text:
Is mac sierra protecting me from erasing my hard drive and my sd card
when I was trying to erase my sd card in fat16 format i entered the wrong device tree .(e.g. instead of writing disk3s2 i wrote disk2 when i executed the command it said permission denied(which was supposed to erase my whole drive).then when i again tried to format it the right way it again said permission denied.
newfs_msdos -F 16 /Volumes/KIRAN\ USB/dev/disk2s1

So here's my question why am I not able to format my drive and sd card via terminal

Your command should be sudo newfs_msdos -F 16 /dev/disk2s1  I don't know why you are including the mount point as well.

thanks for editing my question how do you add the terminal command in a grey rectangle?

@Doof There are two ways. You can either surround the command with the "backtick" character (`, typically found to the left of the "1" key), or you can prefix each command with four spaces, assuming the command will be on its own line.

Just a note - backtick is one of those that moves around depending on keyboard language. UK Eng it's left of z.

I saw the command line from another website

Only the super user can normally perform this action, except when using the diskutil command, which incorrectly allows it. The full command you should use would be sudo newfs_msdos -F 16 /dev/disk2s1. You will have to enter your password to continue. Although, I would suggest using FAT32, because FAT16 is likely inappropriate for your SD card assuming you bought it sometime in the past decade. An even better option would be exFAT, assuming all the devices you'll be using this SD card in support it.

(At first i tried #sudo)oh ok actually i bought a new sd card and put it in my phone(android) it worked fine until i encrypted it and decrypted it in a different phone then i put another sd card which was fat16 format it worked fine so i thought i could format the new sd card in fat16 but i solved it by formatting it in a different phone again and decrypted it.i was just scared i erased a sector of my hard drive and is it actually a big difference if i type disk2 instead of disk2s2 in the terminal command

disk2 would refer to the entire disk, while disk2s2 would refer to a single partition within the disk. You cannot format an entire disk as FAT, only a single partition, so disk2s2 would be what you'd use in this case.

i tried the command by using disk2 instead of disk2s2 but it shows "no such file or directory"

+1 for avoiding FAT16 [well... amongst other things. I realised the comment made me sound like that was the only reason I'd upvoted your answer ;)

@WilliamTFroggard "...which incorrectly allows it.": What do you mean with that?

@MaxRied disk formatting and partitioning are sensitive things and should require root access. Every other command does. You can't do much with 'gpt' or 'fdisk' without root access, for example. It has always seemed dangerous to me that 'diskutil' doesn't require root.


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How does Photos know which photos to remove from the device when space is low?
When using iCloud-hosted Photos, how does the Photos software decide which photos to remove from the device?  Is it just chronological, or based on size, or what?
Also, is there a way to explicitly tell it (like you can with Apple Music) to remove the photo locally but leave the cloud-hosted version in case you want it back on your device later?

For your second question: iCloud Photos does not delete photos on iCloud, only on your phone.

@IronCraftMan yes I know - I was asking if there's a way to tell it to remove the photo from my device.

source: Stack Exchange

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sort: votes


text:
Why won't Launchpad create a .db file? Restarts reset Launchpad
Launchpad will not create a .db file in ~/Library/Application Support/Dock to save the state of Launchpad.
It always resets to default upon restart. I have tried many terminal commands, the most recent being:
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db ; killall Dock

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock

How can I force Launchpad to create this file?

Check the permissions of the /Dock folder. If that's all good, try this issue out in a new administrator user over in System Preferences > Users & Groups.

Permissions are I (admin) have Read and Write.
I created a new admin, and tested this out. I rearranged Launchpad layout and restart. The new layout saves, but ironically no .db file is created in the /Dock folder. It must be saving the file elsewhere.

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text:
Time Machine: Back up separate files to separate drives?
Time Machine allows the use of multiple backup drives. However, any exclusions of files applies to all backup drives.
I would like to backup some files to one drive, and other files, to another drive. Is this possible within Time Machine?

This isn't possible with Time Machine. You can use Time Machine for one drive, then use an alternative backup solution for the other files to the other drive.

Bummer, thanks for your help. I'll try CCC or others.


text:
How to type a blank password in terminal in Mac sierra
I use Sudo commands  in terminal but it always asks for the password.This is annoying because I always have to set a password.So how do I type blank password in terminal in MacOS Sierra 10.12.5

I don't understand this question, nor the response you gave to Gerriet's answer. Using sudo requires an Administrator password, and that password cannot be blank. Plain and simple.

sudo in macOS requires a password, see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202035
So it is not about typing it, it is sudo not accepting it.

sudo is for executing a command with administrator privilege, so it obviously uses your administrator password which, as Monomeeth said, cannot be blank.
Having a one-letter password is highly unsecure, it is far to easily breakable.
However, if you keep the same session (eg. not closing the terminal), you won't have to type your password every time.

This method allows you to sudo without entering your password.
This means you can (you should!) use a strong password to log into your mac, but can then sudo in terminal without re-entering it all the time.
you need to edit the /etc/sudoers file with the visudo command (type sudo visudo at the command prompt) and change the line
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

to
%admin  ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

BEWARE: Be sure to always "lock" your mac when you step away, anybody (who knows how..) can do wild things, with the sudo option configured like this!

Thanks but i rarely use sudo commands now.


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How to set a ringtone on iPhone?
I have recently bought an iPhone. I don't know how to set a ringtone on an iPhone. Can anyone explain the procedure to set a ringtone in an easy manner?

Open Settings → Sounds → Ringtone. Choose a ringtone from the list. As you choose a ringtone, it begins to play so you can preview it.

If you mean to set or change a ringtone on your iPhone, then you can go to Settings → Sounds → Ringtone. Choose a ringtone from the list.
If you mean to set a custom ringtone for your iPhone, then you can try to use iTunes or some iTunes alternatives like AnyTrans to make it with ease.


text:
iCloud Photo Library content fills up 16GB phone
My wife has an iPhone with little storage and has iCloud Photo Library enabled on her Mac and iPhone. Recently it's been hitting the limit of the phones storage and breaking other apps.
I would have thought that Photos would be smart enough to keep on thumbnails of the oldest photos, but about 80% of the phone storage is Photos.app and it just keeps downloading more.
What's the best way to handle this? The only options I have come up with are (1) curating photos and videos harder - deleting less good photos etc. (2) disabling iCloud Photo Library completely and only sync certain shared albums.

An option is also to increase your iCloud size.  Are you open to doing that?

There's plenty of cloud storage - it's the phone local storage which is maxing out. Feels like Photos isn't optimizing the images properly.

I understand now, thanks.  iCloud is a syncing solution so it keeps copies everywhere you're signed-in.  I believe you've already thought of the only options available to you (apart from buying another iPhone with more internal storage).


text:
How to make macbook pro use a 16:9 aspect ratio?
How can I force my screen to use a 16:9 aspect ratio? I don't mind seeing black bars above and beneath the screen content.

You can use RDM to set a custom resolution such as 1920×1080.

One thing I've noticed with this is that the ... pixel density? I don't know the right term ... seems lower. E.g. it looks like it is a lower resolution than it used to be.


text:
How to get xargs not to eat double spaces
I'm trying to process some files with double spaces in the name. It seems like xargs is removing spaces. Example
$ echo "foo  bar" | xargs -I {} echo "{}"
foo bar

Notice there's only 1 space between foo and bar but 2 were passed in. The example above works in Ubuntu 16.04 bash
Note I'm actually trying to process a list of files as in
cat list-of-files | xargs -I {} echo "{}"

-O doesn't work in this case as xargs sees the entire file as one filename.  Tried -E '\n' but that still ate the extra space

Try adding -0 to the xargs command. This is likely a difference between GNU xargs (in Ubuntu) and BSD (on MacOS).

Actually, xargs (without -0) gets confused by any spaces (or certain other characters) in filenames. In your example, it actually sees "foo" and "bar" as two separate items (and then echo splices them together with a single space between). See BashFAQ #20: How can I find and safely handle file names containing newlines, spaces or both? for a good collection of techniques.

sorry I should have been more specific. I have a list of files in a text file so -0 isn't useful by itself. Maybe I need some other command to spit the file to insert \0 for newlines?

@gman tr '\n' '\0' < filenames.txt | xargs -0 ...

Here are 3 possibilities that may work for you:
1. BSD xargs
This is built in to MacOS, but will require you to quote the filenames in your list-of-files
$ more list-of-files
'file1'
'file2'
'file 3'
'file  4'

note: I added the -t option in order to show the generated command before it executes.
$ cat list-of-files | xargs -t -I {} echo "{}"
echo file1
file1
echo file2
file2
echo file 3
file 3
echo file  4
file  4

2. GNU xargs
GNU xargs is not installed on MacOS by default, but can be installed via homebrew (in the findutils package).
brew install findutils
Using GNU xargs via homebrew would not require you to quote the filenames, and would give the same result as using BSD xargs, and quoting the filenames (option 1, above).
3. find (instead of list-of-files)
Rather than using a file for your input, use the find command. Something like the following should work:
$ ls -laF file*
-rw-r--r--  1 sfederman  staff  0 Jun  7 22:53 file  4
-rw-r--r--  1 sfederman  staff  0 Jun  7 22:53 file 3
-rw-r--r--  1 sfederman  staff  0 Jun  7 22:53 file1
-rw-r--r--  1 sfederman  staff  0 Jun  7 22:53 file2

$ find . -name "file*" | xargs -0 -I {} echo "{}"
./file  4
./file 3
./file1
./file2

Or, avoiding xargs completely:
$ find . -name "file*" -exec echo "{}" \;
./file  4
./file1
./file2
./file 3

Here's a work around for your issue using sed to wrap each line of the file with double quotes.
sed 's/\(.*\)/"\1"/' < list-of-files | xargs -I {} echo {}

This also works with GNU xargs.

@user3439894 {} is a placeholder and any character(s) can be used as a placeholder. Quoting the placeholder isn't necessary. The redirection is optional.

