. This may actually end up with the user delaying updates or admin maintenance, just to save time and postpone dealing with the hassle.

So, why not use an admin account? I hope this won’t be marked as duplicate, other questions related to this issue didn't address these arguments.
Edit: the question applies to a computer that you own and control.

There is only one root account on every OS X computer and it is disabled by default. It doesn't have a password and you can't login as root unless you specifically use Directory Utility and enable it. It's dangerous, because when logged in as root the system bypasses all authorization - it doesn't even ask for a password. In that aspect, an OS X computer is indeed rootless, which is A Good Thing™.
Admins accounts are simply standard accounts that also happen to be in the admin group. Any action in OS X performed by a logged-in user is checked against the authorization database (you can see its rules in /System/Library/Security/authorization.plist to see whether no authentication is required or is it enough to be authenticated as the session owner (standard user that is logged in), or must you be a member of the admin group. It gives very fine-grained control. So three possibilities might occur, for example in System Preferences when clicking the locked padlock. Upon clicking, it may simply unlock without authentication, it may offer authentication dialog with account name already put in (which means please confirm it's you) or may offer authentication dialog with account name and password fields blank (which means you are not admin, please call an admin to type his credentials in).
A rule of thumb is that anything that can affect other users on the computer (system-wide change) will require administrative authentication. But it's more complex than that. Standard users, for example, can install apps from the Mac App Store in the /Applications folder (which is a system-wide change) but cannot bypass GateKeeper to run unsigned applications even if only within their own data.
Standard users cannot invoke sudo which has a bad side-effect of not requiring authentication in a 10-15 minutes window after that. A cleverly designed script will ask you for an admin authentication for something you approve of, but after that it will do all sorts of wacky stuff you know nothing about.
Standard users can also be managed via parental controls or configuration profiles and can have password policies enforced. Admin users can do no such thing.
System Integrity Protection addresses the fact that people have been clicking thru installer packages and providing passwords so easily that the users have become the weakest link. SIP just tries to keep the system afloat, nothing else (and sometimes fails in that, too).
You would not believe how many people I've seen that have only one user on the computer (which is also admin account) and even without an account password, just to perceive a slight decrease in annoyance in form of a login window activity.
I can't agree with your opinion that it is a pain to switch to an admin account when necessary. If you are in Terminal, you only need to su myadminacct before doing anything, including sudo or launching Finder as another user by executing /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder.
In GUI, well, Mac App Store updates (including OS X updates) do not require admin authentication. Those installer packages that end up in Downloads folder, including Adobe Flash updates, yes, you should be very careful before opening those doing the extra work and making triple sure they come from the right place and are not full of nasties.
That's why I think using a Mac with a standard account is better and more secure than with an admin, because it protects me from my own mistakes and oversights. Even the majority of knowledgeable users don't inspect every downloaded script line-by-line to see if there is anything fishy going on.
I hope that the controls could get even stricter in the future, for example introducing conditions or schedules when an app (or script or any executable) can be run or have access to the network or that an executable may not even be started if I didn't explicitly allowed it (authentication dialog) within last month or so.

Security is best implemented as a Multi Layered, Multi Vectored Strategy.
The Principle of Least Privilege (POLP) is just another cog in the machine that keeps your computer secure.
Everything that you listed there are all good but none of that will prevent someone from taking over your computer with an exploit such as the Dropped Drive Hack.

How does a firewall prevent a user from inserting a USB with an remote control exploit embedded on the drive?

How does SIP prevent a keylogger from capturing your keystrokes?

How does having SIP even matter when it can be easily disabled by the Admin?

How do you prevent unauthorized/illegally licensed software from being installed?  A restricted user account will ensure that users who shouldn't be installing software aren't installing software.

Your last line of defence is using an account that is not an Admin account so that you can mitigate the threat by putting up another layer of security (user authentication) when a piece of malware tries to install itself.
I have been saying this for what seems eons now:
"Security" is not a product you buy or a switch you flip on; it's a practice, it's a mindset, to leverage all the tools you can to minimize your risk.

It is generally considered best practice to use an account that has no more privileges than are required. What this means generally is that you should use an account that has the lowest privilege level possible, and elevate your privileges when it is needed for a specific task that requires the higher privileges.
However, this gets annoying rather quickly. The reason for this is that what seems like a simple task to you or me ("I only wanted to turn on the WiFi") is seen as a privileged operation for the OS ("You want to enable a network device and allow the machine to be put onto some random network").
Striking a balance between convenience and security is much harder than it sounds, and my personal feeling is that OS X does a much better job of it than some other OSen out there such as Windows.
If you do run as an administrator all the time, you might accidentally click on an email that contains some link to a site containing crapware, and it automatically runs a script that does some reconfiguration without your knowledge. But if you are running as a non-privileged user, then as soon as that script is run the OS will pop up a dialog saying "this malicious script wants to do something to your computer. Please confirm by typing your password". This would usually cause alarm or surprise, if it is not something you would expect to see at that point.
Also - more importantly, you set up a computer for someone else. Someone not computer-literate in your family. It is an excellent idea to give them a non-privileged login, and keep the admin password for yourself, so next time they click on any old rubbish (as is their wont), they CAN NOT infest the computer with crapware. They sometimes complain when you do this, but you only have to remind them of that time they had 35 toolbars installed on IE 6, and every time they did a google search they got pages of pornographc popups, before they will grudgingly agree that it might be a good idea. The downside is that they will be calling you more often to get you to unlock their computer when they want to update the Flash plugin.
As said before: security is an attitude, not a simple switch that you can flip.

Let me see how your reasons would work or not:

Admin accounts are not root. While true, they may be able to call sudo and perhaps they may even have the password ready for input (or sudo was configured not to ask for password).
SIP (System Integrity Protection): This is only one layer which is not enough for all attacks. Can be disabled? Even better!
Spyware argument: Well, perhaps. Privileges are still not separate enough. But even so, it's still a limitation.
Basic lines of defense are system wide: #1 says apps running on admin accounts can gain root.
Switching? It's widely known that you can do admin related tasks from  standard accounts as long as you enter the admin account password. No need to actually do a real switch of accounts.

If you have other family members who are not computer savvy, or you want to restrict their access (eg children), or you are an employer who wants to restrict access to employees who may use the machine,
then absolutely yes; there are still reasons to have non-admin accounts in osx for daily use.
If you own a computer and want to control it, use an administrative account.
If you don't want other users to be able to "administer" anything, then non-admin accounts are very helpful. Also you never know when you may need to lend the machine off the cuff given a moment when someone asks "hey could I just borrow your mac to do something really quickly?", it gives peace of mind to be able to log out and log them into what some may regard as a 'semi-guest' account you have created and tailored permissions for.

There are probably other reasons, but here's mine: it is not possible to place restrictions on the admin account. It is useful to have restrictions in place to prevent oneself from visiting undesirable or dangerous sites.

NOTE: This answer was "in progress" when this question was closed. I am posting it here instead.