I know that the xargs option −I replstr can be X as you had it, however I used what was in the OP so as to avoid any confusion in comparing what was used in the OP and the other answer. The <, while optional, is totally unnecessary in this use case as sed is going to read the specified file, e.g. list-of-files after its options and command(s). If you're unhappy with the changes I've made, you obviously are free to revert it back to your original answer.

This will work as long as the input doesn't contain any double quotes.  A more general solution might be to backslash-escape any backslash, space, tab, single quote, or double quote character. sed $'s/[ \t\\"\']/\\\\&/g' (pardon the horrendous nested quoting!)


text:
Speed of Card Readers Speeds of Macs
Is there a way to find the read/write speed of the SDXC card readers on Macs?
I've been looking for it in System Information, or some chart on the web, to no avail.

(I'm specifically looking for rMBP Mid-2014 13", however the question is general so it is applicable to more people. However, if you happen to know the answer to this particular computer, please do share. :))

How fast can my Mac read or write to an SD card in the SD card slot?
Mac notebooks use the USB bus to communicate with the SD card slot. They have a maximum speed of up to 480Mbit/s. Mac desktops use the PCIe bus to communicate with the SD card slot. Desktops can transfer data at a faster rate.
Check the packaging that came with your SD media to determine the maximum transfer rate that your specific card uses.
To determine the maximum transfer speed of your Mac, you can use the System Profiler. Go to the Apple () menu > About This Mac and then click System Report.
If you use a Mac notebook:

Select Hardware, then select USB.
Select Internal Memory Card Reader and look for the Speed entry.

If you use a Mac desktop computer:

Select Hardware, then select Card Reader.
Look for the Link Speed entry. Computers that use the PCIe bus express their speed as GT/s.

About the SD and SDXC card slot on your Mac

With the Mid 2015 Retina Macbook Pro that is currently in front of me, I'm only getting about 5.6MB/s read or write speed with the built-in slot. This is with a MicroCenter brand microSD 128GB card in a couple different adaptors as well as with an Angelbird microSD UHS-II V60 card (special card for media productions purposes). Interestingly, the MicroCenter card will work fine with a MiniDrive flush adaptor but the Angelbird doesn't ever show up when installed in the MiniDrive. Conversely, a noname micro->full side SD card adaptor works every time with the Angelbird.
This said, I seem to recall getting much better speeds with my 2013 rMBP machines with their internal SD card slots in years past.

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


text:
Use macbook to cancel ambient noise
I don't own noise-cancelling headphones, but I do own a macbook (which has a microphone) and a pair of headphones.
Is there a way for me to use this set-up (some macOS app or such) to cancel noise in the same way active noise-cancelling headphones do?

In short, no.
The measurement required to provide correct phase-cancellation in a headset is measured in microns, not inches.
You could neither measure it accurately enough nor stay still enough for it to work.
You would also suffer so much throughput latency in hard & software that any attempt at correction would arrive far too late to be of any use.
Some people seem to object to my definition of the precision required for this to be effective.
Let's add more to that.
Not only do you need your distances to be accurate for the gap between mic & speaker, but you also need to be feeding the resultant audio back at the correct phase with regard to the speaker/mic orientation.
If you are trying to do this using a mic oriented at approximately 90° to the headphone speakers, assuming you are facing the computer, your chances of success are even smaller.
You then need to decide which phase you are going to send to which ear. Are you going to guess at an approximation of the 90° & then flip one by 180° compared to the other?
Does that better explain why these systems are measured in microns, not inches? It has little to do with the wavelength at any given frequency & more to do with the orientation of your phase... otherwise you are just as likely to reinforce the wave as to cancel it.

Microns? Hah. A typical 5 kHz sound has a wavelength of around 7 cm or 3 inches. Phase doesn't need to be measured more accurately than a few degrees to get virtually complete cancellation, so only mm to cm placement accuracy is required.

If you think my exaggeration for emphasis makes the answer wrong, then downvote it. If you have a better answer, please supply it. In practical terms, it's the latency that will be insurmountable, rather than the phase-shift itself.

How is one supposed to know that it is an exaggeration? Why are you so defensive? Ok, @ForrestVoight could have left out the “Hah”, but I do not think that this was so bad.

I added further explanation as to why the wavelength itself is unimportant.

This answer can be summed up by asking the question:  How many noise cancellation systems are available for rooms?  None.  This answer explains why.

I guess that won't work for the simple reason that the lag between microphone and headphones is simply too long to cancel a noise before you hear it.
If you use google translate, this article explains the issues in a bit more detail : https://www.heise.de/ct/hotline/PC-Beruhigung-mit-Antischall-319834.html
What kind of works is cancelling a constant noise through a normal headset by calculating and then manually adjusting the phase of the Gegenschall.

As much as they would like you to believe it Apple is not capable of violating the laws of physics.
Noise cancellation works because the relative positions between the speaker, ear and microphone are precisely known. When you have cord between your headphones and microphone (laptop) you no longer know the relative positions.
Mac OS is not a real time operating system, it is unlikely that it could do it even if you could bolt your head to your laptop.

But the poster said it was Magical! ;)

You could theoretically find out the relative positions by doing phase difference measurements, calibrating via a known-phase tone from the headphones/speaker... :)

@rackandboneman - would do nothing for the latency, though.


text:
Can you, what I'm calling, "snapshoot" videos of activity on one's iPhone screen?
You know how you can press the home and side button simultaneously to take a snapshot of the screen, well, can you "snapshoot" a video of activity on your iPhone, like, a segment of a YouTube video (sometimes, something like t=1m45s on the end of a YouTube link doesn't get pushed to that time when clicked on certain devices) or "snapshoot" a process. That is, if I wanted to demonstrate steps quickly and easily I could press some buttons simultaneously and start recording, then do some things on my iPhone, then press some buttons and then it stops, and now I have a video of that activity in my videos. Is that a thing?

It's called a screen recording.

IIRC, Yes it is (beginning with iOS 11)

I have heard that if you connect your iPhone to your Mac, Quicktime will then have an option to record what is happening on the iPhone's screen. Never tried it myself tho...

With iOS 11, you can use Screen Recording built in to the OS.

Go to Settings → Control Center and add Screen Recording.
When you're ready to record, swipe from the bottom of the screen to show Control Center, then tap the Screen Recording button. 3D Touch the icon for additional options such as recording the microphone.
Continue using your device and your display will be recorded.
To stop the recording, tap the Screen Recording button once more. The video is saved to your camera roll.

If your device is jailbroken, you can use Display Recorder which performs similar functionality for older versions of iOS.

Less convenient than the onboard recording in iOS 11, but in iOS 10 you can record the screen with QuickTime on a Mac.

Connect your iPhone to a Mac using a Lightning cable.
Open QuickTime Player on your Mac
Select "New Movie Recording" from the File menu.
Click the downward-pointing chevron beside the record button to change the Camera and Microphone sources to your iPhone. You can also change the quality of the recording from the same menu.
Click the record button in QuickTime Player to start recording.
Perform whatever actions you want on your iPhone.
Click the stop button in QuickTime Player to stop recording.


text:
MacBook wont boot after creating two small partitions
I recently created 2 small partitions, and after that, I shutdown my Mac. Then when I turned Mac back on today it took awhile to boot and then showed a blocked symbol.
I tried booting into the recovery partition. Then I deleted the partition, which is 10 GB in size, but I'm not able to delete the second partition, which is 15 GB. Also, when I tried creating the partitions before, it showed "Operation failed".
After some time, two partitions showed up, both named -- and greyed out. Macintosh HD no longer shows up in Disk Utility. Only some weird disk image shows up as OS X Base System.
I tried to reinstall macOS Sierra but the Macintosh HD partition again does not show up. I tried First Aid but it shows Macintosh is corrupted and needs to be recovered in Recovery, but I booted in the recovery partition only.
So how do I make my mac boot up normally and delete the 15GB partition without losing any data and erasing my HD.
macOS Sierra 10.12.5
And is this problem a serious issue or not?
Output of gpt -r show disk0 per klanomath's request:
start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  205318496      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  205728136    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  206997672   29718320      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  236715992     262151
  236978143         32         Sec GPT table
  236978175          1         Sec GPT header

How did you create the partitions? What command or utility did you use?

I used disk utility


text:
Folders and files are overlapped by menu in Finder
I have been a Windows user my whole life and just purchased my very first Apple product ever: a MBP.
I have a question regarding Finder, which may be a bug or simply me who doesn't know how to use it properly.
Anyways, here's the (potential) problem: when I am using Finder in split screen mode sometimes folders and files are overlapped by the upper menu.
Check this out:

As you can see in the image above, some folders are now 'under' the upper menu and I cannot seem to be able to get them back in 'visible' positions.
Can someone advise if this is a bug or it's just me being newbie?
Thanks :)
--- UPDATE
I am on MacOS 10.12.5 - the scroll bar is 'fully scrolled up' already.
I can't drag folders or files - when I release the mouse button, they simply stay in their original position.
The problem occurs in all folder view modes.
--- UPDATE II
I don't have 'none' or 'snap to grid' as options in the 'sort by' dropdown:

Or in the 'arrange by' dropdown:

The 'clean up' entries in the view menu are disabled:

One thing I forgot to mention: the sidebar also gets 'swallowed' by the upper menu:

'Documents', 'Desktop', 'Google Drive', 'Air Drop', etc., are also hidden by the upper menu.

Welcome to Ask Different? 2) What version of MacOS are you running? 3) Can you not scroll up to it? If you can't, can you drag the folders down by selecting them with the mouse and grabbing the bottom parts of the folder names? Does the same problem occur in the other folder views (viewable with the four buttons directly above the "Quebec" folder)?

Thanks 2) MacOS 10.12.5 3) Nope - it's 'fully scrolled up' already. I can't drag it either. When I release the mouse button, it simply stays in its original place. Yes, the problem occurs in all folder views.

Where are you trying to drag it to? A random place in the same window? (If you have 'snap to grid' turned on in the view options, it will snap back). From the screenshot, it looks as if the window is fully scrolled down - you're looking at the last line of your folder (I'm going by the list of items in your sidebar) - try scrolling in the other direction. (You can set the scroll direction in System Preferences).

Yes, to the same window. I am not sure whether or not 'snap to grid' is active - I will check this evening. I was suggested to deactivate it in the answer below as well.

I am totally sure about the scroll bar. I've tried to scroll it in every imaginable direction - up, down, sideways, diagonal - and it didn't work. Actually an interesting thing to add here is, the scroll bar is also overlapped by the upper menu. When the scroll bar is fully up, the 'sliding bar' (that thing that goes up and down, whatever it's called) gets 'swallowed' by the upper menu as well.

It's most likely a Problem with automatic sorting and cleanup in the Grid Display. Look at the general Info Pages from Apple Support here and here about customizing your Display Settings.
In Short: Right-click (if it is activated) on the Finder Window and change the 'sort by' Option and activate the cleanup. You probably have the Option 'Snap to Grid' activated - try deactivating it.
-- Addendum --
As a second option, try deleting the '.DS_Store'-Files, which store Icon Positions and Images (see further explanation here). If that doesn't help there are a few other possibilities, but let's start with the easiest one
Like all Files starting with a dot [.] these are invisible. You have to use the Terminal.app, found in /Applications/Utilities/ do remove them. Technically, you need only remove the .DS_Store-File in the Folder "Canada" according to your Screenshot.
Open the Terminal and navigate to the Folder, f.e. within 'Documents'
cd /Users/yourusername/Documents/Canada

hit enter, the type
rm .DS_Store

You should close the Folder "Canada" and then reopen it again. The Icon and Sidebar Position should be normal.

I am not home now so I can't test your answer (I will do it tonight) - however I have tried to change the 'sort by' logic - folder and files were rearranged but the files in the first row remained under the upper menu. I read the problem could be related to 'snap to grid' - I checked the sort by menu and there is no 'snap to grid' option there. I will try and find the 'snap to grid' option to deactivate it and activate the cleanup to see if fixes the problem. Thanks J.C.

Clean up menu entry is disabled - I read I need to disable automatic sorting but in the sort by dropbox I don't have the none option. Also, the option 'Snap to Grid' is nowhere to be found - not in the sort or arrange by menus. What am I missing here?

I have troubles understanding your answer. Could you make a Screenshot of the Context Menu (and all of the current settings) and post it here?

I added a few screenshots - hope it helps

Deleting .DS_Store under Canada fixed not only the folder Canada itself but also the sidebar and all other folders. I split the screen multiple times with Finder loaded in a random folder + Pages or Chrome and they all worked as a charm. Maybe DS_Store of the Canada folder was corrupted or something and messed the Finder mechanism responsible for laying objects on the screen. I don't know, just guessing really. Anyways, thanks a lot J.C. That was absolutely brilliant.

Glad to be of help :-)

I noticed the same thing just now when I tried to duplicate your issue. Also running 10.12.5.
I was able to get rid of the problem by:

Turning the Tab Bar* off.
Turning the Status Bar on.
Resizing the icons with the slider in the Status Bar.

This caused the folders to move into the correct positions.
* The issue showed up with or without the Tab Bar, so I don't know if it is involved with the bug or not.

Awesome, thanks! It worked when I resized with the icons with slider in the status bar - I made the files bigger and moved back into 'visible' positions. However, the sidebar continues truncated - its top remains under the upper menu - do you know how to fix that?

@cldjr I was able to get rid of that by: backing out of Split View, hiding the Toolbar (Cmd-Opt-T or View > Hide Toolbar), re-entering Split View, then backing out again, reenabling the Toolbar, and re-re-entering Split View. Not exactly the handiest method.


text:
Can't Preview deal with many photos?
I've just migrated to Mac from Windows and the adaptation process has been a bumpy ride. I now have a question regarding Preview.
I just got back from a trip and have some 3GB of photos (DNG) that I have imported into my MBP. I did not use Photos because I am a Lightroom user and I intend to keep using Lightroom in the future (I am still planning on how I will move my LR stuff from my Windows PC to the MBP).
Yesterday I wanted to show my girlfriend the pictures, so I opened all of them using Preview. The application crashed after one minute of usage. I tried again, and one more time the application crashed.
I did some googling and found a suggestion that I could go to the Library folder and trash a few Preview related files. I decided to give this idea a spin and ditched them. I fired up Preview again, used for a couple of minutes and.... it crashed.
I am now wondering if Preview isn't suitable for viewing loads of pictures, or if there is something wrong on my Mac? If not, which software do you guys use (other than Photos and LR)?
--- UPDATE
I have a MBP 2015 model running on 8GB of RAM. I didn't have any application open other than Chrome when I tried to use Preview.

To the best of my knowledge there is no documented limit to the number of photos you could open at one time using Preview. Usually, when software has no hard-coded limit, the only limitation is that created by the amount of RAM available to the application.
In the case of Preview, the more RAM available the more it can take advantage of when opening images. In addition to RAM being a factor, the number of images Preview can open at once also depends on the image format and the individual image sizes.
You don't specify how much RAM you have and what else (if anything) you were running at the time, nor do you specify the exact model of MBP etc. However, I've been using Preview for over 16 years and can attest to the fact that in some cases it's only been able to open a few hundred images, while in other cases it's been able to open 1000s.
My suggestion would be to start with only opening a hundred at a time and if it handles that without problems, double it to 200 and so on. You'll soon establish what's comfortable in your scenario.
A final word
One thing to consider also is that if you happen to have a corrupted image file then this could cause problems. I've seen Preview (and other apps) normally capable of opening a large number of files, randomly crash because one of the files you're trying to open is damaged in some way. Likewise, similar problems can be experienced if you've inadvertently selected a file that isn't supported. While these issues aren't usually a problem as Preview would just present you with an error message, it can be a problem if Preview is processing a large number of images simultaneously and is also waiting for a response from the user.

I have a MBP 2015 with 8GB of RAM. I didn't have anything open other than Chrome when I tried to use Preview. So there should be plenty of RAM available even if Preview were not optimized and tried to bring everything into memory, which, I hope, is not how Preview works :)

Your point on corrupted files is very valid, and it may be the root cause of the problem. I will follow your suggestion and will try and open 100 files, then go up to 200, and so on. Maybe I will find a culprit when increasing the load.

Another thing you can do is use Activity Monitor to determine what's using your processor, memory, etc. I've come across a number of users who have issues generally and then find that Chrome is the culprit in their particular scenario, either because of the way it uses memory per tab and/or because of hardware acceleration (which can be disabled from within Chrome's Advanced settings). All the best in getting to the bottom of it. :)

There are also various apps that can be installed that go through your active processes and kill the unnecessary ones. I have one of these, and it's saved me as much as 5GB on occasion. I will note that the OP said he had Chrome open, and internet browsers generally use an enormous amount of RAM.

@DonielF It may be worth mentioning the apps you're referring to (especially the one you've used) as it could help other users.

@DonielF I agree with Monomeeth, it would be nice to share what applications you use to monitor processes :)

@Monomeeth StatsBar, though they have a free version that monitors just memory called Memory Clean.

@cldjr See my reply to mono above


text:
Where are open Finder windows saved between reboots
I have had several windows open in the Finder, serving as bookmarks for things I was working on, but recently they have all reverted to my home directory.
I would like to know where these open Finder windows are saved, so that I can look in a copy of that file from a backup, and either restore the file(s) or just retrieve the names from the file(s).

Are these remote or removable locations? A folder will revert to default if its location is removed.

No, none of them were removable locations.  (I have no idea how or why they were reset to my home directory.)


text:
Make volume buttons only control headphones?
I'm trying to use soundflower and co. to record desktop sound, but I'd like to be able to adjust the volume of my headphones simultaneously.
The volume buttons adjust soundflower if I set the system sound device to soundflower and use LineIn to PlayThru to the headphones (same problem with soundflowerbed), or the volume buttons don't work at all if I use an aggregate device.
What can I do to make the volume buttons control the headphones and not soundflower (which I always want to be at max)?

I did eventually get around to solving this using ControllerMate and Multi-Output Devices instead of LineIn.
Using Audio MIDI Setup I created a Multi-Output Device that outputs to both Soundflower and my headphones:

Now use this device for system-wide sound output.
Then using ControllerMate and an accompanying AppleScript I was able to 'bind' the volume buttons on the headphones (I use Apple's standard earphones) to controlling the headphone/speaker volume only:

(Apple Mikey HID driver is what ControllerMate calls the controller associated with the buttons on the headphones)
The AppleScript for lowering the volume:
set volume alert volume ((alert volume of (get volume settings)) - 100/16)
set volume (alert volume of (get volume settings))*7/100

and for increasing it:
set volume alert volume ((alert volume of (get volume settings)) + 100/16)
set volume (alert volume of (get volume settings))*7/100


text:
How to move mouse with 2 fingers on trackpad?
How can I change the default behaviour for the two-fingers gesture from scrolling to mouse movement?
That is to say:
When I put two fingers on my trackpad, and move them, I want the mouse pointer on-screen to move. I do not want the window to scroll.

There are a couple of apps that I know of that does this kind of thing:

BetterTouchTool
MagicPrefs

Screenshots from BTT (left) and MP (right)

Disclaimer:  These are not tools I use personally (no need) so I cannot vouch for them. However, BTT has a trial and MP is free.  So, your risk is minimal if you want to test either of these out.

MagicPrefs doesn't work for what I want, and i can't find an option in BetterTouchTool

I'm not sure what you're asking

when I put two fingers on the trackpad and move them, I want the mouse pointer to move on screen. I do not want the page to scroll.

You can disable all scrolls if it really bothers you from Accessibility section in the System Preferences.

BetterTouchTool allows for much more granularity in defining trackpad gestures - e.g. you are able to define a 2-finger-on-track-gesture/behaviour specifically for the Finder. But you have to assign what should happen where e.g. for a specific program or globally, there is no checkbox to untick to simply get what you want.


text:
How do I create a shortcut on the desktop?
I was just migrated from a Windows machine to an Apple, which I was told would be seamless, but it's pretty seamy...
My tech (i.e., husband) told me I should drag-and-drop icons to the desktop to create a shortcut, since there's no dropdown-menu item saying "create shortcut."  However, all that did was move the file out of its logical spot into the desktop folder.  That is absolutely not what I want.
I'm having a hard enough time sorting folders by date or reverse alpha sort.  I don't know whether that's even possible using an Apple, but my first problem is the desktop shortcut.  For ergo-medical reasons, I definitely don't want to be navigating to my favorite folders, and I don't want to move them out of their logical places.