Answer:
Your question may be asking for opinions, and it's also similar to this question. I've heard both sides of the argument, and both sides arguments are at least partially subjective. I've not heard a definitive, one-size-fits-all argument for or against it. My conclusion (and my answer) therefore is that it boils down to a matter of personal preference, and individual use case.
On one hand, some of our Macs are single-user machines, and separation of privileges may seem pointless. On the other hand, and speaking only for myself, I rather like the idea of the system "challenging" my decisions because it gives me a chance to think again.
Another aspect of this separation of privileges business arises in which part of macOS you are using: the "Unix part", or the "GUI part"? Things get blurrier here because there are tools and utilities in macOS that "overlap" - that is there are many settings that can be made through the CLI (command line interface, aka Terminal app) that can also be made through the GUI interface.
In the case of the "Unix part" of macOS, default permissions/privileges may be changed in the sudoers file to elevate privileges for a non-Admin user. In the case of the "GUI part" of macOS, permissions and privileges are controlled (in part) through the authorization database (all you want to know is in this Apple resource).
It's all a bit of a muddle methinks. IMHO, if you're system is a single-user system, then you are also the Administrator - regardless of whether you choose to use one login, or two. Therefore, this question boils down to: "personal preference". If it's a multi-user system, that's a horse of a different color, but I would opine in most cases a second Admin account should be created. But once again, that depends upon your situation and your judgments.
Based on all of the above, I have opted to create an unprivileged (regular user) account for "normal" usage, and reserve my Admin account as a backstop for potentially careless decisions. I use the CLI quite a lot, so I've added my regular user account to the sudoers file to grant Admin/root privileges as an exception. This works for me.
P.S. Use a strong password for your Admin account.


text:
Bootcamp and Windows Recovery Partition
Currently I am running Windows 10 on my MBP with bootcamp. In OS X, in disk utility, there is an "Untitled" partition of ~ 450MB. Upon closer inspection using disk management in Windows and the "diskutil list" command in OS X, this appears to be the windows recovery partition that windows 10 has made.
Is it safe to delete this partition, with the "diskpart" command within windows, without harming my partition tables/making my operating systems unbootable, etc.?

Don't touch the drive from Windows, it doesn't understand how it's fooled into thinking it's in charge. Safest would be leave it alone for the sake of 'half a CD' of space.

If so, do you have any idea how I should go about deleting that partition?

Can you please post your answer as an answer not a comment, so I can mark it as solved? Thanks, I think I'll leave the partition there and delete it from OS X if I decide to delete Windows


text:
Bootcamp and upgrading to macOS Sierra
At the moment, I am running OS X El Capitan (10.11.5) and Windows 10 in bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. I plan on upgrading to the macOS Sierra public beta when it comes out in July or so.
My question is, is an upgrade to macOS Sierra going to make my bootcamp not bootable anymore. I have seen on apple discussion forums, and people that I know have had problems getting their bootcamp to work after an OS X upgrade. However, I have also seen many others not having any issues whatsoever when upgrading.
I would just like to clear up my confusion, will an upgrade from El Capitan to macOS sierra render my bootcamp useless/unbootable?

Golden rule for any mission-critical system... don't play with betas. Wait for the release & then wait a bit more. Let someone else find out what doesn't work first.

Yeah, I might not upgrade to macOS Sierra right away. I think I can wait :)

And someone just answered it who has tested on sierra. :)

I am running a macOS Sierra Seed Beta (invitation-only, released before the public beta) and my VMs and other bootable OS', including bootcamp are working just fine. But as always, you will be on a beta so proceed with caution!

Thanks for answering my question so fast. I think I might upgrade in July then

No problem. Either way, I don't anticipate issues because boot camp assistant creates a new partition that doesn't really associate with the Mac OS. You might have trouble creating a new partition if Apple releases a version with a bug in BootCamp Assistant, but created partitions should remain intact. Again, proceed with caution.

It is telling me to wait a few minutes but I will accept it :)

Also, did you have bootcamp running before the upgrade to macOS sierra?

Yes, I had created my partition when I was running El Capitan. I'm running through bootcamp now and it seems to be letting me create another one without issues, so you should be fine, unless they screw it up in a later version, which has happened before. But they're more cautious on public betas.