Ways to view items in Finder windows, Create and use aliases

Drag an app to the desktop, and hold both command and option while you release it. This will create a shortcut much like those on Windows.
You can also try activating Spotlight (Apple's name for the search functionality) by pressing command + space. You can then type the first letters of the name of the app you need, then press enter to launch it. This could be even ergonomically better, as you don't need access to the desktop or to move your hand to the mouse.

If you press Ctrl while clicking in Finder, you will see an option "Create Alias" this is the shortcut you're talking about. It will be created in the same folder you are in at the moment. After you have this, you can drag it to your Desktop.


text:
Terminal is energetically expensive
Checking the activity monitor, I've noticed that one of my most expensive apps (energy-wise) is the Terminal. It's marked as "requires heavy GPU performance".
Why, and what can I do to improve the situation?

What is running in Terminal?

@patrix nodeJS +ember-cli. While possibly cpu-intensive, it's the "GPU" part that lets me perplexed.


text:
SD card shows up as Internal in Disk Utility
I recently Installed Sierra on my sandisk 32 GB sd card which was not bootable after I formatted it it shows up as Internal how to I fix this issue?
output of diskutil list:
$ /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            120.5 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +120.1 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 C8FBDE46-9264-4EF1-8287-2AA808659654
                                 Unencrypted

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *31.9 GB    disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS SD CARD                 31.6 GB    disk2s2

Please pretty up your barren question with some details like sudo gpt -r show disk0 and/or diskutil list by entering these commands in Terminal.app and adding the output(s) to your question.

There's nothing harmful in connecting over target disk mode and seeing what you can restore / repair / recover. putting in the details klanomath needs is a great idea - you might simply have a small corruption in a lookup table and need a tiny band aid and not reconstructive surgery or worse.

It likely depends on how much messing around you've already done on the disk to get into your current state - ref: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/286480/macbook-wont-boot-after-creating-two-small-partitions Note that backups are what you need before your drive fails, not afterwards.

Can I get back all of my files in Target disk mode?

You have the same chance in Target Disk Mode as if you took out the drive & mounted it directly. You will still need to choose some kind of recovery software, Disk Drill etc. Adding the info requested by klanomath will give a better clue.

I assume the problem relates to https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/286480/macbook-wont-boot-after-creating-two-small-partitions.

You cannot back it up if the partition information is damaged. You first need to repair the damage. Sounds like it is the root/boot disk, which means you don't want to try using it.
Yes you can boot your damaged Mac into Target disk mode by pressing the T key right after powering it on. Then plug it into another Mac. The damaged disk will appear as a drive on the good Mac. Run diskutil to repair your damaged disk.

I don't have another Mac will an AASP allow to access my files on their Mac?

Is it ok if I install an OS on the 15GB partition because I  have already installed the OS on the partition and it works fine.

Yes if you are starting over that is fine. You won't be able to recover the old data any more, but you can start fresh yes.

So can I atleast recover my photos and my desktop?


text:
Require password every time drive/partition is accessed?
I just created a new partition on my macbook's SSD set to Journaled/Encrypted.
It seems I only get prompted for the password once, when the macbook is turned on, rather than every time I try to access it.
How can I make this drive inaccessible unless a password is provided on-the-spot?

I'm not sure it is possible with encrypted partitions, so If you will not find a solution - consider using encrypted disk images instead. They will ask password every time you mount them.

@toma but mounting only happens once right? If not, how do I do this?

the scenario of usage is 1. login to your account 2. mount encrypted image 3. work with secure data 4. unmount. Also you can try to automate mount/unmount using Apple Script or sh. http://osxdaily.com/2013/05/13/mount-unmount-drives-from-the-command-line-in-mac-os-x/

@toma but I want to be password prompted every time I try to read/write

Well, that is the problem. I don't think it is possible to require password on read/write - it can be done only on mount. As I know, HFS driver is not designed to work as you expect in this case. You can try to search some 3-rd party solutions, that will provide virtual drive (WebDav), that will redirect read/write calls to encrypted drive, and mount/unmount it when needed.


text:
Free space on volume rapidly disappearing!
I have a Samsung SSD 850 EVO installed in February I believe. No problems thus far.
Recently (I'd' say past few days) I noticed my free space going down more than expected. I was at 293 GB free (out of 500 GB total) a few weeks back. Somehow yesterday I was in the mid 100s (around 150, say) remaining. Several hours ago I was at 95.63 GB remaining. Right now, I am at 65.93 GB remaining! Worried I would be able to operate soon.
Does anyone know anything about why or how this is happening and/or how I can stop and subsequently reverse the trend?

In case I should make clear, no I don't do heavy video-watching or editing (I downloaded a few hundred megabytes worth for some instruction purposes earlier this week).

Probably related: 1. Free space on hard drive going up and down too much 2. How to wipe huge .MobileBackups folder?

I ran disk expert and found a series of folders beginning with about 170gb in it but it's private and I can't access the info of it or its subordinate folders. Thoughts on this?

You have to run the tool with admin privileges - if possible. Else: install DaisyDisk (iirc 7-day full functional trial) and run it as admin. Then make a screenshot of the result (shift-cmd-4, then space bar: choose DisyDisk window) and add it to your question.

So the jist of the solution turned out to be: restart computer. Back up to 240-some GB free. Much better. I guess, if anyone can tell me, I'd like to know wjhy I've had this computer for several years and nothing like this has happened before. Is this specifically a symptom of having an SSD or does it happen to HDD users as well? If the latter is true, what is it that simply grown to a size unable to withstand being powered on and required professional service (or at least required something more in-depth for me than a simple restart?)?

Please add a second question with some details (i.e. which folders/files are growing and shrinking like mad). The culprits in the first link provided in my first comment were gradle, IDEA and iTerm2 caches.


text:
Upgrading to 32GB RAM for Mac mini Server (MD389LL/A)
I'm using a Mac mini Server (Late 2012) with 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM. This type of processor (Intel® Core™ i7-3615QM) supports a max memory size of 32GB. Look at specification: Here.
Is it possible to upgrade RAM in my Mac mini to 32GB (for instance a Crucial Kit 2x16GB)?
I understand that Apple has to update Memory Reference Code in the firmware of the Mac mini but maybe exists another way to upgrade a memory.

No. That Mac mini is limited to 16 GB max ram.
You can be pretty sure that if it's not mentioned in Everymac or sold by OWC[MacSales] or ramjet.com, it can't be done. These reputable sellers will always provide good research and advice if more memory can be used past Apple official specifications.
Whether you would choose them as your vendor or not, they tend to cover all possibilities & often support things that Apple never intended.

Anyway, I'm afraid I have some bad news for people hoping for more than 16 GB total memory.
Due to an intel Core i hardware design defect, seems to have been fixed only for 4th or 5th generation Core i processors, the previous generations won't take 16GB DDR3 modules although the parameters for such modules were established within the original DDR3 specs.
So, it should work, but it doesn't.
Intel's fault.
Sorry.

I don't recall having read on everymac or OWC that my Intel HD3000 VRAM could be boosted to 2GB. Yet, it can be done, it's wide open on the net. I did.

Do you have a source for the Intel design defect?  I'd be interesting in reading more.

I did a lot of research trying to get my own Mac mini running 32GB... somehow I hit this Anandtech article and from it I could dig a little further and confirm what they said.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7742/im-intelligent-memory-to-release-16gb-unregistered-ddr3-modules

"The JEDEC specifications for DDR3 do account for the use of 8 Gbit packages (either one 8 Gbit die or two 4 Gbit dies per package), should these be available.  However I am told that currently there is a fundamental non-fixable issue on all Intel processors (except Avoton and Rangeley, other Silvermont (BayTrail) is affected) that means that these dies are not recognised."
Interesting stuff! Have fun!

Another excerpt: " With a 4 Gbit package, to access the row, all 16 are used (A0 to A15), whereas a column uses 10 (A0 to A9).  In the 8 Gbit package, the column also requires A11, all part of the JEDEC spec.  This works on Avoton/Rangeley, but not on any other Intel processor, according to Intelligent Memory, and the exact nature of the issue is down to Intel’s implementation of the specification."
Well, my understanding of "Intel’s implementation of the specification" is simply "Intel's faulty design". They simply didn't implement the DDR3 specification entirely until too late.


text:
Navigating the Excel Insert dialog with the keyboard
When presented with the Insert dialog:

I have been unable to find any way to navigate the selections with just the keyboard.  Is there any way to do this?

Does the tab key not work?

@JMY1000  no the tab does not work.


text:
macOS no longer recognizes environment.plist
I need to set up environment variables for Pixar RenderMan Pro Server in macOS 10.13.
Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra no longer recognize environment.plist located in a hidden .MacOSX directory:
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH</key>
        <string>/Applications/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.5/lib</string>
        <key>RMANTREE</key>
        <string>/Applications/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.5</string>
    </dict>
</plist>

At the present time I'm using .bash_profile to set up environment variables:
echo RenderManProServer environment variables are set...

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/Applications/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.5/lib/
export RMANTREE=/Applications/Pixar/RenderManProServer-21.5/

What else methods besides the described above allow Mac user to set up environment variables in macOS High Sierra?

If you are looking for a system-wide setting, you can add a snippet to /etc/profile for all shells, or /etc/bashrc for just interactive Bash instances.


text:
Cannot fully use Apple Shake application in macOS 10.13 High Sierra
On July 2009, Apple discontinued Shake. No direct application's replacement was announced by Apple, but some features (stabilize and optical flow estimation, to name a few) are now available in Final Cut Pro X 10.4 and Motion 5.4 in 2018.
Apple Shake was built on 32-bit Carbon API. I surely understand it's not 64-bit Cocoa API, these APIs are different. But Carbon.framework is still included in /System/Library/Frameworks/ in High Sierra, Sierra or El Capitan, and great old apps (such as Shake, Color, Soundtrack Pro) can use it.
I'm still using Shake in High Sierra launching shake via Terminal app:

But I can't (for obvious reason) launch Shake via clicking its icon in Applications folder:

So I have two questions:

What should I do to bypass this OS limitation and to make Shake run after clicking its icon in Applications folder or on Dock?
If the first is impossible, how to get rid of white crossed-out circle overlay on Shake's icon (regular icon replacement isn't working in this case)?

P.S.
I FOUND POSSIBLE SOLUTION (thanks to Thomas Voßen): Shake on Mac OS X 10.11.6

Make a duplicate of Shake.
Select "Show Package Contents"
Go to the "Contents" folder and open Info.plist. Xcode has a plist editor.
Edit the entry com.apple.shake and change it to something like com.apple.shake4.
Save the plist file.

Now it's possible to start Shake with a double click from the Finder in High Sierra 10.13.5.
But there's no Info.plist file in Contents folder.

I think Apple has some kind of old app blacklist built into the OS, which stops certain old apps from launching. No idea why. iMovie HD does the exact same thing—launches fine from terminal, but gives that message if you try to start it normally.

Idea is simple: stop supporting old APIs ))

But the APIs themselves are still in tact, as evidenced by the fact that you can start the binary directly via terminal. So they're just outright blocking an app that would otherwise work fine.

Intact, but most likely officially deprecated.

It works in macOS 10.13.5 High Sierra. I've made an Info.plist and added these lines to it:
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
    <string>Shake</string>
    <key>CFBundleGetInfoString</key>
    <string>Shake version 4.1.1</string>
    <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
    <string>Shake</string>
    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.apple.shake4</string>
    <key>CFBundleName</key>
    <string>Shake</string>
    <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
    <string>APPL</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Carbon API, as well as Cocoa API, is tightly integrated with low-level Core Foundation API (CF).
Here's useful information about Bundles in macOS and iOS:
Bundle Programming Guide – About Bundles
Bundle Programming Guide – Bundle Structures
Now, clicking Shake's icon on Dock I can launch Shake in High Sierra's GUI.

I can run it not only from Launchpad but also via Terminal as well. It simultaneously allows me to run multiple instances of Shake.

That's great! I'm glad you found a solution that works for you. :) And thank you for coming back to share it with the community. I'm sure it'll help others along the way too!

I'm not clear from the answer—what exactly was changed in your info.plist vs the original? I'd love to know specifically what fixed it so this can be used for other apps!

Your question answers itself.

Apple Shake was built on 32-bit Carbon API. I surely understand it's not 64-bit Cocoa API

Leaving aside the 32 bit versus 64 bit argument; Cocoa is entirely different than Carbon.  It's not going to run because the APIs that Shake is referring to (Carbon) are not compatible with what you are running now (Cocoa).
It's important to note that Carbon was deprecated in 2012 with the release of Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.x).  Remember, why and when Apple adds/removes features is entirely their prerogative.

In 2012, with the release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, most Carbon APIs were considered deprecated. The APIs are still accessible to developers and all Carbon applications will run, but the APIs will no longer be updated.

As for Shake running in Terminal, this is an entirely different scenario - Cocoa and Carbon do not come into play - it's strictly a text based interface.
UPDATE:  After a bit of research, I discovered two things:

Shake has been relegated to "incompatible software" and Finder will not launch it.  Period.
There's a workaround (see below) to get it functional in El Capitan because the Carbon libraries are still included, though deprecated.  Note:  This has not been tested/confirmed in Sierra/High Sierra.  As this is deemed "Incompatible Software" by Apple, there's no guarantee that the workaround will fully work or for how long.  YMMV.

Work Around

Right-click Shake.App
Go to Show Package Contents.
Go to Contents --> MacOS --> shake (select shake not tshake);
Double-click shake. It should first open a Terminal Window and then Shake should be running.
Create an alias (a shortcut) of the file and place it whenever you want. Launchpad will not be able to see it, though you can have the shortcut/alias in your Applications folder.

I agree with you but... If I install Shake on Mac OS X 10.9 and then perform installation of OS X 10.11 (not clean install), Shake works well via UI and via Terminal in El Capitan. And there's no crossed-out white circle on Shake's icon. It's quite strange.

So, you are installing Shake on a system with the requisite UI libraries then upgrading but when you install on a a system without said libraries it doesn't work?  With 10.8.x, Carbon was considered deprecated - meaning it was included but not updated.  2 versions later Apple obviously stopped including the libraries.

Again agree. Can I resurrect Shake in UI of El Capital? I mean to make it launch clicking its icon?

Start with this: http://apple.co/2tHY9qp  Coco is literally the topmost layer in the framework where as CLI tools operate near the bottom at the Core OS layer.

I've already read it. Seemingly we are talking about different things. The point is – if I type "shake" in Terminal, I'll get Apple Shake's GUI (not the hidden Apple Shake controlled by command line). I get Apple Shake built on Carbon API (not its engine with text based interface).

"Create an alias (a shortcut) of the file and place it whenever you want. Launchpad will not be able to see it, though you can have the shortcut/alias in your Applications folder." I've tried it. I can't assign a new icon for that alias. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6607341?start=0&tstart=0

Is an icon that important?  The bigger question is does this solution work?

Yes, it works but I'm accustomed to launchpad.

How did you create the alias?  I would use Terminal and use a symbolic link  You should be able to change the icon of symlink.  I understand that you have a workflow, but considering it's been discontinued since 2009, you'll have to compromise some.

This is me thinking out aloud, so to speak, but one thing also worth trying is to use either AppleScript or Automator to create an application to do what you're now doing manually via Terminal. Once you've done that, adding the application to your Applications folder will make it available to Launchpad, the Dock, etc.
I'm not sure how familiar you are with either AppleScript or Automator, but using Automator as an example the process would broadly be along these lines:

Launch Automator (usually found within your Applications folder)
Go to File > New
Select Application and click Choose.
Above the second column (more on the lefthand side) you'll see a search field at the top of a long list
Type "Run" in the field to filter the list
One of the options will be Run Shell Script
Double-click on this option
This will add the Run Shell Script window on the right.
Now configure and enter the script you need to replicate what you're already doing
Go to File > Save (or use commandS) to save this as an application

Now you should be able to double-click on the application you've created to launch Shake. You can also change the application's icon to whatever you want, add it to the Dock, etc. This will also be available in Launchpad.
NOTE: - I'm not sure if I've still got Shake installed on one of my Macs, so I haven't tested this to make sure it'll work with Shake specifically, but in theory it should be fine based on what you're already doing.

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


text:
Word symbols font dictionary?
Is there a dictionary I can download that has the symbols used in Microsoft Word for Mac? For example the Paragraph formatting mark that looks like a backwards P, or the icons used in the ribbon? I would use a combination on the keyboard to get the image.

You mean like typing a pilcrow? ¶ which other symbols?

The keyboard combo for ¶ is option 7 on the US layout.  If your purpose is to type these symbols into some text you are writing, you are looking for a font, not a dictionary.


text:
macOS - Finder separator in Sierra
how can I separate these folders in macOS Sierra? About a week ago 'iCloud' and 'Desktop' folders were not in my favorites, but I was able to move them down. Yesterday I ran out of iCloud in my macbook and disappeared from that location. Do I get separated?

From the Finder, select Finder->Preferences (or press CMD-,) to access Finder preferences.
Click 'Sidebar' tab

There you can select which items appear in Favorites, Devices and other sections in the Finder sidebar. As far as I know you can't create additional separators within these sections, but you can drag/drop items in the sidebar to reorder them.


text:
how fast does sierra overwrite over a permanently deleted file?
Recently I did a clean install of Sierra and I deleted a text file which is under 3MB.I scanned the disk immediately using data recovery software and I was surprised not to find the file there.Is this completely normal or not.
Before I did a clean install I did the same thing but the file was still there.

SSD or HDD? The way in which files are deleted is somewhat different between the two. How full the disk was at the time can also make a difference.

My disk is a SSD and has 86.69GB free.

The OS, technically, has nothing to do with how fast something gets deleted; it's how quickly your drive implements the "erase" ATA command.
If you deleted a file by "moving" it into your Trash, it will be there until you empty the trash. However, if you deleted the file by using a Terminal command (rm for example), it's gone as you have bypassed the Trash altogether.
Now, if you are using a hard disk drive, there is a chance of recovery; the sooner you attempt recovery, the better the chances.  However, if you are using a solid state drive (SSD), it's gone for good.  The TRIM command to erase happens almost instantaneously; there's no remnants to recover because the block(s) that your data occupied are immediately marked as "new and unused" and the SSD is instructed to return zeros or random values if you attempt to read from it/them.   See this answer for additional details on this process.


text:
How do I reset all gatekeeper rules?
So I made a really stupid mistake and while trying to delete a gatekeeper rule from the command line I managed to delete all of them.
Command I ran
spctl --remove

New Output of List
Nathaniels-MacBook-Pro:~ nathanielsuchy$ spctl --list
error: no matches for search or update operation

Before it had a ton of rules. How do I reset gatekeeper to factory defaults?

Luckily for me I knew how to read the man pages. From that I found a default copy was at /var/db/SystemPolicy-default and was able to copy it to the normal system policy location
Command To Run:
Nathaniels-MacBook-Pro:~ nathanielsuchy$ sudo cp /var/db/.SystemPolicy-default /var/db/SystemPolicy

From the Man Pages
FILES
     /var/db/SystemPolicy  The system policy database.
     /var/db/.SystemPolicy-default
                           A copy of the initial distribution version of the
                           system policy database.  Useful for starting over
                           if the database gets messed up beyond recognition.

The developers included a default copy to ensure that if you mess up the database, you can simply copy the default database to the database location, reboot, and be ready to roll.
However there is an even easier way to do this, it's also the recommended way. See the man pages:
 --reset-default
          Unconditionally reset the system policy database to its default
          value. This discards all changes made by administrators. It also
          heals any corruption to the database. It does not implicitly
          either enable or disable the facility. This must be done as the
          super user. Reboot after use.