It is a beta it might or it might not. Until Apple makes it public we cannot know.
It will depend on what they want to test first - it could be that Bootcamp will be fixed in a later part of the beta and be broken at the beginning
Anyway assume,e you will have to restore from a good backup and make that part of your workflow

Yeah, I always try to have a backup on hand if I mess anything up. (Which tends to happen) :)


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MacBook Pro Serial Number Not Available
Today, I opened up an application to see check how my battery is going along, health, etc. It said that my Mac had an unknown manufacture date and no serial. I opened up About This Mac, and saw that for some reason, it says my serial number is "Unavailable", and it doesn't show the exact model of my mac (It just shows "MacBook Pro" instead of "MacBook Pro, Retina Late 2013" like it used to, even when I click on it)
I do have the serial number written down, and checked my warranty with Apple. I do have a valid purchase date, and Apple Care for 1 more year.
I have had the display replaced under warranty a few months ago, but I am pretty sure that that did not do it.

see http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/77482/what-causes-a-mac-to-lose-its-serial-number

I have checked it out, it kind of does affect me, as all of my iMessages are now gone, I can't run a hardware test, etc.

Run the following command in Terminal and check the output: ioreg -l | awk -F\" ' /IOPlatformSerialNumber/ { print $4 } '

The best way is you should ask Apple to fix this.
If you wanna DIY (WARNING: at your own risk), with a tool named Blank Board Serializer (ver 1.1 part number 063-7137, please google it if you want), you can set your serial number onto your Apple computer board. There are some step by step video that should be found easily on YouTube.
Steps:

Burn the BBS disk image to a CD/USB.
Boot the compute and press the option key (i.e. the Boot Picker).
Insert the CD/USB and select it for booting.
Once the Blank Board Serializer has started, follow on-screen instructions.

Is there any chance that Apple replaced the main logic board when they replaced the display?  Since you still have AppleCare, I think you should ask apple to fix this.

No, the logic board has not been replaced, only the display. I think if I have more issues with not having a serial number then I'll take it to apple. At the moment, I can't boot into a hardware test, and all my iMessages are gone


text:
Cancel an autocorrect suggestion while typing
When I am typing, OSX helpfully offers and inserts corrections for me.
However, sometimes I do not want these corrections, as they can ruin an otherwise flawless piece of writing (see the below example.)
Lifting my hands from the keyboard, gripping the mouse and then dragging the mouse across my frictious desk before contracting the muscles along my entire finger to squeeze the mouse and activate its clicking procedure actually takes a very long time.
How can I cancel autocorrect suggestions without needing to use my mouse?

Hitting ESC to get rid of the autocorrect suggestion works for me.

Since I remapped ESC to Caps lock for vim, this is now the fastest way for me to cancel autocorrect.

Simple...
Up arrow  ↑  then continue.

Beat you by 20 seconds. :P

I was under on word-count, first attempt :P

Yes, this is the perfect answer for me (I actually found it here already: http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/201110/150109 - but it was too late :P)


text:
Network folder in finder sidebar disappears
I have added a couple of network folders to the OS X finder sidebar as a shortcut. This is working great as long as I don't shutdown or restart the system. Once the system has been restarted they are no longer visible in finder sidebar. I have also added a Automator script that auto mounts my afp network drive on startup.
Why do network folders disappear? What can do?

Is it an alias, or the network volume itself? If its a network volume. It will disappear when it disconnects. An alias is just a link to the share. That should not disappear.

It's a folder from a network volume which I dragged to the OS X sidebar.

Drag the folder from the share to your desktop (Hold CMD and Alt). Then add that alias to the sidebar

Fantastic! It's working as described. I have restarted 5x times and the the folder remains in the OS X Sidebar. If you could post that as answer, I will handover the bounty to you.

For reference: This also happens with external drives which are unmounted at a given time, causing all entries from that drive to disappear from the sidebar. The alias solution bellow worked for me (see my comment).

The problems and solutions here also apply to Google Drive File Stream!

Drag the folder from the share to your desktop (Hold CMD and Alt). Then add that alias to the sidebar

This did not work for me (macOS Sierra) - couldn't drop the alias into the sidebar. What worked was creating a symbolic link via ln -s /Volumes/Name ~/Desktop and dragging this into the finder sidebar.

How to add an alias to the sidebar (dragging doesn't work): Go to Finder and highlight the alas, then go to File > "Add to Sidebar".