Just run:
sudo spctl --reset-default

and then reboot your Mac and everything will be back to normal.
Fixed Output:

Now everything's back to normal:

As shown I cannot install any new apps that are not from the App Store. While the gatekeeper system is disabled or if it has no rules, I can load the app without an issue. Thought disabling gatekeeper isn't recommended from a security context, it's better to grant exemptions to trusted and verified apps that are not signed, though the best and most security friendly way to do things is to sign your apps without an exeception.
In the future always be careful when adjusting gatekeeper rules though I'm glad there's a simple way to reset it back to the default set of rules. It could of been a lot worse without a copy of the default rule set.

Thank you for sharing this but it seems like this does not really work, at least in Sierra. I tried both (--reset-default and replacing the file) but either way the applications that I approved before can still be run. This is not really a reset then I suppose. Any idea why this is?

@Jan Hey are you still having this problem?

Didn't work. Tried on macOS Mojave. As @Jan notes, macOS just opens an app that I previously approved, even after doing sudo spctl --reset-default + restart.

@Jonny I've only tested on macOS Sierra and High Sierra. The manpages states:
"     --reset-default
Unconditionally reset the system policy database to its default
value. This discards all changes made by administrators. It also
heals any corruption to the database. It does not implicitly
either enable or disable the facility. This must be done as the
super user. Reboot after use."
Have you tried sudo reboot perhaps they need that type of reboot?

@Jonny Alternatively try sudo cp /var/db/.SystemPolicy-default /var/db/SystemPolicy && sudo reboot and see if that works.

Even that appears to still retain existing approvals. Maybe I'm misunderstanding where these are stored...

@DanGravell, did you ever figure out a solution? I'm trying to do the same thing (reset prior app approvals), "sudo spctl --reset-default + restart" did not do the trick for me on macOS 10.14.6.

@KrishenGreenwell I didn't, sorry.


text:
Does gatekeeper not check apps stored in /Applications/?
So I am not sure if this is supposed to happen but applications in '/Applications/' do not appear to be checked by Gatekeeper (As I previously asked and self answered about having to 'reset gatekeeper to default') the many exceptions I had added for various applications are now gone. However applications I know are not signed are still allowed to run.
After a manual check:

I manually checked things because I wanted to be certain that I hadn't made some sort of mistake. spctl says it's rejected but it can still open. Tor Browser shouldn't be allowed to run with my current ruleset that doesn't have a gatekeeper exception and with me only allowing apps from the App Store. If I download the Tor Browser Bundle from the Tor Project's website and try to open it I'm denied. Is gatekeeper not checking apps in /Applications/, or since I've run in the past - is there a separate exception list outside of gatekeeper, if so how would one reset that list as well? (Note: I did a reboot after the reset to default to be safe and the question still remains). Since I reset gatekeeper the apps hash is no longer exempt.

If I remember correctly executables are only checked by Gatekeeper if they have the quarantine filesystem attribute attached. And the quarantine filesystem attribute is (optionally) added by applications which download files from the internet.
So if Gatekeeper is not checking files it could be because the quarantine attribute has already been removed (after a successful check) or because they were downloading using an application that doesn't apply them in the first place (for example I think some torrent applications don't apply them, whereas most if not all web browsers do).
For example I just downloaded Firefox using the Safari web browser so if I run ls -l@ Firefox\ 54.0.1.dmg to show any attached file system attributes I get the following, which includes the quarantine tag...
-rw-r--r--@ 1 alistair  staff  59438170  7 Jul 00:23 Firefox 54.0.1.dmg
    com.apple.metadata:kMDItemDownloadedDate          53
    com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms         203
    com.apple.quarantine          61

This is why you see people suggesting removing the quarantine tag as a way to get around the Gatekeeper security prompts.

Thank you, I read some other stuff about the quarantine tag as well but wasn't sure. Thanks for sharing. Can you manually remove the tag and bypass the system? That might be a sysadmins nightmare for macs in corporate environments.

Removing the tag is as simple as (continuing the previous example): xattr -d com.apple.quarantine Firefox\ 54.0.1.dmg


text:
Apple Compressor's distributed processing for Autodesk Maya
Is there a way to render Autodesk Maya 2017 animation via Compressor 4.3 using 10 iMacs?
It was possible in previous versions of Compressor (version 2, version 3 and up to version 4.0.7) There were Qmaster and Qadministrator utilities. But I can't run Compressor 4.0.7 or those utilities on macOS 10.12.
A distributed processing is necessary feature for any command line VFX professional application. For instance: Nuke, Shake, Fusion, Maya, Houdini, Renderman, etc...
I am convinced, there is a workaround to use the distributed processing for CLI applications via Terminal (even if this feature is not explicitly supported in Compressor 4.3 GUI).
P.S. Distributed processing isn't supported in Compressor's GUI since 2013 (from v4.1). Compressor's versions 4.1, 4,2 and 4.3 have integrated Qmaster's core allowing to process just Final Cut Pro X and Motion batches using shared computers (as instances). Now Compressor is mainly used for transcoding.

Look at Qmaster.framework located in:
/Applications/Compressor/Contents/Plugins/Compressor/CompressorKit.bundle/Contents/Frameworks

To see a list of CLI commands, type this in Terminal:
/Applications/Compressor.app/Contents/MacOS/Compressor -help

Does this help?: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21243?locale=en_US.  Note that batch processing is supported but true distributed processing isn’t (IIRC, beginning with Compressor 4, Apple scrapped Qmaster)

I read it, thank you. The question is: what's the workaround?

From what I can tell, there is no workaround for true distributed processing on MacOS. (I have done this same research pretty exhaustively.) My only thought would be Pooch. See these two links: http://daugerresearch.com/pooch/parallelapps.shtml, http://daugerresearch.com/pooch/quicktime.shtml. Also see the “About Pooch” pages.

You're right, Qmaster in Compressor 4.3 is suitable for transcoding only.

After a thorough research I found out that it's impossible to use Apple Compressor 4.3 via command line for distributed processing.


text:
How to know whether Mac has SSD or HDD installed
How do I know whether my Mac has a SSD or HDD installed without having to literally open my Mac?
PS. Is there anyway to know it from Disk Utility?

Hold it up to your ear haha

Does it start in a second?

Yeah it starts in 8 seconds.

@DanBeaulieu It seems there is no other way now. You ignited me.

Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> System Report
Select Storage in the Hardware section
Select "Macintosh HD" on top

Alternatively you can run system_profiler SPSerialATADataType or system_profiler SPStorageDataType in Terminal which more or less gives you the same information

Only the terminal command lines worked for me.I have a SSD installed in my Mac.

Disk Utility and then Info tells you as well, as does "about this mac", and the storage tab there. Tells the bus type too (SATA/PCI/USB)

For macOS Big Sur(11.6.4), none of methods you provided tells HDD now. It's strange.

Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> System Report -> Hardware -> SATA/SATA Express
For my MacBook Pro (Early 2015) this showed the Serial-ATA Device Tree, from which I was able to get the model number for my SSD. This related question, How to get serial number from Mac hard disks? might help if you think you have an HDD.

Does NOT work for macOS Big Sur(11.6.4) now.

@DawnSong Works just fine on macOS Big Sur (11.6.5). The path is Apple Menu > About this Mac > System Report > Hardware > Storage > Physical Drive.

Click the Apple logo in the top left corner of the desktop.
Click About This Mac.
Click Storage.
Under the hard drive icon will be a description of the hard drive type such as Flash Storage which means it has an SSD installed.


text:
Yosemite crashes, goes to a black screen and then wakes on a login screen?
Ive got an issue on a mac mini running 10.10.5 where it will crash, the screens goes black and about 30 seconds later the screens wake up again, on the login page.
I believe the issue is being caused by either Adobe Indesign or Adobe Photoshop. (As from what i can tell from past experiences with this happening these apps always seem to be used at the time when i have the issue)
I was running the 2015 version of these softwares, but have since updated to 2017 (as part of the subscription service) as i thought this may resolve the issue, but i hasnt.
I have taken notes of the time the issue occurred, is there somewhere i can look in the logs to see what might be causing it ?

Best guess is it's running out of VRAM. Try reducing the amount it's allowed to use, in prefs; prevent it from using hardware acceleration; or don't use any other OpenGL app at the same time.

@Tetsujin is VRAM the same as the GPU ? This particular mac mini although having 16gb of RAM only has a 256MB GPU

Yes, GPU RAM. I don't know if the minis have dedicated or shared RAM but it might be worth switching off hardware acceleration altogether & see how it goes for a while. On a low end GPU you may not even notice any performance difference.

Thanks @Tetsujin ill give it a try. The later mac minis (>2014 i think) have shared GPU. The earlier ones have a dedicated GPU, but in this instance the machine only has 256MB of dedicated GPU


text:
Is there an easy way to list CLI tools installed on macOS?
So I have various command line tools like node, stats, etc which help me with day to day tasks, however I've noticed they don't show up in storage manager under applications and am unsure if there's a way to list all of those tools and completely remove all the files of the ones I don't use any more. It'll show as extra system memory use. It's not a big deal however I don't want to waste space. Is there a tool to manage all of this?

Basically every directory listed in PATH besides the standard ones (/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin) contains user-installed, so running ls on these directories gives you the list for them and you can use the usual Unix tools like du to calculate sizes.
To make managing user-installed tools easier you can rely on a package manager. Homebrew is the package manager of choice for many users.

Don't forget /usr/local/bin.

You should also look at the manual page for hier, as it provides a historical sketch of the filesystem hierarchy, which you might find informational in reference to your question. You can run ls in Terminal on any of directories listed, to get a listing, or look at them through Finder > Go > Go to Folder... and type in the path, e.g.: /usr/bin


text:
iPhone Trojan Attack Warning
I opened an internet radio app, HiDef Radio, that I have used before, many times, on my iPhone 4s with iOS 9.3. After connecting to a station and listening a short while, a window popped open saying:

Apple Security
  Attention!!
(6) virus detected on your iPhone!
  IP address 108.72.0.216 (not my iPhone's IP address)
  One of the last sites you've visited contained a Trojan, loading via the vulnerabilities of the browser.
Click ok to start the cleaning process. After clean up, make sure to upgrade your system to the latest version.
Install        Cancel
Detected by Apple Firewall Ver 6.2.7

Clicking the Cancel button took my to the App Store for a VPN program, HotSpot Shield Free VPN Proxy which, as it turns out, I already have on my iPhone! But it was not running (and is not now, either) when the popup window appeared.
So what does all this mean? Obviously the popup is fake, there is no Firewall on iOS, the IP address is wrong, etc.
Is AnchorFree (makers of HotSpot) resorting to scare tactics to push their product?
Is the HiDef Radio app compromised?

Not sure what compromised means to you K Prosser. It seems very plausible HiDef radio app cedes control of the ui to sponsors and may have not vetted or cared what scare-ware or scam-ware it pushes.

To me, "compromised" means "hacked" or, as you suggest, "ceding control while abandoning one's moral responsibilities to one's users." I really like your idea about ceding control and not caring. Hadn't occurred to me at all! I have emailed HDR's authors and asked abut this. I will update this when (and if) I get a reply.

Well, I contacted the HiDef Radio folks and have not received an answer. Probably too embarrassed to reply. I'd as AnchorFree, but I would bet their response would be the same. I have deleted the HotSpot Shield app and have not seen that "scare" screen again when using HDR.

This just popped up on my iPhone with a different IP address, also not mine. I hit my home button twice and closed all apps. Curious to see if anyone has seen this 'warning' return.

A screenshot would be helpful. The way the popup appears/looks is far more revealing than just its contents.

Seems I can't answer my own question... Anyway, the HiDef Radio folks has responded to my query and are working to identify the ad network responsible. I think they use a few different networks. I sent them a few screenshots (similar to those posted below) as well as shots of pages those ads linked to. If you get similar ads, I would strongly suggest contacting the app developer and asking them to dump that ad network.

These popups are completely and totally FAKE. All they're meant to do is prey upon your fears as a user. (tl;dr at the bottom)
Most app advertisements are networked, meaning the developer adds a little bit of code to their app, sets what kind of ads they want, and the network lets people buy ad slots. Sketchy ads (like these) pay a lot more, since they're banned from many networks and only some apps allow them (that's usually configurable).
These app advertisements are usually implemented as a custom WebView that only closes once the X appears after a few seconds. As you can see here, these ads also appear in safari, where you have to close the page, and cancel can do whatever the designers want it to do:

A lot of this style of ad also reference the "adult sites you've visited" hoping you won't turn to technical support or the Internet for help.
In reference to you saying that this was made by AnchorFree, that's highly likely. It's an easy (and sadly, effective) way of pushing their product to get more subscribers. Clicking download would've most likely taken you to the HotspotShield install page as well. Your HiDef radio app is probably fine.
tl;dr: your phone is fine, the ad is fake, and AnchorFree probably paid for it. The HiDef radio app is also fine.
PS: I'd be careful about the VPN apps you use, since some will sell your data that they gather through the tunnel they make to advertisers and other people. Read the privacy policy!

I had the same issue. It was showed this alert. I clicked on "cancel" button and did not install anything the were recommending. Should I do something else to make sure I'm not infected?

@Mariana - it is highly improbable that your phone has malware on it. The only real ways to do that is downloading apps that aren’t on the app store. Even then, the risk is minimal due to iOS’ restrictions.

No, more likely the "Free VPN" app is a trojan.  Remove it.

I received this identical (except IP is different) pop up today on iPhone 6 (iOS 10.3.2).
I do not have HiDef Radio or FreeVPN installed (nor have I ever visited HiDefRadio site).
I my case, it seems to be related to Words with Friends app.
I did NOT click "Install".
Note: clicking "Cancel" did NOT take me to App Store. It just closed the pop up.
Several other sites discuss how to remove it (this pop up)

Is it worth linking to the other sites or are they not helpful?

I hate giving out links because you don't know if I'm a s hacker, but if you google the message you get, you'll find them

Fair enough. Thanks had +1 from me.  Also, belated Welcome to Ask Different.

I had the same problem with one of our iPhone users and I'd recommend restoring the phone to factory but before doing that review what apps you have installed.

That’s a web page trying to scare someone. Bad people made it of course, but it’s more like an untruthful newspaper flyer or direct mail piece. It’s not exploiting the system, just your trust.


text:
How to force purging of cached files, to keep from running out of application memory?
After reading a couple helpful threads on this forum, I was able to figure out why my Mac started being non-responsive despite having 32GB of RAM, and almost nothing open.  Despite using only 4GB-ish of RAM for applications, my Mac had almost 28GB of cached files.  Since the system stops being responsive once it hits that point, I decided to take this PrintScreen a bit before I run out.  How do I clear the cached files from RAM, to make sure I don't run out of memory when I'm using practically nothing?
p.s., I have more than 1TB of available HDD space-- so it's not failing to store swap files.

What is your computer’s uptime? It might be time for a restart to discard or save those files...

Uptime was about 4 days.  How do I find out what "those files" are, and how can I discard or save them?


text:
iTunes Shared Library missing artist artwork
When accessing an iTunes library shared over the local network, why do the usual artist images not appear? The album artwork appears just fine.

This problem is seen in all iTunes versions after 12.4.
It doesn't depend on a local network. Apple will not help you or anyone.

HI, and welcome to StackExchange! This doesn't seem to be an answer, and would probably be better as a comment. I know you don't have the ability to comment yet, but I've flagged this so someone can review it. See if you can get enough points to comment in the mean time! apple.stackexchange.com/unanswered is a great place to start.


text:
System size is 8 GB after Clean Install of Sierra
After I did a clean install of Sierra it first showed as 14 GB in size in "About My Mac Storage". After some few weeks it shows as 8 GB in size.
Why does happen like this and how do I fix it?

There is a problem and it is not showing the whole question.Please click 'improve this question'.Then see the whole question

I removed the less-than symbol from the body text to make your question complete.  As for your question, perhaps some behind-the-scenes macOS activity deleted hidden cache files, swap files, and other temporary files.

Yeah it could be because I was downloading many apps.

Before you can 'fix' it - how do you know one of those figures is 'broken' & which one?

I don't understand what you are asking.

What do you mean with System size? The System size in "About My Mac > Storage > Manage > Recommendations - System" defaults to ~ 8.0-8.7 GB. The folder /System has a default size of ~ 5.5 GB and the whole system install ~ 10.5 GB (after some use but without sleepimage and swap).

Oh I did not know that but thanks anyways for your comment @klanomath.And my system folder is 7.91GB after 1 min of boot.

The difference in size is similar to the High Sierra Installer, if you deleted the installer after the upgrade that might explain it


text:
Is it possible to install Swift Playgrounds in iOS Simulator?
My iPad is not capable of running Swift Playgrounds. I am wondering if I installed Xcode on my Mac and used the iOS Simulator, would it be possible to access the iOS App Store and install Swift Playgrounds on that so I could take a look at the app?
I don't need to extensively use the app, I just want to have a look at it.

It's not possible to access the App Store from an Xcode simulator.  Apple doesn't install the App Store on the simulator and there's no way to add the app.
You can only access Swift Playgrounds from a real iPad running iOS 10 or later.

a real iPad with 64bit architecture that is


text:
Is it possible to convert APFS to HFS+
I'm deciding to install MacOS High Sierra on my Mac this autumn.So if I find APFS not useful can I convert it back to HFS+ via terminal or using Disk utility?

I don’t think so. APFS does shallow cloning, which is not available on HFS+, so you will run out of space if you convert backwards.

APFS also isn’t something you will find immediately useful, it is a OS-level feature, which you wouldn’t use directly anyway

On the contrary, iOS upgrades did do this in the past, converting to APFS and back. But it could very well backup the file system structure and just restore it.

I'm thinking of installing high Sierra without APFS because I won't encrypt my disk or use any of the features in APFS.The only reason I am installing high Sierra is because of security and nice features

@ShaneHsu The iOS file system is dramatically simpler that macOS. No fusion drives, FileVault differences, third party kernel extensions and drivers and API are entirely in a different category. We should [chat] about the iOS test migrations in case they are relevant here. Too much detail for a comment unless you wanted to make a proper answer explaining your findings and thinking.

"I won't use any of the features in APFS". The main 'feature' of APFS is improving the speed and safety of pretty much every disk operation your Mac performs. You don't need to use your computer any differently from today to benefit.

Given that APFS is replacing HFS+, not just being offered as an alternative, you should have a much higher bar than "not useful" to switch back. Unless APFS is actively harmful, you should stick with it.

I'm thinking if I stick with APFS will I encounter some problem.If so what are the problems?And I've also heard that some apps don't work well of at all with APFS

This autumn of 2017 when High Sierra is released, there will be far more concrete details and evidence for you to make an educated decision. I can’t conceive Apple won’t make clear the risks and benefits on consumer, support, professional and technical levels for APFS. My guess is most people should make one backup and then jump. If you have old software that cannot be updated, you might wait three months for any odd bugs to get documented or worked out if you can’t easily recover from a bootable backup or reinstall your apps at the versions you require.
At worst, you can always wipe and reinstall High Sierra on HFS and then copy files from your backup (whether the backup is HFS or APFS or some other file system)

In July 2017, The migration scripts and functions are still being tested in beta - so today, there are no signs you could revert back from APFS to HFS on the beta macOS. Worse, you shouldn’t even trust the forward conversion yet for non-throwaway system test use.
Many programs will not work yet on APFS formatted volumes.

https://bombich.com/blog/2017/07/07/pondering-conversion-from-hfs-apfs

I would recommend keeping all your important data and all your system backups clean and untouched by beta versions of APFS scripts.
What seems to work well even now in the beta is copying files back from APFS to HFS if I work on a file or photo in beta and want to keep it on my main system. That’s a very different thing than reverting the entire file system structure, though.