""Add to Sidebar" is greyed out for me if I have an alias selected.

There is the "Make Alias" option in the context menu (right click) of any folder. You can then move the alias to a convenient location and drag it to the sidebar. I am using macOS 10.14 Mojave.

I highly recommend creating a symbolic link (ln -s), as @psteinweber mentioned, rather than a macOS alias. This allows you to access your network shares via a terminal from the same paths as Finder.

I kept losing folders on an SMB share that I'd dragged to the Finder Favorites. They would stay for a day or two, then vanish. None of the solutions I found online seemed to help (reboot,
I found a way to make them stay there: Make an alias (with contextual menu) to the folder on the SMB share you want a link to. Drag the alias to your desktop. Drag the symbolic link to Finder Favorites. [Mac OS Sierra (10.12.3), MacPro6,1]

Why resurrect a question with an accepted answer just to post the same answer again?

Symlinks and aliases are different things. Currently (macOS 10.12.5) aliases cannot be used in Finder sidebar but symlinks can.

Except that this answer does not actually mention anything about creating a symbolic link (though a comment on the accepted answer does), this was actually the correct answer for macOS Sierra.  Aliases cannot be added to the sidebar, but the symlink can.  Thanks for this!

I was also having an issue dragging aliases into the sidebar. I opened one of the aliases from the desktop, though, and then it would allow me to drop into favorites for some reason.


text:
iPhone 6s storage problem
I have a 16 GB iPhone 6s. Just 7 days ago I restored as new because my phone keeps taking up all my storage. When I restored, I had 4 GB available, 5 days went passed and I was forced to restore again because I had no space. I didn't even download a single thing.
3 days ago I restored as new, again. I had 3.9 GB available. Yesterday and this morning I had 1.32 GB available, now I have 600 MB available. This has been a problem since my iPhone 5c on iOS 7.
I've done numerous restoring from backups and as new. I haven't downloaded any apps and in storage usage settings, it doesn't add up to what is being used. I've called Apple and all they say is do a restore even though I've done it many times.
If I delete an app, my phone will take up the space within a day. It got so bad I couldn't send texts because my phone would "forget" them. iTunes says I have more storage than I actually do. I've used 3rd party cleaning software such as PhoneClean. It freed up some but not all.
Here is a picture of the Storage section on Preferences after a recent restore:

It looks ok now but available space will slowly go down after a couple of days.

Check the possible duplicate question, it suggests explanations and debugging for the problem. Anyway, it depends on installed apps and use. For instance, do you stream music / videos? Do you sync photos with iCloud Photo Library? It requires quite a detective job to determine what app may be eating up space.

Nope and nope. I import all my photos to my computer and delete them off my phone

Do you have any suspects? Does it happen with a freshly installed phone (ie, no third party apps)?

I have restores as new and downloaded apps from the app store. I only downloaded a few. Once I downloaded them I would still have about 2.3gb left after a couple days,  I'd suddenly have less than 1gb when I didn't even down load anything.

What apps do you use? Many apps create a huge cache after a short use, tumblr for instance.

I do have tumblr and it's a HUGE storage user, but it has a option to delete cache so it's not tumblr. I will add a picture of what apps use the most storage to my question

Of course I can't... here's my storage for my phone..https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B92o0HIZOVnQUDZyaUlRaEJSaHM

The storage adds up now but give it a couple days and it'll slowly go down


text:
Wiping Entire SSD for clean install of OS X
I want to clean install a completely fresh copy of OS X El Capitan on my mac. I have a recovery USB that I will make using the Install OS X El Capitan.app at the time of install.
I have a question for installing it again. I want to completely wipe EVERYTHING off the drive, including the recovery partition (it was the wrong size for no reason at all), and I want to get rid of every partition on the drive. Completely free of everything like its brand new.
Now, I have watched video tutorials on how to clean install OS X. All of them do not erase the entire drive; they just remake the "Macintosh HD" partition on the drive. I want to erase the whole drive, partitions and everything, so that system partitions, etc, reset to default.
Is it safe to wipe the entire drive (Again, not the "Macintosh HD" partition, but the entire drive (In my case, it shows up as APPLE SSD0256F or something like that idk), with all of the system partitions on it?
I really have no experience with formatting an internal drive except once when reinstalling Mavericks (Long time ago, don't really remember what I did).

yup! boot off of your installation usb drive and instead of going straight into the install run 'Disk Utility' and remove all your partitions.

Do as this user suggests and you will be fine.

Ok I'll try that. You stated that I go to disk utility from the recovery drive and 'remove all partitions'. Can I just click the actual drive in disk utility and format it has Macintosh HD. Drive meaning the actual SSD not partition

if you want to remove the recovery partition you have to boot from the usb drive.  click the parent drive, probably called Apple SSD, then erase button at the top.


text:
open folder with one click
Is it possible to open folders with just one click in Mac OS 10.11? Renaming could be done using context menu with right click then.

What view are you using? If you use finder and the 3 window view (the button next to the 4 dashlines) you can navigate without clicking twice.

I want to open icons. E.g. folders displayed on Desktop.

@rwzdoorn, There is no such view in Finder as "3 window view", it's called Columns view or in context of your comment it's the Columns view button and make note that not all Finder windows display the Toolbar so the View buttons may not be present on some Finder windows.

It's not possible to open folder with one click in default "Icons" view in Finder. However switching to "Columns" view (cmd-3) will allow you to open folder with one click.
Also it could be faster to just use hotkeys instead of trackpad/mouse. Use arrows to navigate inside "Icons" view, cmd-down to open selected folder and enter to rename selected file or folder. When no file or folder is selected, you could just type in file/folder name and Finder will select closest match for you.

Ok. But I prefer navigating with mouse.

@marsch This answer still addresses that preference


text:
How to unlink iPhone 5s from former staff member's Apple ID?
Former staff member left iPhone 5s which is linked to his Apple ID. Sign in to iCloud pops up all the time.  Find My Phone feature was on. I've asked him to remove this phone from Find My Phone which he did. Here is instructions how he did it https://support.apple.com/kb/ph2702?locale=en_US
Now, although he removed iphone from his iCloud account, the phone still asks to sign in to his iCloud. I cannot reset it, erase the data and anything else.
So the question is does removing iPhone from "Find my Phone" remotely (online) logs off from iCloud?
How can I sign of from his iCloud and reset the phone? Erase it?
Thank you.

Did you tried to use the 'turn off find my phone' after former staff member turned it off via iCloud.com ?

Yes I did, but it still asks for Apple ID password.

The canonical way to test is plug the phone into iTunes and restore it. The computer will retrieve lock status and let you know if the server side lock is present or reset.
You could also tap to the settings app on the iPhone and reset, erase all content and settings. That will need a wifi or cellular connection to verify the same server side lock status.
The article you linked has three very different scenarios - depending on which was employed, you might still not be done with that user. It might be important to have them send a remote erase or you perform the erase before they do the unlock part with their ID.

Did you try restoring the phone using recovery mode?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263
That should update the settings when it try and reactivate that its been removed from the former apple id.


text:
Why does my iPhone 6 randomly ask me to enter my password with Touch ID enabled?
This happens every few days: I wake up in the morning, try to unlock my phone with Touch ID, and it prompts me for my password. The length and complexity of my password and my drowsiness in the morning make for an unpleasant combination. Why does this keep happening?
Detailed information:

I am using an iPhone 6 (64 GB), running iOS 9.3.2, though this has been an issue for several versions now (at least as far back as 9.3.0).
It happens regardless of whether or not I charge my phone at night.
It is not caused by iOS updates, because I always manually update iOS.
It sometimes happens in the daytime, but seems to be more common after not using my phone for 6+ hours (due to being asleep).
I have my "Require Passcode" setting set to "Immediately".
I am using a custom alphanumeric code, not a custom numeric code or a 4-digit numeric code.
I have Touch ID enabled. Other than when this issue rears its ugly head, it works perfectly.