I always wait for months and then install a new OS like how I installed Sierra after a week or month

Sounds good. See you November or thereabouts?  @Geek

I can actually revert to HFS+ (losing my data). I got some help from the following website.
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/FAQ/FAQ.html
Screenshot:


text:
Is it possible to create a shortcut that represents every file in a directory
Is it possible to create a shortcut
ln -s ./source ./destination

that represents every file in a directory? I know I could just create an alias for the parent directory, but in my situation, I have to have an alias for each file. It would be prettier if I could create one alias that represented every file in a directory, rather than a whole bunch of them.
The syntax, I imagine would be something like this:
ln -s ./source/* ./destination

But of course that doesn't do anything.

https://superuser.com/questions/633605/how-to-create-symbolic-links-to-all-files-class-of-files-in-a-directory

Thanks, I tried searching for the answer, but looks like I gave up too soon.

@klanomath, on second comment, however, I'm looking to create one symlink for a set of files, not one symlink per file. So I'm actually looking for something different than that link.

A soft link is a file which contains one path to another target file or directory as data. A 1:n relation in a symlink doesn't make much sense in a hierarchical file system!

Well, what I'm asking is most likely impossible then :D, I guess I was looking to create the impression of a directory but have the function as if the files were in the parent (why would I want this? Because the program requires it to be this way, I was just trying to separate the program files from my own).In this case, the files are game required assets and game mods additions. They share the same folder and there are hundreds of the original game files that I try to sort through when swapping out mods. Thanks for trying to help anyway though.


text:
Where is macOS Internet Recovery stored?
I read on another site that you can use macOS Internet Recovery to install macOS on a blank SSD? Where would the files be stored? On the firmware? If there any way that the firmware could be erased? (I.e. would running sudo rm -rf / on the disk also wipe the firmware or is it more complicated than that? Is there any way that the firmware could be erased?). I'm working on a disaster recovery plan incase I ran a stupid command like sudo rm -rf /.

My biggest concern is whether it's possible to delete the firmware and therefore internet recovery. (assuming it's stored on the firmware)

Have you tried using Command+R to start Internet Recovery when booting up the machine?

I don't need to use it at the moment, I'm working on a disaster recovery plan. My main question is it possible for the 'root' user to delete macOS Firmware (not wipe the disk but the firmware itself) from terminal?

Long Version:
The code which permits Internet Recovery Mode (i.e. a slightly modified TFTP client) is stored in the computer's firmware. (In fact, it is a part of it). It's similar to the BIOS chip on Windows computers. When you boot through Internet Recovery, it will download a recovery partition image and load it into the computer's RAM. After this process, you will be able to boot into the normal macOS Recovery interface.
Short Version:
If you were to wipe/replace your hard drive, Internet Recovery would automatically download and load a recovery partition image into the RAM, so you would be safe (as long as you have a backup of your data).
PS.
Also, it is impossible to wipe the laptop's firmware with a simple sudo rm -rf / command.
Source: Chat with Apple Support

So just to confirm it's impossible to wipe the firmware even if I'm flat out stupid with my root account?

This answer is in parts wrong! Internet Recovery Mode boots to a macOS netboot image hosted by Akamai (as of today) and doesn't install anything on your hdd/ssd! It's only loaded into RAM. The code to allow a net boot is indeed located in the firmware but is rather small (compared to the netboot image).

@NathanielSuchy Yes. You can't wipe the firmware without opening your computer,

@klanomath Is this "firmware" is a NVRAM chip or something else? (another chip f.e.)


text:
Why does the Home app not let me set my temperate exactly when in auto?
I have an ecobee 3 and I can't set the temperature exactly when using the home app while in Auto mode, instead it jumps to the degree directly above or below the desired temperature. When in Cold mode I can set the temperate in one degree increments. When using the ecobee app I can set the temperate in one degree increments in any mode. I assume this is a bug. Has anyone found a workaround?

Did you try asking the maker of the device/app?

Apple is the maker of Home.app...


text:
Lookup the dictionary with wildcards
Since wildcards aren't recognized by the GUI, is there another way?

Use an online dictionary that supports wildcards: https://www.onelook.com

I should have added: I need to do this offline.

From the command line you can use look which looks for the string as a prefix of a word in the file- /usr/share/dict/words.
look ent

Right click the word in the Terminal window and select Look Up "....." menu or you can grep /usr/share/dict/words using regular expressions or extended regular expressions. Such as:
grep 'hello$' /usr/share/dict/words

I never liked that the Dictionary.app in macOS does not support wildcards and while I mentioned in my comment to the OP to use and online dictionary that supports wildcards, I also searched Google for a third-party app that could be installed and didn't find any.
While one can easily bookmark the https://www.onelook.com URL, nonetheless, I decided to appify it, using AppleScript, saving it as Wildcard Dictionary Search.app, so I could access it from the Dock or Spotlight, etc.

Copy and paste the AppleScript code below into a new blank Script Editor document and save it as an application.
on run
    try
        tell current application
            activate
            set theSearchString to text returned of ¬
                (display dialog ¬
                    "Wildcard Dictionary Search:" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} ¬
                    default button 2 with title "https://www.onelook.com/?w=")
        end tell
        tell application "Safari"
            tell front window
                if theSearchString is not equal to "" then
                    set current tab to (make new tab with properties ¬
                        {URL:"https://www.onelook.com/?w=" & theSearchString})
                else
                    set current tab to (make new tab with properties ¬
                        {URL:"https://www.onelook.com"})
                end if
            end tell
        end tell
    on error eStr number eNum
        if eNum is not equal to -128 then
            display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} ¬
                default button 1 with icon caution
            return
        end if
    end try
end run

Note that you can give it a custom icon and there are instructions on the Internet how to do that. I took the Dictionary.icns file from within the Dictionary.app, which is red, and using Preview to exported the 1024x1024 image as a PNG. I changed it to blue in GIMP by adjusting the Hue-Saturation on the red color. Then using instructions in Create Your Own Custom Icons in OS X 10.7.5 or Later I created a blue Dictionary.icns file, which I used to replace the applet.icns file within the AppleScript app, renaming it applet.icns.

My fault for not mentioning I need offline.

Some time ago I created a handy little app doing exactly that: wrdlr

Use egrep command in Terminal. It recognizes wildcards:
egrep "^..arl$" /usr/share/dict/words

The caret ^ tells egrep command to search for the string at the beginning of a line, and the dot . matches any character except a new line.
So, here are the results of a search:
gnarl
pearl
quarl
snarl
wharl

By using a question mark ? you can even find words that may or may not have a characters:
egrep "^int..?$" /usr/share/dict/words

Result (here's into included):
inter
intil
into
intue

Also you can use this bash alias:
findword () { /usr/bin/grep ^"$@"$ /usr/share/dict/words ; }

findword '.ello'

Result:
cello
hello

Or you can search using * for all words ending in mill (including the word mill itself):
egrep '^.*mill$' /usr/share/dict/words

crabmill
crazingmill
graymill
gristmill
mill
overmill
pugmill
remill
sawmill
semimill
treadmill
walkmill
windmill

Not sure why this answer got down votes.

I think the same. I sure it's right answer))


text:
Emails being replace to Holiday in the United States?
I recently started noticing that my emails were being replace to "Holidays in the United States" on the default Apple mail app. This is annoying because now I have to send emails from the browser. My name is correct in settings, does anyone know how to fix this?
I am on macOS Sierra.

This has been a bug with Apple mail for a very long time (Funny because the issue just came back to me today). There isn't a clear solution for this issue, but I just go ahead and refer to this thread when I get this issue:

My gmail name comes up as Holidays in the United States

What seems to be the issue is the syncing with Google Calendars. Variations of this bug can be found when your name is changed to one of your contacts.


text:
How to know whether SSD is permanently implanted on Mac or not?
I've heard that SSDs have a read and write limit.So,if my SSD is implanted on the logic board then I will need to get a new Mac.So how do I know if my SSD is removable via System Report or command line?

google the model from the about this mac window, for example "MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2015" and "replacement ssd" and that will, very quickly, tell you what you need to know. BTW it is unlikely your SSD will need to be replaced due to wear and tear,

I just found out that my Mac has a removable ssd.Model MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015).But it shows as 'Fixed' in system report.@ Steve Chambers

The MacBook that has one USB-C port and the TouchBar MBP are the only Mac going back to 2013 models where the main storage is soldered to the logic board. All the rest are serviceable without solder or needing a new serialized logic board.
That being said, Apple and certified repair agents will repair all Mac with storage issues for 5 years from the date of last sale of that model so practically, you’re never without repair options even if you don’t have the skill or tools or training to successfully close a Mac after repair.
Just about anyone can go to ifixit.com and open up a Mac. The trick is getting the right parts, not damaging tiny screws and connectors and putting it all back together so the system is operational and reliable.

Not true. The MBP w/ Touch Bar also have soldered storage (both 13” + 15”, both 2016 and 2017 models). https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Touch+Bar+Teardown/73395. The 13” MBP w/o Touch Bar does have a replaceable storage drive.

@NoahL Thanks for the comment. The TouchBar MBP have a storage module that is not soldered to the logic board. This is the same for Air, MacPro where you can replace the storage module without needing a new serialized logic board or a soldering iron to replace that module. Am I missing something on step 11 of the ifixit tear down that you are seeing?

scroll down to “Final Thoughts”. It states that the storage is soldered to the board in that section. In step 11, I don’t see any information except for fans. In step 9, the diagram points to “64 GB flash chips” which are visibly attached to the board.

@NoahL Those 64 GB flash store things other than the main storage. If you look at step 10 - iFixit author states “It's nice that Apple has kept their removable SSDs a first-out component, simplifying upgrades.” You can see the PCI like pins on the SSD storage board and the screw holes indicating it’s a non-soldered and replaceable component.

Are you sure we’re looking at the same page? This is a quote from the top: “We would still rather see a removable/upgradable SSD, especially in a machine targeted at pros”. I see that authors’ note on the page for the 13” w/o Touch Bar. See these two articles: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/25/apple-ssd-data-recovery-macbook-pro/ and https://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/28/new-macbook-pro-removable-ssd/

It's Touch Bar, two words, not one word "TouchBar".