Generally they'll ask you for the password if a) your phone has rebooted b) your TouchID fails to recognise your fingerprint

@Quill Neither of those are the case. My SIM card is password-protected, and thus requires a separate password to be entered upon reboot. That password prompt doesn't appear, so my phone didn't reboot. Being required to enter the passcode only happens after numerous successive failures to recognize the fingerprint, and comes with a different message on the screen. Since my phone stays locked all night and prompts me for my password before I attempt to use Touch ID, and doesn't show the "fingerprint reading failed" message, that isn't the case, either.

So does it just go to the keypad screen or does it say the "Enter your passcode to enable Touch ID" thing?

@Downgoat It says "Enter your passcode to enable Touch ID" - as if it had rebooted.

@Downgoat I searched before posting, but I apparently missed that question. I agree that this is a duplicate, though this one has a lot more information.


text:
alias can't be opened
This is about a MacBook running on 10.10.5 whose disk has recently been repaired (to try to solve the present issue) using Disk Utility. I created an alias as follows:
$ cd ~/Desktop
$ ls -ld
drwx------+ 13 erwann  staff  442 Jul 14 12:41 .
$ touch foo.bar
$ mkdir baz
$ ln -s foo.bar baz
$ ls -l baz
total 8
lrwxr-xr-x  1 erwann  staff  7 Jul 15 11:02 foo.bar -> foo.bar

Next, I use Finder to 'Show [the] original' associated with the alias created in 'baz'. I get:

The alias “foo.bar” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found.

Any suggestion to fix this?

Have you tried to simply right click and select Make Alias? then move it where you want to?

The link needs an absolute path.
ln -s foo.bar baz

will create an alias in baz pointing to the file foo.bar. But the file baz/foo.bar does not exist, hence the error you received.
You want:
ln -s ~/Desktop/foo.bar baz

which will create an alias in the baz directory pointing to ~/Desktop/foo.bar.


text:
OS X El Capitan - Running Mavericks off of usb drive
So I plan to erase my MacBook Pro completely. After I erase its drive from an El Capitan recovery drive that I have, I want to boot into Internet recovery mode, plug in another flashdrive, install Mavericks on it, and then use the recovery drive for El Capitan to install El Capitan onto my MacBooks internal SSD.
Basically, I want to have El Capitan on my internal SSD and Mavericks on my external USB drive. Is this possible at all, to have an older version of OS X installed on an external device?

So you have El Capitan or Mavericks on your Macbook at the moment? If it has Mavericks, are you willing to clone it onto external drive or must it be clean install.

As of right now, it is running 10.11.5. I can access the Internet recovery partition which is Mavericks. And yes it should be a clean install

You have the .app file for Mavericks? And do you have an extra usb drive to load the mavericks installation on it?

I do have a Mavericks installer BUT it does not work with specifically my model (Prohibited sign on boot). However, I do have the time to install of from Internet recovery mode which has worked before. I can boot into Internet recovery and install on the USB drive.

If you have the Mavericks install app:

Copy the Install OS X Mavericks.app file to your desktop
Insert the flash drive you want the installation files to be copied to
Download this script, unzip it, then move the osx_10.9_bootable.sh file to your Desktop.
Open Terminal app, then type cd ~/Desktop/ and hit enter
Then type sh osx_10.9_bootable.sh and follow instructions then wait

If this was successful, restart your Mac and hold down the Option key then select the newly created installation drive to install Mavericks onto your external HDD.

(in this case, 0553225513 is my external hdd, which will be your flash drive)
After the installation you can reinstall OS X El Capitan on your Macbook.

The .app installer that i have does not support my MacBook Pro

Well you dont have to install, the script will make a bootable drive out of it. Just do the steps?

I don't have access to my Mac for 2 weeks, but I have tried using my installer to make a bootable drive in the past. It has a prohibited sign when I try to boot from the flashdrive.

So you wanna install it to your mac but you dont have access to it? lol dafuq?

Lol I wanna install it when I do get it back (repairs and I'm away), I thought I'd ask my question beforehand so I would have an answer before I got back to it

Lol okay well I'm busy downloading Mavericks to do these steps myself. Will let you know if it works. :)

What Mac do you have? The installer that I have is 10.9.0, which was released before my computer and doesn't work

Updated with images that shows it's working on El Capitan! :)


text:
OpenGL 2.0 on Windows 10 on VirtualBox on El Capitan
Some software running on Windows 10 requires me to have OpenGL 2.0.
I'm running Windows 10 in VirtualBox, which is on El Capitan.
How do I install OpenGL 2.0?
Please explain as if speaking to a layman. :)
Error message given by the software:

Required OpenGL extensions: GL_VERSION_2_0, GL_ARB_framebuffer_object, GL_ARB_texture_compression, are unsupported. Please update your computer's graphics drivers or verify that your graphics card supports the listed features. If this error persists after updating the drivers, you will most likely need to upgrade your graphics card.

OGL 'base spec' is OGL 2.1, which pretty much every Mac [& Boot Camp] since OS X is capable of running... so, could you be more specific? See Apple KB: Mac computers that use OpenCL and OpenGL graphics

What do you mean by more specific? What info do you want? I'll post the error message given by the software right now, in case it give the specifics you are looking for.

error messages are good - they give clues...

OK, I've added it. Also, regarding your link, my computer is: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014).

I'd see if you can get updated graphics drivers direct from Intel for the Iris 5100 & see if those will install. As you aren't in Boot camp I can't think of another way.

Could such a method potentially seriously harm my computer?

I doubt it, really

VirtualBox Guest Additions for Windows 8 or later no longer add the necessary registry entries to enable OpenGL support.
Based on comments in No OpenGL Support for Windows 8 and related links I was able to craft the following Registry file to add the missing OpenGL keys...
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000]
"OpenGLDriverName"="VBoxOGL.dll"
"OpenGLDriverNameWow"="VBoxOGL-x86.dll"
"OpenGLFlags"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLFlagsWow"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLVersion"=dword:00000001
"OpenGLVersionWow"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\OpenGLDrivers\MSOGL]
"DriverVersion"=dword:00000001
"Flags"=dword:00000001
"Version"=dword:00000001
"DLL"="VBoxOGL.dll"

Due to hardware detection that happens at various points there is proper order of doing this as well:

Enable 3D acceleration on your guest before powering it up to install Windows.
Install Windows 10.
Install VirtualBox guest additions and reboot.
Import the above Registry file and reboot.

Note that this is limited OpenGL support - it only enables things up to API Level OpenGL 2.1. Some things work fine, others not so much. e.g.: Blender 2.78 refused to start before this change, citing lack of OpenGL support, but afterwards it starts... and just displays a white window.
Update 2017-03-04:
Blender's all-white window issues were fixed by downloading their software-based OpenGL driver, ftp://ftp.blender.org/sergey/softwaregl/win64/opengl32.dll, and copying it into the folder C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender
It obviously won't be performant like this but at least it's usable... which is important because a lot of Blender add-ons only work on Windows (e.g.: Bos FBX Importer/Exporter only works on win64 systems).

The update works with 2.79 even a year later

You need to install a VNC client so you can connect from any android tablet or phone. Once you do this, you should then install MESS and run the BIOS package installer for PS4. From your android tablet, run the VNC viewer to go into Windows 10 and start ePSXe. From the configuration settings in ePSX, you should be able to select OpenGL as your video drivers. Select any game, and you're all set!
The graphics are incredibly smooth on the tablet. It's like holding a PS4 in your hands!

How does this help? The question was about OpenGL in Windows 10 in the VirtualBox.